Favorite Era of Marvel

[kkhohoho]

So, having created a poll for everyone's favorite era of DC, I thought it only fitting to do one for Marvel; a sort of companion poll, if you will. Now compared to DC, Marvels' different eras are a lot less distinct. You can divide DC into several widely different eras of it's history, but with Marvel, it all just seems to blend together a lot more, though there are differences, and thus different eras, even if these eras aren't as distinct as DC.

For me, it would have to be the Bronze Age; the later Bronze Age, specifically. There was definitely some good stuff before that, but in the Bronze Age, we got Chris Claremont's X-Men, which was a game-changer in terms of characterization and story-telling in comics. DC even tried to ape it with Teen Titans, and it shows, as it's rather similar to X-Men in terms of style and tone. (Though it's still very good in it's own right too.) And of course, we also got Steve Gerber's Man-thing, Howard the Duck,and Defenders, David Micheline's Iron-Man, Walt Simonson's Thor, Frank Miller's Daredevil, John Byrne's Fantastic Four and Alpha Flight, etc. Marvel was good before, but they were taking things to the next level here, and continued to do so until near the end of the 80's or so. That's when the quality started to taper off a bit, and while there's definitely been good stuff since, (Kurt Busiek's Avengers, Grant Morrison's X-Men, Avengers Academy, Peter David's X-Factor, etc.,) I still think the late 70's and 80's was something of a landmark era for Marvel, so it's the Bronze Age for me.

[HarryTrotter]

While I REALLY liked Claremonts X-men,I have to give my vote to pre-Civil war era.Thunderbolts,JMS Spiderman,even early Ultimate Spiderman.New X-men deserve a mention,but honestly Im not a fan.
And btw,didnt Marvel have some sort of ages system?Like Heroic age,etc?

[kkhohoho]

While I REALLY liked Claremonts X-men,I have to give my vote to pre-Civil war era.Thunderbolts,JMS Spiderman,even early Ultimate Spiderman.New X-men deserve a mention,but honestly Im not a fan.
And btw,didnt Marvel have some sort of ages system?Like Heroic age,etc?

Yup, and I completely forgot about them. They only really stared up since Dark Reign, though I suppose I can edit the polls a bit to get those different 'ages' properly represented, as they're still going on today.

And done.  The last five years has now been split up into 'Heroic Age' and Marvel Now accordingly, in case anyone prefers one over the other.

[Tomato]

They've tried to claim that everything post-AvX is what's called the "Heroic Age," but the simple fact is, eras are usually named retroactively. For example, most people refer to the worst of the 90s being the Dark Ages, but having grown up in the 90s, I remember most people trying to claim that as still either part of the Bronze age, or the "Modern Age."

And really, anything happening now is the "Modern Age" and anything prior is named based on the books that came out during that era: For example, I would call the whole period from Civil War to Siege as the "EVENT" age... sure, we've gotten events before and after that, but I remember not being able to catch my breath from one event before something equally "game changing" came out to replace it the following year (And DC was equally guilty... Infinite Crisis, Brightest Day, Blackest Night, Flashpoint... ugh).

As for Eras... this one's a lot tougher than the DC one, because I like the "early modern age" and I also like some of the current stuff coming out... but there is just so much awesome in the Bronze Age of comics, with the X-men revival, some truly classic Spiderman stories... it's that period where Marvel really came into its own, and set the stage for the success they have now.

[HarryTrotter]

Siege marks an era in several ways.For one it returns the universe to kinda of status quo like before Civil War.Strangly enough,it happens right after Disney bought Marvel.

[kkhohoho]

They've tried to claim that everything post-AvX is what's called the "Heroic Age," but the simple fact is, eras are usually named retroactively. For example, most people refer to the worst of the 90s being the Dark Ages, but having grown up in the 90s, I remember most people trying to claim that as still either part of the Bronze age, or the "Modern Age."

And really, anything happening now is the "Modern Age" and anything prior is named based on the books that came out during that era: For example, I would call the whole period from Civil War to Siege as the "EVENT" age... sure, we've gotten events before and after that, but I remember not being able to catch my breath from one event before something equally "game changing" came out to replace it the following year (And DC was equally guilty... Infinite Crisis, Brightest Day, Blackest Night, Flashpoint... ugh).

All good points, though I'm just trying to give all of the different eras names that fit them. 'Early Modern Age' is as good a name as any for the late 90's-2006 books, and everything after that can be divvied up into some sort of group or another.

Also, another great Bronze Age book: Killraven by Don McGregor. His Black Panther run was really good too, with only Christopher Priests' run from decades later matching up to it. Seriously, from the mid 70's into the mid-late 80's, Marvel had something special, and I don't know if there's been that level of quality spread so far and seen so consistently across Marvels' books since.

[Tomato]

Oh, don't misunderstand... The whole naming thing is arbitrary to begin with, so you could call it "the chicken little era" and it wouldn't mean anything. I think dark age is the last age anyone has a consensus on, and that's mainly because we're all far enough past it to look at the "age" objectively. In some respects, I feel like everything past the dark age could eventually be lumped together as the next age... But we just don't know right now.

But back on topic, I agree with you about the bronze age... It was the period that marvel really started to dominate the comic book world (to the point where WB considered having Marvel take over comic duties at DC), and its during this period where all the classic marvel stories that I remember fondly originated.

[Podmark]

The DC poll was easy for me. I knew exactly where to vote, but Marvel is a completely different story. I'm a way bigger Marvel fan and there's stuff I've really enjoyed from each of those eras. Pinning down one is almost impossible for me, so for now I'm holding off a vote. A couple highlights though:

Bronze Age for X-Men and Spider-Man
Early Modern Age for Avengers and Thunderbolts
Civil War to Siege for X-Men

Actually the X-Men would break up into their own eras. That could be it's own poll.

[Cyber Burn]

While I didn't start collecting until the Mid 80's, I had a tendency to hit the back issue bin when I was a kid. That's where my heart lies.  Nuff' said.

[HarryTrotter]

Everybody has a different theory on the ages.By wikipedia,Modern age last from 1985-today.And while most people agree when the Dark age started,nobody can agree when it ended.
On the best era of X-men,there isnt much doubt for me.Maybe some elements havent aged well,but Chris Claremonts era is THE definite one.