Happy Sunday all,
Before we get too far away from the last ten years, I wanted to do a retrospective on the the decade that was in comics. It was a very interesting ten years for the medium, with plenty of great moments, and some pretty terrible events transpiring as well. I’m going to break this into two parts over the next two days (2000–2004 and 2005–2009) so put on your reading glasses, grab a refreshing beverage, and join me on my trip through the early otts!
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Nu-Marvel: When the new millennium started, Marvel was hurting. Product quality was down, sales were bad, and the company had filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy only 3 years earlier. Marvel needed new blood and that is exactly what the company got in hiring Joe Quesada as editor-in-chief and Bill Jemas as publisher.
Bringing in Quesada was a risky move; he had had a small measure of success with Marvel Knights, but before that, he was known only as a penciller. The move paid large dividends almost immediately. Creators respected Quesada as an industry professional, and he was able to bring big names to Marvel that the company would not have been able to get a few years earlier.
Bill Jemas came to Marvel in the 1990s but it wasn’t until he became publisher and joined with Quesada that he started to make waves in the comic book community.
Upon taking over, Jemas and Quesada remade Marvel. They created a new rating system for Marvel comics, so that the company would no longer have to rely on the comic code authority. They started the Ultimate Marvel and MAX comic book lines. Perhaps most importantly, the pair established a trade paperback program that set the standard for the industry.
Not everything that they did worked (Marville, Marvel Tsunami), but it’s safe to say that Marvel would not be anywhere near as successful today without the contributions of the pair.
He never did get to kick that ball: Charles Shulz, the creator of the Peanuts comic strip, passed away in early 2000 from cancer. Shulz only took one vacation from the strip in 50 years. Peanuts appeared in 2,500 newspapers, in 75 different countries, as well as having several animated specials.
Schulz had been asked if, for his final Peanuts strip, Charlie Brown would finally get to kick that football after so many decades. His response: “Oh, no! Definitely not! I couldn’t have Charlie Brown kick that football; that would be a terrible disservice to him after nearly half a century.”
X marks the spot: X-men was released in theaters. Bryan Singer directed the story of Marvel’s merry mutants, which grossed just under $300 million, not bad considering the film cost $75 million dollars to make.
The success of the X-men movie lead to a flood of comic based movies over the rest of the decade. While the film had plenty of flaws it paved the way for some great films in the latter half of the decade.
Making the grade: In early 2000, CGC, or Comics Guarantee LLC, started doing business. CGC is an independent grading service for comic books. CGC retains a panel of five experts that inspect books in a temperature and heat controlled room, and rate books on a scale of .5 to 10. The book is then sealed in hard plastic.
Why is this important? It set a standard for collectors for what is considered mint as opposed to near mint and so on. Not everyone agrees on the CGC rules, but everyone across the industry respects them.
Dollah Dollah bills y’all: Comics jumped to $2.25 from $1.99. This jump was the first price hike for comics in the decade, but it wouldn’t be the last.
2001
Do you want a revolution?: In 2001, Marvel was trying to capitalize on the success of the X-men movie put out in 2000, but the X-franchise was not in a good place, so they tried something drastic. Marvel brought in Grant Morrison, Joe Casey, Ian Churchill and Frank Quitely and completely changed the X-franchise. Gone was the spandex and the monthly bad guy, in came crazy new concepts and cool leather outfits (or depending on your point of view, cool S&M togs).
Casey and Churchill’s experiment on UNCANNY X-MEN didn’t go well; the art was atrocious, and Casey could never quite find the right voice for the book. However, Morrison and Quitely put together one of the greatest runs in X-history on NEW X-MEN. NEW wasn’t without it’s flaws (the fill-in art made me want to poke my eyes out) , but it set the X-men franchise up for success throughout the rest of the decade.
Well that was a let down: Ever since his creation in the 1970’s, Wolverine was a character shrouded in mystery (and hair). Over the next 30 years plenty of clues were given as to the tiny candaians secret history, but there were never any concrete answers. In 2001, Paul Jenkins and Andy Kubert set out to tell the origin of Wolverine (in the appropriately named ORIGIN), and the results were… meh.
The story the Paul Jenkins laid out was not terrible or preposterous, just boring, which was almost worse. Over the years, it’s been hinted that Wolverine was a government spy, a crime lord, heck, one writer hinted he was a mutated wolverine, but no one hinted he was a prissy farm boy who always wore a nightgown.
ORIGIN was not without it’s high points though. The art by Kubert and colorist Richard Isanove was beautiful, and featured a digital inking technique from Isanove that would become very popular later in the decade. The story also kept plenty of room open for more early Wolverine stories to be told at a later date (which Daniel Way has taken advantage of in the title WOLVERINE ORIGINS).
Perhaps the most amazing thing about ORIGIN was that as bland as it was, it didn’t affect Wolverine’s popularity at all. I suppose the moral of the story is if you are angry and hairy, people will like you no matter what.
2002
Hooray Spandex: In 2002 spandex made a come back on the big screen. Sony Pictures and director Sam Raimi brought Spider-man to the big screen. The movie told the origin of Marvel’s web-slinger and featured Tobey Maguire, Willem Dafoe and Kirsten Dunst. The movie was a financial success, grossing over $800 million worldwide.
Spider-man showed that spandex could indeed work in a movie. While the movie had it’s share of flaws (power ranger green goblin), Tobey Maguire perfectly captured the character of Peter Parker, and the movie was a ton of fun.
Who doesn’t like free stuff?: 2002 saw the birth of the annual Free comic book day event. This event is great for small creators who want to get their work increased exposure, and big companies who want to get people excited over upcoming projects. And everyone gets free comics! Ha cha cha!
Unmanned:In 2002 Vertigo comics put out the first issue of Brian K. Vaughn and Pia Guerra’s Y: THE LAST MAN. While this might not be historically relevant, this was one of the best comics to be put out throughout the decade.
Oh, the horror!: 30 DAYS OF NIGHT also saw it’s first issue released in 2002. While the book itself was great, the success it garnered was even more important.
The high sales of the IDW published vampire story showed that horror books had a place in the market. Without 30 DAYS OF NIGHT, there would be no WALKING DEAD, or any other small press horror book out there today (and there are tons).
2003
Who woulda thought?: In an event no one would have thought possible, Marvel and DC teamed up to produce a JLA/ Avengers crossover, written by Kurt Busiek, with art from George Perez.
Plenty of conflicts arose during the project, and while we probably wont be seeing Marvel and DC working together again any time soon, it was pretty awesome to see Perez draw all those characters together.
Righting the ship: With Joe Quesada and Marvel comics exploding in popularity in the early part of the decade, DC had to do something. The DC answer to Quesada came in the form of Dan Didio.
Just like his Marvel comics counterpart, Didio came in and immediately started to change the direction of the company. Didio focused on a tighter continuity, and a return to what had worked for the company in the past.
Didio is the reason that DC has put out two CRISIS books in the latter part of the decade, as well as the man behind weekly books like 52 becoming a reality.
Many have criticized Didio for making DC a darker place, which it might be, but it is also more entertaining.
2004
The end of an era: 2004 saw the end of one of the longest running independent books in comic book history: CEREBUS.
CEREBUS, created by Dave Sim, began publication in 1977 (!) and ran 300 issues. While the book was on a steady decline in terms of quality by the end, the longevity of the book, and it’s titular character (a talking aardvark) are something to be marveled at. (Thanks to Margaret @ cerebusfangirl.com for the heads up on Cerebus’ completion date!)
Give ‘em hell!: With the success of Spider-man and X-men in theaters, comic book movies had proved themselves as a viable money maker. The next comic to make a splash on the big screen was Hellboy.
Hellboy didn’t achieve the financial success of other comic book films, bringing in just under $100 million world-wide, but it’s lead character was far more obscure than the X-men or Spider-man. Hellboy did, however, rock.
Director Guillermo Del Toro and star Ron Perlman perfectly encapsulated everything that is great about the comic book series. The movie was fun and exceptionally faithful to the source material, far more so than earlier comic-to film translations.
It was worth a shot: CrossGen comics, only six years after getting into comics, folded, declaring for bankruptcy, and ceasing all publication of comic books.
CrossGen had a novel concept for comic book publication: Keep all talent in house, not spread out throughout the country (or countries). The idea behind this was that the talent could inspire one another better in an enclosed environment, and deadlines could be better controlled. The Florida-based publisher hired some top names at the start and was dedicated to high quality work on a month to month basis.
The only problem with CrossGen was that the man in charge, Mark Alessi, was by all accounts a douche. Creators began to complain about the company, and work quality suffered. Then sales suffered. By the end of 2003 there were complaints that people weren’t getting paid. CrossGen finally folded in 2004, showing the world that no matter how great an idea is, a douchebag can ruin it.
All right folks, that takes us to the end of the first half of the decade, and this was the slow half! Check back in tomorrow for my recap on the latter half of the decade that was in comics!
Superman dresses up as a communist: In an Elseworlds special called RED SON, Superman lands in communist Russia instead of America. The big difference between worlds? Superman wears drab clothing. And probably has to share his super-powers with everyone. 
