Weekly Update 12/8/19

I'm going to level with you: 1978 felt like a drag to me. The nicest things I could say are "The Korvac Saga was fine" and "X-Men is getting better" or "This Spider-Man story is great... for 1969".  But with the exception of Claremont's X-Men, things seem to be stagnating at Marvel.

But here's some good news: We're about to have an explosion of all-time classic runs of comics!

- Frank Miller starts up on Daredevil (1978-1983), and it immediately feels like the DD we've all been waiting for.
- Claremont's X-Men finally (imo) comes in to its own as an all-time great series in 1979 (and goes until 1991!). He also will start New Mutants, Excalibur, and Wolverine as their own series!
- John Byrne has a classic five year run (1981-1986) on Fantastic Four, revitalizing a waning series. But much more importantly, he writes the first 28 issues of Marvel's best 80's series: Alpha Flight, baby!
- David Michelinie writes arguably the first engaging run of Iron Man, and works with the character on and off until 1989 (1978-1982, 1987-1989), as well as writing a fair amount of Avengers comics.
- Roger Stern starts very solid runs on both Spidey series, as well as on the Avengers, for the majority of the 80's.
- And of course, Walt Simonson's all-time great run on Thor (1983-1987). 'Nuff said!
-Ugh, Secret Wars.

Besides all these, there are a ton of interesting lesser-known series that would be great to dip our noses into. Captain America gets some of my favorite issues ever, Jim Starlin will be writing Silver Surfer, John Byrne writes a solo Thing series, and the West Coast Avengers!

I'm so excited to be getting into what will certainly be a great decade for Marvel comics!


If you're a $5+ Patron, make sure to check out My Ultimate Year: Episode One, out now! Each new episode will be released on the first of the month!
This week's episode is Marvel Year Seventeen: 1978 Pt. 2 Please get any 1978 feedback for us to discuss on our next Variant Cover episode by 12/10/19. You can send it to mymarvelousyear@gmail.com 
1978 PART 1:
Thor Annual / Avengers #6 / #170 to #177
Power Man / Power Man & Iron Fist #48, #49 / #50
Marvel Team-Up #65, #66
Devil Dinosaur / Machine Man #1 / #
1978 PART 2 :
Marvel Team-Up #69, #70
Uncanny X-Men #112 to #116
Amazing Spider-Man #176 to #180, #185
Fantastic Four #197 to #200
What If? #10

My Ultimate Year Episode One:
Ultimate Spider-Man #1-7
Ultimate Marvel Team-Up #1-8
Ultimate Daredevil & Elektra #1-4

My Ultimate Year Episode Two:
Ultimate Elektra #1-5
Ultimate Iron Man #1-5
Ultimate Iron Man II #1-5
Ultimate X-Men #1-6 + 1/2
EXTRA ISSUES 1977 (always changing, check the spreadsheet for current):
The Invaders #12 Debut of Spitfire
Avengers #158 Debut of Gravitron
Captain America #208 to #213 The River of Death! Arnim Zola! Red Skull!!
Howard the Duck #15 Doctor Bong!
Black Panther #1 Jack Kirby on Black Panther
UPCOMING PODCAST SCHEDULE:
December 9:  Marvel Year Seventeen: 1978 Pt. 2
December 10:  Feedback for 1978's Variant Cover Due
December 16:  Marvel Year Seventeen: 1978 Variant Cover
December 23: Special Holiday Episode!
December 30: Marvel Year Eighteen: 1979 Pt. 1
January 1: My Ultimate Year: Episode Two
Come chat with us in the Slack channel (available to $5+ patrons), and find us on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. You can find all the My Marvelous Year reading lists here and check out the rest of what Comic Book Herald has to offer here. Thanks for joining us on this journey through Marvel comics!