Believe it or not, this was the most interesting thing that happened in the world on that day.
There was only one thing for it! We were going to have to take refuge in the thrills and spills of Marvel UK, as never before!
The Avengers take on what would become known as the Invaders, in what my razor-sharp senses tell me can only be Blackpool.
Dracula, getting quite trad on that cover.
We're still escaping from the Planet of the Apes.
We're given no clues at all as to what the back-up strips are.
Spidey's up against Morbius, and Iron Man's still up against AIM. This must be the nineteenth consecutive week that shellhead's been up against them.
If we don't count that cover from the other week, Tiger Shark makes what I believe is his Marvel UK debut.
I've always liked Tiger Shark. I admire anyone who wears a fin on his head.
It might be good news for Tiger Shark admirers but it's terrible news for Ant-Man fans. No sooner has he made his debut than he turns into Giant-Man.
I'm not sure why the Cat's been coloured green on two consecutive covers, when her costume was yellow in the US originals. Whatever the reason, you can read my review of that origin of the Cat, right here.
It does strike me that all the heroes on this cover ended up being replaced in their roles by someone else. The Original X-Men were replaced by the New X-Men, Greer Nelson was replaced as the Cat by Patsy Walker's Hellcat, and Hank Pym was replaced as Ant-Man by Scott Lang. It seems that birds of a feather really do flock together.
It seems like Marvel was sending you guys in the U.K. a lotta Planet of the Apes comics.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember seeing them over here. I think I might have one copy of one issue somewhere. Maybe Marvel had crates of those things they couldn't get rid of.
Ape fever died down quickly here, soon to be replaced by disco and Star Wars.
M.P.
The back-up in POTA might've been the Thomas/Kane Warlock and the green-and-white Captain Marvel (which continued in The Titans). After Man-Gods From Beyond the Stars, a sumptuous Chariots of the Gods pastiche- which was only a few months old -the Black Panther and Ka-Zar started at the end of this adaptation of Escape from the Planet of the Apes. Amusingly, it stopped being a sci-fi anthology and became a jungle comic.
ReplyDeleteMP, what happened over here was that it all fused together into a genre known as Ape Disco Wars - a genre that's still going strong today, with over half of all TV shows being dedicated to it.
ReplyDeleteDougie, it's strangely exciting for me to know that we're only weeks away from Panther's Rage starting, even though I don't have the comics at hand in order to actually read it.
We must also be closing in on the landscape of love known locally as The Titans. I'm exited.
ReplyDeleteDW
Pasting over a new cover for the Brits seems a whole lot of trouble to go to.
ReplyDelete