In Britain, Harold Wilson won a libel action against The Move after they depicted him nude in promotional material for their single Flowers in the Rain. I am highly disappointed that Tony Blackburn has never mentioned this on the myriad occasions when he's talked about playing the record at the launch of Radio One.
Meanwhile, somewhere in the forests of America, Roger Pattison and Robert Gimlin were shooting their legendary Bigfoot film that's intrigued, puzzled and bamboozled mankind ever since. Was it a man in a suit? Was it a mystery beast? Was it just Roy Wood trying to hide from Harold Wilson's lawyers? Somehow, I suspect we shall never know.
What we shall know is what the heroes of Marvel were up to in the mags whose covers bore the name of that very month.
How will we know that?
Because they are here...
I think this tale was the first time I ever encountered the Super-Adaptoid.
With his gift for adaptoiding superly, how massively powerful he seemed.
How little I knew at the time what a total loser he'd been in his previous appearances.
I think this might have been the first time I ever encountered the Beetle.
Unlike the Super-Adaptoid, I knew at once that he wasn't what you'd call a top-drawer villain.
Admittedly, the fact he was turning up in an issue of Daredevil kind of gave that fact away.
I do believe this adventure involves our hero being held captive at Montreal's Expo 67 which concluded in this very month of that year.
The man who'll become known as Warlock emerges from his cocoon to pass judgement on the few people he's ever met, before flying off into Outer Space.
Doc Ock is back. I know it says so on the cover but that doesn't stop me saying he is.
I do believe this is the start of the epic in which everyone's favourite tentacle twirler becomes Aunt May's lodger.
Did I read this tale in the pages of Captain Britain? I'm not totally sure.
Nor am I sure what happens in it.
In fact, I don't have a clue what happens in it.
I do believe this issue sees only the second ever appearance of MODOK.
I just hope he doesn't let his new-found fame make him big-headed.
Hooray! Thor's helped save Asgard from the Enchanters Three!
Needless to say, this somehow leads to Odin stripping him of his powers and exiling him on Earth. What a great dad he is.
It's one of the few X-Men issues from the 1960s that I actually like, as our heroes take on the mysterious Factor Three in a story that I think may have been drawn by Ross Andru.
Does that mean The X-Men was the first strip he ever drew for Marvel? All the other Marvel work I've ever seen by him was from the 1970s, at the earliest.
Is that the Plunderer I spy? Does his presence mean Ka-Zar's going to put in an appearance too?
Then again, if that's Skull Island, where's King Kong?
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Avengers #45 was the second time I saw the Super-Adaptoid, after he fought Cap in Tales of Suspense #eighty-something. It was not until later that I learned that he/it had another appearance in between, in the X-Men.
It was also in Avengers #45 that Quicksilver was shown complaining about humans' anti-mutant prejudice. That laid the groundwork for a later arc where he and Wanda rejoined Magneto.
The Bigfoot footage looks like a man in a gorilla suit to me.
As far as I'm concerned, the Plunderer was on Skull Island first.
If I was him, I'd get a lawyer. That movie made a lotta money.
This is a bittersweet time for me, because I turned 49 today. I,m staring at the gaping mouth of fifty and it looks less than attractive. Pity me!
Mournfully, M.P.
Yowza yowza yowza... Look at those covers! Steranko, Kirby, Romita, Colan...! No wonder us kids were Marvel Maniacs in the 60s and early 70s! I mean, look at Colan's art on DD and Jazzy Johnny on ASM 53! And the colors seems perfectly fine! I don't need sunglasses to read the think like today's comics which are so darn "shiny!" (Was DC still showing Apes on every other cover???)
The Super Adaptoid... I first recall reading him in Iron Man 49, which I bought off the spinner rack, natch! My recollection (I was 11 at the time) was that I really, really was thrilled with it and the story line was unresolved, needed to be continued.
Then suddenly in issue 50 Iron Man was fighting Princess Python as if nothing was unresolved in issue 49 and the Super Adaptoid has never been around. Somewhere I'd read that Stan Lee was torqued off at the the Super Adaptoid story and directed to just change the story line and forget about 49. (Well, that's my recollection.)
Happy birthday M.P. Don't worry about 50 - its ok (at least, it is if you're as attractive as me)
Big head, small hands - MODOK there, making AIM great again.
Yes Steve - the Yellow Claw SHIELD arc appeared in Captain Britain, with the Cap crossover fairly early on.
Actually, now I think about it, I'm pretty sure that ST 161 cover was used as the splash page for the cut into parts - that photomontaged New York in the background was the kind of detail that really stood out and lodged itself in the mind. Steranko was ahead of the times even when reprinted ten years later.
Didn't that story also have The Thing and Mr. Fantastic in it?
-sean
They should do a comic book just about AIM.
What are they up to? What operatives are they using? How do you get those yellow suits and hats cleaned? I'm curious.
M.P.+
Happy birthday, MP.
Thanks for the SHIELD confirmation, Sean. Sadly, I don't have a clue if the Thing and Mr Fantastic showed up in it.
As regards the Super-Adaptoid. Didn't he turn out to be that weird robot with the scythe and the metal skull who showed up later on in Marvel comics?
Steve, yes, you're thinking of the Cyborg Sinister. Quite a different take on the character, though he probably had nowhere to go but up!
Thanks, Comicsfan. It's nice to know I wasn't going mad.
Thanks, Sean and Steve. Salutations from across the pond.
I remember that weird robot, that Cyborg Sinister. Didn't he fight Iron Man? What was his deal, anyway?
I'm a big Adaptoid fan, he's a genuinely spooky robot, but I got those two confused as well.
Cheers!
M.P.
MP, if you click on the words, "Cyborg Sinister," in Comicsfan's comment, you'll be taken to his explanation of the origin of the character and his strange link with the Super-Adaptoid.
Steve, I'd never heard about Harold Wilson suing The Move - as you say, it's strange that's not a well-known fact considering how important Flowers In The Rain is in the history of British radio.
Over the weekend BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast 2 programmes originally from 1977 celebrating the 10th anniversaries of Radio 1 and 2. I'm a regular listener of Radio 4 but they completely ignored Radio 4's 50th anniversary !
By the way, happy birthday MP !
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