|
Post by Hoosier X on Feb 10, 2019 15:22:12 GMT -5
I love Tales of Suspense #49! I first saw it in early 1976 when I got hold of Giant-Size Iron Man #1! I bought it off a spinner rack, but it must have been on the spinner rack a few extra months. It's dated October 1975 but I didn't get it until late winter or early spring 1976. But those of us who remember spinner racks remember that some of the stores that sold comic book didn't go out of their way to keep them updated or tidy … or sometimes even in readable condition. Giant-Size Iron Man #1 was a magical comic book for me back then. In addition to TOS #49, it also reprinted #57 (with the first Hawkeye! Also the Black Widow!) and #58 (with Kraven, the Chameleon and Captain America!) and they were all so great! The reprint of TOS #49 might have been the first time I saw the original X-Men because I don't think I had Son of Origins yet. I liked this story so much that only a few months passed before I paid a whopping $7 for my own copy of Tales of Suspense #49! I wanted my own copy despite having the main story in a reprint. And I also got the first "Tales of the Watcher!" installment - The Saga of the Sneepers! It was well worth the $7! The penciler is Steve Ditko again, but this time the inker is Paul Reinman, most famous for inking Kirby on some early issues of Avengers and X-Men, and I've always liked the art on TOS #49! I think this is the only time we've seen this penciler/inker combination and it's unique, but also dream-like, and the two main characters - Iron Man and the Angel - look like they are floating, which is appropriate because so much of this story takes place way high up in the sky over Long Island. Briefly, the Angel takes a short cut over the Stark Industries testing ground and is affected by the radiation when a bomb explodes. (Because Long Island - one of the most densely populated islands in the world, is a great place for a testing site!) Iron Man tries to warn him away but it's too late. The radiation makes the Angel turn EVIL, which means he leaves the X-Men and starts flying around and trying to attract the attention of the evil mutants. Eventually, he gets in a fight with Iron Man, during which fight, the Angel triumphs over his evil nature and the story ends with things back to normal. To give you an idea how early this story is in Marvel development, I must add that this story came out that same month as X-Men #3, and the X-Men also made a cameo in Avengers #3 that month. So TOS #49 is either the X-Men's third, fourth or fifth appearance. They were really pushing the X-Men on Marvel Age readers, but at this point, they were doing that with pretty much every Marvel character!
|
|
|
Post by rberman on Feb 10, 2019 15:27:27 GMT -5
I have occasion to pull out Batman #199, in which a criminal is writing his future crimes into Batman comic books. When Batman gets poisoned by the criminal gang, he buys a Batman comic book to determine how to nab the gang and find the antidote.
|
|
|
Post by Hoosier X on Feb 11, 2019 11:02:37 GMT -5
I have occasion to pull out Batman #199, in which a criminal is writing his future crimes into Batman comic books. When Batman gets poisoned by the criminal gang, he buys a Batman comic book to determine how to nab the gang and find the antidote. I read this in a Showcase volume that I got from the library. Some of these stories are hilarious! It's been a while. I might check this out of the library again.
|
|
|
Post by Hoosier X on Feb 11, 2019 11:37:16 GMT -5
The Mandarin was one of my favorite villains when I was a kid. I still have a soft spot for ol' Mandy, bless his Asian warlord, ring-wearing, castle-dwelling heart. My favorite run for Iron Man is Tales of Suspense #73 to around #90, and that includes two Mandarin storylines. Tales of Suspense #50 is the Mandarin's first appearance. For some reason, the page count is down to 13 pages, so it's a little cramped, but it's a pretty good story, demonstrating that the Mandarin is a force to be reckoned with, and also developing Pepper into the character Silver Age Marvel fans remember. The Mandarin is introduced as an independent major force in China, someone the Communists fear, someone they must deal with inside the boundaries of China. The Mandarin is not very nice to the Communist delegation sent to deal with him. So this isn't an "Eeek! Commies!" story. This is an "Eeek! Someone worse than the commies!" story. The US government has heard about the Mandarin and they want Iron Man to investigate. So Stark heads over to the office to take care of some business before scampering off to China. The employees are having a special dinner and Stark was supposed to attend, but now must tell them that something has come up and he can't go. So he's sending Happy as his representative. Which doesn't sit well with the employees' representative who assumes that Stark is jet-setting with some starlet. Pepper is also disappointed. She has been to the salon to transform herself into a glamor girl, and gotten rid of her freckles and her pony-tail. She's quite a knockout now! And Stark hasn't even noticed because he's been dealing with the employees' rep. But now everybody notices and Stark says "I didn't recognize you, Pepper! You're beautiful!" And Happy says "Aw, Pep, I liked you the way you were!" Iron Man flies off to China and ends up fighting the Mandarin. And Pepper decides it's better to go to the party with Happy than to go without a date. This issue has some great Happy/Pepper banter! These two are great! Happy and Pepper should be Iron Man's Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen, or Alfred and Commissioner Gordon, ever-present supporting characters, always providing the hero with support and friendship and humor. Iron Man tangles with the Mandarin and manages to escape with his life, thus setting up future conflicts with the Mandarin. And he manages to get to the party while it's still going on, upsetting Pepper because now she's Happy's date and she knows Stark won't cut in. Poor Pepper! Meanwhile, Happy thinks he's winning Pepper over with his rumpled charm. I like this one a lot! The Mandarin would have some much better fights with Iron Man, but this isn't a bad introduction for the character, not at all!
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2019 11:43:22 GMT -5
That's a great story and even greater introduction to the Mandarin and this is one of my Tales of Suspense books here. I have a friend that can loan me that book and I have to wait awhile because of the snow.
|
|
|
Post by Hoosier X on Feb 11, 2019 22:59:02 GMT -5
With the Iron Man stories in Tales of Suspense #39 to #50 out of the way, I decided to take a look at some other old Silver Age Marvel favorites I haven't read for a while, and I requested Marvel Masterworks: Spider-Man, Volume 3, from the library. My favorite run in all comics is Lee/Ditko Spider-Man, and for me, the heart of the run is #17 up to #34, or maybe #35. So I'm really looking forward to reading the stories in this volume from Spider-Man #21 to #30! The other issues are great too! But the continuity and the flow from issue to issue make this part of the run even better! And I posted the cover to #22 because I just love how goofy this issue is!
|
|
|
Post by badwolf on Feb 12, 2019 13:49:10 GMT -5
This issue contains two shorter stories. "People in Glass Houses Shouldn't Hurt Hulks!" Bruce Banner washes up on Malibu Beach, California and is found by a strange woman with white skin, all dressed in white. She revives him and brings him into her glass mansion, providing white clothes to wear* and introduces herself as Glazier. She shows him what is ostensibly her vast collection of glass sculptures, but Banner notices a look of extreme horror on the face of one of the glass men. Glazier tells Banner she wants to add him to her collection, but after a month of refuge in her home, we find out she meant it literally. She removes her long evening gloves to reveal glass forearms, and attempts to transform Banner into one of her "sculptures." Of course, this triggers his transformation into the Hulk and the ensuing fracas destroys the mansion and everything in it. Glazier is last seen sunken under the water, having accidentally transformed herself to glass instead. "Foundling!" Banner is walking in L.A. ... ...minding his own business, when a frightened boy collides with him. His parents are in pursuit, and while the child screams about them not being his real parents, dad throws some pills down his throat to calm him down, and explains that their son Mark has psychological problems. Coincidentally, this is just the man Banner was coming to see about a job. Using an alias, Banner takes up residence in their home/clinic. In the middle of the night, there is a disturbance, and Dr. Sarkan reveals the truth about their son. Fifteen years ago, a spaceship crashed on their grounds, the pilots turned to ash and the child the only survivor. They took it in and attempted to raise it, but now that it's reached adolescence it has remembered its true nature. The boy is a Dire Wraith. Battle ensues. The Sarkans beg Hulk not to kill it and insist on continuing on trying to raise it properly after it is subdued. Hulk is confused about why they would want to keep such a monster, but they call Hulk the monster, and in a fit of self-pity, he bounds off. Comments: These stories strike me as stock scripts that were salvaged and used as a fill-in. They are fine but they don't really fit with what was going on previously in the series. At the end of the previous issue, the Hulk was chilling on Easter Island after a clash with the Absorbing Man. Did he fall asleep and get washed out by the tide...and carried across a good portion of the Pacific? The second story ties in with what was going on in Rom, but it could have easily been reworked from being any old shape-shifting alien to being a Dire Wraith. Two interludes are inserted in the middle to add a bit of continuity. Like much of Bill Mantlo's work, this issue reminded me of how nice it was to be a kid and the world was so big and unknown that someone could have a huge and unusual mansion on the coast and still remain secret, or a spacecraft could crash in someone's backyard and no one else would notice. According to the Unofficial Handbook of the Marvel Universe, neither Glazier (who could probably be easily revived with comic book science) nor "Mark Sarkan" have ever appeared again. *Yes! Hulk wears white pants in this story!
|
|
|
Post by wildfire2099 on Feb 12, 2019 17:44:31 GMT -5
I've always loved Pepper and Happy as a couple.. they seem so normal, which sets them apart in the world of comics. I was sad when they opted for Tony and Pepper to be a couple in the MCU.
|
|
|
Post by EdoBosnar on Feb 12, 2019 18:04:39 GMT -5
(...) I was sad when they opted for Tony and Pepper to be a couple in the MCU. While I wasn't necessarily sad, I was a bit disappointed; not because I cared about Pepper and Happy in particular, but because for me, Tony's one and only should be Bethany Cabe.
|
|
|
Post by wildfire2099 on Feb 12, 2019 18:28:47 GMT -5
I'm good with that... she is definitely one of the better love interests he's had. Whitney Frost was probably the most entertaining, but clearly that was not a healthy relationship.
|
|
|
Post by Paste Pot Paul on Feb 12, 2019 20:17:13 GMT -5
Now this discussion would make an interesting thread...Which comic book couple do you like the most? Do hero/villain romances work? Thats quite relevant after the recent Batman storyline, which I really liked until the last frustrating issue with the inevitable break up. If only.
|
|
|
Post by Hoosier X on Feb 12, 2019 23:43:58 GMT -5
I've always loved Pepper and Happy as a couple.. they seem so normal, which sets them apart in the world of comics. I was sad when they opted for Tony and Pepper to be a couple in the MCU. If you're talking about the Marvel Movie Universe, I don't like the idea of Tony and Pepper being a couple because the movie Tony Stark is such an obnoxious a-hole that I can't believe that Pepper would be at all interested.
|
|
|
Post by badwolf on Feb 13, 2019 12:43:42 GMT -5
I didn't really like Tony and Pepper together either. I loved Bethany in the comics though.
|
|
|
Post by Batflunkie on Feb 15, 2019 17:00:06 GMT -5
Captain America #265 and #266 Pretty much a throw away two parter coming off of #264, one without much meat to it. Focuses on a former weapons contractor of SHIELD named Sultan (his deadliest enemy yet) kidnapping Steve and getting his revenge on Fury by attempting to blow up D.C. along with his hoard of robot lackeys
Really don't understand why they decided to throw Spidey into the mix, but oh well
|
|
|
Post by beccabear67 on Feb 15, 2019 17:51:25 GMT -5
Really don't understand why they decided to throw Spidey into the mix, but oh well
Maybe there was an over-supply of Marvel Team-Up scripts?
|
|