Marvel has taken the idea of “event stories” and made them their own. One can argue that DC’s original “Crisis” events of the Silver Age were the first event comics, but the House of Ideas codified the formula that we’d recognize as events comics with early ’80s books like Marvel Super Heroes Contest of Champions and Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars. Since then, the publisher has made events a huge part of their publishing schedule, to the extent that fans love to mock the company for how many event comics that we get each year. While the event cycle is often looked down upon nowadays, that doesn’t change that some of these stories are among the most beloved of all time.
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Nostalgia has played a big role in why these comics are so beloved, as we’ve grown to love them over the years. However, going back to these stories and reading them in the present reveals something rather sad: these stories that you’ve loved for so long just don’t stand up. These five Marvel events aren’t as great as you remember, nostalgia blinding you to these their flaws.
5) “Fatal Attractions”
“Fatal Attractions” is one of the biggest X-Men events of the ’90s, pitting the X-Men against Magneto and his new Acolytes. Magneto took control of Graymalkin, Cable’s massive space station, and transformed it into Avalon, and began a rapture of worthy mutants, bringing them to his paradise before a disaster strikes down the Earth. Of course, the disaster is one that he engineers, and the X-Men are forced to intervene, resulting in two events that changed Marvel for years: Wolverine’s adamantium torn out by Magneto and Magneto getting mindwiped by Xavier. This story is undeniably important, but people often forget that it’s more than just the three most important issues — Uncanny X-Men #304, X-Men (Vol. 2) #25, and Wolverine (Vol. 2) #75 — with X-Force, X-Factor, and Excalibur all getting tangential issues that sort of tie in but don’t. It’s a story that’s half great and half dross, and most people just forget the dross to look back wistfully on the great parts.
4) The 1991 X-Men Reboot
The ’90s were the X-Men’s decade, and a big reason for that was the 1991 reboot of the X-Men books. Chris Claremont was leaving Uncanny X-Men, The New Mutants was ending, and X-Factor’s cast of the original five X-Men were returning to the team. Readers were treated to new numbers one with X-Force #1 and X-Men (Vol. 2) #1, and Uncanny X-Men, X-Factor, and Excalibur all got new status quos and creative teams. A lot of fans look back on these months with fondness, but if you go back and read the comics, most of them suffer from the style over substance approach that Marvel was all about at the time. X-Factor #71 and Excalibur #42 are pretty great, but the other three are just kind of alright (except X-Force #1, which is kind of bad). Millions of people became X-Men fans because of these books, buy they just don’t stand up.
3) Secret Invasion
Secret Invasion, by Brian Michael Bendis and Leinil Yu, had a massive amount of hype behind it. Fans had known the Skrulls were up to something for months, and Secret Invasion #1 showed readers just how much the aliens were up to. However, hype is basically the only thing that the book had going for it. It’s a long, drawn-out, and honestly kind of boring Bendis-written event. The pacing of the comic is terrible, and while Yu makes it all look good, what few action scenes we do get are missing the usual fluid feel of his art. The book is better remembered because of the hype and ad campaign (mid to late ’00s Marvel had a fantastic advertising department) and once you pay 50 dollars (!) for a collected edition, you can see that first hand. Or just take my advice: Secret Invasion was never good.
2) House Of M
House of M is the worst event book of the ’00s, whether from Marvel or DC. Yes, worse than Amazons Attack!. This eight-issue series from Brian Michael Bendis and Olivier Coipel dealt with the ramifications of “Avengers Disassembled: Chaos”, as the Avengers and X-Men met to decide on the fate of Scarlet Witch. However, the decision is taken out of their hands by Wanda, who creates a new world with mutants on top, and the whole thing ends with her depowering the vast majority of mutants. The book is undeniably important to the history of the Marvel Universe, but it’s also mindnumbingly boring and badly paced. The art is good, and the book is important, but it’s way worse than you remember from nearly every perspective.
1) Infinity Gauntlet
Infinity Gauntlet has an amazing reputation and for good reason. This six-issue epic by Jim Starlin, George Perez, and Ron Lim saw the Infinity Gauntlet-holding Thanos use his new godlike might to terrorize the universe. The story has two of the best battle issues in comics, and a pretty awesome final issue. However, the first three issues are a bit slow-paced and don’t really fit the pace of the rest of the book. It’s not a bad comic by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s not the perfect story that a lot of people like to say it is.
What Marvel event do you think doesn’t stand up? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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