10 Underrated ‘90s Marvel Characters Who Deserve a Comeback Immediately

The ’90s were one of Marvel Comic‘s most creative decades, with a rather large proviso. While a lot of the stories weren’t exactly great, there were a lot of new character premiering. New heroes, new villains, and new supporting cast members were all over the place. It was a different time in comics and some of these character got to become a bigger deal than they otherwise would have. The mores of superhero comics were changing and these new ’90s characters were meant to appeal to the audience of the day, which has held a lot of them back in the present. Go look up Slayback and Adam-X and see how bad it could be.

Marvel Comics in the ’90s gets a lot of flak, deservedly so — the company’s greed almost destroyed the comic industry, and they hold a bigger share of the blame than most people realize. There were some good stories, though, and some of the new characters were actually pretty cool, despite disappearing in the years since. These ten ’90s character could use a modern comeback, giving 2020s readers a taste of the ’90s.

10) Shiva

Wolverine comics in the ’90s gave readers a lot of awesome gifts and one of them was Shiva. This android was created by the Weapon X program to destroy wayward recipients of their loving ministrations, and Wolverine faced off against him in Wolverine (Vol. 2) #50. After this, this robot was supposed to go after Sabretooth, and we got one issue about that, then nothing. Readers were told there was an army of Shivas, but we only saw a couple and that was that. It’s been long past time for the Weapon X-hunting robot to come back, to menace Wolverine and his friends.

9) John Wraith

Weapon X was a big deal in the Wolverine comics in 1991 and 1992, and we got to introduced to several new characters from the program. The best of these was John Wraith. Code named Kestrel, he was a mutant teleporter given the Weapon X special, and helped Logan, Maverick, Sabretooth, and Silver Fox in battle against an old enemy. He was just an irascible old mercenary who could teleport anywhere and shot people, and that was enough to be awesome.

8) Zoe Culloden

One more from ’90s Wolverine but this time not from Weapon X. Wolverine once worked with the interdimensional law firm Landau, Luckman, and Lake. After his adamantium was taken, the law firm came back into his life in the form of one of their Expediters: Zoe Culloden. Zoe showed up a few times in Wolverine (Vol. 2) and even once in Uncanny in the run up to Onslaught, but nothing came of it. She had a story with Deadpool and since then, she’s been gone. She was a cool character who teased readers and then disappeared, and it would be great to see her again.

7) Shard

Bishop was introduced in 1991, and became rather hot for a while. His dark alternate future wasn’t all that explored though after his premiere, but we eventually learned more about it in the form of his sister. Shard had similar powers to her brother, except she absorbed ambient light particles from around her, giving her various energy abilities. She was killed and transformed into a photonic being, so she couldn’t access her full powers after coming to the present. Shard had a short run with X-Factor and has since been MIA. She’s all potential, and it’s past time we got to see her shine.

6) Post

Post was introduced as the herald of Onslaught in the fantastic X-Men (Vol. 2) #50 (seriously, it was awesome and had some of Andy Kubert’s best artwork ever), and fans expected big things from the villain. His superhuman strength, durability, psionic resistance, and control over his techno-organic armor platelets made him quite formidable. He fought Cable and then when 1996’s “Onslaught” started in earnest, he didn’t really show up. He appeared in the forgotten X-Men classic “Hunt for Xavier” and later again in Cable, where he died. He’s been dead since, but mutants always come back and Post has so much more potential.

5) Shriek

Shriek was first introduced in “Maximum Carnage”. The symbiotic psychopath met her at Ravencroft and the two fell in love, bonding over their love of murder. They created a twisted family of killers with Carrion, Demogoblin, and Doppelganger, the five of them going on a rampage that Spider-Man, Venom, Cloak, Dagger, Black Cat, Captain America, Firestar, Deathlok, Iron Fist, Morbius, and Nightwatch struggled to stop. Her sonic powers made her quite formidable and her insanity made her a lively character. She’s returned over the years, but it’s long past time that she gets a bigger role in Spider-Man’s villains.

4) Chamber

Generation X was an underrated gem and it introduced readers to numerous great characters. Chamber was positioned as the male lead of the book, and he was very cool, the embodiment of ’90s Britpop and “cool Britannia”. The British mutant’s psionic powers destroyed his lower jaw and upper chest, giving him control over a roiling cauldron of psychic energy and low to mid-level telepathy. Marvel has tried to push him several times over the years, but it never really works well. There’s a decent amount of nostalgia for him and the rest of his team, though, so it might be time to try again.

3) Skin

Skin was another member of Generation X and he was outstanding. The mutant was born with six feet of extra skin, and could use it to stretch parts of his body. He was also more durable than most normal humans, making him a great defensive figher. He had to overcome his own body dysmorphia and became one of the most fun members of the team as he grew. He was funny and charming, a great character, but he was crucified in the early ’00s by the Purifiers and wouldn’t be resurrected until the Krakoa Era, where he was barely used.

2) Spat

Spat first appeared in the run-up to Uncanny X-Men #350’s “The Trial of Gambit”. She was teased to have had a past where she was betrayed by the Cajun mutant, causing her to start de-aging. Eventually, Gambit would help her stop that in his own series, but she really hasn’t been seen since. Co-created by known lover of JRPGs Joe Madureira (there was a joke back then that if someone took away his PlayStation, his books would come out faster), she was obviously visually based on Chrono Trigger‘s Ayla, and she was a fun bounty hunter that could make a splash where ever she ended up in the present.

1) Cardiac

Cardiac seemed to be on the way to the big time. After learning that his brother could have been saved by a drug that was held back by its creators, he lost it a bit. He experimented on himself, replacing his heart with a beta reactor and adding a vibranium mesh to his skin. The reactor powered super strength, agility, speed, and beta particle blasts, with the vibranium enhancing his durability. He decided to take revenge for everyone killed by corporate greed, making him something of an anti-hero. His violent methods put him and Spider-Man at odds, and the two clashed repeatedly. He’s appeared numerous times over the years, but it’s about time he got more focus, especially at a time when corporate power is so hated.

What are your favorite forgotten ’90s characters? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!

10 Best X-Men Stories of the ‘90s, Ranked