I (Heart) Marvel (2006)

I Heart Marvel was a series of five Valentine’s Day one-shots that were pretty much great all around. According to Bullpen Bulletins, the idea came from Fabian Nicieza…

They also featured a mix of well-established creators (Peter Milligan, Paco Medina, Mr. Nicieza), folks who did a story about a character from a book they already were assigned to (e.g., Daniel Way on Wolverine), and some early/first time work by emerging creators (e.g., Marcos Martin, C.B. Cebulski).
The result was a great mix of mostly really good stories.
The first issue was “My Mutant Heart.” It featured, predictably, Wolverine (who reminisces about a tryst he had in Berlin in 1943), but then features two mutants we don’t see a lot of: Cannonball (while he was dating Lila Cheney) and Doop (in a noir story). Doop is being tailed by a private investigator for a client who thinks his wife is cheating on him.

This is romantic Doop:

Gross. Bonus, though, it’s some early Marcos Martin work.
And Doop wins in the end.

Spider-Man starred in the second issue. Spidey can’t think of what to get MJ for Valentine’s Day.

Spoiler: He gets her web shooters.


And she loves them. It’s the most romantic of this crop of books.
Marvel “Ai” was next, but it wasn’t about tech.



Ai is love in Japanese, and the issue is told Manga style by established Manga artists.

One of the stories features Medusa sad that Black Bolt doesn’t moan when she bangs him.

Wow. It’s good but…Pretty explicit for a Marvel book.
Outlaw Love came third, and it was Nicieza’s contribution: A story about supervillains in love. It reveals that The Answer and Ruby Thursday have a thing going on (!?!). It also reveals that Answer had all three of the teen-aged Sisters of Sin.

Again, wow.
Closing it out was Masked Intentions, another script by Nicieza, with Squirrel Girl crushing on Speedball…

(ugh)…and Justice and Firestar getting ready for their upcoming wedding (which, honestly, I’d forgotten all about).