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Post by Nowhere Man on May 2, 2015 22:55:27 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #8
CreditsScript: Stan Lee Pencils: Jack Kirby Inks: Dick Ayers Colors: Stan Goldberg Letters: Artie Simek Synopsis: The Puppet Master tests his radioactive clay that gives him the power to remotely control people that are modeled in the clay. The Puppet Master gets the Thing under his command and imprisons the Invisible Girl. He then sends the Thing and Alicia Masters to infiltrate the Baxter Building. While acting under the Puppet Master's influence, the Thing is subjected to one of Mister Fantastic's potions that changes him back to Ben Grimm. The Puppet Master stages a jailbreak just to prove his might. Invisible Girl sends a distress signal to her teammates and the Puppet Master flees when meeting the combined forces of the Fantastic Four. The jail break is stopped by the Fantastic Four and the Puppet Master falls to what seems to be his death. First Appearances: Puppet Master, Alicia Masters Comments: The Puppet Master has always been an interesting villain to me as he doesn't really seem like a good fit for the FF. He's always going to be important to the FF, mainly because of Alicia, but he does seem to be a better fit for lower powered heroes like Spider-Man or Daredevil in my mind; once the FF start meeting the Inhumans, the Silver Surfer and taking on Galactus, characters like the Puppet Master just seem out of place. Compared to Doom and the Mole Man, both exotic villains with a great deal of power and resources, he seems a bit underwhelming to say the least (I think he would have made an excellent Batman villain, though). Character Development: With Reed's first attempt to cure Ben through science, we get a peek at the inner demons that haunt the otherwise staid Mr. Fantastic. Characters like Reed are tough to write and this sort of thing reminds us that Reed's still human and not constantly in analytical mode. Ben's fury over the rest of the team keeping secrets from him, clearly shows that his insecurities are plaguing him. The irony that Alicia likes the Thing better than Ben Grimm cleverly adds to the pathos. Personal/Historical Rating: 5/8. Overall this is a very average issue of the FF that doesn't do much in terms of innovation. The Puppet Master and his plot could have been a part of any run-of-the-mill Silver Age comic. The historical importance is much more significant given the introduction of the Puppet Master and more importantly Alicia Masters and Reed's ongoing search for a cure for Ben.
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Post by Hoosier X on May 3, 2015 0:12:02 GMT -5
FF #8 is also significant because it established that Alicia and Sue look exactly alike when the Puppet-Master put Alicia in a FF costume and cut her hair so she looked like Sue and infiltrated the Baxter Building.
This became significant years later when Johnny married Alicia (actually a Skrull) and John Byrne didn't notice that it was very creepy for Johnny to marry someone who looked exactly like his own sister!
Eeeeew!
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 3, 2015 1:41:07 GMT -5
I was always curious about the Puppet Master's penchant for using mascara. Or maybe I don't really want to know?
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Post by Hoosier X on May 3, 2015 9:54:13 GMT -5
I just noticed this. On the cover of FF #8, the Puppet-Master looks like Sandy Dennis if she shaved her head.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on May 3, 2015 12:47:26 GMT -5
FF #8 is also significant because it established that Alicia and Sue look exactly alike when the Puppet-Master put Alicia in a FF costume and cut her hair so she looked like Sue and infiltrated the Baxter Building. This became significant years later when Johnny married Alicia (actually a Skrull) and John Byrne didn't notice that it was very creepy for Johnny to marry someone who looked exactly like his own sister! Eeeeew! Extraordinarily creepy.
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Post by Nowhere Man on May 3, 2015 21:26:33 GMT -5
To be fair, the FF did figure out that it wasn't Sue once they got a good look at her up close...
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Post by wildfire2099 on May 3, 2015 21:43:43 GMT -5
I agree that the puppet master is a cool villain but underpowered for the FF... that cover could be awesome if it was, well, finished.
Great design, but it looks like someboddy inked a rough layout sketch and called it a day.
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Post by Hoosier X on May 3, 2015 22:38:30 GMT -5
To be fair, the FF did figure out that it wasn't Sue once they got a good look at her up close... "Sue just ran into a wall! What's wrong, Sue? Hey! You're not Sue!"
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Post by Nowhere Man on May 3, 2015 22:50:47 GMT -5
What I never understood is exactly how the king Puppet Master doll was supposed to work. Was it simply symbolic? He certainly seemed to think that it alone could make him king of the world. After all, he "died" trying to grab it. If that's the case...weren't all the other puppets superfluous?
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Post by Hoosier X on May 3, 2015 23:00:05 GMT -5
What I never understood is exactly how the king Puppet Master doll was supposed to work. Was it simply symbolic? He certainly seemed to think that it alone could make him king of the world. After all, he "died" trying to grab it. If that's the case...weren't all the other puppets superfluous? Don'tcha just love the Silver Age?
I really love the old FF's and I've read some of them over and over in one form or another. But FF #8 is not one of my favorites so I don't really remember it well enough to talk about the King Puppet-Master doll. I remember that particular doll, as I remember Alicia dressing up as Sue and I think there's a prison break with PM manipulating the guards and the prisoner on a prison block diorama. The King PM doll is dropped or falls and so PM looks dead, I think. But he returns in #14 without much explanation, doesn't he?
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Post by Cei-U! on May 4, 2015 7:41:44 GMT -5
In #14, he explains that he survived the fall and spent the time between appearances recuperating at a private hospital. Which if you think about it is probably the most realistic "resurrection" Stan ever concocted.
Cei-U! I summon that "I got better" moment!
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Post by Farrar on May 4, 2015 9:33:03 GMT -5
To be fair, the FF did figure out that it wasn't Sue once they got a good look at her up close... Exactly! I have always liked the fact that as soon as Alicia-in-her-Sue-getup spoke, they realized it wasn't her--as Trebor said, they hadn't really been paying attention to her with the Johnny-Ben fracas going on. Kudos to Stan and Jack for showing up the comic book trope of flawless impersonation by means of clothing/wig/etc. And despite the PM commenting that Sue "looks remarkably like" Alicia, to me he's referring to the fact that they're both fair-haired slender young women (sort of like how people back in the 1940s thought exotic Hedy Lamarr and a newly-dark hair-dyed Joan Bennett looked alike). I also like how from the start Kirby pretty consistently drew Alicia as slightly shorter than Sue; you can see it on the last page of #8, also in #14, Annual #5, #88, and other Silver Age FF issues. Potential SPOILER: btw the Sue-Alicia superficial similarity comes up again many years later in Marvel Knights 4 during the "Stuff of Nightmares" arc and is pretty effective when you first read it.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on May 4, 2015 11:21:57 GMT -5
What I never understood is exactly how the king Puppet Master doll was supposed to work. Was it simply symbolic? He certainly seemed to think that it alone could make him king of the world. After all, he "died" trying to grab it. If that's the case...weren't all the other puppets superfluous? The Puppet Master's powers, especially as shown in this issue make no sense unless they're magic.
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Post by Nowhere Man on May 8, 2015 8:39:43 GMT -5
Incredible Hulk #4
CreditsScript: Stan Lee Pencils: Jack Kirby Inks: Dick Ayers Colors: Stan Goldberg Letters: Art Simek Synopsis: In part one of a two-part tale, Rick uses some of Banner's machinery to transform the Hulk, who was stuck in his monster persona, back into Bruce; Bruce is incredibly weakened by the transformation and takes a chance in using the machinery on himself again which transforms him back into the Hulk's body but with Bruce Banner's mind; now Bruce and the Hulk can switch at will using the gamma ray machine. In part two, an alien invades Earth and claims his people will conquer the planet unless he is met in battle by the strongest opponent the world has to offer; Hulk meets the challenge but finds out it is all a ploy by the Russians to capture him and create an army of hulks of their own. First Appearances: Mongu Comments: With this issue we once again witness Stan and Jack changing the paradigm of the Hulk/Banner relationship. I can see why they didn't stick with the Rick Jones controlled Hulk; it was obviously a dead end since Rick simply didn't have enough background to justify that much face-time as the unofficial lead of the strip. Interestingly enough, this version of the Hulk -- Banner's mind, Hulk's body + attitude -- seems to be the version that's been in vogue since Peter David's classic run. My problem with this persona is that it often came off as a nastier version of the Thing sans the humor and charm. An odd and amusing aspect of the origin section is that the voice is all over the place; sometimes Betty's first person voice (stating things her character didn't actually know) and sometimes the omniscient narrator. Stan was obviously in a rush. Character Development: The smart/gruff Hulk is an interesting development. While he acts heroically in saving the family from the burning house, there is still no clear indication as to what he's thinking and what his motivations are at this point. Stan does mention that the Hulk is basically reveling, thanks to Banner's intelligence, in his own power, but I would have liked a bit more character work as to the Hulk's motivations. Personal/Historical Rating: 5/6 This was another two-part story that once again took up pages recapping the Hulk's origin. While I like the attempt at evolution for the Hulk as a character, the inclusion of yet another communist plot ultimately weakens what could have been a better issue. Historically, I give it a slight bump above average for the new status quo.
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Post by Cei-U! on May 8, 2015 9:36:04 GMT -5
What I never understood is exactly how the king Puppet Master doll was supposed to work. Was it simply symbolic? He certainly seemed to think that it alone could make him king of the world. After all, he "died" trying to grab it. If that's the case...weren't all the other puppets superfluous? The Puppet Master's powers, especially as shown in this issue make no sense unless they're magic. Which, in fact, they are. As revealed over a decade later, the radiation in PM's "radioactive" clay--which comes from Wundagore Mountain--is actually the magical essence of the degenerate Elder God named Chthon. Cei-U! I summon the possessed Play-Doh!
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