The wrong annual

For many more years than I'd really care to admit, my biggest comic buying regret was getting the DC hardback annual instead of the Marvel one from the Plaza Bookshop in Timaru in 1984.

While there were always exceptions for things like the X-Men, I was mainly a DC kid in the early 80s, and when the hardback British annuals showed up every year, there was always something Batman or Superman-related.

One of those annuals that particular year was the 'Super Powers Annual'. It had the first part of the original limited series of that name, (which I always thought was Kirby art, but was actually Adrian Gonzales and Pablo Marcos doing their best imitation of the King), some Aparo Batman/Hawkman and a Superman/Green Lantern thing by Jim Starlin. 

But there was also one with the Marvel equivalent, with the first issue of Secret Wars and a bunch of other Marvel treats, including a Spider-Man/Alpha Flight story from a Marvel Team-Up Annual. That was the first place I ever saw Alpha Flight in anything and I thought they looked weird, and went for the safety of the DC heroes.

My meagre pocket money only stretched so far when I was nine, so I could only get one.

The thing is, while I always enjoyed both comics, I became a raging Marvel Universe head soon afterwards, and despite the quality of that Super Powers book, I wished with every fiber of my being that I'd got the Marvel. Especially when I've seen the DC book in second hand shops many times, but have seen no sign of the other anywhere.

I still have the Super Powers annual today, and still think it's groovy, especially the way something went very wrong with the colours on the last page of the Superman/Green Lantern story, and everybody suddenly has very weird skin. 

I got over this regret a long, long time ago, but I can still feel the taste of it, somewhere in my brain. Some heartbreaks never die, and I would buy that Marvel book in a fucking second if I ever saw it anywhere.