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 #41: January 1990(7.1.20) Credits: grandcomicsdatabase Wolverine riding a shark, courtesy of Steve Purcell of Sam & Max fame. This is a fitting return to the nineties, but, despite its "extreme" subject matter, the cover comes off as oddly limp. It's similarly difficult to get all that excited about the chewy, thrown together rear cover, which features Hercules, Wonder Man, and Freedom Force. The letters column is a weird affair with readers extolling the virtues of the stiflingly unfunny Excalibur as a hilarious romp, but readers do rightly note that the feature coincided with the passing of Mel Blanc--the voice of Bugs and other Looney Tunes. A. Wolverine, "Black Shadow, White Shadow" [4/10] Wolverine and his compatriots make their way to China with an odd, but somewhat charming cliffhanger: a team of horses barreling over a hillside directly their way. Before that, we're subject to a chatty backstory with Mai and others explaining how they ended up intertwined with Black Shadow. There's a stripped down, open feel to Buscema's work here. Minimalist backdrops and some pale, but not quite washed-out color work make for readily digestible but not especially memorable work. And, in line with the cover, Wolverine kills a shark. For lunch, mind you. It's a pointedly flat affair and, if Purcell was privy to the feature, it was a pretty odd choice as grist for the cover mill. B. Wonder Man, "Stardust Miseries" [4/8] We're deep in a mish-mash of psychodrama, continuity-suffocated flashbacks, and compressed but stakes-less fighting between Wonder Man and Iron Man. It amounts to exceptionally little, though we're also bowled over by a staggeringly handsome Beast. For all the missteps here, there's something charming about Saltares and Marzan's work. It's over-rendered, but, at various junctures, Marzan's trying out different techniques like heavy silhouettes and exceptionally thin line weights. It's gaudy in its own way, but does come across as weirdly playful. One suspects that, when faced with Higgins' painfully over-stuffed scripts, the art team couldn't help but chortle and start fooling around. C. Hercules, "All in the Family" [3/3] This feature came and went at breakneck pace. Hercules' son, Arimathes, is errantly blown up by his mother in her efforts to kill Hercules. She's immediately brought to witness the harm she's done and swiftly recants her misdeeds. And, unsurprisingly, Arimathes proves to be perfectly fine. There are few fun panels scattered in here--most notably, a splash that must be an homage to the Superman-holding-Supergirl cover from Crisis on Infinite Earths. Undeniably competent work, but absolutely forgettable. A Hercules comic that fails in a too familiar way: by constantly reminding the reader that they ought to be reading Simonson's Thor instead. D. Freedom Force, "Forced Fed" Let me see if I've got this: Senator Kelly is doing a photo-op in Mexico as part of the "War on Drugs." He's apparently captured by Senor Muerte, who, as it turns out, is Mystique in disguise as part of Freedom Force who are subsequently attacked by the real Senor Muerte and a team of action figures. They win, extract Kelly, and condemn drug use on their way out the door. The Lobdell vapidity is on fully display here with a trite drug cartel narrative and dreadful character design. Senor Muerte is, however, perfectly charming and nicely lettered by Diana Albers. Something's gone terribly wrong with the Cockrum art or, more likely, the Patterson inks, which quickly degenerate into coloring book territory. Perhaps the best that can be said is that, had things turned out worse, this would have been a full issue of some other comic. At eight pages, it's 80s camp akin (but demonstrably inferior) to Commando. Power Ranking: Wolverine (B), Hercules (B-), Wonder Man (B-), Freedom Force (C)