In late 1983, Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars had fans everywhere buzzing with excitement, and this issue of Marvel Age built on that with the first glimpses of Spider-Man's new costume. Just the idea of Spidey getting a new costume was pretty much unthinkable back then, let alone one that had a secret origin that would only be revealed in Secret Wars (even though it made its official debut in Amazing Spider-Man #252, which went on sale January 31, 1984)!
The sketches of the new costume (which look like Rick Leonardi art) would make this one of the rare issues of Marvel Age that has value as a back issue. And Marvel knew it was a big deal -- so much so that the editors ran those sketches both in the Secret Wars article and in another article on Marvel Age itself.
Yes, this was the one-year anniversary of Marvel Age, and the editors celebrated with "Looking Back at Marvel Age," in which they discuss the ever-changing roster of projects and personnel of the day.
This issue also featured articles on the Heartburst graphic novel by Rick Veitch, Bernie Wrightson's illustrated Frankenstein, and the A-Team miniseries -- a project Marvel Age editor Jim Salicrup wrote for the first two issues after only seeing one episode of the TV show!
Also in this issue, Marvel Age looks at the expanding Epic line of comics, and, to close things out, we get a letters page called "Notes from Nuts!"
In addition, this is the only issue of Marvel Age I'm aware of that does not have original cover art. The cover sports the same art that would run on Secret Wars #1, which went on sale on January 24, 1984.
Marvel Age #12
Price: $0.25 US
Pages: 36 (32 interior plus four covers)
On sale: December 6, 1983
Cover date: March, 1984
Copyright © 1983 Marvel Comics Group, a division of Cadence Industries Corporation.
• Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter
• Editor and Design Director: Jim Salicrup
• Editorial Assistant: Mark Lerer
• Art/Production Coordinator: Dan Crespi
• Assistant Art/Production Coordinator: Ron Zalme
• Production: Joe Albelo, Harry Candelario, Rob Carosella, Morrie Kuramoto, Ken Lopez, John
Morelli, and Barry Shapiro
• Typesetters: Brenda Mings
• Colorists: Paul Becton and George Roussos
• Proofreader: Alice Roth
• Friendly Assistance: Lynn Cohen and Craig Anderson
• Cover Artist: Mike Zeck and John Beatty
• Direct Sales Manager: Carol Kalish
• Assistant Direct Sales Managers: Peter David and Lea Sapp
• Melvin's Cousin: Irving Forbush
Front cover
• Characters: Heroes of Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars
Inside front cover
• Subscription ad for Marvel Age
Page 1
• Contents
• Masthead
• Indicia
Editorial: "It's Our Anniversary" by Jim Salicrup:
Pages 2 – 5
Marvel Comics Coming Attactions
Comics on sale February 28
• The Thing #12
• Daredevil #207
• New Mutants #16
• Ka-Zar #32
• Alien Legion #1
• Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #2
• Six from Sirius #2
• Doctor Strange Special Edition #4
• Amazing Spider-Man #253
• Captain America #294
• Thor #344
• Indiana Jones #18
• Savage Sword of Conan #100
• Doctor Strange #65
• U.S. 1 #10
Comics on sale March 13
• Incredible Hulk #296
• Avengers #244
• Conan #159
• Marvel Tales #164
• X-Men #182
• Rom #55
• Power Man and Iron Fist #106
• G.I. Joe #24
• Marvel Graphic Novel #11 - Heartburn
• Marvel Age Magazine #15
Comics on sale March 20
• Fantastic Four #267
• Marvel Team-Up #142
• Iron Man #183
• Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #91
• The New Defenders #132
• Star Wars #84
• Alpha Flight #11
• Hercules #4
• What If #45
• Beauty and the Beast #2
Page 6
Newswatch
• Item on collected editions of X-Men: The Phoenix Saga and Iron Man: Demon in a Bottle.
• Item: Marvel Age will move to better paper with issue #14 (this did not happen)
• Item on the new Fantastic Four logo starting with issue #263 (that didn't happen either) • Item on the Marvel Super Special and two-issue miniseries adapting the Tarzan movie moving to a new date due to the movie's opening date moving
• Schedule changes for the Kitty Pryde and Wolverine miniseries and the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #15, "the book of weapons"
Pages 7 - 8
Behind the Lines
• Carl Potts introduces new assistant editorial Jim Massara
• Official Marvel Comics Personnel Pronounciation Guide
• "Stan's Soapbox" explains the secret origin of Irving Forbush/Forbush Man
• "Marvel's Top Ten" by Jim Salicrup - titles from March 1983 1 - X-Men #167
2 - Fantastic Four #252
3 - Amazing Spider-Man #238
4 - Avengers #229
5 - Daredevil #192
6 - Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #76
7 - Conan #144
8 - The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #3
9 - Marvel Team-Up #127
10 - Incredible Hulk #281
Pages 9 - 12
Article: "Are You Ready for Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars" by Mark Lerer
Pages 13 - 17
Article: " Looking Back at Marvel Age" by Mark Lerer
Pages 18 - 20
Article: "Heartburst, the Graphic Novel," by D. Jon Zimmerman
Pages 21 - 23
Article: "Frankenstein," by Mark Lerer
Pages 24 - 26
Article: "The A-Team," by Mark Lerer
Pages 27 - 29
Article: "Epic," by Mark Lerer
Pages 30 - 32
Letters page: "Notes from Nuts," suggested by letter writer Eric Eramo
Inside back cover
Ad for The A-Team (with a lot of detail!)
Subscription ad for Epic Illustrated
Amazing art work, really enjoyed seeing these.
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