Marvel #9

History

Éditions Lug — founded in Lyon in 1950 by writer/editor Marcel Navarro and businessman Auguste Vistel — began publishing French-language Marvel translations after Claude Vistel returned from New York in 1968 and negotiated rights through Transworld Features, the agency representing Stan Lee's characters. The first attempt, Fantask (1969), was cancelled by France's youth-publication censorship commission after only six issues. Marvel launched in April 1970 as a second attempt, running simultaneously with Strange; burned by the Fantask experience, Lug's in-house retouching studio routinely softened or deleted panels deemed too violent, a practice that would draw criticism from French readers for years. Issues #1–7 appeared in a small monochrome format; from #8 onward (including #9) the title shifted to the larger 17×24 cm comics format printed in full four-color, a change that coincided with the title's final, doomed phase before its censorship-mandated cancellation after #13.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Published December 1970 (dépôt légal 12/1970) by Éditions Lug, Lyon; issue #9 of 13 in the series' complete run.
• First significant format upgrade in the run: issues #1–7 were pocket-sized and printed in bichrome (two alternating colors); from #8 onward the series moved to 17×24 cm full four-color printing, making #9 one of the first issues in the new presentation.
• Three feature strips per issue: Les Fantastiques (Fantastic Four, scripts by Stan Lee, art by Jack Kirby) reprinting two episodes — 'Voyez ! Une étoile lointaine !' and 'Vaincus par les Terrifics' (cover story, featuring Medusa and Inhuman/Kree-connected characters); L'Araignée contre le Bouffon Vert (Spider-Man vs. the Green Goblin, scripts by Lee, art by Ditko); and Captain Marvel – 'Cette ville doit mourir !' (reprinting Captain Marvel #7, script uncredited, art by Don Heck), featuring Mar-Vell, Carol Danvers, Colonel Yon-Rogg, Medic Una, Quasimodo, and Ronan the Accuser.
• The Captain Marvel segment marks French readers' continuing introduction to Mar-Vell's early Kree-spy arc, with Carol Danvers, Yon-Rogg, and Una all appearing — characters who would decades later be central to the Captain Marvel/Ms. Marvel mythology.
• The Fantastic Four stories in this issue draw from the Inhumans/Kree storyline, introducing French audiences to Medusa, the Skrull king Dorrek VII, Princess Anelle, and Ronan the Accuser in translated form for the first time within this title's run.
• Lug's in-house retouching studio routinely altered or removed panels from every story to comply with France's 1949 youth-publications law (loi n°49.956), meaning the content French readers encountered differed meaningfully from the original American printings.
• The entire 13-issue Marvel (Lug) series was ultimately banned by the French censorship commission, reportedly because of the perceived horror of the Thing (La Chose / Ben Grimm); after #13, counterfeit issues #14 and #15 (and possibly #16) circulated, a testament to reader demand the title could no longer legally satisfy.
• Issues #8–#10 were collected in Album N°3 (January 1971), which included a Captain Marvel poster — the poster artwork matching the cover illustration used on Marvel #2, giving this cluster of issues a bonus collectible element at the time of publication.

Cast · 40 characters

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