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| Copyright MARVEL COMICS. Published by PANINI |
Just got back from the shops with my latest copy of The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL, and sad to say, if the assistant in WHS is correct, it's the last issue. On September 30th 2022, it will be a whopping 50 years since its weekly incarnation first appeared on newsagents' counters (though it's had a few spells of rest in between then and now over the years), so I hope that PANINI will do a Special Issue to mark the occasion when it comes.
To be honest, I'm in two minds about the mag's demise. On the one hand, it was great to be able to still buy a comic I used to get as a 13 year-old lad, but on the other, it was MWOM in name only, as in recent years it hasn't contained any of the heroes it originally published back in the 1970s. Although sad, it's also kind of nice to now have a complete set of the revived incarnation of the title, and who knows - maybe it'll make a return one day, as it has several times before.
So it's the end of the world for ol' Mighty, alas - but the rest of the world goes on. One thing worth mentioning is that the current incarnation is the longest-lasting version of the title, surviving for three months short of a whopping 17 years, so it must've been doing something right. Thanks, Panini, for giving me back a part of my youth for all those years - it's appreciated.
Below is a November 1972 cover from an issue of MWOM - 47 years ago. It's dated the 18th, but it would've been available in newsagents on the 11th, which makes it the closest '70s equivalent to the current ish. Where did the time go?
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Below is a November 1972 cover from an issue of MWOM - 47 years ago. It's dated the 18th, but it would've been available in newsagents on the 11th, which makes it the closest '70s equivalent to the current ish. Where did the time go?
Kid, perhaps the assistant meant it's the "last issue" before yet another relaunch at No.1 which Panini is very fond of doing.
ReplyDeleteAwww strangely gutted at that as I still buy the occassional issue, although rarely read it. The title that really started it all in the UK (well for Marvel UK) as well , still the first year of the weekly MWOM were and always will be magic
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough, CJ, that occurred to me as well when I was on my way home, so I checked the Panini website when I got in and they're no longer accepting subscriptions for the title, so that would seem to confirm what the assistant told me.
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Yeah, that was when it was at its best, content-wise, McS, but the Panini version had better production values. The decision to cancel must be a fairly recent one, because the next ish is advertised in the back of the mag. Ironically, it was going to feature The Hulk, who, as you know, had two stories a week in the old MWOM from #33, which lasted for quite a while.
Hold on - Isn’t the next issue titled The Mighty World of Marvel - The Immortal Hulk No1 ? It’s on the next issue page at the back from what I remember flicking through at the newsagents.
ReplyDeleteThat's why I thought the assistant might have been mistaken (in the way that CJ suggests), CN, which is why I visited the Panini website, where it says that subscriptions are no longer being accepted for the title. That seems to confirm that it's been cancelled at the last moment.
ReplyDeleteI kind of wonder if Marvel are making more these days from thier movies and TV shows than comics and are quietly winding them down. You go to a shopping mall and todays kids are watching Hulk etc on their phones whereas us at that age we would be be mobbed on the floor blocking the walkway crowded around the latest Wham or something. I think its only us falling to bits decrepent grey haired if you are still lucky to have some pill popping old codgers who still read them.
ReplyDeleteI think the comics still keep interest in the movies going to a degree, LH, and of course, the same thing happens in reverse. Compared to sales in the '60s & '70s, most UK comics today are hanging on by their fingertips, so obviously there's just something about the modern version of MWOM that just didn't appeal to enough readers.
ReplyDeleteHowever, another problem which didn't help is that the Collected Editions seem only to be available in WHS, who tend to treat comics as a nuisance and don't always display them properly. I once asked about a copy of Panini's Spider-Man title, only to be told it hadn't been put out as it kept getting stolen. That's no way to sell a comic.
A lot of younger kids think the comics are simply adaptations of the movies rather than the other way around and I suspect Disney wouldn't be to bothered if the comics disappeared they probably make more from models and t shirts than the comics nowadays
ReplyDeleteI think that could well be more the case these days to some extent, McS, but it wasn't always so. The comics maintained the presence of the characters in between movies and bouts of merchandising. In the case of 2000 A.D., if Rebellion hadn't kept it going a while back, their merchandise may not have sold as well (if, indeed, there had even been any), and there may have been no interest from Studios in making movies. Nowadays though, movies based on comics characters seem to generate their own interest. Still nice to have the comics though, eh?
ReplyDeleteThat image of MWOM from 1972 makes me regret that I missed the first two years of Marvel UK - but maybe, aged 6, I was slightly too young to read MWOM when it first launched.
ReplyDeleteI've previously mentioned that I stopped reading comics around late 1983 and then started again 24 years later in November 2007 - I deliberately chose Panini's MWOM as the first comic to buy because of the obvious name-association with the classic '70s weekly. I've just bought the latest issue of Savage Sword Of Conan (#11 featuring Part 2 of a story written by the legendary Roy Thomas) which means I've now been reading Marvel comics for 12 years - 3 years longer than the nine-year period from 1974-83.
I wonder if you would've been too young, CJ, because I was still only 7 when I started reading Marvel reprints in the Odhams Power comics. MWOM was never better than in its first year, so it's a shame you missed it. Talking of Roy Thomas, just got an email from him last week, asking for my address so that he could send me an issue of his mag Alter-Ego. Yay, another freebie.
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