Ken Aldred

Sounds like a sequel to Tom King's recent Mister Miracle series.

Name only. Thor’s axe, Jarnbjorn, first appears in Jason Aaron’s more recent run.

That’s because you’re like me; you actually read comics. First appearance of the main villain from the Annihilation Saga, one of the key storylines used by Marvel Studios.

I've always preferred Marvel Premiere 1 for that reason. Too reminiscent of Rocky Horror, and I can't take Him seriously. Warlock is a much more interesting, three-dimensional character.

Fair point. Given comparative budgetary restrictions, and the scope and ambition of this achievement, it's far more impressive, regardless of grade.

Even after 40 + years, you can learn something new about comic book history and origins. Never seen that before. Not just Bill Finger getting short-changed on credit, then.

It's a fair point. We are now at two minutes to midnight again, and should be preparing by stockpiling pork and beans, shotgun shells, bottled water, and, as you said, plenty of combustible, paper-based material such as Marvel Age and X-Force 1. Either way, price hike, economic downturn, or apocalypse, you'll be sitting pretty with those comics. Shrewd advice from several boardies.

Yup. As with the cover for the first issue, there's more often than not some character shouting.

Could also be the inspiration for Adrian Toomes, The Vulture. There is a family resemblance.

Nosferatu

Underrated, and one of my favourite characters.

It's easy to mock. My equivalent would be Ambush Bug 1 and Cheeks, The Toy Wonder. Once a TV or film rumour appears, watch the book explode in price. I'm expecting at least an Animated Series. I can't move for boxes of this issue in my room at the local insane asylum.

Yup. A great artist who rarely gets mentioned on the boards.

Too much hype. Well directed, one of the better villains, okay storyline, patchy CGI. Interesting social comments, but still basically adherent to the Marvel Studios formula underneath.

+1 It shouldn't really make much difference now as the 1st Star-Lord and Rocket Raccoon stories were in Marvel Preview magazine, but there's never been a great deal of consistency regarding format or a cameo appearance.

From his best art period, inked by Al Williamson.

I've read some of his 70s work at Marvel in remastered digital form, and it's really quite nice. Well above average.

Given how many decades he's been selling for, how many decades of experience he has, there's no real justification for amateur, incompetent grading which is that bad, at that price point.

Exactly why I left out one of my all-time greats, Milton Caniff. In previous threads I've been contradicted for including him because, like Foster, he was in the newspaper strip field, despite being incredibly influential on many top comic book artists. To me, the format doesn't matter.

Looking forward to seeing Flex Mentallo, The Scissormen, and The Brotherhood of Dada. Cautious about the low budget, though.

It's interesting to read the Conway run and see how little of the clone narrative there actually is; small bits and pieces in the early 140s up to the more continuous Spider-Clone story in the final issues. Appropriate though in order to allow a natural grieving space after Gwen's death. I like the way Mary Jane is given more character depth on the final page of 122; evolution to compensate for loss.

The problem with Aunt May is that she's pretended to be at death's door so many times and recovered so many times that it's become clear that she's an attention-seeking drama queen who's basically indestructible. So, it's futile to nominate her.

I wondered if it needed subtitles.

I'm old enough to remember these being advertised in Marvels, but being in the UK never bought them. First time I bought bags was from a comic mart in 1979. What sounds to an ageing Brit like a fond, Hovis memory...

I found this series very easy to forget because of my tendency to erase an episode from my PVR when I got bored about halfway through.