Week Ending

  Full disclosure before we start; my usual cool-eyed, cynical detachment is going to take a backseat this week. While I never owned these issues as a kid, there is much about them that stirs my inner child. Whole covers dedicated to the main stories, much improved colouring and best of all, corner boxes. Oh my, the corner boxes. Sure, there were the weird little logos in the corner prior to this week, but these are the real deal and I am more than a little taken aback by my emotional response to them. Mighty World of Marvel #48 This cover is a lash-up from multiple sources, the distinctive styles of Sal Buscema, Neal Adams and Jack Kirby working surprisingly well together. A No Prize awaits anyone who can name the covers and interiors that gave up elements for the greater good. As if the excitement of corner boxes were not enough, this week sees the UK debut of my all time favourite Iron Man armour. The Model 2 with its red and gold colour scheme and distinctive faceplate is my earlie

  Marvel UK has been on the scene for almost a year now, and there is a real feeling that they are gathering pace and growing in confidence with every issue. They might not have quite perfected their winning formula yet, but every issue feels that little bit closer to what made them unique in British newsagents. Mighty World of Marvel #47 There was no excuse for the substitution of The Avengers #1 cover last week, but having taken a look at the option of Avengers #2, I can honestly say that this Dick Ayers, Mike Esposito alternative, as crude as it is, was probably the right choice. I particularly like the 'Golden Avenger' era Iron Man, making him seem a lot less clunky than he was in this period. Much like the period-incorrect Avengers and Hulk logos on this splash page, Stan probably realised that making Hulk a member of a team was an error. So, with only one Avengers story in the bank, the second tale of Earth's mightiest heroes is constructed to fix that problem. I thin

  This week in 1973 should have been as significant as the original launch of MWOM for Marvel UK, or at least as big as gaining SMCW as a second title. For some of us young readers it certainly was, but I don't feel that the conservative British comic market ever truly embraced the wider, connected Marvel universe. Try telling that to kids going to see the latest MCU movie now, they won't believe you. Mighty World of Marvel #46 You are the editor for Marvel UK, you have the opportunity to use the iconic cover from Avengers #1, and yet you make the baffling choice to go with this slightly incoherent option here. Sure, it puts your known hero front and center, but you can't tell me that this mess of movement lines and swooshes would have shifted more copies than if the Kirby/Ayers classic original had been adapted. Speaking of strange editorial decisions, I have to wonder why the Avengers were not introduced back in MWOM #20 instead of Daredevil. This would have helped keep t

If you had been regularly handing your newsagent your pocket money for the last 45-weeks in 1972/3, you could have had in your childlike paws at least three years of classic Marvel continuity (even more in the case of the Hulk) and you can't tell me that isn't great value. How lucky we were not to have to wait a month or even two between issues, we may not have got the stories in colour but we were spoiled with the sheer amount of content we got in a very short period. Mighty World of Marvel #45 This cover makes my heart sink a little, partly the original cover from Tales to Astonish #101, which was a mash-up of Marie Severin Hulk with Kirby Asgardians, plus the addition of what might be an internal panel from Fantastic Four #21. There is absolutely nothing wrong with either segment, but the careless UK colouring makes me wish for what might have been. Issue #102 of Tales to Astonish, reprinted here, saw the title changed to The Incredible Hulk, after false starts and multiple

While I have been enjoying reading through the Marvel UK weeklies from the start, that enjoyment has been based on a sort of unearned nostalgia as I missed the first couple of years at the time (there is probably a German word for this oddly specific feeling). Though in the last few weeks these comics have started to become entertaining, if not downright fascinating in their own right, and strong has been the temptation to get ahead of my self-imposed reading schedule. However, as much as I may have wished for a time machine back in the 70s to enable me to read next week's issues, I didn't have one then, so I won't cheat now. Mighty World of Marvel #44 After a short drought we get another original cover by none other than the great Jim Starlin, with Mike Esposito on inks. While the composition seems a little off (what is Hulk bursting out of?) nobody does a menacing Hulk like Starlin, heavy on the gritted teeth and eyeshadow. There is a good reason for the need of original