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Stronguy Reviews The Marvel Bronze Age

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rednalsram

rednalsram

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Thanks for posting these detailed reviews Strong Guy. Are the Comic book versions

reprints of the magazine formats?

 

 

Adventures On The Planet Of The Apes

Issues 1-11

October 1975 - December 1976

 

Rating: 2/5

 

Not a lot to report on this one. If you saw the movies then you could have saved yourself $2.95 (or $3.10 if you lived in one of the 30¢ variant cities) and not bought the comics.

 

Issues 1-6 follow the original Planet Of The Apes movie pretty much scene for scene. George Tuska and Mike Esposito turn out some pretty bland art with only 1 memorable page -- the 2 page splash of Taylor and Nova in front of the destroyed Statue Of Liberty. But even then it's not that great. Issue 6 has a pretty decent Jim Starlin cover. I don't know that you can really credit Doug Moench with "writing" -- more like watching the movie and remembering. One thing that seemed strange was, you know how Hulk 168 has that Overstreet note about Betty being nude when she's really just standing behind a bunch of bushes presumably nude, well issue 1 has 2 panels with some interracial bare-assness and there's not one single mention in Overstreet about it. meh

 

Issues 7-11 follow the Beneath The Plane Of The Apes movie... once again, scene for scene. Taylor disappears into a mysterious wall of ice, rescue pilot Brent shows up and hooks up Nova (damn tramp!), they meet some telepathic zombie looking guys and Taylor blows up the planet. Alfredo Alcala took over as the artist for this run and the art takes a nice step up (if you like the Filipino art style... and I do).

 

Adventures-On-The-Planet-Of-The-Apes.jpg

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Stronguy

Stronguy

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Thanks for posting these detailed reviews Strong Guy. Are the Comic book versions

reprints of the magazine formats?

 

I've never read the POTA mags but judging from the covers they appear to be just a retelling of the movie. So in a sense the comics are the same as the mags -- they just retell the movie with new art.

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Stronguy

Stronguy

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I have a real job now. Which is more important to you, reviewing funny books or helping stop hostile countries from infiltrating sensitive government systems? :shrug:

 

That's what I thought!

 

Back to the funny books. I'm writing the review of Conan 1-24 right now. Just need to, well... write it.

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Sal

Sal

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I have a real job now. Which is more important to you, reviewing funny books or helping stop hostile countries from infiltrating sensitive government systems? :shrug:

 

That's what I thought!

 

Back to the funny books. I'm writing the review of Conan 1-24 right now. Just need to, well... write it.

 

your reviews are more important to me. hostile countries are all up in our sensitive government systems already, but i don't know how Stronguy feels about the first 100 issues of The Defenders

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Warlord

Warlord

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I have a real job now. Which is more important to you, reviewing funny books or helping stop hostile countries from infiltrating sensitive government systems? :shrug:

 

That's what I thought!

 

Back to the funny books. I'm writing the review of Conan 1-24 right now. Just need to, well... write it.

 

:juggle:

zzz

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Stronguy

Stronguy

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At long last...

 

CONAN THE BARBARIAN

 

... at least part of it.

 

So why did it take so long? 1) Life got in the way -- I got a real job and have been putting in some hours at the salt mines, 2) the book changes so dramatically in a short amount of time that it threw me into writers block.

 

There are 105 issues of Conan in the Bronze Age (1970 - 1979). I was going to read them all and post at the end but the reading has been slower than I expected. I'm only averaging about one issue a day. I'm on issues 56 right now and I've decided to break this up into two parts (at least for now) because the title becomes so completely different in such a very short time.

 

The first review will be issues 1-24. This covers the BWS run and, by all accounts, is the best of the best. The second part will cover 25-105... this is where things begin to drop off precipitously and it's like reading a whole different series.

 

Bear with me, I'll get through all of them eventually. But for now I submit for you approval, part one...

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Stronguy

Stronguy

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Conan The Barbarian

Issues 1-24

October 1970 - March 1973

 

Rating: 4.5/5

 

Honestly, this is probably as good as it gets. I've been brain locked for several weeks about what to say but, really, I think REH said it best...

 

""Know, O Prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars--Nemedia, Ophir, Brythunia, Hyperborea, Zamora with its dark-haired women and towers of spider-haunted mystery, Zingaria with its chivalry, Koth that bordered on the pastoral lands of Shem, Stygia with its shadow-guarded tombs, Hyrkania whose riders wore steel and silk and gold. But the proudest kingdom in the world was Aquilonia, reigning supreme in the dreaming west. Hither came Conan the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandaled feet."

 

That is the essence of the original Robert E. Howard stories and Roy Thomas did a really good job of capturing it and putting it into comic form.

 

Unlike the REH stories that appeared over 30 years before in the pulps, the comics try to add a since of chronology to Conan. Issue 1 is supposed to be the starting point for the next 275 issues to come. Conan has recently left Cimmeria and fights as a mercenary in Vanaheim. From issue to issue he travels around getting into fights, kicking people's assees and trying to put a little coin in his pocket. Holding true to the REH character Conan is a thief at first. Eventually, in this run of issues, he becomes a reluctant soldier in the Turanian army.

 

For these issues Thomas holds about as true as he can to REH's Conan stories. Conan is a true barbarian thrust into conflict with "civilized" man. REH's underlying theme of barbarism being the default setting of man and civility being a weak veneer is carried well. Several of the issues are straight out adaptations of the REH stories and they are done admirable. The stories almost all have a hint of mysticism - a remnant of the old gods - running through them but not enough to make them a full-on sorcery story.

 

Whether you like Conan or not you will like these issues. They are, IMO, the pinnacle of the Bronze Age and I fully understand why some would contend that it is the beginning of that era. Prior to this you were stuck with very one-dimensional superheroes who, on occasion, had moments of greatness (ala Green Lantern/Green Arrow). Conan filled a void in comics where a well loved literary character was adapted and not watered down too much. I can only imagine picking up Conan off the stands and reading them. Talk about a 180 degree spin to what was out at the time.

 

One thing to note. Had Thomas stuck with just retelling the REH stories, even in a decompressed storyline manner, he would have quickly run out of source material. However, in addition to Conan, REH wrote a bunch of other sword and sorcery stories. Oftentimes on the splash page it will say something like, "Adapted from the {whatever} story by Robert E. Howard." That doesn't necessarily mean that story was a Conan story. More times than not Thomas does a cut/paste with Conan into other REH tales.

 

Now, on to my heresy...

(I told a fellow Bronze Age scholar I was going to say this in public and he told me to prepare to be burned in effigy. But I'm a big boy and I can take it.)

WTF is up with the reverent status of Barry Windsor-Smith and Conan? If you listen to BWS lovers the tone they use to talk about Conan art work is almost as if the Virgin Mary had penciled this herself. Have they actually seen this art?

 

Now, before everyone gets their pitch forks out, let me state a few things... 1) I like BWS' art, 2) He does a very good job of visually telling a story and 3) There are moments of true greatness where I fully understand why he is so loved. That being said, it is very obvious that these comics are not BWS at the top of his game. In fact it's pretty obvious that he's just getting started and is, in places, ham-handily finding himself.

 

The first several issues are not that great. BWS is trying to kick his Kirby phase and find his own groove. Rather quickly he begins to find it but he's all over the map. I'm not sure if it's the schedule he's keeping or what (often referred to in the letters pages) but on any given panel can be either sublime mastery or total drek. It's hard to nail down. Sometimes you think it would be best if he inked his own work but then when he does it can be really bad. Other times, when someone else inks him, it comes out beautifully. Maybe it's because he had extra time to just focus on the pencils. Who know? Either way, it's hit or miss... and more miss than hit. Want a good example? Look at issue 24, the 2nd Red Sonja (I refuse to call it the first appearance because she's a major player in issue 23 so f'k those revisionists at Overstreet). The cover of that issues is spectacular... the detail, the flow, the composition... wow! Open the book to the first page and it becomes a puke-fest. Erratic penciling, panels don't flow... just a mess. It's almost like he spent 28 days working on the cover and 2 days slopping out the interiors.

 

Anyway, that's my take on it. YMMV... but you're wrong.

 

Pros

-- Pretty much the best comic on the stands at the time.

-- Great departure from the one dimensional superheroes of the time.

-- Thomas doesn't get in there and screw around with something that ain't broken. He holds relatively true to the REH character even when he does a cut/paste of him into other stories.

 

Cons

-- BWS' "all over the place" art.

-- The occasional clumsy break away from the REH Conan character when Thomas has to ad lib.

 

Conan_1.jpg

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Stronguy

Stronguy

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18 was a Gil Kane issue. I now question whether you actually read these comics, as well as my own place in the universe. :cry:

 

meh

Is that the best you can do?

 

17 and 18 were both Kane... with some really god awful "drawing with triangles" art. And if you're going to get picky there's a GK back up story in 13. Also, 22 is a reprint of issue #1 because, according to the letters column, the art was lost in transit from England.

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