Marvel Comics- Copper Age 1984-1991
In 1978, Jim Shooter became Marvel’s editor-in-chief. Although a controversial personality, Shooter cured many of the procedural ills at Marvel, including repeatedly missed deadlines. The company enjoyed some of its best successes during Shooter’s nine-year tenure as Editor-in-Chief, most notably Chris Claremont and John Byrne’s run on the Uncanny X-Men and Frank Miller’s run on Daredevil. Also under Shooter’s editorial reign, Walt Simonson revamped The Mighty Thor and made it a bestseller again. Shooter brought Marvel into the rapidly evolving direct market, institutionalized creator royalties, starting the Epic imprint for creator-owned material in 1982; introduced company-wide crossover story arcs with Contest of Champions and Secret Wars; and in 1986 launched a new, albeit ultimately unsuccessful line named New Universe, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Marvel Comics imprint. Star Comics, a younger-oriented line than the regular Marvel titles, was briefly successful for a time during this period.
Despite Marvel’s successes in the early 1980s, however, it lost ground to rival DC in the latter half of the decade, as many former Marvel stars defected to their competitor. DC scored critical and sales victories with titles and limited series like Watchmen, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Crisis on Infinite Earths, John Byrne’s revamp of Superman, and Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing.
In 1986, Marvel was sold to New World Entertainment, which within three years sold it to MacAndrews and Forbes, owned by Revlon executive Ronald Perelman.
