Groove's Faves: "Games Godlings Play!" by Gerber, Starlin, Wein, Adkins, Newton, and Mooney

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Today we're gonna rap about an all-time fave from one of Ol' Groove's all-time fave formats--Marvel's Giant-Size line of 1974/1975. Those 68 page quarterlies were always something special, extra-long stories (a lot of times with guest-stars), superior art--almost like a Silver Age annual four times a year! Giant-Size Defenders was one of the best, and one of its best issues was G-SD #3 (October 1974)--"Games Godlings Play!" Co-plotted by Steve Gerber, Jim Starlin, and Len Wein, with lay-outs by Starlin and finishes/inks by Dan Adkins, Don Newton, and Jim Mooney, "Games..." is a tour de force for our fave non-team. It's cosmic,  it's lyrical, it's whimsical, and it's even brutal at times. It's also innovative (Gerber and Starlin's use of pictures and set-type prose blew me away) and it introduces Korvac, who seems like a neat throw-away character here, but will later become a major Avengers villain. Not only that, but it features one of the biggest boo-boo endings in comicbook history--part of the legendary "Gerber Curse"? Wow! So much cool stuff packed into one ish--no wonder it was Giant-Size!

Cover art by Ron Wilson and Joe Sinnott

Oh, and that major boo-boo Ol' Groove alluded to above? Didja catch it? Here's the letters page from G-SD #4 in which fans point it out and Marvel responds. It's pretty funny. Oh, there's a minor boo-boo a sharp-eyed fan caught in "Gods...", too! Check it out...