Schedule Monthly Publication date Dec. 1985 - Dec. 1987 Artist(s) (Various) Writer Peter Sanderson | Format Limited series Number of issues 25 Editor(s) Danny Fingeroth Publisher Marvel Comics | |
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Similar The Unwritten, Northlanders, Sleeper, Secret Wars, The Mighty Avengers | ||
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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.
Contents
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, detailed the history of Wolverine up to that time. Spider-Man Saga, another four issue series, was released from November, 1991 to February, 1992 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:
* 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: