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Harry's Marvellous Meanderings through the Comic Book World
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Started by Harry Lime,

347 posts in this topic

FoggyNelson

FoggyNelson

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On 6/7/2018 at 4:05 PM, Harry Lime said:

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

T126a.thumb.jpg.515407976bd5b3807747e644ed636ce5.jpg

 

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. :whatthe:

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!           

Cover assessment is a 10 out of 10 for me for Thor 126

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Duffman_Comics

Duffman_Comics

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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? :whatthe:

King? The strongest argument that Oz becomes a Republic yet.

To the book in question, here comes a heresy. I like Colletta inks on Kirby. I know he left a lot of background detail out, but the finer brushstrokes on the figures more than make up for it (IMHO) and makes the struggle, in this instance just "pop".

That is all. Carry on.

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Harry Lime

Harry Lime

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Next up, moving further on into the dim mists that shroud 1966.

Amazing Spider-Man #35 April 1966 Bought from BritBay.

My Copy - Grade 6.0

ASM35.thumb.jpg.c7ce5e0d56ea5f1e5711f89b8258dfe3.jpg

 

Cover: 2/5 ~ Erm, let me start with those golden undercrackers. The title must be referring to his choice of briefs. Are they leopard print or merely shimmering? Either way it's not a good look and one that was avoided in #28 by clothing him in raggedy trousers. Add in the minimalist green wall/door background and you have a cover that's both boring yet uncomfortably kitsch.

Art: 3/5 ~ Can't go lower than this as even though this has the feel that Ditko phoned it in it's still a Ditko ASM. Lots of close-quarter fighting, a tad of human interest but only a few special touches. The highlights probably being a maniacally laughing MM and a partially darkened Spidey waiting on an office wall for his adversary (like all good spiders do).

Story: 2.5/5 ~ Only the relative absence of loose plot elements kept this from scoring lower. The one coincidence was that Spidey happened to be overhead when the Molten Man initially robbed a jeweller's store. The one slight absurdity was on his release MM was walking around in broad daylight in his civvies amongst the general public with nary an eyebrow raised, those New Yorkers must be a jaded lot. The real problem with this story is it's a rehash of the plot line of #28 (post Molten Man transfiguration). It's just Spidey and MM going toe to toe in a house/office, slugging it out with no inventiveness on show. Really quite boring and predictable. Even Spidey's normally snappy dialogue seems stilted and pretentious (Irving Forbush 'in' joke is included). The fight even ends the same way with Spider-Man hog-tying Molten Man and leaving him for the police. If Ditko was phoning the art in he must have got his secretary to call the bullpen up with this one.

Quote of the Day ~ The end of Ditko's 'love affair' with Stan the Man? Peter looking at the photo of himself he gave to Betty Brant.

"To Betty--forever! Peter" "Forever! I wonder when I wrote that--?" "--must have been a lifetime ago!"

My assessment ~ Astonishing to think it was only two issues ago that Ditko produced the masterpiece that was #33. As I mentioned in the last Strange Tales reviewed there is a strong indication that his time at Marvel is coming to an end and it's continued here. Almost shocking and definitely sad to see such a perfunctory effort made.      

Thanks for reading!

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1950's war comics

1950's war comics

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7 hours ago, Harry Lime said:

Next up, moving further on into the dim mists that shroud 1966.

Amazing Spider-Man #35 April 1966 Bought from BritBay.

My Copy - Grade 6.0

ASM35.thumb.jpg.c7ce5e0d56ea5f1e5711f89b8258dfe3.jpg

 

Cover: 2/5 ~ Erm, let me start with those golden undercrackers. The title must be referring to his choice of briefs. Are they leopard print or merely shimmering? Either way it's not a good look and one that was avoided in #28 by clothing him in raggedy trousers. Add in the minimalist green wall/door background and you have a cover that's both boring yet uncomfortably kitsch.

Art: 3/5 ~ Can't go lower than this as even though this has the feel that Ditko phoned it in it's still a Ditko ASM. Lots of close-quarter fighting, a tad of human interest but only a few special touches. The highlights probably being a maniacally laughing MM and a partially darkened Spidey waiting on an office wall for his adversary (like all good spiders do).

Story: 2.5/5 ~ Only the relative absence of loose plot elements kept this from scoring lower. The one coincidence was that Spidey happened to be overhead when the Molten Man initially robbed a jeweller's store. The one slight absurdity was on his release MM was walking around in broad daylight in his civvies amongst the general public with nary an eyebrow raised, those New Yorkers must be a jaded lot. The real problem with this story is it's a rehash of the plot line of #28 (post Molten Man transfiguration). It's just Spidey and MM going toe to toe in a house/office, slugging it out with no inventiveness on show. Really quite boring and predictable. Even Spidey's normally snappy dialogue seems stilted and pretentious (Irving Forbush 'in' joke is included). The fight even ends the same way with Spider-Man hog-tying Molten Man and leaving him for the police. If Ditko was phoning the art in he must have got his secretary to call the bullpen up with this one.

Quote of the Day ~ The end of Ditko's 'love affair' with Stan the Man? Peter looking at the photo of himself he gave to Betty Brant.

"To Betty--forever! Peter" "Forever! I wonder when I wrote that--?" "--must have been a lifetime ago!"

My assessment ~ Astonishing to think it was only two issues ago that Ditko produced the masterpiece that was #33. As I mentioned in the last Strange Tales reviewed there is a strong indication that his time at Marvel is coming to an end and it's continued here. Almost shocking and definitely sad to see such a perfunctory effort made.      

Thanks for reading!

Was there a Harry Osborn appearance in this issue ??

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Harry Lime

Harry Lime

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With the excitement of the Green Eggs grading contest over it's time to return to the reviews.

Daredevil #15 April 1966

My Copy - Grade 6.0

DD15.thumb.jpg.bf186be0d8267dbcbabe14054b907dfa.jpg

 

Cover: 3.5/5 ~ Generally I don't like brown backgrounds and the blurb is both a tad pretentious & unintentionally amusing but the large full-size depiction of the Ox really shows off his thuggish splendour to great effect and the struggling Daredevil is highly reminiscent of a beaten, floored boxer desperately trying to prolong the fight. In short, it makes me want to read the story.

Art: 3/5 ~ Nothing spectacular or particularly earth shattering but Romita seems to revel in the return to DD's natural home, the avenues and alleyways of NYC. Free of the restrictions of jungles, damp English stately homes & spy submarines he makes his mark with typical dynamism in a standard hero/villain tale and lays the foundations for what would become known as the Marvel Style.

Story: 3/5 ~ Story starts with Foggy having medical issues, a remnant of his brief tussle with the Ox (DD #6) which leads us neatly into the prison where the Ox is currently incarcerated. He's teamed up with a fellow convict (Dr. Karl Stragg) who is promising to increase the Ox's intelligence if he helps him break out. Thus in due course they do and whilst DD hearing of the escape heads in the wrong direction, the nefarious duo go to Mr Fear's old hideout/laboratory. Somewhat surprisingly and in extremely quick time, Stragg manages to assemble the apparatus needed to 'boost' intelligence by siphoning some of his to place in the Ox's pea-sized lobes but it is a rotten trick and he actually switches minds with the Ox placing his powerful intelligence inside the even more powerful frame of the Ox whilst the super-villain formerly know as the Ox (hence to be referred to as little Ox) is residing in Stragg's puny body. So overjoyed by this is Sragg/Ox that he goes on a rampage, snapping lamp-posts, flattening cars and attracting the attention of DD via police radio. Karen Page picks precisely the wrong time to go for an evening stroll as, recognising the Ox, she becomes his target as a potential threat (not sure why she would be though). DD arrives, attempting to save the day but due to Page's high-pitched screams is unable to detect the Ox swinging a lamp-post into his midriff with such ferocity that it knocks him out cold. Pausing only to place a convenient extra set of Ox garments on DD he makes off back to the lab with Page. The police temporarily imprison the still unconscious DD but don't remove his mask (c'mon that must be so tempting) but soon let him go once the Ox draws attention to himself in his pursuit of little Ox and Karen Page who have escaped together. Finding the fleeing Ox on a rooftop about to board a helicopter DD uses his agility to good effect by evading and enraging the Ox to such an extent that he stupidly lunges at DD, misses and and falls to his death from a great height. The final page shows little Ox feeling a lot better about his situation (and a bit smarter).

Quote of the Day ~ From the splash page. "How I've longed for this marvelous moment--to be back in action again--free as a falcon, with the world at my feet! This is where I belong! This is my food, my drink, my life! This is why Daredevil was born!"

My assessment ~ I was tempted to mark this higher as it's a very enjoyable tale with an interesting if somewhat hackneyed premise now. Is it the mind or the body that makes a man? Whatever the rights or wrongs of that it does play out in a consistent and logical way. And it even has a death of the antagonist, not something that common is earlyish Marvel. In the end though the story just had a tad too many coincidences, contrivances to score higher. Still, a welcome return to the Big Apple for Daredevil.

Thanks for reading!     

 

 

Edited by Harry Lime
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Harry Lime

Harry Lime

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8 hours ago, 1950's war comics said:

final appearance of "The Ox" ??

nice review (thumbsu

Final appearance of that Ox, yes. But the original character (Raymond Bloch) got his strength back later on, I think it had something to do with the Kingpin. I have no idea however when that happens, it could be Silver, Bronze Age or even later.

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AJD

AJD

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On 6/26/2018 at 1:27 PM, Tony D said:

The figure of Spider-Man was redrawn for this cover by, probably, Marie Severin. The original cover is  below.

DitkoS-M35Cover_zpsgyg99hik.png

You can see why they changed this bummer of a cover...

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FoggyNelson

FoggyNelson

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10 hours ago, Harry Lime said:

Final appearance of that Ox, yes. But the original character (Raymond Bloch) got his strength back later on, I think it had something to do with the Kingpin. I have no idea however when that happens, it could be Silver, Bronze Age or even later.

I always like that story and that cover, 

thanks for review  ??two thumbs up review

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Get Marwood & I

Get Marwood & I

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On 7/10/2018 at 3:39 PM, Harry Lime said:

Is it the mind or the body that makes a man? 

Does the body rule the mind, or does the mind rule the body?

I dunno.

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valiantman

valiantman

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On 7/11/2018 at 9:50 AM, Lucky Baru said:
On 6/25/2018 at 10:27 PM, Tony D said:

The figure of Spider-Man was redrawn for this cover by, probably, Marie Severin. The original cover is  below.

DitkoS-M35Cover_zpsgyg99hik.png

I'm regretting having to look at Spider-Man's fanny.  Yikes!

Avoid. ASM. 121. :gossip:

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