Week Ending July 7, 1973

Welcome dear Marvel UK fan, as we once again set sail on the good ship Nostalgia to spend the pocket money of the past on the best value entertainment ever there was.

Mighty World of Marvel #40

Something struck me this week, I don't think we have yet had a straight reprint of an original US cover in 40 weeks of MWOM. This is particularly curious this week, when we could have had the choice between Tales to Astonish #96 and Fantastic Four #18, while not outright classics, both are attractive covers. Instead we this unique and, ah, challenging offering from the Buckler/Esposito team.

 

Something I neglected to mention last week, was that as well as the arrival of Marie Severin on pencils in both Hulk chapters, we also got the debut of Herb Trimpe on inks in the second episode, a combination that continues this week. If I'm honest, it is not a pairing that flatters either of these greats. The Hulk finds himself trapped on a spaceship with the High Evolutionary's new-man Sir Ram, after destroying the ship's radio the pair hurtle towards a cosmic storm, which claims the life of Sir Ram even as he saves the ship. This turn of events brings about the feeling of Hulk being unable to find a friend, or when he does, they die. I seem to recall this becoming a regular theme over the next few years. The cosmic rays also trigger the Hulk's transformation, so it is Bruce Banner who is greeted by the High Evolutionary when the ship reaches its destination. Wasting no time at all, the High Evolutionary shoots banner and immediately starts to experiment on him to accelerate his evolution by a million years.

Unfortunately, before the High Evolutionary can go full mad scientist, his new-men storm the laboratory, leading him to free Banner in the hope that the Hulk can save them both. This plan goes about as well as you would expect, with the High Evolutionary ending up fatally wounded and finishing his experiment with himself as the guinea pig. Things go a bit 2001, with the now super-evolved High Evolutionary returning all his new-men to their original forms and teleporting Hulk back to Earth. For a three part story there is very little to it, but it does try to expand on the Hulk's feelings of loneliness.

Hey, it's part of that FF cover I mentioned earlier. That's something I guess.

In the second half of last week's Super Skrull story, we get pages and pages of Kirby going to town with the FF's powers as they battle the Super Skrull. The action is so much fun that I totally forgive it being wrapped up quickly in typical fashion when Reed works out the Skrull's power is being beamed from his homeworld and blocks the signal.

Remember how the first Skrull invasion force ended up being horrifically turned into cows forever? They got off lightly, the Super Skrull gets sealed in a volcano, presumably to starve to death. 

Spider-Man Comics Weekly #21

SMCW has probably even less reason to need new cover art with two complete stories a week to select an original US cover from, but as this one is arguably more action packed than the Amazing Spider-Man #27 it is based on, I won't complain too much. Though yet again, the colouring is abysmal.

We continue last week's Ditko plotted gangster mystery story, though it looks like Stan was unable to resist to opportunity of a passive aggressive dig at Steve on the splash page. That said, he is correct, it does feel old fashioned. Ditko's fondness for the stereotypical Hollywood gangster of the 40s or 50s does look out of place. The mystery elements of the protagonists identities works a whole lot better. Spider-Man is captured by the Green Goblin and handed over to the mob as the Goblin seeks to take charge while eliminating the challenge of the Crime-Master. The extra conflict and infighting allows Spidey his chance to escape, but so too do the Goblin and Crime-Master. It is left up to Spider-Man to solve the mystery with good old fashioned detective work, which turns out might be best left to Batman. Spider-Man confronts J. Jonah Jameson at the Daily Bugle with his suspicion that Jameson's new employee Frederick Foswell is either the Goblin or the Crime-Master, 50% of that theory is blown immediately when the police shoot the Crime-Master on the roof of the building opposite Jameson's office. As it happens, Foswell is indeed hiding a secret identity, but one of a low-level mobster in a bid to inform to the police and trap the Crime-Master. It is interesting that the Crime-Master turns out to be nobody we have heard of, something that is remarked upon in one panel, I can't help feeling that this story was handed to Ditko in order to get his views on how the Goblin's true identity should be handled out of his system.

Thor is once again back from the future, using his little discussed ability to time travel, but in Asgard Loki is stirring to pot with Odin, who is still not happy about Thor's feelings for the mortal Jane Foster. A plan is hatched to use the Enchantress and her irresistible feminine wiles on Thor. This is less than effective but the Enchantress is not without a plan B in the form of the Executioner.

Pardon me while I digress a moment, I don't know about you, but until I watched the MCU Thor: Ragnarok, I had always assumed that the Executioner's head markings were hair in the style of a man who has embraced his baldness and thinks comb-overs are for the weak. I never thought they might be tattoos. Reading this early appearance of the Executioner, I'm still unsure of what they are.

Thor and the Executioner have a great Kirby style fight in the middle of New York with Thor winning through a combination of cunning and trickery, something which happens a lot and must be particularly galling to his brother.