TWO books reviewed so far this month!
STRANGE TALES 159
cover by JIM STERANKO (alterations by John Romita & John Verpoorten)
Synopsis:
Following the destruction of Hydra Island, the Heli-Carrier docks in NYC for repairs. Jasper gets a new secret assignment; Gabe gets an undercover job which involves playing trumpet in Greenwich Village; and Dum Dum takes some leave to visit his family in Boston. Fury reminisces with Laura about his days growing up in Hell's Kitchen; then at SHIELD HQ, offers her a job as an agent. Fury goes to the UNIT academy, where recruits undergo rigorous education. He meets two new agents: Sidney E. Levine, a tech expert and Val, who scoffs at his attitude that the spy game is man's work. Fury takes on Captain America in a display bout for the recruits, but gets dizzy due to a side-effect of the invisibility pill he used earlier. Cap tells him he's found out who was responsible for a job they tackled a year ago.
Indexer notes:
Part 1 of 9. 1st appearance of Fury's apartment, The Gaff & Val. Cap mentions the last time he & Fury met was when they fought "THEM"'s Humanoid Assassin in TALES OF SUSPENSE #78 (June 1966). That story was clearly Cap & Fury's 1st meeting since WW2 in SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS #13 (December 1964) as Cap had been trying to contact Fury for months about possibly becoming a SHIELD agent (seen in several issues of THE AVENGERS). Yet 4 pages later, Cap refers to a job they tackled together "a year ago" (Perhaps "The Big Blackout" took place immediately after TOS #78, as there was a break between issues #78 & #79). After loitering in the shadows outside Stark Industries for 2 months, Jasper Sitwell became a regular in the Iron Man series in TALES OF SUSPENSE #95 (November 1967).
(8-15-2007)
"THE EVIL THAT MEN DO"
Synopsis:
Strange returns home to find his Sanctum gone! Wong, who barely escaped its destruction, recounts how Umar used a spell of vanishment. Strange dispels her enchantment and his house returns. Using the Crystal of Agamotto he senses evil mystic powers around the world. Casting a spell he discovers a group of mystics, banded together, working to free an imprisoned mystic to lead them. Strange strikes down the most powerful of the group, but is too late, they have freed Baron Mordo, his most hated enemy, knowing it will be impossible to convince him to join forces to save the Earth!
Indexer notes:
Part 13 of 22; part 2 of the Living Tribunal sequence. While under an evil influence, Piper Halliwell once used an identical spell to Umar's to make her house vanish (and it was restored in the same way) in an episode of the tv show CHARMED.
(8-15-2007)
FANTASTIC FOUR 65
cover by Jack Kirby & Joe Sinnott
In a dream, all four members of the F.F. are warned by The Supreme Intelligence—a disembodied brain—that for destroying The Sentry, they are all guilty of violating Kree law, and sentence will soon be carried out. En route to Earth we meet Ronan The Accuser—a giant whose helmet suggests the wig of a British court judge—whose mission is to meet out punishment against any lesser beings who might dare challenge his “superior” race. He questions the necessity of his mission, as Earth is such a backwater planet it’s of no importance to his people—but his sheer attitude of racial superiority drives him on. He quickly captures the team to perform a “trial”—which they’ll have none of! Another fight breaks out, and naturally his reaction is to say they leave him no choice but to carry out his sentence immediately. Once again the F.F. barely escape with their lives, and Ronan departs, leaving Reed to state, “The Kree now know they are dealing with an intelligent race—and a fighting race! And I pray that such knowledge will keep them from ever returning!”
Where would Kirby have gone with this story? It’s hard to tell. At this point, his "editor" seemed to spend more and more of his efforts trying to “pull back” Kirby’s wilder concepts, to re-mold them in the dialogue stage to fit his narrower vision of “good vs. evil” type of stories. The following month saw a 2-parter that introduced “Him”, a scientifically-created super-being who later became Adam Warlock, and there’s evidence that "ye editor" so completely altered the intent of Kirby’s plot that it ended prematurely after only 2 episodes (rather than 4, as the early pacing would seem to indicate). Also, in SILVER SURFER # 1 (Aug’68), "ye editor" & John Buscema revealed the origin of one of Kirby’s favorite characters, a story completely at odds with any ideas Kirby intended for him! Tired of having too many of his ideas corrupted or “taken away” from him, and still not getting paid for the writing he was doing, Kirby told his boss to start plotting FANTASTIC FOUR on his own, and the book suffered tremendously as a result for the remainder of Kirby’s run.
As an aside, I first read the 2 Kree stories in the mid-70’s as reprints in MARVEL’S GREATEST COMICS # 47-48. I was blown away then. Recently I got my hands on a copy of F.F. # 64, for a “mere” $7.00! Joe Sinnott’s inking in the original comic is STAGGERING. But in the reprint, his fine, precise lines either blur together or disappear completely. This may be one more reason why original issues command such high prices—Marvel’s originals NEVER looked so good again later. If I can afford ‘em, I prefer originals!
Meanwhile, "ye editor" wasn’t the only one putting his 2 cents in—but at least he was some kind of writer. (If only just barely.)
(11-6-2003)
TALES TO ASTONISH 94
cover by DAN ADKINS
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 51
cover by JOHN ROMITA
In September 1968, the first half of this story was very loosely adapted as the 2nd Ralph Bakshi-produced, Lin Carter-written, Gray Morrow-storyboarded episode of the Krantz Films "SPIDER-MAN" animated TV cartoon for Saturday mornings. The Kingpin came across less as a white "Sumo wrestler" and more like Sidney Greenstreet. The scene depicted on the cover of ASM #51 was accompanied by a very cool Syd Dale composition, "The Hell Raisers". (click to hear!)
(8-23-2018)
TALES OF SUSPENSE 92
cover by Jack Kirby & Frank Giacoia
THOR 143
cover by Jack Kirby & Vince Colletta
THE AVENGERS 43
cover by John Buscema & George Roussos
SGT. FURY & HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS 45
cover by DICK AYERS
DAREDEVIL 31
cover by Gene Colan & John Tartaglione (alterations by John Romita)
X-MEN 35
cover by DAN ADKINS
GHOST RIDER 4
cover by DICK AYERS
"...AND MEN SHALL CALL HIM STING-RAY!"
from the GCD: "Synopsis: The Sting-Ray (a.k.a. Scorpion) paralyzes Sheriff Brooks and Clay Riley and takes the money raised for the local school at a dance at Carter Slade's ranch. The Ghost Rider tries to catch him but is stopped by the Sheriff and his posse. The next day the Sheriff meets with local businessmen and decides to go after the Ghost Rider again. Unfortunately, the local druggist is really the Sting-Ray and uses the opportunity to kidnap Natalie. The Ghost Rider rescues her but is almost shot by the Sheriff when leaving. The Tarantula stops him and pretends that he is working with the Night Rider."
"Indexer Notes: The Sting-Ray first appeared as the Scorpion in Rawhide Kid (1960) #57."
Under a rather GLORIOUS cover (possibly the best of this run), we have... another mess. Here we have a hero who's re-using the name of another hero (from another publisher), facing a leftover villain from another book (RAWHIDE KID), whose name (The Scorpion) was changed to due another villain (in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN), so now he's The Sting-Ray (except, before long, another Sting-Ray would debut in SUB-MARINER). Hmm. Wanna bet Roy Thomas actually did this one, uncredited? I know he actually filled in for Gary Friedrich on dialogue on either 1 or 2 issues, and the stuff here is so PAINFUL to plow through, I bet it was him.
Just reading the sypnopsis you can see how annoying-as-hell this whole set-up is. The Sting-Ray pulls a robbery, everybody sees it, The Ghost Rider goes after the guy, but the Sheriff and his men go after The Ghost Rider, and after, plans to CONTINUE to do so. How can ANYBODY be that stupid, except for really BAD writing? (And in this case, I blame the EDITOR who concocted the series, not the guy actually doing the writing.)
DICK AYERS supplies story & art, Gary Friedrich (or Roy Thomas, see for yourself) does dialogue, and Vince "I don't get it" Colletta does inks.
(3-16-2014)
(Continued in September 1967)
All Text (C) Henry R. Kujawa
Artwork (C) Marvel Comics
Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa
No comments:
Post a Comment