A comic-sized news journal which gave readers a summary of upcoming Marvel releases alongside puff pieces, advertorials and short stories, Marvel Age was an occasional treat for me, being the obsessed Marvel Zombie that I was in the late 80s and early 90s.

This issue, with its festive cover, is dated February 1990, but would have been on the racks and shelves at Christmas ’89.

It’s an absolutely fascinating time capsule, as the old issues of Marvel Age (published between 1983 and 1994) always are these days.

Police Academy and Robocop comics being published by Marvel, as you can see in the above image (and you can even spot Doctor Who and Count Duckula on the right of the page). What a snapshot of a very specific moment in time!

There’s a great feature on cover star, Groo the Wanderer, who’s always been a favourite of mine. The imminent releases and Marvel merch pages are genuinely fascinating when viewed through a modern lens; who knew during this dark period, when Marvel really weren’t doing so great, that they’d be such a household name?

Especially as this issue does its best to hype the then-incoming Captain America movie, which was absolutely awful. A few half hearted and cheap looking shots from the movie (one of which has a less-than-flattering close up of Cap’s mask, complete with squishy rubber ear) are dotted around the page, and even the writer of the article seems to be trying to talk himself into believing that it’s going to be any good.

This issue’s comic short is a fun little flashback to Peter Parker’s earlier years, when he’s visited by a certain red costumed character at Christmas. I really enjoyed this, particularly as I’ve read it once more on Christmas Day!

I really enjoy leafing through these looks at the past, and do find them a particularly nostalgic read. This issue in particular, with its Groo cover and feature, along with the Spidey short and awkward look at the live action Captain America movie, is an especially enjoyable one for me, because it’s from a time when I was deeply into comics; rather than just something I occasionally delved into, they’d become a true obsession for me, for the first time. But definitely not the last.

Happy Christmas everyone!

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