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Post by Nowhere Man on Jun 3, 2015 21:35:56 GMT -5
The concept of a super hero appearing in a comic book within a comic book was previously done in a Captain Marvel story in the 1940s. EC comics also had at least 2 stories featuring their bullpen of artists. And of course there was the famous Golden Age Superman tale where he went to the movies with Lois to watch the latest Superman animated cartoon. (He had to avert her attention before she saw Clark change to Superman within the cartoon. Talk about bent reality craziness!!) The Superman example is hilarious. Stan and Jack seemed to be toying with something like this in FF #10. When we first meet them, they're talking about Doom as if they created him (and Jack is showing Stan his new creation, "False Face") and then he shows up! Next we have Reed and the FF basically explaining that they work with Marvel to create the stories, bringing it back to a saner "reality" for us.
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Post by Nowhere Man on Jun 4, 2015 7:10:14 GMT -5
Incredible Hulk #5 Cover Date: January, 1963 Credits
Script: Stan Lee Pencils: Jack Kirby Inks: Dick Ayers Colors: Stan Goldberg Letters: Art Simek Synopsis: In the first of two stories, underground overlord Tyrannus kidnaps Betty and lures the Hulk into his subterranean kingdom, forcing the Hulk to do his bidding to keep Betty safe. The jade giant is powerless until Rick frees Betty, thus leaving the Hulk free to bring the house down on Tyrannus. In the second story, the Hulk thwarts a would-be Genghis Khan conqueror named General Fang from taking over the Asian province of Llhasa, and he only has to dress up as the Abominable Snowman once to do it. First Appearances: Tyrannus, General Fang Comments: Incredible Hulk #5 has always been my favorite issue of the original run for several reasons. First, the art is incredibly good (pun intended) in this issue to the point that I'd dare to say that it's the best work of the Kirby/Ayers team so far. Second, we get the introduction of the Hulk's first legitimate super-villain in Tyrannus. I've always liked Tyrannus and have always felt that his concept was never quite given its due over the years. Here we have a tyrant from Roman times who discovered the fabled Fountain of Youth and was banished to the underworld by Merlin. That's one of hell of historically significant backstory! Surprisingly, given the Hulk's longevity and importance to the Marvel Universe, Tyrannus, along with the Leader and the Abomination, is one of the very few major villains that the Hulk can truly call his own. Kinda odd. Of course the crowing moment of this issue is quite simply: Characters Development: This issue shows a significant development in terms of the Hulk's edginess. Quite frankly, the Hulk is a complete dick to poor Rick Jones, who only saves his giant green behind twice in this one issue. The Hulk is so rude to Rick that you can't help but be amused, but there's a real sense of menace at the end of the last tale when the Hulk comments that "no one is safe" as long as he's around. I think it's fairly safe to say that this incarnation of the Hulk was a huge influence on Peter David's creation of the Mr. Fixit persona years later. Personal Rating/Historical Importance: 8/7. As I mentioned I have a particularly strong fondness for this issue. I admit that my fondness probably elevates it above its actual level of quality, but that's personal taste for you. Tyrannus is fairly important addition to the Hulk's mythos and a villain that would prove to have a very long shelf-life.
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Post by MDG on Jun 4, 2015 10:13:54 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #10Cover Date: January, 1963 Synopsis: Doctor Doom returns from his unwanted journey in space and visits Jack Kirby and Stan Lee in order to make them set a trap for the Fantastic Four. Doom tells how he managed to return to Earth with the help of the Ovoids and then he changes bodies with Mr Fantastic using Ovoid technology. Doom convinces the rest of the Fantastic Four that he is Mr Fantastic. Doom (as Mr. Fantastic) displays his new shrinking-ray and Mr. Fantastic (in Doom's body) escapes his captivity in Doom's castle. Doctor Doom and Mr. Fantastic get their bodies back and Doom is put under his own shrinking-ray and shrinks down to sub-atomic size. First Appearances: Stan Lee, Jack Kirby (of the Marvel Universe!) Comments: What a gloriously ridiculous and creative issue.... The art by Kirby and Ayers continues to improve. Hands down my favorite scene was the Thing struggling to hit Doom (really Reed) and not being able to do it. The way Kirby and Ayers clearly displayed the Thing wrestling with his emotions was masterful storytelling. The pin-up of the Invisible Girl (with Fantasticar details to boot) is probably my favorite pin-up so far. What kills me about this issue is when Doom (as Reed) traps Reed (as Doom) and thinks about how he only has enough oxygen to last an hour. Yet he (and the FF) have time to make it back to the Baxter Building, develop a shrink ray, procure a bunch of animals to test it on, argue for a while, and ultimately make it back to Doom's before the air runs out. As a writer, Stan could've used a good editor. But I agree on the art and continuing development of characters--really, it's a lot more interesting than the "comicbook" plots. And I love how Kirby draws "evil Reed," like on the cover. Was Doom even trying to fool them?
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Post by Nowhere Man on Jun 4, 2015 13:13:18 GMT -5
That does seem to be a goof on Stan's part. The stolen zoo animals, which made the paper no less, certainly makes it seem like at least a night had past at that point. I wouldn't doubt that this was what Kirby intended in the art.
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Post by Cei-U! on Jun 4, 2015 17:47:22 GMT -5
Stan was notorious for mistakes of time and distance, especially in multi-chapter storylines. He once set an Iron Man story in Washington DC, then set the second part in New York with no break between episodes. As Marty suggests, Stan could've used a good editor.
Cei-U! I summon the big ol' blind spot!
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Post by Nowhere Man on Jun 4, 2015 23:50:58 GMT -5
Stan was notorious for mistakes of time and distance, especially in multi-chapter storylines. He once set an Iron Man story in Washington DC, then set the second part in New York with no break between episodes. As Marty suggests, Stan could've used a good editor. Cei-U! I summon the big ol' blind spot! I typically give Stan a pass when I run across stuff like that given how many comics the man was scripting or at least plotting. I do agree that he needed another guy to edit and check his continuity. Still, I have to admit that I find some of these gaffs to be amusing and only add to the charm of the era. The Marvel Universe was without question a work in progress.
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Post by Nowhere Man on Jun 5, 2015 7:45:37 GMT -5
Journey Into Mystery #88Cover Date: January, 1963 CreditsScript: Stan Lee (plot); Larry Lieber (script) Pencils: Jack Kirby; Steve Ditko (corrections on pg. 13) Inks: Dick Ayers; Steve Ditko (corrections on pg. 13) Colors: Stan Goldberg Letters: Art Simek Synopsis: Loki discovers Thor’s secret identity and separates him from his hammer, forcing him to remain a human. Loki torments humanity, but Dr. Blake tricks him into allowing him to regain the hammer and become Thor, defeating Loki and returning him to Asgard. First Appearances: None Comments: This issue, while fun, is a bit of a rehash of Thor's first modern battle with Loki back in JIM #85. There are several humorous bits in this story, particularly the scenes where Loki decides to play pranks on humanity. My favorite scene is when he turns everything inanimate in one town (cars, buildings, etc.) into candy and ice cream. One onlooker exclaims, "There's no such thing as a car made of ice cream!" Oh, I beg to differ my good man. The way Don Blake tricks Loki into lowering the force field around his hammer is particularly hilarious; he stands behind a plastic dummy that looks like Thor, and when Loki lowers the field to see if the hammer is really gone, Blake steps from behind said dummy and touches the hammer. One would assume that Loki would not have been fooled by a dummy that didn't move its mouth when it talked...so was this like a giant ventriloquists dummy that Blake had his hand in from behind, moving the mouth when he talked? I really hope that was the case. Of course Thor ultimately captures Loki in the end with a bag of peanuts after he attempted to hide in the guise of a pigeon. To me, that's even worse than being turned into a frog. The art is still pretty darn good, though it's interesting that Steve Ditko stepped in on the very last page to make a correction. Thor's still too thin for my taste, but Kirby will eventually get around to correcting this design oversight. Character Development: None of note. Thor, Don Blake, Loki and Jane Foster are all fairly one-note so far. Personal Rating/Historical Importance: 5/5. This is an average issue by all accounts and seems like a bit of an early holding pattern. It wasn't terrible, just silly and unimportant to the mythos. As I mentioned above, it seems almost as if Stan and Jack were plagiarizing themselves with this one. If something new were introduced it would have gotten a bump in significance, but alas, that was not to be.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jun 5, 2015 8:55:42 GMT -5
See, I really loved that issue... it's like the epitomy of Silver Age fun
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Post by Nowhere Man on Jun 8, 2015 4:15:37 GMT -5
See, I really loved that issue... it's like the epitomy of Silver Age fun It wasn't just fun it was downright funny. I wanted to give it a higher score, but it was just too darn close to their first meeting with not much really moving things forward.
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Post by Nowhere Man on Jun 8, 2015 9:19:41 GMT -5
Strange Tales #104Cover Date: January, 1963 CreditsScript: Stan Lee (plot), Larry Lieber (script) Pencils: Jack Kirby Inks: Dick Ayers Colors: Stan Goldberg Letters: Artie Simek Synopsis: The Human torch encounters the villain Past Pot Pete; a nefarious rogue who commits crimes with a surprisingly effective past-gun and bucket. After Pete robs a bank and attempts to steal a new high tech missile from the military, he's eventually thwarted by the Torch, who managed to get himself pasted to a rocket in the process of nabbing Pete. Pete escapes, however, by hitching a ride on a passing plane and then making his getaway by boat after he dives into the ocean. First Appearances: Past-Pot Pete Comments: Ah, the infamous first appearance of Paste-Post Pete. One wonders how the same men that created Doctor Doom could come up with a guy as hilariously lame as Paste-Pot Pete...but they did. I still can't help but like the character in a way, particularly since his shtick is so amusing. I particularly like how he escapes on the plane and the disbelief of the pilots that some nut was hitching a ride. It almost seems to me that Stan and Jack didn't yet realize that they already had the basic tools to move away from this sort of Silver Age silliness or perhaps were even hesitant to do so. Once again we get more baffling use of Johnny Storms secret identity. He was really about to write Human Torch on a bank deposit slip? It's also interesting that Paste-Post Pete clearly sees that the Torch is Johnny when his flame goes out but this is never brought up. It's doubly interesting because Pete is the first villain in the Marvel Universe so far to actually get away unscathed. The strategic moments when the Torch's powers go out are a kinda annoying, I must admit. I can't wait till Stan and Jack tone this down and stop using it so frequently as a way to fabricate episodes of danger for our hero. Character Development: Johnny continues to be more forceful and a bit more clever in his solo adventures, but we still haven't seen much progression in his character. Personal Rating/Historical Importance: 4/6. The Torch's solo adventures in Strange Tales continues its streak as the weakest batch of stories in the early Marvel Age. I give this an above average grade for importance because Pete would go on to become the Trapster and a founding member of the Frightful Four.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jun 8, 2015 11:43:49 GMT -5
I always preferred the moniker Paste-Pot Pete over the rather bland The Trapster
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Post by Nowhere Man on Jun 8, 2015 11:48:44 GMT -5
I do kind of like the Paste-Pot Pete look. There's a character in a Three Stooges episode, a petulant French painter, that looks a lot like Pete.
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Post by Nowhere Man on Jun 8, 2015 19:08:29 GMT -5
Tales to Astonish #39Cover Date: January, 1963 CreditsScript: Stan Lee (plot), Larry Lieber (script) Pencils: Jack Kirby Inks: Dick Ayers Colors: Stan Goldberg Letters: Artie Simek Synopsis: Ant-Man encounters a beetle that's gained human level intelligence by being exposed to radiation. "The Scarlet Beetle" captures Ant-Man, and after enlarging himself with Ant-Man's enlarging gas, he commands his insect followers to begin their assault on humanity. With the aid of his loyal ants, Ant-Man escapes and defeats the Scarlet Beetle by puncturing the canister containing the shrinking gas. As Hank Pym, he uses his scientific know-how to revert the Scarlet Beetle back to an ordinary insect. First Appearances: The Scarlet Beetle Comments: This is an odd little story that mixes super-heroics, super-science and Atlas-era monster tales. I think I like this story a bit more than I should simply because Ant-Man is fighting insects as opposed to gangsters or Soviet spies. It can be debated how interesting the shrinking hero concept really is (Kirby never really liked Ant-Man from what I've read) but they work best from my perspective when the small and mundane, in this case ordinary insects (and spiders), is made to be exotic and fantastic as this story tries to accomplish. This is also the second time Ant-Man has used a popsicle stick in his adventures so far. I'm not sure what that signifies, but I thought I'd keep score nonetheless. One thing I like about the Kirby Ant-Man stories is all the cool technological head-gear he gives Hank Pym. Beyond his classic cybernetic helmet, Pym always seems to have some new bit of monitoring technology on display with each issue. Character Development: Still none. Pym needs Wanda asap! Personal Rating/Historical Importance: 5/5. All said, this is another average issue on both fronts. One thing the Ant-Man stories benefit from is that, at the very least, they're better than the Human Torch stories.
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Post by tolworthy on Jun 8, 2015 21:55:14 GMT -5
Incredible Hulk #5 Personal Rating/Historical Importance: 8/7. As I mentioned I have a particularly strong fondness for this issue. I admit that my fondness probably elevates it above its actual level of quality, but that's personal taste for you. Tyrannus is fairly important addition to the Hulk's mythos and a villain that would prove to have a very long shelf-life. I feel the same way. I read comics for the amazing ideas, and in my opinion the Tyrannus story is page for page) the greatest comic issue ever. So many amazing ideas in so few pages. It's one of the stories in the large sized hard cover UK Marvel Annual 1973, and had a profound effect on me.
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Post by the4thpip on Jun 9, 2015 2:52:35 GMT -5
Character Development: Still none. Pym needs Wanda asap! What would he do with a fish?
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