A Comic A Day - Box 3

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

Well here we are to my third box of unread comics. For those who haven't followed, theoretically I read a comic a day of comics I bought and never got around to reading. Some of them going back to the early '90s (well when I bought them I should say). I will review some of those comics. I tried to post one once a week, but I do get lazy. 

 

Enjoy!

[Philip Portelli]

I liked their outfits! You should look up their true Golden Age looks for really bad!

I think Roy Thomas liked being able to use the Whizzer, Miss America and Red Raven as stand-ins for the Flash, Wonder Woman and Hawkman. Jack Frost was a reversed Human Torch, the Thin Man sort of resembled Plastic Man and the Blue Diamond always reminded of Hourman. I couldn't tell you why.

The Patriot was a character with some potential. An ordinary man, inspired by Captain America, doesn't think that he's anywhere as good as Cap, becomes a leader and is destined to be Captain America (III).

So I'm not ashamed to say: I always liked the Liberty Legion! They are the predecessors to the Twelve!

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

Maybe you should check out those costumes again. When was the last time you looked at 'em?  ;)

 

My fashion sense when I was 6 was better than some of those Golden Age costumes, so the bar isn't set very high there. I like the idea of the Liberty Legion, just this particular comic was pretty boring. Maybe they had more exciting adventures later.

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

Marvel Team-Up #26

October 1974

Cover art by: Gil Kane

 

 

Story: Fire This Time...!

Writer: Len Wein

Penciler: Jim Mooney

Inkers: Frank Giacola & Dave Hunt

 

Well the Human Torch is following some flaming footprints when he is attacked by a man made of lava who believes the Torch is an assassin to kill him. The pair fight for a bit, but the Torch eventually convinces the being that he is not trying kill him. The lava man collapses and tells the Torch he is dying. He pleads with Johnny to summon Thor before he dies. Johnny does so, of course, by writing a fire sign in the sky. Dr. Blake sees the writing, and soon transforms into Thor and meets with Human Torch and the lava man, Molto.

 

Molto tells Thor (and the Torch) that his people, the lava men, have take a machine built by the Mole Man, and plan to use it to erupt all of the volcanoes on the Earth at once to submerge the entire planet in lava. Before he dies, Molto tells them that they are going test the machine on Mauna Loa in Hawaii. Then he dies. Thor creates a vortex to take the pair to Hawaii. Thor makes a ditch to divert the oncoming lava flow from a village. The Human Torch absorbs as much of the heat as he can, and then novas the volcano to help stem the flow. Thor then summons a bunch of rain to stop the volcano completely.

 

Then somehow Mjolnir is somehow able to sense where the danger to the planet is coming from. He burrows through the earth, and the Torch makes sure the tunnels they are making doesn't collapse upon them. The duo arrive upon the lava men, and are soon knocked out before they really get to really get their fighting on. The shaman, Jinku, tells the Torch that letting Molto go was all part of their trap to lure Thor there. The fact that the Torch came as well is unfortunate, and they throw him into the lava.

 

Oh yeah the reason they lured Thor there was to use Mjolnir to power the Mole Man's device so it can cause all of the eruptions. Jinku creates some stone to put it in the machine since no living thing unworthy can pick it up. Fortunately, there is a slot perfect for the hammer. Unfortunately, when the hammer is away from Thor for more than sixty seconds it turns back into a a wooden cane, and Thor back in to Donald Blake. Stunned to see a human there, Blake grabs the cane and transforms back into Thor.

 

Thor destroys the Mole Man's machine with one blow, and when he begins to fight the lava men, The Human Torch reappears. And, he is bringing some friends, some Mole Men! He tells Thor that the lava reignited his flame. The lava men soon surrender, and go back deeper into their realm promising never to return.

 

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Man, it sure was fun reading an issue of Marvel Team-Up without Spider-man. A really fun issue pairing up Thor and the Human Torch. The most unbelievable part was that Mjolnir could “sense” where the bad stuff was going on. The only time I've ever seen the hammer do that. Plus, it is always nice to see Thor use his actual weather powers when he dowsed the volcano.

 

Jim Mooney does draw a fierce looking Thor if you ask me. Also that is one action packed cover.

 

I give it 38 hammers.

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

Marvel Team-Up #37

September 1975

Cover art by: Ed Hannigan & John Romita

 

Story: Snow Death!

Writer: Gerry Conway

Penciller: Sal Buscema

Inkers: Vince Coletta

 

Spider-man and Frankenstein's Monster are trapped in some castle with Agent Klemmer of S.H.I.E.L.D. Man-Wolf is being commanded by some dude named the Monster-Maker to kill them. He does attack, but grabs Klemmer and escapes through a window. Monster-Maker knocks out Spidey and Frankenstein's Monster with some sort of blast. When the two awake they are strapped to a table, and are soon to be killed by a laser. Spider-man asks what his deal is. Of course, Monster-Maker tells him. In a nutshell he seeks revenge on a cruel world, and plans to dissect them and Man-Wolf to create a creature with Frankie's strength, Spidey's agility, and Man-Wolf's appearance.

 

We then catch up with Man-Wolf and Klemmer. The are high on some mountain, and are being stalked by a pack of wolves. Man-Wolf fights them off, and then goes to hunt for food for Klemmer. When he does, she flees. When he returns he lets out a cry of anguish. Spider-man and friend escape the trap of course, and easily capture the Monster-Maker as they find him asleep at his desk, and Spidey just webs him up (how anticlimactic). The Wall Crawler then leaves to go look for Man-Wolf and Klemmer.

 

Spidey does find Man-Wolf easily, but sees no sign of Agent Klemmer. The two of them fight to a standstill, but Man-Wolf hears Klemmer's scream, and runs off to find her. The monster does, and sees she is surrounded by some more wolves. Man-Wolf attacks, and is gravely injured. Spider-Man catches up, and saves Man-Wolf from dying after he fell into a some snow down a cliff face. They pack up Man-Wolf for S.H.I.E.L.D. Spider-man and Klemmer have a discussion about hard it must be to be feared as a monster and stuff, blah, blah, blah. Frankenstein's Monster is there listening and leaves before they realize it. Then in a moment of clarity the two realize how dumb they were being. Really quite a touching story...not really.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

This wasn't that good of a comic honestly. It was “okay” at best. The fight scenes were kind of stiff. I'm sure it was popular look at the time, but that blocky, goofy looking Frankenstein's Monster didn't work for me. Catching the villain was such a let down since he was taking a nap. Plus, Spidey and Man-Wolf didn't really “team-up” at all. Good cover though.

 

I give it 17 howls at the moon

[Philip Portelli]

Plus the Monster-Maker was too campy and silly. He actually cried for his mommy! I liked the first part better with more focus on Frankie!

[David Warren]

Shouldn't that be "cried for his Mummy"?

Philip Portelli said:

Plus the Monster-Maker was too campy and silly. He actually cried for his mommy! I liked the first part better with more focus on Frankie!

[Philip Portelli]

I wanted to comment about the Human Torch-headed Marvel Team-Up before. You can see that they took very little risk with the pairings: the Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, Doctor Strange. I'm surprised they didn't include Captain America. Even the Iceman team-up was practically a given. The only really innovative issue was with the Son of Satan and he already met the Thing in Marvel Two-In-One.

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

*rimshot*

David Warren said:

Shouldn't that be "cried for his Mummy"?

Philip Portelli said:

Plus the Monster-Maker was too campy and silly. He actually cried for his mommy! I liked the first part better with more focus on Frankie!

[Luke Blanchard]

The stuff in Marvel Team-Up #26 about the hammer leading Thor to the Lava Men's weapon might be modelled after X-Men #9, in which Thor's hammer detects the danger posed by Lucifer's bomb and leads the Avengers to his location in Europe.

 

I've always liked the cover of Marvel Premiere #30 (my first comics shop had an image of the cover on one of its boxes), but I found the issue dull too.

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

Huh, who knew Thor's hammer had so many abilities? Thanks, Luke!

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

Marvel Team-Up #105

May 1981

Cover art by: Al Milgrom

 

 

Story: A Small Circle of Hate!

Writer: Mike Barr

Penciller: Carmine Infantino

Inkers: Mike Esposito

 

Well Power Man & Iron Fist are in their lawyer's plane looking for some thieves in a desert. They had heard the Hulk might be around and he is. He sees the plane flying overhead and figures all planes carry soldiers to hunt him down. The Green Goliath jumps up and tears off a wing. The plane is now in for a crash landing, and some desert hillbillies see the plane as it begins its plunge.

 

When the plane does crash Danny Rand has been knocked unconscious. Luke and the pilot exit the plane and drag Danny out. Luke then picks up the plane and tosses it away. The desert hillbillies see this, and the patriarch of the clan thinks that Luke is the Hulk. He shoots Power Man to try and get him to help the family with a problem. He laughs at them, but then the guy points his gun at the pilot, Carole, Luke agrees to help with their problem. It seems a landslide has covered up their spring from which they get their water. Including one huge boulder. He leaves Danny hidden from view.

 

Iron Fist wakes up later and realizes that if Luke had left him it was for good reason. Later he is meditating when the Hulk arrives, and decides to smash “Fist-Man”. Iron Fist attacks, but his blows do nothing to the Hulk. He then focuses his chi and this glowing energy mesmerizes the Hulk and cause him to revert back to Bruce Banner. The pair then go on to track Luke and Carole.

 

Back at the desert hillbillie's place Luke is moving the little rocks around, but can't get the big boulder to budge. The father's daughter then brings some water to Luke. The old man gets mad and attacks Luke for stealing his water. Banner sees this and turns back into the Hulk. Power Man and Iron Fist then begin to try and fend off the behemoth. They are of course mostly ineffectual. During the ensuing melee the Hulk destroys the boulder blocking the spring and the water hits him the face. This ticks him off even more and he sees some helicopters coming with some soldiers. The old man is about to shoot the Hulk when his daughter tries to stop him. He backhands her, and this causes Power Man to knock the guy out. This pacifies the Hulk enough that he scrams.

 

The girls begs to go back to NYC with Power Man & Iron Fist and they say yes. This leads to a backup with those three and Colleen Wing & Misty Knight which I didn't care for at all.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Man, I love the look of the Hulk's face on this cover. Similar to the scowl Luke Cage has actually. It was really weird for me to see Carmine Infantino doing Marvel work. Maybe he did a lot of it, and I just never saw it before. It was pretty good, just weird. The actual story itself was merely okay. I guess the boulder Power Man had to move was heavier than the plane, but all he had to do was use some leverage to roll it out of the way, and I don't see how he isn't strong enough to do that. Plus, it really is laughable to see those two try and take out the Hulk.

 

I give it 1,000 grains of desert sand.

[PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod]

Infantino drew issues of Spider-Woman, Nova, and Star Wars for Marvel. He also drew the first issue of Iron Man I bought.