Week Ending February 2, 1974

As touched on last week, I feel Marvel UK had really found their winning formula with their weeklies in 1974. There were missteps and improvements to come, but the format they hit upon in early 74 takes some beating. Let us breath deep the nostalgia and see what lurked within those semi-gloss covers of yesteryear...

Mighty World of Marvel #70

Here we have a recoloured version of the original Herb Trimpe cover and the Super Humanoid has obviously been raiding the same dress-up box as the Sandman used for recent UK outings. The effect it has on reducing the menace of the original makes me wonder if that was the reason for such a bold sartorial choice.

The Incredible Hulk: Dooms-Day! Reprinting The Incredible Hulk #117

One of the unique aspects of the Marvel UK reprints were the additional panels or splash pages made necessary by the breaking up of the original stories into weekly portions. Thus far the weeklies have mostly got round this by using cover art made redundant by the anthology format. Now, with the addition of extra strips, this unsung artform is about to come into its own. The first page of our Hulk story appears to be some smaller panels enlarged to fit by adding extra detail to the right and left hand sides, plus a chopped about panel with space for exposition to catch readers up on last week's events. It is crude, but this sort of stuff is probably worthy of a blog of its own. The actual story itself is a real credulity stretcher, Hulk defeats the Super Humaniod, leaps from the island he was transported to last week in time to turn back into Bruce Banner, enabling the scientist to launch an anti-missile missile at the nuke the Leader unleashed previously. Pretty impressive stuff, but the Leader launches a second missile, which the Hulk then takes down in his own inimitable style. It's weird, busy and mostly pointless but an enjoyable romp with lovely Trimpe art.

Daredevil: As It Was In The Beginning Reprinting Daredevil #53

Continuing last week's retelling of DD's origin story as Marvel UK attempt to segue past the fact that we have skipped a considerable chunk of horn-heads early adventures. It's all familiar stuff but with a Roy Thomas/Gene Colan spin. I'm never going to put Colan in a list of my favourite artists but I have to admire how his work made little concession to the Marvel house-style, he is just off doing his own noir-ish thing with a hint of classical influence. Likewise Roy Thomas, his style here is still Stan-lite with uncomfortable dialogue, but you get the impression that he might have heard actual human beings interact at some point.

The Fantastic Four: Enter: The Invincible Man! Reprinting Fantastic Four #32

The FF face off against the Invincible Man, who they believe to be Dr Franklin Storm. Its fairly standard stuff with the team squabbling, Reed being even more of a colossal dick than usual and the reveal of the Invincible Man as the Super Skrull by implausible bluff. The reveal is a bit of a shame because the character design of the Invincible Man is far too interesting to waste on a disguise. Our story ends in tragedy, when Franklin Richards is released by the Skrulls with a bomb implanted in his chest, he sacrifices himself to save the Fantastic Four and dies a hero. Its a downbeat ending to what had started as just another light FF story. 

Spider-Man Comics Weekly #51

Up until now SMCW has not been short on ASM covers to draw upon, the one ASM story to one SMCW weekly format made sure of that. However, the change in the status quo with the need to accommodate an additional Iron Man strip is going to keep Ron Wilson and Mike Esposito in gainful employment for a while. 

The Amazing Spider-Man: Showdown! Reprinting Amazing Spider-Man #56

Because of last week's shake-up Spider-Man gets a new splash page to bridge the gap between issues. In this case it looks to be a single internal panel enlarged beyond the point of good taste. Don't worry, they do get a lot better at this. Spidey is still suffering from amnesia and believing himself to be a henchman for Dr Octopus, surprisingly this story does not end with him getting his memory back, rather he decides that he clearly isn't a bad guy and abandons Doc Ock. Leaving us with a hero that doesn't know that he is Peter Parker or even who Peter Parker is, an intriguing situation for a character whose stories are so tightly wrapped up with his secret identity. 

Iron Man: Iron Man versus Gargantus! Reprinting Tales of Suspense #40

Iron Man gets his second outing, there is much talk of transistors and we get to see billionaire weapons designer Tony Stark in action as he unveils his powered military roller skates for the style conscious army on the move. Jack Kirby takes on the pencils, so the Iron Man armour takes on that chunky look that Jack could lend to even a tailored tuxedo. There is some circus animal wrestling but the only event of note is the rather contrived decision to paint Iron Man gold. 

The Mighty Thor: Asgard Imperilled! Reprinting Journey into Mystery #123

The later unique to Marvel UK splash pages that we will encounter are pretty interesting pieces, where some less well known artists will ape the style of the story they are adding to with some fairly impressive results. The opening splash page for this Thor tale is nothing like that. The overall effect is like a part done children's TV art project the moment before they pull out one they prepared earlier, seriously, it is horrible. The only saving grace is it makes the Vince Coletta inks on the following pages look brilliant. Odin shows Loki and the Absorbing Man that "King of The Gods" is a bit more than an honorary title and Thor finally gets around to wiping the memory of inconvenient reporter Harris Hobbs. 

The Avengers #20

This is a pretty good Kirby/Romita cover, striking, dramatic, until you compare it to the original colouring which has much more energy and a more impressive backdrop. Still, we do still get the rare image of Cap about to flick his shield Frisbee style. 

The Avengers: Once An Avenger! Reprinting The Avengers #23

More early Avengers weirdness as Captain America seeks alternative employment outside the team, surprisingly the only job he can secure is as sparring partner to a prizefighter, and to think how we laughed in later years at Steve Rogers becoming an illustrator or a cop. Back with the rest of the team, Wanda continues her desent into one dimensional man-obsessed 1960s cut-out, while Premier Division Avengers foe Kang watches the dissolution of the team (in his past) from the future, waiting for the optimum moment to strike. I really don't think he grasps the whole time travel thing. Things don't get any less strange when Kang transports the Avengers to the future, where we find out that despite his constant claims of conquest of the future Earth, he actually rules via a puppet monarchy. A showdown is set up between Kang and the Avengers, with Captain America turning up, while not inexplicably certainly badly explained, to rejoin the team. Its Stan at his short attention span best while John Romita does a good job making Don Heck's pencils look good, even if a bit Frank Robbins-y in places. 

Dr. Strange: Face To Face At Last With Baron Mordo! Reprinting Strange Tales #132

We have had a couple of weeks of Steve Ditko living his best life via Dr Strange/007/gangster-noir stylings, but we return now to our more familiar Sorcerer Supreme fare, though Ditko still finds time the dress Strange up as a wizard from a Ray Harryhausen movie at one point. Most of the story is taken up with Strange and the Dormammu-augmented Mordo locked in mystical combat, ending with Dr Strange seemingly on the backfoot.