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Doctor Strange - Becoming The Sorcerer Supreme

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By 1972, Doctor Strange had had a somewhat chequered history. Created by Steve Ditko, he first appeared in Strange Tales #110 in 1963. Strange Tales was an anthology title at the time, featuring two separate stories, and Doctor Strange became a regular feature alongside, first, the solo adventures of the Human Torch, then Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD. In 1968, Marvel's owner, Martin Goodman, secured a better distribution deal for the company which allowed them to publish more comics. So Doctor Strange and Nick Fury both got their own titles, the latter starting with a new #1, and Doctor Strange continuing the numbering from Strange Tales with #169. Unfortunately, due to low sales, the book was cancelled in 1969 with #183. The writer at that time, Roy Thomas, was fond of the character and included him in, first, The Sub-mariner #22, then Hulk #126, gradually assembling a mismatched team of superheroes. They debuted as The Defenders in Marvel Feature #1 in 1971, graduating to their own...
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The Black Panther

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Marvel Comics' first Black superhero, the Black Panther, debuted in 1966 in Fantastic Four #52. The character capped off an immense period of creativity by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, following on from The Inhumans, Galactus and the Silver Surfer, and the standalone classic, "This Man, This Monster" in Fantastic Four #51. Whilst he wasn't the first ever Black superhero - that honour goes to the short-lived Lion Man created by George & Orrin Evans in 1947 - he was certainly the first to appear regularly in mainstream comics in the U.S. The story of his creation began in 1965. Martin Goodman, the owner of Marvel Comics, decided he wanted to expand their line of comics and tasked editor Stan Lee with devising some new characters. Lee, in turn, went to the man he had come to rely on so heavily by then - Jack Kirby. There are two possible reasons why Goodman was suddenly so keen to expand the Marvel line at that time; one is that Kirby's former partner with whom he...
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The Man Called Nova

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My first encounter with Nova was in 1977 when I was 9 years old. My older sister (she would have been 12 at the time) and her friends were holding a small sale on the green outside our house in aid of Cancer Research, and one of the items that had been donated by friends and neighbours was Nova #5: I had a few UK reprints of Marvel comics, but maybe only one or two other US comics, or maybe not - my memory of those days is unsurprisingly hazy - so it's entirely possible that this was the first time I'd seen a US Marvel comic. The UK reprints had only contained black and white art, but here was this weirdly small comic, but with full colour throughout! And how could I resist that striking Jack Kirby cover! Luckily, I saw it before it went on sale, and paid my sister the handsome sum of 5 pence for it. I read it numerous times (to destruction, eventually), poring over its entertaining tale of Richard Rider - Nova - his battle against Tyrannus and the awesome Earth-Shaker in Centr...
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John Byrne's Alpha Flight

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"Once upon a time I received the highest royalty check ever paid. Well, up to that time, anyway." stated John Byrne on his forum a few years ago. "It was for Alpha Flight #1, which sold slightly over 500,000 copies, which was also the highest any book had sold in a couple of decades. The royalty was $29995, which I only remember because Marvel's accounting department cut the check for $2995. They'd never seen a number that big!" Such was the popularity of this diverse, dysfunctional team of Canadian superheroes in the 1980's, that after the huge sales of that double-sized first issue, it remained a top 5 seller for the next couple of years - at least as long as John Byrne was at the helm. Byrne first had the idea for a team of Canadian heroes whilst at college. Although born in the UK, Byrne's family had moved to Canada when he was 8 years old, and he'd lived there ever since. The first member of this nascent team was "Sentinel." He...
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