American Update: Mighty Marvel Firsts – The Man Who Lived Twice! First Appearance of Brother Voodoo from Strange Tales #169
*Marvel: Okay, this is an oddity; the 1970s revival of Strange Tales restarted with the ‘classic’ numbering of #169, and featured Brother Voodoo, a peculiar attempt at a heroic practitioner of, duh, voodoo, intended to tap into both the ‘blaxploitation’ and horror crazes of the time. Len Wein and Gene Colan were the creators, so it was competently done, but a fundamental misunderstanding of the religion of voodoo, combined with objections to the depiction of non-Christian religion and severe criticism about the portrayal of non-white characters, meant that the heroic sojourn of Jericho Drumm, intermittently possessed by the ghost of his deceased twin Daniel, stuttered to a halt within five issues, to be replaced by the hastily thrown-together Golem. That might have been it for this Bronze Age update of Quality’s old Captain Triumph (look it up if you don’t get the reference), but for the zeal of fan-turned pro writers, who brought the character back from oblivion. He’s been a Skrull. he’s been the Scarlet Witch (kind of) and now he’s Doctor Voodoo, Sorcerer Supreme (well, one of them) of the Marvel Universe! This VG copy of an origin issue never distributed in the UK has a small chip out of the bottom right edge of the cover, minor edge wear and corner blunting and slight tanning to inside covers, but is otherwise very sound, glossy and presentable.
PICTURED: STRANGE TALES #169 VG £80 SOLD