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I love that it's so easy to do!

I've told the story of back when Chris and I were doing MARVEL TEAM UP, and grew tired of using twelfth place villains. We wanted some real Spider-Man bad guys, and for a start, we asked the Spider-Office if we could use Kraven the Hunter.

No, we were told. The Spider-Writer had plans for Kraven. . . . . in four years!

At this point Shooter made himself useful. He declared that no characters could be tied up for long periods waiting for stories that might or might not happen. So Chris and I got to use Kraven.

(Something similar happened at DC. I asked the Swamp Thing office if I could use him in ACTION COMICS. Their answer was, basically, "No! No way! Never! Oh, by the way, we're using Luthor." To which my response was "No! Too soon! I've barely begun defining the character!" To which their response was "Already did it." There, alas, no one in the Powers That Were was prepared to intervene on my behalf.)

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This page is something of an apology to fans who were there when the original Dark Phoenix Saga unspooled itself in the pages of UNCANNY X-MEN. When Dark Phoenix manifested, I drew this page...

Chris, once again writing beyond my intent, scripted what you see at lower left. And next month, when the Surfer did NOT show up to "aid" Phoenix, there were a lot of unhappy--and justifiably pissed off--readers.

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Well, THIS time, anyway. The first time, they didn't show up because... reasons.

Mainly, back in those days the Marvel Universe was not nearly so inbred and incestuous (literally in some cases) as it has become. Everything didn't have to be touching everything else. So, altho it was a "shared universe", it was understood that characters would be allowed to deal with their own problems in their own books.