Thursday 5 February 2015

Forty years ago this month - February 1975.

I think we're all excited that today is World Nutella Day. But there are even more thrilling things afoot than that - because today's the day we get to see what our favourite Marvel heroes were up to exactly forty years ago.

Will their lives be filled with nuts?

And will they be giving them a good pasting?

Avengers #132

The Celestial Madonna Saga rumbles on.

And on.

And on.

It's strange but it never seemed this interminable when I was actually reading it.
Conan the Barbarian #47, Goblins

The Goblins strike at midnight. Which is convenient to know, if you don't have a clock handy.

It's nice to think that Conan can time his day entirely by which particular types of creatures are attacking him at any moment. "It's skeletons! It must be breakfast time!"
Captain America & the Falcon #182

A Steve Does Comics No-Prize goes to the first person who can remind me of the names of all the members of the Serpent Squad.
Daredevil #118, Blackwing

I'm totally unfamiliar with Blackwing. I'm taking it from his little, fluttery friends that he was designed to be some sort of Batman type figure?


Fantastic Four #155, the Silver Surfer

The Silver Surfer's causing trouble.
Incredible Hulk #184, Shadows

The Hulk finds himself up against a foe revived from the days of Marvel's monster comics.
Amazing Spider-Man #141, Mysterio

Mysterio is back.

Or is he?
Thor #232, Firelord

I know nothing about this story.

I do however know that Thor's anatomy on the cover is all over the place.
X-Men #92, Red Raven

This is a reprint of the first X-Men comic I ever read, as Red Raven makes his senses-shattering return from obscurity.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

I think Captain America & the Falcon 183 was when Frank Robbins took over the art on the strip , at the time I hated his work with a passion, but after a few years I became (and still am) a massive Frank Robbins fan – I’ll take a crack at the members of the Serpent Squad (I have that issue in my collection, but can’t find it) so from memory was it Princess Python, Viper, (who if I recall was Madame Hydra - unveiled in a fantastic full page by Frank Robbins) Eel and Cobra (though I think Cobra left or got killed) – I just picked up that Conan issue last week it looks like it was a bit of a rushed job with only half of the comic new material and with a Wally Wood back up strip.

Aggy said...

Serpent Squad from memory...

Viper
Cobra
er... erm...
Grass?
Puff the Magic Adder?
Boomslang?
Trouser?

oh and for some reason Eel

Steve W. said...

Paul and Aggy, I don't have a clue if either of you are right about the members of the Serpent Squad but I reckon you deserve a No-Prize each for making the effort.

pete doree said...

Blackwing seemed like he was gonna be cool, until you realised his only power was that he could control bats.
If memory serves, after DD roundly trounced both him and the Circus of Crime, he went off in a huff and was never seen again. Hey ma, I'm running away FROM the circus...

Boston Bill said...

I actually read most of these (although about half were taken from older siblings)
I found every appearance of 'Nomad' disappointing. I could tell that Marvel was sort of apologising for him by putting a hazy Cap on every cover.
The FF Storyline was great, except I had never heard of Medusa before. It didn't help that she had less lines than Zeppo in a Marx Brothers movie.
The celestial Madonna thing baffled me.
The Mysterio storyline was terrific, especially when the Spider-Mobile made its very brief appearance! That sort of thing NEVER happened in DC Comics!!

Anonymous said...

FF 155 - wasn't that the story where the Surfer had to obey Dr Doom because he had Shalla Bal hostage? Only, she turned out to be just some random Latverian woman who just happened to look like her. Except, wait a minute, it really was her the whole time, or something....
Can't say I was too impressed by that one.

And yes, that Thor cover is terrible, Steve - it looks bad enough to have been commissioned specially for one of the UK weeklies!

-sean

Steve W. said...

I believe you may be right about the Shalla Bal story, Sean.

I have a suspicion that the Thor cover might be by Ron Wilson who - if I remember right - also did some of the Marvel UK covers.