Spiderman and Zoids

During the height of the Eighties Marvel UK published a comic based on Zoids. At the time the Zoids toy line was very popular in England, which explains why I get so much e-mail from fans in that country. The comic's story is not related to the Battle Story Tomy created for Zoids in Japan, as outlined on my front page and in the section covering the Zoid photobook. Instead, they created a new mythology, combining elements of James Cameron's Aliens and the Commodore 64 Zoids game. The series was released weekly, packaged with reprints of Spiderman, and the comic was called Spiderman and Zoids. The series ran over fifty issues, plus there were annuals. After issue 51 the format was changed to a monthly one, exclusively dedicated to Zoids. I don't know how long the series lasted after that. The comic used the British Zoid names, which differed from the Japanese names and the American names. Interestingly, from the Zoid toy ads in the back of the issues it appeared that the Zoids followed the color schemes of the Japanese release, and not the ugly American color scheme. What makes Spiderman and Zoids stand out in the eyes of comic collectors is that well known author Grant Morrison wrote several issues.

A prison ship, named the Celeste, is taking exiled convicts to Zoidstar (virtually a death sentence) when it is hit by something (it turns out that they were hit by Krark the massive pterodactyl zoid) and the ship crash-lands on the desert planet. Most of the crew survive (surprising?) while the prison cells are broken open on impact and most of the prisoners escape - only to be killed by Zoids waiting outside. The surviving humans band together with the last(?) remaining Zoidarian (the race who built the Zoids) called the Namer and they try to patch up their ship to get them home. In the process they: Hijack a Zoid. Get set upon by any number of other Zoids. Steal parts from a SlitherZoid (the Zoid with the hidden gun) Con their way into the place where Gore (Iron Kong) is being built. Consider hijacking HIM as well. Steal more stuff. Blow up the factory. One crew member gets heroically injured. Steal a leg from one Zoid and stuck it onto another Zoid. Find out that one crew member is a T1000000000000000 robot (this guy wants to take on Gojulas!). Run away from this new robot, almost getting eaten by KrokZoids. Go mad. ( quote:"But watch out for my horse,Silver...turned out to be a robot!...and I think Carradine may be a rabbit...").

Later events involve the arrival of Aliens style mercenaries, a power struggle among the Red Zoids, and one of the Celeste's crewmen mind melding with Zoidzilla. Apparently there was also a mysterious "Black Zoid" who was going round laying all the other Zoids to waste. All our favorite Zoids seem to have been featured in the series and every issue had an ad for the toys.
Let me just say right here how envious I am of you guys in the UK. You got the comic, you got the game, and you got easy access to the toy line. Me, I had to hunt around expensive collector's shops to build up my army.