Marvel Saga
| Marvel Saga | |
|---|---|
 First Issue Cover | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| Schedule | Monthly |
| Format | Limited series |
| Publication date | Dec. 1985 - Dec. 1987 |
| No. of issues | 25 |
| Creative team | |
| Written by | Peter Sanderson |
| Artist(s) | (Various) |
| Editor(s) | Danny Fingeroth |
| Collected editions | |
| Volume 1 | ISBN 978-0-7851-2727-7 |
| Volume 2 | ISBN 978-0-7851-2728-4 |
The Marvel Saga: The Official History of the Marvel Universe was a comic book series which attempted to condense the first 25 years of Marvel Universe events into a sequential, narrative story.
Overview
The series was researched and written by Peter Sanderson and edited by Danny Fingeroth. It was published over 25 issues from December 1985 to December 1987. The story follows Marvel continuity as closely as possible from the inception of the Marvel Universe, and it is stated in the first issue that there is nothing in the series that hasn't already been printed in previous Marvel comics. The illustration of the comics was mostly made up from excerpts from the original comics in which the events being described took place, with the addition of some new artwork to describe some of the events mentioned.
The series was meant to be a cohesive and quick way for newcomers to catch up on the entirety of the Marvel Universe at once, featuring the stories of the biggest and most important events in the Universe (up to 1987), including origins of most of the major Marvel characters. It also allows readers to see how stories from many different series are related and how they fit together in chronological order. Since the series ended in 1987, many more important events and facts have been introduced that may affect the stories told in the series, but it still represents the basic early storyline of the Marvel Universe.
Spin-offs
Subsequent releases from Marvel have followed the Marvel Saga format. Wolverine Saga, a four-part mini-series published from September, 1989 to December, 1989,[1] detailed the history of Wolverine up to that time. Spider-Man Saga, another four issue series, was released from November, 1991 to February, 1992[2] and did the same thing for Spider-Man.
Beginning in 2006, Marvel released several Marvel Saga-style one-shots for their titles. The list of these books are:
- Astonishing X-Men Saga (March, 2006)
- Saga of Squadron Supreme (April, 2006)
- Skrull Kill Krew Saga* (2006)
- Runaways Saga (May, 2007)
- Annihilation Saga (July, 2007)
- Ultimates Saga (December, 2007)
- Ghost Rider Saga* (May, 2008)
- Secret Invasion Saga (May, 2008)
- Hulk Saga* (June, 2008)
- Deadpool Saga* (July, 2008)
- Marvel: Your Universe Saga (October, 2008)
- X-Infernus Saga* (October, 2008)
- Franklin Richards Saga* (November, 2008)
- Black Panther Saga* (December, 2008)
- Daredevil By Ed Brubaker Saga (December, 2008)
- March on Ultimatum Saga (December, 2008)
- Punisher Saga* (December, 2008)
- War of Kings Saga (February, 2009)
- Exiles Saga* (March, 2009)
- Wolverine Saga (May, 2009)
- New Mutants Saga (June, 2009)
- Spider-Woman Saga* (August, 2009)
- Moon Knight Saga (November, 2009)
- Black Widow Saga* (March, 2010)
- X-Factor Forever Saga* (March, 2010)
- Amazing Spider-Man: Grim Hunt - The Kraven Saga (May, 2010)
- X-Men: Curse of the Mutants Saga (August, 2010)
- All-New Wolverine Saga (October, 2010)
- Spider-Man Saga (December, 2010)
- Iron Man 2.0 Saga* (March, 2011)
- The Mighty Thor Saga (June, 2011)
* Online only
In January, 2012, Marvel published a one-shot comic titled History of the Marvel Universe, which provided an overview of the past 50 years of Marvel history in the Marvel Saga format.
Collected editions
The series has been collected into two trade paperbacks:
- Essential Marvel:
- Marvel Saga Vol. 1 (collects Marvel Saga #1-12, 448 pages, January 2008, ISBN 978-0-7851-2727-7)
- Marvel Saga vol. 2 (collects Marvel Saga #13-25, 480 pages, December 2008, ISBN 978-0-7851-2728-4)