You demanded to know what the greatest Punk song of all time is - and Steve Does Comics can tell you!
Over a period of one week, this site's rampant hordes have been voting, and the results of that voting are as follows:
London Calling - the Clash. 1 vote.
God Save the Queen - the Sex Pistols. 1 vote.
My Way - the Sex Pistols. 1 vote.
New Rose - the Damned. 1 vote.
Electroc*te Your C*ck - the Voms. 1 vote.
Bloodstains - Agent Orange. 1 vote.
Everything else. 0 votes.
I can, therefore, announce that there is no greatest Punk song of all time. There are, in fact, six greatest Punk songs of all time.
Well, that may be true but there is definitely a greatest super-hero of all time.
Who he is, I don't know but I do know who he's not - and that's any of the characters headlining the comics below.
But that's not to say they're not great in their own right, and that's why I'm taking a look at what they were up to in the comics whose cover date was that of this month of fifty years ago.
The good doctor's in a dread dimension, confronted by hideous creatures and trying to liberate Victoria Bentley and Clea from the clutches of Dormammu.
I do believe this all, somehow, leads to Dormammu gaining access to the Earth, via some sort of giant crack in something or other.
Dormammu had a remarkable knack of repeatedly attacking the Earth, for someone who'd vowed never to attack the Earth. He must have purchased his vows from the same place that Galactus did.
Happy Herb Trimpe's barely got his feet under the table on the Hulk's strip than he's unleashing the Phantom Eagle on us.
Despite the cover blurb's claim that he's Marvel's greatest action hero, I must confess he's a character I know only from his guest appearance in one issue of The Incredible Hulk.
I'm fairly certain that tale revealed him to be an ancestor of Bruce Banner, thus drawing him to the attention of the murderous Kang.
This particular comic seems to have about eighty million pages and also features stories involving the original Human Torch, Captain America, the Patriot, the Sub-Mariner and Joe Maneely's Black Knight. The Subby tale looks to be the one reprinted in Les Daniels' epic Marvel tome.
Don Heck takes over the artistic reins from Gene Colan, and the Metazoid arrives.
Memory tells me this was reprinted in issue #1 of Marvel UK's The Titans and that, despite his monstrous appearance, the Metazoid was an oddly sympathetic character who had little taste for wrong-doing.
I also remember The Titans printed some of the pages in the wrong order, making it a somewhat confusing read.
Despite that, I could tell that Marvy was still maintaining his Walt Lawson identity and still trying to avoid arousing the suspicions of Carol Danvers.
It would seem that this issue retells the story of how Nick Fury came to be head of SHIELD, presumably for the benefit and entertainment of those who'd missed the original tale.
From what I can make out, it seems to be a faithful but elongated retelling.
Hooray! My favourite Sub-Mariner villain makes his diabolical debut, in yet another Subby issue that features some of John Buscema's finest pencilling.
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38 comments:
Steve! I too bought Hulk 136 (?) with Phantom Eagle. Off the spinner no less! It inspired me to get the issue of Marvel Superheroes shown above which, imho, is a lame Phantom Eagle story.
Oh yes, definitely a good month for Marvel covers. All that stuff on Sunday and now this classic Steranko SHIELD cover.
And what happened to my My Way vote in the top punk song survey? Is a recount in order?
Yeah, great Steranko cover. Wonder how many other comics have been based on it? Theres eight posted at www.thedrawingsofsteranko.com/Ster_hmgs/ster_hmgs_shield.html
Nice Gene Colan cover on Dr. Strange #172. For me, Gene the Dean was the definitive Dr. Strange artist - wasn't that his first issue?
Somewhat surprised Charlie didn't go off on one about the green Mar-vell :)
-sean
Dangermash, I've just checked and it turns out you voted for My Way during the nomination period, not during the voting period. As a result, I missed it when I was compiling the votes. The same fate has also befallen Simayl's vote for New Rose. I shall add both of them to the poll results, in order for justice to be done.
Sean, I do believe that it was indeed Colan's first Doc Strange issue.
Charlie, the Hulk/Phantom Eagle meeting was printed in Mighty World of Marvel #100, which made it feel special, somehow.
If I may... I was listening to Talk Sport and they referred to an expression “He is a real Huber” (Hubert? Uber?). They said it was an old expression seldom used. I googled to no avail. Help?
Yes, the Phantom Eagle, known for yelling "Fokkers! whenever he encountered German planes.
He hated those Fokkers.
I hope he was more polite when he met the Hulk.
M.P.
There is no greatest punk song of all-time. HOW PUNK IS THAT?!!!
Polls are mostly about collecting opinions, seeking approval & acceptance. Those are not philosophies that can be considered "punk".
But yet, since we tried a poll, we have "went-against-the-grain", which is what Punk Rock is all about.
That means all of us are either blatant or latent anarchists. Lol.
Steve-
Tigershark is my favorite Subby villain also.
I got that issue of the Hulk of a kid in 3Rd grade by trading him a Roberto Clemente baseball card. Wish the Hulk & Mandarin would have clashed more.
I only had a quarter when my dad needed smokes at the newsstand. I generally only got new comics every 2 months, and only 1-3 at a time. Bought the Marvel Superheroes with Phantom Eagle because of the cover hype, and was initially dismayed.
I enjoyed the reprints thoroughly, tho.
Charlie, I have never heard of the insult, "Huber." "Herbert," was a common insult in the 1970s. I don't know if that's what they were referring to.
My comments about Hulk #107 were from your previous post, Steve.
You ARE the busiest man in blog business.
If anyone cares, my critique of the musical stylings of the Banana Splits are on Steve's previous post.
Only a madman wouldn't want to read a musical critique of the Banana Splits, Killdumpster. They were very much the Spice Girls of their day.
I remember a Star Trek episode (orig. Series), where space-hippies called people they didn't like "Herbert".
Yeah, Spock was playing some kinda space guitar in that one. I remember it.
Some people thought Spock wasn't cool, he wasn't hip or part of the scene, but he could groove when he wanted to.
M.P.
Hey Steve,
We have some folks here in the states that, I guess it might be a kind of cos-play, are called "Furries".
They have conventions all over the world, but they seem to like my hometown a lot.
They dress-up in funny animal costumes and frolic up and down the streets and in restaurants. Most of the suits look like amusement park quality.
Bet they don't consider the Splits in the same category as the Spice Girls. Those guys are probably Elvis to them. Lol.
Do you folks have those guys come into town?
Hokey smokes, Bullwinkle!
Thought as I was remembering my Splits' 45s, there was
a voice I recalled...
BARRY WHITE sang on "Doin' The Banana Split"!
Ain't no Spice Girl cheese sliced on them crackers.
I can visualize the recording studio.
Barry White , though a professional, probably had to do a few takes.
"The Big Man With The Bedroom Voice" probably was "Doin' The Banana Split" just before he walked up to the Mike. Lol!
By the way, the banana split was invented in the Pittsburgh PA area.
M.P. Yep and when ole Phantom Eagle got to WW II he was screaming about the "Fokkers flying the Messerschmitts!"
Anyhow, I can't remember how PE met up with the Hulk other than a vague recall of Kang the Conqueror? Google shows me it was Hulk 135 from 1971 so I was all of 10 year old. I am surprised I wasn't more bewildered but I guess the whole notion of "time travel" probably soothed any doubts about the legitimacy of the story, LOL. And, I STILL have that original comic in the long box after 47 years, LOL.
I've never seen any "Furries", but my brother told me there was some guy walking around town back home late at night wearing a clown suit, scaring the bejeesus out of people. His buddy saw him in his back yard at two in the morning. He went to get his gun but the clown was gone.
The cops never got him, but I suspect he was part of a brief craze inspired by the so-called "Gags the Clown" who hung around interstate exits at night holding black balloons.
I imagine a lotta people who saw that thought, "Satan has finally come for my soul! I thought I had more time!"
M.P.
I too have never seen any Furries roaming the streets of my hometown.
As for the Phantom Eagle meeting the Hulk, Charlie, it was because the Eagle was Bruce Banner's ancestor, so Kang sent the Hulk back to World War One to kill him, meaning Bruce Banner would never have been born, meaning the Avengers would never have come into existence, meaning Kang would never have had his plans thwarted by them.
I think everyone but Rascally Roy Thomas spotted the flaw in this plan, which was that, if the Hulk killed his own ancestor and, therefore prevented his own birth, he then wouldn't be able to go back in time and kill his own ancestor, meaning the Phantom Eagle would still be alive. No wonder Kang always lost, with plans as well thought out as that one.
Killdumpster and MP, I did always wonder if the insult, "Herbert," originated with that Star Trek episode but, apparently, it dates back to at least the 1920s. Its origins seem to be somewhat vague.
OKAY! We have progress on that "Herbert" front!
When I heard Hawksbee and Jacobs use the term yesterday on Talk Sport (I probably am the only guy in Chicago listening as he drives to work, lol.) they said it was an "old term fallen into disuses" and were surprised to hear it used on TV over the weekend.
As long as we are talking about UK things, when they give the traffic reports (say on Talk Sport) are they doing it for the whole of the UK? I mean, it is a nationwide program and when they do the weather they say like "Rainy in Wales and Southern England, warmer and dry everywhere else." SO I assume I know the traffic scene from the top of Scotland to the bottom of England in an instant?
Thanks! This is important stuff! Hey - was the Phantom Eagle a UK pilot then? I mean, the US didn't get into the war until late 1917 but for some volunteers?
MP-
Last year there was rash of "evil clown" sightings all across the US.
Apparently it was jointly induced by the release of two films. The It remake and Rob Zombie's 31.
I'd hoped finally to see an evil clown myself a couple of months ago, but when Trump came to London he hid away from the public.
-sean
Marvel's Phantom Eagle was an American test pilot in the US Army Air Service. He was of German ancestry, and adopted the secret identity so he could fly combat missions without provoking reprisals against his parents, who still lived in Germany.
Evidently, the character was not popular, and never got his own solo series, although he did guest star in that Hulk story, as well as an Invaders issue that flashed back to WWI, and a Ghost Rider story where he was a vengeful spirit (literally, a phantom).
The origin story may have been Herb Trimpe's first work for Marvel. Maybe his first professionally published comic book work anywhere. Trimpe (an Air Force veteran) thought that the premise was silly, and said that it was to war stories as Gene Autry and Roy Rogers were to Westerns.
Fawcett had a fighter pilot hero called Phantom Eagle as a secondary strip in Wow Comics in the 1940s. Maybe the trademark had expired by the time Marvel's character was created; Wow Comics was cancelled in 1948. AFAIK, the choice of name was sheer coincidence.
The US did not enter WWI until 1917 and WWII as a combatant until late 1941. IIUC, there were American volunteers in the Lafayette Escadrille as early as 1916, and in the RAF Eagle Squadrons as early as 1939 or '40.
Thanks for all the Phantom Eagle info, TC.
Charlie, theoretically, the traffic reports on national radio stations are for the whole of the UK, though some of us have a nagging suspicion that they tend to be weighted towards coverage of the south east. That could just be my northern paranoia showing through, though.
TC - I often wondered why Marvel didn’t go the “Ememy Ace” route with PE? But Marvel never could generate a war book like DC... Marvels war books weee just superhero antics in military garb more ore less?
When one considythe great French and British WW1 works like Charlie’s War it seems a profoundly unexplored genre at Marvel and DC? But then again the USA didn’t lose 10% if its youth to WW1 so perhaps there’s minimal interest in the USA?
Steve! What need a northerner in the UK be paranoid about? I find this fascinating! I love UK insights to their culture! As you know I am a serious reader of Beano, Dandy, and Oor Wullie so..,
Charlie, there is, traditionally, in the north, a perception that the government and national media attach far more importance to the south than they do to the north. Talksport's near saturation coverage of West Ham is a prime example. Every single thing that happens at the club is treated as a matter of urgent national interest by Talksport, while northern and midlands clubs of equal history find themselves mostly sidelined.
Thanks for that! I noticed they’ve been talking about West Ham a bit! Seems strange since all the good stories are in Manchester LOL,
Hey! That Spidey was an early read for me, that I fondly recall, because my neighbor swiped the comic from his older brother to let me read it! Could I say, “That Vulture is a real Herbert!” And be correct in my word usage?
The Spidey from Sunday!
Hey you did not show the covers alphabetically this time! Was that on purpose???
I just press, "Upload," and they appear in whichever order the site chooses to display them in. My Punk sensibility means I never concern myself with what that order is.
Having said that, they are, technically, in alphabetical order this time:
Doctor Strange.
Marvel Super-Heroes.
Marvel's Space-Born Hero.
Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD.
Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner.
As for the other matter, I do believe that it is acceptable to call the Vulture a Herbert.
Charlie-yeah, Sgt. Fury, Captain Savage, Combat Kelly, and their respective units, often acted more like superheroes than soldiers or Marines. Basically, the Avengers or Fantastic Four in fatigues instead of spandex costumes.
Not always, though. Gary Friedrich tried to inject some realism into the Sgt. Fury series with later scripts like "The Informer," "The Assassin," and "The Deserter."
The whole time travel "grandfather paradox" in science fiction always gives me a headache. "If the Hulk goes back in time and kills his own grandfather, then Banner was never born, but then the Hulk didn't go back in time..."
Harlan Ellison and Ray Bradbury turned me off from the idea of trying to change history. What if you went back to 1930, saved someone from being killed in a traffic accident, then came back to the present time, and found that the Nazis won WWII. Or worse. You go back to 100,000,000 B.C., accidentally step on an insect, then come back, and Hillary Clinton is president.
Steve, having northern paranoia doesn't necessarily mean the south isn't out to get you.
Charlie, dunno about your theory of WW1 comics and the influence of relative casualty levels - Charley's War was very untypical of 70s British war comics, the vast majority of where set in WW2.
Strange Marvel couldn't generate a war comic as well the competition, since one of DC's best was Jack Kirby's run on The Losers (I suppose once Marvel really got going he was busy with the FF and Thor)
-sean
That was funny.
What, Trump's insect ancestor being crushed?
Sean - very interesting thoughts... Kirby's Losers were something unto themselves. I don't know it would have worked with The Haunted Tank? Or Sgt. Rock? Also, good point that "Charlie's War" is the UK's "only" WW1 "comic." That being said, all those Annuals of Victor, Valiant, Hotspur, etc. I read over the years were always about WW II. Perhaps WW 1 is simply a taboo-ish subject due to the slaughter? I don't know, being here in the USA, one way or the other. But I cannot think of a single WW1 comic here but for the Phantom Eagle?
That being said, I think Kirby did some Sgt. Fury covers or interiors? But it was such a low selling comic I can't imagine Marvel letting him spend much time there?
Hah! Imagine a orange-haired baboon mated with a homo-erectus thousands of years ago... and that became President. I have to admit that Prez Bonespur's lawyer, Cohn, begging Mueller not to depose Bonespur, "because he is incapable of telling the truth" is the most mind-bending thing I've heard in decades?
Charlie, the Losers got a bit of flak at the time from some readers for not having a realistic approach - Kirby didn't write like Robert Kanigher or draw like Joe Kubert, Russ Heath or whoever - but I always loved his expressionistic approach. Which probably conveys how war actually feels quite effectively.
But then, I love his solo DC stuff; apparently its not everyone's cup of totally awesome though.
You might well be right about the lack of WW1 comics resulting from a bit of a taboo, which was definitely the case in the 70s (although since then, with less widespread living memory to contradict them, you increasingly get revisionist historians suggesting it wasn't a complete shambles. Particularly since the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.)
But I reckon it also had a lot to do with WW2 being popular. Erm, that probably isn't the best way of putting it (!)... I mean in the sense that just as the culture often revisits the 70s now, in the actual 70s it revisited the '40s.
-sean
PS Charlie, Haunted Tank by Jack Kirby? Can't see how that wouldn't have been brilliant.
Think about the possible DC/Marvel crossover - who cares about Superman v Spiderman, what about Haunted Tank v Devil Dinosaur?!!
-sean
Sean you have a most awesome imagination! I’m mixed in kirby’s pot-Marvel work. Loved the Losers not so sure about super-duper man lol. Haunted Tank... one can only imagine.
I love to read your blog post. Its very normative for me as I am marvel fan and love to read marvel comics and watch online TV shows and movies.The comic posters are awesome. I really enjoyed your post.
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