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…
- The X-Men #37
- Amazing Spider-Man #54
- Sgt. Fury #48
- Strange Tales #163
- Thor #146
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After I read the issues but before listening to the episode, I had a thought similar to Michael’s “can you be writing for the trade before trades existed.” Namely that this is well before decompressed story-telling became the norm, but so many of these series feel more like that. Plenty happens and lots of words, but the plot doesn’t progress much at all for Doctor Strange, X-Men/Factor 3, Hulk, Sub-Mariner, and probably some others. It’s just bizarre to see it so long ago. And also to feel like there’s no real plan to these long stories, just making it up as they go, where just this week the news broke that Abrams admitted “maybe the Star Wars sequel trilogy needed a plan”. Um… I don’t know what all that means.
The X-Men #37: I liked the skydiving scene, but I take issue with your criticism that Iceman’s slide wouldn’t have slowed them down. I just finished a rewatch of Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, and *clearly*, Iceman’s ramps can suspend themselves anywhere without support on the ground. Clearly!
The team escaping from the not-Ultimate Nullifier was quite good. And it’s a good thing Factor 3 didn’t put visors onto all of the X-Men. “Ok, we’ve got the visor on Cyclops so he can’t use his eye blasts. Should we use them on the rest so they can’t see and make it harder to escape?” “What, you think those visors grow on trees? It’s fine!”
Amazing Spider-Man #54: I’m not sure which triangle I like better: Peter-Gwen-MJ or Peter-Aunt May-Doc Ock! So great!
Wait, I just realized Peter-Gwen-MJ might be a play on Superman-Lois-Lana in this same period! Or am I just slow because it’s so obvious?
Strange Tales #163: Fury versus Yellow Claw and an octopus. I am very impress with Steranko having a good number of silent panels in the story. Very much the polar opposite of all the other Marvel stories right now. I guess we’ll see if that continues.
Doctor Strange still hasn’t found Victoria Bentley. He is not doing well at helping the women he knows. Isn’t Clea still marooned as well? This is a bad trend, Stephen.
Thor #146: I really dig not-god Thor, even if he does come across as a himbo being fooled by the Circus of Crime. I mean, he *has* to have heard of them by now since they’ve fought almost everybody. And I got a kick out of his “this costume be just a cheap imitation of my godly raiment.” But you can’t tell from the artwork. It just looks like Thor clothes, unless Kirby did something subtle that I missed.
The beginning of the Inhumans origin. Sure, ok.
Thanks for a great episode, MoM-mies. Till next time, or until Hawkeye joins a circus with a performer named Hercules who turns out to be Hercules*, make mine Make Ours Marvel.
* I think this is what happened in Avengers #98, and until you reach that issue, close enough.