FLASH #221 

I Don't Recall...

Nick Cardy was a legend. I was so happy to have met him at HeroesCon a year or two before he passed away. Super great guy.

This is another awesome cover of his - just an expert at cover art. People can talk Marvel Marvel Marvel all they want - Nick Cardy should have a collected book of nothing but 100 of his greatest covers. I’d buy that in a HEARTBEAT and I rarely buy ANY comic related books anymore…

(FLASH #221 - cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 20th, 1973, with cover art by Nick Cardy)

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As a kid… I compare this splash page to that of a Spider-Man comic and… this didn’t appeal to me. This was one of my earliest comic books I remember, and… I don’t remember much about this story. Or really ANY of it. I just remember that cover. 

And I certainly didn’t have the same respect for Irv Novick as I do now - another legend - this dude started in 1939, he was 57 years old when he did this book!

(FLASH #221 - cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 20th, 1973, with art by Irv Novick & Frank McLaughlin)

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The idea of Barry Allen always being late is a bit absurd. 

(FLASH #221 - cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 20th, 1973, with art by Irv Novick & Frank McLaughlin)

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Flash can create a Super Sonic Boom (when he’s not paying attention) but has trouble being on time. This is what kind of turned me off to some of these stories - I mean…. The science doesn’t EVER really match up, but in circumstances like this it just seems REALLY silly.

(FLASH #221 - cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 20th, 1973, with art by Irv Novick & Frank McLaughlin)

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3 pages of Flash reeling in a circus stampede…ho hum.

(FLASH #221 - cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 20th, 1973, with art by Irv Novick & Frank McLaughlin)

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What the hell is going on in this goofy story?

(FLASH #221 - cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 20th, 1973, with art by Irv Novick & Frank McLaughlin)

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I would… enjoy many of Cary Bates’ Legion of Superhero stories, but… this Flash story….

(FLASH #221 - cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 20th, 1973, with art by Irv Novick & Frank McLaughlin)

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This is kind of the extent of the ‘characterization’ we’d get in DC Comics, a page early on, setting up the story premise and then the payoff at the end for a page.

(FLASH #221 - cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 20th, 1973, with art by Irv Novick & Frank McLaughlin)

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Total Paid Circulation down to 152,221, ouch. Flash ranked 43rd of all the books that had a Statement of Publication for 1973 (about 53 of them I’ve found so far), and they ranked 19th out of DC’s 25 books with Statement of Publication numbers.

DC’s Sad Sack and Harvey’s Little Lotta sold more copies per month.

It’d be a little bit before Flash got his mojo back again…

(FLASH #221 - cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 20th, 1973)

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Denny O’Neil was still writing it, but Green Lantern was now back in outer space… Dick Giordano does a decent job on the art. He’s no Neal Adams (though  he’s quite well known for his inks on Adams’ work), but it looks pretty good here on his own.

(FLASH #221 - cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 20th, 1973, with art by Dick Giordano)

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Speaking a bad Statement of Publication  numbers, Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams Green Lantern had finished 58 out 58 in the Statement of Publication  numbers I found for 1970, with only 134,272 copies per month (Superman was still doing almost half a million).

Now I’ve read plenty on the shenanigans that were going on with newsstand distribution, so I on’t doubt there was something there, but DC canceled it regardless and now Green Lantern was relegated to back up feature in Flash’s comic.

Who’da thunk the two characters that kicked off the Golden Age would ended up HERE, 17 years later…

(FLASH #221 - cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 20th, 1973, with art by Dick Giordano)

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Again, I remember absolutely nothing about this story… Green Lantern was a character I just never got into. It’s pretty amazing what Geoff Johns was able to do with the book… he made Green Lantern relevant again for a while there.

(FLASH #221 - cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 20th, 1973, with art by Dick Giordano)

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I’m going to explore the comics that I loved and that made me like what I like as a kid (and still like).

And along the way, show the one’s I read that I DIDN’T like (some I later changed my mind about, and some I STILL don’t care for…)

I hope you’ll join me!

  DAREDEVIL #99

Hawkeye is a Jerk

This is how you do a cover. John Romita inking himself is as smooth as it gets.

(DAREDEVIL #99 - cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 6th, 1973, with cover art by John Romita)

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As a kid, I wasn’t happy with the switch of artists inside. I didn’t care that the inker Syd Shores was a legend who’d done amazing work for Marvel as a penciler for over 30 years or that penciller Sam Kweskin had worked for Marvel in the 50’s as a penciller (disappearing after the implosion) and had just recently returned for a brief stint. My 10 year old eyes didn’t like the switcheroo.

But this WAS a pretty engaging splash page…

(DAREDEVIL #99 - cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 6th, 1973, with art by Sam Kweskin and inks by Syd Shores)

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…only to have that jerk Hawkeye show up on the next page. Ugh. Maybe this was the issue that first made me start thinking he was annoying. Again… its actually a good start to the story, and other than writer Steve Gerber’s standard obnoxious superhero dialogue, it made me curious as to what was going to happen.

(DAREDEVIL #99 - cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 6th, 1973, with art by Sam Kweskin and inks by Syd Shores)

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And then this page… how was I so spoiled by what was visually appealing to me at such an early age? The Black Widow just isn’t up to par - Hawkeye’s face in that second panel really bothered me - now I can look at it and see its Shores heavy handed inks… but the dialogue. Gerber, doing what I would later understand as the Marvel style, has his characters talk in that faux hipster dialect… both Hawkeye and Daredevil refer to the Black Widow as ‘lady’ and Hawkeye refers to Daredevil as ‘fearless’.

(DAREDEVIL #99 - cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 6th, 1973, with art by Sam Kweskin and inks by Syd Shores)

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More cheesy dialogue. It gets the point across, I guess. I didn’t much care for it then, and I sure don’t find it appealing now. Was it popular? Some people love Gerber’s work. I thought it was hit or miss. By this time, with a variety of writers and artists (mainly Gene Colan) Daredevil had fallen in numbers for 5 straight years (to about 170,000 copies a month) and would fall for 5 straight more years before Frank Miller started on the book and brought substance to it for the first time since Wally Wood in 1964.

(DAREDEVIL #99 - cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 6th, 1973, with art by Sam Kweskin and inks by Syd Shores)

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How bad was 170,000 copies a month in 1973? DD would rank 29th (of the books printing Statement of Publication numbers) of 49 books and of the Marvel books - it was 8th of 9 books. Only the pre-reboot X-Men were worse at 46th and 127,000 copies a month.

(DAREDEVIL #99 - cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 6th, 1973, with art by Sam Kweskin and inks by Syd Shores)

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I remember thinking, “That chip on your shoulder is bigger than your fee” was pretty funny. Marvel writers using the ‘Marvel Method’ had a habit of making these guest appearance issues with a fight between the heroes. I thought it was dumb then, I think it’s… well, not necessarily dumb, but rather a CRUTCH for writers who couldn’t write real stories. 

(DAREDEVIL #99 - cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 6th, 1973, with art by Sam Kweskin and inks by Syd Shores)

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I mean, if you’re going to have an all fight issue, thankfully we FINALLY get to it here, 7 pages in. Did anyone really say much of importance  in those 6 preceding pages? Hey, gotta fill up space somehow. Those 70’s Marvel writers weren’t as entertaining as they think… and of course the female character is only worried about her window.

(DAREDEVIL #99 - cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 6th, 1973, with art by Sam Kweskin and inks by Syd Shores)

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Daredevil just tried to slam a rock into his head? As always, Hawkeye deserves it in my eyes but… still a bit strange.

(DAREDEVIL #99 - cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 6th, 1973, with art by Sam Kweskin and inks by Syd Shores)

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That’s just dumb.

(DAREDEVIL #99 - cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 6th, 1973, with art by Sam Kweskin and inks by Syd Shores)

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I’m sorry but… this dialogue is so bad. Steve Gerber is another one of these guys that people consistently praised as a great writer… I just personally have different ideas as to what is ‘great’, I guess. Ya know… I didn’t much care for the artwork when I was younger but, I’d take this NOW over 95% of the artists working at Marvel. The camera angles change properly, the page flows… I mean, for a page of happy dialogue, it flows nicely… too bad the writer couldn’t put together something more interesting for them to say.

(DAREDEVIL #99 - cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 6th, 1973, with art by Sam Kweskin and inks by Syd Shores)

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Steve Gerber (and many of the 70’s Marvel writers) in a nutshell, incorporating cultural stereotypes of the day. Hawkeye leaves the fight to get DD to chase him (why would he?) and goes into the city, where he runs into some bikers. Pretty silly, but it’s not like they have much else to bring the action in this comic. 

(DAREDEVIL #99 - cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 6th, 1973, with art by Sam Kweskin and inks by Syd Shores)

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Of course DD DOES come back, because he feels the need to ‘talk’. Oy vey, just what I don’t want from a 1970’s Marvel Comic. Maybe I need to find the foreign language version of these where I love the art and have no idea what the dialogue is.

(DAREDEVIL #99 - cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 6th, 1973, with art by Sam Kweskin and inks by Syd Shores)

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So THAT’S what the misunderstanding was. I’m so relieved.

NOT.

This is a typical Marvel crossover where they don’t team up, but rather have a misunderstanding, spend the whole issue fighting each other, until one of them finally realizes what ever truth clears up the misunderstanding. 

Great characterization? These superheroes were idiots. 

The writers weren’t much better. This is one of those ‘deadline looming/no ideas’ kind of stories. 

(DAREDEVIL #99 - cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 6th, 1973, with art by Sam Kweskin and inks by Syd Shores)

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Ok so DD wants to ‘talk’ to Hawkeye and travels half way across town to find him - hopping roof top to roof top - the Avengers show up looking for DD and have the means to fly (Twin Jet) - two of them can even fly themselves (Thor and Vision), but instead kick back on the couch and wait. Duh.

(DAREDEVIL #99 - cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 6th, 1973, with art by Sam Kweskin and inks by Syd Shores)

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Hawkeye high tails it out there all pissed off (wasn’t he temporary place holder back in the day - can they find no one better than him?) and Black Widow, under Gerber a typical women (in his eyes) also quick to assume and get emotional. Maybe she should’ve went with ‘Clint’.

(DAREDEVIL #99 - cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 6th, 1973, with art by Sam Kweskin and inks by Syd Shores)

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After THAT, I was in no mood to join FOOM. I never did back in the day. I’m not sure if it was the $2.50 or just a general idea that I didn’t understand what all the hub bub was about. The only thing I ever ordered was that Direct Currents issue with the Legion of Superheroes in it. More on that soon…

(DAREDEVIL #99 - cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 6th, 1973)

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Interesting… the first letter says I what I’ve been saying, in that DD as a book always kind of was bland, andConway was the best of Marvel’s 70’s writers (though personally I loved Starlin’s work the most), 

(DAREDEVIL #99 - cover-dated May 1973, on newsstands February 6th, 1973)

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I’m going to explore the comics that I loved and that made me like what I like as a kid (and still like).

And along the way, show the one’s I read that I DIDN’T like (some I later changed my mind about, and some I STILL don’t care for…)

I hope you’ll join me!

Hey, if you're glad to see us back, leave a comment!

Thanks!