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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 9, 2023 21:41:10 GMT -5
Allow me to be self-indulgent: Carry on up the Jungle is my favourite Carry On… film. I don’t know how well such films would stand up today, and I doubt any Carry On film has any rewatch value, but I remember enjoying this one many years ago. I’ve been wanting to watch Carry On Cleo again.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 9, 2023 20:23:56 GMT -5
When I read Avengers #1 to #4, I have to read Fantastic Four #25 and #26 as well.
It doesn’t matter how many times I read these two comics. I love them as much as ever.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 8, 2023 23:03:50 GMT -5
I do like the way that Rick contacts the Teen Brigade, and all the New York members show up to help Rick and Cap find the broccoli-headed alien.
If I think of anything else I like, I’ll let you know.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 8, 2023 23:00:45 GMT -5
I’m up to Avengers #4 and I hardly know where to begin. I’ve read it a bunch of times and I always have the same problems, most of them going back to when I first read it about 1980. Captain America is being worshipped by Eskimos ... OK. Namor just happens to come by and gets mad at the Eskimos because reasons and throws their god out to sea. Where the Avengers somehow find him thawed out and floating in the Arctic Ocean. I guess they had a bunch of coincidences left over from last issue. (But let’s give them some extra points because the Wasp didn’t say, “For a frozen, floating corpse, he’s pretty cute!”) Cap flashes back to the war and remembers a shadowy villain but not his name or what he looks like. Also he mentions they were assigned to the ETO (European Theater of Operations) despite being found floating off the coast of Newfoundland. The bad guy is a broccoli-headed alien with a ray gun that turns you to stone. Somehow, the Sub-Mariner has contacted the alien and knows about his trapped spaceship and his ray gun and gets him to petrify the Avengers in the exchange for helping with his spaceship. Oh! And Rick Jones looks just like Bucky! I love so much of the craziness in these early issues of the Avengers but #4 has always been a bit much for me. I may just have to link here when I get around to reviewing Avengers #4. Honestly? I just barely scratched the surface. Like, look at the way Thor got the spaceship out of the ocean floor. He could just go down and lift it up. But no. He moves the hammer in a circular motion or something and activated the hammer’s magnetic power and uses that to raise the spaceship. This comic book. I can’t even ...
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 8, 2023 22:45:02 GMT -5
I’m up to Avengers #4 and I hardly know where to begin. I’ve read it a bunch of times and I always have the same problems, most of them going back to when I first read it about 1980.
Captain America is being worshipped by Eskimos ... OK.
Namor just happens to come by and gets mad at the Eskimos because reasons and throws their god out to sea.
Where the Avengers somehow find him thawed out and floating in the Arctic Ocean. I guess they had a bunch of coincidences left over from last issue.
(But let’s give them some extra points because the Wasp didn’t say, “For a frozen, floating corpse, he’s pretty cute!”)
Cap flashes back to the war and remembers a shadowy villain but not his name or what he looks like. Also he mentions they were assigned to the ETO (European Theater of Operations) despite being found floating off the coast of Newfoundland.
The bad guy is a broccoli-headed alien with a ray gun that turns you to stone.
Somehow, the Sub-Mariner has contacted the alien and knows about his trapped spaceship and his ray gun and gets him to petrify the Avengers in the exchange for helping with his spaceship.
Oh! And Rick Jones looks just like Bucky!
I love so much of the craziness in these early issues of the Avengers but #4 has always been a bit much for me.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 8, 2023 19:57:49 GMT -5
I read Avengers #2 today. The Space Phantom is so crazy. Hulk rudely calling Thor “stupid” makes me laugh. I think the most brain-goggling moment is when the Space Phantom masquerades as a regular guy on the street in a striped orange jacket and infiltrates Avengers Mansion and is being monitored by the Avengers and the Wasp says “He’s not bad-looking.” Oh Janet. The Avengers and all the kooky bits INCLUDING the Wasp' dialogue could do no wrong with me. I love it all. But remember, the Wasp was always trying to get a rise out of Hank by making him jealous. No argument there! It’s all great. I also love that part where Rick learns that the Hulk is actually a Space Phantom, and he hunts up the nearest ham-radio operator who is in the Teen Brigade so he can warn the Avengers. And the kid is like, “Ma! Pa! It’s Rick Jones himself and he’s calling up Giant-Man!” And in the next panel, ma and pa are right there, about to swoon because somebody in their house is actually talking to Giant-Man!
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 8, 2023 19:52:10 GMT -5
I’ve read all these Doctor Strange stories before, but it’s been a while. I had forgotten that there are only two villains in the earliest issues, and he just fights them over and over.
In Strange Tales #110, it’s Nightmare.
In #111, it’s Mordo.
Then in #114, Mordo again.
The origin is in #115. The bad guy is Mordo.
Then in #116, for a little variety, the bad guy is Nightmare. And his spinybeast. The spinybeast is killed in the battle. I always feel bad for the spinybeast.
Mordo returns in #117.
Then, three issues of one-shot menaces.
Then in #120 ... Mordo!
And in #121 ... Nightmare!
Sheesh!
They’re still great.
But I’m wondering why there hasn’t been a Nightmare/Mordo team-up.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 8, 2023 19:43:11 GMT -5
I prefer The New Gods but I love Kirby’s 1970s Black Panther series. I bought The Black Panther issue by issue from spinner racks when the series was brand new! It’s very likely the first comic series that I bought from the first issue all the way to the end!
And Kirby’s 1970s Captain America series certainly has it moments. It sold out a lot, but I had more than half the issues. I didn’t always appreciate it back then but I still bought it whenever I could find it.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 7, 2023 20:38:07 GMT -5
I read Avengers #2 today. The Space Phantom is so crazy. Hulk rudely calling Thor “stupid” makes me laugh.
I think the most brain-goggling moment is when the Space Phantom masquerades as a regular guy on the street in a striped orange jacket and infiltrates Avengers Mansion and is being monitored by the Avengers and the Wasp says “He’s not bad-looking.”
Oh Janet.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 7, 2023 15:21:14 GMT -5
OMG! The circus!
“Weren’t we lucky to find that robot that looks just like the Hulk?”
“Yeah! We were so lucky! It looks just like the Hulk and it can juggle a horse, an elephant and a seal ... somehow!”
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 7, 2023 15:16:49 GMT -5
There are so many things I love about Avengers #1. But right now, I’m especially laughing out loud at the Wasp’s dialogue!
“Oh! Thor is so handsome! How will I get him to notice me when I’m only an inch high?”
When it’s really cringey, that’s when you KNOW Stan wrote the dialogue.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 7, 2023 15:08:44 GMT -5
Some facts about Avengers #1 that I find interesting ...
Jack Kirby had not yet returned to being the regular penciller on Thor. He had drawn the first few issues and had returned for Journey into Mystery #93. Avengers #1 came out about the same time as JIM #97, which features Kirby art on the main story and on the new Tales of Asgard backup as well. He would pencil Tales of Asgard in JIM #98 to #100 while Don Heck was the artist on the main Thor feature in those issues. Kirby wouldn’t return as the regular penciller on the main Thor feature until JIM #101.
The Avengers #1 is the first appearance of the Hulk since the final issue of his own series earlier in the year. As a matter of fact, six months previously. So it almost looks like Marvel was just going to ignore the Hulk as a failed character until the idea for the Avengers popped up and he was included just to bulk up the ranks a bit.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 7, 2023 14:43:39 GMT -5
I have a question about Joe Fixit. Although I was a big Hulk fan through the 70s and most of the 80s, and I even read David’s later run after Hulk was green again, I’ve never read any of the Joe Fixit stories.
But I really liked Joe Fixit #1.
My question: Is he Fixit all the time? Or does he turn back to Banner during the day?
I’m asking because I read that Fixit is the same Hulk manifestation as the surly, gray Hulk from Hulk #1.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 7, 2023 13:36:46 GMT -5
I know we discussed A Few Good Men recently, but I had a question after revisiting some clips. When Lt. Kendrick (Kiefer Sutherland) is in court, he is being grilled over the report he wrote about the dead Marine. At one point, he says, “I do not recall specifics, I have many men under my command, I write many reports.” Now, I don’t know what the Marine Corps equivalent of a platoon is, or whether platoon is the term, but my question is, would a lieutenant be writing reports on all the Marines under his command? My civilian ignorance had me presuming that some NCOs, or someone closer to the Marine, might have been better suited to writing reports, but that is based on…well, nothing. Also, while I do like the film, the lack of NCOs is a bit obvious. It seems that a colonel, a lieutenant colonel and Lt. Kendrick were responsible for everything, with no junior officers or NCOs there to assist them. Movies are stupid. It’s not a criticism. It’s more of an observation.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 7, 2023 12:42:42 GMT -5
I read the first two Doctor Strange stories last night. It is amazing what Ditko could do in just five pages.
They have such a Golden Age feel to them, like they could easily have been produced twenty or even thirty years earlier.
Also, it surprises me that Baron Mordo appeared before the Avengers.
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