Week Ending April 7, 1973

April 1973 opens with another almost matching pair of covers for Marvel UK fans. It must have added considerably to the workload of the US bullpen to come up with unique covers and additional content for the UK weeklies. It is a shame the results of that effort are now viewed as something of a poor relation among the broader comic collecting community. That said, we are here now to show them the respect that is rightfully theirs.

Mighty World of Marvel #27

Another week, another artist drafted in to work on the Hulk strip. Kirby is still on layouts, Esposito provides the inks and now we have Bob Powell on pencils. I have to admit, I needed to Google Mr Powell, but he puts in a solid, if somewhat old fashioned effort. The Hulk continues his battle against an equally strong alien on the planet of the Watcher. We get several pages of action before the Watcher loosely interprets his vow of non interference to deliver a pulp science fiction ending and the "death" of the Leader. Shockingly we are again promised breathtaking events next week, 
I'm not sure how many times Stan can play that card while failing to deliver.

Daredevil is still dealing with Killgrave the Renamed Man. With nothing but some low-rent Batman gadgets and heavy-handed exposition to help him. Once again the art in this story includes some excellent work on the characters faces and detail in the crowd scenes, only to fall apart as soon as it comes to portraying action and movement. The story is wrapped up (literally) with DD's billy-club rollerblind feature and some Matt/Karen/Foggy love triangle nonsense.

More mini-poster excitement. Though it seems that there was less excitement for these back in 1973, as despite having had multiple copies of these issues pass through my hands, nobody was cutting these out.

Times are obviously tough for the Watcher as he takes a second gig in the pages of the Fantastic Four this week, where he is doing an equally bad job of not interfering. The FF fight the Red Ghost and his super apes on the moon in a proxy battle of capitalism vs communism for the Watcher's titillation. I think he just gets bored basically. We have Kirby and Ditko teaming up on the art, which I always feel creates an entirely different third style: Kirko or Ditby, not quite as iconic as either on their own but interesting in its own right. The Fantastic Four triumph, the Watcher retires and the Red Ghost gets chased Benny Hill style around the moon by his angry apes. Something for everyone, I'm sure you'll agree.

The problem with amassing a collection of comics before you get round to the business of reading them, is that sometimes you don't notice a tatty one when you get it. This is one such comic.

It is a busy week for the interconnected Marvel universe, as Daredevil makes a guest appearance in the pages of Spider-Man with an episode that also sees the return of the Circus of Crime. Before we get to the action, we get some insight into why Peter Parker is such an insufferable, entitled jerk, when kindly Aunt May suggests he go on a date with some girl called Mary Jane despite Pete already having a girlfriend. Once free from Aunt May and her dubious morals, Spider-Man ventures out looking for adventure. Which he quickly finds when some burglars are threatening a certain blind lawyer. The meat of the story though is the arrival of the Circus of Crime in town, and their plan to rob their audience. Of course this is their plan, it's always their plan. However, they reckoned without the appearance of Spider-Man as the main attraction and Matt Murdock in the audience. The crowd and Spidey are quickly hypnotised by the Ringmaster, which is Daredevil's cue to come to the rescue. The predictable fight between DD and the entranced Spider-Man is thankfully brief, which allows them to quickly team up and share some pleasing character interaction. The Circus of Crime defeated, Spider-Man is left to wonder how Daredevil managed to avoid being hypnotised when only a blind man would be unaffected and why did the blind Matt Murdock set off his spider-sense?

More clues as to the nature of the free mystery photo. Genuinely, if anyone has any insight on this, let me know. I have combed the internet to find out more, with zero success.

You know how I said that nobody was cutting up copies of MWOM for the mini-posters? Sadly the same cannot be said for offers for free football tickets on the rear of the first page of this week's Thor tale. I already have a replacement copy winging its way too me, so my grief will be short lived. My upset is also mitigated by the fact this story is a frankly rubbish rehash of the first FF/Skrulls story. Thor battles shape-shifting aliens, illustrated with the poorly suited art of Al Hartley. The result looks like one of those comic book adverts featuring a character you know, advertising something utterly unconnected, drawn by someone who is only vaguely familiar with how the star should look.