FANTASTIC FOUR 96
cover by Jack Kirby & Joe Sinnott
(alterations by MARIE SEVERIN)
A baddie who by rights NEVER should have come back again (after FF #68-71) uses human-looking androids to capture & replace the members of the FF, one at a time. He then sneaks into the Baxter Building thru a secret elevator he somehow had built while the team were over in Latveria (!!!), and as he settles in, he plans to dispose of the team, then make use of their equipment & secrets... UNTIL one of the androids turns out to be the real Reed, who beat his doppleganger, and is set on freeing his friends. Once Reed locates Ben, it turns into a real free-for-all, and they finally locate the unconscious Johnny & Sue in the basement. Reed, more romantic than usual, decides to wake Sue with a kiss.
I wish I could say this was something special. Nope. I feel The Mad Thinker outlived his expiration date when he brainwashed Ben & tried to have him MURDER his own friends 2 years earlier, yet, so short on ideas, "ye editor" KEEPS bringing the guy back, first in that 3-way debacle between SUB-MARINER, CAPTAIN MARVEL & AVENGERS (okay, that was probably Roy Thomas' idea, but still), then here. To make matters worse, Frank Giacoia fills in for the 2nd time in 4 months, and his inks AREN'T up to snuff. I mean, once you've had Joe Sinnott on this book, no one else will do! I do think Giacoia might have been a good fit on one of Kirby's books once he moved to DC... maybe MISTER MIRACLE. But the FF? NO WAY!
I forgot to mention on the previous issue-- FF #95 marked the debut of the "FAT" F.F. logo. I have never understood why such a CLASSIC logo was altered in such an UGLY fashion. It makes no sense, it ruins the look of every cover it appears on, and I believe during 3 different periods of the book's history it's been used for long stretches. Why? WHY? It's one more BAD editorial decision on "ye editor"s part, along with going back to having a lot of words on covers (balloons and captions), AND, getting Marie Severin to pencil or design almost every cover of every comic. Jack Kirby had been designing & pencilling covers for ages. In the early 60's, he often did EVERY cover Marvel put out. It makes NO SENSE to have anybody else designing his covers FOR him! One more sign that "ye editor" was losing it.
(7-14-2008)
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 82
cover by MARIE SEVERIN
(Spider-Man & Electro figures inked by John Romita)
Pete is a mass of worries about all his problems. Anna Watson & MJ return from Florida to look after May, and Pete goes out in search of crime to photograph. But it's such a slow day, he hits on the idea of appearing on a network TV talk show, which the producers go for, but which Jameson begins a non-stop series of editorials lambasting as soon as he learns of it. Working at the station is Max Dillon-- the recently-paroled Electro-- who hits on the idea of making a bundle by striking a deal with Jameson to defeat Spidey on-the-air. JJJ goes for it, and has the most diabolically INSANE gleam in his eye as he invites Joe & Stacy to accompany him to the TV show. Pete & Gwen help give Flash a going-away party, which is interrupted when Pete gets jealous over Flash's brainless remarks. Gwen's more concerned about Peter than ever, and he give strong thoughts to telling her the truth about himself. About one minute into his live TV interview, Spidey is attacked by Electro, and as the audience flees the building, Jameson rants, egging the villain on, while Stacy says Jameson must have been "out of his mind" to endanger so many innocent people! Spidey manages to short-circuit Electro's power, but the villain limps away, already plotting revenge. Spidey limps back home as well, fearing he can "never" return to the studio (there goes any hope of easy money).
According to the Bullpen page, this issue marks a deliberate "return" to the earlier style of focusing more on Peter Parker's life. F ed up with the book, John Buscema quit to return to THE AVENGERS (which was all the better for it, his work there was MUCH more inspired than it ever was here), and John Romita went back to doing layouts. Yep, layouts-- I can tell, Jim Mooney is still doing pencils AND inks (with Romita probably doing touch-ups on faces as usual). Whereas for the last year the book had been reduced to an average of 4 panels to a page, and less and less story, this issue averages about 7 panels per page-- sometimes 9! It's a shocking jolt after the last couple years, but with "ye editor"s insistence on complete-in-one-issue stories, it was virtually a NECESSITY in order to get enough story into a mere 20 pages! Once again, for me, one of the highlights was seeing MJ again-- NOBODY draws her like John Romita (even if Jim Mooney is doing the bulk of the work), and every time I see her I wonder what the HECK Parker is doing with that blonde. (And I LIKE blondes! I just don't care for Gwen.) I wonder how Harry puts up with MJ, the way she keeps throwing herself at Pete.
One thing I feel sure of, if "ye editor" & Johnny really wanted this book to in any way reflect "real life", there would have been a major investigation into what went on at that TV studio, and Jameson would have been the target of several DOZEN lawsuits, and probably forced to undergo prolonged psychiatric examination. The man is a dangerous MENACE!!! (A MENACE, I tell you!!!)
(7-14-2008)
IRON MAN 23
cover by George Tuska & Mike Esposito
CAPTAIN AMERICA 123
cover by Gene Colan & Joe Sinnott
A female karate expert calling herself "Suprema", who claims to have "magic" powers, makes a play to take over the rackets. She just waltzes in, gives orders-- and they're obeyed! Before long, she sets her sights on taking over SHIELD! Meanwhile, Cap helps Nick Fury show his men some fighting moves, then discusses the situation with Sharon, who refuses to give up being an agent. Fury suggests if he were in Cap's shoes, he'd MARRY the girl! But being the old-fashioned guy he is, Cap has problems with the idea of marrying someone whose "sense of duty equals his own". All that's brushed aside when Suprema shows up, and Cap suddenly finds himself the target of Fury & his men, as he somehow is the only person there who hasn't abruptly fallen under her commands! Checking newspaper records & Tony Stark's computers fills Cap in on what's really going on, as he finds Suprema was once half of a hypnotist act, who's been using electronic means to amplify her very real "power". Freeing Fury & his men, Cap puts a stop to her schemes, and as he walks away, she begs him to join her in her bid for "power!!!"
"Okay"-- but that's as far as I'll go. The wrap-up, in particular, seemed rushed and poorly-explained, as if this really should have been a 2-parter. When Gene Colan has to start using 6 panels to a page, you know this "one-issue story" thing is more restrictive than it's worth, as the writing seems to be taking several major steps backwards, toward the stories Marvel used to do in the early 60's-- only less "fun". One rather silly (and surprising) art mistake crops up when Gene draw the house where some gangster is operating-- and Suprema & her men climbing over the garden wall-- all of the figures being drawn about TWICE the size they should be! I'm guessing Gene used photo-reference for the building... and somehow got confused as to how big it was supposed to be. It's almost like looking at one of M.C.Escher's drawings... you have this feeling of, "WAIT a minute...!"
(7-14-2008)
SILVER SURFER 14
cover by John Buscema & John Romita
The Surfer stops a pair of meteorites from colliding and endangering countless lives, but falling to Earth unconscious as a result. A young comic-book fan, browbeaten by his Dad, sees The Surfer on his rooftop. As he flies off, totally by accident, Spider-Man happens to be swinging by and finds his web latched onto the surfboard. Believing it's just "one more trick" of humanity, The Surfer takes off, with Spidey almost getting seriously injured in the process. Naturally peeved at this, and, as always, far more thick-headed when he's appearing in someone else's book, Spidey challenges The Surfer to a fight, and before long the Army gets involved, hoping to "get him this time!" and surprised to see that Spidey is "on their side". The boy, while standing on the temporarily-abandoned surfboard, suddenly finds himself flying thru the air, and when The Surfer sees what's happened, takes very careful control of the board to lower it and its unwitting passenger safely to the ground. Both Spidey & the Army see this, and depart, feeling lower than dirt, one soldier saying "Nobody in this outfit will EVER go after The Surfer again!"
What can I say? The WORST issue yet. Was "ye editor" determined to make John Buscema suffer? The very month after he quit AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, which he hated, John finds himself drawing the guy again, in The Surfer's mag. The art must be the least-inspired of any issue to date, and I can't even recognize any trace of Dan Adkins here. Truly, a waste of 2 top talents. On top of that, I'm really fed up with Spider-Man coming across as such a hair-trigger IDIOT when he's wearing that costume. This must be the STUPIDEST hero-vs-hero fight to date (and that's REALLY saying something).
(7-14-2008)
SUB-MARINER 23
cover by Marie Severin & Mike Esposito
THE INCREDIBLE HULK 125
cover by HERB TRIMPE
THOR 174
cover by Marie Severin, Jack Kirby & Bill Everett
Thor, lured by "Illusion Beams" while flying over NY, and hit by a "Hypno-Stun Ray", by a scientist named Jasper Whyte, who uses a device to drain off half of Thor's natural power, and use it to power a robot he's built which he calls "The Crypto-Man" (for NO apparent reason). He's another one of those embittered, frustrated types who's bent on "showing them all!", and he sees the robot as the first of an army that will "dominate the world". (Haven't we heard THIS too many times before?) Thor finds out what's going on when the guy's mother turns up at Dr. Blake's office telling him her son's disappeared, and right after, the cops call asking if he can contact Thor about this robot that's started destroying the city... Soon, we get a pretty spectacular fight scene going. When the robot heads for the the city's new Atomic Power plant, Thor reminds Jasper that his own mother will be one of the victims if the thing isn't stopped! (Oops!) Turning his control beam on the robot, Jasper succeeds, at the cost of his own life. Thor, his full power restored, later gives what comfort to Mrs. Whyte as he can as Dr. Blake.
No epic classic, but not bad either. I'd say this is a LOT better than many of these single-issue stories I've read around this time lately, and the art by Kirby & Everett has come up a few notches, especially in the scene of Thor flying over the city (Everett does every bit of detail in Kirby's complex cityscapes that Vince Colletta tended to simplify & gloss over, and he makes that hammer really look rugged), and the 2 pages where the robot comes to life. I have NO idea after reading this WHY the robot's called "The Crypto-Man". Is the fact that it's a mystery supposed to be a joke? (cryptology-- get it?) Or was this supposed to be a SUPERMAN villain that Jack came up with a half-year too early? The one thing I DON'T like about the issue is the cover. It's signed "Kirby & Everett". But, I'd SWEAR Marie Severin designed it. No knock at Marie-- but this is JACK KIRBY's book! "Ye editor" started getting Marie to do a LOT of other people's covers, a very bad trend that continued all thru the 70's with periods of John Romita, Gil Kane, etc. doing countless covers that should have been done by the interior artists, and it took her away from SUB-MARINER, which she was so GOOD at (just as it took Romita away from SPIDER-MAN). Sometimes "ye editor"s editorial decisions just drive me UP A WALL!!!
(7-13-2008)
THE AVENGERS 74
cover by John Buscema & Joe Sinnott
This has The Black Panther a prisoner of The Sons Of The Serpent, a FAKE Panther committing crimes, the two racist talk-show hosts continuing to argue on the air, apparently trying to incite a race war, and The Avengers being challenged to "arrest" the Panther or be considered in cahoots with him! What a mess. The team tracks down the fake, but has a much harder time of it than one might think, and he gets away. Later, as The Serpents are about to "unmask" The Panther on TV, the team sneaks into the building quietly, locates the REAL Panther, and frees him, just as the fake is "proving" on national TV how hateful and racist he is. It then turns out there's 2 "Supreme Serpents"-- as under the masks, we find BOTH "rival" talk show hosts, whose hate-filled banter has been nothing but part of their mutual scheme to gain ultimate power. When the dust clears, both Monica Lynne & The Panther feel the need to be more socially conscious.
NICE issue, all round. The highlight here is the return of JOHN BUSCEMA!! Apparently, after hating every issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN he was 'forced' to do layouts on, and threatening to quit if Aunt May showed up (which she did in ASM #81), John followed thru on his word, and so, after 11 months of Colan, Smith, brother Sal & Giacoia, he's back, now teamed with TOM PALMER. Whoa!!! Apparently, when Neal Adams quit X-MEN, Roy decided that Sal Buscema & Sam Grainger were too good a team to break up, so he switched BOTH guys onto X-MEN, and in turn put Palmer on here. The results are STUNNING. As it happens, over the years, Tom Palmer may well have inked more issues of AVENGERS than any other inker, and it all started right here. The 1st issue of AVENGERS I ever bought had Buscema & Palmer on it, and for many years, I was under the impression they had done many more issues together than they had... In fact, they wound up doing more issues (and more consecutively) when they reunited in the 80's. But for now, this begins John's 2nd run on the book, and the new "era" is off to a stunning start!
Roy did an okay job here. My one complaint might be the scene when The Vision is searching the city, for as he begins to descend right thru the sidewalk, the people around him come across as some of the STUPIDEST I've ever seen in a comic, as when one of them yells, "STOP 'im, man!" (WHY???) and "Why didn't he say anything? Why??" (Why SHOULD he??). Come to think of it, this feels a LOT like what's been going on in SILVER SURFER, making me wonder how much of this is Roy's work and how much is John's. On the other hand, I loved the bit where Jan, flying over some buildings, refers to herself as "the poor man's Tinker Bell". (She's so CUTE!!! John & Tom draw her SO much better than Sal & Sam!)
I believe John Buscema cut back to layouts, leaving Tom Palmer to do "finishes" before too long-- but this issue, at least, looks like full Buscema pencils to me. Either way... WOW!!!
(7-13-2008)
DAREDEVIL 62
cover by Marie Severin & Syd Shores
DD is interrupted while stopping a crime by Nighthawk-- the guy from The Squadron Sinister (in AVENGERS #69-70). DD feels woozy, Nighthawk stops the criminals, and suggests in a rather loutish way that maybe it's time DD retired. As it turns out, bored millionaire playboy Kyle Richmond (Marvel's answer to... YOU know) called up Matt Murdock with an anoymous tip, figuring he'd contact his friend Daredevil; then drugged DD as they passed so DD would look bad and Nighthawk would look good. His scheme is to become popular-- then maybe run for political office. He didn't even care about the crooks-- he let 'em go as soon as DD was out of the way! Not exactly your ideal picture of crime-fighting heroism, is he? At the office, Karen (who found out Matt & DD are one and the same some time ago) laments that Matt doesn't give up his life of crime-fighting to be "the man I fell in love with" (OH BROTHER). Later, DD tracks down Nighthawk, in the middle of stopping another crime (having figured out what drug was used on him, and giving himself the antidote!), then tricks the guy into confessing over a radio loud-speaker that everything he's been doing is to con "the sheep" who now look up to him. (It's like that scene in the movie UHF when Kevin McCarthy insulted every single person who lived in his town-- over the air-- without realizing it!) Nighthawk flees, already threatening revenge, and almost gets run down by a subway train, but gets away scot free... something that has just been happening far too often of late in Marvel books. (That kind of thing can erode people's faith in the criminal justice system!)
I see Roy Thomas has taken over from "ye editor" by this point, which no doubt explains his bringing in one of his baddies from AVENGERS. In addition, Gene Colan's hero & mentor Syd Shores is on the inks, and it's spectacular! They really made a great match, as Shores' intricate fine-line rendering (so much more refined than those of, say, Vince Colletta) are a perfect match for Colan's equally-intricate shaded pencils. I know they did about a year-and-a-half together on this book, I just wish I had ANY of them in the original printing. I'm missing so many issues of DD right now, and only have this story because it was reprinted in GIANT-SIZE DEFENDERS #5 (Nighthawk, reformed, being a regular in that book in the 70's).
(7-13-2008)
X-MEN 66
cover by Marie Severin & Sam Grainger
Professor X is in a coma after using his brain-power to save the entire planet (last time). In his weak delirium the only thought they can get out of his is "The Hulk", and the deduce it may be scientist Bruce Banner that Xavier feels can help. And so they go to Las Vegas, and have a run-in with Greenskin. Jean knocks him unconscious, causing him to turn back to Banner, but as they try to question him, the Army shows up, warning the "stinkin' muties" to get out of their way if they don't want trouble. Banner remembers discussing a project with Xavier, the results of which are at one of his "secret labs", but the tension of the situation makes him turn back into the Hulk and storm off. When the Army finds the X-Men have also run off, they immediately conclude "They were in cahoots-- just like we figured!" (Man, how STUPID can some people be?) The trail leads to a nearby mountain, and an underground lab, from which Angel grabs a piece of equipment he hopes is what they need. The Hulk, who only wanted to be left alone, just stands there as they fly off, while they figure that, if only unconsciously, Banner must have led them to exactly where they needed to go. Back home, the device works, the Prof. is out of the coma, and feeling optimistic about their future, and all the work that needs doing.
On the letters page, it's revealed that this is the LAST issue of X-MEN, as sales didn't warrant it continuing. At least, unlike NICK FURY and DR. STRANGE, they must have seen it coming. The story's not bad, overall-- except for the parts involving the Hulk-- and the Army-- where it's a toss-up as to who's more stupid. The surprise is the art. I knew Neal Adams was gone after last issue, but it seems to me the "obvious" guy to have filled in here-- again-- would have been Don Heck, who did such a GREAT job on #64. Nope. Instead, we got Sal Buscema & Sam Grainger, the 2 guys who did 5 issues of AVENGERS in a row. Grainger looked all set to become the regular inker on this book before Neal Adams & Tom Palmer arrived. Now, with Adams gone, and with Buscema off SPIDER-MAN and back on AVENGERS, I'm guessing Roy must have figured Sal & Sam made too good a team to break up, and moved them over to the "back-up team". I can't shake the feeling that for most of its 60's run, X-MEN was sort of like what THE DEFENDERS was in the 70's-- the "2nd-level" team. The book that's somehow never really great, but you don't expect it to be-- just "fun" to read. And, as it happens, THE artist I most associate with THE DEFENDERS was Sal Buscema, who drew the book with writers Roy Thomas, Steve Englehart AND Steve Gerber. Never really great, but somehow, never really bad either. And Sal & Sam Grainger REALLY made a terrific team. I'd say this issue actually looked BETTER than their issues of AVENGERS, as they seemed to do just about every character "right", certainly (to my eyes), "better" (or more "on-model") than Adams & Palmer were. With ONE major exception.
There's one thing I always remember about Sal's long run on DEFENDERS. In all those issues, he had the opportunity to draw just about every single character in the entire Marvel Universe, and he did most of them pretty well. With ONE major exception. The Hulk. Sal's Hulk is TERRIBLE. I think he just CAN'T draw the guy right! (It happens-- Don Heck could NEVER draw Sub-Mariner "right", either!) So, it was with sickening irony that, when Herb Trimpe got replaced on THE INCREDIBLE HULK, of all people to take his place, they got Sal-- who wound up doing more issues on the book than anybody has ever done before or since! Sheesh. That said, it's no surprise that every panel The Hulk appears in this issue drags it down quite a few notches. I wonder how Sal & Sam might have made out in the long run if X-MEN hadn't been cancelled right here?
Other than that, the only other annoying thing is this Iceman-Lorna Dane-Havok "triangle". Iceman & Lorna were a really cute, happy couple when Arnold Drake was on the book. No sooner does Roy turn up, Lorna starts having a "women's lib attitude" complex, which seemed (even with the short time she'd been around) totally out of character, and left field. Then she starts mooning over Havok... Okay, I guess it happens. But this has been dragging on for MONTHS on end!! If she doesn't wanna be considered Bobby's girlfriend anymore (which she definitely HAD been!) WHY doesn't she just TELL him straight to his face and get it over with? I have 3 words for this: "bad soap opera". OY.
All this is under a (not that bad) Marie Severin cover. WHY didn't Sal Buscema & Sam Grainger do the cover?? STOP "ye editor" before he edits again!!!
(7-13-2008)
(Continued in April 1970)
All Text (C) Henry R. Kujawa
Artwork (C) Marvel Comics
Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa
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