Thursday 25 July 2019

July 25th, 1979 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

This week in 1979 was a grim one indeed for readers who'd been with Marvel UK since the venture's launch, because it saw the demise of not one but two of its stalwart titles.

Which were those titles?

We'll find out in a moment but what else was going on around that time?

The Boomtown Rats were going on around that time. Their single I Don't Like Mondays hit the UK's Number One spot, giving them their second and final British Number One, with Bob Geldof's take on that year's Grover Cleveland Elementary School shooting.

Elsewhere, just a week after Chicago's Disco Demolition Night, the dance-orientated genre fought back by claiming the Number One spot on the UK album chart, thanks to The Best Disco Album in the World. Not only that but the art form hit its commercial peak in America by claiming the top six spots on that week's Billboard singles chart. Clearly, Disco was going to be around forever.

Unlike two particular comics.

Star Wars Weekly #74

One of those comics was not Star Wars Weekly. After all, nothing with the words, "Star Wars," on it was going to fail at that time and, so, Marvel UK's one remaining glossy-covered weekly carries right on, without a care in the world.

I haven't the slightest idea what happens in this issue, other than that Banthas are involved but I do note the Guardians of the Galaxy are back, presumably at the expense of the Micronauts.

From memory, I'm assuming we're launching into the Starhawk saga, as I remember reading it in the pages of Star Wars Weekly.

I could, of course, be totally wrong about that.

Hulk Comic #21, Diablo

It's the start of the Sal Buscema drawn tale in which our favourite Gamma victim comes up against a whole host of Silver Age monsters conjured up by Xemnu.

Elsewhere, it's all gone mad, as Ant-Man turns Janet van Dyne into the Wasp, in order to avenge the murder of her father by a being from another world.

There is, of course, nothing abnormal about having a formula for turning people into human wasps in your lab and a wasp costume in your wardrobe, just in case a replica of your dead wife might turn up and need it.

It's bad news for all patriots, as the ever-useless Captain Britain's killed by a reanimated corpse posing as Death.

Meanwhile, the Reject's having a fight to the finish with Karkas and any other Deviant who gets in his way.

Nick Fury's on hallucinogens and the Watcher's still asking, "What if Rick Jones had become the Hulk, Daddy-O?"

Marvel Comic #352, Cyclops vs Quicksilver

But this is it, the end of an era. After nearly seven years, Marvel UK's flagship title - the one that launched the company on its way - kicks the bucket.

It'll be back later but, for now, it's as dead as a dodo.

As for the contents, I do believe DD's about to come up against Copperhead, while, the X-Men have been captured by Magneto in the tale in which the Angel first encounters Red Raven.

How ironic that the last issue of what was once Mighty World of Marvel should reprint one of the very first Marvel stories I ever read.

Spider-Man Comic #333, Carrion

And it's the last issue of Marvel UK's second oldest book, despite it being billed as, "Britain's No. 1 Superhero Comic!" It doesn't suggest a very rosy future for the others if the Number One can't even survive.

Granted, it's not really doomed. It's just about to be relaunched under a different title, which isn't the first time it's been on the receiving end of such a fate.

Anyway, after what's seemed like an eternity, Spidey and Daredevil finally get to beat the Masked Marauder and his plan to terrorise New York City with his big metal bird.

But, judging by that cover, it looks like our hero now has even bigger things to worry about.

14 comments:

Timothy Field said...

I keep coming here every Thursday and wondering if it will remind me of the point I stopped picking up the Marvel UK weeklies, I have a feeling it could be next week, but I'm not sure.

Steve W. said...

I think I've still got several months to go before I reach my own cut-off point.

dangermash said...

I think we all know when I dropped out #skinnoff

Anonymous said...

Apart from occasional issues of Star Wars to fill in gaps between my import Warlock monthlies I hadn't bought any Marvel UK weeklies since the Complete FF.
But then after I got out they dragged me back in with Dr Who Weekly... That can't be too far off now, surely? Interested to see what you have to say about it Steve.

So, does Spidey coming back quickly mean it was basically SezDez who invented relaunching with a new #1?
(I wonder if that also inspired the tory government, regularly relaunching with a new idiot in the top job?)

-sean

Charlie Horse 47 said...

You guys were not confused that the Diablo that Hulk is fighting was also the FF's early nemesis? I would have been, for sure!

Steve W. said...

Charlie, I wasn't but I was confused when "Dr Strange" showed up in an early Iron Man story and was a villain.

Sean, Dez was clearly a true innovator.

Anonymous said...

"And it's the last issue of Marvel UK's second oldest book..."

Steve, I don't understand what you mean - the re-launched Spectacular Spider-Man Weekly continued the numbering from Spider-Man Comic which had continued the numbering from Super Spider-Man, Super Spider-Man & Captain Britain, Super Spider-Man & The Titans, Super Spider-Man & The Superheroes and Spider-Man Comics Weekly. There was no relaunch with a new #1 as Sean seems to think. Marvel UK's Spidey weekly continued until 1985 under various names but continued the same numbering throughout. In my opinion each re-launch SHOULD HAVE begun with a new #1 because each re-launch WAS A NEW COMIC but the numbering continued unchanged from Spider-Man Comics Weekly #1.

Steve W. said...

Colin, you're right. I can only blame the heat for my lapse in logic.

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Dr Strange... When he had that mask I was in total confusion at the spinner racks.

That and the hairy X-men Beast left me confounded in my youth whilst spinning that rack around.

Eventually as I matured I sort of understood these anomalies. E.g., it did not take me long to adjust to a black spiderman. Charlie was much smarter by then.

Anonymous said...

Hey Colin, don't blame me, I was just going on what Steve wrote. How am I supposed to know he might be in error? (I can still hardly believe it!)

-sean

Anonymous said...

Indeed, Charlie. The Diablo in question here was not the Spanish alchemist and F.F. foe but rather a miasmic smoke monster from Dimension X.
Hope I helped to clear the air here.
Smoke monster, clear the air...get it? hyuk hyuk!
(crickets)

...Oh, never mind.

M.P.

Charlie Horse 47 said...

M.P. I have stopped my wandering in the desert thanks to you! Now if someone will tell me how the X-Men Beast was a hair ball the whole time he wore that Xmen uniform? Did he have something covering his face and hands both in costume and out, as a civilian?

ANd I am like 99% sure (but this is going back 50 years?) I saw him in human skin but like in shorts or a swim suit? How would he have covered up all that hair???

HELP!!!

Steve W. said...

The Beast wasn't always furry. After he left the X-Men, he created a serum which accidentally turned him furry. From that point on, whenever he wanted to pass for a normal person, he'd wear a rubber Hank McCoy mask, and gloves, to disguise his true appearance.

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Steve! All I can say is Wow!" After wandering in the dark for 50 years I now know the truth! And all this time I thought he was just a hairy best from the get go thinking his mother must have mated with an Orangutan or some goofy thing.