Drax the Destroyer | Attack of the 50 Year Old Comic Books

Captain Marvel #33 (July, 1974)

Posted on April 20, 2024 by Alan Stewart

Behind a cover both pencilled and inked by Jim Starlin (his first such since coming on board the Captain Marvel title with issue #25), this issue featured the conclusion of the epic “Thanos War” storyline that the creator had inaugurated a year and a half earlier with the 55th issue of Iron Man, and which had since woven through the previous eight issues of Captain Marvel itself, while also spilling over briefly into Marvel Feature, Daredevil, and Avengers. Read More

Captain Marvel #32 (May, 1974)

Posted on February 17, 2024 by Alan Stewart

Behind a splendid cover pencilled by Jim Starlin and inked by Klaus Janson (and evidently not touched up by Marvel Comics’ art director John Romita, as had sometimes been the case with the covers for this title of late) — the 32nd issue of Captain Marvel picks up right where the 31st had left off: Read More

Captain Marvel #31 (March, 1974)

Posted on December 6, 2023 by Alan Stewart

We’re going to start this post off a little differently than any other among the 405 (!) that have preceded it, as before we can proceed to our discussion of Captain Marvel #31, your humble blogger has an apology — and a correction — to make regarding our Captain Marvel #30 post from October.

You see, I left the whole last page of that issue’s story out of the post. Arrgh. Read More

Captain Marvel #30 (January, 1974)

Posted on October 11, 2023 by Alan Stewart

By the time Captain Marvel #30 came out in October, 1973, Marvel Comics readers had already had a couple of opportunities to see the newly-enhanced (as of issue #29) “Most Cosmic Superhero of All” in action — namely, in Marvel Team-Up #16 and Daredevil #107. But the subject of our discussion today was the first time that writer-artist Jim Starlin, the creator who was actually responsible for the big changes to Mar-Vell’s status quo, had himself had a chance to show just what those changes meant for the hero, and for his fans, going forward; and the creator obligingly responded with a story that, if it didn’t quite deliver on its cover blurb’s promise of “pure action — from cover to cover!”, still managed to come pretty damn close to living up to that claim. Read More

Captain Marvel #29 (November, 1973)

Posted on August 23, 2023 by Alan Stewart

As I’ve shared in previous posts, your humble blogger was a relative latecomer to Jim Starlin’s run on Captain Marvel. While I’d bought a few issues of the title way back in 1969, I had abandoned it after Roy Thomas and Gil Kane’s Fawcett-inspired makeover in issue #17 and hadn’t paid much attention to Mar-Vell since, save for his guest appearances in Avengers. For my younger self in the summer of 1973, Jim Starlin was the guy who’d drawn a pretty good “Doctor Strange” story in Marvel Premiere earlier in the year, just before Steve Englehart and Frank Brunner took over that feature and made it really good. But then, he showed up in the middle of Daredevil #105, having drawn (and almost certainly also plotted) an origin for that issue’s ostensible villainess, Moondragon, which introduced me for the first time to the epic storyline concerning Saturn’s moon of Titan, and its most dangerous denizen, Thanos, that the young creator had been chronicling in Captain Marvel since coming on board that series with issue #25, back in December, 1972. And then, only a couple of weeks after that, Marvel Feature #12 had arrived in spinner racks, with an even more Thanos-centric yarn, this one drawn (and also at least co-plotted) all the way through by Starlin. If DD #105 hadn’t already 100% convinced me to check out Starlin’s Captain Marvel the first chance I got, MF #12 surely must have clinched the sale. Read More