Amazing Adventures - A very underappreciated title

First, some really neat comics history is in order. In June 1961, the first Marvel series bearing the name of this title was introduced to fans of science fiction and monster stories with artwork by Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. The first issue introduced Doctor Droom who is Marvel's first Silver Age superhero and remains largely unremembered. And, importantly, the third issue of the series is the first comic book labeled Marvel Comics. The series was updated as Amazing Adult Fantasy with issue 7. Most importantly, for the series final issue, the title was shortened to Amazing Fantasy and the one and only and final issue of Amazing Fantasy was issue 15. Yes, that is correct, the book that introduced the Amazing Spider-Man.

Marvel recycled the title in August of 1970 and the series lasted 39 issues ending in November 1976.

The first ten issues are double feature books featuring both an Inhumans and a Black Widow story. I love these books - the Inhumans were always cool stories in Fantastic Four and let's face it - the Black Widow is simply HOT. I am over half way to collecting the first 10 issues with double covers, but that is the subject for another day. If you can help me out with a double cover Amazing Adventures book, please drop me a note.

The next seven issues were Beast issues and because they are early Beast issues including his origin, they are expensive to collect in high grade. Honestly, compared to the Inhumans/Black Widow run before and the greatness to come after, they are the worst issues of the series. And I am a huge X-Men and Beast fan.

The last twenty-two issues contain one of the "classic" Marvel bronze age science fiction stories - War of the Worlds. At the end of the War of the Worlds, the Martians are decimated by human germs. The Martians return to Earth and enslave its people. The main protagonist, Killraven, is one of the slave-people bred by the Martians as a super-warrior. He frees himself and starts a rebellion to free Earth from the Martians. These issues get off to a terrific start with art by Neal Adams and Howard Chaykin. If that isn't enough, in issue 27, P. Craig Russell takes over and delivers bronze-age genius.

Fortunately. Amazing Adventures 36 and 37 contain P. Craig Russell art and were also printed as much rarer 30 cent price variants. This is the best of both worlds for me. Issue 36, "Red Dust Legacy," is an interesting story where Killraven and his Freemen arrive at a Martian incubation base where they must make a decision about whether to kill the young Martians. The CGC condition census for this issue is this lone 9.4 followed by four 9.2s. Thirteen copies of the 30 cent price variant have been certified.


Issue 37 is titled "Arena Kill!" Apparently there are people in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge who have managed to avoid enslavement by the Martian Masters. I saw the movie "Deliverance" and find this plausible. After discovering these people and beating their leader Brother Axe in battle, Killraven and the Freeman are invited to dinner where he begins a tale of his days in the Martian gladiator arenas. The condition census for this book is a single 9.6 which sold in 2003 for $103 followed by four 9.4s. The most recent sale of a 9.4 was in June of 2009 for $155.





To read Stronguy's review of the entire bronze age series, go here.

http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=3409154&fpart=4