10 Times Marvel Comics Lost Their Damn Minds
7. Marville: The Comic Written To Win A Bet
Everything about Marville from beginning to end was a swirling vortex of incomprehensibility.
The series was written in 2002 by editor Bill Jemas as part of a bet with writers Ron Zimmerman and Peter David over who could make the best selling comic. It was a parody of superheroes and the comic's industry as a whole, containing "jokes" like the main character being Kal-AOL Turner, a man from 5002 who was sent back in time as some sort of attempt at mocking the TV show Smallville and billionaire heroes like Iron Man, Black Panther and also Batman murdering poor people before being gunned down by Rush Limbaugh.
We know these are jokes because each issue starts with an "Insider's Guide" which handily explains every single joke in the issue. Every. Single. One.
Issues #3-6 completely change tack though and suddenly the series becomes about our heroes(?) travelling back in time to meet God who takes them on a guided tour of creation while Jemas tries to disprove evolution. The series ends with a letter from Jemas criticising readers for not understanding it and that's why Marville was cancelled.
There was technically an Issue #7, but all it contained was the submissions guidelines for Marvel's Epic Comics imprint.
What did any of this have to do with the scantily clad model on every cover? Nothing, nothing at all.