I don't think Legion of Monsters would work well as a regular series- it's more of an occasional wonder thing. Then again, stranger things have happened in comics...

Seeing all that 70's stuff -even the really wacky ones- makes me resent the current oh-so-serious, sell-by-shocking-twists comics of today (especially DC's) even more. Ok, it was weird stuff, but you could tell everyone, from the writers to the fans, had FUN with it. And wasn't that the whole point?

And Greg, I would love to see you cover the new cartoon series THE SECRET SATURDAYS just so you can have a column titled, "The Saturday Friday."

(It Is a pretty good show, btw.)

Hey, that Marvel Premiere wasn't the common foe trying to heal the monsters? Ghost Rider was defending him and the others went into mindless rages and killed him. Is that right? That's how I seem to remember it.

That's more or less it. The problem was that this godlike being Starseed had returned to Earth and caused his prehistoric mountain home to reappear in the middle of L.A., hence the title "There's a Mountain on Sunset Boulevard!" Ghost Rider and Morbius went to investigate, the Werewolf was following Morbius, and the Man-Thing just happened by, I guess. They found Starseed and after he helpfully explained his entire backstory, Morbius decided to bite him and it all went to hell. A fight breaks out amongst the five of them and Starseed is mortally wounded. As Starseed lay dying he waved his golden hand and cured all four of them. So Michael Morbius and Ted Sallis and Jack Russell and Johnny Blaze are all standing there in civvies, delighted and awed, Starseed dies and the 'cure' evaporates with him. The four revert to their monstrous forms, the mountain disappears, and the Legion of Monsters leaves, doubtless thinking, Guy coulda cured us. Damn, we is dumb.

The end.

Like I said, not Mantlo and Robbins' finest hour. The Legion of Monsters really does seem like a winner of an idea to me, though, done as a sort of horrific Defenders. Get a good writer and a non-spandex artist like Paul Pope or Eddie Campbell and you'd really have something.

Incidentally, I just discovered I have yet another reprint of it here, in a book called Ghost Rider Team-Up that I got from a dealer (for a dollar-- seriously) a while ago and just now flipped through. Marvel Premiere #28 is the first story in the book.

We get people flying down a motorway in fog banks, doing 90mph...

And the companies that used to be called British Rail still have trains delayed due to "leaves on the track" (it's autumn, what did you expect?) and my favourite of all time "the wrong kind of snow..."

I'll be looking for Dr. Brain now...

I’m pretty sure Stan stuck around long enough for six-armed Spidey.

Damn it, that made me go look it up.

You are correct. He stuck around EXACTLY that long. Stan scripted #100, where the big last-panel reveal is six-armed Spidey.

Then Roy Thomas wrote #101 and #102, the rest of the story. And incidentally, the introduction of Morbius. Which brings us full circle. Kind of. Okay, not really.

Boy, you can tell from World of Time that Jordan took a lot of Conan's ethos regarding women to heart.

I’m surprised it’s as bad in Seattle. Don’t you actually get snow occasionally?

It is our great shame, but yes, we do, and yes, we are still that stupid.

Here is my theory. (Every Seattleite has one and this is mine.) I think it's precisely BECAUSE it's only 'occasionally.' Every year we get some snow, it's true, but only once every two or three years is it more than a dusting. This is the first year in quite a while we took snow days at school, for example.

So the city won't fund actual snow-safety measures like plows and de-icer and all that stuff except in the most minimal way. Thus when we actually NEED it-- like this week-- we don't have it.

At the same time, the area is populated with all these corporate type-A California transplants and Microsoft wonks who REFUSE to stay home, and don't have the wit to purchase snow chains or even all-weather tires, because they never actually experienced real weather when they lived in California. They just figure they'll be fine, betting the farm on the it-can't-possibly-happen-to-me theory, or maybe figuring that if they have a problem they'll just call AAA and the triple-A elves will magically swoop in to rescue them.

There are an inordinate number of these people living here and more every year. That's my theory. It's one of the reasons Julie and I occasionally think about running away to the Peninsula. (Forks was looking pretty good until those damn Twilight books ruined it for the rest of us.)

Wow, that’s an insane amount of Kirby-aping going on at Marvel n the 70s

Indeed it was... but that Crusader FF cover actually IS Kirby. He was doing a lot of covers for them from '75 to '77 or so.

Have you seen The Specials with Rob Lowe?

No, but now I want to, if it's anything like Dr. Brain.

Try living up here in Canada!
With -25 degree celsius temperatures, and with -35 degree celsius wind chills.
That's normal temperatures for January and February, but we're getting them already in December.

Today's a good day tho'. Around -12 degree celsius.

Wimps!

Back to comics: a Morbius essential would be a good thing. Some of his issues were reprinted in the 90's, and were weird as hell. Hey, has Man-Wolf been reprinted yet?