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Weekly Update 09/15/19
🕑 Added 2019-09-16 03:46:53 +0000 UTCGood evening to all our generous backers! Hope you're enjoying the overall rise in quality of 70's comics; I know I am!
Something I've been thinking about now that we have our feet planted firmly in the Bronze Age is genre and style. Clearly, this is a time of big genre exploration, with Kung-Fu, Horror, and Blaxploitation all entering the Marvel universe. Something that distinguishes Blaxploitation and Kung Fu is that these genres are often produced by non-white creators, and have a focus on non-white characters and stories. But, to the best of my knowledge, the Marvel offices were not hiring Asian or African-American creators to craft or at even to consult on these comics.
I'm not going to make an argument about appropriation (although there certainly is one to be made); instead, I want to talk about quality. When an Anglo or a Jewish writer sits down in 1974 to write a comic about Chinese heroes fighting Chinese villains using Chinese fighting techniques, it can often feel... inauthentic. There's a feeling of this strange world (to U.S. eyes) of Kung Fu being passed along to us through a filter of someone who is translating what they themselves have only experienced secondhand. Mistakes get made with terminology, philosophies or concepts get muddied or misunderstood, nuance is lost. I don't want to make it sound like only a Chinese writer could write a good Kung Fu comic, just that without a considerable understanding of that world, we're getting a lesser product.
This is part of the reason Black Panther works so well (and hopefully why the upcoming Shang-Chi movie will be great). It feels like a product of a lot of care and attention to getting the details right, and honoring the cultures and people it's leaning on for world-building. It doesn't feel like a film made by someone who took a 10 day sightseeing trip to Africa and called it a day. It feels like a film made by someone who took the time to honor the details... and when we're talking a genre comic, those details can make all the difference between a passable comic and a great one.
This week's episode is Marvel Year Thirteen: 1974 Pt. 2, out Monday, 09/16/19. Please get any 1974 feedback for us to discuss on our next Variant Cover episode by 09/18/19. You can send it to mymarvelousyear@gmail.com
1974 PART 1:
Avengers \ Fantastic Four #127 / #150
Amazing Spider-Man #129, #131
Amazing Spider-Man #135 to #137
Tomb of Dracula / Werewolf by Night #18 / #15
Captain America #170 to #175
Jungle Action #9 to #12
1974 PART :
Daredevil / Captain Marvel / Avengers DD #107, CM #31 to #32, Avg #125, CM #33 to #34
Marvel Premiere / Astonishing Tales #15 / #25
Giant-Size Master of Kung Fu #1
Avengers / Giant-Size Avengers #128 to #129, #2
Incredible Hulk #180, #181
EXTRA ISSUES 1974 (always changing, check the spreadsheet for current):
Defenders #16, 17 Alpha the Ultimate Mutant & Baby Magneto!, Intro of the Wrecking Crew
Man-Thing #1, 3 Start of a Man-Thing solo series. Intro of the Foolkiller!
Doctor Strange #1 to #2, #4 to #5 The first Strange story from Steve Englehart and Frank Brunner. You can skip issue #3.
Marvel Two-In-One #1 The Thing team-up book w/ Man-Thing and the reutrn of the Molecule Man
Amazing Spider-Man #130 The Spidermobile!
Marvel Team-Up #19 Intro of Stegron the Dinosaur Man!
The Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu #1 Martial Arts Magazine!
Giant-Size Creatures #1 Tigra!
Captain America #169 Captain America framed!
Daredevil #111 Intro of Silver Samurai
Giant-Size Spider-Man #1 Dracula & Spider-Man
Comic Book #1 Marvel's Underground Comics!
UPCOMING PODCAST SCHEDULE:
September 16: Marvel Year Thirteen: 1974 Pt. 2
September 18: Feedback for 1974's Variant Cover Due
September 23: Marvel Year Thirteen: 1974 Variant Cover
September 30: Marvel Year Fourteen: 1975 Pt. 1 (w/ special guest)
October 1: Feedback for 1975's Variant Cover Due
October 7: Marvel Year Fourteen: 1975 Pt. 2
October 15: Marvel Year Fourteen: 1975 Variant Cover
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You can find all the My Marvelous Year reading lists here and check out the rest of what Comic Book Herald has to offer here.
Thanks for joining us on this journey through Marvel comics!
