Week Ending May 12, 1973

Apologies for the tardiness of this week's post. You would imagine that being on lockdown and working from home would allow more time to read comics, sadly that is not the case. Let us return to a time that was probably entirely filled with comic reading or cycle rides to go scrumping for apples, as well as other hazy, idyllic pastimes.

Mighty World of Marvel #32

This week's cover is another Rich Buckler/Mike Esposito collaboration promising action and conflict. What it doesn't promise though is the two Hulk stories I mistakenly thought were happening in this issue. It does however feature by omission, the total absence of Daredevil in this comic. I can find no explanation within for the sudden dropping of DD just a few scant months after his arrival, and it seems like an odd choice for a character who might resonate better with the British comic buyer than Hulk or the FF.

Last week saw Hulk return from the future and set up the conflict with new antagonist Dr Zaxon. It is hard to avoid the feeling that upon seeing the first half of this original story, Stan thought the whole thing was a bit daft an instructed the art team via the 'Marvel Method' to "Kill that Zaxon loser in five panels, then Hulk leaps away into the path of a train carrying, someone, maybe Hercules, yeah Hercules! On his way to Hollywood to make a movie! Have Jack do the layouts and bring it back when it's done." There is nothing wrong with the results and the art is entertaining, but it is no classic.
It is interesting to note that due to the muddled nature of Marvel UK continuity, Hulk encounters Hercules before he meets Thor.

Because Daredevil has been evicted and our double dose of Hulk action won't start until next week we get a bonus Fantastic Two filler from Strange Tales #125. The Thing and Human Torch are home alone in the Baxter Building with art by Dick Ayers and Paul Reinman. The main story is basically 0.5 of the FF bantering and taking on the Sub-Mariner, but the thing that caught my eye was the appearance of a couple of reporters who have an uncanny resemblance to a certain Stan and Jack, checking the internet it seems that others feel that the tall reporter is modelled on Stan's brother Larry Lieber, I choose to think that the artist was brave enough to draw Stan's actual hairline and say "oh yeah, it's Larry and Jack, that's right".

We finally get to find out what those crazy 1970s kids were doing with the many weeks of mini posters. Frankly there is a special place in hell for these children.

Dr Doom returns in his quest to retain the title of the best villain appearing in the worst stories. Johnny Storm races to the Baxter Building upon seeing the Fantastic Four's emergency flare, just in time to save his miniaturised teammates from being sucked into the world's most aggressive air conditioning system. The Fantastic Three Quarters immediately return to their normal scale which conveniently jogs their collective memory about how all four of them have been inconveniently shrinking all week. Obviously no one mentioned it before now because weird stuff never happens to these guys. Reed quickly realises they need the help of an expert in the field, The Astonishing Ant-Man. Luckily, their conversation is overheard by a passing ant (genuine plot device) who sends out the signal for the size changing hero. Ant-Man supplies the FF with a sample of his shrinking solution for use in a repeat size-based emergency and bids the team farewell. Which leaves a page or two for Reed to temporarily cure the Thing of his Thinginess (again) while Sue experiments with perfumes to eliminate her one weakness (dogs being able to smell her, rather than poor writing) but it is not long before they find themselves shrinking again and at the mercy of teeny-tiny Dr Doom in The Micro-World!

Spider-Man Comics Weekly #13

Another Buckler and Esposito cover, which looks very similar to last week's. There is something interesting about this issue though, a mystery on the scale of Daredevil's disappearance from the pages of MWOM:
Staples, the presence thereof. I have noticed the sporadic use of staples on the binding of SMCW in the last few weeks, compared to the glued binding of MWOM. It had been hit and miss though, not every week and not even always two staples, at first I thought that it might have been repairs by previous owners but it seems these are factory fitted and here to stay. Were these two titles produced at different printers? Was SMCW just acting as a guinea pig for the shape of things to come? I need answers.

After Spidey's showdown with existential ennui in the last issue, the web-spinner very much has his mojo back. Which is just as well because the Sandman has teamed up with the Enforcers. I actually think this is a good combination for their low-level thuggery, and fun to see Flint Marko in a leadership role. Once again the Human Torch guest-stars, Stan really liked to push the teenage team-up element in these stories. We get an entertaining tale with Spider-Man back on form and a spring in Peter Parker's step, as well as a hint of a future threat in the closing panels.

Stan pops by for an editorial promising us two pages of our letters next week, which now seems like a waste of valuable pages but at the time it would have been hard to overstate the excitement of seeing your own letter in print.

Another week, another truly dire Thor adventure. This episode reveals Dr Donald Blake's heretofore unknown skill for building super intelligent, nigh indestructible humanoid robots in his downtime from being a GP. Not only that but we also have demonstration of his poor choice in lab partners as his science buddy Dr Zaxton (the 't' may possibly be silent) turns out to be a loon with dreams of world conquest and what looks like a Super 8 projector that can duplicate anything, including Thor and his hammer (twice). Jane Foster is kidnapped, we find out Thor has a vow never to hurt humans unless in self-defense and the whole laughable tale wraps itself up in an unsatisfying bow.