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classicmarvelera · 5 years

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Leading the Surge: Tom DeFalco era

The year was 1987 when Tom DeFalco was announced as the new Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics after the sudden termination of Jim Shooter from the same post

DeFalco, a veteran writer with Marvel at the time, was a story-teller whose work for Spider-Man, Thor, FF and The Thing was gaining traction among fans. According to the late Mark Gruenwald, (unlike his predecessor) he didn’t have a vision of his own for Marvel which made him open to other peoples’ ideas about the company’s core products i.e. superheroes

DeFalco accommodated others’ visions while ensuring that quality content was delivered as the final outcome with the story or the arc reaching a resolution as Shooter had always insisted. Compared to Tom, Shooter was more on the Management side of Comic Books Publishing business. The latter ensured that books reached the market on time, editorial guidelines were being adhered to by staff, Creator rights (with respect to their creations) were honored and (where possible) a collaboration be done to increase company’s profitability (Secret Wars with Mattel, G.I.Joe and Transformers with Hasbro) but when it came to DeFalco, he made way for new talent like Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, Erik Larsen, Rob Liefeld and Marc Silvestri to name a few. This new talent’s work proved to be an instant hit among readers so much so that a title was able to establish a world record in 1991, proving more successful than McFarlane’s Spider-Man: Torment that was released a year before

These new artists and writers were paired with established legends and the result was one great success after another. New characters were introduced whose popularity hasn’t waned to this day:

Venom

Darkhawk

The New FF (Joe Fixit Hulk, Spider-Man, Wolverine and Ghost Rider)

Carnage

Deadpool

Domino

Thunderstrike

Anniversaries:

An important juncture in Marvel’s history were the anniversaries of its flagship characters. The company was 50 years old by 1989 but a there were at least two generations of readers who had grown up with characters from the Golden and Silver ages. A lot of work was produced and anniversaries offered a tremendous opportunity to Marvel Comics to celebrate their superheroes but also chart future editorial strategy with respect to them

During Tom’s tenure, Captain America was 50 years old while Iron Man, Fantastic Four, Hulk, Spider-Man celebrated their 30th Anniversaries but the grandest of celebrations were reserved for X-Men and Avengers that saw title cross-overs, lots of gimmick covers with some of the best stories ever told and related limited series

But the most successful of anniversary celebration at the time was of X-Men. With the amount of special editions released (limited series and one shots), the Fatal Attractions cross-over was the one that stood out. Each issue was embossed with a holographic card and it served as the conclusion to Chris Claremont and Jim Lee’s Mutant Genesis saga

Merchandizing:

As a franchise, the X-Men’s popularity reached the peak with a total number of seven X-Family titles being published on a monthly basis as on-going series but the least talked about feature of DeFalco’s tenure is the level of merchandizing which saw Marvel action figures by ToyBiz and launch of Marvel Universe & X-Men Trading Cards

The late 80s was a booming time for Video Gaming as the shift was occuring from Arcade gaming to gaming consoles which can be played at home and Marvel at the time, came out with video games that were connected with much of their popular comic book storylines. These games were launched for NES, SNES, Gameboy and SEGA Genesis as these consoles dominated the scene back then but what is more surprising is the diverse range of games that were out there from Marvel. Punisher had a video game and so did Wolverine as well as Silver Surfer besides the flagships like X-Men, Avengers and Spider-Man

As if this wasn’t enough, Marvel Comics were now being widely distributed and sold in far away markets such as the Middle East and Asia. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that the seeds for Marvel becoming one of the most preferred brands in the world were planted during Tom’s era. This was a time when there was no Cinematic Universe nor was there a thing called the internet

The DeFalco Legacy:

Looking back at the DeFalco era, one cannot find a time period which is a close equal to this one. Tom’s scorecard out of all the Editor’s that preceded him is most balanced: His leadership & advisory influenced positive outcomes for Marvel comics on all fronts. It wouldn’t be an over-statement to say that the DeFalco Era in Marvel Comics history remains the most successful...overall. Maybe the reason behind it was his knowledge about the art of story-telling and how it could resonate with the readers on various levels to the extent that they would be willing to pay the extra buck for merchandize besides the comics. His stamp on Marvel’s present can be seen on Amazon, Facebook Groups, Instagram accounts that offer comics, tpbs and merchandize that was produced during his era

If Stan Lee era is a yardstick for Creative Story Telling or Content Creation that resonates with readership and Jim Shooter’s era is the yardstick for Best Managerial Practice in Comic Book publishing business then Tom DeFalco’s era is the yardstick for overall success (incl. huge financials)

End Note:

There are 3 main facets of Tom DeFalco’s era:

If you are a Spider-Man fan, his stories are at par with greats like Stan Lee, Roger Stern, Gerry Conway etc.

As an Editor, he led the process of building up on the successes of Shooter era to the extent that Marvel was able to go Public (due to successful merchandizing and increased comic book sales)

Again as an Editor, his leadership resulted in the following great content from Marvel:

Kraven’s Last Hunt (Spider-Man)

X-Men: Fall of the Mutants

Iron Man: Armor Wars

Incredible Hulk: Beyond Redemption

Launch of Excalibur, Wolverine and Punisher: War Journal ongoing series

X-Men: Brood Saga

Avengers: Futures Imperfect

X-Men: Inferno

Joe Fixit Hulk & Patch Logan cross-over

Wolverine: The Gehenna Stone Affair

Captain America vs US Agent

Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment

Avengers West Coast: Vision Quest

Atlantis Attacks (multi-title cross-over)

Acts of Vengeance (multi-title cross-over)

Iron Man: Legacy of Doom

Silver Surfer: Thanos Quest

The New Fantastic Four

The Punisher-Wolverine: African Saga

X-Tinction Agenda

Infinity Gauntlet

X-Men: Mutant Genesis

End of New Mutants and launch of X-Factor and X-Force ongoing series

Smart Hulk

Marvel Comics Presents Wolverine: Weapon X

Iron Man: War Machine

X-Cutioner’s Song

Infinity War

Captain America: Man and Wolf

Hulk: Future Imperfect

Spider-Man: Maximum Carnage

Cable: Fathers and Sons

Fatal Attractions (X-titles cross-over/X-Men 30th Anniversary)

Sabretooth, Gambit and Deadpool limited series

Spider-Man 2099

Daredevil: The Man without Fear

Phalanx Covenant (X-titles cross-over)

MARVELS

Hulk: Troyjan War

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