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.
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[Note: MCP is on hiatus until 2021.]
Marvel Comics Presents #50: May 1990(9.2.20)
Credits: grandcomicsdatabase
MCP goes all in for a #50 anniversary issue cover that lovingly commerates issues past. A horde of past characters--Wheels, Arabian Knight, Uatu in shades!--are slickly rendered by Larsen and Austin with a cyan color hold. It's nicely done and punctuated by some nifty contributions--in particular, it's to Larsen's considerable credit that Overmind looks non-ridiculous. The more permanent change is a pivot to a redesigned interior front cover, which somehow feels more dated than the layout it replaces. There's some hinting towards production timelines in the letters page as we get a sense that the book is more or less set five issues ahead--in this case, up through issue #55 with the editor's promise of *gasp* The Collective Man.
A. Wolverine, "Fist Fight" [3/3]
A final page exposition dump suggests that Wolverine has some kind of pre-existing relationship with the kidnapped mutant girl, but, along with Spiderman's professed confusion about what the heck happens, the result here is head-scratching frustration at what's happening. Perhaps there's some deeper continuity riffing afoot, but this might be the crassest "just draw Wolverine and Spiderman" maneuver we'll see in MCP.
There's a fair case to be made (thankfully) that this is the strongest installment of this feature, since it's art alone that proves relevant. This outing is marked by some high powered Workman-esque lettering from Jade Moede and some bright touches by Gregory Wright--in particular, the electric green splash and washed out white explosion panels mark a confidence in coloring that squares with Larsen's familiar energy.
B. Comet Man, "A Family Affair" [1/4]
The wildest creative team thus far in MCP, which is a product of inheriting the crew responsible for the short-lived Comet Man series. Kelley Jones (lushly inked here by Gerry Talaoc) on a Comet Man feature scripted by Bill Mumy and Miguel Ferrer--yup, the actor.
The Comet Man back story is damn near impenetrable, but there's some credible work here using Reed Richards as a sounding board for the central emotion beats. The overstuffed narration is all too easy to ignore, however, when you get Jones' doing his best Wally Wood on a pile of space technology and Talaoc spashing heavy blacks over the pillowy, rumpled Comet Man costume. There's a forlorn, fish out of water feel to the feature that unifies what could have immediately devolved into flat Green Lantern parody. An ambiguous but agreenable initial outing for this feature.
C. Captain Ultra, "I Just Flew in From Poughkeepsie and Boy are My Arms Tired"
What The --?! and MCP overlap as Marvel offerings and, while goofy outings aren't uncommon here, the dreary blather than Lobdell pitches here would surely square better with the former book. Insofar as this is "in continuity," there's reason to find it here, but the script that Jensen has to work with her is outrageously bad and clearly produced with little sense of what a page permits.
The nominal apex of the narrative is Captain Ultra doing battle with E'Cklr--some kind of Hulk-demon thing--upon the interruption of Captain Ultra's stand up routine. Jensen can't be blamed for the stifling feel here, given the urgent and constant gags inserted by Lobdell.
D. Silver Surfer, "You Can't Go Home Again"
The triumphant return of Jack Sparling--long-time comics vet and son of Winnipeg, Manitoba. This is his last work with the Big Two and it's all over the place, but absolutely charming. The layouts bounce around with a goofy playfulness and his huge-eyed Surfer and pulpy heavy turn what might have been a (fairly typical) hackneyed Surfer melodrama into a counterfactual experiment of what would have happened if Silver Surfer parachuted into the 1950s strips. There's a subtle touch by Ed Lazellari's color work here that usefully offsets Sparling's bouncy style--Silver's bathed in blues rather than predominant whites and grays to great effect. Somewhere between Heavy Metal and Buck Rogers, this weird outing is peering into the comics cosmos.
Power Ranking: Silver Surfer (A-), Comet Man (B-), Wolverine (B-), Captain Ultra (D)
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