Marvel Comics Presents #29

From the random box of unread comics.

Title: Marvel Comics Presents
Issue: 29
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Date: October 1989
Writer: Howard Mackie, Don McGregor, Doug Moench, Mark Gruenwald
Artist: Rich Buckler, Bruce Patterson, Gene Colan, Tom Palmer, Paul Gulacy, Paul Ryan, Danny Bulanadi
Colorist: Andy Yanchus, Mike Rockwitz, Glynis Oliver, Paul Becton
Letterer: Bill Oakley, Joe Rosen, Tim Harkins, Janice Chiang
Cover: Dennis Jensen, Dan Adkins
Editor:Terry Kavanagh, Michael Rockwitz

Marvel's bi-weekly anthology series from the late 80's is a combination of short series of varying length told in one chapter per issue, and the occasional standalone story. There was a fairly heavy emphasis on X-Men characters in this series, with Wolverine appearing in most issues.

This one starts off with a Havok story, part 6 of 8, with the revelation of the villainess Plasma revealed as the "Living Pharaoh". Havok has taken a beating in the story leading up to this, so he's in no condition to take on Plasma, but he manages to escape. In the Egyptian desert, he's found by Wolverine, and a battle with some ethnic-stereotyped henchfolk riding hovercraft occurs. The word "infidel" gets shouted a lot as Havok and Wolverine squash the jobbers, setting up the looming confrontation with Plasma,

Next up is Black Panther in part 17 of 25 of a really interesting premise: T'Challa on seeking out his long-lost mother in apartheid South Africa. This is a pretty grim story with T'Challa dealing with his own failures, and a lot of focus placed on the corruption present in the street-level reality of South Africa. Definitely the best story here, although this segment only scratches the surface of the possible story. I'd be interested in reading more of this.

The third story is Coldblood, which looks like an attempt to soft-launch a new character. I'm not sure if anything more was ever done with Coldblood. The title character is a cyborg, in the process of escaping from his makers, I guess, who want to use him to do, well, evil cyborg things, I suppose. There is a lot of shooting and explosions. This was possibly influenced by The Terminator? It had some decent visuals, including a car crashing through, a Vegas casino, but the feel was pretty generic.

Last up was this issue's standalone story, featuring Quasar with a cameo by Man-Thing, who is involved in the plot, but doesn't actually do much. Quasar is tracking a strange energy disturbance and finds himself in Man-Thing's swamp in Florida. Jennifer Kale (inexplicably dressed in an armor-bikini; or maybe this is how she always dresses?) explains that the Man -Thing has been infected with something, and that something turns out to be a villain named Quagmire. Quagmire takes one look at Jennifer and goes into full-on attempted sexual assault mode. Quasar puts a stop to that, and quickly determines that while Quagmire is immune to Quasar's energy powers, he is fully punchable in the face. The weird body-horror setup with Man-Thing is not bad, but Quagmire is pretty disappointing as a villain.

Rating: 4.5/10