(Note issue #4 front cover folds out for a Juicy Fruit Gum ad. This appears as a white raggedy line on the right side of the cover in the picture - but is common to all issue #4s (see other auctions for this same issue number and you can see this is common).

Noh-Varr (Marvel Boy) is a bisexual character from Marvel. According to Diamond Comic Distributors, Marvel Boy #1 was the 21st best-selling comic book in June 2000. Marvel Boy #2 was the 50th best-selling comic book in July 2000. 

Tom Spurgeon of The Comics Reporter called Marvel Boy #1 a "refreshingly goofy take on superhero source material," saying, "Morrison displays uncharacteristic restraint in Marvel Boy. The overriding emphasis seems to be on making certain everything works first as a comic book adventure story rather than as an idea virus, magic spell, pop culture cluster bomb, or whatever grandiloquent description writers like Morrison use for comics that goose superhero formulae with a formal twist and one or two declarations about the state of reality. By making less obvious the stabs at relevance and deeper meaning, particularly those he sometimes attempts through sentiment and affectation, Morrison with Marvel Boy hewed closer to the Lee/Kirby model of superhero storytelling than anything he had done to date. It is a good fit. What the series resembles most closely is the later, Kirby-dominated and slightly tossed-off seeming issues of Fantastic Four. Like Kirby, Morrison focuses on the weirdness of the superhero concept itself, leaving many of the out-there science fiction ideas, the bizarre combat technologies and hints of radical, identity-focused politics, to sizzle at the perimeter of the page. "David Harth of CBR.com ranked the Marvel Boy comic book series 6th in their "10 Marvel Comics That Read Like Sci-Fi Epics" list, asserting, "Grant Morrison's time at Marvel was short and tumultuous, but they produced brilliant tales. Their opening salvo was Marvel Boy, with artist J. G. Jones. Following the genetically engineered alternate reality soldier Noh-Varr on a quest for revenge, Morrison and Jones created a sci-fi superhero epic like nothing else at Marvel. With all it has to offer, Marvel Boy should be Marvel's next big sci-fi superhero movie. It's a sci-fi revenge tale full of big concepts, breathtaking action, and brilliant characters, turning the Marvel sci-fi story formula on its ear." Rosie Knight of Nerdist included the Marvel Boy comic book series in their "8 Must-Read Marvel Knights Stories" list.

Grant Morrison script; J.G. Jones art. 

THE SCOOP: The dream team of writer Grant Morrison (JLA) and J.G. Jones (BLACK WIDOW) unleash a new Marvel hero for the 21st Century! 

THE STORY: Forget everything you know about the name Marvel Boy! Burn the toga and the headband! Shred the cape and wave goodbye to Uranus! This is a very different character. The new Marvel Boy is Noh-Varr, the youngest member of a Kree Diplomatic team. After voyaging for years, these alien superheroes reach Earth, only to be blown out of the sky. Only Noh-Varr survives and is captured and tortured by the mysterious Midas Organization. Escaping, he vows vengeance on all mankind. But with Morrison weaving this tale, don't expect cliche super heroics or a squeaky-clean protagonist. Instead, get ready for Dr. Midas, a criminal billionaire who's so obsessed with Cosmic Rays that he bathes in them... Exterminatrix, who arrives in issue #3 to make life heaven and hell for Marvel Boy... the Plex Intelligence, a clone of the Supreme Intelligence, but with Multiple Personality options... Hexus, the Living Corporation... Bannermen, a trio of U.N. super soldiers whose bodies are laced with adamantium and enhanced by gamma-rays... and have we talked about our ticked off protagonist yet? Hey, why don't we just listen to the words of Morrison instead? 

THE WRITER SPEAKS: "We're always being told that superhero books are nothing but adolescent power fantasies. Fine. Here comes the ultimate adolescent power fantasy! The Marvel Style began with the Sub-Mariner... and like Bill Everett's Prince Namor, I wanted my hero to be an outcast, a fiery rebel with an appetite for righteous mass destruction. Marvel Boy is not one of the Kree we're familiar with from books like AVENGERS and CAPTAIN MARVEL. He's a super diplomat who's spent a few years adventuring across numerous alternate realities and bizarre dimensions. Now, in the Marvel Universe, he must use all of his skills and powers just to stay alive and continue his one-man guerrilla war against our planet. Like Marvel Boy himself, I'm a newcomer to this Universe and I'm having fun using stuff like S.H.I.E.L.D. or the Mindless Ones and finding new takes on it, things we haven't seen or thought before. I got sick of seeing what I call "Dad Comics." "It's time to say goodbye to all those boring, nostalgic books. We're here to trash the past and make something new that's relevant to our lives today."  

THE FORMAT: Six-issue monthly limited series. GET ALL SIX ISSUES HERE!!