Marvel is the biggest name in superheroes for a good reason. Over the years, the publisher has presented readers with stories that allowed their characters to grow in unprecedented ways. Marvel set itself apart by presenting heroes that were more than just all-powerful icons, they were human beings that readers could empathize with. This method completely revolutionized the comic industry.
However, not every Marvel story made the best use of heroes like Captain America, Scarlet Witch, and Spider-Man. At their worst, Marvel’s stories completely broke the heroes they were supposed to illuminate.
10 Avengers Disassembled
By Writer Brian Michael Bendis, Artist David Finch, Inker Danny Miki, Colorist Frank D’Armata, And Letterers Albert Deschesne And Richard Starkings
Avengers Disassembled changed the Avengers forever. However, it’s safe to say that the character that it wrought the biggest change on was the Scarlet Witch and she was ruined for years to come. After Wanda learned that the Avengers had wiped her memories of the two children she created with her powers, both her subconscious and conscious mind unleashed her full power on the team.
Scarlet Witch had long been put in sexist stories that spotlighted a woman losing control of her powers because of her emotions. This one took this narrative much too far, highlighting a long-existing problem. She killed three Avengers and the story broke Scarlet Witch for years to come. It even defined her role in Multiverse of Madness. Nearly twenty years later, the character still hasn’t completely recovered.
9 The Vision (Vol. 2) #1-12
By Writer Tom King, Artists Gabriel Hernandez Walta And Michael Walsh, Colorist Jordie Belleaire, And Letterer Clayton Cowles
Sometimes, making a character look bad is the whole point of the story. The Vision (Vol. 2) starred the titular Avenger in a unique situation. In order to seem more human, the Vision created a family, including wife Virginia and children Viv and Vin, moved to the suburbs and got a job with the government. However, the story gives Vis and his family an unnerving, horrific vibe, as these synthetic humans deal with the tribulations of being human.
The Vision (Vol. 2) isn’t a superhero story, but a horror story, and it does an amazing job of dehumanizing the Vision. It makes readers question what exactly is going on with this character they’ve read for decades. It’s a brilliant story that does a tremendous job of taking a character everyone thinks they know and tweaking him into something dismaying.
8 New X-Men: Planet X
By Writer Grant Morrison, Artist Phil Jimenez, Inker Andy Lanning, Colorist Chris Chuckry, And Letterer Rus Wooton
New X-Men: Planet X represented the culmination of Grant Morrison’s time writing New X-Men. They did it by revealing that Xorn, the mysterious mutant with a black hole for a head, was really Magneto. The Mutant Master of Magnetism completely hobbled the team, tricked the heroes of New York into leaving the city unprotected, and conquered Manhattan, herding humans into death camps.
After decades of being a sympathetic character, Morrison laid bare the truth in Magneto’s heart. If he had his way, he would slaughter the human race as readily as they slaughtered mutants. The point of the story was that hate deforms even the most noble intentions, as anyone can pave their road to Hell with hatred.
7 The Inhumans Push Post-Secret Wars
Marvel started pushing the Inhumans around 2013 after Black Bolt released the Terrigen Mists into the Earth’s atmosphere. Masterminded by writer Matt Fraction, it was ambitious but wasn’t really catching on with fans, so Marvel went with an unexpected nuclear option. Post-Secret Wars, Marvel revealed that the Terrigen Mists were killing or sterilizing mutants, rendering the planet uninhabitable for them.
The publisher launched Uncanny Inhumans, Inhuman, All-New Inhumans, and several other titles and writer Charles Soule took over as the line’s lead. The Inhumans knew that the Mists were poisoning mutants, but beyond moving mutants from their homes when the Mist clouds came, they didn’t do much. The Inhumans already had a history as a slave-owning, eugenics-based monarchy, so adding genocide to their list of sins only made them feel worse.
6 Avengers Vs. X-Men
By Writers Brian Michael Bendis, Jonathan Hickman, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, And Jason Aaron, Artists John Romita Jr., Olivier Coipel, And Adam Kubert, Inkers Scott Hanna, Mark Morales, And John Dell, Colorist Laura Martin, And Letterer Chris Eliopolous
Avengers Vs. X-Men made the Avengers look terrible. By instigating the conflict with Cyclops and the mutants of Utopia when Wolverine warned the Avengers about Cyclops’ desire to get the Phoenix Force, the Avengers turned themselves into bad guys and made things worse at every turn. Of course, the story also made the X-Men look bad, especially the Phoenix Five.
Cyclops, Emma Frost, Namor, Colossus, and Magik started out using their powers for good, but eventually fell into more genocidal pursuits. Emma casually murdered humans who had hurt mutants, Namor flooded Wakanda, Magik tortured prisoners, and Cyclops killed Xavier before going full Dark Phoenix. These were extreme versions of their previous characters but no one looked good by the end of the story.
5 Secret Empire
By Writer Nick Spencer, Artists Steve McNiven, Andrea Sorrentino, Rod Reis, Joshua Cassara, And Leinil Yu, Inkers Jay Leisten And Gerry Alanguilan, Colorists Rachel Rosenberg, Matthew Wilson, Sunny Gho, And Java Tartaglia, And Letterer Travis Lanham
Secret Empire has a horrible reputation, mainly because of what the story did to Captain America. Spencer had been building up Cap as a Hydra agent in Steve Rogers: Captain America and Secret Empire made this idea the focus of the entire Marvel Universe.
Many readers hated the idea of Captain America, a character created by Jewish creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, becoming a Nazi in everything but name. It was easy to ignore when it was just in Cap’s book, but throwing Cap’s conversion to fascism in everyone’s face made a lot of readers very unhappy. The story took a beloved character and transformed him into something no one wanted to touch.
4 Astonishing X-Men: Dangerous
By Writer Joss Whedon, Artist John Cassaday, Colorist Laura Martin, And Letterer Chris Eliopolous
Professor X can be very shady, but some stories make him seem downright villainous. Astonishing X-Men: Dangerous opened with the X-Men embracing more heroic missions. Unfortunately for the team, things on the home front were a powder keg. Scarlet Witch had just depowered the mutant race and the school’s students were dealing with many of their fellows losing their powers and leaving. Then the Danger Room attacked.
Dangerous reveals how Xavier had known that the Danger Room’s computer became sentient, and knowingly enslaved the computer. To him, the Danger Room was too important to lose to a pesky thing like free will. Xavier has done some questionable things, but enslaving a sentient mind was off the charts, even for him.
3 Civil War II
By Writer Brian Michael Bendis, Artist David Marquez, Colorist Justin Ponsor, And Letterer Clayton Cowles
Civil War II is a mystifying event book. Civil War didn’t really need a sequel, but Marvel was trying for synergy with Captain America: Civil War in the MCU. However, they did this by sacrificing Captain Marvel, who had only recently been pushed to Marvel Comics’ A-list.
Civil War II‘s story was Minority Report meets superheroes, with Iron Man being anti-precognition and Captain Marvel being all about going after people for crimes they hadn’t committed yet. It was a terrible thing to do to a character who had just been given her first real taste of A-list stardom. Civil War II tarred and feathered Captain Marvel and many readers completely wrote the character off as a result.
2 Civil War
By Writer Mark Millar, Artist Steve McNiven, Inker Dexter Vines, Colorist Morry Hollowell, And Letterer Chris Eliopolous
Civil War hurt everyone it touched. Captain America and Iron Man’s ideological battle over the Superhero Registration Act started a war that engulfed the entire superhero community. A huge fan complaint about the story was its mischaracterization of Cap and Iron Man. Cap was basically being written more like Ultimate Captain America here and Iron Man was an outright fascist for a time.
Readers were at least completely behind Captain America and his side. The same can’t be said of Iron Man. He drafted villains into his fight, cynically used Spider-Man as registration’s poster boy, and revealed himself as a terrible person. This story turned many fans off on Iron Man, and even today Iron Man’s popularity in the comics has never really recovered.
1 One More Day
By Writer J. Michael Straczynski, Artist Joe Quesada, Inker Danny Miki, Colorist Richard Isanove, And Letterer Chris Eliopolous
One More Day was a complete disaster for Spider-Man and Marvel Comics. Joe Quesada and Marvel editorial were looking for a way to regress Spider-Man back to the character they knew when they were growing up, and OMD was their method. After Aunt May was shot by a sniper, Peter Parker went out of his way to save her. In the end, the only way to get Mephisto to save his aunt’s life was to trade away his marriage to Mary Jane for her survival.
Spider-Man is all about responsibility. Peter revealing his identity led to May’s situation and when he copped out and changed reality to get out of paying the price for his actions if felt extremely out of character. The fact that Marvel editorial made him act out of character in order to get him back into their version of his character is ironic in the extreme.