Marvel Spotlight was one of three tryout books proposed by
Stan Lee after he transitioned from being Marvel Comics' writer and editor to its president and publisher, the others being
Marvel Feature and
Marvel Premiere. The advantage of such tryout books was that they allowed the publisher to assess a feature's popularity without the marketing investment required to launch a new series, and without the blow to the publisher's image with readers if the new series immediately failed. Editor
Roy Thomas explained: "Stan [Lee] and I decided it'd be a good idea to have a book with an American Indian hero. ... Stan didn't want it as a modern-day character. I guess he was trying to see if he could find a way to get a
Western to sell, because everybody in the field wanted to write or draw a Western".
Ghost Rider, the
Son of Satan, and
Spider-Woman. In addition to launching new series,
Marvel Spotlight hosted some significant stories with established characters. Issue #31 provided a retroactive explanation for why
Nick Fury (inextricably associated with
World War II due to his starring role in
Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos) remained so youthful, in the form of an experimental longevity serum. The creature that Tako battled was intended to be
Godzilla but since Marvel no longer had the rights to the character, which lapsed the previous year, the creature was modified to a dragon called The Wani. Issue #8 featured the final Captain Marvel solo story before the character's death. The second volume was cancelled after just 11 issues. In contrast to the original series, only one issue (#5) featured a new character, and none of them led to the featured character getting their own series.
Jim Salicrup, who edited and/or did cover copy on most of the second volume, said that he was excited about reviving
Marvel Spotlight, but that "it was probably a mistake to launch a new title with material from a recently canceled comic. I suspect that as an editor, I was hoping to give Captain Marvel another chance, but sometimes it's better to let things go. As a result, for the most part, the series seemed to exist just to burn off existing inventory". In December 2005, the
Marvel Spotlight title was used for a series of comic book–sized magazines, usually featuring profiles of and interviews with Marvel creators (one writer and one artist each issue), or spotlighting special Marvel projects such as ''
Stephen King's The Dark Tower''. == Issues ==