Fight to Astonish!

There was a time when Jack "King" Kirby ruled the comic book universe. Those days seem long ago now as most of his fans grow even older than did the King himself. But now and again we are reminded of his utter dominance of the form. Such an instance is the blend above of several pages of Kirby art from the pages of Tales to Astonish #82, part of a multi-part tale in which Namor the Prince of the Deep  came into conflict with Tony Stark the Invincible Iron Man. 

They fought and they fought, and for some reason Gene "The Dean" Colan needed some assistance with the art and the "King" was tagged in with moments to spare to smack out these dynamic images. The power of this conflict makes your  teeth rattle as these two stalwarts of the Marvel Universe duke it out and we get to see it up close and personal. 

I got to see this  battle for the first time in The Invincible Iron Man King-Size Special #1 which sported a handsome "Mirthful" Marie Severin cover. The King was still in residence but headed soon to DC to work his magic by the time I saw this unforgettable blast from the past. 

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Blazing Combat Three!

Blazing Combat was already a casualty of the war on truth telling when the third issue hit the stands. Despite the fact its commercial fate was sealed by the decision of many in the military and in its periphery organizations to not stock the title and present it for sale. But that didn't make the stories written by editor Archie Goodwin any less good.

This issue features the "Combat Quiz", a regular feature in all four issues of the magazine on the inside front cover. This installment was drawn by Angelo Torres.

"Special Forces" leads off the issue and is drawn by Joe Orlando, though I see the influence if not hand of Jerry Grandenetti in this one. It's a tale of Vietnam and how the war was fought tooth and nail in the rice paddies by specially trained troops against a deadly enemy.

"Scavengers" is a tale of Sherman's infamous "March to the Sea" and shows how soldiers become pillagers and looters and what they do to save their honor. 

"U-Boat" is a story drawn by Gene Colan and takes us to World War II and the Atlantic Ocean prowled by deadly "Underseaboats" better known as "U-Boats". These Nazi craft tear up the seas with their stealthy attacks and in this instance one man falls prey to a admiration for professionalism which is deadly to his allies.

"Survival" is one of the strangest stories in Blazing Combat as it showcases a world of the future battles, or at least the aftermath of same. We meet a man who works and fights diligently to survive, but who perhaps forgets why his survival matters. It's an Alex Toth masterpiece.

The great  Wally Wood joins the rosters of fine artists in the magazine when he contributes "The Battle of Britain" about the Royal Air Force's desperate struggle in the skies to forestall a Nazi invasion. Victory is counted in many ways we learn in this story.

"Water Hole" is a Goodwin story set in the American west with cavalry troops trying to corral a crafty Native American enemy. Our focus is on one young man who finds himself in a confrontation he never anticipated. This story is exquisitely drawn by Gray Morrow.

And finally "Souvenirs" masterfully drawn by John Severin finishes up the issue. This is a tale of a soldier who forgets his main mission, but somehow ends up doing the right thing anyway. Or at least his colleagues think so.

There is only one more issue of Blazing Combat to go and that's next week.

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Experiment In Fear!

Eerie  was James Warren's second magazine dedicated to horror in the classic EC vein and in its ninth issue there's a story titled "Experiment in Fear!". This is a tale drawn written by Archie Goodwin and drawn by Gene Colan which takes place in a concentration camp. The experiments in question here are actually mild compared to some of the dastardly and grotesque "experiments" conducted by the Nazis on those they considered less than human.

We have a Nazi doctor here who wants to prove Aryan superiority by proving that the emotion of fear itself is a trait limited to the lesser varieties of peoples of the Earth, those selected by the Nazis for extermination in their death camps. It's an elaborate laboratory arrangement to induce fear, so much fear that the subject or better said, the victim always dies. When the tables are turned on the Doctor himself of course, we learn what we always knew, that fear is common to all men and women and rising above it is realizing that, as a wise man once said, we have nothing to fear but fear itself.

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Falcon - The Green And The Gold!

In the Golden Age Captain America's partner was a youngster named Bucky. But in the Silver Age and beyond it was a man named Sam Wilson who fought crime alongside Cap as "The Falcon". I was in the front row for the Falcon's debut and saw him don his distinctive green and gold togs for the very first time to help Cap whomp up on those disgruntled former allies of the Red Skull, the mean and nasty Exiles.

As the original artwork for the issue shows, the costume was originally to have featured short pants. I'm pretty much pleased they decided not to go that direction.

It was part of a long yarn in which the Red Skull had used the Cosmic Cube to transfer his consciousness into Cap's body and vice versa. Bereft of his "Super-Soldier" might the Living Legend had to resort to his wits and on a brave young black man from the heart of Harlem who was especially good with falcons. His affinity with one falcon in particular named Redwing. He had been hired by the Exiles, ignorant of their true nature and now was fighting against them to help the natives on their island escape their thrall.

Cap saw the potential and had Sam Wilson put together some fighting togs and off they went to fight crime. I've always preferred these original colors and I consider the falconer's glove an essential element.

The defeated the over-confident Red Skull and then were shifted back to the United States where they parted company. Cap to seek a different direction and the Falcon to pursue his new one -- fighting for his people on the streets and alleys of Harlem.

They fought together again, when a gang dubbed "The Diamond Heads" had the Falcon on the run for his life. Cap came along just in time to help defeat the enemy and it's probably then that a new idea was beginning to grow.

It would take many months later when A.I,M. attached Cap himself on the streets of Harlem by using an android to knock down the old buildings and gain some short-sighted support from the denizens that Cap and the Falcon fought together again. They defeated the schemes of the enemy and then Cap made Falcon on offer he couldn't refuse.

And then something quite radical happens. The Falcon's name joins Cap's on the cover (though the official title of the comic never changes) and that would be the way it would be for many years to come. Captain America and the The Falcon were a team for the times. The Living Legend in red, white, and blue and social worker Sam Wilson in his vibrant green and gold. 

They end up fighting for and against SHIELD when one of its agents turns himself into a ferocious giant gorilla and they all end up fighting the Mole Man and his minions deep beneath the surface of the Earth.

The only time I recollect that the green and gold Falcon appeared outside of the Captain America comic was in an issue of the Avengers when the team took on Psyklop thanks to the imagination of Harlan Ellison among others.

Already Sam Wilson is begining to chafe at the partnership when he feels it necessary to track down Spider-Man on his own. Gene Colan leaves the title in the middle of his tale and Johnny Romita steps in. The Falcon has never looked better than he did when Romita drew him during this era. Romita has a real knack for drawing handsome black men and women.

Stan feels the need to introduced a real sideswipe to the proceedings when he has Cap become an undercover rookie policeman. It's an interesting callback to the Golden Age when he was a buck private under the heel of an abusive non-com. Here Officer Rogers gets dressed down by a cat named Muldoon.

The Falcon and Cap find their way to working together again when the Gray Gargoyle whips up a zany scheme to get control of some secret element which will give him power enough for world domination, or so he thinks before Cap and Falc send him into orbit for a few rotations. This one features a spaceship made of stone and that's enough to make any good comic book and sci-fi fan shake his head.

The green and gold Falcon makes his last hoorah fighting on the streets of Harlem and alongside Cap when they try to stop a race riot from breaking out. This is a humdinger of a giant-size story and features the old Red Skull, inexplicably back for more. It's fitting he's the villain that the original Falcon goes out on. The cover gives a hint of what's to come.

In the very next issue we see the new red and white Falcon. I guess the powers thought his costume was more complimentary alongside Cap's classic look, but will always prefer the green and the gold.

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Marvel Super-Heroes - Calling The Guardians!

The year is 1967 and Marvel Super-Heroes #18 is all geared up to transport us one and all to the 3007 when the countries of the Earth are united as well as the colonies of human race spread across the solar system. The tale begins by introducing us to Charlie-27, a Jovian military man returning from months-long solitary duty and two months of radio silence to find his home world of Jupiter apparently abandoned.

But soon enough he is attacked by the Badoon, an extra-solar lizard-like race which has invaded and seems to early reports to have conquered the sprawling human colonies. Using his Jovian strength and speed Charlie teleports to Pluto where he finds more Badoon and Martinex, a crystal man native to the planet (Pluto was still a planet back then...sigh). Using his powers to project both heat and cold Martinex helps the two teleport to Earth. On Earth things are not going well as Vance Astro and his taciturn colleague Yondu have been captured by the Badoon. Astro is a thousand-year old migrant from an Earth which depended on Einstein's physics, but found that that had been supplanted and he was met by many Earth men who had settled not just the solar system but also some of the nearest star systems. With the appearance of Charlie-27 and Martinex, Astro is able to use his telekinetic powers and Yondu his maneuverable Yaka arrows to get all four of these desperate souls free of the Badoon hold for now. The four become the  Guardians of the Galaxy and pledge to defeat the Badoon empire.

This is a whopper of a delightful yarn by Arnold Drake and Gene Golan with the assistance of inker Mike Esposito (under his "Mickey Demeo" guise). These heroes are a far far away from the Marvel Universe and one is left to wonder when if ever we'd see them again. Many years later they popped up in Marvel Two-In-One, coming to our time to get more help for theirs and so begins a long and vibrant history. The Guardians in those successful movies are a ton of fun, but they aren't my Guardians, this is them and I cherish them still.

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Marvel Super-Heroes - A Medusa In Paris!

After showcasing the debut of a new hero and giving us a glimpse of a different kind of mainstay, Marvel Super-Heroes took a turn at taking a team player and giving her the stage to see how she shined. In a story by Archie Goodwin and artwork by Gene Colan and Vince Colletta, the ravishing Inhuman Medusa was given the spotlight.

This story takes place just after Medusa's appearance in Amazing Spider-Man this same month, so there's some clear intention somewhere to give her a push. But despite that, this story really feels more like a Frightful Four feature with Medusa's former partners in crime the Wizard, Trapster and Sandman playing large roles in the yarn. They need Medusa to rejoin them to commit a heist of a power source to allow Wizard's "Id Machine" to be used to conquer the world. Medusa thinks she's stealing it to power a device to help Black Bolt modulate his booming and possibly deadly voice. They romp around and soon Medusa realizes she's been duped and gets the power source out of the Wizard's hands and defeats her former partners, at least for the moment.

I like his incarnation of the Frightful Four as they bicker and kvetch as well as any gaggle of villains I can think of. Wizard always thinks he's too smart to be among such lowlifes, Trapster is always trying to prove he's a deadly villain like his partners, and Sandman seems genuinely confused why he stays with these guys and just wants to commit robberies. Add Medusa's self-doubt and you have a rich emotional brew.

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Marvel Super-Heroes - Captain Marvel Attacks!

Marvel Super-Heroes, freshly converted to showcasing new heroes in addition to vintage reprints, continued the saga of "Marvel's Space-Born Super-Hero", the doughty but often confused Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell to his friends). After stumbling around the planet Earth for a teensy bit, he tries (under the hand of new writer Roy Thomas though Gene Colan still pencils with new man Paul Reinman on inks) to get his act together a bit. He takes his ray gun and makes wrist ray-gun out of it and adjusts his hip rockets so he looks like he's flying instead of playing leap frog. But that doesn't mean his troubles with his boss, the vile Colonel Yon-Rogg are over.

Mar-Vell needs to meet up with his comrades to get more breathing potion but Yon-Rogg plots to kill him and claim an accident but in a real accident the plane of Dr. Walter Lawson flies in the way and the ray meant for Mar-Vell gets him. That works out great for our good Captain since he takes Lawson's identity and uses it to investigate "The Cape", the local rocket base. (The utter lack of planning in this escapade is stunning really.) On the Cape he finds the lovely Carol Danvers, head of security who immediately and correctly suspects him of being up to no good, and Sentry #459. It was the supposed demise of the Sentry which triggered the recent Kree interest in Earth . But now Mar-Vell sees the robot is in the hands of the Earthmen. Unfortunately Yon-Rogg sees it too and activates the Sentry and as the story wraps Captain Marvel is about to do battle with what would seem to be his ally.

We would have to wait for the debut of Marvel's Space-Born Super-Hero Captain Marvel #1 to find out what happens. The art team is Gene "The Dean" Colan and newcomer Vince "The Prince" Colletta who will guide CM through his first several issues and writer on his own for the first time is Roy "The Boy" Thomas. In this first issue of a new comic the action is in progress as Cap is fighting Sentry #459, which has a grown a bit since it encountered the Fantastic Four. The two battle back and forth with the Sentry supremely confident that his indestructible nature will win out. But Captain Marvel (called that by a soldier for the first time in this issue) uses his understanding of Kree technology and the improvements he's made to his own equipment to eventually bring the Sentry down. He is thanked profusely the military and especially by Carol Danvers who got mixed up in the fight as pretty much a damsel in distress. As Cap flies off we are informed that his next nemesis will be the Super-Skrull. Yum yum.

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Marvel Super-Heroes - Captain Marvel Arrives!

Getting their mitts on the "Captain Marvel" name was quite the coup by the Marvel Bullpen back in the day. Fawcett's "Big Red Cheese" had been driven from the comics stands by a faltering market and a lawsuit from the boys at DC Comics and since that time the name was part of the lore of comics. Appropriated by Myron Fass for his notorious break-apart android in the previous year, the name was out there for Stan Lee to snag and snag it he did. But what to do with it? Well there was always the Kree, a mysterious gang of aliens which had been giving the Fantastic Four trouble in their magazine and Stan decided to introduce us to a hero from their ranks, a man of worthy character who was poised to become a hero.

"The Coming of Captain Marvel" in MSH #12 is a story told with as much speed as it was concocted. A spaceship descends to Earth and a man named "Mar-Vell" is saying farewell to the woman he loves, a medical officer named Una. His superior officer, Colonel Yon-Rogg is harassing him to be about his mission and we learn in short order that Yon-Rogg has designs on the lovely Una himself and that in all likelihood Captain Marv-Vell is being sent to his doom on an impossible mission. Out he pops onto the landscape of Earth and we learn that cannot breathe Earth's air or be without his helmet for more than an hour. He is stronger on Earth but it's suggested his uniform is somewhat responsible for that. And to complicate matters further he's surprised to find he's been dropped off in the middle of a United States military testing ground and a missile is just about to launch. The radiation from his uniform is enough to cause it to fail and also that same radiation leads troops right to him despite his mighty leaps to cover the territory. Only his "Universal Beam Blaster" can save the day when he uses black light to blind his pursuers and hops into the night and relative safety. He hitchhikes to an unnamed town and checks into a hotel under a variation of his real name "C. Marvel". Almost immediately he is frozen in a beam from his own spacecraft and Yon-Rogg beams down a wrist monitor through which Mar-Vell can be tracked and communicated with at any time and sure enough a message comes through from the Kree Imperial Minister of the Supreme Intelligence wishing him well reminding him he will die if he fails. With that the hour is up and our hero must don his helmet again to breathe as looks out onto the night sky and ponders his fate.

With artwork by Gene Colan and Frank Giacoia this one looks good enough, but does have a feel of having been done under a gun, but then that was almost the norm at Marvel. It's the story which always startles me a little. Stan was famous for giving his heroes weaknesses and that was a key to his storytelling, but with Captain Marvel it's almost like he gets a new weakness or limitation every other page, and as a spy he is a great big bust making mistake after mistake. Still and all he does wear a nifty uniform (I like it a lot even if most folks don't) and that counts for something. He gets another try-out in the next issue and that's up tomorrow.

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