Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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Quiver, humans. For, a new month is upon us. Let us see what its first week has to offer.
Our second Hulk tale involves Thunderbolt Ross launching the new Orion missile. Hulky-Baby intercepts it but reverts to Bruce Banner before he can stop it.
And, in the Fantastic Four's tale, Doctor Doom's still causing trouble, thanks to his abduction of Alicia.
My main memory of encountering this issue, as a kid, is of misreading the cover blurb as saying the FF are up against a Doom Shirt. It's always been a massive disappointment to me that they aren't.
Granted, it's not that new. As far as I can make out, this is the one in which the Circus of Crime decides to ditch the Ringmaster and rebrand itself as the Masters of Menace.
Once renamed, it plans an art heist.
And, needless to say, it doesn't do any better without the brains of the outfit than it did with him.
Elsewhere, Thor must face his deadliest threat yet, as, while visiting India, Don Blake discovers one of his old teachers has been murdered by a man with the power of a snake!
How can even a nigh-omnipotent god hope to prevail against a foe who has the awesome power of crawling around on his stomach?
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46 comments:
Wow!
Hey, the He-Hulk has red trousers on that MWOM cover. What happened to his usual purple ones?
Anyway, thanks as ever for an informative post, Steve. I had no idea there was a brain in the Circus of Crime! I always thought that didn't happen til the late 90s, when their collective IQ level was briefly raised by Devil Dinosaur joining.
-sean
Masters of Menace, The Circus of Crime, The Exiles, The Enforcers… please add to this list of the kookiest kriminals kongregated for a whoopin!
Charlie
*Kookiest kriminals kongregated for a kickin!
(I decided to add to the alliteration instead, Charlie)
-sean
I'm intrigued by the banner at the top of the Spidey cover that says SPECIAL "BE KIND TO SUPER-VILLAINS" ISSUE - what's that all about?
Surely it can't be long until The Avengers #1 comes along and when do the glossy covers and corner-boxes appear? All these things were in place when I discovered Marvel Comics in November '74.
It has been determined, Sean, that gamma radiation turns the fibers of pants purple. I could explain why, scientifically, but it's too technical to go into here.
However, differences in those trouser fibers can result in variations of the hues of the Hulk's pants.
M.P.
MP - that’s reallythe kraziest bunch of krapola Ive heard in a while.
I take umbrage that my veracity has been thus impugned.
M.P.
Colin, as far as I remember, The Avengers #1 was the first Marvel UK book to have a glossy cover. Then the other titles followed suit a few months later.
The glossy cover to the soon to be published Avengers weekly was its big selling point, well apart from featuring the Avengers and Dr Strange..... and the free transfers of course. I think it wasnt published until mid September
Thanks for the info, Steve and Paul :)
M.P., my understanding is that Bruce Banner had his trousers specially made for him by Reed Richards out of unstable molecules - which is why they changed size as he transformed into the He-Hulk, avoiding any embarrassing display - and they were all purple because... well, neither of them had any taste.
No offence, but I would like a bit more scientific detail about this supposed 'purple effect' of gamma radiation before accepting it.
-sean
I've just finished listening to Colin's recommended Marvel vs DC radio 4 documentary. Jim Shooter contributed, as did Chris Claremont (briefly) - and Frank Miller, too. This radio documentary had the usual stark distinctions (Marvel vs DC). Much of it being too simplistic, however. DC's surrealism wasn't discussed at all - nor was all the occult/horror stuff, with things like Secrets of the Haunted House, etc - DC wasn't 'prim & proper' all the time! Nevertheless, the documentary had some interesting stuff in it.
Phillip
Culture question for UK devotees of SDC! (No, not going to ask if you really eat toast and beans lol.)
Mushy peas? Was passing by a fish and. Chips and place in Asheville North Carolina and they were decked out with Union Jacks, the Bully Beef / John Bull guy, etc. and they had signs etc. proclaiming ro the heavens YES! We have REAL “MUSHY PEAS!!!”
Mushy peas are a staple in the uk?
Mushy peas are an optional side, with fish & chips. Personally, I like the taste of fish & chips, themselves, and feel anything except salt & vinegar detracts from that taste. You can still buy mushy peas, in tins, I imagine, but I don't think they're as popular as they used to be!
Phillip
Our chip shop does a small tub of mushy peas as a free extra with every fish. It is perfect.
And this is in London. Astonishing.
So are they just over-cooked peas or are they mashed? Served hot or cold? TIA - CH47
MP - you do know they purple is the color of choice for “adult film” settings? Could that explain Hulks Purple Pants?
Phillip, I had mashed potatoes with tinned mushy peas only last weekend!
The Marvel vs DC documentary did tend to pit "cool" Marvel against "uncool" DC and my favourite line was when Jim Shooter (I think) said: "DC executives' biggest fear was their briefcase falling open on the train and comics falling out but Marvel executives read comics on the train and were proud of it".
Charlie, mushy peas are peas cooked until they've gone all mushy I think. You can eat them hot or cold and I especially like them with faggots (in Britain a faggot is a sort of spicy meatball and not a derogatory name for homosexuals).
My favourite story about mushy peas involves Peter Mandelson when he first became MP for Hartlepool - he visited a chip shop in his new constituency and mistook some mushy peas for guacamole.
CH-47 eats pretty much everything in all combinations and permutations. But he just doesn’t imagine mushy peas with fish n chips. Here, cole slaw is almost always served with fish and chips. The only permutation being cream based or vinegar based. Charlie prefers the vinegar to cut the grease.
Why mush the peas at all? What's wrong with a whole pea?
Why make eating them any harder than it already is?
..although sweet peas from a garden are rather tasty.
M.P.
As kids, my brother loved mushy peas, whereas I hated them! As an adult, I can take them or leave them, but they are not a favourite.
Similar in taste to mushy peas, is "pease pudding". N.B. this is NOT a dessert, so why it's called "pudding", I don't know. Does pease pudding originate in Geordieland? I'm not sure.
CH-47, mushy peas are served hot(ish), and seem much larger peas than ordinary frozen peas. Also, the taste is completely different.
Colin - Whether that Peter Mandelson story is spurious or not, it fits him so well, everyone would assume that it's true!
Phillip
Mushy peas are just Marrowfat peas ( a larger pea to the garden pea) cooked in their own juice? I eat them occasionally with fish n chips but prefer coleslaw and an onion. In the East coast area Edinburgh they put "salt and Soss" on their fish and chips - soss is just a thinner version of brown sauce with more vinegar in it but they love it there!
Charlie, some other super villain groups (all lacking alliteration sprry): The Frightful Four, Injustice gang \league of America,Superman Revenge Squad, Masters of Evil, League of Assassins and Brotherhood of Evil mutants.
Oh my! Miss Charlie wants to visit Hartlepool as this is where her grandfather is from, in the nearer future. This is the same Hartlepool just south (?) of New Castle? He immigrated here in the early 1900s to Chicago. Now and again americansnget curious about their roots!
Charlie, my mother died in 2009 and when I went to register her death at the local Registrar For Births, Deaths & Marriages there was an American (or Canadian?) couple looking for information about their ancestors.
Another of my comments has vanished - does this happen to anybody else?
Charlie - Q: What is Hartlepool most famous for?
A: The famous Hartlepool monkey!
Phillip
Colin - None of my comments have vanished yet. Charlie will be watching the cup final, so it will be necessary to wait for a reply.
Phillip
Colin, every so often, Google arbitrarily decides already published comments are spam and blocks them. I've now reinstated the comment in question and told Google it wasn't spam.
Phillip and Colin I've now listened to that Radio 4 Marvel vs DC documentary and it did indeed stick to the tried and tested arguments about the natures of Marvel and DC.
MP, mushy pea are easier to eat because they don't roll of your fork. This is especially useful if you're walking around the streets, eating them, with fish and chips, from a sheet of paper/carton.
Allegedly, while on the election trail in Hartlepool, their MP - back before they became Tories in that part of the world - Lord Mandelson sampled the mushy peas at some chip shop, saying "hmmm... nice guacamole".
I don't know if that's true, but everyone likes having a go at Mandelson, don't they?
Anyway, thats my contribution on Hartlepool. I would have gone with the monkey story, which is better, but Phillip got there first. Even though he didn't even tell it.
-sean
Oh dear, I just noticed Colin did the Mandelson guacamole thing. Duh.
-sean
The good folk of Hartlepool lynched a monkey, thinking it a Napoleonic spy (or something.)
Phillip
Ch-47 read up on the Hartlepool Monkey story. Sweet Jesus… i thought the usa was a few bricks short of a load but this story… I mean we’re driving down the Hwy in Tennessee and a huge 70’ cross and see a huge 70’ cross erected to blot iut the birs of this football-field long “adult toy” store (i googled it…).
And in Hartlepool during the 2002 election the mayoral candidate won campaigning in a monkey outfit and promising free bananas to all the kids.
A 70’ cross erected to blot out the view of the adult tou store…
Assuming MC win the treble, Charlie will need to find a new EPL team to follow. Lacking any proper emotional connection, Charlie likes to cheer for a proper cinderella story type of team! Any recommendations? I.e., a team that, with a bit of moxy and luck, could win it! NewCaslte? Help please! I would follow The Hammers since DW is a faithful follower but… well…
Anyone but Spurs, Charlie.
And yeah, French people have to watch themselves in Hartlepool! The roots of Euroscepticism are deep in t'North...
-sean
Charlie, realistically, there are no clubs outside of the usual suspects who could have a chance of winning the league next season.
Charlie, if Spurs sign Glasgow Celtics manager then i would follow them ( sorry Sean) as an underdog with a chance to do something . But as Steve says its unlikely anyone outside 3 or 3 teams will win in England - and I doubt anyone will compete with Man City for a few years yet .
3 or 4 teams duh!
Thanks for rescuing my missing comment, Steve, but I'm curious why Google decided it was spam in the first place and I'm even more curious about why this happens to my comments only on Steve Does Comics (so far).
I remember hearing something about the French monkey "spy" many years ago but I didn't realise (or I'd forgotten) that it happened as far north as Hartlepool - the fear of a Napoleonic invasion was common along the south coast so you'd think that lynching a poor monkey because he was a French spy would be less likely in the north.
Charlie
If you want to follow a small club with an outside chance of winning the title, go for Arsenal. Especially if they buy Declan Rice. If you want to follow West Ham, then they have their first European final since 1976 next week (we don’t count the Intertoto) and so you’ll be getting onboard at the right time. If you want us to think less of you go for Spurs (sorry Paul).
;-)
DW
I'm not a Spurs fan DW. My English team is Blackburn Rovers, I liked their strip as a kid. I have a wee soft spot for West Ham as I was taken to one of their games when I worked in London by a colleague in the 1980s. Hope they do well in the Europa conference cup final altho Fiorintina are my Italian team so I'm fine no matter who wins lol
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