Sunday 10 January 2016

January 10th, 1976 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

On this day in 1976, BBC 1 was showing The Brain of Morbius, that nightmare Dr Who tale in which a brand new monster's stitched together from bits of other monsters, to give us a nightmare creature with a lobster's claw for a hand, and a goldfish bowl for a head.

Clearly such a tale could inflict madness upon the strongest of minds. Therefore I shall have to take refuge in whatever it was Marvel UK was offering us that very week.

Marvel UK, Avengers #121, Man-Ape holds up a defeated Captain America and Black Panther

This would appear to be the issue where you can find out if you were at the Roundhouse with Stan.

Sadly, I never had this issue and so I shall never know if I was at the Roundhouse with Stan.

I suspect the Man-Ape wasn't at the Roundhouse with Stan, as he was far too busy planning his vengeance against the Avengers.

Or maybe it's not having been at the Roundhouse with Stan that made him so angry in the first place.

What are those sweets that look like Polo Mints but are all different colours? I'm getting a definite vibe of those from that Savage Sword of Conan lettering.

Marvel UK, Titans #12, Inhumans, Emergency Issue

It's the Titans' second Emergency Issue.

Sadly, that's all I can say about it, as it's another comic I never had - and one with a not overly revelatory cover.

Marvel UK, Dracula Lives #64, Legion of Monsters

Could it be? Has Dracula turned into a damsel-rescuing hero?

Spider-Man Comics Weekly #152, Spider-Slayer

The Spider-Slayer's still causing trouble for our hero.

Marvel UK, Planet of the Apes #64, Conquest

I must confess Conquest is my least favourite of the original Apes films. I'm sure it was well-intentioned but I did find it somewhat dull and sterile.

It also didn't answer the question of why the moon had gone missing in the first Planet of the Apes film. I'd love an explanation for that. Just what did happen to the thing? How did the apes make the moon disappear?

Mighty World of Marvel #171, Hulk vs Harpy

It's the story where, after all these years, Betty Ross finally gets interesting.

I am intrigued by the colour scheme for the lettering on this week's cover. I don't think I've ever seen lettering coloured quite like it. I do find it strangely appealing.

Marvel UK, Super-Heroes #45, Thing, Bloodstone, Giant-Man

It would appear the X-Men have been given the boot, to make way for Bloodstone. What further indignity could be inflicted upon them?


8 comments:

Anonymous said...

For a well-intentioned film, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes has quite the racist subtext, Steve. But yes, you're right, it is indeed also dull and sterile.

Anyway, on to the important topic at hand - what happened to the moon in Planet of the Apes? You will obviously be excited to hear that I have a number of theories on this.

1 - It was destroyed by a human bomb.
How would anyone have known the bomb from the the end of Beneath... could actually destroy the whole earth if a prototype hadn't already been tested? Where could that be done, except on the moon?
Yes, I know destroying the moon in a test seems a bit bonkers, but you know what these armament industry types are like. I mean, its bonkers to want to kill the worlds population thousands of times over - which they can actually do already - when once would surely be enough.
And lets face it, wanting to do it even once is pretty insane.

2 - The moon was blown out of orbit by radioactive waste dumping in 1999.

3 - Maybe its just very, very cloudy on the Planet of the Apes at night.

4 - Some suitably inscrutable effect of the monolith humans discovered on the moon in 2001? That would neatly tie in with a possible explanation for the unfeasibly rapid evolution of the apes in Conquest.. (You might recall this from a comment I made a while back. Or, you know, maybe not.)

Will any of that get me a SteveDoesComics no-prize?

-sean

Anonymous said...

PS - Steve, I believe the sweets you're thinking of that looked like Polo mints but were all different colours were colour Polos.

-sean

Anonymous said...

When Charlton Heston became a gun-advocate and president of the N.R.A., he never intended for firearms to fall into the hands of damn, dirty apes.
M.P.

Steve W. said...

Sean, every single one of those explanations earns you a Steve Does Comics No-Prize.

Anonymous said...

Those sweets are Fruit Polos.

Steve W. said...

Colin and Sean, thanks for helping to solve the Polo Mystery. :)

Ant Master said...

Alternatively Assorted Spangles?

Dougie said...

I want to read that Harpy story again- it's so bizarre.
Whatever the emergency was, I never read either of the Titans issues. It was the title I could rely least upon seeing every week (for a while).