Two forgotten comics I'll never forget: my journey discovering Marvel Heroes continues (Rom, Nova, the Defenders)

The Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-man Board Game from Milton Bradley greatly expanded my love of Ditko (a name I didn’t know), and the Fantastic Four, and the Spider-man rogues in general. Along with Cap, Iron Man, Thor, and of course Hulk, as mentioned in my previous post, they were my first Marvel Super Heroes. Her cartoon assures Spider-Woman the tenth spot in my quest to discover Marvel Heroes. I saw Matt Murdock and a color-separated image of him thinking about, but not Being, Daredevil. It had to be within a few weeks of that when I saw the macabre cover of Amazing Spider-Man #220, with Moon Knight. I didn't get to read much of it, but I did read the Aunt May back-up story! That cover creeped me out good. I saw it a couple of times and felt like someone had walked across my grave, seeing Spider-Man in a coffin like that. And then, the number of super-heroes I could identify would double in one month. The two issues I schemed to buy for myself each featured a super-team. First, I met the Defenders. Marvel Team-Up #111 was probably read first, and introduced me mostly to Devil-Slayer. Unlike Daredevil, I actually saw him in action the whole issue. I would become friends, better than any other Marvel creator, with Devil Slayer's creator (with Rich Buckler), David Anthony Kraft. It would be just a few months before I would discover his writing in my new favorite comic book at the time, the issue of Defenders with Spider-Man in a box of discount comic books for my seventh Christmas. The other Defenders, however cool they looked, were cyphers who appear only at the end and say nothing unique. I liked Gargoyle instantly, but the rest seemed kinda DC under Trimpe's tiny figures at the very exciting end. I love the twist in that issue. These two comic books were far better than any I'd ever read before.

So the twelfth and thirteeth distinct and whole superheroes for me were the co-stars of Rom #24.

First, the opening is so great. I loved going outside and playing out the space scenes. Rom flying through Xandarian territory in that craft borrowed from Reed Richards has this sense of environment and protagonist, together, that delivered the alien nature of the hero and gave me a fascinating first dose of science fiction.

Rom #24 was so good, it makes me want two Nova movies: one where he fights the Sphinx, and the sequel where he takes a version of the New Champions to Xandar, defends against the Skrulls- and if they could get the movie rights to Rom, imagine him teamed up with Diamond Head and the Comet, but then, Star Lord and Warlock (who is actually dead in ‘81, when this issue came out). And do the whole Skrull surprise attack on Xandar! Oh, and I liked Powerhouse, second best. He's introduced with a battle with Rom in space, while the New Champions are on patrol. You get a much-better sense of who the Champions are, except for Protector, than you do the Defenders, since they are prisoners until the last scene of MTU #111.

But it was Rom and Nova that sold that cover, and they’re part of the first fourteen superheroes I knew well enough to give in-character dialogue. Rom the Spaceknight #24 was my favorite comic book yet. It's full of suspense and twists and turns.

I was the perfect age to enjoy these characters rendered by this team.

It’s after this that I started seeing the Marvel Super Heroes cartoons for a couple of years, and there, I learned of Submariner, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Ant/ Giant Man and the Wasp. Scarlet Witch was the most interesting of those to me; I liked her in the Avengers episodes of Captain America on the '66 cartoon series. I glimpsed Wolverine, getting his stealthy revenge against the Hellfire Club, and loved him instantly!

All of this is before not only my first year or two of collecting updated me on the Marvel Universe spotily, but the very Handbook arrived at the end of 1985 to absolutely absorb me with it as an encyclopedia, at the one time in my life I could appreciate it most. And I collected every issue.