True or False: I Can Explain the Difference Between Magic, Sorcery, and Wizardry

And if you think you're feeling pretty smug, then explain this -

Face-Off: Jean Grey or Scarlet Witch?

Martinex1:  Today's Face-Off question is: Jean Grey or Wanda Maximoff?  What do you have to say about these Marvel heroines born in the Silver Age?  Present your case and share your thoughts.

The Mutant X-Man Marvel Girl!

  

The Mutant Avenger Scarlet Witch!

They have faced off before!

And Wanda has had a few toes into the dark side!



Jean went a bit over the edge as the Dark Phoenix!

 



Jean and Scott have a strange and long running relationship.

Wanda and Vision's marriage may be even odder.

 

And both scored a spot on Son of Origins!  But who do you prefer?

Jean even once disguised herself as Wanda!

If I Had a Buck... Civilized!

Martinex1: We are just days away from the Captain America: Civil War release and I have been avoiding as many trailers and spoilers as possible. But the fact is, I have been seeing previews for this grand kerkuffle in the Marvel Universe for decades, as the heroes have repeatedly relied on fisticuffs to solve their problems. Long before the comic book Civil War, the attitude was punch first and ask questions later. Disagreements over hidden faces, shady actions, misunderstood movements, and even a favorite food seemed to lead to an epic battle. 

So here we are in the mystical comic shop for our regular $1 Challenge shopping spree of If I Had a Buck... For those of you that have not joined us before, it is a simple game of choosing from the titles below, picking your favorites from this virtual spinner rack and commenting on those issues, the characters, the genre, Marvel in general, or anything that pops into your heads. We once again are pulling from the Quarter Bin as some of these comics came out in the (eeek!) 1990s and even the 2000s, and could not have been purchased for a single greenback. So you have four quarters for four comics with our friendly foes fighting ferociously. Who can ask for more?

There were plenty of Marvel cover battles to choose from, but I did my best to limit it to characters appearing in the film. (If the Hulk had been included, there would have been dozens more). If you can think of other examples, please share. Thanks to Mike's Amazing World of Comics site for the easy research and cover hunting.

So without further ado, jump right in, keep your hands to yourself and enjoy!

BAB Classic: "Cows, Pigs, and Witches! The World is Beset by Devils!" Marvel Team-Up 44

This post was originally published on 12 April 2010.

  Marvel Team-Up 44 (April 1976)
"Death in the Year Before Yesterday!"
Bill Mantlo-Sal Buscema/Mike Esposito

Doug: Last chapter, folks... and I'm sorry to say I'm sort of glad. As Karen and I discussed off-site, this little story started out promising -- Spidey, time travel, lots of Avengers, Doc Doom -- should have been good stuff. And while I have fond memories of this as a kid, it is perhaps one story that hasn't held up over time. I think it suffers, maybe even as some superhero movies do these days, of too many characters cavorting around in what became a big mess of a plot. But we'll put a smile on and trudge through.

Karen: Indeed, every so often we come across these books - ones which were far more interesting in our memories than in reality! But let's finish it up.

Doug: We begin on the roof of Avengers Mansion. Moondragon is distracted by her thoughts as Iron Man approaches. I have to say, I really hated Moondragon when I was a kid. This issue of MTU was on the stands the same month as Avengers #146, and of course that was the fill-ins that ran in the middle of the Serpent Crown Affair. If you recall, that was the arc when Moondragon tried to convince Thor that he was above his fellow Assemblers. And what's more, she basically declared herself his equal. Man, I hated that woman.

Karen: I don't think you were alone. I didn't like her either. But of course, I believe that was Steve Englehart's intention when he thrust her on the Avengers. She was that rock in one's shoe, always causing some irritation.

Doug: "Rock in one's shoe" is a great way to put it! So Moondragon succumbs to the same hex bolt that had uprooted Spider-Man back in MTU #41 and is lifted into the timestream, to emerge back in 1692 to find our heroes bound on some gizmo. The Dark Rider is present (still a giant), as is Cotton Mather. The Rider commissions Mather to plunge the Soul Blade into our heroes, which will commence the transfer of their powers/energies to the Rider. Mather hesitates, and that's when Moondragon enters the fray.

Doug: Moondragon zaps the Rider with a mindblast, stunning him. Spidey, Vision, and Wanda awaken to see these new developments, and Doom stuck in some bubble doo-hickey. Spidey and the Vision leap into action to free Doom. While they free ol' Vic, the Rider reverses the mindflow back at Moondragon, who now has to see his origin.

Karen: I thought that was a really strange two page spread, where the heroes are on some altar and Doom is inside a bubble, all very magicky, but the Rider has these mechanical-looking cables coming out of his glove, linking the bubble and altar.

Doug: What was even stranger was the scene where Spidey and the Vision free Doom -- instead of being solid, the bubble peeled back like a... well, like a bubble -- pliable, not solid.

Doug: But wait, there's more! We get to see the Rider's origin as well, and it's... well, to be honest, sort of bland. Wizards, and blah, blah, blah. OK, I've about had enough. This story couldn't get over fast enough. I think, sticking to Bronze Age baddies, that we'd see this sort of thing again shortly with the Sphinx (in the pages of The Man Called Nova and later the Fantastic Four). He was much more interesting with a similar backstory. But, in case you wondered, the good guys gang up on the Rider and eventually Moondragon turns the tide and they blast him out of existence. The story does end on a touching note, as Spidey arrives just too late to save his Puritan friends. I guess I'd forgotten the last scene of the hanging -- while only the victims' feet are shown, it is a bit disturbing.

Karen: Man, you're not kidding. After grinding our way through all the hokum with the Rider, that last page is like a punch to the gut. I'm glad we're done with this one.
Doug: Agreed. This one probably could have been done in 3 1/2 issues, with a lot of the chaff left out. To be honest, some of the Witch Trials scenes became laborious to get through, but it might have been better, more emotional had the scene to the right been set up a bit better. On the one hand we got some really good Sal Buscema art, but on the other we got a Bill Mantlo who seemed to wander the longer this story went on.

BAB Classic: "Before the Awesome Power of the Dark Rider!" Marvel Team-Up 43

This post was originally published on 7 April 2010.

Marvel Team-Up 43 (March 1976)"A Past Gone Mad!"Bill Mantlo-Sal Buscema/Mike Esposito

Doug: Face Front, Marvelites -- it's the penultimate chapter to our little tour through Salem, Mass., circa 1692. When we left off, Doom had arrived on the scene in all his pomposity to face the Dark Rider. Mather falls apart, claiming allegiance to this new "angel of light". While the Dark Rider offers Mather to Doom, Doom backhands ol' Cotton, sending him reeling back toward Spidey and the Vision. It's obvious a face-off is coming!

Karen: I thought it was quite some hyperbole for Doom to say to the Rider that "It was your power that drew me here...power such as even Doom has never known!" considering that Doom had once stolen the power cosmic of the Silver Surfer! But I love the way Sal drew that backhand -whoosh!!

Doug: The Dark Rider reveals that his only interest in Doom and the others of his time is their knowledge of magic. As Spidey and the Vision now move in, the Rider unleashes a cat that had been perched on his shoulder. The cat, like the raven in the previous issue, begins to grow, posing a formidible opponent for our heroes. This scene is a nice two-page spread, where the Rider tells Doom his own origin -- it's a nice recap of the origin tale from way back in FF Annual #2.

Karen: A giant cat. Spidey and the Vision have fought aliens, robots, monsters....yet they are in trouble facing a giant kitty cat. Oh please.

Doug: The bad kitty gets whacked, but by whom? Ah, yes -- the Scarlet Witch has arrived, weakened as she is from her ordeals of the past two issues. Apparently the jig is up (or something), because all of a sudden the Dark Rider flips off his lid, revealing a quite curious look. First off, he sports a Mohawk hair-do. Next, he has shriveled lips like he doesn't have his dentures in, yet has teeth that have been filed to a point (think Dee Snider of Twisted Sister). Lastly, he grows. Really big, he grows.

Karen: This guy reminds me of Necrodamus from Defenders #1, also drawn by Sal.

Doug: Scripter Bill Mantlo cuts us away to a courtroom in Salem, as John Proctor meets his fate. Two pages are devoted to more of the Witch Trials, with the young girls frothing at the mouth and proclaiming "They be witches!" and stuff like that. Even the judge is called out.

Karen: The court room scene, as well as the Salem history lesson in the previous issue, seem over-long. Not all of us are fascinated by this particular point in history the way Mantlo seemed to be!

Doug: Back to the battle, Doom utters one of the greatest lines of his career: "Back! Back, you damnable leech!" Awesome. That is something the Doc would say. Great characterization by Mantlo.

Karen: Yes, Doom constantly referring to himself in the third person was a fitting tribute to his ego.

Doug: During all of this, Wanda is for the most part useless. Spidey and the Vision, as well as Doom, are out-classed. The issue ends with a triumphant, gigantic Dark Rider holding the defeated Doom in his hand as Kong once held Fay Wray. But be optimistic, O Keeper of the Flame -- this yarn's "To Be Continued"!

BAB Classic: "Aye, They Be Witches!" Marvel Team-Up 42

This post was originally published on 31 March 2010.

Marvel Team-Up 42 (February 1976)
"Visions of Hate!"
Bill Mantlo-Sal Buscema/Mike Esposito

Doug: Here we go -- part 2 of our four-parter set in Salem, Mass. Salem, Mass. in 1692, that is! We pick it up right where our tale finished, with Spidey, Wanda, and the Vision in the heart of a witch-hunting mob led by a crazed Cotton Mather.

Doug: The mob starts to get nasty, hitting the Vision in the face with a stone. Wanda unleashes a hex against the assailant, in the form of a swarm of locusts. Can there be any doubt now that she (and her companions, too) is a witch? The Vision going intangible and then immediately hard-as-a-diamond doesn't help matters, although it does preserve our heroes lives for a short time. However, Wanda is eventually grazed by a bullet, Spidey is overwhelmed by numbers, and the Vision is knocked out of commission by a power burst from Mather's cross.

Karen:Okay, I really have got to protest how easily Spidey went down to this mob of yahoos. This is a guy who has fought the Lizard, the Rhino, heck, even the Hulk, yet he gets knocked out by a bunch of pitchfork-wielding nuts? This was a case of Mr. Mantlo doing something for his convenience as a writer, not because it actually made sense in the story.

Doug: I'd have to agree with you after you cite those super-baddies. It was contrived, wasn't it?

Doug: When Spidey awakens, he finds himself shackled by the wrists and in a jail cell with other townsfolk. Wanda and the Vision are shackled across the room from him. He has a benefactor in John Proctor, who gives Spidey a lengthy discourse on the goings on in Salem over the past year which have brought them to this point. It's a tale of voodoo, witchcraft, false accuasations, and unfair/unquestioning justice. Spider-Man soon bursts his bounds, frees the Vision, and it's off they go to find out just what the heck is going on.

Karen: So... can we safely say that Bill Mantlo had probably done some reading about the Salem Witch incidents and was fascinated by them? Because we get a heaping three pages of history right in the middle of this story! This really seemed excessive to me.

Doug: I agree with you, as an adult. But, as a child of 10, I thought it added some necessary layers to the story. Let's face it -- you just don't get stuff like that in the 4th grade. Shoot, we were probably still making Pilgrim hats and construction paper Indian headdresses at that point!!

Doug: Spying a bright light in the distance, our two heroes go to investigate. Sneaking over, they see Cotton Mather in conversation with a dark figure atop a black horse, and holding a raven. The man in black identifies himself as the Dark-Rider. The Vision, seeing Mather as the man who hurt Wanda, lashes out at him. The Rider looses his raven against Spidey, and as the Wall-Crawler moves against it, it begins to grow. An eye-blast from the Vision kills it, and it reverts to its original size. As the Rider confronts Spider-Man, the scene is interupted by a new voice -- a voice that belongs to Dr. Doom!

Karen: The Vision seemed a little too emotional here, attacking Mather rather than waiting to find out more details about what's going on. Still, considering that Wanda was injured I can let that one go. The Dark Rider's reference to "people of this time" is a definite clue that he himself is not of that time period. The plot thickens. The appearance of Doom at the end was appropriately dramatic.

Doug: Yeah, you're right. I did a quick re-read on that balloon -- I guess I'd originally glossed over it thinking the Rider was referring to the colonists. But no, Spidey clearly says that "people of this time" means he and Vizh. Spoiling our next post on this story, did you notice in one panel where the Rider's face is partially shown that he has red hair? He sure doesn't look like that in the next two issues.

Doug: Mantlo has crafted a really fun story. The historical setting lends itself to a backdrop of adventure, the characters are fun, and each issue so far has had enough twists and surprise endings to keep the reader on the edge of his/her seat. I'm looking forward to the next issue!