Sidebar
 
Character Search
 
SuperMegaMonkey's Marvel Comics Chronology
Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
  Secret: Click here to toggle sidebar

 Search issues only
Advanced Search

SuperMegaMonkey
Godzilla Timeline

The Rules
Q&As
Quality Rating
Acknowledgements
Recent Updates
What's Missing?
General Comments
Forum

Comments page

1973

Previous | Main | Next

  

Not a lot going on here. We're at a low ebb for Marvel, after they stop being cheesy fun but before they start getting serious. Spider-Man under Conway is hit or miss. Under Stan Lee this was Marvel's consistently best title. Under Conway, it's sometimes good, sometimes pretty bad. Steve Englehart's writing is a notch above everything else here, especially when he's tackling political issues, but he's also much more invested in big continuity-laden stories than i had realized before beginning this project. Steve Gerber is writing Daredevil and a few scattered other things but he's not fully developed into the zany writer that people love so much. His stories are fairly generic at this point. I don't have a lot of nice things to say about the art this year either. Ross Andru takes over Spider-Man and manages to keep the house style but doesn't really add anything.

One notable shift is the increasing popularity of horror comics. Werewolf By Night, Tomb of Dracula, and Man-Thing started last year, and this year adds Frankenstein (although the original 12 issues take place in the past and aren't in my project), the Living Mummy in Supernatural Tales, and Tales of the Zombie (although i've pushed the early issues into the 1974 category for continuity reasons). Marvel also launches a number of black & white horror magazines (Tales of the Zombie is one, actually, and there's also Dracula Lives!, Monsters Unleashed, and others). The foray into magazines was in part a way to have more "adult" stories (in various senses of the word), since they were not ruled by the Comics Code Authority, and was also a reaction to a larger explosion of the horror genre in comics generally. What's interesting to me is how this genre did not replace Marvel's super hero universe but was instead incorporated into it. Prior to the Marvel Silver Age, comics went through fads reflecting various trends, and in a sense that still continues, but the Marvel universe itself is so solid and popular that those fads become part of the Marvel universe instead of standalone comics.

Speaking of fads, Shang Chi and his cast of Master of Kung Fu characters are introduced in Special Marvel Edition this year.

Bill Everett and Syd Shores both died this year.

Creator notes: John Buscema is still out there, keeping the Fantastic Four looking consistent. Everything else is by lesser known artists and the quality isn't very high. There's a tendency to attempt experimentation along the lines of Colan or Steranko but the talent doesn't match the ambition in a lot of cases, leading to muddled looking pages.

Marv Wolfman is added as an Assistant Editor.

Jim Steranko is being wasted drawing stuff for FOOM (Friends of 'ol Marvel) Magazine, an in-house fanzine.

Notable events: The highlight here is Jim Starlin's Thanos War, which he drew and mostly wrote. Starlin's epic feels about 10 years ahead of its time. He brings back a crazy Dikto cosmic weirdness while handling a fairly complex plot and introducing a number of compelling characters. There's not a lot in the way of character development, and the ending is a bit of a let down, but it's still a great adventure story and a standout among the rest of Marvel's output at the time.
New characters: Howard The Duck, Brother Voodoo, Hellstorm, Mandrill, Nekra, Chemistro, Nightshade, Thanos, Eros (Starfox), Mentor, ISAAC, Drax the Destroyer, Moondragon, Valkyrie, Shang-Chi, Wendigo, Firelord, Living Mummy, Blade, Satana, Mantis, Baron Zemo II

Notice in addition to (or in some cases as part of) the number of horror and Kung Fu characters, we are seeing more non-white heroes and villains introduced.

Hulk #159 
Iron Man #54 1st Moondragon
Amazing Spider-Man #116-118 
Captain Marvel #24 
Hulk #160 
Hero For Hire #5 
Daredevil #95-96 
Werewolf By Night #3-5 
Shanna the She-Devil #2 
Astonishing Tales #16 
Fear #12 
Hero For Hire #6 
Marvel Feature #7-10 
Tomb of Dracula #7-9 
Sub-Mariner #52-54 
Captain America #157-159 Captain America gains super-strength
Sub-Mariner #55 
Sub-Mariner #56 
Defenders #2-4 1st Valkyrie
Defenders #5 
Avengers #109 
Thor #209 
Hulk #161 
Daredevil #97-98 
Thor #210-211 
Thor #212-213 
Sub-Mariner #57 
Defenders #6 
Thor #214-216 
Hulk #162 1st Wendigo
Hero For Hire #7 
Thor #217 
Chamber of Chills #3 
Fantastic Four #133 
Marvel Team-Up #8 
Thor #218-220 
Hero For Hire #8-9 
Sub-Mariner #58 1st Tamara Rahn
Shanna the She-Devil #3 
Cat #3 
Fear #13 
Marvel Premiere #3 
Marvel Premiere #4-10 
Astonishing Tales #17-18 
Thor #221-228 1st Firelord
Marvel Premiere #11 
Avengers #110 
Daredevil #99 
Avengers #111 
Chamber of Chills #4 
Daredevil #100-101 
Avengers #112 
Sub-Mariner #59 
Shanna the She-Devil #4 1st Mandrill
Cat #4 
Sub-Mariner #60 
Fear #14-15 
Captain America #160-162 
Marvel Team-Up #9-11 
Sub-Mariner #61-62 1st Amphibians, 1st Hydro-base
Fantastic Four #134-135 
Werewolf By Night #6-8 
Hero For Hire #10-11 
Fantastic Four #136-137 
Amazing Spider-Man #119-120 
Hulk #163 1st Gremlin
Tomb of Dracula #10
Vampire Tales #2 (Satana)
 1st Blade, 1st Satana
Fantastic Four #138-139 
Avengers #113 
Hulk #164-165 
Sub-Mariner #63 
Red Wolf #8 
Marvel Spotlight #6-11 
Ghost Rider #1-2 1st Hellstorm
Marvel Spotlight #12 
Ghost Rider #3 
Ghost Rider #4-5 
Marvel Spotlight #13 
Amazing Spider-Man #121-122 Death of Gwen Stacy
Warlock #3-8 
Hulk #166 
Avengers #114 1st Mantis (full)
Captain America #163 1st Serpent Squad
Captain America #164 1st Nightshade
Captain America #165-167 
Defenders #7-8 
Avengers #115 
Amazing Spider-Man #123 
Hero For Hire #12 1st Chemistro
Shanna the She-Devil #5 1st Nekra
Avengers #115-118 / Defenders #8-11 Avengers/Defenders War
Marvel Fanfare #52-54 (Black Knight) 
Marvel Team-Up #12 
Daredevil #102 
Tomb of Dracula #11-15 
Supernatural Thrillers #5 1st Living Mummy
Monsters on the Prowl #24 
Daredevil #103 
Fear #16 
Avengers #119 
Marvel Team-Up #13 
Captain America #168 1st Baron Zemo II (as Phoenix)
Amazing Spider-Man #124-125 
Marvel Team-Up #14 
Marvel Feature #11 
Iron Man #55
Captain Marvel #25-30
Marvel Feature #12
 Thanos War. Thanos, Starfox, Drax, Eon, Titans. Captain Marvel becomes cosmic protector.
Marvel Two-In-One #1 
Amazing Spider-Man #126 
Marvel Team-Up #15 1st Orb
Fear #17 1st Wundarr
Amazing Spider-Man #127-128 
Fantastic Four #140-141 
Sub-Mariner #64-69 
Marvel Team-Up #16-17 
Daredevil #104-107 
Iron Man #56 
Iron Man #57-58 
Iron Man #59 
Hulk #167-170 1st Bi-Beast
Iron Man #60-61 
Iron Man #62 
Hulk #171-172 
Iron Man #63 
Iron Man #64-67 
Captain America #169-175 Secret Empire arc
Avengers #120-124 
Iron Man #68-71 
Avengers #125 
Captain Marvel #31-33 Conclusion of Thanos War.
Avengers #126 
Giant-Size Avengers #1 
Marvels #4 
Fear #18 
Fear #19 / Man-Thing #1 1st Howard the Duck
Strange Tales #169-170 1st Brother Voodoo
Hero For Hire #13 
Astonishing Tales #19-20 
Werewolf By Night #9-10 1st Tatterdemalion
The 'Nam #68 
The 'Nam #52-53 
Hero For Hire #14-16 
Werewolf By Night #11-12 1st Hangman
Where Monsters Dwell #25 
Strange Tales #171 
Special Marvel Edition #15 1st Shang-Chi & Fu Manchu
Punisher: Bloodlines 

Filter by character:
UPC Spider-Man
SuperMegaMonkey home | Comics Chronology home