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And They Shall Call Him... CHAMPION!

So recently, I went to an LCS and a buddy of mine saw me looking at this old Marvel Two-In-One Annual comic featuring the Thing. I fondly remembered my grandma buying me this comic from an LCS when I was a little boy. The thing with me was that when I picked comics as a child, I had a very shallow criteria. Either the covers featured large amounts of characters, ie: Crisis on Infinite Earths/Secret Wars OR they featured really old vintage looking obscure guys. Well at the time, I wasn't aware that Wonder Man was the guy with the shades and the robe and the comic had a whackload of cool dudes on it so that was the one I picked out. I loooved the comic. The Thing instantly became one of my favourite characters of all time after reading that (Actually, he was already one of my favourites after seeing him in Secret Wars II in the issue where he signed a contract with Mephisto to kick the crap out of the Beyonder in exchange for super strength but then changed his mind and beat up pretty much every villain from the Marvel Universe). Anyway, back to the comic I'm talking about. The Thing and a bunch of other heroes like Namor, Hulk, Colossus and Thor get forced into a boxing tournament against a guy who called himself the Champion. Crazy, right? Heh.

So later on, I was in my early teens and I ended up trading the comic away for another one and I don't even remember what that comic was... so it probably wasn't a very good trade. Later on, during an episode of Dexter's Laboratory, they had a Dial M for Monkey segment had a parody featuring the Justice Friends where they all get whisked away to a planet where they have to face a guy named Rasslor (voiced by Macho Man Randy Savage, R.I.P) in a wrestling tournament! I instantly thought back to when I got that old comic and how much of a shame it was that I traded it off. Anyway, yeah, my buddy got me the comic, I re-read it. It's still awesome. I'm not very good at telling stories but I thought I'd kick off this topic with something recent.

BTW, I realize I probably dated myself by saying that I got that comic when I was a child, but it was as an old boarded issue and was already probably decades old.

Well, that book was not all that old when I was a kid... I absolutely loved 1980's Marvel. Roger Stern Avengers, Mark Gruenwald Captain America, Walt Simonson Thor - these are among my favorite runs of any comics, ever. Really, really quality stuff. The various Spider-Man books had many different writers, but nearly always impressed. Side note: Spider-Man was a favorite for many years, but the character has been completely unreadable to me since the 1990's. I honestly lost all track of all the stupid crap they've done to him over the years, trying to repair the damage. I also liked the X-Men for a long time, but Claremont's burnout on the title became very noticeable around 1988 or so, and the quality suffered badly. There were some stories I missed the first time, like Jim Starlin's Captain Marvel and Warlock. I read reprints of those when I was around 12, and since then, I consider (Starlin-written) Thanos my very favorite character in comics.

Agreed on Starlin's Warlock and Thanos. Adam Warlock quickly became my favorite Marvel characer, then he died. " Oh well", I thought," I'll always have the Flash."
My favorite reads from childhood were "The Great Darkness Saga" from LoSH and the summer crossovers between JLA and JSA. The Darkness Saga had me hooked in, the storline was epic and the conclusion was worthy. I have to admit that I did not see Darkseid comin'. but then at the time he had been underused for a few years. The two JLA/JSA crossovers that stuck out for me was the death of Mr Terrific (murder mystery hmmm I was intrigued) and the Ultra-Humanites SSoSV from two worlds, just for the combinaton of villains they used..........that reminds me, I gotta get to work on that Signalman figure.

For me it was Mutant Massacre, Fall of the Mutants, and Inferno. Read those crossovers multiple times as a kid.

Also loved Marvel Team-up, it was always cool to see team-ups like that, even if nowadays those books are basically throwaway issues.

Hand of course the Offical Handbooks and Who's Who. Couldn't get enough of those.

Funny thing about Inferno, the only X-title I was collecting at the time was Excalibur. Inferno was so good (IMO), it brought me back into several titles.

Oh man, I loved Inferno. That whole Madelyne Pryor thing was crazy. Even as a little boy, I knew she was such a babe. LOL. And I loved Mutant Massacre as depressing as it was, it was exciting. I'm still looking for an old issue where Sabretooth kills Wings while Mole escapes. I got that issue in a junk trade when I was in Elementary school but it was missing the cover and I lost it later on. I never actually figured out what comic that was from. Might've been X-Factor.



One comic mini series that I was totally in love with as a kid was Fallen Angels which featured kind of a New Mutants cross-over/teen angst theme where Sunspot, Warlock, Siren, Boom Boom and Multiple Man join a group of mutant pick pockets which included super obscure Jack Kirby character, Moon-Boy. I remember I read the heck out of it. Specifically the issue shown above was one of my favourites out of the bunch and the cover art was a real commentary on '80s teen fashion.

I wasn't actively reading the "X" titles at the time of those crossovers. But, I remember some of the tie-in books. In particular, the crazily bizarre, even for Ann Nocenti, Daredevil Inferno issues. I also recall Thor versus the Marauders in a Fall of the Mutants tie-in; it wasn't much of a fight. Speaking of one-sided fights, how about when Spider-Man beat the crap out of the whole X-Men team in Secret Wars?

Ah, Secret Wars. I remember it well. Basically the main reason I started collecting Hasbro's Marvel Universe toyline. Sadly, they STILL haven't made a bunch of the heroes and villains who showed up for the event despite having made a Secret Wars 2 pack sub line... I need Molecule Man, Doc Ock (Really??), Volcana and Titania like yesterday.

BTW, that Thor segment vs the Marauders was sooo random, but I did find myself enjoying it.

AcidDragon wrote:Ah, Secret Wars. I remember it well. Basically the main reason I started collecting Hasbro's Marvel Universe toyline. Sadly, they STILL haven't made a bunch of the heroes and villains who showed up for the event despite having made a Secret Wars 2 pack sub line... I need Molecule Man, Doc Ock (Really??), Volcana and Titania like yesterday.

Titania is a glaring omission, especially with the She-Hulk body type waiting for reuse. It has to be just a matter of time for Dr. Octopus, but he better be the green suit/big shades version. How awesome is it to have a full Wrecking Crew, though? The miniseries doesn't hold up all that well, but there were some good fight scenes in Secret Wars. Secret Wars II, though, can go sit in the corner with no dinner. What even happened in that book?