Discuss: Story Arcs You've Read Multiple Times

Doug: Name 'em, and tell us why! What brought you back, and how about your level of satisfaction on the re-read? And this might be fun -- where did you read these, either the first time or later? For example, you might have been on board for Fantastic Four #s 120-123 (Gabriel and Galactus), but you might have at some point read that story in Marvel Treasury Edition #21.

The Splash Page Made Me Buy the Comic!

Martinex1:  We have frequently discussed covers that have made us buy a book, and there are indeed numerous examples of the great and colorful cover art that caught my eye from across a room.   But today let's talk about some of the splash pages that captured my attention.

As a kid purchasing comics in the late '70s on a very limited allowance, I typically circled a spinner rack numerous times as I considered all of the options for my precious fifty cents or dollar.   Sometimes even my favorite titles didn't totally draw me in and had to compete against all of the other four-color choices.  It wasn't always a slam dunk that I would buy Avengers, Fantastic Four, or the Amazing Spider-Man.  Sometimes the store proprietor wouldn't want me to flip through the book's pages but when given the chance I definitely took a peek to get a glimpse of the story.  And often it was the splash and not the cover that sealed the deal.  Here are a few examples of those experiences from my early collecting days:

One of the very first comic books I purchased was Avengers #164, the start of the Count Nefaria conflict, so it would seem natural that I would grab issue #165 as soon as it hit the rack.   But that wasn't the case at all.  I have to admit that today when I look at the George Perez art for that cover I admire it, but when I was nine-years old it did not grab me.   I can clearly remember thinking how small the team members were on the cover.  And I did not like the floating red Nefaria head screaming at them.  And on top of it, the white logo and lower right corners were a bit mottled from the printing.  Where was the hand-to-hand combat that I was expecting?  Where was the epic battle following the closing moments of #164 when Nefaria absorbed the strength of Power Man, the speed of Whirlwind, and the energy of Living Laser?  But once I opened the book, the John Byrne splash page answered all of my questions!  Nefaria just decked Captain America and Black Panther easily and he is totally unscathed; the villain is just standing there gloating.  This is going to be a huge fight; he's going to kill them all!  At least that is how I interpreted it in my youth.   As it turned out, I am glad I saw the splash page and snatched that issue up because the Count Nefaria storyline has remained my all-time favorite.  Looking back at the art, it may not have been Byrne's best but I loved it.  Here is the cover and splash of which I speak:

 

That very same month, August of 1977, nearly the same thing happened to me with the Fantastic Four.   However, this had a bit of a twist.  I had previously read the Len Wein penned and George Perez penciled FF issue #187.   I was mesmerized by the team's battle with Klaw and the Molecule Man.  That book had so much great art and suspense that I just could not put it down.  The last page overwhelmed young me.  It was monumental and shocking when down-on-his-luck Reed Richards picked up the mystical rod and transformed into the Molecule Man himself!  I know that I stared at that page for a long time.  Reed looked so creepy.   I looked at his jagged lips and his treacherous scowl and I just had to have the next issue.   What a great cliffhanger!

But when the next issue showed up at our local pharmacy, I was seriously underwhelmed by the cover.   "Seriosuly!  They are fighting a giant walking building!  How dumb!" young me thought at the time, "It looks like a silly cartoon not a dangerous battle. It is not scary at all."   In retrospect, it reminded me of one of those Twinkie advertisements we talked about a couple of days ago.  And again, the white background did not help.  It was a struggle to buy that book; it really was.  What carried me through was the memory of the closing splash of #187.   That crazy Reed in the green costume stuck in my head; so the previous issue's final splash made me buy issue #188.  Here they are for your viewing pleasure:

 

Hey!  Wait a minute!  That is bizarre!

The final example for today's post is Marvel Team-Up issue #70 that was on sale in March of 1978.  It had a perfectly fine cover and in fact I liked the cover a lot.   It was dynamic and cinematic.  I just wasn't particularly a Thor fan at the time so I wasn't convinced.  But when I flipped it open, the John Byrne art took my breath away.  I had seen giants numerous times in comics before, but this one looked monstrous crashing through the building, scaring the citizens, and getting ready to put a squeeze on the tiny Spider-Man in his right hand.  I had to have it!  Looking at it now, the inking is a little overdone for my taste.  It still packs a wallop, but I cannot take my eyes off the citizen in the foreground who looks like a zombie.   When I was young, I could only focus on the size of the Living Monolith.   Take a gander.

So there you have it - three splash pages that captured my cash. I cannot explain what hit me on such a visceral level, but it was definitely the interior art that I so clearly remember doing so.  What do you think?  Do you have any examples that you would like to share?   Cheers all!

Who's The Best... Fantastic Four Substitute?

Martinex1: Over the years The Fantastic Four has not had as large a revolving door as other super-teams like the Avengers, but they have had their share of substitutes.   I have a particular fondness for the FF reserves as they are in a truly elite class.   The proxies are not the typical heroes or heroines either, as they tend to reside slightly outside the mainstream.  In your opinion, does one or the other rise above the rest?  Are any better than the originals?   So who is the best?  

Crystal the Elemental, Medusa the Inhuman,  Luke Cage; Power-Man,  Ms. Marvel the She-Thing, Ant-Man, She-Hulk or even much more recently Black Panther, Storm, or Spider-Man?   Who was the best?

Date Night: Untold Tales of Spider-Man Annual '96

Untold Tales of Spider-Man '96  (1996)
"A Night on the Town"
Kurt Busiek-Mike Allred/Joe Sinnott

Redartz:  Hello everyone, and welcome back to the 1990's. Yes, the decade who's comics have a rather checkered reputation; but fear not. Today we will look at a little Silver Age gem, as told by Kurt Busiek and illustrated by Mike Allred (who gave us "Madman" and inked by the one and only Joe Sinnott. 

Some may be familiar with "Untold Tales of Spider-Man", a title published all too briefly during the 90's. The kicker was that these stories took place during the Lee/Ditko era of Amazing Spider-Man, and fit into continuity between the original issues of ASM. In fact, they even provided a chart breaking down what issues went where, for those inclined to pursue it. Some issues of "Untold" featured such veterans as Doc Ock, Vulture, and Sandman. Some introduced 'new' foes, such as the Scorcher and Batwing. The cast included all the Lee/Ditko faces, including Liz and Flash, Harry Osborn, even Fred Foswell and Bennett Brant (Betty's brother, killed in ASM 12). Other characters were also added, as Busiek and artist Pat Oliffe took this fun book and had a blast with it. These comics were great and are well worth a read; you could probably find all of them in a dollar box.

Today, however, we are looking at the first Annual the title offered. The story, in a nutshell (a brief aside- the credits in this book tout a story suggestion by Paul Dini, comics writer extraordinaire): 



Spider-Man is about to capture a gang of hoods, when his friend/rival the Human Torch swoops in and upstages him, taking the credit. Spidey decides to get even with the Torch...

 and visits the Baxter Building. There he asks Sue Storm for a date (not expecting success). Sue, feeling neglected by Reed, actually accepts! Incidentally, I think Mike Allred did a nice job of giving the book a Silver Age look. And Joe Sinnott's inks certainly give the FF a familiar look.




 









The Torch, of course, is quite dismayed by events. Peter Parker, on the other hand, is beside himself with excitement. He floats through a day at school, but runs afoul of the old Parker luck when Betty Brant calls that evening. I sense Allred channeling Ditko here, especially with Betty's look...








 






 While Sue and Spidey go out, the sulking Torch figures he'll fix the webslinger- he hunts down the Sub-Mariner, and tells Namor that Spidey has kidnapped Sue.  Subby takes the bait...

The scene of Peter and Sue sharing a pizza is wonderful. I love the expression on Peter's face in the last panel. Of course, this is a Marvel comic, and it's been too quiet. At this point Namor rather dramatically intrudes upon the couple...













 

Now the fireworks ensue,  and for awhile Namor gives Spiderman his lumps. And as fate would have it, who but Jolly Jonah Jameson, and Betty, show up on the sidewalk below the battle. They are quickly endangered by a pile of rubble, courtesy of the Sub-Mariner's temper.

Meanwhile, Sue summoned the rest of the FF, who are less than pleased to discover the cause of the commotion...



 









In a scene reminiscent of Daredevil 7, Namor witnesses Spider-Man's selfless courage as he acts to save Betty and Jonah, and begins to question his initial assessment. But the webslinger is pretty ticked. Yet before things deteriorate further, the FF show up with explanations. The Torch smirks as Spidey leaves, but later Spidey pays a silent visit to Johnny's garage and gets one last bit of payback...



This story is a lot of fun, with the guest stars, the action and the humor. Actually, the whole package is a lot of fun. Taking a leaf from the classic Spider-Man Annual #1, the creators give us a feast of special feature pages following the main story. We get villain pin-ups by the likes of Sal Buscema, Gil Kane, Jim Mooney and Klaus Janson. We get "How Kurt Busiek and Pat Olliffe Recreate Untold Tales", in the spirit of "How Stan and Steve create Spider-Man" from that 1964 Annual. We get a couple more feature pages, and even a recipe for Aunt May's wheatcakes!  That's a lot of four color goodness for a cover price of 1.95. And that's definitely the way to make an Annual...

They Can't Match the Savage Surf - Silver Surfer 1 (1982)

Silver Surfer #1 (June 1982)
"Escape -- to Terror!"
Stan Lee/John Byrne-Byrne/Tom Palmer

Doug: For those of you still hanging with me after my reviews of some subpar fare from the Big Two (Thor #269 and The Joker #9), thank you! Today I promise I'm going to present a more positive experience -- and I hope you'll leave this space feeling buoyed as well. My choice today is a comic book that I actually did not know existed until I purchased the large tpb, Silver Surfer Epic Collection: Freedom. I bought it to replace my 1980s Silver Surfer series that went bye-bye in the "big sell-off" of my collection. I had enjoyed the Steve Englehart-Marshall Rogers collaboration in the early years of that series and wished to hold onto the stories. What I did not know is that it contains the story above, as well as the short tale from Epic Illustrated, "The Answer". Bonus, and bonus. So here we are. Let's get right down to business then.

100-Word Review: Alone and brooding in the former home of the Inhumans, the Silver Surfer reflects on his life since becoming the herald of Galactus. He decides to test Galactus’s barrier once more, only to be repelled. But seeing a strange beam arcing from the Earth toward the barrier, he pursues it until he encounters the Fantastic Four. Reed Richards believes he has found the means to free the Surfer from his fate. But there will be only one chance, and if reversed the barrier will revert. The Surfer flies through, and straight for Zenn-La. Once there, he is met as a traitor…

Obviously there was more to the plot than that -- after all, this issue was a 48-page monster! So to cheat just a bit, the Surfer encounters the father of his lost love, Shalla Bal. The old gentleman is not kind to Norrin Radd, telling a tale of a return to Zenn-La by Galactus. Although the space god had made a bargain with Norrin Radd, trading the planet's survival for Radd's tenure as the herald of Galactus, the Surfer's betrayal on Earth seemed to negate the deal. The Devourer no longer was compelled to avoid Norrin Radd's former home. But Galactus, not without honor, allowed the people of Zenn-La to evacuate the planet before its destruction. Once drained of its lifeforce, the people returned to nothing but desolation on their homeworld. When asked the location of his daughter, the father told the Surfer that she had been taken by one who exuded utter evil. At this point the Surfer became aware of his true enemy -- Mephisto. And it had always been Mephisto, even manipulating Dr. Doom some years before. Can you say: Showdown! 

The Good: Where to start? A script by Stan Lee over a plot by John Byrne, with art by Byrne and Tom Palmer? That's as good a place as any. This reads like a classic Silver Surfer book. No one writes the Surfer like Stan does -- and I'll say for better or worse, depending on your perspective. When I think of the Surfer I think of his nobility, his perseverance, his dedication to his true love and the hope that someday he'll see her again. Stan provides that. 

I mentioned that the book is long -- over twice as long as a standard 20-21 page comic. That was OK, although I did feel my stamina waning a time or two. I'm going to write that off to time of day during my reading rather than boredom. This was a really good story. I can probably argue with you about whether or not this was something I'd seen before (Silver Surfer #3 comes to mind, as does the Surfer graphic novel Judgment Day (published six years after this story)). I'm going to call it "comfort food", or a well-worn pair of blue jeans. 

Take the flashbacks, for example. Again as I mentioned, the Surfer's origin from Silver Surfer #1 is recapped, as are his early appearances in the Fantastic Four (circa #s 48-61) and the Dr. Doom 3-parter from FF #s 155-157. Sometimes I find this sort of thing, particularly if I know the prior stories, tedious. Yet here it's woven together in such a way that the historical elements fit seamlessly into the current context. Byrne thought this through, and knew his Marvel history. I think that's why I believed in the Surfer's passion to break the barrier, it's why I admired Reed Richards's selflessness in working tirelessly to design a means to get through the barrier, and why my heart leapt when the Surfer landed on Zenn-La and fell when he saw its condition. Comfort food.

There are images throughout the story that are just great. The Surfer's recoil upon striking the barrier at his fastest speed, the regality of Galactus, the aversion to the Surfer of the people of Zenn-La, the evil of Mephisto, and the beauty of Shalla Bal. Figure work, settings, pacing -- the artwork is fantastic throughout. Note the two images of Galactus above (one closer to the top, one immediately above to the right) -- see his power in all three panels, but note the emotion in the close-up. Stern, driven, surviving. Love it. And I could go on and on with what I liked, but let's face it -- not everything came up roses. So...

 

The Bad: Some of you might look at the art samples and think this is one darned good looking book. I concur. But, if you wanted a John Byrne Silver Surfer book, my sense is that like me you find Tom Palmer's inks overpower Byrne's pencils. I can see Byrne throughout in some of the figurework ("stock poses", if you will)... one example is in the horizontal panel above right where the Surfer reaches out to Shalla Bal. We've seen Byrne use that pose during just about any tenure on any book he's ever drawn. It's not bad at all -- I'm just saying that it's there that I am seeing him shining through Palmer's inks. Another example would be the facial movements of Shalla Bal's father's speech, also above right. Palmer is wonderful across the breadth of this story -- he is of course in that top tier of all inkers in the Silver and Bronze Ages. So I really have no complaints, just observations. And it's not so bad.

The Ugly: There was nothing about this story that would fall into this category. It was creatively pleasing, paid off satisfactorily, and had I purchased this from a newsstand or more likely a comic book store, I would have felt great about parting with my dollar.

I chose not to delve too deeply into the intricacies of the plot for this review, as once I started looking for images to scan I landed on full pages. While I don't show many pages that ran consecutively in the story, I think you can glean meaning from those that do appear. The page above right, with Shalla Bal now gifted with the power to restore life on Zenn-La would segue into the next Surfer project...

Marvel Comics has done us all a favor in publishing this Epic Collection line of trades. Each volume contains 20-25 issues, some organized by continuity, some by theme. The best aspect of this new line of trades is that they are not published in chronological order -- we can get our mitts on good stuff from throughout the Silver and Bronze Ages. The extras included, as in this trade, are excellent. At the conclusion of this volume is a full reprint of Marvel Fanfare #51, which contains a lengthy story by Steve Englehart, John Buscema, and Jack Abel. It's a presentation of an early version of the project that became Englehart's 1987 Silver Surfer series (in collaboration with Marshall Rogers). You know I'm the biggest John Buscema fan, but I'm grateful that Englehart took the Surfer where he did, rather than what appeared in Marvel Fanfare. Let's just say I was much happier with the reuniting with Shalla Bal, as opposed to settling down with a lady friend who incessantly refers to herself as "this one", and who also communes with plants. You know what I mean.