1983: THE FINAL ISSUE OF MARVEL UK'S THE DAREDEVILS

From November 1983: MARVEL UK's THE DAREDEVILS closes after a mere 11 issues.

This is probably one of the most famous failures in the whole pantheon of British Marvel books... and let's be frank... there were an awful lot of short-run titles in the 20+ years the British Bullpen was open for business.

One of the funny things about the failure - and subsequent merger with (the revived) MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL is that it didn't transfer the title star in the merger.  Frank Miller's DD didn't make the cut.  And the tie-up also sqeezed out the new X-Men, stars of MWOM.  Clearly critical success did not automatically secure you a place.

Captain Britain, the main selling point of The Daredevils, did fortunately make the cut.  Which is surprising considering Marvel UK's accountants were always looking at ways to end expenditure on new material in favour of freebie reprints.

The makeweight strip - Sixties Spider-man adventures, rehoused from the SPIDER-MAN POCKET BOOK the previous year, never stood a chance.

I must admit that - at the time - I rather liked the results of the merger.  And I still think the new MWOM was one of the stronger titles M-UK ever published.  Shoddy printing not withstanding.  I think the combined line-up pulled together the best of both worlds and - at the time - I lapped up the fanzine reviews (no longer written - like much of the original content in The Daredevils - by Alan Moore), the reprints of hard-to-find US limited series, the (just reprinted) Night Raven text stories and the showcase feature (my first introduction to H.M.S Conqueror, Britain's STAR TREK knock-off).

1983: THE DAREDEVIL POSTER/ PLUG (Marvel UK)

From 1983: MARVEL UK devoted the centre-spread of SPIDER-MAN issue 533 for a glossy plug for their DAREDEVILS monthly.

Come to think of it... it does look pretty appealing.

This appeared in May and DD was defunct by November.  It mustered only 11 issues before folding into THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL. 

1982: DAREDEVIL POSTER (Marvel UK)

From 1982: The striking cover art of MARVEL UK's DAREDEVIL SPECIAL, reworked as a centre-page poster for SPIDER-MAN issue 507 (cover-dated 24 November). 

1984: ON SALE THIS MONTH: THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL ISSUE 8 (Marvel UK)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  I hope one-and-all had a great festive break.

To start the New Year off... here is the first in a series of random on-sale-this-month blasts-from-the-past: the eighth issue of the revived THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL from early 1984.

MWOM and the short-lived THE DAREDEVILS had merged the previous month, a combination that bolstered MWOM by adding first-run Captain Britain adventures, Night Raven text stories, the Showcase feature and various text features.  Unfortunately, to clear space MWOM jettisoned the New X-Men reprints, ending a run that dated back some five years via MARVEL SUPERHEROES to RAMPAGE MONTHLY.  

The blow was softened by making Frank Miller's four-part Wolverine series the latest limited series to appear in MWOM.  

The Daredevils logo vanished from the cover after the tenth issue but the Captain Britain strip continued through to issue sixteen.  The seventeenth issue was the last. 

1982: MARVEL SUPERHEROES and RAMPAGE MERGE (Marvel UK)

Two half-page house ads from the end of 1982:

Two Winter Specials, Conan and The Avengers, which - unusually - were full-colour affairs just before the format became the norm for MARVEL UK.

The other announces the merger of RAMPAGE (after 54 issues) with MARVEL SUPERHEROES (from 393… remember: that numbering stretched all the way back to the first issue of MWOM in 1972), transferring the New X-Men into MS.  

RAMPAGE retained a mention on the cover of the merged title for only two issues (it vanished after 394) but the X-Men stuck around for the rest of the run (Marvel Superheroes shuttered with 397) and then resurfaced in the replacement: the revived THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL.

Rampage was replaced by THE DAREDEVILS and Marvel Superheroes by the aforementioned second volume of MWOM.

The MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE strips that were left homeless when Rampage closed were revived in March 1984 with the launch of THE THING IS BIG BEN weekly.

1982: THE DAREDEVILS Issue 1 (Marvel UK)

This is one of the most highly regarded, and thanks to copious contributions by Alan Moore, one of the most collectable entries into the Marvel UK pantheon: the first (of only eleven) issues of THE DAREDEVILS.

As I've previously noted, the line-up was headlined by Captain Britain (shuffled across from MARVEL SUPERHEROES), supported by reprints of Frank Miller's run on Daredevil and vintage Lee/ Kirby Spider-man strips ported across from the recently defunct SPIDER-MAN POCKET BOOK.  

Edited by Bernie Jaye, it merged with THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL within a year.  

This would have been the last Marvel UK monthly to launch with black & white (except the glossy centre-page poster… which one issue was used for a promotional poster which readers were encouraged to ask their newsagent to display… yup, M-UK's sales effort had been reduced to this!) before the coming of colour...

1982: THE DAREDEVILS LAUNCH AD (Marvel UK)

THE DAREDEVILS, edited by Bernie Jaye, is often lauded as one of the greatest of MARVEL UK's offerings, although it only managed to scrape an underwhelming 11 issues before merging into THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL (a combination which, to my mind, was actually superior… until the last issue anyway).

The line-up featured brand new Captain Britain strips by Alan's Moore and Davis alongside reprints of Frank Miller's run on Daredevil and some out-of-place sixties Spider-man reprints ported across from the recently defunct SPIDER-MAN POCKET BOOK.  A hefty number of text features (including new Night Raven prose adventures), most penned by Alan Moore (the copious amount of Moore material makes this a more popular than usual run of back issues), rounded out each issue and gave it a more adult for-the-fans feel.  

Launched at the end of 1982, this was amongst the final black & white comics launched by Marvel UK.  The following year saw the revival, as a colour monthly, of THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL… a title that would absorb this one within the year.  

The other half-page (I actually forget where I swiped this page from) is a Quinn/ Howett gag strip… a reliable standby in most of Marvel's British titles during this period.  

1983: THE DAREDEVILS HOUSE AD (Marvel UK)

This is a Marvel UK House Ad touting the legendary THE DAREDEVILS, published in the first issue of the revived THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL in 1983.