Byrne-ing to Read: "Spider In the Middle!" by Mantlo, Byrne, and Esposito

Whoo-hoo! Here we are with the concluding chapter of Bill Mantlo and John Byrne's Spider-Man/Hulk/Woodgod adventure! "Spider In the Middle" was a thrill when it came out in Marvel Team-Up #54 (November 1977), and a thrill it is, still! (Phoebe Snow wasn't singing about me, I know...)

Oh, and don't worry about Spidey. He'll be okay. Ya don't believe me? Well, then check this out...

Byrne-ing to Read: "Nightmare in New Mexico!" by Mantlo and Byrne

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Hey, baby, does Ol' Groove ever have a goodie for ya today! Have ya ever seen John Byrne's first official shot at drawing the X-Men ? The Jocular One's first professional Hulk job? How about Woodgod's sensational second appearance? Well, we've got it all
--even Spider-Man--today in "Nightmare in New Mexico!" from Marvel Team-Up #53 (October 1976)! Is today your lucky day or what? And it's only Tuesday!

And yeah, the previous masterpiece was written by Bill Mantlo and inked by Frank Giacoia!

Marvel Premiere-ing Through the Groovy Age: Why Marvel Premiere Rocked

Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! Today we're gonna trip through the Groovy Age once more, this time with one of Ol' Groove's fave Marvel mags...Marvel Premiere! MP ran throughout most of the Groovy Age, debuting in January 1972 and lasting until May 1981. That's sixty-one issues in all, a long and successful run considering the high-end life-span of a comic born in the Groovy Age was maybe (maybe) two dozen issues. MP hung on for nearly a decade and probably would have lasted even longer if not for the late-Groovy Age innovation we lovingly call the mini-series. 

The first two issues of Premiere featured Adam Warlock. Now, right off the bat, Marvel is ignoring their own title, since Warlock isn't technically a premiere but a re-vamp of an old Lee/Kirby character called "Him" (thus you'd think he'd have appeared in MP's sister mag, Marvel Spotlight. But no, Marvel was busy turning out brand new heroes like Werewolf by Night, Ghost Rider, and Son of Satan over there. Go figure...). Young Groove didn't care, though. This was Roy Thomas and Gil Kane at their most marvel-ous, taking Stan and Jack's artificial man, hooking him up with the maddest scientist of 'em all, the High Evolutionary, and sending him on a path not totally unlike that of a certain Man from Galilee.

Warlock quickly graduated to his own mag, which made room for Dr. Strange to make his series comeback in ish #3 (April 1972). Doc's series started out under the very cool but highly unlikely team of Stan Lee and Barry (pre-Windsor-) Smith, bounced through a variety of creative teams (guys like Archie Goodwin, Gardner Fox, Mike Ploog, and Jim Starlin) before settling on Steve Englehart and Frank Brunner, who would bring Doc such heat that he'd graduate to his own mag (again!) after ish #14 (December 1973).

Two "premieres", two successful spin-offs. Was the third time to be the charm? Well, when you consider issue 15 (February 1974) featured an actual, honest-to-Irving debut of a brand new character...a fella known as Iron Fist, I'd say, yeah, third time was the charm. Created by the Warlock team of Roy Thomas and Gil Kane as a combination homage to Bill Everett's Golden Age hero, Amazing Man/jump on the kung-fu craze bandwagon, the saga of Danny Rand proved quite popular. Though his popularity waned a bit as he passed through a variety of creative hands (Len Wein, Doug Moench, Tony Isabella, Larry Hama, and Arvell Jones to name a few), magic happened when two young mavericks by the names of Chris Claremont and John Byrne teamed up to produce Marvel Premiere #25 (July 1975). They clicked with each other and with fandom, carrying Iron Fist to his own mag which ran 15 issues, then combined with Power Man for a run that would last far into the 1980s under a variety of creative teams. Claremont and Byrne? They moved on to some comicbook about a bunch'a mutants...

After that, Marvel Premiere spent most of the rest of its run as the Showcase-style mag it was originally intended to be. There was some good stuff mixed among the clinkers, clunkers, and catastrophes. For every Hercules and Torpedo we got a Woodgod, Monark Starstalker,  Ant-Man, or Alice Cooper. Remember any of these?

The Groovy Age of Marvel Premiere ended with a bang (Caleb Hammer) and a whimper (Wonder Man)...

...then segued into the 1980s with Dominic Fortune, a short run of Dr. Who reprints, and finally, Star-Lord. And yeah, NONE of those were actual debuts, either.