FANTASTIC FOUR 98
cover by Marie Severin (design), Jack Kirby & Joe Sinnott
Reed intercepts a message, which he figures out is from The Kree, and figures out it has something to do with the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. Out in the Pacific, a Kree Sentry causes a long-sunken island to rise from the water, and goes down into an underground vault to find something called "The Stimulator". In a rocket, Reed, Ben & Johnny locate the source of the transmission, and are soon in a fight for their lives against the Sentry, who is trying to get, by remote control, a "nameless mass" beneath the surface of the moon to destroy the Apollo mission and prevent man from reaching into space. Ben destroys the Stimulator, the mass disipates, our trio escape with their lives, and Neil Armstrong sets foot on the moon.
It looks nice. Joe Sinnott's back, and the visuals, especially scenes with The Sentry on pages 5, 6, 12, 14 are stunning as ever. But somehow, this isssue is an almost TOTAL botch-job!!! Where do I start? Right on page 1, when Reed barks, "QUIET, honey! Can't TALK to you now!" Fine way for a loving husband and new father to talk to the girl he loves. Second, the story supposedly takes place about a year before the issue comes out-- so it can coincide with the Apollo 11 mission. On page 3, Sue says Johnny's trying to "forget Crystal"-- who only left an issue or so back. WHAT th'...? Now, The Sentry is CLEARLY not the same Sentry from FF #64 (who returned in MARVEL SUPER-HEROES #13 and CAPTAIN MARVEL #1), because the costume is way too different-- much less detail, different color scheme, and he's only about Ben's height, while the earlier Sentry was a giant. Plus, Reed asks on page 1, "What if they also left another?" I doubt there'd be 2 of them on Earth all this time, so it stands to reason this 2nd Sentry was brought here by The Hellion (or its supply ship) seen in the CAPTAIN MARVEL series. But that series is never once mentioned here! WHAT th'...? A PERFECT opportunity for a tie-in, and NOTHING? (The fact that the CM book had only just been cancelled may have something to do with that massive oversight.) Reed notes the island is "almost a mini-replica of the moon! But WHY?" Yeah-- WHY?? We NEVER find out!! It gets WORSE. "At that same split-second", "ye editor" tells us in his narration, that the FF are on the island, Apollo 11 lifts off for the moon. When the FF are fighting in the underground chamber to destroy the Stimulator, Apollo 11 is about to LAND on the moon. The whole sequence looks like it took maybe 5-10 minutes, AT THE OUTSIDE-- not 2-3 WHOLE DAYS!! WHAT th'...??? Further, Reed says NASA "loaned" him a rocket. How do you "loan" somebody a throwaway missile booster? And WHY? The FF have their own. In fact, THIS one has a big "4" on the side-- and doesn't look ANYTHING like anything NASA ever built. Still further, Reed says they're about to run out of fuel as they approach the island. So, HOW were they able to lift off at the end and return to New York? Did "ye editor" think this thru AT ALL when he was writing the dialogue?????
And then there's this relatively "minor" point of historical contention. On the last page, in the last 2 panels, Neil Armstrong says, "That's one small step for a man--- one giant leap for mankind!" Here's the thing. I'm sure that's what he meant to say. It makes sense. But that's NOT what was heard. For DECADES, the quote, as heard, was "That's one small step for man---" No "a". In recent years, it has become popular to "correct" the quote, to quote it as it was supposed to be-- not as it was. It makes more sense as it was supposed to be-- and, as "ye editor" had it here. But that's NOT how it came out. Just as Jamie Lee Curtis FLUBBED her last line in HALLOWEEN (and John Carpenter was in too much of a hurry to do a 2nd take), when she said "Was the boogyman?" instead of "Was IT the boogyman?", so Neil Armstrong-- as Arnold Drake said it to me-- flubbed the "script" they gave him. It's dumb. It's incompetent. But it's real. And I hate it when people rewrite history to suit their current thoughts.
Oh yeah, and let's talk about that cover. Another Marie Severin design, no doubt, done very nicely by Kirby & Sinnott. Except... "Doomsday on The Moon"-- the title, the visual AND the coloring all suggest the action takes place ON the moon, instead of an island in the Pacific. When the cover was reprinted on MGC, it was "flopped" so the mysterious shadow would be approaching from the right. I believe that's how it was supposed to be-- but "ye editor" had the production dept. flop it at the last minute, for no good purpose. The title doesn't match the actual story title-- and there's 3-- 3!!!-- word balloons. Plus a wordy caption, which includes the increasingly annoying phrase "Mighty Marvel".
Was somebody ON DRUGS when they did this??? (It's like one of those Ralph Bakshi-Gray Morrow SPIDER-MAN cartoons. Maybe the comic would have made more sense if it came with a KPM Library soundtrack album...)
I can't help but wonder if the entire story was supposed to take place on the moon-- but someone changed their minds in mid-production. One interesting-- and inescapable item-- the scene where The Sentry raises that moon-looking hunk of island out of the sea was DUPLICATED in the movie SUPERMAN RETURNS. This comic HAD to be the inspiration for that. I have NO doubt of it!!!
(7-16-2008)
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 84
cover by JOHN ROMITA
Someone puts out a five thousand dollar reward for the capture of The Schemer, and Spidey sure could use the cash. Plus, it's easier freezing himself half to death in the cold & snow than trying to answer-- or avoid-- Gwen's questions about how they survived that accident with the truck last issue. From one of The Kingpin's thugs, Spidey finds out about The Schemer's special weapons-laden car, and tangles with him and it, before winding up in the river (and surprisingly, the icy waters don't even bother him at this point-- you'd think they would have!). Trailing the car to The Kingpin's mansion, a 3-way free-for-all breaks out, until Vanessa sees something in The Schemer's eyes-- and then disappears WITH him. This is the only thing that stops The Kingpin from finishing off Spider-Man, who he "hates like no one he has ever hated" in his life. He runs off to find his wife, while Spidey is left behind, with no results, no pics, and no reward money.
Not bad. Here's the part I don't understand. 2 months after he QUIT, John Buscema is back on layouts, in between John Romita & Jim Mooney. Was he a glutton for punishment, or was "ye editor" just a really, really pushy boss who always got his way no matter what, even when his decisions made NO SENSE at all?? (Put another way-- it LOOKS NICE-- but it doesn't have the "life" in it that the 2 issues Romita laid out himself did. Oh well... it sure is nice to have Mooney back after he missed a month.)
(7-16-2008)
SUB-MARINER 25
cover by Marie Severin & Sal Buscema
Namor & Dorma are on a tour to survey the realm & its outposts, and finding all the men at one of them killed by toxic waste that had been dumped there, and shot at (and released) when the guards thought they were depth-charges. Namor decides to "seal off" Atlantis' borders, by stopping and detouring any ships that sail over its boundaries. This naturally brings a Russian submarine, which he single-handedly raises out of the water and leaves stranded on a beach! His next move surprises everyone-- he goes to New York, to address the United Nations! They give him 5 minutes, since he is head of a country-- and he expresses his wish for Atlantis to be recognized as a sovereign state, and be admitted as a U.N. member. When someone accuses his entire country of being a "menace to the entire planet", he counters with examples of how surface countries have been polluting the oceans which give life to the entire planet. It's not so much an ultimatum as a warning, and he leaves, though not without trouble, as the cops and the army aren't sure whether to stop him, attack him, or get the hell out of his way. On the docks, he runs into Diane Arliss, who he tells of her brother's (apparent) death last issue. As soldiers fill the docks, preparing to open fire on his submarine, he fires first-- but on seeing Diane among the men, he flies out and detours the missile. En route back to Atlantis, unease fills the air as it's obvious Namor's "loyaties" are more divided than even he realized.
NOT bad. An interesting step in a new direction, done at a time when environmental consciousness was really becoming a big thing. Unfortunately, I'd have to say this was also the exact point where the series began to take a downward turn. The reason is the debut of Sal Buscema. Now it's funny... Sal actually draws Namor (especically, his head) more like Bill Everett than either John Buscema, Marie Severin or Gene Colan... but his storytelling just isn't up there in any of their class. Also, Jim Mooney must have been getting over-worked, because after the first 15 pages, "Joe Gaudioso" (alias Mike Esposito) takes over on inks, and "smooth" turns to "rough". I'm afraid that as the 70's wore on, both Sal & Mike let the quality of their art slide badly-- and when they'd be teamed up-- which happened A LOT-- well, it really hurt to plow thru those comics.
(7-16-2008)
IRON MAN 25
cover by Marie Severin & Sam Grainger
CAPTAIN AMERICA 125
cover by Marie Severin & Frank Giacoia
The soap-opera continues as Cap ponders how empty his life is without a regular job or home or loved ones or Sharon (who "LIED!" to him last issue-- NOT). When a Dr. Hoskins turns up missing in Viet Nam, a healer who helped bnoth sides and whose disappearance is now causing both sides to blame the other, he sees a mission he can sink his teeth into, and heads by B-52 to Viet Nam! No sooner does he arrive than one side or the other starts shooting at him (and there's no clue here as to WHICH side is trying to kill him!). This goes on until he runs across soldiers from a 3rd, unknown party-- and decides to let himself be captured. Sure enough, the men are working for The Mandarin-- who openly admits he kidnapped Hoskins, because he wants NO peace in the area until BOTH sides have wiped each other out, and then he can just move on in. But, as these things go, a few pages later, Cap's rescued Hoskins from a dungeon, and escaped with him. No sooner does Hoskins' rescue become known, the hostilities ease... if only a bit. Cap heads home, looking forward to nothing but "loneliness and strife". SHEESH.
Frank Giacoia fills in for Joe Sinnott here (I'm guessing doing 2 books a months was beginning to take its toll on poor Joe-- either that or he had some outside committments I don't know about here that were getting in the way). I think for once Frank fit very nicely, as Joe's super-slick ultra-clean lines might have been out-of-place in a brutal batlefield environment as Gene Colan got to draw here. I know Gene did a lot of war comics in the 50's, this must have been like reliving old times here. After 2 Iron Man stories with the guy, Gene seems to have become "the" Mandarin artist, but it's kinda sad to see such a high-level baddie get reduced to almost a cameo appearance due to this one-issue-story deal. Marie Severin, who's now doing Gene's covers for him, actually did one on this issue that one might MISTAKE for a Colan cover... until you look real close. I did! Nice & moody.
(7-16-2008)
SILVER SURFER 16
cover by John Buscema & Chic Stone
This has the lord of the lower depths, claiming "friendship" (yeah right) and actually allow The Surfer to break thru Galactus' barrier, and return home to Zenn-La! But once there, he learns Shalla Bal was "taken" by... Mephisto. And so he zips BACK to Earth (all this seems to take seconds, you'd think even for him it would have taken days-- or weeks), where Mephisto claims he has "hidden" her somewhere on Earth, where she could be helpless, freezing, starving, in danger... and he'll NEVER know, NEVER find her... UNLESS he swears to do Mephisto's bidding. And so... he does, at which point he gets hit with the zinger-- Mephisto orders him to "destroy SHIELD".
Another miserable issue. If it seems like I skipped over a lot of plot points, let's just say I'm trying to make this as painless as possible. The Bullpen page announces "two more little lambs who have gone astray have just returned to the fold" (I'M NOT MAKING THIS UP!!!), among them Chic Stone, who "ye editor" promptly had doing inks for... John Buscema. Over the years, I've seen a lot of Buscema-Stone comics. NONE of them look "right". Stone was a PERFECT inker for someone like Jack Kirby, because both had a "clean", "cartoony" look. Buscema's style is more on the "illustrative" side, and as a result, the two are simply NOT a good match. And yet, they did book after book after book together... Sometimes you just gotta wonder if some of these editors even bothered LOOKING at the printed books.
The cover this time has "The Mightiest Superhero Of All!" added to the top (I guess "ye editor" realized after all these issues that "Sky-Rider Of The Spaceways!" just didn't fit, seeing as the guy was STUCK on Earth!). There's also 3-- 3!!!-- blurbs, all beginning with "SEE!" --when just having the story's title would have been so much better.
Of minor note: the splash page, a shot of The Surfer flying straight at the reader, was later used on the inside of the CD art for the Kasel, Germany surf-rock-folk-metal band, Silver Surfer's 2nd album, RIDE THE WILD DESERT SURF. That album features a song titled "Silver Surfer", a slow lament which describes the tragic life of "Norrin Radd".
(7-16-2008)
THE INCREDIBLE HULK 127
cover by HERB TRIMPE
THOR 176
cover by Jack Kirby & Bill Everett
Oh, the HORROR!! VINCE COLLETTA returns to massacre Kirby's art, at a point where he was so disgusted with his job situation he really could have used something "more". I mean, the last couple issues of "FANTASTIC FOUR" before Kirby jumped ship were among the most STUNNING-looking of that year, and newcomer Sam Grainger blew most Kirby inkers completely out of the water when he inked Kirby's "KA-ZAR" episodes. I guess Vince just DIDN'T give a S***.
The highlight of this episode is the focus in the first half on the "3 Musketeers" (of sorts), Volstagg, Hogun & Fandral, who on principle take on Loki's corrupt minions and make a real mess of them, in a fight sequence that is not only exciting, but genuinely FUNNY. Until Loki shows up, and flashes ODIN's ring, at which point, everybody just stops, and then gets thrown in a prison cell, where Thor has been since the end of the previous episode.
Only Baldar is on the loose, cannily avoiding Loki so as not to have to swear fealty to someone he knows is bent on dragging Asgard down into a pit. He sets Thor & friends loose, and while the 3 stooges go to find and protect the sleeping Odin, Balder & Thor go to rescue Sif, who Loki is trying to FORCE against her will into marriage.
And while this is going on, the fact that Odin is not only asleep, but had been spirited away to some distant place from which he might NEVER wake up, means that the spell he put on SURTUR, the fire demon, is now no longer in force, and said demon is once again on the loose, bent on DESTROYING Asgard faster than Loki had in mind. Since his own skin is the only thing he cares about, Loki flees, leaving Thor & Balder completely free to fight to protect the realm.
Suffice to say... this should be a LOT better than it is. With a better inker (that's just about DAMN NEAR ANYBODY in the business at this point) and Kirby writing HIS OWN DAMN dialogue, I'm sure it could have been.
But, when the owner, the publisher, and his lap-dog editor are all HELL-BENT on driving Kirby out of the company... it's lucky this is readable at all. It's certainly a better story than anything seen in FANTASTIC FOUR in the last year around this time, but at least those books LOOKED nice, if nothing else.
I've gotta go dig out part 3. I've had it for a long time, but never been able to read all 3 parts together before. This would be a good time to do so.
(6-9-2018)
THE AVENGERS 76
cover by John Buscema & Tom Palmer
The team is desperately trying to use technology to break the dimensional barrier to stop Arkon The Magnificent from forcing a team of kidnapped physicists from creating an atomic weapon capable of destroying the entire Earth. While this is going on, The Black Widow shows up and, totally out of the blue (and with no explanation whatsoever) tells Clint she can never see him again. (SAY WHAT???) Meanwhile, Arkon feels he may be able to learn much from The Scarlet Witch, and lies to her, saying he's found a way to save his planet without destroying Earth-- but he still intends on making her his queen. (Nice guy.) When science fails, Thor's hammer succeeds in bringing the battle to Arkon's world, but soon, he flees to Earth with half the team in pursuit, as he prepares to detonate the bomb atop the Empire State Building. Things look very bad... until he's contacted by his grand vizier, who tells him 2 of the Earthmen-- Iron Man & Thor-- have actually managed to restore the ring that encircles their planet, saving countless lives on both worlds in the process! Arkon decides he no longer wishes to force Wanda to marry him against her will, but hopes he will see her again someday. She seems to return the sentiment.
Another EPIC issue. Roy Thomas, John Buscema & Tom Palmer seem to be working very hard to CRAM as much story as they can into 40 pages (last issue and this one), and Buscema's storytelling is much more inspired here than on some other books he's been doing lately. The page layouts have thankfully varied between smaller and larger panels, and I believe it was at this point John cut back on this book to just layouts-- as Tom Palmer appears to be doing MUCH more than he did on the previous 2 issues. For once, the "big 2" (Iron Man & Thor) had an essential reason for being involved in the plot (while the fight was going on, they really saved the day thru a combination of science AND mystical power). This issue actually marked the first meeting beteen The Scarlet Witch and The Vision, and being aware of their later history, it was almost jarring when she said "Whoever you are..." The very real and dangerous troubles the team struggled with trying to get to another dimension act an an interesting counterpoint to the way DC's JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA seemed to go dimension-hopping so often & easily. The only thing about this entire issue that annoyed me no end was the Clint-Natasha scene. WHAT IS IT with them? WHY can't they ever seem to just "get along"? And, you just don't turn up and tell a guy you can never see each other again without giving some explanation! Other than that, this was really one of the best books Marvel put out this month. I'd say, at this point in Marvel history, Roy Thomas seems to be leaving "ye editor" completely in the dust! (Now if they could just have cleaned up that cover-- 2 blurbs and a word balloon? OY!)
(7-15-2008)
DAREDEVIL 64
cover by Gene Colan, Marie Severin & Syd Shores
(alterations by JOHN ROMITA)
Does it really take 4 artists to do 1 cover? This issue premiered a new logo which lasted all the way through the 1970s, until Frank Miller came along.
(11-13-2018)
TOWER OF SHADOWS 5
cover by MARIE SEVERIN
This story involves a young man named Johnny, who's lonely since an accident cost him the use of his legs. One night he falls asleep on top of a stone gargoyle at his college... and wakes to find it's alive, and flies him off into another dimension, where a race of very short people are being terrorized by an evil wizard. With the aid of the king's daughter, he takes on many dangers, kills the wizard and destroys his castle. Returning home, he drifts off to sleep again-- waking up on top of the gargoyle. His friends are dumbfounded, however, when he gets up and WALKS AWAY-- and they fail to notice, it's a different gargoyle from what had been there th night before!
TOS (and its companion book, CHAMBER OF DARKNESS) were a pair of rotating bi-monthly anthologies with horror & fantasy stories, "ye editor"s attempt to compete with Jim Warren's anthologies (or DC's, or maybe to revive EC's). Following "ye editor"s fallout with Jim Steranko, the book contained work from the likes of Johnny Craig, John Buscema, Don Heck, Neal Adams, Gene Colan, George Tuska, Barry Smith (with Roy Thomas adapting an H.P.Lovecraft story), Tom Sutton, Syd Shores... and this one, by WALLY WOOD!!! Wood had skipped after DAREDEVIL #11 to head up Tower Comics' T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS series, which mixed "spies" and "superheroes". There are rumors that forces at both Marvel and DC are directly responsible for deliberately driving Tower out of business. I guess some people don't believe in the spirit of "competition". Anyway, Wally did a lot of projects for different publishers afterwards, and this was the first one he did for Marvel. It's the first of 4 fantasy stories he did for TOWER OF SHADOWS, all of which involved the "sword & sorcery" genre-- which would soon become a really big deal. I re-read all 4 stories in one sitting today. I don't have a single copy of TOS, but these were all reprinted in THE MARVEL COMICS ART OF WALLY WOOD, a 1982 magazine-sized hardcover collection from Thumbtack Books in Brooklyn-- and printed in Italy. NICE stuff, pretty good reproduction, bright paper, "flat" coloring (the way it was intended). Funny thing about this book-- it uses 2 distinctly different paper stocks! The "S&S" stories are on "matte" paper, while the 3 Dr. Doom stories (more on them later) are on GLOSSY paper. This gives a different, and rather "appropriate" look to EACH subject. I don't know if I've ever seen anyone else do that sort of thing in one book.
This first one is the most "innocent" of the quartet in tone, and Wood acts as onscreen narrator, seen sitting at his drawing board on page 1 inside what appears to be a gloomy, dingy castle dungeon.
Although Wood's return was talked about on the Bullpen page, it was virtually hidden under a Marie Severin cover (she did a LOT of these) relating to a Barry Smith interior story.
(7-19-2008)
(Continued in June 1970)
All Text (C) Henry R. Kujawa
Artwork (C) Marvel Comics
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