Decades: Marvel in the '70s - Legion of Monsters

Decades

by Doug Moench (Writer), Neal Adams (Cover Art), Val Mayerik (Illustrator)

Collects Legion Of Monsters (1975) #1, Marvel Preview #8, Marvel Premiere #28; Marvel Spotlight (1971) #2 And #5, Tomb Of Dracula (1972) #1 And Frankenstein (1973) #1. Celebrate 80 years of Marvel Comics, decade by decade - together with the groovy ghoulies of the Supernatural Seventies! It was an era of black-and-white magazines filled with macabre monsters, and unsettling new titles starring horror-themed "heroes"! Now, thrill to Marvel's greatest horror The melancholy muck monster known as the Man-Thing - whosoever knows fear burns at his touch! Morbius, the Living Vampire! Jack Russell, cursed to be a Werewolf by Night! And the flame-skulled spirit of vengeance, the Ghost Rider! But what happens when they are forced together to become…the Legion of Monsters? Stories starring Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, Manphibian, the vampire-hunter Blade…and never-before-reprinted tales of terror!

Genres: Horror, Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Monsters

240 pages, Paperback

First published April 9, 2019

About the author

Doug Moench, is an American comic book writer notable for his Batman work and as the creator of Black Mask, Moon Knight and Deathlok. Moench has worked for DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Dark Horse Comics and many other smaller companies; he has written hundreds of issues of many different comics, and created dozens of characters, such as Moon Knight. In 1973, Moench became the de facto lead writer for the Marvel black-and-white magazine imprint Curtis Magazines. He contributed to the entire runs of Planet of the Apes, Rampaging Hulk (continuing on the title when it changed its name to The Hulk!) and Doc Savage, while also serving as a regular scribe for virtually every other Curtis title during the course of the imprint's existence. Moench is perhaps best known for his work on Batman, whose title he wrote from 1983–1986 and then again from 1992–1998. (He also wrote the companion title Detective Comics from 1983–1986.)

Moench is a frequent and longtime collaborator with comics artist Paul Gulacy. The pair are probably best known for their work on Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu, which they worked on together from 1974–1977. They also co-created Six from Sirius, Slash Maraud, and S.C.I. Spy, and have worked together on comics projects featuring Batman, Conan the Barbarian and James Bond.

Moench has frequently been paired with the artist and inker team of Kelley Jones and John Beatty on several Elseworlds Graphic Novels and a long run of the monthly Batman comic.

Reviews

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice collection of the odd monster "heroes?" of the Marvel universe. Only Marvel could figure out a way to make a Legion of Monsters team. Fun read. Recommended

[Jessica]

Fascinating look at the origin stories of several of the "monsters" like Werewolf by Night, Ghost Rider, Blade, Man-Thing, Morbius, along with horror comics like Tomb of Dracula, excerpts from Dracula and Frankenstein serials . . . and one weird story where Frankenstein's monster goes to a party, hits on a girl, then gets framed for murder . . . just real odd. Some of it was cool and fun, and some of it was dumb or cheesy as hell. Reading the Ghost Rider origin story I literally burst out laughing and then said, aloud to myself, "THAT'S how he became Ghost Rider?"

[tony dillard jr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many collections of classic Marvel materials are omnibuses that capture a complete run of stories starring a certain character or a specific genre. That's not the case with Marvel's Decades books. They are instead snapshots of the time period. In this case, the coming of Marvel horror.
Sometimes the stories featured are well-known legends, like that of Johnny Blaze and his deal with the devil that curses him to become the Ghost Rider.

Other episodes are rarities, like the coming of an alien creature called the Manphibian, a gill-man arch-type who is on the hunt for the killer of his lover.

Then there's those established characters who see new life in the pages of horror anthologies. Frankenstein's Monster and Count Dracula continue to roam the night looking for victims, sometimes running afoul of Marvel superstars such as Morbius, the living Vampire and the hybrid vampire hunter, Blade.

Several of Marvel's rarest horror mags are reprinted in this collection along with some great issues of Marvel's one-shot series Marvel Spot-Light and Marvel Premiere. As a fan of several comic book and horror fan groups on Facebook, I am aware of the Legion of Monsters popularity with horror comic fans. What I was not aware of was how much poor faith the House of Ideas had in the title. It only lasted 1 issue with 2 classic but ill-fated attempts to revive the idea. Legion of Monsters may not have been on store shelves for long, but with collectors such as me, they last forever in our hearts.

A collection such as this is such a mixed-bag. There's some classics and there are some stinkers. But what I love so much about this series is how it's both a grab bag and time capsule. Maybe a little bit more commentary would have been appreciated. But I quite enjoyed it warts and all.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been a comic book collector for years and I started with the old scary books, I love a good story but reading the entire book this time I learned why Marvel did their magazine format black and white books, That I always thought were neat but didn't understand why they weren't in color. Now I know.
By making them the way they did they did not have to be part of the comic code that told you how much blood or body parts could be shown, or control of content. The artist and writers were allowed to cut loose with there creativity without constraint, may or may not be a good thing. But now that I know this I may have to rethink my comic collections and start adding magazines just to see what has been done, I think I will enjoy the results. This was a good read.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like most of Marvel's horror titles of the 70s. (Werewolf by Night and what little I've read of Tomb of Dracula in particular.) The fact that they reprinted the text stories, news articles and movie reviews, is a little weird but very cool. My only complaint is that I sorta feel they should have put the stories in publication order. Yes, that would mean putting the three comics that gave the book its name at the end, but it would have given us a better idea of who the characters in the issue were BEFORE we got to that story.

[Chris W · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun retrospective on 70s era marvel. These stories are honestly fun horror stories. Dracula and the Blade issue were the highlights to me. But treat these comics as fun B movie renditions of horror icons and you'll have a blast

[Brannigan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The arts great but the stories are very dated(yes I know that’s the point(you can have older stories that are still fresh and entertaining)).

[Dustin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun collection of horror and monster comics from Marvel’s 70s period.