I have to say, I'm not a huge fan of Jeff Lynne and ELO, which is kinda surprising, given what a big Beatles fan I am. I know the song "Can't Get It Out of My Head" from this album though and it certainly is VERY Beatley sounding in places.

I read a real Bronze Age classic for the first time yesterday, Giant-Size X-Men #1...




It's a fun comic and I can see why it was such a hit back in 1975. The opening pages showing Professor Xavier getting the new team together -- which serve as a neat showcase for each new member -- were really enjoyable and might've been my favourite part of the whole comic.

The new team itself hangs together pretty well, with the possible exception of Banshee who, I dunno, just seems a bit out of place. He seems older than the rest, so maybe that's it? The Japanese hero Sunfire also doesn't seem like a great fit, but I'm guessing he leaves the X-Men pretty quickly anyway.

Len Wein's plot is fairly basic and some of his characterisation of the ethnic, non-white American superheroes is heavily stereotyped by modern standards. But regardless, the issue really allows the new team to shine, which was the point, I guess. There's a good amount of Marvel's patented dysfunctional team angst in the writing too, which gets a little tiresome from a modern perspective, but the characters are certainly an interesting bunch -- Nightcrawler, Wolverine and Storm are really likeable right out of the gate. I'm not sure the ending, in which the villainous, mutant island of Krakoa gets launched away into space, makes a whole lot of sense, but hey...comics!

Dave Cockrum's artwork is really nice too, and I especially enjoyed the way he rendered the scenes in which Krakoa comes to life.

I'm glad I finally got around to reading this. I'll be continuing on with X-Men #94.

Did you ever hear Fuller's slightly later, mid-70s stuff with American Flyer? They were something of a supergroup, with Eric Kaz (Blues Magoos), Steve Katz (Blood, Sweat & Tears), and Doug Yule (Velvet Underground) also in the band.They did two pretty reasonable albums, with the first being the better of the two (that first album was produced by George Martin).

American Flyer were much less country than the PPL, but those albums are enjoyable just to hear some more of Fuller's songwriting while he was still in his prime.

Ha! I was working on mine for close to 6 minutes!

I just sorted my record collection spreadsheet by year of release, picked out about 30 or so of my favourite album releases from 1974 (not including compilations or archival releases) and then whittled that down to a Top 10. I already knew what my #1 would be because I'd drawn up a list some years back of my all-time favourite album of each year from 1955 up to the present ('cause, you know, I'm a music nerd). 🤓

Yeah, I can think of at least one album by a particular artist that we'll both be likely to pick.

Finishing up J. Michael Straczynski's run on Amazing Spider-Man, with issue #544 and #545, plus Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #24 and The Sensational Spider-Man #41...




These four comics make up the infamous "One More Day" story arc, in which Peter Parker and Mary Jane sacrifice their marriage in a deal with Mephisto to save Aunt May's life (she caught a bullet from a hitman who was gunning for Peter). Apparently, Peter and MJ's love is so pure, so timeless, and so blessed by God – no, that's not a figure of speech – that its very existence hurts demons like Mephisto (I'm not making this sh*t up!). As most folks will know, Peter and MJ eventually agree to trade their marriage and lo and behold, May is saved, Peter is single again, and Harry Osborn is resurrected. No, I don't understand that last part either.

I absolutely hated this story at the time…partly because I liked Peter and MJ being married, but also because the story turned Peter into the kind of arseh*le who makes deals with the Devil for irrational and mostly selfish reasons, such as his guilt over his elderly aunt having been hit by a bullet meant for him. I actually threw my copy of the final instalment of this story across the room in disgust upon finishing it back at the time.

Anyway, this is the first time that I've re-read these issues since 2007. I really tried to come to these comics with as unbiased a mindset as I could manage, given my longstanding dislike of the story. Frankly, I was kind of interested to see whether 17 years of distance had made any difference to my opinion of the whole reboot/reset. Unfortunately, I still have massive problems with it.

Just to leave the writing aside for a moment, one thing that leapt right out at me is how butt-ugly Joe Quesada's artwork is here. I thought so at the time too and the intervening years haven't altered that opinion. His faces – especially Peter's – either look maniacally severe or dopey and half-drugged a lot of the time. Quesada's storytelling instincts are good, but this isn't terribly pretty artwork to look at.

As for the story itself, I still have the same problems with it that I always had, but I'm gonna resist the urge to go into detail about all the reasons why because this post would be of epic length! That said, I have gained some sense of perspective in the intervening years, as a result of learning about what was happening behind the scenes. I now completely understand how Straczynski was being forced to write Peter Parker into a corner by Joe Quesada, but that knowledge doesn't change the ridiculousness of a lot of what happens in this story.

Ultimately, I still consider OMD and its reset to be the moment that "my Spider-Man" died. Certainly, it killed any interest that I had in reading the continuing adventures of my favourite superhero (I did actually stay onboard for a half dozen more years, but the bad taste of "One More Day" ruined so much of what came afterwards that I eventually stopped buying Spider-Man and sold all my post-OMD comics).

This was a sadly unworthy ending to J. Michael Straczynski's otherwise mostly excellent run on Amazing Spider-Man – and he felt so too because he insisted that his name be removed from the final two parts. However, my overall feelings about Straczynski's tenure on Spidey's flagship title are pretty much unchanged after this re-read: I still consider it right up there with the very best ASM runs.