Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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This week in 1974 saw Eurovision work its continental magic, as, coming from nowhere, ABBA claimed the top spot on the UK singles chart, with their track Waterloo. A spot they would go on to claim on nine separate occasions, over the course of their career, making them, surely, the biggest chart act of the 1970s in Britain.
On the accompanying album chart, pole position was still being held by the Carpenters with a compilation the world could only know as The Singles 1969-1973.
I do believe I never owned this issue but I do know it features the Hulk's first encounter with the Absorbing Man. And it all happens when Bruce Banner agrees to fly an experimental aircraft for reasons I can't recall.
For reasons I also can't recall, Crusher Creel, somehow, finds himself attached to the outside of that aircraft - and the inevitable punch-up ensues.
But how can the Hulk hope to defeat a foe who's every bit as strong as he is - and even smarter?
As far as I can remember, he can't.
And doesn't.
One man who doesn't have to worry about fights, this week, is Daredevil who, for some reason, appears not to be present in this issue.
However, the Fantastic Four are more than present and we are, thus, treated to what I think is their second punch-up with the Frightful Four. An encounter that climaxes with the villains literally nuking our heroes.
Fortunately, Sue's invisible force field proves up to the task of protecting them from such a thing.
But at what cost to the team?
And to their careers as super-heroes?
I do believe this is the issue in which Shang-Chi convinces Denis Nayland Smith that he's changed his spots and is now a battler against evil.
From what I understand, the Avengers finally overcome the Sons of the Serpent - and make the shocking revelation that the ourobouros inclined offsprings of ophidiousness have been led, all along, by none other than their supposed target for assassination General Chen!
And I do believe that, in his strip, Dr Strange is busy mithering himself about the fate of Clea who Dormammu's banished to somewhere or other for her annoying habit of giving aid and support to the good doctor.
The two vultures are still battling it out in the skies of New York to decide which of them is top dog.
Not that either of them will gain that title if Spider-Man has his way.
Having only just completed the job of stopping the Crimson Dynamo from trying to sabotage his plant, Iron Man now has to deal with the Melter trying to do the exact same thing.
Only weeks after Jack Frost tried to do it!
But, this time, it's real trouble for our exoskeleton-loving entrepreneur, as he meets the one foe his armour's powerless against.
Meanwhile, Thor's still on a mission to rescue Hercules from Pluto's Underworld.
I do believe this causes the thunder god to have a run-in with Cerberus who, for some reason, isn't depicted as the three-headed dog we all know him to be.
Meanwhile, above ground, Jane Foster's flatmate with the unfeasibly large head is turning out to be an alien!
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35 comments:
Spidey looks like he just slipped on a banana peel or something while the two Vultures duke it out overhead.
b.t.
It appears that this week's Dr Strange reprint - 'Where Man Hath Never Trod!" - is the one before the story with Mr Rah Rah Rasputin, Steve, that I mentioned last week. So they haven't skipped it, just switched the running order.
So er... forget I ever mentioned it.
Btw, Clea doesn't actually have a name yet.
-sean
Sean… please stop discussing Rasputin. Every time I read his name, I think of Boney M. and start jumping around on one leg. Thank you.
ABBA had 7 UK #1 hits from 1974-78 (and 2 more in 1980) plus 5 #1 albums from 1976-79 so the Super-Swedes were indeed the top UK chart act of the '70s with Slade coming second. WATERLOO also reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and it's still the only Eurovision winner to make the US Top 10 (but the most successful Eurovision winner in terms of singles sold internationally is SAVE YOUR KISSES FOR ME by Brotherhood Of Man in 1976).
This weekend also marks 50 years since the first episode of PLANET OF THE SPIDERS which was the final Dr Who adventure for Jon Pertwee before he regenerated into Tom Baker!
Sean… I am convinced John Lennon’s inspiration for the White Album like Number Nine Dream is Debord’s “Hurlement en Faveur de Sade.”
And I agree a big-budget Disney version would be nothing short of Oscar worthy.
CH47
Sean, Robert E Howard's Conan stories are NOT "a load of bollocks"!!
Although there were plenty of ABBA fans here in the US (myself enthusiastically included), they only mustered a single number 1 on Billboard. Our loss - I can think of numerous US chart toppers that s
Could / should have been replaced by ABBA hits! Ah well...
Steve- I love your descriptions of each week's comics . After reading your take on Spider-Man Comics Weekly, I couldn't help but think how it sounded like an old TV Guide description of some demented soap opera. Which kind of makes sense; serial comic stories share much with those daily melodramas. Actually, I'm especially reminded of "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman". A very unusual show, it even had aliens. Was this shown in the UK? Vintage 1976-78 or thereabouts.
Oh, and Steve- "ourobouros inclined offspring of ophidiousness "? You win the Turn of Phrase Award for the year!
He's got my vote, Red.
Jane Foster's "flatmate with the unfeasibly large head" was Tana Nile, of course! Steve, your prose continues to amaze. I doff my cap.
Tana Nile was clearly the result of Jack Kirby watching the film Cleopatra on the late show one night.
Nile...Cleopatra...you get it.
Tana was Elizabeth Taylor. A small, beautiful woman with a large head.
I think you almost have a large head to be a successful actor.
Remember the guy who played Frodo? Little guy, great big head.
M.P.
I meant "you almost have to have" ...poor typing skills.
b.t. - To my eye, Spidey's limbo dancing!
Phillip
The Tories are getting a kicking! Hee, hee!
Phillip
Indeed, Phil, but they've clung on in the Tees Valley mayoralty and are ignoring the 16% swing against them there.
Penny Mordaunt installed as PM by next weekend?
Colin - It'll be the Tories twits'(use another word, if you want) usual excuses tonight; then, depending on the media's reaction, Sunak might be walking the plank tomorrow! Mordaunt's "I'm the only adult in the room" act won't wash, either - and thing's will only get worse. To quote Charlie, get the popcorn, sit back and watch the Tory part implode, in real time!
Phillip
Apparently some fella called Karl Marx won a seat in Stockport.
I hope he starts sorting out those northern kulaks!
-sean
UK politics are dull.
MP’s governor in South Dakota is defending her actions, of taking a pet dog and a goat to a gravel pit and shooting them, by saying she also shot 3 horses because they were not profitable.
Now that’s what I call entertainment!
Also, Trump has a problem falling asleep and flatuating in the court room. That’s why court is not in session on Wednesdays: to air it out!
Now that’s what I call entertainment!
Philip: I can see ‘limbo’ — either way, his arms are just too active for his pose to be convincingly supine.
I would find the courthouse mishaps of the sleepy saffron-skinned sharter more entertaining if he wasn’t still so alarmingly close to being re-elected, I regret to say.
b.t.
It's truly shocking that Trump can still run for president despite being on trial and he could even be convicted and still be elected again! No other country in the Western world would allow such a thing.
The Guardian has declared David Tennant to be the greatest Dr Who with Tom Baker 2nd, Patrick Troughton 4th, William Hartnell 8th and Jon Pertwee 10th.
Utter cobblers - Tom Baker is #1 and Jon Pertwee #2.
I'd prefer not to have Kristi Noem referred to as my governor, but she is.
She's currently under fire for describing things in her latest memoir that never happened, including a meeting with Kim Jong Un in which she "stared him down" or words to that effect.
Never happened. There are no diplomatic relations between South Dakota and North Korea at this present time.
This was described by her spokesman (stooge) as an "error." Huh.
And there's more outright lies I won't go into, for the sake of brevity.
Now they're in damage control. That poor little stooge...
And she's been shooting the hell out of animals. Pheasants particularly, but Kristi's not one to shy away from blowing puppies and goats straight to hell.
Hunting pheasants is what big shots do, I guess. The more ditch chickens you can snuff out the better.
As far as her latest book, I learned a long time ago that if you're gonna lie, make the lie at least plausible and not easily disproven.
Most of us figured that out at an early age!
M.P.
Ohhh… MP. The last 3 of our 5 Illinois governors did time I think? Blago was pardoned by President Shitzenhispants a few years ago in 2019. I actually saw Blago at the Chicago Comic Con maybe 15 years ago hucking autographed pictures of himself to pay for his legal defense bills, lol.
Blago was caught trying to huck Obama’s senator seat when the bamster won the presidency! Or, i think he was taking bribes from a company that needed his signature to expand a children’s hospital. But then again he weren’t no animal killer lol.
Ch47
Yeah, Charlie, as far as politicians go you guys have had a bad run there (snort)!
A lotta low cards in that hand...
I guess I shouldn't bitch too much.
M.P.
I think its a great system where someone can run for president while on trial, or even in jail. A bit of a shame its Donald Trump in this particular instance, who's clearly no Eugene Debs.
But it should be up to the voters.
Has Sleepy Joe considered agreeing that Crooked Donald did indeed win in 2020 after all? That way, Trump wouldn't be able to stand for a third term in November.
And you could have a couple of completely different candidates. Surely in a country of well over 300 million people it can't be that hard to find two who are under 75, or at least in full possession of their marbles?
-sean
I completely forgot about Bobby Sands getting elected as an MP in 1981 despite being in prison so obviously it could theoretically happen here (I'm surprised you didn't mention that case, Sean). So in the UK prisoners can't vote but they CAN stand for parliament, how bizarre is that?? Anyway in reality no British politician could be charged with a crime (or even worse, convicted of one) and then just carry on regardless - they'd have the whip withdrawn first (for our US friends, that means being kicked out of your party in Parliament) which has happened to several MPs recently.
Looks like Sadiq Khan has been re-elected as London mayor. I've been reading the comments on GB News about his re-election and they're ALL angry, bitter and racist so it's business as usual at GB News!
I didn't mention prisoners being able to stand for election in the UK because they can't, Colin. After Bobby Sands won in '81 the government changed the law straight away, so another one of the prisoners couldn't stand in the by-election following his death.
-sean
Yes, good news about Sadiq Khan. Not that I'm a big fan, but he's better than the alternative and the important thing is that his win will annoy the nutters.
I hear also the tories failed to win South Yorkshire! But perhaps that isn't much of a surprise either.
-sean
Imagine how strong Tana Niles’ neck muscles must be.
b.t.
Er, ok b.t., whatever floats your boat...
-sean
Her neck would need to be very strong to support that head….because her head is really really big…see, it’s funny, right?
Oh, never mind.
Maybe some alliteration:
Nile’s ‘normous noggin needs … uh… something… neck…
Oh forget it!
b.t.
Nile's 'normous noggin needs non-narrow neck...
Sean, I don't know how I missed the Thatcher government changing the law on prisoners standing for parliament but thanks for informing me 43 years later!
Tories lose West Midlands mayoral race!
Rishi Sunak defects to Labour and declares support for socialism!
Keir Starmer says "changed Labour Party" has no room for socialists and kicks Sunak out!
Speaking of elections, I noticed once years ago that according to our telephone directory, there was a Tarquin Biscuit-Barrel living at a seaside suburb here.
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