Comic book fans love some good sequential storytelling, but you can never underestimate the value of a compelling one-and-done story. These types of tales can take many shapes, but they typically come in a one-shot, standalone comic. There are several fan-favorite Marvel Comics one-shots released during the publisher’s long history, featuring clashes between Marvel’s greatest heroes and villains. But most of the time, it’s the quieter stories that stand the test of time. One-shots usually get overlooked, but there are several of them that deserve revisiting, especially since they come from some A-list creative talent and feature big-name superheroes.
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The list of forgotten Marvel one-shots includes X-Men, Spider-Man, some street-level vigilantes, and even a crossover with DC. What they all have in common are stories that resonated with readers throughout the years, and it doesn’t hurt that some of the biggest names in comics helped bring them to life.
7) The Uncanny X-Men and The New Teen Titans
If you had to pick the two biggest superhero teams in comics in the early ’80s, they would undoubtedly be the Uncanny X-Men and New Teen Titans. These aren’t the Avengers or Justice League we’re talking about, but at the time, they were more popular than both teams. The Uncanny X-Men replaced Charles Xavier’s original team and featured the likes of Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Storm, and Colossus, while the Teen Titans underwent a similar transformation, adding Beast Boy, Cyborg, Raven, and Starfire.
Written by Uncanny X-Men writer Chris Claremont and penciled by Walt Simonson, the team-up between the Uncanny X-Men and New Teen Titans saw Darkseid attempting to use the Dark Phoenix to open up the Source Wall. When fans think of collaborations between Marvel and DC, The Uncanny X-Men and The New Teen Titans is the pinnacle of that partnership.
6) The Punisher: The End
Frank Castle is known for starring in brutal, bloody, and violent stories, and The Punisher: The End is definitely one of these. The one-shot takes place under Marvel’s MAX imprint for mature readers, in an unspecified point in the future. The world has gone straight to hell after several countries launched nuclear weapons against each other. While all that was happening, Punisher was finding shelter in a bomb shelter in a prison. He comes out of the shelter a year after the bombs have gone off and makes his way to New York City to assassinate the group responsible for humanity’s demise.
The Punisher: The End comes from longtime Punisher writer Garth Ennis and artist Richard Corben. As violent as Frank Castle is, it’s rare to see him really unleash his brand of revenge in the main Marvel Universe. However, MAX allowed it to all hang out with Punisher electing to shoot out justice before his last dying breath. Plus, there’s the touching end with Frank making his way to Central Park for a disillusioned reunion with his dead family.
5) Uncanny X-Men #201
It’s a fight for leadership of the X-Men between Cyclops and Storm in 1985’s Uncanny X-Men #201. We’re still dealing with our Uncanny X-Men team from earlier, except now, Cyclops is a father with Jean Grey’s clone, Madelyne Pryor. X-Men fans will recognize that the baby is the time-traveling Cable. Madelyne wants Cyclops to leave the X-Men so they can go be a family, while Cyclops doesn’t trust Magneto to lead the X-Men.
Storm comes up with a compromise: she and Cyclops have a duel for leadership of the team. The duel helped cement Storm’s place as a leader, and fans got to see two of the more powerful X-Men trade powerful blows.
4) Elektra Lives Again
Frank Miller flexes his creative chops on Elektra Lives Again, a graphic novel that spins out of his run on the Daredevil ongoing series. As the name indicates, it marks Elektra’s return from the dead. Matt Murdock has been having dreams of Elektra’s resurrection, and they turn out to be more than mere dreams. But Elektra isn’t the only Daredevil supporting character to get a revival.
The Hand have orchestrated Bullseye’s death, only to bring him back as their mind-controlled puppet. Daredevil and Elektra have to fight against an army of Hand ninjas to prevent this from happening.
3) X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills
Chris Claremont is back again with a graphic novel that pits Marvel’s merry mutants against televangelist William Stryker. At the time, X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills joined Marvel’s growing list of graphic novels. The X-Men have to contend with Stryker manipulating the masses into believing that mutants are ungodly and therefore, should be wiped off the face of the Earth. Meanwhile, on the other end of the spectrum is Magneto, who believes that humans should bow down to mutants. The X-Men and Magneto have to work together to defeat the villain.
X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills was adapted into a feature film, 2003’s X2: X-Men United, with Brian Cox playing William Stryker.
2) Peter Parker: Spider-Man #33
Peter Parker: Spider-Man #33 features a touching tale between Peter Parker and Uncle Ben that spans years. Peter spends the anniversary of Uncle Ben’s death by attending a New York Mets baseball game, a tradition the two used to share. Uncle Ben was always excited for the games, yet as Peter grew older and older, he lost his love for going. A lot of this is attributed to the Mets always losing, though Uncle Ben tried to remind Peter that lessons can be found in a loss.
One year, Peter tries to get out of going to the game, though Aunt May forces him to go. Peter has a grumpy look on his face the entire game, until the Mets rally and win. He gets to share a special moment with Uncle Ben, something he looks back on proudly.
1) Hawkeye #11
Matt Fraction and David Aja are credited with one of the more influential Hawkeye comics ever made. Hawkeye helped lead to a resurgence in Marvel comics that felt like indie titles, with stories that didn’t necessarily tie into the goings-on of the main universe. Plus, it also served as inspiration for the Hawkeye show on Disney+.
“Pizza is My Business” in 2013’s Hawkeye #11 featured Pizza Dog, the stray dog taken in by Clint Barton and Kate Bishop. Lucky the Pizza Dog has to solve a murder, so we get to follow the issue from Lucky’s perspective. Aja uses art to tell the storm beautifully, and fans get a new appreciation for man’s best friend at the same time.
