Week Ending May 4, 1974

I'm not going to pretend this is a strong week for Marvel UK weekly covers, but also let us not indulge the fantasy that I would not have picked up each of these issues had I the opportunity.

Mighty World of Marvel #83

Mike Esposito and John Tartaglione offer up a cover that while at first I did not like, I was willing to forgive because of the inclusion of the Nicolas Cage cameo in the bottom right hand corner. Despite the crude appearance of the artwork, something about this cover has since won me over.

The Incredible Hulk: ...And Now, The Absorbing Man! Reprinting The Incredible Hulk #125

Fresh from the disastrous attempted wedding of Bruce Banner and Betty Ross, The Incredible Runaway Bridegroom is rampaging as only he knows how. Eventually falling asleep and reverting to Banner, he awakes in time to hear a radio newsflash warning of a comet on course to collide with Earth. Displaying the same knack for setting up these stories as Stan, Roy Thomas has Banner make his way to the local Air Force base to volunteer for a suicide rocket mission to intercept the approaching death-comet. As usually the military go along with the Bruce Willis style plan, which works surprisingly well, apart from Banner's rocket picking up an uninvited hitchhiker...

The Fantastic Four: Defeated by The Frightful Four! Reprinting Fantastic Four #38

Our story opens with a splash page of the FF stood on a giant enlarged photograph of the Skrull homeworld for no other reason than Jack Kirby was capable of that kind of thing. Stan, who at this point still hasn't seemed to grasp what they could get away with, adds another of his passive/aggressive expositionary text boxes to curtail Jack's avant-garde tenancies and the superpowered soap opera continues. The FF are in good spirits, with Reed and Sue planning their wedding, but elsewhere the newly reformed Frightful Four have plans of their own. Admittedly, these plans add up to little more than the not entirely original kidnap of Sue Storm and a long overdue rebranding of Paste Pot Pete as The Trapster, but it can't be easy running and evil super team. The Wizard does however up the stakes by luring the remaining members of the team to an isolated island that he has booby-trapped with an atomic Q-bomb. We get a short battle between the Fours Fantastic and Frightful, where the bad guys acquit themselves surprisingly well, leaving our heroes to their Q-bomb fate. This does give Sue the opportunity to display one of her early claims to be the most powerful FF team member but leaves us on something of an understated cliffhanger.

Spider-Man Comics Weekly #64

Another workman-like cover from Ron Wilson and Mike Esposito, with evidently some assistance from John Romita. Though if you can see it in there, your eyes are better than mine.

The Amazing Spider-Man: The Vulture's Prey Reprinting Amazing Spider-Man #64

After last week's episode Spider-Man now faces just one Vulture, he is however handicapped by two tropes that will dog his career: injury and innocent bystanders (three if you count J. Jonah Jameson being an incalculable arse) Spidey fends off the Vulture's attack but Joe Robertson is injured in the melee. John Romita's pencils are recognisable with contributions from Don Heck, inks are supplied unusually from Mike Esposito. While the production by committee isn't bad, it does make you miss the purity of Romita's work on his own.

Iron Man: Iron Man Battles The Melter! Reprinting Tales of Suspense #47

Now, here is a story that should be a classic; how Iron Man went from his clunky original armour to what most would consider his definitive (for comic books at least) look. Sadly, melodramatic dialogue from Stan and bizarre costume design for The Melter by Steve Ditko and Don Heck, do not a great story make. Iron Man is easily defeated by disgruntled former competitor Bruno Horgan by means of his one weakness, the iron melty-ray. How will Tony Stark turn this around?

The Mighty Thor: Thunder in The Netherworld! Reprinting Thor #130

A story with a title that is both blisteringly cool and equally capable of causing childish laughter. Thor faces the challenge of Pluto to save Hercules and a literal journey into hell. We also see some hints of the machinations of the mysterious Tana Nile. I'm pretty sure Kirby's original pencils for this tale were something special, there are glimpses of greatness under Vince Colletta's detail erasing inks, but sadly that awesomeness is lost to history. This story, like the other two in this issue, suffers from a lack of space, giving three very short episodes that do little and go nowhere.

The Avengers #33

Ron Wilson, Ernie Chan and John Romita combine their talents to bring us at least one halfway decent cover this week. Even if it might prompt an intervention to warn Black Jack Tarr of the dangers of steroids. 

Master of Kung Fu: They Call Him Blackjack! Reprinting Master of Kung Fu #17

I went to see the Shang-Chi movie recently, thinking it would be nice to see an MCU film where I had little preexisting connection to the characters. Sadly, reading these old Avengers weeklies kinda ruined that plan. I found myself wishing they had stuck more to the atmosphere of international espionage and absence of superpowers and/or magic in these early stories. Well, at least I should be pretty safe with The Eternals when that comes out.

Shang-Chi continues to work his way through Black Jack Tarr's house of booby-traps against a backdrop of Tarr's and Sir Denis Nayland Smith's casual racism. The story tries to do some interesting stuff but doesn't seem to move things much further along than we were about three weeks ago.

The Avengers: A People Divided! Reprinting The Avengers #33

Earth's mightiest heroes are still taking on the Kut Price Klan in the form of The Sons of The Serpent, and frankly making a meal of it. An episode heavy on both dialogue and action unfortunately shows up Don Heck's weakness at clear visual storytelling, not that it really matters as Stan makes the thematically strange decision to have the Supreme Serpent unmasked as foreigner General Chen who goes full Scooby Doo villain at the end.

Dr. Strange: Where Man Hath Never Trod! Reprinting Strange Tales #144

Here is a story that originally should have taken place before the events of last week's episode, in terms of pacing and continuity, it probably works better this way though. On the surface this continues the ongoing story of Strange's battle with Dormammu and his search for the banished Clea. In reality it is another one of those stories where the Master of The Mystic Arts travels to another dimension, takes on the magical ruler and defeats them by being too clever by half. It is what it is and Steve Ditko handles it with aplomb and the evermore present Roy Thomas steps in for Stan on writing duties.

Bullpen Bulletins

It is worth mentioning that the Herb Trimpe documentary featured in this week's Bullpen Bulletins is available on YouTube if you fancy some post-blog contemporary viewing.