Marvel Should Resurrect Horror Anthologies
For many years Marvel Comics was home to a great number of fantastic horror publications, ranging from vampires to zombies and more. Past the countless superheroes are moonlit graveyards full of the restless dead, stagnant swamps crawling with nightmares beyond description. Despite having strong horror elements in their current comics, Marvel hasn’t released a dedicated horror anthology or magazine in decades. It’s time for that to change.
While Marvel is most famous for its outstanding catalog of superheroes such as The Avengers, the X-Men, The Fantastic Four, and more, horror has always been a staple at The House of Ideas. As supernatural foes were common among the ranks of superheroes Marvel produced, it was only natural that dedicated magazines and comic series were released that focused on the supernatural specifically. As many of these publications featured characters from other Marvel comics, and in some cases introduced characters who would later appear in mainline Marvel series, the relationship between Marvel’s superhero titles and horror titles became symbiotic.
Marvel Has a Deep and Wonderful History With the Macabre
A prime example of this can be seen in Tomb of Dracula, a comic series that ran from 1972 to 1979. The series featured the titular vampire lord himself as he terrorized humanity and found himself at odds with various vampire-hunting heroes. To supplement and coincide with the Tomb of Dracula, Dracula Lives! was released from 1973 to 1975 as well as Vampire Tales also from 1973 to 1975. Both magazines featured black-and-white comic stories and editorials about vampires in pop culture.
Focusing on more than just vampires, Marvel also published other monster-themed series throughout the ’70s. Haunt of Horror, Monsters Unleashed, and Tales of the Zombie were all published throughout the ’70s, offering a wide variety of bone-chilling monster goodness. Haunt of Horror was a collection of narrative prose stories in the style of other science fiction digests; Monsters Unleashed, similarly to Vampire Tales, was a collection of gruesome monster stories, from ghouls and specters to dinosaurs and mad scientists. Tales of the Zombie featured Simon Garth, a man transformed into a shambling zombie in search of vengeance.
Marvel Published Tales of Every Kind of Nightmarish Monster Imaginable
The MCU has had a tremendous amount of success in its efforts to incorporate horror into its catalog. The success of projects such as Moon Knight, Werewolf by Night, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is proof that not only is Marvel putting horror on the MCU main stage, but that they’re doing it well. The Marvel Zombies episode of What If…? introduced the brain-eaters to the MCU, and with the upcoming Marvel Zombies show slated for 2024, there’s only more zombie action to come. As the Blade film is set to enter the MCU in 2024 as well, there is plenty of tangible proof that modern Marvel and horror are still a winning pair.
For Marvel to bring back the horror anthology would be for them to return to a very successful period in their publishing history. With decades worth of brand-new horror tales and writers to select from and highlight there would be limitless amounts of content for them to print. Horror is more than just crumbling European castles and misty American graveyards and highlighting horror tales from around the world could give such an amazing platform to a diverse collection of writers and artists. Dedicated horror anthologies would be perfect companion pieces to Marvel’s latest foray back into their spooky past.
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