Marvel Time Warp

THE SPIDER-WOMAN — Issue no. 8, August 1978 / Issue no. 8 opens IN MEDIA RES, with Spider-Woman being held at gunpoint in a cabin in Oregon. I had to check the previous issue to make sure I didn’t forget some cliffhanger. This story eventually gets around to explaining the situation. Spider-Woman had rescued a guy who was trying to kill himself, only for him to tie her up and drag her to Oregon (I am assuming the suicide attempt happened in Los Angeles). He finally explains to Spider-Woman (and to us) that he was cursed for cowardliness during the American Revolutionary War and is now doomed to walk the earth forever unless he can find someone who truly cares for him. Basically, he needs to be loved to die. It’s macabre and a bit... Book: The Spider-Woman Issue No.: 8 Published: August 1, 1978 Titles: “The Man Who Could Not Die!” and “The Suit!” Cover Price: 35¢ Format: Original paper copy This book continues to perplex me, y’all. Issue no. 8 opens in m...

MARVEL SUPER-HEROES — Issue no. 76, August 1978 / I started working on this issue of MARVEL TIME WARP over the weekend. I threw out my back (ouch!) on Saturday and I wasn’t feeling great. So I considered doing a fill-in issue of my own. But I got a ways down that road and realized the fill-in issue was going to be more work than a regular MARVEL TIME WARP post. So I changed gears and took a look at MARVEL SUPER-HEROES no. 76. The first thing I noticed about this book is it looks great. Herb Trimpe penciled this issue, Sal Buscema inked it, and Sam Rosen lettered it, and that is a rock-solid Hulk team. Plus I was lucky to find a good-quality digital scan of the book, so I got to see Nel Yomtov’s original coloring work (as opposed to a re-colored digital reprint). Book: Marvel Super-Heroes Issue No.: 76 Published: August 1, 1978 Title: “The Rhino Says No!” Cover Price: 35¢ Format: Digital scan I started working on this issue of Marvel Time Warp over the we...

DAREDEVIL, THE MAN WITHOUT FEAR — Issue no. 155, August 1978 / I write about fill-in issues fairly regularly. Even though this issue of DAREDEVIL, THE MAN WITHOUT FEAR features a guest penciler (Frank Robbins, subbing for the great Gene Colan), it isn’t a fill-in. But not much actually happens in this issue — the story here is mostly about laying the groundwork for future stroies — so maybe it’s fair to call it a setup issue. The main happening here is that Daredevil’s alter ego Matt Murdock and his law firm partner Foggy Nelson hire a new assistant, Becky Blake. I’m not yet totally clear on whether Becky’s role with the firm is secretary or paralegal or something else, so there’s still a lot to learn about Ms. Blake. As for set-up material, the book opens with Daredevil almost falling to his death after being struck by some kind of debilitating pain. Daredevil is blind, but his other senses are enhanced — that’s his super power. The implication is that his other senses have...

MARVEL TREASURY EDITION — Issue no. 18, August 1978 / I’ve written about how Marvel had several regular reprint books in the late 1970s. Aside from the oversized MARVEL TREASURY series, Marvel was publishing monthly and bi-monthly books reprinting older stories focusing on specific characters, like MARVEL SUPER-HEROES (Hulk stories) and MARVEL’S GREATEST COMICS (Fantastic Four stories). I’ve also written about how these books were a key way for newer readers to read old Marvel stories, because trade paperbacks weren’t a thing back then. Which isn’t exactly true. This CBR article explains that there were a handful of Marvel trade paperbacks available by 1978. (It also explains the origin fo the term “trade paperback” as applied to comic book reprints.) Those early trades came out via Fireside Books (a division of Simon Schuster). Book: Marvel Treasury Edition Issue No.: 18 Published: August 1, 1978 Title: “The Astonishing Spider-Man” (reprints four Marvel Team-Up...

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...