Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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As all regular readers know, I have a feature where I look back at what Marvel UK was up to, forty years ago this week.
However, in 1981, the imprint unleashed several collector's editions which weren't tied to any particular month or week.
As I don't have a clue when, exactly, they came out, I've decided to give them a post of their very own.
And this is that.
Cap gains a new Bucky, in Rick Jones, gets "killed" by Hydra and then gatecrashes his own funeral to give that criminal gang the smack in the teeth it's asking for.
It is, of course, the storyline which gave us our first taste of Madame Hydra and, no doubt, set the world asking, "Who'd win a fight between Madame Hydra and Madame Masque?"
I think we all know the answer to that one.
Actually, looking into it, it seems Madame Hydra made her first appearance eight months before Madame Masque. So, people probably weren't asking that.
Then again, Whitney Frost made her first appearance exactly a year before Madame Hydra but hadn't yet adopted her Madame Masque identity.
First, the titanic teens have to deal with the Living Pharaoh turning himself into the Living Monolith and then they must stop the Sentinels from merrily rounding up all the world's mutants.
How can even the X-Men possibly hope to defeat such menaces?
But it does seem to me that the Living Pharaoh/Living Monolith's far too keen on letting everyone know he's alive, as though he thinks it's a major achievement. I mean, I'm alive but you don't hear me calling myself The Living Steve.
On this occasion, they take on the mind-numbing threat of Dr Doom and the Parasite.
Surely, this is too much to ask of even Marvel and DC's totemic heroes.
But I must confess I don't know too much of what happens in this one, other than that it's drawn by John Buscema, written by Jim Shooter and also features Superman vs the Hulk and Spider-Man vs Wonder Woman.
I don't know if it's any good but it certainly sounds like it's giving us plenty for our money.
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24 comments:
Were these not basically the Marvel UK annuals for this year then, Living Steve?
I had a look online - admittedly not very methodically - to check what the annuals for '81 were. There was a Spidey annual, which I seem to recall being promoted in ads back then with the Cap and X-Men Collector Editions, but otherwise I got hits for books actually published in '82, and some for these Collector Editions on Ebay, so obviously I'm not the only one who thinks they were rebranded annuals.
Either way, good on who ever had the idea of using that format to collect classic runs drawn by Jaunty Jim Steranko and Nefarious Neal Adams in affordable hardbacks that were easy to find.
-sean
Sean, I'm really not sure what they were. As you say, there was a Spider-Man annual that year, and there was also a Hulk annual. The fact that they were branded as annuals, and these weren't makes me assume they weren't meant to be seen as annuals but who can know what was going on in Marvel UK's fevered mind?
I had all of these (in fact I still have a very battered coverlets copy of Superman and Spider-Man). The first 2 were annuals in the traditional sense, hard cover and same size and price as the Spider-Man and Hulk annuals released that year. Superman and Spider-Man was a larger size with a cover more akin to a paperback book. At a whole £1 it was great value but still 5 or 6 times dearer than a regular comic. My 6 year old self had to seriously plead before my mum to finally gave in to pester power.
Good times.
The Cap and X-men Collectors Editions actually showed up on comic book stores on this side of the pond. I had the Cap one and I might have had the X-Men one too, but I can’t swear to it. The cover does look VERY familiar. In any case, they’re both long gone, sold off during a down-sizing purge. I seem to remember there were a few pages in the Cap one where the colors got seriously messed up, or am I losing my marbles?
b.t.
You're right Living Steve - I guess if Marvel UK wanted the Collector Editions to be seen as annuals they'd have called them annuals. Thats only logical, right?
But all the same, if they only did ones for Spidey and the Hulk in '81, then it seems they probably used up the rest of their budget for annuals that year on the Cap and X-Men books.
Which seems to fit with their general editorial strategy at this point - a couple of annuals for the kids reading the weeklies, and Collectors Editions for the older audience the monthlies were aimed at.
Which certainly worked for me, as I'd loved Steranko's SHIELD stories in the old Captain Brexit weekly, so back when classic reprints were relatively uncommon (even if you lived near one of those new fangled comic shops) it was thrilling to get my hands on a whole book of his Cap stories that I'd never read before.
-sean
Steve, that Superman and Spider-Man special edition might be worth checking out! Maybe you can snag a cheap, used copy somewheres. That's what I did!
Pretty cool comic. The Buscema art is slick and you get to see a showdown between Superman and the Hulk. And Supes and Doc Doom! And a fight between Spidey and the Parasite, who I always liked for some reason I don't understand.
I first read it in my twenties and I deemed it to be pretty good. Quite entertaining, worth a few shekels.
If I had read it when I was seven or eight years old, my head would've exploded.
That Batman vs. the Hulk was good too. Not a long fight, mind you, and if memory serves, some kinda sleep gas was deployed.
Maybe official Bat-Sleep Gas, I forget.
The Bat-Utility Belt contains many wonders.
M.P.
Only ever saw the X-Men one, and was disappointed to find that they chopped the last couple of pages of the #59 reprint off - no splash page of Sentinels flying into the sun, or the page that came after....plus there were some colouring issues too on some pages.
Those issues of Cap and Xmen are like that uncommon bottle of wine you wish you had a few cases of. Simply superlative.
You know... I wouldn't be too hard on Marvel UK and what may appear as a random decision to sell those books.
I mean, we had the same in the USA with Annuals, King Sizes, Giant Sizes, Annuals in summer, then Annuals in winter...
And let's not forget DC comics, "Don't take less! Only $.25!" blurb on the cover for a year or so around 1971. I mean, what the hell did that even mean, lol.
Steve - Love your blog man!
Would these comics be considered Science Fiction>
I will never forgive Madame Hydra for shooting the original Viper dead and then assuming his name.
That guy, Jordan Sryke, brother of the Eel, was a former ad-man from Madison Avenue.
As such, he had a good skill-set and a promising future in super-villainy, cut tragically short.
Ah, Viper, we hardly knew ye, laddie.
M.P.
It certainly was a tragedy, MP.
Charlie, I believe that nearly all super-hero comics are counted as science fiction, although science fantasy might be a better niche for them.
B, up until recent months, I was totally unaware that they ever existed.
MP, yes, I recall that Batman managed to defeat the Hulk by punching him in the stomach so hard that it forced the Hulk to inhale a load of gas. Which makes no sense at all. Just how hard can Batman punch?
Super-heroes are their own genre really, no? I mean, sure you could easily make a case for Superman, Spidey et al being sci-fi but in practice we don't think someone is talking about them if they say they like science-fiction comics.
Charlie, as you seem to be keen to keep the genre thing going, riddle me this - could Brexit be considered sci-fi?
-sean
Sean - I really don't know what Brexit is. As the Temptations sang 50 years ago, this world is a Ball of Confusion continually homogenizing to the point that one day Sean will be Charlie and Charlie will be Sean.
As regards genre, and the Margaret Atwood discussion, one genre label I find particularly annoying, is "magic realism" !
Phillip
Well here's a question... Is Tarzan sci fi? Just my muse of the day other than wondering what it will be like to be Sean or Phillip or DM or MP or Colin or KD or Steve or... one day, lol.
Well, if you were lucky enough to be me Charlie, it would be a different Burroughs and you'd be asking if Nova Express is sci-fi.
Phillip, funny you should mention "magical realism", as I nearly bought it up here the other day in relation "speculative fiction".
Why do you find it annoying? I know some people think its just a euphemism for readers embarrassed by "fantasy", but to me it just doesn't make much practical sense to categorize, say, My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts or Midnight's Children with Conan The Conqueror and Lord Of The Rings. Or even Stormbringer.
-sean
There's no profound reason, Sean. It's just the words "magic realism" ! ; )
Phillip
Actually - come to think of it - the person I first met, who used the term, was a bit of a prat. That probably comes into it too!
Phillip
Those are good reasons Phillip.
-sean
Sean - You are the master of irony. As your penultimate post ended on Moorcock, I'm taking this opportunity to congratulate M.P. on ordering 'The Weird of the White Wolf' - M.P. you're in for a treat!
M.P. - on the subject of the inter-library loan system - in the UK, I think it started out being like yours. However, about 15+ years ago, when I was hung up on plugging my gaps in UK history - for some reason - I tried to order a historical novel, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, about the Monmouth Rebellion.
Anyway, not only was the inter-library loan system no longer free, you were also only allowed to request books from either one half of the alphabet or the other, for some crazy reason. I did acquire & read the book, but I can't remember exactly how!
The inter-library loan scheme has probably completely changed by now - but that experience meant I haven't used it since!
M.P. - As regards realist fiction vs fantasy/Sci-fi/Horror, it's interesting that Dreiser, one of the pioneers of realism, as a genre, was an unflinching & tireless supporter of Charles Fort, and his works. Colin, as a staunch FT man, may know about this!
Phillip
No really - those were good reasons Phillip.
That was why back in the day I never much cared for "speculative fiction", even though I could see the logic behind having a different term for less generic sf. It just sounded annoying.
-sean
I hadda google this Charles Fort guy, Phil!
I'm a little sheepish that I had to.
So this cat was an authority on the weird and the uncanny, eh? Or rather, an explorer of such.
Good for him! I myself, as a kid, spent a great deal of time and thought on all things paranormal; the Sasquatch epidemic in the '70's was a cause for my deep concern.
You still won't catch me in the woods at night, I can promise you that.
On another note, it's true, nobody can match Sean's one-liners. All my attempts to drag him down to my base level have been for naught.
We Americans don't seem too accomplished at dry humor and witty retorts. A guy getting hit in the grundle with a sack of nickels is about par for comedy over here.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
M.P.
M.P. - Fortean Times is a magazine dedicated to the spirit of Charles Fort. It occasionally has stuff about Sasquatch-type stuff.
With Sean, the problem is, it's like the boy who cried wolf (actually, a bad analogy!) Because Sean always hits people with zingers, even when he's being civil, you assume he's being sarcastic!
M.P. - I think your writing's full of great humour. Sean's dry humour works better if the guy on the receiving end can see the twinkle in your eye. Over the internet, it can create the wrong impression. Then again, I'm as prone to that as Sean is - if not more so!
Phillip
Brexit isn't sci-fi, it's fantasy (or magic realism if you prefer) - watch out for the unicorns.
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