During the '80s, no medium was more innovative and daring than comic books. Shedding the notion that they were exclusively for children, writers like Neil Gaimain, Frank Miller, and Alan Moore revolutionized the industry with titles such as Batman: Year One, The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, and Sandman. These books transcended the superhero genre and wound up appealing to fans with more sophisticated tastes.
That decade of revolution simply couldn’t bleed over into the '90s, however. Even though Miller, Moore, and Gaimain were still churning out great work during the '90s, new trends started to overtake the industry. The superlative storytelling of the '80s were replaced by flashy art and greedy publishers' get-rich-quick schemes. Thus began the era of tasteless, hyper-sexualized drawings and classic superheroes thrown haphazardly into mindless stories created purely for shock value.
This week marks the 15th anniversary of one of the worst comic book events of all time, Marvel Comics' Heroes Reborn, a 1996-1997 crossover story arc that needlessly "killed off" the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and Dr. Doom and reinvented them in a pocket universe. To celebrate the anniversary, and hopefully ensure that we learn from our mistakes, we give you 10 Reasons Why Comics Sucked During The '90s.