Heroes for the '90s! is a 32-essay examination of 1990s Marvel and DC superhero comics. Each essay is centered on a particular issue of a comic book, and explores the themes, creators, and characters that defined the first decade of my fandom. Here are links every essay, plus the introduction and conclusion. Enjoy! Introduction 1990 #1 - My Secret Origin What If... (vol. 2) #9 (January 1990) #2 - A Perfect First Issue The New Warriors (vol. 1) #1 (July 1990) #3 - An Imperfect First Issue Spider-Man #1 (August 1990) #4 - My First Comic Book Love Namor, the Sub-Mariner #7 (October 1990) 1991 #5 - The Genius of Rob Liefeld New Mutants #98 (February 1991) #6 - Discovering the Distinguished Competition Justice Society of America #1 (April 1991) #7 - More Heroes for the 1990s Sleepwalker #1 (June 1991) #8 - Death Becomes Him Infinity Gauntlet #1 (July 1991) #9 - A New New (Old) Universe The Fly #1 (September 1991) #10 - ...And In With the New X-Men #1 (October 1991) 1992 #11 -
What Happened? I started this project in late 2020 at the height of COVID. My very ambitious goal was to write and publish one essay per week for 60 or so weeks. As school started up again (remote though it was) I soon found that pace untenable. I also found that the project was turning out to be much more personal than I'd originally envisioned. So I reduced the number of essays I planned to write to about 40. And then, after completing essay #25, I got pulled into other projects and put the whole thing on pause. My writing schedule finally freed up late last year, and though I initially didn't have a lot of desire to finish these final ten essays, the feeling was overcome by my hatred for leaving things unfinished. In the end, I had a lot of fun with the last batch of essays. Now, here are some parting thoughts to close out the overarching story of "Heroes for the '90s!". Superheroes Still Weren't Cool in the Late 1990s In the introduction I wrote about h