Marvel's "15 Love"

I was rather halfheartedly scrolling through Diamond's  preview of upcoming Marvel books a week or so ago when I literally - and by "literally" I mean I actually did it - did a double take, passing up then quickly returning to the solicitation for the title "15 Love" by Andi Watson and Tommy Ohtsuka.

The reason I was so surprised to see this title was because I vaguely remembered it from, oh, eight years ago or so, back when Marvel was putting together their ill-fated Epic line.  At the time this title seemed a bit out of place, for obvious reasons, and years later it seems no less odd at a company like Marvel.  I can only wonder why exactly the folks at the big M decided to publish this story after letting it sit for nearly a decade.

Part of me wants to commend Marvel for putting out such a different book like this (even if they did let it collect dust for years and years).  After reading Scott McCloud's trio of books on the potential of comics, it's easy to see that a book like "15 Love" can fill in a niche - sports comics - that doesn't exist in the Unites States and might draw readers outside of your traditional super hero follower.  On the other hand, I just can't - CAN'T - shake the feeling I had when I originally heard of this title in, what, 2003?  That this would be one of the worst books ever published, or at least something that Marvel might not know how to handle.  Agh!  This looks awful.  I guess it's just not marketed to someone like me, and that's okay (maybe it's the underwear shot in the picture above).  Here's the solicit info:

This July, get ready to say game, set, match for 15 Love #1 (of 3) – a never before seen, giant-size story from acclaimed writer Andi Watson (Skeleton Key, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and artist Tommy Ohtsuka! Mill Collins is about to learn that life is anything but a piece of cake when the length of your high school career depends on the strength of your serve! But when Mill’s slipping grades threaten to steal away her scholarship from the exclusive Wayde Tennis Academy, she’ll have to look for help from the most unlikely coach to climb her way back up the bracket and into the record books!

This, on the other hand, looks like something I ABSOLUTELY want to read, and I'm trying to order a copy through my local comic shop right now.  Seriously, this looks great:

You'll notice that both are sports comics and both, interestingly enough, have titles that start with numbers.  But I think I'd rather get punched than read "15 Love".  Two sides of the same coin, I guess.