What Were YOU Reading in 1983?

 

Forty years ago in August of 1983, we had these items of trivia occupying our minds and media:

• 12-year-old Samantha Druce becomes the youngest female to swim the English Channel (21 miles), at 15 hours, 27 minutes (and locks it in for good--the minimum age for solo attempts to swim the Channel is now 16 years)
• John Sain of South Bend, IN builds a 3.91-meter house of cards (hopefully avoiding drafts)
• San Diego Comic-Con International opens at Hotel San Diego
• La Cage aux Folles opens at the Palace Theater, NYC and runs for 1761 performances, winning 6 Tony Awards
• Revival of the Jerry Herman musical Mame starring Angela Lansbury closes in NYC after 41 performances
• Albums released: Billy Joel, "An Innocent Man"; Elvis Costello, "Punch The Clock"; Jackson Browne, "Lawyers In Love"; Heart, "Passionworks"; Cheap Trick, "Next Position Please"; Bette Midler, "No Frills"; Rick James, "Cold Blooded"
• Rock singer David Crosby is concurrently sentenced to 5 years in Texas state prison for possession of cocaine and 3 years for illegal possession of a loaded handgun (i.e., the 5-year sentence controls) (I believe he ended up serving nine months--there are conflicting accounts as to when he was released)
• Nuclear tests are carried out by the U.S. (Aug. 3 and Aug. 27), France (Aug. 4) and the USSR (Aug. 18)
• Marriages: Paul Simon (41) and Carrie Fisher (26) (divorced the next year); Film director Philippe de Broca (50) weds actress Margot Kidder (34)
• Birthdays: Chris Hemsworth (39); Andrew Garfield (39); Mila Kunis (you guessed it, 39)
• Top Five Songs in the U.S.: (1) "Every Breath You Take" (The Police); (2) "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)" (Eurythmics); (3) "She Works Hard For The Money" (Donna Summer); (4) "Maniac" (Michael Sembello) (no relation to this guy); (5) "Is There Something I Should Know" (Duran Duran)
• Deaths: lyracist Ira Gershwin (86); actress Carolyn Jones (53); actor Simon Oakland (61)
• Cost of Living: Avg rent, $335/mo.; Gallon of gas $.96; Ford Mustang $6,572; Avg. income/year, $21,070; Price of a comic book: $.60

And speaking of your hard-earned 60¢...
The Marvel checklist of books published during August of 1983. What were you reading around this time?

The Death Chair of M.O.D.O.K.!

 

The 1977 Iron Man Annual, written by Bill Mantlo with art by George Tuska and Don Perlin, could be viewed for all intents and purposes as a Hail Mary pass to benefit the mid-'70s super-team the Champions, who co-star with the title character in a battle which would involve the forces of Advanced Idea Mechanics (aka A.I.M.) and M.O.D.O.K., their creation which has once again imposed his will on the organization. At this point in time, the Champions book was two issues away from cancellation, which, taking into account its bi-monthly publication status, gave the book four months to reflect any sales bump which it might have received as a result of the group's appearance in the annual. We know in hindsight that such a sales increase either didn't occur or was negligible--yet for Iron Man, the pairing of himself and the Champions made for a decent story, while also serving as a last hurrah for a team which never quite resonated with readers.

Most of that likely has to do with Mantlo playing to one of Iron Man's strengths which is separate from his armor--specifically, his status as a member of the old guard who at times throws his weight around with those he considers less seasoned than himself, who then tend to fall in line and defer to his better judgment. We get a look at such character dynamics up front in this issue when Iron Man realizes he could use backup in this affair--particularly when he investigates a deserted AIM base in Nevada and discovers evidence of MODOK being close to achieving a threat level that could endanger the world.

Two! Two! Two Annuals In One!

 

The year 1979 saw the character of Spider-Man at the height of his popularity, featured in three titles (Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel Team-Up, and Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man (while also having racked up his share of the Giant-Size books) with, unbelievably, even more on the way. It was fair to wonder at times what depths were being dredged to come up with all the new story material that required taking into account Peter's double life and revolving cast of characters (anyone here remember Marcy Kane?), to say nothing of the artists tapped to churn out story after story of the web-slinger's adventures along with the travails of the stretched-to-the-limit Peter Parker, who somehow, somehow, managed to combine his activities as Spider-Man with his college, Daily Bugle, and family responsibilities while squeezing in something of a social and/or love life and hopefully some sleep, all in a 24-hour period. The coordination between the writing and art staff must have been nothing short of a trapeze act.

The one thing that Peter didn't have to worry about, of course, was a shortage of villains--with one of his deadliest pulling double duty in that year's Amazing/Spectacular annuals which shared the same plot, thanks to writers Marv Wolfman and Bill Mantlo teaming with artists John Byrne, Terry Austin, Rich Buckler and Jim Mooney. To help keep track of the events occurring in both and figure out where things are headed, the PPC ties these two annuals together in one post, as Spider-Man attempts to head off a scheme which could see Dr. Octopus launch his greatest and most ambitious plan--one that might well lead to a nuclear holocaust!

The Woman Who Unmasked Spider-Man

 

In the fall of 1979, as he was beginning a teaching assistant position in the office of Dr. Morris Sloan, Chairman of Empire State University's Biophysics Department, Peter Parker met and became friends with Dr. Sloan's secretary--a young woman who, in time, began to see Peter as more than a friend, feelings which she struggled to see reciprocated.

As they began to spend more time together, the situation became complicated--just as it was with Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane Watson--by Peter's responsibilities as Spider-Man, which all too often forced him to rush off from outings with this lady at a moment's notice, incidences which she couldn't help but take personally while Peter essentially treated those slights as something to be put on the back burner for the time being, if regretfully.

(And you've only seen the tip of this iceberg.)

We can debate the issue all day, and rightfully so, in regard to one person's hurt feelings weighed against what Peter accomplishes as Spider-Man in terms of a refusal to stand by while danger threatens innocent lives, while also factoring in the picture he presents to Sloan et al. as a slacker whose grades don't merit the efforts of those trying to help him. As for our distraught young lady, however, her storyline would continue without resolution for over three years before coming to a head in early 1983. Until then, however, readers were left to wonder: Just what did her writers have planned for her during this build-up? How long would she be presented as a casualty of unrequited love? Would these encounters between them come to constitute little more than a running joke?

A situation which has us running into yet another

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Marvel Trivia Question

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What was the story behind the strange saga of Debra Whitman?

"The Day The Earth New York Turned Green!"

 

The 1982 Incredible Hulk Annual is essentially an exercise in pure adventure, one that sees the mighty Avengers struggle to uncover a scheme which threatens to destroy or enslave the population of the entire world. And as we can assume from the book's masthead, there's one Avenger in particular who appears to be the key to the crisis--though it's his alter ego, Bruce Banner, whom we find is taking the first, desperate steps toward stopping a plan which has already been put in motion.

Producing this story is writer Bill Mantlo (who also scripted the monthly Hulk series) and artists Rich Buckler and Joe Sinnott, with letterer Jim Novak and colorist Bob Sharen (whom we gather is going to have one particular color on hand, to be sure)--an ideal grouping of talent for a 32-page Hulk story which ends up featuring not only Earth's mightiest heroes but also guest appearances by other mainstream Marvel characters.

As we've learned from Page One, Mantlo is just about to initiate the period in the regular book where Bruce Banner finally succeeds in suppressing the Hulk's brutish mind and placing himself in control of not only his transformations but also the Hulk himself--a development which, among other things, will see him once more fighting alongside the Avengers (which Mantlo milks for all it's worth).  But it's the savage, uncontrollable Hulk who appears here and in one way or another ties together the various scenes playing out before us. As for the nature of the danger, the news media have the 411 for us, though it looks like they're in the same boat as the rest of New York City.

Which brings us to this tale's villain--none other than the Leader, who plans to make sure that this "green flu" epidemic that Mr. "Ratner" reports on will soon enough spread throughout the world. But even now, Bruce Banner, the Leader's prisoner, seeks to fight his foe with the only weapon he has available to him--none other than the Hulk, whom Banner hopes to subliminally influence with thoughts and images which his green-skinned raging persona can interpret and act on.

Yet Banner's presence is actually a crucial step in the Leader's plan--which brings us to Dr. Rikky Keegan, an unwitting accomplice who had only wished to cure Banner of his affliction but falls victim to the duplicity of her host and gives the Leader precisely what he needs in order to infect others to either do his bidding, or die in the process.

Yet when Banner's dreaded transformation takes place, the Hulk must first battle for his freedom against the forces under the control of one of his oldest enemies--even as Banner's plan for the Hulk begins to kick in, if only it isn't too late.

No Rest For The Weary at Greymoor Castle

 

In 1941, Greymoor Castle, located in (at that point in time) the most desolate part of northern Britain, became the site of "one of Captain America and Bucky's greatest battles," as Cap himself would put it forty years later. And though this particular castle doesn't technically meet the definition of having a storied past, it may fit Cap's description given that the 1965 story of that conflict by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers offered a plot that a reader of Cap's wartime adventures would find appealing: a German officer who receives his orders directly from the Red Skull... a plot to kill British Prime Minister Winston Churchill... a scientific breakthrough from the castle's lord, himself a German collaborator... Captain America's young partner, Bucky, captured and used to lure Cap into a trap (if I had a nickel...) ... and the likely charge of treason awaiting Steve Rogers, suspected of deserting his unit when it's caught in a Nazi pincer movement on the battlefield.

Yet it's also a story which bears a second look, as Cap decides over fifteen years later (our time), courtesy of writer Bill Mantlo and artist Gene Colan, as a figure from the castle's past roams its ruined halls wary of the ghosts which haunt him--and wary as well of the costumed intruder who arrives to find more than memories awaiting him in this ancient edifice.

Battleground: Detroit!

 

We've come to the conclusion of a five-part story arc in the pages of Invincible Iron Man that has a lot riding on the outcome--specifically, the fate of two worlds, threatened by the actions of a rogue Rigellian commander who will stop at nothing to gain power for himself and the empire of his own he craves. To that end, he has set his sights on Wundagore II, a planet which the New Men of the High Evolutionary have once again claimed as their own, but which the Colonizers under the command of the self-serving Arcturus have set their sights on.

With the two sides now in a state of war, the conflict has drawn in both Iron Man and his young apprentice, the Jack of Hearts, who have been separated in the exchange of hostilities: Iron Man having since joined the forces of the New Men, while Jack, on board the Rigellian flagship, has only recently learned the extent of Arcturus's perfidy regarding his betrayal of the Rigellian Grand Commissioner and the fact that he intentionally deceived those under his command. And now, Arcturus has threatened to attack Earth unless Jack supports him; but instead, Jack threatens to expose Arcturus's duplicity to his crew. It's at that point that the command ship is rocked by the combined attack of Iron Man and the New Men, and the battle to decide Wundagore's fate erupts.

Yet as this issue's cover reveals, Iron Man will have a greater part to play--against a pulverizing brute that once served as the enforcer of the will of Galactus!

War For A World!

 

Given their extremely long life span, it was inevitable that the population of the planet Rigel would come to realize that at some point their numbers would begin to threaten their existence due to the finite space available on their world. And so they turned to colonization of other worlds in order to survive--and in time, that pursuit became their preoccupation, eventually leading them to Earth where one of their operatives, Tana Nile, laid claim to it. It was the intervention of Thor which foiled that plan, and, in so doing, led to the confrontation of the menace of Ego in the bio-verse of the Black Galaxy which the Rigellians feared would expand to engulf their own planet.

It was the encounter with Ego which inadvertently led to the Rigellians' attempt to use that being's unique properties to evolve heretofore unsuitable worlds into habitable planets that would ensure enough space for their ever-growing race in perpetuity. Yet that effort ended in disaster--and, months later, the Rigellians' greatest fears were realized when their home world was destroyed by the approach of the Black Stars (a coincidental play on words in light of their past dealings with the Black Galaxy), leading the Rigellians to undertake the most massive evacuation in their history in spacecraft that collectively housed nine billion of their people in close quarters. For a pioneering race, such a fate no doubt amounted to living their worst nightmare.

Which brings us to a six-issue arc of Invincible Iron Man from 1978, written by Bill Mantlo and featuring art by Carmine Infantino, Keith Pollard, Fred Kida, and Alfredo Alcala, which begins with the discovery of the Growing Man on Earth:

And since the Growing Man's former master, Kang, was believed to be deceased at the time, the search for its point of origin leads to the moon (thanks to the calculations of the Jack of Hearts, whom Iron Man has agreed to take on as an apprentice), where Soviet super-agents had previously arrived to investigate signals being emitted from a mysterious egg-shaped object now present on the surface.

When the same piercing sound that downed both their craft reoccurs, Iron Man and the Jack of Hearts race toward and penetrate the object, which transports them into deep space and a confrontation with Rigellian colonizers of unknown intent who react preemptively.

Uh oh--it seems Mr. Pollard has joined the ranks of Messrs. Buckler, Frenz, et al.!

Anyway, since Thor had no difficulty escaping from his own Colonizer-induced proton particle casing...

...Iron Man proves he's no slouch at the task, either, as we arrive along with himself and his card-motif companion at this story's third installment--hopefully to learn just what the Rigellians are up to!

The Final Fate of Counter-Earth!

 

If you were a reader of Bronze Age comics, then you've probably run across a few stories featuring the doomed world of Counter-Earth--a duplicate of our own Earth which was positioned in orbit on the far side of the sun, created with the best of intentions by the High Evolutionary in order to be home to a race of humanity which had none of the violent tendencies of those populating our own world (which is where I suppose the "counter" in its name comes from). Introduced in the origin story of the character who came to be known as (Adam) Warlock, we watched in shock and sadness as one of the Evolutionary's earlier creations, the vengeful Man-Beast, took advantage of the Evolutionary's lapse into a deep sleep after his labors to board the scientist's moonship and unravel his work by introducing the savage traits of our own species to those on the Evolutionary's new world--a world that the Man-Beast now declared "beyond redemption."

With the Evolutionary poised to destroy his work in order to erase the tragedy of a second Earth now a violent mirror of the first, Warlock, a witness to the travesty, offered to do what he could to fight the Man-Beast's influence on this world and prove to the Evolutionary that this race was deserving of life. The bargain was accepted, and Warlock succeeded in at least bringing an end to the Man-Beast. (Or so he believed at the time.)

In the interim, we were treated to several stories in other titles that involved the humans of Counter-Earth--the Hulk having the occasion to encounter that Earth's Bruce Banner, and, later, being helpless to save Warlock from falling into the hands of the Man-Beast and being put to death (or so it seemed). Counter-Earth also found itself vulnerable to a certain world-ravager whom the High Evolutionary met in defiance:

Over the years, we've seen other instances of Counter-Earths take their place in comics lore. If I remember correctly (I wasn't exactly enamored with stories having to do with Onslaught), the "pocket dimension" created by Franklin Richards to shunt those heroes who sacrificed their lives meeting the attack of Onslaught housed a planet that was given the name "Counter-Earth," a world eventually brought into our universe and renamed "Planet Doom" (after the good Doctor) and later visited by the Thunderbolts. In addition, the Evolutionary took another crack at creating another Counter-Earth--this one inhabited by his New Men (though they'd find the Evolutionary less of a benefactor), while at one time even attempting to merge his creation with our own Earth.

But as for the first world to be known as Counter-Earth--well, we did, regrettably, use the word "doomed" in its introduction, to be sure.

Which dooms us to explore yet another

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Marvel Trivia Question

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What was the fate of the original Counter-Earth?

Whatever Happened To The 3·D Man?

 

The colorful hero known as the 3·D Man premiered in a *ahem* three-issue trial run in the pages of (it stands to reason) Marvel Premiere in 1977, created by Roy Thomas and artist Jim Craig during the time when Thomas was mining the 1950s for comics characters who would be viable for new stories in Marvel's present-day comics line. Reportedly, the 3·D Man was based on Captain 3·D from his first and only self-titled issue, published in December of 1953 and created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby--though, curiously, Thomas omits that information from his foreword on the character who was debuted in '77.

The adventures of the 3·D Man (aka Chuck Chandler, a test pilot who is presumed dead when his experimental jet crashes), like those of the Invaders, are set in and restricted to the past (in his case, 1958). Yet Thomas has also set out to use the stories and situations which the hero deals with in that time period to, in part, address the social ills of the '70s--and his means to do so is the insertion of Skrulls as the 3·D Man's main antagonists, their mission two-fold: to impede human technological and sociological advancement, and to subvert our society by taking behind-the-scenes steps to turn humans against one another, all of which place the Skrulls' infiltration of the human race thirty years ahead of the events of Secret Invasion (and four years before their first appearance in the pages of Fantastic Four, for that matter).

But since you can rightly presume that Chandler didn't die in the conventional sense following his crash, just how does the "3·D Man" come into being? The first we see of him, he's used to make a hopefully favorable first impression on the reader by coming on like gangbusters--which is precisely what he does with a gang of spies, led by the shape-changing Skrull who was present during the capture of Chuck's XF-13 during its first test flight.

The Rage Of The She-Hulk!

 

The year was 1976... and the magazine, The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, where writer Bill Mantlo and artist Keith Giffen introduced a new super-being whose mission was to avenge the death of his father--the inventor of a new form of liquid fuel that would circumvent having to resort to other means to acquire energy such as fossil, nuclear, or solar. Seeing his father murdered in cold blood by those who saw his work as a danger to their own fortunes, Jack Hart then fell victim to accidental exposure to that liquid when an errant laser blast caused the vat of "zero fluid" to inundate him--but instead of killing him, he gained a glowing, seething form of power that allowed him to destroy his would-be murderers and, later, take advantage of information which would lead him to the White Tiger, whom he believed ordered his father's death.

As the young man who named himself the Jack of Hearts later learned, the Tiger was innocent--and in time, Jack begins to carve his own history as one of the many heroes in Marvel's stable of characters.

Eventually, Jack would join the mighty Avengers, in whose company he would face the threat of a crimson cloud of death unleashed in the United States by the Red Skull--a mission where his power had an adverse effect on his fellow Avenger, the She-Hulk.

Having dealt with the rest of her team at least for the short term, the She-Hulk quickly manages to disappear from the scene, as the Avengers are forced to deal with the crisis at hand--and deal with the Skull and his plan they do, though not before the death toll of those who had lost their lives within the "red zone" had been brought to 1,875 people.

Meanwhile, AWOL from the Avengers and searching for her cousin, Bruce Banner, a potential lifeline in the situation she's found herself in, Jennifer Walters reaches the town of Bone, Idaho, where the Avengers at last locate her. But the Scarlet Witch, who attempts to speak to her alone in an effort to convince her to accept the Avengers' help, is shocked at the extent to which her teammate's disposition has... changed.

It's a development which will soon bring the original Hulk into the mix. But it will also pave the way to another Avenger's last moments on Earth.