In news that will stun the world, this edition of Comics Disassembled, in which I highlight the things I liked or didn’t like from the week of comics, begins with two consecutive positive items about Marvel. Please remember this moment when you think, “Man, David sure is harsh about Marvel.” I just want good things from them, and they’re giving us those this week!

The Ultimate Universe, Now Much More Compact

In an extremely smart move, Marvel announced that it will be publishing its recent (and recently ended) Ultimate Universe titles in new compact editions, with Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimates arriving in April 2027 and Ultimate X-Men and Ultimate Black Panther hitting in June of the same year. On the surface, this is a great idea, but it’s a true delight to report that it seems that this isn’t just a partially good idea but an across the board one. Why do I say that?

That’s simple. Marvel chose the right price point, as each volume is $9.99 for 12 issues (or more!) of material. They seemingly went with the industry standard compact/digest size rather than the too large Marvel Premier Collection one, although I couldn’t confirm that to be 100% true. And each volume is labeled as Year One, which implies that we’ll likely get “Year Two” for these titles at a later date, meaning that the entire run for these four may be compacted in full at some point. That last point is a compelling advantage over even DC’s vaunted Compact Comics line, in that the first volumes of DC’s titles that are published in that form are unlikely to ever be completed in the format. Which is fine! It’s designed as a gateway, and that makes sense.

But Marvel electing to use that price point, size, and plan to deploy these books is brilliant, and so is the fact that each is exquisitely designed. All of that rules. This is awesome to see, and I hope to see more like this in the future because smartly crafted and smartly priced compact editions have a real place in the comics market — and in the hearts of readers.

Late bonus: Apparently they’re doing more Spider-Man-centric ones in the same vein as well, with Miles Morales and Spider-Gwen getting their own $9.99 compacts in 2027 as well. And they look great!

Marvel, Forming (or Continuing) Partnerships

While we’re well past San Diego Comic Con at this point, I did want to clear out my notebook of some interesting turns from the convention that I didn’t get to cover in last Friday’s SDCC-fueled variation on this column. And it all starts with another Marvel item, or two items, to be specific.

One is that Marvel and Kadokawa, the Japanese entertainment supergiant that publishes manga titles like The Summer Hikaru Died, Deadman Wonderland, and Re:Zero through its Kadokawa Shoten arm, are forming a partnership in the wake of the breaking of the former’s fellowship with the latter’s fellow supergiant Shueisha. This means that Marvel characters, or manga-fied version of them, will appear in Kadokawa manga assembled by the publisher. This is pretty textbook stuff, as it was something Marvel was already doing, it’s just they’ll now be doing it with someone else and new head of Asia Originals C.B. Cebulski will lead the way for the publisher. What’s to come from this deal? TBD. But given the lust for manga in the marketplace and the natural fit between the two companies, this makes a ton of sense for everyone involved, including readers.

Speaking of partnerships that make sense, there was news about the one between Marvel and Webtoon continuing onwards with Marvel originals now set for the platform. The publisher has already been dropping varying pre-existing titles on Webtoon, with those sculpted for vertical scroll of course, but this is its first step in releasing original comics that weren’t previously Infinity Comics (Marvel’s line of vertical scroll comics on Marvel Unlimited) on the digital comics platform. And they’re starting with three that make a whole lot sense in Tony’s Girl, That Time Deadpool Fell Into WEBTOON… and Found the Longest Title of All Time!!!, and X-Men Korea.

Wisely, Marvel even shifted gears by getting Webtoon creators to work on these comics, which is a real change from the previous strategy they deployed. Marvel and Webtoon even straight up lifted the Wayne Family Adventure team of C.R.C. Payne and Starbite for Tony’s Girl, which I truly do not mean in an insulting way. If you know something works, do it again, and bringing on that squad for a romance/slice of life story about a young and in love Tony Stark is an easy sell. All of them are, though, and this strikes me as a smart move and a clever variation on their pre-existing formula.

That’s what it is. Let’s talk about what it isn’t. I saw some hubbub online about how this deal with Webtoon means that online fabrications about Marvel’s imminent move to publish entirely in digital are real, and let me tell you: They are not. There’s a reason I called them “fabrications” rather than “rumors.” Rumors are often built on some level of truth, or at least an actual conversation. Some person just making up nonsense online is just that: making up nonsense online.

If you want evidence of “a publisher releasing original comics on Webtoon doesn’t mean they’re going to go fully digital,” please turn your attention to DC, the biggest game in the direct market right now who has been doing just that for three plus years. Sometimes a partnership is just a partnership, not an omen for the future. That’s the case with both these items (and, needless to say, Marvel is also not about to exclusively license out all its characters to manga publishers).