1993: PLASMER TRADING CARD SET (Marvel UK)

These are the four cards that formed the PLASMER TRADING CARD set, bagged free with the first issue of the four part series (see previous post for more).

These improbably proportioned characters perfectly capture the hyper-realism of the era and - presumably - were intended to appeal to teenage boys.  That may explain the design printed on the bag.

This was the final set of MARVEL UK cards.  The promotional set planned for Red Mist 2020 was scrapped pre-publication.

One more single card, promoting CLANDESTINE (eventually published by Marvel New York), was cover-mounted to an issue of COMIC WORLD magazine.

I've posted the original twelve card OVERKILL set here, here and here.

You'll find the 3D set, illustrated by Bryan Hitch, here, here and here.

The GENE CARD set, from the US GENE POOL books, are posted here, here, here and here.

And the DEATH'S HEAD (original) card from the 1991 Marvel US set is here.

PLASMER

Front

PLASMER

Back

MRS. MULLARKEY

Front

MRS. MULLARKEY

Back

PLASMONSTER

Front

PLASMONSTER

Back

PLASTROOPER

Front

PLASTROOPER

Back

1993: PLASMER ISSUE ONE (Marvel UK)

PLASMER was one of the very last series to launch during the final months of the GENESIS 92 era with the first issue hitting the shelves somewhere around September 1993.

Created by Glenn Dakin, Pascual Ferry and Sean Hardy, the conceit was that Plasmer was one person split (by MyS-TECH, of course) into her purely good and purely bad halves.

The first issue was bagged with four trading cards, the last set of Marvel UK cards to see the light of day.  Another set, Red Mist 2020, was planned to accompany the first issues of that three-book crossover but the project - and the cards - were spiked pre-publication.

The bag of the first issue was printed with what - politely - look's like pink gentleman's relish (was this the anticipated reaction of fanboys the moment they sighted the improbably top heavy cast?) which - as you'll see below - just serves to obscure the artwork.  Maybe that was the idea....

The series was mid-way through a reprint in Britain's OVERKILL when that comic was pink-slipped.  Dakin mentioned at the recent Marvel UK panel at the London Film and Comic Con that a trade paperback collection was published... in Spain.

The four-issue didn't make much of an impact at the time (or - indeed - since) but did generate some infamy when Marvel's Stateside lawyers used the character as a reason to try and block the publication of Jim Shooter's similarly-named new comic.

Shooter's new enterprise (after it all got a bit nasty at Valiant) Defiant Comics was planning PLASM as their first launch until Marvel's lawyers got wind of the plan and sued (Shooter had been - of course - Marvel's Editor-in-Chief until he was sacked during the New World era.  He'd subsequently put together an unsuccessful bid to buy the company) forcing a hasty name-change to WARRIORS OF PLASM.  The renamed book, and the company, didn't last long and Shooter blamed the cost of fighting Marvel in court as a contributory factor in its demise.

Front Cover

Bagged

Back Cover

Bagged

Front Cover

Unbagged

Back Cover

Unbagged