Going back to the earliest days of the Marvel Universe, Stan Lee and his artistic cohorts worked hard to incorporate real-world elements into their books. Spider-Man might have been a great hero, but Peter Parker was a picked-on geek who had to worry about making enough money to build his equipment. The Thing could take on just about any physical challenge, but he lost his human form in the process.

In the 1980s, a new crop of writers entered the House of Ideas and took that to the next level with a series of iconic stories dealing with everything from homelessness and abuse to drug addiction and human extermination. These stories still thrilled and entertained, but brought in a new level to comics that can still be seen today.

Here are some of the creators who dragged elements from some of the darker corners of the Marvel Universe into the light.

Frank Miller

When you think of the grim and gritty ‘80s, one of the first names to pop up is Frank Miller. His career kicked off at Marvel in 1979 with one-off penciling gigs on books like JOHN CARTER WARLORD OF MARS #18, and his association with Daredevil began with DAREDEVIL #158 that same year. But he began co-writing that title in 1980 with Roger McKenzie before taking over as both writer and penciler with issue #168, assisted by legendary inker Klaus Janson.