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5 (7) 4 (16) 3 (21) 2 (18) 1 (7) 3.0 starsAverage score of 69 user reviews
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Back to the Future 0
Reeling from the draining of his power by Odin Thor lost in battle to the Tomorrow Man and his slave robot. Now Thor is under oath to conquer the 23rd century for the nefarious villain. Can Thor save the future and himself without breaking his word?Stan Lee sets out to resolve Thor's issues with the Tomorrow Man and he succeeds for the most part. Thor's actions while under the thrall of the villain are uncharacteristic of our hero and his solutions to avoid bloodshed are clever albeit typical of...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Oh-Dindn't You Hear? 0
Thor and Odin remain at odds as Thor’s love of Jane Foster holds ever stronger. Now Loki steps into the fray to stir the pot and vanquish his brother once and by bringing back the villainous … Can Thor defeat this foe in spite of his weakened state?Once again we continue the story of Thor's efforts to gain Odin's approval for him to court with Jane Foster. Thor's sour mood leads Odin to punish Thor leaving him weakened just as an old foe reappears, all engineered by Loki. Loki has ...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Evil Hyde's In Plain Sight 0
After last issues shocking conclusion answers are needed? Why did Thor rob that bank? Will Odin make Jane immortal, will Jane ever find out Dr Blake is Thor? Will someone finally notice that Thor keeps flying into the window of a renowned medical practitioner who is suspiciously blonde? The story built from the last and provided a satisfying conclusion to Hyde’s antics, while continuing the never ending Thor / Jane Foster drama. All of the character’s actions made sense, Jane hiding ...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
The Door Is There Thor A Reason 0
As Thor seeks Odin’s consent for him to marry Jane Foster a figure spurned by Don Blake returns to seek vengeance as the heinous Mister Hyde. Can Don Blake win Jane’s heart, Odin’s approval and stop the nefarious and super strong Hyde or is it all too much for one man with two alter-egos? There’s some stuff to like here and some stuff to loathe. First the good. Hyde is a strong villain, he’s smart strong and utterly irredeemable. He is focused in his goal of revenge...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Feel The Hatred 0
The Hate Monger is stirring up trouble across the world, and the Fantastic Four feel powerless to help because of “Freedom of Speech”. As they’re out and about in New York they run into one of his rallies and soon find themselves stepping in regardless. But a dose of the villains Hate Rays has them fighting amongst each other. It’s up to the efforts of an old friend to stop the Fantastic Four from tearing themselves apart. Interesting choice of villain given the issues f...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Helping The Little Guy 0
What would you do for money when desperation sets in? When you struggle to pay the bills day to day and month to month how much are your morals worth? That’s the question posed to Peter Parker as a demonic bat creature stalks the rooftops of New York and a reward is posed. Moral questions such as this sit at the core of this issue. With his life in shambles at school and money trouble starting to bite hard he seeks to earn a reward big enough to move away from the city. The writers do a gr...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Scorched Web Policy 0
Spider-Man’s image is suffering as a result of the continued negative press from the Daily Bugle so he sets out to fix that by capturing the dangerous fiery thief known only as The Scorcher. I enjoyed the plot of this comic. It was a good showcase of early Spider-Man problems, the money troubles, the school troubles the public image concerns. Together they provided Peter with proper motivation to seek to capture The Scorcher. The late twist involving the police, and the struggles to do th...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Doubts & Fear 0
Just a quick review of the back story here as the main content of the work is a reprint of Avengers Issue 2 (see my review here). This back story was really quite touching. It was short but showed us a Bruce Banner that has far more concern for his powers and the danger they present to the public. He’s scared of his alter ego, of the idea that he could kill someone, or many people and that there is nothing anyone could do to stop that. It looks good, although the style isn’t one I w...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Space Phantom Opera 0
The greatest heroes of the day gather for the first time since founding for… a meeting, meanwhile in the far reaches of space the dreaded Space Phantom tears towards earth on a scouting mission for his people. He shall test the will of the Avengers, should he defeat them then his people shall come forth and conquer the earth! I quite enjoyed this issue of the Avengers. The Space Phantom looks sort of lame but his ability to pose as anyone while sending the original into Limbo is pretty co...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Super Sonic Acrobatic Rocket Powered Captain Americas 0
This issue we join an exasperated Captain America and an embarrassed Human Torch for a retelling of the Torch’s run in with an imposter (as previously seen in Strange Tales 114). Strap yourselves in because this is one of the funniest comics I’ve ever read. Mark Waid has gifted us a wonderfully tongue in cheek retelling of one Johnny Storm’s earliest adventures. We get a beautiful title, Captain America’s increasing disbelief of Johnny’s incredulous tale, a wonderf...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
What Are You Wearing!? 0
In our second X-Men tale our heroes must do battle with a nefarious foe on the lawns of liberty in front of the white house. It will take all the skills of these brave young heroes in training to stop The Vanisher! Wait. What in the blue thunder bomb is he wearing?Yes ladies and gentlemen this month the X-Men must do battle with the emperor of the Pine Cones. I swear blind he is the worst looking villain I've seen by Marvel yet. There's no reason for him to be dressed like that! None whatsoever....
2 out of 2 found this review helpful. -
Meltdown 0
Coming off of a decent story of industrial sabotage by the dastardly rads we have a bit of a dud this month in the form of The Mysterious Melter. I'm going to be honest the only two things mysterious about The Melter are his fashion sense and why anyone didn't just tackle the dude whose only power is to melt iron.A lot of time is spent in this comic showing the withering effects of mysterious acts of sabotage on Tony Stark's business... Hey wait a minute. #checks review for issue 46#. You cheeky...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Captain American't? 0
As the cover proclaims after many years it's the return of a Marvel icon in Captain America! But something is off with our dear Captain as he hatches a scheme, a highly elaborate scheme, to rob a bank.As per the last issue Johnny Storm is still being kind of a dick to his girlfriend. He's really doing very little to endear himself to the reader, something I place firmly on Stan Lee's shoulders. She could definitely do better. Relationship issues aside Johnny spends most of this issue chasing do...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Spider-Man in the Swamps of the South 0
Another issue of Amazing Spider-Man another introduction of a classic villain for the ages, this time featuring the tragic figure of the Lizard. Stan Lee does a great job creating a memorable and tragic villain and Steve Ditko does some solid work to give him a horrific look befitting the monster he is taken for.The focus of this story is very much on Peter Parker’s attempts to bring back the good man that The Lizard was, Curtis Connors, before his transformation and the degeneration of hi...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
All Is Thorgiven? 0
Thor faces a two front battle this week, one against the vile Inhuman Cobra and another on the battlefield of the heart as he tries to get over the loss of Jane Foster to another doctor. As fate would have it the two battles rapidly intertwine with potential deadly consequences. Can Thor defeat his reptilian foe and can Don Blake win back the woman he loves?As you may have inferred from my intro the plot picks right up from the last issue which is always refreshing in the comics of the time. Too...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
He's The Giant Man On Campus 0
The Living Eraser is the dumbest name for a villain ever! It’s the worst! It’s so bad it literally hurts! Also his powers don’t make sense. The way he slowly erases people would kill them surely? Like if half of me is in one dimension and half of me is in another then both pieces would be bleeding everywhere right? Fortunately the Eraser is only part of a villainous race of trans dimensional aliens so he barely features. Unfortunately the villains of this weeks story are trans ...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Mole-cool? 0
An old ally has returned seeking to direct the Fantastic Four’s attention to their most dangerous foe yet: The Molecule Man. He has complete control over all inorganic matter, on a whim he could destroy worlds or even the entire universe. He also has a really cool look for a villain, his face is riddle with lightning scars giving him a fearful look even if he does dress like one of robin hood’s merry men. He’s a solid villain in a story that sadly is undermined by some fairly s...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Danger! Danger! High Voltage! 0
It’s back to the bread and butter of Iron Man as he’s once again beset upon by the communist menace! This time a top soviet scientist - Professor Vanko has built a mighty set of armour to match that of Iron Man with one key advantage, it is capable of generating vast electrical blast capable of short circuiting any machine. He is dispatched by Khrushchev to bring down Tony Stark by and means necessary!I always enjoy Iron Man more when he’s fighting slightly more down to earth o...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Let's Go Plantman! 0
There’s something about this comic which never really made sense. The Human Torch is a hero who is entire ability is to be able to set himself on fire and weaponize it in varied ways. Stan Lee and Joe Carter decide to create a new villain, Plantman, whose powers revolve around the controlling of plants and is actually a fairly effective villain all things considered. Plants hate fire. Like fire plus plants equals a really sucky time for plants. So how on earth are we supposed to buy Plantm...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Wait You’re A Doctor In What!? 0
Nine times out of ten a great superhero story needs a great super villain. Spider-Man has in the last four issues has faced a number of different threats and only one has stood the test of time as a bonafide member of Spider-Man's rogue gallery: Doctor Octopus. So Stan Lee and his writers pull a smart trick and bring in Doctor Doom, already a star villain this early in the Marvel universe, to face off against Spider-Man for the first time. It's a wonderful idea and brings further importance to ...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Opportunity Cost 0
Of all the comic series that Marvel were putting out in 1963, Journey Into Mystery is probably my least favourite. There have been a number of seriously poor comics, one that was borderline offensive to pretty much anyone with modern sensibilities. It's been a frustration because it has a number of components that should be in it's favour. It's got four moderately fleshed out characters and a base premise that offers marvellous scope for stories both grounded and mystical. So it's been a frustra...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Lokkin' Procu-Fine 0
After a run of modern comics reviews in my reading order (Avengers The Origin) it’s almost comforting to be back to my bread and butter, the one and done sixties comic. In this case it even features Ant-Man and The Wasp who are probably my favourite heroes of the sixties. Here they face a threat from the diabolical Porcupine. A man who looked at Iron Man’s costume and thought: “like that, but with more spikes”.We have a decent villain of the week here in Alex Gentry. He&r...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
History Begins Now 0
So this is it, the finale of the volume, the one that will really determine whether the journey was worth it, for after all is it not often the case that the journey looks all the sweeter if the destination was all that was promised? What we have here is resolution and revolution all spun together into a retelling of a truly seminal moment in the Marvel Universe. The resolution of the Loki / Hulk issue is done concisely and is out of the way in 14 pages leaving us nearly half of the book to deta...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
This Is War 0
The last issue of Avengers The Origin was the ring of a grenade being pulled out and the brief period of planning after. This issue was the detonation of that grenade, a frantic fast past issue of action on all fronts. We bear witness to two violent conflicts, one in which the lives of innocents are on the line and another in which two Gods face off with all the tricks they can bring to the party. This issue the writer put his foot on the gas and refused to let off.There’s not a lot of sto...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
It's Time To Go To Work 0
As we approach and pass by the mid point of this special volume I again return to the burning question at hand. Was this necessary? These are entertaining comics, well drawn and written with some quite excellent dialog but they suffer from pacing issues that are an inevitable cost of expanding a single issue story into a five issue volume of comics. What is written here is fantastic, and the not quite Avengers have some fascinating conversations with each other. But certain parts of this comic f...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
So What Are We Waiting For 0
My review of Avengers The Origin #1 called out the slow pace which was begot of the need to reintroduce the younger incarnations of the Avengers and set up the story of the entire volume. Here things are much improved as the writers take the original source material and insert an extra scene or two to provide some much needed action. At the same time these heroes that are meeting for the first time start to talk to each other, to share tactics and secrets and these character interactions are bot...
2 out of 2 found this review helpful. -
We Are Super Heroes 0
Avengers The Origin is both a retelling and an expansion of Avengers #1 from 1963. The time of the issue taking place is roughly inline with the fabled sliding Marvel time, albeit with the odd technological discrepancy here and there. As before the story begins when an embittered Loki tricks The Hulk into attacking a train in the hopes of drawing out Thor.The plot has been modernised to the point of error in my opinion. The technology and fashions are fairly clearly of modern day, but even by th...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Dullness In The Desert 0
For a tale that concerns the Fantastic Four’s travels back to the age of the ancient egyptians to fight against a dictatorial pharaoh from from the future, this has a relatively easy to follow plot that flows surprisingly neatly. Our heroes have the motive and the pre-established means with which to travel back in time and do so in a manner that is not too contrived (for a 1963 Marvel comic at least).Story wise I take issue primarily with the lack of agency the Fantastic Four have in setti...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Fantastic Two 0
We've got ourselves a little bit of a partnership here as Spider-Man and The Human Torch team up to hunt themselves a painting stealing fox. What follows is an adventure that relies far too heavily on luck and a very odd use of Spider-Man’s spidey sense which makes the plot a bit of a non starter. That said the bringing together of Spider-Man and Johnny Storm gives us some wonderful back and forth dialogue.The dialogue is slightly more fiery, if you’ll pardon the pun, than the normal...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Imitation To The Point Of Lamentation 0
If the aim here was to put out an issue in the style of comics from the sixties then the staff have exceeded themselves. If the aim was to put out an exceptional comic from the sixties then they have failed. This issue is almost indistinguishable from comics of the day featuring a vibrant art style very reminiscent of Kirby’s work with that long form writing that belongs all to Stan Lee. But in imitating the style of early Marvel they have fallen into many of the traps of comics of that er...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
It All Began Here 0
The Avengers are as an iconic team as one could get in this day and age. They are the keystone upon which the grand Marvel Cinematic Universe is constructed, a franchise of films which as of my writing this is the most successful cinematic franchise of all time (I doubt very much of that changing) with a total gross of 8.5 BILLION dollars! And it all began here. And it’s something of a disappointment when compared to similar works of the time.The villain of our piece is Loki and if you are...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
A Flawed Masterpiece 0
I'm struggling to find a point from which to start my thoughts on X-Men Origins: Jean Grey. I've never really read X-Men comics before, most of my knowledge comes from the films so I don’t know how much of this is a retcon and how much is a simple retelling. I do know this. What’s on offer here story wise is good. We see the birth of Jean’s powers, a moment of tragedy that sparks a lifetime of struggle. We are privy to the initial trainings and coping mechanisms that Xavier is ...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
What's An X-Men? 0
Well this is it. The start of the series that would one day begin the inexorable rise of the superhero movie genre. It is surprising how recognisable a lot of the characters, places and weapons introduced in this issue and yet there are interesting differences small and large that stick out and are almost disquieting.The Beast is the furthest removed from his eventual character. He’s an oaf and a boar, little more than a normal looking Hulk (who himself was a literate and talkative charact...
2 out of 2 found this review helpful. -
Happy Hogan, Pepper Potts and an Addiction to Aliteration 0
It is oft surprising how long it takes for villains to appear in panel in Marvel comics of 1963. In this issue the titular villain of the issue, Jack Frost, does not make an appearance until page 14 of 19. Instead this issue works to fill out the supporting cast in Tony Stark’s adventures, something I think was long overdue and something I suspect they held out from doing to try and establish Stark’s playboy credentials.It is Happy Hogan to whom we are first introduced who pulls Star...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Sacrifice 0
There is only one adjective that comes to mind when I look back on this issue: surprising. Everything stands against its potential quality it has a bad villain with a very silly name, The Eel whose powers are fairly nondescript. We have a vague threat of nondescript yet dangerous technology which has often been used as a crutch by this era of Marvel stories (Thor I’m looking at you!). Yet in this case, in this issue Marvel takes us all by surprise. They cast aside the normal template of th...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Yer A Wizard Thor! 0
After a three month streak of terrible comics Thor finds his adventures at last elevated to the merely middling. The mythical Merlin’s tomb has been found in England and his casket has been sent over to America in order for it to be opened and the remains inside examined. When the forensic scientists find a perfectly preserved body they scurry off to discuss this discovery offering the still living Merlin the chance to escape.This setup is extremely reminiscent of the plot of last month's ...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Playing The Trump Card 0
This month our heroes face the greatest threat known to humanity… bad music. Trago the Trumpeter (you can have that one for free Marvel) has sought out the ancient art of hypnotising music and plans to wield his terrible powers to steal and enslave New York, and then seek out vengeance against Ant-Man and The Wasp.Well I’ll be damned. Lee and Huntley have managed to write a half decent story centered around hypnosis! The villains powers are explained, he travels to attain them then ...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
The Super Skrull Strikes! 0
To create a truly great villain you need two things. One the villain has to be interesting as a character, their motivations should make sense and their powers and backstory should be appropriate for the hero they are fighting. Two they have to be a threat to the hero, either psychologically (like the Joker to Batman) or physically (like the Juggernaut to the X-Men). If you have both of those concepts down to a tee you have a villain that will stand the test of time such as the Joker or Ultron o...
2 out of 2 found this review helpful. -
The Beast There Was? 0
A retelling of a classic origin story should expand on the original story while remaining faithful to that original piece. If you get too far away from the original you basically retcon the old work and if you fail to expand upon the old there’s no point in a retelling. Avengers Origins: Ant-Man and The Wasp did an admirable job of updating the old bringing in new details while remaining faithful to the original story. Unfortunately X-Men Origins: Beast fails to bring in new details, inste...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Enter Sandman 0
How do you beat a villain that feels no pain, that can reshape himself into any form he chooses? How do you stop the unstoppable? That is the question Spider-Man must answer in this feature length issue as he battles the latest greatest villain from Marvel The Sandman!This book felt too long to me. The increased length of the issue seemed to come at the expense of decent pace. Almost every scene took a couple of panels more than it needed to, and in the sixties the writers were very keen to fill...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful.
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