The Mighty World of Marvel #42
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeThe Mighty World of Marvel #42 is a representative instalment of Marvel UK's pioneering weekly anthology — the very title that established Marvel's own direct presence in the British comics market and proved that American superhero material could compete in a landscape dominated by homegrown weeklies. By July 1973, MWOM was in full stride as the flagship of the fledgling Marvel UK operation, serialising Lee-Kirby-era Hulk and Fantastic Four stories in black-and-white for a generation of British readers who had no other reliable access to these characters. The series as a whole was the beachhead that allowed Marvel UK to later launch Planet of the Apes, Star Wars, and Spider-Man Comics Weekly titles, so each mid-run issue like #42 represents a brick in that commercial and cultural foundation.
"When the Monster Wakes!" kicks off in The Mighty World of Marvel #42 (1973), a 0.05 GBP UK import that pulses with the raw energy of its era. Featuring letters from readers across the UK and New Zealand—Gary Appleby, Shane Mackel, James Harrington, Gary Reader, and Paul Raizis—this issue captures the vibrant fan community that defined Marvel’s international reach in the early '70s, all framed by Kirby and Severin’s dynamic cover art with inks by Adkins and Ayers.
When the Monster Wakes! finds the Hulk and Glen Talbot racing against time to reclaim a military base overrun by the Lord of the Living Lightning, with Betty Ross and Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross caught in the crossfire. As the threat of a devastating missile strike looms, the Hulk must confront his enemy in a desperate bid to save the base—and the people inside—before it’s too late.
When the Fantastic Four journey back to Ancient Egypt in search of a cure for Alicia’s blindness, they’re confronted by Rama-Tut, a tyrannical pharaoh from the distant future who rules with an iron grip. Trapped in a deadly game of ancient power and futuristic menace, the team must outwit a ruler who sees them as nothing more than slaves to his grand design.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
MWOM launched on 30 September 1972 as Marvel UK's debut publication, with Marvel having previously relied on third-party British licensees such as Alan Class Publishing and Odhams to reprint its material. By issue #42 (cover-dated July 1973, on sale 21 July 1973 per the 'week ending' convention of British weeklies), the title was a proven weekly with an established format: primarily black-and-white interiors with some tinted or colour pages, reprinting 1960s American Marvel stories that were roughly a decade old. Issues up through #66 were produced with newspaper-style paper covers before the title switched to glossy Marvel-style covers from #67 onward, meaning #42 still carried the rougher newsprint presentation characteristic of the series' early run.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published by Marvel UK on or around 21 July 1973 (cover date: July 1973); the 'week ending' date on British weeklies marks the actual on-sale week, unlike US comics where a cover date can precede publication by months.
- Issue #42 is tagged as featuring the Hulk and the Fantastic Four, consistent with MWOM's core serialised reprint lineup at that point in its run.
- The comic carried black-and-white (with selective tinting) reprints of 1960s Stan Lee–scripted, Jack Kirby–plotted/pencilled stories — the creative team behind the source material, not a new editorial team.
- At this stage in the run, MWOM was serialising 1960s American monthly stories across multiple weekly instalments, splitting each US issue into segments to fill the British weekly page count.
- Issues #1–66 of MWOM used newspaper-style paper covers; issue #42 falls within this earlier production format, before the switch to glossy covers at #67.
- MWOM Vol. 1 ran continuously for 329 issues (1972–1979) before becoming Marvel Comic with #330, making the mid-1973 run including #42 part of the title's peak-circulation early years.
- The series was Marvel UK's first-ever title, and its success during this period directly enabled the company to expand into additional reprint weeklies covering Planet of the Apes, Star Wars, and other properties.
- Key Collector Comics lists only two issues from the entire MWOM Vol. 1 run as notable keys, and #42 is not among them, confirming it carries series-context significance rather than a standalone first-appearance or landmark-story distinction.
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Reprints
↩ Reprints Fantastic Four #19 (1963), Tales to Astonish #99 (1968), The Incredible Hulk #147 (1972)
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