This latest issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA brought to a finale the long-running six-part Doctor Faustus storyline, one that seemed to amble and move along herky-jerky as though the specifics of the plot were being made up issue to issue. But this final installment made me re-evaluate the entire story, and in fact go back and … Continue reading BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #236
I was very much enjoying AMAZING SPIDER-MAN at this point. Under writer Marv Wolfman, the character's harsher, more anxiety-ridden bad behaviors had been toned down to a level where it was easier to connect with him. Part of this, no doubt, was that I'd by this time read the earliest Spider-Man stories and so felt … Continue reading BHOC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #195
I really liked the SHOGUN WARRIOR Marvel comic when I was younger. But today, I find that I can recall little about it. I remember the broad strokes of the series, the premise, the individual characters. But the specifics of any given issue haven't stuck with me. In the case of this issue, i remembered … Continue reading BHOC: SHOGUN WARRIORS #7
The Project: P.E.G.A.S.U.S. is rightly remembered as a high-water mark in the 100-issue run of MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE. And yet, it wasn't a perfect story. There was a choice or two made that is perhaps a bit regrettable. And for one of those story decisions, this issue tells the tale. That said, it was still the … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #54
This issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN was another one that I read courtesy of my grade school friend Donald Sims, who lent me his copy for a day or two. Already by this time, the Green Goblin had become somewhat legendary as Spider-Man's greatest foe, his reputation somehow enhanced due to the fact that he wasn't … Continue reading BC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #136
We were in the twilight days of the Marvel reprint line, even though certain titles, mainly MARVEL TALES, would continue on indefinitely for another decade and a half. But the need to carve out rack space on mainstream Newsstands was diminishing as the number of mainstream outlets carrying comic books in 1979 continued to shrink, … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL SUPER-HEROES #82
The history of Marvel's export to the United Kingdom is a complex and somewhat haphazard thing. While occasional copies of Marvel's American comics might reach England shops carried as ballast, the earliest homegrown reprints of Marvel material were carried by a number of different publishers. One of these was Odhams Press, best remembered as the … Continue reading Brand Echh: SMASH! #38 and a seldom-seen Hulk adventure
My younger brother Ken came along with my grandparents and I on that trip to Ed's Coins and Stamps in the Sun-Vet Mall. And accordingly, he wound up buying a couple comic books as well. Ken was never as into the medium and the characters as I was, but like any kid of that era, … Continue reading BHOC: CONAN THE BARBARIAN #42
By this moment in time PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN was past its best days--and even at its highest it had never been a great comic book series. Almost by default, the title was dedicated to providing "more" Spider-Man adventures for readers for whom a single AMAZING SPIDER-MAN release wasn't enough. These stories existed in … Continue reading BHOC: PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #32
We're at the point where IRON MAN started to get really good under the creative team of writer David Michelinie, penciler John Romita Jr. and inker and co-plotter Bob Layton. The transformation sort of snuck up on me as a reader at the time. I found that I was enjoying IRON MAN more and more, … Continue reading BHOC: IRON MAN #124
