Machine Man by Kirby (#1-#9)

Sorry for the big image, but it's so worth it:




I grabbed this when it came out in a new 'complete collection' (not sure why it's not in the epic line).   It's advertised as 'Machine Man by Kirby and Ditko', but flipping through the 2nd half it seems so different I thought this was worth doing separately.

The Plot:   The US Government experiments with robots that can think like people (the term 'Android' is never used).. but they all go crazy.. not knowing how they fit in the world of men.  One,  X-51 (presumably the last one made, though that's never explicit), is taken in by one of the scientists and raised as his son, Aaron Stack.  Our story begins with Machine Man doing some heroic stuff, but feeling outcast.

It's interesting... he SAYS he wants to fit in, but yet he's a purple robot.   He never introduces himself as Aaron, and is quick to do things only he can do rather than 'act human'.  He's gruff with people who offer friendship, then whines when he doesn't have friends.   Quite a complex character.. it almost seems like Kirby is trying to show he's on the verge of cracking up.

Anyway, while that's going on, the goverment figures out he was destroyed, and moves in to do so.   There's a Gen. Ross analogue (Col. Krugg.. who has a Nick Fury eye patch)... a Rick Jones-like side kick (Dr. Spalding), and we seem to be set up to emulate the Hulk.

The, Kirby flips the script... one of his patients isn't crazy, he's REALLY getting a communication from a distant alien, and Machine Man figures it out... the alien is about to crash into a sun, and Spalding and Machine Man race to help.. only it's a bad guy.. Ten-For(*groan*).

Apparently , there's a robot galactic Empire calling themselves Autocrons that are just like Machine Man.



Yeah, he looks like Robot Thanos.. that's OK, it's still pretty cool.  We then get several issue where Machine Man is trying to both prevent Ten-For from trashing stuff AND summoning an invasion armada.. while still dodging the government... who keep finding him through a homing signal in his head.

Ten-For suckers Krugg, and calls the invasion fleet, while Machine Man in a prisoner.  He escapes, and decides humanity isn't worth it, and goes to wait of the end of the world.   We get a weird scene where he's at a costumer party and he whines for like 5 pages... then a girl reporter convinces him to man up, and he's further encouraged by the cabbie who takes him to the final battle.

He defeats Ten-For, and uses him as a bomb to take out the invasion fleet.. but the goverment still isn't sure.

As a 'Measure of a Man'-like trial starts, 'The Corporation' (some sort of mobsters) capture Dr. Spalding and demand Machine Man let them study him in exchange for Spalding.   Machine Man agrees then escapes after the Doc is released.  Of course, that messes up the trial, since he's busy being a hero.

The Corporation doesn't give up that easy, though, and send a hit man after him.  He narrowly escapes, and vows to take them out... the end?!

The story does continue in Hulk, but it's very shoehorned in.. they quickly end the trial off panel to get to the 'first they fight then they team up' crossover.

I feel like this could have been a really good series if Kirby stuck with the 'what makes a man?' theme.. which would have been easy to do if he kept the Autocrons around, instead of blowing them all up.  Sure, it didn't really fit in the Marvel Universe, but that's OK.. in his own book, Machine Man felt special.  In the Marvel universe, he's just not that great.

Having him fight mobsters, even well funded ones with weird tech, just doesn't feel right without resolving the other stuff.   I have no idea if Kirby changed tack because sales were low, or he was bored, or that was the plan all along, but it feels like a lost oppertunity.


The art, as one would expect, is pretty great, but the script is pretty clunky It has it's insightful and thought provoking moments, but at points is stilted and derivative.  The characters also don't have much consistency, with Machine Man at times being brooding and sad, and at other times quipping like Spider-man.

I do wonder why it ended so abruptly... I know Kirby left Marvel again, and did cartoons and whatnot, but one would think he'd be allowed to finish the story... another couple issues would have done it.



Post-Kirby:  The series is sorta wrapped up in the pages of Hulk, where 'the Corporation' that is trying to capture Machine Man and copy him attack Hulk too.. it's a standard Marvel 'first they fight, then they team up' story, which does a couple important things.  One, Machine Man fixes his anti-gravity thing (which Kirby 'broke' in the 2nd issue, I suspect because it made him too powerful), and it resolves the senate hearing in Aaron's favor.  He also suddenly has the ability to read peoples minds, which is weird.   It also features a weird ending where Machine Man essentially blasts Hulk into space (not sure how that resolves) then he passes out from the 'strain'... even though two issues before Hulk literally beat him into little pieces and he cheerfully put himself together again and got back in the fight.

The Wolfman/Ditko issues are totally different, and not very good.   It starts out with Aaron in the 'shop' and his powers get massively cut back, so he pretty much is just super strong with telescoping arms and legs.  They all get rid of his cool two-color eyes, so he can fit in better, which is really sad.  .  He has a brief crisis of conscious about how if the good guys can change him, maybe bad guys can too, but a hologram of his 'father' triggers and tells him that's no longer possible.  Hurray,  I guess.

Personality wise, he now tells people to call him Aaron, though points out at every oppertunity he's not human, and the focus goes from 'What makes someone human?' to 'Why do humans suck so bad?'.   We have one issue where Aaron decides he's not going to be a good guy anymore, but in the midst of having a tantrum creates 5 super evolved beings that judge him and decide he should die, only to have a little kid convince them to let him live (he saved the kids dad).  

Then he fights a mobster that wants to swap into his body, and Jack O' Lantern... pretty boring stuff without much life to it, to be honest.   I'd say stick with the Kirby run... maybe the Hulk crossover if you are desparate for closure, then pretend everything else is a new character (because it might as well be).

Great memories of Classic Machine Man. I only read a handful of issues back in the day, but just got the new color Trade reprinting the whole series. I'm slowly making my way through this, and am really enjoying the Kirby artwork. However, I'm a huge Steve Ditko fan - and am looking forward to the later issues (with Ditko art) even more.

Also worth noting is the superb MM 4-issue mini-series that was released circa Summer 1984; this has sublime art by the great Barry Windsor Smith, and took place in the future; it had an interesting cyber-punk/Blade Runner-ish vibe.

For what it's worth, the MM 1984 mini-series was reprinted in the Iron Man 2020 Trade in 2013.  IMHO, the MM mini is worth the price of the Trade alone - though I don't know how much it would cost to get the individual floppies.

marvel.com/comics/collection/46217/iron_man_2020_trade_paperback

Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean on Black Orchid



Black Orchid (1988) #1-3


Overview:

After Alan Moore's Swamp Thing had proven there was room for deeper, more artistic pursuits in mainstream comicdom, but before Gaiman followed with Sandman, there was Black Orchid, a limited series resurrecting a largely forgotten Bronze Age property in which Gaiman and McKean first proved they were worthy of a follow-up project. It's part fan-service for Moore readers (taking an old DC property and muddying it up with supernatural attributes and explicit connections to Swamp Thing) and part proto-Sandman, at least in terms of tone and artistic style. It's also a deeply feminist work that is well ahead of its time, presenting the absolute ugliest sides of a "man's world" and the threats it poses to the innate beauty of the feminine ideal in contrast. Oversimplified, meandering, and sometimes unsuccessful? Absolutely. But it's bold, and when it works, it really works.

The story itself?...bleh. Gaiman meanders off of the typical plot structure outline with no real plan for what to do in its place. Thus, this three issue storyline feels every bit as directionless as its protagonist and doesn't end in any sort of satisfying way. Definitely a flawed work, though you can forgive it that when feeling the sheer charm and brilliance of Gaiman and McKean at work. I approached this having just been disappointed by Sandman Overture and feeling like I would never experience Gaiman's genius in quite the same way again. This work still managed to satiate that hunger. Proto-Sandman without the sandman.


Worthwhile to read: If you love Gaiman, absolutely. If you love Moore, probably. If you don't do artsy books that are more concerned with ideas and feelings than with furthering a plotline, stay far away.



Worth re-reading?:

Yes, but it's not on par with Sandman. Don't set your expectations too high.


Grade the run as a whole: B

I've been meaning to get to these for a while, I have mostly the ones IN the crossovers (I liked the San Francisco/Second Coming era of X-Men), and not the others. Sounds like they are worth getting!

The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones #1-34 (1982-1986)




Overview:
The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones series is set in 1936, in the period immediately following the events of Raiders of the Lost Ark, with the final four issues taking place in 1937. The series mostly consists of two-part stories or done-in-one tales, which makes it very new reader friendly. Of the two-parters, the first instalment ends with a suitably thrilling cliff-hanger at the end – a format that works well, since the whole Indiana Jones franchise is a pastiche of old '30s and '40s adventure serials, after all.

The stories generally follow a narrative template that is very close what we saw in Raiders and later in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: that is, Indy is on the trail of some legendary archaeological treasure (and usually having to tangle with some disgruntled native tribe to get it), while being pursued by shadowy foreign government agents (usually German Nazis), and most of the stories have a vague supernatural element to them or to the treasure that Indy is searching for.

Surprisingly, given her important role in Raiders, Marion Ravenwood doesn't feature in the early part of the series at all and Indy is instead paired with a revolving cast of beautiful female companions from story to story. That changes with issue #6, when Marion returns – and it would seem that she returns at the urging of the readers, if the correspondences on the letter's pages are anything to go by. Soon after her introduction, Marion gets a job as a publicity agent for the University campus of the National Museum in Connecticut, which is where Indiana Jones works, and this means that she is able to accompany him on his adventures.

Of the supporting characters from Raiders who re-appear in the comic, Marcus Brody is present a fair bit and Sallah makes the odd appearance too. We even get the re-appearance of Captain Katanga and his cargo freighter the Bantu Wind in issues #15 and #16.

Interestingly, several times early on in the series, the comic pre-empts stunts that would later be seen in the film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, such as Indy jumping from a plane after the pilots have abandoned the aircraft and having to use an improvised parachute to save himself. Or Indy being on a rope bridge across a chasm when a pursuing band of villains cut the ropes at one end, causing the bridge to collapse and swing down, while Indy holds on for dear life. In fact, the third story-arc features inter-dimensional alien beings, which is a concept that is pretty close to what we saw in the God awful Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull from 2008.

I suppose this pre-empting of situations seen in later Indiana Jones films illustrates just what a good grasp the writers of the early issues – Denny O'Neil and David Michelinie – had on the sorts of adventure serial tropes that Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were aiming for in the movies.


Series events and highlights:
Right off the bat the art of John Byrne (issues #1 and #2) and Gene Day/Richard Howell (issue #3) does a brilliant job of aping the look and feel of Raiders...




Unfortunately, the characterisation of Indiana Jones himself is a little shaky in the first three issues, with writers John Byrne and Denny O'Neil not quite nailing Harrison Ford's portrayal of the character. It's only when David Michelinie comes on board with issue #4 that the central character's dialogue "sounds" like Indy, which is no surprise as Michelinie had already proved adept at capturing the "voices" of various characters from the Star Wars cast over in Marvel's SW comic. In fact, I noticed on issues #4 and #5 that this is the exact same writing/art/colouring/editorial team that were working on Star Wars at the same time.

The art in issue #3, which is split between Gene Day and Richard Howell, is very good in Day's portion of the comic and rather average in Howell's. Ron Frenz comes on board as artist for issues #4 and #5 and his work is a treat to behold. Kerry Gammill handles the art on issues #7 and #8, and #11 and #12, with very pleasing results, in a pair of stories that introduce the series' two Marvel-originated recurring villains: Ian McGiver and Ben Ali Ayoob. McGiver reappears in TFAOIJ #17 and #18, while Ali Ayoob resurfaces in issues #20 and #22, though both villains appear to meet their ends at the conclusion of their respective second appearances.

Issue #6 features a one-shot story in which Marion opens a swanky night club called the Raven's Nest in Manhattan and Indy has to stop a disgruntled dealer of antiquities from killing her. This issues sees Howard Chaykin's only contribution to the series and his art is rather nice, with inker Terry Austin making it even better.

This is followed in issues #7 and #8 by a story about a pseudo-Atlantian tribe in the Congo called the Shintay.

Issues #9 and #10 feature an interesting story in which Indy steals back the golden Chachapoyan idol he lost to his rival Belloq in the film Raiders of the Lost Ark. This story sees the sexy Nazi agent Ilsa Toht – sister of the bespectacled Nazi agent Ernst Toht, who also appeared in Raiders – team up with the Chachapoyan tribe in an attempt to kill Jones and disrupt the Brazilian rubber industry that the American military will rely on in if another world war breaks out.

Through issues #14–16, it's revealed that Marion's father, Abner Ravenwood, may still be alive, which leads her and Indy off to Greece and the Himalayas in issues #17 and #18. Ultimately, Michelinie leaves it very vague and open to interpretation as to whether a masked westerner that the pair encounter in the Himalayas is actually Abner or not and that's probably a good thing.

We get a fill-in issue written and pencilled by Larry Lieber in issue #19, in which Indy thwarts the Japanese military's plan to reanimate a preserved dragon that they have discovered in Nepal and unleash it on America. It's a ridiculous story, but is actually quite a lot of fun.

At around this point it is discovered that the Arnhem Ring, which Indy "obtained" from an Aborigine tribe in Australia in issue #11, is a fake. The resulting scandal sees the National Museum in Connecticut temporarily closed down and Marcus Brody in disgrace and summarily replaced as curator. In issues #20–22, Indy, Marion and Marcus travel to Havana, Wales, and finally Switzerland in an attempt to clear Brody's name.

Herb Trimpe comes on board as semi-regular artist with issues #15–18 and #23–24, and he turns in some very pleasing artwork. Steve Ditko makes his debut on pencils in issue #21, but I'm not sure that his art style gels all that well with the world of Indiana Jones. The array of different inkers in this issue – Bob Wiacek, Steve Leialoha, Jack Abel, Al Milgrom etc – gives Ditko's art a rather "wonky", slapdash appearance. Ditko returns as the series' regular penciller with issue #25 and remains til the series' end, but this time he is paired with inker Danny Bulanadi who does a lot to rein in the overt "Ditko-ness" of the artwork.

Another recurring nemesis for Indy is introduced in issue #24 in the form of the bald, monocle-wearing archaeologist Sigfried Klexx...




Klexx is an utterly ruthless man, with professionally questionable methods, and is rather a memorable villain. Sadly, he never re-appears in the series, despite the reader being shown that his is still alive – albeit barely – at the end of the issue.

A potential love interest for Indy is introduced in issue #25 in the shape of the glamorous female archaeologist Jessie Hale, who again reappears in issues #29 and #30. Not much ends up being done with Hale and Indiana's blooming romance, but she adds some glamour and romantic tension to the issues that she appears in.

On a related mater, Marion Revenwood is unceremoniously written out of the series at the end of issue #25, having gotten fed up with Jones's lack of attention to her. It seems like rather a sudden departure though and I wonder if it was something that Lucasfilm insisted on, given that Marion hadn't appeared in that summer's blockbuster Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and had been replaced as Indy's love interest in that film by Willie Scott?

While we're on the subject of characters from Temple of Doom, Short Round makes a brief appearance in issue #26, when he helps Indiana to escape from a sticky situation in a motorboat. It's revealed that at this point in 1936 Short Round is living in a New York boarding school for boys.

Issues #29–31 see Ricardo Villamonte on art duties, with Linda Grant writing and the results are pretty good. The first two-part story from this creative team sees Indy reunited with fellow archaeologist (and potential love interest) Jessie Hale and going up against the IRA and a Chinese cult known at the Tongs in order to obtain an ancient mummified Chinese emperor from the villainous Weng Ho. The second story by the team features Indy uncovering a Bigfoot hoax that is actually a cover for an espionage operation that is slipping U.S. military secrets to the Japanese.

Ditko and Bulanadi return on art chores with issue #32, which features a Grant story about an international thief named Amanda Knight, who initially pretends to be a representative from the British Museum in order to steal a Sumerian amulet. The issue culminates in a ridiculously improbably aerial duel with Knight and Indiana in biplanes. It's a shame more wasn't done with Knight, as she's an excellent and memorable adversary for Indy, but with only two more issues until the title was cancelled, I guess there just wasn't time to bring her back.

Towards the end of the series, beginning in issue #28, Grant begins setting up an overarching, muti-part story arc about a group of seven wizards whose power emanates from seven towers scattered around the globe. Predictably, theses wizards are all hell bent on using their power to destroy the Earth. Indy locates the first tower in Iran and a second one in Scotland – actually, it's a lighthouse! – and destroys them both. The seven towers saga makes a fitting end to the series, although it is necessarily left somewhat incomplete by the cancellation of the series with issue #34, as Indiana has only located and destroyed two of the seven towers.

I've read online that there were at least another two issues of The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones scheduled: a story titled "The Sentinel" was intended for issue #35, but I couldn't find any info at all on what the contents of the proposed issue #36 would've been.


Worthwhile to read/re-read?
I read a fair bit of this series back in the day, either when it was reprinted as a back-up strip in Marvel UK's Star Wars Monthly comic or via imported U.S. issues. So, I have a lot of nostalgia for the first 20 or so issues, which makes it hard to evaluate the series' worth completely objectively. I will say that it is definitely a series that captures the excitement, adventure and heroic derring-do of Raiders and Temple of Doom, while simultaneously seeming to move the lead character's life forward – although, in reality, it is very much the illusion of change.

The series' adherence to a Raiders-style plot template does make it a little repetitive at times, but not to the point that it ever really spoils the reader's enjoyment. After all, these are exactly the sort of serial fiction adventures that any sensible reader would want to see Indiana Jones in. Still, it's fair to say that there isn't a whole lot of variety in the kinds of stories the series serves up.

All in all though, The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones is just good, clean escapist fun and is well written for the most part, with interior artwork that ranges from the excellent to the not-so-excellent on occasion.