Marvel Firsts The 1970s Volume 3

The third and final volume of Marvel Firsts The 1970s arrived yesterday. This intriguing series finishes up with another volume of curiosities. This one is filled with some of the bigger splashes of the later Bronze Age for Marvel and some of the oddities as well.

The highlights of this volume for me are the debut stories for Skull the Slayer, Ulysses Bloodstone, Starlord, and 3-D Man. I have all of these in the original, but seeing these offbeat stories in such a dandy looking format is keen. None of these characters really found much success, but the debuts for each is very sharp.

This volume also features a lot of Marvel's attempts to bring women to the fore with Ms.Marvel, Spider-Woman, and She-Hulk getting a showing.

Jack Kirby's dramatic return to Marvel is well documented with The Eternals, Machine Man, and Devil Dinosaur debuts. This isn't the same Kirby who left several years before, but Kirby is still the "King".

NOT INCLUDED
NOT INCLUDED
Both the Moon Knight and the Guardians of the Galaxy stories were slight disappointments alas since what is used are the first stories of their ongoing series and not the actual debut stories for the characters. For the Guardians that would've been in the late 60's and so not for this volume at all, but for Moon Knight, I've always rather liked his debut story from Marvel Spotlight and am a bit bummed it isn't included.

All in all another fun and interesting volume with several neat galleries of covers of other books which hit the stands during the last part of the decade. There are always things you forget about.

Here are the covers of the issues included in their chronological order, the order in which they appear in the book itself.

Skull the Slayer - August 1975
The Champions - October 1975
Marvel Presents - Bloodstone - October 1975
Black Goliath - October 1975
Marvel Preview - Starlord - January 1976
Marvel Presents - Guardians of the Galaxy - February 1976
Omega the Unknown - March 1976
The Eternals - July 1976
Nova - September 1976
Ms.Marvel - January 1977
Marvel Spotlight - Spider-Woman - February 1977
What If - February 1977
Marvel Premiere - 3-D Man - April 1977
Devil Dinosaur - April 1978
Machine Man - April 1978
Hulk - Moon Knight - October 1978
She-Hulk - February 1980
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Marvel Firsts The 1970s Volume 2

Marvel Firsts 1970s Volume 2 hit the stands this week and its chock full of wonderful and wonderfully obscure Marvel comics from the Bronze Age years of 1973 to 1975. Here's a link to my look at the First Volume. The emphasis on monsters is still quite evident.

Alongside the titles and characters which have rarely if ever been reprinted are the debut of the X-Men by Dave Cockrum which has been reprinted countless times. Also the Invaders featuring art by Frank Robbins and Howard the Duck by Frank Brunner have been available in multiple volumes over the years.

We have the first chapter of Panther's Rage, the debut of the Living Mummy, and the first installment of Deathlok, all featuring rugged Rich Buckler artwork. There's a real focus on black and white material this time with Buckler's Morbius leading the way, but also including Tigra, Sons of the Tiger, and Devil Hunter featuring lush Billy Graham artwork. The devil's kids are featured with both Satana by John Romita and Son of Satan by Herb Trimpe making their bows. My personal favorite pick is IT, the Living Colossus by Dick Ayers who also draws the one story I've never ever read, the debut of John Kowalski in War is Hell.

Jim Starlin is on hand with the debut of the Thing's series which would become Marvel Two-In-One. The late Gene Colan did some of his best work on Brother Voodoo's debut, included here. John Buscema and Jim Mooney handle the Golem and George Tuska offers up Man-Wolf. Dick Giordano is represented nicely with the Sons of the Tiger and as inker over Gil Kane on Iron Fist, and the much underrated Tony DeZuniga has an outstanding story featuring Tigra.

Here are the covers in their proper historical order and the way the stories appear in the volume.

Vampire Tales - Morbius the Living Vampire - 1973
Supernatural Thrillers - The Living Mummy - August 1973
Strange Tales - Brother Voodoo - September 1973
Marvel Feature - The Thing - September 1973
Jungle Action - The Black Panther - September 1973
Vampire Tales - Satana - October 1973
Marvel Spotlight - Son of Satan - October 1973
Astonishing Tales - IT! The Living Colossus - December 1973
Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu - The Sons of the Tiger - April 1974
Marvel Premiere - Iron Fist - May 1974
Strange Tales - The Golem - June 1974
Creatures on the Loose - Man-Wolf - July 1974
Astonishing Tales - Deathlok - August 1974
Haunt of Horror - Gabriel Devil Hunter - July 1974
War is Hell - John Kowalski - October 1974
Monsters Unleashed - Tigra the Were-Woman - February 1975
Giant-Size Man-Thing - Howard the Duck - May 1975
Giant-Size Invaders - June 1975
Giant-Size X-Men July 1975
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Marvel Firsts The 1970s Volume 1

This first volume of three Marvel Firsts 1970s hit the stands this past week and I was downright eager to add this great chronological volume to my collection. I own all of the individual issues already, but the years covered in this first one (1970-1973) are a real sweet spot for me.

It's fantastic to look through the volume and see these vintage stories, some great, some good, some just okay, but all indicative of this time for Mighty Marvel when the company was reaching out in various genres to expand.

None of the many licensed items are here (Conan, Kull, Doc Savage, Gullivar of Mars, etc.) but lots of core Marvel goodness is included, and you do get great cover galleries for the books not here in their appropriate slots chronologically.

There are some very sweet Neal Adams covers, as well as prime examples of the Gil Kane and Bill Everett duo as well as some dynamite stuff by Kane alone. 1972 might just well be dubbed at Marvel the "Year of Ploog" as Mike Ploog's influence on the company was immense.

Amazing Adventures - Inhumans & Black Widow - August 1970

Savage Tales - Man-Thing - May 1971
Marvel Spotlight - Red Wolf - November 1971
Marvel Feature - Defenders - December 1971
Marvel Spotlight - Werewolf by Night - February 1972
Amazing Adventures - The Beast - March 1972
Marvel Premiere - Warlock - April 1972
Tomb of Dracula - April 1972
Combat Kelly & The Deadly Dozen - June 1972
Hero for Hire - June 1972
Outlaw Kid - June 1972
Marvel Spotlight - Ghost Rider - August 1972
Gunhawks - October 1972
The Cat - November 1972
Shanna the She-Devil - December 1972
The Monster of Frankenstein - January 1973
Amazing Adventures - Killraven - May 1973
You can really get a nice sense of the framed cover design Marvel used through 1972. It was ultimately rejected, but it gives the covers of this time a really distinctive character.

I'm really looking forward to the next two volumes. The second should be arriving anytime and the third seems scheduled for this summer.



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