Marvel Comics - the 1970s

[Adset]

i liked how everyone was put into teams, no matter how random.

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[gurkle]

i liked how everyone was put into teams, no matter how random.

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You may have heard this story, but Tony Isabella has said his pitch for The Champions was originally just an Angel/Iceman team-up book about them traveling across the U.S. Then the editor said it needed to follow the formula for a team book: at least 4 members, a woman (Black Widow), a strong guy (Hercules) and a character who had his own book (Ghost Rider).

[Mike]

I love the 1970's. I started reading Marvel books in 1975 at the age of 8.
Books I loved:
Avengers
Captain America
Champions
Daredevil
Defenders
Dr. Strange
Fantastic Four
Ghost Rider
Hulk
Iron Man
Marvel Triple Action/Super Action
Marvel's Greatest Comics
Marvel Tales
Marvel Team-Up
Marvel Two-In-One
Nova
Amazing Spider-Man
Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man
Thor
X-Men
Good Times -- Good Books

[Nomads1]

i liked how everyone was put into teams, no matter how random.

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Invaders_Vol_1_1.jpg

250px-Champions-1.jpg

These teams I really loved about the 70's.

Peace

[Panic]

I liked Starlin's Captain Marvel and Warlock series, the Spider-Man books, Iron Fist, and The Avengers (the return of Wonder Man, Nefaria, Korvac saga). Uncanny X-men was good, too.

[po-boy]

I started reading in the 1980's, so most of my knowledge is from early 1980's forward, but I have gone back and read some 1970's comics and I have enjoyed them. Most obviously were the Cleremont era X-Men, but I also liked some of the Avengers stuff from that time. From what I have read it was a good era, leaving behind some of the silliness of the silver age, but not yet wallowing in full-on grim and gritty and some of the over-the-top excesses of the 1990's.

[ed2962]

You may have heard this story, but Tony Isabella has said his pitch for The Champions was originally just an Angel/Iceman team-up book about them traveling across the U.S. Then the editor said it needed to follow the formula for a team book: at least 4 members, a woman (Black Widow), a strong guy (Hercules) and a character who had his own book (Ghost Rider).

I read that supposedly Tony wanted to include Black Goliath, but had to wait to use him?

[Tiamatty]

There was some pretty good stuff, but I think I prefer the 80's in terms of creativity in comics, especially more towards the second half of it. The 80's is my favorite decade when it comes to comics, even if I did start reading in the mid-70's.

Peace

I think the '80s was when Marvel - and comics as a medium - really matured. The storytelling became more complex, more nuanced, with deeper thematic exploration. Marvel also became more willing to take chances in regards to unconventional art. Bill Sienkewicz couldn't have existed in '70s comics.

[ROM Spaceknight]

I was born in the early '70's, so started reading comics in the latter part of the decade. Marvel in the '70's was superb - I feel it was by far their best decade of all time, hands down. In fact, I think Marvel's best years were from around 1968 - 1983. There are so many excellent books that came out during this time I can't list them all, but I'll try to list some:

Amazing Spider-man - extremely strong in the '70's.

Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-man: started in 1976, and is possibly my favorite SM series. I think by the mid-'80's the series became interchangeable with ASM, but in the '70's it seemed to be somewhat different; for one thing, in some cases I felt the villains in PPTSSM were more bizzare.

The Incredible Hulk

Star Wars - huge SW fan, and this Marvel comic was excellent; trippy at times, but overall great stories & art!

Marvel Team Up

Uncanny X-men

Ghost Rider

Battlestar Galactica - one of my favorite licensed comics; I felt this short-lived Marvel comic was better than the BG TV series!

Master of Kung Fu - need I say more?!

Warlock by Jim Starlin: Starlin's run on this title is one of the best comic book series of all time

Conan The Barbarian

All of the excellent b&w Marvel magazines in the '70's, i.e:

Rampaging Hulk

Planet of the Apes

Savage Sword of Conan

Deadly Hands of Kung Fu

By 1984 - and the Secret Wars maxi-series - I felt that Marvel was going downhill. I actually hated the Secret Wars series; very poor, and not even close to being as good as DC's sublime Crisis on Infinite Earths. Secret Wars, in comparison, was a crappy C-grade sci-fi movie. I was never thriller (but tolerated) Spider-man's black costume, and I didn't feel the series really added to the MU (unlike COIE re: the DC universe).

[Buried Alien]

By 1984 - and the Secret Wars maxi-series - I felt that Marvel was going downhill. I actually hated the Secret Wars series; very poor, and not even close to being as good as DC's sublime Crisis on Infinite Earths. Secret Wars, in comparison, was a crappy C-grade sci-fi movie. I was never thriller (but tolerated) Spider-man's black costume, and I didn't feel the series really added to the MU (unlike COIE re: the DC universe).

Moreover, 1984's original SECRET WARS series was probably where Marvel first developed its deadly addiction to event-oriented publishing (as did DC with COIE a year later). It was the beginning of the end for the primacy of relatively short, self-contained stories.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Electricmastro]

I was born in the early '70's, so started reading comics in the latter part of the decade. Marvel in the '70's was superb - I feel it was by far their best decade of all time, hands down. In fact, I think Marvel's best years were from around 1968 - 1983. There are so many excellent books that came out during this time I can't list them all, but I'll try to list some:

Amazing Spider-man - extremely strong in the '70's.

Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-man: started in 1976, and is possibly my favorite SM series. I think by the mid-'80's the series became interchangeable with ASM, but in the '70's it seemed to be somewhat different; for one thing, in some cases I felt the villains in PPTSSM were more bizzare.

The Incredible Hulk

Star Wars - huge SW fan, and this Marvel comic was excellent; trippy at times, but overall great stories & art!

Marvel Team Up

Uncanny X-men

Ghost Rider

Battlestar Galactica - one of my favorite licensed comics; I felt this short-lived Marvel comic was better than the BG TV series!

Master of Kung Fu - need I say more?!

Warlock by Jim Starlin: Starlin's run on this title is one of the best comic book series of all time

Conan The Barbarian

All of the excellent b&w Marvel magazines in the '70's, i.e:

Rampaging Hulk

Planet of the Apes

Savage Sword of Conan

Deadly Hands of Kung Fu

By 1984 - and the Secret Wars maxi-series - I felt that Marvel was going downhill. I actually hated the Secret Wars series; very poor, and not even close to being as good as DC's sublime Crisis on Infinite Earths. Secret Wars, in comparison, was a crappy C-grade sci-fi movie. I was never thriller (but tolerated) Spider-man's black costume, and I didn't feel the series really added to the MU (unlike COIE re: the DC universe).

I'll try to list some of the longer-lasting titles (at least 10 issues) aside from one that started in the 1960s:

Adventure into Fear (1970)
Amazing Adventures (1970)
Astonishing Tales (1970)
Conan the Barbarian (1970)
Li'l Kids (1970)
The Outlaw Kid (1970)
Ringo Kid (1970)
Western Gunfighters (1970)
Where Monsters Dwell (1970)
Kull the Conqueror (1971)
Marvel Feature (1971)
Marvel Spotlight (1971)
The Defenders (1972)
Hero for Hire (1972)
Journey into Mystery (1972)
Jungle Action (1972)
Marvel Premiere (1972)
Marvel Team-Up (1972)
Marvel Triple Action (1972)
Supernatural Thrillers (1972)
Tomb of Dracula (1972)
Warlock (1972)
Werewolf by Night (1972)
Dead of Night (1973)
The Frankenstein Monster (1973)
Ghost Rider (1973)
Uncanny Tales (1973)
War is Hell (1973)
Weird Wonder Tales (1973)
Doctor Strange (1974)
Ka-Zar (1974)
Man-Thing (1974)
Marvel Two-in-One (1974)
Master of Kung Fu (1974)
The Savage Sword of Conan (1974)
Adventures on the Planet of the Apes (1975)
The Champions (1975)
Howard the Duck (1975)
The Inhumans (1975)
The Invaders (1975)
Iron Fist (1975)
Marvel Presents (1975)
Super-Villain Team-Up (1975)
2001, A Space Odyssey (1976)
The Eternals (1976)
Marvel Classics Comics (1976)
Nova (1976)
Omega the Unknown (1976)
The Spectacular Spider-Man (1976)
Black Panther (1977)
Godzilla (1977)
The Human Fly (1977)
John Carter Warlord of Mars (1977)
Ms. Marvel (1977)
Red Sonja (1977)
Star Wars (1977)
Tarzan (1977)
What If? (1977)
Laff-A-Lympics (1978)
Machine Man (1978)
Spider-Woman (1978)
Battlestar Galactica (1979)
Micronauts (1979)
Rom (1979)
Shogun Warriors (1979)

[capandkirby]

Captain America: Secret Empire(the original one) , Madbomb, Baron Blood, Caps my favorite, does it show?

It shows that you have exceptional and exquisite taste!

Steve Englehart is my favorite mainstream comics writer of the '70s (even though he was never as good after) because he was able to bring some of those wild new ideas to flagship books, which is why his Captain America and Avengers are so fondly remembered. Most of the other key Marvel talents of the era were not flagship material.

Englehart is my favorite from that era as well. The efforts he put in to undoing anything produced during the 50's/Comics Code of Authority/McCarthyism era (and the various plot-holes created from that time) was commendable. For example, his creation of William Burnside to explain why there was a Cap comic in the 50's yet Steve went down in the ice in 1945. Bless Englehart.

[kilderkin]

It's got its faults, but in all honesty I love the books from this period having read them some time after it

Yes there are some books jumping on the then recent crazes but I still see that now just in a different way

I suppose my best gauge as to how good a period I think it was comes down to how many of the books I would read month by month if they were published now ( or that I did as reprints or back issues as a youngster)

I'm thinking I'd read most of the team books, team up books and a good half dozen or so solo titles, compare that to my current two books says it all for me personally

Of course there are several reasons why my current pull is so low of marvel products but that's not really the comparison being made

[kilderkin]

I think the '80s was when Marvel - and comics as a medium - really matured. The storytelling became more complex, more nuanced, with deeper thematic exploration. Marvel also became more willing to take chances in regards to unconventional art. Bill Sienkewicz couldn't have existed in '70s comics.

I do think marvel was strong in the 80s, at the time I loved the books, though I do think the mass of crossovers from secret wars, especially SW2 were not great

But there was some real invention under shooters editorial I don't think is always recognised

Some of the mutant books were fantastic and I loved the avengers and Spiderman, I do think the FF were fairly weak looking back but that's relative to two very good previous decades

[Electricmastro]

I do think marvel was strong in the 80s, at the time I loved the books, though I do think the mass of crossovers from secret wars, especially SW2 were not great

But there was some real invention under shooters editorial I don't think is always recognised

Some of the mutant books were fantastic and I loved the avengers and Spiderman, I do think the FF were fairly weak looking back but that's relative to two very good previous decades

I do think that 1980 was a big year of growing pains for Marvel, from the profound storytelling of the Dark Phoenix Saga to the careless mismanagement of Avengers #200 that fails to properly address the major plot point which can’t be summed up more objectively than rape, which wasn’t followed-up on until about a year later. Definitely a lot of lessons that I’m sure were learned.