u/fathertimecode

While bagging and boarding issue #3 of The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update ‘89, a character on the back cover caught my attention. Who or what was this green creature with no teeth and a lip-piercing?

I had seen this back cover a few times over the years, but only now felt compelled to learn more about this green creature. Upon closer inspection of the back cover, I realized that the silver hoop-shaped lip-piercing was actually Halflife’s hair!

Intrigued, I thumbed through the issue, and learned about this ancient dragon character named Fin Fang Foom. I thought, “Well, that’s a character I’m unlikely to encounter in any of the books I read!”

Literally the very next day, while trolling live auctions, a book popped up called Nick Fury vs. Fin Fang Foom. Wow! What a strange, random coincidence. I’d recently read and enjoyed the Fury: My War Gone By series, so the timing was weirdly perfect.

I’m still no closer to understanding the lack of teeth in the Update ‘89 illustrations, but after reading the Nick Fury issue, can confirm that Fin Fang Foom definitely has teeth!

In the small town where I grew up, only one convenience store carried a limited selection of comics. It was called U-WAG-EM. We knew the Marvel Universe was bigger, but you would have to subscribe to gain access to most of the monthly titles.

In our tiny world, Secret Wars and Secret Wars II came right on top of each other. I traded for, and read 5 or 6 issues of each series, and I still have those issues (including #8 Spider-Man).

In recent years, I was able to finally collect all issues of both Secret Wars I & II series, but not the tie-ins.

At a recent comic yard sale, I found a beaten up copy of The New Mutants #36 in the 50c bins, and later discovered that it was a Mark Jewelers issue! But what stuck with me from that cover, was the Secret Wars II logo in the upper-right corner. Lo and behold, I realized it might be fun to collect the entire Secret Wars II story, and experience the entire event as a reader. I already had Daredevil #223 and a few other Secret Wars II issues, so why not.

Thus began the collection of the Secret Wars II tie-ins! When picking thru dollar bins, those colorful tabs on the covers were easy to spot, and before I knew it, I was 6 or so issues away from having the entire Secret Wars II collection! I never thought I would willingly purchase an issue of Power Pack in my life, yet here I was searching for #18!

It has been interesting to read them in order, and experience a deeper sample of the creativity happening at Marvel in those pivotal years. By reading 3-4 titles from the same month in 1985, you get a better sense of how different the popular titles were from each other, in terms of tone and artistic complexity. Captain America was somewhat remedial and straight forward, while New Mutants was more complex and required multiple readings to decipher the Bill Sienkiewicz artwork.

Yes, the Beyonder story gets silly at times, but I’m still really enjoying it. The discovery of the book-matched covers on Web of Spider-man #6 and Amazing Spider-Man #268, is an easter egg I would never have discovered otherwise. And, now I find myself wanting to learn about Sue Richards’ S&M leather-wearing alter-ego, Malice.

And before you come to the conclusion that the Secret Wars II Omni would have been the much easier route, I’m told it does NOT include the ROM and Micronauts issues. And with the TPB, you don’t get to gaze upon, what I assume, is the most rushed and incomplete print ad ever conceived to promote a comic event.

And best of all, Peter Parker teaches the Beyonder about one of the most perplexing activities of the human experience, using the restroom.