Tsunami (Marvel Comics)

Tsunami was a failed imprint of Marvel Comics founded in January 2003.

Overview

Marvel's goal was to create comic books that would appeal to manga readers. Other than in the art, the titles shared little in common, with, for example, "Runaways" and "Sentinel" being aimed at children and younger teenagers and "Mystique" touching on espionage and darker themes better suited for an older audience.

The results were a mixed bag. While "New Mutants", "Mystique", "Runaways" and "Sentinel" earned critical acclaim and a devoted fan following, "Human Torch", "Namor" and "Venom" were complete flops, with the last surviving to issue 18 only on the back of exceptionally high initial sales.

The imprint was discontinued in late 2003. "Mystique" was the longest continuously-running survivor - lasting until issue 24 overall, although it was folded into the regular, mainstream Marvel Comics imprint and had a change of writer as part of the event after issue 13, while "New Mutants", also part of ReLoad, was relaunched from issue 1 as "" at the same time. "Venom" and "Runaways" carried the imprint branding for the longest period, lasting until issue 18, after which "Runaways" was briefly cancelled before being relaunched as part of the Marvel Next initiative, while "Venom" was cancelled outright. The other series were cancelled with issue 12.

Since then, "Runaways" has received a boost from high Digest-sized trade paperback (TPB) sales, which was one of the reasons for its relaunch, while "Sentinel" was also revived, as a five-issue miniseries, for the same reason. However, "Human Torch" also received a single digest without signs of revival.

"New Mutants" received a single standard-size TPB, of its first six issues, as well as complete collections in the same format of its successor series, "New X-Men: Academy X", which was revamped shortly after "House of M" as simply "New X-Men". "Mystique" and "Venom" were fully collected as standard-size TPBs, but shows no sign of being revived.

"Namor" has not been collected, nor are there any reports of it being so in the remainder of 2006.

Titles

* "Human Torch"
* "Mystique"
* "Namor"
* "New Mutants" (vol. 2)
* "Runaways"
* "Sentinel"
* "Venom"
* "Inhumans"
* "Emma Frost"