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Post by Deleted on Jun 17, 2021 10:33:02 GMT -5
Yeah, with Wanda there's enough ambiguity with her powers that she can do pretty much "anything" when needed, or for plot convenience be knocked out by the second panel of action. Reminds me of Dr. Fate or the Spectre...one minute they sneeze and the universe shakes, the next they're weak as kittens. For the power ring, I think the conventional uses of it (literally green energy objects/power beams) can be wildly creative, but the deus ex machina to me is a lot when "all of a sudden the ring can let you do this..." and he's teleporting and other things beyond zapping green stuff out. Plus, Hal could (back in the day) always be taken out by a well targeted yellow paper airplane (cue his Super Friends "deep Hal voice": "that seemingly harmless children's paper airplane...my ring is powerless to stop it...I have seconds to save myself.") Oh, I don't know. If you read enough Silver Age Green Lantern and JLA stories, you'll find that Hal's ring can do just about anything. I believe he's read minds, wiped minds, walked through walls, and all sorts of stuff. Plus he can make green kryptonite to take down Superman...but only if the story calls for it. Having said that, pretty much anybody with magic powers is going to be a dues ex machina, to an extent. Zatanna can do pretty much anything by just saying it backwards! For sure...in my "mind" GL's powers should be a little more well defined than Scarlet Witch, but that stuff you mentioned is classic Silver Age "anything goes" when you have a power ring. Totally great example of Zatanna too!
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Post by profh0011 on Jun 17, 2021 11:35:42 GMT -5
I read Iron Man #109, continuing with my Iron Man stuff. Entertaining story overall, with the typical Marvel superheroes (yes, even Ruskies can be superheroes) fighting each other for no good reason. Iron Man attacks the Russians because he's got a grudge against Crimson Dynamo for killing his girlfriend years ago, but this is a totally different Crimson Dynamo, and they wait for a few pages of fighting before Darkstar mentions this little fact! Iron Man is going to be training Jack of Hearts. I'll bet that plot point gets dropped as soon a Bill Mantlo (Jack of Hearts co-creator) leaves the book in about 7 issues. Bill Mantlo was the perrennial "fill-in" guy. When all the "regular" writers kept BLOWING deadlines, one after another after another, he was always there with "inventory" stories, or just doing last-minute fill-ins.
Eventually, they ran out of "regular" guys, and he got the chance to take over.
It wasn't that great... but it was consistent.
I didn't care for the Midas storyline, but once it was over, and George Tuska decided to finally move on once and for all (after 3 separate runs on the book), the book, to me, really started to look interesting. They were getting some different artists involved, and Mantlo seemed to be really building momentum. It was nice to see.
THIS is why... NO MATTER how good David Micheline & Bob Layton were... and they were... I ALWAYS thought it was just WRONG, the way they barged in from DC, and PUSHED Mantlo off the book, just when he was getting better and better by the issue.
I'll always remember how EGOTISTICAL and arrogant Layton was, when I met him, about a year after he got on the book.
I believe it was the week after he was a guest at my store, the store owner said to me...
"I don't know what happened to Bob. He USED to be a nice guy!"
Some things stuck in your head.
I'd say the same thing happened that happened with Kevin Dooley over at DC. He let a promotion go to his head.
Over at the LEGION WORLD message board, some years ago, there was a very nice, IN-DEPTH thread discussing IRON MAN. I was quite surprised when the thread reached the Bill Mantlo run. I learned a lot of things I didn't know at the time, and was reminded of just how much Mantlo had been deliberately picking up the ball of long-term continuity, that virtually EVERY writer on the book after Archie Goodwin had let go COMPLETELY by the wayside.
I had never read most of those books, so I had no idea just how much Mantlo was following up on.
When I got into buying more back-issues (instead of reprints) in the 90s, I noted that while a Jack Kirby FANTASTIC FOUR could be found easily for about $20, most Archie Goodwin IRON MANs were going for $80. (I got a few for $15-20... but could never find most of them that cheap.) I realized why. It wasn't that they were that good. THEY WEREN'T. It's that at the time... they'd NEVER BEEN REPRINTED.
Mantlo, and later, Michelinie & Layton, were doing tons of sequels to Goodwin's era. But if you wanted to READ the original stories they were referencing... YOU COULDN'T. Unless you had a TON of money to blow on those expensive back issues.
As a total aside... you know what I can't figure? How is it, in 45 YEARS, Micheline & Layton never bothered to finish their STAR HUNTERS storyline, which DC cancelled as part of their disastrous "DC Implosion" ?
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Post by profh0011 on Jun 17, 2021 11:43:47 GMT -5
And speaking of Bill Mantlo's IRON MAN... Marie Severin once sent me photocopies of pencils for me to do inking samples. I never got any work from there, but I thought it'd be fun to let you see what I did with CARMINE INFANTINO!
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Post by dbutler69 on Jun 17, 2021 15:56:20 GMT -5
profh0011, I enjoyed Star Hunters. Too bad it never got finished. It was never in the Cancelled Comics Cavalcade? Also, interesting Mantlo & Layton stuff.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jun 18, 2021 17:14:04 GMT -5
Fin Fang Four #1 (part of the 2005 Marvel Monsters one-shots) Written by Roger Landridge and Scott Gray, with art by Landridge. The basic story here is that some of the fearsome monsters who threatened to conquer the Earth and/or destroy humanity back in Marvel's Atlas days get a second chance Reed Richards shrinks them down to human size and advocates for their rehabilitation. So Fin Fang Foom becomes the head chef at a Chinese restaurant on the ground floor of the Baxter Building, Gorgilla is put to work washing the building's windows, Googam (son of Goom) gets a job as a valet in the building's parking garage, and Elektro, the former evil robot gets his memory wiped and becomes an assistant in the Baxter Building mailroom. Of the four, Googam is the least 'reformed' and his attempts to reclaim his past glory gets all four of them into trouble. This is so much fun, and there's so many little details that make it endearing, like the Thing helping Elektro ask the FF's robotic receptionist, Roberta, out on a date: The first Fin Fang Foom story from Strange Tales #89 is also reprinted here, so this book is a nice package. Also read the 2009 follow up, Fin Fang Four Return... ...by the same creative team. Again, just very well done, tongue-in-cheek fun. This one has six short stories in it, each one focusing on one of the main characters. My favorites include one in which Elektro gets sent to prison because a bank teller mistakes him for the other Electro, the one in which Gorgilla travels back in time, and it's narrated like a children's book (like a Curious George book to be specific) and the one in which Fin Fang Foom puts some magical ingredient in the meal of a, well, follicly challenged food critic that makes him grow a mop of pink hair, which he ends up loving. So then all the bald guys in the city show up at the restaurant, to the owner's delight but to Fin Fang Foom's chagrin. His solution is drastic...
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Post by kirby101 on Jun 19, 2021 10:30:14 GMT -5
Of all the Atlas/50s monsters, I wonder why Fin Fang Foom resonated so? The name? The short pants? It's a puzzlement.
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Post by profh0011 on Jun 19, 2021 13:00:35 GMT -5
BLAZING COMBAT #2(Warren / January 1966) cover by Frank FrazettaLike drama or soap-opera, "war" stories have never been a favorite genre of mine, unless when it's mixed with some other genre, like espionage thriller, heist story, comedy, hospital or murder mystery. However, as I update my Warren indexes, I found I had ONE story from the 2nd issue of this short-lived series... " KASSERINE PASS" -- by Archie Goodwin, Angelo Torres & Al Williamson. It sure looks different to have Williamson's inks over Torres, instead of pure Torres. A tank patrol in north Africa in the wake of Rommel's retreat finds a whole squadron of German Panzers waiting for them over a sand dune, to predictably HORRIFIC results. Stunning visuals, but NOT any kind of pleasant read. Oh yeah, I have the story reprinted in CREEPY #142 (1982), the all-Angelo Torres issue (under the inexplicable Richard Courtney cover).
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Post by Batflunkie on Jun 19, 2021 14:55:46 GMT -5
Finished off Captain America by Dan Jurgens volume 2 (issues 43 and 44). 43 was top notch, it had Cap going to Russia, helping a downtrodden family and going head to head with Crimson Dynamo. Like I've said before, Jurgens nails what makes Cap so great perfectly
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jun 19, 2021 15:47:10 GMT -5
Of all the Atlas/50s monsters, I wonder why Fin Fang Foom resonated so? The name? The short pants? It's a puzzlement. Oh, it's definitely the Speedo...
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Post by spoon on Jun 19, 2021 15:50:03 GMT -5
I read West Coast Avengers #1-7 and Vision & the Scarlet Witch #1-7. The first 2 issues of each series cross over before they go their separate ways. But I've heard events toward the end of VSW tie back in with WCA so I'm trying to stay at close to same point of each. Shoutout to icctrombone who mailed me the limited series when he getting rid of some back issues a couple years back.
VSW springboards off of the Absolute Vision storyline. I didn't quite get all the control crystal stuff when it first happened, but here it's explained one consequence is giving more access to his emotions. It's thick with a lot of character lore, including subsequently retconned stuff like Vision having the original Human Torch's body. Magneto shows up. I can neer remember whether the current status quo is or isn't that he's Wanda & Pietro's dad. There are bbits that were referenced in Wandavision , like Glamor and Illusion, which became an Easter egg.
I really like the WCA interpersonal dynamics between teammates. Englehart brings back Tigra's lack of confidence, but I like the treatment better than under Shooter because Englehart makes it about her human & cat nature at war. She also at the center of a love triangle (or more like lust). Hawkeye gets more of a chance to shine. There's the interesting subplot of Clint pushing the unwilling Thing to join, while ignoring Firebird, who would gladly accept if asked. There's also an interesting story about an evolving Ultron. Milgrom contributes to the art throughout, but often only on layouts & the inkers do a solid job. I love the Kyle Baker inked issue.
One plotline that runs through both series is the notion that Vision was programmed with the thought patterns of Simon Williams (Wonder Man). That never makes sense to me because their personalities are so different. Vision doesn't even seem like a more robotic version of Wondy.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jun 20, 2021 10:27:07 GMT -5
Busiek, IIRC, goes big into that in his Avengers run... treating them as 'brothers'.. then Simon and Wanda start dating. It's kinda weird.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jun 20, 2021 10:45:48 GMT -5
Solo (#4, ft. Howard Chaykin, DC 2005) I like to pull this one out occasionally; it's always nice to enjoy Chaykin's art, and there's some good stories in here, but also one or two that are pretty disturbing (as in violent - albeit mostly "off camera" - a bit bloody). My favorites are the one set in the old West and then California a few decades later, starring the old DC Western character Pow Wow Smith, and the first story, which features the character depicted on the cover, an American jazz musician who finds himself in Paris just as the Nazis march in:
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Post by profh0011 on Jun 20, 2021 11:32:54 GMT -5
CREEPY #7 (Warren / Feb’66) One of my favorite covers by Frank Frazetta, illustrating the lead story… “ DUEL OF THE MONSTERS” – Archie Goodwin & the incredible Angelo Torres tell a story of a village where a vampires hide in plain sight as the chief of police, whose nightly routines are endangered by a werewolf. At one point, while he’s trying to track down his prey, he finds a cross left in his coffin, suggesting he’s also being hunted. The climax is doubly surprising, as both the identity of the werewolf is not expected, plus, a third party is involved. The visual depiction of a werewolf in this is more like “ THE HOWLING” (1981) than “ THE WOLFMAN” (1941). I have a reprint of this in CREEPY #142 (1982). “ IMAGE OF BLUEBEARD” – Bill Pearson (a major force in fanzines in the late 50s-early 60s) and Joe Orlando tell a story of a plain new wife married to a much-older husband who’s lonely, and begins reading accounts of a man who’s married several women and murdered them all. Her suspicions lead to tragedy. “ Creepy’s Loathsome Lore!” – Goodwin & Frazetta focus on “werebeasts” this time. “ RUDE AWAKENING” – Goodwin & Alex Toth spin a terrifying story of a man being threatened at knifepoint, who winds up waking from a nightmare. Or, does he? As events continue, he keeps waking up! Is he repeatedly dropping off without realizing it, or is it all one long convoluted nightmare? I was reminded a bit of the “ HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR” tv episode of the same name, which starred Denholmn Elliot, though the events in his dreams were quite different from these. Every time I see Toth’s artwork, I’m more and more convinced he had no business ever doing super-hero comics. He was far better in pretty much every other genre. “ DRINK DEEP!” – Eando Binder & John Severin tell of a rich yacht owner who’s terribly abusive to his hired help, and brags about being descended from a brutal, murderous pirate. When his entire crew quits without warning, he picks up a new one, and his next voyage is to the spot of one of his ancestor’s atrocities, poetic justice of the supernatural kind takes over. I have a reprint of this in CREEPY #42 (1972) “ THE BODY SNATCHER!” – Goodwin & Reed Crandall adapt the Robert Louis Stevenson story based on the real-life Burke & Hare incidents. Apart from a study in how legality and morality can become blurred, Crandall’s linework is so intensely-detailed it boggles my mind. He really is a perfect match for “classic” adaptations like this, and I wish he’d continued doing more such stories a lot longer than he did. If I’d been in Goodwin’s position as editor, I would have tried to make a point of having at least one “classic” story like this in EVERY Warren issue. “ BLOOD OF KRYLON!” – Goodwin & Gray Morrow tell of a vampire in the far future, who decides Earth is no longer safe for his kind. Slowly preying on the passengers of a colony ship, he has an unexpected shock when he arrives at his destination. Morrow’s art here is fully-painted in graytones, absolutely mind-boggling to see! “ HOT SPELL!” – Goodwin & Reed Crandall do a story of a small town in the mountains where the locals live in terror of a curse placed on them by a warlock burned at the stake 300 years earlier. They suspect an artist who recently moved to the area of being his descendant, which leads to a multiple tragedy. Crandall surprised me here by doing the prologue all in graytones, while the rest of the story is in his regular eye-popping linework. The plot reminded me a bit of Roger Corman’s loose adaptation of Lovecraft’s “ Charles Dexter Ward”, “ THE HAUNTED PALACE”, only going off in a rather different direction. Probably the most unpleasant story in the issue. I managed to get this issue sometime in the early 90s, for a measely $3.50! Oh, if only I’d gone after lots more.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jun 20, 2021 18:45:58 GMT -5
I took a break from 1970s Spider-Man after the death of Gwen Stacy, but I’m ready to get back to it. Hopefully I’ll have time to read #123 and two or three more today.
I was writing an essay about 1950s Batman and reading so much 1955 to 1964 Batman. I love that stuff! I finished the essay a week ago and ... didn’t want to go back to Peter coping with the Lazy Lazy Death of Gwen Stacy. So I kept reading stories where Batman is a mummy and the dog has super-powers and dumb-looking aliens are getting into Gotham’s business every month!
Anyway, I guess I’m ready to get back to Spidey.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jun 20, 2021 19:04:36 GMT -5
Spidey #123 is the one where Jameson hires Luke Cage to get Spider-Man. This isn’t one I’ve read over and over again. I read it in a reprint volume - probably Essential Spider-Man - from the library a few years ago, so I’ve only read it once.
I’d forgotten how much fun this one is, despite Gwen’s funeral and Peter’s grief.
Also ... I haven’t read much early Hero for Hire, just enough to think maybe I should get the Marvel Masterworks volume and finally read the first ten issues. I have the issue where Cage goes to Latveria to get his money from Deadbeat Doc Doom, and it’s my favorite Doom appearance outside of the FF’s own mag. (Except maybe Spidey #5!)
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