Besieged, defeated than annihilation! The life of a Marvel Super-hero!

 Week Ending 19th January 1974

I feel the need to address a point that was made by Friend Of The Beesting, Mark Lotinga who made a comment on last week's Avengers letter page to a reply from Marvel's editor to a letter written by Ralph Skelton, in which he wrote about the reference to Doctor Strange being a Master of Black Magic, as he had read in a book by Dennis Wheatley that black magic is evil and white magic is good. The editor in answering Ralph stated that Wheatley is one of their favourite writers and by way of a recommendation ""The Devil Rides Out" is one to remember." Mark posed the question, was it a good idea to recommend "The Devil Rides Out" to young readers? I confess that I've never read that book, but I do know the classic Hammer film really well and I'm starting to think was that a valid point. The contents of the book and film in 1974 would have gone over my head as I was probably on the lower age scale for Marvel weeklies at the time. I imagine the target age group would have been 6 to 12 years old and that the "Devil Rides Out" book or film would be read by late teenagers upwards, please correct me if I'm wrong on those points, so was it a mistake to recommend it, or was it just an editor engaging in conversation with a like minded literary lover? I'm not sure, I do think that Petra Skingley, the female British editor who used the pseudonym Peter L. Skingley for these Marvel weeklies, had good intensions. I've always considered that Marvel is a broad church where the reader can get out of the adventures what ever they like, whether it's action you want or intelligent social comment or thought provoking drama, it can be all things for whether age you are. I think this won't be the last time this conversation comes up, especially when we get to the stories and contents of Planet of the Apes and Dracula Lives weeklies, later this year comes around. Are Marvel weeklies for children or kids of all ages? Did you read them at a very young age, possibly younger than their target age? Did you read them as an adult and felt you were too old for them? I think I got the bug at a very young age and as I still read them now may be I should have stopped. No, reading comics makes you young! Anyway thanks to Mark for his comment, its got me thinking. 

More on the Master of Black Magic a lot later in this blog when we get to the Avengers weekly. But what happened in other weeklies first? Let's find out.

The Mighty World of Marvel #68

Wow, this cover makes you sit up and pay attention. It's a pity the printer didn't pay attention when they set up the colours for it. "Our GREEN-skinned golem battles the sinister Super-Humanoid", not ORANGE-skinned! I'm not sure what went wrong, the comic title looks like the right colours but what primary colour or secondary colour was missing to turn the green Hulk orange and the Super-Humanoid from it's original light blue and dark blue colour scheme to pink and green?

 It reminds me of the 1970 Pow Annual with a grey Thing and the Orange coloured FF costumes and the Fantastic Annual of the same year, in which Thor sports a yellow outfit instead of a blue one. Both published in the Autumn of 1969. The colour schemes for the cover stars are perfect inside so I guess the colourist hadn't got a colour templet for the FF and Thor stories that year. What was the excuse for this week's Hulk cover? The artwork for that cover is by Ron Wilson with Mike Esposito handling the inks. Even when disregarding the poor colours I don't like this cover at all. 

The Incredible Hulk "The eve of...annihilation!"

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Herb Trimpe

Inker: Dan Adkins

Originally published in The Incredible Hulk #115

Cover date June 1969

(Published in March 1969)

The pink and green Super Humanoid might have looked very camp, but to be honest his general look inside the comic looks very camp anyway. Sort of a Muppet robot monster. What does that say about its creator, the Leader? Is he compensating for something? I'm I being overcritical if I compare the Super Humanoid to a giant-sized rubber sex doll? May be, but only a little. For most of this story the Hulk remains imprisoned inside the Leaders plaste-thene cell. so the opportunity of seeing the Hulk and the Super Humanoid battling is only limited. 

Betty Ross unlike her father becomes very suspicious of the Leaders intensions. Enlisting Major Talbot to her doubts he orders a small taskforce of men to challenge the Leader against the General's standing orders. The Leader shows his true colours and sends the giant Humanoid to dispatch them. The General finally sees the truth but it's too late as a well aimed "Mental Blast" from the green fiend renders the troops and the General temporary unconscious. For no reason what so ever the Leader gives Betty a "Protective head device" that will shield her from his mental blasts. "Why?" you and I ask. I guess even megalomaniacs enjoy an audience. The Leader lets his mental powers cover the entire base, forcing it's population to conform to his will save for Betty who sneaks off and looks for a way to free the Hulk, which she does for a time with the Leaders own Plasti-thene "Sealer Beam". The Hulk battles the Super-Humanoid for only a short time before the Leader again covers the Hulk in a living coat of Plasti-thene once more. With the base again under his control and the Hulk fettered beneath a mound of Plasti-thene, the Leader prepares to launch the base's missiles to create a holocaust of nuclear deviastation on the world in which he can rise from the radioactive ashes and become the real "Leader" of the world. Hulkinued...and how! They aren't kidding neither!

The Mighty Marvel Mailbag

Paul Telford from North Shields who says he's getting sick of the FF! He would like to see them gone from MWOM with its contents changed to the X-Men, Daredevil and Captain Marvel. For Spider-man he wants Spidey, of course, with Ka-Zar or Nick Fury replacing Thor. For the Avengers he wants to see the Sub-Mariner, Captain America or the original Human Torch from their Golden Age adventures. Richard Gadshy from Nuneaton wants to see more Marvel Collector Specials or Mini Posters as they seem to have disappeared. S. Julian from Huddersfield thinks MWOM is great but wants the ink changed as it comes off in his hands, which makes his Mum cross. Now them Marvel we don't want a cross Mum do we? John Hall from Middlesex, could that be the Admin for the Facebook group UK Marvel in the Seventies, wanted some answers to some pressing questions. 1) Why does the Human Torch yell "Flame On!" 2) Can Loki be cut out for a while, 3) Will Spider-man battle Thor? 4) Will the FF ever get their own comic? And lastly why are letters printed about 11 weeks out of date? To summarise the editor answers are 1) because he likes to, 2) point taken, 3) yes, 4) possibly, 5) because of the printing schedule. 

Simon Wayne from Bedfordshire, wants more gifts, prizes, competitions and colour from Marvel. The editor points out that they've had a Spidey LP comp, Wordaphobia comp, Football comps and Pocket Money comps that give away everything from cameras, to a Raleigh bike, they add that there can be only one explanation for his letter, that he has a great sense of humour. Robert Stevenson from Bedford has spotted a mistake in the Avengers #7 where Thor mixes up the name of Atlas for Hercules. You can find out why in my blog for that issue. Patrick McGowan from London ask about who's the top star in MWOM, he presumes it's the Hulk as he gets the title headline and of course he's right. He asks four other questions and gets an answer of sorts for them all save "will you put colour in your mags?" adding "you won't give me a straight answer anyway. Oh well!" To that he gets no answer at all. Jonathan Burch from Sussex picks apart the argument that if the Hulk's strength is a thousand times greater than Banner's and if the Hulk's strength is like a thousand pile-drivers does that make Banner's as strong as one pile-driver? Sometimes things are said in Marvel comics that aren't meant to be 100 percent accurate. This mailbag is ended with a short but sweet letter from Todd Walsh from Sussex saying that "the Human Torch is great!"

The Fantastic Four "Battle at the Earth's core!"

Writer: Stan Lee 

Artist: Jack Kirby

Inker: Chic Stone 

Originally published in The Fantastic Four #31

Cover date October 1964

(Published in July 1964)

Whole city blocks have vanished into the ground so the Avengers rush towards once they learn that the Mole Man is the culprit, much to the dismay of the FF who wants to handle him as he has the Invisible Girl as a hostage. After a brief fight between the two super-groups the FF are left to plan a method to recover their missing member and stop the Mole Man. Mister Fantastic formulates a great plan and with the help of a new created "Detector" and a "Hover Cycle" they do, but at a cost.

That cost is a head injury to Sue Storm. The only one who has the skill to operate on her is, no not Don Blake that would be obvious, no it turns out to be the man who Reed caught Sue reading about in last week's episode, her father. Who had escaped from prison where he was spending a prison term for some un-named crime, unknown to everyone but Sue who had told her brother Johnny that he had died. He handed himself in so that he could save his daughter's life, which he does sharing a moment with his children before he's returned to prison. We haven't heard the last of Dr. Franklin Storm, no, there's more to come next week.

The "double dynamite" in-house advert for this week's Avengers and Spider-man Comics Weekly mags takes an inside page as the colour back page is held over for something special.

The inside back page gives Marvel readers an opportunity to create their own Marvel Super-hero or Super-villain in what looks like nothing more than a wasted page but the reason for this blank page is revealed completely on the back page. The form at the bottom of the page asks for you name, address, your characters name, their powers and a choice of nine age groups. Under 8's, 8-9, 9-10, 10-11, 11-12, 12-13, 13-14, 14-16 (a harder group as it crossed three years, therefore possibly more entrants,) and over 16's. I wonder how many lied about their age to gain an advantage?

  

Yes the full reason is Marvel readers have a chance to win their very own colour TV by entering Marvel's Free Super-hero/Super-villain competition. All they have to do is fill the blank frame with their very own original super-character, name them and state what their super-power, skills or weapons are. There are nine age groups with winners from each group winning a prize, plus an overall winner will bag the TV. None over than Stan (the man) Lee will head the judging panel. Budding artists had just over four weeks to enter. It wouldn't be your drawing ability that wins, but the originality of your idea. Even if your entry didn't get picked as the first prize winner in your group there was still a chance to win many one of the prizes on offer, although they don't say how many. Did you enter? I can't wait to see some of the winners. It's a great idea for a competition.

Spider-man Comics Weekly #49

Right let's not mess about, this John Romita Sr cover is my Cover of the Week. It's absolutely fabulous! What I like even more about the British version is that it focuses in even more on Doc Ock's face. The double reflections of Spider-man struggling against the four robotic tentacles is a master class of creating a beautiful and engaging cover. Superb!

Spider-man "Doc Ock wins!"

Writer: Stan Lee 

Artist: John Romita Sr

Inker: Mike Esposito

Originally published in the Amazing Spider-man #55

Cover date December 1967

(Published in September 1967)

This week's adventure is really action backed with an angry Spider-man ripping open the roof of a hide out to find three of Doc Ock's men and only a monitor through which the villain taunts the Web-slinger that he'll never be able to stop him on his next devious heist. Doctor Octopus doesn't tell Spider-man what that heist is for. But we're not left with any doubt that he's still after the "Nullifer" from two issues ago. 
 

This British edition does have some slight strange text adjustments in it, the first one is the Spider-man line "those penny-ante crooks!" to "those good for nothing crooks!" they both sound very American english, the first version sounds OK, the second sounds more silly and cartoonish. The lettering isn't great either, I wonder who did it. I imagine that Dave Gibbons, who did a the early British Marvel lettering for then editor Pippa Melling, would have done a better job. Was he still freelancing for Marvel as a bodger at this time? I get it's not always easy fitting the number of letters in the same space. 

The next lettering correction was a text box that set a scene-change with originally the line "before you start thinking that Louisa May Alcott was Stan's co-author!" to "Enid Blyton" replacing the "Little Women" author. Although Enid Blyton may well be more well known to young British readers through her children's novels I don't feel that she carries the same gravitas as the American novelist. Would the use of Jane Austen been better? 

One thing that the lettering bodger missed, or was it the editors fault for not noticing that when Spider-man talks out loud about the Master Planner while searching the Master Planner/Doctor Octopus's hideout, the original text box informing the reader about which Amazing Spider-man issue that story appeared in are left in the British edition. For those wondering it should've been Spider-man Comics Weekly #25, #26 and #27. 

Spider-man does track down Doctor Octopus but only after the fiend had stolen the "Nullifer" and broken into Stark Industries at Long Island where the mop haired crazed Doctor plans to use the "Nullifer" to take over the world! One man can stop him, that one man is Spider-man. Desperately the tentacled tyrant uses the "Nullifer" against Spidey to an unimaginable effect.

A text box suggests that the "Nullifer" affected Spider-man's radioactive blood in such a way that it induced amnesia in the Web-slinger, causing him to forget who he was and why he's wearing a costume. Doc Ock takes advantage of this by telling him he is an arch-criminal in the service of Doctor Octopus. How that will play out next week could be a "Day of disaster" for Spider-man. Be back for that in seven days.

The Web and the Hammer

Steven Webb from London is a RFO, KOF and with this letter a QNS,  writes in to suggest having a colouring book of Marvel characters as he copies characters from the comics and colours them in, with loads of Hulk, Iron Man and Ice Man drawing covering his bedroom walls. He also asks for a No-Prize to make himself a TTB, but as he hasn't earned it the editor says no. Tyronne Henry from Rutland offers two ideas to make Marvel fantastic, first is coloured stories and the second is having models of super-heroes. Roy Fretwell from Forest Hill thinks that SMCW #33 was great and that the answer to which issue Aunt May received a blood transfusion from Peter was SMCW #2. Paul Ryan from Leeds has created his own super-heroes called Ra the Sun God, the Gladiator, Taurus of the Zodiac, the Phantom and Genesis the Earth Protector. Pretty cool but not as cool as the Beesting! Only joking, may be he should enter this week's design your own super-hero competition. On Holiday he picked up copies of (Tomb of) Dracula and Werewolf by Night, I guess he'll love what's coming later this year. 

Malcolm Currey from County Durham ask the perpetual question where does Spider-man put his street clothes when he changes into his super-hero identity? A nice hiding place is the answer. Sandy Manson from Aberdeenshire thinks SMCW is great and what's to see Spider-man fighting Doctor Doom, the replacement of Thor with Daredevil and will Spider-man reveal his identity to anyone, such as Harry Osborn or Mary Jane? Stuart Webster from Leicester wonders what's happened to SMCW once having 40 pages 'cause now it's only got 32! Well since last week Stuart its up to 36 pages plus glossy covers too, so that an improvement. Philip Wilson from Surrey asks who drew the Lizard in SMCW #38, as he was the artist for him. Well Philip that would be John Romita Sr and he's the Spider-man artist for me too!
 

"The Avengers are here!" And they face Power man in this weeks full length thriller together with another spine-tingler from Doctor Strange the Master of Black Magic! There's also more action awaiting the readers of the Mighty World of Marvel this week with the Incredible Hulk and the Fantastic Four.

 Your friendly neighbourhood Spider-man presents a new brand new style of Spider-man Comics Weekly coming soon! Well its half arrived with the new Glossy covers and the page increase to 36 pages. Next week sees the complete transformation as a third strip joins Spider-man and Thor. But who you ask? Well it isn't a surprise, they've been going on about it for weeks. It's Iron Man! 

The page's artwork is most probably by John Romita Sr.

The Mighty Thor "Asgard besieged!" 

Writer: Stan Lee 

Artist: Jack Kirby

Inker: Vince Colletta

Originally published in Journey into Mystery #122

Cover date November 1965

(Published in September 1965)

This story continues from last week with the Absorbing Man rampaging through Asgard, but quickly returns to Earth to find out what happened to Don Blake, Jane Foster, and her masked abductor Harris Hobbs. As an investigative reporter Hobbs wanted to get to the secrets of Thor and his connection with Jane Foster. I'm not sure where donning a scary mask and keeping her locked away passes any moral journalistic code, but if his methods are a little "Fleet Street tabloid rag journalistic" method the results do work as he finds out Blake/Thor's duel identity. 

Thor agrees to meet with him to discuss their next course of action. Wanting the scoop of the century does Hobbs not wonder if Thor might unleash the full wrath of a God and send him on a one way ticket to heaven or hell? To further scare the journalist Thor takes Hobbs of a whirlwind tour of the past and the future in an attempt to shock him. Which it does but Thor being Thor and Stan Lee being Stan Lee, Jack Kirby being Jack Kirby the plot changes with Thor agreeing to take the reporter to Asgard with a "I salute your courage mortal!" line from Thor. Well at least Hobbs got to go to heaven without having to die for it. 

While in the Golden Realm the Absorbing Man smashes his way through the Palace Guard and into the eternal Throne Room to confront the all powerful All Father. Is it wise to fire a "Cosmic Bolt" of energy at a villain whose unique selling point is he can absorb the properties of matter and energy? Can Odin and Asgard survive this school boy error? Find out next week.

 Another Mighty Marvel Pin-up most probably again from  the pencil of John Romita Sr, this time of the incredibly beautiful Mary Jane Watson.  
 
 

Both Spider-man Comic Weekly and the Avengers weekly feature the same page (seen on the left,) for the Marvel Artist Competition on their back pages. But unlike the one to appear on the Mighty World of Marvel (seen on the right,) theirs has a pink back ground not a yellow one. I did briefly wonder if it had anything to do with the mis-colouring of the MWOM front cover, but Spider-man's colours come out alright. The colours for the lower text box are different but not in a bad way so I think this colour change was intended. What is different between the yellow and pink versions is the positioning and colours of the text in the TV image. The "Would you believe it?" surprise balloon also moves from the top to the bottom of the TV set. Someone must have made two versions and the editor decided to use both.

The Avengers #18

This cover drawn by Marie Severin and inked by Frank Giacoia is far superior to the original Avengers #21 (US version,) by Jack Kirby and Wally Wood. It's got drama and Power (Man), that would on any other day get my Cover of the week award. Not this week, an angry Doc Ock wins the prize for me, but it's a very close second. I had to look back over my previous Avengers issues to see if the four Avengers heads in the Marvel Comics Group box had been redrawn to look downwards in shock at their cover selfs predicament? No they're the same images that's been there since they took over from the originals. 

The Avengers "The bitter taste of defeat!"

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Don Heck

Inker: Wally Wood

Originally published in The Avengers #21

Cover date October 1965

(Published in August 1965)

If you go off this opening splash page you can be forgiven in thinking that this story is going to be humdrum as it starts with Hawkeye changing a fuse. Yeah it's a typical early Avengers tale but humdrum does seem harsh. Captain America reprimand Hawkeye for doing it as only Tony Stark can work on their equipment. Sounds very severe  from Cap, not really what you expect from a leader when one of their team shows initiative. That's pretty much how this group gets on, as Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch enter to engage in the bickering. 

This story centres on a wounded mercenary, who had previously worked for Baron Zemo, named Erik Josten, who finds his way to Zemo's abandoned Amazon laboratory in hope of operating the machine that had turn Simon Willians into Wonder Man. With no scientific knowledge Josten hopes would fade if not for the timely return of the Enchantress, who through her Asgardian magic works the machine with its "ionic rays" that grants him the strength of Wonder Man, without the threat of death if the treatment wasn't repeated regularly. Was that a clever lie by the Baron or did the Enchantress improve the process? Not wanting to be called a corny name like Wonder Man Erik Josten chooses the corny name of Power Man instead! I never really liked that name either, even when Luke Cage went by it. Power Man's costume looks silly, better than Wonder Man's, but only just. It's a typical Don Heck costume. Like many of Heck's designs they can be cheesy or iconic, or sometimes both. This one is fine for its time.

The Enchantress and Power Man set about a plan to make the Avengers look foolish in the hope that this will weaken them. In truth this group of Avengers regularly make themselves look foolish, without the villains help. The story ends with the Avengers wondering if they aren't up to the name of Avengers? I quite like this story, it makes a change from the usual super-hero fodder where the heroes win gloriously every week. These "losers" will have to wait till next week to turn their troubles around. 

Letters...it's mailbag time

Still no sign of a permanent mailbag title, we do get a "From the Bullpen to you" column this week though. In a roundabout way of pushing the Marvel Artist Competition without actually mentioning it, this column asks would you like to join the staff of the Bullpen office someday? Then goes on to give a comprehensive history of how Stan Lee got to be the head honcho at Marvel. At the age of 15 Lee won the New York Herald Tribunes "Biggest-news-of-the-week-essay" three weeks in a row! The editor urged him to consider becoming a writer. Which of course he did as by 1939 he became part of the Marvel staff, (then call Timely Comics,) progressing to positions of Executive Editor, Art Director and Head Writer until March 1972 when he became Publisher of Marvel. It's a nice quick read, more so than some of that columns earlier topics. 

But on with the readers letters, first up is John W. Cheshire from Warwickshire who unfortunately only started collecting the Avengers weekly since issue 5. David McLoughlin from Dublin wondered how Captain America stayed alive in that block of ice? "Suspended animation" is the answer David, that and Marvel Magic, funny enough Doctor Strange is David's favourite character. S. Mulley from near Crewe thinks Marvel weeklies are great, but also asks why doesn't the Hulk's trousers rip off and why don't they fall off Banner after he returns to normal. "Artistic Licence" is the editor's answer, that and modesty. Finally for this week Paul Knight from Portsmouth who asks will we be seeing Immortus again? Oh yes we will.

   
 A double dynamite from magnificent Marvel with these two great hits. I guess they didn't have the Mighty World of Marvel cover ready to add to this in-house advert.

Doctor Strange "The defeat of Dr. Strange"

Writer: Stan Lee 

Artist: Steve Ditko

Inker: Steve Ditko 

Originally published in Strange Tales #130

Cover date March 1965

(Published in December 1964)

"The start of the greatest Black Magic spectacular ever presented..." and I hear myself saying "oh not Baron Mordo again!" But wait who's offering him "power without limit"? Now that's how you open a supernatural thriller. Most of the panel is black with only the light from a small candle and a portal into another dimension. Ditko really is the master of the mysterious. In this story he's playing all the aces, it's got me gripped.

The Baron uses his newly enhanced powers to confront Doctor Strange and his mentor, the Ancient One, in their mountainous retreat in far-off Tibet. Mordo and his fearsome followers surprise attack is more than a match for the two, but Strange manages to escape with the Ancient One. 

The Doctor evades the pursuit just as the Baron's newly gifted powers fade. But who was the might behind the surprise assault? A strained, limp hand belonging to the culprit, who sits on a throne in the Dark Dimension reveals that the Dread Dormammu was the hand behind the strike. Bending the intension of his pledge to never invade the Earth dimension as seen in the Avengers weekly #16, Dormammu operates his puppet followers to exact revenge on Doctor Strange. Can Strange survive when Dormammu's followers are everywhere? Find out in seven days, you can bet this one's going to be magical! So until then...

See you in seven.

Make Mine Marvel.