Rampage

Rampage was launched by Marvel UK as a weekly title on 19th October 1977, featuring reprints of the American Marvel titles 'The Defenders' and 'The Man Called Nova'. In common with other newly launched titles of the era (such as Complete Fantastic Four), the first two issues contained free gifts, small plastic model aeroplane kits (a concorde in issue #1, a 'Stratocruiser' in #2). The weekly lasted 34 issues until the end of May 1978, and it was relaunched as Rampage Monthly in July of the same year, now featuring reprints from the US black & white magazine 'Rampaging Hulk' (starring the Hulk, obviously) backed up by The Defenders, Dr Strange, and later (from issue #8) the 'All-New, All different X-Men' (until then, British Marvel readers had not yet seen the 'new' X-Men, who had actually debuted in 1975 in the US). The X-Men eventually became the magazine's lead strip, while the Hulk (who effectively had star billing in many of the early issues, his logo being bigger than the actual magazine logo!) was dropped once the magazine reprints dried up, and replaced by other features including Luke Cage: Hero for Hire, Iron Fist and The Thing (the latter starring in team-up strips reprinted from 'Marvel Two-in-One'). The title was revamped slightly when the Hulk strips were dropped, becoming 'Rampage Magazine' from issue #28.

Rampage also featured a couple of UK originated strips: a Batman spoof called 'The Crusader' in issue #41, which was among the earliest work of artist Alan Davis, and a four part science fiction strip, 'Timesmasher', in issues #40-44. This little oddity (by Paul Neary and Mick Austin) concerned a time traveler from the future who crash landed in Scotland, and it contained a curious and mostly unnoticed tie-in to the Captain Britain strip relaunched in Marvel Superheroes, in that the time traveler was revealed in the end to have been 'knocked off course' after colliding with something in limbo-the 'something' proving to be Captain Britain (en route from Otherworld as seen in the Black Knight strip in Hulk Comic, and ultimately diverted by the collision to an alternate Earth in Marvel Superheroes #377).

Rampage Magazine lasted 54 issues in total to December 1982 before being cancelled and merged with Marvel Superheroes, the X-Men and Iron Fist transferring over to the new title with MSH #392.


 * In 2005, Panini UK (who now hold the licence to publish titles under the Marvel UK name) launched 'Marvel Rampage', a comic for younger readers. This title has no connection to the earlier Rampage titles, however.