RRP £12.99 Lowest New Price £7.77

Marvel Comics Number of pages: 616 Language: English (Original Language) Language: English (Unknown) Language: English (Published)

RRP: £12.99
Classic Marvel tales from the mid 1970's
Review date: 2008-12-08 Rating: 10 out of 10

This volume collects tales from 1974 to 1976 and brings back a host of old foes, a few new menaces and most memorably the first appearance of Wolverine credited at the time as Canada's first super-hero, although that is open to some debate.
Returning from the past are the Abomination, Rhino, Man-Beast (featuring Adam Warlock), the Missing Link, Wendigo, Zzzax, The Gremlin and from the Hulk's distant past the Toad Men. New menaces appear in Hammer and Avil, Warlord Kaa and the Devastator and alongside them are Marvel favourites Juggernaut (featuring the X-Men), The Cobalt Man, The Inhumans, Shaper of Worlds, Moleman, Locust, Collector with the Glob and Man-Thing. Xemnu the oddly cuddly looking Titan brings back 5 of Marvel's weirdest monster magazine creations.
This volume has SHIELD agent Clay Quartermain assigned to the Hulkbuster group, the death of one of General Ross' military allies, the release of Major Glenn Talbot from his Russian prison, albeit with his mind stripped, the return of Doc Samson and the last issue here (200) has the Hulk shrunk to enable him to go inside the brain of Major Talbot to try and free his mind.
Some of the art does look a little odd, Betty Ross especially comes off quite badly in black & white but the stories are what makes this volume so good and they more than make up for a few artistic glitches.
These tales may pale beside some of the recent major events like Planet Hulk and World War Hulk but this was an enjoyable read and these tales still maintain their appeal to me.