My Marvelous Year: 1979

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• Okay, I just finished the 70’s (my sole-mission in life is to catch up to the podcast. And send my daughter to college. But the podcast comes first.)

  And here’s the thing – I grew up in the 70’s. I was a Marvel guy, my little brother was a DC guy. I didn’t buy a lot of comics, but I think I have between one to two hundred from that era. So, when we started the decade, I was like, all right! We’ll visit some old favorites!

  But, in the club, we didn’t read one comic I owned! Not one! How is this mathematically possible? I’m assuming my childhood fave issue, Captain America and Falcon vs The Serpent Squad just missed the cut-off.

  Anyway - my main take-away from the decade is that, after reading everything, the Eternals still makes no sense to me. I can't even guess what the movie's going to be like, but everyone seems to be raving about the script, so I have high hopes.

  Submariner is one of, if not my least favorite Marvel characters because he’s so one-note. But, after reading Panther’s Rage, it seems like there’s a golden opportunity to flesh out Atlantis like Wakanda and make Namor interesting. Maybe that happens down the road?

  Obviously – pretty much everybody agrees on the stand-outs – Black Panther / Captain Marvel / Warlock and X-Men – but man, oh, man – for sheer comfort reading, nothing beats Spidey. He's the meatloaf and mashed potatoes of Marvel.

  And finally…The Aquarian? His look and hippie-peace-vibe seems like he’s about 10 years late to the party. But who knows? Maybe he blows up in a big way.

  Thanks for putting all this together. It’s a lot of fun.

• Many of these books I bought off the rack at the time of their release. Avengers, Amazing Spider-man, Daredevil and Iron Man were my favorites those days, and it’s easy to see why here.
  However, my vote for hero of the year went to Fantastic Four. They weren’t among my favorites back in the day, but this re-reading I found the Sphinx/Galactus storyline to be easy and enjoyable to read, and the Fantastic Four saving the Earth (again) seemed to be worthy of recognition.

  In the late 70’s one of my favorite Marvel characters of all time finally received top-tier writing and art talent, with the result that my vote for issue of the year went to "Demon in a Bottle," Iron Man 128, and my vote for villain of the year went to Justin Hammer. I find there is an extra dimension to villains who take on super-powered heroes without superpowers of their own, with merely strong motivtion and dastardly plans (as in Marvel’s Civil War film). I find Dave Michelinie’s stories are fantastic as Tony Stark, not Iron Man, must overcome his toughest obstacles to date. Consideration went to Bullseye (who will get a revisit in short order), Kingpin (who still hasn’t realized his full villainy potential in comics by this time), Sphinx (whose involvement in Fantastic Four boosted them to hero of the year), and Jason Wyngarde (like Bullseye will be seen again soon).

  My vote for writer and artist of the year was an easy call. Both Marv Wolfman and John Byrne left a lasting mark on the titles they headed in 1979, and the quality and quantity of top-tier work put them above all others. However, Chris Claremont continued to develop the X-family world that is sure to garner considerable recognition in the 80’s. His work was transforming the artform, but not quite fully there yet by 1979.

  I’m doing the reading, but struggling to find time to post. Hopefully with a week’s respite as Dave tallies the decade’s votes, I can get back into a groove. I am determined to see this Marvelous Year through. So far, most of Dave’s reading assignments I have read multiple times, back in the day, and then later as I collected most everything in trade paperback form, and then when Marvel Unlimited launched, I read just about the entire Marvel Silver Age library in publication order up to about 1975. I won’t really get into an era that I haven’t read a majority of the assignments at least once until the late 80’s.

• Wow, 1979 closes out the decade with a bunch of home runs.

  This year features a veritable who’s who of Marvels third generations’ greatest creators: David Michelinie, Mark Gruenwald, Marv Wolfman, Chis Clarement, Roger Stern and Ralph Macchio writing; John Byrne, George Perez, Frank Miller, Bob Layton, Klaus Janson and John Romita Jr. on art. These are the guys who brought comics into the 80s and changed the way the world looks at the art form.

  How can one choose just one for artist or writer of the year?

  In the end I have to pick Byrne as the artist of the year. He was everywhere: FF, X-Men, MTIO and Avengers. His work on the X-Men, of course, was a stand out. Something about Austin on inks just brings out the best in Byrne.

  An as much as I like Claremont and the X-Men, I went with Wolfman for writer. He will be leaving Marvel soon, and he did a lot of solid work in ’79: ASM, Dracula and the FF. (I think we all know that Claremont will be getting writer of the year next year, so let’s give Marv a chance)
  Hero of the year is easier this time around, as I think most of our protagonists were not particularly heroic this year. Spidey, the FF, the Avengers and even the X-Men were more caught up dealing with their own internal problems. But, between his own mag and PPSSM, Daredevil proves to be the most heroic, actually trying to help other people. So hero of the year goes to him. (This will get him warmed up for almost guaranteed wins in ’81 and ’82)

  Villain of the year is another toss-up. Lots of great bad guys, including the aforementioned Sphinx, Proteus, whiskey and Bullseye. But I had to write in Mysterio. (I assume you’ll see why in 1980.)
  Issue of the year is becoming a real hard one for me. We are at a point in Marvel’s history where single issues are generally only a part of a larger story. The Project Pegasus Saga, Proteus, Demon in a Bottle, Xandar/Galactus, Wundagore or The Death of Aunt May. All great stories. To have to choose just one issue is almost impossible. FF 213? I loved it as a youth, still think the Sphinx story is great. ASM 196? Heart wrenchingly well done. X-Men 128? A powerful ending to a pivotal story. Iron Man 128? A fitting ending to the story. Howard the Duck Vol 2 # 1? Just kidding. Knowing what is to come over the next few years, I figure that X-Men will be getting all the votes in ’80 and most likely ’81, so I’m giving ASM 196 my vote.

• This year was all over the place quality-wise, and unfortunately I found it more meh than good, so I don't have too much to write up. I'll do this as highlights and lowlights:

  Highlights:

  - The Fantastic Four comics were solid and had great artwork, but it's telling that even though it featured a battle with Galactus, I'm struggling to remember the story details even though I only read it a couple of nights ago.

  - Black Cat makes an excellent first impression, though I was less impressed with the Kingpin battle afterwards, so I'm kind of at a B grade for the ASM comics this week.

  - I very much enjoyed the Avengers comics this week, with Wundagore being nutty but very creative and fun (I did roll my eyes during the whole enchanted forest/wood sequence).

  - Demon in a Bottle is of mixed quality to me, but mostly good with some true greatness. There are moments and scenes that are great (I especially love the tragedy of the man losing his buried wife to corporate greed when the island blows up), but I think the issues that were highlighted are the best of the bunch, as the saga as a whole, especially at the beginning, meanders a lot and has some uninspiring villains and fight scenes. I do think that Hammer is a great villain and the moment when Iron Man kills the ambassador is amazing. I also have Issue 128 as Issue of the Year just for how unrelenting it is and how it tackles addiction.

  - The clear overall highlight of the year was again the X-Men, which other than Iron Man is just operating on a different level than everything else. In one year, they had Dark Phoenix, Proteus, Alpha Flight, and Murder World! Those are just a joy to read, with Claremont and Byrne firing on all cylinders. Proteus was especially incredible to me, and was my clear Villain of the Year. I'd also like to note that I haven't laughed harder during this whole 1970s run than I did at the panel when Spider-Man recognized the sound effect that Arcade's garbage truck makes when picking up the X-Men.

  Lowlights:

  - Anything with Hulk. I really found Project Pegasus bad, though the very end battle was insane.

  - Daredevil was disappointing script-wise to me, though the Frank Miller artwork was great. Bullseye was of course excellent as usual.

  - Tomb of Dracula was fine, but as usual, I found it cluttered and kind of nonsensical, and the three to four page epilogue summarizing Dracula's legacy ended the whole thing on a weird note.

  -Peter Parker, Spectacular Spider-Man was only OK, though the Frank Miller artwork definitely stood out.

  It's time for the '80s!

• John Byrne continues to rock on art in stories both amazing and less so.

  The Demon in a Bottle story is good, especially in #128, but it is not quite as great as its general reputation made me think it would be.

  Additional picks for fun issues are Fantastic Four #204 and Avengers #189.

  I was a fan of Black Cat's intro in Amazing Spider-Man #194, and the rest of the story was okay.

  Once again, the Claremont/Byrne X-Men run is the most impressive part of the year. I give five stars to #118, which opens with an incredible two-page splash. Right away, it says that the X-Men can also have grand adventures on Earth as well as space. They are helping people, going to more non-U.S. sites, and the stakes feel very real and very high. Claremont would continue to explore his fascination with Japan in other comics, notably the Wolverine mini-series coming up in the 1980s. X-Men gets all of my votes (hero, artist, writer, issue for #118, and Moses Magnum as the villain).

• What about adding a new category for best debut?

• I wonder about the inclusion of Hulk 233 without including Captain America #230 and Hulk #232. 233 starts in the middle of the story. And 234 really is the set up for 235. If you don't see what happens in 234 the Machine Man fight looks just like the Hulk getting angry for no reason. All fairly decent Hulk issues that read real quick. (Full disclosure: Hulk 230 was my first monthly Hulk purchase and I bought almost every issue until 260)

  And while we are discussing the issue of leaving stuff out...FF 204 to 209 set up the story of 210-213. I can see how 207 could easily be skipped, but 208 and 209 set up the whole Sphinx thing that climaxes in 212.

  And good grief man, how could you leave out ASM 198 and 199! They are the major build up to the January 1980 #200?!? I know the Black Cat is neat, and looks great in her costume, but in so many ways the issues 196-200 wrap up the first "Volume" of the Amazing Spider-Man.
  .
  I've often felt (and have seen others mention) that the first 200 issues of ASM have to be read as if they were one big story. We read the finale of the Goblin in '78, and now we have 197 putting a period on the Kingpin, 198-199 deals with Mysterio and issue 200 finally giving us an explanation for events way back in Amazing Fantasy 15!