Aren’t You A Little Short for A Classic Comic Book Run?
In the early 1990s, as one superstar artist after another worked their magic on Marvel’s most popular characters, racking up some legendary comic book runs in the process. Marc Silvestri on Uncanny X-Men. Todd McFarlane on Amazing Spider-Man. Alan Davis on Excalibur. As all good things must come to an end, the sudden exodus of much of those creators to form Image Comics in 1992, a whole lot of good titles came to an wrapped up before we knew it. Titles that Marvel had built up for a year disappeared like Thanos had snapped them right out of existence. These books, despite their short runs (or maybe because of them) loomed large in my memory but you may have missed. Here are some of the beloved early ‘90s runs that made maximum impact with minimum page count:
Larry Stroman on X-Factor!
By 1991, Uncanny X-Men—propelled by superstar artist Jim Lee—was popular enough that Marvel’s editors realized that a big relaunch/rebrand built around him would break all kinds of sales records. Uncanny X-Men and its sister title X-Men (more on that in a bit) sold like gangbusters, but the X-Men spinoff titles got new creative teams or new directions and Gen X couldn’t get enough of Marvel’s Merry Mutants.
To fill the roster of two full X-Men teams, Marvel shifted the entire lineup of X-Factor—the first five X-Men—back to Xavier’s Mansion, the fan-favorite writer Peter David was tasked with building a new government-sanctioned X-Factor headlined by former X-Men Havok and Polaris, former New Mutant Wolfsbane, and castoffs and forgotten mutant heroes including Quicksilver, Guido (!), and the Multiple Man.
Peter David in the early 1990s was a big draw, but Lila Cheney’s former butler Guido (even with his new codename Strong Guy) wasn’t guaranteed to bring in readers. But Marvel had a secret weapon: Larry Stroman.
He’d shown hints of greatness on a standout run on Alien Legion, under Marvel’s Epic banner, had a really nice Cloak and Dagger graphic novel under his belt, and various fill-ins and one-off stories, but X-Factor was where it all came together. House ads, crossover events, a big push from Marvel, and Stroman taking his art to the next level in terms of character design, costumes, body language, body diversity (no two Stroman characters look alike), and Peter David having a lot of fun with the script...it was unlike any X-book we’d ever seen before.
Which is why we collectively remember Stroman’s tenure on X-Factor being a lot longer than it was. He kicked things off with issue #71 and his first story arc wrapped up with the double-sized #75, which featured the return of major X-villain Mister Sinister. Stroman took a month off to recharge, standard protocol after a double-sized anniversary issue, came back for (part of) issue #78, another month off, then drew two more issues before jumping ship to Image Comics for the short-lived creator-owned series Tribe (and there are some great stories to be told about Tribe). Stroman’s X-Factor consists of nine issues (one double-sized, one half-sized) over the course of a year, but those first five issues made such a huge impact that it just feels like Stroman must have been around a lot longer than he was.
Joe Quesada on X-Factor!
The sting of losing Stroman was lessened by a three-issue run by rising star Jae Lee, who drew the X-Factor chapters of the big X-Cutioner's Song crossover event (including one issue that didn’t have any X-Factor team members in it at all! Gotta love it), leading up the introduction of Marvel’s next big superstar, Joe Quesada!
Quesada’s impact was felt immediately, as he drew a special issue (#87) that featured the individual members of X-Factor undergoing therapy sessions so they could debrief and decompress after their recent X-adventures. Over the next few months, Quesada and David introduced a new badass bounty hunter guy named Random, wrapped up some ongoing subplots, then Peter David bailed out, Scott Lobdell came on as a transitionary writer, and Quesada stuck around long enough to draw a double-sized chapter of the Magneto-centric Fatal Attractions crossover, X-Factor #92. A beautiful run...of six issues.
Whilce Portacio on Uncanny X-Men
Did Walt Simonson put a curse on X-Factor when he left the book in 1989? His two-year run gave way to a two-issue story arc drawn by Art Adams, a truncated return to the X-Universe by Paul Smith, three great X-Tinction Agenda crossover issues by Jon Bogdanove...followed up by an incredible seven-month arc drawn by Whilce Portacio.
That run, at least, came to an end because the original lineup rejoined the X-Men after Whilce’s final story arc on X-Factor, and Whilce was tapped to draw Uncanny X-Men alongside Jim Lee’s new X-Men monthly.
There was a lot of hype building up to Uncanny X-Men #281, which arrived with a gatefold cover, the final fate of some long-running X-Men/New Mutants foes, the arrival of a menace from the future...and it all set the groundwork for the introduction of Bishop, Whilce Portacio’s biggest contribution to the X-mythos. Lots of action, lots of great costumes, big character arcs...and it all was all done by issue #290, with two fill-in issues before all was said and done.
One of those fill-ins was by John Romita Jr., whose second run on Uncanny X-Men was also shorter than you remember (two double-sized issues, but only a one-year run with two fill-in issues by other artists) and Andy Kubert (whose run on X-Men went on a good long time and provided some much-needed stability to that title).
Portacio left Uncanny X-Men to join the Image Comics crew with his creator-owned book Wetworks, which took a couple of years to actually see print, but again, that’s another story.
Jim Lee on X-Men
Jim Lee’s tenure on X-Men, the title created to capitalize on his incredible popularity, lasted 11 issues, and it took backup stories by Mark Texeira to bring the last two issues to the finish line.
Lee’s run seems longer than it was because it was preceded by about a year’s worth of Uncanny X-Men, a run that redefined and reinvigorated that title after a nearly two-year storyline that saw the team split up and saw prolonged storylines featuring the X-Men's middle-aged allies Forge and Banshee unsuccessfully looking for the lost heroes.
But what really gave Lee’s X-Men its Hall of Fame status (apart from selling about eight million copies of the first issue) is that his costume designs and team lineup were the basis for the team featured on the hit X-Men animated cartoon that debuted in fall 1992, introducing a generation of kids—whether they were comic book readers or not—to Wolverine, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, Gambit, Rogue, Beast, Jubilee, and Professor X...which laid the groundwork for the 2000s X-Men movies and all the Marvel media that’s come along since (including the X-Men ‘97 cartoon on Disney+). All because Jim Lee had a successful fill-in issue on Uncanny X-Men back in 1989.
Rob Liefeld on X-Force!
Rob Liefeld’s run on X-Force is probably exactly as long as you remember, though. After he built New Mutants up into a can’t-miss title during that book’s final year, Liefeld took a few months off to work up the new, nineties-er incarnation of that team, rebranded and reinvented as X-Force. The first issue, offered in standard edition and in five different polybagged editions each containing a different X-Force trading card, shattered sales records and sold millions of copies, cementing Liefeld’s superstar status and bringing new, young blood to the X-Men universe.
After seven issues of X-Force, Liefeld was unsure about his future with Marvel. He was earning a great page rate and bringing home big royalties thanks to the massive success of X-Force, but he knew that he didn’t own the characters that he’d created, and felt he wanted to explore his options as an independent publisher. The infamous eighth issue of X-Force was drawn by Mike Mignola (!) from Liefeld’s layouts, then Liefeld returned for issue #9 and only managed part of issue #10 before he bolted to form Image Comics with Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio, and other popular Marvel artists including Marc Silvestri, Erik Larsen, and Jim Valentino.
Honorable Mention, DC Comics:
Carlos Pacheco on Flash (and again on X-Men)
The late, great Mike Wieringo teamed up with writer Mark Waid for a memorable year on The Flash for DC Comics, turning a book that had traditionally been known for its great writing into one of the most visually-exciting DC titles of the early nineties. Slick, clean linework, dynamic storytelling, the introduction of a new Kid Flash in the form of Wally West’s time-displaced cousin Bart Allen (aka Impulse!)...when Mike Wieringo left the book after The Flash’s Zero Hour crossover event, he left some very big boots to fill.
DC turned to a Spanish artist named Carlos Pacheco, who—thanks in part to inker Jose Marzan Jr., who, with Hall of Fame letterer Gaspar and writer Mark Waid, brought continuity to the title—picked up where Wieringo left off, and quickly (is there any other way with The Flash?) made the book his own. Flash #93 and #94, setting the stage for Wally West’s character-defining story arc Terminal Velocity, which featured four issues drawn by another Spanish artist, Salvador Larroca. Pacheco came back to finish that storyline with issue #99 and the double-sized #100, then he was gone, like lightning, just as quickly as he’d arrived.
Over the next two decades, until his tragic illness and death in 2022, Pacheco had one incredible “shorter than you’d think” run after another. Apart from his epic year-long Avengers Forever maxi-series, he had short but memorable stints on titles including X-Men, Fantastic Four, Captain America, Superman...always brilliant, and never in danger of wearing out his welcome. He may very well be the patron saint of the “minimum page count/maximum impact” comic book. Unless that’s Steranko. Or Dave Stevens. Or Paul Chadwick. Or...
