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Post by Rob Allen on Mar 2, 2021 17:49:16 GMT -5
Catching up - I wonder if the name Moondog was inspired by George Metzger's underground comic:  And my assumption on those Mantlo/Shooter collaborations was Shooter-plot and Mantlo-script. Jim was assistant editor at that point, wasn't he? |
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 2, 2021 22:20:46 GMT -5
Catching up - I wonder if the name Moondog was inspired by George Metzger's underground comic: And my assumption on those Mantlo/Shooter collaborations was Shooter-plot and Mantlo-script. Jim was assistant editor at that point, wasn't he? He was, but he has spoken repeatedly of rewriting Mantlo quite often, which is why I wonder if that wasn't what was happening here. |
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Post by berkley on Mar 2, 2021 23:53:57 GMT -5
Marvel Two-in-One #25Thoughts: You know, maybe Shooter (or better yet, Archie) should have mucked around with this. The logic of this story collapses pretty early on and Marv is doing a ton of exposition for a pretty basic plot. I get the impression he had this in mind for something else or for more than one issue and just condensed it all. Either that or he wrote himself into a corner. Whatever it was, this isn't particularly good and kind of raises my opinions of Mantlo's previous issues. Marv tries for some poignancy in the sacrifice of the queen and her lover; but, it isn't earned, as it comes out of left field, following all of the confusing plot turns. I like Ron Wilson; but, some of the art seems off. Not sure if it is working with Grainger, vs a more experienced inker, a time thing or what; it just seems....off. Iron Fist is kind of ill-used in this. Aside from keeping Ben from smashing things prematurely and getting them into the temple, he is mostly a grunt in this. Meanwhile, Kaiwan seems to be a rather backward place, even for 1976. You know, there was a whole war raging through that area just 30 years before. It wasn't like the place was stuck in the Middle Ages. Kind of typical for comics to suggest everyone outside the US lives in some backward stereotyped land....Darkest Africa, Exotic Orient, etc.... Not a great start for Marv's run. Next issue promises Nick Fury; so, let's hope for better things.
Ron Wilson's art does look a little more exaggerated in this issue than I remember it from other comics but I kind of like it. Did he ever get to ink his own pencils with Marvel? I'd like to see it, if he did, as I thnk it would give an indication of how his own style looked, unobscured by another inker.
Iron Fist sometimes seemed to me an awkward character in that he was not quite a superhero, and yet not quite a straight martial-arts hero: he kind of had a foot in both worlds - unlike Shang-Chi, a character I'll always think of as firmly at home in the spy-thriller genre, notwithstanding Marvel's more recent conversion of him into a superhero who has even joined the Avengers and other superhero teams. OTOH, it allowed IF to appear in stories like this without feeling too out of place.
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Post by chaykinstevens on Mar 3, 2021 9:08:09 GMT -5
And my assumption on those Mantlo/Shooter collaborations was Shooter-plot and Mantlo-script. Jim was assistant editor at that point, wasn't he? GCD credits Mantlo with scripting the first six pages of MTIO #23, with Shooter scripting the remainder and an uncredited change of letterer at the same point. Can anyone spot Marie Severin's contributions to that issue's artwork? They don't specify who wrote what on #24, but apparently there were two uncredited letterers. I'm not sure if Shooter would have been interested in plotting for Mantlo, as I think the pay for plots was minimal in those days. Shooter sometimes liked to take money away from writers who were leaving for DC by getting other writers to script over their last few plots. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 7, 2021 16:21:25 GMT -5
Marvel Team-Up #26 Huma Torch & Thor! Spidey is off Giant Sizing. Creative Team: Len Wein-writer, Jim Mooney-pencils, Frank Giacoia-inks, Dave Hunt-inks & letters, Glynis Wein-colors, Roy Thomas-editor Synopsis: Johnny Storm is following flaming footprints, which aren't his....  He follows them into an alley, where he finds the Lava Man, who attacks him with bars of soap...er, magma. He seems to think Johnny works for his old masters. They fight...  He is dying but says he is looking for Thor. Johnny writes a flaming sky message, which just happens to be seen by Dr Donald Blake, while riding in a cab; and, faster than you can say "Shazam!" he runs into an alley, slams down his walking stick and transforms into Thor. he meets Johnny on top of the Statue of Liberty, with the Lava Man. he recounts how the Avengers battled the Lava Men in issue #5, then the witch doctor Jinku (the inspector who chases Diabolik? Oh, wait, that's Ginko) got them all spun up again and they foudn the Mole Man's stooges tending giant machinery, but Moley has been missing since MTU #17. Jinku led the laval men against the mole people and beat them, taking their machines and promised to atatck the surface world. Molto, our dying lava man, spoke against and was ambushed by Juinku, but escaped to the surface, to warn them.  Molto dies and Thor lads Johnny to Hawaii, where the Lava Men are making their attack, via Mauna Loa. They divert the lava flow and rescue people in danger ("Where are the Superfriends?") and Thor brings rain...  They tunnel below and find Jinku's lava men and the machines and start smashing the place. They get ambushed by Jinku and they dump Johnny into the lava pools and try Thor, but can't lift him, while he holds Mjolnir. Jinku forms a magma hand to do it. It removes the hammer and places it in the machine, to power it, but Jinku finds Don Blake and a walking stick protruding from the machine...  Black hops on the machine, grabs the stick, transforms and smashes the machine, as Thor. He is attacked by a horde of lava men, when Torch arrives, with the mole people. They win the day and Thor sends the lava men back underground. Jinku questions his vision and we see a shadowy group observing, remotely.  Thoughts: Barely a team-up as more of a Thor story with Johnny bookending things, when he gets dumped. My cousin had this issue, which I recall reading as a kid. I liked the images of the underground world, even if the story never really pulls together. It starts well, has a nice bit of action; but, leaves a lot undone and wastes the Torch in the back half. I have to say, Dr Donald Blake is pretty agile for a guy who needs a walking stick.
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 7, 2021 16:53:23 GMT -5
Giant Size Spider-Man #2 Spidey & Shang-Chi! Pajamas vs Underoos! Creative Team: Len Wein-writer, Ross Andru-pencils, Al Milgrom-inks, John Costanza-letters, Glynis Wein-colors, Roy Thomas-editor Synopsis: Spidey observes a commotion outside the Guggenheim...  He finds some fancy hoods robbing the place and busts up their game. they try some chop socky on him and it doesn't go well.  Spidey tries to interrogate the brotha with the nunchucks, but he is scared of the boss and the whole gang is electrocuted remotely. Turns out their master is an even-more-stereotyped-than-usual Fu Manchu....  Turns out, the whole thing is a set up to put Spidey on the trail of Shang Chi. Part two of the set-up fids Shang Chi stumbling across hoods dressed in Spidey underoos...  Chi consults the Hong Kong Book of Kung Fu and selects the Spider-Smoosh Kaboosh Attack. the hoods claim Spidey is their master and beat feet when Chi is distracted by their victim. he takes the old man to Nayland Smith and Tarr...  The old due is a disinformation agent, who feeds them a story of Fu teaming with Spidey. Chi goes hunting. Spidey goes to a power plant he was fed as Fu's target and runs into Chi and much chopping ensues...   They end up in ventilation shafts (which are always big enough to move through) and are split apart and start to realize something is fishy. The meet again and Spidey tries reason, but Chi isn't easily fooled...  ...well, he is, but, you know.Chi realizes Spidey isn't trying to block or avoid his kick and twists at the last minute and just misses Spidey. They make nice and go looking for Fu. They stop an assassin from killing one of Smith's men and learn Fu is building something on the Empire State Building.  They fight their way to the top and face Fu and the Si-Fan and go to town...  Meanwhile, Tarr leads a helicopter assault on the observation platform, but Fu gets away. At the end, Spidey finds out Fu Manchu isn't fiction and Chi introduces himself as Fu's son. Rest of the issue is a reprint of Amazing Spider-Man King-Size Special #3, where Spidey nearly joins the Avengers and has to catch the Hulk. Thoughts: Fu's plan was to transmit mind control signals through the television signals from the new transmitting tower erected on the Empire State Building. Like television needed his assistance. Lot of action. Mystery is slight, but enough to keep the two characters moving along to their collision. Mostly an excuse for some mayhem, which is fined for a single issue. The back half gives a nice reprint of a good story of Spidey and the Avengers, with Dandy don Heck and Mike Esposito (as Mickey Demeo) art, over Romita layouts. Heck gets a lot of smack talks; but, his Avengers run was pretty good. Fun action issue, if nothing else.
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 7, 2021 17:24:49 GMT -5
Marvel Two-in-One #26 Thing & Nick Fury! Thing is POd because Fury pinched his last stogie! Creative Team: Marv Wolfman-writer/editor, Ron Wilson-pencils, Pablo Marcos-inks, John Costanza-letters, Janice Cohen-colors Synopsis: Ben is sitting at a counter stool in a pizza parlor, on the corner of 26th street and ? (Marv seems to think 26th has one corner), when Fury and Dum-Dum pop up from under the floor, then take Ben back down with them.  Ben sees the whole shebang as he learns he is at the SHIELD contact center, not the HQ, and Fury tells him that there is a bigger need for SHIELD now than even in the 60s. They board a helo to HQ....  They land on the Helicarrier and Fury mentions Congress breathing down on the intelligence community and that SHIELD isn't a bunch of CIA stooges. They go off for the briefing, as Ben is shown films of Mentallo and the Fixer.  Fury was hoping Ben could help them track down the pair, who turn out to be close at hand, as they track mental impulses of Fury and Ben to the carrier and get through the security screen and land on the carrier and cut their way inside.  Alarms go off from the hull breach and Fury scrambles the troops. He and Ben find the villains infiltration point and go hunting. Meanwhile, M&F run into SHIELD grunts and mind whammy them with Fixer's gizmos, which channel Mentallo's control. They are then sent to attack Fury...  Ben starts clobberin' them with the floor, but Fury gets ganged on an Ben gets darts which knock him unconscious. M&F remove Ben and fly him to their mountain cabin, where they rig him up to be their remote-controlled monster. Fury comes to and goes searching for Ben. M&F send Ben back tot he Baxter Building, where they are out to steal Dr Doom's time machine, when Fury smashes through a window and attacks...  They sick ben on him, leading to the cover image, when Fury knocks the control device off Ben and he comes around. They are about to open a can of whoop-ass on M&F, when Deathlok turns up...  Thoughts: Great issue and I always loved Mentallo and the Fixer battling SHIELD. The tech villains vs the high tech super spies was great fun and made for exciting visuals and Ron goes to town here, doing hs best Steranko pacing imitation, if not art style, and Pablo Marcos is far more in synch with him than Sam Grainger had been. He does the tech stuff well, keeps the action brisk and exciting and makes us wish the Agents of SHIELD tv series had been more like this. It's nice to see someone treat SHIELD as the good guys, after others were trying to make them into CIA metaphors, which Marv even calls out. At this point in time, the CIA had been embarrassed by a series of failures and exposes in the media, revealing how many stupid operations they had going and how dirty they had gotten. Congress and the Carter Administration put constraints on them to reel them in, until the Reagan Administration took the chains off (and used the NSC to create their own secret operations). Marv is returning them to heroic status as super counter-terrorists, which is similar to what Tony Isabella did in Daredevil, when Fury offered Foggy Nelson a SHIELD executive job and SHIELD and DD teamed to fight a new HYDRA cell, run by Silvermane. I would have loved this kind of SHIELD series, at the time. Unfortunately, by the time we did get a SHIELD series, the group was corrupt again and taken down by Fury and replaced with the most boring agents he could find. Marv's having a lot of fun and this is leading into next issue, where Deathlok will take center stage, fresh from a trip back in time. This is going to be good!
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Post by brutalis on Mar 7, 2021 17:34:32 GMT -5
This is when I began to really search out the Two-in-One series regularly. I found occasional issues before this but the 2 stogie chomping champs here really grabbed my attention. Love Mentallo and Fixer as a team and wish more had been done with the duo over the years. Fury and Grimm always make for splendid interactions and this is the first time I recall seeing them united and Fury not just a character passing through in a few panels.
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Post by badwolf on Mar 8, 2021 10:24:04 GMT -5
I liked Mentallo & The Fixer too... first saw them in Micronauts.
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Post by zaku on Mar 9, 2021 8:11:45 GMT -5
Spidey goes to a power plant he was fed as Fu's target and runs into Chi and much chopping ensues... It's really a little annoying that someone who has won against a Galactus' herald, fought the X-Men (well, humiliated is the right word - Secret Wars) and the Fantastic Four and that can dodge a bullet fired at point blank range has so many difficulties fighting a non-powered human being. How the heck Shang-Chi managed to land a kick against the wallcrawler?!? Marvel in the 70s really hated Spidey. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 9, 2021 11:22:38 GMT -5
Spidey goes to a power plant he was fed as Fu's target and runs into Chi and much chopping ensues... It's really a little annoying that someone who has won against a Galactus' herald, fought the X-Men (well, humiliated is the right word - Secret Wars) and the Fantastic Four and that can dodge a bullet fired at point blank range has so many difficulties fighting a non-powered human being. How the heck Shang-Chi managed to land a kick against the wallcrawler?!? Marvel in the 70s really hated Spidey. His qi is strong; never underestimate the power of the Hong Kong Book of Kung Fu! |
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Post by zaku on Mar 9, 2021 11:49:40 GMT -5
It's really a little annoying that someone who has won against a Galactus' herald, fought the X-Men (well, humiliated is the right word - Secret Wars) and the Fantastic Four and that can dodge a bullet fired at point blank range has so many difficulties fighting a non-powered human being. How the heck Shang-Chi managed to land a kick against the wallcrawler?!? Marvel in the 70s really hated Spidey. His qi is strong; never underestimate the power of the Hong Kong Book of Kung Fu! Right!!! |
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 10, 2021 17:30:05 GMT -5
Marvel Team-Up #27 Spidey & the Hulk! Creative Team: Len Wein-writer, Jim Mooney-pencils, Frank Giacoia-inks, John Costanza-letters, Glynis Wein-colors, Roy Thomas-editor Synopsis: Outisde a prison, we see police and guards shooting at a figure climbing the wall. it's Spidey! Or is it?  The Chameleon makes his getaway. Peter Parker's trig study is interrupted by a radio report of Spider-Man trying to break into the prison and Petey decides to go see what is up. Meanwhile, Hulk is smashing through town, when he smooshes the Chameleon's getaway car. Chamey slips into a Rick Jones disguise (how does the Chameleon even know who he is?) and fools the Hulk (which, to be fair, isn't much of an achievement).  Back at the prison, Petey tries to use his press credentials to get in, but is refused. J Jonah gets him in, since the staff photographer hasn't turned up and they get a briefing about how Spider-Man was trying to break someone out, though they don't know who. Chameleon does and he shows a picture of one Joe Cord, who he says is a friend of Rick Jones, held prisoner by the puny humans. Hulk goes to smash him out. This leads to Spider-Man trying to stop him...  Hulk finds the cell and breaks Joe Cord out...  Spidey follows the trail (which is pretty easy, when it's the Hulk) and finds Hulk bringing Cord to Rick Jones. Spidey uses his web to pull off Chameleon's Scooby Doo villain mask and Hulk isn't very pleased with Chameleon.  Chameleon and Cord get away, as Spider-Man tries to stop the Hulk from killing Chamey and the cops just indiscriminately open fire. Spidey stops the car with a web and Chamey hops out, only to be shot by one of the cops. he goes for another shot when Joe jumps in the way and is killed. Chameleon is sad. Then, a report comes over the radio of Dr Strange and Nighthawk fighting the Wrecking Crew (why are they fighting a bunch of studio musicians?) and Hulk goes off to help them. Thoughts: Kind of light on story as Len concocts a thin reason for Spidey to fight the Hulk: Chameleon trying to break a hood out of prison and framing him. It's mostly an exercise in punching people. He never really establishes Chameleon's relationship with Joe Cord, until the very end, which leaves us scratching our head. This needed far more development with the Chameleon and Joe Cord angle. Otherwise, this is a pretty random issue. Starting to wonder if Len isn't getting burnt out on this series. he could use some inspiration.
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 10, 2021 18:08:00 GMT -5
Marvel Two-in-One #27 Thing & Deathlok! (Plus Nick Fury and the entire Fantastic Four!) Creative Team: Marv Wolfman-writer/editor, Ron Wilson-pencils, Pablo marcos-inks, John Costanza-letters, Len Wein-colors, Beth Bleckley-computer type Synopsis: When last we left them, Ben & Nick Fury were facing down maser-pointing Deathlok...  Deathlok is fresh from his battle with Devil-Slayer and is a bit confused. Fixer points him at Fury and Ben and he fires. The cigar aficionados duck and Ben hurls floor at him. he gets a chest full of energy beam for his trouble. Fixer fires a mental controller into Deathlok's melon and Mentallo puts the mind whammy on him...  Instant Manchurian Candidate! They escape and we learn that Mentallo learned of Deathlok from MTU #46, when Spidey meets him, which is why he and the Fixer broke into the Baxter building to steal Doom's time platform. That brought Deathlok to their time to use in their plans.  On January 20, 1977, the FF prepare to attend the inauguration of James Earl Carter, as the 39th President of the United States. Mentallo and the fixer arm Deathlok and send him off to kill said former Georgia governor and peanut farmer, from Plains, GA (whose mother was a huge fan of Mr Wrestling II, but I digress...). nick fury is in charge of SHIELD security, around the White House, expecting more trouble from the Fixer and Mentallo, though why, we don't know, as they didn't say anything about that, in front of Fury. Deathlok takes up his position, but whines about Col Ryker sending him to kill people.  inside the White House, the FF meet up with Fury and Reed makes a mysterious call for help...  Deathlok reports to the Fixer, after his recon and tries to rebel but can't. he lets Fixer know that he can't control hi forever. He goes back and takes aim again. However, he figures out how he can rebel against his programming and makes a frontal assault on the President, rather than a sniper shot. He gets close enough to get a shot at Carter, hitting him, then get's clobbered by Ben.  They battle, while reed and Johnny stop Mentallo and the Fixer and round them up. Sue attends to the President. She puts a force field around Deathlok to stop him from doing further damage. Fixer refuses to remove the controlling device and he and Mentallo are carted away. They, Reed reveals that Jimmy Carter was actually The Impossible Man!  The inauguration goes as planned and jimmy Carter takes office to deal with a massive recession and a future hostage crisis, but that is later. Right now, he has to assure the nation that the long nightmare of Vietnam and Watergate are over and our woes could be fixed. Dan Akroyd polishes his Carter impression for SNL. Thoughts: I didn't just pull the Manchurian Candidate reference from thin air, as that is what we have here: a programmed assassin. This is pretty good use of Deathlok, as he is a killing machine and was controlled by a computer, before he broke programming and his human mind took control. Fixer and Mentallo re-establish control over both, but Luther Manning's mind finds a flaw and exploits it. Marv forgot to establish how Fury knows Carter is the target, though the inauguration would probably be on a list of potential targets for a terrorist, in January 1977. The previous issue did set up the threat of terrorism as a key motivating force for continued use of SHIELD, as the "good guys." The Impossible Man impersonating Carter is a bit random; but, at least Marv set that part up, with the phone call. Who pays Impy's phone bill? The ending leaves Deathlok still a problem, which gives us a subplot to carry over into the next issue. This is where Marv is really excelling as he is giving us a reason to come back, to see what happens next, to Deathlok.
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Post by badwolf on Mar 10, 2021 19:31:36 GMT -5
I thought the Impossible Man could only be green and purple.
That is hilarious how the Chameleon knew to turn into Rick Jones--and just happened to have a mask of him!
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