Another issue of a magazine that puts non-Marvel Universe stories side-by-side with black and white tales of the horrorverse. I was very excited by the cover, hoping that Morbius and Blade would meet for the first time. Then I opened it up and saw this beautiful Man-Thing pin-up…
I think it’s by Manuel Cicente, but it’s uncredited in the magazine.
Unfortunately, Blade and Morbius do not meet. And there is no legion in this issue. Despite this teaser illustration on page 4, showing Marvel’s most famous monsters being disappointed that there’s no Man-God story in this issue of Marvel Preview.
(The true legion premiered earlier in 1978, but it was not good…)
Finally, there’s no Man-Thing story. That’s not a huge disappointment, but I was curious about a new artist.
Legion of Monsters had debuted in the February 1976 issue of Marvel Premiere. This is a shameful attempt to capitalize on that appearance.
So what is inside? Two fair-to-middling stories.
Story #1 is Morbius fighting a werewolf. He gets hired by a very wealthy British family to find a monster on their moors, and it turns out the monster is a member of their household. Morbius kills him.
Then Blade gets a solo mission fighting kid vampires. He’s squeamish about killing them. But he gets over it.
Also, Ralph Macchio writes a long text piece about Marvel’s monsters. And Morbius gets a page.
Morbius: Doug Moench and Sonny Trinidad.
Blade: Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan.
I swear, this blonde in the pale-blue negligee is on the cover of almost every horror magazine Marvel published at the time! She had serious job-security at Marvel in those days! The Manuel Cicente ‘Man-Thing’ drawing was good- I think Manny looks better with a relatively-“buff” physique- large, muscular guns, and sans his usual osteoporosis-hump. ( makes him look geriatric ) I don’t know where I stand on Morbius, the so-called “Living” Vampire. A vampire is a vampire is a vampire, and I think Marvel has enough vampires flying around without any lab-created quasi-versions. I understand his genesis is owed to Stan Lee’s wanting Spider-Man to have a vampire nemesis, but, in 1971, at the time of Morbius’ creation, “actual” vampires were still prohibited from comics by the then-standing Comics Code Authority. Frankly, Stan’s quasi-vampire was a weak-cheat, because, as noted above, a vampire is a vampire is a vampire. Strangely, in spite of my disappreciation of Morbius, I agree with the vast majority of ‘Spider-Man’ fans who maintain that ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’#100-102 was the best ‘Spider-Man’ tale of all time, ( so far, at least ) and it introduced the quasi-vampiric Dr. Morbius. The conclusion of 1980’s “Spectacular Spider-Man”#38- a Halloween story- gave us what was supposed to be, at the time, the final resolution of the ‘Morbius’ saga, but the “House of Ideas” eventually punked out on it by reactivating Morbius’ vampiric status just a few years later- Why-??!! The cure was a stroke of genius!!! So much for genius! By 1980, the Marvel Horrorshow was OVER and OUT, and it was time to chase the monstrous deadwood out of the House of Ideas! Undoing the denouement of “Spectacular Spider-Man”#38 was anti-climacticism at it’s worst! I hope Bill Mantlo wasn’t TOO pissed! I know I was! Oh, well! Every monster has it’s day, I suppose!
The interior cover illo is credited to Vicente Alcazar in the magazine . Check out his Satana art in Marvel Preview #7 !
You are correct! Thanks for the note!