The Irish Situation

Budget 20 & 13 the likes never been seen...
A great fiscal adjustment..
The sick hardly have a crutch to lean...
Even in the grave, shirt off your back...
Can't leave death untaxed
For Neck they just don't lack

10 cent on the pint
20 quid on the rent,
All well and good,
Governments hellbent

outlanders clamouring for money,
can't get enough of the welfare trick,
they think it funny,
Same old sob story

We have one bedroom
They have three
Half of them do nothing,
Been busy as a bee

Austerity the new word,
On the country they bet,
Gambling on the Irish herd,
Propaganda from a TV set

Noonan tarred and feathered,
Very good
, i'd rather he'd be leathered,
With a Sam Brown belt,
each repeated lash,
uneasy on his pelt....

'Romantic Ireland dead and gone
With O' Leary in the Grave'
Pyrite ridden estates are long,
families a banker's slave...

1985: Incredible Hulk #314

This might just be my favorite Hulk comic. Not without good reason. Everything about this issue is flawless. The pacing of the story is amazing. Everything flows along perfectly. Every movement and action in the issue has purpose and meaning. There are no cackhanded attempts at shoehorning plot elements in. Betty Ross' story is removed from the main action in a 1 page interlude. The central narrative is very simple - the near mindless Hulk is drawn by some subconscious impulse to return to New Mexico, his birthplace, of sorts. Doc Samson follows him and Hulk dukes it out with hallucinations of his main antagonists, all depicted in the amazing cover above. While the Hulk is distracted with these figments of his tortured subconscious the good Doctor Samson scores that elusive KO victory over the behemoth in one of the greatest and most remembered splash pages of the 1980's. This really is an example of John Byrne flexing his artistic muscles as large over sized panels and splashes dominate the issue. Byrne once claimed that he could not depict a punch possessed off the same power that Jack Kirby could but the punch Samson lands at the end of this issue is awesome. Banner's subconscious still exists as is clear from the manifestations of all of Hulk's main antagonists. This was Banner's attempt to distract the Hulk so Samson could defeat him. Samson cottons on to this on the last page as relates the events of the encounter into a Dictaphone. It is this ingenuity on the part of Byrne that grounds a fanciful plot in a semblance of reality. I'm not a huge Hulk fan, I like the character but in the last decade I've moved away from him. This is one special issue that I always remember as being one of the best Hulk stories ever. It is sad that Byrne's run had to be aborted due to editorial differences,that in itself is one of the greatest 'what-if' stories Marvel has ever seen.

That punch!!

 

My Absence and Return Explained...A Note on Spitfire and the Troubleshooters #5

I've been neglecting this blog for the last few months..I've started a new job and previous to that I had just finished my final exams... After that upheaval I went on a bender for a few months, with only my four-colour friends to balm my alcoholic headaches...Well , suprisingly enough a much maligned 80's gem from the doomed and much derided New Universe line reawakened my joy in this brand of ephemera... Drum roll please.. Spitfire and the Troubleshooters #5 February 1987. A little hidden gem picked up for the exorbitant sum of 50c. Here's the cover in all it's 80's glory. What drama, what characterisation, what action!!! Never let anyone keep ya away from a hidden treasure. Take comics as you find 'em, and don't let any half assed 'critics' steer you. Nuggets of gold are out there. Tell 'em Sparky sent you.                                                                                                                      

Classic Issue Thor Annual #13

Just replaced this issue during the week having spilled beer or coffee on the last copy I owned many moons ago. It's from 1985 and occurs during the aftermath of Asgard's battle with Surtur, Thor #353 (I think) . Simonson provides the striking cover, left.
  The story itself involves Mephisto trying to destroy Thor, who is in deep mourning following the loss of his father Odin during the aforementioned Surtur saga. His spirit is broken. Mephisto sees this and secures the services of Ulik, the mightiest of trolls to battle him. He kidnaps Ulik's brother to force Ulik to seek out Thor. Thor and Ulik battle, and it's a pretty good fight sequence, with Thor as broken in spirit as he is, pummeling Ulik in the end. Ulik tells Thor about Mephisto's machinations and Thor journeys to Mephisto's realm to confront him. A pretty mediocre and unimaginative premise. A plot that looks like a straight lift from Lee/Buscema's Silver Surfer comics of the late 60's. Actually, the whole thing reads like a love letter to those stories from writer Alan Zelentz. So Sparky, you may ask, why is this issue a classic?. In a nutshell, the artwork by John Buscema (who also inks) is absolutely mind-blowing, that's why!!!!

'No sooner bid than done Master!'

Buscema's depiction of Mephisto's realm is so beautifully rendered, eerie strange creatures (see left) and scenes of torment and human anguish.
As a purely visual experience this is as good as anything I've seen Big John ever illustrate. It is a far cry from his wonderfully slick Joe Sinnott inked pages on Fantastic Four and more akin to the amazing work he was doing in Savage Sword of Conan. It's no secret that Buscema was sick of Superheroes at this stage of his career.As it is plain to see from the workaday look of his pencils on Fantastic Four in 1987.(Still good, but 'twas clear Big John's heart wasn't in it) But, the scene of Mephisto's domain must have got his creative juices flowing again, and how.

Writer Alan Zelentz appeared to turn in a journeyman job until the last couple of pages when he redeems himself with a wonderfully wicked and clever twist, that I don't want to spoil if you haven't read this mag. It leaves the reader with a wonderfully satisfied feeling that you've in fact contrary to what you've thought during the book that you've read an absolute epic. Quality rating 8 out of 10. Check out the greatest depiction of Mephisto in History!

Uncanny X-Men #131 Classic Cover

Love this cover to Uncanny X-Men #131. The look of pure malevolence on the White Queen's face is classic. The design and use of colours is amazing...

Namor The Submariner #13 Classic Cover

Namor The Submariner (1990) 1-25 Lost Classic

Namor #4

This has got to be one of the great titles of the early 90's. To me it represents the last vestiges of the greatness of the 1980's before the Marvel Universe and its characters became a fictonal quagmire populated by cliche ridden tough guys, like Cable and Shatterstar, and Wolverine and the Punisher were pimped out to every low-selling Marvel Title to raise sales. Card embossed covers and cardboard cut-out characters were on the way in, characterization and intricate plots were on the way out. But that's a different post.
       Namor as a character was never really an a-lister, I feel aquatic heroes don't do as well as others(see Aquaman). Maybe it was his haughty imperious (Rex!) character that people didn't relate to. He had no feet of clay, except for maybe his temper. Mere mortal readers couldn't relate to him as they would Thor, who occasionally found himself humbled, and a lot of his stories dealt with the dangers of pride and over inflated ego. He just was more inherently likable as a character.
       I've always had a soft spot for Namor, and I can't properly explain why.  I think it is because I enjoyed him so much in Roger Stern's Avengers, where he was constantly at loggerheads with Hercules, and Stern fleshed his character out a bit from where he was when Roy Thomas was writing him in the 60's.
           John Byrne obviously liked the character and it shows. His Namor is still the same haughty, imperious , headstrong character but Byrne, and its a testament to his mastery of his craft, made him LIKABLE. Not only that but it was a beautiful looking comic inside and out.
           Just like Byrne revitalised the Fantastic Four and Superman, he works the same magic here, refining elements of Namor's mythos. One of the most interesting aspects is taking Namor from a pair of Speedos into a business suit as Namor entered the corporate world at the helm of an environmental protection company called Oracle, (very early 90's). This provided many a subplot and the nefarious Marrs twins Desmond and Phoebe, introduced in Byrne's Iron Man, attempted a hostile takeover, which was so full of intrigue and wild twists and turns that I won't spoil it. (Get the back issues or buy the trades, the back issues are dirt cheap).
           Namor had a sidekick his cousin Namorita who acted as a more whimsical counterpoint to the sometimes brooding and over-serious Namor. And Byrne draws a lovely Namorita, it has to be said. She even fashions a disguise for Namor in one of the early issues which is a typical Byrne motif; making the outlandish sound plausible. He did the same for Clark Kent in Man of Steel.

Just as some new comics just never seem to find their feet and end up in cancelation, Namor the Submariner had all major elements in place in the first three issues. A whole spectrum of Marvel characters show up, the FF, Cap, Iron Man, Ka-Zar, even the obligatory appearances of the Punisher and Wolverine, in an attempt to ground this title in the greater Marvel Universe. (Sadly other titles did not return the favour as mutants were the flavour of the day after Jim Lee's X-Men in 1991). If this title had appeared 7-8 years earlier it would have been an absolute smash and elevated Namor to a-list status, but Byrne was now superceded by McFarlane, Jim Lee and Rob Liefield while ironically, in my opinion was at the creative apex of his career.
      Namor's manner in this series is more nuanced than it had been earlier, there are subtleties in facial expression that Byrne allows that let the reader see through Namor's armour of aloofness. He has heart and is shown as fallible and self critical, but not overly so. This is something other writers have never been able to achieve with the character.
      His rages are explained by an imbalance of oxygen in his blood which drives him into temporary insanity, hence his wars on surface dwellers. A marine biologist he meets in #1 provides him with the cure. One of the greatest issues of any comic I've ever read was #13 'The trial of the Submariner' which is such a classic it deserves a post in itself. The book is also responsible for the reintroduction of Iron Fist into the Marvel Universe, in the climactic story arc, before Jae Lee takes over art duties. Luckily Namor has been released in two trade paperbacks collecting the whole run. Watch for 'em. I have only one complaint about this run on Namor, it was too short.

2 page splash ;-) from #1