I have owned them all, pretty much, and still do own several pre-64 Winchesters, and a couple of Post 64 Commemorative s, Browning BLr, and I have owned several Marlins over the years.Personally, any of them might serve you well, with individual specimens varying in quality.
When you start talking about being in $900 territory, I personally start looking for a good clean Pre-64 Winchester which can still be found in that price range and sometimes 2 to 300 cheaper.
I don't really like the angle ejects but they can be serviceable. The post 64 Commemorative hex barrel models can often be found in the shooter class (fired and hunted with in the past, probably no box) for even less money, often around $600 or there about and they will often make great hunting rifles.
Used J.M. Marlins can be pretty good, and often a decent choice for a scope.
The newest current crop of Marlins are not that bad and some come with great mounting rails for scout scopes and aim points, or conventional scope mounting. And the brand new ones often have ballard rifling which I prefer over the old Micro-groove, myself.
I recently purchased a new Marlin 1895 guide type gun in 45/70 because I wanted a scoped 45/70 for hog hunting (I had been using a Browning 86 carbine in 45/70 with receiver sight) and I ended up mounting an Aim Point Micro on the new Marlin. This gun came with a pretty rough action, but it has slicked up quite a bit with some use. It could stand a trigger job, but the part that really surprised me, and I almost hate to say it, because you will think I a full of crap, but the darned thing will shoot 3 shot, 1" groups at 100 yds even with the Aim Point shooting at a 8 inch Black bull target. If It had shot 3" groups (expected) I would have been happy. The older J. M. Marlins I owned usually wouldn't do less then 2"-3" and that with a scope. I was shooting factory 300 gr. Hollow points in the new Marlin.
So, I think the Marlins are getting better, but most could stand an action job, and quality may still vary from model to model and individual rifle to rifle.