Week Ending Nov. 4, 1972
Mighty World of Marvel #5
Or the one where everyone gets new powers, gadgets, gizmos or outfits in their third outing.
Reading these early tales all together, it is hard not to see a bit of a formula to the original issues. It was probably more organic than it feels when presented side by side but not necessarily a bad thing for any of the characters.
As is now normal, the Hulk kicks of the issue with a story that feels like Stan and Jack may have had different ideas about what was going on. General Ross has a plan to banish Hulk to outer space, roping the unwitting (or witless) Rick Jones in as an accessory. Needless to say, the plan backfires with an even angrier Hulk returning to Earth. A Fantastic Four style cosmic ray shower preventing the daytime transformation back into Bruce Banner. Worse still, the new improved Hulk 2.0 seems to be under the control of the boy-idiot Jones.
As promised last week, MWOM now has a letters page. My slightly less than charitable nature makes me feel that at least some of the correspondence might be from US based Marvel employees rather than British schoolkids.
Spider-Man gets bumped up to second billing this week, which is only fair as his story is of noticeably higher quality than the others. Sure, the plot is mad but it introduces some future staple elements and Ditko's art is much improved.
Fascinating that even in his third story, Peter Parker is still more obsessed with money than super-heroics. Even more surprising is that J. Jonah Jameson is a seemingly generous employer, enabling young Parker to pay for a year of Aunt May's rent and a new kitchen with a single pay packet. Sweet gig Pete.
Big changes to the FF this week with the introduction of the Fantasticar and their traditional uniforms. I wonder if Stan wanted to avoid this originally? Did he intend for them always to look like the cast of Mad Men but had to cave-in to demands for a more traditional superhero look? Anyway, it's new threads all round, including a helmet for the Thing, handed out by Sue with as much kindness as asking your date if they wouldn't mind putting a paper bag on their head during dinner. The remainder of this week's segment revolves around an incredibly powerful magician who is not above manually lobbing a brick at the head of those who seek to thwart his plans. I'm going out on a limb and calling a Scooby-Doo reveal of this dude next week.
Or the one where everyone gets new powers, gadgets, gizmos or outfits in their third outing.
Reading these early tales all together, it is hard not to see a bit of a formula to the original issues. It was probably more organic than it feels when presented side by side but not necessarily a bad thing for any of the characters.
As is now normal, the Hulk kicks of the issue with a story that feels like Stan and Jack may have had different ideas about what was going on. General Ross has a plan to banish Hulk to outer space, roping the unwitting (or witless) Rick Jones in as an accessory. Needless to say, the plan backfires with an even angrier Hulk returning to Earth. A Fantastic Four style cosmic ray shower preventing the daytime transformation back into Bruce Banner. Worse still, the new improved Hulk 2.0 seems to be under the control of the boy-idiot Jones.
As promised last week, MWOM now has a letters page. My slightly less than charitable nature makes me feel that at least some of the correspondence might be from US based Marvel employees rather than British schoolkids.
Spider-Man gets bumped up to second billing this week, which is only fair as his story is of noticeably higher quality than the others. Sure, the plot is mad but it introduces some future staple elements and Ditko's art is much improved.
Fascinating that even in his third story, Peter Parker is still more obsessed with money than super-heroics. Even more surprising is that J. Jonah Jameson is a seemingly generous employer, enabling young Parker to pay for a year of Aunt May's rent and a new kitchen with a single pay packet. Sweet gig Pete.
Big changes to the FF this week with the introduction of the Fantasticar and their traditional uniforms. I wonder if Stan wanted to avoid this originally? Did he intend for them always to look like the cast of Mad Men but had to cave-in to demands for a more traditional superhero look? Anyway, it's new threads all round, including a helmet for the Thing, handed out by Sue with as much kindness as asking your date if they wouldn't mind putting a paper bag on their head during dinner. The remainder of this week's segment revolves around an incredibly powerful magician who is not above manually lobbing a brick at the head of those who seek to thwart his plans. I'm going out on a limb and calling a Scooby-Doo reveal of this dude next week.
Comments
Post a Comment