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…
- Tales to Astonish #86
- Thor #134
- The X-Men #26
- Daredevil #22
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Tales to Astonish #86: Namor vs Krang. That’s not really specific for the last 50 Namor stories, is it. I can’t decide, is it *really* Namor trying to find Krang, or is Namor solely mad about Dorma being the one that got away, and won’t let it go? Smells like toxic masculinity. Ew.
Krang should have kept his goals more attainable. Conquer the surface world? Maybe start with conquering Glenville. I understand they haven’t had a superhero there for months.
Jon: “They’re literally turning blue from oxygen deprivation!” You nailed it!
Hulk versus Hul-Killa! Hey, let’s activate this humanoid that a super-villain created, and *then* figure out how to tell it what to do. What a great plan. Easy to see how Thunderbolt Ross made it to general. (Extreme squinty glare: Activate!)
So Banner saves New York from the missile, and is ready to die, and the Hulk won’t let him. Oh, this is a thing! Maybe it’s already been done before this issue, and I’m sure we’ll see this repeatedly. In Peter David’s last issue, Bruce tried repeatedly to kill himself, and the Hulk is just, “Nope!” And I’m sure this is a big part of the current Immortal Hulk series. The seed was planted so early!
Now, this is probably obvious, but we have this comic featuring two protagonists that reluctantly save the day and are constantly hunted by the authorities and their actions are misunderstood or misconstrued. On the one hand, it’s kind of repetitive. On the other, back in the day, if this was the kind of stories you liked, you’d get a double dose in a single issue, so I think it’s a good call.
Thor #134: Wowie-zowie! The lasting high concepts are coming like gangbusters! We just had Ego debut! Now Galactus returns already? and High Evolutionary? Kirby is kirbying all the kirbids!
Will the New Men ever meet the Ani-Men? Would that be the first convention for Furries? I’d better stop.
The X-Men #26: Speaking of stop… please… pretty please… stop fighting weirdo normal people… bring back some evil mutants. Pleeeeeeeease!
Ohmigosh, now *this* book has Matt-Karen-Foggy, i mean, Tony-Pepper-Happy, i mean, oh you guys get it. I’m actually looking forward to the melodrama in Spider-Man because I’m hoping it won’t be like this! Augh!
Daredevil #22: So the not-Master-Planner has a device that can teleport-grab people from any streetlamp in the city? And his big money-making plan is to power a robot to beat up Daredevil. Yep. Perfect. I can see his business cards now. “Masked Marauder. Super Genius.”
You know, I realize I’m not writing about the art much in my feedback. But I’d only say that I agree with you guys on who’s good and who’s not. So, yeah, what you said.
And great show, of course. Until next time, or until fights the ultimate New Man-goose*, make mine Make Ours Marvel.
* Thor #391 against the Mongoose. (I never said these would be good.)