…here’s this Dick Tracy Weekly cover:
I’m pretty sure each of those panels were from different daily
Dick Tracy strips, but between you, me, and the two-way wrist radio, I prefer to think that those are in fact four consecutive panels from the same single daily strip.
That‘s a Dick Tracy comic I’d totally read…just a surreal jumble of mismatched actions and images, day after day, forcing the reader to bring his or her own meaning to what they see before them. But that would require the funnypages demanding some minor effort from the readers, and no newspaper editor wants to field that phone call.
Bully, the Little Stuffed Bull, had a post about the current Dick Tracy strip a while back, and…well, no one’s gonna confuse that with a good strip, no, but the example panels Bully displays there demonstrate an almost mesmerizing level of…quality, shall we say, that probably provides amusement despite itself.
And then there was this.
• • •
In other news:
- Like I said in the comments there, I absolutely have no memory of this character even existing. And I know I sold these comics to unsuspecting customers at the time.
- Some discussion of early Comico Comics promotional material, including that swell Mage mobile we used to have here in the shop.
- Apparently pal Ian is getting good value from Satan on the trade-in value for his soul, as not only is Ian writing Darkwing Duck for Boom! Studios, but now he’s got his mitts all over Chip ‘n’ Dale Rescue Rangers.
All kidding aside…good on you, Ian! Don’t forget us little people!
- So anyway, I looked, and I can’t find anything in any Avengers annual (or Fantastic Four annual, or even West Coast Avengers annual) from that time frame where Reed and She-Hulk collect the pieces of the Hulk’s crutch. I really don’t remember that sequence at all. THE CRUTCH MYSTERY CONTINUES.
However, I didn’t look for anything involving the Thing using a repurposed version of the Hulk crutch, as mentioned in that same comment. I mean, it’s not like I’m obsessed with this.
image “borrowed” from Comics.org.
Here is some follow-up to comments left on yesterday’s post about Hulk breaking his leg in Secret Wars…but first, let’s pause for a moment as we realize that not only did I just type the sentence “here is some follow-up to comments left on yesterday’s post about Hulk breaking his leg in Secret Wars,” but this is like my third day in a row mentioning said event on my website. …Who says crossover event comics don’t have lasting effects?
Anyhoo, reader William says:
“Although, to be fair, Secret Wars started the Hulk from the then-Bruce Banner controlled version to a more savage one that had to be exiled off of Earth. That storyline dominated the book for at least a year. It wasn’t a permanent change, or the one advertised, but it was a rather major change.”
That “Hulk regressing to savagery” plotline was already in motion prior to the Secret Wars thing, as I recall, though the SW series did sort of speed up the timeline a bit, with Hulk going away to the Secret Wars a bit unstable in one issue, then coming back the next really out of sorts. Now, this Hulk with Banner’s brain story was always eventually going to end with that particular status quo being reverted, I’m sure, regardless of the existence of Secret Wars, but being able to tie in what you were planning to do anyway with the high-profile crossover event is just one of those skills comic writers were beginning to realize they’d have to learn at the time.
Now, the Hulk breaking his leg…that felt more like something forced into the ongoing Hulk comic, especially since that particular “change” was disposed of almost as soon as they were able to get rid of it. Not that the broken leg was anything other than a cosmetic change anyway…no scenes of the Hulk saying “ooh boy, I’d like to fight the Abomination, but, man, you know, my leg.” He just had the crutch, and then eventually the crutch went away.
Anonymous said
“And then there was those FF issues where Byrne kept forgetting to draw Banner’s crutch. And that Avengers Annual where She-Hulk and Reed collected said discarded crutch. And I believe the Thing eventually used it after taking a smackdown from the Hulk. Forget to mention all that, Mikester?”
Geez, ask me nicely, why don’t you?
Bruce Banner guest-appeared in Fantastic Four #266-268, as one of the consultants assisting Reed and Sue Richards during the super-power/radiation-related difficulties with Sue’s pregnancy. Now, how exactly this fits in with Hulk continuity at the time, I’m not sure, but Banner’s there, and, as Mr. Anonymous points out, sure enough that crutch only sporadically appears in these issues. There’s a splash page appearance here, and single panel appearance there…but yeah, it’s not consistently presented. And it doesn’t really have anything to do with the story, anyway.
As for later appearances of Hulk’s Crutch in Avengers and other places…I’ll have to look into it and get back to you on that. For, you know, an exciting fourth day on the topic. Hopefully there’s a “Hulk’s Crutch” entry in my Marvel Universe comics.
Kid Nicky sez, he sez
“You could easily argue Spidey’s symbiote has had a huge impact on the Marvel U. The new Venom was a part of Dark Avengers,so to this day it’s still a major plot point.”
That is something I brought up in that four year old post of mine I linked at the end, where I said
“…There was Spider-Man’s new black costume, probably the only lasting impact the series has had, though the evolution of that costume into his arch-nemesis Venom was more after the fact than because of anything in Secret Wars itself.”
I should probably amend that to the “only significant lasting impact,” since, as Nimbus says earlier in the comments, this is where the Julia Carpenter version of Spider-Woman was introduced, and apparently she still turns up now and again.
And perhaps I should give a little more credit to Secret Wars for the villainous nature of the black costume, since its nefarious aspects started turning up right away in Amazing Spider-Man, while Secret Wars was still running, so obviously editorial had that particular story arc in mind from the start. But I’m pretty sure no one had any idea that the real impact it’d have on the Marvel Universe would be as part of the villain Venom, created years later.
There is this sign that something is amiss about the costume in Secret Wars #12:
I like Johnny Storm’s (
EDIT: or, okay, Reed’s) response. “Why you talkin’ crazy, crazy man?”
…
There’s a bit of irony here in that my general point is that crossover-inspired changes to the status quo usually lack lasting impact, and here I’m still talking about a very minor occurrence from a crossover series published 25 years ago.
Well played, James Shooter. Well played, indeed.
image from Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #12 (April 1985) by Jim Shooter, Mike Zeck & John Beatty
“This monumental adventure figures importantly in the continuity of nearly every single Marvel title. Events in this maxi-series will permanently and shockingly alter the histories of everyone from Captain America to the X-Men to Spider-Man! No matter who your favorite Marvel hero or villain is, you’ll find yourself absorbed in THE SECRET WARS to stay on top of the catastrophic changes in that superstar’s life!”
“…But what could possibly wound the Hulk, the Fantastic Four to change its membership, or make Spider-Man put on a new costume? [Jim] Shooter tells us that these dramatic effects are nothing compared with the uncanny turbulence the Beyonder can cause!”
from Marvel Age #12 (March 1984)
• • •
FIRST
AND THEN
LATER…
AND THEN, NOT TOO MUCH LATER AFTER THAT…
WELL, THAT JUST ABOUT DOES IT
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
• • •
“You know, a lot of fuss was made about ‘The Big Changes in Secret Wars!’ And the fact is that change was not the point of Secret Wars. It was never the point. I don’t know how the talk started because here at Marvel, we always have changes. […] So the fact that in the twelve issues that made up the saga of Secret Wars there were significant events in the heroes and villains’ lives, considering how many issues there were, how could there not be changes?”
Jim Shooter, from Marvel Age #27 (June 1985)
• • •
images from Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars #12 (April 1985) by Jim Shooter, Mike Zeck & John Beatty, Incredible Hulk #295 (May 1984) by Bill Mantlo, Sal Buscema & Danny Bulanadi, and Incredible Hulk #296 (June 1984) by Mantlo, Buscema & Gerry Talaoc. Yes, the Hulks came out before Secret Wars #12, but take place afterward.
Thanks to Andrew Weiss for research assistance.
For further discussion of crossovers and their impact on characters, or lack thereof, here is this previous post of mine, from which I recycled some of the above quotes.
A few days ago, I was paging through some early issues of Marvel Age at the shop, reawakening those nostalgic feelings for the magazine that I’d noted before. For only a quarter (or thirty-five cents, or fifty cents, or…well, you get the idea) you got a 32-page full-color comic filled with previews of coming events, sketch pages, interviews, promo art…sure, it was full-on hype for Marvel product, and technically you were paying for 32 pages of ads, but you knew what you were getting. It was an unabashed house organ, but you got some fun cartoons from Fred Hembeck in a bunch of issues, some of the back-cover calendar gags were amusing, and you got plenty of creator interviews…not deep, meaningful stuff (well, except maybe for the Hembeck cartoons), but overall it was a fun little mag, and what the heck, it was cheap. Well, for a while, at least.
Anyway, I was looking at issue #12 of Marvel Age, reading the hype for the then-forthcoming Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars crossover mini-series, when I came across this paragraph:
“This monumental adventure figures importantly in the continuity of nearly every single Marvel title. Events in this maxi-series will permanently and shockingly alter the histories of everyone from Captain America to the X-Men to Spider-Man! No matter who your favorite Marvel hero or villain is, you’ll find yourself absorbed in THE SECRET WARS to stay on top of the catastrophic changes in that superstar’s life!”
Of course, as most of you know, the changes weren’t quite as dramatic as the hype would have had you believe. Hulk broke his leg (lasted a couple months), She-Hulk joined the Fantastic Four (around for a couple years), and…did something happen to Captain America? I don’t remember. I think Colossus and Kitty Pryde broke up because of events in this series, maybe. And of course there was Spider-Man’s new black costume, probably the only lasting impact the series has had, though the evolution of that costume into his arch-nemesis Venom was more after the fact than because of anything in Secret Wars itself.
Marvel took some grief from fans and the fan press about the hyped changes that ended up being no real big deal, and when it came time to push Secret Wars II in Marvel Age #27 (June ’85), writer/editor-in-chief Jim Shooter took the opportunity to do a little back-pedaling:
“You know, a lot of fuss was made about ‘The Big Changes in Secret Wars!’ And the fact is that change was not the point of Secret Wars. It was never the point. I don’t know how the talk started because here at Marvel, we always have changes. […] So the fact that in the twelve issues that made up the saga of Secret Wars there were significant events in the heroes and villains’ lives, considering how many issues there were, how could there not be changes?”
Most of these company-wide crossover series seem to promise big changes, new characters, new directions, permanent alterations in the status quo…and a few years, or even a few months, later, it’s as if nothing at all had happened, particularly if you’ve had yet another crossover series in the meantime.
Probably the only significant change at Marvel or DC that had its origin in a crossover series was from DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earths, which changed the very structure of DC’s shared universe by doing away with the decades-old multiple-Earth concept. Whether that was a good change or bad, I’ll let you decide, since twenty years on we’re still dealing with the repercussions of that series.
Crossover series also kill off or retire characters, which doesn’t matter because they’re usually revived or replaced with a new character with the same name sooner or later. Supergirl died in Crisis…and was replaced with a new Supergirl a couple years later (who was herself replaced with yet another Supergirl, just recently, with an origin similar to the original, but now showing more skin). To address more recent events, a while back I joked about Sue Dibny: Rebirth and Blue Beetle: Rebirth, reviving characters killed off in the most recent spate of DC’s crossover events…but all it takes is an editorial change and some new, hot writer who decides he really wants those characters back in the land of the living, and, surprise, there they are, as if nothing had ever happened to them.
New characters and titles are usually launched out of these events as well…DC’s Bloodlines and one year’s worth of Marvel Comics annuals introduced a whole boatload of new characters, most of which disappeared in short order (Hitman being Bloodline‘s big exception, though even that character has run its course). Most of these relaunches don’t last, unless it’s with an already established character (like The Flash or Wonder Woman). Again, to go back to Infinite Crisis…while Checkmate and the new version of Blue Beetle may be entertaining, chances are they won’t be around five years from now. But then, most new titles from Marvel and DC don’t last five years.
I know there are others…we got a good run of Starman out of Zero Hour, for example, though it too had run its course. But basically, this is why I don’t worry overly much about all the “significant changes” and promises that “things will never be the same.” Things may change for a while, but they’ll change back sooner or later. And if you don’t care for something unpleasant that was done to a character you like (for example, Wonder Woman having to break the neck of a bad guy), don’t worry…in short order it’ll be as if it never happened at all. How often is Superman’s execution of three Kryptonian criminals brought up nowadays? At the time, people were pissed…I bet at least a few of you reading this now have no idea what I’m referring to.
Let’s look again at Infinite Crisis. Did DC promise big changes because of this series? Yeah, probably, I don’t remember and don’t feel like looking up all the hype. I’m sure you all read it anyway. But what changes are we getting? Relaunched Wonder Woman, Flash, and Justice League comics, which would have happened anyway even without crossover events, since DC wouldn’t let those names languish for too long. Superboy is dead, and depending on the repercussions of recent legal decisions some Superboy or another will probably be back. Superman doesn’t have his super powers for the time being, which of course isn’t a permanent state of affairs. IC feels more like “course correction,” attempting to reintroduce and revitalize some of the characters and concepts in the DC Universe, rather than changing things wholesale.
I know I primarily discussed DC’s current events above, but all that applies to Marvel, too, in their four or five big event comics they’re currently running. Did I read correctly, that a Marvel character will have his secret identity revealed to the world during the course of Civil War? I’m guessing Spider-Man, since it would seem like a bigger deal for that character than for, say, Iron Man…and I don’t know if there are any other characters at Marvel where it would be a big deal. If so, someday someone at Marvel may decide that wasn’t a good idea, and cook up a storyline where, say, Dr. Strange casts a spell to make everyone forget Spider-Man’s secret. There, big change reverted, status quo successfully maintained.
So that was a long row to hoe basically to say “I don’t believe ‘big change’ comic book hype.” Just give me some good comics to read out of these events, that’s all I ask.
Nothing to do with the topic just discussed, but this amused me: in Marvel Age #12, Stan Lee (or a close approximation) writes about his work on a ’50s humor magazine:
“Years ago, about the time that Mad magazine was a’borning, yours truly produced a similar publication called Snafu.”
Phrased like that, it makes it sound as if Snafu simply simultaneously arose with Mad out of the same cultural zeitgeist that drove the need for new sources of parody and satire. But looking at the dates involved — Mad preceding Snafu by about three years — it becomes clear that Snafu came about for the same reasons all those other ’50s humor magazines did: the need to rip off the incredibly successful Mad. Yeah, I know: “What? Marvel copied someone else’s successful idea? The devil you say!”
