Marvel-ous Monday: "A Passion of the Mind!" by Conway, Kane, and Esposito

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Let's kick off this week with a classic early Marvel Team-Up: Spider-Man and The Vision from MTU #5 (August 1972)! This one's always been a fave, due to the rare appearance of The Vision in a non-Avengers comic without any Avengers around. Ol' Groove has always really dug The Vision, and he was especially interesting during this particular period when he was struggling with his emerging humanity. He was falling in love with Scarlet Witch and battling temptations from The Grim Reaper (who was offering him full humanity by claiming to be able to put the Android Avenger's mind into the then-believed-to-be-dead Wonder Man's body) over in the Avengers' mag, which is why he's so deep in thought at the beginning of this tale. More cool stuff about this issue: it actually ties into the Kree/Skrull War and the art by Gil Kane and Mike Esposito is far-freakin'-out (makes Ol' Groove wish Kane had drawn some Avengers issues) ! Oh, and since it's Marvel and the heroes all share, the main villain of the piece is Fantastic Four arch-enemy The Puppet Master! Hoo-hah!

Cover art by Gil Kane and Frank Giacoia

Making a Splash: Marvel Comics 40 Years Ago This Month

Check it out, Groove-ophiles! In March, 1975, Young Groove was about to move away from Loyall, Kentucky to Barbourville, Kentucky, which would be my home town to this very day. At the beginning of the month, I had no idea that I would never again get to visit my beloved Mack's super-store (and their duo of comicbook spinner racks), but by early April finding comics in Knox County had become a chore (t'would swiftly, and thankfully, change for the better). In other words, March, 1975 was the last time I would ever be able to go to one store and find all my comicbooks (and b&w mags and paperbacks) for at least a couple of years. The next couple of months would be a real struggle to track down my fave mags. Didn't know how good I had it when I was snatching these Marvel-ous mags from the racks...

The eagle-eyed among you will notice that Ol' Groove's only included Marvel's color, non-reprint mags this go-round (Avengers was even a reprint that month!). We'll look more at the b&w mags in a future Black and White Wednesday!