Hooray! Hawkeye is back!
Other than that, I can say nothing of this tale, apart from the fact that its villain would appear to be someone called Tyrak, of whom I have never heard.
Regardless, it's nice to see suitably shocked floating heads on the cover.
Not for the first time in his life, Conan finds himself up against a giant spider-thing. I have no doubt that, by the end of the tale, it'll be flat on its back, with a sword in its intestines.
In other news, I'm informed that, in this issue, Conan wipes out an ancient race.
Isn't that a bit irresponsible of him?
Apparently, Sue Storm's involved in sensational solo action. Admittedly, it seems to be solo action that involves the Sub-Mariner, so you could argue that it's not technically solo action at all.
But it's interesting to see that our heroes are up against the Rampaging Retrievers. Presumably, the Larcenous Labradors were too busy to appear.
We don't just get the return of Hawkeye this month. We also get what looks to be the return of the Murder Module.
Bearing in mind that the Hulk took about three seconds to destroy it the last time the Leader tried to use it, you do wonder why the villain's bothering to make a second attempt with it.
But am I right in believing that the Hulk the Leader's up against, this time round, is just a robot, controlled by Bruce Banner?
I really don't have a clue what's going on on that cover. But, then, I don't have a clue what's going on inside the comic either.
I do know that the Knights of Wundagore are in it but that the High Evolutionary isn't, except in flashback. The Rigellians are also in it. Madame Masque is in it. Jasper Sitwell is in it. Jack of Hearts and the Crimson Dynamo are in it. How Marvel managed to cram all of that into twenty pages, and how it all fits together, is beyond me.
It's time to tremble with fear, as the Enforcers return. And, this time, they're being employed by the Lightmaster, who's even deadlier than the Viewmaster.
Given their previous track record, I really don't see why anyone would hire the Enforcers to tackle Spider-Man. You might as well hire Jerry Lewis.
It's the fight that had to happen! Captain America vs Abraham Lincoln!
I must admit that's the limit of my knowledge when it comes to this tale. Is the Falcon still in the strip? He's credited in the title but he doesn't seem to make the covers anymore.
This issue, we get the build-up to the return of Magneto, as the X-Men get captured by a man who, I think, turns out to be Mesmero.
Why he doesn't turn out to be Mastermind, I couldn't say but the tale does at least see the return of the Beast to the pages of the world's greatest mutant-based publication.
This month's issue doesn't exactly sound riveting. It would appear that Thor stands around telling some kids about an adventure he once had with Loki in regards to a meeting with the Master of Utgardthall. I don't think they'll be turning that one into a movie, somehow.
I do believe this issue retells Spidey's origin and has him recount great chunks of his career.
Is this the one where, at the end of it, a cemetery worker steals Uncle Ben's microscope? It was clearly meant to be a heart-warming climax but, as a responsible blog owner, with a duty to the society that reveres me, I really can't approve of stealing the microscopes of deceased uncles.
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17 comments:
Oh! My! Gawd! Is that Fancy Dan with the yellow hat with the Enforcers? Spidey's in for a whuppin, assuming it's the 1965 Spidey in action who could only press 5 (?) tons?
I want to know how come the Ox is still alive. Didn't he die in an issue of Daredevil - right in front of everyone, so there could be no doubt he was dead?
ASM #181 is a filler issue, pencilled by Sal Buscema. Strange issue though, with artwork looking nothing like Sal's artwork in Spectacular Spider-Man. With panels showing pretty well all villains and supporting characters over a Spider-Man's history I wonder whether it was some sort of trial run for Sal at drawing Spider-Man that they never thought they'd publish until the deadline doom came along.
And, yes, Mesmero is the villain in that X-Men issue, but is beaten by another villain at the end if the issue. One who also has a grudge against the X-Men and is revealed in a full splash panel on the final page.
Correcting dome autocorrected typos...
This one is the original Ox's twin brother.
The original Ox may have made a comeback after that Daredevil issue though. Didn't someone swap bodies with Ox, so the one that died was someone else in the Ox's body & then the original Ox in someone else's body turned back into the Ox?
Don't know why but they brought him and/or his twin back to be honest. Only Ditko knew how to get anything out of the Enforcers. ASM #10, #14 and #19 are the absolute business. Without Ditko, Ox is just a random forgettable hood.
The Murder Module!
If I had a billion dollars, I'd have one of those made for myself.
I wouldn't murder anybody with it, mind you. I'd have it programmed to merely deliver Taser-level electronic shocks, whenever I deem it appropriate.
M.P.
Dangermash, thanks for the Ox info.
MP, I do feel it's a serious error to give deadly killing machines just three legs. It does make them somewhat unstable. In retrospect, what the Leader had done by using the Murder Module was basically turn himself into a three-legged version of Stilt-Man.
What's with all the price variants??? First we have $.35 in a square box, then 12 P, then $.35 in a diamond box.
I know folks collect price variants and I've seen articles about it (man oh man, a thesis on price variants of comics...)
But I thought you UK gents got the price in US $ and then it was converted to UK P? I didn't realize you also (or always?) got the over with UK P on it?
Help! I won't be able to sleep tonight.
I actually have a couple back issues I picked up in comic stores here in the U.S. that had the "P" for pence and I gotta wonder what weird journeys that comic had been on.
Did it cross the Atlantic and back again? Was there a trade dispute, and them comics got turned around at the docks by government officials? And then found their way to Minnesota?
We may never know.
M.P.
Charlie, US Marvel used to publish variants that were specifically intended for export to Britain and they, therefore, were published with a UK price on the front of them. On top of that, comics intended for the US market would often find their way to the UK and they had a cents price on them. This meant that American Marvel comics available in Britain could either feature a cents or a pence price, depending on whether they'd originally been meant for export.
The ones intended for export often had the words, "Marvel All-Colour Comics," on the front of them, to distinguish them from comics produced by Marvel UK. Ones intended for the US market said, "Marvel Comics Group," on the front.
A strange anomaly is that the comics intended for export to the UK were usually printed first, with the US versions printed afterwards, meaning the US versions were technically reprints of the UK variants.
MP, that is indeed mysterious. I wonder if they got put in the wrong box and got distributed in America by accident?
By about 1979/80 the "Marvel All-Colour Comics" banner had been ditched and all imports had "Marvel Comics Group" with both the US and UK (and Canadian) prices on the cover.
I regularly bought US Marvel comics in the early '80s and they all had Spider-Man's face in the box where the bar-code should have been. At the time I didn't understand the reason for this, but apparently the Spidey-face comics were meant for sale in comic-shops - I assume that meant only US comic-shops and didn't apply to the UK because all my US comics were bought in WH Smith's.
I remember that all the Marvel mags I bought from regular newsagents in the early 1990s had a great big, "Comag," sticker, with a bar code on it, glued to the front of them to make up for the lack of an official bar code. It was a delicate job removing it without damaging the comic.
A correction - the triple US/UK/Canadian prices didn't appear on US Marvels till about 1983, later than I'd thought, but the imports definitely ditched the "Marvel All-Colour Comics" banner by late 1979 or so.
I have a new theory on ASM #181. Could it be a story written specially for Marvel UK? It appears in Super Spider-Man #300 and it’s the washed out colours that make it look different to Sal's usual work. Was it originally drawn in black & white and coloured in at the last minute to be published in the US to avoid deadline doom?
Dangermash, I'm afraid I can shed no light on the matter.
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