FANTASTIC FOUR 105
cover by John Romita & John Verpoorten
Crystal collapses abruptly. Johnny races her to Reed, who discovers that due to her having lived so long in The Great Refuge, she has not developed an "immunity" to the pollution in the outside world, and must return there to rebuild her body's immune system... at least for awhile. Reed also finds something in her blood that may be able to help with his attempts to "cure" Ben, and Ben gets all excited about it, despite the total ANGUISH going on with Johnny right in front of him. Meanwhile, a strange energy field is moving thru the streets of the city, causing destruction wherever it goes. Sue runs into Dr. Zolten Rambow, an old colleague of Reed's, who in the worst 50's sci-fi tradition wants to "study" the phenomena, not destroy it. The figure of a man appears with it, and Johnny, trying to focus on action rather than having just lost his girl (AGAIN!) is helpless. Only Sue is holding it back with her force-field, and Johnny races to get Reed's help. Except, Reed has just started a new and very dangerous experiment to try and cure Ben, and if he leaves, Ben could be killed. His wife or his best friend-- which should he save? Hmm...
Okay, I thought the Sub-Mariner-Magneto 3-parter was bad (AND IT WAS!) but this is MUCH worse. This gets my vote for the worst FF comic ever published (at least up to this time). Romita's storytelling is stiff, exagerated & over-the-top, Verpoorten's inks remove all trace of the mood and "style" Romita usually has and make the whole thing look like a cheap Saturday morning cartoon, and "ye editor"s dialogue... good grief. Has this guy actually read any of the previous issues? He doesn't seem to know how "his" characters are supposed to talk... or act. Ben is way out of character when he pushes Reed to do the experiment seconds after Johnny flies away enraged, Johnny is made to look like an immature idiot, Crystal is just a "stiff"... The whole thing with her having to return home is just so CONTRIVED. It's like, "Oh, we need to dump some new problem on the young lovers... I know, let's say pollution in the air is a problem! Then we'll have soap-opera AND environmental consciousness." As for the "monster"-- totally unidentified, unexplained-- and this "Dr. Rambow"-- man, I'd rather watch anything American International put out in the 50's than this. Even the ones Roger Corman DIDN'T do.
3 word balloons and 2 very wordy blurbs don't ruin the cover-- the design killed it first. How did this thing ever NOT get cancelled???
(7-26-2008)
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 91
cover by Gil Kane & John Romita
On the way home from Stacy's funeral, Gwen tells Pete she HATES Spider-Man with every fibre of her being. (Or something to that effect.) She wants to see him "brought to justice" so much, she volunteers to help in the campaign of "law and order" candidate Sam Bullit, an ex-cop (she doesn't seem to realize he's an EX-cop because he was THROWN OFF THE FORCE) who decides to use Spider-Man as a big part of his politcal campaign. Jameson gets onboard when Bullit promises to "deliver" Spidey-Man, and soon a "Crush Spider-Man" campaign in in full swing. Joe warns Jameson that Bullit is a "fascist", and it's proven when 2 of Bullit's thugs, wanting to know Spidey's whereabouts, beat Peter up badly, figuring as the photographer who's taken so many shots of the guy, he must know something. Spidey clobbers the thugs in return, but on returning to his apartment, finds Gwen-- and Bullit-- waiting. Bullit says, "We thought there was a connection between them-- now we have proof!" Yeah, right-- as if 2 previous stories in which Spidey openly admitted to the Stacys he & Pete had a "deal" somehow never happened. (Doesn't "ye editor" read his own comics?)
The art's not bad, but the story is only beginning to take a dark tone here. The cover's just AWFUL, though-- words, words, words, everywhere! And as Spidey is hassling a thug, a whole line of characters are just standing there, watching, including Harry & MJ, who aren't even IN this issue!
(7-28-2008)
IRON MAN 32
cover by Marie Severin & Mike Esposito
CAPTAIN AMERICA 132
cover by Marie Severin & Frank Giacoia
(alterations by JOHN ROMITA)
This opens with the blurb: "In this epic issue! Exposed at last: THE MOST DIABOLICAL PLOT OF ALL TIME!" Well, that and the cover ("Bucky" about to smash Cap with a rock while saying "I've waited 20 YEARS to do this!") kinda blows any surprise at what follows. (But we knew that since the last panel of the previous issue, so...) As "Baron Strucker" is hauled away, reporters have flocked to the scene, wanting details on Bucky's miraculous return. Watching the news, The Falcon thinks how he'd hoped maybe HE and Cap could become partners someday, but now... At SHIELD HQ, Sharon hopes that Bucky's return may help wipe the guilt from Cap's heart, and maybe he can "lead a normal life" now. Fury responds that a guy like Cap is who he is, and she can't expect him to quit. (Though not stated, he may also be thinking of the irony that she wants Cap to quit being a hero, while the whole "problem" with them was HER refusing to quit being a SHIELD agent!) Fury also says she'll probably "hogtie" Cap eventually-- but a guy like that can't be rushed.
Gene Colan then spends 2 whole pages setting up for readers the secret island fortress of AIM, where MODOK thinks on how his schemes have been going lately. It was MODOK who had his agents infiltrate the college where the riot started, which Cap helped stop. His men also watched as "Baron Strucker"'s man urged Cap to appear on TV, and then sent Batroc & his flunkies after Cap while he was on the air. Mentally eavesdropping on "Strucker", MODOK learned he wanted to PERSONALLY bring about Cap's downfall... and that's when MODOK hatched a devious new scheme. Contacting Dr. Doom-- who considers himself a "master of robotics"-- MODOK challenged him to-- you saw this coming, right?-- build a ROBOT duplicate of Bucky Barnes. His ego unable to turn down the challenge, Doom not only built a robot that would have Bucky's features & voice-- but his personality as well! Then, MODOK mentally placed the idea in "Strucker"'s brain to find someone to impersonate Bucky. MAN! This explains SO MUCH about all those "coincidences" that kept building up and up and UP last issue! (But not all...)
MODOK muses that while Cap escaped "Strucker"'s trap, he still doesn't realize his companion is a robot-- under MODOK's control. And at that point, he has "Bucky" attack Cap. The attack is brutal-- and Cap can't bring himself to fight back, as he feels Bucky doesn't know what he's saying or doing-- and HE feels responsible for what he's become! But then "Bucky"'s expression changes-- as Bucky's memories take over, and the robot can't continue trying to murder Bucky's friend. MODOK realizes Doom made the robot TOO well (perhaps deliberately, as a private "joke" and a way to "stick it" to a potential rival?) and its "automatic destruct control" will be activated-- before he can stop it. (What's a robot designed with one of those for, anyway?) "Bucky" explodes-- and "dies". Cap realizes it was just an imposter-- an "android" ("ye editor" LOVED that word...). But as he cradles the body of the "android", Cap muses that "not even a REPLICA of my long-lost partner could bring himself to HARM, me! It's as though-- BUCKY HIMSELF --reached out from the past --just when I needed him most!" Okay... if he wants to think that way...
MAN, talk about convoluted! I have to admit, for what it is, it was rather well-done. Gene Colan's art is terrific, he really gets across the emotion and anguish, and Dick Ayers REALLY does a nice job on the inks as well. "Ye editor"s dialogue isn't bad, either. It's just the THINKING behind the story that wasn't-- QUITE-- fully worked out. And this goes beyond the fact that The Red Skull had ALREADY pulled this EXACT same stunt with a Bucky robot back in TALES OF SUSPENSE #88-89 (Apr'May'67). It's the "Baron Strucker" thing. (Quotation marks intentional.) See, he was FRIED to atoms back on Hydra Island, before the whole place went under and EVERYBODY there died thanks to their own "Death Spore" bomb, in STRANGE TALES #158 (Jul'67). It was a MAJOR event in Marvel history! MAJOR!! Because HYDRA, and A.I.M., and The Secret Empire, and The Red Skull (revived from suspended animation due to A.I.M.) and The Super-Adaptoid (built by A.I.M.)--well, it just got into everything there for awhile. And when Strucker got KILLED-- HYDRA totally disappeared off the comics map for over a year-and-a-half, until Jim Steranko brought them back in CAPTAIN AMERICA #110 (Feb'69). A.I.M. had branched out on their own, and had been around a lot, but HYDRA itself had laid low for awhile. Both groups continued to come back in the 70's, again and again and AGAIN, usually in "lesser", inferior stories that were a pale shadow of the glories of the 60's epics. The thing is... here, "Baron Strucker" is found to be alive-- there is NO explanation-- and with all this HYDRA and A.I.M. activity in the 70's, NOT ONCE does "Strucker" enter into the picture! I mean-- imagine it-- if you were some high-ranking HYDRA official. You've learned that your SUPREME COMMANDER is still alive-- sitting in some jail cell. Wouldn't you go out of your way to rescue him? NOBODY ever did! WHAT th'...?? Just goes to show how chaotic Marvel got in the 70's-- doesn't it?
And now, I must address some long-term, very convoluted "continuity". Following in the "fanboy" footsteps of Roy Thomas, Steve Englehart was a writer who really knew how to take "continuity" problems and turn them into terrific stories. I'd say he was much better at it than Roy. Following in Steve's footsteps, the early-80's saw both Roger Stern and John Byrne as "continuity" fanatics. Stern's other specialty was taking overused worn-out characters and making them "fresh" again. Byrne's "continuity" obsessions would get the better of him over time, leading him to feel he "had" to change things on every book he touched. But that came later.
Stern & Byrne took over CAPTAIN AMERICA with issue #247 (Jul'80), and in the first few pages, cleared up a mystery about Cap's memories of his early life before he became a superhero that had been hanging around for over 2 YEARS by then, ever since Roy Thomas decided Cap "couldn't remember" his past life. Over 2 YEARS that thing was left hanging! And Stern & Byrne cleared it up in a FEW PAGES! Wow. Well... that was NOTHING. In the SAME issue... Nick Fury FINALLY goes to visit "Baron Strucker" in a SHIELD holding cell. In comics-buyers time, it's been 9-1/2 YEARS since he was arrested. (I believe in the story they said he'd been held for "2 years"-- that's comics-time for you.) In all that time, "Strucker" had refused to talk. But Fury no longer cared (or so he said), as he'd gotten extradition papers from Israel to have "Strucker" hauled back there for "war crimes" dating back to the 1940's! Whoa! And at that moment, "Strucker" reached into his shirt (or was it his CHEST?) and pulled out a weapon, overpowered Fury, stole his Porsche, and attacked Cap with it. In the end, he was overpowered, and before Cap & Fury's eyes, he raised his arm in a Nazi salute, yelled, "SIEG HEIL!"-- and EXPLODED! "Strucker"-- the guy they had in that jail cell since C.A. #132-- all along, had been a robot!
Now THINK about this! MODOK gets Dr. Doom to create a Bucky Barnes robot-- who doesn't know he's a robot. And uses it to fool a "Baron Strucker" robot-- who doesn't seem to know HE's a robot, either!!! Isn't that just NUTS?????
You can SEE where all that stuff on the new BATTLESTAR GALACTICA came from, can't you?
The next issue, "The Gaff" (Sidney E. Levine) examines the remains of "Strucker" and describes it as the most advanced robot he has EVER seen, saying it makes SHIELD's L.M.D.'s look like "tinker toys". The person who built it turns out to be "Machinesmith", a mysterious robot-builder who had debuted in MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #47-48 (Jan'Feb'79). In the last-panel shot of C.A. #247, we see Machinesmith's lab-- and in the background, he has, laying around, robots of Iron Man, The Thing, Spider-Man, The Manipulator, and Magneto. WHOA!! In ONE panel, without any words to the effect, we find out THIS is the guy who built the Magneto robot that appeared in X-MEN #50-52 & 58 (Nov'68-Jan'69 & Jul'69). The question of THIS long-hanging mystery had already been dredged up in X-MEN #112 (Aug'78), when Magneto told the X-Men he had "never met" Mesmero, who had been working with "Magneto" in the "City Of Mutants" story. So it's obvious that John Byrne had been thinking about this for some time.
"The Manipulator"-- a VERY weird villain with 2 faces (one in front, one in the back-- I'm not making this up, although years earlier I HAD done a villain just like that in one of my own comics) had appeared in 2 VERY bizarre stories, in AVENGERS #178 (Dec'78) and CAPTAIN AMERICA #242 (Feb'80)-- both edited by Roger Stern, so I can see where THAT piece of the puzzle came from. Without re-reading my ENTIRE collection, I can't for the life of me figure out which stories the Iron Man, Thing or Spidey robots appeared in... but I'm sure somebody out there must know.
Well, it gets MORE complicated. "Machinesmith" is revealed to be "Starr Saxon", who murdered "Zoltan Drago"-- the 1st "Mr. Fear" from DAREDEVIL #6 (Feb'65) and took his place as the 2nd "Mr. Fear" in DAREDEVIL #54-55 (Jul-Aug'69). He fell to his DEATH... but his robots, programmed to preserve his life, transferred his mind into a COMPUTER... and built other robots into which he could transfer part of his consciousness, and walk around, eventually making the robots looks more human and calling himself "Machinesmith". He was so good at building robots, he did it both on comission, and for his own amusement. His whole existence slowly drove him INSANE... and he wanted an END to it, so he deliberately sent the Strucker robot after Cap so Cap would track down its creator-- and put him out of his misery. It just took LONGER than he probably hoped it would. SHEESH!!!
But WHY did he send a Strucker robot after Cap-- and not Fury?? NO CLUE!!!
By the way, Stern did NOT mention "Starr Saxon" by name, OR which issue of DD he died in. THAT, I had to look up in the George Olshevsky DD Index. (It's not mentioned on the GCD either, so nobody doing indexes there apparently has any idea of all this.)
Now, the fact that the 2nd Mr. Fear got killed in comics that came out AFTER the "City of Mutants" story came out (in fact, he was killed one month AFTER the "Magneto" robot was revealed to be a robot), I suppose, just has to be glossed over as one of those things where comics don't all take place in the order they're published... even though that's EXACTLY what "ye editor" & Kirby made a whole POINT of in the early-mid 60's. It had, sadly, fallen by the wayside as soon as Cap, Thor & Iron Man ALL started making regular appearances in THE AVENGERS again in the late 60's, and after all, when Stern & Byrne wrote their story, over a DECADE had gone by in publishing time. I guess continuity fanatics just have to allow a bit of fudging on something like that.
Incidentally, in C.A. #249 (the 3rd part of the story), we see a robot of Gabriel, The Air-Walker, who appeared in FANTASTIC FOUR #120-123 (Mar-Jun'72). I believe Gabriel was revealed IN that story to be a robot... by WHY in all the universe would GALACTUS get an earthman to build HIM a robot??? (Maybe I'll figure it out if I can bring myself to keep re-reading the FF. We'll see.)
Oh, and since I've brought it up, there were at least 2 OTHER guys who called themselves "Mr. Fear"-- the 3rd one was Larry Cranston, in DAREDEVIL #90-91 (Aug-Sep'72), the 4th was Alan Fagan, in MARVEL TEAM-UP #92 (Apr'80). Daredevil seems to have a high turn-over rate for some of his villains-- there's also been 2 Ox's, 2 (or more?) sets of "Unholy 3"s, and then there's The Exterminator, who died and came back as The Death-Stalker, who at one point impersonated Death's-Head, yet another DD villain who died. You really need a score-card to keep track of some of these things...
(7-26-2008)
SUB-MARINER 32
cover by SAL BUSCEMA
Namor, frustrated at not finding any "allies" in his quest to save the planet from pollution, decides to return to Lemuria in the Pacific to seek an alliance with Karthon (last seen in SUB-MARINER #13). But on arrival, he's taken prisoner and hauled before Lemuria's new ruler-- Llyra, whose origin is strangely similar to his own (Lemurian father, surface-woman mother). Llyra has the ability to control monsters of the deep, and desires an alliance with Namor to conquer the surface-world. As he now desires only peace, he turns her down... at which point, she has him imprisoned in a glass tube at a surface Oceanarium filled with chemicals which sap his super-strength. Llyra's twin sister Laurie-- who looks fully human-- appears, but is too afraid of her sister to help. But the older woman attending the exhibit does help him escape, and when Llyra is killed in a resulting fight involving a sperm whale (says Roy-- Sal drew a blue whale-- I know the difference!), she turns into Laurie. The older woman reveals she's Llyra's mother, and that "two daughters shared one body", but only Llyra knew the truth. As Namor swims off, he ponders what might have been, under different circumstances.
Well, having been kicked off AMAZING SPIDER-MAN after having done so much wonderful work there (thanks to the chaos "ye editor" instigated following Jack Kirby's departure to DC), Jim Mooney makes his 3rd appearance as inker on this series (following #24 & half of #25), replacing Mike Esposito who'd done 6-1/2 issues in a row. It's a nice but minor improvement, his inks have more "feeling" to them than Esposito, but Sal Buscema just isn't as good on this series as quite a number of others were.
A relatively "minor" story, I was surprised at the ending, mostly because Llyra at some point made a comeback and appeared in dozens (if not hundreds) of later stories (or it sure seemed that way). The cover, with Namor in a glass tube on display, is like a remake of the cover of FANTASTIC FOUR #104-- only a month earlier (except there, it was Sue & Dorma on display).
(7-27-2008)
THE INCREDIBLE HULK 134
cover by HERB TRIMPE
The tiny, backward country of Morvania is ruled by ruthless dictator Draxon, who (in the previous issue, apparently), had a run-in with The Hulk. Now he uses news of The Hulk to keep his people even more in terror than usual. Except for a very small young girl, who befriends Hulk and invites him home. It's like that scene in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN... or something. (heh) Her parents are terrified, naturally, so he runs off. Her father tells the legend of The Golem, and wonders if The Hulk might be the legend come to life. Having had enough, the rebels decide to fight-- or die, and Draxon is only too happy to make an example of them. Until the little girl begs The Hulk to help save her father's life. Against his own best instincts, he does. Draxon is killed when his "ultimate weapon" (a huge tank with tentacles) is destroyed, and the girl's father gives The Hulk the amulet which according to legend marks the King of Morvania. But he destroys it, and departs, wondering what a "Golem" is.
The usual ramble from Roy Thomas & Herb Trimpe, with Sal Buscema on inks this time. I can't tell if it's an improvement or worse than Trimpe's inks at this point, because the reprint I have, MARVEL TREASURY EDITION #17 (1978), the reproduction is so bad. Since Bruce Banner's life continued to be so hopeless during this period, maybe it's just as well he didn't even appear in one panel this time.
(7-27-2008)
THOR 183
cover by John Buscema & John Verpoorten
THE AVENGERS 83
cover by John Buscema & Tom Palmer
The Wasp pays a visit to Avengers Mansion (she's been on leave for some time now) and discovers, in progress, a meeting of "The Lady Liberators", made up of Black Widow, Medusa, Scarlet Witch, and some Norse Goddess-looking blonde babe with a spear calling herself The Valkyrie. Arguing that the "men" have made all the decisions and taken all the credit, she urges them to come with her and "take down" The Avengers-- and The Inhumans will be next! LET'S GO, GIRLS! At the annual Rutland Halloween party & parade, The Avengers show up (as does Roy & Jean Thomas-- heh), on a tip about a kidnap plot. Sure enough, who shows up but The Masters Of Evil-- Radioactive Man, Whirlwind, Melter & Klaw, and before you know it, BIG FIGHT erupts. Things go either way, until the ladies show up and put the finish on the baddies. And THEN, attack the good guys! WHAT th'...? Valkyrie attacks Vision & Goliath with a blast from her magical spear, as she yells "UP AGAINST THE WALL, MALE CHAUVINIST PIGS!" They locate Dr. Erwin, the apparent kidnapee, and "take him into custody" (??), then go to his lab, where he's built a "parallel time projector"-- which is all "The Valkyrie" really wanted to get her hands on all along, as she reveals herself to be The Enchantress (one of the members of the original Masters Of Evil-- how about that?). It seems following the failed coup in Asgard in HULK #102, she & The Executioner were banished to the "nether worlds", which wasn't so bad, until her male cohort fell for the female ruler of that realm, and as SHE had been throwing herself at Hercules earlier, he figured fair was fair. Or something. So now, the Enchantress has a mad-on against ALL men-- but as she's about to blast everyone with a magic bolt, The Scarlet Witch hits her first with a hex that turns her power back on herself-- sending The Enchantress to parts unknown. It seems the women were all under a spell which depended on trust to work, and that was blown when The Enchantress called The Wasp a "wench" (in the exact tone she had used in an earlier appearance). All's fine, until Clint opens his big mouth and starts knocking "women's lib", at which point Wanda really starts to get mad. Jan looks on, amused.
Well, in various comics around this period we've had "youth movement" stories, "biker" stories, "black power" stories, I guess a "women's lib" story was bound to happen. I'd say it was kind of overdue, in fact, as DC's LEGION had "The Mutiny Of The Super-Heroines!" already back in ADVENTURE COMICS #368 (May'68), 2-1/2 YEARS earlier! (Come to think of it, the girls in that story were mentally taken over, too!) Fun, offbeat story, a nice break from some of the world-shaking gloom-and-doom stuff that was going on at the time. I notice that both The Black Widow and Medusa were moonlighting here from their own series, both in AMAZING ADVENTURES (this story no doubt taking place between AA #4 & 5).
Tom Palmer manages to make John Buscema's Black Widow look a LOT better than she did in her own series (in the episodes Buscema pencilled), while in general the Buscema-Palmer team continues to do not only top-notch work, but each of the women have their own distinct look. Only The Enchantress seems a bit "off" to me. I mean, she's pretty-- downright cute-- but doesn't seem at all the SAME tall, imposing gorgeous stunning blonde that Jack Kirby first came up with way back in JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #103 (Apr'64). I do wish more artists would take the trouble to look back at certain characters' earliest stories and at least TRY to stay "on-model".
I first read this story in MARVEL TREASURY EDITION #7 (1975), and I suspect the fact that it was reprinted before may explain why the stats on this particular episode are not quite as good as most of the rest in ESSENTIAL AVENGERS Vol.4 (2004).
(7-27-2008)
DAREDEVIL 71
cover by Marie Severin & Syd Shores
(Continued in December 1970, Pt. 2)
All Text (C) Henry R. Kujawa
Artwork (C) Marvel Comics
Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa
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