Marvel Comics of the 1980s: July 2013

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

1982 - Captain America by John Byrne

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

1983 - Marvel Team-Up Poster

Tip of the hat to Sanctum Sanctorum Comix for doing most of the leg work...

It was drawn by Ron Frenz and measures 34" x 22".

This original penciled version seems to almost be a first draft. There are significant changes between the two versions:

Colossus and Man-Thing removed
Power Man and Iron Fist moved closer together
Hulk completely changed
Dr. Strange and Iron Man more battle ready poses
Daredevil and Silver Surfer moved to the background
Human Torch made a bit more prominant
Thor flying
Jack of Hearts added
Black Widow removed

Monday, July 29, 2013

1989 - Beast and Nightcrawler by Rob Liefeld

Grabbed from: http://unpublishedxmen.blogspot.ca/2013/03/beast-and-nightcrawler.html

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Wolverine and Psylocke by Jim Lee

A lovely water coloured piece by Jim Lee.

http://unpublishedxmen.blogspot.ca/2012/07/jim-lee-week-concludes-psylocke-and.html

Saturday, July 27, 2013

1982 - Bob Layton in September's Bullpen Bulletins

Friday, July 26, 2013

The Wolverine Week - 1980 - Alternate Wolverine origins

From The Comics Journal #57 - 1980 Summer Special, John Byrne interviewed by Mitch Itkowitz on the origins of Wolverine:

"It will unless it's changed or we come up with something better. You see, we're already on our second origin for Wolverine. The first origin that was concocted, was that he was actually a mutant Wolverine, boosted up to human form by the High Evolutionary. Okay, that works... except that Archie did a similar number in the first Spider-Woman story. And no matter how things have changed in that strip since, the idea has been done before... so we dropped it.

Unless we change our minds in about a year, we have his origin pretty well worked out now... all sorts of details like where he got his adamantium bones, how he seems to heal so quickly, why he's a lot older than he looks. I don't know if all of those facts are going to come out at once, or in that order. Most of the fans I've talked to--and most of the mail has agreed--say that they like picking up the facts in dribs and drabs.

One of these days, Roger and I have a Captain America story we'd like to do, guest-starring the X-Men, where Cap will be talking to a couple of them, and Wolverine is real quiet at first. And when he finally speaks, Cap will do a take and say, "Corporal Logan?" Because, you see, Cap met him during the war. And that might be the first time we come out in the books and say just how old the guy is. Unless we change our minds. There's a sequence coming up which I hope we will do, where Wolverine will be meeting his father, who is Sabretooth. There will be a big fight and he will kill him on camera, and there will be no doubt about it. This is what Shooter calls a BFD, "Big F*cking Deal." Which I hope will be printed with asterisks, because I don't use that word.
[laughter]

Ho, ho. Gales of laughter. And that will be the one instance where because of the way the story is set up I don't think even Shooter would be able to object to a good guy killing somebody.

The Wolverine (2013) - A spoiler-free review

I really went into this movie wanting to like it. I was willing to forgive the X-Men franchise for the disaster that was X-Men 3 and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. But, I was disappointed. Why? Because the movie had so much damn potential and it failed. The source material was obviously the Wolverine limited series from 1982 along with bits from Uncanny X-Men #172-173. So how could it go wrong?

The Wolverine felt like a four issue limited series that had a different creative team parachute in for the 4th issue, disregarding everything they had built up until that point. The film sadly fell apart in the last 20 minutes and unfortunately took down the entire film with it.

Hugh Jackson was again a wonderful Wolverine and there's no blame to lay at his feet. Tao Okamoto was great as Wolverine's love interest Mariko and Rila Fukusima was outstanding as his bodyguard, Yukio. As the movie rolled along, I really had a great feeling on how things were shaping up. But, then near the end, it was as if the director/writer tried to get a little bit too clever for their own good.

The setting was also a great bonus for the film, really capturing many scenes from the Japanese adventures of Wolverine.

Make sure you stick around for the teaser after the credits. It's a nice touch to let you know that Marvel does indeed have a plan for its various movie franchises.