FANTASTIC FOUR 89
cover by Jack Kirby & Joe Sinnott
Basically, this is one issue-long fight between the FF and The Mole Man, in his specially-built "house", which serves as a "test-run" for his new equipment which can broadcast "blinding" rays that can cause people to lose their sight. He plans to mass-produce these, bring the world to its knees, and then send his army of Subterraneans to the surface to conquer the entire Earth. Nice guy. Reed manages to get The Mole Man's staff away from him, but is seriously injured in the process. Sue goes berzerk, and as the baddie is fighting her off, he claims "It was HIS fault, not mine! It's NEVER my fault!" He also claims "all" he ever wanted was to walk under the sun again... WHO IS HE KIDDING??? They eventually beat the guy, and Ben manages with some effort to revive Reed, who immediately begins talking non-stop to Ben's dismay...
Meanwhile, out in space, a Skrull spaceship is headed for Earth, intent on capturing a "slave" for "the games". Uh huh. WHY does Jack keep inserting these things in the middle of a story? It just breaks up the momentum...
Once again, GREAT art, so-so story. And it doesn't quite end here... and only gets worse next time. OY.
(6-29-2008)
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 75
cover by JOHN ROMITA
Marko cannot believe his eyes, as his boss, Silvermane, is once again a young man-- and even more arrogant than Marko. Spidey coerces info from some "numbers" men and locates Maggia HQ, just in time to take a beating from the newly-restored Silvermane. Caesar Cicero, frustrated that his chance to become the new "Big M" may be passing him by, tries to convince Marko it's all a trick. Meanwhile, Connors turns into The Lizard (AGAIN??) and escapes. Spidey eventually finds Mrs. Connors & Billy and gets them to safety, but Silvermane's hope for "eternal youth" seems to go astray, as he keeps getting younger and younger and younger until... well, it looks like he just disappears, but that would be silly, wouldn't it? I don't understand why Spidey should appear so dismayed by it (in the story AND on the cover) but I guess "ye editor" just wanted to make some use of a dramatic title, even if we're not sure it's the truth or not.
Romita (layouts) & Mooney (pencils & inks) do their usual great job. I do wonder how John Romita might have fared if he'd been teamed with a "writer" who actually was more interested in contributing more substatially to the proceedings?
(6-29-2008)
IRON MAN 16
cover by Marie Severin & Frank Giacoia
CAPTAIN AMERICA 116
cover by Gene Colan & Joe Sinnott
(2 stories with "death" in the title in the same month?) Sharon believes "Cap" that "The Red Skull" has lost his mind and is no longer a threat... and so they walk out, and he tells her he'll go back to make sure the guy's taken into custody. (SHE's not thinking too clear, obviously-- this behavior should have tipped her to something not being right.) The Skull (in Cap's body) uses The Cosmic Cube to teleport Cap (in The Skull's body) to a research station, where the security guys immediately start shooting at "The Red Skull". This gives NEW REGULAR PENCILLER Gene Colan (!!!) a chance to spend at least a THIRD of the issue on a high-speed car chase on the highway. WOW! Who needs "plot" when you can have "action" like this? Cap reaches Avengers Mansion, but NOBODY there believes him-- both Yellowjacket & Goliath II being particularly combative. (I mean, you'd THINK with ALL the time Cap spent with Hank Pym & Clint Barton, he'd have been able to think of SOMETHING to say that would convince them he wasn't who he appeared to be! Then again, it might have helped if he TOOK OFF THAT DAMNED SKULL MASK!!!) Meanwhile, the Teen Brigade helps Rick locate "Cap", but when he finds him, "Cap" tells him to get lost-- what help does he need from some useless teenager? Rick takes the hint, saying he'll "never" take that kind of abuse again... (oh yeah?) The Skull decides to teleport Cap again-- this time, to the Isle of Exiles-- who he had just recently "betrayed" (that's not how I remember it, but then "ye editor"s known for his memory lapses), figuring they'll polish off "The Skull" the first chance they get.
Well, after half a year of chaos on the art front, it must have been a real surprise when, of all people, Gene Colan took over the book, stepping in for a nice LONG consistent run! And wonder of wonders-- he's joined by Joe Sinnott on inks, who also decided to stick around. WOW! After the way guys like Syd Shores & Tom Palmer were able to bring Gene's complex, shaded pencils to life in inks, it's almost a shock to see someone with such a "clean" style tackle the job-- but like Jack Abel before him (and Wally Wood later on), Sinnott proves he can ink just about ANYBODY and make it look GREAT! Looking over these pages, especially the ones with the car chase, I wondered why Gene never tackled SHIELD. Seems he would have been a natural on such a "real world" series (especially after Frank Springer's issues).
(6-29-2008)
SILVER SURFER 7
cover by John Buscema & Sal Buscema
We see your typical mad scientist and hunchbacked assistant trying to bring life to the dead, failing, confrontations with fearful villagers, and the intrusion of a silver alien on a surfboard. HUH? Where'd HE come from? Oh yeah-- it's his book. In a follow-up to the "Dr. Doom" incident, Frankenstein sees the Surfer as his opportunity to gain power, and tries to get on his good side. But having been stung before, the Surfer's more cautious. Not that it helps him. Before long, the Dr. (who's so skinny he reminds me a bit of John Carridine-- especially with that moustache) convinces the Surfer he's found a cure for war & greed-- but "needs" his help to test the equipment. But what he really does is create an exact DUPLICATE of the Surfer-- in a scene out of the STAR TREK episode "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" (right down to the lump of lifeless clay), except THIS Surfer is EVIL, and Frankenstein's servant. After ordering it to kill the original, the Dr. sends it out to spread terror in the village. But the Surfer's not so easy to kill, he flies after his carbon-copy, and a lengthy fight commences, from the village to outer space to the middle of New York (where the Air Force gets a report that "The Surfer" has staged another "unprovoked attack"). As the villagers once more try to attack the castle, and Frankenstein prepares to commit mass-murder, his sidekick Borgo (who's been called just about every single name in the book that "ye editor" could come up with in one issue) can finally take no more, and to cries of, "I WARNED you you would go too far!" he sends himself and the Doc plunging to their deaths. In NYC, the Surfer manages to drain the very life-energy out of his duplicate, sending him to oblivion... and at that point, the fighter jets attack. ZIP! Back to space, lamenting that he's risked so much "to protect those who hate me the most".
This was actually my very first exposure to John Buscema's art (not to mention Sal Buscema's inks). By 1969, spies, superheroes and sci-fi were on their way "out", and "monsters" were on their way "in". My Mom was a huge fan of Boris Karloff, FRANKENSTEIN and monsters in general, and I'm pretty sure she picked this one up for me based solely on the story title. Strange that THIS should be my 1st "Frankenstein" comic, as well as my 1st SILVER SURFER comic. I'd seen the guy on the 1967 FANTASTIC FOUR cartoon, and he turned up in NOT BRAND ECCH #11, but this was the 1st "real" comic-book story I ever read with the guy. I guess the best way to describe this is, excessively melodramatic and "over the top". Every panel, every camera-angle, every pose, so intense, so extreme, so in-your-face, and not the slightest hint of humor anywhere. Also, apart from the Surfer, there doesn't appear to be one character anywhere in this book who's more than one-dimensional. I thought "ye editor" liked to created 3-dimensional characters-- and villains who were complex enough to be at least partly sympathetic. NOT this guy!!! This Dr. Frankenstein (we never learn his first name) holds everyone but himself, including his ancestor (who, on film, looks like an aging Boris Karloff from the movie HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN) in utter contempt, and plans nothing short of conquering the world-- if he can ever get his experiments to work. Re-reading this now, Frankenstein & Borgo reminded me a bit, personality-wise, of Dr. Mantan & Ygor from the ROCKET ROBIN HOOD cartoons (and the 1969 SPIDER-MAN remake, "Phantom From The Depths Of Time"), only those guys were actually FUNNY. These two are more "pathetic".
"I, THE GARGOYLE"
The Watcher tell the story of Adam Swan, a talented, successful composer & singer, who's also a philanthropist, who's terribly miserable & lonely, because of his extreme physical ugliness. Turned down by every woman on the planet (I'm sure it must have seemed that way) he volunteers to pilot a one-way drilling mission to reach the center of the Earth, saying it'll be "the best thing that ever happened to me". But once there, he finds an underground civilization, where because of the dim light, people "see" less with their eyes and more with their hearts. His accomplishments as a keyboardist quickly win them over, and when he radios the surface, he says he's "found Heaven".
I forgot all about Howard Purcell coming back to Marvel to do this series. It's funny, the page layouts remind me of Gene Colan's-- who did the 1st installment back in SS #1. The overall themes reminded me of The Mole Man from FANTASTIC FOUR #1 (Nov'61). (Funny HE should be making a return engagement over there this very month-- coincidence? MAYBE NOT.) I see that this story was actually a redo of one by Steve Ditko from AMAZING ADULT FANTASY #12 (May'62). I guess that makes this a retread twice-over!
(6-29-2008)
SUB-MARINER 16
cover by Marie Severin & Frank Giacoia
THE INCREDIBLE HULK 118
cover by HERB TRIMPE
CAPTAIN MARVEL 15
cover by Marie Severin & John Verpoorten
This get my vote for the WEIRDEST comic Marvel put out in all of 1969. Unlike those I've noted as being their "worst" comics of a given month, this is not necessarily a bad thing... just utterly bizarre! Picking up from last time, "ZO!", that mysterious, shapeless, ultimate all-powerful ("HE SAID!") cosmic entity spends half the issue showing Mar-Vell images of the history of Earth, images of Heaven and Hell, images of "Tam-Bor", a strange pagan God worshipped by a cult on Kree-Lar, the homeworld of the Kree (named for the first time in this issue), and then explains that the Tam-Bor idol is somehow a monstrous center of magnetic energy, powered by the energy of Kree-Lar itself, which may soon pull every planet in the galaxy out of their orbits, unless Kree-Lar is destroyed!! Never mind how insanely absurd this sounds... Mar-Vell would prefer to find a way to destroy the idol WITHOUT obliterating his own homeworld. He's teleported there, instantly pursued by "The Accuser Patrol", and just when he takes over their craft, the whole thing gets swallowed up by an even bigger ship, piloted by Tam-Bor cultists! WHOA!
What a wild, wild ride. The first half of this issue is like a replay of "Rebirth"-- itself seemingly a tribute to the "star-gate" trip from 2001: A SPACE ODDYSSEY-- except this time, it's done much, much better. This is one of the reasons I so strongly suspect Gary Friedrich wrote the bulk of "Rebirth", not Arnold Drake. Both issues ramble from one thing to another, lots of interesting ideas never really handled as good as they might be. The art is a trip in itself. The issue was laid out by Friedrich himself-- and I wonder if he didn't do all or parts of the previous ones (at the very least, the last few pages of the previous issue). The art is by Tom Sutton-- his 1st "serious" job following a lot of work on NOT BRAND ECCH-- and Dan Adkins, who does possibly the slickest inks ever seen on the series. Considering both Sutton & Adkins were fans of Wally Wood (Adkins having worked as one of his assistants on a lot of projects), the look of this issue might be described as "Wally Wood on drugs". The "psychedelic" sequences are truly mind-blowing, and our first substantial views of the Kree homeworld, Kree-Lar, are nothing short of AMAZING!!! Damn! Why couldn't this book have looked like this from the beginning?? This also gets my vote for the BEST art ever on the series-- so far.
Throughout the entire story, Mar-Vell keeps doubting, wondering if "ZO!" is who and what he really claims to be. One scene has him asking, "If he's so all-powerful, why does he need ME to do this thing for him?" It's just like in STAR TREK V: THE FINAL FRONTIER 2 decades later when Kirk asks, "What does God want with a Starship?" Considering I was MISSING the next issue when I first read these issues, I was left hanging, because there was NO CLUE, no explanation whatsoever in issue #17. But there would be-- in #16. The big question in my mind is, is what we see next issue what Drake and/or Friedrich planned-- or not? The letters page this time is full of insightful, detailed criticism of almost everything Arnold Drake & Gary Friedrich did up to this point, and readers are promised that "all" will be cleared up by the new regular writer, Archie Goodwin-- and they're asked to have some patience, because they figure it's gonna take more than just one issue to straigthen out the tangled mess that Mar-Vell's career has become by this point. They also mention that Don Heck "couldn't stay away" and will be returning next issue as well. Considering he was the most coherent "storyteller" on the series, I can't understand why he missed 5 issues in a row here...
Almost forgot-- Marie Severin does a terrific cover on this-- under some of the most bizarre coloring! (Wonder if that was her doing, or someone else?)
(7-1-2008)
THOR 167
cover by Jack Kirby & ?? (REJECTED)
THE AVENGERS 67
cover by Sal Buscema & Sam Grainger
The team fights Ultron-6, who is now rebuilt out of "indestructible" Adamantium alloy. The Vision figures out that when Ultron built him, he included deep in his programming a command to restore the robot at an opportune point if he ever got destroyed. Now, feeling used, The Vision is determined to make up for it by going one-on-one with his creator, and to make sure that only one of them walks away alive. But Dugan & the SHIELD boys are tired of waiting for news on the stolen metal, and not knowing about Ultron, invade the underground complex, and open fire on The Vision! This is the worst possible timing, as Ultron is about to set off some kind of nuclear explosion and wipe out all of New York City.
Barry Smith teamed with George Klein this time, and the results are much slicker than last month. Smith's storytelling is less confusing than, say, Frank Springer's, or Neal Adams', and Klein's inks really remind one of Kirby-Sinnott-- or at least, Kirby-Stone. His people still look a bit generic-- I think it'd be hard to tell some of them apart if not for their costumes. The ongoing plot in NICK FURY is mentioned, though the timing seems a bit off, as they say Nick Fury is a "fugitive" and by the time this came out, apparently, he was already in custody. Oh well. The story continues next issue, and I'm wondering WHY Smith didn't stick around to do all 3 parts. (I hate when they change artists in the middle of a story.)
(7-1-2008)
DAREDEVIL 55
cover by Gene Colan & Sam Grainger
X-MEN 59
cover by NEAL ADAMS
The title is listed as "The Last X-Man" on the cover. The team's aircraft blown out of the sky as they approach The Sentinels' mountain HQ. Cyclops, Marvel Girl & Beast survive, make it inside, just in time to see a Sentinel craft arrive with new prisoners-- the long-missing Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch & Toad! Taking out the Sentinel, the 2 trios swap clothes, allowing Scott, Jean & Hank to catch further Sentinels off-balance. Larry Trask discovers his father found out he had the power of clairvoyance, and became obsessed with imprisoning all other mutants for fear they'd tried to "use" his son (as Magneto certainly would have tried to). But his identity as a mutant now revealed, those STUPID Sentinel robots will no longer obey him-- BUT, they are determined to follow his LAST command before his mutant-ness was revealed. (Some computer brains are just TOO STUPID to "live"!!) And so, they're bent on exterminating all mutants, until Scott takes a tip from Judge Chalmers (injured trying to protect them), and pits "logic" against them. In a scene out of a bad STAR TREK episode, Scott argues that the source of all mutation should be the Sentinel's target-- and so, en masse, ALL of them lift off and head for... the Sun. (I SAID those robots were really, really stupid!!!)
At the end, Alex' power gets out of control, he explodes again, but is still alive, and they contact a doctor to look him over. However, "Dr. Lykos" (whoever he is) seems to be almost as sinister as The Sentinels.
Once again, I can't shake the feeling that this story was far too big in scope, far too ambitious, to be handled in a "mere" 3 episodes. and after all he caused, I don't even recall if Larry Trask ever turned up again. You'd think he would have tried to make up for his actions from a feeling a guilt-- unless he wound up spending all his time with a shrink (given the way he switched from intended mass-murderer to saying, "No! I never wanted that!" between panels. "Stable", he apparently wasn't. On the letters page and the Bullpen page, a lot is made of the long-reaching plans of Roy Thomas & Neal Adams, apparently Roy was really hyped up about getting Neal on this book. It's almost a shame, because I can't shake the feeling Neal would have been a much better fit on SHIELD, especially as Don Heck & Werner Roth were really starting to kick ass before they both got kicked off this series. Neal's illos are impressive, but much of his figure-work is awkward and his storytelling is often confusing.
(7-1-2008)
(Continued in September 1969)
All Text (C) Henry R. Kujawa
Artwork (C) Marvel Comics
Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa
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