What is the Iconic Marvel Universe to you?

[Vegeta]

Visually, I tend to think of iconic Marvel as the John Romita Sr. House style used in the 70's-80's. It wasn't only in the books, as both merchandise and cartoon series seemed to ape this look.

The X-Men I picture first are usually either the "All New All Different" team or the Jim Lee Era of Blue and Gold. Emma Frost is the Hellfire Club version.
The FF is the classic team, but I also still think of She-Hulk as a member and the Four Freedoms Plaza as their headquarters.
Avengers is usually some version of the team under Roy Thomas. (Hawkeye is in his classic purple, Iron Man is the red and gold model 4) Cap, Thor, Wasp, Scarlet Witch and Black Panther are also members.
Spider-man is his classic Romita red and blues (although I will always have a personal preference of the black costume) but Mary Jane is the big hair 90's look of Erik Larsen.
Hulk is his green "dumb" version. (Although, I personally prefer the Grey Mr. Fixit version.)

[Alan2099]

It's crazy. I can recognize almost every character in that poster but I doubt I'd recognize half of the characters if they did this posted today.

BTW, who is the Native American on the upper left, below Abomination and above Attuma?

American Eagle. VERY minor character with only a handful of appearances. He was last seen back when Norman Osborn was leading the Thunderbolts. By that point he'd ditched the spandex and feathered war bonnet for a leather jacket, jeans, and motorcycle helmet.

[CaptainUniverse]

(and the find the Hate-Monger challenge)

Hate Monger is in-between The Invisible Woman's knee and the back of Hawkeye's leg, and to the right of Professor Xavier's head.

[Sandy Hausler]

I'm curious and I want to see how everybody pictures things in their heads.

When you think of the Marvel Universe, what do you think of? What teams are running around? Are the X-men the Jim Lee versions? The Giant sized team? Joe Mad's lineup?
Do the Fantastic Four live in the Baxter Building? The Four freedoms plaza? What's Spider-man's romantic life like? Who still has a secret identity?

Keep in kind, not everything has to line up. It's perfectly okay for you to think 90s armor Iron Man and still think of the Avengers as being from the Korvac Saga or stuff like that.

Early 70s MU. There was nothing like it.

[JT221]

Early 70s MU. There was nothing like it.

That was a high water mark for sure. Not just superheroes...their horror line was doing well, too.

[K7P5V]

That was a high water mark for sure. Not just superheroes...their horror line was doing well, too.

Indeed. Then, along came Howard the Duck (LOL):

[babyblob]

Indeed. Then, along came Howard the Duck (LOL):

I hate Howard the Duck with everything in me.

[JT221]

Love Howard the Duck.

howard-prez-campaign.jpg

[Gaastra]

70s and 80s marvel has so many things they took chances on.

70s gave us horror, west comics back, fantasy books like conan, ip books like rom and even kids books like scooby-doo and dyno-mutt.

80s gave us tons of limited series like nightcrawler, grey gargoyle and ff vs x-men with tons of different tones to them. (iceman a fantasy, nightcrawler a multiverse rump, grey more spooky, etc) 80s gave us more ip books like gijoe and transformers and kids books like planet terry and graphic novel tales like god loves man kills.

[Sutekh]

I hate Howard the Duck with everything in me.

Embrace the hate. Let it flow through you!

(I love some funny animal characters, like Cosmo and Rocket, but yeah, Howard is not among my faves...)

Still, not everything has to be for me. As long as his presence in books I do like is minimal to non-existent, I'm fine with him. Let them eat duck.

[K7P5V]

70s and 80s marvel has so many things they took chances on.

There seems to be a bit of it happening during the end of the sixties, as well.
Too bad it didn't stick, because the Gene Colan version of Dr. Strange will always be iconic (IMHO):

[H-E-D]

I think the answer is just generally going to be "whatever the MU was like when you started reading".

[bat39]

I'm curious and I want to see how everybody pictures things in their heads.

When you think of the Marvel Universe, what do you think of? What teams are running around? Are the X-men the Jim Lee versions? The Giant sized team? Joe Mad's lineup?
Do the Fantastic Four live in the Baxter Building? The Four freedoms plaza? What's Spider-man's romantic life like? Who still has a secret identity?

Keep in kind, not everything has to line up. It's perfectly okay for you to think 90s armor Iron Man and still think of the Avengers as being from the Korvac Saga or stuff like that.

Might be a bit of an off-beat choice, but to me, the perfect distillation of everything I imagine as the 'classic' or 'iconic' Marvel is the 90's animated shows. I'm talking Spider-Man, X-men, Iron Man, Fantastic Four...the works.





Maybe it's because, watching reruns of these as a kid, this was my first real exposure to the Marvel Universe and maybe Marvel characters/franchises, beyond Spider-Man and the X-men. And a lot of these series were pretty faithful to the comics, both visually and in terms of storytelling and even specific plots.

I guess the one thing this Marvel Animated Universe lacked was a proper Avengers team. But, to be fair, the Avengers were never really that big a deal in pop-culture before the MCU anyway.

When I think iconic Marvel I guess I think about the late 60s through about 1989. Doesn't mean enjoyable stuff did not come out fore and aft of that, but that is where my mind tends to go when thinking about Marvel at it's absolute peak for me.

Yeah, I generally feel the 60's to the 80's was 'classic' Marvel, and the 90's cartoons were mostly adaptations of these decades of the comics anyway.

[Babylon23]

Avengers with the 70's lineup circa Serpent Crown Saga to Korvac Saga. Wonder Man alive. Beast an Avenger.

Vision and the Scarlet Witch together, married and with two actual living children

Early 80's Defenders lineup that includes Nighthawk, Dr Strange, Valkyrie, Hellcat, Hulk and Son of Satan

Iron Man in his classic 70's armour

Original Excalibur lineup with Alan Davis art - Kitty, Nightcrawler, Rachel, Meggan and Captain Britain

Spider-Man with Mary Jane circa Kraven's Last Hunt, newly married.

Dracula is his original Tomb of Dracula form and personality.

Horror comics as they were in the 70's - ToD, Werewolf by Night, Frankenstein, Man-Thing.

Scott Lang is Ant-Man. Hank Pym is WCA era Hank. Rita Demara is Yellowjacket. Bill Foster is Giant Man. Janet Van Dyne is the Wasp.

Norman Osborn still dead after Amazing 122. Hobgoblin preeminent goblin villain circa Roger Stern era Spider-Man.

Jean Grey still dead post X-Men 137. Scott and Madeline together. Storm powerless but leading the X-Men.

Deathlok Luther Manning roaming post-apocalyptic America.

Silver Surfer has escaped Earth and is newly returned to the cosmos circa Englehart era.

Kirby-era Fantastic Four with classic lineup.

Thor post Don Blake circa Simonson era.

[K7P5V]

John Romita, Sr. (R.I.P.)



When it comes to the iconic version of MJ, this will always be my preference