Rob is joined by podcaster Tom Panarese to discuss the all-new MARVEL TREASURY EDITION #25, SPIDER-MAN VS. THE HULK! AT THE WINTER OLYMPICS!
Check out images from this comic by clicking here!
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Opening theme by Luke Daab: http://daabcreative.com. Closing music by Hanna-Barbera.
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WOW!!! Just Wow! Marvel’s two biggest stars, at the world’s biggest sporting event, presented in the biggest comic format! Let the games begin! Wow, this comic is a must have for me. I’ll have to start putting some money aside for when I find a copy. Mantlo and Trimpe always brought the fun to their stories and this one is overflowing with sheer comic book joy. This is what I love about comics. Chaos, big over the top concepts, thrilling action, impending doom, but in the end, the good guys save the day and everything is pretty much ok.
Now, about the Contest of Champions… I loved that too! It’s one of my favorite comics ever for all the reasons I listed above. I think it probably benefited from not being attached to the Olympics. Tom DeFalco’s forward in the trade collection is almost as fun to read as the book itself as he reminisces about the books creation. His story about how he and Mark Gruenwald were called into Shooter’s office after the Marvel
Offices received tons of fan mail pointing out they had goofed up the ending is priceless. Gruenwald proved fast on his feet and quickly explained it was all to set up a sequel! Nice save.
Thanks for another fun episode!
Fun show guys! I have never read this one, but it sounds pure Bronze Age Marvel. I like Trimpe’s work a lot during this period. When he tried to hang with the Image style in the early 90s…not so much. But he was just trying to stay employed. Really sad.
I guess since Contest of Champions was the first mega character crossover mini-series, you can point to it as the father of books like Secret Wars and even Crisis on Infinite Earths, so this book is the grandfather, maybe?
For a number of reasons, the Olympics have lost their luster for me over the past decade and I don’t really watch and/or keep track of any of it. However, I’m always down for a good Treasury cast, and you guys didn’t disappoint. And the tie-in with the Lake Placid games pushed a few nostalgia buttons, as I have fond memories of watching a lot of the events, esp. the speed-skating (Heiden’s 5 medals!) and that now legendary performance by the US hockey team, with my dad and older brother.
By the way, tied in to something Tom said about women’s figure-skating, I think that competition has always been a marquee event and received a great deal of media coverage – well before the 1990s. When I was a little kid in the 1970s, Peggy Fleming (the 1968 medalist) was still a household name, while Dorothy Hamill (the 1976 gold medalist) became America’s sweetheart, appearing in talk shows and TV commercials and even getting her own TV special. Heck, such was the media attention that I still remember (without having to look it up) that the big US star at the Lake Placid games was Linda Fratianne, who ‘only’ won the silver.
Otherwise, when you guys were talking about how unfortunate it is that the treasuries basically disappeared before they could showcase the work of artists like Sienkiewicz or Simonson (something that I’m sure has been discussed before), it struck me that a real missed opportunity was Marvel not doing a Battlestar Galactica treasury while they still had the license featuring all new material by Walt Simonson. Man, that would have been epic…
At last! My all-time favorite treasury! I read my copy to shreds. I don’t have the front cover anymore and half the back cover is gone. But no matter, it’s still a classic.
I read through it again after I saw your podcast posted, so it would be fresh in my mind. A couple things:
Wow, not only Peter, but everyone in Lake Placid is really into Brad. He even got a Russian, a Frenchman, and a Canadian to risk their lives all for the cause of making Brad’s girlfriend hot again. Hope he didn’t start a cult after his skiing career was over, because Heather has Squeaky Fromme written all over her.
Come to think about it, this whole treasury was about looks. Everyone is horrified when Mole Man’s henchmen are unmasked. The Olympians battle to the death just to get Heather’s looks back. And the Lava Men ditch Kala after she’s no longer young and pretty. There’s your lesson, kids: unattractive people have no use to society.
I’m pretty sure the man smoking a cigar in the crowd shot with his back to the viewer is supposed to be Jack Kirby. I’m guessing, but since Trimpe is an obvious Kirby acolyte, it makes sense.
The most unrealistic part of this book is that the Olympic athletes would have issues with getting an unfair advantage during their contests. Oh, Mantilo, you sweet summer child.
Lake Placid on stilts reminds me of Bruce Wayne’s Wayne Foundation penthouse. Trimpe should’ve drawn someone flying off the edge in their luge sled.
Finally, Rob, thank you so much for letting me relive this absolute masterpiece of superhero goodness. I’d bobsled through an army of lava men to read this treasury.
Great review of a classic, Rob and Tom. In my head canon, Brad was that jock who never picked on Peter. I Bet he even stuck up for him or called out the other jocks on their behavior when he had opportunity. That would engender a lot of loyalty from Peter. It might also make Brad the kind of guy who would quickly develop rapport with his neighbors in the Olympic Village.
I 100% agree that it was a great misfortune for fandom that DC and Marvel stopped publishing treasuries when they did. There were so many legendary artists the treasuries never got to showcase. In fact, before this episode, I already had “Walt Simonson Thor” on my personal list of treasuries I wish had been published — you know, just in case anyone ever asks. 😉
I immediately went to George Perez. Imagine the amount of rubble he could cram into a Treasury spread!
Great episode guys! A lot of fun. I did not have this one so I had never read it. Sounds like a trip! Strange, since although I was not a Hulk reader, I grabbed everything with Spider-Man on it that I could find.
Ah, if the Treasuries has continued into the 1980s… like Chris, I also went to Perez. Could you imagine early issues of New Teen titans or Wonder Woman in Treasury format? Or better yet if we had actually gotten the first JLA/Avengers and they published it as Treasury?? Drool….