1983: MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE Issue 99 featuring ROM THE SPACE KNIGHT

The "lost" issue of MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE: When Ben Grim met the Space Knight.

This, the penultimate issue of the run, was published in early 1983 (the May cover-date being, of course, several months ahead of the on-sale date) and is, today a mainstay of the 50p boxes.  If you see a copy: grab it.

It's clearly not demanding high dealer prices (ahem), or generating lots of reader demand, but it is the only issue of T-I-O that hasn't (and won't be, for the foreseeable future, anyway) reprinted.  The final ESSENTIAL TWO-IN-ONE volume simply skips the issue.

That's because Rom is trapped in a limbo that means that Marvel had long since lost the rights to the character despite firmly implanting him inside the Marvel Universe for the duration of the license (75 issues and 3 annuals).  That sales-boosting integration has also been preventing anyone else from acquiring the reprint rights: they'd also have to negotiate with Marvel to use all the MCU characters that pop up throughout the run.

This was reprinted in issues 15-16 of THE THING IS BIG BEN, making it Rom's last in-continuity UK appearance.  His SECRET WARS II crossover episode was omitted from the British run, possibly because Marvel had already handed back the license.  

1982: MARVEL SUPERHEROES and RAMPAGE MERGE (Marvel UK)

Two half-page house ads from the end of 1982:

Two Winter Specials, Conan and The Avengers, which - unusually - were full-colour affairs just before the format became the norm for MARVEL UK.

The other announces the merger of RAMPAGE (after 54 issues) with MARVEL SUPERHEROES (from 393… remember: that numbering stretched all the way back to the first issue of MWOM in 1972), transferring the New X-Men into MS.  

RAMPAGE retained a mention on the cover of the merged title for only two issues (it vanished after 394) but the X-Men stuck around for the rest of the run (Marvel Superheroes shuttered with 397) and then resurfaced in the replacement: the revived THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL.

Rampage was replaced by THE DAREDEVILS and Marvel Superheroes by the aforementioned second volume of MWOM.

The MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE strips that were left homeless when Rampage closed were revived in March 1984 with the launch of THE THING IS BIG BEN weekly.

1983: THE THING HOUSE AD (Marvel US)

Here's a fun Marvel US House Ad, from 1983, promoting THE THING's solo mag, successor to Marvel Two-in-One. 

1984: THE THING IS BIG BEN

Even in 1984, this seemed an improbable new launch from Marvel UK.  There's no doubt that the Thing was an iconic, eye-catching character, with some mainstream recognition thanks to the FANTASTIC FOUR animated series (although the same theory failed to make the 1980s FF weekly a success) but... did the (super) powers-that-be ever seriously think this was going to be a winner?

There's several schools of thought about how this ever happened:

1.  Someone thought of the punning title (maybe while ensconced in a Queensway drinking den) and no-one else was sober enough to stop them making it.

2.  The Marvel Two-In-One strips from RAMPAGE MAGAZINE had been more popular than anyone suspected.

3.  Someone had tipped-off Marvel management that the animated Thing series (aired in the States as part of the misleadingly-titled collision-of-concepts FRED AND BARNEY MEET THE THING.  They never did meet, the segments were separate) but, maybe, no-one warned them that Marvel had applied its typical quality-control process to licensing its characters and it bore little resemblance to the premise of the comics.  Either way, the TV show never reached the UK.

4.  Marvel, engaged in a dispute with WARRIOR MAGAZINE over ownership of the Marvel Man name, thought they'd stir the pot a little more by launching a comic with the same name as an existing Warrior strip.

5.  Marvel wanted to test their new colour-at-a-lower-cover-price format before rolling it out to more established comics.

The weekly line-up was originally reprints of MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE (issue 92-100 of the Team-Up style US monthly anchored by The Thing), Iron Man and Captain America (an Avengers-centric line-up reminiscent of CAPTAIN AMERICA's weekly).  But Cap was quickly jettisoned in favour of Power Man and Iron Fist (making it even more a replacement for the defunct RAMPAGE).  That line-up, supported by the oddly out-of-place Donald Dogfly humour strip from Hunt Emerson, remained until the lead strip was hastily bundled into SPIDER-MAN after only 18 weeks.

TTIBB had a unique for mat amongst the M-UK line.  It ran alternate colour and black and white spreads (which always gave the impression of watching a TV with a faulty colour control) following the same formula as contemporary issues of SPIDER-MAN, INDIANA JONES and THE SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN but was able to shave a few pence off the cover price by sacrificing glossy covers (a throwback of sorts to the early seventies and the 1979-82 "Skinn format").  The format, perhaps because it wasn't well suited to M-UK's new licensed comics, never took off and wasn't used again.

Issues 1 and 2 came with free card-based gifts.  The first issue came with a paper hat of the sort given out free at the Radio One Roadshow (the cover art shows it being red, but it was actually blue).  Issue two excelled itself with the hilariously named Big Ben Banger (its like they employed Benny Hill to devise their giveaways), a new name for a familiar freebie.

The appearance of ROM in the lead strip (issues 15-16), reprinted from Marvel Two In One 99, marked the Space Knight's last UK appearance (his SECRET WARS II crossover was omitted from the British run).

In addition to the weekly, Marvel also published an album-format special in the summer of 1984.  Strangely, in addition to more Two-in-One reprints (the Stonehenge-centric strip from US MTIO 33, the conclusion of a run of UK-based adventures), the special also ran original X-Men strips (from US issues 48 and 57) despite the fact Marvel's merry mutants had nothing to do with the weekly.

ISSUE 1

28 March 1984

The free gift cardboard cap.

ISSUE 2

4 April 1984

The free gift Big Ben Banger.  Avert your eyes children!

ISSUE 3

11 April 1984

Machine Man would, later in 1984, become the first regular back-up strip in THE TRANSFORMERS.

ISSUE 4

18 April 1984

ISSUE 5

25 April 1984

ISSUE 6

2 May 1984

ISSUE 7

9 May 1984

ISSUE 8

16 May 1984

ISSUE 9

23 May 1984

ISSUE 10

30 May 1984

ISSUE 11

6 June 1984

ISSUE 12

13 June 1984

ISSUE 13

20 June 1984

ISSUE 14

28 June 1984

ISSUE 15

4 July 1984

ISSUE 16

11 July 1984

ISSUE 17

18 July 1984

ISSUE 18

25 July 1984

Final issue.

Merger announcement.

First merged issue.

THE THING IS BIG BEN

1984 SUMMER SPECIAL

THE FANTASTIC FOUR AT MARVEL UK

As we're celebrating (what would have been) Marvel UK's 40th anniversary this year, it seems appropriate to look back at the publishing career of Marvel's first super team... who happened to be there when it all began...

Marvel's first family made their Marvel UK debut, appropriately enough, in the first M-UK weekly: THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL (but, of course, Power Comics readers of the late sixties would already know the foursome).

After that... things got interesting...

THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL (Volume 1)
1972 - 1975

329 ISSUES

1972 - 1979

The FF were part of Marvel's big-three line-up.  And the second to depart, after Spider-man, leaving the Hulk to hold the fort until 1979.

The FF reprints began, predictably enough, with US FANTASTIC FOUR issue 1.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN (Volume 1)

1975 - 1976

39 ISSUES

1975 - 1976

The "in full colour" cover splash was a tadge misleading: Captain Britain and Steranko's gorgeous Nick Fury were indeed in colour but the Fantastic Four, relegated to third-feature status, had to settle for the black-and-white bit in the middle.

But, they had the last laugh.  With sales bottoming out and US reprints of the lead feature sparse, the whole weekly went black and white (with a glossy cover) from issue 24.

But... that wasn't enough... and Britain's champion merged with SPIDER-MAN from 8 July 1976.

THE COMPLETE FANTASTIC FOUR

1977 - 1978

53 ISSUES

The Foursome get some solo action in their own weekly, albeit not for long.

The reprints kicked-off with US FANTASTIC FOUR 133 (April 1973).

The same run of reprints would appear again in SPIDER-MAN from issue 545 (17 August 1983).

The weekly proved short-lived and the FF were back in THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL from issue 298.

THE FABULOUS FANTASTIC FOUR POCKET BOOK

1980 - 1982

28 ISSUES

1980 - 1982

The FF were part of Marvel's first wave of Pocket Books, kicking off a run of reprints from US FANTASTIC FOUR 43.

MARVEL TEAM-UP

1980 - 1981

25 ISSUES

1980 - 1981

Back to the weeklies, and more contemporary reprints, in this short-lived supporting feature slot.

MARVEL TEAM-UP merged with Spider-man (briefly becoming the clumsily titled SPIDER-MAN AND HULK WEEKLY INCORPORATING MARVEL TEAM-UP) from March 1981.

FANTASTIC FOUR WINTER SPECIAL 1980

The 1980 FF Winter Special rolled out a reprint of US WHAT IF 22.

MARVEL ACTION

1981

15 ISSUES

1981

Just a few weeks after MARVEL TEAM-UP had passed on, the FF were back in Marvel's latest weekly: the even more short-lived MARVEL ACTION.

Looking like the kiss-of-death, the FF's new home managed a meagre fifteen weeks on newsagents shelves before merging with CAPTAIN AMERICA, taking the foursome (briefly) with it.

CAPTAIN AMERICA

1981

Here they are again, along with Thor, in CAPTAIN AMERICA weekly from issue 21 (15 July 1981).

FANTASTIC FOUR SUMMER SPECIAL 1982

Presumably to test the waters for their next weekly, the FF went solo again in the summer of '82.

FANTASTIC FOUR (Volume 2)

1982 - 1983

29 ISSUES

1982 - 1983

Reaction to the FF's summer excursion must have been good (or Marvel's management were running out of fresh ideas) as they were back in their own weekly that autumn.

The reprints rolled back to 1970 and US FANTASTIC FOUR 105.

The FF Pocket Book had closed in the summer of '82, the reappearance of a weekly presumably demonstrating that it was one of the more successful.

The new weekly was not a rousing success and it closed after a mere 29 issues.  Marvel's explanation: they didn't have time to produce it AND their two new colour weeklies THOR and X-MEN.  Yup.  Nothing at all to do with lousy sales.

SPIDER-MAN

1983

The FF merged with SPIDER-MAN from issue 529 (27 April 1983), enjoying a reasonable run as supporting feature.  A position they should have been familiar with.  

From issue 545, M-UK began to repeat strips previously published in THE COMPLETE FANTASTIC FOUR, albeit now with some pages in colour.

FANTASTIC FOUR WINTER SPECIAL 1983

What did casual UK readers make of this full-colour (whoa!) reprint of the humorous Fred Hembeck one-shot FANTASTIC FOUR ROAST?

THE THING IS BIG BEN

1984

Marvel Two-In-One, starring the Thing, must have made an impression in RAMPAGE monthly as, suddenly (and inexplicably... unless M-UK anticipated a belated UK outing for the decidedly off-message  FRED AND BARNEY MEET THE THING animated series), Ben Grimm was granted his own weekly.

But... Fame is fleeting (and the animated show never aired in the UK) and, to the surprise of no-one, the hilariously-named THE THING IS BIG BEN suddenly merged with SPIDER-MAN.

SPIDER-MAN AND ZOIDS

1986

The FF were announced as the third-feature (IE: the one that didn't get its name in the title) in the revitalised Spider-man weekly, beginning with issue 1.  But, apparently, Marvel encountered distributor resistance to featuring two superhero strips and switched the FF for the toy-based Sectaurs (its also possible Marvel were paid to run the strip!).  The FF did appear a few weeks later but, in what would become a SM&Z tradition, only stuck around for one story before vacating the back-up slot.

MARVEL ACTION HOUR

1996

4 ISSUES

1996

A VERY long gap before the FF's next appearance, linked to the belated UK debut of the animated MARVEL ACTION HOUR animated series.

Surprisingly, the fortnightly didn't reprint either the FF or Iron Man strips tied to the TV show published in the States, opting instead for seventies reprints.

Presumably falling victim to poor sales (the BBC ran the TV show early on Saturday mornings) and the declining fortunes of Marvel UK, Action Four vanished suddenly after only four issues.

For more Action Hour: see here.

THE POST MARVEL UK YEARS

ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR

2005 - 2006

10 ISSUES

2005 - 2006

Timed to coincide with the 2005 feature film, this companion to ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN and ULTIMATE X-MEN proved the least popular in the UK, ending after only 10 issues.

FANTASTIC FOUR ADVENTURES

2005 - 2012

Panini must have high hopes for the FF movie, adding FANTASTIC FOUR ADVENTURES to their Collectors' Edition line alongside the A4 Ultimate FF.  It proved the bigger hit, running until 2012 (clearing space for the launch of THE INCREDIBLE HULKS COLLECTORS' EDITION).

As with the other titles in the CE format, it reprinted near-contemporary US material.

It rebooted in 2010 with a new number one.