Who knew that George had two brothers who preceded him into the “sci-fix epic” field?

This reprints the story “Cap Goes Wild” from CAPTAIN AMERICA #106 (1968), where some agents of a foreign nation manage to steal the plans for the new and improved Life Model Decoys (LMDs) from SHIELD. Cap fails to stop them, and a SHIELD agent also informs him that the Lucus brothers in Hollywood are making a film with footage showing him shooting an unarmed prisoner during WWII. Cap winds up fighting an LMD version of himself on the set of the Lucus film.

Lots of good random craziness in this issue, as well as some great fights. I like all the little details on the set of the film, weird costumes and creatures, and the full page splash of the LMD creating machine is one of those magnificent Kirby techno-nightmare creations.

Frank Giacoia inks the edited-to-18-page story, and the cover, which is flipped left-to-right and slightly touched up for the reprint. Looked pretty interesting, as some of the inking seemed to evoke 1950s Kirby more than his usual late-1960s work.

Published 1978

The penultimate chapter of the “Visual Novel” first sees Morgan have Elmo Frye use his powers to erase any film recording of their battle as giants from the previous issue, and then Morgan enters the world of Darius Drumm for their big confrontation. In Drumm’s world, Norma is still being held captive, and there’s an army of pseudo-Drumms who practice his philosophy of “self-denial”. Morgan and Norma are able to take them easily, earning some sarcastic clapping from Drumm:

Drumm then reveals his ultimate goal is to scour the Earth that spawned his hated father, setting up the big “Angel of Death” finale.

Like all of this series, this issue is kind of uneven. Several clever ideas, a few weird bits of humour that work and a few nice visuals, but other bits fall flat, or don’t quite seem to convey what Kirby was hoping they would.

D. Bruce Berry inks the cover and 20-page story

Remember, TwoMorrows releases the Silver Star Graphite Edition later this year.

Published 1983

Oddly, despite the title of the story, “The Dilemma of Dr. Blake”, Thor is Thor throughout the tale, never changing to Blake once. Anyway, he continues his battle with the Destroyer, not realizing that Sif’s life-force is powering the creature. Fortunately, Balder’s able to get Norn Queen to release Sif in exchange for battling Ulik, and then Thor is brought in for the rest of the battle, winning in the end but losing his hammer to Loki. As for the Destroyer, Odin goes down to Earth and picks him up from the police station. No real reason given for why he’d do that personally, but it does give the amusing spectacle of Odin in a suit for a few panels.

Ulik is a great villain, very much in the “pure savagery” style that Kirby would perfect with Kalibak a few years later. Great to see him and Thor in a knock-down fight.

In the back-up is the final 5-page Inhumans story, “While the City Shrieks”, Triton arrives in New York, only to see the city respond with fear and violence. He returns home and convinces Black Bolt that they’ll have to move from their island home or risk eventual discovery, hence the mountain location of the “Great Refuge” in then-modern stories.

Colletta inks the 16-page lead story and cover, Sinnott inks the back-up.

Published 1968

After just providing covers and plots for the first four issues, Kirby writes and draws the finale of this series that promoted the line of action figures. In his Kirby-like way, though, the story that promises “final combat with Darkseid” on the cover never actually has the heroes face Darkseid. Instead, as Darkseid prepares to unleash his four armies on Earth, out heroes and villains are whisked through various worlds by Metron, including one interesting one in a two-page spread where the skeletal remains of some giants lie, in order to evade Darkseid’s detection. Finally he places them all (including Robin, who was yanked in from the JLA satellite at the last minute to make sure everyone with an action figure was present) in a brain booster powered by the mysterious Worlogog…

…which enables him to use the remains of the extra powers Darkseid gave the villains to divert and destroy Darkseid’s armies. I wonder if the Brain Booster™ playset comes with a Worlogog™ or you have to buy it separately?

So not the big battle climax you’d expect, which is nice, although in all this series is just a bit of a diversion, a little bit better than you have a right to expect from a toy tie-in, but still a trifle.

Greg Theakston inks the cover and 25-page story.

Published 1984

Kirby’s big return to one of his greatest creations is trumpeted on the cover like very few credits at Marvel ever had been before (“King Kirby is Back — And Greater Than Ever”). This issue starts the “Madbomb” story that would carry the book up to #200, as Cap and the Falcon first find themselves in the middle of a spontaneous riot in the middle of the city, the result of an experimental device, powered by an artificial brain which induces madness, from a secret organization that SHIELD has been tracking, without much luck. A SHIELD agent brings Cap and the Falcon in to help, but not before they’re made to run a “Panic Course” in order to prove their identities.

Passing the course in record time, of course, they’re now cleared to be briefed by Henry Kissinger (yeah, I always thought that was a bit weird), who informs them that after a few trial runs, like the one they witnessed, the enemy is planning an attack with a “Big Daddy” Madbomb the size of a house, powerful enough destroy the US.

I really like this issue, and the whole storyline, just so bold and full of non-stop action and new ideas. I’m glad it was finally reprinted a while back.

Frank Giacoia inks the 18-page story, while John Romita inks the cover.

Published 1976

An aside, I just checked my hitcounter and saw I passed 100,000 sometime in the past week, since I added the counter about a year ago. Pretty modest by some weblog standards, but 250-300 hits a day is more than I ever expected. Thanks to everyone who dropped by and everyone who linked to this place, it’s always appreciated.

Heh, Doom cracks me up in this issue. Although I’m never clear if he’s supposed to be delusional or intentionally ironic in these kinds of scenes.

Anyway, returning from their adventure with the Inhumans, the FF (with Crystal subbing for new mother Sue) are intercepted by Nick Fury and recruited for a mission to find out about a rumoured robot army being amassed somewhere in Europe. That naturally takes them to Latveria, where they’re captured by Doom’s robots, hypnotized to prevent the use of their powers and placed in a seemingly peaceful village, where Doom plans to toy with them.

Doom really makes this issue, there are a lot of great scenes with him, showing off his arrogant royal bearing, and it’s always good to see that outdated but still charming version of Old Europe that Kirby drew.

Joe Sinnott inks the story, which thanks to some creative editing of the early scenes now clocks in at 18 pages, as well as the reprint cover, which is among my favourite FF covers.

Published 1976

Cap, the Torch and Namor battle nazis on the high seas in this early INVADERS cover. My favourite bit is the flipped over nazi that Cap has just decked. Frank Giacoia inks the image.

The art for this cover is currently being auctioned at Heritage Comics, already out of most people’s price range, I’m sure. Check their site for a large scan (registration required), which is missing the cover blurb so you get some more details on U-Man’s leg.

Published 1976

“Not just another giant gorilla story”, that’s a classic bit of comics hype there. I especially love the texture around Gorr’s fingers and toes.

Joe Sinnott inks, with some modifications by John Romita.

Published 1976

This reprints the Hulk story from TALES TO ASTONISH #69 (1965), slightly out of sequence since the HULK SPECIAL that reprinted the following issues had already come out. Mike Esposito inks the 10-page story, using the “Demeo” pen-name. Typical Hulk story of the era, he gets captured by fellow gamma-green freak the Leader, who is stealing a military device which absorbs radiation, while the army is in pursuit. Fortunately the Hulk makes a timely rampage, knowing from the Banner part of his mind that he has to destroy the device, though he reverts to Banner and appears to die as the army closes in, despite Rick Jones’ attempt to stop them.

These are some great rampaging Hulk images on this page, aren’t they?

Published 1972