Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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By crikey! Let us leap from the high diving-board of Perspective and see what kind of splash the Marvel comics of 40 years ago make when we hit them!
Fortunately, the titanic tykes of Power Pack are on hand to save our hero!
And, also, Kurse is a bit stupid.
But more odd, even than that, is that she should make her return in the pages of The Fantastic Four, rather than in her more logical home of the X-Men's book.
And it looks like it's going to be Storm, despite her not currently having any actual super-powers.
And I do believe this is the issue in which Maddy Pryor's baby's born. They'll be dancing in the streets of Steeleye Span, tonight.
Also, Professor X is stranded in space.
Which all goes to prove it's never a quiet day when you're an X-Man.
The only problem is that, ever the lawyer, Daredevil's determined to prevent him from committing an act of such illegality.
And it, somehow, all leads to each hero sharing his true identity with the other!
Meanwhile, Aunt May's boyfriend's been arrested for sharing multiple bullets with the torsos of three muggers he's met on the subway!
But, unwilling to let SHIELD destroy the brute, the punch-packing psychiatrist releases the beast.
Only for it to go on a homicidal rampage.
For a psychiatrist, he has remarkably poor judgement of character.
And discover it's not, as they'd assumed, another artificial being in the mode of Warlock and Her but is, instead, Jean Grey!
Not that they know who that is.
And it gets even worse when he discovers the Gladiator's returned to the life of crime he'd previously renounced
But can it be that said return is reluctant and he's only doing it because he's been blackmailed by criminals who've kidnapped his girlfriend?
It would appear to be Disaster Time for Tetra who can't contain the powers of Nostume.
But, then again, how many of us could?
And it looks like a confrontation's on the way between our hero and the Beyonder.
My memories of this one are a little vague but I think that, deprived of his now-destroyed Savage Land, Ka-Zar mopes around the big city, wondering what the point of himself is.
And then he discovers the point of himself is what it always was. Tearing his shirt off, beating his chest and punching criminals in the gob.
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18 comments:
Someone help Charlie?
When did Modok get arms and legs?
And why is Gladiator dressed like a gladiator from 2000 years ago? Where’s the buzzsaws in the wrists?
Sorry Charlie, no help from this corner! I had none of these books, and have never read any of them. According to "Mike's Amazing World of Comics" , the only comics I bought that month appear to have been Fantagraphic's "Journey" and a '"Sugar and Spike" digest from DC. Granted, I might have had my mind on other things; as I was 6 months from Wedding Day. But yes, what is up with Gladiator?
Just the Thor and the DD.
I was startled to see Frank Miller as co-writer on this one, but it does bear his mark. The last line is memorably grim for a superhero book.
I had no idea what was coming next. Ah, the pre-internet days.
Charlie, I thought MODOK always had arms and legs. He just didn't use them.
I believe the Gladiator is dressed like that because his mental health issues mean he can't bring himself to wear his old costume.
It’s kind of funny how a good 150 or so issues ago, DD fought GLADIATOR on ALCATRAZ (?) because the prison shrink thought that by re-donning his uniform and blades, Glady might tighten up his marble
bag a bit but I can’t recall… Glady had amnesia allegedly? CH
Modok's always had arms and legs, but they were such stumpy little things you wonder how he managed to scratch an itchy nose or clean himself up after answering the call of Nature.
I had this month’s Daredevil having become aware that Miller was returning to the title. I believe Miller scripted the issue over Denny O’Neil’s existing plot, but it was a big improvement over most of the issues since Miller previously departed. Exiting times ahead!
No other Marvels for me but looking at Mike’s Amazing World of Comics (which details these issues over 2 months) I also had:
Miracleman #2 (had already read these in Warrior but how good was the first Miracleman Kid MM fight).
Mechanics #3 (likewise had already read the main story in Love & Rockets but the filler pages were just about worth the price).
Cerebus #78 (from the time when Cerebus always as good as any title, and that’s only for the editorial pages).
Swamp Thing #43 (the fill-in issue introducing Chester the hippy. One day all fill-in issues will be this good).
Love & Rockets #14 (I think this included Gilbert’s An American in Palomar).
Mister X #6 (I think the first Seth issue. The writing does miss the Hernandez brothers, but the art is great.
Whether these came out in a single, or over two, months, that’s some mighty fine reading!
DW
Steve, Jean Grey was revived as Marvel were bringing back the original X-Men as a team, in X-Factor #1 the following month. Note the triangular blurbs in the upper right corner of the covers for Avengers #263, and FF #286.
As to why it happened in the FF, my understanding is that the plan had been for Dazzler to join the four surviving original X-Men - which was set up by the Beauty & the Beast mini-series - but John Byrne was keen to bring back Jean Grey (and maybe annoy Chris Claremont) and went to editorial with the idea, and an offer to do the story.
www.tombreevort.com/2022/06/25/fantastic-four-286-john-byrnes-way/
I'm not against retcons if they're reasonably well done, but so far as 'everything you knew was wrong' rewrites go, I think most here will agree that the reveal of Jean Grey never being the Phoenix fell some way short of, say, Alex Holland turning out not to have been the Swamp Thing.
It didn't seem worth rewriting X-Men #s 101-137 for, anyway. Especially as X-Factor was a bit rubbish.
And just as Madeline Pryor dropped a sprog too...
-sean
Some good comics there, DW, especially that first Kid Miracleman fight. But - sorry to do this to you - I looked at Mike's, and the Miracleman issue with a Jan '86 cover date is #5.
Pretty sure you're right about an 'An American in Palomar' though.
I wasn't aware of Miller's return to Daredevil til some way into the 'Born Again' storyline. Fortunately the few month's lag between direct market import and newsstand distribution on-sale dates meant I got caught up easily enough.
Although I wasn't aware of Fearless Frank's involvement in #226 til Matthew mentioned it here a little while ago, and I've still not read it...
So the only one of the A-list Marvels Steve covered here that I got at the time was Thor. Not one of Simonson's better issues imo, but the ending was great. Riveting, even.
-sean
Sean, I just found the month that featured DD #226 and used that. But you’re correct I that half the titles featured by Steve are included on Mike’s the following BBC month (if that makes sense). The Indy publishers, in particular, were very often hit and miss with respect published release dates. Well in Southend, anyway.
DW
Ah, right. The indies at Mike's generally have the same - or sometimes much closer - cover and on-sale dates, DW, so they don't really line up with the Marvels and DCs if we use the latter (which of course Steve does in his posts).
But looking again, you're quite right that MM #2 was on sale at the same time as Daredevil #226... in September '85. Whereas #4 and #5 were on-sale in - and cover dated - December and January respectively.
-sean
*If we use the latter...
Aaaarrrghh, poor editing - I meant the former! It's the cover dates that don't like up.
-sean
DW -
I didn’t know Seth worked on Mister X! I’ll have to look that stuff up.
Sean -
Having just read DD 226 that I’d bought from WHSmith’s, I was startled to walk into Forbidden Planet in 1986 on a very rare visit to find DD 229 and Born Again in full flow. Stunned. And it was a killer issue as well. Of which more in 3 months time.
But FP had sold out of the previous 2 issues so I had to wait for them to turn up in the newsagents at home.
I have a feeling I’ve told this story before. And will no doubt tell it again.
I happened to stumble on Tom Brevoort’s post about the whole behind-the-scenes ‘Return of Jean Grey’ mishegoss sometime last year. I’d stopped reading reading FF or X-MEN by ‘86 and was only vaguely aware of X-FACTOR etc. The backstage drama of it all is pretty wild, and in the examples Brevoort shows — Byrne’s original pages and the revised pages with new art by Butch Guice and new dialogue by Shooter (and possibly Claremont) — the whole thing seems like a big stinky mess.
b.t.
BT - you grab that issue of ALTER EGO featuring HILLMAN - AIRBOY? Ch
DW- ah, Mr. X! Yes, like you I did purchase that. Regularly. The Hernandez issues were phenomenal; but it did carry on nicely thereafter with the succession of artists involved...
CH:
No I haven’t yet. Trying to cut down on the number of magazines I purchase. I should check out the Twomorrows website, see if they have a digital version for sale…
b.t.
BT - you can see onlie. The article is not a deep dive though. Not sure id recommend.
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