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 Re: SUB-MARINER
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Some guys at the Masterworks board were bad-mouthing Marie's work on Subby, so I replied with the following...
That's the nice thing... everyone's entitled to their opinions.
Here's MINE:
I LOVE Gene's work, and when he puts his mind to it, John isn't bad sometimes. But neither one was "right" for THIS character. The more I look and the more I read and re-read, the more convinced I am of this.
Artists who I feel were a better fit include (in reverse order):
George Tuska
Ross Andru
Dan Adkins
Wally Wood
Marie Severin
Jack Kirby
But when it all comes down to it, in a better world, NOBODY should have been doing Subby
except BILL EVERETT.
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Re: SUB-MARINER
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Great scans!
You know I've always liked Namor even though I don't really own that many comics with him. Although I prefer his female counterparts Namora & Nita more.
ActorLad
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Visit my official hangout ActorLad's Cool Luau over at the Mission Monitor Board!
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Well, here it is-- the very 1st HULK story I ever read... from TTA #75! But first, some pages by this "Adam Austin" guy... http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20075.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20075%20p01.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20075%20p03.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20075%20p05.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20075%20p11.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20075%20p13.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20075%20p13%201972.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20075%20p14.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20075%20p15.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20075%20p16.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20075%20p17.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20075%20p18.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20075%20p19.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20075%20p20.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20075%20p21.jpghttp://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20075%20p22.jpg For many years, I heard about The Leader, but all I knew was he was this DEAD guy. Seems almost a shame somebody "had" to bring him back to life, for endless inferior sequels, doesn't it? More of "Jack Kirby" shows thru this time than the last time it was just him and "M.Demeo", so I'm guessing Jack did fuller pencils, though still not as "full" as when he & Esposito teamed up for one episode of SHIELD. People who kvetch and complain about Vince Colletta should take a good CLOSE look at this. Being able to see these this big (I just re-read the story AS I posted it online page by page), it's clear that Mike is STILL murdering Jack's work, even though this is lots better than what it had been a few months earlier. The storytelling and the POSES Jack put down are SO good, SO inspired, it's like nothing could really "kill" it... but Esposito sure seems to be trying. Never mind THOR-- this episode gets my vote for one of Jack's stories MOST deserving to be RE-INKED by someone who actually knows and cares what the hell he's doing. Maybe it's because this is exactly where I came in, but as far as the writing goes, this is my FAVORITE version of The Hulk. Halfway between smart and stupid, tough but well-meaning. Had he been a bit more like this, his absurdly-brief time in THE AVENGERS might have lasted longer. When I started reading the "dumb" Hulk, the one who was always moaning about wanting to be left alone, and who almost talked like something out of a bad DC comic, I was disappointed. I don't see how THAT version of the character ever lasted so DAMN long. Page 3: "Now all I gotta do is figure out what to do next." This line could ALMOST have inspired Arthur C. Clarke's repeated line in the novel 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, first regarding "Moon-Watcher", later Dave Bowman when he becomes the "Star-Child". The T-Gun: even something so absurd in its design has a "real-world" believability about it when Kirby designs it. The way the thing is mounted looks like something out of a machine-shop. Leave it to the army to build something when they have NO IDEA what it is, what it does, and somehow expect to find out when they fire it. (WHICH-- THEY DON'T!!! Find out, that is.) Page 4: those close-ups are making with wish for Vince Colletta-- or better yet, DICK AYERS. Page 5: The Ultimate Machine sure reminds me of "The Teacher" from the much-maligned STAR TREK story, "SPOCK'S BRAIN". Page 6: Paul Frees has another cameo... "I have sworn never to interfere in the affairs of others, and yet..." YEAH RIGHT. Page 7: I love the bit where Hulk LEAPS, hits the ground, then keeps going. Siegel & Shuster's SUPERMAN he ain't. My question might be, how does he do this without causing massive destruction to every one of his "jumping-off points"? Page 8: Here's the big one: HOW did Ross get the T-Gun to WASHINGTON, D.C.??? Isn't he-- and Banner's lab-- in the southwest? And WHY would he think to transport it and test it anywhere near the nation's Capital, without advance knowledge that The Hulk might show up there? This scene is SCREAMING for a "no-prize" explanation!!! Page 9: Hey, didn't we see this scene in PLANET OF THE APES? Oh, wait-- that was 2-1/2 years later. And actually, the bit with The Mall and The Lincoln Memorial was in the movie LOGAN'S RUN, where the film-makers were clearly trying to visually reference POTA. (Unless, of course, they had instead READ THIS COMIC...??) Page 10: I might wonder how a bunch of marauders in the far future so quickly recognize The Hulk and comprehend that he's travelled from the past to their time... but considering everything else, I guess it's one of those things you just gotta take on faith. Finally-- HOW COME on the splash page, "Stan Lee" (if that IS his real name) is the ONLY one with his FULL name spelled out? Was he trying to side-line everybody else??? (Oh, don't answer that...)
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This took a bit longer than I hoped, but here's #76... http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20076.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20076%20p01.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20076%20p01%20inks.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20076%20p06.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20076%20p07.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20076%20p08%20inks.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20076%20p12.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20076%20p13.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20076%20p13%201972.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20076%20p14.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20076%20p15.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20076%20p16.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20076%20p17.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20076%20p18.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20076%20p19.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20076%20p20.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20076%20p21.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20076%20p22.jpg I was processing the covers a BIT differently when I did this than I am now. I kept looking at the background and wondering if I should remove the "brown" from the "gray", but decided it looked right for an underwater scene. Vince Colletta does an interesting job here, but Namor's chest and left arm have a rough look about them that reminds me of a lot of the work he did in the 70's and beyond. One of those instances where I'd wonder, tight deadline, bored, or an assistant's work? Page 1: This scene (WHAT, NO BACKGROUND AT ALL?) somehow reminds me of the climax of the movie SOLOMON AND SHEBA, with Warlord Krang taking the George Sanders part & Namor, Yul Brynner. (Well, Brynner DID have hair in that movie.) This inspired me to check the film out at the IMDB, having seen it on some TV station a few years ago. (I forget if it was TCM or Trinity.) What a shock to learn that 75% of the film-- King Vidor's last-- was completed when lead actor Tyrone Power DROPPED DEAD!! All his scenes had to be re-shot with Brynner, which MAY explain to some extent why so many reviewers feel the people he's acting with seem bored and detached. I can imagine them all feeling, "What, I've got to do this AGAIN?" Page 6 reminds me of a page Kirby did back in the early 40's. I'm reminded how in the Marvel Universe, Namor's people bear NO resemblance to how they looked in the 40's. (That girl in red is sure pretty.) Page 7: I had to process this differently, because the skin tones completely blanked out (as seen on page 6), and I really wanted that pale blue on Dorma intact. Page 12: Is this a bit of retroactive continuity, Stan's bad memory, or could he just not have been bothered looking it up? Namor says his kingdom was the victim of atomic testing, which caused them to scatter to the undersea winds... "two decades ago". As this is 1966, that would make it 1946. I've read so pitifully few 1940's SUB-MARINER comics, but can anyone cofirm or deny if this was ever mentioned before? Back in FF #4 & 6, there was a lot of talk about Namor's kingdom being destroyed, but the impression I always had was that happened AFTER his 1950's adventures, not years before. And now we come to the 2ND HULK episode I ever read, courtesy of HULK ANNUAL #4 (1972), although these scans are from the original printing in 1966. WHO KNEW this was GIL KANE's debut at 60's Marvel? Using the name "Scott Edward", his pencils are wedged in between Jack Kirby's layouts and Mike Esposito's inks. As a result, the storytelling is AWESOME, but very little of Gil OR Mike's styles get to shine. It's usually better when they only have 2 artists-- either pencils and inks, or layouts and finishes. Please note for comparison the 1972 version of the splash page. A LOT of lines seem to be missing from that. BAD reprint reproduction, or was the original altered before printing and the reprint is the "un-altered" version?? The color job the 2nd time around doesn't do any facors. All those grey weapons that are now blue, and the pale yellow credit blurb also now blue. The only thing on this page that really looks "Kane" to me are the weapons. Page 14: Doesn't that leader look like he had Steve Ditko for a costume designer? Page 15: That weapon looks more "Kane" than "Kirby" to me, though with that big tail-piece, one wonders HOW the hell it manages to fire without tearing off the top of the rack it's fired from? The figure in the last panel is where Kane really starts to show thru. Page 16: That whatever-it-is reminds me of a gadget Mattel once had for MAJOR MATT MASON, except it was built as an exo-skeleton of sorts for a man in the middle of it to "wear" and control. Page 17 is "Kane" ALL OVER! The faces of the characters, ESPECIALLY Ross, and that complex machinery in the 1st panel-- KIRBY never did anything that looked like THAT! Considering how much I've disliked Gil Kane's work at times over the years, it strikes me Kirby & Kane might have made a very interesting team, if they'd worked together on a regular basis like this. But as far as I know, this episode was the ONLY time it ever happened. Ross is somebody I tend to HATE. In fact, I actually WORKED for a guy JUST like him a decade back, who was a software designer. Brilliant, but EXPLOSIVE temper and not shy about tearing into the people working for him with no provocation. Still, for once, I get a kick out of Ross's attitude here, when he stands up to one of HIS superiors, telling the man, "Don't let that one extra star go to your head!" By this point, under Kirby (and whoever), Talbot no longer looks like Lee Van Cleef (the way Ditko used to draw him), but Ross here DOES remind me of British actor Thorley Walters, who I've found in recent years played a LOT of army types in the 50's and early 60's. And, if you've ever seen him as the police inspector in FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED, you can see the resemblance in the personality as well. Page 18: What a COOL "bunker". Definitely "Kane" (not "Kirby"). This could easily have stepped right out of any of Kane's later sci-fi works, like STAR HAWKS, or his later GREEN LANTERN episodes. I love the Hulk's thoughts in this sequence. "So THIS is the world of the FUTURE! It's just a big NBOTHIN'!!" ...and... "...I got a lot of PAYIN' BACK to do! But before I take this place APART..." I suppose some new reader might wonder, "THIS is the HERO???" The way Kirby & Kane draw the Hulk here, he reminds me a lot of Aurora's "BIG FRANKIE" model kit, which was a giant, 2-foot high, short, squat Frankenstein they had on the market in the early 60's. I've often wondered if one might have influenced the other... Page 19: Any other character might have at least considered an offer from the "king", but not greeenskin. "That's YOUR problem! I Got OTHER things on my mind!" Page 22: The "walking pillboxes" are straight out of WAR OF THE WORLDS. One must have expected alien invaders from another planet. Or, considering the war-torn future, perhaps the armies of Kang The Conqueror. Instead, we get-- from the pages of THOR-- "The Immortal Executioner"! I always thought this was a COOL idea. The guy is IMMORTAL-- therefore, the reason he is ALSO in the future is, to him, he's just been alive that long. Years later, Gary "Burnout" Friedrich, in ONE misguided word balloon, tried to contradict this and say time-travel was involved with him, too, but that just makes NO SENSE and violates the simple coolness of this earlier episode. When in doubt, go with the "original", NEVER the "sequel". Anyway, I recall back when thinking it almost looked as though the picture of The Executioner had been pasted in after-the-fact. I see no evidence of that on the original page, but, the word balloon shows signs of "fixing". WAS there someone else commanding that pillbox when Jack (or Gil) drew it, and someone (Stan?) changed it at the last minute? Makes me wonder. I do recall when I read this 3-parter the first time wondering, what's going on with 3 different pencillers in 3 episodes? No matter how you cut it, that just doesn't seem right. It's amazing these episodes are as GOOD as they are! I put that down to Jack's story and Stan's dialogue. (A 90/10 split, which is why the credits are a crime.)
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And here we go, #77! http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20077.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20077%20p01.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20077%20p10.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20077%20p13.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20077%20p13%201972.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20077%20p17.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20077%20p18.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20077%20p20.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20077%20p21.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20077%20p22.jpg My copy of this one was pretty beat-up, despite costing me more than the rest. (That's because I bought quite a few years ater the previous ones, because I just really wanted the original printing.) I lost track of how many hours it took to clean this up... looks like it was WORTH it, though, doesn't it? John Romita had just returned to Marvel from DC a couple months earlier, and had done 1 issue of THE AVENGERS and either 2 or 3 episodes of DAREDEVIL when he branched out on HULK. What a cover!! Romita has said in many interviews that all he wanted to do at Marvel was ink. It's clear he could have been one of Jack Kirby's best inkers (and probably a lot of other people's as well), but that wasn't what Stan had in mind. If this issue's SUB-MARINER episode proves anything, it's that Gene Colan had a thing for "military" stuff. He does those frogmen so good, you wonder why he's "wasting" his time with super-heroes! Namor, meanwhile, still has a LOT to learn about being the monarch of a small country. Like, you just don't go charging in somewhere INCOGNITO and expect to be recognized diplomatically, which might have made a lot of things a LOT easier for him over the years. Now we come to the 3rd episode of HULK I ever read: "BRUCE BANNER IS THE HULK!" After suffering thru months on end of Mike Esposito, John Romita's linework is a welcome breath of fresh air. Look how SMOOTH those lines are! DAMN, he's good!!! (The printing on the splash page leaves a bit to be desired, though-- they must have had a problem with the color plate registration here.) I remember the first time I read this thinking this was the best-looking art of the 3-parter, and while it's very nice, looking at it now, Romita's HULK somehow seems "generic" compare to Esposito's or Kane's. Kane's, especially, had a lot more "personality". Maybe if they'd teamed Kane & Romita up... (that would come later, of course-- heehee) As usual, the BEST part of the episode is Jack Kirby's storytelling. It's awesome to behold when The HULK just flies into a rage at the thought of being KNOCKED DOWN by anybody, let alone as Asgardian. On page 20, Major Talbot shows more warmth and human compassion than he's EVER exhibited in the entire series up to this point. Maybe with his romantic rival believed DEAD, the sexual tension is off somewhat (not that Kirby or Lee would have focused on that). What surprises me is how much in the first panel Rick Jones resembles Robert Walker (Sr. or Jr., take yer pick), who he also resembled in the Kirby-Stone art for "The Army Of Assassins Strikes!" in SUSPENSE #60 (Dec'64). Few artists ever take the trouble to make some characters consistent in appearance. I have to figure it was Jack Kirby's doing in this case. What a SHOCK at the bottom of the page when The HULK does a "180" and tries to save the city. I mean, what did they ever do for HIM? And sure enough, on the next page, the city dwellers, after seeing his heroics, conclude that he did it so HE could take over the city. (At least, according to Stan's dialogue.) Weren't they listening AT ALL in the previous installment when he said over and over that he just didn't care about them, and all he wanted was to get back to his own time? I'd say they didn't DESERVE to be saved. That's another baffling thing about this episode. I wonder WHY he keeps thinking any of these characters would just happen to have time-travel equipment laying around for his convenience? (As far as I know, The Executioner did not have the power of time-travel, nor would he have any reason to use if it he did.) The last-page revelation isn't much fo a surprise for the readers, considering the name of the story and the way it was plastered all over the front cover. But Talbot sure is surprised. But then, he never seemed that bright from the day he first showed up at Ross's missile base. You'd THINK his suddenly learning the truth about Bruce Banner might change his attitude toward the guy... but as we'll see, not really. Like many before him, Romita didn't stick around. While continuing to work on DAREDEVIL, the month after this he moved over to TALES OF SUSPENSE to do 2 episodes of CAPTAIN AMERICA-- a character he'd first done in the early 1950's! Personally, I think he was a better fit there, and he might have stuck around a lot longer than he did, if it hadn't been for Steve Ditko's abrupt departure from the company. It's just as well... the next issue would FINALLY bring some stability to the feature, from a surprising source.
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Next up: #78! http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20078.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20078%20p01.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20078%20p05.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20078%20p07.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20078%20p13.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20078%20p22.jpg "THE PRINCE AND THE PUPPET!" How many times does Namor have "misunderstandings" with surface-men? (Never mind that-- how many, MANY times do ALL Marvel heroes have "misunderstandings" with other heroes?) You'd think it'd get boring after awhile... Oh well, This story, which featured guest appearances of Hank Pym & Janet Van Dyne, served as a lead-in to their re-introduction to THE AVENGERS in issue #26 of that series (Mar'66-- it's really the same month as this one, but the cover dates on AVENGERS, DAREDEVIL, THOR and X-MEN were one month "off" for some reason, and stayed that way until the Nov'71 issues.) http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/avengers/AV%20026.jpg 10 months earlier, in STRANGE TALES #133 (Jun'65), Bob Powell had inexplicably given The Puppet Master (one of my LEAST-favorite villains in the entire Marvel Universe) a complete make-over, resulting in him no longer looking like Howdy Doody's evil twin brother and more like just your average short, bald, overweight schlep of a badguy. In that story, he claimed he did it so people wouldn't know who he was, but his "new" identity was found out only a few pages later... which shows just how efficient his planning tends to be. (Of course, I do find myself wondering if that wasn't supposed to be SOME OTHER VILLAIN entirely, and Stan's dialogue either mistook it for or just changed him to The Puppet Master, but that's something others can debate.) http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/strangetales/ST%20133.jpg At any rate, this annoying, sick psycho is back, still with his "new" look, and looking more ominous than ever under Gene Colan & Vince Colletta. Page 7: WHAT a cool shot! Might have made a nice poster, if not for all that repetitive dialogue all over it. "THE HULK MUST DIE!" Exactly TWO YEARS after DAREDEVIL #1, Bill Everett finally returned to Marvel full-time, and of course, where else should he find himself but in TALES TO ASTONISH. But NOT doing his own creation, SUB-MARINER-- no! Instead, he was doing pencils AND inks over Jack Kirby's layouts on THE HULK. Well, this is certainly the most "different" The Hulk has looked since Steve Ditko worked on it. The drawing is a lot more "cartoony", but the linework is a lot SHARPER and SLICKER than Mike Esposito or any dozen other inkers could ever dream of accomplishing. DAMN, is this guy GOOD!!! That General Ross-- he thought he had security problems with Bruce Banner. This issue, he's got one he doesn't even KNOW about, in the form of Dr. Konrad Zaxon, allegedly a top US scientist, but unless I'm mistaken, another foreign spy out to steal secrets and the like. In this case, he's figured out how to draw the incredible life-force power from the Hulk to use it as part of a highly-destructive weapon-- killing greenskin in the process. Presumably for protection, he dons a suit of armor... and we get to see what IRON MAN might have looked like if Bill Everett had created the character back in the early 50's, instead of Jack Kirby in the early 60's. (I know Kirby worked on this episode, but under Everett's full art, he could have been doing stick-figures for all I know!) Everett's sense of design is unique in the 60's, as his machinery could easily have turned up decades earlier. For the first time in quite awhile, the Hulk is imprisoned by the Army, and Zaxon deliberately lets him loose so he can siphon his power off (and kill him, of course). It looks like we could have an episode-long battle royal next time. But looks can be deceiving!
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Alright-- time for the (ALMOST!) All-BILL EVERETT issue-- #79! http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20079.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20079%20p01.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20079%20p02.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20079%20p04.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20079%20p04%20inks.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20079%20p08.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20079%20p10.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20079%20p13.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20079%20p15%20inks.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20079%20p17.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20079%20p18.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20079%20p19.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20079%20p20.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20079%20p21.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20079%20p21%20inks.jpg http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/astonish/TTA%20079%20p22.jpg WHAT a COVER!!! Gene Colan & Jack Kirby have done their share of great ones on this run, but this time Kirby has out-done himself. And Bill Everett proves he's one of Kirby's BEST inkers yet! Wow. "WHEN RISES THE BEHEMOTH" After 9 consecutive issues of Gene Colan being inked by Vince Colletta, we get a new inker, in the form of-- BILL EVERETT! Returning to his creation 10 years and 7 months after the last 1950's issue of SUB-MARINER, the Colan-Everett combo is something to behold. You might not think 2 artists whose styles are so distinctive and so COMPLETELY different would be a good match for each other, but they are. It's like Jack Kirby & Joe Sinnott, or Jackson Guice & Kelly Jones-- only different. The point is, in one installment, on inks alone, Namor's creator TOTALLY blows Vince Colletta's earlier out of the (heh heh) water. When an over-muscled half-naked hero is surrounded by trigger-happy army soldiers and he starts tearing up the landscape to fight them-- and it's happening in BOTH features in the same split mag, it might start to get confusing. I wonder if this might not be why HULK started getting dumber by the page around this point? Still, Namor isn't proving himnself much smarter, if being crowned ruler of Atlantis is gonna have this little effect on his standard M.O. Gene introduces yet another giant-size menace in one of his comics. We've seen the seaweed-man, we've seen ULTIMO, now, the BEHEMOTH. Do you get the feeling it's too bad GIANT-MAN's series had bitten the big one by this point? It's notable than in the VERY brief run Gene did on THE AVENGERS sometime later, he introduced a new "GOLIATH"-- but I think it's a shame he didn't get to draw the REAL one in action. Anyway, this monster-- an Atlantean "doomsday machine" gone awry-- looks like it would have fit right in on an episode of Irwin Allen's VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA. Colan & Everett sure render s beautiful Lady Dorma. This is one more example of Namor's lack of excessive brains... HOW come he didn't MARRY this one A.S.A.P.? "THE TITAN AND THE TORMENT!" Readers preparing for a lengthy battle royal between greenskin & Dr. Zaxon must have had a shock-- almost a big a shock as Zaxon did, when he accidentally ELECTROCUTED himself on only the 2nd page of this installment. GOOD GRIEF! It's interesting to see Jack Kirby's story notes on the original art for page 3 (15). "Bruce realizes guy is dead-- he knows he will be blamed for the death--" Jack doesn't refer to greeny as "HULK"-- he refers to him as "BRUCE". My guess is, Jack wanted The Hulk to continue on with Bruce Banner's intelligence. After all, WHO wants to follow the adventures of a DUMB hero (other than Johnny Weismuller fans)? Stan Lee, obviously. Not only is this the exact point where The Hulk became a DUMB ANIMAL (for all intents and purposes), but there's not even a HINT that it crossed his almost non-existent mind that he might be blamed for Zaxon's death. Which, he is, by the way, by the soldiers, who exclaim, "Now we know for SURE that he's a KILLER!" As I said-- GOOD GRIEF. What follows, as far as the art goes, is so completely, entirely "Bill Everett" in look and feel, it wouldn't surprise me if Jack didn't do stick-figures for this installment. Why would he need to do more? A bit of a crossover occurs here, as possibly the BIGGEST A**H*** in the Marvel Universe at the time who WASN'T a villain-- HERCULES, the Son of Zeus-- fresh from beating the CRAP out of THOR (Son of Odin), is on his way to HOLLLL-LYWOOD (you need 4 or 5 "L"s) to become a big movie star, by portraying-- get this-- "Hercules"-- in a big-budget epic feature film. En route, what are the odds? His train runs afoul of greenskin, who rips up the tracks to use as weapons against air force fighter-jets. Well, NOBODY interferes with HERCULES, so a battle royal proceeds to take place. (Hey, we got one anyway!) Now, if anybody thought Hercules vs. Thor was the biggest clash of egos ever seen in the history of the 1960's Marvel Universe, this episode does its best to out-do it. Because on BOTH sides you've got guys who are TOO strong, TOO powerful, TOO arrogant, TOO DAMN STUPID to ever, ever give up under any circumstances whatsoever! And, since it's in the middle of the southwest desert, it goes on and on and on... until the army starts BOMBING the area with artillery shells. Actually figuring he can't fight the WHOLE ARMY, Hulk takes off, leaving Hercules amazed. Oh well, at least he didn't seem bothered by the fact that he didn't actually BEAT his opponent. In an awesome display of strength that could have stepped right out of Greek mythology, Hercules CARRIES each railroad car over the gap and re-hooks them on the other side. For this, he is considered a hero. The Hulk, having displayed possibly even greater feats of strength, is considered a menace. And so, the only hero in the M.U. who's even more miserable than Spider-Man continues to be miserable. And the soap-opera goes on for another month. The next month box screams "TYRANNUS", but the way it looks, I almost wonder if that wasn't pasted in at the last moment. I wonder if anyone had other plans in mind when the pages were drawn? As amazing as Bill Everett's art is here, as sharp and crisp and perfectly precise are all the lines (mind-bogglingly so, I'd say), I can't help but think maybe he would have been better-suited NOT following Jack Kirby's almost non-existent panel break-downs. There's so many SMALL panels, and in them, so many TEENY-TINY figures, you almost need a magnifying glass to see everything Everett drew here. It gets ironic when one of Jack's hand-written story notes describes "Herc's muscles bulge like balloons"-- and he's drawn SO TINY, you can barely see him at all! I get the feeling that's not QUITE what Jack had in mind.
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