Marvel has been pushing the envelope of what a superhero universe can be for decades. Marvel’s Silver Age output changed superheroes forever, and since then, the publisher has continued to put out some of the bestselling superhero comics of all time. Marvel’s amazing stories have led them to the big screen, making their superheroes into the most popular in the world. Marvel has done a fantastic job of getting the right creators for the right books, paying dividends for readers. Marvel has a reputation of excellence, and some Marvel stories have earned their place in the pantheon of the greatest comics of all time.
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Of course, not all stories can stand the test of time. There are some Marvel stories out there that were praised for years, but reading them again reveals that they’ve been overrated. These ten Marvel stories were once considered amazing, but just don’t stand up anymore.
10) “Old Man Logan”
“Old Man Logan” is considered a Wolverine classic, but it doesn’t really deserve that moniker. The story, by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven, took place in a future where the villains won, Wolverine killed the X-Men under the control of Mysterio, and has become a pacifist, living in the Hulk’s territory. He’s hired by Hawkeye for one last mission, the money meant to pay his debt to the Hulk Gang, with the two heroes going on a cross-country trip. “Old Man Logan” is a story with awesome art and world-building, but the story itself is kind of cliche. This is the movie Unforgiven starring Wolverine; it’s good, but it’s not this amazing work.
9) “Spider-Verse”
“Spider-Verse” has become something of a legendary story, mostly because of its place in building the titular Spider-Verse, leading to the excellent movies. However, it’s just not the amazing story that it gets credit for being. It’s basically just a team-up comic, and while it does a lot of cool things, it doesn’t really reinvent the wheel. There are definitely some cool chapters to the story, and the original Spider-Gwen stories are pretty great, but this is just a standard multiversal team-up story. Dan Slott is a great Spider-Man writer, but there are many better Slott Spider-Man stories to read (like Superior Spider-Man, “Big Time”, or “Spider-Island”).
8) “X of Swords”
The Krakoa Era was a fruitful time for X-Men fans, but that doesn’t mean that it was all perfect. The ending wasn’t nearly as beloved as the beginning, but the beginning wasn’t flawless either, which leads us to the first major Krakoa crossover, “X of Swords”. This story pit the mutants of Krakoa against the mutants of Arakko, with the demonic forces of Amenth waiting in the wings. This story is badly paced, with most of the first half being pretty boring, and the second half pulling the rug out from under fans who expected something different. Some fans loved it, but re-reading it reveals that a lot of what people loved about it came from the excitement of the early days of Krakoa and not the quality of the story.
7) Civil War
Civil War has a complicated legacy. It’s an undeniably important story to the history of ’00s Marvel, but there have always been a lot of problems with it. The entire story depends on mischaracterization to work, and while it has some amazing action scenes and some big surprises, it’s not just this amazing story. The Marvel event cycle hasn’t aged well in general, but Civil War has aged especially badly. It’s one of those stories that will always have an important place in the history of Marvel, but reading it reveals just how weak it is. While the story still has its fans, and there are some good parts about it, it’s not this best of all time story.
6) House of M
House of M is another major story from ’00s Marvel, seeing the X-Men and the Avengers team together to deal with Scarlet Witch’s madness, which led to the birth of a new world, and the “death” of most of a race. Written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by Olivier Coipel, the story is honestly one of the most boring event books ever. The pacing is terrible, there’s little to no action over its eight-issue run, and it was extremely damaging to the X-Men comics. House of M came about at the height of Bendis’s popularity and was one of the most beloved stories of its era. However, it’s always been a long, badly paced, boring comic.
5) X-Men (Vol. 2) #1-3
X-Men (Vol. 2) #1-3 is one of the most well-known X-Men stories of all time. X-Men (Vol. 2) #1 is the bestselling comic ever, and this three-issue tale from Chris Claremont and Jim Lee marks the end of Claremont’s tenure as writer of the X-Men after 17 years. Collected as “Mutant Genesis”, this is a good story, with Lee’s best X-Men artwork of his time with the team, and it gave new readers a lot of history on the relationship between the X-Men and Magneto (it was and still is perfect for new readers). It even introduced the most popular team of X-Men ever. However, the story isn’t exactly a great one. The ending is kind of blah, and it’s not a deep story. It’s a cool story for new fans, but it doesn’t belong among the best X-Men stories of all time.
4) Secret Invasion
Secret Invasion, by Brian Michael Bendis and Leinil Yu, is yet another example of why Bendis wasn’t a great event writer. The Skrulls’ secret invasion was built up over years of stories, and this eight-issue story was the culmination of that plot, and it failed in most ways (beyond the art, which is great). It has a lot of the same problems as House of M — bad pacing, little action, and storytelling more based on shocking moments than anything else. It feels like it spins its wheel for the first five issues, as the story needs to keep the Avengers out of things until then to make it work. At the very least, the ending is good and sets up the best part of Bendis’s time on the Avengers, but that doesn’t save this mediocre story.
3) “Breakout”
Bendis’s New Avengers is generally overrated, and that started with the first story. “Breakout”, by Bendis and David Finch, brought together the New Avengers and it’s a perfect example of the bad things about Bendis’s time writing the Avengers. A breakout on the Raft brings together a group of heroes, who soon discover that there’s more going on than they knew, leading them to the Savage Land and a shocking conspiracy. The bad pacing and mediocre action storytelling of Bendis’ comics are there, and the story goes in so many directions. It also begins one of Bendis’s worst tendencies, where he ends the issue on an action cliffhanger and then starts after the fight readers looked forward to ended. “Breakout” has some good art, and a few cool moments, but it’s not actually a good Avengers story.
2) “Guardian Devil”
“Guardian Devil”, by Kevin Smith, Joe Quesada, and Jimmy Palmiotti, was a massive success back in the late ’90s, bringing loads of fans to Daredevil’s newest book, thanks to Smith getting to write a Marvel book, and launching the Marvel Knights line of comics. The story saw Daredevil being given a child that might be the Antichrist, and how he deals with that, leading to a surprising twist and a fight that changes his life forever. The art is cool, and there is some prime Smith dialogue, but the story itself is pretty unfulfilling, and it fridges Daredevil’s decades-long love interest Karen Page. “Guardian Devil” is a pretty good story, but it runs in so many different directions that it doesn’t ever really come together. There are a lot of better Daredevil stories to start with than this one.
1) Infinity Gauntlet
Infinity Gauntlet, by Jim Starlin, George Perez, and Ron Lim, isn’t a bad story by any means. It’s a great little taste of cosmic Marvel and has some of the coolest fights scenes in comics. The last half of the book is a fantastic, a well-paced roller coaster ride with cool art. However, the first three issues are glacially slow, taking much too long to set everything up and depending heavily on characters that had been gone for years. The problem with this story is the difference in pacing between its two halves. It’s still a story that every Marvel fan should read at some point, and it’s an amazing Thanos story, but it’s not the best Marvel event ever, as many have tried to say numerous times over the decades.
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