Trivia / Marville

• Artist Disillusionment: Bill Jemas' open letter in issue #6 was a long expression of his disappointment not only in the comic's failure, but in the comic industry as a whole, claiming that only superhero comics sell well at Marvel (directly citing Marville's failure as proof that their audiences only want superhero action, nothing more), and that everywhere else was unfriendly to ideas that defy the superhero norms (claiming that DC Comics avoids "publishing anything that actually says anything", Image Comics will leave you bankrupt, and independent publishers have no money or viewership). Jemas was motivated to combat this by reinstating the then-defunct Epic Comics imprint as a means of hiring and promoting up-and-coming comic creators with new, non-superhero stories... before it folded again one year later. Even within issue #7 (the submission guide for Epic Comics), Jemas seemed to have little faith in the endeavor, repeatedly mentioning that new-blood comics with no preexisting Marvel characters attached do poorly on principle, and that creator-owned comics would only be deemed "valuable" if Marvel as a whole saw net profits from them.
• Creator Breakdown: It's pretty obvious that something happened to Jemas between issues 2 and 3—the most likely answer being, that's the point when it would have become obvious that he would lose the bet.
• Colbert Bump: Most people know of Marville thanks to Atop the Fourth Wall reviews of it.
• Cowboy Be Bop At His Computer: Jemas apparently didn't know Marvel's own characters very well, as at one point he brings up how Spider-Man didn't get to make amends with Uncle Ben about their argument before he died, and his inability to reconcile his father issues with Ben are the core of the character's mythos. The problem is that this is all from the Sam Raimi films and the Ultimate Universe! In the original Spider-Man origin story in the comics, there was no argument with Uncle Ben before he died, and Peter got along with him just fine.
• Dear Negative Reader: The series concludes with an open letter from Bill Jemas that is absurdly self-indulgent, where he blames the failure of Marville, and the state of the comic industry in general, on the fanbase and the publishers (both DC and Marvel). He denounces comic fans for only liking action-packed superhero stories, and publishers for prioritizing money and the writers and subjects that make it, and neither of them care about comics that explore questions of philosophy and morality. The rest of the issue touches on the same themes as the letter, with the framing device of Al pitching the story of his adventure to a comic editor and the editor refusing him because he doesn't think the comic would sell very well since its subject matter isn't what comic readers are interested in, no matter how (supposedly) profound and insightful Al's story may be.
• Dueling Works: Enforced by Marvel's U-Decide campaign, which pitted this up against Ultimate Adventures by Ron Zimmerman and Peter David's run of Captain Marvel. To say that Marville lost would be an understatement — it was on the receiving end of a Curb-Stomp Battle from David's book both commercially and critically, and while not as drastic, Ultimate Adventures also did better in the critical department. Neither book is considered a classic, but Marville bombed rather terribly. Although one could make the argument that it was a runner-up, since people at least remember Marville, even if it's just because of how bad it is.
• No Budget: Rumor has it that Jemas had almost no funding by #3, resulting in such shortcuts as printing the script on the pages instead of lettering.
• Referenced by...: In the only time another Marvel title remembered this one exists, Kal-AOL rejected a proposal to join the Great Lakes Avengers.
• What Could Have Been: According to longtime Marvel editor Tom Brevoort, Marville was almost a new Captain Marvel series. After Peter David criticized Marvel raising prices on their comics, Jemas initially intended to remove David from Captain Marvel and take over writing the series himself with a new iteration of the character. After being talked down from that, Jemas reworked the draft for the first issue of this idea into Marville for the U-Decide contest.

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