Week Ending February 23, 1974

Intellectually I know that there is no difference between how a kid of today feels when their favourite YouTuber drops a new video and how we would have felt on new comic day when we entered the newsagent to pick up the latest Marvel weeklies. However, nostalgia and grumpy old man snobbery insists that the thrill we got was somehow 'better' or more pure. A bit like how aging ravers will tell you how pills back in the day were superior to the rubbish you get these days, waxing lyrical like a wide-eyed, gurning Jack Hargreaves talking about a 1920s farm implement.

Mighty World of Marvel #73

This is a Marvel UK exclusive cover by Ed Hannigan and Mike Esposito. Hannigan's name was not immediately familiar to me but a quick search of Google informs me that I have seen his work before, and Wikipedia leads me to think that this cover might be among his earliest work for Marvel.

The Incredible Hulk: At The Mercy of.. Maximus The Mad! Reprinting The Incredible Hulk #119

Now that we have three strips per week, I'm hoping a knock-on effect of the reduced page count might be less of a need to edit stories to fit as they can now drag out over two or three weeks. The immediate result though is that we get little more than the opening of this story, but Herb Trimpe appears to be playing with his art style here, so along with some improved shading, I'm more than happy to enjoy the ride.

Daredevil: That He May See! Reprinting Daredevil #9

Here is a story that I can't help feel was written with Dr Doom in mind as the antagonist, and then changed because Victor Von Doom has standards. Matt Murdock is convinced by Karen Page to visit the small country of Lichtenbad for an operation that may restore his sight, a country ruled by Matt's former exchange student school-chum Duke Klaus Kruger. Plausibility already out of the window, realistic depictions of Europe follow quickly behind when Matt arrives at Kruger's castle. Straight away we are in robot guards in medieval armour territory and the Duke revealed to be a tyrant with a weirdly non-specific plan to kidnap eye surgeons and lawyers.

The Fantastic Four: Side By Side With The Sub-Mariner! Reprinting Fantastic Four #33

This is one of those stories where you get the impression that Jack Kirby may have had a bit more time to work or was just in a really good mood. From the incredibly imaginative underwater transportation device used to introduce Lady Dorma (I would not be at all surprised to learn that Kirby may have based this on experimental military equipment of the era) to a photo montage of the undersea world, there are clear signs of Jack just having fun. The art itself isn't his best work, but even at half speed, Kirby is better than most.

Spider-Man Comics Weekly #54

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that the original John Romita cover for this story did not feature enough Spider-Man for the fickle British readership, so Ron Wilson and Mike Esposito were drafted in to rework Romita's basic layout. Bit of a shame really, there is always something special about an antagonist only cover.

The Amazing Spider-Man: To Kill A Spider-Man! Reprinting Amazing Spider-Man #58

Remember when Spider-Man lost his memory and then Ka-Zar killed him? As fun as that was, one of those things is over now and the other didn't actually happen. After a dunk in a lake, Spidey is back to his usual self, while his recent guest star disappears after a couple of pages. Peter rushes home to catch up on his rest as J. Jonah Jameson test drives the latest Spider Slayer GTI. While I am always pleased to see a new Spider Slayer, I'm somewhat less enthusiastic to witness Don Heck's inks over Romita's pencils, still, you can't win them all.

Iron Man: Trapped By The Mad Barbarian Reprinting Tales of Suspense #42

This is a case of the UK edits being a lot more fun than the actual story. As usual, all mentions of the word 'Red' are a no-go for deeply socialist 70s Britain with the 'Mad' Barbarian making his first appearance anywhere. Even more entertaining we meet a character called the Actor (imagine the Chameleon on speed) and get to see him impersonate Nikita Khrushchev (who is then badly drawn over to resemble the Red Ghost) as well as Tony Stark and finally President Kennedy, who bafflingly looks more like Tony Blair. It was almost worth America living in fear of the red menace so we could have nonsense like this. 

Thor: When Meet The Immortals! Reprinting Journey into Mystery #125

After what feels like a very long build-up, Thor finally gets to throwdown with the Demon. It is therefore a little disappointing that after such a drawn-out hype for the battle, Thor sees off the challenger with a first round knockout. At this point it starts to become clear that this might just be the warm-up for the main event clash with Hurcules. Speaking of which, the Greek beefcake gets his second Marvel UK appearance, weirdly involving a train much like the one in his debut within the pages of Hulk a few months back, making me wonder if there was a degree of crossover between the two stories? Our remaining pages are taken up with Thor's return to Asgard to face the wrath of Odin for revealing his godly identity to Jane Foster. The punishment for this is the 'ritual of steel', a form of justice with disturbing gang-bang overtones. 

The Avengers #23

Ron Wilson and Mike Esposito step in to make Don Heck and Frank Giacoia's original cover look less cluttered. For what it is worth, I think they failed but, colours aside, it is a slight improvement in some areas. 

The Avengers: Voice of The Wasp! Reprinting Avengers #26

We open our story in Avengers mansion with Steve Rogers explaining the team's latest pointlessly complex communication device, while acting as un-Captain America as possible. It really does seem that the only way Stan could write internal team conflict was to have all the characters act like dicks. After the now traditional squad argument, we cut to the middle of the ocean where an exploration vessel with Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne on board has possibly been attacked by the Sun-Mariner. The Wasp sets off to seek aid from the Avengers, a plan that backfires when she is captured by undersea warlord Attuma. Unaware of who they have captured, the Wasp is quickly able to shrink down and escape for long enough to send a message to her former teammates. Turns out the discussions about the Avengers new oversize pager system earlier might have had some relevance, who would have thought eh? The team, minus Hawkeye (ooh I wonder if that will be important later too) are soon on their way to the rescue. 

Dr. Strange: Eternity Beckons! Reprinting Strange Tales #135

Stephen Strange is still having Mordo/Dormmamu issues, but feels that the single word clue of 'Eternity' might be the source of his salvation. Steve Ditko has a ball as Dr. Strange turns plain-clothes sluth again, his investigations taking him to a grey England, so it is not long before he is in a castle being offered a spot of tea by someone who says "by jove" far more frequently than any sane person would. Nothing actually happens that advances the story at all, but it does have some pretty visuals.