Last night I was flippping through Marvel 80 for 80. If tou are unfamiliar with it, it is a book, released in late 2019 for Marvel's 80th anniversary, which chooses a single comic book or story to represent the company for every year of its existance from 1939 through 2018. As I was reading, I discovered that, once I got to a certain point, I had something to say about most of Marvel's choices, but not enough to fill an entire discussion each. So I thought why not start a thread discussing each of Marvel's choices? Going forward, I will post one year at a time, slowing my roll enough to allow everyone who wants to comment the opportunity to do so before moving on. Again, these are Marvel's choices, not necessarilly mine. but what about you? Agree? Disagree? What are your thoughts on Marvel's choice? Which series/storyline might you choose instead?
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2003 - "Meet the Runaways"
The main characters are featured, one at a time, on the covers of the fist six issues. Harrold and Thomas chose a full-panel page from the interior of #6 showing all six together as the image to represent this year/series. I chose the cover of the collection.
I remember we collected Runaways for a time but I don't remember why. So I asked Tracy. She told me that this title was personally recommended to her by the owner of our LCS. I also asked her why she stopped reading it. She didn't remember, but I think she lost interest over the course of many stops and starts and "new number ones." I don't think I read beyond the first issue. I found it to be well-written, but too full of "teen angst" for my taste. I'm beginning to see now that Marvel actually was reaching out to younger readers in the early 2Ks (with titles such as Ultimate Spider-Man, Runaways and NYX, which also debuted in 2003); it's just that "old guys" weren't reading them.
My pick for 2003 would have been JLA/Avengers, but I can see why that would not be appropriate for a book focused on Marvel's history.
2004 - "Iron Man Upgraded"
The "Heroes Reborn" version of Iron Man lasted 89 issues. I was there for most of it, but I saw the "new number one" as a "good jumping off point" (two terms that often go hand-in-hand). In 2005, Iron Man was turned over to Warren Ellis and Adi Granov, the artist whose work most inspired the MCU. But in 2004, he did a series of nine Iron Man covers, beginning with #75. It is the cover of #76 which Harrold and Thomas used, which is also the origin of the often-immitated "super-hero landing pose."
I didn't read this Iron Man series, but Marvel released a host of new series in 2004, including Fantastic Four #1 (Ultimate), Spider-Man #1 (Marvel Knights) and The Punisher #1 (MAX). In the main Marvel Universe, Joss Whedon and John Cassaday were given a new X-title (Astonishing X-Men), and Brian Michael Bendis "Disassembled" the Avengers. I can't let 2004 pass without at least mentioning "Sins Past," which so overshadows the rest of J. Michael Stracynski's Spider-Man in my memory that I often forget that the rest of his run was pretty darned good. If it were up to me, I'd give the not to Astonishing X-Men for best of 2003.
That pose has become so iconic, I can't quibble with Marvel's decision here. If they hadn't included it, I'd have never known its origin! That's reason enough to highlight it in a project like this. When you affect culture so substantially, you've gotta claim it.
That said, that Astonishing X-Men cover is mighty nice.
Yes, in terms of images I quite agree with you; most of my picks are more about story or content.
I was impressed with that Granov Iron Man cover when I first saw it. I had no idea people outside our little hobby would notice it!
According to the book: "Granov's work also impressed filmmakers producing 2008's Iron Man movie--so much so that they hired him as a designer to help bring Tony Stark to the masses. Granov has continued to work on films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the years since, and fans of Iron Man 2 in particular may recognize the iconic pose seen [above] on what was only Granov's second Iron Man cover. The cover has become not only the definitive Iron Man comic book image of the modern era but led to the phrase 'super hero landing' entering the pop culture lexicon."
So "superhero landing" joins Brainiac, origin story, Shazam and about 1,000 other terms from comics that most people have no idea came from comics.
I would add the term "Dragon Lady" to that list (and probably "supermarket" as well).
2005 - "New Avengers Assemble!"
I sincerely doubt my ability to convey how much I hate The New Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis. It's my own damn fault, because I read "Avengers Disassembled" and should have known better than to buy it in the first place. The only good thing I can say about "Avengers Disassembled" was that it was better than the Geoff Johns and Chuck Austen runs leading up to it (but not by much). What I should have done was take the "new number one" as an obvious "jumping off point" (as I did with Iron Man that same year), but not only am I a completist, I am also much more heavily vested in Avengers than I ever was in Iron Man.
I was familiar with Bendis' work from Ultimate Spider-Man, but it didn't bug me so much there, because that was its own thing, with no continuity or characterization behind it. Bendis carried his odd scripting style over from USM, but I was willing to overlook it. (No one in real life ever spoke like a BMB character, but no one ever spoke like a Jack Kirby character, either.) But it wasn't the script I objected to so vehemently; it was his complete and total disregard for established character and continuity. When he was playing in his own sandbox with his "own" characters (Ultimate Spider-Man), he was perfectly fine; but turn him loose in Marvel's sandbox and he craps all over decades of continuity and characterization. Illuminati was the final straw.
Today I pretend that each time a series is rebooted a new universe is created, and would be much more open to such blatant disregard for "what has come before" (although I still think the dialogue would have eventually done me in, though). My pick for 2005 is the Ed Brubaker Captain America series. As much as I wanted to like the 2002 series, I didn't, really. The 2005 series was everything I had hoped the 2002 would have been. Ed Brubaker was writing Daredevil at the same time he was writing Captain America. Normally, if I like one series by a particular writer, I will buy another series by that same writer. Just to give you an idea of how much I dislike BMB's New Avengers, not only did it prevent me from reading his Daredevil, it prevented me from reading Brubaker's as well (twice removed).
2006 - "Civil War"
Quite 'nuff said.
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