Week Ending December 15, 1973

Mid December 1973, I don't know if you had anything going on about then, but Marvel UK was firing on all cylinders, so if you were lucky enough to be picking up their weeklies at this point, life was pretty great.

Mighty World of Marvel #63

This Herb Trimpe/Dan Adkins cover should give you some warning about the level of willing suspension of disbelief you are going to require for the contents of this week's issue. Nice cover though, even with the bizarrely distorted Hulk.

The Incredible Hulk: Shanghaied in Space! Reprinting The Incredible Hulk #111

Last week's story ended with Bruce Banner in the Savage Land appearing to be slightly dead. So this week's episode obviously starts on the bridge of a starship with an alien commander dressed in Nick Fury's favourite spacesuit. Buckle up true believer, it only gets weirder from here. It transpires that the starship and alien commander are emissaries of the ancient alien power responsible for the previous episode's doomsday device and giant robot Umbu, and they are not best pleased at the foiling of their long-term plans. A probe is sent to retrieve the person responsible to placate the rage of their boss, the ominously named Galaxy Master. The body of Bruce Banner is fetched, revived and swiftly sentenced to death. Possibly not the most efficient justice system but you have to admire a bureaucracy that sticks to its principles. Bruce is thrown out of the airlock to die in the airless cold of deep space. It is at this point that science and physics take a well earned holiday, and the Hulk has a full-on space battle ending with the entire starship crashing into its home planet. Despite the strangeness of this story, the Herb Trimpe art with Dan Adkins inks really carries it. There are some lovely flourishes with the use of panel shapes and a great feeling of movement and action. The final panel partial reveal of the Galaxy Master is pretty impressive and definitely leaves me wanting more.

The Fantastic Four: The Unknown Origin of Doctor Doom! Reprinting Fantastic Four Annual #2

Protagonists are only as good as their antagonist, so this is where the Fantastic Four become great. Up until now, Dr Doom has been spectacularly one dimensional and to be frank, a bit rubbish. This story changes that by giving him a background story as good, if not better than that of the FF themselves. From a childhood as one of Europe's 'undesirables' filled with tragedy, Victor Von Doom pulls himself up by his bootstraps (and nuclear-powered flying harness) to become the benevolent dictator of his homeland, bypassing sympathetic villain and jumping straight to badass anti-hero as far as I am concerned.

Spider-Man Comics Weekly #44

Occasionally there is a cover so iconic that it defies any rational criticism. This is one of those. Instead let us ponder the interesting choice of Marvel UK to play with the colour scheme of the original ASM #50 classic, gone is the ethereal washed out red Spider-Man, instead we get the bold blue and red, with sartorial adjustment for Peter Parker to ensure he stands out. I don't not like it, but you have to wonder why?

The Amazing Spider-Man: Spider-Man No More! Reprinting Amazing Spider-Man #50

It says a lot about this very Peter Parker-centric story that the first appearance of a bad guy as legendary as Wilson Fisk's Kingpin hardly registers on the list of things that are great about it. The whole story exists only to reaffirm why Peter is Spider-Man, even at great personal cost, Stan pulls out all the stops and does some of his best work here, the brilliance of John Romita is only slightly dulled by Mike Esposito's inks, but taken as a whole it is a comic-book tour de force and an absolute pleasure to read.

The Mighty Thor: With My Hammer in Hand! Reprinting Journey into Mystery #120

I don't know if it is my giddy excitement over this week's other stories, but even this mostly pointless interlude in the seemingly endless Trial of The Gods saga seems fun and engaging. Thor stops off in Pittsburgh to re-forge his damaged hammer in what feels like a Jack Kirby shout-out to the the American working Joe. The art is enjoyable and the story, such as it is, moves along in an uncharacteristically organic fashion.

The Avengers #13

This appears to be something we haven't seen for a while, a UK specific cover by Ron Wilson/Frank Giacoia/Mike Esposito, unless anyone can identify its use elsewhere. My cursory search of the internet has proved fruitless on the subject.

What makes this issue particularly special though is that it features a letter from blog-reader Mikeodee, who bagged himself a No Prize and made a bunch of suggestions that incredibly all came to pass in the pages of Marvel UK eventually.

The Avengers: The Old Order Changeth! Reprinting The Avengers #16

This Avengers story is no better written or drawn than previous weeks, but it does have this distinction of something actually happening within its pages. With Cap in South America taking the time to dig up the body of Baron Zemo in order to bury it again, and Thor scooting off to the Trial of The Gods that so recently finished in SMCW, Iron Man, Giant Man and the Wasp decided to take a leave of absence from the Avengers. This results in the first of what would become semi-regular lineup changes and the introduction of Cap's Kooky Quartet, as the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and Hawkeye join the team. While the new characters are unevenly written in this episode, especially Hawkeye, who lacks his usual anti-authoritarian snark here, it does give me hope for better stories now that Stan isn't burdened with not messing up the big-hitters who have their own titles.

Dr. Strange: Mordo Must Not Catch Me! Reprinting Strange Tales #125

For some unknown reason we skip past Strange Tales #124, which from its synopsis, feels like it might have been something different. Instead we get another retread of almost every Dr Strange story to date. George Russos is inking again for Ditko, while Steve's psychedelic backgrounds are still absent, the overall effect is better than previous examples. Any-hoo, Mordo is back, the Ancient One is captive and Dr Strange just can't wait to get into his astral form to lead the Baron on a merry chase before having the now compulsory magical slap-fight.