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 #39: January 1990(6.17.20) Credits: grandcomicsdatabase Welcome to the nineties! In an exceptionally fitting turn of events, Guice and Layton cook up a serviceable shirtless Logan cover and we're treated to a letters column including the following sage counsel: "Have Wolverine in more issues. If you put Wolverine in more issues, especially on the cover, more people will buy the book and it will stay around for a longer amount of time. Make him a regular, he deserves it." Thanks, D.J. Fye of Normal, IL. You've devised MCP's plan for the next one hundred and ten or so issues. A. Wolverine, "Black Shadow, White Shadow" [2/10] A couple of weird turns here. Through some shoddy plotting, Logan throws in with an amorphously characterized group of Hong Kongers and drearily flexes on them. We then pivot rapidly back to the Mystery of the Missing City Block, which is due to the titular "Black Shadow." Visually, Black Shadow is a stocky Shadow Thief-style troll and it's rendered in full black tone. Conceptually, none of this makes a heck of a lot of sense especially as *gasp* the other titular creature, "White Shadow" appears. Oddly, the best work here is the most understated here: the lettering, which goes uncredited. B. Wonder Man, "Stardust Miseries" [1/8] Let me attempt to do justice to the exceptionally compressed story . Wonder Man wakes up to a post-coital breakfast with the Enchantress only to discover that she's actually the lead in the film that he's also been cast in, so they decide to immediately drive to the studio together, where, in a meeting with the director, it becomes evident that Enchantress is magically manipulating all parties involved including Johnny Carson who's been buffaloed into having them appear on the Tonight Show only to introduce the Beast and X-Factor who surprise everyone with the announcement that Wonder Man is under investigation for the murder of the director, which, as we're shown, took place at the hands of some sort of animated robot stunt double. This is hot nonsense, but there's something charming about Higgins' refusal to wink at the reader and play things as straight as possible. C. Hercules, "All in the Family" [1/3] Bob Layton handles art and story duties in a feature that feels distinctively Thor-like, partly on account of Workman's familiar, full-tilt onomatopoetic interventions. Contrasted with the Hercules feature from way back in #12, this feels like a wholly different character in light of the wooly, space opera feel and Hercules' extended family drama. While Layton has a tough time staying on model with characters, there's some fun and fairly impressive work here with the metallic, lustrous textures. D. Spider-Man, "With Liberty and Justice for All" This story is billed as Spidey "Vs Vivisectionists" on the rear cover, which turns out to be a weirdly literal description. Spider-Man happens upon some students freeing animals set for animal testing and is treated to a brief lecture about the specious science and unqualified immorality of animal testing in science. Faced with the dilemma of busting the students, he feigns an accident, letting them escape. It's intellectually lazy, vapid yet didactic, and a peculiar characterization of Spider-Man. Readers are sure to find fault with Lopresti and Grainger's art, though I find its total lack of texture kind of interesting, but the unforgivable element here is Skolnick's color work, which is dreary and confusing. What time of day or night looks like what we see below? Power Ranking: Hercules (B), Wolverine (B-), Spider-Man (C+), Wonder Man (C+)