MARVEL HEROES Anyone bought it yet?

[stevezodiac]

I keep seeing issue 1 of Marvel Heroes but am reluctant to splash out 50 bob of my hard earned rhino on such a flimsy affair. Has anyone bought it? The free Hulk mask on the front probably won't fit my fizzog either. It feels like there are only about 16 pages. i used to dive on first issues in my heyday but the appeal has waned as I have reached middle age. I might buy it tomorrow what the hell. It says new stories but i presume they mean reprints from US comics. One thing that puts me off modern comics is the bulky free gifts on the front, it means you can't store them easily. Years ago when I was married I used to store them all seperately in a one litre ice cream tub (emptied of course).

[Lew Stringer]

Marvel Heroes has 36 pages, 14 pages of which are 2 x 7 page comic strips. All of the material is brand new, by UK creators for the UK market.

It's a companion comic to Spectacular Spider-Man which has been running brand new material for several years now.

Who sez British adventure comics are dead?

Lew

PS: Bulky free gifts? I throw them away.

[stevezodiac]

Hmm that's interesting, I'll get one tomorrow in that case. It'll be like 1972 and The Mighty World of Marvel all over again. Is there a Stan's Soapbox?

[Lew Stringer]

Hmm that's interesting, I'll get one tomorrow in that case. It'll be like 1972 and The Mighty World of Marvel all over again. Is there a Stan's Soapbox?

Heh, afraid not. The tone of the comic is pitched at a slightly younger reader too as you've probably gathered from the cover. This is for 7 to 12 year olds rather than the young teen market of most Marvels. Still a good comic though.

Lew

[STARBOY]

i'm surprised (and pleased) Marvel has chosen to use UK originated art and stories for their younger readers comics, especially as Marvel produce their own US ALL AGE comics (ie for kids - although I think they are as good as some of the regular comics) which, I would have thought they might have used to save money.

I might pick this up as well for old times sake (I still vividly remembner picking up MWOM issue 1 in 1972) - but good to see UK artists getting work on these books, it must work as this seems to be Marvels most succesful spell in the UK (I think??)

[Kashgar]

I keep seeing issue 1 of Marvel Heroes but am reluctant to splash out 50 bob of my hard earned rhino on such a flimsy affair. Has anyone bought it? The free Hulk mask on the front probably won't fit my fizzog either. It feels like there are only about 16 pages. i used to dive on first issues in my heyday but the appeal has waned as I have reached middle age. I might buy it tomorrow what the hell. It says new stories but i presume they mean reprints from US comics. One thing that puts me off modern comics is the bulky free gifts on the front, it means you can't store them easily. Years ago when I was married I used to store them all seperately in a one litre ice cream tub (emptied of course).

Your ice cream tub would have to have Tardis-like propensities to house all the bulky 'free gifts' given away ad nausuem these days Steve!

[stevezodiac]

I must confess I demurred from buying this comic figuring for £2.50 I might as well buy Marvel Legends with Iron Man and Captain America, my two favourite Marvel characters, plus that big galoot Thor "Verily hath thou gotten up thine hooter, prepareth ye for a king size wallopeth across the brainbox with thine muckle great mallet". Anyway as luck would have it Saturday's Sun had a coupon for a free copy of Marvel Heroes, so on Sunday I toddled off to Tesco and picked up aforesaid periodical for nowt. I was very pleased with it, a very busy looking comic which I hope will appeal to youngsters and encourage comic buying, of course the films are a great help in this regard. As a middle aged bloke, though, i suspect today's kids are a different species, to whom buying comics is not regarded as cool - peer pressure and all that. In my day we had our own minds but today's kids seem to have to follow a cultural rulebook like sheep. Am i wrong?

[STARBOY]

That's an interseting question about kids today following a "cultural rulebook" when we (older lads over 39 ) didn't. Although to be fair to todays kids, there wasn't that must available to us to follw re style (jeans fromthe coop etc) or be influenced by on TV. Although in our way we were also pretty rigid as we all had pretty much the same shared interest - with only 3 BBC1 2 ITV) TV channels, a few radios stations we all liked the same things (Batman, Dr Who, Thunderbirds, 6 Million Dollar Man etc) - and of course comics were part of that medium - I would say todays kids (not all) grow up (or like to think they are) far to quickly, but thats not totally their fault - I feel pretty sorry for them ending their childhood at 11/12 or so for fags, fashion, drink, drugs and "relationships" (at 12 fer goodness sakes )

[Raven]

As a middle aged bloke, though, i suspect today's kids are a different species, to whom buying comics is not regarded as cool - peer pressure and all that. In my day we had our own minds but today's kids seem to have to follow a cultural rulebook like sheep. Am i wrong?

I reckon so! Comic buying and collecting didn't used to be considered cool at all in the past - over a certain young age it was something you'd keep quiet about.

Not so with comics like The Beano but it's much more likely to be considered cool now, with so many of the big films being comic-based: Dark Knight, Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, the Spider-Mans, Ghost Rider, The Fantastic Four, X-Men, etc. It's harder for people to scoff at you for reading Batman when the Dark Knight film is the hottest ticket in town.

Also with manga and anime being increasingly popular, and the former drawing so many girls in.

I think it's lost most of its stigma and young people would be much more open-minded and interested.

[Wil]

This whole business about different stories for different ages is probably my biggest gripe amongst modern hero comics. I (like many here, I imagine) started with Marvel in the 70s when I was 7/8-ish with the UK reprints. These were, of course, 1960s stories and (seemingly) a lot simpler than modern superhero tales but they didn't seem simple to my 8 year old mind and while I could follow and read them, reading back through Essential volumes now I see that I also missed a lot of what was going on. So it seems to me that those stories happily worked on different levels, and appealed to (as well as being appropriate for) all ages. Now (if the stories in Spectacular Spider-Man are anything to go by) kid-appropriate Marvel means really simple stories that also have nothing to do with what's going on in the real Marvel universe.

Please don't get me wrong, I love the fact that UK writers and artists are able to get to do this stuff but it niggles that they have to do it because 'normal' Marvel is only written for man-children now.

The upshot of this is that yes, I'll buy a copy of Marvel Heroes to have a look but probably only the one.

I'll also direct my son, as much as I can, to classic stuff. Not because I'm a sad old git (although I probably am) who thinks old is automatically better but I genuinely think that in this case, it is.

Wil (first post and all that - hello!)

[stevezodiac]

You mentioned marvel Essentials and I just wondered if you had the Spider Man volume 2 and, if so, has your son read that three part story that I think apeared in Spiderman issues 31-33. Regarded by many as one of the greatest stories. Can't remember the title or even the villain (Master Planner?) but just know it knocked me out about 35 years ago. It would be interesting to see what a youngster's opinion is.

[Wil]

My son's only just coming up to 6 so he's still a little young to cope with reading that sort of stuff on his own just yet. We try out a variety of comics from the Beano and other 'free gift heavy' current titles and we go through them together. For his age his reading is very good but I don't try to pressure him into liking comics; we just have them around all the time so he knows there's more to enjoying stories than just TV (although we read books before bed each night, too). I've also got plenty of older '70s annuals (from when I was a kid) like Whizzer & Chips, Topper, Countdown, TV21 etc. that he likes as well.

Sorry, gone off the topic a bit here. He likes superheroes like Spidey and Iron Man (basically the movie ones even though the movies are too old for him - that's another topic) so eventually I imagine he'll have a go at the comics.

We'll pick up Marvel Heroes today and see what it's like.

Edit - Ok, Cam and I went out this afternoon and picked up Marvel Heroes No.2 so I figured I'd do a mini review thingy.

Cover: Well it was pretty much covered up by a free gun that shot little discs (gift - 6/10 - it only shot the things half the time) but once removed it was pretty average. The logo is too fussy, too small and doesn't have enough impact. Also there's no real focus to it. Iron Man is the biggest image but he doesn't even have a strip inside. It also fails by trying to flag every single thing in the issue on the cover.

Insides: Once past a 'these are the Marvel Heroes' page and a pointless contents page (good lord, the thing's only 36 pages - you don't need a contents page) the next 4 pages are the Marvel HQ but it's really just an excuse to sell you stuff - Iron Man DVD (as a 12 cert surely at the upper range of the target audience and too old for most) Spider-Man video game - go to our website etc. Even the compo is just product placement guff - you have to turn to the back to even see what you have to do to enter.

Then there's a 'data file' on Iron Man which gives you a precis of the film origin in a mini strip and a load of nonsense 'top trump' facts. No best villians, supporting cast, important Iron Man moments. Lazy.

Spidey strip: Ok so straight into the first strip. Seems like it's a stand alone story (I guess it could have carried on from the previous issue) but there's no recap of who's who or what's gone on (even in a cheesy, hidden in the dialogue, sort of way). It's basically a battle with the Lizard and for that it's ok. Art is not too bad but far from great.

Posters: Stock art of Spidey and the X-Men while in the middle there's a big group shot of loads of folks with a numbered 'who's who' at the bottom. Only problem is that there aren't any numbers on the pic to tie names and faces up.

X-Men strip: Grief, it doesn't even say X-Men next to the title and the pic on the poster opposite the strip opening page (which I initially thought was the first page) has them in different costumes anyway. It's a stand alone story which again has no 'who's who or what's what' update. Again, art is passable but not fantastic.

Next up is a spread on the Sentinels which is nice as we've just seen one in the X-Men strip. Poor choice of images to go with it, though as the Byrne pic (which wipes the floor with everything else on the page) is too detailed to be brought down so small. There's a nice cutaway but it's more nonsense top trumps details.

Ooh, an Iron Man mask to cut out and keep.

Next is a draw Doc Ock page. It sits awkwardly next to the Iron Man mask and it needs a better tie in to Spidey (there's only a little mention of him and no pic).

These must be the 'activity' pages as we now get a word search, maze and spot the difference themed on ol' shell head.

Finally we get the compo page and a 'cut the back page of your mag up' top trump (er, Data File) card.

Overall it seems to me that Marvel Heroes follows, almost to the letter, the set template for these sort of comics. From Scooby-Doo to the Cartoon Network comic, the mix and tiresome 'chuck it in the air and see where it lands design' is almost identical. The 'news' pages are just whatever the PR wagon brought in that month and the activity pages don't really have anything to do with subject matter. Marvel Heroes' strips are ok but, to me, suffer from expecting too much prior info about the characters from the reader. And if the reader is really well up on his Spidey and X-Men then the strips are too detached from the current Marvel universe. Just, as I suspected, like the strips in Spectacular Spider-Man.

It's not terrible but it's very by-the-numbers and lacks any real heart and enthusiasim for it's heroes. But then, I'm far from the target audience. Cam went straight for the free gun and gave a cursory glance to the Spidey strip. We'll see if he's interested in going back to it during the week.

Sorry for the extended waffle.

[stevezodiac]

The first issue featured Iron Man and Hulk strips so it seems they will rotate the heroes each week as they please, hence the title Marvel Heroes. I just like the idea that it is all British stuff and unique to our shores. I always felt a bit smug in the 60s and 70s when Power comics had original Barry Smith pin-ups on the back of Fantastic and Terrific and later Mighty World of Marvel had original Jim Starlin covers. I wonder if there are Marvel completists across the pond who are after this stuff?

[Wil]

Please don't get me wrong. I love the fact that it's original UK content and will always support that but that doesn't mean I'll forgive any shortcomings. It still needs to be good and I'm afraid I didn't really think Marvel Heroes was any good. The silly thing is that all it needs is a better editorial hand from someone who looks like they give a damn.

[Lew Stringer]

Then there's a 'data file' on Iron Man which gives you a precis of the film origin in a mini strip and a load of nonsense 'top trump' facts. No best villians, supporting cast, important Iron Man moments. Lazy.

Spidey strip: Ok so straight into the first strip. Seems like it's a stand alone story (I guess it could have carried on from the previous issue) but there's no recap of who's who or what's gone on (even in a cheesy, hidden in the dialogue, sort of way). It's basically a battle with the Lizard and for that it's ok. Art is not too bad but far from great.

Some of your comments are valid Wil but I'd just like to reply to a few if I may. The stories are all stand-alone. The contents change from issue to issue. As you'll see from the ad on the back page, issue 3 will feature Iron Man and the Fantastic Four. The comic assumes that readers are already aware of the Marvel characters from the films and cartoons. It's not expecting many readers to buy it without any knowledge of Spider-Man, but for any kids who somehow aren't aware of him there's a summary of his origin etc on the inside back cover of the issue you have.

The "HQ" (news) section is, as you say, basically product placement but it's still informative. Marvel are no longer just a comics company. They're a multi-media set up, so plugging the games and toys makes sense. It's useful for us older readers too. For example I didn't know the latest three Marvel Pocket Books were out until I saw the cover repros in MH.

Posters: Stock art of Spidey and the X-Men while in the middle there's a big group shot of loads of folks with a numbered 'who's who' at the bottom. Only problem is that there aren't any numbers on the pic to tie names and faces up.

As is explained on the contents page, it's part two of a two-part poster. The key was on part one.

X-Men strip: Grief, it doesn't even say X-Men next to the title and the pic on the poster opposite the strip opening page (which I initially thought was the first page) has them in different costumes anyway. It's a stand alone story which again has no 'who's who or what's what' update. Again, art is passable but not fantastic.

It says X-Men on the cover and on the contents page so it's assumed kids could remember that by the time they got to page 21. I agree it's odd they were in the Grant Morrison-era costumes though. A "Who's Who" would have been useful but, again, it assumes the readers already know who the X-Men are.

Next up is a spread on the Sentinels which is nice as we've just seen one in the X-Men strip. Poor choice of images to go with it, though as the Byrne pic (which wipes the floor with everything else on the page) is too detailed to be brought down so small. There's a nice cutaway but it's more nonsense top trumps details.

Far from nonsense, the info makes perfect sense. I bet the kids will love that cutaway.

Ooh, an Iron Man mask to cut out and keep.

Next is a draw Doc Ock page. It sits awkwardly next to the Iron Man mask and it needs a better tie in to Spidey (there's only a little mention of him and no pic).

These must be the 'activity' pages as we now get a word search, maze and spot the difference themed on ol' shell head.

Yep, some six year olds will probably enjoy those pages, and the cut-out mask. This is a children's mag remember.

And if the reader is really well up on his Spidey and X-Men then the strips are too detached from the current Marvel universe. Just, as I suspected, like the strips in Spectacular Spider-Man.

That's right. These strips are not intended to be part of the regular Marvel universe continuity. The idea is to attract readers who have seen the Marvel movies, cartoons, games, and to keep them interested in Marvel characters. Then, when they're a bit older they'll hopefully get into the mainstream Marvel comics and regular continuity. Most kids don't have a comic-fan Dad to guide them into the classic Sixties strips. They may have seen Spidey on tv, or played the game, and will hopefully enjoy a comic mag that balances complete short stories with features and activity pages. My personal concern over the stories is that sometimes the glib dialogue and jokey one-liners confuse the story. This sort of thing works in a cartoon but not always in comics unless the writer is Stan Lee standard.

Please don't get me wrong. I love the fact that it's original UK content and will always support that but that doesn't mean I'll forgive any shortcomings. It still needs to be good and I'm afraid I didn't really think Marvel Heroes was any good. The silly thing is that all it needs is a better editorial hand from someone who looks like they give a damn.

Speaking up for Ed Hammond, the editor, if I may. He cares very much about producing a good comic mag. He steered Spectacular Spider-Man in the right direction the last few years, proving it to be a sales success with the kids and an Eagle Award winning title with older readers. As a result of Spec Spidey's success, Panini launched Marvel Heroes. Yes, it follows a similar template, but that is the formula of comics today. It's not down to the editors anymore I'm afraid. Comics have always followed one formula or other, whether it be the 8 page comic/text tabloids of the early 20th Century or the Whizzer & Chips clones that IPC put out in the 1970s/80s. Today's template is a mix of comics, breezy news items, and activity features, plus a free toy. If the money men had their way mags like these wouldn't feature ANY strip content, so 14 and a half pages of strips in Marvel Heroes is quite an achievement.

Lew