FANTASTIC FOUR 95
cover by Jack Kirby & Joe Sinnott
A new villain, "The Monocle", is on the payroll of some unnamed foreign power, determined to assassinate some speakers at the U.N. Building, hoping to set off WW3, and a nuclear holocaust, which those behind him will ride out in underground bunkers, before coming out to rule the helpless planet that's left. (Is this a HYDRA scheme? It sure sounds like it! But we never find out.) Because the FF has been asked to provide security (really outside their line, isn't it??), The Monocle sets out to get them out of the way, which he does by knocking the Fantasti-Car out of the sky (Reed & Sue wind up in the river), causing a tenement building to collapse (Ben does his best to save lives) and shooting a variety of billboards and water towers (Johnny's spends time trying to keep people from getting hurt). In the midst of this, we find that the reason Medusa turned up last ish was because Black Bolt has requested Crystal return to her family-- and she isn't taking "no" for an answer. SAY WHAT? Medusa tells Johnny this will be a test of his love for her sister-- and if he can't handle it, it's best he finds out now. Crystal tells him, "WAIT for me, Johnny-- I'll come BACK to you!", but it's small consolation to him. Examining the damage to the F-Car, Reed determines the type of weapon used, creates a counter-weapon, and turns up at the U.N. just in time to stop the murder scheme. QUICK wrap-up.
Not bad overall, though this insistence on single-issue stories across-the-board is really beginning to bite. The Monocle reminds me in appearance of "The Sinister Prime Minister" from the '67 SPIDER-MAN cartoon, though he was only in it for money. The only part of this issue that really bugs me is the whole Crystal sub-plot. It comes totally out of left field, and considering what went on with Sharon Carter over in CAPTAIN AMERICA, I'd say it's very probably all the work of "ye editor", who in a bad soap-opera way just LOVES to keep his characters as miserable as possible. HOW much trouble would it have been for Medusa to have explained WHY BB asked for Crystal to come home? Considering how long these people have known each other by here, this is just a BAD characterization, BAD, contrived writing! It's a really sore thumb on what otherwise could have been a pretty decent issue, especially when I consider some of the STUNNING visuals Jack Kirby & Joe Sinnott provided (AS USUAL!!!). The shot of the waterfront, especially, caught my eye-- Jack had to have used reference on that one.
(7-12-2008)
How did I forget to mention it? This is the month the infamous "FAT" logo debuted. WHAT THE F*** ??? They took a classic logo design, and MUTILATED it. I guess it fits-- the "editor" is doing all he can to destroy the stories inside. Just wait-- from this point on, and for the next 2 straight years, the book continues to get worse and worse and worse. Eventually, this 2nd logo was replaced with a totally different, "70s" style logo, which I actually liked much better. A 4th logo-- one already used on another book-- replaced that. Which was a really idiotic thing to do. At some point, the original logo came back... but maddenlingly, over the deaces, on SEVRERAL occasions, this ugly "FAT" logo would be ressurected, always for no apparent reason, and always, to the detriment of the look of the covers. What the HELL is wrong with editors, anyway?
(11-4-2018)
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 81
cover by JOHN ROMITA
This book hits a new low in villains when an Aussie whose specialty is high leaps turns up, on the run from an attempted murder charge and escaping from authorities trying to deport him back to stand trial. Meanwhile, Pete races so hard to meet Aunt May at Penn Station, he's sweating & flustered when he arrives, causing her to determine he's "sick" and MUST come home with her RIGHT NOW! At her apartment, she insists he stay in bed, and he wonders how he'd ever explain this situation to Gwen? (By simply telling the truth, maybe?) When "The Kangaroo" (we never learn his real name) tries to steal some money from a courier and winds up with a vial that, unknown to him, contains a deadly bacteria, it gets on the news, and Spidey races to find him, leaving a "web-dummy" behind to fool May. While an overlong fight progresses, May walks in, finds the dummy and prompty faints. Spidey manages to get the vial, the Kangaroo hops away (there sure are a LOT of villains getting away scot free lately!!), and the authorities wonder if Spider-Man didn't try to steal the vial for HIMSELF (man, this NEVER happens to the other heroes). On returning home, Pete's scared out of his wits until May revives, then feels horrible about himself, as his actions have now caused her to think she's losing her faculties.
I have 2 copies of this-- the original comic (missing the cover!) and the '75 MARVEL TALES issue (which is missing 2 pages; they combined panels from 4 of the pages into 2). On the letters page, someone suggests Spidey could use a friend to confide in, possibly an older woman who could "mother" him-- as opposed to May, who is "smothering" him! It sure seems to me Pete could handle situations like this a lot better by just proving to May he's "grown up" now-- but I'm afraid I can relate to his situation all too well (and my own problem with a parent was somebody who wasn't NEARLY as nice as May is). Another reader suggests Gwen should get bitten the way Pete was, and become a "Spider-Woman". Gee, 7 years before we actually wound up with one... John Buscema apparently HATED doing this series, and hated every character in it, and in particular, threatened to QUIT if May turned up in any of the stories. This may explain that long vacation in Florida. It may also explain why John Romita came back NEXT issue, considering what went on here. JJJ actually has a FUNNY scene in this episode (for once), when Spidey swings by his window, he rants and raves about how he's doing it "in broad daylight" and how nobody "respects the law"-- then accidentally drops his cigar which he had "specially smuggled in from Cuba"-- saying "It's all Spider-Man's fault!"
The credits don't even try to describe who did what this time; they just list "ye editor", John Buscema, Jim Mooney, John Romita and Artie Simek. I'm guessing, as usual, it's Romita on plot, Buscema on layouts (from what in hear, Romita spent so much time on plotting & doing "thumbnails", Buscema may not have been contributing anything at all!), Mooney on pencils AND inks, and Romita again on touch-ups. It amazes me that I never realized Mooney was ALMOST doing full art all this time before. Looking at these pages, it's so obvious to me now. I bet it would have been a lot simpler if somebody had just given him a typed script...
(7-12-2008)
IRON MAN 22
cover by George Tuska & Mike Esposito
IM races to aid Eddie March, an ex-fighter he had take his place as Iron Man, before learning the guy had a blood clot in his brain which could prove fatal if he ever fought again. It seems Tony survived a heart operation involving synthetic tissues, but became so afraid his body might reject it, he put out the word that the "real" IM had become injured and needed a replacement. Now, March is taking a savage beating from the NEW Crimson Dynamo, neither willing to say uncle. Tony gets Eddie to a hospital, where it's touch-and-go. Meanwhile, the TITANIUM MAN-- still alive after that fracas in Viet Nam-- arrives, once more taking orders from the Commies, and his mission is to drag Alex Nevsky back to Mother Russia so he can once again serve "his" country. Considering Alex fled Russia specifically because of the disgrace (and persecution) the original CD's defeat brought down on his family and all his associates (Alex had been Professor Vanko's assistant in the old days), he's not in a hurry to comply. Alex has been working at Janice Cord's factory, building the new CD suit, and wants revenge against Stark AND Iron Man, and had been using Janice as part of his schemes-- until-- HE claims-- he fell in love with her for real. When Titanium Man shows up, he tries to get Janice to safety. Iron Man, misreading the situation (with good reason, to be fair), butts in, and before you know it, Titanium Man unleashes his high-voltage electric beam-- the VERY weapon that almost killed Pepper back in SUSPENSE #82-83-- but Janice isn't so lucky. As Tony cradles her in his arms, she dies... IM manages to polish off Titanium Man (at least, for now) by leaving him in the river with his circuits burned out, while Alex escapes, vowing vengeance on Iron Man for being responsible for the death of the woman he loved.
What a complex mess! Man, Archie Goodwin could CRAM a lot into 20 pages!! This is some of the most powerful, exciting stuff I've seen from George Tuska, who I see is back to using rectangular panels again. Joe Gaudioso-- alias Mike Esposito (heh) does one of his better jobs on this as well. The splash panel was so dynamic, I'm reminded I actually swiped it for one of my own comics, back in the late 70's! I'm also reminded that George "blunt instrument" Tuska could also draw very pretty girls when he put his mind to it-- in between some of the more hard-hitting and raw-looking panels. The one I can't figure is page 19, where most of the detail on Titanium Man's costume DISAPPEARS for all 7 panels-- then comes back on page 20. Wha' hoppen? Did someone else pencil that page-- or ink it? Anybody? Oddly enough, a couple of those small panels look like the poses were SWIPED from Gene Colan panels (in the 2nd Titanium Man storyline), which I can believe, as several of the flashback panels relating the original Crimson Dynamo appear to be have been swiped direct from Don Heck poses.
So much tends to get made of the death of Gwen Stacy, but a lot of readers usually forget she was FAR from the first regular to go in such a sudden, pointless manner. (Wouldn't you know, for more than 20 years, this episode was my ONLY exposure to Janice Cord?)
One of these days, I suppose, I gotta get ahold of ALL the issues from this period I'm missing... I don't have another issue of IRON MAN until #47. And, between the very popular later runs by Michelinie & Layton, and Busiek & Chen, and the fact that until quite recently NONE of these issues had EVER been reprinted, the cost of back issues from this period shot up WAY more than concurrent issues of FANTASTIC FOUR. When Tuska is going for 4 TIMES more than Kirby, you know something ain't right.
(7-12-2008)
According to Nick Caputo (at the GCD site), page 19 was pencilled by Herb Trimpe. I thought something was wonky!
(11-3-2018)
CAPTAIN AMERICA 122
cover by Jack Kirby & Joe Sinnott
This follows up that panel from last issue where Steve looked at pics of Rick & Sharon, and has him wandering the streets, lost in thought, pondering the meaning and direction (or lack thereof) of his life. Is there a place in modern America for a guy who still believes in "the establishment"? Further, is fighting crime and/or evil all there is for him? Following a nightmare in which Sharon was in danger, Steve sets out to visit SHIELD again, to see if he can contact her. Speaking of which... Sharon's on an assignment to nail a local spy ring. They, in turn, have found out about her, and have hired The Scorpion-- freshly paroled from jail-- to bump her off. By DUMB LUCK, he runs across Steve on the street, and soon, Cap is on his trail. BIG FIGHT commences. The spies nab Sharon, figure the Scorpion must have bungled things at his end, and next thing, Cap clues SHIELD in on the spies' HQ-- all the while unaware that Sharon is their prisoner! He leaves before she can get his attention, and as a cabbie drives him away, Cap thinks that "his girl" seems to have forgotten he even exists.
Once again, Gene Colan & Joe Sinnott's art go a long way toward smoothing over the fact that this series hasn't been big on "plot" lately. "Ye editor" must have really loved Gene's work, because by all accounts, all they ever had were brief "story conferences", after which "ye editor" let Gene do almost whatever he wanted without any hassles or changes. (Makes you wish he'd treated Jim Steranko the same way...)
It's only a minor point, and not really related to this comic much, but it does seem to me "ye editor" "farming out" villains from one book to another, while giving the idea of a "cohesive" comics "universe", in some ways has been hurting some books. So many of Spider-Man's best villains have been turning up elsewhere (like The Scorpion, here), he's been having to deal with 3rd-stringers in his own title too much lately!
Oh yeah-- "STING OF THE SCORPION" was the title of the 2nd-season opener on the 60's SPIDER-MAN cartoons. I'm beginning to suspect more and more that "ye editor" was running out of ideas, and watching the cartoon show to find some! (Among other things, there's too many titles being reused lately. Also, there's 2 titles with the word "Sting" in it the same month. That ain't right!)
(7-12-2008)
SILVER SURFER 13
cover by John Buscema & Dan Adkins
The U.N., the news media, and the Surfer, are all worked up because of a robot known as "The Doomsday Man". It seems a group of scientists involved in the space program decided man would need "help" when he reached other planets, and designed & built this virtually INDESTRUCTIBLE, heavily-armed robot. But it was SO dangerous, they became fearful of what might happen if it should turn against them. (Heck of a time for it to occur to them.) So they buried it in an inescapable bunker on a desert island, "for all time"-- but now, due to some Earth tremors, they've detected it's moving on its own, and might break free at any time. While various U.N. delegates argue endlessly (the one from Russia doing no more than referring to every single thing any American says as "an imperialist trick"), the Surfer, who'd been following the news, and for no accountable reason decides to get involves, goes to the U.N., interrupts the meeting, and takes the lead scientist with him TO the island, so the guy can find a way to shut the robot down. Once there, he suspects the guy has NOT been telling the whole truth (HEY! You mean for once, the Russian delegate was RIGHT??). It seems there is also a COBALT bomb on the island, and the scientist really wanted to get his hands on that-- so that he could BLACKMAIL the entire world into submitting to his will! Geez. The Surfer winds up sinking the robot down a bottemless pit, then sending the bomb into space to explode harmlessly. Having saved THE ENTIRE PLANET, he immediately becomes, once again, the target of incessant suspicion, as a crowd of New Yorkers all think maybe HE had tried to use the bomb for his own purposes.
Man. It's like SPIDER-MAN, squared. This guy can't get any respect from anyone. And this story is so overrun with cleches, and one-dimensional characters, it's almost unreadable. And having to CRAM so much into 20 pages isn't helping either. John Buscema's style is such that, for him, "expansive" is a good thing. When he's forced to CRAM 6-- or 9 (!!!) panels onto a page, everything that makes his style "work" is taken away, and the results are just awful.
(7-12-2008)
SUB-MARINER 22
cover by Marie Severin, Frank Giacoia & Joe Giella
Namor, in a glass helmet, returns to Atlantis so his scientists can operate and restore his gills to operative status so he can breath underwater again. (I learn via flashback it was "The Stalker"'s people who did this to him.) As he's recovering, he's contacted-- in a dream-- by DR. STRANGE, who needs his help to battle a menace to the entire world-- "The Undying Ones". Quickly travelling to Boston, he dons surface clothes and goes to the home of Kenneth Ward, introducing himself as "MacKenzie". (Nobody-- NOBODY but Roy Thomas would have him do such a thing!) Meeting the late man's daughter Joella, he fends off the attack of a monstrous beast, then goes to a nearby graveyard, where he finds an idol that Ward took from the Himalayas, then hid when he realized it was a "gateway" to another dimension thru which The Undying Ones hope to return to take back Earth, which they ruled eons ago. It's at that point Doc appears, revealing "Joella" is one of the Undying Ones in disguise, and soon both Doc & Namor are sucked thru the dimensional opening into a full-scale battle with The Undying Ones. Namor realizes the danger facing all of Earth, and decides to stay and ensure its safety, but Strange tosses him back thru the opening, which seals, with Doc trapped on the other side. As he leaves to return home, Namor realizes that the entire world owes a debt to Dr. Strange.
Roy, Marie Severin & Johnny Craig did a real bang-up job on this one. I love Marie's Subby, I feel she's one of the artists most-suited for him and his series (up there with Everett & Kirby). It's good to see a sub-plot like Namor not being able to breath underwater get taken care of before too many issues have gone by. This issue shares with AVENGERS #72 the way that Roy used it to follow up on a storyline from a recently-cancelled mag. In this case, it's the 2nd part of his H.P. Lovecraft tribute from DR. STRANGE #183. While things got straightened out for Namor, it looks like Strange got royally screwed this time around... but that wouldn't last long! Fortunately, Roy continued the story only 2 months later, in INCREDIBLE HULK #126. Both this issue and that one were reprinted in DAY OF THE DEFENDERS (2001), while all 3 parts were reprinted in ESSENTIAL DEFENDERS Vol.1 (2005), as this was the first time Doc teamed up with either Subby or Hulk. Good thing, the only one I have the original comic of was part 1. I do wish the 2001 reprint had included the covers, as it's one of my all-time favorites from Marie Severin, featuring Namor, kneeling down in a graveyard, as the "ghostly" form of Doc Strange rises behind him, the copy reading, "Dr. Strange lives-- but will the Sub-Mariner??"
(7-12-2008)
THE INCREDIBLE HULK 124
cover by HERB TRIMPE
THOR 173
cover by Jack Kirby & John Verpoorten
THE AVENGERS 73
cover by Marie Severin & Sam Grainger
The Black Panther returns to the States, just as the racist militant group, The Sons Of The Serpent (from AVENGERS #32-33 / Sep-Oct'66), are on the move again. Outspoken black talk show host Montague Hale is attacked, his show is pulled off the air, and he then appears as a guest on the Dan Dunn show, who's as aggressively pro-white as Hale is pro-black. Also on the show is singer Monica Lynne, who prefers focusing on her career to worrying about politics. Because race is such an issue, The Panther requests to tackle this problem alone, and the team gives him 24 hours. After saving Monica from an attack, he tracks down some Serpent members at the docks, takes one of their places, and finds himself aboard their snake-like submarine. Until he fails to recite their oath as "identification"-- and is unmasked!
Race relations was a hot topic when this came out, and Roy does a better-than-average job on the story. The big surprise this time out is the art, which was pencilled by Frank Giacoia! It's a really refreshing change after several issues of Sal Buscema, as Giacoia's storytelling is a lot more varied and interesting, including one panel that has 10 small panels of the Panther stalking with no dialogue! (A couple panels of this are blatent Kirby swipes.) Teamed with Sam Grainger, this is some of the nicest art from this period. Frank's notorious slowness must have kept him from doing this too often, for while he did come back for a 2nd issue, it wouldn't be until 14 months later. He must have really dug the Black Panther-- that later issue spotlighted him as well! Monica Lynne, introduced here, became a long-running part of THE BLACK PANTHER series under writer Don McGregor.
(7-12-2008)
DAREDEVIL 61
cover by Marie Severin & Joe Sinnott
X-MEN 65
cover by Marie Severin & Tom Palmer
This begins with some of the worst ego-posturing imagineable when the team returns home exhausted and finds Alex & Lorna (both in costume) barking orders and acting as if they run the place. An alien race, the Z'Nox, who live only to conquer, and who control the movements of their entire planet like a giant spaceship, are heading for Earth, bent on dragging all of humanity with them as slaves. This outrageous "sci-fi" concept (an obvious tribute to the planet Mongo from FLASH GORDON) is given weight when they learn Professor X is alive-- having FAKED his own death, with the help of Changeling (he only had months to live and took the Prof's place to make up for his past crimes) and Jean (who had to LIE to her friends about it the whole time!!) in order to "prepare" for the Z'Nox's onslaught. He spends hours training the team like neve before, until a confrontation between Z'Nox & SHIELD causes him to move up his timetable. Sending the X-Men into space on a completely hopeless mission-- they're really no more than a delaying action-- the Professor sends out his mind across the entire planet, linking up with countless people of good will, who believe in life and freedom, not evil and slavery, and channels the mind-power of all these people AT ONCE at the aliens, who, completely overwhelmed, are forced to flee to another part of the galaxy! The Z'Nox advance scouts who the team fought destroy their own craft, as Scott suggests they "couldn't continue to live with what they were."
I think in modern terms, this issue is when the X-MEN "jumped the shark". After consistently maintaining that Professor X was DEAD and NOT coming back, we find he's still alive. All those issues of "character growth" get jetissoned as everybody starts just taking orders again. More, he sends the team against a menace which threatens the ENTIRE PLANET, something the combined might of every nation on Earth and all the super-heroes on Earth would have a hard time tackling. And, thanks to the current "single-issue story" edict, all this happens in a mere 20 PAGES, when it feels like it should have taken at least 2-- or 3-- issues to handle properly! On top of that, Roy Thomas had a one-week vacation, causing him to miss this issue, which is why Denny O'Neil filled in. Did O'Neil-- or Thomas-- have a hand in plotting this, or was it-- as Neal Adams has suggested about his entire run-- all Neal's idea? The dialogue-- especially on the first 5 pages (before we find out Prof. X is alive) is truly worse than anything Roy ever did on this book, and the rest is just so cold-blooded, I'd swear I was reading a DC Comic, not a Marvel. Having to CRAM so much plot into one issue doesn't help Adams' style, either, and I believe he used more panels on some pages than I have ever seen him use anywhere else. Oh yeah-- and that story title just SUCKS.
On top of that, "ye editor" apparently decided it would be a good idea to have Marie Severin start to draw or do layouts for most of Marvel's covers around this time. Marie did a lot of nice covers-- this ISN'T one of them. It's awful, it's awkward, it's got a word balloon, a long caption and the story title (too many words on a cover became THE trend of 70's covers), and perhaps worst of all, the monster on the cover isn't what Neal Adams apparently drew in the story. But rather than fix the cover, someone redrew the monster on the inside to match the cover. Neal Adams, reportedly, was so PISSED by all of this (including O'Neil's dialogue AND being replaced by Don Heck the month before), he QUIT the book right here. I guess that was the final straw, considering I've heard X-MEN was on the verge of cancellation, but given a reprieve, when Adams got on it. The next issue would be its LAST.
Man, the 60's are coming to a crashing end-- arent' they??
(7-12-2008)
(Continued in March 1970)
All Text (C) Henry R. Kujawa
Artwork (C) Marvel Comics
Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa
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