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 #5: Late October, 1988(10.23.19) Credits: comicbookdb Buscema and Janson take their turn on the cover with what seems like an abandoned early splash from the Wolverine feature. (The yoke Wolverine is harnessed with is notably different than the interior design.) The sketchy openness that's worked well within the feature doesn't translate here nor does the stiff Daredevil on the back cover. There is, however, a perfectly serviceable Man-Thing, but, taken together, we're on a early and surprising steady decline in cover quality. A. Wolverine, "Save the Tiger" [5/10] Some fever dream hallucinations take up most of this nicely executed episode. There's some nice work dialing back through the story while retaining the haziness of Logan's dreamstate. Janson's scribbly sun and Buscema's concise montage panel are the highpoints here and get amplified by Orzechowski's knack for conveying frailty through balloon shape and texture. There are shades here of precisely what the Shang-Chi feature ought to feel like, though there's a case to be made that we've run a bit of out of narrative steam, given the well-worn territory of a Wolverine recovery and somewhat laborious consideration of his conflicted sentiments towards Tyger Tiger. B. Man-Thing, "Elements of Terror" [5/12] A somewhat disjointed entry that requires Gerber to keep the disparate, moving pieces in story rhythm. Sutton continues to impress with some lovely dimensionality in the Man-Thing frames and he rides some lurid pulp notes as the swamp witch begins treating the focal character as a kind of sexual totem. There are some nifty photo montage backgrounds mixed in with the literal mopping up of post-human remains, but there's an emerging sense that the nice political touches won't quite get paid off. C. Shang-Chi, "Crossing Lines" [5/8] There's ample room here for dynamic action or to deepen the plot and explore the tension between the Cat and Shang-Chi. Instead, the art remains flaccid and the plotting seems to unspooling into a loosely connected mess. The ostensible focus is terror plot that somehow intersects with a drug deal and Leiko's kidnapping but the tepid dialogue is oddly stitched over a peculiarly lackluster fight. Some gratuitous racist dialogue is tossed in what might be a gesture towards "grit," but any sense of realism is undermined by the silly conceit that Shang-Chi doesn't know what heroin is. Dreary stuff from Moench and Grindberg here. D. Daredevil, "You'll See it When You Believe It" This baffling story, courtesy of editor Terry Kavanagh, follows Daredevil trying to track down a unknown thug threatening a teenage boy. The reveal is that the boy is profoundly disturbed, attempted suicide, and is, in fact, threatening himself by way of his disassociated personality. While the contorted silliness has a goofy charm, it's most remarkable that Daredevil's quizzical response to this bizarre turn is in the vein of "Wow, that kid sure has problems. Good day!" The left-field feel to the storyline is difficult to overstate, but there's some uniquely lovely lettering work by Todd Klein trying to capture the nuance of Daredevil sensorial experience. The weirdest tale yet seen in MCP by some measure, which, given the quotidian feel to Shang-Chi and Wolverine here, actually passes as a virtue. Power Ranking: Man-Thing (B+), Wolverine (B), Daredevil (B), Shang-Chi (D)