Remember the time J2 defeated Saberclaw without using his arms? Or when Captain America turned into a star? What about that time American Dream smashed through a window on a motorbike to recover a WMD? If none of this sounds familiar to you then you might not know Marvel Comics 2.
Originally posted as a video in November 2023. See the end of the article for a link if you want to watch instead.
The end of the 90s was a difficult time for Marvel. It is hard to imagine now, given the success of the MCU, but the publisher was in a bad place having filed for bankruptcy and was in deep financial woe. Recovering from this low point, Marvel were trying new titles and imprints to try and boost sales.
Marvel Comics 2 was a series of comics launched in 1998 with a simple, but extremely effective idea. This alternate dimension would be set at the end of the millennia but with the idea that all the heroes we are familiar with from Earth-616 would have aged in this universe. On Earth-982 the original Avengers disbanded and Spider-Man & Mary-Jane were allowed to develop and have children.
Without those original Heroes, it is up to a new generation to step up and protect the world, forming the basis of the new storylines in this universe. In the first year Marvel released three new titles as 12 issue Maxi series Spider-Girl, A-Next and J2.
Spider-Girl’s Origins can be found in DeFalco’s What If #105, where MJ’s and Peter’s daughter May Parker shows signs of powers at a basketball game. Learning of her dad’s past, May takes up the mantle to defeat her cousin, the new Green Goblin. The story continues in the Spider-Girl series, also written by DeFalco, with May carving out her new identity and her place in the world. She makes friends and battles foes like Mr Nobody and Hobgoblin. This relatively popular series had several spin-offs and ran to 100 issues, which is quite the achievement.
A-Next was set around the new team of Avengers, made up of the likes of Speedball, Mainframe, Thunderstrike, Jolt and Stinger. These heroes had a similar origin to those original Avengers, as they formed to fight off a threat from Loki. Their adventures together saw them interacting with some of the original, and now much older, team of Avengers.
Another founding member of A-Next was J2, son of Juggernaut. In what seems like an interesting decision now J2 was given his own series; discovering his powers during high school and becoming a hero whilst dealing with his dad’s legacy.
The overarching themes of these books were made to appeal to a younger audience. There were lots of children of heroes and villains taking up the mantle. Many were still in education and therefore relatable to kids in the real world, as they dealt with their own bullies and crushes.
The universe expanded with two new series in Wild Thing, the daughter of Wolverine and Electra, and Fantastic five. These two series marked a downward trajectory of the universe however, as deals to sell them at K-mart and Target fell through, leaving them cancelled after only five issues each. Spider-Girl did continue though and there were a couple more limited series printed, based within the universe; Darkdevil and The Buzz. Sales were not particularly impressive though.
What is interesting to note, is what else was happening around Marvel at the time, like the Marvel Knights imprint on Joe Quesada’s and Jimmy Palmiotti’s Event Comics. It was founded in 1998, establishing some very influential comics, such as Daredevil and Punisher, bringing in some top talent with the likes of Bendis and Ennis.
In 2000, Marvel started the incredibly popular Ultimate Universe, aimed at reimagining Marvel characters in a contemporary, yet grounded setting. Marvel Knights and the Ultimate Universe were both other examples of Marvel trying new things, but they were arguably done much better than Marvel Comics 2. Marvel Knights had more of the upcoming talent and the Ultimate Universe had enough overlap with the Marvel Comics 2 universe’s audience that they were competing. The difference was Ultimate Comics had the more popular characters, whilst Marvel Comics 2’s Heroes were largely unknown to the wider public. Imagine you are fairly new to comics, do you pick up the copy with the X-Men or the Hulk, culturally known figures on the cover, or the ones with the likes of J2 or Main-frame on?
The Marvel Comics 2 universe continued though with a popular story line, Last Hero Standing. As heroes suddenly start to go missing, the remaining ones must uncover who is behind the disappearances. In 2006 this storyline was followed up with another, Last Planet Standing, with Galactus devouring the Shiar home planet and Asgard, leaving Earth next on the menu. There was a big problem with Last Planet Standing however, as it had been penned to be the end of the Marvel Comics 2 universe. Due to fan backlash, it was changed and resulted in a terrible ending for the series. Silver Surfer turns up and essentially merges with Galactus, undoing everything that happened in the previous issues. It was one step above it all being a dream and allowed the universe to limp along.
One thing is possible though, is that this story somewhat influenced the infamous ending of the Ultimate universe.
Campaigns from DeFalco and fans had stopped Spider-Girl from being wound up, with several new series released. American Dream would get her own limited series in 2008 and even teamed up with characters from the main Universe in 2011’s Captain America Corps. Spider-Girl even made it into the Spider-Verse storyline in 2014 but besides that, the universe has mainly been consigned to the history books.
The comics did have a lot of charm. DeFalco’s J2 Series in particular felt very reminiscent of some early Spider-Man stories; simpler but in the best kind of way. In the words of DeFalco we are old school because:
- Our Heroes act like Heroes
- We don’t believe in decompression
- We tell single issue stories with subplots that build from issue to issue and
- There’s a lot of action and angst in every issue
That old school feeling brought the charm and that brings home a feeling of nostalgia to older readers, but nostalgia does not sell comics to new readers. Overall, MC2 did not offer enough; it lacked the talent both present in the Ultimate universe and the Marvel Knights comics.
Will there be a reboot? Will we see the likes of J2 in 616?
Buy Spider-Girl: Modern Era Epic Collection [I earn a commission] – Forbidden Planet UK
Buy Spider-Girl the Complete Collection [I earn a commission] – UK.Bookshop.org
Buy Last Planet Standing [I earn a commission] – UK.Bookshop.org
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