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

[Harry Lime]

Strange Tales #142 March 1966 My earliest Nick Fury so interesting to me at least.

My Copy - Grade 3.5 (?) Looks like a Fine but has bug chew top right corner through book.

 

Cover: 3.5/5 ~ Obviously kudos for being full panelled but also I have to admire the detail Kirby puts into all the weaponry and gadgets, superb work! If only the subject matter had been a tad more interesting but it's a cover that's grown on me.

Stories reviewed separately

"Who Strikes At...Shield?"

Art: 3.5/5 ~ An issue full of Kirby's favourites (with the possible exception of gods). Machine-gun toting robots running amok, underwater explosions, fantastic underground tunnelling machines, more explosions, pulsating energy panels, even more explosions and a shoot-out at the end. All done with his traditional verve. I can see why he's only had time for layouts on the other books now.

Story: 3/5 ~ Of course this is Marvel's attempt to cash in on the mid-60's spy boom and so it was with some trepidation I turned the pages. Time is seldom kind on fads but I was pleasantly surprised by the story. Despite having a whole can-of-worms character who can read minds (Mentallo) and yes there were some niggling plot holes involving his abilities. Nick Fury's almost megalomaniacal depiction also didn't enthuse me to the character but the story moved at such a tremendous pace that I found I didn't really care that much about the detrimental side of things and just went with the flow....which was that SHIELD got attacked by the Fixer & Mentallo and despite numerous traps and defences, the good guys got spanked and Nick Fury is turned into a living robot/slave with a cool, early Cyberman mask at the end.

Quote of the Day ~ Really, really tough to get a decent quote from. This is the best I could find, sorry.

"We're a team, blast it! We trained month after month ta live like a team--fight like a team--die like a team!"

My assessment ~ A good start and a pleasant surprise to the run for me. Now if Fury can just tone down his barking it could be a winner.

 

"Those Who Would Destroy Me!"

Art: 3/5 ~ An issue that hinted at the mysticism Ditko can bring rather than fully utilising it. Plenty of avant-garde design elements in the lair of Strange's captors. Plenty of 'mind' action going on but falling short of the best Ditko can do with this title.

Story: 1.5/5 ~ Sadly a story that is full of inconsistencies. It starts with an explosive device planted in Strange's pad. A device that is specifically stated to be immune to Strange's mystic senses because it's so ordinary and yet Strange detects it using his amulet Eye of Agamotto. Next after he's captured by three unknown spellcasters, Strange reveals that he can't use his ectoplasmic self while his head is encased (in a sorta Lecter/Myers type mask) and yet uses his ghostly form to great effect for most of the following story in aiding his escape whilst still being facially encumbered. Little is revealed about Strange's captors other than they're probably working for Mordo, one of them is quite hot and is likely to betray her boss once she figures out Strange's amulet. The story ends with Strange leaping onto the adjoining roof still unable to see because of the headgear (but his ghost can). His hands are still enveloped in weird glove type things (so he can't cast spells) and his cloak & amulet are still in the hands of others. If the preceding logic holds true he'll probably get them back next issue by flying over there and getting them back with a quick Hairy Hosts of Hoggoth!

Quote of the Day ~ By the Oaths of Oxymoron! Dr Strange detecting the undetectable.

"The one thing my mystic senses would not detect--a commonplace explosive device!"

My assessment ~ I know it's been a while since I read a Dr Strange (#134) but this is much weaker than before. The Ditko malaise is palpable with it's weak and contrived plotting and average (for him) art and the end is almost nigh.

Thanks for reading! 

[1950's war comics]

accurate assessment of ST  #142 

[Harry Lime]

Tales of Suspense #75 March 1966  Don't worry fellow journalites I have all the TOS's from where we last left off (#69) to this one and they will be reviewed once I complete my oath to finish off 1966.

My Copy - Grade 3.0 Bought from the boards and seriously undergraded by the seller, imo.

 

Cover: 2/5 ~ March '66 was obviously no split panel month in the Bullpen because again we are treated to a full page rendition and they've gone easy on the blurbing as well. Unfortunately, whilst highly accurate to events therein, it's not that grabbing. What looks like an escaped psychopathic killer throws girl out of a window whilst strategically placing his hand to cover any up-skirt mishaps. Four cops fail to replicate the Temptations latest dance routine and Iron Man attempts the world's earliest break-dance. Meh!

Stories reviewed separately

"The Fury Of The Freak!"

Art: 3.5/5 ~  'Adam Austin' has replaced Don Heck on pencils and so everything is much moodier with some wonderful shadowy panels and great expressive features conveyed. He seems to take to Iron Man straight-away and this seems to be up there with the best of his Sub-Mariner work so far. I do wonder why he used a full page to depict Pepper fainting at the presence of the Freak and felt this could have been utilised better.

Story: 2.5/5 ~ Quite tricky to review as there wasn't a lot of story on show but what there was wasn't bad. Happy Hogan has apparently been turned into the Freak through the use of one of Tony Stark's machines. Iron Man, suffering from severe power depletion, can't stop him in a fair fight and won't resort to using weapons against his best friend so attempts to lure him back to the machine in hopes of reversing the process. It's a few miles away and his batteries run down before getting there rendering him unconscious. The sound of Pepper's voice save IM from the Freak as it awakes some deep memory within the follically challenged one and he lumbers off to find her. Pepper is with an irate senator when the Freak bursts in and after the chap from the capitol is thrown aside faints at the horror of it all. Next some cops assigned to the senator start fretting about his absence and seeing the Freak emerging from a high window carrying Pepper shoot him in the hopes of making him fall back into the room (a rather foolish notion). They wing the Freak who drops Pepper to fall from a great height but she's saved by an awakening Iron Man's repulser ray. Re-energised, Iron Man flies into the building to carry on his original plan where the book ends on a cliff-hanger as the power feedback from the Enervator is killing him just as the Freak reaches him.

Quote of the Day ~ Oh man, this is going to be tough. The Freak doesn't speak, Iron Man is unconscious through much of the story and Pepper faints. 

"Even through my armor, his blow almost knocked me out! My only chance is to use one of my built-in weapons! But I can't! They're too powerful---how can I destroy the man who saved my life??! There must be another way..!"    

My assessment ~ Loved the artwork, story felt a couple of pages light even though there were 12 of 'em as it was over in a flash.

 

"30 Minutes To Live!"

Art: 2.5/5 ~ Layouts by Kirby, pencils by Ayers again. Although Kirby's influence is more keenly felt here especially in the dynamic fight sequence between Cap & Batroc. Not much detail on show though with plently of blank backgrounds.

Story: 2.5/5 ~ Well, thank goodness, in the TOS interregnum Captain America has moved into the 60's. No more WWII rubbish although he does spend a good deal of this issue in a gloomy reverie of how he now fits into the 'modern' world. This is brought to a swift end when he spots an attractive female on the streets who he thinks is someone else (name not disclosed) and starts to follow (stalk?) her. This being the Mighty World of Marvel Coincidences she turns out to be a Shield agent transporting the most destructive element, Inferno 42. I'm thinking an armoured car might have been a safer option. Anyway she gets attacked by the leaping, outrageously French accented Batroc and then Cap comes to her rescue. A swift and dynamic fight then ensues between them and unbeknownst to the two combatants the woman makes her escape clutching the now partially damaged cylinder of Inferno 42. Once Batroc realises this he turns all conciliatory telling Cap the whole story and why the city is now in the gravest danger. So it ends on a sort of cliff-hanger as it looks like Cap & Batroc have to team up to find the woman and damaged cylinder before it explodes.

Quote of the Day ~ "Batroc the Leaper, eh? A master of La Savatte, the French art of boxing with the feet!"

"I salute you, mon capitan! Your knowledge is almost the equal of your fame!"

My assessment ~ Like the Iron Man story, over in a flash although this one did only have 10 pages. A vast improvement on the WWII story previously reviewed, still it was little better than average.

Thanks for reading! 

Edited May 29, 2018 by Harry Lime

[AJD]

Nice Harry. Don't you love undergraded books? Though underpriced ones are right up there (see my latest post).

From the sound of it your quote should have been: "Mon dieu Capitan L'America - your mother was a hampster and your father smelled of elderberries. I fart in your general direction. Now go away, or I shall taunt you a second time."

[Harry Lime]

Tales To Astonish #77 March 1966 We're so close to The Mighty Thor now, I can almost smell Hercules' weird leather leggings!

My Copy - Grade 3.0 Bought for the grand sum of 77 pence. Gotta love el cheapo pence copies, @Get Marwood & I

 

Cover: 2.5/5 ~ Definitely seems to be the end of the split-panelled cover, huzzah! This one's not too shabby either. Nice over the shoulder shot and a menacingly angry Hulk (when is he not?) present. I feel the speech bubble could have been toned down a bit though and why is it that intrusive yellow?

Stories reviewed separately

"To Walk Amongst MEN!" (Yes, it really is capitalised)

Art: 3/5 ~  Some nice underwater action and one great full page depiction of Namor swimming towards a gigantic drill (that's what's causing the quakes in Atlantis). Some surface art for the first time in Subby as well (although they're on a ship). Weirdly, I've noticed that Austin doesn't like drawing bare feet (as per #76's cover) as Namor's look consistently rushed or conveniently blurred in the depiction of his great underwater speed.

Story : 2/5 ~ Can't go higher than this for a story that has very little actual content in it. Namor ignores the advice of his council (technically not fish). Atlantis has another 'quake. He spends probably too long asking Lady Dorma to watch and warn him if the Behemoth should awake when he's away. Namor then swims to the surface, spotting and putting out of action the giant drill. Easily evading the frogmen sent down to intercept him he then climbs aboard the ship that's causing all the trouble to demand they cease forthwith. Hank Pym & Janet Van Dyne (neither are in superhero guise) are leading the scientific team aboard the ship and the issue ends with a stand-off between the three of them and some trigger-happy squaddies.

Quote of the Day ~ "Only by departing alone.....and unarmed...can I prevent the outbreak of a cataclysmic war between our peoples! Thus shall it be! Imperius Rex!"

My assessment ~ With the Trident arc well and truly over it's time for Namor to seek out new adventures. Let's hope there's a bit more meat in the sandwich next time.

 

"Bruce Banner Is The Hulk!"

Art: 2.5/5 ~ Layouts by Kirby, pencils by...Romita! Yep, Stan has changed artists again on the Hulk. The result being acceptable enough. There's a lot of frenetic action as the Hulk battles the Executioner through pretty much the whole of the tale. Occasional interludes in the 20th century with Rick Jones and the army as well. Nothing spectacular here though it's gets the action sequences spot-on.

Story 3/5 ~ The Hulk does what he does best. Smash, fight, not talk a lot. The tale is definitely better when he's in full powerhouse mode and as mentioned the battle with the Executioner (closer than I imagined it would be) takes up virtually the whole of his side of the story. Juxtaposed we have Rick Jones being freed by the Army but tailed by Talbot and having an existential crisis as he comes to the realisation that Banner/Hulk are dead. This causes him to spill the beans to Talbot and run out of Banner's secret desert cave/lab. It was a nice counterpoint to the flurry of futuristic action. Right at the end the Hulk finds he's fading away just as he did when initially transported to the 22nd Century (or whenever the hell it was) and a mysterious whirlwind opens up in the cave. I don't think you need to be Einstein to realise what's coming next.

Quote of the Day ~ For Major Talbot, finally, the penny drops. "Dr. Banner was the greatest guy who ever lived! He never wanted to do anything wrong..it was only because he saved my life that he turned into...the Hulk!"

"You mean...Banner and the Hulk...were one and the same!?"

My assessment ~ For once a superior Hulk story. The fight with the Executioner was great and the breakdown of Rick Jones was intelligently and with some sensitivity, well written.

Thanks for reading!   

[AJD]

Imperious Rex

[Harry Lime]

45 minutes ago, AJD said:

Imperious Rex

I wish I had a dollar every time Namor proclaims Imperious Rex!

[Duffman_Comics]

Please.

It's Marvelspeak/Latin ca 1963-1969.

Imperius Rex

There is no "o".

And you two call yourselves "students of the classics".

I despair.

[Harry Lime]

At least I got it right in the quote!

I'm blaming AJD, he's always leading me astray.

[Harry Lime]

It's strange to think that my last Thor review was January 2017, almost 18 months ago. Finally here's the next, Thor in his own titled book at last.

The Mighty Thor #126 March 1966

My Copy - Grade 4.0

 

Cover: 3.5/5 ~ Thor battle cover, of course but has Kirby ever drawn such pronounced musculature as this? Every sinew straining, biceps bulging, you can almost hear the blood pounding through the veins as the battle lust takes over. Even the blurb seems intimidated by the immortal combatants. I would have gone higher but that's all that's on show although that would have been enough in '66 to snap this one up from the spinner.

Art: 4/5 ~ From the splash page to virtually the end of the story what you see on the cover is continued. It's an all-out action fest, probably the greatest seen since the titanic Thing-Hulk battle in FF#25, as these two well-matched characters go at it hammer and tong mace. Kirby's style is perfect for this kind of tale and he seems to relish in the freedom it gives him to destroy articulated lorries, lift buildings from their foundations, use digger tyres like a discus and generally create mayhem. The full size page 9 even beats the cover for the sheer scale of anatomy. Never have fists seem bigger or muscles more pronounced. Ok, it's starting to sound a little weird now but you get my drift. Kirby is going full on and nothing or no one is going to stop him. Also, Odin is the horniest he's ever been.

Story: 3/5 ~ There's virtually no plot in this (not necessarily a bad thing). It's one long slug-fest from the start caused by Thor's jealousy of seeing Nursey Foster sharing a sarsaparilla with Hercules. Whilst Hercules seems to always be relishing the fight you get the distinct impression that Thor is holding back from truly hurting his opponent, those damned Asgardian ethics keep getting in the way. Another thing that keeps getting in the way is the dialogue. Nearly every great action packed panel is full of loquacious language, befitting of eternal and ancient gods but really bogging down the flow. It's ok coming from one person (and you expect nothing less from Thor) but both in the middle of a brutal, bruising battle and it starts to take on a faintly humorous undertone. To catch our breath, thankfully the fight is interrupted occasionally by events in Asgard where Odin is deliberating what punishment to inflict on his most disobedient son (weirdly not Loki for once). It's this punishment that decides the outcome of the fight as Odin zaps half of Thor's strength away leaving him at the mercy of the rampaging Olympian. Although Thor continues to fight on valiantly he's now no match for Hercules who puts him down with a mighty WHOM! The gathered crowd react in the best traditions of 1960's mobs by hailing the victor and sneering at the loser. There's time for one little titbit at that end when Jane Foster runs up to the vanquished Thor and declares her undying love for him despite the defeat but Thor can't accept it whilst the shame of the defeat hangs over him. In a contradiction of Asgardian proportions Odin then communicates with Jane via brain-mail to tell her that Thor only lost because of his punishment and that she must go and comfort him....but...but you punished Thor because of his love for a mortal women and now you're condoning it, Odin? And I thought women were fickle.

Quote of the Day ~ Some classic Lee' alliteration. "By the cloven hooves of Pan!! What doth it take to defeat the son of Odin??!

"A stronger arm! A stouter heart! A noble soul! And none doth Hercules possess, thou blabbering, blustering, boastful buffoon!"

My assessment ~ A strong start to his own title and with half his previous strength gone this promises to be interesting for a while. It was good to get acquainted with ol' goldilocks again.  

Thanks for reading!           

Edited June 7, 2018 by Harry Lime

[Get Marwood & I]

14 minutes ago, Harry Lime said:

 

3.5 Harry!

3.5!

Can you not see that this is Kirbys very best 'man in green hat' work ever! 

[Harry Lime]

2 minutes ago, Get Marwood & I said:

3.5 Harry!

3.5!

Can you not see that this is Kirbys very best 'man in green hat' work ever! 

I was expecting a fart -script and you come up with this.

Get Marwood & I addendum: 5/5 ~ Continually entertaining and surprising the 'masses'.

[Get Marwood & I]

2 minutes ago, Harry Lime said:

I was expecting a fart --script and you come up with this.

Well she's definately caught one Harry  

4 minutes ago, Harry Lime said:

Get Marwood & I addendum: 5/5 ~ Continually entertaining and surprising the 'masses'.

If by masses you mean 'me and you', then yes Harry 

[Harry Lime]

2 minutes ago, Get Marwood & I said:

Well she's definately caught one Harry  

If by masses you mean 'me and you', then yes Harry 

Well, there are a couple of Aussies that pop in now and again.

[Get Marwood & I]

5 minutes ago, Harry Lime said:

Well, there are a couple of Aussies that pop in now and again.

A couple of Aussies! You do know that @AJD is the King of Australia don't you Harry? 

[Harry Lime]

9 hours ago, Get Marwood & I said:

A couple of Aussies! You do know that @AJD is the King of Australia don't you Harry? 

Subject to approval.

[AJD]

On 6/8/2018 at 6:44 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

A couple of Aussies! You do know that @AJD is the King of Australia don't you Harry? 

On 6/8/2018 at 3:50 PM, Harry Lime said:

Subject to approval.

Well, one day all this will be mine, that is true.

But in the context of the last book reviewed, let me remind you that this guy is Australian, and I'd have to beat him to the throne.

And in case you're wondering, this is me:

[Get Marwood & I]

17 minutes ago, AJD said:

But in the context of the last book reviewed, let me remind you that this guy is Australian, and I'd have to beat him to the throne.

I tell you, if I needed to go badly enough Thor, Odin and Thanos combined would not beat me to the pan! 

 

 

 

 

That's not the throne you meant was it. 

[Get Marwood & I]

Here's me by the way, with Wonder Woman

[FoggyNelson]

1 hour ago, Get Marwood & I said:

Here's me by the way, with Wonder Woman

Looks like Nic Cage⁉️?