Tuesday 1 March 2011

It was forty years ago today.

Soothsayers might say beware the Ides of March but I say behold the 1st. That makes it a brand new month and that means the return of the feature where I attempt to look at what our favourite Marvel heroes were up to exactly forty years ago.

Fantastic Four #108, Janus, the cobbled together years

It's like a lesson in how not to put together a comic book as we get the story of Janus the Nega-Man, a tale cobbled together from a rejected Jack Kirby story that was left lying around, as John Buscema adds a load of new panels in an effort to make it work. I think it'd be fair to say it wasn't an experiment that succeeded.
Amazing Spider-Man #94, origin retold, the Beetle

Gwen Stacy's gone, and Aunt May manages to get herself kidnapped by the Beetle who's ultimately defeated by a swimming pool. We also get a retelling of Spider-Man's origin. There were a lot of great Spidey stories published around this time but, for me, this has never been one of them.
Avengers #86, brain-child and the Squadron Supreme

Still stuck in an alternate world, the Avengers team-up with the not-altogether competent Squadron Supreme to take on Brain-Child, the world's most evil ankle-biter.

Captain America #135

In one of the very first American comics I ever owned, Captain America and the Falcon tangle with a human gorilla. I remember being entranced by Cap's costume which, to my eight year old self, seemed positively mind-blowing.

Daredevil #74

From the cover, I'm assuming everyone's gone blind. Was this an Angar the Screamer appearance?


Incredible Hulk #137, The Abomination, Klaatu, Xeron and Captain Cybor

How great is this tale? The Hulk on a spaceship, in pursuit of the Moby Dick of space while having to deal with the threat of the Abomination. Frankly, if you don't like stories like this, you don't like stories.

Iron Man #35, Nick Fury and Zodiac

Another of those Iron Man tales I have no memory of. It clearly features Nick Fury and Zodiac. It's not fair; with Nick Fury and Zodiac involved, how was I ever going to stand a chance of remembering it?

Thor #186, Hela

I don't recall the exact details of what happens this issue but it's the John Buscema era and it's got Hela and she's after Thor, so I have no doubt it was all rather fab and groovy.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Argh! Did you have to say forty years?

These are among some of the first comics I ever bought (I had six of those you've shown)...talk about making a guy feel old.

But check out all those word balloons on the covers? Do they even do such things anymore?

Oh, and Angar didn't show up till the last panel of Daredevil's 100th issue....can I have a no-prize? Can I?



agedly
B Smith

Steve said...

You can indeed have a Steve Does Comics No-Prize. Remember to only use it for good.

As for the speech balloons. The lack of speech balloons on modern comic covers is nothing less than a tragedy for the human race.

Lazarus Lupin said...

Each cover is one of frenzied non apologic action. There's no "Part of X-travaganza" ect. ect. mega events.

Ah memories.

Lazarus Lupin
http://strangespanner.blogspot.com/
art and review

Kid said...

I actually thought that FF issue worked okay - it was certainly better than how it appeared in "The Lost Adventure" version. I even wrote about it in my blog post, A MESS THAT DIDN'T MAKE MUCH SENSE? SOMEONE'S SURELY LOST THE PLOT, at http://kidr77.blogspot.com - give it a read, Steve, and let me know what you think.