When it comes to the history of the Marvel Universe, the true golden age of the original Marvel bullpen and their immediate successors came to a close around the start of the 1990s. As the company entered the last decade of the 20th century, most of the acclaimed runs from the 1980s were wrapping up, and a creative dark period rife with corporate mismanagement and terminal trend-chasing would see the entire comic industry tailspin into a gutter for several years until it began recovering around the turn of the millennium. The 1990s weren’t a great time to be a comic fan, but there are still a few last gems to cover before everything falls off a cliff.
The late ‘80s and early ‘90s were basically the last time that the creatives at Marvel introduced new ideas for stories and characters that have stuck around long-term and weren’t a spin on, or reaction to, something that came before. In terms of the Marvel Universe’s foundations, these were the last few building blocks that had to be set before the wave of film and television adaptations that launched the company into worldwide dominance over the subsequent decades. Join us for Part 9 of our look at the essential issues of Marvel!
Spider-Man Marries Mary Jane and Finally Battles Venom
Last time around, we discussed how Amazing Spider-Man featured a great run from Roger Stern, even though it was sadly cut short due to editorial interference. The book’s next signature writer would be one familiar to Iron Man fans: David Michelinie, who took up scripting duties in 1987 and would write the book nearly uninterrupted for the next seven years. The first major landmark of this period was the long-awaited wedding between Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21. MJ was no longer just one of Spidey’s most important supporting characters; she was essentially the book’s second lead, with many subsequent stories centered around the trials and tribulations of married life. Although Marvel would strike down the marriage in 2007 as part of a misguided relaunch, Peter and Mary Jane being man and wife would stand for twenty years of publication.
Veteran Spidey writer Gerry Conway followed up on the marriage in 1989’s Marvel Graphic Novel #46: Parallel Lives, which retold the story of how Peter and MJ met with more detailed flashbacks. The most important aspect of this story is the extra dimension it gives Mary Jane, particularly with the retcon that she knew Peter was Spider-Man from the very beginning by seeing him climb atop his house in-costume through her window. Although this is a major revelation, it really feels like the missing jigsaw piece that clarifies why these two were destined to be together. As for enemies, one of the last iconic Spidey antagonists made his full debut during Michelinie’s run, with Eddie Brock as Venom coming to blows with Spider-Man in the blockbuster ASM #300 after many teases beforehand. Venom would of course become one of Marvel’s most popular villains, making numerous appearances in film, television, and video game adaptations, and even getting his own film trilogy with Tom Hardy as Venom.
Inferno, Deadpool, Weapon X, and the Best-Selling Comic Issue of All Time
The X-Men continued their dominance as one of Marvel’s premiere brands during this period, with several essential additions that have stayed with the franchise ever since. The 1989 Inferno crossover between the various mutant books (which also spilled into the rest of the Marvel Universe via tie-ins) saw multiple major status quo shifts to the X-Men line. Madelyne Pryor was revealed as a clone of Jean Grey created by new villain Mr. Sinister, who would endure as one of the team’s greatest adversaries despite seemingly dying here. Madelyne killed herself in a bid to eliminate Jean, who would then inherit Madelyne’s memories. Meanwhile, long-tenured New Mutants member Magik was de-aged back to a young girl. Inferno would be the last major storyline during the original Chris Claremont era of X-Men, and would be adapted in condensed form in X-Men ‘97.
Speaking of the New Mutants, that book also changed dramatically in its final few issues with the creation of both Cable and Deadpool, with the latter making his first appearance in New Mutants #98. The Merc with the Mouth was part of a plan to use the end of New Mutants to soft-launch a new book called X-Force, which would remain an important team in X-Men lore from then on. Deadpool in particular would become one of Marvel’s most merchandisable characters, starring in spin-off comics, video games, and his own movie franchise, where he’s been played by Ryan Reynolds. Deadpool’s buddy Wolverine also received his definitive origin story during this period with the Weapon X arc from Barry Windsor-Smith. Serialized in Marvel Comics Presents #72-84, this arc finally told the full story of how Wolverine was bonded with adamantium and escaped from his captors. This origin has been used or referenced in virtually every adaptation of Wolverine ever since.
Chris Claremont’s 16-year run on X-Men would end in 1991, shortly after he helped launch the second volume of X-Men. X-Men #1, the first issue of this relaunch, would become the best-selling single comic issue of all time, totaling over 8 million copies in part because of its combinable variant cover presentation. This issue would debut Jim Lee’s iconic redesigns of the X-Men, with the designs adapted to X-Men: The Animated Series the following year, cementing them as the definitive looks for these characters in the eyes of the general public.
Acts of Vengeance, Armor Wars, and Triumph and Torment
Not to be outdone, many of Marvel’s other brands also featured important stories. Marvel editorial finally gave the Avengers one of the big yearly crossovers with the 1990 story Acts of Vengeance, which saw a cabal of Marvel’s greatest villains swap enemies in an attempt to throw the heroes off balance. The most notable issue of the crossover is Captain America #367, where Magneto attacks the Red Skull after learning that he is in fact the same Nazi mastermind from World War II and not a successor. Magneto had already been on the good side for a while (he would later fall back into his villainous ways during the aforementioned X-Men #1), so seeing him working with the villains in AOV was rather odd. Captain America writer Mark Gruenwald rectifies this by having Magneto cut ties with the group and hunt down the Red Skull, burying the latter alive; since Magneto is a Jewish Holocaust survivor, it was really the only thing for him to do. Skull would later be rescued by his henchman Crossbones, but as a single issue, #367 is a great little piece of redemptive character work.
Armor Wars, one of Iron Man’s most well-known stories, was published in Iron Man #225-232 during David Michelinie and Bob Layton’s second run on the title. This story involves Tony Stark learning that someone (later revealed to be Spymaster) has stolen his suit’s circuit designs and sold them, allowing many supervillains to incorporate Iron Man technology into their repertoires. Tony goes on a crusade to recover or destroy his tech, with his methods drawing the ire of his fellow Avengers. On the magic side of the universe, Roger Stern and Mike Mignola’s Marvel Graphic Novel #49: Triumph and Torment is one of the definitive Doctor Strange and Doctor Doom stories. This one features the pair competing in a contest to become Sorcerer Supreme, and although Strange wins, he’s honor-bound to help Doom with a favor, which Doom cashes in by asking Strange to help free his mother’s soul from Hell. It’s a true masterwork that gives Doom even more depth and nuance than he already had.
Jim Starlin Publishes His Magnum Opus, The Infinity Gauntlet
As discussed in Part 6 of this series, Jim Starlin ended his previous Thanos saga with the villain’s seeming demise in Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2. The Mad Titan would be off the board for nearly 15 years, with Starlin returning to the character in the pages of Silver Surfer in early 1990. After laying the groundwork there and in a two-part miniseries, Thanos Quest, Starlin and pencillers George Pérez and Ron Lim delivered the six-part saga, The Infinity Gauntlet. In what remains the definitive Thanos story, the Mad Titan once again collects the six Infinity Gems, but this time uses them to erase half of all life in the universe as an act of love for Mistress Death. The surviving Marvel heroes, and even members of the cosmic pantheon, including the Celestials, Galactus, Master Order, and Lord Chaos, all come for Thanos in a showdown of a scale unlike anything seen in the Marvel Universe before.
To say that Infinity Gauntlet has had a tremendous impact not just on comics but popular culture at large would still be something of an understatement. To this day, it is a serious contender for the best event story Marvel has ever published, and it set the bar for the kind of epic battles and operatic storytelling fans crave from big crossovers. The series was so successful that Marvel commissioned two direct sequels in the following years, 1992’s Infinity War and 1993’s Infinity Crusade. Infinity Gauntlet cemented Thanos as one of Marvel’s all-time greatest villains, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe largely exists because of this story, with the MCU’s Infinity Saga and its two-part finale, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, in particular taking inspiration from it. Given how much the MCU has shaped big budget filmmaking in the 21st century, Infinity Gauntlet has had a massive influence on the world of art and entertainment even decades after its original publication.
Odds and Ends
There are a few more items worth discussing that don’t neatly fall into the years specified. We’d be remiss not to mention that this period saw Peter David start his landmark 12-year run on The Incredible Hulk in issue #331. David redefined much of the Hulk’s backstory and mythology, providing extra psychological dimension to Bruce Banner’s relationship with the Hulk and a greater sense of menace from his rogues gallery. It’s hard to argue that David’s work on the title didn’t give Hulk the longevity he needed to become one of Marvel’s most popular characters. David’s run continued past the early 1990s, coming to an end in 1998.
We already mentioned David Michelinie’s introduction of Venom, but the symbiote would beget another major villain in Carnage, who Michelinie and Mark Bagley created for Amazing Spider-Man #361 in 1992. This red-tinted supervillain was really serial killer Cletus Kasady, who bonded with the Venom symbiote’s offspring and became a rival to both Spider-Man and Venom. Carnage is the last member of Spidey’s classic rogues gallery, and has endured as a major figure in symbiote-related stories ever since. Although it ran from 1991 to 1993, J.M. DeMatteis and Sal Buscema’s run on Spectacular Spider-Man from #178-200 is the last iconic run from Marvel’s classic era, largely built around the return of Harry Osborn as the Green Goblin. These issues are finally set to be released in omnibus format this year, and as a coda to the golden age of Marvel Comics, you really couldn’t ask for anything better.
Carlos Morales writes novels, articles, and Mass Effect essays. You can follow his fixations on Twitter.
