Mikester
Meanwhile, in comics that (mostly) have nothing to do with the Hulk’s crutch…
…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.
A leg to stand on.
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
So some of you were asking about that “Hulk breaks a leg” thing.
“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)
“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.
Every once in a while, I remember that Aerosmith appeared in a Valiant comic.
from Shadowman #19 (Nov. 1993) by Bob Hall & John Dixon
Well, it was no Howard the Duck meeting KISS, but it was certainly…something.
Shadowman, like many of the early Valiant superhero books, was an interesting title, with the main character finding out in the time-and-space-spanning epic crossover event Unity that he was fated to die in 1999, with that knowledge coloring his actions and emotions through the rest of the series. Of course, that series ended before actually reaching the year 1999, and I don’t know if that particular plot point was resolved or even addressed in any of the spin-off material, like the next two Shadowman series which featured new characters, or the halfway-completed mini Unity 2000 by Jim Shooter and Jim Starlin. But it was a clever twist on the superhero crossover event, in that for once something that happened in one of these events actually had a dramatic, serious, and more-or-less permanent impact on the character involved. No “Hulk breaks a leg!” here.*
So, Shadowman…another reason why I miss those initial Valiant Era comics. Even that goofy Aerosmith issue.
* Yes, I know Shooter was involved with that, too.
Sluggo Saturday #70.
AND THE WIND, IT CRIES SLUGGO
from Dell Giant #45 (1961)
More links to things other people are doing.
- Ordered mere days ago and here they are, in my hot little hands…Lydia and She Died in Terrebonne #2, two exciting comics from Kevin Church and his super-pals (Max Riffner on the former, T.J. Kirsch on the latter) over at Agreeable Comics. Both are very handsome looking publications, and the contents ain’t half-bad either.
- Also received this week was Awesome Hospital #1, collecting the strip’s first storyline by Chris Sims, Chad Bowers, Matt Digges, and Josh Krach. The print edition is apparently not currently available from sale, due to that initial print run selling out…but fortunately Mr. Digges happened by the shop and gifted me with a copy. It’s great stuff, so, if you don’t have yours, hound Sims ’til he goes back to press on it. He’ll like that.
- Bully the Little Stuffed Bull What Likes to Talk about The Comics explains Hydra to you, in the most fantastic way possible.
- So Archie Comics introduced a new character into their books that also happens to be gay, and that introductory story…is actually pretty good! Pal Dorian tells you all about it.
Man, all these webcomics going to the print format…it’s the new hot trend, baby! Clearly the digital comics format is on its way out.
I did not expect this post to invoke the name of Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man.
- So the results of yesterday’s poll is decidedly in favor of Ultra the Multi-Alien! Hoorah! I have no idea what to do to commemorate this!
If memory serves, my initial exposure to Ultra the Multi-Alien was on the very early Nickelodeon Channel show Video Comics, which displayed old DC Comics stories panel-by-panel with narration and sound effects. I recall some of the featured stories included Silver Age Flash and Green Lantern stories, some Shelly Mayer stuff (Three Mouseketeers, Sugar & Spike), Adam Strange…and I’m about 79% positive that Ultra was in there, too.
But outside of that, and maybe reading a reprint of his origin in a DC digest, and any cameo appearances he’d made since (like in James Robinson’s Starman), I haven’t had a whole lot of exposure to Ultra. Maybe when that DC Archives: Ultra the Multi-Alien hardcover comes out, I can catch up. However, I am struck by how similar in appearance he is to Metamorpho (immortalized in that song I presented yesterday). Comics really had a thing for characters divided up in fourths like that, didn’t they? Like Super Skrull, or Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man.
And you can’t help but wonder just what’s going on, you know, with their, um, naughty bits. Half and half? Maybe split four ways, like it’s the point where Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico meet? DON’T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT, you know you wondered, too.
- By the way, speaking of yesterday’s voting, the Ultra-Humanite would like to contest the results:
- So reader Charles emailed to remind me that Netflix, the mail order DVD rental and online streaming service, has added America’s finest film Swamp Thing to its Watch Instantly streaming library. For those of you unfamiliar with Netflix’s rating function, you can rate movies you’ve seen with star ratings (1 to 5 scale), and based on your tastes, it will try to guess how much you would like other films you have yet to rate. In this case, I hadn’t got around to rating Swamp Thing, and Netflix’s suggestion-thingie said that I’d probably think it was a three-star film.
AU CONTRAIRE, NETFLIX. I have corrected your incorrect assumption by giving the film FIVE stars, baby.
However, I have not yet checked to see which version of the film it is…if it’s the one with an extra dollop of nuditivity, or the slightly less nekkid one (as discussed here). I’ll have to check and report back to you folks…as, you know, a public service.
Oh, wait, just looked at the user reviews…someone claims that it’s the censored version, but, being of a skeptical bent, I still prefer to investigate this myself. INTO THE BREACH, MY FRIENDS.
- Another follow-up to yesterday’s post…pal Nat, one of the world’s foremost Peanuts authorities (and, by the way, has provided the text for the forthcoming Peanuts Collection hardcover), popped into the comments to suggest that I’ve “subscribed to the myth of the timeless Peanuts,” which is fair enough. Like Nat says, the reprint books we grew up with tended to leave out the strips with celebrity references, which is probably why those references seem so out of place now. (The sports references, like to Billie Jean King, were usually left in, which is of course why they feel like they fit more naturally into the strip’s world.)
By the way…there’s totally a Cheryl Tiegs reference near the end of that newest Complete Peanuts volume.
Also, Elton John is mentioned in the March 8th, 1978 strip.
Lah dee dah, readin’ the Complete Peanuts 1977-1978 book, mmm hmm mmm…WHA–!?
(Here’s the full strip.)
I think I’ve mentioned before that seeing real celebrity names in Peanuts always catches me off-guard. I realize that it’s not like this is something Schulz never did, but it’s just that…well, I’m not sure how to put it, exactly. Maybe it’s that Peanuts was just so much of its own little world that the occasional intrusion from outside really stands out. Like the celebrity name-dropping, or the Vietnam reference in the strip I pointed out yesterday, or…okay, I was going to point out the Disco Beagle strips (scroll down on that page to see the rest) (EDIT 5-31-11): strips are non longer there, as the official Peanuts strip archive has been shut down) as another kind of oddball thing to find in the Peanuts milieu, but let’s face it, those strips are fantastic.
Anyway, Peanuts…I have, won’t you?
In other news:
- I’d like to thank the folks who were nice enough to get me mentioned three times in Tom Spurgeon’s “Name Five Writers About Comics You Like” survey. That was a very welcome surprise, especially since I usually feel like I’m not so much writing about comics as flailing about wildly, slamming my forehead against the keyboard and hoping something halfway coherent results. Anyway, thanks to those good people, and to all of you, for continuing to come back and encourage this sort of behavior.
- Now here’s someone who knows his stuff…and it’s a six year old little stuffed bull by the name of Bully, who’s taking you on a whirlwind tour of Marvel Comics’ many publishers. Pack a lunch, it’s a long trip!
- Hey, you guys like awesome stuff that is free, right? And presumably you like reading about comic books, unless you’re coming here for my cooking tips and frank relationship advice, which, well, more pity you. Anyhoo, all four issues of the legendary comics ‘zine The Imp are available for download in PDF format at the publisher’s webpage, entirely gratis. Each issue devoted to a specific topic (Dan Clowes, Chris Ware, Jack Chick, and naughty Mexican comics), and each issue is great reading.
- One of my readers, the presumably-pseudonymous Glitch Girl, sent me an email yesterday morning altering me to the Music of DC Comics: 75th Anniversary Edition CD, featuring DC-related theme songs and other music from the past few decades. Of particular note is the track Glitch Girl was emailing me about:
“22. Swamp Thing – Christopher Stone (1991)
– Previously unavailable. Digitally remastered. From the live-action TV show ‘Swamp Thing: The Series.'”Granted, it’s not this Swamp Thing theme song, but it’ll do, it’ll do.
And as someone mentions in the comments at the DCU blog, it’s a damned shame this song isn’t on the disc:
Well, there’s always Volume 2. - Because my Twitter pals demanded it:
ULTRA THE VOTE: 
OR 
OR
I began to realize Peanuts was getting a little strange…
…when this happened:
I remember reading this particular sequence when it was new, and even as a kid it struck me as a bit odd. Yes, in a strip where Schroeder knocks out Beethoven on his toy piano and Snoopy keeps a van Gogh (later, after the fire, an Andrew Wyeth) painting in his doghouse, it’s Helicopter Snoopy that most greatly impacted my willing suspension of disbelief. “How…how does that even work?” young Mike wonders. “Does his entire scalp spin around? Does each ear spin freely in its ‘socket?’ How is Woodstock piloting him, exactly?”
I worried about weird things as a kid.
Here’s the full strip that panel is from, embedded here courtesy the official site:
As you may have gathered, I’m currently reading the recently-released Complete Peanuts 1977-1978 hardcover from Fantagraphics, which included the above strip. Now, the sequence of strips from later in the book that this next image comes from is not a story I recall, because I’m pretty sure I would have remembered this character design of the fellow on the left:
That’s a little odd looking for a Schulz design, though perhaps that’s more attributable to the unfamiliar strangeness of any kid character in Peanuts that isn’t part of the regular cast. That fella probably isn’t any more bizarre than, say, Pig-Pen. But mostly I’m just pointing him out because it took me a moment to parse out the character’s face…I had a hard time visualizing that it was his ear on the left there, and his nose on the right. It just looked like a cylindrical blob resting between the turtleneck and the hat. (Link to the full strip.)
Now this panel is awesome:
Yeah, it’s an easy gag, but it’s a perfect gag for the circumstance. And, it’s in the first panel of the strip. I’m sure it would have served just fine as the closing punchline in a strip that wasn’t Peanuts. (Link to full strip.)
For some good Peanuts commentary, may I recommend Roasted Peanuts, a weblog devoted to discussing the strips.