Mad March Mysterio!

 Week Ending 17th March 1973

Daffodils,

That come before the swallow dares, and take

The winds of March with beauty.”

― William Shakespeare (The Winter’s Tale)

It's the middle of March and spring is round the corner. Daffodils and snow drops are flowering, new born lambs are frolicking in the fields and Mad March hares box franticly, but more importantly it's that time of week to catch up on all that mighty Marvel madness as Spider-man faces the menace of Mysterio, the Fantastic Four hunt down the Hulk and much, much more!

The Mighty World of Marvel #24

Jim Starlin (layouts) and Al Milgrom (finishing pencils) pay homage to the classic Jack Kirby from Fantastic Four #12 in this flipped scene were the Fantastic Four meet the Hulk in subterranean tunnels under the New Mexico desert. In the original the Hulk entered the scene from the left of the panel while the FF entered from the right, no reason to change it so I guess that Starlin just wanted to be different. John Contanza inked the final piece. It's a fine cover but I do love Kirby's original more.

The Incredible Hulk "Like a beast at bay!"

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Jack Kirby, Mike Esposito

Inker: Mike Esposito 

Originally published in Tales to Astonish #71

Cover date September 1965

(Published in June 1965)

You can tell that Mike Esposito has done more than just inked this story, the artwork doesn't have the full feel of Kirby. The credit box lists Jack Kirby as doing the "lavish layouts" and gives M Espoito the credit for the "Awesome art", although in the original US comic he is credited as Mickey Demeo. I can only imagine that Kirby's workload demanded that Esposito take on the extra work. His effort is fine, neat and very tidy, so I don't feel that this particular story lost out on that arrangement as the story itself is very uncluttered and may have suffered from a Kirby extravaganza. Sometimes you just want beans on toast instead of Michelin star platters.  

Stan Lee has always played very fast and very loose with atomic power and atomic weapons of mass destruction. I fully understand why he bends scientific facts, it's all in the aim of turning the dramatic levels up to eleven. The US military launch a "Sunday Punch" missile to defeat the giant Humanoid. Or as the Hulk calls it a "Sunday Puncher". I think Stan forgot what he originally called it last issue. The Hulk leaps away with Rick, just missing the atomic missile' mushroom cloud and rides the shock wave to out run the impending fireball! Stan gets General Ross to fix the science slip-up by informing Major Talbot that the Sunday Punch is US military's latest and largest "Clean Bomb" which leaves no lingering radioactivity! Which is real handy in these situations.  

It's such a "clean bomb" that the US troops are around the fallen Humanoid like Lilliputians around a subdued Gulliver not long after it is downed. 

Stan runs through the rest of the story very quickly, the giant Humanoid is quickly dispatched, by the Leaders quick clean up "Flame Destruct button", every evil genius should have one! General Ross and his troops give chase to an escaping Hulk to finally corner him in Banners secret (but not any more,) cave. The Hulk can't change back into Banner due to a bullet that's lodged in his skull from two weeks ago. The Hulk makes Rick Jones leave during a lull in the heavy shelling. 

The Leader via a "Projecto-ray" offers the Hulk a chance to escape. Think of the Princess Leia hologram in Star Wars A New Hope, but green instead of blue. More "Hulk, I bring you your last hope!" Less "Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi you're my only hope!" But will he take it? Find out next week where this story starts to really heat up.   

Will the real Reed Richards please stand up? Only one is the genuine Richards, can you spot which one? It's harder than you think. The answer will be revealed later.

Daredevil "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)

I feel I might have been overly critical of Joe Orlando's work on Daredevil from the last two weeks of his adventures in MWOM #22 and #23. I can honestly say that those opinions come from my deep love for Bill Everetts Daredevil origin story. Rod Tough a regular commentator on this very blog, pointed out in Mischief makers  that due to personal issues Bill Everett had taken over a year to produce his work for Daredevil #1, causing the hastily created Avengers #1 to be released in its slot. When you read up on it Jack Kirby, as you would have imagined a quite common occurrence , designed a costume and the billy club concept, while Everett modified it to some extent. There was also uncredited input from other artists on that story, Joe Quesada told NewsARama.com in October 2007 that "Steve Ditko and Sol Brodsky ended up inking a lot of backgrounds and secondary figures on the fly, they cobbled the cover and the splash page together from Kirby's original concept drawing, and so forth". It just goes to show that really great ideas come from a creative collective. All that makes my love for it stronger. So a regular artist for DD would have been required, so hastily Joe Orlando was chosen, together with a known villain to fight. Electro was a quick fit. This weeks work plays to Orlando' strengths and his co-creation of the Owl is the prefect concept of a Daredevil villain. If they had waited and gone from the origin story to this one it would have seemed seamless. 

Both Lee and Orlando have seen what worked and what didn't, making the darker feel of the comic come to the front and centre. Getting rid of the overcomplicated use of Daredevils powers and relying on more straightforward believability. A brooding noble vigilante with a vulnerable alter ego who is unsure of the possibility of finding love with is secretary Karen Page. The Owl, a  merciless capitalist criminal who cares not a jot for any man if they get in his way to financial gain is the perfect foil to Matt Murdocks socially aware lawyer who looks out to find justice for those in need.

Daredevil over relies upon his super senses, and fails to keep track of the Owl. A great move by Stan Lee highlighting our heroes over confidence, showing a flaw in a character makes that character more human and relatable, in other words "the Marvel way!"

This story pointed out what many young readers of super-hero comics must have thought, what does a super-hero do with their every day clothes? Well Stan's answer for Daredevil was roll them up and play basket ball with them!

Stan and Joe must have mulled over that eternal question and set upon an idea. Daredevil would wear a special hood in which he could store his street clothes. When I saw this as a kid I totally believed it. It seems a perfect answer, but every adult who has packed a case or bag for a trip or holiday knows it's not as simple as that. It kind of looks silly and not ideal when fighting criminals. Seeing Spider-man with his webbed up backpack looks alright though, just not this design.

The Owl shows his decadence with a secret aerie on the Palisades cliffs over looking the Hudson River and a cold dispassionate persona towards his underlings, nearly killing them just to show off his gliding abilities in their rescue.

I've made slightly mocking comments about Marvels Mini-posters in the past but I have to say that I really quite like these two this week. They look to be Kirby works and I especially like that they're a matching pair with an exploding effect between Reed and Sue. I've got to say I'm not the only one as whoever owned my copy of MWOM #24 before me must have liked them too, as they cut up their copy to either add to a scrapbook or frame them or just stick them up on a wall. Which is fine they payed for the comic in 1973, but not so great for me. To read the Daredevil story I had to view a digital copy. The following page was thankfully intact showing an in-house advert for this weeks issue of Spider-man Comics Weekly, showing a very cool Ditko panel of Spider-man fighting Mysterio. Again under that an ever present FOOM application form.  

 
An other Fantastic Four Halls of Infamy featuring Doctor Doom. Not a Kirby work, this one is drawn and inked by Steve Ditko and originally appeared in the Amazing Spider-man Annual #1 cover dated October 1964 (published on June 1964.). The text is lifted upwards to replace "First appeared in the Amazing Spider-man #5" at the top and at the bottom text was changed from advertising the Fantastic Four Annual of that year to text asking for readers to keep a look out for Doom in the Mighty World of Marvel. The top header was also changed from "A gallery of Spider-man's most famous foes!" to the Fantastic Four's Hall of infamy header.

 The Mighty Marvel Mailbag contains three letters from readers this week. The first comes from Carl Gafford from Leeds, who asks have they got any new "baddies" coming up any time soon? I'm not sure spoilers was a thing in 1973 but the editor replied without hesitation by informing Carl that in MWOM issue 26 both Daredevil and the Fantastic Four encounter new opponents, as DD has to face Killgrave the controller while the FF have to contend with the Mad Ghost and his super apes! I'll talk more about them when I reach issue 26 in my Marvel UK at 50 run. Cara Sherman from Bolton just loves Namor the Sub-Mariner and just wishes he wasn't a villain. The much misunderstood Prince will also be returning in the future, in issue 28 in fact! Liverpool's Mike Harris wants to know will Marvel UK publish any of 

Marvels science-fiction stories? The editor suggest that some are waiting in the wings when they have space. Mike would also like to see an expanded letter page. As the fans are the real editors they'll look into it. 

The Fantastic Four "The Incredible Hulk!" 

  

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Jack Kirby

Inker: Dick Ayers

Originally published in The Fantastic Four #12

Cover date March 1963

(Published in December 1962)

Now as every Power of the Beesting reader probably by now realises that I absolutely adore any story that was printed in the Marvel Annual 1974 (published in the autumn of 1973.) and the reason for that is a) they're all absolutely amazing stories and b) they set my nostalgic senses off like Spider-man at a super villain convention, as that annual is one of my oldest Marvel memories. So if you think I look at those stories with nostalgia tinted glasses you'll be dead right but that doesn't mean they're not great 'cause they are incredibly fantastic. So any one who thinks otherwise has to take it out with the Hulk, the Thing and myself, you don't want to make us angry! This story does feature in that annual as the last story in a collection of masterpieces, the headline act at a comic Glastonbury if you will!

 

 Some might say that early Kirby Fantastic Four was drawn in a far too simplistic way, with Jack uncertain on a solid design for the FF members. Mr. Fantastic look like an aging professor one minute and a young handsome hero figure the next. The Human Torch would look like a kid one minute and the next, well a streak of flame without human form. Then there's the Thing who looks like a blob one minute and the next a completely different looking blob. There's only the Invisible  girl who has had a constant look in the first 11 stories. In this story from the Fantastic Four's 12th  book Kirby has set his mind on what they all look like. Yeah in the future the look does get the odd tweak here and there but in general it's set. In 1962 this book was doing well so after a year of publishing it was pretty much safe. Stan and Jack really set the character traits in stone. I especially love Ben Grimm's character and his relationship with Alice Masters in this tale. The Thing gets to flex his muscles this week. The scene when he is mistaken for the Hulk is truly wonderful. It's got Stan's humour and gruff street wise sass that makes the Thing so ever-loving! Jack Kirby brings out the best in him too, there's inventiveness and action as the military fire their new flexi steel cable bazooka. Ben just flexes his muscles and it shatters in to hundreds of pieces. 

This was the first time I saw the Fantastic Four together, I love this panel. The Torch has more of a human form when he's flaming, Reed looks like a noble hero and Sue isn't there to make up the numbers. They're a team and a family. Their characters are defined, Johnny is cheeky when he teases Ben about his date, Reed his shown as in charge and observant of Ben's mood and Sue is instantly caring, the heart of the team. While Ben is grumpy in a funny way. Ladies and gentlemen I present the world's greatest super-family.

Here we get Marvel's first cross over, well apart from the time when the Fantastic Four appeared in Spider-man stories, this is the first time a character from another comic book made an appearance in the Fantastic Four. General Ross arrives to apologise to the Thing for the earlier case of mistaken identity. The General with his Aide Captain Nelson, (his first and only appearance, Major Talbot has yet to join the General as his security chief.) has also come to New York to ask for the Fantastic Four's help in capturing the Hulk. If it's not obvious by now this story takes place earlier in the Hulks time line. This slight confusion comes from the Hulk having shorter stories that last a week to see printed and the FF's stories take up to two weeks to tell. In fact once the FF meet Doctor Banner and Rick Jones a text box informs the British readers that this story takes place before Rick left Banner to attend college. A clever lie made up for British readers to explain in the Hulks own story where Jones had gone, when in fact he had joined the Avengers as Captain America's side kick. 

Someone has been sabotaging military projects in New Mexico and the Hulk is seen as the prime suspect. 

I have at times criticised the way Kirby has drawn the Hulk in his second run on the Hulk strip. His first run, as seen in the first 12 issues of MWOM is charming, his later attempts, as seen in issues 21 onwards are a lot less so, but still growing on me. In this story we see his definitive Hulk. The perfect man-monster! I absolutely love this version! 

I just love this page from the comic, as the Fantastic Four describe how they're each going to defeat the Hulk once they meet him. The Thing is simply going to clobber him! The Human Torch  wants to stop him by creating a flame tunnel and then a flame maze so he can't escape. Mr. Fantastic wants to be more scientific in his approach by capturing him, possibly to study in an inversion of the old rug/pit trick.

You might notice that when it come to the Invisible Girls turn to imagine her first encounter with the Hulk she is left wondering if she is going along for the ride, to which General Ross quips that "A pretty young lady can always be of help--Just by keeping the mens morale up!" To which Reed replies "That's just the way we feel about Sue General!" Well you can take the comic out of the 60's, but you can't take the sexist behaviour out of the comic. No wonder Sue has a large soft spot for Namor the Sub-Mariner. He treats her fairly. 

Well enough of that sexism, Have I mentioned that I still absolutely love this comic?  

We get our first glimpse of the Mark II Fantasti-Car. So much better than that old flying bath tub! I absolutely love this design. Makers of the next Fantastic Four film take note, this is what it should look like! Lovely curves, sleek fins, race car windshields, soft leather seats and multi turbines. See that MCU producers, yeah I'm talking to you Kevin Feige, make it look like that, it's a thing of beauty!  

The turbines could use SHIELD Helicarrier /Stark replusor technology. It even splits into four separate vehicles. Imagine the toy sales from a film that features it, Kevin Feige! 

On the flight over the team review the Projects 34, a anti-grav missile that has been wrecked by an unknown saboteur, judging by the damage whoever did it must have been big. the General assumes it was the Hulk who caused the damage. At the base Doctor Richards meets Doctor Banner, who explains that the apparatus was destroyed from the inside out and that a rampaging Hulk would have torn the device from the outside in! The Doctor also introduces his assistants Doctor Karl Kort and Rick Jones. 

Doctor Kort leaves the conference room passing Ben, Sue and Johnny outside. This scene is fantastic I love that Kort was is terrified when he spots the three members waiting in the corridor. It's fun, it's a visual dream and I just love it. It also finished with a bit of a "Chekhov's revolver" moment when the Human Torch picks up a wallet that will play out next week. I love that! I think I've mentioned that once or twice, well may be a dozen or so times but I really do love this story! I can't wait for read next weeks continuation of this weeks Fantastic Four. I just love it!

The back page is taken up with a great looking Pin-up page featuring The Thing. This is an adapted version of the cover of the Fantastic Four #107 from February 1971 drawn by John Buscema with inks added by Joe Sinnott. It still shows that comics story title "And no..the Thing". 

Also at the bottom of the page the answers to "Will the real Reed Richards please stand up", incase you wondered the answer is number two is the real Mr. Fantastic.

Spider-man Comics Weekly #5

As you would expect this weeks cover is an adapted Steve Ditko cover from the Amazing Spider-man issue 13, with the lower panels taken from this weeks the mighty Thor story drawn by Jack Kirby and inked by Dick Ayers. It looks really great, oozing a mysterious charm.

Spider-man "The menace of...Mysterio!"

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Steve Ditko    

Inker: Steve Ditko 

Originally published in The Amazing Spider-man  #13

Cover date June 1964

(Published in March 1964)

What's this? Can Spider-man have turned to crime? Well probably not. I mean the clues are there if you look. Yeah the costume looks great but doesn't Spider-man look a little more muscular than the teenage hero normally is? That may be my eyes playing tricks but I feel that Ditko was very subtle in his artwork. As the tale unfolds who ever is in the costume uses very convincing devices to fool the public into thinking that Spider-man has turned to crime. So much so that even Peter Parker starts to think he's got a split personality, going as far as asking a psychiatrist to look at him, only backing out at the last minute due to worries that he may give his secret identity away. This anxiety leads him to doubt himself and become short tempered with his girlfriend Betty Brant. There's only Flash Thomson who believes that Spider-man is innocent. Jonah Jameson is on cloud nine, it's all the evidence he needs to tell everyone that he as always been right about the web-slinger.

A mysterious character called, well believe it or not Mysterio, enters Jamesons office at the Daily Bugle wanting Jameson to print a message that asks Spider-man to meet him atop of the Brooklyn bridge. So as you expect Spider-man does, which leads to a spectacular fight as Mysterio uses fantastical "powers" to defy gravity, or melts Spider-man's webbing or disappear in a cloud of Spider-sense confusing smoke! In the end Spider-man is so confounded that he takes discretion to be the better part of valour and leaps into the Hudson River to fight another day. Mysterio is hailed a hero by everyone including Jonah Jameson who introduces him to Peter Parker at the Bugle offices when Mysterio calls round to collect the money Jameson promised him for defeating Spider-man. Peter slips a Spider-tracker into the fraudsters cape.

Spider-man follows the trackers signal to a TV movie studio where he confronts Mysterio again but this time Spidey fakes defeat to get a confession out of him. Mysterio is a great Ditko creation. His costume is just bizarre in every way. A large gold fish bowl head with two eyes just below his shoulders that hold a very theatrical cape. It's bonkers to the extreme. There's no way that it would be designed like that today. But this 60's psychedelic fashion statement is a treat to the eyes. Every credit to the makers of Spider-man: Far from Home. Their version is a perfect homage to Ditko's creation. Like most villains Mysterio tells Spider-man everything in a massive information dump that clues the reader in to the why's and how's! Before he became a super-villain he was a stunt man and special effects designer. He created the props to imitate Spider-Man's costume, powers and webbing. To further his ambitions, he also created another alter ego- Mysterio so that he could defeat Spider-man and become the hero. Now wouldn't have it been easier just to carry on committing crimes as Spider-man? His over flamboyant ego  of becoming Mysterio give him away, but I guess that would have shorten the plot some what. We'd learn in later stories that Mysterio's real name was Quentin Beck and that he had appeared previously in the Spider-Man adventure "The uncanny threat of the terrible Tinkerer!" seen in  MWOM #6 , as an alien looking henchman to the Tinkerer. 

Steve Ditko has a field day with the end fight, the amount of weirdness he can put on the page is spectacular with the unnatural backdrop of a film studio. This story is reaching Ditko's best. Of course, Spider-Man defeats Mysterio, and gives the police a recording of the villains confession admitting his crimes and clearing Spider-man of any wrong doings.

This weeks colour spread is again taken up by a teaser of Thor proclaiming that "the secret of the Free Mystery Gift doth approach!" and Spider-man asking "What's better than a drawing?" as the third clue. Can any one guess? Don't cheat if you already know the answer. This weeks coupon is Doctor Octopus, my digital copy of this issue had the coupon cut out but thankfully my physical copy is immaculately intact. Also these pages feature the Stan Lee Sounds Off! column. Stan claims that Spider-man Comics Weekly is as big of a hit as the Mighty World of Marvel. He alludes to the fact that the readers enthusiastic support helps push the Bullpens crew of writers and artists to create the thrills you read about in these comics. But also he adds "if we occasionally come up with a clinker, then go hang your head, hero- because whatever we do, you're the one who's responsible!" That feels a low shot, but with Stan I guess we are meant to take it as a joke as he follows it up with "Yep, we've had a lot of laughs together and a lot of excitement- and the fun is just beginning!" He ends with "we'll never let you down, O Keeper of the Faith, 'cause we're nothing without you! Excelsior!" Stan the showman!

The Web and the Hammer mail bag this week holds three letters from True Believers, the first being Robert Trent from Hampshire who got a real kick out of reading the Human Torch/Spider-man battle from MWOM and would like to see more like that. The editor replies that in SMCW #6 the Web-slinger is force to fight the Hulk and in SMCW #8 he will meet Daredevil in an adventure. Ernie Volney from Liverpool writes in saying he fully approves of the longer Spider-man stories and that Thor is sensational too. Jimmy Thornedyke from South Wales writes that he this the Spider-man story in SMCW #1 was fantastic and he particularly like the mix of fantasy and science fiction in the Thor and the Sinister Stone Men from Saturn tale. As an added tease Jimmy is told that another Sci-fi tale will pit Thor against the Carbon-copy Man in issue 8! 

As a space filler this week we get another full page poster featuring Electro as one of Spider-man's most famous foes! Drawn by Steve Ditko this page once again is taken from the Amazing Spider-man Annual #1 cover dated October 1964 (published June 1964.) Only the "First appeared in Amazing Sider-man #9" text has been removed so as not to confuse young British readers.

 The Mighty Thor "A God in chains"

 

Writer: Stan Lee and Larry Lieber

Artist: Jack Kirby

Inker: Dick Ayers

Originally published in Journey into Mystery #87

Cover date December 1962

(Published in October 1962)

After last weeks sci-fi time traveling Tomorrow Man story this weeks tale is a 60's Cold War theme with the defection of American scientists to Russia, oops I mean Bodavia, as this is a British comic in the early 70's they wouldn't want to upset impressionable British readers.

Doctor Don Blake suspects fowl play is a foot so he sets himself up for a potential victim. His plan works and he's quickly kidnapped with use of a camera that releases mind controlling gas carried by a Bodavian spy.

 

Once in Bodavia Blake comes back to his senses to find himself at an interment camp for kidnapped scientists. Using the theory that there is psychological strength in unity the prisoners are separated into individual cells to aid the Bodavian methods of "persuasion". But this also gives Blake the chance to transform into Thor. The Thunder God creates havoc in the Bodavian fortress until the Red soldiers threaten destroying the prison cells that contain the American scientists. Thor agrees to release his hammer and surrender. Held in chains until he can be questioned by their leader, the soldiers leave. Its a good thing that they don't hang around as when the sixty seconds have passed the mighty Thor slims down to the lame Doctor. What's also strange is when Blake originally transformed into Thor he didn't wear a hat, now he does! No-prize time, it must have been the effect of those electrically enhanced chains that caused his helmet to change into a hat! Or may be it was a boob by Jack!  

If the truth be told this story may not be politically correct but it is a charming piece of its time. The heroes are brave and handsome while the villains are cowardly and ugly. Who's to say that it may carry some similarities with the current Ukraine-Russia conflict? This 60's Cold War trend of stealing the brightest and best from the west does have comparisons with the cyber attacks by Russia and China on the west. If this blog doesn't get published you can blame it on them!

Thor does indeed defeat the reds and rescue the imprisoned American scientists. And like this story all is good.

In-between Jack Kirby's gorgeous artwork you get a fun fact page entitled "Spider-man's science session!" Fun and fascinating facts about the black widow spider. I've no clue who drew it or who wrote the piece. It does look cool and pre-internet its a great way to educate young minds.

The back page features an in-house advert from this weeks Mighty World of Marvel #24 with proposed attractions of the Fantastic Four meeting the Hulk and a promise of action with Daredevil the man without fear! Also in that issue a fabulous free mini-poster. It shows the Hulk in the mini-poster but in fact as you've already read issue 24 has two mini-posters starring Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Girl. 

Also as you would expect another advert for the ultimate fan club Friends Of 'Ol Marvel. 

All in all a fantastic week of sensational Marvel goodness! With cracking stories and fun features. The stories have been getting better and the best is as always yet to come! More fabulous nostalgia next week that's for sure. 

See you in seven!

Make Mine Marvel!

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