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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 10, 2019 16:52:08 GMT -5
Marvel Spotlight Vol 2 #6 Creative Team: Doug moench-writer, Tom Sutton-art, John Costanza-letters, Ben Sean-colors, Jim Salicrup-edits Synopsis: The Master of the Sun has stopped running from Star-Lord and Ship...  What follows is a musing of the Master of the Sun's part in the creation of Star-Lord. We see a spaceship crash land on Earth, witnessed by Maureen Quill. She rescues an injured alien and nurses him back to health. he repairs his ship and heads back to a war in space; but only after carrying out the time-honored tradition of soldiers going off to war by leaving a pregnant woman behind. Dad doesn't return and Maureen has a baby, which she holds up to the stars. He grows and is obsessed with traveling into space. One day, he witnesses a UFO landing and gets his mother, with terrible consequences...  Peter grows up to be an astronaut and goes to the first permanent space station. There is a vision of the future Star-Lord and Quill knows he must be in a certain place, at a certain time. He wasn't chosen for the mission and horns in, leading to his meeting with the Master of the Sun, who might be God; but, probably isn't. He is given his vengeance and sent off with Ship, to be a peace agent, leading to his previous adventures. He catches up to the Master's craft, finding the reptilian aliens already there and stops them from killing the Master. He turns out to be one of them.  Thoughts: This is the origin story for Star-Lord, after appearances in the magazine line, making this his first comic book format appearance. It's all back story and little adventure, like most of the Phase 1 movies,. it's a decent story, even if it was swiped from all kinds of sources, including heinlein, EE Smith (the astronaut stuff and the idea of a corp of Star Lords is pure Lensman), Edmond Hamilton and more. About the only thing missing is Steve Englehart's early conception of astrological based tales, because he quit after one story and Claremont retooled it into Heinlein et al. The story is interesting, though kind of static and probably could have stood to be condensed for a larger adventure. Hopefully, issue #7 has that adventure. Let's find out.
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Post by badwolf on Apr 10, 2019 17:02:59 GMT -5
I love Tom Sutton's artwork. It wasn't the sort of style I liked as a kid (when that first came out), but I love it now.
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 10, 2019 17:26:23 GMT -5
Marvel Spotlight Vol 2 #7 Creative Team: Doug Moench-writer, Tom Sutton-artist, Jim Novak-letters, Bob Sharen-colors, Jim Salicrup-edits Synopsis: Star-Lord and ship come to a new world and explore. They find life and witness a man being tossed off a platform, high above the ground. Star-Lord rescues him and a huntress, Shreen, is sent after him and his rescued friend, to complete the dude's punishment. Star-Lord helps the dude, Thorn, escape. He then explains he owes him giri, a good deed to repay his act.  he talks a lot about wings and flying to the World Palace, through giri, and Star-Lord takes him up there and witnesses people sacrificing their giri to power Thorn, which rejuvenates his wings. Shreen shows up to kill him and Star-Lord fights her...  She fais and throws herself off the platform, killing herself. Thorn says Star-Lord must share his grief to repay her giri, which he doesn't understand and it is giving me a headache. The World Palace is cut off from all, due to the anger of the above and Thorn flies up to breach it, even as it means death. he is struck by lightning and killed, releasing vast rain. Star-Lord cries and everything is hunky-dory. Thoughts: I really, really hate esoteric, metaphoric, snooze-fest tales. This thing is an attempt at some profound tale of sacrifice and good deeds, built upon the idea of Lucifer, as a fallen angel (or Prometheus, giving fire to man, if you prefer) and karma and other philosophies and religious beliefs and mythologies. It's a complete mish-mash of stuff and not particularly coherent, which tries to be be profound, but mostly ends up being gibberish, rather like the Matrix sequels. It takes more than a lot of pompous dialogue to create a profound metaphor. Giri is a Japanese word, meaning obligation. It refers to an obligation to one who has aided you and which you must repay to satisfy honor. It was a central element to Claremont and Miller's Wolverine mini-series, as giri leads to Mariko Yoshida being wed to another man, when she loves Logan. That conflict brings Logan up against her father and husband, and the Hand, which was the end result of Miller (and maybe Claremont) reading too many Eric Van Lustbader novels. This whole story reads like one of the more boring Star Trek episodes; specifically, "The Cloud Minders." Thing is, the Cloud Minders was at least watchable; this is just confusing and boring. You have a good team; but, they are trying too hard to be profound, rather than crafting a good story that becomes profound in the telling. Sutton's art is great, though.
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 10, 2019 18:15:40 GMT -5
Marvel Fanfare #27 "Cars"Creative Team: Bill Mantlo-writer, Tony Salmons-art, Jim Novak-letters, Glynis Wein-colors, Al Milgrom-edits Synopsis: The title says it all. After dealing with the pollution and noise of city traffic, Matt Murdock arrives at work to meet Foggy, to go buy a company car. Foggy is playing with model cars, while he waits and sets the tone for things. they go to dealers and Foggy dreams while sitting in a Delorean (or something similar, with gull-wing doors)...  Matt and the salesman steer him to something more sensible, yet sporty (looks like a Mercedes or BMW) and they buy it. meanwhile, Matt has to get to court to defend a car thief, dealing with traffic snarls and habitual criminals. He gets his client off, amazingly, with a rather weak argument, though we don't see or hear anything but testimony of his client and the summation. The guy says he owes Murdock a favor. The next day, Foggy picks up the car; but, it is stolen by evening...  Daredevil goes hunting and first stops by Matt's client. he gives up a chop shop and DD busts their operation. Two crooks escape in Foggy's car and DD gives chase, which leads to their capture and the totalling pf the car. Insurance covers it and it puts Foggy off driving. Thoughts: Cute little story with plenty of humorous elements. Cars are a running gag throughout it. Tony Salmons plays with the art a bit; but, it's nowhere near as experimental as Dakota North, despite Al Milgrom's Editori-Al, which warns of experimental art. This is more straightforward, for Salmons, but more stylistic than the generic Marvel comics of the period. Bob McLeod provides a nice New Mutants portfolio, then Marc Hempel solos on a Spidey story. "Spidey Gets Antsy"Creative Team: Marc Hempel-everything but the editing. Al Milgrom-editing. Synopsis: Spidey is enjoying a quiet evening and it is driving him nuts. no super-villains, no fights with MJ, Aunt May isn't dying (yet), the rent is paid; in short, he is bored stiff. he starts losing it, making web sculptures and then talking about sitting around his apartment in costume.  He calls Harry Osborn, who is out and it is too late to call Aunt May. he starts to call another number and says he isn't that desperate. he goes out in costume, looking for trouble and scares an old woman half to death...  A cop shows up and Spidey figures he might get a fight out of it; but, the cop thinks Spidey has had a few and asks if he needs a lift home. Spidey swings home and finally succumbs to desperation and calls JJ Jameson...  Thoughts: I love this! Harlan Ellison did a similar story with Batman; but, hempel's is the cuter of the two. Hempel was not a big name in the superhero comic world. He was the artist on Comico's Jonny Quest series (the bulk of it, as others did single stories or one or two). He gained a bit of a rep through his brilliantly and bizarrely funny Gregory series of graphic novels, from DC's Piranha Press, about a young boy in a straight jacket, in a mental hospital, whose best friend is an excrement-obsessed rat, named Herman Vermin. Hempel also created the Image comic, Tug & Buster. He and Mark Wheatley started at First Comics, on the Mars series. They also collaborated on Breathtaker, for Vertigo. This is probably more in keeping with gregory and Tug & Buster, minues the scatalogical elements. Hempel's art seems to be deliberately Ditko-esque, though with a mania even Ditko might find a bit much, though I love it. The web sculptures include a hanging biplane (like a model aircraft), a Seussian object, Ignatz (from Krazy Kat), the Statue of Liberty, and a caricature of Al Milgrom (Milgrom's Editori-Al self-caricature). This is one of the better whole issues, so far, of Marvel Fanfare. It's solidly entertaining, a bit different from the normal stories for these characters, and features art that is a departure from the norm (and the Shooter model). More of this kind of stuff would be quite welcome.
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Post by rberman on Apr 10, 2019 18:17:00 GMT -5
Marvel Spotlight Vol 2 #6Peter grows up to be an astronaut and goes to the first permanent space station. There is a vision of the future Star-Lord and Quill knows he must be in a certain place, at a certain time. He wasn't chosen for the mission and horns in, leading to his meeting with the Master of the Sun, who might be God; but, probably isn't. He is given his vengeance and sent off with Ship, to be a peace agent, leading to his previous adventures. He catches up to the Master's craft, finding the reptilian aliens already there and stops them from killing the Master. He turns out to be one of them. This is a theological neutering of Steve Englehart's original tale in Marvel Preview #4, which first establishes the birth of Jesus as a matter of cosmic import foretold by astrological alignments, and then flashes forward to a new child who is clearly not the son of his mother's husband:  When that child grows up to be an astronaut, he meets a cosmic being who looks a lot like visions of God from the Old Testament, and who knows about the mystery of his birth:  Englehart was setting Peter Quill up to be a cosmic messiah, not far off from the tale he was telling with Mantis/Willow in Avengers and then JLA. Moench is specifically backing away from this by showing the "Master of the Sun" to be Ragnar, an alien scientist rather than a cosmic power. Thus Moench starts his story with the notion that the Master of the Sun is running and hiding. He supplies an alien father for Peter, instead of Englehart's mysterious fatherless conception. This recontextualizes Englehart's coy "Perhaps I am not what I seem" speech (which Moench recapitulates) as being about aliens rather than mystical astronological destinies. |
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Post by mikelmidnight on Apr 11, 2019 11:56:16 GMT -5
Weirdworld - I loved this issue. So pretty and charming. It totally reinforces how much Marvel missed the boat by not letting Ploog take his art back.
Torpedo - I thought the issue was okay, sort of average Marvel at the time. I did appreciate the attempt to take a D-list character and try to give him a chance to shine; unfortunately he wasn't that interesting. I wonder if he'd had a more retro Rocketeer-ish design whether he'd have stood out more, but he rather looked like a generic superhero.
Star-Lord - I thought the Claremont/Byrne one-shot story, with both of them at the peak of their powers, was glorious, but the character's never interested me all that much (although I still think he deserved better than to be killed off). I am a fan of Englehart's and it's a shame he never got to carry his plan to fruition, as it may have been a lot more interesting. I believe he almost proceeded at Eclipse (under the name Stardancer, or something like that?) but for whatever reason it never happened.
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Post by badwolf on Apr 11, 2019 19:41:16 GMT -5
Torpedo might be a d-lister, but I became fond of him over the course of the Rom run, and was genuinely saddened when his brains were sucked out by a Dire Wraith.
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Post by brutalis on Apr 12, 2019 8:03:58 GMT -5
Torpedo might be a d-lister, but I became fond of him over the course of the Rom run, and was genuinely saddened when his brains were sucked out by a Dire Wraith. I do adore me some B and C and D lister's! The Torpedo "suit" is half the problem with the character as it is totally BOOOOOOOOOOOOORING in style and they never gave Brock much sense or purpose and the ways he used the suit were basic and simple. Given a fashion makeover and brains enough to utilize the suit in new and interesting ways and the character might have been so much more. Perhaps part of the problem is that the Torpedo character was never really meant to be anything more than part of a cast of characters AND never meant to be a big name hero in any way, shape or from. Which kind of makes him out as the perpetual underdog even more than Peter Parker/Spider-Man. Sadly there was never much of an interest for Torpedo, but he did make for a splendid addition to the ROM cast of humanity standing by him in his war against the Wraiths. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 12, 2019 12:31:40 GMT -5
Rom gave Brock a purpose, beyond glory and thrill-seeking hero. That is what is missing here, as he just reacts to people trying to take his suit. I think the motivation, more than the design characteristics of the suit are what held this character back, in these two issues.
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Post by chaykinstevens on Apr 12, 2019 17:31:59 GMT -5
I am a fan of Englehart's and it's a shame he never got to carry his plan to fruition, as it may have been a lot more interesting. I believe he almost proceeded at Eclipse (under the name Stardancer, or something like that?) but for whatever reason it never happened. THe name was SunDancer. Apparently Englehart had written a 60 page script intended for Marshall Rogers to draw. |
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Post by mikelmidnight on Apr 15, 2019 11:35:02 GMT -5
I am a fan of Englehart's and it's a shame he never got to carry his plan to fruition, as it may have been a lot more interesting. I believe he almost proceeded at Eclipse (under the name Stardancer, or something like that?) but for whatever reason it never happened. THe name was SunDancer. Apparently Englehart had written a 60 page script intended for Marshall Rogers to draw.
Thanks for the correction. I didn't know the script was completed. Can someone go steal it now, please?
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 17, 2019 14:15:26 GMT -5
PS I have trouble taking Star Lord seriously, after Brendon Smalls shot this epic...
Just substitute Lord for Boy and you will see what goes through my head, when I see or hear the name!
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Apr 17, 2019 14:40:48 GMT -5
PS I have trouble taking Star Lord seriously, after Brendon Smalls shot this epic... Just substitute Lord for Boy and you will see what goes through my head, when I see or hear the name! I could hear almost nothing over the background noise (music, effects, etc.) in that. 90 seconds was all I could handle. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 17, 2019 14:42:34 GMT -5
Marvel Premiere #41 Seeker 3000! "I find this new series highly familiar captain." "Your assessment Bones..." "It;s a rip-off, Jim!" "Mr Sulu, ahead.....warp factor........3." "Aye, sir; warp factor 3." "Cap'n; the engines canna take this much punishment. Is nae guud fer them!" "Hey, Uhura, do we have any lines in this one?" "Negative, Mr Chekov." "That tears it, I'm going to go work for Babylon 5." Creative Team: DC Moench-writer, Gene L Tom Sutton-art, Denise "Nurse Chapel" Wohl and Rick "Red Shirt" Parker-letters, Roger "Klingon spy" Slifer-colors, Archie Roddenberry-editor Harlan Ellison disowns this script. Oh, wait, it won an award. He wrote it! Synopsis: Seeker 3000 gets underway for its 5 year mission...  Are all space station designers roulette players? That looks like the station/satellite in King Kong vs Godzilla! We get a roll call of the officers:Lt Valida Payton, solar engineer & physicist (XO); John Running Bear-behavioral scientist, medic & stress -psychologist; Ens Ben Payton-terraformist, life scientist, cryonics and cloning engineer (and Valida's twin brother); and Capt. Jordan Shaw. We are then filled in about the past, as Shaw says they are going to defy orders. The ship was constructed to be an ark to carry clones of specifically chosen allies of Jason and the Six (which sounds like a bad bar band), who rule the Earth. jason is the creator of the ship, which includes a domed area for plant preservation, ala Silent Running. Shaw was blackmailed into the scheme, but he schemed to defeat it, from his cell, sneaking out messages. he has assembled the team and they are going to jettison the currently preserved elite cells for those chosen by him and the ship's computer, Hubert. You see, the sun is going to go nova in less than one solar year and the Seeker is an ark to save the elite of mankind. Shaw means to dump the elite for a greater cross-section of humanity. He also reveals a telepath, Phaedra, who is held by the Six on Mars Arm, because she is the key to a warp drive. They set off to collect the Six; but, in actuality, they will rescue Phaedra.  The Six have a double cross, saying Shaw's wife will board with them; but, Jason isn't needed anymore and will be left on the Saturn complex. Paedra is released, under guard escort, and Shaw starts the rescue. Phaedra doesn't believe he is aiding her and fights, so Shaw grabs her and carriers her off, ith Valida's help. They make for the Seeker and get underway, with fighters in pursuit. The Seeker jettisons the cryonic cylinder with the clonal cells of the chosen, then picks up the new cylinder with the replacement cells. They prepare for an attack from Saturn Complex. Jason has been alerted and launches ships, then tells the Six to go F themselves, as he isn't coming back for them. he attacks, while Shaw gets Phaedra to cooperate, by revealing that 400 telepaths were among his chosen. Jason contacts him and tells Shaw that his wife's cells were among those jettisoned and destroyed. Phaedra initiates warp speed as Shaw fires a kill shot on Jason's ship, who then mindf@#$s him again. They achieve warp and then discover that Jason lives on, programmed into the ship's AI, to be revealed when he asks for the Life II tapes, which were a code switch. His personality controls the computer, though it can't control the crew. They head off into deep space. Thoughts: It is 1978 and Star Wars has caused an explosion of sci-fi, both knockoffs and revivals. Trek was being prepared for a new tv series, to launch a new Paramount network. However, the success of Star wars led Paramount to, instead, launch a Star Trek movie. Marvel had the rights to aapt Star Wars and soon picked up Battlestar Galactica, the first high profile project to follow SW. Their own books, especially X-Men, began to mirror Star Wars and the like. What they didn't have was trek, which was still held by Western, under their Gold Key banner. They would hold the license until 1979, when Paramount would end their relationship and sign a deal with Marvel to adapt the new movie and launch new Star trek comics, based upon it. In the interim, there was this; Marvel's attempt at their own Star Trek concept. The parallels to Trek and other sci-fi properties are clear. Dave Cockrum, a major Trek fan, who added elements of it to the Legion and the X-Men, designed the character uniforms and appearances, as well as the Seeker. As I said above, the "green room" dome was taken from Douglas Trumball's Silent Running, with its agro-ship, preserving plant life from Earth. That model was later used as one of the fleet ships in BSG. We have characters based on the Enterprise crew, with a bold captain, a doctor, a black lieutenant, an alien form (Phaedra vs Spock) and an engineer. We have a rebellion from totalitarian rule, from Star Wars. What we didn't have, for several decades, was a continuation. This was it for the concept. Most likely due to gaining the actual Trek license, and a possible caution about potential legal issues if they continued with Seeker. In execution, the story is only surface Trek, as the story dynamic is a bit different, though it shares a lot of elements with BSG, though this was published in January of 78 and BSG would debut in September, though an exodus of humanity, in space, was nothing new. That was a partial theme to Phillip Wylie's When Worlds Collide, as an ark is built to save a cross-section of humanity. Moench creates some interesting dynamics here and Sutton is in his element. As a single issue goes, it's pretty darn good. It would have made for an interesting series. The touch of Jason inhabiting the computer is novel, though we would see future elements of that in Red Dwarf, when Rimmer, Dave Lister's antagonist and immediate supervisor, is reborn as a hologram, because he is most likely to keep Lister sane and focused on living, just by sheer antagonism (a key driving force of early RD scripts). Here, we are presented the idea that they may have to battle their own ship, at some point. It's a bit of early Dr Smith, in Lost in Space, as he was an enemy agent. Nothing original; but, nothing terrible. More potential here than most of the MP issue of this stretch.
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 17, 2019 16:00:11 GMT -5
Marvel Spotlight #8 Creative Team: Mike Barr-script & co-plot, Dick Riley-co-plot, Frank Miller (yep, Mr Dark Knight himself)-pencils, Bruce Patterson-everything else, including letters and colors, Jim Salicrup-edits Synopsis: Mar-Vell has arrived on an alien planet...  But no one seems to be home. We then get flashback exposition. Mar-Vell was called to a Project: Starlight base, where they searched for new stars and signs of intelligent life. researchers worked behind a time lock-sealed door, which has been released; but, can't be opened. Mar-Vell rips it open; but, finds no sign of anyone inside. There is just the telescope, which begs the question why they couldn't just have someone lowered via cable, from a helicopter, through the observatory opening or have someone climb up from below, using a firetruck ladder or grappling hooks and climbing rope. Comics! Inside, they find smashed photo plates, though one survives, which shows a streak of light coming towards the telescope. The lady astronomer who found the plates is hit by a purple light, as is a colleague and they disappear. Mar-Vell has traced them here. He looks around but finds no one moving. he spots a skrull and attacks...  He is repelled, without the skrull reacting, then meets Vindar, of this world, Norsec. He has made all the creatures there living statues.  They are held in punishment, by some unseen decision maker. Marv tracks down the source and finds the missing scientists about to be processed. he stops it and Vindar tells of how tThose Who See were the bosses of Norsec, until dikes broke and flooded their land, killing all. Vindar survived and the rulers inhabited a large gemstone and perpetuated this monstrosity. marv has had enough and shatters the gem, passing his own judgement on them Thoughts: The mystery part, which was intriguing, ends rather abruptly and we are left with Cosmic Lite. No wonder little was done with Mar-Vell, until Starlin killed him. No idea if this was intended as part of a new series or was just filler material that was published here, as it still doesn't pick up the abandoned Captain Marvel story, from issue #3, which was ignored in the Ditko issue, in #4 (which was likely a fill-in). No idea where they were going and we never go back to it. I thought the photographic plate thing seemed rather old fashioned, for the time; but, a little research showed that astronomers used photographic plates into the 90s, as they were more stable for capturing the wide images they photographed, before eventually moving onto digital technology. Learn something new every day. Knowledge! Looking at the art I wonder how much is miller and how much is Patterson. There has been past conjecture about how much Klaus Janson and Joe Rubinstein were finishing Miller's art, with some evidence that it wasmore their work to his very loose layouts. Patterson is doing everything else here, which makes me suspect that Miller might be doing just layouts. There are touches, here and there, that scream miller; but, not that much, even when comparing to his other, early work. Definitely one of the odder fits for his work.
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