Tyrants and the sands of time!

The Mighty World of Marvel #9

Week Ending 2rd December 1972

A very strong cover this week, the Hulk does his impression of Samson as he sends the towers of Tyrannus' underground kingdom crashing down on the tyrant and his subterranean subjects, drawn in his usual clinical style by Jim Starlin with Joe Sinnott again adding inks to finish it off. Spider-man and the Fantastic Four portraits appear in a side box to inform the readership that in this "incredible issue" they also star in "great movie length features- in one marvellous mag!" May be not quite that long but that's Marvel spin doctoring for you, still a fine weekly length. 

The Hulk story this week starts with a splash page that informs us of who will be appearing in this weeks episode, Betty Ross, Tyrannus and the Hulk. The title "Beauty and the beast!" gives us the impression that Betty Ross is the beauty and the Hulk is the beast, but I wonder if Tyrannus is both the beauty and the beast! Jack Kirby certainly does draw him with Adonis looks as Stan Lee leaves nothing in doubt that Tyrannus is a heartless tyrant towards his subterranean subjects, who would in later stories be referred to as Tyranoids, a subspecies of Moloids (both races were created by the Deviants, but left to fend for themselves in the underground world that's referred, again in later tales, as Subterranea.) Dick Ayers gets an inkers credit for the first time this issue even though he had been suppling inks to Kirby's artwork for the Hulk since issue 5 of MWOM. Art Simek is also credited as the letter.

 We get a quick origin dialogue scene from Tyrannus early in the story describing how Merlin banished him to the centre of the earth centuries ago where he discovered his Tyranoid followers and the life extending Elixir from the Fountain of Youth. The story plot is quite simple, Tyrannus wants to take over the surface world but sees America's armed atomic might as a hamper to his plans so he kidnaps Betty Ross to prevent General Ross from stopping his invasion plans. The Hulk and Rick Jones find out that Betty has been taken and follows the damsel in distress with her abductor to his subterranean kingdom. The hulk battles a robotic warrior in a gladiator contest, while Rick disguises himself as a Tyrannoid guard to rescue Betty. Tyrannoids are generally drawn as dwarf size so how the teenager passes as a guard is anyone's guess but he does. The Hulk bring the walls of the subterranean kingdom down on the Tyrannus and his followers enabling all three make their escape to the surface. A throwaway line about Betty being in a state of shock causing her to suffer a case of amnesia, thus she won't put together the facts that it was Rick and the Hulk who rescued her and why see always sees Rick with Hulk and never Bruce with the Hulk. 

The first of this weeks philosophical letters come from Christine Austin from Liverpool, who comments on the tragic irony of a mild mannered scientist and the maddened monster, that in her view illustrates a truly great piece of literature. Oxford's own Richard Sharp gets more philosophical with the good guy/bad guy formula and how much he wants "more Hulk!" Helen Richie from York wants Spider-man to sue J. Jonah Jameson for libel. Finally Terry Logan bigs himself up by saying that he uses MWOM artwork as reference to characters he draws, including a rendition of Ben Grimm that even his art teacher liked very much!

Next to the Mailbag page Marvel reveals the secrets behind Spidey's Spider Senses! Another feature taken from the Amazing Spider-man Annual #1 from 1964.

"Nothing can stop the Sandman!" at least that's what the title of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's latest masterpiece. Spider-man's crime stopping career takes a big hit as J. Jonah Jameson's editorials lead the general public and criminal fraternity see him as a menace and fraud. He needs to be taken seriously as low life criminals bluff their way out of arrest by accusing him of harassment. Things get worse when Spider-man tackles the latest in a line of super powered enemies, the Sandman, only to have to flee in fear of exposing his secret identity when during the fight his mask becomes ripped. We learn though six panels the origin of incorrigible criminal Sandman, from escaping a maximum security prison to his hiding place at the site of an atomic device testing centre located in remote sand dunes and the fateful nuclear test explosion that mixed his own DNA with the particles of sand. A smart way to inform the reader about this new character, while giving more panel space to the action we all want. 

Another Special Message from Stan Lee who promises us a photo of the "precociously perfect" Pippa M. Melling, MWOM very own "glamorous gal" editor, though I don't think we ever did see the lady. May be she was really lost under a mountain of mail. I would love to find out what the mysterious Pippa M. Melling looked like. "The Man" also teases us with Marvels fan club FOOM! 

Sue Storm finally announces the six super heroes that grace the super-sized poster "Mystery gift" giveaway. Claim your "No-prize" if you guessed they were the Hulk, Spider-man and the Fantastic Four. An extra bonus coupon was printed in this issue. In my copy some previous owner had struck again and removed it, so above is how it would have looked. It made little loss to my copy apart from the panel in the Spider-man story were Sandman descends to street level from a New York roof top. I looked it up in a digital copy of how it went. To be fair I've got a Marvel Masterworks edition with this story and I've also read it in the 90's the Exploits of Spider-man #5, a Marvel UK comic from February 1993, so it's not a heart ache missing this tiny panel.

Here in 2022 we're in the middle a controversial Football World Cup in Qutar, in 1972 George Best Irish football legend, who would be know for his controversial lifestyle of heavy drinking and womanising, is the star feature on this advert for Inside Football and Striker magazine. A bargain for any football fan at only 6 pence, but one pence dearer than MWOM, I'm not sure how many would swap. 

The evil despot, sorcerer, scientist and tyrant Doctor Doom boasts that he'll make the Fantastic Four his prisoners in his first ever appearance. and he does with the aid of his vast array of devises, like his shark faced helicopter and an asbestos/electrified net that covers the Baxter Building. He demands that the Invisible Girl willingly becomes his prisoner while he sends the rest of the Fantastic Four on a special mission.

Sue is taken as prisoner in a very 60's way that I imagine would be handled very differently today. Doom's plan is to send the male members of the FF back in time to obtain the legendary treasure of the pirate Blackbeard via his Time Travel Platform. Doctor Doom declares that with the gems in Blackbeards treasure, he will be able to rule the world. Seems a little far fetched but more on that next issue. So three of our fabulous foursome travel through time to the 18th century, where they steel some clothes to disguise themselves, with Reed finding the Thing a fake beard, hat and eye patch to cover up  as much of his orange rock-like hide as possible. A group of pirates pressgang the three time travellers  with the aid of a barmaid who drugs their grog to send them in to a deep sleep. What happens next will have to wait till next week. 

Interestingly if we go back to the second page of this strip Marvel goes full meta with the Human Torch reading a comic which contains a story about the Hulk. In the original American edition, Fantastic Four issue 5 from 1962, the comic was meant to be a copy of the Incredible Hulk #1. In this British comic some unknown artist was given the task of changing the title of the comic to The Mighty World of Marvel. There's no way to identify which issue from the artwork under the title. It could be an inverted cover artwork of this very issue with what looks like a shouting Hulk now on the left with a box on the right that may contain Spider-man. May be the artist had a photocopy of this weeks cover before it was issued for print. It certainly doesn't match up with any other early issues. Either way the Hulk hasn't appeared on the back page of any issue of MWOM yet. I've don't remember seeing the original version but I suspect that the Hulk back page artwork was done by Jack and didn't appear on the back of the Incredible Hulk #1 either. If it was this issue Johnny never got as far as the FF strip, otherwise he'd have read all about the bar maid spiking their drinks. May be he got so engrossed in Hulk's strip just before he teased Ben about looking like the Hulk which started a fight between the two of them, which lead to the mag getting destroyed in the brawl. 

 

   Bonus features galore this issue, with first a Mighty Marvel Maze Page, as Mister Fantastic must navigate a maze to find his teammate, the Invisible Girl while avoiding Doctor Doom, the Mole Man, Namor the Sub-Mariner and the Hulk. No idea where this page had originally come from, may be it was specially made for MWOM. Then a teaser for a future FF villain the Puppet Master and last weeks antagonist Namor the Sub-Mariner, both originally from the Fantastic Four Annual #1. 

Inside back page is a good old fashioned dot-to-dot of Spider-man that the reader is encouraged to "help Spidey get his head..not to mention the rest of his body back together!" by completing the puzzle. I feel that his is a very British kind of page filler so I kind of feel that it was made especially of Marvel UK. The digital copy I mentioned earlier has the dot-to-dot completed, where my copy hasn't been touched. That's comic collectors karma, the Yin and Yang of life. I don't like spoiled comics but at the same time it's nice that someone at some time had enjoyed using the comic for what it was designed for, a childhood pastime. 

The final page belongs to the Human Torch as Johnny Storm answers all the questions an enthusiastic fan wants to know and other things that they don't. This particular feature had originally appeared in Fantastic Four #8. It promises that next issue Johnny will explain all about his ability to fly. You'll have to come back in a week to find out if he does or if this was left on by accident as part of the original feature. So I hope I'll see you in seven to find out.

Make Mine Marvel!