Cover: Al Milgrom & Joe Sinnott

Marvel Presents #8

Dec 1976 · Marvel · 0.30 USD

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“Once Upon a Time...the Silver Surfer!”

About this Issue

Marvel Presents #8 holds a unique place in Bronze Age history as an editorially forced fill-in that accidentally became a creative milestone: it marks the first published writing work for Marvel Comics by Roger Stern, who would go on to become one of the publisher's most celebrated writers of the late 1970s and 1980s. By reprinting the debut of the Badoon from Stan Lee and John Buscema's Silver Surfer #2 (1968) within a new Guardians of the Galaxy framing sequence, the issue also reinforces the in-universe thematic connection between the Silver Surfer's imprisonment on Earth and the Badoon's conquest of the 31st-century solar system — grounding the Guardians' entire raison d'être in classic Marvel cosmic mythology. It stands as a clever example of how Bronze Age editors transformed production crises into storytelling opportunities, and the issue's letters page — containing Gerber's own candid explanation of why readers were getting a reprint — offers a rare, transparent window into the working conditions of the period.

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writer Stan Lee · artist John Buscema · inker Joe Sinnott · letterer Sam Rosen · cover Al Milgrom, Joe Sinnott

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History

When Steve Gerber fell behind on the deadline for what would have been a new Guardians story, editor Archie Goodwin tasked his newly hired assistant Roger Stern with finding a workable fill-in solution. Stern, as he later recounted in TwoMorrows' Back Issue #65, ruled out reprinting the Guardians' first appearance from Marvel Super-Heroes #18 (already used as a fill-in in Astonishing Tales) and instead hit upon reprinting the first appearance of the Badoon from Silver Surfer #2, since the Badoon were the Guardians' sworn enemies — a thematic link that justified the reprint editorially. Stern then wrote approximately three and a half pages of new material — penciled and inked by regular series artist Al Milgrom with inks by Bob Wiacek — to frame the reprinted story as a Badoon 'Mento-corder' recovered by the Guardians in deep space, making this an unusually coherent and purposeful fill-in issue rather than a simple swap.

Trivia · 10 facts

Cover date: December 1976; published within the Marvel Presents anthology series, which gave the original Guardians of the Galaxy their first ongoing series (issues #3–12).
The main story, 'Battle With the Badoon!' / 'Once Upon a Time…the Silver Surfer!', is written by Roger Stern with pencils and inks by Al Milgrom (framing sequence) and Bob Wiacek (inks), with the reprinted portion drawn by John Buscema and Joe Sinnott from Silver Surfer #2 (1968).
This issue marks Roger Stern's first published writing for Marvel Comics — he was serving as an assistant editor under Archie Goodwin at the time and devised the fill-in solution when Gerber missed his deadline.
The framing device introduces and immediately destroys the Badoon Mento-corder, a recording device that serves as the in-universe mechanism for playing back the Silver Surfer #2 story — the first (and only) appearance of this item in Marvel continuity.
The reprinted story constitutes the first appearance of the Badoon within the pages of the Marvel Presents Guardians run, reprinting their comics debut from Silver Surfer #2 and narratively connecting the Badoon's 20th-century aggression to their eventual 31st-century conquest depicted throughout the series.
Featured Guardians of the Galaxy roster in this issue: Vance Astro, Charlie-27, Martinex, Yondu, Nikki, and Aleta/Starhawk (Stakar and Aleta Ogord).
The Silver Surfer (Norrin Radd) and Galactus appear only within the reprinted/recap sequence and are not active participants in the new framing story.
The letters page includes an essay by Steve Gerber himself explaining the circumstances behind the reprint issue — an unusually candid editorial acknowledgment for a mainstream Marvel comic of the era.
The complete Guardians of the Galaxy run from Marvel Presents #3–12 was later collected in the trade paperback Guardians of the Galaxy: The Power of Starhawk (Marvel, 2009).
Cover artist Al Milgrom noted he inked the cover attempting to imitate Joe Sinnott's style; whether Sinnott himself contributed any inks to the cover remains unresolved per the Grand Comics Database.