I was born in the 80’s, early 80’s, so that meant that as a human being I was really just hitting my stride when the 90’s came around. I was starting to figure out who I was and appreciate what I was into. One thing I was way into in the 90’s was comic books. I loved them. Whatever money I earned in allowance or from paper routes I spent on comics. And they seemed to be everywhere. And there seemed to be so many major things happening in the comic book worlds. I really felt fortunate to be living in what my teenaged mind could only fathom as the “Golden Age” of comics. There was never a better time when there was so much available everywhere.
What I didn’t realize was that all of this was happening because, in reality, the 90’s was quickly killing off the art medium I loved so much. There was such a big boom in comics in the 90’s that things started to escalate very quickly and there was no way that the industry could sustain itself at the pace it was going. This was a huge time sales wise for the “Big 2” (Marvel and DC), and it also saw the emergence of some of the major minor publishers like image and Valiant. IT was so huge that the publishers decided to give the people what they wanted and a lot of it. People wanted comics, and they wanted their purchases to mean something, so we needed big, life altering story lines for major characters. People wanted number 1’s so we saw the birth of a lot of new heroes (or anti-heroes, another big movement of the 90’s). And, the publishers discovered, people wanted deaths. Big change was about to sweep through both major publishers, and it would almost destroy everything.
What was happening is that people had discovered that having old comics could mean a lot of money. That would depend on the condition of the comic, who the book was about, and the rarity. People were beginning to pay out big money for Action Comics 1 and Uncanny X-Men 1 and so on. This began to get people thinking that if the bought the right issues now, they could sit on them and they would gain in value. Hopefully they would gain big. These new collectors didn’t care about the stories or the characters, they only cared about an issue being a big deal. The publishers caught on to this quick and started delivering big stories and events, creating issues that promised to be huge deals later. And of course, you could buy just the regular news stand version, or you could buy one of 15 collector’s edition. And, in order to sell these issues, and make an event epic it had to involve their big guns. What the consumer didn’t realize at the time is that the comics people had no problem with these events involving big names (one of the criteria mentioned above) and the collectors were good about buying the issues and keeping them in “mint” condition (another one of our criteria for big time comics cash), but the publishers were not interested in making these books rare. They published them by the hundreds of thousands and sometimes the millions to make sure that everybody had the chance to buy. They weren’t interested in actually making a collectors’ market, just the illusion of one. There was no rarity involved. Take the new X-Men series with art by Jim Lee and written by Chris Claremont, 2 comics legends. They started the series at No. 1, and that issue became the best-selling comic book issue of all time. Because it was everywhere. I remember getting my copy from a big package of comics we bought at Costco. Yep. Costco. I remember getting a bag and board for it and thinking, “someday, this is going to be worth a lot of money.” I was wrong, because every kid who bought that same package of comics got that issue along with millions of others. It’s not worth a lot of money now, and probably never will be.
Because all of this was happening, the characters I loved (the real reason I bought, and still buy comics) went through some rough times, and no one was safe. As an example, let’s look at Superman. I don’t know if the 90’s were rougher on any other character than they were on Superman. DC wanted a big event and buyers wanted a major issue to “collect” and invest in. The result? Let’s kill Superman. They introduced a new villain with not back story at the time, nothing. He kind of just shows up and is on a destructive, direct course to Superman. On his way, through multiple issues, he destroys everything in his path including the Justice League of America (at this time made up exclusively of second stringers) and finally meets Superman, for the showdown, in the middle of Metropolis. Big battle ensues and with one final blow, the two of them take each other out. Permanently. (Sorry…spoiler alert) Superman is dead. Fortunately, it looks like Doomsday is too. And everyone is sad. The issue where Superman dies was a huge seller, and the promoted it and promoted it. And the one you wanted to buy came in a black plastic, sealed bag with a bloody red Superman “S” on the front. Of course, if you were a “collector” you bought that one and never opened it. I never bought that one because that thing skyrocketed in value almost immediately. Right after, DC had to go about replacing Superman, so they introduced these guys:
They called it the “Reign of the Supermen” and the reader was stuck trying to figure out which one was the real Superman. This lasted about a year, and then it was time for another big epic event. DC figured out, wait, if we kill a hero, then we sell a lot of books. What would happen if we bring the hero back? So, they brought back the one true Superman and all these guys were exposed. So now we had Superman coming back, and then he and Lois got married, and everything was good. Until the Suneater shows up and as a result Superman loses all of his powers and we don’t know if they will ever return. So DC needs to have another major boost in Superman sales, so let’s just totally scrap the old Superman and his powers and everything and we’ll have his powers return, but it will look like this:
And then, they decided to split him up into 2 different people: Superman Blue and Superman Red. And I stopped reading it. I couldn’t do it anymore. Fortunately for fans of the hero, 1998 was a milestone anniversary for the big guy- 60 years. For the anniversary issue they brought him back together into one guy and gave him his normal powers. About this time, too, the whole collecting frenzy was dying down and DC and marvel began to realize they were stretched too thin so they starting dialing it back a bit. The Death of Superman issue lost all its value when Superman came back, and “collectors” began to realize that things were not going to work out the way they had thought. If you go to a comic book shop now ( I would recommend Black Cat Comics, if you live in the Salt Lake Area) you will occasionally hear someone come in looking to sell their old comics from the 90’s. Then you’ll hear that followed up with muffled laughter from the patrons and staff in the store.
Comics seemed to stabilize after that and fans began to settle into the routine of when a character dies, they are probably coming back (since the year 2000, both Batman and Captain America died. Just last year, Peter Parker died, and Doc Ock took over his body. All three have returned to normal now). Publishers still try to pull off major events (DC’s confusing New 52 and Marvel’s ongoing NOW!) , but for the most part, the frenzy has died down. There may be alternate covers to specific issues every now and then, but the over use of foil and holograms and sealed packaging has all stopped. No one seriously buys comics as an investment anymore, because most serious comic book buyers are more savvy and realize that you never really know which issue will be worth a lot of money. Most of us, I think buy the books to read and enjoy. Even with the huge success of the Avengers movie and other Super Hero films, I haven’t seen the same frenzy as what happened in the 90’s. It was a special time, and one that I am glad is over.
