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their own series, though in its later years it was also often used as a dumping ground for stories which could not be published elsewhere.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. Contrary to the title, the majority of the characters and concepts featured in Marvel Premiere had previously appeared in other comics.

Publication history

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. 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. Doctor Strange took over the series with issue #3 and writer Steve Englehart and artist Frank Brunner began a run on the character with issue #9. 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. 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".

Iron Fist first appeared in issue #15, written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Gil Kane. Other introductions include the Legion of Monsters, the Liberty Legion, Woodgod, the 3-D Man, and the second Ant-Man (Scott Lang). The series also featured the first comic book appearance of rock musician Alice Cooper.

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. and the Black Panther in issues #51–53.

Issues

{| class="wikitable"

!Issue

!Character(s)

!Collected in

|-

|#1

| rowspan="2" |Adam Warlock

| rowspan="2" |

  • Marvel Masterworks Warlock Vol. 1
  • Essential Warlock Vol 1 Adam Warlock Omnibus Vol 1

|-

|#2

|-

|#3

| rowspan="12" |Doctor Strange

|

  • Essential Doctor Strange Vol. 2
  • Doctor Strange Epic Collection Vol. 3: A Separate Reality
  • Marvel Masterworks Doctor Strange Vol. 4
  • The Best Marvel Stories by Stan Lee
  • Doctor Strange: Master of the Mystic Arts Omnibus Vol 1

|-

|#4

| rowspan="5" |

  • Essential Doctor Strange Vol. 2
  • Doctor Strange Epic Collection Vol. 3: A Separate Reality
  • Marvel Masterworks Doctor Strange Vol. 4
  • Doctor Strange: Master of the Mystic Arts Omnibus Vol 1

|-

|#5

|-

|#6

|-

|#7

|-

|#8

|-

|#9

| rowspan="6" |

  • Essential Doctor Strange Vol. 2
  • Doctor Strange Epic Collection Vol. 3: A Separate Reality
  • Marvel Masterworks Doctor Strange Vol. 5
  • Doctor Strange: Master of the Mystic Arts Omnibus Vol 1

|-

|#10

|-

|#11

|-

|#12

|-

|#13

|-

|#14

|-

|#15

| rowspan="11" |Iron Fist

| rowspan="10" |

  • Essential Iron Fist Vol. 1
  • Marvel Masterworks Iron Fist Vol. 1
  • Iron Fist Epic Collection Vol. 1: The Fury of Iron Fist
  • Iron Fist Omnibus

|-

|#16

|-

|#17

|-

|#18

|-

|#19

|-

|#20

|-

|#21

|-

|#22

|-

|#23

|-

|#24

|-

|#25

|

  • Essential Iron Fist Vol. 1
  • Marvel Masterworks Iron Fist Vol. 1
  • Iron Fist Epic Collection Vol. 1: The Fury of Iron Fist
  • Iron Fist Omnibus
  • Marvel Universe by John Byrne Omnibus Vol. 2

|-

|#26

|Hercules

|

  • Thor Epic Collection Vol 7
  • Thor Omnibus Vol 5

|-

|#27

|Satana

|

  • Essential Marvel Horror Vol 1
  • Marvel Horror Lives Again! Omnibus

|-

|#28

|Legion of Monsters

|

  • Essential Werewolf by Night Vol. 2
  • Werewolf by Night Omnibus
  • Werewolf by Night: The Complete Collection Vol. 3
  • Morbius the Living Vampire Omnibus
  • Morbius Epic Collection Vol. 2
  • Marvel Masterworks Ghost Rider Vol. 3
  • Ghost Rider Epic Collection Vol 2: Salvation Run

|-

|#29

| rowspan="2" |Liberty Legion

| rowspan="2" |

  • Invaders Classic: The Complete Collection
  • Invaders Omnibus
  • The Thing: Liberty Legion

|-

|#30

|-

|#31

|Woodgod

|Marvel Masterworks Marvel Team-Up Vol. 6

|-

|#32

|Monark Starstalker

|Lost Marvels No. 2 Howard Chaykin Vol 1: Dominic Fortune, Monark Starstalker, and Phantom Eagle (Fantagraphics Press)

|-

|#33

| rowspan="2" |Solomon Kane

| rowspan="2" |

  • The Chronicles of Solomon Kane
  • Solomon Kane: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus

|-

|#34

|-

|#35

| rowspan="3" |3-D Man

See also

  • Marvel Premiere Classic — a line of hardcovers collecting "classic" pre–2000 storylines in the Marvel and related Universes.
  • Marvel Spotlight

References