CoronaVirus Comics SPIDEY SUPER STORIES "Spidey vs Mister Measles"

Spider-Man's fought many strange foes...

...but none stranger than the dastardly, diseased TV super-villain whose only appearance was narrated by Morgan Freeman!

(Yes, that Morgan Freeman!)

See what happens when you don't get your inoculations, kids?

Marvel's Spidey Super Stories #2 (1974) takes the tv ep's script and uses it verbatim for this adaptation illustrated by penciler Win Mortimer and inker Mike Esposito.

Ensemble member Skip Hinnant (who played most of the Spidey villains as well as regular character Fargo North: Decoder) portrayed Mister Measles.

Morgan Freeman narrated all the Spidey segments (even ones where he appeared as regular character Easy Reader), including this one.

Unfortunately, there's no extant video of this segment, but the audio from it was taken and used on the Peter Pan/Power Records LP album Spidey Super Stories!

And we have it here!

Note: Spidey didn't speak in the TV episodes!

His dialogue was shown in on-screen word balloons the audience would read...sometimes out loud...sometimes really loud, as my screeching little brother did!

So, ensemble member John Boyd (who also wrote most of the Spidey segments) did the webhead's dialogue for the record album!

Also note: Power Records did combination record album/comic books so kids could read along a comic with the audio...like this!

They adapted a number of existing Marvel comic stories featuring the Fantastic Four, Captain America, Man-Thing, and others...including Spider-Man!

But the comics versions of the stories in this particular album were found only in the Spidey Super Stories comic book!

The album didn't have any comics!

Please Support Hero Histories!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Best of Spidey Super Stories

(which, sadly, does not include this story)

Valentines Day Special NOT BRAND ECHH "Best Side Story"

What if the Silver Age Doctor Strange and Wonder Woman fell in love?

We'd probably have ended up with a serious version of this titanic tale!

Written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by Tom Sutton, this titanic tale was included in Marvel's Not Brand Echh! #6 (1968)...

...a romance-oriented issue that also included a look at how a Human Scorch (Human Torch)/Gristle (Crystal) marriage would work out, and Spidey-Man (do I haveta tell you?) marrying the unlikeliest character of all!

Please Support Hero Histories!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Marvel Masterworks

Not Brand Echh!

The Mystery of the 40-Year Old Missing X-Men Art

One of the Variant Covers of Marvel's Uncanny X-Men #1 (2018)...

...features the opening art from this text feature in Marvel's Rampaging Hulk #2 (1977)

Now, note the last page of the feature has NightCrawler, who BAMFed from the opening group shot!

The original art for the piece can currently be seen HERE, in the amazing collection of David Mandell!

So where is the accompanying NightCrawler illustration?

And why wasn't it incorporated into the Variant Cover?

We May Never Know the Answer...

Please Support Hero Histories!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Dave Cockrum Treasury

DAREDEVIL "Night of the Panther" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

...The Black Panther is drawn into a manhunt for Daredevil, who faces certain death due to blood poisoning!

The delirious and disoriented blind hero had managed to evade his pursuers, recovering enough to remember his girlfriend Karen Page was being held at his alter-ego Matt Murdock's apartment by assassin/robot creator Starr Saxon...who knows Murdock is Daredevil!

But the Panther has tracked Murdock/Daredevil to the apartment, and is first to confront Saxon...

DD and BP did, indeed, meet up several more times in the Silver and Bronze Ages, in the pages of both Daredevil and The Avengers!
Since that era, the relationship has been, more or less, ignored.
Starr Saxon kept tormenting DD for another couple of issues before meeting a temporary demise and being resurrected as MachineSmith!
One aspect which, in retrospect, seems obvious (but wasn't at the time) is that Saxon is gay, a matter made quite clear in his later MachineSmith incarnation.
Barry Smith has stated that was, in fact, the intent and that Saxon's feminine hands and fey gestures were meant to be subtle enough to get by the Comics Code Authority!
Compare Saxon's pointy-fingered hands with both Daredevil's and the Black Panther's square-fingered ones.
(One of Kirby's artistic quirks, which Smith imitated, was to give all males, no matter how big or small, strong or scrawny, those famous square fingers, while giving all females, no matter what physical build, long pointy fingers.)
However, Barry attributes his lack of artistic experience at the time to not being able to convey that as succesfully as he intended!
So, was Marvel's Daredevil #52 (1969) one of the first "politically-correct" comics, featuring a blind hero, a Black hero, and a gay villain?

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Order...

Essential Daredevil

Volume 3

(which contains this tale...but in black-and-white)

DAREDEVIL "Night of the Panther" Part 1

There are stories involving The Black Panther from the '60s and '70s that have been "lost"...

...either reprinted in other characters' collections or have never been reprinted at all!

This one has been reprinted, but not in color, and not where you'd think!

Guess Daredevil's been found, eh, Saxon?

Want to see how this story turns out?

Be here TOMORROW for the startling conclusion!

Written by Roy Thomas, penciled by Barry Windsor-Smith (during his Kirby/Steranko phase), and inked by longtime pro Johnny Craig, Marvel's Daredevil #52 (1969) is a dizzying smorgasbord of experiments in page design, perspectives, and color usage, some of which work, and some don't.

For example, here's pages 2-3 from the b/w French reprint...

Interesting to see what the primitive attempts at color enhancement both conceal and emphasize, eh?

Speaking of "conceal and emphasize"...did you note anything...unusual...about Starr Saxon?

We'll go into detail about what Roy, Barry, and Gene Colan who penciled the first chapter of this plotline intended!

Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics

Visit Amazon and Order...

Essential Daredevil

Volume 3

(which contains this tale...but in black-and-white)

The Black Panther...UNMASKED!

As most Silver Age comics fans know, Marvel's Black Panther debuted in Fantastic Four #52 under this cover in 1966 (making him 52 years old this year!).
But, did you know he almost premiered under this cover...

Note the Black Panther's figure was photostatted and "flopped" (reversed) and the exposed parts of his face were covered for use on the published version!

When Marvel reprinted this issue in their Marvel's Greatest Comics book in the 1970s, they couldn't use the published cover, since the negatives and photostats used gray screens on the Black Panther's figure and most of the background, so a new cover by Jim Starlin and Joe Sinnott was comissioned with the Panther in his then-current, non-caped costume with blue highlights...

When this tale was reprinted in Italy, a pre-publication photostat of the printed version of #52 was found (without gray screens on the Panther's figure) showing the Panther's face as well as the cape as seen in the original, unpublished version...

It's TRUE, oh Faithful Fan! (As Stan Lee used to say)
Heck of a way to start off Black History Month, eh?

Please Support Hero Histories!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Fantastic Four Omnibus

Volume 2

(Featuring The Black Panther's premiere two-parter and Klaw's debut as Master of Sound!)