Week Ending Oct. 14, 1972
Well after the fanfare and excitement of last week's premiere issue, this week's edition shows up some of the weaknesses of the anthology format.
Nice cover though.
We begin with the second part of the reprint of The Incredible Hulk #1; having been dosed with gamma rays, teamed up with the annoying Rick Jones and gone on his first rampage (one of these things is much worse than the others) Dr Bruce Banner struggles to come to terms with his Jekyll and Hyde situation. Luckily a character called the Gargoyle has plans afoot to distract him from his introspection. One thing of note in this UK reprint, seems to be the avoidance of any reference to Soviets, Communists or Russia. I'm not sure if the original US story is the same or this was an editorial decision for the UK. Anyway, no sooner is the plot laid out, than it is wrapped up in a fashion that would make the producers of the Lost and Game of Thrones finales blush, with Banner curing the Gargoyle, who immediately turns over a new leaf, aids the escape of Bruce and Rick, then promptly blows himself up.
Next up is the second half of Fantastic Four #1; last week's installment of the FF's first outing saw the foursome cause an unnecessary amount of property damage in order to assemble at their headquarters in Central City (New York property prices being too steep for the team at this point in their history) Reed Richards wastes no time in explaining the need for the Fantastic Four to spring into action. An unknown protagonist is attacking power stations across the globe, leaving little but smoking craters. Second-rate James Bond plot exposition complete, our heroes are soon speeding to the improbably named Monster Island.
As soon as they arrive, it turns out that the location's name was fairly on the money, cue some stilted action and the repeated impression that chunks of story may have been edited. Something that jumps out, especially when viewed with last week's episode, is how fond Ben Grimm is of taking off his coat and fedora to leap into battle, then popping it all back on again for the next scene.
Once again, the story is wrapped up swiftly with the bad guy blowing up his base.
A good week for Pin-Up pages this week, I can only assume this was down to having to fit what remained of the original stories started last week. Not going to grumble as it does give us a nice rendition of Ditko's unused cover for Amazing Fantasy #15.
Which brings us nicely to the first half (or possibly third) of Amazing Spider-Man #1; I would love to say this is an improvement on last week's Spidey tale, but it is just several pages of Peter Parker whining about his lack of employment opportunities and being so dense that he thinks cashing a cheque made out to his spandex wearing alter-ego is a workable plan for solving Aunt May's cashflow problems. Bad enough that you got her husband killed, now you are making her destitute. You are meant to be smart, think Peter, think!
Hopefully next week's issue of MWOM won't be so reliant on the villain's predilection for self-immolation and Peter Parker's slender grasp of banking practices.
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