Marvel Comics 1-3 vs. Marvel Super Special

[Hope It Is The Grog]

I just read Marvel issues 1-3 for the first time after only having had the "Marvel Super Special" as a kid. Wow! What a difference... I'm not sure I've ever seen such a massive rewrite on a comic book. I figured they'd change Lyra to Serina, maybe cut out her illness, and leave the rest alone, but they totally reworked and redrew most of the story.

1-3 actually ended up leaving out some things that made it into the final broadcast version, even while including others. You just about have to read both of them to get the whole story. Anyway, I'm impressed by how much effort they put into the overhaul.

[Red Eye]

Yeah, the Super Special version was based on an very early draft of the script. It also included the part in which Baltar was decapitated, a part which was left out in the broadcast version as we all know.

[Hope It Is The Grog]

Yeah, the Super Special version was based on an very early draft of the script. It also included the part in which Baltar was decapitated, a part which was left out in the broadcast version as we all know.

Still, that was kept in the film version, so it wasn't quite as obsolete as Lotay and Lyra. I've always remembered that rather lurid panel of Baltar's dying face with the Centurion's sword dripping blood.

[Hope It Is The Grog]

I read something on the comment or letters page of a later issue about what tremendous deadline pressures they were under to get that revision done. They did a tremendous job all things considered.

[Hope It Is The Grog]

Also read on another letters page (issue 11) that under Marvel's licensing agreement, they were not to make the drawings resemble the actors too closely. They said it was something they were "still learning to live with."

That's a relief to know; I had assumed they just couldn't draw too well!