Marvel Comics: July 2009 Archives

If you went crazy for the trading card sets that Marvel released in the 1990s, then I’m sure you’ll remember the work done by the Brothers Hildebrandt (Greg and Tim) on various Marvel characters.  They also contributed some Marvel Swimsuit pieces featuring the X-Men.

Here’s Cyclops and Jean Grey on vacation.  I think this picture is proof positive that Jean had plastic surgery sometime during the previous decade.  An untold story!  Scott’s mind does not appear to be wandering.  For a long time, this was the sacred romance in the Marvel universe.  It took Grant Morrison to break them apart.

We all know Rogue and Gambit can’t ever really get it on, without Rogue sucking the life out of her lover.  The Hildebrandt’s are really cruel here having Rogue tease Gambit with what he can’t have.  I think I’ve read somewhere that Mike Carey has devised a way for Rogue to control her powers now?  I can only follow Matt Fraction’s book. 

Check out more Marvel paintings on the Brothers Hildebrandt’s website.  Nuff said.

We've seen many female versions of Marvel's characters: Spider-Woman, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, etc. Now, courtesy of this fan at San Diego--we have female Deadpool! She-Deadpool? Deadpool-Woman? Deadpool-Babe?

Several people mentioned this fan during the San Diego 2009 coverage yesterday, including Agent M. Fortunately, she was easy to find on Flickr.

Wouldn't it be cool if Daniel Way or another Marvel creator made a female version of Deadpool as a joke? I bet they are considering it now. Nuff said.

The big bomb that Joe Quesada promised would break the internet has been detonated.  The rights to Miracleman now belong to Marvel!  It’s an ironic turn of events.  The character started out as Marvelman in the UK.  When it was going to be published in the USA, Marvel sued and the character’s name as changed to Miracleman by Eclipse Comics.  Alan Moore did a mind blowing job on this series, I hold it right up there with Swamp Thing, Watchman, and V for Vendetta.  I’ve always held on to my original copies of the Eclipse Comics.

Marvel brought Mark Buckingham on stage to celebrate the announcement.  I can only assume—or hope—that Marvel will bring Neil Gaiman and Buckingham together to finish The Silver Age and The Dark Age.  It would be weird to see these guys finish something they started over 20 years ago.

I am not sure how I would feel about seeing MarvelMan in the main universe.  It would be strange.  But sooner or later, I bet Marvel would bring him into continuity.  Nuff said.

Update:  Here’s a video interview that Quesada did with Jonah Weiland at CBR TV:

Deathlok is returning to the Marvel Universe soon.  This is the cover to Deathlok #1 by Brandon Peterson. 

Charlie Huston is the writer and Lan Medina is the artist.  I’m very interested to see what Huston does with this character.  Nuff said.

The Cup of Joe panel at San Diego Comic Con 2009 has started off with a bang!  What’s next after the identity of the Red Hulk is revealed in Hulk #600?

Red She-Hulk!  This is the cover to Hulk #16.

In Hulk #17, it’s Red She-Hulk versus Dark Wolverine.  Cowabunga!

Bruce Banner won’t be able to turn into the Hulk for a while.  There will be Red Hulks all over the place, as well as Skaar.  Time for another World War of the Hulks!  Let’s see what happens.  Love this Red Hulk cover by John Romita Jr.  Nuff said.

Update: Here’s an interview that Jonah Weiland did at CBR TV with Jeph Loeb.  They cover the new status quo in the Hulk books and the plan that was cooked up with Greg Pak.

Google just released comic book themes for iGoogle, and there's several Marvel characters available:  Captain America, Spider-Woman, Iron Man, etc.  I chose the Hulk theme, which you see above.  The cool thing about this feature, is that the banner image rotates whenever you visit your Google page.  The above image was taken from Planet Hulk.  There are two more banners, one with an image from Mike Deodato, another from Dale Keown's classic cover to Hulk #377.  Cool beans.  Nuff said.

If you were a Conan fan in the early 1970s, most likely you wailed when Barry Smith left the series, no matter how much you liked John Buscema.  Where there are a large number of fans who feel Buscema is the superior Conan artist, he was always a strong second choice for me.  Barry Smith left the color comic with the Song of Red Sonja, then he returned briefly for the epic Red Nails in Savage Tales.  After that, aside from pinups and posters, we never saw Smith on Conan again.

Roy Thomas found another artist—Tim Conrad—who briefly appeared to be Smith’s successor.

Conrad made a splash in the Savage Sword of Conan with a two part Bran Mak Morn story that blew us all away.  I kept hoping that Conrad would eventually draw Conan regularly—but all we got was this cover from the Marvel Comics Index series.  What happened to Tim Conrad after his Savage Sword stories?  I’ve lost track.  Nuff said.

In 1981, Brent Anderson provided this nifty wraparound cover to the X-Men Marvel Comics Index.

I love this cover because it features the classic X-Men on the left in their yellow and black uniforms.  The new X-Men are gathered around Charles Xavier on the right.  The logo is used as a prop for Nightcrawler to dangle overhead.  Terry Austin did a superb job on the inks, and they corralled Steve Oliff for the coloring.

Brent Anderson was the artists of the classic God Loves, Man Kills graphic novel.  He illustrated many other Marvel comics, including Ka-Zar and one of my favorite non-universe series, Strikeforce Morituri.  Check out Brent’s website.  Nuff said.

How many Fantastic Four covers did Jim Steranko produce in the 1970s?  Only three to my knowledge.

Fantastic Four #130 was produced during Steranko's flurry of 1972 covers for Marvel.  This issue featured the return of the Frightful Four, with an interesting twist.  Medusa, once a member of the Frightful Four in 1960s, had switched sides and become a member of the FF.  Taking Medusa's place?  Thundra, the Femizon who wanted to make babies with Benjamin J. Grimm.  The Thing looks great on this cover.

Fantastic Four #131 featured the answer to a mystery that began in Avengers #104--whatever happened to Quicksilver?  The last we had seen of the silver speedster, he had heroically sacrificed himself to defeat a Sentinel.  Seriously injured, Pietro saw something horrible approaching him.  Then he vanished, leaving the Avengers and his sister Wanda to wonder where he had disappeared.

This issue gave us the answer!  Quicksilver had been approached by Lockjaw, the teleporting giant bulldog from the Inhumans.  Lockjaw brought Pietro to Attilan, where he was nursed back to health by Crystal.  Crystal melted Quicksilver's icy exterior and he fell in love.  Naturally, when Johnny Storm discovered them together, a massive fight ensued.

It was a pretty darn good soap opera moment in the Marvel Universe.  Unfortunately, it had the side effect of removing Quicksilver from the Marvel playground for a number of years.

While the 1972 FF covers are good, they don't seem like iconic Steranko.  But the cover to the Fantastic Four Marvel Comics Index in 1977 is really groovy and psychedelic, man.  Nuff said.

In 1982, George Olshevsky snagged Frank Miller for the cover to the Marvel Comics Index featuring Daredevil.

This dynamic cover features Daredevil and Elektra on a NYC rooftop, ready to fight the Hand.  Black Widow, in her new Miller-designed costume, hangs off the building on the side.

What’s really incredible is that this index also covered Black Goliath, Black Panther, Dazzler, and the Human Fly!  I could not believe fans were dying to know who wrote/drew each issue of the Human Fly!  Miller does his best with these side characters—his rendition of Black Goliath makes that character cool.

Not only did Miller draw this cover, Joe Rubenstein inked it, and Steve Oliff did a superb color job.  Nuff said.

My retrospective look at George Olshevsky’s Marvel Comics Index covers continues, with this Doctor Strange cover by Tim Conrad in 1977.

The groovy thing about this cover is the way that Conrad rendered Stephen Strange’s face—it closely resembles Steve Ditko’s version of the character.  Nuff said.

How to celebrate July 4th, Marvel style?  With Steve Rogers, Captain Amercia, of course.

This cover, to Captain America volume 1 #454 in 1996, marked the end of Mark Waid and Ron Garney’s first run on the character.  Rob Liefield would re-launch Cap in his twisted vision of Heroes Reborn a short time later.  Fans like me were disgusted—Waid and Garney’s take on the character was very well received.  Fortunately, a year or so later when the Marvel heroes finally returned, Waid and Garney were back.  Nuff said.

Another cover from George Olshevsky’s Marvel Comics Index, Thor, circa 1977:

Tim Conrad was a rising star at Marvel in the 1970s.  This cover shows Thor in all his raging glory as he brings down a rainstorm.  Nuff said.

I've bought and sold (and re-bought) many classic comics in my time.  But no matter what, I've always kept my very fine copy of Amazing Spider-Man 121 lovingly protected in mylar.  I have to, it's the single most important comic that I've read in my entire life!

I think a lot of comic readers in the baby boom generation would rank this issue very highly as well.  You have to picture me in this time and place.  It's 1973.  I've been reading comics for about 4 years.  I was a huge Spider-Man fan, reading his present (in Amazing) and past adventures (in Marvel Tales).  I even had a mail subscription to ASM.  It would arrive in our mailbox, in a brown wrapper, folded in half.  Not the thing you'd put in mylar (my present copy was purchased later), but a comic you'd slide out of the wrapper and start reading as soon as you could.

Some comics are so eventful, I remember the time and place where I read them.  In this case, I had gotten out of school early to go to the dentist.  My father brought me home on a sunny afternoon (in Alaska) and I read this issue with great excitement.

You could tell ASM #121 was going to be a turning point.  Despite the cover, I never expected anyone to really die.  Certainly not Gwen Stacy--her father, Captain Stacy, had died a few years earlier.  I did know that Norman Osborn would return as the Green Goblin.  Osborn was always a ticking time bomb ready to go off.  Whenever he recovered his memories and insanity took him over, something big always happened.

By the time, I got to the end of the story, I couldn't believe what I had just read.  Sweet, beautiful, loving Gwen Stacy--the love of Peter Parker's life--was dead?  No way.  That kind of thing just didn't happen in superhero comics.  And what really got me, even at 12 years old, was the above panel where Gwen Stacy perished.  The sound effect SWIK! registered that her death was even more sick and twisted. Spider-Man killed his own girlfriend by snagging her the wrong way with his web-line.  The SWIK! and SNAP! and head bobbing that Gil Kane drew left no doubt in mind.  Peter Parker had royally screwed up.

Was Norman Osborn responsible for Gwen Stacy's death as well?  Of course.  He had kidnapped Gwen and knocked her off the George Washington Bridge.

The beautiful and twisted thing about this story is that we as readers have witnessed the truth in a way no other character in the story has.  Spider-Man doesn't realize what he's done.  Neither does Osborn.  Nor any other character in the Marvel Universe.

I still could not quite believe Gwen was dead, even with the full splash page at the very end of the story.  It took the following issue to really confirm that fact.  Nothing seemed the same after this moment.  I could believe that other Marvel characters might die as a result.  It was such a remarkable moment that Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross chose to mark the end of an era in MARVELS.

Fans of this story and Gerry Conway's classic Amazing Spider-Man will want to listen to his podcast interview with John Siuntres on Word Balloon.  Conway talks in detail about how Amazing Spider-Man #121 was created, from the initial story idea by John Romita to Gil Kane's contribution in the neck-snapping panel above.  Conway also discusses his return to comics and the Last Days of Animal Man.  I love how Siuntres interviews comics professionals--he asks the questions I would ask if I were sitting down with them.  Nuff said.