Tuesday 7 May 2013

Forty years ago this month - May 1973.

I've had an unbelievably exciting day today, buying a new lawnmower cable and some potatoes. But were our favourite Marvel heroes having an equally sensational day exactly forty years ago - or could they simply not live up to my standards of drama?

Avengers #111, Magneto

This isn't promising. It's more of that Avengers v Magneto story I've never liked.

But, having seen off the Avengers, I'm sure Magneto'll be quaking in his boots at the arrival of Marvel's two puniest super-doers outside of Ant-Man.
Conan the Barbarian #26

Conan continues his post-Barry Smith career.

Is this the issue that ends that war he was fighting for what seemed like centuries? That was always my favourite Conan storyline.
Captain America and the Falcon #161, Dr Faustus

I always liked Dr Faustus even if he was a bit of a one-trick pony.
Daredevil and the Black Widow #99, Hawkeye

Hawkeye shows up and makes a complete berk of himself.
Fantastic Four #134, Dragon Man

It's the return of everyone's favourite underpant-wearing dragon!

I really do wonder where he, Fin Fang Foom and Grogg used to get their underpants from. I mean, was there a shop that specialised in retailing to dragons?
Incredible Hulk  #163, the Gremlin

Hooray! The Gremlin shows up!

I love this story.

But then I love every Hulk story from this era.
Iron Man #58, Unicorn, Mandarin

"ONE horn of destruction!"

In Stan Lee and John Buscema's How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way, there's a panel showing a monster stiffly smashing through a wall, with a warning that that's not how to draw someone smashing through a wall. I don't like to be critical but Iron Man on this cover does look remarkably like the figure in that panel.
Amazing Spider-Man #120, Hulk

The Hulk continues to smash his way through Toronto in a tale that introduced me to the word, "Geodesic."

Sadly I've never had the chance to use the word, "Geodesic," in any conversation ever. This makes me sad and regretful.
Thor #211, Ulik

Ulik gets himself a cross between a tank and a bulldozer, and Thor's being defeatist again.

How he ever managed to win a fight, with that attitude, is beyond me.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Conan the Barbarian 26 was my very first Conan comic and I vividly remember picking that issue up on a family holiday in Blackpool (hey I'm Glaswegian its like a pilgrimage for us) along with Kull 9 (cover dated June 73 I think) both blew me away - a great selection of comics May 73 was a great month for Marvels - and yep pretty sure Conan 26 ended the life of the Tarim and that loooong war -McScotty

Dougie said...

That is indeed the end of the War of the Tarim revealing the man-god to be an inbred imbecile (ahem).

I have loved that Avengers story since I originally read it in the first hardback UK Avengers annual. You don't like Piper and his dinosaur army?!

Steve W. said...

To be honest, I'd totally forgotten about Piper and his dinosaur army. My main memory of it's always been the mind-control stuff, Don Heck at his least appealing - and Magneto wearing the Angel's costume, which always seemed weird to me.

R. W. Watkins said...

Wasn't it Montreal where the Hulk showed up--amongst the contraptions left over from Expo '67? That's where one would find geodesic domes. I definitely have Amazing Spider-Man #120 in my collection, and I'm pretty sure it was Montreal--not Toronto.

Steve W. said...

Thinking about it, it WAS Montreal. I knew it had an O and an N and an R in it.

John said...

Fantastic Four #134 is well into the Bronze Age and yet here is the Invisible Girl back in her famous Silver Age hostage role!