5 Underrated Marvel Runs You Forgot About

Marvel is home to some of the most legendary runs in all of comics history. Whether it was Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s time together on Fantastic Four or Chris Claremont’s 17-year stint on The Uncanny X-Men, Marvel has done it all. But not every run can be iconic or legendary, some just end up being forgotten despite being super good or featuring beloved characters. It’s just the nature of comics, particularly when the universe is as wide-ranging as Marvel’s.

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While it’s natural that not all comics runs are memorable, there are some that deserve a lot more attention than perhaps they have gotten. These are five of the most underrated runs in Marvel Comics that you probably forgot about.

1) Iron Fist by Chris Claremont and John Byrne

Co-written by Chris Claremont and John Byrne around the same time they took over X-Men we have Iron Fist. The pair wrote 15 issues of Iron Fist that saw Danny Rand operating on his own and showed that he could work great as a solo character. These issues hold up for the most part outside of some dated moments but it’s bound to happen since it was written 50 years ago. The story and the characterization have both stuck around to this day.

While Danny Rand has been out of action for a little while now, he’s about to return. Now’s the perfect time to jump into this series. Showing off the early collaborations of Claremont and Byrne, the mythos of K’un L’un and the Iron Fist, and the first appearance of Sabertooth to name a few. In it’s short 15 issue run it gives readers insight into Danny Rand in his early days and why he works so well as a character. The series didn’t last but that’s not to say it isn’t good; it’s great.

2) X-Factor by Louise Simonson

X-Factor’s original team lineup was a new book featuring the original lineup of the X-Men. After issue five Louise Simonson took over the title for 60 issues and made it her own. The beginning of the series needed to be fixed and she took control, making the team feel like a family again. She had the tough task of making Jean Grey’s first return both feel natural and make sense. Louise turned the book around and helped Jean greatly.

With the original five members at new points in their lives, their dynamics changed drastically. Jean was dead before this and Scott was now married to someone else, add Angel’s entire arc from being Warren to becoming Archangel and there’s drama galore. On top of that, Apocalypse was added to the mythos of the mutants while Beast had a whole slew of personal issues. It showed why these five worked so well and how much we really needed another book with them.

3) Venom by Rick Remender and Cullen Bunn

Agent Venom is one of the best concept Venom has ever had and it has happened only once. With Flash Thompson taking the reins of the symbiote and getting his legs back, this was a great series that was sadly short lived. It was around 40 issues with Rick Remender starting it and making Venom a government agent. Cullen Bunn turned it into a similar book, but changed the location and gave him his own town to take over with Philadelphia.

With two different writers doing their own, yet similar takes was super fun to see. Even with Venom getting his own sidekick sharing the symbiote with him, it was a fun time for a lot of readers. Most Venom fans weren’t happy about Venom being on a bit of a leash as but this great run still has it’s fans. Hopefully we can see this series again sometime, probably as Anti-Venom though.

4) Cable and X-Force by Dennis Hopeless

X-Force has been battling to keep a series going for sometime now. Outside of Benjamin Percy’s run and Rick Remender’s, this one by Dennis Hopeless was gone too quick. It began with Cable doing his usual, fighting threats with mutants that the X-Men couldn’t handle. With premonitions of future threats haunting Cable, he aims to stop the threats before they happen. With a simple lineup of Cable, Forge, Domino, Colossus, and Dr. Nemesis, this brief run had a great team.

Just simple missions with a fun little team was a fun blink and you miss it series by Marvel, this offered Cable at his most technical at the time and also had Colossus fitting in with a darker role which was new at the time. Being wanted by the anti-mutant forces for many reasons, this X-Force on the run was a fresh new dynamics to the team. It gave the most underappreciated mutants a great time to shine and it should have lasted longer.

5) The Superior Foes of Spider-Man by Nick Spencer

Last but certainly not least we have the Superior Foes of Spider-Man. Comprised of some of the lesser Spider-Man foes, this story featured Beetle, Boomerang, Shocker, Speed Demon, and Overdrive. The team was a failed Sinister Six that tried to make it big. Breaking out of prison and trying to take on New York’s criminal empire, these buffoons try their best and make it super entertaining.

Working against The Owl and Silvermane, they try to take them on and fight anyone along the way. Nick Spencer’s series went past the initial 12 issues to 17 issues. It was an underrated hit and people still talk about it to this day. If you like quirky villains who never get the proper chance to shine multiplied by five, you’ll love this series. Would recommend reading this book before Spencer’s Amazing Spider-Man run.

What’s your favorite underrated Marvel run? Let us know down in the comments.