December 17, 1997

MARVEL RECIEVES GOOD NEWS

After along period in which bankruptcy proceedings have overshadowed any constructive developments within Marvel Comics, a series of positive events has occurred. The first of these events is that Chase Manhattan Bank has indicated that they will provide additional operating funds for Marvel once a trustee has been appointed to run the company. While this trustee had not yet been appointed as of noon 12/17, the appointment was reported to be imminent. The additional funding that Chase will provide will be in the form of an incremental increase in debtor-in-possession funding. This increase had been withheld by Chase during most of December due to conflict with the current stockholders, led by financier Carl Icahn. This had led to a situation in which an attorney for Icahn indicated that Marvel had little, if any, operating funds past the end of 1997. Now that U.S. District Judge Roderick McKelvie has ordered a trustee to be appointed to replace the Marvel board of directors installed by Icahn and the shareholders, Chase feels no reluctance to fund Marvel until a sale can be realized. This greatly diminishes any possibility of a shutdown of Marvel Comics.

While this funding news was a very positive development, the editorial staff at Marvel is also exuberant about the return to Marvel of two top creators. While Marvel has yet to receive a signed contract, John Byrne is letting the world know that he is intending to take over one of the Spider-Man titles. This takeover might occur in September or October. Joining Byrne in returning to Marvel will be Chris Claremont. Marvel has just officially announced that Claremont will provide the script to a Scott Lobdell plot for FANTASTIC FOUR #4. Claremont is scheduled to take over all writing on FF from #5 onward. He has also been scheduled to write WOLVERINE #125. In addition to these specific projects, Claremont has also been rumored to be joining the Marvel editorial staff in an executive position.

The final bit of good news for Marvel is in their current level of reorders. After a couple of years in which there seemed to be an inexorable decline in orders from retailers for even the strongest of Marvel titles, December has seen a continuation of the strong reorder activity for many Marvel titles that began during the Fall. The Heroes Reborn titles, in particular, were hot reorder items. And this was in spite of CAPTAIN AMERICA and FF finishing #1 and #2 in the nationwide sales charts for November, and IRON MAN and AVENGERS finishing #1 and #2 for December. This resurgence in interest in comics bodes well not only for Marvel, but for all other comics publishers, as well.