Marvel’s Heroic Age Was One of Its Best Eras, So Why Did Everyone Forget It?

Marvel Comics is in something of a pickle lately. The publisher was able to spend much of the 21st century at the tops of sales charts, but recent years have seen DC Comics begin to outsell Marvel. This would have been unthinkable sixteen years ago, when the House of Ideas ended the story that had been buoying the publisher since 2004’s Secret War. The ’00s were one of the most fruitful Marvel decades ever. The publisher released the Ultimate Universe, made Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Millar superstars, brought Spider-Man back from the brink, kept the X-Men dominant, and made the Avengers and Fantastic Four popular again. Some of the greatest Marvel event books of all time gave these books their spine and by the end of the decade, a whole new generation of stars were inheriting the Marvel Universe.

2010’s Siege ended the “Dark Reign” status quo, which had seen Norman Osborn given control of the Superhero Initiative and the Avengers. The heroes had been at each other’s throats for years and the defeat of Osborn and his Dark Avengers led to the heroes coming back together again in a way they hadn’t since Civil War. This was the beginning of an all-new status quo, one that would give readers some amazing runs from many of the best Marvel creators of all time. This period was known as “The Heroic Age”, a return to the good old days of the Marvel Universe. We don’t really talk about “The Heroic Age” very much anymore, but we honestly should. Going back to this era reveals a very different House of Ideas, one where creators were doing some brilliant work.

“The Heroic Age” Gave Readers Some of the Most Underrated Stories of the 21st Century

The ’00s were an undeniably successful time for Marvel. The publisher was able to pull ahead of DC because of the blockbuster Civil War, a story that broke the Marvel Universe in twain and set things on wild new courses. While we all hate on the story nowadays, it was hot as the sun back then and it brought a lot of real change to the Marvel Universe, from Iron Man as Director of SHIELD to the Skrull Invasion to Osborn in power. While it was fun for a time to have the heroes battling it out over the direction of the superhero community, fans wanted something a little bit more like old school Marvel as the years started to wear on.

Another interesting thing happened to Marvel Comics at the end of the ’00s – the blockbuster success of Iron Man in 2008. The film made Marvel the talk of the world and suddenly everyone was interested. By 2010, we all knew where the MCU was going – the Avengers – and the comic side of the business wanted to take advantage of that development. The mid to late ’00s had seen Brian Michael Bendis make Earth’s Mightiest Heroes into Earth’s Bestselling Heroes and “The Heroic Age” would use that to rebuild the Marvel Universe.

Siege ended with Steve Rogers, just back to life, as Director of SHIELD and he decided that the Avengers needed to be more prepared than ever. Marvel dropped Avengers: Trinity on readers, a series that brought back the team’s Big Three of Cap, Thor, and Iron Man together again, with Avengers (Vol. 4), New Avengers (Vol. 2), and Secret Avengers rounding out the publishing schedule. Ed Brubaker’s Captain America run was still cooking, Hickman was on Fantastic Four, the first phase of the X-Men’s Utopia Era was ending and birthing something new and exciting, Wolverine and his family were getting numerous new titles, including Wolverine: The Best There Is, Dark Wolverine, and X-23, Rick Remender’s Uncanny X-Force was starting, and the Ultimate books were actually getting good again. I worked in a comic store in 2010 as it was starting and it was a very hype period to be a Marvel fan.

While the status quo’s first event Fear Itself was as mid as could be, we were getting some awesome stories. Avengers (Vol. 4), for my money, has some of Bendis’s finest moments with the team, mostly because they actually felt like Avengers stories with big, universe-shaking stakes. Meanwhile, he was still doing cool street level Avengers in New Avengers (Vol. 2). Uncanny X-Force and Secret Avengers were giving readers awesome black ops stories of very different types. The X-Men books had gotten less grim and Jason Aaron was doing fantastic Wolverine work. Hickman’s Fantastic Four run was the best the book had been in years, even clearing the ’00s runs from Waid and Straczynski. Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man were all excellent. It was an exciting time in Marvel history, full of brilliant stories that repaired the Marvel Universe after the tumults of the ’00s.

“The Heroic Age” Was Exactly What Marvel Needed

The ’00s were one of the coolest times to be a Marvel fan ever. The publisher had secured the hottest talent and that allowed them to take things in all kinds of wild directions. However, with the MCU getting popular, it was about time to give fans something more traditional. “The Heroic Age” was their solution, an Avengers-heavy status quo that also served the other parts of the Marvel Universe as well. The X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man were all in the midst of interesting runs and there was a good mix of lower-level Marvel characters in books. It was old school, but in the kind of modern way that made it all work so well.

“The Heroic Age” ended with Avengers vs. X-Men, the status quo lasting a little over two years. When it started, the superhero community was just coming back from years of war and everyone just kind of needed a breather. “The Heroic Age” was able to knit together the disparate parts of the superhero community, giving readers some fantastic stories. While I’ll readily admit that it doesn’t have the best of all time pedigree of the ’00s, there are numerous brilliant books that kept the Marvel Universe humming forward. They were still taking chances back then and it was a lot of fun to see what awaited us every Wednesday.

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