1988: RARE MARVEL UK LAUNCH ADVERT FOR DRAGON'S TEETH (aka DRAGON'S CLAWS)

From June 1988: Before they had claws... they had teeth!

A rare MARVEL UK advert, published in the UK fanzine SPEAKEASY, for the about-to-launch DRAGON'S CLAWS title in the (almost) US format. DRAGON'S TEETH was the original title, used in all the pre-publicity (including an article in this very same issue), until the lawyers stepped in and claimed a small (?) US publisher had prior claim.

Cue a bit of frantic rebadging (which apparently only delayed publication by a week) and the new title.

DRAGON'S CLAWS ultimately enjoyed a ten issue run before vaguely wrapping with no official notice that the book was closing.  was anyone left looking for the never-to-arrive 11th issue because they hadn't read the runes correctly?  As far as I know, the characters have remained in Marvel limbo ever since.  Unlike DEATH'S HEAD (kinda) and THE KNIGHTS OF PENDRAGON (ditto), they weren't included in the 1992 UKverse reboot.  The complete run was - however - reprinted in trade form by Panini.  Yay.

1997: STAR TREK UNTOLD VOYAGES LAUNCHED IN MARVEL VISION

From late 1997: More coverage of Marvel's STAR TREK line from the pages of MARVEL VISION, the in-house fan-zine (and successor to MARVEL AGE MAGAZINE).

STAR TREK: UNTOLD VOYAGES (the "the" was jettisoned along the way) was a five-issue run of stories, featuring Kirk and crew, set after the events of STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE.  

The movie series, after the flawed first outing, ignored the possibilities of post-V'Ger adventures and a second "Five Year Mission" (at least enough time for Star Fleet to hire someone to redesign their wardrobe again)... leaving the way wide open for fans and licensed books and comics to fill the gap (The DC TREK run featured a one-off Walter Koenig-scripted adventure from this period). 

1996: X-MEN/ STAR TREK in MARVEL VISION (Marvel Comics)

A STAR TREK/ PLANET OF THE APES crossover is due later this year (in the grand tradition of Adventure Comics' bonkers APE NATION of the early nineties) but remember when Marvel paired-off Kirk and crew with the X-Men in an attempt to drum-up some business for their new Paramount Comics venture?

The logic, no doubt, was that a one-shot featuring Marvel's best-sellers would not only generate some fan buzz for the new line of Trek comics (Marvel also published a MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE movie tie-in as part of the deal) but also encourage comic buyers who had ignored the previous Trek titles to take a punt.

Marvel published A LOT of Trek for the duration of the license.  DC had restricted itself to the two ongoing books (covering Classic and Next Gen) and the occasional one-shot and spin-off.  Paramount had hedged their bets by granting the DS9 (and, latterly, Voyager) licenses to upstart Malibu.  Marvel's subsequent acquisition of Malibu almost certainly paved the way for this deal, uniting all the iterations under one company for the first time since the launch of DS9.  

Arguably, Marvel flooded a depressed market with too much Trek (although fans, no doubt, weren't complaining too loudly) but the range of titles didn't allow them to explore more aspects of the Trek universe… and allow more creators to come and play.  

Marvel's own internal convulsions throughout this period, and the hefty cost of the license, eventually sealed the fate of the entire venture.

This cover and article is from MARVEL VISION (Marvel's in-house corporate 'fanzine') issue 9 from September 1996.

1997: STAR TREK in MARVEL VISION MAGAZINE

This is a 1997 article on MARVEL's roster of STAR TREK titles that appeared in their in-house "fan magazine" MARVEL VISION (issue 20, August 1997).

This was, of course, Marvel's second crack at the franchise following their ill-fated 1980-82 run which dropped out of warp speed after only eighteen issues.

MARVEL VISION was the successor to the long-running (over a decade!) MARVEL AGE MAGAZINE which itself, after a hiatus, replaced FOOM magazine (albeit with much wider distribution).  

1998: THE MICRONAUTS in MARVEL VISION MAGAZINE

I was flicking through this copy of MARVEL VISION at the weekend, and found this interesting preview for an upcoming Marvel series which surely should be filed under (to borrow from the rather brilliant BACK ISSUE magazine) "Greatest Stories Never Told": The return of the MICRONAUTS.

Marvel must have been pretty confident that this Mego revival was going to happen but - for whatever reason - it never did (Image Comics, followed by Devil's Due, finally had a punt beginning in 2002).

What we see here is - ahem - pretty sketchy which suggests that things hadn't progressed much beyond the development and pitch stage.  There's no sign of any completed interior pages or even a finished cover for promotional and solicitation purposes.

A lot more detail on the failed revival can be found here.

Marvel's original MICRONAUTS ran for 59 issues (1979-84) and two annuals.  The relaunched MICRONAUTS: THE NEW VOYAGES (1984-86) immediately followed and clocked-up another 20 issues.  

In 1983, Marvel launched the deluxe format (lovely paper and printing) MICRONAUTS SPECIAL EDITION (5 issues) that reprinted the early issues.

As mentioned in previous posts, the diminutive warriors made their UK debut in the pages of STAR WARS WEEKLY.  They then appeared, alongside BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, in STAR HEROES WINTER SPECIAL (1979) before becoming a regular fixture, again with Battlestar, in STAR HEROES POCKET BOOK from the following summer.  When that became X-MEN POCKET BOOK, they transferred to FUTURE TENSE weekly (later monthly).  Their final Marvel UK appearance was the reprint of the X-MEN/ MICRONAUTS Limited Series in the pages of the revived THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL.

MARVEL VISION was Marvel New York's successor to MARVEL AGE MAGAZINE and, once again, served as Marvel's in-house fanzine/ purveyor of puff-pieces.  This issue (cover-dated June 1998) was the last.