Uploaded January 2015 | Updated September 2026, 4 hours ago
Groan inducing character updates, tacky costumes, edgier attitudes, and hatch lines as far as the eye could see. No, this isn’t a video about the New 52, but if this all sounds strangely familiar let me take you back to a little ray of light in an era lovingly referred to as the dark age of comics: the 1990s. After the British Invasion of the 1980s the comics industry had felt it had become serious business, and no character was safe. The ’90s was a decade that gave us Spawn, where Superman got a mullet and was promptly killed, and when Deadpool wasn’t funny. In essence, it was “no fun allowed.” Then one man decided to break the mold in 1992 with Marvel Superheroes vol. 2 #8 and the introduction of Squirrel Girl.
Groan inducing character updates, tacky costumes, edgier attitudes, and hatch lines as far as the eye could see. No, this isn’t a video about the New 52, but if this all sounds strangely familiar let me take you back to a little ray of light in an era lovingly referred to as the dark age of comics: the 1990s. After the British Invasion of the 1980s the comics industry had felt it had become serious business, and no character was safe. The ’90s was a decade that gave us Spawn, where Superman got a mullet and was promptly killed, and when Deadpool wasn’t funny. In essence, it was “no fun allowed.” Then one man decided to break the mold in 1992 with Marvel Superheroes vol. 2 #8 and the introduction of Squirrel Girl.
