Week Ending April 6, 1974

Here we are, in the second week of the Marvel UK Kung Fu era (a name I have just coined for the length of time between April 1974 and the Marvel UK vampire/ape period) it was not all martial arts meyhem though, as we shall now see.

Mighty World of Marvel #79

Did Herb Trimpe ever do a stint on the Fantastic Four? Because on the strength of this cover, I would be all over that. A recolouring of the original US that definitely improves on the source for my money.

The Incredible Hulk: The Hulk's Last Fight! Reprinting The Incredible Hulk #122

Young Roy Thomas pens another adventure, as a kid I probably credited a lot of Roy's stories to Stan, in no small part due to the prominence of Stan's name everywhere. Reading them now, I can see why that mistake would be easy to make but while he certainly impersonates Stan's writing style, there are definite moments of his own voice there to see on the page. This week's tale pulls double-duty as it guest stars the Fantastic Four. As a result, their own strip is temporarily dropped. The out of sync UK timelines are on display as a result with the Inhuman Crystal showing up as an FF member. This is neatly skirted around by not mentioning her or giving her any dialogue. I'm sure that more than one British Marvel fan was asking why there was suddenly two Sue Storms.

Daredevil: Amoung Us... A Betrayer! Reprinting Daredevil #11

It is hard to read this story without wondering what might have been. Stan takes over writing duties from Wally Wood with yet another dig at Wood in the opening panel. Bob Powell takes over pencils, giving the impression that Wally could have had little plotting influence over the conclusion of his tale, though he still provides the inks. The tone of investigative crime-fighting does continue, but it definitely feels much more like a Stan Lee production, it would be wonderful to see how Wally might have wrapped it up if left to his own devices.

Spider-Man Comics Weekly #60

Ron Wilson and Mike Esposito give us a cover from Spider-Man's often forgotten period in pantomime. Plus the most disturbing rendition of the Kingpin until Vincent D'Onofrio tried to lubricate the hinges on the doors of his SUV.

The Amazing Spider-Man: What A Tangled Web We Weave..! Reprinting Amazing Spider-Man #61

Life for Peter Parker is never straight forward, but this week he is in more of a pickle than usual. His girlfriend hates him, he has ruined her father's life, both he and his flatmate are threatened by the Kingpin's heavies, Norman Osborn is looking ominously at photos of the Green Goblin and Mary Jane's teenager-speak has reached Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins levels of ridiculous.

Iron Man: A Day In The Life! Reprinting Tales of Suspense #46

Spider-Man had his teenage angst and large supporting cast pretty much from day one, the Fantastic Four's USP was their family dynamic. Iron Man however has just been a collection of increasingly daft adventure yarns, until now. Perhaps in a bid to bring the winning Marvel formula to the title, Tony Stark gets a couple of characters to riff off, welcome additions after weeks of anonymous random scientists and generals. Happy Hogan and Pepper Potts are introduced (even if Pepper is inexplicably referred to as Kitty) hopefully this will give the opportunity for a little more depth to Iron Man's thus far lightweight stories in the future.

The Mighty Thor: The Power of Pluto! Reprinting Thor #128

I have on occasion given Odin a bit of stick for being a crap dad. However, this week's episode has the shocking revelation that he did at some point give his son the viking equivalent of a 'racing car bed'. He might be a bit grumpy at times, but he just earned his 'World's Greatest All-Father' mug. The actual story jumps between Thor's recovery from last week's battle in Kirby's futuristic Asgard and Pluto's weird movie-based plot to entrap Hercules. This is one of those occasions where you can see the joins between Jack and Stan's input, but the end result is no less enjoyable because of it. 

The Fatal Words Reprinting Mystic #49

Some spare pages in SMCW gives us another tale from the archives, though this time, thanks to a Howard O'Donnell signature, I was able to track down the source. A weird little story that doesn't seem to have much more of a point than 'If your pets start talking to you, don't try to make money from it'. I guess it was a simpler time. 

The Avengers #29

The Avengers have become nothing more than a convenient vehicle for Shang-Chi, losing the hallowed ground of the corner box to become nothing more than disembodied heads beneath his bare feet. This mostly Jim Starlin/Al Milgrom cover is pretty good artistically but it does take the dodgy colouring of the original and turn the racism up to an uncomfortable 9.5, given the characters involved, it does seem to be a lazy and entirely unnecessary shorthand.

Master of Kung Fu: The Sins of The Father! Reprinting Special Marvel Edition #15

Here is the second half of Shang-chi's quasi-origin story and it is all action, except the bit at the end that is the absence of action. It is weird how movie style martial arts partially lend themselves to comic adaption, an art form where a large proportion of the time we see the protagonists striking extremely comic book-friendly poses followed by harder to capture in sequential art flurries of motion. Jim Starlin and Al Milgrom make a pretty good job of a difficult task.

The Avengers: Flames of Destruction! Reprinting Avengers #31

I have no idea what was going on in the 1970s that had comic book and sci-fi movie writers so utterly convinced of the threat posed by underground civilisations with doomsday weapons, but they certainly did their best to warn us of the danger. Though this particular story probably would not have swayed the average, indifferent surface-dweller. It is another rushed and muddled tale with Don Heck art that makes the story impossible to follow without a lot of exposition from Stan. The episode ends with Goliath discovering that he is just as stuck at ten feet tall as he was at the beginning of it.

Dr. Strange: Let There Be Victory! Reprinting Strange Tales #141

Last week's mano a mano contest between Dr Strange and Dormammu was cut short by professional back-stabber Baron Mordo, much to Dormammu's displeasure. Mordo is immediately sent to his room without dinner and the contest is resumed. Despite Strange being outclassed, overpowered, exhausted and now injured, he manages to triumph over his opponent. No great surprise, but it gives Ditko the opportunity to draw another dynamic fight sequence with the specially created for the event pincer weapons that he is clearly very proud of. The story wraps with Dormammu honouring his word not to attack Earth, however he does exact the somewhat petty revenge of banishing the still as yet unnamed Clea to another dimension. Strange returns to his Sanctum Sanctorum where the minions of Dormammu have gone delightfully old-school and planted a bomb for him...