Fantastic Four #132
Title: Omega! The Ultimate Enemy!
Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: John Buscema
Fantastic Four: Reed Richards, Ben Grimm, Johnny Storm, Medusa
Villain: Maximus, Omega,
Regulars: Black Bolt, Gorgon, Karnak, Triton, Crystal
Guests: Quicksilver
This is a landmark issue. The Fantastic Four has a new member: Medusa! It happens at the end of the issue.
The Thing suffers from Clobberitus Interruptus. He begins to yell his battle cry, but can't complete it: It's clobbering time! There! I said it for him.
The Human Torch, Quicksilver and Crystal fight against Omega, the giant leader of the Alpha Primitives. Strangely, he grows larger whenever Crystal attacks him. The other Inhumans join in the fight, and Omega grows even more.
Reed Richards demands that the battle stop. He reveals that a Perpetual Motion Device (TM) built by Maximus is channelling the Inhumans' hatred for the Alpha Primitives and making Omega ever stronger. If the Inhumans stop fighting and respect the Alpha Primitives as living beings the danger will cease.
The Inhumans have invented an Electro-Weave (TM) that will repair the Fantastic Four's torn costumes. Among other things. It can turn any outfit into a new Fantastic Four costume.
The Electro-Weave gives Medusa the sexiest Fantastic Four costume I've ever seen. She asks to be made a member, and there's no way they can turn her down.
The Human Torch is given a red costume.
Mr. Fantastic retains his old blue costume.
The Thing refuses to let himself be treated by the Electro-Weave. I think he's scared that he'll be given a tiny blue loincloth.
Johnny Storm bids farewell to Crystal. He makes light of it, saying he has a long-standing date with Doris Evans. What? Has she waited all this time for him? They last spoke on the phone seven years ago in Fantastic Four #45, and the last time we saw her in person was another six months earlier in Strange Tales #133. I don't know any women who would wait that long for a man to return their affection, even if he is a superhero.
The Incredible Hulk #161
Title: Beyond the Border lurks Death!
Writer: Steve Englehart
Artist: Herb Trimpe
Guests: Beast, Vera, Mimic (Cal Rankin)
Did you notice the announcement at the bottom of this page? Handsome Herb Trimpe has got married! If you want to know who he's married, you need to read the Bullpen page.
He's married Linda Fite, the woman who writes "The Cat". The two ought to team up and make it Marvel's greatest comic. It would be their love child.
Note the small error on the splash page. The Mimic is called a mutant menace, but he isn't a mutant. He gained his powers as the result of an experiment conducted by his father. This is a minor slip. In the body of the comic Steve Englehart describes the Mimic's origin, so he evidently knew he wasn't a mutant.
After visiting Niagara Falls the Hulk has been leaping northwards into Quebec. He notices that when he leaps in a certain direction he gets weaker, so he continues in that direction to investigate.
This story continues from Amazing Adventures #16. Vera visited Hank MCoy to request his help on an unspecified task. This task leads them into Quebec, to the same destination as the Hulk. In recent years she's been dating Cal Rankin, the Mimic, who we last saw in X-Men #29. His power has been steadily increasing. Instead of just mimicking the powers of others, he drains their powers, weakening them to the point of death. He's also beginning to drain the strength of normal people, which is why he's hiding in the woods. He wants the help of a biochemist like Hank McCoy to cure him.
The Hulk arrives and he battles the Mimic, but he's been weakened too much to defeat him. The Mimic absorbs the Hulk's gamma radiation, killing himself in the process. Supposedly.
Captain America and the Falcon #159
Title: The Crime Wave Breaks!
Writer: Steve Englehart
Artist: Sal Buscema
Villain: Cowled Commander (Sgt. Muldoon), Viper, Plant-Man, Porcupine, Eel, Scarecrow
Regulars: Sharon Carter, Leila Taylor
The Viper is being aided by Plant-Man, Porcupine, Eel and Scarecrow. They were last seen as a team working for Count Nefaria in X-Men #23, but Plant-Man has been seen more recently in Sub-Mariner #3.
Captain America's strength is increasing sporadically. After being trapped by the villains he rips open steel plates with his bare hands. He suspects that the Viper's chemicals, the poison and the antidote, have had a lasting effect on him.
The Caped Commander is unmasked as Sgt. Muldoon. He has good intentions. He thinks the police force has grown too soft, so he's hired villains to force the police to take their job more seriously.
Hero For Hire #7
Title: Jingle Bombs!
Writer: Steve Englehart
Artist: George Tuska
Villain: unnamed madman
Regulars: Claire Temple, Noah Burstein
It's Christmas Eve. That's when comic readers bought this comic. because Marvel's comics were published three months before the cover date. If someone can explain this to me in five words or less, please leave a comment.
Luke Cage fights with a British soldier who's beating up a boy who's selling newspapers too expensive.
Luke Cage shows sympathy to a Vietnam veteran, who then starts firing a gun as a result of PTSD.
Luke Cage fights with a costumed madman who claims nobody is allowed to be on the street.
All three are the same man. He intends to explode an atom bomb in Manhattan and start World War Three. He was on the street in disguise to prove that there's nobody good in the world. He was wrong, as proved by Luke Cage's intervention, but that doesn't stop his plan to destroy the world.
Once more, Luke Cage has to fight evil without being paid for it.
Avengers #109
Title: The Measure of a Man!
Writer: Steve Englehart
Artist: Don Heck
Avengers: Hawkeye, Vision, Scarlet Witch, Black Panther, Iron Man, Thor
Villain: Mr. Champion
Disappointed that the Scarlet Witch loves the Vision more than him, Hawkeye decides to leave the Avengers. He's offered a job by a millionaire, Mr. Champion. He wants Hawkeye to teach him archery, because he's already an expert in every other sport.
Mr. Champion has a natural aptitude, and he soon becomes a master archer. He reveals that he wants to steal nerve gas that's been sunk off the coast of California since 1942. To access it he'll explode bombs along the San Andreas fault and sink California into the sea.
He takes Hawkeye prisoner. The Scarlet Witch has intuition that he's in danger, so she brings the other Avengers to rescue him. Mr. Champion's plan is foiled.
Hawkeye reiterates that he's not just taking a leave-of-absence, he's quitting the Avengers for good. But you know what they say? Once an Avenger, always an Avenger. He'll be back.
Thor #209
Title: Warriors in the Night
Writer: Gerry Conway
Artist: John Buscema
Villain: Demon Druid
Thor's search for Sif has brought him to London. The energy unleashed when he changes into Donald Blake wakes a creature beneath the Earth. He's called the Demon Druid, and not even Thor's power can stop him.
Eventually an anthropologist calls on Thor to stop fighting. The Demon Druid doesn't have any evil intentions, he just wants to walk to Stonehenge. From there he'll return to the planet he came from.
This is another dull story.
Amazing Spider-Man #118
Awful, non-canon junk. Did Marvel ever apologise for this three-part story, which thankfully comes to an end this issue?
Daredevil and the Black Widow #97
Title: He who saves
Writer: Gerry Conway, Steve Gerber
Artist: Gene Colan
Villain: Dark Messiah
Wait! Did I miss something?
Last issue the water supply was poisoned, turning San Francisco's residents into monsters. The person who invented the serum was killed by the Man-Bull, so there's no antidote. This month there's no mention of it. Maybe the effects were only temporary, and the monsters turned back into normal people, but there were thousands, maybe even millions of them, so to simply forget about it is bad writing. I can understand Gerry Conway making mistakes like this, because he's always making mistakes, but Gene Colan should have pointed it out to him.
Anyway... life goes on as usual in the demonstered city. A young street acrobat is distracted by a dog and bangs his head. He's taken to hospital, but he's forgotten in the corridor, and an old man steals him.
Daredevil stops a robbery by masked criminals, who are all youths. As Matt Murdock he's asked to defend them.
A large man with super-powers called the Dark Messiah releases criminals from prison. He knocks Daredevil almost unconscious. As the issue comes to an end, three other large men stand over him.
I'm sorry to say it, but this is a very poor story, even without the monsters being forgotten.
Iron Man #56
Title: Rasputin's revenge!
Writer: Steve Gerber
Artist: Jim Starlin
Villain: Rasputin, Fangor
Guests: Doctor Strange. Jarvis
Normally I'm not a fan of throwaway one-issue villains, but I have to make an exception for this story. Steve Gerber, a new writer at Marvel, has a madness in his style that sets him apart from all of Marvel's other writers.
Rasputin is a former grammar school teacher who has devoted his life to the study of Tavi, a dark God. He's built an object called the Tavi-Stick that can harness the power of Tavi. In Central Park he gives life to a giant statue of a creature called Fangor, called the Evil of All Men. Iron Man manages to destroy it.
This is a simple little story, but cute. It's worth reading.
Sub-Mariner #59
Title: Thunder over the seas!
Writer: Bill Everett, Steve Gerber
Artist: John Tartaglione
Regulars: Vashti, Tamara, Namorita
Guests: Thor
An Atlantean guard called Lorvex lusts after Tamara, even though she's the wrong colour. He offers to show her the sights of the ocean bed, as a ruse to seduce her. She refuses his advances and swims away, getting lost. She's caught by a Russian trawler, and then taken by an American ship to New York. The United Nations argues about who she belongs to.
Namor goes to New York to free her, and he finds her being guarded by Thor. Namor is defeated, and Tamara remains a prisoner.
This story isn't very satisfying. Thor doesn't talk and act like the hero we know.
Night Nurse #3
Title: Murder stalks Ward 8!
Writer: Jean Thomas
Artist: Winslow Mortimer
Regulars: Christine Palmer (flashback), Georgia Jenkins
Two gangsters dump a man in the hospital. It's too late for that. He's dead.
Linda Carter identifies one of the men in police photos as Bronson, a mob hitman.
Georgia's brother has been sentenced to a minimum of 10 years for threatening to destroy the hospital generator in Night Nurse #1. She's angry that the man who's really responsible, gang boss Victor Sloan, hasn't been charged.
Christine Palmer has disappeared since last issue.
On Christmas Eve another man is brought in with gunshot wounds. It's Victor Sloan. Georgia doesn't want to help him, but Linda reminds her of their duty as nurses.
"With loyalty will I endeavour to aid the physician in his work and devote myself to the welfare of those committed to my care".
Police officers stand guard outside Sloan's room, but they're called away by false detectives. Linda Carter pushes Sloan's bed into a store room to hide him. A man comes to assassinate Sloan. Linda recognises him as Bronson.
After a scuffle with a young doctor, Linda Carter grabs Bronson's gun and holds him until the police arrive.
This is a very well written story, a forgotten Marvel classic. I wonder if Roy Thomas helped his wife with the plot. If not, he can be very proud of her.
Captain Marvel #25
Title: A Taste of Madness!
Writer: Mike Friedrich
Artist: Jim Starlin
Villain: Super-Skrull, Skragg, Masterlord
Regulars: Rick Jones, Lou-Ann Savannah
After treading water for a few months, the Captain Marvel series finally reaches peaks of brilliance. Even though he is only credited as the artist, Jim Starlin is obviously responsible for this story's plot.
Captain Marvel is attacked by a group of robots. They've been sent to test his strength. He's weaker than usual. The photon rays that Professor Savannah used to heal Rick Jones in Captain Marvel #22 have made his body light sensitive, i.e. at night his strength is halved. An unseen enemy called the Masterlord already suspected this.
Captain Marvel changes back to Rick Jones and visits Professor Savannah. He's been shot dead, and Rick is arrested. He manages to change back to Captain Marvel in the police cell, but he's attacked by a series of his old enemies, many of whom should be dead. It's a ruse to drive him mad. Two Skrulls who work for the Masterlord, Super-Skrull (last seen in Avengers #94) and Skragg, are impersonating these enemies.
Captain Marvel defeats the Skrulls after the sun rises. The Skrulls flee, and Captain Marvel is determined to find out who the Masterlord is.
Marvel Feature #8
This is a Dreaded Deadline Doom (DDD) issue. The comic wasn't ready on time when it had to be sent to the printer, so emergency measures had to be taken. Craig Russell had only drawn two pages, so the rest of the issue was filled up with a reprint of Tales To Astonish #44, the origin of the Wasp. Note that the text on the cover tries to gloss this over, pretending it's something that the reader wants.
Marvel Premiere #7
Title: The Shadows of the Starstone!
Writer: Gardner Fox
Artist: Craig Russell
Villain: Dagoth
Regulars: Wong, Clea
This is a comic that Craig Russell managed to finish on time. The artwork is excellent throughout, but I'm starting to dislike Gardner Fox's story. He doesn't have a feeling for Doctor Strange. The whole Shuma-Gorath storyline is something that would go well in a horror anthology comic, but it's not an adventure for the Master of the Mystic Arts.
Doctor Strange has to go to England, to Penmallow in Cornwall, to continue his search for the followers of Shuma-Gorath. He goes ahead, using his Cloak of Levitation, and he asks Clea and Wong to follow him. This is a blunder by Gardner Fox. Clea only has limited mystical abilities, so she would be in the way rather than helping Doctor Strange. Wong's only ability is making cups of tea, so he's totally useless in a fight. Gardner Fox should have researched the characters before he started writing.
Doctor Strange fights with an undersea creature called Dagoth off the coast of Cornwall. The story doesn't live up to the first class artwork .
The seven-part Shuma-Gorath story (of which this is the fourth part) has an epic feeling about it, but it's disjointed, due to the swapping and changing of the artists and writers. It ends very nicely after a shaky start.
Tomb of Dracula #7
Title: Night of the Death Stalkers!
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Artist: Gene Colan
Regulars: Frank Drake, Rachel Van Helsing, Taj, Quincy Harker, Edith Harker, Clifton Graves
Kills: One man (total 12)
Embraces: None (total 3)
This issue marks the arrival of Marv Wolfman as the regular writer for Tomb Of Dracula. Apart from giving consistency to the series, he'll lead the stories to new levels of grandeur.
Dracula travels to London on an unstated mission. He's followed by Rachel Van Helsing, Frank Drake and Taj. There they meet Quincy Harker and his daughter Edith. Quincy is the son of Jonathan and Mina Harker, the main characters in Bram Stoker's Dracula novel. This establishes the novel as canon to support the comic book series.
Quincy Harker is wheelchair-bound, but he's still an active vampire fighter who invents new gadgets and weapons for fighting vampires.
Dracula hypnotises a group of young schoolboys to act as his army.
The arrival of Marv Wolfman heralds new rules for Marvel's vampire lore, some of them stated in advance on the splash page.
The rules for Marvel's Dracula:
The vampire can direct the elements, i.e. the thunder and the snow.
The vampire can become like mist.
The vampire can command all the meaner animals, like the rat and the wolf.
Dracula can hypnotise others to obey his will. (He's already done this in past issues, but I forgot to mention it as part of Marvel's vampire lore).
Werewolf by Night #4
Title: The Danger Game!
Writer: Gerry Conway
Artist: Mike Ploog
Villain: Joshua Kane
Regulars: Lissa Russell
A big game hunter called Joshua Kane has trapped the Werewolf on an old film set, so that he can shoot him as the ultimate trophy. Obviously, Kraven the Hunter would have been more suitable as a villain than a throwaway clone, but Gerry Conway isn't to blame. At this time Marvel was keeping its monster characters (Dracula, Werewolf, Frankenstein's Monster) separate from the Marvel Universe. As proof, here's the reply to a letter in Marvel Spotlight #4 in which a reader suggested a battle between Spider-Man and the Werewolf:
In this issue we also see that Lissa knows her brother is the Werewolf, and she fears that she'll one day become a Werewolf as well. A female wolf is called a she-wolf, so would that make her a She-Werewolf or a Were-She-Wolf?
The Monster of Frankenstein #2
Title: Bride of the Monster!
Writer: Gary Friedrich
Artist: Mike Ploog
A fire breaks out on Captain Walton's ship. The monster saves the life of a young sailor, but other sailors misinterpret his action and try to kill him. He climbs up the ship's mast with the boy.
Captain Walton continues to relate the story of the monster, as written in Mary Shelley's novel. We hear how the monster befriended a poor family, then took revenge on Frankenstein after he failed to make a bride for him.
The ship is heading towards an iceberg.
Non-canon comics published this month:
Amazing Spider-Man #118 (Gerry Conway, John Romita)
Marvel Team-Up #7 (Gerry Conway, Ross Andru)
Conan the Barbarian #24 (Roy Thomas, Barry Smith)
Kull the Conqueror #7 (Gerry Conway, Marie Severin)
Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #108 (Gary Friedrich, Dick Ayers)
Red Wolf #6 (Gardner Fox, Syd Shores)
Creatures on the Loose #22 (George Effinger, Val Mayerik)
Chamber of Chills #3 (Roy Thomas, Frank Brunner)
Spoof #3 (Stu Schwartzberg, Marie Severin)
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