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Post by Nowhere Man on Jun 9, 2015 3:29:25 GMT -5
Character Development: Still none. Pym needs Wanda asap! What would he do with a fish? Ah, you have to love mental short-circuits. That's what I get for reading too much about Scarlet Witch lately. Of course I meant Janet. Ugh. At least I didn't draw Storm in her place in the Quinjet, right?
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Post by Nowhere Man on Jun 9, 2015 6:31:10 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. I think the gladiator bit was the main inspiration for Planet Hulk. I just get a sense that Kirby enjoyed that issue of the Hulk more than the previous issues.
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Post by Nowhere Man on Jun 11, 2015 21:11:12 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #11 Cover Date: February, 1963 CreditsScript: Stan Lee Pencils: Jack Kirby Inks: Dick Ayers Colors: Stan Goldberg Letters: Artie Simek Synopsis: In part one of a two-part issue, the scene opens with the FF attempting to purchase the latest issue of Fantastic Four, but arrive and discover that the line is too long. They then meet a few adorable kids pretending to be the Fabulous Foursome. Reed, still touchy about blowing it in the stock market, threatens to sue if the kids don't knock it off (I kid!). The FF are actually very kind and take the time to show the kids their powers. After this brief episode, the FF run into Willie Lumpkin, an elderly mailman with the ability to wiggle his ears at will. Willie having brought a huge bag of FF fan letters, the team takes the letters to their headquarters and starts answering mail. After the Thing is assaulted by a prank gift from the Yancy Street Gang, and Reed once again reverts the Thing to his human form, Reed and Ben recount how they met in college and served in the military. Sue then brings up that she has noticed a disturbing trend in some of the letters. Apparently, some fans feel that she's useless to the team and should be replaced. Reed and Ben passionately defend their teammate by comparing her to Abe Lincoln's mother and, far more effectively, simply point out that she's saved the male members of the team several times. After an alarm goes off, Reed, Sue and Ben (now having reverted to the Thing again) head for the spaceship they kept from their adventure on Planet X. Inside the ship Sue discovers that the guys have planned a surprise party since its her birthday. As the team chows down on delicious birthday cake, we see Willie Lumpkin headed their way with yet another bag of fan-mail. In part two, the FF encounter an alien from the planet Popup, the Impossible Man -- a member of a race that can transform into any shape or object they can think of. Arriving on Earth and encountering a group of hobo's, they instruct him to head to the nearest bank since they love giving money away. He does so, and believing it's okay to just take money, does just that. The police are unable to contain him, so the FF are asked if they can restrain the bizarre creature. The FF prove equally unable to control the powerful, but childish, alien and Reed eventually realizes that the only way to get rid of the pest is to simply ignore him. The rest of the city does as Reed instructs and the Impossible Man, growing bored with the situation, turns into a spaceship and rockets to the stars. First Appearances: Impossible Man, Willie Lumpkin Comments: This is an intentionally strange issue and I love it. I really like the idea of turning fan questions and comments into an actual story. It shows how much Lee and Kirby were aware that the interests of the fans played a huge part in their growing success and I'm sure that this little story went a long away in fostering a lot of good will with the ever growing hordes of Marvel fans. This issue featured the first prank by the Yancy Street Gang, one of my favorite aspects of the 60's FF. What other mag would allow their hero to get socked in the face by a tiny boxing glove coming out of an ostensibly harmless package? This is comedy gold and I'll fight any man that says different! We also have Reed and Ben's unintentionally hilarious defense of Sue. Their hearts were in the right place at least. Lee and Kirby were progressive in a lot of ways, but I'm afraid that their chivalrous nature gave them a blind eye to the plight of female characters in adventure stories. The Impossible Man story was a fun change of pace and it brought out a lot of Lee and Kirby's natural talent for funny dialog and clever visual gags. The image of the Impossible Man gaping up at Reed after falling to the ground is priceless. It'll be a long time before the Impossible Man returns, but he'd go on to be an important part of the FF mythos. The art and writing, in general, is some of my favorite so far. Character Development: I like that we see a bit of the friendly sibling rivalry between Sue and Johnny. This is one of the ways that we get to see a different side of both of these characters. When Sue is interacting with Reed, it's typically soap opera, at least early on, and Johnny is usually in guy-humor mode with Ben. Personal Rating/Historical Importance: 8/8. An entertaining issue on several levels, I like how Stan an Jack proudly announced that they had a sense of humor and that they weren't afraid of showing it. With the Impossible Man, and even Willie Lumpkin, we get a few more additions to the growing mythos of the FF. I think this along with the fact that the first half was a clever love-letter to the fans, elevates this issue in importance.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jun 11, 2015 21:32:57 GMT -5
I really hate the Impossible Man... just too powerful to make sense. The only story of his I like is when he (or maybe his son) has a shape shifting duel with Warlock in a New Mutants annual
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Post by Cei-U! on Jun 11, 2015 22:13:57 GMT -5
I, on the other hand, really like Impy. When he's written well, like by Lee or Gruenwald, he's a delight. And, no, his powers don't make a lot of sense but neither do those of most other comic book shapeshifters.
Cei-U! Check out Athena Andreadis' To Seek Out New Life: The Biology of Star Trek for an excellent discussion on the zoological impossibility of shapeshifting!
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Post by Nowhere Man on Jun 12, 2015 0:19:30 GMT -5
I like Impy, too. He's basically a Loony Tunes character that lives in the Marvel Universe. My favorite Impossible Man issue was during Jim Starlin's Silver Surfer run.
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Post by MDG on Jun 12, 2015 6:06:56 GMT -5
I really hate the Impossible Man... just too powerful to make sense.... Yeah--he's like Mr. Mxyzptlk, where the story is just a series of gags to fill out the pages 'til an anti-climax. On the other hand, I really like the meta- nature of "A Day with the FF." And it does seem like the kind of idea that Stan would've come up with (rather than Jack).
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jun 12, 2015 6:46:03 GMT -5
Yeah, it's a good comic, I just don't like that the character exists... I feel like his existance sort of breaks some of the serious stories.
@ Cei-U: I always though Odo was the closest to a 'real' science shape shifter.. they went a little to far with size variance, though. I'll have to see if the library has that book!
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Post by Nowhere Man on Jun 12, 2015 8:48:19 GMT -5
I do understand not liking that some characters exist. I feel the same way about Cable, X23 and Deadpool.
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Post by tolworthy on Jun 12, 2015 10:17:29 GMT -5
I, on the other hand, really like Impy. When he's written well I think that's the key. The more powerful somebody is, the harder they are to write well. I think the Impossible Man is potentially one of the greatest characters of all: somebody truly different, with a fundamentally different view of life. But usually he's just presented as a "suspend your disbelief" comedy character. Which can be equally difficult.
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Post by Nowhere Man on Jun 12, 2015 11:50:43 GMT -5
I get the feeling that a lot of creators felt that way about Impy. He doesn't make a return appearance until 1976!
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Post by tolworthy on Jun 12, 2015 13:30:15 GMT -5
I get the feeling that a lot of creators felt that way about Impy. He doesn't make a return appearance until 1976! Roy Thomas tells how he had to work hard to persuade Stan to let him: sales from FF 11 were allegedly poor, so Stan had banned any further use of the character.
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Post by Rob Allen on Jun 12, 2015 17:42:57 GMT -5
The last panel has an example of something that always bothered me. Reed and Ben have known each other for about 20 years at this point; why would Reed suddenly start addressing his friend as "Thing" instead of "Ben"? Also, I just learned something interesting. I looked up the Willie Lumpkin newspaper comic strip in Wikipedia. It says: "The character was originally created for a syndicated daily comic strip by writer Stan Lee and artist Dan DeCarlo. [...] The daily strip ran from December 1959 to May 6, 1961. A Sunday strip ran through May 28. Willie Lumpkin drew humor from the people and situations Willie would encounter along his mail delivery route in the small town of Glenville." "Glenville" is the name of the town where the Torch lived in his solo series in Strange Tales. It's also the name of the Cleveland neighborhood where Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster grew up. Coincidences?
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 12, 2015 18:05:40 GMT -5
The last panel has an example of something that always bothered me. Reed and Ben have known each other for about 20 years at this point; why would Reed suddenly start addressing his friend as "Thing" instead of "Ben"? I pointed this out in my reviews. It's very odd.
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Post by Cei-U! on Jun 13, 2015 7:38:39 GMT -5
There actually is a Glenville, New York, but it's upstate, not on Long Island.
Cei-U! I summon Rand and McNally!
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