Sunday 13 January 2019

Forty years ago today - January 1979.

The Past. Where is it?

Right here!

And how do we get to it?

Like this!

Avengers #179, Bloodhawk

I don't have the slightest clue who Bloodhawk is but the internet tells me his father was a geneticist who wanted to expand mankind's evolutionary potential and, thus,  experimented on his own unborn child, turning it into Bloodhawk. Unwilling to raise the child, he then abandoned him on a living island.

I think it's a situation we can all relate to.

But I've no idea if the living island is the same one that turned up in the New X-Men's first adventure, or how the Avengers came to be involved in all of this.
Conan the barbarian #94

I was going to complain that those are the smallest lions I've ever seen.

Then I realised they're baboons.

I'm no David Attenborough.

Neither is Conan, judging by the way he's all revving up to slaughter the lot of them.

This story features a character called Lasanga, a name I can't avoid misreading as, "Lasagne."

Captain America #229

Judging by that cover, this one looks to be somewhat overstuffed with characters.

It seems the Blue Streak's revealed to be a spy for The Corporation.

I don't have a clue who the Blue Streak is.

For that matter, I don't have a clue who The Corporation are either.
Daredevil #156, DD vs DD

We now have a cover which seems to feature Daredevil vs Daredevil while Matt Murdock watches on.

It seems this may all be some kind of dream sequence being visited upon a comatose Matt.

Whatever's going on, it does bring to mind those early Iron Man tales when Tony Stark would have to don his old armour, in order to fight some wrongdoer who'd stolen his current armour.

Fantastic Four #202, Quasimodo

I don't have a clue what's going on in this one but I do know Quasimodo was always one of my least favourite villains, so I doubt I'd like this story.

It is, though, strangely charming to see Sue futilely bouncing invisible tennis balls off Quasimodo's head.

Incredible Hulk #231

It's another one where I don't have a clue what happens inside but that's a Herb Trimpe cover, a fact which presses my nostalgia buttons, and it's pleasing to see the Hulk looking so menacing. I, therefore, have no doubt I would have bought it, had I seen it on the comics racks at the time.

Iron Man #118

Now Tony Stark's got problems. A bunch of SHIELD agents want to kill him, in order to gain control of his company and make it start to produce munitions again.

Spectacular Spider-Man #26, Daredevil and the Masked Marauder

Someone at Marvel clearly needs a lot of convincing that the Masked Marauder's not a great villain because he's back again - and, inevitably, he succeeds in blinding our hero.

Thor #279, Pluto, Ulik and Jane Foster

That bounder Pluto's kidnapped Jane Foster and hung her in a pose guaranteed to get the attention of teenage boys.

I assume this is to lure Thor into his dark domain, rather than just being an act of random happenstance.

X-Men #117

Is this the first appearance of The Shadow King?

I have read this tale but not in a long time. Does it involve Professor X in Morocco, coming up against a fez-wearing crime lord who's also a deadly mutant with a massive ego?

Amazing Spider-Man #188, Jigsaw

This cover's noticeably reminiscent of the one from issue #28 in which the Molten Man made his first appearance. I assume this isn't coincidence, although I fail to see any parallels between Jigsaw and the Molten Man.

As Jigsaw's managed to miss Spidey, with four different shots, from a distance of ten feet, it doesn't exactly create the impression that he's a deadly menace.

35 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Corporation was the secret organisation behind the Night Flyer, and Kligger and Veda Steve, introduced late in Kirby's run on Captain America. They're not mentioned on that Cap cover though, so I suspect you may have been doing some research.
Funny in retrospect that it does promise an appearance from Marvel Man though. Kimota!

Is Daredevil the most revisited origin after Cap's?
The good news about DD #156 is that instead of a second issue by Fr*nk R*bb*ns we got the return of the mighty Gene Colan, in an interesting combo with Klaus Janson.
The bad is that after a couple of issues they replaced him with some new kid called Frank Miller (like he was going to make any kind of impression...)

-sean

Steve W. said...

Thanks for the Corporation info, Sean. I must confess to being totally unfamiliar with them.

Anonymous said...

Sean,

Luckily we got a preview, as that new kid, pencilled the next two issues of Peter Parker which, fortuitously, co-star Daredevil.

Steve,

You're correct about that X-men issue, which does feature a Fez in Morocco, if seeming a little fill-in-ish.

DW

Anonymous said...

Indeed DW, but it is a bit baffling why Marvel put the relatively untested Miller on an A-list title like Spectacular Spiderman rather than a couple of issues of the bi-monthly Daredevil.
For that matter, with sales so low that it nearly got cancelled around this point, you'd think they'd put Spidey on the cover of DD, rather than the other way round.

-sean

Anonymous said...

Ah yes, the Night-Flyer.
Kind of a cool character, I thought. A Kirby creation, he was an assassin with very high-tech hardware, and also some kind of eerie mystical ethos which I'm not very clear on.
"It is impossible to defeat perfection! I cannot stopped! I am the perfect man!"
Well, you know what invariably happens when when somebody says something like that...
And then the guy with the roller skates.
Roller skates don't give you super-powers; in fact, they exponentially increase your odds of personal injury.
...in my experience, anyway.

M.P.

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Wow! Now that Charlie knows he can use google for researching comics marvel wikia shows DD had 7 interior artists in the past 15 issues: Bob Brown, Gil Kane, Lee Elias, George Tuska, Carmine Infantino, Gene the Dean and Fr*nk R*bbins. What kind of continuity was that for kids?

And then they tease with the Black Widow in 155 and 157...

I have to wonder why the heck they just didn't run the DD - Black Widow theme for several years. I mean with Colan's art it seemed so perfect, to Charlie.

Who was Lee Elias???

Killdumpster said...

At least we weren't subjected to the Blue Streak for very long, as I believe he was killed off by the Vamp.

The Texas Tornado was an annoying Whirlwind wannabe, with a southern stall. I only remember seeing him one other time, fighting the Human Torch.

Did Marvel Man become Quasar? Can't remember. I think the original Marvel Boy, who had the same costume, became the Crusader ( a brief FF villian).

Seems that month only Thor fought worthwhile villains.

Quasimodo would've been a better bad-guy if he didn't whine so much.

I avoided any book with the Marauder like the plague.

Killdumpster said...

Excuse me, the Tornado had a southern "drall".

Anonymous said...

Marvel Man, or Quasar, is kinda like Marvel's version of D.C.'s Hawkman. He had this convoluted history with various incarnations going all the way back to the Golden Age of Comics and now nobody knows or remembers who the heck this guy is anymore.

M.P.

Anonymous said...

Sean

Perhaps he did well enough on the Peter Parker-fill in to warrant a go as regular artists on the, then C grade, Daredevil. Wasn't this fairly early in Jim Shooter's reign as editor-in-chief? I suspect there was a fair amount of quick-fixing going on, at the time.

Given his use of a number of Spidey's characters, I always assumed Miller would have much preferred to a snagged a Spider-title. In fact, had he stayed on Peter Parker, I'm fairly confident we'd have got an issue that introduced a long lost girlfriend of Peter Parker called Elektra. He would have met her at college only to later lose her due to a tragedy with her father. She'd probably end up working, as an assassin, for the Kingpin.

DW

Anonymous said...

Charlie, I mainly recall Lee Elias as the artist of Warren mag The Rook, but he was an old skool geezer who was around for years.
He did one of my fave 50s horror covers, Chamber of Chills #19 for Harvey Comics - if you're interested you can see it
www.samuelsdesign.com/comics/pages/crime-horror/chamber_chills19.htm

-sean

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Thanks Sean! I took a look. Pretty neat cover! Yep - it's old school but that's fine with me.

Anonymous said...

And probably Elektra would have been finished off in some altercation involving the Punisher DW.

Yeah, that all makes sense about the Shooter regime kicking in, and there was a fairly steady stream of artists leaving because of their (then) new contracts.
Even so, it was unusual for an artist to get Spidey as a second assignment (I looked it up).

-sean

Anonymous said...

Charlie, did you click on "back to Crime & Horror covers" underneath? Theres a few more of his there... not to mention some really mad stuff that'll have you talking about yourself in the third person like nobody's business.

-sean

Anonymous said...

Oh dear, somehow I seem to have got the Punisher mixed up with Bullseye - who had nothing to do with Spider-man - in my reply to DW. No idea how that happened. Duh.

-sean

Steve W. said...

DW, thanks for the fez confirmation.

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Hi Sean! I did look at the various covers. One of the all-time favs is Black Cat #50! I also own a few of the Crime and Punishments from the late 40s... babes and machine gun bullets all the way!

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Steve - do I understand that with Brexit you will make enough to buy two loaves of bread monthly, with the revenues from this site, as opposed to just one? You pretty excited about it?

P.S. - let me know if the more we comment, the more you earn! We can run up the tally!

Steve W. said...

Charlie, I'm not sure it's established that there'll actually be bread after Brexit. Details have yet to be announced.

There are no adverts on the comments page, so I'm not sure it makes any difference to my vast ad revenues.

Charlie Horse 47 said...

What if you ran adverts to your book, coffee mugs, and other ventures? Then you could make money from that? Just a thought...

Anonymous said...

Heck, Steve, I'll even help you out. Use my name.
"M.P. says drink Dr. Pepper!" or "M.P. knows what the ladies like. That's why he wears Brut by Faberge."
We'd make a fortune. I see T-shirts, possibly even a movie deal at some point.

M.P.

Charlie Horse 47 said...

M.P. - I thought you were an Old Spice guy? Or maybe High Karate?

Anonymous said...

Careful M.P., watch out you don't lose the quote marks and start referring to yourself in the third person regularly...

-sean

Anonymous said...

Good Lord, you're right, Sean. Now I'm doing it.
...may God have mercy on us all.

Charlie, I haven't worn High Karate since the '80's.
It was a different time.

M.P.

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Charlie sees nothing wrong with MP referring to MP as MP!

FYI - Charlie just bought two Old Spice: Guitar Hero and Fiji. Charlie never knew they could put a guitar player into a stick. (Charlie's wondering whatever happened to the roll on?)

Anonymous said...

I'm seriously thinking of stocking up on tinned food before Brexit Day arrives. The panic-buying could get ugly.

Anonymous said...

Don't forget to load up on ammo too Colin.

-sean

Steve W. said...

I have already chopped my lower arm off and replaced it with a chainsaw, ready for it.

Charlie Horse 47 said...

This day's blog ended way too soon. IT was really going to go off the rails... I could feel it!

Anonymous said...

You've got a good few days before Sunday to push the next one off the rails Charlie - you can do it.

-sean

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Hi Sean, et al.

I am indeed part of this shutdown but am considered essential so must work for no pay.

The USA has devolved into a 3rd world country where government workers must work and the govt won't pay them?

To add insult to injury (LOL)

The non-essential workers, the ones staying home, are allowed to collect unemployment compensation from their states.

The essential ones (like me) who are working and not getting paid, are NOT allowed to do this... b/c we are working.

I am fortunate to be able to ride this mess out but many of the ones forced to come to work are having serious problems. They must still pay gas, tolls, baby care if they keep working. (Most of our workers make $16 / hour.) As a matter of necessity they will start staying home to save money.

It's not pretty.

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Also, whether essential or nonessential everyone (!) will be back paid 100% in full! Never has one wished so hard to be "non essential" LOL.

Charlie Horse 47 said...

TO help our employees my agency has issued a "letter of explanation" we can present to creditors. Mortgage banks, insurance companies, baby sitters, grocery stores, gas stations don't give a frack about such a letter...

You know how it is rockin in the free world... money talks and bullshit walks.

We are now setting up a food pantry for our 1,500 hourly workers. Local vendors are providing free food and coffee at the job site...

I can't really voice what I think about all this b/c working for the Gov is a lot like working for the Gestapo. One disparaging statement is processed like a blow to national security by our employers and you are fired.

Anonymous said...

Charlie, I did actually realise when you were joking about getting an extra however many weeks holiday during the last shut down(;.
But thanks for taking the time to explain that, as I had wondered how stuff got done; I kinda assumed there was some money still for essential workers or whatever, but you have to work without being paid?!?
Unbelievable.
Do you at least get credited for the work, and paid when its over?
Aren't federal employers unionised? What do they say, and do they offer something like strike pay?

-sean

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Sean... I was NOT joking. That's how stupid these "shutdown" are, LOL!

Under the Cruz shutdown, 2013, I was "non essential" so I stayed home for 3 weeks without pay. But I and everyone else, who had to stay home, got paid like a month later. I literally got a 3 week paid vacation whereas those employees considered essential also got paid, a month later, but had to WORK for those 3 weeks. I had zero commuting expenses! It was a windfall!

The tables have been turned on me this time!

I have been going to work the last 4 weeks, but not been paid at all. I must go b/c I am "essential." The "non essential" ones have been sitting at home, not working, and have also not been paid. Eventually all of us, essential and non essential, will get back paid as if we all had worked. It is starting to create some "sour grapes" b/c we are sick of going to work, racking up expenses like gas, tolls, etc. only to eventually get paid the same as those nonessential ones sitting at home.

The Govt EMployees Union did indeed file suit "how can you force "essential" people to work and not pay them?" But the court threw it out, though very sympathetic. The court said the Union was essentially asserting that a system of slavery existed when in fact no essential employee has to come to work, even though they could get terminated for no-showing.

And that's the big fallacy of the shutdown... it does NOT save money b/c everyone gets paid eventually for all the shutdown time, whether they worked or not.