The 84th anniversary of Marvel Comics #1, published by Timely in 1939, is coming up on Aug. 31, and to mark the occasion Marvel will release Marvel Age #1000. The one-shot will feature stories by Dan Slott, Mike Allred, Mark Waid, Kaare Andrews, Jason Aaron, Rainbow Rowell and more.
That 1939 issue kicked off what was effectively the Marvel Age of Comics, introducing the Golden Age Human Torch and featuring the first widely available appearance of Namor. “Marvel Age” was also the name of a promotional magazine that Marvel published in the 1980s and 1990s, so if you were hoping this was a celebration of interviews, house ads and Fred Hembeck, you might want to hold your excitement until August.
Here’s what to expect from Marvel Age #1000:
- J. Michael Straczynski and Kaare Andrews create the Marvel Universe in a backyard!
- Dan Slott and Michael Allred depict a crucial turning point for Captain Marvel!
- Rainbow Rowell and Marguerite Sauvage explore the blossoming relationship between Cyclops and Jean Grey!
- The original Human Torch finds his purpose thanks to Mark Waid and Alessandro Cappuccio!
- The Silver Surfer confronts Mephisto under the guidance of Steve McNiven!
- Jason Aaron and Pepe Larraz detail Thor’s impact on a mortal life!
- Ryan Stegman explores the support network of Spider-Man’s friends and family!
- Armando Iannucci and Adam Kubert pit Daredevil up against a very human problem!
Marvel.com also teases that they plan to re-introduce Marvel Value Stamps with this issue. These were small images of characters made to look like collectible stamps, with the idea that (gasp) people might actually cut them out of their comics, which just seems crazy to me. But there was a booklet you could order to keep them in, and once completed you could trade it in for discounts and special merchandise. They looked like this:
They would appear in letter columns throughout Marvel titles back in the 1970s. Abrams recently released a book about them, written by comics writer and historian Roy Thomas.