Marvel is teaming again with the Army and Air Force Exchange Service to distribute a free, military-exclusive comic to U.S. troops around the world. This is Marvel’s fourth such comic.
In The New Avengers: Letters Home, due on bases beginning Dec. 20, Captain America, Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider and The Punisher join forces to battle Hydra, who has taken over a military communications satellite.
According to the official release, “the superheroes spring into action to ensure troops’ e-mail messages to loved ones make their way home.”
The character lineup is a little … well, let’s say eclectic. But it represents some smart, if not terribly subtle, marketing by Marvel: Ghost Rider, Silver Surfer and, at least in theory, The Punisher all have movies coming out next year.
One million copies were distributed of the previous special issue, which teamed The Avengers with the X-Men. So I presume this one will be about the same.
December 7th, 2006 at 9:25 am
Kevin: I wrote this book, and I can tell you that I was asked to use the Surfer and Ghost Rider — I believe at the AAFES’s request, though I’m not 100% sure of that. (Captain America is kind of a given for this sort of book.) I suggested the Punisher because I had a (hopefully clever) idea of how he’d fit into the story, and because I know he’s a favorite with some branches of the military. So I don’t think it was marketing at work, though I don’t know all the behind-the-scenes machinations. They definitely wanted a change from the previous books, which had featured the core New Avengers and/or the X-Men.