2016: PANINI LAUNCH NEW MARVEL CIVIL WAR COMIC IN THE UK

From - ahem - yesterday: spotted in WH SMITH, the first issue of Panini's new CIVIL WAR Collectors Edition format mag.

Top marks to the publisher for investing in the launch (pegged to a certain movie don't you know) by buying space in one of those shelf boxes.

The contents itself are another outing for the oft-reprinted Marvel event of a few years back. The core series wasn't a long-runner but the sheer number of crossovers and spin-off could fuel this launch for years.

In addition to the opening salvo of strips, there were also some feature pages tucked in the back culled from the old in-house hype mag (and successor to MARVEL AGE) MARVEL SPOTLIGHT.

I grabbed my copy but haven't had a chance to look at it in detail yet.

1997: HEROES REBORN Issue 1 (Panini UK)

From 1997: the first issue of Panini UK's HEROES REBORN COLLECTORS' EDITION, the British reprints of the rebooted Fantastic Four and Iron Man strips.

HEROES REBORN was a bizarre Marvel New York initiative that took control of some of their most bankable characters (the above plus The Avengers and Captain America) and outsourced all the creative work to Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld, two ex-Marvel creators who'd bailed years earlier as part of the mass exodus to create Image Comics.

The year-long project was mired in controversy as the radical reboots didn't always find favor with fans, alienated the existing creative teams who were unceremoniously dumped to clear the decks for the newcomers and Marvel's beleaguered editorial teams who saw some of the company's crown jewels being handed over to outsiders, on lucrative contracts, who had spent (in some cases) the previous few years bad-mouthing the publisher who had helped make them industry stars in the first place.

The experiment lasted a year (I believe Liefeld, never one of the industry's most reliable creators, was asked to exit earlier).  The characters then returned to the mainstream Marvel Universe in the Heroes Return event.  

The British edition managed a 42-issue run before shuttering.  It shouldn't be confused with the impending 2015 revival of the HEROES TV series. 

2004: PANINI'S RAMPAGE REVIVAL

This is a flash from the - ahem - recent past… although the title will be familiar to long-time readers of MARVEL UK… and, indeed, STARLOGGED…

Not content with reviving THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL… Panini went back into the archives and dusted-off RAMPAGE as well.

Of course, tastes change so this combined Marvel Superhero comic strip fare (all, I believe, created specifically for this title… in the days before the Disney edict that ended licensors originating their own material) with superficial "lifestyle features" pitched at the target audience.

I didn't follow this on a regular basis although I know it was rebooted as, I believe, a monthly… and then cancelled a few issues later.