Week Ending December 8, 1973

As 2021 continues to be unceasingly weird, what lessons can we learn from the past? Specifically the bits of the 1973 that involved Marvel UK?

Mighty World of Marvel #62

This issue of MWOM is particularly fascinating to me, not for the Herb Trimpe and John Severn cover, as lovely as it is. What I find interesting is that there seems to be so many of this issue out in the wild. When building my Marvel UK collection, the easiest way to fill the gaps was to bulk buy collections, and this issue turned up more than any other. Seriously, I have probably had at least twenty copies of MWOM #62 and I have no idea why. I know UK publishers would increase print runs during the school holidays, but did they do the same in the run up to Christmas?

The Incredible Hulk: Umbu The Unliving! Reprinting The Incredible Hulk #110

Last week we left Hulk in the Savage Land where he had just discovered a doomsday device and unintentionally knocked Ka-Zar unconscious. As if that wasn't bad enough, it seems the local natives have spent centuries worshiping a stone god that turns out to be an extraterrestrial robot guardian for the aforementioned doomsday gizmo. The story descends into a four-way brawl fest as Ka-Zar fights the Hulk and the natives as the Hulk tackles the giant stone robot Umbu. A lucky transformation into Bruce Banner sees him able to disable both the doomsday device and Umbu but at the cost of his life... Cue cliffhanger music.

The Fantastic Four: The Battle for Ben Grimm! Reprinting The Fantastic Four #30

With the Thing captured by Diablo, the remaining threesome spring into action to rescue their lumpy teammate. It seems odd to me that such a visually interesting character as Diablo should be so inherently useless, even by his own admission his talent for alchemy is both flawed and temporary. It almost looks like a character design Kirby might have had in mind as an Asgardian antagonist for Thor, seems a shame to have him as a throwaway bad guy for the FF. Anyway, Diablo basically defeats himself and our heroes find time for a cheesy smiles final panel. 

Spider-Man Comics Weekly #43

It is pretty hard to mess up a Gil Kane Spider-Man figure, the way he draws him is so distinct, instead Vince Colletta concentrates on spoiling everything else on this cover.

The Amazing Spider-Man: From The Depths of Defeat! Reprinting The Amazing Spider-Man #49

We join Spider-Man after his defeat at the hands of the Vulture 2.0 and a bout of the flu. Left for dead, Spidey pulls himself up and with uncharacteristic good sense, gets himself off to bed. This does however mean that he misses out on an evening on the town with Harry, Gwen and the increasingly irritating Mary-Jane. Honestly, if all 60s teenagers actually talked like her, I can see why the older generation might not have liked them. Meanwhile, Kraven the Hunter has tracked down the Vulture for a little villain-on-villain action. This gives Peter some time to recover before joining in, taking down both bad guys with little effort.

The Mighty Thor: The End of The Power! Reprinting Journey into Mystery #119

Where were we? Oh yes, Thor was getting his arse kicked by the Destroyer, Loki was panicking about this, despite it being his most successful plot to date, and Odin is having a snooze. Caught up? Good. Thor is about to be vaporised as his plan to use the body of the mortal inhabiting the Destroyer as a human shield fails. Loki convinces Hela to wake Odin and the All-Father steps into halt the battle. Only for Thor to say "I got this dad" and the plan that had previously failed is suddenly a roaring success. It does sometimes feel that Stan was writing a page at a time, then forgetting what he had done two pages ago. We leave Thor as he sets off in search of a 24-hour mallet repair shop to fix his battle-damaged hammer.

The Avengers #12

I am led to believe that this is a Jack Kirby and Chic Stone cover with alterations for the UK by Mike Esposito. To my eye the end result smacks of something Frank Robbins might have had a hand in. 

The Avengers: Now, By My Hand, Shall Die A Villain! Reprinting The Avengers #15

I have trained myself not to expect too much from these early Avengers stories, and no portentous title is going to convince me otherwise. Don Heck unleashes another enormous bag of weird looking art on us, including a redesigned Giant-Man that I have no recollection of seeing before. I can only hope this is because the Stevie Wonder designed abomination was quickly dropped. Anyway, our heroes are once again up against the Masters of Evil for a poorly illustrated showdown that is hard to follow even with Stan's heavy-handed exposition, culminating in Cap accidentally killing his arch-nemesis Baron Zemo, complete with clunky speech for the final panel. I hope something exciting happens next week...

Dr. Strange: The Challenge of Loki! Reprinting Strange Tales #123

George Russos is inking for Steve Ditko again, but it appears as though Steve had a little more time on this story. Though this doesn't stop Stan having one of his ingracious potshots at his artists, sure Ditko's style isn't suited to burly Norse gods, but passive/aggressive editorial is not a nice colour on anyone. The story itself is the usual fare, with Loki standing in as a possibly last minute replacement for the already over-used Baron Mordo.