Soap Among The Stars!

With things heating up in the power play made by Thanos of Titan to not only conquer Earth but also make use of the Cosmic Cube to further his ambitions, you wouldn't expect the Avengers to be sitting on the sidelines. But when all is said and done, they would not be facing Thanos directly (with the exception of Iron Man), as Thanos would take steps to remove them from the playing field altogether. Part of that plan involves a massive invasion fleet Thanos has assembled to attack Earth at the proper moment.

But before that moment arrives, the Avengers have a few items to clear off their plate after their return from Vietnam to investigate the origin of Mantis. One pleasant task involves the return of Captain America, after he'd dealt with a discrediting ad campaign that finally led to foiling a plan by the Secret Empire to take over the U.S. Unfortunately, his reunion with the Avengers would be a brief one, since the resolution of that case would leave him on the verge of abandoning his career as the symbol of his country.

To take Cap's mind off his troubles, Iron Man also gives Cap a recap (get it? "re-Cap," heh heh) of their battle with the Star-Stalker, where Mantis saved the day by deducing the creature's weakness:

In fairness to Cap, he never really had a problem with Mantis, despite Iron Man's recollection; it was only the Swordsman he still suspected of being on the wrong side of the law. (Though Cap probably kept an eye on Mantis out of her association with him.)

It's at that point that Lou-Ann, Rick Jones' girlfriend, arrives at the mansion on the verge of collapse, having escaped from the Controller and warning of Thanos--and the Avengers become swept up in the growing conflict between Thanos and Captain Marvel. Soon enough, Mar-vell, Moondragon, and Iron Man are kidnapped to face Thanos on Titan; but when Thanos uses the Cube to ascend to godhood, the Earth invasion fleet makes its move, and the Avengers must act.

And so the Avengers launch into space as the planet's only line of defense, against incredible odds that must be defeated if Earth is to survive.

The Will Of The People

For an issue of Fantastic Four, this one doesn't make for a bad Sub-Mariner story:

"Beware The Ravaging Retrievers!" comes at a time when the team has disbanded due to Reed's loss of his stretching powers, and its members have gone their separate ways in finding different occupations for themselves--which leaves a few issues to explore each of the FF members on their own. Johnny indulges in professional car racing; Ben does some test piloting for NASA; Sue is off to Hollywood to be featured in a film project; and Reed takes a position with a group of scientists working on a classified project, supposedly involving national security. We learn later that it turns out to be a ruse involving Dr. Doom--but even in these early stages, Reed is becoming suspicious of the work being done:

While Johnny and Ben have had their own brushes with trouble. Once their respective affairs are settled, Johnny joins Ben in a welcome chance to reconnect with his friend:

But the focus of this issue is Sue, who is brought in to meet the head of the movie studio and discovers that it turns out to be not only an old friend, but someone who at one time meant a good deal more to her.

Our Enemy: The Universe!

If you missed the last few PPC reviews of Captain Marvel--wow, have you missed a lot! Because not only have we seen the good Captain become involved with the first grab for power by none other than Thanos--not only has Mar-vell cast off his life as a warrior and chosen a new role as a cosmically-aware protector of the universe--but we've also seen the devilish plans of Thanos come to a head, as the mad Titan has used the Cosmic Cube to transform himself into an all-powerful threat to life!

And as if to underscore things "coming to a head"...

We've arrived at the penultimate issue in this Captain Marvel story that's been developing through the efforts of writer/artist Jim Starlin, as Thanos at last gains ultimate power while those who oppose him fight an uphill struggle for their lives. Mar-vell looks ready for action on the issue's cover--but with his foe having achieved what he schemed for, can he hope to turn things around at this point, much less prevail?

A Gathering Of Heroes!

OR: "Titan: 1999"

A few things have happened since Captain Marvel was whisked away to a far-off location by the entity known as Eon and transformed into a cosmically-aware protector better able to challenge the mad Titan, Thanos. First on his list of things to do after being returned to Earth was to rescue Rick Jones' girlfriend, Lou-Ann, from the clutches of the Controller; he then crossed paths with Madame MacEvil Moondragon (known as "Moon Dragon" in these earlier stories) in the pages of Daredevil, allying himself with her before heading in the direction of Avengers Mansion in order to enlist the aid of those heroes in his continuing struggle against Thanos.

Yet, when the two arrive, they find a group of Avengers already dealing with a being who had arrived searching for Mar-vell in order to inform him of dire news regarding the Titan. Though it seems this intruder may have neglected to ring the doorbell:

And so the Avengers assemble--and you and I might as well sit in on Mar-vell's briefing, since it does a fair job of bringing us all up to date on the tale that artist Jim Starlin continues to build into Marvel's earliest epic involving Thanos of Titan.

With the Cosmic Cube in Thanos' possession, he's now able to strike at will, at any moment he chooses. Will these heroes even have time to act in order to save not only Earth, but perhaps the universe?

What If... This Looks Familiar To You?

While the incredible Hulk had his share of stories in the late '70s-early '80s What If series, he may have the distinction of being the one character featured in that title whose "what if" scenarios actually played out in his regular mag. Some of them even more than once; as well as some taking place before What If got around to doing its own variation. Perhaps not all that surprising, since you'd expect to find a few Hulk stories that took a break from the Hulk battling super-beings or the military and dealt with the Hulk's condition whether relating to Bruce Banner or impacting his closest friends.

For instance, there were several stories that featured the Hulk with Banner's mind in control, well before What If made a splashy cover story about it:

The Hulk's "barbarian" phase was easy enough to match up, and with just two words: "Planet Hulk."

Rick Jones also had his turn as the Hulk, in a "what goes around comes around" moment:

As for the Hulk going "berserk," that would take some narrowing down, since berserk is often his natural state when he's been provoked. Issue #300 certainly qualifies for "berserk," as well as previous and subsequent issues where he was raging against everything from cities to the death of Jarella to Doc Samson and the Avengers:

The What If story, written by Peter Gillis and drawn by Ron Wilson, actually justifies the story's title and offers a nice twist on the Hulk's origin tale, which includes some dramatic and questionable decisions by General Ross and leads to tragedy that practically snowballs until the very end. There aren't many What If stories that end happily, and Gillis's story by no means breaks that streak. Look for it to be featured here at the PPC in a future post.

Beware The Hatred of... Una!

For many of us, the story of Una, the love interest of Captain Marvel who accompanied him on his mission to Earth under the command of Col. Yon-Rogg, was before our time. In the world of comics, that wouldn't necessarily present a problem, as memorable, classic characters have a way of remaining popular and reigniting interest despite when they first appeared on the scene; but Una had a few things working against her in that respect. For one, she was as low on readers' radar as Mar-vell himself was in those late-'60s stories as the character struggled to catch fire, his stories about as two-dimensional as himself as well as the book's cast of characters. Also, Una's apparent raison d'être was as a focal point for Yon-rogg's enmity towards Mar-vell, as Yon-rogg's desire for Una went unrequited due to her attraction to Mar-vell.

Yet, until Elysius came along to take her place by Mar-vell's side as the book neared the end of its run, Una held on as Mar-vell's only meaningful love interest long after she'd been literally written out of his life--perhaps because, with the exception of the off-again/on-again interest of Carol Danvers, Una was the only woman stories could refer to as the one who held Mar-vell's heart.  A status likely helped by the circumstances of her tragic end--caught in the crossfire of a pointless battle between the Kree and their enemies, the Aakon.

Obviously Mar-vell is thinking from the hip here, knowing that he must escape from the Kree as well as from the confines of Earth and thus becoming an outlaw to each race, but in the process forfeiting any options he might have to save Una's life. And thus it's in space, within a primitive Earth rocket, where Una eventually meets her end--and Mar-vell decides to transport her to an asteroid located near Mars, where she will forever lie in repose.

But, later, when Mar-vell again crosses paths with Yon-rogg, the Colonel implies that Una's death isn't necessarily final:

Nothing ever comes of Yon-rogg's claim that he can restore Una to life; such was the state of Yon-rogg's anger toward Mar-vell in regard to Una that Mar-vell turned out to be essentially correct when he boiled down Yon-rogg's claim to "taunting, torturous ravings." But this scene would prove to be an essential part of Eon's argument when bringing Mar-vell to revisit Una that a bloody vendetta for the sake of love is ultimately self-defeating.

So it would seem the character of Una has reached (pardon the expression) a dead end, and you can almost hear the cries of "good riddance" as Una really never made much of an impression in terms of readers keeping her alive in forums or clamoring for her return. But return she does, in body if not in spirit, in a story written nearly two years later by Steve Englehart who takes advantage of the fact that Eon, the entity who gave us a very different and much more sellable Captain Marvel, can nevertheless neglect to tidy up after himself.

It MUST Be Different! It Must--It MUST!

In this comparison between Fantastic Four #107 and its counterpart in the title's reprint mag, Marvel's Greatest Comics, it's certainly not difficult to spot the major difference between the two at a glance:

Namely, that the staggered transformation from Ben Grimm to the Thing is given greater depth by having the forms of Ben still caught in the throes of change descend from the rear, rather than appear to be on level ground as on the original cover. The new presentation doesn't detract from the Thing's final image, which the cover's bold caption emphasizes in either case; and the newer look seems to make better use of the overall cover space, which otherwise only has a solid background to catch the eye and help sell the issue.

As in most cases involving original artwork being repeated on a cover of MGC, the company banner and additions to the title have forced the images to be somewhat reduced in size; and with the caption of the story's title being forced lower, as well, the images of the Thing were resized accordingly, along with being placed closer to the bottom of the page. Yet the end result--Ben's startling transformation--is still effective, with no significant sacrifice.

The MGC cover is also taking a different approach to Ben's three shifting forms, having them closer in density to the final figure--whereas the original cover gives them a more faded look in order to presumably bring more attention to the Thing, who's frankly the moneymaker on this cover. (Though since the Thing and the background coloring are also darker, perhaps that's mostly a result of giving everything more saturation.)  Overall, there's still a lot to like about the changes on the MGC version, which does reasonable justice to the original while adding some nice qualities of its own.

When You Can't Stand The Heat

Can YOU

Name This Marvel Villain??

Rhino on the Rampage!

For a twenty-page issue, Amazing Spider-Man #43 is crammed with so much action and development you'd think you were getting a heck of a lot for your 12¢. Starting with this gorgeous cover by artist John Romita Sr. coming at you:

It's interesting how a simple tilt of the image gives the illusion of heightened action. The result is a more eye-catching cover than a simple front-and-center format, which might have looked something like this:

Romita had only a few issues of ASM under his belt when this story saw print, but already he was bringing something special to the web-spinner and the book's cast of characters. Writer Stan Lee also seemed to be getting his second wind, loading just about every panel with dialogue that not only paced the story well but made it practically spring off the page.

The issue starts off with a bang--not to mention gunshots and a lot of stomping, as the Rhino breaks out of jail, vowing revenge on Spider-Man. But we also have a couple of central developments taking place. First, Betty Brant is formally severed from being a love interest for Peter Parker, and becomes engaged to Ned Leeds:

But picking up the slack in Peter's life is the vivacious Mary Jane Watson, fresh from her dazzling, stop-the-presses introduction and definitely on her way to hitting it off with Mr. Parker:

(Jeez, maybe Ms. Watson can give the boy a few sensible fashion tips while she's got his undivided attention. We can only hope.)

We're also treated to the origin of the Rhino, a new villain at this point in time but who would go on to have many appearances in the Marvel universe. As we'll see, the Rhino has a rather standard origin tale that only requires a few panels, ending of course with him turning on his benefactors:

But we have to give the Rhino credit for something other than a mad-on, since he at least has the brains to know how to get Spider-Man's attention--by going on a rampage and threatening innocent bystanders. The last time they clashed, Spidey found the good sense to stay out of the brute's way until turning the tables on him--but the Rhino doesn't intend to give him the opportunity this time around.

Your Last Stop: Murderworld!

Getting captured by a garbage truck is probably embarrassing enough for two super-heroes such as Captain Britain and the amazing Spider-Man. But, regaining consciousness to find themselves encased in life-sized, transparent pinballs?

We've come to Part Two of a 1978 story from Marvel Team-Up, featuring our introduction to the colorful villain Arcade, and his fatal killing ground otherwise known as:

WHERE NOBODY EVER SURVIVES.