Marvel Comics of the 1980s: Inferno

Showing posts with label Inferno. Show all posts

Thursday, September 10, 2015

198X: Eight of the 80s Best Done-in-Ones

By Jef Willemsen (clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)

The Marvel Universe is founded on the magic of continued storytelling. Comics are like a spandex soap opera in which every issue is spent building up to a sense shattering cliffhanger. Yet, amidst all these continuous crossovers there are standalone tales that leave a lasting impression. Let's revisit eight of the 80s best...

Of course, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were the first to break with the tradition they themselves established. Back in 1966, after surprising all of comicdom with the cosmic threeparter that gave us Galactus and the Silver Surfer, the duo shifted gears with Fantastic Four I#51. In the now-classic "This Man, This Monster" they told a nigh Shakespearean parable about redemption and the measure of a man in spite of his looks. But these gems from the 80s, presented in no particular order, were no less memorable,

8) Uncanny X-Men I#199 (November, 1985)

Talk about a soap opera.

Chris Claremont was well into his 10th year on Uncanny X-Men when he penned this tale and his talents as a writer are on full display here. Deftly weaving together numerous, seperate storylines into a single issue, he managed to marry classic superheroics with human drama and pathos.

Consider what happens in a single issue: Moira MacTaggert reveals to a stunned Wolverine and Cyclops that their mentor Charles Xavier is dying. Mystique convinces Valerie Cooper that the government needs a super team and offers her the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. As a test case, the villains are ordered to bring in Magneto which leads to a fight between them and the X-Men at a World War II memorial service. This last bit was relevant because for the first time it firmly established Magneto was indeed a Jewish holocaust survivor.

And at the same time Rachel Summers, the alternate reality daughter of Jean and Scott, came to terms with her legacy as Phoenix.

"Can you see me, mommy? What I am... all I've done?"

Talk about a touching bit of dialogue. Moved to tears by experiencing the essence of the mother she'd lost (alternate counterpart or not), Rachel accepted the power of the Phoenix. Ignore the cover, while the image itself is memorable, it's actually a shameless misdirect. Fans expected #200 to be all about Rachel Summers terrorizing the world as the new Phoenix. Instead they got treated to the trial of Magneto.

Charles Xavier was so upset, he died.

7) Avengers I#298 (December, 1988)

My word!

Avengers writers sporadically honor the team's trusty butler by featuring him in a solo story. Most of those are rather memorable because they showcase just how much of an unflappable gentleman Edwin Jarvis is. Walter Simonson made sure Jarvis' personality was on full display when he wrote Avengers I#298, the story of how Jarvis dealt with a demonically possessed New York City. The heat was so unbearable, even the late Joe Cocker's Summer In The City didn't do it justice and worst of all, inanimate objects came to life. As always, Jarvis took things in stride...

"Complete this call and I shall feed you all the change I possess...
Frustrate that effort and I shall return momentarily with bolt cutters..."

Truth be told, Simonson didn't have any actual Avengers to write about, after all he'd just disbanded the team a month or so earlier. But the adventures of Jarvis were a worthy and wonderful alternative to classic superheroics. If only because the butler bore more than a little resemblace to Mr. Steed from the utterly British 1960s Avengers series, complete with bowler hat and umbrella. But even the incomparable Patrick Macnee never had to fight this off-brand Transformer.

"BEEEAAAUP!"

In the end, Jarvis was saved by Steve Rogers (as the Captain) and even got the girl. All in all, not bad for a day's work, eh?

6) Daredevil I#179 (February, 1982)

Smoking's lethal in more ways than one...

Leave it to Frank Miller to come up with a provocative cover. In early 1982, Miller had become the de factor Daredevil artist, providing words and pictures for a book about a character a far cry from the happy-go-lucky crimson crimefighter of yesteryear. Mixing classic crime noir with tragedy of ancient Greek proportions, Miller played up the ongoing rivalry between Daredevil and his old lover Elektra, who had become the Kingpin's latest personal assassin.

"My name is Ben Urich. I'm a reporter. This is my story."

The mistress of the sai was sent to convince Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich to stop investigating Randolph Cherryh, a crooked New York politician bought by the Kingpin. In an unforgettable sequence she caught up with Urich as he was meeting an informant in a movie theater, quietly stabbing the man to death and leaving the petrified journalist with one heck of a warning.

The rest of the story is told from Urich's perspective. We finally meet his wife who loves Ben but fears for his life, we see him doubt the way he's living even as he worries for his friend Matt Murdock who he got involved in the case. In the end, he catches up with Daredevil just as the hero is facing down Elektra. At the height of their silent but deadly confrontation, Urich has a coughing fit that alerts Elektra to his presence... Leading to this telling scene.

"Lousy cigarettes..."

Of course, Ben was fine...

5) Captain America I#250 (October, 1980)

I want you *not* to vote for me...

Spoiler alert: Captain America does not run for president. But that was never the point Roger Stern and John Byrne were trying to make in Cap's 250th milestone issue. After foiling a hostage situation at a political rally, a clever political powerbroker decided to present Captain America as a third party candidate for president.

Over the course of the issue, Cap mulled over the idea, discussing it with his friends in and out of costume. They all seemed pretty enthused about the notion of the Avenger-in-chief. Yet, he couldn't shake the feeling it wasn't for him. At first, he thought it was because it would mean he had to be Cap all the time, giving up on the life he'd been building for himself as Steve Rogers. But that unease turned out to be less selfish than we thought when Cap conveniently came acrosss his old primary school from the 1930s. Cue the even more convenient flashback...

"I pray that you do the right thing... the brave thing... Please don't let me down."

Motivated by his old teacher's words of wisdom, Steve Rogers realized that the brave thing to do was continue on as Captain America instead of pursuing a career in politics. This synopsis doesn't really do the sequence justice, it's truly a subtle and ennobling piece of writing. Sure, it's a tad cheesy, but that's the essence of what makes Captain America such a great character. His strength doesn't lie in the shield or the chest thumping, blind patriotism the costume envokes, it's the ideals of the man behind the mask.

4) Iron Man I#232 (July, 1988)

Oh irony, thy name is Tony...

In a perfect universe, Barry Windsor Smith draws at least one monthly book... Or maybe it's the fact the British born illustrator only rarely showed up at Marvel during the 1980s that makes his contributions so memorable.

Ironically enough, Windsor Smith is often given the most ludicrous of plots to work with. The Human Torch pranks Thing by pasting cut up orange straws to his face so Ben thinks he's growing a beard...Wolverine teams up with Katie Power to fight cyborgs during a blinding NYC blizzard? Golden! Storm struggles to survive the African dessert in the midst of a sandstorm while caring for a very pregnant girl? Unforgettable! Tony Stark has a 20+ page fever dream about his armor turning against him? Magnificent... Don't believe me, just watch...

"I know... where I am... now... Hell. I'm the devil. Stealing my own soul."

This story was presented as a coda to the wildly popular Armor Wars arc, in which Tony Stark went to great lengths to reclaim his stolen (armor) technology. To achieve this, he was forced to compromise his principles, fighting his teammate Captain America in a duel that one could call an 80s style Civil War and taking down armored villains and allies left and right. In the aftermath, the man had to come to terms with the machine he represented.

Even without Smith's art, David Michelinie's prose makes this done-in-one tale well worth the effort of tracking down.

3) Doctor Strange: Master of the Mystic Arts I#66 (August, 1984)

When east meets west, who's to say which is best?

This blog has often and happily sung the praises of the Roger Stern/Paul Smith days on Doctor Strange and this entry is no exception. Doctor Strange is asked by three pilgrims from the far east to help them locate the latest reincarnation of the lama of Bjarghan. Using his mystic senses, the good doctor discovers this venerated holyman was reborn in the body of a 28 year old All-American slacker who spends his days as a caddy on a golf course and isn't the least bit interested in the ways of old.

What follows is a wonderful and poignant tale of cultures clashing, religious intolerance and people's inability to embrace change. When Strange presents the pilgrims with their new and unexpected lama, one of them is so upset he decides to "remedy" this obvious "oversight" on behalf of the almighty.

"Our order has flourished for millenia.

I will not see it destroyed by a single error of reincarnation!"

Ah, the shameless hubris... Stern cleverly points out the hypocrisy often shown by people of faith who commit violent, heinous crimes because they believe their take on peace and love is superior to others. It's doubly interesting because it must have been hard to swallow for the Ancient One's followers as well when the Westerner Stephen Strange was selected to succeed him as sorceror supreme.

In the end, Strange helped the monks accept Arnie Green as their new leader. He accompanied them back to the far east, but not without bringing a satellite dish. In fact, the first thing he planned to do was introduce his order to the enlightenment of cable tv and pizza with extra cheese.

Well, it takes all kinds.

2) The New Defenders I#131 (May, 1984)

If only it coulda been the Eggman...

The latter day Defenders stories were marked by an ever increasing sense of doom, gloom and existential horror. When your rogues' gallery includes demon possessing Afghani wizards, soul corrupting dragons of the moon and gamma irradiated cactus creatures, all bets are off. Especially when part of your team consists of a transgender sentient cloud, a bisexual telepath with a god complex and a blind angelic mutant who has his non powered girlfriend Candy lead the team.

Add to that the fact your writers are Peter B. Gillis and J.M. DeMatteis and not having any laughs seems pretty much a given... And yet, there's also New Defenders I#131, a shamelessly goofy standalone issue that is actually co-written by the aforementioned gentlemen. It's DeMatteis' last and Gillis' first contribution to the book and they wound up creating the terrifically terrible Walrus.

"Woo woo!"

Don't expect any actual drama, it's mostly shtick and it's delightful. Meet Brooklyn based cab driver Hubert Carpenter, obsesssed with the Beatles and living with his mad scientist uncle who is desperate to prove his genius by granting Carpenter superpowers based on an animal. After dozens of unsuccesful attempts, they're down to the W in the alphabet, which leads Hubert to naming himself the Walrus after the famous LSD-inspired Beatles song I Am The Walrus.

Eager to show off his new powers, the Walrus and his uncle decide to attack the Beast who's scheduled to give a lecture at the local university. And then Frog Man shows up too because, hey... Why not?

"Destroy them all! It's the Carson show for us for sure!"

Yours truly loved the story as a child, because there was so much silly, goofy and innocent fun to enjoy. But in retrospect, it seems obvious J.M. DeMatteis had actually intended this tale for Marvel Team Up, a book he wrote in the early 1980s. It featured the exact same relatively light hearted stories as seen here and also used Beast, Frogman and even the Kwikee Burger restaurant the Walrus is tearing up. Add to that the fact Iceman and Angel play an extremely limited role in this story and it's not hard to imagine New Defenders I#131 started out as an unused Marvel Team Up story featuring Beast and Frog Man. In order to give incoming New Defenders scribe Peter Gillis a little more time to get started, this old inventory story was modified. But I'll be darned if it wasn't fun... coo-coo-cachoo!

1) Fantastic Four I#234 (September, 1981)

"Submitted for your approval, one mister L.R. Collins... The man with the power"

Very early in his tenure on Fantastic Four, John Byrne wrote, drew and inked the story of "Skip" Collins. A very ordinary, somewhat simple minded but dedicated working class hero who unwittingly possessed the power to alter reality. He gained this power in the military after prolonged exposure to the radiation of nuclear tests but didn't even notice that over the years his subconscious desires or worries shaped the world around him.

"And it becomes a half-hour earlier, simply by virtue of the fact that "Skip" desires it so"

Judging by that quoted line, it's obvious Byrne was still finding his feet as a writer then. Any eagle-eyed editor would have pointed out that "simply by virtue of the fact that" was a bit verbose and a simple "because" would have sufficed. What's also clear is that John Byrne was basically writing an episode of Twilight Zone. The premise fits the classic sci-fi show and his scripting is reminiscent of the show's remarkable host and headwriter Rod Serling, who would introduce and narrate tales of ordinary people in anything but ordinary circumstances.

And it's a delightful, off beat tale that neatly brings the blissfully omnipotent Skip Collins in the world of the Fantastic Four when he lucks his way into taking a business trip to New York City. Fascinated by a chance encounter with Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Girl, he decides to follow them around only to be alarmed when they're suddenly called away to deal with an unknown disaster of global proportions. The Earth is being ravaged by unknown forces (actually, it's Ego the Living Planet) and the last thing Skip sees is the FF's ICBM headed out for space. Believing his heroes abandoned him, Skip panics and that throws his powers into overdrive...

"It should never have happened!"

With the same ease as Anthony Freemont would wish people into the cornfield... Skip restores the entire planet, undoing untold damage and deaths without even giving it a second thought. His powers burned out and everything around him back to normal, he quietly wanders into obscurity.

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So much for this Eight of the 80s entry. For the record: "obvious" picks like "The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man" or "Professor Xavier is a Jerk!" have been omitted in favor of somewhat more original choices... But of course, the classics are wonderful too!

Saturday, July 11, 2015

The Goblin Queen by Daniel Govar

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Eighties August 8 part IV: Best Crossovers Of The 1980s

By Jef Willemsen (clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)

It's day four of the Eighties August 8, we're at the midway point. The 80s marked the beginning of the company wide crossover. What started out as an exciting way of seeing different heroes interact with each other grew into an annual tradition until finally it spun out of control in the early to mid 90s... But for now, let's look back to when the going was still good.
8) - Evolutionary War (1988)

I really wanted to like the Evolutionary War, Marvel's first attempt at having a company wide crossover that solely played out in that year's annuals. The story featured Herbert Edgar Wyndham, a mad scientist turned uber powerful evolved human, who was determined to help guid mankind to the next phase of evolution through several schemes that brought him into conflict with a variety of Earth's heroes. As stories go, not the worst outline. But the sad truth of the matter: most of the material really wasn't very good.

The main problem with Evolutionary War was that only a few of the books really mattered to the actual story. Having the Punisher fight the High Evolutionary's footsoldiers who were killing drugdealers in Bogotá made for an okay but ultimately pointless story. Same goes for the Silver Surfer annual which saw the Evolutionary ask the Eternals to help map the Silver Surfer's DNA until he was able to convince them it wasn't a good idea.

Now, not everything is pure filler. While the X-Factor annual wasn't as pivotal as the cover suggested, it did feature a confrontation between Apocalypse and the Evolutionary which was a joy to read. And the finale in Avengers Annual I#17 remains a personal favorite of mine, with Captain America (as the Captain) desperately trying to get a makeshift team of Avengers together to help him deal with the High Evolutionary once and for all. The actual Avengers were disbanded at the time, still the Mr. Fixit Hulk, X-Factor's Beast, Hercules, Falcon, a newly reconstructed Jocasta and the criminal Yellowjacket (Rita DeMara) showed up to help save the world.

Even though yours truly didn't much care for the story I did buy the omnibus that came out a few years back, proving once again the old adage: If at first you don't succeed, resollicit!

7) - Fall Of The Mutants (1987)

The main reason this crossover didn't break into the top 5 is the simple reason it really wasn't a crossover at all. Following the success of 1986's "Morlock Massacre" storyline that ran through the pages of Uncanny X-Men, New Mutants and X-Factor, it was decided a new event was needed to boost sales.

Back when there were just three X-men related titles (written by only two people!), deciding what to do was easy. Chris Claremont and Louise Simonson came up with Fall Of The Mutants, a three month special event that would put the aforementioned teams of mutants through the wringer... without them ever meeting! The X-Men were in Dallas where they apparently sacrificed their lives fighting The Adversary, X-Factor was forced to deal with Apocalypse who assaulted New York with his four horsemen, one of which happened to be Angel. The New Mutants suffered perhaps the most personal loss: their teammate Cypher was killed during a mission against a forgettable Dr. Moreau type villain called the Ani-Mator.

Well crafted stories, one and all... But the only thing that really crossed over was the Fall Of The Mutants logo that appeared on the covers. There were, however, a few other titles who joined in on the fun. Captain America, Daredevil, Hulk, Fantastic Four and Power Pack all published Fall Of The Mutants tie-in issues with varying degrees of relevance.

All in all, 25 years later, Fall still holds up...

6) - Secret Wars II (1985-1986)

"Fear me, you lords and lady preachers, I descend upon your Earth from the skies!"

If only Secret Wars II had been as energetic and to the point as Queen's bombastic rock classic Seven Seas Of Rhye. Instead, the sequel to the smash hit of 1984 will mostly be remembered as longwinded, rambling and plagued by pedestrian art. In a nutshell: the Beyonder came to Earth looking for a purpose, which makes about as much sense as you asking an anthill for career advice.

That's not to say writer Jim Shooter's exploration of the nature of desire was either wrong or poorly thought out. Often profound, Shooter's story in fact preceded Wallstreet's Gordon "greed is good" Gekko by well over a year. Secret Wars II examined the ever changing human nature through the eyes of the naive but all powerful Beyonder, who in many ways learned about the world he'd entered like any newborn would... If that baby was capable of exploding planets and dropkicking Celestials, of course. Another often overlooked theme Shooter quite effectively touched on, was life in the mid 80s U.S., which he showed through the prism of Molecule Man and his chubby sweetie Marsha. Both had virtually limitless potential, but instead they were seemingly content holding down mediocre jobs, only to come home to watch mediocre television and stuffing themselves with junkfood. The most excitement they got was playing boardgames with friends. Was it bliss or were they blissfully trying to settle?

Secret Wars II ran for nine issues and had crossover tie-ins with just about every mainstream Marvel title. From Cloak & Dagger to Dazzler, from Uncanny X-Men to Power Man & Iron Fist, they all had to contend with a visit from the Jheri curled "one from beyond". While most writers were able to use the Beyonder in some way to progress the storylines they were actually interested in telling, there was still an undeniable sense of forced participation. After all, the one writing Secret Wars II also happened to be the one who signed their cheques.

5) - Atlantis Attacks (1989)

Atlantis Attacks is the first crossover Marvel actually put some P.R. power behind. In an attempt to boost sales for the multipart Summer annual crossover about Marvel's undersea ne'erdowells, they sent out sponges to retailers. Because, y'know... things get very damp around Atlantis and hey, you try and come up with something better. What, complimentary sea monkeys? Now that's just racist!

The editors took the lessons learned from Evolutionary War to heart, though. Instead of having eleven annuals that told pretty much standalone stories, they now constructed a 14(!) part connected story that saw the Deviant high priest Ghaur ally himself with Sub-Mariner's old enemy Llyra. Together, they planned to revive the Elder God Set using a complex five pronged plan that brought them into conflict with pretty much every superhero who had an annual out that year.

Not every chapter had the best possible art and some of it did still feel like padding (looking at you New Mutants Annual I#5), but all in all Atlantis Attacks told intriguing or at least fun stories. From the seven superheroines Ghaur kidnapped so they couldbecome Seth's brides, to Atlantis' inevitable invasion of New York which was secretly to facilitate a blood sacrifice needed to appease Seth... It was well thought out and felt like an actual event, instead of incidental skirmishes against semi-connected foes. As it stands, the final battle against Ghaur and Llyra remains one of the most underappreciated slobber-knockers of the late 80s.

4) - Secret Wars (1984 - 1985)

The year was 1984 and Marvel wanted to sell some toys.

While that might be a bit unfair, Secret Wars was created to help promote a line of toys and playsets based on Marvel characters. Back in 2011, writer Jim Shooter detailled part of the origin story of the first ever company wide mega crossover on his blog. Any fan of Marvel in the 1980s knows the set up of Secret Wars: a mysterious, all powerful force calling itself the Beyonder summons a number of Earth's superheroes and villains, as well as Galactus, to a patchwork planet named Battleworld. Once there, they have one simple instruction: fight each other, for whoever wins will gain their heart's desire.

The toyline wasn't that big a hit, but the book itself proved incredibly popular. Part of the appeal was the fact most of the heroes had undergone mysterious changes during their time away. Spider-Man had a new costume, She-Hulk had taken the Thing's place with the Fantastic Four, the Hulk had a broken leg and more. Finding out the how and why behind these changes, not to mention seeing most of your favorite heroes and villains interacting, brought readers back month after month.

Still, the maxi-series wasn't without its detractors. Both John Byrne and Secret Wars artist Mike Zeck have gone on record say how dull and unimaginitive they felt the book was. And Shooter's scripting could at times be a tad too overwrought and shouty, as Brian Cronin pointed out back in 2007: out of 12 issues worth of dialogue, only 14 sentences did not end in an exclamation mark(!). But I don't care, Secret Wars (or 'Geheime Oorlogen' as the Dutch publisher Juniorpress translated it) was the first crossover series I got into as a kid and I absolutely loved its grandiose scope.

3) - Contest Of Champions (1982)

You never forget your first time...

Contest Of Champions was originally intended to be a comics tie in to the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics. For that reason a number of international superheroes like Talisman, Defensor and Collective Man were created. The project was well under way, penciller Pablo Marcos was already drawing the first scripts and then... the USA decided to boycott the event to protest Soviet Russia's military actions in Afghanistan (plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose...). So, while Marvel's editors considered the project effectively defunct and moved on, nobody told Marcos. He dutifully kept working on the script he'd received. When he eventually sent in his art, wondering when he could expect the rest of the story, people were stunned. Still, the half finished storyline gave editors Mark Gruenwald, Tom DeFalco and writer Bill Mantlo the idea to finish the tale anyways.

The plot could easily be reworked, now featuring Grandmaster who used Earth's heroes to engage Death in a cosmic game of chance. Each picked a team of 12 heroes who had to compete against each other. If Grandmaster won, Death would restore his fellow Elder of the Universe the Collector back to life. and with an art assist from John Romita Jr. who had to update Marcos' depictions of the various characters and team line ups to reflect their then current incarnations, the three part Contest Of Champions was a fact. Not only does Contest hold the honor of being the first crossover, it's also Marvel's first ever limited series.

Ironically, despite the involvement of so many A-level creators, one massive mistake was made when they messed up the final score. The story claimed the game ended in a tie, but the decisive battle was won by Shamrock who in fact was on Death's team. This major whoops was later addressed in the 1987 Avengers and West Coast Avengers annuals.

2) - Inferno (1988-1989)

Roughly a year after Fall Of The Mutants, the X-office unleashed an inferno on the poor children of the X. Flowing naturally from the pages of Uncanny X-Men, the crossover told the story of Limbo demons S'ym and N'astirh who planned to merge their realm with Earth to rule over both worlds. Over the course of the year leading up to the event, the coming catastrophe was strongly hinted at. The barriers between dimensions growing thin and S'ym's march to wrest control of Limbo from its ruler Magik was a plotline in both New Mutants and Uncanny X-Men. And then, when the demons managed to seduce X-Men associate Madelyne Pryor to become their Goblin Queen, the fuse was lit and no one could escape the exploding powderkeg that followed.

For three months' worth of issues, Limbo's ravenous residents rained down on New York, ready to take a massive chunk out of the Big Apple. The city itself became infected by outerdimensional evil, turning inanimate objects like cars, statues, mailboxes and payphones into vicious creatures out for blood. While the X-Men dealt with the main crisis, many of New York's heroes got in on the action trying to contain the effects of the incursion. The Fantastic Four helped keep the city safe from such varied menaces as Kang, Necrodamus and Graviton who all sought to benefit from the chaos. The event spawned the formation of a new Avengers lineup and caused Spider-Man's foe the Hobgoblin to strike a deal with N'astirh to become a true demon.

Even though they mostly didn't run into each other, thanks to the shared backdrop of a New York gone mad, Inferno felt like an actual intercompany crossover. Even if the actual, byzantine storyline played out in Uncanny X-Men and X-Factor where it taught a confused 8 year old the meaning of words like 'obtuse', 'opaque' and 'wtf did I just read?'.

1) - Acts Of Vengeance (1989)

Perfection.

Acts of Vengeance might just be the single best crossover Marvel did in the 80s... and it didn't finish until early 1990! Of course, naysayers complain about the blithingly simple plot: a cabal of high profile villains like Doctor Doom, Magneto, Kingpin and the Red Skull join together to finally beat their most hated adversaries... by siccing bad guys on them they were unaccustomed to.

For those who claim that's a silly trick, yes... definitely. But it worked for the heroes so many times in the past. How often didn't either the Fantastic Four, X-Men or Avengers win a battle because they quickly switched opponents? The idea that a group of brainy baddies set aside their egos (as much as possible) to think of the perfect person(s) to take out their archenemies makes total sense. It did when I was a kid and it does today. And besides, it was just fun to see heroes try and deal with menaces they're unfamiliar with. Thor fought the Juggernaut, Iron Man found himself face to face with the Wrecker, Quasar had to adapt to defeat the Absorbing Man and a remnant from the first Secret Wars and what was left of the X-Men ran into the Mandarin. The resulting dust ups were a joy to read.

The cabal was brought together by Loki, who gleefully sat back and watched the mischief he'd caused. He also did nothing when holocaust survivor Magneto turned on his fellow cabal member Red Skull. Kingpin quickly abandoned his compatriots when the Avengers finally moved against them and Doctor Doom was too busy to notice anyway. He sent a bevy of baddies to fight a cosmically powered Spider-Man and also found time to sink the Avengers' floating island headquarters Hydrobase. Fun was had by all, unless you were one of the good guys, that is.

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*Naturally, these picks are solely based on my own, anything but unbiased preferences. Think I'm wrong or an absolute idjit for leaving out your particular fave? By all means, join the conversation!