Marvel Premiere | |
---|---|
Publication information | |
Publisher | Marvel Comics |
Format | Anthology |
Genre | |
Publication date | April 1972–August 1981 |
No. of issues | 61 |
Creative team | |
Written by | List
|
Penciller(s) | |
Inker(s) | List
|
Marvel Premiere is an American comic book anthology series that was published by Marvel Comics. In concept it was a tryout book, intended to determine if a character or concept could attract enough readers to justify launching their own series, though in its later years it was also often used as a dumping ground for stories which could not be published elsewhere. It ran for 61 issues from April 1972 to August 1981. [1] Contrary to the title, the majority of the characters and concepts featured in Marvel Premiere had previously appeared in other comics. [2]
Marvel Premiere was one of three tryout books proposed by Stan Lee after he transitioned from being Marvel Comics' writer and editor to its president and publisher, the others being Marvel Spotlight and Marvel Feature . [3] The advantage of such tryout books was that they allowed the publisher to assess a feature's popularity without the marketing investment required to launch a new series, and without the blow to the publisher's image with readers if the new series immediately failed. [4]
In addition to giving established characters a first shot at a starring role, Marvel Premiere introduced new characters and reintroduced characters who no longer had their own titles. Writer Roy Thomas and penciler Gil Kane revamped Him as the allegorical Messiah Adam Warlock in Marvel Premiere #1 (April 1972). [5] Doctor Strange took over the series with issue #3 [6] and writer Steve Englehart and artist Frank Brunner began a run on the character with issue #9. [7] The two killed Dr. Strange's mentor, the Ancient One, and Strange became the new Sorcerer Supreme. Englehart and Brunner created a multi-issue storyline in which a sorcerer named Sise-Neg ("Genesis" spelled backward) goes back through history, collecting all magical energies, until he reaches the beginning of the universe, becomes all-powerful and creates it anew, leaving Strange to wonder whether this was, paradoxically, the original creation. Stan Lee, seeing the issue after publication, ordered Englehart and Brunner to print a retraction saying this was not God but "a" god, so as to avoid offending religious readers. The writer and artist concocted a letter from a fictitious minister praising the story, and mailed it to Marvel from Texas; Marvel unwittingly printed the letter, and dropped the retraction order. [8] In 2010, Comics Bulletin ranked Englehart and Brunner's run on the "Doctor Strange" feature ninth on its list of the "Top 10 1970s Marvels". [9]
Iron Fist first appeared in issue #15, written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Gil Kane. [10] Other introductions include the Legion of Monsters, the Liberty Legion, [11] Woodgod, the 3-D Man, [12] and the second Ant-Man (Scott Lang). [13] [14] The series also featured the first comic book appearance of rock musician Alice Cooper. [15]
Though Adam Warlock, Doctor Strange, and Iron Fist were all given their own series following their tryout in Marvel Premiere, many of the later features were never meant even as potential candidates for a series. In some cases, such as the Wonder Man story in issue #55 and the Star-Lord story in #61, the writer simply wanted to do a story featuring that character and there was not a more appropriate place for it to be published. [4] Some features, such as Seeker 3000 (issue #41), were conceived specifically for Marvel Premiere but with no real plan for a series. [4] Later in the title's run, Marvel Premiere was used to finish stories of characters who had lost their own series, including the Man-Wolf in issues #45–46 [16] [17] and the Black Panther in issues #51–53. [4]
Issue | Character(s) | Collected in |
---|---|---|
#1 | Adam Warlock | Marvel Masterworks Warlock Vol. 1 Essential Warlock Vol 1 Adam Warlock Omnibus Vol 1 |
#2 | ||
#3 | Doctor Strange |
|
#4 |
| |
#5 | ||
#6 | ||
#7 | ||
#8 | ||
#9 |
| |
#10 | ||
#11 | ||
#12 | ||
#13 | ||
#14 | ||
#15 | Iron Fist |
|
#16 | ||
#17 | ||
#18 | ||
#19 | ||
#20 | ||
#21 | ||
#22 | ||
#23 | ||
#24 | ||
#25 |
| |
#26 | Hercules | Thor Epic CollectionVol 7 Thor Omnibus Vol 5 |
#27 | Satana |
|
#28 | Legion of Monsters |
|
#29 | Liberty Legion |
|
#30 | ||
#31 | Woodgod | Marvel Masterworks Marvel Team-Up Vol. 6 |
#32 | Monark Starstalker | |
#33 | Solomon Kane |
|
#34 | ||
#35 | 3-D Man [12] | |
#36 | ||
#37 | ||
#38 | Weirdworld | Weirdworld |
#39 | Torpedo |
|
#40 | ||
#41 | Seeker 3000 | |
#42 | Tigra |
|
#43 | Paladin |
|
#44 | Jack of Hearts | Marvel Masterworks Iron Man Vol. 13 |
#45 | Man-Wolf | Man-Wolf: The Complete Collection |
#46 | ||
#47 | Ant-Man (Scott Lang) |
|
#48 | ||
#49 | The Falcon | Marvel Masterworks The Avengers Vol. 18 Marvel Masterworks Captain America Vol. 13 |
#50 | Alice Cooper [15] | |
#51 | Black Panther |
|
#52 | ||
#53 | ||
#54 | Caleb Hammer | |
#55 | Wonder Man | Marvel Masterworks The Avengers Vol. 19 Wonder Man: The Early Years Omnibus |
#56 | Dominic Fortune | Dominic Fortune: It Can Happen Here and Now |
#57 | Doctor Who (reprints from Marvel UK's Doctor Who Weekly ) | |
#58 | ||
#59 |
| |
#60 | ||
#61 | Star-Lord |
|
The similarly-named Marvel Movie Premiere was a one-shot black-and-white magazine published by Marvel in September 1975. It featured an adaptation of The Land That Time Forgot by writer Marv Wolfman and artist Sonny Trinidad. [18]
Dr. Stephen Vincent Strange is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Steve Ditko, the character first appeared in Strange Tales #110. Doctor Strange serves as the Sorcerer Supreme, the primary protector of Earth against magical and mystical threats. Strange was introduced during the Silver Age of Comic Books in an attempt to bring a different kind of character and themes of mysticism to Marvel Comics.
The Avengers is a comic book title featuring the team the Avengers and published by Marvel Comics. The original The Avengers comic book series debuted in 1963.
James P. Starlin is an American comics artist and writer. Beginning his career in the early 1970s, he is best known for space opera stories, for revamping the Marvel Comics characters Captain Marvel and Adam Warlock, and for creating or co-creating the Marvel characters Thanos, Drax the Destroyer, Gamora, Nebula, and Shang-Chi, as well as writing the acclaimed miniseries The Infinity Gauntlet and its many sequels including The Infinity War and The Infinity Crusade, all detailing Thanos' pursuit of the Infinity Gems to court Mistress Death by annihilating half of all life in the cosmos, before coming into conflict with the Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, and the Elders of the Universe, joined by the Silver Surfer, Doctor Strange, Gamora, Nebula, and Drax.
Roy William Thomas Jr. is an American comic book writer and editor. He was Stan Lee's first successor as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics and possibly best known for introducing the pulp magazine hero Conan the Barbarian to American comics. Thomas is also known for his championing of Golden Age comic-book heroes – particularly the 1940s superhero team the Justice Society of America – and for lengthy writing stints on Marvel's X-Men and The Avengers, and DC Comics' All-Star Squadron, among other titles.
Gerard Francis Conway is an American comic book writer, comic book editor, science fiction writer, screenwriter, television writer, and television producer. He is known for co-creating the Marvel Comics vigilante antihero the Punisher as well as the Scarlet Spider, and the first Ms. Marvel and also writing the death of the character Gwen Stacy during his long run on The Amazing Spider-Man in the story arc "The Night Gwen Stacy Died".
Sal Buscema is an American comics artist, primarily for Marvel Comics, where he enjoyed a ten-year run as artist of The Incredible Hulk and an eight-year run as artist of The Spectacular Spider-Man. He is the younger brother of comics artist John Buscema.
John Buscema was an American comic book artist and one of the mainstays of Marvel Comics during its 1960s and 1970s ascendancy into an industry leader and its subsequent expansion to a major pop-culture conglomerate. His younger brother Sal Buscema is also a comic book artist.
Steve Englehart is an American writer of comic books and novels. He is best known for his work at Marvel Comics and DC Comics in the 1970s and 1980s. His pseudonyms have included John Harkness and Cliff Garnett.
Frank Brunner is an American comics artist and illustrator best known for his work at Marvel Comics in the 1970s.
Amazing Adventures is the name of several anthology comic book series, all but one published by Marvel Comics.
Marvel Two-in-One is an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics featuring Fantastic Four member the Thing in a different team-up each issue.
Marvel Spotlight is a comic book anthology series published by Marvel Comics as a try-out book. It stood out from Marvel's other try-out books in that most of the featured characters made their first appearance in the series. The series originally ran for 33 issues from November 1971 to April 1977. A second volume ran for 11 issues from July 1979 to March 1981.
Gil Kane was a Latvian-born American comics artist whose career spanned the 1940s to the 1990s and virtually every major comics company and character.
Stephen Ross Gerber was an American comic book writer and creator of the satiric Marvel Comics character Howard the Duck. Other works include Man-Thing, Omega the Unknown,Marvel Spotlight: "Son of Satan", The Defenders,Marvel Presents: "Guardians of the Galaxy", Daredevil and Foolkiller. Gerber often included lengthy text pages in the midst of comic book stories, such as in his graphic novel, Stewart the Rat. Gerber was posthumously inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2010.
Marvel Feature was a comic book showcase series published by Marvel Comics in the 1970s. It was a tryout book, intended to test the popularity of characters and concepts being considered for their own series. The first volume led to the launch of The Defenders and Marvel Two-in-One, while volume two led to an ongoing Red Sonja series.
Marvel Fanfare was an anthology comic book series published by American company Marvel Comics. It was a showcase title featuring a variety of characters from the Marvel universe.
Franklin Robbins was an American comic book and comic strip artist and writer, as well as a prominent painter whose work appeared in museums including the Whitney Museum of American Art, where one of his paintings was featured in the 1955 Whitney Annual Exhibition of American Painting.
Fantastic Four is the name of several comic book titles featuring the team the Fantastic Four and published by Marvel Comics, beginning with the original Fantastic Four comic book series which debuted in 1961.
The Defenders is the name of several comic book titles featuring the team the Defenders and published by Marvel Comics, beginning with the original The Defenders comic book series which debuted in 1972.
Doctor Strange is a series of several comic book volumes featuring the character Doctor Strange and published by Marvel Comics, beginning with the original Doctor Strange comic book series that debuted in 1968.
Roy Thomas and artist Gil Kane allowed 'Him' to meet another [Stan] Lee-[Jack] Kirby character, the godlike High Evolutionary.
{{cite book}}
: |first2=
has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)We cooked up this plot-we wrote a letter from a Reverend Billingsley in Texas, a fictional person, saying that one of the children in his parish brought him the comic book, and he was astounded and thrilled by it, and he said, 'Wow, this is the best comic book I've ever read.' And we signed it 'Reverend so-and-so, Austin Texas'-and when Steve was in Texas, he mailed the letter so it had the proper postmark. Then, we got a phone call from Roy, and he said, 'Hey, about that retraction, I'm going to send you a letter, and instead of the retraction, I want you to print this letter.' And it was our letter! We printed our letter!