The Week That Was 120222

Twitter tumult, trading cards, shameless plugs

Unstacking the Deck: Marvel Universe Series V

Fleer 1994

Vital Statistics 
200 cards (including the checklist card), plus three chase card subsets: four card holograms, nine card "Power Blasts" and ten "Suspended Animation" cards featuring cel-like renditions of characters from Marvel's current animated series.

The front of the main hero/villain cards feature an image of the character, with a solid color border running top to bottom on the left hand side, with the character's name in the top left written in shiny foil lettering.

Like the Marvel Masterpieces and the recent Fleer Ultra X-Men sets, these cards are pretty on thicker stock, with a glossy finish.

The hero/villain card backs are all landscape orientated, with a short bio above a power ratings graphic on the right (the power ratings *really* need an "energy projection" category, to balance out characters who may not be super-strong or great fighters, but still powerful). On the left, a “moment of truth” featuring a significant event from the character’s history (depicted via an original art recreation of the event) with the issue in which it occurred, above the character’s names and group affiliations. The card’s artist(s) is also listed on the back.

Unstacking the Deck: Marvel Universe Series IV

Skybox 1993

Vital Statistics
180 cards (including the checklist), plus nine red foil chase cards featuring characters from Marvel's 2099 imprint, and one rare Spider-Man vs. Venom hologram card, available in three different colors (red, green or the rarest, blue), inserted at the odds of one in every 180 packs.

The big change in this series that the bulk of the cards, comprising the various heroes and villains cards, are 1/9 of a larger image that forms when each batch of nine cards are placed in a nine-pocket plastic sleeve.

As a result, the border around each card varies, depending on where in the grid it falls (so the middle card has no border, the bottom right card a border on it's right and bottom, etc.), with a line across the top of each card denoting whether the character is a hero, villain, rookie, or alien race, along with the Marvel logo with the year inside it.

The back of each card is laid out in landscape, with a large headshot and a smaller full body image of the character in the center. Their real name and team affiliation is listed, followed by their ranking (by numeric value) in four ve categories: Strength, Intelligence, Fighting Ability, and Speed. Beneath that is a one sentence origin for the character, along with their first appearance. On the very bottom of the card is a "did you know" fact for each character.

Unstacking the Deck: Marvel Universe Series III

Impel 1992

Vital Statistics
200 cards (including the checklist card) and five hologram chase cards.

The background on the front of each card is a star field, with a varying geometric shape set between the background and the central image of the character.

The card backs are landscaped, with a headshot of the character along with a quote and the series, issue number and date from which the quote is taken on the left of the card. Beneath that is the character's real name, group affiliation, and first appearance.

To the right of the headshot is bar graph mapping each character's aptitude in strength, intelligence, energy projection, mental powers, fighting ability and speed. Beneath that is the character's biographically information.