Favorite Era Of Marvel?

[TheOneManRiot]

I gave this some thought earlier while listening to a podcast and for me I'd say it's almost certainly Avengers: Disassembled - Siege. I loved the Bendis era of Avengers (especially New Avengers), House of M, Civil War and Secret Invasion were huge successes and more importantly fun events that had serious, lasting impacts, Bendis and Brubaker were in the midst of legendary runs on Daredevil and Cap respectively, Ellis delivered Extremis and we also got Invincible Iron Man from Fraction, Messiah Complex and Second Coming (my personal favorite event of all-time) JMS was killing it on Thor and doing great work on Spidey (except for that one thing) such as Back in Black, and Dark Reign was an awesome shift to the status quo.

Tbh, now that I've written it out, I really don't think there's even a close second in contention. Weigh in, folks.

[Babylon23]

Honestly, you're chosen period is probably my least favourite Marvel period outside of their current output. I guess we all have our own tastes and likes/dislikes.

My favourite period for Marvel is 1966-78. The sheer creative force at work at Marvel during this period is astounding. For me it begins with the the Coming of Galactus and that incredible burst of creativity from Lee and Kirby. It carries through Marvel's late-60's expansion with the easing of their publishing restrictions and into the first new wave of 70's creators.

I also loved Marvel's diversity during this time and their willingness to try new ideas and introduce new characters and concepts. The horror titles that emerged with the easing of the comics code are a highlight (especially the brilliant Tomb of Dracula), as are the more high concept and cosmic tales from writers like Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin. Then there's the sheer satirical craziness of Howard the Duck, the post apocalyptic worlds of Deathlok and Killraven, Don McGregor's iconic Black Panther run, Kirby's Eternals, The Defenders, Steranko's Nick Fury, the martial arts action of Iron Fist and Master of Kung-Fu and Marvel's short-lived black and white magazines.

I don't think there was ever a more creative period for Marvel.

[Nomads1]

Can't say I agree with the OP. Really, the start of the end for me. I love the 70's, the 80's and even the 90's, but I'm gonna give an out of the box answer here. One of my favorite periods of the MU was during Heroes Reborn. Not the event, itself, of course, which was, IMHO, pure crap, and one of the worst periods ever for some of my favorite heroes, such as the Avengers, however, it was a brilliant period for the rest of the MU, with great books such as Busiek and Bagley's Thunderbolts, Ostrander and Ferry's Heroes for Hire (argueably, my favorite Marvel book ever), Waid and Kubert's Ka-Zar, Seagle and Clark's Alpha Flight (a good premiss, not as great execution, IMHO), Peyer and Aucion's Quicksilver, and so many fantastic mini-series, such as Hercules, Imperial Guard, the Legend of Captain Marvel, and so on. Not to mention fairly good runs of Spider-Man, X-Men, Hulk, etc... IMHO, had Marvel really taken seriously "The Death" of the Avengers and the FF, they could have drastically changed the face of the MU. All in all, a very creative phase. The Heroes Return phase that came afterwrds was also a gem.

Peace

[Golden_Guardian]

I gave this some thought earlier while listening to a podcast and for me I'd say it's almost certainly Avengers: Disassembled - Siege. I loved the Bendis era of Avengers (especially New Avengers), House of M, Civil War and Secret Invasion were huge successes and more importantly fun events that had serious, lasting impacts, Bendis and Brubaker were in the midst of legendary runs on Daredevil and Cap respectively, Ellis delivered Extremis and we also got Invincible Iron Man from Fraction, Messiah Complex and Second Coming (my personal favorite event of all-time) JMS was killing it on Thor and doing great work on Spidey (except for that one thing) such as Back in Black, and Dark Reign was an awesome shift to the status quo.

Tbh, now that I've written it out, I really don't think there's even a close second in contention. Weigh in, folks.

Same here regarding the Bendis Avengers era. At the time I thought it was great, because my then girlfriend had recommended the original Sentry stories and I loved them, despite not being a comic book reader. And with Bendis' (admittedly dreadful in retrospect) monopoly of the character, I pretty much went through New Avengers to Siege.

[80sForever]

Although I started in 1980, I picked up late 70s stuff at second-hand store and LCS. I read reprint issues/collections from the 60s.

Gotta admit I loved most of the stories, characters, and artwork from 1961 to 1991, when things kinda got off the rails. However I still was a loyal reader until Bendis blew up The Avengers in 2004, and wound up retconning a lot. So that's why I can't really be on the same page with what feels like most "modern" comic book fans, who were raised on 2000s Marvel. Then I stuck to a few titles religiously (FF, Hulk, and Amazing Spider-Man) and checked out the main crossover events every year until recently.

The later 60s were better than the early 60s. The 70s had its ups and downs, but feel Marvel's 70s Bronze Age is underrated by modern critics and fans. The 80s were perhaps the most accessible for new readers and remains IMHO the best decade.

I get reeeeeeal nostalgic for 1984-1987 Marvel. Just love how Marvel entered the Modern Age, better stock of paper and colors, black costume, decent pace of expansion, characters still recognizable, best writers and artists in their primes, Jim Shooter, still can get most of the titles every month, mini-series were not overused, price still affordable, Transformers + G.I. Joe took the world by storm, all my friends loved comics, etc.

[kcekada]

In terms of creativity -- definitely the 1970s. Later decades may have more sophisticated writing and art, but really only built on what was already in place.

[Aliltron]

I gave this some thought earlier while listening to a podcast and for me I'd say it's almost certainly Avengers: Disassembled - Siege. I loved the Bendis era of Avengers (especially New Avengers), House of M, Civil War and Secret Invasion were huge successes and more importantly fun events that had serious, lasting impacts, Bendis and Brubaker were in the midst of legendary runs on Daredevil and Cap respectively, Ellis delivered Extremis and we also got Invincible Iron Man from Fraction, Messiah Complex and Second Coming (my personal favorite event of all-time) JMS was killing it on Thor and doing great work on Spidey (except for that one thing) such as Back in Black, and Dark Reign was an awesome shift to the status quo.

Tbh, now that I've written it out, I really don't think there's even a close second in contention. Weigh in, folks.

Yep I agree, this was my favorite era of Marvel too. This was the time I really became a Marvel fan.

[kcekada]

Honestly, you're chosen period is probably my least favourite Marvel period outside of their current output. I guess we all have our own tastes and likes/dislikes.

Same here. That era was big on desconstruction -- picking up, taking apart everything that made Marvel great. I understand why it was done -- changing the status quo is good for sales. But honestly -- aside from maybe Secret Invasion -- is there any really memorable story from Bendis's Avengers run?!

[phonogram12]

I first "seriously" started reading Marvel with Uncanny X-Men in the '80s, so my favorite era was starting with the Mutant Massacre right up until Chris Claremont's last arc in the then new X-Men book. Other than that, though, I may be overlapping things that didn't necessarily overlap, but there was this sweet spot of a bunch of years where Bendis' DD ran right into Brubaker's run which was right around the first Runaways series with Brian K. Vaughn, Matt Fraction's Hawkeye, Phil Noto's Black Widow, and Jamie McKelvie's Young Avengers. This is probably separated out over a lot more years than I remember, but that's how I remember it.

[FFJamie94]

The Bendis era for sure brought a lot of great things on the table.
I'll say it was the one era where nearly everything fell into place.
But I'm going to extend it, I'll say the whole decade from 00-09 was a pretty good time to be a marvel fan.
We had New X-Men, New Avengers, Ultimate Spider-Man, Brubaker's Captain America, JMS Spider-Man, Jenkins on Spectacular Spider-Man, Slott on She Hulk. And that's not counting events and stories like House of M, Civil War, Dissassembled, Secret Invasion, Marvel Zombies, Planet Hulk etc.
It was a wild time to be a comics fan and while I don't agree with everything Joe Q did, I did feel like he pushed the books in a direction that we hadn't seen before.

The 80's is also a good period. If the 00's has the quantity, than the 80's have the quality. Miller's Daredevil and the Spider-Man stuff that was happening are some of the best those books have ever been.
And while I'm not a massive fan, there's no denying that what Claremont did with X-Men is nothing less than ground breaking.

However, I'm going to go with an odd choice, I'm going to say my favourite era was actually Marvel Now.
It may not be looked at with much love now, but looking back, there were some really great titles.
The Avengers books were probably at their all time best, I doubt we'll see it reach the heights of Hickman and Ewing again.
Superior was the best Spider-Man had been in 616 since the early JMS years.
Jason Aaron had a good Thor run which is still loved to this day.
There was a lot of taking the best from all pieces of media and bringing them together before they actually really did that in Secret Wars.
It has major issues (like the new Nick Fury making no sense and not really ever being used and the fact that a lot of titles felt like cash grabs), but the level of experimentation was a welcome change.

[Iron Maiden]

Honestly, you're chosen period is probably my least favourite Marvel period outside of their current output. I guess we all have our own tastes and likes/dislikes.

My favourite period for Marvel is 1966-78. The sheer creative force at work at Marvel during this period is astounding. For me it begins with the the Coming of Galactus and that incredible burst of creativity from Lee and Kirby. It carries through Marvel's late-60's expansion with the easing of their publishing restrictions and into the first new wave of 70's creators.

I also loved Marvel's diversity during this time and their willingness to try new ideas and introduce new characters and concepts. The horror titles that emerged with the easing of the comics code are a highlight (especially the brilliant Tomb of Dracula), as are the more high concept and cosmic tales from writers like Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin. Then there's the sheer satirical craziness of Howard the Duck, the post apocalyptic worlds of Deathlok and Killraven, Don McGregor's iconic Black Panther run, Kirby's Eternals, The Defenders, Steranko's Nick Fury, the martial arts action of Iron Fist and Master of Kung-Fu and Marvel's short-lived black and white magazines.

I don't think there was ever a more creative period for Marvel.

I have to agree with you here. Some legendary artists and writers and seminal arcs occurs here that are still well worth reading. You had Stan and Jack's most successful collarborations (although I'm sure some with disagree with the term collaboration) happen here with the Fantastic Four and let's not forget their Thor title. You have the steady climb of Spider-Man as Marvel's most popular character which is generall true today. Amazing Spider-Man has never been canceled. I always despair at some that will say they just can't read comics from this era. They are probably the same folks that don't watch classic films.

[charliehustle415]

I gave this some thought earlier while listening to a podcast and for me I'd say it's almost certainly Avengers: Disassembled - Siege. I loved the Bendis era of Avengers (especially New Avengers), House of M, Civil War and Secret Invasion were huge successes and more importantly fun events that had serious, lasting impacts, Bendis and Brubaker were in the midst of legendary runs on Daredevil and Cap respectively, Ellis delivered Extremis and we also got Invincible Iron Man from Fraction, Messiah Complex and Second Coming (my personal favorite event of all-time) JMS was killing it on Thor and doing great work on Spidey (except for that one thing) such as Back in Black, and Dark Reign was an awesome shift to the status quo.

Tbh, now that I've written it out, I really don't think there's even a close second in contention. Weigh in, folks.

Mine too bud, I love this era I go back and re-read the run all the time.

It's always a fun, exciting read and the art is top notch throughout.

This titles are my prized collections I will never get rid of, and I love that Marvel released the Bendis Avengers collected paperbacks because I alway buy them as gifts for friends and family. They always ask we me where is a great jumping on point especially after the movies.

[Iron Maiden]

Mine too bud, I love this era I go back and re-read the run all the time.

It's always a fun, exciting read and the art is top notch throughout.

This titles are my prized collections I will never get rid of, and I love that Marvel released the Bendis Avengers collected paperbacks because I alway buy them as gifts for friends and family. They always ask we me where is a great jumping on point especially after the movies.

meh.....I really have some problems with Bendis's work. He's very hit or miss with me and I absolutely hated Disassembled for getting so much wrong with the Scarlet Witch and condemniing the character to limbo for years. He also couldn't make up his mind ( or forgot) whether or not Doctor Strange belived in chaos magic. Busiek had established her use of chaos magic years ago. He also obviously didn't read the Darker than Scarlet arc or many other years after where Wanda had accepted the fate of Billy and Tommy. Yet Bendis had her suddenly going beserk by their mere mention. To me that is laziness and not doing your research.

[charliehustle415]

meh.....I really have some problems with Bendis's work. He's very hit or miss with me and I absolutely hated Disassembled for getting so much wrong with the Scarlet Witch and condemniing the character to limbo for years. He also couldn't make up his mind ( or forgot) whether or not Doctor Strange belived in chaos magic. Busiek had established her use of chaos magic years ago. He also obviously didn't read the Darker than Scarlet arc or many other years after where Wanda had accepted the fate of Billy and Tommy. Yet Bendis had her suddenly going beserk by their mere mention. To me that is laziness and not doing your research.

Sure, but for someone who never read any of previous Avengers titles and didn't really have any attachment to previous status quo it was quite a revelation.

I love it because it is new reader friendly, but I can understand why long time readers didn't jive with it.

[McFarlane's Green Hulk]

I get reeeeeeal nostalgic for 1984-1987 Marvel. Just love how Marvel entered the Modern Age, better stock of paper and colors, black costume, decent pace of expansion, characters still recognizable, best writers and artists in their primes, Jim Shooter, still can get most of the titles every month, mini-series were not overused, price still affordable, Transformers + G.I. Joe took the world by storm, all my friends loved comics, etc.

This.
I owned an occasional comic or two, anything Hulk, Joe or TF I saw on the rack at the Circle K up the street or the grocery store.
Summer 1986 did it for me; saw Hulk #321, 322, and 323 at three different small town grocery stores while staying at my grandparents house. Got #321 and 323, #322 eluded me as Grandma didn't have enough money, said we'd come back the next day after another trip to the bank. Sure enough, we came back, but that issue was GONE. And the hunt was on...
If I had to pick, it'd be the 80's for sure...but if 1986 thru 1996 is an option, I'd take that too.