Review Marvel Comics

[Doctor Omega]

Your memories of MARVEL COMICS......







..

 

[filmfan95]

Around the time when the Andrew Garfield "Spider-Man" movie was coming out, Barnes and Noble was selling a book that featured reprints of Amazing Fantasy #15 and the first ten issues of The Amazing Spider-Man. I bought it, and was able to read the original Spider-Man for the first time (well, not exactly. A friend of mine had a few reprints, but I was so young back then, whatever). It's cool seeing how a character changes over time. For instance did you know that Uncle Ban never said, "With great power comes great responsibility?"

I remember as a kid, watching the "Spider-Man" animated series from 1994, and really enjoying it.

It's too bad that "One More Day" had to ever exist in the Spider-Man comic canon. I ignore everything from One More Day to after that. I only consider the comics before that issue to be the true canon (and I ignore little pieces of information in issues before it also). Until Marvel retcons One More Day, anything after that issue is non-canon for me.

To this day, I consider Amazing Fantasy #15 to be the best comic book ever published. It's ironic that the publishers threw a story into it that they intended to be a flop, because they were canceling Amazing Fantasy anyway, but then that story ended up making that issue be the top seller that year, and the character is one of the most popular of all time.

 

[Doctor Omega]

Until Marvel retcons One More Day, anything after that issue is non-canon for me.

Wow! I did not know that One More Day still counted had actually assumed that they would have come to their senses and retconned it by now. Am surprised that they haven't.

 

[chainsaw_metal1]

I have had a soft spot over the years for the run of horror comics that Marvel did in the mid seventies, namely TOMB OF DRACULA, WEREWOLF BY NIGHT and THE MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN.

A few years back, I found a Marvel Action Figure set of all four of the horror titles: Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, The Mummy and The Werewolf. I happened across it on clearance at Walmart for five buck, I think. I took it home and set in in a tote with some other action figures that I have never had the room to properly display, and recently went on Ebay to look up other collectibles, and found it can fetch anything from $50-75.

Edit: It's now going for $100-150. Maybe I should think about parting with it.

 

[Doctor Omega]

I am in the UK, but in the seventies, I only ever managed to get hold of Thing and Lizard from Spidey. The action figures nowadays are amazingly detailed in comparison with those old figures.

 

[Doctor Omega]

Nothing compares, as far as you are concerned - and you grew up preferring Marvel comics for a reason!

Here you can explain why!

And just what was wrong with DC Comics anyway?

 

[Doctor Omega]

DC just couldn't compare to Marvel as far as I was concerned in the 1970's.

There was just something more entertaining and enjoyable with the characters, settings and situations.

The heroes agonised over things and came out with quips and wisecracks while demolishing buildings trying to get to one another.

And very often the Marvel heroes did the right thing saving people and then the people that they were trying to save tried to fire artilliary shells at them.

Batman and Superman worked with the authorities. Bat signal. Thanks Superman! etc.

Not a J. Jonah Jameson or General Ross in sight!

DC just seemed a bit more 2 dimensional somehow.

 

[High Plains Drifter]

Who's your favorite and who's your worst?

 

[chainsaw_metal1]

Favorite hero - Wolverine (with Moon Knight, Daredevil, Iron Fist and Deadpool close behind)
Favorite villain - Apocalypse
Least favorite hero - Maggot
Least favorite villain - Blob

 

[Doctor Omega]

Spider-fans unite here to discuss the tangled web and long history of Spidey in the comics....

Do you have a favourite era or story arc?

 

[Doctor Omega]

Fans of the Hulk gather here to discuss the history of Hulk in the comic books....

Do you have a favourite era, or story arc?

 

[chainsaw_metal1]

I don't get keep up to date with the current titles, but of the titles I have collected in the past:

Joss Whedon's run on ASTONISHING X-MEN.
MOON KNIGHT
X-MEN - Anything written by Chris Clermont
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
WOLVERINE: ORIGIN
WOLVERINE (The Series from the eighties)
DAREDEVIL
DEADPOOL/CABLE
CIVIL WAR

And many others that I have dabbled in over the years. Mostly I get trades of back issues, and I pick up the Essential collections when I can find them, since they're now out of print.

 

[Gavin]

The only Marvel comic I've ever read and enjoyed in any real ongoing fashion was Fantastic Four. That was back in the 90's including the period of Reed Richards' "death" and Ant-Man (Scott Lang) temporarily joining the team.

 

[Doctor Omega]

The character received an ongoing series, titled Frankenstein in the postal indicia and initially The Monster of Frankenstein (issues #1-5) and later The Frankenstein Monster as the cover logo, that ran 18 issues (Jan. 1973 - Sept. 1975).

This series began with a four-issue retelling of the original novel, by writer Gary Friedrich and artist Mike Ploog. Several more issues continued his story into the 1890s, until he was placed in suspended animation and revived in modern times.

Thomas, by this point Marvel Comics' editor-in-chief, recalled in 2009:

I'd been working with [artist] Dick Giordano adapting Bram Stoker's Dracula [in the black-and-white horror-comics magazine Vampire Tales, published by Marvel sister company Curtis Magazines], so I wanted to start with the Shelley Frankenstein [novel], then bring [Frankenstein's Monster] into the present. But eager as I was to work with Mike Ploog on Frankenstein, I just didn't have the time. So I turned the project over to Gary, who did a fine job with it.

Friedrich in 2009 said he did not recall "whose idea it was to do a Frankenstein book", noting that "at this time, Marvel was cranking up the gears on the monster mags", which were introducing such new characters as Werewolf by Night and Ghost Rider.[9] Ploog based his rendition of the Monster on a drawing by John Romita, Sr., Marvel's art director, who was instructed to make the character dissimilar to the familiar Universal Pictures movie version.

Ploog drew the first six issues, self-inked except for issues #4-5, which were embellished by Marvel production manager and occasional inker John Verpoorten. The following four issues were penciled by John Buscema. After a final Friedrich-written issue, drawn by Bob Brown, the creative team of writer Doug Moench and penciler Val Mayerik brought the Monster from the 19th century to the present day, beginning with issue #12 (Sept. 1974). The duo continued through the final issue, with Bill Mantlo rather than Moench writing the finale.

Ploog had departed, Thomas recalled, because "Marvel was in a great surge of growth at that time, which resulted in frequent changes on artist/writer lineups on many, if not most of the titles. Mike was quite busy then". Ploog recalled disliking the planned change to bring the Monster into the present-day Marvel Universe. "I couldn't see Frankenstein battling with Spider-Man on 42nd Street". His successor, Buscema, was an established veteran and one of Marvel's premier artists. Friedrich said, "Working with Buscema [on the series] was a wonderful experience. John could draw about any type [of] book you could imagine. ... We never had a disagreement about anything, and his storytelling sense was superb". The series ended "because sales weren't good enough", Thomas recalled. "At the start, the book [had] sold well".

Concurrent with the color-comics series, the character appeared in his own modern-day feature in two of Curtis' black-and-white horror-comics magazines: Monsters Unleashed #2, 4-10 (Sept. 1973, Feb. 1975 - Feb. 1975), by the Friedrich/Buscema team initially, followed by the Moench/Mayerik team; and in Legion of Monsters #1 (Sept. 1975), by Moench and Mayerik.

During the 1970s, the Monster guest-starred in the superhero titles The Avengers #131-132 (Jan.-Feb. 1975); Marvel Team-Up #36-37 (Aug.-Sept. 1975), appearing in the latter series opposite Spider-Man; and Iron Man #101-102 (Aug.-Sept. 1977); and in the supernatural title Tomb of Dracula #49 (Oct. 1976). As well, writer John Warner and artist Dino Castrillo adapted the Shelley novel in Marvel Classics Comics #20 (1977), in a 48-page story outside mainstream Marvel continuity. The character made only two Marvel appearances in the 1980s.[16] The first four issues of The Monster of Frankenstein were reprinted in the miniseries Book of the Dead #1-4 (Dec. 1993 - March 1994). Also that decade, he again confronted Spider-Man in Spider-Man Unlimited #21 (Aug. 1998).

In the 21st century, the Monster appeared prominently in the four-issue miniseries Bloodstone (Dec. 2001 - March 2002), and starred in a 14-page story, "To Be a Monster" by writer-artist Skottie Young in Legion of Monsters: Werewolf by Night #1 (April 2007).

In 1981, an animated television movie loosely based on The Monster of Frankenstein was released called Kyoufu Densetsu Kaiki! Frankenstein.[41] This was the second and final animated project that Marvel did with Toei, the first being Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned which was loosely based on The Tomb of Dracula. Much of the main plot was condensed and many characters and subplots were truncated or omitted. The film was animated in Japan by Toei and sparsely released in 1984 on cable TV in North America by Harmony Gold dubbed into English. The dubbed version never had a title but was advertised as both Monster of Frankenstein and Frankenstein Legend of Terror.

 

[Doctor Omega]

Hulk finally got his own comic in the UK. Spurred on by the popular Bill Bixby show.

The reprints were all in black and white and condensed and crunched together. The paper was low grade and only 24 pages to start with. The page count eventually increased, but the crunched panels stopped at the same time, returning to full page reprints.

Marvel must really have been struggling then.

To make the comic more faithful to the then popular show, a number of the strips were UK drawn and clearly based on the tv show....

More happily, Captain Britain made his comeback here... and a strip called Night Raven was a precursor to V for Vendetta.....

 

[Hux]

Couldn't find any superhero comics when I was a kid. The local shop just did Beano and Dandy which I stuck with until I was about 13.

 

[Doctor Omega]

The Silver Surfer is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character also appears in a number of movies, television, and video game adaptations. The character was created by Jack Kirby, and first appeared in the comic book Fantastic Four #48, published in 1966.

The Silver Surfer is a humanoid with metallic skin who can travel space with the aid of his surfboard-like craft. Originally a young astronomer named Norrin Radd on the planet Zenn-La, he saved his homeworld from the planet devourer, Galactus, by serving as his herald.

Imbued in return with a tiny portion of Galactus's Power Cosmic, Radd acquired vast power, a new body and a surfboard-like craft on which he could travel faster than light. Now known as the Silver Surfer, Radd roamed the cosmos searching for planets for Galactus to consume. When his travels took him to Earth, he met the Fantastic Four, a team of powerful superheroes who helped him rediscover his humanity and nobility of spirit. Betraying Galactus, the Surfer saved Earth but was exiled there as punishment.

In 2011, IGN ranked Silver Surfer 41st in its "Top 100 Comic Heroes" list

He was portrayed by Doug Jones and voiced by Laurence Fishburne in the 2007 film Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.


How do you rate the Silver Surfer - and what memories do you have of reading his exploits?

 

[Doctor Omega]

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Werewolf by Night (birth name Jacob Russoff, legal name Jacob Russell, nicknamed Jack) is a fictional character, an antiheroic werewolf appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The Werewolf by Night (usually referred to by other characters simply as the Werewolf) first appeared in Marvel Spotlight #2.

The Werewolf by Night character first appeared in Marvel Spotlight #2 (Feb. 1972) and was based on an idea by Roy Thomas. The series name was suggested by Stan Lee and the debut story was crafted by Gerry Conway and Mike Ploog.[1] The character made additional appearances in Marvel Spotlight #3 and #4 and then graduated to his own eponymous series in September 1972.[2] Werewolf by Night was published for 43 issues and ran through March 1977.[3] Issue #32 (August 1975) contains the first appearance of Moon Knight. Jack Russell co-starred with Tigra in Giant Size Creatures #1 (July 1974), which was the first appearance of Greer Grant as Tigra instead of the Cat.[4][5] That series was retitled Giant-Size Werewolf with its second issue.[6]

Jack Russell was dormant for most of the 1980s. The character's appearance was radically revamped in Moon Knight #29 (March 1983). He guest-starred in various issues of Spider-Woman, West Coast Avengers, and Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme.

Werewolf by Night was later revived in the pages of Marvel Comics Presents, where he appeared irregularly from 1991-1993. He made regular appearances as a supporting cast member in the pages of Morbius, the Living Vampire from 1993-1995. A letters page in an issue of Morbius mentioned that a Werewolf by Night miniseries by Len Kaminski and James Fry was in the works, but the miniseries was never published.

Werewolf by Night, volume 2 ran for six issues in 1998.[7] The series was written by Paul Jenkins and penciled by Leonardo Manco. After the book's cancellation, the story was continued in the pages of Strange Tales, which also featured the Man-Thing. That volume of Strange Tales was canceled after only two issues due to poor sales.

In early 2007, Marvel published a one-shot entitled Legion of Monsters: Werewolf by Night, with art by Greg Land.

In January 2009, Jack Russell was featured in the four-issue limited series Dead of Night Featuring Werewolf by Night, from Marvel's mature readers MAX imprint. The series was written by Duane Swierczynski, with art by Mico Suayan.[8]

He was featured as a member of Morbius' Midnight Sons in Marvel Zombies 4 in 2009.


What memories as a reader do you have of Jack Russell and Werewolf by Night?

 

[Doctor Omega]

The Tomb of Dracula is a horror comic book series published by Marvel Comics from April 1972 to August 1979.

The 70-issue series featured a group of vampire hunters who fought Count Dracula and other supernatural menaces.

On rare occasions, Dracula would work with these vampire hunters against a common threat or battle other supernatural threats on his own, but more often than not, he was the antagonist rather than protagonist.

In addition to his supernatural battles in this series, Marvel's Dracula often served as a supervillain to other characters in the Marvel Universe, battling the likes of Blade, Spider-Man, Werewolf by Night, the X-Men, and the licensed Robert E. Howard character Solomon Kane.

The series suffered from lack of direction for its first year; most significantly, each of the first three issues was plotted by a different writer. Though Gerry Conway is credited as sole writer of issue #1, the plot was actually written by Roy Thomas and editor Stan Lee, and Conway had no input into the issue until it had already been fully drawn.

Conway was allowed to plot issue #2 by himself, and wrote a story heavily influenced by the British Hammer Films - a striking departure from the first issue, which was derivative of Universal's monster movies.

Conway then quit the book due to an overabundance of writing assignments, ]and was replaced by Archie Goodwin with issue #3. Goodwin quit after only two issues, but also made major changes to the series's direction, including the introduction of cast members Rachel Van Helsing and Taj Nital.

New writer Gardner Fox took the series in yet another direction, and introduced a romance between Frank Drake and Rachel Van Helsing, which would remain a subplot for the rest of the series. However, Thomas (who had by this time succeeded Lee as the editor of The Tomb of Dracula) felt that Fox's take did not work, and took him off the book after only two issues.

The title gained stability and hit its stride when Marv Wolfman became scripter with the seventh issue, though Wolfman himself has contended that he was floundering on the series until the story arc in issues #12-14, remarking "This storyline is when I finally figured out what this book was about." The entire run of The Tomb of Dracula was penciled by Gene Colan, with Tom Palmer inking all but #1, 2, and 8-11. Gil Kane drew many of the covers for the first few years, as he did for many other Marvel titles.

Colan based the visual appearance of Marvel's Dracula not on Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, or any other actor who had played the vampire on film, but rather on actor Jack Palance.

Palance would play Dracula in a television production of Stoker's novel the year after The Tomb of Dracula debuted.

Colan, already one of Marvel's most well-established and prominent artists, said he had lobbied for the assignment.

When I heard Marvel was putting out a Dracula book, I confronted [editor] Stan [Lee] about it and asked him to let me do it. He didn't give me too much trouble but, as it turned out, he took that promise away, saying he had promised it to Bill Everett. Well, right then and there I auditioned for it. Stan didn't know what I was up to, but I spent a day at home and worked up a sample, using Jack Palance as my inspiration and sent it to Stan. I got a call that very day: "It's yours."

Wolfman and Colan developed a bond while working on the series, on which they collaborated closely. Colan recalled "He'd give me a written plot, but he'd also discuss it with me over the phone. I tended to ask questions, rather than to have him assume I got the idea."

Dracula encountered the Werewolf by Night in a crossover story beginning in The Tomb of Dracula #18 (March 1974) and continuing the same month in Werewolf by Night #15 with both chapters written by Wolfman.

A brief meeting between Dracula and Spider-Man occurred in the first issue of Giant-Size Spider-Man. The Tomb of Dracula #44 featured a crossover story with Doctor Strange #14, another series which was being drawn by Colan at the time.

The Tomb of Dracula ran for 70 issues, until August 1979. Comics historian Les Daniels noted that "With an unbroken run of seventy issues over the course of more than seven years, Marvel's The Tomb of Dracula was the most successful comic book series to feature a villain as its title character."

As cancellation loomed, Wolfman made to wrap up the storyline and lingering threads by issue #72. But Jim Shooter, then the editor-in-chief, retroactively cut two issues after the artwork had been completed for three. As Wolfman recalled,

I think I realized we were doing a finite story and to continue that storyline would have pushed it into repetition. ... I wrote the final three issues and they were drawn.

In 1980, an anime television movie based on The Tomb of Dracula was released. It was titled Dracula: Sovereign Of The Damned[27] (闇の帝王 吸血鬼ドラキュラ Yami no Teiō: Kyūketsuki Dorakyura?, lit. Emperor of Darkness: Vampire Dracula). Much of the main plot was condensed and many characters and subplots were truncated or omitted. The film was animated in Japan by Toei and sparsely released on cable TV in North America in 1983 by Harmony Gold dubbed into English under the title Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned.

 

[Doctor Omega]

Howard the Duck is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Steve Gerber and artist Val Mayerik. Howard the Duck first appeared in Adventure into Fear #19 (cover-dated Dec. 1973) and several subsequent series have chronicled the misadventures of the ill-tempered, anthropomorphic, "funny animal" trapped on human-dominated Earth.

Howard's adventures are generally social satires, while a few are parodies of genre fiction with a metafictional awareness of the medium. The book is existentialist, and its main joke, according to Gerber, is that there is no joke: "that life's most serious moments and most incredibly dumb moments are often distinguishable only by a momentary point of view."[1] This is diametrically opposed to screenwriter Gloria Katz, who, in adapting the comic to the screen, declared, "It's a film about a duck from outer space... It's not supposed to be an existential experience".[2] Howard the Duck was portrayed by Ed Gale and voiced by Chip Zien in the 1986 Howard the Duck film adaptation, and was later voiced by Seth Green in the film Guardians of the Galaxy.