The Marvel Lucky Bag - August 1984.

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon. 

***

What would one find upon entering a zeitgeist-happy cinema in August 1984?

You'd find not a single movie I've ever seen but you would locate The Philadelphia Experiment, Cloak & Dagger, Red Dawn, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, The Woman in Red, Sheena, Tightrope and Bolero.

I really couldn't even hazard a guess as to which of those films would be the best.

But I'm guessing it's not Bolero.

The New Mutants hit their 18th issue and do it bearing a cover by the now almost-inescapable Bill Sienkiewicz.

Not only that but he draws the inside of it, as well.

From what I can gather, Danielle Moonstar's decided the Demon Bear that killed her parents is coming for her.

Elsewhere, Rachel Summers, still in the wrong time period, tries to contact Professor X.

Warlock tries to escape his father who appears to be called Magus. Which seems odd, bearing in mind the links between the other Marvel character called Warlock and his future self the Magus. Is this coincidence? Is a plan afoot in the head of writer Chris Claremont?

And that pesky Demon Bear does indeed show up and, having showed up, decides to critically wound Danielle.

A brand new book hits our spinner racks - and our eyeballs - as Amazing High Adventure is unleashed upon an unsuspecting world.

It would appear to centre around tales that draw upon real life history.

And, so, blessed with 52 pages at its disposal, it brings us such yarns as The Pike, Gold, Ambrose A Abernathy's Amazing Adventure Apparatus and Death Stroke, featuring such people as the Aztecs, Inuits, Russians and even Oliver Cromwell.

The mag that won't stop asking me questions I don't know the answer to is at it again.

This time, it's demanding to know what would have happened if Uncle Ben had lived.

Presumably, our cast would never have been short of rice.

On a more tragic note, it seems that, while Uncle Ben survives this tale, Aunt May doesn't.

I can only assume her death spurs our hero to fight crime, rather than remaining the high-salaried entertainer he always wanted to be.

The Avengers get their 13th annual.

And it's unlucky for some - including them - as Roger Stern and Steve Ditko serve up an epic that, if its cover's to be believed, sees the world's mightiest team confront one hundred Hulks.

From what I can make out, they're clones, and the Fixer and Arnim Zola are mixed up in it all.

Is that the Fixer who Daredevil killed in his first appearance? Because, leaving aside that he's dead, getting mixed up in cloning Hulks doesn't really seem to lie within either that character's style or his skill set.

A comic with a terrible title smashes its way into our lives.

And that smashing is being done by the Hulk.

All I know about this one is it runs for three issues and is the brainchild of Scott Adams, John Byrne, Bill Mantlo, Mark Gruenwald and John Romita.

Also, I know that someone called The Chief Examiner is out to study the Hulk and his powers.

For what dread purpose, I cannot say.

And yet another new title appears as if by magic. This time, I do believe, it's aimed at the less sophisticated reader.

That, therefore, will be me.

On his way to Earth, a Kymellian called Whitey's attacked by the evil Snarks, causing his ship to crash near the home of the Power family.

There, to save them from the deadly Snarks, Whitey bestows superpowers upon the family's four children.

As the cover informs us, a large percentage of the world's abducted heroes are trapped beneath a mountain, with only the Hulk to keep it from crushing them.

It's all the fault of the Molecule Man who's done it to impress a woman.

Elsewhere, the X-Men decide to join forces with Magneto; in the process, allowing the Wasp to escape his clutches.

I do believe that, even as this is occurring, Galactus and Dr Doom are each concocting a scheme for dealing with the Beyonder.

I'm going to go out on a limb and assume this is Marvel's adaptation of the film of the same name.

It's credited to a combination of David Michelinie, George Lucas, Willard Huyck, Gloria Katz and Butch Guice and spans 64 pages.

It's another impossible-to-ignore cover from Bill Sienkiewicz, while Mark Bright draws the insides.

Apart from that, all I know of this issue is Alison lands a job in a music video which bears an uncanny resemblance to the one for Michael Jackson's Thriller.

Forty years ago today - August 1984.

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon. 

***

Is our hero about to be greeted by doom?

It's possible. I am, after all, getting the feeling my knowledge of this month's fare is uncomfortably limited.

But I shall plough on and see just what memories those covers can unearth.

I'm struggling to recall anything that happens in this one but I do know that, like the rest of Zodiac, Aquarius is out to kill our gang of misfit protagonists - and that he fails.

Also, I happen to know Tony Stark and Rhodey are starting to get jealous of each other, thanks to their rival claims to be Iron Man.

From what I recall of this, the Red Ghost has a serious case of agoraphobia and hits upon the genius idea of recruiting soon-to-retire burglar the Black Fox to commit robberies on his behalf. 

There are only two problems.

One is that the Black Fox doesn't want to do it.

And the other is that Spider-Man doesn't want him to do it either.

With the wallcrawler getting in the way of things, it can only end in a punch-up between man and apes.

Here's an occurrence we never saw coming.

Conan bumps into his old friend Fafnir - who we've not seen since the days of Barry Smith - and it turns out the giant beardy bloke didn't die at the siege of wherever it was when he lost his arm.

In fact, he carried on without it and now has a plan to acquire a brand new one.

Sadly, that plan involves getting a witch to rustle him up a replacement appendage and - to the shock of no one but he and Conan - the demonic limb she gives him turns out to have a mind of its own.

And it's not even a nice mind.

It's a weird one when Daredevil finds himself besieged by robot children created by the dead mother of Death-Stalker.

And not only do they insist on going wherever he goes, they also insist on exploding in an irresponsible manner!

My memories of this adventure are very very vague indeed but it seems various Avengers find themselves at one of Sersi's legendary parties where the inevitable trouble breaks out.

Cap and Nomad are still being plagued by the Red Skull's Sisters of Sin and I do believe it turns out that, for several weeks, the brainwashed Nomad's been surreptitiously drugging Cap in a way that's now made him revert to his true age.

Can there be any hope of survival for the geriatric crimefighter?

All I recall of this issue is Hulkie's on the rampage across America, in search of Dr Strange, and that all attempts to reason with him are doomed, thanks to the manipulations of Nightmare.

The seemingly infallible Answer is still testing Spider-Man's abilities, on behalf of the Kingpin.

Needless to say, this means threatening to blow up the Black Cat.

It's an incident-packed issue, as Cyclops' future daughter Rachel Summers finds herself in our timeline and targeted by an ancient and powerful vampiric mutant called Selene.

Meanwhile, infiltrating government agencies leads Mystique to discover that a brand new character called Forge has developed a weapon which can remove super-powers.

It's bad news for Wyatt Wingfoot when a huge great big death ray from the sky starts scything a gigantic trench across his reservation.

And it turns out to be bad news for everybody else, as well, because that death ray then sweeps across the United States before reaching New York.

It appears to be the work of someone called Terminus, the latest threat from outer space.

But what is his/hers/its purpose? And what can be done to stop him/her/it?

Things get action-packed for Thor, with the Dark Elves out to capture the Casket of Ancient Winters from a man called Roger Willis.

However, it's not going well for our heroes, with Malekith capturing Thor's current girlfriend Melodi and threatening to kill her if they don't hand over the object.

August 10th 1974 - Marvel UK, 50 years ago this week.

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon. 

***

As we all know, the Marvel comics of this period were filled with all kinds of shenanigans in the White House, with Captain America, Daredevil, the Hulk and even Adam Warlock being drawn into political machinations related to that place and that office.

However, things were also happening in the real world. For, this was a week which saw the scandal-hit Richard Nixon announce his resignation as President.

Almost immediately, this was followed by Vice President Gerald Ford taking his place to become the 38th president of the United States.

On the UK singles chart, George McCrae's Rock Your Baby was still sitting pretty at Number One. While, on the corresponding LP chart, the roost was being well and truly ruled by Paul McCartney and Wings' Band on the Run.

Rock Your Baby is a pleasing song but other tracks I approved of on that week's singles chart were:

Band on the Run - Paul McCartney and Wings

Rock the Boat - Hues Corporation

If You Go Away - Terry Jacks

Bangin' Man - Slade

Wall Street Shuffle - 10 C.C.

Beach Baby - First Class

Mr Soft - Cockney Rebel

One Man Band - Leo Sayer

and

Ring Ring - ABBA.

Should one wish to examine the matter in greater depth, that week's UK singles chart may be found here.

While the UK album chart resides right within.

It's the team-up we've all been gagging for, as the master of kung fu meets the master of sarcastic self-pity.

It all happens when each of them encounters a gang of thieves who seem to be working for the other hero. A hero whom each hero believes to be a murderer.

In fairness to Spider-Man, Shang-Chi is a murderer.

Needless to say, this brings them into conflict and, needless to say, this soon leads to them into uniting against the real villain of it all. None other than Fu Manchu himself!

The Avengers are still battling the Sub-Mariner who's managed to get his hands on the Cosmic Cube. Inevitably, the underwater menace is even more useless at using the thing than everybody else has been, and soon loses it...

...Only for it to end up in possession of the Mole Man who turns out to be even more useless at using it than Subby was.

And the issue concludes with Dr Strange having to endure yet another comeback by Baron Mordo.

But what's this on the back cover? A house ad for the first Spider-Man Marvel Treasury Edition? What kind of a fool wouldn't want a thing like that?

We enter the second part of the epic in which the Kingpin takes advantage of confusion caused by a student demo, to steal an ancient and mysterious tablet from a display case in ESU.

But what's going on with the cover? The sharp-eyed observer will spot at once that it's actually the frontispiece of Iron Man #45, altered to make it look like a Spider-Man cover. What next? redrawing Killraven panels to make them look like Planet of the Apes?

In our second tale of the issue, we get the concluding part of the Angel's battle with Iron Man in which the armoured Avenger relies on the Angel's innate sense of goodness showing through at a time of crisis.

And, after that, we find a landmark treat indeed when we're supplied with Thor's first ever clash with Hercules. The one in which the thunder god inadvertently finds himself in the land of Hellenistic deities and in conflict with the son of Zeus.

With the two combatants evenly matched, can nothing bring an end to their pointless brawling?

I do believe the Hulk concludes his tussle with the forces of Hydra, agrees to hand the injured Jim Wilson over to Thunderbolt Ross and then stows away on a ship which'll take him to Europe and the land of Draxon the dictator.

Just who is this tyrant?

And how does a local legend involve the Hulk?

Next, I believe, is the conclusion of the Daredevil/Spider-Man encounter in which the duo must stop hitting each other for long enough to hit the Masked Marauder.

Easier said than done when he has a blinding ray and an airship.

Also, when they just like hitting each other so much more.

And, finally, the Fantastic Four are still having their first ever run-in with the Inhumans, including the walking enigma we know only as Black Bolt.

As far as I'm aware, Ka-Zar doesn't appear anywhere in this issue, despite the cover's proud boast that he does.

The Marvel Lucky Bag - August 1974.

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon. 

***

Famous film releases were rarer than snakes' whiskers in August 1974 but there were two offerings unleashed upon the public that even I've heard of.

Those movies were Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia and The Longest Yard.

Tragically for all lovers of succinct film critique, I've never seen them and don't even have any clear idea as to what they're about.

I shall, therefore, leave it to others to decide upon the worthiness or otherwise of that particular brace of movies.

Forget Steve Austin, there's a whole new kind of cyborg in town - and he's called Deathlok!

It's true. Luther Manning makes his senses-shattering debut. One in which we discover his old army friend Major Simon Ryker is the one responsible for his current condition.

However, it seems Luther isn't alone in this. After all, it turns out that Ryker's also a cyborg!

The world's mightiest super-team gets the Giant-Size treatment when the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver make the startling discovery that their father's none other than, Golden Age thwarter of Nazis, the Whizzer - and that they have a radioactive brother!

News like that can only bring a family together.

Provided Nuklo doesn't kill everyone with his own unique brand of radiation!

And provided the Whizzer doesn't die from a heart attack.

Shang-Chi vs the Man-Thing isn't the most obvious clash in the history of Marvel comics but a man has to begin his integration into the Marvel Universe somewhere. And why not in the swamps of Florida?

However, stalked by Fu Manchu's assassins, our hero has good reason to be grateful for the encounter because the beast ultimately kills the miscreants on his behalf.

Who doesn't want a giant-sized Man-Thing?

We all want a giant-sized Man-Thing!

And, at last, we've got one, as the muck monster meets the Glob.

Although, judging by that cover, he's a very different Glob to the one we encountered in those old Hulk comics.

And that's not all because we're also treated to a trio of Lee/Ditko/Kirby reprints which bear such deathless titles as Ice-Monster Cometh!, I Was the Invisible Man! and Goom! The Thing from Planet X!

I'm assuming that's not the same Planet X from which Kurrgo hails.

As DC comics could tell you, you can never have too many apes on the front of a book.

And we've got plenty here, adorning a cover that will go on to become a free poster included with issue #1 of Marvel UK's upcoming Planet of the Apes comic.

But that's the future. What of this issue?

It launches with Doug Moench and Mike Ploog's first adventure for Jason and Alexander.

Then, we get Gary Gerani's  overview of the movie series, an interview with Rod Serling, an article about the movies' use of prosthetics, and finish off with a George Tuska drawn adaptation of the original film.

Truly, it is apetastic.

No mere 20 page comic can contain the awesomeness of Conan. And that's why, this month, the battling barbarian gets his own black and white mag.

And what a start it is, with our hero facing the Curse of the Undead-Man and the return of Red Sonja.

Then, Sonja's in sensational solo action, when she encounters King Ghannif who wants to make her a fully utilised cog in his harem.

Next, there's a three-page look at Conan's Women Warriors.

Then, Gil Kane's Blackmark receives 15 pages all to himself.

Next, brings the four-page Kull article An Atlantean in Aquilonia.

And we complete the issue with a reprint of Thomas and Smith's take on The Frost Giant's Daughter.

I'm sure we're all aware there's a celebrated genre of spooky romance novel covers which involve diaphanous heroines fleeing creepy old houses.

And, this month, Tomb of Dracula #23 offers its own take on that genre.

Inside, Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan serve up a treat when the king of vampires confronts a spirit which haunts Dunwick Castle, and encounters a shock ending seemingly lifted from the movie The Legend of Hell House.

Someone at Marvel clearly likes the Man-Thing, because he's in his third comic of the month.

Granted, this one is his own monthly book. So, it seems fair enough for him to be in it.

I do believe this is the one in which the subtly named F A Schist tries to find the Fountain of Youth and soon discovers that such a course of action was a major strategic life error.

I'm not totally sure which story's contained within this book but I think it may be the one in which Jack Russell gets his hands on a ring which allows him to retain his own mind when he transforms into the werewolf.

Needless to say, this allows him to perform heroics but - the daft sausage - he's lost the ring by the issue's end, which means he has to go back to being a mindless animal in future adventures.

Fifty years ago today - August 1974.

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon. 

***

Let us proceed without delay.

My recollections of this one are vague but I do believe the world's mightiest super-team must tackle both Klaw and Solarr in a tale which may feature the Rudyardian ambassador.

Is this the one in which the Scarlet Witch thwarts the villains by smashing them with an asteroid she yanks out of orbit?

Also, I do believe this issue's drawn by a combination of Bob Brown and Dave Cockrum - although there are clear signs of another, mysterious, hand being involved in the inking of certain panels.

Gil Kane and John Romita serve up a dramatic cover when the antediluvian aggro-meister must combat the maddening menace of a hostile tree!

It's a classic tale in which Steve Rogers has one almighty great mard-fit and shocks us all by deciding to quit being Captain America.

Of course, before he does that, we get yet another retelling of his origin.

Daredevil invades Black Spectre's airship but is quickly captured, with a brainwashed Black Widow standing guard over both he and Shanna the She-Devil!

Not only is this bad news for them. It also means nothing can now stop the Mandrill from taking over the White House!

Can it be true? Is the Sub-Mariner finally going to succeed in conquering the surface world?

And doing so with the aid of Sue Richards?

I can't say, because I've never read it but I'm willing to bet good money the whole thing ends with him not conquering the surface world. And with Sue back in the arms of the Fantastic Four.

It's the big one we've all been waiting for!

On Counter-Earth, not only does Adam Warlock get crucified on national TV, he then proceeds to return from the dead.

Its a subtle thing but I can't help feeling there's some sort of Biblical allegory hidden in all of this, somewhere.

Holy Hannah! Iron Man has to deal with a whole quartet of menaces!

I can't help feeling that any tale which features the Mandarin, Unicorn, Sunfire and Yellow Claw may prove a little overcrowded - especially in the ego department.

As if that wasn't enough, the issue also features Ultimo!

Fortunately, deadly as he is, Ultimo's always struck me as being mercifully free of ego.

It's a classic John Romita cover, as Spider-Man and the Punisher set aside their differences, in order to thwart the stabby-shoed menace of the Tarantula.

But, perhaps more significantly, this is the issue in which Harry Osborn discovers the true identity of Spider-Man!

Galactus being a bit of a sad-sack there.

Tragically, not having read this one, I don't have a clue what it is he's being a sad sack about.

I'm not familiar with this story but, to be honest, if I was labelled, "The Sub-Human," I'd probably want to smash things up too.

That's Marvel's finest heroes disposed of but, for every yin there's a yang. Therefore, what news is there of the House of Ideas' closest rival, and a random sample of its comics which bear the cover date of August 1974?

The Spectre materialises, once more, to combat villainy. But, this time, it's villainy with a difference.

This time, the phantom lawman's up against no mere common hood but a man who's bringing shop window dummies to life, in order to enrich and embetter his circumstances.

However, even a foe such as he is no match for a being who can know no rest until he's totally eliminated crime from the entire planet.

And, in fact, this time, there's a second difference because this issue isn't primarily drawn by usual artist Jim Aparo. Instead, it's predominately pencilled by Frank Thorne with able assist from Aparo.

It's another of my fave Legion tales, as Validus reappears to cause consternation in the ranks.

It all begins when Invisible Kid collapses before revealing that, when he uses his power, he can see a hidden world inhabited by a fit bird.

Later, Dream Girl prophesies that Validus is coming to attack the Legion!

It can only mean one thing. That only an act of total self-sacrifice is going to be saving the day.

And it's Invisible Kid who's going to have to make it!

The lord of the jungle gets the 84-page treatment when we're supplied with a multi-part epic sourced from the company's 1972 Tarzan series.

We also get How to Draw Tarzan's Animals, an investigation into whether the hero is based on a real person.

And, of course, there's the table-top diorama no DC Collectors' Edition would be complete without.

I've never read this one but that's a memorable cover while, inside, it would seem Kamandi discovers the mind-numbing secret behind the humans of Chicago!

My guess is those humans have all turned out to be robots.

However, I'm assuming that's only the case in this comic and not in real life.

It's another memorable cover from Nick Cardy.

And I've no doubt the insides are packed with goodness too, as various talents serve up such treats as Something Sinister About Uncle Harry, Bet Your Life, For Whom the Ghost Bells Toll and Ghostly Genie.

Things get inconvenient for the man of steel when his girlfriend keeps turning into a homicidal monster!

What can be behind this revolting development?

From what I can recall, it's being caused by a necklace he gave her as a present. One that came from another world and gives off strange radiation.

You might have thought he'd have checked for things like that before giving her the thing.

Elsewhere, we have a backup strip featuring the Atom. From what I recall, a Professor Myles Adrian manages to trap the under-sized crime-fighter in the magnetic tape of his telephone's answering machine.

August 3rd 1974 - Marvel UK, 50 years ago this week.

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon. 

***

Legendary poet James Grainger once wrote, "Now, Muse, let us sing of rats!" But we have something even better to sing of.

And we won't even be singing of it.

We'll be reading of it.

And it's not an it. It's a them.

Or would it be more grammatically correct to say, "They's a them?"

You guessed it. It's a tumultuous trio of comics from Marvel UK.

But not just any tumultuous trio. It's the trio that was thrust upon an awestruck nation exactly 50 years ago this week!

What's this? Everybody's favourite misfit surrounded by the hordes of Hydra?

Can it be curtains for the emerald marvel?

No it can't.

I'm not so certain about Jim Wilson though. It seems the secret organisation has managed to injure him and, given our hero's hair-trigger temper when it comes mistreatment of innocents, that can't be good news for the villains' survival chances.

Elsewhere, things are also kicking off between Spider-Man and Foggy Nelson, with the webbed wonder having decided the not-noticeably-athletic lawyer must be none other than Daredevil.

Meanwhile, the Masked Marauder's still loose on the streets of New York.

Finally, the Human Torch makes a remarkable discovery when he stumbles across a beautiful young lady sat in the street. A young lady with a very large dog and an eagerness to introduce the flame-flaunting foiler of fiends, felons, foes and flibbertigibbets to her family of fiends, felons, foes and flibbertigibbets.

Unless I miss my ever-loving guess, this is the start of the tale in which the Kingpin decides to steal an ancient tablet from the premises of ESU, using a student protest as a distraction and, in the process, kicks off a multi-part saga that'll end in tragedy for an ageing gangster.

The Angel, meanwhile, gets caught in an atomic blast set off by Tony Stark and his men. Needless to say, this instantly turns him bad and causes him to want to join the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

Can Iron Man stop him?

It's hard to believe he can. After all, Iron Man only has a suit of armour, repulsor rays and jet boots, at his disposal while the Angel has the thrilling power of feathers.

More to the point, will this teach Tony Stark to stop exploding atom bombs in populated areas?

On a world far far away but also no more distant than the top of the nearest rainbow, Jane Foster's auditioning to become a goddess in an attempt to impress Odin.

Sadly, she fails the audition when she panics at the sight of a big scary monster.

Given that everyone else in Asgard seems to be terrified of the thing too, it seems a bit harsh for her to be singled out as a sissy.

Regardless, it spells doom for her relationship with Thor.

But he needn't spend any time worrying about it, because it turns out the goddess Sif has grown up in all the directions necessary to impress a thunder god.

As far as I can make out, someone called Demmy Marston blames Shang-Chi for the death of his girlfriend and has, therefore, put a price on his head. One which leads to all kinds of trouble in an aquatic park. From memory, I think sharks may be involved at some point.

Meanwhile, the Avengers find themselves up against the Sub-Mariner. Is this the one in which Namor gets his hands on the Cosmic Cube or am I just going mad?

And, to close with, Dr Strange is having his first-ever encounter with the Living Tribunal who's decided it'd be a great idea to destroy the planet Earth. 

There's never a dull day when you're Sorcerer Supreme.