After Onslaught...

[Talisman]

...And the rest of the MU went into Frank's magic blue ball, the main Marvel U was stuck with Mutants and Spidey, and half a Hulk. But! the world could not survive off of mutants, gamma spewing Hulks and arachnids alone, and ALAS! came heroes for a new day!

Deadpool!
http://www.comicsbulletin.com/soapbox/images/0804/deadpool1.jpg

Thunderbolts!
http://verseck.org/Galerie/PicMed/Thunderbolts_1.jpg

Ka-Zar!
http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/5797_4_01.jpg

Heroes For Hire!
http://alertnerd.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/MS_05182005_0019.jpg

[Talisman]

Alpha Flight!
http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/thumb/e/ec/Alphaflight_2_1.JPG/300px-Alphaflight_2_1.JPG

Maverick!
http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/0/06/Maverick_Vol_2_1.jpg

Quicksilver!
http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh213/dncjtc/Quicksilver001p00.jpg

Elektra!
Can't find a big enough image:frown:

Other!!!

[Stephen Sanders]

At the time, I bought Thunderbolts, Ka-Zar, Quicksilver, and Maverick. I enjoyed Ka-Zar and Maverick a lot.

[Drdmx]

No offense intended to the current writer, but I liked the Deadpool then better than the one now to be quite honest. Both art and writing were great in my opinion.

I also picked Maverick, T-bolts, and Kazar as well.

Maverick had some great art..... but it seemed like his book wasnt on time often.

T-bolts had a good story, but they were also "what was happening" in the 616 at the time if I recall correctly.

Kazar I thought was great all around. I thought the character was used well, the one-liners funny, and I am always a die hard for any of the Kubert brothers artwork.

I grazed a few quicksilvers, but found them meh, and almost child like. I also felt Exodous was a clod in that storyline, as well as Omega Red.

Alpha Flight was on my pull list.. but VERY meh.

Heroes for Hire I purchased for that very stellar cover you posted, but it turned out to be a dud for me cause the Hulk didnt stick around. I did think the art was good in that issue though, and the opening story did well enough. The series just didnt seem to go anywhere though. Dont get me started on the 'Master" and Luke Cages relationship....

[bebopeva88]

Deadpool (Kelly & McGuinness -- still the best the character has ever been), Ka-Zar by Waid & Andy Kubert, and Thunderbolts by Busiek and Bagley were all fantastic.

I tried Alpha Flight and Maverick (early Jim Cheung art!), but neither made me want to check out the next issue.

[jarvSthe1]

I like Thunderbolts better than the rest. Ka-Zar, Heroes for Hire, Alpha Flight and Elektra were good as well. Thunderbolts was interesting from the 1st issue. Ka-Zar had excellent Andy Kubert artwork but I hated how Thanos was depicted. Heroes for Hire was just a fun mindless read. Alpha Flight was interesting to see Canadian government's evil side. Elektra had some nice Deodato artwork. I miss his old style of artwork.

[Expletive Deleted]

At the time, just Deadpool. I didn't pick up Thunderbolts until after I saw a feature on it in Wizard (hey, it was 1997, I didn't know any better).

[ShredHead]

Back then I used to pick up Deadpool and Maverick and I'm not sure if these count but those Venom miniseries books they had going back then. Its kinda funny but out of all those books the only ones who have an ongoing title currently is Deadpool and Thunderbolts.

[Drdmx]

Not sure what went wrong with Maverick. Kazar just went south after he came to New York. It's a shame to... the dialogue was good.

[brundlefly]

I really dug most of these books, in particular T-Bolts, Deadpool, and Alpha Flight. And whenever the knee-jerk "90s Marvel comics all sucked" comments start flowing, I usually reference them as evidence to the contrary.

[XPac]

Thunderbolts was by far my favorite thing from that era.

That said, I do think Alpha Flight vol. 2 was a very underrated book.

It had an interesting dark vibe about it, that I felt really worked.

[Evil-Spidey]

I only read Deadpool and Thunderbolts back then and i never really were interested in the others.

[Don't pee in the (Dead)pool]

Out of that list I enjoyed Alpha Flight, Deadpool, Ka-Zar, Maverick and Thunderbolts.

[Nevets F]

This was one of my favorite periods! I bought and loved every single one of these you have listed. Some of these series are some of my all time favorites still to this day.

[Nevets F]

and Talisman...

http://image2.milehighcomics.com/istore/images/fullsize/28621920446.1.GIF

[Nevets F]

I actually really enjoyed this book, what the Thor book became during Onslaught.

http://image2.milehighcomics.com/istore/images/fullsize/44436502038.503.GIF

[Global Honored]

The initial run of Thunderbolts was fantabulous. The reveal is one of my fave comic moments. Plus Zemo as a centerpiece. That's never a bad thing.

[JdRavnos]

I read Deadpool off and on, I loved Thunderbolts. I only read the crossover with the X-Men issues of Alpha Flight (and the one issue right before the crossover), but it seemed cool.

I read the first issue of Maverik and thought it was really cool but never did remember to pick up the following issues. Heroes for Hire was the same way, but I really was never taken in with the concept. I liked the idea of such a strange mix of heroes working together, but it didn't completely click.

Quicksilver, frankly, of what little I read of it, was awful. Pietro was completely mis-characterzied and the idea of him serving with the Knights of Wundagore held no appeal for me.

[Push You Down]

Quicksilver got better when a new writer came on board. I have no clue as to why MArvel thought saddling it's number one JERK charcter with a team of talking animals was a good idea.

It also had the emotional rug pulled out from under it far too soon as the Heroes returned so early into the run. Is it issue 5 that had the reunion with Crystal?

[Michael P]

Not sure what went wrong with Maverick.

It was goddamn awful, that's what.

[Ite]

I voted for Ka-Zar, that book was so fun, I also thought it was cool they put Thanos as a supporting character. You can't get two characters as different as Ka-Zar and Thanos!

[XPac]

I voted for Ka-Zar, that book was so fun, I also thought it was cool they put Thanos as a supporting character. You can't get two characters as different as Ka-Zar and Thanos!

Yeah, that suprisingly worked. On paper I would have thought that would have ended up a mess one way or the other. But that definately turned out solid.

[Nevets F]

It was goddamn awful, that's what.

I found Maverick to be one of the better of the series...not the best, but really good.

I voted for Ka-Zar, that book was so fun, I also thought it was cool they put Thanos as a supporting character. You can't get two characters as different as Ka-Zar and Thanos!

I really like Ka-Zar until the creative team changes there near the end. I didn't care for their take on it.

[Mechano]

i was really into the ka-zar series... the kubert art was fantastic.

[Will.S]

Thunderbolts, Ka-Zar, Deadpool, and Heroes for Hire were certainly among the best titles that Marvel had to offer during this period.

I had gotten Maverick and Alpha Flight and enjoyed them initially but I then dropped them either due to financial reasons or not being all that much interested in them anymore.

[Lou25]

I didn't realize it until I read through all the choices on the poll, but at the time, I don't think I read anything except for X-men. I loved, I repeat, LOVED the whole Onslaught story (one of the few, if not only times I think an event organically brought all of Marvel's big guns together), but I probably read more of the relaunched FF, Avengers, Cap, IM than any of these. I tried re-reading some of them recently, and my god were those stupid. You can practically hear the writers being told by editorial they were pulling the plug on the idea by the fourth issue. I only read the first arc of Thunderbolts a couple of years ago because the trade was cheap at a local book store, although I've heard good things about several of these titles. I'd probably give Heroes for Hire, Alpha Flight, and Quicksilver a look if nothing else.

[Ryan W]

While I was definitely sucked in by the post-Onslaught drama in the x-books, I did give Thunderbolts a try and loved it at first (then gave it up for years and only recently came back on board when Bullseye and co. joined up right after 'Civil War'). I remember actually being all "NO WAY!" when Citizen V takes off his mask and it's Zemo underneath. Comics only sometimes do that for me these days, at least in the Marvel books.

Does anyone remember that last Avengers annual when Black Widow is trying to get together a new team, and she can barely scrape one together and is essentially forced to give up? That was actually a great read.

[Hindsight lad]

Joe Kelly's run on Deadpool was the definative run for me. There were so many great one liners, bizarre guest spots (Lightning Rods, Black Talon, Dr. Bong, etc.), and a great cast that I kept coming back for more. The book was also really helpful to me personally. I was in high school, and a girl I really liked had just rejected me. That night I read Deadpool 11, the time travel opus, and life was worth living again.

Kelly also wasn't shy about showing 'Pool's dark side. Ish 13, where Typhoid Mary basically rapes him, he traps Blind Al and Weasel in the Box, and gets his ass kicked by T-RAy was great, and issue 14, where Blind Al describes the lenghts Wade goes to to keep her ("That is how you build a prison.") was just chilling.

I was actually able to meet Joe Kelly at ComiCon, and I told him his work had changed my life. He was awesome, and drew me a little Deadpool sketch.

I really liked Ka-Zar's series at the time it came out. Kubert's art was the best it had ever been, and Mark Waid really managed to make Shanna the badass she should always be. I really didn't like his characterization of Parnival, however. He came off as too much of a braying jackass caught up in Thanos' plans instead of the plotter and schemer he should be.

Hindsight lad

[Talisman]

Forgot one!
http://www.samruby.com/Series/Mtu2/Large/MarvelTeam-Up2V01.jpg

[Mundungus]

I totally missed this period.

[Talisman]

I totally missed this period.
No time like the present. Other than Thunderbolts and Deadpool, it's cheap and easy to get these characters on the ground floor.