70 Years of Marvel - 1989

The X-Universe was getting busy by 1989, with 5 full-time books: Uncanny X-Men (under the control of Chris Claremont and Marc Silvestri); Excalibur (Claremont and Alan Davis); Wolverine (Claremont, again, and John Buscema); X-Factor (written by Louise Simonson, and drawn mostly by husband Walt); and New Mutants (Simonson, again, and mostly Bret Blevins, although the issue above was drawn by John Byrne). Of course, had we known what was ahead of us, in terms of the apparent exponential expansion of the X-universe, we'd have counted ourselves lucky to just have five books.

The New Mutants themselves were pretty busy too. They started 1989 by being embroiled in the Inferno saga, with Magik going crazy and turning into a demon. They lost the school and their headmaster, Magneto, turned back into a villain, and they finished the year stranded in Asgard, trying to save the 9 Realms from Hela. By this point, the book had abandoned any of the notion of being a story about school kids who just happened to be mutants, in favour of standard superhero stuff. We weren't quite at the annual "event" stage yet, but we were getting there.

Speaking of events, 1989 saw the "Acts of Vengeance" storyline, where some of Marvel's biggest bad guys decided the best way to beat their foes was to trade opponents. This led to such fights as Doctor Doom versus the Punisher, Daredevil versus Ultron, and the Fantastic Four versus Plantman. That storyline also saw the introduction of the New Warriors, another team of teenage superheroes, whilst, back over at the X-Books, future X-Woman, Jubilee, made her first appearance. Thor had a new secret identity, in the person of Eric Masterson, who'd later become the pseudo-Thunder God, Thunderstrike.

The real 1989 saw author Salman Rushdie get into a spot of bother, the introduction of the somewhat unpopular Poll Tax in the UK, and the decline and fall of the Berlin Wall. Yay!

70 Years of Marvel - 1984

Introduced in the pages of X-Men as former allies of Wolverine who were keen to bring him back to Canada, Alpha Flight got their own book despite the reservations of their creator, John Byrne. Byrne claims he never really knew what to do with the book when he had it, but despite that, Alpha Flight's first 28 issues are remembered with some fondness, particularly compared to the numerous failed attempts at relaunching the team and the title ever since. The issue above featured Alpha's leader, Guardian, taking on the evil Omega Flight, with unfortunate consequences.

1984 also saw the New Mutants gain four new members: Magik, Magma, Cypher and Warlock. Pre-school super group, Power Pack, also turned up, as did sometime X-Man, Forge. Transformers became the latest, and some might argue, greatest, toy tie-in comic, and Hawkeye formed his own West Coast Avengers team, as the Avengers became Marvel's third franchise.

in the real world, 1984 saw Ronald Reagan announce "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes". Despite, or possibly because of this epic mispronounciation, he was later re-elected President. Go figure.

70 Years of Marvel - 1983

1983 was a big year for Iron Man. Tony Stark, the original party animal, had always liked a drink, but this was the year that a business rival, Obadiah Stane, took advantage of Stark's weakness for the sauce, creating a set of circumstances to push him deep into a bottle. Consequently, Stark became bankrupt, losing his company, and his pilot / sidekick, Jim Rhodes, was forced to take over using the armour. Stark spent most of 1983 in various states of drunkenness, and it would a couple of years before he'd be back in the Iron Man suit. Rhodes, meantime, would get his own suit of armour, dubbed War Machine, and spend the next 25 years participating in the storylines deemed too racy, adult, or violent for Iron Man.

Meantime, 1983 also saw Starfox, half-brother of Thanos, make his debut as superhero, and saw Jack Monroe, retconned sidekick to the retconned Captain America of the 1950s, back in action as the new Nomad. Over in the UK, Captain Britain's sister, Betsy Braddock, was starting out on a path that would end up with her becoming the X-Men's Psylocke. Beta-Ray Bill was being given the power of Thor. Colossus' little sister, Illyana, was becoming ruler of Limbo, in the Magik mini-series. And Rogue, member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, ditched her old gang and went off to join the X-Men.

In the real world, NATO decided to pretend to start World War 3, an exercise known as Able Archer 83, and as a result, the Soviets nearly launched a real one. Whoops.