We brought up the Dire Wraiths of ROM fame yesterday, but of course there has yet to be an action figure for those horrible creatures. Unless you use your imagination, in which any figure could be a shape-changed Wraith. (That one's a Skrull, put that back!) There was a pre-Legends, Toy Biz prototype for a Dire Wraith figure shown I believe in ToyFare long, long ago; that may have been intended for the same Silver Surfer wave that had the Meegan, which we've seen a few times. But, for the next few posts we'll check out some Wraith appearances, starting with one not in the GCD: from 1985, Marvel Age #23, cover by Bill Sienkiewicz!

Despite the great Wraith cover, this issue was hyping up "The New Direction" for the title, post ROM #65, which guest-starred about every hero in the Marvel Universe at the time. Actually, then I start looking, and can only think of who wasn't there: the Defenders roster had changed, so no Hulk or Dr. Strange, although Namor gets in there; no Thor but Beta Ray Bill instead; and no Spider-Man since Ditko wouldn't draw him! Anyway, after banishing the Wraiths from earth and all of Wraithworld to Limbo, Rom was free to return to space, and meander around before returning to Galador and the series finale #75.

Most of the art shown was Steve Ditko, although there's also an unused version of the ROM #61 cover by David Mazzucchelli and Terry Austin

There's also a reused photo of the old Rom promotional costume, which I would've guessed hadn't been used in like five years at that point.

Also, Marvel Age doesn't have the series' covers in the GCD, because despite being all about the comics coming out, in itself there wasn't enough comic content by volume to qualify for inclusion. Which is a shame, since some of the covers were pretty good; and there were usually comics from Fred Hembeck every issue!

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Pretty sure I had a copy of this, but you find something like this in the quarter bin, you kind of have to, right? From 1989, Fred Hembeck Destroys the Marvel Universe #1, story and pencils by Fred Hembeck, inks by Vince Colletta and Joe Staton.

A down-and-out Hembeck doesn't think things could possibly get worse, when he's faced with the Punisher, who wants to know if he's the guy that destroyed the Marvel Universe. Or, at least, all the heroes and villains, anyway. Well, yeah, but in his defense, he was tricked into doing it by his evil twin, and the pages were never published...until now! Which explains some of the minor continuity issues; like the Hulk was grey by the time this hit stands. Hijinks, of course, ensue.

Some of the jokes are hit-and-miss, like an extended riff on Doctor Doom's true identity as Reed's dad? And Reed's long-lost sister? I think I liked J.Jonah Jameson's reaction to incoming news of assorted heroes dying, which swerves from legit grieving to champagne popping off about when you'd expect. There was another book a year later, Fred Hembeck Sells the Marvel Universe, which was mostly reprints of his Marvel Age strips. There was also a 2016 the Marvel Universe According to Hembeck trade, but it's been a few since I've seen new stuff from him. Read more!

"--YOU!" "HIM!" "WHO?"

Fred Hembeck, of course! This is an issue I've known of for years, but not sure I'd ever read until just now! From 1984, Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #86, "Bugs!" Written by Bill Mantlo, pencils by Al Milgrom and Fred Hembeck, inks by Al Milgrom and Jim Mooney.

This was the (in)famous Assistant Editor's Month at Marvel, as the regular editors were all at San Diego Comic Con...for the whole month? Whatever. (We saw the Thing from that month some time back, and that's the only issue we've seen from then? Huh.) Assistant Bob DeNatale has a vision (not that one!) for this issue, and instead of usual artist (and Fanfare editor!) Al Milgrom, goes with...Fred Hembeck instead?! The first five pages are largely Al complaining about this, which is a sort of funny look at how the sausage gets made, but I'm not sure how well it went over at the time. It also might be twofold: plotwise, this one would've been a little thin otherwise; but the next issue was going to lay the melodrama on pretty thick, so they needed to have a funny one here.

The Human Fly was back in town, although he was losing the "Human" part and becoming more and more flylike, as in, eating a lot of rotting garbage. He knew it was gross, but couldn't stop himself; so it was time to seek vengeance on the archetects of his misfortune: Spider-Man and J.Jonah Jameson! JJJ had approached shady scientist Dr. Stillwell about creating a super-hero to rival Spidey; and kidnapper Rick Deacon volunteered for the job, to get back at Spidey. It didn't turn out the way he wanted, and he had since killed Stillwell (maybe?) and wanted the other two. Meanwhile, Spidey and the Black Cat are working through a bit of a rough spot--honestly, I feel like all we saw of their relationship was rough spots? Like any moment of them happy with each other wasn't dramatic enough and got cut. Spidey ends up taking her to the Daily Bugle, to show her where he works; which confuses her: why wouldn't he be Spider-Man full-time, 24-7? Why would you want anything else? Since Peter hadn't revealed his secret identity to her yet, she probably hasn't realized he's poor, either...

Luckily, the Fly buzzes past them, to attack JJJ. Seven page fight, with the Fly defeated in a brawl by the Bugle's printing press, as he refuses to give up a stolen cheese sandwich. Spidey tells off JJJ, to fix the Fly; I'm sure he spared no expense...I'm kidding, the Fly would get shot by Scourge in Amazing #276 two years later. Regular editor Danny Fingeroth returns at this point, and figures Jim Shooter is gonna lose it when this mess hits the stands, unless Al can pull their fat out of the fire by nailing the dismount: The Cat asks Spidey to take her home, back to his place, and instead of hearing "bow chicka wow wow" he has to have a massive internal debate. Overthinking is a killer; but he's right, it would be a problem. I don't know if Felicia thought he was going to look like Tom Selleck, but next month she acts like Peter looked like the Fly... Read more!