I can't remember either of them.
I sadly fear this means I won't be able to do the Latin Hustle.
Whatever it is.
There's only one thing for it. I'm going to have to do the Marvel Hustle and see if I have more joy remembering what was in our favourite comic company's output in that week, instead.
Arkon might be back but, far more importantly, this is the week when we get to find out if we're Mastermind finalists.
I assume they mean a Marvel Mastermind finalist rather than a finalist in the show with the scary chair and Magnus Magnusson.
I can confirm that I was not a Marvel Mastermind finalist. Nor have I ever been a finalist on the TV show.
I do, however, have a scary chair.
I like to sit in it and hum the scary music that goes with it.
For some reason, this causes great annoyance to the people who're in the room with me.
I'm going to try and plumb the depths of my memory and declare that I think Malaguena was some sort of Mike Ploog drawn gypsy girl who Jason and Alexander met on their journeys.
Was she something to do with the Magic Man's Last Gasp Purple Light Medicine Show or whatever it was called?
I don't think I've ever read a single Brother Voodoo story.
I take it, from the cover, that his methodology for dealing with occult menaces was more likely to involve a punch in the teeth than a mystic incantation?
This story was my first-ever encounter with the Cobalt Man.
I think it was also my last.
To be honest, that's basically all I have to say on the subject.
It did put me right off making suits of armour from cobalt though. So, I suppose, in that way, it had a major impact upon the future course of my life.
I've just discovered that when you try to type, "Super-Spider-Man with the Super-Heroes," it's very easy to type, "Super Spider-Man with the Super-Herpes," by accident instead.
It's a mistake I shall try not to repeat.
If I was Spider-Man, I'd make sure not to repeat the mistake of swinging straight towards someone who's got a machine gun.
It's a cover story that I've never read.
And there are no clues as to what other tales are contained within this issue.
Did it not occur to Marvel UK that, forty years later, such a scenario would cause me serious blogging problems?
It's almost enough to shake my faith in humanity.
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14 comments:
My cobalt armor has been rusting out back in the shed for many years, too, Steve.
Hammerhead was an interesting villain. The guy's superpower was having a metal plate in his head. If that actually worked, my high-school pal Barry could have become a major super-villain after his motorcycle crash instead of just selling real estate.
And yes, spider-man needs a better strategy than just web-swinging into a hail of bullets yelling "Leeerrrrooooyyy Jeeennnkkins!!!"
M.P.
Have you considered you might be doing the Latin Hustle right now and not even know it?
The only one of these that I personally remember is the Avengers story with Arkon and the Enchantress, originally from Avengers #84, ca. 1970.
The Titans looks like the cover story might be reprinted from X-Men #35. Not sure, though. There were a lot of stories with superheroes attacking Spider-Man after mistaking him for a villain.
I haven't completely forgotten the Latin Hustle or the 1976 Top 40 charts, but I haven't stopped trying.
The Avengers tale (just like the crazy women's libbers in the last two weeks and, I expect, the stories we're going to see in the next three weeks) was repeated in Avengers Annual 1976. Not sure whether that was three months before the weekly comic or nine months afterwards but it was a crummy trick either way. Unless, like me, you only read the Spider-Man comic and you only got to see that Avengers in annuals (at least until they were moved to Spider-Man's comic in later years).
Here's an Amazon link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/AVENGERS-annual-1976-marvel-comics/dp/B005X2VZUE
And straight after posting that I noticed that the Goliath in the cover of the annual was Hank Pym, not Hawkeye. It's no wonder I was confused by Goliath's identity and wondering why he was sounding cool when he spoke, like the Thing.
Funny you should mention the Magick [with a k, btw] Man's Last Gasp Purple Light Show Steve, as the phrase has always stuck in my mind; probably because its such a perfect episode title for a certain kind of mid-70s Marvel comic (although it does seem like it should have come from Don McGregor rather than Doug Moench).
So far as I remember it was part of the Terror of the Planet of the Apes storyline; the bit with the ku klux klan gorillas or whatever they were (now theres a subtext even more confused than the Conquest... film!)
I think Malaguena came into things a bit later; all I recall is she ditched her ape boyfriend for Jason after he beat him in a fight, or something like that. Even in the 70s, the implications of that seemed peculiar - and I was 10!
You've never read Brother Voodoo, Steve? Allow me to do you a good turn and remedy the situation by directing you to his first appearance
www.diversionsofthegroovykind.blogspot.co.uk/2009/01/groovy-new-years-party-2009-with.html
(Its posted with the first Prez, Night Nurse and Brother Power the Geek, but don't let that put you off!)
-sean
No, Malaguena had nothing to do with the Last Gasp Purple Light Show - that doesn't appear till #87. But when we first meet Malaguena she has a chimpanzee boyfriend which was the only time there was inter-species romance in POTA...yuk ! (There was also that episode of the TV show where a blind ape falls in love with Burke thinking he's another ape but that doesn't count).
Sean, Malaguena's chimp boyfriend does fight Jason but the fight ends when the boyfriend is killed by Brutus, the chief of police and secret leader of the gorilla KKK who's followed Jason & Alexander into the Forbidden Zone.
Steve, it seems the Malaguena episode has been posted on Diversions... (first thing you find if you click on the Planet of the Apes tag)
A cursory look has just confirmed my that it is indeed some pretty weird shit... (nice Mike Ploog artwork though, which of course makes it all worthwhile)
-sean
Good grief! There are so many comments have been posted in the short time I've been away!
Aggy, if I'm doing the Latin Hustle right now, all I can say is it's not a thing that's worth making records about.
Colin, thanks for the information. I must confess that the Jason and Alexander tales all tend to blur into one in my imagination.
Sean and dangermash, thanks for the links. I shall make full use of them.
M.P. I did always wonder why Spider-Man didn't just punch Hammerhead in the stomach. Instead, he seemed to spend all his time trying to hit him in the head.
TC, I think you're probably right about the X-Men tale.
Colin, sorry, hadn't seen your last comment just then - yes, you're right; I will now go back and read it to refresh my memory and get up to date on Marvel interspecies romance etiquette.
Lucky me:)
-sean
Sean, you can read all the POTA stories by going to "Hunter's Planet Of The Apes" and clicking on Marvel UK Issues.
Thanks Colin. I had a look at Hunters a while back, but found it a bit awkward to use (this may well be me - I am something of a luddite). To be honest, a few Mike Ploog episodes at Diversions and the complete Apeslayer up at Bronze Age of Blogs is probably enough for me.
I know, I know - I am a slack POTA dilettante,
-sean
Despite his susceptibility to non head-related trauma I had a soft spot for Hammerhead. I recall he returned as a ghost, at some point, before un-dying and returning to 'normal' again.
DW
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