NICK FURY, AGENT OF SHIELD 6
cover by JIM STERANKO
Synopsis:
Fury is summoned by a condition red priority alert to the "Observatron" chamber. An asteroid is being drawn off-course directly toward Earth, impact only hours away! Fury & Cliff Randall (SHIELD's top ace pilot) race to the projected impact point, the Central Andes, hoping to find whatever is pulling the asteroid from its normal orbit. There, they find a hidden base built inside a mountain, run by a group of other-dimensional beings called "The Others". Twenty years earlier, the tyrant of their dimension, facing revolt, set off an "Impact Inducer", which would destroy everything. Survivors escaped in a ship when the force of the destruction opened a dimensional doorway to Earth. Knowing it would take twenty years for the "reverberations" to still, they built a base and sent out "prodigals" to gather intelligence about Earth, whose memories were blanked-- and it turns out Randall was one of these all along! Now, to duplicate the exact conditions that opened the dimensional gateway, they plan to use the asteroid to destroy the entire Earth, just so they can go home! SHIELD's ESP Division informs Fury a psychic shield surrounds the entire base, preventing them from targeting the device pulling the asteroid. When the rocket carrying the "collective intelligence" that is "The Others" launches into space, Fury fears all hope is lost. But Randall's humanity wins out, as the rocket veers off-course and hits the asteroid, destroying both and saving the Earth.
Indexer notes:
1st original post-Steranko episode.
(9-14-2007)
An asteroid has pulled out of its orbit and is heading for a collission that will destroy all life on Earth. Fury and an ace SHIELD pilot race to the Andes to track the source of whatever is pulling the giant rock our way, and find the hidden base of "The Others" a group of exiles from another dimension who escaped tyranny, and now wish to return home-- but the only way they can do it is by recreating the cataclysm that allowed them to escape. That it means the death of an entire planet doesn't faze them, so Fury has no choice but to stop them. Turns out his pilot is actually one of them, brainwashed into forgetting his own identity so as to spy on the "humans" all these years. Nothing seems to be able to stop the baddies, and things look utterly hopeless... until their gigantic spacecraft veers off-course and hits the asteroid. Fury figures he must have gotten thru to the "humanity" of his pilot after all.
Not counting NICK FURY #4 (the origin flashback issue), the post-Steranko era really begins here. Roy Thomas plots, Archie Goodwin dialogues, and full art is by Frank Springer, whose aircraft continues to be very impressive, much more so than his people. If I have any problem, it's that too many stories from this point try too hard to imitate the kind of writing Steranko did in issues #1-3, with dazzling art trying to make up for disjointed plotting, and cramming way too much story into only 20 pages. It's like a Will Eisner SPIRIT story on steroids-- or something. Steranko supplies the very Wally Wood-like cover of Fury in space in front of an exploding Earth-- an image that has been paid tribute to on an issue of ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN, and possibly, the cover of Yes's album FRAGILE.
(6-6-2008)
DR. STRANGE 174
cover by Gene Colan & Tom Palmer
Doc receive a call for help from a fellow mystic in England, and decides to hop a plane there to conserve his power. As Wong helps Clea acclimate to Earth (she has trouble understanding that's it's not a good idea to use magic openly!), Doc and Victoria Bentley pay a visit to a mysterious castle, and soon find themselves in the grip of yet another ambitious madman. This one's made a pact with a demon called "Satannish", who's agreed to give him power & fame for one year, which he may keep permanently ONLY if he can find someone to take his place. A desperate battle ends when the baddie finds Doc used a spell to accelerate time-- and Satannish calls in the debt earlier than the guys expected! Moral: NEVER make a deal with the devil-- or any reasonable faccimile.
The Thomas-Colan-Palmer team continues to dazzle. This is good stuff!!
(6-6-2008)
FANTASTIC FOUR 80
cover by Jack Kirby & Joe Sinnott
Wyatt Wingfoot asks for help with a problem he found visiting his tribe while on vacation from college. Despite waiting for Sue to give birth, Reed quickly agrees to go, and the three speed off in their pogo-plane. Wyatt finds something he can't bring himself to believe-- "Tomazooma, The Totem Who Walks", or, as it calls itself, "The Death Who Walks". A giant in the form of his tribe's ancient legends is determined to destroy everyone and everything in its path, but Wyatt's uncle discovers that the oil company who's been trying to buy their land is in fact an agent of the Soviet Union. He passes up help from the military, feeling it's his tribe's responsibility to take care of what is really a big disguised ROBOT. With Wyatt's help, Reed manages to dispatch the machine, and feels sorry that the tribe's belief in their legend has been destroyed. But the Chief says not a bit of it, as in the distance they see, in a haze, a gigantic form wandering away. The Chief says Tomazooma WAS there, ready to help, until he saw it wasn't needed, and he now returns to where he came from, until his help is summoned again.
The Kirby-Sinnott art is stellar, as usual, though I wish I had the original of this instead of this very fuzzy MGC reprint. Funny thing, in some panels, the design of Tomazaooma makes me think this would have made a great Saturday morning cartoon.
(6-6-2008)
FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL 6
cover by Jack Kirby & Joe Sinnott
Sue & her baby are endangered because of the cosmic radiation in their blood, and Reed decides he must deliberately enter The Negative Zone to find something that may act as an "antidote". Naturally, Ben & Johnny insist on going along, and this time, they take backpacks which serve as propulsion thru the alien space. It's clear Reed has continued to work on the "safety locks" leading to the other universe portal, and I found myself wondering, how much of what he built actually exists in "our" universe, and how much in the "other" one?
Before long, the trio run afoul of a big, bat-winged man-sized insect named "Annihilus", who calls himself "The Death Who Walks" (wait a minute, I thought that was Tomazooma??). This viscious creature takes pleasure in destroying all life it runs across, as it somehow feels it's the only way to insure its own "immortality". Captured and thrust into an arena, Reed recognizes the "cosmic control rod" the alien wears may be the very thing he's searching for that could save Sue (talk about a wild coincidence!!). After a fierce battle, Annihiulus is knocked out, Reed swipes the rod, and the three make a run for it, as Reed finds the rod can be used to channel mental energy to power a vehicle, as well as individual flight. Annihilus sets after them in a "gunship", blowing them out of the sky. Reed somehow manages to return the favor, then is horrified to find they're all trapped in the "debris belt" where he almost got killed TWICE before! ("Ye editor"s editorial notes only mention one previous episode, but my memory's probably better than his.) Once Reed realizes he can siphon off some of the rod's power (into a capsule he conveniently brought with him on his quest), he works a trade-- the jet-backpacks for the rod. The four go their separate ways, the three heroes all hoping they never run into Annihiulus again. (In the Marvel Universe? FAT CHANCE!) Back home, following more than the usual tension, Sue gives birth, and the media goes wild.
In some ways, this was a major turning point for the FF. On the one hand, Reed & Sue are now parents. On the other, Annihiulus was one of the last "major" characters created by Jack Kirby for the series (or Marvel in general). After this, it was mostly a series of "rematches", which probably made "ye editor" happy. After all, he probably figured fans love to see bad guys come back, and it's probably a lot easier to "write" when you don't have to come up with any "new" ideas.
The Kirby-Sinnott art is spectacular-- as always, puncutated by several full-page shots, and a 2-page spread featuring one of Kirby's photo-collages. Some fans in recent years have expressed a wish that Marvel could find a way to re-photograph these things, and reprint them IN COLOR, as opposed to B&W, which was the only way they could be back when the stories were originally done.
Inexplicably, Kirby's magnificent cover was replaced on the 70's "GIANT-SIZE" reprint by a Buckler-Sinnott cover, which just didn't cut it somehow, and was made worse by word balloons (probably by Roy Thomas) which said "Annihilus! He's BACK!", suggesting the story was a sequel, not a reprint of his original appearance.
(6-6-2008)
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 66
cover by JOHN ROMITA
Spidey's old foe has escaped from prison and is ready for revenge! This is a pure "grudge match" with nothing else to get in the way. Well, almost. Pete recovers his clothes & camera from the rubble on the roof of The Daily Bugle, finds JJJ turns him away (though Jameson almost immediately finds his staff photo screwed the job over), is low on cash and has to sell his motorcycle... but then he runs into Gwen, who tells him her Dad explained everything, and suddenly, despite all his troubles, all seems right with the world. Her Dad, meanwhile, has lunch with Joe Robertson, trading notes about Spidey, who's saved both their lives, and who they both suspect knows them personally. Joe also says he'd love to convince JJJ he's wrong, but his hatred is "almost psychotic". (What does he mean, "ALMOST"?? The guy needs psychiatric help-- BAD!!!) Harry's Dad is still missing, and we find he has become The Green Goblin again-- though his memory has not entirely returned yet. As Pete goes to visit Aunt May, he hears a cry of terror, crashes in thru the front door, and finds she's watching the TV-- on which, Mysterio is threatening to DESTROY the entire city, if his arch enemy doesn't come to face him, "At a place only we know". Determined to make his Aunt feel safer, Spidey races to "the place we had our first battle"-- the now-abandoned tv studio. (NOT true. That would be The Brooklyn Bridge! The TV studio was where he first DEFEATED Mysterio. I guess "ye editor"s memory really IS that bad!!)
I love this... Spidey crashes in, and his foe says, "So soon, Spider-Man? Why in such a hurry to face your final waterloo? Or do you HAVE to rush because you RENT that corny costume by the HOUR?" A fight ensues, Mysterio shows Spidey a table-top model of an amusement park, aims a strange "weapon" at him, Spidey gets dizzy... and on regaining his sense, looks up, and sees, to his disbelief-- that he's now 6 inches tall, on the table, with a gigantic Mysterio looming over him, bragging how "In the last remaining minutes left you, you will never know what has really happened to you, or how, or why!"
Definitely one of my favorites. My earlier mistake-- Don Heck & Mike Esposito returned here for ONE more episode, and it's one of their best. I guess If John Romita somehow wasn't able to handle full art or even full pencils, at least they had some decent guys around to pick up the slack. Not long after I first read this (in the 70's MARVEL TALES reprint), I found out it had been adapted for one of the 3rd-season episodes of the cartoon show. While most of the sub-plots were removed, the main action was left pretty much intact, right down to using some of "ye editor"s dialogue VERBATIM! So when I re-read this, I can really "hear" the characters speaking in my head. The strange thing about that cartoon... I suspect the dialogue was recorded at Grantray-Lawrence just before they went belly-up, as it was one of the FEW 10-minute cartoons done by Krantz Films in NYC. Also, it was unusual for Krantz to feature actual super-villains from the comics. Further, there's a line where Spidey refers to Mysterio as "bowl-head", which makes sense in the comic, but NOT the cartoon. For, in some utterly bizarre, inexplicable reason, Gray Morrow COMPLETELY redesigned Mysterio for the cartoon! Instead of the Steve Ditko outfit that would have looked at home in a DR. STRANGE story, Morrow came up with a guy in a business suit, smoking a cigarette in a long holder, with shell-rimmed glasses, green skin and orange hair! I think someone once suggested he looked a bit like Roman Polansky on psychedelics. In any case, both the comic and cartoon remain among my faves.
(6-6-2008)
Watch "THE MADNESS OF MYSTERIO" on Dailymotion!
IRON MAN 7
cover by GEORGE TUSKA
This turns out to be one complex story from Archie Goodwin & George Tuska. "Big M"'s goons insist she mount the raid on Stark's plant, even as she's feeling regret for ever having started a criminal career, and how it will hurt Jasper. The Gladiator, fresh from multiple defeats at the hands of Daredevil, pushes his way into things, figuring he can re-establish his rep, and maybe push "Big M" (Whitney Frost) out before long. Meanwhile, Tony Stark can't believe it when Jasper is so lovesick he actually blurts out some classified security info to his girlfriend Whitney-- who Tony's beginning to get suspicious of. Later, he has a meeting with Janice Cord-- daughter of a late rival of his who hated him bitterly and was killed recently. Tony's offering to buy out her father's company for a very reasonable sum. However, it's at this point The Maggia makes their move, and grabs Tony, Janice and her business advisor hostage. Tony learns his supicions about Whitney were justified, as she leads the raid personally, without even a hint of disguise. The Gladiator wants to fight Iron Man, but for this to happen, Tony has to put his life and the others at risk-- to ESCAPE! He does, the fight's on, but before you know it, his repulsor rays get damaged, leaving us with a tense cliffhanger.
When I got my hands on this (and a few other issues from this part of the run), these stories had not yet been reprinted-- which after several decades, really started to seem absurd, considering the multitude of later stories involving Whitney Frost, The Maggia, etc. It's crazy that many fans have grown up reading "sequels" without ever being able to read the "originals". Which, combined with the popularity of a few later runs (notably those by David Michelinie & Bob Layton, and Kurt Busiek & Sean Chen), helped jack up the prices of these back-issues much higher than it seemed reasonable to me. I managed to get these fairly cheap, but I've seen them going for as much as $80 apiece!! --which is really nuts, when you consider Kirby-Sinnott F.F. issues from the same period were going from $10-20. (I wonder if the prices have come down now that these have finally made it to both ESSENTIALS and MASTERWORKS?)
(6-8-2008)
CAPTAIN AMERICA 107
cover by Jack Kirby & Frank Giacoia
Cap is apparently having nightmares & hallucinations about WW2 and Bucky, who keeps saying, "How could you save so many but let ME die??" Steve's now seeing a shrink, a tall, very large Central-European looking guy with a handlebar moustache and a bad haircut named "Dr. Faustus" (you'd think with a name like that anybody would get suspicious). Faustus-- OF COURSE-- is an enemy spy, out to break Cap as none before him have-- psychologically. (His henchmen ask, why don't we just shoot him while we have the chance? NO! He does not WORK that way! BWA-HAHA!) Things reach a critical point when, after taking the Doctor's presciption pills, Steve wakes up having aged decades overnight. But it's a con-- he had SHIELD examine the pills, and had them work up a mask and gloves so he'd look old-- before clobbering the ones responsible. Faustus boldly tries to tackle him single-handedly. That turns out to be a waste of time...
Between the title and the "Bucky's dead!" theme, this story feels like the work of "ye editor". I wonder who was mostly responsible for Dr. Faustus, him or Kirby? In either event, he's one of the last new villains Kirby would do in a Cap mag until the mid-70's. Syd Shores returns to inks, somehow a lot slicker than before-- perhaps he's gotten the hang of the smaller art board size? There's a rumor that "ye editor" was grooming Shores to take over from Kirby, but somehow it never happened, as apparently "ye editor" decided at some point he just wasn't happy with the "look".
(6-8-2008)
SUB-MARINER 7
cover by John Buscema & Dan Adkins
THE INCREDIBLE HULK 109
cover by Herb Trimpe & John Severin
CAPTAIN MARVEL 7
cover by JOHN ROMITA
Mar-Vell is ONCE AGAIN undergoing intense scrutiny by Yon-Rogg and Ronan The Accuser, back on their homeworld, having been transported there by some faster-than-light teleportation beam (shades of DC's Adam Strange!). Still unable to prove he's a traitor, Ronan orders a "test"-- Mar-Vell must use a toxic poison to kill everyone in a small town of his choosing. Returning to Earth orbit, then to Earth, Mar-Vell is just in time to save Carol Danvers from a murderous attack by Yon-Rogg, who wants her snooping stopped at all costs. Yon-Rogg then has Una view her lover and the Earth-woman together, trying to destroy her faith in him. Thru all this, Yon-Rogg's megalomania keeps growing, and he doesn't even seem to consider Una an important part of his ambitions anymore!
Things get real strange when Arnold Drake brings in Quasimodo (no explanation for how this "living computer" is alive and kicking after FF ANNUAL #5) who had developed the inexplicable power to control all mechanical devices-- even rifles, which fly out their wielder's hands. (Never mind how Superman can fly-- somebody try explaining THIS phenomona!!) CM winds up battling him, and it spills over into-- of all things-- an amusement park inhabited by animatronic "people". Una sabotaged the viewer just long enough for Yon-Rogg to miss part of the action, and by the time he gets it going again, he witnesses CM destroy Quasimodo-- and apparently, EVERYONE in this "small town". Frustrated that his arch-rival is still in the clear, Yon-Rogg is simultaneously stunned that Mar-Vell actually managed to slaughter that many "people". (Little does he know...)
As with so many episodes before, it takes almost halfway into the issue before this month's main story finally kicks in. I find myself wishing they'd have either focused on the "big" story, or else do these "smaller" stories better. At any rate, it's interesting to compare Don Heck's work in here to that in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. Over there, he was working under John Romita's layouts, Mike Esposito's inks, and Romita's touch-ups. So it looked nice, but it was hard to see any "Heck" at all. Here, Heck's storytelling is obvious, making me wonder how it might have been if HE had been doing the plotting over on ASM. The problem, as with the 2 previous issues, is John Tartaglione seems to be adding nothing. Judging by those AVENGERS issues Don inked himself, it looks as though Tartaglione could be just TRACING Don's pencils. I look at some of these pages, and I find myself thinking, I could have done a better job on the inks!!
(6-8-2008)
MARVEL SUPER-HEROES 17
cover by Howard Purcell & Dan Adkins
(BK figure by JOHN ROMITA)
THOR 158
cover by MARIE SEVERIN
(paste-ups by Jack Kirby & Vince Colletta)
This issue starts out with what many consider one really UGLY cover (Marie Severin and some incredibly rushed-looking Colletta inks), followed by some rather static Kirby pages and average-at-best Colletta inks. On the letters pages, for months, a controversy had been building, concerning Thor's history. It seems when the series started, the concept was, Don Blake was a surgeon with a lame leg, who found the hammer of Thor, and became the Thunder God. But then they started introducing Loki, Odin, etc. etc... and at some point, the concept seemed to change, and it became that we were reading about the "real" Thor. Which made many question, WHO was Don Blake? Was he real or not? If he was real, did he somehow replace the "real" Thor, and if so, what happened to him? Well, this issue tackles that question HEAD-ON! Actually, the bulk of the issue is a reprint of the very 1st episode from JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #83, right down to the Joe Sinnott inks (his inks are on most of the pages, and he's not even mentioned in the credits! Nor is Larry Lieber, who wrote the dialogue for that episode.)
By the issue's end, Thor himself is wondering, WHO is he really? Interestingly enough, one of the readers on the letters page pretty much spells out EXACTLY what the truth is... as would be revealed in the following issue.
While it's possible this issue was put together to give Jack Kirby extra time to do the FF ANNUAL, it's also been speculated that he had been planning on actually destroying Asgard and killing off all (or most) of the cast, and taking the book and its "GODS" in an entirely "NEW" direction. But then, he changed his mind at the last second, and insisted "ye editor" start doing more of the plotting himself. I think at this point, THOR was one of the only books left that hadn't had a retelling of the "origin" story-- so, in this case, we got a REPRINT-- and in the next issue, a major reinterpretation of same.
(6-8-2008)
DAREDEVIL 46
cover by Gene Colan & George Klein
DD sneaks out of his cell, disguises himself as a doctor, and gets out jail just before anyone wises up. He buys a bum's clothes in a trade, and makes it back to the office, claiming he got "mugged". Back home, in his private gym, he finally feels the weight of the world lift... and realizes he recognizes the after-shave of the guy he ran into on that subway (and the voice that went with it) belongs to the guy he was supposed to have "KILLED" on the George Washington Bridge! Putting 2 and 2 together, he figures out what's been going on, and hatches an outrageous scheme to clear his name. Next thing, The Jester turns on THE TONIGHT SHOW, and sees-- HIMSELF-- telling Johnny "And that's how I beat Daredevil." Incensed that anyone would try stealing his glory, he races to the TV studio to confront his imposter-- who, of course, is DD. A fierce fight ends when The Jester is unmasked-- on LIVE TV-- and everyone watching (including the NYC Police) recognize him as the who whose "murder" DD was accused of. They cart The Jester off, telling DD, "Great job. Sorry about the mix-up." Hilarious!!
Now if only they didn't have this incredibly stupid and annoying sub-plot about Karen Page having left Matt because he refused to get serious and get married, and how Debbie Harris knows where she is but promised not to tell, and how Foggy thinks Matt is nuts (clearly he is!!!), and how Matt is thinking how lucky Foggy is to have someone like Debbie, and he hopes he never loses her... Well, at that point, the first thing that crossed my mind was, HE DID-- eventually-- in an incredibly painful, humiliating, degrading fashion-- THANK YOU, DENNY O'NEIL. But that was a lot of years down the line.
George Klein steps in on inks, and does one of the SLICKEST jobs this book has seen since Wally Wood!! Whatta guy.
(6-8-2008)
X-MEN 50
cover by JIM STERANKO
The book opens with a recap of last issue's finale, as a group of "latent mutants" (again the term "Demi-Men" is never once used) captures The X-Men and Lorna Dane, and ship them off to a futuristic town in the southwestern desert run by an army of mutants under the command of Mesmero, a desciple of the "late" Magneto. Jean, via her newfound telepathy (a "gift" from the "late" Professor X?) realizes their best bet to rescue Bobby is to allow themselves to be captured. Using a "genetic accelerator", Mesmero activates Lorna's latent mutant ability-- magnetism-- and reveals she's actually the DAUGHTER of Magneto! Ordering her to attack, she does-- but it's Mesmero's goons she takes out. Just as it looks like the tables are turning, to everyone's shock-- Magneto turns up apparently very much alive.
So, the team's back together, it looks like they may have a potential new member, we have a great new menace, and it also looks like their arch-enemy is back for more. (Well, Fu Manchu never stayed dead either...) The big visual shock this issue begins on the cover-- a spectacular illo by Jim Steranko, who also did the pencils for the lead story, and, designed a BRAND-NEW LOGO, which is still being used to this day!!! (The fact that DAREDEVIL's logo also changed 2 months earlier makes me wonder if Steranko might have designed that one as well.)
Steranko has gone on record saying he doesn't consider this issue (and the next one) part of his "resume", probably because HE didn't write it-- or ink it-- or, I'm guessing-- COLOR it, either. The figure work's nice, but John Tartaglione doesn't do HALF the job he did on NICK FURY #5 two months before. There's a couple spots that look like they would have contained "special effects", but didn't, which is one of the reasons I suspect someone else colored this. Arnold Drake mentioned in an interview he had a lot of respect for Steranko as an artist, but I do find myself wondering how he wrote this-- "Marvel style", or full script?
The funny thing about this story (well, one of many, but I'll get to the rest later), considering the much-later revelations about Magneto and his supposed history as a "Holocaust" survivor, is how the mutants in this "City" of theirs all give each other NAZI salutes!
"THIS BOY-- THIS BOMBSHELL!"
This covers Hank McCoy's early life from toddler to high school football hero. He winds up single-handedly stopping a gang trying to steal stadium receipts, and comes to the attention of some other criminals with much bigger ambitions. Ohhh boy... Werner Roth & John Verpoorten supply some "nice" art here, though I admit, in spots, I almost thought I was reading a "DC".
(6-8-2008)
(Continued in December 1968)
All Text (C) Henry R. Kujawa
Artwork (C) Marvel Comics
Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa
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