Too right it can - because it's all kicking off in Tatooine's Space Pub.
No doubt this means that we get to meet Han Solo for the first time in UK comics history. I can, though, shed no light on the question of whether Solo shoots first in the Marvel adaptation.
Not that that matters. I'm sure we're all more excited by the prospect of winning a Star Wars soundtrack LP.
Personally, I can only hum three bits of music from Star Wars - the theme tune, the thing the pub band seems to play on endless repeat, and the epic, mythic piece that starts up whenever anyone looks at the horizon - so I have no idea what the other thirty minutes of the LP sound like.
The Nameless One is back.
Quite what he's up to, I could not say. From what I can recall of him in other stories, he had a big thing about trying to gain access to the Earth, in an attempt to cause unimaginable unspecified mischief. I therefore assume that that's his plan this time out as well.
I have a suspicion that this might be the one in which Dr Doom uses a fake Shalla-Bal to trick the Surfer into fighting the FF and then it turns out she was the real Shalla-Bal all along.
Or is it the other way round?
I'm not altogether sure. Frankly, it's all got far too confusing for me.
But, if she's the real Shalla-Bal, how did she get to Latveria? Was Mephisto involved? It sounds like the sort of thing he'd get up to.
It's clearly a big week for two-headed monsters because not only does Rampage see the return of the Nameless One but MWOM gives us the comeback of the Bi-Beast who's out to gain control of SHIELD's Helicarrier for reasons that are fuzzy within my mind.
I have a feeling this may not be the original Bi-Beast but a copy who was, presumably, activated by the death of the previous one.
The whole world may be talking about the Black Panther right now but Spidey's only concern is the White Tiger.
I must confess that I am starting to get a genuine sense of déjà vu these days. Within weeks of looking at these covers in the US version of this feature, I find myself looking at them again in the UK version. Surely it can only be a matter of months now before Marvel UK catches up with its parent company and the whole venture is doomed.
I believe I have said before that I don't really remember anything much about the White Tiger, other than his name and costume but I think he may be involved in a plan to steal some item of value, using a student protest for cover.
This, of course, has strong echoes of the storyline from Amazing Spider-Man #68 in which the Kingpin decides to steal an ancient tablet, using a student protest as a cover. A riot has always seemed like a strange venue for a crime. Won't there be police everywhere?
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A rare occurance. I collected every Marvel UK issue from 1 to cancellation (I was already getting the Dandy, a few years later Eagle was added). This week features 1 of maybe 2 other Marvel UK issues I owned (maybe still do... may storage garages are too full to go through).The Fantastic Four issue introduced me to Silver Surfer. When I started collecting properly in the 90s SS was the 3rd title I started collecting.
Ugh... Marvel UK Star Wars was the title collected
With regard to the Marvel UK weeklies catching up with the US publications, it may have been an unsustainable business model but the 72-79 period was brilliant for a young British Marvel fan, we got 19 years of continuity crammed into those 8 years in weekly instalments. In some ways we had it better than our American cousins.
Aggy, thinking about it, I think that Star Wars Weekly and Planet of the Apes were the only Marvel UK titles that I had every issue of. They were the only ones that never seemed to go missing from the newsagents' shelves.
Timothy, I think you're right. We were very lucky indeed to be growing up at exactly the right time to catch up with Marvel's entire history.
You're right about that being the real Shalla-Bal in the FF, Steve. She just thought she was a fake Shalla-Bal, although I don't think we learned all the details til a bit later in the story which was dragged out over three issues.
That Mephisto was behind her appearance in Latveria made sense - the confusing part was surely Doom recognizing her in the first place. How would he have known what Shalla-Bal looked like?
I think that Defenders story with the Nameless One and the Thing was the first written by Steve Gerber.
-sean
Timothy - you got me thinking (and now my head hurts)! Living in Chicago-land, far from the bullets, I am pondering how I caught up with the Marvel Universe, given I started reading around 10 years old, 1971.
One thing we did have going for us was monthly reprint issues. Marvel Tales had Spidey, Marvel's Greatest had the FF, Marvel Triple Action had the Avengers. Also, the comics had continual footnotes / blurbs referencing previous appearances of villains / situations and the issues in which the events occurred.
And, in my case, the Marvel Universe was only about 6 - 8 years old (I really started reading around Spidey 100, Avengers 90). So, there was not so much to catch up on...
Hey - did Marvel UK reprint the US reprints like Marvel Tales, at all?
TGIF!
Marvel UK didn't repeat reprints very often, the format of a few anthology titles that ran for about 15 years (ish) mostly covered the major US titles start to finish. We probably missed out on some of the smaller titles and more obscure runs, as well as the stories not being published as a concurrent continuity. The Defenders stories in Rampage above are a good example, in the UK continuity they were probably 3 or 4 years out of sync with stuff like The Avengers or FF. We covered a lot of ground but it wasn't always in a straight line.
I loved The White Tiger, me. Dunno why, as on reflection he probably wasn't that great.
Has everybody seen Black Panther yet? Is it ok to say that I actually found it all a bit underwhelming? There were things I liked, but on the whole I'd put it with Dr. Strange & Ant-Man as fair to middling. How quickly we become blase, eh?
In the UK you had the current monthly Marvels in addition to the U.K. reprints of older Marvels? But then would you get the current issues if Marvel reprint titles like Marvel Tales or Marvel Triple Action? Sorry for being so dense in understanding this subject, lol.
Pete, I haven't seen Black Panther yet. I don't mind the Marvel movies but I don't like them enough to actually pay to see them. I am, however, pleased to see it doing well, as I always take great pleasure from the sight of super-heroes succeeding.
Charlie, we got all the US Marvel comics as well as the UK reprints. There was a period when US Marvel tried to block its main titles being exported to Britain, in order to prevent them competing with the UK Marvel titles but that didn't last for long and they'd often find their way here anyway. Basically, if you could get it in America, you could get it in Britain.
Wow... Is it fair to imagine a scenario where you have three issue of FF, SPidey, Avengers on sale at the same time?
I.e., a current Marvel Tales which ran reruns of Spidey, a current Spider-Man, and a Spider-Man being reprinted in a UK comic? I'm thinking of the financial challenges as a young kid and a small allowance and you see three issues of Avengers, and Spidey, and FF, on sale at the same time (not to mention the UK reprints were running weekly?). I mean, I would have just been flummoxed on where to spend my little money on so many titles. I was locked in to those three titles and that's 9 issues a month and would leave little extra for anything else from Marvel.
That may indeed be a second Bi-Beast we are presented with here, because the original was dispathced by the merciless minions of Modok. Talk about a monster mash!
The Cloud People, or bird people or sky people or whatever the heck they were called created not one, but two baleful Bi-Beasts, which make four faces total, according to my math. Thus he was a was a true Bi-Beast, in that there were two of him, instead of just one with two faces, so...oh, never mind.
M.P., bored in frozen South Dakota and rapidly developing cabin fever
Steve - Last week you showed two one-eyed villains. This week two two-headed villains. Next week two three-? villains? The anticipation is killing me!!!
Charlie, I have full confidence that next week shall see me looking at at least five comics that feature villains with five ears.
MP, there have been all kinds of dire warnings over here that the temperature might drop to minus fifteen Celcius for us next week, so you may not be alone in your frozen misery.
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