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 #22: Late June 1989(2.19.20) Credits: grandcomicsdatabase Marshall Rogers follows Simonson's minimalist effort with a comparably stripped down cover marred by the insertion of "of X-Factor" below "Cyclops." This prefigures some absolutely dreadful cover lettering in upcoming issues and detracts from the understated screentone accents here. The back cover is overstuffed and veers into Art Adams territory with Wolfsbane's face oddly blazoned over the moon. A. Cyclops, "The Retribution Affair" [6/8] The central narrative turn--Conscience turning on Master Mold in hopes of saving humankind--continues with him freeing Cyclops, Moira, and Callisto. While we're approaching the climactic action and presumably a battle between Cyclops and Mold, the story-telling and the art are loggerheads. Harras' script and, most acutely, Conscience's dialogue remains bafflingly poor. (Think bad Jay Leno impersonation.) And, while Callisto's appearance serves no apparent purpose, Lim's rendering is pleasantly haggard. On the other hand, Lim's pencils continue building a pervasive plastic/metallic texture on the surroundings punctuated by organic elements like Cyclops' sweat. The result has an 80s sci-fi feel akin to Robocop and THX 1138. B. Black Panther, "Panther's Quest" [10/25] The last three installments painstakingly detail action that unfolds over the course of ten or so moments, while McGregor attempts to simultaneously deepen the physical pain T'Challa experiences and ratchet up the anxiety felt by Zanti. There's rising action, on account of the showdown at gunpoint with security forces, and the dialogue is marked by the first explicit use of the conspicously SA slur on the page. Colan's ability to render T'Challa's taut but lithe physicality is undeniable, but, given the exceptional length of this feature and McGregor's knack in "Panther's Rage" to write emotional albeit compressed stories, this feels like wheel spinning. C. Wolfsband & Mirage, "Suffer a Wolf to Live" Amusingly, this story is also set on Muir Island (or Isle, apparently) and Sue Flaxman--with only a handful of writing credits--tries her hand at fairly tale-flavored piece with Rahne lured into a vaguely magical but ultimately ill-defined group of wolf-people. Mirage has nothing of note to do here apart from losing Rahne in the bush and apparently warding off the colony of The Howling-types towards the end. This kind of tale is unobjectionable, but Rodney Ramos is saddled with the impossible task of capturing the fanciful passage of both apparent and actual time that would account for Rahne's enchantment. There's also some animal figures that are abject disasters. So the script isn't quite delicate enough; nor are there the faerie-like visual cues. The result: a breezy, tentative oddity. D. Starfox, "New Worlds to Conquer" A resolutely goofy piece of space swashbuckling as Starfox pulls a grift in self-defense against some inter-dimensional chieftain on a haywire star freighter. The draw here is Cockrum with some fun character designs and his justly lauded ability to draw intuitive but fantastical bits of technology. The alien ship and the chieftain look splendid, but Jim Sanders and Evelyn Stein warrant special credit for the especially nice BWS ("black with stars") backdrop thrown behind much of the action and Cockrum has some fun capturing the effect of Eros' creepy telepathy. Power Rankings: Starfox (B+), Cyclops (B), Black Panther (B-), Wolfsbane & Mirage (C)