Year: 1987
Major Events:
- Kraven’s Last Hunt
- Peter and Mary Jane wed
- Johnny Storm and “Alicia Masters” also get married–she is later retconned into a skrull
- Crystal and Quicksilver divorce
- Fall of the Mutants
- Many New Universe series launch
- Steve Englehart takes over Fantastic Four and turns Sharon Ventura into a rocky Thing
- Peter David begins his legendary 12-year run on Hulk
- True identity of Hobgoblin revealed (again) (retcon)
- Michelinie and Layton return to Iron Man and the series gets a bit better
- Louise Simonson takes over X-Factor and the series gets better
- Jim Lee takes over Alpha Flight and the series doesn’t get any better
- Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz take over Thor and the series gets worse (which to be fair was inevitable given that they took over for Walt Simonson)
- Jim Shooter leaves Marvel and the whole company starts going to shit (
- Marvel is bought by New World Pictures, and begins a gradual slide in overall publishing line quality that will persist through the ’90s)
- Armor Wars
- Captain Marvel becomes the leader of the Avengers
- Super Patriot becomes Captain America after Steve Rogers quits
Important Deaths: Arnim Zola, Cypher, Spymaster, and the Zodiac Gang actually die, while Purple Man, Thunderbolt Ross, Snowbird, and all the X-Men merely “die,” and, finally, many Avengers die-and-are-reborn in a single story.
Best New Series: Punisher, Silver Surfer, and Elektra: Assassin (maxi-series)
Top 10 New Characters:
- Apocalypse’s 4 Horsemen
- Mister Sinister
- Microchip (Punisher’s wingman)
- Excalibur (team)
- Ghost (Iron Man villain)
- Battlestar (aka “Black Bucky”)
- Rictor
- Kara Killgrave aka Purple Girl
- D-Man
- Rintrah
Top 10 Stories:
- Kraven’s Last Hunt (across all 3 Spider-books)
- Avengers #280 (Jarvis’ solo story)
- Thor #379-380
- Avengers #273-277 (Under Siege)
- X-Factor #21-26 (Fall of the Mutants)
- Daredevil #239-240
- Hulk and Thing: The Big Change
- Avengers #281-285 (Assault on Olympus)
- Silver Surfer #3-4
- Classic X-Men #6