Confusing continuity conundrums!

 Week Ending 2rd June 1973

If you read last weeks blog then read this weeks comics you might think that I made a mistake, well keep reading and you find out why it's just another case of the "crazy world of Marvel UK confusing continuity conundrum"! Read on and I'll explain. 

The Mighty World of Marvel #35

Now I'm not a fan of this weeks cover, it's very dark and the panel featuring the Fantastic Four looks very childlike. I'm not sure you can make it out but it looks like the Hulk is attacking a sub-way train, in the first Hulk story the Hulk accidentally damages the rail tracks which will cause an oncoming train to crash. The Hulk believes that will kill everyone on the train, The clouded mind that is still part Bruce Banner compels the beast to slow down the train. Some bystanders believe he's a hero while others think he's a menace. In Rich Buckler and Mike Esposito's cover there's no doubt, the Hulk looks like a menace.

The Incredible Hulk "Rampage in the city!" 

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Jack Kirby, Bill Everett, Gerry Grandenetti, Gene Colan

Inker: Bill Everett, Dick Ayers, Paul Reinman, John Romita SR

Originally published in Tales to Astonish #84

Cover date October1966

(Published in June 1966)

As the credits on the splash page says the art is by "almost the whole blamed Bullpen"! The reason for this can be easily explained by the dreaded deadline day disasters. The story plot involving the Secret Empire was crafted to be told over three strips, the Hulk and the Sub-Mariner in Tales to Astonish as well as Nick Fury from Strange Tales. Those three strip showcase the fall of the Secret Empire, it was one of the first special event crossovers but so much of it was clunky. For the full story of how and why is told by Tom Brevoolt in his blog "The Tom Brevoolt Experience". Tom is a fantastic creator well known for his work at Marvel, including the responsibility for multiple series like New Avengers, Civil War and the Fantastic Four as well as his blog which is always a great read and I highly recommend you read it, especially "Lee & Kirby & Everett & Grandinetti & Friends – The Messy Story of Tales to Astonish #84". But come right back after you do because there's loads more to find out in this weeks blog. 

Last week I explained how in Strange Tales #149 S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Gabriel Jones had infiltrated the Secret Empire, taking the identity of Number Nine who was seen assassinating members of the Council of Nine in the Hulk strip (seen by Marvel UK readers in The Titans #31). Years later it was ret-coned so that Gabriel Jones had been disguised as a different member of the Council who was thought to have been killed but he survived with the aid of an armoured suit and had subdued Number Nine and took his place as alluded to in Captain America #175. It didn't end like that, especially for Marvel UK readers, because this story was part cross over the Sub-Mariner appeared in a cinema scene, but this was cut out and a scene involving Secret Empire members Number Nine and the mysterious Number One meet a cross a room and exchange bullets with deadly effect was added instead. But that wasn't the end of it, because this story crossed over with the Sub-Mariner called "..And one shall die!" from Tales to Astonish #85 which did later see print in The Titans #15 31st January 1976, in which Number One had set up a bomb to destroy the Hulk, but in an attempt to escape from the Hulk Number One's robes get caught in a door and he dies in the blast. Robe/hood wearing villains are incredibly dum. So in the UK Number One dies twice and maybe Gabriel Jones takes over the identity of Number Nine after the boardroom shoot out! (Does that mean events that were told in Captain America #175 didn't happen if it wasn't printed in a Marvel UK comic???)

Here's the pages from Tales to Astonish #85 showing the demise of Number One for no reason but to see how rubbish the Secret Empire were. Hopefully if you stick with this blog and I don't wear out my fingers typing it, we'll get round to that story when I review The Titans #31 sometime in January 2026.

This Hulk Pin-up page, drawn by Jack Kirby and possibly inked by Chic Stone (I can't be sure of the inker, the Grand Comic Database says it's Stone while Marvel Fandom.com says Kirby did it all himself.) from two covers. The top panel came from the of Tales to Astonish #61 cover dated November 1964, published August 1964 while the lower panel comes from the cover of Tales To Astonish #63 cover dated January 1965, published October 1964. 

Another reminder that next weeks issues of the Mighty World of Marvel and Spider-man Comics Weekly will list the winners and answers to the Football contest from a couple of weeks ago. 

The Incredible Hulk. "The missile and the monster!"

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: John Buscema

Inker: John Tartaglione

Originally published in Tales to Astonish #85

Cover date November1966

(Published in August 1966)

After this issues previous Hulk strip with a platoon of artists working to meet the deadline Stan Lee chose John Buscema to handle to artwork. Buscema had been the youngest artist to work in the Timely Bullpen in the 40's drawing everything from Crime to Romance to Western comics and later in the 50's for Atlas comics. the new name for Timely, he went on to drawing Fantasy, Mystery and Science Fiction stories. But by the late 50's he had fallen out of love with comics, the down turn in the comic industry lead him to become a freelancer commercial artist for the advertising firm Chaite Agency, where  he spent approximately eight years at. By1966 Stan Lee persuaded him to return to the now named Marvel Comics as a regular freelance penciller. His return debuting job was Strange Tales #150 Cover dated November 1966, published August 1966 in which he added pencils artwork over Jack Kirby's layouts on "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." This Hulk story was the start of a three issue run on the green giant, which would then be followed by his regular art chores on The Avengers #41 onwards. I have to say that depending on what mood I am in Buscema is in my all time top three greatest comic book artists. His work on The Avengers, the Silver Surfer and Conan is sensational! I do like his artwork for this strip but I have to admit that I don't feel he's completely suited to the emerald monster. If you press me I'll give you ten names of artists in that top three! 

The Hulk still in New York, still looking for the FF (in the original version of these stories he was looking for his ex-teammates the Avengers, but as they had yet to make an appearance in a Marvel UK comic the FF was used as his reason for going to the Big Apple.), Rick Jones had taken a job to deliver a car to New York as a way to reach the city but unknown to him in the boot of that car contained a robot that its sleeper foreign spy owner Gorki (pretty obvious that one Mr Jones,) had intended to deploy in New York with a internal device that makes the Orion Missile change directions and head towards the city. Hulk smashes the robot, in incredible Bucsema style, but it's to late to stop the Orion Missile as the emerald monster leaps onto the missile (hence the story title, which I absolutely adore. It's cheesy but cool at the same time!) only as a transformation occurs leaving Bruce Banner clinging to the missiles fuselage. To be Hulk-inued next issue! 

The Mighty Marvel Mailbag.

This weeks mailbag opens with a letter from one of Marvel UK's oldest readers, at the tender age of 41 T. A. Cleworth from Warrington writes recalling how he began reading Marvel comics (then called Timely Comics,) in 1941. T. praises Stan Lee for bringing a comic with a calibre of the Might World of Marvel to the UK. He also name checks something called Power Comics (don't mention those 60's UK comics, we've got to pretend that Marvel UK was the original! I mentioned it once but I think I got away with it!). I hope Mr. Cleworth who could now be at the age of 91 is still reading comics, I hope to be when I'm that old. Mr. Cleworth's letter is quite long however the next letter from Bobby Crawford from Dublin is the total opposite, he asks does those who get their letters printed get anything? Well Bobby if you want something for writing a letter you'll have to wait four and a half years or so for the Mighty One to make those kind of bribes. Grahame Bristow from Hounslow doesn't ask for anything in exchange for writing in, all he wants is more Hulk pin-ups.  

Mark Nowaczyk from Pentwynmawr, South Wales has gotten every copy of MWOM and SMCW since they came out. M. McMillan from Northants wasn't that interested in Spider-man, Hulk or the Fantastic Four, but since MWOM issue one came out he never misses a copy. He adds that he agrees with Kevin Megson's letter from MWOM #25 asking for a folder to hold comics, thinking it is a really great idea. A. Lunnsden may have read to many Marvel Comics, in his letter he mentions seeing an eight foot green monster while out walking and how he spends his spare time swinging from building to building while wearing a red and blue costume! Public Health Warning: comics can keep you young but if abused they can slightly unhinge your mind! Philip Deed writes that he doesn't like Thor but for ten pence a week he gets to read the Hulk, Daredevil, the Fantastic Four and Spider-man so that's great. Finally Gilbert Desveaux from Tooting in London writes to say that the one thing he really likes about Marvel are the super villains, naming Doctor Doom and the Owl among his favourites.

The Fantastic Four. "Doomship!"

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Jack Kirby

Inker: Dick Ayers

Originally published in Fantastic Four #17

Cover date August 1963

(Published in May 1963)

"Doomship!" that's an unusual title but who am I to question titles when you have to find a new one every week. It does make some sense. The opening splash page uses the cover of the Fantastic Four #17, which was also the inspiration for the cover of Alpha Flight #3 drawn by John Byrne, cover dated October 1983, published July 1983 which featured Aurora in an enclosing maze of bars. Each member of the FF have to over come individual traps onboard Dooms Flying Fortress.

To gain access to that Fortress Mister Fantastic had to device a way to get pass Dooms Disintegrator Ray that are trained on the FFs atomic and molecular body structure as recorded by Dooms "Followers" from last week. Reed works tirelessly to create a formula that will change the Thing into Ben Grimm to fool those Disintegrators in his one-man stealth ship. Reed's plan works but only just as Ben transforms back into the Thing and gives the main Disintegrator circuits a good clobbering!  It's nice to see each individual member getting their moment in the spotlight, Reed's intelligence to formulate a plan, Ben's bravery in getting to the Flying Fortress to enable the other members access. Even Johnny uses his flame powers to create hologram images of the male FF members to fool the evil Doctor and give Sue time to locate and rescue Doom's prisoner the blind Alicia Masters.  

It's a this point that Sue really shows how much of an important teammate she is. After moving Alicia to a safe place she fools Doom into thinking that she is the blind sculptor, then escapes the Doctor's moving bar trap to end up fighting the villain in hand to hand combat! She's one kick-ass lady.

When the rest of the FF arrive Doom admits defeat and rather than suffer humiliation at being captured he leaps to his seemingly death.

And there you have it, pretty much as the original version has it. 

Except it isn't, Doom would appear next in the Amazing Spider-man #5 which has already seen print in MWOM #14 where he tells Spider-man of his escape by jetpack and there lies the rub.

In that Marvel UK version Doom was said to have escaped from the Sub-Mariner and the Fantastic Four in space with a jetpack as told in MWOM #13. So technically Doctor Doom has escaped this way twice, or there's multiple versions of his escape. Just for those who are wondering how Doom managed to escape from deep space after that adventure in issue 13 of MWOM he was rescued by the alien Ovoids as seen in MWOM #20. Now that's a lot of link clicking, that's why its important to always keep up to date with the Power of the Beesting blog, or just spend your free time and bank holidays re-reading all that 70's comic nostalgia!

The Mighty World of Marvel Pin-up page featuring Mister Fantastic. I've never seen this pin-up in any other comic so my guess is that this was created especially for MWOM. It's not particularly fantastic, you might not look at it twice. I think I know who drew it just by looking at it and why I think it was them. Do you know? I'll give my answer and reasoning at the end of this blog. 

This feature page was originally from the Fantastic Four Annual #1 cover dated and release July 1963. Questions and answers about Sue Storm and the Thing! Written by Stan Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby. The first part of this feature had already been published in the Mighty World of Marvel #6 from the 11th November 1973 and of course featured Mister Fantastic and the Human Torch but that issue printed it in colour. Some 19 issues ago, did they forget it came in two halves? 

 Here we have from this issues back page Marvel Collector Special No.1 Doctor Doom. This pin-up featured originally in the Fantastic Four #128, cover dated November 1972, published August 1972 by John Buscema. It was the first page of a feature entitled "The fabulous F.F. friends.. and foes", that also showed the Mole Man to the bottom righthand side of the page, but for this British version a text box replaced him with fun facts about the Lord of Latveria. No.2 of this collectors special will feature Thor and be printed on the back page of this weeks Spider-man Comics Weekly.

Spider-man Comics Weekly #16

Rich Buckler and Mike Esposito hand in another Marvel UK cover. The headline says "Special 'Be kind to Super-villains' issue!" so I'll be kind to hard working artists too. It's attractive in its bright and clear way. I certainly like it more than this weeks MWOM cover.

Spider-man "Preeeeeesenting...the Clown and his Masters of Menace!"

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Steve Ditko    

Inker: Steve Ditko 

Originally published in The Amazing Spider-man #22

Cover date March 1965

(Published in December 1964)

Yeah I did count the "e"s in the title, I love this splash page opener, most are symbolic but this one takes a look into a few seconds into the future as Spider-man enters the room where the Ring Master and his Circus of Crime have gathered after they have been released from prison, to warn them he's watching them if the get up to their old habits. A very proactive move from Spidey, I wonder will it have any effect? Well of course it won't there wouldn't be any story if it did. It's another example of the American Justice System in the Marvel Universe, villains only serve a short time in jail. It might also be that in the early days of Marvel Stan Lee hadn't a massive gallery of rogues to call on to fight his heroes. The Circus of Crime and the Enforcers certainly made a lot of appearances in these stories. 

In this weeks tale the Circus troop are feed up with constantly being caught by the law and want a new leader, blaming the Ring Master for their constant criminal failures. so after some in-fighting the Clown is elected to fill that position. The Ring Master is quite literally kicked out. You can tell that Steve Ditko loves drawing wacky villains, he has loads of fun with them. He uses his strengths to play to theirs, the Clown is always juggling, Cannonball is a proper thug, the Gambonnos Brothers take up the weirdest of poses in every panel and Princess Python is the perfect Ditko mobsters moll, in fact in some of the early panel's she's not in her circus costume but in a very sixties dress. The Ring Master is portrayed as an over bearing scheming fool with lots of ideas that don't work out. Do you think Ditko might have subconsciously been channelling Stan with the way he drew him? Don't get me wrong, I love Lee and Ditko both equally. I'm only clowning. 

The Clown as their new leader comes up with a plan to rob an art gallery in broad daylight, this gallery just happens to be owned by J. Jonah Jameson. The Clown acts as a decoy while the rest of the newly named Masters of Menace steal the paintings. The Clown's plan partly fails as they are discovered, and in the melee Jameson is knocked unconscious. Spider-man finds the Ring Master via a Spider tracker that he had concealed in his hat at the beginning of the story and uses his own hat to hypnotise him into revealing where the Masters of Menace are hiding. Spidey fight the MoM's in a collection of wonderful Ditko set pieces. At one point Princess Python tries to seduce the young hero and remove his mask. Spidey resists her charms far better than I would to be honest, so she reverts to a more deadlier tactic, attacking him with the electric prod she uses to train her pet python! And I always thought she used to charm that snake. These femme fatales are definitely ones to keep an eye on.   

You need to keep an eye on her pet python too, as the Princess's snake prod had shorted out Spider-man's web shooters (the first time that has ever happened, not even Electro's powers did that!) our hero has to take on the giant serpent hand to tightening coils of the constrictor. Which of course he does in amazing style.

The Masters of Menace are captured by the law and the Ring Master who is innocent of the original crime manages to involve himself in it as he takes the stolen paintings from the Clown after he knocks him out, only to be arrested by the police seconds later. So there's a lesson (the Circus of) crime doesn't pay! 

The Web and the Hammer

Ian Kirby from Bronsgrove opens this weeks TWatH mail bag with a puzzling point, if Spider-man disclosed his secret identity like the Fantastic Four, wouldn't that solve so many problems? In my mind it would create hundreds more. David Deakin from Stoke-on-Trent, who is 14 writes, what does the inker and letterer do? The editor answers that the inker goes over the pencilled artwork to make it dark enough to reproduce, adding shading to the drawing, while the letterer put Stan's script into the balloons word by pain-staking word. David also asks does Stan keep popping over to Britain to make these comics? The answer is as much as Stan would like to, as his wife is a "native-born British bombshell" he supervises the operation from the states where the stories are selected, corrections made and feature pages are put together. Then it's sent to Britain for any final corrections that may have slipped through, to be printed and sent to the newsagents. Guy Henderson from Suffolk asks why when Peter Parker is dressed in his normal everyday clothes his huge muscles aren't visible yet they are when he's in costume. I get asked the same question about myself, loose fitting clothes hide a multitude of sins. Claire Barley from London asks why Peter Parker doesn't have a girlfriend? She must have missed a few issues as he dates Betty Brant quite regularly and Liz Allen has also taken a shine to him. Let's not forget about the mysterious Mary Jane Watson too, when we finally get to see her in full.

Simon Dean from Douglas. in the Isle of Man thinks these comics are great but wonders does Spider-man's strength increase when he's in costume like it does for Thor? I'm not sure Simon gets that Don Blake and Thor are two separate individuals who share the same in time and space due to a spell cast by Odin. Mark Norton from Liverpool has created his own super villain called "Man Mighty" who has great strength, can fly and fire laser beams from his eyes. Sounds like another super-powered character, yeah you've guessed it too. But it will be some years before Jack Kirby creates Ikaris of the Eternals, it could also be like Mick Anglo/Alan Moore's Marvelman (or Miracleman if you like,) but I can't think of any other Super powered Man like that, can you? William Sheehan from Wandsworth in London who's father give him a hammer just like Thor's and he wonders with a little practice will he become as strong as Thor? Well it might add some muscle if he keeps using it. Richard Lloyd from Leamington Spa loves both MWOM and SMCW but wonders why the Marvel Annual was not called the Mighty World of Marvel Annual? The editor claims that on the day the title was being lettered they were feeling modest. They failed to mention that the said annual was made by another company - Fleetway. But as they do also mention in the words of Shakespeare "What's in a name..?" Roy Gill from Fleetwood in Lancashire writes that sometimes he sees Spider-man in the air on no webbing and wonders can he fly? No Roy that's just falling with style. Olaf Laos from Bilton in Rugby is very interested in Spider-man and wants to learn more about the hero and his gadgets. So finally for this weeks letters Peter R Allen from Newcastle writes citing issue 7 and 5 as some of his favourites adding that "when our mighty Thor battled the God of Evil for the first time it was truly beyond mortal belief!"  

The Mighty Thor "Challenged by the human Cobra!"

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Don Heck

Inker: Don Heck

Originally published in Journey into Mystery #98

Cover date November 1963

(Published in September 1963)

This is Don Heck's first full artwork on Thor as he had inked over Kirby's pencils in last weeks tale. Don Heck isn't my favourite artist by a long way. But he has created many memorable characters for Marvel. This week we see him design Marvel's second snake based villain (Princess Python being the first, but please correct me if you feel I'm wrong, it has been known.) in the Cobra! My thoughts about Don Heck style are marred by that fact that there were more artists around his time that I preferred. He had a romantic style that suited a square chinned hero and beautiful female heroine, the villains were always easy to spot. His designs have left a mark in the chronicles of Marvel history. He was very quick and never missed a deadline although a great skill to have this caused him some grief, in an interview with Harlan Ellison conducted by Gary Groth for The Comic Journal, both labelled Heck as the worst artist to ever work in comic books, insinuating that Heck didn’t care for the quality of his artwork and merely hacked the work out.  Ellison later to his credit apologised in print. But the damage was done, Heck was labelled "Don Hack". 

Professor Ezekiel Shecktor, Don Blakes old teacher had been researching into a universal cure for snake bites and had taken on an ex-convict, named Klaus Voorhees, in the hope that he could rehabilitate him. Voorhees staged an accident that a released cobra had bitten himself and the Professor. He then give himself the new experimental life saving antidote and allowed the Professor to die. Unknown to Voorhees the cobra had been irradiated by the process of finding a miracle cure from its venom. The combination of these factors give Klaus Voorhees the powers of a cobra. Powers from a radioactive creatures bite? Now I wonder where Stan Lee got that idea from? His cobra like power make him malleable, his muscle tissue is exceedingly resilient, making his body very flexible. This makes him extremely good at climbing. Added to that he has an arsenal of weapons, like his poisonous cobra darts and cobra gas, deployed in deadly throwing capsules. When the Cobra encounters Doctor Andrews he threatens his new nurse Jane Foster, Andrews reacts in a cowardly way but luckily Thor enters and saves the day, making Jane change her mind about Doctor Andrews and returns to Don Blakes practice to ask for her old job back. Don Heck's artwork is plain and does at times look rushed but there's also lots to like. I'm glad to say his work does improve, which will be a good thing as I've got lots of Thor, Iron Man and the Avengers stories to read with his artwork, so I hope I can overlook his limitations and enjoy them. 

No.2 in this Marvel Collectors Special series and it's Thor's turn. Drawn beautifully by Britains own master of the pencil and ink, Barry Windsor-Smith, formally known as Barry Smith. I absolutely love his work especially on his early Conan tales. They are magnificent masterpieces. This image comes from the opening splash page of The Avengers #66 cover dated July 1969, published May 1969. Barry born in London had worked on Britains own Power Comics, the forerunner of Marvel UK, (although we don't talk about them {much} as Marvel didn't exist in the UK before the Mighty World of Marvel #1 came out in October 1972, honest guv,) drawing posters and pin-ups for them.  Sometime in 1969 he travelled to New York to present himself and his artwork to a  suitably impressed Roy Thomas, who gave him the job of drawing the X-Men #53. With no studio and having been kicked out of his hotel, Barry was forced to do the work sitting on park benches. The rest is history, the man is a legend! Sid Shores finished Barry's artwork by adding the inks. 

So that ends this weeks blog apart from my earlier teaser about the artist who drew the Mister Fantastic pin-up from this weeks Mighty World of Marvel. My guess is that it was drawn by Al Milgrom, it looks like his style so I'm pretty confident it was drawn by him. I haven't seen any proof on the internet that he did indeed pencil this work but....

...if you look closely at the machine panel behind Mister Fantastic to the right of the picture does that not say Milgrom in a sci-fi font? I rest my case your honour. A Power of the Beesting No-prize (PotBeNoP) to everyone who guessed correctly or even spotted his name. 

Special thanks to Tom Brevoort and his fantastic blog at TomBrevoort.com with help getting all my facts in order about this weeks Hulk story. His blog it truly is a gripping read. But let's not forget that the Power of the Beesting is cool too. So keep reading those back issues in between reading this blog.

See you in seven.

Make Mine Marvel.