Lance Visser's (visser@convex.com) Marvels annotations from June 1994
posted to rec.arts.comics.marvel.universe

NOTE:  This version has been edited for formatting, spelling, and capitalization -- but NOT CONTENT -- by Peter Karpas (enjolras@enjolrasworld.com) in January 2002 for the www.enjolrasworld.com web site (The Comic Book Annotation and Bibliography site).

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Marvels 1

p.1 J. Jonah Jamison will eventually run the Daily Bugle

p.2 The professor is Phynis Horton. The story is from Marvel comics 1.

p. 10 I believe that the Sub-mariner's first appearance is also in Marvel Comics 1.

p. 14 I don't know the Sub-mariner electric chair reference
The angel was a golden age marvel character.
The phantom eagle was a world war I pilot who fought under a mask for fear of German reprisals against his parents in Germany.
The rawhide kid was one of marvel's cowboy heroes.

p. 15 <unknown> costumed character

p. 16 The fight is from an issue of marvel comics (7?) There were several more "fire and water" fights between the Torch and Sub-mariner.

p. 17 Betty Dean, an old Sub-mariner supporting character.

p. 24 Captain America appears for the first time in Captain America 1.

p.25 The headlines may refer to old marvel stories.

p.26 A retired Popeye comments on Captain America.
Nick Fury will become first, Sgt. Fury of the marvel book Sgt. Fury and his howling commandos, then Nick Fury of the CIA, then Agent of SHIELD.

p. 27-28 Don't know if the Japanese tunnel story is an invaders story or a 1940's marvel story.

p.29 More early marvel story references.

p. 31-38 This is another famous Torch-Sub-mariner fight. I don't know the issue.

p. 43-44 Bucky, Captain America, Sub-mariner, (The original vision?), unknown, unknown, unknown, blazing skull(?), unknown, Torch and Toro

p. 27 Bill Lumpkin years later becomes the Fantastic Four's mailman.


Marvels 2

p.1 - p.5 Avengers vs. Masters of Evil from Avengers 6. The plot basically is that Baron Zemo in South America reads a newspaper that Captain America is back alive. He then gathers up the masters of evil and goes after him (and the Avengers).

p.2 Captain America

p.3 Black Knight spraying Adhesive-X on the crowd. Iron Man.

p.4 Radioactive Man (A Chinese villain with radiation based powers) He is spraying Adhesive-X. Thor is fighting the original Black Knight. In the middle of the page, Radioactive Man is shown hanging from a balloon. He was caught in a trap that wrapped him up in lead banding and hung him in the air.
Iron man is dragging the melter through the air.

p.5 Giant man

p.6 I don't recall an explicit story that had the first press conference of the Fantastic Four.

p.7 Difficult to place what Fantastic Four story it is.

p.8 This is a reference to an early X-Men story, but I can't place which one it is.

p. 13 The Eel appeared first as a Human Torch villain in Strange Tales 112(?).

p. 14 The photos are of Cyclops and the Fantastic Four symbol made by the Torch.

p. 15 Giant man vs. Spider man happened in Tales to Astonish 57

p. 16 Kraven the Hunter comes to New York and shows up in Spiderman 15. The Beetle is a minor marvel villain that fought Spiderman and Daredevil on occasion.
The newspaper covers the aftermath of Avengers 6.
The girl named masters is Alicia Masters, daughter of the Puppet Master, and blind sculpture artist.

p. 17 Sculptures are:
(left to right) Hulk, Unknown (crouching), Sub-mariner, Dr. Doom, Pharaoh Rama-Tut (Fantastic Four 19), Sub-mariner (from a different angle), Iron man, unknown.
Dorres Evans, old girlfriend of the Human Torch.

p. 18 Statues:
Unknown, Unknown, Iron Man
Executioner, Daredevil, unknown.
Thing.
Don and Jane are Dr. Don Blake (Thor) and Jane Foster (his nurse). Hank and the women with him are Giant Man and the Wasp respectively (Janet Van Dyne and Hank Pym).
The Thing is down at the bottom of the page.

p. 20 The Williams Embezzlement case refers to Simon Williams who would become Wonderman because of his legal and financial problems in Avengers 9. He died the same issue.

p. 21 The engagement was announced in Fantastic Four 36.

p. 23 The escaped convict is the Absorbing Man who Thor fought with in Journey into Mystery 114-115.
The New Avengers (Captain America, Hawkeye, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch) were introduced at the end of Avengers 16.
Frightful Four abduction of Sue Storm was in Fantastic Four 38.
Daredevil fought the Stilt-Man (bottom of page) in Daredevil 8.

p. 18 Bolivar Trask is the creator of the sentinels. He developed the sentinels (mutant hunting robots), but they turned on him about the same time that he decided mutants were not so bad after all. The story is in X-Men 14-16.

p. 20 Mille Collins is an old marvel character that had a romance book "Millie the Model" for years and years at Marvel.

p. 21 The Wedding itself is from Fantastic Four Annual 3. The book itself was a giant fight to end all fights involving tons and tons of marvel heroes and villains. The annual fits into the FF series between issue 43 and 44 I believe.

Pictured are: (Front To back)
(the guy who married them)
Thing, Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, Alicia Masters
Hawkeye, Captain America
Thor, Iron Man, (Peter Parker?), Scarlett Witch, Quicksilver,
?Janet Van Dyne (Wasp) ?, unknown, Daredevil, Dr. strange
Norman Osborne?, J. Jonah Jamison, Willie Lumpkin (the FF's mailman), unknown, unknown, unknown
unknown, unknown, unknown, (4 more unknowns)
(I don't know any of the back two rows)
(I don't know the three back photographers)
At the very back of the room are Dum-Dum Duggan, Gabe Jones and Nick Fury all of SHIELD and the Howling Commandos before that.

p. 22 The all-winners squad was marvel's first hero-group. I believe it started (in the books) late in 1941 and continued for a while to 1946. Those pictured are:
Sub-mariner, Toro, The Human Torch, Captain America, Miss America, the Whizzer and unknown.
The debate between Xavier and Trask I believe is from X-Men 14.

p. 32 Westchester County is where professor Xavier's school is located.

p. 33 Iron Man's battle with the Titanium Man is from Tales of Suspense (68-70?)


Marvels 3

p.1 Photo of Black Widow circa Tales of Suspense 52(first app.)-59.
Wanted poster of Hawkeye. His criminal status starts in Tales of Suspense 57 (first app) and ends when he joins the Avengers (Avengers 16).
Photo of new Avengers as they appeared at the end of Avengers 16.
Photo of original Crimson Dynamo from Tales of Suspense 46.
The magazine cover is from some undetermined point between Avengers 1 and Avengers 2.
A photo of Iron man in his all-gold armor (sometime between Tales of Suspense 40 and 48).
? The Sen. Byrd and weapons test <Tales of Suspense ?>
? Stark and Contessa. The contessa could be the Black Widow in which case it would be referring to Tales of Suspense 52.
The small note with the names crossed out are Phil's attempt to find out the secret government thing (SHIELD) Tony Stark is involved in.

p.2 Again, the secret government thing is SHIELD which first appeared in Strange Tales 135 and which Tony Stark was involved deeply in even before Nick Fury was.

p.3 The Avengers being declared public menaces is from Avengers 21-22. Power-man and the Enchantress basically frame the group until Captain America figures out the frame.

p.4 A scene from just after Avengers 22.
Tony Stark's disappearance I believe is caused by his being  kidnapped by the Manderian in (approx.) Tales of Suspense 75-77. This story is also the first appearance of Ultimo, the Manderian's giant blue robot. The Tony Stark vs. Congress story lasted quite a while so they could be referring to another instance where Stark was in trouble with the committee.

p.5 The first panel shows SHIELD fighting the Eggs of the Deadly Druid (approx. Strange Tales 144-146). Really bad story
as I remember. I don't remember Miss McCann ever appearing. The mention of the Iron Man foundation seems really early in Marvel history relative to when I remember it first appearing. The Iron Man foundation is Tony Stark's Charity organization.
The Iron Man foundation was most likely created during the Archie Goodwin period on Iron Man.

p.6-8 The Flood is from Avengers 26-27. It was caused by Attuma as part of an attempt to conquer the surface world.

p. 9 Spider Man attacking J. Jonah Jamison (from where?)
Fantastic Four - fighting Dragon Man. This is probably from the first Inhumans storyline (somewhere in FF 44-46).

p. 10 Hulk attacking White House ( ???)
The Half-naked savage is Kazar. As far as I can tell, this is from Daredevil 14 or 24. Kazar has been brought to England by his brother (The Plunderer) and framed for murder. His brother turned him over to the police. While he was on trial, the Plunderer attacked a nuclear missile base in the North Atlantic and was defeated by Daredevil. The Plunderer then confessed that Kazar had not murdered anyone. Lord Plunder also accused Daredevil of participation in the murder.

One of the bottom photos is of Captain America fighting Bartoc. (Tales of Suspense 75-76). The other is Hercules throwing a car probably from somewhere Journey into Mystery (Thor) 126-130.

p.11-15 Fantastic Four 48
The Watcher created the illusions to divert the Silver Surfer and Galactus away from earth. It did not work. Most of the rest of the story is from Fantastic Four 48-50.

p. 28 The figure attacking the Fantastic Four is a robot used by Galactus known (I think) as the Punisher.

p. 39 The device is the Ultimate Nullifier. The Watcher sent the Human Torch to get it and as it could destroy Galactus, it
scared him off.

p. 40 Galactus is punishing the Silver Surfer by stranding him on earth.

p. 41 Goliath returning to the Avengers is from Avengers 28. In Avengers 26 or 27, the Wasp was captured by the Collector and the Avengers spent 28 trying to free her. The concept that the public knew that Goliath was Giant man is new maybe. The identities of Goliath (Hank Pym) and the Wasp (Janet Van Dyne) was revealed to the other Avengers at the end of Avengers 28. I don't remember when they revealed their identities to the public at large.

p. 42 Spider Man fighting the Looter is from Spider-man 36.

p. 43 Tony Stark's plants closing because of the defense contracts being cut is from around Tales of Suspense 77 or 78. They were cancelled because Tony Stark didn't show up at Senator Byrd's hearings. Tony Stark didn't show up because he was  kidnapped to China and fighting the Manderian.

p.44 Count Neferia imprisoning Washington DC is from X-Men 22-23. He captured the city with the help of one of the worst
collections of third-rate marvel villains ever assembled: Plantman, Scarecrow, Porcupine, the Eel and the Unicorn.


Marvels 4

p.2-3 (top panel) - Avengers 96 fight in space against a Skrull(?) invasion fleet (Kree-Skrull war). It might also have been a Kree fleet. I don't remember. The characters are Scarlet Witch, Thor, Goliath (Hawkeye version), Captain Marvel, Vision, Quicksilver and Iron man. Captain Marvel technically should not be in the picture I believe by the story.

p.2 (bottom left) Avengers 92-93. The details of a Kree plot to turn the world back to the stone age (Avengers 90-91) leak to the public and a senator demands that the Avengers explain themselves.
p.2 (middle) - The Mandroids (armored Suits) were sent to arrest the Avengers in Avengers 94 for questioning. They failed.
p.2 (bottom right) Avengers 97 - At the end of the Kree-Skrull war, the senator who had been attacking the Avengers is revealed to be the fourth of the four Skrulls who impersonated the Fantastic four in FF 2 (and who got away at the time). The crowd he was speaking to lynched him. I believe the Supreme Intelligence of the Kree (with souped-up powers via contact with the brain of Rick Jones) broke the Skrull's disguise.

p.4 The murder reference to Spider Man involves the death of Captain Stacy in the middle of a battle between Dr. Octopus
and Spider Man. (Spider Man 90)

p.5 Black Widow murder trial. (Daredevil 83)

p.6 "Four wounded in Stark Riot". Iron Man 44-46. Tony Stark for various reasons wants to get out of the defense business. He comes into conflict with his board of directors over that decision. He also comes into conflict with his friend Kevin O'Brian who he has given a suit of Iron Man type armor called the Guardsman to. The fight with Kevin O'Brian is over:
1. A Girl, Marianne Rogers
2. Politics <Vietnam era student protests and the ethics of providing weapons to the military>.
3. The Guardsman armor is driving him insane the more he uses it.

As I remember, the Guardsman offers his services (as replacement to Iron man at Stark Industries) to the board of directors. One of the directors asked him to prove himself against the demonstrators outside of Stark Industries. He gets angry and fires his repulsor rays into the crowd. The impression in this issue was that the demonstrators died. The paper here suggests they were only wounded. At the end of the storyline the Guardsmen ends up getting killed. The whole story is a veiled Kent State reference (Guardsman == National Guard).

The Falcon - Nothing really specific here. This sort of attitude was present all through the Captain America relevance phase (120's to 140's were the high point, limited references after that up to 183 or so).

Captain Stacy (panel 3) - Captain Stacy (Gwen's Father) was killed during a battle between Spider Man and Dr. Octopus. (Spider Man 90)

p.7 The Galactus story is Fantastic Four 120-123. Reed Richards uses the powers of Agatha Harkness to calm down everyone in the city after Galactus leaves.

The eviction thing started in Fantastic Four 126 with the Thing threatening the owner of the Baxter building (Collins) after Collins came up to complain about the Thing hitting something and shaking the building. In Fantastic Four 127, the Torch burned a court order for the group's eviction. The story dragged on as a subplot from there.

p.9 Robbie Robinson is an old Daily Bugle character from Spiderman.

p.10 Luke Cage appeared first in Luke Cage, Hero for Hire 1. Not much else to say. Marvels gives the background on the characters gimmick.
I don't know who the witness is to the death of Captain Stacy.

p.11 The death of Captain Stacy happened in Spider man 90.

p. 12 Hulk in New York ??? (fantastic Four 112?).

p. 13 I believe the objects coming from the Sun are the Sentinels returning to battle the Avengers in 103-104. Starcore was a UN space station that showed up in various marvel books (principally Hulk & Avengers I believe). Starcore was Chris Claremont's creation.

p. 14 I don't recall who Dr. Jorgenson is. It might just be Morbius the vampire and this could be a reference to Spiderman 101-102.

p. 15 The Avengers fight the Sentinels in Avengers 103-104. The fight happens in Australia at least in part.
The pictures are of Dr. Doom and Luke Cage. Dr. Doom did hire Luke Cage at one point, but I don't remember the issue of his book that it happened in or if the two pictures are a  reference to it.

p. 16 I don't remember the issue in which Spiderman captures Dr. Octopus. The fire destroying Yellowjacket and the Wasp's home was caused by the Whirlwind in Marvel Feature 5. At that time, Yellowjacket was Ant-Man again and both he and the Wasp were stuck at six inches in height. The survived the fire, but spent several issues fighting their way to safety while the world thought they were dead. The photo is from their wedding in Avengers 60.

(Bottom of Page)
This is from Daredevil 93-94. Daredevil is living in San Francisco with the Black Widow at this point. The villain pictured is some rich guy named something like Stragg or tragg who stole something called project four which turned him into a giant.

p. 17 Thundra's fight with the Thing at Shea Stadium is from Fantastic Four 133. Thundra was a member of the Frightful Four at the time. She kidnapped the Thing's girlfriend Alicia to force the fight at Shea Stadium. Thundra had the Thing beat and was tricked into giving up the fight when Reed Richards turned the Thing back to Ben Grimm for a couple seconds.

p. 24-28 Sub-Mariner 60. The atlantian citizen kidnapped is actually the red-skinned alien Tamera.

p. 29-35 Spider-man 120-122 - The Death of Gwen Stacy issues.

p. 36 Norman Osborne was the Green Goblin who was killed at the end of Spiderman 122 shortly after Gwen Stacy.

p. 39 Pictures in the pile are: Lizard, Spiderman fighting Rhino, Nick Fury, Black Panther, half-covered in middle (Silver Surfer?), green half-exposed (Beetle?).
Next panel photo is of Hulk.
The Time story is probably from around Avengers 113 or 114. There was a whole story about the protests over the relationship between the Vision and Scarlett Witch. There were a bunch of protestors called the human bombs who tried to kill the Vision by strapping bombs to themselves and blowing themselves up next to him.
The Detroit story is from Iron Man 60. The Masked Marauder is the one stealing the space shuttle.

p. 40 The electrical monster is Zzack(sp) and the story is from Hulk 166.

Photos at bottom of page:
The Black Panther picture (again)
Thing fighting the Hulk from the time of Fantastic Four 25. The picture is a swipe of the cover of the issue.
Triton of the Inhumans driving a truck. The picture looks familiar but I can't place it. Could be Avengers 94-95 or Astonishing Tales.

p. 41 More photos:
Electro, Spiderman and truck-driving Triton again. In the middle of the page, we get the Rhino vs. Spiderman photo again.

p. 42 Ant-Man and the Wasp were discovered alive at the end of Marvel Feature 10. A villain named Nemesis had cured Ant-Man and the Wasp of their size problems. He was holding the Wasp hostage and wanted to use Ant-Man to break into Avengers mansion. Ant-Man outsmarted Nemesis and saved the Wasp. The Avengers discovered him and all the loose ends were cleaned up. This was the end of the Ant-Man series in Marvel feature.

The front cover is Spiderman, the Green Goblin, and Gwen Stacy from Spiderman 122. The back cover is the Avengers from Avengers 96 (Goliath (the Hawkeye version), Captain Marvel and Captain America).