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 of Suspense #86
- Fantastic Four #59
- Amazing Spider-Man #45
- Strange Tales #153
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Tales of Suspense #86: Iron Man defeats Mandarin. Regarding Mandarin’s “karate” that lets him strike thru Tony’s armor. It definitely feels like they’re taking the board/brick breaking practice and making it a superpower. Having done Tae Kwon Do myself for about 10 years, I can say when you do it “right” and successfully break the boards, it doesn’t hurt. You feel it, but it doesn’t hurt. When something’s not right for the technique, or you don’t break the boards, yeah that hurts.
I take this to mean the Mandarin has only worked on breaking objects, and no time on sparring techniques or strategy, because otherwise he should be a Captain America level fighter, and Tony would stand no chance without his weapons. This is why it pays to be well-rounded, kids.
Speaking of Cap, I know I read the story with Agent 60, but I can’t think of anything worth commenting on, except “we still don’t know who blond agent is. Sigh.”
Fantastic Four #59: The FF/Doom parts of this issue were great. Even Johnny’s “I can beat Doom because *faster*” was enjoyable. But the frustration is the Inhumans part has been delaying this story. I’d have been happier with the Inhumans part cut out, and move along the FF/Doom storyline.
It feels to me like the Inhumans story is setting up a spin-off series. Were they really that popular already? Was there maybe a thought of changing FF into a split title: half FF, half Inhumans? That would almost imply the FF were losing popularity. Kind of weird. That said, I would have been on board with a Medusa solo series. Make her character more like her original appearances minus the villainy, and that would be awesome.
Amazing Spider-Man #45: So you guys might have just read my comment on #44, where I was fussing at Peter to get over this whole secret identity trope, and sure enough, he did exactly what I suggested, “I sprained my wrist falling off my cycle.” And then, his friends didn’t even consider that he was Spider-Man. Love it. But also, I’m very scared when I predict how a story will go. I’m *never* right.
When Spidey fights the Lizard’s alligators and snakes, I realized I couldn’t be a superhero, because even though Spidey could have escaped easily, my reaction was still “SNAKES! AUGH!” seeing them wrap around Spidey’s legs! EEEEEKK!
Gotta say, I’m really digging the Peter-MJ-Gwen-Harry dynamic. Tons better than the romantic drama in the rest of the comics right now. But I also was waiting for Peter to recall Harry’s dad being Green Goblin. Ah well.
Strange Tales #153: SHIELD versus more HYDRA. Every time you guys said “Brosnan” instead of “Bronson”, it made me smile. Darn freudian slips.
Nick is pretty rough with his people. Do you think SHIELD’s HR department has to work overtime? “And I said ‘Here’s your coffee Director Fury,’ and he said ‘What do you want, a medal?’ But I was just being polite, and it made me feel dumb and I went back to my station and cried.” “*sigh* Janice, cancel my meetings for today.”
Dr Strange and Umar (Thurman?). I was really into Marie Severin’s artwork in this issue. I doubt I’ve read much of her stuff before, but it was pretty great here. I’m looking forward to seeing more.
Wow, approaching the big one-five-oh! Until next time, or until the Lizard ups his game with glider wings(?)*, make mine Make Ours Marvel!
* – In Spectacular Spider-Man #237, it appeared that the Lizard had molted his skin for a new look with a fin from his head down his back, and armpit folds of scales for gliding. (Spoilers: This was later retconned to be a different creature and not Curt Conners.)