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Post by sharkar on Aug 12, 2011 13:06:07 GMT -5
Thanks, Owen! As usual you've posted great stuff here. I'm enjoying playing catch up and reading all your wonderful entries.
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Post by owene on Aug 14, 2011 5:07:46 GMT -5
Tales of Suspense #43 Kala Queen of the Netherworld. By Stan Lee, Robert Bernstein, Jack Kirby and Don Heck Villains: Kala Guest Appearances: None So What Happens?: Iron Man deals with a bunch of malfunctions at Stark’s weapons testing range before going back there in his civilian identity to inspect the damage. A bunch of Stark’s scientists start disappearing from the test site before Stark himself is enveloped in a crystal and starts sinking into the earth. He is freed when the crystal arrives at an underground city and is met by the city’s queen, Kala. The city was founded on Atlantis but survived it sinking to the bottom of the ocean by being surrounded in an invulnerable dome. Unfortunately the city continued to sink until they reached their current location miles underground. They want to invade the surface world with their superior weapons but need Stark to find a way for them to reach the surface. Much to the disgust of the other captured Stark employees Stark agrees on the condition he is given a lab and some privacy. However he warns them that they won’t be able to deal with the surface’s protector Iron Man and Kala’s chief general seems to be won over about the pointlessness of the mission. As Stark is led to his lab he works on the General who resents serving a woman and feel they will be defeated on the surface. Once he is free to work in the lab Stark creates a copy of the Iron Man armour and wastes no time using it to attack some of Kala’s soldiers. He spares the General and tells him that he rather than Kala should rule the underworld. Iron Man then deals with Kala by trashing her weapons before grabbing her and tunnelling to the surface. As soon as she encounters surface air she starts to age rapidly and desperately begs to be taken back underground. Returning home rejuvenates her and she immediately offers to marry Iron Man. He however thinks she would be better suited to marrying her general. The crisis averted Iron Man and the stark employees return to the surface. So is it any good?: It has some decent ideas, however it doesn’t really mesh with the things we have already seen in other titles and immediately starts to feel a bit like a rehash. It is particularly close to the Tyrannus story from the Hulk but it also has a lot in common with the stories of Ant-Man and the Torch stranded in other dimensions and seeing off invasions. The Kirby/heck art isn’t meshing particularly well here and a lot of it seems quite rushed. Kala herself is quite well drawn and her general was given more characterisation than is normal. However Iron Man himself isn’t quite right particularly in the action sequences where he is constantly pulling some new gizmo from his accessory belt, he could already do with some definition of what he can and can't do that would force the writers to take more care over the writing. There are also quite a lot of fairly odd panels, close ups of hands or sections of his face mask that seem to imply Kirby was doing quite loose layouts without really taking much care. It’s a fairly standard "hero goes to exotic feudal society" story and even 50 or so stories into the Marvel age it already feels a bit repetitive. Are there any goofy moments?:I guess the scripter referred to the garden shears Iron Man uses to cut through the dome and tunnel up to the surface as Atomic just to try and explain how the hell they could do such a thing but the idea that Stark came up with some atomic scissors during his session in Kala’s lab and then hid them somewhere is pretty funny. In fact the whole section is pretty funny visually. The atomic darts, complete with mushroom clouds that get fired around the city are pretty over the top as well. Trivia:Kala has appeared several times, always caught up in the machinations of the Mole Man and Tyrannus, the first such appearance was Fantastic Four 127. Which I guess makes more sense than her just having a totally separate underground civilisation as she does in this story. The story of her cities origins got tidied up quite drastically in the Subterranean wars annuals. Is it a landmark?: not really,
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Post by humanbelly on Aug 14, 2011 5:46:17 GMT -5
Tales of Suspense #43 Kala Queen of the Netherworld. By Stan Lee, Robert Bernstein, Jack Kirby and Don Heck Villains: Kala I'd forgotten about Kala-- and I'm pretty sure I have all of her subsequent appearances, even. Man, how can there have been room for all of these "empires" under the earth's crust? You gotcher Tyrannus, yer Mole Man, yer Kala from Netherworld, Lava Men, Deviants. . . and I'm pretty sure we've seen any number of one-shot subterranean surface-invaders, yes? Sheesh, makes me nervous about digging a post-hole for my mailbox. . . HB
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Post by owene on Aug 14, 2011 14:18:04 GMT -5
there must be loads, its not even as if any of them really lead to classic stories. Maybe there are a few good mole man stories out there i'm forgetting
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Post by owene on Aug 14, 2011 14:23:40 GMT -5
On the Trail of Spider-Man By Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. Villains: The Fox Guest Appearances: Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four So What Happens?: The Torch is getting irate about the amount of press spider-man is having. Meanwhile art thief the Fox is determined to use Spider-Man’s fame to aid his crime wave. The fox steals a Da Vinci masterpiece and leaves some spider webs at the scene to blame Spider-Man, something the media quickly pick up on. Spider-Man decides he needs some help dealing with this and heads out to Glenville to find the Human Torch. Unfortunately the Glenville police soon spot him and ask the Torch for help capturing him and, finding Spider-Man outside his home soon starts fighting with him. Spider-Man manages to put up a good fight but doesn’t really have any answers for the Torch and his flame powers. Ducking out to slip into a nearby lab Spider-Man knocks together an ice-web fluid that will smother the Torch’s flame long enough to web him up. Heading back out into Glenville he soon finds the Torch and knocks out his flame long enough to tell him that he is being framed for the art thefts and needs the Torch’s help. The torch uses his reputation with the police to call off the hunt for Spider-Man and to find out that the most likely culprit is a thief called the Fox. He even gets a list of the Fox’s hangouts. The two heroes meet up at the Statue of Liberty and start searching the Fox’s hangouts, he evades them at a subway station but they soon manage to capture his gang and then find him, and the missing masterpiece in the park. Spider-Man’s name is cleared and the two heroes part as friends. So is it any good?: It’s fun, it’s a lot closer in quality to the Human Torch series than to Spider-Man but it’s a fun rarity and the Ditko inks make it fit into the spider-man mythos a lot better than some early team ups. It sets the tone of future torch-Spider-man meetings well, the Torch’s appearance in spider-man 3 had shown Peter looking upto and getting inspiration from the Torch but here they bicker but also manage to combine well. I’m not sure the ice web fluid idea is the sort of thing a writer would have gotten away with a few years later but I always like Peter’s scientific prowess being played up and it’s about the only way you can counteract the Torch’s ability to come up with a new flame power every few pages. It’s not the deepest story in the world, in fact it probably creates the ‘heroes fight over a misunderstanding then catch the bad guy in the final few pages’ template that Marvel Team Up would run into the ground and it could have done with a better villain than the Fox but it’s still a fun story. Are there any goofy moments?:The Torch spends some time perfecting his flame master key that can unlock any lock by perfectly fitting the chamber. The Fox wears a great full face mask attached by elastic and Spider-Man pulls it off by the nose. The Fox revealing his true identity after disguising himself as a little old lady is also pretty corny. Trivia:The Fox got revealled to be a Hydra section chief in the letters page of Daredevil 121 or rather Hydra was given a character with that codename in that issue and the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe decided it was the Fox from this story in the details of his entry. Personally I think the DD reference was based on the fact that Hydra had sections named after animals, including Foxes, in the pages of Nick Fury. The Fox’s only other on page appearance came in Spider-Man unlimited #5 in 1994, a nostalgic story that again featured the Torch. Is it a landmark?: It's not exactly the first spider-man/torch team up, but it is the first time they work together properly
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Post by Shiryu on Aug 14, 2011 15:58:27 GMT -5
On the Trail of Spider-Man I had never read this story so this review was especially interesting. I take it's also the issue beginning the tradition of the Spidey/Torch team ups at the Statue of Liberty, isn't it? It will be referenced a few times over the years, especially recently. BUT... where is Spidey's chest spider on that cover? Talking of the Beginners Guide allow me a shameless plug ;D From now on Owen's reviews will also be collected at www.icavalieridellozodiaco.net/marvelguide/index.htmlmanaged and designed by yours truly. At the moment there are far less reviews than here, as I wanted to have a supply for steady updates, but hopefully they are organized in a way that makes it easy to read them. Any comment or suggestion is of course more than welcome
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Post by humanbelly on Aug 14, 2011 20:33:22 GMT -5
Ha-- shameless plugging aside, Shiryu, I think that's a terrific idea. I can't imagine any downside to getting Owen's delightful reviews/critiques in front of as many eyeballs as possible. Obviously, I thoroughly enjoy the nostalgiac discussions they initiate here-!
HB
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Post by humanbelly on Aug 14, 2011 20:59:02 GMT -5
On the Trail of Spider-Man I had never read this story so this review was especially interesting. I take it's also the issue beginning the tradition of the Spidey/Torch team ups at the Statue of Liberty, isn't it? It will be referenced a few times over the years, especially recently. BUT... where is Spidey's chest spider on that cover? ) Good catch on the Statue of Liberty precedent, Shir. That has always been a nice little piece of Marvel lore. This cover is a pickle. Do we think Jack Kirby drew it? That would almost explain the missing chest-spider, since JK drew Spidey so rarely, and didn't seem to have much of a feel for the character when he did. The anatomy's so goofy, and the perspective's a wreck with the feet particularly. I feel like the cover's design is great. . . but the execution is almost amateurish. I wonder if it could be Larry Lieber? HB
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Post by Shiryu on Aug 15, 2011 3:39:22 GMT -5
This cover is a pickle. Do we think Jack Kirby drew it? That would almost explain the missing chest-spider, since JK drew Spidey so rarely, and didn't seem to have much of a feel for the character when he did. The anatomy's so goofy, and the perspective's a wreck with the feet particularly. I feel like the cover's design is great. . . but the execution is almost amateurish. I wonder if it could be Larry Lieber? HB Hmm, I don't think it's Kirby. IIRC he actually created Spidey's costume himself, it would have been a massive oversight to forget something as visible and obvious as his chest spider. I also wonder how on earth did it pass Stan's scrutiny, several interviews depict him as very picky with cover designs, often asking Kirby or Romita or Ditko to modify or remake them. If I had to guess, I'd say this is a hastely done cover to replace something else they weren't happy with, so it was sent to print in a rush. Hopefully Sharkar can shed some light on it for us. Going back to the story, in later meetings with the Torch Spidey is said to have "asbestos webbings", which makes much more sense than the ice web depicted here.
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Post by owene on Aug 15, 2011 6:55:24 GMT -5
its times like these that make me wish i'd never stopped reading comics, as i've forgotten so much over the years.
who drew that cover was the subject of a lot of debate in Kirby fan circles in the 90s but I really can't remember the outcome. I guess it must have been fairly seriously put forward as a Kirby spider-man for it to be talked about so much but I dont think there was ever a consensus on it.
It's a fun little story and that Spider-man/torch friendship seems to have retroactively become a lot more important, you see it and the statue of liberty referenced quite a bit these days and i'm not sure i'd ever picked up on it back when i was reading properly
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Post by owene on Aug 16, 2011 6:57:40 GMT -5
Defeated by Dr Doom By Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers. Villains: Dr Doom Guest Appearances: Ant-Man So What Happens?: Safely home from the micro-world the FF say goodbye to Ant-Man before all trying out their own ways to find Dr Doom. None of their ploys works as it turns out Doom is actually waiting for them. Disguised as a friendly janitor Doom manages to place tiny homing devices on all four heroes while shaking their hands. The beacons allow Doom to send weird floaty robots to follow the team around the city and spy on their every move. Once the team have reconvened Reed realises the robots must be following a signal and finds and disables the beacons. Meanwhile Doom kidnaps Alicia Masters and brings her to his floating base, hidden in a cloud over New York. With a hostage providing some safety from the Fantastic Four Doom sends a declaration of War to the US government, either the President appoints Doom to the Cabinet or he will declare war on the US. Reed manages to locate Doom’s base and after scanning it realises the floating robots had been used to gather the information needed to set up a disintegrator shield keyed to their body structures. The only way in is to come up with a temporary way of changing the Thing back to his human form. After hours of research Reed manages this and Ben is sent up to pierce the disintegrator field and then disable it from the inside. He does so, letting the rest of the team in. The male heroes manage to avoid a bunch of Doom’s traps thanks to the Torch’s heat images while Sue rescues Alicia. Feeling the pressure of the heroes approach Doom tries to grab his hostage but is knocked to the floor by Sue’s judo and then flees from the floating base rather than face the onrushing heroes. So is it any good?:Yes, there is a lot of over the top pseudo science from Doom, particularly considering he’s been off in the micro-world rather than on earth putting this plan together but the issue still works really well. Doom’s floating robots, which he says are there to confuse the heroes are really freaky and the sections on his ship are some of the best confrontations between him and the team yet although I could have done without the flame images. The traps are very inventive and obviously appealed to Lee enough to put them on the cover. I really liked the art on this section, Reed battling with a room filling with concrete and the Torch slumped on the floor knocked out by using his nova blast. In fact the art is really special throughout some of the best of Ayers inking run. It was particularly good to see Sue actually attack Doom with judo, modern writers of Doom wouldn’t have him standing for that but she manages to flatten him and then he, yet again, runs off. I’ve enjoyed the Doom stories so far but it would be good to see one actually come to a conclusion. Even if we didn’t get that here it was great to see Sue deal Doom the biggest blow. As well as Sue getting to prove her worth by standing up to Doom I particularly liked a very effective section where the Thing has to become Ben Grimm for long enough to get through the disintegrator. Lee and Kirby convey his heroism and his sadness about his situation really well as he struggles to remain Ben long enough to avoid to being killed. It’s not really one of the landmark Doom stories but it a fun piece of Lee/Kirby magic. Are there any goofy moments?Doom’s demand to be given a cabinet level post in Kennedy’s administration is pretty funny. I’d never considered him a democrat. Doom’s floating robots, designed mainly to freak out the FF are really goofy. Especially when Sue’s is given pink spots because Doom feels her’s should be more decorative. Actually most of Doom’s plots in this one are quite goofy, dressing up in a fake beard and mask as the Janitor? In an issue full of kooky doom stuff Reed inventing a special radar that finds ‘flesh covered by steel’ deserves a mention, as does Johnny using ‘sonar heat waves’. There is also some genuinely funny comic relief in the issue, I liked Ben mistaking a knight for Dr Doom and Sue breaking up the testing of a toy gun. Great art on both bits. Trivia:Before they left the micro-world Princess Pearla knighted Johnny Doom next appears in Amazing Spider-Man #5, the first villain to appear in more than one title. Kennedy and Kruschev both appear in this story but while Lee and Kirby are happy to lampoon the Russian Kennedy is just shown by his haircut (and a mention of one of his kids) Is it a landmark?:Not really. unlike the micro-world or ovoid mind transfer stories it doesn’t have that much impact on Doom or the FF.
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Post by owene on Aug 17, 2011 15:37:20 GMT -5
Tales to Astonish #46 When Cyclops Walked the Earth. By Stan Lee with Earnie Hart and Don Heck. Villains: aliens Guest Appearances: none So What Happens?: With the city free of crime Hank and Jan have time to go on holiday to Greece. Their plans to cruise the islands are cut short, none of the local boats will go out to sea because ships have gone missing and there are rumours of giant monsters. Wanting to investigate, Hank and Jan hire a boat and sail it themselves. They soon attract the attention of a huge cyclops who picks up their yacht and carries it back to a nearby island. Luckily the boat was infested with flying ants and the two heroes take to the air to follow the giant. On the island they find the crews of the missing ships being tortured by aliens to work out how humans think. Hank manages to tune his cybernetic helmet into the alien communications and learns they are a scouting party who have decided the earth is fit for invasion. Ready to leave to start the invasion the aliens instruct the Cyclops to kill the captive humans. Hank works out the Cyclops is a robot and tries to tackle it. The Wasp ignores Hanks lecturing about staying out of danger and tries to free the captives herself. Jan brings a swarm of wasps down on the aliens while Hank goes inside the Cyclops and rewires it from the inside. He takes control of it just before it kills the captives and then uses it to chase the aliens away and to carry the ships back to sea. So is it any good?: I liked the change of setting and the extra energy the Wasp brings to the story. While it is disappointing to have yet another twist ending alien invasion story it is far from the worst one of those we’ve seen so far. Heck does nice work on the Greek details and it seems to me that Hart was taking the assignment fairly seriously, the story gives the impression that the people working on it care a little about the job which goes a long way. After wishing Hank had someone other than the ants to talk to he now has Jan and I’m left wishing he would talk a bit less. While there are some attempts at banter between the two leads a lot of the time you just have Hank telling Jan what to do then complaining if she doesn’t do it instantly. While long term fans like to complain when Hank is mistreated by writers I’m not sure really that there is some golden age of Hank and Jan where they were both likeable characters in a fun and equal relationship. Here he comes across as smug rather than stuffy. It’s not the greatest story in the world but it was readable and both the Wasp and Hart have clearly improved the title. Are there any goofy moments?:It looks like writer Earnie Hart has been researching ants for this assignment, he drops in the fact that ants could be called Hexapods because they have 6 feet on a number of occasions during the story. Otherwise no not really, apart from the aliens using mythological monsters to cover an invasion plot twist. Trivia: The Cyclops turns out to be an alien robot, which is the normal way that super natural or mythological things get explained away in early Marvel comics. However Reed Richards had already met a Cyclops who had seemingly survived since the days of Greek myths in FF9. I guess continuity wasn’t quite so linked up in those days. Is it a landmark?:Definitely Not Where can I read it?:
In the Essential Ant Man or the first Ant Man/Giant Man Masterwork.
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Post by owene on Aug 19, 2011 3:10:17 GMT -5
The Demon Duplicator By Stan Lee with Robert Bernstein, Joe Sinott Villains: Professor Zaxton Guest Appearances: none So what happens?:Thor is called back to Asgard to stop a drought and sorts things out with a thunder storm, promising to come back in a week and stop it raining. On Earth Thor needs to be present at the unveiling of an incredibly intelligent and durable android Don Blake has created. It is being shown off by Professor Zaxton but after it solves an equation and demonstrates its strength it seems to short circuit and has to be dealt with by Thor. Zaxton turns up at Blake’s office demanding Blake’s help to complete a machine that will create a duplicate of anything it is pointed at. Blake refuses to help because it is clear Zaxton wants to duplicate people. However the Professor apparently has Jane Foster hostage so Blake goes along with it. Once the machine is finished and Zaxton is using it to create duplicates of some local cats Blake transforms into Thor to try and save Jane. However Zaxton not only spots him change and learns his secret identity but immediately uses his machine to create an evil duplicate of Thor. To make things even harder he then duplicates that Thor’s hammer so the Evil Thor has two. Thor battles it out with his duplicate until he is struck by one of the duplicates two versions of Mjolnir. Amazingly it doesn’t actually hurt Thor. Thor realises that despite the evil duplicate being able to lift Mjolnir he isn’t worthy enough to gain the power of Thor from the hammer. After this Thor manages to easily dispel his duplicate and goes after Zaxton again. Zaxton tries to confuse Thor by creating a double of himself. However this Zaxton, being the opposite of the original, is actually good and he stands by while the original Zaxton falls to his death from a wall. Thor’s identity is safe and the good Zaxton can use his scientific knowledge to help mankind. After freeing Jane Thor manages to find time to go back to Asgard and stop the rainstorm. So is it any good?: No, it’s a dreadful hack job by someone writing with absolutely no interest in what he is doing. Even when you get past the stupid plot it doesn’t really have much to recommend it as a comic on a panel by panel art or dialogue level. I'm not going to pick apart all the holes in the story, hopefully the synopsis does that. On the plus side I guess Sinnott draws a few nice faces, although his Thor is quite bland and he can’t get the perspective right on Thor holding Mjolnir. Otherwise it is pretty irredeemable. Definitely the worst Marvel comic I've read in this read through and probably one of the worst I'm likely to. The cover is quite good. Are there any goofy moments? The whole idea of Blake designing an invulnerable android with a 375 IQ. Which is incredibly stupid before you even realise it wasn’t even needed for the plot, the interlude with the robot is just padding to introduce Zaxton. Oh loads of others, it just has no clue at all. Trivia: Zaxton, perhaps thankfully, never appeared again and i’m fairly sure Blake didn’t build any more robots. Is it a landmark?: Possibly as a low point of the titles run.
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Post by humanbelly on Aug 21, 2011 15:00:24 GMT -5
The Demon Duplicator By Stan Lee with Robert Bernstein, Joe Sinott Villains: Professor Zaxton Guest Appearances: none So what happens?:Thor is called back to Asgard to stop a drought and sorts things out with a thunder storm, promising to come back in a week and stop it raining. Possibly as a low point of the titles run. Oh dear, I think the bad ones are startin' to get to you, Owen. It's this Bernstein guy, isn't it? He continues to be the worst offender with these inane, written-on-the-fly, badly-plotted installments, yes? Fortunately, the plot synopsis alone spoke volumes on your behalf-- so you were justified in not going into the more detailed sections. It is quite a good cover, though--! HB
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Post by sharkar on Aug 23, 2011 17:55:28 GMT -5
Talking of the Beginners Guide allow me a shameless plug ;D From now on Owen's reviews will also be collected at www.icavalieridellozodiaco.net/marvelguide/index.htmlmanaged and designed by yours truly. At the moment there are far less reviews than here, as I wanted to have a supply for steady updates, but hopefully they are organized in a way that makes it easy to read them. Any comment or suggestion is of course more than welcome Shiryu, what a wonderful thing to do!! The site and Owen's reviews look great--kudos to you both. (In terms of suggestions I'd love to see the cover date included for each comic, to help put things into perspective.)
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Post by sharkar on Aug 23, 2011 18:59:31 GMT -5
This cover is a pickle. Do we think Jack Kirby drew it? That would almost explain the missing chest-spider, since JK drew Spidey so rarely, and didn't seem to have much of a feel for the character when he did. The anatomy's so goofy, and the perspective's a wreck with the feet particularly. I feel like the cover's design is great. . . but the execution is almost amateurish. I wonder if it could be Larry Lieber? HB Hmm, I don't think it's Kirby. IIRC he actually created Spidey's costume himself, it would have been a massive oversight to forget something as visible and obvious as his chest spider. I also wonder how on earth did it pass Stan's scrutiny, several interviews depict him as very picky with cover designs, often asking Kirby or Romita or Ditko to modify or remake them. If I had to guess, I'd say this is a hastely done cover to replace something else they weren't happy with, so it was sent to print in a rush. Hopefully Sharkar can shed some light on it for us. It's Kirby, and I think the reason is largely what HB said, Kirby's relative lack of familiarity with Spidey's costume (although he created it as Shiryu said). But in general I think Kirby was not very concerned about costume consistency (possibly due in part to his desire to churn out pages as quickly as possible--understandable when you're getting paid per page). If you look at his reproduced pencils in almost any issue of the Jack Kirby Collector, you'll see that Thor is drawn with a number of circles on his costumes, Crystal's headband is missing in a panel, the 4 insignia is missing from an FF member's costume, etc. It was up to the inker to make the corrections. It's also my understanding that he was not very keen onn drawing covers; according to Mark Evanier and others, Kirby wanted to concentrate on the storytelling aspects of covers (plotting, pacing, etc.) and felt that covers were akin to pin-ups, that is, static. IMO lot of Kirby's seem rushed and/or similar, look at Tales of Suspense #43 and #45 for example, though I guess it can be partly attributed to his workload--Stan really depended on him a this stage. Personally I like DC's covers from this period more than Marvel's. I think Gil Kane's well-rendered Atom covers--which usually showcased Atom's physique--are far superior to Kirby's Ant-Man covers, many of which seemed to be drawn as if Kirby was still in late '50s sci fi/alien mode (and perhaps he was, as we have seen with some of the early FF covers). IMO there was a change for the better when Jan was added to the mix, because then the Astonish covers featured more of an interaction of the two leads, instead of just highlighting Ant-Man's size.
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Post by sharkar on Aug 23, 2011 21:42:18 GMT -5
Defeated by Dr Doom By Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers. Villains: Dr Doom Guest Appearances: Ant-Man This story will always have special meaning for me. Not because it's so great or memorable, but this was the first FF reprint I ever read, as FF #17's story was included in Marvel Collectors' Item Classics #12. I had just started reading the current FF comic a month earlier with #68 (my first FF comic) and so when I saw MCIC on the stands I bought it (or more precisely had my grandmother buy it for me), not knowing it was a reprint anthology. I was so shocked at the difference between the art in MCIC (Kirby/Ayers from a few years earlier) and the Kirby-Sinnott art I'd seen in FF #68. But I remember being intrigued by the four main characters and also by the fact that supporting character Alicia, who'd appeared in a few panels in #68, was also featured in MCIC #12. I didn't know it at the time but MCIC #12 was the first time that this title did not feature a "postcard" cover showcasing the various stories it contained; instead new art was used for the cover (insets were used for the Hulk and Iron Man stories). Well, somewhat new art--the Doom and Torch figures were obviously taken from FF #17 itself; and years later I realized the Sue, Reed and Ben figures were taken from more current FF comics (Sue from FF #58, Reed from #57, and Ben seems to be from #69, which was published at the same time as MCIC #12). I guess Kirby was too busy to do the cover...or maybe Marvel wanted to avoid paying for a new cover and just used already-created art instead. Anyway, I absolutely loved MCIC (which later changed its name to Marvel's Greatest Comics) and read it for a few years. Not only did it bring me up to speed on the FF's history, it also introduced me to the Don Heck Iron Man (IIRC this particular MCIC issue #12 featured Iron Man vs. Natasha, the Black Widow...and I'd just seen her in a panel in Avengers #45, which I'd bought along with FF #68!); and Ditko's Hulk and Dr. Strange (I was not a fan of his work back then, it just looked weird and un-comic like to me).
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Post by Shiryu on Aug 25, 2011 6:55:02 GMT -5
Shiryu, what a wonderful thing to do!! The site and Owen's reviews look great--kudos to you both. (In terms of suggestions I'd love to see the cover date included for each comic, to help put things into perspective.) Thank you! Glad you like it Also thanks for the suggestion, I have just updated the sites with some more reviews and added the cover dates in each book's index page. In fact, your suggestion has given me the idea for a calendar saying which main Marvel superhero books came out each month of a given year. If Owen likes the idea I'll try to implement it in the website.
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Post by owene on Aug 26, 2011 3:22:05 GMT -5
that sounds like a great idea, really liking how the site looks as well.
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Post by owene on Aug 26, 2011 3:23:34 GMT -5
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Post by owene on Aug 26, 2011 3:27:37 GMT -5
Face to Face with the Magic of Baron Mordo By Stan Lee and Steve Ditko Villains: Baron Mordo Guest Appearances: none So what happens?: The evil Baron Mordo sends his astral form to Tibet where he seizes control of one of his former tutor - the Ancient One’s servants and forces him to introduce poison into his food. He demands magical secrets from the now powerless arch-mage.
Dr Strange has finished his latest magical experiment and can’t understand why he can’t contact his master. Sending his own astral form to Tibet he finds and clashes with Mordo.
They argue over their shared past as students of the master and fight it out around his sanctuary. Eventually Strange pretends that his amulet will take him to Mordo’s real body.
Believing Strange, Mordo shoots back to his body, followed by Strange. Mordo's leaving the astral plane to return to his body breaks Mordo’s hold over the ancient one’s servant and allows Strange to paralyse Mordo with his amulet. The ancient one will be able to recuperate while Mordo is out of action.
So is it any good?: It sets Mordo up as the dark equivalent of Dr Strange very well and introduces the speeding battles of astral forms that will be such a part of Ditko’s run.
It is still only 5 pages long and it packs a lot of information into the pages before wrapping everything up very quickly but given the size of the story it is a masterful piece of world building. As you can probably tell from the synopsis Lee was making this stuff up as he went along but it proved surprisingly durable.
Strange still doesn’t have much personality, he appears to still be very much the Master’s student. Having to report back the outcome of his magical research and looking to his injured master for hints on how to deal with Mordo.
As with Nightmare in the previous issue the story suggests a history of conflicts between Strange and the villain with both Strange and the Master having to permanently be on their guard against foes just as powerful as them.
This creates a unique atmosphere for the strip, a feeling that you are looking in on an ancient conflict but as yet there is little to tie us to Strange as a person, there arguably wouldn't be until other writers took on the character or to make this more of a Marvel Universe story and less of a horror one.
Are there any goofy moments? Not really, it’s not a title for comic relief or unintended hilarity.
Trivia: Mordo is yet to find his signature look and wears red rather than green in this story. (at least in the paperback masterwork, i'm sure it got recoloured in some settings)
Baron Karl Amadeus Mordo racked up 24 appearances during Strange’s run in Strange Tales and while he hasn’t often ventured far from Strange’s titles has continued to appear up until a recent Hulk/Defenders story.
Is it a landmark?: Yes, Mordo was probably eclipsed by Dormammu as Strange’s arch-foe but he is still a significant bad guy.
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Post by owene on Aug 26, 2011 3:31:15 GMT -5
Fighting to the death with the Asbestos Man By Stan Lee with Ernie Hart and Dick Ayers. Villains: The Asbestos Man Guest Appearances: the Fantastic Four, So What Happens?: Chemist Orson Kasloff feels he could be earning far more as a criminal than a chemist. He designs himself an asbestos outfit, hires a haunted castle near to town and then contacts both the Human Torch and the media saying he will defeat the hero.
The Torch rises to the bait and, with reporters looking on, proves unable to deal with Kasloff’s asbestos protection suit and ends up dumped in a moat and humiliated. Having made his name in the underworld Kasloff throws himself in with local gangsters and starts making a fortune.
The Torch is determined to deal with Kasloff and after some advice from Sue goes after him once again. This time rather than futilely wasting his flame on the asbestos suit Johnny melts and burns the items Kasloff is carrying and the floor underneath him, stunning him and allowing the Torch to burn all the oxygen around him until he chokes and surrenders.
So is it any good?: No, Hart and Ayers seem to be trying fairly hard, it doesn’t have that totally tossed off feeling that the worst of Robert Bernstein’s work has but there’s not much there to work with.
We’ve seen the plot, under appreciated scientist feels he would be a hit in the underworld, so many times that it’s hard to get much from it. Particularly when the best you can really say about the art is that it is clear and easy to follow and the lead character is so personality free.
There’s nothing ‘wrong’ with it as such, it is better than quite a few recent Torch, ant-man and Thor stories it’s just a bit dull and repetitive.
Are there any goofy moments? The whole Asbestos Man idea is pretty goofy but I particularly like the net in which he catches and then throws back the Torch’s fireballs.
How many abandoned castles are there around Glenville? maybe the Asbestos Man hired the one left by the Sorceror from issue 109.
Trivia:The Asbestos Man never appeared again.
Is it a landmark?:No.
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Post by humanbelly on Aug 26, 2011 20:47:07 GMT -5
[It's also my understanding that he was not very keen onn drawing covers; according to Mark Evanier and others, Kirby wanted to concentrate on the storytelling aspects of covers (plotting, pacing, etc.) and felt that covers were akin to pin-ups, that is, static. IMO lot of Kirby's seem rushed and/or similar, look at Tales of Suspense #43 and #45 for example, though I guess it can be partly attributed to his workload--Stan really depended on him a this stage. . I wonder if there could possibly have been an element of "maybe if they don't like how I'm doing these B-list covers, they won't keep askin' me to do 'em", y'know? It's a high-pressure, environment. . . full of artistic personalities & temperments. . . probably everyone's working harder and longer for not a lot, and are feeling a trifle underappreciated. My impression of Jack was that he could be a bit of the classic, no-nonsense, New York mug-- (he always looked to me like he could be driving a cab, or working a newstand, or serving up sandwiches at the deli)-- but I don't know much of the inside story of what he was really like as a person and co-worker. Any insights out there? Sharkar, my encylopedic friend? But really-- on FF he was already producing some pretty darned good covers, yes? So obviously, when his heart was in it, he could produce. But this Strange Tales one w/ Spidey is so awful in its execution that it almost supports the suggestion that he was willfully sandbagging. (MIND YOU, I wouldn't automatically take him to task for it. I daresay his talent and speed was the cause of him bearing an unfair workload for years & years. A guys gotta do somethin'. HB
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Post by owene on Aug 29, 2011 6:53:39 GMT -5
Jack Kirby did a lot of great covers but the hit rate given his total number of covers isn't that great. I guess covers were seen as the number one selling tool back then so the fact they had him doing the ones for books he wasn't drawing says something about how they rated him but as a freelancer I guess he wasn't that sparked by providing a sales boost for someone elses book for very little return.
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Post by owene on Aug 29, 2011 6:59:30 GMT -5
www.rci.rutgers.edu/~cje/mh/MM/Covers/tos44s.jpg[/img]Tales of Suspense 44 Iron Man faces the menace of the mad pharaoh By Stan Lee, Robert Bernstein and Don Heck Villains: The Mad Pharaoh Guest Appearances: None So What Happens?: Tony Stark is helping out an archaeologist friend in Egypt. After a quick scare when his chest plate charge drops he uses Iron Man’s sensors to unearth and open a tomb. That night the tomb’s inhabitant, the Mad Pharaoh Hatap awakens from suspended animation and confronts Stark. He intends to take Stark back to ancient Egypt and use his ingenuity to defeat Cleopatra. Hatap uses a time travelling chariot to take Stark back but once he is there Stark ducks behind a sand dune and puts on the Iron Man suit. Hatap thinks Iron Man has killed Stark and flees in terror leaving Stark to investigate the situation. Stark protects Cleopatra’s capital from Roman invaders and warns her about Hatap. She sends him to defeat Hatap’s armies which he does easily by sticking roller skate wheels onto the back of the armour and a jet engine onto his head and sending himself crashing into their chariots. Hatap tries to flee to the future using the time machine but Iron Man grabs it from him and barely taking the time to listen to Cleopatra’s offers for him to stay and rule alongside her he returns to the 20th century. Back in the present he is shown hieroglyphic evidence of his stay and makes sure he takes a bevy of beauties to see the new Cleopatra movie. So is it any good?: Objectively no, the high point, teased on the splash page, is Iron Man turning himself into a roller skate, Hatap sealing himself inside a tomb for 2000 years rather than using his time machine is particularly stupid. However the story is actually a lot of fun and a lot of this is down to Don Heck who is starting to come into his own and having Stark actually seem like the charming adventurer we have always been told he is. Heck has a lot of fun with the Egyptian setting drawing great tombs, chariots and galleons as well as a great Tony stark and Cleopatra. Despite a few plot holes I quite liked the Pharaoh, the way he turns tails and runs when he realises he is dealing with Iron Man rather than tony Stark was surprisingly endearing, maybe because it suggested a level of common sense in trying to get back to his army when he was outclassed. There was also none of the bombast and ‘now I’ll pull out my nuclear can opener’ that had blighted recent Iron Man stories, instead it just feels like the writers having fun imagining what you could do if you had that suit of armour and found yourself back in time. There’s nothing much at stake, they don’t have Tony fret about how he will get home or recharge his suit, he just flies around impressing Cleopatra and smashing through armies. It’s not a story that had a lot of impact, despite it leaving Tony with a working time machine it never got mentioned again despite several Egyptian time travel stories over the years but it is still a lot of fun and is probably my favourite Iron Man story so far. Are there any goofy moments?:Pharaoh is misspelled throughout. Even ignoring the super hero elements the history is also incredibly off. You’d think if one historical fact had made it to the writers you would think it would be Cleopatra’s friendliness with the Romans. Early Iron Man stories were obsessed with giving him roller skate wheels. I think the deserts of Egypt would probably be the worst place to try them out. Why not just fly? Given how dramatic they made the earlier armour charging scenes I’m amazed they didn’t make a big deal about Iron Man being trapped centuries away from a power socket while he was whizzing around the desert and battling roman armies. Trivia:Neither Hatap or his time machine appeared again. Cleopatra on the other hand would soon make a trip to the 20th century in Strange Tales 124 and Roy Thomas would have Dr Strange would return the favour to visit her in Dr Strange volume 3 Is it a landmark?: not really,
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Post by owene on Aug 29, 2011 7:01:26 GMT -5
I've tried a few times now to put a cover pic in that review but nothing seems to be linking
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Post by owene on Sept 4, 2011 14:56:19 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #18 A Skrull walks among us! By Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers. Villains: Super Skrull, Skrulls, Dr Doom Guest Appearances: none So What Happens?: The FF watch their latest victory over Dr doom celebrated on TV although the Thing is less than happy that he is cut out in favour of some dog food commercials. With things seemingly a lot safer Reed and Sue take their ICBM over to Hawaii for some sun. In the Andromeda Galaxy the Skrull emperor is determined to avenge his armies earlier defeat by the FF and his science teams have come up with the Super Skrull. A Skrull warrior who can out do the FF with their own powers as well as being able to shape change and hypnotise anyone. His powers will be augmented to levels well beyond the FF via a long range energy beam. He lands on Earth in Times Square and instantly claims the planet for the Skrull empire. The FF have been shopping in a nearby department store and manage to avoid the crowds of fans to investigate the alien. The Super Skrull finds that the crowds of earthlings aren’t really taking him seriously and starts throwing his weight around. The Torch arrives to challenge him but is soon knocked from the sky. Reed’s attempts to smother him come to nothing when the Skrull expands his body size past Reed’s limits of elasticity and the Thing is no match for the skrull’s strength. Eventually after trying and trying against the alien the team are forced to flee back to the Baxter building. Reed works out that the Skrull can’t possibly be that powerful, finds his power source, makes a jammer and then challenges the Skrull to a show down on a deserted Island. Planning to jam the skrull’s powers and managing to do it prove to be quite different and instead he ends up hypnotising most of the team. Eventually Sue manages to sneak up on him and jam his extra power boost. He still has quite a range of powers but eventually the team manage to trap him inside an old volcano and melt it shut. So is it any good?:Yes, it’s a really cool battle issue with a foe who can actually stand against all of the team and hold his own which has been quite rare to this point. It was good to see the little green men from issue 2 being expanded upon and given a lot more depth. There have already been about a dozen alien invasion stories since FF1 and returning to one and showing they don’t have to be throwaway tales is great. It could be argued that one of the biggest steps towards the Marvel Universe taking on a life of its own was the detail given to its premier alien cultures and that job starts here. I liked the sections prior to the battle, both on Earth and in the Andromeda galaxy, the team eagerly watching themselves on the news and their trip to a department store are both drawn really well and are both a lot of fun. It isn’t the deepest story in the world but every section of it is fun and well drawn and the villain is an actual challenge to the heroes before Reed comes up with a way of stopping him. All the things you need for a super hero comic really. That said it is Sue who actually manages to place the jamming device on the Skrull, the second issue in a row where she has physically contributed to a battle. While she still doesn’t have her full power set it’s good to see her playing a much bigger role in the action sequences. A really good issue, everything from the Red Ghost story onwards has been in fact. The title is really picking up. Are there any goofy moments?I’m not sure that in their quest to have the super skrull outdo the FF’s a their own powers he had to be able to stretch 100 miles, Reed seems to stop after about 100 feet. I’m not sure he’s ever displayed this since. Trivia:The skrulls are given a home galaxy (Andromeda) and an emperor (eventually named as Dorrek). The super skrull himself was eventually named Kl’rt and graduated to being seen as a Skrull super hero worthy of his own stories at around about the same time as Marvel duplicated the concept over and over in Secret Invasion. We are told that the Thing can lift about 5 tons tops. Totally dwarfed by the augmented Super skrull’s 100 ton limit. Is it a landmark?:Yes, Marvel eventually really overdid the super skrull idea but he’s still an important villain.
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Post by Shiryu on Sept 7, 2011 4:52:00 GMT -5
I’m not sure that in their quest to have the super skrull outdo the FF’s a their own powers he had to be able to stretch 100 miles, Reed seems to stop after about 100 feet. I’m not sure he’s ever displayed this since. There is at least a story where he stretches across half the city, reaching the Baxter Building with the top half of his body to retrieve whatever they needed to defeat the menace of the day. At the time he comments that the strain in unbelieavable and he has never stretched so much. I think this was later retconned, saying that the Thing's strength increased continuously at the beginning, just as his appearance kept slightly changing. It should be around 70-80 tons now I think. Interestingly, 5 tons means that he originally was weaker than Spider-Man, who can lift up to 10 tons according to the handbook.
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Post by owene on Sept 7, 2011 15:24:17 GMT -5
yeah my 100 feet example is probably way off, he stretches to the top floors of large buildings quite frequently.
While it's never been stated in the way it has for the Thing I guess Spider-man's strength has probably slid upwards over the years, while he is definitely strong I'm not sure I've come across him routinely lifting anything like 10 tons in the early stories.
You do get really odd things that would obviously require hulk levels of strength like pulling himself up a webline stuck on a full speed moving space craft but not much real lifting.
Actually I always had Spider-Man's strength higher than that in my head, probably because of the old TSR marvel rpg, where I think he was down as incredible strength which I think I have misremembered as meaning 40 tons.
I have fond memories of an old British spider-man holiday special that compared spider-man's strength to the other marvel heroes. I was always suprised that he was grouped with Colossus and she hulk
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Post by humanbelly on Sept 7, 2011 19:59:25 GMT -5
yeah my 100 feet example is probably way off, he stretches to the top floors of large buildings quite frequently. While it's never been stated in the way it has for the Thing I guess Spider-man's strength has probably slid upwards over the years, while he is definitely strong I'm not sure I've come across him routinely lifting anything like 10 tons in the early stories. You do get really odd things that would obviously require hulk levels of strength like pulling himself up a webline stuck on a full speed moving space craft but not much real lifting. Actually I always had Spider-Man's strength higher than that in my head, probably because of the old TSR marvel rpg, where I think he was down as incredible strength which I think I have misremembered as meaning 40 tons. I have fond memories of an old British spider-man holiday special that compared spider-man's strength to the other marvel heroes. I was always suprised that he was grouped with Colossus and she hulk Spidey's strength has absolutely increased massively over the years. Back in, I believe, issue 80 or 81 he stops a villain from fleeing in a car (a cab? was it the Chameleon?) by lifting up the rear end of the vehicle so the spinning wheels aren't able to get traction--- and there's no question that it's taking a heck of a lot of effort on Spidey's part to hold up the back of that vehicle. In recent years, haven't we seen him lift an entire bus? Marvel did offer a fairly lucid explanation early on in this process: Peter has, over the years, gone from being a completely non-physical scholar (w/ the proportionate strength of a spider) to an INCREDIBLY buff, world class athlete (w/ the proportionate strength of a spider), due to the fact that, super-powers not withstanding, he engages in a tremendous amount of extreme physical exercise on a regular basis. The level of powers simply increased with the level of the base physical specimen. That was the story 20 years or so ago, anyhoo-- HB
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