Spider-Man and Zoids

Spider-Man and Zoids
Cover of Spider-Man and Zoids #49, published Feb. 7, 1987.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel UK
Schedule	Weekly
Format	Ongoing series
Publication date	March 1986 - February 1987
No. of issues	51

Spider-Man and Zoids was a comic book series by Marvel UK that was a tie-in with the toys of the same name. The comics anthology included reprints of Spider-Man stories and an original series of Zoids tales. (The latter has no continuity with the anime Zoids and it was created to go along with the original UK—and subsequent Australian—model kit releases.) Spider-Man and Zoids is notable for featuring early work by Grant Morrison, including the epic and apocalyptic Black Zoid storyline.

The 1985–1986 Marvel UK title Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars reprinted the vast majority of the Secret Wars and Secret Wars II sagas (incorporating the Secret Wars II cross-overs in chronological order). Featuring Zoids stories in issues #20–#26, the success of the Zoids storyline prompted the release of their own title, Spider-Man and Zoids (which picked up shortly after the demise of the long-running Marvel UK Spider-Man weekly title).

The series' cancellation with issue #51 occurred during the heart of the Black Zoid storyline, meaning that none of the unfinished plot-lines were ever followed up. A proposed monthly continuation (again written by Grant Morrison, with art by Steve Yeowell) was shelved before publication—however, at least the first half of the aborted issue exists.

The Zoids were created by a blue-skinned humanoid race named the Zoidaryans, native to the planet Zoidstar. They used these mechanical behemoths to conquer and enslave other worlds in a Zoidaryan empire that stretched into the Earth sector of space. However, the Zoidaryans were a warlike species, and delighted in battle. With no other enemy left to fight, they used their battle machines to fight each other in epic duels to the death. This was considered their golden age, the era of "Heroic Combat", but it began to lead to the extinction of their race. So it was decreed that androids should pilot the Zoids to battle each other, and the Zoidarians would sate their battle-hunger vicariously.

On the outer rim of the Zoidaryan Empire, battle fleets still patrolled their subdued populations, periodically returning to the home system. One such battlefleet miscalculated its return due to a meteor shower, and crashed onto the Blue Moon of Zoidstar. There was a single Zoidaryan survivor, pulled from the wreckage by android technicians, and given a protective exoskeleton to restore his crippled body.