I guess it just sounds better to the collective subconscious.

Also, this statement is a falsehood:
"Once again, Roy Thomas tries to convince readers that the past is better than the present..."
Nonsense. I can't even slightly agree that he ever in any way did this. It was only ever "it's kind of fun to play around with the past" nothing more.

Unfortunately, my violent aversion to Sword & Sorcery has kept me away from that part of his body of work.

I work as securities lawyer (and I've got two kids under 3) so I just frantically type up these columns when I'm eating lunch at my desk. You will all have to forgive me my typos and messed up facts.

My great-uncle appreciates the credit, but that should be "Wells'."

>3 issues in the color mag Marvel Super Special and then onto Marvel Fanfare (I think).

4 issues of Epic Illustrated in-between. The Marvel Fanfare story was originally written and part 1 drawn after the Marvel Premiere story, but was shelved when Ploog quit Marvel.

>Marvel probably should collect all of these stories just to appease the handful of fans knocking themselves out trying to put together a collection.

A recommendation I have made many times.

MH

Anyway, it was a credit to Cockrum that he could draw a throwaway eight page filler story featuring an obscure character and still make it look good.

Honestly, just say it out loud. If you can.

I really enjoyed both Invaders and All Star-Squadron (huge Robotman fan), but that could just be because I was a kid of the 70s and WWII movies, books and comics were HUGE then!

I've recently been re-reading my Invaders collection, and loved how the 90s mini carried on pretty much straightaway from the last issue of the original series. (Yes, Thomas did write the mini as well!)
I agree that both All-Star Squad and Invaders became a bit tired quite early on, but they both gave us some great characters - my favourite? UNION JACK - Invaders issue #8 (although technically issue #7 was his first appearance) and Baron Blood...

Really felt let down by New Invaders...

Have to say I dropped Premiere after Monark Starkiller... I just thought the logo was too much of a cash-in. bit pathetic of me really, but I had just moved onto Detective Comics and Captain America...

I agree with you concerning Thomas' non-golden age work. Arak was just awesome. His Thor, Man-Thing and Avengers were very strong. Funny how good Thomas was at creating new continuity, but seemd to put so much effort into trying to explain golden age, non-continuity. When he went overboard, (such as trying to tie the Frankenstein Monster and Gladiator into A*SS), it all seemed way too forced.

also i believe All-Star was a bit more fastidious and creative with the "retroactive continuity" (back when that meant methodically adding to and expanding upon history rather than willfully deleting chunks of it on a whim) and i found that fascinating since i was just discovering those Golden Age stories at the time and Roy Thomas's work in A*SS invested those simple strips with what seemed like such a greater meaning and importance.

yeah... i guess the storylines did get kind of muddy and the art a bit shoddy towards the end, but i still remember reading that series as one of the most rewarding comic book experiences of my life.

(haven't re-read any of the issues in almost 20 years so i don't know if i'd still feel that way reading it today... probably not.)

Wait! Did he write the 90s Invaders mini? THAT I liked.

Interesting idea, that of DC's Golden Age heroes having an edge over Marvel's. During the "silver Age", I was much more intrigued by Marvel's GA heroes. I suspect a lot of it had to do with the familiarity of the DC heroes. Not only was the JSA teaming with the JLA for several issues every year, but the GA Atom, Flash and Green Lantern would also pop up as guest stars in their Earth 1 counterparts' books. Other than Cap & Namor , the Marvel GA heroes were a mystery. Their reprints in Fantasy Masterpieves (and later Marvel Super-Heroes) were quite limited and other than the one issue of Avengers when Rick Jones channelled several golden age heroes during the Kree-Skrull War, Red Raven in an issue of X-Men and Jim Hammond showing up in a Fantastic Four Annual, it wasn't until Invaders that we caught any post GA writing of the heroes.

I actually liked the Invaders better than All-Star Squadron. What started as a GA fan's dream book, ASS soon deteriorated into a muddy, unlikable series. Young All-Stars started off fresh, but soon reverted to the drab existance suffered by it's parent title. The whole Spear-of-Destiny and the DC superheroes being supernaturally prevented from taking the war to the Nazis got old real fast. Perhaps Superman, Dr Fate and The Spectre would have been affected, but the Batman (and the other non-powered heroes), Green Lantern (whose only antithesis was wood), Robotman and the majority of other should not have been affected. The Invaders were right dab in the middle of the war. Machine gunning Captain America and Bucky, leading a unit of infantrymen, Namor lifting a U-Boat right out of the ocean and The Torch, whom we all knew would eventually fry Adolf Hitler himself right out of his goose-steppers - now that was fun. The Marvel GA's were indeed warriors. The All-Star Squadron looked acted more like they were playing dress-up.