The Boys from Derby: "Adversaries" by Gill and Janes

What it is, Groove-ophiles! What d'ya say we truck on back to March 1979 for a scary tale (from Scary Tales #20, and the only non-reprint scary tale in the ish, no less) by Joe Gill (as Thomas Tuna) and Jimmy Janes? With "Adversaries" like these--who needs friends? (Huh?)

Secret Origins: The Wondrous Wasp by Lee, Hart, Kirby, and Heck (With Friedrich, Russell, Starlin, and Janes)

Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! When Young Groove saw the far-out Jim Starlin/Mike Esposito cover of Marvel Feature #8 (December 1972), I knew something was up. Ant-Man and Wasp were in their original outfits. Did I smell a reprint coming...? You bet your sweet bippy! The Dread Deadline Doom smacked Ant-Man's regular creative team upside the head, which led to a partial reprinting of Stan Lee/Ernie Hart/Jack Kirby/Don Heck's origin of the Wasp from Tales to Astonish #44's "Creature from the Kosmos". Now  I never was one to get all uptight when the DDD left Marvel to run such reprints, 'cause I'd never seen 'em before, so they were new to me, dig? And I figured with all the Ant-Man movie news coming out now, plus the announcement that Evangeline Lily will play a role in it has your appetite whetted for some Ant-Man/Wasp history. The news makes Ol' Groove hope the lovely lass from Lost plays the Wondrous Wasp!

Now, there's lots of dispute over the credits for "Creature..."; on the splash of MF #8 they credited Lee and Kirby; Grand Comics Database credits Hart and Heck. In Superhero Women, Stan himself lays it down like this: he plotted it, editorial assistant H.E. Huntley (aka Ernie Hart or Ernest Huntley Hart) scripted it, Jack Kirby laid it out, and Don Heck finished/inked it. Sounds good to me! The credits for the 70s framing sequence are a bit easier: Mike Friedrich wrote it, P. Craig Russell penciled the first two pages, Jim Starlin penciled the "new" half of page three and all of the final page, and Jimmy Janes inked 'em up right purty. Whew! Enough yang, yang, here come the origin of the Wasp!

Famous First Fridays: Mockingbird

What it is, Groove-ophiles! We all know that Clint (Hawkeye) Barton's wondrous wife Bobbi Morse started her four-color life as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the Ka-Zar strip and that she eventually became a super-heroine in her own right as The Huntress. We know that, 'cause Ol' Groove laid those facts on ya here. Did'ja know, however that Bobbi wasn't originally to have been Mockingbird, though? According to late-lamented creator Mark Gruenwald, Mockingbird was created as a villainess, a foil for Spider-Woman (when Gruenwald served as her mag's scripter)...and she was to have been a totally different character. However, when ace-writer Steven Grant wanted to come up with a new character to debut/partner-up with Spidey in Marvel Team-Up #95 (April 1980), he and Gru worked out a plan to combine the original evil Mockingbird with the heroic Bobbi, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., and viola! Hawkeye's future spouse was born. You can read all about it in the yellow box below if ya wanna...
With suh-wheet art by Jimmy Janes and Bruce Patterson, get ready to dig on the fabulous first appearance of Mockingbird in "...and No Birds Sing!"


AWESOME UPDATE! Be sure to check out the comments section on this post, Groove-ophiles, since none other than the author of the above web-zinger, Steven Grant, himself, has stopped by and added even more incredible info than the Gru's yellow block gave us. Thanks for stopping by and sharing, Mr. Grant!