My Marvelous Year: 1991

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• I voted last night but didn't have time to comment. Just a few thoughts:

  The X-Books are almost all in major decline. I know that at the time these artists were all the rage, but even then I was not a Lee or Leifeld fan. The New Mutants are so poor its hard to put into words. Jim Lee is going to really become a great artist, but his work here shows his inexperience. The X-books in general are a real tough read. I read these all when they came out, and this is the first time I give them a second look. Now I remember why.
  X-Factor is the one light in the darkness. Only read a few of these back in the day, plan to read more as we go along.

  Hulk is strong. I love Dale Keown on art. I voted for him above Windsor-Smith. Reading all the Hulk books as we go through the years and its such a easy and fun read. I've read Davids Hulk series a few times...this may be my third or fourth go on them, and they hold up very well.

  Same goes for the FF. I bought these back in the day but never looked at them again. Big mistake. Great reading from Simonson.

  The whole Infinity story is good. Read all the Silver Surfer leading up to the mini, lots of fun. Nice to revisit these, too

• X-Tinction Agenda, for some reason, I thought I read that back in the day and didn't like it. Wrong, it wasn't familiar, and I really liked it (maybe I was thinking of X-Cutioner's Song?) Damn, Genosha really does exude nastiness, doesn't it? I also read the first Genosha story from UXM #235-238 since it was in the same collection. Felt like I needed a shower after all that racism. Great work from Claremont & co. to instil such emotion. If I had to make one criticism of X-Tinction Agenda, it would just be that the final battling with Cameron Hodge dragged on a little.

  The Amazing Spider-Man and Fantastic Four arcs were both really good, solid stories. Entertaining tales, well told - and I went into Spider-Man with some trepidation since I kinda associate Venom with the worst excesses of the "attitude" era. Two thumbs up for both.

  Speaking of the attitude era.. Liefeld finally buries the carcass of the New Mutants. Actually not as horrible as I expected. It was ugly, and rushed, as characters were quickly hustled offscreen and new ones plunked in. The first appearance of Deadpool was a non-event. But all up.. it was only kinda poor, and I expected much worse.

  The Incredible Hulk swept the voting, for me. Loving Peter David's writing, Dale Keown gives the characters so much personality with his art. #377 (the psychoanalysis) and #380 (Dr. Samson and Crazy Eight) were my two favourite issues of the year. I read onwards to #385 to get the tie-in to Infinity Gauntlet too.

  X-Factor, of course, was another slice of Peter David's talent. I've recently been reading the 2006 X-Factor series, and it was a delight to be reminded how long PAD has been doing this great work for.

  Weapon X in MCP.. this one I did definitely read back in the day. I feel like I've seen this story revisited so many times, but the original telling was brutal and compelling. This was the sort of thing that deservedly made Wolverine as hot a character as he was.

  Thor, could have taken or left that story. This is the start of what becomes Thor and Thunderstrike being separate characters, right? Didn't do anything for me.

  The new Claremont & Jim Lee X-Men .. pretty good. Of all the original Image crowd, Jim Lee was the one I rated the most. This was really well executed. I'm not 100% sold on Magneto's personality as depicted here, though. And the whole business with Moira controlling people's minds with genetic engineering, wut? But the X-Men themselves, I loved their depiction.

  And finally.. The Infinity Gauntlet. Like most people here, I thought Thanos Quest was the pick of 1990. And I expected Infinity Gauntlet to be the pick of 1991. But it didn't quite snatch the title from the Hulk. It was, I dunno.. just a little bit TOO epic? Don't get me wrong, it was an absolutely sterling series. But the power of Thanos with the Gauntlet was just so great that it distorted the story, or something? Maybe it also suffered from being a bit rushed because I only read the core six issues and the Hulk crossover issues - nothing else being available on Marvel Unlimited. Maybe if I had all the Silver Surfer, Doctor Strange, etc. issues, that would have pushed it into being the best story of the year.

• This was quite a year, with a huge amount of variety and several momentous and culminating events. Let's go down the list...

  - Amazing Spider-Man was decidedly meh for me from a plot perspective, but the Venom artwork, especially the Venom as Hamlet cover, was awesome. A minor footnote compared to the rest of the year; worth it just to flip through for the artwork.

  - X-Tinction Agenda is also mediocre from a plot standpoint, as it's just the X-Men locked in a constant battle with a weird cybernetic Hodge. In Unlimited, there are only the X-Men issues, so the end of the story gets cut off. This is another one where the artwork is strong but the plot leaves something to be desired, though having the three mutant teams fight together makes for some epic battles. Also, Storm gets sidelined again?! Come on, guys.

  - Deadpool makes a strong first appearance in New Mutants. This is secretly one of the big things I wanted from this Reading Club, which was to learn Deadpool's history. I've never been a big fan of his, but I've also only read him in random comics and never had the context for him, so seeing his start and watching him progress should make me a fan. Oh yeah, there were also New Mutant issues and they broke up at the end. Never having been a big New Mutants fan, this didn't move me too much.

  - Fantastic Four was INSANE. First with the utterly bizarre brand new Fantastic Four (which I'd read before and enjoyed but didn't love, and this second read didn't change my opinion), but then with the incredibly great Doom issues, which I actually think beat out Infinity Gauntlet for my Issues of the Year. Is it really true that every single Doom they've fought since the beginning was actually a robot copy?! The true Doom comes across as so cold and intelligent, and the time displacement battle in 352 was a tour de force of writing and panel layout. Simonson knocked it out of the park with these issues.

  - Peter David writing Hulk can pretty much never go wrong. I love the portrayal of the new Hulk and how he's much more of a jerk than he ever was before, but indeed, a well-rounded and intelligent jerk. Also the whole nightmare sequence with his father is one for the ages. Strong stuff.

  - Weapon X is among my favorite Marvel comic series ever. I remember it blowing me away when I first read it, and this time around with much more context, the artwork pops even more and got Barry Windsor-Smith my Artist of the Year vote. I'd never read the Hama Wolverine follow-up issues, and they're incredibly great; I love how they still don't fully explain everything such as the cabin, and the artwork is excellent.

  - New Thor is strange. I think they do a nice job of making him seem bumbling and less appealing than the original Thor, but it doesn't exactly make for the most pleasant read. Also, Thor "killing" Loki seems so out of character for him, especially since he vows not to do it about ten pages before! Just an odd couple of issues, though they do feature some great artwork.

  - Oh, Infinity Gauntlet. This is the culmination of much of Starlin's work, with Thanos finally meeting an appropriate and oddly perfect "end," and Warlock becoming omnipotent. The Nebula artwork is so terrifying, and just the way that the Cosmos comes together to defeat Thanos and eventually Nebula is breathtaking. Of course, there will be several follow-up series to this, but it certainly feels like a big payoff for reading all of Starlin's previous work.

  - X-Factor is a ton of fun to read because of David taking over, but it's also a weird blend of slapstick and super dark. It feels inconsequential but also intense at the same time. Guido though skyrockets to one of my fave characters from the era; I love David's take on him.

  - X-Men 1-3. Now THIS is truly the end of an era, and I readily admit to getting chills at the very end. Having taken the Claremont Challenge and reading everything on Unlimited, this felt like an incredible, pretty much perfect end to his run. By the way, I'd overall give his entire run a B. A lot of it was mediocre, especially near the end, and I've discovered that I kind of hate when he writes surreal nightmare scenes, as I find them often borderline incoherent (could be the Silvestri artwork too, but I think a lot of the blame is Claremont's). However, his early work on the X-Men, and of course the Dark Phoenix Saga, is some of the most powerful and important work ever done in comics, and to have a seventeen year run on one comic is unbelievable. Here's to you, Chris Claremont!

  - Bonus round time! Muir Island Saga (or what was available on Unlimited) was all right, though I wasn't too impressed. Not much to say about it. X-Force was a slog, and X-Factor was epic but somehow didn't make a huge impression on me despite the huge Apocalypse battle and resolution. The best of the bunch was Armor Wars 2, which I enjoyed quite a lot. Again, an epic, many-part Iron Man story that I thought was perfectly paced.

  1991 was definitely better than average; not sure I can put it in the list of best years we've read, but it's for sure top tier. Onto 1992!

• I thought this was a lot better year than 1990.

  Standouts for me-

  Incredible Hulk- I have always known about the hulk, but other than Planet Hulk I have never read any Hulk comics. I really enjoyed this weeks picks, and I am definitely gonna have to go back sometime and read the whole run. Never thought I would enjoy reading the hulk so much (although I absolutely LOVE the portrayal of the hulk in the Ultimate universe).

  Weapon X-Who would have known this would be my favorite comic of the week! I really like how they took their time with telling the story (normally any version of his backstory is pretty rushed, and you don't feel too bad for him). Also liked the short issue size, I read a lot on my work breaks and it made me feel like I was actually getting somewhere.

  Infinity Gauntlet-This was my 2nd time this year reading this, and once again the art absolutely blew me away. The action sequences are a lot of fun, and I'm really looking forward with how they are going to portray thanos in the next avengers movies. However, as much as I liked Infinity Gauntlet, I'm embarrassed to say that I enjoyed the Silver Surfer and Thanos Comics leading up to it.

  X-Factor- Some of the dialogue was pretty fun, but I absolutely loved the art!

  X-men-This was one of the books I remember using as a tool to learn how to read as a kid (my mom was sick of reading comics to me). This might be the most nostalgic thing I have ever read. Jim Lees art on this series is so iconic, and looks just as good now as it used to.

  The new mutants and other x-stuff were alright, but more or less forgettable for me.

  Fantastic-4 was a good read also. I never thought I would be interested in them, but there are some really good FF stories out there.

  I tried to read Thor, but there was WAY too much text for me. A little bit of the way Thor and Loki talk goes a long away, and this went a little too far for my tastes.

  Can't wait for next week!

• Hi!

  Here are my thoughts for 1991.

  Amazing Spider-Man has a great nostalgic factor for me. This is one of the first comics I bought here in Germany. And it got me addicted to Comics, Marvel and Superheroes. I still remember #345 and #346 and Im sure I find the issues still in my parents attic. Somehow I missed #347. But this issue seems a bit out of place with the island setting. The three issues are not the best Spider-Man but decent and ther first one has Mark Bagley as an artist. Back then I loved his artwork and I still do like his older stuff. Strange is for USM I can't say the same. Maybe he lost his mojo a bit...at least it seem that way to me.

  X-Tinction Agenda...I'm not sure what to say and think. First of all it is a shame that Marvel has this many gaps in it's old stuff... especially the X-series. But I read it not long ago on Comixology. I didn't know Marvel Unlimited back then and bought single issues or whole sales on Comixology. I think I bought all the issues according to the reading order here. First of all I really enjoyed Jim Lee's artwork. But I couldn't really enjoy the whole crossover. The X-folks get their butts kicked nearly every issue and they seem without hope against Cameron Hodge. He seems alway a step ahead until the last issue and the final battle. All in all not the best crossover but also not the worst.

  New Mutants was a bit a pain to read. Maby mostly because of the artwork. Som ages good and some not really. This belongs to the latter one. I read this some time ago Deadpool related. Even he is not the recognizable character he's going to become.

  Fantastic Four was a really good read. I kinda liked the idea that the FF "died" and were replaced with these notorious, violent 90's characters (and Spider-Man). I also really enjoyed the artwork. The following issues with the return of Doom and the time battle between him and Reed were also good but I liked the issues before a bit more.

  Incredible Hulk was fantastic. Again I know some issues from long ago. when I first read them I was confused that Hulk could talk. But now with more background knowledge I liked the stories with the Pantheon even more. And Dale Kneown's art is fantastic. He's definitely my artist of 1991.

  Regarding Waepon X I found art and storytelling were not my thing. I realize it's an very important story for Logan setting the ground for much more later stories but reading it today was tiresome for me. The sequel form the pages of Wolverine was not that much better.
  I found it a bit confusing and very talkative (a problem for many X-Comics in the 90's) but I liked Silvestries art. Not as good as Jim Lee but very welcome after BWS from Weapon X.

  After reading Thor I finally know now how Eric Masterson became the Thor from the pages of Infinite Gauntlet. A good showdown with Loki (year of the showdowns???...Thor vs. Loki, Reed vs. Doom).

  Infinite Gauntlet...what can I say. I love it. I read it at first in German as paperback. This was at least the 5th or 6th read of this story. I still like it very much. It has a lot of influence on the way the Marcel Cinematic Universe goes. Thanos almighty and the fact that he couldn't keep the gauntlet and thought so himself was a very interesting concept. Otherwise the Marvel Universe would have a big problem. All the heroes a s cannonfodder, Surfer and Adam Warlock save the day, Doom vs. God-Thanos, George Perez for crowded panels (and later Ron Lim) and Thanos killing the heroes single handedly with just a thought...waht more could you want. A classic!

  X-Factor and X-Men were ok; not more and not less. Problem was there was so much to read this week I kinda felt exausted (and the 90's seem to have so much text...). I knew X-Men #1-3 from before so I could enjoy Lee's art again.

  So far a very busy 1991. From very good to average to bad.

• Is anyone else having issues with the google sheet only showing 1991, and not letting you tab between different years? The previous years aren't even showing up for me. Doesn't matter which year I go to through the website either, it all takes me to just a google sheet for 1991, with no options to go anywhere else.

  • That's odd - I haven't been able to replicate the issue on my end. Are you on mobile or desktop?

    • Laptop, but it's working fine now. For some reason, for most of that night it was doing what I described, but seems back to normal now.

• Infinity Gauntlet #4 is one of my favorite comics of all time.

• They may have a ton of speech bubbles, but I have a great fondness for X-Men #1-3 by Claremont and Lee. I voted for the X-Men and Magneto as hero and villain of the year, X-Men #3 as my issue of the year and Jim Lee as artist of the year.

  Walt Simonson's Fantastic Four is another standout for 1991. Actually, the pair of issues I liked best was not included. The two-parter of #350 and #352, featuring everybody's favorite Latverian monarch, Doctor Doom, is absolutely brilliant. I put #351 in the same category as Howard the Duck in terms of being an essential inclusion on any list (that is, should not be there at all). Walt Simonson got my vote for writer of the year, and I strongly considered him for artist.

  Armor Wars II is pretty good, especially #258. I do not get a no-prize, as I cannot connect it to the first Armor Wars in any meaningful way.

  Muir Island Saga and Infinity Gauntlet are decent. X-Tinction Agenda, Thor, and X-Factor are all mixed bags, and I cannot recommend X-Force or Amazing Spider-Man this time around.

  New Mutants #98-100 were all over, with #98 being very good, #99 being poor, and #100 being decent again.

  I skipped Hulk and Wolverine, and I am having trouble reading the X-Factor issues on MU (not there or zoomed).

  Bonus picks from me: Fantastic Four #358 and Uncanny X-Men #275

  • Ahhh, I updated the master list with those FF issues, but forgot to update here on the page! You're absolutely right, #352 is likely my issue of the year.

    Haha thanks for the honesty on Armor Wars II, I can't do it either :)

• Does the Bonus Round count for the voting of 1991?

  • Yep!

• Just as a note here, in Unlimited X-Tinction Agenda is, uh, limited to only the X-Men comics, so you only get Parts 1, 4, and 7. I read them this morning and it was more or less coherent, but there's clearly a lot missing and it doesn't come to a satisfying conclusion. It's also funny to browse X-Tinction Agenda in Unlimited as an "Event" and only get three issues.

  • Wouldn't want to recommend anything illegal, but let's just say that since I'm paying Marvel for "unlimited" old comics, I didn't feel too guilty Googling for "X-Tinction Agenda torrent".

  • Yes, good point!

    My favorite MU "Event" is Kings of Pain, which includes precisely one issue from the event, and randomly also 1602 #7.

  • In terms of quality, those three issues are the best, but I agree that the whole event should be added so people can make up their own minds and experience all of the chapters.

    Until then, uncannyxmen.net has excellent brief and detailed summaries for the missing issues.