Comics Corner: Marvel Graphic Novel 1 - The Death Of Captain Marvel

   

Title: Marvel Graphic Novel: The Death Of Captain Marvel
Issue Number: 1
Release Date: April 1982

Highlights

• First appearance of Zedrao, Bartak (disguised as Silver Surfer)
• Cameo by Superman
• A laundry list of heroes and villains make appearances either as part of the main story, and recaps
• Considered by fans as one of the greatest stories in Marvel Comics for its impact on the Marvel Universe, relatable a realistic storyline, and overall legacy and influence
• Captain Marvel sits in a chair on the first page, narrating into a microphone his own autobiography
• The retold origin is told of why Captain Marvel left the Kree, and instead joined the people of Earth
• Captain Marvel gives a brief synopsis of receiving his cosmic powers from the being known as Eon
• Captain Marvel concludes by telling us he's in semi-retirement on Titan
• Captain Marvel retells about the deaths of Adam Warlock and Thanos
• Mentor and Eros are there to collect the stone encased body of Thanos to take their family member back to Titan, but are attacked by various creatures who were essentially waiting for Thanos' resurrection, worshiping him as a God
• During the battle, Marvel starts to show symptoms of being sick, when diagnosed, it's confirmed he has what Titan calls the inner decay, Kree call blackened, and Earth calls cancer, a diagnosis met with no cure, and a three month life expectancy
• Captain Marvel recounts a battle with Nitro, who unleashed a canister of nerve gas, needing to seal it, Marvel grabbed it with his bare hands, and believes this served as a carcinogen which began his slow death
• Captain Marvel tells his girlfriend, Elysius of what's happening
• Captain Marvel retells the story of being tricked by the Kree, and sent to the Negative Zone where he met Rick Jones, and how the two could trade places with the use of Kree nega-bands
• Its because of this ability to shift space with each other that Marvel seeks out Rick to tell him about his disease, and inform his old friend that he's set up for him to go to Avenger's Mansion for a full physical checkup
• Rick gets angry at Marvel, and tells the hero he can't believe he's giving up on hope of a cure
• Rick seeks out Yellow Jacket, Black Panther, Vision, Wonder Man, Beast, Iron Man, and Thor, and asks them to band together to find a cure for Captain Marvel, they tell him the reality of the matter is that they're not miracle workers
• A distress call goes out across the universe from Titan - One pleading for help to find a cure
• As time passes, options come in, but none pan out, with exception of what is called a life support tunic, which slows the growth of the cancer down by 20% - It's also during this time that Marvel comments the wardrobe change is good timing because he's lost too much weight to fit in his red costume
• Marvel confides in Eros that he knows how he feels about Elysius, and asks him to be there for her when he dies
• Captain Marvel talks about how he and Elysius met
• Captain Marvel gets angry, thrashing out against the inanimate computers around him because of all the villains who tried to kill him, it turned out to be his own body that would turn on him
• While all the heroes gather around a dying Captain Marvel to visit, Spider-Man has to excuse himself, telling Beast and Cyclops that it's just too much for him
• Rick Jones comes to see Captain Marvel one final time, apologizing for his outburst
• General Zedrao of the Skrull Empire comes out of respect, and bestows upon Captain Marvel a royal Skrull medal of honor
• Captain Marvel falls into a coma
• The spirit of Thanos comes to Captain Marvel, presumably curing him, and brining him to the essence of his soul for one final battle - Thanos trying to destroy Marvel's soul, and Marvel fighting to save it - Why? Because Thanos wants Marvel to die the hero he deserves to go out as
• Captain Marvel dies as Thanos and Death take him to not the end that some people perceive as dying - Rather...

Low Points

• At its core, its a very sad story that may hit too close to home for many
• Though it's part of Spider-Man's chronological reading order, he's only in it very briefly

Oddities

• None

Rating (based on a 1 through 5 Stans grading system)

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Comics Corner: Marvel Fanfare 1

   

Title: Marvel Fanfare
Issue Number: 1
Release Date: March 1982

Highlights

• First appearance of Vertigo
• Powerhouse Marvel team of Jim Novak (letterer), Michael Golden (pencil, inks and coloring), Chris Claremont (writer), Al Milgrom (editor), and Jim Shooter (editor-in-chief)
• Reference is made to X-Men 60, 61, 63, 64, 94, 113 through 116, and Amazing Spider-Man 103, and 104
• Michael Golden animates Spider-Man's eyes / lenses to help tell the story
• A one-page story, starring Al Milgrom, with special appearance by Jim Shooter, tells readers all about the all-new Marvel Fanfare title
• Holiday back-up story featuring Daredevil and Santa Claus - well, not really, but a guy dressed as Santa
• I already have this signed by Michael Golden and Jim Shooter - I should get it signed by Al Milgrom and Chris Claremont at Baltimore Comic Con 2025

Low Points

• Despite the comic being 32 pages, the story ends on page 17 with a "to be continued" cliffhanger
• Savage Land stories have never been among my favorites, and this one is along those lines

Oddities

• None

Rating (based on a 1 through 5 Stans grading system)

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Comics Corner: Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man Annual 1

   

Title: Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man
Issue Number: 1
Release Date: December 1979

Highlights

• Concludes the Doc Ock portion of the story arc left off in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual 13
• Reference is made to Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man 37
• Doc Ock gets his own super villain submarine, the Octosphere
• Doc Ock is dragged down to the depths, his arm caught in one of the submarine's closed hatches - is he dead? No

Low Points

• Peter is a jerk to Marcy Kane when she tries to apologies for calling him a coward in the above referenced issue 37

Oddities

• None

Rating (based on a 1 through 5 Stans grading system)

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Comics Corner: Marvel Team-Up Annual 1

   

Title: Marvel Team-Up Annual 1
Issue Number: 1
Release Date: January 1977

Highlights

• First appearance of Mara the Dreamer, Rakks, Shiva the Destroyer, Yama Dharma, Vishnu the Preserver, Ratri the Night, Kali the Black Madness, Brahma the Creator, and Agni Lord of Fire
• First appearance and death of Stephen Marchesi
• Reference is made to Marvel Team-Up 4, Fantastic Four 166, X-Men 97, and The Amazing Spider-Man 162

Low Points

• Ending is convoluted, see oddities
• I am not a fan of the X-Men

Oddities

• Who gave the thumbs up on the Dr. Seuss style helicopter?

• Wolverine goes from street clothes aboard a crashing plane to suddenly in his yellow costume once it has crashed with no mention as to why or how he chose such an odd time span to change clothes
• Anti-radiation spray...Yep, just spray it on like sunscreen, and you're good to go for one hour in any scenario that may have dangerous radiation as an obstacle - Marvel's been watching too many re-runs of the '66 Batman show
• In the end, Spider-Man and Cyclops seem to have the same conclusion as to how to send the gods to space, but the overall plan is so convoluted, there's no way they had the same idea at the same time - It involves every member of the X-Men, along with Spider-Man, using their powers in a specific sequence to blast them through Cyclops optics into the heavens

Rating (based on a 1 through 5 Stans grading system)

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Comics Corner: Ms. Marvel 1

   

Title: Ms. Marvel
Issue Number: 1
Release Date: January 1977

Highlights

• First appearance of Dr. Michael Barnett, and Destructor (alias Dr. Kerwin Korman)
• Carol Danvers stars in her first all new series
• Spider-Man's chronological story crosses over to this all new series
• Marvel Comics slings mud with a sick burn on Lynda Carter, who is compared to Olive Oyl from Popeye in comparison to Ms. Marvel, and an obvious jab at the live action Wonder Woman television series
• Reference is made to Captain Marvel 1 - 18, and The Amazing Spider-Man 20
• Carol negotiates a salary with J. Jonah Jameson to run his new female centric magazine, which when adjusted for inflation, equates to $144K in 2022
• Scorpion gets doused in acid.

Low Points

• None

Oddities

• None

Rating (based on a 1 through 5 Stans grading system)

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Comics Corner: Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man 1

   

Title: Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man
Issue Number: 1
Release Date: December 1976

Highlights

• Spider-Man's third ongoing series official begins
• Reference is made to The Amazing Spider-Man 134, 135, 148, and 163
• Foreshadowing cameo appearance of Light Master
• Hostess Twinkie ad starring Spider-Man and the Fly

Low Points

• Too wordy for my tastes
• A missed opportunity by Marvel to launch a new Spider-Man series with a bang - This story could have easily just been a throw away in The Amazing Spider-Man, and didn't warrant an all new series

Oddities

• Some of the word on the pages are too thick, ink wise, making them impossible to read.

Rating (based on a 1 through 5 Stans grading system)

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Comics Corner: Giant-Size Spider-Man 1

   

Title: Giant-Size Spider-Man
Issue Number: 1
Release Date: July 1974

Highlights

• First appearance of  Anthony Cavelli, A.J. Maxfield, Dexter Bixby, Elvira Kaufman, Seymour Simms, and Whisperer
• Spider-Man launches an all new ongoing series - Though it didn't last long
• Reference is made to Marvel Team-Up 23, an issue we'll talk about next time in my chronological reading of Spider-Man
• Death of Whisperer, and Anthony Cavelli
• Issue contains a second story, which is a reprint of Strange Tales Annual 2, an issue that takes place after The Amazing Spider-Man 17

Low Points

• The whole plot revolves around Peter Parker trying to find a doctor who has a new vaccine for a flu strain that has Aunt May sick
• It's never explained why Dracula wants to kill A.J. Maxfield

Oddities

• None

Rating (based on a 1 through 5 Stans grading system)

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Comics Corner: Giant-Size Super-Heroes 1

   

Title: Giant-Size Super-Heroes
Issue Number: 1
Release Date: June 1974

Highlights

• Reference is made to The Amazing Spider-Man 125, Marvel Team-Up 3, and 4
• Peter Parker is nominated for photographer of the year, resulting in J. Jonah Jameson being unusually nice to him
• Peter Parker has an epiphany that he shouldn't be wasting his abilities chasing down thugs, but instead focusing on the real villains that the cops can't deal with - The super variety of villain

Low Points

• Oohph....First page has a building with the number 666 on it as the address
• Teases a second issue that never got made

Oddities

• Editor's day off - "Some strange homicides occurring across the Eastern seaboard in a pattern that that apparently leads towards New York."
• John Jameson thinks getting a cup of coffee will stop him from turning into the Man-Wolf?

Rating (based on a 1 through 5 Stans grading system)

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Comics Corner: G.I. Joe - A Real American Hero 1

      

Title: G.I. Joe - A Real American Hero
Issue Number: 1
Release Date: June 1982

Joe Team Roster

• Breaker
  
• Clutch
• Flash
• General Flagg
  
• Grand Slam
• Grunt
  
• Hawk
• Rock & Roll
• Scarlett
• Short-Fuze
• Snake-Eyes
• Stalker
  
• Steeler
• Zap
  

Cobra Team Roster

• Baroness
• Cobra Commander
  

Other Characters

• Dr. Adele Burkhart - Nuclear Physicist
  
• General Austin
• Shooter

Highlights

• Cobra Commander is actually a decent tactician in the issue, versus the bumbling buffoon he is in the cartoon
• Baroness is brutal, threatening to turn a woman's head into, "red mist"
• Cobra slaughters a whole village of men, women and children, while the Joe team cuts down any Cobra Solider in their path - This isn't a Sunbow cartoon
• Nice splash pages showcasing Joe member file cards and even a nice walkthrough of their base
  

Low Points

• Scarlett considers shooting Dr. Burkhart and end the mission, rather than bring her back safely
• Scarlett is crazy in general, turning her gun on her own teammates and demanding that they abandon her when she is wounded
  
• Back up story is not as good as the lead one
• If I knew nothing about G.I. Joe and wasn't big on army comics, this issue would not leave me wanting to read any further ones
  

Oddities

• None
  

Rating (based on a 1 through 5 Stans grading system)

 

 

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Comics Corner: Marvel Team-Up 1

      

Title: Marvel Team-Up
Issue Number: 1
Release Date: March 1972 

Highlights

• Marvel-Team Up officially joins the timeline of Spider-Man and becomes the web spinner's second monthly title
• The Sandman is back and in an all new costume
• It's a Christmas story! How appropriate for the time of year
  

Low Points

• Really? Spider-Man's first official team-up has to be with Human Torch? Cause he didn't overstay his welcome in The Amazing Spider-Man series
• I didn't have high expectations for this series, and I can safely say issue one doesn't change that
  

Oddities

• None

Rating (based on a 1 through 5 Stans grading system)

 

 

 

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Comics Corner: The Fantastic Four 1

Title: Fantastic Four

Issue Number: 1

Release Date:November 1961

Highlights

• First appearance of The Fantastic Four; Mr. Fantastic / Reed Richards, Invisible Girl / Susan Storm, Human Torch / Johnny Storm and Thing / Ben Grimm
• Also includes the first appearance of Mole Man, Giganto, Rock Monster Guardian and Tricephalous
• Origin of The Fantastic Four and Mole Man

Low Points

• Ben gets angry with Reed and shouts at Sue that he'll show her she loves the wrong man - How you gonna try and steel the man's woman?
• Too much origin, very little battling with Mole Man and his creatures

Oddities

• Susan Storm calls Ben Grimm a coward for saying he won't fly Reed Richard's rocket into space - Ben immediately changes his mind. A lot of characters in the Marvel Universe appear to have Marty McFly Syndrome - "What's the matter, McFly? Chicken?"

Rating (based on a 1 through 5 Stans grading system)

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Comics Corner: The Human Fly 1

Title: The Human Fly

Issue Number: 1

Release Date:September 1977

Highlights

• First appearance of The Human Fly, Ted Locke and Blaze Kendall
• Guest appearance by Spider-Man 
• Origin story of The Human Fly, Ted Lock and Blaze Kendall
• Tony Stark is mentioned

Low Points

• Generic in every sense, bland plot, nameless enemy known as nothing more than "mercenary"
• The Human Fly, and his companions, are not interesting characters - Despite their origin stories
• Sloppy writing with severe plot holes - Either the writer is really bad at their job, or thinks the readers are really stupid (see oddities)
• Story is insulting to the intelligence of most readers (see oddities)
• Story was so bad that it's the first comic I've read to merit zero Stans as a rating

Oddities

• A helicopter can maintain the speed of a Boeing 747?
• The hijackers on the plane hear The Human Fly walking around on top of the exterior, so they shoot through the hull at him - Um, bad idea in a pressurized cabin
• The Human Fly wants to become a symbol for those who have been hospitalized with disabilities, like him, to show them that with willpower they can accomplish anything - Yet none of these people know who he is or that he was once disabled. How is he inspiring them exactly? 
• The Human Fly blows open the door of an airborne Boeing 747 to gain access - Again, air pressurization is not addressed.
• Spider-Man makes a hang glider and then a parachute out of webbing after jumping out of the airborne plane he was on, to help The Human Fly who is wrestling in the air with the mercenary. When The Human Fly is caught mid-air by Spider-Man, he exclaims, "Fantastic! You have all the powers of a real spider!" - Huh? Spiders spin hang gliders and parachutes out of their webbing?
• Spider-Man departs hastily after the mercenary has been dealt with and thinks to himself that he needs to be back on the plane - You know, the one that was airborne, and traveling at high speed. How exactly is he going to accomplish this?
• At the end of the story, a random person thanks The Human Fly for saving the people on the jet. He tells the man to give the reward to charity - Um...Nobody mentioned a reward

Rating (based on a 1 through 5 Stans grading system)

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Comics Corner: Captain America 1

Title: Captain America

Issue Number: 1

Release Date: March 1941

Highlights

• First appearance of Captain America, Bucky Barnes, Red Skull (Maxon), Abraham Erskine, Ak, Number 5, Golden Girl, Phadion, Sando, Tanir, Heinz Kruger, Omar, Rathcone, Rhaya, Sgt. Duffy and Tuk
• Special appearances by Kro, Adolph Hitler, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Makkari
• Short origin story of Captain America
• Death of Abraham Erskine, Phadion, Heinz Kruger, Rhaya and Red Skull (Maxon)
• Bucky Barnes discovers that Steve Rogers is Captain America
• Captain America makes Bucky his sidekick
• You could send a dime to the real headquarters of Timely Comics to join the Captain America Sentinel Army - They'll send you a real badge and membership card!
• Multiple stories make up this first serial style first issue
• A solid introduction to the character, but this is not the Captain America most are familiar with these days

Low Points

• Panels aren't consistent in order, making the story very difficult to read consecutively from one to the next - Often found myself reading panels out of sequence
• Bucky Barnes is just your average, every day kid - Why does Captain American put him in harms way as a sidekick?
• How is Bucky a part of the military, living on the military base with Steve Rogers?
• Very violent stories full of macabre and death
• Original Red Skull was only intended as a villain of the week
• Remaining two (of the six stories) in the issue don't feature Captain America and are unrelated to him in any way

Oddities

• Captain America looks like an anorexic with a blue "glove" on his head on the very first page
• Steve Rogers keeps his identity as Captain America a secret, but Bucky has no secret identity
• How does Bucky know there is a microphone in the ceiling light? It's never established that he finds this prior to getting tied up 
• Cap makes Bucky get all dressed up in his gear to go hunting for Red Skull and then tells him to stay home
• There's an entire city out there, and Bucky somehow manages to stumble onto the hideout of Red Skull, seemingly within minutes, with no clues that would have led him there
• No sooner does Bucky get captured, Captain America crashes through the doors of the Red Skull's hideout - What, is there a sign out front directing people to it?

Rating (based on a 1 through 5 Stans grading system)

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Comics Corner: The Incredible Hulk 1

Title: The Incredible Hulk

Issue Number: 1

Release Date: May 1962

Highlights

• First appearance of Bruce Banner / The Incredible Hulk, Betty Ross, Thunderbolt Ross, Gargoyle, Igor Drenkov, Dave Anderson and Rick Jones
• Banner's assistant, Igor, intentionally doesn't relay the "hold fire" request as Banner rushes out into the field to save a young teenager from the blast area
• Gargoyle discovers Bruce Banner is the Hulk
• Bruce Banner changes Gargoyle into a man
• Death of Gargoyle

Low Points

• Nothing but a cliche USA vs. Russia story
• Bruce Banner changes into the Hulk when the evening comes - What, is he a werewolf?
• Original Hulk is a grey dry dog poo color
• Incredibly boring story

Oddities

• Thunderbolt Ross yells at his daughter in front of all the men in the room, "You keep out of this Betty! This is MAN TALK!"

Rating (based on a 1 through 5 Stans grading system)

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Comics Corner: Daredevil The Man Without Fear 1

Title: Daredevil The Man Without Fear

Issue Number: 1

Release Date: April 1964

Highlights

• First appearance of Matt Murdock / Daredevil, Foggy Nelson, Karen Page, Battling Jack Murdock (Matt's father), The Fixer, Slade and Lt. Bert Rose
• Origin of Daredevil
• Daredevil wears his original yellow and black costume

Low Points

• Having only been exposed to the Ben Affleck movie and Netflix television series, it feels wrong that the comic depicts Matt Murdock as a teenager, and not a young kid - In fact the entire way his origin unfolds feels like it's incorrect, even though it's the original source material

Oddities

• After getting beat down, one of the many foes Daredevil just bested says, "Nobody can fight like that. He must do it with mirrors!!" Hmm...I didn't know reflections in mirrors could hit you
• Karen Page is referred to as a decorative accessory in the office

Rating (based on a 1 through 5 Stans grading system)

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Comics Corner: Giant Size X-Men 1

Title: Giant Size X-Men

Issue Number: 1

Release Date: May 1975

Highlights

• Featuring (in order of appearance) the new team; Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Banshee, Storm, Sunfire, Colossus and Thunderbird
• Additional appearances by the old team; Professor Xavier, Cyclops, Angel, Iceman, Marvel Girl, Lorna Dane and Havok
• The new team, lead by Cyclops, is sent to Krakoa on a search mission for the old team
• The island of Krakoa is alive, and feeds on mutants
• Cyclops escapes Krakoa after the first battle which saw the original team's disappearance, but it turns out was set free intentionally by the island because it knew he would come back with more mutants
• When working together, the X-Men's powers compliment each other to seemingly provide a solution to every situation
• Decent read for my first "official" introduction to X-Men comics, but can't say as I see myself as a long term fan - I mainly read it for the introduction to the characters due to Spider-Man crossing over into their book(s)

Low Points

• Both the old and new X-Men teams bicker a lot with each other, often taking low blows - How are they a team when they don't seem to like each other?

Oddities

• Thunderbird doesn't want anything to do with Xavier's offer to join...Until he's called a coward. Then he's all in, no further questions asked. "What's the matter McFly? Chicken?"
• One of the X-Men refers to Sunfire as, "The Jap" - WHOA!
• Thunderbird calls Storm, "The Chick" and Colossus, "The Russkie". What is going on with this team and their disrespect for each other?

Rating (based on a 1 through 5 Stans grading system)

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Comics Corner: Watchmen

Title: Watchmen

Issue Number: 1

Release Date: September 1986

Highlights

• First appearance of several key characters; Rorschach, Nite-Owl (both Dan Drieberg and Hollis Mason), Dr. Manhattan, Laurie Juspeczyk (Silk Spectre), Adrian Veidt (Ozymandias) and The Comedian
• Rorschach is brutal! Has zero mercy as he snaps a mans fingers one by one
• Fantastic introduction to a disbanded team - Leaves you wanting to learn more about these characters and how they came to be where they are at this point in time

Low Points

• Laurie doesn't come off as likeable when we first meet her

Oddities

• Never going to get used to seeing Dr. Manhattan's large blue butt

Rating (based on a 1 through 5 bat symbols grading system)

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Comics Corner: The Long Halloween 1

Title: Batman: The Long Halloween

Issue Number: 1

Release Date: December 1996

Highlights

• You can see the inspiration which lead into Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy
• Very mysterious plot builds in this first of thirteen issues
• Harvey Dent's gets blown up

Low Points

• Not sold on why Catwoman needs to be involved - She doesn't do anything

Oddities

• Artwork feels sloppy and undefined, pretty bad for a premium priced book

Rating (based on a 1 through 5 Bat Symbols grading system)

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Comics Corner: The Amazing Spider-Man 1

Title: The Amazing Spider-Man

Issue Number: 1

Release Date: March 1963

Highlights

• Spider-Man returns in his own bi-monthly  series after six months of fans waiting and writing to Marvel headquarters
• First appearance of J. Jonah Jameson
• First appearance of Chameleon
• Spider-Man meets all four members of the Fantastic Four

Low Points

• Peter Parker's main drive seems be nothing more than to make money, granted he wants to get it to help Aunt May, but still a very bland launching point
• Peter is arrogant, especially when first meeting the Fantastic Four

Oddities

• Chameleon's disguises come from various pockets on a vest he wears - an outfit for every occasion?
• Second story in the book keeps referring to Peter as, Peter "Palmer", not Parker

Rating (based on a 1 through 5 Stans grading system)

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