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Post by Prince Hal on Mar 11, 2021 11:25:51 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? Or by James Darren's character "Moondoggie" in the movie Gidget?   |
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 11, 2021 12:21:50 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? Or by James Darren's character "Moondoggie" in the movie Gidget? Mentioned in the review, next to Moondog Lonnie Mayne. |
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Post by badwolf on Mar 11, 2021 13:34:50 GMT -5
In MTU #101 they ran a list of all the issues to date, the co-stars and villains (if any). I remember thinking Moondog sounded cool. He sounded a lot cooler than he actually was...
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 20, 2021 16:04:41 GMT -5
Marvel Team-Up #28 Spidey & Hercules Creative Team: Gerry Conway-writer, Jim Mooney-pencils, Vince Coletta-inks, Artie simek-letters, Bill Mantlo-colors, Roy Thomas-editor Synopsis: Spidey is looking for a new apartment, while Herc comments on the human condition...  Seems oddly sensitive for a guy who raped Amazons and killed his family (granted, under Hera's spell of madness). Both are interrupted by an earthquake and have to rescue innocents. Both go in search of answers. Spidey goes to the seismology lab, at ESU and learns there were two quakes, with epicenters in two different parts of the city. Herc tracks the tremors below ground and finds some metal-encased dude with some kind of ray tripod. Spidey finds a similar scene at the northern epicenter.  Fights ensue and the heroes lose. Spidey wakes up in a cavern, with Herc and the two goons. Herc does his Steeve Reeves...  and gets zapped unconscious. Spidey learns that the goons are "stealing Manhattan" for a 2 billion dollar ransom!  Knowing that the city is headed towards bankruptcy (in a couple of years), Spidey fights and Herc finally wakes up and lends a shoulder...  They win and discover some old dude in the suit, who was the pawn of someone else. Spidey has a plan to catch them, which involves Herc acting like his intelligence level...  They put the island back and Herc goes off for better stories in Thor, leaving Spider-Man to investigate in his own title, leaving is f@#$ed. Thoughts: Pretty sucky end to a mediocre issue. I would have skipped this, in the wild, back in the 70s. Herc barely does anything in here, other than rescue someone, break chains and then haul the island, at the end. Seems like Conway forgot that this is a team-up book. Real let down after Len's run of mostly decent stories. Jim Mooney and Vince Coletta do not make a great team and Herc really looks blah in their hands I certain panels, Herc's outfit looks more like he is cross-dressing, than wearing someone's idea of a Greek hero's armor. I liked Herc much better in Bob Layton's hands, a decade later.
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 20, 2021 16:30:17 GMT -5
Marvel two-in-One #28 Thing & Sub-Mariner face a Roger Corman film! Creative Team: Marv Wolfman-writer/editor, Ron Wilson-pencils, John Tartaglione-inks, Irv Watanabe-letters, Irene Vartoff-colors Synopsis: Reed Richards studies Deathlok and has come to a conclusion...  The Fixer's controller is still locked into Deathlok's brain and they can't figure out how to remove it without killing Deathlok. Reed suggests Prof Kort, a London-based expert on cybernetics. So, Ben scoops up Deathlok and jets over to the UK, with Alicia. Meanwhile, Namor is tooling around the ocean and is attacked by Piranha.  They fight an Namor impales him with a coral spear, leaving the corpse, not knowing that there is more than one Piranha, who watches from afar. Ben & Alicia jet over the Atlantic and namor pops up to say "hi."  Piranha II (directed by James Cameron) pops up and attacks Namor and they go down fighting. Alicia insists Ben help and he circles back and plunges into the water, while Alicia sits in the aircraft, where she is grabbed by yet another Piranha sequel. ben helps Namor, then they run into a whole school of Piranhas (direct-to-video, I assume). They are overwhelmed and captured, then sentenced to fight one another for the boss fish-man...  We are reminded that Piranha s a radiation-mutated fish (a freshwater fish, which seems oblivious to Marv and Marvel). The pair fight, but it soon becomes clear that they are working and Ben "Clobberin'" Grimm is working with Gorgeous Namor, the Sub-Mariner.  Ben distracts the fish and Namor saves Alicia, as Ben brings down the house for the win and a chance to face Superstar Billy Graham, in the Garden, for the title. Namor hands over Alicia and says goodbye and the lovebirds continue their journey to London. Thoughts: This is more like it! Marv shows how you mix characters in a team-up, against a common foe. The set up is a bit much, as Namor just happens to be in their flight path, and they just happen to be skimming the ocean, rather than flying at altitude, like most aircraft (where they can fly more efficiently). Piranha had fought Namor before, but we learn there is more than one, now. Nothing earthshattering here; but, it makes for a fun adventure, continues the rehabilitation of Namor, as we are reminded he is free of Dr Doom's control, from Super-Villain Team-Up and he parts on friendly terms with Ben. Ben continues his subplot to save deathlok, which will lead to further crossovers in England, starting with Shang-Chi. Oh, boy; some chop-rocky action! Ron Wilson continues to have lively art and Tartaglione works well with him, though Namor is a bit wonky in some panels. It's pretty dynamic stuff, though, which keeps the story moving along briskly.
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Post by badwolf on Mar 22, 2021 9:45:41 GMT -5
That panel of Herc pulling the island is a famous goof that ended up in the Marvel No-Prize book.
I like a lot of Gerry's stuff (JLA in particular) but that issue just seems silly.
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 30, 2021 16:06:39 GMT -5
Giant Size Spider-Man #3 Spidey & Doc Savage! Too bad it isn't The Spider and Doc Savage; that would have been interesting! Creative Team: Gerry Conway-writer, Ross Andru-pencils, Mike Esposito-inks, Ray Holloway-letters, George Roussos-colors, Roy Thomas-editor Synopsis: Spidey is swinging around in the city, when he notices a Morse Code flash, from a construction site, addressed to him, from someone called Dessina. He zips over there, pokes around, and gets chopped from behind by a disco stripper....  Spidey tries to communicate, but it is all "Gort, klaatu barada nikto" until Dessina gets her translator working. She needs Spidey's help and turns a ray onto an old cornerstone, for the building being demolished, with the date 1934. We then return to 1934 and see Doc Savage and the Famous Five observing the dedication of the building...  Johnny spots a man acting strangely and alerts Renny, who alerts Doc, who vaults over and stops the man from shooting Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. Doc makes his apologies for interrupting the mayor, who says don't worry and tells his police commissioner there will be changes and drives off. Doc thinks there is more to the incident and jumps onto the running board of his Daimler and it speeds off, with Monk leaping onto the rear bumper before he is left behind. They pull into the garage for a "certain mid-town office building" and take their private high speed elevator to Doc's digs, up on the 86th floor. Doc examines the previously unmentioned summons that led them to the site, in the first place, which tests prove is on paper that is not of this world. The story, which is being relayed to Spidey, is interrupted by a quake. Spidey saves Dessina from falling debris and she faints. Then, some kind of funky creature appears...  Spidey battles the creature with webs and fists, but it isn't working and the guy talks like Dessina...  Spidey beats the thing with a jackhammer, which causes it to break apart and disappear. He then tells the revived Dessina she owes him an explanation and she says she is the one who sent the message to Doc Savage, in 1934. Back in 1934, Doc and the five investigate the building site. Doc notices a funny light and Dessina appears and asks for his help...  She is from a parallel world, Saku, and was in charge of a project to explore sub-space and her assistant summoned her to a lab. An accident sent his astral form through space to Earth and Dessina used her translator thingy to follow and contact help, before Tarros, the aid, appears. he turns up, the Five attack...  Johnny and Long Tom race back to the skyscraper and launch a rocket at the site, which contains emergency equipment with which to battle Tarros. It includes a spray cannister that coats the creature in a foam that dampens it's energy and seals it in the cornerstone.  Spidey smells a rat and uses the jackhammer to destroy the cornerstone and unleash Tarros, who thanks him...  Dessian asks how he figured it out and not Doc and Spidey says it is because he was a male chauvinist dinosaur from the 30s, not an enlightened man of the 70s. Didn't know Spidey was secretly Alan Alda. He also took a course in comparative languages and could make out the tone of Tarros' words and how his anger was only aimed at Dessina,. Tarros carries her off and Spidey swings away, though we never know the real truth of what happened on Dessina's world, as we never get to see it or have it explained. Thoughts: Enh......it's okay. Better than the MTIO Doc team-up, though mostly because the Famous Five also get involved and Conway seems to have read more bantam reprints than Bill Mantlo had. It's not as well plotted as the average Doc adventure, though. Too much is left unexplained and Doc kind of ends up looking like a sap. I also have to ask how enlightened the Marvel crew think they are, with Dessina stomping around like a stripper and acting like a stereotype evil villainess. Haven't been overly impressed with these Giant-Size Spidey comics, so far. The second feature is a more engaging Lee & Ditko classic, as Spidey battles the Circus of Crime...  ... along with Daredevil, whose costume gets recolored to try to match the Wally Wood revamp...  Doesn't work, guys. It's great action, from Ditko in his prime.
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 30, 2021 16:37:07 GMT -5
Marvel Team-Up #29 Torch and Iron Man Creative Team: Gerry Conway-writer, Jim Mooney-pencils, Vince Coletta-inks, John Costanza-letters, Janice Cohen-colors, Roy Thomas-editor Synopsis: Human Torch is in Detroit, where he answers a summons of the FF by Iron Man, who acts like a tool, which makes Johnny act like a teen-aged butthead...  IM continues to act like a Richard to make an escape and switch to Tony Stark mode, so he can talk with Johnny. There has been a series of murders, carried out via technology run amok. The next incident was at the Stark plant, with Tony barely surviving...  He switches (out of camera shot, to IM and battles Infinitus, the guy behind the attacks, but gets his hinder kicked. They are interrupted by an aide, who needs contracts signed and Johnny notices a tremor and gets Stark and the aide out before the office collapses inward. he goes on recon and spots Infinitus, who zaps him with a ray gun and leaves. IM shows up and helps Johnny up, acts like a douche and Johnny flies off, to fight Infinitus alone.  Tony and Johnny go their separate ways to research Infinitus' claim to be a reincarnated Egyptian pharoah. Stark uses technology and Johnny uses the library (much better than wikipedia, kids). They go off to hunt down Infinitus. Johnny confronts the aide, Rodgers and asks if anyone has a beef with him, since he thinks the attacks were aimed at him, not Stark. Meanwhile, Stark uses a tracking device to trace Infinitus' energy signature, but his power cuts out in flight. Johnny arrives in time and saves him and Rodgers fills him in. Johnny goes after Infinitus and IM shows up at a crucial moment in the fight...  They stop Inifnitus, who is revealed to be Rodgers' brother and Johnny tells off IM for being a jerk and leaves.  Thoughts: Conway's attempt at a "generation gap" story doesn't really work, as it requires Stark to act out of character and ignore facts in front of him This is the same problem I had with Civil War, as Stark just starts acting out of character so that he is on the opposite side of Cap. There is no rhyme or reason to the switch. Too much info is withheld, in the search for the truth behind Infinitus. Torch searches books on Egyptology to determine that Inifnitus claimed ancestor was from a different dynasty and a reincarnation nut wouldn't make that mistake. Oh, why not? He then wonders if Stark wasn't the target and clued in on Rodgers. What about the earlier deaths? If Michael Rodgers just wanted to kill his brother, why kill the others, even as a smokescreen? It's overly complicated. The whole thing reads as really dated, today and I doubt if I would have cared much back then, as the villain isn't memorable and the mystery isn't that good. Torch and Iron Man don't really work well together, so there isn't even a decent team-up.
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 30, 2021 17:40:23 GMT -5
Marvel Two-in-One #29 Thing & Shang-Chi! Bustin' Hydra Heads? I am so there! Creative Team: Marv Wolfman-writer/editor, Ron Wilson-pencils, Sam Grainger-inks, John Costanza-letters, ?-colors. The credit for the colorist is left blank; so, sucked to be them. Synopsis: Ben and Alicia are now in London, near Westminster, as Alicia wants to hear the chiming of Big Ben. They walk along to Trafalgar Square and Ben buys some peanuts to feed to the pigeons. Ben is moody, but Alicia tells him that he is not a monster, as a pigeon lands on his hat. As she speaks of his gentle soul, he carefully lifts it down for her to pet...  They take a bus to Prof Louis Kort's place, in Kensignton Park and find it a shambles and no one there. We cut to another scene, which explains where he is...  He is a prisoner of HYDRA, who threaten to kill his daughter if he does not aid their cause. Elsewhere, Shang-Chi stares into stream and contemplates life, until he hears a woman cry out "Oh, nooo" and zips away to help. he fiinds Alicia standing in the vandalized house, with an orange rock creature looing on the stairs above and gets the wrong end of the stick, as they say in the UK (well, on Are You Being Served?, at least). It goes all Bruce Lee, but Ben snatches Shang-Chi in a bearhug and makes like Bruna Sammartino, until Chi seams to weak. He then goes for a punch and misses and Chi monkey-flips Ben. Ben declares it to be Clobberin' Time and does his best furniture fighting, with a hurl of a sofa. Alicia brings some reason to things and explains that she slipped on the floor and discovered that she had slipped in blood and cried out. They cool down and Chi mentions hearing Prof Kort's name from Nayland Smith and Ben wants to see him. They contact Smith, who sends them to a little Italian Restaurant, on the Victoria Embankment and ben busts up the place and discovers a secret portal to an underground lair, with HYDRA goons.  Well, faster than you can say "Hail HYDRA; cut off a limb and two more shall take their place!" Ben and Shang-Chi bust some green-hooded heads and smash their way into a lab, where prof Kort is working, at gunpoint.  Chi chops and socks, while Ben flings pieces of machinery at goons and grabs Kort, while Chi gets out some 'chucks. Kort drops a vial of something that is obviously a plot point. Kort says they need to rescue his daughter and Ben and Chi find her and her boyfriend and save them. Meanwhile, The HYDRA honcho finds the vial and says all is not lost and we get a peak of that Spider-Woman chick who recently appeared in Marvel Spotlight...  Note that she doesn't have the impossibly long hair, yet! Thoughts: Bang up issue, with plenty of action and enough mystery to make it interesting. Marv actually contrives a decent reason for Chi and ben to fight, which is a step above the norm, for these things. Chi is a bit more impulsive than usual, though. Still, nice to see HYDRA back as a threat of some kind and it all links to Spider-Woman's debut, which featured HYDRA and Nick Fury. This is the European HYDRA cell, that was commanded by Count Otto Vermin, rather than the classic Strucker bunch. I enjoyed this kind of stuff and it links well to the Nick Fury issue. Would have loved to have seen Marv and Ron Wilson tackle Fury and SHIELD, as a regular gig. Wilson makes it dynamic enough and Marv does a good job with the super-spy stuff. The issue gives us a tour of London, which upon looking at a map, seems reasonably accurate (well, enough for Americans, in the mid-1970s). I suspect Marv consulted a map and Ron got photo reference, as Piccadilly and Trafalgar Square are recognizable enough to work, if not 100% correct in minute details. It's a nice change of pace for Ben and Marvel heroes, in general, to visit foreign countries, without all of the national stereotyping. People are dressed as you might expect, for the period, and no one looks like they stepped out of a Sherlock Holmes story, although there are some bad cockney accents in the restaurant, when Ben and Chi burst in. Just enough dropped haitches to satisfy Prof 'enry 'iggins.....or Dick Van Dyke!
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 30, 2021 19:25:35 GMT -5
ps I love how Marv portrays Ben and Alicia's relationship. Alicia's lack of sight lets her focus on the real Ben and it gives him someone who can elevate his self esteem and be the hero he is. It grounds him and lifts him above the simple trope of alienated monster. I hated every time some writer without a direction tried to bust up that relationship or otherwise mess with it. Leave them alone, let them be happy; it makes for a more interesting Ben Grimm and it is the more mature direction. The constant soap opera of breaking them up or, horror, putting Alicia (even Skrull Alicia) with Johnny is just weak writing. Why are comic books so afraid of mature relationships? Or at least, the superhero variety. It isn't because of the target audience as that same audience took to ben and Alicia, Reed & Sue, Ralph & Sue Dibney, Barry and Iris Allen, etc, etc. It seems only the writers who came later and had nothing more original to say wanted to bust things up for the illusion of drama, to "shake things up," etc. You can give them stumbling blocks, set backs, bad patches; but, arbitrary break ups are just a sign of poor writing and editing.
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Post by brutalis on Mar 30, 2021 19:41:35 GMT -5
Love love love the London storyline which deepened the Ben/Alicia relationship. It was also a wonderful way for highlighting the British based heroes/villains and that made MTIO much more interesting, FUN and entertaining than MTU at the time.
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 4, 2021 20:36:54 GMT -5
Marvel Team-Up #30 Winter Spidey & the Falcon! Creative Team: Gerry Conway-writer, Jim Mooney-pencils, Vince Coletta-inks, John Costanza-letters, Petra Goldberg-colors, Len Wein-editor Synopsis: Spidey is on a rooftop, getting suited up and hears a scream. he whines about not getting time to study; but, he is already on the roof, in most of his costume, when the scream rings out; so, he wasn't exactly working on Particles Physics 201. Gloria Grant is being harassed by muggers and Spidey comes to the rescue.  They try to attack Spidey with knives and tire irons, which even Spidey thinks is a bit stupid, so he pulls his punches, because something isn't right. One of the gang has a very poorly rendered pistol and pulls the trigger. The bullet makes a "zip" sound and Spidey ducks and Gloria decks the cat with a karate chop to the back of the neck, which always works in comics and Hollywood (don't try it on the streets, though). Gloria wants to take the man to her apartment, rather than the cops, because it is her cousin, Ramon. They take him up there and he then wakes up, in a crazed state and attacks again and Spidey, after a cue from Gloria, wraps him in webbing. They can see by his pupils that he has been drugged and it starts to wear off. Once Ramon comes in for a landing, he tells them what he remembers. He and two buddies, Eddie and Taki, went to a disco called Hot Spot, where some muscle-heads grabbed them, dragged them in a room, where a dude in a gold suit sprayed them with something...  Chanel No. 5? Stetson? Pam? Next thing he knew, he woke up in Gloria's apartment. Taki comes to, as well and Spidey says he believes the story. Gloria says there are rumors of a guy in a gold suit that wants to wipe out all of the blacks in Manhattan.... Wait...Jay Robinson?  Spidey heads over to the disco to check things out and Gloria makes a call to Harlem; but not to Shaft. Instead, she calls a cool cat, named Sam Wilson, social worker. As it turns out, this social worker moonlights as the superhero, the Falcon!  He gets to the disco about the same time as Spidey (the art of comic book coincidences) and they stumble into each other, just as the man in the gold suit turns up...  He calls himself Midas.... Wait, he's Greek? Oh, then it's Titos Vandis! Spidey & Falcon bust some goon heads, but Midas gets away. Falcon has a word with one of the goons, to obtain the man's real name...  Merriwell is a big liberal philanthropist, so it doesn't make sense. They go out to his Connecticut estate and get Marlowed (hit on the back of the head with something heavy and/or blunt) and wake up strapped to the floor of a freezer. Midas leaves them to die and Spidey shoots some webbing into the frame of the freezer door, because Gerry Conway thinks that fluids expand in extreme cold and the web fluid will expand until the door is broken open. They are let loose by the butler and track down Merriwell and expose him, to his brother, the philanthropist Harrison Merriwell, as it is Malcolm Merriwel, who is Midas. he gets dumped into a fountain and the issue comes to a close. Thoughts: So..........where to start............ This starts out as a decent little mystery; a bunch of young black men are being drugged and sent out to attack other people. A bit of detective work leads to Midas. Then, we enter into Blaxploitation movie territory, as Midas wants to destroy all black men in Manhattan. That's, more or less, the plot of Three the Hard Way, a Blaxploitation film starring Jim brown, Fred Williamson and Jim Kelly. Jay Robinson (Dr Shrinker, on the Krofft Supershow) leads a group of white supremacists who have developed a chemical agent that is lethal only to blacks, likening it to sickle cell anemia, based on the fallacy that it is only present in people of African descent (it is also a trait present in other ethnic groups). That brings him up against our three heroes, who kick the crap out of his honkey army. Ridiculous premise; but, a great action film, with some deliciously cheesy dialogue. The Titos Vandis reference is to the Greek actor who appeared in tv and movies in the 60s, 70s and 80s, most notably as a Greek officer in an episode of MASH, where they are to be treated to a feast with roast lamb, until Radar shanghais it. Vandis portrayed a criminal boss in the Blaxploitation film Black Samson, starring Rockne Tarkington (of the Danger Island segment of the Banana Splits Show and numerous tv shows and movies of the 60s and 70s). My guess is Gerry had been to a theater recently, enjoying some Blaxploitation films and did a typical Marvel attempt at the same style, but ends up sounding like a white guy trying to sound like he is down with all that. It's not as bad as some of these stories got and Falcon isn't Luke Cage, so it doesn't come across as exploitive. One question has to be asked; who keeps handy metal (looks metal) bands to hold someone to the floor of a freezer? I mean, even the BDSM crowd tends not to play around inside working freezers as hypothermia isn't exactly a "good pain" kind of thing. I guess, to paraphrase John Cleese, "Well, that's plannin', isn't it?" I think Jim Mooney' poorly rendered gun was supposed to be a "zip gun", which is any basic firearm, consisting of little more than a barrel and a firing pin, to fire a single bullet...  The OSS actually developed one to provide to resistance cells, known as the FP-45 Liberator.  Zip guns were known to occasionally turn up in the hands of street gang members, when gun laws were more restrictive, in certain areas. Conway makes a mistake with the web fluid. When fluids are cooled, they condense and congeal, losing viscosity. Water molecules will also condense, until the freezing point is reached; then, they expand slightly and then expand a bit more, as ice takes on a denser crystalline structure. However, what Conway is depicting is just wrong. If he had introduced a heat element into things, then I could buy the web fluid expanding and tearing open the door. Where I work, we sometimes use expanding foam packets to pad items for shipping. The pads have a vial with the chemical, which you break by applying pressure, then you "knead" the mixture by patting the two ends until it is well blended and a chemical reaction causes it to start expanding. It will then form around a solid object, when held in place. the chemical reaction produces heat and you can feel the packet get hotter if you hold on to it, as the foam expands. John Broome wouldn't have made that mistake (or EE "Doc" Smith, who was a chemist, by trade, as well as a sci-fi pioneer). Not a horrible story; but, hardly a classic. Also, Midas never really gets developed well, before he is exposed and defeated. This would have been better as a two-parter, to develop the mystery more.
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 4, 2021 21:43:37 GMT -5
Marvel Two-in-One #30 Thing and Spider-Woman! Wait....Ben hit a girl? Tsk, tsk, tsk....Aunt Petunia will not be pleased! Creative Team: Marv Wolfman-writer/editor, John Buscema-pencils, Pablo Marcos-inks, Irv Watanabe-letters, Janice Cohen-colors No Ron Wilson; but, hey....John Buscema! Synopsis: At the end of last issue, ben and Shang Chi had rescued Dr Louis Kort and his daughter from HYDRA. Now, Ben and Alicia are hanging around Picadilly Circus, while the doc tries to help Deathlok. They decide to go site seeing, so Alicia goes back to their hotel, in a cab, to freshen up and meet back with Ben, in an hour. Marv engages in a bit of angst as Ben buys some cigars. Meanwhile, at Westminster Abbey, two steretypes set off a bomb, which draws the "plod."  Apparently, everyone in London is either Col Blimp or a Cockney, dropping "Haitches" and calling everything either "bloody" or "ruddy" and overusing the term "mate." 'ere, mate; get yerself down to Prof 'enry 'iggins and get yer accent improved to walk and talk like a regular lady....er, gentleman! Trevor and his toffish friend use the chaos to go to a specific headstone and use a cutting torch to open it up. ben hears the explosion and runs to help and finds the police down and out and runs into trevor and the now named Chauncy (of course) and realizes they are not the IRA. Trevor calls Ben a monster and gets tossed into a wall to learn some manners...  Chauncy says they wouldn't risk the death penalty by killing police and that they used sleep darts (it was suspended in 1965; so, they were looking more at life imprisonment). Before Ben can hit Chauncy, he is zapped by the newly arrived Spider-Woman. She is surprised Ben is still stading after her venom sting and they fight, while Chauncy & Trevor take advantage of the distraction to get what they came for, a silver plate, hidden under the headstone. They "leg it", while Ben and SW fight, then SW flies off, after mouthing off about HYDRA always destroying. She must be unaware of their terrorism statistics; they generally faily about 705% of the time!  She reports back to the HYDRA commander and is sent to her room for failure. Seriously, she is sent to her room, until she is needed! I didn't know she was a teenager! It turns out she is being hypnotically controlled by HYDRA, after she rebelled against Count Vermin, in her Marvel Spotlight debut. They plan to create an army of spider-women warriors, with the vial they got last issue and whatever Trevor & Chauncy were after. Ben is questioned by Scotland Yard (I assume the Special Branch) and Nick Fury is called on the video phone to brief Ben about Spider-Woman.  Ben charges Fury a box of Havanas to help out, and we cut to Trevor & Chauncy, as they put the silver plate together with a stolen sceptre and a map, to reveal a new map to a treasure. Alicia and Ben visit the Tower of London and make fun of the Beefeaters' uniforms, when Spider-Woman attacks again and carries off Alicia. ben is about to go after them, when Chauncy and Trevor show up and hijinks ensue...  Wait, they needed to steal pieces to assemble into a map that leads them to a destination on any tourist map of London? Seriously guys; just go to your local news agent for that! Turns out, they don't want the whole set of the Crown Jewels, just a specific item. They try to stop Ben with a sleep dart and he nearly sticks the dart gun in a place known only to proctologists. He growls about where Spider-Woman is taking Alicia and they have no clue what a Spider-Woman is. Ben leaves them to go after his sweetie and they leg it with their stolen plate. She heads down the Thames and Ben hops onto a hydrofoil tour boat and forces the captain to follow. They meet up at Westminster and the Clock Tower and battle it out, until an explosion knock both of them into the water, as Chauncy and Trevor look on, waiting to grab their treasure.  Thoughts: Another exciting issue, though it gets confusing as to what Chauncy and Trevor are up to. They seem to just be stumbling into HYDRA's operation. we get confirmation that HYDRA is mind-controlling Spider-Woman, after she rebelled in her debut. Originally, she was recruited by them and tricked into believing a HYDRA field agent was in love with her, but, her alien nature (source of her powers) made her repellent to him. When she learned the truth and that HYDRA were terrorists and murderers, she broke away and went after the Supreme HYDRA, Count Otto Vermis, who was killed when she damaged his escape jet. We don't know how, but this cell (not sure if it is still the Vermis group or another) has regained control of her. I have to assume Chauncy and Trevor are trying to assemble something other than a map to the Tower of London, since they could have gone there to steal the gold plate at any time. The large map they have was stolen from Charles Dickens' home and the silver plate from Westminster Abbey, and the sceptre from the National Gallery. They add the gold plate from the Tower of London. Sounds like the next item is in the Clock Tower, with Big Ben. probably end up being a "two for one" coupon for some Chicken Masala or a vindaloo. Marv's British dialogue is pretty stereotyped....he needed to watch a bit more Masterpiece Theater...or maybe that's the problem. Maybe he should watch Mystery!, but it won't debut for another 3 years. This feels more like a lot of Ealing comedy material, to me. He's not even using rhyming slang! Someone get Marv a set of The Sweeney!
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Post by berkley on Apr 4, 2021 23:18:00 GMT -5
So was this the origin of Spider-Woman? I remember feeling faintly disgusted when I saw this character, She-Hulk, and Ms. Marvel being advertised in the pages of other comics - I think all three around this time, wasn't it? None of them were ever developed into anything worthwhile, from what I saw, though I admit that I haven't exactly given their series much of a chance - in fact, I've avoided them like the plague.
Although, I do have the Steve Gerber run on the She-Hulk series that I bought as back-issues several years ago when I was trying to find all the Gerber comics I'd never read. Still haven't gotten round to looking at them, but I have faith that if anyone can get me to stomach the character it's Gerber.
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Post by badwolf on Apr 5, 2021 9:50:09 GMT -5
So was this the origin of Spider-Woman? I remember feeling faintly disgusted when I saw this character, She-Hulk, and Ms. Marvel being advertised in the pages of other comics - I think all three around this time, wasn't it? None of them were ever developed into anything worthwhile, from what I saw, though I admit that I haven't exactly given their series much of a chance - in fact, I've avoided them like the plague. Although, I do have the Steve Gerber run on the She-Hulk series that I bought as back-issues several years ago when I was trying to find all the Gerber comics I'd never read. Still haven't gotten round to looking at them, but I have faith that if anyone can get me to stomach the character it's Gerber. Spider-Woman's first series was great.
She's Hulk's first series is not classic by any means, but I enjoy it. I enjoy it more than Byrne's run, where the meta jokes got old fast.
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