If you haven't read Dark Reign Punisher The List (by Rick Remender and John Romita Jr), I highly recommend it. The ending was very surprising to me, and it sets up this next Punisher arc (starting in issue #11) with art by Tony Moore.
Mike McKone's cover to Punisher #12 brings back the Legion of Monsters to aid the Punisher (now FrankenCastle). Morbius, Man-Thing, Werewolf by Night are all there, along with the Living Mummy, who I haven't seen in decades. I'm looking forward to this, especially after the terrific job that Moore did recently Ghost Rider.
I'll be you dollars to doughnuts that Moore remembers this cover...
The very first (and only?) appearance of the Legion of Monsters in Marvel Premiere #28, 1975. As a total Marvel Monster freak, I couldn't wait to read this story. Written by Bill Mantlo and Frank Robbins, you had to admire the lengths that Mantlo went to have Man-Thing transported out of the swamp--it was an ordeal just to get all these horror guys together to fight a menace. It was a bit of a letdown, but I was always hoping for a return appearance.
Keep on eye on that logo, because it moved around a lot.
Later that year, Marvel published a black and white magazine called Legion of Monsters, with a Neal Adams cover painting. I had hoped for a team-up, but the magazine contained only solo stories. I believe most of them were inventory stories left over from the defunct magazines Dracula Lives and Monsters Unleashed. The editorial indicated that the magazine was an ongoing publication, but issue #2 never appeared.
But Marvel was never one to let a crappy logo go to waste! The Legion of Monsters title appeared yet again in Marvel Preview #8 in 1976. You would think with a cover like this, there would be a team-up, right? Blade and Morbius never crossed paths, they were featured in solo stories only. More inventory material, this time left over from Vampire Tales.
Let's raise a glass to Tony Moore, who loves Marvel Monsters as much as we do! Nuff said.
Back in 1973, vampire hunting was the province of white dudes with English accents. But Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan shook up that entire dynamic when “His Name is—Blade!” appeared in Tomb of Dracula #10! He was athletic and street smart in a way no other vampire hunter had ever been. Blade was the only guy who did what I thought was common sense: don’t bring just one stake—bring a dozen wooden knives to kill those suckers with!
Blade wasn’t afraid to get physical with Dracula. Looking back at these old issues, I wonder if we would have had Buffy without Blade? Blade’s daring and physical prowess in this series almost seems like a blueprint for Buffy. Blade’s “costume”—trenchcoat, glasses (to protect his eyes from blood spatters) and blade-holding sash belt—may seem funny today, but back then it was pretty cool.
Nor did Blade take any guff from the rest of the Dracula-hunters (Quincy Harker, Frank Drake, etc). In Tomb of Dracula #12 he told Quincy his origin story—that a vampire attacked his mother as she was giving birth to Blade! Little did we know that this vampire—Deacon Frost—was also the maker of vampire detective Hannibal King.
In Tomb of Dracula #13, we were stunned to see that Blade had actually succeeded in staking Dracula through the heart. However, killing Dracula and ending Dracula were two separate things. A horde of villagers were able to carry away Dracula’s body before Quincy and Blade cut remove his head. Dracula was revived in Tomb of Dracula #14 by a disillusioned preacher.
Tomb of Dracula reads like a 70 part max-series when you go back and re-read it. Dracula takes revenge upon Blade in TOD #17 by forcing him down and drinking his blood. By TOD #19, Quincy Harker has found Blade’s body and is prepared to put a stake through his heart. Not so fast, Jack! It turns out that Blade is immune to vampire bites, as a result of Deacon Frost’s attack at birth.
Just as I mentioned about the Falcon drawing me into Captain America, Blade—while not the single most important element—definitely helped make Tomb of Dracula one of my top favorite all-time Marvel comics. He’s featured on a number of TOD covers, including this one (#42), the only original art cover that I own.
This nifty pinup here, by Gene Colan, appeared in the black and white magazine Marvel Preview #3, Blade’s first solo adventure! It looks like a rare piece that Colan inked himself.
I definitely think that Blade is one of the best creations that came out of Marvel during the 1970s. Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan gave Marvel an incredible gift that resulted in the Wesley Snipes films. It’s unfortunate that they do not share more of a financial royalty from Blade.
This concludes Black Marvel Heroes from the 1970s week, hope you enjoyed revisiting Brother Voodoo, Black Panther apartheid, Panther’s Rage, Power Man, Power Man in the FF, the Falcon, and Storm! As one commenter wrote, maybe there should be a super-team with all these dudes! Nuff said.
