As regular readers of this blog are aware, we’ve recently been covering the latter (and, honestly, somewhat lesser) portion of the long-running “Headmen/Nebulon” saga in Defenders a couple of issues at a time. Most recently, in May, we looked at both Defenders #37 and #38; this time out, we’ll be delving into #39 as well as the issue indicated by both the cover and post title shown above, i.e., #40. Read More
Today’s post may be the most self-indulgent one I’ve ever written. I mean, I could be wrong; but something tells me that not many of this blog’s regular readers have been waiting with bated breath for me to follow through on the promise I made in this space, one year ago this month, to post about the Warriors Three issue of Marvel Spotlight when its 50th anniversary arrived in July, 2026. And I get it; these are indisputably “niche” characters, with a very, shall we say, select fanbase. So, if you’re thinking about skipping this one, I won’t blame you. Honestly. (Though you should be sure and check back in on Saturday, when we’ll be discussing the first appearance of Phoenix in X-Men #101, because I know you wouldn’t want to miss that.) Read More
With this post, we continue our coverage of writer Steve Gerber and artist Sal Buscema’s “Headmen/Nebulon Saga” in Defenders, following our recently established routine of taking on two issues of the lengthy storyline at a time. This go-round, we’ll be starting with Defenders #37, whose cover by Gil Kane and Mike Esposito heralds the imminent return to this title’s pages of Luke Cage, Power Man — a hero who’d first fought alongside Marvel Comics’ premiere non-team back in issues #17-19, and then had renewed his non-membership when the group battled the Sons of the Serpent in #24-25.
As regular readers will hopefully recall, Defenders #36 had ended with three of our heroes — leader Dr. Strange, veteran Nighthawk (in his civilian guise of Kyle Richmond), and newbie Red Guardian — having been captured by Plantman, who intended to hold the wealthy Richmond for ransom. But rather than immediately picking things back up with those characters, our creative team (which in addition to Gerber and Buscema includes inker Klaus Janson) start off issue #37’s “Evil in Bloom!” with another Defender, namely the Hulk. Read More
Welcome to the second installment in our series of four posts commemorating May, 1976 as “Marvel Milestone Month“. Last time, we looked at Captain America’s “Special Bicentennial Issue”, aka Captain America #200; this go-round, it’s “The Spectacular 250th Issue!” of the four-color home of everyone’s favorite Norse God of Thunder. (Technically, it’s only the 125th issue of this publication released under the title Thor; for its first 125 issues, the book was officially known as Journey into Mystery, and what’s more, the Son of Odin didn’t even show up until #83. But I bet you already knew all that, didn’t you?) Read More
At the end of last Saturday’s Tomb of Dracula #47 post, I promised you that the next installment of this blog would feature “the strange, sad story of Ghost Rider #19.” But, as anyone out there who already knows some version of this tale is well aware, its origins go back well before the May, 1976 publication of the comic whose Gil Kane-Frank Giacoia cover appears at the top of this post. To begin with, this specific issue presents the conclusion of a multi-part storyline that had kicked off in Ghost Rider #17; but beyond that, the ongoing plot lines that find their (more or less) ultimate resolution in this arc extend back at least to Ghost Rider #8 (Oct., 1974)… and, arguably, all the way back to the feature’s debut in Marvel Spotlight #5 (Aug., 1972). And seeing as how we haven’t discussed any issues of this series since July, 2023, when we hit the high points of Ghost Rider #1 and #2 in the context of covering the debut of spinoff character Daimon Hellstrom, the Son of Satan, in Marvel Spotlight #12 (Oct., 1973), we’re going to have to do some catching up to properly set the stage. So let’s get to it, shall we? Read More
Back in December, we took a look at the first issue of Omega the Unknown — Steve Gerber and Mary Skrenes’ 1975-77 Marvel Comics series that was just as much about a seemingly “normal” 12-year-old boy named James-Michael Starling as it was about the strange visitor from another planet that gave the book its title (if not more so).
This time out, we’ll be looking at the next two installments of the bimonthly title, beginning with issue #2 — which, as you can tell from the Rich Buckler-Al Milgrom cover shown at left, featured a special guest appearance by one of Marvel’s biggest stars, the Incredible Hulk — before proceeding to #3 — which, as you can tell from the Gil Kane-Frank Giacoia cover shown above, featured Omega’s run-in with one of Marvel’s longest-active supervillains, the Spider-Man adversary known as Electro. Read More
Last month we took a look at Avengers #147, the cover of which we noted found its penciller, Rich Buckler, operating in “full Kirby mode”. By contrast, the cover of today’s fifty-year-old comic happens to have been pencilled by Jack Kirby himself… and may I just say, ain’t nothin’ like the real King, baby. (For the record, Mike Esposito inked this piece.) Read More
As regular readers of this blog will be aware, we haven’t had a post about Marvel Comics’ Defenders title since we covered issue #34 back in January — which means that our continuing coverage of writer Steve Gerber and artist Sal Buscema’s “Headmen/Nebulon Saga” must resume here not with the issue whose number and cover are shown directly above, but with the one whose cover you see pictured at left. And that Gil Kane-Mike Esposito number fronting Defenders #35 (May, 1976) is a doozy, isn’t it? If you’ve never read this comic before, I can’t wait for you to find out who that utterly bizarre unicorn-horned, bird-claw-footed, tentacle-armed monstrosity fighting the Valkyrie really is. Why, I bet you’ll be just as surprised as Chondu the Mystic was! (Wait, did I just give the whole thing away? Damn.) Read More
Fifty years ago, the cover of Defenders #34 (produced by Rich Buckler and Dan Adkins, but giving off strong Jack Kirby-Chic Stone vibes to your humble blogger) let any regular reader who’d somehow managed to miss the previous issue in on the big news: Nebulon, the Celestial Man, who (in league with the Squadron Sinister) had almost destroyed the Earth by flood back in #13-14, was back, and he meant business. Read More
Fifty years ago, behind a cover by Gil Kane and Frank Giacoia (and maybe Mike Esposito), the latest chapter of the “Headmen” saga opened upon a sight that was strikingly bizarre, even for this series: Read More