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 #26: Late August 1989(3.18.20) Credits: grandcomicsdatabase Cover design remains a serious problem with constipated layout and unforgivable lettering choices, but Gulacy does an admirable job with Havok and Coldblood, who debuts this issue. There's a slim, dynamic Black Panther on the rear cover and a full Grey Hulk face, matching the Mr. Fixit corner box, which is pretty snazzy. Excepting the lettering design, this one of the best full wraparounds. A plug-heavy letters page rightly notes Badger's success with the recent Dr. Strange feature. A. Havok, "Pharaoh's Legacy" [3/8] Havok chases down information regarding Leila's whereabouts and bashes his way through a bar of armed mercenaries. While an improvement over previous installments for avoiding the storytelling bagginess and the woeful penciling, there's little excitement here and some searingly pedestrian action work. Visually, any Havok story is going to notably depend upon the presentation of his costume and powers and, here, Buckler fares credibly; the concentric circles are foregrounded and, in a few cases, help obscure some remarkably stiff posturing. This is bordering on 50s adventure fiction camp, but it's also conspicuously joyless. B. Black Panther, "Panther's Quest" [14/25] Most of the episodes of this feature have been "tough catches" (i.e., insufficient cues to grasp the narrative's incremental advances), but this one plays notably well as a single piece and is likely the most harrowing presentation of violence on account of a mob attempting to burn a suspected informer alive. It's grim stuff, though, at parts, tough to parse given overlaid narrative captions. For all its clunkiness, there's a splendid Colan page featuring T'Challa leaping into the fray that manages to convey palpable torsion and lithe physicality to a damn near masterful extent. C. Coldblood, "Rise and Shine" (1/10) Moench revisits visual and narratives tropes from his earlier Deathlok stories, but with Gulacy, inking his own, in tow. Coldblood awakens medias res and is immediately embroiled in a shootout/car chase. The story is, however, squarely in the backseat as Gulacy pulls out all the stops, mixing in photo collage, remarkable draughtmanship, and something akin to computer assisted graphics. There's Hal Fosteresque vultures and wild dogs as well as deeply rendered urban decay. Harkening back to high points of Shang-Chi, things look stunning here and late eighties touchstones are on full display from Night Rider to Pac-Man to Atari. The attention to detail here conveys a serious optimism about the prospects for Coldblood as a character and the rhythm of the layouts, including tight stanzas and flat, close-up tiers, is a delight. D. Hulk, "Splash Down" Four years before Free Willy, Peter David cooks up an undeniably weird, comedic story with Mr. Fixit heading to an ersatz Sea World to square a gambling debt. While there, an inexplicable orca show disaster--including the rather gruesome death of trainer--demands Hulk's intervention and accidently forestalls an Atlantean invasion by way of hurling Shadu onto an incoming invasion ship. David plainly shoots for fun here and Jeff Purves' pencils are competent enough. Unfortunately, the visual tone is largely washed out by slapdash coloring credited to "T. Fine," which aims for sun-bleached San Diego but arrives at omnipresent bathroom tope. Power Ranking: Coldblood (A-), Black Panther (B+), Havok (C+), Hulk (C+)