Week Ending August 11, 1973

If you had been regularly handing your newsagent your pocket money for the last 45-weeks in 1972/3, you could have had in your childlike paws at least three years of classic Marvel continuity (even more in the case of the Hulk) and you can't tell me that isn't great value. How lucky we were not to have to wait a month or even two between issues, we may not have got the stories in colour but we were spoiled with the sheer amount of content we got in a very short period.

Mighty World of Marvel #45

This cover makes my heart sink a little, partly the original cover from Tales to Astonish #101, which was a mash-up of Marie Severin Hulk with Kirby Asgardians, plus the addition of what might be an internal panel from Fantastic Four #21. There is absolutely nothing wrong with either segment, but the careless UK colouring makes me wish for what might have been.

Issue #102 of Tales to Astonish, reprinted here, saw the title changed to The Incredible Hulk, after false starts and multiple attempts to make the character work, Big Green had his own comic book again. It is interesting then that at this point Stan Lee hands the writing duties over to Gary Friedrich, who in an effort to make the transition as seamless as possible, proceeds to write the issue in the most loquacious and verbose Stan Lee style he can muster, even shoehorning in a retelling of Hulk's origin. Our story does little to move the character forward, other than to get him out of the unusual Asgardian setting that last week's episode put him in, but the artwork by Marie Severin and George Tuska is a thing of beauty, even if it desperately needs the leaden exposition of Friedrich to help it make sense. As a kid reading this I would definitely be excited for the next issue, though adult me suspects that I will be on the receiving end of some timeline twisting as the final panel hints at a major kicking of original continuity to come.

Looks like the slightly deranged looking heads of the Fantastic Four are up against the Hate-Monger, who here looks for all the world like Dr Doom during his awkward alt-right death-metal teenage years. This is a great story, where Stan and Jack nail their anti-fascist colours to the mast and it becomes abundantly clear that Ben Grimm is an avatar for Jack and his well documented proclivities towards punching those of a Nazi persuasion. We also get to meet a post-WW2, pre-SHIELD, two-eyed Nick Fury, if that isn't value, I don't know what is. The only fly in the ointment is the George Roussos inks  trying to murder Kirby's pencils.

Spider-Man Comics Weekly #26

Another cover done great disservice by lackluster colouring, though it does take your eye away from Ditko's improbably posed human forms.

This is the prelude to an absolutely classic Spider-Man tale, Peter discovers that he might be the cause of Aunt May's recent hospitalisation via a blood transfusion back in SMCW #2. A possible cure is swiftly located with the aid of Dr Curt Connors, and just as swiftly stolen by the henchmen of the Master Planner. This starts Spider-Man off on a furious rampage against the clock to locate the Master Planner's hideout. Keen Ayn Rand fan Ditko must have revelled in this opportunity to unleash a vengeful, single-minded Spider-Man on the criminal underworld. After duffing up half the hoods in New York, Spider-Man locates the underwater lair of the Master Planner (revealed to the reader as Dr Octopus earlier) and proceeds to pummel Doc Ock's goons and put the fear of god into the Dr himself. Unfortunately, rage-fueled murder sprees are best left to the experts and Spider-Man ends up bringing most of the sub-river structure down on himself.

 

I am more than a little annoyed that we don't get another episode of Tales of Asgard this week, I certainly got the impression that it would be a continuing series. We do however have the conclusion of Thor's run-in with the Grey Gargoyle. While not as hackneyed as most Thor stories of the period, and with some nice Jack Kirby/Chic Stone art, the ending descends into some period Stan silliness involving a motorcycle mounted 3D Thor projector and the Grey Gargoyle in a van in hot pursuit. As daft as this sounds, it is a marked improvement over previous stories.