Welcome to Make Ours Marvel, the weekly show where Michael Kaiser and Jon M. Wilson read chronologically through Marvel Comics’ spandex adventures and discuss their thoughts with little to no authority.
In this episode…
- Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 (1964)
- The Fantastic Four Annual #2 (1964)
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I had read this Sinister Six story in a Treasury Edition when I was a kid, and even with its problems story-wise, it holds up all these years later. The single page shots of Spider-Man with each villain are amazing! The Sandman one wins the top spot for me, he’s so grainy and fluid looking in that shot. Yowza.
Maybe you mentioned this, but I had an additional note about the story. Why is Kraven in jail at the end? Spidey didn’t capture him like the others, he just grabbed the card and left him “Cravin'” more of a fight. (Get it? Get it? … Sorry.)
The cameos by the rest of the Marvel heroes was a hoot! Since I was reading this in a much later Treasury, there were even more characters around by then. But it really cemented the idea that in Marvel New York, the heroes were practically tripping over each other. Too fun. No Daredevil or Hulk, though. Hulk was a weird omission. Or did I miss his cameo?
There was a fun homage to the cameos in Untold Tales of Spider-Man Annual ’97. Just sharing.
FF Annual #2 was a first read this time. Wow, the Dr Doom origin was excellent. The first retelling I’d read was John Byrne’s, which had some fascinating tweaks, like showing even moreso how vain Victor is. (he probably thinks that song is about him.) But Byrne does NOT draw kids well, so the early scenes made Victor look more like a teenager. Kirby does much better showing that Victor was just a kid when his dad died, which makes the story all the more powerful. Wonderful stuff!
The “Final Victory” was … ok. I’ll leave it at that.
Whew, that WAS a long episode. But these issues merited the time. Well done, guys! Until Doctor Doom gets ousted from Latveria by … Doctor Doom … make mine Make Ours Marvel!