The speculator crash becomes full blown and a number of titles are canceled this year. Some of those cancellations make way for new titles, but even those will be short-lived. There is no line-wide (e.g. Infinity) crossover this year, but the X-books have the Phalanx Covenant, and the Spider-books enter a state of continuous crossovers as the Clone Saga begins. There are still not many significant creative teams changes. Warren Ellis begins writing Excalibur. There's a slight reconfiguration in the Spider-books. Roy Thomas returns to Thor. Madureira becomes the (semi-)regular penciler on Uncanny X-Men. Alan Davis introduces a new book with a new team called ClanDestine. Towards the end of this year, Tom DeFalco is removed as Editor in Chief, and the position itself is replaced with separate group editors for different areas. Mark Gruenwald is in charge of the Avengers & Cosmic titles, Bob Harras gets the X-books, Bob Budiansky is in charge of the Spider-books (and extended family, including the New Warriors), Bobbie Chase gets "Marvel Edge" (e.g. Hulk and Punisher), and Carl Potts gets the Epic books and other items generally not part of the Marvel universe. Regular cover prices increase from $1.25 to $1.50. Marvel's cover trade dress begins to change, with the corner character box getting used less frequently. Please see here for books that i haven't covered for this year.

Notable events: Some high profile weddings: Cyclops & Jean Grey and Rick Jones and Marlo Chandler The West Coast Avengers are disbanded, replaced by Force Works. Fantastic Force is formed. This year's X-Crossover, the Phalanx Covenant, introduces new mutants as part of the lead up to the launch of Generation X. The Clone Saga begins!

New characters: Century, Synch, Skin, Blink, Chamber, Emplate, Penance, Mondo, DOA, Vibraxis, Devlor, Suzi Endo, Judas Traveller, Scrier, Kaine, Jack Flag, Skreet, ClanDestine (Adam Destine, Crimson Crusader, Imp, Hex, Wallop, etc.)