The final feature in Astonishing Tales starred and introduced Deathlok, a conflicted cyborg who predated the popular movie character RoboCop by several years and has become one of the most enduring Marvel characters among those introduced in the 1970s; at least two major iterations of the character, featuring different individuals, starred in series in the 1990s and 2000s. Created by artist Rich Buckler, who devised the initial concept, and writer Doug Moench, the feature ran from #25-28 and 30-36 (Aug. 1974 – Feb. 1975 and June 1975 – July 1976), the final issue. Bill Mantlo scripted issues #32-35, with Buckler himself scripting the finale. Buckler described Deathlok as “an extension of a paranoid fantasy. He was a representation of part of my outlook and world view. He was a culmination of many of the messages in some of the music of the time. He was part of some of the things going wrong in our country at the time. Maybe he was the science that was going wrong.Artist George Pérez made his professional comics debut with a two-page backup feature in issue #25.
In the 1980s, Banner once again gained control over the Hulk, and gained amnesty for his past rampages; however, due to the manipulations of supernatural character Nightmare, Banner eventually lost control over the Hulk. It was also established that Banner had serious mental problems even before he became the Hulk, having suffered childhood traumas that engendered Bruce’s repressed rage. Banner comes to terms with his issues for a time, and the Hulk and Banner were physically separated by Doc Samson. Banner is recruited by the U.S. government to create the Hulkbusters, a government team dedicated to catching the Hulk. Banner finally married Betty in The Incredible Hulk #319 (May 1986) following Talbot’s death in 1981. Banner and the Hulk were reunited in The Incredible Hulk #323 (Sep. 1986) and with issue #324, returned the Hulk to his grey coloration, with his transformations once again occurring at night, regardless of Banner’s emotional state. In issue #347 the grey Hulk persona “Joe Fixit” was introduced, a morally ambiguous Las Vegas enforcer and tough guy. Banner remained repressed in the Hulk’s mind for months, but slowly began to reappear.
Incredible Hulk #252 F+ $3Incredible Hulk #253 VF $5Incredible Hulk #257 VF $6Incredible Hulk #262 VF $5Incredible Hulk #263 VF- $3Incredible Hulk #264 VF+ $5Incredible Hulk #280 NM- $6Incredible Hulk #281 VF- $3Incredible Hulk #282 Newstand F-VF $45Incredible Hulk #286 F+ $2Incredible Hulk #287 F-VF $3Incredible Hulk #290 VF+ $5Incredible Hulk #291 VF-NM $5Incredible Hulk #292 VF $4Incredible Hulk #296 VF- $3Incredible Hulk #298 VF+ $5Incredible Hulk #299 VF $4Incredible Hulk #301 F+ $2Incredible Hulk #306 NM $6Incredible Hulk #308 Newsstand VF $5Incredible Hulk #309 Newsstand VF $5Incredible Hulk #310 VF+ $5Incredible Hulk #313 VF- $4Incredible Hulk #314 VF-NM $5Incredible Hulk #319 Newsstand VF- $5Incredible Hulk #322 NM- $5Incredible Hulk #323 VF $4Incredible Hulk #324 VF- $15Incredible Hulk #327 VF- $4Incredible Hulk #328 NM- $5Incredible Hulk V1 #330 Newstand VF+ $16Incredible Hulk V1 #332 F+ $4Incredible Hulk #333 NM $14Incredible Hulk #341 Newstand VF+ $5Incredible Hulk #342 Newstand VF+ $5Incredible Hulk #342 VF+ $4Incredible Hulk #343 Newstand VF+ $5Incredible Hulk #346 NM- $6Incredible Hulk #352 NM $5Incredible Hulk #354 Newsstand NM- $9Incredible Hulk #364 NM $4Incredible Hulk Annual #11 FN- $4Incredible Hulk Annual #14 VF $4Incredible Hulk Annual #15 VF- $3
Green Lantern would know a number of revivals and cancellations. Its title would change to Green Lantern Corps at one point as the popularity rose and waned. During a time there were two regular titles, each with a Green Lantern, and a third member in the Justice League.
In 1956, DC Comics successfully revived superheroes, ushering in what became known as the Silver Age of comic books. Rather than bringing back the same Golden Age heroes, DC rethought them as new characters for the modern age. The Flash was the first revival, in the aptly named tryout comic book Showcase #4 (Oct. 1956).
This new Flash was Barry Allen, a police scientist who gained super-speed when bathed by chemicals after a shelf of them was struck by lightning. He adopted the name The Flash after reading a comic book featuring the Golden Age Flash.After several more appearances in Showcase, Allen’s character was given his own title, The Flash, the first issue of which was #105 (resuming where Flash Comics had left off).
The Hernandez brothers self-published the first issue of Love and Rockets in 1981, but since 1982 it has been published by Fantagraphics Books. The magazine temporarily ceased publication in 1996 after the release of issue #50, while Gilbert and Jaime went on to do separate series involving many of the same characters. However, in 2001 Los Bros revived the series as Love and Rockets Volume 2.
Love and Rockets contains several ongoing serial narratives, the most prominent being Gilbert’s Palomar stories and Jaime’s Hoppers 13(aka Locas) stories. It also contains one-offs, shorter stories, surrealist jokes, and more.
Palomar tells the story of a fictional village in Latin America and its inhabitants. Its vibrant characters and sometimes-fantastic events are sometimes compared to the magical realism literary style of authors such as Gabriel García Márquez. The series is also sometimes referred to as Heartbreak Soup, after the first story set in Palomar.
Hoppers 13 follows the tangled lives of a group of primarily chicano characters, from their teenage years in the early days of the California punk scene to the present day. (Hoppers, or Huerta, is a fictional city based on the Hernandezes’s home town of Oxnard, California.) The series is also often called Locas (Spanish for “crazy women”) because of the many quirky female characters depicted.
Love and Rockets #5 VF $39Love and Rockets #6 VF- $29Love and Rockets #9 VF+ $39Love and Rockets #11 VF- $29Love and Rockets #12 FN-VFN $19Love and Rockets #13 VF $24Love and Rockets #14 VF $19Love and Rockets #15 VF-NM $27Love and Rockets #15 VF $18Love and Rockets #16 NM- $29Love and Rockets #17 NM $39Love and Rockets #17 VF+ $24Love and Rockets #18 F-VF $9Love and Rockets #19 NM- $34Love and Rockets #20 NM $39Love and Rockets #20 FN-VF $12Love and Rockets #21 NM $39Love and Rockets #22 VF $20Love and Rockets #23 NM $39Love and Rockets #25 NM $39Love and Rockets #27 VF-NM $24Love and Rockets #27 VF+ $22Love and Rockets #28 VF- $14Love and Rockets #29 NM- $34Love and Rockets #30 NM $29Love and Rockets #30 VF- $14Love and Rockets #31 VF $18Love and Rockets #32 NM $29Love and Rockets #34 NM $24Love and Rockets #35 NM $20Love and Rockets #38 NM $24Love and Rockets #39 VF $12Love and Rockets #40 VF $16Love and Rockets #43 VF+ $14Love and Rockets #44 VF $18Love and Rockets #46 VF-NM $29Love and Rockets #47 NM- $18Love and Rockets #49 VF- $16Ten Years of Love and Rockets NM $35
Crisis on Infinite Earths was published by DC Comics from 1985 to 1986, consisting of an eponymous 12-issue, limited series comic book and a number of tie-in books. It was produced by DC Comics to simplify its then-50-year-old continuity. The series was written by Marv Wolfman and illustrated by George Pérez (pencils and layouts), Mike DeCarlo, Dick Giordano and Jerry Ordway (inking and embellishing). The series removed the multiverse concept from the fictional DC Universe, depicting the death of long-standing characters Supergirl and the Barry Allen incarnation of the Flash. Continuity in the DC Universe is divided into pre-Crisis and post-Crisis periods. The Flash was later reborn.
The Swamp Thing character first appeared in House of Secrets #92 (June–July 1971). After the success of the short story in the House of Secrets comic, the original creators were asked to write an ongoing series, depicting a more heroic, more contemporary creature. InSwamp Thing #1 (October–November 1972) Wein and Wrightson updated the time frame to the 1970s and featured a new version character: Alec Holland, a scientist working in the Louisiana swamps on a secret bio-restorative formula “that can make forests out of deserts”. Holland is killed by a bomb planted by agents of the mysterious Mr. E (Nathan Ellery), who wants the formula. Splashed with burning chemicals in the massive fire, Holland runs from the lab and falls into the muck-filled swamp, after which a creature resembling a humanoid plant appears. Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway, who co-created Man-Thing for Marvel Comics a year and a half earlier, thought that this origin was too similar to that of their character, and Wein himself had written a Man-Thing story that was published with a June 1972 cover date, but he refused to change the origin in spite of some cajoling by Conway, who was his roommate at the time. Marvel, however, never took the issue to court, realizing the similarity of both characters to The Heap.
Swamp Thing #2 VF signed Wrightson $159Swamp Thing #5 VF+ signed Wrightson $139Swamp Thing #6 VF+ signed Wrightson $119Swamp Thing #8 VF signed Wrightson $99Swamp Thing #9 VF+ signed Wrightson $139Swamp Thing V1 #18 FN+ $8Swamp Thing V1 #22 FN-VF $10Swamp Thing V1 #24 VG $6
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.
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.
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.
EHT Comics 