There's No Place Like Hala

 

It was after Captain Marvel and Rick Jones had wrapped up their involvement in the trial of the Watcher that the pair returned to Earth and resumed their own separate lives. For Rick, that meant attempting to pick up the pieces of his performing career; but as for Mar-vell, he would take a respite and say his farewells to comrades and friends before leaving Earth for his homeworld of Hala to report to the Kree Supreme Intelligence on the activities of the renegade Kree who called themselves the Lunatic Legion, as well as, for all intents and purposes, formalizing the end of his original mission on Earth and taking his place once more as a Kree.

Yet it struck me as a curious--and, frankly, implausible--pivot for the character on the part of writer Steve Englehart. After all, this was the same Captain Marvel who emerged as one with the universe following a reckoning with his past initiated by the being called Eon:

And yet, thanks to narrative that elbows aside those new convictions with a simple "But that's in the past!", he's now ready and willing to return to the Kree, a conquering race that embraces war as a way of life, and... what? Somehow remain neutral? Reclaim his former rank in title only? Restrict himself to the service of the Supreme Intelligence which groomed him and accorded him honor? What does "taking my place as a Kree once more" mean, exactly--and how does the "protector" Mar-vell not find the concept of rejoining the people and way of life he walked away from abhorrent?

Heroes Defeated!

 

Few moments in comics are more dramatic than your favorite comic book hero(es) meeting defeat at the hands of a villain. And while in some cases there are extenuating circumstances to the situation, you can always count on the story's cover to not mince words and make it seem as if there's no coming back for the beaten--a stain that cannot be purged.

(Though things can't be too bad for Dr. Strange if the same cover buffers the impact of the announcement with images of the Thing and the Human Torch in Beatles wigs.)

Here, then, is a sampling of covers which made the most of the stinging word:

(Even if the jury may have still been out on the matter.)

Skrull Special Ops: The Attack of the Prime Ten!

 

Written by Doug Moench, the story for the 1980 Fantastic Four Annual would have taken place sometime during the eleven-issue run of Moench and Bill Sienkiewicz on the main title.  Like Sienkiewicz, the annual's artist, George Pérez, would restrict his work to breakdowns for the issue's finishers (in this case, Chic Stone, Jon D'Agostino and Mike Esposito), which gives us some idea of the time-sensitive nature of the creative process on Fantastic Four during this period; indeed, other pencillers on the book such as Keith Pollard, John and Sal Buscema, and Pérez himself (around the fall of '77 until his departure) often did the same. Those who minded the store on inks, taking the layouts they'd been given and subsequently bringing an issue's story to life, weren't responsible for setting the direction or pacing of that story, but for much of Marvel's Bronze Age they contributed a great deal every month to finish the job the layout artist began and meet those deadlines--and, of course, the benefit to the pencil work that greets our eyes is obvious.

Pérez returns to our foursome here after turning in full pencils for the prior year's annual (collaborating with writer Marv Wolfman), the two annuals comprising his final work with the characters following his brief return to The Avengers earlier in the year and, from there, transitioning to DC Comics. As for the annual's contents, which include a backup feature that details the return of Dr. Doom from the fate he met in the FF's 200th anniversary issue, the page count for this annual's FF story tops out at twenty-four--and so the threat the FF and guest-star Captain Marvel face from a "Prime" assault of ten Skrulls may come off as being wrapped up fairly quickly for the primary story of an annual.

Its premise: Reed Richards invents a wireless "gateway" transmitter of energy across virtually any distance which can send power to receiving cells placed in (for example) vehicles, negating the need for batteries. But unknown to Reed, his research parallels the work of Skrull scientists seeking to create a matter transmitter to use as a weapon against their enemies, the Kree--something that the Skrulls learn when Reed's device forms an accidental link between both gateway terminals. The Skrulls come to realize that Reed's successful gateway can be adapted for their use--and so it isn't long before we find a Skrull agent, after disguising himself to get the drop on Reed's three partners, confronting Reed and delivering his demands.

Uh-oh. Who's going to blink first?

When Skrulls Take A Holiday

 

At the conclusion of the PPC's post on the Skrulls of Kral--a planet of Skrulls who became fascinated with Earth's gangster era from the 1920s-30s to the extent of shifting their shapes to mimic the people and culture of that period--it seemed those Skrulls were getting their just deserts from those they had captured from other worlds and enslaved to fight one another in their "Great Games," held to settle territorial disputes between Kralian gang bosses. Having broken free from their captors, thanks to the timely arrival of the Fantastic Four who had come in search of the Thing, the slaves turned on the Skrulls in revolt, making their intentions crystal clear.

But you wouldn't expect gangsters to take this sort of thing on the chin--and gangsters who are actually Skrulls, a race which doesn't particularly hold humans in high regard, might bear even more of a grudge toward those who have interfered in their affairs.

Which gives a nod to our 1928 Packard to pull up to another

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Marvel Trivia Question

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What became of the Kralians after the demise of the Great Games?

Something Fatal This Way Comes

 

Can YOU

Name This Marvel Villain??

(With a tip of the hat to Scott Edelman for providing the drawing!) 

Universal Conflagration!

 

Following Captain Marvel's defeat of Thanos made possible by the destruction of the Cosmic Cube, the mad Titan eventually returned, though his failure led to him being abandoned by his "consort," the personification of Death. In an effort to regain her favor, Thanos then conceived a new scheme in the 1977 Avengers Annual #7, discovering the existence of the "soul gems" (which you and I and a heap of moviegoers now recognize as the Infinity Gems) and siphoned their elements to create a large synthetic gem which had a single, deadly purpose.

Fortunately, Mar-vell and Adam Warlock had combined forces with the Avengers to halt this "stellar genocide" that Thanos had set in motion--and just in time, since Thanos's next target was our own star. Warlock would lose his life in that battle--but Mar-vell's strike against the gem would leave it vulnerable to the attack of Thor and Iron Man in which it was finally destroyed.

A few months later, however, a follow-up story finds Mar-vell showing up on Earth, frantic to find his friend Rick Jones and subsequently being taken to the office of Dr. Donald Blake in a deranged state. How deranged, you may ask? It looks like Thor, the God of Thunder, is about to find that out for himself!

What's this? Mar-vell wants death? Take a number, pal--Thanos has dibs on her!

(Ha ha. Just a little morbid humor there.)

The Return Of The 4-D Man!

Despite making a fairly strong showing in the Mighty Thor title in the early 1970s, it seemed the character of Mercurio didn't have much future potential in further appearances. Since his obsession at the time was to locate and seize a power source that would save his dying world in another dimension, and with the god-jewel known as Xorr providing that power, Mercurio's motivation for seeking out and taking that power from our dimension by any means necessary no longer existed. As far as we could assume, Mercurio was back in his own dimension and content on his once again thriving world; in addition, he'd parted with his foe, Thor, on good terms, so it seemed his villainy had become a thing of the past.

But if that's the case, what brings him back to Earth four years later--and why is he engaging in battle with Captain Marvel?

Well, for one thing, Mercurio has made an attempt to steal knowledge from Mar-vell of the Omni-Wave projector--a Kree device which enables its user to send instantaneous messages between galaxies, but in the wrong hands can also be a deadly weapon (you have to hand it to the Kree for wanting to make what amounts to an interstellar transmitter double as one of the deadliest weapons in existence):

...but as we'll learn, writer Scott Edelman has provided Mercurio with a new lease on life as a comics villain by giving him an evil streak, which means he doesn't really need a reason beyond wanting to do evil in order to show up and cause trouble in future appearances. Welcome back to the villain fold, Mercurio!

So why is he seemingly acting in desperation here?

"Your Serve... er, Move, Daredevil!"

Having put together a special series on symbolic splash pages featured in Marvel's major team books as well as in Amazing Spider-Man, the PPC now moves briefly to highlighting some noteworthy efforts made in a random sampling of other titles from over the years which came to mind, some of which may ring a bell for you.

Leading us off are a number of pages from Daredevil, which I lingered on for some time considering their diversity in both style and artists and spanned a range of years from 1964 to 1971. (Perhaps even longer, but DD is monopolizing this subject as it is!) Bill Everett Jack Kirby is who we have to thank for paving the way for us (correction courtesy of Dave Plunkert--thanks, Dave!):

Joe Orlando, whose work began appearing in the industry in 1949, would follow up on the title with the next three issues (though you'll find much of his work for Marvel appearing in titles published in the mid- to late-'50s, in categories ranging from westerns, romance, war stories, sci-fi and mystery). His final work was published in 1997, a year before his death at 71.

Wally Wood, whose work Stan Lee made efforts to spotlight, makes his own SSP contribution (working off artist Bob Powell's layout) in a story from 1965 which he also scripted:

Ross Andru and Herb Trimpe unintentionally provide dueling SSPs featuring Ant-Man, with Andru providing more variety in terms of what awaits us within the story:

While John Romita and Gene Colan line up their versions of face-offs between DD and Spider-Man.  Writer Gerry Conway's "sports fan" caption turns out to be appropriate, since Mr. Colan seems to have Spidey trying to capture DD with a tennis court net.

(Maybe that second title should start off with "...And So Re-enters"?)

The mask and form of Daredevil lend themselves nicely to the SSP format, as Colan demonstrates in his other efforts with the character.

Over in Amazing Adventures, where the Black Widow is splitting the mag with the Inhumans, John Buscema appeals to the action lover with imagery suggesting that the Widow's new series is the one to watch--while Colan takes a more intriguing approach.

Later in that same title, Craig Russell is well-suited to the characters and concepts we'll find in stories adapted from H.G. Wells' War Of The Worlds.

While Colan, Gil Kane, and Jim Starlin show us what they bring to the table for Captain Marvel, old and new...

...as well as for Warlock (with Steve Leialoha working off of Starlin's layout).

Dr. Strange is also well-represented, both solo and as part of the Defenders. Here we see work by Andru, Colan, Barry Smith, and Sal Buscema.

Howard Purcell, whose work for Marvel was limited to backup stories featuring the Watcher and two Nick Fury stories in Strange Tales, turns in this splendid SSP for the Black Knight's appearance in Marvel Super-Heroes.

Finally, Andru takes us out with the opening page to Marvel Team-Up #1, which features the rare display of Spider-Man in battle while poised on his own spider's web.

(Frankly these two don't seem very interested in fighting the Sandman.)

COMING UP:

One more SSP for the road... to Transylvania, that is.

Give it up for... Rick Jones, Folk Legend!

Five bucks buys you a chance to solve this

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Marvel Trivia Question

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How and when did Rick Jones become an overnight singing sensation?

Man Of The Kree... Man Of The Sea

While it's not exactly surprising to see unlikely pairings of Marvel characters--we only have to take a look at such combinations as the Champions, or the Defenders, or the Secret Defenders, or the Titans Three, or, for that matter, practically any issue of Marvel Team-Up--writer Roy Thomas, for whatever reason, felt that something would click with the pairing of a sea-born prince and a space-born alien. And with Thomas's track record, who are we to say him nay?

Thomas's first pairing of Captain Marvel and the Sub-Mariner took place in the former's nascent title in August of 1968, when Mar-vell, a spy stationed on our world, was beginning to have doubts about his mission among us. In his civilian guise as Dr. Walter Lawson, he learns of a rocket launch designed to release into space test tubes filled with deadly bacteria, in order to record their reactions to cosmic rays. (Which seems like we were just asking for trouble, doesn't it?) But Mar-vell's superior in orbit, Col. Yon-Rogg, diverts the rocket so that it crashes just outside New York Harbor--though that development in itself is cause for alarm, since the rocket is automatically primed to jettison the vials which will now be released into Earth's atmosphere, rather than into space as planned.

Nearby, the Sub-Mariner has arrived on site and is alerted to the situation and warned to stay away--but he's keen to take advantage of the opportunity to establish a link with the human race, by averting this disaster. As for Mar-vell, given his doubts about bringing harm to humans, you'd think he and Namor would be on the same page in this, wouldn't you--but Yon-Rogg's orders to him effectively set both of these men against one another.