My Marvelous Year 1980's Marvel 'Hero, Villain, & Comic Of The Decade' Recap!

The My Marvelous Year reading club has officially terminated the third decade of Marvel Comics, spending the past 10 weeks reading all the essential Marvel Comics from the 1980s.

As we approach our fourth decade of Marvel in the 1990’s, it’s time to tally the voting and determine our winners for hero, villain, series, artist, and writer of the decade. I’ll also be sharing my absolute top 10 favorite Marvel comics from the 80’s.

If you’re interested in the individual ‘Hero of the Year’ winners from each year, you can check out the My Marvelous Year pages for each decade, and click on any individual year for a recap of that year’s reading list.

As a whole, the 1980’s feature more comics I’d eagerly share with modern readers, but it’s darn near impossible to say that I prefer the 80’s as a whole to the 1960’s. Despite my love of many of the comics on display this decade, the 80’s also marked the most burnt out I’ve felt reading every year of Marvel, as the late 80’s crossovers and double shipping piles up.

Nonetheless, in a recent Question of the Week, I recommended newly dedicated Marvel readers start with 1981 as their entry publication year to Marvel Comics, and I stand by that recommendation. From Frank Miller’s Daredevil to John Byrne’s Fantastic Four to Walt Simonson’s Thor, you’re in store for an embarrassment of writer/artist riches, with additional standouts across Uncanny X-Men, New Mutants, Amazing Spider-Man… the list goes on and on.

Support For Comic Book Herald:

Comic Book Herald is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn a qualifying affiliate commission.

Comic Book Herald’s reading orders and guides are also made possible by reader support on Patreon, and generous reader donations.

Any size contribution will help keep CBH alive and full of new comics guides and content. Support CBH on Patreon for exclusive rewards, or Donate here! Thank you for reading!

Become a Patron!

Here are the absolute top 10 Marvel Comics I’d recommend reading from the 1980’s, in the following order:

Uncanny X-Men #129 to #137 – The Dark Phoenix Saga
Frank Miller’s Daredevil #168 to #191 + Daredevil: Born Again
Amazing Spider-Man #229 to #230 – Nothing Stops the Juggernaut
X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills
John Byrne’s Fantastic Four
Simonson’s run on Thor
Secret Wars
New Mutants #18 to #21 – The Demon Bear Saga
Squadron Supreme
Kraven’s Last Hunt

And of course, that’s leaving off the likes of Wolverine’s first solo series, the Mutant Massacre, the rise of Mr. Sinister and Apocalypse, and Peter David’s run on Incredible Hulk! You should really just check out the whole 1980’s list for yourself.