Back Issue Comics Show - The Two-Headed Nerd Comic Book Podcast

Here There Be MONSTERS…Before the Marvel Midnight Universe! | A THN Back Issue Comics Show!

Marvel Midnight Precursors: X-Men, Spider-Man & Fantastic Four Get Scary!

The Back Issue Show returns with Marvel horror tales from the X-Men, Spider-Man, and the Fantastic Four!

M.A.C.H.O. here: Mobile Attendant of Comics, Hauntings and Omens.

At the request of Joe and Matt, I have fetched the frightening back issues from the Cosmic Long Box. This Halloween, The Nerds revisit the Marvel horror stories that came before Marvel Midnight: Uncanny X-Men #159 and X-Men Annual #6, Spider-Man’s Tangled Web #1-3, and Fantastic Four #67-70 and #500.

In this episode:

Storm’s date with Dracula goes poorly, and The Nerds have strong feelings about his beard!
Hulky, genderless Man-Bats!
Peter Parker’s old school bully eats the spider that bit him!
Doctor Doom does what Matt has wanted to see for years: sends Franklin to Hell!
Plus: a Nerd bet over whether Dracula crashes Marvel Midnight!

IT’S BACK ISSUE TIME IN THE ZIGGURAT!!!

From the Cosmic Longbox crawls…

Uncanny X-Men #159 — “Night Screams!”
Marvel Comics
Written by Chris Claremont
Pencils by Bill Sienkiewicz
Inks by Bob Wiacek
Colors by Glynis Oliver
Letters by Tom Orzechowski
Cover by Bill Sienkiewicz
X-Men Annual #6 — “Blood Feud!”
Marvel Comics
Written by Chris Claremont
Pencils by Bill Sienkiewicz
Inks by Bob Wiacek
Colors by Glynis Oliver
Letters by Tom Orzechowski
Cover by Bill Sienkiewicz
Spider-Man’s Tangled Web #1 | #2 | #3 — “The Coming of the Thousand”
Marvel Comics
Written by Garth Ennis
Pencils by John McCrea
Inks by James Hodgkins
Colors by Steve Buccellato
Letters by Richard Starkings, Comicraft and Wes Abbott
Cover by Glenn Fabry
Fantastic Four Vol. 3 #67 | #68 | #69 | #70 — “Unthinkable”
Marvel Comics
Written by Mark Waid
Pencils by Mike Wieringo
Inks by Karl Kesel (Lary Stucker on #70)
Colors by Paul Mounts
Letters by Chris Eliopoulos (#67-69) and Rus Wooton (#70)
Cover by Mike Wieringo and Karl Kesel, with colors by Richard Isanove
(*Editor’s Note: Sir Joe mistakenly said Johnny Storm died in #600).
Fantastic Four #500 — “Unthinkable”
Marvel Comics
Written by Mark Waid
Pencils by Mike Wieringo
Inks by Karl Kesel
Colors by Paul Mounts
Letters by Rus Wooton with Virtual Calligraphy
Cover by Paolo Rivera

Required Reading:

Midnight X-Men #1
The launch of Marvel’s Midnight line, written by Jonathan Hickman. The Nerds see Storm seemingly leading the mutant vampires as the link back to Uncanny X-Men #159.
Midnight Spider-Man #1
The Midnight book the Nerds compare to The Thousand: body horror, with spiders going inside people.
Midnight Fantastic Four #1
The eldritch demons-and-Hell horror the Nerds compare to Doctor Doom’s Unthinkable.
Kraven’s Last Hunt
Named twice as the horror-inspired Spider-Man story, and argued to be a creepier one than The Thousand.
In print: Spider-Man: Kraven’s Last Hunt [Marvel Premier Collection]
The Tomb of Dracula
Marvel’s Dracula series by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan, cancelled in 1979 after 70 issues. X-Men Annual #6 wraps up some of its last loose threads.
In print: Marvel Masterworks: The Tomb of Dracula Vol. 1
Mutant X #13
Havok lands in an alternate universe where Storm never stopped being a vampire: Bloodstorm. This issue covers her origin.
Hitman
The DC series Garth Ennis and John McCrea made together, which ended a year before The Thousand.
In print: Hitman by Garth Ennis and John McCrea Omnibus Vol. 1
Preacher
Garth Ennis’s Vertigo series, with Glenn Fabry painting the covers before he painted The Thousand’s.
In print: Preacher Book One
Spider-Man’s Tangled Web #4
“Severance Package,” Greg Rucka’s one-shot that comes right after The Thousand.
Spider-Man’s Tangled Web #5-6
“Flowers for Rhino,” drawn by Duncan Fegredo. The Nerds call it a wonderful story.
Silk (Cindy Moon)
The other person bitten by the same radioactive spider as Peter. She debuts as Silk in The Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 3) #4.
Fantastic Four (vol. 3) #60
Where Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo take over the book, the run that leads to Unthinkable.
In print: Fantastic Four by Waid & Wieringo: Imaginauts
Marvel Knights 4 #1
Launched around the same time, with Franklin Richards finally aging past “eternally four.”

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SOUNDTRACK:

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