Since this period sees five Editors in Chief within a two year span (The end of Roy Thomas' run, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Gerry Conway, and the beginning of Archie Goodwin's run), i'm calling it the EIC Upheaval period rather than trying to break it up into individual categories for each of the middle three. Len Wein is announced as the "Executive Editor" in the March Bullpen Bulletin. Marv Wolfman is announced as his replacement in the November issues. This year sees continual doldrums throughout the line, although there are more and more bright spots, including the beginning of Chris Claremont's X-Men. Jungle Action, Master of Kung Fu, Iron Fist, and Steve Gerber's Defenders are all also good books. Marvel's expansion into the horror genre, initially a burst of revitalization, is now quickly collapsing. Man-Wolf, Morbius, Man-Thing and the majority of the black and white magazines are cancelled and even Werewolf By Night and Tomb of Dracula were considered for the chopping block. Marvel's short-lived experiment with the Giant-Size books is also ended, with many of the books already having devolved into 100% reprints. The main titles (Avengers, FF, Spider-Man, Hulk) are all pretty poor, however, and there is a lot of evidence of lateness in the form of fill-ins, reprints, and unstable creative teams. Marv Wolfman actually attempted to address the problem by having Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema work on a title called Marvel Fill-In which would feature team-up stories that could be slipped into any title that was behind deadline.

Notable events: Bill Foster becomes Black Goliath Beast and Moondragon join the Avengers The original clone story in Spider-Man, involving the Jackal and a cloned Gwen Stacy, as well as the clone that would eventually become Bill Reilly/Scarlet Spider The reappearance of the zany Headman, who previously appeared in one-off Monster Age stories John Byrne's first regular art at Marvel for Iron Fist

New characters: Warhawk, Moses Magnum, Elf With A Gun, Storm, Nightcrawler, Thunderbird, Colossus, Starhawk, Deathlok, Glorian, Mordred the Mystic, Misty Knight