Year: 2000

2000 wasn’t a great year for Marvel but it was an important one.  The movement away from creating comics “The Marvel Way” accelerated, with truly innovative and edgy books by Garth Ennis, Grant Morrison, and others, as well as experimentation with narrative structure that would take hold and transform Marvel from the overmuscled ’90s to the neo-realistic decade of the 00s.

Major Events: 

  • Maximum Security; Nefaria Protocols; Heroes Return; The Twelve (Apocalypse event); and the X-universe’s “6-month time jump” ushering in the return of Chris Claremont.
  • Speaking of Claremont’s return, it was so hated by fans that editor Bob Harras was fired for it
  • Publishing line was marked by many miniseries, few of which were worth reading
  • Following Punisher’s lead, Beetle becomes a black man
  • Priest ends his run on Deadpool, Erik Larsen leaves Wolverine, and John Byrne calls it quits on his Amazing Spider-Man reboot.
  • Steve Englehart returns to Marvel to write the return of Hellcat…And it’s really good!
  • Several failed attempts to revive fan favorites via poorly executed miniseries (Power Pack, Warlock the mutant, ROM’s Spaceknights)

Important Deaths: Several that didn’t stick (Mary Jane Watson-Parker, Baron Zemo, Pete Wisdom) and a few that did (Jake Olsen, Jolt, Whiplash, Angar the Screamer, Arabian Knight)

Best New Series: Marvel Knights Punisher.  Runner up: X-51.

Series Cancelled: These all deserved it and should have been ended earlier: Spider-Woman, New Warriors, Webspinners, Gambit, and Bishop: The Last X-Man.  This one should have continued: X-51.

Top 5 New Characters: Really not many worth mentioning.

  1. The Sentry
  2. Marvel Boy
  3. Typeface.  Yes, Typeface.  He’s a grammar villain.  I write for a living.  Personal bias!
  4. Amanda Sefton as Magik (neither are new “characters” but she assumes the role and, in a year without many interesting new characters, this goes on the list)
  5. Thunderbird (Neal Shaara)

Top 10 Stories:

  1. Welcome Back Frank (MK Punisher #1-12)
  2. Marvel Boy miniseries
  3. Deadpool #34-37: Chapter X
  4. The Sentry miniseries
  5. Blood Debt (Wolverine #150-153)
  6. Cat Trap (Black Panther #23 and Deadpool #44)
  7. Hulk #14-20
  8. Deathlok #1-11
  9. Avengers Two
  10. Spider-Man: Death and Destiny