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| Image copyright MARVEL COMICS |
The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL had three incarnations throughout the 1970s. First as MWOM, which then morphed into MARVEL COMIC with #330, and finally as MARVEL SUPERHEROES, a monthly mag which bore little resemblance to the weekly it had sprung from. In 1983, MWOM returned for 17 monthly issues, then dropped out of sight until 2003 when it made a triumphant return in a full-colour monthly that's still around today.
"Make Mine Marvel!"
9 comments:
I used to love this mag every month and the Rampage monthly, too!
They were my "Fantastic and Terrific" of the 80's!
It says "Giant 1st Issue" on the cover but it's actually #353 - nope, nothing confusing about that. I can remember the exact date that I bought this magazine - Monday, September 3rd 1979 which was the last day of the Summer holidays and the next day I began the third year of secondary school. Marvel Superheroes was due to come out on August 23rd so I was glad to have finally gotten my eager little hands on it. But two things bug me - firstly it was NOT #353 because it was NOT the continuation of MWOM (and neither was the risible Marvel Comic) - the magazine should have been #1. Secondly, I wish they hadn't pinched part of the masthead from the American Ms. Marvel comic - they should have designed a completely new masthead. Anyway, despite those quibbles I thought it was a very good magazine overall.
Yup, they weren't bad little magazines, JP.
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Nope, you're wrong, CJ. Same mag, different name and style. As that was the intention of the publishers, then that's how it was in spite of how you see it. And it WAS #353 because that's how it was numbered. And it actually says '1st Giant issue', not 'Giant 1st Issue' and that's exactly what it was! The 1st giant issue of the comic then being called 'Marvel Superheroes', previously called 'The Mighty World Of Marvel' and 'Marvel Comic'. (TV21 was still the same comic when it first dropped 'Century' from the title back in the '60s.) And the original MWOM logo was swiped from 'Captain Marvel', so it was nothing new to use the 'Ms. Marvel' logo - it was following a tradition.
Buying cheap second-hand copies of MSH in the mid-80s was my first experience of the Shooter/Perez/Byrne era Avengers stories. I vividly remember reading the issue where they fight Count Nefaria before going to primary school one morning and being absolutely bowled over by it. Honestly, after reading that story with its awe-inspring cliffhanger (Thor turns up, angry, and for the first time Nefaria looks worried) first thing in the morning, how could anyone concentrate on school work?
I remember that Count Nefaria story from MS as well, DD. In fact, I'm sure I've still got those issues - may even have shown the covers on the blog, can't quite remember. Of course, I read then when MS was first published, but I was part of the working world at the time, not a school pupil.
After the trauma that was Marvel Comic, Marvel Superheroes (and Rampage) kept me in the Marvel UK fold. Another landmark issue was 377 with the return of Captain Britain and those few pages each month were worth the cover price alone.
Shame about the dodgy lettering on some of the early 'new' CB tales, Chris (might've been the ones that started in The Daredevils). Some of it was really quite bad 'til Steve Craddock took over.
Speaking of which Kid, something I've meant to ask once or twice- who are your own personal favourite letterers?
Easy one, DD. Sam Rosen, Art Simek, Marty Epp - and, of course, myself. A few others, whose names escape me for the moment.
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