Week Ending March 23, 1974

1974 would have been my second year at primary school, if my finger counting calculations are correct (it was not a school known for its standards of educational excellence) but it is not a period I recall particularly well. Not having the memorable horror of the terrifying first year teacher Mrs Gale, or any notable world-shaking events to stick in my mind many years later. Ironically, these comics which I clearly did not read at the time, have a far more impressive effect of stirring my nostalgia than anything I can actually remember from that year. So, with that in mind, let's take a stroll down a memory lane that exists only in my imagination.

Mighty World of Marvel #77

As a youngster I didn't like Herb Trimpe's art, but looking at this cover I really cannot explain why. Maybe I just associated it with being 'old fashioned' because it predated when I came on board with the Hulk stories. I clearly didn't have a rational excuse, because this cover is a thing of beauty.

The Incredible Hulk: Within The Swamp, There Stirs.. A Glob! Reprinting The Incredible Hulk #121

You may disagree (I may even disagree myself sometimes) but Hulk stories are at their best when he has to take on other monsters with tragic back-stories. This is one of those occasions, Hulk finds himself in the Florida everglades after being accidentally blasted out of the sky during a missile test launch (something that seems to happen with surprising frequency) and from there is unwittingly involved in the origin of the Glob when he stumbles upon a stash of radioactive waste. The Glob is another character I have a soft spot for, probably because I must have read one of these early tales in a UK annual in the mid seventies, if anyone can identify the possible source of this memory, please let me know. The 10 pages we get of this story set up the birth of the Glob with flashbacks to an escaped prisoner who drowns in the swamp, only to have something of his memories reincarnated by the radioactive spill. After being credited with a few pages of last week's tale, Roy Thomas receives the title of writer for this story. While he is clearly aping Stan's exposition-heavy dialogue and florid, poetic style, there is enough of a difference to make a interesting and welcome change. Am I the only person who would like to see Rascally Roy get an MCU cameo?

Daredevil: While The City Sleeps! Reprinting Daredevil #10

Here is a story that hints at some behind the scenes drama, alluded to in a splash page text box from Stan, with what feels like unnecessary cattiness. Wally Wood is given the opportunity to write as well as draw a Daredevil story. The results are mixed, the sort of crime-mystery that suits the Matt Murdock/Daredevil character plus the faintly comical Ani-Men team of villains made up of Cat Man, Ape Man, Bird Man and Frog Man. It's no classic but the style is different enough to make you interested in seeing how Wood might handle writing duties on the title long-term. The story is slightly spoiled by yet another printing error that mixes up the page order, something that also happens in this week's Avengers, strengthening my theory that these two titles were set up and printed together.

The Fantastic Four: The Frightful Four! Reprinting Fantastic Four #36

Another story that uses its fat thumbs to indirectly press my nostalgia buttons. Having read a later appearance of the Frightful Four in an FF Treasury Edition, I can't help but be excited about finally seeing their origin story here. It is enjoyable Lee and Kirby stuff, the stakes aren't high and the action zips along, my only complaint would be that throughout this issue it looks like Sue's head has been clumsily redrawn to give her a different hairstyle. This might be my imagination, but if you have any information on the mystery of Sue's peculiar looking head, I would love to hear it.

Spider-Man Comics Weekly #58

Here is a cover that gets some small tweaks from the US original but looks kinda weird in either incarnation. The American version might have been aiming for violent menace but I'm not sure what the UK version adds with colouring changes, thought-bubbles and the sartorial adjustment of stripey trousers for the Kingpin.

The Amazing Spider-Man: Slaves of The Kingpin! Reprinting Amazing Spider-Man #60

I can't say I completely buy the idea of the Kingpin moving away from his more traditional mob pursuits and into the brainwashing business, but it does give the opportunity for a pretty dynamic punch-up with Spider-Man that Romita handles with flair. It also sets Spidey up with another injury that will have him operating at a sub-par level for a while, giving Peter Parker ample opportunity to whine about his lot.

Iron Man: The Mad Pharaoh! Reprinting Tales of Suspense #44

Iron Man gets a lot of abuse for his foldaway rocket skates, I think they showed just what a futurist Tony Stark is, predicting the invention of heelys dacades in advance? That is true genius. However I have to draw the line at the opening splash page depiction of Iron Man in this story, turning himself into a metallic human street luge by way of literal furniture castors on his ankles and shoulders with a rocket on top of his head. Utterly ridiculous and yet still not the dumbest thing in this tale. Tony Stark finds himself transported through time back to ancient Egypt by a hibernating Pharaoh, which I suspect will end with him laying that billionaire playboy charm on Cleopatra. Other than fighting the vague threat of the red menace, I get the impression Stan had no idea what to do with Iron Man, so just kept throwing him into these sub-par Saturday morning adventure serial type stories. It actually makes me miss him beating up communists.

The Mighty Thor: The Hammer And The Holocaust! Reprinting Thor #127

This is a Thor story with a lot of moving parts. Fresh from his defeat at the hands of Hercules, the god of thunder is feeling less than worthy, it would seem that even a god can feel the burden of toxic masculinity. After a self-pitying "it's not you, it's me" moment with Jane Foster, he flees to Asgard to face the fate he believes awaits him. We then cut to Hollywood, where Greek god of the underworld Pluto is setting himself up as a film producer as part of an elaborate scheme against Hercules, which is exactly the sort of crazy shenanigans ancient gods would get up to in the modern world. In Asgard, Odin is demonstrating where Thor gets his mopey demeanour from, giving his Grand Visier the opportunity to do what Grand Visiers have done down through the ages and stab him in the back to absolutely nobody's surprise. It is to this state of affairs that Thor arrives...

The Secret of The Universe!

Not had one of these Lee & Ditko sci-fi short stories in a while, so this is a nice little bonus. A two page story about a journey to the edge of the universe and the perils of faster than light travel.

The Avengers #27

This is not a great cover, its not even a particularly good cover. Unless a constipated Goliath carrying a Kang The Conqueror cosplayer surrounded by vaguely interchangeable floating heads is your thing. But soak up the surprising Kirby/Giacoia/Romita mediocrity, because this is the last time the Avengers will get their own cover to themselves for quite a while. 

The Avengers: Frenzy In A Far Off Land! Reprinting The Avengers #30

This is an odd duck of a story, Wanda and Pietro suspect that their powers may be fading due to a prolonged time away from their homeland, sounds daft, but given what passes for science during this period of the Avengers history, why not? This leaves the recently expanded team shorthanded again, especially when Goliath jets off to South America in search of a cure for his tall-but-not-Giant Man-tall problem. Add to that, the Black Widow's nameless team of supervillains are back on the scene (can I suggest "The Masters of Indifference"?) which prompts Hawkeye to attempt to make up for his constant filling of the position of team douchebag and ask Cap for a solo mission to deal with the threat. The story jumps around between these two threads, with Goliath encountering a hidden, technologically advanced lost civilisation and Hawkeye making a very good job of dealing with a team of bad guys that the Avengers struggled with only recently. Frank Giacoia inks continue to make the most of Don Heck's pencils in a story that I'm still not sure if it is interesting or just busy. 

Dr. Strange: Beware...! Dormammu is Watching! Reprinting Strange Tales #139

I mentioned in last week's blog that one of the great delights of these early Dr Strange stories is watching Ditko change up his style almost every issue. This week might be one of the downsides of that, I can't tell if things have gone awry during the conversion to black and white shading or the panels have been enlarged in some way but there is a very rough feel to the art this week. We do get one on Steve's classic drawn out mystical battles though, as Strange backed by the Ancient One takes on Mordo who has Dormammu in his corner, all watched over by the captive Clea. The story ends in a cliffhanger as Dormammu, like a million micro-managing bosses before him, decides to do the job himself.