For me, the magic year is 1983, right before I started collecting comics.  It seemed I had missed so many cool comics - the start of Simonson's Thor, JB's FF and AF.  However, I couldn't pick any one year because the "highlights" of any title usually happened at different points.  Instead, I would pick any time when the status quo of the books were at their best.  Thsi may be some years behind or some years later.

FF - Early part of JB's run before She-Hulk arrived.  I don't mind She-Hulk's inclusion on the team, but I didn't like Alicia being with Johnny so the Thing needs to still be on the team.  All the classic FF is still there along with JB's return of Dr Doom to the throne of Latveria.

Avengers - The two high periods are the Shooter/Perez/Byrne era and the Stern/Buscema era.  Fortunately, neither needs to cancel the other.  The one advantage of the earlier era is that more iconic Avengers (Iron Man, Thor, Wonder Man, Vision, Scarlet Witch) are active.  A good point would the West Coast limited series but with Stern's original idea of two teams of Avengers in one title.  But we can avoid all the problems with Yellowjacket.

Spider-Man - Stern's run again.  Hobgoblin is the successor to the Green Goblin, and Norman Osborn is dead and rotting in the grave.  Aunt May is alive, Peter is in school, and Peter has several potential love interests including, yes, the Black Cat.

Iron Man - I'd combine the two Michelenie/Layton runs and just pretend the whole Denny O'Neil alcholism overkill story just did not happen.  Obadian Stane is simply not that good a villain to tolerate it.  In terms of supporting cast, I'll turn more towards the earlier set (Mrs Arbogast, Vic Martinelli, Artemus Pivens), but can welcome some of the replacements they came up later.  There is just too many cool villains and stories to discount the second run though.

Daredevil - Miller's run.

Thor - Simonson's run.  The minute it was decided by Stan and Jack that Don Blake wasn't a person, but simply a persona it made "Don Blake" irrelevant.  Why not be Thor all the time?

Ghost Rider - Can I pick Johnny Blaze, but keep the feel and mood of Mackie's second run when Danny Ketch was the Rider?  It was so much better than the first series, but Blaze is just too iconic.

Defenders - I never got into this series, so I'll let others pick.  My gut instinct tells me that Dr Strange should be the sponsor and organizer, but that the team is actually others.

X-Men - Right where JB left the series.  The title still had many fun moments left, but too many Jean Grey types bogged down the series - no Maddy Pryor, no Rachel Summers, no resurrection.  We can shoehorn in the Morlocks later which may be the only mythos element still not present by then.

Captain America - I think the JM DeMatteis/Mike Zeck period was very good.  We still had a vibe similar to Stern/Byrne with the same supporting cast, but DeMatteis was having a lot of fun villains.  I would still want to include a lot of great Gruenwald era villains though like the Serpent Society, the Watchdogs, the Skeleton Crew, and Flag-Smasher.

I would go back to the mid 1970s for Marvel. Marvel published really diverse books back then such as "Journey Into Fear" and "Astonishing Tales". Books with stories about Morbius the Living Vampire and It the Living Colossus. There was evidently a lot of living going on in 1974. But, seriously, those books were great fun.

This was also the time of the Avengers/Defenders War, Roy Thomas' Thor, which focused on Thor and the Asgardians as adverturers and warriors, Giant Sized Avengers and Giant Sized Fantastic Four, Luke Cage, the Hulk was still Incredible, and the books all had a tight focus with tight editors. There were WAY less chatacters running around the Marvel Universe and I think that was a good thing. At a certain point, dilution begins to become a factor.

I'm also curious to see how many of us pick times when we were still just kids reading the books. That's probably the biggest appeal of a rewind. A lot of times we all think we'd like to go back in time when what we really want is to just be twelve and see the world that way again.

Reset Universe

Hm. Challenging, but I’ll give it a shot JB.

The big concept would be to reset the comic book universe by capturing the essence of all ages and offer a linear growth universe like your Generations, but concentrate primarily in the eras that befit the best adventures of favorite characters, tying into the Big Final Conflict. To me, a proposed “Big Two Reset Universe” would be structured by character era, design, and writers/artists/editorial direction. Condense 60 years of thousands of issues, and compact it into 150 issues. Yes, finite. After 150 issues, stop production, end with a bang, reprint as TPB and Absolute hardcovers, and cherish the gem in these nicely packaged compilations with goodies and extras.

THE DC “RESET” BLENDS NEW FRONTIER, JLU, KINGDOM COME AND LEGION ANIMATED. John Byrne is Editor in Chief. Taking a cue from Darwyn Cooke, Darwyn was able to connect the DC Golden Age with Silver Age, interconnect books that were not previously connected because of editorial constraints of their time. Now we know that there was an adventure that connected the Losers to Challengers of the unknown, to Hal Jordan, to the Big 3 heroes, to JLA., add the feel of the 60’s, add The Right Stuff elements, and the feel of adventure of the Future promised by JFK. 5 major ages: Golden Age 40’s, Silver Age 60’s Modern Age 2008, Kingdom Come Era and 30^th Century Legion. This would be one ongoing monthly series, written and penciled by John Byrne.

DC Universe- an ongoing series by writer/artist John Byrne. 100 issues.

DC Origins Books #1. A one shot issue for every major character or team. 32 page debut issue. The art is 3D modeled and rendered by the top Alias Maya professionals; art directed Alex Ross to reflect Ross’ layouts, realism, and his ability to be evocative and reverential to the source material. 50 one-shot issues, which each one shot also debuts as 30 minute standalone episode of a 3D animated series on DVD called DC Universe Origins.

Superman- starts his adventure in 1938, Lana being his love interest; meets young Lois hotshot Planet reporter much later in the 60’s, just in time for JLA era storylines for New Frontier. Include movie Fortress, Movie Zod, Ursa, Non, SAS Brainiac, JB/Timm Luthor for modern times, with his green power suit.

Batman- Bruce Timm BAS/ New Frontier Universe

Wonder Woman- Perez Greek Gods Wonder Woman, but include Steve Trevor as an important love interest from 40’s. When he dies from old age, and Lois Lane dies, Diana will end up with Clark as told in Kingdom Come.

New Gods storyline enters DC universe in 2008

DC Universe Crisis story arcs. There will be 5 major Crisis-scale epics within the ongoing comic book: 1) WWII JLU Savage Time, 2) New Frontier Dinosaur Island, creation of  JLA, 3) Cosmic Oddyssey, 4) Kingdom Come, and 5) a Legion era Crisis- ending with a final battle of Superman vs Darkseid and final New Gods story. The Source and Anti-Life conflict will reach its climax. And this Reset Universe has no multiple universes, thank you.

Include an awesome tie in: multi platform John Byrne's DC Universe video game for PS2/3, Xbox,Nintendo, Gameboy, and the much sought after Wii.

THE MARVEL COMICS “RESET” BLENDS THE 60’S LEE/KIRBY/BUSCEMA/DITKO/COLAN/STERANKO MARVEL UNIVERSE ROSS “MARVELS”, ULTIMATE UNIVERSE, MARVEL ULTIMATE ALLIANCE, AND UNIVERSE X. Same deal. John Byrne is Editor in Chief. Major time eras roughly combine WWII for Cap & Invaders, 50’s Marvel Lost Generation, 2008 Ultimate Universe, Universe X and ends with the Last Galactus Story

Marvel Universe: an ongoing series by writer/artist John Byrne. 100 issues.

Marvel Origins Books #1. A one shot issue for every major character or team. 32 page debut issue. The art is 3D modeled and rendered by the top Alias Maya professionals; art directed Alex Ross to reflect Ross’ layouts, realism, and his ability to be evocative and reverential to the source material. 50 one-shot issues, which each one shot also debuts as 30 minute standalone episode of a 3D animated series on DVD called Marvel Universe Origins.

2008- Ultimate Universe

Peter Parker in still high school, Ditko Spidey

Ultimates: Steve Rogers just thawed from ice

All teams just starting out, X-Men, FF, Avengers

Dr. Strange just beginning his origin story

Miller era DD- origin and fall from grace stroy

Simonson Thor with Donald Blake.

Galactus looks like Marvel Ultimate Alliance Video Game.

Mar-Vell- white and aqua fin-helmet costume, 70’s red/blue costume, and Ultimate costume.

The major conflict will be called the Marvel Wars:

WWII Invaders & Eternals vs Axis & Deviants

Lost Generation conflict as seen in the series

Ultimate Alliance conflict,

Universe X,

capped off with The last Galactus Story.

Major Villains: Red Skull, Doom, Loki, Ultron, Thanos, Celestials and Galactus.

Include an awesome tie in: multi platform John Byrne's Marvel Universe video game for PS2/3, Xbox,Nintendo, Gameboy, and the much sought after Wii.

I hope I've offended no one, as it was not my intent. This is just one of the many ideas to provide a reset model.

Respectfully,

I feel a little inconfortable with the reseting idea.
It's like if the whole industry was saying : you see, all that you've been collecting, all that you know, all the stories, well, from now they don't exist no more. Never happened.
Hey, what about a refound ?

I know that when we like a character, we want to see more and more of his stories. But when is too much too much ?
I like to watch "24", but each time i have this feeling that i won't even live one of Bauer's hour in my whole life. And then again, when does he sleep ?

That's why i think that the idea is more to launch new teams, new heroes, than keeping the existing ones again and again.
Don't get me wrong, i don't mean that Batman or Spider-man are "too old" or "old fashion" characters. But when you save 12 times earth from complete destruction, or when you put in jail 58 times the same villain, when you died-and-finally-not died 3 times, well, you migth want to jump to something else.
The industry just act as if only what Stan Lee created was working.

Anyway, if i was to reset things, i would want it to happens AFTER J.B.'s F.F. run, and Alpha flight.

And, I would have thought was obvious, we do not then proceed from that point to make all the same mistakes. This is the chance to avoid the mistakes. (And probably make new ones!)