What was Marvel's best decade?

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: What was Marvel's best decade?

 

Mmm' date=' perhaps it merely coincides with my youth and that biases me, but I'd have to say that I actually liked 1975 to 1985. [/quote']

 

I saw the title to the thread and thought '75 to '85.

 

It looks like that is something of a consensus.

[teh bunneh]

Re: What was Marvel's best decade?

 

It looks like that is something of a consensus.

 

Given the average ages of the HEROES on this board, that's not surprising. I'd hazard a guess that most folks look at the age where they first really got into comics as the best period, and for most of us (myself included), that's mid-70s through mid-80s.

 

That said, I recently picked up a compendium of the old Wolfman/Perez New Teen Titans from that era and quite frankly found it practically unreadable. Turns out that my memories are much better than the reality. Revisiting one's childhood is fraught with peril when you discover that you don't like the same things you did back then.

[FenrisUlf]

Re: What was Marvel's best decade?

 

I'm not sure if you mean X-Men' date=' or a title "New X-Men," however, the first X-Men comic was September 1963. It went on haitus in 1970 and came back in 1975 under Christ Claremont as The Uncanny X-Men (#94). Claremont was with the run until 1991. Personally, his first 10-11 years were strong and then it jumped the shark and shattered into a gazillion titles that were impossible to keep track of. [/quote']

 

Sorry, I should have emphasized the Uncanny X-Men. Nightcrawler, Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, etc.

 

And yes, I remember when Marvel went mutant-crazy. What killed superhero comics for me for literally years was the awful storyline where Magik's demons in Limbo invaded Manhattan and every other Marvel title started to play second fiddle to the mutants. That and so many of the X-titles had such awful art. I think it was all by Liefeld.

[MilkmanDan]

Re: What was Marvel's best decade?

 

Sorry, I should have emphasized the Uncanny X-Men. Nightcrawler, Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, etc.

 

And yes, I remember when Marvel went mutant-crazy. What killed superhero comics for me for literally years was the awful storyline where Magik's demons in Limbo invaded Manhattan and every other Marvel title started to play second fiddle to the mutants. That and so many of the X-titles had such awful art. I think it was all by Liefeld.

 

Yeah, Inferno, which started that godawfully incestuous run of X-books crossovers. Not only was it the first shot in a lousy era, the story itself just sucked. Things had been going downhill up until then, but that's the semi-official start of the mass suckitude.

[ParagonAlpha]

Re: What was Marvel's best decade?

 

I have to agree with Hermit.

 

Life is easier after he posts. Less typing for me.

[Bloodstone]

Re: What was Marvel's best decade?

 

Is "all of 'em" a valid answer?

 

I started reading comics in the mid 80's, but my favorite stuff at the time was from the Claremont/Byrne run on X-men, which started in '76. I was also a huge fan of the Claremont/Davis run on Excalibur, which started in '87 and didn't end until '91. That's a pretty long stretch and that's just covering a few X-titles.

 

Granted, I probably sound like a massive fanboy but there's pretty much always something that I enjoy. Of course, I did skip most of the late 90's

[Spence]

Re: What was Marvel's best decade?

 

Given the average ages of the HEROES on this board, that's not surprising. I'd hazard a guess that most folks look at the age where they first really got into comics as the best period, and for most of us (myself included), that's mid-70s through mid-80s.

 

Isn't it great to be part of the cool crowd

 

 

 

 

That said, I recently picked up a compendium of the old Wolfman/Perez New Teen Titans from that era and quite frankly found it practically unreadable. Turns out that my memories are much better than the reality. Revisiting one's childhood is fraught with peril when you discover that you don't like the same things you did back then.

 

 

Egad man!....err...rabbit.....bunny....err whatever, what possessed you to actually look back at a childhood memory! Did we teach you nothing!

 

[Plex]

Re: What was Marvel's best decade?

 

I'd have to say early 80's to the early 90's. I really liked Daredevil during this time.

[teh bunneh]

Re: What was Marvel's best decade?

 

Egad man!....err...rabbit.....bunny....err whatever' date=' what possessed you to actually look back at a childhood memory! Did we teach you nothing! [/quote']

 

It's not so much that you didn't teach me. It's that I never learn.

[ParagonAlpha]

Re: What was Marvel's best decade?

 

Granted, I probably sound like a massive fanboy but there's pretty much always something that I enjoy. Of course, I did skip most of the late 90's

 

I only call someone a fanboy if they like Rob Liefield and Todd McFarlane. Because NOTHING was a COOL as those two piles of stinky feces.

[lapsedgamer]

Re: What was Marvel's best decade?

 

That said' date=' I recently picked up a compendium of the old Wolfman/Perez [i']New Teen Titans[/i] from that era and quite frankly found it practically unreadable. Turns out that my memories are much better than the reality. Revisiting one's childhood is fraught with peril when you discover that you don't like the same things you did back then.

 

That surprises me. I have the trade paperbacks of The Judas Contract and The Terror of Trigon and I still think they are great stories. Ah well, I know the feeling. I've gone back and read some old stuff I held in high esteem based on nostalgia only to be sorely disappointed.

[Dead guy on tab]

Re: What was Marvel's best decade?

 

I'd say the '70's even with the cheese - they were still forming their universe so you create something new without being totally bogged down with continuity. The '80's were sort of the time of change especially during Jim Shooter's later run - it seemed to me characters stopped behaving a logically consistent manner and switched to a personalty needed for storyline A.

[Mike W]

Re: What was Marvel's best decade?

 

The 80s were really good but I like a lot of the early to mid 1970s stuff too, especially the Jack Kirby art. One thing I like about the 1970s is that they used a lot of characters and didn't feel the need to re-use a lot of people because the universe wasn't so crowded. If someone was popular, they used them but they had plenty of room to try new characters. And in both decades they had a willingness to run long plot lines/subplots and if it took a year or two to sort out, oh well. We had plenty of other things going on in the mean time.