Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon. ***
This week in 1980 wasn't an exciting one. In fact, the most thrilling thing that happened was the opening of the Tyne and Wear Metro system, which I'm sure left the people of that area awestruck but wasn't quite such a big event for those of us who lived too far away to be able to use it.
I shall, therefore, leap straight into my look at what thrills Marvel UK was serving up in that period.
And the first thing that strikes me is it was only serving up three-quarters of the thrills it had previously been doing.
That's because Doctor Who Weekly had bitten the dust.
But fear not. It wasn't because the Daleks had somehow managed to exterminate it. It was because it had now been upgraded to a full-blown monthly magazine.
Unless I miss my ever-loving guess, the Incredible
Hulk is about to find himself facing the power of It! The Living Colossus, thanks to a bitter sandwich board man called Aloysius Vault.
And, judging by that cover, we're also getting the story in which
Spider-Man discovers the Black Cat has a shrine devoted to him. So, nothing weird going on there, then.
The adaptation of the series' second movie continues at its own leisurely pace.
And it would appear we get our first glimpse of Boba Fett, a character who made no impression at all on me when I first saw the film, to such a degree that, before I finally gained access to the internet, I didn't even know he was a big thing.
We get a one-off story called The Destiny of the Dinosaurs.
I'm unclear what their destiny is but I suspect it won't be good news for some poor soul.
We get more from
Gullivar Jones, as our hero and Chak the pterodactyl man do their best to survive while on their way to rescuing the necessary princess.
Finally, we get a Lee/Heck Tale of the Watcher in which a boy finds a teleport device that sends him to a parallel world where he meets alternate reality versions of his own family.
Nick Fury and his men are sat in a London pub, waiting for their only English member Pinky to show up.
But little do they know he's been captured by German spies!
Needless to say, Pinky's doing everything he can to escape, in order to ensure his colleagues don't fall victim to the same spies.
That is where my knowledge of this week's contents begins and ends.
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30 comments:
IT! was relatively good reading, during his run in Astonishing Tales.
I had also read his origin in a monster mag earlier. I believe the art was Kirby.
He handled himself pretty well against Fin Fang Foom, but I never read the Hulk tale. Unless something "intellectual" happened, Hulk should trash him.
Greenskin eats giant living stone/rock/statue opponents for breakfast.
KD, I'm afraid you're right. The Hulk does indeed trash him. Poor It. :(
Boba Fett is the quintessential Star Wars character Steve, in that he's basically just a costume with a mask, and a funny name. Which is probably why he eventually got his own tv show - The Mandolin or whatever its called - that for a change Star Wars geeks didn't complain ruined their childhood.
Although Werner Herzog turning up in it disappointed me (still, fair play to him - I suppose its nicely paid work if you can get it).
The FF are in Spidey & Hulk Weekly? Going by this feature that must be a recent addition, presumably replacing the Defenders.
By my reckoning - with that Prescence/Red Guardian storyline coming to an end recently - that means readers missed out on all that Agents of Fortune/Vera Gemini stuff that came just after. Ah well, never mind.
-sean
Sean, thinking about it, I'm not 100% certain the FF are still in the book. They've definitely been in it, post-merger. Mere weeks ago, they were battling the senses-shattering menace of HERBIE and then tangling with the Trapster and the Frightful Four. Whether they're still in it, right now is a little fuzzy.
Sean & Steve,
I've just been in the garage to find SPIDER-MAN and HULK WEEKLY No.388. I can now confirm the FF are NOT in it! You've got 11 pages of Spidey; 5 pages of Hulk; the letters page; 4 pages of She-Hulk; 4 pages of Spider-woman; a STARBURST advert (the Magazine! They were still called Opal Fruits, in those days!); 4 pages of Defenders. The back cover is - unsurprisingly - yet another Empire Strikes Back advert. This comic is notable for having 2 stories by Carmine Infantino (Spider-woman & Hulk). Also, both the She-Hulk & Defenders stories feature battles with a robot. If I had a quid for every robot in Marvel comics! Obviously, Ultron, the Sentinels, the Sentry, Dragon Man, the Doombot, Ultimo, the Growing Man, the Mad Thinker's android, the Super-adaptoid and Kang's Macrobots, immediately spring to mind - but there must be dozens of minor robots too! Oh, there's that robot Thor was always fighting - the Destroyer? Also, that little robot Iron Fist fought - the name's on the tip of my tongue - it had 'oid' in it! Later, didn't a lot of Marvel's robots form a team called 'Heavy metal' ? Please prove you're not a robot! Sheesh!
Phillip Beadham
Still on the subject of robots, I forgot the Doomsday Man ( fought by the Silver Surfer & Ms. Marvel.) Oh, and in the FF, when the Surfer destroyed Gabriel, he turned out to be a robot, too. I suppose you could subcategorize the robots into giant robots, robots who are copies of superheroes, etc.
Phillip
Always helpful to read a comment from someone who actually has a copy of the comic in question and knows what they're going on about - are you sure you're in the right place Phillip? (Just kidding Steve)
Perhaps the Iron Fist robot you were thinking of was the Monstroid?
-sean
Thanks for all that, Phillip. You definitely deserve a Keeper of the Flame award for it. :)
Cheers, Steve! Thanks, Sean - it was the Monstroid I was trying to remember! More robots - the Dreadnought, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s LMDs - this is getting obsessive - time to give it a rest!
Phillip
Phil, I remember "Heavy Metal", the all-robot team controlled by the Super-Adaptoid (seriously, don't you just love that name) who fought the Avengers. That was a great story arc.
As I recall, there was a very interesting scene in which Machine Man and the Adaptoid have a discussion of robotics, the history of the practice and theory, which goes back a lot further than I would've guessed.
You're right, there's too many robotic entities, androids, cyborgs etc. to compile a list. That would take all day. The Adaptoid and Dragon Man are my personal favorites. I dunno why!
M.P.
Hey, there's an idea for a debate. Anybody else out there have a personal favorite robot(s) from comics?
Caution: It may well reveal dark, hidden secrets from your own psychological make-up...
M.P.
I too loved the Adaptoid's Heavy Metal attempt at the Avengers, M.P. though I'm more of a fan of him adapting the heroes powers & turning green. Lol.
Robots rule! In all forms of media!
Super-Adaptoid from me. Solid.
Not sure what it says about me, but I've always had a soft spot for the Mad Thinker's Awesome Android.
And I like Mek-Quake. "Big jobs!"
-sean
You're a very sick man, Sean.
...kidding. I like the Awesome Android and that big square head of his. I have no idea what "Mek-Quake" is.
M.P.
M.P., re:Mek-quake -
https://2000ad.wordpress.com/2015/03/21/abc-warriors-a-potted-history-part-2-of-6/
I mainly came up with that link because thats a brilliant pic of Mek-Quake - after Kirby, Kev O'Neill does the best robots - and it sounds like you could do with being educated about the ABC Warriors generally.
Seven robots that tamed a planet! Spread the word!
-sean
Sean, couldn't get the link to work but I googled Mek-Quake anyhow.
I must admit, it's an interesting character. A stupid robot with violent tendencies.
That's not exactly an original concept; the robot that appeared in Logan's Run near the end of the film was completely retarded.
M.P.
Huh. Thats the second time a link didn't work. Ah well, never mind.
I didn't claim Mek-Quake was the most original idea for a robot ever M.P., but Pat Mills in his heyday had a more enjoyable, darker sense of humour than pretty much anyone else in comics, let alone the dweebs who wrote Logan's Run.
For annoying robots in films though, George Lucas is your man.
-sean
I would agree with that last statement.
For one movie, that was entertaining. If you were eight years old.
M.P.
M.P. - my favourite robot was Mogol from Hulk # 127. Even whilst the Hulk was tearing Mogol to bits, Mogol claimed he just wanted to be the Hulk's friend. As a kid, I found this quite poignant. Mogol had the Hulk's strength, but not his invulnerability. This story was in the rainy day cupboard in my classroom, circa 1979/80.
Oh, that tag-team of two mysterious alien robots who fought Ms.Marvel (one had an arm like a scythe, & a crest on his head) are candidates too. Very cool!
Sean - Rojaws was quite a character - possibly the most characterful robot - much more so than Hammerstein. Do you remember that space calculator thingy, that was a free gift with the first issue of Star Lord?
In the 70s, robots figured much more prominently on tv than today. The 6 Million Dollar man had a robot almost every week. Logan's Run had REM (?) Buck Rogers - Twiki. As a kid, I thought the Cybernauts (not to be confused with the Cybertron in Rampage Monthly) on 'The New Avengers' were fantastic. As an adult, they just look ridiculous.
What about that old chestnut about the robot who doesn't realize they're a robot - like Rachel in 'Blade Runner' ? Philip K. Dick claimed he invented that idea.
Phillip
I'll add the Spider Slayers to the robot list.
Let's hear it for the dozens of robots that Mad Thinker and Puppet Master trhew at the FF in FF 100# It was a a regular robot-palooza! The mother of all robot battles!
How about the worst robots? I'm nominating Mysterio's X-Men robots from ASM Annual #1. The Awesome Android and Kang's Spider-Man robot can be beaten by pressing their off switches but those cheap X-Man robots just fall to pieces with one punch.
dangermash aka The Artistic Actuary - worst robots? We're spoilt for choice! For me, Lord Hawk's robot hawk; Herbie on the FF cartoon, because of his name (although I don't remember him); for sheer quantity, Arcade's mirrors could produce dozens of rubbish robots out of thin air!
Phillip
Also, Walter the Wobot was annoying, a rare mis-step for Judge Dredd in its classic years.
Phillip, I liked RoJaws more than Hammerstein too... although generally I preferred the ABC Warriors to Ro-Busters.
Btw, I don't think Phillip K Dick claimed to have invented the robot that didn't know it was a robot - maybe that was his publisher's, or the Bladerunner producer's PR dept?
Its been a while since I've read Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep, but I'm pretty sure the Rachel character was established as a replicant early on, and knew she was (Dick explores the theme of human v android with more subtlety than the film imo).
-sean
Sean - interesting. As regards the robot not knowing it's a robot, I remember reading Philip K.Dick's claim in a book of interviews with him I bought at Borders, years ago. I'm not sure if the book's title was 'What if Our World is their Heaven?' - but it might have been another book, as I had 2 similar ones. It would take a while to find the book! (My 'filing system' is not good!) I can see why you'd have doubts about Philip K. Dick's claim (if my memory is correct) - I had some too. After all, Star Trek used that same idea long before the 'Blade Runner' movie (I'd have to check the date for 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep'.) The Star Trek episode I'm thinking of was like a cross between 'Pygmalion' & 'The Tempest.' I've just checked; the Star Trek episode is 'Requiem For Methuselah', dated 1969. It seems 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep' was published in 1968. Incidentally, that Hulk story with Mogol uses this idea, too! Maybe Philip K. Dick was confused.
Actually, you could be right Phillip; thinking about it some more, Dick did have a tendency to make far fetched - sometimes demonstrably contradictory - claims, especially in that 60s/early 70s period when he might have been uh, shall we say, chemically enhanced.
So yeah, its possible he did say something along those lines.
He also said he was contacted in 1974 by an extra-terrestrial intelligence via pink laser beam from outer space, so maybe his claims shouldn't necessarily be taken at face value.
Although, who knows?
-sean
I dunno much about Phillip K. Dick. I understand his story inspired Blade Runner, which I think ranks up there with the best sci-fi movies of all time.
His short story, "Faith of our Fathers", which, I guess can be called science fiction in that it takes place in a possible future, is one of the more disturbing short stories I've read.
Phil, (the other one), when I was a little kid I was nuts about the Six-Million Dollar Man. I had the action figure! I think technically, he's a cyborg. When he fought Bigfoot it may have been the defining moment of the Seventies. There were, apparently, Bigfeet all over the place back then.
As a small boy I lived in dread of them. Say, wasn't Bigfoot himself a robot on that show? I don't remember, and I'm too damn lazy to look it up.
As far as robots go, I thought James Spader was rather amusing as the voice of Ultron. I wouldn't call it a very good movie, but it was an interesting choice.
And that guy does have a creepy voice. Even when he's trying to be jovial it sounds disturbing.
M.P.
I find it hard to believe that none of those 1950s/60s Lee/Kirby/Ditko twist-in-the-tale shorts ever featured a character who didn't know he was a robot.
MP, as far as I can recall, Bigfoot was revealed to be a cyborg.
M.P. - As regards the Six-Million Dollar Man Bigfoot episode, I was equally impressed - for
a kid, it was incredibly powerful.The climax, when Lee Majors tears Bigfoot's robotic arm off, is something you never forget. As an adult, you realize this scene is referencing Grendel, in Beowulf. The Six-Million Dollar Man was also probably a big inspiration for Marvel. In the X-Man, the scene with Donald Pierce's arm, in the Hellfire club; the Byrne Wendigo, with his beard, looked like a snow camouflaged version of the Six Million Dollar Man Bigfoot; most obviously, Sasquatch, too. I've just remembered, Wolverine said to Pierce, something like: "You may be bionic, but when I'm finished with you, even six million bucks won't be enough to put you back together!" I suppose there's Misty Knight, too.
As regards Ultron in the Avengers movie, he certainly was creepy; but, as you said,
the movie wasn't as good as it could've been. Jim Shooter's masterpieces deserved
better. In the first Avengers movie, Carina Walters is killed in an early scene.
Is this telling Marvelites, "Tough luck - you're not getting the Korvac Saga?" Yet
other Avengers movies borrow Jim Shooter's ideas. For example, Iron Man absorbing
Thor's lightning bolt, and using it to amplify his strength. This comes from Jim
Shooter's Avengers/Moondragon/Drax story. Also, the floating sky-island scenes seem
'borrowed' from Shooter's Graviton story.
Phillip
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