Marvel Saga

Last updated
Marvel Saga
Marvel Saga 1 cover.jpg
First Issue Cover
Publication information
Publisher Marvel Comics
ScheduleMonthly
Format Limited series
Publication dateDec. 1985 - Dec. 1987
No. of issues25
Creative team
Written by Peter Sanderson
Artist(s)(Various)
Editor(s) Danny Fingeroth
Collected editions
Volume 1 ISBN   978-0-7851-2727-7
Volume 2 ISBN   978-0-7851-2728-4

The Marvel Saga: The Official History of the Marvel Universe was a comic book series which attempted to condense the first 25 years of Marvel Universe events into a sequential, narrative story.

Contents

Publication history

The series was researched and written by Peter Sanderson and edited by Danny Fingeroth. It was published over 25 issues from December 1985 to December 1987. [1] The story follows Marvel continuity as closely as possible from the inception of the Marvel Universe, and it is stated in the first issue that there is nothing in the series that hasn't already been printed in previous Marvel comics. The illustration of the comics was mostly made up from excerpts from the original comics in which the events being described took place, with the addition of some new artwork to describe some of the events mentioned.

The series was meant to be a cohesive and quick way for newcomers to catch up on the entirety of the Marvel Universe at once, featuring the stories of the biggest and most important events in the Universe, including origins of most of the major Marvel characters. It also allows readers to see how stories from many different series are related and how they fit together in chronological order. The series concluded with the introduction of Galactus and the Silver Surfer.

In order to tie in with the wedding of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson, Marvel Saga #22 broke from the chronological approach of the series to provide a complete history of Peter and Mary Jane's relationship, and was written by Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man writer Peter David instead of Sanderson. David commented, "How could I not do it? I'm an old romantic. Having been happily married for ten years, I'm a fan of 'And they got married and lived happily ever after.' I think Peter deserves some happiness, although considering the Parker luck, he probably won't live happily ever after." [emphases in original] [2]

Spin-offs

Subsequent releases from Marvel have followed the Marvel Saga format. Wolverine Saga, a four-part mini-series published from September 1989 to December 1989, [3] detailed the history of Wolverine up to that time. Spider-Man Saga, another four issue series, was released from November 1991 to February 1992 [4] and did the same thing for Spider-Man.

Beginning in 2006, Marvel released several Marvel Saga-style one-shots for their titles. The list of these books are:

* Online only

In January 2012, Marvel published a one-shot comic titled History of the Marvel Universe, which provided an overview of the past 50 years of Marvel history in the Marvel Saga format.

Collected editions

The series has been collected into two trade paperbacks:

Related Research Articles

<i>The Amazing Spider-Man</i> Comic book series

The Amazing Spider-Man is an ongoing American superhero comic book series featuring the Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man as its title character and main protagonist. Being in the mainstream continuity of the franchise, it was the character's first title, launching seven months after his introduction in the final issue of Amazing Fantasy. The series began publication with a March 1963 cover date and has been published nearly continuously to date over six volumes with only one significant interruption. Issues of the title currently feature an issue number within its sixth volume, as well as a "legacy" number reflecting the issue's overall number across all Amazing Spider-Man volumes. The title reached 900 issues in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Claremont</span> American comic book writer

Christopher S. Claremont is an American comic book writer and novelist, known for his 16-year stint on Uncanny X-Men from 1975 to 1991, far longer than that of any other writer, during which he is credited with developing strong female characters as well as introducing complex literary themes into superhero narratives, turning the once underachieving comic into one of Marvel's most popular series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gwen Stacy</span> Marvel Comics fictional character

Gwendolyne Maxine "Gwen" Stacy is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, usually as a supporting character in those featuring Spider-Man. A college student and the daughter of George and Helen Stacy, she is the first romantic interest for Peter following his high school graduation before she is murdered by the Green Goblin. Her death has haunted Peter ever since, and stories published long afterwards indicate she still holds a special place in his heart. Gwen is posthumously subjected to numerous cloning experiments by her former professor Miles Warren, Peter's clone Ben Reilly, and an A.I. of Harry Osborn, the latter resulting in the creation of the Kindreds, and Ben briefly resurrecting Gwen in Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy (2016–2017), with the embodiment of Death herself confirming in Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider (2017–2018) that all clones Ben created of deceased people had their souls intact on being brought back, while clones of living people had unique souls of their own. In the alternate realities of Ultimate Marvel and Spider-Gwen, a still-living Gwen respectively becomes their universe's versions of Carnage and Spider-Woman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Avengers (comics)</span> Comic book superhero team

The Avengers are a team of superheroes appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby. The team made its debut in The Avengers #1. Labeled "Earth's Mightiest Heroes", the original Avengers consisted of Iron Man, Ant-Man, Hulk, Thor and the Wasp. Captain America was discovered trapped in ice in issue #4, and joined the group after they revived him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spider-Girl (Mayday Parker)</span> Fictional superheroine in Marvel Comics MC2 universe

Spider-Girl is a superheroine appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. She has been referred to as both Spider-Girl and Spider-Woman. The character appears in the MC2 universe. The character was created by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz as the teenage daughter of Peter Parker (Spider-Man) and Mary Jane Watson, and first appeared in What If #105. She later acquired her own ongoing comic book, Spider-Girl, written by DeFalco and drawn by Frenz and Pat Olliffe, which was the longest-running superhero book with a lead female character ever published by Marvel before being relaunched as The Amazing Spider-Girl, and later The Spectacular Spider-Girl.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nick Fury</span> Marvel Comics fictional character

Colonel Nicholas Joseph "Nick" Fury Sr. is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer/artist Jack Kirby and writer Stan Lee, he first appeared in Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #1, a World War II combat series that portrayed the cigar-chomping man as leader of an elite U.S. Army Ranger unit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ultimate Marvel</span> Defunct comic book imprint

Ultimate Marvel, later known as Ultimate Comics, was an imprint of comic books published by Marvel Comics, featuring reimagined and modernized versions of the company's superhero characters from the Ultimate Marvel Universe, later known as the Ultimate Universe. Those characters include Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Ultimates, the Fantastic Four, and others. The imprint was launched in 2000 with the publication of the series Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimate X-Men in 2001, followed by The Ultimates and Ultimate Fantastic Four in 2002 and 2004 respectively providing new origin stories for the characters. The reality of Ultimate Marvel is designated as Earth-1610 as part of the Marvel Comics Multiverse.

<i>Uncanny X-Men</i> Comic book series

Uncanny X-Men, originally published as The X-Men, is an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics since 1963, and is the longest-running series in the X-Men comics franchise. It features a team of superheroes called the X-Men, a group of mutants with superhuman abilities led and taught by Professor X.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Jenkins (writer)</span> British comic book writer

Paul Jenkins is a British comic book writer, screenwriter, novelist, and narrative director. He has had much success crossing over into the American comic book market. Primarily working for Marvel Comics, Jenkins had a big part shaping the characters of the company, helping via the Marvel Knights imprint to propel Marvel from Chapter 11 bankruptcy before choosing to focus on independent publications. He is also noted for his groundbreaking narrative work in the field of video games, and is recognized as one of the world's preeminent "cross-media" creators for his work across such multiple media as animation, video games, comic books, and film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adam Kubert</span> American comics artist (born 1959)

Adam Kubert is an American comics artist known for his work for publishers such as Marvel Comics and DC Comics, including work on Action Comics, Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine, The Incredible Hulk, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Ultimate X-Men, and Wolverine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Howard Mackie</span> American comic book editor and writer (born 1958)

Howard Mackie is an American comic book editor and writer. He has worked almost exclusively for Marvel Comics and is best known as the co-creator of the Danny Ketch version of the Ghost Rider character.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Sanderson</span>

Peter Sanderson Jr. is a comic book critic and historian, as well as an instructor/lecturer in the New York area concerning the study of graphic novels/comic books as literature.

<i>Civil War</i> (comics) 2006–2007 Marvel Comics crossover storyline

"Civil War" is a 2006–07 Marvel Comics crossover storyline consisting of a seven-issue limited series of the same name written by Mark Millar and penciled by Steve McNiven and various tie-in books. The storyline builds upon events in previous Marvel storylines, particularly "Avengers Disassembled", "House of M", and "Decimation". The series' tagline is "Whose Side Are You On?"

Frank Tieri is an American comic book writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Way</span> American comic book writer

Daniel Way is an American comic book writer, known for his work on Marvel Comics series such as Wolverine: Origins and Deadpool.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spider-Man: One More Day</span> 2007 four-part Spider-Man comic book crossover storyline

"One More Day" (OMD) is a four-part 2007 comic book crossover storyline, connecting the three main Spider-Man series published by Marvel Comics at the time. Written by J. Michael Straczynski and Joe Quesada, with art by Quesada, the story arc concludes the fallout of Spider-Man's actions during the 2007 Civil War crossover. "One More Day" starts in The Amazing Spider-Man #544, continues in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #24 and The Sensational Spider-Man #41, and concludes in The Amazing Spider-Man #545.

<i>Dark Avengers</i> Group of fictional characters

Dark Avengers is a 2009–2013 American comic book series published by Marvel Comics. It is part of a series of titles that features various iterations of the superhero team the Avengers, with this version of the team - unbeknownst to the public in its stories - having several members who are actually supervillains and anti-heroes disguised as the established superheroes.

Spider-Girl is the code name of several fictional characters in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The most prominent version and first to receive an ongoing series is Mayday Parker from the MC2 universe, the second version is Anya Corazon, and the third version is Gwen Warren, the latter two both from the Earth-616 universe. Several alternate reality incarnations of the character have additionally received notoriety, including the Ultimate Spider-Girl, Ashley Barton, Betty Brant, April, Penelope and Petra Parker, and Charlotte Morales.

References

  1. Brevoort, Tom; DeFalco, Tom; Manning, Matthew K.; Sanderson, Peter; Wiacek, Win (2017). Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History. DK Publishing. p. 223. ISBN   978-1465455505.
  2. Fisch, Sholly (September 1987). "Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson Star in Marvel Saga". Marvel Age . No. 54. Marvel Comics. pp. 22–23.
  3. "GCD :: Series :: The Wolverine Saga".
  4. "GCD :: Series :: Spider-Man Saga".