Year: 1997
Major Events: 1996 was much worse than 1995, which was worse than 1994. In 1997, Marvel had Onslaught, the Clone Saga, and Heroes Reborn behind it and started–tentatively–to try to tell good stories again. The year was marked by lots (lots!) of mediocre miniseries and reboots of the reboots as the 616 characters returned to their own universes and their own series. But many roses began to grow from the concrete–as Marvel began to come back to greatness.
- Notably, not many “events”
- Heroes Return
- Operation Zero Tolerance
- Flashback, with “-1” issues
- Joe Kelly writes a brief Daredevil run
- Devil Dinosaur returns for the first time in many years
Important Deaths: Doctor Octopus did the opposite of die, and got resurrected. Emma Frost died but didn’t really.
Best New Series: Deadpool!
Series Cancelled: Ghost Rider, Marvel Fanfare, Punisher, Spider-Man Team-Up, Untold Tales of Spider-Man.
Best New Characters: Not a lot of great new characters. The best were the misdirection of the “new heroes” in the Thunderbolts team.
Top 10 Stories:
- Ka-Zar #7-11 (vs. Thanos)
- Hobgoblin Lives #1-3
- Deadpool #10-11 (tribute to Amazing Fantasy #15)
- Journey Into Mystery #-1
- Thunderbolts #1
- Generation X #-1
- Deadpool #6-8 and Daredevil/Deadpool Annual ‘97
- Thunderbolts #-1
- Ghost Rider #-1
- Daredevil #361 (Matt gets a service dog)