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Sunday, 7 February 2016

February 7th, 1976 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

Pray for me, Dear Reader. In the absence of anything that resembles inspiration, I'm about to visit Twitter and see what the top two trending subjects on it are. Then I'm going to see if I can work them into the introduction to this look at what Marvel UK were giving us in this week of forty years ago. In this way shall I link burning topicality with fuzzy nostalgia.

Here I go.

Hmn. It seems the top two trending subjects are, "De Gea," and, "Fellaini."

Let's see. Were this week's comics so bad that it could be viewed as a felony?

Or were they the gear?

I can't help feeling I may have had to cheat a bit there.

Spider-Man Comics Weekly #156, Dr Strange

Spider-Man's still trying to sort out Flash Thompson's problems - with the aid of Dr Strange.

It's typical. I can't get a single super-hero to show up to solve my problems. Flash Thompson, on the other hand, manages to get two to show up for his. No wonder there's none left over for me, if he's hogging them all.

Marvel UK, Avengers #125, Conan

I can't help feeling this cover's a little misleading. I suspect that the Avengers don't really show up in the Hyborian Age.

It'd be great if they did. After all, what sort of lunatic wouldn't want to see the Avengers vs Thulsa Doom?

It was Thulsa Doom that Conan used to fight, wasn't it? Or was it Thoth Amon? I always used to get them mixed up.

If the Avengers did show up to fight Thulsa Doom, they could have thrown in a line about him being yet another incarnation of Dr Doom and thus add yet more confusion to the Dr Doom/Rama-Tut/Kang/Immortus  timeline.

Mighty World of Marvel #175, Hulk

I suspect that the Hulk is still battling the Bi-Beast, the Harpy and Modok.

Marvel UK, Planet of the Apes #68, Conquest

It's another of those wayward-aiming showdowns.

I don't have any recollection at all of this cover, whereas I normally recognise all Planet of the Apes covers on sight.

Could this mean I never had this issue?

If so, it means I didn't get my hands on a single Marvel UK comic this week.

It's a catastrophe besides which the loss of the planet to a gang of apes pales into insignificance.

Marvel UK, Dracula Lives #68

What's this? That bounder Dracula's posing a threat to the Houses of Parliament?

Hold on a minute. Why's anyone trying to stop him?

Marvel UK, The Titans #16, Banshee

I detect that the Banshee may be present in this week's issue.

Marvel UK, The Super-Heroes #49, Thing and Man-Thing

I must confess I never liked the Molecule Man. There was something about the zigzags on his face that put me off him.

Admittedly, the fact that he was evil didn't help endear him to me either.

8 comments:

  1. Dougie7 February 2016 at 19:03

    Red Wolf had the same shtick as Ka-Zar and the Falcon and no powers. No wonder he never caught on.
    The Banshee story is one of my absolute favourites from the Thomas/Roth period. The Mimic is almost the Wolverine of that era - the abrasive but cool outsider.

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  2. Paul R7 February 2016 at 20:41

    Well another week of just 3 titles. I think this was the stage where I changed my spending habits and started buying the colour US versions.
    I remember buying those issues and having to fill the story gaps to the B+W UK reprints. To see an all new X_men not wearingtheir usual blue and yellow did come as a shock (up until then I hadn't seen the Neal Adams stuff).
    Plus I got to see Nova,Gerbers Defenders, Deathlok and Warlock because of the UK's terrible distrubtion policy. Which was a good thing in my book.
    Paul R.

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  3. dangermash7 February 2016 at 21:42

    The position of Doctor Strange's name on the SMCW implies his strip is featured in the comic. Is it accident? Is it foreshadowing? Is it some sort of market research, investigating the possible impact on sales of moving the good doctor to SMCW?

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  4. TC8 February 2016 at 04:16

    I had to look up Thoth Amon and Thulsa Doom, since I get them mixed up, too.

    Thulsa Doom was a villain in one of Robert E. Howard's Kull stories. It was not published in Howard's lifetime, but was published in a paperback book collection of Howard's stories in the 1960's.

    Thoth-Amon was mentioned in a couple of Howard's Conan stories, although he and Conan never met face-to-face. I think Marvel used Doom as a recurring villain in their Kull comic, and maybe they used Thoth Amon the same way in the Conan comics.

    Confusing things even more, the 1982 Conan movie used Thulsa Doom as the name of the villain, although the character had more in common with Thoth. So, it's probably just as well that Conan and the Avengers didn't cross over with each other. It was already complicated enough without mixing Thoth and Thulsa with Doctor Doom/Kang/Rama Tut/Immortus/whoever.

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  5. Steve W.8 February 2016 at 08:53

    Thanks for the clarification, TC. I have now decided, within my head, that Thoth Amon and Thulsa Doom are really the same person and are also Dr Doom.

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  6. Anonymous8 February 2016 at 15:18

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. Anonymous8 February 2016 at 16:45

    Why are wizards always showing Conan scenes of the Avengers? He must find this all pretty confusing!
    M.P.

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  8. Steve W.8 February 2016 at 18:03

    I think the wizards must be mistaking him for Arkon, M.P.

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