"Expect The Unexpected!"

So, as we've previously seen, 1986 saw the introduction of Jim Shooter's New Universe line, which was, I think, the first attempt by any comics company to launch, from scratch, a whole new universe, with heroes and villains gaining their powers as a result of a mysterious "White Event". We'd later see this sort of thing, again from Jim Shooter at Valiant Comics, from the launch of Image Comics, and indeed from Marvel with the 2099 and Ultimate lines. But this was, in 1986, a relatively revolutionary idea.


One of the controversies of the New Universe was that, according to legend, Marvel wiped out a swathe of its existing titles to make way for the new books. In actual fact the only books which I can see as being canned in the months before the launch were Power Man And Iron Fist, a title which had (and I speak as a big fan of Iron Fist) seen better times; Star Wars, which had lasted several years after the release of Return of the Jedi; Doctor Who, something of a niche product (in those days); and The Thing, despatched, at least in part, so that Jim Shooter could bring Ben Grimm back into the Fantastic Four fold. Other than that, and a couple of mini-series finishing up, there wasn't much in the way of dead wood being cleared in the months up to the launch of the first New Universe books.


Famously, Shooter fell foul of Marvel's new managment team, and so his plan to hire top talent to launch his new line was thwarted: oddly, no-one who was anyone wanted to write or draw a brand new, untried-out book, especially as there was no money to pay anyone. What we ended up with was a host of books written by Marvel's editorial team, and drawn by those who really needed the work.


Star Brand
Shooter himself wrote, whilst John Romita Jr, one of the few willing volunteers for the project, drew this, a tale of an ordinary man who suddenly gains superpowers. One of the more criticized books, described as a wish fulfilment book for Shooter himself, Star Brand was nonetheless one of the more lasting concepts, being picked up in the Marvel Universe proper long after the New Universe was long gone.

Spitfire And The Troubleshooters
Gerry Conway and Herb Trimpe came up with this one, based around the adventures of a group of MIT students and their battle suit


D.P.7
Mark Gruenwald and Paul Ryan wrote the entire 32 issue run of this one, concerning a group of suddenly-superpowered folk who, rather than be cut up like lab rats, go on the run. If you're a fan of the X-Men and The Fugitive, this might be your kind of thing.

Justice
Brought to us by Archie Goodwin and Geoff Isherwood, Justice concerned the exploits of an alien who came to Earth to hunt down the evil. At least it did, until Peter David was hired to retcon Justice into a delusional government agent instead. Amazingly, this book lasted 32 issues.


Kickers, Inc.
At the same time that Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz were building a rep for themselves as the creative team on Amazing Spider-Man, they were also working together on this book, about a team good samaritans, led by a superstrong ex-footballer. As good as it sounds, this book managed 12 issues, before being put to death, by which time DeFalco and Frenz had left the book to take on the adventures of a golden-haired Asgardian.

Mark Hazzard: Merc
Written, at first, by Peter David, and drawn, at first, by Gray Morrow, this dealt with, as you may guess, the adventures of an appropriately named mercenary. Certainly different to normal superhero fare, it was barely related to any of the other New Universe books, which may explain why it lasted only the dozen issues.


Nightmask
Another book by Archie Goodwin, with a rotating cast of artists that included future workhorses, Ron Lim and Mark Bagley, among many others. Lasting just the twelve issues, this one began with Keith Remsen, comatose since an explosion, being awoken by the White Event, and gaining the power to enter people's dreams, like the Sandman, only wearing a domino mask, for some reason.

Psi-Force
A group of telepaths on the run from American and Russian secret service agents, Psi Force was the creation of Archie Goodwin (again) and Walt Simonson, though neither of them showed up to produce an issue. Notably, this did see some very early comics work from top 90s talent, Fabien Nicieza, who wrote half of its 32 issues.


After various attempts at tinkering, including the departure of Jim Shooter, the slimming down of the books, and a couple of "event" books, the New Universe line was somewhat unceremoniously killed off in the summer of '89, its titles replaced with a swathe of new books: Quasar; a second volume of What If?; and new titles for She-Hulk, Nick Fury and Moon Knight. The age of experiment was over, and it was back to stripmining Marvel's history, for the next few years, at least.

10 Second-Stringers

Following up on yesterday's post, I thought it'd be nice to take a closer look at these guys, a posse of criminally underexposed characters introduced in 1974, who, if not for the cult of Wolverine, might well be far more respected in comics circles. Or they might not. You judge...


Nuklo was the son of a couple of golden age heroes, and briefly, the brother of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. Created by Roy Thomas in the pages of Giant-Size Avengers, Nuklo, unfortunately, possessed the power of being highly radioactive, which probably scuppered his chances of joining any of the big-name teams. So naturally, he ended up appearing in the pages of Thunderbolts later on.


Created by Jim Starlin and Steve Englehart, Nitro's proved one of the more successful of the class of 1974. Not only was he indirectly responsible for the death of Captain Marvel, who died as a result of an illness contracted during this very issue, but, depending on your viewpoint, he was either indirectly or directly to blame for the disaster which led to Marvel's Civil War a couple of years back.

No, your eyes are not deceiving you, unfortunately. That really is a man dressed up as a giant chicken. To be fair, he is a voodoo priest, so a chicken costume is not entirely inappropriate, but I'm not sure most comics readers are discerning enough to take that look seriously. Time remains to tell whether Black Talon ( a creation of Len Wein and Gene Colan) will once again show up as a foe of Brother Voodoo, now that he's the Sorcerer Supreme.


Oh, my... Mid-70s Marvel was many things, but subtle it wasn't. Mahkizmo, the Nuclear Man, came from an alternative future world where men enslaved women, a world at war with another alternative world, this one the female-dominated world of Thundra. Created by Gerry Conway and Rich Buckler, Mahkizmo disappeared after his first appearance, only resurfacing when She-Hulk author John Byrne was looking for some bottom of the barrel villain to make fun of.


OK, so they can't all be winners. Marv Wolfman and George Tuska brought the Piranha into the pages of Sub-Mariner, as they were beginning to seriously run out of good ideas. Originally, a real piranha fish, this chap was mutated by radiation during one of Subby's many battles, and, rather than count his blessings, Piranha decided to hunt down Namor. Other than a couple of guest shots in the Defenders, alongside other fish-based foes, he's never been seen since. Good.


And talking of the Defenders, here's Nebulon. Introduced by Len Wein and Sal Buscema, Nebulon made a couple of half-hearted efforts to conquer the Earth, before vanishing into the mists of time.

Luke Cage had some wacky bad guys in the early days of his title. Created by Len Wein (him again) and George Tuska (and him again), Cottonmouth was a drug-dealer with ambition, a taste for snake skin shoes, and, when the occasion demanded, a bazooka. Like so many other animal-themed characters, he seems to have been a one-shot character, with his name being pinched later by a member of the Serpent Society.


From the mailbox: "It had to happen. Marvel was first among comics publishers to feature black superheroes - and villains. Marvel was first to recognise the women's movement in comics with characters like the Black Widow. And now, in this issue of STRANGE TALES, we're proud to introduce the comics' first Jewish monster-hero. Needless to say, we're looking forward to your reactions[]. So ... grab a sheet of paper or a post card or last week's leftover bagel and WRITE!!" I think you can guess how filled-to-the-brim the Mighty Marvel Mailbag was that week. Brought to the world by Len Wein (it's that man again) and John Buscema, the Golem lasted all of three months, before vanishing for the rest of the century.


Jeez, Len Wein gets about, doesn't he? Equinox, a curious blend of the power of fire and ice, turned up a few times in the pages of Marvel Team-Up, and even showed up a couple of years ago during the Secret Invasion, but despite having one of the more interesting visual looks of the era, never really seems to have found his groove.


Brought to us courtesy of Gerry Conway and Ross Andru, Grizzly must be the character who must resents the ol' Canucklehead. I mean, look at the guy. With that surly attitude, coupled with the ridiculous costume, he must have reckoned he had at least as good a chance as Wolverine of making the big time. If not for a quirk of fate, Grizzly could have found himself on the cover of Giant-Sized X-Men #1, and we might now be reading three or four monthly books about the exploits of the world's favourite ex-wrestler. There's no justice.

So there you have. Ten of the, er, best creations of 1974 who didn't go on to become superstars. I like to think that in some parallel universe, these guys are world-famous, with legions of fans. Well, except for Piranha. That guy sucks.

70 Years of Marvel - 1974

1974 saw Jim Starlin at the height of his cosmic powers, as writer of the Captain Marvel comic books, in which Mar-Vell was taking on the evil titan, Thanos, who would haunt most of Starlin's Marvel work for the rest of the century.

Other comics-related events included the first appearance of The Punisher, Gerry Conway's assassin to the stars, hired to kill Spider-Man, and at this point, lacking any sort of defined origin. We also so the debut of Iron Fist, Marvel's attempt to combine the superhero and martial artist genres, as well as Doug Moench and Rich Buckler's cyborg sensation, Deathlok. 1974 also saw the Marvel Universe being brought a little bit closer, as ex-Avenger, Quicksilver, married ex-Fantastic Four member and full-time Inhuman, Crystal. Oh, and I suppose it would be a sin not to mention that Incredible Hulk #180 and #181 saw the debut of everyone's favourite shortarse Canadian.

In the real world in 1974, Tricky Dicky finally gave in and resigned. Fortunately, his immediate successor pardoned him for any crimes which he may have committed. It's a good life, eh?

70 Years of Marvel - 1972

Spoiler: no he didn't.

Amazing Adventures had been launched a couple of years earlier, as a vehicle for the Inhumans and the Black Widow, but by 1972, they'd been turfed from the title, in favour of the X-Men's Beast, now transformed into a furry monster. Written first by Gerry Conway, then by Steve Englehart, who would later introduce him to the Avengers, the furry Beast has fluctuated between furry and human ever since. Currently he's a big cat. Go figure.

Amazing Adventures itself would shortly become home to post-apocalypse hero, Killraven, who would be the book's star for the remainder of its run. More on him later.

1972 also saw the first appearance of Werewolf By Night, the launch of a new Ghost Rider, and the arrival of Dracula in the Marvel Universe, as the 70s Horror Onslaught began. As if that wasn't enough, that year also saw the debut of (Sweet Christmas!) Luke Cage, Hero For Hire. Marvel also introduced 3 more girl heroes: Ka-Zar-wife-to-be, Shanna the She-Devil, Night Nurse, who , after a four-issue run in her own title, would vanish into obscurity for the remainder of the 20th century, and the Cat, who would become better known in later years as Tigra.

In the real world, some important stuff probably happened, but since it was also the year that I was born, damned if I'm letting anyone else share my day.

70 Years of Marvel - 1956

Patsy Walker has been around since 1944, and began as an attempt by Timely-Marvel to copy the success of their Millie the Model title. It worked: Patsy had her own book well into the 60s, through the whole Atlas era and into the Silver Age of superheroes. She clearly had her own fan base in the 60s Marvel bullpen, as Lee and Kirby gave her a cameo appearance at the wedding of Reed Richards and the Invisible Girl.

Even after her own book ended, she wasn't finished, as Steve Englehart brought her, and her husband, back, as guest stars in his run on Amazing Adventures in 1972.


A couple of years later, Englehart reintroduced Patsy, having her help out the Avengers against her soon-to-be-ex-husband and his employers. Along the way, Patsy somehow gained a costumed identity.

A couple of years after that, Gerry Conway, in pretty much his last act as writer of the Defenders, would bring Patsy / Hellcat to the team, where she would spend the remainder of the 70s and half of the 80s, before leaving the team to settle down with her new husband, Daimon Hellstrom, the Son of Satan.


Patsy and Daimon languished in obscurity together, until 1993, when Hellstorm got his own book (it was the 90s, pretty much everyone in the Marvel Universe had their own book. I'm surprised Irving Forbush didn't have his own book). Fans of Patsy would probably be disappointed by her first appearance in Hellstorm...


Then later, Warren Ellis got hold of the book. And killed her off.


But this being comics, even that didn't stop the Powers-What-Be from using the character. Firstly, she was rescued from hell by the Thunderbolts.


And then, courtesy of long-time fan, Steve Englehart (it's that man again!), she got her own book again, albeit briefly.

And now, in 2009, in these days of Civil Wars and Secret Invasions, when everything's grim and gritty, and just when you think Patsy has nothing to offer anymore, she's back in a thinly-veiled "homage" to Sex and the City.

Honesty, whatever next?

Anyway, elsewhere in the real world in 1956, the people of Europe were thrilling to the first Eurovision Contest. Sadly, no Terry Wogan. Two planes collided in mid-air above the Grand Canyon, Egypt nationalised the Suez Canal, and frogman "Buster" Crabb vanished in Portsmouth harbour, sparking a flurry of conspiracy theories.

In the world of entertainment, Elvis was staying at the Heartbreak Hotel, Invasion of the Body Snatchers was on at the pictures, David Niven was going Around the World in 80 Days, and musical fans could go see The King And I with Yul Brynner. But only if he wasn't busy. Boom boom.

On the small screen, Tony Hancock was making the move from radio to telly, and Hughie Green was introducing Opportunity Knocks, without which we might well be spared half the tripe on Saturday night tv. At the library, one could pick up a copy of Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals, whilst theatre-goers could see a very young Alan Bates starring in Look Back in Anger. Something for everyone there, I'm sure you'll agree.

It's Not Only Marvel Who Can Do Cheap Reprints...

Before...


...and after...


Might want to reconsider that whole "no fatal errors" claim before you market that glider, Norman...

From Amazing Spider-Man #14, July 1964
(By Lee & Ditko)
And Amazing Spider-Man #122, July 1973
(By Gerry Conway, Gil Kane, John Romita & Tony Mortellaro)

This cheap gag originally presented in my other blog, February 2006.