Tuesday 9 March 2021

The Marvel Lucky Bag - March 1981.

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon
***

How many times does your postman ring?

Mine only rings once.

In fact, mostly, he doesn't even do that.

Sometimes, he just knocks on the door and runs away.

But, in March 1981, he was ringing twice.

At least, that's what the big new movie that had just hit our cinemas was telling us.

And it wasn't the only film unleashed that March, because it was also a month which saw the unleashing of the never-to-be-forgotten horror tales Omen III and Inseminoid.

Have two finer thrillers ever been made than that pair?

Yes.

Frequently.

Bizarre Adventures #25

I detect a Paul Gulacy cover for a book that seems to be the first-ever issue, despite being billed as #25.

Going on that cover, I'm certain we'll get plenty of Marvel-style martial arts mayhem.

And it's all drop-kicked-off by the Black Widow, thanks to a tale lumbered with the title I Got the Yo-Yo. You Got the String. I think maybe someone needed to be sent back to Story-Titling School, there.

Next, we get an adventure for someone called Lady Daemon. I don't have a clue who Lady Daemon is but I do know this is both her introduction and her origin.

I suspect it may also be her swansong, though don't quote me on that.

And we close the book with power-packed action from the Daughters of the Dragon, one of whom is Misty Knight.

It is officially never a bad thing for a story to feature Misty Knight.

Dazzler #1

You begged for it! You screamed for it! You demanded it! And, at last, it's here, the glitterballtastic launch of a brand new comic for the hottest heroine this side of Studio 54!

The Dazzler auditions to become a singer at her local disco but her main rival for the job is the Enchantress. When the Dazzler gets the gig, the Enchantress does what she does best and gets jealous.

And we all know a jealous Enchantress is nothing but trouble.

Howard the Duck #9

Howard's black and white mag hits its final issue.

I've nothing more to say of it, as I don't know anything more of it, other than it contains several tales of mallard-based merriment.

Marvel Team-Up #103, Spider-Man and Ant-Man

I wish I had a pound for every comic book cover that's depicted Ant-Man about to be crushed by a big heel.

And, this time, that big heel's the Taskmaster.

I think that, after all these decades, I've only just grasped that the Taskmaster isn't the same character as the Spymaster.

Anyway, I don't really know what happens in this one.

I do, though, suspect that Ant-Man survives.

Savage She-Hulk #14, Man-Wolf and Hellcat

Thanks to my delvings into Marvel's UK mags, We've had plenty of talk, of late, about She-Hulk, Man-Wolf and Hellcat uniting to save the Other Realm from destruction.

And here's the comic it's all been sourced from.

Frankly, I'm still none the wiser as to what the Other Realm actually is. 

According to that cover, it's subatomic, which does make me wonder if Psycho-Man shows up at any point.

Marvel Two-In-One #73, the Thing and Quasar

While minding their own business, trying to protect Project Pegasus from wrong-doers, the Thing and Quasar find themselves flung into an alternate reality where dinosaurs and humans live side-by-side.

Ghost Rider'#54,  The Orb

It's everybody's worst nightmare, a giant eyeball on a motorbike.

Granted, it's not my worst nightmare but, you never know, it might be the Ghost Rider's.

I've no news of what happens in this one but it's written by Michael Fleisher, so there's at least some chance it contains cannibalism.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Steve - The material in 'Bizarre Adventures' is ladled into 'Savage Action' number 7 (Black Widow):

https://britishcomics.fandom.com/wiki/Savage_Action_Vol_1?file=Savage_Action_7.jpg

8(Lady Daemon):

https://britishcomics.fandom.com/wiki/Savage_Action_Vol_1?file=Savage_Action_8.jpg

& 9(Daughters of the Dragon):

https://britishcomics.fandom.com/wiki/Savage_Action_Vol_1?file=Savage_Action_9.jpg


As regards Black Widow, you know how Paul Gulacy liked drawing movie stars into his stories (e.g. Dietrich in Shang-Chi vs the Cat)? Well, this Black Widow story has characters who look like Michael Caine & Humphrey Bogart!


The Dazzler/Enchantress story appears in Captain America Weekly, on Thursday.

Phillip

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I never understood the title The Postman Always Rings Twice either, Steve.
Maybe if I saw the film I'd get it, but who wants to watch posties on screen? (I made the mistake of watching the first half hour of The Postman with Kevin Costner once - zzzzzzz)

Bizarre Adventures was the mag formerly known as Marvel Preview, which is how #25 could be the first one. Although - pedant alert! - technically it was the third, after two issues of Marvel Preview featuring Bizarre Adventures, and Bizarre Adventures 2.

That Black Widow story and Lady Daemon were ok, but looked great courtesy of Paul Gulacy and Mike Golden respectively. As a fellow Daughters of the Dragon enthusiast though, I regret to inform you their outing here was somewhat disappointing. Especially as Chris Claremont and Marshall Rogers had previously done a great two-parter featuring the fab duo in Deadly Hands Of Kung Fu.

More super-wimmin - its political correctness gone mad in the Lucky Bag this month! - with an enjoyably daft set-up for a Dazzler v Enchantress chick fight, and that rarity a pretty good issue of She-Hulk's first comic.

Fyi, the Other Realm is where Man-Wolf moved to when he went all sword & sorcery in his Marvel Premiere run.

-sean

Anonymous said...

"An alternative reality where dinosaurs and humans live side-by-side"... and yet no Devil Dinosaur! Which is an obvious fail.
And thats before you even get to Quasar. He was so boring I can't even be bothered to make a Uranus joke.

On the plus side though, good to see one of the Residents in Ghost Rider.

-sean

dangermash aka The Artistic Actuary said...
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dangermash aka The Artistic Actuary said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Sean - National Women's Day - belatedly acknowledged! Beverly Switzler is also featured (?)

The depicted allosaurus (prominent arms) might place the events millions of years before Devil (a red T-rex) even existed!

What's the difference between Quasar & Marvel Boy? Answer: I can never remember & don't care.

Phillip

dangermash aka The Artistic Actuary said...

Dazzler and no pile clamps? [Shakes head]

Anything in a post inside diamond brackets apparently doesn't get published. Weird.

Anonymous said...

dangermash - Your list of interdiction got published - and that was inside diamond brackets!

Phillip

Anonymous said...

Phillip, given that allosaurs live along side humans in that Two-In-One alternate reality, I really see the logic in questioning a T-rex.

And theres quite enough deja vu going on in Steve's various 40 years ago posts as it is without you bringing up Devil Dinosaur being red - we don't need anyone turning up and questioning that all over again.

-sean

Anonymous said...

Sorry, Sean. I wish Gerry Conway hadn't killed Gwen, though...

Phillip

Steve W. said...

Dangermash and Phillip, diamond brackets (I assume you mean these < > ) are used to give the page HTML instructions. For instance, to make text bold or put it in italics. I suspect that's why there was a problem with it. You were making the site think you were using badly put together formatting instructions.

Sean, I've not seen The Postman Always Rings Twice in decades. Aren't they planning to murder someone who's going to show up at the front door, and believe they won't kill the postman by mistake, as he always rings twice?

Anonymous said...

Don't ask me Steve, I haven't seen it at all.

Phillip, I just noticed theres a "don't" missing from my last comment, which should read "I don't really see the logic etc..."
Obviously you got my meaning, but it might have made me come across like a sarky git - more than usual anyway - which was not my intention. So apologies for that.

At least Gwen had kids before she died...

-sean

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Johnny Romita copped to killing Gwen.

I forget why they wanted to whack someone, perhaps just for excitement.

But, he said that he had always learned / heard that if you are gong to whack someone it has to be someone important o/wise no one cares... nor does it budge the story in any way (e.g., no one would give a nit about who would fill MJ's void in the life of Peter.)

So, though Mary Jane's name was mentioned he said she was such a secondary character it would make no difference to anyone so he was the advocate for killing Gwen.

It's hard to hate on Romita. Much easier to hate on Conway. It would not be hard to believe that Conway slipped Romita a fiver to cop to killing Gwen just to stop the death threats, lol.

Anonymous said...

The recent passing of Frank Thorne was mentioned in the comments here the other day.
For anyone interested, theres a good write up on Thorne over at the Comic Journal -

www.tcj.com/frank-thorne-1930-2021/

-sean