Marvel's Forgotten Comic Book Based On WCW, Explained

Highlights

• Professional wrestling has crossed over into various forms of entertainment due to its unique appeal, including comic books like WCW-themed ones published by Marvel in the 1990s.
• WCW teamed up with Marvel to use comic books as a way to gain more exposure and reach a larger audience, capitalizing on the larger-than-life aspect of professional wrestling.
• Despite having Marvel as its publisher, the WCW-themed comic books were largely forgettable and didn't resonate with the average comic book reader, leading to their limited success.

For the longest time, professional wrestling has made its way into different forms of entertainment, especially because of its unique form of sports entertainment appeals to many. And because of many people's interest in professional wrestling, it has crossed over to other genres that some people did not expect in the slightest. An example would be the WCW-themed comic books Marvel released in the early 1990s, a time when more physically-imposing talents looked like real-life comic book heroes. And even though the comic books lasted almost a year, unfortunately for WCW and Marvel, the comics weren't well-received.

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Professional Wrestling Mixed With Other Entertainment Genres

Part of the appeal of sports entertainment is the larger-than-life aspect of the genre. There's a reason companies like WWE have utilized the concept of sports entertainment for its product for many years. Because of this, professional wrestling has always been a part of mainstream entertainment to an extent. For the longest time, professional wrestling, whether related to WWE or any other professional wrestling company, has crossed over to other forms of entertainment. And although it's already well known that professional wrestling stars like The Rock, John Cena, and Batista have successfully transitioned themselves into the Hollywood scene because of what they accomplished during their in-ring careers, other professional wrestling talent have made their way into other mainstream entertainment entities long before they did.

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WCW Teamed With Marvel To Produce WCW-Themed Comic Books

When Jim Crockett Promotions rebranded itself as World Championship Wrestling in 1988, the organization may not have been on the same level as WWE in terms of success at the time. However, because of the company's history and name value, WCW instantly became a prominent professional wrestling organization with the potential to push WWE to its limits.

Not long after rebranding, WCW teamed with Marvel to have the comic book company publish wrestling-themed comic books under the WCW name. For the newly-branded WCW, teaming with Marvel Entertainment to have the company publish comics based on WCW wrestlers was an effective way for the WCW to get more exposure as larger-than-life entertainment, much like the characters featured in Marvel comics. It wasn't the first time Marvel featured professional wrestlers in its comics, as Hulk Hogan was once featured in a Marvel comic book before this.

In April 1992, Marvel released its first WCW-themed comic, WCW World Championship Wrestling Volume 1. It featured the likes of Lex Luger and Sting on the front cover. The first comic revolved around a Battle Royale to determine who would face WCW World Heavyweight Champion Lex Luger in future editions.

As the comic was released in early 1992, one who grew up watching WCW during that time could get an idea of what wrestlers got featured in this edition and future ones too. For example, The WCW talent in Vol 1 were the likes of The Steiner Brothers, Sting, Dustin Rhodes, Brian Pillman, and. As professional wrestlers were generally more physically imposing during the early 1990s, it wasn't hard for the WCW talent to naturally appear superhero-like in the comics.

WCW's Comic Books Were Mostly Forgettable

While it's surprising to some that Marvel released WCW-themed comic books in the first place, it may be even more surprising that Marvel released twelve editions of the WCW World Championship Wrestling comics even though the series wasn't very successful. Since first releasing the first volume in April 1992, the twelfth and last edition of the comic were released in March 1993, lasting almost a year.

The WCW-themed comic books didn't do much attraction within comic book readers despite having Marvel as its publisher. It also didn't help that the WCW-themed comic books weren't well-received, as the WCW World Championship Wrestling series could've been more successful if it resonated with what the average comic book reader wanted.

RELATED: Hulk Hogan Was Actually A Character Inside An Iron Man Marvel ComicWCW's attempt to get into comic books may have been forgettable for the most part, but that didn't stop the organization from making waves in mainstream entertainment. Not long after Marvel ceased its WCW-themed comics, WCW brought megastar Hulk Hogan to the company in 1994 after coming out of retirement. The rest is history, as WCW went on to push WWE to the limits during the Monday Night Wars until ceasing operations in 2001.