Strange #114
Strange #114 is a meaningful artifact of Marvel's footprint in 1970s France: within its 80 pages, French readers encountered for the first time the Cyclone (André Gerard) and — in the very next story — the first full appearance of the Gwen Stacy clone, two of the most consequential plot threads of the Bronze Age Spider-Man era, delivered by Gerry Conway and Ross Andru. That the Cyclone's fictional birthplace is Lyon — Éditions Lug's own home city — gave the issue a quietly local resonance that the original American printings lacked. Bundled with a Daredevil chapter co-written by Chris Claremont and Steve Gerber and an Iron Man story featuring Soviet agents Darkstar and Vanguard, the issue offered French readers a concentrated cross-section of mid-1970s Marvel at one of its most narratively ambitious moments.
In "Psycho-rapt," Daredevil finds himself trapped by the Owl, who demands that Black Widow capture Shanna the She-Devil to save his mind. With Shanna’s help, the two heroes work together to outwit their enemy, testing their trust and resolve. Written by Steve Gerber and Chris Claremont, with art by Bob Brown and inks by V. Colletta, and a striking cover by Jean Frisano, this 1979 issue delivers a tense, character-driven showdown.
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Éditions Lug, the Lyon-based publisher founded in 1950 by Marcel Navarro and Auguste Vistel, had been Marvel's primary French licensee since relaunching the line in the magazine called Strange after earlier censorship battles shuttered its predecessor titles. By 1979 the company was at what historians describe as the peak of its run, with Strange serving as the flagship anthology for French-language Marvel reprints. Issue #114 followed the series' standard omnibus format — three serialized American stories per issue, translated into French, typically running one to two issues behind the U.S. originals — and included a bonus Fantastic Four poster, a recurring promotional insert used to build reader loyalty during this period.
Trivia · 7 facts
- Reprints Amazing Spider-Man #143 (April 1975, Gerry Conway / Ross Andru): first appearance of the villain Cyclone (André Gerard), a French aeronautical engineer born in Lyon — the same city as Éditions Lug's headquarters.
- Reprints Amazing Spider-Man #144 (May 1975, Gerry Conway / Ross Andru / Gil Kane cover): first full appearance of the Gwen Stacy clone, a storyline that set the stage for the landmark Clone Saga arc resolved in ASM #149.
- Reprints Daredevil #117 (January 1975, Chris Claremont & Steve Gerber / Bob Brown): 'Mindtap!' features Daredevil, the Black Widow, the Owl, and Shanna the She-Devil in a multi-villain confrontation, with Claremont and Gerber sharing the scripting credit.
- Reprints Iron Man #112 (July 1978, 'Moon Wars!'): introduces French readers to Soviet characters Darkstar (Laynia Petrovna), Vanguard, and Ivan Petrovich alongside Jack of Hearts (Valet de Coeur) in a lunar-set action story.
- The issue includes a bonus pull-out Fantastic Four poster, a promotional extra that Lug used regularly in Strange during this era to spotlight the team whose French-language graphic novels Lug was simultaneously publishing.
- Published in 1979 by Éditions Lug, Lyon — a French-language monthly anthology running from 1970 to 1988 (later continued by Semic) that served as the primary vehicle for Marvel superhero comics in France for nearly two decades.
- The combined Spider-Man chapters (ASM #143–144) also feature Mary Jane Watson and Peter Parker sharing their first significant romantic kiss — a character-development beat that French readers experienced here in translated form.
Cast · 40 characters
Full credits
Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
The Owl has captured Daredevil and threatens to sap his mind completely unless the Widow captures a very specific woman, Shanna the She-Devil. Black Widow and Shanna help Daredevil take the Owl down. Daredevil returns to New York without the Widow.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).
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