What treasures will I find within?
Yet again, Dormammu's foiled in his attempts to invade our world, thanks to his vow to not invade our world.
It sounds to me like it was a plan that was never in danger of going anywhere.
Mar-Vell finds himself up against Quasimodo and someone called Solam.
I'm assuming Solam's the large gentleman on the cover. I can say nothing of him or of this story, as I've never heard of him and, therefore, must assume I've never read the tale.
The cover presents us with another exercise in graphic design from Jim Steranko, although I must confess I don't think it's one of his better ones.
Not that that matters because It seems this is the issue in which we discover the true identity of Scorpio.
Am I misremembering or is he revealed to be Nick Fury's brother?
Also of significance is that this issue features a letter from a youthful reader called Don McGregor. I would be so happy if I found out it's incredibly long and wordy.
Forget the Skrulls and the Kree. We don't need them anymore because the galaxy-grappling Badoon make their debut.
It's not particularly bad news for the Surfer who I remember having no massive difficulty in dispatching them. It is, however, bad news for humanity who shall later come to know the tyrannical rule of the tongue-flicking space reptiles.
The Tales of the Watcher back-up strip is The Coming of the Krills, which, despite its title, has nothing to so with homicidal prawns but is the dread tale of a man who agrees to turn off Earth's defences when would-be alien invaders offer him the most beautiful woman in the universe.
Needless to say, it doesn't turn out well for him and we all learn a valuable lesson we'd be wise to take heed of.
Namor decides to sort out Tiger Shark who, I think, may at this point have taken over leadership of the now-homeless Atlanteans.
He's probably also decided to take Dorma as his bride, what with her being, seemingly, the only eligible woman in the whole of Atlantis.
Wait! What is this new and strange madness? A rude comic written by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber and published by Marvel? How have I been previously unaware of this?
It would appear to be a one-off collection of strips that had been produced for men's adventure magazines. Of its contents, I can say little but I'm sure it's all too cheeky and unsuitable for my young eyes.
IIUC, Nick Fury caught up to Scorpio and pulled off his mask. Then Scorpio dived off a pier in a hail of gunfire as other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents shot at him.
ReplyDeleteIn Avengers #72, a flashback to that incident revealed that Scorpio was Jake Fury.
And, yes, "Pussycat" had been a semi-regular feature in soft-core men's magazines published by Marvel's parent company. The strip was created by Wally Wood in 1965, near the peak of the 1960s spy-fi boom, and it was partly a spoof of Bond, U.N.C.L.E., et al. She was an agent for S.C.O.R.E., and the bad guys' organization was L.U.S.T.
After the spy fad passed, the strip continued for a while, with Pussycat as an investigative reporter.
Thanks for the Scorpio and Pussycat info, TC. It's much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteSteve - you are not alone! When I fly in my dreams, I too must do a breast stroke!
ReplyDeleteAlso, thanks for the Steranko cover. That dude was the bomb! The Buscema Surfer cover rocks too!
Ummm... how come the covers were not alpha sorted this time? Are you messin with me!? I'm hurt! LOL!
SHIELD #5 is definitely in my all-time comics Top 10 - it's peak Steranko! TC is spot on about Scorpio's identity. Fury catches a glimpse of Scorpio's face ( and shouts "You!" ) just before the zodiacal villain does his swan-dive in a hail of bullets. So, the readers are left knowing that Nick knows the secret, but don't know themselves... know what I mean? :-)
ReplyDeleteThere's also a lovely Eisner-esque final panel, showing Fury staring morosely into the water after Scorpio has disappeared. I know you're not a fan of Nick Fury, Steve, but this one is well worth a read if you get the chance.
Oh, and Dauntless Don's letter takes up just under a quarter of the ( double-page ) letters page - quite restrained for Don! I actually met Don a few weeks ago at Bedford's NICE Con and he was an absolute delight to talk to. If anyone's interested in reading about it here's the link to my blog post:
http://glasswalking-stick.blogspot.com/2018/09/nice-convention-2018-featuring-don.html
( Shameless Plugs Dept. )
Charlie, the covers are never deliberately alphabetically arranged. Whenever they're in order, it's happened by accident.
ReplyDeleteCerebus, I read your account of your encounter with Don when you published it. I must confess he looks nothing like I expected. It was nice to see Joe Bloke is still with us. I feared the worst after the demise of Grantbridge Street.
Was Jake Fury meant to be Scorpio all along, even though it wasn't explained 'till later in a different comic?
ReplyDeleteI figure probably so. It hadda be somebody ya know, like the Green Goblin was, not just Joe Blow (or Joe Bloke as you folks say).
Evil brothers. There's a lotta of 'em in comics. And life.
M.P.
Judging by Nick Fury's reaction, I would assume that Scorpio's identity was intended to be someone significant, not just some random Joe Blow or Joe Bloke.
ReplyDeleteSadly, I can shed no light upon whether Scorpio was always meant to be Jake Fury. It may be that Steranko knew it'd be dramatic to have it be someone Fury knew, but hadn't yet decided just who it should be.
ReplyDeleteThen again, he may have just wanted it to be an eternal mystery to the reader but not to Nick.
In other words, Jim may have simply been trolling the reader.
ReplyDeleteSHIELD #5 was Steranko's last issue, though he did the next two issues' covers. To be honest I think he'd run out of ideas from #1 onwards (the story of that issue makes no sense at all) and perhaps was aware that the super-spy thing was a fad that had passed its peak, if not yet run its course.
ReplyDeleteFrank Springer, who took over the interior art, did a very good job of replacing him for a while. Later on Barry Smith did an issue, when he was getting into psychedelic layouts and still drawing people as if their skulls were shaped like light bulbs.
You thought Steranko's stories before SHIELD #1 made sense, Joe?
ReplyDeleteIn some ways he was a bit of a forerunner of all those Image artists of the early 90s, more concerned with eye candy than storytelling. All the same though, he was a lot more stylish than Todd McFarlane or Rob Liefeld, and I always loved his work.
-sean
Not a lot, Sean! Steranko was undoubtedly better at visual flash and playing with stock tropes and characters than at actually inventing things.
ReplyDeleteHis best story was "Today Earth Died" in ST 168 - a very standard Twilight Zoney plot, but given a spooky edge by his style. And even when I'm at my most Steranko-averse, I admit that X-Men #50 is a classic cover.
Thats the best of the Strange Tales stories Joe, but I like the riff on Hound of the Baskervilles in SHIELD #3 more, even though its pretty obvious he got near the end and just thought f*** it and drew a splash page with a load of text to finish it off.
ReplyDeleteBut then, I did first read it as a kid in the Marvel UK Captain Britain reprint - he got me at an impressionable age!
-sean