I’m the first to critique Marvel Comics from the ’90s. It’s one of those periods that I wish could be forgotten. Some horrible art, some horrible writing, and some seriously ’90s cheeziness. But the era had some lasting un-ignorable success.
While the cheeziness of the era puts me off, it’s also that part of the era that was imprinted on a number of future Marvel Comics collectors. Without that impression characters and names like Deadpool, Cable, Jim Lee anything, War Machine, Gambit, Thunderbolts, Heroes Return, Rob Liefeld had, many characters that we now love would not be popular today. In fact, I’d go so far to say that if it weren’t for that era we would not have the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that we have today.
I think I have to separate the ’90s into two eras to understand my dislike of the ’90s. There’s the early ’90s streaming out of the cheezy big hair, bright colors of the late ’80s; and then the late ’90s where you can start to see the long spinning wheels of what lays the seeds for the popularity of today’s Marvel Comics and Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The early ’90s is best defined as the era of the X-Men. There were tons of titles, characters, and popularity. There was a cartoon and the X-Men were everywhere: comics, cartoons, and tons of other media. ToyBiz’s toys were super popular and were laying the foundation for Marvel Legends. But those comics, the introduction of Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld …
And the early ’90s also introduced some bad bad bad non-Mutant characters and themes that should just be left unmentioned.
While Rob Liefeld tends to be one of the most hated comic book artists, his legacy still lives with us today. Deadpool, Cable, and the New Mutants are still staples of Marvel Comics. Hell, Deadpool has one of the most successful movies in recent history. He’s made a few appearances as a Marvel Legend from the ToyBiz era and multiple times in the Hasbro era. Cable as well, and with recent announcements of his upcoming appearance in the Deadpool sequel, we can only guess that his popularity will go through the roof. So despite my utter dislike of Marvel’s ’90s comics, there are some long lasting positive effects.
Chris Claremont and Jim Lee rebooted and re-popularized the X-Men, and their legacy can be seen today, especially in Marvel Legends. “Brown suit” Wolverine, while a John Byrne creation, was popularized again in the ’90s under Lee. Also Rogue’s iconic “Jim Lee”-era costume. The list can go on, and the fact that the list can go on is testament to the strength of the early part of the era.
Then there is the late ’90s, when Marvel “woke up” and got back to basics.
Joe Quesada and Kevin Smith joined forces to revamp Daredevil and, let’s be honest, that revamp put Daredevil back on the map as an A-List character. After the ’80s, Daredevil went through a ’90s transformation of “dark for dark’s sake,” not for the dark that defined him in the ’70s and ’80s. Quesada and Smith brought Daredevil back to his roots kicking off a long line of comics and popularity that gave him a movie. While it may seem a long time ago, these were seeds, impressions that were being planted in young people’s minds, ones that would allow Netflix’s Daredevil to be a huge success.
Speaking of seeds, The Avengers revival by Kurt Busiek and George Perez kicked off in the late ’90s. Busiek’s Iron Man, Dan Jurgens’ Thor, and Mark Waid and Ron Garnes’ Captain America ushered in a new modern era as part of the heroes. Both of those comics laid the foundation for what would eventually lead to the success of the Marvel Cinematic universe.
While I’m always quick to talk down the ’90s comics based on the cheese of the early half of it, there was a lot of good that came out of the decades comic books. Long lasting good, so take it with a grain of salt when I’m quick to dismiss the era.
