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Posts: 289
Nov 9 09 4:48 PM
Bronze Age
I read my copy this past weekend. My thoughts: (1) The "Thor" back-up stories by Lee, Kirby and Sinnott are as good as I remember them (I first read them in "Marvel Tales" reprints in the '80's). This is Lee & Kirby at their peak with Joe Sinnott showing why he was one of Jack's best inkers. It's interesting that in the introduction Mark Evanier only mentions these back-ups as a way of maintaining interest in the characters after plans to give them their own book were shelved. I had gotten the impression (perhaps from Kirby Collector?) that these back-ups may actually have been (part of?) the first issue of the Inhumans comic that Jack had already started drawing before Marvel's plans changed. Reading the stories now, it's hard to tell. If you put them altogether, it makes for somewhat disjointed reading, certainly. There are really two stories here: one about Black Bolt and one about Triton... Maybe the beginning was intended for the Inhumans comic and then before he got very far they told him to change it to a series of back-ups...Additionally, the ending of the whole sequence (where Black Bolt goes off to seek a new location in the mountains for the Great Refuge) seems very abrupt. It looks like Jack was either told to stop drawing it or finished drawing the last story before he knew there wasn't going to be another one. (2) I like Gene Colan but his take on the Inhumans in "Marvel Superheroes" does nothing for me here. Still, nice to have it included. (3) The Jack Kirby-Chic Stone "Amazing Adventures" issues: I'd never read these before and while it was neat to satisfy my curiosity I must say they are hardly noteworthy. They're really just typically dull products of Jack's lackluster last year at Marvel, prior to his departure for DC. I think Chic was a good inker for Jack in general but he isn't given much to work with here. Much of what Jack did during that period was a regression to the early '60's (see his last few issues of "Fantastic Four" as well), only back then it was at least original. Comparing these with the "Thor" back-up stories is depressing! (4) The Roy Thomas-Neil Adams "Amazing Adventures" issues are interesting although I was very discouraged when I saw that Tom Palmer only inked the first issue and the "Avengers" story at the end. John Verpoorten worked well at times with John Romita Sr. but I find he just flattens Neil Adams here. What a difference the inker makes in this case. The story is very reminiscent of the politically "relevant" themes one finds in much of Adams' work both for Marvel (with Roy Thomas) and for DC (with Denny O'Neill) during the late '60's/early '70's.
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