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 #18: Early May 1989(1.22.20) Credits: grandcomicsdatabase As a late 80s John Byrne cover, this is a disappointment. But, as a Christmas-themed piece, it's passable and raises a vaguely interesting design issue. We've got Willie carting around a sack of toys and comics that feature the characters appearing in the issue, which is a clever enough idea. But, since no comic with Willie's mug on the front cover has any hope of selling, in order to contextualize the odd assemblage of toys, gifts, and comics the whole thing has the feel of being left-right reversed. There are a few other minor points of "interest": (a) in lieu of a standard corner box, we get a gift box; (b) "Four All-New Features" is styled along with the standard header; (c) the letters page makes explicit a policy of avoiding features on characters with multiple books (e.g., Spider-Man), and (d) our first serious fan gripe, regarding the peculiar plotting of the Ditko Machine Man feature. A. Cyclops, "The Retribution Affair" [2/8] After a lackluster initial installment, Harras leans into Scotch folklore to generate a pleasant misdirection that culminates in a hefty reveal of Master Mold. The beats are slower throughout this issue and Lim seems less comfortable in the more pedestrian moments of dialogue than with Cyclops blasting the hell out of things. For instance, while Moira plays a critical role as haunted or brainwashed by Master Mold, Lim presents as downright wooden in pose. To be fair, however, this does work rather well in the final splash reveal. B. Black Panther, "Panther's Quest" [6/25] The political dimensions of this feature deepen as we find a South African magistrate publicly denouncing T'Challa's appearance in South Africa and forging ties with the soldier previously dispatched by Black Panther. The broad tension here is rising in some engaging ways and Colan's layouts are remarkable for their windswept, streaky feel. There are some hard to parse panels here, but there's a felt motion in tiers like the one above that's impressively palpable. C. She Hulk, "X-Mas Tease..." John Byrne handles art and pencils here with our first meta-fictional feature in MCP. She-Hulk bemoands holiday tedium only to recount a fantastical encounter with Doctor Doom, Magneto, and Galactus via phone to the Thing. It's Byrne-ian goofiness punctuated by a stirring Galactus rendition loving punctuated with Walters uttering "Holy Moebius." And, if you're still salty about the cover, Byrne does plug some nice work into this romp. The real narrative punchline here is the pointer towards She-Hulk's upcoming Byrne series that will dive deeper still into the meta-fictional line of comedic inquiry. If your read on MCP is a sufficiently cynical one, then you'll incline to take one-shot installments as more or less ads for characters. And, whether or not that's the right read, when viewed as an ad, this one is a real doozy. D. Willie Lumpkin, "A Christmas Card" Glenn Herdling, longtime editor, offers up a Lumpkin-focused Christmas story that runs at jagged pace. Given Lumpkin's air of sadsackery the feature approaches dark humor and seems like it would be a fair fit for a feature in What The?!? Richard Howell captures some difficult to render comedic action as Lumpkin receives the holiday treatment (read: Christmas ghosts) intended for J. Jonah Jameson, but, absent the hackneyed A Christmas Carol riffs, it’s hard to imagine how this thing would be remotely coherent. As a holiday feature, it's on par with the previous Uatu feature and, taken together, they're probably the two features with the best claim to not falling within the superhero genre. (Arguably, Ka-Zar is a jungle comic, but it's also not clear whether that's a "functioning" genre by the late 80s. Power Ranking: Black Panther (A-), Cyclops (B+), She-Hulk (B), Willie Lumpkin (C)