Men In Black (5 Stars)

I've returned to this film after only six weeks, and I had to increase my rating. After I watched it today I asked myself, "What is less than perfect about this film?" and I couldn't give an answer.

Agents J and K are a perfect team. I don't mean that they're the perfect team to save the universe, although that's probably true. I mean they're the perfect team to entertain the viewer. The two bounce off one another with humorous intensity. K is disciplined and sad, while J is spontaneous and happy to do his job. Come to think of it, why does K come before J? Agent Z is the boss, so maybe the letters are assigned in reverse order.

The most hilarious scene is the interrogation of the dog. If I weren't aware of the level of computer technology today I'd be rushing to the post box to mail a letter complaining about cruelty to animals.

Now I need to watch the second and third films, finally, before the fourth film is released. So many films, so little time.

Success Rate:  + 4.5

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Wahnfried: Miditation (1986)

Richard Wahnfried - Miditation

Wahnfried 4

Klaus Schulze (synthesizers)
Steve Jolliffe (flute)
Tex Lexton (keyboards)
Jennifer Uberberg (sitar)
Tim Bales (drums)

Track Listing:

1.	Miditation	25:30
2.	Midiaction	29:27

Rating: 3½ Stars

This is the fourth album that Klaus Schulze made using the pseudonym Richard Wahnfried. It was originally only released on LP. The first CD release of the album wasn't until four years later.

There's some confusion in the credits. Steve Jolliffe's name is misspelt. A keyboard player called Karl Wahnfried is listed, but this isn't the mystery guitarist who played on "Tonwelle". It seems to refer to Klaus Schulze himself. That's my guess, anyway, because Klaus isn't listed by name among the musicians.

The music is interesting, but somehow disjointed. On the first track Steve Jolliffe plays quiet, meditative flute over untypically brash keyboards from Klaus. It's a strange mix. The music on the second track is more enjoyable. My rating is the average of 3 Stars for "Miditation" and 4 Stars for "Midiaction".

This isn't an album that I've often listened to. I need to give it another chance.

Aladdin (2019) (4½ Stars)

This film is based on the 1992 Disney animated film with the same name, rather than being a direct adaptation of the tale of Aladdin from "1001 Nights".

I've been seeing the trailer in the cinema for weeks, and I was fascinated. It looked like a bloated comedy romp, silly but entertaining. I had to see it. What I didn't realise until I saw the film today is that it's a musical. That wasn't made clear in the trailer. That made the film even better in my eyes. I also didn't know the film was directed by Guy Ritchie. Despite a few mediocre films in his career, he's still a director whose films I need to see.

Aladdin is a young thief who lives on the streets of Agrabah. He meets and falls in love with Princess Jasmine, who has sneaked out of the castle where she's usually confined for her own safety. Aladdin guesses that she's from the palace because of the expensive bracelet she's wearing, so she lies and tells him she's a handmaiden. After stealing the bracelet he wants to give it her back, but his monkey Abu has already hidden it. He sneaks back into the castle at night to return the bracelet, but he's captured by the Sultan's second-in-command, the Grand Vizier Jafar, who used to be a thief like Aladdin.

Jafar takes Aladdin to retrieve a magic lamp from the Cave Of Wonders in the desert. Aladdin is trapped in the cave, and when he rubs it a genie appears. The genie offers Aladdin three wishes, although it's a standing joke throughout the film what counts as a wish and what doesn't. The genie, hilariously portrayed by Will Smith, takes an immediate liking to Aladdin, because he's not like the previous owners of the lamp. Everyone else wanted wealth and power, but Aladdin just wants to get the woman he loves.

The film is excellent in its comedy and its pacing. The songs are never out of place, always complementing the action. What I like about the film is that even though the two main characters, Aladdin and the genie, are men, it's a tale of female empowerment. The princess isn't happy with the prospect of marrying and obeying a prince after having obeyed her father all her life; she wants to live her own life and become a ruler in her own right. I'm sure that this message wasn't in the ancient tale of Aladdin, and probably not in the 1992 film either. This is a very topical message for the 21st Century.

Maybe not all the women are as liberated as the princess. Jasmine's handmaiden Dalia, shown her on the left, just wants to marry a man and have children. I suppose that after being a servant all her life it's difficult for her to change her ways.

Naomi Scott, who plays Princess Jasmine, is an amazing singer. This is the perfect film for her to show off her talent. I look forward to seeing her in other films in the future, preferably musicals.

When I arrived today children were walking out of the previous showing. I asked two young girls, aged about eight and ten, what they thought of the film, and they both said it was great. That's the mark of a good film, that it can appeal to both children and adults.

Radio Heimat (4 Stars)

Life is hard when you're a 16-year-old virgin living in Bochum, allegedly the ugliest city in the world. But Bochum has its advantages. If you grew up in Bochum you'll appreciate other towns more. And if you grew up a virgin you'll appreciate sex more.

Who designed this city? It must have been someone with a sadistic streak.

All the boys in the school fantasise about the same girl. Guess which one it is.

"Radio Heimat" is based on the autobiography of the German author Frank Goosen. I've never read any of his books, but maybe I should. I like his attitude. He knows how to laugh at himself, which is a rare quality for a German. The film is amusing, and I laughed all the way through. The semi-documentary style is appropriate. Most of the characters turn and speak to the camera at one time or another.

Is Frank nostalgic about his teenage years? If you think that, you haven't been paying attention to the film. I'd quote his exact words, but I don't like to swear.

Klaus Schulze: Inter*Face (1985)

Klaus Schulze - Inter*Face

KS Canon 18

Track Listing:

1.	On the Edge	07:58
2.	Colours in the Darkness	09:41
3.	The Beat Planante	07:24
4.	Inter*Face	24:49

Bonus Tracks:

5.	The Real Colours in the Darkness	12:02
6.	Nichtarische Arie	13:47

Notes:
(1) Ulli Schober plays drums.
(2) Rainer Bloss sings on "Nichtarische Arie" (bonus track).

Rating: 5 Stars
Bonus Tracks: 4½ Stars

This is the 18th solo album recorded by Klaus Schulze. It's sometimes listed as his 20th album, but KDM no longer recognises the albums "Aphrica" and "Drive Inn" as official releases, so it's been moved up two places in the canon.

This was the first Klaus Schulze album to be released simultaneously on LP and CD. Nevertheless, I only bought it on LP. It was barely three years since the release of the first commercial CDs, and the prices were still extortionate. In 1985 I was living in Germany, and I remember walking into my favourite record store, Lerche, and seeing the first CDs on sale. The usual price for LPs was 18 Marks (about $10), but the CDs cost 85 Marks (about $47). I waited a few years for the prices to drop.

Even though it was released on CD, it was still made for LP. What I mean is, the tracks were recorded in an LP-friendly format, i.e. they were the correct lengths to fit on LPs. In later years Klaus Schulze's albums usually had tracks which were too long for LP.

One of the problems with owning so many Klaus Schulze albums is that I don't have time to listen to them all. No, that's not correct, I have plenty of time, but when I want to listen to his music I just play my favourite albums and forget the rest. When I listened to "Inter*Face" today I was amazed. I'd forgotten that it was so good. According to Amazon's records I bought the CD in August 2007, which was just before I moved house, so I was busy packing everything into boxes. It's possible that I only listened to it once before today. That's a sin! The title track especially is brilliant.

As for the bonus tracks, "Nichtarische Arie" is an extended version of "Macksy", that was released as a 12-inch maxi-single in 1985. I never saw it in the shops, because I didn't look at the maxi-single section. I didn't even know that it existed until years later. As I've said before, it was difficult being a Klaus Schulze fan in the days before the Internet.

"The Real Colours in the Darkness" is a mystery. It's an alternate version of "Colours in the Darkness". On the original LP release the cover incorrectly listed the length of "Colours in the Darkness" as 12 minutes, so it seems like the wrong version was included. KDM has no idea what happened, but at least we can listen to both tracks today. Both versions are good, but I prefer the version in the bonus track.

My bonus track rating is the average of five stars for "The Real Colours  in the Darkness" and four stars for "Nichtarische Arie".

Not My Day (4½ Stars)

This is a film I can relate to. I can see myself in the main character, Till Reiners. It's as if the film were made about me. I'm not saying that the details of his story fit my life, but he acts and reacts the same way I would under similar circumstances.

When he was a young man, Till Reiners played in a rock band. It was one of the thousands of amateur bands that never make the big time, but if you're a hardcore rock fan it doesn't matter. It's all about the music, not the money. Then Till fell in love with a rock chick. They got married. That's when the real world set in. Very few people can live from rock music, so Till quit the band and got a job as a bank clerk. He cut his hair short, put on a suit and became respectable. He did what he had to do to put food on the table for his wife and his three-year-old son. Rock music and the lifestyle that came with it was in the past.

Maybe Till no longer looked like a rocker, but it still slumbered within him, waiting to be released. This happened when a man who called himself Nappo robbed his bank and took him as a hostage. Till was scared, but at the same time he admired the man pointing a gun at him. Nappo had the wild attitude that Till had given up. While Nappo is in hiding they sit together, they eat and drink together, they sing rock songs together. Till doesn't want to go back to his respectable life. He wants to be a rock'n'roll outlaw, so he calls himself Till Tiger and becomes Nappo's partner in crime.

After having suppressed his urges for years, Till goes too far. He becomes so wild and reckless that he scares Nappo. However much Nappo tries to hold Till back, it doesn't work. Till is a madman.

This is an excellent film. Maybe it's intended to be comical, but for me it hit too close to home to be funny. The film's about me. I could go just as crazy if my inner tiger were unleashed.

I'm sorry to say the film is only available in German, without English subtitles. If you can speak German, it's worth watching.

Stan & Ollie (5 Stars)

This is a film I've wanted to see ever since it was first announced. Of the early comedians, from the end of the silent film era to the beginning of the sound era, Laurel and Hardy were my favourites. I liked them more than their contemporaries Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. They were often shown on the television when I was a child, and I still have their antics and mannerisms imprinted on my memory.

The two performers, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, began their careers separately. Before they made their first film together in 1921, Stan made 50 films and Oliver made 250 films. If those numbers seem unnaturally high, remember that in the early years of cinema short films of 10 to 20 minutes were more common than full length feature films. Together they made 106 films (79 short films and 27 full length films). Their fans consider their short films to be superior to their full length films. I can't judge this. It's been many, many years since I last watched any of their films.

The main focus of the biopic that I watched today is Laurel and Hardie's tour of the United Kingdom in 1953, but it starts in 1937. This was the peak of their success. Stan Laurel is disgruntled, because he thinks that they're being underpaid in comparison with other comedians. He's at the end of his contract, so he wants to negotiate a higher salary with his producer, Hal Roach. He wants Oliver Hardy to support him, but Ollie is still in the middle of his contract. This is because they were originally hired separately, and it was Hal Roach who united them as a team. In theory, the pair could have used their market success as leverage to renegotiate Ollie's contract, but Ollie didn't want to take a risk because he was in financial difficulties, caused by gambling and women.

This led to the two of them splitting up, and Ollie made the elephant film "Zenobia" without Stan. The film doesn't tell us how the two reunited, but in 1953 they're back together, and Stan is still angry with Ollie for deserting him after all these years.

It's a tough tour. Due to bad promotion the first venues are practically empty. Things improve over the next two months, but finally the tour has to be interrupted because of Ollie's bad health. Stan doesn't desert him. He's given another comedian to continue the tour without Ollie, but at the last minute he says No.

The two actors, Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly, look and act uncannily like Laurel and Hardy. I know that's intentional, but it succeeds more than I would ever have expected. It's a very emotional film. The two men were friends who loved each other, even if they still argued about the elephant film.

I need to watch some of the old Laurel and Hardy films, preferably in chronological order. I wonder how many of them are easily available.

Wahnfried: Megatone (1984)

Richard Wahnfried - Megatone

Wahnfried 3

Klaus Schulze (synthesizers)
Michael Garvens (vocals)
Harald Katzsch (guitar)
Axel-Glenn Müller (saxophone)
Michael Shrieve (drums)
Ulli Schober (drums)

Track Listing:

1.	Angry Young Boys	14:15
2.	Agamemory	08:45
3.	Rich Meets Max	20:22

Rating: 3 Stars

This is the third album that Klaus Schulze made using the pseudonym Richard Wahnfried. I have difficulty rating this album. It's so un-Schulze, if you understand what I mean, even more un-Schulze than the first two Wahnfried albums. Today was the first time I listened to it for more than 20 years. I'd forgotten what it sounded like.

The first track begins pleasantly enough, a sequencer rhythm overlayed by a rock beat, and I even enjoyed the electric guitar, but as soon as Michael Garvens started to sing my jaw dropped. I couldn't take the lyrics seriously at all. Summing the album up, the first three minutes of side one are good, and from then on everything slides downhill. "Agamemory" is boring, and "Rich Meets Max" sounds like it's not intended to be taken seriously. There's a short excerpt of "Ludwig II von Bayern" from "X", immediately followed by a rock guitar. I don't understand what Klaus is trying to do with this album. It's the weakest of all the Wahnfried albums.

---

Michael Shrieve - Transfer Station Blue (1984)

Michael Shrieve (drums)
Kevin Shrieve (guitar)
Klaus Schulze (synthesizers)

Rating: 4½ Stars

Klaus Schulze appears on Michael Shrieve's first solo album, together with Michael's brother Kevin. It's a pleasant album, highly percussive with interesting electronic layers. This is what a Wahnfried album should sound like.

Reptisaurus (3½ Stars)

This is another low budget monster feature from Christopher Ray, made in 2009. I don't consider that it's up to the quality of "Megaconda", but let's not be too hard on him. This was the first film that he directed. Everyone has to start somewhere.

Five young people are shipwrecked on a small uninhabited island, somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. A giant flying lizard is eating intruders. Two American soldiers have been sent to kill it, and the civilians just get in the way.

The soldiers are supposedly highly qualified, but it doesn't show. They fire their automatic assault rifles endlessly at the Reptisaurus without effect, but they don't learn from it. They just don't have the intelligence to realise that their guns don't work. Halfway through the film they meet a scientist who's been hiding out on the island for the last three months. She tells them that it's an artificially created bat-snake hybrid with hard skin that can't be penetrated by bullets. Do they learn from her? No. The next time they see it they shoot like mad all over again, ratta-ratta-ratta, having learnt nothing from experience or scientific advice.

It's a fast-moving action film, but it's spoilt by the poor acting of the female cast. I know it's difficult to look scared when you're staring at empty air, because the monster will be added later with the magic of computers, but it's something you have to do today. One of the strengths of Christopher Ray's films is the high picture quality, but in 2009 he hadn't yet learnt his craft. The indoor scenes are murky, and sometimes the lighting changes when the camera angle is switched.

It's a fun film, but I can't imagine I'll watch it again. It's not available on disc, but you can watch it on Amazon Prime.

Marvel Years 08.08 - August 1968

Silver Surfer #1

This is the fifth month in a row that Marvel has started new comic series, and they've left the best till last. Here are the new comics:

April 1968: (1) Hulk, (2) Captain America
May 1968: (3) Iron Man, (4) Sub-Mariner, (5) Captain Marvel
June 1968: (6) Nick Fury, (7) Doctor Strange
July 1968: (8) Spectacular Spider-Man
August 1968: (9) Silver Surfer

The comics had different success, based on the length of time they continued. Maybe that isn't the best way to rate success. The Silver Surfer was one of the most successful comics of the late 1960's (and in my opinion the best), but it was cancelled after only 18 issues. This is because Stan Lee replaced Martin Goodman as Marvel's publisher, and he no longer had time to write comics. The Silver Surfer was a special character to him, and he didn't want to entrust the series to anyone else. Nobody else could be found who was worthy to step into his shoes, until Steve Englehart arrived, almost 20 years later.

The Silver Surfer comic was originally printed in a different format to the other Marvel comics. Instead of being a 20-page comic, the standard length for Marvel, the main story is 38 pages, and there's a backup story about the Watcher that's 13 pages long. This led to the comic costing 25 cents each month, instead of the usual 12 cents.

Title: The Origin of the Silver Surfer!

Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: John Buscema

Villain: Galactus, Doctor Doom (flashback)

Regulars: Shalla Bal

Guests: John Jameson, Reed Richards (flashback), Ben Grimm (flashback), Susan Storm (flashback), Hulk (flashback)

The Fantastic Four is called "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine" every month, but this comic is even better. I know I use the word masterpiece too often, but in this case it's well deserved. It's a masterpiece.

This story takes place shortly after this month's Fantastic Four #77.

The story opens with the Silver Surfer saving an astronaut when his capsule sinks into the sea far from the planned landing point. The astronaut is John Jameson, J. Jonah Jameson's son. The Silver Surfer carries him back to the ship that should have picked him up, but the sailors mistake his intentions and fire rockets at him. He flies round the world, and wherever he goes he's attacked.

He thinks back to his meetings with the Fantastic Four (Fantastic Four #48), Doctor Doom (Fantastic Four #57) and the Hulk (Tales To Astonish #92). Then he remembers the planet the came from, Zenn-La, where he was known as Norrin Radd. It was a highly advanced planet whose people had become lazy because there was nothing they couldn't do. When Galactus attacked them they had no weapons with which to defend themselves, and worse still, they had no will to fight. Norrin alone challenged Galactus in a small space ship. When he realised he had no chance, he offered to serve Galactus in exchange for his planet being spared. Galactus turned Norrin Radd into the Silver Surfer and made him his herald (more of a location scout) to find new planets for him to eat. After many other planets he went to the Earth, where he defied Galactus and was exiled to the Earth.

What's so special about the Silver Surfer? As a character he captured the imagination of comic book readers, first in the pages of the Fantastic Four, then in his own series. His brooding nature and his pacifist philosophy made him well loved. Apart from that, surfboards are cool. He wasn't accurately portrayed in the second Fantastic Four film. He still has the promise to become Marvel's biggest hero.

---

Title: The Wonder of the Watcher!

Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Gene Colan

The last time the Watcher had his own series was as a five-page backup story in Tales Of Suspense, from issue #49 to #58. The new series is a welcome upgrade.

This issue contains an origin story, which is an extended retelling of the story in Tales Of Suspense #53. The Watcher's race (whatever they were called before they were Watchers) help the inhabitants of the planet Prosilicus by giving them atomic power to solve all their problems. As soon as the Watchers leave, the Prosilicans start a nuclear war which destroys their planet. This persuades the non-Watchers to become Watchers and let all planets develop by themselves.

---

Fantastic Four #77

Title: Shall Earth endure?

Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Jack Kirby

Villain: Galactus, Psycho-Man

Regulars: Crystal

Guests: Silver Surfer

Stan Lee has slipped up with his Latin. It's probably a long time since he went to school. It should be "Nil nisi optimum", which means "Nothing but the best".

The Fantastic Four battle the Psycho-Man in the micro-world. Or is it the micro-verse? They defeat him, then reveal to him that Galactus is threatening the Earth, which would destroy his universe as well. The Psycho-Man sends them back.

In the meantime, the Silver Surfer has offered his services to Galactus in order to save the Earth. He's allowed to roam space, and he finds a meteor that hits a dead planet, unleashing enough energy to bathe a solar system. This is an alternative snack for Galactus, so he spares the Earth. Before leaving, Galactus imprisons the Silver Surfer on the Earth once more, so that he always knows where to find him.

---

Daredevil #43

Title: In Combat with Captain America!

Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Gene Colan

Villain: Jester (flashback)

Regulars: Foggy Nelson, Karen Page, Debbie Harris

Guests: Captain America

Karen Page quits her job because she says she can't bear to be close to Matt Murdock any more. Matt fears for her safety if she remains in his life, so he's nasty to her to make her leave faster. Now he's in an uneasy mood, not knowing what to do.

While hunting for the Jester he hears about a thief who has stolen radioactive vials. Daredevil easily catches him, but the radiation has an unexpected effect on him. It makes him become mean and reckless.

Captain America is in Madison Garden putting on a show. He'll face any challenger in the ring. Daredevil takes up the challenge, but it isn't just about sport. He wants to destroy Captain America. The battle is evenly matched, but when the effects of the radiation begin to wear off Daredevil realises what he's doing and flees.

---

Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #3

Title: Dark Moon Rise, Hell Hound Kill!

Writer: Jim Steranko
Artist: Jim Steranko

Villain: Mycroft, Nazis

It's a double page splash page which doesn't quite slot together. As much as I dislike double page drawings in comics, I have to admit that Jim Steranko is a brilliant artist.

Nick Fury travels to Scotland after receiving an urgent call from a World War Two buddy, Ken Astor. When he arrives in Castle Ravenlock, Ken has been killed by a mysterious hell hound that prowls at night. Nick Fury is invited to take part in a seance with three other psychic investigators.

After new attacks Nick Fury discovers that one of the investigators, Mycroft, is a German Nazi who took refuge in Scotland after the Second World War. He has been killing people who discover his underground base, blaming the deaths on a mystic beast.

Jim Steranko is the best artist at Marvel. Nobody else even comes close!

---

Doctor Strange #171

Title: In the Shadow of Death!

Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: Tom Palmer

Villain: Dormammu

Regulars: Ancient One (flashback), Wong, Clea, Victoria Bentley

Since there is no active threat, Doctor Strange turns his attention to retrieving Clea from the dimension where the Ancient One hid her in Strange Tales #155. He says that the Ancient One told him he can only retrieve her with the help of a female mystic. I don't remember the Ancient One saying that. It sounds like Roy Thomas just needs an excuse to get Victoria Bentley into the story. Shame on you, Roy!

Listen to the description of Clea that Doctor Strange gives Victoria Bentley. She was a queen whose dimension was conquered by Dormammu? That's also new information. I consider it a blunder by Roy Thomas. In later issues we read that Clea was born in Dormammu's dimension.

Together with Victoria Bentley, Doctor Strange travels into another dimension to find Clea. Due to her lack of experience in the mystic arts, Victoria falls into a trap. Doctor Strange finds her, being guarded by a creature with a mystic sword and shield. The creature is about to defeat Doctor Strange, when its master arrives: Dormammu.

This is the first comic drawn by Tom Palmer. It wasn't only his first comic for Marvel, it was his first comic ever. In an interview in 2005 he said, "I walked in the door and pencilled an issue of Doctor Strange, the first job I ever pencilled. At the time, I thought I did a good job, but really it was a stinker. It wasn't up to par". He went back two weeks later to get the next issue, and they said they were getting someone else to pencil it, but he could ink it if he wanted to. He'd never done any inking before, but he accepted and it became his main job at Marvel for many years.

Was his art really so bad? Tom Palmer was obviously trying to imitate Steve Ditko, and he did a reasonable job, in my opinion.

Look at this picture of Dormammu. It has dramatic flair. Tom Palmer is no Gene Colan, but I've seen worse. And don't forget that this was his first ever comic. He would only have got better.

But speaking of Gene Colan, that's exactly the person who will take over the art from next issue onwards. Gene Colan and Tom Palmer formed a long relationship as artist and inker, and Tom was the inker that Gene most liked to work with.

And let's not forget the Crazy Credits. They say that Artie Simek's lettering is delirious. That's not the way I see it. It looks very restrained and conservatively crafted to me.

---

Iron Man #4

Title: Unconquered is the Unicorn!

Writer: Archie Goodwin
Artist: Johnny Craig

Villain: Freak (Happy Hogan), Unicorn

Regulars: Happy Hogan, Pepper Hogan

Tony Stark successfully turns Happy Hogan back into his normal self. Happy's wife Pepper doesn't know what happened to change him into the Freak, but she blames Tony.

The Unicorn, last seen in X-Man #23, has returned to Russia. Scientists bombard him with new rays which will greatly increase his strength, but shorten his life. After his treatment the Unicorn destroys the laboratory and goes to America to seek a cure for his shortened life. He kidnaps all the participants at a scientific congress, hoping one of them can help him. Tony Stark is also present. While the Unicorn is distracted he puts on his Iron Man armour.

Iron Man wins the fight, but he offers to help save the Unicorn's life. The Unicorn refuses and plummets to his death.

---

Sub-Mariner #4

Title: Who strikes for Atlantis?

Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: John Buscema

Villain: Attuma

Regulars: Dorma, Vashti, Warlord Seth

The people of Atlantis are once more homeless and wandering the seas looking for a place to build a new kingdom. Attuma, who we last saw in Tales To Astonish #91, uses the opportunity to attack and enslave them. Namor is also captured by one of Attuma's scouts and carried to Attuma, but he was only feigning unconsciousness. He breaks free and challenges Attuma to a duel.

It ought to be a fair fight, but Attuma's armour is powered by a mighty machine, making him invincible. One of Attuma's disgruntled servants frees Dorma, who turns off the machine. Namor quickly wins the duel.

Namor doesn't know that Dorma aided him, believing she has perished, so he leaves the Atlanteans and makes his way towards the surface world.

---

Captain Marvel #4

Title: The Alien and the Amphibian!

Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: Gene Colan

Villain: Sub-Mariner, Super-Skrull (flashback)

Regulars: Yon-Rogg, Una, Carol Danvers

This story takes place immediately after this month's Sub-Mariner #4.

The newspapers are calling Captain Marvel a hero, but he knows that he is a Kree soldier who might one day be ordered to destroy the human race.

Captain Marvel is called to the army base in his assumed identity as Dr. Walt Lawson. A new rocket, the Argos III, is being tested. It's being fired into space, where it will release deadly bacteria, because the army wants to know how the bacteria will be affected by cosmic rays. That's a weird experiment.

Yon-Rogg knocks the rocket off course and causes it to fall into the sea near the coast of New York. He tells Mar-Vell that he wants to unleash the bacteria on New York, and nobody should be allowed to prevent it.

The Sub-Mariner hears a warning about the bacteria, so he decides to bring the rocket safely to the surface. Captain Marvel prevents this by attacking him, but he's impressed by Sub-Mariner's nobility in wanting to save the surface people who have always been his enemies. Captain Marvel doesn't want Yon-Rogg to think he's a traitor, so he fights with Sub-Mariner, but deliberately loses. The rocket and its contents are destroyed before it can harm anyone.

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The Incredible Hulk #106

Title: Above the Earth a Titan rages!

Writer: Archie Goodwin & Roy Thomas
Artist: Herb Trimpe

Villain: Beast-Man (Missing Link), Yuri Brevloy

Regulars: General Ross, Major Talbot, Rick Jones, Betty Ross

Guests: Nick Fury, Dum Dum Dugan, Gabe Jones

This comic is mixed up. Archie Goodwin and Roy Thomas have written half each. In the second half a new character called Yuri Brevloy is introduced, but Nick Fury acts as if he's well known.

Someone must have agreed with me that Missing Link was a silly name for the monster, because he's called the Beast-Man in this comic. Nobody can understand his language, so both names are just nicknames used by the general public, not his real name.

Nobody except Stan Lee, that is. He understands every language on Earth. He understands every language in the universe. Even if you speak gibberish, he'll translate it into perfect English.

The Beast-Man still tries to kill Bruce Banner, even though he's no longer the Hulk. When he grips Bruce's arm the radiation makes him turn back into the Hulk, and the battle continues.

Nick Fury asks General Ross to stand down so that he can deal with the Beast-Man and the Hulk wrecking New York. The general grudgingly complies. Then a flying saucer appears and lifts the battling monsters with a levitation ray. Nick Fury says that only Yuri Brevlov could do something like that. Well, I could name half a dozen super-villains from Doctor Doom to the Mandarin, but I don't want to argue with Nick Fury. He was right anyway.

The fight is continued in the flying saucer, until the Man-Beast is finally killed in an explosion. The Hulk falls to Earth, where he rescues a young child from burning wreckage. Colonel Yuri Brevlov doesn't want to harm the child, but his duty is to kill the Hulk, so he prepares to fire.

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Captain America #104

Title: Slave of the Skull!

Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Jack Kirby

Villain: Red Skull, Exiles (General Ching, Iron Hand Hauptmann, Cadavus, Gruning,Krushki, Baldini)

Regulars: Sharon Carter

Guests: Nick Fury

Captain America is back at SHIELD, where he has to test the LMDs. If you've forgotten that LMD stands for Life Model Decoy, go to the back of the class.

The Red Skull reveals to Captain America that he has a nuclear tape on the back of his neck, with which he can cause him pain at the touch of a button. If Captain America removes the tape a hydrogen bomb will be detonated in Washington DC. A naive question: why doesn't the Red Skull detonate this bomb anyway, in order to cause panic in America?

The Red Skull calls Captain America back to his island, where he has to face the leading Exiles. They're generic villains, and I won't repeat their names here. You can read the list above. Captain America has no difficulty defeating them, but the Red Skull crushes him by using the nuclear tape against him.

In the meantime, SHIELD has found and defused the hydrogen bomb. He sends a SHIELD squad led by Sharon Carter to rescue Captain America. Sharon removes the nuclear tape.

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Amazing Spider-Man #63

Title: Wings in the Night!

Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: John Romita

Villain: Vulture, new Vulture, Kraven (flashback)

Regulars: Captain Stacy, Gwen Stacy, Harry Osborn, J. Jonah Jameson, Betty Brant, Norman Osborn

Do you remember how the Vulture was dying in Amazing Spider-Man #48, so he gave his wings to his cellmate Blackie Drago? He recovered, and he started a fire before he escaped from prison. Everyone assumed that he perished in the flames. The Vulture rescues Blackie Drago from prison, but not to do him a favour. He wants to defeat him in public, so that the world can see who the real Vulture is.

Spider-Man interrupts the fight, and the Vulture (the original one) attacks him instead. Spider-Man has to rescue a child from a building. That's the second time a child has been saved this month. See Hulk #106. This leaves him weakened for his battle with the Vulture.

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Thor #155

Title: Now ends the Universe!

Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Jack Kirby

Villain: Loki, Norn Queen, Mangog

Regulars: Odin, Sif, Balder, Fandral, Hogun, Volstagg

Guests: Ego, Recorder

In many of the instalments of "Tales of Asgard", which took place in the distant past, there was talk of Ragnarok, the Twilight of the Gods. Now it's happening in the present day. The Mangog wishes to unleash Ragnarok and destroy the universe by unsheathing the Odinsword. This is to get revenge on Odin for destroying his people. Before they died, the strength of all the billions of warriors were gathered into Mangog alone.

Loki has taken Odin's place on the throne during the Odinsleep, and he doesn't suspect how great the crisis is. All he's interested in is killing Thor.

Balder wants to join in the fight against the Mangog, but the Norn Queen won't let him leave her. She wakes undead warriors to hold him back.

Sif has recovered after her hospital rest. Together with Thor she travels to Asgard to do battle. Thor gives her the task of guarding Odin while he sleeps.

Everyone who faces the Mangog as he approaches Asgard is easily defeated. Finally it's Thor's turn.

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X-Men #47

Title: The Warlock wears three faces!

Writer: Gary Friedrich
Artist: Werner Roth

X-Men: Beast, Iceman, Cyclops (vision), Angel (vision), Marvel Girl (vision)

Villain: Warlock

Regulars: Vera, Zelda

Professor X is dead, and the X-Men have been ordered to split up by Agent Duncan of the FBI, whatever his first name is. Hank McCoy and Bobby Drake remain in New York. They can't leave, that's where their girlfriends live.

In X-Men #30 Professor X put Warlock into a deep sleep that would last a hundred years. Time flies. Now he's in Greenwich Village posing as a hypnotist called Maha Yogi. He's not just putting on a show, he's putting a hidden trigger into the minds of the audience to become his slaves whenever he summons them. Hank and Bobby recognise his voice, so they do battle and defeat him while their girlfriends patiently wait outside.

So what does Stan Lee have to say in the Crazy Credits? The scripting is superb. The layouts are lavish. The pencilling is peerless. The inking is illustrious. That's all true. But what does he have to say about the lettering? It's legible. Really? Is that all that he has to say about the hard work that Artie Simek has put into the comic?

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This issue contains an Iceman featurette, in which Bobby Drake explains to the readers how his powers work. It's so inaccurate that I've declared it non-canon. Arnold Drake should be ashamed of himself for not reading the old issues before picking up his pen to write.

In these panels Bobby – misspelt Bobbie – says he had the form of a snowman before he joined the X-Men. No. He had this snowy form up to X-Men #8. And it wasn't Professor X who helped him gain an ice form, it was Cyclops as acting leader while Professor X was absent.

Here's the proof, from the pages of X-Men #8.

It's embarrassing. Marvel has been printing super-hero comics for less than 10 years, but the writers are already losing track of what went before.

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The Avengers #55

Title: Mayhem over Manhattan!

Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: John Buscema

Avengers: Hawkeye, Goliath, Wasp, Black Panther

Villain: Crimson Cowl / Ultron-5, Masters of Evil (Klaw, Whirlwind, Melter, Radioactive Man)

Regulars: Jarvis

Guests: Black Knight

At the end of the last issue the Crimson Cowl was unmasked and we saw he was only a robot. Then a second Crimson Cowl stepped forward, claiming to be the real Crimson Cowl. He was Jarvis, the Avengers' butler, or more accurately Tony Stark's butler.

Now we find that it was all a ruse. Jarvis was hypnotised into claiming he was the Crimson Cowl. The robot itself is the real Crimson Cowl, and he calls himself Ultron-5.

Ultron-5. whose name I'll shorten to Ultron for reasons that'll become obvious in future issues, says he'll hold America to ransom by hovering over the Empire State Building with a hydrogen bomb. In order to gain revenge on the Avengers he has sealed them inside the outer casing of the bomb.

Jarvis escapes and alerts the Black Knight to the danger. He says that he only betrayed the Avengers to the Masters of Evil because he had no money to pay for his mother's medical bills, and he expected the Avengers to win anyway. Come on, Jarvis, your boss is one of the world's richest men! I'm sure Tony Stark would have handed over a few thousand dollars without blinking.

The Black Knight frees the Avengers, and the Masters of Evil flee. But who is the robot, and why does he/it want revenge on the Avengers?

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Other comics published this month:

Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos Annual #4 (Gary Friedrich, Dick Ayers)

Millie the Model #161 (Stan Lee, Stan Goldberg)
Rawhide Kid #65 (Larry Lieber, Larry Lieber)
Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #57 (Gary Friedrich, Tom Sutton)
Captain Savage and his Leatherneck Raiders #5 (Arnold Drake, Dick Ayers)
Not Brand Echh #9 (Roy Thomas, Marie Severin)