Marvel Comics Presents ran for 175 issues from 1988 until 1995. Each issue included four eight-page stories with typically two or three on-going features (and no ads). It spotlighted some of the leading creators of mainstream comics over a period of precipitous economic growth and even more rapid decline. Reading through it is an opportunity to revisit any number of weird aspects of 90s superhero comics. This blog is a primitive, oddly regimented, manifestly scattershot crawl through an often disappointing but occasionally splendid comic. All image copyrights are Marvel's. Issue credits linked below. Updated on Wednesdays. Marvel Comics Presents #16: Early April 1989(1.08.20) Credits: grandcomicsdatabase A wild Kevin Nowlan cover, heavy on shadow and inconstant line weights, punctuated by an impressionistic lightning strike on Colossus. It's an eye-catching, high contrast look, akin to a 90 degree rotation of a standard Mignola cover. The rear has a funky Ka-Zar head, veering squarely into Fabio territory, and some striking physicality--a collapsed Black Panther and Longshot bounding squarely off the page. Certainly the most interesting of the covers we've seen during this Colossus feature. A. Colossus, "God's Country" [7/8] Milgrom and Russell split inking duties in this installment, which makes it even more apparent how Russell's light touch has kept Leonardi's well-stocked panels from looking overly cramped. The heft that Milgrom brings to the page just can't sustain the novel, bouncy feel of Leonardi's faces. The behind-the-scenes heavy of this feature, Alexander, finally returns, but Nocenti's dialogue clangs along drowning out any nuance. A bizarre characterization of Colossus is coupled with a marked hostility to subtlety or subtext. We find, for instance, Colossus muttering: "I'll keep hitting til I figure this out." The aim here seems to be some kind of interrogation of human values, so it's distressing that the characters sound entirely non-human. B. Black Panther, "Panther's Quest" [4/25] This installment hews closely in feel to McGregor's wildly over-narrated style from "Panther's Rage." We're embedded via a slice of life backstory featuring a South African miner named Zanti, who will be T'Challa's makeshift partner throughout the feature. Among other things, he'll serve as a reminder that political backdrop has inescapable consequenceseven if T'Challa could more or less zip back to Wakanda on a whim. And, as we find deeper engagement with the South African context and apartheid, Colan's work feels more assured despite the absence of any real action. In previous issues, faces have been masked or bathed in shadow, but, here, T'Challa's mask is removed and both he and Zanti are poignantly rendered in urgent dialogue. Rosen's lettering work--which I've probably complained about enough--continues to be peppered with odd choices. Here, it's a scratchy, "exasperation" balloon that badly misses the mark. C. Longshot, "Dreamwalk" This Longshot story is exceptionally light fare. There's a nod towards the Aborigine notion of Dreamtime by Nocenti, but it's mostly a "what trouble can Longshot get into" gag in the Home Alone vein. The art, a rare comics outing from Larry Dixon, is the real focus here and there are some bold, symmetric moments which make clear his stylistic affinity for book jackets and illustration. Longshot seems aptly cast here as a hair metal stud, but, rather oddly, Dixon isn't able to secure much constancy in his features across panels, so he wavers off and on model throughout. The doglike dream monster that emerges to stir up chaos is a fun design choice and Dixon's brief rendering of the other X-Men makes for a pleasing late eighties metal/fantasy vibe. Visually, this turns out to be interesting one-hitter but it's undercooked silliness leaves it easy to immediately forget. D. Ka-Zar, "This is a Savage Land" Zimmerman plops us in medias res with an exceptionally dense Ka-Zar yarn. Ka-Zar's efforts to save a Lemurian queen are shortly complicated by the discovery that she's pregnant by one of the much loathed swamp people. Ethnic Savage Land animosities ensue. Jim Mooney handles the art here, but he has almost no room to breathe since we're bouncing through a bundle of twists--most shockingly, the Lemurians set out to kill the baby immediately after his birth on the battlefield. There's some old school feel here and the narrative twists are cobbled together capably enough, but, compared with any story we've yet seen in MCP, this feels almost punishingly overstuffed with action beats like the murder of the queen. A useful case study in compression and, given broader trends, the kind of story that will be all but impossible to find in ten years' time. Power Rankings: Black Panther (A-), Colossus (B), Longshot (B), Ka-Zar (B-)