In our earlier article, we shared that many comic fans were also huge fans of the old Marvel Universe cards that were released in the early 90’s. And why wouldn’t we be, as they were amazing resources with fantastic art from people like Arthur Adams, Jim Lee, Marc Silvestri and more. But what were our favorites from not just those cards, but the Marvel Masterpieces and single artist sets that followed?
It’s a tough question, but Multiversity editors Matthew Meylikhov and David Harper took a stab at figuring out just that. What follows are their ten favorite cards – combined – from Marvel’s releases, ordered chronologically. The important question we have to ask you, though, is what were your favorites? Share in the comments, as we’re dying to know.
Card: Shadowcat
Series: Marvel Universe Series One
Artist: Arthur Adams
Why it’s the best (David Harper): There are a number of reasons why this card is amazing, not the least of which is the fact that Kitty Pryde and her pet dragon Lockheed are amazing. The fact that it’s both of them being drawn by Arthur Adams is all the better, especially with how adorable they both are, but the main reason why I love it is the “Did You Know?” fact on the back. I really didn’t know that Kitty’s natural state was intangibility, and I’ve always thought she was even more badass because of knowing that.
Card: Aunt May
Series: Marvel Universe Series One
Artist: Unknown
Why it’s the best (David Harper): In the first series, I loved the fight stats for all of the Marvel characters. Granted, I thought they were real (that’s another story entirely), but I really loved this card because for Aunt May they changed her stats to say things like “Pies Baked” or “Meals Served”. Looking at it now, it might not fly, but at the time, it was a hilarious twist to make. Still, I can’t help but be bothered by that pies baked number. How did Aunt May not eclipse 1,000 pies baked in 28 years of existence? It’s just not realistic.
Card: Rogue
Series: X-Men Series One
Artist: Jim Lee
Why it’s the best (David Harper): I am not ashamed to admit that once upon a time, I was in love with Rogue. Granted, in my mind she was an amalgam of this version as drawn by Jim Lee with the voice she had in X-Men: The Animated Series, and she was also fictional, but come on, I was 8! To this day, that front drawing and the inset of her Lee did are my favorite Rogue illustrations ever, and I’m not going to lie, when I look at it I still hear that “sugah!” in my head. Be still my beating heart.
Card: Maverick
Series: X-Men Series One
Artist: Jim Lee
Why it’s the best (David Harper): Looking back on it now, Maverick just might be the most 90’s creation of them all (so many extra rounds! the pouches! every limb is cybernetic!), but when I was a kid, this man of mystery and frenemy of Wolverine was my guy. He was basically Grifter with a Star Lord mask before the former even existed, and in this set from Jim Lee, I didn’t know what was on the other side of that wall, I just knew in Maverick’s hands, it was dead as a doornail. What a badass.
Card: Celestials
Series: Marvel Universe Series Three
Artist: Ron Frenz
Why it’s the best (David Harper): No card blew my mind like this one did. At the time, and even for a long time afterwards, I hadn’t read a comic with Celestials in it, but after seeing this, I held them with the utmost esteem and reverence. I studied the power levels like they were the gospel of Stan and Jack themselves, and I remember when I saw this one, I just thought “NO! IT CAN’T BE! NOTHING CAN BREAK THE POWER LEVELS!”
Oh yes, something can. That something was the Celestials, those big badasses in the sky. There’s a good reason why they thought Machine Man was a loser: who isn’t when compared to something that is “NOT APPLICABLE” on all the known stat levels?
Continued below
Card: Behold Avalon!
Series: X-Men ’94 Fleer Ultra
Artist: Lou Harrison
Why it’s the best (Matthew Meylikhov): I’m like a Magpie (before science proved this as inaccurate) in that I’m attracted to shiny things, and foil cards were (perhaps still are) my jam. For me, 90’s trading cards were all about the shiny, hard to find and collectible cards; this was before eBay where you could just log online and pay someone too much money for a small shiny object, so I had to have my mom take me to various comic shops both local and non-local (not in the John Stewart Bell way) to find them — and when I found them, oh man, what a sweet victory. And given that “Fatal Attractions” was perhaps the event of my youth, starring my favorite X-Men character Magneto and featuring some huuuge moments that changed comics forever*, this seems as good a card as any to kick off my half of the article.
(As a fun little side note: the age difference between David and myself will never be more obvious than here, where the apex of his card collector habits were the early 90’s and mine were the mid 90’s.)
Card: Shadowcat
Series: X-Men ’94 Fleer Ultra
Artist: Brian Stelfreeze
Why it’s the best (Matthew Meylikhov): I think I’m like every other kid my age who read the X-Men as a youngster, because just like David I have a favorite Kitty Pryde card. Kitty Pryde is one of those characters that’s just indicative of youth, someone who received such major and exciting prominence during Claremont’s run, leaving a major impact on a lot of fans. And as someone who mainly collected X-Men cards (and Spider-Man), my first ever Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat card was this one by Brian Stelfreeze, which means this one is the winner in my book.
Card: Cable
Series: X-Men ’94 Fleer Ultra
Artist: Bill Sienkiewicz
Why it’s the best (Matthew Meylikhov): I don’t think there’s anyone more indicative of comics in the 90’s than Cable, and as such he deserves a nice spot on my list. I mean, as far as X-Men goes, Cable is the 90’s, right? And this card features art by one of my favorites, Bill Sienkiewicz, also known as the guy who did those creepy covers to “New Mutants” that weirded me out in the shop but who also illustrated “Moon Knight,” which I had a crappy trade of that is practically torn apart from how much I read it. This card just fits every justification I can imagine.
Also, looking at cards from the 90’s revealed that I have forgotten more about comics from that era than I remember, because when I read that Cable was on a team called “Six Pack” I assumed it was just him and a few other dudes showing off their washboard abs in locker rooms to each other.
Card: Venom
Series: Marvel Masterpieces Series 3 1994
Artist: Greg and Tim Hildebrandt
Why it’s the best (Matthew Meylikhov): No joke: I have a blown up version of this card framed. It was hung on my wall as a kid, it’s currently in my new house (packed away, but still), and I’ll probably always keep it unless something dire happens. See, Venom was my favorite character as a kid; springing out of my love of Spider-Man, Venom was the “cool, bad-ass” Spidey that appealed so greatly to kids like me, and I’ve always had a soft spot for the character ever since (or, at least Eddie Brock). This card had such a prominent and ever-present role in my life, though, hanging on my wall in my bedroom through to the point where I moved out of my parents house, and it’ll always be on any form of list like this we ever make ever because of that.
Card: Carnage USA – Mt Rushmore
Series: Spider-Man 1995 Ultra
Artist: Gale Heimbach
Why it’s the best (Matthew Meylikhov): Hey, speaking of Venom, remember Carnage? I mean, you probably do; he’s in “AXIS” or whatever. But, do you remember Carnage when Carnage was just an excuse to write bugnuts nonsense in comics? Because I do, and whether we’re talking “Maximum Carnage” (best crossover ever!) or “Carnage Unleashed” (which showed the early fears of what the internet could do as Venom and Carnage put their symbiotes online through phone cables and fought for the soul of the web), Carnage is the other side of the coin of the 90’s to me. It’s admittedly a weird coin. Regardless, I can honestly fully remember buying this Spider-Man set and freaking out about these Carnage postcards because I thought they were so cool and clever and funny and they were all I wanted because they were so ridiculous (just look at them). And you know what? I still have them. #90sforever
