Marvel Essentials – Page 4

April 2, 2012April 8, 2012

Essential Avengers volume 5

By Roy Thomas, Steve Englehart, Barry Windsor-Smith, Rich Buckler, Don Heck, Bob Brown, Sal Buscema & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2087-4

The Avengers have always proved that putting all one’s star eggs in one single basket pays off big-time: even when all Marvel’s all-stars such as Thor, Captain America and Iron Man are absent, it merely allows the team’s lesser lights to shine more brightly.

Of course all the founding stars regularly featured due to the rotating, open door policy which means that most issues includes somebody’s fave-rave – and the boldly grand-scale impressive stories and artwork are no hindrance either.

This monolithic and monumental fifth tome, collecting the absolute best of the Mighty Avengers‘ world-saving exploits (presenting in crisp, stylish black and white the astounding contents of issues #98-119 of their monthly comic book between April 1972 and February 1974, plus crossover appearances in Daredevil #99 and The Defenders #8-11), saw scripter extraordinaire Roy Thomas hand over the reins to an even more imaginative and groundbreaking author who took the team to dizzying new imaginative and dramatic heightsâ€¦

Opening this epochal tome is ‘Let Slip the Dogs of War’ from Avengers #98, by Thomas, Barry Windsor-Smith & Sal Buscema, which finds harried heroes Captain America, Iron Man, Vision, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch and Thor, all survivors of the recently concluded Kree-Skrull War, debating the loss of their comrade Goliath, missing in action since he explosively stopped an alien warship from nuking Earthâ€¦

As the Thunderer headed for Asgard and its magic scrying mirrors, the fruitless debate was curtailed when war-mongering demagogue Mr. Tallon began inciting riot in the streets of New York. The gathered crowds attacked the Avengers when they tried to quell the unrest and it was soon evident that the war-hawk had supernatural assistanceâ€¦ and in the dimensional void the Thunder God found all access to the Immortal Realms had been cut offâ€¦

By the time Thor returned to Earth his comrades had been bewitched too. Joining with the seemingly immune Vision in a last-ditch, hopeless battle, he fought their best friends until the tide was turned by a perfectly aimed arrowâ€¦ heralding the return of Goliath to his original Hawkeye identity.

Moreover he had with him another Avenger: an amnesiac Hercules, Prince of Power, whose only certain knowledge was that Earth and Asgard were doomedâ€¦

‘â€¦They First Make Mad!’ (inked by Tom Sutton) extended the epic as the Avengers called on all their resources to cure Hercules and decipher his cryptic warning whilst the World’s leaders seemed determined to hurl the planet into atomic Armageddon.

As Hawkeye revealed his miraculous escape from death in space and how he found Hercules the call went out, summoning every hero who had ever been an Avenger. Suddenly two Grecian Titans materialised to trounce the team, dragging the Prince of Power back to Olympusâ€¦

The epic concluded in the staggeringly beautiful anniversary 100^th issue ‘Whatever Gods There Be!’ (inked by Smith, Joe Sinnott & Syd Shores) as thirteen Avengers – including even the scurrilous Swordsman and blockbusting Hulk – invaded the home of the Gods to discover old enemy the Enchantress and war god Ares behind the entire malignant plotâ€¦

With the supernatural wonderment concluded new penciller Rich Buckler – doing his best Neal Adams impersonation – took over the art, limning a Harlan Ellison/Roy Thomas tale, inked by Dan Adkins.

‘Five Dooms to Save Tomorrow!’ was based on an Ellison novella from 1964 and found the Avengers battling Leonard Tippit, an ordinary man granted incredible power so that he could murder five innocent humans beings whose innocuous continued existence nevertheless threatened Earth’s future.

Determined to stop him whatever the ultimate consequences, the murky moral quandary tested the Avengers to their utmost, but they were on firmer, more familiar ground in #102 when the Grim Reaper returned, offering to place the Vision’s consciousness in a human body in return for the android’s aid in ‘What to Do Till the Sentinels Come!’ (Thomas, Buckler & Sinnott) as the mutant hunting robots kidnapped the Scarlet Witch and attempted to eradicate the threat of Homo Superior foreverâ€¦

The budding romance between the Witch and the Vision revealed tensions and bigotries in the most unexpected places as the cataclysmic tale continued with ‘The Sentinels are Alive and Well!’ with the team searching the globe for the monstrous mechanical marauders before being captured whilst invading their Australian Outback hive. The tale concluded in ‘With a Bangâ€¦ and a Whimper!’ as the assembled heroes thwarted the robots’ intention to sterilise humanity – but only at the cost of two heroes’ livesâ€¦

The grieving Scarlet Witch took centre stage in #105 as ‘In the Beginning wasâ€¦ the World Within!’ (by new scripter Steve Englehart, John Buscema & Jim Mooney) found the team travelling to South America and encountering cavemen mutants from the lost world known as the Savage Land, after which the Avengers discovered ‘A Traitor Stalks Among Us!’ (illustrated by Buckler, George Tuska & Dave Cockrum) as the revelation that perennial sidekick Rick Jones had become atomically bonded to alien hero Captain Marvel triggered a painful flashback in the memory-blocked Captain America, and an old foe turned the team against itself.

Avengers #107 revealed ‘The Master Plan of the Space Phantom!’ (Jim Starlin, Tuska & Cockrum) and his complex and sinister alliance with the Grim Reaper as the love-sick Vision finally accepted the offer of a human body.

Unfortunately, the corpus on offer was the Star-Spangled Avenger’sâ€¦

‘Checkâ€¦ and Mate!’, illustrated by veteran Avenger artist Don Heck and inkers Cockrum & Sinnott, wrapped up the intriguing saga in spectacular fashion as an army of Avengers thrashed the Phantom, the Reaper and the hordes of Hydra as well but the true climax was the Vision and Witch’s final acknowledgement of their love for each other.

The announcement provoked a storm of troubleâ€¦

In #109 Hawkeye, who’d always carried a torch for the beautiful Wanda, quit the team in a dudgeon. ‘The Measure of a Man!’ (Heck & Frank McLaughlin) found the heartsick archer duped by billionaire businessman Champion and almost causing the complete destruction of California before wising up and saving the day, after which the depleted team of Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Scarlet Witch, Vision and Black Panther investigated the disappearance of mutant heroes the X-Men and were thoroughly beaten by an old enemy with a new power.

‘â€¦ And Now Magneto!’ (Englehart, Heck, Frank Giacoia & Mike Esposito) ended with half the team brainwashed captives of the master-villain and the remaining crusaders desperately searching for new allies whilst in San Francisco and the crossover Daredevil and the Black Widow #99 (May 1973, by Steve Gerber, Sam Kweskin & Syd Shores) The Mark of Hawkeye!’ found Natasha Romanoff’s old boyfriend fetch up on the Widow’s doorstep, determined to reclaim her, culminating in the Archer’s sound and well-deserved thrashing.

When the last Avengers arrived, asking him to return and assist he refused, but DD and the Widow didn’tâ€¦

The story resumed in ‘With Two Beside Them!’ (Englehart, Heck & Esposito) saw the West Coast vigilantes successfully help the ragtag heroes rescue the X-Men and Avengers enslaved by the malevolent Magneto. With the action over, Daredevil returned to California but the Black Widow chose to stay with the World’s Mightiest Heroesâ€¦

Avengers #111 introduced a new supernatural menace in ‘The Lion God Lives!’ (by Heck & Frank Bolle) wherein a rival African deity sought to destroy the human Avatar of his great rival The Panther God. As the Black Panther and his valiant comrades tackled that threat in the wings an erstwhile ally and enemy and his exotic paramour made their own plans for the teamâ€¦

Prejudice was the theme of #113’s ‘Your Young Men Shall Slay Visions!’ (Bob Brown & Bolle) as a horde of fundamentalist bigots offended by the â€œunnatural loveâ€ of Wanda and the Vision turned themselves into human bombs to destroy the sinful, unholy couple whilst the ‘Night of the Swordsman’ in #114 (Brown & Esposito) formally introduced the reformed swashbuckler and the enigmatic psychic martial artist Mantis to the team just in time to thwart the Lion God’s latest scheme

One of author Englehart’s other assignments was the anti-hero team The Defenders and since issue #4 he had been carefully putting players in place for a hugely ambitious cross-over experiment: one that would turn the comics industry on its head.

The classic confrontation finally commenced in Avengers #115 with a lead story ‘Below Us the Battle!’ (Brown & Esposito) wherein the still-understaffed heroes travelled to England and the castle of the Black Knight, only to encounter mystic resistance, a troglodytic race of scavengers and a comrade long missing…

The issue also contained a little prologue, ‘Alliance Most Foul!’, which saw other-dimensional Dark Lord Dormammu and Asgardian god of Evil Loki united to search for an ultimate weapon which would give them ultimate victory against all their foes.

This despotic duo would trick the Defenders into securing the six component parts by â€œrevealingâ€ that the reconstructed Evil Eye could restore the Black Knight – who had been turned to stone by the Enchantress months previously – a plan that began in a similar prologue at the end of Defenders #8â€¦

‘Deception’ (Englehart, Sal Buscema & Esposito) was the first chapter in ‘The Avengers/Defenders Clash’ as a message from the spirit of the Black Knight was intercepted by the twin gods of evil, leading directly to ‘Betrayal!’ in Avengers #116, wherein the Avengers, hunting for their missing comrade, â€œdiscoverâ€ that their oldest enemies Hulk and Sub-Mariner may have turned the Black Knight to stone.

The third chapter ‘Silver Surfer Vs the Vision and the Scarlet Witch’ comprises the remainder of that issue, illustrated by Brown & Esposito, wherein the rival teams split up: one to gather the scattered sections of the Eye and the other to stop them at all costsâ€¦

Defenders #9 (art by Buscema & McLaughlin) began with the tense recap ‘Divide â€¦and Conquer’ before ‘The Invincible Iron Man Vs. Hawkeye the Archer’ and ‘Dr. Strange Vs. the Black Panther and Mantis’ shed more suspicion and doubt on the mystical malcontents’ subtle master-plan.

Avengers #117 ‘Holocaust’, ‘Swordsman Vs the Valkyrie’ and the turning point ‘Captain America Vs Sub-Mariner’ (Brown and Esposito) led to the penultimate clash in Defenders #10 (Buscema & Bolle) ‘Breakthrough! The Incredible Hulk Vs Thor’ and the inevitable joining together of the warring camps in ‘United We Stand!’, but sadly too late as Dormammu seized the reconstructed Evil Eye, using its power to merge his monstrous realm with ours.

Avengers #118 provided the cathartic climactic conclusion in ‘To the Death’ (Brown, Esposito & Giacoia) as all the other heroes of the Marvel Universe battled the demonic invasion whilst the Avengers and Defenders plunged deep into the Dark Dimension itself to end the threat of the evil gods forever (or at least for the momentâ€¦).

With the overwhelming cosmic threat over the victorious Defenders attempted to use the Eye to cure their stony comrade only to find that his spirit had found a new home in the 12^th century. In #11’s ‘A Dark and Stormy Knight’ (inked by Bolle), Dr. Strange, the Valkyrie, Silver Surfer, Sub-Mariner , Hawkeye and the Hulk battled black magic during the Crusades, failed to retrieve the Knight and went their separate ways – as did departing scripter Englehart who surrendered scripting of the â€œNon-Teamâ€ to concentrate his creative energies on the World’s Mightiest Heroes.

This epic monochrome collection concludes with a delightfully traditional spooky Halloween tale as the Avengers, warned by clairvoyant vision from Mantis, head to Rutland, Vermont for the ‘Night of the Collector’ (#119, illustrated by Brown & Heck); encountering old friends, a dastardly foe and blistering action and suspenseâ€¦

Roy Thomas and Steve Englehart were at the forefront of Marvel’s second generation of story-makers, brilliantly building on and consolidating the compelling creation of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko: spearheading and constructing a logical, fully functioning wonder-machine of places and events that so many others were inspired by and could add to.

These terrific tales are perfect examples of superhero sagas done just right and also a pivotal step of the little company into the corporate colossus. Englehart’s forthcoming concoctions would turn the Marvel Universe on its head and pave the way for a new peak of cosmic adventureâ€¦

March 16, 2012March 14, 2012

Essential Astonishing Ant-Man

New Extended review

By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Don Heck, Dick Ayers & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-0822-1

Marvel Comics initially built its fervent fan base through strong and contemporarily relevant stories and striking art, but most importantly by creating a shared continuity that closely followed the characters through not just their own titles but also through the many guest appearances in other comics.

Such an interweaving meant that even today completists and fans seek out extraneous stories to get a fuller picture of their favourite’s adventures.

In such an environment, series such as Marvel’s Essentialâ€¦ and DC’s Showcase Presentsâ€¦ are an economical and valuable commodity which approaches the status of a public service for collectors.

If you’re of a particularly picky nature – and what true comic fan isn’t? – you could consider the Astonishing Ant-Man to be one of the earliest heroes of the Marvel Age of Comics. He first appeared in Tales to Astonish #27 (cover-dated January 1962), in one of the men-vs.-monsters anthology titles that dominated in those heady days of Science Fiction Double-Feature B-Movies.

This episodic, eclectic and eccentric black and white compendium (gathering the pertinent portions of Tales to Astonish #27 and the series which ran from #35-69: September 1962-July 1965) collects all the solo outings of a brilliant but troubled scientist who became an unlikely superhero and begins with what was just supposed to be another throwaway filler thriller.

The 7-page short introduced Dr Henry Pym, a maverick scientist who discovered a shrinking potion and became ‘The Man in the Anthill!’ discovering peril, wonder and even a kind of companionship amongst the lowliest creatures on Earth and under it.

This engaging piece of fluff, which owed more than a little to the classic movie The Incredible Shrinking Man, was plotted by Stan Lee, scripted by Larry Lieber and stunningly illustrated by Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers.

Obviously the character struck a chord with someone since, as the DC Comics-inspired superhero boom flourished, Pym was rapidly retooled as a full-fledged costumed do-gooder in issue #35 (September 1962) which featured ‘The Return of the Ant-Man’ by Lee, Larry Lieber, Kirby & Ayers. The plot concerned a raid by Soviet agents (this was at the height of Marvel’s ‘Commie-Buster’ period when every other villain was a Red somebody or other and rampaging socialism was a cultural bÃªte noir) wherein Pym was captured and held prisoner in his own laboratory.

Forced to use the abandoned shrinking gases and cybernetic devices he’d built to communicate with ants, Dr. Pym soundly trounced the spies and determined to use his powers for the good of Mankind.

The same creative team produced the next four adventures beginning with ‘The Challenge of Comrade X!’ (Tales to Astonish #36) wherein an infallible Soviet super-spy was dispatched to destroy the Diminutive Daredevil, after which Ant-Man was temporarily ‘Trapped by the Protector!’ – a cunning jewel-thief and extortionist who ultimately proved no match for the Tiny Titan.

‘Betrayed by the Ants!’ featured the debut of arch-foe Egghead, a maverick and mercenary research scientist who attempted to usurp the hero’s control of insects whilst ‘The Vengeance of the Scarlet Beetle!’ saw a return to scary monster stories as a radioactively mutated, super-intelligent bug sought to eradicate humanity with only Hank Pym able to stop himâ€¦

Sol Brodsky replaced Ayers as inker for ‘The Day that Ant-Man Failed!’ (TTA #40), with a deadly Hijacker robbing trucks and pushing the shrinking inventor to new heights of ingenuity, after which Kirby too moved on: his lavishly experimental perspectival flamboyance replaced by the comfortingly realism and enticing human scale of new illustrator Don Heck who limned a classy alien invasion yarn in ‘Prisoner of the Slave World!’ and depicted a mesmerising menace who could control people with ‘The Voice of Doom’ (TTA #42).

The following issue H. E. Huntley (AKA veteran writer/artist Ernie Hart) replaced Lieber as scripter with ‘Versus the Mad Master of Time’ – a run-of-the-mill mad – or rather, disgruntled and misguided – scientist yarn but the next issue (TTA #44) saw Kirby return to pencil a significant change to the series.

‘The Creature from Kosmos’ (inked by Heck) introduced The Wasp – Pym’s bon vivant crime-fighting partner – in a double-length tale that featured a murderous alien marauder who killed her father as well as the secret origin of Ant-Man. In a rare and uncharacteristic display of depth we learned that Pym was a widower: his Hungarian wife Maria having been murdered by Communist agents, irrevocably changing the young scientist from a sedentary scholar into a driven man of action.

Ant-Man used his discoveries to endow Janet with the power to shrink and fly; she became his crime-fighting partner and together they overcame ‘The Terrible Traps of Egghead’ (Lee, Huntley & Heck) before travelling to Greece and thwarting another alien invasion in ‘When Cyclops Walks the Earth!’

Back in the USA the Diminutive Duo battled mystic trumpeter Trago in ‘Music to Scream By’ and then defeated an avaricious weapons designer who built himself a unique battle suit to become super-thief ‘The Porcupine!’ before the next big change came with Tales to Astonish #49’s ‘The Birth of Giant-Man!’.

Lee scripted and Kirby returned to pencil the epic story of how Pym learned to enlarge, as well as reduce, his size just in time to tackle the threat of trans-dimensional kidnapper the Eraser. In the next issue Steve Ditko inked The King in ‘The Human Top’, the first chapter of a two-part tale which showed our hero struggling to adapt to his new strength and abilities. The blistering concluding episode ‘Showdown with the Human Top!’ was inked by Dick Ayers who would draw the bulk of the stories until the series’ demise. Also with this issue (TTA #51) a back-up feature ‘The Wonderful Wasp Tells a Tale’ began, blending horror vignettes narrated by the heroine, fact-features and solo adventures. The first is a chilling space thriller ‘Somewhere Waits a Wobbow!’ crafted by Lee, Lieber and George Roussos in his Marvel identity of George Bell.

The super-hero adventures settled into a rather predictable pattern from now on: individually effective enough but rather samey when read in quick succession.

First up is a straight super-villain clash in ‘The Black Knight Strikes!’ by Lee & Ayers from TTA #52, supplemented by the Wasp’s homily ‘Not What They Seem!’ whilst #53 led with another spectacular battle-bout ‘Trapped by the Porcupine!’ and finished with a Wasp yarn ‘When Wakes the Colossus!’ by Lee, Lieber & Heck before #54 saw Heck briefly return to illustrate the Crusading Couple’s catastrophic trip to Santo Rico in ‘No Place to Hide!’, where they became trapped and powerless in the South American banana republic run by brutal commie agent El Toro, which was neatly counter-balanced by the Wasp’s sci fi saga ‘Conquest!’ by Lee, Lieber & Brodsky.

An implacable old enemy defeated himself in ‘On the Trail of the Human Top!’ when the psychotic killer stole Giant-Man’s size changing pills in #55, after which Lee, Lieber & Bell produced the Wasp’s tale of ‘The Gypsy’s Secret!’

A stage conjuror was far more trouble than you’d suspect in ‘The Coming of The Magician!’; even successfully abducting the Wasp before his defeat, which she celebrated by regaling us all with the tall tale ‘Beware the Bog Beast!’ (Lee, Lieber & Paul Reinman) after which TTA #57 featured a big guest-star as the size-changing duo set out ‘On the Trail of the Amazing Spider-Man!’ courtesy of Lee, Ayers & Reinman, with the sinister Egghead waiting in the wings, whilst the Wasp actually had a solo adventure with ‘A Voice in the Dark!’ by Lee, Lieber & Chic Stone.

These were not only signs of the increasing interconnectivity that Lee was developing but also indicated that the strip was losing impetus. In a market increasingly flooded with superheroes, the adventures of Giant Man were not selling as well as they used toâ€¦ Captain America cameo-ed in #58’s battle with a giant alien ‘The Coming of Colossus!’ which was supplemented by the Wasp’s lone hand played against her old enemy in ‘The Magician and the Maiden!’

The beginning of the end came in Tales to Astonish #59 and ‘Enter: the Hulk!’ with the Avengers inadvertently prompting Giant-Man to hunt down the Green Goliath. The remainder of that all-action issue offered ‘A Giant-Man Bonus Special Feature: Let’s Learn About Hank and Janâ€¦’ from Lee, Ayers & Reinman.

Although the Human Top engineered that blockbusting battle, Lee was the real mastermind as, with the next issue The Hulk began to co-star in his own series and on the covers whilst Giant-Man’s adventures shrank back to a dozen or so pages.

The first half-sized yarn was ‘The Beasts of Berlin!’ – a throwback in many ways to the daft old days as the duo smuggle themselves over the Wall and into the Russian Sector to battle Commie Apes (no, really!) behind the Iron Curtain.

The writing was on the wall by issue #61. With the Hulk already most prominent on the covers, substandard stories and a rapid rotation of artists, it was obvious Giant-Man was waning. ‘Now Walks the Android’ was a fill-in rather rapidly illustrated by Ditko & Bell starring Egghead and his latest technological terror whilst ‘Versus the Wonderful Wasp’ (by Golden Age icon Carl Burgos & Ayers) recycled an ancient plot wherein a thief stole Giant-Man’s costume and equipment leaving the mere girl to save the day.

‘The Gangsters and the Giant’ in #63, by Lee, Burgos & Stone incestuously reproduced the plot of #37 with the gem-stealing Protector there re-imagined here as â€œthe Wreckerâ€ after which ‘When Attuma Strikes’ (Burgos & Reinman) offered some crumb of imagination and wit as Hank and Jan split up and the poor lass managed to get herself abducted by an undersea tyrant. This last was scripted by incredibly under-appreciated and almost anonymous comics veteran Leon Lazarus.

One last attempt to resuscitate the series came with the addition of another Golden-Age legend. Bob Powell signed on as artist for issue #65’s ‘Presenting the New Giant-Man’ (scripted by Lee, inked by Heck) wherein the Man of Many Sizes got a better costume and powers but almost died at the hands of a cat and spider he accidentally enlarged.

With a fresh new look, these last five issues are actually some of the best tales in the run, but it was clearly too late.

Frankie (Giacoia) Ray inked Powell for ‘The Menace of Madam Macabre’, with a murderous oriental seductress attempting to steal Pym’s secrets and Chic Stone inked ‘The Mystery of the Hidden Man and his Rays of Doom!’ wherein a power-stealing alien removed Pym’s ability to shrink to insect size before the series concluded with a powerfully impressive two-parter in Tales to Astonish #68 and 69) ‘Peril from the Long-Dead Past’ and ‘Oh, Wasp, Where is Thy Sting?’, inked by Vince Colletta and John Giunta respectively.

So far along was the decline that Al Hartley had to finish what Stan Lee started, i.e. concluding a tense and thrilling tale of the Wasp’s abduction by the Human Top and the retirement of the weary, shell-shocked heroes at the saga’s end.

(Gi)-Ant-Man and the Wasp did not die, but instead joined the vast cast of characters which Marvel kept in relatively constant play through team books, via guest shots and in occasional re-launches and mini-series.

Despite variable quality and treatment the eclectic, eccentric and always fun exploits of Marvel’s premier â€œodd coupleâ€ remain an intriguing and engaging reminder that the House of Ideas didn’t always get it right, but generally gave their all to entertaining their fans.

By turns superb, stupid, exciting and appalling this Essential tome epitomises the best and worst of Early Marvel (with the delightful far outweighing the duff) and certainly won’t appeal to everybody, but if you’re a Fights ‘n’ Tights fan with a forgiving nature the good stuff here will charm, amaze and enthral you whilst the rest could just be considered as a garish garnish to provide added flavourâ€¦
Â© 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 2002, 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

February 26, 2012February 26, 2012

Essential Human Torch

New, extended review –

By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Dick Ayers & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-1309-6

Hot on the heels (Sorry, sorry – I simply couldn’t help myself) of the runaway success of Fantastic Four, Stan Lee & Jack Kirby spun the most colourful and youngest member of the team into his own series, hoping to recapture the glory of the 1940s when the Human Torch was one of the company’s â€œBig Threeâ€ superstars.

This captivating, esoteric and economical collection of pure 1960s superhero shenanigans gathers those eclectic but crucial yarns (no less than five major Marvel villains debuted in blistering battle against the Flaming Kid) between Strange Tales #101 and 134 (October 1962- July 1965) and this searing monochrome compendium also includes the team-up of the Torch and Spider-Man from the second Annual.

Within a year of FF #1, the monster anthology title Strange Tales became the home for the hot headed hero. In issue #101, young Johnny Storm started his ancillary solo career in the eponymous ‘The Human Torch’ – a run-of-the-mill script by Larry Lieber (over a plot by his brother Stan) superbly illustrated by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers wherein Johnny Storm investigated sabotage at a new seaside amusement park and promptly discovered Commie conniving by a Red spy called the Destroyer. Kirby would pencil the first few adventures before moving on after which inker Ayers would assume control of the series’ look for most of its run – although Kirby would generate some of the best covers of his Marvel career throughout the Torch’s tenure.

An odd inconsistency or, more likely, tension and drama-inducing gimmick did crop up here. Although public figures in the Fantastic Four, Johnny and his sister Sue lived part-time in the rural New York hamlet of Glenville and despite the townsfolk being fully aware of her as the glamorous and heroic Invisible Girl, they seemed oblivious to the fact that her baby brother was the equally famous Torch. Many daft pages but ingenious pages of Johnny protecting his secret identity would ensue before the situation was brilliantly resolved.

Although something of a hit-or-miss proposition, the strip was the origin point for many of Marvel’s greatest villains. The first of these appeared in the very next tale ‘Prisoner of the Wizard’ (Lee, Lieber, Kirby & Ayers) wherein a spiteful and publicity-hungry intellectual giant determined to crush the Torch to prove his superiority to the callow kid who stole all the newspaper headlines and the same creative team, then produced the captivating classic ‘Prisoner of the 5th Dimension’, as Johnny defeated a potential invasion and freed a captive populace from tyranny before easily trashing adhesive-toting adversary ‘Paste-Pot Pete!’ (later revamped as the terrifying Trapster), before teaming with sister Sue to tackle the deadly ‘Return of the Wizard’.

When Kirby moved on to engineer and design a host of new characters and concepts (occasionally returning as necessity or special events warranted) Ayers assumed full art duties beginning with Strange Tales #106 (March 1963). This yarn was notable in that it revealed that the entire town of Glenville had always known the Torch’s secret identity but were just playing along to keep him happy.

When Acrobat Carl Zante knocked on Johnny’s door and offered him a better-paying gig in ‘The Threat of the Torrid Twosome’ the kid’s head was swelled and swayed but he soon discovered he had been played by a master conman and diabolical banditâ€¦

This first hint of tongue-in-cheek whimsy presaged an increasing lightness of touch which would come to characterise the Marvel style as much as the infighting between team-mates. The villainous Acrobat would return in another milestone in issue #114â€¦

Issue #107 would be Lieber’s last as Ayers drew a splendid punch-up with the ‘Sub-Mariner’ – a tale reminiscent of the spectacular and immensely popular Golden Age battles of their publishing forebears. Veteran writer Robert â€œBernsâ€ Bernstein scripted the next two, frankly daft yarns over Lee’s plots, but the saving grace of both ‘The Painter of a Thousand Perils!’(empowered by an alien art kit which brought illustrations to life in ST #108) and ‘The Sorcerer and Pandora’s Box’ (#109, with monstrous demons attacking humanity) was the brief return of King Kirby to the pencilling.

H.E. Huntley (Ernie Hart) typed the words for Ayers to illustrate in ‘The Human Torch vs. the Wizard and Paste-Pot Pete!’ a cunning clash which presaged the villain’s eventual evolution into the FF’s evil counterparts the Frightful Four. In #111 the Torch made short work of ‘Fighting to the Death with the Asbestos Man!’ – yet another demented scientist experiencing the travails and tragedies of simpler times.

Strange Tales #112 (scripted by Jerry Siegel under the pen-name Joe Carter) introduced murderous electrical marauder the Eel who accidentally swiped and activated a miniature A-Bomb in the tense, multifaceted thriller ‘The Human Torch Faces the Threat of the Living Bomb!’ after which Strange Tales Annual #2, featured ‘The Human Torch on the Trail of the Amazing Spider-Man!’ a terrific romp by Lee, Kirby & Steve Ditko wherein the wall-crawler was framed by international art thief The Fox, whilst back in the regular comicbook, â€œCarterâ€ created another long-term baddie in ‘The Coming of the Plantman!’

Strange Tales #114 changed the face of the Marvel Firmament foreverâ€¦

Written by Stan Lee himself, illustrated by Kirby & Ayers, it featured the return of the third of Timely Comics’ Golden Age Big Three – or at least an impersonation of him by the insidious Acrobat – in a blockbusting battle entitled ‘The Human Torch meetsâ€¦Captain America!

Here’s a quote from the last panelâ€¦

â€œYou 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!â€ I wonder how that all turned out?

Lee took over as scripter with ST #115’s ‘The Sandman Strikes!’ as Johnny impersonated Spider-Man to defeat the deadly atomic thug Flint Marko, after which the Torrid Teen and team-mate Ben (The Thing) Grimm battled each other ‘In the Clutches of the Puppet Master!’ in #116, with Ayers inked by George Roussos in his own secret identity of George Bell.

‘The Return of the Eel! proved far more of a challenge in #117 after which the Wizard had another go as ‘The Man Who Became the Torch!’, consequently nearly killing the Thing and Reed Richards besides.

A first brush with Marvel’s soon-to-be core readership came in #119 when ‘The Torch Goes Wild!’ due to a Commie Agent called the Rabble Rouser who mesmerised decent citizens, making them surly and rebellious, after which Kirby stepped in for #120 as ‘The Torch Meets Iceman!’, a terrific action extravaganza that pretty much ended the glory days of this strip. From then on, despite every gimmick and occasional burst of sheer inspiration the Bullpen could muster, a slow decline set in as the quirky back-up strip Doctor Strange grew in popularity – and cover spaceâ€¦

Issue #121 saw Johnny as ‘Prisoner of the Plantman!’ (Lee & Ayers) and #122 found a brute, conman and yogi all augmented by Dr. Doom and mustered as the woefully lame Terrible Trio launch an ill-conceived attack in ‘3 Against the Torch!’

Strange Tales #123 saw a creepy inventor build himself an impressive insectoid exo-suit to get rich the easy way as in an effort to boost ratings, The Thing became a permanent fixture in ‘The Birth of the Beetle!’ This so-so saga was most notable for the pencil job by Golden Age Torch creator Carl Burgos, after which Johnny and Ben tackled a fully re-designed ‘Paste-Pot Pete’ (inked by Paul Reinman) and then went after another old adversary in ‘The Sub-Mariner Must Be Stopped!’

‘Pawns of the Deadly Duo!’ saw the Puppet Master return, allied to the Mad Thinker in a clever but shallow yarn whilst #127 pitted Ben and Johnny against a bizarre puzzle and ‘The Mystery Villain!’

After a stunning Kirby Thing pin-up the Fantastic Two then unwillingly battled ‘Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch’ in #128 (inked by Frankie Ray, AKA Frank Giacoia), as the Homo Superior siblings made an abortive first attempt to quit Magneto’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, after which ‘The Terrible Trio!’ once more failed to impress or assassinate the heroesâ€¦

Pop culture reeled and staggered with #130 in ‘Meet the Beatles’ (some sort of popular musical combo, not villains, and they actually didn’t meet them at all) although the brilliant Golden Age artist Bob Powell (with inking from Chic Stone) did take over the art chores for the comedy of errors/crime caper. Ayers returned to ink #131, the dire ‘Bouncing Ball of Doom!’ with the Mad Thinker siccing a cybernetic bowling bowl on the pair but Larry Ivie then wrote a capable Space Race thriller in ‘The Sinister Space Trap!’ inked by Mike Esposito under his Mickey DeMeo alias.

Stan Lee returned for the last two tales in ST #133 and #134; ‘The Terrible Toys’ wherein the Puppet Master tried a new modus operandi and ‘The Challenge ofâ€¦ The Watcher!’ (inked by the majestic Wally Wood) with the Torch and Thing transported to legendary Camelot to battle time-reaver Kang the Conqueror, but it was clear that the writer’s mind was elsewhere, most likely with the new Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. strip that would replace the Torch and thing in Strange Tales #135.

It is interesting to note that as the parent Fantastic Four title grew in scope and quality The Human Torch’s own series diminished. Perhaps there is something to be said for concentrating one’s efforts or not overexposing your stars. What was originally a spin-off for the younger audience faded as Marvel found its voice and its marketplace, although there would be periodic efforts to reinvigorate the Torch.

Sadly the historic value often supersedes the quality of most of these strange tales, but there’s still a good deal that’s great about this series and Fights ‘n’ Tights fans with a sense of tradition and love of fun will find this book irresistible and unmissable.
Â© 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 2003 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

January 27, 2012January 26, 2012

Essential Marvel Two-In-One volume 1

By Jim Starlin, Roy Thomas, Steve Gerber, Gil Kane, Sal Buscema, Ron Wilson & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-1729-2

Imagination isn’t everything. As Marvel slowly grew to a position of dominance in the wake of the losing their two most innovative and inspirational creators, they did so less by experimentation and more by expanding and exploiting proven concepts and properties.

The only real exception to this was the en masse creation of horror titles in response to the industry down-turn in super-hero sales – a move expedited by a rapid revision in the wordings of the increasingly ineffectual Comics Code Authority rules.

The concept of team-up books – an established star pairing, or battling – often both – with less well-selling company characters was not new when Marvel decided to award their most popular hero the lion’s share of this new title, but they wisely left their options open by allocating an occasional substitute lead in the Human Torch. In those long-lost days editors were acutely conscious of potential over-exposure – and since super-heroes were actually in a decline they may well have been right.

After the runaway success of Spider-Man’s 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 member – beginning with two test runs in Marvel Feature before graduating to its own somewhat over-elaborate title.

This economical, eclectic monochrome compendium gathers together the contents of Marvel Feature #11-12, Marvel Two-In-One #1-20, 22-25 and Annual #1, as well as Marvel Team-Up #47 and Fantastic Four Annual #11, covering the period September 1973 – March 1977.

It all kicked off with a perennial favourite pairing as the Thing once more clashed with the Hulk in ‘Cry: Monster! (by Len Wein, Jim Starlin and Joe Sinnott from Marvel Feature #11, Â September 1973) wherein Kurrgo, Master of Planet X and the lethal Leader manipulated the blockbusting brutes into duking it out – ostensibly to settle a wager – but with both misshapen masterminds concealing hidden agendasâ€¦

That ever-inconclusive yet cataclysmic clash left Ben stranded in the Nevada desert where Mike Friedrich, Starlin & Sinnott promptly dropped him in the middle of the ongoing war against mad Titan Thanos as Iron Man helped the Thing crush monstrous alien invaders in ‘The Bite of the Blood Brothers!’ (#12, November 1973); another spectacular and painfully pretty all-action punch-up.

Still stuck in the desert when the dust settled Ben eventually trekked to an outpost of civilisation just in time to be diverted to Florida in Marvel Two-In-One #1 (January 1974) where Steve Gerber, Gil Kane & Sinnott magnificently revealed the ‘Vengeance of the Molecule Man!’ as Ben learned some horrifying home truths about what constituted being a monster battling with and beside the ghastly and grotesque anti-hero Man-Thing.

With the second issue Gerber cannily traded a superfluous supporting character from the Man-Thing series to add some much needed depth to the team-up title. ‘Manhunters from the Stars!’ pitted Ben, old enemy Sub-Mariner and the Aquatic Avenger’s powerful cousin Namorita against each other and aliens hunting the emotionally and intellectually retarded superboy Wundarr in another dynamically intoxicating tale illustrated by Kane & Sinnott. That case also left the Thing de facto guardian of the titanic teenaged totâ€¦

Sal Buscema signed on as penciller with #3 as the Rocky Ranger joined the Man Without Fear ‘Inside Black Spectre!’, a crossover instalment of the extended epic then playing out in Daredevil #108-112 (this action-packed fight-fest occurring between the second and third chapters) after which ‘Doomsday 3014!’ (Gerber, Buscema & Frank Giacoia) found Ben and Captain America catapulted into the 31^st century to save Earth from enslavement by the reptilian Brotherhood of Badoon, leaving Wundarr with Namorita for the foreseeable futureâ€¦

The furious future-shocker concluded in MTIO #5 as the Guardians of the Galaxy climbed aboard the Freedom Rocket to help the time-lost heroes liberate New York before returning home. The overthrow of the aliens was completed by another set of ancient heroes in Defenders #26-29 (since collected in the superbly economical Essential Defenders volume 2).

Marvel Two-In-One #6 (November 1974) began a complex crossover tale with the aforementioned Defenders as Dr. Strange and the Thing encountered a cosmic event which began with a subway busker’s harmonica and led inexorably to a ‘Death-Song of Destiny!’ (Gerber, George Tuska & Mike Esposito) before Asgardian outcasts Enchantress and the Executioner attempted to seize control of unfolding events in #7’s ‘Name That Doom!’ (pencilled by Sal Buscema) only to be thwarted by Grimm and the valiant Valkyrie. There’s enough of an ending here for casual readers but fans and completists will want to hunt down Defenders #20 or the previously plugged Essential Defenders volume 2 for the full story…

Back here though issue #8 teamed the Thing and supernatural sensation Ghost Rider in a quirky and compelling Yuletide yarn for a ‘Silent Nightâ€¦ Deadly Night!’ (Gerber, Buscema & Esposito) as the audacious Miracle Man tried to usurp a very special birth in a stableâ€¦

Gerber moved on after plotting the Thor team-up ‘When a God goes Mad!’ for Chris Claremont to script and Herb Trimpe & Joe Giella to finish: a rather meagre effort with the Puppet Master and Radion the Atomic Man making a foredoomed power play, but issue #10 was a slice of inspired espionage action with Ben and the Black Widow battling suicidal terrorist Agamemnon who planned to detonate the planet’s biggest nuke in the blistering thriller ‘Is This the Way the World Ends?’ by Claremont, Bob Brown & Klaus Janson.

Marvel Two-In-One had quickly become a kind of clearing house for cancelled series and uncompleted storylines. Supernatural series The Golem had featured in Strange Tales #174, 176 and 177 (June-December 1974) before being summarily replaced mid-story by Adam Warlock and MTIO #11 provided plotter Roy Thomas, scripter Bill Mantlo and artists Brown & Jack Abel to offer some spectacular closure when ‘The Thing goes South’ resulted in stony bloke and animated statue finally crushing the insidious plot of demonic wizard Kaballa.

Young Ron Wilson began his lengthy association with the series and the Thing in #12 as Iron Man and Ben tackled out of control, mystically-empowered ancient Crusader Prester John in ‘The Stalker in the Sands!’; a blistering desert storm written by Mantlo and inked by Vince Colletta, after which Luke Cage, Power Man popped in to help stop a giant monster in ‘I Created Braggadoom!, the Mountain that Walked like a Man!’ – an old fashioned homage scripted by Roger Slifer & Len Wein, whilst Mantlo, Trimpe & John Tartaglione offered a spooky encounter with spectres and demons in #14’s ‘Ghost Town!’ a moody mission shared with The Son of Satan.

Mantlo, Arvell Jones & Dick Giordano brought on ‘The Return of the Living Eraser!’ a dimension-hopping invasion yarn which introduced Ben to Morbius, the Living Vampire after which a canny crossover epic began with the Thing and Ka-Zar plunging ‘Into the Savage Land!’ to dally with dinosaurs and defeat resource plunderers, after which the action switched to New York as Spider-Man joined the party in MTIO #17 to combat ‘This Cityâ€¦ Afire!’ (Mantlo, Sal Buscema & Esposito) when mutated madman Basilisk transported an active volcano from Antarctica to the Hudson River with the cataclysmic conclusion following (from Marvel Team-Up #47) where Mantlo, Wilson & Dan Adkins finished off the epic and saved the day in fine style with ‘I Have to Fight the Basilisk!’

Another short-changed supernatural serial was finally sorted out in MTIO #18. ‘Dark, Dark Demon-Night!’ by Mantlo, Scott Edelman, Wilson, Jim Mooney & Adkins, found mystical watchdog The Scarecrow escape from its painted prison to foil a demonic invasion with the reluctant assistance of the Thing, after which Tigra the Were-Woman slinked into Ben’s life to vamp a favour and crush a sinister scheme by a rogue cat creature in ‘Claws of the Cougar!’ by Mantlo, Sal Buscema, & Don Heck.

That yarn segued directly into Fantastic Four Annual #11 which began a time-travelling sage with ‘And Now Thenâ€¦ the Invaders!’ by Roy Thomas, Big John Buscema & Sam Grainger, wherein Marvel’s First Family travelled back to 1942 to retrieve a cylinder of miracle-metal Vibranium which had begun to unwrite history after falling into Nazi hands.

En route they became embroiled in conflict with WWII super-team the Invaders which comprised early incarnations of Captain America, Sub-Mariner and the android Human Torch.

The time-busting task went well once the heroes finally united to assault the Nazi castle where the Vibranium was held, but after the quartet returned to their own repaired era, only Ben realised that the mission wasn’t completed yetâ€¦

The action continues in Marvel Two-In-One Annual #1 as, with the present unravelling around him, Ben returned to 1942 in ‘Their Name is Legion!’ by Thomas, Sal Buscema, Grainger, Tartaglione & George Roussos, to link up with Home Front Heroes The Liberty Legion (The Patriot, Thin Man, Red Raven, Jack Frost, Blue Diamond, Miss America and the Whizzer) and thwart Nazi raiders Skyshark and Master Man, Japanese agent Slicer and Atlantean traitor U-Man‘s invasion of America: a battle so big it spilled over and concluded in Marvel Two-In-One #20 (October 1976) in a shattering ‘Showdown at Sea!’ against diabolical Nazi scientist Brain Drain, courtesy of Thomas, Sal Buscema & Grainger.

MTIO #21 featured a team-up with Doc Savage but as Marvel no longer holds a license for that character, the story is excluded from this collection and the action resumes with #22’s two-part Thor pairing against the Egyptian God of Death in ‘Touch Not the Hand of Seth!’ (Mantlo, Wilson & Pablo Marcos); a fantastic cosmic extravaganza concluded with the assistance of Jim Shooter & Marie Severin in ‘Death on the Bridge to Heaven!’, after which Ben had a far more prosaic time with neophyte hero Black Goliath as a devastated downtown Los Angeles asked ‘Does Anyone Rememberâ€¦ the Hijacker?’ (by Mantlo, Shooter, Sal Buscema & Marcos).

This initial economical compendium ends on the cusp of a new era as the much delayed and postponed team-up with Iron Fist, the Living Weapon heralded the start of writer/editor Marv Wolfman’s impressive run on the title. ‘A Tale of Two Countries!’ illustrated by Wilson & Grainger, saw the Thing 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 objectedâ€¦

These stories from Marvel’s Middle Period are of variable quality but nonetheless all are an honest attempt to entertain and exhibit a dedicated drive to please. Whilst artistically the work varies from adequate to quite superb, most fans of frantic Fights ‘n’ Tights genre would find little to complain about.

Although not really a book for casual or more maturely-oriented readers there’s lots of fun on hand and young readers will have a blast, so there’s no real reason not to add this tome to your straining superhero bookshelvesâ€¦
Â© 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

December 5, 2011December 4, 2011

Essential Tales of the Zombie vol.1

By Steve Gerber, Pablo Marcos & various (Marvel)
ISBN 0-7851-1916-7

Inspiration isn’t everything. In fact as Marvel slowly grew to a position of market dominance in the wake of the losing their two most innovative and inspirational creators, they did so less by experimentation and more by expanding proven concepts and properties. The only real exception to this was the en masse creation of horror titles in response to the industry down-turn in super-hero sales – a move expedited by a rapid revision in the wordings of the increasingly ineffectual Comics Code Authority rules.

The switch to sinister supernatural stars had a number of benefits. Most important it brought a new readership to comics, one attuned to the global revival in spiritualism, Satanism and all things spooky. Almost as important, it gave the reprint-crazy company an opportunity to finally recycle old 1950s horror stories that had been rendered unprintable and useless since the code’s inception in 1954.

This comprehensive moody monochrome tome collects the contents of Tales of the Zombie #1-10 and pertinent portions of Dracula Lives #1-2 but, despite targeting the more mature black and white magazine market of the 1970s, these are oddly coy horror stories for a generation born before â€œvideo nastiesâ€ and teen-slasher movies, so it’s not likely that you’ll need a sofa to hide behindâ€¦

The collection commences with ‘Zombie!’ illustrated by unsung legend Tony DiPreta: one of those aforementioned, unleashed 1950s reprints which found its way as cheap filler into the back of Dracula Lives #1 (August 1973). In this intriguing pot-boiler criminal Blackie Nolan runs for his life when the man he framed for his crimes animates a corpse to extract his revengeâ€¦

A few months earlier Marvel Editor-in-Chief Roy Thomas had green-lighted a new mature-reader anthology magazine starring a Walking Deadman, closely based on a classic 1953 Stan Lee/Bill Everett thriller originally published in Menace #5. Tales of the Zombie #1 had a cover-date of July 1973 and contained a mix of all-new material, choice reprints and text features to thrill and chill all the voodoo devotees of comics land.

The undead excitement begins with ‘Altar of the Damned’ by Thomas, Steve Gerber, John Buscema & Tom Palmer, introducing wealthy Louisiana coffee-magnate Simon Garth as he frantically breaks free of a voodoo cult determined to sacrifice him. He is aided by priestess Layla who usually earns her daily bread as his secretary. Unfortunately, the attempt fails and Garth dies only to be brought back as a mighty, mindless slave of his worst enemy Gyps – the petty, lecherous gardener fired for leering at the boss’s daughterâ€¦

Next comes a retouched, cunningly recycled reprint of the aforementioned Everett ‘Zombie!’ yarn, adapted to depict the Garth as the corpse walker rampaging through Mardi Gras before exacting a far more permanent punishment on the ghastly gardener, after which the Dick Ayers limned ‘Iron Head’ saw a deep sea diver take a decidedly different look at the native art of resurrectionâ€¦

‘The Sensuous Zombie!’ is a cinematic history of the sub-genre and ‘Back to Back and Belly to Belly at the Zombie Jamboree Ball!’ an editorial tribute to Bill Everett after which Kit Pearson, Marv Wolfman & Pablo Marcos revealed the secret of ‘The Thing From the Bog!’ whilst Tom Sutton applied a disinterred tongue to his cheek for the blackly comic story of ‘The Mastermind’.

Gerber, Buscema & Syd Shores then returned to the saga of Simon Garth in ‘Night of the Walking Dead!’, as the murdered man’s daughter lost the amulet which controlled the zombie to a psychotic sneak thiefâ€¦

Pertinent portions of Dracula Lives #2 follow as ‘The Voodoo Queen of New Orleans!’ by Thomas, Gene Colan & Dick Giordano relates the Lord of Vampires’ clash with the undying mistress of magic Marie Laveau (tenuously included here as the charismatic bloodsucker strides past the recently deceased Garth on a crowded Mardi Gras street) before Tales of the Zombie #2 unfolds in its gory entirety.

Gerber & Marcos led off with ‘Voodoo Island!’ as daughter Donna Garth took ship for Port-Au-Prince, determined to learn all she could about the dark arts whilst the shambling cadaver of her father was drawn into the nefarious affairs of criminal mastermind Mr. Six. By circuitous means the mindless but instinct-driven Garth also ended up in Haiti just as a madman turning women into giant spiders decided Donna would be an ideal test subjectâ€¦ Luckily the one-time coffee-king’s best friend Anton Cartier was a resident and an expert on Voodoo loreâ€¦

‘Voodoo Unto Others’ by Tony Isabella & Winslow Mortimer tells a grim but affecting tale of the law of the Loa whilst ‘Acid Test’ by Stan Lee & George Tuska is another 1950’s thriller culled from Marvel’s chiller vaults, followed by a text feature trumpeting the company’s â€œnext big thingâ€ with ‘Introducing Brother Voodoo’ by Isabella.

It was back to contemporary times with the stunning graveyard re-animator yarn ‘Twin Burial’ by Chuck Robinson & Ralph Reese, balanced by creepy Colan classic ‘From Out of the Grave’ after which Chris Claremont asked ‘Voodoo: What’s it All About, Alfred?’ in an expansive prose piece, before Gerber & Marcos concluded the Garth mini-saga in ‘Night of the Spider!’

Issue #3 found the Zombie still lurching around Haiti in ‘When the Gods Crave Flesh!’, encountering a manic film director and his histrionic starlet wife who wanted to expose Voodoo to the judgemental celluloid eye of Hollywood.

Bad, bad, bad ideaâ€¦

Claremont scripted a prose shocker next, contributing part 1 of ‘With the Dawn Comes Death!’, lavishly illustrated with stock movie stills before ‘Net Result’ provided another Atlas-era atrocity (by DiPreta) whilst Isabella & Vincente Alcazar excelled with a new epic of samurai-against-dragon in ‘Warrior’s Burden’.

‘The Night of the Living Dead Goes on and on and on’ provided an in-depth analysis of the movie that restarted it all by Don McGregor, and Bill Walton limned the Fifties fear-fest ‘I Won’t Stay Dead’ before Doug Moench & Enrique Badia crafted a grim period piece of perilous plantation peril in ‘Jilimbi’s Word’ after which ‘Tales of the Zombie Feature Page’ closed the issue with a Steve Gerber interview and a critique of George A. Romero’s film Codename: Trixie – which we all know today as The Craziesâ€¦

Tales of the Zombie #4 (March 1974) opened with ‘The Law and Phillip Bliss’ as the mystic Amulet of Damballah irresistibly drew Garth back to New Orleans at the unwitting behest of a down-and-out with a grudge, swiftly followed by another movie feature by McGregor, this time examining the spooky overtones of current James Bond flick ‘Live and Let Die’, after which Gerry Conway, Rich Buckler, Vic Martin & Win Mortimer crafted a comicstrip film-thriller in ‘The Drums of Doom!’

Fantasy author Lin Carter explored popular modern supernatural proliferation in his article ‘Neo-Witchcraft’, ‘Courtship by Voodoo’ (by Isabella & Ron Wilson) recounted Egyptian romantic antics, and Moench & Mortimer disclosed the downside of desecrating graves for fun in ‘Nightfilth Rising’.

John Albano & Ernie Chua (nee Chan) told the tragic tale of ‘Four Daughters of Satan’ before ‘The Law and Phillip Bliss’ concluded in a cathartic slaughter of high-priced lawyers, whilst ‘the Zombie Feature Page’ highlighted the work and life of artist Pablo Marcos,

‘Palace of Black Magic!’ saw Phil Glass lose the amulet and control of Garth to crimelord Mr. Six and the Zombie become a terrifying weapon of sinister Voodoun lord Papa Shorty, until his new master’s own arrogance led to carnage and a kind of freedom for the Dean Man Walking, after which issue #5 continues with Moench’s filmic tribute article ‘White Zombie: Faithful Unto Death’ and a Russ Heath Atlas classic ‘Who Walks with a Zombie?’

The concluding instalment of Claremont’s prose piece ‘With the Dawn Comes Death!’ preceded another text infomercial ‘Brother Voodoo Lives Againâ€¦’ and new western horror story ‘Voodoo War’ by Isabella, with moody art from Syd Shores & Ayers, and ToTZ# 5 finished on a gritty high with ‘Death’s Bleak Birth!’ a powerful supernatural crime thriller by Moench & veteran illustrator Frank Springer.

Tales of the Zombie #6 (July 1974) opened with a handy update of events thus far before launching into Gerber & Marcos’ ‘Child of Darkness!’ wherein the anguished ambulatory remains of Simon Garth interrupts a hidden Voodoo ritual and encounters once more the Mambo Layla, who tried in vain to save him before his death and revivification. Even together though, they are unprepared for the vicious thing lurking in the swamp’s deepest recessesâ€¦

Gerry Boudreau then explored the history of the genre by critiquing Hammer Films’ ‘The Plague of the Zombies’ followed by a hilarious photo-feature on Zombie/blacksploitation movie ‘Sugar Hill’ and Claremont’s article on all things undead in ‘The Compleat Voodoo Man’.

Brother Voodoo had initially run in Strange Tales #169-173, from September 1973 to April 1974, ending on a cliffhanger which was concluded here with the Moench, Len Wein, Colan & Frank Chiaramonte epic ‘End of a Legend!’ as the Man with Two Souls finally defeated Voodoo villain Black Talon before ‘The Voodoo Beat’ by Carla Joseph rounded up a selection of movies and books then available regarding all things Cadaverous and Fetishyâ€¦

Moench & Alfredo Alcala provided a fill-in tale for the wandering corpse in ‘The Blood-Testament of Brian Collier’ as Garth shambled into a High Society murder-mystery, after which an article from the Village Voice by Kenneth Dreyfack on ‘Voodoo in the Park’ follows, notable to comics fans because it was illustrated by future great Dan Green, closely followed by Moench & Mortimer’s comics featurette ‘Haiti’s Walking Dead’ and ‘Inside Voodoo’ a book review by Claremont. The issue ended with ‘A Second Chance to Die’ – a classy short thriller by Carl Wessler & Alcala.

Tales of the Zombie #8 (November 1974) opened with a similar frontispiece feature by Isabella & Michael Kaluta ‘The Voodoo Killers’, whilst Gerber & Marcos returned to the title character with ‘A Death Made of Ticky-Tacky’ as Garth and Layla at long last reached New Orleans and fell foul of bored urban swingers looking for a different kind of good time. ‘Jimmy Doesn’t Live Here Anymore’ offered a chilling prose vignette by David Anthony Kraft, liberally illustrated by Kaluta.

‘Night of the Hunter’ by scripter Larry Lieber and rendered by Ron Wilson, Mike Esposito & Frank Giacoia saw a corrupt prison guard realise he’d tortured and killed the wrong black man when the victim’s brother turned up straight from the sinister heart of Haiti.

‘Tales of the Happy Humfo’ was another article on Voodoo by Claremont, spiced up with Kaluta drawings and Alcala again shut the show down with ‘Makao’s Vengeance’ a slick jungle chiller scripted by David Kraft.

The first issue of 1975 opened with ‘Was He a Voodoo-Man?’ by Isabella & Mortimer, after which the author then scripted the stunning Zombie headliner ‘Simon Garth Lives Again!’ illustrated by Virgilio Redondo & Alcala, whilst Claremont & Yong Montano contributed the second chapter in the saga; ‘A Day in the Life of a Dead Man’ for the ubiquitous Alcala to ink before Isabella & Marcos concluded the Garth extravaganza with ‘The Second Death Around’. As an added bonus Moench & Alcala also designed a swampy slaughter-party in ‘Herbie the Liar Said it Wouldn’t Hurt!’

Tales of the Zombie #10 (March 1975) led with a Brother Voodoo tale by Moench & Tony DeZuniga wherein the Lord of the Loa struggled to prevent ‘The Resurrection of Papa Jambo’ (the scheduled Simon Garth saga having been lost in the post at time of printing), with medical nightmare ‘Eye For an Eye, Tooth For a Tooth’ by Conway, Virgilio Redondo & Rudy Nebres; Wessler, John Warner & Alcazar’s death-row chiller ‘Malaka’s Curse!’ and the great Tom Sutton’s macabre ‘Grave Business’ bringing up the rear.

The horror boom was swiftly waning by this time and the advertised 11^th issue never materialised. An all-reprint Tales of the Zombie Super-Annual was released that summer with only the cover reproduced here.

Peppered with vibrant Zombie pin-ups by Marcos and Sutton and covers by Boris Vallejo and Earl Norem, this intriguing monochrome compendium, although a little dated, does contain what passed for Explicit Content in the mid 1970s, so although the frights should be nothing for today’s older kids, the occasional nipple or buttock might well send them screaming over the edge.

However with appropriate mature supervision I’m sure this groovy gore-fest will delight many a brain-eating fright fanâ€¦

November 22, 2011November 21, 2011

Essential Hulk volume 4

By Roy Thomas, Archie Goodwin, Steve Englehart, Herb Trimpe, John Severin & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-7851-2193-5

By the close of the 1960s the Incredible Hulk had settled into a comfortable niche and satisfyingly effective formula as the tragic Bruce Banner sought cures for his gamma-transformative curse, alternately aided or hunted by prospective father-in-law US General â€œThunderboltâ€ Ross and a variety of guest-star heroes and villains.

Herb Trimpe made the character his own, the â€œhouseâ€ Jack Kirby-based art-style quickly evolving into often startlingly abstract mannerism, augmented by an unmatched facility for drawing technology and especially honking great ordnance and vehicles – all of which looks especially great in the crisp black and white of these magically affordable Essentials volumes. And of course no one can deny the cathartic reader-release of a great big â€œHulk Smash!â€ momentâ€¦

This chronologically complete monochrome treat contains issues #143-170, spanning September 1971 – December 1973, and opens with an inevitable but long-delayed clash as the Jade Juggernaut battled Doctor Doom in the Roy Thomas, Dick Ayers & John Severin epics wherein the hunted Bruce Banner found ‘Sanctuary!’ in the New York Latverian Embassy. The deal was a bad one as the Iron Dictator proceeded to enslave the Gamma scientist for his bomb-making knowledge in an attempt to make his awesome alter ego into an unstoppable war machineâ€¦

The scheme went awry in ‘The Monster and the Madman!’ (Thomas, Gary Friedrich, Ayers & Severin) as the brainwashed Banner broke free of his conditioning thanks to Doom’s conflicted consort Valeria just in time for the Hulk to deliver a salutary lesson in mayhem throughout the dictator’s domain.

Incredible Hulk #145 found the monster invading a film-set in Egypt and accidentally awakening a prehistoric alien war-weapon in ‘Godspawn’, by Thomas, Len Wein, Herb Trimpe & Severin, whilst in America the military, in the form of Thunderbolt Ross, opened a dedicated anti-Hulk base named â€œProject Greenskinâ€ after which Gerry Conway scripted Thomas’ plot for ‘And the Measure of a Man isâ€¦ Death!’ wherein the Hulk faced sandstorms, bitter memories and the Israeli army in the deserts of Northern Egypt whilst in America the Hulkbuster base was already being infiltrated by android facsimiles constructed by the Jade Giant’s greatest foe.

As the Hulk headed instinctively homeward the infiltration threatened the US President himself and led to a catastrophic clash between Old Greenskin and The Leader as well as ‘The End of Doc Samson!’. That issue (#147) also included a moving and powerful vignette ‘Heaven is a Very Small Place!’ wherein Thomas, Trimpe & Severin took the tormented titan to the very edge of paradise before horrifying reality once more reasserted itselfâ€¦

Archie Goodwin debuted as scripter – with a little plotting assistance from a very junior Chris Claremont – in ‘But Tomorrowâ€¦ the Sun Shall Die!’ as the monster’s lost love Jarella travelled to Earth and a longed for reunion just as Banner was apparently cured of his curse by radical solar-energy experimentation. Unfortunately, the princess from the micro-verse accidentally brought with her a super-assassin determined to end her life at all costs and somehow triggered the sun into going novaâ€¦

Forced to become the monster once again to save his beloved, the Hulk was captured by Ross’s forces only to escape when an ancient threat returned to Earth in #149, hungry for radiation to survive in ‘â€¦ And Who Shall Claim This Earth His Own? The Inheritor!’

After dispatching that threat the Gamma Goliath wandered into the wilderness where he encountered on-sabbatical X-Man Alec Summers who had banished himself – with girlfriend Lorna Dane – to the deserts of New Mexico, terrified of his uncontrollable cosmic power in ‘Cry Hulk, Cry Havok!’ (#150 April 1972).

When Lorna encountered a menacing biker gang and an Emerald Giant violently protective of his privacy, Summers finally proved himself against the rampaging but easily distracted titanâ€¦

‘When Monsters Meet!’ pitted the Hulk against a radioactive horror resulting from a disastrous cancer-cure derived from Banner’s blood after which Friedrich, Ayers & Frank Giacoia asked ‘But Who Will Judge the Hulk?’ as the helpless Bruce Banner was sent to trial for the destruction wrought by his emerald alter ego: a guest-star studded two-parter which concluded in #153 ‘My World, My Jury!’ with additional art from Trimpe & Severin.

After explosively escaping the kangaroo court, the fugitive fury discovered ‘Hell is a Very Small Hulk!’ (Goodwin, Trimpe & Severin) when he swallowed a defective shrinking formula, created by the Astonishing Ant-Man, in a forlorn attempt to rejoin Jarella in her subatomic world. Snatched up by the face-shifting Chameleon and the assembled hordes of Hydra, the diminished brute still managed to quash their treasonous schemes – at the apparent cost of his life.

In actuality, the Hulk was shrinking in sporadic bursts, propelled into a succession of micro-worlds, including an impossible â€œEarthâ€ where Nazis had won WWII in ‘Destination: Nightmare!’ before a cosmic entity named Shaper of Worlds tempted the Green Gargantuan with an empty paradise, before another shrinking spasm happily deposited him on Jarella’s world in time for ‘Holocaust at the Heart of the Atom!’ (inked by Sal Trapani) to pit him against his worst nightmare – himself – before again losing his true love to the vicissitudes of cruel fate,

Returned to Earth and normal size the Jade Goliath battled a brace of old enemies in ‘Name My Vengeance: Rhino!’ before being dispatched to the far side of the Sun and a clash on Counter-Earth with the messianic Adam Warlock in ‘Frenzy on a Far-Away World’, courtesy of Roy Thomas, Steve Gerber, Trimpe & Trapani. Meanwhile on our planet, heartbroken Betty Ross, believing her one true love was forever gone, married the over-attentive, ever present Major Glenn Talbotâ€¦

Steve Englehart took over the scripting chores with #159 and ‘Two Years Before the Abomination!’ as Banner and the Rhino returned to our embattled globe only to again be attacked by General Ross’ Hulkbuster forces; determined to kill Banner and safeguard America – and preserve his unsuspecting daughter’s new marriageâ€¦

However, the resulting conflagration awoke a comatose Gamma monster even more deadly than the Hulkâ€¦

‘Nightmare in Niagara!’ saw the misunderstood man-brute instinctively drawn to the honeymooning couple only to encounter amphibian outcast Tiger Shark in another blockbusting battle issue, after which his Northerly rampage took the Green Goliath to Canada and ‘Beyond the Border Lurks Death!’ wherein the Hulk became a reluctant ally of the recently hyper-mutated Hank McCoy – better known as the Bludgeoning Beast – in a battle against the Mimic, an old X-foe whose ability to absorb the attributes of others had gone tragically, catastrophically haywire and threatened to consume the entire Earth.

Still under Northern Lights, the Hulk encountered a terrifying horror called the Wendigo in ‘Spawn of the Flesh-Eater!’ but the maniacal man-eater harboured a tragically shattering secret which made it as much victim as villainâ€¦

Pushing ever Pole-ward the Hulk reached the top of world but could not elude Ross’ relentless pursuit. After a cataclysmic arctic clash both man-monster and his stalker fell into the clutches of Soviet prodigy the Gremlin (mutant offspring of the Hulk’s very first foe the Gargoyle: see Essential Hulk volume 1 for details) in ‘Trackdown’ and although the Gamma Giant broke free easily the American General became a highly embarrassing political prisonerâ€¦

Shambling into Polar seas the Hulk encountered a fantastic sub-sea colony of human aquatic nomads in #164’s ‘The Phantom from 5,000 Fathoms!’ and became a slave of egomaniacal Captain Omen who had created his own mobile submarine nation and roamed the ocean beds at will.

The draconian martinet had no idea how his dissatisfied clan hungered for freedom, fresh air and sunlight and would disastrously rebel to follow ‘The Green-Skinned God!’ to their doomâ€¦

Incredible Hulk #166 finally saw the Green Goliath return to New York just in time to encounter Battling Bowman Hawkeye and a brain-eating electrical monster dubbed Zzzax in ‘The Destroyer From the Dynamo!’ whilst in the sub-plot section, a bold bid to rescue Thunderbolt Ross from the Commies succeeded, but seemingly cost the life of his new son-in-lawâ€¦

Jack Abel took over the inking duties in #167 with ‘To Destroy the Monster!’ as grieving widow Betty Ross-Talbot suffered a nervous breakdown and was targeted by intellectual murder mutant Modok and his agents of Advanced Idea Mechanics who needed an infallible weapon to break the Hulk.

Just as black ghetto kid Jim Wilson reconnected with the Emerald Behemoth the Hulk easily destroyed Modok’s giant Robot body but failed to prevent Betty’s abduction, but she retuned in the next issue as a Gamma-spawned avian horror programmed to destroy her former lover in ‘The Hate of the Harpy!’

Issue #169 saw the temporarily triumphant Harpy and her verdant victim trapped aboard an ancient floating fortress in the sky in ‘Calamity in the Clouds!’ and battling together against a monstrous Bi-Beast until Modok attacked and destroyed the last vestige of the sky-citadel, propelling the now human Banner and Betty onto a lost tropical island inhabited by incredible alien creatures in the Englehart, Chris Claremont, Trimpe & Abel ‘Death from on High!’ which cataclysmically concludes this fourth fabulous Essential Hulk extravaganza in tried and true bombastic style.

Before it all ends though, there’s one last treat in the form of an unused alternative cover to Hulk #166â€¦

The Incredible Hulk is one of the most well-known comic characters on Earth, and these stories, as much as the movies, cartoons, TV shows, games, toys and action figures are the reason why. For an uncomplicated, honestly vicarious experience of Might actually being Right, you can’t do better than these yarns so why not Go Green – even if its only in monochrome and your own delirious head?
Â© 1971, 1972, 1973, 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

November 13, 2011November 12, 2011

Essential Daredevil volume 4

By Gerry Conway, Steve Gerber, Gene Colan, & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2762-3

Matt Murdock is a blind lawyer whose remaining senses hyper-compensate, making him an astonishing acrobat, formidable fighter and a living lie-detector. Very much a second-string hero for most of his early years, Daredevil was nonetheless a striking and popular one, due in large part to the captivatingly humanistic art of Gene Colan. He fought gangsters, a variety of super-villains and even the occasional monster or alien invasion. He quipped and wise-cracked his way through life and life-threatening combat, utterly unlike the grim, moody, quasi-religious metaphor he’s been seen as in latter years.

In these tales from the pivotal era of relevancy, social awareness and increasing political polarisation the Man Without Fear was also growing into the judicial conscience of a generationâ€¦

Marvel Comics built its fan-base through audacious, contemporary stories with spectacular art and by creating a shared continuity that closely followed the characters through not just their own titles but also through the many guest appearances in other comics. Such an interweaving meant that even today completists and fans seek out extraneous stories simply to get a fuller picture of their favourites’ adventures.

This fourth Essential monochrome collection re-presents Daredevil #75-101, covering April 1971 to July 1973 and also includes Avengers #111, wherein twin storylines converged and concluded.

The Marvel Magic opens with a drama of political intrigue and kidnapping as Murdock travelled to the banana republic of Delvadia where ‘Now Rides the Ghost of El Condor!’ by scripter Gerry Conway and the incomparable art team of Gene Colan & Syd Shores: a canny yarn of revolutionary fervour and self-serving greed concluded in ‘The Deathmarch of El Condor!’ in Daredevil #76, with inker Tom Palmer beginning his long association with Colan as perhaps his most effective inker.

Guest stars abounded in ‘â€¦And So Enters the Amazing Spider-Man!’ as an uncanny artefact appeared in Central Park inviting DD, Spidey and the Sub-Mariner to join a fantastic battle in a far-flung lost world. The adventure concluded in the Atlantean’s own comic (#40) but as Daredevil didn’t join the quest that sequel isn’t included in this tome.

As an aside to interested 1980’s post-punk/neo-psychedelic saddoes everywhere, I might mention that this story is where Julian Cope found the phrase â€œThe Teardrop Explodes’â€¦

Issue #78 returned to more traditional territory as ‘The Horns of the Bull!’ followed the downfall of petty thug Bull Taurus after enigmatic mastermind Mr. Kline transformed him into a savage beast and set him upon the Man Without Fearâ€¦

Gary Friedrich wrote the cataclysmic conclusion ‘Murder Cries the Man-Bull!’ but Conway was back to spectacularly reintroduce a vintage villain ‘In the Eyesâ€¦ of the Owl!’ which presaged a major format change for the series from Daredevil #81’s ‘And Death is a Woman Called Widow’ (inked by Jack Abel) wherein former Soviet super-spy Natasha Romanoff burst onto the scene as the ubiquitous Kline was finally unmasked and revealed to be once again behind all DD’s woesâ€¦

After a stunning pin-up of the bodacious Black Widow by the incredible Bill Everett the conspiracy drama continued with ‘Now Sendâ€¦ the Scorpion’ as Kline – AKA the Assassin – set the manic artificial arachnid against DD and the Widow whilst his master attempted to suborn Murdock’s greatest friend Foggy Nelson.

At the end of that issue the Scorpion was apparently dead and ‘The Widow Accused!’ by Nelson. A sham trial intended to railroad and pillory the Russian Ã©migrÃ© ensued in #83, (art by Alan Weiss, Barry Smith & Bill Everett) with the Assassin dispatching brutish Mr. Hyde to ensure his victory. Against all odds Murdock cleared Natasha of the charges, prompting the hidden mastermind to take direct action in ‘Night of the Assassin!’ (Colan & Shores). Attacking DD and the Widow in Switzerland – whence she had fled to nurse her wounded pride – Kline met final defeat in a shocking climax to the extended saga.

Daredevil #85 found the couple romantically involved and returning to America on a ‘Night Flight!’ hijacked by the bloodthirsty Gladiator, after which another long forgotten foe resurfaced for the last time in ‘Once Upon a Timeâ€¦ the Ox!’ (Palmer inks) before Matt and Natasha relocated to San Francisco and stumbled into one more ancient enemy in #87’s ‘From Stage Left, Enter: Electro!’

The memory lane menaces continued in ‘Call Him Killgrave!’ as the mind-bending Purple Man resurfaced, erroneously convinced DD had tracked him down to queer his nefarious schemes. As the origin of the Black Widow was revealed the sinister spellbinder attacked and was temporarily repulsed: regrouping with Electro and attacking again in ‘Crisis!’ just as a mysterious man from Natasha’s sordid past resurfaced with portentous news of a long-forgotten missionâ€¦

Daredevil #90 explored ‘The Sinister Secret of Project Four!‘ as Hornhead began suffering inexplicable, incapacitating panic attacks, explained a month later in ‘Fear is the Key!’ when Mister Fear struck againâ€¦ only to be revealed as more than he first seemedâ€¦

Issue #92 finally bowed to the inevitable and became Daredevil and the Black Widow just as a new menace struck ‘On the Eve of the Talon!’ and the Project Four saga roared to a conclusion as industrialist Damon Dran won ‘A Power Corrupt!’ and was transformed into a monolithic Indestructible Man rampaging through San Francisco; arrogantly aware that ‘He Can Crush the World!’ Only superhuman heroism and an ultimate sacrifice saved that dayâ€¦

‘Bullfight on the Bay!’ saw the Man-Bull break jail and rampage across America to revenge himself upon Daredevil, forcing Natasha to do her very worst in the concluding chapter ‘The Widow Will Make You Pay!’ (inked by Ernie Chua nee Chan).

Steve Gerber took over scripting with #97 (from Conway’s plots) for ‘He Who Saves’ as a street acrobat suffered a calamitous accident and was subsequently mutated by sinister hidden forces into proto-godling the Dark Messiah. The already unstoppable Agent of Change was joined by three equally awesome Disciples of Doom in #98’s ‘Let There beâ€¦ Death!’ but even though physically overmatched, DD and the Widow’s psychological warfare proved fatally effective.

‘The Mark of Hawkeye!’ by the now autonomous Gerber, Sam Kweskin & Shores, found Natasha’s old boyfriend turn up determined to reclaim her, leading to the Archer’s sound and well-deserved thrashing and a quick jump into Avengers #111. ‘With Two Beside Them!’ (by Steve Englehart, Don Heck & Mike Esposito) had the West Coast vigilantes join a ragtag team of heroes to rescue a number of X-Men and Avengers enslaved by the malevolent Magneto.

Back in the City by the Bay and dumped by Natasha for his anniversary issue, Daredevil agonisingly relived his origins and danger-drenched life in ‘Mind Storm!’ (Gerber, Colan & John Tartaglione) whilst a savage and embittered psionic terrorist launched a series of mind-mangling assaults on the populace, culminating in a shattering showdown between the blind hero and Angar the Screamer as well as a shaky reconciliation with the Widow in ‘Vengeance in the Sky with Diamonds!’, illustrated by Rich Buckler & Frank Giacoia.

This supremely enticing volume also has one last treat in store: two unused Gil Kane covers for issues #90 and 91, to supplement his superb stint as the features premier cover artist.

As the social upheaval of this period receded the impressively earnest material was replaced by fabulous fantasy tales which strongly suggested the true potential of Daredevil was in reach. These beautifully illustrated yarns may still occasionally jar with their heartfelt stridency and sometimes dated attitudes but the narrative energy and sheer exuberant excitement of these classic adventures are delights no action fan will care to miss. And the next volume heads even further into uncharted territoryâ€¦

November 1, 2011November 5, 2011

Essential Iron Man volume 4

By Gerry Conway, Mike Friedrich, Robert Kanigher, Steve Gerber, George, Tuska, Jim Starlin & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4254-6

First conceived in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis at a time when the economy was booming and â€œCommie-bashingâ€ was an American national obsession, the emergence of a new and shining young Thomas Edison, using Yankee ingenuity, wealth and invention to safeguard the Land of the Free and better the World, seemed an obvious development. Combining the then-sacrosanct faith that technology and business in unison could solve any problem, with the universal imagery of noble knights battling evil, the Invincible Iron Man seemed an infallibly successful proposition.

Of course whilst Tony Stark was the acceptable face of 1960s Capitalism – a glamorous millionaire industrialist/scientist and a benevolent all-conquering hero when clad in the super-scientific armour of his alter-ego Iron Man – the turbulent tone of the 1970s soon relegated his suave, â€œcan-doâ€ image to the dustbin of history and with ecological disaster and social catastrophe from the myriad abuses of big business the new zeitgeists of the young, the Golden Avenger and Stark International were soon confronting a few tricky questions from the increasingly politically savvy readership.

With glamour, money and fancy gadgetry not quite so cool anymore the questing voices of a new generation of writers began posing uncomfortable questions in the pages of a series that was once the bastion of militarised America â€¦

This fourth gleaming black and white chronological compendium navigates that transitional period; reprinting Iron Man #39-61 (July 1971 to August 1973) as the title experienced an unprecedented and often uncomfortable number of creative personnel changes whilst the country endured a radical and often divisive split in ideology.

Gerry Conway and Herb Trimpe open the proceedings with ‘A Twist of Memoryâ€¦ a Turn of Mind!’ wherein oriental mastermind White Dragon turned Tony Stark into a brainwashed pawn, thereby inadvertently enslaving the Golden Avenger. Stark’s devoted assistant Kevin O’Brian came to the rescue but was led down a path to inevitable doom when he assisted his mind-locked employer in a torturous ‘Night Walk!’ (George Tuska & Jim Mooney) to save his sanity and defeat their sinister foe.

Simultaneously, Marianne Rodgers, the woman they both love, begins a slow glide into madness as her telepathic powers intensify and eat at her mindâ€¦

Issue #41 continued a long and convoluted storyline dealing with mystery mastermind Mr. Kline in ‘The Claws of the Slasher!’ as a duo of paranormal saboteurs attacked Washington DC during a Senate investigation into Stark Industries, accidentally triggering a psychic transformation in Marianne who temporarily became a mind-warping harpy in ‘When Demons Wail!’ (inked by Frank Giacoia), culminating in a blockbusting extra-long battle against psionic godling Mikas in ‘Doomprayer!’ (Mooney inks). During that cataclysmic conflict O’Brian built his own super-armour to join the fray as The Guardsman; his own mental state rapidly deteriorating and his eventual showdown with Stark growing ever more unavoidableâ€¦

Iron Man #44, by Conway, Robert Kanigher, Tuska & Vince Colletta, found Stark near death in ‘Weep for a Lost Nightmare!’ guarded by Kevin and Marianne as Kline dispatched a robotic Night Phantom to finish the ailing hero off; a tale truncated midway and completed in the next issue – presumably due to deadline problems. The remainder of the comic – and happily included here – is a one off, all-new adventure of The Astonishing Ant-Man.

‘Armageddon on Avenue â€œAâ€’, by Roy Thomas, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, is a light-hearted romp pitting the diminutive hero against ambitious, overcompensating old foe The Scarlet Beetle â€“ a bug determined to conquer the word and wipe out humanity.

Gary Friedrich scripted the concluding ‘Beneath the Armour Beats a Heart!’ in #45 after which Stark faced a revolt by his own Board of Directors who had convinced the jealousy-consumed O’Brian to stand with them.

When student protestors invaded the factory, reactionary revolt instigator Simon Gilbert convinced O’Brian to don his Guardsman suit and murderously teach them all a lesson, leading to a horrific escalation in ‘Menace at Large!’ (inked by John Verpoorten) as Iron Man intervened to save lives and caused the out-of control O’Brian’s deathâ€¦

In the aftermath Stark was compelled to review his origins, twin careers and now-obscured objectives in the classic ‘Why Must There be an Iron Man?’ (# 47, by Thomas, Barry Smith & Mooney) after which, emotionally reinvigorated, the Armoured Ace welcomed new scripter Mike Friedrich and old artists Tuska & Colletta to face a renewed threat from radical anarchist Firebrand in ‘The Fury and the Inferno!’ after which Marianne’s final breakdown beganâ€¦

‘â€¦ There Lurks the Adaptoid!’ found the terrified woman experiencing horrifying precognitive visions when a power-mimicking robot attacked Iron Man, leading to her betrayal of the man she loved when the automaton evolved into an unbeatable new form in #50’s ‘Deathplay’, just as Z-list villain Princess Python attempted to kidnap Tony Stark, and the bizarre saga concluded with bombastic battle in ‘Now Stalks the Cyborg-Sinister!’

New Age mysticism and West Coast celebrity- cults influenced Iron Man #53 as Stark confronted ‘Raga: Son of Fire!’, an emotion-fuelled flaming maniac who had been trained by an evil Guru who subsequently took over from his failed disciple when things got too hot. ‘The Black Lama!’ (additional pencils from star-in-waiting Jim Starlin) was also unable to destroy the Golden Avenger, but would later return to become one of the hero’s greatest foes.

Issue #54 found Stark still in California and drawn into what became one of Marvel’s most successful crossover epics. ‘Sub-Mariner: Target For Death!’ introduced alien researcher Madame MacEvil – later re-branded as Moondragon after this opening salvo in the Thanos Saga – a bald sexy siren who manipulated Iron Man into attacking the Prince of Atlantis in a spectacular duel with the bonus of additional art from the legendary Bill Everett

The Thanos story moved into full gear in Iron Man #55, as Friedrich scripted Starlin’s opening gambit ‘Beware Theâ€¦ Blood Brothers!’ which introduced haunted humanoid powerhouse Drax the Destroyer, trapped by extraterrestrial invader Thanos under the Nevada desert and in dire need of rescue…

(This was all merely a prelude to the full saga which appeared in Captain Marvel #25-33, Marvel Feature #12 and Avengers #125, and has been collected in such compilations as The Life of Captain Marvel and others.)

Issue #56 was a literally magical palate-cleanser as Steve Gerber joined Starlin & Esposito to tell the satirically hilariously tragedy of ‘Rasputin’s Revenge’, wherein a street corner doom-prophet accidentally gained the power to fulfil his prognostications but still fell sadly short of engineering the apocalypseâ€¦

It was back to business as usual with Gerber, Tuska, Esposito & Giacoia in #57 as a devastating ‘Strike!’ hit the troubled Stark factories, engineered by an insidious old enemy who inevitably overplayed his be-ringed hand in the concluding ‘Mandarin and the Unicorn: Double-Death!’ (with Mike Friedrich returning to script Gerber’s plot) after which ‘A Madness in Motown!’ saw Stark battling the revenge-maddened Firebrand whilst unknowingly falling for the torrid terrorist’s sister Roxie.

This sparkling compact chronicle climaxes with a two-part clash against a deadly technology-thief which began with ‘Cry Marauder!’ when the masked malcontent stole Stark’s experimental space shuttle, culminating in ‘Death Knells over Detroit!’ as the purloined prototype was unerringly aimed like a monstrous missile into the heart of Motor City, leaving a crippled Iron Man with only seconds left to save the dayâ€¦

Don’t fret folks; it all turned out alright in the endâ€¦

With this volume Marvel further entrenched itself in the camp of the young and the restless, experiencing firsthand and everyday the social upheaval America was undergoing. This rebellious teen sensibility and increased political conscience permeated the company’s publications as their core audience evolved from Flower Power innocents into a generation of acutely aware activists. Future tales would increasingly bring reformed capitalist Stark into many unexpected and outrageous situationsâ€¦

But that’s the meat of another review, as this engrossing graphic novel is done. From our distant vantage point the polemical energy and impact might be dissipated, but the sheer quality of the comics and the cool thrill of the eternal aspiration of man in perfect partnership with magic metal remains. These superhero sagas are amongst the most underrated but impressive tales of the period and are well worth your time, consideration and cold hard cashâ€¦

September 28, 2011October 2, 2011

Essential Ghost Rider volume 1

By Roy Thomas, Gary Friedrich, Mike Ploog, Jim Mooney, John Byrne & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-1838-1

At the end of the 1960s American comicbooks were in turmoil, much like the youth of the nation they targeted. Superheroes had dominated for much of the decade; peaking globally before explosively falling to ennui and overkill. Older genres such as horror, westerns and science fiction returned, fed by radical trends in movie-making where another, new(ish) wrinkle had also emerged: disenchanted, rebellious, unchained Youth on Motorbikes seeking a different way forward.

Green Lantern/Green Arrow, Jack Kirby’s Jimmy Olsen, Captain America and many others all took the â€œEasy Riderâ€ option to boost flagging sales (and if you’re interested the best of the crop was Mike Sekowsky’s tragically unfinished mini-masterpiece of cool Jason’s Quest in Showcase). Over at Marvel, a company still reeling from Kirby’s defection to DC/National in 1970, canny Roy Thomas green-lighted a new character who combined the freewheeling, adolescent-friendly biker-theme with the all-pervasive supernatural furore gripping the entertainment fields.

Back in 1967, Marvel published a western masked hero named Ghost Rider: a shameless, whole-hearted appropriation of the cowboy hero creation of Vince Sullivan, Ray Krank & Dick Ayers (Magazine Enterprises from 1949 to 1955), who utilised magician’s tricks to fight bandits by pretending to be an avenging phantom of justice.

Scant years later with the Comics Code prohibition against horror hastily rewritten – amazing how plunging sales can affect ethics – scary comics came back in a big way and a new crop of supernatural superheroes and monsters began to appear on the newsstands to supplement the ghosts, ghoulies and goblins already infiltrating the once science-only scenarios of the surviving mystery men titles.

In fact the lifting of the Code ban resulted in such an en masse creation of horror titles (new stories and reprints from the first boom of the 1950s), in response to the industry-wide down-turn in superhero sales, that it probably caused a few more venerable costumed crusaders to (temporarily, at least) bite the dust.

Almost overnight nasty monsters (and narcotics – but that’s another story) became acceptable fare within four-colour pages and whilst a parade of pre-code reprints made sound business sense the creative aspect of the contemporary fascination in supernatural themes was catered to by adapting popular cultural icons before risking whole new concepts on an untested public.

As always in entertainment, the watch-world was fashion: what was hitting big outside comics was to be incorporated into the mix as soon as possible.

When proto-monster Morbius, the Living Vampire debuted in Amazing Spider-Man #101 (October 1971) and the sky failed to fall in, Marvel moved ahead with a line of shocking superstars – beginning with a werewolf and a vampire – before chancing something new with a haunted biker who could tap into both Easy Rider‘s freewheeling motorcycling chic and the supernatural zeitgeist.

The all-new Ghost Rider debuted in Marvel Spotlight #5, August 1972 (preceded by western hero Red Wolf in #1 and the aforementioned Werewolf By Night).

This copious compendium collects in moody monochrome the earliest exploits adventures from Marvel Spotlight #5-12, Ghost Rider #1-20 and an horrific crossover with Daredevil #138, beginning with that landmark first appearance which introduced stunt biker Johnny Blaze, his fatally flawed father-figure Crash Simpson and Johnny’s devoted girlfriend: sweet virginal Roxanne Simpsonâ€¦

‘Ghost Rider’, plotted by Thomas, scripted by Friedrich and stunningly illustrated by Ploog, saw carnival cyclist Blaze sell his soul to the devil in an attempt to save his foster-father Crash from cancer. As is the way of such things, Satan followed the letter but not spirit of the contract and Simpson died anyway, but when the Dark Lord later came for Johnny Roxanne intervened, her purity preventing the Devil from claiming his due. Temporarily thwarted Satan afflicted Johnny with a body that burned with the fires of Hell every time the sun went downâ€¦

Haunting the night and terrorising thugs and criminals at first, the traumatised biker soon left the Big City and headed for the solitary deserts where in ‘Angels From Hell’ the flaming skulled fugitive joined a biker gang led by the enigmatic Curly Samuels: a resurrected agent of Satan attempting to destroy the protective Roxanne and claim Blaze.

No prizes for guessing Curly’s true identity then, when the next chapter (inked by Frank Chiaramonte) is entitled ‘Die, Die, My Daughter!’ before the origin epic concluded with a monumental battle against ‘â€¦The Hordes of Hell!’ (with a rather uncomfortable artistic collaboration by Ploog and Jim Mooney) resulting in a torturous Cold War dÃ©tente between the still nightly-transforming Blaze and Satan, as well as the introduction of a new eldritch enemy in Native American Witch Man Snake-Danceâ€¦

Marvel Spotlight #9 saw the tragically undervalued Tom Sutton take over the pencilling – with inks by Chic Stone – for ‘The Snakes Crawl at Nightâ€¦’ as Medicine Man magic and demonic devil-worship combined to torment Johnny Blaze just as Roxanne went west to look for him. To further confound the cursed cyclist, Satan decreed that although he must feel the pain, no injury would end Johnny’s life until his soul resided in Hellâ€¦ which came in very handy when Roxanne was sacrificed by Snake-Dance and the Ghost Rider had to battle his entire deviant cult to rescue herâ€¦

In #10 ‘The Coming ofâ€¦ Witch-Woman!’ (Friedrich, Sutton & Mooney) opened with Blaze, a fugitive from the police, rushing the dying Roxanne to hospital whilst on the Reservation tensions remained high as Snake-Dance’s daughter Linda Littletrees revealed her own connection to Satan, culminating in a devastating eldritch assault on Blaze in #11’s ‘Season of the Witch-Woman!’ (inked by the incomparable Syd Shores).

That cataclysmic conflict continued into Ghost Rider #1 (September 1973), which further extended the escalating war between Blaze and the devil, whilst introducing a new horror-hero who would take over the biker’s vacant spot in Spotlight.

Linda Littletrees wasn’t so much a Satan-worshipping witch as a ‘A Woman Possessed!’ but when her father and fiancÃ© Sam Silvercloud called Boston-based exorcist Daimon Hellstrom for help, they were completely unprepared for the kind of assistance the demonologist offered.

With Roxanne slowly recovering and Blaze still on the run, issue #2 saw the bedevilled biker dragged down to Hell in ‘Shake Hands With Satan!’ (illustrated by Mooney & Shores) before the saga concluded in Marvel Spotlight #12 with the official debut of ‘The Son of Satan!’ by Friedrich, Herb Trimpe & Frank Chiaremonte, which revealed Daimon Hellstrom’s long-suppressed inner self to be a brutal scion of the Infernal Realm eternally at war with his fearsome father.

The released Prince of Hell swiftly rushed to Blaze’s aid – although more to spite his sire than succour the victim – and, with his own series off to a spectacular start, continued to take the pressure of the flaming-skulled hero. From Ghost Rider #3’s ‘Wheels on Fire’ (Friedrich, Mooney & John Tartaglione) a fresh direction was explored with more mundane menaces and contemporary antagonists such as the thuggish gang of Big Daddy Dawson – who had kidnapped the still frail Roxanneâ€¦

Blaze also learned to create a spectral motorcycle out of the Hellfire that perpetually burned through his body: a most useful trick considering the way he got through conventional transportâ€¦

Eager to establish some kind of normal life, the still wanted-by-the-cops Blaze accepted a pardon by the State Attorney General in #4’s ‘Death Stalks the Demolition Derby’ (inked by Vince Colletta) in return for infiltrating a Las Vegas showman’s shady operation, leading to another supernatural encounter, this time against a demonic gambler dubbed Roulette in ‘And Vegas Writhes in Flame!’ by the transitional creative team of Marv Wolfman, Doug Moench, Mooney & Sal Trapani.

With #6, ill-considered attempts to convert the tragic biker into a more conventional superhero began with ‘Zodiac II’ (story and concept by Tony Isabella & Friedrich) as Blaze stumbled into a senseless fight with a man who had all the powers of the old Avengers’ arch-foes. However there was a hidden Satanic component to the mystery as Johnny discovered when reformed super-villain turned TV star Stunt-Master turned up to help close the case and watch helplessly as the one-man Zodiac fell-foul of his own diabolical devil’s bargain in ‘â€¦And Lose His Own Soul!’ (Isabella, Mooney & Jack Abel).

A final confrontation – of sorts – began in Ghost-Rider #8 as ‘Satan Himself!’ came looking for Johnny’s soul with a foolproof scheme to force Roxanne to rescind her protection, which she finally did as the Hell-biker battled Inferno, the Fear-demon and most of San Francisco in a game-changing epic called ‘The Hell-Bound Hero!’ wherein Blaze was finally freed from his satanic burden by the intervention of someone who appeared to be Jesus Christâ€¦

The cover of issue #10 (by Ron Wilson and Joe Sinnott, I think) featured Ghost Rider battling the Hulk, but a deadline cock-up delayed that tale until #11 and the already included origin from Marvel Spotlight #5 filled those pages. Gil Kane & Tom Palmer reinterpreted the scene for their cover on next issue which finally detailed ‘The Desolation Run!‘ by Isabella, Sal Buscema, Tartaglione & George Roussos, as Johnny joined a disparate band of dirt-bikers in a desert race which collided with the legendarily solitary and short-tempered Green Goliath, after which artists Frank Robbins, Frank Giacoia & Mike Esposito recounted the fate of World War I fighter ace Phantom Eagle when Blaze tried to unknowingly attempted to rescue the warrior’s murderer from the ‘Phantom of the Killer Skies’â€¦

Ghost Rider #13 declared ‘You’ve Got a Second Chance, Johnny Blaze!’ (Isabella, George Tuska & Colletta) as the terms of the hero’s on-going curse were changed again, just as the dissolute biker headed to Hollywood and a promised job as Stunt-Master’s body-double. No sooner had he signed up however, than Blaze became involved with starlet Karen Page – Daredevil’s one-time girlfriend – and a bizarre kidnap plot by super-villain The Trapster.

Not included here is a yarn where Ghost Rider and Spider-Man battled the demented biker bad-guy The Orb (you’ll need to track down Marvel Team-Up #15 or at least the first Essential Marvel Team-Up volume for that tale) which is a pity as ‘A Specter Stalks the Soundstage!’ features his revenge-hungry return attempt to destroy Blaze which spectacularly concludes with ‘Vengeance on the Ventura Freeway!’ (illustrated by Bob Brown & Don Heck).

Whilst hanging out on the West Coast Blaze joined new superteam The Champions, but they played no part in Bill Mantlo, Tuska & Colletta’s fill-in issue ‘Blood in the Waters’ as the Ghost Rider oh, so topically tangled with a Great White Shark in the gore-soaked California surf before #17 highlighted a team-up with the Son of Satan in ‘Prelude to a Private Armageddon!’ (by Isabella, Robbins & Colletta) wherein fellow stunt-actor Katy Milner was possessed by a demon and only Hellstrom could help.

The saga continued with ‘The Salvation Run!’ as Blaze was forced to race through the bowels of Hell and relive his own traumatic past before finally saving the day, Katy and his own much-tarnished soul in ‘Resurrection’.

All this time the mystery of Karen’s attempted abduction had been percolating through the subplots here, but explosively boiled over in Daredevil #138 as ‘Where is Karen Page?’ (by Wolfman, John Byrne & Mooney) revealed the machinations of criminal maniac Death’s-Head to be merely part of a greater scheme involving Blaze, Stunt-Master, the Man without Fear and the homicidal Death Stalker. The convoluted conundrum cataclysmically climaxed in Ghost-Rider #20 with ‘Two Against Death!’ by Wolfman, John Byrne & Don Perlinâ€¦

This spooky, black and white thriller compendium finishes the chilling action with Marvel Universe Handbook pages imparting all the background you could ever desire regarding Johnny Blaze and Daimon Hellstrom to truly complete your fear-filled fun fest.

One final note: backwriting and retcons notwithstanding, the Christian boycotts and moral crusades of a later decade were what compelled the criticism-averse and commercially astute corporate Marvel to â€œtranslateâ€ the biblical Satan of these early tales into generic and presumably more palatable or â€œacceptableâ€ demonic creatures such as Mephisto, Satanish, Marduk Kurios and other equally naff downgrades, but the original intent and adventures of Johnny Blaze – and indeed series spin-offs Daimon Hellstrom and Satana, respectively theÂ Son and Daughter of Satan, tapped into the period’s global fascination with Satanism, Devil-worship and all things Spooky and Supernatural which had begun with such epochal films as Rosemary’s Baby (Roman Polanski’s 1968 film more than Ira Levin’s novel) and remember aren’t your feeble bowdlerised â€œHell-liteâ€ horrors.

These tales are about the real-deal Infernal Realm and a good man struggling to save his soul from the baddest of all bargains – as much as the revised Comics Code would allow – so brace yourself, hols steady and accept no supernatural substitutesâ€¦

September 7, 2011September 6, 2011

Essential Fantastic Four volume 5

By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Joe Sinnott, Frank Giacoia, John Romita, John Buscema, John Verpoorten & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2162-6

With the fifth collection of tales from â€œThe World’s Greatest Comics Magazineâ€ the dream-team of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee was sundered and a reeling Marvel entered a new epoch of uncertain futures and bold new directions – which is rather ironic since it was the company’s reticence to give the artist creative freedom which led to Kirby’s jumping ship to National/DC in the first placeâ€¦

This volume covers the final days of â€œthe King’sâ€ reign on Marvel’s flagship title and the shaky start of a new era covers Fantastic Four #84-110 (March 1969-May 1971) plus the covers of FF Annuals #7 and 8, but also includes a few surprise features to stun and startle art-lovers everywhere.

The narrative delights begin with the start of a four-part epic starring their greatest foe. ‘His Name is Doom!’ (by the team supreme of Lee, Kirby & Joe Sinnott) found Mr. Fantastic, Human Torch, Thing and substitute member Crystal returning from battling Maximus and the Inhumans only to be intercepted by Nick Fury and the super-spies of S.H.I.E.L.D. looking for a favourâ€¦

The Steel-Shod Dictator had apparently devised unstoppable super-robots and the quixotic quartet was asked to infiltrate the sovereign state of Latveria to ferret them out. However it’s impossible to sneak up on the most paranoid man in the world and the heroes were easily intercepted and captured. ‘Within This Tortured Land’ found them â€œguestsâ€ in Doom’s fairytale Ruritanian paradise, but even with their powers removed they soon discovered the cruel iron within their velvet prison as the Monarch of Latveria began testing his deadly Doombots on his own subjects. When the automatons went wild the entire kingdom was imperilled in ‘Victims’ and only the last-minute arrival of Invisible Girl Sue Richards allowed the FF and the villagers to survive Doom’s cataclysmic failsafe plan

The shocking final confrontation and conclusion came in ‘The Power and the Pride!’ which wrapped up the saga in a bombastic blend of super-science, soap opera and delightful melodrama seldom seen in comicbooks before or since.

Fantastic Four #88 found the five champions back in the USA and looking at an unconventional new house found by the dedicatedly-domesticated Sue in her perpetual quest to carve out a relatively normal life for her new son. Regrettably the trendy detached dwelling in ‘A House There Was!’ had been designed by the FF‘s oldest enemy and ‘The Madness of the Mole Man!’ predicated his turning the entire world blind and wiping out the extended heroic family entirely.

The Thing took centre-stage in the next extended epic as he was kidnapped to another world when ‘The Skrull Takes a Slave!’ in #90. Abducted to fight in gladiatorial games on a colony world patterned after Earth’s 1920s gangster era ‘The Thingâ€¦ Enslaved!’ introduced rival Skrull mobs vying for supremacy and a noble slave destined to slaughter our shanghaied champion. ‘Ben Grimm, Killer!’ ramped up the tension as Thing and mechanoid marvel Torgo discovered that their home-worlds were hostage to their fortune and ferocity in the arenaâ€¦

Meanwhile Reed, Johnny and Crystal had not been idle. While Ben was at ‘The Mercy of Torgo!’ his Earthly brothers-in-arms were enacting a desperate plan to save him and destroy the Skrulls planetary doom-weapon.

After the cover to the all-reprint Fantastic Four Annual #7 a series of single issue stories kicked off with the debut of eldritch babysitter/governess Agatha Harkness in ‘The Return of the Frightful Four!’ a rollercoaster romp of action and suspense most significant for finally giving Sue and Reed’s baby a name after a year of shilly-shallyingâ€¦ Franklin Benjamin Richards.

The Monocle was a technological assassin determined to cause global Armageddon in #95’s ‘Tomorrowâ€¦ World War Three!’ in the middle of which Crystal was abruptly abducted by her own family, after which ‘The Mad Thinker and his Androids of Death!’ (inked by Frank Giacoia) once again proved no match for the heroic foursome whilst ‘The Monster From the Lost Lagoon!’ offered a decidedly different take on the horror-movies it gloriously pastiched when the First Family tried to combine a quick tropical vacation with a little rumour-busting creature-huntâ€¦

Both Joe Sinnott and the Sentry Sinister returned in #98’s ‘Mystery on the Moon!’ as the global fervour over the first lunar landing in 1969 (conveniently forgetting, of course, the FF‘s own visit to our satellite in issue #13) resulted in a cracking yarn wherein the team stopped the intergalactic Kree empire from sabotaging mankind’s first steps into space, whilst in #99 the heartsick Johnny Storm invaded the hidden home of the Inhumans intent on reuniting with his lost love at all costs when ‘The Torch Goes Wild!’

With a restored Crystal happily in tow the 100^th anniversary adventure featured a daft but spectacular battle against robotic replicas of their greatest enemies in ‘The Long Journey Home!’ but #101 provided a far more intriguing contest when criminal combine the Maggia bought the team’s skyscraper headquarters in a cunning, quasi-legal ploy to steal the FF‘s scientific secrets, culminating in ‘Bedlam in the Baxter Building!’

Fantastic Four #102 featured the first cover not drawn by The King as John Romita (senior) prepared to jump into the artistic hot-seat following Kirby’s abrupt move to the home of Superman and Batman.

After an incomprehensibly vast catalogue of creativity an unthinkable Changing of the Guard occurred when the increasingly discontented King of Comics jumped ship from the House of (His) Ideas for arch-rival National/DC where he crafted his Fourth World Magnum Opus as well as a host of other game-changing comicbook classicsâ€¦

An era ended at Marvel when the King abdicated his seemingly divinely-ordained position. Left to pacify and win over again the stunned fans were Stan Lee and a couple of budding talents named Romita and Buscemaâ€¦

Kirby was not quite gone however, as he and Sinnott opened an impressive extended epic wherein the mutant menace Magneto used guile and subterfuge to turn ‘The Strength of the Sub-Mariner’ and his undersea armies against the FF and entire surface worldâ€¦

Romita and inker John Verpoorten took over the story in mid-stream depicting America ‘At War with Atlantis!’ as Magneto inevitably betrayed Namor, inspiring the Prince to join with the embattled quartet to prevent ‘Our Worldâ€¦ Enslaved!’, which is followed here by the cover of Fantastic Four Annual #8 (which had reprinted the original clash between Subby’s undersea empire and the surface world from the first FF Annual) after which Lee, Romita & Verpoorten began the low-key but extremely effective tale of ‘The Monster in the Streets!’

When Crystal was taken ill – preparatory to writing her out of the series completely – Reed’s examination revealed a potential method of curing the misshapen Thing of his Rocky curse, but whilst he was preparing Ben Grimm for the longed-for process a mysterious energy-beast began to tear up the city. By the time ‘The Monster’s Secret!’ was exposed in #106 the team strongman was near death and Crystal goneâ€¦ seemingly forever.

Joe Sinnott returned – again – in #107 in ‘And Nowâ€¦ the Thing!’ as John Buscema took over Kirby’s other masterpiece (he had begun drawing Thor four months previously from issue #182) wherein the tragic man-beast gained the power to become human at will. It seemed the best of all possible outcomes but something wasn’t quite rightâ€¦ However, before Reed could investigate an old foe popped up again. Sort ofâ€¦

FF #108 was something of a surprise to fans. ‘The Monstrous Mystery of the Nega-Man!’ reintroduced a character never before seen by recycling portions of a rejected Lee, Kirby & Sinnott tale with new framing sequences illustrated by Buscema and Romita. The mysterious Janus had tapped into the anti-matter power of the Negative Zone once and now he had â€œreturnedâ€ to steal more by crashing through the portal in Reed’s lab. Unfortunately this had attracted the attention of extinction-event predator Annihilus, who had long sought entry into our life-rich universeâ€¦

Forced to follow the truly mad scientist Reed, Ben and Johnny once again faced ‘Death in the Negative Zone!’ and this compelling compendium closes on a cliffhanger with Fantastic Four #110 as, with a little arcane assistance, Reed escaped doom in the anti-matter cosmos only to realise that the â€œcuredâ€ Ben Grimm had become a lethal threat to all humanity in ‘One From Four Leaves Three!’

Did I say closes? Not quite; as this massive monochrome tome still finds room for a selection of original un-inked Kirby pencil pages from #89 and even reprints a photo gallery of the entire Marvel Bullpen from circa 1971. Boy – talk about bonusesâ€¦

These are the stories which confirmed Jack Kirby as the absolute master of superhero storytelling and gave Marvel the push needed to overtake the decades-dominant DC, as well as the valiant efforts tat saved the company after the Great Imaginer left for their biggest rival. They’re also some of the very best comics ever produced and as thrilling and compulsive now as they ever were. This is another must-have book for all fans of graphic narrative.

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