The 1990s comic book fan confessional

[slym2none]

Would Alan Moore's run on Wildcats fit? It was a terrific run (I'm sure Moore doesn't consider it such) and really opened up my eyes about what a good writer could do.

I was rather fond of Thunderstrike since Masterson was the Thor I recognized when I read my dads Avengers comics.

I know he embodied quite a few tropes, mysterious, from the furture and uses big guns but I liked Bishop a whole lot. I think because I hand't bee reading comics long and suddenly there is this guy who knows stuff but seems totally confused. Him, along with Spylocke, was my first taste of anti-hereoes.
I tried to get every issue he appeared in and any mini series he might star in. I still have his ongoing series that fizzled out.

Maybe this wasn't quite a confessional so here is this: To this day I'm still rather fond of the 90's way super heroes would wear leather jackets over their spandex.

Rogue pulled that look off the best.

I even have a tattoo of the X-logo on my right shoulder, same size & placement as where the X-Men wore it on their "uniforms." Of course, I am a bit if aan X-nut, so take that as you will.





-slym

[Spylocke]

Ugh. My spelling was so terrible. Why do you people let me post late at night when I'm feeling the effects of ambien?
Another confession I have is I rather liked Deathmate. It was like a particularly good B-movie. Something of a guilty pleasure...the parts Valiant did, at least. I honestly can't remember anything about Deathmate Red or Black even though I'm sure I have read them.

Also, Geomancer. I wish that series had the time to establish itself.

[Cyberstrike]

I liked Nightwatch (a kind of Marvel version of Spawn) and The Green Goblin with Urich becomes the new Green Goblin and tries to be a superhero. I also liked the fact that companies finally had the balls to change the most iconic superheroes (for better or worse) around it made me read a lot of titles that I never would have given the time of day too.

[erwinrafael]

I have another confession to make. I liked this version of Doctor Strange.



Of course it did turn out to be one of Doctor Strange's magically whipped up clones: Strange. But it was fun, seeing Doctor Strange getting "Spawned"

[erwinrafael]

Maybe this wasn't quite a confessional so here is this: To this day I'm still rather fond of the 90's way super heroes would wear leather jackets over their spandex.

Oh, you mean the Steve Epting 1990s Avengers? LOL



I must say, it's very good that Steve Epting has improved leaps and bounds over the decades.

[hulk181man]

I have another confession to make. I liked this version of Doctor Strange.



Of course it did turn out to be one of Doctor Strange's magically whipped up clones: Strange. But it was fun, seeing Doctor Strange getting "Spawned"

Me too

[MarkRoseHFX]

Another confession I have is I rather liked Deathmate. It was like a particularly good B-movie. Something of a guilty pleasure...the parts Valiant did, at least. I honestly can't remember anything about Deathmate Red or Black even though I'm sure I have read them.

I actually read every Deathmate book over the last few days. I had actually never read Deathmate Red or the epilogue until now. Didn't care for any of it really. Some of the art is nice. I really really wish I didn't bother reading Red, it's one of the worst comics i've ever read.

[MarkRoseHFX]

I'll confess to really loving most of the early 90's Image stuff back then. Never really liked Youngblood though. Not just bc of Liefeld's art though I could never understand what the hell was going on. I also really dug Quasar, New Warriors, and anything Lobo.

[MarrowMan]

Awesome. And long-haired Superman with the bodybuilder physique and small head!

That's Louise Simonson for ya.

[Xtianhardy]

I'll confess to really loving most of the early 90's Image stuff back then. Never really liked Youngblood though. Not just bc of Liefeld's art though I could never understand what the hell was going on. I also really dug Quasar, New Warriors, and anything Lobo.

Quasar is awesome, nothing wrong with that title except maybe the art, but Mark Gruenwald was a great writer imho.

Lobo was also excellent back in the Giffen/Bisley days.

[tarheelmarine]

I'll just say the Death of Superman was fantastic along with the replacement of Hal Jordan. The glow in the dark GL cover and the four die cut Superman covers were some of my favorites.

[manga4life]

The early 90's is where I went from a kid who asked his parents to get him some comics once in a while to a hardcore comic book collector. Especially between the years of 1994 through the end of the decade, I was spending upwards to about $40 a week on comics which was a lot considering I was 14 years old in 1994 and was making money shoveling driveways in the winter and mowing lawns in the summer to support my obsession. When I got a full-time job in 1998 I was spending nearly $200 a week on comics by that point, whether it be back issues or current stuff I was addicted. I was really into the X-Men, Image stuff from Top Cow and Wildstorm, Awesome Comics, Cliffhanger, some Batman and Superman from DC, and Sovereign Seven from DC. I bought a ton of Rob Liefeld's Awesome Comics stuff, The Coven, Regex, Fighting American, and loads of Top Cow stuff like Witchblade and The Darkness, and yes.......I fell for the alternate cover gimmicks as well. But hell, it was sure fun!

[dbngaa]

The 90's were a crazy time in comics, for me anyway. I got back into comics in the fall of '92 after a 6 year hiatus and in the space of a few years went from picking back up where I left off with X-Men and other Marvel books, to jumping on the Image train, finding Valiant (and dropping everything else at that point), then moving on to Vertigo and other more "mature" titles.

But I certainly bought my share of gimmick covers, trading cards, sent in coupons for zero issues, etc. If only I had invested that money more wisely.

[mrozisik]

Well, I would divide 90's into 2 camps.

Between 1990 - 1993, there is a lot of excellent work in the market.

DC firing on all cyclinders with Superman/Batman/Green Lantern/Green Arrow/Wonder Woman storylines which I was fond of.

Marvel firing even harder with X-Men, X-Force, Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, New Warriors...what not...I even liked Darkhawk.

The DARK AGES starts with 1994. From 1994 - 1998, there is hardly anything worth reading in the market. Including Valiant.

The only titles I was interested in were written by Garth Ennis (Hellblazer, Preacher), or by Alan Moore (all the stuff he did for Wildstorm or Supreme) or Frank Miller (Sin City).

Until Marvel Knights came about, I was very disillusioned with the whole industry.

So when people look back at 90's, most people will look back at early 90's fondly. it is the rest of the decade that was simply awful.

[lorddunlow]

Well, I would divide 90's into 2 camps.

Between 1990 - 1993, there is a lot of excellent work in the market.

DC firing on all cyclinders with Superman/Batman/Green Lantern/Green Arrow/Wonder Woman storylines which I was fond of.

Marvel firing even harder with X-Men, X-Force, Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, New Warriors...what not...I even liked Darkhawk.

The DARK AGES starts with 1994. From 1994 - 1998, there is hardly anything worth reading in the market. Including Valiant.

The only titles I was interested in were written by Garth Ennis (Hellblazer, Preacher), or by Alan Moore (all the stuff he did for Wildstorm or Supreme) or Frank Miller (Sin City).

Until Marvel Knights came about, I was very disillusioned with the whole industry.

So when people look back at 90's, most people will look back at early 90's fondly. it is the rest of the decade that was simply awful.

Agreed.

[Dr. Solar]

...what not...I even liked Darkhawk.

Properly so.

Darkhawk should be up there with Deadpool and Cable for most important characters created in the last 30 years.

[mrozisik]

What puzzles me the most is, industry people talk about an implosion, speculators moving out etc about the mid to late 1990's but the fact of the matter is, the product in the market was horrendous.

The only argument could be, even the horrible stuff was selling like bucketloads in early 1990s...

Yes, true, but if you drop the ball and stop producing something people want to read, how can you defend people deserting you.

1994 - 1998 Marvel and DC is simply awful. Awful. So is Valiant. So is most of Image.

[MarkRoseHFX]

I totally agree that everything went to crap in 1994. That's when I stopped buying comics even my main favs that I had been buying for years like Batman and Amazing Spider-Man.

[erwinrafael]

What puzzles me the most is, industry people talk about an implosion, speculators moving out etc about the mid to late 1990's but the fact of the matter is, the product in the market was horrendous.

The only argument could be, even the horrible stuff was selling like bucketloads in early 1990s...

Yes, true, but if you drop the ball and stop producing something people want to read, how can you defend people deserting you.

1994 - 1998 Marvel and DC is simply awful. Awful. So is Valiant. So is most of Image.

Let's see. I'll go through the major Marvel stories of 1994-1997:

Clone Saga (arrgh)
Age of Apocalypse (mixed bag)
Avengers The Crossing (oh my...)
The never-ending soap opera of Rogue and Gambit which culminated with the Morlock Massacre mess
Fantastic Four Nobody Gets Out Alive (gah)
Punisher from three titles a month to zero (death by overexposure)
Marvel Edge (mostly mediocre, but at least it gave us the Skrull Kill Krew)
Punisher Meets Archie (this is an early version of trolling the fans)
Onslaught (meh)
Heroes Reborn (the pinnacle)

But there were glimmers of genius in this period

Marvels by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross. Easily the best Marvel book of the 1990s
Captain America by Mark Waid and Ron Garney
Thunderbolts by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley
X-Man by Jeph Loeb and John Ostrander. And then Terry Kavanagh made a mess
Ka-Zar by Mark Waid and Andy Kubert
Untold Tales of Spider-Man by Kurt Busiek and Pat Olliffe
Deadpool by Joe Kelly
Alpha Flight by Steven Seagle

[Andy]

Other glimmers I enjoyed: Tellos, Birds of Prey, Quantum and Woody, the second Mage series, Aria, Bone, Nightwing, and Young Justice.

[Phantom]

...what not...I even liked Darkhawk.

Properly so.

Darkhawk should be up there with Deadpool and Cable for most important characters created in the last 30 years.

I read it when it came out. Very basic origin story, not great. Loved the gem on the cover!

[Phantom]

Just checked eBay. Dark hawk one didn't have a gem .

[nscc]

I loved all of the gimicks when I was a kid, the hologram, die-cut, chromium, etc etc... I bought all that crap!

I thought all of those #1s were gonna be worth a fortune in the future

[manga4life]

The 90's were still better than the 2000's as far as comics go, in my opinion. Aside from Crossgen and a few DC titles I felt the 2000's were nothing more than cheap tricks by Marvel and DC to get people to buy more comics due to events and mega-crossovers which I despise more than the variant cover scheme. In the 90's we have the eveloution of Image, Valiant, Malibu, and other companies, plus the X-Men were simply awesome in the early to mid 90's. Top Cow rose to prominence, Michael Turner became a star, Superman died (and then came back), and Heroes Return from Marvel was great (Heroes Reborn sucked). Plus we had some awesome cartoons based on X-Men, Spider-Man, The Tick, Superman, and Batman. Sure, the 90's had some rough times too and some bad comics, but every era had that too.

[kevinbastos]

I tend to agree with most of the commentary expressed on early nineties versus late nineties experience.

Let's face it - even most of us die-hards abanoned ship through this era.

Good point on Thunderbolts, erwin. One of the greatest surprises ever.

Still stuns me that so many of the nineties books abandoned nearly every section of storytelling - in favor of the art. REAL pendulum shift. Guess it's indicative of what happens when artists start to write the stories. When SPAWN is some of the strongest work in the early Image, that certainly says something.