Marvel changed superhero comics forever back in the Silver Age, and kept that energy up for as long as possible. Over the decades, Marvel has created some of the best characters in superhero comics, and they’ve used these characters to create some of the best stories of all time. From the Fantastic Four to the X-Men to the Avengers, these characters have changed the way people looked at superheroes, and have allowed Marvel to become the most popular purveyors of superhero stories on Earth. While quality is subjective, there are plenty of amazing Marvel comics out there that most fans agree are among the best comics of all time.
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However, there are also a bunch of Marvel stories that didn’t get a fair shake. These stories have been underrated for a variety of reason. Some of them are well-known, but deserve more praise. Others of them aren’t as well-known and deserve more credit for how good they are. Finally, some of them are thought of as bad, but they actually aren’t. These ten Marvel stories are the most underrated, and deserve to be thought of as better.
10) New X-Men #127
New X-Men is the best X-Men run of the 21st century, but there are some stories that don’t get as much credit as they deserve. A perfect example of that is New X-Men #127, by Grant Morrison, John Paul Leon, and Bill Sienkiewicz. This story focuses on new X-Man Xorn as he visits Mutant Town, the new mutant neighborhood of New York City. It’s a touching story that sees Xorn help a mutant that everyone is afraid of. Now, a lot of people don’t like this issue because of the reveal later in the run that Xorn was Magneto (which has since been retconned), but I honestly thought it was pretty clever. Xorn was charged with writing a journal by Xavier, which where the story’s narration comes from, and if you go by the original supposition that Xorn is Magneto, it shows just how much thought he put into coming up with this identity. It’s a great issue with brilliant art from the late great John Paul Leon, inked by Bill Sienkiewicz, giving it a visual flair that many issues of New X-Men were missing.
9) Avengers Vs. X-Men
Avengers Vs. X-Men is a story that a lot of people don’t like, but that’s unfair to it. Avengers Vs. X-Men is the epitome of underrated, a story that is the most fun a superhero comic could be. Written by Brian Michael Bendis, Jonathan Hickman, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, and Jason Aaron with art by John Romita Jr., Olivier Coiple, and Adam Kubert, the story used the Phoenix Force coming to Earth as an excuse to get the Avengers and the X-Men to fight. Avengers Vs. X-Men is basically just turn off your brain fun. If you don’t go into it looking for amazing characterization and just remember that this is a story where the entire point is smashing action figures together, it’s a lot of fun.
8) Marvel Boy
Grant Morrison’s first Marvel work after leaving DC was Marvel Boy, with artist J.G. Jones, and it’s seriously one of the best Marvel comics of all time. Marvel Boy stars Noh-Varr, an alternate universe Kree soldier, a member of the crew of the multiversal exploration vessel Marvel. His ship is shot down by Dr. Midas, a collector of superhuman ephemera, his crewmates killed, and he’s imprisoned. Noh-Varr escapes and decides to take his revenge on humanity in general and Dr. Midas in particular. Marvel Boy is high concept superhero goodness with a bratty attitude that impresses with every page. Grant Morrison is one of comics’ greatest, and this comic is an example of the kind of madness that they could bring to Marvel when turned loose. J.G. Jones’s art is brilliant from the first page, and it keeps that pace up for the entire series. Marvel Boy #3 in particular is amazing, but the rest of the book is just as entertaining.
7) Squadron Supreme
Squadron Supreme, by Mark Gruenwald, Bob Hall, Paul Ryan, and John Buscema, is one of Marvel’s best stories of all time, and yet I’m the only one who ever talks about it. Squadron Supreme is a 12-issue series that takes readers to the world of the Squadron Supreme, Marvel’s foremost Justice League pastiche, as they decide that the best way to save the world is to control it. This book was doing complex, mature superhero stories before Watchmen, and yet it never gets talked about in the same breath. Squadron Supreme brought a type of storytelling to Marvel that it hadn’t really seen before, and asked the question of what would happen if superheroes were in a realistic world. It’s such a great book; you’ll find some great character work throughout the story, on top of a great central plot that will keep you glued to the book, and some awesome old school Bronze Age Marvel art. The final fight might not be as brutal as something like Miracleman‘s last battle between Miracleman and Kid Miracleman, but it’s unlike anything that Marvel fans had seen at the time. It’s brilliant and more people need to read it to find out.
6) Wolverine (Vol. 2) #102
Wolverine’s feral mutation is one of the biggest missed opportunities in the character’s history. Wolverine lost his adamantium in X-Men (Vol. 2) #25, with his bone claws debuting and him leaving the X-Men in Wolverine (Vol. 2) #75. Wolverine (Vol. 2) #76-100 was a wild ride of Wolverine perfection, as Wolverine had to deal with losing his adamantium, his over-stressed healing factor, and learning how to fight in a smarter way, and that’s all before learning that the adamantium held back his mutation from transforming him into a beast. Wolverine (Vol. 2) #100 saw him going completely feral instead of becoming the Horseman of Apocalypse Death, kicking off this new era. Wolverine (Vol. 2) #101 picked up from there, which leads us to Wolverine (Vol. 2) #102, by Larry Hama and Adam Kubert. This book sees the feral Wolverine sneak off into New York City, all while Elektra (who had joined the cast of the book in order to teach Wolverine how to control himself and retrain him in martial arts) tells a story about her life that echoes the events of Wolverine’s life. It’s a beautifully drawn, sumptuously written single issue story, with Hama giving readers an amazing little tale. Meanwhile, Adam Kubert, who left the book after this and wouldn’t return until the mid ’00s, draws his heart out in this issue. I like Wolverine’s feral era, but I get why other people don’t; however, I think that everyone should read this issue, because it shows just the kind of stories we could have gotten if Wolverine had let Hama cook with feral Wolverine.
5) Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #329-330
Post-Age of Apocalypse Uncanny X-Men is the height of Scott Lobdell’s run on the book, and these two issues are certainly the best of his run. Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #329-330, by Lobdell, Jeph Loeb, and Joe Madureira, takes place in the aftermath of Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #328. Sabretooth escaped the X-Mansion, nearly killing Psylocke. So, Wolverine and Archangel make their way to Chinatown in New York City to ask for the help of Gomurr the Ancient. Because of the body switching ninja magic that changed Psylocke, she can only be saved by other Asian magic, and Wolverine and Archangel need to find the Crimson Dawn, which takes them into another dimension under the city. This is martial arts insanity meets the X-Men in the best possible way. Everything about this two-issue story is awesome, but the best part is Madureira’s artwork. This is a fantastic looking comic, and you’ll marvel at every page (also, while you’re at it, you should probably also read issue #328, which is also really great).
4) Fantastic Four (Vol. 1) #375
Most of the ’90s is thought of as a bad time for the Fantastic Four. They had been completely overshadowed since the days of the best Fantastic Four stories of the Silver Age, first by the Avengers and then by the X-Men. Tom DeFalco and Paul Ryan’s ’90s run on Fantastic Four is actually better than you expect, though, even when DeFalco is forced to bring the worst aspects of ’90s comics into it. Looking at the cover of Fantastic Four (Vol. 1) #375, it’s easy to dismiss it as a cliche ’90s comic, and believe me, there’s something to that. However, it’s actually a really cool story. Doctor Doom has stolen the power of Aron the Rogue Watcher, and the Fantastic Four go to the Watcher’s home on the Moon, which Doom has taken over, to defeat him. This is just a really cool fight comic, as the Fantastic Four, Lyja Lazerfist, and Ms. Marvel II/She-Thing do their best to defeat a Doom who is vastly more powerful than them. This isn’t one of the best Fantastic Four comics ever, it’s just a really fun fight comic, and it deserves some praise for how good it actually is.
3) Original Sin
Original Sin, by Jason Aaron and Mike Deodato, came during that period of Marvel when they were putting out multiple major events every year, which I think hurt the perception of the story. The premise of the story is simple — the Watcher is killed and the heroes decide to find out who killed him. Meanwhile, his eyes are stolen and they reveal many terrible secrets of what the heroes have done to each other over the years. That part of the story was mostly dealt with in the tie-ins issues, while the main series was a mystery story starring Doctor Strange, Winter Soldier, the Punisher, Moon Knight, Gamora, and Nick Fury. There is a lot to love about this book that got lost in a time when there were just way too many event books; Aaron throws in Z-list villains the Orb, Dr. Midas, and his daughter Oubliette, introduces the idea of the Man on the Wall, and gives readers a last battle against the last character that anyone would expect. It’s also the book where Thor becomes unworthy of Mjolnir, and leads into Aaron’s amazing tenure writing Thor. This is a great story with excellent art, and it’s way better than it gets credit for (it doesn’t help that Secret Wars came out literal months after it ended, overshadowing it forever or that the secrets it revealed were mostly forgettable and have since been almost entirely forgotten).
2) Avengers & X-Men: AXIS
Avengers & X-Men: AXIS, by Rick Remender, Adam Kubert, Leinil Yu, Terry Dodson, and Jim Cheung, has been maligned almost since the moment it ended. The story was built up in Remender’s excellent Uncanny Avengers, with the Red Skull having stolen Xavier’s brain to make himself a telepath. He creates a mutant concentration camp in Genosha and becomes Red Onslaught, with the superhero community running to Genosha to battle him. They get beat, but come up with a way to stop him by inverting his morality. It works to an extent, but it also inverts the morality of the heroes and villains who gathered to fight him. The now evil X-Men and Avengers each try to take over the world for different reasons, and it’s all kind of ridiculous. However, that’s part of the fun of the whole story. Sure, this is the story where Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are revealed to not be mutants, a lot of characterization is completely off even before the inversion (I’m positive that Remender, who was leaving Marvel to go to Image, decided to do the wildest stuff imaginable just because), and some of the art gets really sketchy (it looks like deadlines really affected Dodson and Cheung especially) but this is one of those examples of a comic that is so crazy and bad that it’s a lot of fun to read.
1) Generation Next
The Age of Apocalypse is definitely overrated, but there are some books that deserve a lot of praise. The best of these books is easily Generation Next, by Scott Lobdell and Chris Bachalo. This book starred the younger generation of the X-Men infiltrating the Seattle Core in order to save Illyana Rasputin, who was needed to stop this timeline from ever happening. What follow is a story that grabs you by the throat and never lets go. It builds the characters up perfectly, makes you care about everything happening, and then kicks you in the teeth with its ending. The art is amazing, with Chris Bachalo’s unique art bringing the whole thing to life, setting the perfect tone for the series. It’s wonderful and heartbreaking. This is one of the greatest X-Men comics of all time, and even I’ve underrated it. It’s a gem and we all need to talk more about it.
What Marvel stories do you think are underrated? Sound off in the comments below.
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