Week Ending February 16, 1974

I have very little memory of 1974, it is a year that lacks a record breaking heatwave to lock it into our collective conscious and on a personal level it is a few years before my parents would make the dubious choice to send me to school in brown corduroy bell-bottoms, a purple paisley shirt and sandals to ensure I received just the right amount of character building bullying from my peers and thus not burnt into my memory as particularly significant. Had I have purchased these Marvel UK weeklies, it is possible that my recollection of the year would be improved.

Mighty World of Marvel #72

I'm not going to pretend this is Ron Wilson and Mike Esposito's finest cover work, but the poor print reproduction of at least this particular copy does their efforts no favours at all.

The Incredible Hulk: Disaster In The Depths! Reprinting The Incredible Hulk #118

Concluding last week's Hulk/Namor slug-fest, we open with another example of an enlarged panel doing some splash page heavy lifting and then straight into the main event. It is worth noting that this story might be the first in which the Hulk explicitly, if accidentally kills someone. Atlantean schemer Fara is crushed to death for her trouble, surprising in itself and even more shockingly brushed under the aquatic carpet just one panel later.

Daredevil: Fight For Life! Reprinting Daredevil #8

Matt Murdock is hot on the telescopic heels of the Stiltman in a story that has a 1950s detective vibe to it. A feeling that is increased by Wally Wood's art style and some very heavy-handed shading for this UK reprint. The story wraps up with the Stiltman ironically reduced to sub-atomic size with a stolen shrink-ray and lawyer Murdock using the threat of legal action against the victim of the Stiltman's crimes, a dark day for the legal profession.

The Fantastic Four: The Final Victory of Gideon! Reprinting Fantastic Four #34

The FF have been turned against one another by professional rich-person and possible Stan Lee cipher Gregory Gideon. Can four of the world's most powerful human beings triumph against a man with bags of cash? In this surprisingly Marxist parable the proletariat FF rise up to seize control of the means of production, even managing to squeeze in a little 'Boy in The Striped Pajamas' style lesson as Gideon's son is almost sent into the past because of his father's machinations. The final page even finds space for a homage to Dickens' Christmas Carol with Gideon seeing the error of his ways and giving his fortune to charity. God bless us, every one!

Spider-Man Comics Weekly #53

At first glance I wasn't that impressed by this cover from Ron Wilson and Al Milgrom, it seemed very static and uninteresting. After staring at it for a while it has really grown on me, despite the actual simplicity of the image it somehow manages to create an illusion of considerable detail.

The Amazing Spider-Man: Trial by Combat! Reprinting Amazing Spider-Man #57

Another single panel is enlarged to splash page scale this week, if it were the handywork of John Romita alone it would probably survive the experience, however the inks of Don Heck are really not up to the demands placed upon them. Ka-Zar is on the trail of Spider-Man, tracking him through New York by his 'spoor', which raises questions about how often Peter Parker washes his costume. Soon they meet for some formal Jungle Lord in the city fisticuffs, culminating in the apparent drowning of Spider-Man. I will go out on a limb here and say don't worry too much about the death of our hero until I get round to reading next week's issue.

Iron Man: The Stronghold of Doctor Wierd! Reprinting Strange Tales #41

Right, let's get this out of the way first, this isn't a very good story so I won't trouble you with the details. However, when it was originally printed in the US, Dr Wierd was actually called Dr Strange, so for obvious reasons a change was felt necessary. I love the fact that the bullpen were clearly spitballing ideas with this; "What's a bit like 'strange' guys?" “How about 'weird'?" "Perfect, but change the spelling in such a small way that nobody will notice" and thus was born Dr Carlo Wierd!

As if that weren't enough, the bizarre shading decision is made in this issue to make Tony Stark look conspicuously blonde and have Iron Man recharge his armour with a couple of D-cell batteries from a flashlight. Demon In A Bottle this story is not.

Thor: When Titans Meet!! Reprinting Journey into Mystery #124

Thor is having to work with a reduced page count this week, which makes the decision to waste one of those precious pages on a lashed up splash image all the more puzzling. However, much is squeezed into the available space with Dr Donald Blake making the choice to travel to Asia to face the growing threat of the Demon and the introduction of Hurcules and the gods of Olympus. You can kinda see some great Kirby flourishes and ideas in there, but they are buried under some pretty horrible, scratchy Coletta inks.

The Avengers #22

This cover from Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers lacks much of the detail from its original US printing, its colours are simultaneously both brighter and yet more washed out, but somehow it still manages to be a reasonably decent cover in defiance of all logic.

The Avengers: Enter... DR. Doom! Reprinting Avengers #25

Victor Von Doom is not a man who recognises his own limitations, not content with being arch-enemy to the Fantastic Four, he now intends to take on the mighty Avengers as a sort of superhero amuse-bouche to his final defeat of the FF.

Doom would have actually made a good full time nemesis for the Avengers, sure they had Kang who was Doom in all but name (sometimes even in name too) but there is no substitute for the original armoured multi-skilled benevolent dictator. 

The team find themselves on their way to Latveria after Wanda and Pietro are lured by the promise of a lost relative, this was in the days before their family history became really confusing. To almost no-one's surprise this turns out to be a trap and the Avengers are soon up against Latveria's biggest user of Autosol. It is a pretty good romp that touches on the internal conflicts of a small nation as well as international diplomacy and ends with Doom defeated by Hawkeye's sneezing powder arrow, a tale truly epic in its scope.

Dr. Strange: Earth Be My Battleground Reprinting Strange Tales #134

After Dr Strange's early one-shot tales of magic and mystery, this recent story has been quite the saga, and watching Ditko mix genres and evolve his artistic style over multiple issues has been an absolute pleasure. Sure this final instalment might resolve itself with the now standard ending of magical battle and slight of hand trickery but it is done with much grace and artistic verve. Ditko puts real style into every panel, there is a sense of enthusiasm for the subject that shines through making it hard not to enjoy.