Thursday 28 July 2016

July 28th, 1976 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

Forty years ago this week, the world was watching from on the edge of its collective seat as the Montreal Olympics was being played out before its televisual gaze.

How we gasped at the running and the jumping and whatever other stuff it was that they got up to.

But, however epic it might have been, none of the sporting heroism on display could compare to the Olympian feats being performed by the stars of Marvel UK at that very moment.

Mighty World of Marvel #200

It's excitement all round as Marvel UK's flagship title hits the two hundredth issue mark and does it with a cover that tells me little of its contents.

I do believe the Conan story is the one where he fights a monster made of pebbles and defeats it by using his brain for once. I have no doubt the Hulk story features Wolverine causing yet more trouble and that the Avengers story is yet more of the Kree/Skrull War.

This means I have no idea at all as to what Daredevil is getting up to inside.

Marvel UK, Planet of the Apes #93

I've a suspicion that this issue's main story is The Magick-Man's Last Gasp Purple Light Show.

To be honest, all I really recall of that tale is that Mike Ploog drew, it had a horse-drawn wagon in it and that it had a title that could never be forgotten.

The Ka-Zar story, on the other hand, I remember nothing of, not even its existence.

Super Spider-Man with the Super-Heroes #181, the Molten Man

This is that tale where Spider-Man keeps doing his best to prevent the Molten Man finding a cure for his condition, even though it'd clearly be in everyone's best interests for the Molten Man to find a cure for it.

When the Molten Man showed up in this tale, I must confess I had no knowledge of who he was, his first two appearances in the strip having somehow faded completely from my memory.

Fortunately, he was much more memorable this time around.

Marvel UK, The Titans #93, Fantastic Four on the Moon as the Sentry approaches

The FF do their best to make sure Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first men on the moon, seemingly having forgotten that they themselves have already been to the moon and back on several occasions and have Kurrgo's captured flying saucer on their roof, which would allow mankind to go to the moon whenever it wants to.

6 comments:

dangermash aka The Artistic Actuary said...

The molten man's third appearance and the first time he's been hot to the touch. First couple of times he was cold and metallic. Which makes it odd that Spider-Man guesses who he's dealing with from the burnt footprints in the carpet.

And looks like you were right, Steve, about which strips survived the MWOM/Avengers merger. Four strips sharing a portrait format comic. Must have been difficult to squeeze them in. Two half length strips and two quarter length?

Steve W. said...

I think you might be right about the page count for the strips, dangermash but I can't say for certain.

Anonymous said...

Steve, by a strange coincidence (or is it ??) the "featured post" shows the cover of Fantastic Four #98 - the original version of this week's cover of The Titans. And yes, the first Dracula-free POTA & Dracula Lives continues the Jason & Alexander/Magick Man story (the Magick Man was called Lightsmith and his assistant was Gilbert the Gibbon, the only ape ever in POTA who wasn't a chimp, gorilla or orangutan so other ape species obviously existed but for some reason they kept out of sight).

Steve W. said...

I must admit it's not a coincidence that that happens to be the featured post. Such is my devious and scheming nature that has terrified my enemies for decades.

Now you mention him, Gilbert the gibbon does ring a bell.

Dougie said...

I was always annoyed that the Molten Man was literally melting because of heat. It was an obvious idea didn't make him more interesting. But then I'm not really a fan of the paranoid, miserable world of Gerry Conway's Spider-Man.

I wonder if DD was in the throes of the Brother Brimstone story- where Roy Thomas homages the Golden Age Clayface while commenting obliquely on "Dark Shadows" AND referencing "The Killing of Sister George" at the same time! I loved Roy's pop culture riffs in the late 60s-early 70s. Much more fun to read than Denny O'Neil.

Anonymous said...

Conway was a dreary guy! He was tough on Spider-man. I always wondered why Peter Parker didn't jump off a roof without loading his web-shooters first, just to get it over with. I think I would have more fun if I had spider-powers. The first thing I would do is beat up Donald Trump.
I would tear through his security team like a buzz-saw, and leave him hanging black and blue from a lamp post. I would be hailed as a hero.
M.P.