Well, Monday has come around again. This time it’s Remembrance Day here in Canada, and Veterans Day in the United States. If anyone who’s served is reading this, thank you.
For those of you playing “cross-over scorecard” at home, this week in “new” additions (week of May 8th, 2019) we have one Age of X-Man book (Apocalypse & the X-Tracts #3) and three War of the Realms ones. Of the War of the Realms books, the most interesting to me is Agents of Atlas #1, featuring Greg Pak’s reimagination of the concept to an all-Asian team of heroes fighting the War on the Pacific Rim. At least Jimmy Woo (Khan of the Atlas Foundation) is involved. I really like Pak’s writing though, so I’m looking forward to this.
In the nostalgia market, Marvel Feature #1 gets a Facsimile Edition. This one features the first appearance and origin of the Defenders, Marvel’s first “non-team” superhero team. Also serving the nostalgia market is a reprint of Marvels #3, the excellent Kurt Busiek/Alex Ross series. I’m doing it a disservice though. This is much more than a reprint… this is a 25th anniversary annotated re-release. If you’re like me and love both Marvels and an insider look at everything that goes into making a fantastic comic book, this re-release is a gold mine.
There are actually five Spider-Man books out this week, and three of them caught my attention. The first is the May 4th Free Comic Book Day book (yes, Free Comic Book Day 2019 was also Star Wars Day.) Also catching my eye was Symbiote Spider-Man #2 and Spider-Man/Deadpool #50. My reaction to the Spider-Man/Deadpool book is “wow, that book lasted fifty issues?” (#50 was indeed the final issue and features a cover appearance of the Grim Reaper. Not the Marvel villain one either. 😀 )
Symbiote Spider-Man is a series set during the time after Spider-Man got his living costume, but before he found out the truth about it and got rid of it (creating Venom.) I’m interested here because the writer is Peter David. I’m a big fan of David’s Marvel work (you may recall my mentioning his X-Factor run in my last column.)
That’s it from the “new” side this week (I’m trying to avoid just listing everything that comes out.) On to the back catalogue! This week illustrates why I love Marvel Unlimited so much. This week we get issues #91-#107 of Power Man and Iron Fist.
Now, Power Man and Iron Fist was a book I was aware of when I started seriouslyreading comics back in the early 80s, but it wasn’t a book I actually read. I was aware of it because of Marvel’s house ads. The sales on PM/IF weren’t the greatest (although they would blow away most of today’s books) and so Marvel supported the book by running house ads in their other titles. The ads were striking because there were two main ones, both full-page spreads. One featured Luke Cage, the other Danny Rand… and they were both breaking the fourth wall, talking directly to the reader. Luke threatens the reader. Danny talks about Luke getting mad (and violent) when he finds out people aren’t reading their magazine. They were great ads. I didn’t have the budget to get more comics (I consider myself lucky my parents subscribed me to the handful I did) but those ads have stayed with me for well over thirty years now. Check them out here!
Power Man and Iron Fist is a great example of Marvel just not saying die. It all started with Luke Cage, Hero For Hire #1 in 1972. That lasted sixteen issues, and then re-branded itself as Luke Cage, Power Man with #17. In the meantime, Iron Fist got his own title in 1975 (after appearing in Marvel Premiere for several issues). Neither title was doing that great. Iron Fist’s book was actually cancelled, and Chris Claremont wrapped up some storylines in Marvel Team-Up. Then, Claremont introduced Luke & Danny in Power Man #48. Two issues later, Luke Cage, Power Man became Power Man and Iron Fist.
Power Man and Iron Fist lasted from issue #50 to issue #150, and featured some really fun stuff. With this newest batch of books, Marvel Unlimited now has everything Power Man and Iron Fist right from the beginning through to #107, and then it jumps to #121 (which is a Secret Wars II cross-over issue.) There is onemissing issue between #50 and #107… #73. You’ll have to forgive Marvel for that one though. It featured Rom, Spaceknight, and Marvel doesn’t have the rights to reprint anything with Rom in it.
I’m really hoping Marvel will eventually reprint #108 through to #150. This is a series that I’d love to binge-read. The reason we have as much as we do is obvious: Luke & Danny’s profiles got a major boost thanks to the Marvel/Netflix collaboration that brought them both to millions of subscribers. Here’s hoping that we get the rest of it.
See you in this space next week!
Tags: Comic Books, Comics, Marvel, Marvel Comics, Marvel Unlimited, This Week in Marvel Unlimited