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Post by starfoxxx on Jan 13, 2011 16:31:31 GMT -5
Thanks, yeah I guess I forget just how much the cold war probably mattered to people back then, I find the commie stories quite hard to get my head around Yeah, I'm only in my mid 30s, but I remember the national sentiment of the Russians being enemy #1. My dad served in the Navy during Viet Nam, and he says they were constantly playing "war games" with Russian vessels and subs. And the 80s had a bunch of movies--Red Dawn, Rocky 4..... I live in a summer vacation area, and (in recent years) the influx of eastern european, chek and russian kids looking for summer work is profound. I picked up a restaurant job this summer, working with a bunch of Russian kids. Nice kids, but it's kinda ingrained in my psyche, can they be trusted? Nowadays, American kids have no idea about how scared we were they were gonna nuke us.
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Post by sharkar on Jan 14, 2011 17:40:23 GMT -5
. . . EXCEPT when you start to analyze it with anything like "real-world" constraints. How big is that ant, for Pete's sake?? It's, like, the size of a small squirrel! More like one of those giant bird-eating spiders. . . ! Yep, Kirby was drawing his flora and fauna in "monster" mode. Old habits die hard, I guess. Oh, I think this creature is kind of cute! You know, I think I may use this as an avatar--on second thought, maybe not, I don't want to give HB nightmares...
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Post by sharkar on Jan 14, 2011 21:45:16 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #8 Noting Alicia’s resemblance to Sue he has her cut her hair in Sue’s style and dresses her in her uniform before sending the mind controlled Thing, and the puzzled Alicia back to the Baxter Building to deal with the rest of the FF. As I mentioned in an earlier post, this resemblance is rarely referred to again; it did come into play in a Marvel Knights FF story from 2005 (Reed has Alicia impersonate Sue to fool the Psycho-Man). Hmmm, you know, if Alicia resembles Sue, and Johnny fell for Alicia, maybe Johnny is more like his erstwhile rival Pietro than we thought! (Just kidding, just kidding...my apologies to Johnny and Pietro, I don't mean to cast aspersions on them.) Anyway, as you pointed out, owenelw--er, I mean, owene , there are plenty of holes in this issue, but overall I enjoyed this story. I must admit I find it hilarious that the Puppet Master managed to whip up an authentic FF costume for Alicia--I guess the Comics Code would have frowned upon PM taking the costume off of an unconscious Sue to give to Alicia! But when Ben has Alicia in his arms and changes back to the Thing, you can really feel his pain and confusion at his situation. It's a very effective way of showcasing his plight. Smart move by Stan, and of course beautifully rendered by Jack. The introduction of Alicia certainly deepens Ben's characterization, which leads to a change in the team dynamics (for the better IMO); as an example, Ben and Johnny's relationship will become less hostile and more like Hoss and Little Joe's. You know, Alicia didn't get a last name until 1966 (yes I know Hawkeye didn't have a civilian name for years; and Wanda, Pietro and Natasha didn't have last names for the longest time; but at least they all had colorful superhero code names!). Anyway, at first Alicia was always referred to in captions as the Thing's blind girlfriend, or the blind, gentle sculptress, etc. A reader suggested "Masters" as her surname, citing the connection to Puppet Master (letter column FF #42). Finally, the Masters surname was used in FF #49's story, when the Surfer crashes through her skylight. Is it a landmark?:Yes, both the Puppet Master and Alicia went on to play large roles in the title. I love that they were part of that great story in the FF's 20th anniversary issue, FF#236, "Terror in a Tiny Town." In fact, in that story Byrne depicted Alicia as she first appeared to Ben in #8; she's drawn with the long hair and headband--a very sweet, innocent look. (But by #12 Kirby would give her a new, shorter hairdo. It was much less flattering, IMO, but similar to how Kirby drew a lot of the women back then , like Sue, Betty Ross, Jane Foster, etc.). Byrne also captured the Puppet Master's somewhat delicate look (the "femininity" that Starfoxx mentioned--Byrne even drew the long eyelashes even though you can't see it in the image below).
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Post by owene on Jan 15, 2011 6:56:33 GMT -5
Strange Tales 102 Prisoner of the Wizard By Stan Lee with Larry Leiber, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers. Villains: The Wizard Guest Appearances: The Invisible Girl So What Happens?: The Torch’s exploits defeating the Destroyer have made the news and sparked the interest of chess champion, inventor and all round media figure ‘the Wizard’. The Wizard feels that defeating the Human Torch would be the only way to prove his genius. He quickly publicises his next venture, drilling to the centre of the earth, however his tunnel caves in behind him and he has to be rescued by the watching Torch. As way of thanks the Wizard shows the Torch around his futuristic house and offers him a 3D photo of them together. It is in fact a way to douse the Torch with flame dousing chemicals so the Wizard can lock him up and start to destroy his heroic reputation with a new flaming flight suit that duplicates Johnny’s powers. The wizard goes on a crime spree, stopping traffic freeing criminals and writing flaming anti-authority statements in the sky. By the time Johnny has escaped his reputation is so damaged that he has to contend with trigger happy policemen. Johnny manages to escape and track the Wizard down (at his house) and is shown the evidence he needs to clear his name. Thankfully Johnny had brought his invisible sister along and Sue grabs the evidence from the crestfallen villain. So is it any good?: It’s all a bit silly, it says a lot about the later issues of this series that the Wizard was the strongest villain established in the title as he is incredibly lame. I quite liked the idea of a multi-talented genius in it solely for the acclaim who is put out by the attention lavished on the Torch but everything he actually does is just silly. Ok his crime spree involves the usual bank robbing and jail breaking but he also goes around writing messages bad mouthing law and order in the sky and demanding tolls from motorists. It’s all very small scale. There is something bizarre about his pre-villainous fame as well, a chess champion and designer of floating chairs? It reads like a very corny late 50s superboy story which presumably wasn’t what Stan was hoping for. The drama hinges on whether the Wizard will burn the photos he took of himself wearing the fake torch outfit, only for Johnny’s big sister to save the day for him. It’s hardly heroic although it does at least give Sue a chance to save the day in a way she hasn’t done in the FF as yet. The art is decent enough, although the wizard looks truly odd, but it’s all very uninspiring. Are there any goofy moments? Most of the Wizard’s back story and announcements qualify. I particularly love the way he seeks to damage the torch’s reputation by skywriting ‘Down with Law and Order’. He is quite a geeky villain really. The small-scale nature of the Wizard’s plans are also evident when he decides to block a bridge and demand a $100 toll for crossing it. One of the motorists exclaims ‘We’ll have to back our Cars up and take another bridge’ It’s hardly the crime of the century is it? He turned villain because he felt he was no longer getting the limelight he deserved but he still had newspaper boys walking the streets announcing ‘Wizard to dig world’s biggest hole’, there was probably enough limelight for both of them. The ending with the Invisible Girl is incredibly silly. So the wizard will give up the evidence that he committed the crimes if the Torch kills him, alternatively Johnny can flame off and fight him man to man at the cost of his secret identity. A secret identity that was never mentioned in the Fantastic Four where they were all treated like celebrities and was so flimsy that a few issues later Stan decided it had never actually been a secret anyway and everyone was just pretending about it to save Johnny’s privacy. If you accept that Johnny even had a secret identity how would the wizard actually know who the teenager he faced was? It’s actually quite a relief when Sue just invisibly grabs the incriminating photos and ends the whole story. But even then the total level of mystification the Wizard displays at some floating photos is bizarre. Quite the genius who couldn’t work out that maybe the Invisible Girl was present. TriviaThe Wizard, or Bentley Wittman as he was later revealed to be named, is probably the premier villain of the Human Torch’s run appearing in a further four stories before being upgraded to the Fantastic Four rogues gallery. Once he was there his intellect and leadership of the Frightful four have lead to him largely being a rival of Reed's but here it is the Torch’s public image that motivates him and he works quite well as a tremendously vain guy who becomes a villain simply because he can’t stand sharing the limelight. Is it a landmark?:Yes, the Wizard is quite a prominent villain albeit one who has never been particularly memorable. I think this story actually displays more personality than most of his appearances.
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Post by humanbelly on Jan 15, 2011 7:10:04 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #8 Noting Alicia’s resemblance to Sue he has her cut her hair in Sue’s style and dresses her in her uniform before sending the mind controlled Thing, and the puzzled Alicia back to the Baxter Building to deal with the rest of the FF. As I mentioned in an earlier post, this resemblance is rarely referred to again; it did come into play in a Marvel Knights FF story from 2005 (Reed has Alicia impersonate Sue to fool the Psycho-Man). Hmmm, you know, if Alicia resembles Sue, and Johnny fell for Alicia, maybe Johnny is more like his erstwhile rival Pietro than we thought! Boy, not to mention that it really casts the Ben/Alycia relationship in a new light, given his never-completely-concealed infatuation w/ Sue in the early years, eh? Was she a Suzy-Substitute the whole time?? I read those early FF issues for the first time (to a very little Son of HB) about 10 years or so ago, and was flabbergasted at the Alycia-being-Sue's-twin-double angle. Am I right that it even fooled Reed at some point in the story? (or Ben, maybe?) Hmm- and since both women have prominently been in the public eye- and often together, in fact- wouldn't the press make a big whoop-ti-do about the fact? Heh- The Daily Bugle certainly would-! ("SUPEHEROES--- OR ALIEN CLONES?") That daggone Stan and his old, implausible, spit-take-inducing plot contrivances--- just makes a body crazy. . . Hey, and this puts me in mind of another MU "Twin" example (which I'm guessing has been forgotten in this modern era-?): The fact that Rick Jones is/was the spittin' double for Bucky. I'm pretty sure that was referenced more than once way back in the early Marvel silver age, yes? And it would be Stan again, yep. So, does that mean that our current Bucky-Cap and grown-up Rick Jones look like twin brothers? Well, except that one is extremely buff, whereas the other is, at best, intermittently physically fit? Boy, if there were a Nitpicker's Guide to the Marvel Universe, I'd be campaigning for a seat on the board! HB
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Post by owene on Jan 15, 2011 7:13:02 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #8 Hmmm, you know, if Alicia resembles Sue, and Johnny fell for Alicia, maybe Johnny is more like his erstwhile rival Pietro than we thought! (Just kidding, just kidding...my apologies to Johnny and Pietro, I don't mean to cast aspersions on them.) The whole Johnny/Alicia/skrull thing is such a complete mess on so many different levels that you may as well throw alicia's resemblance to sue in there with all of the other ones. Not my favourite of Byrne's moves but it might read better to me in retrospect. I do like a lot of the Byrne run, before I set off on this fools errand I had considered just reading the FF right through but then I realised that I also wanted to read Spider-Man, Hulk and Cap (and why not Thor and Iron Man as well which i'd also acquired in Essentials way past where I'd read when I was last into comics. amazon marketplace and cheap essentials have a lot to answer for. This issue with the mind control and the blind step daughter of a clearly nuts weirdo is the first one to really throw up all sorts of comics code issues. It is at heart a very creepy story, I dread to think what the Ultimate FF version of it would be today in the hands of a Warren Ellis or Bendis. Yes, there have been a few odd panels before then but that really is the point that Ben really becomes sympathetic. You do totally feel his pain. The introduction of Alicia certainly deepens Ben's characterization, which leads to a change in the team dynamics (for the better IMO); as an example, Ben and Johnny's relationship will become less hostile and more like Hoss and Little Joe's. I used to have FF 42 so I must have read that but I'd totally forgotten it. There are so many little details like that in the old letters columns. It will be a real shame when I switch from the Omnibus (which have them) to the Masterworks and essentials which don't. that early look does get across Alicia's innocence and I like Byrne's attention to detail (which he only ever seemed to use when it came to old Kirby comics in referencing it. The shorter haired look works better once Alicia's artiness gets played up. I can't quite imagine a mid 60s new york artist looking like Alicia does in issue 8
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Post by owene on Jan 15, 2011 7:15:49 GMT -5
Boy, not to mention that it really casts the Ben/Alycia relationship in a new light, given his never-completely-concealed infatuation w/ Sue in the early years, eh? Was she a Suzy-Substitute the whole time?? I read those early FF issues for the first time (to a very little Son of HB) about 10 years or so ago, and was flabbergasted at the Alycia-being-Sue's-twin-double angle. Am I right that it even fooled Reed at some point in the story? (or Ben, maybe?) Hmm- and since both women have prominently been in the public eye- and often together, in fact- wouldn't the press make a big whoop-ti-do about the fact? Heh- The Daily Bugle certainly would-! ("SUPEHEROES--- OR ALIEN CLONES?") That daggone Stan and his old, implausible, spit-take-inducing plot contrivances--- just makes a body crazy. . . I think her resemblance to Sue and what that means to ben is quite interesting. It's obviously not the sort of thing that would ever get mentioned in the early comics but Ben regularly complains about his condition because it means Sue will never be able to look at him the way he wants. And then a blind Sue duplicate comes along.
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Post by owene on Jan 17, 2011 12:43:37 GMT -5
Incredible Hulk #4 The Monster and the Machine By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers Guest Appearances:, Rick Jones So what happens?:As the army test a missile designed to freeze the Hulk Betty Ross harangues her father about the missing Banner. He isn’t really that interested until she suggests that Banner, Rick and the Hulk are all somehow mixed up together. Hearing this he scrambles the army to find Rick Jones. The military soon finds Rick, although the Hulk is able to leap to safety while Rick gets arrested. As General Ross rages at Rick the hulk manages to save a bus full of children from crashing into a train and causes havoc on a film set. Eventually he responds to Rick’s mental commands and comes to rescue his friend and take him back to their underwater cave. Once there Rick hits the Hulk with a burst of gamma radiation that finally restores him to Banner. However Banner seems frailer than ever and is soon trying to figure out if there is a way of combining his own brain with the Hulk’s power. By fiddling with the gamma ray projector Banner manages to achieve this and seems very happy to be in control of the Hulk’s form. Rick soon notices that the Hulk seems far crueller than Banner and when they venture outside they are met with gunfire from frightened locals despite saving a family from a burning house. The Hulk seems angrier than ever at his treatment and Rick is relieved when they return to the cave and Hulk changes back into Banner. So is it any good?: It seems to be struggling what to do with the hulk setup almost page by page. I guess by this point they had seen some sales figures and realised that the book wasn’t quite working. We seem to have a situation where Gamma Radiation triggers the change, and different amounts trigger different changes but despite the Hulk retaining Banner’s intelligence (or at least some intelligence, he hardly comes across as a genius) and being free of Rick’s bizarre telepathic control of the previous issue we also have a noticeably mean Hulk who displays a lot of anger at anyone who reacts badly to him. Later writers would go to town on what that said about Banner’s personality but here it seems more that Banner must fight for control and that the right level of gamma radiation could be found to keep Banner properly in control. With Banner almost seeming an invalid whenever he returns to his own form it makes his relationship with the Hulk almost a battle for his survival. Something about the transformation and constant exposure to Gamma radiation seems to have damaged him but he still can’t allow the mindless hulk loose so he needs to find some safe middle ground. Which is all a bit more interesting than the issue itself actually manages to be. While you can look at it through the lens of what the title eventually became the truth is that this issue is just a desperate creative team in a failing book making it up as it goes along. The one thing of interest away from Banner is that this issue uses Betty much more than previous ones and dwells on the conflict between her concern for Bruce and her father that would be done to death over the years. She comes across as compassionate and likeable here perhaps because her input to the stories hasn’t really become a cliché yet. Artistically it is well done and there are points of interest in the different setups for the title character but it’s not really a good comic. Are there any goofy moments? The Hulk crosses the line between leaping and flying a few times in this issue, regularly changing direction and even soaring back in the air at times. Similarly the Army’s flying Hulk decoy is bizarre. A lot of the Hulk’s rampage is deliberately played for laughs but is still pretty corny. Is it a landmark?: Not really
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Post by owene on Jan 17, 2011 12:49:53 GMT -5
Still on Hulk 4 Mongu!! Gladiator from Outer Space By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers Villains: communists Guest Appearances:, Rick Jones So what happens?:An alien ship lands in a city park and unloads Mongu a huge, warlike alien demanding to face Earth’s strongest champion at the Grand Canyon. The ship and Mongu then takes off again. Banner and Rick watch all of this on the news and decide there is only one person who can face Mongu. Banner undergoes the gamma ray treatment that changes him into the Hulk and the pair of them head to the Grand Canyon. Hulk confronts Mongu but soon realises that his weapons are just props. Russian troops pour out of the alien ship and their commander gets out of his Mongu suit. They have been sent to capture the Hulk to see if they can use him to create super powerful soldiers. The Hulk makes quick work of the soldiers, smashing up their fake space ship and experimental sound gun before tying them all together and putting them on the Red Army helicopter that had been watching events. They escape back to Russia and the US authorities find all the fake alien gear and assume the Hulk must have been staging the battle to improve his reputation. Still public outcasts Rick and the Hulk retreat to their hideaway where Banner undergoes the gamma treatment to turn back to normal. Rick supports the weak scientist back to their lab. So is it any good?: It’s a lot better than the description would suggest. It has quite an inventive battle scene with good art throughout and it is interesting to see that the idea of “the Hulk with Banner’s mind” actually means a very mean Hulk who snaps at Rick a lot and is very up for a fight. This is in fact different from the situation in the issues lead story but I guess it could be justified by Banner using slightly different amounts of Gamma radiation each time or the process just being impossible to control. It’s another sign that the writers didn’t really have much idea on how to deal with the change while having a workable lead character. It isn’t any kind of classic but there is good Kirby art and the ending where Banner and Rick are blamed by the government after dealing with the Russian threat are, while clichéd, closer to the idea that the Hulk is an unrewarded force for good that would sustain the book for so long. All in all I quite enjoyed this one. Are there any goofy moments? Rick and the Hulk (not Banner) charter a jet to take them to the battle site. It manages to land safely on top of a mesa. The moment when the commie solider gets out of the alien suit is pretty cool in a really silly way. This is actually one of those stories where the goofiness works. Trivia:While this Mongu was a commie fake there was eventually an alien gladiator called Mongu who appeared in the pages of Man-Thing before turning up in Hulk 210. While there supposedly wasn’t any link between the two characters the designs are actually extremely similar right down to the hairstyles. I suppose the Russians could have modelled their suit on the alien but that doesn’t really make a lot of sense given the alien’s back story. The design here has a lot in common with Ulik. I mean any Kirby designed brute with a weird club-axe is going to look quite similar but they are quite close. Is it a landmark?: No.
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Post by owene on Jan 23, 2011 13:35:59 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #9 The end of the Fantastic Four By Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers. Guest Appearances: Namor So What Happens?: Namor watches a news broadcast about the FF’s bankruptcy and sees a chance to act. Reed has apparently blown all of their money and the team now has to sell off all of its equipment to cover its debts. The only way out seems to be an offer from Hollywood to star in a movie and they set off across country by hitch hiking. In Hollywood their benefactor turns out to be Namor who promises them millions for taking part in a globetrotting adventure movie. While Namor woos Sue in fancy restaurants the other members of the team are taken to exotic locations for their scenes. Reed is in the Mediterranean and finds himself facing an immortal Cyclops who had been hanging around since the days of Odysseus. Reed forms himself into a trip wire and sends the giant into a pit before escaping. Johnny finds himself facing an African tribe who have discovered a potion that makes them fireproof. After a few false starts he manages to deal with them by erupting a volcano that covers their village with lava. Ben faces Namor himself on a Californian beach. While the Thing gives a good account of himself the seawater gives Namor a boost and an unexpected bolt of lightning temporarily robs Ben of his powers. Namor knocks him out and then goes to find Sue. He informs Sue that her teammates are beaten and that she should now marry him. When she isn’t at all interested Namor turns on her too and has managed to subdue her by the time the male heroes arrive. Sue stops them attacking Namor but still refuses to go with him. Instead he sticks to his word and gives them the proceeds of the movie while he returns to the sea. So is it any good?:It’s a cool cover with a fairly silly story tied around it. The fact that the FF were bankrupted has been referred to quite a lot over the years but doesn’t actually make much sense in this story and is over and done with and not mentioned at all by the next issue. The idea of someone like Reed just blowing it all on a few bad share picks shows just how far away from the thinking 82 steps in advance super geniushe still was at this point. Or rather how the writers were still willing to have anything happen to setup a few cool visuals later in the story. The visuals are in fact great throughout, probably the strong point of an issue that seemed designed to place each team member into danger with ever more extraordinary foes. As stupid as it is the scene of the team hitchhiking is particularly cool. Alicia has immediately become part of the supporting cast with her room full of puppets to remind the reader of her villainous step-father. She is already having a softening effect on the Thing, turning around his latest tantrum and sending him back to the team to face their problems together. Another piece of the jigsaw is now in place even if we are still a long way away from the finished FF article. The Sue/Namor plotline has run through all of the Atlantean’s appearances to date. Here Sue again suggests that she is very interested in Namor merely put off by his methods and the way he treats her friends. In fact we have seen far more interest in Namor from Sue than we have in Reed. If anything Ben is the character who has shown the second most interest in Sue so far (which makes Alicia’s resemblance to Sue all the more odd). Namor is very much the anti-hero here with the chapters featuring Ben and Sue shown as much from his side as from theirs. He remains somewhat sympathetic, not a villain but someone who has fairly reasonable aims but is unable to actually approach them using methods that would satisfactorily solve them. He does actually rescue the FF from their bankruptcy that Reed had caused. In some ways he seems more competent than Reed here but is still hampered by his alien autocratic nature. A fun oddity but not a great issue. Are there any goofy moments? Namor’s movie mogul outfit is great. As are his scenes with Sue where he explains he had attacked all her friends out of love for her. Some of the Human Torch in darkest Africa stuff is both corny and very unlikely to appear in quite the same way in any modern flash backs. It’s more than a little racist and Johnny seems to think it’s fine to cause a volcanic eruption that destroys the homes of an entire tribe that he could have just flown away from. A lightning bolt is the latest in a long line of things that can turn the Thing back to Ben Grimm at a vital moment. Trivia:While in Hollywood the team encounter Alfred Hitchcock, Dean Martin, Jackie Gleason, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and a few other people who would probably have been recognisable in 1962. Namor has the power to locate the Invisible Girl. Not sure how often that has been used as it would presumably have been quite useful in any number of later stories. The idea that he had access to all the ocean’s treasures and could use that money to set up companies on the surface was key in John Byrne’s Namor series. This story is obviously the result of Stan reading fan-mail talking about ‘realism’ being a big difference between Marvel Comics and the competition. While everyone is freaking out about their financial situation Reed finds the time to pick up a comic book and point out that stuff like this never happens to any of the other heroes on the market. Is it a landmark?:Not really
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Post by sharkar on Jan 23, 2011 15:44:21 GMT -5
...I read those early FF issues for the first time (to a very little Son of HB) about 10 years or so ago, and was flabbergasted at the Alycia-being-Sue's-twin-double angle. Am I right that it even fooled Reed at some point in the story? (or Ben, maybe?) Actually Stan and Jack get it right--as soon as Alicia speaks, Reed and Ben realize she's not Sue. ... Hey, and this puts me in mind of another MU "Twin" example (which I'm guessing has been forgotten in this modern era-?): The fact that Rick Jones is/was the spittin' double for Bucky. I'm pretty sure that was referenced more than once way back in the early Marvel silver age, yes? And it would be Stan again, yep. So, does that mean that our current Bucky-Cap and grown-up Rick Jones look like twin brothers? Well, except that one is extremely buff, whereas the other is, at best, intermittently physically fit? Yes, you are absolutely right--in those early Avengers stories Steve refers to Rick as Bucky's double. But perhaps the two looked alike as young teens and as they've matured there are more differences (body type, height, maturation of facial feature, etc.)? Have Rick and Bucky met since the latter's revival?
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Post by humanbelly on Jan 23, 2011 20:58:19 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #9 The end of the Fantastic Four By Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers. Guest Appearances: Namor
Haaaaaa! I may have to go pull out my old Essential FF to look this one over again! The flaws & weaknesses you pointed out are, of course, hilariously on the money. But I might give it a minor landmark status simply because it was a very, very spirited attempt to break new ground in the realm of "superheroes with real-world problems". Now, the contrived plot consequences that followed are off the plausibility chart, yes, but I do think the use of the magic Real World What-If? (What if a group of heroes went broke, and were suddenly unemployed--- just like anyone else?) headed into unexplored territory. And maybe it didn't explore it to a satisfactory degree-- but it also ran completely counter to the cliche' superhero status quo of a team being inexplicably wealthy regardless of the circumstances. Heck, Marvel has fallen into using this ancient plot contrivance in latter decades more than any of its competitors ever did. How many incalculably wealthy guys are there in the MU? Ones who are always able to front a team or cover its damages? Reed, Tony Stark, Danny Rand, Warren Worthington, Charles Xavier-- oh man, I'm sure there are more. In DC? I can think of Bruce Wayne, and Oliver. . . McQueen? (Green Arrow). Who else? Okay, okay-- wandering away from the thread again--- HB
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Post by spiderwasp on Jan 23, 2011 23:09:29 GMT -5
How many incalculably wealthy guys are there in the MU? Ones who are always able to front a team or cover its damages? Reed, Tony Stark, Danny Rand, Warren Worthington, Charles Xavier-- oh man, I'm sure there are more. In DC? I can think of Bruce Wayne, and Oliver. . . McQueen? (Green Arrow). Who else? Okay, okay-- wandering away from the thread again--- HB Well there's also Kyle Richmond and Night Thrasher (Can't think of his real name). That's one thing I like about Alpha Flight. They didn't really have a mansion or jets until the government started backing them again.
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Post by owene on Jan 24, 2011 12:06:04 GMT -5
Tales to Astonish #38 Betrayed by the Ants By Stan Lee with Larry Leiber, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers. Villains: Egghead Guest Appearances: none So What Happens?: The top atomic scientist known as Egghead (due to his brains and bizarre appearance) is suspected of spying and fired by the government. The New York underworld think he will be just the guy to beat Ant-Man and swiftly recruit him. He quickly figures out how ants communicate and, promising to free them from Ant-Man’s control, tells them to pass a message on about a robbery at the museum. When Pym arrives at the scene of the crime Egghead uses a small bellows to blow him into a flypaper lined box. Unfortunately Ant-Man’s electronically controlled spring boots enable him to quickly escape and he then makes quick work of some of Egghead’s gangster friends with a string lariat. Ant-Man finishes them off by ordering his faithful ants to carry a carpet onto the ceiling and drop it on the gangsters. The gangsters are all captured and Ant-Man reveals to the hidden Egghead that as Ants are unable to feel emotions it was pointless targeting their resentment of ant-Man. In fact the ants told Pym all about Egghead and he was able to plan accordingly. While Egghead manages to escape he is left destitute, reduced to stumbling around cursing the ants. So is it any good?:It’s an attempt to come up with a recurring villain who can match Pym’s intellect. It’s not a particularly good one: the final panels of a pathetic broke Egghead are presumably meant to mirror the early ones of the arrogant scientist looking down his nose at patriots; however they pretty much sum the character up. A lot of his stories seem to end with him reduced to almost nothing and raging at the world. He would appear in a number of fairly big stories in a range of titles and would in fact end up having quite an impact on a number of characters but he is essentially a fairly pathetic character. He is intelligent but not in the way the Leader or Mad Thinker or Doom are, quite malevolent and effective but only in quite second rate stories and defined by a bizarre appearance that wasn’t really explained at all. As with preceding issues Pym is still being endangered by regular objects and still has the ants doing all of his heavy lifting in a fight. His big weapon this issue, apart from a carpet, is a thread of nylon that he loops around the bad guys’ wrists. The idea of a villain trying to use his link to the ants against him is a good one, as that link is pretty much the one spark of personality Pym has, but it ends in a matter of fact way because the ants don’t actually have any personality or emotions either and can’t be swayed from their “loyalty” to Pym. I quite liked some of the Edward G Robinson style gangsters from Kirby but the issue doesn’t have much else going for it. . Are there any goofy moments? Super-brain Egghead researches ants by reading what looks like a children’s book titled ‘all about ants’ After inventing a way of communicating with ants Egghead’s next trick is rather less high tech. After a lot of aplomb he announces that run of the mill flypaper will be his tactic to catch the tiny Ant-Man “Ant Ant-Man finishes them off by ordering his faithful ants to carry a carpet onto the ceiling and drop it on the gangsters. ” Egghead’s whole appearance is pretty goofy for someone who is supposed to just be a regular human. Trivia: Egghead, Elihas Starr, is the closest thing Ant-Man got to an arch-enemy in Tales to Astonish. Whirlwind was more concerned with the Wasp and Ultron was not around until five years into the Avengers run. Egghead followed Pym to the Avengers, Marvel Feature, the Defenders and then back to the Avengers for a storyline that had a lasting effect on Pym and a fatal one on Egghead. He has appeared in a few flashback stories and jokey dead appearances but has actually stayed dead for a very long time now. I guess by the time of his death he was somewhat of a joke and only really worked as an effective villain in stories featuring Pym. Is it a landmark?:Egghead appeared enough times for this to be a minor landmark I guess.
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Post by owene on Jan 24, 2011 12:07:08 GMT -5
How many incalculably wealthy guys are there in the MU? Ones who are always able to front a team or cover its damages? Reed, Tony Stark, Danny Rand, Warren Worthington, Charles Xavier-- oh man, I'm sure there are more. In DC? I can think of Bruce Wayne, and Oliver. . . McQueen? (Green Arrow). Who else? Okay, okay-- wandering away from the thread again--- HB Well there's also Kyle Richmond and Night Thrasher (Can't think of his real name). That's one thing I like about Alpha Flight. They didn't really have a mansion or jets until the government started backing them again. It's a long time since I read any Alpha Flight but I liked those early issues where it seemed they could never actually get the team together because one or other of them had to go to work instead.
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Post by humanbelly on Jan 25, 2011 9:36:59 GMT -5
Tales to Astonish #38 Betrayed by the Ants By Stan Lee with Larry Leiber, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers. Villains: Egghead Guest Appearances: none
Oh, you're killin' me, Owen! KILLIN' me!! (Although the mortifying weaknesses you've been blithely revealing in the Hulk's original six-issue run have already been all-but fatal to me-- so I suppose the point is moot. . . ;D) That cover!! Where's bobc? Robert, we need your artistic expertise, here! Issues w/ forced perspective! Issues w/ proportion! Issues w/--- geeze, anatomy! How can Egghead's hand be at floor level when the rest of his body is standing up straight?? Did Gil Kane have this kind of trouble w/ the Atom?? Aagh! A flypaper-lined box?!? Sooooo--- Hank just forgot in the excitement that he could simply grow back to normal size and escape? A carpet heavy enough to subdue grown thugs can be carried to the ceiling and be held there, suspended, by ants??!? Amazingly, we have gross violations of fundamental, elementary principles of both the physical AND the natural sciences. Stan, Jack--- every time owen reveals another one of these whoppers, I want to stomp into your offices of long ago and bonk your heads together-! (All in the spirit of tough love, natcherly-- Hey, thoroughly enjoying all this, owen-- mucho appreciado-- HB
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Post by humanbelly on Jan 25, 2011 11:43:36 GMT -5
=Yes, you are absolutely right--in those early Avengers stories Steve refers to Rick as Bucky's double. But perhaps the two looked alike as young teens and as they've matured there are more differences (body type, height, maturation of facial feature, etc.)? Have Rick and Bucky met since the latter's revival? Oh. My. God. Rick is Bucky's clone. A mid-20th-century experiment that got "lost" along w/ Bucky's cryogenic exploits. There is a TON of retro-wiggle room at this point to make that work. Rick's orphaned (& implausibly unsupervised) background; his uniquely unlockable powers (part of the early experiments?); his eternal ability to break into secure bases, forts, compounds, labs, etc (universal security implant???). I'm not even pondering this deeply, and it feels like it fits. UGH-- and I totally hate it, make no mistake. Ye gods, I'm even sorry I typed it out loud. . . BUT-- should Bendis or crew suddenly use this, remember, YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST! (Ha! And I DON'T give them permission to use it! Which means it can NEVER HAPPEN!!HAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!) HB
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Post by owene on Jan 25, 2011 17:29:17 GMT -5
Oh, you're killin' me, Owen! KILLIN' me!! (Although the mortifying weaknesses you've been blithely revealing in the Hulk's original six-issue run have already been all-but fatal to me-- so I suppose the point is moot. . . ;D) The hulk has been odd, its had really great images and scenes but the creators just have no clue what they want the strip to be. It does actually have some of that marvel magic and imagination it's just a mess. ant-man on the other hand is just poor, if the other books hadn't taken off and created the marvel universe that we all love nobody would ever think about these stories for any reason having had a quick look at coverbrowser the atom covers seem to always have him about dollsize and having the villain in the background and avoids a lot of the problems, they are a bit bland at times but they understand proportion. thats the main problem with all of the stories, pym acts like he can't actually return to normal size even though 99% of his problems would disappear if he was just a bit more dynamic about swapping back and forth. it would make the action a bit more interesting as well and stop him relying on ants every time, thanks a lot, i'm realy enjoying doing them (I'm up to astonish 42) but posts about 49 year old comics obviously aren't the easiest thing to reply to so i'm never sure if anyone is out there reading,
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Post by sharkar on Jan 25, 2011 23:40:11 GMT -5
[That cover!! Where's bobc? Robert, we need your artistic expertise, here! Issues w/ forced perspective! Issues w/ proportion! Issues w/--- geeze, anatomy! How can Egghead's hand be at floor level when the rest of his body is standing up straight?? Did Gil Kane have this kind of trouble w/ the Atom?? Oh, I love Kane!!! I also love Kirby, too, naturally...and I see Kane and Kirby as two different types of artists. Do yourself a favor, HB, and take a look at the Atom covers, on coverbrowser or elsewhere--they're incredible, due to Kane's masterful way with anatomy. IMO when it comes to drawing the male body in comics, Kane was unsurpassed, with the possible exception of J. Buscema. Cases in point: Kane's Silver Age Atom and Green Lantern; the musculature is perfect. (A knock against his 1960s work is he made his heroes look effeminate--I don't see it. They're beautifully proportioned and athletic.) Kirby, on the other hand, had his own brand of anatomy and perspective (little to do with realism, as we see here); his art was much more abstract. You know, I really get a kick out of Ant-Man's knees on this cover; A-M's legs look like they're made of rubber--this can be said for a lot of Kirby's figures. Also, per Mark Evanier Kirby apparently had little interest in covers; he was far more interested in storytelling and the panel-to-panel progression it entailed.
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Post by owene on Jan 26, 2011 16:12:55 GMT -5
Strange Tales 103 Prisoner of the fifth dimension By Stan Lee with Larry Leiber, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers. Villains: Xemu Guest Appearances: Reed Richards So What Happens?: A new housing development keeps losing buildings, each night a new house sinks into the swamp, the only lead being a local crackpot insisting it is the work of swamp demons. Johnny investigates and spots a pair of aliens, working together with the crackpot, causing the houses to sink with a ray cannon. He is soon captured by the crackpot, a disguised alien it transpires, and taken to their dimension where they plan an invasion of Earth. The Torch is soon freed from captivity by Valeria, a local revolutionary working on overthrowing the leader Xemu. The torch lends his powers to the fight and is soon destroying tanks and using sky-writing to provoke a general revolt. Valeria is suitably impressed but, with the battle won, the torch wants to return home to Earth and his school lessons. So is it any good?: As is so often the case I liked some of the art but was let down by the story. I actually quite liked the alien revolution aspect of it with the feisty Valeria rescuing and falling for the Torch. It’s just that this storyline grows out of a Scooby doo ‘swamp demons are making the houses sink’ mystery story with aliens wearing rubber face masks to appear human. Once the Torch gets into the 5th Dimension it’s fairly good with Xemu coming across as a fairly competent villain and Kirby having fun with the alien technology. For a change it is actually the Torch who battles the bad guys, he doesn’t rely on his sister or the police and he uses his powers in quite inventive ways without coming out with some new usage as a Deus Ex Machina. It’s not a good story by any means but there are a lot worse ones in the run. Are there any goofy moments? The old man insisting that swamp demons have sunk the houses is pretty funny. I also liked the magnet tanks that have huge magnets on the end of giant arms and can attract all sorts of non-ferrous things. The Torch brushes Valeria off as quickly as possible then goes back to Earth and dreams about her. He’s a little mixed up. TriviaThe 5th Dimension reappeared, with Xemu back in power, in a storyline running through most of 1975’s Fantastic Four issues. I haven’t read them yet so I can’t really comment on them. It got dragged into a conflict with Polemachus and the Torch got to be briefly reunited with Valeria who in fact is the most memorable part of this story. Is it a landmark?:No.
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Post by owene on Jan 29, 2011 11:51:01 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #10 The Return of Dr Doom By Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers. Villains: Dr Doom Guest Appearances: Alicia Masters So What Happens?: Reed is investigating the limits of Sue’s invisibility when they are interrupted by the signal flare. After struggling to get into the Fantasticar hangar they head across the city on foot, causing a car accident and nearly burning a crowd of passersby before they reach Alicia’s apartment. The Thing had summoned them to see Alicia’s latest sculptures of their foes. They are all very impressed although the presence of a Sub-Mariner statue causes some tension between Reed and Sue. At the Marvel comics offices Lee and Kirby are working on ideas for the next issue of the Fantastic Four comic when in walks Dr Doom. He demands that the comics creators bring Richards to the office for a story conference and when he arrives Doom gases him and takes him to his castle. He reveals that he had been saved from death by the alien Ovoids and taught the ability of swapping personalities with another body. He subjects Reed to this just as the rest of the FF crash in. The team ignore the cries of Reed in Doom’s armour and swiftly capture him and leave him in an air tight cell before heading back to New York with Doom still in Reed’s form. Doom/Reed immediately sets about stealing a load of Zoo animals and shrinking them down to miniature size. The others are suspicious but are convinced by Doom’s explanation that he had to do it because dinosaurs would have evolved into a sentient species if only they had been smaller. He plans on shrinking down the rest of the FF, a process that will supposedly increase their powers and transform the Thing back to Ben Grimm. Reed manages to get out of his prison and makes it to Alicia Master’s apartment. She is won around by the gentleness of Reed-Doom’s voice but Sue is on hand to knock him out with a flower pot. Ben and Johnny arrive and attack “Doom” only for Ben too to feel that he seems too good to be their enemy. They bring him back to the Baxter Building where the real Doom is instantly hostile towards him and desperately tries to get his shrinking ray finished. Johnny creates an image of some lit dynamite which Reed in Doom’s armour instantly throws himself on to save everyone else whereas Doom as Reed tries to hide in a pipe using Reed’s stretching powers. The shock of the events loosens Doom’s mind transfer and the two rivals return to their own bodies. In the conflict that follows Doom accidentally triggers the shrinking ray and is shrunk down to nothingness. So is it any good?:It’s hard to really classify it. It has its good moments but it’s such a long way from what you think of when you think of Doom. It’s interesting just how much of his classic characterisation really requires Latveria and the unassailable ego of a ruler. Here he wants to mind swap in order to gain Reed’s physical powers, and in fact with those powers he makes short work of the Doom armour (admittedly Reed wouldn’t know how to use it instantly) and then spends ages working on a shrinking ray to deal with the rest of the team. He doesn’t really come across as the ultimate bad guy in this story, he spends some of it smashing up Lee and Kirby’s ash tray and stealing zoo animals. The ‘rescued by the ovoids’ section is probably the ultimate example of any comics death being fixable. The sheer throwaway stupidity of it all is quite special. I did like a lot of the visuals, Ben reading a paper with the headline ‘Zoo animals missing’ as he is surrounded by miniature bears and camels is great. It’s a very inventive issue visually for Reed’s powers and I liked the way that it built up the one to one rivalry between Doom and Reed and made that the real focus of his wrath and I liked the way Kirby twisted Reed’s features to show Doom’s evil while he was possessing Reed’s body. So it’s an interesting step forward for Doom but we aren’t really at the finished article yet and it leaves you really wanting to see that version. The issue focuses mainly on Reed. Johnny gets to almost blow up the baxter building and then save the day with one of the totally outré uses of his powers that became the norm in his solo series. Sue moons over Namor some more but does at least get to knock out Reed with a flower pot. It is however a good issue for the Thing. His relationship with Alicia is developed, with Kirby still using a puppet motif on her first panel, and both he and Alicia can see past the obvious and notice something good in Reed trapped in Doom’s armour. Are there any goofy moments? The Baxter Building is so high tech that it has nuclear locks on the interior doors. Nuclear locks that will explode and kill everyone if they get too hot. Nuclear Locks that Reed allows Johnny to experiment with creating non-hot flames on. It’s incredible that the FF have survived for almost 600 issues. The stolen shrunken zoo animal section is just bizarre. Especially Doom’s story about evolving dinosaurs; which the team totally buys. Is he trying to create mini Kangaroo and Giraffe people? I’d guess Kirby just fancied drawing dinosaur astronauts walking on the moon and Lee had to pad it out somehow. The scenes with Jack and Stan are fun, although if their relationship with Reed is real and they simply draw what Reed tells them then I’m not sure why Jack was inventing villains for the team to fight. Johnny’s dynamite mirage powers are just stupid. Doom hanging onto the meteor is just as silly as it was in issue 6. Trivia:The Ovoids appeared again in John Byrne’s She Hulk run and one was part of the Star blasters, a team of aliens searching for the Star Brand in the pages of Quasar. Here they are just a brief explanation of how Doom escaped certain death in issue 6. The Ovoid mind transfer has appeared far more frequently than the Ovoids themselves most notably by Doom to escape Terrax in issue 260. Doom’s shrinking to nothingness at the end unlocked another area of the Marvel Universe, the sub-atomic worlds, and the team follows him there in issue 16 Doom swapping forms with one of the heroes has become something of a tradition. He next does it, with Daredevil, in issue 39 and swaps with Reed again during Chris Claremont and Mark Millar’s runs. Is it a landmark?:Not really, it would get referred to a lot in the 80s due to the revival of the Ovoid Mind Transfer but it’s an oddity really rather than a landmark.
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Post by sharkar on Jan 29, 2011 17:03:26 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #10 The Return of Dr Doom By Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers. Villains: Dr Doom Guest Appearances: Alicia Masters
Is it a landmark?: Not really, it would get referred to a lot in the 80s due to the revival of the Ovoid Mind Transfer but it’s an oddity really rather than a landmark.
The real oddity ;D is how Alicia could sculpt such detailed, accurate statues of people she'd never met or seen. She's got their relative heights right; and she includes such details as the Mole-Man's jowls, the scales on Namor's trunks; the little "S" on his belt; and she even manages to depict alien life forms like the Skrulls! In fact there's a letter in FF #13 wondering the same thing. Stan's response--which doesn't answer the question--is that "Alicia is gifted with sensitive fingers, just like many famous blind musicians." So here's my off-panel, "behind-the-scenes" explanation: Ben and Alicia spent many hours together on her project, with Ben describing each of these villains down to the minutest detail (ah, sounds just like our meticulous Mr. Grimm, doesn't it? ) . During these long sessions together their feelings for one another grew, and I guess their feelings were no secret to anyone--in this issue Johnny refers to Alicia as Ben's girlfriend and even Dr. Doom calls her Ben's "loved one"! EDIT: typos
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Post by owene on Feb 1, 2011 16:57:53 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #10 The Return of Dr Doom By Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers. Villains: Dr Doom Guest Appearances: Alicia Masters
Is it a landmark?: Not really, it would get referred to a lot in the 80s due to the revival of the Ovoid Mind Transfer but it’s an oddity really rather than a landmark.
The real oddity ;D is how Alicia could sculpt such detailed, accurate statues of people she'd never met or seen. She's got their relative heights right; and she includes such details as the Mole-Man's jowls, the scales on Namor's trunks; the little "S" on his belt; and she even manages to depict alien life forms like the Skrulls! In fact there's a letter in FF #13 wondering the same thing. Stan's response--which doesn't answer the question--is that "Alicia is gifted with sensitive fingers, just like many famous blind musicians." It's such an odd concept isn't it, but one that just seemed perfectly likely to me as a kid. Alicia was seemingly this big art superstar for her photorealistic likenesses of super heroes and villains she had never seen.
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Post by owene on Feb 1, 2011 17:02:44 GMT -5
Tales to Astonish #39 Vengeance of the Scarlet Beetle By Stan Lee with Larry Leiber, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers. Villains: the Scarlet Beetle Guest Appearances: none So What Happens?: Hank notices a disturbance amongst the cities insects and follows a parade of different species underground. He discovers they are being addressed by the Scarlet beetle. A regular Beetle has been given intelligence by a human nuclear test; and now wants to destroy human civilisation. While the ants stay loyal to Hank every other insect species joins up for the Beetle’s assault. Hank is spotted and overpowered by beetles, his helmet is discarded and his growth and shrinking gases are stolen by the Scarlet Beetle who uses them to grow to a huge size. The insects begin their assault, bringing down electricity wires, biting key figures and stealing explosives from army depots. Eventually the loyal ants find Pym and give him back his Ant-Man helmet. Armed with a lollipop stick he leads the fight back, downing grasshoppers with drinking fountains, shooting DDT at beetles and chasing the Scarlet Beetle in a toy car before shrinking him and wrapping him up in a balloon. The crisis is averted but Hank’s heroism has gone unnoticed and people in fact wonder if Ant-Man was in league with the insects. So is it any good?:It has its good points. Lee and Kirby actually take the story fairly seriously and show the Scarlet Beetle’s insects attacking mankind in fairly serious and quite creepy ways. While Hank is out of the picture the insects are quite effective bad guys and you can see how their plots would cause havoc and spread terror. It falls apart once Hank is back on his feet and taking on the insects, at that point you just have the tiny Hank rushing around a toy store and exerting himself to spray some water on some grasshoppers. The problem is largely that Hank could just grow to normal size and find much more effective ways to battle the insects as a regular human, or indeed that any other regular human could deal with them while Hank was stuck underground. As creepy as the sabotage and spider bites section is you are still left with Hank fighting grasshoppers with a lolly stick. That isn’t really any high point of threat or heroism. The art’s nice and I quite liked the idea of pitting Hank against insects as the ants have done most of the hard work in the title until now and the series has been a much better showcase for the coolness of insects than of Hank Pym to date. The idea of a rabble rousing radioactive beetle who has used Pym’s own technology to grow huge is actually pretty cool in a campy way but it doesn’t overcome the huge personality vacuum that is Ant-Man. Are there any goofy moments?:You’d imagine the whole plot would be but they actually manage to make some of it fairly creepy. It’s still stupid but it’s not played for laughs that much. That said the ants wielding huge DDT sprayers is pretty funny. As is Hank stood on the lip of a drinking fountain and using a lollipop stick to direct streams of water at grasshoppers. The final panel of the police officers wondering why Ant-Man let them down during the whole crisis is pretty corny. Trivia: The Scarlet Beetle has actually appeared quite frequently over the years. His first actual reappearances was in a one off Ant-Man story in Iron Man 44, presumably an inventory holdover from somewhere. Chronologically he next appeared after this story in Untold Tales of Spider-Man 12 where Kurt Busiek pitted him against Spider-Man and Bluebird. He also faced Scott Lang in a Ditko pencilled Amazing Spider-Man annual back up and the West Coast Avengers in Englehart’s Tales to Astonish reunion storyline which I guess I really have to reread at some point. Is it a landmark?:No
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Post by owene on Feb 6, 2011 17:04:46 GMT -5
Journey Into Mystery #88 The Vengeance of Loki By Stan Lee with Larry Leiber, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers Villains: Loki Guest Appearances: none So what happens?:Having been returned to Asgard after his encounter with Thor Loki spends his time spying on Thor’s earthbound activities and soon learns the secret of his dual identity. Transforming himself into a snake he sneaks past Heimdall and down the rainbow bridge to Earth. Heading in disguise to Don Blake’s surgery he hypnotises Jane Foster and confronts Thor to announce that they will compete in Central Park in an hour. Thor heads to the meeting place, secretly followed by the hypnotised Jane. On arrival Thor’s attempts to attack Loki are hampered by the arrival of the entranced Jane who loki menaces with a conjured tiger. Thor is forced to battle it to save her and in the process loses his hammer for longer than the allotted 60 seconds. As soon as Thor becomes Dr Blake Loki traps the hammer in a magical cage and then flies off to commit mischief. Loki amuses himself turning the city into candy, messing with a soviet nuclear test and causing the weapons of the soldiers sent to face him to fly off into the air. His fun is only stopped by the newspaper headlines telling him that Thor plans to stop him. Loki immediately goes to check on the hammer in its magical box but when he gets there he is faced by Thor with his hammer despite the continuing presence of the magical box. Unable to belief his eyes Loki dispels the box to check what had happened only for Don Blake to dive out and grab the hammer. Thor had in fact been a model decoy. Loki tries his best to escape in the form of a pigeon but Thor soon works out which bird is his transformed foe and traps him in a tennis net long enough to bring him back to Asgard. So is it any good?: It was fun, it is extremely similar to the first Loki story, both involve battles in the park, the threat of released wild animals, Loki escaping in a flock of pigeons and Loki transforming passersby into 2d images. I didn’t really mind this, both issues have a good take on Loki. Depicting him as just delighting in creating trouble wherever he goes. His spoiling of a soviet nuclear test just for the fun of it stood out in this issue. I guess the whole plot of both issues really just stemmed from someone reading somewhere that Loki was the god of mischief and not looking far beyond the name. There doesn’t seem to be a really evil side to him in these issues, sure he wants to defeat Thor and his tricks are all fairly destructive but as cunning as he is he isn’t really the evil mastermind of later appearances. Asgard is slowly getting fleshed out with Heimdal on Bifrost and Odin ordering Loki to stay in Asgard, both of them easily bypassed when Loki puts his mind to it. I really liked the scenes of Loki in Asgard, the spells he has to cast to watch Thor on Earth and the fake penitence he has to show to Odin. I also liked the way he used Jane Foster to get at Thor. Foster hasn’t really been developed very much yet, she really is only there to provide villains with an opening and to put down Blake in comparison with Thor. It isn’t really surprising that when the title hit its stride it was by concentrating on the Asgardian and moving past the clichéd love triangle of Blake, Thor and Foster. The art is far better here than on the last few issues despite coming from the same team. Kirby seems to delight in drawing Loki and imbues him with a really gleeful body language. It also provides him with the opportunity to go a little nuts and draw whatever strikes his fancy. It’s not the deepest story and it doesn’t have the operatic feel of the best Thor stories but it is a lot more fun than the Zarrko and Russian stories that preceded it and joins Loki’s first appearance amongst the best stories in the title so far. Are there any goofy moments? Thor’s, or rather Don Blake’s, use of a Thor dummy that is so convincing Loki has to check on the whereabouts of the hammer is pretty dumb. Admittedly they had written themselves into a corner where Loki had pretty much won the day and had to do something but like some of the moves used against Zarrko last issue it is both really dopey and comes across as a bit of cheap trick on the readers. TriviaHaving Loki in Asgard watching Thor’s earthbound exploits would become quite familiar but here we see it for the first time and by having him watching and learning from the events of the previous issue it introduces the first issue to issue continuity we have seen in the title. Each story is still fairly discrete but it does introduce the idea that the non-feature characters continue to have lives behind the scenes in the stories that they don’t appear in and that events in one story could have fall out in another. This has already been true to a certain extent in the Fantastic Four in the run of issues from 3 to 5 but it is new for this title. Is it a landmark?: No
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Post by owene on Feb 22, 2011 18:17:43 GMT -5
Strange Tales 104The Human Torch Meets Paste Pot Pete By Stan Lee with Larry Leiber, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers. Villains: Paste Pot Pete So What Happens?: Johnny is lining up at the bank, worrying about his secret identity, when a would be robber comes in armed with a glue gun and steals a pile of money. Johnny is still worried about his secret so can’t attempt to arrest him. Instead he sends a flame duplicate after the fleeing robber. By the time Johnny has gotten out without giving away his identity Paste Pot Pete is miles away attacking a missile base. Using his glue gun he makes off with a nuclear missile and escapes in a truck. Johnny eventually catches up with him and attempts to burn through the road in front of him. Luckily Pete pastes up a makeshift bridge and then brings the flying Johnny down to the ground with another strand of paste and glues him to the missile. Some of the amazing paste seeps into the missile and causes it to launch. In mid-air Johnny finally manages to burn through his paste bonds, escape the missile and fly back to face Pete. Pete is far from finished though, avoiding a barrage of fireballs he glues himself to a passing jet and escapes into the sea where a boat is waiting to take him away. The army is glad their missile is safe but Pete has escaped. So is it any good?: It’s quite bizarre, it’s quite an action packed issue and a lot of the action set pieces do pretty much work. The art is extremely good, well apart from Pete’s costume design However the villain is so bizarre, his codename so stupid, and the Torch’s constant efforts to let the bad guy escape so as to protect a non-existant secret identity that it’s hard to really take it seriously. If you stop taking it seriously and just laugh at whatever Pete does next its actually alright. Are there any goofy moments? ‘Paste is the supreme weapon’ Johnny accidentally wrote ‘human Torch’ instead of ‘Johnny storm’ on his bank slip which would of course give away his identity. Johnny sends a flame duplicate after Pete which trails him allowing Johnny to later follow it’s heat signature. So it can presumably turn corners and follow someone of its own free will. Finally everything Pete does probably qualifies. TriviaPete returned as Paste Pot Pete in issues 110 and 124 before getting promoted to the Frightful Four in FF 36 under the name Trapster, he has continued to appear with them on and off to the present day. While his name is definitely a big part of his problem as a villain he doesn’t really improve very much as a threat as the Trapster. Is it a landmark?:Pete is still around almost 50 years later but i’m not sure that makes it a key issue.
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Post by humanbelly on Feb 24, 2011 19:47:05 GMT -5
It's just. . . he's . . . how could anyone. . . The COSTUME! Omigod-- look at this poor fool's COSTUME!!! Owen, I'm really loving these StrTa & TtA flashbacks-- I kid you not. They're like a "Worst of the Worst Blooper Reel of the Earliest Beginnings of the Marvel Age". A delightful reminder that brilliant crative work doesn't spring full-blown into existence. It usually has to slip on a banana peel and full face down onto a table full of custard pies quite a few times first-! Oh, that costume. . . . . . combined with one of the worst "villain" names ever. ("Hypno Hustler" possibly giving Pete a run for his money. . . ) HB
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Post by owene on Feb 25, 2011 5:02:46 GMT -5
It's just. . . he's . . . how could anyone. . . The COSTUME! Omigod-- look at this poor fool's COSTUME!!! Owen, I'm really loving these StrTa & TtA flashbacks-- I kid you not. They're like a "Worst of the Worst Blooper Reel of the Earliest Beginnings of the Marvel Age". A delightful reminder that brilliant crative work doesn't spring full-blown into existence. It usually has to slip on a banana peel and full face down onto a table full of custard pies quite a few times first-! I'm a few issues ahead of the ones i've posted so far and the one that is really making me laugh is Thor. I always knew how bad the Torch and Ant Man runs were but there are some absolute storytelling gems in the Thor stories. His design wasn't much better either I think if I ever get past these reviews of Marvel's teething problems and everything gets too boring I should just jump ahead to the 70s and concentrate on the spidey titles.
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Post by owene on Feb 25, 2011 9:36:41 GMT -5
Incredible Hulk #5 Beauty and the Beast By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers Villains: Tyrannus Guest Appearances: Rick Jones So what happens?:General Ross is demanding that Banner come up with new methods to stop the Hulk and is angered by his lack of aggression and by his daughters interest in the young scientist. Betty Ross herself has come to the attention of Tyrannus, an underground ruler who has tapped into the surface world communications network. Her connection to General Ross is at the heart of his plan to conquer the surface. He has been kept alive for centuries by the fountain of youth and built up huge armies of subterraneans and robots. He comes to the surface and interests Betty Ross in a trip to some nearby caves. This prompts the jealousy of Banner and Rick who follow them and soon discover that they have disappeared behind a cave in. As Tyrannus takes Betty down to his kingdom Banner heads back to the lab to transform into the Hulk. He and Rick follow Tyrannus back to his kingdom but are soon knocked out by gas and then placed in a gladiatorial arena. The Hulk soon destroys one of Tyrannus’ robots but is put in his place by threats to Betty. Tyrannus puts the Hulk to work on a series of tasks of strength around his realm but eventually tires of him and decides to kill him off. Luckily Rick manages to rescue Betty and the Hulk no longer has to worry about her fate, allowing him to smash his way through Tyrannus’ realm before the trio can make off in Tyrannus under earth craft. So is it any good?: I quite liked the Hulk’s gladiator outfit and it’s good to have the Hulk actually facing a larger than life villain rather than commies or aliens but Tyrannus isn’t really any kind of physical competition for the Hulk and even this early in the day it’s already quite samey to see the Hulk smashing up robots and ploughing through subterraneans. I did like the predicament they found themselves in, I like that the Marvel Universe has these little underground enclaves and having one modelled on Rome is quite cool but the only real threat to the Hulk is the fact that threats to Betty keep him in his place so there isn’t really much drama. That said the visuals are good, I liked the subterraneans and some of shots of Tyrannus who comes across as suitably imperial, imposing and well designed if perhaps someone who would be better facing a less powerful hero. It’s hard to read his first appearance without thinking of all of his later ones, which generally aren’t much good but by the low standards of the Hulk’s first series he is an above average villain even if he can’t actually face up to the Hulk personally. Are there any goofy moments? It depends if you look on Tyrannus as being very campy and high concept or just plain silly. There would be a case to be made for the second option I think. There aren’t really many smaller silly moments compared to a lot of other stories. Trivia: Tyrannus is revealed to be an immortal Roman general. He certainly has that look in this story from his armour and his use of a gladiatorial games but the actual details in this story instead place him as being from the dark ages and a foe of Merlin. The backup story in Avengers annual 20 would clear these things up and have Tyrannus as an actual Roman emperor who was exiled under the earth by Merlin and the Black Knight when he tried to conquer Arthurian Britain. I guess whether it hangs together all depends on when Arthur was around The Mole Man’s first appearance didn’t actually feature any of his Moloid Subterraneans so this is the first appearance of that race. This offshoot would eventually be called Tyrannoids due to their serving Tyrannus but they are essentially the same doughy albino race. The ones here seem quite talkative compared to some. By their next appearance in Astonish 80 they would be much more misshapen and primitive. Is it a landmark?: Tyrannus is a fairly resilient villain even if he hasn’t appeared in many classic storylines
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Post by owene on Feb 25, 2011 9:42:05 GMT -5
We are Still on Hulk 5
The Hordes of General Fang By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers Villains: General Fang Guest Appearances: Rick Jones So what happens?: After escaping General Ross’s latest schemes the Hulk and Rick hear about the Red Chinese assault on the Lama’s of Llhasa and vow to help battle them.
Pausing only to pick up a book on the Abominable Snowman they book some tickets on a jet to the far east. The Hulk’s hat and scarf isn’t really much of a disguise and they are soon spotted, forcing them to jump out of the flying plane and make the rest of the journey in a series of island hopping leaps.
Once they get to the Himalayas the Hulk lays into the Chinese with his super breath before impersonating the abominable snowman in an effort to scare off the commies.
This doesn’t really work but the Hulk can still fight his way through the army and capture their leader General Fang. Hulk deposits him on capitalist Taiwan before heading back to the states where the Hulk decides that he himself is a threat to the weakling human race.
So is it any good?: No, it’s just another commie baiting story that for some reason features the Hulk drawn in a white furry suit for most of the action. There are some nice visuals on the commie army, as well as some borderline racist ones, and it unveils some quite inventive (albeit silly) battle plans for the Hulk but overall it’s a bit pointless.
Of all the many ideas of how to use the Hulk over this six issue series the idea that he will be listening out for Communist aggression and then jet all around the world to combat it is probably the weakest.
Kirby does have fun with the Hulk battling the soldiers, and with General Ross’s freeze-missile that was tested a few issues back and here is used, futilely, on the Hulk. The series hasn’t really found any threats that can go toe to toe with the Hulk but if anything works in this issue it is the action sequences.
Like most of the communist ones it is a bit of a misfire of a story 50 years on but it has some nice panels.
Are there any goofy moments? The Hulk’s abominable snowman costume is pretty stupid but even better is the fact that Rick Jones seems to spend most of the story in a brown equivalent that looks more like a monkey suit or baby-gro.
The Hulk apparently has super breath that can blow over a whole unit of soldiers.
Everything for page after page is ice and stone until the Hulk needs to use some trees to bounce at the commies. So a green forest appears on the Tibetan plateau.
The idea that the Hulk and Rick would take a passenger jet to Asia to confront General Fang is pretty funny.
Trivia: General Fang has never reappeared. From what I can tell Llhasa never appeared again and doesn’t get listed amongst Marvel’s imaginary countries. Given the closeness of its name to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, it would probably be possible to write it off as a typo and just have this story as some Red Chinese intervention in Tibet.
Abominable Snowmen also appeared in Tales to Astonish 13 and Fantastic Four 99, a character who decades later unexpectedly became one of the stars of Marvel The Lost Generation. He was an Inhuman whose appearance in the Himalayas was down to its proximity to Attilan. As Attilan’s position at various times is a bit of a grey area with different mountain ranges being mentioned in different stories I’m not sure how well that connects to the legends.
Is it a landmark?: No.
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