Green for action!

 Week Ending 24th March 1973

There's a lot to get through this week, Loki wants vengeance on his brother, Spider-man has to take on the Enforcers, the Hulk and a villain that will have lasting effects on his super-hero and personal life for years and years to come. Daredevil tries to stop the Owl and get Karen Page to safety. The Hulk has a bullet in his head and is forced into an uneasy alliance with the Leader and to top all that the Hulk is in the battle of the century with the Fantastic Four just to prove that he's not the Wrecker. Three appearances in three stories for the Hulk this week. Just proves it isn't easy being green!

The Mighty World of Marvel #25

Daredevil is given the starring roll on this weeks Jim Starlin (layouts) and Al Milgrom (finishes) cover. I'm not overly impressed with Starlin's version of the Owl, his face looks like a ventriloquist dummy with over exaggerated tufts of hair as "owl" like ears, very 80's Wolverine like. Although that might have come more from the pencil of Milgrom but (twit-her-) who knows. Mike Esposito inks the Daredevil part of the cover. "The battle of the century!" lower three panels are lifted from this weeks Fantastic Four strip were the FF meet the Hulk for the first time, drawn by Jack Kirby and inked by Dick Ayers. My eyes are drawn to those three panels, they would be the eye candy that would make me want to buy this comic.

The Incredible Hulk "Within the monster dwells a man!"

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Jack Kirby, Mike Esposito

Inker: Mike Esposito 

Originally published in Tales to Astonish #72

Cover date October 1965

(Published in July 1965)

The Hulk has some pretty hard decisions to make this week, either stay in his desert cave and be blown to bits by General Ross' bombing or let his arch enemy the Leader teleport him to safety. Safety as in sanctuary in an art gallery in Rome. Hulk made the right choice, its a European city break every time over a dusty war zone. I'm a little surprised his didn't make that choice sooner, although I guess it's quite hard to think straight with a bullet in your head. That bullet means the Hulk can't change back to Bruce Banner as that would mean instant death.

This story isn't bad, it's packed with loads of action as well as some very high concept sci fi tropes, both being its strength and weakness. I think the responsibility that lies with Stan Lee and Jack Kirby as the story writers (yes I am defining Kirby as a writer with this story,) and the artist of the strip Mike Esposito. I imagine that like many Marvel tales of that era Stan would give Jack a very rough outline, which in this case seems to have crammed in loads of plot in a very small page count. Kirby then draws a basic layout for the story but unlike other strips he left must of that to Esposito to finish. Esposito left many panels very plain, because in my opinion Kirby had only given him only the bear bones to the panel look. Take for example the missile barrage of the cave, it's very functional but very basic, a missile, an explosion, some flying rocks and a large sound effect. Any kid could draw that, but it does work. Now look at the close up of the hulk's face, there's loads of tiny detail telling the pain and frustration of the Hulk's situation, yeah the back ground is plain but that only emphasises the plight of the Hulk. 

Take the three panels that show the teleportation of the Hulk, in the first panel the artwork looks again very simple and childlike, while the other too drew from classic sci fi concepts. The Leader in his Rome hideaway and gallery looks very detailed but too much plot driving thought balloons cover most of it up. I feel that Mike Esposito wants to let the artwork run but he's holding back too. I love the design of the Leaders art sculptures/Humanoids, they are very avant-garde and some of the characters faces show incredible detail but I also feel that some of the Hulks expression makes him seem too much apelike. I do like this story but I can see things that I don't like too. I'm split on it like Banner and Hulk. I think I really needed to have more Kirby input into the art to satisfy me. 

Daredevil "Trapped by the Owl, ominous overlord of crime!"

  

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Joe Orlando

Inker: Vince Colletta

Originally published in Daredevil #3

Cover date July 1964

(Published in May 1964)

With splitting a story into two for a weekly comic required the creation of a fresh title every other week. This weeks Daredevil title could have been simply "Trapped by the Owl!" Not for Marvel UK, no let's get the thesaurus out and really go to town. I'm not knocking it, "Trapped by the Owl!" is pretty bland, were as "Trapped by the Owl, ominous overlord of crime!" is much more interesting. This splash page is a repurposed cover from Daredevil issue 3 by Jack Kirby and Vince Colletta. The owl is trying to expand his hold over the New York crime scene, so as you would, your first move is to get a good lawyer. Which leads him to call in on Murdock and Nelson Law Practice, where he encounters Daredevil and a confused Karen Page who the Owl uses as a hostage to get DD to surrender. 

The owl takes them both to his secret aviary. The story then falls into a typical super-hero/super villain romp. Hero and hostage have to escape while villain plots his plans to gain more power. Hero makes a daring escape, hostage goes for help while hero and villain fight. All in all it's a fine romp that's does what you expect from a story and nothing more. Joe Orlando's artwork is more suited this week, or is that just because it's growing on me?

Just as the cover head line promised you get not one, not two, but three Marvel Mini-posters this week. You get an ever-lovin' blue-eyed Thing by John Buscema and Joe Sinnott, taken straight of the cover of the Fantastic Four #116 from November 1971. Daredevil the man without fear and Prince Namor, the mighty Sub-mariner, both by whom I can't place. A Power of the Beesting "No-price" if you can spot who drew them and where they originally appeared. Stan sounds off again in his irregular UK column "Stan Lee Sounds Off!" Previously this column was just free advertising for other products like FOOM, Spider-man Comics Weekly or the new Daredevil strip, but this week Stan gives us an insight into "the Marvel Philosophy". In Stan's own words "any motive we may have, our purpose is plain and simple- we're out to entertain you!" But as any reader of Marvel knows it's more than that, dare I say it? Well it's kind of a way of life, well may be a little. There's always been something more to Marvel. It's informative and educational too. Marvel never preaches on how you should look on life, but there is always a positive undertone. I'll let Stan sum it up best, "But now we'll tell you a secret. If, while we're tossing all this extravagant entertainment at you, we can also manage (however humbly) to advance the cause of intellectualism. humanitarianism, and mutual understanding - and to swamp you with a little swingin' satire in the process". How that's Excelsior!

Four letters this week in the Mighty Marvel Mailbag, the first from Kevin Meson from Yorkshire who thinks it would be a great idea if Marvel were to create a special binder to hold all your old copies of MWOM neat and tidy. Not a bad idea but with the amount of comics I have I would need hundreds, Ikea shelving works for me. A puzzled David Browne from Manchester wants to know why there wasn't a poster in issue 5 as he likes cutting them out to save. Is David Browne responsible for all the missing pages in some of my vintage comics? Steven Watson from North Wakefield would love someone to invent a Marvel game and finally Adrian Poole from Portsmouth has one point he would like clearing up, in issue 6 the Thing gets hit by some of the bullets from the machine gun fired by the Miracle Man. As the Thing is so incredibly strong, why is he stunned by the force of the bullets. I say why not, you still feel the force of a bullet even when you wear a bullet proof vest, the Thing's rock hard skin may withstand the bullets but I imagine it would be painful.

The Fantastic Four "Enter--the Wrecker!"

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Jack Kirby

Inker: Dick Ayers

Originally published in The Fantastic Four #12

Cover date March 1963

(Published in December 1962)

This weeks Marvel UK invented title to the second half of the Fantastic Four adventure is pure and simple, "Enter--the Wrecker!" You don't need much to sign post what this story is about, the large splash panel does it all. It's fun and dramatic at the same time, I just love it. I promise I'll not start that again if I can help it.

Stan and Jack don't stop the fun there, the Thing shows off his impressive strength by tearing in half General Ross's bound set of telephone books. Does Stan really rip strips of the General, a man who proudly displays bound telephone books as the high light of his intellectual reading. Incase there are any "young uns" reading this blog, telephone book is a massive book that lists the names, addresses, and phone numbers of the people and businesses in a certain area, years before the internet or before you had a contact list in your phone. Next week I'll discuss what a video cassette was!

Remember that wallet that Doctor Kort dropped last week? Well the Torch picked it up and gives it to Rick Jones to hand back to Kort. Keep notes, that may be important later. The teenagers don't hit it off, Rick thinks the Torch is a hot head and the Torch with his big ego thinks that Rick is green with envy. Johnny Storm is a bit of an egocentric character, which does become grating if handled incorrectly. Luckily some of that is toned down a little without taking away some of that playful charm.

Rick sets off to return the wallet to Doctor Karl Kort, only to spot a membership card  of a subversive Bodavian-front organisation. Which of course means that Doctor Kort is a spy and the security at the New Mexico US army base is really poor. Karl with a "K" that's a massive give away that he's a Red! Kort kidnaps Rick when he hears him deduce his identity.

 

Another example to the editors protecting young British minds or possibly to save offending the more liberal to left sided readership by removing the communist from "subversive communist-front organisation", and swapping the "a red" in "Karl Kort  must be--a red" with "a spy!" Did we as young readers care about this constant censorship? It does have a certain charm to it even if its intention was misguided. Have we grown up with 1984 style "newspeak" that makes every time we read Bodavian we think Russian or Communist and when we read Spy we think Red! Who knows? But any way it's all double plus good! More on that next week you can bet!

I thought this scene was great as a kid, this kind of Kirby machinery is fantastic. You wonder why the FF have stop looking for the Hulk of the saboteur to tinker with a rocket sled, but that's pure Fantastic Four. Ben just volunteered to test drive the sled without any questions, as Reed fixes and improves it by ironing out the bugs from the system. Its crazy sci-fi B-movie vibes makes the FF so enjoyable to read.

Of course it works with the Thing pulling fifty G and laughing at the ride. Disaster strikes as two robotic hands reach up through the ground to bend the rail tracks sending the rocket sled and Ben dangerously into the air.

 Confession time, I first read this story in Marvel Annual 1974 and at that I hadn't seen much if any of the Fantastic Four so when I saw the Thing rescue at the hands of the Human Torch and Mr. Fantastic I didn't under stand it was Reed in the last panel turning his body into a human trampoline. I thought it was some kind of hippo creature! It took a lot of re-reading to grasp how Reed's powers worked and they weren't just stretchy arms powers. Hey I was only four at the time! 

The FF investigate the sabotage, still believing that the Hulk was responsible and not trusting Banners statement that the Wrecker was to blame and that he's holding Rick Jones as a hostage. Banner decides it's time for the Hulk to take direct action. What Jack Kirby gives us is a demonstration of his artistic strengths, a futuristic machine that initialises the change from man to beast, then presents the inhuman change itself. Classic Kirby.

The Fantastic Four investigate the tunnels found under the rocket sled track in search of the Hulk, while the wrongly accused green one searches for the Wrecker and Rick Jones in the very same tunnels. What happens next is a Marvel classic as these two icons come face to face. 

Now this is what the fans want, a smash down featuring the Hulk against the Fantastic Four. Arguably the first Silver age Marvel crossovers between comic heroes. Golden age heroes like the original Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner did cross over during that time and I wonder with the Sub-mariner becoming once again a hit with fans did the fathers of Marvel comics want to continue this trend. Stan and Jack made a very important decision to connect all Marvels latest heroes together in one world. First published in December 1962 the same month that the Fantastic Four also made a guest appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #1. At the time of that publication the Hulk had his own title only to have it cancelled in the same month after just six issues with Jack Kirby drawing the first five, this may have been like a swan song for him with that character. After this issue the Hulk would appear next in The Avengers #1 and later join Tales to Astonish as a back up strip with issue 60. Kirby did his best Hulk artwork with this story.

With the Hulk more than a match for Mr.Fantastic and the Torch it's left up to Ben Grimm to take on the fight in what should be a clash of titans. Every reader wanted to know who is stronger the Thing or the Hulk? But that answer is taken from us by the intervention of an unknown interferer who uses an atom-powered ray gun and renders the Hulk unconscious.

We discover the real villain of the piece, a giant robot- the Wrecker! It's a classic Kirby robot, it's like a mad crazy killdozer, with tractor head lights for eyes and digging claws for hands. The Thing makes scrap metal out of it in seconds, which is a real shame, I would have loved to have seen more of it. Notice how the Invisible Girl keeps out of the fight with the Hulk but follows the Thing back down into the tunnels? Women's intuition may be, did she suspect that the Hulk wasn't the culprit all along? And was more sensible to wait and watch rather than get involved in an unnecessary fight? I sometimes wonder if in someways she's as smart as Reed Richards is! 

Sue and Ben discover that Doctor Karl Kort is the mastermind behind the sabotaging. It's Sue who with a karate chop stops Kort from firing his ray gun at Ben and unties Rick, all before Reed and Johnny recover from the fight with the Hulk. This story just shows how vitally important Sue Storm is to the team and not just there to keep the menfolks morale up like General Ross implies last issue.

The General offers the FF a guard of honour and in his own way so does the Hulk. Again as a child it took a couple of attempts to figure out what the FF were saluting at. At first I didn't realise that they were solders on parade. 

This story is one of the greatest Hulk stories ever, it's one of the greatest Fantastic Four stories too. But it has got to be the GREATEST ever Hulk v Fantastic Four story of all time. Fact...don't argue!

Surprise! Surprise! Surprise! That's the headline informing us that next week there's something of a surprise coming! 

"That's what we've been keeping up our sleeves for you and you...and you. It's your Marvel-ous chance to capture a free groovy gasp making gift that'll send you in a spin!" 

Apparently there are two clues to what the surprise gift is in those two sentences, can you spot them? Find out next week if you're right!

Finally for this weeks the Mighty World of Marvel the back page hosts an in-house advert for this weeks Spider-man Comics Weekly number 6. Now playing in that companion comic the Amazing Spider-man in an adventure with the grotesque Green Goblin as Loki wants vengeance on the mighty Thor legendary god of thunder! It'll also feature the secret of your "free mystery gift"! Not the one from the advert above but the one Marvel UK has been teasing in SMCW for the last three weeks. Keep reading to find out what's that all about. 

Spider-man Comics Weekly #6

This weeks cover is drawn by Jim Starlin and possibly inked by either Al Milgrom or Frank Giacoia or Mike Esposito. In truth I get my information from either the Marvel Wiki website, if it's a copy of the original cover or from the Grand Comics Database. This week no one can decide who inked it so I'll leave it up to your imaginations. I do recognise that the Hulk insert though, it comes from the cover of Spider-man #14, the story featured inside this issue and that is drawn by Steve Ditko. 

Spider-man "The grotesque adventure of the Green Goblin!'

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Steve Ditko    

Inker: Steve Ditko 

Originally published in The Amazing Spider-man  #14

Cover date July 1964

(Published in April 1964)

If you haven't already guessed this weeks Spider-man adventure sees the debut of the Green Goblin, a character that will have eternal repercussions for both Spider-Man and Peter Parker. I'm not sure how confident Stan or Steve were with this new arch foe. In his introductory  story Stan adds the Enforcers and the Hulk into the mix. The look of the Goblin must lay with Steve Ditko, the costume, his weapons and character have all the hallmarks of a Ditko creation. Later both Lee and Ditko would fall out over the direction the villain's character was taking. According to Steve Ditko in an interview in Starlog Movie magic presents Spider-man from 2002, "Stan's synopsis for the Green Goblin had a movie crew, on location, finding an Egyptian–like sarcophagus. Inside was an ancient, mythological demon, the Green Goblin. He naturally came to life. On my own, I changed Stan's mythological demon into a human villain." You can see the plot must have changed a lot to end up with the antagonist, the Green Goblin tricking a movie producer- B.J. Cosmos into filming a movie about a battle between Spider-man and the Green Goblin with the Enforcers. The Goblin's endgame was to win favour with the underworld crime syndicate by defeating the Web-slinger and become their leader with the Enforcers as his Lieutenants. I wonder if B.J. Cosmos was a little bit based on Stan Lee from Ditko's point of view.

The Goblin with his flying broom stick may have been a little too out there for many readers and might have drawn comparisons to Batman's arch villain, the Joker. To off set that the Enforcers were added to the mix as they had appeared not long ago in SMCW #2 . 

Spider-man falls for the trap after all he could do with the money. Many scenes later where Peter Parker gets Jonah to pay for his trip to the desert so that he can take pictures of the new Spider-man movie and   Peter explaining to friends, his girl friend Betty and Aunt May where he'll be going, he's on his way to Hollywood. As he's never heard of the Green Goblin, he suspects nothing, thinking that the Enforcers are just actors.

Out in the desert the rehearsal soon turns into a deadly fight. Out numbered and outplayed Spider-man seeks a respite in a cave, only to find a resting Hulk. So like a hibernating bear he's pretty angry to be disturbed. So now the Web-slinger has to contend with the Enforcers, the Green Goblin and the Green Hulk! Which of course he does.  Without a finished film there's no money. All he can do is only claim expenses from B. J. Cosmos.  

The Green Goblin flees back to New York to plan for another day. Ditko never reveals his identity with the most craziest of screens covering his face. That's a theme that will run and run with this character. 

It's a fine story, in itself it's nothing special, but to future storylines it's an important key story.Much like my opinion of the Green Goblin, I don't like the character with his silly look but I will love what will come in future issues.

The Marvel Mystery Gift is revealed... it's a photo! It doesn't state what it's a photo of, but I assume that it will be a photo of Spider-man. This week's coupon features Mysterio. There's the usual FOOM advert and an in-house advert for the Mighty World of Marvel #25 featuring a panel from this weeks Hulk adventure. With the Hulk appearance in the Spider-man strip the Hulk makes a hat trick. The editors must feel that especially in the UK the green giant is a winner in readers eyes.

Whether you're swinging on a web or swinging a hammer the Web and the Hammer is the letter page for you now these letters are addressed directly to SMCW, instead of letters for MWOM. Macnair Ripfield from Bolton equally enjoys both Spider-man and Thor's adventures. Gary Reader from Birmingham spotted in issue 2 of SMCW Spider-man saying "I don't get it! How do other superhuman guys like the F.F. and the Ant-Man get away with it?" He wonders who is Ant-man? Oh dear Marvel UK let that one slip. Fair to them they state in their answer that his a Marvel hero they'll reveal in issue 32 of MWOM in the future. Finally Michael Barker from Brighton really enjoys Electro as a super-villain and hopes to see him together with both the Vulture and Doctor Octopus in the future. Well keep an eye out for the Sinister Six coming soon to Spider-man Comics Weekly issues 9 and 10! 

Spider-man Comics Weekly also carries the Surprise! Surprise! Surprise! feature that appears in this weeks MWOM so I won't repeat that feature here. But a advert that shares that same page of SMCW advertises the weekly music newspaper Sounds. I do remember reading the occasional issue of Sounds in my teenage years. If the 1973 version is anything like the 80's version at 7 pence it would have been a bargain. I'm not sure how many readers of Spider-man would also pick up a copy of Sounds? The answer is probably more than I imagine.

The Mighty Thor "The vengeance of Loki!"

Writer: Stan Lee and Larry Lieber

Artist: Jack Kirby

Inker: Dick Ayers

Originally published in Journey into Mystery #88

Cover date January 1963

(Published in November 1962)

The final story in this weeks comic feast is a simple but fun tale of Loki taking his revenge on Thor. Loki uses his magic power, or read last weeks issue and found out that Doctor Don Blake is the mighty Thor and that once Thor releases his Hammer from his grip after sixty seconds the God of Thunder will revert to the lame surgeon. He sneaks past Heimdall and crosses Bifrost the Rainbow Bridge, to reach Earth and set a trap for Thor. Thor falls for the trap and Loki runs amok in New York, living up to his title as the God of Mischief. Don Blake then has to trick the trickster and reclaim his hammer. 

The interesting thing about this story is Stan Lee got Steve Ditko to draw the fifth panel of the last page again for the original comic, as revealed by Nick Caputo in his blog Marvel Mysteries and comic minutiae were the page seen at Heritage Auctions, revealed a stat under panel 5 with Jack Kirby's original drawing. Stan Lee likely requested a correction to make it appear more obvious that Thor was flying away from Earth. The correction was drawn by Steve Ditko.

Here's a close up of the two panels. I've got to admit I do prefer the Steve Ditko version of that panel. Although some of that Ditko artwork is cut in the Marvel UK page in an effort to make the US size page fit on a UK size page. As you can see Thor captures the God of Evil and returns him to Asgard for a fitting punishment.

With all that work on this weeks blog the Goblin and the Hulk aren't the only ones looking green, it's time for me to relax with a cup of Earl Grey and volume 3 of the Avengers Omnibus Edition for a while before I start again on next weeks Marvel UK output. So as ever...

See you in seven.

Make Mine Marvel!