The Mighty World of Marvel #4
Week ending 28th October 1972
This issue brings back memories, not from 1972 but from 1986 and onwards. Great memories of shopping trips to Manchester, either when I caught a lift in my brothers car or by train on solo journeys. I would love taking these trips in my middle teens to buy clothes, CDs or videos from the shops around the Manchester Arndale Centre. Or hunting new and rare American comic imports that I couldn't get from my local newsagents in my home town of Chorley, from a fantastic comic shop called Odyssey 7, sited in the University Precinct above Oxford Road not far from the Arndale. But the highlight of these trips was Paramount Books on Shudehill, just outside of the Arndale centre. It was a treasure trove of second hand comics and magazines at amazing prices. I Could buy loads of old Marvel UK comics at around 15p each if my memory serves me well. I filled out my collection with old comics from the age when I was too young to seriously start collecting.This comic came from one of those trips. I believe it's still there. I really must take a trip down memory line were the hunt for great comics meant leg work not inflated prices on the internet and pop in there again.
But on to issue 4. This is my favourite cover so far, not counting issues one's classic cover by John Buscema. This weeks cover looks stunning as the Fantastic Four try to stop Spider-man in what is more of an audition and less of a "Battle" even if the cover headline suggests otherwise. I guess that "Spider-man auditions for the Fantastic Four!" doesn't have the same pulling power for kids in the 70's. Its beautifully drawn by Jim Starlin with inks by Joe Sinnott. Starlin perfectly manages to cover every inch of space with heroes and action. The lower left of the cover shows that the Hulk is "Wanted for treason!" but this is another piece of hyperbole as its more Doctor Banner who is threatened with treason.
This weeks Hulk tale continues where last week finished with a dazed and confused Bruce Banner is found in the crashed wreckage of the alien Toad Men spacecraft from the concluding half of the US Incredible Hulk #2 story "The terror of the Toad Men!". Its new title "Bruce Banner, wanted for treason!" would have been the sub title of part 3 of that story but editors for this UK edition change it to "Part 1" and then parts 4 and 5 were renumbered 2 and 3. General Ross shows his typical 60's paranoia over the unexplained by ignoring the obvious and accusing Banner of being a traitor to America in a McCarthy "Commie witch hunt" kind of way. Strangely enough its Banner who defeats the Toad Mens invasion plans not the Hulk, but this doesn't squash Ross's suspicions.
We have another Pin Up Page showing Mr. Fantastic about to be shot by an unknown gun man in what I imagine was an early Jack Kirby bonus page from the US editions, possibly from the Fantastic Four annual number one, although I have no proof of that, recoloured and text edited for the UK edition. Next to that page was a message from Stan Lee, his second to the British readers. Telling us to "Hold everything gang!" as the British Bullpen had received "mountains of magnificent missives" from MWOMs British readers and soon they would start printing a letter page in the comics "halcyon halls!" of Marvel. In the mean time Stan name checked some of the early letter writers. Five female names were among them, which is quite a lot for what in the 70's would be seen as a boys comic, were they from mothers or sister of very young readers or did Marvel's 1972 readership include girls? I really hope it did!
The Fantastic Four story concluded the Skrull story from FF#2 with half titled "The Fantastic Four fight back!" The British version corrected numerous mistakes by Jack Kirby, by roughly drawing in an extra Skrull here and there that "The King" had left out in the original US version. In that version Stan added the line "fourth one...on his way to another galaxy", which was used as a plot starting point by Roy Thomas in the Avengers epic Kree/Skrull war. In the UK version the line "We're content to have been of service to our country and the world" was added to help cover over the missing/returning Skrull. The hypnotised Skrull cows also made more plot appearances in the Fantastic Four Annual #17 from 1983 by John Byrne and the Grant Morrison and Mark Miller written Skrull Kill Krew series from 1995. Tales of terror that come from drinking Skrull/cow milk or eating Skrull beef, enough to make you a vegan.
The unknown artist had to draw the fourth Skrull in shadow or at least the back of his head in any scene with the other three Skrulls together. A very rough cow can also be seen grazing under the tree in the meadow to complete the alien crew. On a different note Kirby draws Reed Richards as an older scientist, who would rather use sci-fi guns, than the super-hero adventure we'll come to know.
The centre spread this week is again taken up by the "Mystery Gift" as Sue Storm, the Invisible Girl tells us that even the Fantastic Four want a "Mighty Marvel Mystery Gift"! Clue #4 is "Careful! It might look down on you!" Is it a flying seagull that looks like a rainbow coloured bread bin? Properly not, you can't fold them! This week in my copy the coupon collecting vandal as you can see has left another window onto the Fantastic Four strip, the young reader or at least a family member leaves rougher edges where the coupon, bearing the face of Mr. Fantastic, would have been, but it could been a lot worse.
Finally in this issue Spider-man meets the Fantastic Four for the first time! This landmark encounter would be copied millions of times in the future with heroes meeting heroes and having them mistake one persons intentions for the wrong reasons, causing them to start a fight that would end as quickly as it started. Steve Ditko's generic rendition of the Fantastic Four is slightly off putting but the first time that I read this tale I had no problems with it what so ever. I guess my 52 year old self needs to chill a little and enjoy the fun. This story also marks the first time Spider-man fights a "super villain", as Spider crosses paths with the Chameleon! The master of disguise plots to steal military plans, with the intension of selling them to Iron Curtain countries. He nearly does if not for Spider-Man webbing shut the hatch of a "black lighting" marked submarine. Years later we'll find out that the Chameleon was Russian all along, so his profession was properly started as a spy and not a criminal mastermind. Strangely in this issue the Chameleon sends Spider-man a message that only his spider-sense can pick up. Where he learns how to do that is never explained. I'm not sure if that plot devise is ever used again, which is for the best.
More Pin Up Pages appear, one just before the Spider-man strip and one straight after that strips ends. The first is a preview of the Fantastic Four's next adventure were it showcases their new "colourful" costumes and the "amazing" "Fantasti-car"! Blue pyjama onesies and a flying bathtub if you haven't already guessed. It also mentions the "Madding Menace of the Miracle Man!" Sadly not the Alan Moore penned Marvel Man! The rear cover sports an incorrectly grey coloured Vulture attacking Spider-man in a daring mid-air battle! Another advert for next weeks story were Spider-man battles with the Vulture for the first time. It all happens next week in the Mighty World of Marvel!
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