Marvel Time Warp

THE HUMAN FLY — Issue no. 15, August 1978 / THE HUMAN FLY is an unusual Marvel comic book because it’s about a sort-of real Evel Knievel-type stuntman instead of a totally made-up superhero. The Human Fly and his stunt team occasionally get mixed up with superheroes, but usually they’re just putting on stunt shows to raise money for various charities. Based on reading eight issues of THE HUMAN FLY, I think the book is at its best when the Fly and his pals visit some small town to do a show and end up helping the locals solve a crime. Probably my favorite so far is issue no. 10, where the Fly and company take on shady coal mine executives in Harlan County, Kentucky. This issue is set in Washington, D.C. Definitely not a small town! But the helping-out-the-common-folks angle is there. One of the guys on the Human Fly’s stunt team is Ted, a Vietnam vet, and the Fly, Ted, and the rest of the team are in D.C. to visit one of Ted’s war buddies at a veterans’ hospital. Book: Th...

GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS — Issue no. 16, August 1978 / As regular MARVEL TIME WARP readers know, GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS is one of my favorite Marvel books of 1978. And, as I mentioned last time, it’s one of the late-1970s books I am actively collecting. To the point where I am willing to break my five-dollars-or-less rule when it comes to buying old issues of GODZILLA. Marvel’s GODZILLA only ran for 24 issues, and I think at this point I have collected all but two. Because of licensing issues, GODZILLAhas only been officially reprinted once (that I know of). That means the black-and-white Marvel GODZILLA trade paperback is a collectible these days. Even though I’m planning to collect a complete run of single GODZILLA issues, I went ahead and got the trade collection, just because I love this book so much. Book: Godzilla, King of the Monsters Issue No.: 16 Published: August 1, 1978 Title: “The Great Godzilla Roundup!” Cover Price: 35¢ Format:...

SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP — Issue no. 15, August 1978 / When I started MARVEL TIME WARP, my plan was to take advantage of Marvel’s vast digital archives and just read digital versions of the comic books that came out in the year I started reading comics, 1978. But I enjoyed the digital comics so much I started hitting comic shops and cons and picking up original paper copies of whatever cheap Marvel books from 1978 I could find. Since then, I’ve filled up almost three short boxes with comics from 1978. I have mostly stuck with my inital cheap-comics-only plan. Initially I had set a limit of five dollars per book, because I was just looking for reading copies, not expensive, high-grade collectible comics. But I have broken the five dollar rule on occasion. Mainly to get some of the harder-to-find issues... Book: Super-Villain Team-Up Issue No.: 15 Published: August 1, 1978 Title: “The Invaders!” (reprint of Astonishing Tales nos. 4 and 5) Cover Price: 35¢ For...

THE DEFENDERS — Issue no. 64, July 1978 / After an ill-advised membership drive initiated by Defenders sidekick/mascot/hanger-on Dollar Bill, there are now an unruly number of Defenders. Which makes life difficult for Defenders leadership (which is ill-defined, as the Defenders are a “non-team”). But the real problem is that a bunch of bad guys are calling themselves Defenders and doing crimes, which is getting the actual good guy Defenders in trouble. This issue is generally silly, but it works for me, partly because I get a kick out of seeing all the Marvel C- and D-listers that show up as “Defenders.” Book: The Defenders Issue No.: 64 Published: July 25, 1978 Title: “D-Day!” Cover Price: 35¢ Format: Original paper copy After an ill-advised membership drive initiated by Defenders sidekick/mascot/hanger-on Dollar Bill, there are now an unruly number of Defenders. Which makes life difficult for Defenders leadership (which is ill-defined, as the Defender...

MACHINE MAN — Issue no. 7, July 1978 / The title of this story is “With a Nation Against Him!” But it seems more like there’s only one guy against him (him being the star of this title, Machine Man), a congressman named Brickman. Brickman is spearheading a show trial to determine whether Machine Man (who is, as his name suggests, a sentient humanoid robot) should be destroyed. He’s a robot superhero — of course he shouldn’t be destroyed. But many people fear Machine Man because they don’t understand him, so Brickman is hoping to make Machine Man a scapegoat. This plot point is, sadly, still relevant today, as we have politicians in the modern-day United States trying to make scapegoats of immigrants, women, people of color, and the LGBTQ community (to name a few). Book: Machine Man Issue No.: 7 Published: July 25, 1978 Title: “With a Nation Against Him!” Cover Price: 35¢ Format: Original paper copy The title of this story is “With a Nation Against Him!” Bu...