Harry's Marvellous Meanderings through the Comic Book World 1 1

[Harry Lime]

Thanks for all the responses from the last review, guys.

Now to bring us all back down to earth..

X-Men #15 December 1965 Bought from the boards

My Copy - Grade 2.0

 

Cover: 2.5/5 ~ Busy, busy, busy. Conclusions to be drawn from this cover. It's apparently ok to put nearly all the elements of the story upon the cover even if they occur at different times and places inside the issue. The Bullpen don't know how to use Marvel Girl actively, she's doing her traditional disco dancing in the background. Prof X really needs some migraine medication and the Beast's feet are just crying out for a large cartoon feather. I can't really knock it down any further as it does contain a lot of action, that would be enough to entice a mid-60's kid into a purchase.

Art: 3/5 ~ Another one of those issues where I get slightly confused over who did what. Kirby is listed as the 'designer', Jay Gavin as the 'penciller'. Does that mean Kirby just did rough sketches for the comic? That would be understandable as he certainly had a full workload at Marvel of this time but the art still looked very Kirbyesque with plenty of action, dynamism & raw power. I found the depiction of the Sentinels to be somewhat lacklustre, they resembled (in some weird fashion) overgrown toys. Prof X has a Dr. Strange moment where his incorporeal body joins the fray and then faces a cliffhanger where he might not make it back to the flesh. Oh, and I see Iceman is wearing black booties again, still not a good look. 

Story: 2.5/5 ~ I really wish I hadn't sold my X-Men #14 last year as this issue is the second part of a trilogy and at the start I had no idea what was going on. It seems the X-Men were being attacked by the ground itself but apparently the Sentinels were using 'nature activator rays' against them as they had ventured too close to the Sentinels' base. Quickly retreating, Xavier comes up with a plan to gain access involving a large ice Frisbee (with the Beast & Bobby Drake on board) propelled by a Cyclopean blast. Unfortunately the skimmer proves to be aerodynamically unstable and despite the best efforts of Angel the two riders are captured, gassed and the Beast is taken for interrogation. Prof X then comes up with a much sounder plan and takes out the Sentinels manning the guns with a mental blast allowing the rest of the X-Men to move in unmolested. Unfortunately the Beast is being pyscho-probed (less painful than it sounds) and revealing his origin to the Master Mold (really big, Sentinel leader type) which panics Prof X to psychically go to the probing lab (there's a sentence you don't read everyday) and block the Beast from spilling the X-Men's secrets. Meanwhile the other X-Men meet an amazingly, amiable Sentinel (by far the weakest part of the story) who because he hasn't been programmed (despite the QOTD!) leads them into the heart of the base while he looks for new orders. Eventually the X-Men do meet nastier Sentinels and despite some delaying tactics are quickly bested by a 'heavy gravity ray', leading to a dual cliffhanger ending along with Xavier's travails outside.

Quote of the Day ~ "Follow me! Mutants are our natural enemies! They must be found and destroyed, wherever they exist! We are all so programmed!"

My assessment ~ An action packed, well paced tale with an interesting back story (the Beast's origin), let down by some loose plotting and one major contrivance.

Thanks for reading!     

[1950's war comics]

Loved early X-men as a kid , read them all then, but have not read an issue in nearly 40 years so i always like your reviews !!

had the entire run of originals before the reprints started.... sold them all in 95 for $400 .... but that money really helped back then so no regrets.....

my #1 cost me $35 ten years earlier it was maybe a CGC 2.5 with Marvel chipping along the entire edge

[Harry Lime]

Christmas Pantomime Special!! Yes, it's that time of year when I take a review of a Marvel comic, combine it with a Christmas tradition and make a mangled mess out of both of 'em for your delicitation & delight!

Ok, ok, it may not be as polished as last year's FF Christmas Carol but let's raise the curtain on tonight's offering anyway.

The Players

Matt Murdock as Richard 'Daredevil' Whittington

Spoiler

Ka-Zar, a cat & Sheena, Queen of the Jungle as Tarzan, Puss-in-Zabuties & Sheena, Queen of the Jungle*

Spoiler

*disclaimer; Sheena, Queen of the Jungle does not appear in this theatre. Please follow the signs to your nearest Antipodean establishment to see her.

Lord Parnival Plunder as Captain Hook

Spoiler

With special guest appearances from...

Karen Page-Turner as Button     *she only has one, she only needs one*

Spoiler

and Foggy Nelson as An Ugly Sister

Spoiler

 

Daredevil #12 January 1966 Bought from the boards.

My Copy - Grade 4.0

 

Cover: 3/5 ~ Here we see Romita's first drawing job for Marvel and whilst not being super exciting or particularly gripping it is, to me, aesthetically pleasing. Some nice perspective, well framed and great musculature on Ka-Zar but did we need the large, pointing blurb? Ka-Zar is right there! On the branch!

Art: 3.5/5 ~ Layouts by Kirby, pencils by Romita. This is a very dynamic, fighting filled issue, set in a variety of locations. New York, cruise liner, nifty looking schooner/convertible submarine, prehistoric Antarctic. And if I add in pirates, psudo-tarzan, man-eating plants, tribesmen, dinosaurs & a hideous proto-human type you can imagine how varied & interesting the artwork is. It's hard to calculate how much influence Romita had on the issue but he does make an immediate impact with his figures being more muscular and attractive than seen before on the title. With so much fury inside the covers it's slightly ironic that my favourite was the splash page with a full sized Murdock leaving the 60's office setting of his law firm.

Story: 2.5/5 ~ It's an odd score for a story that was never dull, indeed I think the problem is there was too much happening and most of it too fantastical. Taking one element on it's own may have worked but to bung them all in together (Daredevil's holiday, cruise ship, pirates, amazingly quick journey to Antarctica, prehistoric jungles, Skull Island (!), Ka-Zan, Neanderthals, sentient man-eating plants) became a tale that was always teetering on the precipice of disaster. My personal dislikes were for the corny speech of the Swamp Men (Stan Lee indirectly apologies for it mid-panel), Ka-Zar's almost as stilted dialogue. The absurdity of Ka-Zar waiting for a chance to attack the Swamp Men as they attacked Skull Island and then apparently forgetting about them as they had buggered off and the Plunderer's mob moved into Skull Island whereupon Ka-Zar said the same thing about waiting(see QOTD). Then there's the even greater absurdity of Lord Plunderer claiming that Skull Island is his realm, does Ka-Zar suffer from narcolepsy? First there was the not attacking the swamp men and now forgetting that these brigands had apparently set up shop in his backyard. Anyway, Ka-Zar does eventually attack the pirates and Daredevil, busy explaining that they could help each other, gets dealt a mighty blow which literally knocks the radar sense out of him. Cliffhanger ending as Ka-Zar on his way to harvest Ju-Ju berries to heal his new (rather contrived) buddy is trapped by a vicious man-eating plant whilst a helpless DD is too close in proximity to a nasty looking Ape Man.

Quote of the Day ~ "Swamp Men return to village on mainland! Ka-Zar about to attack...but now, Ka-Zar wait...watch strangers! Strangers may be greater danger!"

My assessment ~ An extraordinary tale but not a good one. I'm not sure who could have carried this off in Marvel's pantheon of the mid-60's, perhaps the FF but this is a very strange tale to drop Daredevil into.

Thanks for reading and happy holidays!     

Edited December 22, 2017 by Harry Lime

[Get Marwood & I]

50 minutes ago, Harry Lime said:

Thanks for reading and happy holidays!     

[1950's war comics]

A slight comic book diversion...

My review for you British Islanders 

i saw the movie "Darkest Hour" yesterday... it was brilliant , it was 2+ hours long but seemed like one hour !!

the  plot, the acting , the scenery and the score were impeccable... if Gary Oldham is not nominated for best actor it would be a shame...

Churchill and Lincoln were the two greatest men in the last 2000 years

[1950's war comics]

  

[1950's war comics]

On 12/22/2017 at 2:07 PM, Harry Lime said:

My Copy - Grade 4.0

Your DD #12 looks nicer than a 4.0 ! 

i always liked Ka-Zar stories he was a formidable opponent whomever he faced !

[Get Marwood & I]

When's the next meander Harry? It's been ages...

[Harry Lime]

On 17/03/2018 at 6:45 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

When's the next meander Harry? It's been ages...

I'm very sorry I've only just seen this and the forum software is supposed to notify me of new replies.

I'll try and get a couple up next week but I'm afraid we'll be heading back in time again. I know I've been lax in updating this but during the winter months I tend to go into shutdown mode.

[Get Marwood & I]

3 minutes ago, Harry Lime said:

I'm very sorry I've only just seen this and the forum software is supposed to notify me of new replies.

I'll try and get a couple up next week but I'm afraid we'll be heading back in time again. I know I've been lax in updating this but during the winter months I tend to go into shutdown mode.

No worries Harry. Nothing wrong with a bit of hibernation. 

The notifications have been intermittent for me too. Jimmers said the same, so it's probably the usual board glitches.

And nothing wrong with heading back in time either. Looks much better than the future does, don't you think?   

[Harry Lime]

As promised, the long awaited ( ) return of my trip through 60's Marveldom.

A funny thing happened to me in the interim, I've found I'm no longer a run collector. At least not an OCD obsessed type. Partly through lack of space as my branching out into different SA/BA titles has commanded the room, I've decided to sell off the bulk of my Copper/90's books. It's going slowly...Silver Surfers seem to be hot at the moment, had no trouble shifting those but even ASM's are struggling and as for the FF, well I may be forced to hang onto those until the MCU incorporates the original Marvel superheroes into one of its blockbusters.

Anyway speaking of the FF.....

Fantastic Four #18 September 1963 Bought from @crassus who cut me a great deal. Yay! I just figured out how that notify thingy works.

My Copy - Grade 4.0

 

Cover: 4/5 ~ Wonderful inking job on the Thing. Nice perspective work. Those wonderful grey New York buildings that make the colourful characters pop and a new and interesting adversary in the Super-Skrull. Even if at first glance he appears to the Torch, the big bendy blurb as well as his goblinesque ears and shoulder-pads from hell soon give the game away. This guy is bad-! And I want to read about him, yes I do.

Art: 4/5 ~ This story was made for Kirby. Loads of frenetic action. Plenty of sci-fi imagery to work with (special mention to the four panels of the Super-Skrull lifting the cosmic generator up). Pogo planes and the new Passenger I.C.B.M (patent pending). Even the domestic stuff was well done, especially the trip through the department store. If there was one gripe it would be not enough use was made of the Skrull's form changing powers. He did it once and it was awesome. Kirby...such a tease.

Story: 4/5 ~  After a brief interlude watching TV which told us that Dr. Doom was probably not going to be in this issue we are whisked away to the 'fifth' quadrant of the Andromeda galaxy (that's one big galaxy, we only get four). Where the Skrull emperor is thoroughly obsessed with defeating the Fantastic Four, to the point where he's poured the empire's resources to this end. The result is the Super-Skrull who possesses all of the FF's powers but to a much greater degree. I'd have to say after watching him demonstrate said powers it was money well spent especially if you like to eat really creepy looking fish as fresh as can be. Then he's off to deal out some mighty Skrull retribution on Earth where a week later we catch up with the action. He lands his ship in the middle of Times Square (he ain't the shy, retiring type) and proclaims the planet for the Skrulls. Meanwhile the FF hear about the landing whilst in a department store mid fan-crush and extricate themselves to assess the situation. The Human Torch is the first to arrive and gets his butt kicked. Then Reed shows up, underestimates the danger, hurts his hand and gets his butt kicked. Then the Thing gets hit the mightiest blow he's ever faced up to this point and goes flying through the air only saving himself by grabbing hold of the spikey bit atop the Chrysler building. And gets his butt kicked. By now Reed's brain has sprung into life and he sees the need for a proper plan of action as the FF beat a hasty retreat to the Baxter. What follows is the weakest part of the story as rather than continuing the fight (and surely winning it) the Super-Skrull in that contrived & arrogant manner beloved of all megalomaniacs decides to let them go so they can worry about their inevitable demise. Big mistake, you never underestimate Reed's inventiveness and he soon discovers that the Skrull's powers is being beamed to him from Andromeda (I'm just going to ignore the absurdity of this as I'm enjoying the story) and comes up with a tiny transistor to block the beams. The plan is set, the others will distract the Skrull while an invisible Sue will plant it on him. The place is set, the deserted Crater Island. And so we come to the final showdown...which is over much too quickly and despite the revelation of the Skrull's last, rather lame power and hitherto hidden, hypnotism, was quite anti-climatic. Although kudos to Sue for getting the job done and tripping the now non-super powered Skrull into a big hole.

Quote of the Day ~ "You conceited crumb! All you Skrulls are good for is copyin' people! Well, now I'll show ya how much better the originals are!". Not Benjamin Grimm but the Torch and 30 seconds later he got his butt kicked.

My assessment ~ Another highly enjoyable early FF (they were in a rich vein of form in the teens) but if the pacing had been better and more time given to the climax of the tale this could have been a solid classic.

Thanks for reading!   

Edited March 26, 2018 by Harry Lime

[Get Marwood & I]

'You conceited crumb' is right up there in the pantheon of put downs Harry 

Nice to see you back. 

[AJD]

"... the fifth quadrant..."

That word - I do not think it means what you think it means.  

Welcome back Harry. That was a good read.

[1950's war comics]

2 hours ago, Harry Lime said:

Thanks for reading!   

Thanks and i agree FF18 is a good read 

[Harry Lime]

You'll be glad to hear that there's only this book left to review before we continue where we left off at Christmas, January 1966.

Tales To Astonish #57 July 1964 Bought from the boards and only because it's an early Spidey crossover (after saying I wouldn't be tempted by solo Giant-Man stories).

My Copy - Grade 3.5

 

Cover: 2.5/5 ~ It seems Kirby never really got to grips with drawing Spider-Man. He's very skinny here even for the Ditko era and the webbing is just wrong. The grey background buildings that worked so well on FF#18 are here made rather bland by the white sky although that could be the inker's fault. The Wasp (must have been a continuing problem with someone so small) looks like a superhero Barbie variant but at least Giant-Man is suitably 'Kirbyesque'.

Art: 2/5 ~ Ayers not Kirby draws between the covers and it's functional enough when it comes to Giant-Man's and the Wasp's constant shifting sizes. Dynamic when it needs to be but nowhere near Kirby's level and Spider-Man is very much 'by the numbers', desperately missing Ditko's touch.

Story: 2/5 ~ Quite disappointing after an interesting if contrived opening act. Egghead (first time I'd seen this particular villain) has built an ant transmitter to broadcast fake news that Spidey is aiming to cut Giant-Man down to size. The ants relay this info to their big boss and Hank Pym sends the Wasp out to scout around. She soon finds Spidey and almost takes him out with her newly acquired 'stinger'. This leads into Spider-Man trapping her in his webbing and an enraged Giant-Man rushing to the rescue with the aid of 'specially built tension rings' (really didn't understand this travel mechanism). The ensuing fight between the two big hitters was frustrating to say the least. Besides a lot of jumping, shrinking, getting tangled up in webbing and of course, talking, not a blow was landed or exchanged. Whilst this nerd fight was happening Egghead and his gun-toting goons rob an armoured truck (the whole point of the deception) and make their escape to the docks. Luckily they are spotted by an observant ant (now there's a sentence I never thought I'd type) who relays this to Hank. Realising they had been duped into the rather pointless and harmless fight, all three of our protagonists make haste to the docks where they overcome with mostly no difficulty Eggy and his toasted soldiers. On a side note I couldn't understand why the Wasp was so worried about being stood on or swatted by a rolled up newspaper when she's supposed to have her normal sized strength even when she's wasp sized. What follows is a rather strange passage where the Wasp & Spidey profess their intense dislike of each other apparently because their animal counterparts are natural enemies. I wonder if this carried on into the future?

Quote of the Day ~ "How romantic! There's a moon outside... soft breezes and the scent of honeysuckle in the air! And what do you have for me? A weapon!!" The Wasp on acquiring her new stinger.

My assessment ~ Even the addition of our favourite web-slinger couldn't lift this above mediocrity. Aside from maybe a Porcupine issue and that one with the Living Eraser (cool cover) I think this will be my last early TTA acquisition, unless the price is right of course. 

Thanks for reading!

Edited March 30, 2018 by Harry Lime

[AJD]

26 minutes ago, Harry Lime said:

 What follows is a rather strange passage where the Wasp & Spidey profess their intense dislike of each other apparently because their animal counterparts are natural enemies. I wonder if this carried on into the future?
 

Ah, parasitic wasps - aka the ichneumons. They were quite the subject of debate in the mid 1800s, with their method of reproduction (laying eggs in paralysed prey, with their larvae eating their way out of the still-living spider or caterpillar) being used as an argument against a merciful God. No doubt The Wasp and Spidey have had this theological discussion at some point.

[Harry Lime]

30 minutes ago, AJD said:

Ah, parasitic wasps - aka the ichneumons. They were quite the subject of debate in the mid 1800s, with their method of reproduction (laying eggs in paralysed prey, with their larvae eating their way out of the still-living spider or caterpillar) being used as an argument against a merciful God. No doubt The Wasp and Spidey have had this theological discussion at some point.

Wasn't this or rather the insidious wasps the inspiration for Alien as well?

[AJD]

1 minute ago, Harry Lime said:

Wasn't this or rather the insidious wasps the inspiration for Alien as well?

Yes, that rings a bell now you mention it.

[Get Marwood & I]

On 30/03/2018 at 12:07 PM, Harry Lime said:

Quite disappointing after an interesting if contrived opening act. Egghead (first time I'd seen this particular villain) has built an ant transmitter to broadcast fake news that Spidey is aiming to cut Giant-Man down to size.

Fake news! How silly. That would never happen in real life 

Oh, hang on 

I don't think Kirby's Spidey was that bad actually. It was terrible. 

[Harry Lime]

What an April Fool am I! I had forgotten that amongst a small package I got from @EC ed last week was a book from '65. So that will be next up but first a word from our sponsors.

 

And now for something completely different.

Tales of Suspense #69 September 1965. My earliest ToS and aside from their activities in the Avengers I know very little about the early days of Iron Man & Cap so this is fresh at least.

My Copy - Grade 6.0

 

Cover: 2.5/5 ~ Not immediately apparent (at least to me) but another of Marvel's giant monitor covers. I like the menacing portrayal of the Titanium Man and the shiny inking job on Iron Man's armour. I don't like the split panel look (of course) and the fact that Bucky seems to be pointing to the hill to the right of Greymoor Castle. I wish they would remove that blurb so we could see what was so interesting over there.

Stories reviewed separately

"If I Must Die, Let It Be With Honor!"

Art: 2.5/5 ~ Don Heck on the pencils and he gets the job done with a minimum of fuss. Nothing great or bad but I did like the Titanium Man's suit although it drew more on Samurai influences than Soviet ones. The look of jealousy from Pepper Potts was a treat as well. If looks could kill....

Story: 3/5 ~ Surprisingly enjoyable in an old-fashioned Marvel kinda way, wait this is old. Tony Stark is fretting over his malfunctioning chest device whilst the superbly named Comrade Bullski is coming up with a diabolical plan to become the Soviet dictator by building a much more powerful suit and challenging Iron Man to an idealogical showdown. Sorta like the 1980 Winter Olympics Ice Hockey final but not as violent. Because of Iron Man's technical problems, Tony has to spend days trying to jury rig a solution and worrying about being branded a coward if he doesn't. There's also the added complication of the predictable love triangle with Ms Potts and Happy Hogan. It seems love is in the air for every Marvel character of the mid-60's. Anyway, technical difficulties solved and challenge accepted the action moves to the neutral country of Alberia where we meet a rather fetching former love of Tony's, Countess De La Spiroza (hence Pepper's jealousy) and very quickly the Battle in the Balkans begins. By now, of course, we've almost run out of pages and so we're treated to a couple of pages of a much quicker and more agile Iron Man floating like a butterfly and stinging like a...er...butterfly whilst the gargantuan Tit Man (am I allowed to call him that?) just about fails to put the squeeze on his adversary. Cliffhanger ending (of course) as Iron Man attempting to put some space between them blunders into a treacherously laid minefield with explosive results.

Quote of the Day ~ Wow this was a really hard issue to get a decent quote from. Let's try some typical mid-60's 'cool cat' talk from Happy & Pepper.

"How about us going to the Frug-A-Go Go tonight for fancy steppin', Pepper?" "Love to, Happy! I've got the most darling new discotheque dress I've been dying to wear!"

My Assessment ~ As I said, surprisingly enjoyable. I'm gonna have to get #70 now just to see what happens. Damn those tempting cliffhangers!

 

"Midnight In Greymoor Castle!"

Art: 1.5/5 ~ Even Kirby's layouts couldn't rescue Ayers pencilling and nearly everything felt rather stiff, perhaps the ongoing influence of the incredibly wooden splash page. Only Cap's rather exciting, if brief, pursuit, leap (from a speeding motorcycle) and assault on a Nazi plane during take-off exhibiting any sort of dynamism.

Story: 0.5/5 ~ A WWII story. But I hate war stories. Especially when they are as muddled as this. So we have a clichéd mad scientist who is also a traitor. We have an eternally pleading sister to said traitor. We have a creepy, gloomy castle for mad experiments to be done. We even have an Igor character to assist in said mad experiments. That's before we even start on the mess of Steve Rogers' side story where apparently it's ok to desert your comrades during a dangerous mission, failing to spot incredibly relevant military information that would save their lives because you saw something about Bucky being captured and held at the creepy, gloomy castle. I suppose it had a cliffhanger ending but by that point I really didn't care.

Quote of the Day ~ "Awww, go kiss a grenade!" Sums it up, perfectly.

My assessment ~  Captain America better get with the Swingin' Sixties in double quick time for if this is anything to go by, the Forties sucked the big one.

Thanks for reading!