Thursday 8 January 2015

Forty years ago this month - January 1975.

I can think of nothing at all clever or informative to say to launch this post. So, instead, let's take a look at what our favourite Marvel heroes were up to in the month when work on the second attempt at a Channel Tunnel was abandoned for financial reasons.

Were our heroes following a tight drill?

Or were they instead finding it all a bit of a bore?

Avengers #131, Legion of the Unliving

The Legion of the Dead leave the Avengers feeling positively mortified, as the Celestial Madonna Saga lumbers on and on and on and on.

It's doing these covers each month that makes me realise just how protracted that storyline really was.
Conan the Barbarian #46

I'm pretty sure this is the one where Conan defeats his foe by dissolving his feet. You have to hand it to the battling barbarian, he can use his brain sometimes.
Captain America and the Falcon #181

I've no idea what's going on. Is this the fake Captain America who was running around smashing commies in the 1950s? Or was his return featured in another story?
Daredevil #117, Mindtap

You have to hand it to Daredevil. There aren't many Marvel heroes who'd manage to take two issues to defeat the Owl.

Then again, the Owl is, by his own reckoning, "All-powerful."
Fantastic Four  #154

I seem to recall that this issue features the return of a foe from the old Strange Tales Human Torch/Thing series. I forget, though, what the shock reveal is as regards his true identity. I had it in my head that he's really Reed Richards but I get a feeling I was recently told otherwise.
Incredible Hulk #183, Zzzax

Hooray! Zzzax is bax.
Iron Man #72, Melter and Man-Bull

Iron Man becomes Irony Man - doomed to die at a comic book convention.
Amazing Spider-Man #140, the Grizzly

Spidey's still up against the Grizzly - with the Jackal causing all sorts of mischief behind the scenes.

Thor #231

I'm sure I've read this one in the not-too-distant past but can't quite recall what happens in it. Does Loki turn someone into a caveman who has baffling amounts of strength for a caveman?

9 comments:

londonlee said...

Surprised by how many of these I had considering I hadn't discovered proper comic shops yet (like Dark They Were & Golden Eyed in Soho) and was reliant on the newsagents for actual American comics.

Had to look it up to jog my memory but the new Cap was some fan of his who the Falcon trained to take over. He got killed by the Red Skull almost immediately.

Kid said...

Out of all of these comics, Steve, the only one I recall having was the Thor one (still got it - well, it's a replacement, but I've now had it far longer than the original). I don't have it to hand to check if it was Loki who turned the guy into a caveman, but I do remember being somewhat confused because they'd printed a couple of pages out of sequence. It was bound to happen when they did away with the corner page numbers.

Unknown said...

No it wasn't Loki that turned into the caveman it was the son of a fake medium that was doing a seance that ended up making contact with the spirit of the very first man, who was ever born - Armak (thought it was Adam) - who is the supposed to be the personification of mankind's sheer brutality. This comic features Hercules and he and Thor team up (I think ) to beat him.

Unknown said...

Sorry I meant to say it wasn't Loki that turned someone into the monster the transformation took place when man doing the fake seances son was taken over by the spirit of the caveman (hope that makes sense).

Anonymous said...

Lo, there shall be reprints.... FF 154 was a dreaded deadline doom fill in, Steve, as I'm sure you'll recall from recent comments.

The Owl? The Grizzly? Your forty years ago feature isn't currently reflecting very well on Marvel. Clearly that's not your fault, Steve - there are some pretty underwhelming comics posted here - but worth pointing out that they also put out stuff like Jungle Action (Panthers Rage), Tomb of Dracula and Man-Thing this month too...

-sean

Dougie said...

This fake Cap is Roscoe Simons- the young imitator who is subsequently crucified by the Red Skull. He had a kind of Levitz Wildcat speech pattern: dis an' dat.
This is a particularly wacky Englehart story which leads into the Avengers/Roxxon/Serpent Crown story circa 75. It also features a guest appearance of the Savage Sub-Mariner.
Next issue Sal Buscema is replaced by Frank Robbins (whose art I love but it is outlandish here)

Steve W. said...

Londonlee, Paul and Dougie, thanks for the info; and Sean and Kid, thanks to you too for dropping in. :)

Simon B said...

Steve, the Man In The Mystery Mask was Nick Fury... but I've already told you that in a previous comment :-)
Steve? Can you hear me, Steve? Is anybody there...?

Steve W. said...

Ah well, you see, if it was Nick Fury, that'd explain why I couldn't remember. You know I blank him from my memory at every possible opportunity.