Category: Marvel Superheroes

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Marvel Team-Up Marvel Masterworks volume 8


By Chris Claremont, Steven Grant, Bill Mantlo, Mark Gruenwald, Bill Kunkel, Allyn Brodsky, Sal Buscema, Mike Vosburg, Herb Trimpe, Don Perlin, Bob McLeod, Gene Colan, Michael Netzer, Rich Buckler, Alan Kupperberg, Frank Giacoia, Gene Day, Steve Leialoha, Frank Springer, Eduardo Barreto, Josef Rubinstein, Jack Abel, Bruce Patterson, Bill Sienkiewicz & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1302955571 (HB), 978-1-3025-2987-1 (Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times

The concept of team-ups – an established star pairing or battling (usually both) with new or less well-selling company characters – has been with us since the earliest days of comics, but making those brief encounters/temporary alliances a key selling point really took hold with DC’s The Brave and the Bold in the 1960s before being taken up and industrialisedby their biggest competitor.

Marvel Team-Up was the second regular Spider-Man title, launched as 1971 ended. A big hit, it confirmed that the time had finally come for Arachnid expansion, offering a venue for uncomplicated action romps to supplement the character’s – and company’s – complex subplot fare in regular books. However, even in an infinite Marvel Multiverse, certain stars shone more brightly than others and some turned up in team-ups more often than others…

This compelling compilation gathers the contents of Marvel Team-Up #78, 80-90, MTU Annual #2 and material from Marvel Treasury Edition #25, collectively covering February 1979 through February 1980. It opens with an overview Introduction from editorial ace Ralph Macchio before plunging into a peerless parade of peril action/adventure…

In Marvel Team-Up #78, courtesy of Bill Kunkel, Don Perlin & Frank Giacoia, ‘Claws!’ sees the webslinger and Wonder Man unite to fight hyper-evolving, yet increasingly bestial man-made monster The Griffin, a done-in-one palate-cleansing fight fest, after which an embarrassment of chronological proportions occurs…

When the series was originally published, MTU #79 featured a rather tasty pairing of the Amazing Arachnid with barbarian hot property Red Sonja in a brutal, time-bending battle with long-dead Hyborian sorcerer Kulan Gath. Unfortunately, the key word here is “property” and as Marvel did not at this publishing moment have rights to the “She-Devil with a Sword” that epic encounter has been embargoed for this book. Thus we rejoin the fun with #80 in itself a continuation of an earlier tag-team-up (seen in the last volume). Then & there Dr. Strange, Clea, Ms. Marvel/Carol Danvers & Spidey fully believed they had foiled a mage-murdering plot by Christian extremist Silver Dagger and Marie Laveau, Witch Queen of New Orleans.

Here & now in MTU #80, however, Chris Claremont, Mike Vosburg & Gene Day depict ‘A Sorcerer Possessed!’ as Strange finally succumbs to Laveau’s subtle, long-festering enchantment and turns into a werewolf in advance of the entire dimension falling prey to her demonic masters. With the wallcrawler, Clea and Wong unable to counter the encroaching cataclysm, salvation comes from a most unlikely source as Satana, Daughter of the Devil invites herself to the party for ‘Last Rites’ (inked by Steve Leialoha), spearheading a counterattack she does not expect or intend to survive…

Back in Marvel Team-Up #57 Claremont & Sal Buscema laid groundwork for a re-definition of superspy The Black Widow. It was the opening shot of an extended thriller embroiling Spider-Man in a devious and deadly espionage plot and resulted in the wallcrawler being saved from a lethal ambush by Natasha Romanoff. In the aftermath, he took reluctant possession of a strange statuette for her. In #82 (cover-dated June 1979) the scheme comes to fruition as Claremont, Sal B & Leialoha craft a 4-part, multi-operative conclusion that begins with Spidey saving Natasha from mere street thugs, but all is not as it seems…

‘No Way to Treat a Lady’ reveals that the lethal superspy has escaped capture and torture by retreating into a timid, ineffectual cover personality, so the hero must keep “schoolteacher Nancy Rushman” alive until he learns how and why. That task gets even harder after S.H.E.I.L.D.’s Strike Force – led by hot-headed wildcard La Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine – come mercilessly gunning for her…

The original (old/white) Nick Fury joins the fray in ‘Slaughter on 10th Avenue!’, “shooting” Spider-Man and capturing Nancy before discovering – after the webspinner steals her back – that his entire peacekeeping espionage organisation has been taken over by hidden death-dealing anarchist mastermind Viper. Now her deadly hench-thugs Silver Samurai and Boomerang are loose and seeking to “clean house”…

In #84 ‘Catch a Falling Hero’ reveals the purpose of that long-forgotten statuette, as Viper consequently targets Washington DC and President Jimmy Carter. Meanwhile Spider-Man and slowly recovering Nancy infiltrate the fatally-compromised flying fortress Helicarrier even as Fury calls in a clean pair of hands – belonging to occasional British asset Shang Chi, Master of Kung Fu – for a deliberately distracting frontal assault that culminates in all-out war above the Capitol and the closest of close shave conclusions for all concerned in concluding chapter ‘The Woman Who Never Was!’

At this juncture the 31st century Guardians of the Galaxy were guests of The Avengers and resident in (or rather far above New York). However, before the time-lost titans finally departed for their own era again they injudiciously interacted with a few 20th century stars. MTU #86 (October 1979) reveals how undercover Guardians Starhawk, Nikki & Martinex stumbled over Spider-Man whilst attempting to eradicate history-threatening evidence of their existence. The main threat as delineated by Claremont & Bob McLeod comes from nefarious armaments company Deterrence Research Corporation who want to steal their colossal space station/timeship Drydock. The toughest  part of the mission is saving ambitious reporter “Rap Reynolds” from DRC’s super-flunkies Hammer and Anvil whilst preventing him from exposing the mission of the future heroes and publishing the ‘Story of the Year!’

Steven Grant, Gene Colan & Frank Springer then expose the webspinner and Black Panther to shady business practice in conglomerate Roxxon Oil’s latest scheme to acquire Wakanda’s vibranium. It begins by framing T’Challa for illegally renditioning a shady businessman on US soil and then sending in superpowered mercenary Hellrazor to save the poor entrepreneur and American prestige. Since Spider-Man has been an outraged observer from the start, his immediate intervention blunts ‘The Razor’s Edge!’ but greed never rests and more plans are afoot for another day…

Invisible “Girl” Susan Richards appears next, as MTU #88 – by Claremont, Sal Buscema & Eduardo Barreto – depicts a fighting mad mother on a rampage in ‘A Child is Waiting’. When toddler Franklin Richards is kidnapped, parvenue plunderers “the Hole in the Wall gang” think they can get rich by safely having superheroes steal from established rivals like Boss Morgan of Harlem and The Maggia. Sadly, with Spider-Man and NYPD detective Jean DeWolff secretly aiding Sue, they haven’t got a chance in hell…

Mutant madness erupts in Marvel Team-Up #89 as Claremont, Michael Nasser/Netzer, Rich Buckler & Josef Rubinstein choreograph action extravaganza ‘Shoot-Out over Center Ring!’ as the webspinner and former circus acrobat Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler reunite and combine against anarchic showman-hitman Arcade and obsessed assassin Cutthroat in a vengeance-fuelled Big Top thriller before #90 unites brainy acrobatic heroes Spider-Man and The Beast in frantic battle against merciless mercenary Killer Shrike and disembodied maniac Modular Man. When their raid of a science fair and purloining of a device that might eradicate the entire city with microwaves triggers countdown thriller  ‘Death on the Air’ (Grant, Vosburg & McLeod) our embattled champions are barely able to prevent catastrophe… and only at tragic cost…

The regular monthly pairings pause here but a brace of extra-sized bouts remain to enjoy, beginning with Marvel Team-Up Annual #2, wherein Claremont, Sal Buscema, Alan Kupperburg & Jack Abel pair Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk against Soviet super-agents Crimson Dynamo, Darkstar & Vanguard in Cold Wat chiller ‘Murder in Cathedral Canyon!’ The Russians want US scientist Daniel Ironwood to build an antimatter bomb and think kidnapping his daughter Cissy is the best way to achieve their aims, Sadly, she’s Peter Parker’s current girlfriend…

Elsewhere, fugitive Bruce Banner is seized/recruited by KGB Colonel Vahzin. He needs an exotic ordnance expert to stop rogue element Nikolai Kutzov and his super-powered dupes blowing up the world, and it’s extremely fortuitous that his ally can become the strongest being on Earth. All the elements are in play at a distant beauty spot when the wallcrawler meets the Jade Juggernaut, but although they do a save the world, the cost is far too high…

Less dramatic but just as bombastic, the fun concludes with Marvel Treasury Edition #25 (1980) and opportunistic tie-in ‘Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk at the 1980 Winter Olympics’: an utterly bonkers banding together of Marvel’s then top TV sensations to stop subterranean tyrants The Mole Man and Kala, Queen of the Netherworld, hosts of moloids, a band of fiery Lava Men and mutant troublemakers ‘The Outcasts’ sabotaging the games by kidnapping athletes…

The entire package comes courtesy of scripters Bill Mantlo, Steven Grant & Mark Gruenwald with Herb Trimpe & Bruce Patterson scoring big on interior art and Al Milgrom, Jack Abel, Bill Sienkiewicz & Patterson handling the covers.

The Bonus material this time includes the gallery of covers by Milgrom, Buckler, Leialoha, McLeod, Sienkiewicz, Abel & Patterson, as well plentiful original art pages by Vosburg, Leialoha,, Buscema, Milgrom; the covers for Marvel Treasury Edition # 22 (1979, by Bob Budiansky & Je Sinnott); the covers from Marvel Tales #242 & 244 by Marshall Rogers August and October 1990.

These tales are generally superb examples of Marvel’s Second Wave; Bronze Age yarns fans will find little to complain about. Although not perhaps a book for casual or more maturely-oriented readers there’s lots of fun on hand and young readers – or Marvel Cinema-goers – will have a blast, so why not consider this tome for your “Must-Have” library?
© 2025 MARVEL.

Today in 1880, komics genius and Krazy Kat Kreator George Herriman was born, followed by comics pioneer and packager Jerry Iger in 1903; African-American political cartoonist Chester Commodore in 1914; comic book star artist Bob Brown (Tomahawk, Batman, Space Ranger, Daredevil, Superboy, Avengers, Challengers of the Unknown) in 1915 and Silver/Bronze Age letterer Shelly Leferman in 1922. Post-war comics creators born today include Britain’s unique Kevin O’Neill (Ro-Busters, ABC Warriors, Captain Klep, Nemesis the Warlock, Metalzoic, Marshal Law, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) in 1953; writer Daniel G. Chichester (Daredevil, Batman, Dr. Zero, Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D, Terror Inc.) in 1964; artist animator Duncan Rouleau (Venom, X-Factor, Metal Men, Ben 10, The Nightmarist) in 1965 and Spanish illustrator Alberto Jimenez Albuquerque (Les Fugitifs de l’Ombre, Inca, Skull Kickers, Letter 44, Mystery Girl, Generation X) in 1982.

This day in 2011 German cartoonist Bernhard-Viktor Christoph-Carl von Bülow (Wum, Odipussi, Pappa Ante Portas) died.

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Master of Kung Fu Epic Collection volume 2: Fight Without Pity


By Doug Moench, Paul Gulacy, Sal Buscema, Keith Pollard, Jim Craig, Dan Adkins, Jack Abel, Pablo Marcos, Mike Esposito, Sal Trapani, John Tartaglione, Duffy Vohland, Tom Sutton & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-0135-6 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times Comic books have always operated within outworld popular trends and fashions – just look at what got published whenever westerns or science fiction dominated on TV – so when the ancient philosophy and discipline of Kung Fu made its mark on western entertainment, it wasn’t long before all those kicks and punches found their way onto four-colour pages of America’s periodicals. Early starter Charlton Comics added Yang and House of Yang to their pioneering Judo Joe title and Frank McLaughlin’s Judomaster; DC debuted Richard Dragon and rebooted Karate Kid; Atlas/Seaboard opened (and as quickly closed again) The Hands of the Dragon and Marvel converted an already in-development proposed literary adaptation into an ongoing saga about a villain’s son…

A month after it launched, a second orient-inspired hero debuted with Iron Fist: combining combat philosophy, high fantasy and magical forces with a proper superhero mask and costume…

Although largely retrofitted for modern times, inspirational Master of Kung Fu star Shang-Chi originated with lots of tricky baggage. He kicked off in the autumn of 1973, cashing in on the contemporary West’s craze for Eastern philosophy and martial arts action that had already generated an avalanche of “Chop Sockey” movies and a controversial TV sensation entitled Kung Fu. You may recall that the lead in that cowboy-set saga was a half-Chinese Shaolin monk, played – after much publicised legal and industry agitation – by a white actor…

At Marvel, no one at that time particularly griped about the fact that Shang-Chi was designed by editor Roy Thomas and artisans Steve Englehart, Jim Starlin & Al Milgrom as a naive innocent (also half Chinese, with an American mother) thrown into tumultuous modern society as a rebellious yet involved counterpoint to his father: an insidious scheming fiend intent on global domination. Back then, securing rights to a major literary property and wrapping new comics in it was an established practise. It had worked spectacularly with Conan the Barbarian and horror stars Dracula and The Monster of Frankenstein. The same process also brilliantly informed seminal science fiction icon Killraven in War of the Worlds and plenty more…

These days we comics apologists keep saying “it was a different era”, but I genuinely don’t think anyone in the editorial office paused for a moment of second thoughts when their new Kung Fu book secured the use of one of literature’s greatest villains as a major player. Special Marvel Edition #15 (cover-dated December 1973) launched to great success, with Fu Manchu an overarching villain already a global personification of infamy.

Arthur Henry Sarsfield Ward AKA Sax Rohmer’s ultimate embodiment of patronising mistrust and racist suspicion had been hugely popular since 1913’s The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu. The prime archetype for mad scientists and remorseless “Yellow Peril” threatening civilization, the character spread to stage, screen, airwaves and comics (even appropriating the cover of Detective Comics #1, heralding an interior series that ran until #28), but most importantly, became the visual affirmation and conceptual basis for countless evil “Asiatics”, “Orientals” and “Celestials” dominating popular fiction ever since. In recent years we’ve all (well, mostly all) acknowledged past iniquities and Shang-Chi has been fully reimagined, with that paternal link downplayed and ultimately abandoned – as much for licensing laws as social justice. And cultural respect, naturally…

Like most comics companies, Marvel employed plenty of “Yellow Peril” knock-offs and personifications – including Wong Chu; Plan Tzu (AKA the Yellow and latterly Golden, Claw); Huang Zhu; Silver Samurai; Doctor Sun, ad infinitum: all birds of another colour that are still nastily pejorative shades of saffron. Perhaps this is just my white guilt and fanboy shame talking. These stories, crafted by Marvel’s employees were – and remain – some of the best action comics you’ll ever encounter, but never forget what they’re actually about -distrust of the “other”. Without making excuses, I should also state that despite the casual racism suggested by legions of outrageously exotic, inscrutable lemon-hued bad guys haunting this series at every level, Master of Kung Fu did sensitively address issues of race and honestly attempt to share non-Christian philosophies and thought whilst – most importantly – offering potently powerful role models to kids of Asian origins. So at least there’s that…

Packed with stunning exotic adventure and compellingly convincing drama, this collection gathers Master of Kung Fu #29-53 and Master of Kung Fu Annual #1 (spanning June 1975 to August 1977). Written entirely by Doug Moench and primarily showcasing the developing graphic realism of Paul Gulacy, surrendering to his love of spy fiction it opens without a preamble in the middle of a mighty struggle…

Previously: the series inauspiciously launched in bimonthly reprint title Special Marvel Edition as The Hands of Shang Chi: Master of Kung Fu, but by the third issue (April 1974) became exclusively his. The origin episode introduced a vibrant, brilliant young man raised in utter isolation in the style and manner of imperial China. Reared by monks and savants, the boy was the result of a match between a physically perfect American woman and “misunderstood patriot” Fu Manchu. The boy was raised to accept that his sire was a noble hero unfairly hunted and slandered by corrupt western governments and the communist usurpers now blasphemously controlling the world’s greatest empire.

Fu’s son was schooled to respect and obey his father, trained to perfection in martial arts and designed as the ultimate warrior servant: the doctor’s devoted personal weapon against lifelong enemies Sir Dennis Nayland Smith and Doctor Petrie.

On reaching maturity, Shang – whose name means “the rising and advancing of a spirit” – was despatched to execute Petrie. However, after the obedient weapon completed his mission, he subsequently questions his entire life and the worldly benefit of killing an elderly, frail, already dying man. An emotional confrontation with Nayland Smith (who endured daily agonies from being maimed at the Devil Doctor’s command) further rattled the boy’s resolve and eventually Shang’s sublime education demanded he reassess everything his father had taught him…

After invading the villain’s New York citadel and crushing an army of freaks and monsters, Shang Chi faced his father and rejected all he stood for. The battle lines of an epic family struggle had been drawn. Banished from his cloistered childhood home and environs, the philosophically minded innocent adapted rapidly to the constant violence of the modern world. eventually accepting shelter with Nayland Smith in return for (espionage) services rendered…

Now, a turning point in his rising and advancement comes in MOKF #29 as Shang finds reason to abandon his pacifistic aspirations and get involved in western affairs after seeing firsthand the harm drugs cause, joining Nayland Smith’s team to cripple the drug trade. The unwelcome allies include veteran heavy Blackjack Tarr, and Petrie – not dead at Shang’s hand after all and subsequently rescued from his father’s clutches – working with British agent Clive Reston. He is, by his own account, a descendent of a famed “Consulting Detective” and a Double-0 operative “on Her Majesty’s Secret Service”)

The entire series was slowly morphing into a James Bond pastiche and with this mission to end effetely urbane drug dealer turned nuclear terrorist Carlton Velcro, illustrator Gulacy began a ballistic visual progression that would make him one of most watched and admired artists of the era as he referenced movie star and set pieces throughout the saga.

‘The Crystal Connection’ begins with Reston undercover at Velcro’s French coast fortress, playing heroin buyer Mr Blue until Shang & Tarr can infiltrate and secure the dope stocks. No one expected such massive defences; an army of killers led by deadly assassin Razor-Fist and a nuclear arsenal hidden below ‘A Gulf of Lions’ (#30, inked by Dan Adkins), with the pitched battle ranging far and wide as Razor Fist’s defeat leads to Shang clashing with whip-wielding panther woman Pavane before a truly explosive conclusion in ‘Snowbuster’…

‘Assault on an Angry Sea!’ was a hasty fill-in illustrated by Sal Buscema & Mike Esposito as Shang returns to London by ship and is drawn into the hunt for an undercover courier who is unaware that counteragents intend to intercept and end them. In this traditional mystery yarn, Chi finds too many suspects and can’t tell friend from foe from target, but triumphs nonetheless, before MOKF #33 resumes the Moench/Gulacy filmic fun-fest with ‘Wicked Messenger of Madness!’ This introduces seductive, conflicted agent Leiko Wu as both romantic interest and wedge between Shang Chi and his colleagues, and sees a robotic mannequin fail to assassinate Nayland Smith thanks to martial arts mastery but opens the door to a complex web of lies, double-dealing, insane artificial intelligences and a doomsday weapon.

The robot was a literal tool of missing agent Simon Bretnor, revealed far too late as narcissistic hired killer and would-be world conqueror Mordillo, who wants a space weapon using the ozone layer and sunlight to ravage sites on Earth. The plans for it are encoded in Wu’s brain, but by the time she realises her current boyfriend Bretnor is the bad guy, Leiko’s his prisoner on a manically murderous version of Fantasy Island…

As Shang & Reston race to the madly modified atoll-turned-playground-of-peril, Wu attempts to reason with the crazed Mordillo, but gets more sense from his Pinocchio-like AI robot sidekick Brynocki, who is trying to mediate a ‘Cyclone at the Center of a Madman’s Crown!’ She does, however, learn that her captor had a connection to Pavane and Velcro and now holds Chi responsible for a huge loss of face and fortune. Another spectacular conclusion comes when maniac and martial artist clash in the skies above the island as the villain briefly unleashes his stolen Solar Chute to rain destruction down on the island in ‘Death-Hand and the Sun of Mordillo’…

What feels like a reformatted leftover from the Giant-Size Master of Kung Fu era follows in #36 & 37 (January & February 1976, by Moench, Keith Pollard & Sal Trapani) with Shang entering a magical maze of mystery. He seeks to defend from ninjas and their leader Darkstrider a carnival of hapless freaks voluntarily living in ‘Cages of Myth, Menagerie of Mirrors!’ but is initially hard-pressed saving anyone from the villain who subtly weaves a ‘Web of Dark Death!’ Moench, Pollard, John Tartaglione & Duffy Vohland continue fantasy themes in Master of Kung Fu Annual #1 during a team-up with fellow transplanted warrior Iron Fist. Here Danny Rand and Shang are tricked into entering another dimension to invade ‘The Fortress of S’ahra Sharn!’ The culprit is trickster wizard Quan-St’ar, whose true goal is the destruction of immortal city K’un-Lun, but he makes one huge mistake…

At their creative peak Moench & Gulacy started an epic, ambitious, truly sophisticated and industry-changing run in MOKF #38 (March 1976). Here Shang Chi reluctantly accepts a rescue mission to extract an agent from Hong Kong, meeting lies, passion, disinformation and deadly love in ‘Cat’. Nayland Smith has again orchestrated events to satisfy his own agenda and saving Julia leads Chi into a ‘Fight Without Pity’ against an opponent who might well be his superior in combat ability… and also holds the moral high ground.

The landmark clash is simply prologue to an extended, character driven serial that opens at ‘The Murder Agency’ (#40 with Gulacy inking himself) as on-fire creators pioneer storytelling techniques later seen in Christopher Nolan’s Memento. A traitor in British Intelligence is murdering agents and the information Nayland Smith wanted from Julia should have given them vital advantage. However, as Shang again quits all “games of death and deceit” he, Tarr & Leiko Wu are attacked by (apparent) Chinese agents masquerading as “Oriental Expediters”.

After helping to defeat the attackers, Wu leaves on a similar extraction mission and suggests that the embattled operatives re-enlist disgraced former agent/current drunken sot James Larner. When they try, he’s got a new pal also boozing himself to death: lovelorn abandoned Clive Reston. That’s when another heavily-armed gang burst in guns blazing, laying down their lives simply to bait a trap the agents can’t afford to avoid…

With the spy saga solidly underway, everything suddenly screeched to a halt as a deadline crunch necessitated another fill-in moment, with Moench, Sal B & Esposito revealing a childhood moment in ‘Slain in Secrecy, and by Illusion!’ Here Shang recalls reluctant clashes with childhood companion M’nai – AKA Si Fan super-assassin Midnight – to prove Fu Manchu’s hallowed home harboured a thief and traitor…

Inked by Tom Sutton, the main event resumes in #42 in a welter of flashbacks, crosscuts and flash forwards as ‘The Clock of Shattered Time’ introduces a mechanically augmented, electrically-enhanced martial arts assassin who almost kills Chi. Shock-Wave has a strong but top-secret connection to Nayland Smith and nearly succeeds in blowing up the spy chief too…

As the MI5 mole and Shock-Wave set more bombs, MOKF #43 sees a changed and vengeful Shang win a rematch with the amplified assassin in ‘A Flash of Purple Sparks’. As Wu escorted her own living package across Europe with the Oriental Expediters chasing them all the way to an MI5 safehouse in Switzerland, Shang was waiting, but his triumph was short-lived as Leiko’s charge revealed who was behind all the deaths – and the Oriental Expediter organisation – and that, in London. another of his allies had fallen…

The drama kicked into overdrive with a long-anticipated event. Cover-dated September 1976, #44 heralded ‘The Return of Fu Manchu, Prelude: “Golden Daggers (A Death Run)”’ with the scattered British agents heading for home under a hail of gunfire and assorted ambushes. Crucially revealed now is how the Devil Doctor’s recalcitrant first-born Fah Lo Suee is at war with their father for control of his empire…

She originally debuted in third novel The Si-Fan Mysteries /The Hand of Fu-Manchu in 1917 (or fourth outing The Daughter of Fu-Manchu in 1931, depending on who you ask) and became a minor character here in Master of Kung Fu #26, but now steps into the full spotlight after Nayland Smith is finally downed… by his most trusted ally! On the back foot and losing, Fah Lo Suee seeks alliances and her brother’s aid in ‘Part One (Shang Chi): “The Death Seed!”’ while Fu Manchu is occupied with resurrecting his founding ancestor to be his new – loyal – son/enforcer.

In London, Larner saves Nayland Smith even as Reston, Shang & Wu reunite and rebuff the “daughter of the Devil”… and that’s when Clive makes a big mistake and is taken by Fah Lo Suee. Inked by Pablo Marcos, ‘Part Two (Clive Reston): “The Spider Spell!”’ splits attention between the British agent’s trial and eventual triumph and Fu resurrecting legendary warlord Shaka Kharn, before ‘Part Three (Leiko Wu): “Phantom Sand”’ details how she & Shang infiltrate a fantastic city at the north pole in advance of what’s left of the team joining them to destroy the citadel. Before that, though, the final clash between father and daughter again confirms the total mastery of the malevolent mandarin…

The true appalling scope of the Devil Doctor’s ambitions are exposed in ‘Part Four (Black Jack Tarr): “City in the Top of the World”’ as the schemer prepares to leave Earth and cull its population by 90%! Meanwhile Shang duels revived revenant Shaka Kharn, and battles his way aboard his sire’s space shuttle even as his companions destroy the base at the cost of another valiant soul in ‘Part Five (Sir Dennis Nayland Smith): “The Affair of the Agent Who Died!”’ The astounding saga – and Gulacy’s interior involvement – ends with #50 as the villain speaks for himself with his plans and perhaps his over-extended life ended for real in ‘Part Six (Fu Manchu): “The Dreamslayer!”’

Master of Kung Fu #51 saw Jim Craig join Moench & Marcos, taking over pencil duties for ‘Epilogue: “Brass and Blackness!” (A Death Move!!)’ infilling details of interments and getting back to Earth where our unhappy reluctant warrior again quits the spy world. The final tale here (#52, May 1977) is one more fill-in as Moench & Pollard reintroduce Groucho Marx knock-off Rufus T. Hackstabber who invites our baffled battler to ‘A Night at the 1001 Nights!’ in search of family (such as reprobate/WC Fields analogue Quigley J. Warmflash); riches and safety from mercenaries led by Si-Fan general Tiger-Claw.

Ernie Chan’s cover to MOKF #53 (which reprinted #20) leads into an bonus section including Gil Kane & Adkins’ covers to Savage Fists of Kung Fu tabloid collector’s edition; house ads: 10 pages of original art plus unused and modified covers. The published ones throughout were crafted by Kane, Adkins, Sal Buscema, Rich Buckler, Dave Cockrum, Marie Severin, Chan, Gulacy, John Romita Jr., Ron Wilson & Jack Abel, Al Milgrom, Esposito, Joe Sinnott, Frank Giacoia and Klaus Janson.

In recent years, Shang Chi’s backstory has been adapted and altered. His dad was understandably reinvented as Zheng Zu, Mr. Han, Chang Hu, Wang Yu-Seng and The Devil Doctor, so, depending on your attitude, you have the ultimate choice and sanction of not buying or reading this material. If you do – with eyes wide open and fully acknowledging that the past is another place that we can and should now consign to history – your comics appreciation faculties will see some amazing stories incredibly well illustrated: ranking amongst the most exciting, visually beguiling and enjoyable in Marvel’s canon.
© 2018 MARVEL.

Today in 1987 the final issue of British toddlers weekly Playhour was published, ending a 1700+ run that had commenced on 16th October 1954, whilst on this day back in 1982 cartoonist and master of minimalism Ernie Bushmiller (Mac the Manager, Fritzi Ritz, Nancy) died.

The day saw the birth of Golden Age Superman artist Ed Dobrotka in 1917; Indian cartoonist Pran Kumar Sharma (Billoo, Chacha Chaudhary) in 1938; realist action artist Paul Gulacy (Sabre: Slow Fade of an Endangered Species, Master of Kung Fu, Batman: Prey, Black Widow, Slash Maraud, Six From Sirius, Sci-Spy, James Bond 007) in 1953; writer/Conspiracy historian Lamar Waldron (Lightrunner, M.I.C.R.A.: Mind Controlled Remote Automaton) in 1954; artist Terry Shoemaker (X-Men, Spellbound, Legion of Super-Heroes) in 1960 and “Bad Grrrl” artist Jim Balent (Catwoman, Purgatori, Vampirella, Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose) in 1963. Also blowing out candles today are Iron Man, XO Manowar, Elektra & Wolverine artist Sean Chen and quite rude Norwegian cartoonist Frode Øverli (Pondus, Riskhospitalet, Rutetid, Deep Shit Junkies) – both in 1968, and artists David Nakayama (City of Heroes, Big Hero Six, Proximity) in 1978 and Clay Mann (Magneto: Not a Hero, X-Men: Legacy, XO Manowar, Gambit, Heroes in Crisis) in 1990.

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Namor, the Sub-Mariner Epic Collection volume 5: The Invasion of New York 1972-1974


By Bill Everett, Steve Gerber, Mike Friedrich, Marv Wolfman, Howard Chaykin, Steve Skeates, Bill Mantlo, Dan Adkins, Alan Weiss, Sam Kweskin, Don Heck, George Tuska, Win Mortimer, John Tartaglione, Jim Mooney, Frank Giacoia, John Sinnott, Syd Shores, Don Perlin, Frank Chiaramonte, Frank Bolle, Vince Colletta, John Romita Sr., Gil Kane, Marie Severin, Franc Reyes & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

In his most primal incarnation (other origins are available but may differ due to timeslips, circumstance and screen dimensions) Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner is the proud, noble and usually upset offspring of the union of a water-breathing Atlantean princess and an American polar explorer. That doomed romance resulted in a hybrid being of immense strength and extreme resistance to physical harm, able to fly and thrive above and below the waves. Over decades, a wealth of creators added to the fishy tale and today’s Namor is hailed as Marvel’s First Mutant as well as the original “bad boy Good Guy”. He was created by young, talented Bill Everett, for non-starter cinema premium Motion Picture Weekly Funnies: #1 (October 1939) so – technically – Namor predates Marvel, Atlas and Timely Comics.

The Marine Miracleman first caught the public’s avid attention as part of an elementally appealing fire vs. water headlining team-up in the October 1939 Marvel Comics #1 (which renamed itself Marvel Mystery Comics from #2 onwards). The amphibian antihero shared honours and top billing with The Human Torch, having debuted (albeit in a truncated, monochrome version) in the aforementioned promotional booklet designed to be handed out to moviegoers earlier in the year. Our late-starter antihero rapidly emerged as one of the industry’s biggest draws, winning his own title at the end of 1940 (cover-dated Spring 1941).

His appeal was baffling but solid and he was one of the last super-characters to vanish at the end of the first heroic age.

In 1954, when Atlas (as the company then was) briefly revived its “Big Three” line-up – the Torch and Captain America being the other two – Everett returned for an extended run of sublimely dark, mordantly moody, creepily contemporary fantasy fables. Even so, his input wasn’t sufficient to keep the title afloat and eventually Sub-Mariner sank again. In 1961, as Stan Lee & Jack Kirby were reinventing superheroes with their Fantastic Four, they revived and reimagined the awesome, all-but-forgotten aquanaut as a troubled, angry semi-amnesiac. Decidedly more bombastic, regal and grandiose, this returnee despised humanity: embittered and broken by the loss of his subsea kingdom, which had been (seemingly) destroyed by American atomic testing. His urge for rightful revenge was infinitely complicated after he became utterly besotted with the FF’s Susan Storm…

Namor knocked around the budding Marvel universe for years, squabbling with star turns such as The Hulk, Avengers, X-Men and Daredevil before securing his own series as one half of Tales to Astonish. From there he graduated in 1968 to his own solo title again.

Cumulatively spanning cover-dates June 1972 to September 1974, this subsea selection trawls Sub-Mariner #50-72, signalling the end of another era and rising dominance of genre fare in the superhero-saturated market of that period. Also dredged up and tipped in is a tentative attempt to revive his solo star status as seen in Marvel Spotlight #27 (April 1976) just as horror-heroes began to wither away in the light of shiny space operas and resurgent superheroes as we all unwittingly bided our time until the advent of Star Wars unleashed a wave of Science Fiction sagas. Here, however, we see the triumphant glorious last hurrahs of originator Everett in salty sagas and dry land dramas…

Previously, Namor had endured months of escalating horror as old enemies including Prince Byrrah, Warlord Krang, Attuma, Dr. Dorcas and sinister shapeshifter Llyra perpetually assaulted his sunken kingdom. They were soundly defeated, but these constant clashes led to the murder of Namor’s bride-to-be Lady Dorma. He had been betrayed by his most trusted ally and, heartsick, angry and despondent, abdicated the throne, choosing to pursue the human half of his hybrid heritage as a surface dweller. The decision was fraught with more potential grief, leading to battles with surface world authorities; deranged psionic hermit Stephan Tuval and mind-tyrant Turalla; monster-maker Aunt Serr, M.O.D.O.K. and AIM. Namor seldom fought alone and initial clashes with old friends like Diane Arliss and Walt Newell (part-time undersea Avenger Stingray), Spider-Man, Daredevil and Human Torch Johnny Storm ultimately resulted in refreshed alliances, culminating in a poignant but brief reunion with his long-lost father Leonard McKenzie, a man Namor had for his entire life believed killed by Atlanteans in 1920.

When that tragic hostage to fortune was murdered by post-human horror Tiger Shark & Llyra, twice-orphaned, traumatised Namor lost his memory again, and was exploited as cannon fodder by Doctor Doom before eventually breaking free to retrench in bitter confusion and ponder his future…

Thus , a fresh start begins in #50 as Everett resurfaces to ask ‘Who Am I?’, with the bewildered amphibian reeling in confusion at the beach until his heroic instincts kick in and he saves a drowning teenager from seaweed and pollution. His actions are completely misunderstood and she savagely attacks him, before swimming off right out to sea…

Lesson learned, Namor concentrates on his own woes and sets off for Antarctica, eventually fetching up in the Ross Sea to explore the crumbling remains of the original Atlantis. His reveries are shattered when he is attacked by mutant crab creatures guarding the tomb of his beloved long-lost cousin and WWII partner in crimefighting Namora…

Confronting sinister leader Salamar the Sustainer, Namor discover a bizarre scheme to exploit the vast oil reserves under the ocean floor, and learns old foes are shaping events: treacherous cousin Byrrah and seemingly unkillable Llyra. He also meets again that abrasive teenager and discovers she is Namora’s wayward daughter…

As all hell breaks loose, former prince and newfound cousin Namorita make a break for it in a hail of blaster fire as ‘Armageddon… at Fifty Fathoms Full!’ (scripted by Mike Friedrich) exposes a scaly hidden hand behind the carnage. Byrrah is allied with the alien Brotherhood of Baddoon, who want the (radioactive!) oil reserves, albeit not for the reasons they share with the usurper. Ultimately, the aliens, Byrrah, and Salamar’s savage crab people can’t agree and the seagoing cousins are participants in a shattering showdown that results in environmental catastrophe…

Seeking to confirm Namorita’s account of how Namora died whilst dumping her with his old girlfriend Betty Dean Prentiss, Sub-Mariner cruises into a clash with ultra-nationalist Japanese mutant and future X-Man Sunfire as ‘The Atomic Samurai!’ – ever receptive to deranged patriotic ranting – falls under the sway of war criminal demagogue Dragon-Lord, last of the samurai. He plans to unleash his new Nipponese army and deadly defoliants upon America, a tactic that might destroy the oceans…

After a spectacular new incidence of the classic Golden Age “Fire vs Water” duel, Everett took full creative control for follow-up ‘…And the Rising Sun Shall Fall!’ wherein Sunfire sees sense and switches sides to save the seas, leading to all-out war in concluding half-chapter ‘Now Comes… the Decision!’,: a brief battle that leaves room in #54 for a “Mighty Marvel Mini Classic!” with Friedrich & Alan Weiss detailing how ‘Namor the First, Prince of Atlantis battles The Mer-Mutants’: a light but lovely puff piece involving a mermaid acting as a subsea honey trap for her hungry kin…

NtSM #55 sees Namor at last wave goodbye to “Nita” & Betty before revisiting Antarctica and enduring an unexpected and brutal encounter with scavenging wrecker ‘The Abominable Snow-King!’ The literally monstrous Torg’s ambition is to pit enslaved sea life against humanity but sinks once the Sub-Mariner gets involved, after which Friedrich & veteran illustrator Dan Adkins steer the abdicated Prince back to his forsaken kingdom in ‘Atlantis, Mon Amour!’ Sadly, he’s too late to stop his former subjects making a tragic fear-fuelled mistake that results in atrocity and genocide after aquatic alien refugee beg for aid…

When Everett returned he opened the doors to Marvel’s Atlas era-past with a tempestuous yarn that would eventually affect the entire continuity. ‘…In the Lap of the Gods’ reintroduced 1950s sensation Venus, whose impact would ripple out across the MU and ultimately reveal her hidden history as part of the Agents of Atlas sub-franchise.

It begins in a shattering storm as Namor rescues a lovely mystery woman stranded on a rock and stumbles into a long-running grudge match between the Hellenic gods of Love and War. A contemporary tale of dissent and unrest, the story reunites him with Namorita, who, in his absence, has become a college student and activist. Moreover, her favourite lecturer – Humanities Professor Victoria N. Starr – also has a concealed alter ego and lethal stalker: malign divinity and former pantheon mate Ares…

Having held at bay one angry god, Namor returns to Atlantis, resolved to restore the undersea nation to forefront of civilisation but his program of changes is stalled when ‘Hands Across the Waters, Hands Across the Skies…’ (Everett supervising, steering and inking dialoguer Steve Gerber & layout artist Sam Kweskin) uncovers a survivor and witness to the recent massacre of alien ambassadors by Atlanteans. Tamara of the Sisterhood claims to offer forgiveness and seek understanding, but many of the perpetrators would rather there were no testimony or recriminations to deal with. Most tellingly, the superstrong survivor and her pet monster have their own plans and soon the prince is sucked into more pointless battle…

With John Tartaglione inking Everett’s plot, Gerber & Kweskin forecast ‘Thunder Over the Seas!’, a tale of tragic miscomprehension as Namor again clashes with the surface world. As the Sub-Mariner’s new advisor, Tamara is targeted by Atlantean scout Lorvex – who is driven wild by her exotic beauty and rarity. Obsessively stalking and assaulting her, Lorvex drives her into Russian trawler nets where the rubicund refugee becomes a prized possession after the vessel and its contents are impounded by the US Coast Guard. Now Tamara is a cause célèbre and topic of heated debate at the United Nations…

Having dealt with Lorvex, Namor seeks out his new friend, and crashes into chaos as the war of words over the alien mermaid triggers the usual bellicose response amongst humans. By the time surface-dwelling Namorita summons her cousin to rescue Tamara, founding Avenger Thor has stepped in to keep the peace. Sadly it’s too late to stop ‘The Invasion of New York!’ (Everett, Gerber, Kweskin & Jim Mooney), with Lorvex exploiting the campaign to regain position and secretly abduct Tamara from UN custody. Enraged and resigned, Sub-Mariner acts decisively and violently to end the crisis, and accepts at last the fate he has been really fighting, finally accepting once more the throne and responsibilities of ruling Atlantis.

It was an open secret that Everett was dying at this time, but his Marvel friends and employers allowed him to work on until he couldn’t. Thus Sub-Mariner #61’s The Prince and the Pirate!’ – credited to Gerber, Everett, Win Mortimer & Mooney – opens with the old master pictorially revealing revelry in the subsea kingdom as Namor’s coronation ends before a new storyline starts on page 4 as Namorita and human guardian Betty Prentiss are abducted along with an entire passenger plane. The voyagers are victims of deranged geneticist Dr. Hydro who mutates them all (bar already amphibian Nita) into human-merman hybrids to populate his army of environmental conquest. When Namor tracks the ongoing abductions and invades mobile island Hydrobase to save his cousin, he is soundly defeated by the maniac’s super science. Moreover, the failed assault inspires Hydro to invade Atlantis and make it his new stronghold from which to convert the rest of humanity…

The drama plays out in #62 as Gerber, Sam Kweskin & Frank Giacoia explore ‘A Realm Besieged!’ before Tamara in Atlantis and Nita on Hydrobase thwart Hydro’s schemes; leaving the Sub-Mariner to ponder what to do with the hundreds of innocent, unwilling scaly amphibian freaks that neither Atlanteans or surface-dwellers want anything to do with…

Steve Gerber was a uniquely gifted writer who combined a deep love of Marvel’s continuity minutiae with dark irrepressible wit, incisive introspection, barbed socio-cultural criticism, a barely reined-in imagination and boundless bizarrely wilful surrealism. His stories were always at the extreme edge of the company’s intellectual canon and never failed to deliver surprise and satisfaction, especially when he couched his sardonic sorties in thinly veiled attacks on burgeoning cultural homogenisation and commercial barbarity.

With critical success Man-Thing he was holding up a mirror to many cordoned-off and taboo subjects and weaving history from scattered snippets of Marvel’s continuity. With his final stint on Sub-Mariner, Gerber expanded that universe exponentially, building by exploring pre-cataclysm history, aided by Howard Chaykin in back-up series ‘Tales of Atlantis!’ Here the first chapter – inked by Joe Sinnott – sees antediluvian, human-built Atlantis losing its war with rival superpower Lemuria and Emperor Kamuu and his bride Zartra prepare for the bloody end…

Over Everett’s posthumous plot, Gerber, Kweskin & Syd Shores produce #63 as ‘…And the Seas Shall Explode!’ sees seemingly dead Dr Hydro return to destroy the Atlanteans by triggering a volcano under their city and compelling Namor to take no chances and offer no mercy to save his subjects once and for all, Tales of Atlantis resumes as Gerber, Chaykin & Sinnott reveal how the fate of the first Atlantis is sealed by ‘Cataclysm!’ As hand-to-hand combat peaks, the city sinks beneath the seas, but its heritage is saved, carried away by missionary sorceress Zered-Na and her devout disciples; for which you need to scope out Gerber’s other contemporaneous assignments: Son of Satan in Marvel Spotlight and Man-Thing in Adventures into Fear. We’ve covered them elsewhere so feel free to scroll away in the search engines…

Here, though, and wading off at a weird tangent, Gerber, Don Heck & Don Perlin play with satire and pop culture in #64’s ‘Voyage into Chaos!’ When intolerant Atlanteans intern the aimless, despondent amphibian victims of Dr. Hydro, furious, ashamed Namor responds with a fit of fury, just as cool heads are needed to assess another astounding incursion. Soon, a quartet of strange visitors from magical dimension Zephyrland – Ariel the Musician, Ibbar the Scolar, Kabal the Wizard & Zargus the Warrior – are petitioning the Sub-Mariner to hop in their Golden Submarine and help them liberate their enslaved homeland from bestial, tone-deaf horror Virago the She-Beast. Willing and even eager to go for many reasons Namor joins them but is ambushed and defeated as soon as arrives in the land of golden meanies…

Third Tales of Atlantis episode ‘In the Wake of the Warriors!’ reveals how, five millennia later, nomadic clans of water-breathing Homo Mermanus settle in the ruins of the sunken city-continent and clash constantly, thanks to the enmity of sworn enemies Widow-Queen Elanna and King Stegor. They cannot see waves of destiny pushing their battle-hardened children towards an incredible coalition. Successive instalments ‘The Lurker in the Ruins!’ (Gerber, Mooney & Frank Chiaramonte in #65 and concluding chapter ‘The Sword in the Throne!’ inked by Sinnott in #66) ended the series abruptly as those children – destiny- touched Kamuu and Elanna’s daughter Zartra – after meeting ghosts and battling demons, unite the tribes to create the dynasty of sunken Atlantis that will lead millennia later to the coming later of Namor…

Back in the now, the series was struggling, sparking a rapid radical rebrand as Prince Namor, the Savage Sub-Mariner and #65 offering ‘The Cry of the She-Beast!’ as Gerber, Heck & Perlin detail how Virago crushes resistance at home, physically humiliates Namor and launches an attack across dimensions upon Atlantis. Her departure sparks a successful but so-costly revolution in Zephyrland and (with valiant Namor clinging to her hurtling Golden Submarine) provokes a shocking resurrection after splashing down on Earth in #66. ‘Rise, Thou Killer Whale’ (Gerber, Heck & Perlin) sees Virago driven away from Atlantis at great cost, only to stumble upon the tomb of defeated – but apparently only dormant – Orka the (humanoid) Killer Whale – who unites with a clearly kindred spirit to devastate the sunken city with an armada of crazed cetaceans…

The catastrophic clash leads to the Sub-Mariner again falling, but this time amidst toxic nerve gas dumped by surface dwellers. The chemical poisons alter his body chemistry, making it impossible to breathe air or maintain body moisture. Moreover, as the cloud of death expands currents wash it over Atlantis, plunging all within the perimeter – Virago and Orka included – into comas in landmark tale ‘Seawinds of Change!’ (Gerber, Heck & Frank Bolle).

Thankfully, whilst dying Namor heads for the surface to be found by old ally Triton of The Inhumans, who brings Namor to former foes the Fantastic Four. Smartest Man Alive Reed Richards swiftly diagnoses and rapidly constructs a bodysuit to provide constant artificial respiration – over Namor’s churlish and violent protests – and he heads home to finish his fight. Sadly, what he finds in #68 (January 1974, Mooney inks) leaves him ‘On the Brink of Madness!’ Only Tamara, Nita and Hydro’s amphibians escaped the nerve agent’s effects and now must calm down the bereft monarch. To stabilise the crisis, they relocate to vacant Hydrobase and direct Namor to a human scientist whose forcefield researches might provide a means to protect dormant Atlanteans from predators and further harm.

After seeking spiritual guidance from patron god Father Neptune, Namor sets off, but when the king without a kingdom seeks out Dr Damon Walthers, he discovers the genius’ works stolen by his assistant. Shot from the sky by neophyte supervillain Force, their initial clash is inconclusive but does draw the attention of passing student Peter Parker…

Meanwhile in Zephyrland, the war goes badly and the survivors consider calling in Sorcerer Supreme Stephen Strange…

George Tuska & Vince Colletta illustrate Prince Namor, the Savage Sub-Mariner #69 as Gerber rapidly wraps up his hanging plot threads in anticipation of a sudden cancellation. ‘Two Worlds …and Dark Destiny!’ sees Dr Strange offer aid, a pointless battle between spider hero and fishman and a final encounter with Force that leaves Namor victorious, in control of Walthers’ forcefield tech and Atlantis safely stored “under glass” until a cure can be found – an inauspicious but satisfactory stopping point. Confoundingly the series still had three issues to run with Marv Wolfman, Tuska & Colletta depicting ‘Namor Unchained!’ in #70 whilst adding further safeguards to sleeping Atlantis, until targeted by now-independent mutated fishmen grown by Dr. Dorcas under the guidance of an ambitious aquatic atrocity. The brutal duel delivers more deaths and butchery as #71 clamours ‘Comes the Pirahna!’ and the series finally sank with #72 (dated September 1974 and on sale from 18th June) as Steve Skeates, Dan Adkins & Colletta catered an alien encounter as Namor faced obnoxious humans and a lost interstellar shapeshifter in ‘From the Void It Came…’

The antihero resurfaced in Giant-Sized Super-Villain Team-Up #1 (cover-dated March 1975), revived as one half of a tag-team with fellow misunderstood autocrat Doctor Doom whilst seeking a cure for his people and his own condition. That sustained momentum led to the last tale here, a solo exploit taken from Marvel Spotlight #27 (April 1976) as Bill Mantlo & Mooney revealed ‘Death is the Symbionic Man!’ Incorporating Prime Earth’s military industrial villain Captain Simon Stryker (of alternate Earth epic Deathlok the Demolisher) the pacy yarn saw Sub-Mariner hunted for potential spare parts and powers by the messianic maniac and battling Stryker’s most deadly killer-cyborg yet…

Bonus material includes covers by Everett, John Romita, Rich Buckler, Sal Buscema, Al Weiss, Jim Starlin, Larry Lieber, Joe Sinnott, Gil Kane, Frank Giacoia, Mike Esposito, Vince Colletta, & Al Milgrom, supplemented with original art pages and personal commissions by “Wild Bill”. Also on view are House ads; the editorial page from #67 wherein Gerber explained the costume change plus Romita’s original designs for the new outfit. Special treats comprise Everett’s unused cover watercolour rough for Marvel Comics (1939) #2; the Everett cover and Franc Reyes frontispiece of Marvel Index #7b (1978); a stellar Venus pinup from Marvel Spotlight #2 (1972) and – following the announcement of Everett’s death – a visual memorial from editor and friend Thomas, limned by Marie Severin & Giacoia as it appeared in Sub-Mariner #65 (September 1973).

In comics, the best thing about “the Mighty falling” is that so often another time throws up fresh ideas and creators who will regenerate faded concepts. It a cycle as timeless and relentlessly repeating as the tides. The venerable Sub-Mariner always comes back stronger and more appetising, and you owe it to yourself to be ready for the next wave by getting to know these classics. Many early Marvel Comics are more exuberant than qualitative, but this volume, especially from an story-lover’s point of view, is a wonderful exception: historical treasures with narrative bite and indescribable style and panache that fans will delight in forever.
© 2025 MARVEL.

Today in 1923 French creator Jean Graton (Michel Vaillant) was born, sharing natal celebrations with comics genius Eddie Campbell (Alec, Bacchus, From Hell) in 1955 and colourist Christie Scheele in 1957.

Losses include cartoonist Virgil Partch in 1984; Belgian writer Henri Gillain (Il y a un sorcier à Champignac, Le Trésor d’Alaric, Nègre Blanc) in 1999; Mad mainstay Jerry DeFucchio in 2001 and Filipino artist Mar Amongo (DC anthologies, Noli Me Tangere, The Tiger’s Fang, Talons of Time) in 2005.

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Black Widow Epic Collection volume 2: The Coldest War 1981-1998


By Ralph Macchio, Gerry Conway, D.G. Chichester, Jim Starlin, Cefn Ridout, Mindy Newell, Scott Lobdell, Paul Gulacy, George Pérez, George Freeman, Larry Stroman, Joe Chiodo, Charlie Adlard, Bob Layton, Butch Guice, John Stanisci, Sergio Cariello, Randy Green & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-2126-2 (TPB) Digital edition

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

Natasha Romanoff (sometimes Natalia Romanova) was a Soviet Russian spy who came in from the cold and stuck around to become one of Marvel’s earliest female stars, reusing a nomme de guerre first coined for a golden age supernatural Timely Comics star. Today’s Black Widow started out as a svelte, sultry honey-trap during Marvel’s early “Commie-busting” days, targeting Tony Stark and battling Iron Man in her debut (Tales of Suspense #52, April 1964). She was subsequently redesigned as a torrid tights-&-tech supervillain before defecting to the USA, falling for an assortment of Yankee superheroes, including Hawkeye and Daredevil, before finally enlisting as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. In the meantime she established herself as a freelance do-gooder and joining (and ultimately leading) The Champions and The Avengers.

Throughout her career, she has always been considered ultra-efficient, coldly competent, deadly dangerous and yet somehow cursed to bring doom and disaster to her paramours. As her backstory evolved, it was disclosed that Natasha had undergone experimental processes which enhanced her physical capabilities and lengthened her lifespan, as well as assorted psychological procedures which had messed up her mind and memories…

Traditionally a minor fan favourite, the Widow only really hit the big time after Marvel’s cinematic franchise was established, but for us unregenerate comics-addicts, her print escapades have always offered a cool, sinister frisson of delight. This expansive, explosive and wide-ranging compilation gathers contents of Bizarre Adventures #25; Marvel Fanfare #10-13; Solo Avengers #7; Black Widow: The Coldest War; Punisher/Black Widow: Spinning Doomsday’s Web; Daredevil/Black Widow: Abattoir; Marvel Comics Presents #135; Daredevil Annual #10; Fury/Black Widow: Death Duty & Journey into Mystery #517-519, cumulatively covering cover-dates March 1981 to April 1998.

Preceded by prose recaps ‘The Black Widow and Daredevil’ and ‘We are The Champions’, the clandestine actions open with an iconic appearance from 1981, first seen in monochrome mature-reader magazine Bizarre Adventures #25 which featured short tales starring female heroes. Here Ralph Macchio scripts a far more devious traditional espionage-steeped yarn of double and triple-cross with agents betraying each other while trying to ascertain who might be working for “the other side”. ‘I Got the Yo-Yo… You Got the String’ sees the Widow despatched by S.H.I.E.L.D. to assassinate her former tutor Irma Klausvichnova in an African political hot spot. However, as the mission proceeds, Natasha learns that she can’t trust anybody and everything she knows is either a lie or a test with fatal consequences…

The chilling, twist-ridden tale is elevated to excellence by the powerful tonal art of Paul Gulacy who fills the piece with sly tributes to numerous movie spies and the actors – such as Michael Caine and Humphry Bogart – who first made the genre so compelling.

Next up is a saga seen in Marvel Fanfare #10-13 (August 1983, March 1984), wherein Macchio & George Pérez – with inkers Brett Breeding, Jack Abel, Joe Sinnott, Al Milgrom & John Beatty – depict the spy in extreme peril as ‘Widow’ finds her recalled by S.H.I.E.L.D. to extract an abducted asset – her beloved mentor Ivan Petrovich. As she tracks and trashes assorted killers and crazies, we get an inworld review of her complex origins before arriving ‘Back in the U.S.S.R.’ to infiltrate a top-secret science project and face the assembled killer elite of a mystery mastermind with a grudge…

‘The Web Tightens!’ as the assassins close in, until a last-minute rescue by S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Jimmy Woo and a frenzied clash with deranged killer Snapdragon leads to revelation and full disclosure as ‘The Widow… Alone!’ faces a foe long believed dead and spectacularly triumphs…

A short from Solo Avengers #7 (June 1988, by Bob Layton & Jackson “Butch” Guice) sees the Widow brave unimaginable peril to return to her old dancing teacher ‘The Token’ she no longer feels worthy of before intriguing superhero spy Original Graphic Novel The Coldest War unfolds. Set in the last days of the US/Soviet face-off – with what looks to be an epilogue added to address the collapse of the Soviet State – the tale was clearly meant as a contemporary thriller (probably for fortnightly anthology Marvel Comics Presents) before events overtook the time-consuming process of printing a comic. The afterword – set after the fall of the Berlin Wall – doesn’t jar too much and lent an air of imminent urgency to the mix at the time it was finally released.

Gerry Conway provides a typically complex, double-dealing tale set in the dog-days of Mikhail Gorbachev’s government, during his radical policy of Perestroika (“openness”). It begins as an ambitious KGB upstarts undertake a plan to subvert Natasha and return her to Soviet control. Their leverage and bait is husband Alexei Shostokoff – whom she has believed dead for decades. Naturally, nothing is as it seems, nobody can be trusted and only the last spy standing can be called the winner…

Low key and high-tech go hand in hand in this sort of tale, and although there’s much reference to earlier Marvel classics, it can be easily enjoyed by the casual reader or movie convert. And what art! George Freeman is a supreme stylist, whose drawing work – although infrequent – is always top rate. Starting out on Captain Canuck, he has excelled on Jack of Hearts, Green Lantern, Avengers, Batman Annual #11 (with Alan Moore), Wasteland, Elric, Nexus  and The X-Files (for which he won an Eisner Award). Here, inked by Ernie Colon, Mark Farmer, Mike Harris, Val Mayerik & Joe Rubinstein, with colours from Lovern Kindzierski, he renders a subtle and sophisticated blend of costumed chic and espionage glamour to make this tale a “must-have” item all by itself.

It’s followed by 1992’s OGN Punisher/Black Widow: Spinning Doomsday’s Web by D.G. Chichester, Larry Stroman & Mark Farmer. Action-packed but plot-lite, it sees Frank Castle clash with the super-agent as she tracks rogue killer Peter Malum: an atomic scientist with a taste for slaughter and an insatiable hunger to test the deadliest weapon he’s ever built…

Presumably her spicy spy cachet wasn’t deemed enough to win a regular series but warranted plenty of guest shots. In 1993, Jim Starlin & Joe Chiodo reunited her with an old lover for OGN Daredevil/Black Widow: Abattoir wherein a duo of depraved psionic predators inflict the tortures of the damned upon the Widow until the Man Without Fear saves her… and she subsequently rescues him.

Released in Late August 1993, Mindy Newell, John Stanisci & Sergio Cariello’s ‘Legacy’ was one quarter of Marvel Comics Presents #135 and saw Natasha touch base with her roots in New York’s Russian enclave, only to uncover prejudice, murder and hidden KGB agents, before 1994’s Daredevil Annual #10 with ‘Dead End’ offering a sort-of sequel by Newell, Cariello & Rich Rankin as Natasha retrieves a lost bio-agent and is unexpectedly forced into reviewing her own defection to find a supposedly long-deceased old enemy…

Presumably crafted under the aegis of the much-missed Marvel UK subdivision, 1995 OGN Fury/Black Widow: Death Duty is by Cefn Ridout & Charlie Adlard and is a bit of a misnomer.

Don’t be fooled by the title and brace yourself for a disappointment if you’re a huge fan of the World War II Howling Commando and irascible erstwhile leader of the planet’s most advanced espionage agency. Although he gets top billing, Fury is largely absent from these post-Cold War proceedings in this pacy thriller that is in actuality the spiritual conclusion to the saga of the mysterious Night Raven.

That enigmatic wanderer was a masked vigilante who fought crime in New York and Chicago between World Wars I & II. In later years, he was locked in a bloody, pitiless vendetta with immortal villainess Yi Yang, Queen of the Dragon Tong. Here, when a S.H.I.E.L.D. asset is murdered inside Moscow’s US embassy soon after the fall of the Soviet system, expatriate Russian super-agent/Avenger Natasha Romanoff is dispatched to unravel the secrets the new bosses don’t want revealed.

What she discovers is the incredible fate of the fearsome urban legend now known as Black Bird as he slaughters his way through bureaucrats and Russian Mafia alike in his single-minded mission to destroy the woman who kept him from a peaceful grave.

Superbly illustrated and tightly scripted, this is nonetheless an uncomfortable blending of genres, with a strange pace to it: as if a propose serial was savagely trimmed and pruned with no thought to narrative cohesion.

Closing the files is a 3-part exploit from Scott Lobdell, Randy Green & Rick Ketcham as first seen in Journey into Mystery #517-519 (February- April 1998). ‘The Fire Next Time… parts 1-3’ offers a convoluted hunt for a Far Right terror group’s hidden leader: someone whose scheme to simultaneously murder every S.H.I.E.L.D. agent on Earth revolves around a hidden traitor. However as the plot unfolds, it’s clear to the embattled and beleaguered Black Widow that absolutely nobody is who or what they seem…

Closing with a wealth of graphic revelations, the art show opens with Gulacy’s stunning 1982 Black Widow Portfolio (six monochrome plates and the cover image); and also offers pages from the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. These are supplemented by pin-ups and posters by Al Milgrom, Kevin Nowlan, Terry Austin, June Brigman & Jim Lee and Joe Chiodo, and also contains original art pages from Chiodo, Stroman & Farmer and covers by Yancy LaBat, Mark Morales, Pérez & Layton taken from previous collections of Black Widow: Web of Intrigue combining to create a suspenseful dossier of devious delights no fan should miss.

This is a genre-crossing dark delight to seduce movie buffs, armchair spyhunters and any superhero sucker in need of a wholly traditional yet wildly novel change of pace…
© 2020 MARVEL.

Today in 1932 Argentine mastermind of silent mirth & madness Guillermo Mordillo (Crazy Cowboy, Crazy Crazy, Las Girafes) was born, followed a year later by Indonesian-Dutch cartoonist Thé Tjong-Khing (Arman & Ilva, Oliver B. Bumble) and by Italian maestro Sergio Zaniboni (I Reporters, Il Campione, Diabolik) in 1937. In 1942 Comics Revue writer/editor Rick Norwood arrived, with editor turned co-founder/director of communication of America’s National Runaway Switchboard Mike Gold (First Comics, DC Comics) coming along in 1950; Canadian scripter screenwriter Martin Pasko (Superman, Wonder Woman, Star Trek, Metal Men, Swamp Thing, Blackhawk, Gargoyles) in 1954 and British illustrator Charlie Adlard (White Death, The Walking Dead, X-Files, Savage, Astronauts in Trouble) popping up in 1966.

This day in 1989, veteran Walt Disney comics artist Paul Murry (Mickey Mouse, Super Goof, Uncle Scrooge, The Phantom Blot, José Carioca, Panchito) died.

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Captain America by Ed Brubaker volume 1


By Ed Brubaker, Steve McNiven, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Mark Morales, Jay Leisten, Matteo Buffagni, Justin Ponsor, Laura Martin & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5708-3 (HB) 978-0-7851-5709-0 (TPB) 978-0-7851-8271-9 (Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

One of the key moments in Marvel Comics history occurred when the Mighty Avengers recovered a tattered body floating in a block of ice (#4, March 1964) and resurrected the World War II hero Captain America. With this act bridging the years back to Timely & Atlas Comics – begun with the return of the Sub-Mariner in Fantastic Four #4 – Marvel confirmed and consolidated a solid, concrete, potential-packed history and created an enticing sense of mythic continuance for the fledgling company that instantly gave it the same cachet and enduring grandeur of market leader National/DC.

It’s just that rich heritage and history which informs and embellishes this grand old fashioned Fights ‘n’ Tights romp by Ed Brubaker and artists Steve McNiven, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Mark Morales, Jay Leisten & Matteo Buffagni which originally featured in the first five issues of volume 5 of the Captain America monthly comic book (cover-dated September 2011 to February 2012).

After too long on the sidelines and officially off-duty, Steve Rogers had again taken up the uniform and shield of the Star Spangled Avenger but was all too soon forced to confront his tragic past when his WWII ally and lover Peggy Carter passed away. Whilst attending her funeral with fellow veterans Nick Fury and “Dum Dum” Dugan the trio are targeted by a sniper and plunged back into long unfinished business…

Back in 1944, Peggy and the so-much-younger warriors were in Paris to destroy an advanced weapons facility operated by Nazi technocrat Baron Zemo and resurgent rapidly rebuilding conquest-cult Hydra. With the aid of costumed crusader Agent Bravo and Jimmy Jupiter (nee Jankovicz) – a boy with the ability to enter dreams and travel to a dimension where wishes became reality – the Allied operatives infiltrated the factory, but the mission went terribly wrong, leaving Jimmy a comatose vegetable and Bravo trapped within a timeless meta-realm with no hope of return.

Now, somehow Bravo is back on Earth and working with a new Hydra Queen. Equipped with incredible, nigh-impossible new armaments and teamed up with the heir of Zemo, the vengeful veteran wants to destroy Cap & Fury; romance/abduct Rogers’ current girlfriend Agent 13 and wreak vengeance on the world which had callously forgotten him…

As part of that ambition Bravo recruits long-forgotten Cap adversary Lyle Dekker: a Nazi scientist and certified lunatic who had long harboured a festering hatred for the Red, White & Blue champion. After Rogers had thawed out in modern times, Dekker tried to assassinate Captain America and take his place by having his own mind permanently transferred into an 18-foot tall Cap robot dubbed The Ameridroid.

When that manic automaton attacks now it is but the prelude to Bravo’s masterstroke: exiling Rogers to Jimmy Jupiter’s fantasy dimension and a darkly irresistible, seductive faux existence Rogers could never dream of escaping, all whilst merging the Dream Dimension with the plane of mundane reality to create a new kind of American nation Bravo alone would control…

Of course, the outcast maniac has no conception of what a true hero and living symbol will endure to make the world – any world – right and must soon face his personal nemesis in a duel for all reality. Victory comes as it always does to the just and righteous, but Rogers is belatedly faced with staggering consequences in the celebratory aftermath…

To Be Continued…

In 2012 a Panini/Marvel UK trade paperback edition was released as Captain America: American Dreamers (ISBN: 978-1-84653-505-5) which also included a gallery of alternative covers by Art Adams, Olivier Coipel, Neal Adams, Dale Eaglesham, John Romita Sr. and Salvador Larroca, as well as anniversary and Movie variant edition covers which are sadly omitted here. However whichever version you see this is a superbly fast-paced, action-packed romp: a thrilling and immensely entertaining confection to delight old aficionados, impress newcomers and make fresh fans for the immortal and original Sentinel of Liberty.
© 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

Today in 1907 arch stylist Jesse Marsh (Tarzan, John Carter of Mars, Brothers of the Spear) was born, as was fellow Tarzan illustrator Ruben Moreira (also Casey Ruggles, Rip Hunter -Time Master, Roy Raymond – TV Detective, Reef Ryan, Her Highness and Silk) in 1922. Five years later Italian master creator Guido Buzzelli (Angélique in the Daily Mirror, Zil Zelub, L’uomo del Bengala, Tex Willer) arrived, followed in 1938 by mega star writer Pierre Christin (Valerian and Laureline, The City That Didn’t Exist, The Black Order Brigade, La voyageuse de la petite ceinture, The Hunting Party). That same year welcomed Writer/Artist/Letterer/Editor/Publisher Bill Peason (Witzend, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents) with artist Ernie Chan (everything from Batman to Conan to Secret Society of Super-Villains) born in 1940 and Singaporean illustrator Foo Swee Chin (A Lost Stock of Children, Mince, Chimney 25, Zeet, Nightmares & Fairy Tales, MuZz) arriving in 1977.

In 2005 we lost venerable Dutch veteran Marten Toonder (Tom Puss) with Portuguese illustrator Carlos Roque (Angélique, Wladimyr) dying a year later and Mad magazine mirth maven Stan Hart departing in 2017.

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Captain America: Hail Hydra!


By Jonathan Maberry, Sergio Cariello, Tom Scioli, Phil Winslade, Kyle Hotz & Graham Nolan, Chris Sotomayor, Bill Crabtree, Chris Chuckry, Dan Brown, Ian Hannin & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: ?978-0-7851-5127-2 (TPB) ?978-1-30236-799-2 (Digital Edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Everything changed for a little company called Marvel when, in issue #4 of The Avengers, the assembled heroes found the body of US Army Private Steve Rogers floating in a block of ice and consequently resurrected World War II hero Captain America. With this act bridging the years to Timely/Atlas Comics (which had in fact begun with the revival of Sub-Mariner in Fantastic Four #4), Marvel instantly acquired a comforting longevity and potential-packed pre-history: lending an enticing sense of mythic continuance to the fledgling company that instantly gave it the same cachet and enduring grandeur of market leader National/DC.

In 2010, after years of conflicting continuity and with a movie in the offing, Marvel updated and sought to rationalise those pivotal events and early future-shocked days in our contemporary world with stunning re-interpretation Captain America: Man Out of Time before repeating the operation with another generational miniseries: this time scripted by Jonathan Maberry tracing the returned Sentinel of Liberty as he fought an extended campaign against a fearsome and undying foe that had begun even before he knew of his enemy’s existence.

Captain America: Hail Hydra! focuses on five crucial skirmishes fought over the Red, White and true Blue hero’s long years of valiant service, wherein he continually – albeit periodically – clashed with an organisation of insidious evil and astounding ambition. Each issue was dutifully depicted by a different artist in a knowing pastiche of the relevant era.

Illustrated by Sergio Cariello and colourist Chris Sotomayor, the action opens in 1944 as Captain America and youthful partner Bucky work behind enemy lines, helping German anti-Nazi freedom fighter Trude Lohn smash a plot by the baroquely bonkers, certifiably mad Doctor Geist, who has discovered how to reanimate the dead. During the apocalyptic struggle against the resurrected corpses of Das Aufertehungs Korps, Cap is injected with Geist’s unholy Lazarus serum and although the triumphant trio succeeded in depriving Hitler of an undead army, they have no idea of the sinister scientist’s greater scheme, the ancient society he actually toils for or what effect his devil drugs will have on America’s greatest warrior…

Tom Scioli pictured the second instalment in vivid tribute to Jack Kirby, wherein more historical flashback hints into the history of the cult that would become Hydra are interspersed with Cap’s first days as an Avenger following his half-century enforced hibernation. After surprisingly reuniting with now geriatric Trude, he and his new comrades clash with Nazi war criminal Baron Strucker and Geist’s unliving army, only to be thoroughly overmatched and outmanoeuvred. The deranged doctor seemed more interested in gathering blood samples from Cap and Thor than winning the battle he had instigated…

A few years later (just after modern day Captain America Sam Wilson got his first flying outfit and was learning to prowl the skies, if you’re counting) the plan becomes clearer when the Sentinel of Liberty, partner in crime-fighting The Falcon, and African Avenger Black Panther face an army of zombies seeking to steal the fabled Elixir of Life from hidden Wakandan repository of knowledge the Grotto of Solomon. Lavishly rendered by Phil Winslade, with colours from Chris Chuckry & Dan Brown, the spectacular clash is also lightly dusted with further glimpses of the order’s historic attempts to gather arcane knowledge and artefacts pertaining to their mysterious goal.

That is ultimately revealed to be the conquest of death and ascension to godhood via their Infinitas Agenda – and the history of Spanish alchemist Dr Garibaldi, who would shepherd the project over hundreds of years…

For a brief period the US government replaced the Star-Spangled Avenger with a less single-minded and independent agent compelling Steve Rogers to create the identity of “The Captain”. Here Kyle Hotz & Dan Brown delineate an adventure from those turbulent times as the unencumbered hero tackled Geist’s latest monstrosity beside Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. to get one step ahead of Hydra. However, after thwarting a terrifying attack on the heart and soul of America, Rogers is forced to consider not only what Geist is truly after but also what his devilish serum might have made of Captain America that fateful night back in 1944…

Graham Nolan and colourist Ian Hannin close the macabre saga in captivating style as Rogers, now Director of the Avengers, and original partner Bucky Barnes (formerly Soviet assassin Winter Soldier and the current Captain America) enlist a garrison of guest-stars as they home in on Strucker and Geist just as their incredible seven-thousand year scheme reaches its shocking culmination. Even the World’s Mightiest Heroes are hard-pressed to overcome the incredible beings Hydra has at long last birthed…

This extended yarn does have some niggling plot flaws but nothing so flagrant that it disrupts the overall flow of action and delicious flavour of nostalgia; so unless you’re a dedicated, nit-picking devotee the striking art and rollicking rollercoaster thrills and chills should carry the day nicely, providing a solid dose of immortal, enticing entertainment

Fast-paced, epic in scope and rocketing from one full-on spectacle to the next, via ingenious but faithful infilling of established canon, makes Captain America: Hail Hydra! a striking saga that will make many fresh fans for Marvel’s eternally evergreen old soldier.
© 2011 Marvel Entertainment LCC and its subsidiaries. All rights reserved.

Today in 1890 pioneering strip cartoonist Carl Ed (Harold Teen) was born, sharing the day with Canadian author & illustrator Russ Jones (founding editor and creator of Creepy magazine) in 1942 and cartoonist, fandom founder Steve Stiles in 1943.

The day also saw the loss of two major talents – Lucky Luke creator Morris (Maurice de Bévère) in 2001 and UK adaptions all-star Angus Allan (Stingray, Thunderbirds, Garth, DangerMouse, The Six Million Dollar Man, Logan’s Run, Charlie’s Angels) in 2007.

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Thor: The Deviants Saga


By Robert Rodi, Stephen Segovia, M. Jason Paz & Jeffrey Huet & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-2295-5 (TPB), 978-1-3020-1399-8 (Digital edition), 978-1-84653-511-6 (Panini UK edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times

Time for another Anniversary shout out…

Jack Kirby’s The Eternals first emerged on 13th April 1976 in a title cover-dated July of that year, in a series slightly at odds with and removed from Marvel’s regular company continuity. The new mythology revealed that giant Celestial aliens had visited Earth in epochs past, gene-gineering proto-hominids into three distinct species: Human Beings; godly superbeings who called themselves Eternals and genetically unstable, ferociously aggressive but highly intelligent creatures dubbed Deviants. These subspecies had battled for ownership of Earth in wars spanning the length of human existence, but moreover the Space Gods had periodically returned to check up on their experiment…

Never a comfortable contemporary fit with the wider Marvel Universe – only S.H.I.E.L.D. ever really got involved the first time around – the series explored Kirby’s fascinations with Deities, Space and Supernature through the lens of very human observers. Once it ended and Kirby left, in the tried and trusted manner of such things other creators subsequently co-opted the concept into the regular continuity.

Over 19 issues and one Annual, the series avoided contact with Marvel continuity as modern humanity’s military, secret agencies and moneyed movers-&-shakers dealt with the politics and panic of a world-shattering event seen through the eyes of heroic rebel Ikaris, human Margo Damian, and a potent cast of Earth aliens Ajak, Sersi, Makkari, Zuras, Thena, Sprite and Druig who fought and foiled – or occasionally befriended – Deviants including Kro, Brother Tode, Ransak & Karkas, with Homo sapiens skulking running or cowering in terror in the background and under the microscope as a Celestial Fourth Host hovered above the world in a city-sized ship, pondering final judgement: a process that would take 50 years…

One of the heroes the Eternals did eventually meet with most often was the bellicose but benevolent Asgardian Storm Lord…

Lovingly remastered and skilfully refitted here by Robert Rodi and artists Stephen Segovia, M. Jason, Paz & Jeffrey Huet, the story here originated at the end of 2011 as a 5-issue miniseries and part of wave of publishing projects to support the burgeoning film franchise. It picks up on fresh elements introduced in 2007’s collection Neil Gaiman’s Eternals and opens in the ruins of Asgard as Thor discovers ancient deposed, Deviant monarch Ereshkigal has crept in and is searching through the rubble with a horde of brutal monsters…

The Deviants have also fallen on hard times and face extinction from a deadly plague, inspiring the dire, demi-demonic ex-empress to seek Asgardian tools and weapons to facilitate her return to personal power. After an inconclusive battle, Ereshkigal escapes with the Unbinding Stone of Oshemar, an apparently innocuous globe which can literally unmake reality. Utterly unaware of the power of her purloined prize, the Deviant tries and fails to usurp control from the current rulers of the Lemurian undercity which is their last refuge and home, whilst Thor – galvanised by the imminent destruction of the universe – seeks allies and the location of her hidden homeland amongst his old comrades and erstwhile allies in Olympia, cloaked Earthly citadel of his old Eternal comrades.

The city is all but deserted, with only resurrected hero Virako, master technician Phastos and “reformed” Deviants Karkas & Ransak the Reject occupying the immense mountaintop metropolis. Before the valiant band can formulate a plan, however, the city is invaded by a Deviant army led by apparently ageless and undying Warlord Kro and a cadre of elite monster warriors. After a spectacular battle the heroes are temporarily overwhelmed and Phastos captured. Critically, his incredible devices are stolen: taken in the misguided belief that they can reverse the effects of the disease devastating the Deviant population.

With the Unbinding Stone still in Ereshkigal’s meddling hands and their friend in peril, Thor and his comrades must storm the very heart of Lemuria before personal tragedy becomes universal Armageddon, but at least they have a hidden ally in the heart of the enemy – the outcast Eternal known alternatively as Gilgamesh and The Forgotten One…

Also re-entering the mix as the cataclysmic climax builds are the space-scattered, long missing other Eternals, but even if they return in time, what can anybody do against a doom-obsessed potentate possessing a device which destroys atomic bonds and has no off-switch? The only answer to is try and pray and hope to make a miracle…

A grandiose,  old-fashioned blockbuster spectacle, this rousing yarn is cannily constructed so that even first-time readers can get right into the swing of things, whilst veteran devotees will find plenty of old favourite characters and themes revisited and clarified, with the adventure rattling along to a perfect climax with the portentous promise of more to come.

Fast, furious, frantic fantasy fun for older kids of all ages and one no Fights ‘n’ Tights fanatic could possibly resist.
© 2012 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

Today in 1902 “Father of Turkish Comics” Cemal Nadir Güler was born, followed in 1919 by hyperprolific comic book scribe Joe Gill (The Phantom, Zaza the Mystic, Fightin’ Five, Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, Peacemaker, Vengeance Squad, Hot Wheels, The Secret Six, every Charlton genre anthology ever) and, in 1931 Puerto Rican superstar writer/artist/editor Ernesto Colón Sierra AKA Ernie Colon (Harvey Comics, Star Comics, Manimal, Ax, The Medusa Chain, Arak, Son of Thunder, Dr Solar Man of the Atom, Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld, Damage Control, The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation, Vlad the Impaler). In 1937 Belgian humour cartoonist Hugo De Reymaeker AKA Hurey, Hugo and/or Fonske (De Fratsen van Jan Heibel, Anakronis), with Mike Ploog (Man-Thing, Ghost Rider, The Monster of Frankenstein, Werewolf By Night, The Spirit) arriving in 1940; master inker Tom Palmer (Doctor Strange, Avengers, Tomb of Dracula) joining in 1942 and military comics specialist Wayne Vansant (The ‘Nam, Days of Darkness, Katusha) in 1949.

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Captain America Man Out of Time


By Mark Waid, Jorge Molina, Karl Kesel, Scott Hanna, Frank D’Armata, Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, George Roussos & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5128-9 (Premiere HC), 978-1-84653-487-4 (TPB) 978-1-3023-7033-6 (Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

One of the pivotal moments in Marvel Comics history occurred when the Mighty Avengers recovered a tattered body floating in a block of ice (issue #4, March 1964) and resurrected the World War II hero Captain America. With this act bridging the presumed-forgotten years back to predecessors Timely and Atlas Comics – begun with the return of the Sub-Mariner in Fantastic Four #4 – Young Marvel confirmed and consolidated a solid, concrete, potential-packed history to create an enticing sense of mythic continuance for the fledgling company. This instantly gave it the same cachet and enduring grandeur of market leader National/DC…

In 2010, after years of increasingly conflicting continuity (and with a movie in the offing) mature Marvel tasked fan-favourite writer Mark Waid with updating those pivotal events and early future-shocked days for their contemporary world. Of course that modern milieu was now the year 2000, not the lifetime ago of 1964…

This captivating re-interpretation and updating (collecting 5 issue miniseries Captain America: Man Out of Time as cover-dated November 2010 – April 2011) opens in the dying days of the war as Steve Rogers & Bucky Barnes are sent from the European frontline to England and an appointment with doom-laden destiny, before seamlessly segueing into the Sentinel of Liberty’s stunned awakening in tomorrow’s world and a meeting with the initial incarnation of The World’s Mightiest Heroes.

Waid, perfectly complimented by artists Jorge Molina, Karl Kesel & Scott Hanna and colourist Frank D’Armata , wisely leaves the classic adventures largely unchanged, to concentrate on those unseen and missing contemplative moments and the unfolding personal crises confronting the uncomprehending Rogers, which means readers completely unaware of the character’s history and exploits might experience a little confusion in places. However, the narrative, although superficially disjointed, is clear-cut enough to counter this and interested newcomers and casual fans can easily fill in gaps by perusing one of the many available reprint collections, covering the entire period featured here which equates to Avengers #4-8.

In chapter 2 the reeling hero meets former Incredible Hulk sidekick Rick Jones (an absurdly identical double for the at this time Officially Departed Bucky), gets a rapid reality check on his new home – from his new allies and even the President of the United States – and finally accepts that there’s no way home for this Old Soldier.

…Although that’s not strictly true…

Among the many technological miracles his new allies introduce him to is the embryonic science of time-travel, and, even while battling such threats as the Lava Men and Masters of Evil, the unhappy warrior can only think of returning to his proper place and saving his best friend from death…

The old adage “be careful what you wish for” never proves more true than when time-ravaging Kang the Conqueror attacks. After utterly overwhelming the 21st century heroes he casually and disdainfully dispatches the Star Spangled Sentinel back to 1945 where he belongs but apparently no longer fits.

His sense of duty, threat to his new allies and all the unpalatable things he had comfortably forgotten blighting his “Good Old Days” prompt Cap into brilliantly escaping his honeyed time-trap with the aid of other friends made in the World of Tomorrow and the hero returns to the place where he is most needed to once more save the day…

Resolved and ready to tackle his Brave New World Captain America is now ready to carve out a whole new legend…

I’m generally less than sanguine about updates and reboots of classic comics material but I will admit that such things are a necessary evil as years go by, so when the deed is done with sensitivity, respect and imagination (not to mention dynamic, bravura flamboyance) I can only applaud and commend the effort.

Thrilling, superbly entertaining, compelling and genuinely moving, Captain America: Man Out of Time is a wonderful – dare I say “Timeless?” – comics confection that will delight old aficionados, impress new readers and should serve to make many fresh fans for the immortal Star-Spangled Avenger. Moreover, if you are one of those dyed-in-the-wool Old Guard curmudgeons who think there’s nothing better than the real thing, this compilation also offers a full reprint of The Avengers #4 (cover-dated March 1964 and on sale from January 3rd as crafted by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby & George Roussos), re-presenting Cap’s original landmark wake-up call that so lastingly informed this modern look back…
© 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

This propitious day in 1916 Disney animator turned comics writer Don R. Christensen (Magnus, Robot Fighter, Donald Duck, Uncle Scrooge) was born, joined in 1924 by artist/inker Frank Giacoia (every Marvel or DC comic you’ve ever heard of and newspaper strips Flash Gordon, The Incredible Hulk, Johnny Reb and Billy Yank, Sherlock Holmes, Thorne McBride). In 1947 Neil the Horse creator Katherine Collins (formerly Arnold Alexander Saba, Jr.) arrived. In 1950, comics legend John Byrne (Doomsday + 1, Rog-2000, some other stuff) was born, followed by writer Christie Marx (Sisterhood of Steel, Red Sonja, Conan) in 1952 and multitasker Joe Zabel (American Splendor, The Trespassers, Real Stuff) in 1953.

The date signifies the deaths of strip giant Warren Tufts (Casey Ruggles, Lance) in 1982; scripter Nicholas P. Dallis (Apartment 3-G, Rex Morgan, M.D.) in 1991 and in 2017 both Turkish comics creator Galip Tekin (Tuhaf Öyküler, P?’ya Mektuplar) and Argentinean cartoonist, caricaturist and humourist Juan Carlos Colombres AKA Landrú.

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The Black Panther Epic Collection volume 1 (1966-1976): Panther’s Rage


By Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, Don McGregor, Rich Buckler, Gil Kane, Billy Graham, Keith Pollard, Klaus Janson, Joe Sinnott, Klaus Janson, P. Craig Russell, Pablo Marcos, Dan Green, Bob McLeod,  Jim Mooney & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-0190-5 (TPB) 978-1-3024-9321-9 (Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. This book also includes Discriminatory Content utilised for dramatic effect.

With democracy under fire and American Civil Rights enduring active and constant attack in the Land of the Free, let’s look back on more progressive times and comics as we all stagger towards the 250th Fourth of July, shall we?

Acclaimed as the first black superhero in US comics and one of the first to carry his own series, the Black Panther’s popularity and fortunes have waxed and waned since he first appeared in Fantastic Four. In fact, the cat king actually attacked Marvel’s First Family as part of an extended plan to gain vengeance on the murderer of his father.

T’Challa was also the first black superhero in US comics, debuting in summer 1966. As created by Jack Kirby & Stan Lee, T’Challa, son of T’Chaka, is an African monarch whose deliberately hidden kingdom is the only known source of vibration-absorbing wonder mineral Vibranium. The miraculous alien ore – supposedly derived from a fallen meteor which struck the continent in lost antiquity – is the basis of the country’s immense wealth, enabling it to become one of the wealthiest and most secretive nations on Earth. These riches also allow the young king to radically remake his country, creating a high tech paradise even after he left Africa to fight as one of America’s Avengers.

Since time immemorial Wakanda has been an isolated, utopian wonderland with tribal resources and people safeguarded and led by a human warrior-king deriving cat-like physical advantages from secret ceremonies and a mysterious heart-shaped herb. This has ensured the generational dominance of the nation’s Panther Cult and sacrosanct hereditary Royal Family…

The “Vibranium mound” had guaranteed the nation’s status as a clandestine superpower for centuries, but in modern times increasingly made Wakanda a target for subversion, incursion and even invasion as the world grew ever smaller. This colossal compendium gathers the dynamic debut from Fantastic Four #52-53 (cover-dated July and August 1966) in advance of groundbreaking solo stories from Jungle Action (vol. 2) #6-24, collectively covering September 1973 through November 1976.

Before all that though, the innovative and unforgettable character debuted in ‘The Black Panther!’: an enigmatic African monarch whose secretive kingdom was the only source of a vibration-absorbing alien metal. These mineral riches had enabled him to turn his country into a technological marvel before he lured the FF into his savage super-scientific kingdom as part of an extended plan to gain vengeance on the murderer of his father. After battling the team to a standstill, King T’Challa revealed his tragic origin in ‘The Way it Began..!’, detailing how his father was murdered by marauding sonic science researcher Ulysses Klaw. As the monarch details how he took vengeance and liberated his people, word comes of incredible solidified-sound monsters attacking the region. Klaw has returned at last…

The cataclysmic clash that follows set the scene for the Warrior-Chieftain to guest star with numerous Marvel superstars before breaking out into the wider world, but it would years before he finally won his own solo series…

After roaming around the Marvel Universe, enjoying team-ups and saving Earth on a semi-regular basis as one “Earth’s Mightiest Superheroes”, the summer of 1973 saw the Black Panther finally become a solo star in his own series. Scripter Don McGregor opted to return the King to his people for an ambitious epic of love, death, vengeance and civil war: inventing from whole cloth and Kirby’s throwaway notion of a futuristic jungle the most unique African nation ever seen in comics or anywhere else…

Jungle Action had launched with an October 1972 cover-date: a cheap reprint vehicle for old Atlas-era Tarzan and Sheena knock-offs like Tharn, Jann and Lorna (all equally “…of the Jungle”). The fifth issue (not included here) abruptly changed tack, reprinting a Black Panther-starring saga from Avengers #62 as prelude to the start of T’Challa’s own all new adventures. These open here with # 6 and the eponymous ‘Panther’s Rage’, illustrated by Rich Buckler & Klaus Janson. The story opens with the Panther back in his contradictory homeland, stumbling upon the torture of an elderly farmer. Despite T’Challa’s best efforts, the victim dies in his arms, swearing he never lost faith in king or country…

Learning the attack is the work of brutal rebel leader Erik Killmonger, T’Challa sets all the resources of his inner court circle to finding the monster. With reports of further atrocities mounting, he all but abandons his American lover Monica Lynne to hunt the perpetrators and soon confronts his potential usurper at the potently symbolic Warrior Falls roaring above the life-sustaining River of Grace and Wisdom. The barbarous-seeming giant is not cowed by the Panther’s power or prowess and easily wins the no-holds barred battle that follows…

The initial episode is supplemented by detailed maps of Wakanda (the first fans had ever seen) before JA #7 mobilises ‘Death Regiments Beneath Wakanda’. Barely surviving his clash with Killmonger, T’Challa is nursed back to health by Monica at the Palace, even as hideously disfigured American Horatio displays his skill with snakes and poisons to his friend N’Jadaka. Known to their recruits as Venomm and Erik Killmonger, these rebel leaders plot their next attack resulting in the reptilian insurgent ambushing T’Challa when the king investigates an unsanctioned, illegal mine. This shocking atrocity is being used to siphon off raw Vibranium to pay for Killmonger’s increasingly violent and widespread attacks on the outlying population centres…

Although triumphant this time, T’Challa realises this is a many-layered war: one he might not win…

Whilst the Panther renews his powers through ancient ritual, Jungle Action #8 introduces another super-powered rebel with ‘Malice by Crimson Moonlight’ revealing a spear-wielding wonder woman invading the Royal Palace. Advisor Taku is interrogating Venomm (and gradually making inroads into turning the bitter outcast) when she attacks. Only the power of the Panther saves the servitor and prevents the brutal jailbreak from succeeding…

After maps of the hidden country and detailed plans of ‘Central Wakanda’s Palace Royale’ the saga resumes in #9 with ‘But Now the Spears Are Broken’ (spectacularly illustrated by Gil Kane & Janson) as T’Challa goes in-country to learn the effects of the power struggle on ordinary Wakandans. After saving little boy Kantu from a rhino, the king is made painfully aware that the common people view his foreign woman Monica with as much suspicion as the constantly-raiding insurgents. That feeling even penetrates to the heart of the palace. When advisor Zatama is murdered, Monica is arrested for the crime…

T’Challa is not there to protest or defend her. He has returned to Kantu’s village to investigate strange disappearances, discovering a seeming mass-rising of zombies led by skeletal maniac Baron Macabre. Once more the Great Cat is forced to ignominiously retreat…

Supreme stylist Billy Graham takes over pencilling with #10 as the Black Panther returns to the zombie nest, exposing a cunning charade beneath the deserted village as well as a super-scientific base run by a malignant, mind-warping mutant in ‘King Cadaver is Dead and Living in Wakanda!’

Accompanying the dark drama here are examples of ‘Black Panther Artistry’ – specifically, Kirby’s first designs for the hero back when he was going by provisional title ‘The Coal Tiger’ and Buckler & Janson’s initial depiction of ‘Erik Killmonger’. Due to an extremely unfavourable publishing schedule, Panther’s Rage unfolded with agonising slowness, but the lengthy wait between episodes allowed McGregor the latitude to pick and choose key events, with readers accepting that some stuff was actually occurring between issues.

By JA #11 (September 1974), the civil war had proceeded unchecked and ‘Once You Slay the Dragon!’ sees the Panther and his forces launching the long-awaited counterattack on Killmonger’s base in N’Jadaka Village. The battle is vicious and brief, introducing yet another powered lieutenant in the shape of pitiless high-tech armourer Lord Karnaj. And on the home front, T’Challa finally clears Monica and captures actual Zatama’s killer…

With Killmonger temporarily in retreat, the Panther goes on the offensive, using the rebel’s most inconsequential converts – Tayete and Kazibe – as reluctant guides to follow his ultimate nemesis to his most secret strongholds. Heading into the mountains and fabled Land of Chilling Mists, the Panther discovers a mutagenic temple… the Resurrection Altar. Employed by Killmonger to create his grotesque super-warriors, it is presided over by scientifically-spawned vampire Sombre. When T’Challa confronts them both, he is again overpowered by Erik and left for wolves to devour in ‘Blood Stains on Virgin Snow!’

  1. Craig Russell inked the next chapter as, enduring incomprehensible hardships in sub-arctic conditions, T’Challa perseveres and survives to follow Killmonger into the temperate swamps of Serpent Valley in #13. However, this is only after facing a pack of Wakanda’s white apes. To survive, the Panther must blasphemously ignore the sacred (to many of his subjects) religious aspect of the mighty carnivores and become ‘The God Killer’…

Following a Venomm pin-up, #14 then reveals ‘There Are Serpents Lurking in Paradise’ (inked by Pablo Marcos) as T’Challa clashes once more with Sombre before encountering an affable forest sprite guarding Serpent Valley. Pixie-like Mokadi asks difficult moral questions as T’Challa rushes towards his next battle with Killmonger, making him too late to stop the rebel capturing a legion of the valley’s awesome dinosaurs. The usurper even has time to leave one behind as a lethal parting gift for the embattled, exhausted Wakandan chieftain…

The endgame rapidly approaches in #15 as ‘Thorns in the Flesh, Thorns in the Mind’ (Dan Green inks) finds T’Challa still tracking his foe only to be overcome by Killmonger’s archer assassin Salamander K’Ruel. Beaten and left to be dismembered by a ravenous Pterosaur, T’Challa incredibly overcomes every challenge before – against all odds – staggering back to Monica for another bout of recuperation…

Graham inked his own pencils for the beginning of the end in #16 as T’Challa & Monica’s time of idyllic passion culminates in catastrophe when ‘And All Our Past Decades Have Seen Revolutions!’ reveals Killmonger’s origins as the vast cast converges for one final battle. That comes in #17 as an army of war-trained dinosaurs invades Central Wakanda only to be finally crushed by the Panther’s forces and Wakandan technology. The affair concludes as it began at Warrior Falls, but ‘Of Shadows and Rages’ also holds a shocking twist as the great game of kings is ultimately decided by a player no one considered of any relevance…

With its nuanced emotional interplay, extended scope and fiercely independent supporting cast, Panther’s Rage was a milestone in dramatic comics storytelling but it harboured one last punch in a gripping ‘Epilogue!’(Jungle Action#18, November 1975). Bob McLeod inked McGregor & Graham’s forceful look at the repercussions of conflict, which finds T’Challa and maimed security chief Wakabi targeted by feral woman Madame Slay: Killmonger’s ardent and unsuspected lover who believes her loss can only be assuaged by having her pack of loyal leopards eviscerate the victorious Wakandans…

Cover-dated January 1976, Jungle Action #19 premiered McGregor’s most audacious and ultimately frustrating project, with T’Challa accompanying Monica back to America. The Panther versus the Klan shifted focus from war stories to crime fiction, substituting exotic Africa for America’s poverty-wracked, troubled, still segregated-in-all-but-name Deep South for a head-on collision with centuries of entrenched and endemic racism. Illustrated by Graham & McLeod, ‘Blood and Sacrifices!’ sees Monica back with her family after her sister is murdered. All too soon T’Challa is ferociously battling a gang of purple-hooded killers who appear to have set up in opposition to the ancient but apparently not supremacist enough white-hooded Ku Klux Klan.

Moreover, both sects are determined to conceal the truth of Angela Lynne’s death, but a break comes when bumbling, well-meaning reporter Kevin Trublood stumbles into an attack on the newcomers by the strangely multi-racial Klan sect calling itself The Dragon Circle…

With neither townsfolk nor lawmen offering any welcome, T’Challa faces unbridled hostility and suspicion at every turn. He is even attacked by cops and a mob of citizens when he thwarts a knife attack on Monica. Although Sheriff Roderick Tate makes all the right noises and seems helpful, in ‘They Told Me a Myth I Wanted to Believe’, the Panther opts to pursue his own investigation before being overwhelmed by an army of white-robed Klansmen who tie him to a burning cross and leave him to die…

As Monica and Kevin puzzle out the convoluted web of mysteries, the Panther exerts all his uncanny gifts to escape becoming ‘A Cross Burning Darkly Blackening the Night!’ Later, as he recovers in hospital, Monica’s family, Kevin and Tate review the few verifiable facts of Angela’s demise before patriarch Lloyd Lynne urges T’Challa to stop looking. He only has one daughter left after all…

Nevertheless, when the Panther and Trublood invade and disrupt a Klan rally, Lloyd is right there with them…

With Buckler joining Graham on pencils and Jim Mooney alternating with McCleod on inks, Jungle Action #22 takes a bizarre turn as ‘Death Riders on the Horizon’ explores a Lynne family legend dating back to the formative days of the Klan in 1867 when old Caleb was targeted by the vile “southern knights” and their seemingly supernatural sponsor the Soul Strangler. As Monica listens to the ghastly, appallingly unjust tale, her mind fills in how T’Challa would have acted in such a hopeless situation…

JA #23 (September 1976) was a deadline missed and rapidly-sourced reprint from Daredevil #69 – represented here only by its cover and a Buckler pin-up – before this tantalising tale is unhappily cut short in final published instalment ‘Wind Eagle in Flight’ (McGregor, Buckler & Keith Pollard).The multi-layered, many-stranded plot suddenly expands as the Panther is almost killed by a mysterious new player who flies into the ever more bewildering clash between cops, Klan, Dragon Circle and Lynne family but, before the mystery could move any further, Jungle Action was cancelled…

A wholly different kind of Black Panther and utterly unrelated adventures would reappear two months later, under the auspices of returning creative colossus Jack Kirby and it would be years before the enigma of Angela’s death and the hero’s war against the Klan was resolved…

Bonus extras here include Kirby & Sinnott’s unused original art cover for FF #52, John Romita’s cover for Jungle Action #5; McGregor’s correspondence with then-fan Ralph Macchio and the author’s original working notes, plot synopses and candid contemporary photos of the close-knit creative team. Also on show: original cover art, pages and sketches by Buckler & Janson & Kane; pencils & layouts by Graham & Buckler, plus Steve Gerber’s ‘Jungle Re-Actions’ editorial feature from Jungle Action #7. Capping off the freebie joys are un-inked Buckler story pages that would have been #25…

A truly groundbreaking classic of comics narrative, Don McGregor’s Black Panther is stark, vibrant proof that the superhero genre works best when ambitious and passionate creators are given their head and let loose to get on with it.
© 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 2016 Marvel Characters Inc. All rights reserved.

Today in 1917 US artist/production wizard Jack Adler was born, followed in 1935 by pioneering African American artist Billy Graham (Luke Cage, Black Panther, Sabre) and writer Mike Baron (Nexus, Badger, Flash, The Punisher) in 1949.

In 1952 today, Australia’s beloved Ginger Meggs strip creator Jimmy Bancks died, and the date also saw the debut of Judd Winick’s Frumpy the Clown strip in 1996 and launch of manga collective CLAMP’s Angelic Layer series in 1999.

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The Sub-Mariner Marvel Masterworks volume 8


By Steve Gerber, Bill Everett, Howard Chaykin, Marv Wolfman, Steve Skeates, Bill Mantlo, Don Heck, George Tuska, Win Mortimer, Sam Kweskin, Jim Mooney, Dan Adkins, Frank Giacoia, John Sinnott, Syd Shores, Don Perlin, Frank Chiaramonte, Frank Bolle, Vince Colletta, John Romita Sr., Gil Kane & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-0962-8 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

In his most primal incarnation (other origins are available but may differ due to timeslips, circumstance and screen dimensions) Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner is the proud, noble and generally upset offspring of the union of a water-breathing Atlantean princess and an American polar explorer. That doomed romance resulted in a hybrid being of immense strength and extreme resistance to physical harm, able to fly and thrive above and below the waves. Over decades, a wealth of creators have added to the fishy tale and today’s Namor is hailed as Marvel’s First Mutant as well as the original “bad boy Good Guy”.

He was created by young, talented Bill Everett, for non-starter cinema premium Motion Picture Weekly Funnies: #1 (October 1939) so – technically – Namor predates Marvel, Atlas and Timely Comics. The Marine Miracleman first caught the public’s avid attention as part of an elementally appealing fire vs. water headlining team-up in the October 1939 Marvel Comics #1 (which renamed itself Marvel Mystery Comics from #2 onwards). The amphibian antihero shared honours and top billing with The Human Torch, having debuted (albeit in a truncated, monochrome version) in the aforementioned promotional booklet designed to be handed out to moviegoers earlier in the year.

Our late-starter antihero rapidly emerged as one of the industry’s biggest draws, winning his own title at the end of 1940 (cover-dated Spring 1941). His appeal was baffling but solid and he was one of the last super-characters to vanish at the end of the first heroic age. In 1954, when Atlas (as the company then was) briefly revived its “Big Three” line-up – the Torch and Captain America being the other two – Everett returned for an extended run of superbly dark, mordantly moody, creepily contemporary fantasy fables. Even so, his input wasn’t sufficient to keep the title afloat and eventually Sub-Mariner sank again.

In 1961, as Stan Lee & Jack Kirby were reinventing superheroes with their Fantastic Four, they revived and reimagined the awesome, all-but-forgotten aquanaut as a troubled, angry semi-amnesiac. Decidedly more bombastic, regal and grandiose, this returnee despised humanity: embittered and broken by the loss of his subsea kingdom… which had been (seemingly) destroyed by American atomic testing. His urge for rightful revenge was infinitely complicated after he became utterly besotted with the FF’s Susan Storm…

Namor knocked around the budding Marvel universe for years, squabbling with star turns such as The Hulk, Avengers, X-Men and Daredevil before securing his own series as one half of Tales to Astonish. From there he graduated in 1968 to his own solo title again.

Cumulatively spanning cover-dates June 1972 – April 1973, this eighth and final deluxe subsea compilation of the Swinging Sixties Subby trawls Sub-Mariner #61-72, signalling the end of another era and rising dominance of genre fare in the superhero-saturated market of that period. Also trawled up and tipped in is a tentative attempt to revive his solo star status as seen in Marvel Spotlight #27 (April 1976) just as horror-hero dominance was giving way to superhero resurgences and all of us were unwittingly biding their time for the advent of Star Wars and a wave of Science Fiction space opera titles.

It opens with one last revelatory reminiscence from Roy Thomas’ in his Introduction before

the dry land dramas and thrill soaked yarns recommence…

Previously: Namor had endured escalating horror as old enemies like Prince Byrrah, Warlord Krang, Attuma, Dr. Dorcas and others attacked. They were soundly defeated, but constant battles cost Namor his lifelong companion in bride-to-be Lady Dorma as well as his long-absent human father Leonard McKenzie, murdered by Tiger Shark and sinister shapeshifter Llyra as they constantly assaulted his sunken kingdom. The prince had been betrayed by his most trusted ally and, heartsick, angry and despondent, had abdicated the throne, choosing to pursue the human half of his hybrid heritage as a surface dweller. These wanderings were also wracked with conflict, as, amnesiac again, he faced The Human Torch, A.I.M,. M.OD.O.K., Doctor Doom, Japanese war criminals and more, prior to meeting and adopting his unsuspected cousin Namorita (daughter of WWII ally Namora). Namor battled the Badoon, and reluctantly inevitably returned to Atlantis. Back, but not officially in charge, he became increasingly burdened again. He befriended Hellenic goddess Venus and fought war god Ares; took responsibility for an Atlantean massacre of alien ambassadors; granted asylum to alien survivor Tamara of the Sisterhood; narrowly avoided a global conflagration with the UN and clashed with Thor before at last taking up the mantle of ruler again…

It was an open secret that Bill Everett was dying at this time but his Marvel friends and employers allowed him to work on until he couldn’t. Thus Sub-Mariner #61’s ‘The Prince and the Pirate!’ – credited to Steve Gerber, Everett, Win Mortimer & Jim Mooney – opens with the old master pictorially revealing revelry in the subsea kingdom as Namor’s coronation ends before a new storyline starts with page 4 as Namorita and her human guardian Betty Prentiss are abducted along with an entire passenger plane. The voyagers are victims of deranged geneticist Dr. Hydro who mutates them all – bar already amphibian Nita – into human/merman hybrids to populate his armies of environmental conquest. All too soon Namor tracks the ongoing abductions and invades mobile island Hydrobase to save his cousin, but is soundly defeated by the maniac’s super science. Moreover, the attack inspires Hydro to invade Atlantis and make it his stronghold from which to convert the rest of humanity…

The drama plays out in #62 as Gerber, Sam Kweskin & Frank Giacoia explore ‘A Realm Besieged!’ before Tamara in Atlantis and Nita on Hydrobase thwarts Hydro’s schemes leaving the Sub-Mariner to ponder what to do with the hundreds of innocent, unwilling scaly amphibian freaks that neither Atlanteans or surface-dwellers want anything to do with…

Steve Gerber was a uniquely gifted writer who combined a deep love of Marvel’s continuity minutiae with dark irrepressible wit, incisive introspection, barbed socio-cultural criticism, a barely reigned-in imagination and boundless bizarrely wilful surrealism. His stories were always at the extreme edge of the company’s intellectual canon and never failed to deliver surprise and satisfaction, especially when he couched his sardonic sorties in thinly veiled attacks on burgeoning cultural homogenisation and commercial barbarity.

With critical success Man-Thing he was holding up a mirror to many cordoned-off and taboo subjects and weaving history from scattered snippets of Marvel’s continuity. With his final stint on Sub-Mariner, Gerber expanded that universe exponentially, building by exploring the pre-cataclysm days of Atlantis, aided by Howard Chaykin in anew back-up series dubbed ‘Tales of Atlantis!’ here the first chapter – inked by Joe Sinnott – sees antediluvian, human-built Atlantis losing its war with rival superpower Lemuria and Emperor Kamuu and his bride Zartra prepare for the bloody end…

Over Everett’s posthumous plot, Gerber, Kweskin & Syd Shores produce #63 as ‘…And the Seas Shall Explode!’ sees seemingly dead Dr Hydro return to destroy the Atlanteans by triggering a volcano under their city and compelling Namor to take no chances and offer no mercy to save his subjects once and for all…

Tales of Atlantis resumes as Gerber, Chaykin & Sinnott reveal how the fate of the first Atlantis is sealed by ‘Cataclysm!’ As hand-to-hand combat peaks, the city sinks beneath the seas, but its heritage is saved, carried away by missionary sorceress Zered-Na and her devout disciples (for which you need to scope out Gerber’s other contemporaneous assignments: Son of Satan in Marvel Spotlight and the aforementioned Man-Thing in Adventures into Fear. we’ve covered them I previous post so feel free to scroll away in the search engines…

Here, however, and taking off on a strange tangent Gerber, Don Heck & Don Perlin play with satire and pop culture during #64’s ‘Voyage into Chaos!’ When intolerant Atlanteans intern the aimless, despondent amphibian victims of Dr. Hydro, furious, ashamed Namor responds with a fit of fury, just as cool heads are needed to assess another astounding incursion.

Soon, a quartet of strange visitors from magical dimension Zephyrland – Ariel the Musician, Ibbar the Scolar, Kabal the Wizard & Zargus the Warrior – are petitioning the Sub-Mariner to hop in their Golden Submarine and help them liberate their enslaved homeland from bestial, tone-deaf horror Virago the She-Beast. Willing and even eager to go for many reasons Namor joins them but is ambushed and defeated as soon as arrives in the land of golden meanies…

Third instalment of Tales of Atlantis ‘In the Wake of the Warriors!’ reveals how, five millennia later, nomadic clans of water-breathing Homo Mermanus settle in the ruins of the sunken city-continent and clash constantly, thanks to the enmity of sworn enemies Widow-Queen Elanna and King Stegor. They cannot see waves of destiny pushing their battle-hardened children towards an incredible coalition. Successive chapters ‘The Lurker in the Ruins!’ (Gerber, Mooney & Frank Chiaramonte in #65 and concluding episode ‘The Sword in the Throne!’ inked by Sinnott in #66) ended the series abruptly as those children – destiny- touched Kamuu and Elanna’s daughter Zartra – after meeting ghosts and battling demons, unite the tribes to create the dynasty of sunken Atlantis that will lead to the coming millennia later of Namor…

Back in the now however, the series was struggling and a rapid radical rebrand as Prince Namor, the Savage Sub-Mariner with #65 leads with ‘The Cry of the She-Beast!’ as Gerber, Heck & Perlin detail how Virago crushes resistance at home, physically humiliates Namor and launches an attack across dimensions upon Atlantis. Her departure sparks a successful but so-costly revolution in Zephyrland and (with valiant Namor clinging to her Golden Submarine) provokes a shocking resurrection after splashing down on Earth in #66. ‘Rise, Thou Killer Whale’ by Gerber, Heck & Perlin sees Virago driven away from Atlantis at great cost, only to stumble upon the tomb of defeated – but apparently only dormant – Orka the (humanoid) Killer Whale – who unites with a clearly kindred spirit to devastate the sunken city with an armada of crazed cetaceans…

The catastrophic clash leads to the Sub-Mariner again falling, but this time it is amidst toxic nerve gas dumped by surface dwellers. The chemical poisons fatally alter his body chemistry, making it impossible to breathe air or maintain body moisture. Moreover, as the cloud of death expands currents wash it overs Atlantis, plunging all within the perimeter – Virago and Orka included – into a stasis-like coma in landmark tale ‘Seawinds of Change!’ by Gerber, Heck & Frank Bolle.

Thankfully, although dying Namor heads for the surface where he is found by old ally Triton of The Inhumans, who in turns brings Namor to old enemies the FF. Smartest Man Alive Reed Richards swiftly diagnoses and rapidly constructs a bodysuit to provide constant artificial respiration – over Namor’s churlish and violent protests – and he heads home to finish his fight. Sadly, what he finds in #68 (January 1974, Mooney inks), leaves him ‘On the Brink of Madness!’

Only Tamara, Nita and Hydro’s amphibians have escaped the nerve agent’s effects and now must calm down the bereft and crushed monarch. Convinced to stabilise the crisis, they relocate to the vacant Hydrobase and direct Namor to a human scientist whose research into forcefields might provide a means to protect the dormant Atlanteans from predators and further harm. After seeking spiritual guidance from patron god Father Neptune, Namor sets off, but when the king without a kingdom seeks out Dr Damon Walthers, he discovers the genius’ works stolen by his assistant. Shot from the sky by a neophyte supervillain calling himself Force, their initial clash is inconclusive but does draw the attention of passing student Peter Parker…

Meanwhile in Zephyrland, the war goes badly and the survivors consider calling in Sorcerer Supreme Stephen Strange…

George Tuska & Vince Colletta illustrate Prince Namor, the Savage Sub-Mariner #69 as Gerber rapidly wraps up his hanging plot threads in anticipation of a sudden cancellation. ‘Two Worlds …and Dark Destiny!’ sees Dr Strange offer aid, a pointless battle between spider hero and fishman and a second and final encounter with Force that leaves Namor victorious, in control of Walthers forcefield tech and Atlantis safely stored “under glass” until a cure can be found… an inauspicious but satisfactory stopping point. Confoundingly the series still had three issues to run with Marv Wolfman, Tuska & Colletta using #70 to depict ‘Namor Unchained!’ whilst adding further safeguards to sleeping Atlantis, until targeted by the now-independent mutated fishmen of Dr. Dorcas under the guidance of an ambitious aquatic atrocity…

The brutal duel culminated in more deaths and butchery as #71 clamours ‘Comes the Pirahna!’ and the series finally sank with #72 (dated September 1974 and on sale from 18th June) as Steve Skeates, Dan Adkins & Colletta catered an alien encounter as Namor faced obnoxious humans and a lost interstellar shapeshifter in ‘From the Void It Came…’

The antihero resurfaced in Giant-Sized Super-Villain Team-Up #1 (cover-dated March 1975), revived as one half of a tag-team with fellow misunderstood autocrat Doctor Doom whilst seeking a cure for his people and his own condition. That sustained momentum led to the last tale here, a solo exploit taken from Marvel Spotlight #27 (April 1976) as Bill Mantlo & Mooney revealed ‘Death is the Symbionic Man!’ Incorporating Prime Earth’s military industrial villain Captain Simon Stryker (of alternate Earth series Deathlok the Demolisher) the pacy yarn saw Sub-Mariner hunted for possible spare parts and powers by the maniac and battling his most deadly killer-cyborg to date…

The bonus section in this final collection includes the covers by Everett, John Romita, Rich Buckler, Larry Lieber, Sinnott, Gil Kane, Giacoia, Mike Esposito & Al Milgrom; House ads; the editorial page from #67 wherein Gerber explained the costume change; Romita’s original designs for the new outfit and a selection of original art by Heck, Perlin & Mooney.

In comics, the best thing about “the Mighty falling” is that so often another time throws up fresh ideas and creators who will regenerate faded concepts. It a cycle as timeless and relentless as the tides. The venerable Sub-Mariner always comes back stronger and more appetising, and you owe it to yourself to be ready for the next wave by getting to know these classics. Many early Marvel Comics are more exuberant than qualitative, but this volume, especially from an story-lover’s point of view, is a wonderful exception: historical treasures with narrative bite and indescribable style and panache that fans will delight in forever.
© 2018 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved. (or possibly © 2026 MARVEL.)

Today in 1924 cartoonist Frank Bolle (The Heart of Juliet Jones, Winnie Winkle, Black Phantom, Tim Holt, Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom) was born, sharing the date with writer Joss Whedon (Astonishing X-Men, Buffy, Fray) in 1964; artist ChrisCross AKA Christopher Williams (Xero, Blood Syndicate, Justice League) in 1968, and author Becky Cloonan (Demo, American Virgin, Gotham Academy, Conan) in 1980.

Today in 2005, artist Sam Kweskin (Atlas anthologies such as Battlefront & Journey Into Mystery; Kid Colt, Outlaw, Sub-Mariner) died.