When titans collide who controls your mind?

 Week Ending 29th May1976

The sun is shining but with six super weeklies to look at from fifty years ago will I manage to write about them all? Stick with the Power of the Beesting till the end and find out. It's the weekly history of British Marvel comics that's ideal to read in the warm sun with a cool drink.

The Mighty World of Marvel #191

I can't see the point of this cover by Ron Wilson (pencils,) and Frank Giacoia (inks,) it's more or less a copy of last week's Herb Trimpe cover, the only difference between the two is Adam Warlock is flying towards the Hulk in this one. 

The Incredible Hulk “Death of a superhero!”

Writer: Gerry Conway

Artist: Herb Trimpe

Inker: Jack Abel

Originally published in The Incredible Hulk #177

Cover date July 1974

(Published in April 1974)

This splash page was created especially for this second part opening page by an unnamed artist. On Counter-Earth, a world very similar to our own Earth, Adam Warlock is introduced to the Hulk in the secret hideout of the New Men rebels. Although they seek revolution, in a technical society they have been forced to embrace technology to keep one step ahead of the evil Man-Beast. Warlock explains to the childlike Hulk that even though their brand of revolution is a peaceful one, to some men revolution means a quiet change in social order, to others it means violence and unfortunately violet men must be dealt with violently. The Hulk expresses his dislike of guns to which Warlock suggests that he may be the wisest of all men, but the world is about to collapse into chaos as it trembles on the verge of destruction. Some of Adam's followers believe that they should abandon the planet in a rocket before things go that far. 

The Hulk finds solace and begins to consider Warlock and his followers his friends, later they eat supper together. Many parts of Adam Warlock's adventures, from his discovery by the High Evolutionary in POTA #28, to this current Hulk adventure form an allegory of Jesus Christ from the New Testament of the Bible. This scene of Warlock having supper with the New Men and the Hulk resembles Leonardo Da Vinci's painting of the "Last Supper". Gerry Conway, Herb Trimpe and Roy Thomas must have known exactly what they were doing as in the panel Adam Warlock is seated at the centre, taking the place of Jesus Christ while the Hulk playing the part of Judas sits to Adam's right, much like the Da Vinci painting. 

Obviously in the Bible, Judas betrayed Jesus to the Romans who later had him crucified, here suddenly the Hulk goes into a berserker rage when the Man-Beast activates his "sonic probe" to take over the Hulk's mind thanks to the implant in his neck. The Man-Beast has traced the Hulk to the New Men's base and sets Operation: Betrayel into action. Feeling unbearable pain the Hulk is unable to stop himself from going into a rampage and smashing up the base, which keeps Warlock and his followers occupied enough for the Man-Beast and his minions to arrive. While the Hulk is distracted fighting the evil New Men, Adam Warlock and the Man-Beast clash. The fight ends when the Man-Beast fires a powerful weapon at the Hulk that transforms him back to his human self. With Warlock also defeated, the Man-Beast informs the world that the would be messiah of Counter-Earth will be publicly executed. Later the Man-Beast visits the prison cell of the real President of the United States, Rex Carpenter and his sister Astella Carpenter. There he possessed the body of the real Rex Carpenter, to use his media influence and hypnosis powers, he bends the will of the American public to agree to the public execution of Warlock. Like sheep the populous watch as the Man-Beast manipulates mankind's darkest fears, forcing them, with Bruce Banner, to watch in horror and witness as Adam Warlock, now placed on a machine that looks intentionally like a cross, is bombarded with energy, that causes building pain in the golden skinned saviour. In that moment Warlock asks to the heavens why High Evolutionary had abandoned him? Mirroring Jesus Christ when he cried out in anguish: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" as written in the Gospels of Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34. That "Crucifixion" ultimately kills Warlock. As the agony builds into a sub-sonic scream until the pain fades upon his death, Warlock reverts to his cocoon form, much to the pleasure of the Man-Beast who finally believes the final obstacle in his conquest of not only Counter-Earth, but the original Earth as well, has been finally removed. The start of the mind-staggering conclusion begins next week with "When comes the Apocalypse!"

The Mighty Marvel Mailbag

Andrew Constantine RFO, KOF, TTB from Scarborough really loves MWOM over SMCW and the Avengers weekly, but his letter contains a Marvel quiz. Here's the questions, the answers will come at the end of this mailbag. 

1) Who did The Avengers fight in #2 of their mag?

2) When did MWOM get its glossy cover?

3) Who were the F.F. fighting in #26 of MWOM?

4) In what recent issue did The Abomination appear, apart from #178 of MWOM?

5) Who were the three Marvel characters who appeared in the first 19 issues of MWOM?

6) In which US Marvel is "The Legion of Monsters" making its debut this month of Feb?

7) Name two of the back-up features which appeared in Conan's mag until it merged with the Avengers.

8) What was special about MWOM #100, apart from it actually being the centenary issue?

9) In what issue did Dracula's origin appear?

10) In what issue did Wonder Man appear in The Avengers?

Now on with the rest of the letter page. Elio Masi from Swindon wants to know where he can buy the Italian issues of Spiderman, Conan and Daredevil that were featured in "Marvel over Europe" as seen in MWOM #181. Gary Collins RFO from Middlesex reviews MWOM, the Hulk is very good, Daredevil is a hero that's knocked by other Marvelites but Gary thinks he's great. Gary also thinks that the letter pages are of a high standard. As usual the Fantastic Four is excellent. Philip Harrod also from Middlesex noticed while watching the film, "There's a girl in my soup" on television that there was a scene which had a poster of the Hulk on a wall. Gary Mann from Essex asks can Marvel send him some pictures of any Marvel characters as he's working on a project about Marvel. M T Brown  from Middlesex is also working on a project about Marvel comics and ask can the editor send him any free information. Now the answers to Andrew Constantine's quiz. 

1) Lava Men.

2) MWOM #67.

3) The Mad Ghost and his super-powered Apes.

4) MWOM #156.

5) The Hulk, Spider-man and the Fantastic Four.

6) Marvel Premiere #28.

7) Kull and Thonger.

8) It had three Hulk stories including his origin story. 

9) Dracula Lives #2

10) Avengers weekly #6

Daredevil “Showdown at sea!”

Writer: Roy Thomas

Artist: Gene Colan

Inker: Syd Shores

Originally published in Daredevil #60

Cover date  January 1970

(Published in November 1969)

After over-hearing information in a sleazy bar Daredevil has headed to the docks in the pursuit of ending the underworld crime boss known as Crime-Wave, latest scheme. Two of Crime-Wave's henchmen Shades McGraw and Turk are too busy loading heavy boxes onto a speedboat to notice Daredevil before it's too late. Overpowering the thugs Daredevil sets about disguising himself as Shades McGraw, as he bears a passing resemblance to Matt Murdock, then he sets off towards the anchored ship that he had learned about earlier that night. To pass the time he goes over events that lead him to the nights actions.

It was Crime-Wave, the mysterious boss of a billion dollar crime syndicate who had poisoned New York and had come to Daredevil's attention. When the hero had put an end to some of the crime lords operations he had sent the Stunt Master after him, as seen in MWOM #187 and #188, as well as the assassin named Torpedo to murder the informer Willie Lincoln, as seen in MWOM #190. Daredevil had learned that Crime-Wave was operating an illegal gambling boat that was anchored just past international waters. Murdock also remembers how his friend the District Attorney, Foggy Nelson, had been working hard to bring the Crime-Wave to justice, but his advisor, Hollis, had suggested that he end his relationship with Deborah Harris because of her being an ex-convict and her connection with the criminal named the Organizer, as seen in MWOM #80. Overhearing Hollis's comments Deborah cancels her engagement with Foggy. Soon Murdock in disguise arrives at the gambling ship, with little security he easily passes as Shades McGraw. One of Crime-Wave's Lieutenants asks "Shades" to run a roulette wheel because they're a man down. Next week "wheel of misfortune!"

A full page in-house advert for British Marvel comics two titanic weeklies. There's a Thing or two in these landscape mags as Ben Grimm appears in the Fantastic Four strip in The Titans and also in the Marvel Two In One strip in Super Spider-man with the Super-Heroes, where he'll team-up with the Golem. Two more triumphs from Marvel.

Bullpen Bulletin

All-inclusive effluvium from the original house of ideas!

The Bullpen Bulletin appears in all the weeklies this week. This Howard the Duck version also appears in the Avengers weekly. In the landscape weeklies a different image of Howard is used, while in the Planet of the Apes no images are used. Count Dracula himself shows up on the Bullpen Bulletin page in this week's Dracula Lives as we'll see later. The first Item this week just happens to be about our fine feathered cavortin', cigar-chompin' creation of Steve Gerber, the humble Howard the Duck, co-star of a recent Man-Thing story in Dracula Lives. He will be featuring very soon in the centrefold of one of the weeklies. But while the Bullpen is writing about Howard they ask British readers do they want to see more of the character in his own story in one of the British mags? The next Item will be revealed in the Bullpen Bulletin page in Super Spider-man with the Super-Heroes, later in this blog.

The X-Men “Now strikes...the Sub-human!”

Writer: Roy Thomas

Artist: Don Heck

Inker: George Tuska

Originally published in The X-Men #41

Cover date February 1968

(Published in December 1967)

Midnight and a rolling subway train speeds through the labyrinth of tunnels beneath the streets of New York when suddenly a giant sub-human creature attacks a subway train, that happens coincidentally to be carrying Bobby Drake and Hank McCoy and their dates Zelda and Vera. After making excuses the young mutants change into their Iceman and Beast guises to attack the creature, who has named himself "Grotesk" after the Beast's assessment that the creatures is grotesque. After a brief battle, Grotesk seals the tunnel, warning the two mutants to beware of him in the future. Beast and Iceman attempt to follow but the passageway is sealed tight.

Returning to their girlfriends in their civilian guises, Bobby and Hank cut things short to make a report on their encounter to the Professor. Meanwhile, Grotesk returns to the caverns below, thinking back to the events which led to his hatred of mankind, recounting how his subterranean race was ruled by King Krono, whose daughter, Princess Ingar, was the love of Grotesk, who back then was simply Prince Gor-Tok. Their warrior race would rule below for a time until humanities atomic tests would cause volcanic eruptions underground that wiped out his people and mutated him into the creature he is today. Blaming the surface dwellers for his plight, Gor-Tok decided to get revenge by destroying them. Back at the X-Mansion, the Professor is running Cyclops, Angel and Marvel Girl into a series of tests that pushes the team hard. Bobby and Hank arrive to make their report but are scolded by the Professor who seems to be in a bad mood. Deducting two demerits from the pair and revoking any visits to the city for a week he leaves for his study, asking Jean to join him. In private, the Professor and Jean discuss the fact that the X-Men must learn to fight as a tighter unit if his current plans are to work. Jean asks the Professor to confide in the others, but he refuses. Meanwhile at Archer College in Manhattan Doctor Hunt discuses his machine that can create earth tremors. When testing it those tremors hit the dark caverns below the city where Gortesk lives. More shocks and shakes next week.

The inside back page features Spidey telling readers to "Hold fast, Heroes!" as he's got super news that will put you in a spin this summer. Find out more on the amazing announcement in next week's mags. Under that is the quarter page in-house advert for Dracula Lives. Last week I stated that creator of the beautifully drawn Dracula artwork seen in the full page advert was a mystery to me, although I'm sure I've seen it somewhere before. Well Friend of the Beesting, Steve W. from the Steve does Comics blog, wonders if the artwork was by Pablo Marcos. I have to agree it does look like Pablo's style. Check out Steve blog for loads on interesting comic bits and bobs and trivia around the time those comic were released that have very little to do with the comics themselves, still it's great fun. This week while he looks at the British Marvel weeklies from 50 years ago he mentioned that in 1976 this week Liverpool won the UEFA Cup for the second time, thanks to a 4–3 aggregate victory over Club Brugge. As a Liverpool fan I should have recalled that fact, but I guess the season they have had this year has caused me to block out a little bit of my love for the reds. Maybe next season. Anyway Steve Does Comics is a cracking read!

Super Spider-man with the Super-Heroes #172

Newly promoted British Marvel Stateside editor Larry Lieber pencilled this landscape, which was based on a flipped John Romita Sr. cover from the Amazing Spider-man issue 123. Duffy Vohland inked Lieber's pencils. The original artwork was sold on the 3rd August 2019 by Heritage Auctions for $2,880, which is around £2149. 

Spider-man “...Just a man called Cage!”

Writer: Gerry Conway

Artist: Gil Kane and John Romita Sr.

Inker: John Romita Sr. and Tony Mortellaro

Originally published in the Amazing Spider-man #123

Cover date August 1973

(Published in May 1973)

This landscape splash page was drawn by an unnamed artist especially for this mag, based around Gil Kane and John Romita Sr.'s original portrait style splash page. Norman Osborn's body has been found in an alleyway less than an hour after Spider-man had left him for dead, impaled by his own goblin glider. There's no sign of the glider or the goblin's costume. You would think that an investigation would throw up many unanswered questions, but strangely those have been covered up, leaving opportunities for conspiracy theories to flourish. With Jameson and Robertson there you'd have imagined their journalistic curiosity wouldn't let it lie. I guess as young readers we just wanted to move onto the next big thing now the Goblin is dead. (Or is he? Time will tell.) 

Jameson believes that Spider-man murdered Norman Osborn, which as there are amounts of webbing around the alleyway, but there's also spent pumpkin bombs. I guess who ever removed the Goblin costume didn't have time to remove all the pumpkin bombs. Jameson is convinced that Osborn was murdered by Spider-man and the pumpkins were just planted to take suspicion away. A typical example of confirmation bias, Jameson contemplates a way to capture Spider-man when he sees an advertisement for Luke Cage's Hero for Hire business. Three days later a large congregation of friends attend Gwen Stacy's funeral. Joe Robertson makes an excuse for Jameson's absence. Aunt May is distraught but Peter has only a short time to console her before Anna Watson leads her away, chaperoned by Doctor Octopus's men. Flash Thompson pays his respects too. Mary Jane leads a remorseful Peter away to drown his sorrow in a cup of coffee. 

Meanwhile Jameson has gone to the Manhattan office of Luke Cage, arriving in time to see Cage tossing out a rude potential client. It's a Sunday and Cage isn't interested in taking on any work, but when Jameson offers him five thousand dollars for the capture of Spider-man dead or alive he reconsiders it. Later Spider-man web-slings through the city, puzzling over his feelings and over who could have removed the Green Goblin's costume from Osborn's body when he is attacked by Luke Cage. After a brief battle across the city, Spider-man gets the upper hand and leaves. Returning home he is shocked to find Harry Osborn, who doesn't answer any of Peter's questions and just glares at him angrily. Later Mary Jane drags Peter out to a school concert, which is suddenly interrupted by Luke Cage, who challenges Spider-man, in the hope that he's there due to the frequently he's seen around Empire State University. Peter slips away and faces Cage as Spider-man once again. During their fight, Spider-man webs Luke to the floor, but instead of leaving, knowing that the Hero for Hire could easily break free, Spidey finally gets through to Cage after a long talk. The two find a camaraderie, they both initially became super-heroes to make money and that they have both been treated as outlaws. Later, Cage pays a visit to Jameson and literally stuffs his money down his throat. At the concert Peter nearly walks past Mary Jane until she stops him. He tells her his mind is on other things, after talking with someone he realised he's not really alone after all. They walk off into the night, silhouetted by the light of the full moon. Which could symbolise next week's adventure "the Mark of the Man-Wolf!"

The Mighty Thor “The face of Doom!”

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: John Buscema

Inker: Joe Sinnott

Originally published in The Mighty Thor #182

Cover date November 1970

(Published in September 1970)

This opening second part splash page was drawn by an unnamed artist. Doctor Doom reads the false story that Blake planted in the paper, detailing a new plastic surgery method that could potentially cure Doom's horribly scarred face. Doom orders one of his aids to drive him from the Latverian embassy to Donald Blake's surgery.

He finds Blake walking the streets near his office, Doom uses a molecule displacer device to transport Blake from the street corner to the inside of Doom's car where he is incapacitated. Fleeing the scene quickly, Doom and his aid drive to a secret aircraft hanger outside of town where Doom pilots a specially built plane that flys them to Latveria in a matter of hours. As they land Blake awakens and is lead by Doom into his banquet hall. Stalling for time before he can search for Professor LaFarge Blake asks Doom to show him his face to see if he can help him. Removing his iron mask he shows him his scarred face, As part of his plan, Blake pretends to be horrified and confesses that there is nothing he can do. Furious, Doom has Blake locked in the dungeon. Chained to a wall Blake grapples for his cane which is just out of reach. He has to use a shoes to lasso it, pulling it towards his reach of his legs. Picking it up with his outstretched feet he bangs the cane on the floor, causing the transformation into Thor once more and shatters the chains that hold him. Thor's scape from the dungeon is detected by Doom who launches a stalker missile that locks onto the Thunder God as next week he faces "The deadly dilemma!" Let the missile strike him, or dodge it and let it destroy the village below. 

Bullpen Bulletin

It's Howard again with more all-inclusive effluvium from the original house of ideas. The second Item has some really big news , the editor in chief of Marvel, Marv Wolfman recently opted to strive for sanity in the sunny status of a freelance writer and since Roy Thomas also reached that selfsame decision not more than a month ago, poor ol' Stan Lee was left with a decidedly difficult decision. In other words he had to find a new big-time editor. So who better than Gerry Conway, the chronicler of Thor, Spider-man and the Fantastic Four and other top Marvel titles over the past seven years or so? The third Item offers up a little upcoming Titans trivia as it suggests that readers watch out for a plethora of purely pulse-pounding and pandemonious starting with a one-shot appearance by Moon Knight, who first appeared in the pages of Dracula Lives in a Werewolf by Night story. Then later Woodgod co-creation of Bill Mantlo and Keith Giffin and Skywolf a high-flyin' group of go-get-'em gangbusters masterminded by Marv Wolfman and Dave Cockrum. And if that ain't enough, how about Ghost Rider who gets an ongoing series all his own?in The Titans. I Know we get The Ghost Rider in The Titans, but where the Moon Knight appears next only time will tell. Not sure that we'll see Woodgod anytime soon as for Skywolf, Ive never heard of them, but after a Google search they appeared in two issues of Marvel Fanfare #16 and 17, cover dated September and October 1984, published June and July 1984. The strip must have sat in a drawer for eight years.

This fantastic Marvel Masterwork Centre-spread of Conan the Barbarian was drawn by Jeff Aclin and inked by Dan Adkins. Aclin would start to create many pin-ups, posters and splash pages for British Marvel comics. Some of his early work is amazing and detailed, but later I think he was regularly called up to produce the goods as he was a safe and quick pair of hands. He was highly regarded for his ability to mimic the art styles as established by the artists who were known for that character. 

The Web and the Hammer

Andrew Taylor from County Antrim considers that  the letters pages is one of the most interesting parts of the mag, so unlike the way it was in the early days, when the letters were, to say the least, boring. He praises Ivor Davis, Jonathan D, Ian Clarke, Mike Giggs and Anthony Pinder for their letters. Philip Greenaway from Merthyr Tydfil praises the Superman/Spider-man team-up, with Ross Andru's pencils that have improved no end since his early work. Gerry Conway as a writer is the tops for him.  Eric Boyle RFO, TTB from Strathclyde was looking through an issue of the New Musical Express when he spotted an article on Superman and Spider-man, that said, "In an extraordinary display of brotherhood, co-operation, detente and general peace-on-earth palliness, the two big wheels of the comic-book racket - Marvel Comics and Nation Periodical Publications (DC) have formed a temporary alliance to produce a massive 96-page off-spring laconically entitled 'The Battle of the Century; Superman vs. The Amazing Spiderman'." Mark Hilton from Manchester is a 16-year-old

Marvel addict, who offers praise and criticism on the best two Marvel mags in The Superheroes and The Avengers weekly. Bringing Conan into The Avengers was a master-stroke, now with Iron Fist it is superb. Mark's very happy that Doc Strange has vanished. His thoughts on The Superheroes are why after 50 issues it was cancelled? Not only was Giant-Man fantastic, but so was Black Knight and the ever-lovin' Thing. He writes that its cancelation made him feel very disappointed.

Iron Man “Captive of the Controller”

Writer: Archie Goodwin

Artist: George Tuska

Inker: Johnny Craig

Originally published in Iron Man #13

Cover date May 1969

(Published in February 1969)

Last week Basil Sandhurst, the scientist who became the Controller has kidnapped Janice Cord and plans to connect her directly in to his" absorbatron", a machine that uses his victims as human batteries to power up his armour that allows him to move around after he suffered an accident while working at Janice's father's company. The Controller sees it as his chance to have revenge on Drexel Cord. Iron Man had allowed himself to be captured, to find out more about the Controller. He's heard more than enough and strikes out at the Controller. The two battle relentlessly but the sheer number of captured townsfolk whose brain waves are powering up Sandhurst's armour makes him unbeatable. With all that power he disposes of Iron Man by hurling the golden Avenger through his laboratory's disposal unit and into the depths of the sea.

The Thing and the Golem..together! “the Thing goes south!”

Writer: Bill Mantlo and Roy Thomas (plot)

Artist: Bob Brown

Inker: Jack Abel

Originally published in Marvel Two-in-One #11

Cover date September 1975

(Published in June 1975)

The original Marvel Two in One opening splash page has to be re-drawn to make it fit into a landscape splash page by Mike Nasser, also known as Michael Netzer, whose initials MN where written on the backside of the artwork that was sold by Heritage Auctions on the 12th September 2012 for $720, which is around £535. 

Ben and Alicia are rushing to catch a train from Grand Central Station for a planned holiday to DisneyWorld in Florida. With foolish abandonment the Thing is forced to halt the train from leaving by pulling it back to a stop so that he and Alicia don't miss it. I hope he pays for the damage to the platform. Meanwhile, at San Pedro University, Jason and Rebecca Adamson try to convince Professor Yeates that the Golem statue that their uncle discovered, can come to life. As they continue their discussion they are unaware that they are being spied upon by the Golem's long time enemy an evil sorcerer named Kaballa. The origin of the Golem appeared in Strange Tales #174 cover dated June 1974, published March 1974. That story was printed in the Marvel UK comic Forces in Combat #19, cover dated 17th September 1980, so most of the background to this story must have been beyond typical British Marvel readers. Kaballa takes the opportunity to take control of the Golem, sending it on a rampage through St. Petersberg. When a news bulletin is heard on a passenger's radio about the statues running amok, the Thing and Alicia jump off the train so that the Thing can put a stop to the Golem's rampage.

Doctor Strange “Consummation”

Writer: Steve Englehart

Artist: Gene Colan

Inker: Frank Chiamonte 

Originally published in Doctor Strange Vol 2 #9

Cover date August 1975

(Published in May 1975)

On Earth the Dread Dormammu crawls out onto the Arizona desert, completely revived and living off the power of Gaea, the Spirit of Nature or Mother Nature to some. Doctor Strange and Clea travel through the dimensions in preparation for the upcoming battle with Dormammu. 

Strange and Clea return to the Sanctum Sanctorum and are greeted by Wong who takes them to a waiting group of mystics who have gathered to help fight with Strange. Their number includes Rama Kaput, Turhan Barim, Lord Phyffe and Count Carezzi. The mystics aid is refused by Doctor Strange, as only the Sorcerer Supreme may hope to confront Dormammu, but his mind had been  linked with Clea's he knows that his novice is the only one who can stand with him. With that he transports Clea and himself to Arizona. While Dormammu rages across the Arizona desert, he offers his sister Umar her reward for her aid, banishment, so that she cannot wrestle his power from him. But his spell doesn't work. Umar informs him that she had tricked him and has been stealing his power. She is soon confronted by General Orini who talks of their past romance which brought the birth of Clea. When Doctor Strange and Clea arrive to battle Umar she is defended by General Orini. The mystic war rages on next week.

Avengers Weekly #141

David Wenzel pencilled this cover with inks possibly by Joe Sinnott so the Grand Comics Database suggests. It's nicely balanced with the threat in the dead-centre and the heroes positioned evenly ready to face Annihilus. Not a millimetre of cover is wasted, yet it's not over busy, the characters have room to breathe. I like the cleanness and the action of this cover so I'm going to make this my Cover of the Week.

Conan the Barbarian “Statues of terror, gargoyle of doom!”

Writer: Roy Thomas

Artist: John Buscema

Inker: Ernie Chan

Originally published in Conan the Barbarian #42

Cover date September 1974

(Published in June 1974)

This opening splash page was drawn especially for the second part of this story. I'm really not sure why it was needed as it basically takes its inspiration from the following page, shown below. I don't know why they didn't just add a new story title, credits and a brief catch up box to that page and save the hassle. A young woman called Arlinna has been blackmailed by Baron Takkim into pretending to be the Lady Asquith in order to stealing the valuable Dragon head of Koblar-Zahn from the merchant Lun-Farr.   

Arlinna had allowed Conan to safely escort her to his quarters after he had saved her from three muggers. She had not taken kindly to his own advances, so she knocks him out and makes her way to Lun-Faar. The Merchant seems to be fooled into believing she is Lady Asqueth so he shows off his artefacts, including a giant gargoyle statue. Legend has it that it really was a gargoyle that was frozen by magic. It can only be awaken and commanded by one of  unconquerable will-power and only then on the night of a full moon, such as the one that rose that night. Lun-Faar shows her the Dragon Head of Koblar-Zann before leaving to bring her a drink. When Arlinna attempts to steal the Dragon Head steel bars drop blocking her exit. He catches her in the act, beats her then turns her loose to see who she is working for. With his mental powers he orders the gargoyle to come alive and kill her compatriot. Meanwhile, Conan has recovered and tracks the girl, who confesses everything to him. This page in the British comic was printed in the wrong order from page 6 the order should be 10, 7, 8, 9 then 11. The two go to Baron Takkim, so Conan can have words with him. Conan sends Arlinna in first but the gargoyle attacks and kills Takkim, then it turns on Conan. The fight so intense all the mental energy is drained from Lun-Faar, causing him to loose his mental control over the demon, who is furious at being controlled and flies away to exact its revenge on its former captor. Conan and Arlinna, unsure what has happened, head back to Conan's room once again.

Avengers Mailbag

Peter Adlon-Flonn Conn from Sheffield is a keen reader of Marvel Comics since somewhere around 1965-6, and since then all he has observed a change in the stories and art. But MJ McKenzie feels, as his letter from Avengers Weekly #129 states,  that this change is a deterioration, while Peter finds it a definite, if not monumental, improvement. From its humble beginnings, like Ant Man and early Fantastic Four stories, Marvel has matured. Peter does agree to an extent with MJ McKenzie that around 1968 the art did reach a climax, especially with John Buscema doing great things in The Avengers and the Silver Surfer. Gene Colan did some fantastic stuff in Daredevil, Steranko starting his reign in Nick Fury while Kirby of course turns out beautiful work wherever you looked. But still, there's a reasonably talented set of artists around these days; Jim Starlin on Captain Marvel and Warlock; John Buscema on Thor and Conan; Bob Brown and Klaus Janson on Daredevil; Billy Graham and Bob McLeod on The Black Panther; Craig Russell on Killraven; Frank Brunner on Doctor Strange and Howard the Duck; while Jack Kirby returns to Captain America! Peter pushes back against McKenzie who said "All your writers are hung on Sci-Fi trips and hand out shoddy stories littered with 'Big' words," But surely the entire concept of a man bitten by a radioactive spider, or wearing an electronic metal suit, or taking a growth pill, is nothing if not pure Science-Fiction. Garry Clarke QNS, TTB, RFO, FOOMer from Kent pens a letter that details the events that he had to take to get a massive bag of back issues comics from a second-hand shop, including getting a flat tyre. 

Robert Bartlett RFO, FOOMer from Dorset thinks all the mags and characters are great but by far his favourite character is Conan. He has some facts about him and his creator. Robert Ervin Howard. Howard wrote many different types of literature, but was most famous for his heroic fantasy, or sword and sorcery tales, creating such characters as King Kull of Valusia, Bran Mak Morn, Solomon Kane and of course, the mightiest of all, Conan of Cimmeria. The Hyborian age was set about 12000 years ago, between the sinking of Atlantis and the beginning of recorded history. Conan is a giant barbarian from the North land of Cimmeria, with his sword he fells adversaries both natural and supernatural. Barry Spray from Sussex says that the Avengers stories are really getting good, his thoughts on the late Super-Heroes comic is he considered giving it up when the X-Men went but the Thing proved to be a great substitute, but he adds how about introducing the Defenders and the Invaders. Alan, no surname given, from London gives some casting for a Thor movie which could include lan McKellan as Thor, Lawrence Olivier as Odin, Alan Howard as Balder. Diana Rigg as Sif and Leonard Nimoy as Loki. For a Marvel movie Silver Surfer with John Phillip-Law, Ghost Rider with Peter Fonda, Captain America with Ron Ely, Conan with Sean Connery, Dr. Strange with James Brolin, Spider-man with Art Garfunkel, Daredevil with Robert Redford, Sgt. Fury with Gene Hackman, Dr. Doom with Tom Baker and Roddy McDowell as Bruce Banner/ The Hulk? D O'Sullivan from London is pretty angry at those who copy letters and get them printed, such as Neil Fisher, when others letter writers get rejected. The editor replies that they have every sympathy with Marvelites who find themselves in a similar position.

The Avengers “From out of the Negative Zone!”

Writer: Roy Thomas

Artist: Sal Buscema

Inker: Sam Grainger

Originally published in The Avengers #89

Cover date June 1971

(Published in April 1971)

This second part opening splash page was drawn by an unnamed artist. Told in flash back Captain Marvel has broken into the Baxter Building to gain access to Reed Richards portal into the Negative Zone in the hope of rescuing Rick Jones from that dimension. However in doing so he inadvertently sets off the security alarm that alerts the Avengers. The Vision, the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver race to the Baxter Building. When the three Avengers arrive they discover Captain Marvel has succeeded in freeing Rick. But inadvertently he has also released Annihilus from the Negative Zone as well.

The Avengers forced Annihilus back through the Negative Zone portal but in that time Captain Marvel flees the scene, taking the Avengers’ Quinjet in the process. Quicksilver realises that one of Reed Richards' radiation detection devices has detected radiation from the Negative Zone, but it has faded since the Captain left. They theorise that during his time in the Negative Zone Mar-Vell was exposed to a strange form of lethal nega-radiation. They therefore had to track him down to help cure him. The Captain had hoped to steal a ship and return to the Kree Galaxy. With the flashback over the story returns to Cape Kennedy where Doctor Donaldson explains that the nega-radiation is too strong to drain away from the Captain with his machine, until the Vision suggests that the solar power from his body could possibly fight it off. Setting up a device to channel his own energy into Mar-Vell, the Vision saves Mar-Vell's life but the two are rendered unconscious. Meanwhile in the Kree galaxy, Ronan the Accuser has lead a coup and has broken into the chamber of the Supreme Intelligence. He reveals to the Intelligence that his hated foe, Captain Marvel, is back on Earth in a weakened state. Ronan broadcasts a signal that revives the Kree Sentry which is currently being stored at Cape Kennedy. The Sentry fights its way into Mar-Vell’s hospital room with intent on destroying him. Find out what that will lead to next week in "The only good Earth...is a dead Earth!"

Master of Kung Fu “Captive in a madman's crown!”

Writer: Doug Moench

Artist: Paul Gulacy

Inker: Dan Adkins

Originally published in Master of Kung Fu #34

Cover date November 1975

(Published in August 1975)

This second part opening splash page, drawn by an unnamed artist, recaps events from the end of last week's story that saw Black Jack Tarr confronting Sir Denis Nayland Smith and Doctor Petrie in Scotland Yard as he complains that Reston's "personal involvement" makes him a poor choice of agent to send with Shang-Chi to rescue Leiko. Smith replies with "there is far more at stake in this matter than the mere lives of three agents." On Mordillo's Island in the East China Sea, Brynocki, wearing a director's beret, shows Mordillo a film of Shang-Chi destroying Carlton Velcro's operation in France, events seen in the Avengers weekly #102 and #103. 

 Shang-Chi had cheated Mordillo out of a million-dollar contract on Velcro, who was "an interference to the Red Chinese plans for solar warfare." That evening at dinner, Mordillo asks Leiko about Project: Ultra-Violet. She professes no knowledge of it, which she would have to since she had been hypnotised to forget about it. He shows her the Solar-Chute, a device that can strip away the ozone layer in any given area and focus deadly ultraviolet radiation directly from the sun onto the earth below. Still she professes her ignorance. Elsewhere Reston and Shang-Chi reach a giant shoe where four wooden soldiers march with bayonets at the ready out towards them. The agents beat them with ease before they re-board the train to continue their journey to the castle in the centre of the island. The train begins to accelerate as it climbs the hill leading to a drawbridge that begins to rise. Realising that the track has come to an end they have to jump and grab hold of the drawbridge just as the train crashes. Once inside, they find a toy village. Suddenly a Fu Manchu doll pops out like Jack-in-a-box set in amongst the toy houses. Reston shoots off its head, but that is replace by a toy duck. Reston is tired of Mordillo's crazy antics, but to compound Reston's anger a mime appears and leads them through the village. Shang-Chi hears a stone Humpty Dumpty being pushed off a wall and pushes Reston out of its way. The mime takes them into a movie theatre. There Brynocki, wearing an usher's cap, leads them to seats in the front row. A metal bar traps them in their seats. The curtain opens. Leiko is on the stage, trapped in the bottom of an hourglass. Finally Mordillo makes a personal appearance, donning an iron gauntlet he decides to take a personal touch with his captive audience as we'll see next week in the "Death-hand and sun of Mordillo!" 

Dracula Lives #84

No-one seems to know who pencilled this cover. The Grand Comics Database suggested that Dan Adkins might have been the inker.  

Dracula “And now, death!”

Writer: Marv Wolfman

Artist: Gene Colan

Inker: Tom Palmer

Originally published in Tomb of Dracula #39

Cover date December 1975

(Published in September 1975)

This new second part opening splash page, drawn by an unnamed artist recaps the intrusion of Harold H Harold and Aurora Rabinowitz in Doctor Sun's lair just as Dracula had gotten a slight advantage in his fight against Sun's underling, Juno. Their sudden appearance distracts Dracula long enough for Juno to strike his silver stake right through the vampire lord's heart. Dracula staggers, wishing it had been Harker or van Helsing who had slain him. With weak effort he tries to destroy Doctor Sun's brain but before he can he withers away into a skeleton and falls to the floor dead.

Aurora and Harold rush to try and pull the stake from Dracula's corpse but they are shoved away by Juno who used a flame thrower and incinerates Dracula's remains. With Dracula completely destroyed, Doctor Sun orders Juno to lock up the intruders with the captive vampire slayers. Then he is to place Dracula's ashes in an urn while Sun begins preparations to take over the world as the new king of the vampires. Aurora begins to cry over Dracula's death and confesses that she loves the vampire lord. Rachel tries to explain to Aurora that she is just another victim of Dracula's hypnotic power over women, but this does not change Aurora's opinion. Quincy and the others decide that they must pool their resources to stop Doctor Sun as he is a worse threat to the world than Dracula ever had been. Rachel uses her hair-clip that's in the shape of a crucifix to pick the lock to escape the room. Slipping past Sun's guards with the aid some female distraction from Aurora, they escape in Harold's car, Doctor Sun had anticipated they would and that Harker would go to the US military for help. Spying on the vampire hunters, Sun learns that Harker has playing right into his hands as the fiend intends to use his newly acquired hypnotic powers to turn the soldiers into his slaves. As he will do in next week's episode "An army at war! A country destroyed!"

Ghost Rider “Death in the desert!”

Writer: Gary Friedrich

Artist: Jim Mooney

Inker: Syd Shores

Originally published in Ghost Rider Vol 2 #2

Cover date October 1973

(Published in July 1973)

Another recap second part opening splash page by an unnamed artist that depicts the Ghost Rider facing the arrival of a biker gang after he had offered his soul to Satan's emissary on Earth, the Witch-Woman, who also intends to take Roxanne's soul fro her master. The motorcycles gang, the Ruthless Riders are lead by Big Daddy Dawson who wants to prove just how tough he is by beating up the famous stunt rider Johnny Blaze. They begin circling Ghost Rider, Roxanne and Witch-Woman. Big Daddy Dawson dismounts his bike and grabs Ghost Rider by the collar, tossing him to the ground to test his own metal by defeating the Rider in combat.

Witch-Woman intervenes and teleports herself and Ghost Rider away, leaving Roxanne to Big Daddy Dawson's unwelcome attention. Meanwhile at the Apache reservation, Sam Silvercloud gives into Daimon Hellstrom's cries to be released from the locked room he had told them to keep locked up in till sunrise. Hellstrom emerges, wearing a strange costume and speaking in an arrogant and aggressive manor he mocks the two Apaches for their foolishness, and storms out of the dwelling. What secret he plays in events will have to wait till next week as the Witch-Woman and Ghost Rider reappear in Hell. Ghost Rider tells Witch-Woman that he will never willingly surrender his soul so long as Roxanne remains in danger. Suddenly a wall of flame engulfs the Witch-Woman, revealing her true form, Satan, who had disguised himself as Witch-Woman in order move more easily in the mortal world. Ghost Rider flees, but Satan's demons descend and overwhelm him. Satan produces the Sacred Sword of Satan that hovers over Johnny Blaze's heart as he intends on making him his prisoner for all eternity.

Next week the Ghost Rider story is continued in a new horror feature from the Mighty World of Marvel in the pages of Dracula Lives...the Son of Satan! We'll learn the secret of Daimon Hellstrom as we'll flinch with fear as the horrors of hell are laid bear before us. It will be written by Gary Friedrich and drawn by Herb Trimpe so I'm not sure how true that hyperbole will be. But any way things will never be the same again! So don't you dare miss Son of Satan, with shock after shock in next week's Dracula Lives?

Bullpen Bulletin

Dracula presents his version of this week's Bullpen Bulletin. The artwork, drawn by Luis Dominguez, was from the cover of Marvel/Curtis Magazine version of Dracula Lives issue 5, cover dated March 1974, published December 1973. The fourth and final Item suggests that owing to popular demand, the editors are giving the diurnal Defenders their own regular series in the Mighty World of Marvel. Yes, you've read that right, the Defenders in their own series. They also shoehorn the news that Captain Marvel is scheduled for his own series in the Planet of the Apes. Now a bit like the Skywolfs story that was promised, it's only partly true. The Defenders briefly feature in the Mighty World of Marvel, in August 1977, before they get their own weekly with Rampage weekly on the week ending the 22rd October 1977. Obviously as we'll see, Captain Marvel does start featuring regularly in the Planet of the Apes this week.

Letters to the House of Dracula

Charles Des Moulins from Wiltshire gets a great amount of pleasure from reading Dracula Lives, especially now the Mummy has gone and Man-Thing has replaced him. Peter Judge PMM from London can't resist writing a letter to go with his FOOM form, mainly about his appearance in various media as the Marvel Mastermind 1975 winner. But he also has opinions on Marvel comics, such as the best story of the week the Man-Thing, which introduced Wundarr. It completely explodes the Superman myth and makes a fascinating and funny character who Peter would love to see again. Dominic Elias RFO FOOMer from Surrey uses his letter to offer readers a chance to vocalise their opinions in the form of a poll, with questions like; 1) Should the British Marvel Comics have glossy or plain covers? 2) Do you prefer the Titan or standard format? 3) Please name a) your ideal two characters to back-up Dracula in DL. b) Your ideal two characters to back-up in Planet of The Apes. c) Your ideal 16 strips to compose the other four weeklies - two landscape format weeklies with  five stories in each and two standard weeklies with three strips each. 4) How many BritishMarvels do you buy? 5) Do you think that there should be 0, 1, or 2 letter pages. 6) Do you have any suggestions for any science fiction or sword and sorcery stories which could be adapted by Marvel? 7) Should only the star of each weekly appear on the cover, or should there be a rota system fro all the characters. 8) What is your favourite British Marvel Comic? 9) Could you afford one 50p Treasury Edition a month? I wonder did he get many or any replies.

Man-Thing “Hell hath no Fury!”

Writer: Steve Gerber

Artist: Val Mayerik

Inker: Sal Trapani 

Originally published in Adventure into Fear #2

Cover date February 1974

(Published in November 1973)

This unknown artists splash page gives a heroic impression of the Skull-Crushers biker-gang leader, Snake, swinging a chain at the Man-Thing as they fight. With the chain embedded in the Man-Thing's chest the swamp monster grabs Snake's hand. Fear momentarily fills the biker, causing him to be burned at the muck monster's touch. The female bike members bandage up their leader's hand as he vows to get revenge on the creature, who departs back into the swamp. Snake orders his gang back on their bikes to find Ruth and retrieve the money she took.

Meanwhile at the F A Schist construction site, Hargood shows off  his invention, the Slaughter Room, to Schist. Which he claims will kill the Man-Thing. Elsewhere Ruth tells Richard that she's on the run from the Skull-Crushers gang because she's has been blamed for stealing the gangs treasury. In truth it was really her former lover Snake who took the money and framed her for it. When the gang finally finds her, Ruth flees into the swamp and Snake attacks Richard. However, when Richard questions Snake about the truth regarding the gangs money, Snake denies it and runs into the swamp after Ruth. Meanwhile, the Man-Thing finds itself drawn in pain to the sonic vibrations emanating from the Slaughter Room. Once he enters he is attacked by flame throwers designed to incinerate the swamp monster. However, the creature manages to destroy them by throwing Snake's chains at the controls. At that moment, Ruth runs onto the construction site, followed quickly by Snake and Richard. Both men end up throwing blows at each other, but with the stronger man pinning down the weaker Richard. Indifferently to the squabble the Man-Thing throws the chain he used to free itself over his shoulder, striking Snake on the head killing him. Sickened by the sight of the dead man, Schist and Hargood flee the scene as a grateful Richard finally believes that he's beaten the odds and his luck is starting to change as he is helped up by Ruth. There are winners and there are losers, but more tragic than any of those are a breed for whom victory holds no meaning. Among them is the pitiable parody of life called Man-Thing. Next week "the Fool-killer cometh!"

Planet of the Apes #84

It's a Ron Wilson Apes cover again for this week's Planet of the Apes, this time there's a flying orangutang, which is something you don't see every day. Joe Rubinstein inked Ron's pencils.

Planet of the Apes “To save the city-ship!”

Writer: Doug Moench

Artist: Tom Sutton

Inker: Tom Sutton

Originally published in Planet of the Apes (US) #17

Cover date February 1976

(Published in December 1975)

David Wenzel pencilled and Mike Nasser (also known as Michael Netzer,) inked this opening splash page especially for the British comics second part. It was sold by Heritage Auctions on the 1st March 2015 for $143.40, which would be around £106. It is intended to depict a scene in which two human seamen from the Freedom Reaver, who in a drunken and rash mood decide to destroy the Ape city-ship in a desperate act of racial hate. A reckless decision as on board that vessel are their leader Alaric with his friends Graymalkyn and Starkor. who are searching for a doctor in a dark tower at the centre of the giant ship to save the life of the injured Starkor.

On their way to the Dark Tower Alaric, Graymalkyn and Starkor are blocked by a motley crew of savage apes who want to stop them getting to "the crazy one" in case they want to help him with his "science or demon magic"! Alaric draws his sword to face them, but the gorilla, Graymalkyn cannot by his noble code take arms against another ape. Even though unfit to stand Starkor asks Graymalkyn for his sword as he will fight with Alaric if he must. With hesitation faces a dilemma, help his friends or see them die. He chooses to draw his sword and stand with Alaric. His angry voice causes the apes to stop giving his friends time to make their way to the tower's lift without the need for any bloodshed. There in the tower they find an elderly orangutang who has spent his life studying the wonders of science. Named Grimstark, the orangutang gives Starkor the medical attention he requires. Later he shows the three friends some of his inventions, "a flyer" and a sub-marine looking craft. Grimstark experiments in the hope that he can create a new, free way of life that might reunite apes and men into a society where they can share and trade knowledge, cultures, commerce and experience, a society greater than the sum of it's parts. That's why the city-ships had been merged into one huge federation, at first it had worked, a new enlightened society, but his dream had been shattered by ignorance and decay. The two lurkers had managed to damage part of the giant city-ship, causing the apes to riot and attack the tower thinking that Grimstark was responsible for it. Alaric, Graymalkyn and Starkor are forced to fight their way back to their ship against tremendous odds. Grimstark gives them a little time by donning "a flyer" and taking his first manned flight as the city-ship and the tower start to lean as it sinks. The savage apes fire arrows at Grimstark causing his flight to come to a bloody end. Alaric, Graymalkyn and Starkor leap free into the closing water and swim to the Freedom Reever where Lady Reena and the crew throws them a line. The lurkers had been disposed of by Reena and as the Freedom Reaver departs the skies above are filled with seagulls gloriously swooping and wheeling in their flight, and the spirit of Grimstark flies with them! 

Apes Mail

Christopher Skinner from Loughborough wants to thank Marvel for all six of the weeklies and reviews them all. The Apes in POTA is brilliant but Ka-Zar and the Panther are hard going. MWOM is all great, while SMCW is a good magazine. He enjoys  Conan even though sometimes it can be boring, the Avengers are a highlight of the week. Dracula Lives is the best weekly while the Super-Heroes was OK and Christopher finds the Titans a bit too long but over all it's a good magazine. He also recommends "The Penguin Book of Comics" by George Perry and Alan Aldridge, which costs £3.00, if you've got a genuine interest in comics. Michael Brown from London bought POTA #42 and #43 and thought "YEUCH!" It wasn't for him. This week with a spare 8p he bought the latest issue, it was wonderful, "Conquest.." was well-drawn, so he immediately rushed to his favourite shop for some back issues. Philip Bryce from West Yorkshire thinks that Planet of The Apes is very good indeed. However he thinks the two back-up stories are not. He wants to see the Ka-Zar stories from "Savage Tales", as his adventures in the Hidden Land are better than those of the concrete jungle. As for the Black Panther story, Philip thinks it's terrible. He means no offence to Mr. McGregor, whose "Killraven" stories are amply justified, but The Panther is a bit too philosophical in his opinion. At the end of this week's Ape Mail there is another secret message from the Apes Fan Club. The first correct answer sent in will win a prize, provided you are already a member of that club.

Ka-Zar “Be this my destiny?”

Writer: Mike Friedrich

Artist: Don Heck

Inker: Mick Esposito

Originally published in Ka-Zar Vol 2 #5

Cover date September 1974

(Published in June 1974)

The fifteenth page of Ka-Zar issue 5 comes with a splash page that is perfectly timed to feature as this week's second part. There's no need for any re-cap text boxes as the Man-God's speech balloons do the job just as good and his opening words act as a perfect story title. Only a credit box is needed to be added. El Tigre has barely managed to escape the vengeful Fall People when he finds the Man-God and asks for his help. Man-God abandons his pleading lackey to pursue his goals of world domination alone. 

El Tigre is angered at his master's disregard and so heads towards the mystic mists after Man-God had let slip that it was the source of his new found powers. El Tigre hopes to gain the same powers as Maa-Gor did, but he's horrified to find that contact with the mists causes his mind and body to degrade to a bestial state, that drive him mad. He flees, falling to his death of the edge of a cliff. Man-God returns to find the El Tigre's corpse and theorises that the mists are the source of the Savage Land's evolutionary anachronisms. Realizing the power to control evolution will help him conquer the world, he dives back into the mists to look for its source. There in the mist he finds an alien machine. As he grabs the machine, he splits into two copies of himself, one a cold and logical Man-God, the other a violent and emotional Man-God. The violent Man-God pulverises the logical version, killing him. The alien machine seems sentient, as it issues a report, referring to itself as a "reporter" it sees its creation in an extreme imbalance state of psycho/physical schizophrenia and concludes that it should restore the balance by incapacitating them with a blast of energy. With the Man-God defeated, the revived Man-Apes that were created to battle Ka-Zar vanish. With the crisis over Bobbi Morse returns home. Elsewhere, Maa-Gor emerges from the mists, restored to his original savage state. Next issue a new writer and a new artist take over, which should make the adventures of Ka-Zar readable again.

Captain Marvel “When titans collide!”

Writer: Mike Friedrich and Jim Starlin (plot)

Artist: Jim Starlin

Inker: Dan Green

Originally published in Captain Marvel #28

Cover date September 1973

(Published in June 1973)

In the middle part of this tale, titled "A clash of Titans!" Jim Starlin actually scripts the dialogue. Rick Jones has returned to the Avengers Mansion to find his girlfriend, Lou Ann, in a serve comatose state of shock. Her energy is slowing being drained by a small disc that cannot be removed without killing her. The Avengers question what Rick knows about her and his connection to Thanos. In the Negative Zone Mar-Vell senses an entity not yet know to him as Eon, who disappears before it is discovered.

Rick Jones summons Captain Marvel via his Nega-Bands to tell the Avengers about the menace from Titan and his evil plans to conquer the galaxy. He hopes to gain the Cosmic Cube to subjugate the stars. While this discussion takes place, the Controller has slipped into the mansion. Stealthily he separates and defeats all of the Avenges in short order starting with the Black Panther who has gone to collect the tapes Iron Man made on his encounter with Thanos' henchmen as seen in the Thing story from the Super-Heroes #47 and #48. Iron Man shows Mar-Vell the disc that is slowly draining Lou-Ann's brain energy. He of course recognises it from his first encounter with its user in his current adventures in Super Spider-man with the Super-Heroes. As the armoured Avenger explains more the Vision goes and looks for the Panther hearing the noise the Scarlet Witch and Captain America investigate. Both fall to the intruder. Rick Jones makes Mar-Vell stay to protect Lou-Ann, who he believes is what Thanos is after. Iron Man is loudly defeated leaving Captain Marvel to face the intruder who he thinks is Thanos, but the intruder steps into the light telling the Captain that his master is elsewhere looking for the Cosmic Cube. The Controller has been sent by his employer Thanos to retrieve Lou Ann. The story shifts to Louisiana where Thanos has discovered the hidden Cosmic Cube, but is opposed by Drax the Destroyer. The entity known as Death is also present to watch the two duel. Thanos attacks Drax through his "Time-Mind Sync Warp". No drugs are required in this psychedelic mind bending battle that continues next week, it's enough to expand your mind!

The Titans #32

The Grand Comics Database thinks that Larry Lieber might have drawn this Titans cover. Who ever did draw it copied Jack Kirby's cover from the Fantastic Four issue 89, but moved the characters slightly to fit into a landscape cover. I don't think that Kirby did anywhere near his best work on that issue's cover but the artist of this one, if it was Lieber, has definitely done a poor job here.

The Fantastic Four “The madness of the Mole Man!”

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Jack Kirby

Inker: Joe Sinnott

Originally published in The Fantastic Four #89

Cover date August 1969

(Published in May 1969)

This landscape splash page was re-drawn by an unnamed artist using the original Jack Kirby opener as its basic design. I kind of think that Kirby's original could have been used with a great art bodger expanding the edges to fit the page size. 

The Fantastic Four have been blinded by devices implanted in their house by the Mole Man, without their vision the clumsy battle rages on. Meanwhile in the coldness of space a fleet of four Skrull starships stealthily approaches the far side of Earth's Moon. Their mission is to collect a warrior strong enough to compete in their deadly "Games". While that happens the Fantastic Four continue to struggle to fight the Mole Man. His plot is revealed that he intends to eventually blind the entire world as revenge for being treated as an outcast. When Reed gets hold of the Mole Man, he takes a near fatal blast from Mole Man's staff. The ricochet from the blast also damages the device that causes the blindness. Enraged by what the Mole Man did to Reed, Sue lashes out, but the Mole Man manages to escape from her only to be soon caught by the Human Torch and brought back. The Torch berates the Mole Man for wallowing in his misery and not facing his problems like the Thing or Alicia Masters do. With Ben's help, Reed revives and recovers from the attack. As the Fantastic Four settle down after the fight, a single Skrull craft touches down on Earth and a single figure steps out with purpose that says "I claim this slave!" as you'll see in next week's Titans.

Captain America “Before my eyes, Nick Fury died!”

Writer: Stan Lee

Artist: Jack Kirby

Inker: Joe Sinnott

Originally published in Tales to Astonish #92

Cover date August 1967

(Published in May 1967)

Kirby and Sinnott return to the art chores this week that sees Steve Rogers returning from a SHIELD mission to report back to the Avengers back at Avengers via a video communicator. Meanwhile deep under the ocean, aboard a secret AIM submarine, Agent-13 is attempting to prove to the members of AIM that she is loyal to them and that their target will be at a designated barbershop for them to assassinate.

In New York Steve Rogers walks his way back to Avengers Mansion on foot, lost in his thoughts over the mysterious blonde SHIELD agent when he notices an AIM android springing to life from the back of a truck and attack the nearby barber shop that is the disguised entrance to the SHIELD headquarters. Fearing the worst, Steve changes into Captain America and stops the android from killing its target Nick Fury. Defeating it, the creature dissolves leaving no trace behind. Afterwards Fury scolds Cap for getting involved because the attack on Fury. It was all part of a SHIELD ruse to get a hold of one of AIM's robots. He's now placed Agent-13's life in jeopardy as her cover must have been blown. Fury tells Cap that he needs a volunteer to go and rescue her from AIM's clutches. You don't need to be told who's going to volunteer, come back next week and see "One vs. AIM!"

David Wenzel pencilled this Marvel Masterwork centre-spread featuring "Conan the barbarian and Red Sonja the she-devil with a sword," with Duffy Vohland adding the inks. A fine combination of artists and subject. 

Titanic Transcripts

Liam McCarthy from Coventry is glad that the X-Men replaced the Inhumans. He can't figure out the Sub-Mariner, one minute he hates the surface men, but later he wants to be friends with them. Tim Orford from Croydon thinks that the new landscape format doesn't look good and new cover pictures that have to be drawn are inferior to the originals. However with twice the amount of stories it makes it worth it. Tim doesn't like the X-Men and would have preferred if the Inhumans had remained and the Sub-Mariner should have been replaced by Ka-Zar or Luke Cage. He also thinks that the landscape format should be used on the Avengers. Vaughan Russell from Middlesex feels moved to complain about the direction the magazines are taking. Firstly there was the amalgamation of Conan and The Avengers, then the introduction of The Titans with this long format, giving more stories per mag, unfortunately, due to the reduced size of the panels, the artwork is spoiled. After the merging of Spider-man and the Super-Heroes what will happen next? The amalgamation of POTA and Dracula Lives, or the joining together of MWOM and The Avengers? Or, an even more horrible idea, the amalgamation of both these mags, using the long format! Vaughan may not have known it at the time but he's hit the nail on the head as we'll discover in around four weeks and nine week's time. The editor doesn't give any clues to the future direction of the weeklies, but they remind the readers that when Marvel came to Britain they promised the fans that Marvel only goes forward and that their track record since they made that statement, British Marvel only published one mag, the Mighty World of Marvel. Now they have six.

Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD “The AIM connection!”

Writer: Denny O'Neil

Artist: Jack Kirby

Inker: Ogden Whitney

Originally published in Strange Tales #149

Cover date October 1966

(Published in July 1966)

An unnamed artist created this landscape splash page as an intro to this week's second part. In a wooded area not far from SHIELD's headquarters two AIM agents are offered a lift by a hooded man who tells them he's Number Nine from the Secret Empire. 

But as they drive off a "plastiglass" window rises between the driver and the rear passengers. They try shooting it but it's completely bulletproof. Gas fills the back rendering the men unconscious, as "Number Nine" turns out to be the long-missing Gabe Jones, who has been working undercover! The capture of the AIM agents proves that AIM and the Secret Empire are branches of the secret organisation known as THEM. Gabe Jones had last appeared as Number Nine way back in MWOM #34. Meanwhile Fury clues the VIPs in on the situation, while Jasper trails Count Royale to AIM's mountain-side hidden base, just before the entire place is destroyed in a colossal explosion! The Count's body would be discovered later by SHIELD agents in the Captain America story as seen in The Titans #22.  Dugan comments that AIM would prefer killing themselves in an explosion than being captured, But Fury feels "someone bigger" finished them off when their usefulness ended. Gabe reports with the information he's collected, Fury follows a hunch and checks out the Hydra files from their records. Fury reads a report from a captured Hydra agent that read "Hydra can never be killed! Although you have captured the Hydra's body, its head is still free!" Followed by the statement that "It shall last forever! It has resources you have not dreamed of, resources which will insure It's ultimate triumph!" With that a mysterious energy ray burns through the wall in an attempt to kill Fury. Surviving that attack Fury realises that "THEM" and HYDRA are one and the same. Next week the "return of Hydra!"

The Sub-Mariner “Plant panic!”

Writer: Roy Thomas

Artist: John Buscema 

Inker: Frank Giacoia

Originally published in Sub-Mariner vol 2 #2

Cover date June 1968

(Published in February 1968)

This landscape splash page was drawn by an unnamed artist. The Plant Man has pitted the Sub-Mariner against the Inhuman known as Triton to keep them from interfering in his plans. 

Elsewhere the Lady Dorma questions her loyalty as she leads an exodus of Atlanteans from their once gleaming city that lies shattered beyond repair. In her heart she longs to search for her Prince Namor, who she believes may be still alive. Lord Vashti and Lord Seth persuade her that Prince Namor would have wanted her to do her duty and not desert her own people. Even more do the Atlanteans need a figurehead, a living symbol in their time of trial. Knowing that that's what Namor would have wanted she boards the imperial flagship and leaves with them. Meanwhile her lover, Namor is fighting for his life against Triton, but the results aren't happening as quickly as the Plant Man hoped. So with that he takes action and unleashes a mutated form of seaweed that captures both Namor and Triton. The Plant Man's ship speeds past Black Bolt, Medusa, Karnak and Gorgon as his plans reach readiness as he heads for London, England to wreak havoc on that city with his secret weapon, the unstoppable Leviathan! 

Ghost Rider “Bargain of doom!”

Writer: Gary Friedrich

Artist: Mike Ploog

Inker: Frank Chiaraonte

Originally published in Marvel Spotlight #6

Cover date October 1972

(Published in July 1972)

This landscape splash page for this week's second part was attributed to Marie Severin with inks from Al Milgrom. It was sold by Heritage Auction on the 5th April 2023 for $1,920, which is around £1,428. The owner is now looking for offers of around $2288 or more, which would be around £1,702. So if you fancy having it on your wall here's the link. 

The reincarnation of Crash Simpson, is offering the soul of Johnny Blaze to Satan in exchange to have his life restored. However, this proves impossible as Roxanne Simpson's pure love for Johnny prevents the completion of the ritual. Satan orders Crash to take the soul of his daughter, before changing him back into Curly. The next morning Johnny Blaze returns to the arena where next show is taking place. He promises her that he will soon tell her what's going. When she leaves he falls asleep only to wake up at night, once more transforms into the Ghost Rider. Curly is there waiting for him to "warn" him that Satan's Saints are going to attack the show and try to kidnap Roxanne. Rushing into the show, Ghost Rider thwarts the Satan's Saints attempt at kidnapping her. The audience believes Johnny's appearance is all part of the show. Johnny rescues Roxanne making it look like a theatrical act. Once Roxanne is out of danger. Not wanting to place her in any more danger he leaves. Left alone Curly knocks Roxanne out, picking her unconscious body up he begins the sacrifice ritual of his own daughter for his own life. Next week his "unholy alliance" continues! 

Right that's another blog wrapped up, I'm off to look for £1702 for that Ghost Rider artwork, I wonder wants down the back of the settee. Oh well I'll just have to stick with the weeklies instead.

See you in seven.

Make Mine Marvel.