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Post by dbutler69 on May 10, 2021 15:21:32 GMT -5
I read Iron Man #92 (Gerry Conway/George Tuska). It's a pretty good story, in terms of both story and art. I didn't blow me away or anything, but it was enjoyable enough. The Melter is portrayed as a real nut here. He seems to think he killed the "original" Iron Man. Here he melts Shellhead's armor, then dumps him into the river, leaving him for dead. Of course, Tony survives, though his "polarizing" armor is toast, so he has to go back to his previous armor, so I guess we'll be seeing Tony with the briefcase again. Iron Man tracks down the Melter, who apparently dies in the rematch.
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Post by profh0011 on May 11, 2021 9:55:42 GMT -5
I read Iron Man #92 (Gerry Conway/George Tuska). Iron Man tracks down the Melter, who apparently dies in the rematch. I can't remember how things went, but I did notice back in the early 70s that NEARLY EVERY villain in every Gerry Conway story seemed to DIE, most definitively, at the end of his stories.
And then 6 months later, someone else would reveal, oh, NO, they survived...
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Post by dbutler69 on May 12, 2021 13:00:27 GMT -5
I just read Iron Man #93-94, a two-part story with Commander Kraken (!!) as the villain. Nothing great here, but for a villain that seems a bit silly, I guess Conway and Trimpe make him a credible enough villain. Some pretty bad British dialogue here. Lot’s of bloody’s and bloomin’s. Once again, Tony's armor is damaged and not working at full strength. It seems like that's the case in every issue. Also, how many times has Iron Man fallen into a large body of water with damaged armor lately? I think 4 times in the past not too many issues. It's getting old. I find it odd the way everybody keeps calling Iron Man “Avenger” instead of calling him “Iron Man”. Good guys, bad guys, friends, enemies they all call him “Avenger” and he even calls himself that. We also get the typical melodramatic Marvel dialogue (Iron Man says to win against Kraken "I'll have to fight harder than I've ever fought before."), and we get the cliché of the guard complaining of boredom just before getting attacked. Iron Man says his armor is the strongest alloy on earth! I had to laugh because, at the end, Kraken apparently dies. Just like profh0011 said happens for Gerry Conway’s stories during this period. However, the very last panel shows that he is in fact alive. All in all, enjoyable enough reads, though certainly nothing special. Edit: I don't know why the covers didn't show up before, but here they are.
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Post by profh0011 on May 12, 2021 13:08:38 GMT -5
What I most recall about that 2-parter was, Herb Trimpe was credited with the story, and Jack Abel once again inked him, making it look FANTASTIC. Also, there were 2 fabulous Jack Kirby covers, one of which I rcall being so inpsired by that I did my own tribute to it way back in the 70s. It's hilarious, some Marvel employees at the time swear Conway came and went as E.I.C. in "2 weeks", which I can't believe (3 months, maybe), but on IRON MAN he was involved with 7 consecutive issues-- only the first 2 of which he did both story & dialogue. (Trimpe did the story on his own on 2 issues, and Bill Mantlo did the dialogue on the next 3 issues after that, before finally becoming the regular writer.) It strengthens my suspicion that while Conway was still at DC, he was back-logging stories so that if he got the chance to do so at Marvel (which he did, when he was hired as E.I.C.), he could DUMP the lot of them all at once and make a freelance killng on the side in addition to his full-time duties, which seemed to consist mainly of BOOTING successful and popular long-running teams off of books. (And none of those booted ever returned to those books after he was gone so quickly.)
I came to use a phrase to describe that time of chaos: "REVENGE is no basis for an editorial regime."
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Post by chaykinstevens on May 12, 2021 15:19:19 GMT -5
Was any explanation given for Kraken looking so different from his earlier appearances in Sub-Mariner, the Cat and Daredevil? Edit: I see the change is mentioned in the second image I posted. They must have wanted him too look less like Captain Hook.
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Post by dbutler69 on May 12, 2021 15:48:34 GMT -5
Was any explanation given for Kraken looking so different from his earlier appearances in Sub-Mariner, the Cat and Daredevil? Edit: I see the change is mentioned in the second image I posted. They must have wanted him too look less like Captain Hook. They mentioned that he had changed, but they did not mention why. No explanation given. In #94, Iron Man theorizes that whatever caused the physical changes also unhinged Kraken's mind, as he believes Kraken is mad now, and wasn't so before.
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Post by profh0011 on May 12, 2021 16:43:53 GMT -5
Fantasy editorial meeting:
Gerry: "Herb! What did you DO here? He doesn't look ANYTHING like he previous appearances!"
Herb: "I know. Isn't this MUCH cooler??"
Gerry: "But-- how did this happen? WHY?"
Herb: "Not my problem, man. YOU'RE the writer. Isn't that what they call the guy who fills in the word balloons after-the-fact?"
Roy: "Now WAIT a minute...!"
John V: "GUYS. Deadline's looming. PRINTER's waiting. You don't want us paying PENALTIES...?"
Gerry: "Okay, OKAY! I'll mention it in the dialogue..."
The above never happened. (But... MAYBE it did! )
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Post by dbutler69 on May 12, 2021 18:19:18 GMT -5
Fantasy editorial meeting:
Gerry: "Herb! What did you DO here? He doesn't look ANYTHING like he previous appearances!"
Herb: "I know. Isn't this MUCH cooler??"
Gerry: "But-- how did this happen? WHY?"
Herb: "Not my problem, man. YOU'RE the writer. Isn't that what they call the guy who fills in the word balloons after-the-fact?"
Roy: "Now WAIT a minute...!"
John V: "GUYS. Deadline's looming. PRINTER's waiting. You don't want us paying PENALTIES...?"
Gerry: "Okay, OKAY! I'll mention it in the dialogue..."
The above never happened. (But... MAYBE it did! ) Were you the fly on the wall?
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Post by profh0011 on May 13, 2021 7:17:59 GMT -5
I once ran across John V. at a convention in Philly. He was with his wife.
"Aren't you John Verpoorten?" "I USED to be. Now SHE's John Verpoorten."
He reminded me of my best friend Jim.
Sadly, maybe a year after we crossed paths, he passed away. Way too young.
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Post by kirby101 on May 13, 2021 9:20:09 GMT -5
I once ran across John V. at a convention in Philly. He was with his wife. "Aren't you John Verpoorten?" "I USED to be. Now SHE's John Verpoorten."He reminded me of my best friend Jim. Sadly, maybe a year after we crossed paths, he passed away. Way too young. I wasn't aware how old he was. Jeez, 37, that is way, way too young.
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Post by profh0011 on May 13, 2021 9:52:50 GMT -5
My best friend Jim went at 40, when he had his 3rd heart attack. I'm reminded of Jim, every time I see actor Roger C. Carmel. There was some physical resemblence. Can you imagine? Having a guy like "Harry Mudd" as your best friend?
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Post by profh0011 on May 13, 2021 9:58:00 GMT -5
But back on "important" things (heeheehee)... at the time, I really would have preferred if HERB TRIMPE had been the regular artist on IRON MAN. Especially if Jack Abel had been the regular inker. Sadly, I think he only did those 6 issues (4 with Len, 2 with Gerry).
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Post by dbutler69 on May 13, 2021 11:03:25 GMT -5
But back on "important" things (heeheehee)... at the time, I really would have preferred if HERB TRIMPE had been the regular artist on IRON MAN. Especially if Jack Abel had been the regular inker. Sadly, I think he only did those 6 issues (4 with Len, 2 with Gerry). Yeah, the two Trimpe/Abel issues I recently read were good. A cut above most of the Tuska stuff. By the way, I forgot to mentioned that Commander Kraken learned Iron Man's secret identity! I wonder if that ever comes up again.
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Post by dbutler69 on May 13, 2021 12:14:20 GMT -5
I read Iron Man #95. Iron Man is testing his new, improved armor with an atomic piledriver, while still wearing the armor (because that's what you do) and the armor wins that battle and the rather expensive atomic piledriver is destroyed in the test. Tony/Iron Man has to go to Congress because somebody is apparently framing him. It's all a ruse to get Iron Man into Washington, where he has to battle Ultimo! I'm not all that familiar with Ultimo, but he's obviously extremely powerful, as he trashes Iron Man, leaves him for dead, and marches off to the White House! By the way, Iron Man rather stupidly knocks Ultimo into the Washington Monument, which starts to topple over, so IM has to stop it from falling on a bunch of innocent bystanders. Somehow, I guess it manages to tay upright once Iron Man straightens it back up. I'm not quite sure how that happened.
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Post by Rob Allen on May 13, 2021 14:12:51 GMT -5
"Ultimo" is now the name of a car dealership in Illinois.
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