some of my favorite comics 26

Spider-month Part 3 of 3: Marvel Tales #206

So yes, this is a reprint book-- mostly.  And, to their shame, in years prior to this issue, Marvel often abridged their stories for reprint titles without the public’s knowledge. (This happened all over in Marvel Tales, Marvel’s Greatest Comics, Marvel Double Feature, Marvel Super-Heroes, etc.)  By the time I started buying this title, fortunately, that awful practice was left behind.  Why collect a reprint title and not the current Spidey books?  Because they were old stories.  I loved the old comics even then.  Much of that was because I liked them, much of it was because I didn’t have access to the older stories on my negligible income at the time, and much of it was because I was such a fan of Marvel Saga, a book that chronicled older Marvel.  This is probably the first issue of Marvel Tales I bought off the rack, continuing a few issues later when they were running a bunch of Punisher appearance reprints.  I also enjoyed that they would often run new material in the form of a Peter Porker, The Spectacular Spider-Ham back-up feature, which this issue did.  What drew me to this issue, however, was a grand tale reprinting Marvel Team-Up #70 about the struggle of the X-Men’s Havok with The Living Monolith (both of whom I love).  Throw in Thor and art by John Byrne, and it’s a party.  The most memorable thing about my experience buying this comic was that I bought it on a family shopping outing to another county one night.  On the drive home, when I would normally read my comics, it was getting too dark to read.  I would use the headlights of the cars behind us to read the comic.  Because we were on a highway, the cars would often pass, and I’d have to wait for the next car’s lights to read what happened next.  What a way to prolong the suspense!  Anyway, years later, I bought the original MTU issue as well as a paperback black and white reprint of this story, with panels rearranged to fit the small book. Both items are living happily in my collection with this issue of Marvel Tales.