I confess it's not the most compelling news of all time but I do feel it's noteworthy, purely because there aren't many bands named after 18th Century agriculturalists.
The Scarlet Witch headbutts a bullet at the United Nations and suddenly she and Quicksilver are on the side of evil again. Honestly, I wish they'd make their minds up. I've heard of being indecisive but, really.
If I remember right, this results in the team being reduced to just three members, only one of whom (the Wasp) has any super-powers. When your most powerful member is the Wasp, you know you're in trouble.
Doctor Doom unfurls his brilliant plan to defeat the Fantastic Four by swapping bodies with Daredevil, in order to stand in for him and take the FF by surprise.
Sadly, he neglects to tell his flunkies of this plan, thus allowing Daredevil to become unchallenged monarch of Latveria. Is he sure he's a genius?
Then again, while in Daredevil's body, he somehow fails to notice that he's blind.
Then again, on that cover, Daredevil is hitting metal armour, with his bare hands. This isn't exactly a battle of the Einsteins, is it?
I have read this tale on more than one occasion but all I can recall of it is that the Fantastic Four are present, an android belonging to the Mad Thinker is present, and there's a fight.
Still, it does at least feature Sizzling Big Action...
I suspect that this tale may have been only the second time I ever encountered Ka-Zar. The first having been his earliest meeting with the Hulk.
At this point, I was still blissfully unaware that he's just some bloke running around without a shirt on and that any Marvel super-hero you can name could flatten him with barely an effort.
Regardless, I nonetheless thrilled at the sight of everyone's favourite wall-crawler tackling the king of the hidden jungle.
I'm not sure if I've read this one or not.
Apparently, it features a villain with a metal claw who then gets an entire suit of armour that he can fight people with, which is nice for him.
I'm now waiting for Daredevil to show up and try punching it.
I assume this is the one in which a fake Baron Zemo wants to zap the Earth, with the assistance of an evil space satellite.
It does seem a strange thing that someone would want to pretend to be Baron Zemo, bearing in mind that his distinguishing trait is having a paper bag super-glued to his face.
Meanwhile, Sharon Carter is pretending to be a ruthless, evil hitwoman, and the Black Panther's getting involved, in defence of his realm. A sequence of events that I believe leads to the Panther joining the Avengers.
It's probably my favourite Marie Severin drawn Hulk tale, as the Puppet Master gets the two powerhouses to battle it out in Florida.
I think that reading this tale may have been where I first discovered the existence of Florida.
You can never say comics aren't educational.
Stripped of his godly powers by Odin (just for a change), Thor gets a good bashing from a man with a crowbar.
Not that I care. If my memories are correct, it all leads to Hela showing up, which is always a good thing.
Unless you've just been beaten up with a crowbar. In which case, it's probably a bad thing.
The Sub-Human vaguely rings a bell but I don't know why.
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Strange Tales #165 - the SHIELD airbourne assault on the Yellow Claw's Sky Dragon! 'Nuff said - if you read it, you'd surely remember it Steve.
That is actually the Yellow Claw on the cover after psychic powers and Steranko op-art fx turned him into a robot. Or gave him a metal suit. Something like that. It was a bit style over substance, and it has to be said there is something of an anticipation of early 90s Image comics about Steranko's approach (although to be fair, he is a lot more stylish than Rob Liefield).
That issue of the FF was pretty good. For all that Kirby started holding back ideas, he continued to turn in entertaining work. The Mad Thinker's earlier model android - the awesome one - was cooler though.
That's technological progress for you I suppose.
Is that the first issue where Sue's costume includes a mini skirt?
-sean
Thanks for the Yellow Claw info, Sean.
The cover of the previous issue shows Sue in the mini skirt. So, it looks like it had already been around for at least one issue before this one.
Ah, I might well have been getting mixed up with the previous issue, forgetting that it was a continued storyline.
Actually, now I think about it, she was wearing it when Paste Pot Pete disguised himself as Daredevil to get into the Baxter Building so it probably goes back an issue or so earlier, to when the Mad Thinker first turned up again.
Erm... not that I'm particularly obsessed by Sue's fashion sense or anything!
-sean
That was a great Avengers cover but I prefer the redrawn (?) and recoloured version on Avengers weekly #65. I think Sue Richard's mini skirt was a subtle reminder that she is pregnant. This was established two months earlier, in Annual 5, and Sue's role was significantly reduced during this period.
DW
Well Sean, if you are generally obsessed by Sue's sense of fashion, somewhere in my collection of miscellaneous stuff I have an autographed print done by Darlin' Dick Ayers in which Sue is sporting a lot less than a mini skirt.
I think it was at Wizard World Comicon Chicago (this Millenium?) and Dick had a whole binder full of comic-size prints that he'd autograph. I also got one of the Ghost Rider (western) since I thought of him more as a western / Sgt. Fury kind of guy than drawing Little Annie Fannie... but I don't know the history of Dick's works, LOL.
Needless to say, it got my attention and I have to wonder why Marvel didn't say ixnay on the Sue Storm prints since I assume they would have had copyright protections?
That F.F. cover is amazing! I don't know how anybody could resist buying that comic when they saw it on the spinner rack back in the '60's.
Those Kirby Kovers would just reach out and throttle you into submission. This was true even in the late '70's when I was a mere lad, innocent in the ways of the world.
M.P.
Sean, in case you don't know - Rachel Petro is better known as Charlie Horse 47. Rachel is Charlie's daughter - he hasn't undergone gender re-assignment ; )
Charlie, does your daughter know she's commenting on blogs she's never read?
Ha! She laughs and so does my wife. I almost did it again this morning at 6AM when I posted on BitBA, lol.
Btw, Steve I really enjoy this column of your blog. It's just prior to me getting into comics but close enough that I recall seeing them on the spinner or at my cousin's! Great trip it is!!!
Thanks, Charlie.
Charlie, that sounds like it might be quite the collection of uh.. miscellaneous stuff you have there, but I think I'll pass on the racy Sue Storm print thanks. Now, if you have any sketches of Big Barda in action...
Seriously though, it seems like in practice publishers turn a bit of a blind eye to that kind of copyright infringement because on a fairly small scale its not worth pursuing..?
Read something a little while back about Marvel taking action against Gary Friedrich for selling Ghost Rider prints at some con (especially cheeky because they turned out to be based on old Mike Ploog artwork without his knowledge! - comics, eh?), but it seemed to be tied up with his law suit over the film so I suppose that made it worth their while.
Generally I think complaints are dealt with by the convention organisers; at least, all the ones I've had a table at have terms and conditions giving them final say in any dispute over what I sell (been getting away with it so far though!)
-sean
Steve and anyone else with an opinion...
I was reading Mad World about the New Wave groups. In an interview with Martin Fry (ABC lead singer), he says (paraphrasing) "Sheffield was a great city to be impoverished in and still function. For 10 p you could ride the bus anywhere!" Well, Charlie is closer to retirement than he might want to admit and looking for great towns to be impoverished in. Do you recommend a visit to Sheffield for a year to hang out with the missus on the cheap?
I'm actually a big ABC fan, and have been since I was a teenager.
Don't tell anybody, because I'm supposed to be a hard rock guy., ACDC, Judas Priest, like that.
I do have a CD of ABC's greatest hits and one with ABBA's greatest hits in my car, but I keep them stashed under the seat, in case a cop pulls me over.
M.P.
Sadly, Charlie, the days when you could get around Sheffield for 10p are long gone. In the mid 1980s, Margaret Thatcher banned councils from subsidising bus fares and so it now costs an arm and a leg to get a bus. Sheffield is certainly cheaper to live in than places like the south east but, as far as I understand it, the cost of living in Britain is generally higher than it is in America. The UK is not normally seen as a place to go to if you want to save money.
Bah! All my illusions from the Mad World book are ruined (lol)! I guess we'll end up in Provence like my French wif keeps suggesting.
Waaaaait a minute! Do you suppose that Thatcher shut down these councils to undermine New Wave? (What's a council? I don't know that we have an equivalent in the USA?)
Charlie, a council is the local authority that runs a town or city.
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