Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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Comics.
They need no introduction.
In a shocking twist capable of wrenching a man's sanity from his very brain, the Vision carries out a manoeuvre that's known in the trade as The Reverse Neal Adams.
I seem to recall this all being down to the aftermath of a fight with the Whirlwind and, possibly, our hero having grown too tall too fast.
My memories of this one are fuzzy but I do believe it includes a battle between a giant scorpion and a killer shadow. I'm going to assume that fight was set up by Conan - and that it leads to the salvation of a city.
No shortage of Kirby Krackle on that cover from Gil Kane, while, inside, Cap and the Falcon must thwart Deadly Nightshade's plan to gain control of SHIELD's male agents, as part of her bid to conquer the whole of the United States.
This issue's victory for common sense sees the Falcon regain his Sam Wilson persona!
A brand new villain makes his debut!
In fact, two of them do! Because there are no less than two villains called the Torpedo making their first appearance, in this tale.
Sadly, for one of those villains, it's also his last appearance. For no sooner has he started fighting Daredevil than he's crushed by a falling wall!
Fortunately for the world of crime, there's an insurance salesman called Brock Jones who just can't wait to take his place.
It's the moment we've all been waiting for, as Gaard shows up!
But doesn't he turn out to be Johnny Storm?
Regardless, I've no doubt that, next issue, the FF will find themselves up against the deadly threat of Wikketkeeper.
Regardless, I've no doubt that, next issue, the FF will find themselves up against the deadly threat of Wikketkeeper.
And, the issue after that, they'll be battling the terrifying menace of Centralholdingmidfielder.
Iron Man finds himself confronting a pair of foes I've never heard of but it seems they're called Professor Kurarkill and Quasar.
All I know is I'd stay away from any hill called Murder Mountain. I can't help feeling someone's trying to tell me something.
At last we reach the conclusion of the Jackal saga - and the truth about the return of Gwen Stacy.
Not to mention the launchpad of a Clone Saga everyone will love.
It all happens when our hero must fight another our hero, in order to rescue Ned Leeds from the clutches of Professor Warren.
But, when the scrap's over, how does our surviving hero know he's really our hero and not just a perfect copy of him?
Isn't this the story where, for some reason, Odin decides to do to himself what he usually does to Thor and banishes himself on Earth, with no memory of his true identity?
I have no doubt that, by doing so, he needlessly endangers the whole universe and then, after Thor's sorted it all out for him, decides to punish him for it.
In other news, I do believe Egyptian gods turn up in this one
The Ani-Men may not be able to beat Daredevil but perhaps they'll have more luck against the all-new X-Men.
Then again, they probably won't.
Either way, one of our superstars is going to be dead at the end of it all, thanks to his determination to thwart the evil plans of Count Nefaria.
Hooray! The Hulk comes up against the Loch Ness Monster!
Tragically, for reasons unknown, the tale never admits it's the Loch Ness Monster. Instead, labelling it The Loch Fear Monster, as the green one must endure the jealousies and rivalries of the not-at-all-stereotypical Black Jaimie MacAwber and Angus MacTavish.
That's enough of Marvel's big hitters. In order to see their activities in context, we need to know just what the competition was up to at the same time.
And that means it's vital we peruse a random sampling of DC comics which bear the same cover date.
Drama's piled upon drama when the Avenger finds himself battling the menace of The Monster Bug! which I think is a virus that turns people into murderous fiends.
But who's behind the evil scheme?
And can the putty-faced crime-fighter put a stop to it in his penultimate issue?
My knowledge of this one is especially hazy but I'm led to believe that, while planning the Justice League's next adventure, Cary Bates and Elliott S! Maggin enter Carmine Infantino's office, find a Cosmic Treadmill and accidentally activate the thing.
Thanks to this, Bates appears on Earth-2, as a super-villain. Whereas Maggin appears on Earth-1, in the company of the JLA!
But what an issue. Not only is it drawn by Walt Simonson, it features two tales of mystery, intrigue and riddle-solving.
The first such tale is an adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Final Problem which, no doubt, involves an appearance by the legendary Reichenbach Falls.
And the second is an adaptation of The Adventure of the Empty House. The details of which elude me but I suspect an empty house may be involved.
As if all the Batman goodness we've encountered over the years hasn't been enough for us, we're set to get even more of it because Batman Family #1 enters our lives!
In our first thrilling tale, Batgirl and Robin must unite to keep British mega-patriot Benedict Arnold from taking over the United States!
Then we get The Origins of Batgirl and Robin the Boy Wonder.
Next, Alfred the butler finds himself battling The Great Handcuff King!
Following that, a crook once caught by Commissioner Gordon uses the detective to lure Batman into a trap!
Now, we encounter a reprint of Batman's first-ever encounter with the Man-Bat!
And, a one-page feature tells us how Alfred became Batman's butler, and of his time as the villain the world could only know as The Outsider!
When I first saw (Deadly) Nightshade, in Power Man & Iron Fist's excellent
ReplyDeleteissue # 52, no back-referencing of her previous appearances was included. I thus assumed she was a Claremont-created character. Other writers, like Len Wein, in contrast, did back-reference borrowed characters.
Phillip
That being said, maybe I should be blaming editors, not writers, for such omissions!
ReplyDeletePhillip
If Walter Simonson had drawn the entire issue, and not just the cover, I would have bought SHERLOCK HOLMES #1 for sure. But since the interiors were drawn by ER Cruz, I’ve never bothered to purchase a copy. IIRC, Marvel had plans to launch an on-going B/W Sherlock Holmes magazine right around this time, but ultimately didn’t, and their adaptation of ‘Hound of the Baskervilles’ ended up being published in two issues of MARVEL PREVIEW.
ReplyDeleteOf these Marvels, I believe I bought all of them except THOR and IRON MAN. AMAZING SPIDEY 149 was my favorite, the last issue by the Conway / Andru team.
Oh, and JUSTICE INC. #3 was the only one of these DCs that I bought at the time.
ReplyDeleteb.t.
BT and the rest of us… Is that JUSTICE #3 one of those covers that just seemed and still seems ubiquitous?
ReplyDeleteI too, bought it and read it. And I’ll try to see if I still have it in the long box. there was nothing exceptional about it and yet the cover is ingrained in my head.
It must’ve been a DC “House Ad” for a month or two?
Marvel creates a Native American X-Man then kills him off in the next issue!
ReplyDeleteYou had a Canadian version of a character and an American version of the same character. One had to go... then we find out later, there's a kid brother that's a carbon copy of the same thing!!! I know! Right? Ahhhh, remember carbon copies?
DeleteThe " Weird War Stories "tale "700 years after the bomb" was a three partner Steve featuring some excellent Alfredo Alcala art
ReplyDeleteI had Weird War, Conan, Cap America, Batman Family , Hulk, and Justice Inc of the above comics although I read most of the Marvels in the various UK reprints.
I forgive Herb for drawing such ridiculous looking stereotyped Scots in kilts with red beards etc ( the dialogue was even worse) as I think # 193 may have been his last regular excellent run on the Hulk
By the way, October 1974 Marvel’s proudly proclaimed the return of King Kirby! Jack’s back! Back Jack!
ReplyDeleteThough to my surprise it seems many in Marvel’s stable of writers and authors openly ridiculed Jack’s efforts this time around.
The Prowler was still very much a Marvel Guy. I think I was THE MARVEL GUY until Ol' Prowler was supplanted by John Byrne! (Charlie, how do you do it?) Since most October issues were on sell during the summer, I was steadily collecting cans and funneling my allowance into comics.
ReplyDeleteGoing off of Mike's Newstand, I bought Spider-Man 149, Avengers 140, Daredevil 126, Giant-Size Daredevil & Power Man, Marvel Double Feature, Spectacular, Tales, Strange Tales,Thor and X-Men 95. My first X-Men was Giant-Size then X-Men 94. I sold 94 & 95 decades ago for a dollar each!!!
I have a sentimental attachment to that Justice League issue.
ReplyDeleteThe writing was goofy, but it was the 70's,. As a little kid, I loved anything with a lotta superheroes in it and for some strange reason I had a particular fondness for the JSA,
Prowler, on another note, I'm sorry if I came off as being sarcastic or flip about Bad Bunny at the Superbowl.
Well, I was, actually, but I'm no supporter of Trump or ICE, and I'll support anything that pisses off MAGA.
I was trying to make a joke about them, but I'm often stupidest when I try to be funny.
M.P.
,,,Also, I liked Justice Inc.
It was a weird little comic. Usually the main villain would die from falling from a great height, hollering AAAAAAHHHHHH all the way down.
From what I've seen, there are those that wish to credit the Biden Administration with 4.44 million removals during his four years in office, if it wasn't ICE doing the removals, then who was?
DeleteMP, did you know it's a myth that people cry AAAAAHHHHHH if they fall from a great height? They actually plummet to their doom in total silence probably from shock or something.
ReplyDeleteToday is 40 years since THE POWER OF LOVE by Jennifer Rush reached No.1 on the UK singles chart and became the best-selling single of 1985 (in the UK) and the best-selling single EVER by a female singer (in the UK again).
I will say this about that, the most iconic comic death "falling from a great height" is Gwen Stacy's death. I do believe she did indeed fall in silence. Whereas countless movies have given us the "AAAAAAHHHH". Somehow that became part of our lexicon... makes you go "hmmmm".
DeleteColin-
ReplyDeleteIf I ever fall from a great height to my death, I am going to yell AAAAAAHHHHH all the way down,
If only to prove you wrong.
I'm sure somebody will record it on their phone.
M.P.
I do know that the most common (plurality too?) thing said before an aircraft crash by the pilots is (was?) “mother.”
ReplyDeleteAt least the Army taught us that at flight school back in the day 40 years ago or so.
And I had a troop break under interrogation who started screaming for his mothet (like 23 year old).
I just know when I came close to crashing i was yelling mostly F-bombs lol as in “What the f…!”
Why “mother!” though?
"Why 'mother!' though?"
DeletePerhaps it was actually 'motherf###er!', Charlie, but the pilots just don't get to complete the expression before the crash...?
-sean
Prowler - I and many others think Gwen was dead when she fell. We think the neck snap thing is a retro argument. Hence dear Gwen was not going to scream no matter what.
ReplyDeleteI have to say trump is letting me relive my glory days… troops repelling out of helicopters, arresting people for being colored (Paris France 1986 after terror attacks by the PLA/PLO), walking through villages in military garb with weapons. Alas the last time I did that was in a blizzard in Germany and the little kids started pelting us with snow balls for ha ha’s. But we didnt run aftet them, slam them down, and hog tie them with plastic tie wraps… we just threw snow balls back.
ReplyDeleteSteve, re: JLA #123. My recollection is that the Cosmic Treadmill at DC was in Julius Schwartz' office, not Carmine Infantino's. The Flash left it there in the late 60s.
ReplyDeleteAs my ol' pal M.P. noted, that story was a JLA/JSA crossover. Like the previous one with the Freedom Fighters, it actually involved three Earths - lets not forget that the DC offices were on Earth Prime! - and was a two parter. But it wasn't as good I don't think. Unlike Matt, I'm not that fond of JLA #123, which quite frankly was a bit stupid.
Although at least Cary Bates killed the Justice Society, which is more than most super-villains ever managed. You have to at least give him that.
Still you know how it is with death in comics (unless a character is native American) - the Spectre brought them back to life in the next issue.
Over at Marvel, going by the covers it looks like they hit peak Gil Kane this month.
You may be interested to know, Steve, that the cover of Conan #55 was inked by Tom Palmer (yeah, I read your recent featured post about Tomb of Dracula #23). Furthermore, Palmer also inked three other Kane kovers this month that aren't included here, only one of which was this month's TOD. I won't say what the other two were til the Lucky Bag post. No spoilers here!
-sean
Yes, Gaard turned out to be Johnny Storm, Steve. Or rather, a Johnny Storm, from Earth Wtf.
ReplyDeleteApparently that was HouseRoy's attempt at a Kirby-type character, 'inspired' by the Black Racer. Which just to show what a genius Kirby was, because New Gods #3 - 'Death is the Black Racer!' - is one of the most awesome works of art of the 20th century, whereas anyone else trying to do that kind of thing - like in FF #163 - just comes across as dumb.
Which reminds me, the best comic out this month was Our Fighting Forces #160, featuring the Losers. Kirby might have been pretty much finished at DC, but instead of churning out filler for a final pay check or two he gave us a powerful dissection of the Nazi mentality in 'Ivan', the story of a local SS guy in Eastern Europe exploiting refugees. Sadly more relevant now than it was in the 70s.
Well done, Jack. Kamandi #34 and OMAC #7 were pretty amazing this month too.
-sean
PS 'The reverse Neal Adams' - that's a good one.
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