Issue(s): Marvel Premiere #28
Cover Date: Feb 76
Title: "There's a mountain on Sunset Boulevard!"
Credits:
Bill Mantlo - Writer
Frank Robbins - Penciler
Steve Gan - Inker

Review/plot:
Like War of the Super-Villains, "Legion of Monsters" is a no-brainer concept that couldn't possibly go wrong, except it does. Ghost Rider, Man-Thing, Morbius, and Werewolf By Night all find themselves drawn to a strange mountain that simultaneously appears in Florida and California.

They meet some golden dude who... i don't know, he was a god to the gods, or something?

And then monsters basically just kill him (Ghost Rider, not really a monster, tries to stop them but fails). The golden dude reveals that he could have cured all their afflictions but can't now because he's dying, so the monsters wander off.

No no no no no.

If you are floating a concept called "Legion of Monsters", you create a legion of monsters, and you have them team up and fight super-villains who are terrified to find that their opponents, instead of being typical good guys, are more scary than they are. Maybe you have them on the run from traditional heroes or law enforcement as well. You pull out every cheap horror movie trick - imagine the Scorpion, no matter how fast he runs, keeps turning around to see the Man-Thing slowly lumbering behind him... catching up... closer... closer... he's right behind him, and then boom! He turns around again and there's the Werewolf right in front of him.

Anyway, this sucked. Frank Robbins' messy, cartoony art didn't help either.

Quality Rating: D

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Takes place after Fear #31 for Morbius. Morbius is trapped in another dimension in Marvel Two-In-One #15 and doesn't return until Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #6, so this needs to take place prior to the Two-In-One issue. There is no suggested placement for the other characters, and really, this is very context-free. The MCP have Ghost Rider here during Ghost Rider #17, and the Werewolf between Werewolf By Night #33-34. Due to the dependencies for Morbius, i've pushed this back in publication time a bit, which means that this story is taking place earlier for Ghost Rider than the MCP has it, but since this story is context free it should be fine. For Werewolf By Night, since the Werewolf's hand is broken between issues #33-34, i am breaking with the MCP and placing this after Werewolf By Night #34-37 (see the Considerations on Werewolf By Night #34-37 for a little more on that).

References:

• A vague reference to recent happening in Morbius' life is given a footnote to Fear #31.
  
• Morbius and Werewolf By Night met previously in Giant-Size Werewolf By Night #4.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Marvel Milestones: Legion of Monsters, Spider-Man and Brother Voodoo

The cover to this one is funny: it's got these characters all reacting to some horrible monster, completely ignoring a car-crash in the background.

My friend suggests that the car crash is the Legion of Monsters' version of the Bat-Signal. "Innocents being sacrificed! They've summoned us, let's go!"

You have this issue placed in between Marvel Two-In-One 15 and Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man 6. Isn't Morbius stuck in another dimension then?

Thanks, Michael. This affected Marvel Preview Magazine #8 too (although the MCP has that between MTIO #15 and PPTSSM #6). I've pushed both back prior to Marvel Two-In-One #15.

Yeah, terrible use of the characters, for all the reasons you mention.

I don't totally mind Frank Robbins' art on Morbius or Ghost Rider, but he wasn't a good choice for this story. Then again, it was such a terrible premise that I'd have hated to waste good Gene Colan art on it.

Okay, what to say, where to start... Well, the cover is pretty silly, and the title of the story sounds like a Roger Corman ripoff. The premise has potential, but the characters are wasted and the story feels rushed through. Finally, looking at Frank Robbins' art, I start to think maybe I've been too hard on Don Perlin. Ghost Rider looks sleep-deprived with his eye bags,Man-Thing's "carrot nose" looks like it should be plugged into a vacuum cleaner, Morbius' face looks like a kabuki mask of Morbius, and in a couple of panels, Starseed is drawn with nostril shots that look like an ode to Gil Kane. As far as the Werewolf goes,on the opening page he looks more hyena than wolf, and his ears are less subtle than Ploog or Perlin. He and Morbius' have bad overbites,and in the climax where Starseed briefly changes them to normal,everyone except Morbius looks like they have the same face, just different hairstyles drawn in. Maybe Rob Liefeld got art ideas from this issue? Overall, HUGE disappointment.

In addition to the up-nostril look for Starseed a la Gil Kane, Robbins must have tipped the cap to Sal Buscema with the Werewolf displaying the open-mouth saliva shot in a panel where he wrestles with Starseed.

Wow this was something. Love Mantlo and these characters but the plot, dialogue, art.. ridiculous! Why is Ghost Rider so afraid of getting bit on the neck.. he is a skeleton!? Also did you know Ghost Rider's bike runs out of gas? How did Man-Thing get to California from Florida? What happened to the mountain afterwards? What the hell was this? Quality is F-minus. Entertainment? A