Week Ending Dec. 16, 1972
Mighty World of Marvel #11
I suspect that back in 1972, the feckless youth of Britain had no idea how spoilt we were with the unique MWOM covers by Jim Starlin, this one inked I believe by the legendary Joe Sinnott. Frankly, for these alone, it is a wonder some of the early Marvel UK issues are not more sought after. Still the wider comic-collecting community's loss is my gain.
While we are on the subject of artwork, it is just as well Hulk gets his proper respect on the cover, because Steve Ditko has taken over art duties for his internal pages. As a result we get a Hulk played by Johnny Weissmuller with short legs. I'm not a Ditko fan, but when he works he works... here he really doesn't. Hopefully Stan Lee can save the day with an engaging plot.
Hulk is up against the alien Metal Master (think Magneto without the character depth or motivation) while hampered by literally having Bruce Banner's head on the Hulk's body. As a result we are treated to the sight of the Hulk wearing a rubber Hulk mask. Brilliant Stan, really pulled it out of the fire there. This was obviously confusing for everyone, including whoever was responsible for the green spot-colouring in this issue, with one panel clearly having the Hulk's body coloured in felt-tip style.
I'm regularly surprised by how many pages are filler in these issues, especially when they use the few that are full colour. As well as pin-ups and games, we get a Marvel UK survey this week.
Spider-Man continues his battle with the Sandman, tackling his foe on Peter Parker's college campus. Breaking up the US story for the UK anthology format, especially mid fight, spoils the flow here somewhat. Especially as we almost immediately get to last week's heavily implied hoover-based denouement. Maybe some of those pin-up and survey pages could have been put to better use here.
I may have mocked the last issue's time travel FF plot, but I'm more than willing to forgive it just on the basis of Jack Kirby's depiction of the team's return to the present in the panels above. The guy was presenting visuals that Hollywood special effects crews would not be able to create for decades. Sadly, the ending of story is wrapped up in the rushed fashion of a thick Stephen King novel. The treasure Dr Doom had gone to all this trouble to procure was evidently magic, according to a couple of throwaway lines while the Fantastic Four and Victor Von Doom escape one another with what should be embarrassing ease.
Still, it has been a solid bid for the Fantastic Four's currently vacant arch-nemesis position and I'm sure we all wish Mr Von Doom every success in the future.
I suspect that back in 1972, the feckless youth of Britain had no idea how spoilt we were with the unique MWOM covers by Jim Starlin, this one inked I believe by the legendary Joe Sinnott. Frankly, for these alone, it is a wonder some of the early Marvel UK issues are not more sought after. Still the wider comic-collecting community's loss is my gain.
While we are on the subject of artwork, it is just as well Hulk gets his proper respect on the cover, because Steve Ditko has taken over art duties for his internal pages. As a result we get a Hulk played by Johnny Weissmuller with short legs. I'm not a Ditko fan, but when he works he works... here he really doesn't. Hopefully Stan Lee can save the day with an engaging plot.
Hulk is up against the alien Metal Master (think Magneto without the character depth or motivation) while hampered by literally having Bruce Banner's head on the Hulk's body. As a result we are treated to the sight of the Hulk wearing a rubber Hulk mask. Brilliant Stan, really pulled it out of the fire there. This was obviously confusing for everyone, including whoever was responsible for the green spot-colouring in this issue, with one panel clearly having the Hulk's body coloured in felt-tip style.
I'm regularly surprised by how many pages are filler in these issues, especially when they use the few that are full colour. As well as pin-ups and games, we get a Marvel UK survey this week.
Spider-Man continues his battle with the Sandman, tackling his foe on Peter Parker's college campus. Breaking up the US story for the UK anthology format, especially mid fight, spoils the flow here somewhat. Especially as we almost immediately get to last week's heavily implied hoover-based denouement. Maybe some of those pin-up and survey pages could have been put to better use here.
I may have mocked the last issue's time travel FF plot, but I'm more than willing to forgive it just on the basis of Jack Kirby's depiction of the team's return to the present in the panels above. The guy was presenting visuals that Hollywood special effects crews would not be able to create for decades. Sadly, the ending of story is wrapped up in the rushed fashion of a thick Stephen King novel. The treasure Dr Doom had gone to all this trouble to procure was evidently magic, according to a couple of throwaway lines while the Fantastic Four and Victor Von Doom escape one another with what should be embarrassing ease.
Still, it has been a solid bid for the Fantastic Four's currently vacant arch-nemesis position and I'm sure we all wish Mr Von Doom every success in the future.
the marvel survey page was their way of finding which strip was most popular,with ideas towards a new comic , spidey obviously topped the poll.
ReplyDeleteI think we must be less than 10 weeks away from Spider-man Comics Weekly, I'm guessing it was a given that he'd be the next for his own title. Will be interested to see if the results of this survey get published in a later issue.
DeleteI agree 60's plots seemed loopy but as later retro-conned by Tom Defalco in Dazzler #3 Doom was after the Stones of Merlin, supposedly pirate treasure lost at sea, which could make whoever own them invincible, not just some cheap gems. It took 19 years for the story to make reasonable sense.
ReplyDeleteI guess it's easy to forget now that these stories were almost disposable in the pulp tradition. None the worse for it though.
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