The Bronze age brought us some of the craziest characters and covers ever created in comic books. We all know about Silver Age insanity, but that was the inventive pressure brought to bear on censored writers who had to make a Superman script but weren’t allowed to have him hitting people. In the Bronze age battles were back in vogue, but they hadn’t shaken off their habit of choosing random objects and giving them origin stories and grudges and goodness.
This cosmic comic book collection of 93 high grade issues spotlights some of the silliest stories. Literally, in the case of the Marvel Spotlight issues. Other iconic issues include the rise of the almost instantly dated 3-D Man, Ms. Marvel’s original hoodie/belly-top/bikini-bottom ensemble, the attack of the angst-wrought Warlock, the Inhumans, the Eternals, and all manner of other sub-X-grade groups.
One of the more interesting Marvel treats is an extended run of Howard the Duck comics, back when he was an intelligent satire instead of the stupidest cinema experiment in history. It’s hard to imagine a time when Marvel movies meant “total failure”, but imagination has always been helped by comic books.
The other treat for fans of history is a few issues of ROM, Spaceknight! The toaster-headed, flipper-fingered silver space robot has always held a special place in the hearts of fans, and here you can see him wave the failed craft-fair project he calls a “Neutralizer” at the Hell Hounds of the Black Nebula. We didn’t make that up. Bill Mantlo did, and then wrote it down so we could read it. And that’s why we love comics.