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The Marvel Saga #1 (Dec. 1985)

I was lucky to start my teenage immersion in Marvel Comics in 1985 because it was a golden age of reference material. The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition delivered 64 pages a month of in-depth encyclopedia-style reference on every then-important Marvel character. However, I owe most of my understanding of the early days of the Marvel Universe to The Marvel Saga.

Cover art to The Marvel Saga #1 (Dec. 1985), by Ron Frenz and Bob Layton.

For those new to this series, The Marvel Saga is a chronological retelling of the history of the Marvel Universe. Instead of hiring a writer and artist to turn those stories into a new comic book, researcher and writer Peter Sanderson tied it all together using excerpts from the original comics and new text. This could be anything from a single panel to a multipage sequence. The effect is like a comic book documentary that also shows off all the great artwork Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, et. al, created for early Marvel.

The Marvel Saga #1 sets a distinctive and ambitious tone. It starts with five pages of original art by  Ron Frenz and Al Milgrom to set the stage for the debut of the Fantastic Four. It begins with Galactus, the only survivor of the universe that existed before ours, and quickly moves into such cosmic aspects as the Watchers, the Kree, the Skrulls, and the Celestials. There’s a good summary of the origins of superpowered humans, highlighting the roles played by the Eternals, the Deviants, the Inhumans, and the Atlanteans. Especially fun is a panel of a sword-wielding barbarian, who is not named, but I suspect his name rhymes with Zonan. Similar panels show off the Black Knight in Arthurian times, the Marvel Western heroes, and the early World War I and II superheroes.

Then the cast is introduced in two pages establishing the status quo at the time of Fantastic Four #1: Captain America’s frozen in ice, Namor has amnesia, Tony Stark is a playboy weapons manufacturer, Bruce Banner is working on the gamma bomb, Hank Pym is experimenting with ants, Don Blake considers a trip to Norway, Charles Xavier teaches young Jean Grey to control her mutant powers, Stephen Strange is a hotshot surgeon, and, finally, Peter Parker is a happy science student living with his Uncle Ben and Aunt May.. 

But before we get to the events of Fantastic Four #1, we’re introduced to the friendship between Reed Richards and Ben Grimm, and a glimpse of Reed and Sue Storm meeting Gormuu in a then-recent story by John Byrne.

We then get five pages straight out of Fantastic Four #1 showing the doomed rocket flight that gives them their powers. Moving chronologically, it then goes back to the first part of that issue, where Reed calls the group together, then moves to their confrontation with the Mole Man. 

It’s all well-edited and put together. The reader gets the highlights and most relevant moments from the story. And it’s all done on newsprint, so it looks more like the original comics than the deluxe reprints that would soon become the norm. (In 1985, Marvel had published only a couple of trade paperback collections, and the regular reprinting of classic tales in the Marvel Masterworks hardcover series was more than two years away.) 

And then, The Marvel Saga #1 shifts gears again, this time to the backup stories from Alpha Flight #2 and #3, in which Canadian scientist James MacDonald Hudson finds his exploratory cyber suit is to be sold to the U.S. military. He destroys the plans and steals the helmet required to use the suit. Young Heather McNeil, a secretary at the company Hudson worked for, brings him some groceries and sees the helmet. She manages to find her way to government contacts — including, eventually, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau — who brings James Hudson in to head up Department H and eventually form and lead Alpha Flight as Guardian. 

What really got me when I read this issue was that the Hudson story took place in my hometown of Edmonton. That makes Edmonton the first real-life city mentioned in this history of the Marvel Universe. Kinda cool. 

From there, The Marvel Saga #1 recaps the origin and first adventure of Dr. Henry Pym from Tales to Astonish #27, then gets started on the Fantastic Four’s first meeting with the Skrulls in Fantastic Four #2.

All in 32 newsprint pages, no ads, intro and full credits on the inside front cover, and original cover reproductions on the inside back cover. This cost $1; $1.25 in Canada.

What may sound strange about a comic edited together from such disparate sources is that it’s a blast to read. Marvel Saga shines in this early era, where there’s only a handful of threads to choose from and weave into a whole.

Marvel Saga ran 25 issues, climaxing with the arrival of Galactus and Silver Surfer in Fantastic Four #48-50. It’s the kind of thing I wish Marvel would keep available in some way for new fans who want to get a handle on the origins of the Marvel Universe. The recent cheap reprinted stories in the Origins of Marvel Comics and Son of Origins of Marvel Comics are as close as possible. However, reading those first issues doesn’t thread things together in quite the same way, and they don’t connect the early days of Marvel to more recent characters. I hope Marvel revisits and updates this idea sometime soon.

Short Takes: Star Brand #7

Star Brand #7 (May 1987)

It was a longer wait than expected for Star Brand #7, as the series is demoted without notice to bimonthly publication. I say demoted because most of the other books Marvel demoted to bimonthly status at the time turned out to be on their final legs — see Dazzler, The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones, and Star Wars. Roy Thomas steps in to script this issue over Shooter’s plot, and Art Nichols comes on as John Romita Jr.’s inker. Stuck in space, Ken finally notices one star brighter than the rest and realizes it’s the sun. Finding Earth, he goes to his apartment, makes a call, and finds out Deb is in the hospital. Barb finally completely kicks out Ken, who’s finding messages from the Old Man — not dead yet! — demanding back the Star Brand. Ken struggles to find him, eventually using Deb as bait. They have a big rematch and Ken appears to fry him for good — there’s a body this time. Everything settled, he goes back to Deb at the hospital for a happy ending? This was Shooter’s last issue — he’d soon be out as editor in chief at Marvel. Star Brand would enter a kind of creative limbo until issue #11, when John Byrne takes over as writer and artist and begins to completely dismantle everything Shooter built.

Short Takes: Star Brand #6

Star Brand #6 (March 1987)

Ken struggles to do better. His eye wanders at work, where he gets a shot at a sales job. He goes to meet Duck at Denny’s when the Old Man returns and joins them. He says he’s here to warn Ken and they’ll talk later. At home, Laurie acts out, and Barb tries to seduce Ken. Before he can join her in bed, the Old Man shows up with Duck, who’s now in love with him. Ken thinks he’s bamboozled her somehow. Ken doesn’t believe his ears when the Old Man tells him the Star Brand is a weapon, and Ken’s supposed to use it to decide a battle on the far side of the universe. Barb comes down and doesn’t take well to seeing Debbie. The Old Man releases Deb, who later calls and begs to speak to Ken. Barb tells her off and Ken goes to save her, getting in a big fight with the Old Man that goes into space and ends with Ken melting his face off. Once again, Ken’s lost — he can’t see Earth and so doesn’t know how to get home. Rick Bryant joins the creative team, inking some of the later fight pages. His line’s a bit stronger than Williamson’s, but it’s still a nice looking book. There have been no letters columns to date in this series, which is strange for this era at Marvel. There’s no way to see what other readers think of the book, or to announce any creative changes in the book — of which there soon will be many.

Short Takes: Star Brand #5

Star Brand #5 (Feb. 1987)

Here’s where Ken Connell tries to do better. It’s his birthday, and Debbie the Duck shows up at his door to surprise him birthday sex. Then she hides out in his car for two hours when his parents and pals (including Barb) throw a surprise birthday bash. Even Ken is getting creeped out by how the Duck lets him use her. He decides to observe the mystery woman and her accomplices, following them back to a student residence. He finds guns in their car, exposes them, and calls the police. He then flies to Libya and destroys a military base all on his own. This sequence is pretty cool — no dialog or captions for two pages, just Ken blowing stuff up. He then tries to make up with Barb, which goes well, and break up with Debbie, which does not. The Duck makes like she’ll kill herself if she can’t see Kenny, so he backs off a bit. He then goes to Barbs and plans to tell her about the Star Brand, but thinks twice after her daughter Laurie acts out again. Again, this reminds me of something that might have been tried — and maybe even work — as a superhero TV series in 1986. But as a comic, even the Romita Jr.-Williamson artwork can’t make this feel dramatic or interesting enough to really work.

Short Takes: Star Brand #4

Star Brand #4 (Jan. 1987)

John Romita Jr. and Al Williamson return as the art team, which at least gives this issue a nice look. Most of this one is about Ken being a jerk and how he deals with the fallout of being a jerk. Myron elicits a three-page recap of the story so far, then tells Ken the whole story sounds fake. Ken uses his powers to cut corners at work and continues to fool around with Duck — only this time Barb catches him and walks out. Ken mopes and mopes for a few pages until he encounters a strange trio of seemingly super-powered people who use their powers to steal food from a grocery and hide out in the wood. One of them beats up Ken real good, so he goes home to work out and start a journal in a vain attempt to do better.

Short Takes: Star Brand #3

Star Brand #3 (Dec. 1986)

Alex Saviuk and Vince Colletta step in to draw this third issue, so this issue lacks the slick look of the previous issues. Ken Connell in particular looks less interesting and more convincing as the jerk he is. This issue, he lusts after Barb’s teenage babysitter, then goes on a date with Barb but ditches her before he gets laid to take care of a superhero problem. In the Being a Superhero is Hard Department, Ken goes to the moon and vaporizes a mountain on the dark side like no one is going to notice that. He also rips up a couple of Soviet fighters bombing Afghan troops before heading home to bang Debbie the Duck — again. He also notices a classified ad in the newspaper seeking a meeting with the “Flying Man.” Of course, he walks right into the trap — it’s a woman (hot, of course) who says her boyfriend will hurt her if she doesn’t get some info from him. He takes off, and returns after leaving Barb alone in bed to find her apparently beaten up — but it’s faked. The mystery woman and her pals trick him into using his powers to rip open a car door and deflect bullets. They also see his face. Feeling like a dimwit, he goes home to Debbie the Duck. The formula’s already wearing thin, with little of interest happening this issue to excite anyone to come back for another issue.

Short Takes: Star Brand #2

Star Brand #2 (Nov. 1986)

Jim Shooter’s concept for the New Universe as a realistic take on superheroes is on full display, exposing its strengths and its flaws. Ken Connell’s heroic journey shows he’s very powerful indeed, but not very smart. He doesn’t need to breathe in space and can survive a nuclear blast, but he needs help to find his way home to Pittsburgh. He also continues to be a creep to both Barb and Debbie the Duck, and runs into an ex-girlfriend who chastises him for fleeing any sort of responsibility. John Romita Jr. and Al Williamson make this all look slick and realistic to the point of being boring. But all this sets up Ken to try to do better by helping get a little boy out of a well — he’s upstaged when Spitfire and the Troubleshooters get the boy out first — and rescuing hostages held on a cruise ship by “Moslem terrorists.” Ken does little to help the hostages, who are rescued by presumably American commandoes, but he does slam the ticking nuke into the ocean floor and somehow muffle the blast without it hurting him or his suit and with no lingering radiation. This is the hardest pill to swallow in this issue — it’s really easy to believe Ken’s a jerk.

Short Takes: Star Brand #1

Star Brand #1 (Oct. 1986)

Marvel’s New Universe kicks off with this extremely subdued comic about a regular guy in Pittsburgh who rides motorcycles, works in an auto body shop, and is suddenly given the “greatest weapon in the universe.” John Romita Jr. came to this title off of X-Men and gives a kind of quiet dignity to a story that would have worked better in 1986 as a TV series. Al Williamson’s inks are lovely — no surprise there. Ken Connell is a very un-Marvel like character, which is a good thing. He’s also dull and a bit of a creep — he dates a successful woman named Barbie while also dating another woman who appears to have some kind of learning disorder — which is less good. Writer Jim Shooter leaves the big picture for all this overly vague, giving readers few reasons to come back for #2 unless they really want to know if Ken will commit to Barbie.

Comic-Shop Memories: Spinner Racks and Corner Stores, Edmonton, Alta., 1973-1985

I realize the biggest gap in what I’ve written so far is that I haven’t explained my earliest experiences with comics.

My first memory of comic-book material was on television. When I was about 4 — around 1973 — one of the local TV stations in Edmonton aired episodes of the various 1960s DC animated series at about 12:30 p.m. each weekday, right after The Flintstones.

(A side note: The Flintstones ran every weekday at noon on CFRN-TV in Edmonton for pretty much my entire childhood. It was how we measured lunch, as the morning session at school ended at 11:45 a.m. You got home just in time to grab your sandwich or bowl of soup and sit down to watch The Flintstones, and then head back to school after it was over. School resumed about 12:55 p.m., so you usually had a few minutes on the playground before class resumed. I remember visiting Edmonton in the mid-1990s, and The Flintstones was still playing at noon!)

These DC toons alternated, with Superman, Batman, Superboy, and Aquaman all getting a day to themselves. I think Superman may have aired twice.

Then there were the 1960s Spider-Man cartoons. Because this show was produced in its first two seasons by Toronto-based Grantray-Lawrence Animation, the show counted as Canadian content. Even back then, the Canadian government required broadcasters to fill a certain percentage of their airtime with shows produced in Canada. Since Spider-Man qualified, and it was popular, it was in constant re-runs from the 1970s well into the 1990s — usually on the independent channel, CITV-TV.

We had cable back then, but it was minimal compared to what we now think of as cable TV. We got via cable all the local Edmonton broadcast channels, plus the broadcast channels from Spokane, Washington. This included an independent channel, as well as the CBS, ABC, NBC, and PBS affiliates — effectively doubling the number of channels we had. There was no cable box, but every channel from 2 to 13 had something on it.

It was through these channels that we got American Saturday morning cartoons. My earliest memories of Hanna-Barbera shows like Scooby-Doo and Speed Buggy, packages of classic Warner Bros. shorts, and, eventually, Super Friends. For years, getting up to eat cereal and watch cartoons was the best and only way to spend Saturday mornings without exposing yourself to dark and freezing winter conditions.

Before we got Super Friends, there was Shazam! This was a live-action show, made super cheap (not that I knew that at the time), and paired with a second superhero show, Isis. But what grabbed my imagination was the transformation sequence where Billy Batson yelled “Shazam!” and turned into Captain Marvel.

Opening credit sequence to the 1970s Shazam! TV series.

Which lead directly to the first comic book I remember owning: A Shazam! treasury edition I later came to know as Limited Collector’s Edition #C-27. I particularly remember one Captain Marvel Jr. story in which Freddy Freeman was captured at a circus, gagged, and left in a guillotine. He managed to loosen the gag enough to shout “Captain Marvel!” in time to transform — the guillotine blade broke on his neck. Cool stuff!

I didn’t buy that comic — or any others for a while — myself. But there always were comics around. We spent summers at various lake cabins with other families with older kids, and comics were just all over the place. There were plenty of Harvey Comics, Archie Comics, Gold Key Comics, Marvel Comics (especially Millie the Model), and DC books (Batman was popular). With no TV, comics were just what we all curled up and read when it rained or you were just tired from running around outdoors all the time.

When I got a little older, the corner store loomed large in the lives of all the kids in our neighborhood. We were constantly asking our parents for a quarter or two to fund a trip to “the store.” The great thing was you could get just about anything you wanted for a couple of quarters: a chocolate bar, pack of gum, bag of chips, small box of candy, a pack of trading cards (with gum), a bottle of pop, or a comic book.

The store did a lot of business with the neighborhood kids, so the candy and comics — displayed in a classic spinner rack — always were upfront. Located at 12305 63rd Ave., the store did not have a name that I can recall. It was a standard neighborhood convenience store that sold basics like bread, milk, canned goods, newspapers, magazines, and cigarettes. It was owned by a family that came to Canada from Lebanon, and they frequently seemed to sell it to a cousin or brother or uncle — but it always stayed in the family, and they always were very kind to the neighborhood kids.

Such stores were everywhere. Every neighborhood had one. And every one of them had a spinner rack of comics. Comics also could easily be found alongside racks of paperback novels at a drug store, and sometimes in supermarkets. Pretty much anywhere you could stop in for a pack of smokes, a newspaper, or a pack of gum was a place to get comics.

Most of the comics I bought were at “the store.” I remember stopping in one night with my dad, who let me buy a Superman and a Spider-Man — likely The Amazing Spider-Man #162 (Nov. 1976) since I pretty clearly remember Nightcrawler on the cover.

Science fiction was popular at the time, with reruns of the original Star Trek in full swing, so I bought several issues of the Gold Key Trek comic off the racks. I also liked Space: 1999 and The Six Million Dollar Man, and bought the Charlton comics based on those shows. I distinctly remember the story in the John Byrne-drawn Space:1999 #6 — and had no idea he lived just down the road in Calgary at the time.

Star Wars, of course, changed everything. I didn’t see the movie until June 1977, and the first Star Wars comic I saw was issue #3. A friend of mine had a copy of #2, and I managed to score a copy of #1 — the first comic I expressly went looking for — one day at Mike’s Newsstand on Jasper Avenue in downtown Edmonton. Actually, what happened is I spotted the comic there while visiting with friends and, having no money, pleaded with my Dad to go stop by from his office on the way home the next week and buy it for me. And he did!

The treasury editions that Marvel and Whitman published were easy to find, and that’s how I and most of my friends read the adaptation of the movie. Over, and over, and over. They had better printing, too, than the original comics, and were what we now would call oversize.

In the fall of 1977, I bought a copy of Star Wars #7 — the first original Star Wars comic book story. And that was it. I was on the hunt for all the issues after that. I missed #8 and #9, though friends of mine had them and I borrowed or read their copies while hanging out at their houses. Starting with #10, I figured out that Star Wars comics showed up about the third week of the month, usually on a Tuesday. I started timing my searches and successfully bought just about every issue from there through #31. Then there was a stretch where the store stopped carrying comics for a bit, then brought them back in time for Star Wars #39 and the adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back.

The other book I read at the time was Marvel’s Battlestar Galactica. I wanted the TV series to be good, but too many episodes were disappointing fill-in episodes using old Western movie sets. The comic, however, started to get really good after the show was canceled. Walt Simonson took over writing and drawing, and his talent in both disciplines was evident.

The last year of my early comics reading was 1981. The Battlestar comic was canceled. I read Star Wars through #54. And I also had the Marvel Super Special adaptation of Raiders of the Lost Ark, which was the hottest movie of the year. I don’t remember making any conscious decision to stop reading comics, I just moved on to other things.

Marvel Super Special #18 cover.

Fall of 1981 was when I started junior high school, began to earn money by delivering newspapers after school, and became more interested in music and sports — particularly soccer and hockey. Edmonton was then a new addition to the NHL with the Oilers, and had this young hotshot named Wayne Gretzky who played for them. Gretzky and the other young stars of the Oilers were not much older than me — I was 12, they were around 20 — but their on-ice heroics made them appear almost like real-life superheroes who lived in our midst.

I don’t think I bought another comic until 1985, when I dug out my stack of Star Wars comics and rediscovered them. That lead me to the 7-11 and my purchase of Star Wars #96 — and I’ve never stopped buying comics since.

The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones (Marvel) #1-34

In the past month, as promised, I’ve read the entire run of Marvel’s The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones (Jan. 1983-March 1986). I completed reading the run in time to brush up on Indy’s past in 1984’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and the brand-new feature Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.

Harrison Ford in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Harrison Ford in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

I’ll start off by saying that Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of my perfect movies. I love it unconditionally, and have since I first saw it at the Westmount Cinema in Edmonton in the summer of 1981. At the time, Alberta’s movie ratings system required a parent or guardian to attend with kids under age 16. So, I had to talk my Mom into taking me the first time. She expected to be bored stiff, based on the title, but thanked me afterward for making her see the movie. I saw the movie at least a half-dozen times that summer — sometimes by buying a ticket for Superman II and then sneaking in to see Raiders. Sometimes, I got caught, and sent back to watch 10 minutes or so of Superman II before re-sneaking in to Raiders.

Marvel Super Special #18: Raiders of the Lost Ark. Cover art by Howard Chaykin.

Unlike Star Wars, Raiders didn’t inspire a flood of merchandise. I don’t remember there being any Raiders toys, though I did have some action figures from Clash of the Titans, which came out around the same time. There was a novelization, which I read and enjoyed, and Marvel Super Special #18, which adapted the movie. The really enjoyed this adaptation, which was written by Walter Simonson, penciled by John Buscema, and inked by Klaus Janson — all under a terrific painted cover by Howard Chaykin.

I stopped reading comics shortly thereafter. I was 11 going on 12, about to enter junior high school, and toys and comics were giving way to hockey, rock music, and secret crushes on the girls in my class. So I missed Marvel’s continuation of Raiders, which started in the fall of 1982 and roughly spanned the period in my youth when I didn’t collect or read comics.

Somehow, over the years, I acquired the full Marvel run, but had never sat down to read it until now. The series is wildly uneven, and mostly unremarkable. It never really achieves the kind of high points that Marvel’s Star Wars found, even with plenty of top-notch creators involved.

The difficulty in doing an Indiana Jones comic in 1982 was apparent right there in the first issue, which featured a story and layout by superstar John Byrne, who also contributed a plot and layouts to the second issue before leaving the title to make room for Alpha Flight. Byrne’s story is quite talky — more like a Sherlock Holmes story than anything.

David Michelinie had the longest run on the title, taking over with issue #4 and writing most everything through issue #23. This was roughly concurrent with his run on Star Wars, which produced some of the best Marvel issues set in a galaxy far, far away.

But Indiana Jones was a tougher nut to crack. For one, the character operated in a more realistic world than most comics. It was difficult to find distinctive villains that weren’t retreads of the Nazis. And it was more difficult to create plots where a “finder of rare antiquities” could play the hero. And incorporating the pulp fiction-style supernatural elements was even more difficult.

For most of the series, Indy went on missions for his pal Marcus Brody on behalf of the National Museum, based at Marshall College in Connecticut. Marion Ravenwood showed up and Marcus hired her as a publicist for the museum, assigned to tag along and document Indy’s adventures to promote the good work the museum was doing. At least she did until issue #25, when she abruptly left the series and never returned. This was around the time Temple of Doom, in which she didn’t appear, was released. Short Round made a brief appearance in one issue, but that was it.

The style of action Raiders delivered also was difficult to recreate on the comics page. The workhorse artist of the series was Herb Trimpe, a true comics journeyman who brought a more conventional style of art to the character.

But nothing really works. Even when artists like Chaykin and David Mazzuchelli contributed to the series, it was flat and dull. The covers from Terry Austin, Chaykin, and Michael Golden were the best part of the series,

Sometime after Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was released in 1984, there was a shift at Lucasfilm that affected both the Indy and Star Wars comics. Interest seemed to evaporate, with both titles eventually being demoted to bimonthly publication for their final year before cancellation.

The later issues of Indy’s comic, however, were some of the better ones. Linda Grant took over writing the series, and Steve Ditko drew a number of the later issues. The results were more entertaining, though still falling short of anything that inspired further reading or required the continuation of the series.

I think Indiana Jones definitely could work as a comic. It takes so much inspiration from the serials of the 1930s, which in turn took inspiration from the pulp fiction mags that preceded comics and the great adventure comic strips of the era. Terry and the Pirates is as close to a blueprint for Indiana Jones as you’re ever likely to find. Tapping into Milton Caniff’s approach would seem the obvious way to make good Indiana Jones comics.

I know Dark Horse published many Indy comics in the 1990s and beyond. I think I’ve only ever read one of them, and it must not have made any impact on me as I never read any more. If there’s a good one I missed, let me know.

Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Back to the movies to wrap this up: My friends and I bolted out of school the Friday Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom opened to get in line for a screening at the Paramount Theater on Jasper Avenue in Edmonton. We’d heard about the bugs scene, and one pal brought a pack of Goodies candy to toss from the balcony during the bug scene. I don’t remember being able to see any kind of reaction, but it was fun.

I still love the Temple of Doom. It’s not as good as Raiders, but I love the freaky energy, the pulpy thrills, the strangeness, the dark plot, and even the tension with Willie Scott and the friendship of Short Round.

I’m not as thrilled with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, which I saw opening weekend with my girlfriend at the time in Scottsdale, Arizona. Temple of Doom had been roundly criticized as being too dark for kids, inspiring in part the creation of the PG-13 rating. So Last Crusade played it safe, following the pattern set by Raiders for its plot, and injecting some humor with Sean Connery arriving as Henry Jones Sr. It should have worked, but it played more like this was a character brought in to prop up the ratings in the third season of a TV series that was running out of gas. I felt pandered to, at least a little bit.

Sean Connery and Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

I know I saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull when it came out, but remember only the chase sequence at the start of the film and Indy’s silly hiding in the fridge to avoid being nuked scene.

Harrison Ford and Cate Blanchett in
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

So, that brings me to Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. I’m a bit predisposed to liking it because I have interviewed director James Mangold and came to enjoy his work: Copland, Walk the Line, 3:10 to Yuma, The Wolverine, Logan, and Ford v. Ferrari. I liked the movie a lot — it’s not as good as Raiders, and probably not quite good enough to knock out Temple of Doom as my No. 2 favorite, but it has enough style and nostalgia to feel like a real Indiana Jones movie. And in this day and age, that’s enough.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Harrison Ford in
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.

Thanks for the thrills, Indiana Jones!

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