MARVEL: JANUARY 1974

This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog will take a look at the Marvel publications from January of 1974, excluding reprints.

THE AVENGERS Vol 1 #119 (January 1974) 

Title: Night of the Collector 

Avengers’ Roster: THOR (Donald Blake, MD), IRON MAN (Tony Stark), CAPTAIN AMERICA (Steve Rogers), THE SCARLET WITCH (Wanda), THE BLACK PANTHER (King T’Challa), THE VISION (Not applicable), THE SWORDSMAN (Jacques Duquesne) and MANTIS (Full name unknown at the time).

Villain: The Collector

Synopsis: The Avengers arrive back in New York after the previous issue’s final chapter of the Avengers-Defenders crossover story in which Dormammu and Loki teamed up to threaten the entire universe via the Evil Eye of Avalon. The eight Avengers – accompanied by Loki, who has been rendered helpless and insane from what happened in the Dark Dimension – return to Avengers Mansion. 

NOTE: I previously covered the entire multi-part Avengers vs the Defenders war instigated by Loki and Dormammu HERE and HERE if you’re curious about what happened to Loki.

The crazed, uncomprehending Loki is kept in custody at Avengers Mansion because this is set during a period when Odin had forbidden him to return to Asgard under any circumstances. Time passes, and at one point the Black Panther pursues with Mantis his wish to learn some of her other-worldly martial arts. T’Challa first got the idea when he saw how well Mantis fought Dr. Strange during the Avengers/ Defenders War. 

When Mantis proves politely reluctant to teach any of her secrets the Black Panther instead tries to smoke out more details on her enigmatic past in Vietnam before she met and fell in love with the Swordsman. Mantis is coyly evasive about T’Challa’s other questions, too. 

Helping the enigmatic Mantis to change the subject is the sudden empathic blast she gets, telling her that enormous danger lurks in – of all places – Rutland, VT. All of the Avengers are rounded up since Mantis has never been wrong so far on these things and they fly to Rutland in one of their Quin-Jets.

NOTE: Last time around I covered the significance of Rutland, VT and its Halloween Parade. It’s HERE.

Getting back to the story, the Avengers arrive in Rutland and convey their concerns to Tom Fagan, the man who runs the parade each year. Fagan agrees to let some of the Avengers appear as themselves on a float while others fan out in the huge, costumed crowds and try to blend in while looking for whatever trouble Mantis detected.

The Avengers’ old foe the Collector ambushes the heroes from the float and successfully captures them in this third attempt he has made to capture the entire team for his collection. 

NOTE: This Collector IS the same Collector who appeared in the first GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY movie. In the Marvel Comics Universe – at least back then – the Collector was one of the Elders of the Universe, the very first intelligent race to evolve after the Big Bang. (To keep them distinct from Galactus, the sole survivor of the PRE-Big Bang universe.)

With that kind of head-start on the rest of the universe the Elders had technology that made each one of them powerful enough to clash with Earth’s various super-teams. The Elders had been around so long that only a precious few of them were still alive, like the Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum), the Stranger, the Gardener and others. 

Mantis, the Swordsman, Vision and the Scarlet Witch locate Tom Fagan’s old mansion, where the Collector is holding Cap, Thor, Iron Man and the Black Panther under stasis rays. They free the quartet, and the assembled Avengers battle the Collector.

The eight heroes face the alien technology and dangerous intergalactic creatures unleashed on them by the Elder. Naturally, they win but the Collector escapes in the chaos.

HULK Vol 1 #171 (January 1974)

Title: Revenge

Villains: The Rhino and the Abomination

Synopsis: The Hulk and his young black friend Jim Wilson separately come upon a nearly deserted Hulkbuster Base. It turns out that the Hulk’s old foes the Rhino and the Abomination have taken over the base, paid to destroy it for the Soviets.

Some personnel are being held in cells, like Betty Ross-Talbot, her father General “Thunderbolt” Ross and Colonel Jack Armbruster, who was at the time a gadfly for General Ross as he investigated the base’s never ending security issues and was bucking for Ross’s job.

While Hulk battled both Rhino and the Abomination, Jim Wilson freed the captive Hulkbuster Base personnel. General Ross then talks Jim through disarming the nuke that the two Soviet villains have planted on the base.

Abomination and Rhino are defeated, and Colonel Armbruster has a cage dropped on the Hulk. He pumps specially developed gas into the cage to knock out the Hulk for the cliffhanger. Needless to say, Hulk escapes very soon in the issues ahead.

JUNGLE ACTION Vol 2 #8 (January 1974)

Title: Malice by Crimson Moonlight

Villainess: Malice

Synopsis: One night in Wakanda, the Black Panther is undergoing various physical ordeals as part of the periodic rituals he must endure to prove he is still deserving of the Panther Herbs that give him his superhuman abilities.

Malice, a beautiful, super-strong and super-fast woman who wields a vibranium spear, makes her stealthy way out of the surrounding jungle, through the nighttime streets of Wakanda’s capital city and penetrates the Panther Palace itself.

She overcomes Zatama, one of T’Challa’s (The Black Panther’s) Tribal Advisors, and threatens him until he reveals the location of the cell where her fellow villain Venomm is held prisoner. (Last issue the Black Panther captured Venomm and shut down the secret operations of Killmonger’s Death Regiments in the vibranium mines behind Warrior Falls.)

Once she has the info she needs, Malice knocks out Zatama and conceals his body. Then she resumes her ninja-like advance to the Palace’s prison cells.

Back outside the palace walls, the Panther Herb ritual has advanced to the point where T’Challa is lying face-up on the ground while the High Priest Mendinao and his subordinates have begun to coat the Black Panther’s body with liquid versions of the herbs.

American singing star Monica Lynne, T’Challa’s Royal Consort, happens to stumble upon the scene and mistakenly believes that the prone Black Panther is in danger. She interrupts the ongoing ritual, hurling accusations at W’Kabi and Mendinao that they’ve been bribed by Killmonger to assassinate T’Challa.

As we’ve seen in previous chapters, the men and women of Wakanda are already suspiciously hostile toward Monica since she is an Outworlder. This ugly incident prompts W’Kabi and Kradada and some of the other participants in the Ritual of the Panther Herbs to get rough and threatening with Monica.

The Black Panther completely abandons the ritual to protect Monica from any potential harm and we get another bitter and acrimonious exchange between T’Challa and his Security Chief W’Kabi. Once again W’Kabi accuses his Chieftain of becoming too polluted by foreign influences.

Meanwhile, Malice surreptitiously approaches Venomm’s cell and is disgusted to hear her fellow operative of Killmonger has gotten on pretty intimate terms with Taku, T’Challa’s Communications and Technology Chief. The two men are discussing personal matters as Malice draws nearer.

Malice ponders slitting Venomm’s throat for discussing his relationship with Killmonger with one of T’Challa’s advisors. It becomes clear that Killmonger’s troops regard the Outworlder Venomm with the same suspicion shown by the Black Panther’s people toward Monica Lynne.

Malice takes down Taku, frees Venomm from his cell and the two begin to make their escape. Just then the Black Panther and Monica encounter the pair. Venomm is recaptured and as T’Challa and Malice fight it out we get some nice character bits regarding the villainess.

Malice bitterly refers to her mother, an ignorant peasant woman who was happy to accept whatever trinkets and charity that Wakanda’s ruling families would grant the poor. Thanks to Killmonger, Malice feels that she has “risen above” such a background and has learned that “oppressors” must be dealt with on equal terms through the only thing they understand: violence.

The Black Panther tries to get Malice to tell him how Killmonger is able to grant superpowers like the kind she possesses. He worries that the rebel has stolen or cultivated his own version of the Panther Herbs, intent on creating an army of super-powered soldiers.

Malice refuses to answer and escapes. Her super-speed makes it impossible to catch up with her. 

NOTE: To avoid leaving you hanging, Killmonger has been granting some of his rebels, like Malice, King Cadaver and others super-powers by exposing them to the unearthly radiation of the crashed meteor inside Resurrection Altar.   FOR MY REVIEW OF ALL 13 PARTS OF THIS FIRST KILLMONGER STORY CLICK HERE.

SPIDER-MAN Vol 1 #128 (January 1974)

Title: The Vulture Hangs High

Villain: The 2nd Vulture

Synopsis: Picking up from the previous issue’s cliffhanger ending, Spider-Man saves himself from plummeting to his death after the suspiciously odd acting Vulture overpowered him during their mid-air tussle.

Next, he turns back into Peter Parker and checks the Daily Bugle resources. He learns that Adrian Toomes, the real Vulture, is still in prison following his most recent loss to Spider-Man, meaning the Vulture he fought last issue is an imposter.

Peter investigates further and learns that the woman that this new Vulture murdered last issue is the roommate of Christine Murrow, lab assistant of Professor Clifton Shallot. It seems that the Vulture meant to murder Christine but wound up killing her roommate instead.

Next, our hero looks into Shallot’s work at Empire State University, where Peter Parker is a student. It turns out that Shallot’s genetic transmutation research recently lost its funding. Shallot was experimenting with prisoner volunteers, and thus gained access to Adrian Toomes’ powered Vulture suit and skin tissues.

Somehow Shallot transformed himself into a lookalike Vulture, but whose body really did have vulture powers as part of his now mutated form. He then started pulling off robberies to replace his canceled research grants, and tried murdering Christine when she stumbled on to his transformations back and forth into his Vulture form.

Peter works with his old friend Dr. Curt Connors (the Lizard) to develop an enzymatic serum to reverse Shallot’s genetic transformations and restore him to his normal form permanently. As Spider-Man he battles this new Vulture again, uses the serum to cure him, and turns him over to the cops for the robberies and the murder of Christine Murrow’s roommate.

THOR Vol 1 #219 (January 1974)

Title: A Galaxy Consumed

Villains: The Black Stars

NOTE: Thor’s interstellar vessel the Starjammer is not to be confused with the later spaceship of the same name crewed by Cyclops’ father Corsair over in the X-Men series. Thor’s version is a mystic vessel constructed like a vintage Earth sailing ship but containing its own atmosphere.

Synopsis: Thor is leading the Starjammer’s crew of Sif, Balder, Tana Nile and others on their latest intergalactic mission. They confront the Black Stars, a misnamed group of five enormous planets, four of which rotate around the fifth planet, called Rhun.

The entities who inhabit Rhun have been traveling the universe for ages, periodically feeding on entire worlds. Yes, this makes them basically a recycling of Galactus, but much bigger, physically.

Rhun sends a large android called the Protector to destroy the approaching Starjammer and its crew. After a lengthy battle, Thor destroys the Protector, and in the cliffhanger is confronted by the actual inhabitants of the Black Stars – a race of humanoids so huge they would dwarf even Galactus himself. 

NOTE: Over the next few issues, Thor and his companions would battle those beings, ultimately convincing them of ways to survive without feeding on other celestial bodies.

FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #142 (January 1974)

Title: No Friend Beside Him

Villain: Darkoth

Synopsis: This issue picks up where the previous one left off. Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards) has just been forced to impose a coma on his and Invisible Woman’s (Sue Storm-Richards) mutant child Franklin. The boy’s powers are out of his control, threatening psychic destruction to everyone around him for miles.

Invisible Woman is enraged and refuses to accept that there is no other alternative, even though Reed explains that it is just until he can devise a cure for Franklin. She takes the unconscious child and leaves with him, telling her hubby that she will never forgive him and is quitting the Fantastic Four for good.

Sue’s brother, the Human Torch (Johnny Storm) also tells off Reed and quits the team. The Thing (Ben Grimm) likewise finds himself unable to accept what Reed just did to his own child and quits. Only the visiting Medusa of the Inhuman Royal Family stays beside Mr. F. because she has no emotional attachment to little Franklin Richards.

Over the next several days, Sue takes Franklin to stay with her at Bob and Carol Landers’ Pennsylvania home. The Human Torch meets up with his Native American friend Wyatt Wingfoot and they set out for some Road Trip adventures.

The Thing’s girlfriend, blind sculptress Alicia Masters, has Ben fly with her to an unnamed Balkan country where a doctor claims he can operate on her to restore her sight. Ben and Alicia get settled in, and that night the Thing is attacked by Darkoth, a monster that the world had assumed was just a Loch Ness Monster type of legend for tourism in this Balkan country.

The Thing drives off Darkoth, then resumes worrying that Alicia will leave him when she is finally able to see his monstrous form. The next day at the hospital, Darkoth attacks again, and this time renders the Thing unconscious. 

Back in New York City, Medusa agrees to accompany Reed to an impromptu get-together with some old college friends. Arriving at the specified location, he and Medusa chat with Reed’s old friend Sam Thorne and his wife Belle.

Suddenly, the Fantastic Four’s archenemy Dr. Doom catches them all by surprise, announcing that this alumni get-together was just a trap for Mr. Fantastic and Medusa. He is back with a new plan for world conquest.

NOTE: Dr. Doom also transformed an old friend of the Thing’s named Desmond Pitt into the Darkoth creature to capture Ben, too, exploiting the pre-existing Darkoth legend in the Balkan country. The villain also captures the Human Torch next issue, but his latest schemes are foiled within a few issues and the Fantastic Four (with Medusa replacing Invisible Woman) get back together.

CONAN THE BARBARIAN Vol 1 #34 (January 1974)

Title: The Temptress in the Tower of Flame

Villains: The Seven Wizards of Wan Tengri

NOTE: This Conan story was adapted from Flame Winds, a 1939 book by famous Pulp writer Norvell W. Page, creator of the iconic pulp hero the Spider. In Page’s novel the time period was entirely different, and the hero was Prester John. Or rather, Page’s version of Prester John from his two novels about the figure.

        Norvell Page incorporated assorted non-Christian traditions about Prester John along with his own personal twist on the character. Like Conan, Page’s Prester John roams the world as a warrior, but craftily hopes to one day conquer a kingdom for himself. Like Solomon Kane, his Prester John fancies himself acting on behalf of the Christian God … and sometimes Ahura Mazda from Zoroastrianism … and sometimes Mithra. Whatever deity will let him conquer in their name.  

Synopsis: In this concluding chapter of Marvel’s adaptation of this story to fit Conan, the barbarian is locked in combat with a priestess in a city called Wan Tengri. (In Norvell Page’s novels “Wan Tengri” is the name that the Mongols bestowed on Prester John when he fought at their side. The city was called Turgohl.)

While they battle, the priestess tells Conan of a captive princess who once ruled the city but was enchanted into serving the Seven Wizards. The priestess reveals to Conan that she is actually Death itself.

Impressed by Conan’s refusal to surrender even as she slays him, Death restores him to life and whispers to him how to defeat the Seven Wizards. Conan goes on to unleash a seven-way war among the Wizards while he frees the captive princess from the highest tower.

He restores the princess to power but refuses her offer of marriage. She sends him on his way with treasure and a galley, but after he leaves, she magically teleports the treasure back to her and transforms the galley into a pathetic little boat with a leak in it. (That didn’t happen to Prester John until Page’s second novel.) 

MARVEL TEAM-UP Vol 1 #17 (January 1974)

Title: Chaos at the Earth’s Core

Villains: Mole Man and Basilisk

Synopsis: Captain Marvel was just entrapped and abducted by the Omega Stone. Spider-Man decides that, since the Omega Stone is a Kree relic, he will seek help from the Fantastic Four, who had the very first clashes with the alien Kree race years back. Our hero arrives at the Baxter Building, where he trips the alarms.

Spidey is snared by a security device but is freed by Mister Fantastic – Reed Richards, PhD, the leader of the Fantastic Four. Spider-Man explains why he is there, and Mr. Fantastic sadly informs web-head that the Fantastic Four have disbanded (see above) and he is the only one still living in the Baxter Building.

Mr. Fantastic shows Spider-Man a device he created years earlier after one of the Fantastic Four’s encounters with the Kree Empire. It allows our heroes to trace the Omega Stone to its current location – the Earth’s core.

Using leftover means of transportation from the defunct Fantastic Four, Reed and Spider-Man descend into the depths of the Earth. Ultimately, they reach Subterranea, the underground realm ruled over by the Mole Man, a frequent foe of Reed’s team.

The Mole Man and his underground race the Moloids plan to use the enlarged Omega Stone – with Captain Marvel still trapped inside – to power the villain’s latest weapon. That device will let him devastate the entire surface of the world, paving the way for him and his Moloids to be the new dominant race on Earth.

While Spider-Man and Mr. Fantastic are fighting the Mole Man and his armies, the Basilisk arrives, having followed Spidey and Reed from a distance. He tries to take the Omega Stone.

A multi-sided battle erupts and, needless to say, Spider-Man and Reed defeat the villains, Captain Marvel frees himself from the Omega Stone and our heroes escape while Basilisk and Mole Man seem to fall into the molten core of the Earth, killing them both.

NOTE: You guessed it! Neither of them were really dead and they showed up multiple times in the years ahead.

        Also, many years later, Marvel retconned things so that the Alpha and Omega Stones were part of a cosmic set of gems along with the “moon rock” that turned John Jameson into the Man-Wolf, the Power Prism of Iron Man’s foe Dr. Spectrum, the alien diamond that gave Marvel’s Golden Age superhero Blue Diamond his powers, the moon rock that powered the supervillain Moonstone AND the Blood Gem, a fragment of which lodged in the chest of Ulysses Bloodstone.        

CAPTAIN MARVEL Vol 1 #30 (January 1974)

Title: To Be Free from Control

Villain: The Controller and Thanos

NOTE: This issue is another installment in the ongoing Thanos War that was then raging in the pages of Captain Marvel, Iron Man, The Avengers, Daredevil & the Black Widow, and Marvel Feature.

Synopsis: The story picks up where the previous one left off. Captain Marvel was just defeated alongside the other Avengers as they battled Iron Man’s recurring foe the Controller. That villain’s power has been amped up enough by his new master Thanos that he was able to defeat Captain Marvel, Iron Man, and the rest of the Avengers.  

Iron Man and the Captain have been working for hours in an Avengers lab to make a device that can trace the Controller to his hidden lair. With that task completed, Captain Marvel flies off to find the Controller and free his slaves. Iron Man, meanwhile, heads for Thanos’ old compound in the desert southwest, where he discovers that Thanos’ minions the Blood Brothers are still alive after all.

Captain Marvel locates the Controller’s 4-story lair, from where he runs his thousands of slaves around the world as agents paving the way for Thanos’ imminent invasion. Previously, the Controller’s control discs simply let him drain mental energy from those wearing them and convert that mental energy into physical strength.

Thanos used advanced tech from Titan to upgrade those discs to leave those wearing them complete thralls to the Controller, as well as having their mental energies power his physical strength. The thousands of slaves he has thus acquired from around the world have made him stronger than the Hulk AND provided an army of agents infiltrating the governments and defense industries of the major powers.

Captain Marvel, after he and the Avengers’ defeat at the Controller’s hands, had his own powers increased by the cosmic entity Eon. That entity serves Chaos and Order, Marvel Comics’ William Blake-styled embodiments of abstract forces. Chaos and Order oppose Death, Thanos’ mistress, and that’s why they increased Mar-Vell’s powers so he could beat Thanos’ minion.

And defeat the Controller this “new and improved” Captain Marvel does, prompting the observing Thanos to kill the Controller for failing him. The Kree Captain relishes the victory but knows the Thanos War continues.

DAREDEVIL & THE BLACK WIDOW Vol 1 #107 (January 1974)

Title: Blind Man’s Bluff

Villains: Terrex and Thanos

Synopsis: This picks up from the cliffhanger at the end of the previous issue of DD and Black Widow. Over at the San Francisco front in the Thanos War, Daredevil, Black Widow and the future Avenger called Moon Dragon battle Terrex aka Kerwin Broderick, one of Thanos’ willing agents on Earth.

Moon Dragon now realizes how Broderick was misleading her all this time, having her use technology from Saturn’s moon of Titan to grant powers to Earth criminals to make them supervillains. Kerwin had fooled her into thinking those new villains, like Ramrod, Angar the Screamer, and the Dark Messiah, would fight Thanos’ minions here on Earth.

Those villains were defeated by Daredevil and the Black Widow in the last several issues of their series. The most recently created supervillain, Terrex, intended as a potent threat to Thanos himself, is so powerful that Kerwin Broderick has merged his own mind with it.     

Daredevil, Black Widow and Moon Dragon have been fighting Terrex as he rampages through San Francisco, killing everyone in sight. Captain Marvel, via the Cosmic Awareness that Eon endowed him with over at his own series, sensed Terrex’s presence and has flown to San Francisco to join the battle.

The four heroes defeat Terrex/ Kerwin Broderick and Moon Dragon imprisons him in the blackness called Unlife. The good guys relax in the wake of this victory, then Captain Marvel and Moon Dragon depart for Avengers Mansion in New York, where the next battles in the Thanos War wind up taking place. (I covered those stories HERE and HERE.)

WEREWOLF BY NIGHT Vol 1 #13 (January 1974)

Title: His Name is Taboo

Villain: The sorceror called Taboo

Comment: Taboo’s reluctant female familiar is Topaz, a blonde white woman in the original Werewolf by Night series but later retconned into a woman from India.

Topaz becomes Jack’s new love interest and her mystic powers help him in his adventures.

Taboo and Topaz resurrect Taboo’s monstrous son Algon (shown fighting the werewolf on this cover) with the life-force of Jack Russell’s evil stepfather Philip.

MARVEL PREMIERE Vol 1 #13 (January 1974)

Title: Time Doom

Villains: Baron Mordo and Cagliostro

Synopsis: Picking up from the previous issue, Dr. Strange chases his archenemy Baron Mordo back in time to the 1700s to thwart his plan of forming an alliance with legendary sorcerer Cagliostro. Doc and the Baron clash near Cagliostro’s lair, with Dr. Strange winning the mystical battle.

After that, Mordo and Strange meet Cagliostro, who reveals that he is not the real Cagliostro, but a 31st Century sorcerer named Sise-Neg. He demonstrates his power and rants that he is going even further back in time, to the dawn of creation so he can become the new God.

Sise-Neg departs, and Baron Mordo refuses Dr. Strange’s request to team up against Sise-Neg to prevent him from replacing God. Strange departs alone for the dawn of creation in the cliffhanger ending.

SUB-MARINER Vol 1 #68 (January 1974)

Title: On the Brink of Madness

Villain: Force (1st appearance)

Synopsis: A recent nerve-gas attack on Atlantis has left Prince Namor’s (Sub-Mariner’s) subjects in a state of suspended animation. While human/ amphibian scientists on Hydrobase Island work on a means of curing the Atlanteans, Sub-Mariner goes in search of a missing scientist named Dr. Walther.

That scientist has done experimental work on force fields and Namor hopes that Walther can devise a force field to protect Atlantis from any future nerve gas attacks while not restricting the flow of the ocean water throughout his kingdom.

Sub-Mariner’s quest leads him to the supervillain Force, a former colleague of Dr. Walther. Force had incorporated some of Walther’s force field tech into a suit of armor for himself and adopted his nom de guerre.

After defeating Force in battle, Namor continues his search for Dr. Walther.

KA-ZAR Vol 2 #1 (January 1974)

Title: Return to the Savage Land

Villain: The Red Wizard

Synopsis: Ka-Zar (Lord Kevin Plunder) and his loyal saber-tooth tiger Zabu have returned to their home in the hidden Antarctic rain forest 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. Ka-Zar was the lord of this land the way that Marvel’s Golden Age Ka-Zar was a typical jungle lord in Africa alongside his lion companion Zar.

Back to the story, the Red Wizard has become convinced that a male and female human sacrifice is needed to keep the Savage Land from freezing. He has his pterodon-mounted warriors capture Ka-Zar as the male, and as the cliffhanger ending reveals, the Red Wizard has already captured Shanna the She-Devil (Ka-Zar’s future wife) as the female sacrifice. 

MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE Vol 1 #1 (January 1974)

Title: Vengeance of the Molecule Man

Villain: Molecule Man

Synopsis: The Thing is in the Florida Everglades, having decided to hunt for the Man-Thing, a mysterious swamp monster that keeps being sighted in the region, sometimes in conflict with supervillains.

NOTE: The Man-Thing is really scientist Ted Sallis, who was accidentally transformed into the monster by his own experiments. By odd happenstance, DC launched their similar Swamp Thing monster at almost the same time as Marvel had launched the Man-Thing. (But both are reminiscent of the Golden Age monster the Heap.)

Back to the story, the Thing at last tracks down the Man-Thing and engages it in combat. Meanwhile, in the dimension where he was banished long ago by the Watcher, the Molecule Man – an old foe of the Fantastic Four – at last manages to return to the Earth by utilizing the Nexus of All Realities. That nexus, located in the Everglades, is a Marvel Comics element, and assorted figures – including Thog the Netherspawn and Howard the Duck – have emerged from it.

With the escaped Molecule Man’s sudden appearance on the scene, the Thing and the Man-Thing team up to battle HIM instead. Eventually, the villain renders them ineffectual against him by reverting both of them to their human forms. (Ben Grimm in the case of the Thing)

Though both Ben and Ted would like nothing more than to remain human, they realize they cannot leave the world at the mercy of Molecule Man and chase after him through the swamp. After a while, they catch up with him in Citrusville, a town that suffers damage from supervillains almost as often as New York City due to its proximity to the Nexus of All Realities.

Our heroes interrupt Molecule Man’s destructive and homicidal rampage through Citrusville. He spitefully turns them both back into their monstrous forms and makes them fight each other. As the pair clash, quick thinking on the part of the Thing enables them to defeat Molecule Man, who seems to die, but of course will be back in the near future.

NOTE: A bit of trivia that will be forever attached to the Molecule Man is the fact that in his very first appearance, Fantastic Four #20 (November 1963), a fan letter from a 15-year-old GEORGE R.R. MARTIN was published on the letters page. If you’re not familiar with the name, he grew up to be the author of the Game of Thrones novels and more.

TOMB OF DRACULA Vol 1 #16 (January 1974)

Title: Return from the Grave

Villain: Duncan Corley

Synopsis: Dracula has been sleeping by day in a modest grave in London’s Highgate Cemetery. Rising from his coffin, Drac goes on the hunt for a fresh victim. Within the cemetery’s grounds he clashes with a walking skeleton in men’s clothing when the skeleton kills two graveyard watchmen that Drac wanted to feed upon.

The skeleton is able to teleport, so just when Dracula seems to have it defeated it vanishes. As Drac finds and kills a woman to drink her blood, we readers are shown that Scotland Yard is aware the walking skeleton has been leaving a trail of bodies behind it for a few nights.

Dracula and the skeleton clash a few more times as the night goes on. It turns out the skeletal remains are of Duncan Corley, a man who was dug up by Satanists so their dead leader’s corpse could be interred in his grave. (Over the astrological alignment of the grave’s location.)

To stop the walking skeleton from drawing so much attention to the cemetery where he is hiding, Drac thwarts the Satanists by making sure the dead, reanimated Duncan Corley gets his proper burial place back. His skeleton then rests in peace and rises no more.

AMAZING ADVENTURES Vol 2 #22 (January 1974)

Title: Washington Nightmare 

Freemen Roster: Killraven, M’Shulla, Old Skull, Hawk, Carmilla Frost, Grok, and Mint Julep (her first appearance)

Synopsis: In a future after aliens have conquered the Earth, Killraven and his Freemen continue their guerilla uprising against the extraterrestrials. The rebels are traveling along the Potomac in a boat they commandeered from human quislings sometime after the end of our previous story.

Rising up from the Potomac to attack the boat is a monstrous subaquatic lifeform – one of the many creatures brought to Earth by the aliens. Our heroes battle the lobster-like creature, eventually killing it, but their boat is trashed upon the rocks and is now useless.

Sabre, a Hispanic quisling servant of the aliens (no relation to Don McGregor’s later, more famous character Sabre), attacks the Freemen with his own band of followers. While the battle rages, dialogue makes it clear that Sabre and his men are among the many groups of quislings who round up other human beings for the aliens, who feed on human flesh.

Sabre relishes facing targets who can actually fight back, instead of the usual easily subdued humans he captures for his alien masters. After Grok in particular manages to wipe out a large number of Sabre’s men he and his remaining troops retreat with Hawk and Old Skull as their captives.

Killraven and Carmilla Frost (left), the scientist of the Freemen, argue over how to rescue Hawk and Old Skull. Killraven still doesn’t completely trust Carmilla, since she was a human traitor working for the aliens until she and her monstrous creation Grok helped the Freemen escape the Warlord last issue.

After things calm down, night falls and Killraven leaves M’Shulla, Carmilla and Grok hiding in the ruins of the Washington Monument while he scouts around and plots a way of rescuing Hawk and Old Skull. All four of them wind up getting jumped by Mint Julep, female leader of a group of rebels who operate around Washington DC and vicinity.

Mint Julep is a green-skinned, greenish-white haired woman warrior. She’s an experimental plant/ human hybrid created by the aliens and their quisling scientists. She escaped and formed her own rebel band to fight back against Earth’s conquerors.

Since this was written in the 1970s, Mint’s group is all female and is groaningly called “The Freewomen” in contrast to Killraven’s Freemen. This passed for “women’s lib” with male comic book writers in the 70s apparently.

It turns out that the Washington DC megalopolis is like the New York – New Jersey megalopolis – ruins on the edge of a better-preserved city that extends for miles inland. Killraven leads his remaining Freemen plus Mint and her Freewomen into the city. 

Old Skull, Hawk (left), Mint’s captive Freewomen and other humans taken by Sabre are being sold at a slave auction … BEING HELD AT THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL. The narration nicely captures the obscene irony of that situation, which Earth’s conquerors are well aware of and get a perverse kick out of.

The Lincoln Memorial slave market is conducted under the watchful eyes of the statue of the seated Abe Lincoln, adding an extra nightmarish touch. The auctioneer is Abraxas, one of the mutated hybrids created by alien science.

Abraxas is over twelve feet tall, and his otherwise humanoid form has two long tentacles for arms. He grabs and positions each human in turn to be bid on by a crowd of aliens, like it’s a cattle auction. Sabre and his men line the steps leading up to the Lincoln Memorial, serving as guards.

Killraven and company attack as Old Skull is put on the auction block and Abraxas stimulates the bidding by emphasizing what sizable meals a human his size will make. KR clashes with Sabre while the others – including Hawk, Old Skull and Mint’s captive Freewomen – fight Sabre’s men.

As Killraven gains the upper hand on Sabre, Abraxas plucks him away with his tentacled arms and tosses KR to the crowd of aliens so they can tear the famous rebel limb from limb. This is the cliffhanger ending for this issue.    FOR MY REVIEW OF THE ENTIRE KILLRAVEN SERIES CLICK HERE.

CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE FALCON Vol 1 #169 (January 1974)

Title: When A Legend Dies

Villains: The Tumbler and Moonstone

 Synopsis: Captain America and the Falcon defeat five killers sent by Morgan, Marvel Comics’ crime boss of Harlem, to kill Falc. Afterward, the Falcon again discusses with Cap how he doesn’t feel like he’s pulling his own weight in their partnership ever since Cap gained his Spider-Man level strength a few issues back.

Rather than let the conversation drop this time, the two friends discuss it for hours. Eventually the Falcon raises the possibility of Cap asking his fellow Avenger the Black Panther to use Wakandan technology to boost Falcon’s powers.  

Cap agrees to ask T’Challa and heads for Avengers Mansion. On the way there, he sees televisions in a store airing the latest negative ad about him and stops to watch it. This new ad is narrated by Quentin Harderman, who calls himself the head of the Committee to Regain America’s Principles.

The ad takes out of context footage of Cap in action over the years and paints him in a sinister way as if he’s above the law. Harderman even took advantage of Cap’s current feud with S.H.I.E.L.D. heads Nick Fury and Contessa Valentina to make it clear to the public that even S.H.I.E.L.D. has cut ties with Captain America.

Harderman also exploits the flag-based costume Cap wears to ask viewers if they feel comfortable having such a “questionable” man wearing the flag of their country as if his murky deeds are committed in their name.

NOTE: Okay, for anyone familiar with certain news events of the 1970s, this was during the ongoing Watergate drama. I’ve made it clear in the past here at Balladeer’s Blog that I cannot stand Richard Nixon but I’ll avoid political commentary and just point out what is going on.   

           Ever since the first appearance of the Viper, Marvel’s writers were leading up to this with their repeated emphasis on Viper’s ties to advertising agencies on Madison Avenue. Assorted individuals working for Nixon also joined his administration from jobs in advertising agencies, including H.R. Haldeman, the man Quentin Harderman is obviously based on.

The next morning, the Black Panther arrives in Harlem in a Wakandan aircraft to take the Falcon to Wakanda with him while he devises wings for him. Cap sees off Falc as he and Leila fly off with T’Challa, then storms over to the offices of the Committee to Regain America’s Principles (Which was a poke at Nixon’s real-life Committee to Re-Elect the President. C.R.A.P. instead of C.R.E.E.P.) 

He demands a meeting with Quentin Harderman and forces his way into his office. As his argument with Cap goes on, Harderman hints that the Committee may be more complimentary to Cap in the future if he agrees to make a charity appearance for one of their causes.

Cap snaps back that he’s done hundreds of charity appearances over the years, but if one more will get C.R.A.P. off his back he’ll do it. After setting up the date and time, Cap leaves, and Harderman’s thoughts reveal to us readers that this is all still part of an anti-Captain America plot.

Shortly after Cap has left the C.R.A.P. offices he sees a grocery store being robbed by his old foe the Tumbler. He clashes with the costumed villain and has him on the ropes when the Tumbler manages to escape. 

Sometime later, Steve Rogers returns to the apartment he shares with Sharon Carter. The conversation turns to the way that her sister Peggy Carter, still finding her way in the modern era, wants to return to the espionage field. 

Through her and Sharon’s well-connected parents and Peggy’s own considerable reputation as a secret agent during World War Two, Peggy has signed on with S.H.I.E.L.D. to serve in whatever capacity she can. Steve and Sharon worry that Peggy might be doing this only because she thinks that S.H.I.E.L.D. training may qualify her to fight alongside Cap in the future. Later, as Cap, our hero visits the New York City barbershop which is really a cover for S.H.I.E.L.D.’s underground New York installation.

Cap learns that Fury has given orders to extend no cooperation to Captain America on ANY issue until further notice, so they refuse to even let him talk to Peggy, who has begun her training. The Contessa Valentina arrives on the scene and shows that she is still angry with Cap for nearly beating Nick Fury to death during the Yellow Claw adventure.

Val tells Cap that she and Nick are both cheering on the negative ad campaign against him. When Cap addresses her as “Val” she tells him to address her as Contessa Valentina from now on. She then orders him to leave the installation. Cap leaves but tells her to shove her demand that he address her by her royal title.

The next day, Cap shows up for the charity function for Harderman, who introduces a man in a suit as part of his organization. Cap recognizes the man as the Tumbler’s civilian identity and attacks him. The Tumbler, still not realizing Harderman and his allies are setting him up, tries to fight back.

During the tussle, the Tumbler is killed by a needle-thin laser beam fired from hiding by the new supervillain Moonstone, one of Harderman’s co-conspirators. Since Moonstone killed the Tumbler from hiding, it looks to all the witnesses as if Cap beat him to death and Harderman accuses him of murder.    FOR WHAT HAPPENED IN THE NEXT ISSUE CLICK HERE.

NOTE: The Tumbler really stayed dead after this story, but years later his brother adopted the costume and the Tumbler pseudonym and tried killing Captain America over and over. 

MARVEL SPOTLIGHT Vol 1 #13 (January 1974)

Title: When Satan Walked The Earth

Villains: Satan and his demons

Synopsis: The previous issue established that Daimon Hellstrom was the son of a mortal woman and Satan himself and that was why he had superhuman abilities.

This time around Hellstrom treats readers to a flashback that reveals even more of his origin. When he turned 21 he inherited the family’s mansion at Fire Lake in the U.S. Exploring the vast house Daimon discovered a portal to Hell in the lowest level of the mansion. (And you thought YOU had basement problems!)

Venturing forth into Hell, he was at first shown deference by the demons who were torturing damned souls. Daimon was shocked (I can imagine) to learn his father was THE actual Satan, who told Hellstrom he planned for him to become the Antichrist and conquer the Earth on his behalf.

Satan dressed his son in his Hellish costume, but Daimon renounced his heritage, stole a nether-metal trident & a Hellish chariot and fought back. He defeated lesser demons, but could not defeat his father, so he fled back through the portal and sealed it off from Earth’s side. Since then, he has battled the forces of evil.

TALES OF THE ZOMBIE Vol 1 #3 (January 1974)

Title: When the Gods Crave Flesh

Villains: Voodoo cultists and the zombie Moira Mason

Synopsis: The undead protagonist Simon Garth, risen as a zombie, faces even more supernatural foes this time around.

In terms of character development, Simon is already acquiring more compassion as he battles a Voodoo cult to prevent them from turning even more people into shambling zombies like himself.

He saves Bruce Mason from such a fate, but Bruce’s wife Moira was already cursed. In the end, with the cultists defeated, the zombified Moira begs Simon Garth to kill her cursed form to put her spirit to rest. He agrees and grants her that mercy killing.

DOC SAVAGE Vol 1 #8 (January 1974)

Title: Werewolf’s Lair

Villains: A werewolf imposter and his minions 

NOTE: This series was Marvel’s licensed adaptation of the old Pulp stories of Doc Savage which began in the 1930s. In regard to this particular issue, it was adapted from Kenneth Robeson’s 1934 Doc Savage tale titled Brand of the Werewolf.

Synopsis: Picking up from the previous issue’s cliffhanger, Doc Savage survived the murder attempt by the sniper employed by the Werewolf (a man in a costume). In the frozen northern reaches of Canada, Doc, his usual sidekicks Ham, Renny and Monk, plus Doc’s female cousin Pat, are vying with the villains of the story to find pirate treasure from the 1600s. 

The pirate who hid the treasure in this remote region was a Spaniard whose nickname was the Werewolf, inspiring our villain to pose as a real werewolf. Doc and the good guys defeat all the bad guys and recover the treasure. They donate the money to Canada’s hospitals.

NOTE: This was the final issue of Marvel’s Doc Savage series, which was cancelled over poor sales. Years later they would revive the 1930s hero in their black & white magazines.

MAN-THING Vol 1 #1 (January 1974)

Title: Battle for the Palace of the Gods

Villain: Thog the Nether Spawn

NOTE: Up until now the Man-Thing’s stories were being presented in the Marvel horror publication titled Fear. The character’s popularity spawned its own series, and this 1st issue concludes the multi-part story that had been running over at Fear.

Synopsis: Picking up from the previous installment, the Man-Thing, Korrek, a barbarian prince from another dimension, and Howard the Duck, an anthropoid duck, are fighting to survive against several subordinate demons of Man-Thing’s archenemy Thog the Nether Spawn.

The elderly interdimensional wizard called Dakimh the Enchanter shows up and saves the trio. Next, he leads them across dimensions to confront Thog, who not only has kidnapped Dakimh’s beautiful apprentice Jennifer Kale (at right), but is using the Nexus of All Realities (see above) to plunge the Multiverse into chaos.

Howard the Duck falls into a void between dimensions, but Man-Thing, Jennifer Kale, Korrek and Dakimh manage to defeat Thog and save the Multiverse. Each of them are then returned to their homes, in Man-Thing’s case the Everglades swamp.

NOTE: Jennifer Kale would, over the next several decades, develop into a major Marvel Comics character. Howard the Duck’s fall landed him in Cleveland, OH and eventually his own run of series that all got canceled. 

FOR MARVEL’S JANUARY 1970 PUBLICATIONS CLICK HERE.

FOR MARVEL’S JANUARY 1971 PUBLICATIONS CLICK HERE.

FOR MARVEL’S JANUARY 1972 PUBLICATIONS CLICK HERE.

FOR MARVEL’S JANUARY 1973 PUBLICATIONS CLICK HERE.

FOR GRIPS, WHO IS LIKE WOLVERINE AND THE PUNISHER COMBINED CLICK HERE.