Cosmic Week Concludes: "Metamorphosis!" by Starlin and Milgrom

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! We're gonna end COSMIC WEEK with the biggest bang Ol' Groove can think of. THE comic that totally won Young Groove over to Jim Starlin and his cosmic consciousness, "Metamorphosis!" from Captain Marvel #29 (August 1973). Neither the Kree/Skrull War nor the earlier chapters of Captain Mar-Vell vs. Thanos (mostly written by Mike Friedrich) could have prepared Young Groove for what Jim Starlin laid 'pon us in CM #29. That cover (in spite of the John Romita head) with all of those funky planets really grabbed me, but man, the art and colors inside reeled me in and I s'pose I encountered a metamorphosis of my own. While I'd been grooving to Captain America, the Avengers, the JLA and other "mainstream" comics (as well I should have!), Starlin and Mar-vell, beginning especially with this issue, gave me an appetite for "something else". It was an elusive "something else" that, at the time, I couldn't quite put my finger on (and it's probably a good thing!). I'd never seen such...how shall I put this...psychedelic art. Yeah, I'd seen Steranko's S.H.I.E.L.D. and Kirby's FF, but, man, this was out there! Daredevil heads with arms and legs. Floating, talking eyeballs. Broccoli-headed cyclops. Talking trees. Stone-demon doubles. Soulless dead girlfriends. Judo Jim was speaking a language I was only beginning to understand, and it all but ruined me for "regular comics". I held on, though, and would be able to appreciate Jim's work on Warlock even more, but CM #29 was the catalyst that totally turned me on to cosmic comics. Thanks, Jim!

Cosmic Week: Black and White Wednesday: "Alas, the Seeds of Man!" by Mantlo, Hannigan, Russell, and Bryant

COSMIC WEEK keeps on truckin' with a special pick for BLACK AND WHITE WEDNESDAY, Groove-ophiles! A while back we rapped about Star-Lord's kick-off in Marvel Preview #4 (October 1975), and how that tale was intended to appear in the first ish of Star-Lord's own stillborn mag. Today we're gonna dig on Star-Lord's back-up feature, THE SWORD IN THE STAR. Now, TSitS, created by writer Bill Mantlo abetted by artists Ed Hannigan, P. Craig Russell, and Rick Bryant (innovators and ground-breakers, all), was to run in the first 10-12 issues of Star-Lord. (It's really cool that Marvel originally had that much confidence in the mag's potential. Wonder wha hoppen to douse that confidence?) Prince Wayfinder's story was conceived as an epic in the tradition of The Odyssey and King Arthur. You can tell from the premiere story that Mantlo was pouring his all into the concept. You could also tell that he had a definite vision for Prince Wayfinder and company. Check it out (complete with an equally epic intro)!

 

Only one more episode of The Sword in the Star was completed. It was beautifully illustrated by a young Keith Giffen (his first pro work!) and appeared in Marvel Preview #7 (Spring 1976) starring...Satanna? So, as you can see, Mantlo's epic was quickly made filler-fodder. Man, reality really stinks sometimes. (And yeah, Ol' Groove'll share that Mantlo/Giffen masterpiece with ya in the near future if ya want me to, so cheer up!)

Boisterous Bill did eventually find a way to complete his epic, though it must have morphed far, far away from his original intentions as Wayfinder found his way into the pages of The Micronauts in the 1980s. Via flashbacks we learn that the prince finally found his sword which evidently led to the creation of the Microverse, Time-Traveler, and the Enigma Force, all core-concepts of the Micronauts' own mythology.

Cosmic Week: "The Titan and the Hunter!" by Conway, Newton, and Rubenstein

Welcome to day two of COSMIC WEEK, Groove-ophiles! Today we're gonna take a look at how DC Comics handled "cosmic" during the Groovy Age. While DC specialized in sci-fi heroes during the Silver Age, it took Jack "King" Kirby coming back during the early 70s to introduce them to "cosmic" (or better yet, Kozmik) with his Fourth World mags. After Jack left, there were a few sparks of "cosmic" here and there  through the DCU (the best of which was probably Englehart/Rogers/Gerber/Golden on Mr. Miracle), but the best-remembered post-Kirby "cosmic" mag might be (emphasis on the might) Gerry Conway and Don Newton's Return of the New Gods. While Conway was more sci-fi than "cosmic" he was still dealing with Kirby Kozmik toys like Darkseid and the Anti-Life Equation, just in a calmer, less grandiose manner. Artist Don Newton will never be compared to Kirby (and no, that's definitely not a slap, Jack and Don are just very, very different from one another), but his New Gods have a majestic, classical feel akin to John Buscema's best Thor work, so Teen Groove really dug that. My fave ish, art-wise at least, was Return of the New Gods #16's (November 1978) "The Titan and the Hunter!" in which Joe Rubenstein did an especially suh-WEET job of inking Don's pencils. T'was the late Mr. Newton's fave ish, too, and Ol' Groove doesn't think you'll find it too hard to see why...

Cover art by Al Milgrom and Joe Rubenstein