The first Marvel issue starring the Man of Bronze--Doc Savage!!This was part of a massive wave at the time of reviving old pulp heroes and other pop culture relics of the 30s and 40s (old-time radio shows, The Shadow novels, etc.), and Marvel never met a trend they didn't like. They started off with a bang here, with a beautiful cover based on the Doc Savage movie poster (sadly, the best thing about that movie was the poster).
This first issue featured a 52-page (!) adventure titled "The Doom of Thunder Isle" by the ever-prolific Doug Moench, with solid art by John Buscema and Tony DeZuniga. Moench starts the story off with a bang (literally) and then introduces our cast of characters--Doc, plus his team of adventurers Monk, Ham, Renny, Long Tom, and Johnny. It features secret codes, crazy gadgets, a giant zeppelin, uniformed assassins, a damsel in distress, and a mysterious island--all the proper elements for a classic tale of adventure. It's amazing to me how adaptable Moench was in his writing, in that he could tailor his stories to fit whatever settings and genre he was working in.
The issue rounds out with an interview with George Pal, legendary filmmaker and director of the ill-fated but well-intentioned Doc movie. All told, Marvel put together a nice package for their inaugural issue, and we'll see down the line what else they had in store for the Man of Bronze...
1 comment:
Being a big fan of Doc Savage from the plups/novels I know I'm going to end up collecting all of these. From I've seen these b/w mags are far better than Marvel's regular comic adaptions of Doc, which we're really not worth reading.
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