Year: 1989
Major Events:
- Acts of Vengeance and Inferno, of course, which collectively affect every series published this year
- Atlantis Attacks runs across the 1989 Annuals
- Eric Masterson becomes Thor
- Walt Simonson takes on Fantastic Four and Byrne leaves Sensational She-Hulk; Steve Englehart’s terrific Silver Surfer run, and his not-as-terrific F4 run, both end.
- Rob Liefeld starts on Uncanny X-men and X-Factor. For many, this the beginning of a creative nadir at Marvel that consists of overmuscled, hyperactive characters with huge guns starring in comics with little-to-no story
- Storm and Magik becomes little kids
- Sue and Reed Richards join The Avengers
- Doctor Strange marries Clea
- Konshu and Moon Knight break up, and Moon Knight leaves the West Coast Avengers
- Marvel begins publishing hardcover “Masterworks” of important early runs on series like Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-Man
- Punisher gets a movie and…It’s bad.
Important Deaths: I guess Mantis’ death is “important.” The rest of the deaths were either of trivial characters or of characters whose deaths were undone later, like N’astirh, Mister Sinister, Flag Smasher, Destiny of Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Scarlet Witch and Vision’s twins, and Overmind.
Best New Series: Probably Wolverine. Some other series that launched in ’89 had good moments, but overall were not better or more impactful than Wolverine’s solo book. Sensational She-Hulk is a strong runner up, but that series got pretty bad pretty quickly when Byrne left.
Top 10 New Characters:
- New Warriors (team) and Night Thrasher (character)
- Jubilee
- Mephisto’s son Blackheart (see also: Mephista–the daughter!)
- Crossbones
- The Great Lakes Avengers
- Victor “Baron Blood” Strange
- Midnight (Moon Knight sidekick)
- SODAM
- Shotgun
- Demigoblin
Top 10 Stories: Quite a good year for Hulk and Daredevil…
- Doctor Strange and Doctor Doom: The Triumph and Torment
- Daredevil #266 (a beer with Mephisto)
- Hulk #364-367
- Classic X-Men #34 (backup story only)
- Marvel Comics Presents #18 (She-Hulk story only)
- Hulk #362
- Daredevil #268
- Daredevil #265
- Hulk #357-359
- Daredevil #270