Showing posts with label Leader. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Leader. Show all posts
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Monday, June 25, 2012
Stepbrothers: Marvel Feature 11
Marvel Feature #11 (September 1973)
"Cry Monster!"
Len Wein-Jim Starlin/Joe Sinnott
Doug: So what are two Bronze Age bloggers to do, with an Avengers 3-parter finished up yet a week before Giant-Size July? Shoot -- run a review of a Thing/Hulk throwdown, that's what we'll do!
Doug: I'll start today's thoughts in the art department. A) I think Jim Starlin is a great storyteller. I'm not an aficionado of his work like my partner, but more of an admirer from afar. That being said, Starlin's art, particularly early in his career, was not always what I'd set forth as his best art. However, B) Joe Sinnott can make anyone look great! And that being said, there's no doubt that in this here tale, Jim's under the influence of Joe. This is a very polished set of graphics that could have slid right into the FF's own mag and we'd have hardly noticed any difference between that book's other Bronze Age pencillers -- Romita, J. Buscema, and Buckler. Nope -- Sinnott has 'em all covered... literally. Don't get me wrong -- I love Joe! But he does show through, doesn't he?
Karen: I think the art team worked out pretty well. Yes, Sinnott is a dominating inker. But I have to be honest and say that as much as I love Starlin's work, I've never felt like he drew a great Thing or Hulk. But they look pretty darn good here.
Doug: Len Wein's no dummy -- by 1973, certain formulas had been working quite well in the Baxter Building over the past 12 years. We begin with a boisterous Benjamin J. Grimm, wrecking some more multi-million dollar machinery. Reed and Johnny are there, both on Ben to knock it off. Reed tells that Ben's destroying another opportunity at being cured of being the Thing. But Ben tells Reed to back off -- Ben just doesn't think he can take the disappointment of another failed attempt at saving him from his inhuman existence. Johnny convinces Reed to give Ben some space, and they leave him alone. Ben begins to sulk, and reflect on his origins. But what he doesn't know is that his thoughts are being monitored from a spaceship, by Kurrgo, the Master of Planet X (last seen in FF #7, 1962, kiddies)! Which brings me to this question -- how do you, Karen (and all of our readers) feel about very obscure villains suddenly seeing the light of day once more?
Karen: This time period was sort of the last hurrah for Ben's angst over his rocky form. From the late 70s and on, I don't think we really heard much about him wanting to return to his human form. By then, perhaps because the writers felt it was played out, he seemed to have adjusted and accepted his fate.
Karen: As to your question about obscure villains -I have no problem with that, as long as the story is good. Of course, one could posit that obscure villains are obscure for a reason...
Doug: Kurrgo is nice enough to recap his own origin for us -- of how he was defeated by the FF, how Reed shrunk his people to save them from a collision with another planet, and how evil Kurrgo hoarded the enlarging gas for himself. Rather than becoming his people's master, however, Kurrgo found himself seconds from death. His robot slave saved him, taking him to a ship and blasting away just as Planet X exploded! Kurrgo searched all of space for his people, finally finding them; they, however, were not so pleased to see him. Kurrgo was a giant to them, but their science had advanced to the point that they could drive him away. Fleeing, the megalomaniac swore his revenge.
Kurrgo came back to Earth to enlist the aid of her strongest being -- the Thing! But when he found that the Hulk was now the strongest he attempted to enslave him. Yet, another intervened -- the Leader!
Doug: Kurrgo is nice enough to recap his own origin for us -- of how he was defeated by the FF, how Reed shrunk his people to save them from a collision with another planet, and how evil Kurrgo hoarded the enlarging gas for himself. Rather than becoming his people's master, however, Kurrgo found himself seconds from death. His robot slave saved him, taking him to a ship and blasting away just as Planet X exploded! Kurrgo searched all of space for his people, finally finding them; they, however, were not so pleased to see him. Kurrgo was a giant to them, but their science had advanced to the point that they could drive him away. Fleeing, the megalomaniac swore his revenge.
Kurrgo came back to Earth to enlist the aid of her strongest being -- the Thing! But when he found that the Hulk was now the strongest he attempted to enslave him. Yet, another intervened -- the Leader!
Karen: I'm probably showing my ignorance of the Leader here, but I'm not sure exactly how he interfered with Kurrgo's plans; he's paralyzed after all. Sure, he can make an astral projection of himself, ala Dr. Strange or Professor X, but how did he ever mess up Kurrgo's plans?
Doug: What Wein has constructed for us is not unlike other stories where super-baddies choose champions to battle in their stead -- such as the Grandmaster's games with other conquerors. Here we find the paralyzed Leader, hopeful that the Hulk holds the key to his rehabilitation.
Kurrgo has his own motives for enlisting either giant. But these two have instead struck a bargain -- the Leader will use the Hulk, while Kurrgo employs the Thing in a battle for supremacy. The winner will gain the services of both monsters, as well as all of the scientific knowledge of the defeated. So the Leader transports the still angry Thing from the Baxter Building to a ghost town in the American Southwest -- could be right around the corner from Karen!
Doug: What Wein has constructed for us is not unlike other stories where super-baddies choose champions to battle in their stead -- such as the Grandmaster's games with other conquerors. Here we find the paralyzed Leader, hopeful that the Hulk holds the key to his rehabilitation.
Kurrgo has his own motives for enlisting either giant. But these two have instead struck a bargain -- the Leader will use the Hulk, while Kurrgo employs the Thing in a battle for supremacy. The winner will gain the services of both monsters, as well as all of the scientific knowledge of the defeated. So the Leader transports the still angry Thing from the Baxter Building to a ghost town in the American Southwest -- could be right around the corner from Karen!
Karen: If you had to have a fight between these two powerhouses, the vast open expanse of the desert would be a good place for it. The whole fight seems contrived, but then again, maybe for big brains like them this is a great way to spend an afternoon.
Doug: The Leader sends an astral projection (or "injection" to the Thing's mind) to tell Grimm what's up. Ben of course wants no part of tangling with the Hulk, but the Leader convinces him with the alleged placement of an "Ultrex Bomb" capable of destroying Earth and set to explode in less than 30 minutes! I thought it was amusing that the Leader states to Ben that three billion lives are at stake -- shoot, we're more than double that size now (and comics aren't half as good! You'd think with that many more creative minds we could get a decent yarn produced these days!!).
Doug: The Leader sends an astral projection (or "injection" to the Thing's mind) to tell Grimm what's up. Ben of course wants no part of tangling with the Hulk, but the Leader convinces him with the alleged placement of an "Ultrex Bomb" capable of destroying Earth and set to explode in less than 30 minutes! I thought it was amusing that the Leader states to Ben that three billion lives are at stake -- shoot, we're more than double that size now (and comics aren't half as good! You'd think with that many more creative minds we could get a decent yarn produced these days!!).
Karen: Ben isn't sure he believes the Leader, but he can't take the chance he's telling the truth.
Doug: So if you were looking for some pure, unadulterated comic book action, you came to the right book. The Leader brings the Hulk to the scene, and an 8-page smash-'em-up commences. We find out that Kurrgo is secretly augmenting the Thing's strength and it makes this a bit more interesting that it normally would be. Starlin and Sinnott do a great job of depicting the Thing as more of an equal to the Hulk in strength and stamina, but not in size. But it's a subtle difference -- not the glaring disadvantage Ben had when Jack Kirby drew the cover of Fantastic Four #25. It's funny -- that Thing/Hulk battle also began with Reed concocting some formula to help Ben. See, told you Len Wein had done his homework!
Doug: So if you were looking for some pure, unadulterated comic book action, you came to the right book. The Leader brings the Hulk to the scene, and an 8-page smash-'em-up commences. We find out that Kurrgo is secretly augmenting the Thing's strength and it makes this a bit more interesting that it normally would be. Starlin and Sinnott do a great job of depicting the Thing as more of an equal to the Hulk in strength and stamina, but not in size. But it's a subtle difference -- not the glaring disadvantage Ben had when Jack Kirby drew the cover of Fantastic Four #25. It's funny -- that Thing/Hulk battle also began with Reed concocting some formula to help Ben. See, told you Len Wein had done his homework!
Karen: It's a fun fight -Hulk here really has no idea what's going on, and he doesn't seem to care much. He just wants to hit someone! I liked how Ben realized that something was wrong -he shouldn't be that strong.
Doug: Ben finally finds a gap in the fisticuffs to tell the Hulk about the bomb. But as you might suspect, Greenskin isn't interested in talking. He pounds Ben into the ground, and then turns to leave. But Ben knows time is running out, so takes off after the Hulk, who is headed to the side of town where the Leader had planted the bomb. Ben knocks Hulk clean into a building, and finds the bomb. Now I don't know how much you know about defusing a bomb, but I'm of the opinion that throwing a hard rocky fist at it probably isn't the best strategy. It's a fake, after all, but right as Ben's about to get walloped by an even madder Hulk, the two behemoths are in a tractor beam and drawn up into Kurrgo's ship. Kurrgo's cheating is quickly exposed, but he attempts to win after all by siccing his robot on our heroes. No dice. Ben and Hulk hit the bucket of bolts so hard that he goes into a wall of control panels and sets the ship all a'tizzy.
As Ben and Hulk leap away, the ship explodes and crashes. More Area-51 fodder?
Doug: Ben finally finds a gap in the fisticuffs to tell the Hulk about the bomb. But as you might suspect, Greenskin isn't interested in talking. He pounds Ben into the ground, and then turns to leave. But Ben knows time is running out, so takes off after the Hulk, who is headed to the side of town where the Leader had planted the bomb. Ben knocks Hulk clean into a building, and finds the bomb. Now I don't know how much you know about defusing a bomb, but I'm of the opinion that throwing a hard rocky fist at it probably isn't the best strategy. It's a fake, after all, but right as Ben's about to get walloped by an even madder Hulk, the two behemoths are in a tractor beam and drawn up into Kurrgo's ship. Kurrgo's cheating is quickly exposed, but he attempts to win after all by siccing his robot on our heroes. No dice. Ben and Hulk hit the bucket of bolts so hard that he goes into a wall of control panels and sets the ship all a'tizzy.
As Ben and Hulk leap away, the ship explodes and crashes. More Area-51 fodder?
Karen: Smashing a bomb would not be my first choice for how to disarm it, but then again, it's the Marvel Universe. I thought it was very true to character that Ben pointed out that Kurrgo had been cheating by amplifying his strength. However, even with his strength increased, he really didn't have the upper hand -it was more of a tie. Sadly, Ben's leg muscle won't allow him to go leaping off (why is that anyway?) like Hulk does.
Doug: As Ben heads back to civilization, he's still moaning about his looks from his "born loser" point-of-view. I thought Wein really wrote the characters well here. If you'd hid the credits from me, I probably couldn't have told you that Roy Thomas wasn't the author -- this is all pretty seamless alongside the FF's of the day. And as I said at the top, the art was thoroughly enjoyable, yet quite a contrast from Starlin's work on Iron Man #55 which we reviewed a couple of weeks ago. We'd remind you that Starlin was working with Mike Esposito on that one, but in just six months and one inker, the improvement is astonishing. Hey, another 20-minutes well-spent in the Bronze Age!
Doug: As Ben heads back to civilization, he's still moaning about his looks from his "born loser" point-of-view. I thought Wein really wrote the characters well here. If you'd hid the credits from me, I probably couldn't have told you that Roy Thomas wasn't the author -- this is all pretty seamless alongside the FF's of the day. And as I said at the top, the art was thoroughly enjoyable, yet quite a contrast from Starlin's work on Iron Man #55 which we reviewed a couple of weeks ago. We'd remind you that Starlin was working with Mike Esposito on that one, but in just six months and one inker, the improvement is astonishing. Hey, another 20-minutes well-spent in the Bronze Age!
Karen: Agreed on all counts. I think a lot of the writers that came along in the 70s really understood the characters and knew how to write them - plus a big part of it was keeping Stan's style (as far as speech patterns), and of course, Ben's speech patterns are pretty unique. A nice, light read all the way around.
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