In the
great tradition of UK comics, it would absorb less popular UK
Marvel publications along the way. By 1976, it had been merged
with The Superheroes and adopted a strange
landscape format that saw more pages per story (two US pages
to one UK). This issue came just after the death of Gwen Stacey
at the hands of the Green Goblin.
By 1977,
the comic had merged with The Titans. At this
stage, it was being edited by Neil Tennant (yes, The Pet Shop
Boy)
The short-lived
Captain Britain saw another 1977 merger and
a return to a more traditional format
By 1978,
Captain Britain had been dropped and Spidey stood alone
In 1979,
Dez Skinn took over and instigated 'The Marvel Revolution',
which - in the case of the flagship weeklies - meant rebranding
to a more juvenile audience - shorter stories, dropping the
glossy covers and new simplistic titles (The Mighty
World of Marvel became Marvel Comic,
presumably because without the word 'comic', no-one would know
what they were reading). Long-term fans were appalled, but sales
role - for a while.
Spider-Man,
reduced to supporting character on the cover of his own comic
- the shame...
A few months
later and the two comics that started Marvel UK were merged,
with another change of title.
And then,
in 1980, the Spider-Man and Hulk weeklies combined. Dez Skinn
had left by then, and new editor Paul Neary dragged the comics
even further into kiddie level, having Spider-Man and Hulk 'answering'
readers letters. It was at this point that I finally gave up...
