Marvel CyberComics

Marvel CyberComics or Webisodes were digital comics produced from 1996 to 2000 by Marvel Comics using Adobe Shockwave. The Marvel CyberComics were originally made available exclusively on the AOL web portal, but were later made freely available on the Marvel.com website. The Marvel CyberComics featured established Marvel characters such as Spider-Man and Wolverine and consisted of a combination of comics and animation. The Marvel CyberComics were removed from the Marvel website in 2000, and the service was succeeded by Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited in 2007.

History

CyberComics were created by Marvel in the summer of 1996 as a part of a promotional deal with America Online. The CyberComics were placed into the AOL/Marvel Zone and were exclusively available to AOL users.

From 1996 till 1998 there was a run of the Spider-Man Cybercomics.

In 1997 Marvel built their own website at MarvelOnline.com and the CyberComics were freely available to all users through registration on MarvelZone.com (due to the contract with AOL).

On September 17, 1999 NextPlanetOver.com (NPO), a now-defunct online comics store, announced a one-year marketing and content licensing deal with Marvel Comics. Terms included a year of run-of-site advertising on Marvel.com. In addition, NextPlanetOver.com was sponsoring monthly CyberComics created exclusively for them by Marvel. NPO was bought out less than a year later and went bankrupt in 2000; the CyberComics were renamed into "Webisodes" and made available at Marvel.com for free without any registration.

The first characters to star in CyberComics were Spider-Man and Wolverine, soon followed by several others. The comics were not only canon to the mainstream but also tied in directly with Marvel's newsstand offerings. They came out on a monthly basis, in four parts consisting of eight pages each.

Using Macromedia's Shockwave software, readers guided the action by clicking through word balloons and following panels complete with animation, sound effects and music. CyberComics were still very much in the comic book or strip genre - the result was a cross between comics and animation.

The Cybercomics were made by taking penciled pages and transforming them through a program called "Electric Image Painter" and form-Z into the digital comics, colored in digitally in Adobe Illustrator. Simple animations were created in Macromedia Shockwave, and Garry Schafer of grimmwerks created the soundscapes which drove the animations. Done at a time previous to mp3 compression as common as it is now, only 4 channels of small, short soundscapes could be used at one time.

Due to financial reasons, the production of new CyberComics ceased in 2000 and Marvel removed them from their website.

Having a huge back-issue archive, Marvel decided to save money by replacing Marvel CyberComics with Dotcomics. This successor would eventually become Marvel Unlimited.

Heroes

• Blade (A one-shot; 21. August 1998) The story is tied into the Wesley Snipes movie of the same name. Art by Daerick Gross. Read it here! Archived 2010-02-13 at the Wayback Machine
• Captain America / Iron Man: Invasion Force (In four parts) Two of the Avengers' most prominent uncover the truth behind the new alien race, the Ravel, and must halt an alien invasion! Art by Daerick Gross. Read it here! Archived 2010-02-13 at the Wayback Machine
• Daredevil (v.1): Protection Racket (In four parts; 1998) Featuring Daredevil's fight against Kingpin and Bullseye. By D. G. Chichester and Daerick Gross. Read it here! Archived 2010-02-13 at the Wayback Machine
• Daredevil (v.2) #0: What a Life (A one-shot; September 1998) Written by Kevin Smith, with art by Joe Quesada & Jimmy Palmiotti A preview/prequel to the relaunched Daredevil title in 1998.
• Heroes Return (In five parts; 1997) It took place between issues #3 and #4 of the Heroes Reborn: The Return Limited Series. The Wall-crawler takes on the Green Goliath and encounters the Heroes Return super-heroes! By Tom DeFalco, Casey Jones and Rob Haynes.
• Marvel Milk Maniacs: Race for Destruction (A one-shot; 2000) Starring Captain America, the Hulk and Spider-Man. A promo CyberComic for drinking milk.
• Nick Fury / Black Widow: Jungle Warfare (In four parts) Nick Fury and the Black Widow race to defuse a bomb buried in the banks of the Panama Canal - without setting off any political landmines. Art by Casey Jones. Read it here! Archived 2010-02-13 at the Wayback Machine
• Deadpool: Ride My Hard Drive, Baby! (In four parts; February 2000) In this quirky tale of everyone's favorite Merc-With-A-Mouth, Deadpool gets interactive as he ends up being downloaded into the computer, owned by his good buddy Weasel, and mayhem ensues in Cyberscape! Featuring appearances by Quasimodo, Vision, Captain America and Iron Man. "Ride My Hard Drive, Baby!" is written by Joe Kelly, with art by Casey Jones!

Mutants

• Gambit: The Hunt for the Tomorrow Stone (December 27, 1999) Was the first CyberComic referred to in a printed comic (in the pages of Gambit #12). The plot occurred approximately after Gambit #10 - Gambit helps Spat obtain the Tomorrow Stone to stop her de-aging and save her life. In his quest for it he encounters Sekhmet who needs the Stone herself to save her mother from the suspended animation she was put in by her husband. Sekhmet finally gets the Tomorrow Stone but provides it to Spat and saves her life. After that, Sekhmet goes on looking to find help for her mother (Assumedly, the Sekhmet story would have come up again in the Gambit comic, if it continued under Fabian Nicieza, but didn't since it was cancelled). Art by Daerick Gross.
• Wolverine: Merciless is the Mongrel by Tom DeFalco and Daerick Gross (In four parts; July 1996). This was one of the two first Marvel CyberComics ever (the other one was with Spider-Man). Pale Flower is playing a dangerous game, with Wolverine in the middle. Can she control a tiger by the tail? Features first appearances by Mongrel and Pale Flower.
• X-Men: Twisted History (In four parts; January 2000 ) Written by D. G. Chichester with art from Daerick Gross, the X-Men's original line-up gets a bit of a revamp, with Gambit, Rogue, and Colossus thrown into the mix! Read it here! Archived 2010-02-13 at the Wayback Machine
• X-Men: The Ravages of Apocalypse (1996 one-shot) Was a promotional CyberComic story tied into the X-Men: The Ravages of Apocalypse videogame. The game itself was a commercial total conversion of the Quake engine. Written by Larry Hama, penciled by Daerick Gross.

Marvel's Excelsior Theatre

Scoop:
The only "movie" in this "theatre" was called The Secret Adventures of Captain America - Far Flung in the Far East and came out in five parts in 1999-2000. It was conceived by former editor and Stan-hattan Project founder James Felder and co-written by James Felder, Ben Raab and Joe Kelly with art/designs by John Cassaday and overseen by John Cerilli; sound effects, music, animation and even the voice of Captain America was provided by Garry Schafer. The idea was to do a Flash animated series with actors and writers contributing the characters' voices - all involved recorded parts - John Cerilli was Nick Fury, for example. Sort of a retro-modern version of the old movie serials with a bit of the Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre radio show vibe. It was discontinued after the fifth episode without bringing the story to an end for unclear reasons.

Story:
Chasing down a mysterious phenomenon in East Asia during the WWII, Cap confronts the nefarious Mandarin! A certain Sergeant Fury is present and accounted for as well, but with allies like these...

Other appearances include Dum Dum Dugan and Sgt. Fury's Howling Commandos, composed of Dino Manelli, Reb Ralston, Gabe Jones, Pinky Pinkerton and Izzey Cohen.

• Episode 1: Valley of Death
• Episode 2: In the Clutches of the Mandarin
• Episode 3: The Valley of Lost Spirits
• Episode 4: The Road of Frozen Hells
• Episode 5: Fireworks

Review:
The adventure featured numerous "firsts", including a new first meeting of Captain America and Nick Fury; one that is decidedly different than the one featured in the pages of Sgt Fury comic. Much more advanced than the CyberComics, it had music and actors performing their parts and more advanced animation. Oddly the story seemed to take the stand that Nick Fury was somehow opposed to Captain America beforehand, seeing him as some kind of glorified piece of propaganda.

See also

• Marvel Unlimited

External links

• Excelsior Theatre episodes and a write up of the process
• Marvel Digital Comics Archived 2006-09-23 at the Wayback Machine
• T Campbell's Blog at archive.today (archived 2012-11-11)
• The New York Times Article
• An interview with D. G. Chichester, Comics Bulletin