Below you’ll find our reading selections for the year of 1988, 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!
1988 Comic Reading List
(Check out Patreon for Full List With Notes!)
| 1988 | Comic Book Title | Issues |
| 1 | Iron Man | #225 to #231 |
| 2 | Incredible Hulk | #340, #343 to #345, #347 to #348 |
| 3 | Fall of the Mutants | See the reading order: |
| 4 | Amazing Spider-Man | #300 to #301, #307 to #309 |
| 5 | Excalibur: The Sword is Drawn / Excalibur | #1 / #1 to #3 |
| 6 | Wolverine | #1 to #2 |
| 7 | Uncanny X-Men | #232 to #234, #235 to #238 |
| 8 | Punisher War Journal | #1 to #2 |
| 9 | Avengers | #295 to #297 |
| 10 | Fantastic Four | #318 to #319 |
Reading Orders:
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I had to really cram the comics for this week, as I went on a brief vacation and didn’t have consistent internet access for three days. As a result, a lot of them blurred together, so I’m going to give very general notes. I’d say overall this was a solid year, with nothing seeming bad but nothing seeming particularly great either. I also didn’t have time to get to any of the bonus comics.
– Fall of the Mutants was fine, but didn’t seem that special other than X-Factor finally revealing that they were mutants to the public and the history of Apocalypse.
– McFarlane had an incredible run this year with drawing a ton of different comics and infusing a lot of personality into the artwork. I especially love his work on Hulk (and oh man, Hulk 340’s cover is one for the ages), but everything he did was great. It’s also worth noting how strong Peter David’s Hulk run is; very enjoyable.
– I was surprised to find myself enjoying Armor Wars as much as I did. It felt perfectly paced; an issue longer and it would have really dragged. It also plays into the theme of Tony beating himself up for things without having him take a drink (which also leads to that great scene where he admits he wants a drink but absolutely should not have one).
– There was SO MUCH X-Men this year, especially thanks to them becoming bi-weekly (!) and all of the different spin-off series. I was amazed at the overall consistency of all of it given how much was being released, a true testament to Claremont’s skills. Genosha debuting is perhaps the biggest event, but the Australian hideout, the Brood continuing to be terrifying? All really solid. I also very much enjoyed Excalibur and Wolverine’s mini-series; I hadn’t realized how much I was missing Nightcrawler.
– Punisher was solid but not spectacular. The gimmick of having his family’s death play out in the panel below for the entire first issue was striking, and I’ve always liked his character, so I found this an engaging read but I’d think it would be a slog if you weren’t into him.
– I liked Spidey a lot this year, especially with McFarlane’s crazy artwork. Venom was an incredible debut, and the whole condo owner kidnapping thing was very intense. MJ is also an interesting blend of powerful and super-sexualized, which she’s always been I guess, but it seems more pronounced this year.
– I always love me some Kang, so Avengers was a fun read. Nebula went between having blue skin and regular skin, the explanation of what the weapon was never really happened, and the Avengers seemingly disbanded afterwards. Weird set of issues.
– Fantastic Four really was Secret Wars 3! Man, what an absurd amount of text to get through in #319 with trying to explain the Cosmic Cube and just what the heck was going on; I’m still not sure even after all of it! I guess that’s the end of the Molecule Man? Maybe? I found myself enjoying it, but as you can tell, I’m still quite confused.
– Finally, the single biggest change I can feel from DeFalco as EIC is simply more, more, more content. It seemed like every other issue was a double-length comic, and of course the X-Men going bi-weekly must have been crazy-making for Claremont and the team. I don’t know much of the history, but I understand that a lot of established writers left around this time, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it had something to do with the amount they were being asked to do.
Onto 1989!
I’m on vacation for a few weeks. Away from the bulk of my collection, and with little time to get my reading done over the last few days. But I will comment as there is nothing new (for me) in this weeks offerings…I read most as they were released back in the day. Oddly enough the only books I did not read upon release were the FF issues. I stopped buying that one monthly at about issue 307 or so. I later felt compelled to fill in my collection and bought these and read them. Not really worth it. Read it last year as preamble to Secret Wars, no need to do so again.
All the X-books are must read at this point in Marvel. Even if I hate the event mentality these books are getting mired in, they are still great on an individual basis. Fall of the Mutants was good. Not great, but good. And Excalibur is one of my favs, and Alan Davis makes the debut that much more worthwhile. I give him artist of the year. I know McFarlane is doing some his best work this year, between Hulk and ASM, really heling to revitalize the books, but I think he’ll mature a bit over the next year or so and he’ll get his due.
On that note, I should give a plug to my villain of the year, Venom. You might say that Apocalypse is afar mort dastardly character, and you’d be right. Venom is strictly small time in scale. But I think his initial appearance was his best. As the years go by he will shine a few more times, but soon he will become fairly generic and as the symbiote gets tossed around his vileness will slowly erode. This is his year. It’ll even garner an issue of the year vote for #300.
The Hulk rocks this year, and will continue to do so for another 80 or so issues. Really and truly I think Davids run will remain strong well into the 400s and beyond. Read ‘em all. Writer of the year is a given.
Have not read Punisher nor Wolvie. May not get to them. Read them and do not recall them being all that good. Maybe I should give ‘em a go.
Avengers and Iron Man were both good books in this period. I plan to read all the Avengers between 278 and 300. It’ll take a day or so, but if I recall well worth it. And shell head is in a good place here to.
Looking at all of our offerings this week, I think hero goes to Spidey by default…
My favorite arc from 1988 is Armor Wars. The issue that kicks it off is a true five-star issue, and all of the rest continue from that set-up capably.
Peter David’s Hulk (and most of his writing) does less for me now, as I am no longer the target audience of teenage males. I tried #340 and #347 of Incredible Hulk and did not care for either.
Fall of the Mutants is not your normal crossover, mostly just some thematic connections between otherwise separate storylines. I like the X-Men and X-Factor portions quite a bit.
Amazing Spider-Man #300 is an awesome issue for Spider-Man and Venom. It nearly got my issue of the year vote, but I still think Iron Man #225 is a little better. Venom did get my villain of the year vote.
Excalibur just throws the reader right into a lot of bizarre concepts. I like Kitty and Kurt but none of the other regulars, so I have never gotten into the Excalibur series.
I was pretty down on Avengers #295, but #296 and #297 are both great.
What retcons are so villainous from this year? There was nothing on the level of X-Factor #1 or the Sins Past arc of Amazing Spider-Man for controversy that I noticed.
Other issues I liked from the year:
Amazing Spider-Man #306 – everything actually goes Peter’s way for once, and it is adorable to see him and MJ in love
Avengers #298 and Uncanny X-Men #239 – Inferno issues probably covered next year; Jarvis rocks in Avengers #298!
Finally caught up with you guys! I subscribed a few weeks ago and have been frantically trying to catch up by reading through from the beginning, so this is my first time voting. And what a hard year for deciding! There was so much I liked about this year. Other than Kang, I was thoroughly hooked by every arc. Ultimately though, the intelligent Grey Hulk won me over for hero of the year. I normally am not a fan of Hulk comics, as they are not engaging enough to intrigue me. But this version of the Hulk has me hooked. I can’t wait to see more of him. I’m probably the only one that was so impressed by the story, but Incredible Hulk 346 was issue of the year for me. Having those close to Bruce tell his story and how he has affected their lives made me admire how far he’s come as a character. As for artist of the year, gotta give it to Romita Jr for that Daredevil artwork, particularly in issue 252. I definitely love the Frank Miller era of DD the best, but these stories are still holding up really well. Finally, the villain of the year was the hardest choice for me. There were so many greats to choose from. We got to see Eddie Brock’s start as Venom, Genosha was brilliantly portrayed for the terrible society it is, Doom was diabolically ambitious as always, Typhoid Mary made a perfect entrance, and the Brood even had a story that I liked when I couldn’t stand them the first time when Claremont introduced them. However, Apocalypse stood out as the most menacing of all. He was merely toying with X-Factor the entire time and still managed to cause so much damage. Not to mention crippling Beast into a childlike mental state. And turning Angel against his former friends was a heartbreaking touch. I almost voted Scott Summers as villain of the year though, just for what he did to Madelyne Pryor. There have been many times I’ve wanted to punch out Scott, particularly in the 2000s X Men comics with all his Emma Frost shenanigans, but never so much as I wanted to in Uncanny X Men 233. Seeing Madelyne’s viewpoint of Scott seeming to fall in love with her because she looked like Jean, then finding out Jean was alive and abandoning her and their son, and her subsequent breakdown was depressing. Anyway, excellent year all around! Can’t wait to see what’s next.
Boy, that offhand Bill Cosby comment in Iron Man 231 comes off differently then it was originally meant in 1988