Marvel's Great Pretenders! (Ask Mr. Silver Age, CBG #1694, Oct. 2012)

Philip Portelli August 23, 2012 at 7:46pm

Great article Mister SA! Very interesting and filled with fun facts but if I may, some quick comments and cover links:

10) Hobie Brown-- My biggest quibble was that you could have at least mentioned that Brown was the Prowler! Some heroes get no love! :-(
9) Despite putting his X-Men through this, Professor X's attitude is "So what! They'll get over it, the big babies!" And he wondered why he didn't Teacher of the Year...and he was the only teacher!
7) The Acrobat-- we talked about this Cap "preview" in another thread but I can't remember which! Still here, at least, his trunks are purple! But watch out for wet mops!
3) The Red Skull might of gotten away with it if he stop scowling and leering evilly!
1) I never heard referred as a Mad Scientist but as the Imposter. Regardless, it may be Marvel's greatest single-issue story!

Andrew Horn August 24, 2012 at 9:21am

Well since you asked, you forgot about the mind swap between Dr, Doom and Reed in FF#10 as well as the Chameleon posing as Spider-man in issue 1. But since you call the article "the greatest" it certainly leaves you room to argue.

As to doing a DC version, you'd probably need a 10 part series, but go ahead. I'm sure your choices will be interesting.
That being said, one signature example might re-start up that ol' goosing threat, so be careful.

Andy

Mr. Silver Age August 24, 2012 at 9:57am

his trunks are purple!

I would bet that someone caught the red-trunks gaffe on the cover and colored over the red with blue to get purple. Or they did it *right* on the cover, and someone realized they "should" be red to be consistent and colored over the blue. I can't figure why else they're purple.

I never heard referred as a Mad Scientist but as the Imposter. Regardless, it may be Marvel's greatest single-issue story!

The Official Marvel Index calls him "The Thing Imposter," which is probably what I should've gone with, I didn't think to look. I knew he didn't have a name. The page you link to calls him "Unnamed Scientist" if you click through, which isn't really better.

since you asked, you forgot

That's the beauty of Top 10 lists. I didn't "forget" anyone, I ran out of room. I'm sure those guys tied for #11. Actually, they could've been there, but then it would've been a pretty heavy Spidey/FF list.

I'm thinking if I do a DC version, I'll have to leave out all Superman-Batman switches and possibly do a separate column on those, if there is enough interest (which I doubt). But yes, I have to think that my favorite comic of all time would probably make the list. I knew the job was dangerous when I took it.

-- MSA

Kirk G August 25, 2012 at 9:01pm

Hey, S.A. I really enjoyed this column.

I was almost worried that you were going to overlook the great DD vs. DD switcheroo in #38 but you pulled it out at the last moment there!

I agree, you should go look at FF #10 a bit more closely...especially because Bryne drew from it in continuity for the later FF issues where the battle between the surfer and Terax and Doom goes badly for him.

Which brings up a really good question.

If Doom stole the Surfer's cosmic powers in #57, and keeps them until the climax of #60 (SPOILER ALERT) then when the surfer gets his board back again in #61, why didn't he go after Doom with a vengence? I'm not talking about flattening his castle, but an all out hand to hand combat, not unlike we saw when Terrax and the surfer go at it.
("Here, Doom" you want to see what Cosmic Power can do? You want it? You want it bad? Try this...." SHOOMMMMMMM!)

I know, Doom wasn't around or on our earthly plane at the time, as we see in flashback, but it would seem that with the surfer's cosmic power/knowledge, he'd have 'felt' Doom return to earth and sought him out.

Now THERE's a story for Don Slott or Kurt Busick to tell in flashback!

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Marvel's Great Pretenders! (Ask Mr. Silver Age, CBG #1694, Oct. 2012)

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