Giant-Size Marvel

Reprints Giant-Size Fantastic Four #4, Giant-Size Avengers #1, Giant-Size Defenders #4, Giant-Size Super-Heroes #1, Giant-Size Invaders #1, Giant-Size X-Men #1 and Giant-Size Creatures #1
Written by Len Wein, Chris Claremont, Roy Thomas, Steve Gerber, Gerry Conway and Tony Isabella.
Penciled by John Buscema, Rich Buckler, Don Heck, Gil Kane, Frank Robbins, Dave Cockrum and Don Perlin.
Inked by Chic Stone, Joe Sinnott, Dan Adkins, Vince Colletta, Dave Cockrum and Mike Esposito.

Seven Bronze Age adventures that feature the biggest stars in the Marvel Universe!

Ben Grimm of the Fantastic Four is taking a subway train to a Jets game, but his Sunday afternoon is disrupted by a man named Madrox. He's a mutant, born with the ability to create multiple clones of himself.

 Madrox wears a suit that allows him to convert energy into superhuman strength. He proves to be a difficult opponent for the FF when his suit drains energy from New York's power grid. Reed Richards calls his old friend Professor Charles Xavier for help.

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A stranger breaks into the Avengers' mansion. The heroes try to apprehend him, but he possesses super-speed. When he finally slows down, the Avengers learn he's Robert Frank, the WWII-era hero known as the Whizzer. He's come to the mansion seeking a time capsule that was recently found by the Avengers.

Whizzer tells the Avengers how he and his wife Madeline, AKA the superheroine Miss America, worked as security guards at a nuclear testing facility. The nuclear energy affected their son, who had to be placed in the time capsule. Doctors said their son's contamination was so severe that he would need to be imprisoned in the capsule for at least 25 years. When he's freed from the capsule, he becomes Nuklo, one of the deadliest beings on Earth.

The Avengers begin their search for Nuklo;
Nice art from Rich Buckler.

He has the mind of a toddler, which makes him extremely dangerous. Nuklo escapes the mansion and the Avengers split up to find him. Plus, Scarlet Witch makes a surprising discovery about her past.
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Kyle Richmond, better known as the superhero Nighthawk of the Defenders, is out on the town with his girlfriend, Trish Starr. Suddenly, their car explodes, sending Kyle and Trish to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Henry Pym hears about this and deduces who caused the explosion. Trish's uncle is Egghead, Pym's arch foe. Pym puts on his Yellowjacket costume and chases down Egghead, who admits that he was involved in causing the explosion.

Right:The Defenders go after the Squadron Sinister;
Left:Yellowjacket corners Egghead.

At the same time, Nighthawk's Defenders teammates, Doctor Strange, Valkyrie and Hulk, visit him in the hospital. Nighthawk suspects that Egghead must have been working with his former colleagues, Hyperion, Dr. Spectrum and the Whizzer, better known as the Squadron Sinister. The Defenders pay a visit to the Squadron and a battle ensues.

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John Jameson sits down for dinner with his fiance, Kristine. John's career as an astronaut took him to the moon, where a strange rock transformed him into the Man-Wolf.

When he sees Spider-Man swing by, John is suddenly overcome by unbearable pain. He cuts his dinner short and walks around the city for a while, worried that he will once again turn into the Man-Wolf.  Unfortunately, his fears are proven correct.

That same night, Peter Parker visits the Daily Bugle. City Editor Joe "Robbie" Robertson shows him pictures of several homicide victims. All of them had bite-marks on their neck. Peter realizes that this means Spider-Man's old foe Morbius the Living Vampire is behind the killing spree.

When Morbius arrives in New York, he encounters the Man-Wolf and forces him to join forces. Spider-Man will have to defeat both Morbius and Man-Wolf. And dealing with Man-Wolf is always complicated, since John Jameson is the son of Spidey's harshest critic, Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson!
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During World War II, the greatest superheroes of the day unite to battle Nazi Germany. Captain America and Bucky! Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner! The Human Torch, and his young sidekick Toro!  The new team is ready to take on the Axis Powers overseas and Nazi sympathizers on American soil.

Bucky & Cap beat up some Nazi saboteurs.

At the same time,the Third Reich is preparing a secret weapon of their own. Nazi scientists have created Master Man, their own super-soldier who will act as Germany's answer to Captain America. When Master Man attacks Winston Churchill's ship, it's up to the Invaders to save the Prime Minister.

The Invaders meet Master Man.

When Churchill himself meets this new team of heroes he dubs them the Invaders!  

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The team of mutant superheroes called the X-men have been captured and are imprisoned on the island of Krakoa by an unseen mutant foe. Cyclops makes it back to the X-mansion and discovers his mutant power, shooting optic blasts, has disappeared. When Professor Xavier hears Cyclops' story, he decides to recruit a new team of X-men to rescue the old one.

We see Xavier travel all over the world to recruit a new team, which consists of:
Nightcrawler⁠—super-agile and able to teleport!

Storm⁠—possesses the power to fly and control the weather!

Colossus⁠—transforms his skin to "organic steel" armor!

Thunderbird⁠—a skilled tracker who also possesses super-strength!

Wolverine⁠—gifted with an amazing ability to heal and a skeleton laced with unbreakable adamantium steel!

Banshee⁠—master of the "Sonic Scream"!

Sunfire⁠—able to generate nuclear firebolts!

Left:Xavier convinces Thunderbird to join his new team;
Right:The All-New X-men try on their costumes for the 1st time.

The All-New, All-Different X-men are born!

They are brought to Xavier's headquarters and given costumes made of unstable molecules. Cyclops briefs them on their mission. They will fly to Krakoa and free the other team. But when they arrive at Krokoa, the new X-men are shocked when they learn the identity of the being that captured the old X-men.

Can the new X-men learn to operate like a team and rescue their predecessors? And what is the mystery of the mutant that lives on the island of Krakoa?
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For several months, Greer Nelson has fought crime as the Cat.  She becomes much more feline in appearance when the cat people transform Greer into Tigra, half-tiger, half woman!

Tigra encounters Werewolf By Night on a Mexico beach and a fight ensues. But they join forces when they're attacked by agents of Hydra!

Review:
Giant-Size Marvel contains some good stories and art, but more often than not the overall quality doesn't rise above mediocre. And some of the stories and art feel rushed.  

Story:
The best and easily the most important story comes from Giant-Size X-Men #1. This is the tale that introduced the "All-New, All-Different" X-Men, characters that set the Bronze Age comic world on fire. The battle with Krakoa that introduces the new team is still great 40 years later.

The second best story is the Avengers tale that features Nuklo. The original Whizzer makes his first "modern" appearance here, and writer Roy Thomas' love for WWII-era characters is used nicely here in a flashback that features the All-Winners Squad. Thomas does a good job showing that Nuklo is a truly tragic character.

Whizzer recounts his time in the All-Winners Squad

  
Thomas' enthusiasm for WWII stories is also on display in the Invaders story. It isn't great, but it's a decent introduction for the team. 

The FF battle with Madrox is okay, and Madrox would eventually become a regular in the X-books.  But it's only 21 pages, which sort of defeats the purpose of including it in a collection of "giant-sized" stories. Speaking of mutants, it's interesting to note that Chris Claremont co-wrote the Madrox' story with Len Wein. This story guest stars Professor X, and of course Claremont would go on to have a long history with Xavier during his years as writer of Uncanny X-Men.

As for the rest of the stories in this tpb, they're not very interesting. I'm a big fan of the Defenders and Steve Gerber, who wrote Giant-Size Defenders #4.

The Defenders tackle the Squadron Sinister, with help from Yellowjacket.

But we are never told if the Squadron Sinister worked with Egghead to set the bomb that injured Nighthawk and Trish Starr. Nighthawk just presumes that's the case, and the Defenders go after the Squadron. What happened? Did Gerber forget? It makes the story feel rushed and almost unfinished.  

Art:
I'll cut to the chase and say the art contained in this tpb isn't very good. In some cases it's almost painful to look at. Like some of the stories, lots of the artwork in this book looks rushed, like pencilers and inkers were brought in at the last minute.

John Buscema and Gil Kane are two of the all-time great pencilers. But they're not always served well by their inkers in this book (I see a little too much of Chic Stone's work in the FF story). The Invaders portion features Frank Robbins inked by Vince Colletta, I've never been crazy about the work of either during the Bronze Age. Don Perlin was a solid penciler during his years at Marvel, but Colletta's inks over Perlin makes the Tigra/Werewolf story the worst part of the book. In fairness to Colleta (who inked 3 of the 7 stories in this tpb), he was likely working against a tough deadline and probably did the best he could under the circumstances.

On a positive note, Dave Cockrum's art in the X-Men story is some of his best and looks great. Rich Buckler was in his "Kirby-esque" phase and his Avengers art is very good, even if Dan Adkins' inks water down Buckler a bit. Buckler gives the battle with Nuklo an epic atmosphere.

How does it look?:
A mixed bag.

Here's a scan from my copy of Giant-Size Super-Heroes #1:

And here's how it looks in Giant-Size Marvel:

Looks pretty good, but that's not the case for every issue reprinted in this tpb.

This scan from Giant-Size X-Men #1 was borrowed from Diversions of the Groovy Kind:

And here's how the same page looks when reprinted:

The recoloring of this page is obvious and unnecessary, and that's too bad. There's more recoloring in the portion that reprints Giant-Size X-Men #1 and that's unfortunate.

Extras:
Giant-Size Creatures #1 featured an essay by Roy Thomas that is included in this tpb. We also get a checklist for all the Giant-Sized comics that Marvel published in the 1970s.

Giant-Size Marvel is a curious publication. I'm not sure why Marvel wanted to showcase these stories in a tpb reprint, since most aren't exactly classic tales and the art is mostly sub-par. And why were these Giant-Size stories selected, instead of comics like Giant-Size Super-Stars #1 (a classic Hulk/Thing fight)? Or Giant-Size Spider-Man #1 (featuring Spidey and Dracula)? The X-men story has been reprinted many times, but its inclusion (recoloring notwithstanding) and the Avengers story earn this book a half-Sal higher rating than it would otherwise achieve.

J.A. Morris' rating:

.5



2 and a half Sals.

Ghost Rider Team-Up

Reprints Marvel Premiere #91, Ghost Rider #27 and #50, Marvel Team-Up #91, Marvel Two-In-One #80 and Avengers #214
Written by Bill Mantlo, Jim Shooter, Steven Grant, Michael Fleisher and Tom DeFalco.
Penciled by Frank Robbins, Don Perlin, Pat Broderick, Ron Wilson and Bob Hall.
Inked by Steve Gan, Dan Green, Bruce D. Patterson, Don Perlin and Chic Stone.

A six-pack of Bronze Age tales starring the Spirit of Vengeance!

A mountain sprouts up in the middle of Los Angeles and causes an earthquake! It attracts the attention of four of the world's most horrific super-beings: The demonic Ghost Rider, known to the world as Johnny Blaze, famous stunt cyclist! Michael Morbius, the Living Vampire! Werewolf By Night! And the macabre Man-Thing!

They learn that the mountain is the work of Starseed.  He lived on Earth millions of years ago, on the same mountain. He's the sole survivor of a society that dwelt in the mountain, creating advanced technology in the time of the Neanderthals.

Starseed invites them to come with him and live inside the mountain. But Ghost Rider points out that the world has changed and that one cannot just park a mountain on Sunset Boulevard and cause earthquakes. Morbius and the Werewolf are both hungry so they attack Starseed! It's every monster for himself!

Sometime later, Johnny Blaze's personal life is in shambles, so he seeks solace in the Mohave Desert.  Blaze ends up at Cheery-O's Dude Ranch, where he bumps into the Avenger Hawkeye and Matt Hawk, the Two-Gun Kid! Hawk is a hero from the Wild West who recently time-traveled into the 20th century.

Things are going well for the heroes. Blaze is teaching Two-Gun how to ride a motorcycle. But suddenly Hawkeye is attacked by a monster who calls himself Manticore! He tells Hawkeye he has been contracted to kill an Avenger, and Hawkeye was available, but Manticore didn't bet on Ghost Rider being around.

Peter Parker and his friend Glory Grant go to a carnival in Connecticut. They take in a sideshow, where Peter notices a familiar face.The Ghost Rider is performing as The Blazing Skull. Parker points this out and gets thrown out of the carnival.

Later that night, Peter returns to investigate the sideshow as Spider-Man. He learns that Ghost Rider has been hypnotized by Spidey's old foe Moondark the magician. Moondark has torn the soul of Johnny Blaze away from the body of Ghost Rider. Spider-Man ends up going toe-to-toe with Ghost Rider, who is under the control of Moondark!

Subsequently, Johnny Blaze time-travels back into the Wild West! He inadvertently ends up on a sacred Indian burial ground.  Several Indians respond by shooting Blaze full of arrows before he can turn into Ghost Rider. Thankfully, Blaze is rescued by Carter Slade, better known as the ghostly cowboy hero called Night Rider!

Night Rider saves Blaze's life, which is a good thing. Ghost Rider aids Night Rider in a battle with the outlaw who calls himself the Tarantula. And if that's not enough trouble, they're also attacked by the mythical winged serpent called Hobomokko!

Following that adventure, Johnny Blaze goes to New York City for a stunt cycling performance at Shea Stadium. But he's starting to lose control over the Ghost Rider persona. His demonic side is taking over and acting irrationally. Ghost Rider leads the NYPD on a high-speed chase until he turns back to Blaze.

He's spotted by Ben Grimm of the Fantastic Four. The Thing sympathizes with Blaze, since he's also a "monster" like Ghost Rider. Blaze gives Ben two tickets for his stunt show.

At Shea Stadium, Blaze jumps over a row of cars on his motorcycle. But in the middle of the show, two teens in the crowd decide to steal one of the cars. Blaze turns into Ghost Rider and goes crazy and his thirst for vengeance takes over, he wants to kill the teens. It's up to the Thing to save them.

Lastly, Warren Worthington III, better known as the mutant superhero Angel, is driving through the mountains of New Mexico. He spots Ghost Rider, his former teammate with the Champions, cycling on the highway. Angel's girlfriend, Candy Southern, is frightened, but Warren says Ghost Rider is a friend.

Things change when Ghost Rider runs them off the road! Their car is wrecked and Angel is shocked.  Johnny Blaze has lost control over the spirit of vengeance and decides Angel is an enemy, hitting him with a blast of hellfire!

Candy calls Avengers mansion, seeking help from the Beast, Angel's former X-men teammate. Beast has left the Avengers, but Captain America takes the call. The Avengers arrive in New Mexico and try capture Ghost Rider. The Avengers outnumber him, but it won't be easy to subdue the Spirit of Vengeance.

Review:
Ghost Rider Team-Up is not a very good book. What makes it frustrating is that I can think of several other stories featuring Ghost Rider and another hero that would've been better choices for this tpb. Why wasn't the ridiculous-but-fun Christmas story from Marvel Two-In-One #8 used instead of the one from MTIO #80? Ghost Rider teamed with Daredevil in a crossover against Death Stalker that featured some early art of John Byrne. This book contains pin-ups that mention Son Of Satan's guest appearances in Ghost Rider. Why not include one of those, instead of Avengers #214, where Ghost Rider is basically written as a villain, albeit a reluctant one. Moving on to what's in the book:

Story:
A mixed bag that has a couple good stories and some clunkers. I'll start with the positives

The Hawkeye/Two-Gun/Manticore story isn't great, but it's a decent "villain of the month" story.  Manticore looks pretty cool, though he's not much of a match for the Ghost Rider.

I thought the Spider-Man team-up was the high point of this book. Placing a battle on a rollercoaster makes for a great action sequence. And it was interesting to see Peter Parker go on a date with his friend Glory Grant, something that rarely happened to my recollection.
  
The team-up with Night Rider is a solid western story, with plenty of action. Of course, in the early days, Night Rider was known as Ghost Rider. This is never mentioned in the story, but I presume this was meant to be an inside joke for the readers.

Johnny Blaze is surprised to find himself in the 19th century.

Johnny Blaze's meeting with Ben Grimm is okay, even if it's not as good as their aforementioned Christmas team-up. But it's hardly essential Bronze Age material.

The first tale promises the teaming of "The Legion Of Monsters." But the "monsters" spend most of the story listening to Starseed tell his backstory or fighting with each other. Some "legion" they turned out to be. Starseed isn't very interesting either. A pointless story, Starseed has never been seen since this issue and the Legion Of Monsters doesn't appear again until 2010 (without Ghost Rider).

The Avengers story is an odd inclusion. It takes place in the middle of a long storyline built around the mental breakdown of Yellowjacket. Ghost Rider doesn't appear until the 7th page of the tale. He's the bad guy here, since Blaze is losing control of his demonic side at this time. It hardly constitutes a team-up, and Angel's appearance feels very random.

Art:
Ghost Rider Team-Up contains art that's generally better than the stories.

The best art here comes from Pat Broderick and Bruce D. Patterson, from the Spider-Man portion.

Their art looks influenced by Michael Golden (a star penciler at the time) with a little bit of Steve Ditko thrown in.  Nice work.

Johnny Blaze performs stunts at Shea Stadium

Don Perlin and Ron Wilson were always reliable for good, enjoyable "Marvel house style" pencils. Chic Stone's inks overpower Wilson's art a bit, but it's still okay. Perlin and Dan Green make Manticore look pretty cool in their story.

The Legion of Monsters story wouldn't be good under any circumstances. But the art of Frank Robbins and Steve Gan makes it even worse. Bob Hall and Dan Green are okay in the Avengers story.

Starseed promises to turn the "monsters" back to their human forms.

How Does It Look?:

Here's the splash page of Marvel Premiere #28, borrowed from Diversions of the Groovy Kind:

And here's how it appears in Ghost Rider Team-Up:

It's a pretty good facsimile. 

Extras:

Ghost Rider #50 contained a checklist of Ghost Rider's appearances and several pin-ups. Those are represented in this tpb as well. 

Ghost Rider Team-Up isn't great, but if you're a fan of the artists featured inside, or a Ghost Rider completist, you might enjoy it more than I did. The art from Broderick, Perlin and Wilson earns it an extra half-Sal.

J.A. Morris' rating.

.5



2 and a half Sals.