Ahhh, the 90s. A time of screaming mouths, big hair left over from the 80s, more feral mutants than you could shake a stick at, and of course, big guns and bigger shoulder pads.
Skottie Young brought up the 90s over the weekend on his Twitter account, focusing on how people look down at the era and disparage everything about it. I couldn’t help but not only agree, but also look back on the era of comics I grew up with.
I love Cable, I love X-Cutioner’s Song, which was going on when I got into comics, I flipped out when the X-books were “canceled” bringing about the Age of Apocalypse. There were Spider-men, who seemed to double more than Multiple Man. An AIDS analogue struck mutants across the globe. Batman was broken, Superman died, and of course, Hal Jordan went insane with evil power.
Man, I loved 90s comics, especially early 90s. That’s when I first really got into the books that have now become a major part of my life. For me, it started with a crossover issue featuring both Spider-man and the X-Men, which my mom bought at a grocery store, knowing I loved the brand new X-Men: The Animated Series. I was amazed by the range of stories that could be told in these little magazines. Plus, it was easier to enjoy over and over again.
I didn’t become a real “collector.” I kept my comics, but I wasn’t obsessed with bags and boards or any of that. I wanted them easy to access and easy to read. My ultimate favorite storyline was definitely Age of Apocalypse. I was already a fan of the idea of alternate worlds in all forms of media, and here was one with my favorite characters of the time. The re-inventions of these characters were so cool, from new costumes to new alliances, and even some that were almost completely different, like Nate Grey, Cable’s double from this reality. I read the story in its entirety about 6 times as a kid. I’ve since gone back and re-read it at least 4 or 5 more. A lot of it was over-the-top, and even downright silly, but even now (I last read the story last year) it still strikes me as one of the most fun experiences I’ve had reading comics.
Are these the best-written or best-drawn stories ever? No, and some of them are downright goofy. But there’s no need to look back on them with anything less than fond remembrance. It was a time of decadence in ways different than the decadence of today, but not necessarily in worse or better ways. There’s no need to say “90s superhero comics suck,” even if they weren’t exploring the same range of emotion or realism as some books today do. But hey, I’m just a non-jaded comics fan.
June 15th, 2009 at 10:45 am
I grew up around the same time. My best friend and I also freaked out when we heard all the X-Men books were being replaced. I still have most of the Age of Apocalypse. I got rid of a bunch of my older books (of course I regret it), but whenever I have a couple bucks burning a hole in my pocket, I’ll go back and replace a missing issue. Good times.
June 15th, 2009 at 11:00 am
skottie has gotten the entire of twitter reminiscing the swanky 90s… i still have way too many happy memories from that decade, a lot of today’s stars got their start then and gave us great creative runs both in the mainstream and in image/vertigo/ the indies.
special mainstream standouts:
lobdell/bachalo on generation-x
joe kelly’s deadpool
mark waid’s ka-zar
x-men 2099
pad’s x-factor and spidey 2099
the AOA
warren ellis’ excalibur
(p.s. follow me on twitter @manolis )
June 15th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Let’s face it– from October 1991 through January 1993, DC was going through some -serious- PMS. (Yes, I realize that it’s not PC to say it, and I’m sorry, Sarah, but it’s the best analogy I could come up with.) Think about this for a moment…
1. Superman died.
2. Batman’s back was broken.
3. Hal Jordan went categorically insane.
4. The Justice League was ending the “bwah-ha-ha” years with, starting with the assassination attempt against the good Maxwell Lord.
5. Wally West had suffered through “Barry Allen’s” return, then shortly thereafter became one with the speed force.
6. The Titans were being hunted down and systematically slain.
7. Dove was killed by an insane version of her partner from a dystopian future.
8. A bunch of heroes were possessed by a dark god all summer.
9. Lobo. Just… Lobo.
10. And last, but not least, to top it all off, the Earth blew up (in the 2990′s due to our own excesses and the Dominator war).
It was an era where decompressed stories were just beginning to come into their own, when tales that lasted three and four issues were the exception and not the norm, but when long-playing arcs were finally getting their due. Brubaker and Johns may be perfecting now what began then, but look at the Bierbaums’ Legion and Wolfman’s New Titans of the early 90′s. Titans Hunt: over a year from start to finish. The whole 5YL Legion plotline began with the first issue in ’89 and didn’t truly wrap up until issue #38 when the Earth blew up.
Good article, Lucas. I hope we get more response to this one as to what others remember from the 90′s.
June 15th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
AoA is still one of my favorite crossovers, and it still holds up for the most part. The odd thing? When they revisited a couple of years ago, that mini series they released was pretty bad.
June 15th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
I came “of age” in the 90s as well and have a ton of fond memories of the comics from that time. As you say Lucas, they weren’t all great works of art; but then again that can be said for most of the work from the 80s and 70s as well. And more than likely we’ll be saying the same of the work from this decade 10 years from now.
And don’t forget, Sandman arguably one of the most lauded pieces of comic fiction was published in the 1990s.
Take care,
Filip Sablik
Publisher, Top Cow Productions
Read Berserker #0 for free at http://www.topcow.com!
June 15th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
My favorite ’90s trait which hasn’t been quite as overused in recent years was the proclivity of writers to throw in all sorts of trendy music nods to make their characters feel more “fresh” and “alternative.” Sometimes it really worked (Kyle Rayner being a NIN fan, Jubilee wearing Weezer T-shirts) and sometimes it blew up in spectacularly lame fashion (I recall an issue of teen Iron Man from before Heroes Reborn when he went to a college frat party where they were rocking out to Joan Osborn’s “What If God Was One of Us”), but all of those references date the books in a kind of charming way.
June 15th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
I have the complete Maximum Carnage storyline.
June 16th, 2009 at 3:03 am
As much flak as Spider-Man’s Clone Saga got I really enjoyed the characters; Ben Reilly, Kaine, Stunner, Dr. Seward, Jackal. The “Is he or isn’t he the real Spider-man” bit got old and confusing and hard to keep track of, but I still liked it.
I didn’t read much else though. Spider-Man was it for me as a comic reader, I was more into cartoons. Animaniacs, Freakazoid, Tiny Toons, Rugrats, etc. For me THAT was the best Saturday morning cartoons have ever been.
June 16th, 2009 at 5:32 am
While I have no great love for the 90′s comics (the X-Men quit being a team and became a franchise, too much Wolverine, Ghost Rider, and the Punisher at Marvel,the Justice League stopped being funny at DC), the decade did give us the Thunderbolts, which I still enjoy.
June 16th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
You know what I miss about the late 80′s and early 90′s? The proliferation of the black leather jacket as superhero fashion. I’m from the Grant Morrison/Brendan McCarthy school of comic book style – a black leather jacket makes any character look cooler. Zenith, Animal Man, Cliff Steele, Superboy (the clone one)… all comic book characters should dress like Joey Ramone.
August 19th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
I’m pretty much agree with everyone here for the most part. Being a Marvel fan I liked a lot of the stuff. I remember skipping out on some of the X-Titles, now I wish I had read them more. I go back and get some of them. I think they’re great.
November 4th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
By this time I had dropped all titles from the Big Two and was strictly independent in regards to comics. Aliens, Predator, Robotech 2:The Sentinels, Star Wars and others filled my long boxes.
January 20th, 2010 at 9:28 pm
They should bring back Ben Reilly… as the real guy, this time permanently. It’s the only way to get rid of the bad blood of Civil… oh, I can’t say it’s name. That series and everything before or after it regarding that character.
I understand they were going to do a story where everyone found out that Peter Parker was the guy behind the mask, instead they did the clone saga. I bet it would of been interesting, those writers really got Peter. Peter wasn’t written like an magic idiot.
January 20th, 2010 at 10:31 pm
OH, and Age of the Apocalypse was great, too.
January 17th, 2011 at 4:26 pm
Dang i thought your blog was killer, gave me a car load of information, i never knew, thanks blogger.