Heroic Halloween in Rutland MIGHTY THOR "Firesword!" Conclusion

When Last We Left the Norse God of Thunder, Mighty Thor, Lady Sif, and Hildegarde had pursued the Absorbing Man to Rutland, Vermont, where the Son of Odin defeated him, only to discover the villain was merely bait, manipulated by the guy shown on the kool Gil Kane/Joe Sinnott cover above!
Now, forsooth, the mayhem shalt begin!

Poor Glynis Wein (dressed as Supergirl) can't catch a break!
First, magician Felix Faust conjures up a demon who possesses her (while giving her the powers of Supergirl) and forces her to battle the Justice League (as seen HERE)!
Now Loki enchants her, and most of the Rutland Parade goers/participants!

We saw weakened evil mage Felix Faust steal comics writer Steve Englehart's muffler-free car at the end of the Justice League tale HERE!

So a DC bad guy is responsible for a Marvel bad guy hurtling to his doom!

(Spoiler: Loki survives, eventually gets his sight back, and causes the Avengers/Defenders War, which results in another Halloween trip by the Mighty Avengers to Rutland the next year!

We're saving that one for Halloween 2022!)
Written by Gerry Conway, penciled by John Buscema, inked by Vince Colletta, with caricatures of all real-life comics pros and fans penciled by Marie Severin.

BTW: Thor eventually saves Lady Sif!

Next Week:

A Rutland Parade SuperHero Special!

And that's all the clues you're getting!

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Thor Epic Collection

Into the Dark Nebula

Holiday Reading Room GIANT SUPERHERO HOLIDAY GRAB-BAG " 'Tis the Season..."

As your Christmas gift from us this year...

...we offer a never-reprinted story from Marvel Treasury Edition #13 (1976) featuring a slew of superheroes and superheroines...in a tale unseen for two generations!

Segue into a reprint of Marvel Two-In-One #6 (1973) "...as Those Who Will Not See!" featuring Spider-Man and the Thing.

After that, we return to the narrative...

Cue the reprint of Avengers V1N58 (1968)..."Even an Android can Cry!", which features the Vision joining the Avengers!

Then back to the snowball fight...

If you think we're about to do another "flashback" involving a reprint, specifically "He Who Strikes the Silver Surfer!", the Hulk story from Tales to Astonish #93 (1967), you'd be correct, True Believer!

But, after the not-so jolly green giant relives the adventure in his head...

...as a reprint of "Once Upon a Time---the Ox!" from Daredevil #86 (1972) which featured Matt Murdock breaking up with his then-girlfriend Karen Page and hooking up with Natasha Romanova, the Black Widow demonstrated!

Speaking of Natasha...

It's a very cleverly-done "framing sequence" to tie the reprints together.

In fact, it's so clever that, when it was reprinted (in Spanish) in Grandes Herois Marvel #2 (1983)...

...the story was presented as a self-contained tale...without the reprints!

The book used different Yuletide-themed reprints after "'Tis the Season!"!

(So, technically the story was "reprinted", but since it wasn't in English, and my audience is 99.99% English-speaking, I consider it "never-reprinted")

BTW, it did use the Treasury's front cover by Gil Kane, John Romita, and Joe Sinnott...

...but not the back cover...which we present here!

And, just to show you our hearts are filled with the Joy of the Season, here's the inside covers, which feature new John Romita/Frank Giacoia art...

Don't say we never gave ya nothin'!

Merry Christmas

and

Happy New Year!

To paraphrase what they say at the end of the James Bond movies...

Hero Histories WILL Return...

Reading Room PLASTIC MAN "Dirty Devices of Dr Dome" Part 3 (Conclusion)

When Last We Left the Original Stretchable Sleuth...

It seems there's a lot of people who would wish harm upon happy-go-lucky Plastic Man!

Super villains like Dr Dome and Professor X!

The elitist (and extremely rich) Mrs DeLute and her butler Fawnish!

The arrogant (and inept) police Captain McSniffe!

And the conflicted daughter of Dr Dome, Lynx, who both loves our Stretchable Slacker and continually tries to kill him!

With this set-up in place, the title ran nine more issues.
Arnold Drake would remain as writer for the entire series.
Win Mortimer would take over interior art from 2-7, with Jack Sparling finishing the series from 7-10.
Carmine Infantino and Joe Orlando would contribute covers.
This being the 1960s, Plas would battle both mod-dressed characters and gorillas!
After an issue presenting three different origin tales, Plas' pliable pappy, the Golden Age (Quality Comics) Plastic Man appeared along with sidekick Woozy Winks!
There was a campy cross-over with Batman in Brave and Bold.
Then he disappeared for several years before being revived as an amnesiac involved in a romance with a villainess.
But that's a story for another time.
Speaking of stories, I believed this tale had never been reprinted, but it appeared in DC's Plastic Man 80-Page Giant (2004), which reprinted several of Plas' "famous firsts".
The rest of the 1960s series has not been reprinted, and we may present them here...

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Jack Cole and Plastic Man:

Forms Stretched to their Limits

by Art Spiegelman and Chip Kidd

Reading Room PLASTIC MAN "Dirty Devices of Dr Dome" Part 2

When Last We Left the Stretchable Slacker of the Sixties...

Professor X (not the bald, wheelchair-bound leader of the X-Men) is sent by Dr Dome to destroy Plas (and his best friend, the rather straight-laced Gordon [Gordy] Trueblood) before they can interfere with his newest plan to rule the world...

So, a super-hero sitcom!
Apparently inspired by the success of TV's Batman, writer Arnold Drake and artist Gil Kane went the "camp" route with a semi-serious/semi-humorous approach.
Looking back 50 years, I can see why they tried it, but I can also see why it failed as compared to Jack Cole's classic strip.
The big difference is that Cole's stories, though humorous, actually made sense!
This tale, though fun, doesn't hang together logically, ruining the counterpoint of the humor.
The story serves the jokes, not vice-versa!

Be here tomorrow for the...weird...finale!

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Jack Cole and Plastic Man:

Forms Stretched to their Limits

by Art Spiegelman and Chip Kidd

Reading Room PLASTIC MAN "Dirty Devices of Dr Dome" Part 1

Here's a bit of comic book history...

...which tells you it's a chapter in comic book history on its' own splash page!

In 1966, DC Comics decided to revive one of the many characters it had purchased from the now-defunct Quality Comics line.
Next to Blackhawk (which DC had kept going as an ongoing title from the demise of Quality onward), the most successful character had been Plastic Man, who headlined Police Comics as well as his own book for over 15 years!
The problem was that the character, under creator/writer/artist Jack Cole, was so unique, that finding someone to carry it onward in an equally-quirky manner was difficult.
DC gave it a shot anyway, with writer Arnold Drake and artist Gil Kane.
Ironically, both of them were also pioneers of the comics medium, being the writer of the first graphic novel (It Rhymes with Lust [1950]) and writer/artist of the second graphic novel (BlackMark [1971]), respectively!
Yet, on this project, they don't quite gel, though they both do their damnedest!

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Jack Cole and Plastic Man:

Forms Stretched to their Limits

by Art Spiegelman and Chip Kidd