March 1971

Marvels

By this time I was on autopilot when it came to my Marvels. I was fortunate that the one neighborhood candy store that carried my Marvel team books continued to do so on a regular basis for 2 or 3 years. Every third Wednesday of the month I would rush over to the store and grab my FF, Avengers, and X-men (before this was canceled in 1970). I remember once I went to the store on the appointed day and what--no new Marvels!  I came back the next day, and sure enough, there they were. The candy store (or distributor they worked with) had changed its schedule to the third Thursday of the month. Crisis averted.

Anyway, wasn't too crazy about these particular issues. By this time I had amassed large back collections of these two titles, collections that were still  works in progress. It was exciting when I came upon an issue I needed for my collection at my neighborhood collectibles store (the inventory was always hit or miss). I found the older stories, and art, for the Avengers at least, more satisfying than the newer stuff. But I was a completist, and I dutifully bought each new issue when it hit the stands.  




Avengers #88: As has been noted upthread, this issue was part of a Hulk crossover, a comic I didn't follow. Also, my favorite Avengers the Scarlet Witch wasn't involved in this story, though there was a promise within the story that she, Pietro and Vision would feature heavily next issue, so there was that to look forward to!  This story was adapted from a text piece, a treatment of sorts, that Harlan Ellison had written and that had appeared some months earlier in Marvelmania Magazine #4. Anyway, it seems to have been Ellison month at Marvel and DC because not only did we get the Ellison-plotted story here and in Hulk #140, but over in this month's Justice League #89 story Mike Friedrich included an annoying character named Harlequin Ellis.  Whoopee doo. 

Btw I did finally read the Hulk story a few years ago, as part of the Heart of the Atom collection. Beautiful story, so sad (as were the other stories in this Hulk-Jarella collection). I recommend this collection without reservation.  

Fantastic Four #111: A perfunctory J. Buscema cover, we're still in the tired old Ben turns bad, fights against his teammates arc. Ho hum.  

Nothing yet, but next month will be a different story. Finally entered a period when I had a comic of two.

April 1971

DC
The only DC I know for sure I bought off the stands that month was this one. 


Adventure #407, with Sekowsky's Supergirl. Meh issue, and thanks to the combination of poor distribution in my neighborhood coupled with my own growing lack of interest in the character & series, this turned out to be the last new Adventure Comic I bought off the stands. I was still buying back issues of the Legion Adventure (at the collectibles store on my block).   

Woo hoo, comics from 50 years ago!

Kirby, I'm old!



You might notice a theme here. This is from a period where Superman, artistically, was looking pretty good. Action 402 finishes up a Leo Dorfman 2-parter, where Superman is held hostage by some Native American activists, who are trying to stop a dig at a sacred site. of of the activists is an astro-physicist, who has developed a lens which filters only red sunlight onto Superman, making him powerless and allowing them to keep him hogtied, while using the sham of a magic sand painting. meanwhile, a crook is using a mole digger to burrow into the mesa below to steal ancient art treasures. It was a decent Weisinger-style plot, coupled with modern "social relevance," without going too far, either way. It also featured great "Swanderson" art, from Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson. those two together made Swan look his best.

The real draw, for me, was the back-up story, by the same team, which sees Superman and Supergirl feuding, after dropping alien weapons into an acid pit in the Fortress of Solitude. They start bickering and Supergirl creates her own entrance to the Fortress, after Superman kicks her out and they start going at it physically, thanks to a gas that is affecting them, from a weapon. It's a good story for both and also a nice visit to the Fortress, which was brand new, to me.

Superman #240 continues the "Sand Creature" storyline, where an experimental reactor has rendered all Kryptonite on Earth harmless. however, it also "creates" a Superman doppelganger, consisting of sand, from where he was blown by the reactor explosion. It is eventually revealed to be an entity from another dimension, given form. The explosion depowers Superman and this issue sees him fail to stop a building from collapsing, after a fire. He barely survives and battle with some bank robbers, who use artillery to punch into a bank vault (this was 3 years before Thunderbolt and Lightfoot). It was interesting to see Superman fail and how he reacts. he meets I-Ching, from the Wonder Woman stories, who helps reveal the sand creature. Also, there are hints of someone held prisoner, that later turns out to be the "real" Morgan Edge, after he was introduced as an agent for Apokalips, in Jimmy Olsen. Again, my favorite part is the back-up story, a World of Krypton story about the planet's past, drawn this time by Mike Kaluta...



An assistant to a scientist, who longs for a return to past glories of Kryptonian society, sabotages a time experiment so he can see a famous general, in the past. He takes along advanced weapons and sabotages the machine to short circuit after he arrives, so he cannot be retrieved. Jokes on him, though, as he gets thrown back and pulled 12 years into the future, arriving after the destruction of Krypton, in the void of space.

Kaluta did some stories and covers for Timewarp, DC's later attempt at a sci-fi anthology; but, Kaluta didn't do significant work in this area until Starstruck. Would have loved to have seen him do more of this kind of thing, as much as The Shadow.

May 1971:

Astonishing Tales #7 (acquired this one only a few years ago and really enjoyed getting Doom's backstory fleshed out)
Avengers #90
Batman #233
Creepy #40 (I bought/read most of my Creepy and Eerie run in one stretch. I miss reading them for the first time!)
Teen Titans #34 (I've read this three times now, and it impresses me more each time. So mature and bold for the title)

May 1971

DC:
That month, just this one DC: 



Wonder Woman #195: I remember thinking that the interior art looked very strange, and off-putting, to me. There were no credits in this issue, and I wondered who the new artist was. 



 

Well, it was still Sekowsky as penciler but instead of then-regular WW inker Dick Giordano, this issue was inked by Wally Wood. Back then I'd heard of Wood (mostly in letter columns) but at that time I'd had minimal exposure to his work, just in a couple of old Kooky Quartet Avengers issues (inks) and the Dr. Doom story in Astonishing Tales #1. But here in WW #195, Wood's heavy inks made the finished art look completely different (IMO) from the previous Sekowsky-Giordano issues. I could only recognize Sekowsky's work in a few panels, in some of the older characters' craggier faces.  Of course re-reading this story decades later as an adult, I recognized Wood's distinctive style right away.  

At any rate, this issue would turn out to be the last WW comic I'd buy new off the stands. Distribution was always spotty and I kept missing issues. And even when I could find a copy of WW at the candy stores, it would be a reprint issue (#197, #198) that contained stories from issues I already had, so I had no interest in buying either #197 or #198.  But overall I enjoyed the Sekowsky Wonder Woman, and to this day it remains one of my favorite comic book runs from when I was a kid.