When people read Big Two comics, most see the company’s logo on the spine or cover and don’t think anything more of it. But then comes the logos or labels for what seems to be companies they’ve never heard of before—Vertigo, MAX; these names are sometimes foreign and odd at a glance to new readers and make them wonder what they have to do with DC or Marvel characters featured in these pages. This is called an imprint, something one will find in all kinds of publishing, whether comics or books. An imprint is a branded subsidiary from a larger publishing house that denotes a specific line the company wishes to focus on, usually fixated on a specific tone.

MAX and Vertigo are some of the most well-known imprints from the Big Two, with others like DC Black Label and Marvel Knights not too far behind. While these are some of the most well-known, none were the first—lines like Elseworlds and Marvel 2099 paved the way for titans like Vertigo to come through, which was a revolutionary new line. Vertigo was darker and more mature than the rest of DC’s offerings and partly inspired the grunge of ’90s comics—though, the ’90s grunge often was without most of Vertigo’s quality. Marvel, seeking to cash in on this, created a new imprint meant to encompass several more “edgy” titles, fittingly named Marvel Edge. While this imprint would not last, it paved the way for more successful attempts at similar concepts.

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What Was Marvel Edge?

Part of Marvel’s five lines during their Marvelution period, Edge was an imprint for more mature, street-level characters

As mentioned earlier, imprints are not new practices in any publishing industry, and it was in the 1990s when the concept took off for major comic companies. One could even see this being implemented into the very bones of Image Comics when it was established, with each of the company’s founders getting their very own imprint to lead as they saw fit—with Wildstorm being the biggest success.

A direct successor wasn’t hired to replace him, though; instead, Marvel decided to split its line into five different divisions to maximize production. This was done at the same time as the company launched its “Marvelution” idea, leading to a change in its distribution practices. In this “Marvelution” era, five new lines or imprints were created with their respective editor-in-chief.

Marvel Heroes (which encompassed the Fantastic Four, Avengers, and all Avengers-adjacent books) was under Mark Gruenwald, Spider-Man was under Bob Budiansky, X-Men was under Bob Harras, their licensed comics (such as Transformers and G.I. Joe) under Carl Potts, and Marvel Edge under Barbara “Bobbie” Chase. This approach was tricky, as, of course, not every character fit neatly into the criteria of the first few categories. Titles like New Warriors, for example, had to include Scarlet Spider to remain in print and under the Spider-Man line.

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Marvel Edge, in particular, was where many of the characters who didn’t fit elsewhere went. Daredevil, Doctor Strange, Ghost Rider, Hulk, Punisher, and more were all sentenced to this line, only united by being somewhat street level and exceptionally darker in tone next to their peer titles. The line began with an event titled Over the Edge, spanning two dedicated one-shots titled Double Edge and an issue each of Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Incredible Hulk, and Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme.

Marvel Edge was composed of three different types of comics, as would be the case with any successful imprint. There were one-shots, there were miniseries, and there were, of course, ongoing titles. The last type of comic wasn’t necessarily a new ongoing series created exclusively for Edge but rather existing ones with the imprint’s logo slapped on top of their covers. These ongoing series were all integrated into the Marvel Edge lineup after the aforementioned Over the Edge event, their first issues under Edge all tying into it in some way.

Daredevil briefly had J.M. DeMatteis on as its writer, a choice that seemed like a good one on paper. He’s a fantastic writer, having made a splash with his Spectacular Spider-Man only a couple of years prior. During his brief tenure on the title, he did some interesting psychological work with Daredevil’s mind, the woman he accidentally killed during the events of Man Without Fear, his alter-ego in the Yellow costume, and more. Unfortunately, a lot of this short run was brought down by the villain Sir. This messy character attempted to tackle the ways women protect themselves from violence, only to come off as wildly transphobic in a modern lens.

Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme didn’t have one running storyline through most of its pages, written by writers like Warren Ellis and J.M. DeMatteis. The art was rather nice, but Doctor Strange’s adventures provided little else to talk about aside from the fact it coincidentally ended right after Marvel Edge was shut down. This meandering nature also applied to Ghost Rider and The Incredible Hulk. However, artists like Salvador Larocca did good work on these titles, possibly being one of the few factors keeping them afloat through otherwise mediocre storylines.

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The only ongoing title that stood apart from the others was The Punisher. It was the only one that was freshly launched for Marvel Edge, and it lasted long after the line shut down. It was also the only title that was openly affected by the Over the Edge event, as Frank Castle was its main character. The aftermath of the storyline leads to the Punisher’s execution being staged by a mafia boss, which is part of a scheme for Frank to take over said mob boss’ criminal empire. The idea was interesting, testing Castle’s morality by having him work alongside and get close to career criminals.

The Miniseries Were Hit Or Miss—Except For One

While existing ongoings were an easy way to draw attention to what was happening with Marvel Edge as a new imprint, miniseries created solely for the line were a great way of expanding on the brand’s potential.

Some of these miniseries connected to existing characters under Edge, such as Hulk, Punisher, and Daredevil, while the others were more original ventures. The miniseries focusing on Hulk support character Doc Samson was a forgettable four issues, really only existing to fill space in the roster. Still, many of the other titles were far more memorable—for better or worse, at least.

Skrull Kill Krew was one of Mark Millar and Grant Morrison’s many collaborations before their falling out—and it’s a series that exemplifies some of the worst impulses of both creators in a wild five issues. The basic premise is somewhat simple: a team of individuals hunting and killing Skrulls hidden on Earth… only to be complicated by the fact the team only holds a grudge against the Skrulls due to having eaten meat of the aliens (courtesy of a select few having been brainwashed into cows by Mister Fantastic in an old Fantastic Four issue). This not only granted them wild powers, but also an undying grudge against them as well as a virus slowly eating at their minds. It’s the team’s attempt at riffing on the craze of Mad Cow Disease, but that’s as deep as the series gets before bonkers actions ensue across all five issues. It’s a surprise the team got revisited decades later in a 2009 Dark Reign tie-in series.

Spider-Man/Punisher: Family Plot suffered from Marvel’s strange fondness for two-issue miniseries in the 1990s, likely just a way for the company to fill gaps in the publication calendar. The story was short and sweet, pitting Ben Reilly during his time as Spider-Man against a Punisher who was involved with the mob against one another for all of five minutes before they decided to work together to stop Tombstone. Oddly, such a short story couldn’t be told in the pages of The Punisher or any of the many Spider-Man titles at the time.

Over the Edge was perhaps the smartest move Marvel made for the Marvel Edge imprint. The series was priced at 99 cents to attract new readers easily and was structured as an anthology in the same vein as Marvel Comics Presents. The covers would be plastered with popular characters featured in the Marvel Edge imprint, from Hulk to Daredevil, with these characters getting short stories alongside a rotating assortment of other heroes. This series would survive the rest of Marvel Edge four months, ending in August 1996– though it was without the Marvel Edge branding, that logo removed in April.

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What had to be the best series to come out of Marvel Edge, though, by leaps and bounds, was Typhoid. It’s the only one that feels like a coherent story and passion project rather than a desperate rebrand or filler miniseries, and considering the small, dedicated team behind the title, it’s not hard to see why. It’s clear Ann Nocenti loves Typhoid Mary as a character, with her representing many of the themes and social issues that make up the writer’s stories.

Typhoid was a natural conclusion to the stories Nocenti told with the character during Daredevil and Marvel Comics Presents: a grungy, surreal noir with all four of the character’s alters playing key parts in a trippy murder mystery. John Van Fleet’s art is also a treat, standing well above many of his 90s contemporaries. While Marvel Edge was a flop overall, it was worth it for this series, and hopefully, Mary can get more in the future.

The One-Shots Filled Some Space

What’s any comic line without its one-offs? Marvel Edge had several, padding out any remaining space in its publishing history. Once again, it left readers asking questions, like why these stories couldn’t have been told in ongoing series, but Marvel answered by making most of these stories double-sized.

Cutting Edge continued the imprint’s pattern of puns incorporating the word “edge” into them, though it had little to do with the wider story or aims of the line. It was a story exploring the triggers for Hulk’s transformations and various forms as he was experimented on by the U.S. government.

Ghost Rider: Crossroads was leaps and bounds more interesting, with Blackheart as the new ruler of Mephisto’s realm. One of his first acts as king? They pitting Johnny Blaze and Danny Ketch against one another for fun. It was an enjoyable adventure having the two interact, as were the events of Savage Hulk. Another one-off adventure, the story introduced a new form of the Hulk: Savage Hulk, which has appeared quite a bit ever since.

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The only one-offs that directly connected to the wider Marvel Edge imprint were Double Edge Alpha and Double Edge Omega. These tie into the Over the Edge event, with Double Edge starting and ending the storyline. For some reason, the Punisher had gone insane, somehow thinking that SHIELD and Nick Fury were responsible for the death of his family. This pushed Frank to go on a wild spree as he found himself at odds with the group, culminating in Frank killing Fury and beginning the plotline in which the Punisher joined the mob.

Why Was Marvel Edge Cancelled So Soon?

Marvel Edge lasted less than a year and went out with a whimper on April Fools of 1996

One would expect the average imprint to last, at the very least, a few years. It’s an investment from both the parent company and readers, and even if it doesn’t pay off, it ought to last for a bit and have some degree of impact in the minds of those who knew it.

Marvel Edge was not so lucky in this case, lasting from the middle of July 1995 to April 1st of 1996. The final publishing date for many of the imprint’s last issues feels like a cruel joke in hindsight, a death knell for a line that didn’t even make it a full year. Barbara Chase would no longer be an editor-in-chief but was at least set up with a cozy spot as an executive editor of Marvel Entertainment and would go on to work in publishing for several more decades.

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The specific details on why Marvel Edge was canned have been lost to time, but the general overview is that the imprint was axed to make way for the incoming Onslaught event from Marvel. This is a bit questionable, as none of the titles published under Edge had anything to do with the X-Men line, but the company likely wanted all hands on deck for such a massive comic event.

While it’s a shame Edge was thrown under the bus, its spot in Marvel history is somewhat notable—it paved the way for more successful lines like Marvel Knights and MAX to take off, providing readers with many more classic stories.