ROCKING WITH THE AVENGERS IN THE 1970s

This is the first Avengers book I read. Turns out, its a good one.....

Written by Steve Englehart, this issue with the slam-bang cover was a great introduction to these myriad Iron Man villains, and big vacuum pull into the second Kang war at the end of the story. Turns out,  Kang is probably the best Avenger's bad guy. He does not just cause a skirmish or a fight, he goes to a war over multiple issues every
time he comes around.

Issue 130 is a good jumping on point for the Avengers, but not a great one. There are so many good Avengers storylines after Englehart took over around issue 100. This is including three Kang Wars, a Thanos story, a multi-issue crossover with The Defenders, a couple of major weddings, a trip to counter earth, a new origin for The Vision, the return of Captain America, and the addition of several new Avengers.

 Issues 101 through 151 would be ideal to collect from this period, if you want to get the most out of this run. The art is done by several hands, but artists during this period include Dave Cockrum, Sal Buscema, and George Perez, among others.

One of the coolest things about Avengers 130 is that the Dave Cockrum cover is a kind of homage to a Mike Seikowsky JLA cover done in the 1960s. 

PLEASE THROW GWEN FROM THE BRIDGE

Sporting one of the least imaginative covers ever...is The Amazing Spider-man 121....The legendary end of Gwen and the last story signifying the end of the Silver Age Spider-man.

In case you don't know the story, or you base your history on the film based on the story, Gwen, Spidey's long time ball and chain, gets knocked off the Brooklyn Bridge by the Green Goblin, who laughs maniacally after Spidey's webbing snaps Gwen's neck.

As horrible as it seemed at the time, I kinda wished she would have got tossed off twenty issues earlier.
Why?
Because non-superhero girlfriends (and wives) are a drag in every male superhero's life. They just complicate things, and the whining, the constant railing about running late, blah blah blah.  Superman has it worse. By the time Gwen took the plunge, Lois Lane had be dragging him down for over 30 years. I guess it took me a long time to realize, but if your girl has no super powers except super bitching, you might want to see if Wonder Woman is busy Saturday night.

Spidey loses his girl in this issue, but regains his freedom for a while, ends up with Mary Jane, and starts that on again, off again cycle that defines their relationship. A few years ago, someone decided that a married Peter Parker was not appealing to teens, especially teen girls, so MJ went away again. The 1970s was really the best time of Pete's romance with Mary Jane. But then, everyone loved Mary Jane back in those days....

Giant Size Pissed Off Super Villain Team Up

Back in the 1970's, Marvel was trying all sorts of things in their comic book line....including the unlikely book pictured here.

I can understand the thinking here: two of Marvel's best characters, a Anti-Hero and a Supervillain, teaming up to fight...each other.

Well, it's more complicated than that, but really, thats what the cover is about...and the title of the short-lived series....

The Marvel giant-sized series are worth collecting and reading, in case none of you have heard about GS Xmen ;
And I do mean, all of them. For one thing, its a lost format, and one that I loved as a kid. You get a kick ass new story, and then at least one or two rare or obscure reprints about the main characters, for about twice the cost of a regular comic.  And yes, I really did like the reprints, cause i was not around to collect Marvel in the silver age sixties.  I especially like this version of Sub-Mariner because he is wearing the special armor created for him by Reed Richards to keep him wet and wild. It's a lot cooler than his green Aquaman trunks he got stuck wearing for years in his own book. I mean, does he like, have a whole closet full of green swim trunks? No sweatshirts? No socks with holes for his footwings? And look closely at the selfie pic circle on the cover of this first issue: Doc Doom is kinda like, 'hey, i am so tangled up in my cloak, so don't take that pic' and Namor just stands there looking like 'yeah, i'm kinda pissed off' so take your damn picture....

 I never really considered Namor a SuperVillain, and instead will refer to him as a Anti-Hero, cause he really is just kinda pissed off all the time. The good thing about Marvel and DCs' failed book lines of the 70s is that you can go back collect every issue if you like. There is only so many issues, so its a book you can actually say, 'Hey, I own every issue of that series'!

Everyone remembers their first time......

I know a lot of my time growing up was spent reading. I was raised in the days before game consoles, and not being the perfect athlete my brother was, i spent a good amount of time in front of the television or with a book in my hand.  The book pictured on the right was not the first book i read, but its one of three comic books my mom brought home to me from a flea market to read.  The other two,  a large Fantastic Four reprint book, and a Nick Fury, Agent of Shield King-size compilation, were actually more interesting to me...at first.  I remember the FF book was great, and the Shield very satisfying, but when I got to this one....

 I really liked it, especially the 'features' pages inside, where i learned: Matt Murdock is blind, he's a lawyer, he's got radar, and he's a bad ass.
The thing that impressed me about Daredevil was that, like Batman, he could really get messed up if he screwed up. Unlike Batman, that layabout millionaire with nothing to do but sleep all day, Daredevil had a day time job.  All of the villains pictured on the cover could put DD into the hospital, but honestly, Gladiator scared the living hell outta me. I mean, he has freaking saws on his arms! The art by Gene Colan only intensified the freak out, because Gene had such a realistic style. To a six year old, Gladiator is terrifying. The story is really not the best Daredevil story ever done, but it was a great introduction to the character. This book is really my first Marvel.  And I own it to this day. Along with a few more books......

Why would this story be important to you or anyone else who reads this? Because people who love comics, always remember the first ones they read. And the best ones. I guess I am writing this to tap into that feeling. Aside from my kids, comic books are one of few things I really feel good about...........