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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 5, 2021 11:27:30 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. This was Spider-Woman's second appearance, after Marvel Spotlight #32. Her debut included her origin, that she was another experiment of the High Evolutionary, but was more human than the others. She was ostracized by them and fled Wundagore. She gave off an aura that made people uncomfortable to be near her (the icky spider factor) and falls in with a HYDRA cell led by Count Otto Vermis. One of his agents pretends to fall in love with her, so they can control her. She is sent to kill Nick Fury, but fails. he is able to reveal footage of her lover carrying out a terrorist attack, to undercut the lies she has been fed. The lover flees from her and is killed. Vermis tries to escape as SHIELD attacks and she gives chase, damaging his craft, causing a fatal crash. She then flies off. These stories continue her development; but, by the time she got her solo series, they decided to revamp her origin and reveal that she was the human daughter of a scientist who helped the future High Evolutionary build Wundagore and was given an experimental spider potion to combat radiation sickness, from radioactive materials in the area. She also got the huge mane of dark hair in the solo series, as her hair is short and (I think) more of a brown than black. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 11, 2021 14:38:54 GMT -5
Marvel team-Up #31 Spider-Man & Iron Fist Creative Team: Gerry Conway-writer, Jim Mooney-pencils, Vince Coletta-inks, Artie Simek-letters, Petra Goldberg-colors, Len Wein-editor Synopsis: Petey is sitting in a diner, eating breakfast and missing Aunt May's wheat cakes. His intake of grease is interrupted by Iron Fist, Hi-Yaaing someone through a plate glass window (or door, hard to tell....  Texas Chili with dogs & beans? That's just cruel; call the ASPCA! Pete refers to iron Fist as a David Carradine lookalike (or rip-off, even) and watches as he tries to drop kick a mudhole into the dude that went through the window. The thug must be from Chicago, as he pulls out a knife to trump IF's kung fu. IF then pulls out a gun, the thug responds with a rifle, IF with a cannon, the thug with a tank, IF with a battleship..... Well, he would have, if Chuck jones was doing this..... Knife guy goes down to a karate chop, from the kung fu master and then IF walks away without paying for the damage. Petey follows, ducks in an alley to don his Underoos and load his camera. This is all observed by some Flash Gordon reject, who speaks backward....  ...which Marvel doesn't trust us to figure out and provides translations with EVERY SINGLE PANEL! They then drop the visual gimmick and you are left to assume he is speaking backwards. He zaps Spidey with a ray gun and he falls on Iron Fist and they fight...  Iron Fist takes it a bit harshly and tries to kill Spidey. Spidey tells him, "Lighten up, Francis!" and we learn that the Flash Gordon reject is Drom, The Backwards Man! Guess that means his name is actually Mord. Spidey webs up Iron Fist, which he snaps with the old patented fist and then simmers down. They go for walkies and stop by a construction site to talk, when Mord..er, Drom, zaps the sandpit and it attacks the duo.  IF gets knocked unconscious, Spidey gets ray gunned and taken prisoner and has to listen to Drom describe that he is Benjamin Button...  He plans on stealing Spidey's life energy, to survive and turns on his machine. iron Fist busts in, trashes it and frees Spidey. They smack Drom with a big mirror that affects his progression and he reverts to an infant and then dust (should be a zygote, then sperm and egg, but, you know....). They make their goodbyes and Spidey returns home to record an ending that tries to make the story sound way more poignant than Conway's writing ability can make it. Thoughts: Nice opening sequence that becomes pointless once we get the goofy villain of the piece. seriously? Drom the Backwards Man? Pretty middling story, apart from the opening pages. Mooney stages the action well; but Conway gives him garbage to work with. For every "Death of Gwen Stacey" and "Even An Android Can Cry," Marvel had a lot of this kind of mediocrity, which is why I don't buy into their superiority over DC. Certain storylines and runs on books, yes, but both companies produced a healthy diet of this kind of forgettable filler. Kind of a waste of Iron Fist, too. Right now, MTU is pretty hit and miss, and more miss, lately. Next issue is more Torch, while Spidey gets another Giant Size issue.
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Post by berkley on Apr 11, 2021 15:01:17 GMT -5
The Mooney art here looks much better than the Hercules issue from a few pages back, wonder what changed. I think Coletta's inks look better here too than was usually the case at this point in his career.
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 11, 2021 16:03:01 GMT -5
Marvel Two-in-One #31 Thing and ? Cover dialogue kind of gives it away.... Creative Team: Marv Wolfman-writer/editor, Ron Wilson-pencils, Sam Grainger-inks, Irv Watanabe-letters, Janice Cohen-colors Synopsis: Ben and Spider-Woman have been blown off of the Clock Tower and into the Thames. ben goes to rescue the unconscious arachna-woman, because she knows where Alicia is. Then HYDRA turns up in hydro-foils and unloads with machine guns...  Take a note, children; this is how we do HYDRA! Ben has enough of their pesky bullets and grabs one boat by the foil and throws into into the other. Let's see Jonny Quest or James Bond do that! Ben shakes Alicia awake and threatens her, but she is back to normal and recalls how she was walking through wetlands (with cattails) and was attacked by a HYDRA fighter plane and captured. She was then brainwashed and made a HYDRA slave. She can't recall anything else, like where Alicia is. ben lets her live. Meanwhile, Chauncy and Trevor look over their map. This treasure they seek is tied to WW2, as some SS agents (I'll get to that in the comments) were in the midst of an operation and one buried a treasure in the House of Commons, just before it was bombed, in 1941.  The agent escaped, but was the only one of his cell to survive, with the knowledge of where the treasure was hidden and he created a map. And....dunh-dunh-duh....he is Chauncy! Meanwhile, HYDRA is about to experiment on Alicia...  Ben and Spider-Woman go back to the restaurant that was a HYDRA front, to try to restore her memory and look for clues. She recalls it, but it isn't the central base. ben starts getting all blubbery and smashes up the place some more. When he finishes, SW promises him that she is alive and they will find her and sure enough, when they are out on the street, they do...  Ben gets knocked for a loop, Spider-Woman gets stung unconscious (wait, is Alicia a Woman-Spider or Woman-Scorpion?) and then Ben hits a girl!  ...and gets smacked around for it. The HYDRA control box tells her to kill. Stuff gets smashed, Spider-Woman isn't much help and Chauncy & Trevor find the treasure. Tune in next time, as Invisible Woman comes to Ben's aid. The letter's page is about the Deathlok story and one writer calls Deathlok a Marvel original. Martin Caidin and Jean de la Hire both want a word with the letter hack. Thoughts: This is why MTIO, at this stage, is a heck of a lot more fun to cover than MTU is, at the present. Marv has more imaginative plots and longer form stories that link together guest stars. he's also handing us the best HYDRA action since Steranko, which plays well to Ron Wilson's strengths. Also, Spider-Woman was a very intriguing character, at the start, and Marv uses her well. Only part that doesn't work is Chauncy and Trevor. Marv, the SS were not Nazi intelligence. They and the Sturmabteilung (the SA) were the para-military wing of the Nazi Party. The SA were the street brawlers, while the SS started out as a security detachment, to protect Nazi meetings and leaders. After the Night of the Long Knives, the SA were disbanded and the SS became Nazi muscle. The SS were under the command of Heinrich Himmler, who also ran the Gestapo, the State Secret Police. However, the Gestapo was separate from the SS. Intelligence activities were the playground of military intelligence, under the Abwehr, commanded by Adm Canaris, who, ironically, leaked information to the Allies, in hopes of getting rid of Hitler. Any German agents working in the UK would have been under Abwehr direction, not the SS. Stop doing your research with episodes of Hogan's Heroes! Aside from bad history (Roy wouldn't have made those mistakes, Marv), it's a fun issue, though Alicia suddenly appearing outside, without a commotion occurring before she attacks Ben, is a little to much of a leap in logic. Also, Ben believes Spider-Woman rather easily, after they have been fighting for a whole issue. Minor plot weaknesses, but they are a bit glaring. Not sure how Sue is supposed to help out in this situation; I'd have figured Reed would be a better consultant. Guess Alicia just needs mothering...or fashion advice. ps Martin Caidin wrote the novel Cyborg, upon which the Six Million Dollar Man was based, which was ripped off by Rich buckler and Doug Moench for Deathlok. Jean de la Hire predated Martin Caidin with his hero, the Nyctalope, who had artificial bodyparts that made him a superman, back in 1911! In other words, he was your granddaddy's cyborg!
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 11, 2021 16:22:30 GMT -5
ps Point of Trivia: every actor who played a recurring German role in Hogan's Heroes was Jewish! and three of them (Werner Klemperer, John Banner and Leon Askin) had fled the Nazis, in Germany and Austria. Klemperer's father, Otto, was a famous conductor. Banner came from Austria (though his birthplace is now part of the Ukraine) and was in Switzerland during the Anschluss. Banner emigrated to the US and served in the USAAF, during WW2. Werner Klemperer served in Special Services, in the US Army, during the war. Askin also served in the US Army and his parents were killed at Treblinka. He, too, was austrian and a noted stage and cabaret actor, before being beaten by SA thugs.
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Post by badwolf on Apr 12, 2021 9:39:40 GMT -5
Drom the Backwards Man was another villain was curious about from the list in #101.
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Post by Rob Allen on Apr 13, 2021 21:38:23 GMT -5
Marvel Two-in-One #31 This is why MTIO, at this stage, is a heck of a lot more fun to cover than MTU is, at the present. Keep in mind that you're comparing comics that are two and a half years apart. MTU #31 was dated March 1975, and MTIO #31 was September 1977. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 13, 2021 22:07:41 GMT -5
Marvel Two-in-One #31 This is why MTIO, at this stage, is a heck of a lot more fun to cover than MTU is, at the present. Keep in mind that you're comparing comics that are two and a half years apart. MTU #31 was dated March 1975, and MTIO #31 was September 1977. Yeah, but it's still a heck of a lot more fun. To me, the difference isn't the time frame, it's the approach to the series. Gerber started off being goofy, which was fine, for what it was. Mantlo was uneven in his stories, but he tried some continuity. Marv is working longer story arcs to lead from one issue to another; but, he has a good handle on Ben and he usually integrates the guest star well. Conway can't seem to figure out if he was doing an extension of Spider-Man or a team-up book and often fails to do much with the guest star. Len Wein made it more interesting and was usually better at integrating the guest star. For me, it takes a long time for MTU to hit a sweet spot for keeping the book interesting, consistently. MTIO was doing that fairly early on and remained stronger at it for many years. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 19, 2021 16:20:20 GMT -5
Giant-Size Spider-Man #4 Spidey and The Punisher! Oh, Kirby; give me strength! Creative Team: Gerry Conway-writer, Ross Andru-pencils, Mike Esposito-inks, Joe Rosen-letters, Stan Goldberg-colors, Len Wein-editor Punisher created by Don Pendleton (as Mack Bolan, the Executioner) and swiped by Gerry Conway (as Frank Castle, the Carbon Copy) Gonna be snarky, so hang on! (The Punisher brings it out of me) Synopsis: Spidey is climbing across an MC Escher print, when he hears a scream...  He comes across some dudes in matching ski masks and clothes, kidnapping a woman in her nightie and carrying her out a window....  Didn't know comics had a Sweeps Month! Spidey busts ome heads and is saved from being shot in the back by an unseen sniper. The blond in the lacey nightclothes faints in his arms and Spidey looks around for the sniper. 3 guesses, no conferring. The police turn up, with an ambulance and Spidey drops off the girl and takes off before the police can ask questions, though I doubt New York cops are phased by masked guys holding unconscious women in gauzy nighties, in the middle of the street. They probably figure there is a convention in town. Meanwhile, Mack Bolan is travelling in his war Wagon and making entries in his War LJournal, when he is nearly sideswiped by the Punisher, doing the same thing. The Destroyer, the Death Merchant, the Penetrator, and Casca the Eternal Mercenary are all presently parked, doing their own paperwork as required by the Gun-Toting Vigilantes, Local 602. The Punisher arrives at his base, an abandoned power station that isn't still owned by the utility or some other landlord, who would just leave prime real estate derelict, in New York. He opens up the back of his van (down by the river) and finds Spidey there, cracking wise.  Punisher says he was after a kidnap team, which has been providing test subjects to some unnamed group of government that is testing an experimental gas, which is somehow commercially available. Spidey watches the films that Punisher pulls up of some unnamed Army firing on the test subjects and herding them into an area, where a helicopter drops the gas, which kills them. spidey gets a bit testy with Punisher and flips him, saying he would have let the kidnappers take the girl and he is no better than they are, and Punisher shoots him just to cut down the whining sound coming from his mask, though with a tranquilizer, not a hollowpoint. We cut to a new building as Punisher talks to himself, while claiming it's a journal entry and we learn that Spidey was drugged, has agreed to help find the leader of the evil dudes and they are at the offices of the Deterrence Research Corporation, which Gerry Conway spells as DTC, instead of DRC. Must be related to the Hollywood people who though League of Extraordinary gentlemen was abbreviated as LXG. Extra begins with an X, right? They are looking for one Moses Magnum, who they will probably find at a bar, with Danny derringer, Cody Colt and Wally Winchester. Punisher bursts in on the Number One entry to Blackwell's Ten Worst Dressed Paramilitary Goons List...  He kills them both with a 12 gage double barrel (sawn off), which goes "FHUMP". Funny, none of the shotguns I ever fired made a noise like that. This being a Comic Code book, a shotgun blast to the chest, at point blank range, does not produce a sucking chest wound, nor does any of the shot pepper the surrounding tissue, There isn't even a pool of blood. Alarms do go off and Punisher drops a grenade, though it looks like through a window, where there had previously been a door, as Ross seems to have gotten confused. meanwhile, Spidey climbs up the outside of the building and manages not to kill anyone or even smoosh a bug. Inside, he busts some heads, but leaves them alive...  He eventually crashes in on Moses Magnum, a black man, who is having drinks with a stereotypical African, Arab and someone who looks like Henry Kissinger.  Punisher gets attacked by a goon who tries a bearhug and gets driven headfirst into a wall, for his trouble. Meanwhile, Spidey is overwhelmed by numbers and knocked unconscious, then carried off by Mose and his men, in their Hover-copters, which is redundant since helicopters can already hover. These have fans on the underside, suggesting they were meant to be hovercraft, but they don't have the skirt to vector the thrust downward. Punisher makes a diary entry that everything is going according to plan, as he set Spidey up as bait. Spidey gets dumped in a concentration camp, where he meets the Beverly Hillbillies.....  ...because most "country folk" go out huntin' possum! Okay, my grandfather, who was a farmer, in southern Illinois, which isn't a whole lot different from Kentucky or Tennessee, did hunt possum, but mostly because they were a predator of chickens. He also hunted raccoons, squirrels and rabbit, though we only ate the squirrels and rabbit. Well, I only ever ate rabbit. Anyway....Spidey busts heads of the goons, until one sticks a submachine gun in the mouth of Jethro and he goes along quietly. He is brought through the camp (which actually reflects a basic POW camp design, surprisingly) and to Moses, who slaps him around and unmasks him as someone other than Peter Parker...  He takes photos and has Spidey beaten and dragged off. Spidey turns outt o be okay and he has altered his appearance, with cheek stuffings and a new hairdo, because we all know Marlon Brando didn't look like himself, in the Godfather, with his cheek stuffing and altered hairstyle. He fixes everything, puts the mask back on and gets ready to dig Tom, Dick and Harry, when the Punisher pops up from under the floorboards, instead of Charles Bronson. He tells Spidey that Moses is Ethiopian and joined Mussolini when his troops invaded. he gives Spidey a gas mask and they head out. They try stealth, until Punisher is spotted by a goon and tries a knife throw from 20 yeards away and the goon gets off an SMG burst, alerting the whole camp. Schultz turns out the guards while Klink comes out in his bathrobe and puts in his monocle. It then turns into an episode of Rat Patrol....  Spidey gets to Moses, who is stronger than he looks and puts him in a backbreaker. spidey kicks him in the head and gets loose and Mose picks up a gas cannister. Punisher turns up, shoots it with his .44 Automag and then Spidey rushes him out of the room as the gas is released. Mose dies, everybody is loaded back on the hover-copters to be taken back to the Cement Pond and Punisher flies off in the world's pointiest helicopter...  Thoughts: You know, for as much as I hate the Punisher, this isn't half bad. Oh, it's stupid, but in a fun sort of way. In Conway's hands, th Punisher is a blatant Mack Bolan swipe (well, he's that in everyone's hands), but he is also a jerk, which Bolan wasn't. Bolan was more of a John Wayne type, who got laid more than the Duke did, in his films. Punisher is a nasty little Richard and nobody likes him, mainly because his mother dresses him funny (from the JC Penny SS collection, instead of Garanimals or Osh Kosh Bgosh). Moses Magnum is straight out of a Blaxploitation film...a traitor to Haile Selassie; the Rastas will not be pleased! As dumb men's adventure plots go, this is pretty good and the animosity between Spider-Man and Punisher works well. I always said he was better as a quasi-villain/anti-hero guest star than as the headliner of a book. I'm just amazed at how much killing was acceptable, vs skin on the girl in the nightie. Had this been a real Executioner novel, she would have bedded down with either Spidey or Punisher...probably Punisher, since spiders are icky. The hover-copters are even kind of cool looking, even if Ross is oblivious to aeronautical engineering. I have to say, based on this, the next time someone tries to do a Punisher movie, they need to do it as a 1970s retro-Blaxploitation/men's adventure romp, with girls in bikinis, with guns, goofy henchmen, over-the-top violence, some nudity and stereotyped sex and gallons of dumb sauce on the top. Sounds like the perfect vehicle to bring Quentin Tarantino into the MCU family. Maybe he can get Antonio Fargas to do it.
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 19, 2021 19:48:31 GMT -5
Marvel Team-Up #32 Human Torch and Son of Satan Gonna be a hot time in the ol' town tonight! Too bad this was before they were doing the regular inter-company crossovers....they could have had Hot Stuff, too! Creative Team: Gerry Conway-writer, Sal Buscema-pencils, Vince Coletta-inks, Artie Simek-letters, Janice Cohen-colors, Len Wein-editor Synopsis: Ben is moping about his encounter, at Christmas, with the Miracle Man, in MTIO #8, when Johnny razzes him. Ben mentions Wyatt Wingfoot and Torch says he owes him a call and goes to use the handy dandy video phone communicator that was all the rage in 1974 superherodom. Wyat acts all weird and goofy and smashes the communicator. maybe Torch interrupted him with a lady, or something.  Wyatt's grandpa gets on the line and says Wyatt has been acting strange (that's just teenagers, Gramps) and Torch heads out to check on him. he makes a pit stop in St Louis, which Sal Buscema seems to have never visited...  ...'cause the area around the Arch didn't look anything like that, even in 1974! He then stops at Gateway University (instead of Washington University, which is in St Louis, near the old Exposition site). There he picks up Daimon Hellstrom, aka the Son of Satan, who has been grounded by his father, for playing with fire. Ba-dump-bump! Ahem.... Daimon tells his girl, Kathy that she isn't going and when she asks why, he says because superheroing is a boy's club and no icky girls are allowed. Or too dangerous or something like that. Daimon then goes outside and starts giving his fraternity's secret handshake and he is transformed into a fugitive from a heavy metal concert, while apparently standing on a steep hill, given the way Torch is leaning to one side and how far Dasimon has his legs apart and is leaning back....  Look, Son of Satan or no Son of Satan, I don't need some guy thrusting his junk towards my POV, you know? They fly off and Torch puts in some appropriate music... Gerry Conway then proceeds to demonstrate why the US has given up trying trying to teach geography, as he thinks Oklahoma is north of Kansas.....  They land and meet Wyatt's grandpa (Bing Russell? Oh, wait, that's Wyatt Russell, not Wyatt Wingfoot) and then Wyatt comes charging out to greet his old friend with a tackle and a choke...  Torch flames on and Daimon pokes Wyatt in the tuchus with his trident. Daimon exorcises the demon, but he isn't ready to leave the party and possesses Gramps, and some of the others, who then attack. It gets all crackly with fire and brimstone and then Daimon turns heel on Torch and Pear Harbors him...  Torch tries to make a comeback; but, he is a Mulkey Brother to Hellstrom's Road Warrior... Daimon snaps out of it and calls for Torch to light up the sky, which dispels the demon, Dryminextes, which sounds like a skin condition, who was trying to impress Daimon's pop. Daimon goes off to sulk while Johnny and Wyatt pop open a few beers and watch Guy Lombardo ring in the new year. (This was before Dick Clark's Rockin' New Years Eve) Thoughts: Someone get Gerry Conway an atlas....better yet, a set of encyclopedias!Torch picks up Daimon in St Louis, which is on the Mississippi River, about midway down the border of the state of Missouri. They then fly to Oklahoma and somehow have Kansas to the east and turn north towards Oklahoma. That is geographically impossible, even if they were somewhere west of Kansas, instead of east. At best, they should be travelling on a southwesterly course and, at best, cut through the southeastern corner of Kansas, into Oklahoma; or, travel on a westerly course across Kansas and then turn south, if they are headed for the panhandle of Oklahoma. They have the Fantasticar, so why wouldn't they just travel in a straight line? Conway is notorious for his geographic goofs, as I recall Tony Isabella in his CBG column taking him to task on a couple occasions for then-recent stories that had Midwestern geography all messed up. Look, in 1974, I probably couldn't tell you how to go from New York City to Albany; but, I could go into any library and pull out an atlas and find out. Conway was in New York, with one of the largest public libraries in the country and he couldn't do that? See kids, this is why the library is your friend, no matter what Google says. Leaving that aside, this is about par for the course for Son of Satan stories, as Marvel writers swipe from The Exorcist, use a provocative name for the character, and then make his stories rather bland, because even a relaxed Comics Code isn't going to let you go as far as an R-rated movie. The demonic possession musical chairs sound like a good idea, but it plays out over a couple of pages and never has much impact. Torch is kind of useless here, until the end, which is not a good trait for your lead character. I'm no fan of supernatural stories, in general, so this is lost on me and this isn't even a imaginative one. I read better horror stories at Gold Key. I don't think Gerry Conway was the right writer for this. Maybe Len wein or Marv Wolfman could have done something better with this; Steve Gerber or Roy Thomas would have gotten the geography right. Gerber would have probably done all kinds of stuff with this, for at least 3 issues. For the wrestling impaired: Turn heel: when a good guy turns bad, usually by attacking a friend or partner Pearl Harbor: sneak attack, for obvious reasons Make a comeback: when the babyface (good guy) starts fighting back, after taking a beating from the heel (usually while he is cheating) Mulkey Brothers: as can be seen in the video clip, a pair of pasty white guys, with no muscle tone, who could take am ass-whoopin' like no other. they were "jobbers," guys who lost to the stars on tv, to help get people to buy tickets for the live shows. Wrestlers preferred the term "carpenter" or "enhancement talent," as many of these guys were better wrestlers than some of the stars, but couldn't deliver a promo, were not big enough, or lacked the charisma and "It" factor to be a big star. Road Warriors: The baddest tag-team on the planet, Hawk and Animal, the Road Warriors, aka The Legion of Doom! A pair of musclehead wrestlers from Minnesota, Mike Hegstrand (Hawk) and Joe Laurenaitis (Animal) were put together as a team, for the Georgia Championship Wrestling promotion, in 1983. Booker/owner Ole Anderson took the name from the Mel Gibson movie (Mad Max II, the Road Warrior) and hired Laurinaitus as The Road Warrior. he was a rookie and stunk up the joint; but, they brought in Hegstrand as a second Road Warrior, then renamed them Hawk and Animal, after a couple of weeks, with Paul Ellering as their manager. They first came out in leather biker gear, then did the mohawks and face paint, emulating Vernon Wells, as Wez, in the film. They later added spiked shoulder pads. They weren't good at carrying off a match yet, so they were sent out to just beat on their opponents for a minute or so and quickly pin them, after a power move. Fans ate it up and they were kept unbeaten for some time. They became one of the top box office draws of the 1980s, wrestling for the main NWA promotions, the AWA, in the Midwest, and the WWF, as well as internationally, in Japan. The term Road Warrior Pop was coined to describe massive crowd cheers when a wrestler makes their entrance, as crowds would explode in deafening roars when Black Sabbath's "Ironman" started up and would continue as they made their way into the ring, often charging in and attacking their opponents. They were heels, but fans loved watching them so much they became babyfaces, without ever changing their style. At one point, they were also co-owners of the Zubaz company, that made the loose fitting pants with wild animal prints, favored by muscleheads, like themselves, and numerous teenage boys of the late 80s/early 90s. Okay, I had a pair, but they had images of animals, not tiger or leopard prints and were pretty subdued for their line. They were comfortable as heck.
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 19, 2021 21:07:09 GMT -5
Marvel Two-in-One #32 Thing and Invisible Woman Guess it's the Terrific Two...well, Three, if you count Spider-Woman. Creative Team: Marv Wolfman-writer/editor/cool last name, Ron Wilson-pencils/average last name, Pablo Marcos-inks/dictator's last name, John Costanza-letters/tv character's last name, Janice Cohen-colors/movie directors' last name (a pair of them). Synopsis: When we last left, Alicia had been turned into a woman-spider by HYDRA and Spider-Woman and Ben were trying to rescue her and stop HYDRA. Chauncy and Trevor were trying to find the treasure that Chauncy hid, back during the Battle of Britain. ben is trapped in a giant web, while the arachna-women duke it out....  Ben stops Spider-Woman from wailing on Alicia and then runs away from the web, enticing Alicia to follow. Spider-Woman glides past her field of vision to get her to turn her attention away from ben. it works and she chases SW up the side of the clock tower, while ben ducks into a phone box to call the Baxter Building. Meanwhile, inside the House of Commons, Chauncy and Trevor have found the chest with the printing plates for creating bogus currency. they blast the lock and open the chest, and something very Lost Arkish happens...  Some constables turn up on horseback and someone forgot to tell Ron that English patrol constables don't carry sidearms and Marv suddenly makes them "special assault squad officers" to explain why they are firing pistols at Alicia...  They also name drop Captain Britain, who is scheduled to turn up in Marvel Team-Up, for his stateside debut. Ben stops the police and runs them off, but they vow to return in force, though I'm not sure if the one constable's beard is within regulations, even for 1977. I'll have to go watch an episodes of The Sweeney (though that's about The Flying Squad, who are detectives, not uniformed officers). When they return, Ben blocks them, while Alicia has Spider-Woman wrapped up in webbing. The Bill is ready to attack, but someone comes in with orders to assist Been and no one has alerted the SAS or UNIT. Alicia attacks Ben and he tries to dodge and weave and finally succeeds in snatching away the HYDRA control box, while two goons watch via monitor. The HYDRA goons are forced to report to the Supreme Hydra, who has a very one-sided view of labor relations...  The shop steward will hear about this! Alicia swats Ben and Spider-Woman breaks free and tells Ben that Alicia is now acting out of fear, since she isn't being directly controlled and cannot see. It becomes Slobberin' Time for Ben...  Spider-Woman tries to draw her away from endangering innocents and get Ben to snap out of it. Suddenly, Sue turns up and traps Alicia in a force field. Alicia still breaks free. Sue climbs her web to try and stop her, while ben looks on. Sue barely avoids Alicia's poisonous legs, once again ignoring that spider's inject venom via bites, not stingers, like scorpions; but, finer points of biology don't matter when you fight half woman/half spider creatures. Sue doesn't do to well and Alicia tears the web, sending Su falling into Ben's waiting arms. Sue keeps up a forcefield around Alicia's head, until she passes out from lack of oxygen. Ben takes her to Professor Kort to be treated, and we see Deathlok in the background, in some kind of chamber...  He treats Alicia and we learn he has saved Deathlok, though he has to stay in his chamber for 60 days (so, be back in two issues). Ben goes for a walk and gets pelted with tomatoes by angry Londoners, then Sue calls him back to say Alicia will be fine and is calling for him.  Gee, ungrateful Brits! First we save you in two world wars and then you get all cranky about our rock monster hero saving your city from his girlfriend-turned-spider monster. You're welcome!  Thoughts: Bit of an uneven finale to this whole thing; but, it has enough good moments to make up for some of the goofier things. Sue is barely in the dang thing, which makes the cover misleading. It's still pretty much the Ben and Spider-Woman show, which was a problem with some of these extended team-up stories. they didn't want to repeat guest stars' names on the cover, to make readers think they are getting a new guest star each time, so you got some forced new character entries that either play a small role or feel out of place in the overall plot of the arc. A later MTU arc has Spider-man encounter an amnesiac Black Widow, who is attacked by SHIELD agents. Spidey helps her and investigates and uncovers a plot by Viper and Silver Samurai, to turn the SHIELD Hellicarrier into a kamikaze attack on the president's address of Congress, nearly two decades before Tom Clancy did the same thing (with a jet airliner) in Debt of Honor, which is why the media trotted him out after 9/11 (like a kamikaze attack was a new thing, or a hijacking...it wasn't that great a leap of the imagination). that has Black Widow as the co-star, in part 1, Nick fury in part two, which makes sense, as he runs SHIELD, then Shang Chi is thrown in, out of the blue, for part 3, and all three are given co-star billing for the finale. Leaving the billing aside, Sue is shown to be pretty much ineffective, until the very end, which doesn't really give her a boost in status, after years of being the FF's den mother and damsel-in-distress. John Byrne finally gave her some gumption, after a lot of previous wishy-washy writing (some writers tried to do more with her; but, it never seemed to stick, before someone had her knocked back down a bit). Anyway, Spider-Woman is the real co-star and she handles a lot of the action, before getting trussed up. Even Ben is mostly left to catch people and hold off the British Metropolitan Police. the ending feels a little abrupt and Marv has to connect a lot of dots in dialogue. Have to wonder if he didn't give Ron enough direction for his visual pacing of the story, or whether Marv just needed to plot the storyline better. It's still a mostly good story, but it feels like you just kind of hit the barrier at the end of the line, rather than arrive at the station, to use a railroad metaphor. Glad to see HYDRA is maintaining its performance standards. Believe me, I have my days when I would like to apply the same resolution to a performance issue. Damn HR..... Next up is the debut of Marvel's Modred the Mystic, who is not King Arthur's ba.....uh, illegitimate son, even if Morgan Le Faye is around. I assume this is why Chauncy and Trevor just suddenly disappear into the trunk. ps To our British members: just kidding! We all know you will save our bacon in World War 3!
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 26, 2021 22:26:42 GMT -5
Marvel Team-Up #33 Spidey & Nighthawk Creative Team: Gerry Conway-writer, Sal Buscema-layouts, Vince Coletta-finishes, John Costanza-letters, Janice Cohen-colors, Len Wein-editor Synopsis: Nighthawk lands at home, after dealing with Egghead's bomb, in GS Defenders #4, which nearly killed him and cost Trish Starr and arm,. He finds someone in his penthouse and surprises them...  The dude blinds him and then decks him, steals a rock, then escapes with a balloon that inflates from his backpack thingy. Nighthawk comes to and finds the rock, a meteor specimen, gone. he uses his handy-dandy private library microfilm reader (remember microfilm? and micro-fiche?) to pull up a previous headline of the goon, the Looter, who had been arrested, after a run-in with Spidey, in ASM #36. Kyle recalls some connection between the Looter and someone else and goes off to investigate, which takes him into Spidey's slingway. This being the 70s and Gerry Conway, Spidey is whining more than Ernest and Julio Gallo, about Gwen Stacy doubles and Aunt May in the hospital and he has a hang nail, and the dog ate his term paper, he's getting a zit, the Mets lost, small children make faces at him, birds crap in his webs, and his Spidey-suit bunches in the crotch. Spidey's early warning system says the Russkies are coming over the pole and Spidey catches Nighthawk sneaking up on him. Spidey reacts with a kick and sends Nighthawk plummeting earthward (remember, he flies artificially, with a jet pack and glider wings) and when he isn't pulling out of a dive, Spidey decides maybe he over-reacted...  Spidey rescues him and the make a soft landing and Nighthawk comes to. Spidey tries to go all Clint Eastwood; but Nighthawk thinks he is more Clint Howard and tells him to step off or get his bear (anyone over 50 will get that reference). He wants some info and he is going to get it. Nighthawk tells him about the Looter and Spidey admits he barely beat him, last time, and agrees to help nighthawk, as he will need it. He leaves all of his whining subjects behind, pulls out a wedgie and they head off to check out the State Penn and a certain laboratory. Nighthawk goes to the State Pen and Gerry Conway makes some weak statements about prison reform...  The warden tells him he put the Looter, aka Norton Fester, into a cell to influence a hardcase, as Fester had been a model prisoner. Fester sounds like an Ivy League shmoe and his cellmate, Gordon, makes fun of him until he loses his cool and reveals that his strength is still there and busts out. Nighthawk berates the warden for not putting Fester with a psychiatrist to treat his mental state and Conway's attempt to be Denny O'Neil sounds hollow...  Spidey finds that the lab he was looking for is now home to a bunch of cultists and a Jim Jones, named Jeremiah. Obviously, they are mixed up, as Jeremiah was a bullfrog (good friend of mine), though I never understood a single word he said; but, I helped him drink his wine (and he always had some mighty fine wine!) He swings off and runs smack into the Looter, who rides him like a Bronco and punches him in the back of the head like a football jerk would the class brainiac. he tells him he is now the Meteor Man...  Wait...Robert Townsend?  He dumps Spidey, who barely snags a wall with a web, before he becomes street pizza and heads back for Round 2. He swings right into Looter/Meteor Man's back, as he is floating with his balloon and gets called a "churlish fool!" Kiss your mother with that mouth, Meteor Man? Spidey plummets again and Nighthawk rescues him, then sends catching Meteor Man isn't important. Spidey goes spare and screams at Nighthawk, who says Meteor Man is just sick. Typical bleeding heart! Spidey calls him out and it gets all Charles Bronson and Nighthawk takes his ball and goes home...  Spidey whines some more and we get a peak at Jeremiah and his death cult...  Thoughts: What the heck crawled up Conway's butt? Maybe he had seen the documentary, Attica... Conway's attempt to do the whole "social relevance" thing falls pretty flat and it really disrupts a pretty standard plot and makes for a weird and dissatisfying ending. At least Denny O'Neil had worked as a newspaper reporter and had a better handle on current events and historical context (though he wasn't especially objective about his causes). Whatever his motivation, the plot and story are all over the place and none of it works very well. Then, we just drop everything. Meanwhile, he introduces some cult and we find out that will be addressed next issue. Nothing about what he expected to find in the Looter's old laboratory and no reason why some cult have moved in. How does a cult end up occupying an industrial site? The last page makes it look like this "lab" occupied some old apartment building/brownstone. Isn't that a zoning violation? Once again, our two heroes don't exactly work well as a team and you start to wonder why Conway is writing a team-up book when he seems disinterested in writing about two heroes teaming together. Maybe he just sees it as an extension of his work on the regular Spidey book (hence the incessant whinging about everything in this issue). I don't know. I was never a Spidey fan because my first encounters with him, in this time frame, were filled with endless moaning about everything. Aunt May was always on death's door, the rent was due, Mary Jane broke off his date, J Jonah yelled at him, the Girl Scouts wouldn't sell him cookies because he was icky, his cartoon had lousy animation (cool theme song, though) and his tv debut was going to come from one of the Von Trapp kids! man, give me back Len; at least his stories had a sense of fun and made better use of the guest star. Either that or warp time and get Claremont and Byrne on this book earlier. It's pretty ironic to hear Nighthawk as a bleeding heart, while Conway was writing dialogue that would make Charles Bronson proud, for the Punisher.
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Post by chaykinstevens on Apr 27, 2021 11:58:48 GMT -5
The warden tells him he put the Looter, aka Norman Fester, into a cell to influence a hardcase, as Fester had been a model prisoner. The Looter's memorably bad real name was Norton G Fester. The third image in your post is a duplicate of the second. |
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Post by MWGallaher on Apr 27, 2021 16:18:51 GMT -5
Marvel Team-Up #33Spidey & Nighthawk It always bugged me when Marvel would slack on coming up with an MT-U logo for a character who had never yet had the privilege of a masthead. For some reason, seeing a new official logo for these guest-stars was a big deal, and I was very disappointed with this dashed-off effort. They'd done ok with new logos (so far as I know) for Vision in #5 and Inhumans in #11, but then we got the pedestrian and generic Hawkeye in #22, this lame Nighthawk, Valkyrie next issue, Yellowjacket and the Wasp in #58-59, and more and more generic token logos with zero impact as the series continued. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 27, 2021 21:36:13 GMT -5
The warden tells him he put the Looter, aka Norman Fester, into a cell to influence a hardcase, as Fester had been a model prisoner. The Looter's memorably bad real name was Norton G Fester. The third image in your post is a duplicate of the second. Yeah, well that's what happens when you write this late in the evening, after dealing with maniacs....er, customers all day and into the evening. As you can see, my editor only comes around when he wants treats. It's fixed now. |
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