Monday, June 19, 2017

Marvel-ous Monday: "The Mark of the Metazoid" by Drake, Heck, and Tartaglione

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Okay, the honeymoon's over with Captain Marvel. With ish #5 (June 1968), Roy and Gene have abandoned our Space-Born Super-Hero leaving writer Arnold Drake and penciler Don Heck to take over. Yeah, the mood changes very swiftly, and the direction is already shifting, but Ol' Groove's gotta say that I still dig this ish. The villain is kinda generic, and Drake's story is a bit overwrought--but that's one of those things that makes the Groovy Age so groovy to moi. And a lot of you are gonna disagree, but I dig Heck's energetic, open, dramatic pencils on this particular ish, and inker John Tartaglione stayed pretty true to Heck's style. To Ol' Groove, Dashin' Don was really good at sci-fi slanted comics, and "The Mark of the Metazoid" is a doggoned good sample of what he could do!






















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6 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 19, 2017 at 12:58 AM

    Where stalks the Metazoid!!
    One of the issues of Captain Marvel I don't own and haven't read. An interesting issue about two characters that have a lot in common--both soldiers from militaristic societies who question the morality of their governments and their individual missions.
    Thanks, as always, Groove, for showing a forgotten corner of the Marvel Universe. An interesting post.
    Any plans for showing any of the old, pre-Starlin Power of Warlock issues? For some reason this put me in mind of that.

    Cheers,
    M.P.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rip JaggerJune 19, 2017 at 4:14 AM

    One of my sentimental favorites for sure. I missed Gene Colan, but to my young eyes the Don Heck artwork here had a bit more punch, more in keeping with what I expected from superheroes. The Metazoid is rather scary but alas was soon forgotten.

    Rip Off

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  3. pfgaviganJune 19, 2017 at 5:41 AM

    Hiya,

    I've got this one, or at least the tattered remains of a copy, somewhere in my collection.

    Always thought that some of Mr Heck's difficulties at Marvel were due to the pressure placed upon him to do panel layouts in a more dynamic style than he was used to.

    Still, I do enjoy his work but believe that either Colletta or Shores would have rendered a more pleasing finish to the pencils.

    Thanks for the memories.

    pfgavigan

    ReplyDelete
  4. keythd23June 19, 2017 at 8:48 AM

    Don Heck taking over a comic caused an immediate drop in quality, sometimes pushing a title from the top of heap to the bottom. Much like he did with Iron Man from #26 on, Mr. Heck brought Captain Marvel down from the heights of Thomas/Colan to an also ran. The title would struggle from that point on until revitalized first by Thomas/Kane then reaching the pinnacle under Jim Starlin. Arnold Drake, who wrote the very un-DC like Doom Patrol, never seemed to fit in or shine at Marvel and wasn't around for too long.

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  5. Charlie Horse 47June 19, 2017 at 7:34 PM

    This is an important post! Colan's art preceding this is undoubtedly some of my favorite from bronze/ silver age! Don Heck's art hurt me here, with Daredevil too, very much. I dropped the titles.

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Special thanks to Mike's Amazing World of Comics and Grand Comics Database for being such fantastic resources for covers, dates, creator info, etc. Thou art treasures true!


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