MARVEL PUBLICATIONS: JANUARY 1972

This weekend’s escapist, lighthearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at all the Marvel Comics publications for January of 1972, excluding reprints.

SPIDER-MAN Vol 1 #104 (January 1972)

Title: The Beauty and the Brute

Villains: Kraven the Hunter and Gog

Synopsis: This issue picks up from the previous issue’s cliffhanger ending – Spider-Man is sinking in quicksand in the hidden Antarctic realm called the Savage Land.

NOTE: Introduced in X-Men #10, the Savage Land was a “lost world” in Antarctica. Geothermal heat kept the place a tropical rainforest year-round, and the Savage Land was home to countless species of dinosaurs, primitive humans and monstrous creatures. The U.N. looked after the Savage Land to preserve it.

        Vibranium was plentiful in the Savage Land and it was depicted there even before its presence was mentioned in Wakanda.

Back to the story, Spider-Man is saved from the quicksand by the timely arrival of Ka-Zar, the blonde Tarzan-like hero of the Savage Land, and his sabretooth tiger companion Zabu. Soon, Spider-Man, Ka-Zar and Zabu are attacked by Kraven the Hunter and his enormous creature Gog.

Gog is an alien that Kraven discovered in a crashed spaceship in the Savage Land and has been raising to become an ally against his old foe Spider-Man. Ka-Zar battles Kraven, who seemingly falls to his death off a cliff, while Spider-Man fights Gog, eventually luring him to drown in quicksand.

NOTE: Naturally, Kraven showed up alive in the near future, allied with the mutant called the Gibbon.

CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE FALCON Vol 1 #145 (January 1972)

Title: Skyjacked!

Villains: Hydra

Synopsis: S.H.I.E.L.D. gathers intelligence indicating that the villainous paramilitary organization Hydra is back in action. Nick Fury has Captain America oversee Femme-Force, an all-female squad of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, in action against Hydra’s new headquarters somewhere in Las Vegas.

Cap’s lady love Sharon Carter (Agent 13) is the official leader of Femme-Force but Nick Fury chauvinistically wants an experienced person like Captain America in overall command for Femme-Force’s inaugural mission. Another member of Femme-Force is Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, Nick Fury’s love interest.

NOTE: This is during the soap opera subplot in which the Contessa was feigning romantic interest in Cap in order to make Nick Fury jealous. She was doing this as revenge on Nick for temporarily dumping her for agent Laura Brown a little while back. (S.H.I.E.L.D. 90210!)

The S.H.I.E.L.D. aircraft gets skyjacked by Hydra on its way to Las Vegas, prompting Nick Fury to call in the Falcon to investigate. Meanwhile, in the skies over Vegas, Cap and Femme-Force continue fighting it out with Hydra for control of the aircraft. Sharon Carter takes a shot meant for Captain America, who fears that she has been killed.

NOTE: That was the cliffhanger for this issue. Naturally, Sharon was not dead. This time around the Supreme Hydra turned out to be Spider-Man’s old foe the Schemer, who was actually being controlled by his father the Kingpin (who was just a pawn of the Red Skull).

        In a few issues, the Kingpin would be arrested, precipitating the gang war between Dr. Octopus and Hammerhead to replace the Kingpin as the head of New York City’s organized crime.

IRON MAN Vol 1 #44 (January 1972)

Title: Weep for a Lost Nightmare

Villains: MK-9 and the Night Phantom

Synopsis: This story picks up from the previous issue’s cliffhanger ending. The pacemaker in Iron Man’s armor which keeps Tony Stark’s heart beating was badly damaged during Iron Man and his ally the Guardsman’s battle with Soulfather last issue.

NOTE: This was the first Guardsman, Kevin O’Brien, an armored backup bodyguard for Tony Stark. (That was back when Tony pretended that Iron Man was just his bodyguard to fool the public.)

The Guardsman flew the barely alive Iron Man to Avengers Mansion, where he used the mansion’s laboratory facilities to repair the pacemaker to save Tony’s life. When Stark is stable enough, the Guardsman flies him to his penthouse apartment to be cared for by Tony’s fiancee Marianne Rodgers.

Elsewhere, Iron Man’s recent, mysterious recurring foe MK-9 (Mr. Kline) rages over the way that his latest humanoid robot Soulfather failed to kill Iron Man during his most recent plan. Since the enigmatic MK-9 somehow knows that Tony Stark really is Iron Man, he sends one of the hero’s supervillain foes the Night Phantom to the penthouse to kill him.

Meanwhile, The Guardsman is visiting with the recovering Tony and Marianne Rodgers, who knows that Tony is Iron Man. Overcome with irrational, erratic feelings of attraction to Marianne, the Guardsman soon makes himself leave.

NOTE: This subplot is setting up the fact that the Guardsman’s self-made armor is beginning to unhinge the Guardsman’s mind due to electromagnetic malfunctioning. Ultimately, the Guardsman tries to kill Iron Man but winds up sacrificing his own life in a moment of mental clarity.

        Kevin O’Brien’s police detective brother Michael would suspect that Tony Stark and Iron Man were involved in Kevin’s death due to the jumbled circumstances. Years later, Michael would don the armor and become the new Guardsman to get revenge on our hero.

Not long after the Guardsman leaves the penthouse apartment, the Night Phantom bursts in. Tony drags himself into his Iron Man armor and, after a long, destructive battle, he defeats the Night Phantom, only to realize it was just another android imposter created by MK-9.

DAREDEVIL Vol 1 #83 (January 1972)

Title: The Widow Accused

Villains: MK-9 and Mr. Hyde

Synopsis: Picking up from where the previous issue left off, the police want to arrest the Black Widow pending investigation into the way she caused the supervillain called the Scorpion to plummet to his death from the World Trade Center.

Daredevil tries to subdue the Black Widow but she gets away and he sets off in pursuit. While he scours New York City for her, MK-9 (Mr. Kline, the same villain plaguing Iron Man at the time) has his robot duplicate of the supervillain called Mr. Hyde try to steal the fallen body of the Scorpion from an ambulance before anyone discovers that it is really just another of his many androids.

Elsewhere, Daredevil catches up with the Black Widow and tries to talk her into turning herself in and letting the legal system clear her of the murder charge. She refuses, but in this second battle Daredevil wins and turns her over to the cops.

As Matt Murdock, our hero represents Natasha in court. He resigns from the staff of his friend District Attorney Foggy Nelson when Foggy insists on charging the Black Widow with murder.

NOTE: Foggy was being blackmailed into railroading Natasha by MK-9 as part of his enigmatic plans.

Soon, Daredevil clashes with the Mr. Hyde android when it breaks into the morgue to destroy the remains of the Scorpion robot, since it failed to steal the robot’s body from the ambulance.

We’re told two weeks have passed since the Widow was arrested, so there is no reason that an autopsy would not have been performed already, thus revealing it’s only an android. When an explosion succeeds in destroying all traces of the Scorpion’s body, Foggy Nelson releases Natasha since he no longer has a corpus delecti.

NOTE: They would have just been better off having the Black Widow freed by an autopsy revealing that the Scorpion was just a robot. But you know comic book writing.

Matt Murdock asks Natasha out on a date, but she refuses, although they will soon start a romance and this series will be retitled Daredevil and the Black Widow for years.

NOTE: To avoid leaving you hanging regarding the MK-9 storyline, it is eventually revealed that the villain is himself really an android who was sent back in time from the future to kill Tony Stark. He was to do that in order to prevent some of Tony’s upcoming technological innovations from resulting in Artificial Intelligence conquering future Earth and inflicting genocide on the human race.

AMAZING ADVENTURES Vol 2 #10 (January 1972)

Title: In His Hand … The World

Villain: Magneto

Synopsis: Picking up from the previous issue, in Magneto’s subterranean hideout near San Francisco, the villain imprisons the defeated Inhumans called Medusa, Karnak and Gorgon in an energy cage. He also calls upon one of his recently created mutates (as opposed to mutants), a large monster with half of his body exposed like an anatomy model (see cover). 

Magneto has that unnamed mutate use its brain powers to take control of the defeated Black Bolt, leader of the Inhumans. Leaving his assorted mutates to guard over the caged Inhumans, Magneto takes the enthralled Black Bolt with him in an aircraft to a U.S. military installation in the state of Washington.

The installation houses a cylinder containing an item that fell from space and is charged with the Power Cosmic. (This object is entirely different than the Tesseract.) The cylinder is connected to so many delicate computers that Magneto could not break into the base with his magnetic powers for fear of electro-magnetically disrupting the machinery and harming the cylinder.

That’s why the villain captured the Inhuman Royal Family in order to enthrall Black Bolt. Magneto has the Inhumans’ leader use his own incredible powers to take down the troops guarding the installation and steal the cylinder for Magneto so he can use it to conquer the world.

That mutant villain now flies back toward San Francisco with Black Bolt at his side. Meanwhile, Medusa leads the caged Inhumans in an escape from the energy cage. She, Karnak and Gorgon defeat the mutates and attack Magneto when he and Black Bolt return.

Black Bolt was only pretending to be enthralled lest Magneto harm the captive Inhumans. With them free, he joins them in defeating the mutant villain. Magneto tries escaping with the cylinder containing the Power Cosmic, but the battle has damaged it enough that the device explodes, seemingly destroying Magneto along with itself.

Naturally, Magneto survived and returns in the near future. Black Bolt and the other members of the Inhuman Royal Family plan to at last return to their hidden Himalayan city Attilan. Once there, they intend to take back Black Bolt’s throne from his evil brother Maximus the Mad. 

Maximus had usurped power while allied with the alien Kree as part of the ongoing Kree-Skrull War in the pages of the Avengers at the time. 

AVENGERS Vol 1 #95 (January 1972)

Title: Something Inhuman This Way Comes

Villains: The Mandroids, Maximus the Mad, the Kree and the Skrulls

NOTE: This is the 7th Part of 9 in the Avengers’ Kree-Skrull War storyline which has been raging as the two forever-warring alien races each try to take the Earth because of its strategic location. 

Synopsis: Triton, a member of the Inhuman Royal Family who left the others in San Francisco in order to seek help from the Fantastic Four against Magneto and Maximus, arrives in New York City. 

Because of the Alien Invasion panic still gripping the world, the National Guard attacks Triton, assuming he’s a member of one of the warring races. Unable to reach the Baxter Building where the Fantastic Four live, Triton goes to Avengers Mansion instead.

He arrives there shortly before Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Goliath and Rick Jones defeat S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Mandroids. Those Mandroids were sent last issue to arrest the Avengers because they stand accused of collusion with the Kree invaders by Senator H. Warren Craddock. (That’s because one of their members – Captain Marvel – is known to be a Kree alien.) The Senator is secretly a Skrull posing as a human to help his race’s efforts to take the Earth by taking down the Avengers.

Triton explains how Maximus overthrew Black Bolt to seize Attilan for the Kree. The Avengers accompany Triton to San Francisco to get Black Bolt and then go on to Attilan. Our heroes defeat Maximus and his Inhuman League, restoring Black Bolt to the throne.

Unfortunately, Rick Jones was taken prisoner by the Kree during the battle, so even though Attilan has just been liberated the Avengers are faced with the need to free Rick Jones from the Kree homeworld of Hala. 

On top of that, they must try to free their captive teammates the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and Captain Marvel from the Skrull homeworld. And that was the cliffhanger for this issue.

NOTE: For my full-length review of this particular Avengers issue, with its non-stop action and detailed subplots click HERE.

FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #118 (January 1972)

Title: Thunder in the Ruins

Villain: Diablo

Synopsis: In the fictional Central American nation of Terra Verde, the Fantastic Four’s old foe Diablo has used his alchemical potions to restore an ancient Mayan temple and to cause the Inhuman Crystal to believe she is really a Mayan goddess who has returned to the Earth.   

Diablo has used the temple and Crystal’s power over the elements to recruit thousands of followers in a bid to take over Terra Verde. The Fantastic Four arrive in their plane to thwart Diablo’s plan and wind up fighting him, Crystal and her huge teleporting dog Lockjaw.

Eventually, the FF manage to prevent Diablo from refreshing the potions he used on Crystal and the temple. This frees Crystal from her delusions of godhood and she helps our heroes defeat Diablo and his army of followers.

Terra Verde is saved and the Human Torch and Crystal kiss goodbye, then part for the moment as she decides to rejoin the rest of the exiled Royal Family in trying to retake Attilan from Maximus the Mad.

CONAN THE BARBARIAN Vol 1 #13 (January 1972)

Title: Web of the Spider-God

Villain: Omm the Spider-God

Synopsis: In the deserts outside of the city-state Zamora, a parched Conan is saved by an old man named Thanix. Since he would be dead if not for Thanix, Conan accepts the old man’s request to rescue his daughter Lea, who is scheduled to be sacrificed to the huge spider-god Omm in Zamora.

Through his savage fighting skill Conan succeeds in killing the spider-god in its own web, thus saving Lea and the other intended human sacrifices. Omm’s worshipers riot and in the chaos the city is destroyed.

Conan and Lea are among the survivors of the devastation, but Thanix was killed during the riot.

HULK Vol 1 #147 (January 1972)

Title: The End of Doc Samson

Villain: The Leader

Synopsis: In this conclusion of a multi-part story, the gamma-powered Doc Samson and Hulk stand together to defeat the latest plan of Hulk’s archenemy the Leader (at far left), who is replacing world leaders with duplicates obedient to him.  

Doc Samson and Hulk wind up in battle with the Leader’s vast army of destructive robots. When it becomes apparent that the combined might of the two gamma-powered beings will be enough to defeat the army given enough time, the Leader decides to change tactics before that can happen.

The villain has his dozens of remaining robots link up into one large robot body to take on Hulk and Doc Samson. The Leader has the giant robot-form fire gamma rays at the Hulk, intent on killing the creature with gamma poisoning.

The rays are having a deadly effect on the Hulk. Doc Samson’s genius lets him figure out what the Leader is doing, and he shields the Hulk with his own body to save his life while improvising a way to cause gamma ray feedback which makes the Leader’s control device explode, thus rendering the villain unconscious.

Without the Leader controlling it remotely, the giant robot form is defeated by the Hulk, who shatters it into the many robots who combined to make it. Doc Samson, from bravely shielding the Hulk from the Leader’s gamma bombardment, has been turned back into his non-powered human form, much to his regret.

THOR Vol 1 #195 (January 1972)

Title: In the Shadow of Mangog

Villains: Mangog, Loki and Forest Trolls

Synopsis: In Asgard, Odin senses an impending attack from the monstrous being Mangog. He therefore sends Thor, Fandral, Hogun and Volstagg on a mission to the enchanted realm called World’s End, where grow giant mushrooms and Forest Trolls who attack our heroes.

They are to find the Twilight Well of the Norns, overcome its guardian Kartag the Keeper, and obtain prophetic visions from the water in the well. Odin simultaneously sends Sif and one of the Valkyries, Hildegarde, to Blackworld, a planet in the Black Galaxy where Ego the Living Planet was located.

Sif and Hildegarde are to find the being called Ego-Prime, who grew from an extracted stone taken from Ego the Living Planet. This was part of an elaborate plan that would involve celestial energy emanating from Ego-Prime (Kurt Russell in the movies.)

Elsewhere, the recently defeated Loki finds the banishment realm of the mystic monster Mangog. He frees the brutish creature and proposes an alliance against Odin. Instead, Mangog disdains Loki and traps him in dark amber before invading Asgard on his own for the cliffhanger ending.

SUB-MARINER Vol 1 #45 (January 1972)

Title: And Fire Stalks the Skies

Villains: Tiger Shark and Llyra of Lemuria

Synopsis: In Boston, Namor the Sub-Mariner, recently exiled King of Atlantis, walks the rainy streets mourning his slain wife Lady Dorma (who, like the Sub-Mariner himself, had been around since 1939). He is also frustrated over his inability to find Llyra, Empress of Lemuria, who killed Dorma out of spite over Namor’s rejection of her.

Little does he know that Llyra, in one of her flying submarine vessels, is in the same area, searching for HIM as he searches for her. She has recruited Tiger Shark, another recurring foe of the Sub-Mariner, promising the villain her hand in marriage if he helps her kill Namor.

In a Boston diner, the Human Torch (Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four) is eating with Diane Arliss, Tiger Shark’s sister who has fallen in love with the Sub-Mariner. In the previous issue, the Human Torch had clashed with Namor, not realizing he is now in exile and has lost his bride Dorma forever. Diane updates the Torch about Namor’s plight over their meal.

Elsewhere, Sub-Mariner spots Llyra’s flying submarine with its Royal Seal of Lemuria and flies up to get revenge on Llyra. The high-tech Lemurian craft uses its futuristic weaponry to battle Namor in a dogfight over Boston, drawing a crowd.

While Sub-Mariner concentrates on dodging the energy blasts from Llyra’s ship, Tiger Shark slips out of the craft through a side door and prepares to shoot him with a Lemurian gun powerful enough to kill even the Sub-Mariner.

The Human Torch and Diane Arliss have joined the crowd of spectators and, seeing Namor’s peril, the Torch flies up to stop Tiger Shark’s ambush. Through a tragic misunderstanding, the Sub-Mariner thinks Johnny Storm is simply renewing their battle from last issue.

Subby fights both the Lemurian craft AND the Human Torch all at once for a time, until Llyra and Tiger Shark spot his sister Diane in the gawking crowd below. Using her vessel’s tractor beam Llyra pulls Diane Arliss up to the ship.

This results in a hostage situation in which Llyra forces the Human Torch to return to New York City and makes the Sub-Mariner surrender to her and Tiger Shark for the cliffhanger ending.

NOTE: Naturally, Namor survived in the following issues.

CHAMBER OF DARKNESS SPECIAL Vol 1 #1 (January 1972)

NOTE: Chamber of Darkness was a short-lived horror anthology series from Marvel, running from October 1969 to December 1970 followed by this lone Special. Like so many other comic book companies had done with such series all the way back to the Golden Age, Marvel used darkly comical “Host” characters to introduce and close the tales.

Hell, that was even how the Cryptkeeper character from Tales from the Crypt got its start in the comic books long before the television series.

At any rate, the two best hosts from Chamber of Darkness were Headstone P. Gravely (the Undertaker caricature seen in the upper corner of the cover at left) and Digger aka Roderick Krupp, a gravedigger with a macabre sense of humor.

Digger stands out to me because Marvel Comics later incorporated him as an actual horror character in their stories, beginning with Spider-Woman. Digger was depicted as if he had been a late-night Horror Host showing old, bad movies on Saturday nights.

After getting fired, Digger hit the skids, went nuts and became a serial killer, using his Horror Host persona as his m.o. He would abduct victims, disable them and bury them alive. After he was brought to justice by Spider-Woman (Spider-Woman #47, December 1982), he came back from the dead as a zombie grave digger.

Digger began trying to atone for his murders by joining Night Shift, Marvel Comics’ team of monsters who fought supernatural menaces which threatened humanity.

In this particular issue of Chamber of Darkness, Digger hosted the tale Always Leave ’em Laughing, about a scientist who grew embittered over being a laughing-stock in his profession.

He invented a machine that accidentally sent him back to medieval England, where he wound up having to perform as the Queen’s jester for the rest of his life. 

FOR MARVEL’S JANUARY 1970 PUBLICATIONS CLICK HERE.

FOR MARVEL’S JANUARY 1971 PUBLICATIONS CLICK HERE.