Despite being a radioactive orange rock man, The Fantastic Four’s Ben
Grimm, The Thing, appealed to a range of ladies over the years but by the
1970’s, The Bronze Age, he had fallen on harder times. He lost his solo title
by 1974 and outside of his FF appearances, he had to guest star in other
comics, usually to raise the sales of those books. Here he is in Marvel Tales #6;
this is the beginning of his steamy romance with Moondragon, bald Space Vixen. Their relationship had heavy elements of
S&M (which was very popular in the 1970’s) to it but because it often occurred
under the guise of brawling the censors never noticed! Later they broke up and
eventually Moondragon became yet another Herald of Galactus.
Most fans agree though, the lowest Ben has sunk when he
became dance partner to Dazzler, Marvel’s Disco Diva. Dazzler was planned to be
a multimedia star; an album, comics, and a movie were in the works in 1979 but
she arrived on the scene just as the popularity of disco began to wane. So no one
wanted to create a Disco record, still The Dazz, as her millions of fans called
her, lingered on in comic book form until she was abruptly canceled. Later when she died during the Secret Wars it seemed like a mercy killing.
However, getting back to Ben’s Ex, Moondragon, here is what I consider her
most embarrassing cover. By the way, Spidey Super-Stories take place on Earth-57780. This cover shows how far Marvel will sink in an attempt to
exploit any cultural phenomenon. A Star Wars rip off starring Spider-Man,
Moondragon and Dr. Doom? Sure, why not? You can’t make this stuff up. Marvel had a well-known tendency to jump
on fads. ‘Nuff said!
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