Year: 1999
Joe Quesada was hired in mid-1998, after Marvel declared bankruptcy, with instructions to turn the company around. He immediately went on a hiring spree for new talent. This year, in 1999, his “vision” starts to appear. We’re not in full swing yet, but overall 1999 comics are far better than the others in the ’90s decade.
Major Events:
- Multiple series relaunches
- Kurt Busiek ends his historic, groundbreaking time with Thunderbolts.
- Joe Casey ends his run on Cable.
- Joe Kelly kills Deadpool and ends his run there.
- The Shattering; Domination Factor; Magneto War; The Twelve; “Eighth Day.”
- “Legacy numbering” starts, and runs alongside the numbers of series rebooted for Heroes Return.
- Marvel Knights, Joe Quesada’s first attempt at rebranding, goes into Phase 2.
Important Deaths: The clone of James “Guardian” Hudson (yay!) and Reignfire.
Best New Series: Peter David’s Captain Marvel. Other really good debuts were Deathlok and X-51.
Series Cancelled: Nova, Alpha Flight, Heroes for Hire. None of these are great losses. Also, Incredible Hulk (which immediately gets a new #1.)
Top 5 New Characters: Really not many worth mentioning.
- Echo
- Karen Page
- Adrienne Frost
- A new version of Mysterio
- Yet another Spider-Woman that nobody asked for or wanted, who is just here to round out the list.
Top 10 Stories:
- Ultron Unlimited
- Daredevil #9-15
- Deadpool #34-37
- Deadpool #28-33
- X-51 #1-3
- Captain America #14-19
- Avengers #1.5
- Captain Marvel #1
- Thunderbolts #27-30
- Avengers #438