Land of the Misfit Stories-Marvel Premiere/Spotlight/Etc...
Jun 4, 2019 20:05:59 GMT -5
Roquefort Raider and brutalis like this
Post by codystarbuck on Jun 4, 2019 20:05:59 GMT -5
Since I mention Marvel Super Action, which ties into Marvel Preview #2, and it was the only issue of the magazine version, I will cover it next.
Marvel Super Action #1
Painted cover by Bob Larkin, in the style of the Men's Adventure pulps. Don't know how the two guys are missing him, at that range, with hi back to them and the fire illuminating him. For a soldier, he has pretty bad combat awareness.
Creative Team: Accounts Settled, Accounts Due: Archie Goodwin-writer (this sounds promising), Tony DeZuniga & Rico Rival-art, Archie Goodwin-editor, Marv Wolfman-consulting editor
Synopsis: The Punisher is dictating a war journal entry (just like Mack Bolan); but, is interrupted by a knock at the door. It is his date...
who is what Terry Pratchett termed a "Lady of Negotiable Affection." She recognizes his punisher shirt and instead of asking if he has something kinky in mind, asks about his past, which gives us a flashback.
We see Punisher's family killed and a detective talk to him, Despite IDing the hoods, they have alibis and charges can't be brought. This is Murcia, damit; we don't let killers walk free when we can take the law into our own hands! So, Punisher goes off and hits a mob money drop, since he needs financing. He next aces two mob hitmen, in a Catskills resort. The police discover their file on the killers and the mob operations is missing and the captain implies that Det Laviano let it fall into the Punisher's hands. he pleads the innocence of a baby.
Punisher lets one mechanic live to alert the boss that he is coming for him. The mob is alerted and the boss sends his baby brother and the others to Florida to hide from the Punisher; but, it turns out he has betrayed his own brother...
Punisher heads to Florida (Snowbird!) and meets up with a buddy from nam, the Mechanic, and expert at weapons and explosives. he rigs some mines for Punisher to use ofht e foundation of the Spanish fortress, where the Costa mobsters are hiding. We cut inside and see them arming themselves, while their "party girls" watch. Then, their offshore oil well blows up, setting fire to the bay. They rush to check, allowing Punisher to cut his way past the grate on a salt water pool intake (from the ocean) and sneak in. His takes out one goon with a headshot from his Colt Python revolver, then plays cat and mouse with two more. He stalks one around some salt water tanks, until the goon gets the drop on him. he fires at Punisher, who ducks and the bullet shatters a shark tank and Jaws does the rest. Punisher then goes for Costa, himself, and finds him dead, an ice pick to the back of the skull. He finishes telling the pro his story, then rolls over for a massage, then he gut shoots her at point blank range, as she is about to stick an ice pick in him. She was one of the party girls, who was sent to kill Costa and the others, by the mob (and his older brother).
Red Eyed Jack is Wild: Mike friedrich-writer, George Evans & Frank Springer-art
Synopsis: SHIELD agent Bobbi Morse, aka The Huntress, is on a Mexico City rooftop, watching some goons.
The goons are actually SHIELD agents, who are counting a lot of money. Huntress takes them down, though one escapes. he gets back to his place, only to find the Huntress, who reveals that she is Bobbi Morse, an old friend of this agent, Scott. he asks what's up, since last he knew she was a biologist, working with SHIELD and hanging out with Ka-Zar (and, if the dialogue is correct, swinging on a few vines with him, if you know what I mean...) We then get a flashback of how she became the Huntress. Apparently, it didn't involve being a Golden Age supervillain or the daughter of Selina Kyle Wayne and her husband Bruce.
Bobbi was a bodyguard for a SHIELD lawyer, who was set to testify before a committee about SHIELD operations in Latin America. he asked bobbi to get him some water and she was out of the room when a bomb went off, killing him. the congressman, Kirk, asks her to infiltrate SHIELD, as he believes there is dirty business inside. She refuses, until her old mento shows up and convinces her that Fury's style leaves the door open for ambitious men to corrupt things. Bobbi aggress and becomes the Huntress.
Scott reveals that his contact, Santana, is believed to be skimming money and cutting deals with industrial firms in Latin America. Also involved are Santana's wife, Angela, and a muscle known as Red-Eyed Jack. The couple go to a party, on a yacht. Bobbi is introduced to Santana, who wants to speak with Scott, alone. They go off and Santana asks for his money, which Huntress grabbed. he wants more. Scott begs off and brings up the investigation. Santana has Red Euyed Jack take Scott. Huntress follows and sneaks into his estate and mansion, only to be caught and clobbered. we learn that Santana has be siphoning money from the Latin American operations to fund Col Sanjha, who is building a mercenary army to seize the Persian Gulf oil fields (presumably the Basra oil fields) and is impatient for his money. Untress wakes up and starts butt-kicking...
Santana has Scott at knifepoint; but, he kicks away the knife and Huntress hits Santana with a dropkick. he's then shot by his own wife, whos says he was weak. She shoots Scott before he can react; but, the dying Santana hits her with his own shot. Bobbi finds a telegram from nick Fury, alerting Angela about the Huntress. She leaves the scene, in tears.
An Ugly Mirror on Weirdworld: Doug Moench-writer, Mike Ploog-artist
Synopsis: Tyndall of Klarn is staying with some folks, who are telling him that he is not from there and is, thus, less. Then, some vampire bats attack the house. They bash themselves against the locked house, until dead. the citizens calla meeting and say the evil must be routed at the source and choose Tyndall, 'cause he is an outsider and they aren't going to do it! He heads off and kills serpents and monsters, before meeting a gnome who points him to a shrine, where the heart of evil lays. he kills more monsters and finds the place, with a bunch of monster skeletons. Indoe he finds an egg, which hatches, revealing a hot babe, who looks like him.
The Messiah in the Saddle Resolution: Howard Chaykin-story & art
Synopsis: In the Nevada desert, in 1938, silent western film star Noble Flagg (no doubt an ancestor of Reuben) kills a man, through a cabin window, and steals a black box that is some kind of awesome weapon.
Dominic Fortune receives a call from Len Sanders, of Apex Pictures. he shows him newsreel footage of Noble Flagg, whose career ended with the talkies; but, made a fortune in silents. he has found god and has bought the Paragon Pictures studio lot and set it up as a base for a religious crusade, with an East Coast financial advisor to back him. The studios want his crusade against them stopped, as he sees then as sinful as drugs and booze. Fortune recognizes the advisor as Olga Cimaglia, a New York monster. He goes to find Flagg and plays a hunch, visiting Lilly Germaine, cocaine supplier to Hollywood. She used to be an actress with Flagg. Sure enough, Flagg is there, with goons, looking for her records to hide his own past, as he backed many of her drug deals. Fortune interrupts them.
Flagg uses his superweapon and escapes. he starts his crusade, calling on god to destroy the perverted with earthquakes, which his machine conveniently creates! The mob are planning on using the diversion to hit some banks and a killer is sent to take out Fortune; but, thanks to a bit of blind luck, he takes the killer down. Noble Flagg double crosses the hoods and is about to escape to South America, in a prototype helicopter, when Dominic shows up. A fight ensues and Flagg looks to escape; but, forgot to open the skylight and crashes into it. Olga was looking to unite the LA mobs, with Flagg's help, kill him and then muscle in on the New York gangs. Flagg's doublecross brought her out, but Flagg killed her as he took off, before slamming into the roof. Dominic meets up with Sabbath to go celebrate.
Thoughts: Archie shows Conway how to do the Executioner formula and writes probably the best Punisher story I have read. Archie is a master of crime and adventure fiction and taught it better than anyone. He slo knows not to name things he hasn't researched and he demonstrates he was pretty up on Marine areas of operation in Vietnam, naming Khe Sahn and Hue (Archie did write every issue of Blazing Combat). He also understands how to put together a crime story and a mystery and sets up the twist well, planting it in front of you and then slowly cluing you in. he also takes advantage of the lack of Code scrutiny, making the story a bit more adult, with death and prostitutes, without wallowing in sex and gratuitous violence. The shark tank is a bit much; but, it's a fine old pulp tradition. Great story!
Huntress isn't bad and was meant to be a two-parter; but, the issue was decided to be a one-shot, not a full series, until sales figures could be analyzed; so, it was restructured. it has a conclusion that sets up a potential sequel. the action and intrigue are good and you can tell Archie was riding herd on Friedrich who rises above his normal level. George Evans and Frank Springer are old pros, with Evans coming from EC and Springer from terry and the Pirates, as well as work on DC's The Secret Six and Marvel's Nick Fury and Ka-Zar. Evans excelled at aviation stories; but, he had done everything and handles this well. It's a nice combo and they know how to use black and white.
Weirdworld makes its debut, in a somewhat disjointed story, that looks great, thanks to Ploog, and offers some lighter touches, after the heavier two previous stories.
Dominic Fortune returns, under Chaykin, as writer, after Len was to busy. There was an idea about a mystery, involving a Pan Am Clipper flight, where all of the passengers disappear, that was abandoned as too complex (though Archie says he wants that story to appear some day. Um, it did Archie, in The Avenger, #1, Justice, Inc, the debut of the pulp hero The Avenger. His family disappears on a flight, while he is in the restroom, causing him to freak out and it turns his hair and skin white. This leads to his crime fighting. I'm sure Archie knew that, though. Noble Flagg is modelled on any number of western stars, and the lA mob stuff is par for the course, as LA was run by Bugsy Siegel, then Mickey Cohen. The mob were involved in both Hollywood and LA's various vices, of which there were many. In many ways, this foreshadows James Ellroy's LA Confidential, though that is set in post-War Hollywood. There was plenty of that before the war, too. That is part of what makes Chaykin's stories so great, elevating it above the Scorpion. Chaykin's art is great. by this point, he has developed his style from his Kane and Adams beginnings into more of his toth-influenced look of American Flagg. This is the transition phase and Dominic Fortune is the step between Cody Starbuck and Reuben Flagg. Chaykin does a great job here.
This was a try out. The letters and sales on Marvel preview #2 were very good and Archie wanted to see if the Punisher could support his own magazine. However, the Recession had money on the short end, so, rather than launch a bi-monthly series, they decided to try a one-shot. They were already pulling back on some of the magazines, as some of their horror titles were curtailed. Marvel never really challenged Warren on that front; but, this could have been a better battleground. For whatever reason, the experiment wasn't continued and Punisher did not continue as a magazine star. He would continue as a guest star until his appearances in Daredevil and his mini-series, with Steven Grant and Mike Zeck. From there, the Punisher became a superstar, mirroring 80s action films, as the 70s action pulps were dying off (though they would limp into the 90s and Bolan is still around today).
Huntress would evolve into Mockingbird, in the pages of Marvel team-Up (#95). She hadn't been used for 4 years and DC had introduced Helena Wayne, so they changed the name (DC had a prior claim on it, with the GA supervillain). Mark gruenwald had also conceived of a Mockingbird character for Spider-Woman; but, wasn't able to use her. Bobbi Morse was fitted into the costume and continued her story of investigating SHIELD corruption, in the MTU tale (with NicK Fury helping). Gruenwald would bring Mockingbird back for the Hawkeye mini-series, which turned her into Hawkeye's Black canary and married them, after the briefest courtship in comic history. Seriously, they knew each other for just a few days, at most!
Really, really great magazine, put together by a master. I have to wonder how the Marvel magazine line might have fared under Archie, given his experience in running Warren. Economics did work against them, as the recession of the mid-70s hurt publishing as a whole, as much as every other industry. It was the fallout of Vietnam and it was a mess, which tells you what we have to look forward to when out constant state of war collapses. But, that is a topic for a locked thread.
The Marvel magazine line was pretty well gutted, by this point. A handful of titles continued (POTA, Savage Sword of Conan, Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, Crazy) and a new Hulk one would appear in 77, plus a Howard the Duck mag. Deadly hands and POTA were done by 77, Crazy in 83, and Hulk was dead by 78. Conan survived until 1995, the longest run of the bunch. Marvel tried the high end route, with Epic; but, cost, content, and a lower advertising budget sunk the title, which never really got the support it needed from marvel. It launched as Heavy metal's glory days were ending and it started struggling itself, with stronger content.
Marvel management never fully committed to the magazines, nor did staff, though some did their best work there.
Marvel Super Action #1
Painted cover by Bob Larkin, in the style of the Men's Adventure pulps. Don't know how the two guys are missing him, at that range, with hi back to them and the fire illuminating him. For a soldier, he has pretty bad combat awareness.
Creative Team: Accounts Settled, Accounts Due: Archie Goodwin-writer (this sounds promising), Tony DeZuniga & Rico Rival-art, Archie Goodwin-editor, Marv Wolfman-consulting editor
Synopsis: The Punisher is dictating a war journal entry (just like Mack Bolan); but, is interrupted by a knock at the door. It is his date...
who is what Terry Pratchett termed a "Lady of Negotiable Affection." She recognizes his punisher shirt and instead of asking if he has something kinky in mind, asks about his past, which gives us a flashback.
We see Punisher's family killed and a detective talk to him, Despite IDing the hoods, they have alibis and charges can't be brought. This is Murcia, damit; we don't let killers walk free when we can take the law into our own hands! So, Punisher goes off and hits a mob money drop, since he needs financing. He next aces two mob hitmen, in a Catskills resort. The police discover their file on the killers and the mob operations is missing and the captain implies that Det Laviano let it fall into the Punisher's hands. he pleads the innocence of a baby.
Punisher lets one mechanic live to alert the boss that he is coming for him. The mob is alerted and the boss sends his baby brother and the others to Florida to hide from the Punisher; but, it turns out he has betrayed his own brother...
Punisher heads to Florida (Snowbird!) and meets up with a buddy from nam, the Mechanic, and expert at weapons and explosives. he rigs some mines for Punisher to use ofht e foundation of the Spanish fortress, where the Costa mobsters are hiding. We cut inside and see them arming themselves, while their "party girls" watch. Then, their offshore oil well blows up, setting fire to the bay. They rush to check, allowing Punisher to cut his way past the grate on a salt water pool intake (from the ocean) and sneak in. His takes out one goon with a headshot from his Colt Python revolver, then plays cat and mouse with two more. He stalks one around some salt water tanks, until the goon gets the drop on him. he fires at Punisher, who ducks and the bullet shatters a shark tank and Jaws does the rest. Punisher then goes for Costa, himself, and finds him dead, an ice pick to the back of the skull. He finishes telling the pro his story, then rolls over for a massage, then he gut shoots her at point blank range, as she is about to stick an ice pick in him. She was one of the party girls, who was sent to kill Costa and the others, by the mob (and his older brother).
Red Eyed Jack is Wild: Mike friedrich-writer, George Evans & Frank Springer-art
Synopsis: SHIELD agent Bobbi Morse, aka The Huntress, is on a Mexico City rooftop, watching some goons.
The goons are actually SHIELD agents, who are counting a lot of money. Huntress takes them down, though one escapes. he gets back to his place, only to find the Huntress, who reveals that she is Bobbi Morse, an old friend of this agent, Scott. he asks what's up, since last he knew she was a biologist, working with SHIELD and hanging out with Ka-Zar (and, if the dialogue is correct, swinging on a few vines with him, if you know what I mean...) We then get a flashback of how she became the Huntress. Apparently, it didn't involve being a Golden Age supervillain or the daughter of Selina Kyle Wayne and her husband Bruce.
Bobbi was a bodyguard for a SHIELD lawyer, who was set to testify before a committee about SHIELD operations in Latin America. he asked bobbi to get him some water and she was out of the room when a bomb went off, killing him. the congressman, Kirk, asks her to infiltrate SHIELD, as he believes there is dirty business inside. She refuses, until her old mento shows up and convinces her that Fury's style leaves the door open for ambitious men to corrupt things. Bobbi aggress and becomes the Huntress.
Scott reveals that his contact, Santana, is believed to be skimming money and cutting deals with industrial firms in Latin America. Also involved are Santana's wife, Angela, and a muscle known as Red-Eyed Jack. The couple go to a party, on a yacht. Bobbi is introduced to Santana, who wants to speak with Scott, alone. They go off and Santana asks for his money, which Huntress grabbed. he wants more. Scott begs off and brings up the investigation. Santana has Red Euyed Jack take Scott. Huntress follows and sneaks into his estate and mansion, only to be caught and clobbered. we learn that Santana has be siphoning money from the Latin American operations to fund Col Sanjha, who is building a mercenary army to seize the Persian Gulf oil fields (presumably the Basra oil fields) and is impatient for his money. Untress wakes up and starts butt-kicking...
Santana has Scott at knifepoint; but, he kicks away the knife and Huntress hits Santana with a dropkick. he's then shot by his own wife, whos says he was weak. She shoots Scott before he can react; but, the dying Santana hits her with his own shot. Bobbi finds a telegram from nick Fury, alerting Angela about the Huntress. She leaves the scene, in tears.
An Ugly Mirror on Weirdworld: Doug Moench-writer, Mike Ploog-artist
Synopsis: Tyndall of Klarn is staying with some folks, who are telling him that he is not from there and is, thus, less. Then, some vampire bats attack the house. They bash themselves against the locked house, until dead. the citizens calla meeting and say the evil must be routed at the source and choose Tyndall, 'cause he is an outsider and they aren't going to do it! He heads off and kills serpents and monsters, before meeting a gnome who points him to a shrine, where the heart of evil lays. he kills more monsters and finds the place, with a bunch of monster skeletons. Indoe he finds an egg, which hatches, revealing a hot babe, who looks like him.
The Messiah in the Saddle Resolution: Howard Chaykin-story & art
Synopsis: In the Nevada desert, in 1938, silent western film star Noble Flagg (no doubt an ancestor of Reuben) kills a man, through a cabin window, and steals a black box that is some kind of awesome weapon.
Dominic Fortune receives a call from Len Sanders, of Apex Pictures. he shows him newsreel footage of Noble Flagg, whose career ended with the talkies; but, made a fortune in silents. he has found god and has bought the Paragon Pictures studio lot and set it up as a base for a religious crusade, with an East Coast financial advisor to back him. The studios want his crusade against them stopped, as he sees then as sinful as drugs and booze. Fortune recognizes the advisor as Olga Cimaglia, a New York monster. He goes to find Flagg and plays a hunch, visiting Lilly Germaine, cocaine supplier to Hollywood. She used to be an actress with Flagg. Sure enough, Flagg is there, with goons, looking for her records to hide his own past, as he backed many of her drug deals. Fortune interrupts them.
Flagg uses his superweapon and escapes. he starts his crusade, calling on god to destroy the perverted with earthquakes, which his machine conveniently creates! The mob are planning on using the diversion to hit some banks and a killer is sent to take out Fortune; but, thanks to a bit of blind luck, he takes the killer down. Noble Flagg double crosses the hoods and is about to escape to South America, in a prototype helicopter, when Dominic shows up. A fight ensues and Flagg looks to escape; but, forgot to open the skylight and crashes into it. Olga was looking to unite the LA mobs, with Flagg's help, kill him and then muscle in on the New York gangs. Flagg's doublecross brought her out, but Flagg killed her as he took off, before slamming into the roof. Dominic meets up with Sabbath to go celebrate.
Thoughts: Archie shows Conway how to do the Executioner formula and writes probably the best Punisher story I have read. Archie is a master of crime and adventure fiction and taught it better than anyone. He slo knows not to name things he hasn't researched and he demonstrates he was pretty up on Marine areas of operation in Vietnam, naming Khe Sahn and Hue (Archie did write every issue of Blazing Combat). He also understands how to put together a crime story and a mystery and sets up the twist well, planting it in front of you and then slowly cluing you in. he also takes advantage of the lack of Code scrutiny, making the story a bit more adult, with death and prostitutes, without wallowing in sex and gratuitous violence. The shark tank is a bit much; but, it's a fine old pulp tradition. Great story!
Huntress isn't bad and was meant to be a two-parter; but, the issue was decided to be a one-shot, not a full series, until sales figures could be analyzed; so, it was restructured. it has a conclusion that sets up a potential sequel. the action and intrigue are good and you can tell Archie was riding herd on Friedrich who rises above his normal level. George Evans and Frank Springer are old pros, with Evans coming from EC and Springer from terry and the Pirates, as well as work on DC's The Secret Six and Marvel's Nick Fury and Ka-Zar. Evans excelled at aviation stories; but, he had done everything and handles this well. It's a nice combo and they know how to use black and white.
Weirdworld makes its debut, in a somewhat disjointed story, that looks great, thanks to Ploog, and offers some lighter touches, after the heavier two previous stories.
Dominic Fortune returns, under Chaykin, as writer, after Len was to busy. There was an idea about a mystery, involving a Pan Am Clipper flight, where all of the passengers disappear, that was abandoned as too complex (though Archie says he wants that story to appear some day. Um, it did Archie, in The Avenger, #1, Justice, Inc, the debut of the pulp hero The Avenger. His family disappears on a flight, while he is in the restroom, causing him to freak out and it turns his hair and skin white. This leads to his crime fighting. I'm sure Archie knew that, though. Noble Flagg is modelled on any number of western stars, and the lA mob stuff is par for the course, as LA was run by Bugsy Siegel, then Mickey Cohen. The mob were involved in both Hollywood and LA's various vices, of which there were many. In many ways, this foreshadows James Ellroy's LA Confidential, though that is set in post-War Hollywood. There was plenty of that before the war, too. That is part of what makes Chaykin's stories so great, elevating it above the Scorpion. Chaykin's art is great. by this point, he has developed his style from his Kane and Adams beginnings into more of his toth-influenced look of American Flagg. This is the transition phase and Dominic Fortune is the step between Cody Starbuck and Reuben Flagg. Chaykin does a great job here.
This was a try out. The letters and sales on Marvel preview #2 were very good and Archie wanted to see if the Punisher could support his own magazine. However, the Recession had money on the short end, so, rather than launch a bi-monthly series, they decided to try a one-shot. They were already pulling back on some of the magazines, as some of their horror titles were curtailed. Marvel never really challenged Warren on that front; but, this could have been a better battleground. For whatever reason, the experiment wasn't continued and Punisher did not continue as a magazine star. He would continue as a guest star until his appearances in Daredevil and his mini-series, with Steven Grant and Mike Zeck. From there, the Punisher became a superstar, mirroring 80s action films, as the 70s action pulps were dying off (though they would limp into the 90s and Bolan is still around today).
Huntress would evolve into Mockingbird, in the pages of Marvel team-Up (#95). She hadn't been used for 4 years and DC had introduced Helena Wayne, so they changed the name (DC had a prior claim on it, with the GA supervillain). Mark gruenwald had also conceived of a Mockingbird character for Spider-Woman; but, wasn't able to use her. Bobbi Morse was fitted into the costume and continued her story of investigating SHIELD corruption, in the MTU tale (with NicK Fury helping). Gruenwald would bring Mockingbird back for the Hawkeye mini-series, which turned her into Hawkeye's Black canary and married them, after the briefest courtship in comic history. Seriously, they knew each other for just a few days, at most!
Really, really great magazine, put together by a master. I have to wonder how the Marvel magazine line might have fared under Archie, given his experience in running Warren. Economics did work against them, as the recession of the mid-70s hurt publishing as a whole, as much as every other industry. It was the fallout of Vietnam and it was a mess, which tells you what we have to look forward to when out constant state of war collapses. But, that is a topic for a locked thread.
The Marvel magazine line was pretty well gutted, by this point. A handful of titles continued (POTA, Savage Sword of Conan, Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, Crazy) and a new Hulk one would appear in 77, plus a Howard the Duck mag. Deadly hands and POTA were done by 77, Crazy in 83, and Hulk was dead by 78. Conan survived until 1995, the longest run of the bunch. Marvel tried the high end route, with Epic; but, cost, content, and a lower advertising budget sunk the title, which never really got the support it needed from marvel. It launched as Heavy metal's glory days were ending and it started struggling itself, with stronger content.
Marvel management never fully committed to the magazines, nor did staff, though some did their best work there.
