2: Cosmic Things

During his first couple of years at Marvel, Peter Gillis submitted an assortment of fill ins for Marvel's big guns, learning on the job as he went...

Marvel Two-In-One #45 (1978)

Pencils: Alan Kupperberg

Inks: Mike Esposito

A Skrull gangster from an early Fantastic Four lands in New York, impersonating the Thing. Captain Marvel makes a bemused, needless, contractually obliged appearance. Then it all ends in a rushed Scooby Doo fashion. This was presumably aiming for comedic or at least light hearted, but the end result is unremarkable, not aided by some workmanlike artwork. However the script at least shows some personality.

Marvel Two-In-One #51 (1979)

Pencils: Frank Miller
Inks: Bob McLeod

A big improvement on the previous fill-in, featuring the fun debut of Ben Grimm's poker game with Nick Fury and lesser Avengers. In the less memorable second half, they fight some faceless goons atop of SHIELD's Helicarrier. At 17 pages, there's not a great deal to the story, but it's wholesome fun all the same, with some early Frank Miller art mimicking Steranko in places.

Marvel Super Heroes #3 (1990) - Captain Marvel

Pencils: Jerry Bingham
Inks: Bruce Patterson

This is a real oddity. I've leave it to Roger Stern to explain:

"Shortly after Jim (Salicrup) and I became the editorial team on Captain Marvel, Peter Gillis pitched us a story, and Jim teamed Peter with artist Jerry Bingham. I don't know when the story was finished, but Jim had planned to run it in Marvel Spotlight #12; Mike Netzer had even drawn a cover. Unfortunately, the revived Spotlight itself was canceled with issue eleven. And so, that story sat in inventory for over a decade. It finally saw print in Marvel Super-Heroes (Volume 2) #3 in 1990. But while Gillis was credited with the plot, the script was credited to "Diverse Hands." I'm guessing that Mark Gruenwald - the editor of Marvel Super-Heroes' second volume - had Gillis's script rewritten to cover the passage of time."

Hmm, this story is a full 22 pages, which Marvel only switched to at the end of 1980, from the previous count of 17. Stern's editorial involvement ended at the end of 1979, which would place the origin of the script sometime in that year, with it likely being drawn in the latter half of 1980. It's impossible to tell what was changed by Gruenwald, as it's still a slightly awkward read, like it was meant to follow on from a previous issue.

The plot concerns Mar-Vell having his cosmic powers drained unwittingly by Apalla, Queen of the Sun, a minor character from a bizarre Doctor Strange storyline. After the obligatory misunderstanding battle is resolved, they team up to fight some faceless terrorists stealing radioactive waste. Maybe the original script hung together better. As it is, it's just a disjointed filler.

This scene was later mirrored in Micronauts.

Hulk #227-228 (1978)

Story: Roger Stern, Peter Gillis (Plot Assist #227, Co-Writer #228)
Pencils: Sal Buscema
Inks: Klaus Janson, Bob McLeod (finishes)

Peter Gillis also had a hand in Hulk #227, with a full co-writer credit on #228. It's hard to discern any specific Gillis input, as it just reads like regular writer Stern. Doc Samson's psychoanalysis of the Hulk here would lay the groundwork for later deeper analysis by Bill Mantlo and Peter David. PBG summed up:

"Roger Stern and I had talked about moving decisively away from the Len Wein (and Steve Gerber in The Defenders) cuddly Hulk of Crackajack Jackson and beans, and towards a Hulk who's an actual monster."

First appearance of Moonstone II

More cosmicness coming soon, cubed.