Bring on the bad guys: The Abomination

The Abomination has been my favourite Marvel villain (only just edging out Fing Fang Foom) since I first read #12 of the “Silver Surfer, one of my first US Marvel comics in 1970. The next US Marvel comic that I purchased was "Incredible Hulk" #137 in 1971 which again featured the Abomination, and 10/11-year-old me was hooked on both these big green behemoths. Since this time, I have picked up as many comics as I could find where the Abomination appeared . Like most of my favourite comics these issues were created in the early to mid-1970s.

The character was first introduced in Tales to Astonish # 90(and 91) in 1967 as Emil Blonsky a KBG agent and spy who became the Abomination after deliberately exposing himself to a greater quantity of the same gamma radiation that transformed Bruce Banner into the Hulk. These issues of “Tales to Astonish” were reprinted in "Marvel Super-Heroes" #45 &46 (#45 at header and #46 above). In this story by Stan Lee with art by Gil Kane, Blonsky becomes a large scaly Hulk-like monster that is even stronger than the Hulk (the first appearance of the Abomination is shown above) . In accordance with Stan Lee's wishes, the Abomination was to defeat the Hulk in their first battle but he is captured by the Stranger who interrupts their rematch and teleports the Abomination to his home world in issue 91.

The Abomination is next seen in the pages of "Silver Surfer" #12 after being summoned by witches to fight the Silver Surfer - a comic I have written about previously. In this tale Emil Blonsky is sent back to space, once again a prisoner of the Stranger.

The next appearance of the Abomination is in "Thor" #178 where he tries to convince the other prisoners on the Strangers home world to revolt and join him in conquering the universe, but is stopped by Thor.

In 1971 the Abomination is again paired against the Hulk in issues 136 & 137 of the Incredible Hulk. In this tale the Hulk finds himself allied with various aliens to defeat the gigantic space creature Klaatu, among these aliens is the Abomination. This is another of my all-time favourite comics which I have prattled on about in a previous blog post.

We next see the Abomination in the 1973 issue of Hulk #159 where he wakes from a coma and agrees to kill the Hulk for General Thunderbolt Ross. In this issue an enraged Hulk knocks-out the Abomination when he reveal that Glen Talbot has married Betty Ross.

In Hulk # 171 (1974) the Abomination forms an alliance with the Rhino. In a strange Hulk type battle a bored Hulk leaps away from the Rhino and the Abomination as they both run towards him from different sides, knocking each other out.

Incredible Hulk #194 - 196 (the last issues of the Hulk that I purchased on a regular basis) features a tale where Doc Samson and General Ross implant a monitoring device into the Abominations head in order to control him. During the battle the Hulk dislodges the mind contol device and the 2 behemoths team up before falling out again.

Great Comic Book Runs: The Defenders / Avengers War

Like many of my US comic book purchases of the 1970’s I never managed to collect and read all the issues in this series at the time (1973/4). Instead, it took me over 50 years to finally pick up the last 2 US issues that I missed at the time; Avengers #118 and Defenders #8, although I did read the full story when it was reprinted in the UK weekly Rampage comic in the late 1970s. As a 13/14 year I was totally engrossed in this cross-over series written by Steve Englehart and illustrated by Bob Brown and the wonderful Sal Buscema. On re-reading this series as an “old git” I found the story a fun tale that albeit predictably ends with the two teams coming together to fight the story villains, Dormammu and Loki, but there were times when I was for an all to brief period transported back to 1973 when my main worry was who would win the war between these 2 super groups.

The concept of this crossover event is that pieces of the Evil Eye have been spread all over the world, and Loki and the Dread Dormammu were fighting over its capture. They each separately convince the Defenders and the Avengers that it would be better for them to have the Evil Eye as the other would use it to destroy the Earth. So, the heroes race around the planet in search of the pieces that make up the Evil Eye before the other team can find it. Eash issue sees each group split into teams to fight the other (similar to the old JLA/JSA cross overs) including Silver Surfer vs. Scarlet Witch and Vision and Doctor Strange vs. Mantis and Black Panther etc.

Short Lived Comics: Man-Bat #1 & 2 - Steve Ditko, Pablo Marcos

In 1975 Batman’s anti-hero Man-Bat was given his own short-lived comic.This was a strange book as it only lasted for 2 issue and in that time it had 2 separate artistic teams, with issue 1 being written by Gerry Conway and illustrated by Steve Ditko and Al Milgrom, while issue 2 was written by Martin Pasko and illustrated by Pablo Marcos and Ricardo Villamonte. This is a comic that recently came to my attention again when I was strolling in a part of my local town that I hadn’t been in for a several years. As it was a particularly hot day, I decided to purchase a bottle of water and upon spying a newsagent I entered the premises to find what looked like an old-style shop that hadn’t been updated in decades. As I walked out of the shop a vivid memory suddenly flashed into my head of when I had been in this shop as a 15-year-old and picked up the first issue of Man-Bat from the now long gone spinner rack. Not a riviting tale, but one that tickled me.

To add to the strangeness of this comic the letters page of issue 2 (below) featured an editorial stating that this was the last issue of Man-Bat. At the time, this confused me as surely there were no sales figures available to determine if the comic had been a success or not. Of course, the reality was probably more commercial and either it was a ploy to get more readers to pick up Detective Comics where Man-Bats adventures were to continue, or the DC knew the comic wasn’t going to sell and cut their losses.

My Famous Firsts: Flash - issue 208.

Back in 1971 when my 11-year-old self was deciding on what comic to buy, the subject matter of any comic had to conform to stories about super-heroes batting monsters or super-villains. So, upon seeing a comic cover featuring our hero running past a church with a nun praying in the background was on the face of it, not going to appeal to me. However, that wonderful cover (by Neal Adams) just looked so good to my childhood eyes that I just had to make The Flash #208 my first US Flash comic. The addition of the Elongated Man illo above the Flash logo, made me want this comic even more as I don't think I was aware of this character at this point and new characters at this time fascinated me.

In this issue the Flash seeks to help a young man who worked for a drug dealer. Realising that he wants "out" from the gang he decides that he will try to track down the drug dealer's hidden loot and return it , with the help of his sister, who is a nun and prays for St. Jude to assist them. The Flash assists the young man in tracking down and defeating the gang by vibrating his body at superspeed and thereby not being seen and the event being attributed as a miracle.

Like many of DC's comics from this time they also contained some great fun back-up tales. This issue was no exception and featured a zany Elongated Man tale where criminals dressed up as characters from Alice in Wonderland during a parade in order to steal a rare, first edition of the book. The crooks are caught out by the Elongated Man who recognizes that the crooks are wearing costumes based on the cartoon adaptation and not the original book. Like I said "zany", but a wonderfully illustrated tale by Dick Giordano - I have been an Elongated Man fan ever since reading this story.

In the 1970's we really got value for money as this issue rounded up its 52 pages of content by featuring a classic Flash /Kid FLash tale from 1964. A tale that is now 60 years old but in 1971 was only 7 years old..... I feel so old!

Bizarre characters: Skateman by Neal Adams - Was it really the worst comic book of all time?

Skateman (Pacific Comics) is generally regarded as one of the worst comic books ever published, personally I don’t agree with that ascertain and even although it certainly isn’t a good comic book I have read far worse in my time. What it is , is a comic featuring one of the most bizarrely ludicrous concepts for a comic book hero in many a year. Skateman is basically a guy whose super-power is that he knows a bit of kung-fu and is a pretty good roller-skater . The fact that its creator was Neal Adams, one of the genres most highly regarded and influential creators made it all the more ripe for ridicule amongst many fanboys of the early 1980’s . Upon opening the book you immediately sense that this may have been a rushed job by Pacific and Adams, instead of having a splash page the cover is simply reprinted with added word ballons.

To add to the theory that this comic was a rush job you need to remember that Adams was still a hot property at this time and the new Pacific comics were keen to add Neal Adams to their mounting list of creators. Adams had already delivered the first issue of his then new character Ms Mystic to Pacific however; it had been almost 2 years and issue 2 was still nowhere to be seen. Skateman it seems may have been meant for another purpose when Adams dusted it down and sent to it Pacific for publication to allow him time to get Ms Mystic back on schedule. Below are a few select pages from the offering that was Skateman a character as far as I am aware has never appeared since:

Since this is a super-hero book, the protagonist (Billy Moon) must protect his secret identity in this case by pretending not to be able to skate on a date (in a skating date!!!) in case she suspects him of being the dorkiest hero of the 1980s - was roller skating even a thing in 1983?

There were also two short back-up strips in this issue, The first of these was ”Korlack of Futureworld" by Andy Kubert and Jack Arata which provides a glimpse into a post-apocalyptic world. The second strip, “Rock Warrior” by Paul S. Power is all over the place and to be honest I had no idea what was going on in this one.

Allegedly Skateman was partially responsible for the eventual fall of Pacific Comics as they had published so many of these books based on Neal Adams name selling anything that was published. However many of these issues (1,000's) went unsold. What this comic proved to me was that Neal Adams was undoubtably one of the greatest comic book artists the genre has ever known but he was not a writer. A lesson that Neal (and other publishers) sadly never learned.

My Famous Firsts: Fantastic Four issue 150 - Ultron & the wedding of Crystal & Quicksilver

Although I had been aware of the Fantastic Four since the 1960’s when they appeared in the British weekly comics “Wham!” it wasn’t until 1974 when I picked up my first US Fantastic Four comic. And it was a pretty decent issue to be my introduction to the colour adventures of the FF with a cool villain (Ultron) that I don’t think I had heard of until then , the Inhumans, and of course the marriage of Quicksilver and Crystal. This issue was one of Marvels earliest cross over adventures with part 1 appearing in Avengers issue 127. I recently managed to pick up a new copy of this issue last week (my original issue looking more than a tad tired) and found myself getting lost in the pages of the story ( something I rarely do now is properly read a comic) and for a brief moment I was transported back to Tthe 1970's, which as readers of this blog will know is a passion of mine.