Marvel-ous Mondays: "The Creature Called...Swarm!" by Mantlo, Byrne, and Esposito

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Back during the Groovy Age, the Cold War was still going strong, as was the movement to track down Nazi war criminals. Technology going awry was still a pertinent sci-fi trope, and Killer Bees were but one more "big thing" folks (especially readers of the National Enquirer) were really hung up on (or laughing about if they were fans of Saturday Night Live). Bill Mantlo, John Byrne, and Mike Esposito combined all those things, with a heavy dose of super-heroic action and horror movie menace to create "The Creature Called...Swarm!" for Champions #14 (April 1977). Yep, before the Michael Caine movie, Marvel had a villain named Swarm--and Swarm'd pop up many times (well into the 2000s) in a variety of comics (usually fighting Spidey or the X-Men) and other media. Seems that back then, a lot of fans though Swarm was kind of lame, but somehow Marvel has kept Swarm buzzing around in some form or fashion for 40 years! Here's part one of Swarm's two-part intro, baby!

Cover art by Gil Kane and Al Milgrom