Marvel went from one of the many superhero comic publishers of the Golden Age to a titan in the Silver Age, on the road to becoming the five-hundred pound gorilla of superhero story purveyors. One of the keys to this success are the House of Ideas’ numerous flagship titles over the decades. A flagship title is the focus of the line, the one with the most popular characters and the most popular creators that influences the rest of the line and, at the best of times, the entire comic industry. Over the decades, the publisher has fielded some of the best flagship titles out there (and some of the worst), and that has played a huge role in the publisher’s success.
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There have been some truly amazing Marvel flagships over the decades. These books are the ones that didn’t just sell well, but gave readers unforgettable stories that truly changed everything. These seven Marvel flagship titles are easily the greatest, best of all time series that changed superheroes forever.
7) Ultimate Spider-Man (Vol. 1)
Marvel’s current Ultimate Universe is ending, but it wouldn’t exist at all without Ultimate Spider-Man (Vol. 1). This book was a massive gamble, rebooting the Marvel Universe in the modern day. It could have easily failed, but Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley were able to tap into something, combining the ideas behind Spider-Man with more modern sensibilities beautifully. The book was always the most popular of the original Ultimate books, and it was also the most consistently enjoyable. It’s one of the best Spider-Man comics of the 21st century, if not the best.
6) ’90s Uncanny X-Men
The ’90s were all about the X-Men, and for the entire decade, they ran the table. An argument can be made whether X-Men (Vol. 2) was the flagship of the company or Uncanny X-Men was, but Uncanny was the old standard, and was the home of the writer Scott Lobdell after Chris Claremont left, who was basically the head writer of the X-Men until 1997. Other than Jim Lee, who went to X-Men (Vol. 2), it had the more popular artists as well. This book kept Marvel on top throughout the entirety of the ’90s, and was the epicenter of the most important X-stories of the decade. Since those stories were the most important Marvel stories at that time, that makes it the flagship and it was honestly a joy to read.
5) Dark Avengers
A lot of people would put New Avengers on this list. It was the most popular book of mid ’00s Marvel, and was the flagship, but go back and read it; it’s not all that good and it’s honestly kind of a boring book for most of its run. However, Dark Avengers was vastly superior. The 18-issue series from Brian Michael Bendis, Matt Fraction, Mike Deodato, Mike Mayhew, and Luke Ross, was the flagship of “Dark Reign”, the publishing initiative that put the villains in charge and it used that idea to tell entertaining stories with characters readers didn’t often get to spend a lot of time with. It’s a book that was great from start to finish, and remains the highlight of the rather overrated Bendis years on the Avengers.
4) New X-Men
New X-Men is the pinnacle of 21st century X-Men, and that’s really all there is to it. Right when Marvel announced that DC legend Grant Morrison was taking over the X-Men (Vol. 2), we knew that this book was going to be the flagship of the main line of the Marvel Universe. While it didn’t outsell the Ultimate books, it was the most popular Earth-616 book, and gave readers the best X-stories imaginable until 2004, as well as being much better than anything else with the name “Marvel” on it on the shelves. Even a quarter century later, it’s still better than just about anything else from the publisher.
3) Avengers (Vol. 5)
The various Avengers titles were the flagship of the Marvel Universe from 2005 to 2015, and the finest moment of the team over that decade came from Avengers (Vol. 5). This was the epicenter of the Jonathan Hickman run on the Avengers, kicking off the stories that would eventually lead to Secret Wars, the greatest Marvel event of the 21st century. This series brought together the biggest, most powerful team of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, with the best members imaginable, battling the biggest threats. This is big concept superhero sci-fi, and it’s exactly the kind of thing that the Avengers were created for.
2) Stan Lee/Jack Kirby Fantastic Four
Fantastic Four, while under the pen and pencil of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, kicked off the Silver Age Marvel Universe and changed comics forever. Their mixture of melodramatic superhero soap opera and gonzo sci-fi made people look at superheroes in a different way and made the House of Ideas into, well, the House of Ideas. A lot of Silver Age Lee doesn’t really stand up (search your feelings, you know it’s true); he always worked better with someone who wrote well like Kirby. Together the two of them made magic and they created the modern Marvel Universe in this book. It’s a best of all time series for the 102 issues they were together on it.
1) ’80 Uncanny X-Men
Giant-Size X-Men #1 brought the team back to prominence, but they didn’t become Marvel’s flagship until the ’80s. Chris Claremont made the X-Men superstars, and Uncanny X-Men became the bestselling, and most important. book of the decade. Claremont led the team through the best decade in comic history, fleshing the characters out and telling stories that were great for readers young and old, including numerous best of all time stories. Claremont never gets the credit he deserves for helping make superheroes more mature, and going back and reading his run on Uncanny shows just how important he and this book is to the history of comics.
What’s your favorite Marvel flagship title? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
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