Wednesday Worlds of Wonder MAN-GODS FROM BEYOND THE STARS Part 2

We Have Already Seen...

Art by Neal Adams

In the far-distant past...

technologically-advanced aliens visit the Earth on a mission of exploration.

Their mandate is to observe, but not interfere.

In the present (1975)...

scientists discover ancient cave paintings that tell of god-like beings who came down among the primitive humans.

But, the paintings don't tell the whole story...

Next Wednesday: The Conclusion!

Written by Doug Moench, illustrated by Alex Nino. this tale from Marvel Premiere #1 (1975) has never been reprinted!
As we said last week, When Jack Kirby returned to Marvel in 1975, while he did take on writing and illustrating two of his greatest co-creations, Captain America and Black Panther, his new projects (Eternals, Machine Man/Mister Machine, and Devil Dinosaur, were all set firmly outside the Marvel Universe, as was the one-shot Silver Surfer graphic novel Kirby and writer Stan Lee produced (which you can read HERE),often referring to Marvel characters as fictional, 
All that went by the wayside, when Kirby left Marvel to do animation design for Hanna-Barbara and Ruby-Spears along with his own independent comics projects.
It appears the Marvel creatives couldn't wait to incorporate the new characters and within months, all of Kirby's characters were guest-starring in various titles including Thor, Hulk, Ka-Zar, and even What If?, firmly integrating them with links to everyone from the Norse and Greek gods to Thanos himself (who was retroactively made the son of two Eternals).

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Wednesday Worlds of Wonder MAN-GODS FROM BEYOND THE STARS Part 1

 Chariots of the Gods? was the primary inspiration for Jack Kirby's Eternals...

...now part of both the Marvel Multiverse and the Marvel Cinematic Universe!
So let's look at a strip from the same era, the mid-1970s, also inspired by Erich Von Daniken's concepts!

The Story Continues..Next Wednesday!

Written by Doug Moench, illustrated by Alex Nino.

Though largely discredited today, Von Daniken's books about "ancient astronauts" influenced pop culture from the 1970s to the present, including tv (BattleStar Galactica), movies (Prometheus and Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull), and comics (Tragg and the Sky Gods)

The Eternals was originally called Return of the Gods and, like Mister Machine/Machine Man was intentionally not intended to be part of the Marvel Universe!
We'll go more into that next week...

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Space Hero Saturdays MARVEL PREVIEW "Good Lord!"

A very kool tribute to EC's Weird Science and Weird Fantasy (& Weird Science-Fantasy)...

...which often combined sci-fi space hero adventure with horror elements!

There's an especially-ironic note to this EC tribute tale...the "Crusty Bunkers" inker ensemble, who like EC's "Fleagle Gang", who would help each other out with tight deadlines in the 1950s!
The Fleagles consisted of Al Williamson, Angelo Torres, Frank Frazetta, and Roy Krenkel with occasional assistance by Russ Heath, Wally Wood and Joe Orlando.

Their projects were often last-minute art "jams" with people doing anything from a figure or backgrounds in a panel to full pages at a shot.

The 1970s/80s equivalent was "The Crusty Bunkers", and consisted of artists based at Neal Adams' Continuity Associates art studio.

On this particular tale from the b/w magazine Marvel Preview #1 (1975), written by Marv Wolfman and penciled by Dave Cockrum, they were...(in alphabetical order) Neal Adams, Terry Austin, Pat Broderick, Russ Heath, and Joe Rubenstein.

And, like the Fleagles, they inked the story piecemeal, so you can see several different artists' styles on various pages, and even individual panels!

Penciler Dave Cockrum himself was at an artistic peak, having recently-finished his run on DC's Legion of Super-Heroes and was working on Marvel's then-recently-revived X-Men series that would make Marvel's mutants marketable again!
(Say that five times fast!)

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Reading Room MARVEL PREVIEW "Man-Gods From Beyond the Stars" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

British edition cover

In the far-distant past...

...technologically-advanced aliens visit the Earth on a mission of exploration.

Their mandate is to observe, but not interfere.

In the present (1975)...

...scientists discover ancient cave paintings that tell of god-like beings who came down among the primitive humans.

But, the paintings don't tell the whole story, for the aliens are far more human than even they suspect!

Are we, in fact, "Children of the Gods"?

This tale, written by Doug Moench, illustrated by Alex Nino was likely a "pilot" for an ongoing series, but, Jack Kirby's return to Marvel with his similarly-themed Eternals, this ended up dooming this to being merely an all-but-forgotten one-shot!

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Reading Room MARVEL PREVIEW "Sword in the Star: Stave Two: WitchWorld"

He, along with Groot, is the breakout star of the new Guardians of the Galaxy movie...

...but Rocket Raccoon had a far more inauspicous debut than most of his co-stars.

It began in Marvel Preview #7 (1976), in the second part of a space opera about a somewhat thick-headed space prince called Sword in the Star, as the lead character looked around on a new world for something to eat...

That's not Rocket in Panel 3...

And, that's not Groot in Panel 3 of this page...

It was, in fact, the final installment of Sword in the Star.

The "sticky wicket" created by writer Bill Mantlo and artist Keith Giffen was never resolved.

Mantlo explained the problem in a text feature at the end of the issue (which you can click on to enlarge and read)...

When next we saw Rocket Raccoon, it was several years later in the pages of Incredible Hulk (also written by Mantlo)...minus his British accent and without an explanation as to how he survived.

(BTW, Wayfinder also returned...in the pages of the Mantlo-scripted Micronauts, where he travelled into the distant past to become the founder of the Microverse!