Marvel Knows UNLIMITED Ways To Make More Books!

There must have been something in the water at Marvel Comics leading up to 1993.  Something that made the various editors decide that certain titles didn't have NEARLY enough books to go around for their retrospective characters.  What we, as the comic buying public, REALLY needed... to divert our attentions away from the already well-established Image, Valiant, and I'm pretty sure the Ultraverse was a "thing" about this time... was to have our favorite characters launched in double-sized quarterly books.  But it wasn't just the size that mattered...  "That's what she said", and all that... these books had to be printed on ALL-GLOSSY pages!  And in some cases, lead into MAJOR cross-title event stories!  It is in this bizarre twist of fate for Marvel for the 1993 publishing year that I find my inspiration to give you readers a brief overview of the various Marvel Unlimited books!  I will admit, though, that my experience with these books was NOWHERE near regular reading, and I never even read two of the particular "Unlimited" launch titles, but this is more about celebrating the spirit of such a... genuinely WEIRD project!

SPIDER-MAN UNLIMITED- This may have been the first "Unlimited" book to really grab my attention.  I had missed out on all the hubbub of "Amazing Spider-Man #360", featuring the first FULL appearance of Carnage, but I was aware of the character.  And since I knew of his ties to Venom... a FULL-ON favorite character around that stage of my life... I was chomping at the bit to find a way to investigate the Carnage character.  I think I found this book at a Waldenbooks spinner rack, and GRABBED IT!  C'mon, check out the characters that show up!  Carnage!  Venom!  That Spider-Man demonized clone from "Infinity War"!  Shriek... who I STILL am puzzled why she existed!  Carrion, who I would only learn LATER in life of his ties to a genuinely LOATHED character in my experience with the Spider-Man universe!  (I may talk about a certain Professor Warren later, because this character carries what I call "X-Pac Heat", for those that know a thing about wrasslin' terminology.)  What also made this title even MORE of a "must have" was that it was the launching point of a mega Spider-Man event called "Maximum Carnage".  All you need to know about the event is it's a fourteen-part cat-and-mouse chase between Spidey's hero... and anti-hero... friends, and Carnage and his friends, where Spider-Man debates whether to kill off Carnage or not.  In the midst of this existential debate, Carnage and buds just slaughter ANYONE, gladly.  The crossover ALSO wrapped up in "Spider-Man Unlimited #2", which featured a handicap match with Spider-Man and Venom teaming up to take down Carnage for REALS!  The other issues of note I could quote for my experience with this title were "Spider-Man Unlimited #3", which featured a fleshed-out origin story for Doctor Octopus.  And yes... even as early as the mid-90's, there was the approach to a villain origin that OBVIOUSLY a messed-up sob-story childhood was the root of their future misfortunes.  Sigh...  And I also recall a few of the "Spider-Man Unlimited" issues blended into the whole "Clone Saga" storyline... even featuring a few issues starring the Ben Reilly Scarlet Spider!

X-MEN UNLIMITED- Of COURSE... if your title was an X-Men-related book in the 90's, you were GUARANTEED a long shelf life, and this book lasted a full ten years of publication, being the longest-lived Unlimited title of the entire lot.  I know I've read the first five issues in their entirety.  While "Spider-Man Unlimited" somewhat facilitated between being an event-launcher book, and a single-story experience, "X-Men Unlimited" seemed to be a book that was quite cozy being a one-and-done tale spinner.  And we DID get some interesting stories for the experience I've had with the book.  I'll just hit up the salient points for an issue number bullet point layout:

1. Cyclops, Storm, and Professor Xavier must survive from their Blackbird jet crashing in the Arctic, where even the weather overwhelms Storm's control abilities.  It's not just an environmental survival tale, because Siena Blaze of the then-founding "spoiled brat" mutant team, the Upstarts, are hunting the X-Team heads for "points".
2. We not only get an enhanced origin story for Magneto, but also a tale of one man's quest to gain revenge against the Master of Magnetism, for the killing of his family.
3. Sabretooth is have a REAL hard time of making friends at the X-Mansion, where he was captured and subjected to Charles Xavier's "therapy sessions".  So this issue is a study of Sabretooth's... take a lucky guess... "miserable childhood", and the efforts of the X-Men to subdue Sabretooth... physically and mentally.
4. This issue is kind of like a family portrait... Only if your family background is as messed up as the ties that Mystique, Rogue, and Nightcrawler share.  So yes, this is another semi-family origin story!
5. I only have REAL vague memories of this issue, which detailed something involving the Sh'iar Empire.  I will say the REAL treat of this issue was having Liam Sharpe at the artistic helm, because at the time I LOVED his work on "Death's Head II".

FANTASTIC FOUR UNLIMITED- I must confess, with some guilt, that this was THE Unlimited book I probably followed more fervently than the others.  I think it's because it was the most general "super-heroic" of the lot, and it allowed me to follow unfettered-by-continuity Fantastic Four adventures.  But what makes the issues I've read of this series TRULY bizarre examples of comic book storytelling was the artistic revolution of Herb Trimpe.  At that point, I had not seen his previous work during MY well-known title of his, "The Incredible Hulk", but I'm guessing during the 90's, the pressure was on the longtime Marvel vet, Trimpe, to alter his artistic style to the "Image" style.  So you have REALLY MESSED UP anatomies for characters, TONS of cross-hatching on expressions, and hard-to-follow action sequences.  But hey... It's what the "kids" like, ain't it, Marvel?  Anyways, here's some of my adventures with the "Fantastic Four Unlimited" title:

1. It should ALSO be noted that all of the issues I've read featured Sue Richards in the HORRIBLE "Cleavage Window" costume.  I'm not against costumes that showcase female characters'... um... "distractions", but I regard Sue Richards to be a higher-caliber character than that.  Anyways, the FF and the Black Panther team up to ward off another attack by Klaw, the master of sound.  Much Liefeld-esque grimmacing and posing ensues...
2. The Fantastic Four encounter their on-and-off again buddies, the Inhumans, because the Seeker... serving under Maximus the Mad... "seeks" to kidnap the offspring of Medusa and Black Bolt.
3. Man... Annihilus and Blastaar look REALLY weird in the "Image" style.  But again, this issue deals with another bout with those Negative Zone nasties.  I also remember the evil Negative Zone version of Reed Richards puts in an appearance in the story.
4. I've talked about this issue before, with another Hulk/Thing showdown, so check out that blog entry for more details!
5. It wouldn't be a Fantastic Four party if the Frightful Four weren't invited, at some point!  So, marshaling their villainous powers against the FF are the aforementioned Klaw, the Wizard, that kooky master of simians the Red Ghost... and She-Thing.  I may want to hold out about talking about her for a little while, because it's a long story.
6. Hold on just one moment...  You can't just skip by a few FF stories without EVEN having Namor, the Sub Mariner show up, can you?  And with Reed Richards being "dead" at this time of the Fantastic Four publication history, you can bet that Namor feels a little more like Sue could be approachable...

I even managed to skip over to issue nine, which dealt with a villain that had control of Ant-Man's powers... and whose costume was all KINDS of 90's absurd.  Explore this given title with caution in that it is VERY reflective of the era it was published in.

COSMIC POWERS UNLIMITED- This remains one of the more hard to find Unlimited titles.  I can't even REMEMBER how I chanced on the first issue, alone, which featured another fine Jim Starlin/Rom Lim collaboration, detailing the further battle between the Silver Surfer and now Marvel Studios ULTRA villain, Thanos.  And I imagine, what with the HEAT that "Guardians of the Galaxy" has built up for anything relating to Marvel Cosmic material, I imagine this already hard-to-reach series will be just as equally elusive as the Infinity Gems, themselves. 

And now for a brief brushup on the Unlimited books that I missed, and PROBABLY the reasons why I elected to stay outside of their coverage.

2099 UNLIMITED- It may be considered "blasphemy" by some, but the 2099 Marvel Universe never completely clicked with me.  I would occasionally follow "Doom 2099", because... hey... DOCTOR DOOM.  And while I generally enjoy Peter David, "Spider-Man 2099" read like a whole bunch of gobbledegook to my sensibilities.  I also only ever read two issues of "X-Men 2099", and I would have THOUGHT in this far-distant future, Mutants would have things a lil' bit easier, but nope... the same Mutant book drama, only with flying cars.  I'm normally a fan of "Alternate Universe" takes on established characters, and the credit I give the 2099 Universe is that you DID NOT have Peter Parker living to be 200-something, still slinging webs in the city.  But there was just something about this Universe that made me not want to extend much more effort that dipping one foot into the pool, every so often, but never wanting to "swim" in the experience.

MIDNIGHT SONS UNLIMITED- My brushes with the Marvel Supernatural characters tend to be VERY brief!  (But don't worry: I waver a lot with DC Supernatural characters, as well.  So it's not just blind favoritism.)  The concept of "Urban Fantasy" is a tough one for me to really stay loyal to, ESPECIALLY if they have ties to a directly superheroic universe.  Plus, I can honestly say that most of the Marvel Universe's Supernatural characters I just had no personal interest in reading about.  Ghost Rider... Johnny Blaze OR Danny Ketch?  Nope, not feeling it.  Morbius the Living Vampire?  Eh... He's cool when he shows up for Spider-Man adventures, but I can pass on his being a solo character.  Heck, even Doctor Strange is not immune to my general indifference to modern superhero universe Supernatural characters!  However, I did browse issues of this book, on occasion, and what I DO find interesting about this particular Unlimited title was that it reads just like my beloved DC "Dollar Comics".  What I mean by that was "Midnight Sons Unlimited" appears to have been ENTIRELY an anthology title!  Which makes me curious about seeing to an issue, when I can find one on the cheap.  Despite my general disassociation with the "setting".

I hope you enjoyed today's glimpses at the Marvel Unlimited universe.  I get the nagging feeling I'm forgetting a series run, here and there, but if there's any knowledge gaps, feel free to let me know in a comment!