Category: S.H.I.E.L.D.

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Thunderbolts Epic Collection volume 1: Justice, Like Lightning (1997-1998)


By Kurt Busiek, Roger Stern, Peter David, John Ostrander, Mark Bagley, Mark Deodato Jr., Sal Buscema, Steve Epting, Jeff Johnson, Pasqual Ferry, Bob McLeod, Tom Grummett, Ron Randall, Gene Colan, Darick Robertson, George Pérez, Chris Marrinan, Ron Frenz & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-5205-1 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

It’s going to be a busy year for comics-based movies, so let’s properly start the ball rolling with some context and a look at a Thunderbolts team definitely not coming anywhere close to a cinema near you soon…

At the end of 1996, Marvel’s Onslaught publishing event removed the Fantastic Four, Captain America, Iron Man and the Avengers from the Marvel Universe and its long-established shared continuity. The House of Ideas ceded creative control to Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee for a year and at first the iconoclastic Image style comics got all the attention. However, a new title created to fill the gap in the “old” universe proved to be the true star sensation of the period. Thunderbolts was initially promoted as a replacement team book: brand new, untried heroes pitching in because the beloved big guns were dead and gone. Chronologically, they debuted in Incredible Hulk # 449 (cover-dated January 1997), a standard exhibition of “heroes-stomp-monster”, but the seemingly mediocre tale is perhaps excusable in retrospect…

With judicious teaser guest-shots abounding, Thunderbolts #1 premiered with an April cover-date and was an instant mega-hit, with a second print and rapid-reprint collection of the first two issues also selling out in days. This classy compendium gathers all those early appearances of the neophyte team between from January 1997 to March 1998: introductory teaser tale in Incredible Hulk #449 and parts of 450; Thunderbolts #1-12, Thunderbolts: Distant Rumblings #-1 special, Annual ‘97, plus their portion of Tales of the Marvel Universe, Spider-Man Team-Up Featuring… #7 and Heroes for Hire #7. Sadly although the stories are still immensely enjoyable this book simply won’t be able to recapture the furore the series caused in its early periodical days, because Thunderbolts was a sneakily high-concept series with a big twist: one which – almost unprecedentedly for comics – didn’t get spilled before the carefully calculated “big reveal”.

Here the action starts with issue #1 (cover-dated April 1997) and ‘Justice… Like Lightning’ as Kurt Busiek, Mark Bagley & Vince Russell introduce a new superhero team to a world which has lost its champions. The mysterious Thunderbolts begin to clear New York’s devastated, post-Onslaught streets of resurgent supervillains and thugs making the most of the hero-free environment. Amongst their triumphs is the resounding defeat of scavenger gang The Rat Pack, but although the looters are routed and rounded up, their leader escapes with his real prize: homeless children…

Golden Age Captain America tribute/knock off Citizen V leads these valiant newcomers – size-shifting Atlas, super-armoured Mach-1, beam-throwing amazon Meteorite, sonic siren Songbird and human toybox Techno – and the terrified, traumatised citizenry instantly take them to their hearts. But these heroes share a huge secret: they’re all supervillains from the sinister Masters of Evil in disguise, and Citizen V – or Baron Helmut Zemo as he truly prefers – has major Machiavellian long-term plans…

When unsuspecting readers got to the end of that first story the reaction was instantaneous shock and jubilation.

Anachronistically, the aforementioned Hulk teaser tale (cover-dated January 1997, but on sale at the end of 1996) appears next, as Peter David, Mike Deodato Jr. & Tom Wegrzyn pit a neophyte super-team against the Jade Juggernaut in ‘Introducing the Thunderbolts!’: the opening step of their campaign to win the hearts and minds of the World. That clash spilled over into the next issue and the pertinent section is also included here, promptly followed by Tales of the Marvel Universe tale ‘The Dawn of a New Age of Heroes!’ as the team continue doing good deeds for bad reasons, readily winning the approval of cynical New Yorkers.

Thunderbolts #2 (May 1997 by Busiek, Bagley & Russell) offers ‘Deceiving Appearances’ as they garner official recognition and their first tangible reward. After defeating The Mad Thinker at an FF/Avengers memorial service and rescuing “orphan” Franklin Richards, the Mayor hands over the FF’s Baxter Building HQ for the T-Bolts’ new base of operations…

Busiek, Sal Buscema & Dick Giordano’s Spider-Man Team-Up Featuring… #7 yarn ‘Old Scores’ sees them even fool the spider-senses of everybody’s favourite wallcrawler whilst clearing him of a fiendish frame-up and taking down the super-scientific Enclave. However the first cracks in the plan begin to appear as Mach-1 and Songbird (AKA The Beetle and Screaming Mimi) begin falling for each other and dare to dream of a better life, even as Atlas/ Goliath starts to enjoy the delights and rewards of actually doing good deeds.

… And whilst Techno (The Fixer) is content to follow orders for the moment, Meteorite – or Moonstone – is laying plans to further her own personal agenda…

Thunderbolts #3 finds the team facing ‘Too Many Masters’ (Bagley & Russell art) as dissension creeps into the ranks. The action comes from rounding up old allies and potential rivals Klaw, Flying Tiger, Cyclone, Man-Killer and Tiger-Shark, who were arrogant enough to trade on the un-earned reputation as new Masters of Evil.

One of the abducted kids in Thunderbolts #1 resurfaces in #4’s ‘A Shock to the System’. Hallie Takahama was taken by the Rat Pack, and her new owner has since subjected her to assorted procedures which resulted in her gaining superpowers. Her subsequent escape leads to her joining the Thunderbolts as they invade Dr. Doom’s apparently vacant castle to save the other captives from the monstrous creations and scientific depredations of rogue geneticist Arnim Zola. However, the highly publicised victory forces Citizen V to grudgingly accept the utterly oblivious and innocent Hallie onto the team as trainee recruit Jolt…

Thunderbolts Annual 1997 follows: a massive revelatory jam session written by Busiek with art from Bagley, Bob McLeod, Tom Grummett, Ron Randall, Gene Colan, Darick Robertson, George Pérez, Chris Marrinan, Al Milgrom, Will Blyberg, Scott Koblish, Jim Sanders, Tom Palmer, Bruce Patterson, Karl Kesel & Andrew Pepoy, which could only be called ‘The Origin of the Thunderbolts!’ In brief instalments Jolt asks ‘Awkward Questions’ of V and Zemo offers a tissue of lies regarding the member’s individual origins…

Beginning with V’s ostensible intentions in ‘The Search Begins’, gaining ‘Technical Support’ from Fixer, examining Songbird’s past in  ‘Screams of Anguish’, obscuring the Beetle’s ‘Shell-Shocked!’ transformation and revealing how ‘Onslaught’ brought them all together, the fabrications continue as ‘To Defy a Kosmos’ discloses to everyone but Jolt how ionic colossus Goliath was snatched from incarceration in another dimension before ‘Showdown at the Vault’ brought Moonstone into the mix with untrustworthy and dangerous men she had previously betrayed…

The revelatory events also includes the Annual’s Thunderbolts Fact File text feature.

Thunderbolts: Distant Rumblings #-1 (July 1997) was part of a company-wide event detailing the lives of heroes and villains before they started their costumed careers. Illustrated by Steve Epting & Bob Wiacek, ‘Distant Rumblings!’, examines key events in the lives of two Baron Zemos, mercenary Erik (Atlas) Josten, corrupt psychiatrist Karla (Moonstone) Sofen, trailer-trash kid and future Songbird Melissa Gold, frustrated engineer Abner Jenkins AKA Beetle and gadgeteering psychopath P. Norbert Ebersol, who parleyed a clash with an amnesiac Sub-Mariner into a thrilling life as Hydra’s prime technician and Fixer…

Back in the now, Thunderbolts #5 delivers more ‘Growing Pains’ as the team take a personal day as civvies in Manhattan, only to be targeted and attacked by Baron Strucker of Hydra, employing one of Kang the Conqueror’s Growing Man AI automatons…

By this stage the grand plan was truly unravelling and in #6 ‘Unstable Elements’ sees Citizen V/Zemo incensed that his team still don’t have the security clearances the Avengers and FF used to enjoy. Unable to further his plans without them, he tidies up details, seeking to quash a budding romance between Atlas and their Mayor’s Liaison/former cop Dallas Riordan whilst “suggesting” Meteorite might arrange an accident for increasing prying, questioning and just plain annoying Jolt…

Opportunity arises and tensions escalate when a sentient and malign periodic table of elemental beings attack New York. Requesting help, the Mayor’s office is refused and rebuffed by Citizen V before his own minions reject him and rush off to save lives beside the city’s remaining superheroes such as Daredevil, Power Man & Iron Fist, Darkhawk and the New Warriors. ‘The Revolt Within’ (Busiek & Roger Stern, limned by Jeff Johnson, Will Blyberg, Eric Cannon, Larry Mahlstadt, Greg Adams & Keith Williams) signals the beginning of the end as the rebel Thunderbolts are quickly captured by the “Elements of Doom” and Zemo refuses to save them, leaving ‘Songbird: Alone!’ to save the day in #8 (Busiek, Stern, Bagley & Russell). Although Zemo manages to finagle his way back into the ’Bolts’ good books, he has what he wants: access to all the world’s secrets after SHIELD chief G.W. Bridge grants him top security clearance…

A brief diversion follows in Heroes for Hire #7 (January 1998 by John Ostrander, Pasqual Ferry & Jaime Mendoza) as the troubled team stumble into an ongoing clash between Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Black Knight and Ant-Man, The Eternals and assorted monstrous Deviants, before ‘The Thunderbolts Take Over!’, uniting with the HFH squad to save the shrinking man’s daughter Cassie Lang from a Super-Adaptoid. In Thunderbolts #9 (Busiek, Bagley & Russell) the Black Widow comes calling with advice and ‘Life Lessons’ for Songbird and Mach-1, delivered as an untold tale of “Cap’s Kookie Quartet” – Captain America, Hawkeye, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch – and related via a flashback crafted by Stern, Ron Frenz, Blyberg & Milgrom, before the main event commences…

After more than a year away, company publishing event Heroes Reborn/Heroes Return restored the martyrs believed killed by Onslaught to the Marvel Universe. That happy miracle sparked a new beginning for The FF and Avengers’ stars and titles and began in an extended epic covering Thunderbolts #10-12: scripted as ever by Busiek and illustrated by Bagley, Russell, Scott Hanna, Larry Mahlstadt & Greg Adams.

It opens with ‘Heroes Reward’ as whilst the Thunderbolts are being officially honoured, their greatest enemies – real superheroes – start reappearing. When G.W. Bridge raids the press briefing, having divined that Citizen V is wanted criminal Helmut Zemo, suddenly the aspiring (semi) reformed squad are fugitives all over again, hunted by every real hero in town…

Fleeing into space and occupying an abandoned AIM space station, the Thunderbolts finally learn what Zemo’s been after all along in ‘The High Ground’ and face a shattering decision to go along or pursue new redeemed lives. However, as the former allies deliberate, prevaricate, and inevitably clash, the choice becomes even harder as the base is invaded by an army of extremely angry Superheroes, including Avengers, Fantastic Four and every recent ally they so callously fooled…

It all concludes in ‘Endgame’, but not the way anyone anticipates, especially once Zemo mind controls and enslaves all the incoming champions before turning them on his outraged dupes. The conclusion is spectacular and rewarding but only promises more and better to come…

Bonus features here include a full gallery of covers and variants – including second printings and the many collected editions the series spawned in its first year – by Bagley & Russell, Deodato Jr., Carlos Pacheco & Scott Koblish, Steve Lightle, Sott Hanna, original art, a golden Age ad for the original Citizen V, promotional pieces, retailer solicitation art, text essays and introductions from earlier editions as well as 12 pages of Bagley’s character designs tracing the metamorphosis from second-string villains into first rung heroes, and even faux ads. Also included are articles from in-house promotional magazine Marvel Vision #13, 14, 18, 19 & 27 providing context and behind the scenes insights for fans who just couldn’t get enough.

This is a solid superhero romp that managed to briefly revitalise a lot of jaded old fan-boys, but more importantly this remains a strong set of tales that still pushes all the buttons it’s meant to nearly 3 decades after all the hoopla has faded. Well worth a moment of your time and a bit of your hard-earned cash. Be warned though, if you’re reading this because of the new movie, these ARE NOT Your Thunderbolts…
© 2023 MARVEL.

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Fantastic Four Marvel Masterworks volume 18


By Marv Wolfman, Len Wein, Roger Slifer, Keith Pollard, Bill Mantlo, George Pérez, John Buscema, Bob Hall, Sal Buscema, Joe Sinnott, Dave Hunt, Pablo Marcos, Bob Wiacek, Marie Severin & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-0009-0 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

As Marvel’s cinematic arm tries once again to get it right with their founding concept, expect to see a selection of fabulous FF material here culled from their prodigious paginated days…

For Marvel everything started with The Fantastic Four.

Monolithic modern Marvel truly began with the eccentric monsyer ‘n’ alien filled adventures of a compact superteam as much squabbling family as coolly capable costumed champions. Everything the company and brand is now stems from that quirky quartet and the inspired, inspirational, groundbreaking efforts of Stan Lee & Jack Kirby…

Cautiously bi-monthly and cover-dated November 1961, Fantastic Four #1 – by Stan, Jack, George Klein & Christopher Rule – was raw and crude even by the ailing outfit’s standards; but it seethed with rough, passionate, uncontrolled excitement. Thrill-hungry kids pounced on its dynamic storytelling and caught a wave of change beginning to build in America. It and every succeeding issue changed comics a little bit more… and forever. As seen in the premier issue, maverick scientist Reed Richards, his fiancée Sue Storm, their close friend Ben Grimm and Sue’s bratty teenaged brother survived an ill-starred private spaceshot after cosmic rays penetrated their ship’s inadequate shielding.

All four permanently mutated: Richards’ body became elastic, diffident Sue became (even more) invisible, Johnny Storm burst into living flame and tragic Ben shockingly devolved into a shambling, rocky freak. After the initial revulsion and trauma passed, they solemnly agreed to use their abilities to benefit mankind. Thus was born The Fantastic Four.

Throughout the 1960s it was indisputably the key title and most consistently groundbreaking series of Marvel’s ever-unfolding web of cosmic creation: a forge for new concepts and characters. Kirby was approaching his creative peak: unleashing his vast imagination on plot after spectacular plot, and intense, incredible new characters whilst Lee scripted some of the most passionate superhero sagas ever seen. Both were on an unstoppable roll, at the height of their powers and full of the confidence only success brings, with The King particularly eager to see how far the genre and the medium could be pushed… which is rather ironic since it was the company’s reticence to give the artist more creative freedom that led to Kirby’s moving to National/DC in the 1970s.

Without Kirby’s soaring imagination the rollercoaster of mindbending High Concepts gave way to more traditional tales of characters in conflict, with soap opera leanings and supervillain-dominated Fights ‘n’ Tights dramas. With Lee & Kirby long gone but their mark very much still stamped onto every page of the still-prestigious title, this full-colour luxury compendium collects Fantastic Four #192-203 and Annuals #12-13, spanning March 1978 to February 1979.

What You Should Know: After facing his own Counter Earth counterpart Reed Richards lost his stretching powers. With menaces like Salem’s Seven, Klaw and Molecule Man still coming for him and his family, weary and devoid of solutions, Richards made the only logical decision and called it a day for the team…

Following Introduction ‘The Fantastics’ by then-incoming scribe Marv Wolfman, a new direction closely referencig the good ol’ days begins with #192 and ‘He Who Soweth the Wind…!’ by Wolfman, George Pérez & Joe Sinnott, as Johnny heads west to revisit his childhood dream of being a race car driver and unexpectedly meets old pal Wyatt Wingfoot.

Back East, Ben and girlfriend Alicia Masters ponder their options as Reed gets a pretty spectacular job offer from a mystery backer, even as Johnny’s race career is upended when superpowered mercenary Texas Twister attacks at the behest of a sinister but unspecified employer with a grudge to settle…

The admittedly half-hearted assault fails but when Ben offers his services to NASA a pattern begins to emerge when he and Alicia are ambushed by old foe Darkoth in ‘Day of the Death-Demon!’ (plotted by Len Wein & Keith Pollard, scripted by Bill Mantlo, and illustrated by Pollard & Sinnott). The cyborg terror is determined to destroy an experimental solar shuttle, but doesn’t really know why, and as Ben ponders the inexplicable incident, in Hollywood, Susan Storm-Richards’ return to acting is inadvetantly paused when shapeshifting loon Impossible Man pays a visit. The delay gives Sue a little time to consider just how she got such a prestigious dream-fulfilling offer completely out of the blue…

Back at NASA, when Darkoth strikes again his silent patrner is exposed as scheming alchemist Diablo, whilst in upstae New York, Reed slowly discovers his dreams of umlimited research time and facilities is nothing like he imagined…

Finally, launch day comes and The Ting pilots the Solar Shuttle into space, only to have it catastrophically crash in the desert…

Joined by additional inker Dave Hunt, the creative pinch-hitters conclude the saga in ‘Vengeance is Mine!’ as Ben survives impact and searing sandstorms, tracks down his foes and delivers a crushing defeat to Diablo and Darkoth. In FF #195 Sue learns who sponsored her revived Hollywood ambitions when Prince Namor, The Sub-Mariner renews his amorous pursuit of her. Embittered and lonely, he has fully forsaken Atlantis and the overwhelming demands of his people and the state, but they have not done with him and despatch robotic warriors to drag him back to his eternal duties in ‘Beware the Ravaging Retrievers!’ (Wolfman, Pollard & Pablo Marcos). Like everybody else, the metal myrmidons have utterly underestimated the Invisible Girl and pay the price, allowing the once-&-future prince to reassess his position and make a momentous decision…

As Johnny links up with Ben and Alicia, the strands of a complex scheme begin to appear and in #196 gel for self-decieving Reed Richards as ‘Who in the World is the Invincible Man?’ (Wolfman, Pollard & Marcos) depicts the enigmatic Man with the Plan secretly subjecting Reed to the mindbensding powers of the Pyscho-Man, just as Sue rejoins Ben and Johnny in New York City before being impossibly ambushed by former FF foe The Invincible Man.

This time the man under the hood is not her father, but someone she loves even more…

Reunited with Reed, the horrified heroes are confronted by their greatest, most implacable enemy (it’s not a spoiler as he’s right there on the cover of this book…) and the complicated plot to restore Reed’s powers finally unfolds. Victor Von Doom wants revenge but refuses to triumph over a diminished foe, but his efforts to re-expose Richards to cosmic rays is secretly hijacked by a rival madman in ‘The Riotous Return of the Red Ghost!’ (Wolfman, Pollard & Sinnott). Of course there’s more at stake, as Doom seeks to legitimise his rule through a proxy son: planning to abodicate in his favour and have junior take Latveria into the UN and inevitably to the forefront of nations…

Fully restored and invigorated, Mister Fantastic defeats the equally resurgent Red Ghost before linking up with Nick Fury (senior) and S.H.I.E.L.D., and leading an ‘Invasion!’ of Doom’s kingdom. Beside Latverian freedom fighter and legal heir to the throne Prince Zorba Fortunov, Richards storms into Doomstadt, defeating all in his path, foiling the secondary scheme of imbuing the ‘The Son of Doctor Doom!’ with the powers of the (now) entire Fantastic Four and exposing the incredible secret of Victor von Doom II…

Months of deft planning (from Wolfman, Pollard & Sinnott) culminate in an epic confrontation ‘When Titans Clash!’, Doom and Richards indulge in their ultimate battle (thus far), with the result that the villain is destroyed and the kingdom liberated. For now…

The post-Doom era opens in FF #201 (December 1978) as the celebrated and honored foursome return to America and take possession of empty former HQ the Baxter Building. Unfortunately so does something else, attacking the family through their own electronic installations and turning the towering “des res” into ‘Home Sweet Deadly Home!’: a mystery solved in the next isue when it subsequently seizes control of Tony Stark’s armour to attack the FF again in ‘There’s One Iron Man Too Many!’ with John Buscema filling in for penciller Pollard.

The monthly mayhem pauses after #203’s ‘…And a Child Shall Slay Them!’ wherein Wolfman, Pollard & Sinnott reveal the incredible powers possessed by dying cosmic ray-mutated child Willie Evans Jr. When the foremost authority on the phenomenon is called in to consult, Dr. Reed Richards and his associates – and all of Manhattan – face savage duplicates of themselves manifested from FF fan Willie’s fevered imagination…

Although the regular fun stops here, two chronologically adrift King Size specials finish up the thrill-fest, beginning with Fantastic Four Annual #12’s ‘The End of the Inhumans… and the Fantastic Four’ by Wolfman, Bob Hall, Pollard, Bob Wiacek & Marie Severin. When Johnny’s former flame Crystal – and gigantic Good Boi Lockjaw – teleport in seeking aid in finding the abducted Inhuman Royal Family, the team battle ruthless Inhuman supremacist Thraxon the Schemer before exposing that megalomaniac’s secret master: the immortal unconquerable Sphinx. Despite his god-like, the united force of the FF plus Blackbolt, Medusa, Gorgon, Triton, Crystal and ex-Avenger Quicksilver proves sufficient to temporarily defeat their foe… or does it?

A year later, Annual #13 offered a more intimate and human tale from Mantlo, Sal Buscema & Sinnott as ‘Nightlife’ revealed how New York’s lost underclass was systematically being disappeared from the hovels and streets they frequented. With guest appearances from Daredevil and witch queen Agatha Harkness, the tale reveals a softer side to the FF’s oldest enemy and a return to addressing social issues for the team.

To Be Continued…

With covers by Pérez, Sinnott, Frank Giacoia, Pollard, Marcos John Buscema, Steve Leiloha and Kirby, this power-packed package also includes a wealth of original art pages and sketches from Dave Cockrum, Kirby & Sinnott, Pollard, Marcos, Hunt, and enthralling house ads of the period.

Although the “World’s Greatest Comics Magazine” never quite returned to the stratospheric heights of the Kirby era, this collection offers an appreciative and tantalising taste-echo of those heady heights. These extremely capable efforts are probably most welcome to dedicated superhero fans and continuity freaks like me, but will still thrill and delight the generous and forgiving casual browser looking for an undemanding slice of graphic narrative excitement – especially if this time theupcoming movie delivers on its promise…
© 2016 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Godzilla: The Original Marvel Years


By Doug Moench, Herb Trimpe, Tom Sutton, Jim Mooney, Tony DeZuñiga, Klaus Janson, Fred Kida, Dan Green, Jack Abel, Frank Giacoia, George Tuska & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-5875-6 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

What’s big and green and leaves your front room a complete mess? No, not any first world government’s policy on climate change, but (arguably) Earth’s most famous monster…

Back in 1976, although some television cartoons had introduced Japanese style and certain stars – like Astro Boy and Marine Boy – to western eyes, manga and anime were only starting to creep into global consciousness. However, the most well-known pop culture Japanese export was a colossal radioactive dinosaur who regularly rampaged through the East, crushing cities and fighting monsters even more bizarre and scary than he was.

At this time Marvel was well on the way to becoming the multimedia corporate colossus of today and was looking to increase its international profile. Comics companies have always sought licensed properties to bolster their market-share and in 1977 Marvel truly landed the big one, leading to a 2-year run of one of the world’s most recognisable characters. They also boldly broke with tradition by dropping him solidly into real-time, contemporary company continuity. The series ran for 24 guest-star-stuffed issues between August 1977 and July 1979.

Gojira first appeared in the eponymous 1954 anti-war, anti-nuke parable written and directed by Ishiro Honda for Toho Films: a symbol of ancient forces roused to violent reaction by mankind’s incessant meddling. The film was savagely re-cut and dubbed into English with young Raymond Burr inserted for US audience appeal and comprehension, with the Brobdingnagian beast inexplicably renamed Godzilla. The movie was released in the US on April 27th and – despite being a brutally bowdlerised hash of Ishiro Honda’s message and intent – became a monster hit anyway.

The King of Monsters smashed his way through 33 Japanese movies (and six & counting US iterations); and tons of records, books, games, associated merch and many, many comics. He is the originator of the manga sub-genre Daikaij? (giant strange beasts). After years away thanks to convoluted copyright issues, Marvel is regaining contact with many of its 1970/1980s licensing classics and this volume is a no-frills, simple sensation recovered from a time when the other Big Green Gargantuan rampaged across the Marvel firmament heavily (how else?) interacting with stalwarts of the shared universe as just one of the guys…

The saga is preceded by Introduction ‘“It Had to Happen” Godzilla in the Mighty Marvel Universe!’ by uberfan Karl Kesel before the compilation commences with ‘The Coming!’, courtesy of Doug Moench, Herb Trimpe & Jim Mooney, wherein the monstrous aquatic lizard with radioactive halitosis erupts out of the Pacific Ocean and rampages through Alaska.

Superspy security organisation S.H.I.E.L.D. is quickly dispatched to stop the onslaught, and Nick Fury (the original white one) summarily calls in Japanese looming-lizard experts Dr. Yuriko Takiguchi, his grandson Robert and their eye-candy assistant Tamara Hashioka. After an inconclusive battle of ancient strength against modern tech, Godzilla returns to the sea, but the seeds have been sown and everybody knows he will return…

In Japan, many people now believe that Godzilla is a benevolent force destined to oppose true evil. Young Robert is one of them and gets the chance to expound his devout views in #2’s ‘Thunder in the Darkness!’ (inked by Frank Giacoia & George Tuska) when the skyscraping saurian resurfaces in Seattle and nearly razes the place before being lured away by daring and ingenuity, S.H.I.E.L.D. style. Veteran agents Dum-Dum Dugan, Gabe Jones and Jimmy Woo are seconded to a permanent anti-lizard task force until the beast is finally vanquished, but sadly, there are also dozens of freelance do-gooders in the Marvel universe always ready to step up and when the Emerald antihero takes offence at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, he attracts the attention of the local superhero team. The Champions – a short-lived, California-based team consisting of Black Widow, Angel, Iceman, Ghost Rider and Hercules – rapidly respond in ‘A Tale of Two Saviours’ (with the lushly solid inks of Tony DeZuñiga adding welcome depth to the art). Typically, the humans spend more time fighting each other than the monster, before the beast bolts for quieter shores…

There’re only so many cities even the angriest dinosaur can trash before formula tedium sets in, so writer Moench begins his first continued story in #4 with ‘Godzilla Versus Batragon!’ (guest-pencilled by the superb Tom Sutton and again inked by DeZuñiga), wherein deranged scientist/monster mutator Dr. Demonicus enslaves Aleutian Islanders to help him grow his own world-wrecking giant horrors… until the real deal shows up. The epic encounter concludes catastrophically with plenty of collateral damage on ‘The Isle of Lost Monsters’ (inked by Klaus Janson) before ‘A Monster Enslaved!’ in #6 opens another extended epic as Trimpe returns and Godzilla – as well as the American general public – are introduced to another now commonplace Japanese innovation.

Giant, piloted battle-suits or Mecha first appeared in Go Nagai’s 1972 manga classic Mazinger Z, and Marvel did much to popularise the subgenre in their follow-up/spin-off licensed title Shogun Warriors, (based on an import toy rather than movie or comic characters, but by the same creative team as Godzilla). Here young Rob Takiguchi steals S.H.I.E.L.D.’s latest weapon – a colossal robot codenamed Red Ronin – to aid the Immense Intense Iguana when Godzilla is finally captured. Fred Kida stirringly inked the first of a long line of saurian sagas with #7’s ‘Birth of a Warrior!’ with more carnage culminating in the uneasy alliance ending in another huge fight in concluding chapter ‘Titan Time Two!’

Trimpe & Kida depicted ‘The Fate of Las Vegas!’ in Godzilla #9: a lighter-toned morality play with the monster destroying Boulder Dam and flooding the modern Sodom and Gomorrah, before returning to big beastie bashing in ‘Godzilla vs Yetrigar’: another multi-part mash-up that ends in ‘Arena for Three!’ as Red Ronin & Rob reappear to tackle both large looming lizard and stupendous, smashing Sasquatch, after which the first year ends with #12’s ‘The Beta-Beast!’ – first chapter in a classic alien invasion epic.

Shanghaied to the Moon, Godzilla is co-opted as a soldier in a war between alien races who breed giant monsters as weapons, and when the battle transfers to Earth in ‘The Mega-Monsters from Beyond!’, Red Ronin joins the fray for blockbusting conclusion ‘The Super-Beasts’ (this last inked by Dan Green). Afterwards, let loose in cowboy country, Godzilla stomps into a rustling mystery and modern showdown in ‘Roam on the Range’ and ‘The Great Godzilla Roundup!’ before the final story arc begins.

In #17 ‘Of Lizards, Great and Small’ starts with a logical but humane solution to the beast’s rampages after superhero Ant-Man’s shrinking gas is used to reduce Godzilla to a more manageable size. However, when the diminished devastator escapes from his lab cage and becomes a ‘Fugitive in Manhattan!’, it’s all hands on deck as the city waits for the shrinking vapour’s effects to wear off. ‘With Dugan on the Docks!’ then sees the aging secret agent battle the immortal saurian on more or less equal terms before the Fantastic Four step in for ‘A Night at the Museum.’

The FF have another non-lethal solution and dispatch Godzilla to a primeval age of dinosaurs in #21’s ‘The Doom Trip!’, allowing every big beast fan’s dream to come true as the King of the Monsters teams up with Jack Kirby’s uniquely splendid Devil Dinosaur – and Moon Boy – in the Jack Abel inked ‘The Devil and the Dinosaur!’, before returning to the 20th century and full size for a spectacular battle against the Mighty Avengers in ‘The King Once More’.

The story and series concluded in #24 (July 1979) with the remarkably satisfying ‘And Lo, a Child Shall Lead Them’, as all New York’s superheroes prove less effective than a single impassioned plea, and Godzilla wearily departs for new conquests and other licensed outlets.

By no means award-winners or critical masterpieces, these stories are nonetheless a perfect example of what comics should be: enticing, exciting, accessible and brimming with “bang for your buck”. Moench’s oft-times florid prose and dialogue meld perfectly here with Trimpe’s stylised interpretation, which often surpasses the artist’s excellent work on that other big, green galoot. Other than Kirby, Happy Herb was probably the most adept at capturing the astoundingly cathartic attraction of giant creatures running amok, and here he went hog wild at every opportunity…

With covers by Trimpe, Ernie Chan, Joe Rubinstein, Bobs Layton, Wiacek & McLeod and Dave Cockrum, plus bonus features including Archie Goodwin’s ‘Godzilla-Grams’ editorial page from the first issue, as well as covers to earlier compilations, letter page art by Sutton from and a text free version of this volume by painter Junggeun Yoon.

These are great tales to bring younger and/or disaffected readers back to comics and are well worth their space on any fan’s bookshelf. This is what monster comics are all about and demand your full attention.
© 2024 MARVEL.

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Marvel Team-Up Marvel Masterworks volume 7


By Chris Claremont, Bill Kunkel, Bill Mantlo, Gary Friedrich, Ralph Macchio, John Byrne, Dave Wenzel, Jim Mooney, Kerry Gammill, Bob Hall, Marie Severin, Howard Chaykin, Jeff Aclin, Dave Hunt, Bob Wiacek, Ricardo Villamonte, Tony DeZuñiga, Dan Green & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-3324-1 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times

The concept of team-ups – an established star pairing or battling (usually both) with new or less well-selling company characters – has been with us since the earliest days of comics, but making the brief encounter/temporary alliance a key selling point really took hold with DC’s The Brave and the Bold before being taken up by their biggest competitor.

Marvel Team-Up was the second regular Spider-Man title, launched as 1971 ended. A big hit, it proved the time had finally come for expansion and offering a venue for uncomplicated action romps to supplement the company’s complex subplot fare in regular books. However, even in an infinite Marvel Multiverse, certain stars shine more brightly than others and some characters turn up in team-ups more often than others. In recent years, carefully curated themed collections from the back-catalogue have served to initiate new readers intrigued by Marvel’s Movie and TV endeavours, but there’s no real substitute for seeing Marvel’s continuity unfolding in chronological order. This compelling compilation gathers the contents of Marvel Team-Up #65-77, collectively covering January 1977 to January 1979 and – following Chris Claremont’s Introduction offering fond remembrances of the times and key writer Bill Mantlo – opens onto a period of superior sagas.

After a short and sweet flurry of original adventures in his own UK title, Captain Britain eventually succumbed to the English version of funnybook limbo: his title subsumed by a more successful one with CB reduced to reprints. Soon after, he pyrrhically debuted across the water in Marvel Team-Up #65 ‘Introducing Captain Britain’ by originating scripter Claremont and British-born, Canada-bred illustrator John Byrne. The story depicts exchange student Brian Braddock on transfer to Manhattan and the unsuspecting houseguest of Peter Parker. Before long the heroes formally meet, fight and unite to defeat flamboyant games-obsessed hit-man Arcade, with the transatlantic tussle concluding in #66 as the abducted antagonists systematically dismantled the mercenary maniac’s ‘Murderworld’.

The mystery of a long-vanished feline were-woman warrior is then resolved in ‘Tigra, Tigra, Burning Bright!’ as the webslinger is targeted by Kraven the Hunter, using the Feline Fury as his enslaved attack beast until Spider-Man breaks her conditioning, after which Claremont, Byrne & Bob Wiacek explore ‘The Measure of a Man!’ in #68. Here, the Amazing Arachnid philanthropically returns the captive Man-Thing to his Florida swamp habitat. Of course, no good deed ever goes unpunished and soon he encounters horrific demon D’Spayre torturing benevolent enchanters Dakimh and Jennifer Kale. It takes every ounce of courage both man and monster possess to defeat the sadistic feeder on torment…

A clash with Egyptian-themed thieves next draws Spidey into the years-long duel between cosmic powered X-Man Havoc and his nemesis the Living Monolith in ‘Night of the Living God!’ (inked by Ricardo Villamonte), but when the battle turns against them, it requires the thunderous might of Thor to stop the ravening mutant menace in ‘Whom Gods Destroy!’ (Claremont, Byrne & Tony DeZuñiga).

This epic clash signalled an end to the creative team’s good times as MTU downshifted to short filler tales. Courtesy of Bill Kunkel, Dave Wenzel & Dan Green, Spidey and The Falcon save Captain America from death by poison by a minor villain with big plans in #71’s ‘Deathgarden’ after which beloved Police officer Jean DeWolff features heavily in the psionic rogue The Wraith’s demented revenge plot ‘Crack of the Whip!’ (#72 by Bill Mantlo & Jim Mooney) which sees the wallcrawler linking up with Iron Man to mangle Maggia stooges and assassin-for-hire Whiplash.

MTU #73 paired the webslinger with old frenemy Daredevil in a workmanlike thriller by Gary Friedrich, Kerry Gammill & Don Perlin as vicious gang leader The Owl returned in ‘A Fluttering of Wings Most Foul!’ and a flurry of frenzied felonious forays, setting the scene for a minor mirth-quake. Long embargoed and seemingly lost due to intellectual rights issues, lost gem ‘Live From New York, Its Saturday Night!’ depicts a comedy of errors set on an ongoing TV sensation. Starring Spider-Man and the Not-Ready-for-Prime-Time-Players (Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Bill Murray, Laraine Newman, Gilda Radner & Lorne Michaels), the sinister Silver Samurai searches for his missing teleportation ring takes place live to a totally oblivious TV audience and temporary host Stan Lee. The manic episode is written by Claremont and a triumph of caricaturing brilliance for Bob Hall & majestic Marie Severin.

Assisted by Ralph Macchio, Claremont then reunited with Byrne and inker Al Gordon to team up in tribute to the New York Fire Department with #75’s ‘The Smoke of That Great Burning!’ wherein Spider-Man and Hero for Hire Luke Cage are caught up in a robbery and hostage crisis which soon turns into a major conflagration…

The collection closes with a continued tale co-starring mystic master Dr. Strange and Clea,  Ms. Marvel (AKA Carol Danvers the present-day Captain Marvel), in what I’m guessing was intended as an annual before being chopped in two. Limned by Howard Chaykin, Jeff Aclin & Jose Ortiz, ‘If Not For Love…’ and second chapter ‘Death Waits at Bayou Diable!’ sees the mundane mortal metahumans stumble into an attempt to murder the Sorcerer Supreme and his disciple, leading Spidey, Ms. M and a much reduced Stephen Strange south to Bourbon Street and a risky rendezvous with voodoo practitioner Marie Laveau, Witch Queen of New Orleans. Sadly, she is far more than she seems and the trio are trapped in a scheme perpetrated by magic-loathing sorcerer Silver Dagger leading to astounding arcane action in #77’s ‘If I’m to Live… My Love Must Die!’

This epic edition is packed with rarely-seen extras, beginning with ‘Aunt May’s Photo Album’: a selection of stills from the 1977-1979 Spider-Man television show as originally published in Marvel Treasury Edition #18 (1978). It’s followed by that album’s covers, illustrated by Bob Budiansky & Ernie Chan, and a large selection of original art pages and covers by Byrne, Hunt, Dave Cockrum, Tom Palmer & Mooney. A gallery of covers from Marvel Tales (#193-207, 235-236) by Ron Frenz, Josef Rubinstein, John Romita Sr., Mark Bright, Vince Colletta, Mark McKenna George Perrez, Joe Sinnott, Joe Albeo, Byrne, Frank Giacoia, Hall, Todd McFarlane & Sam Keith, spanning November 1986 to November 1991 follows a rare treat: a selection of Byrne’s un-inked pencil pages.

A series of short stories from Marvel Tales (#255, 262 & 263) based on earlier MTU stories ends this tome. ‘Shock Therapy’ by Scott Lobdell, Vince Evans & Phil Sheehy reveals a clash between the Trapster and Ghost Rider, whilst Barry Dutter & Vince Evans’ ‘A Case of Sunstroke’ shows what happened to the X-Men after MTU Annual #2, whilst Woodgod runs wild again in ‘The Scream’ by Lobdell, Robert Walker & Jim Sanders.

These tales are generally superb examples of Marvel’s Second Wave, Bronze Age yarns fans will find little to complain about. Although not perhaps a book for casual or more maturely-oriented readers there’s lots of fun on hand and young readers – or Marvel Cinematic supporters – will have a blast, so why not consider this tome for your “Must-Have” library?
© 2023 MARVEL.

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Marvel Two-In-One Epic Collection volume 2: Two Against Hydra (1976-1978)


By Marv Wolfman, Roy Thomas, Bill Mantlo, Jim Shooter, Ron Wilson, John Buscema, Sal Buscema, Ernie Chan, Marie Severin, Sam Grainger, Pablo Marcos, George Roussos, John Tartaglione & various (MARVEL)
ISBN 978-1-3029-3176-6 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Above all else, Marvel has always been about team-ups. That concept of an established star pairing with, or battling – often both – new or less well-selling company characters was already long established when Marvel awarded their most popular hero the same deal DC had with Batman in The Brave and the Bold. Although confident in their new title, they wisely left options open by allocating an occasional substitute lead in the Human Torch. In those long-ago days, editors were acutely conscious of potential over-exposure – and since super-heroes were actually in a decline they may well have been right.

Nevertheless, after the runaway success of Spider-Man’s guest vehicle Marvel Team-Up, the House of Ideas carried on the trend with a series starring bashful, blue-eyed Ben Grimm – the Fantastic Four’s most iconic and popular member – beginning with test runs in Marvel Feature #11-12, before awarding him his own team-up title…

This second eclectic compendium gathers the contents of Marvel Two-In-One #20 & 21-36, Marvel Two-In-One Annual #1 and Fantastic Four Annual #11, covering October 1976-February 1978. And opens without preamble on a crisis in time.

Devised and delivered by Roy Thomas, John Buscema & Sam Grainger, Fantastic Four Annual #11 featured portentous time-travel saga ‘And Now Then… the Invaders!’ wherein Marvel’s First Family dash back to 1942 to retrieve a cylinder of miracle-metal Vibranium. It had somehow fallen into Nazi hands and had begun to unwrite history as a consequence…

On arrival, the team are embroiled in conflict with WWII super-team The Invaders – comprising rawer, rougher, early incarnations of Captain America, Sub-Mariner and the original, android Human Torch. The time-busting task goes well once the heroes finally unite to assault a Nazi castle where the miracle mineral is secured, but after the quartet return to their own repaired era, only Ben realises the mission isn’t completed yet…

The action carries over and continues in Marvel Two-In-One Annual #1 as, with the present unravelling around him, Ben blasts back to 1942 again in ‘Their Name is Legion!’ (Thomas, Sal Buscema, Grainger, John Tartaglione & George Roussos), linking up with Home Front Heroes The Liberty Legion (collectively The Patriot, Thin Man, Red Raven, Jack Frost, Blue Diamond, Miss America and The Whizzer) to thwart Nazi raiders Skyshark and Master Man, Japanese agent Slicer and Atlantean traitor U-Man who have united to invade America.

The battle proves so big it spills over and concludes in Marvel Two-In-One #20 (October 1976) in a shattering ‘Showdown at Sea!’: pitting the heroes against diabolical Nazi scientist Brain Drain, courtesy this time of Thomas, Sal B & Grainger.

In many collections the tale would be followed by Marvel Two-In-One #21 (November 1976), which featured a pairing with legendary pulp superman Doc Savage. This isn’t one of them.

For years the tale has been embargoed: unavailable for fans due to Marvel having no access to the Man of Bronze’s proprietary rights. To see it, you’ll want to read Marvel Two-in-One Marvel Masterworks vol. 3.

Here we jump to MTIO #22 as Ben contacts physician Dr. Don Blake, just as the Egyptian death god attacks Thor’s alter ego in ‘Touch Not the Hand of Seth!’ (Bill Mantlo, Ron Wilson & Pablo Marcos): a fantastic cosmic action-extravaganza concluded with the assistance of Jim Shooter & Marie Severin in #23’s ‘Death on the Bridge to Heaven!’…

The Thing then enjoys a far more prosaic time battling beside neophyte hero Black Goliath as a devastated downtown Los Angeles – and creators Mantlo, Shooter, Sal Buscema & Marcos – ask ‘Does Anyone Remember… the Hijacker?’

A new era opens as a much delayed and postponed team-up with Iron Fist, the Living Weapon heralds the start of writer/editor Marv Wolfman’s lengthy run on the title. Illustrated by Wilson & Grainger ‘A Tale of Two Countries!’ sees Ben and the master martial artist shanghaied to the Far East as part of a Machiavellian plan to conquer the island kingdom of Kaiwann. Naturally, they both strenuously object to the abduction…

The innate problem with team-ups was always a lack of continuity – something else Marvel had always prided itself upon – and Wolfman sought to address it by the simple expedient of having stories connected through evolving, overarching plots taking Ben from place to place and guest to guest to guest. Here the tactic begins with bustling bombast in ‘The Fixer and Mentallo are Back and the World will Never be the Same!’ (illustrated by Wilson & Marcos) uniting Ben with Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. to battle a brace of conniving bad guys trying to steal killer-cyborg-from-an-alternate-future Deathlok.

The good guys spectacularly fail and the artificial assassin is co-featured in #27 as ‘Day of the Demolisher!’ sees the now-reprogrammed killer targeting the inauguration of new US President Jimmy Carter. This time Big Ben has an alien ace up his sleeve and the hit happily fails…

The tempestuous Sub-Mariner shares the watery limelight in #28 as Ben and his blind girlfriend Alicia Masters ferry the deactivated Deathlok to a London-based boffin for further tests. When they are shot down mid-Atlantic by a mutated fish-man, Ben must battle against and beside Namor whilst Alicia languishes ‘In the Power of the Piranha!’ (Tartaglione inks). Master of Kung Fu Shang-Chi then steps in as Ben and Alicia finally land in London. Inked by Grainger, ‘Two Against Hydra’ sees aforementioned expert Professor Kort snatched by the sinister secret society before the Thing can consult him: the savant’s knowledge being crucial to Hydra’s attempts to revive their own living weapon…

As part of Marvel’s compulsive ongoing urge to protect their trademarks, a number of their top male characters had been spun off into female iterations. Thus, at the end of 1976, Ms. Marvel debuted (with a January 1977 cover-date). She-Hulk arrived at the end of 1979 (Savage She-Hulk #1 February 1980) whilst Jessica Drew premiered in Marvel Spotlight #32 as The Spider-Woman a mere month after Ms. Marvel’s launch. Her cameo appearance in Marvel Two-In-One #29 (July 1977) heralded an extended 6-chapter saga designed as a promotional lead-in to her own series.

‘Battle Atop Big Ben!’ (#30 by Wolfman, John Buscema & Marcos) has her meet the Thing as she struggles to be free of her Hydra controllers, even as a petty thieves embroil Ben and Alicia in a complex and arcane robbery scheme involving a strange chest buried beneath Westminster Abbey. Unable to kill Ben, the Arachnid Dark Angel kidnaps Alicia, who becomes ‘My Sweetheart… My Killer!’ (#31, Wilson & Grainger) after Kort and Hydra transform the helpless sculptor into a spidery monster. In #32’s ‘And Only the Invisible Girl Can Save Us Now!’ (inked by Marcos) Sue Storm joins the repentant Spider-Woman and distraught Thing in combat to cure an out-of-control Alicia. In the wings, those two robbers continue their campaign of acquisition, accidentally awakening a quartet of ancient elemental horrors…

It requires the magics of the Arthurian sorcerer Modred the Mystic to help Spider-Woman and Ben triumph over the horrors in the concluding chapter ‘From Stonehenge… With Death!’ before a semblance of normality is restored. Back to business as usual in Marvel Two-In-One #34, Ben and sky-soaring Defender stalwart Nighthawk tackle a revived and cruelly misunderstood alien freed from an antediluvian cocoon in ‘A Monster Walks Among Us!’ (Wolfman, Wilson & Marcos) before Ernie Chan joins Wolfman to illustrate a 2-part wrap-up to one of Marvel’s recently folded series.

Marvel Two-In-One often acted as a clearing-house for unresolved series and plot-lines, and #35 found Ben dispatched by the US Air Force through a Bermuda Triangle time-portal to a fantastic world of dinosaurs, robots, dinosaurs, E.T.’s and more dinosaurs. ‘Enter: Skull the Slayer and Exit: The Thing’ details the short history and imminent deaths of a group of modern Americans trapped in a bizarre time-lost land. Now marooned in the past with them, it takes the intervention of Mister Fantastic to retrieve Ben and his new friends in #36’s ‘A Stretch in Time…’, bringing this compilation to a satisfactory halt.

That yarn ends the narrative thrills and chills for now, but there’s still room for a brief gallery of original art and roughs by Jack Kirby, Frank Giacoia, Wilson, Marcos, Tartaglione, George Pérez, Joe Sinnott, Klaus Janson & John Buscema to delight and astound.

These stories from Marvel’s Middle Period are unarguably of variable quality, but whereas some might feel rushed and ill-considered they are balanced by timeless classics, still as captivating today as they always were.

Even if artistically the work varies from only adequate to superb, most fans of Costumed Dramas will find little to complain about and there’s lots of fun to be found for young and old readers. So why not lower your critical guard and have an honest blast of pure warts ‘n’ all comics craziness? You’ll almost certainly grow to like it…
© 2024 MARVEL.

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Fantastic Four Epic Collection volume 10: Counter-Earth Must Die (1976-1978)


By Roy Thomas, Len Wein, Bill Mantlo, Gerry Conway, Archie Goodwin, Jim Shooter, Marv Wolfman, George Pérez, John Buscema, Sal Buscema, Rich Buckler, Ron Wilson, Joe Sinnott, Sam Grainger, John Tartaglione, George Roussos, Dave Hunt, Tony DeZuñiga & various (MARVEL)
ISBN 978-1-3029-5544-1 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Monolithic modern Marvel truly began with the adventures of a small super-team who were as much squabbling family as coolly capable costumed champions. Everything the company is now stems from the quirky quartet and the groundbreaking, inspired efforts of Stan Lee & Jack Kirby…

Cautiously bi-monthly and cover-dated November 1961, Fantastic Four #1 – by Stan, Jack, George Klein & Christopher Rule – was raw and crude even by the ailing company’s standards: but it seethed with rough, passionate and uncontrolled excitement. Thrill-hungry kids pounced on its dynamic storytelling and caught a wave of change starting to build in America. It and succeeding issues changed comics forever. As seen in the premier issue, maverick scientist Reed Richards, his fiancée Sue Storm, their close friend Ben Grimm and Sue’s bratty teenaged brother Johnny survived an ill-starred private space-shot after Cosmic Rays penetrated their ship’s inadequate shielding.

All four permanently mutated: Richards’ body became elastic, Sue became (even more) invisible, Johnny Storm burst into living flame and tragic Ben shockingly devolved into a shambling, rocky freak. After the initial revulsion and trauma passed, they solemnly agreed to use their abilities to benefit mankind. Thus was born The Fantastic Four.

Throughout the 1960s it was indisputably the key title and most consistently groundbreaking series of Marvel’s ever-unfolding web of cosmic creation: a forge for new concepts and characters. Kirby was approaching his creative peak: unleashing his vast imagination on plot after spectacular plot, whilst Lee scripted some of the most passionate superhero sagas ever seen. Both were on an unstoppable roll, at the height of their powers and full of the confidence only success brings, with The King particularly eager to see how far the genre and the medium could be pushed… which is rather ironic since it was the company’s reticence to give the artist creative freedom which led to Kirby’s moving to National/DC in the 1970s.

Without Kirby’s soaring imagination the rollercoaster of mind-bending High Concepts gave way to more traditional tales of characters in conflict, with soap-opera leanings and super-villain-dominated Fights ‘n’ Tights dramas. This stripped-down, compelling compilation gathers Fantastic Four #168-191 and Annual #11, plus crossover components from Marvel Two in One #20 and that title’s first Annual. Collectively spanning cover-dates March 1976 to February 1978 they cemented a change of pace that would eventually move the title away from the glory days of Kirby even as he enjoyed a partial return as cover artist…

A new direction had kicked off with FF #164, courtesy of Thomas and then-neophyte illustrator George Pérez, backed up by veteran inker Joe Sinnott. Now, after another clash with The Hulk, the team seems forever shattered as Ben – returned to human form by extended exposure to the Jade Juggernaut’s gamma radiation – contemplates life as an ordinary mortal and former superhero…

Returned to the massed ranks of humanity the ex-Thing is less than delighted at achieving his greatest desire as Rich Buckler pencils #168’s ‘Where Have All the Powers Gone?’, wherein Reed is forced by contractual obligation to replace him with Hero for Hire Luke Cage.

However, although human again, happiness still eludes Grimm with events taking a worse turn in #169 as ‘Five Characters in Search of a Madman!’ finds Cage attacking his new teammates thanks to the machinations of a veteran FF foe. Pérez & Sinnott reunite for concluding chapter ‘A Sky-Full of Fear!’ as Ben returns to his team and spectacularly saves the day wearing a Thing exoskeleton suit constructed by Reed. Sadly. although the original and genuine is back at last (sort of), there’s no time to pause for applause as the yarn segues directly into Fantastic Four Annual #11.

Momentous time-travel saga ‘And Now Then… The Invaders!’ by Thomas, John Buscema & Sam Grainger, sees Marvel’s First Family flash back to 1942 to retrieve a cylinder of miracle-metal Vibranium. When it somehow then fell into Nazi hands it had started to unwrite history and on arrival, the FF are attacked by WWII super-team The Invaders – comprising early incarnations of Captain America, Sub-Mariner and the original, android Human Torch. The time-repair task goes far better once all the heroes finally unite to assault a Nazi castle where the Vibranium is held, but after the modern quartet return to their own restored era, Ben realises the mission isn’t over yet…

Thanks to Uatu the Watcher, the action continues in Marvel Two-In-One Annual #1 as – with the present unravelling around him – Ben blasts back to 1942 yet again. ‘Their Name is Legion!’ (Thomas, Sal Buscema, Grainger, John Tartaglione & George Roussos) finds him linking up with Home Front Heroes the Liberty Legion (collectively The Patriot, Thin Man, Red Raven, Jack Frost, Blue Diamond, Miss America and The Whizzer) to thwart Nazis Skyshark and Master Man, Japanese agent Slicer and Atlantean turncoat U-Man’s invasion of America. The battle proves so big, it spills over to concludes in Marvel Two-In-One #20 (October 1976) in a shattering ‘Showdown at Sea!’ pitting the massed heroes against diabolical Nazi boffin Brain Drain, courtesy this time of Thomas, Sal B & Grainger.

Cover-dated June Fantastic Four #171 reveals ‘Death is a Golden Gorilla!’ (Thomas, Pérez, Buckler & Sinnott) as a giant alien anthropoid rampages through Manhattan until corralled by the FF. Calmed down and physically reduced to standard gorilla proportions, the talking ape delivers a desperate plea for help from the High Evolutionary. Bill Mantlo scripts Thomas’ plot and Pérez & Sinnott excel themselves as ‘Cry, the Bedeviled Planet!’ sees the heroes head for the other side of the Sun to save Counter-Earth from certain annihilation only to meet their nemesis in the depths of space…

Thomas writes and John Buscema steps in as penciller with #173’s ‘Counter-Earth Must Die… At the Hands of Galactus!’ Inexplicably, the world-devourer debates minor deity High Evolutionary: offering hope to his intended repast before despatching the heroes across the universe in search of a planet that will voluntarily sacrifice itself for Counter-Earth…

‘Starquest!’ (Thomas, Buscema & Sinnott) follows each unsavoury search to its logical conclusion, but as the Evolutionary abandons rhetoric for cosmic combat in a desperate delaying tactic, Sue Richards accidentally locates a civilisation willing to make the ultimate gesture…

Returned and augmenting the Evolutionary, a reunited FF attack Galactus ‘When Giants Walk the Sky!’ (drawn & inked by JB), with the Devourer delivering a cruel delayed punishment to Ben before consuming the planetary substitute and realising he has been tricked in a bizarre and wry conclusion that only adds fresh complications to the First Family of the Marvel Universe. Then another new direction begins with #176 and Thomas, Pérez & Sinnott revealing that ‘Improbable as it May Seem… The Impossible Man is Back in Town!’ The mighty manic shapeshifter – having just saved everybody from Galactus – returns to Earth with our heroes and promptly turns the city upside down in his relentless search for amusement and entertainment. The high point of the day is his impromptu visit to the Marvel Bullpen where even more hilarity and hysteria ensue…

By the time the flustered four drag him back to the Baxter Building in #177, it’s straight into an ambush as ‘Look Out for the Frightful Four!’ finds their evil counterparts gaining the upper hand. There are only three – The Wizard, Sandman and Trapster – but with our heroes shackled there’s no better time for a casting call of evil. Soon a succession of potential fourths (like latterday B-Listers Texas Twister and Captain Ultra) are filing through in search of fame and glory…

Also in the queue are a few valiant allies such as Thundra and Tigra – who almost manage a last-minute rescue – until an unstoppable mystery candidate crushes all opposition and hurls the Thing into the antimatter Negative Zone. Inked by Dave Hunt, FF #178 ‘Call My Killer… The Brute!’ sees the devious, deadly monster revealed as the Reed Richards of Counter-Earth, carrying grudges and enacting his own masterplan until Impossible Man – oblivious to everything since discovering television – responds to the horrific home invasion in typical manner. The Fantastic Four, Thundra and Tigra soon rescue Ben and drive off the bad guys, but in the melee the Brute is fittingly lost in the Negative Zone.

At least, one of the Reeds is…

A joint effort by Thomas, Gerry Conway, Ron Wilson & Sinnott, FF #179 shows the good Dr. Richards ‘A Robinson Crusoe in the Negative Zone!’, and – deprived of his stretching powers (a long running plot-thread finally paying off) – struggling to survive in hostile conditions against appalling monsters… until ultimate predator Annihilus finds him…

Back on Earth, everything seems fine and the deadly doppelganger continues to insinuate himself into all aspects of FF life. The power loss works to his advantage and Reed’s oldest friend Ben is distracted by a giant robbing robot and increasingly flirtatious Tigra…

FF #180 was a new Jack Kirby cover on a deadline-busting reprint from issue #101, so only it stands between us and next episode ‘Side by Side with… Annihilus??’ (#181 by Thomas, Wilson & Sinnott) as the zone-marooned supergenius allies with the antimatter monster. Meanwhile, Ben, “Impy”, Tigra and Thundra form an impromptu quartet to sort out that robot and Susan Richards – just starting to suspect something’s wrong with her man – is distracted when former governess and still-current witch Agatha Harkness flamboyantly abducts her old charge Franklin from Sue’s arms.

Fantastic Four #182 reveals nigh-omnipotent Annihilus has a problem he can’t handle: an incredibly adaptable, constantly mutating android recently banished to the Zone after failing to destroy the quirky quartet. Now its creator has regained control and ‘Enter: The Mad Thinker!’ (Mantlo with Len Wein, Jim Shooter, Archie Goodwin, Sal Buscema & Sinnott) sees Reed and Annihilus working together to stop it, even as on Earth evil Reed tricks the Thing and Torch into the Negative Zone too. Sue, meanwhile, rushes to spooky Whisper Hill to confront Harkness, arriving just in time to see the eldritch elder and Franklin spirited away by ghostly beings…

Her return to the Baxter Building is even more traumatic as the now-exposed Brute attempts to murder her, culminating in a spectacular all action conclusion from Mantlo, Sal B & Sinnott as #183’s ‘Battleground: The Baxter Building!’ sees all opposing elements clash and an unexpected turn of events restore the status quo with one last-minute change of heart and tragic sacrifice…

A new era dawned as Wein took became writer/editor and his artist partners Pérez & Sinnott began as they meant to go on. In FF #184, ‘Aftermath: The Eliminator!’ sees romantic rivals Tigra and Thundra go their own ways as the restored First Family searches for Franklin, reaching the Whisper Hill mansion just as a mystic cyborg begins removing all traces of the edifice and its former occupier. Brutal, pointless battle proves useless but science scores again in #185 as Reed tracks the Eliminator to the Colorado Rockies. The team, with Richards using tech to pinch-hit for his lost powers, head incognito for isolated town New Salem and once there discover ‘Here There Be Witches!’… and they be hostile…

Sequel ‘Enter: Salem’s Seven!’ delivers an explanation for Harkness’ actions, Franklin’s abduction and tantalising hints of a hidden town of mystic refugees led by deranged demagogue Nicholas Scratch, whose dark secret doesn’t stop him unleashing a septet of sorcerous sentinels on the cosmic-powered but woefully human heroes. It does, sadly, ultimately lose him the support of his peers and the battle: resulting in #187 depicting the victorious heroes (and “the help”) heading home just in time for ‘Trouble Times Two!’

When “Master of Sound” Klaw and the almighty Molecule Man ambush the FF, the furious fight raises the ire of TV-addicted Impy with the resultant rumble resolved by Molecule Man’s disembodied intellect possessing Reed’s weary body. In #188 ‘The Rampage of Reed Richards!’ sees the city wrecked and events of cosmic import occur, with Uatu the Watcher closely observing as the heroes triumph in the end, but only at the cost of their leader’s confidence.

Weary, devoid of superpowers, Richard makes the only logical decision and calls it a day for the team…

At the time tensions were especially enhanced as the next issue was another reprint (from FF Annual #4 and again represented here only by Keith Pollard’s cover art from #189). Normal service resumed with #190 as incoming writer/editor Marv Wolfman collaborated with Sal Buscema & Tony DeZuñiga to reassess past glories in ‘The Way It Was’. Here, shellshocked Ben and girlfriend Alicia Masters review the glory days leading up to his current unemployment, before #191 closes this compilation’s story component with ‘Four No More’ wherein Wein, Pérez & Sinnott detail the decommissioning of the Baxter Building and track the fond farewells as the team go their separate ways. However, there’s time and space for one last hurrah as the scurrilous Plunderer tries to steal all the FF’s toys and rapidly learns to regret his impertinence…

To Be Continued

This power-packed package also includes house ads, original cover art, pertinent pages by Sinnott from The Mighty Marvel Bicentennial Calendar 1976, and the Kirby/Sinnott Marvel Comics Memory album Calendar 1977 plus the new material from The Fabulous Fantastic Four Marvel Treasury Edition #11 (December 1976). This bombastic oversized tabloid edition featured a bevy of classic yarns and is represented here by front-&-back cover art by Kirby & John Verpoorten, plus a Marie Severin & Frank Giacoia frontispiece/contents page. Also on view is the letters page from FF #176, explaining how the Impossible Man’s visit to the Marvel Bullpen came about, and the Jim Steranko covers from Marvel Index #4: Fantastic Four from 1977 as well as Peter Iro’s monochrome frontispiece and a cover rough by Dave Cockrum.

Although the “World’s Greatest Comics Magazine” never quite returned to the stratospheric heights of the Kirby era, this collection offers a tantalising taste-echo of those heady heights and a promise of change. These extremely capable efforts are probably most welcome to dedicated superhero fans and continuity freaks like me, but will still thrill and enthral the generous and forgiving casual browser looking for an undemanding slice of graphic narrative excitement. Even if artistically the work varies from only adequate to superb, most fans of Costumed Dramas will find little to complain about and there’s lots of fun to be found for young and old readers. So why not lower your critical guard and have an honest blast of pure warts ‘n’ all comics craziness? You’ll almost certainly grow to like it…
© 2024 MARVEL.

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Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection volumes 10: Big Apple Battleground (1977-1978)


By Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Bill Mantlo, Archie Goodwin, Scott Edelman, Ross Andru, Don Perlin, John Romita Jr., Sal Buscema, Mike Esposito, Jim Mooney, Frank Giacoia, Tony DeZuñiga, Al Milgrom, Bob McLeod, Gil Kane, & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-5526-7 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

The Amazing Spider-Man was a comic book that matured with – or perhaps just slightly ahead of – its fan-base. This epic compendium of chronological webspinning wonderment sees the World’s Most Misunderstood Hero facing even greater and ever-more complex challenges as he slowly recovers from the trauma of losing his true love and greatest enemy in the same horrific debacle. Here you will see all that slow recovery comes unstuck

Once original co-creator Stan Lee replaced himself with young Gerry Conway, scripts acquired a more contemporary tone (which naturally often feels quite outdated from here in the 21st century): purportedly more in tune with the times whilst the emphatic use of soap opera subplots kept older readers glued to the series even when bombastic battle sequences didn’t. Moreover, as a sign of the times, a hint of cynical surrealism also began creeping in…

For newcomers – or those just visiting thanks to Spider-Man movies: super-smart-yet-ultra-alienated orphan Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider during a school outing. Discovering strange superhuman abilities which he augmented with his own natural chemistry, physics and engineering genius, the kid did what any lonely, geeky nerd would do with such newfound prowess: he tried to cash in for girls, fame and money. Making a costume to hide his identity in case he made a fool of himself, Parker became a minor media celebrity – and a criminally vainglorious one. To his eternal regret, when a thief fled past him one night he didn’t lift a finger to stop him, only to find when he returned home that his guardian uncle Ben Parker had been murdered.

Crazed and vengeful, Peter hunted the assailant who’d made his beloved Aunt May a widow and killed the only father he had ever known. He discovered to his horror that it was the self-same felon he had neglected to stop. His irresponsibility had resulted in the death of the man who raised him, and the traumatised boy swore to forevermore use his powers to help others.

Since that night, the wondrous wallcrawler tirelessly battled malefactors, monsters and madmen, with a fickle, ungrateful public usually baying for his blood even as he perpetually saves them. The high school nerd grew up and went to college. Because of his guilt-fuelled double-life he struggles there too but found abiding love with cop’s daughter Gwen Stacy… until she was murdered by Green Goblin Norman Osborn. Now Parker must pick up the pieces of his life and perhaps even find new love…

This compelling compilation reprints Amazing Spider-Man #165-185, Annual #11, snippets of #12 and a crossover from Nova #12: collectively spanning cover-dates February 1977 – October 1978, and confirming an era of astounding introspective drama and captivating creativity wedded to growing science fictional thinking. Stan Lee’s hand-picked successor Gerry Conway had moved on after reaching his creative plateau, giving way (via Archie Goodwin) to fresh authorial steersman Len Wein. Even so, scripts continued to blend contemporary issues – which of course feel quite outdated from here in the 21st century – with soap opera subplots to keep older readers glued to the series as the outrageous adventure and bombastic battle sequences beguiled the youngsters. Thematically, tales moved away from sordid street crime as outlandish villains and monsters took centre stage, but the most sensational advance was an insidious scheme which would reshape the nature of the web-spinner’s adventures to this day.

For all that, the wallcrawler was still indisputably mainstream comics’ voice of youth, defining being a teen for young readers of the 1970s, tackling incredible hardships, fantastic foes and the most pedestrian and debilitating of frustrations. In ASM #165 by Wein, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, ‘Stegron Stalks the City!’ – attempting to revivify fossilised saurian skeletons in the city’s museums. To expedite his plans, the Dinosaur Man blackmails his old boss Dr Curt Connors, but in #166 accidentally unleashes the biologist’s savage alter ego The Lizard, prompting a ‘War of the Reptile-Men!’ Ghastly gadfly J Jonah Jameson then tries again to destroy his personal Bête Noir by hiring unsurprisingly glamourous technologist Dr. Marla Manning to construct an upgraded mechanoid hunter, leaving our hero ‘…Stalked by the Spider-Slayer!’. The arachnid avenger barely notices however, as a new menace distracts him. Eerie ephemeral bandit Will o’ the Wisp is clearly stealing for a monstrous master with a hidden agenda and no mercy, and inevitably hero, Spider-Slayer and deadly twinkly pawn clash in the middle of Manhattan where tragedy is presaged by ‘Murder on the Wind!’

Suspense replaces action in ‘Confrontation’, as obsessive bully Jameson accosts Peter Parker with photographic proof confirming the lad is the hated wallcrawler. The evidence was supplied by a mystery villain but even as our hero seemingly talks his way out of trouble, a new enemy emerges as evil psychologist Doctor Faustus targets Spider-Man with drugs and illusions to prove ‘Madness is All in the Mind!’ (co-inked by Frank Giacoia) before we slip into that aforementioned crossover..

The Man Called Nova was in fact a boy named Richard Rider. The new kid was a working-class teen nebbish in the tradition of Peter Parker – except he was good at sports and bad at learning – who attended Harry S. Truman High School, where his strict dad was the principal. His mom worked as a police dispatcher and he had a younger brother, Robert, who was a bit of a genius. Rider’s life changed forever when a colossal star-ship with a dying alien aboard bequeathed to the lad all the mighty powers of an extraterrestrial peacekeeper and warrior. Centurion Rhomann Dey had been tracking a deadly marauder to Earth. Zorr had already destroyed the warrior’s idyllic homeworld Xandar, but the severely wounded, vengeance-seeking Nova Prime was too near death and could not avenge the genocide.

Trusting to fate, Dey beamed his powers and abilities towards the planet below where Rich is struck by an energy bolt and plunged into a coma. On awakening, the boy realises he has gained awesome powers – and all the responsibilities of the last Nova Centurion…

Here, Nova #12 (August 1977, by Wolfman, Sal Buscema & Giacoia) asks ‘Who is the Man Called Photon?’ by teaming the neophyte hero with the far more experienced webslinger in a fair-play murder mystery, brimming with unsavoury characters and likely killers after Rich’s uncle Dr. Ralph Rider is killed by a costumed thief. However, there are ploys within ploys occurring and, after the mandatory hero head-butting session, the kids join forces and the mystery is dramatically resolved in Amazing Spider-Man #171’s ‘Photon is Another Name For…?’ courtesy of Wein, Andru & Esposito. Amazing Spider-Man Annual #11 follows as ‘Spawn of the Spider’ (by Archie Goodwin, Bill Mantlo, Don Perlin & Jim Mooney) pits the webslinger against a disgruntled, deranged movie special effects man who creates a trio of bio-augmented arachnoid monsters to destroy the wallcrawler…

Brief back up ‘Chaos at the Coffee Bean!’ – by Scott Edelman and inker Al Milgrom – details how Peter and Mary Jane Watson are caught in a hostage situation at their college bistro: most noteworthy as the pencilling debut of future superstar creator John Romita Jr.

ASM #172 features ‘The Fiends from the Fire!’ (Wein, Andru & Giacoia) as Spidey trashes idiotic skateboarding super-thief Rocket Racer only to stumble into true opposition when old foe Molten Man attacks, desperately seeking a way to stop himself becoming a blazing post-human funeral pyre. Mooney inked concluding chapter ‘If You Can’t Stand the Heat…!’ as a cure for the blazing villain proves ultimately ineffectual and personally tragic for Parker’s oldest friends, after which #174 declares ‘The Hitman’s Back in Town!’ (with inks by Tony DeZuñiga & Mooney).

This sees still relatively unknown vigilante Frank – The Punisher – Castle hunting a costumed assassin hired to remove Jameson, but experiencing an unusual reticence since the killer is an old army pal who had saved his life in Vietnam. Despite Spider-Man being outfought and outthought in every clash, the tale resolves with the hero somehow triumphant, even though everything ends with a fatality in #175’s Mooney-embellished conclusion ‘Big Apple Battleground!’. An extended epic then sees the return of Spider-Man’s most manic opponent. Illustrated by Andru & DeZuñiga, ‘He Who Laughs Last…!’ features the return of the Green Goblin targeting Parker’s friends and family. When the original villain died, his son Harry Osborn lost his grip on sanity and became a new version, equally determined to destroy Spider-Man. On his defeat, Harry began therapy under the care of psychiatrist Bart Hamilton and seemed to be making a full recovery. Now both patient and doctor are missing…

The assaults on Parker’s inner circle increase in ‘Goblin in the Middle’ (Esposito inks) with the emerald psychopath expanding operations to challenge crime-boss Silvermane for control of New York’s rackets whilst ‘Green Grows the Goblin!’ (Mooney inks) and ‘The Goblin’s Always Greener!’ (Esposito) see devious plots and shocking twists lead to near-death for Aunt May before an astonishing three-way Battle Royale ends the crisis in ‘Who Was That Goblin I Saw You With?’

At this time becoming a star of live action television, Spider-Man’s adventures were downplaying traditional fantasy elements as a transitional moment comes, preceded by #181’s sentiment-soaked recapitulation of all Parker has endured to become who he now is. Crafted by Mantlo, Sal Buscema & Esposito ‘Flashback!’ not only acts a jumping on point but also sets up a major change unfolding over the upcoming months, before soap opera shenanigans and the era’s tacky TV-informed silliness converge as Marv Wolfman takes up the typewriting, and artisans Ross Andru & Mike Esposito reunite as Spidey learns motorised mugger ‘The Rocket Racer’s Back in Town!’ The techno-augmented thief is currently embroiled in a nasty extortion scheme too, which somehow impacts the fast-fading, hospitalised May Parker before bursting into full bloom in #183…

After finally proposing to Mary Jane, Peter is suddenly distracted by more mechanised maniacs (courtesy of a subplot building the role of underworld armourer The Tinkerer) as Bob McLeod inks ‘…And Where the Big Wheel Stops,  Nobody Knows!’ This sees Rocket Racer getting his just deserts and MJ giving Peter an answer he wasn’t expecting…

Old girlfriend and current stranger Betty Brant-Leeds returns with a dying marriage and nostalgic notions next, making Parker’s social life deeply troubling as he prepares to graduate college. Meanwhile, JJ Jameson has another fringe science secret to conceal whilst Peter’s student colleague Phillip Chang reveals a hidden side of his own when Chinese street gangs target him for their flamboyant new lord in ‘White Dragon! Red Death!’, leading to a martial arts showdown with the wallcrawler playing backup in ASM #185’s ‘Spider, Spider, Burning Bright!’ Happily, the ferocious fiery furore is fully finished by the time second feature ‘The Graduation of Peter Parker’ highlights the Parker clan’s big day and reveals why and how it all goes so terribly wrong…

To Be Continued…

Also included in this hefty trade paperback tome are contemporary house ads, John Byrne’s cover to Amazing Spider-Man Annual #12 as well as the framing sequence to the reprint it contained, drawn by star in waiting John Romita Jr. & veteran Frank Giacoia. Those are followed by Kane & Giacoia’s front-&-back covers for Marvel Treasury Edition #14 (The Sensational Spider-Man), plus its frontispiece by Andru; Arnold Sawyer’s painted cover, assorted articles and a Stan Lee interview from F.O.O.M. #17 (March 1977).

That’s backed up with material from Spider-Man special F.O.O.M. #18 (June), including Romita senior’s cover and interview, plus promo features on the then-forthcoming all-Spiderman ‘Mighty Marvel Comics Calendar 1978’,  accompanied by the finished product illustrated by Romita Sr., Al Milgrom, Jack Kirby, John Verpoorten, Paul Gulacy, Pablo Marcos, Larry Lieber, Giacoia, John Buscema, Joe Sinnott, Gene Colan, Sal Buscema, Gil Kane, George Pérez, Andru & Esposito and Byrne. There’s even more F.O.O.M. fun to follow, taken from #22 (Autumn 1978), highlighting the wallcrawler’s impact in Japan, a meeting with Osamu Tezuka, and Larry Lieber storyboards for a Spider-Man film, before the wonderment pauses with a Kane/Joe Rubinstein pin-up from Marvel Tales #100 and original art.

With covers throughout by Romita Sr., Ed Hannigan, Andru, Esposito, Giacoia, Kane, Joe Sinnott, Ernie Chan, Dave Cockrum, Terry Austin, Byrne, & Milgrom, these yarns confirmed Spider-Man’s growth into a global multi-media brand. Blending cultural veracity with superb art, and making a dramatic virtue of the awkwardness, confusion and imputed powerlessness most of the readers experienced daily, resulted in an irresistibly intoxicating read, delivered in addictive soap-styled instalments, but none of that would be relevant if Spider-Man’s stories weren’t so utterly entertaining. This action-packed collection relives many momentous and crucial periods in the wallcrawler’s astounding life and is one all Fights ‘n’ Tights fanatics must see…
© 2024 MARVEL.

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Mighty Marvel Masterworks presents Captain America volume 3: To Be Reborn


By Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, Joe Sinnott, Syd Shores, Dan Adkins & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-5432-1 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

During the natal years of Marvel Comics in the early 1960s Stan Lee & Jack Kirby opted to mimic the game-plan which had paid off so successfully for National/DC Comics, albeit with mixed results. Beginning cautiously in 1956, Julie Schwartz had scored incredible, industry-altering hits by re-inventing the company’s Golden Age greats, so it seemed sensible to try and revive the characters that had dominated Timely/Atlas in those halcyon days two decades previously. A new Human Torch had premiered as part of the revolutionary Fantastic Four, and in the fourth issue of that title the amnesiac Sub-Mariner resurfaced after a 20-year hiatus (everyone concerned had apparently forgotten the first abortive attempt to revive an “Atlas” superhero line in the mid-1950s). The teen Torch promptly won his own solo lead-feature in Strange Tales (from issue #101 on) where eventually – in #114 – the flaming kid fought a larcenous villain impersonating the nation’s greatest lost hero…

Here’s a quote from the last panel…

“You guessed it! This story was really a test! To see if you too would like Captain America to Return! As usual, your letters will give us the answer!” I guess we all know how that turned out. With reader-reaction strong, the real McCoy was promptly decanted in Avengers #4 (cover dated March but on sale from January 3rd 1964). Marvel’s inexorable rise to dominance of the American comic book industry really took hold in 1968 when most of their characters finally got their own titles. Prior to that and due to a highly restrictive distribution deal the company was tied to a limit of 16 publications per month.

After a captivating, attention-hogging run in Avengers, the Sentinel of Liberty won his own series as half of a “split-book” with fellow Avenger and patriotic barnstormer Iron Man, starting in Tales of Suspense #59. This thrifty third Mighty Marvel Masterworks Captain America collection assembles those last exploits from ToS #95-99 and continuance as Captain America #100-105 of his own title (spanning cover-dates November 1967 to September 1968) in a kid-friendly edition that will charm and delight fans of all vintages…

These stories are timeless and have been published many times before but The Mighty Marvel Masterworks line is designed with economy in mind and newcomers as target audience. These books are far cheaper, on lower quality paper and smaller – like a paperback novel. Your eyesight might be failing and your hands too big and shaky, but at 152 x 227mm, they’re perfect for kids. If you opt for digital editions, that’s no issue at all.

Scripted throughout by Lee, Cap’s adventures had been blending high concept espionage thrillers milking the burgeoning spy fad of the mid-Sixties with spectacular superhero shockers after the Star-Spangled Avenger joined superspy Nick Fury in many missions as a (more-or-less) Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Here however with Kirby locked-&-loaded into full action mode a portentous change of pace amplifies already frenetic tensions as – in rapid succession – ‘A Time to Die… A Time to Live’ and ‘To Be Reborn!’ see the eternal hero retire and reveal his secret identity to the world, only to jump straight back into the star-spangled saddle for S.H.I.E.L.D. for #97’s ‘And So It Begins…’ after a rash of would-be replacements provoke a campaign of opportunistic assassination attempts from the underworld…

The saga would carry the Sentinel of Liberty back into his own title: a 4-part tale that spectacularly concludes in issue #100, with which number Tales of Suspense became simply Captain America. Guest starring the Black Panther, it recounts the apparent return of long-dead nemesis Baron Zemo and his lethal, world-threatening orbiting Death Ray. ‘The Claws of the Panther!’ was inked by both Joe Sinnott and the great Syd Shores (a Cap illustrator from the 1940s) who became regular embellisher with ‘The Man Who Lived Twice!’ before the premier 100th first issue (how weird is that?) revisited Cap’s origin before climactically closing the superb team-up thriller with ‘This Monster Unmasked!’

Without pause, Lee, Kirby & Shores enacted another epic encounter across Captain America #101-104, featuring fascist revenant The Red Skull and introducing another appalling Nazi revenge-weapon. Opening with ‘When Wakes the Sleeper!’ and furious follow-up ‘The Sleeper Strikes!’, our hero and his support crew Agent 13 and Nick Fury hunt a murderous mechanoid capable of ghosting through solid Earth and blowing up the planet. Although the immediate threat soon seems quashed, the infernal instigator is still at large and #103 reveals ‘The Weakest Link!’ as a budding romance with S.H.I.E.L.D. operative Agent 13 (finally named after two years as Sharon Carter) is interrupted by the nefarious Nazi. The uber-fascist’s new scheme of nuclear blackmail extends to a second issue, wherein his band of war-criminal assassins, The Exiles, test Cap nigh to destruction on the hidden isle where he becomes the ‘Slave of the Skull!’ (with the loose, flowing inking of Dan Adkins) before turning the tables and crushing the plotters.

After that, a period of done-in-one all-action yarns began with ‘In the Name of Batroc!’ (Lee, Kirby & Adkins), a brisk super-villain team-up wherein Living Laser and The Swordsman ally with gallic mercenary Batroc the Leaper to swipe a new superbomb, concluding the patriotic Fight’s ‘n’ Tights fist-fest on an exuberant if nonsensical high note…

To Be Continued…

With covers by Kirby, Frank Giacoia, Gene Colan, John Romita, Sinnott, Shores & Adkins, there’s just enough room for a brace of pencil layouts of unused covers to compliment these tales of dauntless courage and unmatchable adventure, fast-paced and superbly illustrated. These exploits rightly returned Captain America to heights his revamped Golden Age compatriots the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner never regained. Pure escapist magic, these are glorious treats for the eternally young at heart, episodes of sheer visual dynamite that cannot be slighted and must not be missed.
© 2024 MARVEL.

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Mighty Marvel Masterworks The Avengers volume 4: The Sign of the Serpent


By Stan Lee, Don Heck, Roy Thomas, Frank Giacoia, George Roussos & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-5430-7 (PB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

These stories are timeless and have been gathered many times before but here we’re enjoying another example of The Mighty Marvel Masterworks line: designed with economy in mind and newcomers as target audience. These books are far cheaper, on lower quality paper and smaller – like a paperback novel. Your eyesight might be failing and your hands too big and shaky, but at 152 x 227mm, they’re perfect for kids. If you opt for digital editions, that’s no issue at all.

After a period of meteoric expansion, in 1963 the burgeoning Marvel Universe was finally ready to emulate the successful DC concept that had cemented the legitimacy of the Silver Age of American comics. The notion of putting a bunch of all-star eggs in one basket had made the Justice League of America a winner and subsequently inspired the moribund Atlas outfit – primarily Stan Lee, Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko – into conceiving “super-characters” of their own. The result – in 1961 – was The Fantastic Four…

After 18 months, the fledgling House of Ideas had generated a small successful stable of costumed leading men (but still only 2 sidekick women!), allowing Lee & Kirby to at last assemble a select handful of them into an all-star squad, moulded into a force for justice and soaring sales. Cover dated September 1963, and on sale from early July, The Avengers #1 launched as part of an expansion package which also included Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos and The X-Men. This edition collects The Avengers #31-40 (cover-dated August 1966 to May 1967): groundbreaking tales no newbie or potential lover of superhero stories can do without…

Here the team consists of Captain America, Hawkeye, mutant twins Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch (who had replaced big guns Thor and Iron Man) and recently returned Giant-Man (AKA Goliath) and The Wasp, looking for a way to enable Henry Pym to regain his size-changing powers and his normal six-foot height. The revised team was already proving a firm fan-favourite. Spectacle had been nudged aside in favour of melodrama sub-plots, leavening the action through compelling soap-opera elements which kept readers riveted…

Of course, the founding stars regularly featured due to the rotating, open door policy which meant that most issues included somebody’s fave-rave. The increasingly bold and impressive stories and artwork were no hindrance either. Once Lee moved on, the team was left in the capable hands of Roy Thomas who grew into one of the industry’s most impressive writers, guiding the World’s Mightiest Heroes through a range of adventures ranging from sublimely poetic to staggeringly epic.

With this fourth collection the hero alliances rise to dominance truly began and resumes on a cliffhanger yarn that began when Goliath – tragically trapped at a freakish ten-foot height – sought a cure south of the border only to be embroiled in a futuristic civil war amongst a lost south American civilisation. Here the concluding chapter threatens global incineration in the ludicrously titled yet satisfyingly thrilling ‘Never Bug a Giant!’ as Wasp, Hawkeye and Cap track down their massive missing man and face escalating atomic armageddon…

The company’s crusading credentials are enhanced next as ‘The Sign of the Serpent!’ and sequel ‘To Smash a Serpent!’ (#32-33, with Heck providing raw, gritty inks over his own pencils) craft a brave, socially-aware epic. Here the heroes tackle a sinister band of organised racists in a thinly veiled allegory of the Civil Rights turmoil then gripping America. Marvel’s bold liberal stand even went so far as to introduce a new African-American character, Bill Foster, who would eventually become a superhero in his own right.

It’s back to crime-busting basics as Roy Thomas officially begins his long association with the team in #34’s ‘The Living Laser!’, although second part ‘The Light that Failed!’ again assumes political overtones as the light-bending supervillain allies himself with South American – and, by implication, Marxist – rebels for a rollercoaster ride of thrills and spills.

The team’s international credentials are further exploited when long-absent Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver return, heralding an alien invasion of the Balkans in ‘The Ultroids Attack!’ and ‘To Conquer a Colossus!’ (#36-37). Along for the ride and a crucial factor in repelling an extraterrestrial invasion is newly cured and reformed Natasha Romanoff: the sinister, merciless Black Widow…

Thomas clearly relished juggling a larger roster of characters as he promptly added Olympian godling Hercules to the mix, first as a duped and drugged pawn of the Enchantress in #38’s ‘In our Midst… An Immortal’ (inked by George Roussos) and then as a member from the following issue onwards, when The Mad Thinker attacks the assemblage during ‘The Torment… and the Triumph!’.

No prizes for guessing who was throwing the punches in ‘Suddenly… the Sub-Mariner!’ as the team battle the Lord of Atlantis for possession of a reality-warping Cosmic Cube; a riotous all-action romp to end a superb classic chronicle of furious Fights ‘n’ Tights fables.

Augmenting the narrative joys is the cover gallery by Heck, Jack Kirby, Frank Giacoia, Gil Kane and Roussos plus Heck’s unused cover for #37.

Unceasingly enticing and always evergreen, these immortal epics are tales that defined the Marvel experience and a joy no fan should deny themselves or their kids.
© 2024 MARVEL.

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The Defenders Epic Collection volume 1: The Day of the Defenders (1969-1973)


By Roy Thomas, Steve Englehart, Len Wein, Gene Colan, Marie Severin, Herb Trimpe, Ross Andru, Sal Buscema, Bob Brown, Don Heck, Tom Palmer, Johnny Craig, Bill Everett, Frank McLaughlin, Jim Mooney, Frank Bolle, Frank Giacoia, John Verpoorten, Mike Esposito & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-3356-2 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

For kids – of any and all ages – there is a simple response to and primal fascination with brute strength and feeling dangerous, which surely goes some way towards explaining the perennial interest in angry tough guys who break stuff… as best exemplified by Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner and the Incredible Hulk. When you add the mystery and magic of Doctor Strange, the recipe for thrills, spills and chills becomes simply irresistible…

Last of the big star conglomerate super-groups, The Defenders would eventually number amongst its membership almost every hero – and a few villains – in the Marvel Universe. No real surprise there then, as initially they were composed of the company’s bad-boy antiheroes: misunderstood, outcast and often actually dangerous to know.

For Marvel, the outsider super-group must have seemed a conceptual inevitability – once they’d finally published it. Back then, apart from Spider-Man and Daredevil, all their superstars regularly teamed up in various mob-handed assemblages and, in the wake of the Defenders’ success, even more super-teams comprising pre-existing characters were rapidly mustered. These included the Champions, Invaders, New Warriors  and so forth – but none of them had any Truly Very Big Guns…

They never won the fame or acceptance of other teams, but that simply seemed to leave creators open to taking more chances and playing the occasional narrative wild card. The genesis of the team derived from their status as publicly distrusted villains, threats or menaces, but before all that later inventive approbation. The scintillating collection compiles early days as first seen in whole or in part in Dr. Strange #183, Sub-Mariner #22, 33 & 35, Incredible Hulk #126, Marvel Feature #1-3, Defenders #1-11, and Avengers #115-118 covering November 1969 to December 1973, re-presenting a wealth of extended and linked sagas that would reshape comics.

The first tale in this volume comes from Dr. Strange #183 in ‘They Walk by Night!’ where Roy Thomas, Gene Colan & Tom Palmer introduced a deadly threat to humanity. Elder demon race The Undying Ones were returning, hungry to reconquer the Earth they once ruled, but as the sorcerer’s series unexpectedly ended with that issue, the story went nowhere until the Sub-Mariner #22 (February 1970) and ‘The Monarch and the Mystic!’ brought the Prince of Atlantis into the mix. Here Thomas, Marie Severin & Johnny Craig told a sterling tale of sacrifice in which the Master of the Mystic Arts seemingly dies holding the gates of Hell shut with the Undying Ones sealed behind them.

The extended saga concluded on an upbeat note in The Incredible Hulk #126 (April 1970) as Thomas & Herb Trimpe revealed in ‘…Where Stalks the Night-Crawler!’ how a New England cult dispatches helpless Bruce Banner to the nether realms in an attempt to undo Strange’s sacrifice. Luckily, cultist Barbara Norris has last-minute second thoughts and her own dire sacrifice frees the mystic, and seemingly ends the threat of the Undying Ones forever. At the end of the issue Strange retired. Although forsaking magic, he was soon back as the fates and changing reading tastes called him to duty as magic and the supernatural themes rose in popularity. As Namor became an early advocate of the ecology movement, in issues #34-35 of his own title (February & March 1971) the next step in the antihero  revolution came when he recruited Hulk and Silver Surfer for  a critical cause.

Antihero super-nonteam The Defenders officially begins with Sub-Mariner #34-35 (cover-dated February & March 1971). As previously cited, the Prince of Atlantis was an ardent activist and advocate of the ecology movement, and here takes radical steps to save Earth in ‘Titans Three!’ by fractiously recruiting other outcasts to help him destroy a US Nuclear Weather-Control station. In concluding chapter ‘Confrontation!’ (Thomas, Sal Buscema & Jim Mooney) the always-misunderstood outcasts unite to battle a despotic dictator’s legions, the US Army, UN defence forces and Avengers to prevent the malfunctioning station vaporising half the planet…

With that debacle smoothed over life resumed its usual frenetic pace for the Hulk and Namor until giant sized try-out comic Marvel Feature #1. Cover-dated December 1971, it presented ‘The Day of the Defenders!’ as a mysteriously re-empowered Stephen Strange summons the Avenging Son and the Jade Juggernaut to help him stop the deathbed doom of crazed super-mind Yandroth. Determined to not go gently into the dark, the Scientist Supreme had built an “Omegatron” programmed to obliterate the Earth as soon as Yandroth’s heart stopped beating. With magic ineffective, only the brute strength of the misunderstood misanthropes could possibly stop it…

Naturally the fiend hadn’t told the whole truth, but the day was saved – actually only postponed – in a canny classic from Thomas, Ross Andru & Bill Everett. The issue also shares how Strange regained his mojo in ‘The Return’ by Thomas, Don Heck & Frank Giacoia: a heady 10-page thriller proving that not all good things come in large packages.

Clearly destined for great things, the astounding antiheroes reassembled in Marvel Feature #2 (March 1972) with Sal Buscema replacing Everett as inker for late Halloween treat ‘Nightmare on Bald Mountain!’ By capturing archfoe Dr. Strange, extradimensional dark lord Dormammu sought to invade Earth’s realm through a portal in Vermont, only to be savagely beaten back by the mage’s surly sometime comrades, before reuniting in #3 (June 1972, by Thomas, Andru & Everett ) to face a revive old Lee/Kirby “furry underpants” monster in ‘A Titan Walks Among Us!’

Until thrashed by the Defenders, Xemnu the Titan was an alien super-telepath seeking to repopulate his desolate homeworld by stealing America’s children. Of course, older fans recognised him as the cover-hogging star of Journey into Mystery #62 (November 1960) where he acted as a road-test for a later Marvel star in a short tale entitled ‘I Was a Slave of the Living Hulk!’…

An undoubted hit, The Defenders exploded swiftly into their own title (cover-dated August 1972), to begin a bold, offbeat run of reluctant adventures scripted by superteam wunderkind Steve Englehart. As a group of eclectic associates occasionally called together to save the world (albeit on a miraculously monotonous monthly basis) they were billed as a “non-team” – whatever that is – but it didn’t affect the quality of their super-heroic shenanigans. With Sal B as regular penciller, an epic adventure ensued with ‘I Slay by the Stars!’ (Giacoia inks) as sorcerer Necrodamus seeks to sacrifice Namor and free those pesky Undying Ones: a mission that promptly leads to conflict with an old ally in ‘The Secret of the Silver Surfer!’ (inked by John Verpoorten) before concluding in the Mooney-inked ‘Four Against the Gods!’ Here the Defenders take their war to the dimensional dungeon of the Undying Ones and rescued the long-imprisoned and now utterly insane Barbara Norris.

Clearly a fan of large casts and extended epics, Englehart added a fighting femme fatale to the mix with ‘The New Defender!’ (inked by new regular Frank McLaughlin) as Asgardian exiles Enchantress and Executioner embroil the antiheroes in their long-running and lethal love-spat. The fallout includes bringing The Black Knight briefly into the group and turning Barbara into the latest incarnation of Feminist Fury (these were far less enlightened days) The Valkyrie.

Defenders #5 began a long-running plot thread with major repercussions for the Marvel Universe. The denouement left Black Knight an ensorcelled, immobile stone statue, and, as Strange and Co. searched for a cure, the long defused Omegatron suddenly resumed its countdown to global annihilation in ‘World Without End?’, after which the increasingly isolationist Silver Surfer momentarily “joins” in #6 to share ‘The Dreams of Death!’ as lightweight magic menace Cyrus Black attacks, and is rapidly repulsed.

After a spiffy team pin-up by Sal Buscema, Defenders #7 jumps right in as Len Wein co-scripts with Englehart and Frank Bolle inks Sal Buscema in ‘War Below the Waves!’ Here tempestuous ex-Avenger Hawkeye briefly climbs aboard the non-team bandwagon to help defeat undersea tyrant Attuma and soviet renegade The Red Ghost: a bombastic battle to usurp Sub-Mariner of his titles and kingdom concluding a month later in ‘…If Atlantis Should Fall!’, with Englehart providing all the words and McLaughlin inking. Since Defenders #4 the forward-thinking scripter had been putting players in place for a hugely ambitious crossover experiment: one that turned the industry on its head. Next here comes a prologue taken from the end of Avengers #115 which finally set the ball rolling.

Drawn by Bob Brown & Mike Esposito, ‘Alliance Most Foul!’ sees interdimensional despot the Dread Dormammu and Asgardian god of Evil Loki unite in search of an ultimate weapon to give them final victory against their foes. They resolve to trick the Defenders into securing its six component parts by “revealing” that the reconstructed Evil Eye can restore the petrified Black Knight. That plan is initiated at the end of Defenders #8: a brief opening chapter in ‘The Avengers/Defenders Clash’ entitled ‘Deception!’ wherein a message from the Black Knight’s spirit is intercepted by the twin entities of evil, leading directly to ‘Betrayal!’ in Avengers #116 (Englehart, Brown & Esposito) with the World’s Mightiest Heroes hunting for their missing comrade and “discovering” old enemies Hulk and Sub-Mariner may have turned him to stone.

This and third chapter ‘Silver Surfer Vs. the Vision and the Scarlet Witch’ see the rival teams split up: one to gather the scattered sections of the Eye and the other to stop them at all costs. Defenders #9 (Sal B & McLaughlin art) begins with tense recap ‘Divide …and Conquer’ before ‘The Invincible Iron Man Vs. Hawkeye the Archer’ and ‘Dr. Strange Vs. the Black Panther and Mantis’ sheds more suspicion and doubt on the vile villains’ subtle master-plan. Avengers #117 ‘Holocaust’, ‘Swordsman Vs. the Valkyrie’ and crucial turning point ‘Captain America Vs. Sub-Mariner’ (Brown & Esposito) lead to the penultimate clash in Defenders #10 (Sal B & Bolle) in ‘Breakthrough! The Incredible Hulk Vs. Thor’ before an inevitable joining together of the warring camps in ‘United We Stand!’ Tragically it is too late as Dormammu seizes the reconstructed Evil Eye and uses its power to merge his monstrous realm with Earth.

Avengers #118 delivers the cathartic climactic conclusion in ‘To the Death’ (Brown, Esposito & Giacoia) wherein all the Marvel Universe’s heroes resist the demonic invasion as Avengers and Defenders plunge deep into the Dark Dimension itself to end forever the threat of the evil gods…

With the overwhelming cosmic crisis concluded, the victorious Defenders attempt to use the Eye to cure their calcified comrade, only to discover his spirit has found a new home in the 12th century. In #11’s Bolle inked ‘A Dark and Stormy Knight’ the band battle black magic during the Crusades, fail to retrieve the Knight and acrimoniously go their separate ways – as did overworked departing scripter Englehart…

With issue #12 Len Wein would assume the writer’s role, starting a run of slightly more traditional costumed capers…

With covers by Colan, Everett, Severin, Frank Giacoia, John Buscema, John Romita, Sal Buscema, Gil Kane, Ralph Reese, Jim Starlin, Verpoorten, Esposito, Bolle & Ron Wilson this titanic tome also offers contemporary house ads, a revelatory Afterword by Steve Englehart segues into a brief bonus feature including unpublished cover art, the Marvel Bullpen Bulletins page announcing the launch of The Defenders, original art pages, and previous collection covers by Carlos Pacheco, John Romita and Richard Isanove.

For the longest time, The Defenders was the best and weirdest superhero comic book in the business, and if you love Fights ‘n’ Tights frolics but crave something just a little different, these yarns are for you… and the best is still to come.
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