NOTE: This post was originally published on 2 November 2009
Doug: Today we'd like to take a look at some of the titles and characters we enjoyed as kids, but for one reason or another (generally the lack of the almighty dollar flowing into Marvel's or DC's coffers) they didn't last more than 2-3 years. And even within that timeframe, bi-monthly publishing, the dreaded deadline doom, rotating artists, etc. often made following these lovable titles difficult. Yes, we're talking about short-lived series, and why we liked them!
Doug: Three titles that I was somewhat fond of but that ended before I was done with them were Super-Villain Team-Up (17 issues -- I only recall that there were 15; I've only recently discovered the last two books, and here's why: #15 was published in November '78, but #16 didn't see the stands until May of 1979 and #17 was well after that, in June, 1980), The Champions (again, 17 issues, but more if read in continuity when Avengers #163 and an Iron Man Annual, plus Peter Parker #16-17 are factored in -- see the Champions Classic tpb's for the full bibliography), and DC's The Secret Society of Super-Villains (15 issues, but again more, if some Super-Team Family, et al. quarterlies are included).
Doug: I enjoyed SVTU because of the dynamic of Doom and Namor. Namor was such a confusing character to me as a youngster. Coming to the Marvel Universe largely after Tales To Astonish and Namor's solo book had passed on, my exposure to the character was in the FF story running through FF #'s 147-149. I was just always a little confused about whether Namor was a hero or a bad boy. I liked the introduction of the Shroud in SVTU, and felt there were possibilities for further exploration of him. Right when the title began to wane (and apparently was deep-sixed) was when I thought it was reaching it's potential -- Namor was gone and Doom was "teaming-up" with Magneto, and then the Red Skull. It had become a true team-up book. And then it ended. The two additional stories later (#'s 16-17) teamed the Skull with the Hate Monger.
Karen: Like you, I really enjoyed SVTU and had no idea issues 16 and 17 existed! Once they got away from the Doom-Namor relationship, I wasn't quite as interested. But it was a great book when it started, and very typical of the almost 'experimental' types of product Marvel was willing to put out in the 70s. I liked Steve Englehart's work on the title, and also wish that the Shroud had gone on to better things. He was a lot of fun - an amalgamation of the Shadow, Batman, and who knows what else!
Karen: Like you, I really enjoyed SVTU and had no idea issues 16 and 17 existed! Once they got away from the Doom-Namor relationship, I wasn't quite as interested. But it was a great book when it started, and very typical of the almost 'experimental' types of product Marvel was willing to put out in the 70s. I liked Steve Englehart's work on the title, and also wish that the Shroud had gone on to better things. He was a lot of fun - an amalgamation of the Shadow, Batman, and who knows what else!
Doug: The Champions was offbeat, but a nice smorgasbord of Avengers, X-Men, and the Ghost Rider (way before he was so over-exposed! -- back then he was just creepy). The art, while handled by George Tuska, Don Heck, and later a young John Byrne was usually good enough (best under Byrne's run, although I did sometimes enjoy Tuska's distinctive style) and the stories were fresh due to the orientation to the West Coast as opposed to NYC. The villains were fun -- some a little campy. The opening arc, with the Greek gods was good, and the introduction of Rampage and Swarm plus the stories with the Crimson Dynamo, Titanium Man, and the Griffen were good. I enjoyed the issues with Black Goliath and the Stilt-Man and the last story with the Sentinels evoked excitement due to the strong classic X-Men tie-in. Overall, and I said this above, the title could have gone on longer with some deeper characterization exploration and perhaps a tweaking of the line-up here or there.Karen: I was always a sucker for team books, and Champions was no exception. Although I didn't think there was any real chemistry here, I did enjoy the later issues with John Byrne's art, and I thought they had potential.
Doug: As a kid I always identified with kid heroes and as a fan of the original Teen Titans series (when it picked back up after having been on hiatus for a few years -- this would be around issues #'s 47-53) I was excited to see Kid Flash starring in The Secret Society of Super-Villains. Captain Comet, while largely unknown to me, seemed pretty cool, and the inclusion of the Flash's Rogues Gallery (and other baddies, like Star Sapphire) made for a fun book month-to-month. The art was always steady (again, by Rich Buckler at times) month to month, if I recall. It's, again, one of those books that just seemed to stop showing up on the newsstand. And at the time this then-12 year-old couldn't help but wonder "why?".
Karen: How about Warlock?? That was one of my favorites! I still pull out my ragged copy of Marvel Two in One Annual #2 every so often to read that fantastic coda to the whole Warlock/Thanos saga. Truth be told, I sort of wish they had left those two characters there. I never felt anything that came after really measured up to that story. I recently picked up the Marvel Masterworks edition that has Marvel Premiere 1 and 2, Warlock 1-8, and Incredible Hulk 176-178. There's a very nice intro by Roy Thomas where he basically says the plan was always to write the character as "Jesus as a superhero". I was lucky enough to exchange some email with Mr. Thomas and get some more info about how Warlock was 'born'. Thomas planned to have the character around for about three years, then he would die, but be reborn. To be honest, I still can't believe none of the higher ups at Marvel didn't balk at the series, particularly the Hulk issues where we see the Last Supper and crucifixion! I guess things were different back then!
Karen: If nothing else, Warlock is a character that seems to be constantly transforming into a different character (via his cocoon). I've also found it bizarre, the leap from that Christ-Warlock to anti-church Warlock. But then again, he was facing a version of himself (Magus) that was so corrupt and evil, Warlock would rather die than become that! After his experiences with the Church, Magus, and Thanos, is it any surprise he went from idealist to pessimist?
Karen: Roy Thomas admits he was heavily influenced by Jesus Christ Superstar, at least the soundtrack. If I remember correctly, the musical Godspell was also out around that time. In fact, the early 70s were the era of the Jesus Freaks, and 'born-again' entered the language.The Hulk stories are really a trip; Hulk becomes an unwitting Judas, and goes bananas during the Last Supper of Warlock and his disciples. This brings the Man-Beast's (aka Satan's) soldiers, and they capture Warlock. He is crucified, while shouting, "High Evolutionary! Why have you abandoned me?" ! Hulk takes off with Warlock's body, which is back in his cocoon. Of course, three days later, he bursts free and sets things to right. then he takes off for space....where Jim Starlin found him.
Doug: Were Pip and Gamora part of this tale? As a kid I always knew of Warlock, had some Avengers and the aforementioned Marvel Two-In-One Annual with him guest-starring, but don't know much about him even today outside of the excellent article you wrote for Back Issue #34...
Karen: Pip and Gamora came about when Starlin started his series. Honestly, the only pre-Starlin Warlock books I could recommend would be Marvel Premiere 1 and 2, which are fairly interesting, what with introducing Counter Earth, and having some nice Gil Kane art; also the Hulk issues are just fun for the sheer audacity of doing the whole Christ story in comics form. Warlock 1-8 are OK but not really that interesting. The first couple of issues have Gil Kane art and are at least nice to look at. But the religious connections are heavy-handed and, at least today, seem pretty ridiculous. But if you are looking for a comic that really feels like a 70s product, it's this book. The youth movement, anti-government sentiment, groovy styles - it's all here.
Doug: Did you ever read The Man Called Nova? I got in on the first issue, and if memory serves at one time had the complete 25-issue run. It started out very well, with solid art by the brothers Buscema, but really tailed away for me when the pencilling went over to Carmine Infantino. While his Silver Age DC stuff is amazing, by the mid- to late-70's his skills had really declined. I also enjoyed the conclusion of the Nova story that ran in the pages of the Fantastic Four -- especially the battle between the Sphinx and Galactus! Don't mess with the Big G, baby!Karen: Of course I read Nova! I actually started with issue 2 - I had to convince my mom to take me to a "head shop" to get it! I would agree with your estimation - good at the beginning but it dramatically tapered off in quality. I've never been an Infantino fan so I felt his pencils hurt the book. But I enjoyed Marv Wolfman's attempt to sort of re-create the early days of Spider-Man (teenage hero with problems) in a new book, in a new decade.
Doug: So, lots of angst among we young comics buyers of yesteryear. How about you, Faithful One? What were the series that ended before you were done loving on them?
Yep, I was always hungry for more Teen Titans in the mid70s..!! I hated Don Heck art, so I didn't like the revised Titan series at all after the first couple of issues..
ReplyDeleteThat DC villans mag was the only issue I had picked up, primarily because of Kid Flash. Was a huge Wally fan.
Boy, was that an enjoyable blast from the past (like so much that is to be found on BAB). NOVA, THE CHAMPIONS, and especially SVTU were all books I was sorry to see end prematurely, despite the fact that if there was one penciler at Marvel I disliked as much as Frank Robbins during that era, it was Infantino.
ReplyDeleteI came late to the WARLOCK party (although I dug his post-cancellation appearances in MTU and those legendary AVENGERS and MTIO Annuals), so the loss of that book only affected me in retrospect. But I did read some of Starlin's first Thanos saga in CAPTAIN MARVEL on its original publication, and was duly blown away. That and Steranko's S.H.I.E.L.D. are Marvel's high-water marks for me.
Hmmm, I can't believe I didn't notice this post in all the times I've 'spelunked' through your archives. Great stuff - it also touches on a topic I wanted to propose for one of those DIY Open Forum or Discuss posts this month. Too bad as well that I didn't at least discover it about a month earlier. That way you would have had a straight run of comments from each year following the one in which it was originally posted. Oh, well.
ReplyDeleteTo the point: funny you should mention those last two issues of STVU - I remember picking one of them (the last one?) off the spinner rack and then putting it back after I saw that the art was by Infantino. Years (nay, decades!) later, when I got the STVU Essentials, I finally read that story. And you know what? It's really good, despite the art. In fact, I'd say it's one of the best in the entire series.
Another thing I have to observe: Karen, you had the coolest mom! She took you to conventions, to head shops in search of comics... Needless to say, neither of my parents were that understanding or indulgent where my comics habit was concerned.
Also, I have to say, you guys really should have posted some more of these really early (2009) posts that didn't garner many (or any) comments in your re-run month. There's some cool topics here that should be re-evaluated by your now much larger audience.
Edo --
ReplyDeleteYep, this baby was one of earliest, and got ZERO comments back then. Thanks very much for the kind words about this post and the blog. It's always affirming to hear praise from one of our stalwarts!
Maybe we'll use some of these "oldies" as fill-ins here and there in the upcoming months. After four years, it does get difficult at times to fill out a week. From the sound of things, most of our readers don't mind the "recycling".
Thanks again!
Doug
Not much else to say than from my first comments here. Still loved Kid Flash as my favorite Teen Titan back in the day.
ReplyDeleteI would like to grab those later SVTU issues (that Skull-Cosmic Cube cover looks pretty awesome..).
Like Edo's comment, my parents didn't indulge me too much on the fun part. Oh, I collected comics, models and action figures, but the Con they ever took me to was a '78 SciFi con in Milwaukee (60miles away) to see George Takei and Walter Koenig. It was great to see them in the '70s, but wish I could have traveled more.
Hmmm, this post has now gotten revived twice, since I kind of revisited it last year in a DIY discussion.
ReplyDeleteNo matter, though, this is a great topic!
Actually, I see that above I didn't comment on Secret Society of Supervillains, of which I had a few issues back in the day - none of them consecutive, since it only appeared sporadically on the spinner racks where I was growing up. It always fascinated me, and I found Captain Comet a very intriguing character. Also, I think Rich Buckler became its regular artist toward the end, so it's really too bad that the series didn't continue.
And since last year, I thought of another one that got axed too soon and, in my opinion, when it was really starting to get good: Marvel's Battlestar Galactica. Walt Simonson took over the art, and eventually writing, in the last half-dozen issues, which made them better than pretty much the any of the concurrent Star Wars comics. Unfortunately, the higher-ups at Marvel didn't see this, and I'm assuming the show's cancellation probably played a part in the comic getting cancelled. Too bad, I would have loved it if Simonson had been allowed to go crazy for another 20-30 issues at least.
Oh, and Karen, I still think your mom is the coolest...
I like Champions, but when I re-read the stories (reprinted in tpb a few years back) I liked the concept better than the execution. The team of misfits was a great idea.
ReplyDeleteI didn't think the opening Pluto was good enough to warrant a 3-part story, same goes for Ivan Petrovic. I'm not that interested in the back-story of Black Widow's sidekick.
And I can't get behind the art of Heck, Tuska's a little better. But the issues drawn by Byrne are great, I love the giant bees in the Swarm issue. And the idea of Rampage was so 70s that it's still great.
Edo, once again we're 'brothers of a different mother'..
ReplyDeleteI didn't read Simonson's Thor, but I did collect the post-cancellation BSG title for a spell. The stories were indeed getting better and better. He drew Jolly a BIT too rotund, but some artistic license is just fine.
Like the second half of the original series, the comic was good at moving supporting characters to the forefront for expanding the scope, finally getting away from those initial 'star-wars-of-the-week' plots.
I think artist Bob Hall -who I somehow omitted in the post -also did a really great job on Champions. He tends to get overlooked as the book featured some of Byrne's early work. That was a book that could just never stay in a groove very long though. Even after Mantlo came on to give it some consistency on the writing side, the artists were still shuffling a bit, and it was still a struggle to get those five main characters to work together. A big 'what if' for me is if we'd had a few more issues, if either Byrne or Hall had stayed on, and maybe Goliath had been brought in full time, who knows?
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks Edo -yes, my Mom was pretty cool, all right.
J.A. --
ReplyDeleteLove the new avatar! It's an improvement over the former! :)~
Doug
J.A., whatever you do, DO NOT join the ranks of 'rotating avatars', like Doug and I have.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I do tend to change mine 'round as much as often as I do laundry.
'Hey, I'm a blogger of many moods..'
Ah, I just felt a bit whimsical so I changed it. I'm sure I'll go back to something else soon.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I wish everyone used a recent headshot for their avatar so I had a better sense of who I'm dealing with. Don't want to get duped like ol' Manti Te'o did. You know, now that I think of it, I've never actually talked to or seen Karen...
Doug
RE: the Champions
ReplyDeleteSo where's the line between the Defenders being a successful mishmash of characters and the Champions not? Is it solely creators? Or team chemistry? Thoughts?
Doug
Karen, I've always wondered the same thing about Champions after I first read those issues drawn by Byrne. And yes, Black Goliath was a great potential addition to the team - and I still think it's a shame that he wasn't made a regular member of the Avengers later, instead of mostly languishing in oblivion and then being gratuitously killed off...
ReplyDeleteDoug, didn't Karen address your question in that article she wrote for Back Issue?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I think it's a combination of factors: unstable creative teams, a lack of team chemistry (at least initially) and, I think, a kind of lack of any clear concept about what the series was supposed to be about except "a bunch of heroes slapped together in LA."
Edo, you're making the assumption that I can remember what I ate for breakfast yesterday.
ReplyDeleteWith apologies to Karen, yes I did read her article and yes -- I need to read it again.
Doug
Actually, Doug, I've been meaning to tell you...my name is really Leroy Jenkins. I'm a 67 year old retired welder from Pittsburgh. But I'd like you to keep on calling me Karen.
ReplyDeleteNow that we have that out of the way, I think Edo summarized my Champions article pretty well. One other point I had was that the publication schedule for the book was all over the place -initially issues had gaps of three months, then bimonthly for a bit, then monthly, then bimonthly, etc. It was hard enough to find stuff on the spinner racks in those days when it was monthly, let alone when it was coming out in such a spotty way.
Also, you didn't have any big name characters here to get you excited. At least Defenders had Hulk, who was major league, and Namor still had a title at that time. I think Dr. Strange took over Marvel Premiere around the time Defenders appeared as its own title? In any case, they'd all headed up books. The Champions only had one guy who had his own title -Ghost Rider -and he was definitely second or third tier. So he wasn't going to pull a lot of readers in.
They didn't have any real reason to be together, no common enemy, no strong leader, no goals...not that it couldn't work -I mean, the Avengers didn't have a reason initially either. But there were just too many negatives.
Hate to kick 'em around...I wish I could like 'em as they are a pretty funky bunch...but I think the main reason the Champions failed is the stories were boring. Hercules as guest lecturer...geez! And the whole ongoing problems with the building subplot...dull! I love non-NYC heroes but the Champions just suffered from awful writing.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Carmine Infantino owned the '70s! Spider-Woman, Nova, all awesome...it's a shame the Nova writer was trying so hard to ape early Spidey...Spider-Woman had a good run but for me once Claremont inserted all his fixations it was over. Wish she's stayes in LA with the Shroud.
ReplyDeleteI got nearly all of the short-lived Marvel titles mentioned -- Super-Villain Team-Up, Champions & Nova, and the Starlin-era Warlock. Of Warlock's initial run, I only got issue 6, featuring the Brute, aka Counter-Earth's Reed Richards. Of SVTU's final issues, I actually did get them when they came out -- and did think it very odd that each came out so late after the previous issue. I don't recall ever reading a specific reason for it but I suspect it was likely Marvel's attempt to maintain a copyright on the title. Nova was really fun during its first year, with art by John or Sal Buscema, but I wasn't too keen on the Carmine Infintino era, although I kept on collecting it until the bitter end. The Champions & SVTU I sort of liked but didn't feel it was that great a loss when they bit the dust. It seems the Champions' purpose was essentially to be an Avengers for the west coast but they really came off as a poor echo of the Avengers and the Defenders, especially under the initial team of Tony Isabella and Don Heck. Mantlo & Byrne were a significant improvement, but still couldn't overcome the poor chemistry of the characters. I think another big problem is that neither Isabella nor Mantlo managed to do anything to make readers' really care enough about any of the main protagonists to be eager to see what happens next month, as IMO Englehart did in the Avengers and Gerber in the Defenders in the same era.
ReplyDeleteI really loved Starlin's Warlock, however, and truly regreted when that came to an end. On the other hand, the resurrected Warlock series lacked the magic of Starlin's earlier run, and not just because it also lacked Starlin's art. The Hulkified Drax really irritated me.
Regarding Marvel's 2nd try at female solo stars in the late '70s, while I hated that they were creating knock-offs of male characters, I thought Wolfman & Infantino's Spiderwoman was fairly good (for me, Infantino seemed a better fit for Spiderwoman than for Nova -- maybe because his art of the late '70s seemed so dark, which was apt for SW but I felt was wrong for Nova, who was bursting with light under the Buscemas). Ms. Marvel, on the other hand, had some great art and awful stories under Conway & Buscema, but I liked the series much more under Claremont and Cockrum.
ReplyDeleteShe-Hulk's initial run was terrible and I only continued to buy it after the first few issues out of stupid habit.
Fred, I agree that the early issues of Champions were pretty dreadful. I wonder how much of that is due to the fact that the final product had been moved so far from Isabella's initial conception of a 'buddy' book featuring Iceman and Angel? It was obvious to me from interviewing him that he felt he got a lot of interference from the editorial staff before the first story was even plotted -the insistence on five team members, one has to be a woman, one has to be a strong guy, etc. We'll never know if those two ex-X-men could have carried a title but it's certainly far removed from what he wound up having to write.
ReplyDeleteI do think things picked up during Mantlo's Soviet storyline. But there were subplots that were not adequately developed (or outright dropped) and you hit it on the head: we never got to know and care about the characters.
I also echo your feelings on the dumbed-down, Hulked out Drax: hated it. He was such a mysterious, dangerous warrior, turned into a clown. The new version, with all the knives, is OK, but I'd much prefer to see the old purple-cloaked version come back.
Several years ago, I set out to collect all of the short-lived series I recalled from my youth, including several of the short-lived DC series revived in the mid-70s but which were cancelled during the great "DC Implosion."
ReplyDeleteI was able to acquire complete runs of the revived AQUAMAN, TEEN TITAN, SHOWCASE, METAL MEN, and ALL-STAR COMICS (featuring the JSA, whose stories were eventually continued in ADVENTURE COMICS), as well as SSoSV, THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS, THE JOKER, FIRESTORM, and BLACK LIGHTNING.
On the Marvel side, I collected SVTU, THE CHAMPIONS, and THE INVADERS.
Some of these series hold up over time, some don't, it was fun hunting them down and finally sitting down and reading them in large chunks.
I remember when I was young and just getting into comics, they were twenty cents back then, I had two pretty hard and fast rules: 1) Is it Spider-Man and 2) No really, is it Spider-Man. Adhering to those strict rules, well, guidelines really, I bought Spider-Man, Marvel Team-Up and Marvel Tales. I don't think I realized at first that Marvel Tales were reprints. (What a maroon.) Then came the Avengers and Marvel Triple Action and BOOM, that was my dollar. Mowing lawns led to Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Marvel's Greatest Comics etc etc etc (and so on and so on....). (Oh, Marvel Double Action amd Werewolf by Night).
ReplyDeleteSomewhere, I got the idea that if you were in the comic the comic was your comic. If you were in the box, it was your book. Marvel Presents or Marvel Spotlight or Marvel Premiere or Features was lost on me. It was Moon Knight and Black Widow and Paladin and Turbo, Iron Fist. (How many lawns was I mowing?) But Nova had a book as did Omega the Unknown. The Champions and Black Goliath I read what I could find and what I could buy. I was the classic geek that if a character appeared in one book you had to go buy his book. That was the way of the universe (rule 3 or guideline. Okay it was more a suggestion than a guideline. More a good idea than suggestion). I HAD MONEY TO BURN. Then comics went to 25 cents and then 35 and then there was girls........
The Prowler (doing what I do since 2013, December 2013).
It seems like all of my favorites were cancelled. The curse of becoming a DC fan in late 1976. I was careful about how I added titles to the collecting list (I bought Spectacular Spider-Man for many months before a I added Amazing), but first issues were a no-brainer. Steel, Firestorm, Shade, Black Lightning...I didn't feel like I was playing catch-up. Even thought I started with issue number 6 of each, Secret Society and Freedom Fighters quickly earned my loyalty, and man, was I ever disappointed when they were axed. Just when Bob Rozakis was about to do a cross-over! Another favorite I (barely) remember was Star Hunters. Anybody ever read that. I'll bet all the money in my pockets that Doug and Leroy, I mean Karen, haven't. Perhaps I'll dig it out and see if I need to complete it. How much could that cost? Buck-and-a-half?
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteCHAMPIONS was possibly the first comic that I bought regularly in spite of really wondering whether it was actually good or not. As noted above, it was TRULY a tough slog through the first several issues, with rotating artists and writers. I tended to be rather a sheep-like reader, and would "like" a title whether I, uh, liked it or not-- but I never could shake the feeling that I had somehow missed part of the story somewhere, because it was never clear to me exactly why this team was a team. And a ponderous three-part story to start off with? Yeesh, hardly a bang. But then it got so good right before cancellation! Introduction of interesting, potential new teammates (isn't this where the Soviet DARKSTAR came from?), stories that clicked along, terrific art. . . and so, let's kill it. . .
Other series that ended before I wanted them to? THE INHUMANS-- a 12 or 13 issue run, with a lot of early Perez art and a pretty fun outer-space mission in play. DEATHLOK in Astonishing Tales-- even though it was kind of a full story of its own, I liked that character so much that I didn't want to be done with him. I also remember liking BLACK GOLIATH, although I can't recall a lot of it specifically.
Oh! Y'know, QUASAR did hang on for longer than might have been expected, given the generally horrendous art it suffered from, but I would have stuck with that book for many more years on end had it not been cancelled. I still found it impossible to not like.
HB
I only read one issue of Nova (the issue where he fights Thor) until recently, when I picked up the Classic Nova Vol. 1 tpb (review coming soon on my reprints blog!). I enjoyed it far more than expected, fun Silver Age-ish stories through a Bronze Age filter!
ReplyDeleteI haven't gotten Vol. 2 yet, I may not feel the same way about the latter half of Nova's series.
Here we go, here we go-- I KNEW there was something more recent that wasn't coming to mind:
ReplyDelete1) The whole M2 Universe (A-Next, J-2, Spidergirl, etc, etc). Although young May did indeed hold on for quite some time, the rest of that line folded even though I, personally, found it VERY engaging and enjoyable. I think it actually succeeded at recreating the feeling that NOVA had been shooting for a couple of decades earlier. The emphasis on continuity of characterization was particularly engaging-- it had the same appeal as maybe a good Y.A. Lit series does. Sadly, I can see how the whole line was doomed to failure as it was competing (IIRC) w/ the launch of the Ultimate Universe, as well as the "future" Marvel Universe of that era's Guardidans of the Galaxy. Although I may be lumping all of those things too closely together.
2) HBSon really loved most of the run of SLINGERS, until it somehow went badly south near the end of its brief existence. Haven't read it myself-- but I picked it up for him for Christmas, so I'm sure I'll borrow it soon. If I were to guess, I'd say the series may have (naturally) been too closely associated w/ a particularly unpopular time in Spidey's history.
HB
Stephen, I did what you did, i.e., I collected piles of short-lived Marvel and DC titles, but not any time recent but back in 1980/81 at about the age of 12, when a) I first discovered a local comics shop in the nearest city, and 2) I sent away for one of those comic catalogues advertised in all of the comics we bought back then. So I had most of the stuff you mentioned, plus Ragman, Starfire, the Inhumans, Red Wolf, etc., etc. There were some duds in there, but mostly I remember really enjoying all those comics...
ReplyDeleteI quite like series that don't go on too long. It's satisfying to have a complete series. Sadly some of then ended a little TOO soon. But many I have to admit probably deserved cancellation: Champions, Inhumans, Rima, Nova, Black Goliath...who or what the heck is Quasar?!
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