And then there were three!

Week Ending 22rd September 1973

One week you're reading the adventures of the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Spider-man and Thor in the Mighty World of Marvel and Spider-man Comics Weekly, then the next you were given the choice of another comic that sported a bright glossy cover and was packed with the world's greatest superheroes in the Avengers and the Master of black magic Doctor Strange! How fantastic was it to be a kid in the 70's. All you had to worry about was earning enough pocket money to afford the sixteen pence you needed to buy these triple triumphs. 

The Mighty World of Marvel #51

The first noticeable feature of this weeks MWOM is the heading above the title which reads "Britain's leading super-action comic!" Which was probably a straight forward attempt at letting the readers know that MWOM still is Marvel UK's flagship title now that it shares the same shelf on UK's newsstands with its glossy younger brother. Another point of notice with this issue is that the date is wrong, it is given as "Week Ending Sept 29 1973" where as it should have been Sept 22 1973. The smart eye-catching cover was drawn by Ron Wilson with a little help from Marie Severin and inks by Frank Giacoia. 

The Incredible Hulk "And now...the Space Parasite!"

Writer: Gary Friedrich

Artist: Marie Severin

Inker: Frank Giacoia

Originally published in The Incredible Hulk #103

Cover date May 1968

(Published in February 1968)

After four weeks of the Hulk appearing in the Avengers and the Fantastic Four stories he returns to his own regular series which story wise sees him returned to New York by the power and grace of Odin following his battle on Asgard as seen in MWOM #45. For Marvel UK readers a quick text box tells them that after last weeks battle with the Avengers and the Fantastic Four that ended with Rick Jones feeding the Hulk a "Gamma-ray treated capsule" which transformed the green giant into his human alter-ego who then stumbled off a jetty into the Hudson River. Only to have the effects wear off allowing old green skin to stagger right back to Times Square, as a way to square up this leap of continuity. It's a bit ham-fisted as later in the story a fear full Rick Jones threatens to shoot Bruce Banner with a gun referring back to MWOM #43 in which the Hulk tried to kill the teenager, although unknown to Rick the Hulk at that time was under the influence of the Puppet Master. This plot point makes no sense for UK readers who saw Jones last week trying to aid both man and monster.  

At first sight the Space Parasite seems nothing more than an intergalactic thug who came to Earth just looking for a fight with the toughest opponent. But his origin lays out a more sympathetic story. Randau, once the ruler of the planet Xeron until an alien invasion force attempted to overrun the peaceful world. Needing a volunteer to enter the Solar Chamber and absorb the power of the Xeron's third sun thus becoming a living weapon that would crush his enemies. Gary Friedrich crafts a morality tale showcasing that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

The once peaceful king becomes a hate filled conqueror. After finding out the hard way that no-one is stronger than the Hulk the Space Parasite teleports to his space craft in orbit at the moment that the new ruler of Xeron activates the ship's auto destruct mechanism leaving the vanquished villain adrift in space, tired, alone and near death, contemplating the meaning of peace. One of my prejudices towards these Hulk stories is that every week they're just a stereotypical "monster battle of the week" plot devise with little plot or no soul. Credit has to go to Gary Friedrich and Marie Severin for making something more than that. It's a smashing tale.

The Mighty Marvel Mailbag

J.R Donnelly from Northumberland who love's the Fantastic Four wants to see the FF team-up with Thor to battle Dr. Doom and asks if the Miracle Man will return. I'm not a big Miracle Man fan myself but I do have a big soft spot for Alan Moore's character of the same name. Anthony Nicholls from Plymouth has only been a "Marveller" for a few weeks, but he thinks he's figured out what Hulk stands for, the emerald one's name came from the words Huge Ugly Likeable Kreature! Can you see what he did there?   Shane O'Hara from Wolverhampton has spotted a "boob" in issue 31 of MWOM when text had said that the FOOM coupon was on page 34 but instead that page featured a Hulk Pin-Up. Gerard Lawless from Kent writes that he got a shock when he read in MWOM #31 that the next issue would feature two stories of the Hulk and one for the FF. He asks have they lost their marbles removing DareDevil or are they planning a new mag with the man without fear? The editor answers that old DD is just resting.

D. Hornsby from Herts boasts that he has hundreds of Marvel comics and cries that it's a big pity that MWOM no longer has DareDevil in it as he is one of Marvel's best characters. Russel and Richard Ayers from Australia praise MWOM. The boys from down under ask if they can buy any MWOM back issues. Roy Kay from Birkenhead writes that Hulkmania is spreading across the land from Hulkesfield to Hulkey-on-Thames. Roy is loving the two Hulkepisodes a week. Enough Hulk already! Andrew Wright from Notts asks why does the Hulk talk in the third person? Well as the editor relies "Hulk, him none too bright. Him not speak good!."

This teaser hinting that coming soon in the pages of the Mighty World of Marvel, a rematch between the Thing and the incredible Hulk. But in truth a rematch between the two titans will probably only occur in issue 79 of MWOM on the 6th April 1974 in a Hulk story titled "The Hulk's last fight!" Is it forward planning or did they consider a Hulk/Thing tale to come sooner? The artwork hot from the artists is from Marvel Feature issue 11 cover dated September 1973, published June 1973 by Jim Starlin with inks added by John Romita SR. It's a cracking piece of artwork.

The Fantastic Four "The master plan of Doctor Doom!"

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Jack Kirby

Inker: George Roussos

Originally published in The Fantastic Four #23

Cover date February 1964

(Published in November 1963)

For British readers this story follows right on from last week's FF/the Avengers/the Hulk adventure, however in American continuity that story saw print four issues earlier. I like the crazy starting point where a baby dinosaur is on a rampage in the Baxter Building after coming from the past via Doctor Doom's Time Machine platform, it allows the narrative to lead the reader to Latvian Monarch's latest plan. 

That plan involves trapping the FF with the aid of the Terrible Trio, three dodgy criminal types, Bull Brogan, Harry Philips and Yogi Dakor, to whom Doom enhances their natural abilities. They're kind of characters who you might find at home in Alan Moore/Kevin O'Neill's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Maybe Moore and O'Neill had some fondness for Kirby's creativeness. That's twice I've mentioned the hairy one, I must watch out for that. Stan and Jack play with the FF's argumentative banter giving the Terrible Trio the opportunity to defeat Johnny and Ben individually. How will Doom's men get on with Sue and Reed? Find out next week.

The inside back page features advertisements for the new Avengers comic and Spider-man Comics Weekly. The Avengers offers in the first issue a bonus free gift of Superhero Transfers and well as "Earth's Mightiest Heroes" and Dr. Strange, "Master of black magic!" If you look closely at the cover of the Avengers comic shown in this advert you can see the date was a week earlier than the date on the actual comic. Was the Avengers planned to be released in the week ending 15th September 1973 instead of the 22rd?

As the Avengers hog most of the page there's little room to inform the reader who Spider-man and Thor will be battling this week.

Spider-man Comics Weekly #32

This weeks cover is a version of Amazing Spider-man #38 by Steve Ditko with added amendments of a picture of this weeks off-beat villain added but his name is removed from the right hand side, possibly because it's quite bland, as we'll see later. The panels are taken from the artwork with the main image taken from page 16 of this comic, while the three images on the bottom are, from left to right, are page 8 panel 6, page 12 panel 4, and page 15 panel 1. The reason for this will become clear later.

Spider-man "Just a guy named Joe!"

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Steve Ditko    

Inker: Steve Ditko

Originally published in the Amazing Spider-man #38

Cover date July 1966

(Published in April 1966)

This story is the last Spider-man story Steve Ditko ever did. I'm not counting the back up story that featured Nighthawk from Marvel Team-Up #101 as Spider-man was only referred to as he had appeared with Nighthawk in the main story. Steve left Marvel  due to ongoing creative differences between himself and Stan Lee. That's why the original cover was made up of panels from the story. And that story is an absolute mess.

  There's no opening splash page for this story, was it abandoned when Ditko left? This week's villain is worse than third rate. Joe Smith is a dim-witted boxer, who can't win a fight or even get a break as an extra in a TV fantasy film. After an unplausible accident while filming gifts the lad superhuman strength and a short temper. Ditko must have been phoning in the plot and artwork for this one. It leaves Ditko's time on Spider-man with a bitter taste.

It's been rumoured that the grinning mannequin punched by Spider-Man at the end of this issue was intended by Ditko's to be the likeness of Stan Lee, not Ned Leeds, with Spidey punching it symbolising Steve Ditko's "farewell" to his partnership with Lee. I'm not sure how much of a likeness it is or even if it was re-drawn afterwards. I do love Stan Lee, Marvel wouldn't be the same without his drive, but the more I read about Lee's working relationship with Ditko and Kirby the more I side with the two artists. Mary Jane makes another appearance, again blocked out by some hanging vegetation. Did Ditko not want to gift another character that he was creating to the next artist? Preferring to keep her for himself?  Who knows? I sometimes wish I didn't know all about Marvel's founding father's fallout.

 A gallery of Spider-man's most famous foes! featuring Steve Ditko's creation  Doctor Octopus. First seen in the Amazing Spider-man Annual #1 cover dated October 1964, published June 1964.

The Web and the Hammer

Tony Hurley from Belfast writes that the artwork in Spider-man is fantastic but it's totally "Wow" in Thor. Jim Ivers from Dublin who will become quite a regular letter writer makes numerous points, the first being that his letter won't get printed, of course it does. He wants to see important letters print not childish ones. He'd like to see artists not restricted to the panel frames. He'd also like to see two pages of letters each week. Jim believes that the 1973 Marvel Annual  was a disappointment as it featured stories that had all ready seen print in MWOM apart from the Spider-man/Scorpion and Conan stories. He wants to see another weekly comic. He's thankful for FOOM and says that "Spidey-comic" is good but it needs a MWOM image? He thinks that John Buscema, Don Perlin, Jim Starlin and John Romita SR create the UK covers and would like to see more of Jim Starlin's work. Finally he wanted Marvel to print his full address so that other Marvel fans could write to him with their opinions. Did other Marvelites agree with him. I guess we'll find out soon. Philip Gore from Sussex picks up on some points from the 1973 annual about Spidey's webbing that don't make sense to him, but in truth they seem alright to me.

Lesley Denise Cook from Kent thinks that Spidey's a smasher, loving the sarcastic cracks he makes. J. Moreff from London has picked out some boobs from issue 18 in which Spider-man recovered his Spider-beam and the next issue he recovers it again, I think I covered that boob in elsewhere. J wants to see more American Marvel imports like Marvel Feature, Marvel Team-Up, Hero for Hire, Claws of the Cat, Triple Action and Jungle Action. Finally Michael Oloworaran from Leeds asks five questions, 1) Who's the greatest superhero?  2) What is the Marvel book people are on about? 3) When is the Spider-man LP coming out? 4) Is Spider-man stronger than DareDevil? And 5) will they  bring out back issues to buy. The answers are 1) it's up to others but the answer is Spider-man, 2) could it be the 1973 Marvel Annual? 3) it's on sale at the time of this issue, 4) yes he is and 5) maybe not in this decade but wait till the 80's and later still with the birth of eBay.

Another foe from Spider-man's most famous gallery, by Steve Ditko from the Amazing Spider-man Annual #2 cover dated October 1965 published June 1965.

The Mighty Thor "The stronger I am, the sooner I die!"

 Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Jack Kirby

Inker: Chic Stone

Originally published in Journey into Mystery #113

Cover date February 1965

(Published in December 1964)

It's a crazy Kirby opening splash page that features a villain trying in his souped up bucket racing car to escape Thor but failing. Jack is having a lot of fun with the Thor adventures lately, aided and abetted by Chic Stone who knows how to keep Jack's elaborate artwork in check. It's another tale where Loki is looking for a pawn to set against the Thunder God in the hope of destroying him. 

This week is the turn of convict Crusher Creel who Loki with a magical portion gifts the brute incredible strength through the uncanny power of absorbing the properties of anything he touches and thus the Absorbing Man is born with his prison ball and chain as a weapon against the mighty Thor hammer. Harris Hobbs a reporter who we'll see more of in the future, informs Don Blake that Creel is on the loose from prison and the Thunder God seeks out the fiend in the Black mountain swamp area. Does he defeat him? Find out next week.

Tales of Asgard "The Storm Giants!"

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Jack Kirby

Inker: Paul Reinman

Originally published in Journey into Mystery #100

Cover date January 1964

(Published in November 1963)

 

  This weeks Tale of Asgard sees the young Thor and his half brother, Loki engage in a foolish but brave adventure as they make a bid to free Agnor, King of eagles from the grotesque Storm Giants. Thor's strength and valour combined with Loki's cunning succeed  in the liberating the giant bird and a sizeable amount of the Storm Giant's Golden Apples.

Odin is pleased with the brave deed accomplished by the young Asgardians, especially Thor, noting that after each noble deed the young god's power increases as he lifts the mighty hammer a little higher. Loki is less pleased, hoping that he would receive all the credit but Odin is too wise to be deceived. It's a lovely little tale, really quite charming.

Another in house advert featuring the new Avengers weekly like the one shown earlier but this time the lower part features the Might World of Marvel. 

 So let's get on to Mighty first issue.

The Avengers #1

And then there were three Marvel weeklies on the British newsstands. The Avengers weekly or the Avengers comic or simply the Avengers was a glossy Marvelite magnet compared to its older brothers. I'm going to court some controversy here, but I do prefer the glossy covers over the newsprint ones. They stood out over the usual British boys comics. Loads of you may disagree with that opinion, allowing nostalgia to fuel your love for the newsprint material, which is fair enough, but of course you'll be wrong. (Only joking, feel free to disagree with in the usual ways.) The glossy cover did mean a price increase, up to six pence but wants a pence between friends? This cover is a collage of images from the featured Avengers story with artwork by Jack Kirby with George Roussos. The Dr. Strange insert is by Dan Adkins I'm lead to believe as I see little reason to disagree with. The internet says that it's from Doctor Strange 169 but I couldn't spot it in that issue.  

I bought my copy of this landmark issue in 1986/1987 from one of my favourite comic shops, Odyssey Magazine and Poster Centre , 21 Hanging Ditch, Coin Exchange Building, Manchester, bagged of the price of one pound. Sadly it came without the free Superhero Transfers. I also got the Planet of the Apes issue 1 and Dracula Lives issue 1 for one pound each at the same time. It mainly sold US imports but it also had a large selection of older stuff too. It was a fantastic comic shop that is sadly no-longer there. I spent many happy Saturdays once every month or so, on trips to Manchester and shops like that in my teenage years.

The Avengers "Captain America joins the Avengers!"

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Jack Kirby

Inker: George Rousso

Originally published in The Avengers #4

Cover date March 1964

(Published in January 1964)

Earth's mightiest heroes welcome the legendary Captain America into the ranks of the Avengers. The last time we saw the Avengers we saw that the star spangled legend was already with the team in MWOM#49 and #50 . This backward step filled us in with the details of how Cap was discovered floating in the North Sea after the Sub-Mariner in a fit of rage had thrown the ice block encasing the hero into the sea where it slowly melted after events seen in MWOM#48 . 

As much as I might have give the impression that I've fallen out of love with Stan Lee I do believe it was his creative force and vision that brought back Cap to the Marvel Universe. May be even crafting the idea that Cap was in suspended animation in a block of ice after events at the end of the World War Two. He knew what sold and what the kids wanted.

Those events entailed the Captain and his side kick Bucky Barnes racing after an explosive filled drone plane set off by the evil nazis scientist Baron Zemo. Cap slips off it into the icey waters as Bucky apparently dies as he deactivates the booby trapped drone.  

Cap takes a rest as the Avengers arrive back at New York to the awaiting press. One of those camera men is an Alien with a device that turns the Avengers to stone. After waking alone and taking a confusing journey through modern New York Cap meets Rick Jones who is looking for the Avengers. Together they piece together that the stone statues are the real Avengers and they hunt down the Alien, finding out that his likeness must have been behind the legend of the Medusa. The Sub-Mariner had blackmailed him into trapping the Avengers in exchange for freeing his ship that had been embedded in the ocean bed for centuries. 

The Avengers work to free his ship but are attacked by Namor and some of his  lost followers. The fight is brief, the alien escapes and Iron Man with the agreement of the other Avengers asks Cap to be their latest member. It's a cracking tale to start the first issue of the Avengers. I'm going to love this comic.

A welcome to young readers from Marvel UK's latest mag. Forged from the friendship through the pages of the Mighty World of Marvel and Spider-man Comics Weekly, the Avengers came into being because of an avalanche of letters demanded it. The editor asks new friends of the assemblers to slap  down your six pence on the newsagents counter and ask for the next issue, as you're not just buying a comic, no it's more like paying your entrance fee to a new way of life! 

Also next week's free gift is an "Avengers Wonder Weapon!" what ever that is? 

Doctor Strange "The Origin of Dr. Strange!"

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Steve Ditko

Inker: Steve Ditko

Originally published in Strange Tales #115

Cover date December 1963

(Published in September 1963)

Even though this Doctor Strange story is titled the origin of Dr. Strange it was the fourth appearance of the master of the mystical arts in his continuity. Originally his appearance was more as an oriental look character, in this story Stephen Strange has more white American looks at one point Baron Mordo calls Strange a "Western Dog!" After a car accident that looses Doctor Stephen Strange's hand dexterity that is required to be a top surgeon he falls into depression and leads him on to a journey to the Himalayas in search of a cure from a mythic healer know as the Ancient One.

Once Strange meets the Ancient One he is less than pleased with the "old fraud's parlour tricks" and tries leaving but a heavy snow fall entraps  Stephen in the temple until it can thaw. During his stay Strange spies the Ancient One's apprentice Baron Mordo plotting with his real master Dormammu, against the Ancient One. Unable to inform on the Baron after the evil one casts a spell of silence, they only way to break the spell is to learn magic. Dr. Strange accepts the offer to become an apprentice to the Ancient One. Knowing Mordo's intensions all along the Ancient One releases the Doctor from the Baron's spell and sets about teaching him the art of magic. After this weeks final Ditko Spider-man story it's great to get another series plotted and drawn by him. Steve Ditko's mystic arts stories are as good as good as it gets. These Steve Ditko Doctor Strange beauties. It's going to be an amazing ride.

Next week promises us the mystic power of Nightmare! Dr. Strange's ever first story! Plus these's John Romita SR's first Spider-man story too, that changes Peter Parker's life forever. All that and so much more! It was a blast being a Marvel fan in the 70's! Can't wait to start reading next weeks comics again! So as they say...

See you in seven.

Make Mine Marvel.