Sunday 14 July 2019

Forty years ago today - July 1979.

I have to think of a pertinent and pithy intro to this post.

I can't think of one.

I shall, therefore, launch straight into it and hope that if I don't draw attention to it no one'll notice.

Conan the Barbarian #100, the death of Belit

This is it; the issue some of us have been waiting about fifty issues for, as BĂȘlit finally meets her maker, thanks to an island full of flying monkeys.

From what I can remember, most of the important stuff in this tale happens while Conan's asleep but our heroine does return from the dead for long enough to help the battling barbarian as he faces certain death at the fangs of a psychotic simian.

But the highlight of this tale is definitely Conan single-handedly taking on a huge pack of hyenas and winning.

Captain America #235, Daredevil

Cap and Daredevil are still out to thwart Dr Faustus' evil plan to Nazify America.

Fantastic Four #208, the Sphinx

Lost in space, alone against the Skrulls, their ship blown up by Nova's, and also zapped by an ageing ray; just when it seemed things couldn't get any worse for the FF, the Sphinx becomes all-powerful and decides he doesn't want to commit suicide anymore.

He just wants to rule the universe.

Spectacular Spider-Man #32

Peter Parker's back at college and it looks like the Lizard's on the loose.

But he isn't. It's Curt Connors' pet iguana that's somehow turned into a super-villain. How will Spidey ever be able to defeat a foe with the powers of an iguana?

To be honest, I don't know what powers an iguana has.

Thor #285, Karkas

Thor meets Karkas and, after the obligatory fight, they set off to find Sersi in the hidden lair of the Deviants, somewhere beneath New York City.

X-Men #123, Arcade

Arcade's kidnapped the X-Men and is exposing them to the sort of gimmicks he once used against Spider-Man and Captain Britain.

As those gimmicks didn't work against Spider-Man and Captain Britain, I'm not sure why he thinks they're going to work against a whole team of super-doers.

Then again, he does have help from Colossus who he's brainwashed into wanting to kill his colleagues.

Incredible Hulk #237

The Hulk's still fighting Machine Man, in an attempt to rescue someone from someone or other.

Avengers #185

Wanda and Pietro are out to discover just where they came from, and find themselves in the shadow of Mount Wundagore, under attack from an unknown foe, as a talking cow shows up to help them.

Daredevil #159

Bullseye's out for revenge on the man without fear and is filming him fighting other criminals, in order to learn his moves.

Amazing Spider-Man #194, the Black Cat

Spider-Man meets Catwoman the Black Cat for the first time and much flirting ensues in between the fighting.

Iron Man #124

Now he's in trouble.

Iron Man accidentally kills a visiting politician, with his repulsor rays, thanks to Peter Cushing having set them off by remote control.

18 comments:

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Charlie actually bought the Cap off the spinner at that outrageous $.40 price tag! Can't remember the contents, which is why Charlie reads this blog... to feel good knowing others can't as well LOL!

At that time, Charlie still sees Spectacular Spider Man as a poser, a Marvel gimmick, destined to be discontinued as Marvelites wake up and realize it is all a Marvel scheme to make money and instead are hurting it by diluting the product. Charhie's crystal ball is still broken.

Anonymous said...

It would appear Daredevil is flying the plane on that Cap cover. Not sure I'd be too happy about that if I was the passenger, but presumably Cap doesn't know about DD's secret identity...

-sean

Steve W. said...

Charlie, I'm not sure anything much happens in that Captain America issue. I think the plane ride is pretty much the entirety of it.

Sean, you have to be impressed by DD. After all, in his second story, he managed to pilot a space rocket.

Anonymous said...

Some of us hadn't read any of Robert E. Howard's Conan stories so the cover of Conan #100 was a massive spoiler.

Steve W. said...

I'd never read any REH at that time, either. For decades, my knowledge of him came entirely from reading the comics.

Redartz said...

Pretty impressive array on the newsstands there! I had a bunch of these. That Avengers tale was great. Byrne's art wss great. And the talking cow was great.

Like you, Steve, my Conan knowledge came entirely from the comics. Admittedly I was ready to see our brusque barbarian move on to adventures without Belit.

Charlie- I'd agree at the beginning, Spectacular was a weak second. But the time came when Spectacular (under Stern and Mantlo) handily outranked Amazing (under Denny Oneil). In my humble opinion, of course...

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Charlie went back and read various REH Conan paperbacks... something like Brick, Brack, Born and another tale of two in the same book. While reasonably entertaining Charlie found myself lost occasionally... Charlie did have a healthy stack of Marvel B&W Conan mags (really cheap at Chicago comicon) and enjoyed them... for a while, lol.

What I am curious to know is if anyone bought Conan 100 b/c one got 100% more comic for only 50% more price. That's quite a deal, though no where as magical as 64 pages for a quarter.

And why 64 pages? Why not 80 or 90 or 60? Is there something magical about 2 to the 6th power we don't yet know? Steve - answer me daggone it!!!

TC said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Charlie Horse 47 said...

Red - Charlie wasn't entirely dogmatic about not buying Marvel's dilution scheme... I did buy Marvel Team Up for the first 10 - 20 issues or so, LOL.

TC said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Charlie Horse 47 said...

Hey - now that you UK gents are World Cup Cricket Champs what do the players get? Like do they get to be a Duke or Shire or a Knight or something where they get to be called "Sir" like Paul McCartney???

Anonymous said...

Spectacular was superior in the '90's. I picked it up religiously. Great writing, interesting new characters like Tombstone, and some very solid penciling from Sal Buscema that was well inked.

M.P.

Anonymous said...

Can't say I was impressed by the Robert E Howard paperbacks I tried as a kid. Without the artwork of people like Barry Smith or John Buscema and Alfredo Alcala Conan's encounters with comely wenches, subhuman primates and dodgy wizards seemed a bit boring.

-sean

Anonymous said...

Sean, you and I are clearly very different people.

M.P.

Steve W. said...

Charlie, the England cricketers may get knighted but no one knows if they will. Because no England cricket team's ever won the World Cup before, no one knows what the appropriate award is. They'll certainly get some sort of honour, an MBE each, at the least.

When it comes to REH and his tales, I do find his Conan stories highly readable but that might be because I've got the images from the comics in my mind when I'm reading them.

I must confess I always looked on Spectacular Spider-Man as, "not real," Spider-Man when I read its stories. It was interesting that I could tell which tales were from Amazing and which were from Spectacular when they were reprinted by Marvel UK, even though Marvel UK reprinted them in the same book, with no indication that they were from separate comics.

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Cricket Knights? Sounds like an R&B 50s/60s Group, lol.

Batmen Knights? Sounds like a DC comic.

Bowling Knights? Sounds like dad's night out, lol.

Most importantly... knight used to be pronounced with the full "k" and full "g" like ole Month Python. Let's go back to our roots, aye?

Anonymous said...

First, I am informed I'm not M.P. Next, that I'm not a robot.
Is this just a coincidence?

-sean

Killdumpster said...

Sal Buscema could possibly be inked well, if they could reasonably bring back Da Vinci in a unusual experiment,as a artistic, un-dead life form.

The Reptile was fine, knowing the Lizard wasn't far behind.

The death of Belit couldn't have happened soon enough.

I am sure most of us felt the same way about the Black Cat.