Early to mid-60's Marvel bonus page

[Perry Holley]

Back in the early days of Marvel it wasn't unusual for Marvel to have 'bonus' pages in the backs of their book. Sometimes these were just pin-ups, sometimes it would be little factoids about the characters.

Today I remembered one of those factoid pages that I haven't seen it years. It was a page comparing the strength levels of various Marvel heroes (I *think* Thor was listed at being able to lift about 10 tons, the Thing 5 tons, and the Hulk even then they didn't wan't to pin down too much, but he was apparently stronger than Thor). Does anyone know the page I'm describing, and if so, what issue did it appear in?

[Cei-U!]

There's a couple of possibilities.

First is a page from The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 which established that Thor, Hulk and Thing were the only Marvel heroes stronger than Spidey. A similar pin-up in Annual #5 added Hercules and Sub-Mariner to the list. Neither page quantified their individual strength levels.

More likely is that you're remembering a feature that ran in the back of the three-issue mini Marvel Super-Heroes Contest of Champions which did group all of their heroes by strength level. This did roughly quantify each grouping's power but I don't think it was until the first Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe series that they got specific.

Art on the first page mentioned was by Ditko, on the second by Larry Lieber and Mike Esposito and on the CoC pages by John Romita, Jr. That may help you narrow it down.

Cei-U!
Hope that helps, Perry!

[Perry Holley]

There's a couple of possibilities.

First is a page from The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 which established that Thor, Hulk and Thing were the only Marvel heroes stronger than Spidey. A similar pin-up in Annual #5 added Hercules and Sub-Mariner to the list. Neither page quantified their individual strength levels.No, it's not that one (I was looking through my Essential Spider-Man vol 1 last night). It was however done in very much that style.

More likely is that you're remembering a feature that ran in the back of the three-issue mini Marvel Super-Heroes Contest of Champions which did group all of their heroes by strength level. This did roughly quantify each grouping's power but I don't think it was until the first Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe series that they got specific.
No, it wasn't anything that recent. I *think* I saw it in one of those paperback color reprints that Marvel put out in the late 70's/early 80's that would reprint about 6 issues or so of the very early runs of Spider-Man, FF, and the like.

I want to say the page was drawn by either Kirby or Ditko. Ah, well...

[Cei-U!]

I did a little further digging (not so easy with the GCD temporarily offline) and found that the pages I thought were from Contest of Champions are actually a featurette, "Just How Strong is Spider-Man?" from The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #15. The art is by Bob Layton, not JRJR as I misremembered. Might this be the culprit, Perry?

Cei-U!
Never say die!

[Perry Holley]

I did a little further digging (not so easy with the GCD temporarily offline) and found that the pages I thought were from Contest of Champions are actually a featurette, "Just How Strong is Spider-Man?" from The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #15. The art is by Bob Layton, not JRJR as I misremembered. Might this be the culprit, Perry?

Cei-U!
Never say die!I doubt it. I'm 99.99% certain that this was from, say, no later than 1965, with either Ditko or Kirby art.

I guess I need to see if I can find those reprint paperbacks I mentioned earlier. That would let me know for certain whether I was remembering this correctly, or if I've simply lost my mind.

[J'onn J'onzz]

I did a little further digging (not so easy with the GCD temporarily offline) and found that the pages I thought were from Contest of Champions are actually a featurette, "Just How Strong is Spider-Man?" from The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #15. The art is by Bob Layton, not JRJR as I misremembered. Might this be the culprit, Perry?

Cei-U!
Never say die!

That's what I thought he was talking about. It fits his description more than anything else but, he insists it is '65 or earlier, so... he's crazy. :D

[Perry Holley]

so... he's crazy. :DNot too much of a surprise, sadly...

[benday-dot]

No wish to divert your query, or highjack your thread, but your question reminded me of a similar bonus pin-up page from out of Marvel's storied past. The one I am thinking of showed Spider-man lifting up over his head a sizable round steel platform upon which were standing a pantheon of Marvel's finest. I am pretty sure Hulk and Thor were among the heroes Spider-man was shown hoisting. The caption to this pin-up, which blew my mind as a young lad first seeing it, read "No Matter How Strong You Are, There is Always Someone Stronger." Such awesome Stan Lee style philosophy about the little guy sometimes being able to pull it all off went a long way with me back in the day... Ah the day... Can't remember where it came from. I would have seen in first about 1973-74, but may have been a reprint from an earlier time.

[Cei-U!]

No wish to divert your query, or highjack your thread, but your question reminded me of a similar bonus pin-up page from out of Marvel's storied past. The one I am thinking of showed Spider-man lifting up over his head a sizable round steel platform upon which were standing a pantheon of Marvel's finest. I am pretty sure Hulk and Thor were among the heroes Spider-man was shown hoisting. The caption to this pin-up, which blew my mind as a young lad first seeing it, read "No Matter How Strong You Are, There is Always Someone Stronger." Such awesome Stan Lee style philosophy about the little guy sometimes being able to pull it all off went a long way with me back in the day... Ah the day... Can't remember where it came from. I would have seen in first about 1973-74, but may have been a reprint from an earlier time.

That's the pin-up page from Amazing Spider-Man Annual #5 (1968) I mentioned above. I don't know if it was reprinted circa '73-'74 but it wouldn't surprise me.

Cei-U!
I summon the confirmation!

[benday-dot]

That's the pin-up page from Amazing Spider-Man Annual #5 (1968) I mentioned above. I don't know if it was reprinted circa '73-'74 but it wouldn't surprise me.

Thanks Cei-U... It just sort of came back to me where I saw it. I never owned Amazing Spider-Man Annual 5, but once I had Marvel Treasury Edition 1 from 1974. I could almost swear that it was in this oversized format that I saw the pin-up you mentioned, and which I had in mind.