Marvel Preview #18

Marvel's black-and-white magazine format gives Star-Lord room to breathe in this 1979 oversized issue, and the cover by Bob Larkin makes the most of it — Peter Quill, in his blue-and-white costume and billowing cape, clashes blade-to-blade with a red-suited adversary amid a shattered asteroid field, planets and stars blazing behind them. The cover copy promises that Quill faces "the most agonizing decision of his cosmic career," and the cover's desperate, mid-air sword fight certainly sells that tension. Rounding out the package are a weird time-travel tale, "Destiny of the Dinosaurs," and Ron Goulart's sci-fi prose story "Into the Shop," making this a genuinely packed read for 1979's adventurous comics fan.