The challenge here is to post an interesting COMICS TRIVIA QUESTION. The successful responder wins the right to post the next question, and so on.
Here's my question to start. Marvel Tales #29 reprinted the turning-point Green Goblin story from Amazing Spider-Man #39-#40 (and a Dr. Strange story). One might have expected Marvel Tales #30 to contain #41-#42... but instead it reprinted #58 and #41. It also had a new story, the third part of the Angel solo storyline in which he fought the Dazzler. What's the likely reason #58 was reprinted so wildly out of order, and what reason could Marvel have had for running the Angel story in the issue instead of the next Dr. Strange instalment?
Bonus points if you can explain why Amazing Spider-Man #37 was reprinted out of order with #42 (and the next Dr. Strange instalment) in Marvel Tales #31.
Replies
It also had the second part of the Angel story. But it was the last issue.
Since Marvel Tales #30 was cover-dated April 1971, it probably took the material slated for Ka-Zar #4 which was ASM #58 and the conclusion of the Angel tale.
Correct! The Amazing Spider-Man #57 ends on a cliffhanger, with Spider-Man apparently dead. This is quickly resolved in #58, as is the amnesia storyline, and Spidey and Ka-Zar go their separate ways. Ka-Zar briefly appears once more at the issue's end. If Marvel had not reprinted #58 somewhere readers of 1970 would have been left wondering how Spidey had survived and gotten his memory back. As it was Marvel Tales skipped from The Amazing Spider-Man #56 to #59 when it reached those issues, which I imagine drove the kids reading Marvel Tales in 1972 nuts.
I couldn't say whether there were ever plans to publish a Ka-Zar (1970 series) #4. It's possible the Angel stories were created for the title, but I would guess they were inventory stories since it was mainly a reprint title.(1) Either way, the final instalment was surely run in Marvel Tales #30 because that's where the continuation of the Spidey story was reprinted.
The likely solution to the bonus question is Marvel skipped over The Amazing Spider-Man #37 when preparing Marvel Tales #29 because it had already reprinted #38 in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #11, and it wanted to print the two parts of the Goblin revelation story together. Likewise in X-Men #69 Marvel reprinted the Mimic's introduction with the last part of the Sentinels story, apparently so it could run the two parts of the Magneto story together in #70. I can't say why Marvel didn't run the Stromm story instead of the Rhino one in Marvel Tales #30, though.
It's interesting what one remembers, and one forgets. I had some of these issues as a kid. I recognise the cover of Marvel Tales #30 from back then, but not that of #29, and I remember being frustrated by the cliffhanger of the Dr. Strange story in #29, but not the Angel story in #30 at all.
Take it away, Philip!
(1) Ka-Zar #1 had a Hercules story in the 11 page slot which ended with Hercules on the run from the Huntsman. One supposes it was an inventory story created to be the first instalment of a series that wasn't continued. The storyline was resolved in Sub-Mariner #29.
The only trivia question that I can come up with (right now anyway) is:
How many "evil" Legionnaires were there in the Silver Age? Not applicants or even the Adult Legion of Super-Villains (way too easy) but real members. I count seven.
Does that include temporarily evil Legionnaires?
Philip Portelli said:
If you count temporarily evil that would include all of the girls.
No, only those who joined with evil intent, not the regular members who were briefly mind-controlled/brainwashed/had bad dreams or split by red kryptonite.
Randy Jackson said:
If we included all of those ideas I think the answer would be ALL Legionnaries were evil. CBG did an article about how somebody seemed to betray the team about every other issue.
Then again I could argue Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, and Cosmic Boy were, considering the rotten initiation they gave Superboy. Or everybody involved in Supergirls' initiation. Then again initiations in fiction tended to be pretty nasty. Robbery, hooking up cars so that the back wheels would come off, and other fun stuff. In the first Frank Merriwell novel he was stuffed inside a bag which was then dragged around so he bumped his head a lot. And liked it.
1.The unnamed guy who "joined the Legion of Super-Heroes under false pretences" so he "could sabotage their Emergency Board to further a crime plot", Adventure Comics #327
2.Command Kid, Adventure Comics #328
3.Dynamo Boy, Adventure Comics #330-#331
4-6.Saturn Queen, Cosmic King and Lightning Lord, who were accepted into the Legion by Dynamo Boy in Adventure Comics #331
7.Nemesis Kid, Adventure Comics #346-#347
Kudos for #1, Luke but I said not to count the Legion of Super-Villains as too obvious so there are three evil Legionnaires to be accounted for!
Hmm. Crime Plot Man, Command Kid, Dynamo Boy, Nemesis Kid and
5.Universo in Adventure Comics #349? But he was never really a member.
5.Molecule Master in Superboy #201? But that's from 1973, too late. His name was used in the Silver Age (on the base of Reflecto's statue in Adventure Comics #354, both on the cover and inside), but he was not shown to have been a member then. And I don't recall the Legion swearing him in.
5-9.The evil Brainiac 5, Element Lad, Chameleon Boy, Ultra Boy and Invisible Kid from "Superboy and the Five Legion Traitors!" in Superboy #117? They were certainly evil, and real (former) members of a (good) Legion, if not ours. But they're excluded by your answer to Randy. They may have joined that Legion with evil intent, but the story doesn't say that.
Did the Legion grant young Lex Luthor honorary membership in Adventure Comics #325? I can't find my copy of the story, but I don't think so.
Addendum: I found it, and they don't. A hero who joined the Legion while temporarily evil would arguably qualify - Command Kid was possessed - but I don't know of any.
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next