The Downside of Secret Identies

 

cover art by Sal Buscema

Any comic book that includes the two-page splash image below is going to be a fun comic. Heck, if you look up "FUN" in the Oxford English Dictionary, it has this exact image as the definition. 

Marvel Team-Up #40 (December 1975) picks up right where the previous issue left off, in the middle of a free-for-all with Spidey and the Human Torch on one side, with the Big Man, the Crime Master, Sandman, the Enforcers and a bunch of Red Shirt mobsters on the other. Sal Buscema's are has never been better, while Bill Mantlo gives us a story that drips with fun and has a grasp of Spider-Man's verbal wit that few other writers have ever equalled.

Anyway, the good guys manage to give the bad guys a nice run, but in the end they are captured. But all is not smooth sailing among the villains. The Big Man and the Crime Master both want Spider Man for themselves. 

So, naturally, they organize a vote--letting the mobsters (who originally came to bid on the captured Human Torch) decide which of them gets Spidey.

As much as I love this issue, this is were it gets a bit contrived. A martial arts group known as the Sons of the Tigers just happened to be practicing nearby and hear the commotion. 

The Sons of the Tiger, like Shang Chi and Iron Fist, were an outgrowth of the Bruce Lee-inspired martial arts craze of the 1970s, a craze enchanced by the TV show Kung Fu. Unlike Shang Chi and Iron Fist, they didn't form a lasting impression. But they were good characters and perfectly fine candidates for a Team-Up appearance.

But the "just happened to be nearby" coincidence is combined with Johnny (after the heroes are rescued and the bad guys make a run for it) declaring that he can't stay to help because he has a hot date. This is the second time in Team-Up's run that Johnny makes a lame excuse to leave a story mid-stream to make room for another guest star. 

Oh, well. I guess I'm nitpicking.  Anyway, The Big Man, Crime Master and their minions double back and capture the Sons of the Tiger. But they are still bickering with each other and refusing to play nice. In fact, the Crime Master abruptly decides to murder the Big Man.

Spider Man, in the meantime, has picked up their trail and arrives to save the day. He frees the Sons and everyone teams up to beat the snot out of the bad guys. 

Then we get a great ironic ending. It turns out the Crime Master is the son of the original Crime Master. He was in love with the daughter of the original Big Man. Both vowed revenge on Spider-Man, but unfortunately didn't let each other know their plans. So Crime Master, Jr. has unwittingly killed the woman he loves.

It's a powerful ending. But, despite the inherent tragedy here, it doesn't stop the comic book from still being incredible fun from start to finish. The Mantlo/Buscema run on MTU is stuffed with classic stories, this one being one of the finest.

Next week, we'll return to Marvel's Planet of the Apes universe.

Cover Cavalcade

 

August is Rafael De Soto month!

A cover from 1944.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Rocky Jordan: "Pharoah's Formula" 6/11/50

A 3000-year old formula for beer--found on a recently discovered tablet--seems like a harmless enough thing. So why is it apparently a motive for murder?

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Eyes in the Night

When I got married three years ago and moved into a nice house, my access to technology jumped forward quite a bit. Living alone, I watched movies on DVD or via Amazon on my computer and simply didn't worry about being more advanced.

But our HOA fees included TV. I went on a "recording movies off of Turner Classic Movies" jihad and soon our DVR was over half-full.

It soon became a running gag with my wife that I had all those movies waiting for me to watch and I never seemed to get around to watching them. But recently, I had to have my gallbladder removed and that left me convalescing at home for a time before I could return to work. And, by golly, I actually watched a bunch of those movies.

One of them is a real gem. In 1942, the novel The Odor of Violets, by Baynard Kendrick, was adapted into a film titled Eyes in the Night. Edward Arnold--a wonderful character actor who often played heavies--was given the lead role as blind detective "Mac" Maclain. Though as good as Arnold is in his role, his seeing-eye dog Friday nearly steals the movie from him.

Anyway, "Mac" might be blind, but this doesn't slow him down. He's sharp-witted, of course, but he's surprisingly capable in a fight and often seems more aware of what is going on around him than those with working eyes.

The case he investigates involves the murder of a sleazy actor, but this soon expands to also involve a cadre of Nazi spies after a particular secret. The spies are working as the household staff of a scientist. Mac, as he begins to suspect what's going on, takes the role of an obnoxious uncle and arrives for a visit. Soon, there's a sometimes subtle game of cat-and-mouse going on, with the spies looking for an opportunity to break into a safe and Mac "accidentally" interrupting their plans.

Arnold is so much fun to watch in the role of Mac it makes one's heart break to know that he never reprised the role. But the rest of the cast it great as well. I especially appreciate the way the script take the time to give the various bad guys individual personalities. Mac's banter with the butler, for instance, is all the more priceless because of this:

• Hansen : Oh, you're blind sir?

  Duncan 'Mac' Maclain : Blind as a bat!

  Hansen : Excuse me sir I'm terribly sorry.

  Duncan 'Mac' Maclain : What is there to be sorry about? Plenty of great men were blind - Milton, Homer, they were blind, weren't they?

  Hansen : Yes, but they complained about it.

  Duncan 'Mac' Maclain : Oh, they did?

  Hansen : Yes sir. "O loss of sight, of thee I must complain! Blind among enemies, O, worse than chains, Dungeon, or beggary, or decrepit age..."

Anyway, the spies are eventually forced to come out into the open, taking the scientist and his family hostage. This, in turn, forces Mac into a gun fight in a pitch-dark room after he sends his dog Friday off to fetch help. It's a climax that generates more than it's share of honest tension.

Eyes in the Night is available to watch on Youtube and is well-worth your time. Within a few weeks, by the way, we'll take a look at the novel on which the movie is based.

Old Bad Guys are New Again

cover art by John Romita

Marvel Team-up #39 (November 1975) was the second issue in which Bill Mantlo wrote the story and Sal Buscema drew it. And I think it is this issue that left readers confident that the Mantlo/Buscema era would be incredibly fun.

This issue begins with an unknown assassin trying to kill Spidey. Though, it turns out, the assassination attempt was expected to fail--it's simply the first step to lure Spider Man into a trap.

Soon after, the same bad guy, now backed up the Enforcers Fancy Dan and Montana, ambush Johnny Storm, capturing him.

So who the heck is this bad guy? When Spidey tracks the villains to a warehouse, he discovers this new guy is auctioning off the Torch to mobsters. And the new guys is claiming to be the Big Man.

This takes us back to early in Spidey's career. The original Big Man turned out to be Frederick Foswell, who had long since died. Obviously, the new Big Man is someone else. 

But mysteries will have to wait, since a fellow hero needs rescuing. Spidey busts Johnny from the coffin-like box in which he's being held and for a few minutes, it looks as if the two heroes will easily clean up the Big Man, the Enforcers and the mobsters. But then another element is tossed into the mix.

Someone claiming to be the Crime Master (another long-dead foe from Spidey's early career) shows up, with the Sandman as a bodyguard. 

 The entire issue is fun from start to finish. The mysteries involving the new Big Man and Crime Master are intriguing, the action is great and Sal Buscema's art often seems to pop off the page with pure energy. 

But we need to solve these mysteries, don't we? Next week, we'll look at the concluding issue of this story.

 

Cover Cavalcade

 

August is Rafael De Soto month!

This one is from 1940.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Hopalong Cassidy: "Wet Beef and Dry Bones" 2/10/51

A friend of Hoppy's disappears while investigating a supposedly haunted canyon.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Revisting the Great Locomotive Chase

 

A few years ago, I wrote briefly about the 1956 Disney film The Great Locomotive Chase, comparing it to Buster Keaton's comedy The General, since both were based on the same historical incident. 

I hadn't known the Disney film had been novelized until I ran across that novelization in a used bookstore. Naturally, I was obligated by Law and Nature to buy it. Written by MacLennan Roberts, the book uses both the film and historical documents to bring the story of the Andrews Raid to life.

Andrews--a spy for the Union during the Civil War--led a team of twenty men behind enemy lines and captured a train. Their intent was to burn key bridges as they rode north. They were foiled by the incredible persistance of the train's conductor, who relentless pursued them on foot, by hand car and by other trains he commandeered along the way. At one point, he was following them on a train that was running in reverse. 

It's an exciting piece of real-life history. The Disney film is a relatively accurate recreation of the event. The book retains and perhaps even expands this historical verisimilitude, with excellent prose and story construction. The action is exciting and the various characters all given their own personalities. 

There is one interesting thing to note about the novelization. The movie did not directly discuss the causes of the Civil War. Nor did it need to do so, just as a novel set in World War II doesn't necessarily need to discuss the politics and morality of the overall war. 

The book was also under no obligation to discuss the war's causes either. But it includes a very well-written scene in which some of the Union spies, posing as Confederates before the raid begins, stay with a Southern family. At first, at least one of the spies is beginning to feel guilty about lying to a nice family. Then word arrives about an escaped slave. The head of the family takes his dogs out to hunt down the slave, while the inate hatred of the slaves among the rest of the family becomes palpable. Even the otherwise genial matriarch casually expresses this hatred both in speech and mannerisms. 

There is no hint of the "Lost Cause" myth here. The book makes it very clear that slavery and the evils it generates are the main reasons the war is being fought. I found this very interesting--in 1956, the Lost Cause myth was still pretty prevelant in pop culture. We still end up respecting the train conductor for his tenacity and courage in chasing down the stolen train, but this passage makes it clear that there was no moral equivalency betwen the Union and the Rebs. 

So The Great Locomotive Chase is yet another item to keep an eye out for when you visit used bookstores. 

Gallbladder delay, Part 2

 

Week 2 of my Gallbladder delay. Wednesday comic book reviews will resume next week.

Cover Cavalcade

 

August is Rafael De Soto month!

A cover from 1936.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Screen Guild Theater: "A Mug, a Moll, and a Mountaineer" 4/2/39

A musical/comedy review directed by Busby Berkeley.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Tuned for Murder

 

cover art by H.W. Scott

Written by Paul Ernst (using the house name Kenneth Robeson), Tuned for Murder appeared in the May 1940 issue of The Avenger.

When, as a teenager, I first read the Avenger stories in paperback reprints, I liked them but didn't think them quite as good as the Shadow or Doc Savage. But each time I revisit them, I appreciate them a little bit more. Great mysteries, excellent use of the supporting cast, exciting action scenes, unexpected plot twists. Though all other pulp heroes bow before the pure awesomeness of the Shadow, the Avenger is definitely a top tier hero himself.

Tuned for Murder is set in Garfield City, NY, where bizarre things are happening. First, a famous inventor announces that he's invented the ultimate weapon. He won't share this invention with anyone, but promises to use it to make war impractical by giving it to any nation that is invaded by another. The inventor lives in a castle outside the city, guarded by an electric fence and armed guards.

But, about the same itme, several prominant citizens of the city begin to publically act in clearly insane ways, only to later regain their sanity with no memory of what they had done. This soon becomes dangerous, with one man committing a double murder and a woman committing suicide.

It's not much of a spoiler to say that hypnotic control is involved. That's pretty obvious from the get-go. But the exact nature of the control and the identity of the man behind it all are still mysteries.

Soon, Justice, Inc. becomes involved. The Avenger and his crew survive a mob ambush getting to Garfield City and split up along several routes of inquiry. This emphasizes one of the strengths of the Avenger series I mentioned earlier. Each member of Justice, Inc gets a moment to shine. 

The highlight of these highlights has to be when Nellie Gray and Rosebel Newton are kidnapped by mobsters. Using teamwork, intelligence and Nellie's martial arts expertise, the two ladies turn the tables on the thugs in a manner that can only be described as epic. 

Josh Newton's escape from an attempt to kill him is also pretty cool.

I enjoy the way that all the bizarre occurances and apparently random deaths are tied together in the end in a way that makes sense. Well, it makes sense according to the logic of a Pulp Magazine Universe, but that's more than good enough for me. The good guys all end up apparently helpless while held at gunpoint by mobsters. But they are rarely helpless. The climatic fight scene and exposure of the Big Boss is wonderfully constructed.

In my mind, the Shadow is the #1 Pulp Hero. But the Avenger vies for 2nd place with Doc Savage. Right behind them are G-8 and then the Spider. 

Gallbladder delay

 

No comic book review this week,  which can be blamed on my now non-existant gallbladder. The organ betrayed me, forcing me to spend a little time in the hospital while it was removed and a few complications were dealt with. I'm on the mend now, but I'm going to have to skip the comic book reviews for a couple of weeks while I get caught up with my life. 

Six-Gun Justice

 I had another opportunity to co-host the excellent Six-Gun Justice podcast:

Six-Gun Justice

Cover Cavalcade

 

August is Rafael De Soto month!

This cover is from 1934.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 The Falcon: "The Case of the Unsilent Butler" 3/11/51

The Butler Petroleum Detector is a new invention potentially worth millions. So it's not surprising that several people are willing to lie, cheat or kill to get their hands on it.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Vaudevillian Goes West, part 2

 

cover artist unidentified

Read/Watch 'em In Order #144

"With the Help of Henry" is W.C.Tuttle's second yarn about Henry Harrison Conroy, a vaudeville comedian who moves to Arizona after buying a ranch. It was published in the March 23, 1935 issue of Argosy. 

The story begins with Henry and the Judge--Henry's legal advisor--getting drunk. This is a usual activity for the two, but Henry has a reason to do so this time. It's election night and Henry is running for sheriff. And he's worried he might win.

In the first story, Henry had proved to have Sherlockian deductive skills and solved a murder. This, combined with his inherant likeability, has led a friend to nominate him for sheriff. Henry is starting to get on in years, doesn't consider himself brave and can barely ride a horse. He doesn't want to be sheriff.

Sadly for Henry, he wins. But then a murder takes place and a friend of Henry looks guilty. So, while still trying to figure out what to do about the election results, he finds himself investigating another crime.

As with the first story, W.C. Tuttle perfectly balances often laugh-out-loud humor with a solid mystery plot. Adding to the humor is Henry's possibly unwise decision to move the body off his friend's ranch to stave off hasty murder accusations. But while he's doing this, his friend is dutifully reporting to the current sheriff that he found the body on his ranch. 

When the body is found, Henry and the Judge move it a second time before the coroner can be brought to the scene. This odd game of "Who's got the body" continues until it leads in a bizarre way to Henry geting thrown from a buckboard and having most of his clothes torn off in a cactus brush.

But Henry, though often more drunk that sober, is able to follow up a clue (a torn and only partially legible letter found on the corpse) until he figures out who the real killer is.

By the way, the exact year this story is set in doesn't really matter, but I can't help but try to figure it out. In the previous tale, Sherlock Holmes is mentioned, so he's a household name. In this story, Henry mentions Houdini (who began performing in 1891) and a stage show called "The Squaw Man" starring William Faversham, which was performed in 1905 and 1906. So, despite the absense of early automobiles and telephones (which might make sense in the remote Arizona location), the story must be set early in the 20th Century, perhaps around 1910. 

But the year doesn't matter. "With the Help of Henry" is yet another excellent blend of comedy, western and mystery.

Click HERE to read the story online.

Terror on the Planet of the Apes, part 1

 

cover art by Bob Larkin

In the early 1970s, Marvel Comics got the rights for Planet of the Apes. In 1975, they would publish an 11 issue series that adapted the first two movies into comic book form. (This, by the way, would be the second time Beneath the Planet of the Apes would be adapted. Gold Key did a one-shot adaptation in 1970.)

Before that 11-issue series, though, Marvel began a Planet of the Apes magazine, featuring original stories presented in black-and-white. The first issue was cover dated August 1974.

This was part of an explosion that expanded the original POTA universe. In addition to what Marvel was doing, the short-lived Planet of the Apes TV series began in September 1974. The animated Return to the Planet of the Apes (my personal favorite POTA universe) appeared on Saturday mornings beginning in September 1975.

It is, of course, geeky fun to try to place these stories in the original POTA movie timeline or decide that they are a seperate continuity entirely. The animated series is clearly set in a different universe. The TV series could be in the movie universe, some centuries before the first movie takes place, but could also be said to be in another continuity.

The Marvel comic series is in the same grey area as the TV series. It could be set somewhere in that 2000-year period between nuclear war and the first movie. Or it could be another reality. We find out in the second issue that the human/ape society in the comic stories has no knowledge of firearms. Since the apes kept knowledge of guns even after humans devolved into near-animals again, that might be seen as a reason for dropping it into another universe. On the other hand, we have 2000 years to play with and it is probable that the Ape society Taylor (Charlton Heston) ran into in the first movie isn't the only ape civilization on the planet. So perhaps we can drop the Marvel stories into the same continuity.

It really doesn't matter as long as the stories are good. But we wouldn't be true geeks if we didn't debate it, would we?

Anyway, the Marvel story is written by Doug Moench (building off an idea provided by Gerry Conway) and initially features superb art by Mike Ploog.

In the first issue, we meet two teenagers. Hot-headed Jason is a human whose best friend is a more level-headed chimpanzee named Alexander. Some initial dialogue established their character traits and hints at tensions between humans and apes, who live as supposed equals in their village. Then the two attend a speech by the Lawgiver.

As it usual in any POTA universe, the Lawgiver is an orangutan. His speech is basically a "be nice to everyone while I'm gone" talk, because he's leaving for a time without explaining why. He leaves another orangutan named Xavier in charge. But Xavier, it seems, is a spineless wimp. The two friends aren't happy with this and secretly follow the Lawgiver, but lose his trail near the Forbidden Zone.

Things begin to go sour almost immediately. Alexander's dad is beaten up by masked gorillas for being a "human lover," while Jason's parents are murdered by those same gorillas.

We soon learn that the marauding gorillas have a secret base outside the village and that their leader is Brutus, the village's "peace officer."

Jason is wild for revenge and Alexander joins him, as much to try to keep Jason's temper in check as to see justice is done. They trail the gorillas, but get captured. Brutus, in the meantime, is also tracked down by his wife. When she decides to expose him, he loses some Husband Points by immediately murdering her.

Brutus frames Jason for the killing. Alexander, who has gotten loose, springs Jason from prison. The issue ends with the two on the run together.

It's a good story. As I said, Ploog's art is fantastic. The character dynamic between the two friends is strong and the story is full of action while still efficiently establishing the universe and telling a powerful tale. 

Next week, we'll visit Spider Man and the Human Torch once again. That's a two parter, so it'll be three weeks before we find out what Jason and Alexander have been up to after busting out of prison.

Cover Cavalcade

 

August is Rafael De Soto month!

This one is from 1933.