Back Issue #38 Preview

BYRNE’S FF • SIMONSON AND BRIGMAN’S POWER PACK HUNTRESS • BATGIRL • ULTRON • WONDER TWINS • and MORE

“FAMILY”

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THING AND FRANKLIN RICHARDS TM & © MARVEL CHARACTERS, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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Volume 1, Number 38 February 2010 Celebrating the Best Comics of the '70s, '80s, and Today!

The Retro Comics Experience!

EDITOR Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNER Rich J. Fowlks

BACK SEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

COVER ARTIST John Byrne

FLASHBACK: John Byrne’s Fantastic Four: The World’s Greatest Family Magazine! . .3 An in-depth examination of Byrne’s influential FF contributions, with bonus commentary from his editors and inkers BRING ON THE BAD GUYS: Ultron: The Black Sheep of the Avengers Family . . . . . .23 Bad robot! Bad!! Why Henry Pym rues the day he tinkered up this tin terror!

COVER COLORIST Glenn Whitmore

OFF MY CHEST: Marvel Marital Mayhem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 In a guest editorial, Scott E. Williams advises that it’s best to stay single in the Marvel Universe

COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg

PRO2PRO: The Marvel Universe from the Knees Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36 Louise Simonson, June Brigman, and Jon Bogdanove remember Power Pack

SPECIAL THANKS Jack Abramowitz Naif al-Mutawa Roger Ash Michael Aushenker Cary Bates Jon Bogdanove June Brigman Kurt Busiek John Byrne Timothy Callahan Mike Carlin Dewey Cassell Gerry Conway Yvonne Craig Nicola Cuti Fred L. deBoom Kirk Dilbeck Steve Englehart Javier Cuevas Garcia-Hinojosa Alan Gordon Grand Comic-Book Database P.C. Hamerlinck Allan Harvey Carmine Infantino Marie Javins

Dan Johnson Thanos Kollias Paul Levitz Alan Light Andy Mangels Marvel Comics Darrell McNeil Alan Misenheimer Kevin Moorhead Dennis O’Neil Jerry Ordway Carl Potts Tom Powers John Schwirian Louise Simonson Walter Simonson Joe Sinnott Anthony Snyder Joe Staton Roy Thomas Ivan Velez, Jr. Karen Walker Scott E. Williams Marv Wolfman Zan and Jayna Tom Ziuko

PRO2PRO BONUS: The 99 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 A peek at the comic (and theme park!) from Kuwait that features art by June Brigman WHAT THE--?!: Heidi Saha: Warren’s Mystery in an Enigma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45 The puzzling parable of the perky pinup ROUGH STUFF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48 It’s back! Six sizzling pages of pencil artwork, with your host, Tom Ziuko GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD REMEMBERED: Apokolips Then: Or, Suppose They Finished a War and Nobody Came . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54 Gerry Conway recalls the perils of continuing Jack Kirby’s New Gods saga BACKSTAGE PASS: Purple Prose: The Perplexing Popularity of the Wonder Twins . .59 How the Donny and Marie of Saturday morning toons activated their powers on screen and in comics FLASHBACK: Growing Up Gordon: The Early Years of Batgirl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65 Cary Bates, Denny O’Neil, and Batgirl herself, Yvonne Craig, discuss the Dominoed Daredoll and her dad FLASHBACK: The Huntress: The Daughter of the Bat and the Cat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71 Paul Levitz and Joe Staton travel to Earth-Two to revisit their fondly remembered addition to the Bat- and JSA mythos BRING ON THE BAD GUYS: Brother(s) Grimm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79 Spider-Woman’s wacky, wisecracking weirdo nemeses!

GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: The Marvel Family Battles Evil Incarnate . . . . . . .84 The final showdown between C. C. Beck and DC Comics BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87 Reader feedback on “Monsters” issue #36

BACK ISSUE™ is published bimonthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor, 118 Edgewood Avenue NE, Concord, NC 28025. Email: euryman@gmail.com.

Six-issue subscriptions: $44 Standard US, $60 First Class US, $70 Canada, $105 Surface International, $115 Airmail International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by John Byrne. The Thing and Franklin Richards TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2010 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing. BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING. Family Issue

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John Byrne’s cover art to Fantastic Four Chronicles #1 (1982). © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

PROOFREADERS John Morrow and Eric Nolen-Weathington

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To m P o w e r s

If you ask any Fantastic Four fan what is his or her favorite run of the comic, the answer you receive will most likely amount to a toss-up between creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s historic 102-issue, six-Annual collaboration or John Byrne’s five-year tenure as writer/artist for the book in the 1980s. Silver Age purists, naturally, may argue that no other Fantastic Four creator can possibly come close to reaching the brilliant standard set by Lee and Kirby, but one can certainly frame a fair counterargument by pointing out that Byrne not only perfectly captured the characterization and joyful energy of the socially turbulent 1960s Lee/Kirby FF era, but also refined and reinvented it for a dynamically complex, Reagan-era 1980s comics readership.

In the post-Kramer vs. Kramer reality of 1980s America, the divorce rate grew dramatically and the images of single, hardworking parents or doubleincome households and latchkey kids permeated the media. In the midst of this upheaval of the traditional, nuclear-family structure of post-1950s America, adults and children alike, as always, found escapist fare in myriad media—film, television, video games, and our favorite: comic books. Finding Byrne’s always-interesting FF covers shining forth from spinner racks and specialty shops across the nation during this era, comics fans were exposed to stories that took place in such diverse landscapes as New York City, Latveria, the Moon, and the Negative Zone.

These settings, at the same time, functioned on an emotional landscape as well, as Byrne touched upon the contemporary themes of marriage, friendship, and child rearing. Byrne, more importantly, presented us with a superheroic family whose bonds reminded us that families can stick together and work through any problem, whether it is dealing with Dr. Doom’s latest attack or affirming one’s need to be recognized as a powerful woman (in Sue Richards’ case). With great pleasure, then, I present to you an in-depth analysis of the theme of family in this superb era in Fantastic Four history and share interesting comments from the FF-maestro himself!

Fantastic Family John Byrne’s FF, from the Marvel Universe Handbook, and a cover montage from the groundbreaking Byrne era of the title. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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EARLY BYRNE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE FANTASTIC FOUR

Byrne initially pencils the exploits of one member of the Fantastic Four, the Human Torch, in Marvel Team-Up #61 (Sept. 1977), which finds Johnny Storm allying himself with Spider-Man against the Super-Skrull, whom Byrne also illustrates in the following issue. The next member of the FF to be depicted by Byrne is the Thing in Marvel Two-in-One #43 (Sept. 1978), in which Ben joins forces with Man-Thing and Captain America to fight a Cosmic Cube-wielding Victorius. But it is the landmark Marvel Two-in-One #50 (Apr. 1979) in which Byrne, this time in the capacity as both writer and penciler, shows us what he can do with the character.

Recognizing both the tragic and comedic nature of the Thing as Ben Grimm meets his younger self in this issue, Byrne nicely captures Ben in his first depiction of him and shows a shining glimpse of the later greatness to come under his direction for the FF. In terms of his feelings when it came to being given the assignment to both write and pencil Marvel Two-in-One #50, Byrne comments, “[It was] a bit intimidating, but not quite so much so as when I was handed the FF. Two-in-One was kind of like Marvel Team-Up—it allowed me to play with a ‘real’ character, but not in the ‘real’ book.”

Byrne begins to draw the entire team in Fantastic Four #209 (Aug. 1979). On working as a penciler for the Fantastic Four for the first time, Byrne says he experienced “a curious combination of excitement and disappointment.” He also states, “It was the Fantastic Four, after all—but I was being called upon to produce only very loose breakdowns (Joe Sinnott was the inker, and he needed no more than that), plus the initial story was wrapping up a leftover plot from a canceled book. An important lesson I have learned: If a book was canceled, there were not a lot of people who wanted to read it!”

Issue #209’s story serves as the middle part of what turns out to be a Marv Wolfman-scripted ten-issue, galaxy-spanning storyline, which begins in issue #204 (Mar. 1979) and involves plot threads continuing from the recently canceled The Man Called Nova. This saga includes the Skrulls and an epic showdown between Galactus and the Sphinx on Earth, with the Watcher serving as witness. The storyline, in addition, is notable for introducing the robot Herbie (a.k.a. H.E.R.B.I.E.), from the 1978 FF cartoon series, into the comic’s continuity with issue #209 and Terrax the Tamer, Galactus’ newest, and most dangerous, herald in issue #211 (Oct. 1979).

After this storyline ends in FF #214 (Jan. 1980), issue #215 (Feb. 1980) finds the FF once more facing the

Thing Doodles Thing sketches by Byrne from the artist’s 1977 sketchbook. Courtesy of Anthony Snyder (www.anthonysnyder.com). © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Byrne’s First FF Stint (right) Byrne breakdowns with Joe Sinnott finishes from Fantastic Four #210 (Sept. 1979), courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). (below) Herbie the Robot joined the cast in issue #209. Cover by Keith Pollard and Sinnott. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Negative Zone villain Blastarr and a new foe, Randolph, a scientist whose use of his accelerator to heal himself from near-fatal injuries evolves him into a god-like being.

In #216 (Mar. 1980), the evolved Randolph, teamed with Blastarr, enters the Baxter Building and uses a single thought to knock out the Invisible Girl in front of son Franklin. When Blastarr later tries to destroy the portal that leads to the Negative Zone so he can move freely between the dimensions, Franklin’s eyes glow yellow with a fearsome red beam—the result of his cosmically mutated genes—and he displaces Blastarr back to the Negative Zone. As penciler of this tale, Byrne obviously found this development in Franklin’s story interesting as he would pick up this plot thread during his second run on the book. The next issue, FF #217 (Apr. 1980), finds Byrne penciling a tale where the FF’s robotic assistant Herbie meets his heroic fate protecting his beloved human friends, while Spider-Man guest-stars in FF #218 (May 1980), as he joins forces with the FF to fight their evil counterparts, the Frightful Four.

It is not until FF #220–221 (July–Aug. 1980), in which the team travels to the Arctic in order to investigate the source of a worldwide electrical blackout, that Byrne would, at last, write and draw the title. The threat itself

turns out to be benevolent alien natives of the fourth planet of the star Beta Lyrae, who were reversing the polarity of the Earth’s magnetic poles so their ship could leave Earth and return them to their home world.

Reed, then, depicted by Byrne as helpful as always to all lifeforms, assists the aliens by adjusting their ship’s circuitry so they can successfully depart the planet.

The most interesting aspects of these two issues, however, rest with the truth that Byrne immediately keyed into the fact that the FF are a family that practices teamwork by using their powers to complement each another. On the subject of family in the FF, Byrne tells us, “Family—and not dysfunctional family—is the central, key element to the FF. It is an absolutely vital dynamic between the characters.” When it comes to Byrne’s feelings concerning his first shot at both writing and drawing FF #220–221, he reveals, “There wasn’t much to ‘feel.’ Those issues did not begin their lives as Fantastic Four comics. Well, not as such.

They began as a single, oversized promotional comic done for Coca-Cola. When the people at Coke saw the Family Issue

© 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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by

Karen Walker

The destructive robot is a staple villain of comics.

Typically these rampaging machines are little more than the tools of some greater menace; as such, they themselves exhibit little personality.

However, such is not the case with the Avengers villain Ultron. From his first appearance, where this “machine” rants and raves like any human villain, there was a sense that there was far more to him than his gleaming metal surface revealed. What would soon be discovered was that Ultron had connections to the Avengers that ran deep. He is, in a sense, part of the Avengers “family.” As the “son” of founding member Henry Pym, and the “father” of another senior member, the Vision, Ultron affects the team on a level other villains cannot. He evokes strong emotions whenever he faces them. As writer Steve Englehart notes, “I think the ‘killer robot’ is a good villain as a concept, but limited if that’s all he is.

Fortunately, Roy [Thomas] and others had given [Ultron] lots of offbeat aspects to widen him out.

I do think his (at least the lesser versions of him) obsession with Hank Pym, and through the rest of the Avengers, makes his plots against them personal, which is always fun.”

Brotherly Love Big John Buscema paid tribute to his artist sibling, Sal, by recreating his brother’s cover art to Avengers #67 (Aug. 1969, inked by Sam Grainger) in this undated illustration courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com).

Its subject, the rampaging robot Ultron, obviously possesses none of the Buscemas’ compassion toward his family. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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© 1955 Magazine Enterprises.

Throughout his history, Ultron has had two compulsions: to destroy Pym and the Avengers and after that, all of humanity. But his methods became much more personal over the years, leading to his becoming the Avengers’ most hated foe. He has been characterized by his ability to evolve, both physically and mentally.

Although he despises humans, Ultron has always mimicked them— striving, it seems, to become a perfect “man”—or, at least, better than his father. Through it all, Ultron has served the key purpose of letting the reader see deeper into the emotional core of the Avengers. As writer Kurt Busiek observes, “All the best Ultron stories are about family, I think.

And so much of what’s great about the Avengers is that sense of extended family, the relationships among the characters, with Hank and Jan connected to the Vision through Ultron, and the Vision connected to Wonder Man (which ties in the Grim Reaper and the Maggia) and to the Scarlet Witch (which ties in Quicksilver and Magneto) … the web of connections is full of interesting stuff, and the closer you are to the heart of it, the more you can do. Ultron’s right at the heart of it, so he’s ideal for that kind of thing.”

GROWING PAINS

Although Ultron is now considered to be a major villain, this destiny was not evident immediately. Indeed, in his first appearance in Avengers #54 (July 1968), written by Roy Thomas and penciled by John Buscema, he appears to be a rather typical foe, albeit one with a striking appearance, like a mechanical jack-o’-lantern.

Author Thomas describes how that look was assembled: “I’d based my idea of [Ultron] on a villain-robot called Mechano (I think that’s the spelling) in an issue of Captain Video … and he looks a lot like Ultron, so I must’ve sent a picture of him to John. Later, when Sal Buscema drew the climax of his second appearance, I sent Sal a 1950s issue of the ME comic The Avenger [see inset at left] with its robot, for the body.” First seen as the robed and hooded Crimson Cowl, Ultron concocts a plan to get Jarvis, the Avengers’ trusted butler, to betray them and provide blueprints of their headquarters.

He builds a new Masters of Evil and attacks Earth’s Mightiest. In issue #55, he is revealed to be a robot, and his plans are foiled by the team, who amazingly forgive Jarvis for his treachery. Even in these early issues, Ultron comes across as highly emotional—hateful, angry, perhaps even insane. These are odd qualities for a robot.

But no other information about him is given. But despite his intriguing personality, at this point, there’s little to distinguish him from the dozens of foes the Avengers have faced.

However, Ultron would soon return and make a much greater impression. In Avengers #57 (Oct. 1968), Thomas would unveil a new hero, an android named the Vision (based slightly on the Golden Age Timely hero of the same name), who would soon become one of the most popular Avengers. As the story unfolds, the reader discovers that the android’s creator was none other than Ultron. He had created the Vision as an instrument of revenge against the Avengers, but the Vision would turn against his creator and instead join the group.

Although the team defeats Ultron, they are still full of questions— “Who is he? And why is he so fanatical about destroying the Avengers?” asks Goliath (a.k.a. Pym). All would be revealed in the next issue, when Pym would recover a repressed memory and discover that he was Ultron’s creator!

In a flashback, we learn that Pym had been working on building a humanoid robot or “synthozoid.” His experiments lead to the first, primitive Ultron. This strangely shaped mechanism immediately attacks Pym, first calling him “Da da,” but quickly progressing to “Dad” and “Father.” Pym surmises that the machine’s intellect is developing at a fantastic rate, and that “it’s like a living, mechanized Oedipus complex!”

The newly born Ultron hypnotizes the scientist, making him forget about the entire incident. It was only after the Avengers had defeated the robot that Pym would realize that he was responsible for its creation.

That realization would haunt him the rest of his career.

Although they had seemingly destroyed Ultron, he would, of course, come back. And with each new defeat, Ultron’s obsession only seemed to grow stronger.

The next major step in Ultron’s evolution came in Avengers #66–68 (July–Sept. 1969). In this trio of issues, written by Thomas and drawn by a young Barry Windsor-Smith (issues #66 and 67) and Sal Buscema (#68), the robot would gain the physical quality which elevated him to the status of major villain: He became virtually indestructible. In issue #66, Thomas introduced the unbreakable alloy adamantium. While well known to comics fans today as the metal that coats Wolverine’s bones and claws, the original bearer of this substance was Ultron. This addition gave Ultron the ability to be a true physical threat to the Avengers, and elevated his battles with

Ultron Loses His Head This last page to Avengers #57 (Oct. 1968) might have left Ultron for “dead,” but he soon returned.

And returned again. Art by John Buscema and George Klein. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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them to epic levels; however, at times it has also detracted from his real role, that of bringing emotional threats to the team. As Kurt Busiek notes, “A lot of Ultron stories simply treated him as ‘indestructible robot,’ and were all about finding a way to stop the adamantium part. I think that’s kind of limiting. It reduces Ultron to a particular power—invulnerability—rather than treating him as a rich emotional character with strong dramatic relationships.”

DEVOTED FATHER

Readers would see little of Ultron for several years. Although he would crash the wedding of Crystal and Quicksilver in a crossover tale told between Avengers #127 and Fantastic Four #150 (both cover-dated Sept. 1974), his appearance had little impact; almost any antagonist could have been used.

Ultron’s real impact was to be felt the following year, when writer Steve Englehart began to explore the origin of the Vision in Avengers #134 and 135 (Apr. and May 1975). Although Ultron had been depicted

by Thomas as having created the Vision to be his lackey, Englehart had Ultron express a much more personal reason for creating the android: He wanted a son. As the writer explains, “Ultron had seen himself as a son to Hank Pym when Pym created him. It seemed more logical that sons and fathers would be Ultron’s continuing motif.”

Englehart complicated the scenario, however, by showing that Ultron had not created the Vision from scratch, but had actually modified him from the body of the original android Human Torch. The idea of the Vision actually having been the Human Torch first arose during Thomas and Neal Adams’ work together on Avengers in issues #93–97.

Adams included a panel in issue #93 where Ant-Man, traveling inside the comatose form of the Vision, encounters something that seems out of place. However, that vague hint was not fleshed out by the pair.

More Resilient Than the Energizer Bunny® (above left) Ultron is upgraded in Avengers #68; art by Sal Buscema and Sam Grainger and courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). (above) Writer Steve Engelhart built upon Roy Thomas’ blueprint for Ultron in the pages of The Avengers; cover to issue #135 by Jim Starlin (figures and main image) and John Romita, Sr. (floating heads). © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Englehart says, “That plot was well known in-house for years, and since Roy and Neal hadn’t had a chance to do it, I did it on my watch with Roy’s blessing. I always thought it was a great idea.”

Ultron acquired the Torch’s body from the Mad Thinker and coerced the Torch’s creator, Professor Phineas Horton, into helping him create the Vision. The cackling robot insisted that the Vision’s face be red, like a flame, so that he would be reminded of the android’s true origin, which he assumed his creation would never know: “It is the most subtle of jests, Professor! Why do you not laugh?”

Horton is eventually killed by Ultron and the Vision is reprogrammed with Wonder Man’s brain patterns. For years the android knew nothing of his true origins. For the Vision, the realization that he was not a pure creation of Ultron’s, but in fact had been a beloved hero in the past, drastically altered his view of himself, and how he related to others. While the Vision retained his animosity toward Ultron, it now seemed blunted. Hank Pym, however, was not so fortunate.

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As anyone with a spouse can attest, marriage is as often a game of endurance as an exercise of love. Once two people decide to share every day together, arguments will range from the mundane (“When you empty the dishwasher, put the cups in the right cabinet”) to the life-altering (“What do you mean, you don’t want another kid?”).

Fortunately for those of us on this Earth, those conflicts never become like those on Marvel-Earth, where (at least in our BACK ISSUE period of the 1970s and 1980s) households are more likely to face the dangers of sentient robots than malfunctioning washing machines. On that wild world, when a wife tells her husband, “You’re just not yourself,” she might be exactly right—he might actually be her husband’s doppelganger from Counter-Earth!

So, after conferring with a triumvirate of the finest minds in psychiatry (doctors Bart Hamilton, Leonard Samson, and Johann Fenhoff—who oddly insists on being called “Dr. Faustus,” even though it ended very badly for that namesake)—we have come up with a few lifestyle tips that should lead you to marital bliss in the merely magnificent Marvel manner.

WOMEN — DON’T JUDGE YOUR HUSBAND TOO HARSHLY IF HE PUTS YOUR CHILD IN A COMA — IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN NECESSARY, TO SAVE EARTH.

Reed “Mr. Fantastic” Richards might have married longtime love and fellow Fantastic Four member Susan Storm in the 1960s (Fantastic Four Annual #3), but the couple’s relationship would be put to its most severe test in the early 1970s. Invisible Girl (later Woman) Susan Richards had already separated from Reed, feeling that the scientific genius was more interested in his latest gizmo than in her, but in Fantastic Four #141, Reed made a difficult choice that drove Sue into the arms of another man (well, half-man).

Negative Zone villain Annihilus kidnapped Franklin Richards, Reed and Sue’s son, planning to use the toddler’s godlike powers for his own, nefarious ends.

Franklin, born years earlier, was a mutant, born with awesome, reality-altering powers. The FF escaped Annihilus’ clutches, but not before the bug-faced villain increased Franklin’s powers to the point that the now-uncontrollable child was a danger to the entire planet. Father Reed Richards saw no alternative to using one of his devices to place the child into a coma (see Fantastic Four #140–141 for the whole story).

Now fully cut off from her husband and team, Susan sought refuge under the sea with Prince Namor, who was planning to invade the surface (again).

However, in Fantastic Four #149, we learned that Namor was only pretending to be a menace to both

Our Son’s the Bomb! (top) John Romita, Sr.’s cover to Fantastic Four #141 (Dec. 1973) shows a brouhaha in the Baxter Building. (bottom) Panels from that issue’s emotional tale, drawn by John Buscema and Joe Sinnott. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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by

Scott E. Williams

New Yorkers in general and the Richards’ marriage, in particular. He had staged the entire thing, to make Reed and Sue realize how much they loved each other.

And they did realize it, just in time to attend a wedding (in Avengers #127 and Fantastic Four #150) that would launch a marriage so tumultuous it made their own relationship look like quiet bliss—the union of Crystal, of the Inhumans, and the mutant Avenger known as Quicksilver. Killer robot Ultron (see below) crashed the ceremony, only to be zapped into submission by the psionic powers of a revived Franklin Richards.

The family was now back together, and Franklin was fine, although his powers would crop up repeatedly, each time leaving his fantastic family with some new dilemma. Fortunately, Reed Richards never again had to put Franklin’s entire psyche into Time Out.

DO NOT EVEN GET TO KNOW PETER PARKER.

History has not been kind to friends of Spider-Man. The Scorpion crashed J. Jonah Jameson’s wedding to Marla Madison in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #18.

Supervillain Mirage crashed the wedding of Betty Brant and Ned Leeds in Amazing Spider-Man #156.

The couple split briefly, with Betty trying to turn to Peter Parker for comfort, in Amazing Spider-Man #184–195.

Their union ended tragically, with Ned Leeds murdered by minions of the mercenary known as the Foreigner, in Europe (Spider-Man vs. Wolverine one-shot). Poor Ned couldn’t even die with dignity; in Amazing Spider-Man #289, we learned that the Foreigner’s forces had murdered him while he was in the guise of the Hobgoblin, the mystery villain who had plagued Spider-Man since Amazing Spider-Man #238. Writer and Hobgoblin creator Roger Stern later revealed that Ned had been framed, but that would not come until the Hobgoblin Lives miniseries, in the late 1990s.

Longtime Parker friends Harry Osborn and Liz Allen’s marriage ended in turmoil and insanity for Harry, who slowly dissolved into the villainous persona of the Green Goblin in the Web of Spider-Man and Spectacular Spider-Man comics of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

But the late 1980s also gave us a ray of hope, as Peter Parker married longtime on-again, off-again girlfriend Mary Jane Watson in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21. Surely, at least, that relationship would stand the test of time… …right?

Tangled Web of Romance (top left) Spidey lip-locks J. Jonah Jameson for laughs in this panel from 1984’s Amazing Spider-Man Annual (ASM) #18. (top) John Romita, Sr.’s original cover art to ASM #156 (May 1976), courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). (bottom) The Marvel Universe might not remember the Peter Parker/Mary Jane Watson wedding, but we do! Variant covers to ASM Annual #21 (1987), by Romita. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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®

In 1984, Marvel released a new series featuring the adventures of four superpowered siblings. What set Power Pack apart from other Marvel teams is that they ranged in age from 5 to 12—the first pre-teen team of heroes in the Marvel Universe. Receiving their powers from Aelfyre “Whitey” Whitmane, a friendly alien from Kymellia, Power Pack fought aliens as well as threats within the Marvel Universe.

The series was created by writer Louise “Weezie” Simonson and artist June Brigman. For most of the first 54 issues, their adventures were chronicled by Simonson, Brigman, and, beginning with issue #22 (May 1986), artist Jon Bogdanove. It was also the first series written by Simonson and drawn by Brigman and Bogdanove.

I recently had the pleasure of speaking to these three about their work on the book. While I would have liked to speak with all three at the same time, technology prevented me. What follows is a “Pro2Pro” interview with Weezie and June, and then a solo interview with Jon. Special thanks to Dan Johnson for his help during the planning stage.

– Roger Ash

LOUISE SIMONSON AND JUNE BRIGMAN INTERVIEW ROGER ASH: What can you tell me about the development of Power Pack?

LOUISE SIMONSON: Back when I was an editor [at Marvel Comics], Jim Shooter had been after his staff to freelance in addition to their editorial duties. As an editor, I didn’t think it was right to write a book that was already in existence, since it would have meant taking away work from some freelancer who depended on it. I thought it would be fairer if I created something new. I had this idea for little kids who were superheroes and I mentioned it to Shooter.

Sibling Uprising Detail from the action-packed cover to Power Pack #1 (Aug. 1984), penciled by June Brigman and inked by Bob Wiacek. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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by

Roger Ash

conducted June 8, 200 9

He said, “Yeah, okay. Maybe we can do a miniseries.”

He was not enthusiastic. I put together a plot and character descriptions. I didn’t have an artist. Then June came into my office. She and Roy had come into Marvel looking for work. I didn’t have anything available as an editor, but I liked what she showed me and asked if she could draw kids. As I’m remembering it, June, you said that you had drawn kids [while] sketching at Six Flags.

JUNE BRIGMAN: You’re right. Roy and I—Roy is my husband, [artist] Roy Richardson—we were in Marvel looking for work. We were just starting out. We met Weezie and she told us about this idea for a new series and she asked if I could draw children. And I said, yes, I could draw children, but I was bluffing a little bit.

I wasn’t totally bluffing. I had drawn kids some. I had a clue about how to draw children, which was maybe more than most superhero artists had.

SIMONSON: The moral of the story here is bluff.

When someone asks if you can draw something, say you can. [laughter] BRIGMAN: Fake it until you can make it.

SIMONSON: Exactly. If she couldn’t, it would have been pretty clear. The work proved that she could, so who cares if she had reams of experience drawing children?

Anyhow, I gave her the plot and I said we needed character designs for these kids and if I liked what she did, I’d present the whole thing as a package.

If Shooter liked it, we’d both get the job. She came back with these fabulous drawings. It was like all of the children were themselves only pushed a little bit further: Jack was cranky. He got a little crankier in the drawings.

Katie, who at the time was— BRIGMAN: —a little bit of a brat— SIMONSON: —got brattier. And Alex got more oldestchildish, I guess you could say.

BRIGMAN: Responsible.

SIMONSON: Responsible, yes. But bossy and protective, too. And Julie was just her usual sweet self. The drawings were dead-on. I took the package in to Shooter and he said, “This is wonderful.” He was given to hyperbole.

“This is the best presentation of its kind that I’ve ever seen. You have a series!” This was not a miniseries, now, this was a monthly series. I had never written a comic before. June had never drawn a comic before.

The first issue was due in a couple of months. And it was a double-sized issue.

BRIGMAN: It was a huge shock to me. There was no way I was ready to do this. Our poor editor, Carl Potts, was a saint. I think a lot of people would have canned me after that first issue, but he did everything in his power to help me and make it possible for me to produce a regular comic-book series.

SIMONSON: It was so fortuitous. And it just turned out great. Y’know, you go back and read that stuff and it’s really not bad.

BRIGMAN: It reads like a nice Andre Norton story or something.

SIMONSON: That’s certainly what we were trying for.

After we’d gotten the job, June, then you had to design the Kymellians and the ship, Friday.

BRIGMAN: When it came to the Smartship, Carl really did a lot of that. That was more his baby.

SIMONSON: He did a nice job with that ship. Friday was a very important character in the book. The Kymellians were great. Originally, they were going to be rabbits, but when I found out that you liked horses, I said, “Okay. Horses are good.”

Note: Some of these credits were done under the name Louise Jones.

Beginnings:

Writer: “Dragon Slayer” in Monsters & Heroes #2 (1967) Editor: Creepy #79 (1976)

Milestones:

Writer: Power Pack / X-Factor / New Mutants / Superman: The Man of Steel / Steel Editor: Creepy / Eerie / Vampirella / Uncanny X-Men / New Mutants / Battlestar Galactica / Star Wars

Work in Progress:

World of Warcraft (co-written with Walter Simonson, for WildStorm)

louise simonson Photo courtesy of Louise Simonson.

Beginnings:

Astron for AC Comics (1982)

Milestones:

Power Pack / “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego” for National Geographic World / Brenda Starr (syndicated) / The 99 (Teshkeel Comics)

Works in Progress: The 99 / Brenda Starr

Cyberspace:

www.artwanted.com/juneart

june brigman Sketch by Walt Simonson.

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alex

julie

jack

katie

BRIGMAN: Well, I thought horses and then I thought, “What would look more alien?” I thought seahorses are really strange-looking critters, so that’s what they were based on.

ASH: Where did the Snarks come from?

BRIGMAN: I think Carl came up with the legs. I think I did the bodies and heads and he came up with those bizarre-looking legs.

They were really disturbing.

ASH: How did you decide to visualize the various characters’ powers?

BRIGMAN: This was where my lack of comic-book knowledge was both a blessing and a curse. It was a curse because it was very hard for me to come up with these things. But it was a blessing because I was coming up with something different. Other than that, I can’t really remember. Lightspeed was the rainbow.

SIMONSON: That was great. Alex was the weirdest one, wasn’t he?

BRIGMAN: I think that was probably the hardest one for me to come up with, so that’s why it ended up being very strange looking. I think I just had a really hard time trying to figure out how to show a power having to do with gravity. I was trying to think of a symbol.

SIMONSON: The floating-squares design representing gravity was perfect visual symbolism.

BRIGMAN: I don’t know what I was thinking about. It was a pain to draw, too. All those little squares. I wasn’t thinking about drawing it over and over again.

SIMONSON: Jack was simple because he just got cloud-like.

BRIGMAN: Or he could get really small.

SIMONSON: And Katie would absorb the energy from things she touched.

BRIGMAN: She just crackled.

ASH: You mentioned Friday earlier. Were you surprised by her popularity?

SIMONSON: I was surprised by the popularity of the whole thing.

BRIGMAN: It was very offbeat. I can’t think of anything else being done at that time, or even since, that’s been quite like it.

SIMONSON: I thought it would be a kids’ book and it turned out to be a book for everybody. Even Alan Moore liked it. So did Chris Claremont. I was flabbergasted by that.

ASH: What are some of the challenges of writing and drawing realistic kids?

SIMONSON: I don’t think they’re any harder than writing a realistic anybody. You get into their heads and you put yourself in their places. I do that with any character I write.

BRIGMAN: It was easier for me. I always liked drawing the musclebound superhero types. That was always a huge challenge for me, which is part of why I liked it. Children are very natural.

Their body language is very real. I didn’t have a strong background in comics when I was first starting out, but children were

The Kids Are All Right (top) The Power children. (above left) The popular ship Friday, from the Marvel Handbook. (left) From Power Pack #1, Alex and Katie meet Whitey for the first time. © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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© 2010 TMG.

®

During our interview, June Brigman mentioned a unique project she was recently involved with. Even though it doesn’t have anything to do with Power Pack, we wanted to share this fascinating story with you.

– Roger Ash JUNE BRIGMAN: There’s a comic-book company based in Kuwait called Teshkeel that I’ve been working with for a few years now. They have a superhero comic called The 99. They opened a 99 theme park in Kuwait. The whole thing, all over the walls and banners and the rides, features artwork that my husband and I produced for this company. It’s nice to see something like that done with our artwork. I feel a little bit like a diplomat. Kids are into it and enjoying it, so it’s neat.

Editor’s note: Broaden your global comics reading today by discovering The 99. Visit www.the99.org for details—and a free comics download! Special thanks to Naif Al-Mutawa, Marie Javins, and Alan Misenheimer.

(top) A mural in the theme park featuring June Brigman’s art.

Photos courtesy of Marie Javins. (left) The 99 Village theme park in Jahra, Kuwait. (inset) Teshkeel Comics’ The 99: Origins (2008).

Cover art by June Brigman and Roy Richardson. © 2010 Teshmeel Media Group KSC.

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[Editor’s note: This article was pitched to BACK ISSUE after production on our “Monsters” issue, which appeared two issues ago, had already begun. While it would have complemented BI #36’s Vampirella article, we feel it’s certainly at home in this, our “Family” issue, since its subject, Heidi Saha, is the daughter of a sci-fi legend.]

by

Jack Abramowitz

“The Holy Grail of Warren Collectibles” Heidi Saha was only 14 when she was featured in this hard-to-find one-shot magazine. © 1974 Warren Publishing.

Arthur W. Saha (1923–1999) was a science-fiction author and editor, best known for such anthologies as Annual World’s Best SF and The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories. President of the New York Science Fiction Society and a recipient of the First Fandom Hall of Fame award for his contributions, Saha is credited with coining the term “Trekkie” for Star Trek aficionados. But Art Saha’s most lasting contribution to the field of comics was his daughter Heidi.

Heidi Saha was a familiar fixture to readers of Warren magazines and attendees of comics conventions in the early 1970s. She was well known for appearing in skimpy costumes, as Sheena and Vampirella. So popular was Heidi imagined to be that in 1973, she was given her own one-shot magazine and a poster (as Sheena).

Born January 30, 1959, Heidi was 14.

One is tempted to give benefit of the doubt that the 1970s were a simpler, more innocent time, but that’s very hard to do. In all likelihood, publishing the magazine was as creepy then as it is today.

Rumor has it that the magazine was pulped, although some believe it merely didn’t sell very well. (Today, it is a rare collectible, much sought-after but rarely seen.)

We’ll return to the Heidi magazine shortly. First, let’s address some of Heidi’s appearances in various Warren magazines.

Heidi’s print debut may have been Famous Monsters of Filmland #65 (May 1970). On page 30 there appears a column entitled “Professor Gruebeard,” in which the “world’s oldest answer man … deal(s) with as many questions as he can per issue.” The question asked was whether Forrest J. Ackerman (“Mr. Science Fiction” and Famous Monsters editor) had any children. The reply included a photo of Ackerman with his arm around an 11-year-old Heidi and text explaining that “Heidi Saha of Kenilworth, New Jersey … sure knows that her ‘Uncle’ Forry likes ‘kids’!”

Vampirella #29 (Nov. 1973) featured Heidi in an article entitled “Two Vampirella’s (sic) Stun 5,500 at 1973 Comic Art Convention.” The article, by Gerry Boudreau, describes the costume contest at the aforementioned convention. The panel of judges included Sergio Aragonés (MAD, Groo), Tom Fagan (of Rutland, Vermont, fame) and Jeff Jones, a renowned sci-fi and fantasy illustrator, whose work included the strip Idyl that appeared in National Lampoon.

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Please allow me to introduce myself, I’m a man— well, I’m a man with a wealth of tasty comic-art stats that I’ve collected over the years, and I’d love to share them with you.

Tom Ziuko here—you may know my work as a colorist at DC and Marvel over the last three decades, or here as a cover colorist on various TwoMorrows books and magazines. Now I’m excited to come in from the covers to take over the “Rough Stuff” feature.

I believe I can bring a unique spin to this column— before becoming a freelance colorist, I had the privilege of working on staff in the production department at DC Comics. Whenever possible, I would make stats and copies by

To m Z i u k o

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of all types of art as it came through production, and I’m happy to have this forum to present them.

I also plan on expanding the scope of this column beyond just pencil and layout art. Starting next issue, look for the last page of this feature to always be something special—in the spirit of rough stuff, I’ll be running never-before-printed items like model sheets, behind-the-scenes special-projects artwork, and stats of unadorned pristine cover art (before any logos, type, or lettering were added).

Kirby sez: “Don’t ask, just ENJOY!” Couldn’t’ve said it better myself.

Family. According to the dictionary, one definition of the word is: “individuals related by blood.”

Here we have what many readers consider to be the first family of comics—Superman and his cousin Supergirl. The Supergirl pencil art (opposite page) is by Carmine Infantino—page one from the first issue of her 1980s run.

And this image is the final page from the last issue of John Byrne’s ’80s revamping of Superman, the miniseries The Man Of Steel.

TM & © DC Entertainment.

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“Presenting with pride: the epic Ending of Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Trilogy ... the ultimate confrontation between Darkseid of Apokolips and ... Orion of the New Gods.”

Thus began the New Gods strip buried away on page 25 of Adventure Comics #260 (Nov.–Dec. 1978).

Though it’s barely remembered today, the Fourth World saga, probably the most famous “incomplete” series in comics history, was actually granted an ending— it just wasn’t by the series’ creator.

Begun in a flurry of excitement and expectation in 1970 (“Kirby is here!” screamed cover lines and house ads), the Fourth World trilogy was ultimately deemed a failure by its publisher, and its cancellation caused creator Jack Kirby a great deal of heartache. A decade later, DC Comics commissioned him to provide an ending [in the Hunger Dogs graphic novel]: It seems even DC had forgotten the saga had already finished!

The finale began inauspiciously with the publication of the final issue of 1st Issue Special, DC’s none-too-successful experimental tryout book.

“1st Issue Special (FIS) was a peculiar book concept,” explains Gerry Conway, “based on Carmine Infantino’s observation that first issues of titles often sold better than subsequent issues. Carmine’s brainstorm: a monthly series of nothing but first issues. It sounds like a joke, but he was dead serious.”

FIS #13 (cover-dated Apr. 1976) featured the New Gods in their first major appearance since the demise of the Fourth World titles several years before. For the occasion Orion was given a new costume, a wildly inappropriate red-and-yellow number with a big, blue “O” on the chest.

Set “months” after New Gods #11 (Oct.–Nov. 1972), the plot concerns Orion’s discovery that his father Darkseid is arming for a renewed war to be fought on Earth. Plotted by Gerry Conway, with finished dialogue by Denny O’Neil, and drawn by Mike Vosburg, it’s an enjoyable issue, though little more than an extended fight scene.

Kirby Isn’t Coming Readers got their first glimpse of the Fourth World without its creator, Jack Kirby, in (inset) 1st Issue Special #13 (Apr. 1977, cover by Dick Giordano), which was quickly followed by (right) New Gods #12 (July 1977, cover by Al Milgrom).

TM & © DC Entertainment.

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by

Allan Harvey

Newton and Adkins While Kirby fans might’ve missed the King, the Return of the New Gods’ art team of Don Newton and Dan Adkins delivered some impressive work, such as (above) the splash to issue #12 and (right) page 3 of issue #14 (shown in original-art form).

TM & © DC Entertainment.

The revival went no further. “I’m not sure there was ever an intention—at least at the publisher’s level—to go past a ‘first issue’ of the book,” says Conway.

“When Carmine was replaced as publisher by Jenette Kahn, New Gods was an obvious candidate for revival.”

Indeed, once Kahn was ensconced in the hot seat, DC began a program of expanding its line, both with new titles and new formats. Return of the New Gods #12, continuing the numbering of the first series (and, for official purposes, remaining just New Gods in the indicia), duly appeared, cover-dated July 1977, followed in September by a revival of Mister Miracle. The stars of the third book of Kirby’s original trilogy, the Forever People, were not so lucky. For whatever reason, DC has been reluctant (beyond a 1988 miniseries) to give Kirby’s “hippie” superheroes another shot at fame.

“I assume no one was as passionate about them,” suggests Paul Levitz, then-editor of the revival.

Gerry Conway goes further: “I’m guessing it’s because Forever People was perceived as the weakest of the original run of DC Kirby titles (Jimmy Olsen excluded).”

Running for more than a year, Return of the New Gods (RotNG) was written in its entirety by Conway and drawn

by Don Newton (with the exception of a Rich Buckler fill-in in RotNG #15, Dec. 1977). Artist Newton “was amazingly talented and grossly underrated,” says Conway.

“I liked working with Don both on that story, and on Batman, much later.” [Editor’s note: You newcomers owe

it to yourselves to discover the art—and life—of Don Newton, who died much too young, in our coverfeature spotlight on the artist in BACK ISSUE #19.]

The series tells a single story designed to lead up to the big finale of the God-War, thereby (it’s suggested in editorial comments) freeing up the characters to move on in new directions. The main thrust of the story has Darkseid discovering that the long-sought-after Anti-Life Equation resides in the subconscious of six inhabitants of planet Earth. He dispatches his forces to Earth to snatch the unfortunate six, one of whom is longtime New Gods supporting character Dave Lincoln.

The New Gods, who, as written by Conway, act as a quasi-superhero team, race to protect them.

It’s fairly insular, with little sense of the wider world of Kirby’s tapestry. Highfather, Orion, Metron, and Lightray are all present and correct, while fellow Kirby creations Forager and Lonar swell the ranks.

Kirby had featured few female New Gods, so Conway brought in his own character: Jezebelle. Blue-skinned and sporting destructive eye beams, Jezebelle had an Family Issue

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by

John Schwirian

Take a ride with me now in the WABAC Machine, back to Saturday, September 10, 1977! Watch as an eager 13-yearold hastily scarfs down a bowl of Cap’n Crunch cereal and races into the living room. Still wearing his Captain America pajamas, he punches the “ON” knob on the television.

Aching with anticipation as he listens to the hum of the TV set warming up—is he in time? Has it started yet?

After three years of watching the same episodes over and over again, finally, new episodes of the Super Friends!

And then it starts, the familiar beat of the theme song—dum, dum, dum… The narrator introducing the Super Friends—Superman, Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and … the Wonder Twins, Zan and Jayna? And their Space Monkey, Gleek?? What the hey? Where are Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog? Unfortunately, watching the new episodes that season would never reveal the answer. In fact, the animated series, which continued to produce new episodes every year through 1986, never adequately addressed this mystery. Eventually, the Super Friends would travel to the Wonder Twins’ home planet, but the full origin of the Twins and the final fates of Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog would remain unknown.

According to Darrell “Big D” McNeil, who joined the Hanna-Barbara animation studios in 1976, Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog had to go for two primary reasons: 1) they had no superpowers, and 2) they weren’t Donny and Marie Osmond. “When the decision was

Osmond Powers, Activate!

made by ABC to renew Super Friends three years after the first series’ 1973 production,” McNeil elaborates, “ABC and Hanna-Barbara wanted to ramp up (as much as they/we could, considering the mores of the time) the series’ action content. And since we were ramping that up, that meant making all of our cast a bit more serious, and giving our five leads a bit more backup than three non-powered sidekicks. [New sidekicks] also helped emphasize the ‘New’ in All-New Super Friends.”

Now, considering that it was hard enough to develop enough action to keep all five Super Friends occupied, why bother to include kid sidekicks at all?

“For the same reason,” McNeil explains, “kid sidekicks (starting with Robin, Bucky, et. al) were added to comicbook heroes in the first place: audience identification.

You have to remember, back then, kids’ programming meant precisely that: We were writing, producing, etc. for an audience of kids, not ’tweens or adults that happened to like watching kids’ cartoons—ages six to 14 or something like that. And the networks felt that kids watching adults doing action stuff would, through their kid sidekicks, imagine themselves helping their favorite heroes stop the crime/beat the villain/solve the mystery, etc. And that was part of the reason why the Wonder Twins had their own four-minute ‘teaching’ stories added to the All-New Super Friends when the show changed from the half-hour format we started it as to the Hour it became by the time it aired in the fall of 1977.”

Family Issue

(left) One-time TV duo Donny and Marie Osmond’s popularity encouraged Hanna-Barbera to create the Super Friends’ teen members, the Wonder Twins (above). Special thanks to Andy Mangels for the photo and Darrell McNeil for the Super Friends production drawing.

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WONDER TWIN POWERS—ACTIVATE!

Hopefully, we are all familiar with the Twins touching hands and taking the forms of water and animals, but according to page 235 of McNeil’s Eisner-nominated book Alex Toth: By Design!, it wasn’t always that way. An early design for the Wonder Twins had them named Dick and Jane (with Mighty Monkey), and their powers were quite different. Fortunately, Darrell McNeil remembers the development process in great detail: “The original conception of Dick, Jane, and Squeeks (another early name for Gleek) had the duo at first only use their powers when within proximity of each other, meaning that they always had to be near each other. Also, at one time in the development process, they were going to have sunlight (or lack of the same) affect their powers as well … both of which were dropped during development in favor of the now-famous ‘Wonder Twins powers—activate’ touch. Originally, when the twins touched, they had to take their gloves off when they made contact and, in the earliest [episodes], they did. Then Bill Hanna and ABC decided it’d take too much time in animation to constantly show the twins pulling their gloves off, doing the touch, then putting them back on before they changed, so we just had them keep the gloves on.

“Also, power-wise, originally Dick/Zan (a play on Tarzan and Jane, natch) had powers similar to Plastic Man (he could stretch and change his shape), while Jane/Jayna could transform into anything, not just animals (e.g., from the writer’s bible, ‘…a boulder into a bean’), but Hanna-Barbera and ABC both felt that the twins were too powerful in comparison to the other Super Friends, not to mention the villains … and not to mention opportunities for comic-relief gags.

So Barbera, [writer Norman] Maurer, producer Art Scott, and the network scaled their powers down to more manageable water-based and animal forms.”

McNeil goes on to describe the various elements that were incorporated into the final look of the Wonder Twins and their Space Monkey: “Visually, creative producer Iwao Takamoto and design supervisor Bob Singer did the final designs of Zan, Jayna, and Gleek (whose super-long tail was, of course, his superpower). Iwao, as I remember, styled Jayna’s ‘whipped cream’ hairdo after a woman that worked as an animation checker at Hanna-Barbera […] who actually wore her hair like that, minus the ‘whip-tip.’ The pointed ears, of course, came from Star Trek’s Mr. Spock, and their costumes’ purple hues came from giving them a color scheme and colors that none of the other Super Friends had. At one time, they shared the same skin tone as the other Friends, but had purple hair! That was changed to black hair and a darker skin tone to ‘ethnic-ize’ them a bit.”

While the Twins’ powers, names, and visual concepts were in development, the animators and writers also had to come up with personalities for the sidekicks. “What was in our minds (and particularly ABC’s),” McNeil chuckles, “was playing off the popularity of then-stars Donny and Marie Osmond (‘Spacey’ was our variant of a fun ‘insult’ Marie used to always call Donny). Now that I’m thinking about it, I’d almost bet money that ABC told us to ‘Make Donny and Marie alien kids and put them in the show!’”

Don’t believe it? Pull out a Super Friends DVD and listen to the characterization voice actors Michael Bell and Liberty Williams gave Zan and Jayna and then try to convince yourself that they don’t sound like Donny and Marie Osmond.

MEANWHILE, AT THE HALL OF JUSTICE

Two and a Half Twins (top to bottom) Jayna, Zan, and Gleek model sheets, from the collection of Darrell McNeil. © 1977 Hanna-Barbera Productions.

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Prior to the arrival of the Wonder Twins, Super Friends episodes consisted of an hour-long (40 minutes minus commercials) tale about misguided scientists trying to improve the world, with detective work and a little morality lecture from Wendy and Marvin being essential to saving the day. However, the arrival of the All-New Super Friends Hour in 1977 really did “ramp” things up. Kids were now treated to four very different segments every episode. Take, for example, the first episode broadcast—in which the first segment featured Wonder Woman, Batman, and Robin teaming up to stop the futuristic Dr. Cranium, followed by the Wonder Twins saving a pair of mischievous teens joy riding in a “borrowed” airplane. As if that weren’t enough

Super Family The Twins and Gleek join the Super Friends on this promo cover sheet illustrated by Alex Toth.

Courtesy of Andy Mangels. © 2010 Hanna-Barbera Productions/DC Entertainment.

excitement, all five Super Friends and the Wonder Twins then have to stop the “Invasion of the Earthors” in the main segment, and then the show concluded with the debut of Black Vulcan (an African-American electrically powered hero), who joined forces with Aquaman. Wow! More action than a kid could handle! After a while, it felt like the Wonder Twins were the true stars of the show—after all, they were not only included in the full team segment, but also had their own solo segment every week.

Each of the Big Five took turns doing a 30-second “good advice” segment (like Aquaman teaching a young boy to never swim alone, or Batman teaching Robin the Heimlich maneuver), but the Twins (and Gleek) had their own four-minute segment every episode where they used their superpowers to help young people in trouble. As corny as they may seem today, these little “morality” tales did stick in the memory of children and taught valuable lessons like “hitchhiking is dangerous.”

IT’S THE TROUBALERT!

Over the next ten years, the Wonder Twins remained an element in the series, but their level of inclusion varied depending on the series’ format each year.

In 1978, the series evolved, with 16 new half-hour episodes of the All-New Super Friends leading into a second half-hour featuring the Challenge of the SuperFriends, where the core five Super Friends plus six new members faced off against their arch-enemies, who had united as the Legion of Doom. The Wonder Twins were absent from the Challenge episodes, and understandably so! Thirteen villains is a serious threat that required the undivided attention of all 11 Super Friends, and the Wonder Twins would provide an unnecessary plot distraction. However, they remained primary characters alongside the five core Super Friends during the first hour of air-time.

The Challenge of the SuperFriends proved so successful that by mid-season, it expanded to a full 90 minutes (with reruns from the previous season filling the third half-hour)!

In 1979, the series changed names again to the World’s Greatest SuperFriends, a title that stuck for the next five years. The format altered frequently during this time, switching back and forth from a half-hour to an hour time slot. Although primarily running repeats, the series did include enough new animated adventures to keep the series fresh and hold its viewers.

A big change came in 1984. Kenner Toys’ Super Powers action-figure line was selling well in stores, and Hanna-Barbera and ABC took notice.

The series was transformed into SuperFriends: The Legendary Super Powers Show and the plots developed in a manner similar to the Challenge of the SuperFriends format. Apache Chief, Black Vulcan, and Samurai returned and teen sensation Firestorm was introduced to beef up the team as they would repeatedly face new challenges from Darkseid and his allies as well as Lex Luthor,

Brainiac, and other old foes. The expansion in cast and the new focus on Firestorm pushed the Wonder Twins into the background—they appeared in only three new episodes that year. Reruns of previous episodes continued to be broadcast alongside the new Super Powers series, yet ABC mysteriously failed to air any of the new episodes created for that season in the traditional format. Advertising for the SuperFriends: The Lost Episodes DVD states that Hanna-Barbera continued to produce new episodes after ABC decided to drop the series from its Saturday morning lineup. According to “Big D,” McNeil, this is a very misleading statement.

“Trust me: Hanna-Barbera did nothing about the Super Friends without ABC’s approval … or money, since they financed the show. For the ’83–’84 season, as in the previous season, Hanna-Barbera produced eight new half-hours for that season with the intent of having them broadcast; the network ended up not using them. Why? Don’t know … and we didn’t care … we got paid! Two half-hours were broadcast along with the eight SuperFriends: The Legendary Super Powers Show ’84 season episodes … but, as I said, we did nothing on a network show without their approval.”

When Cyborg was added to the show in 1985 for the Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, the Wonder Twins vanished altogether.

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® by

Dewey Cassell Okay, I admit it. I had a crush on Batgirl. Still do.

And not just the TV version ably embodied by Yvonne Craig, but the comic-book version as well.

The timing of the new Batgirl coincided perfectly with my pre-pubescent adolescence.

Barbara Gordon was not, however, the first Batgirl.

That honor belongs to Betty Kane, who debuted as “Bat-Girl” in issue #139 of Batman, published in 1961.

The original Bat-Girl was the niece and sidekick of Batwoman, and intended to be a love interest for Robin.

But when Julius Schwartz became editor of the Batman-related titles at DC Comics in 1963, he retired the original Bat-Girl. Former DC writer and editor Denny O’Neil comments on Schwartz’s intuition: “One of the remarkable things about Julie was, he was wide open to any suggestions. He had been doing it one way since the ’40s, but he was certainly willing to change with the times, and it was he who came up with the business of changing the characters to fit the times. It seems obvious now, but it wasn’t at the time he was doing it.

It became one of my main concerns as an editor: Figure out what made the character unique and popular to begin with and leave that intact, and change everything else.

Julie first started doing that in 1956. He operated on instinct, and his instincts were damned good.” Schwartz’s “New Look” Batman premiered in 1964 in Detective Comics #327. Three years later, the new Batgirl (hyphen removed) appeared in issue #359 of the same title, written by Gardner Fox and drawn by Carmine Infantino.

I’ve Got a Secret Spoiler Alert! That’s Barbara Gordon’s dad, Commissioner Jim Gordon, who already knew Batgirl’s alter ego on the Neal Adams-drawn cover to Detective Comics #422 (Apr. 1972).

TM & © DC Entertainment.

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THE MILLION-DOLLAR DEBUT OF BATGIRL!

Campy Crusader (below) Two shots of Yvonne Craig as ABCTV’s Batgirl, with an inset of the actress reading “her” first adventure in Detective #359. (top right) World’s Finest Comics #169 (Sept. 1967) was written by Cary Bates, who reveals that his editor regarded Batgirl as a “female Robin.” Cover art by Curt Swan and George Klein.

The idea for a new Batgirl actually originated with William Dozier, executive producer of the Batman television series. Dozier was looking for a way to invigorate the show and attract more viewers. He approached Schwartz about adding a recurring female character to the Batman family. Schwartz recalled in his autobiography, Man of Two Worlds, “I asked what kind of girl he had in mind, and as it turned out he had already worked out a possible scenario in his head whereby Commissioner Gordon had a daughter who decides to become Batgirl.” Batgirl debuted in comics nine months before she did on the television show.

The character was a hit, both in the comics and on television. Publicity stills for the TV show depicted Yvonne Craig, the actress who played Batgirl, reading a copy of Detective Comics #359. Batgirl somehow managed to juggle the challenge of being both feminine and powerful, in a way that few other female superheroes had before her, with the exception of Wonder Woman. The stories appealed to male and female readers—a feat rarely accomplished in comics.

As Batgirl writer Cary Bates notes, “It’s been established that the Batman TV show had a big impact on the comics sales, at least when the series was at its peak.” Bates adds, “The TV show often reflected what was going on in the comics at the time, such as the series’ inclusion of the recently introduced Aunt Harriet character.”

There were some differences between the comic-book and television versions of the heroine.

Although a short promotional pilot for Batgirl depicted her wearing a mask identical to the comics, it was changed before the first episode, as Yvonne Craig explains: “The points of the mask would put pressure on my face and make marks (somewhat like sunglasses do sometimes); they were indentations on my cheeks. We would then have to wait 30–40 minutes for my face to plump back up so we could shoot again as Barbara Gordon. When they rounded the mask, that solved the problem and we could go from one shot to another with just a quick change of wardrobe.”

Batgirl’s debut in Detective Comics was memorable in that it showed an attractive, strong female character

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fighting alongside Batman. Her follow-up in issue #363 was an equally strong outing. However, some of Batgirl’s subsequent guest appearances, such as those in World’s Finest Comics, were less noteworthy, featuring more camp and less credibility for the blossoming heroine. Cary Bates observes, “I tend to think Mort [Weisinger, Superman editor] didn’t see her as much more than a female Robin … or as a counterbalance to the addition of Supergirl in a number of World’s Finest stories, some of which I wrote. In the later backup series edited by Julie [Schwartz], she became more interesting as we were able to explore her Barbara Gordon persona with a bit more depth.”

by

Timothy Callahan

Family Tradition

It was December of 1977, and the members of the Justice Society of Earth-Two faced an impossibly grave threat, as one of their own—former caped crusader and now police commissioner Bruce Wayne—demanded their imminent arrest. Forced to flee from the police and, ultimately, oppose more old allies, the JSA gathered its strength and prepared to uncover the mystery behind this newly hostile behavior from a commissioner they had once called a friend.

Another mystery was brewing in that same issue of All-Star Comics #69 (Nov.–Dec. 1977). A shadowy figure with pointed ears hovered in the background, commenting on the JSA’s plight in enigmatic thought bubbles. Could this be Batman, come out of retirement to help out his old pals? But then why was he acting so strange as Bruce Wayne? Who was this bat-like character, and what did he want?

By the final page of the issue, after Bruce Wayne was revealed to be a puppet of the mind-controlling Psycho-Pirate, readers learned the truth of the shadowy character, or at least part of it. This was no Batman, but a woman with a pointy mask and scalloped cape. And she was a character who seemed to have a plan.

She wouldn’t present herself to the JSA until the next bimonthly issue of All-Star Comics, but readers of DC Super-Stars #17 (released the same month as her first mysterious appearance in All-Star #69) learned all about this new character.

She was Helena Wayne, the Huntress, daughter of a most unlikely duo: Batman and Catwoman.

Family Issue

The Earth-Two Huntress (left, detail from the cover of DC Super-Stars #17) was the daughter of the Golden Age Batman and Catwoman (above, detail from page 1 of that same issue).

Art by Joe Staton and Bob Layton.

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THE COMING OF THE HUNTRESS

“Some heroic legends end in a moment of triumph … others in tragedy. But some legends never die…” begins the origin story of the Huntress in a caption juxtaposed with the marriage ceremony of Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle. On that same opening splash page from DC Super-Stars #17, the caped figures of Batman and Catwoman loom overhead, providing a strong visual frame for the matrimonial events as drawn by Joe Staton. The story, written by then-All-Star Comics scribe Paul Levitz, takes the reader through the whirlwind romance and marriage of the two DC icons, and tells the tale of Selina Kyle’s accidental death at the hands of a criminal.

Batman was indirectly responsible for his wife’s death, kicking a criminal whose errant shot pierced Selina Kyle’s chest, and he refused to don the cape and cowl after that tragic event. “Even the grim figure of his daughter, supporting him like a crutch,” reads a caption over a rain-soaked image, “can do nothing to stop his head from sagging

forward … and his soul from wishing for the restful peace of the grave.”

On the very next page of DC Super-Stars #17, the reader finds Helena Wayne, dressed in heroic garb— clearly a sartorial combination of the purple Catwoman clothing and the Batman cape and silhouette— weeping at her mother’s grave. As Levitz’s caption says, “That night, the Huntress was born!”

As the text piece in the back of that issue states, it all began with All-Star Comics inker Bob Layton.

“Layton started to militate for an Earth-Two Batgirl as a member of the Justice Society,” reads the back matter written by Levitz in 1977. “The old Batgirl wasn’t terribly interesting,” says the text piece, “and a revamped revival wouldn’t have had much more potential either … so the idea was discarded. Then penciler Joe Staton jumped on the bandwagon and in his quiet way insisted that we add another girl to the team.

(Ever been stabbed by a super-sharp pencil?) With the whole art team against him, the reluctant writer gave in.

What else could he do?”

Darknight Daughter The Huntress’ enigmatic first appearance, on the last page of the Justice Society story in All-Star Comics #69 (Nov.–Dec. 1977). Original art page signed by Joe Staton and Bob Layton. From the collection of Fred L. deBoom. (below) Huntress and the JSA vs. the Strike Force on the Staton/Dick Giordano cover to #71.

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by

Michael Aushenker

So, what do you do when you’re a hot Marvel writer and you’re assigned to script this third-rate title starring a superfluous, derivative character with unoriginal powers (flying, “venom blasts,” etc.)?

Well … you have fun and you leave them howling like the Wolfman! (Marv Wolfman, to be precise.)

And in Spider-Woman, the “fun” can be summed up by only one character (or is that two characters?): that ridiculous supervillain Brother Grimm.

KISS OF THE SPIDER-WOMAN

With her obtuse S.H.I.E.L.D.-intrigue origin and her original oddball bald-cap look, Spider-Woman was not on the top of any writer’s wish list. So when life gave Marv Wolfman Spider-Woman, he made SpiderWomanade. He and chief Spider-Woman artist Carmine Infantino tried to make the most of this gloriously shlocky, under-the-radar series. And, for the most part, it kind of worked.

Wolfman took Spider-Woman, a.k.a. the chronically unemployed Jessica Drew, and gave her a set of supporting characters that included love interest Jerry Hunt and the little old lady whose house she was a border in: Priscilla Dolly. Then Wolfman threw in an actual wolf-man—Jack Russell—as Spider-Woman’s on-again/off-again nocturnal sparring partner.

The Werewolf by Night appeared in a handful of issues throughout the series. (Hey, Spider-Woman and the Werewolf were both West Coast characters, so give them a break!)

Wolfman also jazzed up the book by exploring the King Arthur mythos, introducing thinly veiled Arthurian characters such as Drew’s magical Merlin-esque mentor, Charles Magnus.

Perhaps the only antagonist to appear in SpiderWoman as much as Werewolf by Night, the bedizen Brother Grimm provided welcome comic relief.

Bonehead of the Class Dave Cockrum’s stylishly designed cover for Spider-Woman #3 (June 1978) may well be the sweetest eye candy of the entire series (the classic Spider-Woman #1 cover notwithstanding). © 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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ONE FUNNY BROTHER

Here’s One Way to Wake Up Your Congressman… …but we wouldn’t recommend it. From Brother Grimm’s first appearance in SpiderWoman #3 (June 1978).

Art by Infantino and DeZuniga. Special thanks to Michael Aushenker for the scan.

Originally, there was one.

A character dubbed Brother Grimm first appeared in Spider-Woman #3 (June 1978). Quite frankly, he looked like a Scooby-Doo villain—the kind that mutters, “Those meddling kids!” at the end of an episode after Fred and the gang have unmasked him.

Brother Grimm is a hoot. He disguises his face in a blank-expression skull mask and dresses in killer Phantom of the Opera leftover duds, looking like one of those skeletal Italian horror comics anti-heroes such as Kriminal. He spouts ridiculous insults and corny jokes.

He throws out snappy parting shots before making his theatrical exit in a puff of smoke. Yes, after he drops his Grimm bomb on foes, he rides off on a cloud or giggles while on a trapeze strung down from a star. No pretentious Dr. Doom, he!

Comedy abounds when Bro Grimm is in the hizzay!

Early on in Spider-Woman #3, when Grimm terrorizes the theatergoers, one of the portly high-society

© 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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women exclaims, “Oh, my God!,” to which Grimm retorts, “Oh, shush, butterball! Your god is probably Porky Pig! Now then, my God is money—you know, shekels, cash—the big green cheese!”

By issue’s end, as Grimm escapes from Spider-Woman on a cloud, he taunts the crimefighter: “So let it serve as a warning, frill—get lost! Buzz off! In other words, kiddo—scramayvoo! Toodle-oo, Gorgeous!”

Technically, Grimm is Spider-Woman’s second supervillain (after #2’s Excaliber) and his debut issue, #3—a black cover (courtesy of the masterful Dave Cockrum) featuring a “big Brother Grimm is watching”style composition with ol’ skull-face looming large over Spider-Woman, in a full-figure pose, trapped in his spotlight—may just be the most stark, memorable, and graphically pleasing of all Spider-Woman covers short of the famous #1.

So, what was Marv Wolfman thinking? And what’s with the whole theatrical connection? (When Grimm first appears, he unleashes mayhem at a playhouse where high-society types are dressed to the nines in tuxes and gowns to see a play … based on Hansel and Gretel! Huh?!?!)

“I honestly don’t remember much of what led up to his creation,” confesses Brother Grimm’s creator, Wolfman. “I don’t exactly remember why the theatrical— that was a long time ago, but the idea behind him was to have two characters who pretend to be one person in order to throw off Spider-Woman’s ability to second-guess them. The humor was to be used as part of the distraction.”

Indeed, Brother Grimm’s wisecracks created nice counterbalance to the super-serious look of the Tony DeZuniga-inked Infantino artwork … not to mention Spider-Woman/Jessica Drew’s angst-y, humorless persona. Whether obsessed about her father or finding gainful employment, Drew kvetched her way through the series like Jerry Stiller with his funny bone surgically removed (“Girl Gone Goth!”).

In Spider-Woman #3, poor Congressman James T. Wyatt can’t get a night’s sleep as Brother Grimm thrashes Wyatt looking for money, and SpiderWoman thrashes Wyatt looking for answers about her father Jonathan Drew … then Grimm and Spider-Woman duke it out, trashing Wyatt’s bedroom.

Was this Wolfman’s genteel commentary on crooked politicians?

“I’ve always had raised eyebrows about all politicians, not only crooked ones,” smiles Wolfman.

Making Brother Grimm a humorous villain appeared to be Wolfman’s way of coping with what was apparently a tedious book for the storied writer/editor, who departed the series after #8.

“I never felt I got Spider-Woman,” Wolfman admits. “She was what’s called a ‘me, too’ character, done in order to make sure nobody else could steal the Spider-Woman name, and all she did was what other characters already did better. I think I changed my approach on it three times in eight issues … because I couldn’t get a handle on what to do with her.

“The humor was used because I love writing humor and could have fun along the way. But it was also used by the characters to provide distraction.”

Wolfman may have left Spider-Woman behind for good—but not before planting some seeds that would bear fruit later in the run after writer Mark Gruenwald took over Spider-Woman with issue #9 (Dec. 1978).

The Marvel Family died more than once for C. C. Beck.

The Captain Marvel co-creator and chief artist’s economically lucid, high-spirited artwork fueled the infectious imaginations of millions of monthly readers during the 1940s—as Cap and Family’s fanciful adventures quenched their escapist desires. But by 1953, the era of enchantment was over. The wisdom of Solomon spoke to Fawcett Publications: Even with the successes of its Marvel Family, the company realized that comic books weren’t as lucrative a business as they used to be. Given that unfortunate reality—and encumbered with ceaseless litigation brought on by Superman’s publisher, National Periodical Publications (DC Comics)—the Fawcetts regretfully sealed the tomb to their comic-book department. The Marvel Family faded into oblivion.

Twenty years later, DC Comics, the very company that ceaselessly campaigned to kill Captain Marvel, was exhuming him and putting him on life support for a new comic book called Shazam! Longtime Fawcett Captain Marvel Adventures illustrator C. C. Beck, after being asked by DC to submit samples (!), came on board as the artist for the revival. But it wasn’t long before Beck became dismayed at the scripts that he was being asked to illustrate. Clashing frequently with the book’s editor, Julie Schwartz, the quickly dissolving partnership came to a head when Beck refused to illustrate two tales slated for Shazam! #11 (Mar. 1974)— stories that he described as “worthless” … one involving Captain Marvel eating out-of-control gelatin, the other with Cap teaming up with Santa Claus. [For all the particulars, dig up “Can Lightning Strike Twice?” from Comic Book Artist #1 (Spring 1998).]

In 1974, months after Beck had officially stopped drawing for DC, editor E. Nelson Bridwell kindly extended the artist an invitation, informing Beck that if he wanted to submit a script, and if it was approved by the DC editorial staff, they would allow him to draw it up. Beck immediately wrote up and sent to Bridwell a script starring the entire Marvel Family called “Captain Marvel Battles Evil Incarnate.”

The story opens with Captain Marvel catching some thieves at a warehouse. He turns them over to the police, saying he will appear to testify at the trial. He turns into Billy Batson and finds himself in the underground hall of statues of the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man. The wizard Shazam appears and tells Billy that though the bodies of the seven evil spirits are imprisoned in the statues, they still roam the Earth and are plotting new revenge. (A flashback sequence shows Captain Marvel fighting the seven evil spirits in

We Are Family The Marvel Family’s revival in DC Comics’ Shazam! proved frustrating for Captain Marvel’s creator. Detail from the cover to Shazam! #3 (June 1973) by C. C. Beck.

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by

P. C . H a m e r l i n c k

Captain Marvel’s creator C. C. Beck (1910–1989) at the October 1982 Minneapolis Comic-Con. Photo by and courtesy of Alan Light. previous stories.) As nothing new in the way of evil seems to be happening yet, Billy goes home to bed, somewhat worried.

While Billy sleeps, the Evil Seven are holding a meeting and discussing ways to get rid of Captain Marvel. A witch appears and says that magic may work against him. She puts an evil spell on a picture, which is given to Billy as a present for Captain Marvel.

Billy puts it on his desk and the spell starts working.

As he reads the paper, he sees that the warehouse thieves have been released from jail by a criminal lawyer, who happens to be one of the Evil Seven.

Billy loses his temper. He turns on the radio and hears another member of the Evil Seven saying that Captain Marvel doesn’t even exist. Billy changes into Marvel and confronts the two, who run away. He finds another of the Evil Seven threatening to foreclose on Station WHIZ, which he is helpless to prevent.

Captain Marvel now begins to see how the forces of evil are working against him, and is so frustrated that he punches a hole in the wall in anger. He is starting to crack up, and gets so mad that he tears up the picture, thus removing the spell that was on him and Billy, although neither of them knew this.

The Evil Seven summon up a horrible demon named Odius and send him off to destroy Captain Marvel. A tremendous fight takes place, the demon is knocked through a window, and Marvel changes to Billy. But Odius comes back and puts a curse on Billy so that he becomes evil. Billy destroys his poster of Captain Marvel and says, “Never mention his name to me! I hate, despise, and loathe him!”

The Evil Seven walk into the Station WHIZ offices, each with an attendant spirit hovering over him.

With One Heavily Edited Script…

They throw WHIZ president Sterling Morris out, take over the station, and demote Billy to “errand boy” and “garbage handler.” All seems lost, but Uncle Marvel sends Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel, Jr. to get Billy.

They have to knock him out before they bring him back, as Billy is now completely evil. Uncle revives Billy and tricks him into saying “Shazam!” The curse on Billy is broken when Captain Marvel appears, and the Marvel Family fly back toward Station WHIZ. The Evil Seven see the Marvel Family coming and try to summon Odius again, but he refuses to appear. Seeing that they are all helpless, the seven evil spirits depart from the bodies they took over and they are left to the mercy of the Marvels. At the end, Captain Marvel says to Mary and Junior, “I guess you could say that they lost their spirits when it came to a showdown.”

That was Beck’s story. It had, he thought, all the old mystery and evil forces of the old stories, and showed how Captain Marvel was almost defeated when the Evil Seven spirits teamed up against him.

Six months passed after Beck wrote and sent in his script to DC, with no response from them.

Finally, waiting in his mailbox, was an envelope from DC. E. Nelson Bridwell had returned Beck’s script to him— severely edited with his scribbled notes and with a completely rewritten script.

Family Issue

…C. C. Beck had decided he’d had enough. Script page with E. Nelson Bridwell’s edits courtesy of P.C. Hamerlinck.

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