Ricky Jackson

Thor 167-179 Well, this is it. The last Kirby issues on the title. Like with FF, the end of Lee-Kirby Thor is a mix of uninspired and fun. 167-69 is the last peak of the run, telling the full origin of Galactus after slowly building to it since 160. I had never read these issues before. When I was a kid I had the "Supervillain Classics" one-shot that reprinted the origin parts of these issues. I believe that was when the actual creation aspect of Galactus' origin was finally tweaked, because in Thor it is the cliched "being gets power from radiation (a sun in this case) because reasons" method of granting powers. Other than that, these were good issues, as Thor and Odin basically come to realize that Galactus just "is" and decide to leave him alone. Then comes the uninspired stuff. Issues 170-174 are pretty much entirely forgettable, and all are one and done stories. A quick recap: evil commies are dusted off and recycled one last time, bringing the threat of the Thermal Man, the Wrecker returns for a rematch, Jane Foster returns for one story where a wealthy dying old man attempts to steal Thor's body and gain immortality, Ulik and the Circus O' Crime return for a rematch, and Thor faces the Crypto Man (yawn). Issues 175-179 (excluding 178) are Kirby's swan song, and also like the end of his FF run, he exits after the first part of a continued story. 175-177 feature Loki finally gaining control of Asgard, taking advantage of Odin doing the Odinsleep (again?) and Odin's guards being much too easily swayed by Loki's argument to stand down because he is the blood of the All Father (but guys, he's a BAD GUY!) Anyway, by possessing Odin's Ring Imperial all Asgardians must now obey Loki and bow down. Luckily, Odin being indisposed means that Surtur the God of Fire has been released from his prison and now attacks Asgard, leaving Loki to show his true colors and cowardly escape to earth rather than help his fellow gods defend the realm. Also luckily, Balder the Brave retrieves Odin from the Death Demension just in time for the big guy to unleash one of his patented deus ex machina endings and save Asgard. Thor sure needed Odin to bail his ass out a lot! I'm assuming Deadline Doom then struck, because the next issue is a fill in by the man who would become synonymous with Thor post-Kirby, John Buscema. Here, Thor faces the Stranger and Hulk baddie the Abomination, and we get one last deus ex machina to save the day. 179 is the issue that was supposed to be 178, and we get an old fashioned body swap between Loki and Thor to kickstart a new storyline. Neal Adams does the next two issues to finish it off. I'll likely read those just to put a bow on things, then I'm putting a pin in Thor for now. All in all, Lee-Kirby Thor was pretty damn great most of the time. The peaks were 114-139 and 148-169, with some issues being skippable. The lows weren't really that low, although 143-147 was not my cup of tea and, as mentioned, 170-174 was on cruise control. A great run for sure, both Lee and Kirby were at their best here

Yeah, Verne was basically an NWA member in all but name. I think it was mostly so he could promote a world champion (usually himself) that prevented it ever being official. He did go to war with the NWA over LA in 1969 but didnt last long against stacked NWA cards

Stampede did a "Bermuda Triangle match" in 1987, between Great Gama, Ben Bassarab and Viet Cong Express #1 (Hiro Hase), with elimination rules

Three way dance was definitely their signature match in the early years

I guess WCW (Atlanta) won the war after all

Thor 154-166 These issues are pretty good, with Kirby developing a more epic style, characterized by multiple full page spreads per issue and more complex costume and tech designs. Issues 154-157 are notable for being the first real Ragnarok storyline (the concept was previously touched upon in the Tales of Asgard backup strip). The menace is Mangog, a being comprised of "billions of billions" of people condemned to imprisonment by Odin at some point in the past and accidentally freed by Ulik of the trolls. Basically, he has infinite strength and all of Asgard must unite to stop him. All except Odin who is conveniently indisposed by the Odin Sleep. Also conveniently, Odin awakes just in time to put an end to Mangog by ending the curse of the billions of billions and setting them free. Reading so many 60s and 70s comics over the last year, the use of deus ex machina resolutions in the final pages of a story is ridiculously high. One drawback of binging old comics is all the cliches and repetition that was easier to take in monthly installments. Next was a two parter that finally explained the whole Don Blake mystery, probably done mostly to shut up the letterhacks who had been complaining that the original premise of Blake as an independent person who existed prior to discovering Mjolnir had been long ignored by Lee and Kirby and no longer made sense. This was followed by a true high point of the run, a three part story featuring Galactus vs Ego the Living Planet, with Thor and the Recorder (observation: one of my favorite obscure Marvel characters) only able to witness this epic cosmic struggle from the sidelines. Until the next deus ex machina climax that is, which leaves the conflict between Galactus and Ego unresolved, basically the comic book equivalent of a 60 minute Broadway between the NWA champ and a top challenger you didn't want to beat. However, an interesting development of this story is Odin's discovery of a being such as Galactus and a growing obsession with finding out how to destroy him before he decides to consume Asgard. 162 features the first telling of Galactus' origin, brought on by Odin's request, in order for him to understand this grave threat better. Next is a two-parter featuring the return of Olympian villain Pluto, last seen in the Hercules issues in the 120s, and his overly complicated revenge plan on Thor that requires going to earth's atomic ravaged future and bringing back "mutates" as his minions. Not a high point of the run. A subplot from this two-parter leads to another two-parter, this one featuring the return of Him, the future Adam Warlock, from the FF. It's interesting to see, beginning with issue 160, the book basically turn into a vehicle for fleshing out Kirby concepts created for FF, first Galactus and then Him, and as I pause, the ongoing Galactus storyline is about to reach a climax. Kirby clearly wanted to develop these characters, and they do fit in the Thor world, especially such a grand cosmic being like Galactus. Very interested how it all plays out

The best Pedro matches I've seen from his later period are two from Boston Garden vs Bob Orton, 11/9 and 12/7 1985. One of them, I think 11/9, is legit great imo. Early 80s Pedro has good stuff from MSG against Patera (10/20/80), Slaughter (6/8/81), and Muraco (11/23/81), but also a lot of boring stuff with long ass front facelock spots (make sure you get the Muraco date right, because they have multiple stinkers vs each other from the same time period)

Yeah, I just follow AEW through the threads here, but last night there were tumbleweeds blowing through here when funkdoc posted about Andrade's debut. My first thought was "really, tonight?". A lot of the usual viewers weren't even watching. Christ, even MoS wasn't watching. Seems like this was a debut that should've been given top priority rather than just tossed out with little fanfare on a night Dynamite was bumped because of the NBA

Hey, it's Johnny Sorrow's birthday and a few of us are getting together for a Mystery Titans Theatre watch tonight. If anyone here has the time, drop by the Twitch stream, watch along and wish the old man a happy birthday in the chat https://www.twitch.tv/jarviswashingmachine?sr=a Tonight we will be viewing a show from Johnny's old stomping grounds, the Philly Spectrum, specifically July 7, 1984, featuring Piper vs Snuka, Hogan vs Orndorff, the great Murdoch and Adonis team, plus cult favorites, wacky ref bumps, and several once great wrestlers far past their prime!

It's been told that way by certain folks in the past, but I think the plan was for Warrior to hold the belt and work the houses while Hogan filmed Suburban Commando and/or took time off when Nick was born, similar to Savage in 88. Hogan even got the major 1990 main event program with Earthquake, while Warrior was put in a repeat feud with Rude. It's often been reported that Warrior tanking on top led to Hogan being given the belt again, but I dont buy that. Hogan was Vince's guy, only the steroid scandal ended it all, and even then, he put the belt back on him as soon as he could at 9. I'm not sure exactly what happened post-9, but i dont think houses with Hogan on top did very well, plus Hulk was angling to get out of wrestling and trying to make a go as a movie star full time, so motivation to keep him in WWF from both sides wasn't strong

1993-1996 Hogan is the worst main event babyface of all time. What a strange time looking back. Coupled with WWF being pretty lame, I thought wrestling was near death around the summer of 95 and had pretty much stopped watching. A turnaround seemed impossible to me. Yet, by the fall things were slowly getting better and I was hooked again (WWF), although didnt get fully back in until the rise of NWO and Austin

Thor, 140-153 After expanding the scope of the book and hitting major epic heights in the 130s, it was necessary to scale things back a bit. After all, if everything is epic, then nothing is epic. So issues 140-142 are a return to New York and one and done stories. You get the Growing Man and Kang, Replicus (in a very typical Kirby criminal redemption story) and the Super Skrull from FF, and it's fine. The next multi-part story, featuring Asgardian villains the Enchanters, starts with 143. This story didnt really hook me and the resolution in 145 is a low point in the run so far imo. Basically, Odin defeats the last Enchanter (weirdly off panel) and returns after battle to throw a major, and pretty random, temper tantrum that sees him strip Thor of his godhood, although he remains super powerful, so it's not really as significant a development as is portrayed. Anyway, now trapped on earth, Thor literally joins the Circus (of Crime) in a nonsensical development. I mean, I love me some Circus O' Crime, but this was pretty goofy, as Thor is portrayed as being completely unaware that this is a supervillian group and not a legitimate circus. The less said about issues 145-147 the better. Next, Loki finally returns, and is also stripped of godhood by Odin, or something. This is the beginning of a long storyline that sees the debut of another fave, the Wrecker (mistakenly given godlike powers intended for Loki in an unintentionally comical turn of events), Thor having a near death experience, the Destroyer and Ulik returning, and a ridiculously high number of Manhattan buildings reduced to rubble as collateral damage. A cease fire with Loki comes at the end of 153, and Thor is finally back to his full power as things pivot towards the first major Ragnarok storyline. These issues were definitely a mixed bag. Most were good, and the art is top notch as always, but the 143-147 Enchanters/Thor banished to Earth/dumb Thor joins the circus story was the very definition of lackluster, with Odin's behavior in particular being illogical, even for a character established as being prone to unpredictable mood swings. Thankfully, the Ragnarok story starting in 154 is a return to form

Cool find and super interesting info!

Yeah, I've always hated the one-fall triple threat/multiple man matches. The first triple threat I ever saw, a match in Stampede in 1987 called a "Bermuda Triangle" match, had elimination rules, as God intended. It was years before WWF/WWE used the gimmick and of course they had to fix what wasn't broken (can't remember if the original ones were one-fall or not)

Absolutely. Especially for a weekly show. And 5 or so big shows a year, with a smattering of Clash/SNME style medium sized shows. Basically the ideal wrestling TV formula peaked in the early 90s. One reason I loved NXT from 2015 to 2019 (but really the high water mark was the Philly Takeover) was because they followed that blueprint

Looks great!

As a kid I haphazardly collected Batman when Colon was the artist. Of course I had no idea who he was, I just liked Batman. I've been curious how those hold up, since I eventually became a big Colon fan. His work on Tomb is great, and I'm just about to start his Daredevil run with #20. When I was young I could be put off with his idiosyncratic style since it didn't look like what I thought a superhero comic was "supposed" to look like, but going through it now I love all the unusual angles, moody atmosphere, and feeling of constant motion in his art

Glad you enjoyed Titans and got into the era. Never say never but...Well, I guess a better cliche would be "you can't go home again"

Man, I need to get around to that eventually. I started the Dr. Strange Essential volume that collects all the Strange Tales but only got to around 127-28. That was nearly 20 years ago. I'm a huge Ditko fan, I dont know why I never finished it

Funny, I was looking over threads from 10 years ago just the other day because I was curious what people were posting about when I first started lurking here. I noticed this thread and the other Strangler Corleone threads and totally remember when they were first posted. I even thought about bumping some random 10 year old thread just for the hell of it. A lot of posters here that still post plus a bunch that used to post a lot. Anyone know if FLIK is still wrestling? Here's the legend himself if anyone is curious https://www.wrestlingdata.com/index.php?befehl=bios&wrestler=1159&bild=0&details=7 Hasn't worked since 2014

I have no idea, but I'm guessing Japan is, like most of the world outside of the US and UK, and countries with small populations, struggling with having enough vaccine supply? Here in Canada for example, we have been doing well with first doses, but only 3% of the pop has been given second doses because we are limited supply wise, unable to produce domestically and mostly relying on European delivery. But again, I have no idea what the situation is like in Japan other than the rollout has been very minimal so far

Hulk, 1971-72 Just a few thoughts on issues 148-158 to put a bow on Ol' Greenskin for now... Archie Goodwin is the writer for most of these issues and he does a good job. Some of my favorite stories of the 102-158 run come here. 149 is maybe the best of the alien foes issues, with some fun use of Marvel continuity and a neat little twist ending straight out of an EC science fiction mag. 151 is also strong, with the story of a man with cancer being given gamma radiation and the horrific consequences that come from it. 152-53, written by Gary Friedrich, feature the Hulk on trial, with every Marvel superhero involved, in a story that stretches suspension of disbelief to its limits. Goodwin returns to continue the ongoing storyline of the Hulk/Banner attempting to reunite with Jarella in the microverse. I like this romantic development, and 156, taking place in Jarella's world, is also a highlight. Goodwin's run comes to a strange end, with the Leader and the Rhino returning in 157 for his last issue, and then Steve Gerber does a fill-in for the second part in 158, with the questionable decision to shoehorn in Counter Earth and the New Men from the then ongoing Warlock comic. Oh well. Next up is Steve Englehart's run, which seems to be more fondly remembered, but I'll take a bit of a break from Jade Jaws before getting to that. All in all, this nostalgic trip was mostly fun. Definitely not prime Marvel from the era, although there were a fair amount of highlights during the Thomas/Goodwin issues (121-158). Check them out if you have an affinity for the character

I couldn't imagine being live for a 7 hour Mania. And then having to deal with transit issues or traffic after

Mania's 2016-2019 sapped my very will to live, but I dont know if boring is the right word

At some point in the early 80s, Boesch went with Watts for talent. Prior to that I believe he was with Joe Blanchard from San Antonio, and Fritz Von Erich in the 70s. But with Watts, Houston basically became part of Mid South/UWF, whereas with the previous arrangements, it was independent and ran its own programs and main events