Week Ending March 17, 1973

We have come within striking distance of synchronising with original release dates of Marvel UK's output from 47 years ago. This by my (possibly faulty) estimation means that I will hopefully be putting up a new post each week on a Wednesday. "So what?" I hear you not unreasonably ask, well Wednesdays seem oddly appropriate to me, as this was the earliest day of the week that I might hope to find the new Marvel weeklies in the newsagent. Thursdays were more certain, but it was always worth a look the day before. Your mileage and nostalgia may vary.

Mighty World of Marvel #24

The surprising choice to not reuse the classic cover from Fantastic Four #12 is made, maybe so as not to confuse British youngsters with the image of a three toed, three fingered Hulk. Instead we get what might be another Jim Starlin cover, featuring a time-period incorrect Thing. Maybe avoiding confusion was not the aim after all.

Hulk is mid-battle with the Leader's supersize Humanoid and minutes away from his own 'nuking the fridge' moment, decades before Indiana Jones would attempt to simultaneously destroy physics and his franchise. Hulk and Rick Jones escape the atomic blast of General Ross' Sunday Punch missile, only to end up cornered in Dr Banner's Hulk-cave. Escape seems impossible until the Leader makes a mysterious offer...

Woohoo! TWO free mini posters this week. Actually, these would be quite cool if the quality of Marvel UK's printing were not so dire.

This week's DD installment has Joe Orlando and Vince Colletta on art duties, which almost looks like a poor man's Gene Colan in places. We are treated to the introduction of the Owl, the answer to the question: what would you get if Bruce Wayne and the Penguin had a lovechild. Never been a fan of the Owl, this story makes no great effort to change that. Our installment sees Matt Murdock mostly in lawyer mode, but we do get to see the debut of the quite possibly short-lived Daredevil Rucksack.

Historically, this is quite an important story, this was the comicbook equivalent of the moment Samuel L. Jackson turns up at the end of Iron Man. Though, I think Spider-Man was pulling the same trick around this time in his own title, so it would be more like Samuel L. Jackson and Tom Holland both getting a post credits sequence in Iron Man. My muddled point is that this is the start of Marvel's shared comic universe. To be honest, not much happens in the few pages allowed to the FF, but we do get to see the Mk2 Fantasti-Car and yet more casual misogyny towards Sue. Really, the sooner she learns of her force-field powers and opens one up inside Reed's head, the better.

Spider-Man Comics Weekly #5

It is probably impossible to overstate how much heavy lifting was done by these early stories with regard to Spider-Man's rogues gallery. This issue serves up another villain who would turn out to have staying power in the form of Mysterio. That said, this story feels like he was probably planned as a one-and-done antagonist, especially as his whole gimmick is based on faking any real super powers. It is a fun story that gets the job done, Ditko's art and character design are really starting to grow on me too. However, after a few weeks of Peter Parker almost being likeable, he is back to being an annoying dick again. Maybe Stan was better at writing believable teenagers than I gave him credit for.

We have an editorial from Stan (or someone doing a Stan impression) that alternates between praising the success of Marvel UK and blaming the readers should anything go pear shaped in the future. Plus there is another clue to the promised free gift. I have my suspicions, but I'll keep them to myself for now.

After last week's hints at wider Norse mythology, it seems like Stan has firmly taken the reins for a formulaic red-menace story. Bodavia gets yet another shout-out, I am starting to see why this fictional country was used for the UK reprints. Britain has never been a stranger to propaganda, but we probably prefer a more English flavour to it.