#90s marvel

DON'T LOOK NOW, BUT IT'S SMART [GREY] HULK VERSUS SPIDEY -- GUESS WHO LOST?

PIC INFO: Resolution at 1040x1600 -- Spotlight on cover art to "Amazing Spider-Man" Vol. 1 #328 [part of the "Acts of Vengeance Event". January, 1990, artwork by Todd McFarlane -- essentially "cosmic Spidey" vs. the Hulk at his most physically revolting. Marvel Comics.

"Another part of Todd McFarlane's run on "The Amazing Spider-Man" Vol. 1, as well as part of the first "cosmic Spidey" storyline. This issue happened during Marvel's "Acts of Vengeance" storyline. Spider-Man gained new cosmic powers a few months before which allows him to go toe-to-toe with a smarter gray Hulk who was paid to kill him. Spidey actually punches the Hulk into orbit."

-- PAXTON HOLLEY (comic-book collector/aficionado/enthusiast via Flickr)

“Darkhold Redeemers” was a comic created in 1992 about a group of supernatural investigators in possession of the Darkhold, an evil book of dark sorcery that has evil pages scattered over the world. In Marvel lore, the Darkhold is the book that created the first vampires. The comic was created by 90s Marvel journeyman Chris Cooper (also known for creating Starfleet Academy, a comic about the adventures of Cadet Nog that tied in to the events of Deep Space 9). 

The book is notable for three reasons. 

The first is that the premise is shockingly and coincidentally similar to the later Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with occult investigations carried out by a group that is led by a beautiful, tight outfit wearing vampire killer from a lineage of vampire hunters (Victoria Montesi, the Montesi Formula being the way vampires are destroyed in Marvel Comics), and also includes a mouthy scrappy everyman, an occult expert and archeologist who’s knowledge of the supernatural and collection of books leads to the secret of beating the creature of the week, a tough as nails government agent out of his depth when fighting the supernatural, and finally, a tremendously powerful and immortal dark antihero who joins the side of good despite his dark past (Mordred the Mystic is both Willow and Angel together, I suppose). 

The second detail is that it was the first Marvel Comic with an openly gay lead character. You might have heard it was Northstar, but this is not true. Chris Cooper is openly gay himself and always fought for inclusion of this nature. Victoria Montesi’s debut predates Northstar coming out of the closet (a comic, incidentally, that Chris Cooper wrote as associate editor on Alpha Flight, so he worked on both).

There are, likewise, many candidates for who the first gay character in Star Trek is, but one of the characters with the strongest claim to this title is Chris Cooper’s Yoshi Mishima in his Starfleet Academy series. 

Chris Cooper eventually left Marvel Comics after the 90s. Nothing happened. Most people in a freelance job like comic editing and writing are not Chris Claremont, who are there for decades. Careers in the arts don’t last forever, and they have to come to an end sometime, where you go and get a real job.

But Chris Cooper came up again decades later in the news, was the subject of an incident in 2020 when birdwatching in Central Park (he’d been a member of a birdwatching society at Harvard), where he was threatened by a female jogger, who said she would call the police as he threatened her, when we can see he did no such thing. The incident was known as either “the Central Park Birdwatching Incident” or the “Central Park Karen.” 

Looking at the footage now, it’s easy to see why it was national news and viral on the internet. Apart from the obvious racial angle, it is a chilling reminder of how a woman’s vulnerability can become a weapon, and how man’s strength can turn into a vulnerability. 

All the while watching the incident, I was like "...the Darkhold Redeemers guy? No, it couldn't be...it's probably a coincidence, Chris Cooper is a very common name." But nope, it really was the Starfleet Academy guy from the 90s.

They're all late 80s-early 90s Marvel, lots of Spider-Man, and featuring some Avengers, X-Men, Quasar, Robocop, G.I.Joe, and Indiana Jones.

If you're missing an issue in your collection or want to get into vintage comics, these are authentic and in good condition!

Feel free to comment if you have any questions :D

Handsome Banshee.