Why did editors decide that well-worn heroes needed to update their image? Were they copying Image Comics heroes? Trying to increase sales? Hidden fetishes for big guns? Payola from the leather industry? Probably all of them. Here are 10 completely unnecessary character revamps from that tragic decade.
10) Nomad
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9) Fate
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8) Thunderstrike
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7) The Punisher
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6) Superman
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More links from around the web!
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What about SCUD: The Disposable Assassin? What about The Maxx? Those are highly accessible, brilliant and have high reread value today.
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If you like funny comics you should check out Black Snow Comics at http://blacksnowcomic.com/ We have comics about alcoholic wannabe Detroit superheroes, superheroes that want to be movie stars, kids going to summer camp, and more! They are definitely comics that real comic book fans should enjoy.
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Liefeld always takes the blame, but truth is, Lee and Silvestri had more influence, and Liefeld was himself was following Lee's lead. To this day Jim Lee remains all-too-influential when it comes to concept design in the superhero world.
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Hey, I actually loved the revamped Morbius. Still do. I read that first issue a thousand times.
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Now hold on. I loved '90s Morbius. The leather costume--designed to give those hollow bones a little more protection when taking bumps--looked cool (and he actually bought it from a goth/fetish boutique, so it's not accidental that it has a bondage feel), he was very well-drawn by Ron Wagner, and in spite of the constant risk of preying on innocent blood, the writers made him sympathetic. I found his '90s incarnation riveting and still treasure the first year's worth of issue. I don't mind '70s Morbius, but I definitely don't prefer the older costume. Unfortunately, Ron Wagner left the title after that first year, and there was never again a decent penciller on the title, but '90s-Morbius did show up in a John Romita Jr.-drawn issue of the adjectiveless /Spider-Man/ a few years later, looking pretty good. '90s Morbius found a way to become human for short periods by taking a serum. We saw an interesting range of looks for him, from fully human to pale and sort of angular to the full-on pug-nosed man-bat effect. Later his body was contaminated by demon blood and he gained new powers and seemed to be (where my collection leaves off) about to split into two people, one with a human soul and one completely demonic. The creative team was shaking things up without ruining the character like so many other things were ruined by the '90s. Although I hated the '90s at the time (particularly the way the industry's default art style became Rob Liefeld), I did my best to preserve the good things that came along during them, and now I can look back at those good things and see that the Sturgeon percentage may have increased, but there was still quality if you looked for it. Speaking of John Romita Jr., and of the '90s Punisher in your article, in late 1992 there were eight excellent issues of /The Punisher War Zone/ which to this day comprise the definitive take on the character (at least for me, subjectively). Although I'm more of an '80s fan, the '90s were a time when some artists hit their peak, from which (again, subjectively speaking) they've since come down. I loved Steve Epting's work on Factor X (and speaking of redesigned characters with long hair and stubble, Age of Apocalypse Cyclops may have been typical of the '90s, but he was extremely cool nonetheless). His Captain America and Marvel Project work seems to lack the solid construction of his '90s pencils. Ron Frenz (who worked on the Thunderstrike comic panned in this article) had a nice square style in the '80s and '90s, but now seems to be getting more cartoony. I vaguely read something recently about his earlier work being full of swipes from Kirby; if that's what made it so great, he should go back to doing that, because it was working. On the plus side, some artists are continuing to surpass their previous peaks and making me fans of their earlier work retroactively, like Jerry Ordway.
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Nomad also had some pretty good art in its first year, and the action was really well choreographed. The fight with Deadpool in issue #4 really stands out. As does most of the 'Dead Mans Hand' crossover with Punisher and Daredevil in vegas. The issue dealing with Nomad in the L.A riots was really well done too. He actually was my favorite character for a while there, but I have a soft spot for Sleepwalker and Darkhawk too. So I was at the right age when my comics obsession kicked in. Those are comics I'll always have floppies of because they will never be collected in trades. I'm actually kind of upset they killed Jack Monroe off just because the Winter Soldier was a similar idea.
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In all fairness to Jean Paul he wasn't supposed to be liked. Denny O'Neil specifically designed him to be hated once Bruce put him in the suit, and it worked perfectly. Too perfectly. I stand behind the awesomeness of Azreal.
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Sorry. 4 issue, being 4 months, would be a third of a year. My mistake.
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Again, that's not what happened. - When Ben was introduced, he had to throw a costume together on the fly. Hence, it made SENSE that his costume was this odd, terrible hoodie tights combination. But that's what made it work. It was slapdash and improvisational. Tell me that I'm wearing rose coloured glasses if you like, but I actually like that the costume came out of necessity and character. - For 6-8 months in the beginning and 6-8 months at the end, Peter was still part of the story. He wasn't replaced and removed until Ben took over the "Spider-Man" title from Peter and by then, they had the Changing of the Guard storyline which introduced a new Spider-Man costume designed by Bagley which was awesome. Peter was an integral part of Ben's story throughout the Clone Saga. Even when Ben took over, they still ran the Spider-Man: Final Adventure miniseries which ran for 4 issues (essentially a quarter year). I don't know where the hell you're getting your information, but you're all sorts of wrong all over the place. - Once again, no one is defending the Clone Saga, they are defending Ben Reilly. There's a difference and it's mind boggling that you can't seem to understand this. Furthermore, once again, the Clone Saga was what it was BECAUSE people really liked the ORIGINAL story and idea. The comics sold out because it was interesting. It was AFTER Marvel lost control of the story (and it was evident early on) that people started to dislike it. Facts are against you here, so stop trying to essentially retcon life. - Again, I have to disagree with where your "revamp" point is. Scarlet Spider wasn't the revamp. Ben Reilly Spider-Man was the revamp. And by that point, he had the new costume. If you want beef with that, go for it (even though you'd still be wrong). But for most of the SS story, Peter Parker Spider-Man was still there. I'd argue you can't revamp a character with another character while the original character is STILL IN HIS OWN BOOK.
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I think that a lot of people are looking at Ben Reilly as a whole story years after the fact, and not looking at it as a symptom of the revamp-happy 90s. When you have 2 years to do a story (and I'm just using your number), people are going to latch on to it, it's only natural. It's really cool and retro now to defend the Clone storyline, but at the time it was a dog in a sea of dogs. Many people think so. I think so. Which is why I included it on the list. The costume itself is a joke, which is, again, why it was included on the list. Tongue-in-cheek as it may have been, it removed Peter Parker for two years, replaced him with a new character who wore a baby blue hoodie, and demanded our attention since it was the BIG SPIDER-MAN BOOK of the day. It looked silly, and it still looks silly in retrospect. I don't care what the storylines did, but it was a revamp of a character that looked dumb! It's on the list!
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There WAS a lot of cool stuff to come out of the '90s. Long Halloween was '90s. Kyle Rayner was '90s. New Warriors was '90s. I'd go as far to say that the Midnight Sons were a great '90s invention that, sadly, hasn't been much referenced. The '90s did a lot of things right. But the need to revamp popular characters to align with what was selling really did drive the majority of books in that era.
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Azrael's stint in the DC universe remains my favourite and most dearly cherished memories and forms the backbone of my comic collection. Jean-Paul Valley was always supposed to be bad as Batman, he was trained as an avenging angel based assassin and programmed with a 'system' that drove him to the brink. Throughout the course of the Knightfall series we see the costume become more and more like his true Azrael garb (overlay the two design wise and you'll see it's practically identical in many ways). Jean-Paul was always played as the hardest working of the Batfamily and the one who wanted to be accepted the most, the very opposite of Dick, who was the favourite son and 'true' successor to the title. Hence now that Dick is bats (for the time being at least) it's taken on a very traditional Batman take on the character. Reading the run in hindsight it's always good to look at the state of the costume Azbats wears as a marker of how far he's fallen into madness at any given time. Now that JPV is dead and we have a new Azrael I just can't find it in me to get behind the new-guy, he doesn't feel as well written or interesting as poor JPV was. I recently re-read the Clone Saga in one sitting, and have to admit that I think Ben Reilly was a surprisingly good character. I think that I miss him a little bit - how come Marvel can't bring HIM back?
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I said it before, but i repeat, that story was possible because the punisher did not realy fit the standard marvel universe anymore. Think about that he would enver be allowed to kill supervillain who are beloved by author and fans. the best he had killed were Stilt Man, Jack Lantern( he got better and was re-killed by ghost rider), and the jester. He won his match against superheroes because they were handicapped (by being written by Garth "Ihatesuperheroesandyetwritethisstuffanyway" Ennis), he just did not worked, he was like John Maclane in Bugs Bunny Cartoon. In punisher max he is free to be himself and develope as he should, but MU eehh not so much.
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Well yes and not. Because originally MJ was not such bad character. Is just tha tiwth time she lost her reason of being and become just another "princells in peril". A big change could have been a divorce or have her die(albeit i puzzle why MJ suck while Aunt May is still cool... I mean apart form having a sexual life more active than he rnephew she had not done anything interesting so far). And have Peter ACCEPT it, I know he got a guilt complex as big as entire manhattan but for heaven's sake he should show some maturity and accept that sometimes people die. Naaah better make a pact with devil(by the way Marvel should explain exactly HOW some of these recetn "reset" actually were possible, Mephisto like Scarlet was never THAT powerful)
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Yellowbird, I totally agree with you. aS for 2099, I want to add somethings. Doom 2099 armor was indeed not exceptional, and proof was that they changed it three times(still armor apart Doom 2099 was AWESOME, characterized perfectly!). Ghost Rider 2099 had one awesome bike, laser eyes and a morphing monomolecular claws in his left hand. And was one hell of hacker!. Spidey 2099 costume was great indeed, plus he had the unusual lead of being more SpiderMan than Spiderman( read he ha dnot werid precognition power nor molecular adhesion, but enhanced vision and climibng claws... serisouly do Pter truly have spider powers? Because well the more one know about spiders the less Spiderman powers look spider-like. Miguel on other hand had(before uneeded reboot, I will hate them till my grave for that) is truly 50% spider.
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If they didn't model Nomad on Lorenzo Lamas, I'm sure it would have actually been more of a success.
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I get the feeling a lot of the Scarlet Spider fans are younger than me. I thought he was rather lame, but then I think any clone characters, even "evil twins" like Venom and Carnage, are fucking lame. The only good thing about the Scarlet Spider's run was that we didn't have to deal with that annoying Mary Jane all the time. - Yeah, it was stupid to have Spider-Man making a deal with a demon (and not "the devil", either. Mephisto is just *a* demon, and not even one of the more powerful ones. In Marvel, even "Satan" is just another demon; Just ask Daimon Hellstrom.) but you know what? MJ is just so fucking annoying that I'd consider making a deal with a demon to get her out of the comics. She sucks. She was forced on readers as Pete's wife when the comic strip decided to hook them up (because the comic strip is more soap opera like Mary Worth, and less action like a comic book) and she's been a pain in the ass ever since. I got SICK of every issue being about Pete not letting down MJ or protecting MJ from villains. It got stupid, and it only got worse when she became the supermodel, soap opera star, movie star, hottest woman on Earth. It was wish fulfillment that reeked of fanboyism. - Good riddance to MJ, and I hope they never get Pete and MJ married again. Let him marry someone else. Hell, how about writing a NEW character that could be a female lead for his book? Why must it always be someone from the past?
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It just occurred to me... wasn't the Nomad book a little similiar to the Grell run on Green Arrow? I know this wasn't the intent of the article; but I had a lot of good memories come back. I personally liked the 2099 line, spider-man had Peter David and Rick Leonardi, Al Williamson on inks, doom had John Moore and Pat Broderick, Len Kaminski wrote a great cyberpunk story in ghostrider, (he also wrote morbius, which I liked.)The future version of the x-men was also quite decent, with Ron Lim on art duties. The punisher 2099 had some neat ideas; velocity armor, a saucer cult, the variable density power bat, etc. And although ravage sank quickly, They got Stan Lee to write it! Also, didn't the new warriors come out in the 90's? Yeah, there were some lame costumes back then, but there was a lot of cool stuff too. So thank you, Ethan, for reminding me. Finally, I think thelordofhell is onto something. Top ten costumes that were improvements... I'll nominate Tim Drake's original Robin costume, for obvious reasons.
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No. Marvel staffers were upset with how the Clone Saga spiralled out of their creative control. You'd be HARD PRESSED to find people that didn't/don't like the CHARACTER of Ben Reilly. The proof is pretty much in the history of the story. The Clone Saga BECAME the Clone Saga because pretty much EVERYONE was at least somewhat interested in this potentially new Spider-Man. When the first few issues came out, they would sell out like hotcakes. Thus, Marvel higher ups forced them to keep an originally planned 6 month story into... what was it? 2 years?! To this day, people will usually say: "The Clone Saga was awful, but that SS character was cool." There's a difference there and a complete discrepancy between the facts of what happened and what people on this board are saying versus your account of the events.
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- As was mentioned, AzBats was created so that all the crybaby fanboys would get their "darker Batman" without ruining the character of Batman. You should be THANKING DC forever for giving us AzBats. Hurray from Wayne NOT BEING AzBats! - Because its been mentioned: Hal Jordan becoming a villain was the best thing they did to that character. - Spider-Man 2099, Doom 2099 and Ghost Rider 2099 were AMAZING. Doom's character design might have been a bit lame, but Spidey 2099 and Ghost Rider were PERFECT. I still love, to this day, that last page in GR when we found out his weapon of choice was a chainSAW. - Lastly, another vote for how awesome Scarlet Spider was. Naysayers are wrong. 100%. Plain and simple.
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You sayin' Pkemon ain't violent? That's a cartoon about nothin' but cockfighting...
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I dug the Moench/Jones run on Batman that followed the Azrael storyline. It's really the only time since I was a kid an Tom DeFalco was running things (Marvel or DC), that I found myself reading a superhero title regularly.
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While this is a great list, I think these changes need to be taken in the context of the times: the 1990's was all about changing things to see what would stick. Were Superman books really such poor sellers that Superman had to die? Maybe and maybe not. The 1990's gave us "big changes": - Superman dies and 4 guys come back to replace him, in what would probably have been a "dial a 1-900 number and vote for the next Superman" promotion. - Batman is replaced by a violent version just to show Batman isn't the Punisher. - Hal Jordan is turned into a villain and a new GL takes over. And of course, the 90's gave us tons of new characters: - 1993's Bloodlines Annuals where every book spawned a new character and sometimes a new title... just because the industry needed more second-rate #1 issues. - How many characters were spawned from 1995's Zero Hour, where the DC universe was "restarted"? Fate, Manhunter, the list goes on. And yet most of these costumes could probably be excused if the characters and stories were written decently. Sure some people have save Nomad was a good book, but were we really supposed to take an electric Superman seriously?
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/signed.
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Not among people I've talked to. Hell, even Marvel staffers I know put it down as gimmicky. In fact, I know a few people who stopped reading Spider-Man comics during the Ben Reilly years. Some fans may rabidly love him (they apparently all read this site), but you're underestimating the thousands of fans who were really turned off by the change in characters and then claiming that was the status quo. Aaaaaaand the "of course" thing was three in succession, it's a writing tool called repetition.
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The 90's weren't ALL Bad. Silver Surfer/Infinity Gauntlet (the first one) Preacher Just two standouts that come easily to my mind. There were others, it's just too early in the morning for me to dredge them up in my memory.
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Yes, I got this feeling as well. Most of the comment seem based on superficial knowledge. Perhaps he googled them or just heard about them by friends, don't know.
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I understand you pain, and keep in mind that this tony, eventually become the Nazitron we all "loved" before another reset(albeit this one is quite good reset, dislike teen tony). Seem is the fate of tony got warped in way fans hate with passion.
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All those points are perfectly made. The Long Con is exactly what X-men 2099 was and it was great.
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should have said frankenstein not zombie punisher sorry
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Most of these incarnations are crap, but some of them lead back to cool stories with the characters we love (i am looking at you ben and Peter)others fall off in to the history of bad ideas...you just hope that you didn't pay for all of them. (i have not read any of the zombie punisher and i am afraid to, but fuck i was loving war journal when it was running)
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Piss off, haters... Scarlet Spider was the shit... ... and we SO need a new, SIX INCH TALL Scarlet Spider figure...
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Fourthdededededed... As in, I also agree.
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Where the hell is the latest incarnation of Venom on here? This atrocity is so F@#$ING hideous and retarded looking, I want to stick razors into my eyes every time I see it. Classic/2nd generation Venom and Eddie Brock are the ONLY Venom(s) worth anything.
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Getting pretty goddamn sick of the Jean Paul Valley bashing 'round these parts. Beware the sins of presentism.
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I was going to say that some of these don't seem so bad. But either way I'm cool. The one that really grinds me is the Punisher. There is no comparison between Eurohit, and some of the later drivel with sentinels and demons.
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Anyone else get the feeling that the guy who wrote this didn't read any of these books. A few of the concepts on here, like Blue Supes and angel Punisher, were less than quality, but a lot of these ideas were really great comics. Nomad, most of 2099, Thunderstrike, and even Morbius were solid comics. Even the Beau Smith Gardner and Azbats had their moments. I think we could have dug a little deeper for this one. The lack of Extreme Justice, Force Works, and the Crossing-era Avengers pretty much proves it. Going on costumes alone, the lack of Iron Captain America pretty much proves a lack of research.
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Glad I'm not the only one to jump to Nomad's defense. Sure the costume wasn't great, but that series was well-written. Thunderstrike was pretty decent too.
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Ben Reilly was an unfortunate victim of the clone saga and was cool DESPITE it. The "Spidey without all the shit his life has thrown at him" concept is golden. And most of the 2099 titles were.... OK. Spidey 2099 being the exception, as it was well executed. I defintely feel that the Aquaman revamp deserves a place on here (I think it was the 90s), as it was an obvious attempt to make him "gritty, bad-ass and cool." I had always kinda liked him for what he was, all the slings and arrows of the non-water breathing, un-animal communicating haters aside. I also did not know that the Fate revamp existed and am horrified. (Same with the neon Ghost Rider. ACK!) Morbius was something kinda cool happening to a meh character, which resulted in... meh. And part of that whole weird "supernatural" stuff Marvel tried to do at the time, which was like, um..... O.... K? whatever. They should be lumped together like the 2099 group, though some were new and not re-vamps, they were mostly bad.
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Must agree with all standing by good ol' Ben Reilly. To this day, I still want that blue spider hoodie. You know you do too.
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"Forget the Rhino and Green Goblin, fans themselves wanted to take this guy apart. Even today, say "Clone Saga" around comic geeks and you'll need to run for your life." Wow. Please stop lying. Just read this comments section. Ben Reilly is flat out LOVED by most comic book fans. The few who hate him are mostly very old men that just hate change in general. Are you an actual comic book fan or are you just taking your information from Wizard? Oh, and please start more sentences with "of course." It's awesome. I started a drinking game. It took me about two seconds to get wasted.
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Guess what! It's a list for a humor nerd site! DO NOT CITE THIS IN YOUR COLLEGE PAPERS. It was not vetted by anyone with a degree in comic books. If you are taking any of the daily lists seriously, I think you are seriously missing the point of this site. Granted, if someone else does a top 10 Worst '90s revamps article and uses a tested scientific scale and finds that my opinions used to make you laugh are incorrect, then I apologize for the article. Until that happens, 2099 revamps were silly, Morbius wearing a bondage suit is silly, and anyone wearing a baby blue hoodie is silly. Now, I'm going to go play some Reader Rabbit. Oh Reader Rabbit, what will you read next?
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at the time this shit was new i would agree with most of this ... but now-a-days i go look at comic books only to find spider man with huge manga eyes and chibi-cyclops popping the peace sign ... it makes me want to vomit down my own pants in an attempt to override the waves of revulsion. i love manga, and i love comic books, but i do not want the two inbreeding.*shudder* if someone makes a "gimme back the 90's over this current shit" petition, I'd sign it in a heart beat.
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at the time this shit was new i would agree with most of this ... but now-a-days i go look at comic books only to find spider man with huge manga eyes and chibi-cyclops popping the peace sign ... it makes me want to vomit down my own pants in an attempt to override the waves of revulsion. i love manga, and i love comic books, but i do not want the two inbreeding.*shudder* if someone makes a "gimme back the 90's over this current shit" petition, I'd sign it in a heart beat.
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Gotta back the call for Teen Tony, worst thing ever written (except Ultimates Vol.3, f**k you Loeb, f**k you). Say that Tony Stark has been under the mind control of Kang for 25 years of continuity? Check. Replace one of the 616's 'father' figures (well, drunk old uncle figure at least), with a 'hip' and 'cool' and 'totally rad' teen version, because obviously teens only want to read comics with other teens in them? Check. Hastily rewrite another mid-thirties Tony coming through a dimensional gate to replace Teen Tony who sacrificed himself for... ah I give up, I can't write this crap, you get the idea.
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I enjoyed that book, too. Of course. Mainly because it included a lot of characters I enjoy.
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I agree as well. The Clone Saga got extremely bloated and convoluted, but the very core of it could've been a good story, and Ben Reilley is on my list of the most underrated characters I've read because if they'd just let there be a little bit of confusion and a fight with the Jackal, he could've gone off and been a west-coast hero or something and lived on that way.
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Great, instead of addressing the messed-up nature of your article you're pointing out that I share a name with a comic author I'm not even that big a fan of. Please tell me you don't actually earn income as a result of your writing.
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thunder strike thought should have been given a longer life in the m u for a normal guy granted thors power then when the real thor came back still allowed some power. a concept that needed to be contiued scarlet spider. the idea of peter having to doubt his entire life was interesting but the end concept wound up with too many cooks in the kitchen.
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always wondered the reasons they turned guy to warrior . though still liked him with a yellow ring . as for fate those at dc were no doubt using oh lets see if this sticks lets strip all thats good from the original version and create that .
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I've to agree with you, is the curse of western comics, changing the creative team chang ecompletely the comic.
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Well was actually a good thing. Was quite "what if Frank Castle faced a non-hadicap bearing, Ennis impaired, semi retarded Wolverine?". Admit it , in standard Marvel universe the punisher don't work all that well.
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And yet you did not admitted that leather was an improvement for morbius.
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That "Joe Quesadilla" line just gets funnier every time you use it. Hi-larious!
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There is a Scarlet Spider Marvel Legends Figure. Part of one of the more recent hasbro Marvel Legends line. Not the best figure ever but may meet your needs to have the figure.
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They're re-telling the Clone Saga from back then as if to say, "Whoops! Our bad. This is how we meant to do it." I too thought it may be a re-introduction, but after the first issue I realized it was just a look back at how they were "supposedly" going to publish it.
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God I had never seen 90s Fate. That is horrifying. From what I get, fans liked Ben Reilly as a character but hated every other aspect of Clone Saga. I think they're planning to redo Clone Saga and bring back Reilly, if the news is true. I'm unsure.
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I LOVE your work on Green Lantern. Seriously. And I'll admit, I'm a big fan of Stars and STRIPE. Keep up the awesome work!
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Has anyone read the new mini-series they're doing with the clone saga? It's not half bad.
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It wasn't an artificial identity. Odin took the "spirit" of Donald out of his body and replaced it with Thor. Thor was unaware of this and actually believed himself to be Blake. He lived his life as a regular human/doctor until he found mjolnir. everything else you said is true but his origin, which was my point, is that of a god living as a regular man before discovering where he is really from.
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exactly what anime properties are you referring to that were all grit,guns, and uhhh guts? (to follow your consonance) the 90's brought Dragonball Z,Pokemon, Sailor Moon, Ghost in the Shell, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Princess Mononoke and Gundam Wing into popular culture. it's silly to try and generalize the decade that brought us Pokemon as the most prevalent anime property of the era as "full of violent anime".
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Scarlet Spider is pure awesomeness and takes WAY too much flack for the mess that was the Clone Saga story arc! The problem is that he was so awesome that Marvel decided to extend one story into seven convoluted stories on the fly with no real vision. By the end Ben Reilly had really found his niche and Peter was truly happy to have a 'brother' to confide in who knew what he was going through. I think that would have been a perfect way to tie up the story, but by killing him off (by the Green Goblin, no less) it just made the entire story moot and brought us back to status quo (minus Osborne stealing the Parker baby during birth, which could have happened with or without the Clone Saga). The costume was slick as Hell and I would still buy up any Scarlet Spider figures if they put them out today. Maybe his return could be another mysterious byproduct of that ridiculous 'One More Day'. Also, X-men 2099 was a fantastic book that was dragged down by being tied to the rest of the 2099 universe. If it was brought back with a life of it's own, it would do very well. Hell, throw in Spider-Man & Hulk 2099 and Old Man Logan and you've got a killer title on your hands.
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I must have missed that issue.
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Lee has evolved a lot from his early 90s days, such as all the watercolour stuff he did for Hush. The biggest drag on his style is Scott Williams, who in spite of Lee drawing differently than he did in the 90s still inks him the same way.
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Also, if this list is about costumes... Punisher doesn't look much different from his normal costume. There, you were criticizing the writing, not the costume. Apart from being hilariously wrong about the Batman costume - mocking something whose whole raison d'etre was to be mocked - your complaints about these are inconsistent at best. And, seriously, griping about Morbius? Going to leather was a step up for him. Which seems more normal, a vampire in leather or a vampire in spandex?
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...until Wolverine's asshole bisexual son cut him into chunks last month.
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I agree, how many copy-cat artists came around as a result of Jim Lee and McFarlane, yet managed to butcher their style and somehow be worse-off? And Jim Lee was always my favorite thru the 90s for how clean his style was, but it has barely changed in 20 years. No evolution of style whatsoever, whereas Andy Kubert used to copy his shit and now I think he's brilliant.
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Except Todd wasn't really famous for revamping anyone. He basically made his name drawing Spidey, then moved on to Spawn. And Jim Lee's costume redesigns, while suffering from an overabundance of pouches, are not generally widely hated. Thanks to the X-Men cartoon, they're actually some of the first designs people think of when they think X-Men.
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Bullshit. Read the letter columns from 1988 - 1992. EVERYONE was asking for Batman to be more like either the Dark Knight Returns version or the Punisher, or both. So Denny and the gang gave it to all those people - shoved it down their throats, in fact - and came out with Batman rebuilt as the classic version for the 1990s and no one griped about how he wasn't violent enough anymore. It's one of the most perfectly executed comic stories in history, and wound up spinning off three or four other titles that all enjoyed lengthy runs, such as Robin and Nightwing. Since virtually everyone who was within thirty feet of the Batbooks in those years tells the exact same version of events, I think it's safe to say that's exactly what happened.
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Say it with me - IT'S COMIC BOOKS. ALL COSTUMES ARE RIDICULOUS. Doom 2099 is a metal guy in a cape? Guess what - so is Doctor Doom. And has been said many times, the whole point of the Spider-Hoodie is that the costume was supposed to look like he threw it together in about three minutes. It was a part of the storyline.
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That horrible gay bashing special issue at the end of Winick's run left a bad taste in my mouth - he did okay, but I prefer Marz's more personal style. You're right in that Aztek was awesome. I need to cover that final issue in a column one of these weekends, since it's such a great look at the history of the JLA. But, yeah, even DC's cancelled books were being hit out of the park in that time period.
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I would argue that the first 10-15 issues of Ghost Rider 2099 were awesome. Definitely the best of the line up, it went completely to shit when the original writing team was canned,and the new writers made him some kind of flunky / cop for Doom 2099.
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I'm surprised noone has brought up Jim Lee's name yet... AND Todd Mcfarlane! They were as much to blame for crappy 90s revamps as Rob Liefeild.
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Boooo. Scarlet Spider is great. End of the Clone Saga not so much.
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I prefer Winnick's GL, but you're right, DC had some amazing books at the time. And, that's not counting stuff like Resurrection Man, Major Damage, Chase, Chronus, Aztek, etc.
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I always wondered what the deal with thigh-belts was back in the 90's. Sure, Cobra Commander had one, but he could get away with such a bold statement. Most others could not.
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While the PUNISHER as an angel is a definite lowlight for the character, I always personally thought it was ridiculous when Frank Castle turned black and was living in the ghetto (and fighting alongside a revamped Luke Cage!). That whole storyline, which came at the tail end of one of the best Punisher storylines, pretty much turned me off the character till Garth Ennis took over.
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People. This isn't about writing. I don't care if the book was sooooo good. It probably was. Hell, I have most of the Morbius series, the Batman series, and some of the Superman books. They read fine. It's the costumes. THE COSTUMES ARE RIDICULOUS. Even Doom 2099. Sure, great comic, but the dude was a silver fucking robot in a cape who looked like he stepped out of a bad Zelda level. It's about revamps of the character and costume that are the worst of the decade. Morbius in a bondage suit? It's the same as polyester in the '80s. Scarlet Spider? The only people who wear torn hoodies are homeless people at the bus station. Did it need to happen? No. I'm sure writers could have put together a year's worth of salvagable Spider-stories.
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Did not even know that Fate reboot existed. That looks pretty tits to me. Also, I secretly pray for the return of the Super-mullet.
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I didn't think the Kyle costume was anything big. Green Lanterns all have their own costumes and they're each individually tailored. It didn't make the list because, well, it didn't suck, and it makes sense for that costume to happen. No extra pockets, no leather, no pouches, no mullet, no spikes...I have no problems with it.
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Don't be daft. No one was "wishing" for a new Batman in 1992, just like no one was clamoring for Superman to die. I was there, I even worked in comics at the time. It was a cynical publicity grab, plain and simple.
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By far the most deserving of #1 is Fate. I am actually personally offended by that shit.
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Kyle taking over for Hal has to be number one on such a list, although you're right that Nightwing ditching the too-busy costume that only George Perez has ever been able to draw well and going to a simpler look is also up there. Wally came into his own as Flash during the 1990s, but of course he'd taken over the role during the 80s. Brown Wolverine was early 80s. If you mean getting RID of that costume, then, yes, it was early 1990s, circa the debut of the new adjectiveless X-Men title.
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Oh man. What can i say that has not already been said? Doom 2099. awesome. Scarlet Spider. pretty decent costume for what it was was. Now, the eventual state of the clone saga; definitely terrible. Morbius. Already had a silly costume. The revamp worked for him. Nomad. Omg, Nomad was such an amazing series. Great writing, char dev, etc(just backing up what all the others said). The costume was fine for the nature of the story. It didn't detract from it, not even in hindsight. And let's face it... There's never been a Nomad costume that wasn't F-ing WRETCHED. That blue and yellow shit was lamer than lame. The new female Nomad costume is great, but then again, it's just a Bucky costume.
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Now that we've seen the worst, how about a list of the ten best? I'll start with Nightwing and Brown Wolverine(not too certain if this happened in the 90's though). Anyone else want to throw their faves in here?
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I'm surprised that Frank Castle becoming black wasn't included. To me, that was the creepiest revamp ever.
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Another vote here for defending AzBat, perhaps it's becuase I read Knightfall and Bruce's return in one 'hit' a few years ago it never felt 'bad' just misguided. AzBat was supposed to make Batman look cooler by showing why 90s X-TREME wouldn't work for Bats.
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I agree. The Clone Saga had potential to be a great storyline, but interference from sales and poor editorial control lead to the series lasting WAY too long and took forever to get the revealed Ben Reilly into the Spidey costume. While I always wanted the Peter Parker we'd been following to be the real Parker, having Reilly temporarily pose as the real Parker was a good move and something that could have made real compelling drama had there not been so many goofy events and lame characters, both in the Spider-Man comics and in other comics. And still, despite the trainwreck of a storyline it was, I still love reading the entire Clone Saga storyline, from the reintroduction of Ben Reilly in Spectacular Spider-Man 216 (and the teases leading up to that issue) all the way to Peter Parker: Spider-Man 75. It's like a comic that would fit perfectly if MST3K did comics.
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Hey the Doom 2099 stuff was awesome As for Scarlet Spider, well I think it would look better on a women, the name alone sounds like a superheroine's plus hey Ult Superwoman (a female clone of Peter) suit is all red so yeah
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I feel there is some truth in what you say. Albeit this decade stories add also a frightening level of jerkness and cruelty from the heroes I once appreciated.(So far killing skulls is common hobby in Marvel universe, even those not related to the invasion)
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Scarlet Spider was great in his own right, And Thunderstrike was not that bad, nor he was all that biker. He was quite the opposite of gritty actually, he was quite "classic". An average man(a divorced architect) who find himself granted godly powers. Only he don't get the autamtically badass combat skills as the true thor. His "restyle" was how he thought he could look menacing and tough, even if at fighting he was not that good. I liked him.
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well maybe 5 years ago I would have attacked you for liking Neon GR, but I've mellowed since, and I have to admit to reading and loving the West Coast Avengers!! and they started out pretty cheesey.
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Ok, there's some stuff surrounding Nomad that was pure 90s, but the origin, the reason he's was guns-a-blazin made sense, it wasn't just 'cause' there was a reason. Look, a glance at Nomad and yeah, he screams 90s "BADASS" but if you actually read the book, and had some goddman taste, the stories were excellent. There was more character development going on in Nomad then most books.
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Except for the Punisher. He already was a brooding anti-hero, so they had to turn him into a giant pussy in the 90's in order to make the other heroes look more "anti-hero"ish. Thank God Garth Ennis came along and gave Frank Castle his balls back.
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In what reality does an internet Top 10 list count as journalism-- "spotty" or otherwise?
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Well that knowledge seriously puts a festive grin on my face. I said that Rob wrote the article, I just realised it wasn't, and I apologise for my error. I love TR, this is exactly the kind of thing you need when your Grandfather dies, as mine has. Love to all at or on TR, and have a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, a lovely Pancha Ganapati and a simply peachy Islamic New Year, or however you choose to refer to this time of year.
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If you think this spotty excuse for journalism is inflammatory enough to get me off my ass and type a response ... YOU'RE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT! Thunderstrike was far from the biker-wannabee that's portrayed here. It was a decent series for its brief run. Hell, the character was created by the Karate Kid! Seriously, the character/series had a solid storyline with a legitimate death THAT STUCK! What comic book can say that? Removed Thunderstrike and please insert Artemis/Wonder Woman or Captain Armourica.
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Morbius was a character who deserved his own title AND a 90s revamp. I collected each issue. He's cooler now due to Marvel Zombies 4, though. Wow, the Scarlet Spider shouldn't be on that list, at all.
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I've said it before and I'll say it again - people who thought the 90s were a cesspool were only reading Marvel and Image. Chuck Dixon's output for DC alone - Nightwing, Robin, the lengthy Tec run with Nolan, etc. - practically assures that DC was improved from the 80s, let alone things like Waid on Flash, David on Aquaman and later Young Justice, Marz on GL and the like. And then you add in Waid's prestige format stuff like JLA Year One and Kingdom Come and it was a pretty damn great decade from a creative standpoint, even without thinking about Vertigo titles like Sandman. Oh, and this little obscure book known as Grant Morrison's JLA. Heard that was kind of popular.
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You apparantly aren't the only former Marvel employee who had these kinds of thoughts. Here is a HUGE essay about the insanity that was the Clone Saga, as told by a witness: http://lifeofreillyarchives.blogspot.com/ It's a fascinating read (but long).
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