A Miserable Day.....Time For Comic Nostalgia!

I mentioned in a previous post just how significant a series Zenith Phase III  was when it appeared in 2000 AD.

  

Unlike in the United States, UK comics tended not to see cross-over stories featuring their main characters. And if you read UK weekly comics while growing up then then this story was as significant for you as Crisis On Infinite Earths was for long time US comic fans.

One day -perhaps- my Zenith "connection" may be revealed. Okay, some of the costumes were not spot on but there were reasons for but if you knew your Fleetway/IPC/D. C. Thomson (oh yes) characters then this was "mega"!

Years before, some of us had thrilled to a less crowded cross-over...
                                     ROBOT ARCHIE BATTLES THE SPIDER!!

 
Story: Unknown
Art: R. David Harwood
Original Printing: Lion Holiday Special 1980

Counter-X sums up the story well so....


"A bit of a weird one, this... After five years without original material, and four years since Vulcan had been cancelled, the Spider resurfaced in the Lion Holiday Special in 1980. However, it's perhaps not as bizarre as it might sound, as he shares the title card with Robot Archie.
 

Archie was probably Lion's most enduring character, having appeared in the first edition in 1952. He would disappear after 26 issues, but a few years' later would come back and be a fixture until Lion finally ended in 1974. 

It wasn't quite the end for Robot Archie, though - as well as being a member of the Vulcan pantheon, Archie usually made some sort of appearance in the Lion Annuals and Specials that ran until 1983, even if it was just a reprint or a text story. 

This is really a Robot Archie strip where they've used a bit of imagination for the adversary. I suppose the idea was there as well that if it really, really went down well they could throw out some more Spider reprints or whatever.

It's interesting for a few reasons, though - firstly it's one of the precious few vintage strips to imply the Fleetway stories might, just might inhabit the same universe (one of the few other examples also featured Robot Archie, who battled mid-1960s entity The Sludge at one stage), while secondly also continues the theme of the Spider working for high-level government organisations. 

These things combined with him facing another Fleetway hero are interesting precursors to Alan Moore's Daughter's Wildstorm series Albion. Also, Archie makes one of his occasional digs about the Steel Commando (an attempt to combine Archie with the Valiant's Captain Hurricane that was pushed to the hilt by Lion for about two years until they finally admitted everyone hated the thing), despite his erstwhile rival being long gone.

The story is strangely wooden, sadly - R. David Harwood's pencils are somewhat turgid and sparse, while the Spider is a bit hammy when he's playing the villain instead of being one, but it's still great fun to see Ted Cowan's two greatest creations knocking lumps out of each other. "

"Turgid and sparse"?  No -I like this!!

 What you had to ask was "What??!!"  

Well, when I mentioned this story on a visit to Fleetway I was told that someone had the idea of re-invigorating the old Society of Heroes that the Spider had led at one time -THAT I would love to see reprinted in better quality!   Rex Robot (an alien lawman) had been killed by his arch enemy the Mad Meckanoid.  So who better to replace him in a new Society than...Robot Archie!

"So what happened?" I asked rather foolishly.  A shrug of total disinterest "Hmm....well, had their day these strips."  The number of times I heard that!  It was suggested that Jerry Siegel may have written the script in the 1960s but it was never used though I have to say I don't think so (I could be wrong though). But a few years before there had been a cross-over between two of its big Second World War heroes -both Commandoes.  Captain Hurricane had started life in Valiant no. 1, 6th October, 1962 with a lot of scripts written by Gil Page -later to become Fleetway/IPC Managing Editor.  Hurricane was, with no quibbling, the UKs "super soldier" -mainly when he went into one of his "Ragin' Furies"! The Steel Commando had appeared in Thunder no.1, 17 October 1970.  As was the case in the twisted schemes of management, titles merged and so the Steel Commando had appeared in Thunder 1970-1971 then in The  Lion from 1971-1974 and Valiant 1974, though it was Valiant and Lion at first. And so, on the 25th May,1974,  Captain Hurricane had a new Commando assigned to his unit -the Steel Commando! At the end of the strip it says that the Steel Commando is temporarily attached to Hurricane's unit which, shall we say, does not go down well with the good Captain.  Well, I can't think of any other cross-over from a British weekly BUT if YOU can....let me know!