United we stand, divided we fall!

The art of merging comics is nothing new, in the UK it's been going on for ages. When a comic shows signs of flagging sales, the decision to merged it with a similar comic with flagging sales in the hope they will boost sales, or merge it with a strong seller so that the better strips survive. Typical examples; TV Action joins TV Comic; TV Century joins TV21 which was also merged with Solo, then Valiant which later has Battle merged into it; Zip joins Swift; Rover and Adventure joins Wizard which joins Victor; Sparky joins Topper; Swift joins Eagle which is later joined by Boys World; Smash is joined by Pow which later incorporates Fantastic; Revolver joins Crisis; 2000AD is joined by Starlord, andTornado. It never really happens that much in the US, probably the most well known is when Green Lantern was joined by the Green Arrow in an attempt to bust sales, it didn't quite blow away those sales figures but artistically it was a huge success.
The master of mergers has to be MarvelUK. This month I read, has I continue my re-reading all my MarvelUK comics in order with a thirty year time slip, The mighty Thor and the X-Men, from 31st August 1983. This isn't a inspiring merger by no means. As solo comics they where bizarre choices, which for Thor lasts for 19 issues while the X-Men lasts 17. Together they manage another 19 issues until they join Spider-man. You would say it was a failure from the start, but at least they tried.

The other side of the coin came in 1975, on the 12 of July. MarvelUK had filled news stands with strong super-heroes titles, The Mighty World Of Marvel, Spider-man Comic Weekly, The Avengers and The Super-Heroes, horror/film/pulp fiction titles Dracula Lives, Planet of the Apes and The Savage Sword of Conan. All great comics but perhaps it was spreading the quality too thinly. MarvelUK one of the lesser selling hero comics, The Avengers with Conan. A fairly new sword and sorcery title that had only lasted 19 issues, but with a strong following. The Avengers had done 94 issues with brilliant Avengers stories, wonderful Dr. Strange tales and Shang Chi, Marvels own Kung Fu star. The merger was one of MarvelUK's greatest. Issue 95 boasted a fine line up of sword and sorcery, super-hero adventure and Kung fu finest. In coming weeks Shang Chi, Dr. Strange and Iron Fist would swap for the third strip slot, while the titles lead characters where permanent fixtures. The writing and artwork was always of a strong level. Roy Thomas was some times writing all three strips, while John Buscema drew two of the lead strips. Other great creators also produced fantastic work in this weekly, Barry Windor Smith, Sal Buscema, John Byrne to name but a few. Sadly this comic had to end by merging with MWOM after issue 147 to be called Mighty world of Marvel starring the Incredible Hulk and the Avengers. With the Avengers and Conan joining the Hulk and DareDevil with MWOM #199.

Their next merger chronologically came with the success of the Titans landscape format, The Super-Heroes after 50 issues merged with Spider-man Comics Weekly to become Super Spider-man with the Super-Heroes in issue 158 on the 21st of February 1976. In 1976 on the 23rd of June Apes joined a blood sucker to make the title Planet of the Apes with Dracula Lives. Two good titles made stronger, lasting another 35 issues before it also joining MWOM on the 2rd March 1977 with issue 231, with Planet of the Apes joining the Hulk in the title. Dracula would join the comic and title in issue 247 (22rd June 1977). Titans ended after 58 issues to join Super Spider-man and the Titans #199 on the 1st December 1976. On the 13th of July 1977 Captain Britain merged with Super Spider-man and on the 7th September of that year Fury joined MWOM with issue 258. The next year the Complete Fantastic Four joined MWOM after 53 issues on the 14th June with issue 298. 

The Marvel revolution came in  the late 70s the idea of changing format was used instead of merging titles, Rampage weekly became Rampage monthly and MWOM now called Marvel comic became Marvel Super-Heroes, a new monthly that continued MWOM numbering from #353 after a short merger with the Spider-man comic. 

As the 80s started so to came MarvelUK's tried and tested method with The Incredible Hulk comic joining Spider-man Weekly. Marvel Team Up sadly only lasted 25 issues to join them both in the titled Spider-man and Hulk comic incorporating Team Up. Forces in Combat joins Future tense on the 28th January 1981 with Future Tense issue 13, 7 issues later Valour joins them. Marvel Action and Captain America became Marvel Action starring Captain America on the 15th of July 1981 and later in October Marvel Super Adventure joined under the simple name of Captain America. 

On the monthly formats  Savage Action joins Marvel Super-Heroes in February of 1982 and a month later Blockbuster joins Rampage magazine after 9 issues. As 1983 started one of the strongest merger took place as Rampage was incorporated in to Marvel Super-Heroes with a strong line up of the Avengers, X-Men and Night Raven. Sadly this monthly was rebranded as a new title under name of Mighty World of  Marvel. DareDevils lasted 11 issues before joining that second volume. Strangely enough itself joined Savage Sword of Conan monthly after 17 issues. 

Back in the weeklies Spider-man became the dumping ground for every failed comic, from the Incredible Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Thor and the X-Men, The Thing is Big Ben, and Indiana Jones. Star Wars would also join Spider-man and the Zoids, itself not a merged title but a Spider-man second volume. 

Some mergers worked better than others, while some didn't stop the dreaded cancellation call, they did at least create some wonderful and interesting formats with hours and hours of reading fun.

Make Mine Marvel.