Week Ending April 13, 1974

Quite the mixed bag of covers this week a reprint of a reprint for SMCW, The Avengers get a UK exclusive effort that makes you wonder what was up with the original options, but it is MWOM that is the clear winner, the Hulk, the Leader and a Murder Module, who could ask for more?

Mighty World of Marvel #80

While I am familiar with the Murder Module from later in the Hulk's run, I had no idea that it had made this earlier appearance. Herb Trimpe takes a fundamentally silly concept and makes it look pretty cool for this cover.

The Incredible Hulk: No More The Monster! Reprinting The Incredible Hulk #123

After temporarily taking down the Hulk, Reed Richards working with notes from Bruce 89 gets out his newest mad scientist equipment to cure the Hulk of his Hulkiness. Which takes the dramatic route of vaporising him before reassembling his component atoms. You can start to see why Ben Grimm gets a little cynical whenever Reed comes up with his latest cure for the Thing. Somewhat surprisingly, the process more that works, it enables Banner to control the transformation into the Hulk and retain his intelligence while transformed, despite which, he immediately swears to a life of never becoming the Hulk again. Amazingly, after a quick call to Betty Ross, everyone appears to accept the new status quo at once, with even General Ross wishing his daughter happiness in a new life with Banner. I imagine old Thunderbolt is distracted by his new toy, the Tripodal Observation Module or to as Ross dubs it in slightly less politically correct terms, the Murder Module. Such is his concern for the military's three legged barstool of death, that he hatches the plan to have the newly reformed Hulk protect it on its journey to final testing. A solid plan if it were not being overheard by the Leader, quite why a super genius needs a weapon that looks like it was designed by an intern with an H.G. Wells fetish is unclear, but plots must be moved along. Needless to say the Leader steals the Murder Module and uses it to face off with the new, smarter Hulk. During the conflict the Hulk is gassed, causing him to revert to his previous beastial state, it takes old school Hulk about three seconds to show what an ultimately flawed concept the Murder Module is. While the Leader flees in terror, Hulk transforms back into Banner, promising again to never become the Hulk, for real, no take backsies. Roy Thomas provides suitably grand and dramatic dialogue, while Herb Trimpe does some excellent artwork, with the energy of a more naturalistic and grounded Jack Kirby.

Daredevil: A Time To Unmask! Reprinting Daredevil #11

Stan Lee wraps up the work Wally Wood started on this tale in almost Agatha Christie style, with multiple potential suspects. Unfortunately as all the possibilities for who the Organiser might be are pretty much interchangeable one-dimensional characters that you don't care about, the set up falls flat.

Spider-Man Comics Weekly #61

We could have had the original ASM #61 cover for SMCW this week, but instead we receive a version of the cover used for the Marvel Tales #44 reprint. Either would have been fine, but Romita's second bash at it was probably the right choice.

The Amazing Spider-Man: Death is The Kingpin! Reprinting Amazing Spider-Man #61

This is the final part of the Brainwasher storyline, it isn't anything special and the whole thing seemed a waste of the Kingpin, especially as this issue seems to conveniently forget what a fearsome physical opponent he is. Luckily, someone has found the boxes containing the weird Letraset shading and have decided to go to town with it. The image of Spider-Man with his webbed areas shaded with a smaller web-pattern at 90 degrees to the normal one and the blue areas of his suit in a bold 50% triangular tone better become a downloadable skin for the PlayStation Spider-Man game or I will be most displeased.

Iron Man: The Icy Fingers of Jack Frost! Reprinting Tales of Suspense #45

Last week I mused that Stan was possibly attempting to take Iron Man more in the direction of the template set by Spider-Man, introducing a supporting cast to tell more human stories. Well, I clearly don't have a clue, because the second part of the tale that introduced Happy Hogan and Pepper Potts just uses them as kidnap-fodder for an antagonist with a backstory so weak and a name so stupid that he may well have been plucked from the rejection bin at DC. Robert Bernstein fills many, many speech balloons with interminable exposition while Don Heck provides scratchy art that repeatedly swipes the same three or four character headshots within a handful of pages.

The Mighty Thor: Pluto Victorius Reprinting Thor #128 

Before the pedants among you pick me up on the spelling of the title for this week's installment, take it up with whoever was responsible for coming up with the additional chapter titles for the UK weeklies in the US bullpen. This week opens with Hercules still in the process of being lured into a Hollywood-based trap by underworld god Pluto, as Thor continues his recovery in Asgard. There are so many of these early Marvel stories that take place on movie sets, that I have to wonder if they were just wish-fulfillment by a starstruck Stan or part of a deliberate pitch to bring Marvel heroes to Hollywood? Probably a question best left to future historians as they seek to uncover how it came to be that Disney and the MCU achieved total world domination. As for this story, Hercules signs an Asgardian contract binding him to replace Pluto as lord of the underworld (shades of the Sony/Spider-Man deal there I feel) and Thor returns to Earth for a rematch with the Olympian, though thoughts of this are quickly abandoned when the thunder god finds Hercules outnumbered by his foes. 

How Stan Lee and Steve Ditko Created Spider-Man! Reprinting Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1

I don't know why SMCW keeps having space for additional stories and features like this, but I am glad it does. For the benefit of younger readers I was going to explain this in terms of DVD Special Features, then I realised that even this was an out of date pop culture reference. Regardless, it's a few nice pages showing a fictionalised version of how the early Spidey stories were created, with some lovely, and impressively self-deprecating, artwork from Steve Ditko. 

The Avengers #30

One potential upside of Shang-Chi coming to The Avengers weekly is that now, Marvel UK should have a selection of original covers to use. Maybe alternating weeks between MOKF and classic US original Avengers examples. 

Odd then that we get this effort from Ron Wilson, Mike Esposito with tweaks by John Romita. Still, definitely the Avengers next week right? 

Master of Kung Fu: Midnight Brings Dark Death! Reprinting Special Marvel Edition #16

I have debated the best way to start this review, eventually deciding that using the materials in front of me was the obvious choice: Shang-Chi is living in New York's Central Park on a diet of weeds while fighting biker gangs. There, that was painless. The remainder of this story introduces a figure from Shang-Chi's past, the man called Midnight. MOKF, already on shaky ground in regard to its handling of race, decides to up the ante with an African character called M'Nai. Representation is always important, and I'm sure Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin had the best of intentions, but it just goes to show that progressive social politics on a Tuesday can be a bit of a cringe by Thursday afternoon. Character design-wise, if you ever wondered how Black Panther would have looked if created by Steve Ditko, here is your answer, fedora and all. 

The Avengers: Sign of The Serpent! Reprinting Avengers #32

In an unplanned bout of synchronicity, Stan Lee takes a stab at the tricky issue of race and prejudice from several years earlier. And, to be honest, makes a better job of it. Marvel's regular Ku Klux Klan stand-in, The Sons of The Serpent bring their own-brand racism to the Avengers pages. Impressively the subject is handled with uncharacteristic subtlety by Stan, as we witness a racially motivated beating in the city from the viewpoint of white neighbours who decide it is 'none of our business', you can't help feeling that Stan's experience and Jewish heritage are informing his writing here. The problem with a storyline like this, is how do you bring it to the melanin-challenged Avengers door? The answer is to introduce the character of Bill Foster to help with the problem of Goliath's inability to return to normal size. It isn't an entirely unproblematic solution, but given the material Stan was working with at the time, it is handled reasonably well. The introduction of a black character, just to have him beaten up by racists two pages later isn't elegant, but compared to average comic book fare of the period it must have seemed like enlightened philosophy. 

Dr. Strange: Those Who Would Destroy Me! Reprinting Strange Tales #142

The early Dr Strange stories were mostly standalone tales that followed pretty much the same format, but for several weeks now these have become rolling tales that continue issue to issue. This latest episode follows on from Strange's defeat of Dormammu, whose minions have planted a bomb in the good Doctor's Greenwich Village abode. Strange is able to detect to bomb and dispose of it outside the building, however this does leave him stunned and vulnerable to capture. Strange awakes to find himself bound and gagged, unable to use his mystic powers, he is forced to rely on his wits and physical skills to attempt escape. Once again, Ditko changes up his art style, always recognisably Ditko, but with slight twists as he tries out differing techniques. You often see comic artists evolve over time, but it is rare to see someone deliberately trying new things so regularly. 

Bonus: Stan's Soapbox! 

To be honest, I had not really noticed the absence of Stan's Soapbox in Marvel UK's early output, I remember it in later issues and we did get the odd editorial with each new title, but this is the week it became a regular 'thing'. I'm not sure if this is a reprint of a US soapbox, or if Stan actually wrote it at all, if anyone has any insight I would love to hear it.