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Post by codystarbuck on May 31, 2021 15:34:42 GMT -5
Marvel Two-in-One #39 Thing and the Vision (& Daredevil)! Creative Team: Roger Slifer-writer, Ron Wilson-pencils, Pablo Marcos-inks, Pete Iro-letters, George Roussos-colors, Archie Goodwin-editor So, Gerry Conway didn't last long enough to be editor on this one. Synopsis: When we last met, the Mad Thinker had Ben locked in a cell he can't escape and was gassing him to death, to force daredevil (also a prisoner) into aiding him by predicting superheroes, because he believes DD is a Precog. He probably also believed Uri Geller was a telekinetic. Someone needed to introduce Thinker to James Randi! DD detects the heartbeat of the kid, form the city jail, who escaped after Ben broke out and followed Ben to see what he was going to do. he tricks Thinker into cutting off the gas to check for a redicted leak...  The Thinker isn't totally stupid and starts questioning DD's prediction, when DD predicts the kid about to enter the room, which happens. Thinker shuts off the gas and the kid decides he doesn't want any more of this scene and decides to skate away (hopefully, to a bit of Dire Straits) and has to doge robots.  The kid gets caught and dumped into a cell, then Thinker monologs about turning the Vision into a pawn (after relating their history). he plans to duplicate him and create an army of synthezoids. He lets Ben out of his cell, then uses hypnotic glasses to put the whammy on him. Ben is turned into a controlled weapon and DD is coerced into carrying a rifle that can hurt the Vision, while the kid gets explosive shackles to ensure daredevil follows through. ben gets a tv remote collar so Thinker can follow their progress and the pair are sent after the Vision. The Vision is in Avengers Mansion, watching a hockey game (the Rangers are playing, as Phil Esposito is mentioned). Hank Pym (as Yellowjacket) goes to answer the doorbell (it's Jarvis' day off). Why, it's ben Grimm and Daredevil....  Hey, someone in the mansion was reading Robert Anton Wilson! Vision turns up and finds Ben & DD and notices that DD has a weapon and Hank is missing and something isn't kosher. ben attacks, Viz doubles his density, and Thinker berates Ben remotely. Mayhem ensues.  I love how Ben can always roll up floor surfaces without the building materials shattering and crumbling under the pressure and or weight. Viz tries to materialize his hand in Ben's chest but it doesn't work and DD hits him with the rifle ray, which seals him in an ionic filed, from which he cannot escape. So, sucks to be him! Ben is still mind-whammied and DD is held on a short leash by Thinker and they box up Viz and bring him back. We see the unconscious Hank Pym's leg as they carry the box out of the mansion. At the Thinker's, Viz is unboxed and Thinker reveals that he knows DD isn't a pre-cog, as he checked the gas system. ben grabs DD, but he shrinks and flies away, delivering stings. It's actually Hank Pym, who steals away the Thinker's control box. Daredevil sneaks out of the containment box, wearing Yellowjacket's mask and reveals that he swapped places with a recovered Hank Pym, who filled his costume with ants, to bluff the Thinker into believing he was still out cold on the mansion floor.  DD goes all Kurt Thomas to avoid Ben. Hank resumes size and grabs the hypno-glasses and releases Ben from Thinker's control, while DD reverses the gun ray and releases the Vision. Things look hunky-dory, when Thinker releases his Vision androids to attack...  They overwhelms he heroes, but Vision takes them out with his...vision and they have Thinker at bay. he can't figure out where the predictions went wrong. Vision reveals that there was a precog and narrows it down to the kid, who foresees the actual winner of the hockey game, without actually seeing the game. Turns out DD was the X-factor, who gummed up things. Thoughts: Okay, technically, this is Thing and Daredevil and Vision and Yellowjacket; so it is Marvel Four-in-One. Hank is a bit more of an active participant and ben is reduced to being a dupe. Quite frankly, Ben has sucked through this whole story, in terms of heroics. Thinker manipulated him more than the Puppet Master. The resolution gets a bit wonky, though the double-cross is pretty good. Vision suddenly zapping away the copies is a bit abrupt and the reveal of the kid as psychic is way out of left field. The hockey game is there to give Vision a way to test who the psychic was. Personally, I thought it was better when Thinker was just deluded and believed there was a psychic; but, Marvel's writers seemed to buy into ESP way too much, in the 70s. Hell, they even put a fraud like Geller into a comic! I mean, he was debunked on the Tonight Show, in 1973. Within the context of the Marvel Universe, psychic abilities existed, as demonstrated by characters like Professor Xavier and Moondragon, as well as later ones, like Destiny. I suppose the kid is supposed to be a twist; but, as I say, it comes from left field. You could point to the scene where he hops over the dog (the previous issue), while skateboarding, but I think that is reaching, a bit. It's a goofy resolution to what has been a goofy storyline, though an entertaining one. Ron Wilson and Pablo Marcos make a terrific team on these things and they handle the guest heroes well, while really giving ben a physical personality (which is in keeping with previous renderings).
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Post by chaykinstevens on May 31, 2021 16:42:33 GMT -5
Marvel Team-Up #39 Do you know who the cover was by? GCD says it's pencilled and inked by John Romita, but I'm not entirely convinced. |
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Post by codystarbuck on May 31, 2021 16:54:18 GMT -5
Marvel Team-Up #39 Do you know who the cover was by? GCD says it's pencilled and inked by John Romita, but I'm not entirely convinced. I'm not the best authority on that kind of thing, as I often miss the subtleties of certain artists, like Romita, especially with Marvel's trend towards a house style. I'm better with a more idiosyncratic artists. You show me a Kirby cover and I can spot Kirby, regardless of who inks. You show me a John Buscema and a Sal Buscema and I may get it wrong, depending on who inked and the layout. Romita is just one of those guys who I can sometimes figure out immediately and often mistake instead of another artist. Probably part of the art director curse, since he spent a lot of time making things fit other styles. |
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Post by berkley on May 31, 2021 22:09:50 GMT -5
Marvel Two-in-One #39... Ron Wilson and Pablo Marcos make a terrific team on these things and they handle the guest heroes well, while really giving ben a physical personality (which is in keeping with previous renderings).
I always liked Wilson's style but only remember seeing the odd comic with his work here and there back in the day; and Pablo Marcos's name in the credits was a plus for me: he could make low to mid-range artists (I mmean in my personal ranking at the time) more attractive with his inks. The more I see of the samples in this thread the more I think I'll eventually try to get all the Ron Wilson issues of the series.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 5, 2021 19:51:20 GMT -5
Marvel Team-Up #40 Spidey (and Torch) and the Sons of the Tiger (and possibly the local chapter of the Shriners) Creative Team: Bill Mantlo-writer, Sal Buscema-pencils, Mike Esposito-inks, Karen Mantlo-letters, Janice Cohen-colors, Marv Wolfman-editor Synopsis: The showdown between Spidey & Torch, Big Man & the Enforcers, and Crime Master & Sandman turns violent....  ...well, more violent. Bullets fly, lassos twirl, Spidey gets pistol-whipped by Big Man and Torch gets snuffed out by sandman and pistol-whipped by Crime Master. The hoods dog pile on Spidey, be he battles his way free. However, Torch is held at gunpoint and Spidey hesitates and gets coshed...  Both of the gang bosses are a little testy and want Spidey dead and argue about who gets to kill him. Meanwhile, the Sons of the Tiger work out, or play Rock/Paper/Scissors, in their sissy outfits.....  ...seriously, yellow? Looks like someone had a little bladder problem, while doing the laundry! They go next door to complain about all of the noise and find a meeting of the local BDSM club.....  ...Remember, boys; safe, sane and consensual! The two crime bosses throw it out to a vote as to who gets to kill Spidey, but Lin-Sun wants to raise a point of order, with his foot! The other SOTs show up and smash Torch's tube and he escapes and throws fireballs, which somehow don't burn down the firetrap of a warehouse. Lotus frees Spidey and sandman causes a fuss...  ....and Crime Master hurls a gas cannister that clears the room. When it clears, the hoods are gone. Torch buggers off to keep a date (who cares about street hoods, when dames are waitin'?) Spidey goes searching and fins Mosquito moping about his dead pigeon, and then spots the Enforcers coming out of a manhole. Spidey follows and finds the SOTs have joined the BDSM club....  Crime master shoots Big Man and takes over as the Capu di tutti (fruitti) Capo. Spidey returns the favor to the SOTs and Lotus decks Crime Master for yanking on her hair. Spidey and the Tigers take out Sandman and then Spidey webs Big Man and Crime Master, who are revealed to be the daughter (Big Man) and son (Crime Master) of the originals and were in love. Big Man, aka Janice, dies and Crime Master bawls his head off, while the gang goes to call the cops. Thoughts: Eh......it's okay but kind of deflates the previous issue. The Sons of the Tiger just happening to be next door seems uniquely convenient, even for comics. They continue to be colorless, in Mantlo's hands, which is why they were eventually dumped for the far more interesting White Tiger, in Deadly Hands of Kung Fu. Abe was the only one I ever found remotely interesting, but only solo, along with Blackbird. Torch just up and leaving makes no sense, which suggests Marv was asleep at the wheel on this book; but, it sound like the EIC's hadn't been that directly involved since Roy and even he got overwhelmed with their title expansion. Mantlo needed better guidance, if you ask me. The Romeo and Juliet ending isn't set up in any fashion and just kind of flops on the floor. It isn't much of a twist, when you have no idea who these people are. Mantlo really needed to spend more time on the link to Ditko's stories and the children of the dead villains and just leave the Sons of the Tiger out of this, or give them something better to do than complain about the noise and get into a scrap. Notice the female gets manhandled more than the guys; but, at least she gets to deck the turkey. Sal has the Tigers strike a pseudo-martial arts pose, probably copied from either a movie of a kung fu magazine, but he has no clue as seen in the action. Most of Marvel (and DC's) artists didn't know their chop from their sock(y), apart from Frank McLaughlin and Larry Hama I'm not sure who designed the Sons of the Tiger outfits; but, they needed to have tigers embroidered on the backs of them, like the cruise jackets that sailors got from Western Pacific cruises.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 5, 2021 20:59:13 GMT -5
Marvel Two-in-One #40 Thing & Black Panther! From the cover blurb, I guess Ben and T'Challa have been practicing, practicing. Creative Team: Roger Slifer-plot, Tom Defalco-dialogue ("patter"), Ron Wilson-pencils, Pablo Marcos-inks, Irv Watanabe and Annette Kawecki-letters, Phil Rachelson-colors, Jim Shooter-editor Archie has stepped down and the Reign of Terror begins! Synopsis: Ben makes a big-ass pizza....  ...for himself, Matt Murdock, Hank Pym and Eugene Everett, aka the kid, from the last few issues. Murdock is hustling the kid, shooting craps with his hyper senses. he says he is teaching him a lesson about using his gifts to take advantage of others; but, I say, once a shyster , always a shyster! They pig out on slabs of pizza and Ben tells Eugene he is going back to school, if he has to drag him. Hank gives them a ride, in a Quinjet and they land at PS 60, where Eugene has a bit if a rep. They are noticed by one of the faculty, Luke Charles, aka Prince T'Challa, aka Black Panther....  Ben almost blows his covers, but gets in step before it's too late. He hangs out in the classroom, for the last class, as Mr Charles teaches his last class of the day (then Lulu sings) and we see chaos turn into perfect order ad discipline....  Mr Charles lectures on the African origins of voodoo and Ben nods off. A pair of junior Sweathogs dumps glue down his trunks and glues him to the chair, which wakes him up. Mr Charles assigns them a 5,000 word essay and frees Ben. They go off to clean him up and we cut to the police, who are investigating the 5th disappearance of a prominent figure in the Black Community. No clues, except a musty odor, like that of the grave. Hmmmmmm....voodoo origins...grave odors....missing Black leaders........ T'Challa loans Ben a dashiki, while his trunks are in the wash. Ben catches him up on the FF break-up, then T'Chala suits up to investigate the disappearances. Ben mentions J Jonah claiming that the missing were on a lits of the Ten Most Successful Blacks in the City piece he ran in the Bugle, previously. ben thinks he is trying to boost circulation; but, T'Challa isn't sure. Why haven't the cops looked at that angle? T'Challa phones the Bugle and talks to the microfilm archives, but the supervisor was fired by JJJ and his assistant is sorting the mess. he is able to give Panther 6 of the 10 names and they confirm 4 of the missing victims. They split to check on the two still available. Ben draws Edward B Nelson, millionaire industrialist. Ben finds a big hole in the man's front door and his wife out cold...  He revives her and she describes what happened. T'Challa goes to Carnegie Hall to see CL Wadsworth, musician and composer, playing for the cleaning crew. He finishes, takes a bow, and is attacked by an African vampire!  Panther comes sliding in from the rafters and they go at it like Frasier and Ali, in Kinshasa!  The Vampire KOs T'Challa and is carrying him off, when Ben turns up for some Clobberin' Time! Clobberin' doesn't stop a vampire, so Wadsworth stakes him with his bow. He and Ben leave, but it turns out the vampire is a zuvembie and possibly a Golem, in the off-season.  Ben and T'Challa go back to his place, then Ben heads home. Panther looks at the telegram from the Bugle archivist and gets choked out by the zombie/vampire, as Ben is seen walking home, through the window. Thoughts: Some great character humor early on, especially Ben & Eugene, and the school kids. Voodoo zombies and vampires gets a bit stereotypical, since we have Panther here and guess who is the guest star next issue? Hint: The Brother does his stuff, so well, that Fred Hembeck is a fan! Some of this rings familiar and a little research reminded me I covered these issues, in another thread, which I will withhold until the next issue reveals the villain. This is one of if not The first Marvel credit, for Tom DeFalco, who was writing for Archie. Stereotypes or not, this is a pretty good issue. Good character stuff from Ben, lot of fun at the school (which provides a nice intro for Black Panther) and a mystery and some supernatural. As I have said before, this is a pretty good era for MTIO, which lasted for quite a while; longer than it had a right to, given the premise. This is why it was one of my favorite books, in the late 70s, as it was fun and action-packed, with some interesting guest stars, but without getting too bogged down in soap opera (at the fringes, yeah, but not a central feature).
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Post by brutalis on Jun 5, 2021 23:00:26 GMT -5
As I have said before, this is a pretty good era for MTIO, which lasted for quite a while; longer than it had a right to, given the premise. This is why it was one of my favorite books, in the late 70s, as it was fun and action-packed, with some interesting guest stars, but without getting too bogged down in soap opera (at the fringes, yeah, but not a central feature). Yep. Total agreement here. As a teen getting these new on the rack, Team-Up was a hit or miss series for me. It all depended upon the co-star or the story grabbing me, so it was a sporadic buy. At least 'til Claremont/Byrne come aboard. I was picking up Two-in-One consistently with every issue (excepting occasionally missed issues due to no money or lousy distribution) since it carried better stories and artwork and action. There was more sense of thrill and fun with Benjy as well as the consistently wonderful Ron Wilson art. The Bashful blue eyed Thing also lent himself to more diverse stories. Fantasy, Science-Fiction, jungle adventure, horror, tales of the city, aliens and more were a better fit with him than Spidey. Plus the actual characterization of surly tough guy crusty exterior with a soft marshmallow heart inside provided more depth to his inter-actions with co-stars. Then there was the fun of seeing the Wilson interpretation of starring favorites. Something about how he portrayed the action along with other moments all helped make MTIO a favorite in every issue. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 6, 2021 10:13:24 GMT -5
As I have said before, this is a pretty good era for MTIO, which lasted for quite a while; longer than it had a right to, given the premise. This is why it was one of my favorite books, in the late 70s, as it was fun and action-packed, with some interesting guest stars, but without getting too bogged down in soap opera (at the fringes, yeah, but not a central feature). Yep. Total agreement here. As a teen getting these new on the rack, Team-Up was a hit or miss series for me. It all depended upon the co-star or the story grabbing me, so it was a sporadic buy. At least 'til Claremont/Byrne come aboard. I was picking up Two-in-One consistently with every issue (excepting occasionally missed issues due to no money or lousy distribution) since it carried better stories and artwork and action. There was more sense of thrill and fun with Benjy as well as the consistently wonderful Ron Wilson art. The Bashful blue eyed Thing also lent himself to more diverse stories. Fantasy, Science-Fiction, jungle adventure, horror, tales of the city, aliens and more were a better fit with him than Spidey. Plus the actual characterization of surly tough guy crusty exterior with a soft marshmallow heart inside provided more depth to his inter-actions with co-stars. Then there was the fun of seeing the Wilson interpretation of starring favorites. Something about how he portrayed the action along with other moments all helped make MTIO a favorite in every issue. Something go on with the site's quote function? Anyway.... Pretty much my feelings on the two books in that era. MTU was better with Claremont and I had more issue of it from that period than any other. MTIO I had a ton of them, from this era stuff, to Project Pegasus (just down the road), to the run with the Guardians of the Galaxy around, the annuals and such. Always found a good story here. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 12, 2021 15:10:38 GMT -5
Marvel Team-Up #41 Spidey & the Scarlet Witch Done in the style of an episode of Dark Shadows! Creative Team: Bill Mantlo-writer, Sal Buscema-pencils, Mike Esposito-inks, Karen Mantlo-letters, Ellen Vartanoff-colors, Marv Wolfman-editor Ellen Vartanoff was the sister of Irene Vartanoff and sister-in-law of Scott Edelman. She passed away in 2019 and Heidi MacDonald wrote this obituary. You have to love someone who starts a club, called The Future Mad Scientists of America! Synopsis: The Scarlet Witch is acting pretty cranky; but, it isn't a Midol situation.....  Some kind of voice calls to her and some entity is F-ing with her head. She swipes a Quinjet and heads for Salem, MA, and ends up in a castle. Wait...a castle in Salem, MA?................................Oh, wait, she's in Gloucester!  Anyhoo, she gets whammied by weird lights and sends off a distress bolt to New York......which finds Spidey (Who else; Iron Fist?) It chases after him and he hops around to avoid it and tries to web it, before it catches him...  ...which transports him tot he castle, where Cotton Mather has the unconscious Wanda and what looks like Dr Doom's time machine portal, and a wooden cross and a lot of Hammer dialogue.  Well, Spidey don't cottin to no Mather and he attacks; but, Mather uses some kind of magic, via his cross and forces the Scarlet Witch to hex bolt Spidey, then the creep slaps a helpless Wanda around...  I know this isn't going to happen; but, I'd like to see Wanda hex the ever-lovin @#$% our of him, before this is over! If Claremont were writing it, it would, though only after a whole lot of torture. Back to the action. Wanda buries Spidey, then travels through the time portal with Mather. Mantlo then swipes from Ditko and has Spidey get out from under the pile of rubble....  ...in a slightly different fashion...  Spidey finds the time machine, set for 1692 and follows, after remembering the Salem Witch Trials (Mantlo calls them "riots", though). He arrives in Salem and finds the Scarlet With tied between two stakes, with a lot of kindling below and plenty of torches around...  Cotton Mather does his Benny Hinn bit and the crowd throws stones (Not so fast there, first guy; you're not sin-free). The Vision also turns up and bitch-slaps Mather....  ...but the crowd still wants a show. Thoughts: So, supernatural stuff for this one, as Cotton Mather has some mystical hold over Scarlet Witch and drags her back to 1692 to be burnt at the stake. Um, I'm pretty sure the statute of limitations had run out on witchcraft there, Cotton! Mantlo's history is a pop culture mess. Cotton Mather was not a "witchfinder;" but, he did write an account of the trial of Ann Glover, an Irish Catholic housekeeper who was accused of witchcraft, when the children of her employers started acting "strangely". She spoke Irish Gaelic and had trouble with English, especially with the stress of the trial and could only recite the Lord's Prayer in Irish and broken Latin. She was condemned and hung, not burnt. Before her execution, Mather visited her and claimed she had nightly liasons with devils. Mather was also politically influential in getting William Stoughton the position as head of the witch tribunal, which governed the trials. Of the more than 200 people accused of witchcraft, 30 were convicted. of those, 19 were hanged, nor burnt; and, one man, Giles Corey, was crushed to death by having rocks pled onto him, until he couldn't expand his lungs to breathe, because he refused to enter a pela to the court. No condemned witches were ever burnt in North America, a concept that came from earlier Europe. However, the myth continues to be perpetuated, largely through popular culture, such as comics like this, novels and horror movies. Cotton Mather was a cheerleader and political mover in the whole thing, but hardly the figure we see here, which looks more like Vincent Price than a Puritan Minister, with a hatred of Catholics and other non-Puritan denominations, political agendas, and attention-seeker. Leaving that aside, the story bounces back and forth between Wanda entering the castle and getting whammied, to what happened before, with some confusing transitions,. It also doesn't help that Mantlo doesn't really elaborate where Wanda went. The castle suggests Europe, unless, like me, you knew about Hammond Castle, in Gloucester, MA, which is just up the coast from Salem (I visited both locales, on the same day, while on a trip to Boston). The place was the home and laboratory of John Hayes Hammond Jr, an inventor and pioneered of remote control mechanisms, with over 400 patents. Hammond had his dream home built by architects, mixing in styles of European castles, abbeys and villages, mixing real artefacts with the artificial. The home eventually became a museum, which can be toured. I loved the place and always wanted to have my own built, if I ever won insane money in Powerball, or something. That way, I could drop boiling oil on door-to-door solicitors and fire catapults at idiots who think only ground shaking bass is actually music. Mantlo is actually going for a longer story here, so this is mostly intro, though it is done with a lot of confusion, which was one of his weaknesses, in his early material. he could knock out a story in record time; but, that rarely produces either a good story or a well-developed one. This isn't bad; but, it needs redrafting to clarify points and give more of a logical flow to events. The flashback gimmick doesn't work very well and a more chronological approach would have worked better and sell Wanda's mental state, before she takes off. Mantlo just throws her into the deep end, then has her the pawn of Cotton Mather for the rest of it. Wanda is treated pretty badly, here, as she is a pretty powerful figure, yet she is taken over rather easily. Her power does confound Spidey; but, then again, so does everyday life!  The art is serviceable, if unspectacular. It gets the job done. Sal's penchant for stock expressions does work in favor of Mather's fanatical disposition and penchant for melodrama; though it does look like he suffers from lockjaw. Scarlet Witch just vacillates between ire and terror. Mantlo, at this stage, isn't exactly great with female characters; but, he isn't alone in that, with fans-turned-comic writers. A big question in all of this is how did Cotton Mather get ahold of Dr Doom's time machine (assuming that this is what it is, which it sure as hell looks like it)? You don't just waltz in and swipe it, especially from 1692. Doom will turn up, in all of this, which I suppose will answer that. This drags on for a while, as Spidey spends a few issues in the past, then ends up dumped in the futures of Deathlok and Killraven, before he gets back home. No idea if he ever bumps into Mr Peabody and his boy, Sherman.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 12, 2021 17:40:12 GMT -5
Marvel Two-in-One #41 T'ing and Brudda Voodoo, mon! Creative Team: Roger Slifer-plot, David Anthony Kraft (RIP)-dialogue, Ron Wilson-pencils, Pablo Marcos-inks, Joe Rosen-letters, Francoise Mouly-colors, Jim Shooter-Baron Samedi Synopsis: Black Panther, along with several other prominent black figures in New York African-American society has been kidnapped. ben returns to "Like Charles'" (aka Prince T'Challa) apartment and finds one Jericho Drum, aka Brother Voodoo, instead....  If Blacula turns up in this, I'm outta here! Meanwhile, Black Panther and the other abductees are marched to the gate at a private airstrip (Slifer Field, no less) and one Dr Kinji Obatu (aka Dr Spectrum, of the Squadron Sinister) is forcing a Mrs Marley to unlock the gate. She fumbles with the ket, so he has his "vampombie" tear open the fence....  He then marches the prisoners on to a plane. Elsewhere, two FBI agents interrogate Mrs Marley's kids, about what happened to her, but don't believe stories about monsters taking them, until a rock monster and a voodoo priest walk through the door (sounds like the set up of a joke). They know there are monsters and they get the 411, which leads them to the private airstrip, just as the plane is taking off. Ben wads up the remnants of the chain-link fence and is about to hurl it at the climbing plane, when BV stops him, because too many would be injured or killed. The plane lands at a secret location, in an emerging African nation, bordering Uganda (which means Kenya, South Sudan, The Congo {Zaire, then}, Rwanda or Tanzania). He meets up with W'Suli, a local witch doctor and chieftan, whose zombie son destroyed his own village (in Marvel Preview #12, written by DAK). He provided the ju-ju to create the "vampombie". We also learn of Dr Obatu's defeat, as Dr Spectrum, by Iron Man, his identity as Minister of Economics for Uganda, and the displeasure of His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, CBE, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular.....  Dr Obutu escaped, barely, and collapsed on the doorstep (so to speak) of W'sulli's house and he nursed him back to health and they concocted this scheme to get in the good graces of Amin, with a tribute...  Amin contemplates killing the group (he wasn't the most stable of people), when a jet flies over and angers him. As it happens, the jet is piloted by Benjamin J Grimm, USAF (or USMC, in Captain Savage and His Leatherneck Raiders #7). Amin orders surface-to-air missiles be fired at the plane , which hit it and they come spiraling down, until Ben punches through the fuselage and grabs the wing surfaces and corrects things...  Let's see Chuck Yeager do that! Okay, Yeager probably could have done that.........how about Wally Schirra or Gordon Cooper? Yeah, didn't think so! (Just kidding......legendary pilots and astronauts). Ben carries the unconscious BV out and sets him down and heads for Kampala (I assume, as that is the capital of Uganda) and Amin, upon hearing that a rock monster survived the crash and is heading directly that way, remembers a previous engagement and buggers off. Ben smashes in and announces "It's Clobberin' time!" and Dr Obutu threatens to push Panther off the balcony. BV turns up and says they have to defeat the source of the magic and does so, right as BP is plummeting and Panther grabs a handy flagpole and breaks his fall. With the spell broken, the "vampombie" attacks and strangles W'Sulli, then turns into a bat and flies at Obutu, who falls off the balcony and dies, then Ben takes everyone home...  Thoughts: I covered this in my Squadron Supreme thread; so, this is a bit repetitive, to me. The idea is interesting, though the incessant stereotypes for Africa, while we have prominent African-American artists, industrialists and even see black FBI agents, is rather shameful. The school business in issue 40 could be accused of stereotype, though it is played rather like Welcome Back Kotter (and referenced as such), which played on stereotypes by satirizing them; so, I give it a pass. This however, just perpetuates the notion that Africans lived in huts (in some rural communities, yes, but the modern world was well established throughout Africa, by the late 70s) and are ruled by superstition (a racist point of view, especially when you turn that same focus on Western culture and religious practices). It also portrays Amin as a cartoonish buffoon. Make no mistake, Amin was a nutjob; but, he was a very calculating one and a very dangerous one, who ruled through a cult of personality and terror, until driven out of Uganda, in 1979, by a combined force of the Tanzanian military and Ugandan exiles. This issue is dated July 1978, which means it comes 2 years after the Entebbe Raid, where PFLP-aligned terrorists hijacked an Air France jet and forced it to land at Entebbe, in Uganda. They were supported by Amin and the Ugandan military, while Amin used the crisis for publicity and world prestige, acting like a mediator, while fully collaborating with the terrorists. On July 3-4, 1976, as the US celebrated the Bicentennial, 2 C-130 Hercules aircraft carried commandos of the Sayert Matkal (Israeli special forces), paratroops and the Golani Brigade, in a mission to free the hostages and transport them to safety. The aircraft came in low over Lake Victoria and landed, with their cargo doors open. Immediately, a black Mercedes and jeeps offloaded, along with a raiding force, assigned to attack the terminal, with the hostages. The limo was picked to mirror that of Amin's personal car, to bypass security checkpoints easily. The assault team hit the airport terminal and swiftly killed the terrorists and collected the hostages, moving them as soon as they could into the transports. Several hostages were hit in the crossifre and Col Jonatan Netanyahu (brother of the soon to be deposed Israeli leader) was shot by a sniper, in the control tower. While the assault took place, a group of jeeps, armed with recoilless rifles, destroyed 11 Ugandan MIG fighter planes, destroying the majority of the Ugandan Air Force in one blow. That is probably why Ben got into their airspace so easily. Amin became prominent in the news, particularly after one hostage, Dora Bloch, disappeared from a Kampala hospital, after the raid. Bloch had been taken to the hospital before the raid, after choking on some food. After the raid, she was dragged from her hospital bed and disappeared. It was eventually learned that she was shot and thrown into the trunk of a car and dumped out in the wild. he body was discovered in 1979 and eventually identified by Israeli pathologists. In 1987, the former Minister of Health confirmed that Ugandan soldiers dragged her away and murdered her, under orders from Amin. Amin was parodied on Saturday Night Live and news reports about him tended to play up his insanity, but not his political cunning. There were rumors of cannibalism and feeding political enemies to crocodiles, adding to the whole insane buffoon image held in America. The reality was far more sinister, if no less insane, as can be seen in the film The Last King of Scotland. DAK plays Amin as the nutjob buffoon and Wilson gives him rather comical appearance and expressions. However, MTIO always had a bit of a satirical bent to it; so it isn't grossly out of line with how villains appeared in this. My real question would be why Dr Obutu, with this kind of power, would try to ingratiate himself with Amin, rather than use it to take over and remake the country, for himself. That was where I thought they were headed, at first, until Obutu makes the present and is forgiven. Had he done so solely to get close to Amin and then stage a coup, I could understand that; but, such a plan is never outlined. Brother Voodoo doesn't really do much in all of this, except turn up at the last minute and break W'Sulli's spell. It might have just as well been a Ben solo story, for the issue. This was fine as a Thing & Black Panther team-up, though a bit more activity on Panther's part would have been needed in this issue. Seems like the better plot would be Panther working to free the abductees from inside and Ben from the outside, culminating in a big battle. You can leave Brother Voodoo out of things, so he can hang out with Fred Hembeck. Bad endings aside, we are about to enter territory that will turn this book into a pure classic....eventually. Our next installment will lay the foundation for the epic and will revisit a former supporting cast member, from the early days of the book.
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Post by mikelmidnight on Jun 14, 2021 11:23:06 GMT -5
Meanwhile, Black Panther and the other abductees are marched to the gate at a private airstrip (Slifer Field, no less) and one Dr Kinji Obatu (aka Dr Spectrum, of the Squadron Sinister) is forcing a Mrs Marley to unlock the gate. She fumbles with the ket, so he has his "vampombie" tear open the fence.... I was NOT at all happy with Mark Gruenwald for redefining the Squadron Supreme as the 'Squadron Supreme of America' and making their version of Dr Spectrum yet another bland white guy in an all-white cast. (It was obvious most of them were American, but I had assumed Dr Spectrum was Ugandan and Hawkeye/Golden Archer was British, at least.) |
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Post by badwolf on Jun 14, 2021 11:55:49 GMT -5
I know a lot of people are fond of this MTU arc but in the end it really makes no sense. I don't think it's Sal's best work, either.
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Post by berkley on Jun 14, 2021 13:24:03 GMT -5
Meanwhile, Black Panther and the other abductees are marched to the gate at a private airstrip (Slifer Field, no less) and one Dr Kinji Obatu (aka Dr Spectrum, of the Squadron Sinister) is forcing a Mrs Marley to unlock the gate. She fumbles with the ket, so he has his "vampombie" tear open the fence.... I was NOT at all happy with Mark Gruenwald for redefining the Squadron Supreme as the 'Squadron Supreme of America' and making their version of Dr Spectrum yet another bland white guy in an all-white cast. (It was obvious most of them were American, but I had assumed Dr Spectrum was Ugandan and Hawkeye/Golden Archer was British, at least.)
The only time I remember reading the Squadron Supreme was in the Englehart/Perez Avengers, in Perez's first story-arc on the book. I don't recall any clues as to the nationality of any of the other members but IIRC the Golden Archer was definitely written as speaking with a British accent of some kind. |
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Post by berkley on Jun 14, 2021 13:28:36 GMT -5
I know a lot of people are fond of this MTU arc but in the end it really makes no sense. I don't think it's Sal's best work, either.
I didn't mind Sal Buscema's 70s artwork at the time but with the passage of the years it's come to feel very bland to me - to the point that it limits my enjoyment of those comics pretty significantly. I don't blame him so much as Marvel for over-working him. I think his 60s artwork on the Avengers was much better - not too far off his brother John's level of quality, at times.
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Post by badwolf on Jun 14, 2021 14:08:14 GMT -5
I know a lot of people are fond of this MTU arc but in the end it really makes no sense. I don't think it's Sal's best work, either.
I didn't mind Sal Buscema's 70s artwork at the time but with the passage of the years it's come to feel very bland to me - to the point that it limits my enjoyment of those comics pretty significantly. I don't blame him so much as Marvel for over-working him. I think his 60s artwork on the Avengers was much better - not too far off his brother John's level of quality, at times.
I really like his artwork for the most part. I didn't like the way it developed in the late 80s on PPTSS, but before that is cool. But this looks rushed. Maybe the inks are partly to blame. |
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