DC Comics is firing on all cylinders right now, putting out amazing books that are selling like hotcakes. For many fans, DC is beating the pants off Marvel when it comes to story quality. This isn’t the first time this occurred; in the ’90s, the House of Ideas was selling well but putting out a lot of really bad comics, while DC was putting out some of the best superhero comics imaginable. At a time when the comic industry was obsessed with flashy art, gimmick colors, and sturm and drang, the original superhero publisher was releasing some of the best written comics ever, across both their main line and Vertigo, their mature readers imprint.
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The ’90s are generally considered a terrible decade for comics, but DC was putting out books that were much better than the standard Marvel, Image, or indie fare. Not all of these stories have aged the best, but some of them have actually gotten better over the years. These seven ’90s DC stories have gotten better with age, aging like a fine wine.
7) Animal Man #26
Animal Man was Grant Morrison’s first triumph and honestly the entirety of the series that came out after 01/01/1990 could fit on this list. However, we’re going to focus on the last issue of the run, Animal Man #26, by Morrison and Chas Troug. This issue was the culmination of the entire comic, with Animal Man meeting Grant Morrison. The two spoke about the violence that humanity inflicts upon its fictional creations, and what it says about us, before the Scottish scribe gave the hero the happiest ending they could to make up for tormenting him. This issue is one of the deepest you’ll ever read, its meta nature presaging the future of the DC Multiverse and how it would interact with the real world… and how the real world interacted with it.
6) Kingdom Come
Kingdom Come is an iconic story that never ages, even though it was written as a rebuttal to ’90s comics. Mark Waid and Alex Ross’s Elseworlds masterpiece saw Superman and his generation of heroes return to the spotlight after their more brutal descendants allow a disaster to kill millions. However, shadowy forces don’t want the old guard back, leading to a war that could destroy the planet. This story was all about the true meaning of heroism, a reaction to the violent and grim comics of the decade of extreme. Today, the book is still the polemic on what superheroes should be in a world where The Boys and Invincible makes their stories darker and more violent than ever.
5) The Golden Age
The Golden Age, by James Robinson and Paul Smith, reminded readers why DC’s Golden Age heroes were so great. This Elseworlds miniseries takes place after World War II, as the superheroes of the United States try to get used to a new world. However, an old enemy has a plan to bring back the world’s greatest villain in a scheme that will tear them apart from within. This story was the beginning of the ’90s Golden Age renaissance and still holds up to this day. It’s a story tailored to our unique political climate of the ’20s, where secret enemies wait in what can seem like the most safe places and those in power are hiding the worst secrets.
4) The Flash (Vol. 2) #62-155
Wally West is considered the best Flash and that all started with Mark Waid’s ’90s run on The Flash (vol. 2). Waid came onboard the book with issue #62 in 1992 and wrote every issue for the rest of the decade, with his run crossing into the ’00s. Waid’s time with the Scarlet Speedster allowed him to leave Barry Allen’s shadow and finally become his own hero, starting him on the road to becoming the icon he is today. Waid worked with some amazing artists on his run, with the late great Mike Wieringo being a favorite of most fans, with writers like Bryan Augustyn and Grant Morrison and Mark Millar doing stories in the book during the run. This is peak Flash and one of the best solo superhero runs ever.
3) JLA #1-41
Now, this one is sort of cheating, since I’m counting issues past December 1999 and I didn’t do that for The Flash (Vol. 2). However, the final story of landmark Grant Morrison/Howard Porter run on JLA (along with several stories from Mark Waid) is integral to understanding what makes the series so special. This book brought back the Big Seven version of the League and put them into the biggest adventures imaginable, just like the old Silver Age Justice League of America. This is superhero team perfection in its purest form. It’s the kind of comic that shows how inadequate modern team books are, and is somehow even better than it was back in the day, which is saying something.
2) Preacher
Preacher, by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, took the crown of the best selling Vertigo book from The Sandman and ran with it. The book followed Jessie Custer, a man forced to take the cloth by his insane family, after he is possessed by the half-angel/half-demon force Genesis. He learns that God has abandoned Heaven because of this new being, and sets out with his ex-girlfriend/hitwoman Tulip O’Hare and Irish vampire Proinsias Cassidy to take Him to task in the strangest road trip ever. This book is violent and over the top, a trip through the dark heart of Americana, but it’s also extremely heartfelt, a book about a man trying to navigate the toxicity of the masculinity and religion he was saddled with. It’s irreverent and poignant, and that’s before we talk about its stance on religion. It’s a book that does edgy perfectly, beating the pants off its modern descendants.
1) The Invisibles
The Invisibles is Grant Morrison’s ’90s opus and it’s a book that never gets old. The book follows a group of Invisibles, members of a secret fraternity of anarchists and magicians of all stripes, in their war against the Outer Church, the Lovecraftian entities who have made a deal with the powerful of the world to create a hell out of reality. Morrison worked with some of the greatest artists of the era – Jill Thompson, Phil Jimenez, Chris Weston, Steve Yeowell, Frank Quitely, Steve Parkhouse, and more – to create a comic that perfectly encapsulated the pop culture of the ’90s while giving readers a deep meditation on the mysteries of humanity. Nowadays, in our world of oligarchs secretly doing the most terrible things imaginable, the conflict between the Invisibles and the Outer Church resonates ever more.
What’s your favorite ’90s DC comic? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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