Year: 1974
Major Events: This is the year of Wolverine, for sure. But lots of other things happened:
- Comics now cost a quarter
- Marvel’s monthly lineups explode with a half-dozen magazines and a new “Giant Size” line–producing nearly double its output from just a few years ago
- Quicksilver and Crystal marry and Doc Ock and Aunt May almost marry
- Iron Man gets a nose
- Richard Nixon is a supervillain
- Magneto is literally infantalized
- Captain America becomes Nomad
- Thundra starts hanging out with the Fantastic Four
Important Deaths: Thanos!
Best New Series: Doctor Strange was great from the start. And Marvel’s Magazine line did well with Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, as did its first foray into an all-ages book, the classic Spidey Super Stories. Also, Thing gets his own team-up line, “Marvel Two-in-One.”
Top 10 New Characters:
- Wolverine
- Foolkiller. Personally, he’s my favorite. But y’all would never forgive me if I rated him above Wolverine.
- Deathlok
- Tigra
- Firelord
- Nitro
- Killmonger
- Colleen Wing
- Silver Samurai
- Lilith, Daughter of Dracula
Top 10 Stories
- Man-Thing #3-4 (1st Foolkiller)
- Captain America and Falcon #169-175
- Captain Marvel #32-33 (Thanos dies)
- Doctor Strange #2-5
- Jungle Action #6-8
- Man-Thing #1
- Man-Thing #5-6
- Hulk #180-182 (1st Wolverine)
- Amazing Spider-Man #136-137
- Adventures into Fear featuring Morbius #24