Amazing Adventures #5

And so we approach the season of copius consumption so what better time for me to dissect a lovely Christmas story that, for some reason, Marvel published in March*. Which still isn't quite as bad as that fucking TV channel that does a "Christmas Movie Week" in the summer.

Avengers #6

Following the excellent response I got from reviewing the seemingly quite unpopular Secret Wars II I'm going to show that I've learned nothing by immediately going back to dismantling classics and fan favourites by casting my baleful eye over Avengers #6.

Secret Wars II #9 - Part Two

In the last blog post we left you with The Beyonder deciding that everything is still shit and there's no way he can make it better for himself by being mortal because (quite reasonably, based on his general behaviour and demeanour) everyone thinks he's a twat, and some of those people are quite powerful. So he (again) is contemplating just destroying everything, because fuck everyone else, right?

Secret Wars II #9 - Part One

In 1984 Marvel published Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars, a massive toy advert limited series in which several heroes and villains are whisked away to another world to do battle with each other for the amusement of a being called The Beyonder.

A year later Secret Wars II became the first Marvel Comics Event, with not only a limited series but also an extended storyline that was woven into almost every published title of the time. Now, I could spend time going through the whole thing, but frankly that would take ages and I can't be arsed, so I'm skipping ahead to issue #9 of the main series, which I am assured is proper batshit and probably far more entertaining to write about than Daredevil #1 is proving to be.

Fantastic Four Annual #6 - Part Two

In Part One of this review we left our heroes escaping the power-mad clutches of Annihilus with the Cosmic Control Rod as he prepared to unleash the fearsome Borers upon them...

Fantastic Four Annual #6 - Part One

After my last blogpost I decided to take a break from being mean about classic Marvel comics to prepare for the birth of my daughter, who joined us on a Tuesday in June (therefore not interrupting my Monday comic reading on Marvel Unlimited). So it seems appropriate that I mark my return to this endeavour with the comic that introduced Marvel's first baby: the Fantastic Four Annual #6.

Champions #1

Having spent all this time with the Avengers and Doctor Strange it's time, on request from one of my loyal toleraters, to delve into one of the lesser known Marvel teams: The Champions. Featuring two X-Men, a former assassin, a demonic biker and a Greek god this is already about as batshit as we'd expect from 70s Marvel, so without further ado let's turn the pages of Champions #1!

Avengers #4

To us the ever-changing line up of the Avengers is nothing new. We live in an age where even fucking Deadpool can join, and if there aren't at least two Pandering To SJWs characters for bitter old white guys to get angry about the creative team just aren't trying hard enough. But we're not interested in all that now, because today I am going to analyse the very first time a new member joined the team in Avengers #4...

Captain America Comics #1

Once upon a time, an improbably haired shouty man democratically gained power and then used that power to pursue an agenda of xenophobia and self-interest. But that's enough about Donald Trump, as today I take you back to a time when a person could punch a Nazi without being told that, actually, it was THEM who's the real Nazi. A time before Marvel comics even existed. Today, I bring you the birth of Captain America!

Spidey Super Stories #48

Many of you will probably have seen the below comic frame doing the rounds online, and the very second I did I knew I needed to write a blog post about it because it really was that fucking stupid...

Doctor Strange #13

Reeling from the destruction of the ACTUAL EARTH it's now time to see the final outcome of one man's struggle against Eternity in Doctor Strange #13!

Doctor Strange #12

Slightly delayed due to spending a weekend in a castle pretending to be a MOTHERFUCKING WIZARD and then procrastinating afterwards, I now return to the story arc of Eternity trolling the Sorcerer Supreme in Doctor Strange #12.

Our Love Story #5

The last few days have been pretty shit, so I'm going to take a break from my deconstruction of 70s Doctor Strange to bring you a lesser known relic of Marvel's past, from when they did teen romance comics as as well as super heroes... The comic in question is Our Love Story #5, but only one of its stories is archived on Marvel Unlimited so this blog post will be thankfully short.

Doctor Strange #11

Doctor Strange #10 left us with a bit of a cliffhanger as Eternity embroiled our hero in a cosmic game of his own devising to decide the fate of the very Earth itself. And so, because I'm not so much of a jerk I'd randomly move to another comic, it is time to life the veil on what follows as I delve into the dark secrets of Strange's psyche in Doctor Strange #11!

Doctor Strange #10

I love 70s Doctor Strange, and it was was this very story arc which started me down the road to writing this blog. As much as I was enjoying what I was reading I was struck by the various plot holes, narrative causalities, moments of poor characterisation and so on, and I started posting contextless observations about particularly facepalmworthy moments on Facebook, which my friends found amusing, and now here we are... so without further ado I bring you the beginning of the end of the world in Doctor Strange #10!

Avengers #1

1963 brought many things that would have a long reaching effect on the world: The Beatles' rise to international fame, the assassination of JFK, the first transmission of an odd little educational sci-fi programme called Doctor Who... but surely none of these things could be as stupendous as the coming together of Earth's mightiest super-heroes? Well, True Believers, we're about to find out as I swear about... The Avengers!

Tales to Astonish #44 - Ant-Man and the The Wasp

And so it is that we come to the first female super hero sworn about by this blog: The Wasp. And based on having already read some early Avengers titles (of which #1 will be sworn about next week) I can be reasonably sure my credulity will be mightily challenged.

Comics and Equality

A slight break from my usual "swearing about comics" content to swear about how comic fandom reacts to equality and inclusiveness.

You see, something I see a lot of on Facebook and other social media is people in various fandoms whinging that EVERYTHING IS RUINED FOREVER because some aspect of said fandom isn't exactly like it was during some rose-tinted past that usually coincides with the person being in their teens. Quite often these whingers are white, middle-class, cis-gendered, heterosexual Western men, in other words: privileged, and quite often the thing they are whinging about is how whatever fandom is changing to be more inclusive for those less privileged: black people, gay people, women, et cetera.

Tales to Astonish #27 - The Man in the Ant Hill

And so we near the end of our introduction to the original Avengers line-up with the first appearance of one Hank Pym, AKA the Ant-Man.

Journey Into Mystery #83 - The Mighty THOR!

Welcome to the fourth instalment of The Negative Zone! Today I'll be reading, for the first time, a comic that managed to have a metalhead in it before metal was even a thing... so without further ado, I give you the mighty THOR!

Incredible Hulk #1

Doc Bruce Banner

Belted by gamma rays

Turns into the Hulk

Ain't he un-glamour-ays?

Leaving Iron Man behind for the time being, it's time to introduce the next hero in the original Avengers line up: the ever-lovin' Hulk! (Hulk! Hulk!)

Tales of Suspense #40 - MOAR IRON MAN

No, I'm not bored of this joke yet.

Ahead of astonishing you with the earliest adventure of the Incredible Hulk I've decided to bring you Iron Man's second outing.

Tales of Suspense #39 - "IRON MAN!"

DUN DUN DUN DUH-DUH DUDDA-DUDDA-DUDDA-DUDDA DUN DUH DUHHHHH!

IRON MAN.

I am going to be literally this hilarious, if not moreso, for as long as I do this blog.

In a similar vein to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (henceforth referred to as Earth-199999 because multiverse) I'm kicking this whole thing off with Iron Man's first appearance in Tales of Suspense #39.