Marvel Presents #9



Creative Team: Gerber finally turned in his script, Milgrom and Wiacek drew it, Denise Wohl lettered and Don Warfield colored, Archie took antacids

Synopsis: Vance hurls the script back at Gerber and yells at him for being late. Nikki tries to calm him down and sex him up; but, the full body condom and 1000 years of inhibitions interrupt things, as does a sudden course correction. The ship is under attack by the Reavers of Arcturus



Aleta knows what's going on: they have trapped them in a radiation bubble and will monitor how much it takes to kill them. They demand answers and Aleta transforms back into Starhawk. He gets all One Who Knows, then doubles over, then both Starhawk and Aleta are lying there!



They figure out that Starhawk and Aleta shared the same body and then Yondu communicates wit Aleta on some other plane. She illustrates that the Reavers attacked a city of mutants, one of whom found a human foetus in a jar, still alive. One of the Reaver, Ogord, takes the child as his own, to be a brother to his little girl, Aleta. The boy is named Stakar and grows up with Aleta. Stakar is obsessed with nearby ruins and sneaks off to explore, drawn to an underground temple of a Hawk God. Aleta trails him then says she will protect them.



Back on the ship, Stakar and Aleta are grasping hands in sick bay, just as we saw in the past. they reform into Starhawk's body and he rushes to the teleporter and has Martinexx beam him into space. This he does, then the Reavers board the Captain America. An old man observes on the Reaver ship, as John, Tar and Sita observe, as well.



Thoughts: Well, the ending doesn't sound good! Now we are getting into the origin of Starhawk. We learn of the Reavers, who are a nasty bunch of Nazis. Stakar is brought into their lives and affects Aleta, diverting her from her path. We will see in next issue where this leads. Meanwhile, milgrom and Wiacek prove a pretty good team and this stuff looks way better than previous issues. The Reaver ships are suitably nasty and the Hawk God statue is pretty cool.

Marvel Present #11



Someone's getting a time-out!

Creative Team: Roger Stern-writer, Milgrom and Wiacek-artists, Denise Wohl-letters, Phil Rache-colorist, Archie-guiding light.

Uh oh, Gerber's gone......

Synopsis: The Guardians have been blown into space...



It's all a fake, which Boba Fett later stole, as a pod detaches from the debris, latches onto a Reaver ship, and then the Guardians board and kick butt. Charlie has a whole pile of android bodies. They take the skipper alive, for interrogation and Martinex taps their data banks, getting the lowdown on Stakar and Alet, Starhawk, and how the Reavers took the kids and about their latent abilities. They hightail it after Starhawk, who is laying waste to defenses, as Aleta's mind urges him to save the children. Starhawk confronts Ogord, who unveils the kids, who zap Starhawk. Turns out they are psychic vampires and Ogord has unleashed their talents, on Starhawk. The Guardians smash through a control tower and crash their ship, then emerge, guns, arrows, brains and hands a-blain'! Starhawk is going down for the count. he switches to Aleta, to try to reach the kids; but, they are gone. They start to age as they absorb Starhawk's power, and they form a force bubble as the Guardians arrive. Nikki directs Charlie to grab Ogord, who yells stop, and the kids do. Yondo alerts Vance, who hits them with a psi-bolt, destroying the mind control headbands. They age into dust and are gone.



Thoughts: Well, that wasn't what I expected (originally, when I read this). not sure if it was what Gerber intended, though I suspect it is along the same lines. Not exactly sure why Gerber left. Howard the Duck is still ongoing and Omega The Unknown was still alive. It might have been related to the Howard newspaper strip, which started up around then, as Gerber was initially scripting it (but got fired, over deadline issues, and Marv Wolfman came on it). His blow up with Marvel wasn't until 1978.

Pretty sad ending for Starhawk, as his own father uses his children to try to kill them, only for the kids to die in the end. As One Who Knows, didn't he see this coming? Maybe he did and knew he could change it. Tragic stuff.

Well, it looks like we are in for a ride with Roger Sten in the writer's chair. let's see if it is a long one.

I thought that was hysterical, and I wonder if it was based on a similar scene from an early issue of Zap Comix.

Btw, it was later hinted that the Topographical Man is a future version of the Marvel villain the Living Pharaoh.

Thor Annual #6



Creative Team: Len Wein & Roger Stern-plot (Wein-edits & Stern-script); Sal Buscema & Klaus Janson-art, Joe Rosen-letters, Glynis Wein-colors; Archie Goodwin-Odin

Synopsis: In Manhattan, someone calls out, "Look! Up in the sky....It's a bird!.....It's a plane......It's.......Oh, it's just Thor. Never mind." Thor spots some cops not hanging out in the donut shop (nor are the singing or dancing, oh-way-oh. They don't even walk like Egyptians!). Some terrorists are holed up inside a Roxxon nucleonics lab, with a reactor, that they are threatening to send it into meltdown. Thor goes sauntering in and starts throwing hammers at things, breaking controls, so they can't set it off. They shoot at him, he laughest at them, verily. Then, the reactor gets a glowy and it and Thor disappears and then materializes elsewhere, where some purple dude, in the shadows, zaps him.



meanwhile, out in space, the Guardians of the Galaxy are out joyriding, with Nikki at the helm, in a new, boxy spaceship (must be a Volvo), when they are hit by a power beam and everything goes pear-shaped, equipment breaks loose, so that Marvel can demonstrate the GOTG's powers. Starhawk is outside and beams in and says they gotta go see who's monkeying with the universe and they change course, which is noted by som lizard dude (not a Badoon) and the purple guys hurls asteroids at them (why not; it's 1977!). They maneuver away and then Starhawk locates a Thro-cycle, when they come across where the purple guy zapped Thor.



They bring him on board and we relive the Avengers finding Captain America (Avengers #4) and Thor jumps up shouting about Bucky. Okay, he doesn' ; but, you're waiting for it.

We finally get to see the purple dude full on...



Looks like Davros.



Who looked like Captain Pike.



The alien underlings argue a bit and tick off purple dude and then he names himself, Korvac, then relates his past. he was a computer tech who wasn't recognized by his bosses; so, he collaborated with the Badoon. He fell asleep at the wheel and they decided to turn him into a living computer; but, he went all Vger and grew too powerful. He was snatched by the Grandmaster in GS Defenders #3; but, Dr Strange punched him back to the future. He started probing time and assembling his toadies, then sent a beam to our sun, to turn it nova, then siphon the energy back to power his devices (dude, get some batteries).

Vance makes introductions and everyone says hello to Thor, then catch up on the energy issue and they are on the attack. They beam out before their ship is destroyed, then run smack into the goons. They say, "Let's fight!" and are answered with, "Them's fightin' words!" Everyone goes at it and Thor and Starhawk go after Korvac and they get teleported back to where they came in, until Thor smacks it with a hammer. Starhawk zaps him with stellar radiation, then Korvac shows his missing eye and Eclipsos them into fighting each other (this is Marvel, after all). The Guardians whoop on the goons, then Thor and Starhawk start wrecking the place, which dislodges debris, which mashes Korvac's stuff (he just can't have nice things!) and releases the pair of them. They smash more of Korvac's stuff, ending his threat, though he teleported away, before. Thor disappears, back to 1977) and the Guardians move on.



Thoughts: Well, it was eventful; not quite coherent; but, eventful. Quite frankly, this is a pretty tired plot, where some future Marvel villain uses future technology to mess with the past, stirring up a hornet's nest of superheroes. Heroes are forced into fights, which they are losing, until they win them for no good reason and then villain buggers off. Then, reset button. Korvac ends up being yet another Kang, in this one, minus the thigh boots (and legs to wear them!). He would be put to better use by Jim Shooter, down the road (3 months down the road, to be exact). As these things go, it isn't bad; but, it's hardly epic. Kind of average, really. However, it does set up the coming Korvac Saga, in Avengers; so, it's got dat going' for it!

The art looks great, though it looks less like Sal and more like Klaus (his inks do that, with most people, though Sal was often doing just loose layouts for Klaus). Here and there you see more Sal.

We aren't told what happened to Drydock, though we can assume they built their new ship there. It's kind of a dull design....



compared to the old Trek-inspired Captain America, or Drydock. If only Dave Cockrum had done the design for it!

Still better than some of the Marvel Presents issues.

Next up: The Korvac Saga!

Was Milgrom doing a Starlin impression or did Jim provide uncredited breakdowns on this one?

GCD credits Starlin with uncredited pencils. One of their contributors thinks he pencilled about two thirds of the issue and another thinks he did layouts for all of it.