What were: the best Marvel titles of the 80's?

[FenrisUlf]

This is when I actually stopped buying comics for several years, though for a time I kept on with The Mighty Thor and Captain America. With Thor, I can remember the whole "Asgard versus Set" war story, and in Cap's title it was the first appearance of John Walker and a lengthy story where we find out that the Red Skull tries to disgrace and kill Cap (which would happen many years later, sadly).

 

I also remember West Coast Avengers, which I got mostly for Tigra, and Savage She-Hulk and Spider-Woman. At the time I thought that SW was better than SSH, but now that I've read the Essentials, I have to admit: Shulky's title ended in much, much better fashion than Spider-Woman's. Shulky's story at least grew out of events in the recent story, rather than feeling just tacked on to get rid of the title like they did with Spider-Woman.

 

And am I wrong, or was this when Wolverine got his solo title?

 

Now, does anyone else have any nominations for the best Marvel titles of the 80's?

[Lord Liaden]

Re: What were: the best Marvel titles of the 80's?

 

For me, it was definitely The Mighty Thor during Walt Simonson's writing tenure, particularly the Sword of Doom epic storyline. Simonson brought Thor's mythic roots to the fore as had never been done before, and his artwork in particular seemed well suited to the often grim imagery evoked by those legends. On top of that, Beta Ray Bill and his starship Scuttlebutt are the kind of bizarre concepts that I thought only Jack Kirby could pull off.

 

Fafnir the dragon, Malekith the Dark Elf, the Casket of Ancient Winters, Eilif Dragonslayer, the Enchantress's little sister, the fall and redemption of Balder, Thor's final battle with the Midgard Serpent, the Thunder Frog, the curse of Hela... ah, grand times.

 

And one more detail, probably the greatest family battle-cry in comics history:

 

Odin: FOR ASGARD!

 

Thor: FOR MIDGARD!

 

Loki: FOR MYSELF!

[Darkfire]

Re: What were: the best Marvel titles of the 80's?

 

The New Teen Titians particularly the "Terror of Trigon" arcs and "Judas Contract" you had great character development along with good art and excellent writing.

[Stone]

Re: What were: the best Marvel titles of the 80's?

 

Daredevil when Frank Miller was doing it

 

Teen Titans - I know, DC

 

Xmen - Early 80's before Wolverine became the uber character

 

Avengers

[Psybolt]

Re: What were: the best Marvel titles of the 80's?

 

I would include Amazing Spider-man. The whole Hobgoblin stuff was great. So was Spidey vs. Juggernaut. It showed Spidey at his best... trying to desperately overcome odds and never giving up, no matter how hopeless the situation.

 

Early Chris Claremont/John Bynre X-Men was classic. Early issues when Dave Cockrum took over from Byrne were great too.

 

Pete Parker issues involving the Sin-Eater was really great.

 

Avengers from Korvac through the #200. This was great with the govt. involved in the Avengers. Henry Peter Gyrich was quite the jerk.

[Darkfire]

Re: What were: the best Marvel titles of the 80's?

 

Didn't read much Marvel during the 80's but I did enjoy the Avengers and the early Cris Claremont X-Men.

[Pariah]

Re: What were: the best Marvel titles of the 80's?

 

I jumped in on comics about the time Rogue joined the X-Men, and I really enjoyed the title. I quit reading about the time various X-characters started going through the Siege Perilous and being reborn/recreated/redefined. Blah. And don't even get me started on X-Factor and the Return of Jean Grey....

 

I also enjoyed Alpha Flight--the team that put the 'fun' in 'dysfunctional'--and the Avengers. The 'Masters of Evil take over Avengers Mansion' storyline was fantastic, as was follow-up story arc into Hades and Olympus. I started to lose interest about the time that they killed off Marrina--and they didn't even have the decency to kill her off in her own title (Alpha Flight).

 

The West Coast Avengers was a pretty good title, too, until the whole 'Hawkeye can't trust Mockingbird because she killed a bad guy, when Hawkleye clearly killed a bad guy himself in the limited series where he met Mockingbird in the first place' storyline. That was about the same time Hank Pym started showing up regularly in the title, and that was a big drop-off for me.

 

The New Mutants was pretty good, too, until the arrival of Warlock. I didn't mind the story--it was actually pretty interesting. But the art was atrocious.

 

Alas, I never really got introduced to DC in those days.

[Vestnik]

Re: What were: the best Marvel titles of the 80's?

 

New Mutants baby! Go New Mutants!

[GestaltBennie]

Re: What were: the best Marvel titles of the 80's?

 

Simonson's Thor.

Miller's Daredevil.

Byrne's Alpha Flight and FF.

The early issues of Claremont's X-Men run during the swcade (uo to 175 or so) and New Mutants.

Stern's run on Avengers amd Stern/Paul Smith on Dr. Strange.

The Gene Day issues of Master of Kung-fu.

 

Abd probably many others I'm forgetting.

[Vestnik]

Re: What were: the best Marvel titles of the 80's?

 

The New Mutants gave me false hope during my Junior High days. I kept waiting for my mutant power to manifest, to no avail.

[lapsedgamer]

Re: What were: the best Marvel titles of the 80's?

 

This was right around the end of my first affair with comics. I stopped reading books in earnest in college, right around 1986-1987. I had a great collection that I left for my brother. He unfortunately failed to care for them. Here are some of the highlights of those lost treasures:

 

Miller Daredevil

 

Giffen/Mahlstedt Legion of Superheroes

 

Moore/Bisette/Totleben Swamp Thing

 

Wolfman/Perez Teen Titans

 

Claremont/Smith X-Men (Wolverine vs. Silver Samurai!!)

 

Claremont/Byrne/Austin X-Men (Hellfire Club, Dark Phoenix)

 

Willingham Elementals

 

YMMV

[Sketchpad]

Re: What were: the best Marvel titles of the 80's?

 

Count me as another Titans fan, as well as a fan of the Simonson Thor, Atari Force, X-Men (especially the Paul Smith issues), the Hawkeye Mini, Power Pack, Byrne FF & Alpha Flight, Post-Crisis Batman, Elementals, Grendel, early Justice Machine, Power Man & Iron Fist, New Mutants (especially the X-Men/NM Asgard adventure), Secret Wars (I & II) and Web of Spiderman. I liked several others, but was very hit and miss on some.

[Redmenace]

Re: What were: the best Marvel titles of the 80's?

 

Simonson's Thor, Miller's Daredevil runs, Strikeforce Morituri, Alien Legion. and the all too brief Roger Stern and John Byrne Captain America.

 

AND Alan Moore's Captain Britain.

[Psybolt]

Re: What were: the best Marvel titles of the 80's?

 

Simonson's Thor, Miller's Daredevil runs, Strikeforce Morituri, Alien Legion. and the all too brief Roger Stern and John Byrne Captain America.

 

AND Alan Moore's Captain Britain.

 

 

Strikeforce: Morituri. Wow I didn't know anyone else remembered that. I liked that for the very short time it was out. High concept.

 

I liked the Titans too, but the thread says best "MARVEL" titles of the 80s. Teen Titans were (and still are) DC

[lapsedgamer]

Re: What were: the best Marvel titles of the 80's?

 

Strikeforce: Morituri. Wow I didn't know anyone else remembered that. I liked that for the very short time it was out. High concept.

 

I liked the Titans too, but the thread says best "MARVEL" titles of the 80s. Teen Titans were (and still are) DC

 

Third vote for Strike Force Morituri. I completely missed the Marvel only restriction.

[ParagonAlpha]

Re: What were: the best Marvel titles of the 80's?

 

Marvel Titles:

 

Avengers: I started reading the Avengers during the end of the Collector story arc and the beginning of the Korvac story arc. Granted this would have been the late 70's but my 8 year old self spent my allowance on the Avengers for another 10 years. Wonder Man was my idol.

 

X-Men: When I found out that the Beast from the Avengers was an X-man I went crazy for this series. Proteus was the first bad guy I saw the X-Men face and then the series got great. Claremont, Byrne, Cockrum, and then P Michael-Smith. Issues 96 to 204 read em own em.

 

Power Man and Iron Fist: Nuff' Said.

 

Captain America: Goose Bumps just talking about Cap's greatest era.

[Fedifensor]

Re: What were: the best Marvel titles of the 80's?

 

I have fond memories of most of the titles people have listed so far, but my favorite comic of all time was X-Men #175, where the team is convinced that Madalyne Pryor is actually Dark Phoenix...when it's actually Mastermind (who makes Cyclops look like Dark Phoenix, turning the team against him). Best use of the Danger Room EVER!

 

Simonson's run on Thor, plus Power Pack, the Psi-Force and DP7 runs of New Universe (hey, it counts as Marvel)...ah, I really miss the comics of the 80's. Both Marvel and DC are in a serious downturn these days, where the best things they can come up with involve killing characters off or having issue-long fight scenes.

 

I'd vote for Teen Titans (the Judas Contract run), but that's DC, not Marvel.

[Corven_Ren]

Re: What were: the best Marvel titles of the 80's?

 

The X-Men Proteus/Dark Pheonix story is one of the best. (I have the Dark Pheonix Saga trade paper back and the Proteus story in the Classic X-Men reprints)

 

Another one, I beleive is the 80's (don't have it on hand currently to look it up) is the Kraven's Last Hunt saga that ran through Amazing/Web of/Spectacular Spider Man. I have the hardcover version of it with all six issues in one.

[teh bunneh]

Re: What were: the best Marvel titles of the 80's?

 

ROM: SPACE KNIGHT FTMFW!!!!

 

I was a big New Mutants and Alpha Flight fan back then. Avengers was hit or miss -- sometimes really good, sometimes not so much. I loved X-Men back then, but I can't read Claremont's writing anymore.

 

Most of the stuff that was coming out of Marvel's EPIC imprint was good-to-great. Epic, Alien Legion, Groo, I think Strikeforce Moritauri, Dreadstar... RIP Archie Godwin.

[Vestnik]

Re: What were: the best Marvel titles of the 80's?

 

Yeah, Rom. I loved them Dire Wraiths.

[FenrisUlf]

Re: What were: the best Marvel titles of the 80's?

 

Yeah' date=' Rom. I loved them Dire Wraiths.[/quote']

 

Rom was indeed cool. Hopefully he's been left to enjoy his retirement, rather than having been dragged out to be defiled by the current crop of editors-in-creep.

 

I also liked She-Hulk, even if some of the stories seem a bit odd in retrospect. (Roxxon Oil was the good guys? Didn't they once try to summon Set to destroy the world? And let's not forget the story about the evil microwave transmitters that make little kiddies go blind.)

 

That said, a question or two:

 

Were the 80's still Bronze, or was this the beginning of the Iron Age?

 

While she's more 70's than 80's, I see that Claremont took over writing for Spider-Woman in the early 80's. Please tell me: did all of his plots use ninjas, yakuza, and untouchable amazons who have hordes of men throwing themselves at her feet?

 

I mean, SW *before* Claremont was a rather weird but still well-done at times story about a character who, while indeed superpowered, still fell short at times or had less then perfect victories. And while Jessica/Spider-Woman did emit pheromones that made some men desire her, they made more of them scared of her -- and women hated her.

 

After Claremont took over, every plot seemed to include Viper, yakuza-hired ninja hordes, and an endless train of men hurling themselves at SW's feet (with none of the drawbacks she'd once had with that 'talent'). And Jessica herself became ubercompetent.

 

And if anyone wants to list any of their favorite DC Comics, go ahead. I'm wondering just what DC was doing right before the first Crisis.

[Vestnik]

Re: What were: the best Marvel titles of the 80's?

 

According to Wiki, Rom is more-or-less beyond their clutches:

 

"As Marvel Comics no longer possesses the rights to Rom, the character may not make a reappearance in his armored form." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rom_the_Spaceknight

 

I've tried making Rom clones -- can't do it at 350 points. It's that damn full Life Support...

[mallet]

Re: What were: the best Marvel titles of the 80's?

 

Like people have said, Thor was fantastic. So was Alien Legion . I also loved Psi-Force, started off weak, but kicked-ass later on.

[FenrisUlf]

Re: What were: the best Marvel titles of the 80's?

 

According to Wiki, Rom is more-or-less beyond their clutches:

 

"As Marvel Comics no longer possesses the rights to Rom, the character may not make a reappearance in his armored form." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rom_the_Spaceknight

 

I've tried making Rom clones -- can't do it at 350 points. It's that damn full Life Support...

 

OT again, but I wonder, would the Neutralizer count as a Focus of some sort (enemies did knock it out of Rom's hands eveyr now and then) or just as a special effect, considering that he could summon it from its own pocket dimension and return it with a thought?

[Vestnik]

Re: What were: the best Marvel titles of the 80's?

 

OT again' date=' but I wonder, would the Neutralizer count as a Focus of some sort (enemies did knock it out of Rom's hands eveyr now and then) or just as a special effect, considering that he could summon it from its own pocket dimension and return it with a thought?[/quote']

 

The catchall -- Restrainable.