Marvel has announced Marvel Age, a new imprint of 'all ages' comic books targeting both new and young readers.  Marvel Age comics will reprint 'some of the best Marvel stories of the last few years,' and, more controversially, update 'some of the greatest stories from Marvel mythology.' 

The first Marvel Age title is Marvel Age: Spider-Man #1, which revisits a classic Stan Lee and Steve Ditko Spider-Man story in which the young webslinger confronts the Vulture, infusing it 'with stunning new artwork featuring today's highest production values.'  Daniel Quantz has penned the updated script for Marvel Age: Spider-Man #1 from a plot by Lee and Ditko, while Mark Brooks has provided both the cover and pencils.  The Marvel Age Spider-Man will become a new ongoing series, revisiting Spidey's initial clashes with Doc Ock, Dr. Doom, the Sandman, and a host of other Silver Age villains. 

The 32-page 'all ages' comics will debut in March with a $2.25 cover price.  As ICv2 reported earlier (see 'New Kid Line Only Newsstand Marvels at $2.25'), the Marvel Age line will be the only Marvel newsstand comic books at $2.25.

Retooled versions of classic Silver Age Marvels will not be the only fodder for Marvel Age.  In April, Marvel will reprint affordable 5x8 digest-sized collections of the contemporary titles Spider-Girl, Sentinel and Runaways. 

Marvel also intends to collect the Marvel Age: Spider-Man comic books as well as other as yet unannounced Marvel Age titles and publish them in low cost digest editions. 

Back in Hollywood's golden era, the Warner Brothers studio (which now owns DC Comics) used to remake its hits periodically with new 'contemporary' casts and 'today's highest production values.'  Sometimes it worked, as in the case of John Huston's film of The Maltese Falcon, which was the studio's third version of Dashiell Hammett's classic detective novel. But more often than not the subsequent versions turned out to be pretty weak tea -- Castle on the Hudson versus 20,000 Years in Sing-Sing.  It will be interesting to see how Marvel reinterprets its past, and whether or not contemporary audiences will respond to updated versions of the comics that put Marvel on the map.