Marvel Age #1: Epic Collection Connection

Carl D. Smith: Entry #1

I realize I was a little late with my first entry for this joint Marvel Age project. The fellows have a good schtick going here and I am along for the ride, mostly intending to piggyback articles off of my ongoing reading/obsession of the Marvel Epic Collection. Most of the Epic line is centered on books from the Marvel Age era, so the premise seemed simple. Carl can read the issue of Marvel Age, look at the solicits, and review one comic that appears there and in his precious Epics. 

Here is the problem with that - inspiration. Already in issue one I feel burnt out with the hint and peck of taking one issue and reading it out of context for the schtick. It felt like draining the spontaneous joy from what I usually use as my Prozac - reading 80’s comics. There is something about opening a trade paperback and reading just a pinch of the pages within that feels more crass, more of a chore, than a labor of discovery. Or maybe I just worked too much this week at the day job. 

But as I got thinking about this, I realized that in this era of Marvel, there weren’t trade paperbacks. Not really. If you didn’t buy Crystar #2 there was a pretty good chance you’d never get to read it. The best you could hope for is for it to show up at a garage sale, swap with a buddy, or (for those living a charmed life) get to go to a comic shop someday that had it in stock. There was no trade waiting because there were no trades. Stories were written in arcs and miniseries, but it had less to do with future marketing and more to do with production. 

So as I look at these solicited comics, my thoughts turned to which would deserve Epics, and which have seen the winds of time change their Q rating with those of us throwing money at collected reprints. The big book of the issue is Crystar. It isn’t fair to snicker at how it has been sort of erased from the collective hivemind of comics. Yes, it was a licensed property. Yes, Marvel probably made more than the toy line did. Yes, they have a vested interest in pushing the book beyond its intrinsic quality. 

But that is the beauty of Marvel in this era. 

For starters, licensed books for Marvel did pretty well. Star Wars was a smash hit, and the comic provided nice little microdoses of Lucas-flavored fun in-between movies. GI Joe was a runaway hit almost immediately. Godzilla, Micronauts, ROM, Shogun Warriors… the list goes on and on. So being a licensed book was not in and of itself a reason for snark. 

Then you have to look at the financial side. Marvel did pretty well helping toy companies sell their wares. Not only did it get money moving to fund other books that may have been risks (or floundering in sales) but it also got eyes on comic books that might have otherwise passed. There were house ads galore, crossovers, and positioning next to the well trod titles of Marvel proper. 

If you look at the landscape of the books in this first issue of Marvel Age, you’ll notice that not much of it was Epic material. There’s a big blurb about Byrne’s The Thing, a book that has only partially been reprinted in color (Classics line), and was almost immediately fodder for Kay-Bee toy 3 packs and quarter bins. Then there are Dazzler and Ka-Zar, which haven’t even been rumored for Epic volumes. Captain America was concluding a brilliant arc by DeMatteis, Rogue was joining the X-Men, and there were as many Conan-adjacent books as there were Spider-Man titles (Including Team-Up). 

This was an interesting time for Marvel, and one I celebrate. All of the main titles (except Thor) were humming along, doing their thing. In fact, the House of Ideas was so reliable at this time that even a comic book based on a toy was worth a look. Maybe not everything happening in Marvel Age 1 was Epic worthy, but its a snapshot of a time when the spinner rack held little disappointment, and instead offered tough choices to a cash-strapped comic fan. 

So as I warm up for this little ongoing feature, I want to keep the big picture in mind. There are a lot of great books releasing or about to release in this era. Its that context that we’ll use to frame my future articles about issues I pluck from one of my pretty Epics, and its the premise that will maintain the joy of reading some truly magical funny books from the time before trades. 

At the time of this writing the following “main title” books have not been reprinted in Epics. Avengers 233, Daredevil 196, Incredible Hulk 285, Fantastic Four 256, and X-Men 171.

Appearing in Epics are Defenders 121 (vol 7), New Mutants 5 (vol 1), Iron Man 172 (vol 10), Captain America 283 (vol 10), Power Man / Iron Fist 95 (vol 3), Thor 333 (vol 12), Moon Knight 32 (vol 3).

PS - as a side note. It appears the word on the internet is that IDW will soon be losing their Hasbro licenses, primarily of interest are Transformers and GI Joe. Both of these properties were essential parts of the company in the Marvel Age. If I have any gas in the tank for hope when it comes to comic books, that hope would be that Marvel brings those titles home and (as they did with Conan and Star Wars) immediately pump them out in Omnibus and Epic formats. A GI Joe Epic would put me over the moon.