Week Ending September 29, 1973

 

Marvel UK celebrates its first anniversary with three titles, a convincing claim on a growing segment of the British comic buying public and taking sixteen new pence from your pocket money. The later was probably mitigated somewhat by your parents lingering confusion over decimalisation. 

Mighty World of Marvel #52

After a run of improving covers, Ron Wilson and Mike Esposito phone in this effort. It isn't actually bad, but looks uninspired and static despite the artists best efforts to introduce the illusion of movement.

The Incredible Hulk: Ring Around The Rhino. Reprinting The Incredible Hulk #104

I had always thought of the Rhino as a Spider-Man protagonist, sure I was aware that he had multiple run-ins with Ol' Jade Jaws, but I was very surprised to see his origin take place in a Hulk story. Probably less surprised than those of you reading that already knew that the Rhino's first appearance was actually in the pages of ASM #41, and no such origin took place in a Hulk story. Confused? Welcome to Marvel UK continuity. Using modified text only, this story provides an origin for the Rhino as his real debut is probably not due in SMCW for a couple of months. If I had not looked it up, I probably wouldn't have noticed, this is not much of a compliment, as the original dialogue provided by Gary Friedrich is so stilted it makes Stan Lee's verbose exposition seem naturalistic. You could shoehorn anything into this story and not have it stand out. I will be interested to see how they handle the actual first appearance of the Rhino when he turns up in Spider-Man's comic not long from now.

The Fantastic Four: Trapped By Dr Doom. Reprinting The Fantastic Four #23

The second part of last week's story, in which Reed Richards continues to be an insufferable dick, Sue alternates between sassy, independent powerhouse and lovesick damsel in distress and Dr Doom comes up with yet another needlessly complicated plan that will backfire and see him banished into another dimension/outer space/the microverse. Also, George Roussos carries on doing unspeakable disservice to Kirby's pencils.

Spider-Man Comics Weekly #33

 If ever there was a cover that signified a new era, this is it. Jazzy John Romita knocks it out of the park and into a world that feels more modern and realistic. Aided by someone actually putting some effort into the UK colouring for a change.

The Amazing Spider-Man: How Green Was My Goblin! Reprinting The Amazing Spider-Man #39

John Romita arrives to fill the void created by Steve Ditko's absence, and despite making a lot of effort to ape Ditko's style, the change could not be more noticeable. Some characters retain their Ditko idiosyncrasies, while others instantly take on their much more familiar (to me at least) Romita look. As much as I have gained a huge respect for Steve's work on Spider-Man, this is the esthetic that fires my nostalgia, and it is a joy to see. There is also another development, one that is harder to put down to the change of artist, correlation not equaling causation and all that, but this story sees Peter Parker suddenly drop his petulant teenager act. The jump from sneering, self-obsessed, self-pitying youth to worried but basically nice kid is sudden but welcome. As for the story itself, after months of setting up the mystery of the Green Goblin, we get what feels like quite a hurried showdown with both protagonist and antagonist having their secret identity revealed, hard to say if this is how Stan originally planned it or if it was in rushed response to the real life bullpen strife of the time. The result is comic book history though.

The Mighty Thor: Onslaught of The Absorbing Man! Reprinting Journey Into Mystery #114

Ahh, yet another opportunity to witter on about my admiration for Crusher Creel. As character designs go, he is both visually dull (a second-rate, muscled thug) and awesome (so much scope to play with the look of his absorbing powers) it is fascinating then to see that in this first appearance, more is made of the fact he is able to absorb Thor's strength and powers. Show me him taking on the physical attributes of metal, rock and brickwork before stupidly coming into contact with glass or gas. That's the Absorbing Man I want.

Tales of Asgard: The Invasion of Asgard! Reprinting Journey Into Mystery #101

More mythological but ultimately lightweight goodness from Jack and Stan as young Thor strives to be worthy of wielding Mjolnir, while Loki makes an early start on a career of plans that end in abject failure.

The Avengers #2

Jack Kirby and Sol Brodsky give us a cover that looks like a badly enlarged interior panel, and what is the Hulk doing back with the Avengers? Worse still, Rick Jones appears dressed as an off duty accountant. Though we do get our first UK Avengers corner box, so it isn't all bad news.

The Avengers: The Invasion of The Lava Men! Reprinting The Avengers #5

As a brand new title, The Avengers faces a fairly major handicap. With a year under its belt, Marvel UK's other titles have had the chance to get their early, pulpy stories out of the way, giving us more complex plots and characters who are more than cardboard cutouts. The Avengers however, still have to get past the compulsory early trope of an underground threat (the Lava Men in this case) painfully wooden exposition and far too much Rick Jones. Still, it is nice to read these early stories for historical context if nothing else. As the cover hints, the Hulk makes a guest appearance in this story, which necessitates the use of some edited text to cover the fact that when this story was originally published, Bruce Banner's connection to the Hulk was unknown. This leads to the odd visuals of everyone acting like it's cool that Bruce has turned up, but not at all concerning that he might transform into a giant green avatar of rage. Still, it distracts from Iron Man's constant monologues about transistors and Captain America's unhealthy interest in Rick Jones.

Dr. Strange: Master of Black Magic! Reprinting Strange Tales #110

I mentioned last week that Dr Strange's origin was not his actual first appearance, this week however, is. What we have here is one of Stan and Steve's mild little horror stories, a sort of 'Tales of The Very Much Expected' morality tale, that they used to bang out with impressive regularity. Dr Strange is introduced fully formed, recognisable though different, with slightly more sinister facial hair than we are used to. It is unclear if he was intended to become a recurring character at this point, but little reworking was required to turn him into the Stephen Strange we know.