Just who is Dean Wilkerson?

 The Mighty World of Marvel #15

Week Ending 13th January 1973

Last week I suggested that Spider-man vs Doctor Doom would make a more fitting cover than the Hulk battling an easily forgettable red robot, well maybe through a 50 year old time tunnel the editors of MWOM #15 read my blog and thought that was a cracking idea, or perhaps this cover was planned all along. I've read somewhere on the magical world of the internet that John Romita Sr made alterations to the pencil and ink artwork that Jim Starlin and Joe Sinnott had laid down. Romita had held the position of Art Director unofficially during 1972, Stan Lee had previously held that job, as well as editor in chief for Marvel, until in 1972 he assumed the title of Publisher and President of Marvel, ending his roll of writer for both Spider-man (#110 July 1972) and the Fantastic Four (#125 August 1972). Romita was certainly more qualified for the roll, more hands-on. He would officially take the job title in July 1973. What changes he made to this weeks cover I can't say, even though I've spent hours looking for clues I'm stumped to find a definitive answer.  

The Incredible Hulk "Enter ...the Chameleon!"

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Steve Ditko

Inker: George Roussos

This weeks story continues straight of the pack of last weeks story with a captured Hulk held in bondage by unbreakable restraints in front of a gloating General Ross. But by the next page our interest is switched to four other characters. The first is the mysterious feature called simply the Leader, whose look is hidden behind a scientific overalls and protective helmet, who communicates with our second character of interest, the Chameleon. The master of disguise is well known to readers of MWOM as he had appeared in the Spider-man story from issue 4. The Leader requests that the Chameleon find out what has happened to the spy he had sent to gather secrets from the military base. Now my mind has been playing tricks with me as many years ago I had read these stories but when I re-read them this last couple of weeks I thought that the spy who infiltrated the base was going to be the Chameleon under the bidding of the Leader, mainly because when the spy broke into Banners lab to steal the experimental robot he used trickery and stealth (in my mind he disguised himself as a guard.) like the Chameleon would do. I wasn't made obvious that the unknown spy had died last week, as least to my interpretation of events. Stan missed a trick, it would have made more sense to have the spy and the Chameleon one and the same.

The next two characters are the returning Rick Jones and the Dean of his University Mr. Wilkerson! Apparently Rick hasn't been forgotten or written out of the Hulk comic as he's been attending Lee University, possibly in New York as the young teenager takes the same plane flight to New Mexico as the Chameleon who is by and largely based in New York. I doubt you'll hear of the Dean of Lee University or his educational institution ever again! And here's why.

Dean Wilkerson was made up purely to hide the fact that Rick Jones had left the Hulk (after the green goliath had accused Rick of betraying him,) to hang out with Captain America and the Avengers. Who are they you ask? (OK let's pretend that we've never heard of them as back in 1973 there was no other way of reading about our beloved Marvel heroes but MWOM for young British fans, well apart from US imports, or 60's Power comics, TV21 and Alan Class comics, but apart from those there wasn't. Marvel wanted Marvel UK to feel fresh and unique.) The rendering of Dean Wilkerson over the Captain is pretty good but the lettering is more obvious.   

The Chameleon causes confusion at the base, an attempt to free the Hulk by dismissing the guards while using a General Ross disguise, the capture of a now human Banner and stealing plans for a Gamma Grenade and the prototype itself (Gamma Grenade! Now that's a dangerous weapon to have left around. Doesn't Doctor Banner know how hazardous gamma weapons are!) and then he uses a Bruce Banner disguise to kidnap Betty Ross to aid his escape. It's a fine story but it leaves one thing on my mind, has Steve Ditko decided to make the Hulk more menacing by giving him dark eye mascara? Very 80's goth!

In this weeks mail bag we hear from Neil McBride from Lancaster who kind of guessed what the mystery gift was. David Lancaster from Harrogate who really enjoys MWOM. Vincent Harris wants more intelligent letters from readers while Vince Barrett gets up early every Saturday just so he doesn't miss his copy of MWOM. It's sometimes said that early letter pages were filled with made up correspondence, this is one of those mail bags where I wonder if there's some truth to that. One writer whose surname is Lancaster while another writer comes from Lancaster. Vincent and Vince are very similar forenames that as I don't know of anyone called either sends my conspiracy theory loving devil persona to over thinking this. Especially with one letter calling for more mature correspondence. Is that a call from the editors for readers to write in more?  But thankfully my more sensible angel persona knows that sometimes two people can have similar names and even their surnames can be cities in northern England. I'd love for any Marvel Mail Bag correspondent to read this blog and contact me saying I was a real person.

Spider-man "Into battle with Dr. Doom!"

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Steve Ditko

Inker: Steve Ditko

A very smart splash page, but where have I seen that before?

Oh yes, it was a repurposed cover by Steve Ditko from the cover of Amazing Spider-man number 5, (the issue where this story was first published,) with added text to remind the reader of where we are in the story. It does feel like Ditko spent more time and effort on the cover artwork than the story work. but that's normal and fair enough.

 After the beautiful drawn splash page two panels briefly fill us in what's been happening with Spider-man and the (out of view) Fantastic Four to lead to a third panel that explains that we might have just read the shortest introduction to a Marvel story. The reason for this was the text on the original panel mentioned that the first half was the longest introduction before the action really started in the twenty-one page original. The text box is shortened to remove some of the text but I feel that simply keeping the original text and substitute the word "shortest" for "longest" would have made more sense. Spider-man confronts Doctor Doom who unleashes with the most fun and inventive devices Doom created, or I should say Steve Ditko could have imagined. 

Spider-man makes a good fist of fighting Doom, over coming all of the Latvian monarchs deadly devices, only to leave me feeling cheated as Doom does a runner when the Fantastic Four arrive. Flash Thompson manages to escape from his cell, due to the interruption of certain electronic circuits during the heated battle, only to be discovered by the Thing who quickly, with some help from the Human Torch, realises that the teenager isn't the original web-slinger. Peter makes excuses about his disappearance to Aunt May and lack of photos to Jonah Jameson and gets very affectionate vibes from Betty Brant so with the possibility that Flash should be due some ribbing over his misadventure things could be looking up for our young hero. That is until he overhears Thompson embellishing his part in this tale, his classmates christen  him the BMOC (Big Man On Campus). Peter stays quiet and lets his rival bathe in the glory.

From BMOC to FOOM! More teasing about FOOM in the centre pages, with very little new to read about we are left with Reed and Sue getting friendly in the lab and Johnny Storm giving us next to no clues about FOOM! But at least it's another week closer to February the 10th, the big reveal date. 

The Fantastic Four "Bound for Planet X!"

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Jack Kirby

Inker: Dick Ayers

The Fantastic Four are fooled into believing that the entire human race is against them and that their only rest from persecution is to go with the robot from Planet X. Curiosity gets the better of them so they quickly board the automatons flying saucer to briskly arrive at the mysterious world only know as X. The Planet X would later be know as Xanth and its dominant race are called the Xantha, but we won't find out those facts in this issue. 

We do have the pleasure of meeting this planets leader, Kurrgo. Who appears, at first, to be a compassionate leader, who cares about the lives of the planets five billion inhabitants, that are threaten by the impending doom of a rogue planet on collision course with Planet X. Reed Richards agrees to Kurrgo's request of help and develops a "shrinking Gas", which is uncannily similar to the gas that Dr. Henry Pym developed that enabled him to shrink in size and become Ant-man (as first seen in Tales to Astonish #27 US released dated September 1961, cover dated January 1962, although British MWOM readers would have to wait sometime to see Ant-man in action.). It's possible that behind the scenes Richards and Pym meet and discussed Pym's amazing discovery, showing Reed the formula. With the gas Richards planned to shrink the planets population to a manageable size so that they could all evacuate the ill-fated planet in one of the two space craft available. 

The gas works and the micro sized aliens board a space rocket to escape the doomed planet. The planet ruler wasn't so lucky, his desire to regime over his people with absolute power, involve him holding on to the enlarging gas so no-one grow back to regular size making him a giant over is insect sized people. But in his power crazed reasoning he falls in the crumbing ruins of the damned planet with a canister, that Mr. Fantastic later relates to being empty. May be Pym never told Richards the formula for enlarging gas. A bit cruel of Mister Fantastic but a least keeping that secret saved the lives of countless billions. The four fantastic humans escape in Kurrgo's robots flying saucer back to Earth. The Fantastic Four would keep the saucer and us it again, although it is sometimes called a Skrull Saucer. This is because of a mistake in issue 92 of the Fantastic Four where it was claimed that it was the space craft that the FF confiscated from the Skrulls from way back in FF #2, (seen in issue 4 of MWOM,) but that is where the confusion lies, the Skrull craft was only a small shuttle like craft disguise as a water tower which they used to reach the orbiting Skrull mother ship and then return to Earth. This saucer clearly resembles a Skrull saucer (at least what later artists who copied Kirby's design thought a Skrull ship should look like,) and it is completely different from the over space craft seen on Planet X, which looked more like a space rocket not a saucer. May be Kurrgo bought it from the Skrull, or it crashed into the Planet X and was rebuilt by Kurrgo's robot, may be humans aren't the first alien race to visit Planet X, who really knows?  

There was plenty of comic strip pages this issue and not as much room for feartures, however the back page does boast a mighty Marvel extra as we find a "through the keyhole" look at Namors undersea home. Everything a proud Atlantean would want to furnish his living space. Originally a bonus page from the Fantastic Four issue 11 from February 1963 by Jack Kirby. No clue as to what's in store for the Hulk, (well apart from it saying at the end of the Hulk strip next week the "Origin of the Leader",) Spidey or the Fantastic Four. So we'll have to read next weeks blog or read a copy of MWOM #16 to find out. I know I will, will you? 

See you in seven!

Make Mine Marvel.