As I stated in my prologue to this series, Stan Lee’s original task from Marvel Publisher Martin Goodman was to create a team of superheroes that were comparable to DC’s “Justice League of America”. The difference was that DC had established those heroes – Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman dated back to the 1930’s… Continue reading The Comics I Love: The Avengers, Part 1 “There Came a Day…”
Assembling: The Avengers Deep Dive Prologue
I'm prepping a deep dive into Marvel's Avengers comics franchise - an in-depth review of each and every issue of the main title, dating back to 1963. Before I begin, I thought I'd try to encapsulate some of the things that I know about the book and how it's evolved since Stan Lee and Jack… Continue reading Assembling: The Avengers Deep Dive Prologue
The Comics I Love: The Death of Captain Marvel
Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter announced the new Marvel Graphic Novel format in 1979, following strong summer sales numbers. There were delays, mostly due to the language in the creator contracts, until Marvel hired Mike Hobson, publisher of Scholastic Books paperback division. Hobson, having worked in publishing for years, brought his knowledge of contracts to Marvel… Continue reading The Comics I Love: The Death of Captain Marvel
The Comics I Love: Adam Warlock, Part Three – The Warlock/Thanos War
Thanos’ plans are coming to fruition – he’s collecting the six Soul Gems to power a machine that will allow him to eradicate all the life in the universe as a tribute to his love, Death. A big finale is brewing, and in a very early crossover for the year’s annuals, Jim Starlin decided to… Continue reading The Comics I Love: Adam Warlock, Part Three – The Warlock/Thanos War
The Comics I Love: Adam Warlock, Part Two
After the culmination of Warlock's battle with the Magus, in Warlock #11, the title moved to telling other stories, before the return of Thanos and Gamora. Sales suffered, and Warlock was cancelled with issue #15. Starlin was obviously not enamored with Marvel's editorial at this point, and I think his work suffered a little. The… Continue reading The Comics I Love: Adam Warlock, Part Two
The Comics I Love: Adam Warlock, Part One
There were a lot of drugs being done by Marvel creators in the early 1970s. in his book, “Marvel Comics, the Untold Stories”, Sean Howe said that Jim Starlin, and Mike Friedrich would drop LSD and work on Captain Marvel. Sales went up on the book, and “soon Starlin was opening his fan mail …… Continue reading The Comics I Love: Adam Warlock, Part One
The Comics I Love: Thanos War, Part Two
Continuing my look at the first Thanos War, from the early 1970's. Check out part 1 here. Captain Marvel #29 (November 1973 “Metamorphosis!”) Jim Starlin (Writer/Penciler/Colorist), Al Milgrom (Inker), Tom Orzechowski (Letterer), Roy Thomas (Editor) Mar-Vell is right where he was at the end of last issue, in the presence of Eon, an eight-billion-year-old cosmic… Continue reading The Comics I Love: Thanos War, Part Two
The Comics I Love: The Thanos War, Part One
So, this is literally six years late. This review would have probably been more appropriate in 2018 when Avengers: Endgame became the highest-grossing movie of all time (Until James Cameron got all wounded by it and re-released “Avatar” in China to re-claim the spot. Whatever. I can’t stand James Cameron.) The true origins of Thanos… Continue reading The Comics I Love: The Thanos War, Part One
The Thanos Quest
After I finished the last post about the death of Guardian in Alpha Flight, I said that next up would be the second year-plus of Alpha Flight, from issues 13 through 28, but I hit a wall while writing it. Seriously. I got through #14 and just didn’t want to write any more about Marvel’s… Continue reading The Thanos Quest
The Comics I Love: Alpha Flight, Part 2
When John Byrne took on the task of turning Alpha Flight from a group of super-powered beings that could go toe-to-toe with the X-Men into a real team of heroes that had actual backgrounds and personalities, he decided to tell solo stories, or tales of smaller groups of the heroes, then bring them together once… Continue reading The Comics I Love: Alpha Flight, Part 2