My Famous Firsts: Fantastic Four issue 150 - Ultron & the wedding of Crystal & Quicksilver

Although I had been aware of the Fantastic Four since the 1960’s when they appeared in the British weekly comics “Wham!” it wasn’t until 1974 when I picked up my first US Fantastic Four comic. And it was a pretty decent issue to be my introduction to the colour adventures of the FF with a cool villain (Ultron) that I don’t think I had heard of until then , the Inhumans, and of course the marriage of Quicksilver and Crystal. This issue was one of Marvels earliest cross over adventures with part 1 appearing in Avengers issue 127. I recently managed to pick up a new copy of this issue last week (my original issue looking more than a tad tired) and found myself getting lost in the pages of the story ( something I rarely do now is properly read a comic) and for a brief moment I was transported back to Tthe 1970's, which as readers of this blog will know is a passion of mine.

Favourite Comics: Astonishing Tales issue 25: Deathlok the Demolisher

To say that I was excited when I first saw the above cover to Astonishing tales issues 25 by Rich Buckler and Klaus Janson would have been a massive understatement. I was 14 going on 15 years old at the time and was looking for a different type of comic from the traditional superhero, something that was more gritty and I found that in this issue featuring Rich Buckler and Doug Moench’s reanimated cybernetic character. Even the name “Demolisher” screamed excitement and originality to me.

In hindsight of course I probably overestimated the originality of the character as Deathlok owed a great deal to other pop-culture trends including Mary Shelly’s “Frankenstein”, the 1970’s horror revival, the violent dystopian SF novels of the pulp era and the cybernetics of the then hit TV show “The Six Million Dollar Man” (based on Martin Caidin’s “Cyborg” novels). But at the time (and even now looking back) there was a lot to like about these early tales of Colonel Luther Manning who loses his humanity in a post-apocalyptic science experiment and finds himself trapped in a nightmare amalgam of flesh and circuitry.

The 2 pages below featured an interview between Roy Thomas and Rich Buckler and Doug Moench on the creation of Deathlok, which just added to the excitment of the comic. This issue also contained a fun 2 pages cartoon strip written by Doug Moench with some of George Perez's eariest Marvel art (inked by Mike Esposito)

While Doug Moench’s early scripts were insightful in highlighting the struggle between Manning and his cybernetic onboard computer the stories seemed to lose their appeal as the series progressed unable to hold onto the promise of the first issue. With Astonishing Tales issue 36 the Deathlok series (and Astonishing Tales itself) ceased publication leaving Deathlok’s appearances to that of a team up guest star.

Favourite comics and geek thrills - Avengers 106

It’s strange that while we experience many thousands of events across our life, we can only truly recall a handful of these with any real clarity. Some of these memories might be significant “firsts” such as our first day at school, our first date, first house or car etc. while other memories on the face of it may sound surprisingly trivial. However, whilst I can now only barely recall my first day at school or indeed my first date with any real clarity it seems to me that those “trivial” memories are becoming more significant to me the older I get. An example of this is the memory that was triggered by the above comic, Avenger issue 106 “A traitor stalks amongst us” I saw this comic recently for sale in City Centre Comic in Glasgow a few months before the Covid lockdown took hold and within seconds of seeing it I was transported back to the summer of 1973 and to a family break we had in the seaside town of Arbroath, a holiday that I had all but forgotten that we had taken until that very moment. The reasons this comics “trivial” memory is important to me is because on our arrival in Arbroath the weather took a turn for the worse and it poured with rain for the entire time (4 days) we were there. Now Arbroath is a nice enough seaside town but when your 13 years old and stuck in a fixed mobile home with nothing to do then 4 days can seem like 4 weeks. It was on the second rain-soaked day of our holiday that my brother came to the rescue as he found a shop that sold US comics and bought me this very comic. Of course at the time I was geeked out at the comic itself as I opened it up and saw that great Rich Buckler splash page with the Vision draped over a chair brooding and in deep self-refection before being interrupted by the arrival of Captain America. The Vision informs Cap that the other Avengers have gone off to search for Quicksilver while he has a wee sulk to himself.

Just then Rick Jones appears in a fury about how the Avengers made him stay behind during their battle against the Sentinels and shows that he is now again linked to Captain Marvel. This was a big geeky thrill for me as I think this was the first time I had seen this version of Captain Marvel.

Then when Rick clashes his steel wristbands together it causes suppressed memories to resurface in Cap's mind to a battle against Hydra, with Rick as Cap's partner under the Bucky guise. I loved this part of the story as the artist drawing the flashback sequences changed from Rich Buckler’s (then) modern style to George Tuska’s more traditional style ( and for me one of his best ever art jobs) giving it that air of nostalgia and realism (and another “geek thrill” for me).

Meanwhile, Iron Man, Black Panther, Hawkeye, and the Scarlet Witch search New York City for any trace of Quicksilver. However, they all seem to go mad one at a time and attack each other but are soon stopped when their true foe reveals himself as the Space Phantom who has returned, and this time he has teamed up with the Grim Reaper.

That’s the great thing about “trivial” things like comics that can reignite some half forgotten memory of a family holiday of 48 years ago and to the kind act of my brother (now no longer with us) going out and getting soaked to buy me a comic to cheer me up. I also now recall that later that week we both went back to that shop and bought a few other US comics but that may be for another post.