Marvel Comics Presents #1 (1988)

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We open with Man-Thing rising from the muck, aware that something sinister this way comes.  These narration boxes are a little too purple for my tastes… really feels like they’re chasing Swamp Thing here.  Then again, I’m not much of a Man-Thing aficionado, so for all I know folks who write this character were always a bit too pleased with themselves.  Anyhoo, this dark and desperate being draws near… and, it’s a weird fibrous-looking fella.  Man-Thing bonks him on his head putting the creature down.  Suddenly a pair of men enter the scene… they’re looking for this fibrous fella, as he was a “test subject” of sorts.  Upon finding what’s left of him, this guy Zahner attempts to cut an implant out of the “corpse”.  This does not go well, as when Zahner makes skin-to-yuck contact with the beastie, he gets a rather awful burn on his hand.

Man-Thing watches this entire deal unfold… and kinda just lingers.  Zahner and his partner Monteiro report in to a General that their subject went berserk and got away.  The General notices the burn on Zahner’s hand, and is given a quick-n-dirty explanation how it came to be.  In learning this, the General suggests that this mission wasn’t such a failure after all.  He excuses himself, as he has a meeting with the Senate in Washington, D.C., leaving our two heroes behind with a whole lotta… COCAINE.  Too bad “Dave Chapel” is in the Wolverine story and not this one!

Zahner and Monteiro load the coke on a boat… making sure to keep a little for themselves, before being attacked by… another weird shambling corpse just like that crispy critter from before!  They open fire… naturally, this winds up being quite futile.  At this point, Man-Thing (annoyed by all the FEAR in the air) decides to intervene… and winds up getting shot full’a holes himself… not that it matters all that much.

Man-Thing and the Subject wind up getting sorta intertwined… with the former actually winding up impaled on the latter.  Man-Thing considers this the worst pain he’s ever felt.  Amid the skirmish and confusion, our two heroes make a break for it.

We wrap up with Man-Thing and the Subject briefly merging… before Man-Thing expels the strange creature, seemingly killing it… while perhaps absorbing a bit of it as well.  The victory does not appear to be without injury, however… as it looks as though our Muck Monster is barely holding himself together!

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I dunno.


This wasn’t a bad story… but, man… those narration boxes.  Are Man-Thing writers always so up their own butts?  I mentioned it in the synopsis, but it really feels as though they’re trying to keep up with what Alan Moore was doing with Swamp Thing over at DC.  Trying to make this more “sophisticated” than perhaps it ought to be?  I dunno.  It’s only one chapter at this point, but… this did not win me over.  We’ve got time though!  God help us, we’ve got another eleven weeks of this!
So, whatta we got?  It’s, say it with me, a “Chapter One”… which, for me, says we shouldn’t be expecting all that much.  We meet our bad guys, we meet the even badder guy they’re working for… and we get a bit of an idea as to what they’re trying to do.  Well, maybe not exactly what they’re attempting to accomplish, but we know it involves test subjects!  That’s something, right?  Whatever it is, I’m sure we’ll learn more as we go.


I think, if not for the very flowery narration… I probably would have enjoyed this a whole lot more.  Not a deal-breaker by any means… but, just kinda cringy… and, if it is chasing Alan Moore, it’s not doing all that great a job (in my opinion).


Let’s look at the art.  I really liked it!  Tom Grindberg is an artist who, for the longest time, I assumed was a pen-name for a fill-in penciller.  I mean, “Grindberg” just sounds too much like a name you’d give to a fill-in artist who’s in a rush, doesn’t it?


Anyhoo, the art here was pretty fantastic… it almost gave me an R. Crumb/underground comix sort of vibe.  Really great stuff.  Probably the best part of the story, if I’m being honest.  I do look forward to future installments, and am optimistic that it’ll all come together (famous last words).

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We open with a man arriving to Hong Kong via boat.  He’s waxing fairly philosophical about the lives and times of… fish.  As he walks the fairly cluttered streets a bomb goes off (huh?), our hero then proclaims that he has “returned to the world”.  From where?  Haven’t the foggiest… I might only assume this is a reference to an old Bronze Age tale?  Anyhoo, our man keeps walking and philosophizing until he reaches, what he calls, a flophouse.  He settles in, removing his tunic… revealing that he is (duh) Shang-Chi, and before long the entire place is swarming with warriors!

Shang-Chi appeared to be expecting these goofs… he even refers to himself as “bait”.  It doesn’t take him long to beat the baddies… however, one manages to give him the slip.  Our Kung Fu Master gives chase.

He follows the shadowy escapee back down the Hong Kong streets, and winds up at the Oriental Expediters Ltd. Building… which, is apparently a front for a “murder agency” based out of London.  I apologize, I’m not following.  Whatever the case, Shang-Chi enters… and makes his way through to the back side of the building.  There, a man smoking a cigarette notes his presence, and announces that “he’s here”.

There’s also a pool back there, where a woman named Leiko is having a late night dip.  Gotta take a dip myself… into the Marvel Comics Wiki… one sec.  Okay, Leiko is a Bronze Age character, and so it’s not too strange that she and Shang-Chi already know each other.  In fact, she beckons our hero into the pool with her… which facilitates him making even more fish metaphors!

Leiko reveals that a Xiao was instructed to bring Shang to them… which, I mean… there are probably worse fates.  So, was the flophouse raid all part of this?  In the pool they exchange chlorinated fluids… before emerging in front of a mustachioed gentleman named Black Jack Tarr.  We wrap up with Jack informing Shang that it’s time for “Games of Deceit and Death, Part II”… izzat a Bruce Lee reference?  I suppose we’ll find out!

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Okay… here’s a weird question… which might sound somewhat reminiscent if you’ve been with me since the Action Comics Daily days.  Let’s say, you’re a kid… teen-ager… whatever, who’s buying this first issue of Marvel Comics Presents because (duh) it’s got Wolverine in it.  Now, if you were that kid… what would you make of this story?


Let’s not get it twisted… this isn’t a bad story… and despite the fact that I had trouble following it, I rather enjoyed it.  But, this is kind of an odd “entry point” for a (relatively) obscure character such as Shang-Chi.  At this point, he hasn’t been seen in five years.  That’s a long while.  I mean, this isn’t quite Secret Six levels of obscure… but, still.  Add to the fact that we’re steeped in continuity here (which, again… don’t get me wrong, I love)… it’s just a bit of a toughie to follow along with.


I mean, let’s compare the way this rolls out with the way Claremont kicked off the Wolverine feature… Wolverine, a wildly popular character… still gets an introduction.  We get the bit about the “unbreakable bones” and “mutant healing factor”… heck, he even mentions his nationality.  Here, Gerber doesn’t give us any of that.  I suppose we could argue that Steve wasn’t “talking down to the audience”… but, I tells ya what… when the audience (me) isn’t quite sure what they’re looking at, ya got a little bit of a problem!


I think there’s definitely a middle ground between too much exposition and absolutely none… and Gerber would’ve done well to maybe drop a breadcrumb or two for us in this opening chapter.  We gotta assume that this story was a lot of folks’ first Master of Kung Fu story, no?


Anyhoo… the art was nice… Sutton really captured the grimy aesthetic of the Hong Kong streets… and gave us both a really nice fight scene, and an interesting pool make-out scene.


I’m looking forward to more.

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We open on an Asteroid Eater from Denak IV… eating an asteroid.  Welp, can’t help bein’ what it is, right?  Anyhoo, the beastie soon seizes, and flops down dead.  From it, emerges a space insect that appears to feed off of fear.  Hey, that sounds kind of familiar, don’t it?  Hmm.  Anyhoo, not long after this, our Silver Surfer happens by the scene.  He stops to get a better look at the corpse of the gentle giant… which, unfortunately, puts him in the cross-hairs of the fear bug from outer space!  Before he (and we) know it, the bug “ensconces” itself, and reads our hero’s mind/body/soul/fear-glands/whatever.

If you’re worried that the next several pages will just be the fear bug putting ol’ Norrin through his paces… wherein he’ll place him in “fearful” situations he has to overcome… well, I don’t know what to tell ya, cuz that’s exactly the direction we’re headed.  First “trial”, Silver Surfer fears he’s been banished to Earth once more… never to feel the freedom of the universe.  He manages to bust through.

Next, he’s locked in some “energy shackles”… which leech away at his always-nebulous Power Cosmic!  Ya know, “Power Cosmic” was the last Overpower card I needed back in the long ago… which has resulted in me kinda furrowing my brow every time I see the words in print.  Y’all remember Overpower?  Collectible Card Game from the mid-90’s featuring Marvel (and eventually DC/Image/etc.) characters?  Maybe I’ll share some images of my collection down below.  Had a full-set (of the initial run, anyway)… played the game zero whole times.  Anyhoo, the Surfer manages to bust out of the containment suit.  The fear bug ain’t diggin’ this one bit.

Next, the Surfer appears to shed his Silver, returning to his impotent Norrin Radd form.  After two-pages of grimacing and making “toilet faces”, however, he’s able to snap out of it.  The fear bug is really annoyed at this point.

Also, the Surfer’s constitution is so strong at this point that the fear bug is evacuated from his body, and flung into space.  Our hero, who is quite satisfied with himself, flees the scene… leaving the fear bug staring down at the planet Earth.  It smiles (I think that’s a smile) with the knowledge that there’s bound to be a whole lot of corruptible entities on that blue orb.  Uh, I’ll save ya a bit of time there, fear bug… there’s this place in California… called Coast City.  Might wanna check there.

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So… this sure was a Silver Surfer story, wunnit?


I can’t be too harsh on it… as I feel it accomplished what it set out to do, in that it does manage to give a bit of a quick-n-dirty on the character, and did so in a pretty creative way.  Using Parallax the fear bug as a tool to explore the history of the character was a really fun way to tell the story, as well as providing us with a teensy bit of dramatic conflict.


At the end of the day, for me however, is Silver Surfer is just too much of a sad sack to enjoy.  Whereas a Peter Parker or Bruce Banner come with plenty of angst and drama… they’re able to balance it far better.  The Surfer just moans and whines all the time.  I feel like every time we see him, my eyebrows involuntarily contort in a way that makes me look like a sad-puppy.  I just feel bad for him… but that, unfortunately, doesn’t make me want to join him on any of his adventures… cosmic or otherwise!


Overall… if you’re a Silver Surfer fan, this is good stuff.  If you’re new to the character… yes, this is a nice introduction.  If you know and are indifferent to the character… this probably won’t change your mind.


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Here’s the Overpower (or is it OverPower?) collection… bask in the dorkiness:

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Credits Page:

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Wraparound Cover: