Warlock #11 (February, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

As regular readers of this blog may recall from our post on Warlock #10 back in September, that issue ended on a relatively quiet note, with the titular hero grimly preparing to enter his personal timestream for the express purpose of ending his own life — and, thereby, preventing his evil future self, the Magus, from ever coming into existence at all.  Or at least that was what should happen, according to the theory espoused by Adam Warlock’s unexpected new ally, Thanos the Mad Titan — and it’s not like there were any better options for saving the universe on the table, so what was a onetime messiah to do?

But while the beginning of our latest object of discussion, Warlock #11, seems to be taking place a mere moment after the ending of issue #10, it’s clear from auteur Jim Starlin’s opening splash that things are no longer the least bit quiet, and probably won’t be again for some time:  Read More

Avengers #144 (February, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

As regular readers of this blog may have noticed, I tend not to talk very much about the covers of the half-century-old comics we discuss here; unless they’re really strikingly good, my tendency is simply to note who drew them — to the extent that that’s known, anyway — and then move on.  (And just this week, in writing about Defenders #32, I forgot to do even that much; my thanks to reader Ben Herman for stepping into the breach.)  But I’m going to make an exception this time, simply to express my disappointment with this particular job by Gil Kane and Frank Giacoia.  While there are aspects of the composition that work well, the central figure of Hellcat — a significant new character (OK, technically a new combination of two pre-existing characters) whom readers are seeing here for the very first time — is almost painfully awkward, at least to my eyes.  Kane was a great talent, but among the very many (probably too many) covers he cranked out for Marvel in the 1970s, it stands to reason that there’d be at least a few clunkers; and for me, this is one of them.  (Naturally, your mileage may vary.)  Read More

Defenders #32 (February, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Last month, we looked at Defenders #31 — the proper beginning to the multi-part “Headmen/Nebulon” saga which would ultimately prove both the apex and the climax to writer Steve Gerber’s memorable run on this title.  As regular readers of this blog will recall, that issue ended with our favorite non-team faced with a major mystery — namely, that the sinister sorcerer who’d just ambushed them in the guise of their teammate Nighthawk had, once handily defeated by Dr. Strange and then unmasked, turned out to actually be Nighthawk.

Of course, we fans knew one important fact still hidden from our heroes, which was that the brain of Nighthawk (aka Kyle Richmond) had been removed and replaced with that of one of the Headmen, Chondu the Mystic.  But since brain transplants aren’t something you see every day, even in the Marvel Universe, you can’t blame Nighthawk’s fellow Defenders for looking to more mundane solutions first… like, say, demonic possession.  And if that should indeed be the cause for Kyle’s condition, who ya gonna call?  Read More

Doctor Strange #12 (February, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Four months ago, we took a look at Doctor Strange #10, which presented the first chapter in writer Steve Englehart and artist Gene Colan’s latest (as of July, 1975) four-part saga of the Sorcerer Supreme — this one involving our hero’s attempt to prevent the awesome cosmic entity Eternity from destroying the Earth.  Naturally, that story had continued in the next bi-monthly issue of the series; but since we didn’t manage to fit a full post about Doctor Strange #11 into our September blogging schedule, we’ll need to cover its main events before moving on to the specific comic whose name and cover you see at the top of this post.  If you’re a regular reader, you already know how this goes… and if you’re not, I’m sure you’ll figure it out as we roll along.  Read More

Phantom Stranger #41 (Feb.-Mar., 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Cover to Phantom Stranger #11 (Jan.-Feb., 1971). Art by Neal Adams.

By the time that the 41st issue of Phantom Stranger arrived in spinner racks in November, 1975, I had been buying the title regularly for a full five years — or, to put it another way, for an unbroken run of thirty issues.  That made it unique among the DC Comics offerings I was picking up regularly at the time, as none of the others — Beowulf, Claw the Unconquered, Hercules Unbound, Kong the Untamed, Warlord, and the just-revived All-Star Comics — had even been around just one year before, let alone five.  As for the other DC books that I’d been routinely buying back when I first sampled Phantom Stranger in November, 1970 — these included Green Lantern, House of Mystery, Jimmy Olsen, Justice League of America, Superman, and World’s Finest — while most of them were still going concerns, a couple weren’t; and those that were still being published had become occasional purchases for me, at best.  Phantom Stranger was the only DC comic I’d bought continuously for the last half-decade — the sole survivor of my own personal DC Comics class of ’70.

And after this month, it would be gone, as well… because the 41st issue of Phantom Stranger was also to be the final one.  Read More

Marvel Super Action #1 (January, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

As was discussed in detail in our post about Marvel Preview #4 several weeks ago, by 1975 all four of the black-and-white comics magazines with which Marvel Comics had made a big push into that market just two years before were winding down.  But Marvel was far from throwing in the towel on the B&W format itself.  Accepting that the early-’70s horror boom that had inspired the launches of Dracula Lives and its ilk was pretty much over, Marvel now looked to other genres for new titles that could replace those that had made up the “Marvel Monster Group”.  Read More

Howard the Duck #1 (January, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

What a difference a couple of years can make.

From Fear #19 (Dec., 1973). Text by Steve Gerber; art by Val Mayerik and Sal Trapani.

From Man-Thing #1 (Jan., 1974). Text by Steve Gerber; art by Val Mayerik and Sal Trapani.

In the autumn of 1973, Howard the Duck’s debut in the last few pages of the “Man-Thing” story in Fear #19 had been followed just one month later by his apparent demise in the first few pages of Man-Thing #1.  Marvel Comics’ editor-in-chief at that time, Roy Thomas, hadn’t thought that the publisher’s readers were ready for a “funny animal”-style character in what was at least ostensibly a horror comic, and had asked Man-Thing writer Steve Gerber to get Howard out of the book as quickly as possible.  But Thomas turned out to be wrong; the fan response to the acerbic waterfowl was overwhelmingly favorable, and Gerber was eventually given the go-ahead to resurrect Howard in his own solo backup feature in Giant-Size Man-Thing.  After two such stories had appeared, and were again well-received, the author pitched Marvel publisher Stan Lee on the idea of giving Howard his very own solo title — and Lee, who not all that long before had reportedly been utterly bewildered when attendees at his college campus appearances quizzed him about when Howard the Duck would be coming back, immediately said yes.  And thus it came to pass that in late October, 1975, Howard the Duck #1 — featuring a guest-appearance by Marvel flagship character Spider-Man, no less — was hatched into the comic-book-buying world. Read More

Avengers #143 (January, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

The cover of this issue, pencilled by Gil Kane and inked by Frank Giacoia (and maybe Mike Esposito), might fairly be called a bit misleading.  Sure, the Avengers fight a big scaly monster inside, but not these Avengers — Captain America, Iron Man, the Beast, the Vision, and the Scarlet Witch — who, setting aside the whole monster business, show up for only two of the story’s nineteen pages, besides.  On the other hand, the promises made by the cover’s blurbs are right on the money: these five Avengers do indeed “break loose” from the confinement we saw them trapped in back in Avengers #142; plus, this issue also features “the final battle against the power of Kang!” — or, at least, a final battle, since, then as now, nothing lasts forever in Marvel superhero comics.  Read More

Conan the Barbarian #58 (January, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Last month we took a look at Conan the Barbarian #57, an issue mostly devoted to setting up the opening chapter of writer/editor Roy Thomas’ adaptation (and very extensive expansion) of Conan creator Robert E. Howard’s 1934 short story “Queen of the Black Coast” (full text available online here).  Turning past the cover by Johns Buscema and Romita, we find issue #58 beginning exactly where #57 left off, with our favorite Cimmerian adventurer riding hard for the docks of an Argossean seaport, a contingent of the city’s soldiers in hot pursuit…  Read More

Defenders #31 (January, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Back in Defenders #21 (Mar., 1975), which was published ten months prior to the comic book we’ll be discussing today, writer Steve Gerber had introduced Marvel Comics readers to a new alliance of would-be world-conquering villains called the Headmen — or, if you prefer, reintroduced them, as all three of these bad guys — Dr. Nagan, Jerry Morgan, and Chondu the Mystic — had been plucked from a trio of one-off, completely unrelated comic book stories of the late 1950’s and early ’60s (recently, and randomly, reprinted together in Weird Wonder Tales #7 [Dec., 1974]), before being set to collectively become a major new adversary for Marvel’s premier non-team.  Read More