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Post by Nowhere Man on Mar 28, 2016 19:49:18 GMT -5
I apologize for yet another long hiatus. I'll be back with a vengeance starting tonight/tomorrow morning.
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Post by Nowhere Man on Mar 29, 2016 8:47:04 GMT -5
Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #3
Story Title: “Midnight on Massacre Mountain!” Cover Date: September, 1963 CreditsScript: Stan Lee Pencils: Jack Kirby Inks: Jack Kirby Colors: Stan Goldberg Letters: Artie Simek Cover Art: Jack Kirby (pencils & inks) Synopsis: The story opens with Fury and crew capturing a group of Nazis’ in typical bombastic fashion. They head back to base and prepare for some R&R in the nearest British town, Stratford-upon-Avon. The Howlers are bewildered when Fury announces that he’s joining them, but all is forgotten when they get into a bar fight with another unit. After roughing up and barley being subdued by the MP’s, Fury and the Howlers are ordered by “Happy” Sam Sawyer to go to Italy where an army division is bottled up behind Massacre Mountain. During their trek to rescue the division, Fury and his men meet a group of O.S.S. lead by non-other than Reed Richards. Reed tells Fury to relay to the division’s general the code words “tunnel of Caesar.” After uncovering a Nazi spy posing as a U.S. war correspondent, Fury and the Commandos finally reach Massacre Mountain and help rescue the unit, and after escaping through an old tunnel marked by a bust of Caesar, the Howlers and the rescued division bust through and drive off the Nazi’s in the process. Character Appearances: Sergeant Nick Fury; the Howling Commandos [Corporal Dum Dum Dugan; Robert Ralston [Rebel Ralston]; Jonathan Juniper; Gabe Jones; Izzy Cohen; Dino Manelli]; Captain Happy Sam Sawyer; Sergeant Bull McGiveney (unnamed, introduction); Major Reed Richards; General Curtis (introduction); Hans Schmidt (mostly as Hank Smith, introduction, death) Comments: Another all-around solid issue. The interesting thing about WWII series for me is how many of the rules enforced by the Comics Code Authority on most other genres simply don’t apply. Sure, you can’t show a Nazi being killed, but it’s perfectly okay to gun one down off panel or blow up a maned field cannon as long as you omit the grizzly details. Character Development: Fury seems to be softening a bit. He decides to join his men for fun on the town despite their protests. It appears that Fury wanted it to seem as if he was keeping an eye on them, but since he was the one that started the pub fight… We also learn that Dum Dum joined the army to get away from his "battle-ax" wife. Personal Rating: 7. Another fun war comic with a bit more charm than past entries because of the humor and slight bits of character growth. Historical Rating: 8. Even though it’s long been retconned thanks to the workings of Marvel Time, Reeds appearance is significant since it officially places Fury and the Howlers in the same continuity as the FF and the rest of the new Marvel heroes.
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Post by Nowhere Man on May 11, 2016 19:45:22 GMT -5
For anyone who might have been enjoying my reviews I just wanted to drop in and say that I haven't abandoned this thread and was only taking a hiatus because of that pesky thing called life. I'm going to get back into the swing of things, if not tonight, then most likely tomorrow.
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Post by Nowhere Man on May 15, 2016 11:52:44 GMT -5
Strange Tales #112 Story Title: “The Living Bomb” Cover Date: September, 1963 CreditsScript: Stan Lee (plot); Jerry Siegel [as Joe Carter] (script) Pencils: Dick Ayers Inks: Dick Ayers Colors: Stan Goldberg Letters: Sam Rosen Cover Art: Jack Kirby (pencils); Dick Ayers [possibly Jack Kirby] (inks) Synopsis: The Torch returns from his latest adventure to find that the citizens of Glennville are no longer amused by his flashy antics. He discovers that local TV commentator, Ted Braddock, has been panning him with commentary and turning popular opinion against him. Meanwhile, a new supervillain called The Eel breaks into scientist Charles Lawson’s lab and steals a device that is discovered to be an atomic pile capable of taking out a large chunk of the city. The news is broadcast over the radio, and after the Eel’s fence relates the news, the Eel flies off in his helicopter to disposed of the device in the woods. Lawson designs a device to help the Torch track down the Eel, but the device is destroyed in a brief run in with the Thing. The Torch spots the Eel’s copter anyway and after the two battle each other, the Torch defeats him and forces him to reveal the atomic devices location. The Torch makes haste to the location, which just so happens to be near a veteran’s retirement facility. The Torch reaches it just in time, taking it into the atmosphere and manages to absorb the brunt of the blast with his nova flame. Unconscious and falling fast, he’s rescued by the FF, who eventually manage to save him with one of Reed’s devices. Ashamed of his behavior, Braddock publically apologizes to the Torch and even gifts him a new color TV. Character Appearances: Human Torch [Johnny Storm]; Eel [Leopold Stryke] (introduction, origin); Ted Braddock (TV commentator); Charles Lawson; Moxie Gahagan; Invisible Girl [Sue Storm] (cameo); Thing [Ben Grimm] (cameo); Mister Fantastic [Reed Richards] (cameo); Wizard (cameo) Comments: While it was cool to read a story written by one of Superman’s co-creators, it’s clear that Siegel’s style of writing didn’t mesh well with the newer, “hipper” Marvel method. This issue was ridiculously wordy, to the point that I actually had to pause from exasperation during the initial Torch/Thing scenes. The basic plot is something we’ve seen a few times before: radio/TV/newspaper personality turns the public against the hero, but hero is redeemed in the end. It’s almost as if J.J. Jameson is the Elvis of great antagonistic supporting characters and Marvel is determined to repeat that success. Probably not the case, but it sure seems like it! I think the second half of the story is much stronger and manages to generate a surprising bit of drama with the Torch’s near death experience and the Thing’s emotional musings at possibly losing the Torch. Dick Ayers continues to do dependably strong work and remains the best thing about the series. Character Development: Johnny’s characterization is pretty much cemented at this point, though I note that his characterization has been more in line with the FF stories the last few issues. I suspect that Stan has been keeping a closer watch since the secret identity debacle. Personal Rating: 4. The Eel clearly has potential, but he really didn’t stand out in this issue. I realize that at the time the Torch was popular with younger readers, but it remains hard to understand, from a modern context, why he warranted his own series when you compare him to the uniqueness of Spider-Man. As far as teen heroes go, he has none of the nuance or pathos of Peter Parker or the X-Men. I suppose being “cute” was enough until the fans started to get a bit older and started demanding heroes with a bit more of an edge. (All that said, I really like Johnny. He's just works best as an ensemble character.) Historical Rating: 6. I give this one a slightly higher than average rating mainly because of the introduction of the Eel. He would always be a minor player, but he’d continue to see use as the years rolled on.
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Post by the4thpip on May 15, 2016 16:53:39 GMT -5
Good to see this thread back.
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Post by Rob Allen on May 16, 2016 17:40:01 GMT -5
... it remains hard to understand, from a modern context, why [the Torch] warranted his own series when you compare him to the uniqueness of Spider-Man. As far as teen heroes go, he has none of the nuance or pathos of Peter Parker or the X-Men. As I wrote a little over a year ago: "The Human Torch got a solo series in 1962 because the Human Torch was on the cover of Marvel Comics #1 in 1939 and was one of the company's stars all thru the 40s. Either Stan or Martin Goodman had to figure it was worth a try to see if the Torch could be a star again." At this point, 12 issues in, they weren't ready to give up on their new Torch yet, but they did seem to treat this strip as "the FF for younger readers". Or maybe they thought of it more as "doing it 40s style", since the Torch had been such a success then.
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Post by Nowhere Man on May 16, 2016 19:09:56 GMT -5
... it remains hard to understand, from a modern context, why [the Torch] warranted his own series when you compare him to the uniqueness of Spider-Man. As far as teen heroes go, he has none of the nuance or pathos of Peter Parker or the X-Men. As I wrote a little over a year ago: "The Human Torch got a solo series in 1962 because the Human Torch was on the cover of Marvel Comics #1 in 1939 and was one of the company's stars all thru the 40s. Either Stan or Martin Goodman had to figure it was worth a try to see if the Torch could be a star again." At this point, 12 issues in, they weren't ready to give up on their new Torch yet, but they did seem to treat this strip as "the FF for younger readers". Or maybe they thought of it more as "doing it 40s style", since the Torch had been such a success then. I think the series would have worked better if they would have ditched the whole Glennville thing. The setting is never fleshed out and has virtually no recurring supporting characters. The only good reason Sue and Johnny lived together in the suburbs was to facilitate his solo career as a hero. They could have easily based the series in the Baxter Building since the FF seem to show up every issue anyway. I'm just grumpy because the last issue didn't have a Dr. Strange story...
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Post by Nowhere Man on May 20, 2016 1:42:07 GMT -5
Strange Tales Annual #1
Story Title: “On the Trail of the Amazing Spider-Man!” Cover Date: 1963 CreditsScript: Stan Lee Pencils: Jack Kirby Inks: Steve Ditko Colors: Stan Goldberg Letters: Artie Simek Cover Art: Jack Kirby (pencils); Sol Brodsky (inks) Synopsis: An art thief named the Fox frames Spider-Man by leaving fake webs behind at the scene of his crimes. The Human Torch tries to hunt him down and tangles with Spidey in the now classic Marvel hero vs hero tradition. Spider-Man convinces the Torch of his innocence, and the two track down the thief together. Character Appearances: Human Torch [Johnny Storm]; Spider-Man [Peter Parker]; Fox [Reynard Slinker] (introduction); Invisible Girl [Sue Storm]; Deputy Police Inspector Rudd Comments: I enjoyed this story mainly because it was the first time we get to see Kirby’s take on Spider-Man in an original, extended form. It’s interesting that Ditko did the inks. I assume that Ditko was chosen to make sure Spidey stayed on model. As far as the story itself, it’s all about the thrill of seeing Spider-Man and the Torch team-up and suffers a bit from a rather lame villain in the Fox (Though I thought his plan to cut power to the museum, pose as electricians and steal the painting that way was rather clever.). It seems that Kirby envisioned Spider-Man having super-speed, since in a few scenes he’s clearly zipping around in a Flash-like sprint. Character Development: This is the proper start to a classic friendly rivalry between two of Marvel’s greatest heroes. They don’t seem to like each other yet, but the respect is there. Personal Rating: 6. I found the story enjoyable overall, but when you take out the significance of the team-up, it’s really not a memorable story. It was created by Lee, Kirby and Ditko, so that alone elevates it above the mediocre in my book. Historical Rating: 8. A significant issue for obvious reasons that’s also a good example of what made Marvel Team-Up and Marvel Two-In-One so compelling.
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Post by Cei-U! on May 20, 2016 7:44:35 GMT -5
A quick note on that Jerry Siegel story: he cribbed the villain (though not the plot) from his "Star-Spangled Kid" script for World's Finest Comics #6 (Summer 1942). That story, too, featured a criminal named the Eel, an aquarium curator in his secret identity and whose special costume made him too slippery to hold onto.
Cei-U! I summon the coinkidink!
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Post by Nowhere Man on May 21, 2016 1:45:18 GMT -5
A quick note on that Jerry Siegel story: he cribbed the villain (though not the plot) from his "Star-Spangled Kid" script for World's Finest Comics #6 (Summer 1942). That story, too, featured a criminal named the Eel, an aquarium curator in his secret identity and whose special costume made him too slippery to hold onto. Cei-U! I summon the coinkidink! That's interesting. I wonder if Siegel kept notes of his previous stories or if it just occurred to him to reuse the idea? Twenty years is a long time.
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Post by Nowhere Man on May 22, 2016 0:15:12 GMT -5
Strange Tales #45 Story Title: The Icy Fingers of Jack Frost! Cover Date: September, 1963 CreditsScript: Stan Lee (plot); Robert Bernstein [as R. Berns] (script) Pencils: Don Heck Inks: Don Heck Colors: Stan Goldberg Letters: Sam Rosen Cover Art: Jack Kirby (Iron Man); Steve Ditko or Don Heck (inks) Synopsis: Forgetting to charge his chest plate, Stark crashes his race car and is saved by a washed up boxer named Happy Hogan. Realizing that it would be a good idea to have a body guard on hand if something like that were to happen again, he hires him as a chauffeur. Meanwhile, a scientist named Gregor Shapanka is fired by Stark for attempting to steal classified tech. In retaliation, Gregor creates a suit that gives him the power to freeze whatever is near him and becomes the super-villain Jack Frost. In an attempt to get his revenge he attacks Stark at his plant but is defeated by Iron Man. Character Appearances: Iron Man [Tony Stark]; Jack Frost [Gregor Shapanka] (introduction, origin, later called Blizzard); Happy Hogan (introduction); Pepper Potts (introduction) Comments: Happy Hogan and Pepper Potts are the highlights of this issue. I’ve always been amused by the fact that Hogan’s a washed up boxer, not because he was a bad boxer, but because he simply didn’t have the heart to finish off his opponents in the ring. Pepper’s hilariously blunt introduction to Happy (she flat out insults his looks) sets the stage for one of my favorite Marvel romances. Stark badly needed a strong supporting cast and both characters have strong enough personalities to make them interesting. As far as the Jack Frost goes, I would have liked for his suit to have been explained a bit more. You don’t get a good sense of how it works. It’s also a bit jarring that he starts off working on a way to gain immortality through cryogenics, but ditches that for the suit in one panel. Why even bring up the immortality angle if it never comes into play in the story? Strange. I'm not sure who created Frost (I'm assuming Kirby) but it's interesting that he makes his debut the same month as Iceman in the pages of X-Men. Character Development: Stark comes off as a bit of a reckless airhead for forgetting to charge his chest plate before a dangerous high speed race. Hogan is very likable and I can’t help but view him as a less charismatic Ben Grimm. Pepper comes off as shrill, but she apparently even argues with Stark (who she has a crush on). Since most female characters of this era are at best allowed to be pleasant and vanilla, a female charactrer with spirit is a nice change of pace. Personal Rating: 6. A fun issue that’s slightly better than average for me because of Hogan and Potts. Humor goes a long way in these early issues when it comes to elevating a mediocre story. Historical Rating: 8. This is an important issue since it introduces Happy Hogan and Pepper Potts, two of Iron Man’s most historically important supporting characters. Jack Frost will become a more important villain when he later transitions into Blizzard, but that’s a good 14 years down the road.
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Post by Cei-U! on May 22, 2016 8:08:49 GMT -5
I doubt it was Kirby that created Jack Frost. Stan, after all, had created the Golden Age hero of the same name and the design screams Heck to me. Also, while Robert Bernstein scripted this story (that abrupt shift in Shapanka's focus is typical Bernstein), it was Stan who suggested and named Pepper and Happy (those double initials). I have an unfounded suspicion that he also dialogued their scenes, as they sound very much like themselves as seen in the later Lee-scripted episodes. Pepper, incidentally, was patterened after actress Ann B. Davis, then co-starring as the very similar Schultzie in the sitcom Love That Bob [Cummings].
Cei-U! I summon Harold and Virginia!
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Post by Nowhere Man on May 23, 2016 12:36:56 GMT -5
Very interesting, Cei-U. I completely forgot about the Golden Age Jack Frost. The Golden Age is the one era where I actually know more about the DC universe than I do about the Marvel universe. I'm pretty sure that I've only read a few of the early Human Torch, Sub-Mariner and Cap stories.
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Post by Nowhere Man on Jun 10, 2016 11:20:30 GMT -5
Tales to Astonish #47 Story Title: “Music to Scream By” Cover Date: September, 1963 CreditsScript: Stan Lee (plot); Ernie Hart [H.E. Huntley] Script Pencils: Don Heck Inks: Don Heck Colors: Stan Goldberg Letters: Sam Rosen Cover Art: Jack Kirby (Pencils); Dick Ayers (Inks) Synopsis: Ant-Man and the Wasp are caught by the music of Trago, the jazz trumpet player, who has learned some mystic use of his trumpet in India. They defeat him at the cost of a brave ant's life. Character Appearances: Ant-Man [Henry Pym]; Wasp [Janet Van Dyne]; Trago (only appearance); Mr. Cosgrove; Foss (ant); Ghazandi; Korr (ant); Mr. Nehradu; Ramond Theis Comments: This was a slog. This could be my least favorite Marvel Age story to date. Trago is an utterly pathetic villain who’s so lame that he basically defeats himself, since he never bothered to learn how to not be affected by his own magic trumpet playing. For those fortunate Marvel fans who missed this story, Trago’s origin is that he was a jazz player who decided to steal the cash box from the gig that Ant-Man and Wasp were attending. Ant-Man and the Wasp stop him and the proprietor decides not to press charges, but has him sent out on the first flight out of the country which just so happens to be headed to India. There, he learns magic trumpet playing skills from Ghazandi, a musical magician that Ant-Man and Wasp rescued at the beginning of the story. Yeah… We also have the odd, and rather forced, named ants in this issue. This is the first Ant-Man story where there was a heavy emphasis on named ants, like Korr, yet for some reason we’re supposed to care. The death of Korr (to a garden snake) had no emotional resonance since there was no buildup of a relationship between Ant-Man and this faithful ant minion. The ending where Hank is depressed and leaves the jazz club with Janet because of Korr’s death was more on the hilarious/pathetic side than anything else. Utterly lame story. Is the Hulk here yet? Eh. Character Development: We learn that Janet loves jazz music and that Hank initially hates it. Personal Rating: 2. Just terrible from beginning to end. Even Don Heck’s usual solid art seemed rushed and sketchy in this issue--though I can’t blame him for wanting to get through it and be done with it as quickly as possible. It’s borderline inexcusable that a company that could produce something as wonderful as Fantastic Four Annual #1 could also publish something so mediocre. I’ll now stop since I’m becoming amused at my own irritation. Carry on. Historical Rating: 4. It’s hard to rank this historically, so I’ll just give it a below average score. It’s hard to think about it without getting depressed, to be honest.
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Post by Farrar on Jun 10, 2016 12:46:10 GMT -5
Glad to see you're doing these again, Robert. Tales of Suspense #45 Story Title: The Icy Fingers of Jack Frost! Cover Date: September, 1963 I'm not sure who created Frost (I'm assuming Kirby) but it's interesting that he makes his debut the same month as Iceman in the pages of X-Men. A minor clarification: although both ToS #45 and X-Men #1 are cover-dated September 1963, in actuality they were not on sale/published in the "same month." ToS #45 was on sale in June and X-Men #1 a month later in July (so, X-Men #1's "contemporary" was ToS #46). So not the same month, though close enough. Back then, some Marvels were cover-dated 2 months in advance and others 3 months in advance. So at the newstand or wherever you'd come across Marvels on sale, the comics on sale would have different cover date months. Mike's Newsstand has a very handy "on sale" filter, in addition to its equally handy "cover date" filter. www.dcindexes.com/features/newsstand.php?type=calendar&month=7&year=1963&publisher=marvel&sort=alpha&checklist=nullRe Happy: Name-wise "Happy Hogan" always reminds me of Happy Hooligan, a popular comic strip figure from the early part of the 20th century.
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