Marvel UK 1985-86 Part 2 - Marvel UK enters the Secret Wars!

In 1984 Marvel US released Secret Wars. It was a tie in for a great line of toys from Mattel. The toys were ultimately a commercial failure, and nowhere near as popular as Kenner's Superpowers line of DC Heroes who Mattel were trying to emulate. The Secret Wars toys are still highly sought after by collectors, and the line holds the distinction of crafting the first ever Wolverine figure. 

Marvel decided to release a tie-in comic in the US where all the heroes and villains were transported to Battleworld to do, ahem, battle. A simple premise that created one of the most remembered series in comic book history. Whereas the toyline was a failure, the comic was a smash! Written by Jim Shooter and drawn by Mike Zeck it still elicits fond recollections from collectors today. 

Marvel UK, whose superhero line was entering its twilight period made the wise decision to chronicle this story in a fortnightly comic. (It later became weekly). 

The first issue screamed 'pick me up' with that exquisite cover by Mike Zeck and also came with some free transfers pictured above plus a great illustrated backing board on which to place the transfers. 

Lust like sister comic the Transformers, SW used a combination of black and white and colour pages. It also used back-up strips as was the format at the time for the company's fortnightlies/weeklies. 

In this case it was John Byrne's popular Alpha Flight and the Iceman mini-series. 

Iceman may not have been the most inspired choice (even though I quite liked the strip back in the day), the decision to include the strip may have been prompted by the characters visibility through the very popular Spider-man and his Amazing Friends cartoon that aired in 1983 on BBC1. This cartoon was a gateway drug for many kids into the world of Marvel comics. 

Early issues continued the trend of giving readers free gifts with a variety of circular foam stickers that were almost impossible to remove without damaging the cover of the comic. Here's SW #9 with the free mounted Enchantress sticker. It's a gorgeous cover with the superior shiny logo from the toy line that the UK version tended to favour in the early days.

Here is some of the resultant damage from the removal of said puffy stickers!

ARRRGH!!

Marvel UK's Secret Wars title had a different flavour from the US comic book it reprinted no question. One of the great things about it was a feature called 'Secret Artist' which featured full page caricatures of Marvel's shining lights. Some of these were fantastic, if not a little creepy. 

Now, I haven't a clue who this talented guy is but these caricatures are magic! Here's a sampling...

Here's another one of Hawkeye...

And finally a f&*(ed up version of Mr. Fantastic!!!

Special thanks to Ulysses Klaw for supplying those..

The fortnightly black and white editions eventually became weekly and full colour and the Iceman back-up strip made way for a spanking new strip called Zoids. This strip which featured great art and story and some of Grant Morrison's earliest professional work. 

The first Secret Wars was a classic, no doubt, it was really Doctor Doom's story. A man with the testicular fortitude to take on a God.

Issue #32 started the reprints of the much maligned sequel Secret Wars 2. #32 came with a free poster of US Secret Wars #1.

 The weekly often had cut and pasted different issues together and were often under pressure to fit a 22 page story (back up strips were gone at this stage) with a 24 page mag, while also including a classifieds section, their regular War Office introduction section and an ad or two. It was a precarious balance. They even went to the measures of enlarging panels and featuring them as covers. 

  Secret Wars 2 was an over ambitious attempt by Jim Shooter to bring the god-like entity, Beyonder, to Earth. It featured an abundance of navel gazing and existential questioning that often bordered on inanity.

 Still. if you didn't take it too seriously it was quite a fun read. Some of Shooter's musings on the media and 80's consumerism were a little heavy handed but humorous also. I got a kick out of it. Some of the crossover issues were excellent however. 

 Here is an example of an innovative UK cover design that takes a panel and puts an interesting twist on it. 

 All of the US tie ins were reprinted with the exception of the ROM and Micronauts issues licensing reasons. 

 All in all, the Secret Wars comic clocked up a respectable 80 issues, with a reprint of Avengers #266 serving as the epilogue was reprinted in Spider-man and Zoids. Then it was all over... The UK office turned its back on superheroes until Oct 1990 when the Complete Spider-Man hit the shelves. It was the end of an era and apart from the odd Iron Man back-up strip in Transformers or Power Pack strip in Thundercats, there were sporadic appearances of superheroes elsewhere, such as the rare summer special etc. 

 In late '86 Marvel released Panini's Secret Wars sticker album. I'll never understand the timing of this release as the Secret Wars title was finished two months later. Nobody really collected it as the Secret Wars toy line had died an ignominious death, with toys selling for 50p in Woolworths and other stores. But man, what an album and collection it is!!!! Here's a pic and you can judge for yourself. It featured a gorgeous Ron Frenz cover and was infinitely superior to the US version which had no connection to the actual mini-series.