1994: CLAN DESTINE in MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS

From July 1994: The fallout from the GENESIS MASSACRE: CLAN DESTINE's debut in the pages of the anthology MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS.  

The Alan Davis creation was to have been part of the MARVEL UK renaissance a retrenching of the operation with a new emphasis on quality over quantity in the hopes of riding out the industry slump.

However, Marvel NY took radical action to deal with the product glut and ordered the London office to cease their incursion into the US market forthwith.  The tradeoff was that the most promising of the Genesis titles would transfer to the auspices of the US Bullpen.  In practice, Clan Destine was pretty much the only survivor.  Even DEATH'S HEAD II was dumped overboard without a second thought.

Marvel NY, to their credit, put some muscle behind this.  In addition to their first appearance herein, they also garnered a preview edition.  M-UK had also generated some pre publicity with  magazine articles and a trading card attached to the cover of COMICS WORLD magazine here in the UK. 

1993: OVERKILL House Ad (Marvel UK)

From November 1993: Another House Ad for MARVEL UK's OVERKILL... boasting a very different line-up than the one it launched with the previous year (only WARHEADS were holdouts from the original 'Overkill Five' strips).

It switched from fortnightly to monthly just after this ad appeared... a peripheral victim of the GENESIS IMPLOSION which cut a large chunk out of the US line... but didn't reverse (or even stabilize) plummeting sales across the board. 

1993: KNIGHTS OF PENDRAGON House Ad (Marvel UK)

From January 1993: A MARVEL UK House Ad for the retooled KNIGHTS OF PENDRAGON (already ready retooled once for their 'Genesis 92' launch... and rebooted again within the year) ongoing book.

You can imagine the edict that led to this Alan Davis makeover: "Sales are bad... we need to make this look more like a superhero book!".  But I don't think this is anyone's finest hour.

The reboot had come, two months earlier, with the sixth issue.  This ad reuses the cover art from the eighth issue.  The title eventually clocked-up fifteen issues (three issues less than the 1990-91 run) before succumbing to the house clearing of the Genesis Implosion of late 1993. 

The Knights were one of the initial "Overkill Five" strips designed for publication on both sides of the Atlantic.  However, they were soon dropped from the UK fortnightly and only continued to appear in the US edition. 

1993: REDMIST 2020 House Ad (Marvel Uk)

Another Mighty Marvel UK What If: a UK advert for the it-never-happened REDMIST 2020 multi-book event from MARVEL UK's GENESIS line.  

Apparently the material for these three new interconnected new launches was actually on the way to the printers (and I've wondered, on several occasions, whether the freebie trading cards went to print earlier than the main book) when the GENESIS IMPLOSION hit and the orders came down from upon high to suspend most of the British Bullpen's publishing plans.  

None of the three new books ('ROID RAGE, DEATH DUTY and BLOODRUSH... three very nineties titles) ever made it into print and, of the two crossovers, only SUPER SOLDIERS 8 hit the shelves.  That proved to be the title's finale and the ninth issue was lost.  WILD THING stalled after issue seven and neither of the two-parts of the crossover appeared.  

The 'Implosion' was only supposed to put M-UK's new launches on hiatus (and clear out some of the underperforming titles, like SUPER SOLDIERS, CYBERSPACE 3000 etc) in order to slim down the line until the market stabilized in the wake of the speculator crash.  However, it turned into the "Genesis Massacre" when the whole line was shuttered at the end of 1993.  Everything already on hiatus was chopped alongside the implosion survivors.  Wipe out. 

But... just look at the list of the creators attached to these books...

1993: OVERKILL MONTHLY House Ad (Marvel UK)

This MARVEL UK House Ad, which appeared in December 1993, touted the relaunched OVERKILL which boasted an increased page count (and cover price) but also a reduced schedule (from fortnightly to monthly).  

The shift was part of the GENESIS IMPLOSION which saw sweeping retrenchments (read: cancellations) across the US-focued line as the British Bullpen tried to cope with orders suddenly falling-off the cliff.  Overkill, presumably, wasn't subject to the same woes (it was, after all, primarily intended for UK newsagents) but the schedule change suggested that it too was suffering from flaccid sales.  

The Implosion swiftly turned into a MASSACRE when Marvel, without warning, deemed the entire UK imprint (even the annoyingly ubiquitous DEATH'S HEAD II) surplus to requirements and closed the lot.  Overkill, flush with a backlog of strips, soldiered on into the New Year but it really felt like it was on borrowed time...

1993: BLACK AXE LAUNCH AD (Marvel UK)

 

This is the in-house Launch Ad for the ongoing MARVEL UK series BLACK AXE from early 1993.

The 'Genesis Project' UKverse title eventually clocked-up a seven month run before succumbing to the first wave of cutbacks: the 'Genesis Implosion'.

The axe (hohum) fell so swiftly that MARVEL AGE MAGAZINE continued to list two more issues as coming attractions and, presumably, some work had already been completed on one or both.  

The appearance by DEATH'S HEAD II in the first issue was presumably intended to give the new launch some extra sales lift and standout in a competitive market... but M-UK seriously overexposed the character (and his various wannabe spin-offs) and his star power waned fast. 

The BLACK AXE strip also appeared in OVERKILL in the UK. 

1993: COMIC WORLD REPORTS THE INDUSTRY CRASH

 

This is how the British magazine COMIC WORLD reported the industry crash in late 1993.  This issue would have gone on sale around November that year.  

Included in the coverage is MARVEL UK's 'Genesis Implosion", the first stage in the two-part sequence of events that led to the closure of the entire US-focused line... and the mothballing of all the characters created for it.  

The management's spin on the decision is an interesting bit of PR... suggesting that the numerous projects placed on hiatus needed further 'quality control' work.  Presumably this was part of the British Bullpen's push to emphasize quality over their previous dash-for-growth.  

A couple of months later, CW was reporting the 'Genesis Massacre'.  

1993: FRONTIER COMICS UNLIMITED House Ad (Marvel UK)

A MARVEL UK House Ad from 1993, announcing the imminent launch of the new, quarterly, FRONTIER COMICS UNLIMITED, an anthology spin-off from M-UK's Frontier Comics imprint.

FC aimed to be something more akin to DC's Vertigo line: more edgy output that may, or may not, feature established Marvel characters.  

The line, edited by Michael Bennent, was made up of the Conan-alike BLOODSEED (announced as a four-issue limited series, of which two appeared, with a further two issues scheduled for 1994.  They never appeared), IMMORTALIS, DANCES WITH DEMONS and CHILDREN OF THE VOYAGER.  All of the above were four-issue series.

Not mentioned here are two original strips, Evil Eye and The Fallen which, presumably, were slated as possible contenders for their own FC books or, at the very least, return engagements in the quarterly.

Unfortunately, the Frontier Comics line was one of the first things to be jettisoned when the GENESIS EXPLOSION started to turn swiftly into an IMPLOSION.  Fortunately, with the exception of Paul Neary's own Bloodseed, the existing series were all wrapped-up (not a privilege given to many of the M-UK books as the situation swiftly deteriorated) but the line was shuttered and all future projects abandoned.  The first issue of Unlimited was hastily rebadged FRONTIER COMICS SPECIAL (they forgot to change the small print) and issued as a one-shot.  

MARVEL AGE MAGAZINE covered the launch of the line here and there was also coverage in the short-lived UK fanzine COMICS SPECULATOR NEWS (yuck!) here.

1995:NOCTURNE (Marvel UK)

NOCTURNE is another Mighty MARVEL UK obscurity: a last survivor from the British Bullpen's ambitions to be an originator of mainstream (albeit with a British twist) superhero adventure comics (which, for the most part, went up in smoke during the late 1993/ early 1994 Genesis Implosion.

Dated June 1995, this was put together by a British team overseen by Paul Neary (he served a similar duty on THE CLANDESTINE) but published as part of the US line.  Apparently with minimum hype as this passed me by entirely at the time despite running for four issues.

I stumbled across this first issue (sadly not the remaining three) in a dealer's dump bin at the weekend… and the name rang a bell.  

The M-UK connection (other than the creative team) here is that NIGHT RAVEN is featured, albeit in flashbacks as a fictional character… who may not (you can see where this is - probably - going) have been as fictional as everyone assumed.  

I really enjoyed this first issue.  Dan Abnett's plotting doesn't feel very original but it is highly enjoyable and I hope I get a chance to read the remaining chapters soon.  More disappointing is Nocturne's costume design: it looks like a pimped-up Phantom and is far from memorable.  

1993: DEATH'S HEAD II GOLD HOUSE AD (Marvel UK)

DEATH'S HEAD II GOLD marked Liam Sharp's return to the Mech-Merc after a brief leave of absence, this time as both writer and artist.

DHIIG (phew!) should (AFAIK) have been a new quarterly companion to the ongoing main book, in the spirit of Marvel's Unlimited Books (including Frontier Comics Unlimited).  Unfortunately, it inadvertently became a one-shot as the GENESIS IMPLOSION took hold.

The same artwork graced the cover, complete with enhancements but its nice to see it in all its pre-fiddling glory!

MARVEL UK HANDBOOK: GUN RUNNER

THE ROAD TO THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR:
THE MARVEL UK HANDBOOK

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.

1994: DOCTOR WHO: AGE OF CHAOS (Marvel UK)

MARVEL UK: THE GENESIS IMPLOSION

DOCTOR WHO: AGE OF CHAOS was one of the few former GENESIS 92 projects to survive the implosion.

Published as a magazine format one-shot (some sources incorrectly describe it as graphic novel) in 1994, it ran the Colin Baker-scripted strip which had originally been planned as part of the US line.

The four-part limited series, which would have been the first original WHO strips for US comics since the sixties DOCTOR WHO AND THE DALEKS movie adaptation one-shot, had been put on hiatus, and subsequently cancelled, when the G92 line started to run into trouble in late 1993.

The four chapters were reworked here into one continuous story, removing the chapter breaks by tweaking the artwork.

This hefty colour staple-strainer wasn't widely distributed at the time (WHO had been off-screen for several years and Colin Baker's sixth Doctor for almost a decade) and is fairly hard-to-find now.  To date, it's never been reprinted.

The cover, by Alan Davis, was originally planned for the first issue and used in the PR for the limited series.

1994: THE UNPUBLISHED MARVEL UK: WILD ANGELS

THE GENESIS IMPLOSION

They WON'T be here from January.  This is a MARVEL UK House Ad, published in the US books cover-dated February 1994, for another victim of the GENESIS IMPLOSION that was about to overtake the entire Genesis line.

The WILD ANGELS limited series was intended to combine DARK ANGEL (previously Hell's Angel, until the lawyers came calling) and WILD THING, two existing Marvel UK characters, in an extended team-up.

The English language editions were scrapped but Pino Rinaldi was a sufficient draw (ho-hum) in his native Italy for Panini to collect the four completed issues into a black & white one-shot, translated into Italian of course.  The original books were planned to be in colour and its possible Panini opted for b&w because the colouring on all four books hadn't been completed when Marvel UK shuttered. And, of course, it's cheaper.

The advert is also another example of the bonkers advertising campaigns that M-UK used to try and revive their fortunes in those final months.

According to my calculations, this is my 1000th post since I started STARLOGGED (as Slow Robot) on 16 January 2012.  A cause for a moment's celebration me thinks...

Hurrah.

I never expected I would reach so many posts so quickly and I reckon this has evolved into a fine repository for all things geeky and oft overlooked. I even broke one exclusive.  I NEVER expected that to happen.  It's also focused my mind and I've discovered lots of things I didn't previously know (or, had long since forgotten) in the course of compiling my posts and - I hope - some of that has been passed on.  I've no intention of stopping any time soon.  Thanks for passing by and - to those that post comments - it's much appreciated! 

1993: FRONTIER COMICS HOUSE AD (Marvel UK)

Here's a MARVEL UK House Ad, from their US books (cover-dated September 1993), plugging the first (and, as it turned out, only) wave of books from their FRONTIER COMICS imprint.

The core GENESIS 92 sub-universe had been born of a creative rift within Marvel UK.  Many of the creators, no doubt with one eye on the big bucks being splashed around by US publishers, saw M-UK as an opportunity to create Marvel's version of DC's booming VERTIGO imprint: edgy, (sometimes) less commercial books which really (hopefully!) pushed the boundaries of the medium.

Paul Neary, newly ensconced as the British Boss and seeped in the traditions of mainstream superhero fare (as well as accountable to the New York HQ and their demand for more and more product, and profits, during the industry boom years) favoured more commercial fare.

Even the earliest issues of OVERKILL reflected that conflict: the US standalone books were packed full of appearances by US characters (a policy piloted, with great success, in the original DEATH'S HEAD II limited series) in an attempt to get some attention and traction in the ferociously competitive US market.  The British "reprints", chasing the 2000AD audience (and initially billed as science fiction comic), chopped out (by deleting pages in a weird and cumbersome dual running arrangement) the bulk of the appearances by US characters.

With sales at their peak, and the GENESIS EXPLOSION in full bloom, M-UK did have a belated crack at the Vertigo vibe with the FRONTIER range.

Not creator owned, more risky (there's tit in BLOODSEED) and with one foot (loosely) in the Marvel Universe, Frontier produced some of the best creative work from the entire GENESIS era.

All of the books were initially announced as four-issue limited series although BLOODSEED was subsequently halved to a two-issue run with the promise of the final two issues, bunched as a second series, in 1994.  That never happened.

The problem with the FRONTIER line is that all the books were fundamentally less commercial than the mainstream G92 books.  That still made them viable when business was booming but a disaster once sales dropped off a cliff... which they did, just as the line hit the shelves.

As retailers and readers trimmed their sails (or, simply, bowed out) in the face of a glut of product, Frontier was particularly vulnerable.  Marvel UK found their books, floating at the fringes of the Marvel Universe, the first to get the chop as retailers slashed their orders.  Frontier, an imprint of an imprint, was even more vulnerable.

Marvel UK announced the entire line would shutter once the first wave of books had wrapped (kudos for allowing all of them to run their course) and plans for a quarterly companion, FRONTIER COMICS UNLIMITED (borrowing the brand, and format, from the similar US books), were curtailed to a one-shot, FRONTIER COMICS SPECIAL, using the inventory material (new outings for all the first-wave strips along with several new shorts which were, presumably, considered possibilities for future solo-dom) created for the first issue.

The cuts marked the beginning of the GENESIS IMPLOSION, a wave of cancellations and delays (which, as events turned out, amounted to cancellations) which were intended to trim M-UK back to a core offering but, by early 1994, closed the whole thing down.

The Frontier books are regular 50p box fodder and well worth grabbing if you can find them.  They represent some great hidden gems, from creators about to hit the big time, and are (without doubt) Marvel UK's best kept secrets.

MARVEL UK HANDBOOK: BATTLETIDE

THE ROAD TO THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR:
THE MARVEL UK HANDBOOK

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.

1994: MARVEL UK GENESIS 92 HOUSE AD

THE GENESIS IMPLOSION

Here's a very strange House Ad from the dying days (February 1994) of MARVEL UK's GENESIS 92 line, just as the GENESIS IMPLOSION was overwhelming the line.

The fresh start, of course, turned out to be scrapping the lot.  Ho hum.

The distinctive M-UK disc design logo never actually made it into the corner box of any of the G92 books, with the exception of the last-gasp BODYCOUNT one-shot (see here) from October 1993.  It was, however, briefly adopted for the British comics and magazine line after the implosion including OVERKILL from issue 46.

1993: THE UNPUBLISHED MARVEL UK: REDMIST 20-20

THE GENESIS IMPLOSION: REDMIST 20-20

The end of MARVEL UK's stateside expansion came so fast that some of the casualties were already announced and - in some cases - close to shipping when the line was axed.

The final few months of the GENESIS 92 books contained several House Ads teasing series which never appeared and, from time-to-time, I'll be posting these as the REVOLUTIONARY WAR edges ever closer.

RED MIST 20-20 was going to be a multi-book event to launch three new interconnected titles: 'ROID RAGE, BLOODRUSH and DEATH DUTY.  The much-plugged late 93 launches would have been unified by interconnected covers and another set of promotional trading cards.

In the end, only the crossover in (the already bedded-in) SUPER SOLDIERS hit the stands and the rest of the project was quietly abandoned as the implosion took hold.

This House Ad appeared in GENESIS 92 books with a November 1993 cover date.