MARVEL UK HANDBOOK: CLANDESTINE

It's been ages since I've done one of these so... here we go... another entry in the (exceptionally) occasional UNOFFICIAL HANDBOOK TO THE MARVEL UK UNIVERSE (which I have now started calling the UKverse).

This time: two pages from the OFFICIAL Handbook covering Alan Davis' CLANDESTINE... a series that came very close to being published by Marvel UK before being rescued from the Genesis Massacre by the New York Bullpen. 

MARVEL UK HANDBOOK: GUN RUNNER

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A dose of early nineties big gun silliness today: GUN RUNNER from MARVEL UK's GENESIS 92 sub-universe of books.

His book debuted towards the end of the Genesis Explosion, cover-dated October 1993 and shuttered six issues later (cover-dated March 1994) as one of the final casualties of the Implosion.

MARVEL UK HANDBOOK: MYS-TECH WARS

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MYS-TECH WARS was another of MARVEL UK's blockbuster mini-series which followed the familiar formula of chucking in as many bankable characters as possible and letting them scrap for a few issues.

The four-parter, which sold great guns, appeared just as the Genesis 92 Explosion (cover dates spanning March - June 1993) was really taking hold.

The ubiquitous Dan Abnett supplied the storyline alongside Bryan Hitch's impressive art (including a run of really striking wrap around covers).

There's never been a reprint so, as with all the Genesis 92 books, the 50p back issue box is your best bet.

MARVEL UK HANDBOOK: BATTLETIDE

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The four-part BATTLETIDE limited series reads like one of those ideas that popped into Paul Neary's head late on a Friday afternoon and arrived on his desk as a (allegedly) fully formed concept at 9am the following Monday.

It was a cack-handed combination of Shooter's SECRET WARS and - off all things - WWF (1992 remember) wrestling.  The basic plot revolved around aliens kidnapping various bankable Marvel characters (Hell's Angel, Psylocke, Wolverine, Sabretooth, Kill Power and - inevitably - Death's Head II) and pairing them off in tag teams to fight various non-discript aliens.  The titular "tide", since you asked, was a cloud of cosmic evil (not dissimilar to Galactus in RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER) drafted in when the plot began to splutter.

The script was by the ubiquitous Dan Abnett with art by Geoff Senior, who makes the best of a bad situation.

Sales were stellar at the height of the boom and a second, slightly superior, four-parter followed during the 1993 GENESIS EXPLOSION and a third instalment was on the cards when the IMPLOSION snuffed out the lot.

Marvel combined the entire four-parter into one staple-straining UK edition as the (one-and-only) OVERKILL EASTER SPECIAL.  The first part of the sequel appeared in the final issue of OVERKILL (indicating that the cancellation order arrived rather late) leaving would-be readers to seek out the original US format back issues if they wondered what happened next.

MARVEL UK HANDBOOK: M.O.P.E.D UNIT

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£*<[ Me!  It's Harley's sci-fi sneakers: The M.O.P.E.D Unit!

This two-page spread appeared in MOTORMOUTH issue 4, cover-dated September 1992.

MARVEL UK HANDBOOK: ALBION

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A few days ago I posted the OFFICIAL HANDBOOK TO THE MARVEL UNIVERSE entry for Marvel UK's Knights of Pendragon so it seemed appropriate to next post the one-page entry for ALBION (who also did a spot of out-of-time moonlighting in M-UK's wannabe Avengers team book DARK GUARD).

MARVEL UK HANDBOOK: KNIGHTS OF PENDRAGON

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The Knights actually predate the GENESIS 92 project, they made their debut back in 1990 in their own pre-GENESIS US format monthly.  That book (the complete run is available in a must-have Panini trade) clocked-up an impressive eighteen issue run before being canned by a combination of marginal sales and the new broom of the incoming Neary regime.

A revamped Knights returned the following year as part of the inaugural GENESIS 92 line-up, reprinted in the pages of OVERKILL in the UK.

That book - which many fans of the original didn't exactly take a shine to - was a slow burner of the G92 line and eventually clocked-up a 15 issue run making it more successful than some of its higher profile companions.

The illustration comes from Alan Davis' overhaul of the characters.  Hmmm...

MARVEL UK HANDBOOK: NIGHT RAVEN

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Here's a pre-GENESIS 92 character who may (or may not) be a participant in 2014's REVOLUTIONARY WAR series.

NIGHT RAVEN first appeared - of course - in HULK COMIC issue 1 and ran in the first 20-odd issues (I don't have the exact info in front of me) before succumbing to budget cuts.  It's a myth that the initial high quantities of originated British strips in HULK COMIC/ THE INCREDIBLE HULK remained for long and most were dropped within six months.  The sole survivor was The Black Knight.

The character was retooled as a text story for SAVAGE ACTION and then - like Captain Britain - played the cancellation-shuffle of the early eighties monthlies.

The Hulk-era strips were rerun in the pages of CAPTAIN BRITAIN monthly mid-decade and collected in trade paperback format a few years later.

A planned revival in the pages of STRIP (which had already serialised a DEATH'S HEAD series) was scuppered when the anthology was suddenly cancelled just before the strip was due to start.  Whoops.

MARVEL UK HANDBOOK: KILLPOWER

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I posted the MOTORMOUTH entry from THE OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE a couple of days ago so - inevitably - the next post would have to be her dimension-skipping companion KILLPOWER (that's such a 1990s Marvel UK name).

MARVEL UK HANDBOOK: MOTORMOUTH

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£=<{ me!  It's potty-mouthed London teen Harley Davidson (yup, the copyright-baiting Brits were at it again), tricked into becoming an inadvertent dimension-hopper by the nefarious MyS-TECH thanks to their MOPED device... craftily concealed in a pair of designer trainers.

Harley, despite the TANK GIRL comparisons, was one of the more interesting of the first wave of Marvel UK GENESIS 92 characters.  She also demonstrated Arundel House's early determination to offer something a little more distinctive than the standard US superhero fare.

Her own comic, paired with the very nineties KILLPOWER (I'll get to him), ran for only a year but Harley has the distinction of being the only British character to make a contemporary appearance in a US book (THE INCREDIBLE HULK 408-409, courtesy of Peter David), beating the transatlantic guest-shot one-way-street.

MM also has the distinction of being the only G92 strip to appear in the UK twice.  She formed one-fifth of the original OVERKILL line-up and then appeared uncut (IE the full American edit of the strip) in the pages of THE EXPLOITS OF SPIDER-MAN.

Harley was poised to make a double comeback in two new series just as the Genesis Implosion hit, leaving both unpublished.  One would have revived her partnership with Killpower whilst a second, MOTORMOUTH REMIX, would have used her dimension-jumping abilities to visit various alternate Marvel Earths with different takes on assorted established characters (WHAT IF meets SLIDERS).

MARVEL UK HANDBOOK: DIGITEK

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A few days ago I posted the House Ad preview, from the DEATH'S HEAD II mini, for DIGITEK.

By way of a follow-up, here is the official HANDBOOK OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE entry.

MARVEL UK HANDBOOK: DIGITEK

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This is another one of the preview piece editorial features that ran in the back of the four-part DEATH'S HEAD II mini (aka The Wild Hunt) to drum up interest for the about-to-launch Marvel UK Genesis 92 sub-universe.

DIGITEK (The "Ultimate Computer Warrior" although he looks like AUTOMAN in a samurai suit) was, thanks to the painted artwork by Dermot Power, the classiest of the first wave of "Overkill" books, although the extra attention lavished on the contents created some deadline problems and the four-parter eventually shipped several months later (the cover dates span December 1992 to March '93) than the other launch books.

It did feature as part of the launch team for OVERKILL, which meant Brits saw the earliest instalments months before the states... although it did have to take periodic breaks to allow the creators to catch up.

The scripts, by John Tomlinson and Andy Lanning, were cutting edge techno-fare in the early nineties but DT's reliance on Fax machines and pagers now looks painfully quaint.  Which is a shame as, re-reading the books today, there is a lot of good stuff to be found therein.

This series - like most of the other M-UK books - can (with a little perseverance) be found in the 50p bargain boxes.  They're well worth a look.

MARVEL UK HANDBOOK: DEATH'S HEAD II

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From DEATH'S HEAD (yesterday) to DEATH'S HEAD II: the briefly ubiquitous poster boy for the entire MARVEL UK sub-universe thanks to a succession of guest appearances, cameos and crossovers as Arundel House chased the holy grail of the initial sales figures for his limited series and the first few issues of the regular book.  Didn't happen.

MARVEL UK HANDBOOK: DEATH'S HEAD

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You can't keep a good Freelance Peacekeeper down it seems.  Whilst the rest of the MARVEL UK sub-universe has been languishing in unloved obscurity for two decades, the original created-for-a-one-shot-appearence DEATH'S HEAD (originally phased-out in favour of his II successor... until M-UK realised there was money to be made in re-releasing his back catalogue) has been popping-up periodically... most recently in the pages of IRON MAN*.

So here's DH's entry from THE OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE.

* You probably missed it but the good news is that Panini have issued a new UK trade paperback collection collecting what appears to be the first half of the story.  There is also an (inevitably more expensive) hardback Marvel edition from the states which - at a casual glance - appears to reprint the same strips.

MARVEL UK HANDBOOK: THE KNIGHTS OF PENDRAGON

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Here's another of the MARVEL UK GENESIS 92 sneak-peeks that appeared in the original DEATH'S HEAD II limited series during the first part of 1993.

The Knights had already enjoyed an 18 issue run in the a semi-US format (the dimensions matched US books but - unlike the Genesis 92 line - it never felt like it was fully integrated into the larger Marvel New York output) between July 1990 and December 1991.

This second incarnation, launched in July 1992, grafted the Knights into the MyS-TECH anchored sub-universe and ultimately ran 15 issues to September 1993.

The strip also formed part of the inaugural OVERKILL line-up here in the UK.

Typically of the UK expansion, only the first series has been reissued in trade paperback format and - once again - nothing from the G92 era is currently in print.

MARVEL UK HANDBOOK: MOTORMOUTH (Marvel UK)

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Here's another two pages of pre-launch plugging from the back of the DEATH'S HEAD II limited series (1993), previewing the upcoming launch of the Marvel UK sub-universe.

I re-read the DHII mini last week and I was struck that - apart from these pages - there's nothing in the main story to plug it into the about-to-open Genesis 92 line.  There's no attempt to preview any of these characters (and gawd knows, the fourth issue is packed with copious cameos by existing Marvel characters... although it's set it an alt. future 2020 so they're entirely superfluous) and MyS-TECH doesn't even rate a mention.

I also re-read the first issue of MOTORMOUTH, best described as a @?!!ing hybrid of TANK GIRL and SLIDERS, and although the idea is slight (dimension jumping trainers a.k.a MOPED units... really) and the whole "Fashion Police" shebang storyline strained, it was fun.  I did spot one mistake: the story appears to reach a natural conclusion, complete with 'next issue' tease... and then continues for several more pages before wrapping with another 'next issue' line on the real last page.  Someone in Arundel House's production department obviously wasn't paying attention to the paste-up and slipped-in the OVERKILL (where the stories were - of course - initially edited to minimise the inclusion of Marvel US characters) page with the first cliffhanger ending.  Whoops.

The MM (which always gets me thinking of the ITV Saturday Morning magazine show) series ultimately ran a year before before being cancelled.  M-UK were busy hatching plans for her returned when the whole Annex of Ideas started to collapse.  A planned REMOVAL MAN VS. MOTORMOUTH was announced but then placed on hiatus and ultimately cancelled.  Another series, MOTORMOUTH REMIX, was also scrapped pre-publication.  Remix was going to be a WHAT IT? type look at alternate iterations of Marvel characters.

Uncut versions of the early MM strips appeared in - of all places - THE EXPLOITS OF SPIDER-MAN monthly.

Harley Davis is distinguished amongst the Genesis 92 characters in that - unlike the others - she did secure a guest appearance in one of the 'proper' American Marvel books.  Most Atlantic crossings were strictly one way with numerous appearances by American characters in the UK books but little traffic heading in the opposite direction.  The exception was Harley's turn in Peter David's THE INCREDIBLE HULK 408 and 409 (August & September 1993). $*&! me!

MARVEL UK HANDBOOK: WARHEADS

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Here's another of those pre-launch pieces that appeared in the back pages of the DEATH'S HEAD II limited series plugging the upcoming main push of five regular MARVEL UK books (four ongoing series and one limited series).

The inter-dimensional mercenaries WARHEADS were a good example of M-UK trying to do something a little different with the initial Genesis 92 books rather than just slavishly replicating the superhero fare pumped-out by the parent company.

It's the sort of strip that would probably have felt at home - with a few tweaks - in the pages of 2000AD.  That helped the early issues of the British anthology OVERKILL feel like a serious contender to Tharg's crown before it started to succumb to the same biceps-bums-tits-&-guns malaise that did the US books no favours.

MARVEL UK HANDBOOK: HELL'S ANGEL (Marvel UK)

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Here's another of the preview pieces from the 1992 DEATH'S HEAD II limited series, a beachhead by Marvel UK into the (briefly) booming (and potentially highly lucrative) US market of the early 1990s.

Each of the four issues also featured several pages plugging the upcoming first wave of GENESIS 92 books.

HELL'S ANGEL had to undergo a swift name change, on both sides of the Atlantic, when the biker group got wind of the character and called in their lawyers.  It seems that the Marvel UK legal team hadn't done their checks very well.

MARVEL UK HANDBOOK: MYS-TECH (Marvel UK)

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The four-part DEATH'S HEAD II limited series from 1993 not only set out the Marvel UK house style (a supremely nineties mix of biceps, boobs, bums and enormous guns) but also featured a series of plugs for the upcoming launch of the five "OVERKILL" books (the strips that would fly solo in the States but populate the anthology fortnightly in the UK).

This is a nice backgrounder to MyS-TECH, prime big-bads of the sub-universe.

MARVEL UK HANDBOOK: MYS-TECH CENTRAL - PART FOUR (Marvel UK)

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This is the fourth - and final - instalment of the MyS-TECH headquarters, located under London's Docklands, from the pages of Marvel UK's OVERKILL (issue 25, 26 March 1993).