Marvel is the undisputed king of superheroes. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has made Marvel and its characters a household name, creating a juggernaut that has only recently started slowing down. Marvel has ruled the sales charts on the comic side of things, as well, for decades now. There’s a reason for that; while not every bestselling Marvel comic is great (looking at you, The Amazing Spider-Man), there are plenty of contenders for best of all time superhero stories. The heroes and villains of the Marvel Universe are the best of the best, and that has helped Marvel revolutionize the way superhero stories worked. Fans love Marvel, but that doesn’t mean that every Marvel comic is the greatest thing ever.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Over the years, there have been plenty of Marvel comics that were good, but got glazed like they are the greatest things ever. Some of these books have become classics of the medium, but if you take an objective look at them, they aren’t as amazing as their reputation would make you think they are. Some of them are extremely important parts of Marvel history, and are recommended to new readers all time. These seven Marvel comics are extremely overrated, and it’s about time we admitted it.
7) Civil War
Civil War, by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven, seems like it would be the opposite of an overrated comic. While it does have its fans, the people who don’t like the book have been quite vocal about the book. However, it’s one of the few Marvel stories that got directly adapted to the big screen (most MCU movies are hodge podges of various comics instead of actually being adaptations), so it’s one of the books that MCU fans read when they want to get into comics. Civil War was once one of the most important Marvel comics of all time; even if you didn’t like it, you still had to give its props for changing the tenor of the Marvel Universe in the years to come. However, in 2025, Civil War hasn’t been relevant in almost twenty years. The changes it made to the Marvel Universe were extremely detrimental to multiple characters, especially Reed Richards and Iron Man, and it destroyed the unity of the Marvel Universe until about 2011. Civil War is an interesting piece of Marvel history, but it’s about time to stop telling everyone that they should read it because it’s super important to the history of the Marvel Universe. It’s time to let this story rest.
6) New Avengers (Vol. 1)
The Avengers have some amazing stories under their belts, but they spent years out of the Marvel spotlight, while the X-Men, Spider-Man, and the Hulk took their places as Marvel’s bestselling books. All of that changed with “Avengers Disassembled: Chaos”, a story that destroyed the Avengers as we knew them. This led to New Avengers (Vol. 1), one of the most overrated Marvel comics of all time. New Avengers (Vol. 1) was basically the engine of the Marvel Universe from the moment it began, laying the seeds for basically every major Marvel events of the mid to late ’00s. A lot of fans love this book, but it’s time to face the facts — New Avengers writer Brian Michael Bendis was one of the worst Avengers writers ever, and his decentralized storytelling combined with a lack of action made the book boring more often than not. Not all of New Avengers (Vol. 1) is all that bad — it got pretty good between Civil War and Siege — however, even then, it was a bit boring, with Bendis’s quippy soap opera writing taking the place of the universe-shaking action that Avengers fans were used to from the book. Honestly, the best part of New Avengers is the art, with artists David Finch, Steve McNiven, Leinil Yu, Jim Cheung, and many others giving the book some brilliant visuals. Beyond that, there’s really no reason to ever read the book today.
5) The Immortal Hulk #46-50
The Immortal Hulk is one of the greatest Hulk series of all time. Writer Al Ewing and regular artist Joe Bennett reminded readers of the rich vein of horror in the Hulk, and created an amazing Hulk story that redefined the relationship between the Hulk and Bruce Banner. In general, I personally find The Immortal Hulk a bit overrated — it’s basically the same kind of psychological storytelling that the late great Peter David had brought to The Incredible Hulk, with added body horror — and that’s mainly because of the ending. The book’s last story arc, collected as “Of Hell and Of Death”, often feels like Ewing had written himself into a corner, as he set the Hulk against The One Below All, the inverse of The One Above All. There’s no way we would have gotten some big battle, and the book does its best to clean up all of its plot lines, but the ending of the book is a massive disappointment. It never reaches the heights of the book’s earliest issues, and the way the last issue links the Sterns and Banner families to the Hulk and the Leader is altogether terrible. In fact, the only worthwhile moment of the entire last story arc is when Hulk and Banner put aside their hatred and bond. I still think everyone should read The Immortal Hulk, but the ending just isn’t as great as what came before.
4) “Old Man Logan”
“Old Man Logan” is one of the more beloved Wolverine stories of the ’00s. The book by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven took place in an alternate future, where the villains had teamed up against the heroes and taken over the world. Readers catch up with a pacifist Wolverine, a farmer with a family who owes money to the Hulk Gang. We all know how the story goes from there, a bloody trip through the Wastelands of the future. “Old Man Logan” has gotten a lot of praise over the years, but it’s honestly not as great as some Wolverine fans think it is. The book’s world-building is fantastic and the art is gorgeous, but Millar’s edgy writing just hasn’t aged very well. “Old Man Logan” is not a terrible story — it’s one of the better Wolverine stories of the ’00s — but it’s the definition of a book that gets glazed way too much. I think that much like Civil War, the fact that it was “adapted” in Logan helps its perception. It’s a comic that movie fans can read with a lot of cool imagery and bloody action. It’s easy to hand it to a non-comic reader that likes Logan, and they’ll almost certainly enjoy the book — it’s a comic that had a Venom-possessed tyrannosaurus in it — and that’s why it’s remained so well thought of over the years.
3) Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 3) #1-24 and Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men
Joss Whedon and the late great John Cassaday’s Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 3) is considered by many fans to be one of the best X-Men stories ever. Now, if you look at it from just an art perspective, this is a pretty valid opinion. Cassaday’s pencils are phenomenal, and give the book some brilliant imagery. Cassaday’s clean, simple yet detailed artwork hearkens back to Paul Smith’s issues of Uncanny X-Men, and readers get some imagery that will stay with them forever. It’s the kind of comic that you can thumb through and marvel at the art. However, the writing is where the book suffers. That’s not to say that Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 3) is badly written, it’s just very much a simple X-Men comic that takes a lot of pages from the classic Chris Claremont run. Whedon loved the soap opera drama, and that combined with his trademark sense of humor gave the book a certain feel that doesn’t really work for every reader. Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 3) is basically a beginner’s X-Men book. It doesn’t take a lot of prior X-Men knowledge to understand, and has some cool stories, but let’s be real — only the first and last volumes are actually good stories, and even then they aren’t nearly as good as other X-Men classics. Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 3) was good, but it gets glazed like a Krispie Kreme.
2) X-Men (Vol. 6)
The Krakoa Era kicked off in 2019, and didn’t finish up until 2024. There were two volumes of X-Men during that period. The first was written by Jonathan Hickman. It was a fine book, but quickly started to feel like it treading water, which was actually the case, as Hickman’s plan for the X-Men books were changed. Hickman left the X-office, and X-Men (Vol. 6) was launched with writer Gerry Duggan and artist Pepe Larra. Duggan’s run on X-Men (Vol. 6) lasted for 35 issues, and became the bestselling X-Men comic. However, other than some amazing art — Larraz would be replaced by artists like Javier Pina, Joshua Cassara, and Phil Noto — the book didn’t deserve to be the bestselling X-Men book. The problem with the book was the writing. Duggan barely built any of the characters of the book, mostly focusing on Cyclops, and his humor in the book didn’t really work. His characterization of anyone but Cyclops is terrible. He even got the fact that Wolverine II didn’t have an adamantium skeleton wrong, and had to scramble to explain his lack of knowledge. As books like Immortal X-Men, X-Men Red, and X-Force dealt with the main plots of the Krakoa Era, it was off on its own, telling shallow action stories that didn’t fit the Krakoa Era at all. Most of the books on this list are still good, but X-Men (Vol. 6) isn’t, and the fact that anyone thinks so boggles my mind.
1) Infinity Gauntlet
Infinity Gauntlet is an awesome book, make no bones about it. The event story from Jim Starlin, George Perez, and Ron Lim is a classic, and the battle against Thanos with the godlike power of the Infinity Gauntlet is one for the ages. That said, there are some fans out there who think that it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread, which just isn’t the case. It’s still brilliant and a lot of fun to read, but it’s one of those books that has this perfect reputation that’s not actually perfect. The book’s pacing is a bit wonky, and the twist in Infinity Gauntlet #5 feels a little too convenient, as it was the only way to have the heroes win without shenanigans. Again, this is an excellent comic, but it’s not as perfect as its reputation.
What Marvel comics do you think are overrated? Sound off in the comments below.
Most Viewed
-
20th Television Animation -
TMS Entertainment -
Image Courtesy of Atlas Distribution
