Groove's Faves: Crisis on Twin Earths!

What's happening, Groove-ophiles! Well, what's happening here today is yet another example of the genius of uber-fan turned uber-pro Roy Thomas. In 1969, Roy unleashed Marvel's evil version of DC's Justice League, the Squadron Sinister, in the pages of the Mighty Avengers (issues 69-70). A little over a year later, Roy sprang an alternate-Earth/heroic version of DC's greatest heroes on us and called them the Squadron Supreme (Avengers 85-86). Fans seemed to dig it, so both Squadrons Sinister and Supreme would pop up in the Marvel Universe from time to time just to make things interesting.

In 1972, Marvel revived their space-born super-hero Captain Marvel's mag, post Kree-Skrull War. With Roy at the editing helm, issues 22-24 featured stories by Gerry Conway and Marv Wolfman and inspired art by none other than the primo Superman artist of the 1950s, Wayne Boring. Boring was working in the comic strip field at the time, semi-retired from comicbooks, so it was a real treat to have him back, even for so short a time.

But our story doesn't end there, baby! Fandom got a big surprise in November, 1978, when they opened up to the superior splash page of Thor #280: if only for one issue, Wayne Boring was back, superbly inked by Tom Palmer. Roy had taken over the writing reins of Thor months earlier, giving us an early Christmas present as Thor teamed up with and battled both Marvel's versions of Superman, Hyperion, as well as the whole Squadron Supreme for a far-out and fun tale that blended fandom (the story was plotted by Don and Maggie Thompson, future editors of The Comics Buyer's Guide and two of the greatest comics historians of all time), Marvel, DC, the Golden-Silver-and-Groovy Ages, mythology and superheroes, fantasy and sci-fi into 17 pages of just plain enjoyment. It had to be a labor of love all-around and Ol' Groove digs it to this day. Bet you will too! Are you ready to face a..."Crisis on Twin Earths"? Yeah, I thought you were...