Marvel recently made a decision to retire the phrase, "true believer", in memory of founding father Stan Lee, who passed away some months back.
What that does is it rebrands the company's reprint line as Marvel's Greatest Creators, which will still be offered on a monthly basis. Here's some recent entries:
A reprint of Power Man 30 introduces Piranha Jones, who was an even bigger menace than he was presented on Luke Cage. Writer Don McGregor gave Jones teeth like his aquatic namesake, and it was amusing seeing Piranha try to go vampire on Luke to no avail. As is the case with most reprints, they are taking chapters from story arcs, and directing readers to the trade collections to finish the stories. Those trades, though, are more expensive than DC's average trade.
Rating: B.
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As Marvel launched the MC2 line, they started with an issue of What If? (2nd series), which was the debut of a new generation Spider-Girl. Tom DeFalco, understanding the ill feelings of fans after the Green Goblin had stolen Peter & Mary Jane Parker's baby girl, created an alternate reality where May Parker had survived the kidnapping, reunited with her parents, and discovered she had inherited her father's powers.
Spider-Girl enjoyed a pretty healthy run, the most successful of the MC2 books, and May has returned periodically as part of those Spider-Verse events.
Rating: A.
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A pair of Iron Fist reprints from his run in Marvel Premiere in the mid-70's rounds out this lot.
In issue 18, Colleen Wing makes her debut. Her father, a professor, is in danger, and she & Iron Fist meet for the first time, as Danny Rand is recruited to rescue the professor. Three issues later, fellow blogger Tony Isabella brings Misty Knight into the mix. How Marvel never did a monthly Daughters of The Dragon series during this period, I'll never know. Artist Larry Hama, who drew issue 18, is better known to fans today as a writer, currently scripting GI Joe for IDW.
Rating: B (both issues).
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Marvel is also experimenting with "facsimile" issues that reprint not only the story content, but also advertisements and house ads. DC will be doing this later this summer as well.
Marvel Feature 1, circa 1971, brought the Hulk, Sub-Mariner, and Dr. Strange together as The Defenders, who would get their own series after the third issue of Marvel Feature. The Silver Surfer was the fourth member, but he was not a major part of the story due to other issues addressed in passing.
Anyway, the odd pairing of Ross Andru and Bill Everett, the latter Sub-Mariner's creator, on the artwork, does mesh better than you'd think. Don Heck draws a Dr. Strange solo story in the back of the book, and in between is a Sub-Mariner reprint by Everett. Good fun.
Rating: A.
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Last week, we reported that DC was sacking Tom King as writer of Batman, with his last issue rolling out in December.
Now comes word of two other events.
1. DC is discontinuing its twice-monthly publishing schedule of major books such as Batman & Wonder Woman, likely effective in January.
2. King will get to finish his epic Bat-saga with a 12 issue Batman-Catwoman series, debuting in January, to be drawn by the brilliant Clay Mann.
Whomever replaces King on the core Batman will, in the eyes of King loyalists, have a tough act to follow.
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