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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 2, 2022 14:33:56 GMT -5
Marvel Team-Up #73 DD needs Spidey to beat the Owl? Creative Team: Gary Friedrich-writer, Kerry Gammil-pencils, Don Perlin-finishes, Denise Wohl-letters, Phil Rachelson-colors, Bob Hall-editor According to Wikipedia (which cites GCD as a source), this is Kerry Gammil's first work for the Big Two, though he had pieces in 5 different issues of Rocket's-Blast Comicollector (RBCC). Synopsis: Matt Murdock is in his legal service offices, consulting with new client, Peter Parker (bringing a libel suit against JJJ?), when he detects the sound of the Owl hovering overhead, in his spiffy helicopter....  Did he buy that from the same guy who customized the Batcopter? Even Petey doesn't need Spider-senses to realize Matt is distracted and Matt begs off that he has an urgent appointment and bolts, though Pete notices that he rushes out of the room without bumping into anything, which seems amazing, for a blind man. Even Matt realizes he didn't handle that well, but suits up and lets fly with the grappling line. He name drops Bruce Jenner, who had won the Gold Medal, in Montreal, in the 1976 Summer Olympics, which makes me wonder if this isn't an inventory story that got handed to Gammil to knock out on the fly. Anyway.... The Owl is actually in his hidden Owl Lair, somewhere in the Palisades, complete with owl decor. Time is spent explaining how he survived falling from his helicopter into a freezing river (his leg braces partially absorbed the impact and he sent off an electronic signal that drew in his hench-owls, who pull him out and take him to secret medical care). He has set up a heist to draw out DD and ambush him, to gain revenge. Petey, downcast, walks away from the offices and decides to sling some wings, when he comes across the heist. He throws purple and yellow hench-owls around and then DD shows up with a cease-and-desist order, for encroaching on his turf...  Spidey cites public access of the rooftop and the owls escape. DD stops Spidey from stopping them, then tells him he wants to follow them to their real target. Spidey is techy, but goes along with it. The swingers cross the George Washington Bridge, as the hoods and their helo enter the hidden hanger, in a cliffside....  DD and his hearing lead them to the hangar door, as the helo hovers, waiting for the doors to open. Spidey goes to knock on the door and gets electrocuted. DD saves him from hitting the Hudson River and when he comes around, the Owl opens the doors and invites them in. He sends holograms at them, which distracts Spidey, but DD can't see them and guides Spidey through them. Owl sends the henches to attack and we learn he has Prof Kerwin, the man who saved his life, prisoner (complete with Owl Cuffs). The heroes confront the villain, and then his goons jump them. Fists fly and then the henches decide to give their notice....  Owl contemplates his labor problems and pulls a gun, pointing it at Kerwin. DD asks why they should care, since Kerwin aided the Owl and was, ipso facto, a criminal (homo badeggus), the Owl starts sweating and then collapses, as his pacemaker went haywire, due to stress. DD had been bluffing, sensing the Owl's heartrate. Thoughts: This thing reads like an unused Daredevil script that got repurposed here. Otherwise, it might be a quickie knocked off for a deadline. Friedrich was mostly working on Sgt Fury and the existing westerns. Spidey is barely involved and DD is definitely the lead hero in the story, in terms of leadership and action. It's fine; for what it is, though it feels kind of old fashioned, for the late 70s. The owl goons and the helicopter just screams the Batman tv series, while the lair is a cross between 60s Ken Adams Bond designs and the Batcave. The Owl always seemed, to me, to be a pretty lightweight opponent for DD, though he sort of had a similar role to the Kingpin, but with more Silver Agey touches. If memory serves (and this was some 45ish years ago), the DD story in the Marvel Super Heroes anthology Paperback...  ...by Kyle Christopher, links the Owl to the death of Battling Murdock, either in place of, or in cahoots with The Fixer (not the guy who teamed with Mentallo). Petey was at the legal services office to try to set up something to take care of Aunt May, if something happened to him. Probably would have better to consult an insurance agent or a financial advisor, unless he had done that and was consulting with Matt to make a will. Matt didn't even get Pete's name, though he had met Spidey, before and should know who he is, based on his heartbeat. Friedrich is kind of wordy and uses thought balloons to address Matt running out of the office and avoiding all stumbling blocks, which suggests that was based on the way Gammil staged things and Friedrich or Hall decided they need to address things. Next up, probably the strangest team-up in the series.
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 2, 2022 15:10:09 GMT -5
Marvel Two-in-One #73 Ben & Quasar! Creative Team: Ralph Macchio (solo)-writer, Ron Wilson-pencils, Gene Day-inks, John Costanza-letters, George Roussos-colors, Jam Salicrup-editor Synopsis: Ben and Wendell were following up a lead on the Nth Command and hit a hidden lair, near a subway tunnel, got zapped, and have ended up in dinosaur territory.  They discover that someone has set up an oil drilling operation, despite that petroleum not yet existing.....  (assuming time travel) They get attacked by para-military types in aerial craft. Ben hits them with a tree (not a branch, the whole tree!) and Quasar blinds them with (Uranian) science. Quasar goes down (wuss) and Ben clobbers, but gets gassed. he gets hauled away and Quase gets left for dead. He is found by primeval men, who happen to speak English (taught by the people behind the drilling). They have a dinosaur army to fight the invaders. However, the goons attack, the dinos stampede, and caveman heads get busted. Quase vows to join the Caveman Liberation Front. Meanwhile, Ben is held prisoner by the goons and learns that they are mercs, working for Roxxon, who were behind the Nth Command....  They are collecting oil from an alternate reality, enslaving the cavemen. they will then use Nth Projectors to send the oil to the Marvel reality. Ben is unable to escape, until the cavalry arrives....  The goons fight with tech and get munched by dinos and blasted by Quasar. Ben breaks free and It's Clobberin' Time! The head goon gets away, along wit the Nth Projector and it turns into 3rd Act Bond movie, as the place starts blowing up. Quasar gets them out and they then use the petroleum Nth Projectors to get home, after first opening the pipes and flooding the place and capturing the mercs and their boss, with Quasar's gauntlet beams. Thoughts: This seems out of left field, like Ralph realized they still had a dangling plot line from project Pegasus, and threw together a story to finish it off. The alternate world can explain away the problem created by it being time travel, such as men and dinosaurs in the same era; the petroleum is possible. Petroleum is derived from fossilized organic matter, not only dead dinosaurs, but plant matter, too. So, assuming this is a world as old as Earth, it is possible for there to be petroleum and dinosaurs, I suppose. The men and dinos presumes that dinos haven't disappeared or evolved into birds (pick your theory) before the rise of hominoid mammals. Whatever.....comics! This is fine and is a bit of a lightweight "oil companies are evil" stories, since Ralph wasn't quite the social crusader that Steve Englehart was. Gruenwald isn't here in writing, though he probably is, in spirit. To bad Perez wasn't here, though Ron Wilson does a decent job. I get the feeling that Ralph & Mark had been itching to get back to the Nth Command, since that was probably their best issues (and some of the better selling stuff, for this series), but get the feeling that the dinosaur/cavemen stuff being thrown in because Ron wanted to draw dinosaurs and everyone got drunk and talked about the Flintstones and what if Roxxon turned up to disrupt their world. Next up, Puppet Master and Christmas!
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Post by badwolf on Mar 2, 2022 17:10:58 GMT -5
The Owl was in those braces for quite a while. He still has them when he turns up again in #98.
Looking forward to MTIO #74. That was my first issue when I got a subscription as a kid. I'll be able to comment a lot more on the rest of the run since I followed it till the end (although I missed the Rom issue.)
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 9, 2022 17:22:09 GMT -5
Marvel Team-Up #74 Spidey & The Not Ready For Prime Time Players? Get your little spoons ready for this one! Creative Team: Chris Claremont-writer, Bob Hall-pencils & editing, Marie Severin-inks & colors, Annette Kawecki-letters, Jim Shooter-wishes he was Lorne Michaels Synopsis: Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson are in a rush to get into the NBC Studios at Rockefeller Center, after waiting a year for tickets to the hottest show in town. They are running and are told the only seating is in the balcony, in Studio 8H. They spot a cast member as she walks past and then ducks into a dressing room, where the entire cast is watching one member try to get a ring off his finger....  A Japanese usher ducks into a room and calls out his goons, as he dons silver armor and we see that the Silver Samurai is after the ring, stuck on the actor's finger. However, it's show time and we cut to Don Pardo, as he belts out.....   LIVE FROM NEW YORK, IT'S SATURDAY NIGHT! WITH HOST STAN LEE! Um, yeah, right! Maybe in 2008, but not in 1978. Stan goes through the awful monologue jokes as someone attacks an usher from behind. peter reacts, but reconsiders that it might be part of the show. he sees himself on a monitor, with jokey lettering that says "Superhero in his Spare Time." Ha, ha...I get it; it's ironic, 'cause he actually is a superhero in his spare time. That Claremont just slays me! Pete slips into Spidey duds and checks things out. Up in the booth, the hoods have Lorne Michaels at gunpoint, making him run the board. As he says, he is just a producer. Meanwhile, John belushi still can't get the ring off, while Bill Murray stand by. he has to deliver a prop Mjolnir to Garrett Morris and moves on and then spots Silver Samurai and his goons in the hall. he slugs one from behind with the rubber hammer and takes his hat and coat. He mingles with the hoods, and Jane Curtin and Gilda Radner are left to do Weekend Update alone. Suddenly, Gilda disappears from the stage, then Jane and we see the hoods have cut the floor out under the stage. Spidey swings into action....  He and the Samurai battle and Buck henry gets whacked on the ehad and spends the rest of the comic with a bandage on his head.... ...or, possibly, not; but, Gilda tackles a hood and Jane piles on, but it is Jerry Aldini....or possibly Bill Murray. Bill tells them that the hoods are after Belushi's ring (not his coke?). Spidey gets the ladies back on stage. Elsewhere, Laraine Newman gets dressed as Ms Marvel for a sketch and the hoods burst in and think she is the real deal...   She throws bottles at them (which might not be hair products, based on her history on the show) and then Spidey turns up to save the day. They worry about the hoods opening fire on the audience; but, Spidey has a plan. Thor confronts the hoods, then they notice he is black...  Then Silver Samurai meets samurai Futaba.....  The fight spills on stage, while Ackroyd and Newman rescue Lorne Michaels, using fire extinguishers to blind the hoods. Silver Samurai's katana slices Spidey's web line and he crashes down and Belushi loses it... They grapple, but Belushi gets his but kicked and Silver Samurai gets the ring and disappears. We get a group shot and Belushi and Garrett at a bar, with Peter and MJ in the background, and some more bad jokes. Thoughts: Spidey meeting the cast of SNL should have been epic BUT NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo..................................................... Claremont isn't funny and neither is this, particularly. Silly, maybe. A little fun, okay; but, it ends up being kind of a let down. I assume they had contractual demands to give everyone equal time, which is what we get, which is why the story never really goes anywhere. I can only imagine the hoops Claremont had to go through, between Shooter and Lorne Michaels (and the cast). He never captures their personalities, even the on-air characters. The Mad crew would have done so much more with this. Bob Hall is not really the guy I would go to for satire (or much of anything, really, as he was one of those rather generic Shooter Era Marvel artists. I assume Marie was there to tweak the likenesses; but, she doesn't have much to work with and no one really looks much like the actual actors, other than Ackroyd, in one or two panels. Even Belushi is off and it looks more like a general version of him. Bill Murray could have been anyone and Garret Morris & Jane Curtain are even worse. I assume they only had a couple of publicity stills or maybe a tape to work from, because Marie was a pretty darn good caricaturist. I kind of expected them to work in more of the signature characters; but, apart from Gilda doing Emily Litella (barely) and Belushi as Samurai Futaba, we get nothing. I mean, NO CONEHEADS?!?!? Stan doesn't go to the Olympia Restaurant for a cheezbooger nor fries...chips and a Pepsi? This needed Steve Martin! There are a few good in jokes, like the musical guest being Rick Jones (who was a folk singer, then, though that was hardly the kind of music SNL booked) and Statler and Waldorf being in the balcony seats, near Peter & MJ (but they are drawn as generic old men). Mr Bill didn't make the cut and no special appearance by Andy Kaufman. I get it.....SNL was hot and Marvel was jumping on the bandwagon and NBC saw it as more merchandising, along with record albums (which I had the cassette version) and everyone repeating sketches at school or the office. Claremont had to slip his favorites in there as no one was doing a Ms Marvel sketch in 1978. Why not trot out Belushi's Hulk? Oh, right, that hadn't aired yet, since Margot Kidder didn't host until 1979. In the end, it is a silly bit of fun and a nice break from the usual stuff (especially the recent issues); but, if you were an SNL fan it really didn't deliver. It will have repercussions, down the road, as the ring that Silver Samurai steals from Belushi becomes part of his gimmick, allowing him and Viper to infiltrate the SHIELD Helicarrier, in a future story. Maybe if they had done SCTV, instead........
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 9, 2022 18:20:12 GMT -5
Marvel Two-in-One #74 Thing & the Puppet Master! Special Christmas issue! Creative Team: Mark Gruenwald-writer, Frank Springer-pencils, Chic Stone-inks, Michael Higgins-letters, George Roussos-inks, Jim Salicrup-editor So, we've got the A Team on this one! Synopsis: ben, Alicia, Reed and Sue have been Christmas shopping, though no one got Ben a Hanukkah present! Reed and Sue prepare to put up the tree, while Ben writes Christmas cards, including one, at Alicia's suggestion, to her step-father, the Puppet Master (who is in stir). However, Puppet Master is being released on parole and the card ends up just being slipped in with the rest of his belongings, as he leaves Ryker's....  The card got there in two days? I miss the old postal system! PM heads back to his old workshop, which is still standing, but finds all of his radioactive clay has decayed (what's the half-life on that stuff; six months?) He then spots the card and thinks it might be from the Thinker, with a new job, but then finds out it is Ben's card. He thinks Ben is mocking him and decides to get back at him. Meanwhile, the FF are having their Christmas party, complete with Quasar and the Aquarian, while (I assume) Johnny xeroxes his butt.  Then, PM turns up and confirms he is on parole. Alicia makes ben let her step-father in to join the party. The pair embrace and Alicia is genuinely pleased to have her step-father there. ben is wary. Franklin hands out the presents and realizes they don't have one for PM. He offers one of his, but PM refuses. Franklin asks what he would like and he says a trip to Europe (him and Daffy Duck) and Franklin asks his father if they could spare a rocket to take him there. Reed obliges and Ben pilots the Pogo Plane, with Alicia and her step-father, to Europe.  They fly to Transia, birthplace of the Puppet Master and stay at a little inn. Later, PM sneaks out to the base of Wundagore Mountain, to search for more radioactive clay. However, he runs into some giant wooden soldiers! The next morning, Ben tells Alicia that her step-father is missing. They go into the village to search for him but have no luck. One villager suggests they consult the old woman, on the hill. the old woman tunrs out to be Bova, the evolved cow who had been one of the High Evolutionary's experiments. In her care is the now simple-minded Modred.  Bova offers to help them look; but, they must wait for a storm to pass. they bed down in her place. Later, we see a toybox open and Modred's toys climb out, along with a shrunken Puppet Master. he finds Ben and wakes him and he discovers he has also shrunk; but Alicia is normal size. PM says if he can get close to Modred and fashion a clay puppet, he can force him to restore them. First, though, they have to battle his toys....  Ben gets PM close to Modred and he goes to work on the puppet, while Ben fights the toys. However, the puppet doesn't work. ben ends up waking up Modred; but, he still believes ben is a bad man. Bova awakens to the commotion, as does Alicia. Bova comforts Modred, but doesn't see the tiny Ben and no one can hear him. Bova asks about Ben and Modred says he sent him away. Alicia eventually hears Ben's tiny voice....  Bova and Alicia try to convince Modred that the men are not bad and to restore them. Modred says he doesn't know how; but, Alicia encourages him and he is able to restore the pair to full size...  Puppet Master returns the favor and teaches Modred how to make his toy soldier real, to be his friend....  Thoughts: You know, this was actually a pretty good story! Frank Springer and Chic Stone's art isn't exactly superstar stuff; but it does the job. Gruenwald basically adapts elements of The Nutcracker for the story, substituting Puppet Master for Drosselmeyer. You could also cite The Parade of the Tin Soldiers and Babes in Toyland/March of the Wooden Soldiers as influences. Probably not surprising that a writer named Gruenwald would use Germanic and Eastern European tales for a Christmas story. There is a rather creepy animated version of The Nutcracker, done by Soyuzmultifilm, in 1973, that I saw sometime in the 70s, while visiting relatives over Christmas break. It came to mind rather strongly as I read this..... You put that in a double bill with the 1957 animated Snow Queen, from the same Soviet animation group and you can have one nightmarish Christmas! And they used to show these things at Christmas time! Then again, March of the Wooden Soldiers, with Laurel and Hardy, has some pretty scary stuff in it (more than the Disney Babes in Toyland). Tim Burton ain't @#$%! Next time, we get a double-sized issue. ps, the party scene has a bunch of FF easter eggs, with party guests, including Quasar''s father, Namorita, Willy Lumpkin, and friends of Sue, from her childhood. Quasar's date is Dr Jeanine O'Connell, Wundaar/Aquarian's therapist, at Project PEGASUS and, we learn, Quasar's fiancee.
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Post by badwolf on Mar 9, 2022 18:53:36 GMT -5
MTIO #74 has a lot of memories for me. It was the first issue of my subscription as a child. I think this was the second year I was allowed to get subscriptions; the first year I got MTU and Micronauts. (A neighbour girl across the street sold magazines for school, and my parents always ordered a few, while I got comics subscriptions. I was allowed 2 a year, at least for the first couple years. I seem to recall have a few more at once later on.)
I think this was my first encounter with the Puppet Master, and I think it was a misleading one to some degree. Although he is his old villain self at the beginning, and wants to go to Europe for selfish reasons, by the end he seems quite amicable, and seems to have let go his animosity towards Ben and the FF. Was this the only time Masters was... nice? I think his next appearance was in FF #236, where he worked with Doctor Doom to imprison the FF and Alicia in a miniature sort of virtual world... but at least he did it so that Alicia and Ben could have a happy, normal life! Then in The Thing's solo book he was back to tormenting Ben.
I remember having a hard time reconciling this version of Modred with the one I had seen in the classic Avengers storyline. I know it's all explained in flashback but as a kid I just couldn't quite see them as the same person.
It is a nice Xmas issue though. I've been re-acquiring all those old issues I used to have (at some point I sold them all off) but I haven't come across this one again yet.
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Post by chaykinstevens on Mar 12, 2022 14:26:14 GMT -5
Marvel Team-Up #73Thoughts: This thing reads like an unused Daredevil script that got repurposed here. Otherwise, it might be a quickie knocked off for a deadline. Friedrich was mostly working on Sgt Fury and the existing westerns. I think Sgt Fury and the westerns were all reprint by that point. Friedrich had last been seen writing Captain Britain for Marvel UK in 1977. |
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Post by chaykinstevens on Mar 12, 2022 14:38:26 GMT -5
Marvel Two-in-One #73Creative Team: Ralph Macchio (solo)-writer, Ron Wilson-pencils, Gene Day-inks, John Costanza-letters, George Roussos-colors, Jam Salicrup-editor Chic Stone was the finisher - ugh! |
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Post by tarkintino on Mar 13, 2022 11:39:05 GMT -5
Marvel Team-Up #74Spidey & The Not Ready For Prime Time Players? No kidding... Hall was not the kind of artist to nail even a semi-satirical version of real people, which is painfully obvious here. ^ Not touching this one... I assume you mean the SNL episode with Belushi's Hulk had not aired yet. Still, a turly creative writer would have thought along the same lines and thought it would be funny to have the short, overweight guy as the Hulk. As you pointed out, MAD would have done so much better with this. The problem with comic companies is that would come off as desperate for attention (beyond general promotion of their IPs) when they tried to rub shoulders with / get the "heat" from popular culture by having them interact with comic book characters, whether it was SNL, David Letterman, or anyone else. Marvel was at its best with that when the real world personalities actually played a serious part of a story, such as Richard Nixon's cameo in an issue of The Fantastic Four. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 14, 2022 23:47:25 GMT -5
Sadly, SNL didn't do a whole lot better, when they had the chance, the following year....
I guess they needed Black Lightning...
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Post by berkley on Mar 15, 2022 3:26:55 GMT -5
My first time seeing that SNL skit and I didn't think it was too bad! Perhaps some nostalgia involved, even though it isn't something I remember from the past and to be honest I never really loved the early SNL. I haven't looked at any of that stuff for a long, long time, maybe that's why I found myself reacting positively to this clip.
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Post by commond on Mar 16, 2022 8:40:39 GMT -5
Yeah, I didn't think it was too bad, either. I liked Belushi as the Hulk. Claremont talked about the SNL stuff during his shoot interview on Cartoonist Kayfabe. It was interesting stuff, though Claremont does have a tendency to ramble.
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Post by MDG on Mar 16, 2022 9:41:03 GMT -5
...though Claremont does have a tendency to ramble. That explains his writing. |
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Post by mikelmidnight on Mar 16, 2022 12:20:33 GMT -5
^ Not touching this one...
I think Claremont reported that Laraine Newman was pleased with her portrayal in the comic. "I love it! You gave me boobs!"
I liked the issue more than most of the rest of you did. Acknowledged that it wasn't that hilarious, but I appreciated the novelty value, and it was amusing and sometimes SNL was about that level of humor anyway.
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Post by tonebone on Mar 16, 2022 13:27:17 GMT -5
Cocaine is a hell of a drug.
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