MY FAVORITE COMICS - "Assignment: The Infinity Formula!" in Marvel Spotlight #31

I couldn't have had a better introduction to the amazing Howard Chaykin's nasty and sexy artwork (here at his most Toth-esque) than through this small pearl. I'd never seen Nick Fury looking so good before. Written by Jim Starlin, this comic (finally) explained how the S.H.I.E.L.D.'s man in charge could look so young after all the decades since World War II. At the time, in my naivette, I was hoping for further Fury stories done by the same creative team the following month but, alas, it was not to be. It would take quite a few years before I'd read another Chaykin drawn Nick Fury tale - the also thrilling "Scorpio Connection", written by the late, great Archie Goodwin.
Highlights from this forgotten gem forever engraved on my mind were : the flashback showing how Fury started using the Infinity Formula; the fight scene between an  increasingly old Fury and his also fast ageing foe wrestling for possession of the formula; the terrific sequence where Fury's enemy falls on a slot machine hitting the jackpot and the final page with Fury de-aging and a oh-so gorgeous and sweet Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine saving the day.  

MY FAVORITE COMICS - Adam Warlock by Jim Starlin

Warlock. Adam Warlock. Jack Kirby created Him. Gil Kane transfigured him. Jim Starlin elevated him.

I wasn't familiar with neither Kirby nor Kane's versions of the character when I first came across the Jim Starlin comics, but that might have been for the better because this could just as well be an entirely new character. I clearly remember being totally mystified by Starlin's vigorous artwork and trippy stories when I first came across it. These comics had all the same qualities I had come to identify with Marvel (that strangeness, manic, hallucinogenic, almost paranoid quality that was absent from DC comics superfriends) elevated to a much higher level. To a then-seven/eight-year old kid, this was beyond superheroes. All the basic elements of the genre (the fantasy, the angst, the melodrama, the epic scale) were pumped up to another level. And then... Starlin killed Adam Warlock. The perfect ending ... if only it had been let well enough alone.