This next issue of AVENGERS was the second half of a two-parter that editor in chief Jim Shooter commissioned from Tom DeFalco in order to help him get ahead on the title, which was suffering as Jim's day job was eating up all of his time. I believe that this was the first story DeFalco … Continue reading BHOC: AVENGERS #180
YELLOW CLAW was one of the strangest series published by Marvel, then Atlas, in the 1950s. it feels like a throwback to an earlier time, an era when "yellow peril" adventure stories about Dr. Fu Manchu and his many knock-offs were big business in the pulp magazines of the day. Having done a little bit … Continue reading The First Marvel Mutants
Rob Liefeld has been a figure of divisiveness virtually since he first burst onto the scene three decades ago. There are those who absolutely adore his kinetic, detailed, action-oriented style and boundless enthusiasm and others who decry what they see as his weaknesses in anatomy and perspective and his sometimes-aggressive persona. But whether you like … Continue reading AVENGERS #1 – Heroes Reborn
This was one of the strangest issues of THOR that I bought as a relatively new Marvel reader, and I didn't completely understand why for several years, until I had learned enough about the history of comics to be able to fully appreciate it. Ever since the end of his Ragnarok storyline, writer/editor Roy Thomas … Continue reading BHOC: THOR #280
This was a pretty welcome issue of MARVEL TRIPLE ACTION with its reprinting of this conflict between the Avengers and the X-Men. I was a bit unhappy about how the Beast and the Angel had been miscolored on the cover--somebody was pretty clearly working from reference of them in their original blue and yellow costumes. … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TRIPLE ACTION #46
I had sampled the occasional issue of MAD Magazine before this, as well as its nearest knock-off, CRACKED, but I found neither of them so much to my liking that I followed them with any regularity. Now, it has to be said that MAD in particular was a trend-setting publication, and while it was past … Continue reading BHOC: CRAZY #46
It must be said, this is a really striking cover to this issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA. And it showed a sort of novelty of approach that just wouldn't have been done only a few years earlier, not showing potentially sales-driving guest-star the Hulk clearly in the image (though his presence in the story is cover … Continue reading BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #230
The next week brought another issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, this one sporting a welcome fill-in art job from John Byrne. Byrne was already becoming a favorite based on his work on X-MEN and elsewhere, and he was fast enough that he could often be called upon Jack Kirby-style to layout a fill-in art job when … Continue reading BHOC: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #189
I bought this issue of MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE like clockwork when it showed up at my regular 7-11 source for comics. While the series had been suffering a bit, running an assortment of fill-in issues and not really having a settled creative team or direction to it, it starred the Thing of the Fantastic Four, and … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #48
I was still sampling different Marvel titles that caught my eye, which is no doubt why I picked up this issue of THE HUMAN FLY under forgotten circumstances. I didn't quite understand from this one issue the tagline on the front cover, about him being a real life super hero. So you aren't similarly confused, … Continue reading BHOC: HUMAN FLY #18
The Tom Brevoort Experience 