The September 1970 cover-date marks the FINAL month that Jack Kirby was at Marvel.
FANTASTIC FOUR 102
cover by John Romita & John Verpoorten
This begins with Ben suffering thru a bad headcold-- and when The Thing sneezes, watch out! Meanwhile, investigating the source of a mysterous shock wave "beneath frozen Antarctica", Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner, comes up into The Savage Land, and rescues an injured man from a flock of flying dinosaurs... MAGNETO! Back in New York, strange things start to happen as huge chunks of buildings go flying up into the air by themselves. And in Atlantis, a "recovering" Magneto thinks on how their equipment has allowed him to magnify his magnetic powers a "hundredfold". It's obvious to us what's going on, if not to anyone else, as Namor, on his throne, having an audience with his guest, is told that the two of them should join forces. "Who could hope to stand against us?" But Namor's interested only in peace. When the FF's own equipment begins attacking them, Reed traces the source of the disturbance to Atlantis-- and, jumping the gun, Ben sends a sonic wave that strikes the distant underwater city, followed by a "concussion" missile. Unaware of what's been happening on the surface-- or that his "guest" is responsible for all of it-- Namor declares WAR, and sends his Navy to attack New York. (AGAIN? But that trick never works!)
The story here picks up sometime after Magneto disappeared at the end of X-MEN #63 (Dec'69), and in fact he's still wearing the same get-up he had there, EVEN THOUGH it was designed to muffle his powers so he could work with his complex "mutant-creating" equipment. There's really NO logical reason he should still be wearing it here, especially as he's going to such lengths to INCREASE his power, not pare it back. (I'm guessing someone gave Jack that earlier issue for drawing reference, and nobody-- including the (ahem) editor bothered to READ it. The FF having equipment that would enable them to launch an attack on some far-distant city without leaving their skyscraper seems VERY out of character for them-- but may tie in with the attack launched against The Great Refuge in AMAZING ADVENTURES #1 (though nothing's mentioned or explained here).
Though most of the pages have 3 tiers (more dense storytelling), 3 pages have 2 tiers (4 panels apiece) and there's a full-page shot as well, making this the most "spectacular" Kirby comic in a few months. I see something very odd going on in quite a few of the panels. Kirby's pencils were becoming rougher and cruder at this point, perhaps a reflection of his growing frustration with "ye editor" and Marvel's new owners (who refused to allow for ANY contract negotiation). Yet, this issue, the art is SHARPER, CLEANER, FINER and seems to have more detail than anything I've seen from Kirby in some years! I can only guess that Joe Sinnott must have taken a look at the pages, and thought, "I gotta DO something about this." And DID. Man, does this thing look GOOD! Even when some of the figure work is unusually stiff (there's a few panels that genuinely remind me of some of Keith Giffen's early work, when he was doing a bad impersonation of Kirby's style), the panels GLEAM. I'd SWEAR Sinnott went as overboard on this issue as Tom Palmer tends to on just about everything he inks. This was the forerunner of a trend. In many ways, Sinnott's inks became THE "look" of Marvel in the 70's-- especially on the FF-- and the more time went on, Sinnott wound up doing more and more work, not so much "inker" as "finisher".
Again, it's a shame this wound up being Kirby's LAST issue-- seeing as, like in THOR, it's the first of a 3-part story. He did an entirely different issue-- all 20 pages worth of it-- which "ye editor" "rejected", claiming it was "un-dialogeable". That story, initially dealing with a two-faced idol of "Janus" (and a pair of twin brothers, one good, one evil) wound up getting cut up, re-organized, and put back together with several pages of new art by others to replace Kirby panels that were removed, the entire rationale of the story rethought, and published in FF #108-- apparently, deliberately to coincide with Kirby's NEW GODS #1 at DC. Too bad. As magnificent as this issue was, in its original form, the "rejected" story would probably have made a more fitting finale for Kirby's UNBROKEN run of 108 issues of FANTASTIC FOUR (including the 6 Annuals).
The cover, by John Romita & John Verpoorten, is BAD. REAL bad. Compared to the interior art, the whole thing looks like it stepped off a Saturday morning cartoon. Verpoorten's inks are NOT a good match with Romita's pencils. It's got 2 word balloons and 3 blurbs (3!!!). And strangely... the entire FF is facing AWAY FROM THE CAMERA, something "ye editor" once rejected a stunning, glorious Jack Kirby cover for (FF #64 / Jul'67). So, let me get this straight... Kirby does a MAGNIFICENT cover, which "ye editor" rejects for a particular reason, then, later, John Romita does a piece of C***, with the same thing, but when he does it, it's okay. OY!!!
(7-21-2008)
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 88
cover by JOHN ROMITA
John Romita is listed as "art", Jim Mooney listed as "inking". And, I admit, the art does looks a bit different. Did Romita FINALLY go back to full pencils here, after 3 whole YEARS of slacking off and doing only layouts? The story opens with some professor giving a lecture about Dr. Octopus' mechanical arms to a roomful of school kids. He says the arms "are still considered potentially DANGEROUS!" --and he's got them on display, right there, right in front of the kids-- no protection, no barrier, nothing! And this unbelieveably incompetent display is taking place at the "Museum of Natural Science". What's "nature" got to do with mechanical arms? I'm only on page 1 and there's ALREADY so much wrong with this story I wanna strangle the editor who let it see the light of day!
Far away, ol' Otto is exercising his mental control over his arms-- and sure enough, even at such a great distance, manages to activate them! They break out of the museum, causing lots of damage, the school kids & teachers fleeing for their lives (this isn't gonna make field trips popular with the Boards of Education, I can tell you that). Spidey fights the arms, but winds up saving lives as they escape. Back at school, Professor Warren gives him the "official" notice that his grades are slipping, then asks if there's any problems he'd like to have someone to talk to about. Gwen offers to help tutor him (HAH! --a complete reverse on at least one scene from the '68 cartoons). The arms break Otto out of prison. Now really-- WHO didn't see this coming? WHY didn't anyone notify the prison? If you had Dr. Octopus, one of the MOST DANGEROUS criminals in the world, under lock and key, and you KNEW his arms were coming, and you KNEW he was controlling them mentally, wouldn't you put the sonofaB**** under heavy sedation? This is like a MAJOR slip-up on the part of the police!!!
Not far away, at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, a plane's about to take off with visiting General Su aboard, along with a military escort headed by Col. John Jameson, and his maniacal Dad, JJJ, who insists he'll "see about that!" when his son says there's no chance of an interview. Wanting to beat it to NYC, Otto boards the plane as it takes off, then takes over! At New York, Joe Robertson takes Pete with him to the airport, where they meet Captain Stacy, and find the place under siege by protestors, who want Su out of the country. Spidey manages to sneak aboard the plane, confront his arch-enemy, and see to it the hostages ALL get away. Otto tries to take off with the plane, but it crashes & explodes-- apparently with him onboard.
The way this wrapped up so quickly reminds me of far too many CAPTAIN AMERICA issues I've read lately, where seemingly "big" stories are brought to a premature close because "ye editor" had this "one-issue-story" thing going on. But that's not what really bugs me-- apart from everything else I mentioned earlier. It's the DIALOGUE. Every single person in this story seems to refer to the villain as "Doc Ock"-- or just "Ock"-- including the villain himself, who at one point actually says "There's nothing COMMON about ol' Doc Ock!" I mean-- that is just SO WRONG it makes me wanna scream! It's DR. OCTOPUS!!! "Doc Ock" is what SPIDER-MAN calls him, because he's a "wise guy". It's clear that "ye editor" at this point had completely lost any ability he once had to write distinctive individual personalities. EVERYBODY's just starting to sound like... "S*** L**".
The cover's 3rd-rate to begin with, but a long word balloon and a long blurb only make it worse. Just the title would have done.
(7-28-2008)
IRON MAN 29
cover by Marie Severin & Bill Everett
CAPTAIN AMERICA 129
cover by Gene Colan & Frank Giacoia
(vignette by Jack Kirby & Frank Giacoia)
Cap's WW2 enemy concocts a 2-prong plan. By changing road signs (OH, REALLY!) he diverts both Cap and a motorcade with a visiting Arab sheik to a small town away from where greater security was waiting. He uses a 2-rotor helicopter with a big electromagnet to haul the sheik's car into the air and kidnap him, then plans to dispose of both him and Cap (who races to save him) by shoving them into a missile and shooting them both into space. The death of the sheik, he figures, will spark a world war, and he gets rid of Cap in the bargain. Suffice to say, Cap has other ideas, and seeing the bravery of this one lone man, the sheik also gets into the act, giving The Skull an elbow in the stomach. In the end, it's the Skull who goes up in the missile, as Cap, whose free-wheeling motorcycle "joyride" was interrupted, thinks he "still got a lot of country to see!"
While the inks are still a bit on the raw side, they're MUCH better than last issue, which tells me Dick Ayers WAS racing someone else's blown deadline last time, and had more time to work on this issue. Cap, who is so "responsible" in THE AVENGERS, seems to be more and more an entirely different person in his own book. The plot, while ambitious, seems really crammed with only 20 pages; it's like a "1940's" story with bigger panels. This may be the "least" of all the modern Red Skull stories (SO FAR!) as the one-issue-story thing is cutting out any chance of development. It's clear The Skull's plan would have succeeded if he hadn't gone out of his way to get Cap involved! There's this mountain path Cap rides his bike up at one point that reminded me a LOT of the mountain we see THE LONE RANGER riding Silver down in the opening credits of his tv show. I remember watching reruns of the show in the late 60's-- maybe Gene was, too? The copter lifting the car with the magnet was one thing, but when I saw the underground shuttle car, and then the missile-launch site, I had to figure Gene must have just sat thru YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE and decided to do a tribute. In this case, the missile is outdoors, and it's one of those classic 50's models Wally Wood always drew to perfection.
My only gripe with this issue is the cover. John Romita appears to have done this-- possibly over a Merie Severin layout-- and I believe there's a Jack Kirby Red Skull head pasted on in the rather large blurb that reads "The Vengeance Of The Red Skull!" There's also a word balloon, and another blurb, "Action-lovers! This One's For YOU!" All in all, I'm seeing "bad design". I'd have stuck just the title at the bottom, and had an image of the Skull's head looming HUGE in the sky where that 1st blurb was. Also, the layout has problems, as there's too much blank space in the lower-right. I can't believe Gene Colan would not have done much better doing a cover for this all on his own!
(7-21-2008)
SILVER SURFER 18
cover by Marie Severin (design sketch) & HERB TRIMPE
The Surfer is under attack from Maximus' renegade Inhumans. Not knowing there's 2 factions AT WAR with each other, he heads into The Great Refuge suspicious of all of them, which is just what Maximus wanted. Flagged down by Black Bolt, the Surfer lands peacefully-- until Medusa & Karnak ATTACK him! Triton intervenes, asking "WHY did you attack him?", as Black Bolt wished to welcome him as an "honored guest". Too late now. When Maximus' forces attack, The Surfer naturally comes to the wrong conclusion, and, FED UP with being the target of every being he's met on this planet, decides to leave-- while those loyal to Black Bolt CONTINUE to attack him, mistakenly thinking he must be on Maximus' side. As he finally makes it outta there, The Surfer, full of rage & frustration, declares it's "no more mister nice guy", and "Let mankind beware!"
"Ye editor" apparently saw the writing on the wall, as after 17 issues of The Surfer playing "Job" to Mephisto's "Lucifer", sales had PLUNGED, and it was time for a drastic change to try and save the book. So, John Buscema was out, Herb Trimpe was scheduled to take over... but FIRST, "ye editor" got Jack Kirby-- who CREATED the Surfer-- to do this one episode, to "set things up" for Trimpe. (This is a throwback to the kind of thing that went on several times on the Ant-Man / Giant-Man series in ASTONISH.) The Inhumans continue to be portrayed as one-note characters who seem incapable of thinking for themselves, which is especially frustrating in Medusa's case. At least Triton is on the ball, having spent so much time on the outside, but with Medusa's sister Crystal dating the Human Torch, Medusa should have KNOWN more about a guy like the Surfer-- or, what her love, Black Bolt, wanted. (Isn't she supposed to be his "voice"? I see trouble coming in THAT marriage!)
When I first read this, in ESSENTIAL S.S., I didn't realize the Maximus thing was also going on in AMAZING ADVENTURES-- the same month! I'm guessing this takes place after that-- but if so, there's no mention of Maximus having escaped from Triton. Herb Trimpe does a nice job on inks, as well as the cover, but that's as far as he ever got. On the last page it says, "Next: The Savagely Sensational NEW Silver Surfer!" Oh boy. Last time I saw hype like that was on CAPTAIN MARVEL-- and we saw how THAT abortion went. We never got to see how THIS one might have gone. This was the LAST issue. THANK GOD!!!
(7-21-2008)
SUB-MARINER 29
cover by Sal Buscema & Joe Giella
THE INCREDIBLE HULK 131
cover by HERB TRIMPE
THOR 180
cover by Neal Adams & Joe Sinnott
(alterations by MARIE SEVERIN)
THE AVENGERS 80
cover by John Buscema & Tom Palmer
A new hero and his wolf companion Lobo are chasing down a man in NYC, and run smack into The Vision, who winds up overpowering him, and taking him back to Avengers Mansion, despite having quit the group at the end of the previous issue. (So, he changed his mind...) The team is arguing priorities-- Iron Man feels the should track down the crime cartel Zodiac, while The Black Panther, now working days as a school teacher, feels they should tackle crimes "closer to home". Red Wolf tells how Cornelius Van Lunt (who the team ALREADY would love to nail for something illegal) tried to force his tribe off their land, then had his men kill RW's parents. He found himself confronted with a vision of his tribe's legendary hero, Red Wolf-- who told him that HE was now Red Wolf, and would exact vengeance for the tribe. The team decides to split into 3 parts to tackle the different problems. Although this was standard practice for the JSA, here, The Vision wonders if the team may be splitting up "for all time".
Another solid issue. The histrionics between various members about what missions to focus on are a bit melodramatic-- standard for Roy Thomas-- but as usual, John Buscema & Tom Palmer continue to bring out the best in him, and vice-versa. It occurs to me that at this point in its history, Marvel still has a shortage of writers. There's "ye editor"-- who seems to be letting his work slide further and further down in quality; Gary Freidrich, whose work was always uneven at best-- and Roy Thomas, whose work varies at times wildly depending on which artists he's teamed with. but overall, it appears Roy Thomas was Marvel's BEST writer at this point-- especially now that Jack Kirby (who never got the credit for writing he deserved for all his work in the 60's) had gone to DC.
By the way, if anyone's confused, the cover dates for AVENGERS was one month out-of-synch with most of Marvel's books for the whole of the 60's-- up until 1972, apparently.
(7-23-2008)
DAREDEVIL 68
cover by Marie Severin & Syd Shores
(Continued in September 1970, Pt. 2)
All Text (C) Henry R. Kujawa
Artwork (C) Marvel Comics
Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa
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