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Slack Wyrm #1564

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Slack Wyrm #1572

Slack Wyrm #1573

WITCHCRAFT AGAINST DEMON POWER!

splooosh

Vision - Perez

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PHOENIX (vo. 1) #4 (October, 1975). Cover by Al Milgrom.

The first issue of Phoenix...The Protector, and the last!

As was typical for books from Marvel-wannabe publisher Atlas/Seaboard, by the third issue there was usually a big change in creative teams and/or status quo for the characters. This book had them both.

The superhero previously known as Phoenix (an astronaut who gained superpowers by wearing a suit stolen from evil aliens) meets different aliens in this issue. If memory serves (my copy of this book is buried somewhere in my storage unit), the aliens not only give Phoenix a totally different costume - with a different set of powers (weaker than he originally had; again if memory serves) - but they shave his head and change his face; essentially turning him into a completely different person.

I gotta say though, I did like his new costume. It was more superhero-y, although I don't know that he needed those underarm wings (it seemed every hero in the '70s was getting those). His original costume looked like an off-the-rack track suit with New Balance sneakers:

PHOENIX (vol. 1) #1 (January, 1975). Cover by Dick Giordano and Sal Amendola.

I don't know why Atlas didn't just start a different book starring a new hero, unless their editorial staff knew that the company's end was near (it would go out of business not long after this book was released) and figured it wasn't worth the effort. Which begs the question: why make the radical changes at all then?

Anyway, Phoenix lasted 4 issues, which is the longest any of the Atlas/Seaboard books did; most were done by issue #3. There have been some attempts in recent years to revive some of the characters, but those were even less successful than the originals. So it's pretty safe to say we'll never see the further adventures of Phoenix...The Protector.

splooosh

Or Worse

Frank Springer - Vince Colletta

chernobog13

One of the sword-fighting skeletons from Jason and the Argonauts (1963).

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chernobog13

An archer named Fedot is assisted in his quest by the witch, Baba Yaga, in the Russian fairy tale Go I Know Not Whither, Fetch I Know Not What. The illustration is by Nikolay Kochergin.

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