The Mighty Marvel Checklist is back after a week’s rest (that first outing must’ve exhausted the poor thing) and there’s a lot more squeezed into its half-page entry inside The Real Ghostbusters (cover by Brian Williamson and Dave Elliott) from this day way back in 1988.
There was no checklist in #179 of The Transformers and Action Force but this will happen with either comic at different points over the course of the checklist’s run, and since I’ll be showing adverts from both along the way I’m just going to show both covers every week anyway. It also doesn’t hurt that Jerry Paris provided this Transforms cover, with the new and improved Optimus Prime taking on the role of quippy 80s action hero rather well.
The checklist doesn’t do the ‘busters justice this week, because not only do they meet the ghost of King Arthur of Camelot in the story briefly mentioned below, but in another strip the Containment Unit malfunctions and lots of fan-favourite ghosts and monsters from previous issues make cameo appearances and Slimer enters the unit to make the fix for Egon. Two very memorable strips for me.
Our two comics may get short-changed a bit but at least Huckleberry Hound gets his promotion promoted, the Galaxy Rangers edge closer to their final issue and in Thundercats did they really have to rescue those two? Interesting that the Doctor Who Magazine entry focuses solely on the comic strip when it’s only one part of the publication. Then again, it had a lot less pages back then so the strip was a bigger part of the whole.
Finally, Dragon and his Claws got their first inkling of the true nature of their missions for the National Union of Retired Sports Experts (N.U.R.S.E) in the dystopian future of 8162, the start of an arc that would become the main thread of the final issues the following year. I read the whole series for the first time only two years ago and it was a phenomenal comic, one that deserved to run and run but would ultimately be cut short just ten issues in.
As we go through this weekly series any issues of the comics featured on the checklist (or adverts) that have been covered on the blog (or on Instagram in the case of Transformers) will be linked to at the bottom of each post, alongside any titles that have received a more general round up in the Retrospectives section. You never know, there might be more of these Marvel UK comics to add to these links on the blog as time goes on.
Don’t forget, if you remember reading any of these issues let us know on the socials (links in the menu).
Okay, so as I said on the menu page for this series there were eight weeks in total out of a whopping 74 that The Real Ghostbusters (still fortnightly so no issue this week) and Transformers didn’t print a Mighty Marvel Checklist. However, I did promise I’d also be showing you all of the comics adverts published alongside the checklists as we go, and that they’d help us plug those annoying gaps.
First up though, what’s with that circus-based Stephen Baskerville cover? The Cosmic Carnival is a story I’ve seen derided in the usual negativity-filled corners of the fandom but when I read it for the first time a handful of years back I found it to be a silly but fun story. Taking prisoner the brilliant Sky Lynx and the human children he’s protecting, a space station-based circus puts them to work in small display cages and in the ring for daring feats. It’s actually a clever script that highlighted the problem with zoos of the day, as well as introducing a wider universe of alien species to the comic.
It’s also important to remember we’re talking about a comic starring sentient robots from outer space that can transform into various forms of human transport so sometimes it’s best not to take things too seriously. So, on to that advert and it’s one that brings back memories. Back in 1988 I read the comic advertised this week, the very first edition of The Marvel Bumper Comic. Fleetway had been enjoying great success with their Big Comic Books and had just released their new fortnightly comic version in mid-June. Repackaging reprints had the potential of great returns with little outgoings.
The Marvel Bumper Comic would soon become a fortnightly (then weekly) comic itself but this was the only one I bought as a kid. I remember enjoying it but wishing the strips weren’t so short. Obviously quantity was key here to reinforce the “Bumper” part of the title. Plus it didn’t hurt trying to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. It’s a curious glimpse at the Marvel UK of the day in one purchase if you can find it on eBay. Perhaps one to join the blog at a later date? Perhaps.
Did you buy the Holiday Special edition of the Bumper Comic? Have you any particularly fond memories of it or any of its contents? What did you think of publishers repackaging old strips to coax more pocket money out of our… erm, pockets? Let us know on the socials at Bluesky, Instagram or Facebook, why don’t you? More comics to check off the list next week.
Last month’s competition caused a little bit of Havoc, with quite a few wild stabs in the dark to the question I set: What TV duo did I liken the pairing of human Michael Collins and the Deathlok computer to? Thankfully some of you had actually read the posts (or went looking instead of guessing) where I mentioned the simply unforgettable Michael Knight and K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider. Congratulations Joseph Redmond of Cardiff, I hope you enjoy the first two issues of Havoc!
Up next are two doubles of a fan favourite comic, one that was a hit with blog readers when I read it (for the first time ever) a couple of years ago. Marvel UK’s Dragon’s Claws was created by Simon Furman and Geoff Senior of Transformers fame and it was simply incredible. What we have here are #4 in which the Claws find themselves facing off against two French armies after being sent to arrest a supposed terrorist group, and in the penultimate issue #9 Dragon et all are pitched against their nemeses The Evil Dead in the HQ of N.U.R.S.E.!
Just like the last handful of competitions you have 14 days to scour the blog for the answer to the following question:
Q – What was the name of the Claws’ pooch?
When you’ve got the answer (it’s on the blog, you just have to find it) you can either email it to me at oink.blog@icloud.com(all emails will be deleted after the winner has been selected, I don’t have a newsletter or anything like that), or use the contact form you can find on the right-hand side of your desktop screen or under this post on mobile. Your entry must be with me by midnight on Thursday 14th August 2025.
After this date I’ll contact the winner to ask for their postal address. Unfortunately, due to rising postage costs the competitions are only open to UK and Ireland readers. If you win I’ll ask if you could take a photo of you with your prize for inclusion in next month’s competition post. You don’t have to, but you do get to show off if you do.
Just for transparency, #4 has a bit of colouring-in on the cover and a small spine tear, and #9’s cover has come away from the spine a little.
There’s now a page on the site for you to see the previous competitions and winners if you’re interested on seeing what you’ve missed out on. As you can tell from the image at the top of that page I’ve a pile of doubles from various comics titles covered on the blog, so make sure you check back on the 1st of each month to see what’s next and good luck if you’re entering this time.
Welcome to this new weekly series! Off we go! The very first Mighty Marvel Checklist appeared in one of the earliest editions of The Real Ghostbusters when it was still a fortnightly comic, a week which also saw some fella return to The Transformers and Action Force that was kind of a big deal.
Yes, Optimus Prime had been resurrected as a Headmaster (cover by Jeff Anderson). The Autobot leader now had a humanoid companion who could transform into his head(!), combining to form an insanely powerful version of the character. I wasn’t yet collecting the comic at the time (that would come later in the same year), however when I read them all for the blog’s real time read through on Instagram this issue was a real thrill because this was the version of the toy I had as a kid.
Unlike Transformers, The Real Ghostbusters (cover by Phil Elliott) was made up of a handful of shorter stories, all much more comedy focussed (re: bad puns), the best often being the prose series Winston’s Diary which was told from the perspective of my favourite character. Also unmissable was the text-based Spengler’s Spirit Guide, the hilarious manual on all things supernatural which appeared in every issue, expertly crafted by Dan Abnett. And of course there was also the Lew Stringer-drawn humour strip Blimey It’s Slimer, however this issue was the last time Lew would be responsible before it was permanently taken over by Bambos Georgiou.
That’s the quick introduction of the comics I’m using out of the way, so what else was on sale that very same week in the summer of ’88? The first Mighty Marvel Checklist takes me back to watching The Adventures of The Galaxy Rangers on the telly every morning. I don’t remember much about them other than I enjoyed the cartoon but apparently not enough to buy their comic, a title that would only make it to #9 before being cancelled.
I never got on with Thundercats but its comic was a huge success, amassing over 100 issues in total, although I remember from the checklists that it seemed to go through a lot of changes and different frequencies towards the end. Fred Flintstone et all round things up at a time when comics such as Dragon’s Claws and Death’s Head weren’t on the list yet. I also liked the way The Real Ghostbusters is coloured differently just so they could show off the “Real” part in read. Imagine doing that every time it’s mentioned, eh?
As this series continues I’d love to find out if you remember any of the specific issues mentioned in any of the checklists, so mosey on over to the socials on Bluesky, Instagram or Facebook and let’s get the conversation started, shall we? Next week we’ll see our first classic comic advert.
Well, this bold Derek Yaniger cover for #11 of Marvel US’ Transformers: Generation 2 would certainly have stood out on the shelves. And at least Starscream’s teeth are suitably horrifying instead of comically human-like for once. Simon Furman’sDark Shadows (pencilled by Manny Galan, inked by Jim Amash, coloured by Sarra Mossoff, lettered by Richard Starkings) begins with the traitorous Decepticon in a seemingly unstoppable position on the Warworld ship.
In fact, as the story develops we (and he) find out that he’s no longer simply on the ship, he is the ship! The Matrix has afforded him the power to meld with it, morphing corridors and walls and trapping the newly aligned Optimus Prime and Megatron is his grasp. Does he instantly kill them? Of course not, he has to boast and gloat first.
One of Jhiaxus’ troops by the name of Rook is concerned about his commander’s obsession with tracking down the Autobots and Decepticons. He’s seen this side of him before, back when he was the tyrant that Jhiaxus himself lamented ever being back in #3. Rook worries that Jhiaxus is somehow regressing evolutionarily and so decides he must speak with Leige Maximo. Finally! Well, next month it’ll be “finally”, as this is the only mention of the unknown character this issue.
Prime explains to Megatron how the Matrix has become corrupted by evil once more, much like it did with Thunderwing back in the Matrix Quest epic in the G1 comic. Between this and the ongoing similarity between the Starscreem here and the Starscream during writer Bob Budiansky’sUnderbase Saga several years prior, this usually highly original comic feels like it’s slipping back into familiar territory. But then this happened…
I’ll readily admit that if I hadn’t been holding this comic with both hands as I read it I’d have punched the air triumphantly upon seeing Megatron save Optimus Prime! Both were being flooded down a large vent, at the end of which is a huge fall into the plasma core of the ship. Megatron is able to stop himself and I fully expected him to let Prime fall, not out of hatred but because he’d be too busy saving himself. The fact he puts his own life at risk to save him and calls out to Prime to trust him reminds me very much of Transformers One.
The fact this comic was decades before that film just adds to the excitement and this must’ve been a huge moment for readers at the time. He can’t hold him for long though, so they agree he’ll swing him off to the side where Prime can grab hold of some dangling cables. But their plan doesn’t work. At least not as they intended. Prime misses the cables but then they move by themselves into a new position! The comic tries to play this out as a mystery, I guessed it was the Matrix. Was I right?
Ol’ Megs continues to get some of the best lines, like when he transforms into his tank mode to get himself free of the previous predicament and comes out with a perfect 90s action movie line, below. Optimus’ inner thoughts show an admiration for what he sees as Megatron’s instinctive and unselfish tactics, and he wishes this could be more than a mere alliance of convenience. This is a real revelation, to see these two characters in such a fresh way even all these decades later.
Prime then discovers the ship’s walls, corridors and doors are morphing as if to lead him somewhere, with his sneaking about possible because Starscream isn’t really the god-like creator he believes himself to be. Unable to concentrate on more than one thing at once and with Jhiaxus’ army attacking, Starscream must leave these two to their own devices. The ship itself appears to lead Prime right to where he needs to be.
The final page of the main strip ends with Prime trying his best to reason with Jhiaxus and explain what they’ve discovered about the Swarm, but it takes place over a communications signal that frustratingly keeps breaking up. Not that this really matters. Jhiaxus is too far gone and the cliffhanger (before the back up strip) sees him giving the order to pick out random targets on Earth’s surface and blow the planet apart.
This feels like the perfect time to shift to legendary Transformers artist Geoff Senior for part eight of Tales of Earth.
Wait a minute. Wasn’t it previously established that all of Earth’s cities were devastated by Skullgrin’s Decepticons and the Warworld? Even if San Francisco escaped, this paints a picture of a city without a care in the world. Oh well, discrepancy aside this raises the bar in terms of the threat Earth faces! This opening spread is very reminiscent of Judgement Day from Terminator 2, which had been released in the UK less than two years previous and was very much still in the public consciousness after its home release.
Being familiar with the film doesn’t detract from this opening scene. In fact, it adds to the feeling of the end of everything! Even Grimlock and Predacon leader Razorclaw concur, stating, “It over now. For us all. They did it… they dropped The Big One”. On board the Warworld Prime is devastated, heartbroken. He screams into the void but Jhiaxus orders another attack on another highly populated city, despite the fact his troops are all over the planet. But then, Earth’s salvation comes from an unlikely source: Starscream!
As the Warworld attacks Jhiaxus’ ship with all of its Matrix-powered might, it appears the Autobot trinket is tainting the Deception rather than the other way around, which means those scenes reminiscent of the Matrix/Thunderwing G1 story were a nice bit of misdirection. Starscream doesn’t care about us of course but he has an uncontrollable urge to save us. Doing so is even more important to him than the very thing he previously thought was the most important thing in the universe: himself!
I did laugh as Starscream yells out how he doesn’t want to be good. Prime realises it was him that was subconsciously helping all along within the ship, and he sees hope in the very essence of the thing he’s carried in his chest for millennia. However, suddenly, with only one page to go, the Swarm is here. The previous scene just suddenly stops to give us this cliffhanger.
This felt like a very sudden, very unnatural jump in the story, like the pages were running out and we needed a cliffhanger and, more importably, the Swarm needed to be in place for the final issue. I’m not saying that’s the case, after all we’ve learned how terrifyingly quick it is and how it’s impossible to see it coming. That’s the whole point of it after all. But I can’t help feeling a bit unsatisfied with how this absolutely superb chapter ended.
A necessary evil perhaps with only one issue left. It’s a bumper-sized one next month, with the promise of 36 pages of strip action. Given how things have escalated in the last couple of months, and how amazing this issue was, I have every faith Simon will pull off a satisfying conclusion for a comic cancelled way too early in its run. How he’ll do that I have no idea! We’ll find out together in five weeks on Sunday 31st August 2025.
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