We’re working on getting our image-posting powers back. For now, all the covers of the books I’m talking about are visible here. And no, there’s no particular reason for picking this month other than I”m way stressed for time and my mind found this the easiest thing to write. For visuals, I’ve plucked relevant images from storage.
Amazing Spider-Man #85 reveals “The Secret of the Schemer” by Stan Lee and John Buscema. For the previous two issues the Kingpin has been battling a new rival, the Schemer, who appears to have some connection with the Kingpin’s beloved wife, Vanessa. In this issue, we learn the truth: the Schemer’s the Kingpin’s son. Devoted to his awesome father, his heart broke when Dad was exposed as the Kingpin of Crime (which seems a little drastic — at this point the Kingpin hasn’t been convicted of anything). Humiliated further by his classmates’ sneering, the kid faked his death, then set about trying to force Dad to quit the rackets. The shock of this reveal sends the Kingpin into a nervous breakdown from which he won’t recover for (I believe) two years. It’s melodramatic as hell, but Stan Lee was a master at making melodrama work.
A second development of note is Peter finally finding a way to explain how he takes such amazing photos. As Spider-Man he informs the Staceys that he tips Peter off to where and when there’s going to be some action, then they split the proceeds. It’s a clever idea (though it gets forgotten later, then revived, then forgotten …) though I’m puzzled why Peter makes Spidey sound so belligerent towards himself — the last thing he’d want is for people to think Spider-Man’s a thug.
Avengers #77, “Heroes for Hire” (Buscema again, and Roy Thomas), introduces black super-mercenary Luke Cage … no, wait, it introduces corrupt gazillionaire Cornelius Van Lunt, that’s it! Van Lunt is putting the financial screws to Tony Stark but agrees to drop the pressure if the Avengers go to work for him. In the scene on the cover, they’re clearing a building off his property so that he can sell it the site to the city at a fat markup.
Is that cheaper than a regular demolition? Probably not; Van Lunt’s goals seem more the pleasure of reducing the heroes to “hired help” than money. I suspect as he plays a large role in some upcoming stories (most of you probably know this), Roy was setting that up by introducing the corrupt financier ahead of time.
Thomas certainly didn’t seem engaged by the Avengers’ crimefighting this issue, as their opponents are the Split Second Squad, C-listers who’d find the Detroit League an overwhelming adversary. As several readers have observed, they look like leftover henchmen from the Adam West Batman (“Sweet William! Onionhead! Captain Scragg! Use the steamroller to turn Batman and Robin into Flatman and Ribbon!”)
Captain America #126, “The Fate … of the Falcon,” by Lee and Colan. In contrast to his Spidey work, Lee ain’t bringing his A-game to this book (as I’ve mentioned before). In #125, Steve recovered from breaking up with Sharon (I’ll be blogging about that when I can post images) by rescuing a peace activist from Vietnam, where it turns out both sides desperately want peace. It’s the Mandarin, acting as an outside agitator, who’s keeping the war going, confident that it will eventually turn nuclear, after which he will ruin the ravaged post-apocalyptic world (This popular evil option doesn’t seem like an appealing choice to me — but then again, plenty of our current techbros seem to think dominating a ruined planet would be awesome). Cap returns from ‘nam to NYC this issue and discovers the Falcon’s become a wanted fugitive.
When Steve catches up with Sam, his erstwhile partner reveals the Diamond Heads, radical hate-mongering black activists, have framed him as a threat to their plans. Which aren’t radical at all — they’re using black revolutionary talk to cover up that they’re just a crime ring (Diamond-Head to the Sons of the Serpent: hold my beer!)! Much like Lee’s recent campus-protest story, it implies radicalism might sort of be bad (real Americans negotiate and work things out reasonably!) but without coming right out and taking a stand (I imagine it’s close to the Jericho plotline Marv Wolfman and Len Wein planned for Teen Titans).
And while the villains give a reason for their name — they’re hard, cold and sharp-edged, like diamonds — it doesn’t work for me even for a fake black power group. When the Falcon referenced them a few years later I assumed Diamondhead must be some sort of Hawaiian criminal; that would have made more sense.
Captain Marvel #20, “The Hunter and the Holocaust,” by Roy and Gil Kane, returns the Big Kree Cheese and Rick Jones to action after six months off the stands (explained as Rick refusing to trade places with Mar-Vell all that time). I wish I knew what inspired them to bring the book back for two issues only to drop it again for two years. I’m even more curious why the cover doesn’t play up that the Hulk is guest starring, which would surely have convinced a few more readers to plunk down 15 cents.
The story is heavy on recapping the new status quo with Rick and Mar-Vell being linked by the Nega-Bands but the adversaries are enjoyably slimy: the Rat Pack are looters who swoop in on disaster areas before the rescue workers and National Guard arrive, steal whatever they can carry, then split. They’re the high point (or low point, depending how you look at it) of the story.
Daredevil # 65, “The Killing of Brother Brimstone” by Roy and Gene Colan, is fun. Karen Page is acting on Strange Secrets, the MU’s Dark Shadows counterpart. The lead actor, Ross Archer, playing the demonic Brother Brimstone, is a belligerent jerk on a good day, and he’s getting more violent now that he knows he’s being written out. Only if he’s going psycho on his castmates … how come he ends up one of the murder victims? It’s very reminiscent of the Basil Karlo Clayface from the Golden Age, though “deranged actor” is a common enough villain in mysteries that I wouldn’t bet money on it.
In Fantastic Four #99 (Lee and Jack Kirby), “The Torch Goes Wild” because his girlfriend, Crystal, is still with the Inhumans, months after they summoned her home. Obviously they’re keeping her prisoner or she’d have returned to him! Fine, he’ll have a Hero vs. Hero with them all until he gets his woman back!
Of course there’s a rational explanation — Black Bolt needs a power transfusion from Crystal for his health — and Crystal correctly points out Johnny’s being an idiot. Alas, lampshading the idiot plot aspect doesn’t make it less idiotic. And seriously, why didn’t she call or send Lockjaw with a message so he’d know why she wasn’t returning yet? Lockjaw can, after all, go anywhere.
This could be a sign the relationship was doomed — I don’t think they meet again before she fell for Quicksilver — but more likely Stan and Jack were just filling pages.
Hulk #128, “And in This Corner … the Avengers!” by Thomas and Herb Trimpe, is yet another in the endless string of Hulk Smash fight stories. And yet another that ends with Hulk collapsing back into Bruce Banner and passing out while his adversaries walk past him looking for Jade Jaws. However I do like Thunderbolt Ross’s dismay when he learns the Avengers he’s recruited don’t include Thor or Iron Man — seriously, Wasp and Black Panther against the Hulk?
Iron Man #26, “Duel in a Dark Dimension,” is by Archie Goodwin (a plus) and Don Heck (a minus). Happy Hogan alerts his boss that the Collector is holding Pepper hostage until Iron Man delivers the Freak to him; Happy has no idea he is the Freak. To save Pepper Iron Man winds up in a Dark Dimension — not, as far as we know, the same ones Dormammu or the Night Crawler (from a recent Hulk issue wrapping up Dr. Strange’s battle with the Undying Ones) rule over — and teams up with Val-Lar, freedom fighter with the mighty Solar Sword. It’s very much a sword-and-sorcery setting, coming out right before Conan made his Marvel debut.
As for the multiple Dark Dimensions, it could be Val-Lar’s realm is a small outpost in Dormammu’s realm. Then again, if he and Night Crawler both live in dimensions that are dark, why not call it a Dark Dimension? It’s not like the supernatural realm has a domain-name registry.
In Silver Surfer #17, “The Surfer Must Kill” (Lee and Buscema), Mephisto, having supposedly seized Shalla-Bal as a hostage, forces the Silver Surfer to destroy SHIELD. The Surfer however, proves as good at hair-splitting as the demon — sure, he’ll destroy SHIELD’s HQ but he darn well won’t kill anyone while he does it! I’d like it better if he hadn’t battled against Spider-Man and the Human Torch in two of the previous three issues, and wasn’t battling the Inhumans in the follow-up final issue. Critical as I’ve been of Lee’s work on the title, I do think his earlier stuff was better than a series of Hero vs. Hero fights.
Sub-Mariner #26, “Kill, Cried the Raven” (Thomas and Sal Buscema) follows up on X-Men #44 which reintroduced Red Raven to the Marvel Universe. That story had Red Raven raise the bird people’s sunken island from the sea long enough to meet Angel, then submerge it again. Now humanity has discovered the island and brought Red Raven and his people to a lab in New York. Namor goes there to revive the winged hero, hoping to forge a defensive alliance with the bird people against human aggression. Red Raven, however, has adopted a more aggressive stance towards humans so it’s hero vs. hero again. At the finish, Subby’s winged foe discovers putting his people into suspended animation actually killed them, after which Red Raven and the lab blow up real good.
I’m puzzled by that ending. As the island was in suspended animation why not just leave it there until Thomas thought of something to do with it (I doubt anyone else cared)? Was Roy washing his hands of Red Raven now that his superhero team with Bucky wasn’t going to come off? I don’t think Marvel was really invested in bringing back any Golden Age heroes beyond Cap and Sub-Mariner at this point. Stan Lee turned down Roy’s proposal to revive the Golden Age Vision (hence Roy creating the android version), the Human Torch came back only to die —
and then his sidekick Toro came back and died in Sub-Mariner #14.
Thor #177, “To End in Flames,” by Lee and Kirby, is the final chapter of the latest Thor vs. Loki struggle. While their father enters the Odinsleep, Loki took over Asgard by the simple expedient of stealing Odin’s ring and putting it on his own finger (which is legit under Asgardian law — so much for Odin being all-wise). Loki then pulls the Asgardian equivalent of setting dad out on an ice flow to die, securing his rule. Too bad that without Odin’s power, Surtur is now free to attack the Realm Eternal! This issue is pure action as Thor leads Asgard’s warriors against Surtur while Balder almost dies recovering Odin’s body. It’s not up to the peak level of a few years earlier, but it’s still solidly entertaining.
As I don’t have this month’s issues of Chamber of Darkness, Millie the Model (or as the cover says Mmmillie the Model), Sgt. Fury, Rawhide Kid and so on, that’s all, she wrote. Art top to bottom by Jim Mooney, Gil Kane, Jack Kirby, Don Heck, and Kirby again.
“However I do like Thunderbolt Ross’s dismay when he learns the Avengers he’s recruited don’t include Hulk or Iron Man — seriously, Wasp and Black Panther against the Hulk?”
I think that first ‘Hulk’ is a typo? Did you mean Thor maybe?
“when Dad was exposed as the Kingpin of Crime… Humiliated further by his classmates’ sneering,”
A kid’s father is revealed to be the Kingpin of crime, and that’s how Stan Lee thinks his classmates would react? Not ‘wow, that’s so cool!’
“When Steve catches up with Sam, his erstwhile partner reveals the Diamond Heads”
The name would later be used for a villain for the original Nova.
“the Rat Pack are looters who swoop in on disaster areas before the rescue workers and National Guard arrive, steal whatever they can carry, then split. ”
Huh. I wonder if that’s where the Spider-Man: Homecoming people got their idea for The Vulture? I always assumed it was because vultures are scavengers and now he’s actually being a scavenger.
(Of course, that’s not a contradiction. Both those things could be true.)
You’re right about that “hulk” Edited accordingly.
2)I remember Diamondhead from Nova. A much better use of the name.
3)If they borrowed from the Rat Pack I’d be impressed as they’re damn obscure — that would take some sharp nerdy knowledge.