Marvel Treasury Edition #8
This is one of two “Giant Superhero Holiday Grab-Bag” editions of the Marvel Treasury series. Both issues were full of reprints wrapped in a Christmas cover, but at least some of the interior content was holiday-related. I was fortunate enough to snag them both a few weeks ago, so let’s take a look at them, shall we?
Title: Twas the Night Before Christmas (Reprinted from Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #10)
Writer: Gary Friedrich
Pencils: Frank Springer
Inks: Johnny Craig
Letterer: Artie Simek
Editor: Stan Lee
Publisher: Marvel Comics
On Christmas Eve, Nick Fury is summoned to stop the Hate-Monger, a nasty Nazi remnant who has a plan to cleanse the Earth of “inferior” races, unless Nick can stop him. Fury being very much a World War II holdover himself, this sort of story was par for the course for him at this time period. The story itself was fine, but I wasn’t terribly impressed with Gary Friedrich’s script – clunky dialogue like “Save the sobs, sister! I ain’t dead yet!” permeate the story. The artwork isn’t the best either – odd poses and weak faces throughout. But at least this was a Christmas story… not the case with the next one.
Title: Spider-Man Goes Mad (Reprinted from Amazing Spider-Man #24)
Writer: Stan Lee
Art: Steve Ditko
Letterer: Sam Rosen
Publisher: Marvel Comics
In this early Spider-Man tale, J. Jonah Jameson gets the idea to start running anti-Spider-Man testimony from the man on the street, thus removing himself from the equation and making his paper’s bias against the webslinger seem more legitimate. (It just goes to show you the media hasn’t really changed that much in the last 45 years.) When the stories appear, a psychiatrist offers Jameson a medical analysis that says Spider-Man is going mad… and to make matters worse, Spidey starts to believe it. Nice, classic tale from the Lee/Ditko era, fun to read, if not one of the greatest.
Title: Jingle Bombs (Reprinted from Luke Cage, Hero For Hire #7)
Writer: Steve Englehart
Art: George Tuska & Billy Graham
Letterer: John Costanza
Colors: David Hunt
Editor: Roy Thomas
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Set in the days before he partnered up with Iron Fist, on Christmas Eve Luke cage runs into a trio of odd types with a pretty violent vision of Christmas. When Cage stands up to each of them, he discovers a different kind of villain is really behind the whole thing. The story is pretty good here – it’s a different kind of story, not just another Christmas Carol redux, as it seemed it would be. As he often did, though, Steve Englehart got a little preachy with the message of the story. Overall, though, it wasn’t bad, and it was a decent fit for Cage.
Title: Heaven is a Very Small Place (Reprinted from Incredible Hulk #147)
Writer: Roy Thomas
Art: Herb Trimpe
Inks: John Severin
Letterer: Sam Rosen
Editor: Stan Lee
Publisher: Marvel Comics
This story, on the other hand, is just… weird. On one of his many self-imposed exiles in an effort to be just left alone, the Hulk sees a strange little town appear out of the ether. At first, it seems like a paradise, like a place where he could finally be treated like everyone else, but as he continues his journey through the town, things turn out to not be what they seem. It sounds like the set-up for a Christmas story but it isn’t, it’s just plain confusing. Some very nice Herb Trimpe artwork helps, but this is definitely not one of the best efforts from the great Roy Thomas.
Title: Eternity! Eternity! (Reprinted from Doctor Strange #180)
Writer: Roy Thomas
Art: Gene Colan
Inks: Tom Palmer
Letterer: Sam Rosen
Editor: Stan Lee
Publisher: Marvel Comics
This is a much better Thomas story. On New Year’s Eve, Stephen Strange has a strange vision of Eternity, embodiment of the universe, locked in battle against the maniacal entity called Nightmare. He shrugs it off and tries to ring in the new year with Clea, but it soon becomes apparent that his dream was much more than that. It’s a good story with great art, but it ends on a cliffhanger. Considering the stories in this book that had nothing to do with the holidays, one really has to wonder why Marvel didn’t cut those and finish this story.
Overall it’s not a bad little collection, but it could have been better.
Rating: 7/10