Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
***
When it comes to music, TV and current affairs, nothing too thrilling happened in the world, this week in 1974. Therefore, let us fling ourselves into our look at what Marvel UK was offering up during that spell.
Granted, he's not his own father's most popular martial artist. If he was, Midnight wouldn't have been sent to kill him in the first place.
It all climaxes with a dramatic battle on a building site and a perfect demonstration of why you should never leap off cranes while wearing a cape.
This is, of course, the reason I refuse to wear one, even though everyone wants me to.
Elsewhere in New York, the Avengers also have their hands full when the Sons of the Serpent try to blow up visiting Chinese official General Chen and his visiting car.
Clearly, the world's mightiest super-team can't let such an affront to diplomatic relations stand.
And that all leads to Captain America being captured by the viperous villains!
Also up against it is Dr Strange who must fight Baron Mordo's allies while blindfolded, gagged and unable to waggle his fingers around, meaning he must rely entirely on his habitually feeble astral self to do all his fighting for him.
Spider-Man may have thought he had his work cut out, a few weeks ago, when he had to combat the New Vulture but, now, he's really got problems, as the original feathered fiend is on the loose and out to prove he can do anything his replacement could.
In Iron Man's strip, the leader of the Communist World sends the newly created Crimson Dynamo to the United States to destroy Tony Stark's latest project - and destroy Iron Man while he's at it.
Fortunately, Iron Man has two things on his side; superior armour and the smooth-tongued ability to convince his foe to defect to a land that can offer more baseball games and brands of cola than you can shake a stick at.
Thor, meanwhile, finds himself in Hades and helping his love rival Hercules battle Pluto's never-ending minions.
And we finish with a Lee/Ditko shorty, as we encounter a woman who's accused of witchcraft and put on trial.
Ultimately, she's exonerated and released, a free woman but, in a shocking twist that could turn a reader's mind inside out, upside down and back to front, we discover her fiancé is the real witch!
Sal Buscema appears from nowhere to provide the finished artwork for this week's Hulk tale, as the Leader, still butt hurt from previous defeats by the brute, decides to revive the Rhino, boost his powers and send him to gatecrash Bruce Banner's wedding to Betty Ross who, thanks to the intrusion, narrowly misses out on the honour of becoming known as Betty Banner.
Speaking of brutes, the Ox is convinced by his cellmate Karl Stragg that if the two of them bust out of jail together, Stragg will make him smarter.
However, the sinister scientist is out to pull a fast one and intends to swap bodies with the bovine bully boy, giving himself the body of a thug and the mind of a scientist!
Can Daredevil put paid to such plans?
Elsewhere, the Fantastic Four are not at all happy about the death of Sue and Johnny's father and decide it's time to go to the Skrull's home galaxy to bring the knuckle sandwich of justice to the individual who killed him.
Sandman was in the FF strip last week. A shame they couldn't have spared that story over three MWOM issues as then we'd have had villains in all three MWOM strips who made their debut in Amazing Spider-Man.
ReplyDelete‘Nothing too thrilling’? I bet MFSB and the Three Degrees were thrilled to have ‘TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)’ at # 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart…
ReplyDeleteb.t.
You know… (maybe you dont)… i always wondered why Sir Paul threw the Crimson Dynamo into the song “Magneto and Titanium Man.” CD was really rather an obscure figure, no? Then again The Mandarin would not sound good…not enough syllables!
ReplyDeleteMarvin Gaye was on the cover of Rolling Stone 50 years ago this month.
ReplyDelete40 years ago this month his father shot him to death .
No bueno.
What do you mean nothing happened this week in 1974, Steve?
ReplyDeleteKidnapped heiress turned urban guerilla fighter, Patty Hearst - aka 'Tania' of the United Federated Forces of the Symbionese Liberation Army - was caught on video robbing a bank for the Revolution, in San Francisco. Right on, sister - fight the power!
And prime minister Harold Wilson visited 'Northern Ireland', where Ulster loyalists were er, loyally causing trouble for the British government over the Sunningdale Agreement. Which they were doing with a bit of help from another visiting politician Enoch Powell, there for a meeting of the United Ulster Unionist Council (they sound like a charming bunch).
Its all very mid-70s, on both sides of the Atlantic.
-sean
Any idea what happened to Marvel UK not mentioning communism, Steve? Did they just give up on that with the Iron Main/Crimson Dynamo story then?
ReplyDeleteIirc, the next appearance of the first Crimson Dynamo was also the debut of the Black Widow. So she's probably coming to an issue of SMCW soon.
-sean
Ah yes. I remember when McDonalds came out with the Hearst burger: Two buns and no paddy.
ReplyDeleteSean, I take it all back. This week in 1974 was a veritable hive of activity.
ReplyDeleteAnon, I can only assume the Crimson Dynamo just happened to be in one of the comics Macca was looking at when he wrote the song.
Bt, I'm just shocked to discover the Three Degrees had a Number One in America. I'd always assumed they were one of those American groups who were a lot bigger over here than they were at home.
Steve - Legendary 1979 northern album, "The Brotherhood of Man Sing 20 Number One Hits" included The Three Degrees' 1974 song, 'When Will I See You Again?" - so, I knew that song, at least, was a no.1! But, does the said album only include only UK number 1's, or is its title mischievously ambiguous, allowing the Wakefield wonders to cast their net wide, selecting number 1's from any nation under the sun, to reach their quota of 20 songs? Looking 'When Will I See You Again?' up, it reached # 2 in the regular U.S. chart, # 4 in the R&B chart, but # 1 in America's adult contemporary chart. Thus, America has so many charts, it provides a better chance of topping at least one of them! In the UK, 'When Will I See You Again?' spent 2 weeks at no.1, in 1974! Sorry for this diatribe - lack of sleep & not enough breakfast does that to me!
ReplyDeletePhillip
Remove one 'only' from my 3rd line!
ReplyDeleteBad proof-reader, Phillip
Strangely, the song was released in June, in the UK - then in September, in the USA. To 'The Three Degrees', maybe the UK was like a Petri dish, developing their songs' potential (Prince Charles's interest?), before releasing them later, in America. Anyone see Sheila (?), along with Paul Nicholas, on that Real Marigold Hotel show, on which former celebs go to India?
ReplyDeletePhillip
Shockingly, I've just discovered Sheila Ferguson wasn't an original member of the Three Degrees, and the Three Degrees had already worked its way through five members before she even joined.
ReplyDeletePhillip, recently in a record shop I passed on a double lp called 'Northern Soul Classics', mainly because along with several of the better known tunes you might associate with the Wigan Casino or wherever, it included at least as many mainstream oldies, hits by Martha Reeves, Smokey Robinson hits and people like that (nothing wrong with that of course, but not at all what it said on the tin imo).
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I did wonder about the one track on it I hadn't heard of before though, 'Reach Out Your Hand' by Brotherhood of Man. Obviously some obscure American group that never became well known enough to justify a Detroit Spinners-type addition to their name, right?
Well, no. It turned out to be a 1970 single by the group of later Eurovision fame, back when they were imitating the faith (rather than Abba)...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9yxDXctiDk
I definitely dodged a bullet there! Although in fairness, at least its not as bad as 'I'll Do Anything' by Lenny Gamble (who turned out to be Tony Blackburn in disguise). But still...
-sean
Sean - Yes - Brotherhood of Man's greatest success being 20 hits by other people tells you what you need to know. Nevertheless, their 20 number 1 hits album is still a credit to them. The songs are incredibly well chosen. The Brotherhood of M tried to repeat the formula with other albums, but the song choices didn't work as well. Also, often, the renditions of the 20 number 1 hits are at least as good as the originals - whereas, repeating the formula, the renditions were often inferior.
ReplyDeleteThat link to 'Reach Out Your Hand' is interesting. It has an up-beat, slightly Motown sound (to me), making it fairly pleasant - but it's clearly no masterpiece.
Perhaps, for Eurovision, the group should have rebranded themselves 'The New Brotherhood of Man' (like the New Seekers). Unfortunately, since 'New Labour', prefixing anything with 'New' makes you seem like a prat. It's a good job they didn't call themselves 'The Third Way' !
Phillip
At least they aren't calling themselves New New Labour these days, Phillip.
ReplyDeleteSteve, I think thats right about the Three Degrees being bigger in Britain. And Japan, apparently. They seemed to have an appeal to post-imperial island peoples inscrutable to outsiders...
-sean
Phillip hinted at Prince Charles's interest in the Three Degrees - in fact they were his favourite pop group and got invited to his wedding in 1981 but I don't know about the coronation.
ReplyDeleteSean, Brotherhood of Man weren't imitating ABBA - the version of BOM that won Eurovision in 1976 were formed in 1973 before anyone outside Sweden had even heard of ABBA.
Prince Charles was a big fan of the Goons as well - I heard him do an impersonation of one of the characters.
ReplyDeleteNew New Labour may sound daft but Red Tories sounds better and more accurate!
BBC iPlayer is showing The Blair Witch Project so I watched it last night for the first time in over 20 years but it hasn't improved with age and is still unscary and over-rated.
ReplyDeleteNo offence Colin, but I'm a bit sceptical about Brotherhood of Man not trying to imitate Abba. Either way though they weren't my cup of horrible racket, so I won't argue the point.
ReplyDelete-sean
Im a gonna see Mama Mia in May. Any of you seen it? ms. charlie and her daughter are huge Abba fans and it will be a mother’s day gift!
ReplyDeleteCharlie, I've seen a bit of the movie. It wasn't great.
ReplyDeleteMuriel's Wedding was a lot better.
It’s funny — I always thought The Three Degrees were kind of a ‘One Hit Wonder’ act (maybe a ‘One And A Half Hit Wonder’ act if we count their ‘Doot doot doodley-doo, it’s time to get DOWN’ bits at the end of ‘TSOP’). ‘When Will I See You Again’ was a massive hit and I always kinda wondered why we never really heard from them again, here in the States. Until today I never knew they were WAY more successful in the UK (and worldwide). Silly me!
ReplyDeleteb.t.
Does Muriels’s Wedding feature ABBA, which is the whole reason for see Mama Mia? I admit the plot line does not sound… ohhh… interesting?
ReplyDeleteCharlie(?), it features ABBA, plus other popular 1970s toe tappers.
ReplyDeleteAre Abba - sorry, ABBA - actually in Mamma Mia though? I've not seen it, but my understanding is that the songs are sung by the cast, which would be... actors like Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan?
ReplyDeleteNot to put you off or anything, Charlie, but that doesn't sound promising.
-sean
You are correct, Sean. In Mamma Mia, the songs are sung by the cast members.
ReplyDeleteFriday night and the lights are lowww...
ReplyDeleteDoes Meryl Streep sing that in her Thatcher voice then, Steve?
Or maybe its Brosnan, Bond-style? Or like Dr Fate (yeah, I had the dubious pleasure of seeing Black Adam recently)...
-sean
Charlie has no idea who the actors will be for Mama Mia and thus how authentic the voices will be compared to AbBa . It’s downtown Chicago at 2pm on a Sunday. Prime time. Ms. Charlie adores all that singing stuff. Last week we went to see Verdi’s Aida. Opera tickets are right up there with rock n roll tickets. Sheesh… but operas are not as stodgy as they used to be. Folks bring their drinks in with them now… folks leave early. .. you’d think you were at a baseball game or something.
ReplyDeleteOoh, Verdi's Aida... get you, Charlie (;
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, I thought you were going on about the film (it did seem a bit weird you were going on about seeing it well in advance). But going to a performance - I guess that gives it a sense of occasion.
Hope you all have a good time.
-sean
Charlie, Mamma Mia on stage will have proper singers unlike the film version in which the songs were performed by actors who can't sing for toffee. In the old-time classic musicals the actors had their singing voices dubbed unless they could actually sing, like Julie Andrews in The Sound Of Music for example. But in modern film musicals the actors must do their own singing as it's more "authentic" - it's a musical FFS so who cares about authenticity?
ReplyDeleteIn the end it all boils down to ABBA karaoke.
ReplyDeleteI seem to recall over the last few months that you UK gents were saying how the marvel comics were tweaked in the UK so that the heroes were not fighting Commies. So, I take it, You weren’t really aware that Crimson Dynamo or titanium man were commies? Given that, I wonder if Paul knew that they were commies and not realizing it that’s why he threw them into the song? Maybe he thought they were just benign criminals like the circus master and his circus of goofballs?
ReplyDeleteCH47
Well that was the point of my (rhetorical) question above, Charlie - what happened to not mentioning commies in that Iron Man story?
ReplyDeleteActually, I do recall reading an interview with Tony Isabella, who's first job in the bullpen - around 72 to 74 - was editing the UK reprint titles to send over, and he really complained about having to take out the anti-communist propaganda and dealing with soft limey $@&#s. It was pretty funny actually.
So it seems likely he just didn't always do it properly.
On the McCartney thing though, I expect he was familiar with Marvel stuff from the US monthlies. In fact, thats almost certainly the case, as that song come out in - what, 75 at the latest? - and this post features the first Crimson Dynamo story in a UK title, from April '74.
Now I think about it, wasn't 'Magneto and Titanium Man' inspired by a specific (US) Avengers cover? I'm sure I recall reading that somewhere. I bet Steve knows.
-sean
Mr McCartney may have become aware of characters like Crimson Dynamo and Titanium Man via UK reprints pre Marvel. Two Odhams comics "Fanastic" (and "Terrific") from around 1967 reprinted Iron Man tales at this.
ReplyDeleteAh, I checked Steve's post on McCartney, and remembered where I read about the Avengers cover. It was #130 (and X-Men #91) apparently -
ReplyDeletehttps://13thdimension.com/the-great-paul-mccartney-and-jack-kirby-partnership/
That piece has an account of meeting the great man himself. And Paul McCartney too.
-sean