The series featured two or more Marvel characters in one story. The series was originally published from March 1972 through February 1985, and featured Spider-Man as the lead “team-up” character in all but ten of its 150 issues, and in six of its seven Annuals. It was the first major ongoing spin-off series for Spider-Man, being preceded only by the short-lived The Spectacular Spider-Man magazine.
After issue #99 (March 1968), the Tales of Suspense series was renamed Captain America. An Iron Man story appeared in the one-shot comic Iron Man and Sub-Mariner (April 1968), before the “Golden Avenger”] made his solo debut with The Invincible Iron Man #1 (May 1968). The series’ indicia gives its copyright title Iron Man, while the trademarked cover logo of most issues is The Invincible Iron Man. Artist George Tuska began a decade long association with the character with Iron Man #5 (Sept. 1968). Writer Mike Friedrich and artist Jim Starlin‘s brief collaboration on the Iron Man series introduced Mentor, Starfox, and Thanos in issue #55 (Feb. 1973). Friedrich scripted a metafictional story in which Iron Man visited the San Diego Comic Convention and met several Marvel Comics writers and artists. He then wrote the multi-issue “War of the Super-Villains” storyline which ran through 1975.
During the 80’s Frank Miller was hired to continue the title and did so in a similar vein to previous writer Roger McKenzie. Resuming the drastic metamorphosis the previous writer had begun, Miller took the step of essentially ignoring all of Daredevil’s continuity prior to his run on the series; on the occasions where older villains and supporting cast were used, their characterizations and history with Daredevil were reworked or overwritten. Most prominently, dedicated and loving father Jack Murdock was reimagined as a drunkard who physically abused his son Matt, entirely revising Daredevil’s reasons for becoming a lawyer. Spider-Man villain Kingpin was introduced as Daredevil’s new nemesis, displacing most of his large rogues gallery. Daredevil himself was gradually developed into an antihero. In issue #181 (April 1982), he attempts to murder one of his arch-enemies by throwing him off a tall building; when the villain survives as a quadriplegic, he breaks into his hospital room and tries to scare him to death by playing a two-man variation on Russian roulette with a secretly unloaded gun. Comics historian Les Daniels noted that “Almost immediately, [Miller] began to attract attention with his terse tales of urban crime.” Miller’s revamping of the title was controversial among fans, but it clicked with new readers, and sales began soaring, the comic returning to monthly status just three issues after Miller came on as writer.
JIm Starlin took over as writer with issue #34 after several fill-in issues, and incorporated Thanos, Adam Warlock, and Drax the Destroyer into the series. Under Starlin and later Ron Marz, the series would receive acclaim and sales boost due to Silver Surfer’s involvement with Starlin’s Infinity Trilogy, with George Pérez and J. M. DeMatteis also having brief writing stints on the series as well. Additional artists included Tom Grindberg, Ron Garney, and Jon J. Muth, as well as periodic guest spots by John Buscema. The title experienced great initial success which allowed Marvel to push the character into other media, including a 1990 video game, 1992 trading card set, and 1998 animated series, as well as spinning off a variety of other comics series including Cosmic Powers, Cosmic Powers Unlimited, Captain Marvel vol. 2, and Star Masters. It ran 146 issues, through 1998.
After Star-Lord’s father visits him in a bar to tell him that it is forbidden for any alien species to visit Earth, Iron Man is attacked by Badoon appearing to attack Earth. The Guardians and their newest member Iron Man defeat the ship; however, London is still attacked. The Guardians defend London and finish off the horde of Badoon but learn that, for violating the “Earth-is-off-limits” rule (the Spartax Earth Directive), they are to be placed under arrest by the King of Spartax. The Guardians manage to escape with the help of Groot, who had recently regrown after being destroyed by a Badoon ship’s explosion. The team includes Star-Lord, Drax the Destroyer, Gamora, Groot, Rocket Raccoon, and Tony Stark. In April 2013, it was announced that Image Comics’ Angela (Spawn) would join the Marvel Universe as the result of a legal battle between Neil Gaiman and Todd McFarlane. After appearing in Age of Ultron, she joined the Guardians. Captain Marvel and Agent Venom have also joined .
based on Stephen King’s 1978 novel of the same name. Based on the 1990 Complete & Uncut version of the novel, the comic adaptation was written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa with art by Mike Perkins and Laura Martin. Its thirty-one issues, divided into six story arcs, completed the telling of the unabridged novel. Stephen King served as Creative and Executive Director of the project.
S.W.O.R.D. was relaunched in December 2020 as part of “Reign of X“. Written by Al Ewing and drawn by Valerio Schiti, the initial team consisted of Abigail Brand, Cable, Frenzy, Fabian Cortez, Magneto, Manifold and Wiz Kid.
S.W.O.R.D. (Sentient World Observation and Response Directorate) was restored when Abigail Brand resigned from Alpha Flight after the Alliance-Cotati conflict feeling that the space program wasn’t properly utilized and when the mutant nation repowered the abandoned Peak space station. In cooperation with the Quiet Council of Krakoa, it became the mutant nation’s representative to the outer universe.
The first appearance of Frankenstein’s Monster in the Marvel Comics Universe came in the five-page horror comics story “Your Name Is Frankenstein”, by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Joe Maneely in Menace #7 (Sept. 1953), from Marvel’s 1950s forerunner, Atlas Comics. The following decade, a robot replica of Frankenstein’s Monster appeared as an antagonist in The X-Men #40 (Jan. 1968), by writer Roy Thomas and penciler Don Heck, and was destroyed by the titular team of mutant superheroes. The actual Monster first appeared in Marvel Comics continuity in a cameo flashback in “The Heir of Frankenstein” in The Silver Surfer #7 (Aug. 1969), by writer-editor Lee and penciler John Buscema.
The character received an ongoing series, titled Frankenstein in the postal indicia and initially The Monster of Frankenstein (issues #1-5) and later The Frankenstein Monster as the cover logo, that ran 18 issues (Jan. 1973 – Sept. 1975). This series began with a four-issue retelling of the original novel, by writer Gary Friedrich and artist Mike Ploog. Several more issues continued his story into the 1890s, until he was placed in suspended animation and revived in modern times.
The Fantastic Four debuted in The Fantastic Four #1 (Nov. 1961), which helped to usher in a new level of realism in the medium. The Fantastic Four was the first superhero team created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby, who developed a collaborative approach to creating comics with this title that they would use from then on. As the first superhero team title produced by Marvel Comics, it formed a cornerstone of the company’s 1960s rise from a small division of a publishing company to a pop culture conglomerate.
Groo the Wanderer is a fantasy/comedy series written and drawn by Sergio Aragonés, rewritten, co-plotted and edited by Mark Evanier, lettered by Stan Sakai and colored by Tom Luth. Over the years it has been published by Pacific Comics, Eclipse Comics (one special issue), Marvel Comics (under its Epic imprint), Image Comics and Dark Horse Comics.
Groo was one of the first widely successful creator-owned comics, one of the few successful humorous comic books (outside Archie Comics) during its time, and one of the longest-running collaborations in comic book history. In 2011 IGN ranked Groo 100th in the “Top 100 comic books heroes”.
Aragonés and Evanier negotiated a deal with Epic Comics, an imprint of Marvel Comics, for that company to take care of publication while preserving creator rights. This resulted in the longest run of Groo the Wanderer with 120 issues. In 1994, with Marvel facing financial difficulties, the title switched to Image Comics and was retitled Groo. (In the first issue Groo remarks “The marvels of the world are but images before me.”)
When Image in turn faced legal problems after publishing twelve issues, the title switched to Dark Horse Comics in 1998. Dark Horse is not publishing the title as a regular series, but is periodically releasing new material and reprints as mini-series and collections.
EHT Comics 