Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
| 1989-09-01 00:07:40 |
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Marvel Comics Presents #50 (Captain Ultra & Silver Surfer)
Issue(s): Marvel Comics Presents #50 (Captain Ultra & Silver Surfer stories only)
Cover Date: 1990
Captain Ultra
Title: "I just flew in from Poughkeepsie... (and boy are my arms tired!)"
Credits:
Scott Lobdell - Writer
Dennis Jensen - Penciler
Jeffrey Albrecht - Inker
Silver Sufer
Title: "You can't go home again"
Credits:
Ed Simmons - Writer
Jack Sparling - Penciler
Christopher Ivy - Inker
Kelly Corvese - Assistant Editor
Terry Kavanagh - Editor
Review/plot:
Captain Ultra is a jokey character, and this is another of Scott Lobdell's jokey Marvel Comics Presents stories. I guess if we must have a story about Captain Ultra, it makes sense to make it a comedy, but i don't have to like it.
Doc Samson has been treating Captain Ultra for his psychological fear of flame, and he declares him "cured".
And this is a very silly story full of celebrity caricatures. The people of Poughkeepsie don't want Captain Ultra around, so they convince him to go to New York.
We see him there at an improv comedy club.
Which is something that Lobdell did as well, and (what's left of) this story is about Lobdell's experience with hecklers in the clubs.
Or maybe he's pushing back against people like me that don't like our super-hero comics to be so goofy.
The Ekl'r may think that Captain Ultra's Ultra Joke is funny, but i sure don't.
Meanwhile, the Silver Surfer collides with a black hole (wait, what?).
He winds up on a planetoid ruled by someone called by the Marauder (the Surfer has heard legends of him, but this is his only appearance).
The Surfer is without his board, and he somehow uses the "singularity" (i.e. the black hole) to get it back. Everything about this is so awful - the story, the art, the science - that i feel obligated to publish lots of scans of it, so that we may all bear witness to the atrocity.
The Surfer defeats the Marauder and takes his prisoners, some of whom were from a planet that Galactus ate while they were imprisoned - to a new world.
Quality Rating: D
Historical Significance Rating: 1
Chronological Placement Considerations: The MCP have the Silver Surfer story before Silver Surfer #28. The Captain Ultra story just needs to take place while Doc Samson and Doctor Octopus are free. It's a jokey story, so the idea that Doc Ock is visiting a psychologist shouldn't be taken to suggest that he's currently being held in a mental institution like he was circa Fantastic Four #267. He can just be going in for scheduled treatments, with Doc Samson i guess unaware that he's returned to villainy.
References:
- We see a quick flashback of Captain Ultra's appearances in Fantastic Four #177 and Defenders #62-64.
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: N/A
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Comments
Fnord, the way you label these MCP strories makes them sound like they will be the most bizarre team-ups ever.
Silver Surfer and Captain Ultra!
I've considered splicing up the scans to pretend that they are one integrated story, just to make things more interesting for me, but i didn't want to confuse anyone.
You know, if you just wanted to skip MCP and any other series that was just a dumping ground for unused filler stories, I'm willing to pretend that they weren't cannon
You never know what will turn out to get referenced though, and sometimes the creative teams are noteworthy, and i do just like to have the atrocities documented. But i wouldn't be offended if everyone just assumed i started my traditional break between years a week or so early and came back when i started 1991.
Did the cure to Ultra's fear of fire stick? He's actually pretty powerful without that, and I thought he might become more prominent after this. But the jokey nature of the story (and his atrocious costume) probably worked against that.
If you are going to have random bipedal aliens that look exactly like humans, why not at least make them a different color like Stan Lee did with the Kree. In fact, it'd be better if anytime we enounter aliens who look just like human, paint them blue and call them Kree colonists. It will get rid of 99% of the aliens who look just like human. I can believe the Kree have various abandoned colonies. I can't believe so many alien races look like humans.
Also, if you need fake technobabble, rather than try to use real science, come up with something new. Instead of a black hole, use instead "Negative Zone singularity". Then you can do whatever you like with it and not have people groan (as much since the rest of the story is horrible).
Considering this was about the same time period as the Wolverine/Wild Child story Rob Liefeld threw out, I think I rather have Captain Ultra, even if the tale is a joke or terrible.
Some information on the cameos/easter eggs of the first story is available at http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2016/02/02/comic-book-easter-eggs-classic-tv-character-cameos-in-comic-books/#more-203524
The splash panel of the Captain Ultra story is a homage to the Superman work of Wayne Boring. The women are exactly in his style.
