Hitler vs. Stalin

This needs an animated adaptation with the most overbearing thrash metal soundtrack conceivable.

Marvel Preview #1

The kind of magazine I would have loved to get more of in the 1970s. Good stories, great art, and no need to buy umpteen different issues to know what's going on.

This first issue is heavily influenced by the then-recent works of Erich von Daniken, which is the subject of a very sympathetic article. Boy, how I fell for that nonsense when I was young! Clearly, I was not alone.

In the first story, written by Doug Moench from an idea by Roy Thomas and illustrated by Alex Niño, human-like aliens visit our planet in the neolithic and try not to interfere with the normal development of the cavemen they meet (because the Prime Directive applies across many works of SF). The aliens are mistaken for gods, which leads to tension among the cavemen and offers possibilities for a decidedly wicked visitor who plays the role of the snake in the garden. We learn that this primitive mankind actually came to Earth from the stars; its ancestors were soldiers bred for war by the visiting aliens, who have now come to see how their descendants were faring on their new world. The cavemen had been deported to our planet when their role as genetically-engineered soldiers had become obsolete in their advanced society, and it was deemed safer to get rid of them.

(I hate the concept of humans not being native to our planet because despite its romanticism, it flies in the face of what we know about biology. That life might have come from beyond the stars is one thing, but that one species in particular would have is the kind of thing we'd immediately notice when studying its physiology or its genome).

The tale is interspersed with flash-forwards in which modern-day discoverers find traces of ancient astronauts. It doesn't bring much to the story, but does provide a bittersweet moment at the end.

I personally would have preferred for the man-gods from outer space to remain mysterious, kind of like Kirby's Celestials, but as they are the main characters we get to see what they think and how they feel. Once we accept that caveat, this is quite a decent SF story and the Alex Niño is as spectacular as usual.

The second story is a real gem I had forgotten about. Written by Marv Wolfman and beautifully drawn by Dave Cockrum and inked by the Neal Adams-led Crusty Bunkers, it looks gorgeous. Cockrum is in fine form, here, with beautiful alien architecture, creatures, spacesuits and the like. The inking is brilliant, too. The story deals with certain religious concepts, and I am amazed (positively so) that back in those days you could draw the prophet Muhammad without fearing for your safety. I'm not sure the story would be reprinted today.

Altogether this is a great '70s comic, and Marvel Preview is one series I really should complete one day; I don't think I ever disliked a single issue.

I read Star Wars #7-15 (via the Star Wars Omnibus: A Long Time Ago vol. 1) and the Batman stories from Detective Comics #27-28 (via Batman Archives vol. 1).

I'd previously read the adaptation of the film from Star Wars #1-6. I couldn't remember whether I'd ever started the next arc before, but it wasn't particularly familiar. The Aduba-3 arc in #7-10 is like another take on Seven Samurai/The Magnificent Seven, featuring Han Solo and Chewbacca. The ragtag bunch of heroes assembled by Han includes Jaxxon, the 6 foot tall rabbit. Then in #11-15, a subplot featuring Luke (and a bit of Leia) in search of a planet for a new rebel base that got a few pages during the previous arc merges with Han & Chewie's Crimson Jack subplot to form the Doomworld arc feature Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, R2D2, and C3P0.

The writers go from Roy Thomas to Don Glut for an issue to Archie Goodwin. The art goes from Howard Chaykin (with various different inkers leading to very different results) to Carmine Infantino. Chaykin also co-plotters. Infantino draws some funky looking people, but his scenario, spaceships, etc. have a more realistic feel. As far as faithfulness to the films goes, I think the scripts do a good job at dialogue that I could hear the film characters speaking. On art, Infantino struggles a bit with matching Chewie to his film appearance. So far, I feel like the tone is more whimsical than the movies. While you'll struggle to find many female characters in the original Star Wars (even among extras in crowd scenes), both arcs introduce potential love interests for Han that just aren't going to work out. In a sign that these stories are from the 1970s, the scripts want us to know there are some cradle-robbing age differences in play.

I'm curious how much contact there was between the filmmakers and the comic creators to make sure the comics didn't paint themselves into a corner where it would be impossible to synch up with the next film. For instance, in #7 Han gets his handsome reward that he can use to pay Jabba back. Then, it's promptly stolen. It's not entirely clear whether he gets it back. But for example, if Han were able to pay Jabba back, then the plotline would be out of synch with a future movie plotline (unless Han gets a new debt). I think I'll read the Splinter in the Mind's Eye novel soon, so that'll be another opportunity to see how the outside media conundrum was handled.

I've read the Batman stories from Detective #27-28 before, but I wanted to re-read the few 1930s Batman stories for my Classic Comics Resolutions. It's interesting that he's "the Batman" on the covers, but "the Bat-Man" in the stories. The Batmobile in these stories is just a nice-looking red car without any exotic characteristics. Bat-ropes (albeit with no special name) don't show up in the stories themselves until #28, although of course Batman is famously swinging on a rope on the cover to #27. Batman is very casual about throwing thugs around on rooftops, even when it's implied they may fall to their deaths. It feels like it's mostly the natural flow of the fight rather than an intent to kill though. Batman has gloves in #27. Despite fingerprints being a plot point in a murder investigation in that issue, Batman does have gloves in #28. Isn't he worried about getting caught. There seems to be Golden Age DC fixation on heroes in their civilian identities bending over backwards to act like the polar opposite of their heroic identities to throw off the scent. The scripting about "bored Bruce Wayne" gets old fast. Can't he just act like a normal dude instead of putting on a phony act that'll seem phony after a while? After all, wouldn't it seem weird to people that this lazy guy is in great shape?

I read the Batman stories from Detective Comics #29-34 and Star Wars #16.

I don't remember exactly which stories I've read before from this Batman Archives. Based on which I've these stories were familiar to me, I think I read through #33 before and skipped ahead to stories like the first appearances of Robin and Clayface. I like the stories here by Gardner Fox more than the first two by Bill Finger. Batman gets his first recurring villain in the form of Doctor Death. In #31, we see the Batarang (spelled as Baterang) and the Batgyro (the first Batplane). Before we even have an Alfred Pennyworth appearance, we meet Bruce Wayne's fiancee Julie Madison. It's a two-parter that takes us to Europe. The villain is called the Monk, because he's supposedly dressed like a monk. In my opinion, he's dressed more like a Klansman. Detective #33 is an odd story, and I wonder if it was published out of order from when it was written. For one, it starts with Batman's origin in the first two pages for no particular reason related to the rest of the story. Also, the story in #33 takes place back in U.S., while #34 continues Batman's journey in Europe. In #33, the story is said to take place in New York rather than Gotham City. A villain scheme just casually kills thousands of civilians. We get a supernatural story involving vampire in #34, as well as a guy with his face melted off, with an appearance that prefigures the Question.

Star Wars #16 is interesting because a new villain goes after Han's allies from the Aduba-3 arc. It's a story centered on new characters in the comic. The characters from the movie are referenced, but aren't involved in the action. It also has guest art by Walt Simonson and Bob Wiacek.

Star Wars #16 is a great comic -- one of my favourites from the early part of the series. It's cool to meet up with the Star-Hoppers of Aduba-3 again (including Jaxxon, of course), and the droid-hating villain Captain Valance is an interesting and emotionally complex character. Walt Simonson and Bob Wiacek's artwork is very nice too, with some beautifully paced panel-to-panel storytelling, plenty of great background detail, and some nice use of Zip-a-Tone.

As you mentioned, the interesting thing about issue #16 is that it's the only comic in the series in which none of the main cast of the Star Wars movie appear (other than in a brief recap sequence, of course). I think that's a fairly bold move on Marvel's part, considering that Star Wars had only hit cinemas a little more than a year earlier.

Also, Star Wars #16 is a tremendously important comic in the history of the medium because it represents Jaxxon's last appearance in the regular Marvel series. *sniff*

I read Star Wars #17-27, finishing the remainder of the Star Wars: A Long Time Ago vol. 1 Omnibus.

Star Wars #17 is a flashback to Luke's life on Tatooine before Episode IV, written by Chris Claremont with art by Trimpe & Milgrom. We get to see Luke bullseye a womp-rat and Beggar's Canyon. That's the Star Wars expanded universe content I want to see - bringing life to offhand references in the movies that I was always curious about. We also get to see Biggs Darklighter. As a kid, I thought he was the coolest pilot at the Battle of Yavin (outside of main characters). When his X-Wing exploded, I used to lie to myself that it was some other X-Wing.

Then, there's a long arc in #18-23 that takes place on a casino/space station called the Wheel. On one hand, it's interesting to see some world-building and an exploration of the political situation. There's also a cool computer-turned-droid called Master-Com. On the other hand, the story drags after a while, and I thought it would go more quickly. After being out of the picture for a while, Darth Vader also shows up. It's not quite the confrontation might hope for, but I've heard that it might have been one of the restrictions on the series.

We get a Obi-Wan Kenobi flashback story in #24. It's not as great as I was hoping for. It also has a framing sequence that's strangely set after #15. That's because even though the end of #23 is set up to bring our heroes all together after being split up on the Wheel, they are on two different ships. With a weak pretext, the stories the follow keep them separate. In #25-26, there's a story about a blockade of the Rebel base on the fourth moon of Yavin. It's a little hard to follow. The one-off that brings Valance back in #27 is much better. We get more of his anti-droid bigotry, which seems to be a recurring theme in the series.

Sometimes it seems like there's uncertainty about the rules of Star Wars. For instance, in Episode IV (and the Original Trilogy generally), I got the impression that a light sabre is a rare and exotic weapon. However, Don-Wan Kihotay is crazy dude who somehow has a light sabre back in #8. But a remark in #27 gets back to my understanding that it's rare based on Valance's reaction to seeing one.

I'm on the fence about whether I will buy and read more Star Wars in the near future. I want to see more of how the comics compares to the movies. The next issue is supposed to feature Jabba the Hutt. I'm curious to see his depiction. In the movie adaptation, he was a dorky-looking alien with long whiskers instead of the human from the deleted scene of A New Hope or the familiar giant slug of ROJ and the Special Edition of ANH. I'm not too excited about Infantino art from this period though.