Below you’ll find our reading selections for the year of 1987, and once we’re finished reading, I’ll post the winners for hero, villain, issue, artist, and writer.
Feel free to discuss the comics and any related thoughts below in the comments!
1987 Comic Reading List
(Check out Patreon for Full List With Notes!)
| 1987 | Comic Book Title | Issues |
| 1 | Avengers | #275 to #277 |
| 2 | Incredible Hulk | #331 to #333, #336 to #337 |
| 3 | Thor | #376, #379 to #382 |
| 4 | Fantastic Four | #300 |
| 5 | Spider-Man vs. Wolverine / Amazing Spider-Man | #1 / #289 |
| 6 | Captain America | #332 to #335 |
| 7 | Amazing Spider-Man / Amazing Spider-Man Annual | #290 / #21 |
| 8 | Kraven’s Last Hunt | See the reading order: |
| 9 | Uncanny X-Men | #221 to #222 |
| 10 | X-Factor | #19, #21 to #23 |
Reading Orders:
1987 Voting Results
Hero of the Year: Spider-Man
Villain of the Year: Kraven the Hunter
Issue of the Year: Thor #380
Writer of the Year: J.M. DeMatteis
Artist of the Year: Walt Simonson
1987 feels a lot like a transition year at Marvel. With a lot of big names exiting their signature series’ (Byrne and Simonson), and other big names starting theirs (David).
A quick run-through:
I liked The Avengers story. Good fun and well written. Especially the sequences around Captain America. Not really a big event, but a good story.
The Hulk is where it’s at for the next few years. A strong start for David with a nice assist from McFarlane. Looking forward to where this will take us.
Thor is great. Not a big fan of Buscema, but his pencils work here. And 380 is a hoot, gets my vote for issue of the year.
FF. Please. Paint by numbers FF story by Stern. I expect more from him, and he will deliver in Ubermensch, but this is pretty poor.
All the Spidey stuff is great this year. From Wolvie to the proposal, the wedding and the Hunt, all great stuff. This brings up the whole Hobgoblin issue again. In my mind it has always been Ned Leeds. Even if it didn’t make sense, it just was. Only recently have I learned that Hobby is/was actually s Roderick Kingsley. Anyway, I’d like to give Zeck a nod for artist of the year, but Simonson has to get recognized for his work on 380. But DeMatteis is easily best writer. He’d get best issue, but there really isn’t one stand out issue. Villain, though, is a given, as is hero. Spidey and Kraven all the way in 87.
Captain America is a nice story. Liked it then, still do. Not as big an flashy as other books at the time, but Gruenwalds strong workmen like approach defined the character for me in these issues.
X-books are in mid-event mode this year, and we can feel it. Moping up the massacre and getting ready for the Fall. I like the books, but this event to event mentality is quickly going to ruin the books.
This was an odd year, as I thought most of it was average (including X-Men, which seems to go in cycles of one excellent year followed by an average year followed by another excellent year and so on), but there were two issues that really stood out. Thor 380 easily gets my vote for Issue of the Year, with an entire issue devoted more or less to artwork, one battle, and nothing else (the dialogue was superfluous except for the epic poem being told). Just an incredible accomplishment, and unlike anything we’ve seen so far.
Kraven’s Last Hunt was the other big standout. Incredibly dark and surreal, and I’m still in shock about how explicit Kraven’s death was. It may have been lame as far as an “event,” as it was only six issues and arbitrarily spread out over three different series, but as an overall story, it featured amazing artwork, compelling storytelling, and the most mature content we’ve seen from Marvel yet.
Not much more to say about this year, though I’m looking forward to Fall of the Mutants. Some things to note include Ned Leeds’ reveal as the Hobgoblin and kind of stunning death, the unbelievably great Spidey dream sequence with all of his villains at his wedding, and Hodge’s evilness finally revealed (man, who didn’t see that one coming).
Also Shooter’s reign as EIC is over, so it’ll be interesting to see what changes when DeFalco comes on board. Onto 1988!
Avengers: Under Siege: This event was kind of dull. It gets three stars as a serviceable story, but the only thing of real importance that happened was the mansion’s destruction, something that happens to the X-Men every couple of years.
Thor is still great. I like Sal Buscema’s art about as well as Simonson’s, and he got my artist of the year vote.
Fantastic Four #300 is a strong issue. It still feels a bit wrong to see Johnny marrying Alicia, but that will come up in future issues.
Spider-Man vs. Wolverine has a couple of okay moments between the two characters. What bugs me is that the “versus” part happens for the flimsiest of reasons.
Kraven’s Last Hunt’s greatest strength is its pacing. It has the momentum of a freight train at top speed. The story itself is too dark and surreal for my taste, though.
I could not read the X-Factor issues on Marvel Unlimited due to the zoom going too far. Has anyone else experienced this? I’m reading on a desktop computer.
Spider-Man is the biggest success for the year. Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21 features the wedding of Peter Parker, and it gets my vote for best issue. That and Amazing Spider-Man #290-292 get Spider-Man the hero of the year vote and David Michelinie the writer of the year.
I also liked Uncanny X-Men #218, which features Juggernaut and Black Tom. Nobody stood out too much for their villainy this year, so I gave the vote to Juggernaut, who is one of my favorite baddies.
I notice Strikeforce: Morituri was coming out at this time. I very much enjoyed this run.
Loved this first arc, great call. In my head this series was early 90s, but you’re right, well worth a read.