Twice as smashing!

Week Ending 19th May 1973

It's the thirty third week of Marvel UK comics and this week both comics have subtle changes. The two pages of full colour have gone, both comics get a double page letter page and the Mighty World of Marvel gets a double dose of green goodness. So read on as I'll dish out the nostalgia in bite size pieces and tell you which Merlin is Merlin the Mad.

The Mighty World of Marvel #33

Over the last couple of weeks I've had some mixed views on Rich Buckler's Marvel UK cover artwork, either pointing out that they looked rushed or not up to he's excellent standard while on the other noting they looked very functional and clear. This cover isn't without it's flaws, the Thing doesn't quite look like a Kirby Ben Grimm I would have expected to see, the faces of Reed and Sue looked rushed and the Hulk's pose isn't one that I associate with the Hulk, you would never see the Hulk running like that on an American comic. The Hulk doesn't run, he smashes! But that pose is new and different, the cover is really bright and welcoming. It's totally memorable. I really Love it. Mike Esposito inks Buckler's pencil work. Another thing that's worth mentioning is the top headline, "Now starring the Incredible Hulk!" Like he wasn't before? There's definitely been a change in tack with SMCW having Spider-man as the lead with Thor as back-up and in MWOM you've got the Hulk front and forward as the lead with the Fantastic Four as back-up.

The Incredible Hulk "They dwell in the depths!"

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Jack Kirby, Bill Everett

Inker: Bill Everett

Originally published in Tales to Astonish #80

Cover date June 1966

(Published in March 1966)

The first of our two Hulk stories we open with a brooding Hulk, something that we will take more for granted in future Hulk stories but this is new, before it was always Banner who was seen brooding, the Hulk in many ways was loud, brash and confident. The beasts inner mood is quickly interrupted by a forced abduction. Tyrannus, the ruler of a subterranean underworld who the Hulk had previously battled way back in MWOM #9, had used a "Matter Transformer" to teleport the Hulk to his layer to demand that he battle the Mole Man and his army of Moloids who have invaded the now aging Tyrannua's kingdom and are currently occupying the legendary Fountain of Youth, which normally keeps the century's old Tyrannus youthful. Tyrannus offers the Hulk sanctuary in his under earth empire if he helps him take back the fountain. 

Spies for the Mole Man bring news of his enemy's new ally, causing him to make a pre-emptive strike with his robotic "Octo-sapien". The Hulk now at ease doesn't want to fight with any more armies until Tyrannus threatens the lives of the also kidnapped Betty Ross, Rick Jones and Major Talbot who have also been abducted by the same "Matter Transformer" as the Hulk. Betty mentions that Rick claims the Hulk is really Bruce Banner, which makes sense because no one but Rick has seen the Doctor transform in to the Hulk. This was a missed opportunity from weeks back, I guess that there hasn't been space to explore the reveal of his duel identity due to the short strip length. The Hulk gets mad when they keep mentioning Banner and smashes the cage the three surface dwellers are in, freeing them in the process. At that point the Mole Man attacks and all hell breaks loose.

Panel after panel of fight scenes take place with the Hulk against a bombardment of missiles and then the multi weaponed "Octo-sapien". Bill Everett, or may be the letterer Artie Simek, or even Jack Kirby love to represent the barrage of strikes with a large helping of sound effects. Mainly the word "Thok!" but "FOOM!", "Thoom!", "Fftown!" and my personal favourite "Bar-oom!" are used together with other bizarre sound effects. Part of me think it was a time saving exercise to fill the page, which it may or may not be, either way I'm quickly growing to enjoy this new Kirby/Everett artwork. 

The story quickly ends with a lunging Hulk smashing the Mole Man's machine into the Fountain of Youth which causes an explosion. Emerging from the thick steaming vapour is Bruce Banner. Complete with fresh pants and glasses?? How that happens is anyone's guess as we'll have to wait till next week to find out. Except we won't because three pages later the Hulk returns.

Before all that you get a Mighty Marvel Jigsaw Puzzle Pin-up Page! Just mount the page on some cardboard then cut out the squares to make a "Phantasmagorical" "pulse pounding" portrait of one of Marvel's most incredible super-stars. You'll never guess which one! I'm so glad no-one did that with my copy. It would have ruined a perfectly good comic by destroying the last page of the first Hulk strip.

This message appearing in a page of adverts saying that back issues for MWOM #1-3,5-7,9,11,14,16,17 and 20 as well as SMCW #1-6 are no longer available from Marvel UK. It mentions that they've been searching all corners of Britain for back issues, by that I supposed they are meaning that unsold copies from newsagents have all been returned, but those issue listed were in high demand by readers. so they sold out very quickly. 

The Incredible Hulk "The stage is set!"

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Jack Kirby, Bill Everett

Inker: Bill Everett

Originally published in Tales to Astonish #81

Cover date July 1966

(Published in April 1966)

I just love some Marvel story titles, they come in all sizes, some are grand, some are snappy and some play with words. I like to make a catchy, witty or smart title for these blogs but I get the more you have to use the harder it gets. Just wait till Marvel UK will need to create new titles when more stories are split into two or three parts. "The stage is set!" is a strange one. I'm not sure it has any serious connection to the story at all. May be the sub-title "Introducing... the man called: Boomerang!" would have been a better title. 

The story starts off with senior members of the sinister Secret Empire reviewing footage of the US army battling the Hulk with special interest in the Orion missile that is used to destroy the emerald giant, as they intend to steal the missile. They recruit a very special agent known as Boomerang to achieve this. 

The Secret Empire are very important to this weeks story but let's not forget that the first Hulk story hadn't wrapped up yet, Bruce Banner is still in the subterranean world of Tyrannus who's army of Tyranoids battle the Mole Man's Moloids. Banner finds Tyrannus who seems to be on the losing side after seemingly being deserted by the Hulk, with the goodness of his heart he's sent Betty, Rick and the Major back to the surface. Bruce leaves the tyrant to his own despair and looks for the "Matter Transmitter" to use to escape back to the surface. 

While back on the surface Boomerang has hatched a plan to kidnap Betty Ross in an attempt to force her Father to allow the Secret Empire to steal the Orion Missile. Boomerang is equipped with throwing discs, jet boots and of course you've guessed it...a boomerang. These short ten page stories jump around a lot as the creators cram loads of plot in. The story starts quickly, then stops just as quickly, to be forgotten about as some plot threads are revisited to be tied up. This story is no different as we leave Betty in the clutches of Boomerang as Banner rushes through the subterranean war zone to find the "Matter Transmitter" which causes him to change into the Hulk. In the dim areas of his mind he finds the devise and manages to operate it. But where will it take him, come back next week to find out.

Stan Lee Sounds off!/The Mighty Marvel Mailbag.

Stan opens this first double page Mighty Marvel Mailbag with his column that highlights that this landmark issue of MWOM presents twice as many Incredible Hulk stories as well as twice as many letters in the new double page mailbag. Not only that but Spider-man Comics Weekly also has a double page The Web and the Hammer letter page. But enough from Stan, you can zoom in and read the full column if you want, but what have the British Marvelites got to say this week? 

Peter Finch from Cardiff listens to T-Rex while reading the Hulk story in his MWOM. Daniel Tulley from Bolton writes in with a very short letter to simply ask "Who has more problems, Spider-man or the Hulk? The reply he gets is "We're not sure." to be honest neither am I. David Cantor from Worcester wonders what's the Hulk problem, why his he going round socking everyone? He calls the Hulk a "short tempered, muscle-bound, noodle-brained, dumbbell who goes around throwing his weight!" Steady on David, not a Hulk fan then? Howard Wayne from Merton goes into verse about his favourite Marvel characters the Fantastic Four. Neal Stover from London wants to give praise to Marvel's letterers Artie Simek and Sam Rosen for lettering two comics a week. Bert Benerson from London has been reading comics for years but six months ago he had stopped buying them. Until a friend lent him a copy of MWOM and he's sorry to have missed those early issues. Robert Tyan from Liverpool writes to say that he has only one complaint, he wishes that the editors would quit calling this time the "Marvel Age of Comics", adding there are other comics companies in the business too. Are there? Only kidding Robert.  Finally for this Marvel Mailbag Charles R. Hummel from Devonshire who wants to give praise the the creators of Marvel's most menacing villains. More readers letters later in the Web and the Hammer.

The Fantastic Four "Slave of the Micro-world!"

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Jack Kirby

Inker: Dick Ayers

Originally published in Fantastic Four #16

Cover date July 1963

(Published in April 1963)

This weeks opening splash page his the reused cover of the Fantastic Four #16 with the text boxes repurposed for a quick recap of last weeks story. I really like this Jack Kirby/Dick Ayers cover so I'm so glad they reused it. Continuing from last week the FF have shrunken down through the molecules to the sub-atomic world arriving in the throne room of a newly crowned Doctor Doom! 

The science of all that is best left un-questioned, just go with the flow. Doom recounts how he himself arrived in this micro world after he was hit by his own shrink ray in MWOM #21, then how he schemed his way in to the Royal family's trust and later gains their confidence to easily take power from them. After a fight with Doom's royal guard the FF are over powered by sleeping gas only to find themselves awaken in a dungeon under a sea of acid with two other cell mates, the dethroned King and his daughter Princess Pearla who's voice they heard last issue had warmed them to beware of Doctor Doom! 

Princess Pearla tells Sue that Doom wanted her to marry him but when she refused the arranged to sell her as a slave to a reptilian race from the planet Tok. Strangely the Princess relates how the Lizard men of Tok will use each member of the Fantastic Four in a different way as a slave, but I wonder how she knows how each individual members powers work? John Byrne makes a call back to these suggested fates in a return to the Microverse story seen in the quite brilliant Fantastic Four issues 282 to 284, cover dated September to November 1985. Marvel UK readers can also read those tales in Secret Wars II issues 42-44 from 19th April 1986 to 3rd May 1986. We learn in those Byrne stories that the Microverse is actually a parallel universe that can be accessed by shrinking small enough to breach the barrier to get there, correcting Reeds theory from this story that the Microverse is inside molecules of our world.

Meanwhile Doctor Henry Pym in his super hero identity of Ant-man finding the FF lab abandoned and broken glass from his reducing serum vial on the lab floor he deduces that the FF may need help and follows them to the sub-atomic world only to be attacked by Doom's guard on arrival and captured too. 

The Fantastic Four need a plan to escape and it's the Invisible Girl who comes up with the basic idea of using material from the walls of their dungeon to make an escape capsule that can withstand the corrosiveness of the acid sea. Reed sees merit in the idea and gets the team to construct the capsule, now that's team work and don't let people criticise Sue's place in the team, she's one smart cookie. 
 

In fact it's Sue who frees the Ant-man and takes a gun from Doom's hand to push the battle into the good guys favour, causing Doctor Doom to flee back to our world. It's a classic tale and one that gets a nostalgic thumbs up from me. 

Without the colour section these comics in-house ads have to make do with a basic black and white page. We've got the usual Spider-man Comics Weekly ad simply using the cover of issue 14 with text teasing "The coming of the Scorpion" and "The mighty Thor Vs. Merlin the Mad!" 

As always under that a FOOM advert, it's still only 50 pence, a bargain!

Another in a series of majestic Mighty Marvel feature pin-up pages, the astonishing Ant-man! This feature is made up of panels from the Ant-man's first story in Tales to Astonish #35 cover dated September 1962 (published June 1962,) written by Stan's brother Larry Lieber with artwork by Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers. The main panel is the opening splash page from that story while the two smaller panels are taken from page seven with unnecessary text from the last panel removed. That issue marked Henry Pym second appearance as his first was eight issues before in Tales to Astonish #27. 

   In the final inside page of this weeks MWOM another feature page featuring the Mad Thinker and his awesome Android as part of a Gallery of the Fantastic Four's most famous foes! Originally shown in the Fantastic Four Annual #1 from July 1963 by Jack Kirby with inks by Dick Ayers.

This grubby page is an advert for a Hulk t-shirt for just 75 pence post and packaging included in the price. Now that's quite a bargain I think, so I can forgive the child like artwork that is used to advertise the T-shirt. This isn't an external company selling the t-shirt, the address is from the home of Marvel UK at that time, Magazine Management London Ltd, 120 Newgate street, London. I wonder if a photo image might have looked better. Did anyone buy this t-shirt? I'd love to see what it looked like. Let me know through the usual channels.

Spider-man Comics Weekly #14

Since Rich Buckler has taken over doing the covers for these weeklies I've been unimpressed by them, criticising the artwork for looking rushed. But in retrospective contemplation I'll give credit that they have to be done quickly and must inform the reader what is going on in multiple strips, its a skill and a skill that Buckler is developing quite nicely. This weeks MWOM and SMCW cover aren't perfect, but I do like both covers some what. This SMCW cover has got a simple but no less effective scene showing the Scorpion battling Spider-man and a very symbolic scene of Merlin the Mad attacking Thor. Merlin's hat is silly but that's part of his outfit in the story. It's the crazed look from the magician that I really like. The sum of its parts make it a great cover. The inks were added by Mike Esposito. 

Spider-man "The coming of the Scorpion!"

 

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Steve Ditko    

Inker: Steve Ditko 

Originally published in The Amazing Spider-man #20

Cover date January 1965

(Published in September 1964)

There's been many discussions about Stan Lee's input into some of Marvel's greatest characters, with many stating that Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby had greater input in to their creation and development. Some see Lee as the initialiser giving ideas to others to polish, some say he was the great creator, the mastermind behind all at Marvel, some are happy to label him a co-creator while others label him an ego out of control. May be he was all those and probably more. What he did do was create personas for himself and others at the bullpen, playing on the satirical side, with the rule of thumb it's better to be talked about than never talked about at all. Here's an example of self deprecation with ironic mocking that I feel he meant as purely a joke. In one panel he writes "Many readers have asked why Stan Lee's name is always first on the credits?" To answer this he agrees to but Steve Ditko's name first and his second, but in doing so he makes his name bigger. For those asking what my opinion of Lee is, I can say that he allowed Steve and Jack to do what they did best but at the same time he pushed them in directions he thought the readership would like. In many ways a great innovator, a supreme editor and a writer of exceptional creative skill whose finishing scripts polished other peoples work. In other words "The Man!" 

In this weeks story we learn that the mysterious man who was following Peter in last weeks comic was Mac Gargan a private detective paid by Jonah Jameson to find out Parker's secret of how he gets all those great photos of Spider-man in action. 

Jameson hears of a scientist, Doctor Farley Stillwell, who is experimenting with creatures through biological and mechanical enhancements to create new forms of life. Like a rat that can breathe under water and a fish that can survive on land. 

Jameson wants the Doctor to give Gargan super-human powers to defeat Spider-man and will pay him $10,000. Stillwell thinks about it knowing that the money will help fund his research, he agrees and sets about giving Gargan the powers of a scorpion through a special serum and a special costume with a tail that responds to his mental commands.

All ready for action the Scorpion waits for a opportunity to fight Spider-Man. He does not have to wait long as Spider-man calls round to the Daily Bugle to find out more about the man who had followed Parker around. Spidey and the Scorpion battle but the web-slinger is badly defeated by the power crazed Gargan who has become more effected by the Scorpion serum, causing his mind to lose sense of right and wrong. Doctor Stillwell realises his mistake and tries to give Gargan fresh serum that will recover his humanity. But the Doctor falls to his death while trying to make the Scorpion see sense and take the serum. Spider-man tries to fight him again but animal savagery has given the Scorpion an incredible advantage causing Spider-man to lose again. The Scorpion knowing that only one man now knows his secret goes to the Daily Bugle to silence Jameson. Hearing Betty Grant scream out causes Spider-man to regain his composure to face the villain, his time he defeats the manic fiend by ripping his artificial tail off and knocking him unconscious. Battered and bruised the young teenager has to face Flash Thompson and Aunt May to explain his wounds. Later Peter tries to ask Betty to go on a date but with no luck. Get over it Peter, she's got a thing for Ned Leeds now. It's a good tale, I like the Scorpion, he's a great foe for Spider-man. This story helps cement many future storylines that see Jameson using slightly grey means to defeat Spider-man. The only real problems with this strip was I feel that Ditko started getting lazy when drawing the fight scenes between hero and villain. May be the deadline was looming. 

The Web and the Hammer

Unlike MWOM's letter page the Web and the Hammer doesn't have a Stan Lee Sounds off column, so its straight into the reader letters. Tom Lanterman from Yorkshire is a bit of a J. Jonah Jameson fan, saying that the publisher may act like a "crusty, stingy old curmudgeon" but bets that he just hassles the Web-slinger to sell more newspapers. Tom also adds he really loves the way Steve Ditko draws Spider-man's acrobatic exploits. Dawn Coffey from Worcester says that Marvel may not get many letters from girl readers but lots of her female friends do read Marvel comics. She offers her opinion that Peter Parker would be better off with Betty Brant, even though Liz Allan is nice she's not as mature as Betty is. Dawn also says Jane Foster is too corny and Thor would be better off with a new character called Dawn Roffey as a girlfriend. I think Dawn is a Thor fan-girl, it's the six pack that does it. Sam Kidd from Warrington unlike earlier letter writer Tom Lanterman isn't a J. Jonah Jameson fan, listing all his faults. He thinks Jameson should give his staff and Spider-man a break.

David Dodgson from Wallasey writes that the 10th of February was a special day, not only because we learned what the secret of FOOM was, but it was also David's 10th birthday! Another David, David Dodgson from Gipton showed an issue of SMCW to his friend a literature professor who teaches Greek, Roman and Norse mythology and he thought it was great, comparing Stan to a Norse Homer. Stan would have loves the comparison to the Greek poet. Steve Hamilton from Sheffield wonders what happened to Jameson's Now Magazine and why Peter Parker no longer wears glasses? The editor replies that they too are not quite sure of the magazines current status, although I can tell you it does reappear in future Marvel tales, most noticeably for its part in Ms. Marvel's stories. As for the glasses they point out that they were broken in a particular adventure that they don't list, but I'm pretty sure it was in a fight with Flash Thompson from MWOM #18, they also point out that since Peter gained his powers his eye sight has improved to the point that he no longer needs them. Finally for this weeks letter page Tommy Randall from Dublin reprints part of a poem from American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "I am God Thor" and praises Stan for his work on Thor that closely resembles the character from the writers Norse poem. 

 A mesmerising Marvel masterwork pin-up of a spotlighted Spider-man by Steve Ditko. It first appeared in the Amazing Spider-man issue #21 cover dated February 1965, published in November 1964.

The Mighty Thor "Defying the magic of...mad Merlin!"

Writer: Stan Lee and Robert Bernstein 

Artist: Joe Sinnott

Inker: Joe Sinnott

Originally published in Journey into Mystery #96

Cover date September 1963

(Published in July 1963)

This story teases Thor meeting the legendary wizard of ancient Celtic lore, but instead we later would find out that this Merlin is in fact an ancient mutant who later reappears under the name of Maya Yogi who happens to possess a fragment of a Bloodstone that grants him immortality. In ancient time Maya Yogi did impersonate the wizard when Merlin and the Black Knight went off to battle the sorceress Morgan Le Fay.

Merlin the mad, as we'll call him for the rest of this blog, awoke from his centuries old sleep to cause havoc in the world, challenging the President of the United States as he saw him as the leader of this modern world. At the time of this story's original publication John F Kennedy was the President, so his name and likeness was used. But in 1973 Richard Nixon was in Office, the text was changed and Nixon's image was also redrawn instead of JFK's. 

 Thor takes on the mad wizard in numerous ways with Merlin gaining the upper hand as he uses his powers of telekinesis, telepathy and teleportation. Finally Thor tricks the ancient wizard by changing into Don Blake and claims to be a wizard also but his magic is ten times more powerful than Merlins. He tells him that if he doesn't do as he says he has the power to destroy him. Merlin agrees to his terms and returns to eternal sleep in his sarcophagus. I quite liked this Thor tale, it's a vast improvement on the last couple of weeks. A good mix of super hero, magic, mythology and science fiction adventure.

Inside back page features an advert for Walls ice creams Count Dracula lolly. If you was a kid in the 70's you must have had one of these. They were a black cola ice lolly with a white vanilla ice cream centre, which also held in its centre a blood red strawberry jam filling. The lolly stick sometimes had a joke on it under the ice cream and later sticks were made of plastic that had a "Trace-a-face" holes in them, so that you could create a drawing of a monsters face. Oh happy day's. There is a signature and year on the bottom right corner of the strip but I can't make out a name. If anyone knows who the artist was let me know. The date I can make out it's from 1972. 

Spider-man Comics Weekly back page had the same advert for a Mighty Marvel T-shirt featuring the Hulk, but this time the colours of the page are changed to a more appealing colour scheme. 

Both my copies of MWOM and SMCW from this weeks issue are intact, so I guess that who ever originally bought them preferred to have a readable comic rather than a new Hulk T-shirt. 

That's all for this week, more to come next week with who knows what nostalgic tip-bits I can dig up. So until then...

See you in seven.

Make Mine Marvel