Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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I don't have a clue what they were putting in Hollywood's coffee in March 1972 but, whatever it was, it clearly worked.
Granted, not all of those films were made by Hollywood but I'm too lazy to point out which ones weren't.
In fairness, I think it's obvious which ones weren't.
Over on the UK singles chart, that month, there was no stopping Harry Nilsson who spent the entire month at Number One with his legendary cover of Badfinger's Without You, fending off the likes of the New Seekers, Don McLean and Gilbert O'Sullivan, in the process.
Over on the British album chart, things were more volatile, with no fewer than three LPs claiming the top spot.
Those LPs were Neil Young's Harvest, Paul Simon's Paul Simon and Lindisfarne's Fog on the Tyne.
As a youth, it never struck me that Lindisfarne were a big albums band but it just goes to show how much I know.
And what do I know of the less popular comics Marvel published which bore a March 1972 cover date?
I know there weren't that many of them. Despite perceived wisdom insisting the recent switch to a thicker format and back again established Marvel as the biggest comics company in America, it produced surprisingly few books that month.
These, though, are what I feel are the pick of the Marvel makeweights.
Yes, it's true. Hank McCoy leaves the X-Men, to take a job at the Brand Corporation and, somehow, manages to turn himself into a furry monster.
Will the ex X-Man overcome this unfortunate turn of events?
And will he be able to thwart whatever evil lurks at that corporation, while he's at it?
And why's he grey on that cover, and not blue?
From what I remember, isn't he a cop who gets waylaid by a sick man on a flying carpet on a one-way trip to the red planet?
Whatever the explanation, those Martian bad guys don't stand a chance with him around.
But that's not all, because this issue features two tales.
The second being The Impossible Tunnel in which Robert Saunders sets out to dig a tunnel from North America to Europe.
However, in the process, he discovers an underground civilization then destroys his tunnel to protect that realm from the people of the surface world.
And there's more! Despite the main tale being 28 pages long, there's also a Sub-Mariner reprint called The Hidden World.
What it's about, I couldn't say.
Maybe it features that civilisation that bloke found with his tunnel.
Who can know?
It's time for yet more blubbing and regretting, as My Love continues its romantic flingings.
This time, we're offered such tales as As Time Goes By!, Loyalty... or Love!, Puppet on a String! and Formula for Love!
Holy haddocks! Namor's lost his memory - thanks to the trauma of losing his dad - and doesn't know who he is.
Far too many of those yarns have the word, "Love," in their title for my tastes. It is good, though, to see there's a story that can only be dedicated to Sandie Shaw.
Fortunately, he's got a friend who's all too willing to help him out.
That friend is Dr Doom.
What could possibly go wrong?
And how does it involve MODOK, AIM and a Cosmic Cube?
And why do I keep misreading Doomsmasque as, "Doomsquatch?"
I'd pay good movie to see a film called Doomsquatch.
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13 comments:
Charlie bought AA (Beast) and Defenders #2 off the spinner.
Defenders was a jolly good read! Me, me cousin, and me brother read it in the back of a station wagon driving from me dad's aunt's house on a Saturday night!
Amazing Adventures basically left young Charlie confused. How could that hairy beast have been under the human beast for so many years.
Picked up the Subby a few years ago on a Subby ebay "lot." It was a great read as are the Subbies up through the end of Bill Everett's issues at the least. Highly recommended.
The Gil Kane covers, numerous new artists coming onboard, the price changes, Beast turning out to be a hair ball... Marvel wasn't Marvel any longer in many ways.
Well, from another point of view Charlie - depending on your age I guess, and when you started reading - you could say Marvel was becoming more Marvel than ever.
Come on - Gil Kane covers, the Defenders (is there a more super-hero comic more emblematic of the 70s than the Defenders?) and coming up next month the first Tomb of Dracula and Warlock, and a little later Luke Cage, Man-Thing (Adventure Into Fear), the return of Captain Marvel and Dr Strange... how much more Marvel can you get?
Ok, Kirby and Ditko aren't around, but they were being reprinted.
I picked up those Sub-Mariners not so long ago, after a recommendation from b.t. (well, 'recommendation' may be overstating things a bit, but he mentioned them over at Back In The Bronze Age).
Gene Colan does a cool Dr Doom, but... he wants the cosmic cube so he can fix his face and not be a villain anymore?!? Thats an epic fail imo.
-sean
Regrettably Steve, 'Puppet On A String' in My Love #16 is not an homage to the fragrant Sandie Shaw, but instead another comic book lesson for young lady readers in playing hard to get to grab the fella of their dreams.
How ever did Marvel find writers like Gary Friedrich who were so wise in the ways of the human heart, eh?
The interesting thing about the story is that it was drawn by Steve Englehart.
https://fourcolorshadows.blogspot.com/2019/09/puppet-on-string-steve-englehartjohn.html
-sean
Sean - a serious question. When wasnt a plot involving la cube cosmic an epic fail? I would be interested in reading a story where it was used effectively. Truly!
I only know the Paul Gascoigne version of Fog On The Tyne - I've never heard the original!
In the UK Gullivar Jones appeared in my first ever Marvel comic - Planet Of The Apes #5.
I love Silent Running - and those cute little robots, aww.
The final scene is so poignant with the last remaining robot watering the plants to a Joan Baez song.
What a nightmare vision of the future that was, Colin - Joan Baez in space.
-sean
Steve:
The Beast was gray for his first few Amazing Adventures, then he had a (gasp!) SECONDARY MUTATION. He just woke up one morning and boom, his fur had turned dark blue/black overnight. Apparently, someone behind the scenes decided gray was a boring color for a Super-hero / Monster hybrid (maybe it was Stan?) and ordered the switch, much like what had happened to The Hulk a decade earlier.
When the Beast started showing up in The Avengers and elsewhere —after the short-lived Marvel Monster fad was pretty much over — they didn’t make much effort to add all the spot blacks in his fur, and even started referring to him as having blue fur in the text. His personality got a major overhaul too — no longer full of rage and self-pity, he became the bubbly, bouncy, Beast we know today.
Sean:
Yes, these issues are pretty much representative of ‘My’ Marvel Experience. Not these issues exactly, but the second Beast and Gullivar Jones stories were part of a big pile of comics I acquired from a neighborhood pal. That second Beast story is by far the best of that run, Tom Sutton gets inked by Mike Ploog. It’s an incredibly effective combo — the Beast actually looks scary at times in that one. That’s the one where he goes berserk and kills Iron Man (no spoiler warning necessary, it’s right there on the cover).SUBBY #49 was in that cache too.
Speaking of which — Mike Esposito kinda murdered Gentleman Gene’s pencils on this issue and the next, so I feel kinda bad if you bought those on my recommendation. But I’ll stand by SUBBY #49, with its MUCH more dynamic Colan/Giacoia combo. And IIRC, no mention of Doom’s emo motive for wanting the Cube in that one, either (maybe Conway forgot?). In fact, I really like the way Conway and Colan treat the Cube in that issue — it’s not the usual ‘It’ll give me anything I can wish for (if only my imagination wasn’t so lame)’ schtick — they play it as though it’s burning hot with radioactive cosmic energy or something, like the whatsit in the trunk in KISS ME DEADLY. One secondary bad guy gets MELTED after close contact with it. Pretty cool.
Charlie:
Yeah, good point — most Cosmic Cube stories ARE pretty dumb.
b.t.
Can any of you more knowledgeable ones (and you all know more than I do about our venerable hobby!) share what is happening with the coloring of Namor?
His skin tone isn't just plane white, like on the DEfenders cover, but has the brownish shading.
IIRC we don't see that technique on other covers nor in the future?
What up with that?
Charlie, are you talking about Namor on the COVER (not interiors) of SUBBY 47? That kind of orange-y shading, that makes him look like he’s wearing a ton of bronzer? I think it’s actually fairly common for Subby covers of that general vintage. I took a quick look at some SUBBY cover galleries at the GCD just now and found a bunch of examples, including issue numbers 3,4,9,10,12, 14, 20, 58 and 59. On some of those, he looks positively sun-burnt (like #20)
Also, I was thinking some more about your point about other dumb Cosmic Cube stories. In CAPTAIN MARVEL 33 , Thanos gets ahold of the Cube, and ascends to Godhood — HOLY CRAP — but he’s really just a big floaty face in the sky over Manhattan firing Omega Beams (that he stole from Darkseid) at Mar-Vell. Who manages to dodge all of them. Then he tosses a couple of skyscrapers at Marv, and finally gets the UTTERLY BRILLIANT IDEA to make Marv age rapidly (which at least looks gnarly) and then Old Decrepit Marv karate chops the Cube and just like that, Thanos is defeated. Even at the ripe old age of 13, I recognized a severe anti-climax when I saw it.
b.t.
Bt, thanks for the Beast info.
Charlie, I suspect they were just trying to make Subby look like he spent a lot of time on the beach, soaking up the sun, what with him being a man in swimming trunks.
Colin I agree with you about Silent Running.
Sean, I also agree with you about it.
Sean, thanks for that Steve Englehart link. I do feel like John Romita was doing a fair bit of the heavy lifting on that one.
b.t. I thought about those Mar-Vell issues when Charlie asked about the Cosmic Cube, and I have to admit that even though I have a sentimental attachment to Jim Starlin's first Thanos epic you're quite right about the ending, and in retrospect the whole thing was all a bit dumb.
In fairness to Judo Jim, he did learn from it and went on to do much better work with his next series, Warlock (even if by the '80s he seemed to have forgotten how to do that).
The only vaguely interesting Cosmic Cube story I can recall is Super-Villain Team-Up #s 16 and 17, a charming tale about the Red Skull and the Hatemonger passing time in their private concentration camp on the Isle of Exiles, trying to make a new cosmic cube.
Technically I suppose its not about THE Cosmic Cube, and its in er... shall we say questionable taste. But at least its a bit different.
Mind you, you could say that about the Cosmic Cube preferring Hostess Twinkies in the ad with the Red Skull.
-sean
Sean:
I finally read the MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS Man-Thing serial by Gerber and Sutton. And, uh…YIKES. Sutton’s really giving it his all in the early chapters, but by the end he’s clearly fighting the deadlines and just slamming it out. Story-wise, it’s kind of a mess. Iran-Contra turned up to ‘Eleven’, with extra drugs and cartoonish Mad Scientists and Right-Wing ‘Patriots’ and Satanism and Mega-Violent Body Horror and buxom scantily-clad babes. It seems really extreme for a four color newsprint Marvel Comic from 1987.
b.t.
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