The anger, the rage and the cold stone!

 Week Ending 11th August 1973

Before I start this weeks rampage through Asgard, or the darker side of hate, or the desperation felt to help a loved one, or even the stone cold battle, all coming soon. Regular Power of the Beesting blog reader Alan Russell last week pointed out that the cover of MWOM #44 bears some similarities to the cover of Marvel Team-up #27.

As Alan says in his comment on the Facebook "UK Marvel in the Seventies" group where my post for that blog appears, "it's not quite the same, but very similar" to that cover also by Jim Starlin." That issue of was published in August 1974 with the cover dated November 1974. The slight changes in position of the Hulk's arms and his head are noticeable as well as Rick Jones and the disguised Chameleon standing positions, but the look does feel very close. I wonder did Starlin have an earlier version of the MWOM cover lying around and decided to reuse it for the US comic? We don't know, but it was a great spot by Alan. I think comic readers sometimes have an almost photographic memory ability to recall artwork and artist style. Not a super-power that would help you defeat a villain but still it's pretty cool. If anyone spots anything of note related to any of these blogs let me know either in the blog comments or Facebook/Twitter posts. I love reading those, even if I don't always get time to reply.

   

The Might World of Marvel #45

This weeks cover uses the Tales to Astonish #101 cover which saw Marie Severin (pencils) and Frank Giacoia (inks) rendering the Hulk figure, while the Asgardian army was drawn by Jack Kirby (pencils) and Sid Shores (inks) on the left hand panel. That ToA story had featured in last weeks issue. On the right a panel  an assortment of images that had appeared in this weeks Fantastic Four story, by Jack Kirby and George Roussos. I particularly like the Hulk's half, I think that would have been brilliant if it had been used for the whole cover. 

The Incredible Hulk "--this world not his own!"

Writer: Gary Friedrich

Artist: Marie Severin

Inker: George Tuska

Originally published in The Incredible Hulk #102

Cover date April 1968

(Published in January 1968)

A new writer and a new inker turn up in this story. Gary Friedrich had previously written Ghost Rider, (the deceased cowboy version,) Kid Colt, Two Gun Kid, Millie the model, Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos and some comedy stories for Not Brand Echh! So the Hulk was technically his first Marvel super-hero strip and featured in the newly named The Incredible Hulk comic book taking over the numbering of Tales to Astonish with 102. I do like Gary Friedrich's writing, although he's not one that I would rave about. The same can be said about George Tuska, his artwork is likeable and functional, but this weeks inks would only be temporary. 

This weeks story carries on from last week with Bruce Banner falling down a bottomless chasm only to be rescued by the Enchantress and her partner in crime the Executioner, who are planning an invasion of Asgard with the aid of an army of Trolls. Meanwhile the Warriors Three wonder about the fate of the strange green monster and why he came to be in Asgard so they continue on their quest to find answers from Oldar the Oracle.   

When they encounter the withered old seeker, who by magic changes into a beautiful story teller, whose  astonishing tale of a man who became a monster is told to the trio of Asgardians. The British version leaves out the Hulk's battle with Asgards' own mighty Thunder God and his fracas with the Silver Surfer, replacing the first with a panel of the Thing and the Hulk from the cover of the Fantastic Four #112, while the Sub-Mariner, drawn under the smashing fist of the Hulk, so as to tie in to Marvel UK's continuity better. Marie Severin's artwork this issue is wonderful, capturing the Hulk's origin and the sword and sorcery style of Asgard perfectly. We in the UK don't get to see the colouring mistake that our American cousins did, as the origin of the Hulk was shown with a green, not a grey Hulk. But that wasn't the only mistake that angered those readers, the Executioner mentions his previous encounter with the Hulk, as seen in MWOM #30 but that supposed encounter took place in an alternative future, thus the Executioner from this time should not have known about that. I'm placing the blame for that one with Gary Friedrich, who may have not completely read all those back issues thoroughly. A minor mistake but it did bug me.

Ultimately the invasion of Asgard is prevented as the Hulk joins the Asgardian warriors in overcoming the Trolls and their treacherous leaders. The story ends with the Warriors Three pleading mercy with Odin for the Hulk. Who in his wisdom sends the green mortal back to whence he came. Which all in all will lead nicely into next week's story by connecting the dots and tying the knots.

Have I mentioned "The coming of the Avengers!" ?

The second half of Marvel UK's second Football competition winners lists. Each of these entrants wins a model space craft kit. Not very "footbally" I know but these are the runners up, last week saw the top prize winners listed and they won a camera, or a football or a football game. 

Speaking of competitions...

...the Thing wants to know "Do you Sincerely want to be rich?" Answer five questions correctly and collect two money coupons, one from this week and one from next, and you could be entered into a draw on the 21st August 1973 for you to win one pound pocket money every week for a whole year. A bit late if you're reading this in 2023 but it's all good clean fun. I often wondered did the winner receive a one pound note (yeah in 1973 we had paper notes!) posted to them every week? Or did they receive a one-off cheque for 52 pounds? In 2023 you only see giant-sized cheques for lottery winners or when people raise money for charity. In 1973 cheques were used everyday. How times have changed. The Composite Price Index inflation calculator shows that £52 in 1973 is equivalent in purchasing power to about £804.61 today. £52 is nothing to sniff at, but imagine how many comics you could buy with £804, just a pity that the price of comics has gone up too, no more five pence comics. In the entry form they wanted to know what was your favourite Marvel story? That's more difficult to answer than these competition questions. Here they are. 

1) Penguins are only found in...

a) The Southern Hemisphere of the world.

b) Northern Hemisphere.

c) Both Northern and Southern Hemisphere.

 2) Which snake has the most poisonous bite?

a) A python.

b) An anaconda.

c) An adder.

3) The largest county in England is?

a) Wiltshire.

b) Yorkshire.

c) Cumberland.

4) The Thing from the Fantastic Four was originally...

a) Dr. Bruce Banner.

b) Matt Murdock.

c) Ben Grimm.

5) Spider-man earns money for Peter Parker by...

a) Taking photographs.

b) Performing stunts.

c) Collecting rewards.

I'll print the answers when Marvel UK does in an upcoming blog. No cheating, no googling, you had to pay attention in school and read comics in 1973 to get those right.

The Mighty Marvel Mailbag.

It's changed from "A message from the Bullpen" to simply "From the Bullpen to you" this week. No reason it just has. This weeks message is "Next week, we introduce--at long last the newest team of super-stars to explode onto the pages of Marveldom Assembled...the mighty Avengers!" One great story, five super-heroes and one evil super-villain- Loki!

Now three messages from the real editors, so Stan Lee says. Peter Soroczan from London, who has only been reading the Mighty World of Marvel for a short time and says he wants Marvel to open a fan club. Peter must have been reading for a very, very short time if he hasn't heard of FOOM! John Hudson from Surrey, has recently just had an appendix operation in hospital. His aunt brought him some magazines to read. One of them was MWOM #18, now he's hooked. So many people have fallen in love with Marvel when they were given a comic when they were ill, it's the best medication. Finally Norman Boyd from Cambs wants to thank Marvel for the FOOMTASTIC membership kit, he's sent in another 50 pence so he can get the next three issues. He's spotted that in the US the Fantastic Four villain is called the RED Ghost while in the UK he's called the MAD Ghost and wonders is it a mistake? You can see an explanation for this in the Power of the Beesting blog entitled "Blue Moon" but the editor replies that it was an editorial decision by Stan Lee with out giving the reasons why. 

The Fantastic Four "The Hate-Monger!"

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Jack Kirby

Inker: George Roussos

Originally published in The Fantastic Four #21

Cover date December 1963

(Published in September 1963)

This story in many ways is ahead of its time. The concept of an individual who drives people's distrust, fear and ignorance of others into hate, to gain a platform of power is as relevant today. Sadly that concept has been with us since humans formed civilisations, maybe even before. Stan and Jack are really great at creating Marvel villains from those kind of rabble-rouser, enticing fear and bigotry against visible minorities. Both were enlisted during the Second World War with Kirby seeing active duty in Europe after the D-Day landings, Jack's parents were Austrian-Jewish immigrants and Stan's parents were Romanian-born Jewish immigrants, both creators knew what that kind of hate mongering could lead to. From all that fear and dread comes the Hate-Monger. Jack's costume design comes from a cross between the Ku Klux Klan uniform with its pointed hood and an European Middle Ages executioner, concealing the identity of the wearer, who we'll talk about more next week. 

Jack Kirby left no doubt in what he was intending to make the story about with the Hate-Mongers men in their Third Reich inspired uniforms and their flaming torches. After news headlines about the Hate-Monger with his rallies that preach class hatred, race hatred and religious hatred around the world causing riots in major cities, the Fantastic Four go for some fresh air and encounter one such rally. Witnessing the angry mob turning ugly and violent towards a group of immigrant minorities, the Fantastic Four step in to break it up. The Hate-Monger pulls out a strange gun that fires a "H Ray" on the FF, causing them to vent any hostility and raw hatred that may have played dormant behind good-natured bickering and banter towards each other. 

After fighting among themselves the four heroes go their separate ways. Reed returns to the Baxter Building and is greeted by an old World War Two friend Nick Fury. Now a Colonel with the CIA Fury asks Richards to help him with an uprising in the Republic of San Gusto that may cause America and the World trouble. Richards jets off to San Gusto in the Pogo Plane alone. Suspecting that Reeds aggression and bitterness towards his team-mates may have come from the Hate-Monger, Fury waits for the other three members to turn up. He then manipulates them into going to San Gusto after Reed. Next week a revolution in San Gusto and how do you fight hate?

The inside back page advert for Spider-man Comics Weekly #26, with Spider-man a "Man on a rampage!" and Thor, God of Thunder pitched against the Grey Gargoyle. Rush down to your newsagents for a copy today. But in 2023 you're more likely to find one in an old box of comics. Or keep reading and we'll come to it next.

 

Spider-man Comics Weekly #26

The large panel of this weeks cover uses the cover of Amazing Spider-man issue 32 drawn by Steve Ditko above the four smaller panels taken from this weeks Thor tale with artwork by Jack Kirby with inks supplied by Chic Stone. It's not the greatest cover but it drives the point home that Spider-man is a "Man on a rampage!"

Spider-man "Man on a rampage!"

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Steve Ditko

Inker: Steve Ditko

Originally published in the Amazing Spider-man #32

Cover date January 1966

(Published in October 1965)

Another week in which Steve Ditko gets a plotting credit. This is the second episode in that I'm calling the Master Planner trilogy, no-one else is calling it that but just stick with me. The first episode may have felt a little cool and unimportant, but this week things are starting to heat up and get interesting. By the second page we learn that Doctor Octopus is the Master Planner! I feel that Stan and Steve could have teased this a bit longer but what do I know when it comes to creating great comics? Steve Ditko knows it all believe me. 

In saying that Ditko seems to be doing a bit of method drawing, a bit like method acting Ditko might have been angry when he drew these panels, mainly because many of the characters look angry. I had to check if someone else had inked this story because it looked different, but no, it was still Steve inking his own work. Doctor Octopus looks pretty angry or glum at least.

Peter has some good reasons to be angry, as he's going through a process of splitting up with Betty Brant as Ned Leeds has asked Betty to marry him, which plays on Peter feeling he can't connect with Betty as his Spider-man ego drives a wedge between them. Then there's Aunt May's illness that we find out was possibly due to radiation poisoning from the blood transfusion that had been given to her from Peter, as seen way back in SMCW #2, leaving him feeling that he is responsible for creating so many problems.

After a brief bout of anger and remorse Peter, as Spider-man seeks help from Kurt Connors, the sometime arch-foe the Lizard, in finding a curse for Aunt May's blood condition. Working together they manufacture a serum, but a final ingredient, ISO-36, is missing. Doctor Connors had ordered a shipment of this serum from the West Coast but it had been intercepted by the Master Planner's men. Spider-man goes on a rampage through New Yorks underworld to fined any information on the whereabouts of the Master Planner and ISO-36. Steve Ditko is really giving some of his best artwork for this story, leaving you in no doubt about the urgency of Spider-man's mission. I particularly like the lab scenes between Spidey and Doctor Connors, It's sometimes easy to forget that Peter Parker is a bit of a science genius in his own right. Ditko's artwork makes Spidey and the Doctor  working in a science lab look like two wizards mixing potions with dramatic effect.

Spider-man does track down the Master Planner gang and through them he finds the underwater base where the ISO-36 serum was taken. Doctor Octopus uses the serum as bait to lure Spider-Man into a trap. The trap is sprung leading a to a gripping fight sequence between the two and then onto disaster as their fighting causes damage to the structure of the undersea base, leaving a classic cliffhanger of a trapped hero, the serum just out of reach as water starts to drip on to it and Aunt May running out of time. This story may have at first not seem important or interesting but over the last two weeks it's been building. Next week we'll see an absolute masterclass in comic strip story telling as Ditko and Lee show the world how action comics should be made. And why Ditko's art is probably the most perfect example of greatness in communicating a story through pictures. I can't wait.

Spare page alert! A gallery of Spider-man's most famous foes! starring the Beetle, originally from the Amazing Spider-man Annual #2, cover dated October 1965, (published June 1965,) and drawn by Steve Ditko. It might have been good to print the Doc Ock page instead but as that had already been printed this one was as good a page filler as any. 
 

The Web and the Hammer

The Web and the Hammer starts of with the Bullpen telling the reader that Spider-man Comics Weekly is jam packed but that's nothing compared to next weeks issue with Spider-man desperately battling to save Aunt May's life and Thor facing the triple threat of Loki, Mister Hyde and the Cobra. But Thor fans won't only have that story to enjoy, because in next weeks Mighty World of Marvel there will be the first dynamic appearance of the Thunder God together with the Hulk, Iron Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp, assembled as the Avengers!

Now letters from mere mortals, Rob Spooner from Southend wonders if the guys at Marvel really hate Spidey as he gets into worse trouble every week. He also wants to see another mag featuring the X-Men, the Avengers and Iron Man, he might just get his wish there. Plus he wants to see more of DareDevil and less of the Hulk. In time he'll get that too. Gary Armitage from Bolton says that in issue 12 the Spider-man strip was a refreshing change of pace, showing less pages taken up with fighting, that don't allow much plot, but allowing more time for character development. Gary also spotted that in issue 10 Mysterio's robots did look like the X-men, as discussed when I reviewed that issue. Tony Morgan from Sussex writes saying that he had gone to get the Mighty World of Marvel from his newsagents and picked up Spider-man to his delight. He doesn't say if he bought it instead of or as well as. 

Nicholas Gold thinks that Spider-man Comics Weekly is the greatest and wants to see more of the Sandman and the Scorpion. Andrew Thorn from London read SMCW #14 and thought WOW after seeing Spider-man battling the Scorpion, adding that Steve Ditko's art is great as usual. "Eagle eyed" John Rattue from Wiltshire has spotted two mistakes in Marvel UK comics, the first was an extra "m" in "Keep 'em comming fellas!" and the other was that Flash Thompson called Liz Allen's Dad Mr Brant. If John wants to spot mistakes he can look no further than this very blog. Usually it has more than its fair share of blunders, howlers, gaffs and plain inaccuracies. We're all only human.

 
 

The mighty Thor memory page! No it isn't a quiz page but a sneaky way of advertising next weeks Thor adventure where the God of Thunder battles Mister Hyde and the Cobra again by looking at panels from their previous encounters. A text box suggests that Mister Hyde had fought with Thor three times before, I'm not convinced that's accurate. Mister Hyde's first encounter with Thor did last over two issue and so did the time he teamed up with the Cobra and faced the Thunder God. Maybe they mean the combined encounters when the two villains had fought Thor which does make three occasions. If that's what they mean I'll hold my hand up and give back my No-Prize. 

The Mighty Thor "The grandeur, the glory, the Gargoyle!"

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Jack Kirby

Inker: Chic Stone

Originally published in Journey into Mystery #107

Cover date August 1964

(Published in June 1964)

This weeks opening splash page comes from the cover of Journey into Mystery #107, a handy use of readily available artwork that matches the story style, although it does jar slightly when on the next page we find the Grey Gargoyle climbing a building to gain access to Doctor Blakes office. Doctor Blake is looking into the strange cases of petrified human statues when the Gargoyle enters through a window. Confronting Blake the Grey Gargoyle demonstrates how he turns people and objects to stone with the touch of his flesh through holes in the palms of his gloves. I guess that his costume must be made of some unique material that resists he's granite touch. Or is it just "Marvel artistic licence"? Or can you buy unstable molecules fabric from the shops in the New York of the Marvel Universe? Reed Richard must be raking it in with copyright fees.

Don Blake makes good his escape to change into the Thunder God, he's quite good at that for a lame doctor, comes with practice. What follows is a Kirby masterclass of high energy action that suddenly ends with Thor wrestling his hammer from the Grey Gargoyle giving the villain the chance to transform the God of Thunder into an unflattering statue. School boy error, I'll let him off with that, it is his first encounter but the heroes do tend to fall for the same trap in the first or second acts of Grey Gargoyle tales. I said unflattering statue and by that I mean off-balance which to Thor turns out to be a good thing as the petrified God falls, banging his hammer on the ground in the process, setting off the transformation into the mortal Doctor. 

Blake then comes up with an idea that he'll trick the the Gargoyle in to chasing him, or rather a holographic image of Thor projected from a motorbike mounted projector designed by Tony Stark. Don Blake even comments that "Thanks to Stark's genius" he can "control the actions of the projected image, making it move like a living being!" adding "Lucky for us that Stark is a friend of Iron Man!" In a text box the Marvel UK editors writes "Who is Iron Man? You'll learn the amazing answer next week in the Mighty World of Marvel #46" A handy plug there. The Gargoyle realises that he's being tricked and turns his attention to Blake, chasing him off a pier.

Thus ending for now the menace of the Grey Gargoyle as he sinks into the murky grey waters of the Hudson River, carried down by his stone body to a watery grave. It's a bit of a grim ending, but you know Marvel, no-one dies forever. A nice classic by Stan and Jack. Jack's artwork is particularly on point. 

The Thor strip does end with a teaser text box for next weeks adventure of the Thunder God, as well as a nod to Thor's appearance in the Mighty World of Marvel #46 also next week. Which leads me nicely on to the inside back page advert for this weeks Mighty World of Marvel #45 with ancient Norse Gods galore as the Hulk treads "Where walks the Immortals!" and the Fantastic Four face in battle the bigoted Hate-monger. 

There was a lot to love in this week in 1973 from Marvel UK. But next week is going to be even better, with the introduction of the Avengers, the most shocking reveal of the century in the Fantastic Four, an absolute masterclass from Steve Ditko in comic artistry and Thor facing a super-villain team-up like no other. That's not hype, don't believe me? Come back here next week and I'll go through the nostalgia with you just to prove that in the UK the seventies was the Age of Marvels.

See you in seven.

Make Mine Marvel.