Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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A veritable smorgasbord of celluloid greeted those who attended the picture houses of the world in March 1984.
It was, it turns out, a month which saw the release of such never-to-be-forgottens as Romancing the Stone, Greystoke, Police Academy, Splash, The Hotel New Hampshire, Children of the Corn, Against All Odds, Repo Man and This is Spinal Tap.
I would say the last of those movies stands out to me as being the one that stands out to me but other offerings may stand out for others. Film appreciation being, as it is, a subjective matter.
However, thanks to this mag, we can read reprints of occult action sourced from Strange Tales #130-132.
This is, of course, the run of Dr Strange stories in which Dormammu increases Baron Mordo's powers, leading to a quest to discover the secret of Eternity.
Regular readers will know that I have no need of this book, as I have an eerily photographic recall of Dr Strange stories from this era.
I think we've all been desperate for a new Hercules comic, following the awesomeness of his previous solo outings.
Sad to say, I possess little knowledge of this book but a little bird has whispered in my ear that it all kicks off when Zeus starts killing the other gods.
In fairness, from what I can remember of Greek mythology, that does seem like a fairly Zeus thing to do.
He'll probably eat a few of them, while he's at it.
Admittedly, it's usually down to the covers - and this one's no exception, even if I don't really know what's going on on it.
Inside, we get a 45-page epic by creator of that cover Butch Guice and writer Bill Mantlo. That epic is titled The World of Never-Summer! and that's all I know of it.
Potentially.
All I know about this issue is the master of mystic arts is, indeed, contained within.
But is he there as friend or foe?
Can our heroine alert SHIELD before it's too late?
We also get a tale of the Warriors Three in which someone called Idunn asks the Asgardian adventurers to locate her husband Bragi.
I couldn't really pick it because of what happens inside it because I don't know what happens inside it, other than the involvement of the characters displayed right here.
During the rescue, we discover she's related to Snake-Eyes, based on both of them having the same tattoo.
I may be imagining things but I'm sure that's exactly the same plot as appeared the last time I covered a GI Joe comic in this slot.
The 1980s arrive with a vengeance as TV's hottest team gets its own Marvel mag! And I pity the fool who doesn't buy it!
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21 comments:
In Spidey/Daredevil, to compensate for Spidey's blindness (caused by the Masked Marauder), his Spider-sense increases in power.
This is diametrically opposed to Steve's last post (Spidey vs Hobgoblin), in which Spidey's Spider-sense decided to disappear, off the face of the Earth (as sergeant Jones on 'Minder' would say!)
Phillip
I got that DD/Spiderman book, as I was a mad Miller fan at the time (though the somewhat primitive contents were a bit disappointing).
That’s all though. Never even seen any of the others!
I went to see Splash at the cinema, which was odd for me as I usually only watched sci-fi movies.
Justyn
If I remember correctly, the Hercules mini series popped up on this side of the Atlantic as the back-up strip in Marvel UK's Transformers.
MM
I also bought the MIller DD/Spidey and was equally underwhelmed. The cover was the best bit. That Marvel Fanfare cover looks like an Image comic, ten years before Image.
Not a great month for Marvel
DW
I'd never seen THIS IS SPINAL TAP but I finally got to watch it on BBC iPlayer a couple of years ago. I'd heard lots of great things about this film, a comedy masterpiece blah, blah, but it did nothing for me I'm afraid. Average and overhyped.
I’m struggling to think of anything to say about these comics. I bought none of them.
Pretty nice Faux-Ditko cover by Byrne and Milgrom, and I kinda like Miller’s cover on that SPIDER-MAN / DAREDEVIL SPECIAL EDITION. Spidey is a bit too bloated (those thighs!), but otherwise, it’s cool.
I liked ROMANCING THE STONE way back when, but tried re-watching it a few years ago and had to give up after about fifteen minutes.
My God, GREYSTOKE was boring.
I thought SPLASH was lightweight and undemanding but somewhat entertaining. The first PG Disney movie, wasn’t it?
I know REPO MAN has a cult following but I didn’t dig it.
I used to love THIS IS SPINAL TAP but haven’t seen it in years and years, don’t know how well it holds up.
b.t.
Steve, as a regular reader I for one have appreciated your in depth coverage of that old Dr Strange Mordo/Dormammu storyline in the Thursday posts.
The Ditko-era Doc reprint looks like the best comic here. Of the new stuff, the one I actually had at the time is Marvel Fanfare #13, which I got for the Tales of Asgard/Warriors Three back up; or, to be more precise, Charles Vess' artwork.
With a story about the goddess Idunn - she was the keeper of the golden apples of youth btw - looking for her other half, Bragi the god of poetry, who'd got himself lost tangled up in Yggdrasil the world tree, writer Alan Zelentz' approach to that stuff was very much a take on Norse myth rather than Kirby.
Vess was obviously well suited to that kind of thing, and I assume the story was something of a try out, as the pair of them then did the (Asgardian) Marvel Graphic Novel 'The Raven Banner'.
Unfortunately Zelentz didn't have a particularly interesting approach to doing Norse myth in comics. It's not that he was a bad writer, but it's a shame an artist of Vess' calibre wasn't working with someone like, say, Walt Simonson or (a bit later) Neil Gaiman, who could really bring that stuff to life.
The Black Widow story was some old rubbish from the inventory file.
Beware the power of... Snapdragon! That is actually the name of the lady villain who's on the cover. Snapdragon. I think that probably gives you some idea of how little the story is worth reading.
-sean
PS Pretty sure that issue of GI Joe is the silent one, with no word balloons at all, by Larry Hama.
-sean
I’ve never seen Romancing The Stone.
It was well-received at the time but every time I’ve seen fiv minutes or so of it on TV it seems like cheap rubbish. I did go see the sequel on a date, and that really was rubbish.
I first saw Spinal Tap on BBC2 around 1988/9, and they bleeped all the swearing. When I saw it again on DVD years later it was a shock. The mild censorship actually helped sell the documentary aspect, I think, and I preferred it. It does still hold up though!
I watched Repo Man many times after taping it off the TV in 1989, but unfortunately I kind of hate it now. The slightly smug, hipper-than-thou-ness of it does my head in.
That android/robot/mechawotsit on the Marvel Team-up cover is a swipe/tribute to a similar looking fellow who appeared in Strange tales #154, an early Steranko effort....same appearance, same smashing-through-the-wall thing...their programming did seem sort of off-the-shelf back then.
B - The robot resembles a Dreadnought, to my eyes. It's forehead having a Black Bolt-style 'tuning fork', is noteworthy, however!
Phillip
It's should be Its (typos!)
Phillip
Guess I'm the outlier here- I actually enjoyed "Romancing the Stone". And "Splash" as well; guess I was a sucker for the lightweight fare. Speaking of "Splash", wasn't that Tom Hanks' first film venture? Seems that worked out fairly well for him...
Of these comics, I had none. Still buying, but fewer and fewer books each month by that time. Within another year I'd sell off my complete run of "X-Men" in order to buy one of those newfangled "compact disc players" . In hindsight, perhaps not the wisest action; but sure loved that sound!
I suppose Spinal Tap was a bit obvious - the Comic Strip Presents did the comedy metal thing a year or two earlier (Bad News) - but it still makes me laugh.
Stonehenge! Where the demons dwell...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAXzzHM8zLw
Like b.t. I never got the appeal of Repo Man. It seemed to me that maybe it was more the soundtrack that was popular in some quarters...? Then again, I've never understood the appeal of Tom Hanks either, so what do I know?
The only other film by Alex Cox I've seen is Sid & Nancy, which was terrible. But apparently that has something of a 'cult following' too.
-sean
Do any UK readers remember Alex Cox presenting several seasons of cult films on BBC2 in the '90s?
According to Wikipedia the series was called MOVIEDROME and was presented by Alex Cox from 1988-94.
Colin - Yes, I remember it - and it included 'Repo Man', discussed above.
Phillip
Phillip, that's where I first saw Repo Man but I've never seen Sid & Nancy (as mentioned by Sean) so if Alex Cox ever presented that film I must have missed it!
Colin -
Moviedrome was a staple for film-lovers. Got to see a lot of great films through that, even if I could take or leave the Alex Cox introductions.
I was never a fan of Cox - his brand of self-promoting post-punk bullshit always rubbed me up the wrong way.
Sean -
I think Repo Man was just the right blend of fashionable things at the right time: Robby Muller having just arrived in America and photographing it amazingly, a tinny US punk soundtrack, lots of cool actor cameos + Harry Dean Stanton. It was just a recipe for cultdom. I don't think it really holds up at all now.
Repo Man was, quite possibly, the greatest film ever made. It captured the zeitgeist.
Whether you were an angry and confused young man in East L.A. or Iowa.
Otto was a knight errant, like Childe Roland at the foot of the Dark Tower. After wandering through a wasteland to his ultimate destination his final fate was uncertain.
Akso, it was pretty $#@ing funny.
M.P.
Strangely enough, considering my negative review of REPO MAN, I also paid to see SID AND NANCY and WALKER in theatres. I thought the former was relatively well-made but simplistic and depressing as hell and remember thinking the latter was a pretentious, uninvolving mess. I might have a completely different reaction to it now, but I’ve never been interested enough to give it another go.
b.t.
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