Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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Readers of a certain age will know that, before there was the internet, there was Ceefax, that magical service on the BBC where, with a press of a remote control, you could access the latest written information about the worlds of news, sport, weather, politics and arts. All done with hi-tech blocky graphics.
But when was this veritable miracle launched?
It was during this very week in 1974. Truly, there could have been no doubt the future was well and truly with us.
Slightly more retro was The Brides of Fu Manchu which BBC One was showing in the early evening of the 28th, followed by It's Cliff!
How strange that the fiendish doctor should appear on our TVs so shortly after the adventures of his son had disappeared from the pages of Marvel UK's Avengers comic.
Meanwhile, Daredevil's still having to contend with the Owl's trial of a judge the villain happens to have to have it in for. It's a trial that goes so well for the defence that both the judge and his lawyer find themselves sentenced to death.
Elsewhere, the Fantastic Four, back from their epic encounter with the Inhumans, find the streets of New York paved with chaos, as the Watcher, Silver Surfer and then Galactus turn up. Can any human mind possibly process such drama and survive?
We'll find out next week.
But he's having a bit of a shocker himself, as he falls out with Flash Thompson, thinking his old friend and nemesis is making a play for his girl Gwen when Flash was only trying to help her patch up her relationship with our hero.
Hawkeye's still having his first encounter with Iron Man but, when his brand new girlfriend the Black Widow is hit in the head by one of his arrows, the archer flees with her. No doubt, intending to return to bother Shellhead on some future occasion.
Thor, meanwhile, having barely survived their first scrap is yet again having a punch-up with Ulik. One that, if I remember rightly, goes far better for the thunder god than the first one did.
Or does it?
Because, despite winning that fight, the Asgardian, somehow, finds himself back on Midgard, without his hammer and about to transform back into the feeble Don Blake.
I do believe we're getting more of Iron Fist's origin. Having defeated a robot, last week; this week, he must overcome a dragon!
Fortunately for him - and mankind - he succeeds and ends up with a dragon symbol emblazoned upon his chest, thanks to his unique tactic of hugging the beast to death
The Avengers, though, are still in the process of rescuing the Black Widow from her former Soviet puppet masters. But, now, Captain America has been captured and is being held in a Plexiglas tube!
In his tireless quest to prise Victoria Bentley from the clutches of evil, Dr Strange is well and truly out of his wheelhouse, as he has to fight a giant robot called Voltorg.
I do believe this week's Marvel UK books feature the winners of the contest to design the most impressive possible piece of technology. A contest in which the prizes are boxes of Meccano. Sadly, I didn't enter that one and, therefore, have no anecdotes to recount about it.
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25 comments:
Someone remind me who this “Gwen”’ is that Flash is allegedly making a play for which bothers Petey Parker?
Steve:
50 years ago, I didn’t think twice about Danny Rand’s method of defeating the dragon, and actually thought it made some kind of sense (like he was smothering its fire or something, maybe?), that it was at least novel and dynamic and or kinda/sorta visually interesting — but of course it’s all silly nonsense. Leave it to you to point out just how silly it really is — “hugging the beast to death” indeed :D
Ron Wilson’s SPIDEY WEEKLY cover is pretty solid — well, the Spider-man and Shocker figures look fairly Romita-ish. The Stacys, ehh, they could use some help.
b.t.
b.t. - Later, Iron Fist hugged Steel Serpent, to reclaim the Iron Fist from Davos. Also, a resurrected Adam Warlock hugged Thanos, transforming him to stone (or something.) They're an affectionate bunch, those Marvel super-types!
Phillip
Last week, I highlighted how this week's Avengers cover's Dr.Strange (albeit without the Van de Graaf generator robot) appeared in the Super heroes pack. Another Avengers cover, in the card game, was the Black Panther (Avengers Weekly # 71). Arvell Jones & Keith Pollard take a bow. Of course, you also had the Vision (Avengers Weekly # 82) and Goliath, too (Avengers Weekly # 92).
Phillip
Anon/Charlie(?) - the Gwen in question is obviously Gwen Stacy - are you being serious?
Why bother to create a comic called The Avengers and then never put the Avengers on the cover??
COLIN- this yankee doodle is glad to hear you ask that question!!! As an outsider looking in, it boggles the grey cells. Glad you are boggled too… sort of!
chArlie
Maggie Smith has died and one of her many roles was the goddess Thetis in CLASH OF THE TITANS though in Greek legend Thetis was only a sea-nymph (and the mother of Achilles) and not one of the 12 gods of Olympus as implied by the film!
Colin, I don’t think I ever did get around to watching CLASH OF THE TITANS (even hardcore Harryhausen fans were trashing it when it came out IIRC ) but I always liked Dame Maggie as an actress — on DOWNTON ABBEY she practically stole every scene she was in
b.t.
bt, I've never seen Downton Abbey (nor do I wish to) but Clash Of The Titans is quite enjoyable and I didn't know that Harryhausen fans had trashed it. I last watched the film on Christmas Eve last year thanks to BBC iPlayer (the BBC's streaming service).
Who can forget the scene when Perseus kills Medusa?
I can't. It's the stuff of nightmares.
M.P.
In the UK, 'Clash of the Titans' is a staple of bank/seasonal holiday television. Any 'edgy' bits are sanitized & sanctified, by having the greatest thesp of all, Sir John Gielgud, cast as Zeus!
Phillip
What the hell am I talking about!? It was Laurence Olivier, not Sir John Gielgud, as Zeus!
Phillip
Phillip, I'm not clear from your comments whether you regard Gielgud or Olivier as the greatest thesp. Do you remember the Spitting Image sketches lampooning their luvvie actor image - dear Johnny - dear, dear, Larry etc.
Colin - Yes, I remember those Spitting Image sketches very well. Also, "Sconey - dear, dear Sconey!" Olivier edges it over Gielgud, as the bigger luvvie - but it's a close run thing. Olivier's ( possibly apocryphal ) comment
( "Try acting, my boy - it's much easier!" ) to method actor, Dustin Hoffman, on the set of Marathon Man, springs to mind!
Phillip
Phillip, I remember reading, about 30 years ago, that young up-and-coming actors regarded Olivier as too hammy and he wasn't held in such high esteem as we were always led to believe.
I heard about that Dustin Hoffman comment too but in a slightly different form...
"Why doesn't the dear boy just act?"
FUN FACT: Prime-Minister Harold MacMillan never uttered his famous phrase "events, dear boy, events" when asked what worried him - he actually said "the opposition of events".
Colin - Another one's "Crisis - what crisis?" I think that's a misquotation, too!
Phillip
I remember seeing The Brides of Fu Manchu on tv, Steve. The wily oriental devil was after our women!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29qsLeh4CKQ
What a load of dodgy sh*t.
Apparently Judo Jim Starlin quit drawing Master of Kung Fu after he actually read one of the Sax Rohmer books.
"Only after I got done with the first issue, did Larry Hama, a friend of mine, say 'have you ever read one of these books?' And he gave me one the next day... Quite frankly I was horrified. Thats why I ditched Shang-Chi..."
Good for him.
-sean
Gratuitous Off Topic Dept: I was just reading about Boris Johnson's forthcoming memoirs. Apparently he considered military action against the Dutch in 2021...?
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/sep/28/boris-johnson-writes-partygate-witch-hunt-memoir-unleashed
Needless to say he chickened out of it, the useless git.
-sean
Sean - All Boris Johnson's public statements are just attention-seeking. It's the Mail - so what does anyone expect? I bet Nadine Doris has got her advance copy on her night-stand, though.
The only Fu film I've seen's 'The Fiendish Plot of Dr.Fu Manchu', starring Peter Sellars. I doubt that would ever get shown on tv today - even with a warning for outdated attitudes!
Phillip
I sure Red, BT, MP remember when the Charlie Chan serial was shown on TV? (In Chicago WGN-TV on Sunday afternoons.) Sometimes his “#1 son” was on the show too!!! It usually followed Cisco Kid and Lone Ranger serials.
For me, the most purely entertaining Fu Manchu film is THE MASK OF FU MANCHU from 1932, starring Boris Karloff as Fu, with Myrna Loy as Fah Lo See. Of course, it’s also one of the most shockingly racist of all the Fu Manchu movies. But if you can get past THAT, it’s an exciting blood and thunder pulp thriller with high-end MGM production values (art deco sets by Cedric Gibbon , electrical pyrotechnics by Kenneth Strickfaden) and deliriously over-the-top performances by Karloff and Loy.
I’ve always been disappointed by the Christopher Lee Fu Manchu movies — even the “better” ones are drab and not very exciting, and the last two (directed by Jess Franco) are almost unwatchably cheap-looking and just plain crappy.
b.t.
Charlie, I’ve never seen a Charlie Chan movie, not one. Or any of the Mr. Moto movies with Peter Lorre or the Mr. Wong movies with Karloff.
b.t.
Phillip, the Sellars Fu Manchu film is a weird one, as it came out in 1980. You'd think attitudes would have moved on a bit by then since the 60s (let alone the 30s)?
Although maybe I'm over-estimating the general climate of the time, as it was only a couple of years or so earlier that the BBC made the Dr Who serial 'The Talons of Weng-Chiang'. Which they still make available for streaming, with a 'trigger warning'.
-sean
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