Marvel Comics In The 1960s by TwoMorrows Publishing

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Marvel Comics in the 1960s:

An Issue by Issue Field Guide to a Pop Culture Phenomenon by Pierre Comtois

TwoMorrows Publishing Raleigh, North Carolina

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Marvel Comics In The 1960s

An Issue by Issue Field Guide to a Pop Culture Phenomenon Written by Pierre Comtois Edited by John Morrow Designed by Richard J. Fowlks Proofreading by Eric Nolen-Weathington

TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive Raleigh, North Carolina 27614 www.twomorrows.com • e-mail: twomorrow@aol.com ©2009 Pierre Comtois and TwoMorrows Publishing First Printing • August 2009 • Printed in Canada Softcover ISBN: 978-1-60549-016-8

Dedication

To Stan, Jack, Steve, and Don

Acknowledgements The evolution of this work from conception to publication was a long one and could not have been accomplished without the input, aid, and assistance of a number of people, including Louis Beaudette, an older boy in the neighborhood who first introduced me to Marvel Comics in 1964. In later years, long conversations about favorite artists, writers, and books with fellow Marvel fans supreme Greg Montejo, Ron Zimmerman, Chris Porter, and Steve Gomes helped crystallize my thoughts on those subjects and motivated me to put them down on paper. Partial posting of an early version of the work on Nick Simon’s Silver Age Marvel website inspired me to consider it as a possible book project, and after submitting the completed manuscript to a number of publishers, TwoMorrows Publishing had the wisdom to see its worth. Thanks, too, to Jerry Boyd for the gift of some wonderful scans. Much love to Heritage Art Gallery (www.ha.com) for their voluminous vault of original artwork. A huge tip of the hat to the Grand Comic Book Database (www.comics.org) for some real heavy lifting cataloging creators of comic books. Visit www.pierrevcomtois.com.

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Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Part I: The Early, Formative Years . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Part II: The Years of Consolidation . . . . . . . . . . 57 Part III: The Grandiose Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Creator Spotlights: Stan Lee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Jack Kirby. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Steve Ditko . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Don Heck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Bill Everett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Joe Sinnott . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 George Tuska . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Gene Colan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 John Severin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 John Romita . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Jim Steranko . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Marie Severin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Herb Trimpe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 Roy Thomas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 John Buscema . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Barry Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Key Marvel Moments: Merry Marvel Marching Society . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Marvel Swag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85, 141 F.O.O.M. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Marvelmania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Contents

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Copyrights The following images (as indicated by the page number each appears on) are ©2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. Used with permission. Ant-Man (28, 110) Aunt May (90) Avengers (40, 83, 85, 168, 174, 217) Black Bolt (168) Bucky (137, 223) Captain America (83, 137, 141, 223) Captain Mar-Vell (178) Captain Savage (123) Combat Kelly (123) Daredevil (66, 128, 155, 166, 192, 206, 221) Dormammu (135) Dr. Doom (127, 150) Dr. Strange (43, 52, 135, 186) Fantastic Four (14, 33, 81, 85, 104, 125, 150, 159, 182) Galactus (125) Gwen Stacy (163) Giant-Man (58, 59, 83, 148) Green Goblin (144) Hercules (98) Hulk (20, 31, 33, 58, 62, 72, 85) Human Torch (45, 55, 141) Iron Man (24, 53, 58, 74, 75, 83, 119, 141, 146, 184) J. Jonah Jameson (80, 165) Leap Frog (155) Magneto (50, 77, 216) Mandarin (75) MMMS and Marvelmania club artwork (4, 73, 168) Mr. Hyde (70) Not Brand Echh (183) Peter Parker (110) Rawhide Kid (12, 14) Sentinels (109) Sgt. Fury/Nick Fury (58, 121, 188, 200, 214) Silver Surfer (125, 150, 202) Spider-Man (24, 37, 45, 47, 53, 55, 58, 85, 90, 93, 110, 112, 127, 128, 133, 141, 144, 162, 165, 198, 201) Sub-Mariner (81, 100, 146, 210) Thing (18) Thor (25, 40, 58, 62, 70, 77, 83, 98, 116, 140, 142, 168, 171, 172, 196) Vulture (53) Wasp (59) Watcher (104, 125) X-Men (50, 83, 109, 216)

Action Comics, Adventure Comics, All American Western, Aquaman, Batman, Blue Beetle, Boy Commandos , Challengers of the Unknown, Deadman, Doom Patrol, Flash, Forever People, Girls’ Love, Green Arrow, Haunted Tank, Hopalong Cassidy, Justice League of America, Lois Lane, Mandrake the Magician, Martian Manhunter, Our Army At War, Robin, Secret Hearts, Snapper Carr, Superboy, Superman, Wonder Woman TM & © DC Comics. Black Magic, Headline Comics, Fighting American, Young Love, Justice Traps The Guilty TM & © Joe Simon and Jack Kirby Estate. Creepy TM & © Warren Publications. Crime SuspenseStories, Weird Science, Weird Science-Fantasy TM & © EC Comics. Frankenstein © Universal. Indiana Jones TM & © Lucasfilm. Kull, Spyman, Horrific, Weird Terror, Danger, Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion, Smash Comics, Doc Savage, James Bond, Flash Gordon, The Spider TM & © respective owners. Race For The Moon TM & © Joe Simon. Secrets Behind The Comics, Mrs. Lyons’ Cubs TM & © Stan Lee. Shield TM & © Archie Comics. Sky Masters of the Space Force TM & © Jack Kirby Estate. This Magazine Is Haunted, Daring Love, Cheyenne Kid, Weird Tales of Suspence TM and © Charlton Comics.

Bibliography The World Encyclopedia of Comics, Maurice Horn, ed.; Avon Books (1976). Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World’s Greatest Comics, Les Daniels, ed.; Marvel Entertainment Group (1991) Comix: A History of Comic Books in America, Les Daniels, ed.; Mad Peck Studios (1971). “Jack Kirby Collector,” John Morrow, ed.; TwoMorrows Publishing. “Alter Ego,” Roy Thomas, ed.; TwoMorrows Publishing. “Comic Book Artist,” Jon B. Cooke, ed.; TwoMorrows Publishing. “The Jack Kirby Checklist,” TwoMorrows Publishing. “Pure Images,” edited and written by Greg Theakston, Pure Imagination. “The Comics,” published and edited by Robin Snyder.

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Introduction

hy a “field guide?” Simply put, because the latest comics or those young at heart who’d simthere was a lot to like about Marvel Comics ply like to reacquaint themselves with old friends in the 1960s, when everything about the after many years. Designed for the casual browser as company seemed new and anything was possible. well as those already familiar with its subject, the But all that was almost a half-century ago and book can be read from the beginning or opened at Spider-Man, Hulk and their costumed cohorts have any page for quick reference. What allows such verbeen with some of us since before we were born. By satility is the book’s unique format which includes a now, everyone knows all about them, they’ve text divided into easily digestible, quick to read become the latest cultural icons and have proven “capsule reviews” of hundreds of the most importheir staying power in movies, books, computer tant (and a few not so important) individual issues games, even theme parks. What need to go back to of Marvel Comics from the 1960s. These capsule pre-historic times to find out more about them? The commentaries not only provide brief but succinct short answer is that most people don’t know all about roundups of the action and significance of the them, the company that spawned them, and especial- comics discussed, but also who wrote and drew ly the creative minds of the them, where the creators editors, writers, and artists received their inspiration, that invented them. Today, what their backgrounds more than ever, with tens were and where it all fits into of thousands of people the pop culture scene of the becoming newly interested times. Here, the reader will in the universe of Marvel be introduced to pop-culture heroes, an easy to use guru and mastermind of handbook or “field guide” to Marvel Comics, Stan Lee; their origins is indispensable. the pulse-pounding art of That’s the reason this action king, Jack Kirby; book was written (and its the inscrutable master of subsequent volume covering psychological and angstMarvel’s Twilight Years), ridden art, Steve Ditko; the to provide a handy, easy to cool master of psychedelia use and, especially, fun refand fast track pop-art, Jim erence volume for anyone, Steranko; the free form, near whether youngsters whose photographic realism of Before Stan Lee there was Joe Simon; Jack Kirby’s other partner through the only familiarity with the Gene Colan; Lee’s heir 1940s and ‘50s. characters is from movies or apparent and second editor Introduction

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of the Marvel line of to open up the stuffy books, Roy Thomas; the world of art criticism to pre-Raphaelite beauty of include the creative artist Barry Smith; and products of pop culture. many others including Colliding with the artists Neal Adams, John rising popularity of Buscema, Gil Kane, Tom Marvel Comics of the Palmer, Dan Adkins, mid-to-late 1960s, these Wally Wood, John trends opened the public Romita, and Don Heck. mind to the worth of But before plunging such products of popular into the deep end of the culture as comic books pool, a reader might do and the possibility that well to first orient himself they could be more than regarding just how disposable art created Marvel Comics fit into the for children. bigger picture of the At the center of that comics industry itself. sea change in popular Even the company that perception was Marvel was to revolutionize editor in chief, Stan Lee comics, after all, didn’t and his chief lieutenants, spring full-blown from Jack Kirby and Steve The furor spearheaded by Dr. Frederic the brow of Stan Lee! Ditko. Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent led to the It all began in the late By the early 1960s, end of EC’s popular line of horror comics and 1930s, when comic books aside from a brief stint in the establishment of the Comics Code Authority. in America and as a mass the army and occasional medium (million-selling attempts to break out titles were not uncommon in the 1940s) were viewed with newspaper strip features or humor books, by the public at large, and with justification, as juve- Lee had spent his entire working career in the comic nile literature. This was especially true when comic book field. He managed to get his foot in the door in books ceased to be the forum for reprints of widely 1940 when he was still known as Stanley Lieber, and popular newspaper strips and became, instead, the Martin Goodman, his cousin’s husband (or something domain of colorfully costumed super-heroes. With like that) who was in the habit of giving jobs to his the advent of Superman and his descendents, comic relatives anyway, hired him and set him to work with books became inevitably associated with chil- Joe Simon, editor of the publishing company’s newly dren’s entertainment. And so, when some publish- formed Timely comic book division. ers in the 1950s (most notably EC Comics) began to present comics whose content was primarily that of violence and gore, the wider public became concerned, and when even the federal government threatened to step in to regulate the industry, publishers were frightened into forming the Comics Code Authority in self-defense. Guided by strict rules designed to shield the nation’s youngsters from harmful content, comic books came to be seen more than ever as the province of children. Until, that is, Marvel Comics came along in the early 1960s. As it would later turn out, the decade of the sixties was a time of vast social upheaval when many began to reappraise the status quo; rebellion was in the air regarding civil rights and justification of the Goodman’s company was a going concern in Vietnam War. It even reached the art world where 1942 when this photo of its staff was taken. artists like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein began 6

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At the time, Simon and his partner, Jack Kirby, were already big wheels in the comic industry. Both had spent time earlier in their careers in independently operated “shops” that contracted with publishers to provide them with fully rendered packages of completed comic book titles: editing, scripting, penciling, and inking were all covered and delivered to clients ready for printing. But publishers, always interested in finding ways to save money, soon figured out that if they could cut out the middle man and do the work themselves, they could save money. And so, when Goodman decided to do just that, he created Timely Comics and hired Simon to run it for him. Simon, in turn, brought in Kirby, and the two began a long and fruitful career as partners in the comics industry.

Simon and Kirby kept busy through the 1950s, sometimes following trends and sometimes blazing their own trails with titles such as Black Magic, Justice Traps the Guilty, and Young Love.

Introduction

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Together, Simon and Kirby co-created Captain America, the new company’s first major star, and were riding high on that triumph when Lee entered the scene as office boy at age 17 doing everything from erasing Kirby’s pencils after his art pages were inked to writing single-page text features to save Goodman on postage rates. His first text piece appeared in Captain America #3 and was signed as being by “Stan Lee.” But not all was right at Timely. Suspecting that Goodman was shortchanging them, Simon and Kirby began to moonlight for other publishers, and when they were discovered, Goodman fired them. As a result, Lee suddenly found himself taking over as editor. Although Goodman had intended to eventually hire a more experienced replacement for Simon, he never seemed to get around to it, and anyway Lee seemed to be doing all right at the job. So there Lee remained as the Timely line of comics slowly grew. Acting as both editor and art director, he learned about the comics industry from every angle and developed a professional Timely publisher eye for art and an ear for Martin Goodman. a turn of phrase that would serve him well as the company became one of the largest producers of comics in the industry. He was also on hand for the less savory part of the job when he had to tell employees and loyal freelancers that their services were no longer required because cousin Martin decided to cut back on production when inventory began to pile up. Lee himself was replaced once, and only briefly, while he served in the army, but when he returned he found his old job waiting for him, and throughout the 1950s he wrote thousands of comic book scripts for every imaginable genre, constantly honing his literary skills, finding different voices to tell his stories and even guided a failed attempt to bring back the company’s super-heroes who had faded since the glory years of the 1940s. Throughout, however, Lee began to fear that he was caught in a rut, that his writing skills, keen as they were, might only be fit for the ghetto of comic books. He yearned to do some serious writing, a novel or a screenplay, but managed only a book on how to write for comics 8

Mar vel Comics in the 1960s

and some mild successes with humor. By the late 1950s, he was working at moving out of the artistic basement of comic books and into the penthouse of newspaper comic strips, but with only limited success. Meeting the same kind of disappointment was Jack Kirby, who, although returning from the war scarred by his experiences of battle, barely skipped a beat as he immediately hooked up again with Simon to reassert their place in the industry as the premier producers of comics. The two struck gold by adapting pulp magazine style romance to comics and managing to find a previously untapped vein of female readers. Next, they started Black Magic, a horror comic that was an early precursor of the deluge of even more virulent fare from other publishers that would eventually lead to congressional hearings and the establishment of the Comics Code Authority. In 1954, the pair went independent and started their own company under the Mainline label, but dissolved it along with their partnership only two years later. Although Simon, never a shy sort, had no difficulty securing work in a string of editorial positions following the demise of Mainline, Kirby found himself increasingly at loose ends. Many comic book companies used the bad press that came out of the congressional hearings to cut their growing losses and dissolved their comic book divisions resulting in a stratification of the industry that was dominated by a handful of large publishers, each with their own “house styles.” Styles that Kirby’s unique brand of art seemed unable to fit. By the late 1950s, Kirby was lucky to get a few assignments from DC, for whom he had co-created many of its best-selling titles in years past. It was while Kirby was keeping busy with weird fantasy stories, five-page back-ups of Green Arrow and introducing a new feature called “Challengers of the Unknown,” that he partnered with the powerful Jack Schiff, a managing editor at DC, to create a newspaper strip called Sky Masters. Like Lee over at Atlas (or Marvel or Timely or Magazine Management, whatever Goodman was calling his company that week), Kirby had visions of breaking out of comics and into the far more lucrative and more prestigious field of newspaper strips. But although he had a strong start out of the gate, a falling out with Schiff over money and subsequent litigation sundered the relationship and ended that dream as well as his job at DC where he soon became persona non grata. Across what looked like an increasingly bleak comic book landscape, Kirby managed to pick up work here and there with Simon at Archie Comics and other

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An attempt to break out of the comic book ghetto into the more lucrative (and respected) world of newspaper strips, Kirby’s short-lived Sky Masters strip featured lush inking by wally wood.

smaller companies before finally approaching Lee for some freelance assignments. His timing was good, but not the best. Atlas (or Marvel) had suffered another one of its reverses, but this time it was worse than ever. In a bad business move, Goodman had sold off his magazine distribution company and signed on with the American News Company which promptly went out of business leaving him with no way to get his magazines to the newsstands. Desperate, he brokered a deal with rival DC Comics that allowed him to remain in business but limited his comic book company to the production of only eight titles per month. The consequent “implosion” resulted in massive layoffs of both employees and freelancers, a catastrophe from which Lee as editor in chief of the company’s comic book division was only beginning to regain his balance as the 1950s drew to a close. Thus, when Kirby knocked on the door in 1958, Lee was ready to take on more freelance help and finding himself able to afford the co-creator of Captain America, was more than happy to give the artist work. As time passed, and the two began to test the waters for super-heroic characters again, they found the temperatures to their liking…and the readers’. Virtually unplanned, they discovered new wrinkles in the shopworn super-hero formula and in time, Lee in particular grew increasingly attuned with the times and realized that his comics (which he filled with a kind of self-deprecating humor that gently mocked the inherent seriousness of the super-hero as American icon and authority figure) were resonating

with young people on college campuses across the country. His consciousness having been raised, Lee began to include elements that gave his books an immediacy to his readers and a relevance to the times that were unheard of in comics before. And so, Marvel Comics was able to transcend its juvenile, mass entertainment origins to become a staple of the counterculture, an emblem of coolness: film auteur Alain Renais worked on a movie script with Lee; the royalty of the San Francisco rock scene put on a Benefit Concert for (Marvel Comics character) Dr. Strange; magazines like Rolling Stone and Esquire, which defined what was hip, often featured articles on Marvel Comics; and Marvel Comics itself became the preferred reading material between exams at college campuses across the country. The movement finally culminated in 1972 when Lee, accompanied by a line-up of pop-culture celebrities, hosted a Marvel Comics night at New York’s Carnegie Hall. That said, Marvel Comics in the 1960s: An Issue by Issue Field Guide to a Pop-Culture Phenomenon is intended to be a kind of history/handbook for anyone interested in finding out more about Marvel Comics and the origins of characters that are at last on the cusp of becoming genuine cultural icons. Making it even easier to use, the entries are divided into distinct groups representing the first three phases in the development of 1960s Marvel Comics: the Early Years, the Years of Consolidation, and the Grandiose Years. (The last phase called the Twilight Years will be featured in a second volume.) Although it’s not necessary to start reading from the beginning to enjoy the book, doing so would provide the reader with a better sense of the beginnings of Marvel Comics, how it evolved under the guidance of Stan Lee, became a pop culture phenomenon and finally, after leading the industry for a decade, itself became what many of its readers most feared, the new establishment. Introduction

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Stan Lee B

efore he was “the man,” Stan Lee was just plain Stanley Leiber, who picked up odd jobs all over New York City where he was born in 1927 before finally making a connection with a relative who got him in to see Joe Simon, an editor at cousin-in-law Martin Goodman’s Timely Comics. At loose ends, Stan had nothing to lose so he might as well have tried the slightly shady comics industry. At one time, Stan liked to tell the story of winning writing contests offered by the local newspapers, which may or may not have been true; more likely, the youngster spent hours reading practically anything he could get his hands on, and in the 1930s that usually meant pulp magazines where the earliest versions of what would later be known as “super-heroes” and “super-villains” first appeared. Anyway, with his first official assignment at Timely, Stan’s knack for the written word soon made itself apparent: a text piece for Captain America Comics #3 (1941) that he signed for the first time as “Stan Lee.” Soon after, he jumped to straight scripting, coming up with his first super-hero creation, the Destroyer, and another called Jack Frost. Then fate took a hand. Simon and art director Jack Kirby left the company after a dispute with Goodman, and the next thing 19-year-old Stan knew, he was promoted and doing the work of both editor and art director. On a temporary basis, you understand. But months stretched into years, and except for a relatively brief hiatus in the Army, he stayed on the job for over three decades. During that time, he learned the nuts and bolts of copy editing and layout and wrote thousands of scripts in every kind of genre, providing him a training ground in developing different literary voices, approaches to storytelling, and what things sold comics and what things didn’t. Experience that would be invaluable when it came time to flesh out personalities for the revolutionary characters that would make him famous during the Silver Age. 10

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Part I

The Early, Formative Years

udging by their impact on the industry over the last thirty years, those books published by Marvel Comics in the years between 1960-1973 remain the single most influential group of comics produced in the final decades of the twentieth century. The only other comparable example would be that of DC Comics, then known as National Periodicals, when it introduced Superman to the reading public in 1938 and turned the comics industry into a true mass medium. The success of Superman helped DC to become the industry’s most powerful publisher, a position it continued to enjoy well into the 1960s, and with which it took the lead in reopening the market to super-heroes in the previous decade. In doing so, the editors at DC led the field in innovations such as updating characters that had grown somewhat stale since their first appearances in the 1940s and paved the way for what has since been labeled the Silver Age of comics. Although what DC had done to update its heroes was okay so far as it went, the problem was that the Stan Lee in the early 1960s before he became a pop culture guru!

changes didn’t go far enough. Comics were still perceived by the editors there and elsewhere as kid stuff. It was that blind spot that Marvel was soon to take advantage of, recreating the image of the super-hero in such a way that it solidified the position of the costumed adventurer as the dominant element in modern comics. So powerful was Marvel’s hold on the imagination of readers that the new kind of hero eventually swept aside almost every other kind of comics including romance, horror, western and war—all genres that had existed in abundance in the early sixties. However it started, the revolution led by Marvel in the 1960s began with the slow but steady progression of storytelling complexity as the company, helmed by editor Stan Lee, moved from an early determination to try something new, to a growing consciousness that it had stumbled onto something fraught with potentiality. This whole period (the Silver Age of comics, or Marvel Age as Lee was fond of calling it) marking Marvel’s progress, breaks down roughly into four phases: the early, formative years; the years of consolidation; the later, grandiose years; and the twilight era. The Early, Formative Years

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The early, formative years grew out of a period in Marvel’s history that was dominated not by super-heroes but by westerns, teen humor, romance and weird adventure comics. It was among these categories that many of the themes incorporated in the later super-hero comics were first explored: western heroes like the Two-Gun Kid and the Rawhide Kid were misunderstood outcasts just as Spider-Man and the X-Men would be, the

Rawhide Kid #28, page 4. In Marvel’s pre-hero westerns, Lee and Kirby explored some of the territory they would later cover in their super-hero stories. Characters like the Rawhide Kid were often portrayed as outsiders, with cowboy garb that resembled costumes and physical skills that bordered on the super-heroic.

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Hulk and the Thing were direct descendents of many of the brutes that roamed through scores of weird tales, and the desperate, paranoid characters who populated Lee and artist Steve Ditko’s fantasy stories would later seek out the help of Dr. Strange or skulk in dark alleys for an unwary Daredevil. Here, at the dawn of the Marvel Age of comics, it was doubtful that even Lee himself had any idea of what he was starting with Fantastic Four #1. All he knew at the time was that he had a vague idea of doing something different with the old super-hero formula. It was lucky then, that just when he was needed the most, artist Jack Kirby had reappeared at Marvel. At the time, Atlas, as Marvel was then known, had been forced to reduce its line of hundreds of comic book titles to only a handful; so few in fact, that a single artist could almost cover them all by himself. How did it happen? In a move that probably made sense at the time, publisher Martin Goodman had divested himself of his magazine distribution network hoping to rely on an independent operator. Those plans fell through when the American News Company went out of business leaving Goodman with no way to market his comics. A deal with rival National Periodicals solved that problem…in a way. They would agree to distribute Goodman’s books, but only eight each month. Thus, if it chose, by juggling its publishing schedule with a number of bi-monthly books, Marvel could produce up to 16 different titles every two months. Among them such old standbys as Strange Tales, Tales to Astonish, Tales of Suspense and Journey Into Mystery

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were returned to the schedule in a different guise than Although Heck was a fine draftsman, particularly their old blood-and-guts, pre-Code selves. Now they when inking his own pencils, it would be Ditko featured a variety of fantasy and “mystery” stories of with whom Lee bonded on an aesthetic level, aliens, ghosts and slightly sinister spirits all intent on even more than he had with Kirby. Ditko’s style providing fit endings to a bevy of deserving misfits. was far more moody and atmospheric than Headlining each book, however, was something Kirby’s and tended to emphasize the psychological wonderfully different. Jumping onto the giant monster motivations of his characters rather than what craze that dominated Hollywood in the 1950s, Lee they actually did within a story. For that reason, instituted a series of wild and crazy monster stories Lee was attracted to Ditko and paired with him with creatures sporting names far more outlandish than on assignments in these early years much more their grotesque appearances: than he did with Kirby. For Mummex, Bruttu, Spragg, and instance, whereas he scripted of course, Fin Fang Foom. almost all of Ditko’s assignThat’s where Kirby came in. ments, even signing both With declining fortunes their names on splash having placed him at Lee’s pages, Lee more often than disposal, Kirby was offered not confined himself to all the work he could handle throwing out plot ideas and and soon had the lead spot in delegating scripting chores all the mystery titles. But for Kirby’s tales to his even with his legendary brother Larry Lieber. Lee speed at the drawing table, even created a whole new Kirby was barely able to keep mystery title, Amazing Adult up with the workload and his Fantasy, dedicated solely to art suffered, losing some of he and Ditko’s collaborations. its polish but none of its Thus, by the time Goodman dynamism. Even so, finding was prepared to reenter the it difficult to turn down work, lists in the super-hero arena, Kirby also became the major Lee’s working relationship artist on westerns such as with Ditko had already Two-Gun Kid and Rawhide Kid, developed to the point of often did back-up strips in true collaboration, while Gunsmoke Western, Kid Colt only the foundation of the Outlaw, the occasional war same kind of arrangement After Joe Simon, there was Stan Lee. All grown up and now editor in chief story in books such as Battle, was in place between he and of what would soon become Marvel and at least once even filled in Kirby, a pair of circumstances Comics, Lee partnered with Kirby in the on Love Romances. that would prove both late ‘50s on a string of monster, But even with Kirby doing rewarding and contentious western, and war stories that led up so much on so few books, he as the Marvel Age of comics to the debut of the Fantastic Four. still couldn’t do it all. The progressed. shake-up at Marvel had left the company with only a handful of artists such as Paul Fantastic Four #1 Reinman, Al Hartley and Joe Sinnott, but just as a “The Fantastic Four!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby prospector might sift through soil to find gold dust, the (pencils), George Klein (inks) shaking out of Lee’s staff still left him with a couple of “The Fantastic Four Meet the Mole Man!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), George Klein (inks) sizeable nuggets in artists Steve Ditko and Don Heck. Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), George Klein (inks) While Heck had been a standby at the company for years, producing everything from war and crime to What is there left to say about Fantastic Four #1 (Nov. mystery and romance, Ditko was a relative newcomer 1961) that hasn’t been said before? Here’s the book that who began working for Marvel intermittently in the neatly divides the history of comics into two eras: mid-1950s. Like Kirby, the two artists seemed to everything that came before and the progeny of the become indispensable to Lee as they quickly took their Fantastic Four that came after. It was this book that places in the various mystery titles with Heck usually rewrote the rules on comics and, in order to survive, all taking the second slot and Ditko bringing up the rear. others eventually had to follow its lead. Right from the The Early, Formative Years

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start, its approach to the super-hero was radically different from what had become standard operating procedure for costumed characters since the creation of Superman in 1938: the heroes didn’t live in a Batcave or come equipped with specialized gadgets, they didn’t have secret identities or a headquarters, hidden or otherwise. They didn’t sport colorful costumes, and they spent a lot of time bickering among themselves and dealing with the unexpected personal tragedies brought on by the possession of strange powers. Being a super-hero in something that resembled the real world, it seemed, wasn’t what it was cracked up to be. But is it safe to assume that readers at the time recognized just how different the FF was compared to, say, their contemporaries at DC? Or were the first buyers simply interested in the big, green monster on the cover, a monster much like those in other titles Marvel, or rather Atlas, was putting out at the time? Was it that, or the book’s familiar plot: a brilliant scientist and his friends rocket into space, are bathed in cosmic rays, return to earth only to discover that they’ve been given strange powers, and fall immediately into battle with the Mole Man and his legions of

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giant monsters? It’s hard to believe that with the more professional looking product the competition at DC was putting out, with its huge staff of better paid professional editors, writers and artists, that the crudely produced Fantastic Four book could possibly have a chance of being noticed by discriminating readers. Matters certainly weren’t helped by the book’s artwork, which was done by longtime professional Jack Kirby, who had a track record for almost always producing top quality work. But for the first few issues of the FF, in contrast with his concurrent work on Marvel’s westerns and monster books, it seemed as if the artist was on auto-pilot. Which was strange for Kirby, who’d been in comics almost since the industry began in the mid-to-late 1930s. Early in his career, Kirby had been in on the creation of Captain America Notice the lack of detail and backgrounds as well as the simple layout of this page from Fantastic Four #1 and the more labor intensive art in the page from Rawhide Kid #17. Did Kirby have more faith in westerns than he did in the idea of costume-less super-heroes?

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Jack Kirby W

hen Jack “King” Kirby, nee Jacob Kurtzberg, came into the world in 1917, it was rumored that he entered it with a pencil in his hand, and though that may not have been true, he probably started drawing very soon after that. Graduating from scrawling on the walls of the tenement where his family lived, Jack started drawing for a local boys’ club before finding employment doing fill-in cartoons for newspapers and later, animation work for the Fleischer Studios. Getting tired of the repetitious in-between work, the young artist discovered the comics industry and joined the Eisner & Iger shop (where he became Jack Kirby). It was around 1940 while working at Fox Features Syndicate that Jack met Joe Simon. The two soon formed a partnership and secured a lucrative deal with Timely publisher Martin Goodman. With Simon as editor and Jack working as art director, the two thrust their most famous creation into the world with Captain America Comics #1 (1941). A dispute over compensation forced the two to leave Timely for DC where Jack was instrumental in creating such popular features as “Boy Commandos” and “Manhunter.” Then the Army called, and Jack found himself in the infantry where he almost lost his legs from frostbite. Following the war, he rejoined Simon and pioneered horror and romance comics as well as other super-hero features until the two mutually agreed to end the partnership. But by the late 1950s, it seemed as if comics had run their course. Jobs were harder to find and after returning to DC and an abortive attempt to break out into the world of newspaper strips, Jack found himself back at Timely, now renamed Atlas and later Marvel. There, instead of becoming a footnote in the history of a dying industry, he ended up in another partnership that was destined to achieve iconic status and make the name of Jack Kirby synonymous with pop art and unrestrained excitement.

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(who would prove to be one of Marvel’s most popu- Fantastic Four #2 lar characters), and since then, had bounced from one “The Fantastic Four Meet the Skrulls from Outer company to another, always turning in solid work Space!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), while at the same time earning a reputation as the George Klein (inks) industry’s most dynamic storyteller. Just about his last Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), George Klein (inks) stand before returning to Marvel in the late fifties was In an early example of how close to the surface made at DC where he created the Challengers of the public fear and resentment of super-heroes would be Unknown, a strip with vague similarities to the FF. in the emerging Marvel universe, Fantastic Four #2 Writer Stan Lee, on the other hand, entered the opens with what appears to be members of the FF industry through privilege. Related to Marvel’s involved in villainous activity: the Thing sinks an publisher Martin Goodman, he began his career at the offshore oil drilling platform, the Invisible Girl steals company as a writer/office boy when Kirby (and his an expensive gem, Mr. Fantastic cuts power to New partner Joe Simon) were York City and the Torch associate editors there in melts down a statue just the early forties. After as it’s being dedicated. In Simon and Kirby left, no time the confidence of Lee’s star began to rise the public won in issue #1 until not only did he is gone and the FF “have become editor himself, become the most dangerbut was responsible for ous menace we have ever writing a great many of faced!” The readiness of the company’s books. By the fickle public to go the time the sixties rolled from outright adoration around, Lee was ready to of the celebrity-like FF to quit. The comics portion fear and resentment of the company was at its would be repeated often, lowest ebb, headquartered albeit usually with the in a tiny office with barely heroes being set-up by a room enough to fit both Early inkers on Kirby for the FF, George Klein villain such as they are (left) would later enjoy great success inking Lee and his secretary. here by the Skrulls, alien over Gene Colan on Daredevil and John Clearly, after 25 years, shapeshifters bent on Buscema on the Avengers while sol Brodsky comics, for Marvel at least, conquering the Earth. But (right) would drift more into the production were on the way out, and the point wasn’t that they side of the business. Lee had nothing to lose in were being framed, rather taking a chance or two. that it was so easy to turn Claiming in later years that the FF was Marvel’s the public against them. Time and again, especially in attempt to cash in on the latest comic book fad (rival these early, formative years, the public would be DC had been having some success with a new super- swayed by a parade of rabble rousers who, seemingly hero team book called the Justice League of America), Lee more sensitive to the insecurities of the ordinary decided to use the new title to break some of the old citizen than the heroes, would have little trouble rules that had built up around the hoary concept of the making life miserable for the good guys. And the FF super-hero and try a new approach that he’d had in would be easy targets. Throughout the coming mind for a long time. With the debut of the Fantastic years, whenever the team would leave its midtown Four in 1961, readers somehow saw through the story’s skyscraper headquarters, or its emergency flare standard plot, recognized its unconventional elements, appeared in the sky, or real estate was destroyed in a and gave Lee the chance he needed. At first unsure battle, passersby in the street would point and (except for this vague notion of unconventionality), wonder on how many zoning codes the team were Lee would eventually become more conscious of the breaking by launching their pogo plane, jet cycles, larger potentialities of the new direction and, over Fantasticar or even ICBM (!) from their building? time, the Fantastic Four would become he and Kirby’s And though over the years this theme of just below main vehicle for some of the most amazing advances the surface public hostility became less obvious, it (and adventures!) in comic book storytelling as well as would always be there, prompting some heroes like the spearhead that would drive Marvel to the forefront Spider-Man or the Thing in this issue, to lose their of an emerging sixties’ pop culture movement. tempers. “...The whole country is hunting us as though 16

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we’re four monsters! Well, maybe they’re right! Maybe I am a monster! I look like one and sometimes I feel like one!” It was a feeling of alienation and apartness that all the heroes would be made to feel as editor Stan Lee continued to shape his four-color universe, a feeling shared in some inchoate way by his young readers who, in a few short years, would populate America’s college campuses in the most socially tumultuous decade in the nation’s history. Fun fact: This issue features one of the most offbeat endings of any Marvel story as Mr. Fantastic hypnotizes the defeated Skrulls into believing they’re cows! It’s true! The last we see of them, they’re grazing contentedly in a pasture and the FF are cleared of any wrongdoing.

Fantastic Four #3 “The Menace of the Miracle Man”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Sol Brodsky (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Sol Brodsky (inks)

After marking time with FF #2 (and receiving the first trickle of what soon would become a flood of mail), the decision was made to concede some elements of the new book to conventionality. And so, in Fantastic Four #3 (Mar. 1962) the heroes were given not colorful costumes, but featureless uniforms; a bathtub shaped flying vehicle, not a souped up Batmobile, and for a headquarters, instead of a hidden cave or secret satellite, the FF were given a very public suite in the upper floors of the Baxter Building, a skyscraper at the center of New York City! What’s more, although Kirby had at first submitted completed pages with Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Girl sporting domino masks, Lee had them removed. The FF were to be public celebrities whose exploits and private affairs would be the subject of newspaper tabloids and gossip magazines. And they’d give plenty for the paparazzi to cover since no such dramatic changes as costumes and headquarters were made to the personalities of the four themselves. Part of the rage Ben Grimm felt over the bad luck that had changed him into the Thing was born of the frustration at not being able to compete with Reed Richards for the affections of teammate Sue Storm. “I want Sue to look at me the way she looks at you,” he tells Reed, raising an angry fist. Meanwhile, Johnny is still the hotheaded teenager, thoughtless and cruel as so many young people can be. “My sister?? Don’t kid yourself, Thing! She wouldn’t go for you if you looked like Rock Hudson!!” “Why you crummy brat! I’ll teach you to laugh at me!” “Why can’t you control yourself, Thing?” asks Reed, unconscious of his own callousness when he refers to his friend as a thing rather than calling him by his rightful name. “Why must we always fight among ourselves?

What’s wrong with us?” But whatever was wrong with the team, was obviously right with the book’s readers who continued to demand more of the same. After all, next to the heroes being at each other’s throats half the time, this issue’s fight with the Miracle Man and another giant monster looked pretty uninteresting! In fact, this issue ends the way it began, (“Oh, please! Don’t start arguing among yourselves again!! I…I just can’t stand any more!” complains Sue). In frustration and anger (“I had all the bossin’ around I can take!”), the Torch quits the team and flies off leaving the others wondering if he might turn against mankind. This wasn’t your father’s superhero team! Fun fact: This issue also featured the strip’s first letters page including one signed “S. Brodsky” (Marvel’s production manager Sol Brodsky?) which managed very suspiciously to get the title of every comic Marvel published listed in his letter!

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Challengers of the Unknown #1. Kirby’s only major late ’50s contribution to DC prior to his falling out with Jack Schiff, the interchangeable Challengers may have been an influence on the Fantastic Four but if so, it sure wasn’t their sparkling personalities!

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Fantastic Four #3, page 14 (opposite page). The FF give in to conventionality donning uniforms and getting around in a Fantasticar. But in keeping with their status as celebrities, a batcave and fortress of solitude were spurned in favor of a high profile skyscraper headquarters in midtown Manhattan!

Fantastic Four #4 “The Coming of... Sub-Mariner!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Sol Brodsky (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Sol Brodsky (Inks)

true super-villain and the first in a long line of bad guys whose personalities would be given enough wrinkles to prevent readers from completely hating them, if not sometimes sympathizing with them. With Sub-Mariner being the first, he also served as the template: wishing only to return to his undersea people, he discovers that Atlantis is long deserted, destroyed in fact, and permeated with radioactivity. Blaming the surface people, Sub-Mariner vows revenge. “You young fool!” he shouts at the Torch. “For…returning my memory, you have signed the death warrant of the human race!” Swallowing his pride, the Torch signals for his former teammates, and when they arrive the first thing they do is criticize him for using the signal when there wasn’t an emergency. But of course, there is, and together again, the four stop the Sub-Mariner’s initial attempt to destroy mankind. An unintended side-effect of this encounter creates a new wrinkle in the Reed/Ben/Sue triangle when the Sub-Mariner asks the Invisible Girl to marry him! Sue agrees under duress, but Namor refuses to have her if she thinks she’s being forced. “I’ll be back! Do you hear? I’ll be back!” he swears, returning to the sea, defeated but not vanquished. Namor would return again and again in future issues (helping to create the sense of continuity and realism that was to become one of the main reasons drawing readers to Marvel like a magnet) until the rivalry between he and Mr. Fantastic over the Invisible Girl was at last settled in FF #27. Fun Fact: Was it mere coincidence that in Fantastic Four #4 the Golden Age derived Human Torch character revives the Golden Age Sub-Mariner and in Avengers #4 Subby returns the favor by reviving Golden Age contemporary Captain America? You be the judge!

The drama continued in Fantastic Four #4 (May 1962) as the three members of the team that remained following the events of the previous issue argue among themselves about who was to blame for the Torch having quit the team. “It’s your fault that he ran off,” Reed tells the Thing, pointing an accusing finger in his direction. “Sure! Sure! Everything around here is my fault!” Despite their differences however, they decide to find the Torch and bring him back. “…And when I do find ’im, I’ll teach him to run off on us that way!” growls the Thing, breaking up some furniture. “Oh, Reed! If he harms the Torch…,” says Sue; and this early in the run, what reader wouldn’t have doubted that the Thing, now drawn by Kirby as a bulky creature with the roughened hide of a dinosaur, was capable of doing such a thing? After an early brush with the Torch, the four lose his trail again, and when readers spot him next, Johnny is hiding out in New York’s Bowery district. There he finds a bed in a flop house and a bedraggled, bearded “stumble-bum” catches his attention when he effortlessly disposes of half a dozen tormentors. Using his flame, Johnny gives him a shave and haircut and readers are given their first glimpse of a character that hadn’t been seen in comics in a decade. Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner was Marvel’s first revival of a character from the company’s “Golden Age” of the 1940s (well, okay, the second revival; Subby had been brought back from the dead once before in the early 1950s, but had failed to fly). This time however, the SubIn the early years, both Paul Reinman (left) Mariner would achieve and George Roussos (right) switch hit as greater popularity as the inkers over Kirby’s pencils. Fantastic Four ’s first

Incredible Hulk #1 “The Hulk”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Paul Reinman (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), George Roussos (inks)

Six months after the debut of the FF, Lee decided to expand the arena for his new ideas with a whole new title while at the same time staying within the familiar genre of the monster yarn. In the meantime, he had both compromised The Early, Formative Years

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and forged ahead with his more realistic heroes. The FF had since donned costumes, received a headquarters and got some gadgets, but with a twist. The costumes were strictly functional jumpsuits of the type worn by aircraft workers with no masks, their headquarters was located on the top floors of a midtown skyscraper in New York City and their gadgets included a flying bathtub. Despite the fans’ desires for some of the conventions of the super-hero genre, Lee persisted in keeping his heroes in the real world. That real world infringed painfully on the life of Bruce Banner who became one of the truly tragic characters ever created for comics. In Incredible Hulk #1 (May 1962), teenager Rick Jones parks his car on a bet at a nuclear test site somewhere out west just as Bruce Banner’s new gamma bomb is about to be tested. Rushing onto the field to rescue the boy, Banner is himself caught in the blast and as a result, transforms into the Hulk, an almost mindless brute of incredible strength who becomes a virtual walking id and for whom to think is to act. When angered, the Hulk would lash out; when hungry, he would take what he needed. As a reader once pointed out, the Hulk was the true existential man! At first Banner would change into the Hulk with the rise of the moon, but that idea was quickly abandoned. Instead, relying on the emotional level of either identity to trigger the change, Lee had created a situation more in keeping with the Hulk’s primal nature. With the creation of the Hulk, Lee had come up with the perfect vehicle for exploring the notion of what it would be like to 20

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possess super powers in the real world. Helping greatly was Kirby’s chunky, monster style art for the book, which was much smoother and more energetic here than it was over on the FF. But maybe readers weren’t quite ready for comics’ “first existential hero.” The blurred line between hero and villain as the main focus for an entire strip didn’t catch on with them and the Hulk strip was canceled with its sixth issue. The readership, it seemed, needed to be educated in a few more years of the emerging Marvel style before it could learn to accept ol’ Greenskin.

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Incredible Hulk #1, page 6. Comics “first existential hero” was also one of Marvel’s most tragic.

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Fantastic Four #5 “Prisoners of Doctor Doom!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks)

Blurring the line between hero and villain was becoming an increasingly important point of exploration for Lee and Kirby. It began as early as the introduction of the Mole Man in FF #1, continued with the reintroduction to the comics world of the Sub-Mariner in FF #4 and eventually reached its grandiose culmination in the introduction of Dr. Doom in Fantastic Four #5 (July 1962). To be sure, in this first appearance Doom’s motivations were not explained, but the reader is told through the voice of Reed Richards of a young science student named Victor von Doom who combined scientific Like Reinman and knowledge with black Roussos, Joe magic. It was a lab Sinnott was also accident involving the an early inker two that left Doom’s face on Kirby, but unlike the others, horribly disfigured. he would return on Going into self-exile, he a permanent basis was last known to be in the grandiose wandering the Far East years. in search of still more dark secrets. From this sketchy origin, the story of Dr. Doom would grow, (with a full-length origin story appearing in FF Annual #2), until the readers, while continuing to loathe his objectives, sympathized with him as a tragic figure burdened with understandable melancholies. With genius to rival that of Mr. Fantastic but without a similar sense of morality, Doom easily became the most dangerous man in the growing Marvel universe. Unfettered by notions of right and wrong and bounded only by his own desires, Doom became the personification of ruthlessness. Through him, the reader could perhaps glimpse the internal forces that had moved men of such historical villainy as Hitler and Stalin. Later, with his personality more clearly defined, Lee and Kirby would play Doom like a harp, giving readers private moments showing the villain’s finer sensibilities and then veering him off into brutal villainy. In the blurred line between hero and bad guy, Doom was easily Marvel’s most complex creation.

Steve Ditko came into his own as a creative force during Marvel’s early years, rivaling though not duplicating Kirby’s own inventive genius. The two men would take up opposite poles in their definition of the hero: Kirby’s were strong and god-like while Ditko’s were troubled with feet of clay. Lee became the balance between the two preventing Marvel’s heroes from becoming too remote or esoteric.

Incredible Hulk #2 “The Terror of the Toad Men”; unknown (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Steve Ditko (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Steve Ditko (inks)

Teasers that had scrawled at the bottom of pages in issues of the Fantastic Four were all the warning readers and the world had of the coming of the second of Marvel’s revolutionary new line of super-heroes. “The Hulk is coming!”, “What is the Hulk?”, “You’ve never seen anyone like the Hulk!”, “The Hulk is coming!”, “Who is the Hulk??”, they screamed. Less a super-hero however, than the continuation of the monster stories Lee had been featuring in titles such as Tales to Astonish, Tales of Suspense and Strange Tales, the Hulk was destined to be a rampaging behemoth suffering the agonizing changes, both physical and emotional, thrust upon him by an act of fate. Perhaps inspired by the resurgent popularity at the time of Universal Studios’ monster movies (which included Frankenstein), the Hulk would nevertheless blaze his own trail of individuality, tapping into a popular understanding of psychology that had been equally before the public eye at least since the 1950s. Thus, when Bruce Banner transformed into the Hulk, he became an almost mindless brute of incredible strength, a virtual walking Id. With the Hulk, thought is synonymous with action: when he’s hungry he eats; when angry, he lashes out; what he wants, he takes. The Early, Formative Years

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To make matters worse, when powers in the real world and he turns into the Hulk, Banner took a giant step forward in also becomes a truly amoral turning their stable of supercreature: whatever satisfies the heroes from colorful but empty Hulk’s whims may be classified suits to metaphors for the as good, whatever keeps the modern world’s anxieties and Hulk from satisfying those passions. Fun Fact: Although whims is bad. Paradoxically the Hulk’s skin color had been however, the Hulk himself does gray in Incredible Hulk #1, it was nothing out of vindictiveness or changed to green for this issue spite. If he reacts, it’s almost (and forever afterward). In reply always because he has perceived to a fan’s letter in #4, it was himself to have been slighted, learned that the gray coloring wronged, victimized. In later was made in error. Thus are appearances, Lee would give the legends born! Hulk what psychologists would Amazing Fantasy #15 call a persecution complex: the “Spider-Man”; Stan Lee (script), whole world was against him, Steve Ditko (pencils & inks) everyone hated him, all of Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Steve mankind never ceased to hound Ditko (inks) him. And to prevent the Hulk A revival of Universal Studios’ Virtually in the same month as strip from becoming just another classic monsters during the 1950s FF #12, Marvel introduced a monster story (the word “hulk” included Boris Karloff as new character that was destined had often been used as a name Frankenstein. to eclipse even the groundfor some of the goofy monsters breaking Fantastic Four in that roamed the Marvel landscape prior to the advent of the super-heroes), Lee importance and popularity. As the story goes, provided his leading man with a cast of supporting Amazing Fantasy was a book on the verge of cancellaplayers including Rick Jones, the teenager whom tion and with nothing to lose, Lee decided to throw in Banner rescued from the blast that had turned him an idea for a character he’d had kicking around in into the Hulk. Jones would become Banner’s constant his head for a while. Whether or not that’s how it companion and conscience in his early adventures, happened, or if Lee had more input from others than helping him keep his secret from the likes of General he let on, Spider-Man would be the culmination of all “Thunderbolt” Ross. Ross was the commander of the the non-traditional super-hero ideas Lee had been military base upon which the gamma bomb test had thinking about for the past year or so. In him, Lee been conducted and held a healthy suspicion of would present a character even closer to reality than Banner’s loyalty to the United States. Ironically, his either the FF or the Hulk, who were still too far daughter, Betty Ross, would become enamored of removed from everyday life for readers to really Banner and evolve into his chief defender. Helping identify with. With Spider-Man, Lee would finally Lee to bring the Hulk to life was artist Jack Kirby break all the barriers. He’d make him an unpopular who at first drew the Hulk as merely an over-sized, teenager, a science wiz in high school whose interest muscle-bound man (who wasn’t all that bad looking in his studies alienated him from his classmates; an besides!). Eventually, the artist would grant him the orphan being raised by a loving but too doting aunt; stoop-shouldered posture and brutish, lowering he’d have girl problems, money problems and even brows that would justify the instinctive fear he identity problems. Nothing would come easy for him aroused in everyone who met him (helped greatly this and in fact, later issues of the regular Spider-Man title issue with inking by an uncredited Steve Ditko!). A life would usually conclude with a panel summarizing of idle observance was not for an existentialist Hulk all of the character’s myriad problems. As a hero, to whom the immediacy of action was far more Spider-Man would have to wash and sew his own meaningful and past and future meant nothing. Only costume, pay for his own transportation to where the the urgency of the needs and desires of the present villains were, endure scathing attacks by the media were important. With the creation of the Hulk, Lee and the fear and distrust of the public in general and and Kirby had come up with the perfect vehicle for his fellow super-heroes in particular. All of it began in showing what it actually would be like to have super Amazing Fantasy #15 (Aug. 1962) with art by Steve 22

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Steve Ditko U

nlike Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, his peers at Marvel Comics, Steve Ditko didn’t enter the comics industry just as the art form was finding its legs in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Instead, the man whose very name would later become a byword for mystery (for decades, an interest in Objectivism would prevent him from commenting on his work), Steve was among the first generation of fans to enter the professional ranks of comics artists. As a child, born in 1927, Steve was attracted by such newspaper comic strips as Prince Valiant and The Spirit. In fact, it was an early interest in the comic book Batman that prompted Steve to enroll under the GI Bill at the Cartoonists and Illustrators School where Batman co-creator Jerry Robinson was an instructor. Steve graduated in 1953 with an art style resembling not a little that of Robinson and promptly found work in the comics industry. There, his first job appeared in Daring Love #1 (1953), and moving on, he joined Crestwood Publications where he worked for Jack Kirby, a man with whom he would later join for the most important phase in either man’s professional life. Just then, however, Steve was still starting out and discovering that Charlton Comics could provide him with all the work he wanted with little editorial interference, he left Crestwood and entered upon an association with Charlton that would bookend his later career at Marvel. It was while at Charlton that he first ventured into the super-hero genre with an early version of Captain Atom before picking up extra work from Stan Lee at Atlas Comics. By 1961, Lee was finding inspiration in Steve’s style and soon began signing their names to their collaborations. That same year, Lee renamed Amazing Adventures as Amazing Adult Fantasy, a comic devoted solely to his and Steve’s stories. It was in the final issue of that run that the two introduced the character that would grant them both comic book immortality.

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Ditko, who was Kirby’s polar opposite, specializing in the common man and drawing the anguished faces of ordinary people undergoing the full range of human emotion, a talent that would prove of crucial importance in conveying the realistic world of Peter Parker, Spider-Man’s alter ego. Coupled with Lee’s flair for writing naturalistic dialogue, the story of Spider-Man’s origin is told neatly in eleven pages as Peter is bitten

by a radioactive spider, gains incredible arachnoid abilities and allows a crook to escape a pursuing security guard. It was this last incident that would provide the book with its motivating factor as Peter arrives home one night to discover how wrong he could be in believing that stopping the escaping crook was none of his business. With his beloved Uncle Ben dead at the burglar’s hands, Peter learns that “…with great power, there must also come…great responsibility.” A lesson that has since become one of the most hallowed in comics. Fun Facts: This issue’s cover was actually the second drawn for the book; the first, rendered by Ditko, was rejected for not being dynamic enough and obscuring too much of the new hero’s costume (in addition, could Lee’s well known dislike of showing the underside of feet have been another reason?) and was redrawn by Kirby. Also, according to Ditko, Lee and publisher Martin Goodman wanted to drop any shots of the hero in what was considered grotesque, spider-like postures for fear the book would be rejected by the Comics Code Authority!

“The Stone Men from Saturn!”; Stan Lee (plot), Larry Lieber (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks)

Amazing Spider-Man #1 (alternate cover). Ditko’s original cover design that was rejected perhaps because it showed the underside of Spidey’s feet! On the other hand, maybe our hero looked too— well—spiderish to publisher Martin Goodman?

Mar vel Comics in the 1960s

With little warning, and only a few months following the debut of The Incredible Hulk, Lee launched the third in his fledgling line of super-heroic characters. (SpiderMan would get his own title some months later). One month,

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Journey Into Mystery featured giant monsters and weird stories, and the next a Norse god (in primary colors yet!) doing battle with those selfsame monsters and weird menaces! The character became the first to be launched not in his own self-titled magazine, but as the headliner in a pre-existing book. How did it happen? It seems the success of the Fantastic Four and the Hulk (and no doubt some prodding from publisher Martin Goodman too!) had inevitably begun to put pressure on Lee to come up with more new features. But there was a problem. In 1957, Goodman thought about getting out of the comic book business, canceling titles and selling off the Atlas magazine distribution company he owned. Almost immediately however, he changed his mind and, closing a distribution deal with National Periodicals Publications (DC), jumped back into the business. The only difference now was that he’d be limited to just eight titles (or 16 bi-monthly

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titles) each month. And so, when Lee launched the Fantastic Four and then the Hulk in their own magazines, room had to be found for them by discontinuing other books. Reluctant to cancel any more until he was certain of the popularity of the new super-heroes, Goodman instructed Lee to feature any new heroes in pre-existing titles. And so, in the same month as Spider-Man’s first appearance in Amazing Adult Fantasy and just a month before Henry Pym became the Ant-Man

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Journey Into Mystery #83, pg 1 (above); Weird Comics #1 (left). The notion of making a comic book character out of a Norse god wasn’t a completely new one when Marvel introduced the Mighty Thor in 1962, but in the years to come the character would evolve in ways his creators could scarcely have imagined.

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in Tales to Astonish and the overconfident (“I have Human Torch graduated proven that the hammer to his own feature in and the might of the Strange Tales, Lee introthunder-god are invincible! duced Thor in Journey Nothing can conquer Into Mystery #83 (Aug. Thor! Nothing!”). It was 1962). Within another an inauspicious beginning half-year, with Iron Man’s plotted by Lee, scripted appearance in Tales of by brother Larry Lieber Suspense, all of Marvel’s and drawn (with increasweird menace titles ing care from the days of would feature each their FF #1) by Kirby. By the own super-hero character time Marvel entered its and about twelve months more serious, grandiose after that, with the trend phase, Thor put on more of the future made clear, weight and became the Not as well known as fellow bullpenners the days of the compafeature that most captured Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, Larry Leiber (left) ny’s surviving westerns the full flowering of the and Dick Ayers (right) were nevertheless and teen humor titles company’s pretentious indispensable in Marvel’s early years. Leiber were numbered. In the would write many of the first scripts for cosmic sensibilities. Fun the company’s most important characters, while meantime however, the Facts: Like the more well Ayers was Kirby’s most effective inker. As transition from pure known admonition from Lee took over scripting for all the super-hero weird fantasy to the the Spider-Man title that features, the two men would be left to produce somewhat more down to “with great power, comes the company’s increasingly anachronistic westearth adventures of the great responsibility,” a ern line of comics practically all by themselves. super-heroes would be similar sentiment was eased a bit by the conengraved on Thor ’s tinuing appearance of monsters and aliens as the hammer: “Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be adversaries in many of the stories. “Thor” wasn’t worthy, shall possess the power of...Thor!” The theme any different. Debuting on the cover as a somewhat of power and responsibility was to be revisited skinny god of thunder, he was seen warding off often by Lee. Also, the name Thor is misspelled in craggy alien invaders with wide swings of his the final panel of this story, appearing in print as hammer. It turned out that the stone men from the consonant heavy “Thorr!” Saturn, under the impression that Earth would be easy pickings, had decided to take over the planet. Incredible Hulk #3 It was only their bad luck to choose a time and “Banished to Outer Space”; Stan Lee (script), place where lame Dr. Donald Blake happened to be Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks) vacationing. After landing somewhere in Norway “The Origin of the Hulk!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks) and taking a full story page to demonstrate to “The Ringmaster”; Stan Lee (script), themselves their clear superiority to human beings, Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks) the aliens manage to scare off Blake who had been Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks) spying on them from behind some rocks. After fleeing in a blind panic, the limping Blake takes “He can fly!!” screamed an obviously hysterical shelter in a nearby cave where he discovers a soldier on the cover of Incredible Hulk #3, but it gnarled walking stick hidden in a secret chamber. wasn’t far from the truth: with the strongest leg Unbeknownst to him, he has discovered the most muscles on Earth, the Hulk could propel himself awesome weapon of all time, the magical hammer from a standing start and leap hundreds of miles at of the Norse god Thor! Striking the stick to the a time making it appear as if he were flying. Of ground, the lame doctor is instantly surrounded by course it was absurd, but it was useful in getting a nimbus of energy and is transformed into the the otherwise lumbering creature from one adventure mighty Thor. In quick order, he learns how to use to another and back in time for Rick Jones to tuck his new-found power, defeats the stone men him in to a specially prepared rock-lined chamber (“Back! Back to the ships!! We must flee this when he returned to his secret hideout. Which is accursed planet!!”) and becomes dangerously where the action picks up on the splash page of 26

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this issue’s opening story, “Banished to Outer become totally subservient to Rick. But as it Space.” The chamber was prepared by Bruce would so often become at Marvel, things weren’t Banner in one of his more lucid moments and as easy as they seemed. Rick could now control meant to contain the Hulk until the monster’s rage the Hulk, but as soon as he wasn’t paying attention, subsided and he became human again with the the creature would go on a rampage! “It’s too coming of dawn. Responsibility for Banner when much for me! I’ve got the most powerful thing in he transformed into the Hulk continued to rest on the world under my control, and I don’t know the thin shoulders of teenager Rick Jones, the only what to do with it!” Poor Rick! He was worse off person who knew that the scientist and the monster than he was before, because now, he didn’t even were one and the same. The arrangement was dare to sleep! Unlike fellow teenagers Spider-Man another example of Marvel’s willingness to upset and the Human Torch, Rick Jones didn’t have any the traditional comic book applecart in that it super powers, which placed him much closer in increased the role of young people from supporting spirit to the typical reader. What would they do characters in the shadow of adult, mentor-like under similar circumstances? In a decade where figures, to decision-makers themselves. In the young people were destined to take leading roles case of the relationship between Rick and the in an emerging social revolution, the example of Hulk, when Banner became the green-skinned Rick Jones seemed to say that they were up to it. monster, Rick was clearly the one in charge. Being Fun fact: Did you know that an earlier version of the only person who could control the Hulk’s the Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime featured rage even slightly, it became his responsibility to in this issue’s concluding story appeared during protect the world from the creature’s devastation, Marvel’s Golden Age of the 1940s? an authority willingly given over by Banner. But even Rick’s control over the Hulk was iffy, as Tales to Astonish #35 shown in this story when he allows himself to be “The Return of the Ant-Man”; Stan Lee (script), convinced by the military that only the Hulk Larry Lieber (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), could survive a ride on an experimental missile. Dick Ayers (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks) Releasing the beast from his rock-lined chamber, Rick’s life is in immediate danger as he leads the On the heels of the mighty Thor came a second solo Hulk to the nearby rocket base. “I couldn’t character, this time appearing in Tales to Astonish #35 explain to them that I can’t control the Hulk...If (Sept. 1962). But the true origin of the astonishing he gets me, I’m a goner!” Later, after the missile is Ant-Man was even more curious than the one told in launched, Rick is plagued with doubt. “Did I do this issue. His story actually began a few months earlier in Astonish #27 the right thing? What if with a tale called “The I’ve doomed Dr. Banner?” Man in the Ant Hill.” A It used to be so easy for simple fantasy story, one previous sidekicks, when of the hundreds that all the decisions were Marvel had been cranking left to their grown-up out since the mid-1950s, it partners! Rick’s feelings featured a scientist named of guilt were only made Henry Pym who discovers worse later, when he a fluid which, upon discovers that it had all evaporation, created a gas been a trick. The sole that could shrink a man intention of getting the down to the size of an ant. Hulk onto the missile Of course, it happens to was to exile him into poor Henry who soon space! The Hulk makes finds himself trapped in it back however, more the aforementioned ant filled with rage than hill. At the end of the ever, but through a Henry Pym was preceded in his power to shrink by Scott Carey, the protagonist of story, Pym decides that strange accident, not Richard Matheson’s novel The Incredible his formula is too danonly can he retain his Shrinking Man and later its film adaptation gerous and locks it away. green-skinned form in made in 1957. But readers thought daylight, but he’s also The Early, Formative Years

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differently. Months later, when Lee was casting about for ideas to follow up the success of the FF and “Thor,” fan mail received on the Henry Pym story convinced him that something might be done with its size-changing hero. Thus was born the Ant-Man, who was able not only to shrink to the size of an insect, but retain his normal full-size strength at the same time (a nifty idea that was often forgotten in later stories). Kirby once again stepped in to launch the strip, designing a great costume for the tiny adventurer based on the stylized shape of a segmented ant (the best thing about it though, was the unique, insectoid shape of his cybernetic helmet with which Pym communicated with the ants). Ant-Man had his baptism of fire in a plot by Lee that was scripted by Larry Lieber. The opening pages are given over to Pym’s decision to again test his shrinking formula and to design a uniform that would protect him while on field trips among the insects. But just as he finishes, his laboratory is taken over by evil communist agents (sent by Kruschev himself!) out to steal America’s anti-radiation formula. Trapped in his office, Pym has no choice but to don his AntMan costume and go into action. After showing the ants in a nearby nest who was boss, Ant-Man leads them into the lab against the enemy agents. In no time (don’t ask how!) the ants have gummed up their guns with honey and swarmed over them in stinging masses. Then, before the commies realize it, their captives are free and easily mop them up (mostly off-panel) with some good clean-cut American violence! Like “Thor,” there was nothing here to indicate the kind of 28

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human drama that readers were reacting so strongly to in the FF. It’s lack was probably the reason why the “Ant-Man” strip was doomed never to pick up enough steam to be as successful as Marvel’s other features. Lee would take occasional stabs at it (like introducing the Wasp in #44 and turning Ant-Man into Giant-Man in #49), but eventually Henry Pym’s solo career would come to an end in #70.

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Tales to Astonish #35, page 1. The man in the anthill returns but this time garbed in one of Kirby’s most impressive costume designs. Dig the ant motif on the front of his uniform, the thick boots, and that crazy mandible-ized helmet! Unfortunately, being the best dressed hero in the Marvel stable didn’t guarantee success for the Ant Man. More’s the pity.

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Strange Tales #101

A month after Ant-Man’s debut in Astonish, the Human Torch began a solo series in Strange Tales #101 (Oct. 1962). Of all the members of the Fantastic Four, why did Lee choose the Torch as the first to star in his own feature? It was probably as simple as the fact that another Human Torch had once been a major star for the company in the 1940s and that Lee hoped some of that name recognition would rub off on this new version of the character. But the similarities between the original and the new Torch were a good deal fewer than their differences. Whereas the original Torch had been an android, the current version was teenager Johnny Storm who, as readers learned in this story, lived in a quiet, residential suburb with his sister, the Invisible Girl. Lee and Kirby waste little time in setting the scene as we learn that although everyone in Glenville knows Sue Storm is the Invisible Girl, none suspect that brother Johnny is the Human Torch. An editor’s note refers to an earlier scene in FF #4 where some of Johnny’s friends know of his other identity but they’ve since left town or have been sworn to secrecy! So as long as no one in town checks out Life or Look magazines, and don’t put two and two together, Johnny’s secret is safe. “The less publicity I have the better I like it! After all, I don’t get my kicks by being considered a flaming freak!” (Nevertheless, a later issue would reveal that no one in town was fooled but, respecting Johnny’s privacy, never let on!) Next, readers were treated to a schematic of Johnny’s room (secret compartments, etc.) and learn that everything in the room is made of inflammable asbestos. A quick run-through of the origin of the FF follows and then the reader is plunged into a scheme to blackmail a local amusement park owner by the Destroyer. A little five-page gem by Lee and Ditko concludes the issue with the mystery of “What is X-35?”

Incredible Hulk #4 “The Monster and the Machine”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks) “The Gladiator from Outer Space”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks)

Things were going from bad to worse, if that was

“The Human Torch”; Stan Lee (plot), Larry Lieber (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks) “The Impossible Spaceship”; Stan Lee (plot), Larry Lieber (script), Don Heck (pencils & inks) “What is X-35?”; Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko (pencils & inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks)

Snapper Carr was Rick Jones’ teenaged counterpart at DC’s Justice League of America. But whereas Snapper was never really developed, Rick was never treated with condescension and from the beginning was an integral part first of the Hulk strip and later of the Avengers.

possible, for Rick Jones. Sure, as seen in the previous issue, he’d gained complete control over the Hulk, but as soon as he turned his back on him, the creature would run amok. What to do? Answer: place him under Bruce Banner’s gamma ray machine as he does in Incredible Hulk #4 and see what happens! At first, Rick had his doubts about using the machine; he was still only a high school student after all (even though it seemed he never attended class!) but was reassured when Banner’s personality fought its way to the surface of the Hulk’s clouded mind to croak “Try...Rick...” And so he does with the result that the Hulk is turned back to Banner. But the scientist isn’t satisfied. “There’s too much to be done!” he says without going into detail, thus justifying a further experiment to preserve his mind when he turns into the Hulk. This next experiment works, but at the cost of creating an even more dangerous threat to the human race than the Hulk posed before: the creature possesses Banner’s brain all right, but something has happened to his personality. “Do you realize what I can accomplish? With my brain and the Hulk’s strength, I can do anything!” It was a situation that wouldn’t last long (did Lee and Kirby have any idea where they were going with the strip?) but would leave behind a kind of split personality for the Hulk, one that would prove more lasting: in the future, the Hulk would come to hate Banner as if he were a completely different person, glorying in his own physical strength while despising the weakness of his alter ego. The Early, Formative Years

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Fantastic Four #9 “The End of the Fantastic Four!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks)

The story in Fantastic Four #9 (Dec. 1962) continued to run counter to reader expectations with the cover featuring a downcast FF being assaulted by an angry mob even as they were evicted from their Baxter Building headquarters. A sign with huge lettering behind them reads “5 tower floors for rent!” with windows in the building’s upper stories broken or boarded up. It was not a situation encountered by your typical super-hero and it was for sure that the Justice League had never been shown the exit of its secret cave headquarters or the Challengers of the Unknown kicked out off of Challengers Mountain! It seems that unlike his counterparts at other comic companies, even Mr. Fantastic could make mistakes, having invested the group’s earnings in a shaky stock market whose collapse places an army of bill collectors at the FF’s door. “Bulletin!” says a TV announcer (monitored who knew how many fathoms beneath the sea by the Sub-Mariner himself!). “The world famous Fantastic Four are bankrupt! They have announced plans to dissolve their partnership and sell all their possessions in order to pay their debts!” Soon, the four are seen hitchhiking along the highway and eventually end up in H-wood to break into the movie business. But they were doomed to disappointment when it turns out to have all been a set-up by the crafty Sub-Mariner. Be that as it may, the story served to place the team’s skyscraper headquarters at center stage; but the FF weren’t the first group to use the top floors of a famous New York skyscraper as their base of operations. Decades before, another team of remarkable individuals did the same thing and though their building was never named, descriptions by author Lester Dent left little doubt that Doc Savage and his Band of Iron occupied the top floor of the Empire State Building. It was not the only similarity between Doc and the FF. “Doc Savage and his oddly assorted team might be considered the progenitors of today’s Fantastic Four and many other teams of super-heroes, even Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos,” Lee has said. Indeed, the famous science-detective not only headquartered at the top of a New York skyscraper, but also had a personal high-speed elevator leading directly to his personal suite, a hanger full of exotic vehicles and specialized aircraft, and like Reed Richards, funded his many enterprises with patents made from his own inventions. But most 30

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Doc Savage Magazine (Street and Smith, 1933); The Spider. Pulp magazine heroes with powers greater than those of ordinary men often headlined their own titles and preceded the introduction of comics by many years. Frequently, they were the direct inspiration for a number of later super-heroes.

striking of all was the relationship between two of his associates, Monk Mayfair and Ham Brooks. Like the Torch and Thing feud in the FF, Monk and Ham bickered constantly until the rubber hit the road and then they’d risk their lives for each other. No one should be surprised at the parallels between Doc Savage and the FF as Lee and Kirby had been avid readers of pulp fiction, as were many other comics creators such as Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the creators of Superman; hands down the most popular form of entertainment for decades preceding the advent of television, heroes of pulp magazines such as the Shadow, the Spider, and Buck Rogers were often household names in the pre-war years.

Incredible Hulk #5 “Beauty and the Beast!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks) “The Hordes of General Fang!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks)

The Hulk’s personality continued to deteriorate in Incredible Hulk #5 as the two halves of Bruce Banner’s fractured psyche, rational ego versus bestial id, placed Rick Jones in increasing peril of his life. In most ordinary people, the demands of the ego and the id are balanced by the influence of the superego (at least according to the increasingly doubtful theories of Sigmund Freud), but as a result of the accident in the previous issue, the gap

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between the halves of Banner’s personality continued to widen with no counterbalancing force. Now, the desires that once dictated the Hulk’s impulsive nature were no longer random. With the addition of Banner ’s rational mind to the Hulk’s brutal nature, those desires became fewer and more ordered. But shorn of the moral judgment that places a rational mind to its best use, Banner’s intelligence could not rise above the Hulk’s primitive urges for personal power and control of his immediate environment. Sure, for now, such as in the two stories this issue, the Hulk chose to tackle threats to the country (“The Hordes of General Fang!”) or to help those he knows (“Beauty and the Beast!”), it seemed only a matter of time before he turned his strength loose for more personal goals. “Let her fear me!” says the Hulk after rescuing Betty Ross from the clutches of Tyrannus (a subterranean monarch served by hordes of mole people who looked suspiciously like those who also served the Mole Man over in the FF’s title...hmmm). “Let ‘em all fear me! Maybe they got good reason to! ‘Cause they’re only humans, but I’m the Hulk!” And with Rick losing what little influence he once had on the Hulk and becoming increasingly the target of his anger (“Shut up, you puny fool!”) how long would it be before the teenager was forced to betray Banner to the authorities for the good of the whole human race? The Hulk now seemed more savage, more brutal than ever; not your average comic book headliner. Could Lee

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and Kirby keep up the pace? How long could they keep such a radically anti-social character going before routine set in? Already, individual story plots seemed to be getting repetitious (although the relationship between Rick Jones and Bruce Banner/Hulk continued to evolve and remain interesting). As it turned out, the answer wouldn’t come for another two years, after the Hulk’s book was canceled and the character reappeared in a new series over in Tales to Astonish where Lee would be partnered with an artist named Ditko!

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Incredible Hulk #5, page 8. The personification of Freud’s tripartite psychology, the Id and the Ego are sundered in a new Hulk where the Banner persona is cut off and unable to exert any influence on his raging other self.

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Fantastic Four #11 “A Visit with the Fantastic Four”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks) “The Impossible Man”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Al Hartley (inks)

The FF continued to set the pace for Marvel’s new line of comics with Fantastic Four #11 (Feb. 1963) which led off, not with action or even with the posing of a weird problem such as the competition was wont to do (a common practice at DC was to come up with the cover first, usually presenting some wild premise such as “The Three Wives of Superman!” then write a story to match!), but with an 11-page feature called “A Visit with the Fantastic Four.” The blurb at the top of the splash page stated that it was “the type of story most requested by” readers’ cards and letters. If it was true, then the evidence was clear that Marvel had tapped into something altogether different in what was to be

Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane #51. It’s easy to see how a cover like this could grab the attention of younger readers... before they wised up and graduated to Marvel Comics!

Mar vel Comics in the 1960s

expected from comic book readers. Fans enjoyed the color and action of course, but suddenly they were just as interested in the characters, who they were, where they came from, what motivated them and in the case of the FF, this bickering, tragic and problem-laden group, what made them behave the way they did? Readers wanted to know more than how they received their powers, they wanted to understand the reasons for the things they did. The fact that Lee allowed a non-action story to lead off what was supposed to be a super-hero action-adventure comic was proof of the strength of this new dimension in reader interest. But although the story gave readers plenty of new background information on the private lives of their favorite heroes, it was given with the self-deprecating and self-conscious humor that Lee would soon apply to Marvel’s entire line of comics. It opens with a splash page showing a line of customers of all ages spilling out the door of a neighborhood variety store, all there for the arrival of the latest issue of the FF! Entering the lobby of the Baxter Building, we meet the group’s mailman Willy Lumpkin, and find out that access to the four’s private elevator can be had only through the use of a signal light from their belt buckles. In their penthouse headquarters, the FF begin their daily routine which starts with opening the fan mail. Later, the Torch announces that he’s going to the garage to work on his automobile and Mr. Fantastic tries once again to change the Thing back to his normal human form. The experiment a failure, the three remaining members begin to reminisce and readers learn more details about their lives before they gained their super powers: Reed and Ben first met in college (Reed attended on a science scholarship, Ben for sports) and while Reed was well-to-do, Ben was “from the wrong side of the tracks.” Later, the two entered the service and fought in World War II, Reed in the O.S.S. (fans had a chance to see him in action a few months later in Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #3!) and Ben as a Marine fighter pilot. The relationship between Sue and Reed is made more explicit when Reed says, “It’s always been you, since we were kids together living next door to each other!” So Ben’s crush on Sue expressed in issue #3 may have only developed much later, but even if that wrinkle had been resolved in succeeding issues, “the shadow of the Sub-Mariner” had since arisen to replace it. Returning to the mail, Reed and Ben notice that one letter has upset Sue. It turns out that fans have been writing in saying that she was useless to the team and should be dropped! Lee responds forcefully through an angry Reed Richards who, pointing directly out of the panel toward the reader, says, “Lincoln’s mother was the most important person in the world to him! But, she didn’t help

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him fight the civil war! She didn’t split rails for him! She didn’t battle with his enemies!” The story ends on a happy note as a surprise birthday party is thrown for Sue (but with only one candle on the cake, readers were left in the dark as to just how old she really was!). The balance of the book was given over to the FF’s battle (if that’s what you could call it!) with the Impossible Man, a story equal parts action and humor that demonstrated the versatility of Marvel’s approach to the characters. Fun Fact: Did you know that the FF’s mailman, Willy Lumpkin, was the star of an aborted comic strip Lee once tried to sell to a syndicate?

Fantastic Four #12, page 16. There’s so much story going on over just this page that it makes you wonder what the first 15 were about! And the action doesn’t even start until page 18!

Fantastic Four #12 “The Incredible Hulk”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks)

Fantastic Four #12 (Mar. 1963) began what would later become a Marvel staple: the in-house crossover. Taking a leisurely pace, the FF here meet the Hulk only on page 17 of a 23-page story and, unlike the gentlemanly encounters between heroes at other companies, end up fighting. Which was standard practice at Marvel, whose characters almost always ended up fighting before getting around to settling their differences (and usually there weren’t any, with fights often taking place over a misunderstanding). But a suspicious, devious and innately selfish Hulk was always an exception to the rule. Throw in a Thing still filled with rage over the accident that turned him into a misshapen brute, and it’s easy to see that there was little hope for a reconciliation between the heroes by the end of this story! Luckily for this first big team-up story, Kirby was spending more time on the art, perhaps as sales and his interest in the strip grew, and Dick Ayers, a man long experienced with inking Kirby’s pencils, did the finishes (for most comics, the primary artist would first draw the action in pencil with a secondary artist, called an inker, tracing over the finished work in black ink). As for Lee, this issue demonstrates his growing familiarity with the dynamics between the group members and their developing personalities. A fun scene involves the Torch trying to impress Rick Jones with his flame power not The Early, Formative Years

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Tales of Suspense #39 “Iron Man Is Born”; Stan Lee (plot), Larry Lieber (script), Don Heck (pencils & inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Don Heck (inks)

By the time Tales of Suspense #39 (March 1963) appeared, Lee had boiled down the general idea of heroes in the real world to heroes, more specifically, like

realizing that Rick is the only person on Earth privy to the secret of the Hulk. “He wouldn’t be so swell-headed if he knew I was the Hulk’s partner!” thinks Rick. This boastful aspect of the Torch’s personality would be transferred lock, stock and barrel to the Spider-Man strip (whose first number came out the same month as this issue) and developed into a full-scale rivalry between the two young heroes. Interestingly, the Hulk’s appearance this issue coincides with the release the same month of The Incredible Hulk #6, the last issue of the character’s own title. The simultaneous release of the two magazines suggests that the decision to cancel the Hulk book may have been a hasty, last minute one. Although not impossible, it was hardly likely that the Hulk’s guest starring role here was meant to promote his upcoming membership in the Avengers, a team book that wouldn’t debut for another six months.

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Tales of Suspense #39, page 7. Prof. Yinsen sacrifices his life so that Iron Man may live! And in a panel taken from the same issue, Heck shows how images of the Vietnam War had already begun to permeate the American consciousness even as early as 1963.

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Don Heck L

ike many professionals in the early days of comics, Don Heck was a native New Yorker, born in Queens in 1929. Taking to newspaper comic strips when he was a boy, Don was strongly influenced by the style of Terry and the Pirates creator Milton Caniff and soon began doodling on his own. Before long, he signed up for a correspondence course in art and after high school attended a local community college where he was able to take more formal lessons. In 1949, he took a job with Harvey Comics as a cut-andpaste man. But such work soon palled for the aspiring artist and after sending samples to various comics companies, freelance assignments began to trickle in from a number of them. One of the earliest books for which Don was credited was Weird Terror #1 (1952) but he soon branched out to every other genre becoming adept at all of them: horror, western, romance, crime, you name it. Still under the influence of Caniff, and especially when inking himself, Don’s style (especially as seen on covers he did for Horrific) was intricate, forceful, and often in-your-face. Maybe it was those qualities that caught the eye of Atlas editor Stan Lee when he hired Don as a staff member in 1954. Again, Don did it all with perhaps his most stunning work on display for a regular feature called “Torpedo Taylor” in Navy Combat. Unfortunately, Lee was forced to lay off Don when Atlas suffered a cutback in the mid-’50s, but he was one of the first he asked to return when the company recovered at the end of the decade. At that time, working on the company’s slate of monster books, Don became part of a trio of powerhouse artists including Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, who would go on to make comics history as the co-creators of some of the most enduring characters in pop-fiction.

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real people, heroes who weren’t perfect, who had flaws. A shorthand for this idea became the infirmity, an ironic counterpoint to the part of the hero’s outward personality that was intended for public consumption. The irony of the hero who seemed to live a charmed life but harbored a secret, tragic flaw that, even as the acclaim of the public rung in his ears, rendered personal satisfaction illusive, became for Lee an irresistible starting point for the creation of new characters. Iron Man was the embodiment of this idea. Tony Stark had it all, wealth, genius, women, until he was caught by a booby trap in Vietnam and captured by the Viet Cong with a piece of shrapnel closing in on his heart. Knowing he has only a few days to live, the Communists decide to force him to work for them until he drops. Instead, Stark builds himself a chest device designed to keep the shrapnel from entering his heart while at the same time

Smash Comics #12. Was Quality Comics’ Bozo an Iron Man prototype? Spotting “prototypes” became a popular sport in the 1980s as fans combed older comics, especially Marvel’s “prehero” Atlas monster books, for clues to the origins of their favorite characters.

Mar vel Comics in the 1960s

extending the armor to cover his whole body. Then, using its electric power to defeat his captors, he makes his escape. Of course any adolescent reader worth his salt could have seen the most poignant tragedy suffered by this millionaire playboy: permanently encased in his chest device, he was unable to develop close ties with any of the beauties with whom he’d formerly cavorted and especially not with the attractive secretary that later came to work for him. For Iron Man, Lee would have his best opportunity to explore the nature of the tragic hero, and in Don Heck (who’d been with the company for years, specializing in war, western and horror stories), the perfect artist to dwell on the human inter-relations the strip offered, instead of the headlong action that was Kirby’s forte.

Amazing Spider-Man #1 “Spider-Man”; Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko (pencils & inks) “Spider-Man vs. The Chameleon”; Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko (pencils & inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Steve Ditko (inks)

Six months after his debut in Amazing Fantasy, which readers apparently received with unbridled enthusiasm, Spider-Man was given his own title with Amazing Spider-Man #1 (Mar. 1963). The splash page set the tone: Spider-Man, his back to a wall, is hemmed in by pointing, accusatory fingers with a shouting, clench-fisted J. Jonah Jameson as cheerleader. “Freak! Public Menace!” screams a blurb, signaling unsuspecting readers that this wasn’t going to be your ordinary, garden variety super-hero! Indeed, Spider-Man would become the first feared, hated and vilified hero in comics, not because he wanted to fool the underworld into believing that he was one of them or anything like that, but just because he didn’t conform. The early issues of the book would become a textbook on the power of the media to manipulate public opinion, to arouse irrational fears in people, to create a mob mentality. Sure, J. Jonah Jameson would be the principal rabble rouser, but he was only a symbol for every member of the media with an axe to grind. But the question is, could this aspect of the Spider-Man book have been Lee’s alone, or was he even at this early date, conceptualizing the strip in tandem with Ditko? Ditko has since been associated with the philosophy of Objectivism and its principal spokesman, writer Ayn Rand. Was it coincidence that two of the main elements of Rand’s novel The Fountainhead (and of its 1947 film adaptation also scripted by the author) was the power of the press (in the person of a newspaper publisher) to destroy a person’s reputation or Howard Roark’s fanatical determination to preserve his independence? Be that as it may,

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Spider-Man’s greatest enemy would be those forces trying to suppress his individuality (expressed in his desire to be a super-hero, a scholarship student or a good nephew to his Aunt May) rather than the costumed rogues’ gallery with which Lee and Ditko would populate the book. And right off, they’re all introduced in this first full-length story. On page 2, as he overhears his Aunt pleading with the landlord for more time to pay the rent, Peter is briefly tempted to embark on a career of crime in order to solve the family’s money crisis; fortunately however, his moral nature rebels against the idea and he decides to go into show business instead! On page 3, Peter is derided as a “bookworm” by his classmates and on page 4, he runs into unyielding bureaucracy when the bank refuses to cash a check made out to a masked SpiderMan (“Don’t be silly! Anyone can wear a costume!”). Finally, Peter loses his variety show gig because of a growing media attack on his alter ego painting Spider-Man as a menace to society. “Children may try to imitate his fantastic feats! Think what would happen if they make a hero out of this lawless, inhuman monster!” editorializes Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson. Later, unable to raise money himself or find a job, Peter spies his Aunt selling her dearest possessions at a local pawn shop. The sight triggers his growing frustration as he pounds away at a brick wall, vowing, “I can’t let Aunt May down! Even if it means the Spider-Man will again stalk the city by night!” In an attempt to show the public that he’s not a menace, Peter saves the life of Jameson’s astronaut son.

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Fully expecting to be exonerated, Peter is shocked to find newspapers and even FBI wanted posters demanding his arrest. “Unfortunately, if something is shouted long enough, there are always those who will believe it…” writes Lee at the conclusion of the story, echoing ominously Hitler’s theory of the big lie. The story ends in a way that would become standard fare for suffering Spidey fans as a worried and perspiring Peter Parker clutches the newspaper and wonders not only about how to deal

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Amazing Spider-Man #1, page 1. Like Randian hero Howard Roark, Spider-Man would be hounded by a media unable to abide anyone who thought for himself and did not conform to the fickle opinion of the mob.

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Author ayn rand. the fountainhead (inset).

with the fact that everyone in town hates his alter ego (even his Aunt May has been co-opted: “Oh dear, I certainly hope they find that horrible Spider-Man and lock him up before he can do any harm!”), but more importantly, are they right in doing so? The assault on Peter Parker’s very identity as an individual had begun, and no one reading this book in 1962 could guess how it would all end. Fun Fact: Once again, it was Kirby who was called in to draw this issue’s cover (with Ditko inks), perhaps because it featured the Fantastic Four (in the second of this issue’s two stories, Spidey approaches them for a job!)

Incredible Hulk #6 “Vs. The Metal Master!”; Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko (pencils), Steve Ditko (inks) Cover: Steve Ditko (pencils & inks)

A creative switch in Incredible Hulk #6 resulted in artist Steve Ditko stepping in for Kirby in what would turn out to be the title’s final issue. Whether Lee knew the Hulk book would be canceled with this issue or not, sales figures no doubt gave him at least a suspicion that the title wasn’t doing well on the newsstands. And knowing that Kirby’s talents could be better used elsewhere (the artist was drawing the FF and the Human Torch and Iron Man strips in Strange Tales and Tales of Suspense respectively on a monthly basis, with a new war book called Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos in the works) Lee probably decided that the underutilized Ditko would be a good substitute. He was more right than he knew, because when the “Hulk” strip was slated 38

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to be given a second chance in Tales to Astonish two years later, Ditko would be there at the start. Even more, it would be Ditko who suggested a change in format from episodic stories to a newspaper comic strip style serial that would drive the feature to a success it had failed to find the first time around. But that was all in the future; for now it was business as usual as Lee forced yet another oddball change onto the Hulk. Remember how at first, the Hulk had been a simple rampaging powerhouse with a personality split evenly between Banner and his green-skinned alter ego? And remember how, after that, he stopped changing with the rising and setting of the sun? Then he retained Banner’s intelligence when he was the Hulk? Well, this time the change was even weirder: Banner changes into the Hulk but retains not only Banner’s intelligence, but his head! That’s right, sitting atop the Hulk’s lumpy green body was Banner’s pink-skinned head! Even more absurd, Lee has Hulk/Banner pull on a plastic mask of the Hulk’s face in order to hide his Banner identity to the world! (Luckily however, by the time soldiers pull off the mask while the Hulk is unconscious, Banner’s head had changed to match the rest of ol’ Greenskin’s body...whew!) But where in the world was Lee going with the character? What was he thinking? It began to seem as if Kirby bailed out just in time, because if publisher Martin Goodman was sitting in his office scratching his head about why the Hulk feature wasn’t selling, he didn’t have to look far to find out! This latest development was clearly carrying things too far, and in “The Incredible Hulk vs The Metal Master” it was only Ditko’s wonderful ability to impart an even greater sense of brutishness to the Hulk with a range of facial expressions that really made the character as fearful as the reader was meant to believe he was that salvaged the issue. However, this issue wasn’t all bad. How could it be, when it also featured the origin of the Teen Brigade? Never heard of them? Well, it’s understandable as the Teen Brigade (a group of teenaged ham radio enthusiasts united by Rick Jones into a national network that would go on to star in early issues of the Avengers) didn’t make too many appearances. But here at least, they came in handy to help the Hulk defeat the menace of the Metal Master, who can turn any metal to slag. They even get a word of thanks from a suddenly civilized Hulk! “Gosh! Imagine the Hulk complimenting us! Wowee!” Was the Hulk going through yet another change?! If so, readers found out how insubstantial it was after ol’ Greenskin flies into a rage when he discovers that the gamma machine he uses to change back into

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Bruce Banner doesn’t work. “I always hated Banner’s weak body, always wished I could stay as the Hulk! But now, to be the Hulk forever, to always be hunted, feared...” With beads of Ditko-perspiration coming down his face, a suggestion of what was becoming Lee’s forte could still be seen beneath the nutty plot contrivances: inverting reader expectation about what it would be like to have super powers. In real life, a super-strong being like the Hulk would be hunted by the authorities. A Superman, if there ever were such a person, would likely be obliged to register with the government so ordinary people could sleep at night. But the tradeoff for public security was frequently misery for the “super-hero” as in the Hulk’s case, when he found himself tortured by forces beyond his control. In these early, formative years, Lee was still learning, and the anxieties he learned to tap into would uncannily parallel the feelings of his young readers as the social revolution of the 1960s progressed.

theme to the book? And did they have in mind from the beginning to bring in Cap early in the run? If so, and the scheduling of the events of the various books involved seem too close to allow any other interpretation, then the importance of Avengers #1 must assume greater significance in the development of Marvel as one of the earliest examples of the longrange, in-house, crossover that would become a staple of comics in later years. (Interesting aside: no sooner had these events taken place in the Avengers, than Lee and Kirby seemed to try them again in the new X-Men title that debuted in the same month. There again, Magneto and his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and their competition with the X-Men for the recruitment of new members became a unifying thematic motif in the stories with these villains appearing again and again in the book’s first eleven issues).

Avengers #1

Although the concept behind Avengers #1 (Sept 1963) may not have been an original one (grouping all of the company’s heroes who were at loose ends together in a single team, sort of a super-crossover), what Lee and Kirby may have had in mind for the book was. The evidence? Consider this: in the team’s debut, the story tells how Thor, Iron Man, Giant-Man and the Wasp join together to combat what they presume is a renegade Hulk. Of course, after many pages of battle action between all the heroes, Thor guesses that his evil brother Loki is behind the set-up. When Loki is defeated and all is made clear between the heroes, they decide to band together as the Avengers. So far so good. But now look at this chronology: by the end of the very next issue, the Hulk quits when he suspects his partners don’t trust him. In #3, he joins the SubMariner in battle against his former teammates, and in #4 Captain America joins the team as the Hulk’s replacement. Got that? Okay, now look at this: the very same month that the Hulk quits the group in #2, the Human Torch fights a faux Cap in Strange Tales #114. Two months later, the real Captain America is found by the Avengers and joins the team as the Hulk’s replacement. Coincidence? Maybe. But what if it wasn’t? Did Lee and Kirby have it all planned from the beginning? Did they include the Hulk in the Avengers with the intention of having him quit to become the raison d’etre so to speak for the Avengers existence and later, to provide a recurring, unifying

“The Coming of the Avengers!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks)

Justice League of America #1. Although sales of DC’s JLA book has been given as the immediate inspiration for the creation of the FF, its composition made up of the company’s greatest heroes more closely resembled the Avengers.

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Amazing Spider-Man #2 “Duel to the Death with the Vulture”; Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko (pencils & inks) “The Uncanny Threat of the Terrible Tinkerer!”; Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko (pencils & inks) Cover: Steve Ditko (pencils & inks)

Although Spidey had technically tackled his first villain (the Chameleon) in issue #1, it wasn’t until this one, Amazing Spider-Man #2 (May 1963), that he met a real, honest to gosh, costumed super-villain. The first, and easily one of the most memorable of Spidey’s rogues’ gallery of villains (which would later include such unforgettable characters as Dr. Octopus, Green Goblin, Sandman and the Scorpion), the Vulture looked like he was only an old man with a pair of wings, but as our hero would find out, there was a whole lot more about him than met the eye. In a way that was never satisfactorily explained, the Vulture’s wings gave him not only great maneuverability, but extraordinary power. Swooping through the air, for instance, he could swing his feet at a stone cornice, reducing it to rubble with the impact. How his flesh and blood feet could withstand such punishment was a mystery. But who cared, when readers could thrill to page after page of Spidey in Ditko-inspired aerial combat high above the city? But perhaps the most important element in this issue’s story isn’t Spidey’s battle with the Vulture (which was usually the case for the Spider-Man comic: Peter Parker’s problems were generally more interesting than the action!) but Peter’s inspiration to sell photos of himself in action as Spider-Man to the Daily Bugle. Interestingly, the idea for the scheme came from Liz Allen, a fellow student whom Peter overhears in class: “A photo of the Vulture would be worth a fortune! Nobody can get close enough to him to snap one!” “Say!” thinks Peter, “That’s an idea! I never thought of it before! Magazines would pay big money for hard-to-get photos!” But, while trying to take a picture of the Vulture using a miniature camera that had once belonged to his Uncle Ben, Spidey is captured and locked in a water tower. The incident teaches him a lesson: be prepared. As a result, Peter designs himself a utility belt to hold extra cartridges of web fluid, a flashlight “spider signal” and a place to store his camera. Later, Peter approaches newspaper and Now Magazine publisher J. Jonah Jameson for Avengers #1, page 16 (opposite page). The classic nine-panel grid often used by Kirby in the early years would soon prove inadequate to contain the action and the increasing bulk of his outsized figures as Marvel moved into its grandiose years.

the first time and strikes a famous deal: that Jameson never ask him how he gets his photos and that he credit the photos to “a Now Magazine staff photographer.” Although Jameson would later be characterized as a skinflint, he must have been pretty impressed with the pictures Peter took of the Vulture because he was able to pay “the rent for a full year” and to buy “the newest kitchen appliances” for his Aunt May with the proceeds! Curiously however, Peter never tells his aunt how he earned so much money, nor does she ask! It was one of few happy endings for our hero. Fun Fact: This issue sports the new “Marvel Comics Group” logo at the top left hand corner of the cover. Designed by Ditko, the new logo gave instant recognizability to the company’s product on crowded magazine racks where often only the very top or leading left edge of a comic book cover was visible. And while each logo featured a head shot of whichever character starred in a particular book, not all were visually successful, with one wag claiming that the shot of Thor made him look like “a grinning fool!”

Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #1 “Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos”; Stan Lee (Script), Jack Kirby (Pencils), Dick Ayers (Inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks)

Lee once said that he created Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos on a bet to prove that he could adapt his new ideas to any genre, even war comics. To that end, he made sure he called Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #1 (May 1963) “the war comic for people who hate war comics.” On the other hand, a story told by artist John Severin had it that he was approached by Kirby at one point and asked if he would be interested in collaborating with him on a comic strip that would be about a cigar chomping sergeant in charge of a misfit band of GIs during World War II. Whether this was the actual genesis of the Sgt. Fury strip or merely evidence that Kirby and Lee pooled ideas about creating a new war comic is anyone’s guess. However the title came to be, the Sgt. Fury strip has frequently found itself an unsung product of Silver Age Marvel, a situation it doesn’t deserve; in fact, Lee and Kirby here pulled out all the stops, going over the top in a manner they didn’t dare on their regular comics. As far removed from the competition’s line of war books as it could possibly be, Sgt. Fury was less a gritty war book bent on exploring the situation of men in combat than an impossible exaggeration of army life as based upon The Early, Formative Years

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GI Combat #87, page 1. Whether it was “the Haunted Tank,” “the Unknown Soldier,” “the Losers,” or “Enemy Ace,” humor as well as barracks life was frequently in short supply in more traditional war comics such as DC’s long running GI Combat.

Mr. Roberts starring James Cagney was a film that emphasized the sometimes absurd nature of regimented life in the military.

depicted combat units made up of Americans of mixed heritage, provided sufficient cover for taking some risks. The make-up of the Howlers mirrored the real army with which they were ostensibly a part, including having a Jew, an Italian-American and a Black man as members. Unfortunately, after Kirby left the strip with #7 and then Lee with #28, it lost much of its humor and utterly unique flavor. Needless to say however, Lee won his bet. Fun fact #1: Whether intentional or not, except for a single interior panel, the character of Gabriel Jones, the Howler’s AfricanAmerican member, was colored the same pink color used for his white comrades in arms throughout this issue! Fun fact #2: Was the Sgt. Fury book the uncredited inspiration for The Rat Patrol, a television series that debuted in 1966 that featured a quartet of soldiers sent each week on suicide missions against Rommel’s Afrika Corps? Both the comic and television show had more than a little in common…

Mar vel Comics in the 1960s

the two creators’ actual experiences. The strip owed a lot more to films such as Desperate Journey, No Time For Sergeants, and Mister Roberts than to 12 O’Clock High or Guadalcanal Diary, because not only did Sgt. Fury possess some of the most rip-snortin’ action art Kirby ever drew for Marvel, but it also had some of the most outrageously funny scenes in comics. Typical plots were usually divided between the Howlers’ impossible missions behind enemy lines and their rivalry with Bull McGiveny’s Maulers, which left little room for serious introspection. Later, when Fury got a sophisticated British girlfriend, the contrast between the two would be played to the hilt with the culmination of hilarity taking place in Sgt Fury #13. Lee, however, kept readers off balance by sometimes throwing them curveballs. The seeds for such future stories were planted in a double-page spread on pages 2 and 3 of this first issue with Lee granting his characters the ethnicity denied more mainstream super-heroes. Ethnicity at the time, was something denied most characters in comics, perhaps in a misguided effort by those in the industry to alienate as few potential customers as possible. But the semi-realism of the war comic, following the example set in Hollywood films that frequently

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Strange Tales #110 “The Wizard and Paste-Pot-Pete!”; Stan Lee (co-plot), Ernie Hart [as H.E. Huntley] (dialogue), Dick Ayers (co-plot, pencils & inks) “Dr. Strange, Master of Black Magic!”; Stan Lee (dialogue), Steve Ditko (plot, pencils & inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks)

Appearing out of nowhere in Strange Tales #110 (July 1963) was “Dr. Strange, Master of Black Magic” and comic book magicians would never be the same again! Perhaps suggested to Lee by Ditko, Dr. Strange’s earliest adventures (hardly more than five pages long in the beginning) resembled nothing more than the short weird stories that’d been appearing in this book (and Tales to Astonish and Tales of Suspense among other Marvel mystery titles of the 1950s) for years. On the face of it, the only difference with Doc Strange was that he was a kind of host (traditional for weird anthologies) who took a more active role in his yarns than your average Crypt Keeper. But if readers at the time looked beyond the obvious, surface elements of the character, they would’ve been able to see that Dr. Strange wasn’t their father’s top hat-andtailed magician! He looked vaguely oriental, wore an outlandish costume, tossed around weird spells that tripped easily on the tongue and crossed dimensions as easily as other people crossed the street! In addition, the menaces he fought, far from being mere costumed bad guys, ghosts or dopplegangers, were frequently personifications of such abstract concepts as fear, death or madness. Adding to the mystery, was the manner of the character’s debut: although fans were alerted to the

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doctor’s appearance in this issue by a blurb on the letters page of the concurrent issue of the Fantastic Four, there was no clue of his presence anywhere on the cover of Strange Tales #110 (which announced instead the Human Torch’s battle with the Wizard and Paste-Pot Pete!). As for Ditko, his growing interest in the characters he was handling at Marvel seemed to inspire him to spend more time on his art. Over in the SpiderMan title, his pencils had become increasingly elaborate, while for this

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This simple sketch of Dr. Strange by Ditko demonstrates all the attributes that separated the character from other magicians preceding him: the funky costume; spells crackling with dangerous energies; and the dashing, almost 3-D posture that marks him as a man ready to hurl himself between dimensions!

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Action Comics #14 and Four Color #752. Not your father’s master of the mystic arts! Before Ditko’s wild take on Dr. Strange, magicians in super-hero comics frequented the same haberdashers as such real world prestidigitators as Harry Blackstone and Richard Cardini. Strange, on the other hand, probably bought his clothes in the same Greenwich Village consignment shops as the local hippies!

first appearance of Dr. Strange, they were infinitely more detailed and textured than his contemporaneous work at Charlton Comics or even for much of his pre-hero work at Marvel. For “Dr. Strange,” Ditko pulled out all the stops. Favoring the nine-panel grid for his pages, he filled the story with indelible images: the portrait of a man waking from the terror of a nightmare, his haggard face illuminated in the glow of a match; the mountaintop lair of Strange’s mentor, the Ancient One; the figure of Evil, robed, chained and caught in a blackened, other-dimensional briar thatch; the appearance of Nightmare himself riding a crazy, two-dimensional silhouette of a horse. After an hallucinatory experience like that, it must’ve been hard for readers to go back to the prosaic world of normalcy inhabited by artist Dick Ayers and the Torch! But at least they were eased into the weird world of Dr. Strange with a five-pager called “We Search the Stars”, drawn by Larry Lieber, whose lackluster pencils were transformed here into something resembling cool by the Wolverton-like inks of Matt Fox!

Amazing Spider-Man #3 “Doctor Octopus”; Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko (pencils & inks) Cover: Steve Ditko (pencils & inks)

It didn’t take long for Lee and Ditko to get up and running with their new character, Spider-Man. By 44

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Amazing Spider-Man #3, most of the elements that would make the character a household name (well, at least in households with comic book readers!) were already in place: his gadgets, his easy banter when mixing it up with the bad guys, a suspicious public, an oppressive media, his isolation from his peers and especially his human frailties. But in case anyone decided that it was Peter Parker against the world, they were mistaken. As it was in real life, sometimes a person’s worst enemy is himself. Just as it was his own selfishness that prevented him from stopping a fleeing criminal in Amazing Spider-Man #1 and made him partly responsible for the death of his uncle, so it was again this issue when our hero suffers his first defeat, not because the villain was too powerful (although Dr. Octopus wasn’t exactly a pushover), but because of his own overconfidence. “It’s almost too easy!” thinks Spider-Man after taking only a single panel to foil a trio of safe crackers. “I’ve run out of enemies who can give me any real opposition! I’m too powerful for any foe! I almost wish for an opponent who’d give me a run for my money!” A wish that is immediately granted when Dr. Otto Octavius is caught in an explosion at a nuclear research laboratory. Brain-damaged, the doctor survives, but with the four mechanical arms with which he had been handling the nuclear material now grafted to his body. Later, a confident Peter Parker is given the assignment of getting pictures of the mad doctor by Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson, but on arriving at the hospital he discovers that Octavius (now calling himself Dr. Octopus) has taken over and is holding hostages. Tackling Octopus as Spider-Man, Peter is defeated and thrown from the building in ignominious defeat. His confidence shattered, Peter leaves the scene and tells Jameson that he’s through as a photographer. “I’m a failure!” he thinks. “Spider-Man is a joke! A nothing!” The next day however, Peter’s confidence is rekindled in an unexpected way as the Human Torch (who, ironically, has been called in by the authorities to tackle Dr. Octopus!) gives a speech at the local high school concluding with the admonition that the students “never give up” if at first they fail in their studies. “It’s almost as though he’s talking to me!” thinks Peter from his place in the audience. His confidence restored by the realization that even the FF had suffered its share of defeats, Peter goes after Octopus again and beats him. Although Lee had no reservations about having Peter Parker suffer a crisis in confidence every now and then, repetition of the plot device helped to remind readers that, despite his fantastic feats, Spider-Man was after all, only human. A fact that readers didn’t take long in catching

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on to: “In the Spider-Man, you have a hero that really reaches out to the hearts of the readers,” read one letter on this issue’s letters page. “His financial state, his social life, and his acceptance as a super-hero are all things that make this guy appealing. (Yes, appealing; his appeal is gained more through pity than admiration of him.)” Already, with the very first issue, Spider-Man was finding his audience.

Amazing Spider-Man #3, page 13. With its mixture of youthful exuberance and fears of inadequacy, the Spider-Man strip finds its audience among readers who quickly learned to see themselves in Peter Parker’s struggles not merely against costumed villains but in the misfortunes and disappointments of everyday life.

Strange Tales Annual #2 “On the Trail of the Amazing Spider-Man”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Steve Ditko (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Sol Brodsky (inks)

Simultaneously with Strange Tales #110, the Torch was appearing with teenage rival Spider-Man in Strange Tales Annual #2 (mid1963). Setting the pace for the two teenage heroes’ competitive relationship that would go on for years (most memorably in Spider-Man #8 where Spidey actually crashes one of the Torch’s parties!), it was filled with the kind of mutual antagonism that was by now familiar between the Torch and the Thing. For page after page, even after a misunderstanding between the two heroes was cleared up, readers were allowed to eavesdrop on the cutting banter they continually threw at each other. It was a far cry from the polite meeting between Robin and Superboy that had taken place at the competition only a few years before! By the time of the events in this story, the Torch and Spider-Man have already met informally in Amazing Spider-Man #1 (when Spidey went to the FF looking for a job!). This time, under suspicion for theft, Spidey decides to drop in on the Torch for help in clearing his name (how Spider-Man knew the Torch lived in Glenville when it was supposed to be a secret, goes unexplained). Unknown to him however, besides being jealous over Spider-Man’s dominance in the local press, the Torch has been alerted by the police to be on the lookout for the wall crawler. In no mood for explanations, the Torch, The Early, Formative Years

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Adventure Comics #253. Spidey and the Torch’s heated rivalry at Marvel was in contrast to more polite meetings between DC heroes of the time, including the one that occurred here between Superboy and Robin.

courtesy of Lee and Kirby, launches into action almost as soon as he spots Spider-Man peeking in at his window. But eventually the action breaks off and the Torch learns who the real bad guy is. Meeting atop the Statue of Liberty, he and Spider-Man bury the hatchet and team up to bring in the Fox together. The issue is rounded out with a number of fantasy tales by Kirby, Heck and Ditko and peppered with irresistible house ads for such books as Fantastic Four Annual #1, Sgt. Fury #2 and Avengers #1! What a summer for readers that must’ve been!

Amazing Spider-Man #4 “Nothing Can Stop...The Sandman!”; Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko (pencils & inks) Cover: Steve Ditko (pencils & inks)

Starting right off with an unusual cover design (divided into four panels), Amazing Spider-Man #4 wastes little 46

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time in plunging the reader into the life of a super-hero unlike any other! If this issue’s funky new villain wasn’t enough, the reader was reminded in the story’s very first panel that Spider-Man didn’t live the glorified life enjoyed by a certain native of Krypton. “The SpiderMan Menace!” screams a billboard in the story’s opening panel advertising the Daily Bugle newspaper as our hero swoops down to net a group of “jewel thieves.” But what happens is exactly the kind of thing that readers were beginning to like the character for, the unexpected twist on some scenario that had become standard fare in other super-hero comics. In this case, Spider-Man has been too eager, he stops the thieves before they can break into the jewelry store and their savvy leader then turns the tables on him. “There’s no law against three honest citizens walking in the street at night! You’re a menace, just like J. Jonah Jameson says!” “He’s right!” thinks Spidey. “I was a fool! I should have waited till they broke into the store!” Adding insult to injury, one of the would-be crooks asks Spider-Man, “Don’t you feel like a jerk, paradin’ around in public in that get-up?” Ultimately, Spider-Man is forced to take a quick powder as the crooks vow to swear out a warrant for his arrest and summon a policeman to do it! Hoo boy, stuff like that didn’t happen to the competition’s Dark Knight Detective (who was even sworn in as a special deputy in Gotham City!) With no rest for the weary, Spidey next stumbles into the Sandman, the latest in what would prove to be a long line of bizarre villains dreamed up by Ditko. This time it’s Flint Marko, an escaped convict who found himself trapped in an “atomic devices testing center,” and wouldn’t you know it, he’s caught in a blast that merges the molecules of his body with those of the sandy desert and voila, the Sandman is born with the ability to change the shape of his body at will, from making it rock hard to reducing himself to grainy particles. His first encounter with Spider-Man, however, is brief as our hero tears his mask and is forced to retreat homeward where he must take needle and thread in hand to repair his costume. But Peter Parker finds out all about the Sandman’s abilities the next day when Marko decides to hide out from pursuing police at the local high school. There, the action is taken up again with an unexpected conclusion (well almost unexpected, as it was clearly foreshadowed earlier in the story when Peter went to the basement and met the maintenance man) in which Spider-Man “cleans up” the Sandman with the aid of an industrial vacuum cleaner! A happy ending right? Wrong! No sooner does Spider-Man end the threat of the Sandman, than he is wanted by the police. Slipping away, he’s laughed at by his classmates, spurned by the girls and suffers the scorn of the general public. “He must be a neurotic of some sort!” says one. The story’s final panel

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has Peter Parker, alone in his room, wondering about his sanity. “Can they be right? Am I really some sort of a crack-pot...?” He can’t even win the respect of children: “Don’t you wish you were Spider-Man?” asks one to another. “Nah! Give me the Human Torch any day!” So ends a typical adventure for the tortured teenager...and it was only his fourth issue!

Amazing Spider-Man #5, page 2. The bad guys turn the tables on our hero as Spider-Man is served a dash of realism and readers are jolted out of their complacency. Unlike a certain dark knight, Spidey never became a duly deputized member of the local constabulary; rather, he frequently found himself scuffing the polished shoes of officialdom.

Journey Into Mystery #97 “The Mighty Thor Battles... the Lava Man”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Don Heck (inks) “Tales of Asgard!: Home of the Mighty Norse Gods”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), George Roussos [as George Bell] (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), George Roussos (inks)

Although the lead story in Journey Into Mystery #97 (Oct. 1963) featured a full-length Lee and Kirby masterpiece entitled “The Mighty Thor Battles…The Lava Man,” it was the first installment of a new back-up series that makes this issue truly memorable. Bringing up the rear behind a five-page SF yarn typical for Marvel’s mystery titles was “Tales of Asgard! Home of the Mighty Norse Gods.” Appearing only a few months following the debut of Dr. Strange in Strange Tales #110, the “Tales of Asgard” feature may have been part of a scheme by Lee to eventually phase out all of the weird stories from the mystery titles in favor of the increasingly popular super-hero format. By doing it with back-up features to the main stories, Lee was simply following a tried and true formula for comics, one then in full flower at the competition. Eventually however, the back-up story would die a quiet death at Marvel where the full-length story (which would often continue from issue to issue, with an end hardly ever in sight!) would come to dominate the storytelling style. But where other features such as “Dr. Strange” would come to share their host books equally with their original features (and eventually spin off into titles of their own), the “Tales of Asgard” strip would continue in The Early, Formative Years

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its five-page niche in the back of Journey Into Mystery Amazing Spider-Man #5 (and later when it became simply The Mighty Thor) “Marked for Destruction by Doctor Doom!”; almost to the end of the 1960s (when it was briefly Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko (pencils & inks) supplanted by an “Inhumans” back-up). It was in Cover: Steve Ditko (pencils & inks) the “Tales of Asgard” feature that readers had their Apparently deciding that into every life, even that of first taste, their earliest inkling of the cosmic scope, Peter Parker’s, a little sun must shine, Lee and Ditko the universe-spanning grandeur that would come to cut our hero some slack and allowed him a measure dominate Marvel’s books later in the decade. of good luck for a change! But just as it is in real life, Matching the larger-than-life scope of the series were problems come and go and sometimes something the huge, quarter-page panels with which Kirby laid that seems good can turn out to be more trouble than out “Tales of Asgard” that, in the beginning, con- it’s worth. That’s how it was with Peter’s relationship cerned themselves not with the characters readers of with Betty Brant. Scorned by his classmates in school the lead stories had become familiar with, but with and patronized by his boss, J. Jonah Jameson, up till the origin of the gods and the cosmos itself. Here this issue, the only person that appreciated Peter as was depicted the legendary frost giants and Surtur, the a human being was his elderly Aunt May; but there fire demon and Ragnarok are times in a young and Yggdrassil, the man’s life when he world tree. Eventually, craves the kind of support Lee and Kirby would and understanding that move the timeframe of just couldn’t be found the stories closer to the in someone of an older present (say within a generation. Which presents million years or so!) an interesting situation when they chose to tell in that Betty Brant, in the readers of the early appearance as well as in years of Thor and Loki. being a full-time employee As the series progressed, as Jameson’s secretary, it would move somewhat definitely seemed to be an into the present with a “older woman” in relagrown up Thor advention to Peter and his turing across the fantaspeers, who were all still in Although Vince Colletta’s (right) inking over tic kingdoms that dotted high school. Indiscreet as Jack Kirby would suffer popular criticism decades the Asgardian landscape the question might be, after their historic collaboration on Thor, at in fellowship with such just how old was Betty? the time, he was the fans’ choice as their grand companions as Old enough to legally favorite inker on the strip. Fandral the dashing, leave school and get a job Hogun the grim and which would make her at Volstagg the voluminous! By then, inker Vince least 17 or 18. Peter, who would graduate high school Colletta, hailed by some as the most able to con- only with issue #28, seems to be a sophomore or vey the mythic, legendary feel of Kirby’s stories junior which would put him at 15 or 16. In any case, (and castigated by others for butchering Kirby’s it’s safe to assume that Peter was about two years vision) would become permanently associated Betty’s junior, which didn’t seem to make much with the look of the series. It was here too, that Lee difference to them as future issues would show, seemed first to realize the dramatic potential of the especially as Peter, usually conservatively dressed in “Thor” strip in general. Perhaps compelled by suit and tie and with the responsibility of caring for Kirby’s vaulting images, Lee began to alter his and supporting his Aunt May, came across as mature scripting style to lend the dignity required by the for his age. As time was to show, Betty would not larger-than-life stories. Consequently, with its only present new and different problems for Peter, jumble of quasi-Old English cum Elizabethan but, because of her being older and more involved dialogue, the Thor strip moved from simple with the world outside of school, would soon embroil super-hero vs super-villain slugfest to a regular Spider-Man with organized crime and all the human succession of menaces so far beyond such vices such criminals preyed upon. It was to be a real mundane contests that it became an acquired taste education in the ways of the cruel world for a still for some comics fans! 48

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idealistic Peter Parker. But all that lay in the future; for now, Spider-Man was still more actively involved in the fight against colorful super-villains than the gritty world of organized crime as the FF’s arch-enemy Dr. Doom tries to get him to be his partner! Doom, you see, made the mistake of believing Jameson’s editorials blasting Spider-Man as a public menace and figures the newcomer would gladly want to team up with an established criminal such as himself. But our hero refuses the offer and naturally becomes the object of Doom’s revenge. Meanwhile, looking for laughs at Peter’s expense, high school bully Flash Thompson suits up as Spider-Man to show his friends what a coward the class bookworm was. But it was only Flash’s dumb luck that Doom mistakes him for the real thing and Flash finds himself captured; a situation that forces the real wall crawler to go into action to rescue his tormentor (who, in an ironic twist, is also Spider-Man’s biggest booster). The interesting thing here is that for just a moment, Peter contemplates leaving Flash to Doom’s mercy...a very human reaction, but certainly not something a typical super-hero was supposed to consider! Fun Fact: Was it just coincidence that Doom appears here in Amazing Spider-Man #5 after debuting in the FF with that magazine’s fifth issue? A similar coincidence occurs with the introduction to the growing Marvel universe of two Golden Age revivals when the Sub-Mariner appeared in Fantastic Four #4 and Captain America in Avengers #4. You be the judge!

X-Men #1 “X-Men”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Paul Reinman (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Sol Brodsky (inks)

Lee’s new approach to super-heroes came together at last in X-Men #1 (Sept. 1963), a book consciously produced with the goal of creating a whole group of heroes alienated from society. In fact, the X-Men were only the tip of the iceberg, as it was hinted from the first that they were only a few of an entire sub-culture of super-powered mutants. Considering themselves homo superior, some of these mutants believed they were the next stage of human development destined to supplant homo sapiens. At first, the X-Men, teenagers Cyclops, Beast, Marvel Girl, Ice-Man and Angel, led by their mysterious leader, the wheelchair bound Prof. X, appeared to be accepted by homo sapiens, but as the series would progress, it became increasingly apparent that they were regarded with fear and suspicion by the human race. Indeed, the whole strip seemed isolated, occupying its own separate corner of the growing Marvel universe. With the X-Men, Lee and Kirby had created something

unique in comics (although not necessarily in the world of science fiction as a simple reading of A.E. Van Vogt’s classic novel Slan will bear out), a group of super-heroes who hadn’t banded together to fight crime necessarily or even evil in general, but to seek out and help fellow mutants adjust to their powers and society. In the process, they hoped to also protect humanity and the reputation of mutants from the unscrupulous machinations of such men as Magneto, the “most powerful of the evil mutants.” Magneto (who also debuted in this first issue) is not your run of the mill super-villain. As a matter of fact, to some he may not be a villain at all! His avowed purpose in life is to end the suffering of his fellow mutants at the hands of humans by conquering the world and making humans his subordinates. The whole set-up of the series becomes the more interesting as we see Magneto and Prof. X vie for the position of being the one to define the role of the mutant in larger society. Here, Lee and Kirby could explore the ultimate alienation of the hero as a whole group of them must live in seclusion simply in order to protect themselves from those they’re working to save. Fun Fact: In science fiction author Henry Kuttner’s Baldy stories, written in the 1950s, a new mutant race of telepaths arise who must defend themselves against the threat of a possible pogrom by the more numerous humans. In the stories, mutants are referred to as “homo superior,” conduct an underground war between good and evil mutants, and of course, the outward symbol of their difference is being bald. All elements that became part and parcel of Marvel’s X-Men strip. Coincidence?

Slan by A.E. Van Vogt and Mutant by Henry Kuttner were early science fiction stories that explored the concept of mutants struggling to find a place in human society.

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X-Men #1, page 12. X-Men founder Prof. X makes plain the fact that mutants are a people apart when he refers to the “outside world” away from the protected confines of his school for gifted youngsters. Later, he makes explicit the code of the Baldy culture in Kuttner’s Mutant, i.e., to protect the human race from evil mutants like Magneto.

Strange Tales #114 “Captain America”; Stan Lee (co-plot, dialogue); Jack Kirby (co-plot & pencils), Dick Ayers (inks) “The Return of the Omnipotent Baron Mordo!”; Stan Lee (dialogue) Steve Ditko (plot & pencils), George Roussos [uncredited] (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks)

An event that would prove momentous for the nascent Marvel universe occurred with the quasicrossover of Strange Tales #114 (Nov. 1963). There was more irony than substance in that issue when Lee and Kirby revived Captain America from many years in comic book limbo to battle the Human Torch. It turned out that this Captain America was an imposter (actually an old Torch villain called the Acrobat) while the Human Torch is himself merely a retooled version of the original 1940s character. But regardless of the nature of the combatants, Kirby gave readers page after page of colorful acrobatic thrills as the Torch tries to fight someone he thinks is the real Captain America. Finally, as the Torch relaxes at home reading old Captain America comics, Lee leaves readers with the offer of bringing the real Captain America back if they demand it, which, as everyone knows, they did. Reader demand also figured in the latest installment of the “Dr. Strange” strip in the back of the book, wherein Lee and Ditko continued to exercise their fertile imaginations as the good doctor tries to ward off the evil intentions of Baron Mordo.

typical hyperbole for Lee, who’d plastered “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” on the cover of the fourth issue of the Fantastic Four at a time when that book could barely stand comparison with most other comics on the newsstands. But hyperbole or not, it was hard to argue with the sentiment when presented with this issue’s story as Spider-Man travels to the Florida everglades to battle one of his strangest foes, the Lizard. The Lizard, you see, is actually mildmannered biologist Curt Connors who has been conducting experiments involving the regenerative powers of lizards in order to regrow his own missing arm. Instead, he winds up becoming an anthropoidal lizard with a sort of Jekyll/Hyde personality. As the super-strong Lizard, all Connors wants to do is to make the world safe for lizard-kind and forget about his wife and son. But it’s those very people, and the knowledge that Connors himself means no harm, that presents Spider-Man with the problem he’d face on and off for the next 100 issues: how to defeat the Lizard without hurting him or getting himself killed in the process?

Amazing Spider-Man #6

With sales climbing and a definite sense that something was in the air among comic book readers, Lee boldly christened the dawning new era as “The Marvel Age of Comics” and trumpeted the sentiment on the cover of Amazing Spider-Man #6. The assertion neatly superimposed itself over the years since 1955 (when DC introduced the new Flash, the first of its line of heroes updated from the 1940s) which in fan circles were slowly becoming known as comics’ “Silver Age” as opposed to the “Golden Age” which was generally considered to have taken place in the 1940s. It was

“Face-to-Face With...the Lizard!”; Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko (pencils & inks) Cover: Steve Ditko (pencils & inks)

Showcase #4. The introduction of the new and improved Flash in 1955 marked what is commonly accepted as the beginning of comics’ Silver Age.

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Strange Tales #115

“The Sandman Strikes!”; Stan Lee (co-plot, dialogue), Dick Ayers (co-plot, pencils & inks) “The Origin of Dr. Strange”; Stan Lee (co-plot, dialogue), Steve Ditko (co-plot, pencils & inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Steve Ditko (inks)

Strange Tales #115, page 1. Dr. Strange’s origin in this issue bore not a little resemblance to Hollywood’s adaptation of the Somerset Maugham novel The Razor’s Edge (right) in which a disillusioned veteran searches the world for the meaning of life, finds respite in a Tibetan type monastery under the tutelage of an ancient teacher, and returns to civilization with the suggestion of strange powers.

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The tables were reversed with Strange Tales #115 (Dec. 1963) when the usually lackluster “Torch” strip is eclipsed by its upstart co-feature, “Dr. Strange.” Here at last, Lee and Ditko get around to giving Strange an origin story. And although the lack of one seemed to add to the aura of mystery surrounding the character, it didn’t hurt a bit as we discover that Dr. Strange was indeed a real physician who, because of an auto accident that resulted in nerve damage, lost the use of his hands for delicate operations. Vain and unfeeling, he refused to have anything more to do with medicine and became an alcoholic drifter. At last, at the end of his rope, he decides to visit the Ancient One with the hope that the aged guru might be able to restore the use of his hands. Instead, he learns the ways of magic, becomes the Ancient One’s disciple, and defeats the designs of his mentor’s previous student, the evil Baron Mordo. Throughout, it’s Ditko’s cool pencils and inks that give the strip its atmosphere. Who can ever forget the panels showing Dr. Strange, down on his luck, his face unshaven and haggard; the Ancient One’s lair clinging precariously to its cliffside perch or the overall gloom and strangeness of the Himalayan monastery where Strange first

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learns the mystic arts? Compared to all this, the “Torch” strip, still regularly drawn by Dick Ayers (who had the misfortune of being in the same book as Ditko), was pretty nowhere, even with the pairing of the Torch with the Sandman and a guest appearance by Spider-Man.

Amazing Spider-Man #7 “The Return of the Vulture”; Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko (pencils & inks) Cover: Steve Ditko (pencils & inks)

Amazing Spider-Man #7, page 1; Tales of Suspense #48. A double dose of Ditko! Just as the artist was already exerting an influence on the Spider-Man strip, so too was his presence felt in the more out-of-the-way “Iron Man” feature as he was called upon to redesign the hero’s armor resulting in a look that would stand for decades.

“Here is Spider-Man as you like him...fighting! Joking! Daring! Challenging the most dangerous foe of all, in this, the Marvel Age of Comics!” At least that’s what it said on the cover of Amazing Spider-Man #7, and even in the short time since the character’s debut only a year or so before, Lee and Ditko had found a formula for the strip that would keep storylines going for a good long time. Sub-plots would be introduced, supporting characters would be added and Peter Parker’s list of problems would continue to grow, some to be resolved but more being added all the time. What might have ended up a confusing mess was made easy to follow and easier to be drawn into by a corresponding

improvement in the scripting as Lee’s easy dialogue, especially among the book’s supporting cast, seemed to flow naturally out of the many melodramatic situations. Adding to the mix, was the subtly subversive nature of the repartee between Spider-Man and his villains (who frequently seemed more like straight men than bad guys): was the youthful hero unnecessarily flip with his more serious enemies, most of whom just happened to belong to the older generation? “This will be our final encounter, you young fool!” says the Vulture in this issue. Was he acknowledging a generation gap between himself and Spider-Man? Likewise, was it respectful of his elders for Spider-Man to seal J. Jonah Jameson’s mouth shut with webbing (an act Peter seemed to take too much pleasure in)?

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“Here, rest your head against my shoulder, blue eyes, and let’s enjoy the silence,” Peter tells Betty as they snuggle beneath a desk. “But what will Mr. Jameson say?” asks Betty as the angry publisher storms about the office. “Nothing, baby, for at least an hour!” Peter replies. Meanwhile, Ditko continued to tighten the art, backing up Lee’s dialogue with characters that showed a range of emotional reactions—an effect that offered readers a clear choice between his own style and that of Kirby’s more idealized heroes. And was it any coincidence that Marvel’s two most creatively radical characters, the two strips that most undermined expectations of what a hero was thought to be, were also the only two regular features held down by Ditko? Not likely, as Ditko would be the first artistic collaborator whom Lee would acknowledge as a full creative partner in the strips they produced together. In the old days before the introduction of the FF, when the two worked on hundreds of weird stories together, splash pages would be signed “Lee and Ditko,” usually in Lee’s hand, suggesting an equal partnership. Later, first with Spider-Man, then with “Dr. Strange,” Ditko was allowed plotting credit on the splash page of each feature. And since nothing much was different with the storytelling after the acknowledgement than before, it must be assumed that the artist had had a hand in plots much sooner than that, maybe from the beginning.

Tales of Suspense #48 “The Mysterious Mr. Doll”; Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Sol Brodsky (inks)

Nothing ever stayed the same at Marvel. Whether it was the debut of new strips and characters, the discontinuation of books, bad guys that behaved like good guys or good guys who behaved like bad guys, characters dying or just simple costume changes. Which is what happens in Tales of Suspense #48 (Dec. 1963). A costume change that is. Or to be more specific, a retooling of Iron Man’s armor. Already seriously out of date (even as armored figures went, let alone as a dashing super-hero in the Atomic Age), in the case of Iron Man’s armor, change was very much justified! Okay, so Tony Stark had a good excuse for the gray, robot-like armor he came up with in his first appearance (he’d been a prisoner of the Cong after all!), and painting it yellow in Tales of Suspense #40 was a step in the right direction (if still far from adequate), but if Tony was going to run with the big boys and wanted to be considered a major league super-hero, some serious alterations would have to be made. And this issue is where those changes were made as Tony (with an assist by Ditko) designed himself a new, streamlined suit of armor that would prove to be so iconic as to remain 54

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Although the mushroom cloud became an iconic image of the atomic age, ordinary people in the 1950s didn’t obsess about it the way today’s retro-historians would have us believe. In fact, people thought so little of it that Lee could have inventor Tony Stark detonate a nuclear device at a test range on Long Island as he did in Tales of Suspense #49!

virtually unchanged for the next thirty years! “See the NEW Iron Man!” screamed a blurb on the cover pointing to the red and gold figure of Iron Man crashing through a door. In a wonderful and ingenious sequence, Ditko (in a reasonable and almost believable fashion) not only shows the reader just how Iron Man’s armor has been refashioned, but exactly how he puts it on! (It’s all done with magnets see, which draw the various pieces together; the outfit practically dresses Tony by itself!) By comparison, Iron Man’s fight with the sinister Mr. Doll is a let-down, especially when the reader is required to believe that Iron Man is able to remodel, from across the length of a room, the features of the villain’s voodoo-like doll from that of himself to Mr. Doll with the use of a hand-held laser beam! They sure don’t make comics like this any more!

Tales of Suspense #49 “The New Iron Man Meets the Angel”; Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko (pencils), Paul Reinman (inks) “The Saga of the Sneepers”; Stan Lee (plot), Larry Lieber (script), Larry Lieber (pencils), George Roussos [as George Bell] (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Steve Ditko (Inks) Amazing Spider-Man #8, page 1. In this rather slight back-up story, readers finally got the chance to see how Spidey would have been handled if Lee had chosen to go with Kirby over Ditko when the character was first being discussed for Amazing Fantasy #15.

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Tales of Suspense #49 (Jan. 1964) is a good example of an early Marvel book that falls on the borderline of the formative years and the years of consolidation, displaying elements of both eras. One of the earmarks of the years of consolidation was the use of crossovers, in which Lee would have characters from different books guest-star in books not their own. Here, Iron Man hosts his first crossover as the X-Men guest-star. Common in the early, formative years, an element of whimsy and playfulness in this issue surrounds a plot involving the testing of a nuclear device on Long Island that in the upcoming grandiose years, would never be treated in such a cavalier fashion. Caught in the blast, the Angel, a member of the X-Men, has his personality changed for the worse, thus creating a convenient excuse for Lee and Ditko to have the two heroes battle it out. Although Ditko’s art here is serviceable (it’s not helped by Paul Reinman’s incompatible inks), it’s the cover by Kirby that’s the true artistic standout; highlighted by a brilliant pink backdrop that contrasts sharply against the red and gold of Iron Man’s armor and the Angel’s blue and yellow costume, Kirby’s simple layout emerges as one of early Marvel’s most impressive illustrations.

that featured our hero crashing a party held by the Human Torch! An expert blend of the strip’s strengths, the issue’s main story (“The Terrible Threat of the Living Brain!”) involves a visit to Midtown High School by the latest creation from the labs of the I.C.M. Corporation, a new high-speed computer on wheels. Boasting that the computer could solve any problem, the company’s representative challenges the students in Peter’s class to suggest a question. They do: what is Spider-Man’s secret identity? Immediately, Peter breaks into a cold sweat. “This is terrible! What if the brain is smart enough to answer that?” But before the coded answer can be figured out, Peter and Flash agree to settle their differences in the school gym. Of course, no one gives Peter a chance against the husky Flash, but when the football star is distracted by news that the “living brain” is running amok, Peter accidentally strikes him unconscious! Naturally, his victory is deemed a sham by his fellow classmates: “Booo! You hit him when his head was turned!” What follows is a hilarious fight between Spidey and the computer interspersed with bits involving the students, a couple of small-time crooks who started the trouble when they tried to steal the brain and a denouement that has a dazed Flash capture the crooks by accident! The whole thing ends when Amazing Spider-Man #8 Peter casts suspicion on Flash as Spider-Man’s alter “The Terrible Threat of the Living Brain! “; ego. “That could be why you lost the fight to Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko (pencils & inks) Parker! So nobody would suspect who you really are!” “Spider-Man Tackles The Torch!”; says one classmate. But what really makes this issue Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), different is that it actually has a happy ending! Peter Steve Ditko (inks) Parker is even seen whistling on the way home from Cover: Steve Ditko (pencils & inks) school! By comparison to the lead story, the back-up It was very near the end of the early, formative years of tale, “Spider-Man Tackles the Torch,” is a hum drum Marvel’s development that Lee and Ditko, as if sensing affair drawn by Kirby and only inked by Ditko. Fun that an era was drawing to an Fact: This issue was the first in end, let out all the stops for which Peter Parker goes without Amazing Spider-Man #8, drawing his glasses (they were broken in a together all the elements that had scuffle with Flash and never seen made the strip a hit with readers. again). Another innovation created Billed on the cover as a “Special by Ditko that had been featured in ‘Tribute to Teen-agers’ Issue,” the the strip as far back as #1 was his book would feature the climax of visual interpretation of Spidey’s Peter’s rivalry with class bully “Spider Sense” which was depicted Flash Thompson, Spider-Man’s by halving Peter Parker’s face fight with a mobile computer run with a symbolic Spider-Man amok (which looked hopelessly mask while including radiating archaic even for 1964, but then that force lines from the other half. was part of the charm of Ditko’s Original? Yes. But surprisingly No doubt Lee had in mind such artwork in that it often seemed as misunderstood by some readers. television stars as wally and the if his strips were caught in a time Using the device ended soon beav, the ideal of the American warp frozen in the 1950s!) and a teenager, when he dedicated after Ditko left the strip. back-up feature (the last time the Amazing Spider-Man #8 as a special “tribute to teenagers Spider-Man book would ever be issue.” divided into separate stories) 56

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Part II

The Years of Consolidation

lthough editor Stan Lee had made a start in his attempt by Lee to tie his growing universe closer new approach to super-heroes, Marvel’s early, together, to develop its own internal consistency and to formative years had still been marked by a give it a semblance of verisimilitude. To do that, Lee faltering sense of experimentation, without firm employed a number of literary tools, including the pattern or purpose. The seeds, crossover and the continued story. however, had definitely been planted With their reliance on multi-issue for the full flowering of the Marvel stories that sometimes went on for a style that would bloom in the later, year or more, continued stories grandiose years. But what about the would become a hallmark of the two years or so that separated those later grandiose years, but they had epochs? Those years would be filled their start during the years of by an era of consolidation during consolidation when more modest which Lee considered what had two-part stories were the norm. already been accomplished and Also important in these years were began a conscious effort to adapt the the more elusive elements of fun new style not only to existing titles, and excitement which Lee’s but to new ones specifically created writing, honed over years of for that purpose. And so, it was scripting everything from teen during these years of consolidation humor to adventure comics, put that Lee and his stable of artists, across with breezy effortlessness. particularly Jack Kirby and Steve Making all this easier was the fact Ditko, began to actively exploit the that Lee took upon himself the disparate elements that had defined scripting for all the super-hero titles Something to smile about: as the nascent, but increasingly and in the process, found a way to the years of consolidation popular Marvel style and to simply have fun with the universe began, sales were picking up deliberately weave them into a he and his artists had created. and Lee began a deliberate process of fitting the pieces coherent “universe.” What especially Artists like Jack Kirby and of a growing super-hero characterized these years of Steve Ditko, whose close working universe together. consolidation? Mostly the deliberate relationship with Lee became The Years of Consolidation

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increasingly important as the years of consolidation progressed, took easily to a less traditional way of producing comics that involved working from an outline or synopsis supplied by the writer and plotting and adding details to the story as they drew. Dialogue and captions would be added only after the art was finished. Later called the “Marvel method,” it was really nothing new (Lee had used it now and then in earlier years); what was different was its broad application on so many different titles at once. By working in this fashion, Lee could write every book in Marvel’s burgeoning lineup of super-hero titles; at the same time, being editor, he could also maintain an unusual consistency and quality control. While some artists would find it difficult if not impossible to adapt to the new operation, for artists such as Kirby and Ditko, the method brought out inherent talents for creativity that would have remained bottled up using full scripts. Their success with the Marvel method soon granted them a kind of superstardom and eventually they were credited as co-plotters in the books they produced with Lee, an unusual concession in the comics industry. Kirby in particular, was much in demand by Lee not only for his plotting skills, but his action-oriented compositions which were considered part of the formula for Marvel’s success. Consequently, other artists were asked either to infuse the same kind of dynamism into their work or complete very simple

pencil layouts dashed off by Kirby as guides until they caught the hang of it. At the same time, Kirby became Lee’s utility infielder, in on the developmental stages of almost every new feature, designing costumes or dreaming up powers, doing cover roughs and corrections when he was in the office, penciling the first few issues of new features before they were continued under other artists and drawing the covers to virtually every book in the line-up (even the westerns) when he wasn’t. Adding uniformity to Kirby’s pencils (especially on all those covers) and the whole Marvel line during the years of consolidation was Chic Stone. Although artist Dick Ayers had been frequently assigned to ink Kirby in the early years, Stone would become the first of a new group of regular inkers whose own individual styles would interpret Kirby’s work in different ways that became somehow appropriate for whatever book he and the inker were working on; examples include such team-ups as Kirby and Vince Colletta on Thor, Kirby and Joe Sinnott on the Fantastic Four, and Kirby and Syd Shores on Captain America. But before Colletta, Sinnott and Shores, there would be Stone, whose simple but firm brush strokes were the first to present Kirby’s pencils in their best light across the board. Also contributing to the look of the years of consolidation was colorist Stan Goldberg whose off-centered color separations and rich gradations that had blues darkening to purple and reds to maroons, made Marvel’s covers easily recognizable from the flat, overly bright, twodimensional presentations of its competitors. But as new books were added to Marvel’s list of titles, including Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos, Avengers and X-Men, each of which were launched with Kirby’s full pencils, the artist was finding himself with less and less time on his hands. Ditko and Heck could pick up some of the slack, but neither was as speedy as Kirby, and as the years of consolidation ended, Lee began casting about for new talent. Bringing in such veterans as Jack Sparling, John Severin, Alex Toth, Bill Everett and Werner Roth, he soon discovered that most could not, or would not adapt to the Marvel style and left By the time the years of consolidation rolled around, the nascent Marvel universe had expanded such that annuals after only short stints. In the end, dedicated to specific characters could feature entire rogues’ Lee had to go all the way back to galleries of colorful villains or necessitate reprinting a the days when Timely/Atlas was complete slate of origin stories to bring new fans up to date. riding high to recruit the next wave

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of artists who would not only stay on, but blossom in unimagined ways under the company’s new Marvel aegis. And just as the number of titles was getting too large for Kirby, Ditko and Heck to manage, so too was it for the line’s single writer. Although early on, Lee had farmed out some of the scripting chores to brother Larry Lieber and other old time Timely/Atlas stalwarts, what he needed was a good staff writer whom he could groom to take over some of the line’s lesser titles. But until Roy Thomas walked in the door at the tail end of the years of consolidation, he would have to make do with the others whom he slowly began to marginalize in the company’s westerns and teen humor titles. Although the years of consolidation conveyed the impression that Lee and his artists were still flying by the seat of their collective pants, making things up as they went along, caught up in the increasing pace of climbing circulation figures, a new self-consciousness was also taking hold, one that would allow Lee to pull up on the reins enough to get things under control and pointed in the right direction. But to continue the analogy, the horse was out of the barn and even though it might be kept from veering from side to side, its momentum continued as strongly as ever, carrying the company into strange new territories of the imagination that would only be fully revealed in the later, grandiose years. And the beneficiary of it all was a young but enthralled readership who would grow up with Marvel comics and with whom Marvel, and particularly Stan Lee, would increasingly identify.

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Tales to Astonish #49 “The Birth of Giant-Man”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Don Heck (inks) Cover: Don Heck (pencils & inks)

Jack Kirby and fellow artist Don Heck kicked off the years of consolidation by teaming up to produce Tales to Astonish #49 (Nov. 1963), in which Lee converts Ant-Man into a completely different super-hero by adding two letters to his name. And so, in less than three pages, Ant-Man became Giant-Man! The augmentation in the character’s powers was an obvious

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Tales to Astonish #49, page 15. Kirby’s use of big quarter page panels on this page have the effect of putting the reader into the center of the action.

The Years of Consolidation

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attempt by Lee to jazz up a faltering character and as usual, Kirby was called in to jumpstart the strip. Heck, who up until now, had been the regular penciler, remained as inker. Giant-Man however, hardly has time to get used to his new powers before the “Living Eraser” shows up. It seems the denizens of the dimension from which the Eraser has come have learned of Earth’s atomic bomb and would like one for themselves. Using a transporting device that simulates “erasing,” the Eraser kidnaps Earth scientists, including Henry Pym, in order to force them to build a bomb for his masters. Pym slips away to become Giant-Man and readers are treated to a fantastic, no holds barred fight where Kirby lets out all the stops. Throughout, Heck’s delicate inks perfectly complement Kirby’s pencils, proof perhaps that he was an even better inker than

penciler, especially on page 15 where Kirby uses big, quarter-page panels to have Giant-Man lassoing alien aircraft from the top of a skyscraper! Lee comes up with a totally unpretentious plot that the artists just have a ball working on. Truly, an unsung classic!

Tales to Astonish #50 “The Human Top”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Steve Ditko (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Sol Brodsky (inks)

Replacing Heck on the inking chores in Tales to Astonish #50 (Dec. 1963) (the first issue following Ant-Man’s change to Giant-Man) with Steve Ditko, Lee and Kirby followed the origin story of Giant-Man from the issue before by moving immediately into a “novel length” two-part story featuring a new villain called the Human Top (who proved to be an early mutant). It was such things as Marvel’s depiction of a super-hero, unused to his new found powers, stumbling about the city, making a public fool of himself, that separated the company from its competitors. Marvel’s heroes were still human beings, and it was such a formula that Lee tried to infuse into the “Giant-Man” strip that it had been lacking before. Consequently, readers had a chance to see the heroic Giant-Man crashing through the city, smashing through fences, knocking down signs and running into lamp posts as the Top scampers just out of reach, taunting him unmercifully. Finally, tiring of the game, the Top just takes off, leaving a defeated Giant-Man in his wake. Lee has succeeded in making the hero, despite his power, a sympathetic character in the mind of the reader. And as the issue draws to a close, we see Giant-Man desperately practicing to catch a giant mechanical top in preparation for his next encounter with its human counterpart. But unbeknownst to him, the sympathetic Wasp has set the device to only half-speed, how can Giant-Man possibly beat the Top? Tune in next issue to find out!

Tales to Astonish #51 “Showdown with the Human Top”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), George Roussos (inks)

Green Giant Comics #1. Irrevocable proof that not every idea for a super-hero character is an original one. Characters could have the same powers, but to endure, they had to be interesting out of costume too and have a cast of supporting characters who could play up their foibles. Notwith-standing the Wasp, it was something Lee failed to develop for the “GiantMan” strip.

Mar vel Comics in the 1960s

Tales to Astonish #51 (Jan. 1964) begins with a nice Kirby action cover highlighted in bright purples and greens (with the artist’s increasingly hectic schedule no doubt the reason for numerous errors in Giant-Man’s costume). Dick Ayers replaces Ditko’s inking of Kirby as the contest between Giant-Man and the Human Top continues from the previous issue. Once again, Giant-Man manages to catch up with the Top, only to again fall prey to his own giant size. The interesting contrast in super-powers impresses itself on our hero as he realizes that it will take more than brute strength to

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defeat his opponent. When next the Top appears, a Avengers #3 section of the city is closed off and evacuated, trapping “The Avengers Meet... Sub-Mariner!”; Stan Lee (script), the villain inside a cordoned-off area with Giant-Man. Jack Kirby (pencils), Paul Reinman (inks) Then follows a fun-filled three-page chase sequence Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Paul Reinman (inks) that ends with Giant-Man finally corralling the Top. Was it a continued story within a continued story or the One of the earliest examples of the two-part story, what first multi-title crossover in comics’ history? Whatever made Astonish #s 50 and 51 distinctive, was Lee’s it was, the earliest struggle between the Hulk and the willingness to take a chance with the magazine rest of Marvel’s heroes presents the perfect example not distribution system as it existed in the early 1960s. only of a key element of the years of consolidation, Before the rise of the comic book specialty shop and the but of the possibilities inherent in a shared comic book direct market in the late universe. And although 1970s (which ensured that having a single writer/ comic shops could carry editor and artist in charge every title without fail), of a limited number of the way magazines were titles would make it distributed was a easy to juggle so many haphazard affair, characters at once, it’s especially for comic books. more than likely that at Comics, because of their this early stage, neither low cover price, presented Stan Lee nor Jack Kirby stores with an unusually had quite planned the way narrow profit margin, this story would eventualmuch smaller than that ly turn out. Okay, now pay for regular magazines. attention: It begins in Consequently, store Avengers #3, side-tracks owners with only limited into Journey into Mystery Leakage from the early years continued with shelf space, if given the #112, continues in Avengers Kirby (left) continuing to be inked by Paul choice, would rather put #4, picks up again in Reinman (right) on the Avengers and X-Men. up a $1 copy of Life Fantastic Four #s 25 and 26 Soon, however, a measure of uniformity would magazine rather than a 12and concludes in Avengers take hold with the heavier but slicker work of cent Fantastic Four. As a Chic Stone who would become Kirby’s default #5. Got that? Now to result, for a kid in the inker. confuse things even 1960s, seeking out his further, the story actually favorite comics became a time-consuming adventure. has its real beginning at the end of Avengers #2, Riding his trusty Schwinn from store to store, if he was following the team’s defeat of the villainous Space lucky, he might be able to find all the titles he was Phantom, when the Hulk realizes that his teammates expecting to be on sale for that particular week. don’t really trust him. Never having quite fit in with the Sometimes there were books he’d never find, leaving group, the short-tempered Hulk quits, leaving the him forever wondering how Thor managed to get his others wondering when and how he’ll strike next. hammer back from the Cobra and Mr. Hyde or how Now, if a reader’s taste ran to “bludgeoning battle” Iron Man escaped from the clutches of the Mandarin. issues, then they couldn’t possibly go wrong with “The And so, it’s easy to understand why publishers Avengers Meet... the Sub-Mariner” in Avengers #3 (Jan. generally shied away from running continued 1964). Here, Kirby’s art transcends Paul Reinman’s stories and how chancy it was for Lee to try it, uninspired inks as he and Lee craft a 25-page story that especially with a line of books that was still seems much longer about Iron Man, Thor, Giant-Man struggling to get out from under the shadow of its and the Wasp as they combat the Sub-Mariner, who’s giant rival, DC (who also happened to control their managed to coerce the Hulk into joining his campaign distribution). But the early attempts by Lee to sell to conquer the human race. The Avengers begin their continued stories must’ve proven successful, because search for the Hulk by visiting almost every super-hero not only did they become more prolific as the years of in the Marvel universe, seeking information on the consolidation continued, but by the time of the whereabouts of their wayward member before moving grandiose years, whole series such as the Fantastic Four west for their first round of action. The and Thor would turn into virtual serials, going on confrontation is inconclusive until they meet the Hulk almost endlessly for months, even years, at a time. again in the bowels of the Rock of Gibraltar. There, the The Years of Consolidation

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Avengers finally come to grips not only with the Hulk but also with his new ally, the Sub-Mariner. In the ensuing mayhem, battle is joined as both sides take advantage of a variety of left-over World War II military hardware to keep their foes at bay. As usual in these circumstances, nothing is decided as a stalemate forces both parties to break off the action. But that’s not the end of this story, not by a long shot! The Avengers continue their pursuit of the Sub-Mariner in their next issue and of the Hulk in FF #25.

Journey Into Mystery #112, page 10. Chic Stone had been inking over Kirby’s pencils since Journey Into Mystery #102. This power-packed page is a good example of how Stone’s clean lines served both to preserve essential details while giving weight to Kirby’s figures.

Mar vel Comics in the 1960s

Journey Into Mystery #112 “The Mighty Thor Battles the Incredible Hulk”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Chic Stone (inks) “The Coming of Loki!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Chic Stone (inks)

This next entry is actually a retroactive chapter in the Av e n g e r s / H u l k storyline, because Journey Into Mystery #112 (Jan. 1965) appeared nearly a year following the conclusion of the events in Avengers #3. Billed as “The Epic Battle of the Age” (and featuring page after page of action as Thor dukes it out with an enraged Hulk deep beneath the Rock of Gibraltar, who’s to argue?), the story is recounted by Thor in order to help settle a debate between two groups of kids he finds arguing over who was stronger, the thunder god or the Hulk (not coincidentally, the same argument that had been raging among Marvel’s readers for months). As Thor tells it, he and the Hulk were separated during the events of Avengers #3 and ended up conducting a private match between themselves before finding their way back to their teammates. With crossovers like this, Lee and Kirby were able to draw the elements of their growing universe of heroes closer together while creating in their readers’ minds a greater sense of its realism. In addition, they provided a solid base on which to build more complex stories in the future. And just who turned out to be the strongest, Thor or the Hulk? That would be telling! But wait! That’s not all frantic fans would find in

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this great comic! Anyone would think that with a titanic match such as that between Thor and the Hulk, anything else would have to be squeezed out of the book for sheer lack of room, but not so. This issue also comes with the usual “Tales of Asgard” back-up strip, this time featuring the boyhoods of Thor and Loki! A sure-fire attention grabber for any youthful reader, this issue’s installment is called “The Coming of Loki” and tells the tale of Odin’s defeat of Laufey, king of Jotunheim and his subsequent and fateful adoption of the suddenly orphaned Loki.

Avengers #4 “Captain America Joins...The Avengers!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), George Roussos [as George Bell] (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), George Roussos (inks)

Most references to Avengers #4 (March 1964) quite rightly point out that it features the first appearance of Captain America in the Silver Age, and certainly that event alone has to put this issue on the map, but what accounts never mention is that this story is also a direct sequel to the action in the previous issue. It begins in the North Atlantic as a frustrated SubMariner, enraged at his defeat by the Avengers in the previous issue, comes across a group of Eskimos as they worship a dim figure trapped in a block of ice. Tactless as usual, Namor seizes the chunk of ice and hurls it far out to sea. Just by coincidence, the Avengers discover it as they return from the Rock of Gibraltar and haul in the figure that has now been freed from the ice. To their amazement, they discover that it is the body of the long-vanished Captain America! The surprised heroes react with predictable disbelief and wonder before eagerly accepting the sentinel of liberty into their ranks. (The Avengers didn’t like to waste time!) Back in New York, as Cap catches up with twenty years of history, his new teammates are turned to stone by a strange alien creature in the thrall of local gangsters (don’t ask!). The implausible situation is resolved by Cap in his first adventure, and when the Avengers are freed, they agree to help the alien raise his space ship from the bottom of the sea. See the connection now? This is where the Sub-Mariner once more enters the picture! He and his undersea legions attack the Avengers and battle to the predictable stalemate when the sea prince takes advantage of the ground breaking up beneath his feet to declare victory and return to the depths. But ominously, the final panels of the story show a despondent Rick Jones wondering what the Hulk will do once he finds out the boy he rescued from certain death has thrown him over for Captain America!

Pep Comics #1. Although the Shield never had the chance to make a splashy comeback the way Cap did in Avengers #4, he did have the distinction of making his initial debut more than a year before Cap’s introduction in Captain America Comics #1!

Fantastic Four #25 “The Hulk Vs. The Thing”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), George Roussos [as George Bell] (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), George Roussos (inks)

The story in Fantastic Four #25 (April 1964) was billed as “The Battle of the Century” and that description looks to have been accurate (for the 20th century that is). Following immediately upon the events of Avengers #4, this issue and the next neatly divide the plot into two distinct chapters. In the first, the concentration is on the first real knock down, drag ’em out fight between the Thing and the Hulk who, at the time, were two of the three powerhouse super-heroes at Marvel (the other being Thor). The two characters met briefly in FF #12, but that was before the full development of the Marvel style. The action begins when the Hulk, still on the run from events in the previous month’s Avengers #3, decides to face his teammates in New York. Meanwhile, The Years of Consolidation

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we see that the Avengers (who, no doubt to Namor’s disappointment, have obviously survived the events in their own book) and the U.S. Army are both close on his trail. In New York, Reed Richards has been hospitalized due to sickness, with the Invisible Girl at his bedside, and when the Hulk is sighted in the city, it’s up to the Torch and the Thing to tackle him alone. Soon, however, an inexperienced Human Torch is knocked out of action clearing the decks for page after page of bludgeoning battle between the Hulk and the Thing! Rising to the occasion, Kirby proves here beyond a doubt why fans have always considered him the action king! Through the whole story, despite Paul Reinman’s inadequate inks, Kirby’s pacing shines in a choreography of shattered buildings and exploding machinery. Even Marvel’s penchant for using dull greens, browns and grays in these early books only seemed to augment the drama of Lee’s breathless scripting to produce a wild roller coaster of a comic book that never lets go of the reader from first page to last.

Fantastic Four #26 “The Avengers Take Over”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), George Roussos [as George Bell] (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Sol Brodsky (inks)

With a single person writing and editing the entire line, it was possible for Marvel to squeeze almost its entire stable of heroes into a single book, which is exactly what happened in Fantastic Four #26 (May 1964) where “The Avengers Take Over!” From its inventive, colorful cover, to its final panel, this particular issue epitomized everything Marvel was doing to make itself so popular. Continued from the issue before, New York is in a state of siege with martial law declared and a portion of the city where the Thing and Hulk continue to battle sealed off. Finally, the Hulk manages to slip away from the Thing and make his way to Avengers Mansion where he confronts his former teammates and Kirby does the impossible by having him overcome the Avengers in the space of only two panels before escaping with Rick Jones! In hot pursuit, the Avengers and the reconstituted FF meet for the first time and, not without some friction, join forces. Once again, Kirby packs so much action in 22 pages, it’s a wonder even today how he was able to give each hero a turn in the spotlight. Besides being one of the earliest instances of a continued story at Marvel, this issue also included the first crossover of the company’s two major super-teams and the first of many classic one-on-one face-offs between hero and villain. Written by Lee with many instances of drama, humor and coordination with events happening in other titles, this book is a landmark any way you look at it! 64

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High art and pop-art met head-on as acclaimed artists Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol used comics to breach the barrier between popculture and a more academic definition of art.

Avengers #5 “The Invasion of the Lava Men!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Paul Reinman (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Sol Brodsky (inks)

Acting as a kind of epilogue to the epochal events of the previous issues, Avengers #5 (May 1964) opens as the team returns to its mansion headquarters in New York to survey the damage done to it when the Hulk had kidnapped Rick Jones in FF #26. The Avengers disperse to pursue their private interests but are soon summoned together again by Thor after he learns of a mysterious, growing hill (!) in the American Southwest. As every Marvelite knew by then, the desert was the stomping grounds of the Hulk and in no time the green goliath makes the scene and is attacked by his former teammates. (Well, actually, he shows up only after about ten pages of prime Kirby action in which we discover that the hill in question isn’t a hill at all, but a weirdly growing stone being thrust to the earth’s surface by the race of lava men first encountered by Thor in Journey Into Mystery #97!) Soon, however, the Avengers realize that the Hulk’s strength is the only thing that can prevent the stone from exploding and “taking half the planet with it!” It’s then left to Giant-Man to lure the Hulk into the proper position to strike the stone in just the right spot, causing an implosion rather than an explosion. The plan works, but the force of the implosion causes the Hulk to revert back to his human identity of Bruce Banner, leaving the Avengers out in the cold in their efforts to find and help their former teammate. Thus ended

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Bill Everett Best known for the creation of the Sub-Mariner in 1939, Bill

Everett spent most of his comics career working for Martin Goodman, first when the publisher’s company sported the Timely label, then Atlas, then Marvel. After serving in the Army during World War II, Everett came back to comics where he worked on Stan Lee’s first attempt to revive Captain America and the Human Torch in the 1950s as well as other features before being asked to draw the first issue of Daredevil. Problems arose almost immediately as Everett struggled to meet deadlines, and what resulted was a team effort that included Jack Kirby doing the cover and Steve Ditko and others inking and finishing backgrounds. Even the book’s splash page ended up being cobbled together by the production department. Although the work he did turn in was great, Everett’s problem with deadlines prevented him from picking up the strip on a regular basis.

Marvel’s first extended/continued/multi-title crossover. Was it planned from the start by Lee and Kirby or were they making it all up as they went along? It’s hard to say so many years later, but one thing’s for sure: it helped the two men become more aware of the story possibilities in the interconnected world they were building, the essence of the years of consolidation.

Daredevil #1 “The Origin of Daredevil”; Stan Lee (script), Bill Everett (pencils), Bill Everett (inks), Steve Ditko (inks), Sol Brodsky (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Bill Everett (inks)

One aspect of the years of consolidation was a growing realization by editor Stan Lee that the elements he’d begun using unselfconsciously in the early, formative years could also be used deliberately to create new characters and storylines. The increasing use of crossovers and continued stories demonstrated the application of the concepts to plotting, while the creation of Daredevil showed how they could be used to define completely new characters. The launch of X-Men late in 1963 saw Lee applying the concept of the flawed hero to a whole team of characters and the appearance of (Here Comes) Daredevil (The Man Without Fear) #1 (April 1964) almost six months later (the last of Marvel’s great Silver Age creations) did the same for a single character. But in Daredevil, there would be a reversal of expectations: far from demanding reader sympathy for the character’s affliction (in this case, blindness) DD’s unabashed exuberance and undisguised joy at being

Daredevil #3. Any similarity between this Daredevil and the man without fear Marvel fans learned to know and love was purely accidental!

The Years of Consolidation

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Daredevil #1, page 6 (opposite page). This dynamic action sequence by Bill Everett shows why he was one of the few artists who didn’t need training wheels in order to draw comics the Marvel way!

a costumed hero had the effect of making fans happy for him! So much so, that when Lee tried to show our hero’s reluctance to make a play for his pretty secretary for fear of saddling her with a boyfriend who had a handicap, no one believed it. Unlike Spider-Man, who was a teenager unsure of himself, still trying to figure things out, DD was an adult who should have already left his youthful insecurities behind him. In ironic contrast then, when readers saw DD racing along high tension wires or balancing himself a hundred stories from the ground, they could hardly be expected to believe that this “man without fear” was at all wary of expressing his hidden feelings. Helping Lee bring DD to life in this first issue was veteran artist Bill Everett, a contemporary of Kirby’s who’d worked for Marvel in the 1940s. Everett’s main claim to fame was his creation of the Sub-Mariner, one of the company’s three most successful characters of the Golden Age (the others being Captain America and the Human Torch). Absent from the company for many years and with a style that sometimes made for an uncomfortable fit in the new action-oriented Marvel comics, Everett was nonetheless invited back by Lee to do the art chores on the new Daredevil strip. Everett’s oldfashioned style however, proved surprisingly appropriate for Daredevil, lending the strip a street-level quality necessary for a feature whose hero (in his bright yellow and red costume) would spend most of his time running down petty crooks and organized crime figures.

X-Men #4

in loosely connected stories that suggested little advance planning by the creative team. Here, Magneto, “most powerful of the evil mutants,” makes his second appearance along with a new group of villains that included the servile Toad, the venal Mastermind and siblings Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. Whether intended to or not, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch (who were portrayed right from the start as reluctant warriors on the side of Magneto) quickly became sympathetic characters whom readers very early on suggested defect from Magneto’s band to join the XMen. It seems that because Magneto had rescued Wanda, the Scarlet Witch, from a superstitious mob somewhere in central Europe, she and her brother considered themselves in his debt. Aware of their desire to leave his band as soon as they felt that debt paid, Magneto tries to indoctrinate them with his philosophy: “We are homo superior! We are born to rule the earth! The humans must be our slaves! They are our natural enemies…and together, with our super-human powers, we can conquer them all!” “Why should we love the homo sapiens?? They hate us…fear us because of our superior power!” Magneto was the third and final of Marvel’s triumvirate of great villains, but more than Dr. Doom and the Red Skull, his was the clearest, most reasonable argument for his villainy: however twisted by his own gigantic ego, he considered himself not the villain, but the hero in a struggle for the freedom of an oppressed people. And so the contest between the Brotherhood and the X-Men became one of ideology rather than profit, or revenge or meaningless power. For that reason, the first eleven issues of the X-Men title seemed to be the chronicle of a single, extended tug of war between the two sides as each coalesced into mutually antagonistic groups, constantly vying with each other to win the hearts and minds of potential new recruits.

“The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Paul Reinman (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), George Roussos (inks)

Beneath one of Kirby’s most impressive symbolic covers (enhanced by a vibrant color scheme that Marvel did better than anybody else in those days), X-Men #4 continued the pattern set by Avengers #3-5 in that the next few issues of the book would all feature the same villains (Magneto and his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants)

Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #6

Stan Lee in the army during World War II. Seeing only stateside action, his stint in the service was nevertheless the only real break from the comics industry Stan ever had.

“The Fangs of the Desert Fox”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), George Roussos (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), George Roussos (inks)

Although such serious topics as the environment, drug abuse, campus unrest and the war in Vietnam were topics to be treated almost exclusively in Marvel’s grandiose phase, there was one socially The Years of Consolidation

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relevant theme that Lee had already touched upon in earlier western and fantasy tales that he seemed inclined not to wait upon. Years before, while serving in the military, Lee had been assigned to create teaching materials for soldiers in the form of comic strips. Recalling that experience, Lee became convinced that regular commercial comics could be used just as effectively for instruction as it could for entertainment. Biding his time, Lee used the first few issues of the new Sgt. Fury book to tell straightahead action stories, avoiding calling any special attention to Gabriel Jones’ skin color (Lee had boldly broken with the historical facts of military segregation in force during World War II by including a black man in a white combat unit). In the meantime, headlines in the early 1960s were dominated by the national struggle over civil rights then being waged by men like Martin Luther King and punctuated by such landmark court decisions as Brown vs Board of Education, news that Lee could hardly have missed. Then, in Sgt. Fury and His

Martin Luther King, Jr. led the historic march on Washington for jobs and freedom where he helped put race relations in the United States at the forefront of the national consciousness.

Mar vel Comics in the 1960s

Howling Commandos #6 (March 1964), “The Fangs of the Fox!”, Lee made his move. Here, at last, was a story that addressed the issue of race that had been implicit in the title for months as George Stonewell replaces an injured Dino Manelli. Right off the bat, however, the reader is signaled that not all is well with Stonewell as he shows disdain for the team’s Italian and Jewish members and downright prejudice toward Jones. “You’re Jones!! No! I’m not sleepin’ in these barracks!” Then Fury proclaims what the readers had probably been thinking all along: “You’re a 14-carat, dyed-in-the-wool, low down bigot!” “You so much as look cross-eyed at Izzy, or Gabe, or anyone because of his race or color, and I’ll make ya wish you were never born!” “Rats like him aren’t on any side! They just crawl outta the mud long enough to poison whatever they touch!” And so, the Howlers are sent on a deadly mission to stop German Gen. Erwin Rommel as tensions continue to mount among the squad members. At one point a captured Nazi, sympathizing with Stonewell, tells him, “…We do not allow inferior races to mingle with us…to be part of our culture!” But where others before and since would’ve portrayed Stonewell in unrealistic black-and-white terms, Lee skillfully, more realistically, gives the character patches of gray as he performs his duty as heroically as any of the Howlers even as he continues to reject some of them for their ethnicity. At last, after saving Izzy’s life, Izzy returns the favor by saving Stonewell, and in the story’s denouement Stonewell is kept alive due to a transfusion of blood from Jones. Unlike other writers who would’ve had Stonewell either be killed off for his sins or get over all of his earlier prejudices, Lee allows the character’s feelings to remain ambiguous with Fury delivering the final lines: “The seeds of prejudice, which takes a lifetime to grow, can’t be stamped out overnight…but if we keep trying…keep fighting …perhaps a day will come when ‘love thy brother’ will be more than just an expression we hear in church!” The subject of racism was somewhat risky since most publishers at the time feared loss of sales should America’s South react negatively to it, so it showed some courage on Lee’s part (and perhaps publisher Martin Goodman’s) to go ahead with the story. In any case, this issue will always stand not only as an early example of the many other socially relevant stories the company would tackle in later years, but as a monument to Lee and Kirby’s courage in bucking the gentrified expectations of a medium that had grown increasingly skittish since its beginning twenty-five years before.

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Strange Tales #120 “The Torch Meets Iceman!”; Stan Lee (co-plot, dialogue), Jack Kirby (co-plot & pencils), Dick Ayers (inks) “The House of Shadows!”; Stan Lee (dialogue), Steve Ditko (plot, pencils & Inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), George Roussos (inks)

Beyond the occasional serious theme, the most important aspect of the years of consolidation was still that of just having fun! Take Strange Tales #120 (May 1964) for instance. The Human Torch had been starring in the book ever since issue #101, and although the stories were good, they were for the most part unspectacular (even with Lee and Kirby teaming up on the early ones). The book had become interesting on a more regular basis only when “Dr. Strange” took over as its permanent second feature. But with the right vehicle, the “Torch” stories could be as appealing as anything else Lee and Kirby put their minds to. It happened with issue #114 when the Torch seemed to be fighting Captain America for about 10 pages and it happened again in this issue when the Torch meets Iceman. The idea of a team-up between the “teenage masters of heat and cold” must have seemed a natural right from the beginning when Iceman was first introduced with X-Men #1. And it sure doesn’t take long for the action to start as Iceman and the Torch fight river pirate Barracuda and his crew (a Hudson River pirate yet!) aboard a cruise liner loaded with “swingin’ teens!” Don’t think a simple pirate can be a challenge for the two super-powered heroes? Think again, as the clever Barracuda comes up with at least a half-dozen ways to put Iceman and the Torch out of action (including the use of canvas, gasoline and simple water). The issue is rounded out with an early tale of Dr. Strange as Lee and Ditko take him into “The House of Shadows.” In it, Strange investigates a haunted house that turns out to be a creature from another dimension that has only disguised itself as a house! And just look at what else was coming out the same month: Fantastic Four #26, “The Avengers Take Over!”; Amazing Spider-Man #12, “Unmasked by Dr. Octopus!”; Avengers #5, “Invasion of the Lava Men”; and Tales to Astonish #55, “On the Trail of the Human Top!” If action, excitement, thrills, fantasy and especially fun was what a reader was looking for, Marvel sure had it in spades!

Journey Into Mystery #105 “The Cobra and Mr. Hyde!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Chic Stone (inks) “When Heimdall Failed!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), George Roussos [as George Bell] (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Chic Stone (inks)

Behind an eye-catching cover by Kirby, with its bright

yellow background and heavy Chic Stone inks, Journey Into Mystery #105 (Jan. 1965) featured the first part of another Marvel continued story classic. From its opening scene with the Avengers, to Thor’s quick encounter with the Cobra, through the creation of Cobra and Mr. Hyde’s historic alliance (an unlikely combination of villainous talent that has since gone unquestioned), on into Chic Stone’s inking Thor’s showdown with style over Kirby’s pencils became the the two at a local machine “look” of Marvel show, the action moves Comics during along at a swift, but the years of beautifully choreographed consolidation when pace. The combination of the company’s Lee’s smooth scripting characters began to break out into and Kirby’s instinctive related media such talent for storytelling as T-shirts and carries the reader stationary. effortlessly from panel to panel. And it’s fun too, as Cobra and Mr. Hyde corner Dr. Blake in his office and get tricked into allowing him to transform into Thor behind their backs. But leading Thor to a nearby machine show, the villains very cleverly relieve him of his enchanted hammer (which, as everyone knew, no human being can lift) with the use of an industrial grappler! The hammer is deposited somewhere within the bowels of the machine and the issue ends with Thor facing the Cobra and Hyde with only seconds remaining before reverting back to his human identity! Can he defeat them and retrieve his hammer before his time is up? Imagine how long a month could be until the next issue came out! By the way, this issue also includes the self-contained “Tales of Asgard” installment of “When Heimdall Failed!”

Journey Into Mystery #106 “The Thunder God Strikes Back!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Chic Stone (inks) “Balder the Brave”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Chic Stone (inks)

The Lee and Kirby magic continued in Journey Into Mystery #106 (July 1964) as Thor, deprived of his hammer, suddenly changes back to his mortal self and manages to disappear into a crowd of people before The Years of Consolidation

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Cobra or Hyde can notice his identity. Using a ploy, Thor, as Dr. Don Blake, tricks Cobra and Hyde into retrieving the hammer (now transformed into a mere walking stick) from within the machine. Getting it back, Thor strikes! Eliminating the Cobra quickly, he catches up to Mr. Hyde out in the streets. What follows is a typical example of what made Marvel in general and Thor in particular, such great reading in those days! The egotistical Hyde, thinking himself the master of the thunder god, finally uses up Thor’s patience. In a final effort to prove to the haughty Mr. Hyde that he’s no match for his godly power, Thor puts aside his hammer and determines to beat Hyde with his bare hands in the space of one minute, or before he reverts to his mortal guise. Who could ever forget those four thrilling pages as Kirby’s powerpacked pencils complemented Lee’s thrilling dialogue? When Hyde says, “Human you call me? I’ll show you how much more than human I really am,” and Thor replies, “What a pity that such superb strength should be housed in so evil a body,” it summed up the whole spirit of the Thor strip and elevated Marvel’s battles above the mere slugfests of other comics.

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of consolidation could be found in spades was in the handful of annuals released in these years. Jam packed with all kinds of features and spread out over 72 pages (for only a quarter yet!), they were frequently used by Lee to fill in gaps in the heroes’ careers and to increase the sense of verisimilitude readers were already getting from the company’s frequent crossovers and continued stories. Case in point: Fantastic Four Annual #2

“The Fantastic Origin of Doctor Doom!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Chic Stone (inks) “Prisoners of Doctor Doom!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks) [reprinted from Fantastic Four #5] “The Final Victory of Doctor Doom!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Chic Stone (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Sol Brodsky (inks)

One of the places where the action 70

Mar vel Comics in the 1960s

Fantastic Four Annual #2

Journey Into Mystery #106, page 14. An early effort by Stone again brings out the dynamism of Kirby’s figures in what would rapidly become the Marvel “look” during the years of consolidation. It would be a sad day when Stone eventually left the company for one of its competitors!

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(mid-1964) in which the lead off feature didn’t even star the FF! Instead, readers thrilled to “The Fantastic Origin of Dr. Doom!” in which they learned for the first time about Doom’s gypsy heritage, the tragic loss of his parents, his brilliant achievements in Western universities and how he came to blame Reed Richards for the accident that ruined his face. Although Doom’s retreat to a hidden monastery in the mountains (where his armor was forged) was far from original, such a stock event was overshadowed by the threedimensional quality Doom’s personality was given in this story. Now readers had something to latch onto when next the villain met the FF, which wasn’t long in coming! When readers finished the villain’s origin they flipped through a series of pin-ups and a reprint of the FF’s first meeting with Doom to the back of the book where they found a second brand new story. Here, in “The Final Victory of Dr. Doom,” elements detailed in the origin are weaved into the plot as Doom recoils from a look at his face in a mirror and the FF discover that their enemy, as leader of an independent nation, possesses diplomatic immunity! Finally, Doom is defeated not by force of arms but by his own ego! Not the usual way deadly villains were expected to lose a fight!

Amazing Spider-Man #14 “The Grotesque Adventure of the Green Goblin!”; Stan Lee (Script), Steve Ditko (Pencils), Steve Ditko (Inks) Cover: Steve Ditko (pencils), Steve Ditko (inks)

The cover said it all: “Does the Green Goblin look cute to you? Does he make you want to smile? Well, forget it! He’s the most sinister, most dangerous foe Spidey’s ever fought!” Did Lee and Ditko have it in mind even from the Goblin’s first appearance here in Amazing Spider-Man #14 (July 1964) to make him Spider-Man’s most persistent enemy, the one to come closest to ending his career for good? Unlike Spider-Man’s other villains, the Green Goblin didn’t come with an introductory origin or with a ready-made alter ego. Behind his stretchy fright-mask and strategically placed hanging mirror, the Goblin was a complete mystery. Except for his motives of course, which were to remove Spider-Man from the scene and take over the nation’s underworld (he wasn’t the first villain in the Spider-Man strip nor the last to try for this elusive plum!). To do it, he poses as the agent of a movie studio offering Spider-Man a part in a film that would also star himself and the Enforcers. But when our hero appears on the set, it doesn’t take him long to find out he’s been duped: the Enforcers are the real thing and they’re out to get revenge on Spidey for foiling their last caper in issue #10. The plot between Spidey, the Enforcers and

Soviet missiles on parade! The Russian military presented by no means an idle threat in the mid-1960s when the Cold War was in full swing and parades like this one through Red Square were a regular sight on American television news broadcasts.

the Green Goblin gets so convoluted that when the Hulk stumbles into the action on page 15, he’s almost superfluous! But things finally get sorted out when Spidey subdues the Enforcers, the Hulk wanders away (probably right into his own new feature in Tales to Astonish #59, which began only a couple months later) and the Goblin disappears into anonymity. As usual, Spidey gets the short end of the stick when the fine print in his contract prevents his getting any cash beyond expense money. In the meantime, school rival Flash Thompson threatens Peter Parker for beating his time with Liz Allen, girl friend Betty Brant is jealous and boss J. Jonah Jameson will kill him for coming back from the movie set without a story!

Tales to Astonish #60 “The Beasts of Berlin!”; Stan Lee (script), Dick Ayers (pencils), Paul Reinman (inks) “The Incredible Hulk”; Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko (pencils), George Roussos [as George Bell] (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Sol Brodsky (inks)

Maybe the Hulk’s appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #14 was intended as a dry run for Ditko or simply to reintroduce the character to readers in the year or so since his own book was canceled. Whatever the reason, the next month the Hulk guest starred in Tales to Astonish #59 battling Giant-Man before appearing in his own full-blown series the next issue. (Captain America did likewise, debuting in Tales of Suspense #59 the following month). By this time, the strength of the super-hero line had given confidence to Lee and publisher Goodman that there was little risk in abandoning the fantasy tales that’d still been appearing in the back of some of their books. Now they were gone The Years of Consolidation

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completely and Lee took advantage of the newly available space to consolidate his emerging universe. For the year since the cancellation of the original Hulk book, Lee had been shopping around the character, putting him in the Avengers and having him fight everyone from Thor to the FF to Giant-Man until finding a place for him in Tales to Astonish #60 (Oct. 1964). Billed as “the only comic mag super-hero soap opera in existence,” Lee and

Tales to Astonish #60, page 15. A more stable Hulk gets his own strip again but this time in a more coherent fashion as supporting characters, personal problems, and menacing sub-plots are played up in cliffhanging chapters that kept readers coming back for more.

Mar vel Comics in the 1960s

Ditko turned the strip into a serial with each chapter ending in a cliffhanger. Reintroducing the supporting cast from the Hulk’s first feature, the two quickly established a dynamic among the characters similar to the formula that’d made their Spider-Man strip so successful: Bruce Banner is suspected of being a communist sympathizer if not outright spy by hard-nosed General “Thunderbolt” Ross; in the meantime, Banner can hardly control his transformations into the Hulk and must keep his emotions constantly in check which in turn strains his relationship with Ross’ daughter, Betty. In addition, the only person on earth who knows the secret of the Hulk is teenager Rick Jones, who still feels guilty over having caused Banner to become the Hulk in the first place, and later in the series, security officer Glenn Talbot will join the cast, putting further pressure on Banner through his investigations of the Hulk and pursuit of Betty’s affections. While all that’s going on, the Hulk this issue must also face the challenge of a powerful robot designed by his alter ego that’s been stolen by a Soviet agent. Not to be forgotten in the front half of the book, Giant-Man, too, is faced with the Communist threat as he travels behind the Iron Curtain to free a friend from a prison in East Berlin. But before the two men make it back to freedom, they must first destroy a secret “intelligence ray” the Soviets have invented and have already used to create a squad of super-smart gorillas! But GiantMan (with help from Lee and artist Dick Ayers) saves the day and escapes by battering down a section of the Berlin Wall. Great stuff!

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the M.M.M.S.

As the popularity of Marvel Comics swelled, it was decided that a good way to harness all that energy was in the way of a club, sort of like Timely’s old Sentinels of Liberty from the 1940s. The MMMS (Merry Marvel Marching Society, natch!) was Lee’s first attempt to organize his new fan base into a club offering all kinds of interesting gear, including stationary and a record album featuring the voices of the Bullpen gang! The MMMS eventually faded out during the grandiose years, but Marvelmania, a pale shadow of the legendary club, would take its place at the end of the decade before crashing and burning amid bad management and lack of interest.

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 “The Sinister Six!”; Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko (pencils & inks) “The Secrets of Spider-Man”; Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko (pencils & inks) “How Stan Lee and Steve Ditko Create Spider-Man!”; Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko (pencils & inks) Cover: Steve Ditko (pencils), Steve Ditko (inks)

For giving a reader his money’s worth, there was nothing like Marvel’s early annuals! Where the competition only gave fans reprints of old stories, Marvel not only offered an extra-long original adventure, but all kinds of fun features. A great example of that, and of how Lee in these years was busily creating the friendly, familiar atmosphere that would soon inspire a fanatical loyalty in his readers, was Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 (mid-1964). Of course, the star feature of this book was its 41-page extravaganza that included a team-up of every major villain our hero had fought in his first year on the job (the Vulture, Dr. Octopus, Sandman, Mysterio, Electro and Kraven the Hunter!) as well as cameos by every hero in the youthful Marvel universe. Besides a fast, fun-filled plot, the story served as a wonderful vehicle for showcasing Ditko’s growing talent for super-hero slugfests. Coming a long way from his first crude

outings on Spider-Man, Ditko here lets out all the stops offering six full-page action shots of Spider-Man in action against each member of the Sinister Six (the one with Electro is the standout!). But beyond the lead story, the book was filled with such extras as pin-up pages, secrets of Spider-Man pages, supporting character profiles and a self-parodic gem in which Lee and Ditko fill readers in on how they come up with such great stories. It was with this last item, “How Stan Lee and Steve Ditko Create Spider-Man,” in which the creators poke fun at themselves, let their hair down and give the readers a figurative nudge and wink indicating that it’s all done in good fun, that Marvel began to solidify its chummy relationship with fans. In effect, Lee was taking readers into his confidence, inviting them in and making them feel part of the Marvel “Bullpen.” It was a device that would be used again, but also soon to vanish in the wake of such all-parody titles as Not Brand Echh that made poking fun at the company a full-time occupation. In the meantime, however, Lee would continue to solidify his relationship with the readers with other vehicles such as the Bullpen Bulletins page, Stan’s Soapbox, fan clubs like the Merry Marvel Marching Society (MMMS) and the Friends Of Ol’ Marvel (FOOM) and letters pages that included sometimes lengthy personalized replies to fans’ queries. The Years of Consolidation

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Tales of Suspense #55

“The Mandarin’s Revenge”; Stan Lee (script), Don Heck (pencils & inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Chic Stone (inks)

“No One Escapes the Mandarin!”; Stan Lee (script), Don Heck (pencils & inks) “All About Iron Man”; Stan Lee (script), Don Heck (pencils & inks) “The Sun-Stealer!”; Stan Lee (plot), Larry Lieber (script, pencils & inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Sol Brodsky (inks)

Tales of Suspense #54 (June 1964), Iron Man’s usual hangout, featured the beginning of a slam-bang actioner by Lee and artist Don Heck. Although frequently maligned, and not without some justification, Don Heck truly was a great comic artist; his only problem was that his window of greatness doing super-heroes was a narrow one. Not really cut out to be a super-hero artist and uncomfortable with the Marvel method, Heck went along with the trend when the company’s characters hit it big and eventually made the “Iron Man” strip his own. In the beginning, his awkward, scratchy art style didn’t seem to agree with his regular assignment, but gradually he got the hang of it, and by this period in his run on Suspense, Heck was really hitting his stride. Not only did he lose much of his scratchiness, but he developed an economy of line and dynamism of panel-to-panel continuity that, coupled with Lee’s smooth scripting, carried the reader along as effortlessly as Kirby was doing elsewhere. By the time Heck left the strip with Tales of Suspense #72, he’d earned his reputation as being the Iron Man artist. And this first installment of yet another continued story provided him with plenty of opportunities to show off as Lee’s breakneck plot had Tony Stark move quickly from Washington, D.C. to Vietnam to China and into the clutches of his arch-enemy, the evil Mandarin, who’d been stealing Stark’s experimental observer missiles in mid-flight. A battle of course, ensues with Iron Man ending up captured, helpless, and at the mercy of the evil oriental mastermind!

Looking past Kirby’s nifty symbolic cover to the inside of Tales of

Mar vel Comics in the 1960s

Tales of Suspense #54

Tales of Suspense #55, pages 1 (above) and 10 (opposite page). By this time, Iron Man’s armor wasn’t the only thing acting like a well oiled machine. Lee and Heck had all the elements of the strip down to a science including characterization, personal dilemmas, and action, action, action!

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Suspense #55 (July 1964), the reader is immediately plunged into the action as Iron Man manages to break free of the trap set for him by the Mandarin. Trailing the villain to where he’s stored missiles stolen from Tony Stark in the previous issue, Iron Man destroys the ray machine that had been used to capture them. Faced with the Mandarin again, Iron Man then runs a gauntlet of deadly traps until finally defeating his foe in a hand-to-hand fight. As an extra bonus, this issue is rounded out with a fivepage feature “All About Iron Man,” which Marvel used to add verisimilitude to its characters. As mentioned before, Heck had a very narrow window of excellence during his stay at Marvel in the Silver Age, totaling not much more than about three years, but in that time he produced many classic comics that could rank alongside any by Kirby or Ditko and this two-part story was definitely one of them. As for the “Iron Man” strip itself, by this time it had

Brave and the Bold #50. Hawkeye broke the mold again! Before Marvel’s angry bowman, no self-respecting archer hero would have appeared in public without a feather in his cap!

Mar vel Comics in the 1960s

Journey Into Mystery #109, page 9 (opposite page). one thing about Marvel was that they liked to mix and match their heroes and villains! readers never knew where villains would show up next, making for interesting match-ups like Thor vs Magneto!

finally come into its own not only with Iron Man, but also with the relationships between Tony Stark, secretary Pepper Potts, chauffeur Happy Hogan and the soon to appear Senator Byrd whom Lee all had interact like the parts of a well oiled machine.

Tales of Suspense #57 “Hawkeye, the Marksman!”; Stan Lee (script), Don Heck (pencils & inks) “The Watcher’s Power!”; Stan Lee (plot), Larry Lieber (script & pencils), George Roussos [as George Bell] (inks) Cover: Don Heck (pencils & inks)

The introduction of what would soon become one of Marvel’s most popular and long-running characters was made in Tales of Suspense #57 (Sept. 1964) alongside the beautiful Black Widow, a Soviet secret agent who had made her first appearance only a few issues before. In fact, writer Lee seemed so enamored with Hawkeye that he “plastered him all over the cover” with images drawn by Don Heck and taken from various interior panels (or was that because the ubiquitous Jack Kirby who did almost all of Marvel’s covers, had decided to take a coffee break that afternoon?) Be that as it may, Hawkeye’s introduction this issue hardly hinted at the role he’d end up playing in subsequent appearances first as a villain and then as a member of the Avengers. The fact is, Hawkeye’s career was a perfect example of how much more interesting Marvel’s characters were than those of the competition. Unlike the traditionally modest bowmen employed by other comics companies, Hawkeye’s motivation for donning a costume was simple jealousy over being upstaged by Iron Man. After dressing himself in a distinctive set of purple tights and coming up with a passel of trick arrows, our would-be hero ventures into the night to stop a robbery only to be mistaken for the thief by some passing cops. It was only Hawkeye’s tough luck to then get picked up by the Black Widow who seduces him with her charms and recruits him to work for her commie masters. Hawkeye would remain on the nether side of the law for some time before finally being rehabilitated as a member of the Avengers. Interestingly, despite making the transition to full-time hero, Hawkeye never removed that king-sized chip from his shoulder, the one that had him declare right from the start: “…Let Iron Man and every costumed adventurer look to his laurels!

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For Hawkeye is about to make them all look sick!” (It was for sure Green Arrow never expressed sentiments like that!) It was the kind of brash, sarcastic attitude that Lee decided to exploit when he moved Hawkeye over to the Avengers and one that Roy Thomas later continued. Helping Lee and Thomas bring Hawkeye to life both here in Suspense and later on the Avengers, was the more than capable artistry of Don Heck who, helped enormously this issue by his own inking, designed the hero’s distinctive garb which would remain off and on, but mostly on, as part of his ensemble for decades. Fun Fact: Did you know that Thomas would finally get around to giving Hawkeye a civilian name five years after the character’s debut this issue?

and evil mutants over in the X-Men book and the above ground world inhabited by the rest of the Marvel universe. Even Magneto acts as if fighting a “straight” super-hero rather than a fellow mutant is somehow strange. Adding to that sense of strangeness was the fact that even though the X-Men themselves have a small part in the story, they’re never seen directly on stage. Why? Finally, was it coincidence that after Stone left Marvel and such artists as Sinnott and Colletta began inking Kirby that this period when Marvel comics were just plain fun ended and the next, more serious one began? But for the short time he was aboard, Stone’s simpler, more direct inking style perfectly suited the years of consolidation.

Journey Into Mystery #109

Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #13

“When Magneto Strikes!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Chic Stone (inks) “Banished From Asgard!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Chic Stone (inks)

“Fighting Side-By-Side With Captain America and Bucky”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Chic Stone (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Chic Stone (inks)

If there was a single unifying factor besides Lee and Kirby themselves during the years of consolidation, it would have had to be Chic Stone. After spotty work by Reinman, George Roussos and even at times the uncomfortable fit of Steve Ditko, Stone’s bold but heavy inking style strengthened and greatly complemented Kirby’s pencils. Taking into account Kirby’s work doing all of Marvel’s covers and the interiors of at least four full books and a feature in Tales of Suspense, Stone’s regular inking lent a visual cohesion to the line that complemented Lee’s editorial efforts to consolidate its universe. A perfect example is Stone’s work over Kirby on Journey Into Mystery #109 (Oct. 1964). Another classic battle issue that had the unique pairing of Thor versus X-Men villain, Magneto, Lee continued his growing practice of using crossovers to tighten up the connection among titles. The story begins when the city is caught in a wave of magnetic force. Following the phenomenon to its source, Thor discovers that Magneto is behind the disturbance and mayhem, of course, follows. The combination of Lee’s dramatic dialogue and Kirby’s powerful art create just the right characteristics in the arrogant Magneto and the noble Thor to make this first meeting the offbeat encounter that the reader would expect it to be. In any case, during the battle Thor is separated from his hammer and, out of Magneto’s sight, is forced to survive a gauntlet of magnetic traps in human guise as lame Don Blake before managing to get his weapon back and forcing Magneto to flee into hiding. A nice touch here is Lee having Thor fail to recognize Magneto, thus strengthening the feeling of insularity between the clandestine battle among good 78

Mar vel Comics in the 1960s

One of the key crossover events in these years was Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #13 (Dec. 1964), in which Fury and his fightin’ fanatics meet Captain America and Bucky. Although a connection between the World War II era and Marvel’s present continuity had already been hinted at in smaller ways (Reed Richards of the FF met Fury and the Howlers in Sgt. Fury #3, Ben Grimm was shown in flashback as a Marine air combat ace in the Pacific theater in FF #11, a pre-masked Baron Zemo had appeared in Sgt. Fury #8 and Fury himself guest starred in FF #21 as an agent of the CIA), Captain America’s appearance in this issue left readers in absolutely no doubt that the inter-related history of the Marvel universe

Adolf Hitler (left) and Erwin Rommel, two of the Howlers’ real life villains—but was Baron Strucker the strip’s answer to Otto Skorzeny?

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usual exaggerated remarks about the Howlers’ reputation: “We must be nuts runnin’ in there without tank support!” “No wonder the captain said he wanted volunteers! He knew it was a suicide mission!” But fun and games don’t last forever and soon Fury and the Howlers team-up with Cap and Bucky to find and destroy a Nazi tunnel beneath the English Channel (!) with which the enemy intends to invade Britain. Coming just before the presentation of Cap’s wartime adventures in Tales of Suspense, it’s possible that this story was either the inspiration for them or intended to introduce readers to the concept. In either case, Lee, Kirby and Ayers here contribute one of the very best entries of the years of consolidation.

Amazing Spider-Man #17 “The Return of the Green Goblin!”; Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko (pencils & inks) Cover: Steve Ditko (pencils & inks) Marvel was there first! Decades before England and France built the cross-channel “chunnel,” Captain America and Fury’s Howlers had to stop the Nazis from doing it on the sly in Sgt. Fury and his Howling Cammandos #13.

stretched farther back than FF #1. Now the possibilities were endless: could all the old heroes of the 1940s be part of the same universe? Did their older selves reside somewhere in the present Marvel universe waiting to once again step onto the stage? And what about the company’s western heroes? Were they included too? Lee took the wise course of picking and choosing which elements of past comics to graft onto his new line of books and when he did, he invariably wrote them in his new, more mature style. For instance, his scripting for Captain America and especially Bucky, was a great deal more realistic and natural than the infantile scripts of the forties which were clearly aimed at young children. For this issue, Kirby re-teamed with inker Dick Ayers (who had taken over the penciling chores on the book when Kirby left with #7) to deliver a story jammed with action and even some laughs. Lee’s script captures all of the myriad characters’ personalities especially in the opening pages with Fury and his main squeeze, Pamela Hawley, visiting a local pub. When rival Bull McGiveney walks in and starts to give a luckless private a hard time (who turns out to be Steve Rogers!), Fury cannot contain himself. “Get that cigar outta your mouth, gruesome! Ya want me to burn my pink little knuckles while I’m caressin’ your kisser?” When the MPs arrive, it’s with the

It wasn’t often in the years of consolidation that continued stories would go beyond two chapters, but as has been seen there were exceptions that perhaps pointed to the more open-ended storytelling of the grandiose years. The story sequence in Amazing Spider-Man #17, 18 and 19 is one of them. With “The Return of the Green Goblin” in Spider-Man #17 (Oct. 1964), Lee and Ditko manage to gather together in one place all the little idiosyncrasies of Spider-Man/ Peter Parker as inexperienced super-hero while creating a series of vignettes that have since become legendary. The story’s simple: Peter Parker’s nemesis at school, Flash Thompson, decides to start a Spider-Man fan club, while the Green Goblin sees its opening night as the perfect opportunity to defeat and humiliate his enemy in a very public way. Events proceed pretty much as a reader might expect until a phone call alerts Peter that his Aunt May is gravely ill. Leaving his fight with the Goblin, Spider-Man appears to be running away, stunning his fans as the Daily Bugle labels him a coward. Ditko’s quirky, unassuming style is perfect for such scenes as the gang at school; the establishment of the fan club; Spider-Man mistaking a movie set for an actual hold up; the building complications between Peter, Betty Brant and Liz Allen; his rivalry with the Torch; and Aunt May’s continuing attempts to have Peter meet the mysterious Mary Jane as he and Lee continue to add more twists to Peter Parker ’s increasingly complicated life. Throughout, Lee’s scripting is natural and fun to read as he and Ditko weave every plot thread to an expert climax guaranteed to leave readers in a state of nervous exhaustion! The Years of Consolidation

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Amazing Spider-Man #19

“The End of Spider-Man!”; Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko (pencils & inks) Cover: Steve Ditko (pencils & inks)

“Spidey Strikes Back!”; Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko (pencils & inks) Cover: Steve Ditko (pencils & inks)

In Amazing Spider-Man #18 (Nov. 1964), Lee and Ditko continue to pile on the absurdities. Branded a coward by the entire city, Peter Parker must endure the slights of the kids at school and the disappointment of his fellow super-heroes. The school bully, Flash Thompson, still Spider-Man’s staunchest fan, masquerades as his hero in an effort to “prove” his idol’s bravery and gets beaten up in the process; Peter is forced to find a job in order to be able to afford Aunt May’s medicine, and failing, tries to sell himself as Spider-Man to a trading card company that won’t see a has-been for dust, and later offers the formula for his webbing for sale to a glue industry that has no use for an adhesive that lasts only an hour; his girl troubles continue with Betty Brant jealous of Liz Allen; and finally, we see the ultimate absurdity of a super-hero calling in a crime in progress instead of tackling it himself! At last, fearing that his ailing aunt would have no one to care for her should anything happen to him, Spider-Man avoids a fight with the villainous Sandman by appearing to flee from him in fear (the subject of this issue’s classic cover image). Admitting defeat, Peter blames his Spider-Man alter ego for all his problems and vows to quit only to receive a lecture from an improving Aunt May on strength of character and being able to overcome personal misfortune. Inspired by his aunt’s courage, Peter dons his costume again with a renewed optimism in life. Lee and Ditko took the super-hero and the readers as low as they could go and brought them back again in a story that proved to be a benchmark in Marvel history for its sheer number of original elements.

Maybe more of a thoroughly satisfying epilogue than a true continuation, Amazing Spider-Man #19 (Dec. 1964) gave readers who’d suffered along with their hero for the previous two issues the release they craved, as a reenergized Spider-Man tears into the villainous combination of the Sandman, the evil Enforcers and a host of petty thugs. Talk about action, if those seemingly impossible odds weren’t enough, this issue also features special guest star and frequent Spider-Man bete noir, the Human Torch! The story opens with a page of typical Ditko-style action as Spider-Man nabs a gang of bank robbers followed immediately by a hilarious three-panel sequence showing the change in J. Jonah Jameson’s face as the news of Spider-Man’s return is whispered in his ear. An interlude at school with Flash Thompson and Liz Allen and another in which we’re introduced to Ned Leeds take up another page or two, and from there it’s non-stop action as Lee and Ditko unite Spider-Man and the Torch in an uneasy alliance against their enemies. No doubt about it, in these years Lee and his artists had their act together and knew exactly what the readers wanted. After reading this three-part story, was it any wonder why upstart Marvel was soon breathing heavily down industry leader DC’s neck?

Amazing Spider-Man #18

Amazing Spider-Man #19, page 3. Ditko displays his mastery of facial expression in this triptych of J. Jonah Jameson receiving some bad news!

Mar vel Comics in the 1960s

Tales of Suspense #59 “The Black Knight”; Stan Lee (script), Don Heck (pencils), Chic Stone (inks) “Captain America”: Stan Lee (co-plot), Jack Kirby (co-plot & pencils), Chic Stone (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks)

Beneath the simple but dramatic cover of Tales of Suspense #59 (Nov. 1964), lurks ten of the most actionpacked pages of comic art ever drawn! No kidding! Lee and Kirby pull out all the stops in this debut installment of Captain America’s first solo series since the early 1950s. Its appearance in this issue (and the “Hulk” strip in Tales to Astonish) also marked the end of Marvel’s long-running fantasy features and their complete displacement by the new super-hero line. If Lee could have, he probably would’ve launched these new features in their own titles, but because he was restricted in the number of books allowed him by the company’s distribution deal with DC, he had to make do with pairing features in the former fantasy titles. It didn’t matter to readers, because for the next few years they’d be treated to some of the greatest “double feature values” ever offered in comics—and this issue is no exception! The “Captain America” strip debuted

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with Avengers Mansion being assaulted by a small army of thugs intent on stealing the team’s secrets (whatever they were!). Kirby choreographs the non-stop action with such skill that a reader could swear it took place over 20 pages instead of only ten! Meanwhile, in the front half of the book, Lee and Heck were really humming with a 13-pager that had Iron Man battling the Black Knight. And for added complications, Iron Man

discovers that to keep his damaged heart beating, he has to stay in his full-body armor permanently! But chauffeur Happy Hogan and secretary Pepper Potts suspect foul play when Iron Man announces that their boss, Tony Stark, will “be out of town for a while,” leaving himself in charge. Readers had to wait a month to find out what happened next…

Fantastic Four #33

“Side-by-Side with Sub-Mariner!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Chic Stone (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Chic Stone (inks)

Fantastic Four #33, page 8. A pioneer in exploiting full and double-page spreads, Kirby once again leads the way! Dabbling in collage, whose rising popularity was gripping the art world from the Louvre to local grade schools, the artist managed to come up with some of the most striking—and often inexplicable—images of his career!

The demarcation between Marvel’s four phases from the early years to the years of consolidation to the grandiose years was not something that could be pinpointed by a single comic or isolated event. Rather, the changeover from one era to the next was usually a protracted one, moving at different paces in different series. Always ahead of the curve however, was the Fantastic Four which led the way with a solid cast of heroes and villains and a continuous stream of ideas that took the FF from the ordinary workaday world of the 1960s into other realms from outer space to the micro world to the bottom of the sea, which was the locale for Fantastic Four #33 (Dec. 1964). The first thing about this book that met the reader’s eye was a cover sporting the figure of SubMariner as he knifes through the briny deep in the direction of a snarling Attuma. But beneath the issue’s screaming headline of “On the Side of Sub-Mariner!” the familiar colorful tones of a Marvel cover were absent; The Years of Consolidation

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instead, the muted grays of a black-and-white photograph occupied the background. In fact, the cover of this issue was only Kirby’s most prominent use to date of a technique that had first been developed early in the twentieth century but that reached a zenith of popularity by the 1960s. Although collage had its beginnings hundreds if not thousands of years ago, what is understood as modern collage or photomontage, came about after the invention of the camera. In photomontage, the art is actually a composite photograph made by cutting and joining a number of other photographs from various sources. Although it was a process that Kirby began to explore in the years of consolidation, it was one that would only reach its fullest expression and its most appropriate uses in the grandiose years. What Lee thought of such pages as this issue’s cover or the murky undersea vista that occupied all of page 8 can only be supposed, but readers, at least, received them with enthusiasm, no doubt comparing them with their own efforts in school where collage became very popular with art teachers as a form of student expression. As for Kirby, use of collage was his own unconscious attempt to enter into the spirit of the ’60s echoing as it did the wild kinds of San Francisco poster art then being used to advertise rock bands that in turn sometimes referenced Marvel’s characters in their songs! Kirby’s use of collage first appeared briefly in FF #29 as the Red Ghost pilots his spaceship to the surface of the moon. Emboldened by how that effort reproduced on newsprint, Kirby returned to the form for the cover and one interior page this issue. Although the work was interesting, these early efforts were attempts by the artist to capture literal events such as a spaceship descending to the surface of the moon or the bottom of the sea. In later examples, Kirby would develop a more representational style with photos of random objects thrown together to suggest places and objects rather than depicting them as they really were. This method worked much better overall, with literal examples in Sgt. Fury #13 being far less satisfying than the more psychedelic head trip used wonderfully in The Mighty Thor #132. Kirby’s use of collage resulted in a brief explosion of its use by other artists at Marvel, most notably James Steranko, who managed to integrate it into his own multi-media palette. But regardless of how each individual example of Kirby’s collages may or may not have worked or who else may have followed his example, it was all part and parcel of what made Silver Age Marvel such an exciting place to be! 82

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Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #136, page 19. Kirby’s interest in montage continued throughout the latter 1960s, extending into the 1970s when the artist left Marvel and moved on to rival DC.

X-Men #9 “Enter, The Avengers!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Chic Stone (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Chic Stone (inks)

X-Men #9 (Jan. 1965) guest starred the Avengers (in one of the earliest crossover/advertising blitzes for a new comic, the X-Men themselves were busy appearing in just about every Marvel book at the time except that of the Avengers!). With five Avengers, five X-Men, Professor X and a mysterious new super-villain, Kirby (inked again by Chic Stone) had his hands full this issue doing in 20 pages what in later years would take a 12-issue mini-series! Somewhere in Europe, Prof. X searches out and confronts a new Marvel arch-villain called Lucifer, a being from an alien dimension who’d been responsible for crippling the wheelchair bound X-Man sometime

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in the past. Meanwhile, arriving on the Continent hot on their leader’s trail, the rest of the X-Men stumble upon the Avengers, who have also been searching for Lucifer. Naturally, a misunderstanding occurs and the two teams mix it up. Eventually, a mental summons from Prof. X explains all to the Avengers who gallantly step aside allowing the X-Men to finish the mission. Lucifer is defeated of course, but still manages to provide the story with a dramatic climax in the form of a deadly thermal bomb designed to ignite if his heart should stop! For this story, Lee and

Kirby simply dropped the reader in the middle of the action: Prof. X is already in Lucifer’s lair, the X-Men arrive in Europe by page 6, the Avengers show up without preamble on the same page and the reader is informed of anything else as the action progresses. Characterization of a dozen heroes and villains is all done on the wing and when the reader finishes, he feels as if he hasn’t missed a thing!

Tales of Suspense #63 “The Black Widow Strikes Again”; Stan Lee (plot), Don Rico [as N. Korok] (script), Don Heck (pencils & inks) “The Way It Began”; Stan Lee (plot), Larry Lieber (script & pencils), Paul

Reinman (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Sol Brodsky (inks)

X-Men #9, page 6. Busy making guest appearances everywhere else, the X-Men didn’t seem to have had the time to drop in on the Avengers so Marvel’s assemblers saved them the trouble by visiting them instead. Mayhem, of course, ensues!

Sometimes Marvel would give their readers twice their money’s worth even without benefit of a continued story (and weren’t usually modest about saying so either!). Tales of Suspense #63 (March 1965) is a case in point; two complete stories told in 12- and 10page segments that had so much happening in them that they left readers feeling as if they’d actually read two feature-length stories. In “Somewhere Lurks the Phantom,” Iron Man must track down a mysterious saboteur within the sprawling Stark factory complex. Don Heck did the art chores and in his prime had a style reminiscent of Alex Raymond (unmasked, super-villain Hawkeye looked like Flash Gordon!). The first rule of the years of consolidation was to first give characters identifiable backgrounds from which motivation for their actions might be drawn. The consistency of the Marvel universe depended strongly on The Years of Consolidation

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the scrawny Steve Rogers, the first mission and the teaming with Bucky Barnes (Kirby, of course packs all the action in ten pages)—but told by Lee as he skillfully redresses scenes that were frequently silly back in comics’ Golden Age of the 1940s and makes them more dramatic and realistic for readers in this, the Marvel Age of Comics!

X-Men #11 “The Triumph of Magneto!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Chic Stone (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Chic Stone (inks)

Four color #10. Was it Flash Gordon or Hawkeye without his mask? Only their hairdressers knew for sure! Flash Gordon artist Alex Raymond was a big influence on Heck’s early style.

information the reader could count on to remain the same from issue to issue, even from year to year. Revealing the origins of characters became an important tool for doing just that (and when of necessity origins needed to be retold from time to time, the cardinal rule was not to change what had been said before, but if something different had to be done, then it was almost always in the way of adding more detail to already established facts). Such would be the case with Captain America, whose origin became one of the most often repeated tales of the Silver Age. Here however, is the very first version, retelling “The Origin of Captain America.” Use of the words “first” and “retelling” may sound like a contradiction in terms, but in this case they make sense in that although Cap’s origin was first told in the 1940s, this was the 1960s, a new era in comics that demanded the origin be retold and retooled for a new, more demanding audience. And so, here are all the familiar scenes—Dr. Erskine, the Nazi double agent, 84

Mar vel Comics in the 1960s

As the years of consolidation drew to a close, Marvel moved into a kind of transitory phase bridging the gap between this era and the grandiose years. One of the key books in this transition was X-Men #11 (May 1965). The most close-knit title in Marvel’s stable of books, the X-Men feature had always seemed an insular one with few guest appearances, its concentration on the war between good and evil mutants, and frequent appearances by Magneto and his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (who sometimes seemed more like co-stars than villains!). Looked at all together, X-Men #1-11 form an imperfect whole, with the clandestine struggle between the X-Men and Magneto the common thread binding them together. With this issue, that thread comes to an end as the threat of Magneto seems to conclude with his being kidnapped by the Stranger, a mysterious, seemingly omnipotent being from space of the kind that would become increasingly common in the later grandiose years. Misinterpreting the nature of the Stranger, each side seeks to recruit him for themselves, but the Stranger has plans of his own, and after a brief encounter between the X-men and the Brotherhood, Magneto and the servile Toad are taken into space. Meanwhile, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch quit the struggle altogether (to reappear a few months later as members of the Avengers!) and Mastermind is trapped in a stone-like form. Fittingly, it would be Kirby and Stone, the art team whose combined style had come to define the years of consolidation that would mark fini to this opening chapter in X-Men history. When next we meet the X-Men, it’ll be in confrontation with a villain more suited to the grandiose years than to the years of consolidation.

Avengers #15 “Now, By My Hand, Shall Die a Villain”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (layouts), Don Heck (pencils), Mike Esposito [as Mickey Dimeo] (Inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Chic Stone (inks)

As the end of the years of consolidation drew to a close, there was an overlap of characteristics with the next

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Swag

By the time the years of consolidation were in full swing,

so were Marvel’s merchandising efforts. Stationary, plastic pillows, buttons, pins, board games, trading cards, puzzles, and T-shirts were all offered to eager fans while at the same time spreading the gospel of Marvel madness. But none was perhaps as influential in getting the word out as the syndicated Marvel Superheroes cartoon show, which featured a host dressed as Captain America and very limited “animation” shot directly from the comics!

stage of Silver Age Marvel, the grandiose years, when the sense of experimentation with continuity evolved into a deliberate cultivation of serious, larger than life themes. Storylines became longer, the stakes higher, and endings sometimes blurred into the beginnings of the following tale. For instance, what starts out in Avengers #15 (April 1965) as a battle between the assemblers and the Masters of Evil, metamorphoses in the next issue and becomes the historic first change in line-up of the Avengers. “Now, By My Hand, Shall Perish a Villain” starts out with the original Avengers’ founding members, Thor, Giant-Man and the Wasp, Iron Man and Captain America, in combat with their respective archenemies, Zemo, the Executioner and the Enchantress, the Black Knight and the Melter. Involving all the elements readers had become familiar with, including the crossover, continued story and continuity, the action leaves off just as the two teams square off for a showdown. Meanwhile, in the jungles of South America

where Captain America has trailed Zemo, another battle takes place resulting in the accidental death of the Nazi villain, an eventuality that would be used more often and to equally dramatic effect in the grandiose years. Kirby, after Avengers #8, had relinquished the penciling chores to Don Heck but returned in #14 to do the layouts through #16. Here, beneath a solid teamversus-team cover and despite all the bases he had to cover, Kirby delivers an exciting, fast-paced yarn.

Avengers #16 “The Old Order Changeth”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (layouts), Dick Ayers (pencils & inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks)

Avengers #16 (May 1965) was in many ways a radical departure in the way comics were generally handled at the time. It was assumed that the readers were a fickle lot who’d easily get upset if their favorite book deviated too far from its expected delights. Consequently, editors The Years of Consolidation

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liked to keep books as much the same from issue to issue as possible. Who’d dream of removing the Flash from the Justice League? In his conscious decision to make the Marvel universe a coherent place (and no doubt to make it easier for him to keep track of each character’s continuity), Lee decided to risk removing Thor, Iron Man, Giant-Man and Wasp from the Avengers and replacing them with three new members. In “The Old Order Changeth,” all the headliners except Captain America left and in their place come in Hawkeye, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, hardly big guns! With tighter than usual layouts, Kirby was aided this time by Dick Ayers, who together manage to have the Avengers dispose of the Masters of Evil in the first four pages of the book. Soon after, the Avengers decide that they no longer have the time to divide between their team duties and their personal lives. They put out the word for candidates to replace them in the team and by the time Cap returns from South America, the nation’s press has Avengers Mansion hemmed in and his teammates have already elected their replacements. There’s a happy reunion among the old comrades until first Giant-Man leaves, then a somber Iron Man, who seems to echo a nation’s young President as he thinks, “The mantle has been passed to a new and younger group…It has to be this way…The old must ever give way to the new…” Nearly forty years later, Lee’s deft scripting still carries a wistfulness that readers at the time must have felt for an era they hardly knew was passing.

a mountain fall on him. But now, years later, the transformed Caine Marko has returned and, under the curse of the Juggernaut, once he’s set his mind on a goal, nothing can keep him from it, not even the formidable defenses ringing the X-Men’s headquarters. As the story unfolds and the suspense mounts, the Juggernaut smashes them, his form never fully revealed. Meanwhile, Professor X fills in the X-Men on the Juggernaut’s origin and incidentally that he was once his step-brother! Finally, with their last defense destroyed, the Juggernaut, more a force of nature than a man, stands revealed before the X-Men. Although Kirby had quit penciling the X-Men with #11, he still managed to stay on to do the layouts. Penciled and inked by an army of artists (including Alex Toth, Vince Colletta and “the whole blamed Marvel bullpen”), in many places Kirby’s distinctive style can still be made out. A wonderfully plotted and dramatically written story, the awesome nature of the

X-Men #12 “The Origin of Professor X!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (layouts), Alex Toth (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks)

The title said it all: “The Almost Indescribable Menace of the Juggernaut!” It was the first chapter of a two-part story that began in X-Men #12 (July 1965); a yarn that featured a villain completely different from your average world-conquering bad guy (or the villains that had been routine in Marvel’s first two developmental phases). “Whosever touches this gem shall possess the power of the crimson bands of Cyttorak. Henceforth, you who read these words, shall become…forevermore…a human Juggernaut.” That’s the way Caine Marko read the words on the gem he’d found during the Korean War before promptly having 86

Mar vel Comics in the 1960s

All American Western #105, by Alex Toth (inset). Alex Toth hit a high point artistically in the 1950s when he drew a handful of Air Force stories for EC’s war comics. He was not well served however, on the hodgepodge that was X-Men #12.

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Juggernaut, however, could’ve been captured so much better had Kirby contributed full pencils! As it was, Lee managed to create in words a truly fearsome villain and a story that in places actually conveyed the dread and wonder of the events taking place.

Journey Into Mystery #115

X-Men #13

Journey Into Mystery #115 (April 1965) opens in Asgard as Thor confronts his evil brother. Their fight is broken up by Odin, however, who, despite his omniscience, refuses to listen to Thor’s explanations and orders him to report in 48 hours for “the trial of the gods.” With free time on his hands, Thor returns to Earth to finish his battle with the Absorbing Man. Catching up to him, battle ensues. Inker Frank Giacoia In the climactic scene, did stellar work Crusher Creel absorbs over Kirby and Gene Colan, but all the properties of the did less well over terrain around him and Heck, whose style becomes a towering demanded a more behemoth of stone, metal subtle touch than and wood, but just as all Frank was able to seems hopeless for our provide. hero, Thor surrounds him in a cloud of helium and, having been forced through contact with it to absorb the properties of the gas, the Absorbing Man drifts helplessly into space. Throughout the book, Kirby, in a sign of things to come, began to “open up” the art to include more quarter- and half-page panels that gave the story more drama and power (something he’d been doing right along in the book’s “Tales of Asgard” back-up), a trick that would come into more common use in the next phase of Marvel’s development. Lee, too, began to subtly alter the speech patterns of his godly characters so that they now begin to sound more stentorian, more in keeping with their aloof removal from the doings of Earth. With these elements in place, Lee’s new scripting style, Kirby’s more open layouts and Colletta taking over the inking chores from Stone, in a year or so, the strip would reach its zenith and become the standard bearer of the next, more serious phase in Marvel’s development.

“Where Walks the Juggernaut!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (layouts), Werner Roth [as Jay Gavin] (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks)

In X-Men #13 (Sept. 1965), the battle between the XMen and the Juggernaut begins in earnest and doesn’t stop until the last page. Choreographed by Kirby and finished by artist Jay Gavin (actually Werner Roth), the team of mutants wage a losing fight against the unstoppable Juggernaut while Professor X searches telepathically for reinforcements. Finding them in the Human Torch, he leads him to the battle site and completes a plan that involves ripping off the Juggernaut’s helmet. Thus exposed, the thing that had once been his brother becomes susceptible to the mutant leader’s psychic power. With his flattened, concealing helmet, the Juggernaut was built like a tank, giving him an aura of supernatural menace that seemed to emphasize the fact that he was no longer the human Caine Marko (and certainly not the rather droll humpty dumpty figure he’d become in later years).

Journey Into Mystery #114 “The Stronger I Am, the Sooner I Die”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Chic Stone (inks) “The Golden Apples!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Chic Stone (inks)

Meanwhile, over in Journey Into Mystery #114 (March 1965), Chic Stone was supplying his final services over Kirby’s “Thor” in a two-part story headlined by a spectac-ular cover of two elemental forces in perfect balance as Thor and the Absorbing Man meet hammer to ball and chain. In keeping with Marvel’s growing reliance on bigger, more consequential stories in the closing months of the years of consolidation (after all, it was called a “super epic” right on the cover!), this issue’s “The Stronger I Am, the Sooner I Die” features Loki’s latest scheme to do in Thor. This time, he provides convict Crusher Creel with a potion that turns him into the Absorbing Man. In no time, he and Thor come to blows as Thor realizes that the Absorbing Man can duplicate every power which he himself possesses. By this time in the company’s development, such a scenario would be too big to limit to a single book, so readers had to wait until the next issue to find out who would win!

“The Vengeance of the Thunder God”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks) “A Viper In Our Midst!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Chic Stone (inks)

Fantastic Four #38 “Defeated by the Frightful Four”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Chic Stone (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Chic Stone (inks) The Years of Consolidation

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A clear cut example of the transition from the years of consolidation to the grandiose years are issues 38, 39 and 40 of the Fantastic Four. On their face, the easiest way to tell the difference in tone is by looking at Kirby’s inkers on the strip: issue #38 is Chic Stone’s last, issue #39 is inked by Frank Ray (actually Frank Giacoia using a pseudonym!) and #40 by Vince Colletta (who’d stay on until #44 when Joe Sinnott took over). Also interesting is that these issues form only the beginning of a vaguely connected but definitely related storyline that stretches across all of these books and beyond; #38-43 are definitely on one side of the divide and #44-47 on the other. In Fantastic Four #38 (May 1965), the team’s evil counterparts, The Frightful Four, kidnap the Invisible Girl forcing the rest of the FF to come to a deserted island to rescue her. There, the two teams mix it up until the evil FF manage to escape, stranding the good guys on the island with a ticking “Q-bomb!” It explodes, leaving our heroes floating in the ocean unconscious within a force bubble created by the Invisible Girl.

usual was Kirby himself, who gave readers a thrill by treating them to one of his earliest uses of photocollage, a technique that had become popular in the avant garde art world of the 1960s.

Fantastic Four #40 “The Battle of the Baxter Building”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils) Frank Giacoia (inks)

The concluding act of this extended series ends in Fantastic Four #40 (July 1965) when the FF manage to fight their way to the top of the Baxter Building. In a development that left much to be desired after such a thrilling build-up, when the powerless four finally reach their goal, Mr. Fantastic pulls out an “electronic stimulator” and, training it on his teammates, restores their powers. It turns out that the stimulator was all that was needed to do the trick but needed “another few more days of recharging!” Not exactly the most satisfying climax to such a great story, but it did

Fantastic Four #39 “A Blind Man Shall Lead Them”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks), Wally Wood (inks) [on Daredevil figure] Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Chic Stone (inks), Wally Wood (inks) [on Daredevil figure]

The symbolic cover of Fantastic Four #39 (June 1965) showing the FF being led by a red-suited Daredevil while a gigantic, menacing figure of Dr. Doom looms over the New York skyline, seemed to say it all: “A Blind Man Shall Lead Them!” Following their defeat by the Frightful Four the issue before, the FF discover that they’ve lost their super-powers. Desperately, Mr. Fantastic tries to find ways to artificially duplicate the team’s natural powers, but at a critical moment Dr. Doom takes control of the team’s Baxter Building headquarters. Turning their own weapons against them, it doesn’t take Doom long to realize the FF’s true helplessness and the tension mounts accordingly. Led by Daredevil (whose figure was inked by Wally Wood, then the current artist on the DD strip), the four must reach the building and manage to fight their way to the top. Although Frank Ray’s inks over Kirby this issue helped ease the transition between Stone and Colletta’s wildly divergent styles, the highlight as 88

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Weird Science #15 by Wally Wood (inset). Like Toth, Wood was a graduate of EC Comics before landing at Marvel just in time to take part in the years of consolidation.

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provide Lee and Kirby (whose pencils were inked this time by Vince Colletta, who, despite proving an excellent fit over Kirby on the somewhat medieval atmosphere of Thor, was nevertheless completely unsuited for the real-world sci-fi action of the FF) with the type of human drama that once again showed why Silver Age Marvel was head and shoulders above its competition. The drama in this case turned on Ben Grimm who alone of the four is far from happy to have his powers restored: “But…mebbe I don’t wanna become the Thing again!! I’m finally normal…like anyone else!” But Reed Richards thinks otherwise claiming the situation with Doom calls for desperate measures. “Poor Ben! It…it seems so cruel!” says the Invisible Girl. “He may hate me for this forever after,” responds Richards, “but…for better or worse, the Thing must live again!” But despite his ending of Doom’s threat, there can be no celebration for the Thing: “I got the short end of the stick on this whole deal! You can git married, but not me! You can be normal…but not me!” The story ends not in the elation of victory, but in the announcement by the Thing that he intends to quit the group leading into the title’s next extended story cycle in which the Frightful Four return and the Thing turns against his teammates.

Fantastic Four Annual #3 “Bedlam at the Baxter Building!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) “Captives of the Deadly Duo”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks), Joe Sinnott (inks assist); reprinted from Fantastic Four #6 “A Visit with the Fantastic Four”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks); reprinted from Fantastic Four #11 “The Impossible Man”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks); reprinted from Fantastic Four #11 Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks)

Observation of the elements defining the years of consolidation doesn’t necessarily have to be limited to identifying overall trends in the Marvel comics of the time, sometimes they can be identified within individual titles themselves. Internal and external consolidation you might say. The perfect example of external and internal consolidation in a single comic is Fantastic Four Annual #3 (mid-1965), “The world’s most colossal collection of costumed characters, crazily cavorting and capering in continual combat!” The cover and lead story sported a Kirby collage of just about every hero and villain in the burgeoning Marvel universe (you count ’em!) and at the time was probably the answer to every fan’s dream. But aside from the obvious fact of it being the ultimate crossover event (the logical end-product of the guest-starring trend

pursued so vigorously in these years), the story’s main event, the wedding of Sue Storm and Reed Richards, also served as the ultimate example of internal consolidation. The thread of the two characters’ romance had its beginnings as early as the first issue of the FF and later it was revealed to readers that Sue and Reed had been childhood sweethearts during World War II. As the series progressed, an element of the unknown entered the picture when the Sub-Mariner forced Sue to reexamine her feelings for Reed. With the issue resolved in Fantastic Four #27, Reed and Sue announced their engagement in #36. To readers, events like these gave the Marvel universe a semblance of real life and when the Richards’ child was born in Fantastic Four Annual #6, the feeling of change and realistic progression was only reinforced. The evolution of the two characters’ relationship from sweethearts to parents became a perfect metaphor for the direction in which Marvel’s entire line of super-heroes had been heading in its first five years. It was a place where readers had begun to learn to expect change, progress, comings and goings and even the deaths of characters. This was like nothing anyone had ever seen before from any other comics’ company. And yet, in a sense, readers hadn’t seen anything yet, for the serious, grandiose years still lay ahead, filled with the awe of living planets, the wonder of cosmic beings, birth and death, the problems of bigotry, drugs and pollution and even the acknowledgement that there is after all, a God of love above it all.

Amazing Spider-Man #25 “Captured by J. Jonah Jameson” ; Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko (pencils & inks) Cover: Steve Ditko (pencils & inks)

Inker Mike Esposito made a brief appearance in the years of consolidation before returning big time in the twilight years embellishing Ross Andru on Amazing SpiderMan.

The Spider-Man books, too, were a perfect example of internal consolidation. The title had been picking up plot points and character details for over two years before they all really began to come together in issues #25-28. They played off each other, and in doing so created new wrinkles that in turn could be explored in The Years of Consolidation

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the future. One of the main architects for all this was artist Steve Ditko, who gets a credit in Amazing Spider-Man #25 (June 1965) for plotting the story. The first official acknowledgement given the artist for work he’d been doing on the strip in equal partnership with Lee almost from the beginning, it set a precedent that would prove contentious for the company in the years to come. In the meantime, however, so smooth is Ditko’s juggling of the many story elements that have by this time become hallmarks of the Spider-Man strip that it left little doubt that the artist had had a strong hand in the plotting of the book from a much earlier date. Ditko’s fingerprints on the book can be found on the sheer number of personal travails and absurd subplots surrounding Peter Parker (that seemed to proliferate as the strip matured!), many of which Lee chose to drop in favor of a more sedate approach after Ditko’s departure with issue #38. This issue for instance, after having built up the personality of Peter Parker as an honest and well meaning but fallible everyteen, Ditko has decided to add a bit of venality and hubris to the character. In what would prove to be a dangerous over-confidence in his abilities, Peter convinces J. Jonah Jameson to hire a peculiar robot to hunt down Spider-Man. But the robot proves to be much more than Peter expected and comes close to actually defeating him. Lee and Ditko expertly manipulate all of the strip’s by now familiar cast of characters to create a fast-moving story more filled with humor than action, including Jameson’s greed and envy, Betty Brant’s attempts 90

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to put the robot out of action, and Flash Thompson’s jealousy of Peter over Liz Allen that leads into a wild chase scene with Peter trying to keep ahead of Flash’s gang while at the same time avoiding capture by Jameson’s robot! Finally, readers get to “meet” the mysterious Mary Jane Watson, spot the unnamed Norman Osborn (a.k.a. the Green Goblin!) at a businessman’s club and learn that Aunt May has found Peter’s Spider-Man costume! Whew!

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Amazing Spider-Man #25, page 15. After a build-up covering a number of issues, Stan and Steve finally allow readers, as well as Betty Brant and Liz Allen, to meet the mysterious Mary Jane Watson—sort of!

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Avengers #19 “The Coming of the Swordsman”; Stan Lee (script), Don Heck (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Don Heck (pencils) [insets], Frank Giacoia (inks)

By the time the years of consolidation were well underway, a strange thing happened: the world outside the elementary and high school set began to discover the wonders of Marvel’s burgeoning four-color universe. Soon, Lee found himself invited to college campuses to talk about his comics, and the company began to receive letters from readers who talked about Dostoievsky and Freud as easily as Spider-Man and Dr. Strange. In an era where the line between art and pop culture was wide and often unbridgeable, Marvel began to close the gap as it became hip to discuss its comics in the same breath as Shakespeare and Dickens. College students who remembered the irreverent attitude of the old EC comics of the 1950s or who had older siblings that had left forbidden EC comics in the back of the closet picked up on Marvel’s tongue-in-cheek approach to storytelling recounting straight-ahead action and angst while at the same time poking fun at its characters. In Amazing Spider-Man #36 scientist Norton G. Fester is fooling around in his lab: “Just because I flunked science in school doesn’t mean I can’t discover the secret of the universe! I’ve as much chance as anyone else…Maybe I’ll accidentally stumble over something, like Isaac Newton!” In a footnote, Lee tells the reader “You guessed it, friend! N.G.F. is a part-time nut!” Knowing winks to the sometimes absurd conventions of comics was what endeared Marvel to older readers and persuaded them that there was more to the company’s product than colorful fistfights. Apparently supported by such critically acclaimed artists as Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol, readers felt emboldened to declare Marvel required reading on campus book lists. Marvel’s widespread acceptance outside the ghetto of children’s literature foreshadowed the eventual takeover of the arts in general by pop culture, a process that would be complete by the end of the century. At the time, though, Lee wasted no time in taking advantage of the situation. Taught by publisher Martin Goodman to remain sensitive to any alterations along the pop culture highway, Lee moved quickly to feed into collegiate expectations. “So many of you frantic fans have objected to calling our Marvel mags ‘comics’ that we felt we just had to come up with a better name,” declared Lee in the summer of 1965. “And so, from now on, you are no longer reading comic books when you read our little masterpieces! Instead, you’re reading a ‘Pop Art book!’” Lee accompanied the statement (made on the letters page of every book cover dated August) with a change in the company’s familiar trademark in the

upper left-hand corner of every cover: beneath the illustration of the star of the particular comic, the words “Marvel Pop Art Productions” was written in jaunty lettering. The words would stay there only for a few months however… until Lee had moved on to other interests. There’s no evidence that the new labeling meant a change in the way the comics themselves were presented; certainly not in Avengers #19 (Aug. 1965) which sported a Kirby drawn Swordsman that had every indication of having been created as a concept design that ended up being used as the cover, much like those for Daredevil #1 and Tales of Suspense #39. Added evidence includes portraits of four Avengers bracketing the figure of the Swordsman that were obviously drawn by Don Heck (who may have also contributed the bank of machinery behind the Swordsman). Inside, the book featured a tightly plotted but unlikely tale by Lee with art by the team of Heck and Dick Ayers that had the Swordsman forcing the Avengers into signing him up as a member!

Amazing Spider-Man #26 “The Man In The Crime-Master’s Mask”; Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko (co-plot, pencils & inks) Cover: Steve Ditko (pencils & inks)

Ditko continued as credited plotter in Amazing SpiderMan #26 (July 1965) with the first chapter in a two-part mystery entitled “The Man in the Crime-Master’s Mask.” Here, Lee and Ditko treat the reader to an involved gangland mystery that successfully intertwines the trails of the Crime-Master, the Green Goblin and apparently reformed underworld figure Frederick Foswell. In between trying to keep up with the various clues, Peter Parker is forced to deal with a cheap storebought Spider-Man costume that has the hilarious habit of coming apart at the most inappropriate moments (his two genuine costumes were taken by Prof. Smythe and Aunt May respectively!), sneaks around the house hoping to find the costume Aunt May discovered the issue before, tries to straighten out a misunderstanding with Betty Brant involving Liz Allen and the mysterious Mary Jane Watson, keeps tabs on ex-con Frederick Foswell, fights with school rival Flash Thompson, and finally gets sent to the principal’s office! And what about Patch the stoolie? And the second appearance of Norman Osborn (a.k.a. the Green Goblin)? The reader hardly has time to catch his breath before Spider-Man is captured by the Crime-Master and brought as a prisoner before the assembled mobs of New York’s underworld. The Years of Consolidation

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Amazing Spider-Man #27

Molten Man being knocked around. But as was becoming more and more frequent with this book, the adventures of Peter Parker were at least as interesting as those of his alter ego. In particular, this issue’s main In “Bring Back My Goblin to Me,” Amazing Spider-Man event isn’t Spidey’s fight with the Molten Man, but #27 (Aug. 1965) answers at least one of the questions Peter Parker’s graduation from high school! But raised in the previous issue: The Crime-Master before readers are treated to J. Jonah Jameson’s turns out to be none of the above, but merely one commencement address, they’re first informed that more unknown, would-be kingpin of crime. Left Flash Thompson has surprisingly taken the blame for unanswered: who is the Green Goblin? Who is Patch the fight he had with Peter the issue before. As a result, the stoolie? What is Frederick Foswell up to? And the Liz Allen is now angry at both boys. Meanwhile, biggest one of all: the Crime-Master and the Goblin Peter’s identity as Spider-Man is nearly discovered exchanged each other’s secret identities, and the when he switches his cheap, store-bought Spider-Man Crime-Master had the foresight to place the Goblin’s costume for the real thing captured by Prof. Smyth in a secret safe deposit box to be opened by the at the conclusion of issue #25. With those plot police in case of his death. Well, the Crime-Master points taken care of, the story moves on to Peter’s graduation, a seemingly mundane died at the end of this issue, the event that in its own way, was as clear identity of the Goblin on his lips, but a dividing line between the years of the safe deposit box was never consolidation and the grandiose years mentioned again! Meanwhile, our hero’s as the more cosmic events just beginning travails continue to unfold: his cheap to unfold in such titles as the FF and costume falling apart, Peter falls into the Thor. One of Lee’s most important tools river trying to retrieve his camera; tired in consolidating his line of super-hero of Jameson’s stinginess, Peter sells his comics into a realistic, coherent universe pictures to the Globe instead of the Bugle; was to stage events that would not only finally, giving up the search for his old prove irrevocable, but move the personal costumes, Peter is forced to sew himself history of his characters forward. a new one. It was issues like these that With events like Peter’s graduation, were setting readers at the time on their Lee signaled readers that Marvel’s collective ears and drawing ever more characters would grow and change just fans to Marvel’s books. But it was a pace as they would and not remain static like neither Lee nor Ditko could keep up those of the competition’s. To that end, and all too soon would eventuate in Classic crime and Amazing Spider-Man #28 concludes with the break-up of the team. gangster films such a definite feeling that like real life, Peter as Scarface were a will now leave behind the world of his Amazing Spider-Man #28 clear influence on youth and enter a newer one with new “The Menace of the Molten Man!”; Ditko whose New Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko problems and new acquaintances. York City underworld of suited and (co-plot, pencils & inks) Throughout, Lee writes with humor fedoraed gangsters Cover: Steve Ditko (pencils & inks) and warmth, capturing the human owed more to adventure rather than emphasizing the Although pathos has been a word often Dashiell Hammett super-heroic nature of Peter Parker/ used to describe the trials of Peter than Mario Puzo! Spider-Man, while Ditko no less touches Parker, alias Spider-Man, fun is one that visually on the everyman aspect of can be used at least as often. Beyond “Peter Parker with characters that not only look like Amazing Spider-Man #28’s (Sept. 1965) striking Ditko real people, but who also share the same feelings as cover, (which depicts a glistening Molten Man and a real people. web-highlighted Spider-Man against an all black background), lay the origin of the Molten Man and Spider-Man’s action-packed encounter with him. Amazing Spider-Man #27, page 16 (opposite page). Little, if anything, may ever go right for For page after page, Ditko choreographs a fight our hero, but predicaments such this one with with an effortless panel-to-panel progression that a store-bought costume becoming totally matches anything Kirby was doing on his titles. But unmanageable would have to be up there on the unlike other heroes, the battle is never easy for our scale of absurdities to endure! hero as Spider-Man spends most of his fight with the “Bring Back My Goblin To Me!”; Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko (co-plot, pencils & inks) Cover: Steve Ditko (pencils & inks)

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Tales of Suspense #66 “If I Fail, A World Is Lost!”; Stan Lee (script), Don Heck (pencils), Mike Esposito [as Mickey Demeo] (inks) “The Fantastic Origin of the Red Skull”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Chic Stone (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks)

It wasn’t often done that a whole story would be given over to telling the origin of a villain, but Marvel made two exceptions during these years: Dr. Doom in Fantastic Four Annual #2 and the Red Skull here, in Tales of Suspense #66 (June 1965). Once more it’s the Kirby/Stone team that perform the art honors and Lee, as usual, who provides the script for one of Marvel’s greatest stories. Unlike Dr. Doom (who at least was allowed to be a member of the human race!), the Red Skull was the personification, the embodiment of pure evil. “Whenever a city was leveled, a town was sacked, the Red Skull was there!”, he tells a captured Captain America. “Whenever there was injustice, tyranny, ruthlessness, the Red Skull was there!” But Nazism provided only a backdrop to his origin, because what the Skull represented was infinitely more complicated, and perhaps damning, than that. Portrayed here as a social outcast, hated and despised by everyone from the street toughs who stole his food to the police who threw him in jail to the employers who treated him like an animal, those responsible for the Skull’s creation weren’t necessarily Hitler (who trained him) or the storm troopers (who set him his example). The Skull’s hate was already in him even before he joined the Nazis. No, the damning truth of the Red Skull was that

“Whenever there was injustice, tyranny, ruthlessness, the Red Skull was there!” The Red Skull was less a man than the personification of evil. It was his spirit that reigned over such places as Auschwitz where the Nazi regime brought millions of people to die of torture and maltreatment.

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he was created by us, by a society that cared too little for the needy and oppressed in its midst. By comparison with this powerful tale, the “Iron Man” story in the front of the book, although well executed and written as usual by Heck and Lee, hardly measures up. Undersea shenanigans with Attuma just don’t cut it against social commentary, the nature of evil and the hope and faith espoused by Captain America.

Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #18 “Killed In Action”; Stan Lee (script), Dick Ayers (pencils), Chic Stone (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Chic Stone (inks)

What could be more appropriate to wind up this survey of the years of consolidation than with a look at Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #18 (May 1965)? Released just on that borderline dividing this phase with the next, more serious one, it nevertheless featured a subject that would become increasingly common as the years passed: death, sudden and tragic. Readers had already witnessed the deaths of Baron Zemo and Franklin Storm (the father of the FF’s Torch and Invisible Girl), and in the years to come they’d also be subjected to the deaths of such characters as Frederick Foswell and Gwen Stacy, but perhaps the most poignant is the one that occurs in “Killed in Action.” A more fully rounded character than those of Zemo and Storm, Pamela Hawley is killed during a Nazi air raid on London. Although not seen too often in the series, Pamela had nevertheless been around for quite some time and had become a calming influence on Nick Fury, her gruff American suitor. Quietly, subtly, she’d become an endearing personality as well to fans of the strip who perhaps looked forward to seeing a permanent union of the two characters. Fury it seemed, had the same idea. As the story this issue opens, he buys an engagement ring for Pamela, but before he can present it to her, duty calls again in the form of another impossible mission. But unfortunately for Fury, he’s doomed never to lay eyes on Pam again as, upon returning, he learns of her death while she was helping the wounded during an air raid. Curiously, despite Dick Ayers’ penciling of the body of this story, Kirby obviously contributes an uncredited splash and final page. Maybe Lee thought that Ayers’ initial efforts lacked the emotional intensity the scenes demanded. In any case, Kirby has the last word this issue with his simply designed, but emotionally charged final page. There, Fury is shown getting the bad news and, wracked with grief, walks forlornly into the distance. Lee’s accompanying script provides the perfect coda to an era of consolidation that began in awkward discovery, continued with a strong sense of obvious fun and ended with hints of the seriousness expected of maturity.

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Part III

The Grandiose Years

arvel Comics’ Silver Age stretched across at foundation of the Marvel style in place, Lee would least ten years (1960-1970) and over that time pursue a deliberate sense of humanism, adapting developed from the self-contained, single- his comics to the spirit of the times (the 1960s) which issue stories common in the industry, to longer tales resulted in comics written and conceptualized in such involving mature subjects and more complex a way as to appeal to adults as well as children. themes. Dividing the company’s progression over Furthermore, it seems that in the first two phases, Lee this period into four phases allows for a clearer was pretty much in the driver’s seat, directing the understanding of how editor course of his entire line of new Stan Lee, aided by his stable of books while infusing them with artists, moved from one phase to doses of “reality” in the form of the next. Although far from characterization, continuity and proven, it’s the contention here real world problems. To be sure, that in the first phase, the early, in Kirby and Ditko, Lee had a formative years, Lee was not pair of protean talents, each of working according to any plan whom needed guidance of one beyond approaching superkind or another. Nevertheless, it heroes in a more realistic way. It was Ditko, perhaps due to his was in the second phase, the closer partnership with Lee years of consolidation, that he during the pre-hero days, who became conscious of themes he’d became the first of the two artists inadvertently raised in the first. to be allowed strong input on the Using such literary tools as the strips he was assigned. From the continued story and crossovers, very beginning, he placed his he extended these new ideas to stamp on the Amazing Spider-Man, all the company’s heroes and in inventing many of the details of In the grandiose years, editor the process created a multi-textual the character and soon after Stan Lee would keep increasingly outsized story concepts shared universe. becoming heavily involved in the grounded in overarching In the grandiose years to be book’s plotting and characterizahumanist sensibilities. considered here, with the tion. By Lee’s own admission, it The Grandiose Years

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embarked on speaking tours to college campuses around the country, gave interviews to newspapers and otherwise became not only the voice, but the face of Marvel Comics. Although he continued to script the company’s major books and had writer Roy Thomas filling in more of the gaps, Lee was spending less time in the office tending to his editorial duties. Thus, with the company abandoned by Ditko, with decreasing oversight by Lee and little creative competition from the new artists, it was Kirby’s vision, fully awakened to the new way of doing comics that became the undisputed, active force behind the full flowering of Marvel’s evolution into its grandiose What had been largely a fiction in the early years had become a reality in the grandiose years: the Marvel bullpen phase. With the freedom given by stories in the late 1960s/early 1970s. that could be continued from issue to issue for as long as the plot demanded, was Ditko himself who suggested the idea of Dr. strengthened by the use of a shared, coherent, selfStrange and who worked at least as an equal partner contained universe, and imbued with a semblance of with his editor in developing the strip. Meanwhile, realism, Marvel was now able to take its readers although certainly contributing to the books he either to the ends of the universe in cosmosworked on, Kirby’s wild talent presented Lee with a spanning adventures or to the streets of New York problem beyond simple collaboration. A fount of City to experience the anguish of drug abuse, racism creativity, Kirby was less able to control the excesses and environmental pollution. The resulting mix of his imagination and had little time for the would change comics forever. nuances of characterization and the subtleties of psychological motivations. He required a firmer Marvel Tales Annual #1 editorial hand, and throughout the grandiose years “Spider-Man”; Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko Lee supplied that. As a result, the two working (pencils & inks); reprinted from Amazing Fantasy #15 together, became the greatest creative team in the “The Coming of the Hulk”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Paul Reinman (inks); history of comics. reprinted from Incredible Hulk #1 But just as Marvel was poised to enter upon the “Return of the Ant-Man”; Stan Lee (plot), era of its greatest artistic achievement, the roof fell in Larry Lieber (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), when Ditko unexpectedly left the company. Dick Ayers (inks); reprinted from Tales to Astonish #35 Although little was said officially beyond wishing “The Birth of Giant-Man”; Stan Lee (script), the artist luck, in reality Ditko’s departure was cause Don Heck (pencils & inks); reprinted from for real concern, especially for the Spider-Man strip Tales to Astonish #49 which was really beginning to take off in popularity. “Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandoes”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Luckily for Marvel, Lee had already been reaching Dick Ayers (inks); reprinted from Sgt. Fury #1 out in search of new artists and among them recruited “Iron Man Is Born”; Stan Lee (plot), Larry Lieber former Timely penciler John Romita who, unlike (script), Don Heck (pencils & inks); reprinted from other artists that failed to adapt to the Marvel style Tales of Suspense #39 of storytelling, quickly found his footing first on “How Iron Man Created His New Thinner Uniform”; Daredevil and then when he replaced Ditko, on Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko (pencils), Dick Ayers Spider-Man. Other incoming talent included John (inks); reprinted from Tales of Suspense #48 Buscema and Gene Colan among the veterans and “The Stone Men from Saturn!”; Stan Lee (plot), Larry Lieber (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks); as the grandiose years drew to a close, newcomers reprinted from Journey Into Mystery #83 such as Wally Wood and Jim Steranko. Cover: Steve Ditko amd Jack Kirby (pencils), Meanwhile, Lee found himself caught up in the Steve Ditko and Frank Giacoia (inks) growing popularity of the Marvel phenomenon as he 96

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What, a reprint to lead off the most important, most influential, and perhaps most fertile period in comics’ nearly sixty year history? There are no clear demarcation lines dividing the four phases of Marvel’s development, only the more problematic overlap of themes and ideas as each title in the company’s line evolved at its own pace, but in casting about for some sign, some visible evidence of the shift in Marvel’s fortunes there couldn’t be a more handy example than Marvel Tales Annual #1 (1964). First, with barely two, maybe three years of superhero comics production under its belt, the release of this jumbo, 72-page book seemed to indicate a steady rise in the company’s readership. Furthermore, part of that demand probably grew out of the fact that Marvel’s heroes were all part of a shared universe and more importantly, possessed individual backgrounds that continued to develop over time. When new readers began buying Tales to Astonish for instance, they would eventually discover that Giant-Man had once been Ant-Man (who didn’t have the Wasp to whisper sweet nothings to!) and that Iron Man had once sported a dull-gray robotic look before his newer, more up-to-date red and gold armor. Those readers, which the company was constantly attracting, needed to be brought up to speed! And so this issue’s collection of somewhat edited reprints of the origin stories of Spider-Man, Hulk, Giant-Man, Thor, Iron Man and Sgt. Fury. A second, and perhaps even more significant element in this book was the utterly unique addition of a two-page spread featuring photos of the Marvel bullpen. Almost from the start, Lee had included credits for the creators of his comics which included the writer, artist, inker and even letterer. No other comics company (with minor exceptions) had ever done that before. Coupled with a friendly, open editorial voice used on letters pages, upcoming news items and self-deprecating copy on the covers of his books, Lee managed to create a rapport with readers unique in comics (save perhaps for the EC comics line of the 1950s which was still a far cry from the intense loyalty Marvel would instill in its fans). To millions of readers, Lee himself became as familiar to them as their own teachers, scout leaders or perhaps even their parents. Soon, they wanted to learn more about Lee’s extended “family,” adorable Artie Simek, Jack “King” Kirby, sturdy Steve Ditko and even fabulous Flo Steinberg, Lee’s secretary! Without giving too much personal information away, Lee obliged over the years with details dropped here and there and in particular, with this issue’s photo feature putting faces to such names (which had become familiar to every Marvel fan

even by 1964) as artists Jack Kirby, Don Heck, Dick Ayers, Joe Orlando, inkers Paul Reinman, Chic Stone, Vince Colletta and letterers Sam Rosen and Artie Simek. Pictures even included those for Flo Steinberg, the subscription department’s Nancy Murphy and the company’s college “campus representative” Debby Ackerman! Of course, a cigar-smoking Stan Lee was also represented Flo Steinberg, Lee’s (significantly, in second gal Friday, left Marvel by the place behind publisher grandiose years to Martin Goodman!) looking strike out on her sporty in a jauntily own in the world cocked fedora. These of underground were also the months comics. which saw the launch of Marvel’s first fan club, the MMMS (Merry Marvel Marching Society) and soon, its first, infamous foray into television animation. So in a development that was far from cut and dried but whose elements were being eagerly identified and embraced by an ever growing readership, this issue of Marvel Tales can serve as a convenient signpost of things to come: the end of the period of consolidation as Lee prepared to launch his line of now successful comic books into their most fecund period, the most remarkable in the whole history of comics.

Journey Into Mystery Annual #1 “When Titans Clash!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) “Trapped by Loki, the God of Mischief!”; Stan Lee (plot), Larry Lieber (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks); reprinted from Journey Into Mystery #85 “The Mysterious Radio-Active Man!”; Stan Lee (plot), Robert Bernstein [as R. Berns ] (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks); reprinted from Journey Into Mystery #93 “The Demon Duplicators!”; Stan Lee (plot), Robert Bernstein [as R. Berns ] (script), Joe Sinnott (pencils & inks); reprinted from Journey Into Mystery #95 “The Mighty Thor Battles... the Lava Man”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Don Heck (inks); reprinted from Journey Into Mystery #97 Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks)

Another signpost on the road to the grandiose years The Grandiose Years

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was Journey Into Mystery Annual #1 (1965) which featured the first meeting of Thor and Hercules. Appearing as the regular “Thor” series was still in the final months of the more lighthearted years of consolidation (when the inking of Chic Stone over Jack Kirby’s pencils was still what defined the look of Marvel’s books at the time), “When Titans Clash” was actually nothing more than a full-length episode of the “Tales of Asgard” feature that had been appearing in the back of the regular Journey Into Mystery title since that book’s issue #97. Like those stories,

Journey Into Mystery Annual #1, page 11. Mythologies clash and comparative religion classes will never be the same! The son of Odin dukes it out with the son of Zeus.

Mar vel Comics in the 1960s

the action takes place at an indeterminate time, but obviously before Thor had learned his lesson in humility for which Odin had banished him to Earth in the guise of crippled Don Blake. But the most important thing that separates this story from the series’ regular run was the inking over Kirby of Vince Colletta. Although Colletta had been assigned to work over Kirby’s pencils for “Tales of Asgard” almost since its beginning, up to now he’d not yet contributed to the regular “Thor” strip. This story, more than any other, probably cemented him in Lee’s mind as the perfect inker to take over the regular Thor feature from the soon to depart Chic Stone. Sure, his work on “Tales of Asgard” had given those stories the epic, antique feel they demanded, but it was here, for the first time, that Colletta’s hair-thin, inking style (that seemed devoid of large areas of black used to give figures weight and heft, but that was also an artistic concept yet to be fully explored by the time of the Middle Ages, an era whose crude woodcuts most reflected the art style needed by the “Thor” strip) captured the elusive quality of otherworldly drama that the strip would increasingly demand as Lee and Kirby took it away from the everyday world of super-villains to a mythic plane where the forces of evil were on a far more gargantuan scale. Despite the serendipity of the two men’s styles, Colletta would later be criticized, with good reason, for compromising Kirby’s artistic vision by eliminating much of the detail that the artist put into his work. Be that as it may, what Colletta chose to keep, he rendered

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in such a way that showed off aspects of Kirby’s art that no inker before or since has ever been able to reproduce. In this issue’s story for instance, where Kirby has chosen to lay it out in big, quarter-page panels, Colletta outlines the bulky figures of Thor and Hercules in thin, scratchy lines that reflect more accurately the original look of the penciled art than heavier blacks would have done. With Lee’s use of wording that convincingly suggested what the high-flown language of the gods must’ve sounded like, the team’s combined effect gave fans the feeling that they weren’t reading just another comic book story, but an adaptation of actual legend. Even the story’s set-up seemed vaguely legendary: wasn’t there an old story about two stubborn characters encountering each other from opposite ends of a bridge and, each refusing to yield to the other, end up fighting over it as a point of honor? Robin Hood and Little John maybe?

Strange Tales #135 “The Man for the Job!”; Jack Kirby (plot & pencils), Stan Lee (script), Dick Ayers (inks) “Eternity Beckons!”; Steve Ditko (plot, pencils & inks), Stan Lee (script) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks)

As the years of consolidation drew to a close, Lee seemed to take stock of everything that’d been accomplished since the advent of the FF. From their beginnings, he’d been the writer of the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the Avengers and X-Men and Sgt. Fury. Now, as the growing popularity of Marvel’s hero titles became more important to the company, he’d begun to take over the scripting chores on the remaining strips, too: “Thor” in Journey Into Mystery, “Giant-Man” in Tales to Astonish, “The Human Torch” in Strange Tales. Next, he dropped the last remnants of the company’s five-page mystery stories and replaced them with new hero strips such as “Captain America,” “Dr. Strange” and a revived “Hulk.” But when taking over the writing of some of the older features failed to strengthen them, Lee adopted more draconian measures. Thus, in the final months of the years of consolidation, “Giant-Man” was replaced in Astonish by a new “SubMariner” strip and the “Human Torch” feature was dropped from Strange Tales #135 (Aug. 1965) in favor of an entirely new concept: Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Obviously an attempt to take advantage of the interest at the time of anything to do with spies was a motivating factor in the creation of this new super-espionage strip (the James Bond films were an

Captured in a series of wildly popular films, Ian Flemming’s James Bond character dominated pop-culture in the 1960s and enabled the launch of one of Marvel’s most durable concepts.

international success and were followed by a legion of imitators on both the big and silver screens). On the other hand, the idea was a natural as a starring vehicle for Nick Fury whose present day position as an agent for the CIA had already been established as early as FF #21. Lee, as he’d done in the past, assigned Kirby to kick-start the series, and together the two not only dreamed up some of the wildest concepts any spy series could have (life model decoys or LMDs, a suped-up Porsche 904 that made Bond’s XKE look like a kiddie car, and an impossible, giant, flying “heli-carrier” headquarters!), but in Hydra, also provided SHIELD with the most perfectly realized and long-lasting group of international bad guys this side of Bond’s Spectre (as a matter of fact, they were a lot better!). Unfortunately, Kirby was only on the strip for its first installment, and although John Severin performed good service on the next few chapters (with Kirby himself providing layouts), the strip The Grandiose Years

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would suffer from a parade of less successful efforts by a number of artists until the arrival of Jim Steranko with #151. Not to be forgotten, this issue also includes the latest chapter in an ongoing Dr. Strange serial as the master of the mystic arts finds himself on the run from Baron Mordo and the minions of the dread Dormammu. Lee and Ditko by this time had the good doctor down pat with Ditko especially fine penciling, inking and plotting the feature (for which he was, as with Spider-Man, getting credit on the splash page) filling it with hypnotized figures, phantom wraiths, fog-bound mansions and portals to otherworldly dimensions, all as Dr. Strange ranges the globe in search of the mysterious “Eternity!” Comics didn’t come any better than this 12-cent bargain!

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camp of super-heroes rather than super-villains. And like the Human Torch, Namor had also had a strong popular background during the 1940s which may have, in Lee’s considerations, further enhanced his potential as a headliner. Unlike most of the company’s other strips however, Kirby wouldn’t be called on to set the tone for the new feature. As usual, he supplied the cover, but the insides sported the art of Adam Austin, a newcomer to the Marvel bullpen (although not necessarily to the company itself, having done some work for it in the 1950s). Austin (as any alert

Tales to Astonish #70

The same month the “SHIELD “strip began in Strange #135, the SubMariner received his own berth in Tales to Astonish #70 (Aug. 1965). A number of factors seemed to set the stage for Namor’s own solo adventures. Gaining steadily in popularity since his first Silver Age appearance in FF #4 and in the process being freed at last from the romantic triangle formed between himself, Sue Storm and Reed Richards, the sea prince had since fallen more solidly into the 100

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“The Start of the Quest!”; Stan Lee (script), Gene Colan [as Adam Austin] (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) “To Live Again!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Mike Esposito [as Mickey Demeo] (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks)

Tales to Astonish #70, page 10. Any comics fan who failed to see through the Adam Austin byline and recognize the unique art style of Atlas veteran Gene Colan should have been required to turn in their MMMS card!

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comics fan was sure to notice due to his distinctive art fact, it’s unclear from this issue whether Lee or Kirby style), was really Gene Colan who would later go on to themselves knew the full extent of what they were do yeoman service for Marvel, especially in its twilight doing. For instance, although it was a neat idea to years, which he virtually dominated. The choice of Colan reveal that Madame Medusa, the female member of to do the art, proved serendipitous as his fluid, even the Frightful Four, was actually a member of a hidden rubbery figure work went well with depictions of civilization of super-powered beings, the personality Namor’s hazy underwater world. Again, Vince Colletta (and looks!) of Gorgon (who’s hunting Medusa down to was assigned to do the inking, and like his work on forcibly return her to the great refuge) was seemingly “Thor,” added weight and power to Colan’s figures out of character in light of the true state of affairs in while his work on all the various subsea monsters Attilan (which would be revealed in later issues). The Namor would combat over the course of the series was problem might lie in the working relationship between especially good. Meanwhile, Lee, slowly learning the Lee and Kirby. In the early, formative years, Lee had value of tailoring his scripting style to particular strips, written full scripts including complete plot, script and gave the whole feature maybe even directions for an air of royalty and layout from which Kirby grandeur from Namor’s then drew a story. As time all too frequent outbursts passed and Marvel moved of “Imperius Rex!” to his into its years of consolidadepiction as an aloof tion, the collaborative monarch that had much method changed, giving too high an opinion of Kirby more control over himself. With the substitustory direction. This was tion of the “Sub-Mariner” the beginning of the for the “Giant-Man” strip, “Marvel method” in Astonish now featured which Lee would provide the unique pairing of two Kirby with a bare plot of Marvel’s strongest (perhaps hashed out in hero-villains. Both strips personal story conferences were written as serials, but or over the phone), allow Unsung heroes dept: if Kirby was Marvel’s where Namor’s would him to fill in the gaps and fastest, most prolific penciler, imagine how fast unfold in the form of a then supply the script these guys had to be to keep up with him! If quest with the hero himself upon receipt of anyone wanted to find out just how important directing his own actions, the artwork. Still later, the role of letterer was to a successful, good the Hulk merely reacted to perhaps around the period looking comic book, they needed to look no whomever (whether the of this issue, Lee may have farther than low budget Charlton that settled for the services of “A. Machine” instead of the Leader or the military) provided Kirby with even warm, easy on the eyes style of Artie Simek (left) forced their attentions on less direction. The result and Sam Rosen! him. Here, drawn by was an increasingly loose Kirby (who’d taken over plot structure that Kirby the strip from Ditko in #67), the action follows the would take longer and longer to resolve. Where some Hulk’s escape from the evil Leader who wastes no time stories had once become two-parters in the years of in hatching another scheme to earn a quick billion consolidation, they now became in the grandiose years, dollars from the Soviet Union in exchange for destroying long and rambling. Stories, sometimes composed of the US missile base where Bruce Banner is stationed! more than one plot unfolding at the same time, began Like Strange #135, a reader couldn’t get a better deal for to stretch across four or more issues, sometimes it 12 cents than a book like this! seemed they never really ended, merging as they often did from one to the next. And far from reining Kirby in, Fantastic Four #44 Lee, seeing that the process didn’t hurt the bottom line, “The Gentleman’s Name Is Gorgon”; Stan Lee (script), began to adopt the style for himself, producing Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks) multi-part epics with other artists on strips such as Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) Daredevil and Spider-Man. In any case, the rambling, Whether anyone knew it or not, the grandiose years endless plotlines seemed to have their beginnings as far began in earnest here, with Fantastic Four #44 (Nov. back as FF #38 (which featured the Frightful Four’s 1965) and the opening chapter of the Inhumans saga. In defeat of the FF), the subsequent loss of the FF’s powers The Grandiose Years

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Joe Sinnott T

he inker who gave visual continuity to the Fantastic Four from Kirby to Buscema to any number of artistic successors, actually began his career as a penciler. Sinnott learned his craft at the Cartoonists and Illustrators School that he attended on the GI Bill after being dischared from the Navy. Later, he began to work for Stan Lee at Atlas by ghosting for another artist. He met Lee in person when he finally approached the editor for work. He was hired and worked on a multitude of strips until being laid off in 1957. But when work picked up again, Stan called him back, and although he began where he left off as a penciler, he soon transitioned to inking and his name became inseperable from that of Kirby due to their collaboration on the Fantastic Four.

in #39, the Thing’s resignation and recruitment by the evil FF in #41 and the fight between the two groups leading up to #43. With the escape of Medusa and her appearance this issue on the run from Gorgon, the Inhumans saga would evolve into the Galactus trilogy with #48, conclude in #50 and have an epilogue in #51 before the strip began its next multi-part cycle. Also of significance this issue, was the arrival of Joe Sinnott on the inks. Replacing the parade of inkers that had worked on the strip since the departure of Chic Stone with #38, Sinnott added the power and grandeur to Kirby’s pencils that had only been suggested by others. Like Colletta’s work over Kirby on “Thor,” Sinnott’s particular inking style would prove a perfect match for the hard-edged, science-fictional worlds inhabited by the FF. These elements, the multi-part epic, once petty villains transformed into awe-inspiring menaces, Kirby and Sinnott’s dramatic, powerful artwork combined with Lee’s penchant for melodrama and word-craft all combined to create the “grand style” that would characterize the creative zenith of Silver Age Marvel.

Fantastic Four #45 “Among Us Hide the Inhumans”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks)

Following the previous issue’s action, things in Fantastic Four #45 (Dec. 1965) get complicated! Remember how it seemed that Gorgon was a kind of bad guy sent to bring back Medusa into the Inhuman fold? Well, it turns out that all he wanted to do was to return her to the arms of her family who are in turn hiding out from someone called the Seeker. The Seeker, (who’s doing the real hunting 102

Mar vel Comics in the 1960s

down), works for the insane Maximus, who’s seized the throne from Black Bolt, the rightful ruler of Attilan. Thrown from power, the royal family has fled into the outer world of humans only to be pursued by agents like the Seeker. All of this would be revealed over the next couple of issues, but in the meantime, Lee and Kirby didn’t seem to be quite on the same page in “Among Us Hide…the Inhumans.” Complicating matters further is the (wholly unnecessary!) presence of the Dragon Man, a creation of FF villain Diablo. Revived in the preceding issue, the FF ended up caught between Dragon Man and Gorgon. They manage to stop Dragon Man but lose Medusa in the process. This issue, the team spends half its time trying to figure out what to do with Dragon Man while Johnny goes for a walk (in the meantime, over at state prison, the remaining members of the Frightful Four ponder escape…). The long arm of coincidence strikes when Johnny comes across a mysterious girl with strange elemental powers who mistakes him for one of the Inhumans. It turns out she’s a member of the royal family and introduces him to her relatives: Medusa (her sister!), Gorgon, Karnak, Triton (her cousins) and Lockjaw (her dog!). Of course, Medusa (who doesn’t seem very angry at being returned to a group she was desperate to avoid last issue) recognizes him. Escaping, the Torch signals for the rest of the FF who come riding to the rescue on Reed’s new airjet-cycle (“It’s a stripped-down whirlybird!” “It’s a turbo-powered racing car!” “It’s a flying bicycle!” “Whatever it is, I don’t believe it!”) The issue ends in a cliffhanger as Black Bolt, the final member of the Inhumans, makes the scene.

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Fantastic Four #46

Fantastic Four #47

“Those Who Would Destroy Us”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks)

“Beware the Hidden Land”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks)

The mayhem continues in Fantastic Four #46 (Jan. By all rights Fantastic Four #47 (Feb. 1966), “Beware 1966), “Those Who Would Destroy Us”, as the FF the Hidden Land,” should’ve been the climactic clash for the first time with the Inhumans. Here chapter of the Inhumans saga. But it wasn’t. A we learn that besides being the most powerful of perfect example of both the ongoing evolution of the the group, Black Bolt dare not utter a single whisper continued story during the grandiose years and lest the sound of his voice destroy everything Lee’s loosening grip on the plotting of the book, the around him, that Karnak possesses some kind of Inhumans storyline wouldn’t end at the conclusion super-karate skill allowing him to shatter any of this issue as any reader would have had a right object with the slightest blow of his hand, that to expect (after all, the coming attractions blurb Triton is a kind of on the letters page said Creature from the Black that something called Lagoon who cannot survive “Galactus” was coming), away from water without but right smack dab in the protective clothing, and center of the next! It was a that Gorgon can cause blurring of plot lines that earthquakes simply by would in effect make the stamping his hoof-like next twenty or so issues of feet. Crystal, the girl who the title a single, longfirst led Johnny to the running but loosely Inhumans, controls the connected story. In fact, elements of fire, air, earth some of its elements even and water. Even her dog reached back to the events Lockjaw, has a special of the Frightful Four/Dr. power: traveling between Doom stories of issues dimensions! Captured 38-43! But that’s ancient later by the Seeker (along history, as this issue the FF with Triton), the FF learn find and invade the Great As the number of comics Marvel published began to grow, the role of production manager that the Inhumans had Refuge! First though, they John Verpoorten (here seen with assistant their origin far back in have to take time out to Holli Resnicoff) became an increasingly Earth’s history. They save Triton’s life and important one. were normal humans keep Dragon Man from once, but had themselves destroying New York. genetically altered to acquire super-powers. Meanwhile, Lee and Kirby still seem confused! Those powers were needed to protect them Last issue we saw the Inhumans vanish in a panic, against the more primitive and more numerous fearful of being captured by the Seeker (who is humans who feared them because of their superior hunting them down with the express purpose of civilization. Removing themselves from mankind, sending them back to Maximus right?) But here, we the Inhumans built a hidden city in the see them arrive inside the Great Refuge as Medusa Himalayas (or was the Andes? Lee couldn’t seem says, “We’re safe at last! In the Great Refuge where to make up his mind!) called the Great Refuge. we belong!” Huh? If they had nothing to fear in But all that came later in the book, after the returning to the Great Refuge where Maximus Inhumans escaped from the FF and the Seeker reigns as king, why were they acting so fearful in the had broken in to the Baxter Building and taken previous two issues? Then there’s this from a flunky Dragon Man (whom he mistook for a fellow of Maximus’: “Gorgon has recaptured Medusa, as Inhuman). It was when the FF followed the you commanded!” Huh? Sure, Gorgon looked like Seeker’s trail to his hideout that they were captured. one of the bad guys in FF #44, but then he brought But things didn’t stay that way for long as Medusa back to where the royal family was hiding Dragon Man breaks free, smashing Triton’s water as if he was on their side. But if he was working for tank and leaving the Inhuman gasping for breath Maximus all along, why would the others let him on the floor! know where they were? Now we learn that besides The Grandiose Years

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seizing the crown, Maximus wants Medusa to marry him. And what does she say to this preposterous demand? “None may refuse a royal command!” So much for superior civilization! To top off this whole confused mess, Black Bolt just reaches out, takes the crown from Maximus and places it on his own head followed immediately by Maximus’ servile acceptance! If that was all there was to the problem of the usurpation, why did the royal family flee in the first place? One thing was for sure, the state of royal affairs among the Inhumans made bad PR for monarchy over democracy! While all these affairs of state are going on, in drops the FF as Crystal dashes into Johnny’s arms (and after what was seen of the government of the Great Refuge, who could blame her?). But as the Inhumans and the FF argue, Maximus slips off to activate his deadly atmo-gun…

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comics would be measured. Fantastic Four #48 (March 1966) would be the start of a story whose permutations effected not just the FF but the whole world. Galactus, although he looked like a human being and rode through space in a ship, was far from an ordinary mortal. Anyone who could devour worlds and destroy whole galactic systems was far from human and his arrival on Earth boded almost certain doom for every living being on the planet. Beside such a menace, villains like the

Fantastic Four #48

It might be hard to believe after the confused shenanigans of the Inhumans saga, but the next storyline (which begins in the middle of this issue!) would be its complete opposite. The Galactus trilogy was what the grandiose years were all about, the culmination of everything that had been building from the early, formative years through the years of consolidation. It would be Silver Age Marvel at its creative, imaginative peak, the grand style writ large, the rule by which all subsequent 104

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“The Coming of Galactus!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks)

Fantastic Four #48, page 7. The end of one story and the beginning of another. A loosening of the editorial reins allowed Kirby more freedom to plot stories any way he wanted, resulting in those that didn’t necessarily end all nice and tidy by the last page of a book.

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Frightful Four, the Mole Man, even Dr. Doom, paled down the line; here, the Surfer would rebel against his in comparison. In fact, as news spread of the coming master, have his wings clipped and find himself of Galactus, readers could imagine Doom and the stranded on Earth. But not before humanity got the others sitting in as much fearful hope for the success scare of its collective life! That scare begins on page 10 of the FF as any helpless resident of New York! So as the population of New York City is thrown into a maybe it was a good thing the FF didn’t know about panic when the sky over their heads turns first to the approach of Galactus as they faced the Inhumans flame and then is filled with floating debris. The in the Great Refuge. Not even featured on the cover effects are caused by the Watcher, who’s decided to (which was given over to a frightened looking FF break his oath against interfering in events to accompanied by a towering Watcher gesturing to camouflage the Earth against its discovery by the something beyond the reader’s view), the Inhumans Surfer. Briefing Mr. Fantastic about the looming threat must battle Maximus to shut down his atmo-gun, the of Galactus, the Watcher is interrupted when the purpose of which is to destroy every human on Surfer sees through his subterfuge and lands on the Earth. But instead of killing roof of the Baxter Building! the humans, Maximus Wasting no time, the Surfer inadvertently proves they signals Galactus to land. and the Inhumans are part Earth’s remaining hours of of the same genetic stock. existence are now It happened because the numbered a pessimistic gun effected both peoples Watcher tells the FF. the same: that is, not at Then, following one of all! But the evil madman Kirby’s oddball collages has one last gambit, that’s supposed to represent throwing a switch, he Galactus’ descending encloses the Great Refuge spacecraft, the god-man in an impenetrable shell of himself arrives. “My negative energy imprisoning journey is ended!” he the Inhumans inside and says. “This planet shall locking the FF out for all sustain me until it has time. And that’s only page been drained of all 7! Meanwhile, the first hint elemental life!” The not-so-mysterious-after-all Tony of the coming of Galactus Mortellaro was hired to work in production, but also did inks and Tales of Suspense comes with the appearance backgrounds on the Spider-Man strip #71 of the Silver Surfer as he (mostly uncredited) while managing to make “What Price Victory?”; soars through space looking his presence known on billboards across Stan Lee (script), Don Heck for a likely planet for his Marvel’s fictional NYC. (pencils), Wally Wood (inks) master to drain of its life“...When You Lie Down With giving energies. Lee has Dogs...!”; Stan Lee (script), said many times that the presence of the Silver Surfer Jack Kirby (layouts), George Tuska (pencils), Joe Sinnott in this story came as a complete surprise to him, (inks), Wally Wood [uncredited] (additional inks) further proof that he and Kirby were not working as Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Wally Wood (inks) closely in this grandiose phase as they had been in the In retrospect, the “Iron Man” strip in Tales of Suspense first two periods of the company’s evolution. What to #71 (Nov. 1965) seemed like the end of an era. make of this goofy character who rode on a surfboard of Although he’d continue on the Avengers, providing all things? Give Lee credit for turning such a visually some of his best work of the Silver Age (especially ridiculous creation into one of the most famous and when inking himself), Don Heck was leaving “Iron dramatic comic characters to emerge over the last Man.” Sure, he still had one more issue to go, but that thirty-five years. The Surfer’s development here book’s tale seemed only to act as a footnote to this would be relatively simple, over a naïve, other-worldly issue’s concluding chapter of Iron Man’s first epic sensibility, Lee would eventually expand on the contest with the Titanium Man. After an excellent character’s vaguely messianic origins and create in build-up over the previous few issues, it provided him a voice that would offer objective commentary one of the most thoroughly satisfying climaxes of on the state of mankind. But that was a few months any series and no small part of that was because of The Grandiose Years

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George Tuska Though not exactly a fan-favorite during the Marvel Age,

Tuska had the respect of his peers during his heyday in the 1940s and ’50s. Attending the National Academy School of Art, Tuska found work as an assistant on the Scorchy Smith newspaper comic strip before moving on to comics. After leaving the field for the service, Tuska returned and had little trouble getting back into harness with work in comics as well as newspaper strips during the 1950s and early ’60s. During that time, he finished up Scorchy Smith’s run in the newspapers and then took over on Buck Rogers. By the mid-’60s, Marvel Comics was picking up steam and after doing some fill-in work here and there, Tuska was awarded with a regular gig on Iron Man after the character had won his own book. At first aping previous penciler Gene Colan, Tuska’s own style soon asserted itself and he settled in for a long run on the title.

Heck’s skill. One of the original three musketeers in the pre-hero era of Marvel’s mystery titles (he, Kirby and Ditko practically drew them all with Heck as the middle man between Kirby’s lead story and Ditko bringing up the rear), Heck had been a mainstay of the company for years. But where Kirby and Ditko flourished with the coming of the super-hero titles, Heck seemed to languish. Oh, his art was as good as ever, but his strips seemed to move at a more sedate pace than those of the others. Maybe it was fortunate then, that his main assignment turned out to be “Iron Man,” a strip that seemed to demand more subtlety than “Thor” or the FF. In on Iron Man from the beginning (he drew the origin story) Heck was nevertheless replaced by Kirby on the early issues and was later spelled for a few more by Ditko (who redesigned Iron Man’s armor). Despite those interruptions however (and being initially uncomfortable with the Marvel method where much of the plotting of a story was left up to the artist), Heck nevertheless made the 106

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strip his own and his portrayal of the character the definitive one. It was Heck who gave Tony Stark his dashing good looks and pencil thin mustache, Heck who introduced supporting characters Pepper Potts (whom he deliberately designed to look unappealing) and Happy Hogan (whom he gave cauliflower ears that Lee later demanded he eliminate) and it was Heck’s handling of the melodramatic twists and turns of the strip (Stark’s weak heart and eventual disappearance, Iron Man’s being wanted for murder, Senator Byrd’s investigating committee, Stark’s problems with government contracts, sabotage and labor unions, the romantic triangle between Stark, Pepper and Happy and not least of all, his helping to turn the “Iron Man” strip into a Cold War parable) that made it one of the most successful of the Marvel line. “Giant-Man,” “Torch” and even “Hulk” had fallen by the wayside, but “Iron Man” always kept on going. Especially in the year or so of stories leading up to this issue’s thoroughly satisfying besting of the

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Titanium Man. Serving as the ultimate metaphor for the East/West struggle, the superiority of the American way of life (symbolized by Iron Man) is triumphant over the oppression of Soviet style Marxism (the Titanium Man). Fittingly, “What Price Victory?” seemed to mark the end of the Communist threat in Marvel comics which Lee had made a recurring menace, a threatening subtext in his books, since the start of his hero titles. Maybe the spirit of the times was having an influence on Lee (his contact with young people on college campuses and in his own letters pages) or maybe it was simply that villainous organizations like Hydra made the commies look dull. Whatever it was, Heck’s slambang finish here served as complete a symbolic finish to Communism as the company was ever likely to get. Soon, a new artist would take over the strip, Heck would concentrate on the Avengers and in a year or two, his peak years at the company would come to an end, but his run on “Iron Man,” epitomized by this issue (inked by Wally Wood by the way!) will always stand as one of the major contributions to the development of Marvel in the Silver Age.

X-Men #14 “Among Us Stalk...The Sentinels!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (layouts), Werner Roth [as Jay Gavin] (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Wally Wood (inks)

The X-Men’s role in the grandiose years turned out to be an unexpectedly minor one. Jumping in early with the Juggernaut two-parter in issues 12 and 13, and continuing through the introduction of the Sentinels here, the strip seemed to lose steam (and its way) fast. With the conclusion of the Sentinel storyline in #16, the strip descended quickly into just plain good stories, then mediocre stories (which were interspersed with sometimes even downright bad stories). It wasn’t a pretty sight and although the strip had good contributions by writer Roy Thomas, artists such as Werner Roth and Jim Steranko and more involved storylines like the Factor Three serial, no one seemed able to bring it into the spirit of the grand style. With the departure of Magneto and his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants in #11, it was as if some vital force had left the strip that even the continued presence of Lee and Kirby (who’d given up doing full pencils on the strip for simple layouts, leaving former romance artist Werner Roth to finish up) couldn’t hold onto. It wasn’t for lack of ideas, though, as the two men followed up their introduction of the Juggernaut with an equally interesting menace in X-Men #14 (Nov. 1965): the Sentinels. The Sentinels were specially designed robots created by Dr.

Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane #117 and Mr. Mystery #9. The under-appreciated Werner Roth was another artist relegated to the competition’s romance books before being cherry picked by Marvel to take over penciling on the X-Men.

Bolivar Trask to hunt down mutants which he declared a threat to the very survival of homo sapiens. Whether he meant it to or not, Trask’s claim ignites a fear and hatred of mutants that had only simmered in previous issues. Now open hostility to mutants breaks out everywhere. In this volatile climate, Prof. X agrees to debate Trask on television. “Before giving way to groundless fears, we must first consider—what is a mutant?” Prof. X tells the viewing audience. “He is not a monster! He is not necessarily a menace! He is merely a person who was born with a different power or ability than the average human!” For the first time, Lee has spelled out the series’ racist subtext, that the hatred and distrust of mutants is nothing but a thinly veiled metaphor for the real world’s prejudices. And like that real world, the ordinary citizens of the Marvel universe react predictably: “He’s got some nerve! No kid of mine is a mutie!” “I’ll bet he’s a communist!” “Nah! He looks like one of those right-wingers to me!” “What does an egg-headed old stuffed-shirt like him know?” So even as Lee seemed to back away from the more overt menace of international communism in strips like “Iron Man,” he was moving forward with the development of more subtlely insidious themes, a course that would become characteristic of the grandiose years. Finally, when Trask introduces his mutant-hunting robots to the audience, the automatons rebel. Then, in a running battle with the X-Men (who have to fend off hatefilled mobs while trying to protect them at the same time), the Sentinels escape taking Trask with them. The Grandiose Years

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X-Men #15 “Prisoners of the Mysterious Master Mold!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (layouts), Werner Roth [as Jay Gavin] (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks)

X-Men #16, page 16 (opposite page). Moral uncertainty in an age when Americans began to question their role in the world. Bolivar Trask prepares to make the “supreme sacrifice.”

In X-Men #15 (Dec. 1965), the adventure continues as Trask discovers that he’s programmed his Trask being forced to help his renegade Sentinels robots too well. Taken to the Master Mold, leader with their plan to conquer the world. Fortunately, of the Sentinels, he soon learns to what extremes however, Prof. X is on the ball. Back at the television his original programming has been taken. studio where he debated Trask in issue #14, he Ordered to help the Master Mold to create an discovers that the Sentinels can be disabled if the army of robots with which to conquer the entire transmission beams that guide them are interfered human race, Trask argues, with. Together with local “But you were made for authorities, he uses a giant, only one purpose, to guard commercial crystal to do just the human race from that. Just in time, too, as the mutants! That is your only hard-pressed X-Men, after duty!” Too late, he realizes making their escape, are the folly to which his about to be subdued again unreasoning fears have led by the relentless robots. him. “We can only guard Meanwhile, Trask has been the human race by becoming helping the Master Mold to its master!” reply his create new robots and some of creations. “Humans are too them are about to be birthed! weak, too foolish to govern But then, reaching a lastthemselves! Henceforth, we minute crisis of conscience, shall rule!” Trask’s personal he destroys the reproducing torment is made the greater machine, giving up his own after the Beast is captured life in the process. In “The and placed beneath a psycheSupreme Sacrifice,” Lee probe. Under its influence, and Kirby seem to express Trask learns the truth a belief that all men are Morrie Kuramoto (seated) began as a about the X-Men: that far basically good. It was a let terer for Atlas in the late 1950s from presenting a menace theme they’d revisit frequently but by the 1960s had branched out to to mankind, their mission as the grandiose years all kinds of production work including is to protect the human letters pages and cover layout. progressed—an optimism race. “How wrong I was that insisted on the creation about them,” he thinks. “I of hero-villains and villains wanted to help humanity, to fight the mutants! who often demanded the readers’ sympathy. That What a fool I was! What a blind, dangerous fool!” attitude represented a broadening of the definition The issue ends as the rest of the X-Men, after of what it meant to be a hero and further differentiated fighting their way into the Sentinels’ fortress, are Marvel from its competition. And so, the mob also captured. (Bonus! This issue also includes the who chased down mutants could otherwise be origin of the Beast!) Is this the end of the human responsible citizens, and characters like George race? Has Trask learned his lesson too late to do Stonewell in Sgt. Fury #6 might be bigots, but still any good? Stay tuned! be capable of the sacrifices expected of a soldier. It was a graying of the line between good and evil X-Men #16 and of the guilt of those casting stones as well as “The Supreme Sacrifice!”; Stan Lee (script), those being stoned, a moral confusion that suited Jack Kirby (layouts), Werner Roth [as Jay Gavin] (penperfectly the X-Men feature but that would barely cils), Dick Ayers (inks) be explored through most of the strip’s run. A Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks) potential whose lack might’ve been the reason for Things continued to look bleak at the start of X-Men the strip’s disappointing sales. #16 (Jan. 1966) with our heroes helpless captives and 108

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Amazing Spider-Man #31 “If This Be My Destiny!”; Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko (plot, pencils & inks) Cover: Steve Ditko (pencils & inks)

Without his direct participation, other Marvel titles were still relatively free from Kirby’s growing tendency to stretch out storylines, relying instead on the occasional two-part story. This pattern was especially true of the Spider-Man feature, whose direction Ditko probably had more control over than Kirby did that of his own books (if a much earlier plotting credit for Ditko is any evidence). Although the suggestion for using a serial format for the “Hulk” strip in Tales to Astonish may have been Ditko’s idea, the extra-length story was never used in Spider-Man (unless the endless travails of Peter Parker’s private life and the somewhat disjointed events of Amazing Spider-Man #17-19 could be counted as such). That changed when Amazing Spider-Man #31 presented the first chapter in what may have been our hero’s finest hour. It began somewhat stumblingly with a prologue the previous issue. Scenes there involved a band of masked flunkies whom following issues would identify as the Master Planner’s men. In #30 however, they refer to

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their boss as “the Cat.” The Cat was a resourceful second-story man whom Spidey spent that issue trying to capture. Then, in this issue, the same costumed goons are shown working for someone else, the Master Planner! Obviously there was the same lack of communication between Lee and Ditko as there had been on the FF with Lee and Kirby! Be that as it may, by the time “If This be My Destiny” hit the stands, things had been straightened out. The first of three parts, this issue begins beneath a classic Ditko cover that’s been endlessly copied ever since: a multi-image illustration with each picture segmented among the eight legs of a spider motif. Below it a blurb (Lee at his most ingratiating!) reads, “Dedicated to you, the great Amazing Spider-Man #31, page 7. The uninked version of this page shows how much of the work was completed by Ditko (even to placement of word balloons) before committing the image to ink. Both this page and that of XMen #16 (with detailed notes by Kirby, previous page) show just how involved the two artists had become in the plotting stages of their books.

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new Marvel breed of reader!” But it was no idle boast photos to J. Jonah Jameson are met with cold as inside, Lee and Ditko immediately plunge their rejection. Finally, and worst of all, he learns that fans into the maelstrom of freshman orientation as he must suffer the guilt for his aunt’s worsening Peter attends his first day at Empire State University. condition when doctors tell him that an unknown Registering for classes, picking up textbooks and radioactive particle in Aunt May’s blood might be filling out paperwork were no doubt familiar scenes the cause of her illness. In an agony of guilt, Peter for the company’s growing number of college age concludes that the radioactivity in his aunt’s blood readers. But if fans had some idea that things would could only have been introduced through a blood get better for their hero once he was out of high school, transfusion he once gave her. (It was the bite of a they’d soon be disillusioned! Peter not only runs into radioactive spider that had given him his spider high school rival Flash Thompson (attending ESU on powers). Could anyone but Lee and Ditko have a football scholarship) but learns that his Aunt May maneuvered a character into a position of such exquisite has suffered another heart attack. Things only get agony as this? Fortunately, they didn’t do it without worse when, distracted by leaving him a way out. In his concern for his aunt, Peter identity as Spider-Man, Peter gives the cold shoulder to enlists the aid of Dr. Curt everyone he meets at Connors (another former foe school and, fueled by Flash named the Lizard) to help Thompson, resentment of him find a cure. Connors him builds among his suggests that a new serum, classmates (who include Iso-36, might do the trick, but Harry Osborn and Gwen it’ll be expensive. But after Stacy appearing here for the selling all of his most precious first time). What’s worse, possessions to pay for it, the with Aunt May’s hospital serum is stolen at the airport bills piling up, Peter is forced by the Master Planner! Now, to prowl the city by night in with Aunt May’s life hanging order to pick up cash taking in the balance (the serum pictures of himself in action as loses its potency quickly), a Spider-Man. Meanwhile, with maddened Spider-Man tears little sleep, his performance up the city looking for the in class suffers. Could things Master Planner. Finding his get any worse for our hero? headquarters, he fights his Production assistants Linda Lessman Don’t ask! way into the inner sanctum and Dave Hunt. Hunt’s name would only to find that he must face become ubiquitous as an inker in the 1970s. Amazing Spider-Man his most powerful foe! In a #32 whirlwind battle, Spider-Man “Man on a Rampage!”; defeats Dr. Octopus but in Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko (plot, pencils & inks) the process is pinned beneath tons of crumpled Cover: Steve Ditko (pencils & inks) machinery too heavy to lift and, even as the ceiling In Amazing Spider-Man #32 (Jan. 1966), Lee and Ditko of the underwater sanctum begins to leak, he spies continue to add complications to the plot, ratcheting the canister of Iso-36: just beyond reach! up the suspense until, unable to bear any more, the story collapses under their weight in a shattering Amazing Spider-Man #33 climax that’s left fans talking ever since. What makes “The Final Chapter!”; Stan Lee (script), this story even more interesting are the tests to which Steve Ditko (plot, pencils & inks) Cover: Steve Ditko (pencils & inks) Lee and Ditko force Peter to undergo. On the one hand, as Spider-Man he must fight the Master Planner Has there ever been another story quite like this one (revealed this issue as his old foe Dr. Octopus) and his in the entire history of comics? Sure, elsewhere, Lee men, while on the other he must face challenges to his together with Kirby was giving readers glimpses of spirit. First, in order to complete his breakup with cosmic vistas never before imagined within the former girlfriend Betty Brant, Peter forces her to hate confines of a comic book, but none of that could match him by acting like a clod with rival Ned Leeds. Next, the much smaller in scale (but no less important) in his hour of greatest need, his efforts to sell some human drama of Amazing Spider-Man #33 (Feb. 1966). The Grandiose Years

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Where Kirby preferred to draw fullpage illustrations of physically imposing entities whose massive bulk left little room for doubt about their ability to survive almost any situation, Ditko excelled in scenes of daily life, the ordinary travails of normal human beings where success in a school test or earning a living could be as satisfying a victory as stopping the rampage of a living planet. There wasn’t any room in Kirby’s universe for an Aunt May. In an extraordinary five-page sequence opening this issue, Ditko provides the tableau upon which just such a human drama is performed. Trapped in the crumbling, leaking headquarters of Dr. Octopus, Spider-Man is dwarfed beneath the weight of a gargantuan piece of fallen machinery. Although he tries repeatedly, Spidey can move the huge weight no more than a few inches before collapsing in exhaustion. With visions of his ailing aunt before his eyes, the innate strength that Peter has always possessed, that he’s demonstrated time and time again in dealing with the numerous problems with which Lee and Ditko have complicated his life, prevails, and slowly, agonizingly, he lifts and then throws the great weight from him. “Anyone can win a fight when the odds are easy! It’s when the going’s tough, when there seems to be no chance, that’s when it counts!” Lee’s ringing prose (underlined by Ditko’s triumphant sequence) couldn’t have failed but hit the readers where they lived! It was one of the secrets of the success of the Spider-Man strip: many of the problems that plagued Peter Parker were the same as those 112

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faced by most of the book’s teenaged readers and if some of the ones facing Peter seemed insurmountable, like him, they also needn’t give up, needn’t buckle under to bullies or rejection or whatever. They, too, could muster the determination to succeed, even if the world seemed to be against them. Sensing the growing dedication of the company’s youthful fans, Lee was clearly inspired to take their side (remember the blurb from the cover of #31? “Dedicated to you, the great new Marvel breed of reader!”), a position he’d make more obvious as the grandiose

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Amazing Spider-Man #33, page 4. In the grandiose years, even personal struggles like those of Peter Parker could be made as dramatic and vital as any fought on a more cosmic scale such as that by the FF versus Galactus.

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years progressed. In the meantime Spider-Man, freed from beneath the machine, wasn’t out of the woods yet! Surviving the flooding of the undersea headquarters, he wades through the remainder of Octopus’ men and gets the serum to Connors in the nick of time. Reinforcing the dedication he’d made on the cover of #31, Lee’s final lines in the book were meant to speak directly to his young readers when he has a nurse wonder at the retreating figure of Peter Parker: “That Peter Parker certainly is a nice boy! He’s sincere, well-mannered, devoted to his aunt! Too bad there aren’t many more young men like that! Too bad someone like him can’t be an idol for teen-agers to imitate…instead of some mysterious, unknown thrill-seeker like, Spider-Man!” These lines no doubt resonated with many of the book’s young readers who felt misunderstood by parents, teachers or friends who saw only their faults, and none of their virtues. It was fuel like this that primed the SpiderMan book and allowed it to become one of the most popular titles in comics’ history.

the division of work between the two men, (including Lee’s increased reliance on Kirby for plotting the books they did together and a lighter editorial hand), stories began to wander. Each number featured a main story that might end unexpectedly in the middle of an issue (or might not!), ongoing plotlines that would become main stories and even subplots that never amounted to anything! For instance, in Journey Into Mystery #125 (Feb. 1966), we join Thor in the middle of a battle with the Demon, an African witch doctor who gained superstrength when he discovered a lost Norn Stone. Loki had used the stones to cheat during the trial of the gods back in #116 and disposed of them on Earth before being found out by big daddy Odin. But Thor

Journey Into Mystery #125 “When Meet the Immortals!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) “The Queen Commands”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks)

Diametrically opposed to the familiar humanism of Ditko’s Spider-Man was Kirby’s “Thor.” Where Peter Parker struggled with family, friends and homework, Thor busied himself in combating a constant stream of awesome menaces that took him from the home of the gods to Earth, Hades and the furthest reaches of uncharted space. It was what made the “Thor” strip a flagship title (along with the FF), of the grandiose years. In fact, many of the adventures the thunder god experienced in those places began immediately after the departure of inker Chic Stone (Kirby’s collaborator during the years of consolidation). Overnight it seemed, with Vince Colletta replacing Stone, the regular “Thor” strip acquired the same timeless, antique feel as Colletta’s work over Kirby in the “Tales of Asgard” feature. The inking style changed the whole feel of the book, making even down to earth stories such as those featuring the return of the Absorbing Man seem grander than they would’ve been with Stone. Whether it was the inspiration of Colletta’s inking, a continuation of the kind of stories that they’d been telling in “Tales of Asgard” or simply the trend that Marvel had been drifting towards through its first two phases, Lee and Kirby now launched the “Thor” strip into an unprecedented series of inter-connected stories whose structure was unlike anything done in comics before. Because of

Like the Bond craze, there were other trends percolating in the 1960s that also had their audiences. Sergio Leone’s “spaghetti westerns” were popular in second-run theaters, as were such sand-and-sandals offerings as Steve Reeves’ Hercules. But whether such my thploitation films had any influence on the creation of Marvel’s prince of power is anyone’s guess!

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convinces Odin of Loki’s trickery and goes to Earth to The Mighty Thor #126 retrieve the stones. He finds most of them, but then gets “Whom the Gods Would Destroy!”; Stan Lee (script), embroiled with the resurrection of the Destroyer in Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) issues 118-119 and the return of the Absorbing Man in “The Summons”; Stan Lee (script), #s 120-123. It was in #125 that Thor finally wraps up the Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) norn stone business in a contest with the Demon! Which brings things back to the issue at hand, “When That equally compelling vision couldn’t have been Meet the Immortals,” which doesn’t refer to the made more plain than in a great symbolic sequence in Thor/Demon fight at all but to the opening scenes in The Mighty Thor #126 (March 1966) (the book had finally the rematch of the millennium: Thor vs. Hercules! made the change from Journey Into Mystery to the name Here’s the set-up: Thor has been separated from his of its title character). There, despite their similar powers, girlfriend Jane Foster for who knows how long (what the two antagonists couldn’t be more different: Thor is earnest and melancholy, with all the fighting he’s been having long since learned doing!), then gets caught by his lesson in humility and Odin for disobeying his responsibility; Hercules is the wishes and telling Jane about way Thor was before he his secret, Don Blake ID. As became Don Blake—careless, punishment, Thor has to insensitive, a party animal. endure the “Ritual of Steel” The two begin slugging it out, and even if he wins, is barred ostensibly over Jane, but really from ever returning to Earth! begun by Thor more or less Of course Thor pulls through, because he needed an outlet and disobeying Odin again, for the expression of his escapes to Earth. Meanwhile, frustrations. To Hercules, it’s Hercules has arrived on Earth mostly all fun and a chance himself (sent there by Zeus on to settle once and for all the a mysterious “mission” that’s question of who’s the never referred to again!) and strongest (a contest begun in has not only gotten himself a Journey Into Mystery Annual Hollywood contract, but is #1). “Hah! How puny are the making time with Jane! By products of mere mortals! now, Thor is not in a good Danny Crespi (left) served as a letterer, How they shatter and crumble mood and any reader who then worked in art production. Inker before the might of Hercules!” paid attention could see what Mike Esposito (right) began working at But as the battle continues, was coming next: a patented, Marvel under the pseudonym Mickey Demeo before his secret identity was playing havoc with private Marvel bludgeoning battle revealed! property, there comes a point issue, that’s what! But where Thor comes to his suffering fans would have to wait until the next issue to see it! Although the spirit senses. “Strength alone is a hollow virtue, son of Zeus! of the grandiose years would effect nearly every Without conscience, without respect for those who may Marvel title, there were only two strips that captured be weaker than thee, thy power rests only on pillars of it so perfectly as to establish them as the flagships of sand!” So even as Kirby revels in the growing grandeur the movement: the Fantastic Four and “Thor.” In a of his art, in the titanic proportions of his imagery Lee, way, by loosening the editorial reins on Kirby, Lee in a few well chosen words, manages to bring it all back had allowed his partner to change the character down to earth, to ground the incredible events taking of Silver Age Marvel from its more humanistic place in sentiments every bit as powerful as any of beginnings to a colder, more technologically dominated Kirby’s monumental quarter- and full-page panels. This one. Kirby’s wildly creative talent was so powerful, one scene, symbolic of the two men’s approach to their it tended to pull everything else after it. To keep that work, is in microcosm what the grandiose years were all from happening, and at the same time to suffuse about, a blending of sensibilities that kept the grand Kirby’s work with the humanity necessary to make style in equilibrium, neither tilting toward scenes of it meaningful to readers, would require someone empty combat nor to those dominated by mawkish with an equally compelling vision. Fortunately, Stan sentimentality. Lee and Kirby were simply the greatest creative team in the history of comics. Lee was that person. 114

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The Mighty Thor #127 “The Hammer and the Holocaust!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) “The Meaning of Ragnarok”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks)

The Mighty Thor #127 (April 1966) is an interim issue between the continuing Thor/Hercules storyline and another example of the kind of rambling plotting that ruled Kirby-drawn books at this time. Returning to Asgard to settle things with Odin, Thor finds things aren’t what they’re supposed to be beyond the Rainbow Bridge. During his fight with Hercules the issue before, Thor was stripped of his godly power by his father as punishment for leaving Asgard in #125. Weakened and defeated by Hercules, Thor can’t face Jane and decides to confront his father and settle things between them. But unknown to him Odin, who couldn’t bring himself to punish Thor personally, transferred his own power to “trusted” advisor, Seidring. Seduced by possession of the Odin Power, Seidring attacks Odin and seeks to make himself master of Asgard. In a game of chicken, Seidring blinks as Thor threatens to pull the Odin Sword from its scabbard (bringing on Ragnarok, the twilight of the gods!) if he doesn’t return the Odin Power to its rightful owner. Meanwhile, back on Earth, Hercules finds himself in Hollywood, the victim of—what else?—an unscrupulous booking agent.

Thor on a relaxing hunting trip with pal Balder and Thor in mock combat with the voluminous Volstagg. Meanwhile, in tinseltown, Hercules proves to be a soft touch when he’s duped into signing an ironclad “Olympian pact” that forces him to exchange places with Pluto as the ruler of the Netherworld. Of course, he resists, and just as things seem the most hopeless, enter Thor, recovered and looking for a rematch with the Prince of Power. But seeing Hercules’ predicament, Thor chooses to help him instead. Would Lee and Kirby ever get back to the main plot? Stay tuned!

The Mighty Thor #129 “The Verdict of Zeus!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) “The Hordes of Harokin”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks)

The Mighty Thor #128 “The Power of Pluto!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) “Aftermath”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks)

It seemed as if Lee and Kirby weren’t sure whose name should go beneath the logo of The Mighty Thor #128, Thor or Hercules because with the neat division of pages between scenes of Thor recuperating from his battle with Seidring the issue before and those of Hercules’ adventures in Hollywood, a reader couldn’t be blamed for being slightly confused! Another example of the wayward plotting that had overtaken Kirby’s full-length book assignments, this issue was devoted to concurrent sub-plots, marking time before the main story involving Thor and Hercules got going again in #129. Shifting back and forth between Asgard and H-wood, though, the reader had a chance to see Kirby tackle the domestic side of Asgardian life in scenes such as a recuperating Thor being examined by physicians,

Any resemblance between the Zeus of Greek my th and Marvel’s monarch of Olympus was purely coincidental!

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The Mighty Thor #128, page 8 (opposite page). Our hero marks time while recuperating from wounds suffered in bat tle the previous issue— or at least what passes for recuperation in the Kirby-verse!

Things move into high gear in The Mighty Thor #129 (June 1966) with “The Verdict of Zeus” (apparently the issues leading up to this one were but prologue!). It begins innocuously enough with one of those little vignettes that Lee and Kirby would often use to contrast Thor (usually on his way to, in the middle of or just finishing up some impossibly cosmic, earthshattering adventure) with the average man on the street. Here, Thor is rescued from a pressing crowd by a New York cabbie who, in effect, summarizes what made Marvel’s heroes so much more interesting than their two-dimensional counterparts at the competition: “The way I see it, you ain’t much different than a guy like me! I’ll betcha you worry about dames, ’n politics, ’n the World Series just like me ’n everybody else!” Lee couldn’t have made Marvel’s approach to its heroes any more plain than that! Then, carrying the point further, the reader is told in effect, that he can be every bit the hero in his normal life as the heroes in the comics. “But I been around too!” says the cabbie. “I caught me a bullet at Anzio, in the big war!” “Then you too have done your share for freedom!” says Thor with a look on his face that shows neither surprise nor condescension. “Yeah, just like you! In spite of them crazy golden curls, you’re an A-1 Joe in my book!” The transition from this domestic scene to the next couldn’t be more jarring as the action moves directly to Mount Olympus where the gods are at play. Suddenly, Pluto appears to inform Zeus that his son has signed an Olympian pact to become ruler of the Netherworld. With no choice but to enforce the contract, Zeus tells Hercules that he must honor the agreement. But there’s one way out: if Hercules can find a champion to fight and defeat the hordes of Hades in his stead. What follows is a lesson in humility that changes the Prince of Power forever and transforms what might have been a hollow slugfest into a story worthy of the actual myths that inspired it. Approaching everybody he knows in Olympus to ask them if they’d risk Hades for him (Ares despises his “blustering manner” and “vain conceit,” while Apollo just hasn’t got the time), Hercules soon learns that his overblown ego has rendered him friendless. “For the first time since the dawn of consciousness, Hercules knows, at last, the meaning of fear!” But then, just as he’s about to be ushered into his new kingdom, Thor comes to the rescue!

The Mighty Thor #130 “Thunder In the Netherworld!”: Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) “The Fateful Change!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks)

Despite their seemingly inexhaustible supply of inventiveness, Lee and Kirby could still resort to shameless cliché when the need arose. So it was with Thor’s coincidental arrival in Olympus to fight for Hercules. It seems that, showing up in Asgard last issue, he was told by Odin of a conveniently timed prophecy which called for him to go to limbo and “stake all, on behalf of another!” It was there that he hears Hercules wondering aloud that “…somewhere in the vast, limitless universe there must be one, one who will heed my call—!” And so begins “Thunder in the Netherworld,” the climactic chapter to one of the greatest heroic sagas in the history of comics. Thor would have other grand adventures with Ego the Living Planet, the Enchanters, the High Evolutionary and even Galactus, but somehow none would capture so perfectly the feel of ancient myth, of the epic events of such classics of Western literature as the Iliad and the Odyssey. But more important was the story’s overarching theme (familiar to readers of the Amazing Spider-Man but not often associated with Marvel’s other features) that with great power there must also come great responsibility. It was set-up nicely in the opening chapters with the naïve but vain Hercules, reckless in the use of his strength meeting Thor, his wiser, more serious counterpart. Then came their clash in a monumental

If Homer had been around during the grandiose years, he would’ve fit in perfectly as a writer for Marvel comics!

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battle that highlighted Hercules’ insensitivity Tales of Suspense #73 while emphasizing Thor ’s awareness of the “My Life for Yours!”; Stan Lee (co-plot & script), Roy responsibilities of power. His lesson still Thomas (co-plot), Flo Steinberg (plot assist), Gene unlearned Hercules, then doomed to banishment Colan [as Adam Austin] (pencils), to Hades, learns that his carelessness has left his Jack Abel [as Gary Michaels] (inks) “Where Walks the Sleeper!”; Stan Lee (script), life friendless and empty. Meanwhile, Thor recuperates Jack Kirby (layouts), George Tuska (pencils & inks) in Asgard, surrounded by a caring group of family Cover: Gene Colan (pencils), Jack Abel (inks) and friends. The lesson so far is obvious: honor and maturity earn the reward of recognition and If Don Heck had been one of the three most love, vanity and a lack of sympathy bring only important artists working at Marvel in the early resentment and loneliness. The Mighty Thor #130 years and the years of consolidation, then Tales of (July 1966) is the payoff as Thor battles the assembled Suspense #73 (Feb. 1966) has to be considered one might of the Netherworld to free Hercules: of the milestones by which the transition into the grandiose years is marked. Cerberus, guardian of the Heck’s departure from the entrance to Hades, an army strip in #73 would leave of monstrous demons him with the Avengers as armed with the most his only regular feature. In outlandish weaponry ever another year, he would be imagined and even Pluto gone from that book too, himself. Art by the Kirby/ and henceforth appeared Colletta team meanwhile, only sporadically in various is equal to the outscale titles, his peak creative spectacle while Lee’s script years with the company is tinged with all the over. As if to underscore drama and power called the change from the less for in the pictures. At last, serious years of consolidation unable to tolerate seeing to the more dramatically his kingdom destroyed, inclined grandiose years, Pluto calls a halt to the his replacement on the “Iron carnage and declares Thor Man” strip would become the winner. But the real one of the mainstays of the winner is Hercules. Not Stu Schwartzberg was hired in 1969 company until completely to help in production but also became only is he freed from the dominating the rest of its a regular humor writer for Not Brand Netherworld, but he finds Echh. artistic talent in the twilight the first real friend he’s years. Appearing at first ever had and learns a under the pseudonym of Adam Austin, veteran valuable lesson, too. “What riotous revels we shall artist Gene Colan’s style was more sophisticated enjoy together! What battles we shall share at each others’ side!” says Hercules. “…My hammer than Heck’s, in fact more sophisticated than any swings only for justice, never for the thrill of other artist working at Marvel, including Kirby battle alone!” replies Thor. “But what good then and Ditko. (Just compare it to the Kirby/George to be a god?” asks Hercules. “Thy careless query, Tuska art for the “Captain America” strip in the Hercules, is far more profound than thou second half of this book!) However brilliant their suspect!” It was the grandiose years writ large, artistic styles, it was Colan’s photographic realism and what other comics before or since ever that set him apart from everyone else and made inspired such positive values as those expressed him the most suited of all Marvel’s artists to portray here? If there were well written comics before characters and situations in the “relevant” kind of Silver Age Marvel, they generally dwelled on the stories that would become more prevalent as the horrors of war or crime, and if they came after- years passed. In the meantime, however, his style wards, they were permutated by the cynicism and brought a new three-dimensional quality to Tony moral relativism of the post-Reagan era. Lee, Stark, Senator Byrd and the strip’s other cast of Kirby and the rest of the Marvel bullpen may well characters that proved perfect for the growing have represented the last openly optimistic mood of oppression that would soon overtake the feature. And Colan’s interpretation of Iron Man generation in comics. 118

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was so dynamic that it would eventually eclipse Heck’s and, rightly or wrongly, become the definitive version. But for now, Colan hit the ground running with a fabulous cover of Iron Man in aerial combat with the Black Knight and interior artwork that’s positively eye-popping! It’s hard to believe that after the great sequence here

of Iron Man moving through the darkened corridors of the Black Knight’s castle that Colan had been relegated to romance comics and the occasional war book at the competition for years! Getting him over to Marvel was easily one of the most inspired decisions editor Lee ever made!

Strange Tales #141

“Operation: Brain Blast!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (plot & pencils), Frank Giacoia [as Frank Ray] (inks) “Let There Be Victory!”; Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko (plot, pencils & inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks)

Tales of Suspense #73, page 1. The arrival of Gene Colan on the “Iron Man” feature had to have been jarring for fans following Don Heck’s long reign on the feature. Colan’s fluid style and penchant for shadows and darkness would lend his many assignments the kind of mood that more straightforward artists such as Kirby often lacked, making the artist the perfect choice for such Twilight-era strips as Tomb of Dracula and Dr. Strange.

But what was a strong point for Colan, had always been a weak spot for Kirby. Returning to do full pencils on the SHIELD strip in Strange Tales #141 (Feb. 1966), Kirby opened the 12 page story with climactic scenes involving the end of Hydra (whom SHIELD had been at war with since #135), segued quickly into a presentation of SHIELD’s ESP research and finished with the Fixer’s dramatic escape from prison. Again, Kirby’s openended plotting style is in full play here with the first seven pages given over to the end of the Hydra storyline and the rest devoted to the beginning of the Mentallo/Fixer plot. With all that going on, there was no opportunity for readers to find out anything about Nick Fury or the strip’s cast of supporting characters. There was so much going on, in fact, that Lee was hardly able to let readers know what they were thinking! This was Kirby’s great weakness in the Silver Age (and in fact in The Grandiose Years

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Gene Colan Although Gene “the Dean” Colan hit the ground running

when he returned to Marvel in the mid-1960s, he only hit his stride in the 1970s when, often teamed with inker Tom Palmer, he did some of his best work. Having shown an aptitude for art at a young age, Colan attended the Art Students League of New York and jumped into comics feet first in 1944 drawing war stories for Wings Comics. A stint in the Air Force followed and upon returning to the States, Colan began a long relationship with Stan Lee when the editor hired him on the strength of his experience doing war stories. He did the same for DC when Lee was forced to lay him off briefly and even branched out to romance stories before returning to Marvel in the early 1960s. He never looked back. Taking over on “Iron Man” from Don Heck and helping to start up a new “Sub-Mariner” feature, Colan made an immediate splash with fans and has remained a favorite ever since.

much of his work anywhere else): the inability to perceive his characters as anything but empty costumes. If not for his teaming with Lee, it’s doubtful that any of the features he drew, regardless of their visual beauty, would’ve been any more successful than the other super-hero strips he worked on immediately before and after his stint at Marvel. In the early days, Lee managed to get Kirby to include such character building scenes as “A Visit With the Fantastic Four” in FF # 11, but as the grandiose years progressed, scenes like that appeared less and less. In the twilight years, when Lee had abandoned everything in the production of the FF and Thor but the scripting, characterization had all but disappeared. Contrast Kirby’s books at Marvel in the years of consolidation and the grandiose years with strips where presumably Lee had more direct control: 120

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Daredevil, Avengers and “Iron Man.” The interest level of those books were driven by the force of the characters’ personalities and the strength of their supporting casts. There was very little of that in Kirby’s books where Lee was forced to inject characterization wherever he could. In this issue, for instance, the character of the daughter of the Imperial Hydra who rushes to his side after he’d been shot dead by his own agents could’ve been developed into an interesting supporting player, but there was no time! She disappears on page 6 and never shows up again. Meanwhile, after mopping up operations and visiting SHIELD’s ESP Division, Fury himself seems to wonder why Kirby never gives him a break: “They didn’t even gimme a chance to grab some grub!” But before he can even think of eating, Fury is struck down by alarm waves. It seems that Operation Brain Blast is

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an attempt to recreate the power SHIELD had in one man, Mentallo, before he was drummed out of the organization for trying to take it over himself. Mentallo, however, hasn’t given up, teaming with an ex-convict named the Fixer, he plans to attack SHIELD. But all that was only for openers! The second half of this book features the latest chapter in the Lee/Ditko “Dr. Strange” serial in which our hero has been captured by Baron Mordo and taken to the evil, otherdimensional being named Dormammu. But the effect of Mordo’s banishment to the “dimension of demons” and Strange’s defeat of

Dormammu this issue (in handto-hand combat using mystic pincers!) only leads to more challenges arising out of his larger struggle with them. First Dormammu (who has promised Strange not to threaten Earth), taunts him with the sight of Clea (a girl who’d helped Strange when he found himself stranded in Dormammu’s realm) being exiled to an unknown dimension, then the Ancient One tells him that before he can rescue her he must first deal with the leftover evil that Mordo had scattered over the Earth when he was loose and finally, unknown to him, Mordo’s allies have planted a bomb in Strange’s home set to go off at any time!

Strange Tales #142

“Who Strikes at—SHIELD?”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (plot & pencils), Mike Esposito [as Mickey Demeo] (inks) “Those Who Would Destroy Me!”; Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko (plot, pencils & inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks)

Strange Tales #141, page 8. Fury doesn’t even have time to grab lunch before plunging into SHIELD’s next incredible adventure courtesy of the ESP Division!

There was still no rest for Fury in Strange Tales #142 (March 1966) as Mentallo and the Fixer (who can whip up any kind of gizmo using whatever spare parts are at hand) attack SHIELD’s underground New York headquarters. It was Kirby at his most imaginative as he comes up with one fantastic device after another (a “through the ground” tank, sound amplifying “Jericho tubes,” static distorters and a mechanical “radar crab!”). The story ends in a cliffhanger as still another device is fastened to Fury’s face, (altering the “cerebellar pattern of his brain!”) and The Grandiose Years

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John Severin In an ironic twist, John Severin, whose style would prove to

be a little too stiff for the Marvel Age of Comics, would end up being a perfect fit for inking over sister Marie’s pencils on Kull the Conqueror, one of the top strips of the twilight years. A classmate of Harvey Kurtzman, Will Elder, and Al Feldstein while attending classes at the High School of Music and Art, it was probably no wonder that Severin ended up working with them at EC Comics in the 1950s. There he specialized in humor art for early issues of Mad but also did some war stories that stood him in good staid when he moved to Atlas later in the decade. Concentrating on westerns and war stories, he recommended his sister to Stan Lee for an opening in the company’s production department and except for a short stint as penciler on the “SHIELD” strip in Strange Tales, worked primarily as an inker through the 1960s. Although Severin returned to humor doing pencils for Cracked magazine, it wasn’t until the 1970s that the most satisfying of his later work was done in collaboration with Marie.

leaving him in complete control of Mentallo and the Fixer! Meanwhile, Dr. Strange manages to detect the bomb hidden in his Sanctum Sanctorum in time to get rid of it, but then quickly falls prey to Mordo’s now leaderless allies. He, too, has a mask affixed to his face, but resemblances between the two stories ends there. Strange’s mask prevents him from uttering spells while “mittens” about his hands keep him from making mystic motions. Besides that, a spell prevents him from releasing his ectoplasmic self. From there, the story becomes an ingenious little puzzle as Strange (who manages to free his ectoplasmic self) is forced to escape his foes while sightless as well as powerless! When it started, this strip featured single-issue stories most likely plotted by Lee and simply drawn by Ditko, but when the artist took over direct plotting of the series, he turned it into an organic whole, serializing the chapters (it may have been Ditko after all, who suggested the serial format to Lee for their collaboration on the “Hulk” feature in Tales to Astonish) as new plots, like scattered seeds, grew continuously out of the old.

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Strange Tales #143 “To Free a Brain Slave”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (plot & layouts), Howard Purcell (pencils), Mike Esposito [as M. Demeo] (inks) “With None Beside Me!”; Roy Thomas (script), Steve Ditko (plot, pencils & inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks)

Strange Tales #143 (April 1966) concludes the Mentallo/Fixer storyline with “To Free a Brain Slave” in which Fury, now fastened to a “miniature H-bomb,” is rescued by agents wearing “scramble helmets.” The helmets prevent the agents’ thoughts from being detected by Mentallo and enable them to sneak up behind the two bad guys and hit their own helmets with pellets that make them too hot to continue wearing. Ripping them off, Mentallo and the Fixer now become susceptible to extra sensory attack by SHIELD’s ESP Division. What began strongly in #141 with full Kirby pencils ends here in a visual whimper with only layouts by the artist completed by Howard Purcell (with the exception of the first few pages which Kirby seems to have had the time to finish). In contrast, the “Dr. Strange” feature in the second half of the

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book looks great! Here, Roy Thomas replaces Lee on the writing chores as Ditko once again guides our hero from the predicament he was left in last issue (namely being struck blind and helpless in the face of Mordo’s minions) and back on the trail of the hapless Clea. Stashing his vulnerable corporeal form (his physical body natch!) inside a water tower, Strange uses his ectoplasmic form to retrieve his stolen cloak of levitation and use it as an offensive weapon to entangle and subdue one of his enemies. Then, in a confusing, multi-pronged battle, Ditko choreographs the struggle between Strange in his ectoplasmic form, his cloak of levitation, Mordo’s disciple whom Strange controls mentally and the remainder of Mordo’s followers still at large! It’s a wonderful, even exhilarating sequence that only went to show just how far Ditko had come since the days of his five-page mystery stories of the 1950s. It proved that with the proper encouragement, the right creative environment, some artists could produce material even they may never have suspected was in them. But it was just another dividend yielded by the Marvel way of doing things.

Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #29 “Armageddon”; Roy Thomas (script), Dick Ayers (pencils), John Tartaglione (inks) Cover: Dick Ayers (pencils), John Tartaglione (inks)

Well on its way to becoming just another war comic, the Sgt. Fury strip had lost much of its early vitality when Kirby left it for good with #13. Although Lee kept the book interesting, even he couldn’t prevent it from falling by the wayside in the face of the increasing popularity of the superhero features. The situation wasn’t helped by artist Dick Ayers, who could come up with a solid cover now and then (#26 is a fine example), but who couldn’t maintain such a level of quality over many pages. Also, the emerging grand style of this phase of Marvel’s history had little effect on the Fury title. Stories still tended to be singleissue in length, and characters, particularly the Howlers, failed to develop much farther than they were when they first appeared. But as the grandiose years progressed, it became apparent that many of its elements were incompatible with the “a war book for people who hate war books.” What the strip really needed was a heavy dose of hard-hitting, reality-based stories which the series had touched upon earlier in its run. They’d finally come, but too late to save the title from the ignominy of reprints and eventual cancellation. In the meantime, the early years of the title

Captain Savage #12 (left). marvel tried to capitalize on the success of Sgt. Fury but failed to capture the attention of fans. It was their loss: Captain Savage (and His Leatherneck Raiders) featured inks by Syd Shores over Dick Ayers pencils that were a thing to behold! (right) Combat Kelly.

seemed to reach a climax of sorts in Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandoes #29 (April 1966) as Fury’s arch-enemy, Baron Strucker is ordered by Hitler to destroy an entire city in retaliation for past defeats by the Howlers. Aptly titled “Armageddon,” the story (begun by Lee in #28 and completed here by Roy Thomas), manages to give Strucker some personality by allowing him feelings of resentment towards and doubts about the sanity of his Führer: “I have no desire to kill unarmed civilians to satisfy the power-mad maniac we call our Führer!” In a showdown, Fury manages to get Strucker to evacuate the town before destroying it and then the two men settle their differences personally. Unfortunately, Ayers manages to make what should’ve been a slam-bang finish into a rather dull exchange of fisticuffs (sometimes blows were struck off panel, leaving readers with talking heads and with figures either about to spring into action or falling away from it!). Sales on Sgt. Fury during this period must’ve still been fairly strong, however, because Marvel tried to duplicate it with new titles such as Capt. Savage and His Leatherneck Raiders and Combat Kelly and the Deadly Dozen. But neither lasted very long and Sgt. Fury wasn’t far behind. By the twilight years, war comics at Marvel were dead, along with such other genres as westerns, romances and science-fiction. The company, it seemed, had become a victim of its own success. The Grandiose Years

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Fantastic Four #49 “If This Be Doomsday!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks)

When Fantastic Four #49 (April 1966) opened with a splash page proclaiming “Galactus has landed on Earth!” and showing the startled, even fearful faces of the FF staring into the heavens, who could’ve predicted that it was the start of a tale unlike any ever seen in the history of comics? By now, Lee and Kirby had mastered all of the elements learned from trial and error during Marvel’s first two phases and had already begun to apply them in a manner that can only be described as the grand style, with stories being played against backdrops of increasing power and grandeur. It seemed those years acted as a true apprenticeship for both of them. Accomplished professionals in the comics industry long before they teamed up for FF #1, Lee and Kirby nevertheless couldn’t have produced a story like this without having first passed through Marvel’s early years and years of consolidation. In those few short years, Kirby’s art had evolved from the accepted conventions of super-hero action (which he practically invented), to a style that seemed to transcend panel boarders and extend outward to embrace the whole world, the galaxy or the universe itself. Figures now had weight and heft, they dominated the scenes they were in and their activities seemed too much for even the borders of a full-page illustration to hold.

What began as a minor trend in the 1950s exploded on the national consciousness with the music of the Beach Boys and the legend of the California dream. Could Kirby have failed to notice the popularity of surfing before he dreamed up the Silver Surfer?

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At the same time, Lee’s writing style had also changed. He’d learned that there wasn’t any need to “write down” to his readers, nor to skimp on words. Gradually, he learned to adapt his writing style to different features giving Thor a neo-Elizabethan patois, infused Spider-Man with a hip, with-it sensibility and even invented his own lingo for “Dr. Strange.” Eventually, Lee cut back on his verbiage and what he kept became streamlined, more alliterative, even sing-song as language fell from the mouths of his characters as smooth as honey. Sometimes, his lines could even approach the quality of poetry. Together, the vaulting talent of these two men could produce stories that were not only entertaining, but filled with power and wonder. The amazing thing is that they did it with such regularity and with such seeming ease. Take “If This Be Doomsday” for example. Right off the bat the reader is presented with a full-page drawing showing the towering figures of Galactus and the Watcher as they discuss the relative worth of human lives. The scene quickly segues onto a page divided boldly into large, quarterpage panels effectively emphasizing the issue that’s at stake. The FF try to show Galactus that he can’t treat the human race with condescension, but their efforts to get his notice prove hardly successful. Meanwhile, what about the Silver Surfer? After being batted away from atop the Baxter Building by the Thing last issue, he was rescued by the long arm of coincidence: taken in by Alicia, the Thing’s girlfriend, he recuperates and has his first exposure with such human qualities as compassion and nobility. Alicia’s pleadings with him to help the human race proves more fateful than any of the more direct action taken by the FF back at their headquarters. Then, as things look their bleakest, as Galactus completes the construction of his worlddevouring energy converter, the Watcher decides to break his vow of non-interference and sends the Human Torch “into the center of infinity” to retrieve “the one object that may stop Galactus!” Never did the stakes seem as high as they were in this story, and though comic book villains had threatened the world before, never had the danger been conveyed as convincingly as it was here. Galactus was easily the most awesome menace ever to confront comic book heroes, and he had no weak spots, neither physically nor emotionally. He even considered mankind no more intrinsically valuable than insects! The Torch expressed it best when he returned from the cosmic journey on which the Watcher had sent him: “I traveled through worlds…so big…so big…there…there aren’t words…! We’re like ants…just ants…ants!!”

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Fantastic Four #50 “The Startling Saga of the Silver Surfer!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks)

It’s been said before that the past is but prologue, and in the case of the Galactus trilogy that definitely holds true! If the culmination of everything Marvel had been doing, from the vaguely thought out early, formative years through the years of conscious consolidation to the full flowering of the grandiose years can be pinpointed in a single, representative tale, it would have to be this story. In fact, if the entire history of comics including FF #1 could be divided into two distinct eras, everything that came before and everything that came after, the defining moment would have to be Fantastic Four #50 (May 1966). In it, Lee and Kirby (aided in no small measure by inker Joe Sinnott) reach their finest hour. Art and script mesh perfectly to tell the myth-tinged story of the fall of the Silver Surfer, a sinless angel who sacrifices his freedom for millions he doesn’t even know (“…In truth, I should betray myself if I did not fight to prevent the annihilation of a people! For here…on this lonely little world…I have found what men call…conscience!”) and the man-god Galactus who, despite the cold isolation that keeps him aloof from mankind, comes to realize at last the value of human life. Although the Surfer determines to defy his master, he’s easily defeated by Galactus, but in doing so buys time for the Watcher to guide the Torch back from the ends of the universe from which he’s brought back

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the “Ultimate Nullifier,” a device that can “destroy a galaxy…to lay waste a universe!” “And, should the universe crumble…can Galactus survive?” asks Mr. Fantastic. “You did this!” Galactus accuses the Watcher. “You have given a match to a child who lives in a tinderbox!” But if this issue of the FF is accepted as the great creative dividing line in the history of comics, it’s the contention here that that line can be refined even further, to that of a single page. The initial point of the “new universe” of comics that would emerge post-FF

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Fantastic Four #50, page 9. Lee’s vaulting, even lilting language combined with Kirby’s awe-inspiring visuals create a feast for the mind and eye, propelling fans from one era of comics history to the next. It could only be downhill from here.

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#50 is page 9. Divided into quarter-page panels, new plots: the Silver Surfer, now trapped on Earth, Kirby fills the four huge spaces with close-ups of soars off to explore his new prison, a mysterious the god-like figures of Galactus and the Watcher. new villain vows to destroy the FF, Johnny attends Suiting their removed stature, the reader sees them his first day at Metro College where Coach Thorne looking downward or over their shoulders at the has football problems and Reed and Sue figures of the Fantastic Four (and perhaps of the experience marital difficulties. Whew! teeming crowds far below the Baxter Building) who are too far below the picture plane to be seen. Fantastic Four #51 Lee’s scripting here not only reads like a kind of “This Man, This Monster”; Stan Lee (script), blank verse, but infuses this story of energy bolts, Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks) cocoons of ethereal energy, solar destructogen and Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks) dimensional displacements with all the humanism, With the triumph of the Galactus trilogy, Lee and optimism and anthropocentrism that made Kirby had inadvertently forced themselves into a Marvel’s books the thrilling, even vaulting experience corner: How do you follow up a story that took all thousands of fans thought of mankind to the edge of they were. “Though they extinction and back? In are still in their infancy, you retrospect, the only answer must not disdain them! Did was the one they came up not your race…and with for Fantastic Four mine…evolve from such #51 (June 1966), taking the humble beginnings? Do action from an essentially they not possess the seed impersonal perspective of grandeur within their involving the fate of billions frail human frames?” the of anonymous human Watcher asks Galactus. beings to a more intimate “So! For the first time struggle between just two …since the dawn of men. In what may have memory…my will has been the single most been thwarted! But I bear moving story in all of Silver no malice! Emotion is for Age Marvel, Lee and lesser beings!” On the next Kirby define what it page, Galactus prepares means to be not only a to depart: “With those man, but just a plain old In the footsteps of Roy Thomas. Fans who words, the towering figure member of the human would later turn pro: Don McGregor (left) of Galactus is transformed race. Optimism, as has and Marv Wolfman (right). into a living, raging fury been shown, was always of pure power…as the one of the main themes very atoms in the air seem to crackle in elemental running through Marvel’s books, whether disarray…!” “The game is ended!” says Galactus. expressing the belief that all men were basically “The prize has eluded me! And at last I perceive good or that human beings as a race had a glorious the glint of glory within the race of man! Be ever destiny to fulfill. The latter was expressed in no worthy of that glory, humans…be ever mindful of uncertain terms in the just concluded Galactus your promise of greatness! For it shall one day lift storyline and now, in “This Man, This Monster,” you beyond the stars…or bury you within the Lee and Kirby would remind readers of the former ruins of war! The choice is yours!” “Get back, all of and do it in the new grand style. The story opens you!” warns Mr. Fantastic as Galactus makes his with the Thing wandering the rainy streets of departure. “This sight was never meant for human New York, once more despondent over being eyes!” It was left to the Thing to have the final trapped in the body of a monster. Befriended by a word: “Can’t you ever get struck speechless, like stranger and drugged, his body is used as the the rest of us?” With a finish like that, readers template by which the stranger transforms himself couldn’t be blamed if they’d expected the issue to into a lookalike Thing. But who is this guy? It turns end there, but it didn’t! Once again, Kirby’s loose out he’s one of the thousands of faceless scientists plotting finishes a story in the middle of a book inhabiting the Marvel universe whose work can’t with the rest of it given over to the development of help but fall in the shadow of the accomplishments 126

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F.O.O.M. T

hough not quite a product of the 1960s, perhaps the most successful and long-running of Marvel’s attempts to create a fan club, FOOM (Friends Of Ole Marvel) was launched in 1973 and came with a pretty impressive pedigree: its fan magazine was produced and edited by pop artist supreme Jim Steranko, who seemed to have taken advantage of his experience here to move on to his own publishing efforts beginning with Comicscene. In any case, FOOM magazine ran for an impressive 22 issues and was jam-packed with games, puzzles, news, and features mostly designed by Steranko himself. A membership kit included a membership card and poster with a rousing invocation by Foomus Fabricatorus himself, Stan Lee: “Stand Tall! Thou hast reached the peak and plucked the proudest prize!”

of the brilliant Reed Richards. But unlike most of the others, this man (who isn’t named in the story) is filled with envy and spite and personal failure that he blames on Richards. Determined to kill Mr. Fantastic, he’s waited years for the chance to impersonate the Thing and infiltrate the Baxter Building. But then a strange thing happens; exposed to the real man, he finds out everything he’d imagined about Richards is wrong, that he’s actually modest, altruistic and completely selfsacrificing. Qualities that put the stranger to shame. “All these years, when I thought I never got the breaks, now I know the truth! It was my fault, nobody else’s! I wouldn’t work hard enough, I wouldn’t make the sacrifices that a Reed Richards would…” His transformation begins with his arrival at the Baxter Building just as Richards is about to embark on his first trip into the Negative Zone (here called “sub-space”).

Part of his efforts to learn the secret of FTL (faster than light travel), he tells Sue and the stranger that he must take the personal risk in order give the Earth parity with such space-faring entities as Galactus. In a staggering full-page collage by Kirby, Lee’s prose once again waxes almost poetic as the leader of the FF plunges into sub-space: “I’m drifting into a world of limitless dimensions! It’s the crossroads of infinity, the junction to everywhere!” But the pursuit of knowledge sometimes comes at a high price, and Richards soon realizes that he’s being drawn toward certain doom. Signaling the faux Thing to pull him back to safety, he wonders why nothing is happening. But back on Earth, the stranger has a crisis of confidence: “All I gotta do is ignore him, and I’ll have beaten the one man I’ve always envied, the one man no one else could ever defeat! But, all of a sudden, I don’t envy him any more! I, I never The Grandiose Years

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knew how brave he was, how unselfish—!” Then, in a dramatic, defining moment, the stranger, in trying to save his enemy, instead allows himself to be drawn into the Negative Zone. When he joins Richards, he gets bawled out for putting himself in danger. “…Even now, he’s worried more about me than himself!” he thinks. Then, at last coming to the full realization of how wrong he’d been, the stranger throws Richards back to safety, resigning himself to certain doom. “I’m not gonna feel sorry for myself! Not many men get a second chance, to make up for the rotten things they’ve done in their lifetime!” The reader is alerted to the stranger’s death when, back on Earth, Ben Grimm suddenly reverts to the Thing and, dashing back to the Baxter Building, comes upon a grieving Reed and Sue. At last, they figure out what must’ve happened. “We’ll never know what monstrous things he had done in the past, or what monstrous plans he had made!” concludes Mr. Fantastic. “But one thing is certain, he paid the full price, and he paid it like a man!” It’s not often a comic magazine lives up to its potential, but with this coda to the Galactus trilogy, Lee and Kirby proved that the FF truly was “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!”

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Thor, Daredevil #16 (May 1966) must’ve come as a bit of a relief to shell-shocked fans! A throwback to the years of consolidation, this book featured the first of a two-part story involving a team-up between DD and Spider-Man. But the real significance of this book is its artist. Up to now, Spidey had never strayed too far from his own title, giving Ditko, who co-plotted the stories, the opportunity

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Daredevil #16 “Enter Spider-Man”; Stan Lee (script), John Romita (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks) Cover: John Romita (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks)

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Daredevil #16, page 13. After a rough start with the Plunderer storyline in issues #12-14, newcomer to the bullpen John Romita gets with the program—and how! Opening up his pages beyond the standard six-panel grid, the artist was able to capture the Kirby-style action that Marvel fans demanded.

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to define the look of the character on his own terms. But a rift had developed between he and Lee over what direction the Spider-Man book should take. Unable to compromise or to live with the fact that the editor had the final word, Ditko decided to leave Marvel. At the time of the release of this issue, Ditko had probably already left, but with enough warning, Lee had decided on his replacement. It would be a tough act to follow, but artist John Romita would not only do it, he’d make the Spider-Man book the top seller of the decade. Like Colan, Lee had recruited Romita from the competition’s romance comics where he’d languished for years. But it hadn’t always been so. Romita had worked for Lee years before, drawing the Captain America strip in the 1950s. But the company had changed radically since then and not least among those changes was the way Lee worked with his artists. Romita has admitted that he had trouble getting used to the new Marvel method that required the artist to plot out a story from a synopsis provided by the writer. To make the transition easier for him, Lee had Romita work over Kirby’s layouts on his first assignment. A three-part story in DD #13-15 followed, whose slow pace and lack of visual dynamism showed an artist who continued to struggle with the new way of doing things. But he got the hang of it fast, as this issue shows! Up to now, the DD title had been slow to get started. The early issues seemed to cast about for an approach to the character and when the art was taken over by Wally Wood, the strip was granted a semblance of cohesion. But still there was little direction, little to give it its own personality. When Romita took over the art in #13, Lee seemed to be trying to shake loose some of the cobwebs that had gathered around the strip, but it wasn’t until this issue that he finally got a handle on it. Now, the book’s cast of characters, Matt Murdock, law partner Foggy Nelson and secretary Karen Page began to work together in the style that’d worked for years on the Spider-Man strip. In addition, Lee introduced a new villain who’d return time and again to plague DD and whose identity, again like the Green Goblin in the SpiderMan book, would remain secret for some time. In his first appearance here, the Masked Marauder schemes to steal the blueprints for an advanced engine design and in order to distract Spider-Man (who’s interfered with him before), he arranges for him to be attacked by some of his men disguised as Daredevil. And so, while the two heroes battle, the Marauder makes off with the plans. A twist-ending has Spider-Man tracking DD to Matt Murdock’s law office and, figuring Daredevil can’t be a girl or a blind man, attacks Foggy!

Dardevil #17 “None Are So Blind”; Stan Lee (script), John Romita (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks) Cover: John Romita (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks)

Daredevil #17 (June 1966) opens with a splash page (beneath a simple but elegant cover by Romita) showing Spider-Man dangling a hapless Foggy out of a window high above the street. Convinced that his spider-sense can’t be wrong, but unable to get Foggy to admit to being Daredevil, Spider-Man eventually leaves (“He sure is flabbier than I expected him to be!”), but his actions set in motion a hilarious (and dangerous!) sub-plot which has Foggy maintaining the pretence that he really is Daredevil in order to impress Karen! But that’s a story for a future issue; at the moment, the Masked Marauder is still loose in the city and up to no good. Entitled “None Are So Blind,” the story is filled with situations to which that line can apply: Spidey’s mistaking Foggy for DD, the

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Secret Hearts #82. Years of toiling in the vineyards of romance comics at DC paid off for John Romita after he took over the SpiderMan strip where themes of unrequited love and personal travails took center stage.

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John Romita T

he artist noted for his mastery of the female form and who was destined to bring the glamor of the swinging sixties to a Spider-Man strip mired in the look and feel of the 1950s began his career drawing women who looked more like “emaciated men!” Born in 1930, John Romita graduated from the School of Industrial Art in 1947 and began work soon after with Famous Funnies. In 1949, while working as a commercial artist, he began ghosting for a friend who was getting work from Timely Comics, a situation that eventually got him in the door to meet editor Stan Lee. Hitting it off, he was soon hired and cranked out work in every conceivable genre until being tapped to pencil a revival of Captain America in the mid-1950s. The revival failed to take hold and soon after, Lee was forced to lay off staffers when the company suffered a temporary downturn. Romita migrated over to DC where he was relegated to the romance line. But years toiling over teenaged heartbreak honed his skill as a penciler and required him to keep up with the latest fashions; both developments that would serve him in good stead when Lee asked him back after a new line of super-heroes began to achieve popularity. Romita only needed a few months on Daredevil to pick up on Marvel’s new style of action art before taking over the Spider-Man feature from Steve Ditko in 1966. There, his ability to draw attractive lead characters and otherwise update the look of the strip with modern clothing and hair styles as well as sleek Manhattan architecture, combined to propel Spider-Man to top of the popculture heap.

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misunderstanding that leads to fighting between Daredevil and Spidey, Foggy’s pretending to be DD, and the Marauder’s ability to temporarily blind his opponents. Bumping into each other while on the Marauder’s trail, our heroes once again start fighting, but before Spidey has a chance to pulverize DD, he spots a giant dirigible sailing toward the World Motors building. Suspecting what’s up, the two heroes team-up and tackle the Marauder just as he and his men descend from the hovering blimp. The issue ends with the villain’s plot foiled, but in making his getaway through the World Motors Building, a disguised Marauder runs into Foggy and Karen and overhears Foggy hinting that he’s DD! Over the course of this issue and the one before it, Romita proved beyond doubt that he had what it took to be another successful addition to the growing Marvel bullpen. And if the story had also been intended as a dry run for taking over the Spider-Man book, it seemed that in Romita, Lee had found his man.

Fantastic Four #52 “The Black Panther”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks)

The first look readers had of Fantastic Four #52 (July 1966) really wasn’t much at all. Oh, sure, the house ads for that month included the latest issue of the FF as usual, but this time, the cover reproduction was obscured by a blurb that fairly screamed: “Don’t miss the mystery villain of the month: ‘The Black Panther!’ He’s a sensation!” Why did Lee feel the necessity of hiding this issue’s cover? An early version, drawn by Kirby, had the new character prominently featured, but in that design the Black Panther sported a face mask that only partially hid his features (like Captain America’s). But if that cover had run in the ads, it would’ve given away an aspect of the Panther’s identity that Lee may have wanted to preserve as a surprise for the reader. If so, then it would explain the need for the blurb. Be that as it may, when #52 finally went on sale, the cover featured a leaping Black Panther with a full face mask. So why all the trouble over keeping the new character under wraps? Because the surprise Lee and Kirby sprung on readers was the world’s first black super-hero, T’Challa, the king of an African nation and a scientific wizard as capable as Mr. Fantastic.

In retrospect the introduction of the Panther this issue, shouldn’t have come as a surprise to the company’s long-time readers. The groundwork for his creation had begun as far back as the first issues of Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos and the X-Men. In addition, Marvel had always quietly featured a scattering of blacks in crowd scenes or as police officers. But like those understated scenes, no special attention was given the Panther because of his skin color. There was nothing in the story relating to race or bigotry, no obvious lesson in equality or civil rights, but there was nevertheless a lesson to be drawn. Was it intentional? Were Lee and Kirby trying to be oh so subtle? Whatever the answer, the way they chose to present the subject of the Panther’s race turned out to be the best: he was treated as just another super-hero in the expanding pantheon of Marvel characters (not that any new addition could be considered even remotely average at the height of the grandiose years!). The FF themselves expressed none of the expected patronizing clichés on race that would’ve reduced Lee’s script to that of dull didacticism. Their actions instead, spoke louder than words as Mr. Fantastic (whom Lee seemed to enjoy using as the vehicle for expressing the company’s ideals) again sets the tone: “A man such as the Black Panther does not give his word lightly…nor does he dishonor it, once given!” No more ringing endorsement could be made of any human being. But before it came, it had to be preceded by loads of

Zago #1 and Buster Crabbe in King of the Jungle. Stories about jungle heroes were nothing new by 1966 but what set the Black Panther apart from the others was that he was perhaps the first who actually was a native of the Dark Continent. Another breakthrough for Mighty Marvel!

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Marvel-style action! Besides the Panther’s questionable method of introducing himself (he lures the FF to Wakanda then attacks them to test their abilities), readers got to see Johnny at college (and get more formally introduced to his new friend Wyatt Wingfoot who made his first appearance the issue before) and the Inhumans continue in their efforts to break free from the barrier that still imprisoned them.

Fantastic Four #53 “The Way It Began”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks)

adversities of real people and Ditko’s taking over the plotting of the strip and completing Peter Parker’s evolution into a true three-dimensional character added up to more than just a string of 38 magazines. Those books redefined what a successful comic book hero could be and demonstrated that comics need not be written down to its youthful readers but instead, could be infused with all the drama, humor and, yes, maturity of any of the more sophisticated forms of fictional entertainment. But it couldn’t last forever. With his assumption of the book’s plotting chores, Ditko couldn’t help but develop a proprietary interest in the strip. At times, he might have forgotten that the

In Fantastic Four #53 (Aug. 1966), we find out that the Black Panther is the king of an African nation called Wakanda, every square inch of which is an electronic, mechanized wonderland and its citizens equally at home in the laboratory as in the bush! Because Wakanda is the world’s sole source of an ore called vibranium, it has become one of the wealthiest nation’s on Earth. The Panther himself, after the death of his father at the hands of a villain named Klaw (who wants to steal the vibranium in order to power his “sound transformer” which will then be able to change sound into mass), was educated in the world’s finest institutions of higher learning. But T’Challa was more than just an accomplished scientist, he was also the living representative of his people’s totem, the Black Panther, which made him the nation’s religious as well as civic leader! Not a typical resumé for any super-hero! But the telling of the Panther’s origin is only the beginning of the action this issue as Klaw returns with a menagerie of creatures made from solidified sound! In the ensuing battle, the Panther catches up with Klaw in the villain’s hidden lab and defeats him. Unfortunately, the king of the Wakandans is mistaken in his belief that Klaw died in the blast that destroys his lab; instead, the villain steps into his still operational sound converter and transforms himself into a being of living sound!

Amazing Spider-Man #38 “Just a Guy Named Joe!”; Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko (plot, pencils & inks) Cover: Steve Ditko (pencils & inks)

From its cobbled together cover to its so-so story, Amazing Spider-Man #38 (July 1966) was a bittersweet finale for the Lee/Ditko creative team. Over the three years since the character’s first appearance in Amazing Adult Fantasy, the two men had taken the Spider-Man strip from its inspired but crude beginnings to a point where its complex cast of supporting players almost told their own stories. The sum of Lee’s original idea of supplying a super-hero with all the foibles and 132

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Blue Beetle #1. Ditko returned to Charlton after leaving Marvel in 1966 and immediately signed on to revamp the Blue Beetle. The resulting action looked much like his work on Spider-Man and there was even an attempt to recreate the wall crawler’s personal problems. Unfortunately, development of the Beetle’s private life never really came to anything.

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character belonged to Marvel the comic book company and not to himself, or that the company’s representative, who also happened to be his cocreator and editor, had a responsibility to make the book more profitable. Appearing more and more frequently in such venues as radio talk shows, magazines and newspapers and on the college lecture circuit, Lee had become aware of just how popular the Spider-Man character was with older readers. Wanting to take advantage of that interest, he was eager to move the character from the more provincial surroundings of high

Amazing Spider-Man #38, page 19. Was Ditko expressing his own frustrations in this scene where Spidey punches out a store mannequin (who’s profile seems to resemble a young Stan)?

school to the college campus. Ditko seems to have resisted that idea, as well as Lee’s other suggestions, including revealing the long-hidden identity of the Green Goblin as Norman Osborn, a new character that had been introduced into the strip. Unable to compromise on their differences, the two men parted ways. Ditko was a professional, however, and before leaving Marvel, he continued the high level of craftsmanship he’d been applying to the Spider-Man book right to the end. In this issue, for instance, he continues the drama of the Peter Parker/Betty Brant/Ned Leeds triangle, establishes Norman Osborn as a sinister figure (Ditko’s intention for the character may have gone no farther than establishing him as a shady businessman rather than making him the Green Goblin), continues Peter’s alienation from his classmates by having him refuse to participate in a campus protest and introduces a new villain. And is a scene where Peter, expressing anger about his hopeless relationship with Betty Brant by smashing a clothes dummy that resembles rival Ned Leeds, symbolic of Ditko’s own frustrations with the strip? In typical fashion, the story concludes with a happy ending for the villain, but bad luck for Spidey. When his Aunt May warns him about having nightmares, Peter, a bowed, lonely figure as he ascends the stairs to his room, says, “Not much chance of that in my case! I only have them when I’m awake!” It was a fitting, if sad metaphor for Ditko’s exit from a strip which would forever place him in the exclusive pantheon of comics greats. The Grandiose Years

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Daredevil #18 “There Shall Come a Gladiator”; Stan Lee (script), Denny O’Neil (script), John Romita (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks) Cover: John Romita (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks)

With the departure of Ditko from the company and Lee’s more serious approach to the SpiderMan book, it seemed that it was left to the Daredevil strip to assume the mantle of Marvel’s fun title to read. And is there a better example of that than Daredevil #18 (July 1966)? Picking up immediately from developments in the issue before in which Foggy, having been publicly mistook for Denny O’Neil would Daredevil by Spiderlater make his mark Man, continues taking at DC where he advantage of that error scripted the to convince secretary adventures of a Karen Page that he really certain caped is the swashbuckling crusader. Recruited by Roy Thomas, he super-hero. Opening in first worked briefly a costume maker’s shop, for Marvel where the story follows Foggy he managed a good as he goes so far as to imitation of Stan’s outfit himself as DD writing style! and arrange with the shopkeeper to stage a fight with him. The idea is to maneuver Karen into a position where she’d see him change to Daredevil in order to tackle and defeat a super-villain! Of course, things go wrong when it turns out that the hulking shopkeeper (who has created his own costume and calls himself the Gladiator) is insanely jealous of super-heroes and intends to start his own villainous career by killing hapless Foggy. Luckily for the pudgy attorney, the real Daredevil has been following him around in case any of his old enemies find out about his act and, thinking it real, decide to attack him. “I’ve never heard of a problem so pointless…so patently, painfully absurd!” muses DD. It took a while, but Lee finally seemed to get a handle on just what approach to take with the DD strip; although still somewhat wordy, his script is smooth and displays a growing assurance in the use of dialogue. A wonderful plot that combines equal doses of humor, melodrama and action, the small cast of characters for the first time seems to come alive, providing Lee with naturally 134

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developing plot-lines for issues to come. As the strip would progress, Lee would give Daredevil an increasingly carefree persona much more in keeping with the book’s jaunty full title of Here Comes Daredevil, the Man Without Fear! The tight script, finished after page 7 by newcomer Denny O’Neil in a style indistinguishable from Lee’s, is perfectly complemented by a John Romita art job that showed none of the problems he claimed he had only a few issues before in adapting to the Kirby-style panel-topanel movement demanded by Lee. Furthermore, in his creation of the Gladiator, Romita had managed to come up with a classic DD villain who would return time and time again to harass our hero.

Daredevil #19 “Alone—Against the Underworld!”; Stan Lee (script), John Romita (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks) Cover: John Romita (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks)

The complications continue to mount in Daredevil #19 (Aug. 1966) as newspaper headlines scream “Prominent Attorney Said To Be Daredevil! Franklin Nelson Unmasked by Gladiator.” Of course, having been hired by Foggy to fight him, the Gladiator was privy to his “secret identity” and spilled the beans (such as they were!) to the cops. But before anything else can happen, he’s sprung from jail by the Masked Marauder! Teaming up, the two decide to use the Gladiator’s knowledge to take revenge on their mutual enemy. Meanwhile, the press is at the office looking for the scoop on Foggy. But Foggy’s been warned by DD to keep a low profile until he can round up the Gladiator who, he says, is sure to be out looking for him. Anyway, DD foils an assassination attempt on Foggy’s life and, wising up, Foggy confesses his scheme to the police. Meanwhile, in a wonderful display of his potential as an action artist, Romita delivers a great two-page sequence of the Gladiator vs. the Masked Marauder using big, Kirby-style quarter-page panels. A few pages later, more quarterpage panels are used for the DD/gang fight in Foggy’s apartment that sets the stage for Romita’s imminent takeover of the Spider-Man strip.

Strange Tales #146 “When the Unliving Strike!”; Jack Kirby (plot), Jack Kirby (layouts), Don Heck (pencils), Mike Esposito [as Mickey Demeo] (inks) “The End—at Last!”; Denny O’Neil (script), Steve Ditko (plot, pencils & inks) Cover: Steve Ditko (pencils & inks)

The second of Marvel’s three artistic “musketeers” to leave the company was Steve Ditko. Okay, technically, Don Heck hadn’t actually left (he penciled this issue’s

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“SHIELD” strip for instance), but with his imminent departure as the regular artist of the Avengers, his most important years at the company were effectively over. But as good as his work was, Heck never became as indispensable to the creation of Silver Age Marvel as Ditko or Kirby, whose fertile imaginations provided the early strips with much of their vitality. Between the two of them, in partnership with Lee, they were responsible for the production of almost all of the company’s initial line-up of titles. But were they so important that the company couldn’t survive without them? Would sales on Spider-Man, for instance, plummet without Ditko? Although the artist’s departure with Strange Tales #146 (July 1966) precipitated a long period of dull uncertainty for the “Dr. Strange” strip, ultimately it survived without him. The truth was, by this time the need for the services of Ditko, Kirby and Heck had become less acute. Lee had begun to hire new artists such as Colan, Romita and John Buscema, who, upon mastering Marvel’s new creative style, would emerge to become the company’s workhorses. But like his final issue of Spider-Man, Ditko showed no slacking off in the work he put into his final assignments, and this last spectacular chapter in Dr. Strange’s long running struggle with Dormammu proves it. Still fuming from his defeat by Dr. Strange, Dormammu transports him to the Dark Dimension for battle, but just as all seems hopeless for our hero, the entity known as Eternity appears. Only briefly presented in previous issues, Eternity stands now revealed as one of the truly great concepts

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of the grandiose years. Brilliantly designed by Ditko (as a man-shaped opening in the fabric of reality through which can be seen the evershifting vistas of outer space), Eternity is nothing less than the personification of the universe, maybe even God Himself as Lee’s script hints: “You have tampered with that which is sacred!” Eternity tells Dormammu. “Be warned, infamous one, you cannot survive this blasphemous attack!” But the evil wizard doesn’t listen and Dr. Strange becomes witness to the strangest battle of all time. In two consecutive fullpage spreads, Ditko has Dormammu merging with Eternity on the first

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Strange Tales #146, page 6. Ditko pulled out all the stops in his last work on the “Dr. Strange” feature, rivaling Kirby with the creation of Eternity, a creature fully as godlike as Galactus.

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page, and in the second shows him as he unleashes all his power from inside the gigantic figure. The borders of Eternity’s outline are burst outward in a shower of colliding worlds and shattered galaxies, and when the dust clears, both combatants have vanished. But the force of the titanic struggle is such that it hurls Dr. Strange across a kaleidoscope of universes that have been thrown into turmoil as the ripple effects of Eternity’s apparent dissolution continue to move outward across infinity. At last, he finds himself back on Earth with the knowledge that Clea, the girl who had helped him in his battle with Dormammu, is safe. The story was a spectacular farewell for a creative giant whose contributions to the rise of Silver Age Marvel could only be described as incalculable. Ditko may not have been the artistic craftsman that Kirby was, nor as accomplished a wordsmith as Lee,

Superman #211. Here, Jack Abel does the inking honors over pencils by Curt Swan. Abel would have a long career at Marvel where he did effective work on Colan before Tom Palmer made the scene!

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but the unique combination of his undeniable artistic skill and his genuine concern for his characters as people helped give Marvel the human dimension that really was the indispensable ingredient to the company’s meteoric rise in the 1960s.

Tales of Suspense #79 “Disaster!”; Stan Lee (co-plot), Gene Colan (co-plot & pencils), Jack Abel (inks) “The Red Skull Lives!”; Stan Lee (co-plot), Jack Kirby (co-plot & pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks) Cover: Gene Colan (pencils), Jack Abel (inks)

It was only a matter of time before the effects of the grand style began to spill over from the flagship titles of the FF and Thor into other books. An early example is Tales of Suspense #79 (July 1966). Kirby had abandoned doing full pencils on the “Captain America” strip in #68 and returned in full force with #78. In the interim, he and Lee had brought the promise of the grandiose years to full flower with the Inhumans saga and Galactus trilogy in the FF and the Hercules epic in Thor. Now Kirby returned to “Captain America” with the first part of a story that would bring the Red Skull into contemporary Marvel continuity (his previous appearances in Suspense had been in retro-stories set during World War II). One of the characteristics of the grand style was that it tended to make the stakes for which the heroes battled much higher than they were before. And so, with the possession of the “Cosmic Cube,” the Red Skull became more than just a soldier or member of a political party; now he’d have the power to alter reality itself. The story begins simply enough with Cap being attacked by a mysterious band of hightech mercenaries wearing hypno-helmets. Cap defeats them of course, but not before the reader is informed of the creation of the Cosmic Cube, which may well be “the most potent device in all the world!” Meanwhile, over in the “Iron Man” feature, a new maturity had come into the artwork as Colan’s style, always quite advanced, continued to infuse the strip with a somber seriousness. This time Tony Stark finds himself on the run, his factories closed down and his assets impounded for failing to heed a Congressional indictment. Ironically, even as his private life seems to be falling apart, Iron Man is hailed by the public as a national hero. An opening three-page sequence showing Stark staggering weakly through the empty, nighttime streets became a staple in Colan’s arsenal of moody scenes appearing in such strips as Captain America, Daredevil and Dracula over the years. The master of the “moving camera” technique of panel layout and not shy in spotting blacks, Colan brought a definite air of film noir to his work. Complimenting the artist here is Jack Abel’s suggestive inking.

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Tales of Suspense #80 “When Fall the Mighty!”; Stan Lee (script), Gene Colan (pencils), Jack Abel [as Gary Michaels] (inks) “He Who Holds the Cosmic Cube”; Stan Lee (co-plot), Jack Kirby (co-plot & pencils), Don Heck (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Don Heck (inks)

Tales of Suspense #80 (Aug. 1966) begins with a fabulous cover by Kirby depicting a triumphant Red Skull holding aloft the Cosmic Cube. Force lines and flying debris suggest that the cube’s power is such that, even without a guiding will, it can whip its immediate surroundings into a turmoil. In keeping with the grand style, the conflict between Captain

This quickie sketch of CAp by Kirby hardly suggests the larger than life qualities that were infecting the “Cap” strip in Tales of Suspense during the grandiose years.

America and the Red Skull is more than a physical one, it’s symbolic too: “So long as evil lives, to muster the forces of bigotry, greed, and oppression, the fight goes on!” the Skull says to Cap. “So long as men take liberty for granted, so long as they laugh at brotherhood, sneer at honesty, and turn away from faith, so long will the forces of the Red Skull creep ever closer to the final victory!” As good as Lee’s scripting could be in these years, when he found suitable vehicles (such as Captain America or Mr. Fantastic) for expressing the lofty ideals that were increasingly becoming a part of Marvel’s philosophy, no one said it better than he did. The two enemies clash on a deserted island after Cap discovers the existence of the Cosmic Cube, a device developed by the evil scientists of AIM (Advanced Idea Mechanics; such a neat acronym it’s a wonder no real world company has asked to use it!) that can make any thought of the person holding it a reality. That’s bad enough, but what’s worse is that the Red Skull has stolen it! Racing against time, Cap arrives just as the delivery of the cube is being made to the Skull. Underscoring the banality of his evil, the Skull (who earlier in the story blithely orders a loyal servant to kill himself after he steps from the room) eschews the flashy costume expected of comic book villains and instead attires himself in a simple business suit. He doesn’t need anything else. Well, except maybe a concealed “stun gas emitter” beneath his shirt which he uses to down Captain America. Afterwards, when our hero wakens, Cap realizes he’s too late to stop the Skull from getting his hands on the cube. In a final, chilling scene, he can only stand by and watch as the Skull begins to test his awesome power. Over in the “Iron Man” strip, the armored avenger The Grandiose Years

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finds himself fighting for his life against a maddened Sub-Mariner in the first part of a crossover story with Tales to Astonish. Still weak from events in the issue before, Iron Man spends half the story getting batted around by Namor before managing to lock himself in his lab. What happens next? To be continued!

Tales of Suspense #81 “The Return of the Titanium Man!”; Stan Lee (script), Gene Colan (pencils), Jack Abel [as Gary Michaels] (inks) “The Red Skull Supreme!”; Stan Lee (co-plot), Jack Kirby (co-plot & pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks) Cover: Gene Colan (pencils), Jack Abel (inks)

“I mustn’t panic! Mustn’t give way to despair!” thinks Captain America in Tales of Suspense #81 (Sept. 1966) as he prepares to fight the most desperate, most hopeless fight of his life against a totally merciless enemy with the power to bend all reality to his will. The grandiose years didn’t get better than this as Lee and Kirby pitted our hero, the very symbol of hope and faith and sacrifice against the Red Skull, the living embodiment of everything evil mankind has ever been prey to. It was a symbolic clash of good versus evil on a titanic scale as the Skull, drunk with power, first gives Cap a vision of his plans for the future (that includes himself crowned like some mad Napoleon launching a regimented human race into space to conquer the universe) and then forces him into battle with an artificial man (created, like some dark reversal of Genesis, from the dust of the earth). But somehow, the human spirit triumphs and Cap surmises that no matter how powerful the Cosmic Cube makes him, the Skull is still limited by his humanity. Taking advantage of a moment of indecision, Cap knocks him down, jarring the cube from his grasp. Then, with the Skull’s final, desperate, inchoate thoughts reaching out to the tumbling cube, the island breaks apart, burying him and the cube beneath the sea and tons of rubble. Again, it was the conclusion of a story that Lee and Kirby manage to turn from what could’ve been a mere slugfest, to one that at least seemed more significant with its oversize panels and figures and a script that hinted that more was a stake than the simple defeat of a madman. Meanwhile, after having fought off the Sub-Mariner in Tales to Astonish #82, Tony Stark has made up his mind to reveal the secret of Iron Man’s armor to Senator Byrd’s congressional committee. But flying to Washington as Iron Man, he’s ambushed by the revived, more powerful than ever, Titanium Man!

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The Mighty Thor #131 “They Strike From Space!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) “The Warlock’s Eye!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks)

Although the grand style permeated every book in Marvel’s stable of titles, not every one featured all of its elements at the same time (Daredevil and Spider-Man for instance). The Fantastic Four and Thor were two that did, and for that reason became the flagship books of the grandiose years. A case in point is The Mighty Thor #131 (Aug. 1966), “They Strike From Space,” in which Thor finds himself in Olympus upon returning from his victory in Hades. But, rarely in these months for a title drawn by Kirby, this issue serves mainly to set the scene not only for Thor’s next multi-part epic, but for stories

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Wonder Woman #105, page 3. This origin sequence probably went far in capturing the hokier elements of some classical myths, but some literal retellings are best left unrecounted. Luckily, Marvel specialized in repackaging mythical stories in a way that made them more palatable to modern readers!

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to follow upon its conclusion. For instance, in Asgard, Thor finally gets permission from Odin to marry Jane; meanwhile, on the advice of her exotic looking roommate, Jane has left New York for a teaching position in Europe; on Rigel, the alien Colonizers express concern over something called the Black Galaxy; and back on Earth, Jane’s roommate turns out to be an alien named Tana Nile who’s claiming the planet for herself! By the time Thor arrives on the scene, Tana Nile has already placed the planet in the grip of a “space lock” which can drag it from orbit should its people not submit themselves to the alien’s will. “I wish to stake a claim!” Tana Nile tells her superiors back on Rigel (in a spectacular montage by Kirby, the scene shifts from her to a full-page view of the technological wonders of Rigel, to the planet’s nerve center to a close-up of a trio of lab workers). “The other Colonizers have ignored Earth because of its small size and relative unimportance!” But then, just as a team of inspectors from Rigel arrive to verify Tana Nile’s claim, Thor shows up at Jane’s apartment with the good news from his father and spoils everything! It was a relatively unobtrusive opening for a story that would launch Thor into the farthest reaches of space and into an adventure of such inspiration, that it would challenge even the Galactus trilogy itself for sheer awe and wonderment.

poses a threat to anyone! But be that as it may, he offers to remove Earth from the space lock in return for Thor’s help. The thunder god agrees, and to accompany him the Colonizers provide him with one of the most interesting creations Lee and Kirby ever came up with: the Recorder. Humanoid in shape, the Recorder is simply a device that’ll preserve whatever happens to Thor on its “derma-circuits” for later study by the Colonizers (providing it gets back that is!). But along the way, the robotic Recorder assumes a kind of emotionless personality that endears itself not only to Thor but to the reader as well. The interesting thing about the Recorder is that the way Lee wrote its uninterested observations, interrogatories and conclusions, they had a habit of coming out sounding flat and unnecessary but at the same time vaguely satirical! “Observation: A battle between god and bio-versal entity is about to ensue!” says the Recorder in #133 as Thor is fighting for his life against a deadly anti-body. Or when it and Thor are swamped by anti-bodies, and Thor, in godlike wrath, warns them off, “Observation:

The Mighty Thor #132

In The Mighty Thor #132 (Sept. 1966), Thor arrives on Rigel ready to do battle with those who’d enslave the Earth, but instead he’s asked for help in stopping a menace so great that even the powerful Colonizers are in stark fear of it. Called the “Black Galaxy,” it’s an area in space that’s been expanding for untold ages, and the Colonizers suspect that whatever’s inside is almost ready to emerge. “In truth, it is the most mysterious, the most deadly area in all the known universe!” the Colonizer Grand Commissioner tells Thor. “Though we are able to accurately chart it from the outside, no Rigelian has even seen the inside…and lived to tell of it! Each day it grows more powerful…more threatening! Soon, it will break out of its shadowy confines! And, when it does, nothing that lives…nothing in the universe…will be safe!” The funny thing is, the High Commissioner never really gives any evidence for his belief that whatever’s inside the Black Galaxy

“Where Gods May Fear to Tread”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) “The Dark Horse of Death”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks)

Superman #28. Hercules was a character that at tracted comics creators long before Stan and Jack came along!

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It shall take more than platitudes to stem this deadly tide!” Together, the two enter the Black Galaxy alone, and in a final full-page collage by Kirby depicting a huge, god-like face set amid a panoply of swirling worlds, they encounter Ego, the living planet, easily one of the most fantastic creations in the history of comics.

The Mighty Thor #133 “Behold...the Living Planet”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) “Valhalla”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks)

Once again, like they did in Fantastic Four #50, Lee and Kirby manage to combine their respective but complementary talents in a perfect balance resulting in the second great triumph of the grandiose years. With the creation of Ego the two men, unbelievably, managed to equal if not top their introduction of Galactus only a few months before. Not just a living planet, but a living “bio-verse,” Ego presents the reader with a menace so gigantic, so incalculable that

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it dwarfed even a character with the power of a god. Thor is a puny gnat by comparison, a bothersome bacteria to be taken care of by Ego’s endless army of anti-body caretakers. Vastly powerful, and vastly wise, what possible chance did Thor have against an entity who could change its make-up at will, who could control the very oxygen in the air or the evershifting ground that made up its epidermis? The short answer is: none! He spends all his time in The Mighty Thor #133 (Oct. 1966) being bounced around from one life-threatening danger to the next as Ego shifts his bio-matter from one form to another without surcease. Immediately upon stepping from their spaceship on page 1, Thor and the Recorder are confronted with the magnitude of the challenge facing them with a mind-boggling double-page spread on pages 2 and 3 as Kirby unleashed his considerable imagination in a The Might Thor #133, pages 2-3. A landscape of pure imagination. How do you depict the impossible, the improbable, the ut terly fantastic? Here Kirby gives it the old college try!

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More Swag

More ways to part eager fans

from their hard-earned dimes! Captain America pin (top); Iron Man and Torch posters (above left); Spidey Golden Record (far left); Spidey Scooter toy (left). This writer was drawn in by the Marvel trading cards (above) released circa 1966!

depiction of bio-chaos the like of which hasn’t been seen since! A kaleidoscopic terrain of flowing magma, pentagonal scales, spiked warts and tentacular, flaming plant life, Ego was something completely new to comics! “My very senses reel before the sight which doth confront us! Of all the galaxies known to man or immortal, this is surely the most incomprehensible!” says Thor in what was possibly the understatement of the year! “…Ego! Classification: multiple virus living matter! Size: planetary range! Location: existing not in physical universe, but in a fluid bio-verse! Conclusion: the planet upon which we stand is not merely a receptacle upon which life dwells, it is truly life itself! Here, within the only known bio-verse in all of creation, we are in the presence of Ego, the living planet!” adds the Recorder unnecessarily. Later, after Ego informs

Thor of his plans to conquer all of space, he creates the first of an army of anti-bodies (again with a pentagonal motif) based on his study of the thunder god himself. “Never has a recorder witnessed wonderment the equal of this!” What follows is more a guided tour of Kirby’s imagination than of Ego’s body as Thor and the Recorder move from one danger to the next. At last (after rescuing the Recorder from beneath tons of rubble; “Observation: for the first time, a recorder feels, the emotion of gratitude!”), Thor tires of the contest and unleashes lightning to ravage Ego. Though it actually does him little harm physically, Thor’s escape under cover of the lightning strikes directly at Ego’s idea of his own self-worth. Apparently shaken by crippling doubt and uncertainty, the living planet vows to withdraw from the rest of the universe. “For The Grandiose Years

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The Mighty Thor #134, page 15. Charles Darwin was never like this! School choice seems to be succeeding for Jane Foster as she works to educate some new-men in a classroom atop Wundagore Mountain!

the first time in countless millennia I have been bested! Never again shall I suffer such humiliation! Henceforth, my bio-verse shall be sealed off from each and any known universe! I shall ever be a world apart—till eternity crumbles!” It was a unique and completely unexpected way to defeat such an overwhelmingly powerful villain. Bonus! This issue’s installment of “Tales of Asgard” (a back-up feature that continued to be as interesting as the main story) features the first appearance of Hela, goddess of death, as Lee and Kirby continued to introduce elements of Nordic myth into the continuing adventures of Thor in some indeterminate time in his long career.

The Mighty Thor #134 “The People-Breeders”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) “When Speaks the Dragon”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks)

With the conclusion of the Ego story, Lee and Kirby were presented with the same problem they had with the Galactus trilogy: how in the world do you top it? Well, “The People Breeders” in The Mighty Thor #134 (Nov. 1966) was a real good try! Opening immediately following the events of the previous issue, the story begins with Thor’s return to Earth (and a beautiful full-page illustration by Kirby of a close encounter with Galactus [his first appearance since FF #50]) as he contemplates entering the Black Galaxy and consuming Ego! “I do so…not out of greed…not out of hate…not out of ambition…for those are emotions of lesser beings! I do so because I must…because I am…Galactus!” (But that, as they say, is a story for another time!) just as Tana Nile is informed that she can’t claim the planet as her own (mostly because she has a pressing engagement back on Rigel; namely her surprise wedding to the High Commissioner!). Meanwhile, growing out of a sub-plot that had been running through a number of previous issues, it develops that the man who’s employed Jane Foster as a teacher is a mysterious fellow named the High Evolutionary. As his name might imply, the High Evolutionary is conducting experiments in evolving animals into man-like equivalents. Thor gets onto Jane’s trail and finds her in a fantastic, high-tech castle called Wundagore hidden in some unnamed

The idea of speeding up the evolution of animals was not a new idea as evidenced by this scene with Charles Laugh ton from the film Island of Lost Souls (1933) which itself was an adaptation of H.G. Well’s novel The Island of Dr. Moreau.

European mountain range. One of this issue’s most stunning, and inventive scenes (out of many) involves Thor’s finally catching up to Jane in a classroom filled with “new-men” obviously derived from various kinds of animals! (“Is that a new pupil who interrupts our class so suddenly?” asks a hyena creature looking up from his studies. “We shall soon find out!” replies his mule-headed [!] classmate). But Thor and Jane’s happy reunion is interrupted by a blast from the High Evolutionary’s genetic chamber where he’d been experimenting with a wolf. “Should my bestial subject survive,” warns the High Evolutionary, “he will…be far more than a wolf whose evolutionary process was speeded up! …he will be the ultimate end of evolution…a combination of the supreme man… coupled with the supreme beast!” Fun fact: this issue also features (as the blurb on the cover says: “In possibly the briefest, most unnecessary guest appearance you’ve ever seen!”) a few panels of the Avengers’ Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch.

The Mighty Thor #135 “The Maddening Menace of the Super-Beast”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) “The Fiery Breath of Fafnir”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks)

Emerging from the High Evolutionary’s genetic chamber at the start of The Mighty Thor #135 (Dec. 1966), and evolved a million years into future, the man-wolf The Grandiose Years

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wastes little time in jumping Thor. “By employing a science which will not be discovered for fifty thousand years, I destroy your time sense—leaving you eternally unable to move! My intellect makes me supreme—and my savage wolf ancestry makes me the most deadly being alive!” Nothing if not egotistical, the man-wolf is nevertheless forced back into the genetic chamber where he busies himself creating more new-men sympathetic to his destructive point of view. In the meantime, the High Evolutionary agonizes over his tampering with the processes of nature, but significantly, neither he nor Thor condemn his actions. Instead, when the man-wolf is defeated, the High Evolutionary takes his remaining creations into space in search of a world for themselves, away from humanity. Capping a string of wonderfully creative issues that had begun way back in #116, this book represents the culmination of a multi-story series made up of intertwining plots and sub-plots. After this issue though, future stories would become more defined, with more distinct beginnings and endings. Kirby’s free-wheeling plotting style that’d characterized the early part of the grandiose years came to an end and was replaced by more self-contained one-, two- and threepart stories. The new trend was the first hint that the grandiose years had already begun to wane.

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Daredevil, John Romita made the leap to Amazing Spider-Man #39 (Aug. 1966) replacing the departed Steve Ditko. But the question was, could he fill the shoes of the man who’d been responsible for at least half of the strip’s heart and soul? Having proved his mastery of the Marvel style on the Daredevil strip (especially in his excellent last few issues there), Romita’s first few issues of Spider-Man were unaccountably stiff due to being instructed by Lee to try to draw like Ditko. It may have been sound editorial advice, but advice that was soon ignored as Romita’s own not inconsiderable talent soon asserted itself. Meanwhile, other changes in the strip came just as suddenly as the switch in artists. It was as if Lee had drawn a line in the sand separating the time when the Spider-Man book was at least a true creative partnership (which included a much higher

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Amazing Spider-Man #39 “How Green Was My Goblin!”; Stan Lee (script), John Romita (pencils & ink touch-ups), Mike Esposito [as Mickey Demeo], (inks) Cover: John Romita (pencils & inks)

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A sketch of the Green Goblin by John Romita. Amazing SpiderMan #40 would mark the first “end” of the Green Goblin, but the character was brought back for Spectacular Spider-Man #2 before being put down for the count in the classic Amazing Spider-Man #122.

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degree of participation by Ditko than merely expanding on Lee’s plot synopses) from this new era in which he would assume both plotting and scripting chores as well as make all the editorial decisions. Like a dam bursting, the changes came flooding out, hitting readers all at once in this landmark issue, “How Green Was My Goblin!” It’s been told how Lee and Ditko disagreed on story and character points in the Spider-Man strip, but since Lee was the editor, he usually had the last word. Thus, Peter Parker graduated high school and the Green Goblin would be revealed as a character already familiar to readers (both developments Ditko is rumored to have disagreed with). Now in complete control of the strip, Lee made more changes. Suddenly Peter Parker no longer looked like a square. Under Romita’s hand (he had years of experience drawing the beautiful people who inhabited DC’s romance comics) he was actually good-looking and would soon discard his habitual yellow vests and blue slacks for turtlenecks and flared jeans. The women in his life (even Aunt May!) became more glamorous; gone were the more average-looking Ditko girls. Old plotlines were tidied up as first the Green Goblin’s identity is revealed and then the long-hidden Mary Jane Watson finally emerges from behind conveniently placed plants and lamp shades. As if to underscore the fact that there was no turning back, this issue features one of the truly shocking covers of Silver Age Marvel as readers were presented with the sight of a bound and

Superman #129 and World’s Finest #215. Although DC regularly deceived readers with stories that turned out to be dreams, hoaxes, or imaginary stories, Marvel had built a reputation for realism and by the time of the grandiose years, when its characters were subjected to life changing events, they were expected to be permanent.

unmasked Spider-Man being pulled through the sky by a triumphant Green Goblin. Could it be true or was it merely an imaginary story? As it turned out, it wasn’t. The Goblin really does learn our hero’s identity, ambushes Peter Parker just outside his quiet Westchester home (which seemed to make things all the more unsettling for readers; to have Spider-Man fighting as Peter Parker amid the normal, everyday surroundings of what they’d become accustomed to as Peter’s private sanctuary both from the grotesque super-menaces he fought in his costumed identity and from the bullying and ridicule he sometimes suffered as a high school student and responsible nephew), defeats him and drags him back to his hideout. There, at the conclusion to the story, the reader is given the final shock of finding out that the Goblin and industrialist Norman Osborn (the father of one of Peter’s classmates) are one and the same. There couldn’t have been a clearer signal that things in the Spider-Man book just weren’t going to be the same again!

Amazing Spider-Man #40 “Spidey Saves The Day!”; Stan Lee (script), John Romita (pencils & ink touch-ups), Mike Esposito [as Mickey Demeo], (inks) Cover: John Romita (pencils & ink touch-ups), Mike Esposito (inks)

The surprises continue to come on fast and furious in Amazing Spider-Man #40 (Sept. 1966) as our hero learns the origin of the Green Goblin from the man himself (it seems that industrialist Norman Osborn, after framing one of his employees, stole some of his discoveries, and in experimenting with one had it literally blow up in his face! The resulting explosion affected his mind, deranged him and led him to become the Green Goblin). Just as Osborn finishes his story, Spidey breaks his bonds and has one last, drag ’em out fight with his arch-enemy. But so what if he defeats him, he’s still privy to his secret identity! What to do? Luckily fate (or Stan Lee!) steps in and, after being caught in an electrical feedback, Osborn doesn’t remember a thing! Sure, it was convenient, but by keeping the Goblin around, Lee created tension in the strip as readers were never sure just when or if Osborn would recover his memory. But some things never change, including Peter Parker’s luck. With Aunt May ill, he gets dressed down by Dr. Bromwell for being too wrapped up in himself to care about anyone else! But it turns out the best medicine for his aunt is to have her feel needed. And so, our tale ends with a robust but bedridden Peter being fed chicken soup by a doting Aunt May, while in a hospital room across the city, Harry and Norman Osborn start getting to know each other all over again. The Grandiose Years

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Tales to Astonish #82 “The Power of Iron Man!”; Stan Lee (script), Gene Colan and Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (Inks) “The Battle Cry of the Boomerang!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (layouts), Bill Everett (pencils & inks) Cover: Gene Colan (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks)

In a memorable two-issue stand beginning with Tales to Astonish #82 (Aug. 1966), Kirby returned to full pencils on the “Sub-Mariner” strip. Although the first two pages had been completed by Gene Colan, the feature’s regular artist, Kirby was called in on an emergency basis when Colan came down with sickness. But a lot had changed since the last time Kirby had drawn the character. In full grandiose mode, Kirby’s SubMariner was no longer the skinny fish man he’d been in his earliest appearances in the FF book, now he was a bulkedup heavy-hitter (not that he was chopped liver under Colan’s control either!). And Kirby’s art left Namor’s power in no doubt. Laid out in huge, half- and quarter-page panels (okay, so maybe Kirby used big panels in order to save time if this was rush job, but they still worked!), Kirby’s art underscored the new, larger-than-life aesthetic of the grand style. With his wide open panels, Kirby really went to town in his depiction of this issue’s battle between Namor and Iron Man (which was continued from Tales of Suspense #80 where Subby thought Iron Man was involved with the abduction of his main squeeze, Lady Dorma). A masterpiece of action layout, the artist leads off with a half-page panel that positively rocks with the force 146

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of Namor’s attack as he pounds Iron Man through a mass of shattered machinery. A few pages later, Iron Man returns the favor by doing the same to the Sub-Mariner. In a cascade of crumbling masonry and flying debris, Kirby rockets the reader through the story, leaving writer Roy Thomas (who was filling in for Lee) to keep up as best he could. It was a great last-minute, fill-in job by Kirby that nevertheless demonstrated in no uncertain terms just why Marvel was beating the pants off its

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Tales to Astonish #82, page 4. Pulse-pounding action by the king! Teamed up again with Darlin’ Dick Ayers, a reader could almost feel the impact of the blow struck by Sub-Mariner in panel 1! A typical super-hero fight scene, but now writ large in the grandiose manner! Compare this page to Colan’s rather genteel tussle going on on the cover!

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competition: there just wasn’t anything like this kind of high-powered action going on anywhere else in the industry! By contrast, the accompanying “Hulk” strip in the second half of the book was struggling. Although laid out by Kirby, the various artists who worked over him since he’d given up full pencils with #70 had proved inadequate. Despite continued good sales (that would eventually lead to his own title) creatively, the “Hulk” strip would never recover. Lee would continue writing the strip for some time, as he does here, maintaining the degree of nervous anxiety in its characters that readers had come to expect (a running sub-plot involving a mysterious group called the Secret Empire added spice to the strip). There were worse looking features (like “Dr. Strange” after Ditko left and “SHIELD” when Kirby wasn’t on full pencils), but the fact remained, the “Hulk” strip just wasn’t up to the standards set by such features as the FF, Thor or Spider-Man. The problem was, with increasing success, Lee needed to find more talent. He’d recruited artists Colan and Romita (and would soon have Gil Kane and John Buscema) and writer Thomas, but until he could hire more quality talent, he’d have to make do with the people he had on hand. Unfortunately, such artists as Bill Everrett and Marie Severin, while suitable for some assignments, just weren’t fitting in with the company’s new super-hero dynamic; their strengths lay elsewhere.

laying out the book in half- and quarter-page size panels, Kirby used the open spaces they provided to full advantage as Namor dive-bombs Krang’s ship (“Spleeeunngg!” Marvel’s sound effects were at least creative if not grammatically correct!) and nearly sinks it. Meanwhile, “Number One,” leader of the Secret Empire, is trailing the sea prince in order to recruit him as an ally in his evil schemes. Imagine his delight when Namor, in being struck by Krang’s “fleet destroyer” missile, is rendered amnesiac and plunges into the sea just out of reach of his boat? Can things get any worse? Don’t answer before going on to this issue’s second feature! In the “Hulk” story, other members of the Secret Empire (for whom artist Bill Everrett has a better feel than he does for the strip’s title character) have their own agendas, such as those attending a secret board meeting to discuss the failure of agent Boomerang to steal the experimental Orion missile. But in the middle of the meeting “Number Two” renders everyone else unconscious and seizes control of the organization! Does this setup a confrontation between himself and Number One (with Namor as his new ally) over in the “SubMariner” strip? Of course it does!

Tales to Astonish #83

By this time, the grandiose years were in full swing, and yet there still were some of Marvel’s books that were largely unaffected by its influence. The Avengers for instance, continued to be the meeting place for the company’s excess heroes, and rather than going into outer space or fighting space gods, most of the conflict (and interest) of the title lay in the complex relationships between its colorful cast of disparate characters. One of Marvel’s most text-heavy strips, it was the varied personalities of Captain America, Hawkeye, the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Goliath and the Wasp that made the book so interesting. Concerned mostly with more down to earth villains (if Kang the Conqueror, Dr. Doom and the Collector can be considered ordinary!), the Avengers never became a strong vehicle for the grand style. Until this issue that is. Following quickly on the heels of FF #52, Avengers #32 (Sept. 1966) was the first of a two-part story addressing again the issue of racism. This time however, it was done more directly than in the introduction of the Black Panther, which treated its black characters in a matter-of-fact fashion that hardly even acknowledged the color of their skin. But with “The Sign of the Serpent,” Lee would tackle the subject head-on in a story unflinching in its brutal honesty. Sure, the villains were a secret society of

“The Sub-Mariner Strikes!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks) “Less Than Monster, More Than Man!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Bill Everett (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Bill Everett (inks)

The action continued, Kirby-style, in Tales to Astonish #83 (Sept. 1966) as the Sub-Mariner, realizing that Iron Man had nothing to do with Warlord Krang’s abduction of the Lady Dorma, abandons his fight with the golden avenger and makes a bee-line to Krang’s warship off the Long Island coast. Once again

Penciler Bill Everet t seemed to have a better feel for the “Hulk” in Tales to Astonish than he did for the “Sub-Mariner,” his own creation. Or was it the Kirby layouts that helped?

Avengers #32 “The Sign of the Serpent”; Stan Lee (script), Don Heck (pencils), Don Heck (inks) Cover: Don Heck (pencils), Don Heck (inks)

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costumed bigots calling themselves the Sons of the Serpent (“As the original serpent drove Adam and Eve from Eden—so shall we drive all foreigners from this land!”), but how much different was that from the real life Ku Klux Klan? Like the Klan, the Serpents preached bigotry and racial hatred and an extreme form of nationalism, preying on people’s secret fears and insecurities. Opening in a dark alley, the story begins with a group of Serpents beating up on an Hispanic man. At a nearby window, witnesses refuse to get involved (“It’s none of our business!”). The Avengers fit into the picture when, later that night, Goliath’s black lab assistant, Bill Foster, is similarly caught and beaten. (“He got what he deserved! He refused to swear never to set foot in this neighborhood again!”) But when the Avengers “declare war” on the Serpents, Captain America is captured and the team is blackmailed into publicly acknowledging their support for them. Away from such strong plotting partners as Kirby and Ditko, Lee had a penchant for preaching (which, the way he did it, wasn’t a bad thing) and for writing character-heavy scripts with plenty of personality revealing dialogue and emotional scenes. A strong story by any standard, Lee’s balance between Goliath’s rage at the Serpents’ poisonous creed and the unrequited romance between Hawkeye and the Black Widow with bit players such as Bill Foster, the attorney general and the ordinary people that constitute the various audiences, television crews and Serpent recruits make it a rich mix of drama and suspense. But maybe the real star of this book isn’t its cast of characters or Lee, but Don 148

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Heck. Perhaps the single strongest artistic effort in his whole career at Silver Age Marvel, Heck in this two-part story shines as never before. Penciled and, most significantly, inked by himself, Heck delivers a stunning tour de force beautifully and tastefully laid out. Every page is a wonder and a delight, especially those featuring Goliath, Hawkeye and the Black Widow! Really impressive was Heck’s expert use of blacks in night

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The Avengers #32, page 11. Heck on Heck! The artist pulls out all the stops in one of the best examples of his work in the Silver Age. The huge figure of Goliath dominating panel 3 is as dynamic and imposing as anything Kirby was doing at the time and although not shown here, page 12 is even more impressive! It was all too tragic that Heck was not allowed to ink himself more often in these years.

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scenes of the furtive Serpents skulking after their prey through alleys and darkened, suburban woodland and the scene of Goliath venting his rage upon finding Bill Foster after the Serpents get through with him. The strongest argument against those who don’t think Heck ever amounted to much, there’s just not enough that can be said about this issue’s beautiful artwork!

“Maybe we were wrong about the Serpents! Maybe we need an outfit like theirs, to guard our freedom!” “You’ve gotta be kidding! We’ve got a government, don’t we? We’ve got laws, police agencies, courts of justice!” But of course, Goliath is a good guy through and through! Suddenly, he lashes out, condemning the Serpents: “In the name of patriotism, they seek to tear down everything good and decent that America stands Avengers #33 for! Our nation was built on freedom, not tyranny! “To Smash a Serpent”; Stan Lee (script), Brotherly love, not hatred! Justice for all, not bigotry!” Don Heck (pencils), Don Heck (inks) But then, just as the audience begins to come around, Cover: Don Heck (pencils), Don Heck (inks) Captain America appears on stage shouting support for the Serpents. What the heck is “The blood of Americans must going on here? Well, it probably be kept pure!” “Once we rid came as no surprise to anyone this nation of those of different that Cap was an imposter, a creeds, different heritages, then desperation measure by the we shall rule, from shore to Serpents and after a few pages shore!” So shout the Sons of the of required action, the Sons Serpent as Avengers #33 (Oct. are defeated. Unmasked, the 1966) opens, the concluding Supreme Serpent turned out to chapter in a story that deserves be General Chen. Admittedly, a place at the very pinnacle of pretty disappointing, but the the grandiose years. Without a revelation in no way detracts noticeable seam between the from the power of this story quality of writing and art from nor its ultimate message. In an this issue and the last, Lee and America that has suffered the Heck smoothly draw their demagoguery and constitucautionary tale of hate and tional brinksmanship of a intolerance to its dramatic recent presidential election, conclusion. With Captain with crowds screaming in the America a prisoner of the streets of Florida for voter Serpents, the Avengers are redress and rabble rousers forced to take part in the Sons’ inflaming minorities with propaganda campaign and to trumped up charges of appear at one of their rallies. A scourge in the nineteenth century discrimination, the warning Meanwhile, the international that climaxed in the 1920s, the Ku this story presents is as timely situation grows tense as visiting Klux Klan had not completely today as it was when it was Southeast Asian General Chen, disappeared by the time Stan and Don written nearly forty years ago. produced the landmark Avengers #32meeting with US officials at the 33. The racist organization was no “All I had to do was make United Nations, rants at the doubt the “inspiration” for the Sons Americans distrust each other, country’s seeming hypocrisy: of the Serpent. and then hate each other!” says “America claims to be a land of a defeated Chen. “For a fearful freedom, and yet they allow the Sons of the Serpent to preach their doctrine of hatred nation becomes a divided nation, and a divided nation and tyranny on every street corner!” “You come from a is a weak nation!” “Why were we so blind, so gullible?” land where countless thousands live in abject fear, asks a bystander. “…Let’s never forget the lesson where they may not speak, or read, or even think as we’ve learned here today,” replies Goliath. “Beware they please! And you talk of freedom!” replies of the man who sets you against your neighbor!” (sometime Iron Man nemesis) Senator Byrd. That night, “For whenever the deadly poison of bigotry touches Goliath appears on stage at the rally. Will he go through us, the flame of freedom will burn a little dimmer!” with his support for the Serpents? Just his being side by When it came to putting words together, Lee really had side with them is enough to sway some and disappoint no equal in comics and as was said before, Heck came others in the viewing audience: “It’s like a nightmare! through here with one of the best jobs of his long career. Why the Avengers? Why would they stoop so low?” Silver Age Marvel didn’t come any better than this! The Grandiose Years

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Fantastic Four #57 “Enter Dr. Doom”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks)

After emerging suddenly near the close of the years of consolidation, Marvel’s grandiose phase established itself quickly, then rose sharply along a steep curve before peaking relatively early with definitive stories in the FF and Thor. The Galactus trilogy and the Ego saga turned out to be the “twin peaks” of the era, and what followed, although highly imaginative, creatively significant and often punctuated with brilliance (for the small pond of the comics industry, that is) was nevertheless more of the same. As it turned out, a plateau had been reached, still far and away higher than almost anything else produced in the history of comics, but still, in comparison to what had just passed, not quite as original. Of course, there’d be plenty more great stories to be told, but none with the wild inventiveness of Galactus or Ego. This may have been the result of an increasing dissatisfaction by Kirby in his situation at Marvel where, no matter how integral he may have been in the creative process, like Ditko, the final shape of his creative notions were ultimately in the hands of Lee (who, in the meantime, as point man for the company, had become the face of Marvel Comics everyone recognized). Furthermore, with the departure of Ditko, it was made plain that far from suffering, sales on his books only increased. And so, as the last (and most important) of the Three Musketeers of the pre-hero days, 150

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Kirby’s last years with the company must be considered the yardstick by which the remainder of the grandiose years are to be measured. That’s not to say that Lee didn’t have a hand in the elements that shaped those years. To the contrary, Lee’s editorial vision, his superior scripting ability and his undoubted concern for issues far beyond the provincial world of comic books were contributions of equal importance; maybe more. Be that as it may, issues of the FF immediately following the

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Fantastic Four #57, page 15. The Silver Surfer is humbled by Doom. One of many dramatic moments of the late Silver Age captured in all their grandiosity by King Kirby (with a little help from Joe Sinnott)!

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high point of the Galactus trilogy were rich with everything that made this period so great, and certainly the intertwining stories of Dr. Doom, the Inhumans and the Sandman signaled no slowdown of the hurtling plots that continued to leave fans breathless in anticipation of ensuing chapters. Fantastic Four #57 (Dec. 1966) for instance, while also including overlapping storylines, was primarily the epic tale of how Dr. Doom, the world’s most fearsome tyrant, steals the almost limitless cosmic power of the Silver Surfer and becomes literally unbeatable. It was just the kind of story expected of the grandiose years; of a villain, who in earlier appearances posed a certain threat but nothing really that readers couldn’t expect the FF to handle, but whose threat level has been ratcheted up to almost unbelievable proportions. This issue’s story is possibly the ultimate example of the kind. It starts innocently enough (if you can call a jailbreak by members of the Frightful Four innocent) when the FF are lured to State Prison and get ambushed by Sandman and the Wizard. Although the Sandman escapes, the FF will soon find out that he’s the least of their problems as, on the other side of the world, a honey-tongued Dr. Doom seduces the trusting Silver Surfer into dropping his guard (Doom had invited him to his castle posing as an altruistic “servant of my people”). Giving the Surfer a tour of the castle (and blithely explaining away all the machinery of death lying around as “weapons with which to defend myself from the dastardly enemies of freedom!”), Doom finally maneuvers him before a view screen and while the homesick alien stands transfixed at the sight of deep space, he attacks him with a pair of “high intensity inductors” and robs him of his cosmic power. The climactic, full-page panel in this sequence is a triumph of Kirby grandiosity as a massive Dr. Doom, still crackling with stray bolts of cosmic energy, bulks over his supine victim. “Now let mankind beware,” says Doom. “For Doctor Doom has attained powers without limit, power enough to challenge Galactus himself!” Then, leaving the castle, Doom sets off on a hellish victory ride leaving terrorized peasants in his wake, the first humans perhaps to glimpse the terrible fate in store for the entire human race!

forecast evil tidings. In the mood of imminent peril that follows, the Thing is suddenly attacked and defeated by Doom himself. Meanwhile, the Human Torch (who has spent the last few issues searching for a way to get inside the barrier that still holds Crystal and the other Inhumans prisoner) arrives atop the Baxter Building. Observing the damage done during Doom’s encounter with the Thing, he seeks out Reed and Sue at their home in the suburbs arriving just as the arch-villain is about to kill his partners. Wasting little time, the Torch attacks, but the confrontation between himself and the cosmic-powered Doom becomes so all-consuming that his partners are forced from the house. (In keeping with the grand style, characters like the Torch who, only a few years before were being harassed by Spider-Man, are now infinitely more powerful. For instance, here we learn that when the Torch threatens Doom with the use of his “super-nova blast,” it can “instantly kill half the population of this hemisphere.”) Again the Torch attacks and a massive explosion follows, but the status quo remains unchanged: Doom still stands (or rather hovers!) over the ruins of the house, as powerful as ever (a scene beautifully captured by Kirby on this issue’s cover). But Doom makes a mistake that will eventually prove his undoing: he allows the FF to live. “You, who have never before been vanquished, shall live out the rest of your days in abject hopelessness…never knowing when I shall snuff out your worthless lives at a whim!”

Fantastic Four #58 “The Dismal Dregs of Defeat”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks)

Fantastic Four #58 (Jan. 1967) opens with a sense of impending dread as a thunderstorm rolls over New York City. In it, Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Girl and the Thing see an apparition of Dr. Doom that seems to

Castle Neuschwanstein in Bavaria was built during the reign of Ludwig II, but could very well stand in for Dr. Doom’s castle in Latveria!

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Fantastic Four #59 “Doomsday”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks)

Aptly titled “Doomsday,” Fantastic Four #59 (Feb. 1966) opens with Reed Richards giving a grim broadcast to the world: “The time has come for every nation, every hostile bloc, to put aside petty differences and unite against a common enemy, perhaps the most deadly enemy which civilized man has ever faced!” That’s saying something for a guy who’s faced menaces like Galactus! But what sets Doom apart from even that world devourer is that at least Galactus boasted of feeling neither love nor hate; Doom on the other hand, is driven only by hatred. And so, the world trembles in anticipation of Doom’s next move while Reed slaves in his laboratory to come up with a weapon that can defeat him and Johnny practices, honing his flame powers for another solo attack on the Latverian monarch. Meanwhile, unknown to the Torch, his fondest dream comes true as the Inhumans break free from the barrier that imprisons them in their hidden city. But their joy at regaining their freedom isn’t felt by the rest of the world as Doom tests his power on the helpless human race. The issue ends on a somber note with Reed, Sue and Ben sharing a meal in an appropriately darkened kitchen.

Fantastic Four #60 “The Peril and the Power”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks)

In Fantastic Four #60 (March 1967), with the whole world prostrate before him, Doom determines to seize the reins of power from every nation on Earth and declare himself its ruler. In the power-packed finale, Kirby lets out all the stops, bringing to bear an art style that had been developing at lightning speed from the title’s first crude issues only a few years before to its culmination as the epitome of the grand style. And as each member of the FF takes his turn to tackle Dr. Doom, Kirby portrays the individual contests with all the strength and vigor of an Homeric epic. The Human Torch, his power now defined in terms dictated by the grandiose years, is the first to reach Doom. What follows is a blinding series of “sun blasts” and near-nova bursts of flame. But Doom, transformed into a crackling being of pure cosmic power, survives the Torch’s deadly attack and defeats him with a gigantic windstorm that leaves the surrounding countryside a ruined shambles. The Thing is next to strike at Doom. Rushing headlong into one another, the two come to grips and what follows is more like a test of wills than a physical confrontation with the Thing refusing to knuckle under to Doom’s 152

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With liberal use of his patented “krackle” effects and jagged planetoids, Kirby was a master of capturing the cosmicism of outer space otherwise only available from satellite photographs such as this one.

cosmically enhanced musculature. But finally, defeated each in turn, the FF are backed into a corner, and just as Doom is about to kill them, he’s struck by an “anticosmic flying wing” (don’t ask!). Another of Reed’s timely inventions, the wing begins to drain Doom’s cosmic power, but not enough. He manages to recover and decides to chase the wing down and destroy it before returning to finish off the FF. Turns out that’s exactly what Mr. Fantastic wants (for Doom to chase the wing, not for the FF to be killed, that is!) For in chasing after the wing, Doom strikes the invisible barrier left by Galactus to insure the Silver Surfer’s exile on Earth. Instantly, he loses his cosmic power as it returns to its rightful owner. Doom himself seemingly vanishes. It was the end of one of the greatest comics stories of all time despite its somewhat disappointing ending (why should striking the barrier cause the Surfer’s power to leave Doom and return to its proper owner?). Filled with drama, suspense, dread and courage by turn, it had the luxury (which the Galactus trilogy lacked), of more space in which to develop. Here also, the menace of Dr. Doom was such that it allowed members of the FF to continue fighting him with some expectation of victory. Doom, after all, was still only human. But more importantly, it was clear by now that Lee and Kirby had developed a formula that couldn’t help but produce instant classics. But working at this level of peak performance couldn’t last forever. Both creators had already been working in the comics industry for decades and although everything that’d come before was but prologue, the final act couldn’t be far off.

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Jim Steranko If the dictionary had a single word that could cover everything

that was meant by sixties pop-culture, that word would no doubt be Steranko! Born in 1938, James Steranko began drawing early before being sidetracked by any number of unusual occupations, each of which, in some way, would shape artistic sensibilities that would emerge again later in his career. Immersing himself in the developing American pop-culture scene of the 1940s that included pulp magazines, comics, movies, and music, Steranko was attracted by stage magic and sleight of hand that eventually led to more demanding performances as an escape artist. In between, jazz and the rising popularity of rock and roll drew him to night clubs where he performed with his own band. His penchant for art was useful in earning extra money as a commercial artist and later as the art director for an ad agency where he learned the basics of production, including what could and could not be done in a print medium. After a failed attempt in 1965 to find work at Marvel Comics, Steranko settled for Joe Simon at Harvey Comics where he helped to create a handful of super-hero characters, including Spyman and Magicman. After a year or so, he returned to Marvel with some sample inks over Kirby pencils which caught the eye of staff writer Roy Thomas, who in turn brought him to editor Stan Lee’s attention. Impressed, Lee immediately assigned him as Kirby’s inker on the “Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD” strip in Strange Tales and the rest is history!

Strange Tales #151 “Overkill!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (plot & layouts), Jim Steranko (pencils & inks) “Umar Strikes!”; Stan Lee (co-plot & script), Bill Everett (co-plot, pencils & inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Jim Steranko (inks)

Although begun on a high note with the creative team of Lee and Kirby, the “Nick Fury” strip in Strange Tales had soon fallen on hard times. With Kirby laying it out, the strip had suffered a succession of artists, most unsuited or too untried to do justice to its heavy emphasis on technology and far-out gadgets. The only thing that kept the strip coherent and readable was the glue provided by the constancy of Lee’s strong scripting sense. What the “Nick Fury”

strip needed was a dynamic artist who’d stay with it long enough to give it some sense of direction and regularity. Lee may not have known that he’d found that person in Jim Steranko, but he soon would! Coming seemingly from out of nowhere, Steranko just showed up in Strange Tales #151 (Dec. 1966) as Kirby’s latest finisher. But who was he? Having spent time as an escape artist and rock musician, Steranko found himself in the publishing/ advertising world before being bit by the art bug. Interested in comics, he began shopping his material around and found brief employment at Harvey Comics. From there, he crossed town to the Marvel offices where Lee decided to give him some work. Little was Lee to know about Steranko’s ambition The Grandiose Years

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which grew month by month as he graduated from just inking the “Fury” strip to penciling it as well. Soon, the artist had turned it into a showcase of wildly creative graphic design making it the place to be for fandom insiders. But that was s t i l l down the road apiece; for now, Steranko was only the latest artist to firm up Kirby’s layouts on the strip. Still relatively inexperienced, Steranko’s work here is still phenomenal for the detail of his rendering, especially for such scenes as Fury’s entrance into the ruined Egyptian city of Karnopolis on page 3. An interesting foreshadowing of things to come was Steranko’s use of a photograph of a As a one-time rocker himself, globe in Hydra Steranko was no headquarters on page 6. doubt aware of the It was a modest many San Francisco beginning for a man type concert whose arrival at Marvel posters that were cropping up on marked the beginning of marquees the end of the company’s everywhere in the Silver Age. The first of a 1960s, drawing his new breed of artist, inspiration from Steranko didn’t come to them accordingly. Marvel as an already established professional as Romita, Colan and John Buscema did, but as a highly individualistic creator genuinely interested in the comic book medium as an art form. His meteoric rise at the company would provide inspiration for the artists who were to emerge from the ranks of fandom in the early seventies and who would come to dominate the next phase of Marvel’s history, the twilight years. Steranko was the dividing line between the older, experienced hands such as Kirby and Ditko (who, despite their undoubted talent, were still rooted in the limited palette of traditional comics production that hadn’t changed in decades) and the new artists eager to incorporate the pop-art sensibilities of the sixties counter culture. Despite the soaring heights already achieved by Marvel’s grandiose years, the years of decline to follow would yet boast its own brand of dynamism that would make them as exciting in their own way as the ground broken by Lee, Kirby, Ditko and Heck in the previous era. 154

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Daredevil #25 “Enter: The Leap-Frog”; Stan Lee (script), Gene Colan (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks) Cover: Gene Colan (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks)

With the grand style everywhere in full swing, it was left for the Daredevil book to provide Marvel with the light-hearted touch that in earlier years had once seemed to be the company’s trademark. How else to explain the giant frog (with a bag of jewelry in its hands yet!) on the cover of Daredevil #25 (Feb. 1967)? Well, as a matter of fact, it wasn’t really a giant frog, but who cared when the Leap-Frog provided Colan with a good excuse for a dozen great pages of action, action, action! Actually, the Leap-Frog was the perfect villain (the goofy, but fun type that harkened back to the early days of Paste Pot Pete and the Beetle, villains that most of Marvel’s titles, with the coming of the grandiose years, had left behind) for the free swinging, carefree DD whom Lee might’ve actually enjoyed writing more than he did Spider-Man. Certainly, Lee’s dialogue in the DD strip was a lot breezier than it was in his other strips, perfectly complementing Colan’s increasingly loose layouts as the figure of Daredevil spun, leaped and twisted in impossible contortions over the night darkened streets of Manhattan. “No matter what kind of weird powers or stunts I’m up against, nothing ever beats a solid punch in the kisser!” DD tells the Leap-Frog as he slugs him. “Somehow, it’s so clean, so clear-cut, so sincere! And, best of all, it’s as American as mom’s apple pie!” Though Colan’s art, inked by Frank Giacoia, is fabulous throughout the book, the fullpage illustration of DD vainly trying to tackle the Leap-Frog is just over the top! But as usual in the single-hero, Lee-dominated books, the private life and tribulations of the characters are at least as interesting as the costumed action, and the Daredevil book was no exception; as a matter of fact, the convoluted relationship between Matt Murdock, Foggy Nelson and Karen Page (which really started going back in #18) only got more complicated this issue with the introduction of Matt’s long lost “twin” brother! Loud, wild and crazy, Mike Murdoch was everything Matt wasn’t. (“Ol’ Matt’s the one with the brains, but I’m the family pussycat! …Try not to applaud, I’m almost as shy as I am glamorous!”) The only thing wrong with him was that he was a phony. It seems that Karen and Foggy were starting to wise up regarding Matt’s DD identity and in order to cast suspicion away from himself, Matt dreamed up brother “Mike!” But what was meant as a one-time expedient, soon developed into a permanent solution that

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would go on for months until Matt actually started to prefer his life as “Mike” (for whom he could act as if he were sighted) and Karen began to fall in love with him. There just wasn’t anything quite like Daredevil in Marvel’s entire line-up, including Spider-Man (which often seemed more gloomy than light-hearted what with all of Peter Parker’s problems)!

Daredevil #25, page 12. Colan has clearly mastered the elements required of full-page panels in the grandiose years! i.e., huge, imposing figures; foreshortening 3-D effects; the illusion of frantic movement; and a minimum of background detail that could threaten the impact of the main figures. Compare the artist’s approach to positioning his figures in the panel here to that of Kirby’s on page 150.

Daredevil #26 “Stilt-Man Strikes Again”; Stan Lee (script), Gene Colan (pencils & inks) Cover: Gene Colan (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks)

The overlapping storylines (as opposed to sub-plots that built over a number of issues and climaxed as a main story) that had by now become expected in such Kirbydrawn titles as the FF and Thor, began to appear in other books. In Daredevil #26 (March 1967), a number of ongoing plots collide in what could’ve been a literary train wreck but which turns out to be a smoothly done, exciting story that climaxes in the following issue. Here, the action picks up in court as Foggy is defending the Leap-Frog (captured by DD last issue). “I ask the defendant to study this shoe! Is it not the same one you wore when committing your crimes?” asks the DA. “Nah! I never even saw it before!” replies the Leap-Frog (who interestingly, is never named in the story!) “But, it was taken from your own foot!” “I’m as innocent as a new-born babe! I couldn’t be the Leap-Frog! I’m scared of heights! I even get airsick standin’ on a thick rug!” In an incredibly stupid move, the DA allows the defendant to try on the springed boots and as any reader could’ve told him, the LeapFrog makes his escape from the courtroom and right into the arms of a waiting Stilt Man (who’d come to help the Leap-Frog escape and make him his partner). Instead, the Stilt Man ends up in a battle with DD that peaks in another spectacular Colan full-page drawing. The Stilt Man was one of those goofy old-time Marvel villains who nevertheless had a fun kind of power that The Grandiose Years

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now, in the latest tradition of the grand style, seemed a thousand times more formidable. Towering over the rooftops, Colan depicts the character with the same sense of weight and bulk that Kirby was giving to Dr. Doom and the Sandman. But while he and DD battle downtown, the Masked Marauder, still at large and still after Daredevil, has broken into the offices of Nelson and Murdock looking for clues to DD’s identity. If readers were expected to be shocked upon discovering that the Marauder is actually Frank Farnum, the firm’s landlord, they probably weren’t. After all, Lee and Colan hadn’t offered them anybody else who could possibly be a suspect! Anyway, the story ends when DD knocks the Stilt Man over, but so tall is he that by the time Daredevil reaches the spot where he fell, his stilts have been retracted and he’s been swept out of sight by the timely arrival of the Masked Marauder.

stumbles from the open doorway. Meanwhile, the luckless Stilt Man, unable to find “Mike,” stumbles into Spider-Man instead. Escaping him, he finds DD back with the helicopter and, in trying to shoot him with an electrically activated gun, shorts out his suit’s armor and plunges into the river. Whew! Completing the analogy with the end of the Green Goblin, this story is actually more interesting with its wider range of characters and Colan’s faultless sense of pacing (the Goblin story was only Romita’s first job on the SpiderMan book after all, and though he proved with Daredevil that he could work in the Marvel style, he was still trying to compete with Ditko). Having both DD and Spider-Man star in the same book also helped highlight one of the things that made Marvel so successful. On the surface, both characters are very

Daredevil #27

Daredevil #27 (April 1967) in some ways served for DD fans what Amazing Spider-Man #40 did for readers of that book (and let’s face it, they were most likely the same people!), it brought to a climax the long-running storyline of the Masked Marauder. Like the Green Goblin, the Marauder had a secret ID the readers didn’t know (that turned out to be someone the hero already knew in his private life) and he was a recurring archvillain for Daredevil. Unlike the Goblin though, the Marauder almost always sought out super-powered allies, from the Gladiator to the Stilt Man, and wasn’t crazy (not that bad guys aren’t out of their minds anyway!). An interesting thing about this issue is that it contains elements from each of Marvel’s first three phases: its humor and sense of fun that had been dominant in the early years (“Foggy, what can we do?” “Well, we can always resort to sheer panic!”), the years of consolidation are represented by a Spider-Man crossover and Colan’s ultra-realistic, dramatic art coupled with Lee’s self-assured, knowing script capture the grandiose years. In a fast moving story (it’s hard to believe that it all happens in only twenty pages), the Marauder kidnaps Matt Murdock and Karen and learns that “Mike” is really Daredevil. Dispatching the Stilt Man to find him, the Marauder next forces Matt from his helicopter expecting him to be disintegrated by the protective force field that surrounds it. Instead, Matt manages to grab one of the ’copter’s landing struts, changes to Daredevil and swings back aboard the ship. In the ensuing fight, the helicopter veers wildly about the sky until the Marauder himself falls victim to the force field when he 156

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“Mike Murdock Must Die”; Stan Lee (script), Gene Colan (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks) Cover: Gene Colan (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks)

Forever People #1. Beginning in a big way when he left Marvel for DC in the early 1970s, Kirby’s first books for the company inked by Vince Colletta looked as good as his last work on Thor.

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Marie Severin It was only Marie Severin’s misfortune to end up at Marvel Comics, a

company whose bread and butter was super-heroes, because her strong suits were humor and, surprisingly, fantasy of the sword and sorcery variety. Coming from an artistic family that included her brother, John Severin, Marie expressed an interest in drawing from an early age but only managed to break into the comics field as a colorist instead. Brought to EC Comics in the late 1940s by her brother, who was already employed there, Marie worked on the production side of the business before the company folded. Finding herself at loose ends, she eventually returned to comics when she was hired by Marvel in the early 1960s for its production department. It was after a successful assignment illustrating a story for Esquire Magazine that brought her penciling ability to editor Stan Lee’s attention. Assigned the “Dr. Strange” strip and then the “Hulk,” Marie labored for years on those characters before finding her true forte in Marvel’s self-parodical Not Brand Echh. Eventually, with the popularity of sword and sorcery, she was given Kull the Conqueror to pencil with the strip’s second issue and, with brother John as her inker, made it one of the crown jewels of Marvel’s twilight years.

similar in that their powers revolve mainly on acrobatic skills coupled with swinging about with the use of a cable or web. Both make with wisecracks when in battle and both are loners. And yet both characters are indisputably different; fans could be intensely loyal to one and not the other. Why? The answer is the secret of what made Marvel so popular in these years: characterization, characterization, characterization. These two heroes, at once so alike in powers and abilities, were yet like night and day in their personalities and supporting casts. It was the individualism that Lee gave to all his characters that not only made them interesting, but set them apart from each other (and the competition). It’s the primary reason why these characters, invented in the early 1960s, could still host their own books forty years later. Practically the only other characters in the entire history of comics to last as long in their own titles have been Superman and Batman, and they’ve done it by virtue of having become cultural icons. It’s why Kirby’s creations after he left Marvel never succeeded, he could draw attractive costumes, but he failed to learn the most important lesson of Silver Age Marvel (and the reason why titles not only survived after he and Ditko left, but thrived), that it was the characters’ humanity and personalities that made them successful, not the cut of their costumes.

Strange Tales # 153 “The Hiding Place!”; Roy Thomas (script), Jack Kirby (plot & layouts), Jim Steranko (pencils & inks) “Alone, Against the Mindless Ones!”; Stan Lee (co-plot & script), Marie Severin (co-plot, pencils & inks) Cover: Jim Steranko (pencils & inks), Wally Wood (inks) [on Laura Brown figure]

Following Steve Ditko’s departure, the “Dr. Strange” strip in Strange Tales fell on hard times as writer/editor Stan Lee cast about for a suitable replacement. But how do you replace the irreplaceable? Well, if you’re on a schedule that demands something called Strange Tales be printed each and every month and someone of the caliber of Gene Colan or even Dan Adkins isn’t available, you do the best you can with the talent you have on hand. In 1966, with the whole Marvel line going great guns, there was just so much ground even workhorse Jack Kirby could cover leaving second string features such as “Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD” and “Dr. Strange” open to being taken over by lesser lights or new, untried artists. Lee got lucky when Jim Steranko walked in the door one day and ended up doing incredible things first over Kirby’s layouts on “SHIELD” and then penciling and scripting the whole thing himself. But lightning failed to strike twice in the case of Strange Tales’ second bill. Over the years The Grandiose Years

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since coming up with the idea of Dr. Strange, artist Steve Ditko had proceeded to stamp the character with his own distinctive vision, one not easily mimicked by anybody else. So pity veteran Bill Everett, the poor artist who had to follow in Ditko’s hallucinogenic footsteps. Not a stranger to quirky inventiveness, Everett had cut his teeth at Marvel in the 1940s when he invented Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner for Marvel Comics, the company’s very first comic book. But many years had passed since those halcyon days when readers were younger and less demanding. Everett returned to the fold in 1964 to draw the first issue of Daredevil but personal problems involving alcohol prevented him from keeping all important deadlines and Lee was forced to remove him from the strip after the first issue. With only ten pages to draw every month, it was perhaps thought that Everett could keep up with the work on “Dr. Strange” and so was tapped to take over the strip from Ditko. But Everett’s art, though adaptable for a feature like Daredevil, proved less than inspiring on “Dr. Strange” after Ditko’s razzle-dazzle, and he soon left (to be

reunited with his old creation Sub-Mariner over in Tales to Astonish). Everett’s departure however, didn’t mean any improvement for “Dr. Strange” as he was replaced by Marie Severin, an equally unsuitable successor. Severin entered the comics field as a colorist for the old EC Comics line in the 1950s before finding her way to Marvel in the mid-1960s where she performed the same duties as well as other art chores around the office. When Everett moved on, “Dr. Strange” became her first penciling assignment with Strange Tales #153. As her later work on Marvel’s self-parody title Not Brand Echh would show, Severin’s strong suit was humor, with touches of the silly that would become familiar to readers, later showing up in many of her figures on Dr. Strange. Severin’s art was serviceable, it did the job, and even though she later began doing cover designs (for Jack Kirby yet!) it would never find itself right for the brand of super-hero action demanded by the Marvel style. Much better suited for more realistic features, Severin would truly shine on Kull the Conqueror, a strip based on the character created by writer Robert E. Howard which the artist has acknowledged being of much greater interest to her. Severin’s stiff, quirky figures (and sometimes oddball character designs such as that for Zom and the Living Tribunal) would manage to hold down the fort until the arrival of newcomer Dan Adkins, a protégé of artist Wally Wood. Adkins in turn, would serve as the warm-up to Gene Colan’s fantastic turn at the strip when he took over after the double bill in Strange Tales was split into two separate titles. In a way, the “Dr. Strange” strip would become an example of the transition from the Kirbydominated grandiose years to the twilight years that were to be ruled by Colan’s photographic realism.

Fantastic Four #61 “Where Stalks the Sandman?”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks)

Easily Marie Severin’s masterpiece, her nine-issue run on Kull the Conqueror is second only to Barry Smith’s work on Conan.

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If readers had forgotten the brief incident in FF #57 where the Sandman escapes from State Prison, they were forcefully reminded in Fantastic Four #61 (April 1967), a perfect example of how the grand style was transforming formerly goofy villains into towering menaces. Wasn’t it Spider-Man who first defeated Sandman in the early, formative years by wiping him up with a vacuum cleaner? And in the years of consolidation, Sandman needed partners like the Enforcers or fellow members of the Frightful Four to help in tackling his enemies. No more. Now, as readers saw this issue, Sandman had more than enough power to put the entire FF on the ropes single-handed! And interestingly, it was done not by making him stronger,

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but merely applying some imagination and extrapolating the possibilities that were always implicit in his particular powers. For instance, trapping the FF in a corridor, Sandman fills it with his sand particles almost asphyxiating them before the Thing can let the sand out by punching a hole in the wall. Next, he whips back his sandy particles with such force that he creates a painful “tornado” and holds off both the Thing and Mr. Fantastic at once using two different applications of his power. Next, he finds the Invisible Girl by spreading sand on the floor and looking out for her footprints while snuffing out the Torch’s flame with a “sand cylinder.” In fact, the only way the FF can defeat him is by opening the doorway to the Negative Zone and having him sucked out of the Baxter Building! Unfortunately, the plan backfires: the Sandman anchors himself to the floor with his sandy power and escapes out a window while it’s Mr. Fantastic himself who winds up trapped in the Zone! Exemplifying the magic of the grandiose years, this story took an ordinary hero/villain donnybrook and turned it into something somehow grander and more epic. When the Sandman is caught in the draft of the Negative Zone and feels its powerful tug, he’s struck by the awesome forces being unleashed, and even though he can’t see where he’s being drawn to, he still senses that it’s something beyond his (or the readers’) ability to understand. “I never bargained for anything like this!” he says. “It’s like, the end of the world! It’s starting to pull me towards the open door into, what?”

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Fantastic Four #62 “And One Shall Save Him”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks)

Although Galactus and Ego might be considered the “twin peaks” of the grandiose years, the era produced other concepts just as exciting. Concepts like Sub-Atomica and the Negative Zone. Introduced back in FF #51, it wasn’t until this issue, Fantastic Four #62, that readers were given their first good look at the Zone. Initially referred to as “sub-space,”

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Fantastic Four #62, page 8. Reed Richards puts Marvel’s philosophy into words. If only we had listened!

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the idea behind the Negative Zone was actually old news in science fiction circles. Known there as “seetee” or contraterene matter, it was based on the theory that the universe was made up of positive and negative energy on an atomic level. Furthermore, when these two opposite forces come into contact, they’re immediately and mutually annihilated. Frequently, SF stories would imagine planetary systems, sometimes whole universes, made up of negative energy just waiting to make contact with our own, positively charged universe. When Lee and Kirby first introduced the Negative Zone in #51, they seemed uncertain about exactly what its properties were. It was obviously another universe, but people could breath there without a space suit and everything in that universe was apparently ultimately drawn to a single spot, a world that looked exactly like the Earth where everything exploded once making contact with its atmosphere. But was that world Earth at all? And if it was, why did everything get drawn toward it and how did it exist in the Negative Zone? Well, it didn’t matter anyway, as the mere idea of it was sufficiently awesome! Somehow, the way Kirby drew it (he came up with a fantastic, if completely incomprehensible, double-page collage showing Mr. Fantastic adrift in the vast reaches of the Zone) and the way Lee rhapsodized about it (“There is so much yet to learn…so much to see, and marvel at,” muses Reed as he drifts toward his inevitable doom. “What a pity it all must end so soon…before I have a chance to unravel the myriad mysteries of this strange, uncanny universe!”), it assumed strange, gigantic proportions pregnant with vast, unguessable wonders. And even though the menaces the FF often encountered there didn’t measure up to the Zone’s potentiality, they didn’t take away from its essential mysteriousness. Such was the case in Fantastic Four #62 (May 1967) with the introduction of Blastaar, the living bomb-burst! Sure he sounded nutty, but the guy was a hoot! And he was just one of the half-dozen things going on in this story. First there’s the continuing threat of Mr. Fantastic’s being trapped in the Zone, the sudden appearance of Crystal and Lockjaw (who were freed with the rest of the Inhumans back in #59) and of course the Sandman is still lurking around. Meanwhile, 160

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Crystal fetches Triton whose aquatic powers help him survive in the Negative Zone long enough to find and rescue Reed (“I shall not soon forget the courage and the iron nerve of your Mr. Fantastic!”). But unnoticed by anyone, the merciless Blastaar follows them to Earth, intent on conquering the planet for himself! But the real joy of this story, as it often was in the grandiose years, came from Lee. Not necessarily in the words he wrote, but the feelings he conveyed, the unvarnished optimism he never tired of communicating to his readers, the optimism and unbounded faith he had in the human race: “But, there will be others,” says Mr. Fantastic in what he assumes are his last moments of life. “…Those who come after me, and they will unlock the secrets of the cosmos, one by one. For, the mind of man is the greatest key in the world, the key which may one day open the door to…immortality! And each of us, in his own way, does what he can for those who will follow! That is the only true legacy we can leave to those we love…that we have made the world a little better than we found it!”

Fantastic Four #63 “Blastaar, the Living Bomb-Burst”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks)

“The power of ultimate destruction lies within my hands! The power to wipe out an enemy—to devastate an army—to obliterate a world!” says Blastaar in Fantastic Four #63 (June 1967) upon reaching the streets of New York. “I fear nothing! I can be stopped by no one! I am supreme! I am Blastaar!” “He’s goin’ mad! He’s drunk with power!” thinks his partner, the Sandman, and with good reason! We told you Blastaar was a hoot! The two villains teamed up at the conclusion of the previous issue when they accidentally bumped into each other atop the Baxter Building. But now, with Blastaar uncontrollable, they quickly draw the attention of the FF. The Possibly an inspiration for the Negative Zone, usual mayhem ensues Jack Williamson’s classic until Reed saves the Seetee Ship (Seetee = day by shoving one CT = Contra-Terrene of his handy gizmos matter—get it?) on Blastaar ’s head. belonged to a popular theme in science According to Reed, the fiction, that of device is supposed to negatively charged “prevent the explosive worlds and/or whole pressure from building universes in collision up within his body.” with positively charged Sure, but on Blastaar’s ones! head?

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The Mighty Thor #140 “The Growing Man”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) “The Battle Begins”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks)

(so-called because every time he hits something or something hits him, he grows) turns out to be one of Kang’s secret weapons (hidden on Earth against some future emergency or in the time traveling villain’s case, past emergency!) that’s gone out of control and threatens destruction on such a colossal scale that the whole planet becomes threatened by his increasing size. The interesting twist here is that Thor doesn’t defeat either Kang or the Growing Man; Kang subdues him with a dose of “cobalt energy,” re-shrinks the Growing Man to doll size and makes his escape back to the future in his time machine!

The Mighty Thor #140 (May 1967) can’t exactly be called a key turning point in storytelling style, nor does it offer an exciting new concept on the order of Ego or the Negative Zone. But it’s a great example of the perfection of the grandiose years. With all of its elements in place, the grand style had by now become more of a pervading spirit across the whole line-up of Marvel’s books rather than a Amazing Spider-Man consciously applied formula. #48 “The Wings of the Vulture!”; Stan And so, this issue’s story, Lee (script), John Romita (pen“The Growing Man,” although cils & inks) obviously a bit of a throwCover: John Romita back to the company’s earlier (pencils & inks) years (as Thor takes a The transition from Ditko’s breather between multi-part, tenure on Spider-Man to otherworldly epics with a Romita’s turned out to be few standalone stories fighting smoother than anyone thought. garden variety super-villains After his hesitant start with back on Earth) becomes a #s 39 and 40, Romita slipped celebration of the new dynamic. easily into his own style with And who better to put it #41 and then really began to across than the art team of pick up steam with #46. In no Kirby and Colletta, who time, the look and feel of the reached the apex of their book changed from one of collaboration with this issue. almost cloying teenaged Kirby’s monumental figures neuroticism to the more or (the shots of the growing less normal stresses and man dwarfing everything strains of growing up. It was around him) and Colletta’s Stan Lee and John Romita together like the visual equivalent of propelled the Spider-Man strip fine-line inking bringing the to new heights of popularity, giving Peter Parker new selfart into sharp relief coupled surpassing the FF as Marvel’s most confidence by having his with Lee’s high-blown dialogue successful title. acne clear up. Suddenly, his gives the story all the regal features were more regular bearing expected of the grand style. And yet, even with such a rarefied and less angular, he smiled more than he frowned, tone, the whole thing moves smoothly from panel and for the first time actually had friends. What’s to panel without an awkward line or misplaced more, he had an attractive girlfriend in Gwen punctuation mark. By the time a reader finished Stacey (who also happened to be a science this story, there’d be little question that the major!), an admirer in the vivacious Mary Jane Growing Man (and the Super Skrull and Replicus in Watson and shared a swanky apartment with the following issues) belonged in Thor’s pantheon Harry Osborn (son of Norman Osborn, the Green of outsized antagonists every bit as much as Goblin!). Years of drawing romance books weaned Pluto, Loki or the evolved Man-Wolf. That went Romita off the use of heavy blacks and shadow for former Avengers’ bad guy Kang the and so the strip had grown brighter with Spidey’s Conqueror too, who becomes a formidable battles taking place in wide, open areas like busy enough enemy in this story to tackle Thor all by traffic intersections, cavernous bank lobbies, his lonesome. The somewhat nutty Growing Man rooftops and zoological gardens instead of dank The Grandiose Years

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he escapes the prison in a snowstorm, finds the costume and makes his getaway. Meanwhile, Peter Parker has caught the flu and can hardly stand, but when he hears of the new Vulture’s crime spree, feels obligated to tackle him. Catching up with him atop a snowy George Washington Bridge, he finds that the flu has sapped his energy and winds up unconscious and left for dead by the Vulture. Romita’s big panels show off to full advantage the visual possibilities of a character with wings as the Vulture swoops and dives against a distant background of bright, snow-covered rooftops. Equally at home indoors as he is in the skies over Manhattan, Romita also manages to follow Peter Parker to his school and apartment as New York digs itself out of several inches of snow.

Amazing Spider-Man #49 “From The Depths of Defeat!”; Stan Lee (script), John Romita (pencils), Mike Esposito [uncredited] (inks) Cover: John Romita (pencils & inks)

The Spider-Man character broke out onto the pop-culture scene in a big way in 1967 when he starred in his own Saturday morning cartoon show. “Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can!”

cellars, darkened warehouses or back alleys. And taking a tip from Kirby, Romita began to vary the size of his panels frequently using large, quarterpage panels for Spidey’s battle scenes, which included large, full-size figures swinging, jumping and leaping at one another. In short, Romita (and Lee) broke the book wide open and made it more accessible to a contemporary readership. Amazing Spider-Man #48 (May 1967) is the perfect example of that. Opening in the medical ward of Municipal Prison, the reader witnesses what seems to be the last moments of the Vulture as he lies dying in an infirmary bed. Thinking the end has come, he tells cellmate Blackie Drago where to find his costume on condition that he promises to kill Spider-Man. Blackie promises, but has no intention of going after Spidey. Later that night, 162

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The blurb on the cover read “You name it… this one’s got it!”, and doggone it if it wasn’t true! The conclusion of the three-part (sort of!) Kraven/Vulture storyline (begun in #47), Amazing Spider-Man #49 (June 1967) was the epitome of what Lee and Romita were doing to make Spider-Man the top selling book at Marvel. It starts with a cover that hits the reader right between the eyes with a simple but action-packed layout by Romita; colorful and full of movement, it couldn’t help but grab the attention of anyone casually browsing the magazine racks. Inside, Kraven the Hunter is in a rage because the Vulture is stealing his thunder and vows to pin his feathers back. Meanwhile, convinced her nephew is running a fever, Aunt May insists that Peter stay in bed while she calls the doctor. Across town, Kraven catches up with the Vulture and forces him into the city’s Exhibition Hall. Hearing the news, Peter can’t keep himself away: if he timed it right, he could bag both bad guys at once! But tackling two desperate killers was easy next to sneaking out of his apartment without his aunt finding out! But he manages it, spending the next seven pages in Romita-style action before polishing off Kraven and the Vulture in time to get back home and into bed just as Dr. Bromwell shows up! But as good as Romita’s art was on this book, it was Lee’s scripting that gave it its heart and soul. Even in the years before the debut of FF #1, Lee was writing almost every book the company

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published. His performance was professional but workmanlike with rarely a flash of real inspiration. But when he began his new line of super-heroes, the approach he took for them seemed to ignite his interest. His writing was no more prolific than it was before, but now he seemed to take an extra joy in his work. Quickly, the style of his writing improved, became increasingly more sophisticated and versatile. By the time of the grandiose years, he was writing in a number of different voices, clearly adapting his style to suit individual books. The style he used for Thor was vastly different from the one he used for the FF, which was different from his scripting on Daredevil. It was no less so for Spider-Man where he fell into a kind of breezy, hip, with-it patois of his own invention (sort of a cross between 1940s colloquialisms and 1960s counter-cultural jargon) that somehow not only felt just right for the strip, but resonated with his youthful readers. The natural ease with which Lee placed words in the mouths of his now-generation characters (“Gwen! M.J.! Wow…I feel like I won a raffle!” exclaims Harry as the two girls walk into his apartment. “You know it, son! We were passing by and thought Petey-o could use some cheering up!” replies Mary Jane. “You know our motto: chase the blues away…with Gwen and M.J.!” “When Peter wakes up and sees what he missed, he’ll kill himself!” “Well, if Pete is napping, we’d better fold our tents and vanish into the night!” “You think I’d let you slip away that easy? Don’t make a move pussycat! He can’t sleep forever!”) was in sharp contrast to painful attempts by the competition to do the same. The atmosphere of up-to-date fun that followed

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Lee’s scripting acted as an antidote to the heavy angst that had pervaded the strip in the Ditko years (where even if Peter managed to solve all his problems, anxiety still remained, preventing true happiness). Now, his problems were of a different kind; instead of being excluded and alienated, Peter worried mostly about relationships. But relationships could be mended and happiness finally, became at least possible. In a word, Lee made Peter Parker accessible to a wider range of readers. Where Ditko may have preferred to keep Peter in the hothouse atmosphere created by high school peer pressure, Lee broadened his appeal by allowing him to grow into young adulthood.

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Chasing the blues away. Sketch by John Romita. Gwen Stacy along with Mary Jane became Marvel’s version of the eternal question: Betty or Veronica?

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Amazing Spider-Man #50 “Spider-Man No More!”; Stan Lee (script), John Romita (pencils), Mike Esposito [as Mickey Demeo] (inks) Cover: John Romita (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks)

Like the story in #18 where Peter determines to give up his costumed identity, the story in Amazing Spider-Man #50 (July 1967) serves as a clear transition from one phase of our hero’s life to another. But where the first story seemed to divide Peter’s earlier, more gawky career with a later, more self-assured one, this new story marks a break between the Ditko/teenaged years to the young adulthood Lee was determined to move the character into. Here, Lee makes explicit what had only been implicit in his first year’s collaboration with Romita. “I was just a young, unthinking teenager—when I first became Spider-Man,” thinks Peter as he walks along empty, night-darkened, rain-slicked streets in a moody twopage sequence by Romita. “But, the years have a way of slipping by—of changing the world about us. And, every boy—sooner or later—must put away his toys—and become—a man!” But Peter’s reasons for quitting the super-hero life are false rationalizations borne of doubts implanted in his mind by the relentless journalistic attacks against his alter ego by J. Jonah Jameson. The truth, however, has only been pushed temporarily into his sub-conscious. The lesson he learned when he first became Spider-Man (with great power, there also comes great responsibility) is still there, waiting to remind him of his duty. But first, he has to grow into a new realization of it. And so, the first few days after his decision seem to be carefree but he soon begins to find that friends and family members have lives of their own, that the satisfaction of even academic success ring hollow without a purpose larger than personal aggrandizement. “So I gave up being Spider-Man to have more time for my family—and my friends—only to find—they don’t need me!” It takes a minor incident requiring his intervention to prevent a night watchman from being killed to see how he’d been fooling himself. “Now at last—it’s all crystal clear to me once more! I can never renounce my Spider-Man identity…No matter how unbearable the burden may be—no matter how great my personal sacrifice—I can never permit one innocent being to come to harm—because SpiderMan failed to act.” Peter had made all the outward moves of growing maturity including learning to socialize and moving into his own apartment, but inside he’d failed to keep up psychologically. At last he’d come to terms with his super-heroic identity, accepting it as a part of his life as real as his 164

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relationships with family and friends. Like most young people, he learned not to rely on his peers’ estimation of what was right and wrong, what was in and what was out, but on his own. It didn’t matter what others thought of Spider-Man’s impulses, only that he understood them. Now, at last, Peter Parker had become his own man.

Amazing Spider-Man #51 “In The Clutches of...The Kingpin!”; Stan Lee (script), John Romita (pencils), Mike Esposito [as Mickey Demeo] (inks) Cover: John Romita (pencils & inks)

After months of holding the spotlight on colorful, costumed villains, Amazing Spider-Man #51 (Aug. 1967) turned it back on organized crime, an element that in the Ditko years, had always played a prominent role in the book’s plots. Sure, characters like the Molten Man, the Green Goblin and Electro were fun, but it had always been the various gangs of hoodlums that festered in New York’s underworld that could be relied upon for page after page of exciting, acrobatic action as Spidey joked his way through the fights. And behind the rank and file there was always the boss who ended up matching wits with our hero, whether it was the Big Man, the Crime Master or Lucky Lobo. The one thing they all had in common, though, was the look and feel of the gangster style as exemplified in Hollywood movies of the 1930s and ’40s. With this issue, though, Spidey’s gangsters were brought up to date (well almost! “This is insane! Nobody gets taken for rides any more—except on the Untouchables!”

Oversize actor Sydney Greenstreet (seen here in a scene from the film Casablanca with Humphrey Bogart) was John Romita’s inspiration for the Kingpin.

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whines J. Jonah Jameson after being kidnapped by the mob) and in the Kingpin, they had their most formidable mastermind! Romita has said that he based the Kingpin’s look on actor Sidney Greenstreet (the “fat man” in The Maltese Falcon [1941]) and his combination of strength and savvy made him a dangerous enemy for Spidey. Under Ditko, mobsters would never have been considered by anyone as fashion plates, but Romita fixed that too, bulking them up and clothing them in tweed overcoats, scarves, cravats and fedoras as well as well coiffed hair cuts! The Kingpin himself was known publicly as a successful businessman, occupying a well appointed penthouse office suite that included a marbletopped desk but secretly lusted after the untaxed billions only dirty money could bring. And so, beginning in #50, he begins his bid for taking over all of New York City’s mobs. He unleashes a crime wave, which Spidey at first ignores (due to Peter’s having quit his costumed identity) then jumps into with both feet. But through twists and turns (Jameson is kidnapped in retaliation for his exposés on the crime wave and former gangster Frederick Foswell boldly challenges the Kingpin’s delusions of grandeur), Spidey ends up defeated and captured by the Kingpin!

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marked a final, symbolic end to Lee and Ditko’s former collaborative tenure on the book. Introduced in #10, Foswell entered the title’s cast of characters as the Big Man, a kind of early version of the Kingpin. Defeated by Spider-Man, he was eventually released from prison and hired by Jameson as a journalist. Assuming the identity of Patch the stoolie, Foswell used his familiarity with the city’s underworld to dig up stories for the Daily Bugle, and became its star reporter. But despite Spider-Man’s suspicions, Foswell always kept his nose clean. That lasted until #51 when jealousy of the Kingpin prompted him to come out into

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Amazing Spider-Man #52 “To Die A Hero!”; Stan Lee (script), John Romita (pencils), Mike Esposito [as Mickey Demeo] (inks) Cover: John Romita (pencils & inks)

One of the last questions left over from the strip’s early years, the fate of Frederick Foswell in Amazing Spider-Man #52 (Sept. 1967),

Amazing Spider-Man #51, page 14. JJJ gets taken for a ride and bad guys still wear hats!

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the open and challenge the crime boss for leadership of the underworld. But the Kingpin proved too smart for him, forcing Foswell to compromise his position with Jameson so that there’d be no turning back. In the meantime, the Kingpin’s plan to kill Spider-Man and Jameson this issue falls through and just as the crime boss is about to try the same with Foswell, he’s interrupted by our escaped hero. Realizing at last that he was way over his head (“Cold blooded murder just isn’t my style,” Foswell tells the murderous Kingpin), Foswell grabs a gun and goes looking for Jameson. He finds him in the basement being chased by a couple of the Kingpin’s men. Shoving Jameson to safety, Foswell tells him, “You’re the only one who ever helped me—or gave me a second chance! I didn’t want you to be hurt!” But the odds catch up with Foswell when he takes a bullet meant for Jameson. “Jameson had gambled right—for once!” muses Spider-Man, who arrived on the scene too late. “He gave an ex-con a job—a second chance. And when the chips were down, Foswell repaid the debt— the only way he could—with his life!” thinks Spidey. “I don’t know how—or why—he got involved with the Kingpin,” says Jameson. “But, there’s one thing I do know. When Fred Foswell breathed his last—he died a hero!” If Foswell’s death marked the symbolic end of Ditko’s presence on the SpiderMan book, it couldn’t have been done in a more poignant, better written and drawn story than this one, a story that at the same time proved to be one of the high points of the grandiose years. 166

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Daredevil #29 “Unmasked”; Stan Lee (script), Gene Colan (pencils), John Tartaglione (inks) Cover: Gene Colan (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks)

Gangsters were also on the menu over in Daredevil #29 (June 1967). The difference here being that the mob involved is an interesting mix of ordinary hoodlums (led by the Boss, obviously a guy with little imagination!) and the costumed henchmen of the Masked Marauder (who were at loose ends with the literal “disappearance” of their leader in #27!) Although the ground level DD strip wasn’t exactly suited

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Daredevil #29, page 7. DD meets his maker—so to speak!

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for such concepts as Galactus and Ego, it too Daredevil #30 nevertheless became infused with the spirit of the “If There Should Be a Thunder God”; Stan Lee (script), grand style. By now, Lee and Colan had fallen into a Gene Colan (pencils), John Tartaglione (inks) creative groove on the strip where they could do no Cover: Gene Colan (pencils), John Tartaglione (inks) wrong (well, okay, there was the inexplicable matter Deciding to pit long time Thor villains Cobra and of Matt turning out to be wearing his blind man’s Mr. Hyde against the non-super-powered DD shades beneath his DD mask on the cover!) Stories was a good idea, but throwing in the twist of flowed as easily as water rushing downhill, carrying having Daredevil tackle the two of them without the reader along with breathless ease. Colan’s layout’s the help of his super-senses was inspiration! It all especially became looser, with big, bold panels begins simply enough in Daredevil #30 (July 1967) taking most of the space on a page, but in odd with an old-fashioned crossover as DD, suspecting shapes that left bits of room for close-ups on such that the Cobra and Mr. Hyde were the culprits in things as people’s faces or hands grasping doorknobs. a recent robbery, dresses himself up as Thor (and Lee meanwhile, made juggling the increasingly in the process multiplying the number of identities complicated relationships between Matt, Karen, he has to keep straight to four: Matt Murdock, Foggy and Matt’s imaginary brother “Mike” seem Daredevil, Mike Murdock and the thunder god!) effortless. This issue for instance, opens with Matt in order to lure them from hiding. Instead, he Murdock making the momentous decision to ask attracts the attention of the real thunder god Karen to marry him. His problem? “Do I propose to who’s understandably upset that someone has her as Matt Murdock—or as my own ‘twin brother,’ been swinging around town impersonating him Mike?” Nervous about his decision, Matt retires to and spouting Lee’s hip dialogue: “Forsooth! his private gym for a little workout where, in a full- Have ye no word of greeting for the mighty page scene, the reader is treated to a patented Colan Thor?” “What—should we—say?” “Say it isn’t “strobe” effect; a visual device the artist developed so, pussycat!” But after explaining to Thor that to denote speed and movement that was much his intentions were entirely honorable, he gets superior to the more traditional method of using jumped by the Cobra and Hyde. After a brief “speed lines.” Meanwhile, the Masked Marauder’s mix-up, DD follows them to their hideout. There, men are making their move to avenge the defeat of Hyde douses him with a chemical that’s supposed their leader. Unfortunately, on their way to the to render him sightless but since Daredevil is offices of Nelson and Murdock (whom they still already blind, it strips him of all his heightened believe hold a connection to DD), they’re intercepted senses instead! by the Boss and forced to join his gang. Kidnapping Karen, they hole Daredevil #31 up in a lonely house on the outskirts “Blind Man’s Bluff”; Stan Lee (script), Gene Colan (pencils), of town (located on “Midnight Road” John Tartaglione (inks) of course!) and hunker down to await Cover: Gene Colan (pencils), DD’s inevitable rescue attempt. The Frank Giacoia (inks) high-powered action finale by Colan was some of the best work he ever Okay, let’s see if we can’t get this did up to that time, but as good as straight: Daredevil received his powers this single-issue story was, it was as the result of a freak accident when only a pause before the clever threehe was a teenager. The accident parter that began the next issue. Fun blinded him but left his remaining four fact: Lee makes a cameo appearance senses heightened to super-sensitivity. early in this story when DD apparently In addition, he also found himself in finds himself climbing 625 Madison possession of a kind of natural Avenue! “Daredevil! Man, what a “radar” that allowed him to sense surprise this is! You’re the last fella I objects around him, in effect, granting Inker John expected to see!” exclaims Lee. “Can’t him 360-degree vision. While no subTartaglione did good stop now, Stan—I’m in a hurry!” stitute for real sight, the combination work over Colan, “But, wait! If ol’ Gene finds out he of these powers allowed him to balancing the missed you—” “He’ll get over it! See move about with far more assurance penciler’s shadows you around, tiger!” “Okay, hang with added details. than any sighted person. loose, hero!” Consequently, even though he acted The Grandiose Years

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Marvelmania

An attempt to create another club like the MMMS,

Marvel made the mistake of contracting out operations for Marvelmania, which soon crashed and burned. It did come out with some really nice, even iconic posters though!

the part of a blind man, Matt Murdock never really learned how to cope with actual sightlessness. But now, as a result of being struck by Mr. Hyde’s chemical, he had to learn fast! (Hyde had been unaware that DD was already blind and so his formula, which was supposed to rob him of his sight, instead reduced all of his other senses to normalcy!) That’s where matters stood for our hero in the opening pages of the appropriately titled “Blind Man’s Bluff” in Daredevil #31 (Aug. 1967). The interesting thing was, that instead of action, the excitement this issue is derived entirely from DD’s efforts not only to cope with true blindness, but to do it in such a way that none of his enemies realize his helplessness! Unfortunately, Hyde and the Cobra hardly give him a chance to breathe, forcing him to come into the open in a desperate attempt to convince them that he can still see. He succeeds, but only temporarily! 168

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Daredevil #32 “To Fight the Impossible Fight”; Stan Lee (script), Gene Colan (pencils), John Tartaglione (inks) Cover: Gene Colan (pencils), John Tartaglione (inks)

In the slam-bang finish of the Cobra/Hyde plotline, Lee and Colan wrap everything up in one of the most thrilling, action-packed and unlikely stories they ever came up with! In the two previous issues, they’d gotten our hero into one of the most impossible situations any super-hero ever found himself in: a blind man versus two super-powered bad guys who’d given even Thor a run for his money! That was the easy part, now they had to find a way to get him out of it! But pull it off they do in Daredevil #32 (Sept. 1967). Picking up where the Cobra had captured DD the issue before, our hero is taken to a deserted lighthouse where Mr. Hyde has set-up a typical mad scientist’s laboratory. The two villains plan to kill him there, but when they begin to quarrel between themselves, DD takes the opportunity to slip into the generator room

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and turn out the lights. Still blind, but more at home in the darkness than Cobra or Hyde, Daredevil manages to hold his own against them until Hyde panics and reveals that there’s an antidote to his blindness potion! Of course, DD eventually gets ahold of it, but not before the reader is treated to fight scenes filled with clever and inventive details that make such an unequal match-up almost believable! The whole three-part story was a tour de force that made it plain to readers that it wasn’t safe to assume that some of Marvel’s books could be left unbought! The magic of the grand style was everywhere in those days (okay, it was iffy with the “Hulk,” “Dr. Strange” and “SHIELD” strips) and everywhere it brought the level of the company’s storytelling to new heights of wonder and delight.

Fantastic Four #64 “The Sentry Sinister”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks)

Deep into the grandiose years, the ideas just kept on coming! Following the epic Dr. Doom/Silver Surfer and Negative Zone stories, Lee and Kirby didn’t give their readers a chance to catch their collective breaths as they plunged them into their next cosmic saga. Recasting an old science fiction idea into a colorful super-hero story in Fantastic Four #64 (July 1967), the two men introduce readers to the Kree, aliens possessing a vast, galactic empire and to whom the Earth is nothing more than an inconsequential backwater. So unimportant is it that no Kree has even visited the planet for tens of thousands of years. However, as is their custom, they left behind a robotic Sentry to guard their deserted outpost against intrusion. Thematically, the function of the Kree, like Galactus, was to underline the insignificant place man held in the scheme of the universe, and like that earlier story, Lee would use them to prove the worth of the human race—that qualities like love, courage and honor trump any technologically advanced but morally decadent society. It was a message that struck a sympathetic chord with the young people reading Marvel comics as they began to question the values of their own society which, while reaching for the Moon, could still be wracked with problems of race, pollution and war. When he arrives on Earth in the following issue, Ronan makes this point clear: “Their sociological structure is still economically oriented—and their scientific advances have far outdistanced their moral and spiritual concepts! Though learning to master their physical world, they are still sorely beset by greed, hatred, fear and other viruses of the spirit!” In any case, the FF’s problems with the Kree don’t end this issue with their defeat of the Sentry, they only continue into the next!

Reality lagged considerably behind events in the Marvel universe where the FF had already walked the surface of half a dozen alien worlds before Neil Armstrong ever set foot on the moon!

Fantastic Four #65 “From Beyond This Planet Earth”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks)

If the FF thought their adventure with the Sentry marked the end of their involvement with the Kree, they were sorely disappointed. Fantastic Four #65 (Aug. 1967) opens with all four of them experiencing the same kind of dream: a creature calling itself the “Supreme Intelligence of the majestic race of the Kree” accuses them of destroying private property (the Sentry) and vows to pass judgment on them. In no time, a “public accuser” named Ronan is winging his way across the star lanes to carry out the sentence ordained by the Supreme Intelligence, the nature of which couldn’t come as any surprise to long time readers! Meanwhile, the FF are finally getting in some R&R as Johnny takes Crystal for a ride in his new hot rod and Reed and Sue do the town (not to mention blind Alicia Masters, the Thing’s girlfriend, being taken away by a mysterious stranger). Obviously not a guy to worry over the social niceties, Ronan transports the team members from whatever they were doing The Grandiose Years

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Herb Trimpe The man whose name would become synomous with the

Hulk began work at Marvel as an ordinary photostat machine operator and production assistant. Educated at the School of Visual Arts, Trimpe worked in the comics field briefly at Dell before joining the Air Force and serving in Vietnam for a year. When he left the service in 1966, former classmate John Verpoorten told him about the production job at Marvel and a legend was born!

into his “cone of impenetrability” for quick trial and execution (“I must insist upon silence during the period of accusation!”). Of course, the FF aren’t going to sit still for any kind of kangaroo court and attack their accuser, but through use of his “universal weapon,” Ronan proves a dangerous match for all of them. However, stop him they do, but in doing so, alert the Kree that the Earth poses a new and formidable challenge to their galactic supremacy!

The Mighty Thor #142 “The Scourge of the Super Skrull”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) “We, Who Are About to Die...!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks)

The Mighty Thor #142 (July 1967) is another perfect example of how the grand style had by this point completely reinterpreted the manner in which even the simplest stories at Marvel were being presented. Remember how in the early years and the years of consolidation Thor spent almost all of his time on Earth battling such relatively mundane super-villains as the Grey Gargoyle, the Absorbing Man and the Cobra and Mr. Hyde? Recall also how those stories were drawn? Kirby’s figures were usually of such size as to fit comfortably in a five- or six-panel per page layout structure and inkers such as Chic Stone kept everything simple and easy to follow. But with the rise of the grandiose years, Kirby’s layouts expanded, frequently using full- and sometimes double-page spreads, and inkers such as Joe Sinnott, Vince Colletta and later Syd Shores, all artists in their own right, were ideal collaborators whose skills played into what Kirby was doing. In addition, and for the Thor strip especially, Lee’s scripting had since assumed a quasi-archaic eloquence never even 170

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hinted at in earlier issues. In “The Scourge of the Super Skrull,” readers were presented with the results of this new kind of pencil/ink/script collaboration undiluted (if that’s the appropriate term!) by a world-threatening menace, issues of social relevance or even high-flown commentary on the state of mankind. What they had here was an old-fashioned super-hero/super-villain slugfest taken to an extreme of action, destruction and grandeur that had become the norm for the grandiose years. It begins “almost beyond the reach of human imagination itself” where Thor’s evil brother Loki has been exiled to a “lonely, endless space-time continuum.” From there, he determines to strike at his brother by placing in the mind of the Super-Skrull (who also happens to be in exile) the idea of regaining favor in the eyes of his angry masters by attacking and defeating Thor. Possessed of all the powers of his old enemies, the Fantastic Four, the Skrull wastes little time in destroying public property in order to lure the thunder god into the open. What follows is bludgeoning battle action that nobody could deliver quite like Kirby as buildings are ripped from their foundations and ribbons of “anti-force” lash the city. Enhancing Kirby’s powerful figure drawing is Colletta’s fine-line detailing of every muscle and crumbling brick and the application of a crosshatching technique that allowed him a wider, more creative use of shading than any spotting of simple blacks could’ve given. But this issue’s return to simpler times was only a breather before the strip fell back onto the type of gargantuan menaces readers had come to expect from Thor in the grandiose years: menaces such as the deadly Enchanters, beings as powerful as Odin himself and for whom Balder and Thor’s girlfriend the Lady Sif go looking for in the mysterious reaches of Ringsfjord!

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The Mighty Thor #143 “And Soon Shall Come the Enchanters”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Bill Everett (inks) “To The Death”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Bill Everett (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks)

By the time of The Mighty Thor #143 (Aug. 1967), the upward momentum of Silver Age Marvel’s development had already peaked with the Galactus and Ego stories. It was followed by a period in which the high standards set in the early part of the grandiose years was maintained across most of the company’s titles. But eventually all good things come to an end. After the Enchanters storyline here and the concurrent Beehive plot in the Fantastic Four, the Lee/Kirby creative team at last began to show signs of tatter. In particular, plot lines became thinner and unnecessarily stretched out and story ideas didn’t seem as revolutionary as they used to. To many readers, the sensation of being part of something fresh and exciting at the dawn of Marvel’s Silver Age began to wear thin. Despite some fallow periods, other titles (with their different mixes of creative teams) like Spider-Man, Daredevil and the Avengers would continue to offer what readers had come to expect from the Marvel style, but the Lee/Kirby collaborations seemed to be running out of steam. Maybe it was because each man’s contributions to the partnership were so equal that neither could move their books too strongly in any one direction. Maybe it was because Lee had allowed Kirby (whose inclinations leaned more toward power fantasies than

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characterization or social commentary) too much freedom in plotting their books. Or maybe it was as simple as Lee becoming more interested in his public relations pursuits outside the Marvel offices. Whatever the reason, when this issue hit the stands in early 1967, the great days of the grandiose years were already numbered. Which is not to say that Lee and Kirby still didn’t have what it took to tell stories on a grand scale! Just check out “And

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The Mighty Thor #143, page 10. Thor’s last hurrah. Kirby and Everett turn in a masterpiece of the grandiose years with this first chapter of the Enchanters storyline. It would be followed by a slow but steady decline in story quality through the Mangog saga as single-issue stories failed to recapture the epic scope of earlier tales.

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Soon Shall Come: The Enchanters,” which begins deep in the land of Ringsfjord as Balder and Sif ride in search of the Enchanters, three brothers, Forsung, Magnir and Brona—beings who derived their power from the “living talisman” displayed upon their chests. Finding them, they prove too much for the two Asgardians to handle and the two escape to Earth in the nick of time. Meanwhile, the Enchanters split up: Brona and Magnir follow Balder and Sif to Earth while Forsung goes to challenge Odin himself in single combat. Taking over on the inking chores this issue is Bill Everett whose coarser, more literal interpretation of Kirby’s pencils, while satisfactory in preserving the spirit of the images, nevertheless fell short of Colletta’s softer, more appropriate fine line meticulousness. Fun fact: This issue opens with the classic malt shop sequence where Thor runs into a band of curious teenagers while slaking his thirst with an ice cream soda. “You can’t cut out without givin’ us the lowdown on your pad in Asgard,” one of the kids pleads. Pleased at their interest, Thor complies, and gives them (and no doubt new readers, too!) a description of the home of the gods that only Kirby’s mighty pen could translate in visual terms!

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The Mighty Thor #144 “This Battleground Earth”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) “The Beginning of the End”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks)

Things were back to normal in The Mighty Thor #144 (Sept. 1967) as Colletta returned to the inking chores just in time for some of Kirby’s most awesome imagery. Admittedly, its since been shown that Colletta cut corners significantly this issue (and in others) in his work covering Kirby’s pencils. There can be no doubt that by doing so, he reduced the impact of the art and abused the trust of the artist who might expect that his work would be respected. Yes, comic books are a

The Mighty Thor #144, page 6. As can be seen in this comparison, inker Vince Colletta provided ample reason for some fans to resent his work over Kirby’s pencils. Backgrounds have been eliminated in panel 1 with an oversimplification of Kirby’s carefully articulated skyscrapers in panel 3.

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Roy Thomas When he was just a fan in America’s Midwest, the man who was

destined to fill the larger-than-life shoes of editor Stan Lee actually wanted to work for DC with its stable of classic characters rather than Marvel who could only boast a handful of newly minted super-heroes. Born in 1940, Roy Thomas grew up reading comics and eventually began writing and drawing his own. Graduating college in 1961, he began teaching school, but more and more of his time was taken up with comics fandom, which in turn put him in touch with editors at DC. He had written a script for Jimmy Olsen when DC editor Mort Weisinger tapped him in 1965 as his assistant, but that job lasted only eight days before Thomas had enough of his overbearing boss and jumped over to Marvel, first as a staff writer then as editorial assistant. Eventually, he would rise to editor-in-chief, taking over when Lee was promoted to publisher.

business and work produced at that time by both writers and artists was not only considered disposable but almost worthless after the books for which it was intended had been published. But there could be no excuse (except maybe looming deadlines) for deleting whole figures and backgrounds and oversimplifying objects the artist had spent a good deal of time rendering. The only compensation for Colletta doing such things was his undoubted skill and suitability in being matched up with Kirby on Thor. Take this issue’s battle between the thunder god and two of the Enchanters. A few pages of action on a chunk of earth (which the Enchanters have levitated high over the city) are followed by a beautifully rendered full-page shot of Thor bearing Magnir to the ground. Colletta’s now familiar use of fine line inking accentuates the look of Kirby’s original pencils better than any other inker. Where Everett the issue before (and others since) would’ve simply blacked in areas of shadow, Colletta’s approach lets in light, making two-dimensional figures seem more weighty and massive than they really are. Another of Colletta’s strengths is his ability to make such “special effects” as Kirby’s various manifestations of crackling energy seem more intense or more violent. Good examples of that this issue include the image of the living talisman when it appears in Dr. Blake’s office, the figure of Forsung as he’s struck by a bolt from Odin’s scepter and the figures of Thor and Magnir as they glow in the light of “a million suns.” Sadly, Colletta’s penchant for cutting corners and presumably saving time seemed only to grow worse from this point on, giving Kirby’s work a feeling of incompleteness it didn’t deserve.

Avengers #43 “Color Him the Red Guardian”; Roy Thomas (script), John Buscema (pencils), George Roussos [as George Bell] (inks) Cover: John Buscema (pencils), George Roussos (inks)

Away from Kirby’s influence, Lee almost always preferred that the emphasis of storytelling be concentrated on characterization rather than the grandiose triumphalism of Thor and the Fantastic Four. In strips like Spider-Man, Iron Man and Daredevil it became more interesting to read about the heroes’ personal lives rather than their latest bouts with supervillains. Such was the case with the Avengers whose line-up Lee had changed radically early on. The substitution of relatively low-powered heroes such as Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch and Hawkeye for Thor, Iron Man and Giant-Man seemed to force a heavier emphasis on personality and plot instead of action. Furthermore, with no titles of their own, there was the additional freedom to mold and shape the characters however the writer wanted. Thus the Avengers feature became sort of an insiders’ Marvel comic, heavily scripted and more tightly plotted than the much looser style employed by Kirby. That was about where things stood when writer Roy Thomas took over the scripting chores from Lee with #35. One of the first fans to break into the comics business as a professional, Thomas stayed very briefly with DC before making the jump to Marvel where Lee hired him as a full-time writer. Beginning on westerns and teen humor books, Thomas soon graduated to the hero titles filling in here and there until finally taking over The Grandiose Years

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permanently on the X-Men, SubMariner and Sgt. Fury. Gaining Lee’s trust, he eventually took over the much more important Avengers title. Taking his cue from the years of consolidation and his own fascination with continuity, Thomas continued to build on the interrelationships between the team’s members begun by Lee and soon added elements from elsewhere in the growing Marvel universe: Hawkeye and the Black Widow renewed their on again/off again relationship, Giant-Man (now known as Goliath) was for a while trapped at giant size and Hercules joined the team. Over the years, Thomas would make the Avengers the gathering place for almost every Marvel hero without a home. In a way, he brought to full, robust fruition what Lee had been angling at for years: developing inter-title continuity to such a degree that it became as integral to the grand style as Kirby’s cosmicism or Lee’s belief in the human spirit. Such was the case with Avengers #43 (Aug. 1967) in which Thomas introduces the Red Guardian, sort of a dark Captain America created by the Soviets. But there’s a twist: the Red Guardian is actually the long-believed-dead husband of the Black Widow! As would be expected, complications arise as Thomas dips into past continuity (this time old “Iron Man” stories from Tales of Suspense) and uses previous events as a springboard to tell new stories. At the same time, by adding more details to their back stories, he enriches the character histories of Hawkeye and the Black Widow, making them more interesting to read about and leaving readers demanding more. 174

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Avengers #44 “The Valiant Also Die”; Roy Thomas (script), John Buscema (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) Cover: John Buscema (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks)

And more was what they got in Avengers #44 (Sept. 1967) as the rest of the team catches up to Hawkeye and Hercules, who were captured by

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Avengers #44, page 11. Cap battles his dark opposite courtesy of Roy Thomas, John Buscema, and Vince Colletta in the second part of the Red Guardian saga. In his work on the Avengers, Thomas managed to find the balance between Lee and Kirby bringing the cosmicism prevalent in the grandiose years under control and injecting it with a strain of human interest.

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John Buscema D

uring Marvel’s Silver Age of comics when superheroes were the order of the day, John Buscema became a favorite with fans as the dynamic artist of the Avengers and later the Silver Surfer, Thor, and the FF. But with an extensive background in classical art training from the High School of Music and Art, the Pratt Institute, and the Brooklyn Museum, Buscema’s true interest lay in more grittily realistic subjects such as Conan the Barbarian where his early interest in such newspaper adventure strips as Prince Valiant and Terry and the Pirates would come to the fore. Born in 1927, Buscema began drawing when just a child before being sidetracked into sports. Training as a boxer, he drew some illustrations of local fighters that were published, and the next thing he knew he was working as a staff artist for Timely Comics where he drew everything from soup to nuts. A stint in the Army was followed by a return to Timely/Atlas where he worked until the company downsized in the mid-1950s. For the balance of the decade, Buscema worked in commercial art and kicked around the comics field, notably for Dell Comics where he did a plethora of movie and television adaptations. Finally, as Marvel Comics began to pick up steam in the mid-1960s, editor Stan Lee contacted him to do fill-in work on the “SHIELD” and “Hulk” strips before assigning him a permanent berth with the Avengers. So successful was Buscema at Marvel that his style would even eclipse that of Jack Kirby as the look of Marvel, and his book How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way would become a bestseller.

Love Journal #20 (top left), our publishing co., 1953. Wanted Comics #52 (left), toytown, 1953. Love Diary #36 (inset), quality comics, 1953.

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the Soviets in the previous issue. After the shock of discovering that her husband was not only still alive, but transformed into the Red Guardian, the Black Widow convinces her former masters that she never defected to the Americans but is still loyal to them. Meanwhile, a broken-hearted Hawkeye hopes his teammates don’t become embroiled in a mess of his own making. But of course, if they didn’t, how could there be any action? Making the scene, the Avengers tear up the secret base as the battle culminates in the not unexpected face-off between those two symbols of East and West, the Red Guardian and Captain America. Stalemated, when the Soviets find out that the Widow lied to them about her loyalties, they try to kill her, but then, with his eyes opened at last to their evil duplicity, the Guardian throws himself in the path of the bullet meant for his wife and dies a noble death. The issue concludes with the Widow revealing her relationship with her husband and how the Soviets had told her he’d died in a rocket experiment. Thomas then leaves the reader with what had by now become one of the hallmarks of Marvel, a scene that leaves characters (in this case Hawkeye and the Black Widow) changed from what they were before the story began. As readers had come to expect, nothing stood still in the inter-related Marvel universe where characters were born, grew, evolved and even died. It was a sense of chronology and continuity wholly lacking anywhere else in the comics industry. But the writing wasn’t the only thing that recommends this book, there’s the art too and, despite the growing inadequacies of his approach to inking, it was a testament to Colletta’s skill that if he’d only respected the material he worked on, he could enhance any artist’s work to the point of undoubted beauty and grace. Matched this issue with artist John Buscema (who himself was in a transitory phase between comics art traditionalism and the new, more actionoriented Marvel style), Colletta’s fine line, detailed inking gives the artist’s work a sheen of sophistication that’s real easy on the eyes. From the first page (showing a particularly fine job on Hawkeye and the Black Widow trapped in the Red Guardian’s secret lab) to a gorgeous two-page sequence featuring the Guardian’s fight with counterpart Captain America (where Buscema shows off his mastery of the human form in no uncertain terms!) to the final scenes showing the destruction of the Soviet base, Colletta showed he still had it. It was a skill that would often be called upon in the twilight years to firm up the doubtful work of artists a good deal less gifted than Buscema. 176

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Fantastic Four #66 “What Lurks Behind the Beehive?”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks)

Measured in real time, Silver Age Marvel hadn’t been around that long. From FF #1 to this issue of Fantastic Four #66 (Sept. 1967) had only been about six years, but in that time the company had passed through at least two distinct phases and was in the middle of another, and in terms of the development of some of its characters, that time seemed even longer. Take the FF for instance. Since that first crude issue in which the four teammates were introduced, Reed and Sue emerged from early courtship (which included complications arising from both Ben and the Sub-Mariner for Sue’s affections), passed through engagement and marriage and would soon announce the imminent arrival of a baby; Johnny had evolved from impatient and thoughtless teenager to worried, driven lover to level-headed young adult. The only member of the team that hadn’t changed much was Ben. At first, he always seemed angry; trapped in a grotesque body and needing to swath himself in concealing clothes in order to keep from frightening ordinary people, he frequently lashed out in bursts of frustration. Over time, these feelings seemed to subside as he became used to his condition and won the affections of blind sculptress Alicia Masters. But beneath the apparently calm surface, the Thing was still wracked with self-doubt which now and then exploded in violent fits of jealousy whenever he felt his relationship with Alicia threatened. But overall, readers were given the sense that Ben Grimm had come to terms with being the Thing. That illusion was shattered in the opening pages of “What Lurks Behind the Beehive” (with a plot suspiciously similar to “Chrysalis,” a short story by science fiction writer Ray Ray Bradbury’s Bradbury) as Ben learns short story of the disappearance of “Chrysalis” may Alicia and the reader have been the discovers that he’s not as inspiration for the plot of Fantastic well adjusted as they Four #66-67. were perhaps led to

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believe. When Reed tries to comfort his friend, he strikes out, sending Mr. Fantastic flying across the room. “Ben! How could you? Reed is your friend— your oldest—your best—your most devoted friend!” says a shocked Sue. “Sure, sure! I know all about it! But the one thing I don’t need from him— or from anyone—is pity! I only tapped ’im! He’ll be okay! Wish I could say the same for myself— without Alicia!” “Don’t blame him…,” says Reed after Ben leaves. “No one can really tell the agony he’s enduring—deep inside!” It was a brutal reminder that for some of Marvel’s characters, as in real life, some hurts never go away. Depressed and desperate not to lose what might be his only lifeline to sanity, the Thing finds solace in the simple adoration of children and the admiration of adults while passing through Central Park. Meanwhile, Reed shrugs off Ben’s anger (“Maybe I had it coming!”) and works toward finding out where Alicia has disappeared to. It turns out that Lee and Kirby have cooked up a clever twist for including Alicia in their latest plot: a group of renegade scientists seeking to manipulate the human genome and create a new type of being need someone who’s not only used to getting around without being able to see, but who also has the talent to recreate in three-dimensional stone or clay what she feels with her hands. For, having created this new form of life, the scientists have since lost control of it. Him (as they refer to it) is now evolving at a pace and in a manner wholly unpredicted and has enveloped himself in a blinding aura of pure power which prevents anyone from laying eyes on him!

Fantastic Four #67 “When Opens the Cocoon!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks)

Fantastic Four #67 (Oct. 1967) proves that despite being on the reverse slope of the grandiose years, Lee and Kirby could still tell a story as packed with action, pathos and ideas as ever! One of the most clever scenes in this issue comes in the first panel of the second page which shows an incredibly complicated schematic of an electronic wrist band that Reed is trying to duplicate. “Enlarged hundreds of times,” the large scale diagram, coupled with the Thing’s wondering look, expressed more eloquently than any words could just how smart Reed Richards was supposed to be! It even came with little handwritten notes reminding Reed to “recheck minicircuit before testing,” “calibrate all computations to nearest decimal” and “enlarge .073%!” In a break from the lab work, Reed, Ben and Sue join Johnny and

Crystal at the breakfast table in a scene that would seem unremarkable on the face of it, but which was actually the kind that was instrumental in creating the all important sense of family that was the underlining bedrock of the FF strip. How many scenes after all, were shot around the breakfast table in countless television family sitcoms of the ’50s and ’60s? It wasn’t just No doubt Lee and coincidence. “You’ll feel Kirby found better as soon as I set inspiration for some of these instant story material wheat cakes in front of among television you, Ben…And I series such as this “Him” prototype smothered them in from the Star Trek butter— just the way you episode “Arena”. like them!” “Nuts! I’m too hung-up to think of food! Welllll—mebbe I’ll just take a bite—so’s I can keep body ’n’ soul together!” Ben says as he lifts a fork full of about a dozen pancakes to his mouth! Later, when all is ready for them to make the jump to the sprawling, beehive-like installation of the renegade scientists, Reed orders Sue to stay behind, hinting to readers about the surprise announcement awaiting them in the upcoming FF Annual: “We don’t know what dangers await us—and I can’t let you face them—not you—not now!” Minutes later, Reed, Ben and Johnny find themselves fighting for their lives against the Beehive’s private army even as Alicia reaches her goal (a giant cocoon!) deep in the catacombs of Lock 41. But even as she does, her guide determines to destroy Him before he can emerge (“I abandoned everything I had worked for—my reputation—my home—my medical practice—because of a mad desire to one day rule the world—to make other humans my slaves! I was willing to sacrifice all mankind—so that I…could be supreme! But now, even if it means my death—I must destroy Him!”). But the scientist’s last-minute crisis of conscience is interrupted as a blast from the cocoon signals the emergence of the being within. The issue ends abruptly with Alicia’s rescue by the FF and the emergence of Him, now clothed in the body of a golden Adonis whose departure from Earth causes the total destruction of the Beehive. The Grandiose Years

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Marvel Super-Heroes #12

“The Coming of Captain Marvel”; Stan Lee (script), Gene Colan (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks) “The Threat of the Jet”; Stan Lee (script), Dick Ayers (pencils & inks) reprinted from Men’s Adventures #27 “The Beachhead Blitz”; Don Rico (script, pencils & inks) reprinted from All-Winners Comics #12

Marvel Super-Heroes #12, page 5. As exciting as they were, sometimes the use of over-large panels may have simply been a way for artists on a tight schedule to save time. That said, Colan’s art here thrusts readers immediately into the action and shows off the Captain’s costume to good effect.

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“Kill Captain America”; Stan Lee (script), John Romita (pencils & inks); reprinted from Men’s Adventures #28 “The Abduction of King Arthur”; Stan Lee (script), Joe Maneely (pencils & inks); reprinted from Black Knight #1 (May 1955) “The Sub-Mariner Strikes”; Bill Everett (script, pencils & inks); reprinted from Sub-Mariner Comics #38 (February 1955) Cover: Gene Colan (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks)

With the advent of Marvel Tales in 1964, the door was opened for other reprint volumes such as Marvel Collector’s Item Classics in 1965 and Fantasy Masterpieces in 1966. The difference between them was that the first two simply reprinted all of the company’s superhero features since the debut of the Fantastic Four while the third reached back to the company’s early days of the 1940s for the earliest appearances of such characters as Captain America and Sub-Mariner. But despite covers that sometimes featured newly drawn figures by Kirby, modern readers, accustomed to Marvel’s more sophisticated approach to comics in the 1960s, were less than enthusiastic about stories in Fantasy Masterpieces they perhaps found unreadable. With sales on the book not as they could be, Lee repeated a gimmick he’d used in the early, formative years on such titles as Tales of Suspense and Tales to Astonish; he came up with an entirely new character and made him the lead feature in Marvel Super-Heroes #12 (Dec. 1967). Hedging his bets, he also changed the book’s title from Fantasy Masterpieces to Marvel SuperHeroes and presented the new hero on the cover with the usual bevy of boastful blurbs. The

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company’s first new super-hero feature Tales of Suspense #98 “The Claws of the Panther!”; since the debut of Daredevil almost four Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby years before, Captain Marvel burst (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks) full-blown onto the scene in a “The Warrior and the Whip!”; distinctive green-and-white uniform. Stan Lee (script), Gene Colan Although destined to lose it a few years (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks) later (for a more colorful but good deal Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), less interesting costume), Captain Frank Giacoia (inks) Marvel’s outfit really was a uniform; After four years and 40 issues, Tales the uniform of a captain in the Kree of Suspense was still the best doublemilitary. In an intriguing bit of feature value for a reader’s 12 cents continuity, Lee decided to make his Marvel had! The “split” book with new hero a Kree spy sent to Earth as the most consistent ratio of good a result of setbacks suffered by his stories to great art Suspense, more people over in the FF’s book. than Strange or Astonish, seemed Unfortunately, just as he would do in integral to the ongoing evolution of the later Silver Surfer book, in an Marvel’s continuity. That was attempt to make Captain Marvel because Iron Man and Captain America’s space program more human (and presumably more America were more central to the permeated the culture in interesting), he made him less alien. the 1960s ever since Pres. universe being created than were And so, the captain arrives in Earth John F. Kennedy set the such relatively peripheral characters orbit aboard a Kree spaceship complete goal of putting a man on as Dr. Strange and the Sub-Mariner. with very human-like conflicts of the moon by the end of After all, how likely was it that the decade. With almost interest: Mar-Vell (Captain Marvel, get Spider-Man would run into the constant television it?) is in love with mission medical Living Tribunal or Daredevil battle coverage of launchings, officer Una, while his rival for her space walks, and moon Father Neptune? On the other affections, Colonel Yon-Rogg, schemes missions, it was only hand, what were the odds of to get him killed on his first visit to the natural that aliens such as Captain America getting to fight the planet’s surface. These very human the Kree would set their Black Panther? Real high as it turns sites on places like Cape emotional relationships undermine out! Beneath a simple but effective Canaveral. what should’ve been a unique cover that was sure to catch the approach to the new strip, one told attention of any discerning fan, the from the viewpoint of the alien stranger. It was just such “Cap” feature in Tales of Suspense #98 (Feb. 1968) begins an approach that was also part of what made the Silver in the same way FF #52 did: with the Panther inviting Surfer such an initially intriguing character but which an ally to Wakanda without explanation and then was likewise softened in the interests of Lee’s desire for melodrama. Suffice it say that the interpersonal set-ups jumping him when he gets there! It wasn’t a good in the “Captain Marvel” strip were too artificial to begin idea then, and it still wasn’t a good idea this time (the with and soon devolved into predictability. The strip Panther tells Cap that he had to make sure he wasn’t was better off as soon as it had them jettisoned. Tapped an imposter; riiiight!), but at least it provided readers for the art chores was Gene Colan, whose work here with a few exciting panels of their favorite heroes seems rushed, but that may have been the fault of inker knocking each other around. Anyway, it all comes out Frank Giacoia. But then, Giacoia had done great work in the wash after Cap finds out that his old enemy over Colan before on other strips so it’s hard to blame Zemo is on the loose again. But is it really Zemo? If it him completely. What it boils down to is that despite a wasn’t, Kirby sure tries his darndest to make the solid concept, fumbling execution in both story and art reader believe it with some of his cleanest, most conspired to make it, overall, a lackluster effort. action-packed art yet. But there were signs that Otherwise, the really important thing about this issue is creatively, Kirby was slowing down (even under the that it was the first of a series of new super-hero features inks of Joe Sinnott who, despite his cool that signaled the end of the distribution agreement professionalism, tended to add nothing to what the Marvel had with DC limiting the number of titles it penciler already had on the page), with much of his could field. With its shackles loosed, there was nothing figure work being placed in increasingly familiar to stop Lee from expanding his line as much as he postures. But his style was so powerful, that even if wanted. But was that a good thing? Only time would tell! layouts were becoming more predictable, a really The Grandiose Years

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good artist with a distinctive inking style could still make Kirby as exciting as he ever was. Something that was to be proven in the very next issue. In the other half of the book, Iron Man finds himself trapped in the hold of a Maggia (Marvel’s answer to the real world Mafia!) gambling ship trying to hold off the evil Whiplash while at minimum power! The art was still by Colan and inked by Giacoia (who was doing much better service here than on the “Captain Marvel” feature) and the fast-moving script was Lee’s last for Iron Man. What with the continuing success of the company and his increasing duties as editor, head writer and front man, it was inevitable that something in Lee’s busy schedule had to give. And so, never again would he be the kind of driving creative force behind Marvel’s super-hero universe as he’d been during most of the company’s first three phases. Slowly but surely, the machine he created was needing less and less of his attention in order to keep itself moving.

was only for openers; Shores would reach his zenith over Kirby when Cap received his own book only a month or so later. In the front half of the book, Iron Man was still being held by the Maggia aboard their gambling ship, but just as a laser beam is about to cut open his armor like a tin can, the ship is struck by agents of AIM! In the meantime, special SHIELD agent Jasper Sitwell is hot on his trail. Colan has expressed a fondness for the film Bullitt (1968) with its ground-breaking car chase sequence and never missed a chance to include one of his own in whatever strip he drew. And he makes no exception here as Jasper races his SHIELD issue Mustang (or is it a Corvette?) with its “formula 1 racing engine” at full speed down the interstate. Actually, Jasper was one of the more interesting supporting characters Marvel had with Lee having obvious fun writing dialogue for this Boy Scout turned SHIELD agent (“An agent of Shield is ever discreet—always unobtrusive—silent and alert!”) But by this issue Lee had abandoned the scripting chores on the “Iron Man” strip in favor of

Tales of Suspense #99 “At the Mercy of the Maggia”; Archie Goodwin (script), Gene Colan (pencils), Johnny Craig (inks) “The Man Who Lived Twice!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Syd Shores (inks) Cover: Gene Colan (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks)

But never fear, Lee was still on the job for “Captain America” in Tales of Suspense #99’s (March 1968) “The Man Who Lived Twice” providing his spare but always appropriate scripting to a Kirby-choreographed slam-bang actioner that really did little to advance the plot beyond filling in readers about Zemo’s latest mad plan. (The former Nazi scientist, it seems, has placed a satellite in Earth orbit from which he can direct a death ray at any spot on the planet!) The big surprise however, is Kirby’s new inker, Syd Shores! Suddenly, Kirby’s pencils, which had begun to seem a bit tired in the last few months, took on added life beneath this veteran’s experienced brush. Shores began his career as an artist himself in the 1940s until reemerging at Marvel as an inker. And like any artist turned inker, he brought a good deal of his own distinctive style to whatever penciler was lucky enough to get his services. In Kirby’s case this issue, Shores’ scratchy brush work brought a kind of vague crudeness to his work that was very reminiscent of the 1940s Cap strip, and unlike some, his use of blacks, rather than being heavy-handed (which Kirby’s work seemed to invite), was not only bold but sure, adding weight and texture to the figures. Particularly fine work this issue included the opening splash page and page four’s quarter-panel layout featuring the Panther in action against Zemo’s henchmen. But that 180

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The ground-breaking car chase sequence from Bullitt, released in 1968, was a big influence on Colan, who managed to include similar scenes in many of his assignments!

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After Marvel expanded its line in 1968, Archie Goodwin (left), former editor and head writer for Warren Publications, was one of the first scripters hired by Lee to help out with the added workload.

Archie Goodwin. A former editor for rival Warren Publications, Goodwin also wrote many weird and war stories which made up most of that company’s output. Although he’d provide Marvel with many years of off and on service, much of it would be unmemorable. But he started strong here in a good imitation of Lee’s style (“Though the trail is cold, a SHIELD agent’s determination is never daunted!”). With Tales of Suspense coming to an end this issue, Goodwin would follow Iron Man to that character’s own book. But first, Suspense and Astonish (which came to an end simultaneously with Suspense) would join temporarily in an odd, one-shot special featuring Iron Man and Sub-Mariner as they marked time before their turn at debut issues following those of Captain America and the Hulk. Ironically, just as the grandiose years were giving way to the twilight years, Marvel’s success had become complete.

Fantastic Four Special #5 “Divide and Conquer”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks) “This is a Plot?”; Jack Kirby (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks) “The Peerless Power of the Silver Surfer”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Frank Giacoia and Joe Sinnott (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks)

But the grandiose years were always about more than god-like menaces and mind-blowing new concepts or even about wide open art and swell sounding words; it was also about human beings, values and ideals. And even with the departure of important talent like

Ditko, the creative retreat of Heck, the waning powers of Kirby and the increasing distractions that plagued Lee, the stories never lost their heart. The human factor that Lee had stumbled upon way back in the early years and that he and Kirby and Ditko had nurtured through the years of consolidation and had guided to shining fruition in the grandiose years was as strong a part of what made Silver Age Marvel great as ever. And nowhere was that ethos more obvious than here in Fantastic Four Special #5 (Nov. 1967) which paradoxically held all that was wonderful about Marvel while at the same time giving evidence of the company’s coming decline. But to readers who bought this issue in 1967 it probably wasn’t that obvious, what with the incredible bargain they were getting for only 25 cents! Fifty-five pages without “a single reprint,” it featured a 30-page lead story guest starring both the Inhumans and Black Panther, ten pages of pin-ups, a humorous three-page “How Stan and Jack Create the FF” section and a bonus 12-page Silver Surfer solo story! On the surface, a reader couldn’t be faulted for thinking that the most interesting element of the lead story “Divide—and Conquer” (never mind all of its guest-stars) was the new villain Psycho Man (who’d prove a good deal more interesting than he is here when the FF follow him in future issues into “Sub-Atomica,” one of the best and last concepts to be offered by the team of Lee and Kirby in the grandiose years). But the best part of the story, embodying as it did the human heart that was at the center of what Silver Age Marvel was all about and the (not so) secret of its success, was the surprise announcement of the impending birth of Reed and Sue’s child. How to convey the impact such an event must’ve had on readers at the time? The potentialities and ultimate meaning it had on how they’d look at comics from then on? When Reed and Sue were married a couple years before, that was surprising enough (after all, there’d been a few married heroes before), but taking their relationship one logical step further was unheard of (there may even have been a question of whether the Comics Code would allow it!). But the real meaning of superheroes marrying and having children was less that of making comics history than what it meant about them living in a world as real as our own. Now it wasn’t inconceivable that heroes could raise families, deal with schools and savings and taxes, grow old and die and even (gulp!) have sexual relationships! This was way beyond Peter Parker’s girl problems! But more immediate to the FF themselves, the arrival of a baby would bring them closer together than ever before as a real family unit. They became the first true extended family in comics with brothers and sisters, The Grandiose Years

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fathers and mothers, uncles and nephews, boyfriends and girlfriends. Could readers imagine any other heroes gathered around the Thanksgiving table for instance as easily as they could the FF? Unfortunately, it was an image and feeling that wouldn’t outlast first Kirby and then Lee’s stay on the book and as the title stretched into the twilight years, that sense of real family would be diluted and eventually lost. But Reed and Sue’s announcement wasn’t the only story in this issue that underlined what was best about the grandiose years. In “The Peerless Power of the Silver Surfer”, Lee and Kirby, over a few succinct pages, tell a brief but pointed fable of how empty life could be uninformed by love and compassion. Already, Lee has taken the pulse of the Surfer and made him a vehicle for objective commentary on the many contradictions he finds in the human race. “Fear—envy— greed—engulf me in ever-increasing torrents! And yet—there is kindness, too—and love—fighting to break thru…” It was an approach to the Silver Surfer that Lee would take with him when he eventually granted the character his own book. But if the content of these two stories captured the spirit of the grandiose years, Kirby’s artwork left something to be desired (at least by the standards he himself had set in earlier years). Not that it was bad, but that what had once been exciting because of the uniqueness of Kirby’s vision, was now becoming routine and even repetitive. Although the art for the Psycho Man story was still fantastic (inked by the more than proficient Sinnott) it nevertheless showed unmistakable signs of 182

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encroaching stiffness. Even worse was the Surfer story, which unfortunately, was inked by Giacoia whose style (which once did Kirby justice) only accentuated Kirby’s faults (the figure of the Surfer on the splash page was especially bad). It spelled bad tidings for admirers of Kirby in general and Marvel readers in particular.

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Fantastic Four Special #5, page 13. Love, engagement, marriage, family. Lee and Kirby took comics where no comic had ever gone before. In his visual depiction of a super-hero team that is also a family, Kirby harkens back to his days as a romance artist to imbue his characters with a maturity commensurate with their roles as parents and adult guardians.

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Captain America #100 “This Monster Unmasked!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Syd Shores (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils) Syd Shores (inks), Joe Sinnott (inks [on Captain America’s face])

1968 was a big year for Marvel as the company’s line of comic books experienced its first expansion since that day in the fifties when publisher Martin Goodman made a bad business decision and wound up being restricted to only eight books a month (or sixteen different bi-monthly titles). But a change of ownership resulted in the improvement of Marvel’s distribution situation, and for the first time in nearly ten years there was no limit to the number of titles it could produce. Touted by Stan as “the second Golden Age of Marvel,” the new freedom was quickly taken advantage of by dividing the company’s three long-running double-feature books (Tales of Suspense, Tales to

Astonish and Strange Tales) into six solo series. (Other, ancillary titles included Not Brand Echh, a parody book that poked fun at Marvel’s as well as the competition’s characters and a Sgt. Fury companion magazine called Capt. Savage and His Leatherneck Raiders!) But the first of the double-feature graduates to leave the gate (to mix a metaphor!) was Captain America #100 (April 1968) (which began its numbering where Tales of Suspense left off) in a story that concluded the Zemo storyline from Suspense #99. Although Shores this issue seemed to have some trouble keeping up with the increased page count, his few slips were far outweighed by the fantastic job he was doing over Kirby’s pencils. Shores would be back in top form over the next few issues, proving once and for all that in these waning years of Kirby’s stay at Marvel, the most valuable commodity was an inker who was also an artist. Inkers like Shores, Everett, Colletta and to a lesser extent, Sinnott, were the unsung heroes who, at the close of the decade, helped keep Kirby’s grandiose vision alive when the artist himself was beginning to lose interest.

Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner #1

“Years of Glory, Day of Doom”; Roy Thomas (script), John Buscema (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks) Cover: John Buscema (pencils), Sol Brodsky (inks)

Not Brand Echh #3. In only a few short years, Marvel’s characters had become such a part of the pop-culture scene that they could be made the subject of broad parody in a format that took advantage of the company’s tongue-incheek attitude.

The second book to come out of Marvel’s expansion was Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner #1 (May 1968) which featured the artwork of John Buscema. Having worked for Lee in the 1950s, Buscema was rehired to help ease the burden of an overextended Kirby in the mid-’60s. Starting out by working over Kirby layouts on a few “SHIELD” and “Hulk” stories, Buscema soon found a regular berth on the Avengers. Perhaps because he was held back by the need to work over someone else’s pencils (Buscema has said that he found working over Kirby’s layouts too difficult and ended up erasing them and doing the whole job himself), Buscema’s first efforts were stiff and halting. But his was a huge talent that only needed the right circumstances to be released. He found them in the Marvel style which emphasized action and in full-length stories that gave him the elbow room to really spread out. At the time of this issue, the apex of Buscema’s super-hero work (after being assigned to the Conan strip in the ’70s, he’d abandon super-heroes almost completely) was still some months in the future, but it all began here. Maybe it was the need to rush out two full books a month that did it, or maybe it was in looking at the work being done by Kirby, Colan or Romita, but however it happened, Buscema’s panels started to get bigger, and with their increase in size came the need to fill them. As his stint on the Sub-Mariner series progressed, quarterpage panels became more common and the figures in The Grandiose Years

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them grew to fill up the enlarged space. Soon, characters stretched fulllength across the width of a page and contorted themselves in exaggerated expressions of agony and ecstasy, and by the time he left the Sub-Mariner with #8, Buscema’s style had transformed itself into one of the most exciting in comics. So appreciative did Lee become of it that he not only assigned him to such pet projects as the Silver Surfer, but also ended up tapping him

to replace Kirby on both the FF and Thor. Joining Buscema on this issue was Roy Thomas, whose story here continued from Tales to Astonish #101 (with a sidetrack to the following Iron Man/Sub-Mariner one-shot). Unfortunately, for the first issue of a new series, things start off somewhat slowly, with the tale of the man called Destiny being not very interesting. (And spending most of the issue retelling the Sub-Mariner’s origin, although perhaps necessary, didn’t help). But once that plotline was finished, things sped up nicely with the return of Attuma, the introduction of Tiger Shark and the quest for the Serpent Crown!

The Invincible Iron Man #1

“Alone Against AIM”; Archie Goodwin (script), Gene Colan (pencils), Johnny Craig (inks) “The Origin of Iron Man”; Archie Goodwin (script), Gene Colan (pencils), Johnny Craig (inks) Cover: Gene Colan (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks)

Invincible Iron Man #1, page 12. Frank Zappa may have zapped as Eric Burden claimed, but here it’s definitely Gene Colan doing the zapping as he helps to launch the golden avenger into his own series. Too bad the artist couldn’t have stayed on a while longer!

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Meanwhile, in what should’ve been a matter of celebration (what with the strip’s unbroken history of great script and art by Lee, Heck and Colan), The Invincible Iron Man #1 (May 1968) turned out to be a false dawn. Beyond this satisfying first issue, the title was destined to plunge into a mediocrity from which it would never recover. Begun grandiosely by Colan (who stayed only long enough to finish up Iron Man’s battle with the Maggia begun in the final issues of Tales of Suspense), the art chores were immediately handed over to veteran artist George Tuska whose unexciting pencils (the unfortunate habit of often giving his characters an

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overbite didn’t help!) would fill the book for the next several years. But the problem was bigger than Tuska’s work on Iron Man. The real trouble was that in expanding his line so quickly, Lee hadn’t been able to familiarize new artists brought in to cover the added work with what was expected of them. In the past, Kirby had been available to do rough layouts of various strips for new hires like Romita and Buscema to work over until they got the feel for the Marvel brand of dynamic storytelling. But now Kirby wasn’t doing that anymore and artists like Tuska, Trimpe and Grainger were taking over full-length, monthly features without an apprenticeship. Consequently, half of the new releases (Iron Man, Hulk, SHIELD and Sub-Mariner), although strong enough in sales it’s true, nevertheless became creative disappointments. The problem would be somewhat ameliorated after Lee made Romita art director and brought in such prolific artists as Gil Kane and Sal Buscema (whose styles, although leaving something to be desired after the work of Kirby, Ditko, Heck, Colan, Romita and John Buscema, yet offered their own brand of excitement lacking in such artists as Tuska and Trimpe).

Captain America #101 “When Wakes the Sleeper”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Syd Shores (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Syd Shores (inks), John Romita (inks [Red Skull’s head])

But as there were disappointments in Marvel’s expansion, there were also triumphs of the kind that were at least the equal of any of the company’s now classic titles and which some might argue were even better! Dr. Strange, SHIELD and Captain America, with their combinations of good stories and great art, represented the pure distillation of what it was that made the grandiose years what they were. One look at any of them was all a reader needed to tell that adjectives like “unexciting” and “mediocre” could never in a million years be applied to them! The grand style had always had its share of characters that were larger than life, but the ones in these books were impossible! Nick Fury, far from being a 50-something veteran of World War II, would shame James Bond into retirement, and even Dr. Strange eventually adopted a sleeker, more fearsome appearance. But greatest of all continued to be Captain America as Kirby, still teamed with Shores as of Captain America #101 (June 1968), turned out a succession of stories that raised the character to still new heights of visual dynamism. No one else so encapsulated the art style that dominated the grandiose years as Kirby did and in the new Captain America book—he really cut loose! Never did Captain America seem so imposing, so electric with repressed power and

so exciting when that power was unleashed! But such an over-the-top, baroque interpretation of the starspangled Avenger needed an equally worthy adversary, and in such a case only the Red Skull would do! And sensing true evil’s seductive power, Lee knew with just which words its most fearsome embodiment would attempt to weaken Cap’s resolve: “Men were all born to be slaves! They’re not worth your idiotic concern! Why should you care for them when they don’t even care for each other! Look around you! The world is consumed by greed, crime, and bigotry! Men are no more than animals…” But Cap resists the Skull’s twisted logic: “Tyrants have always scorned their fellow humans! But still the race endures—while the despots fall! And, those who would grind us underfoot—can never hope to keep us from reaching our eventual destiny!” But the Skull isn’t finished yet: “Can’t you see?” he screams in frustrated rage. “You’re an anachronism! You belong in the dead past! The world—has no more use—for idealism!” “It’s you who are wrong!” counters Cap. “The only true reality lies in faith—and hope! The world is still young—the future lies ahead—It’s you who have outgrown the dream—you who are blind to the promise of tomorrow!” They were sentiments that readers sensed were genuine not because their comic book heroes said them, but because Lee, backed by the uncompromising images of Kirby, wrote them. And so, the new Cap feature, at least, was off to a rocketing start. But what about the rest of the “big three” expansion titles?

Dr. Strange #169 “The Coming of... Dr. Strange”; Roy Thomas (script), Dan Adkins (pencils), Dan Adkins (inks) Cover: Dan Adkins (pencils & inks)

Dr. Strange #169 (June 1968), the second of the “big three” expansion titles, got off to a solid start with a script by Roy Thomas and art by Dan Adkins. Adkins, who’d taken over the strip late in its Strange Tales run, provided a much needed injection of visual excitement to the feature after a long string of inappropriate work by Bill Everett and Marie Severin. Adkins did it by coming closest to capturing the offbeat otherworldliness Dan Adkins hard at that’d been missing from work in his studio. the strip since Ditko’s exit. The Grandiose Years

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As it turns out, it wasn’t a coincidence, because Adkins has since stated that he was told “up front” by Lee to “draw like Ditko!” And in the beginning, he did, swiping a pose here and a weird phenomenon there, but soon a personal style emerged, and by this issue, he’d made his own individual mark on the strip. Adkins’ expert use of shadow and light (he penciled and inked this issue!), learned from an apprenticeship ghosting for Wally Wood, turned out to be perfect for Dr. Strange, turning the character’s world back to the mysterious, gloomy roots it had under Ditko. This issue’s splash page, for instance, includes the use of three different textures: in the deep background Adkins has placed a pillar with its carvings in sharp outline from some out of view light source; in the middle distance, the first pillar is overlapped by a second that stands in deep, almost obliterating shadow and in the foreground, just behind the full, well lit figure of Dr. Strange, is a wall rendered almost twodimensionally in crosshatch. The following page is a study in sombre shadow as Strange ponders his situation and the third page is another splash of some nightmarish beast illustrated purely in black-andwhite. Later in the story, which is a retelling of Strange’s origin, Adkins treats the reader to a panoramic scene of snow-covered mountains that stretches across the top of two pages. Unfortunately, Adkins’ stay on the book was short, ending only two issues later in #171 (on the other hand, his departure marked the advent on the book of Strange artist supreme Gene Colan). Penciling had always been a slow, laborious 186

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job for Adkins who couldn’t produce enough work to make a living at it. Switching to inking, he would continue to make his presence felt at Marvel for years to come but his greatest influence would be on young, upand-coming artists such as Paul Gulacy, Craig Russell and Val Mayerik who, after apprenticing with him, would move on to become some of the most exciting and innovative creators of the twilight years.

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Dr. Strange #169, page 2. Dan Adkins shows how it’s done as he returns the Strange strip to its roots of Ditko era mood and oppressive menace. Here, the artist takes a quiet, contemplative scene and turns it into black gold!

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Captain America #102 “The Sleeper Strikes!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Syd Shores (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Syd Shores (inks)

The team of Kirby and Shores struck again in Captain America #102 (July 1968) as our hero faces the incredible menace of the Red Skull’s Fourth Sleeper! It’s true! You see, even though Cap had once before foiled a plot by Hitler and the Skull who, in the event of their deaths, planned to destroy the world (if they couldn’t have it then nobody could!) at the hands of three robotic “sleepers” (count ’em yourself in Tales of Suspense #s 72-74!) it turns out they were just appetizers to the Fourth! And this one’s a doozy! Gigantically bulky, the Fourth Sleeper can walk through solid rock and, firing a kind of super-heat ray from its face, can ignite volcanoes and lay waste the whole planet! Armed only with his indomitable selfconfidence and a mysterious sonic key stolen from the Skull the issue before (and with the help of girl friend Sharon Carter, SHIELD Agent 13), can Cap stop it in time? Not by himself it turns out as it’s Sharon’s love and concern for him that activates the key and disables the Sleeper. Sure, it’s a bit of a disappointing ending, but Lee and Kirby were only human and even they couldn’t bat a thousand every time (but they sure came close!) And besides, this issue’s art by Kirby and Shores was more than enough to make up for it what with their gorgeous set-up for the “Isle of Exiles” which begins with a four-panel page introducing the Red Skull (green jumpsuit, white scarf, glass of wine and all!). But the real payoff is the realization that this two-part Sleeper story is actually nothing but a lead-in to the Red Skull epic to follow. It was the grandiose years writ large and they were still going strong!

bear elements of design and publishing techniques he’d learned while working in the advertising industry. Soon the “SHIELD” strip became littered with such special visual effects as dropped color holds, Zip-a-tone, collage and hypnotic patterns. In addition, everything was put on the page in increasingly imaginative layouts using various geometric shapes, overlapping panels, symbolism and foreground images used to divide panels and even whole pages. Steranko’s fondness for film also showed up in his work, using its techniques of long and tracking shots, close-ups, time lapse and montage. In fact, Steranko packed so much stuff in his work that it threatened to overwhelm the stories he was ostensibly trying to tell! It went against every rule of what Goodman probably thought was necessary to make a successful comic, and the wonder is how Steranko got away with it! Be that as it may, when the strip graduated to its own title, the artist at last had the elbow room to go wild, and although each book was produced as a single-issue story, they continued to pack all the goodies fans of the “SHIELD” strip had come to expect. Beneath a wonderful cover that owed more to San Francisco poster art than Marvelstyle Kirby action (it would join several others in the series as pop art classics), Steranko’s first full-length story tells the tale of Scorpio, a man out to finish Fury for personal reasons that are left unexplained, when he’s apparently killed in a fiery explosion. Interestingly, Steranko tells the story of Scorpio and Fury in parallel with another seemingly unrelated

Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #1

The third and by far the most eclectic of the “big three” expansion titles was Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #1 (June 1968) and contrary to what the title claimed, the real star of the book was Marvel’s renaissance man Jim Steranko. Hired practically off the street by Lee in 1965, Steranko had little experience in comics when he began penciling over Kirby’s layouts in Strange Tales #141. But that ignorance may have been a blessing in disguise, because by #154 Kirby had gone and the credits were reading “plotted and drawn by Jim Steranko,” and with the very next issue he was writing the strip, too! With all of the creative reins in hand, Steranko was able to bring to

“Who Is Scorpio?”; Jim Steranko (script, pencils & inks) Cover: Jim Steranko (pencils & inks)

Although it was comforting to think that Steranko’s visual style may have been helping to raise the quality of Hollywood filmmaking (by providing concept art for such films as Indiana Jones ), tinseltown’s gain was definitely a loss for Marvel readers. As the twilight years progressed, the artist would spend less and less time producing comics.

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plot involving a failed nightclub comedian who runs afoul of organized crime. The two plots eventually come together in an unexpected way, their somber denouements underlined by the recurring motif of falling rain: “…and it rained most of that day…and far into the night!” It marked a spectacular and impressive debut for the SHIELD strip and a perfect example of why Steranko was setting the comic book world on fire. With triumphs like this, could recognition of comics as a serious

medium be far behind? But like a candle burning brightly, Steranko’s presence in the field would be short-lived. Immensely influential and a pioneer in demonstrating the potential of the medium, even a human dynamo like him couldn’t meet a regular monthly schedule and maintain this level of quality. Eventually it would catch up with him and force him all too soon from the SHIELD book.

Fantastic Four #76

“Stranded in Sub-Atomica”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks)

Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #1, page 3. This wordless sequence from Shield’s first issue demonstrates how Steranko was already thinking in cinematic terms: it looks more like the storyboards of a film treatment than a comics page.

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Although this late in the grandiose years when the Fantastic Four strip was showing clear signs of approaching decline, Lee and Kirby were yet able to muster another surprise that lived up to the boast of being “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine.” Perhaps influenced by the 1966 release of the film Fantastic Voyage (which was a box-office hit in 1966 for 20th Century Fox), the plot of Fantastic Four #76 (July 1968) has Reed, Johnny and Ben shrinking down smaller than molecules and entering a strange new sub-atomic universe. While not exactly an original idea in the world of science fiction (and not even to Marvel as the FF had once done the same thing in issue #16), it nevertheless ranks with the company’s other great concepts of Galactus, the Negative Zone and the Kree by virtue of its being presented this time in the grand style. Like the Negative Zone, Kirby somehow infuses “Sub-Atomica” with an indefinable strangeness that

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Fantastic Voyage, released in 1966, may have been an inspiration for the FF’s journey to Sub-Atomica, but a more compelling case might be made for the Jack Williamson story “ The Pygmy Planet” published in 1932, in which the hero enters a plane much like Reed’s reductacraft and shrinks down in order to fly into a shrunken world of adventure!

belies its obvious similarity with plain old outer space. For instance, as the FF (traveling in Reed’s latest invention, a “reducta-craft” which propels itself with the forces built up by its own shrinking action, “Just as a balloon moves quickly when the air is expelled!”) are in the process of shrinking, they enter a smear of liquid on a microscope slide and are soon passing through an inexplicable maze of molecules (only Kirby could’ve expected to get away with presenting what are supposed to be actual molecular clusters that look as unrealistic as similar models found in any high school physics class!) Able to breathe normally in this weird wonderland, the FF are soon caught up in a series of deadly encounters with such menaces as Psycho Man and his Indestructible One. You see, this issue’s story actually began in #74 when Galactus returns to Earth in search of the Silver Surfer. Figuring out that he’s gone into the microverse, the FF determine to follow him and take him back to Galactus before the space-god’s hunger becomes so overwhelming that he breaks the promise he made in #50 and consumes the Earth. They succeed of course, but instead of heading home, Reed decides that as long as they’re in SubAtomica, they might as well beat up on Psycho Man!

Fantastic Four #77 “Shall Earth Endure?”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks)

In what would be the FF’s last great issue, Fantastic Four #77 (Aug. 1968) marked a spectacular climax to nearly seven years of unbroken excellence and imaginative power. Oh, Lee and Kirby would continue working on the book for at least another two years, but from this point on there’d be a steady decline of both artistic and story quality. A likely reason for that might have arisen from the working relationship of the two men. Over the years, at least from the time of those issues in the early 40s, Lee (after brief story consultations over the phone or in the office) had given Kirby increasingly free rein in how to plot the stories while mostly confining himself to the scripting. A good indication of the equalizing of the two men’s contributions to the book can be seen in the credit box which by this issue simply reads “Another Stan (the Man) Lee and Jack (King) Kirby cosmic creation!” instead of such clearly defined creative assignments as “writer” and “artist” as in past issues. With less editorial and even plot input by Lee, Kirby’s grasp of the book soon began to loosen. With the exception of the Dr. Doom storyline in #s 84-87 (which itself was a swipe from The Prisoner, a British television show airing in the US at the time), the rest of the FF run became increasingly mediocre. Another reason for the decline of the book may have been Kirby’s disenchantment with his position at Marvel. As Lee’s fortunes outside the company rose (his had almost become a household name with celebrities from Hollywood and the rock-and-roll and literary communities breezing in and out of his office at 625 Madison Avenue), Kirby felt that his were neglected. Eventually that resentment would lead to his shocking departure from Marvel and his move across town to rival DC. In tandem with his increasing control over the books he drew, there was a concurrent decline in the quality of Kirby’s art too. To be fair, much of what seemed to be wrong with it may have been the fault of his inkers—Colletta on Thor and Sinnott on the FF. Although this issue, for instance, is a great example of the dynamism and visual inventiveness that still infused Kirby’s art, there’s nevertheless a certain “sameness” that’s creeped into it. Too many poses and layouts are familiar and too frequently there’s a lack of detail. Eccentricities such as squared fingers and knees have now become bothersome mannerisms. Where Sinnott had once complemented Kirby’s strengths, he now seemed to be accentuating his weaknesses. But if, as all things must, the vastly fruitful partnership of Lee and Kirby had to come to an end, then it could hardly have a better sendoff than this issue’s “Shall Earth Endure?” The climax of the FF’s battle with the sinister Psycho Man, the story is actually the visual equivalent of a puzzle box in which the defeat of one version of the Psycho Man reveals still another in some different form. “We have to keep The Grandiose Years

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remembering…he’s a master of emotional and cerebral imagery. He can make us imagine almost anything!” One by one, the FF defeat an image of Psycho Man induced by use of an “encepho-projector,” a giant robot Psycho Man and finally a jazzed-up version of the villain himself. The battle ends not with the defeat of Psycho Man, but with his realization that the FF are needed back in the macroverse to help ward off Galactus “…an alien galactic power…so awesome… so totally omniscient…that he can destroy us with the merest gesture!” Even at this point, on the verge of the company’s twilight era, lines like that, coupled with Kirby’s imagery, still had as much power to stir the imagination as they ever did. There was still life in the grandiose years, but increasingly now it would be displayed in other books than those by Kirby.

X-Men #46 “The End of the X-Men!”; Gary Friedrich (script), Don Heck (pencils), Werner Roth (pencils), John Tartaglione (inks) “...And Then There Were Two”; Gary Friedrich (script), George Tuska (pencils), John Tartaglione (inks) Cover: Don Heck (pencils), John Verpoorten (inks)

By the time of X-Men #46 (July 1968), the title had come into some desperate straits. One of the first super-hero books whose writing chores were to be relinquished by Lee, scripting on the feature soon devolved to newcomer Roy Thomas. Still learning the ropes at Marvel (he had a penchant for overwriting), it was Thomas’ misfortune to be teamed with a series of unexciting artists. Werner Roth to be sure was solid, but never seemed to catch on to the Kirby-style layouts required to make the book sell; and although experience told when Heck stepped in later on, Roth’s inks over his pencils diluted whatever impact he may have had on the book. Other problems with the X-Men lay in the title’s continuing insularity from the rest of the Marvel universe. On one level, that was a good thing, serving to emphasize the group’s shunned or outsider status; on another, it resulted in lost opportunities to make the book more reader-friendly. But then maybe, lacking a thorough revamping, the strip and characters just didn’t lend themselves to Gary Friedrich. rubbing shoulders with 190

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Lois lane #117. werner Roth, like John Romita, had spent years as a romance artist with a style that was just a little too formal for Marvel super-hero action.

the outside world. When Thomas tried it (taking advantage of being the writer on both the X-Men and the Avengers to have the two teams crossover) it only served to emphasize the fact that the X-Men were round pegs trying to fit in square holes. It just didn’t seem to work. Alienation and suspicion by the outside world were themes raised early in the strip’s history by Lee and Kirby, and no matter how he tried, Thomas seemed unable or unwilling to get away from it. In truth, those very qualities were what made the characters not just interesting, but unique compared to their costumed fellows. They were elements that would only really catch on years later, far beyond the twilight years. In the meantime, however, the book was hemorrhaging sales and dying a slow death. Desperate measures were called for to shake up the status quo. First, Thomas got rid of the team’s signature blue and yellow uniforms for individualized (and more colorful!) costumes. Next, the masthead was changed to “The X-Men featuring” in a radically reduced crawl line at the very top of the cover followed in bold lettering by a giant blurb spotlighting each issue’s topic. (This issue for instance reads: “The End of the X-Men!”) The change was definitely radical, but also a bit of a slap in the face for the X-Men whose own name was deemed unable to carry the book! In #42 Thomas killed off Professor X, leaving the team leaderless and bereaved, which is where we find them this issue. In a story that’s more character study than action-adventure (even though the Juggernaut does make an untimely appearance), the team members must grow up fast as they preside over the execution of the Professor’s will and the closing of his school. More importantly, they have to deal with the sudden appearance of FBI agent Amos Duncan who tells them that they’re requested by the agency’s special Mutant Division to disband! Throughout the book, Thomas handles the characters’ grief and heartache with sensitivity, neither rushing through what some might think to be dull scenes nor missing opportunities for the character development and inter-member

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dynamics that had become his forte on this more than any of his other books. Unfortunately, the X-Men’s dark road would stretch on for some time yet with more changes to come. The next few issues would see the characters going into action either solo or in pairs (“The X-Men Featuring: The Beast and Iceman!”) until coming together again for a string of badly produced books (even a brief stint by Steranko couldn’t save them). But when the strip finally emerged from mediocrity, it would be with one of the most amazing resurrections in comics’ history!

Fantastic Four Special #6 “Let There Be Life”; Stan Lee (Script), Jack Kirby (Pencils), Joe Sinnott (Inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks)

If the FF title had been intended as a mini-series, then the 48-page blockbuster story featured in Fantastic Four Special #6 (Nov. 1968) would’ve made the perfect climax. Continued almost directly from events in FF #80, the story here involves the discovery of complications with Sue’s pregnancy resulting from her exposure to cosmic radiation—the same mysterious forces that had originally given her the power of invisibility. With herself and her unborn child in mortal danger, Reed figures out that the only thing that can save them is a dose of anti-matter energy, and the only place it can be found is in the deadly Negative Zone. But no sooner do he, Johnny and Ben enter the Zone than they find themselves captured by Annihilus, Lee and Kirby’s last great FF villain, who just happens to wear a “cosmic control rod” beneath his chin, the very item Reed is looking for! Suffice it to say, the insectoid Annihilus is defeated and his rod taken as the FF return to Earth in time to save its distaff partner. Packed with scenes of patented Enthusiastic readers in their youth, both Lee and Kirby were very likely influenced by such SF magazines as the April 1938 issue of Thrilling Wonder Tales which included Jack Williamson’s “ The Infinite Enemy,” a tale that featured a combination of elements from both the Negative Zone and Sub-Atomica striking in their visual similarities to what Kirby was drawing in the FF.

Kirby combat, the story was nevertheless saved from being an empty slugfest by a theme that gave it meaning and purpose. Fighting for wife, sister, friend Sue Richards and her unborn baby, the first family of super-heroes once again illustrate the positive values and optimistic outlook that epitomized Marvel in the 1960s. In this case, the value of every human life, no matter how insignificant or even unborn. “He seems so helpless…so tiny…in a world that’s so gigantic…so filled with unknown dangers!” muses a sombre Reed, cradling his newborn son in his arms (and readers didn’t need to have super-villains in their own world to understand those sentiments). “We’ll never stop trying to make this nutty world of ours a better place…So that he…and all the other little children everywhere…can grow up in peace…and brotherhood!” says Johnny. If the FF series had ended there, that scene (the conclusion of the natural cycle of life begun in the book’s earlier issues with Reed and Sue’s courtship) could’ve served as the perfect coda to the most creatively successful group of books in comics history, but it didn’t. As well paced and thematically satisfying as it was, the issue yet suffered from the same drawbacks found in the regular monthly book, namely a slowdown of Kirby’s creative energies and less rigorous inking by Sinnott. Not to say the art was bad. In comparison to many of his contemporaries, Kirby’s art was still great, but in terms relative to his own past achievements, it showed very definite signs of slippage. And, like it or not, Kirby’s time as the “king” was passing. New artists, with more sophisticated styles were entering the comic book business and in a few years, Kirby’s style, the style that had dominated comics off and on for thirty years and defined Silver Age Marvel, would become anachronistic.

Daredevil #42 “Nobody Laughs At the Jester”; Stan Lee (script), Gene Colan (pencils), Dan Adkins (inks) Cover: Gene Colan (pencils), Dan Adkins (inks)

Although by this time Lee seemed only to be playing by the numbers in his scripting chores on the FF and Thor (where it was likely that he’d given over the bulk of the plotting duties to Kirby), on other strips he was definitely firing on all burners! A good example of that is Daredevil #42 (July 1968) which introduced another quirky, but wonderfully appropriate villain for DD (on the order of such past weirdos as the Stilt Man, the Leap Frog and the Purple Man). The Jester started out as a failed actor who, out of resentment for slights suffered at the hands of unappreciative audiences, turned to crime. Using an arsenal of toys (one of the most effective of which was a yo-yo!) he The Grandiose Years

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hires himself out to crooked New York mayoral candidate Richard Raleigh to scare rival candidate Foggy Nelson out of the race. One of the neat things about the Jester is how Lee writes his frustrated personality, as if he’s constantly on stage and performing for the crowds. His image of himself as a great actor prevents him from realizing the serious situations he gets himself into while in constant search of the spotlight. “The play is ended at last…” muses the Jester after robbing a bank. “And it has been a rousing success! A pity there are none to applaud! But, alas, that is one of the penalties of a criminal career…! I must forego the ovations…and the cheers! The tribute of an audience shall forever be denied me!” But the success of the Jester as the consummate DD villain would’ve been considerably lessened if it wasn’t for the penciling of Gene Colan. Having started as the regular artist on the strip with #20, Colan hit the ground running with a style already quite sophisticated, but such a head start didn’t stop him from refining it. And with this issue, his art is slicker than ever (aided by Vince Colletta, whose inks here perfectly complement Colan’s many shadows, especially in a panel showing

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the Jester as he faces Raleigh from the frame of an open window into a darkened office or the two-page sequence of the Jester’s bank heist and escape in a stolen car along deserted, night-darkened streets; gorgeous!) Capitalizing on his facility for drawing realistic faces, Colan fills the book with vivid portraits of all the book’s supporting characters, including the lantern-jawed Jonathan Powers (the Jester), the sinister Raleigh and a gallery of supporting players. But the neat thing about this book is that, like a good play, it serves only as prologue to the main event, a multi-part Jester storyline that starts in #44. Daredevil #42, pages 2-3. Although the panels in this double-page sequence are laid out in a conventional manner, the POV within each is almost cinematic in their dynamism. Very soon, Colan would break out of the traditional panel-to-panel straightjacket and begin to use the shape of his borders to more accurately capture the mood taking place within them. And Vince Colletta’s inks could hardly serve better than they do here over Colan’s darkened street scenes.

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Captain America #103 “The Weakest Link!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Syd Shores (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Syd Shores (inks)

What a difference an inker makes! While Sinnott’s loosening inking work on the FF only emphasized Kirby’s increasing weaknesses, Syd Shores’ style did just the opposite on Captain America. There, Shores’ brushwork added the detail that Sinnott’s too literal interpretation of Kirby’s pencils lacked. In addition, with the use of different kinds of shading, from solid blacks to crosshatching, Shores was able not only to preserve the ethereal feel of the pencil work, but avoided the two-dimensional quality that resulted from Sinnott’s failure to capture the nuances of Kirby’s originals. There was nothing, for instance, in concurrent issues of the FF that compared even remotely with the magnificence of the full-page shot of a foreshortened Cap as he swims toward Exile Island in Captain America #103 (July 1968)! In an issue filled with flattering ink work, nothing showed off Kirby at his power-packed best, at the height of the grand style, as this single indelible image. But believe it or not, that’s only the tip of the iceberg! Throughout this opening volley of the latest battle between Cap and the Red Skull, Shores’ efforts must’ve gone a long way to restoring the faith of readers who might have begun to suspect that the King was losing his vitality. From the appearance of the Skull and the introduction of his rogues’ gallery of Nazi war criminals to Cap’s spectacular assault on Exile Island to his one-on-one

battle with the Skull, the book just oozed excitement, grandiosity and the highest stakes. And as always, adding a veneer of sophistication and deeper value to what on the surface could’ve seemed like just another action fest, was Lee’s scripting. Soaked with drama (but with genuine feeling), Lee’s words again elevate the quality of the Skull’s evil to gigantic proportions. No longer is he simply out to make the world safe for fascism, the Red Skull is now the personification of evil: suave, sophisticated, ruthless. And as great an artistic triumph as this issue was for Kirby and Shores, it’s Lee’s ringing words, bolstered by his knack for cadence and rhythm, that really stands out as, at the climax of the story, when hero and villain meet, their philosophical differences are laid out in the starkest of black-and-white terms. “There is no master race,” Cap says to the Skull. “We’re all human beings—all equal before our creator! Nothing you can ever say or do will change that!” “Equality! You fool—equality is— just a myth!” “A myth, is it? Then America herself is just a myth—as are liberty, and justice—and faith! Myths that free men everywhere, are willing die for! It’s tyranny which is the myth—And bigotry which is an abomination before the eyes of mankind! For humanity has come of age—And, so long as love, not hatred, fills men’s hearts—the day of the tyrant is ended.” It was another variation of the optimism that was at the bedrock of Silver Age Marvel, the natural optimism of a nation following its recovery from the assassination of a President and the optimism of two men, members of “the greatest generation,” who had lived through Depression, World War and Cold War. It was this spirit that readers sensed about Marvel, if only on an unconscious level, that was the real inspiration for their fierce loyalty to the company and their disdain of any others.

Captain America #104 “Slave of the Skull!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Dan Adkins (inks), Jim Steranko (inks [pg. 11]) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Dan Adkins (inks)

The assassination of President Kennedy at the start of the 1960s and the social chaos that continued through the rest of the decade for some seemed to bear out the Red Skull’s argument that men, such as the average-looking Lee Harvey Oswald, were basically evil.

In the power-packed climax to the Red Skull’s latest assault on humanity, the action is so furious, so non-stop, that a reader could almost be forgiven for not noticing Shores’ absence in the inking department. Filling in for him in Captain America #104 (Aug. 1968) is Dan Adkins, whose sharply defined use of blacks may not have been the best that could be hoped for over Kirby’s pencils. Like Sinnott, he was often too slavish in his adherence to what Kirby has put on the page, with results that were a good deal less “warm” than Shores’ more artistically balanced work. As such, Adkins’ style tended to accentuate Kirby’s The Grandiose Years

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weaknesses, the stock postures and the too frequent use of shadows. Which isn’t to say that Kirby’s innate dynamism doesn’t come through. Far from it! Even an ostensibly static full-page shot of the Skull (seen in close-up, cigarette holder in his mouth and cravat wound nooselike around his neck, in the lower half of the panel) and his band of exiles seethes with menace and restrained mayhem. And when the action starts in earnest halfway through the book, Kirby choreographs Cap’s battle with the six exiles (Cadavus, Monarch of the Murder Chair and Iron Hand Hauptmann, the Butcher of Bavaria among others!) across a series of six-panel and quarter-panel pages as smoothly as ever. But again, it’s Lee who has the last word as the forces of SHIELD invade Exile Island in the final scenes. With the enemy defeated and Old Glory firmly in hand, Cap tells the victorious soldiers, “We defeated Nazism, and all it stood for, more than 20 years ago! And here, on this site— we did it again! Let this be our answer to the scoffers and the doubters—to those who think democracy has lost its resolve! Wherever the deadly specter of tyranny looms—the spirit of free men—proud and united—will drive it from our shores!” It was 1968, the year of the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact forces, the announcement by President Lyndon Johnson that he wouldn’t seek a second term, rioting in the streets of Paris and Chicago and the Tet Offensive. Was Lee, well established as the guru of the comics world and rising star of the countercultural left betraying his progressive image by embracing such reactionary sentiments as patriotism and duty or were they merely expressions of his naturally unrestrained optimism? Who knew? But it sure sounded great!

The Mighty Thor #154 “To Wake the Mangog!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks)

But Lee had the kind of personality (and skill!) to make himself seem all things to all people. Presumably, red-blooded, all-American kids read Marvel comics for the action and embraced its Comics Code-approved middle-class values while older, college and draft age readers at least thought they detected a figurative wink from Lee when he treated his own material with a knowing self-deprecation. How else to interpret a scene from The Mighty Thor #154 (July 1968) which, on the one hand, Lee provides a gentle reproof of the growing counter-cultural movement while on the other offers understanding by referring to its adherents as being “pure of heart” and innocent? 194

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The increasing divide between realists who continued to see a threat against the free world posed by international Communism and a more optimistic but naïve younger generation placed Captain America (and writer Stan Lee) in a difficult position vis a vis readers who carried on vigorous political debates in the Star-Spangled Avenger’s lettercols.

The scene, an interlude between the thunder god and a trio of tripped out hippies (whose figures Lee obviously had redrawn by someone in the bullpen; did he feel that Kirby’s originals weren’t genuine enough?) The three hippies, long haired, adorned with love beads and medallions and sporting Nehru jackets and army surplus outfits, catch Thor’s attention while he searches the streets for Loki. “I dig the hair and the guru getup—but that hammer’s from nowhere man!” says one. “Thou deign to scoff at enchanted Mjolner?” wonders Thor in a line that could’ve come straight from Not Brand Echh. “Hey, that’s wild! You even got a name for it!” But Thor quickly takes the measure of the three youths after they tell him that they’ve “dropped out.” “‘Tis not by dropping out—but by plunging in—into the maelstrom of life itself— that thou shalt find thy wisdom!” Thor tells them as he prepares to depart in a blazing ring of energy. “There be causes to espouse! There be battles to be won! There be glory and grandeur all about thee— if thou wilt but see! Aye, there be time enow for thee to disavow thy heritage—Yea, thou mayest drop out fore’er…But, so long as life endures—thou must live it to the full! Else, thou be unworthy of the title—man!” “Verily, they have eyes, but seeth not!” says Thor after leaving Earth. “When life doth seem too much to bear—’tis not the time to renounce the struggle! The ostrich hides—the jackal flees—but man—and god— do persevere!” Softened somewhat behind Lee’s Elizabethan dialogue, the message is nevertheless a

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harsh one for many of the country’s young people seduced by the footloose lifestyle of the counterculture. And despite being able to sympathize with them and speak their language, Lee, who obviously still retained the nation’s traditional values, wasn’t really one of them. But it was part of his charm that he could make himself (and Marvel comics) seem to be. It was one of the secret ingredients of the company’s success (begun with the chummy repartee in its letters pages during the early, formative years and now integrated directly into the stories themselves during the grandiose years) and why competitors like DC could only be seen by readers as stodgy, stuffy and reactionary by comparison.

The Mighty Thor #155 “Now Ends the Universe!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks)

It’s crisis time again in Asgard as Loki (on the run from Thor in the previous issue) reaches the home of the gods ahead of his brother just in time to discover that their father has entered the “Odinsleep,” a convenient story device that allows the craven Loki to seize the vacant throne! Thus, when Thor finally makes the scene, according to the nonsensical laws of Asgard which prevent Odin from being awakened for any reason on pain of death, Loki must be obeyed as the unquestioned leader of the gods! Adding to the confusion of The Mighty Thor #155 (Aug. 1968) (and no doubt Thor’s frustrations with the Asgardian legal code) is the sudden appearance of the greatest threat Asgard has faced in a millennia: the coming of the vaguely biblical sounding Mangog. It all began last issue after Ulik, mightiest of the trolls, disregards a warning message left by Odin and frees the Mangog from imprisonment. Powerful beyond belief, the In real life, the vitality of the Norse gods came to an end in the eighth century when St. Boniface took an ax to an oak tree that was said to be sacred to Thor. When lightning failed to strike Boniface down, the God of Christianity was deemed more powerful than the son of Odin and the Germanic peoples abandoned their pagan beliefs.

Mangog is actually a magically created being composed of the combined strength of a “billion, billion” beings. Beings of a race that had once threatened Asgard with invasion before being stopped by Odin. Now, swearing eternal vengeance, Mangog slowly makes his way from the fringes of Asgard’s hinterland toward the gleaming city itself, smashing everything in his path. Determining to unsheathe the fateful Odinsword, Mangog thus intends to destroy all of Asgard and the rest of the universe with it! As with the FF, Kirby here has probably taken on the book’s main plotting chores by himself and so credit for the ominous and suspenseful buildup to Thor’s inevitable confrontation with Mangog next issue must go to him. From the story’s opening sequence with Thor flying through the darkened skies of Earth (with Ragnarok on his mind) to the scenes of Mangog as he draws closer and closer to Asgard, battering down mountains and sweeping aside its proudest warriors, Kirby does a good job keeping the reader’s interest until at last Thor is forced to ride out through a ruined landscape to tackle the monster personally. Can he stop Mangog himself or will big daddy Odin wake up from the Odinsleep in the nick of time? Stay tuned!

The Mighty Thor #156 “The Hammer and the Holocaust!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks)

After a very lackluster performance the issue before (a disappointing trend that had been developing with him for some time), Colletta seemed to bear down in The Mighty Thor #156 (Sept. 1968) providing Kirby with some of the old inking magic that had made the team so successful in years past. And just in time too, as the Mangog storyline entered its third chapter and began to shape up into the kind of epic story not seen in the book since the opening days of the grandiose years. Although resembling too closely a previous storyline starring Fafnir, the dragon from the now defunct “Tales of Asgard,” the grand style of Kirby’s art together with Colletta’s inking and Lee’s script yet combined to make readers forget the past in the glory of the present as Thor, Balder, Fandral, Hogun, Volstagg and even the Recorder join in their hopeless battle with the Mangog. The proof? Take, for example, the page where Thor hurls “bolts of purest lightning” at Mangog. Only Colletta’s fine line inking could translate the raw, seething expenditure of arcane forces latent in Kirby’s close-up of Mangog’s laughing face (that he’d set in the middle of a cloud of roiling energies) or depict a full-length Mangog, his body turned into a living battery, glowing in the white heat of radiating The Grandiose Years

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light. Other artistic highlights include a full-page illustration of Loki sprawled upon the throne of Asgard (suitable for framing!) and another showing the arrival of the Recorder at the Rainbow Bridge. It was flourishes like these that showed that the two men still had what it took to put across the grandeur and sweep demanded by the Thor strip.

The Mighty Thor #156, page 11. In a story that had elements both of absurdity and grandiosity, Kirby’s pencils were never bet ter served than they were here with many outstanding examples of Collet ta’s inking skills, including those in panel 3 where the inker manages to convey an effect such that the reader can almost feel the blazing heat emanating from Mangog’s body!

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The Mighty Thor #157 “Behind Him...Ragnarok!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks)

The action followed into The Mighty Thor #157 (Oct. 1968) as, beneath an incredible, beautifully colored cover by Kirby, Mangog continued his inexorable progress toward Asgard. It was the climax of the last great Thor story as, like the FF, the strip descended into a series of mostly single-issue stories that were often plagued with continuity problems. Certainly, the team of Kirby and Colletta would continue to offer indelible images of the thunder god in action and even a brief stint by Bill Everett on the inks would bring a new kind of excitement to Kirby’s pencils, but the stories themselves would become flabbier, with fewer details and sub-plots. Supporting characters would receive less and less attention with little or no development of Thor himself (except for a singleissue story in #159 that attempted to explain inconsistencies in his origin). Exiled into deep space, Thor would be ordered by Odin to seek out Galactus (and learn his origin) and most disappointingly, to defeat the mighty Ego in a couple of panels by shooting an energy beam at him from the head of his hammer! A hint of this creeping lackadaisicality is to be had this issue when, after four books of constant combat and mounting suspense, Odin, having been awakened from his Odinsleep by the commotion, shows up at the last possible instant. Reversing the

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“Odinspell” that defeated Mangog’s people millions of years before, Odin causes the creature to simply vanish! Not exactly the most satisfying ending for an epic, but sadly one that set the tone for Kirby’s remaining months on the book.

and soon, with his production chores increasing, Romita was awarded a permanent work area in the crowded Marvel offices. But with growing responsibilities (for all intents and purposes, Romita became de facto art director), he was forced to cut back his workload on Spider-Man and instead Amazing Spider-Man #63 confined himself to layouts. Don Heck was brought “Wings in the Night!”; Stan Lee (script), in to finish and ink the pencils. Shaky at first, the John Romita (layouts), Don Heck (pencils), unlikely partnership soon settled down and became Mike Esposito [as Mickey Demeo] (inks) one of the best at Marvel, with this issue a good Cover: John Romita (pencils & inks) example. From the opening splash page with the Believe it or not, the “Golden Age” of Romita’s brooding figure of the Vulture looking down over a presence on the Spider-Man book had, by this time, rain-swept city to the aerial battle high over already come and gone. Manhattan between the From his solid, but shaky “old” and the “new” beginnings aping Ditko, Vultures, the two artists Romita had rapidly become offered plenty for a reader more self-assured in applying to enjoy. Particularly well his own style to the strip. done were this issue’s In no time, he’d racked up many interludes involving an impressive list of credits the various plot threads including the introductions Lee always kept cooking in of such new villains as the the Spider-Man book, Rhino, the Shocker and the including ongoing relationKingpin and supporting ship problems between characters like retired Police Peter and Gwen, Peter’s Captain George Stacy and fears that Capt. Stacy might Mary Jane Watson. In discover his secret ID and addition, his became the Norman Osborn’s ominous defining look of Peter struggle with repressed Parker’s world and the memories of his once During the grandiose years, John Romita ambience of college campus, having been the Green became a permanent fixture in the high-rise apartments, sleepy Goblin. Unfortunately Marvel offices often acting as de facto art director. bedroom communities and though, the Romita/Heck busy editorial offices that team wouldn’t last forever. made it up. In short, by It came to an end in #65 Amazing Spider-Man #63 (Aug. 1968), Romita’s when Heck’s pencils and inks were taken over by brightly lit design sense had succeeded in bringing the less than satisfying work of Jim Mooney, and in the strip from its more insulated provincial origins #76 Romita would actually abandon the penciling into the fast-paced, up-to-date world of the late chores all together. 1960s. By capturing the spirit of the times (what Lee was most looking for in the strip) as he did, Romita Amazing Spider-Man #64 had made the Spider-Man feature the best selling of “The Vulture’s Prey”; Stan Lee (script), Marvel’s expanding line of comics. Unfortunately, John Romita (layouts), Don Heck (pencils), Romita soon became a victim of his own success. Mike Esposito [as Mickey Demeo] (inks) Cover: John Romita (pencils & inks) Always one of Lee’s favorite artists (to whom he always returned throughout the company’s periods The story in Amazing Spider-Man #64 (Sept. 1968) of boom and bust), it didn’t take long after he actually began the issue before (in a book that rejoined Marvel for Romita to find himself prevailed could’ve been titled the Amazing Vulture for what upon to help around the office whenever he was in little action our hero saw!) when the “old” Vulture town (once it would’ve been Kirby who was asked escaped from jail thirsting for revenge against to do a touch-up here or a cover there, but by 1968 Blackie Drago, the “new” Vulture. Blackie, it will be the “King” had removed himself to California, out of remembered, became the new Vulture in #48 after reach of Lee’s constant pleas for help). Time passed gaining the confidence of the original Vulture while The Grandiose Years

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the two shared a jail cell. Thinking he was on his deathbed, the old Vulture told Blackie where he could find his costume on condition that his friend use it to defeat Spider-Man. Instead, Blackie laughed in his face and proceeded to do as he pleased (which of course, meant a tangle with Spidey anyway). But his naked betrayal of the dying Vulture turned out to be the best medicine the older man could’ve had. Making a miraculous recovery, he escaped prison and wasted little time hunting up Blackie to put the young upstart in his place. “Only by defeating you…thoroughly and completely…can I again regain my rightful place in the hierarchy of crime!” But an unenlightened Blackie, suffering from a severe case of “ageism,” made the mistake of calling his challenger “an old relic.” “I’m younger and stronger…and faster than you!” But he soon learned to respect his elders as the Vulture flies rings around him. “I’m thru! The Vulture’s too much…for anyone!” a defeated Blackie finally admits. But if the Vulture really was too much for anyone, no one told Spider-Man, who attracts his attention this issue by rescuing a child whose life had been imperiled by the super-villians’ avian catfight. “Those rotten killers! They don’t care what happens to any innocent bystanders!” Catching the attention of the victorious Vulture (who’s gleeful at the chance of defeating two enemies in one day), Spidey suddenly becomes the prey and what follows are some of the most spectacular fight scenes ever seen in comics. Together, Romita and Heck take full advantage of twenty pages almost completely free of the book’s usual sub-plots, to lay out a story in big half- and quarter-page panels and filling them with movement and dizzy angles. It was easily some of the very best work Romita ever did and the kind of stuff that blew Marvel’s competition out of the water! But finally, after a story crammed with narrow escapes, crumbling masonry and even a peek at Mary Jane’s new hairdo (not an improvement!), the Vulture is defeated (but still gets away) and readers are left not only psychologically exhausted, but with a cliffhanger as an unconscious Spider-Man is left in the street with a crowd of bystanders slowly moving in. “This is our chance…to unmask him at last!” It’d be a long wait till #65! Amazing Spider-Man #63, page 1. A colossal example of the titanic team of John Romita, penciler and Don Heck, inker. A standard of excellence that would hold until after the title had passed its 100th issue and only then because Romita would both pencil and ink his own work.

Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #3 “Dark Moon Rise, Hell Hound Kill!”; Jim Steranko (script, pencils & inks) Cover: Jim Steranko (script, pencils & inks)

For all the wonderful work being done in this period, from Kirby and Shores’ Captain America, to Romita and Heck’s Spider-Man to Colan’s Daredevil, there was still no one to compare with what Steranko was doing on the SHIELD strip! Sure, the other artists were knocking the comic book world dead with their individual takes on the grand style, the action, the color and the dynamics were all there, but Steranko chose not to compete in that arena (although his stories had their quota of action). Instead, the excitement he generated was done almost purely through his sense of design. But for Steranko, design didn’t begin and end with a single page (as brilliant as some of Colan’s layouts were), it encompassed individual comics in their entirety. One effect led to another, which opened organically onto the next, building stories to their shattering, sometimes overwrought climaxes. But that was the effect Steranko was looking for; influenced by the pulp magazines that were popular in the first half of the twentieth century, he preferred to present visually the non-stop, hectic pace of stories featured in such pulps as Weird Tales, The Shadow Magazine, Doc Savage, Thrilling Science Fiction and Black Mask Detective, stories designed for fast reading by a semi-literate public with a short attention span. A great example of the kind of fevered, pulp-style action Steranko tried to convey in his work is Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #3 (Aug. 1968) in which he takes equal doses of Arthur Conan Doyle and Doc Savage to create what begins as a gothic horror story and ends up as James Bondian science fiction! Indeed, Steranko said once that it was his intention to do at least one comics story in every A great influence on Steranko’s scripting was the pulp magazine style of rapid-fire writing. Although pulps were largely absent in England, the country did have its version of pulp-style writers including Sax Rohmer and his contemporary Arthur Conan Doyle, whose novel The Hound of the Baskervilles Steranko obviously used as the basis for the story in SHIELD #3.

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genre and he begins here with a cover obviously designed according to the rules of gothic romance: a fleeing female dominates the foreground while behind her is the required, evil-looking manse presided over by a full moon and the symbolic, ghostly visage of Nick Fury himself. As beautiful as this stunning cover is, the splash page inside is even better! Here, incredibly, Steranko reverses expectations by having his best work open a story instead of building to it at the climax. Reproduced solely from his pencils and lit completely in a garish red, Steranko (who wrote, drew and colored this issue) unerringly sets the mood for the weird tale to follow:

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The next two pages ratchets down the brilliance, but not by much! A double-page spread announcing the story’s title of “Dark Moon Rise, Hell Hound Kill!” Steranko here leaches the scene of color and drops holding lines to create an ominous lead-in to the main story, which begins on the following pages. This time, Fury is called to England to investigate the mysterious death of a friend (he was apparently torn apart by a large dog). On nearly every page, Steranko regales the reader with new and different

Evil winds: of terror stream, As in some cruel unending drama, When th’ moon casts darke upon th’ moor! ’Tis the hound o’hell whose fiery breath Bryings nightmare dread, dispaire and death, When th’ moon casts darke upon th’ moor!

B’ware then, th’ brute beast’s fearful thrust, Fall not prey to his vengeful lust, When th’ moon casts darke upon the moor! 200

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Blacke fire glowing ’twixt his teeth, He seeks fresh souls for endless sleep, Yet none dare track that phantom fleeing, Leaping lyke some hell-bound being, When th’ moon casts darke upon th’ moor!

Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #3, page 1. Colored completely in blood red tones, this reproduction taken directly from Steranko’s pencils is an example of the type of effect the artist was doing that set fandom on fire in the late 1960s.

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imagery, from scenes using multiple viewpoints to overlapping panels to strobe effects and tracking shots, he does it all without ever seeming to be simply piling it on. Every visual device is part of an organic whole, moving the story forward with grim inevitability until its (somewhat predictable) climax. It was a bravura performance and the most convincing argument yet on why the artist couldn’t possibly meet a monthly deadline on the SHIELD feature. Consequently the next issue would be a fill-in and #5 would be his last. After that, Steranko would never hold down another regular monthly book. Short stands on the X-Men and Captain America would lead into a few individual stories for anthology titles before the artist eventually left comics to devote himself to other media.

Silver Surfer #1

If Lee had indeed abandoned plotting responsibilities on the FF, Thor and Captain America to Kirby (even his scripting of the FF and Thor strips were hardly more than perfunctory), then it begs the question: where were his creative energies going? Well, production and promotion for one. Freed from the distribution straightjacket imposed on the company for years, Marvel’s line of books continued to expand beyond the splintering of Strange Tales, Tales of Suspense and Tales to Astonish. Captain Marvel had graduated to his own title while Marvel Super-Heroes continued to feature new strips in every issue and Sgt. Fury knock-off Captain Savage and His Leatherneck Raiders was launched only a few months before. In addition, the company had begun to experiment with new formats including a magazinesized Spectacular Spider-Man comic and new, squarebound 50-page comics sold at twice the 12-cent price of regular books. One of these special, double-sized comics featured the character that’d seized Lee’s imagination and that both inspired and prompted him to do some of the best writing of his career. Intended to appeal to the hardcore Marvel reader, the kind of reader who knew the company’s increasingly complicated continuity and thirsted for more coverage of the kind of serious themes that the regular comics only touched on, Lee determined to make Silver Surfer #1 (Aug. 1968) what they were looking for. Although created fullblown by Kirby in FF #48 with an initial personality that indicated the character had no knowledge of what it was to be an ordinary mortal, Lee quickly saw the potential and appeal of the Silver Surfer as an objective commentator on the triumphs and foibles of the human

“The Origin of the Silver Surfer”; Stan Lee (script), John Buscema (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks) “The Wonder of the Watcher”; Stan Lee (script), Gene Colan (pencils), Syd Shores (inks) Cover: John Buscema (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks)

Spectacular Spider-Man magazine-sized comic. Despite electrifying work by artists like Steranko and bold new features such as the Silver Surfer, Spider-Man continued to rule the Marvel roost throughout the 1960s.

race. With 38 pages of story every other month in which to explore his personality, Lee had the Surfer torn between his pity and desire to help the benighted human race and his loyalty to the memory of his lost love Shalla Bal. As a result, the Surfer would remain in a state of almost constant anguish at the predicament which found him exiled on Earth, a world he wasn’t sure if he loved or hated. But in taking this route, by making the Surfer more human and so better able to understand the human race, Lee risked diluting the very quality that made the character such an effective vehicle for social commentary. In this first story, for example, Lee gives the Surfer an origin that places him on the paradise planet of Zenn La where all is peace and light until the day when it is visited by a ravenous Galactus. To save his world, Norrin Radd offers to become the space-god’s herald in order to search out other worlds with which Galactus can satisfy his hunger. Galactus agrees and Zenn La is saved, but at a terrible price for Norrin Radd who, as the Surfer, can never return home, never see Shalla Bal again and The Grandiose Years

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Silver Surfer #1 (opposite page). Although in hindsight his origin seemed more a combination of both a fallen Lucifer and a suffering Christ, the Silver Surfer’s introduction in a squarebound format gave Stan Lee a whopping 38 pages to write the kind of morality tale that he used to need only five pages to tell in his old pre-hero Atlas monster days!

when he’s exiled on Earth, his misery is complete. But although Lee manages to give the Surfer’s character more depth, it comes at the cost of a loss of credibility. How can readers really accept the Surfer’s bewildered pronouncements about the human race when he’s obviously as human as they are? Be that as it may, Lee still manages to pull it off with such ruminations by the Surfer as: “In all the galaxies…in all the endless reaches of space…I have found no planet more blessed than this…No world more lavishly endowed with natural beauty…with gentle climate…with every ingredient to create a virtual living paradise! Possessed of rainfall in great abundance…soil fertile enough to feed a galaxy! It is as though the human race has been divinely favored over all who live! And yet…in their uncontrollable insanity…in their unforgivable blindness…they seek to destroy this shining jewel…this softly-spinning gem…this tiny blessed sphere…which men call Earth!” Throughout the story, the script is bolstered by Lee’s measured cadences and rhythmic lines, which in turn are underscored by the art of John Buscema. It was an impressive launch for the new feature and as long as the title remained in the giant, squarebound format it continued to shine. Unfortunately, things didn’t stay that way for long. The new format was discontinued with #7 and with the reduction to normal size, much of Lee’s enthusiasm for the book followed the lost pages. But while it lasted, the Silver Surfer managed to become Marvel’s conscience, the handbook where the dominant themes of the grandiose years were gathered and codified and made plain to every reader.

Dr. Strange #173 “While a World Waits!”; Roy Thomas (script), Gene Colan (pencils), Tom Palmer (inks) Cover: Dan Adkins (pencils & inks)

Through most of comics’ history, if the work of an inker called attention to itself, then it was presumed to have failed in its intended purpose. That purpose was solely to make an artist’s pencil sketches dark enough to be picked up in the printing process from which finished comic book pages were produced. Of course, there’d always been exceptions to that rule as many inkers, being artists themselves, couldn’t help but impose their own styles over that of the penciler. And

nowhere did it happen with more regularity than at Marvel whose new action-oriented style seemed to invite inkers to put more of themselves into their work. As a result, under the styles of such wildly different inkers as Stone, Colletta, Sinnott, Shores and Everett, the work of an artist like Kirby appeared to shift and change in accordance to the demands of the particular A young Tom feature he was illustrating. Palmer came on like blockbusters in And yet, never could the his debut as inker contributions of any of over Gene Colan’s these inkers be considered pencils on Dr. of equal importance to Strange. and the that of the penciler (purely duo would go on to become one of the from the point of view of top creative teams art that is, plotting by the in comics, especially artist is a completely for their work on separate subject). Accept Tomb of Dracula. maybe, for Tom Palmer. Interestingly, Palmer had been hired as a penciler and slated to replace Dan Adkins on the Dr. Strange book with #173, but somehow Colan was assigned the task instead with Palmer inking. The funny thing was, no one knew if Palmer could ink! Palmer himself has said he’d had no real experience at the job and in his first assignment on this issue of Dr. Strange #173 (where Colan’s groundbreaking artwork would give any veteran inker pause!), thought that he may have overdone it. Not so’s anyone could tell! In fact, this issue of Dr. Strange is a landmark for being not only Palmer’s first work as an inker, but the first time he and Colan would work together as a team. Together, the two men would go on to produce some of the most beautiful and most significant work in the company’s twilight years, while at the same time establishing for themselves a reputation as one of the greatest artist/inker teams in comics history. The secret, apparently, was that Palmer’s inking style (which included a whole lot more than just going over an artist’s pencil lines) was perfectly matched to Colan’s intentions as an artist. Colan’s style had always relied on movement and the elasticity of the human body and of course, shadows, shadows, shadows! Complementing those strengths, Palmer would lay on thick, rich blacks that nevertheless were tempered by a liberal use of Zip-a-tone giving Colan’s pencils a depth The Grandiose Years

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and fullness that made his cinema verite style even more realistic. Later, by also coloring many of the books he inked, Palmer would gain even more control over the look of the final product. His efforts over Colan (and later over John Buscema and Neal Adams) became so intrinsic, so organic to the look of the finished work, that any objective observer is forced to give Palmer near equal credit with the artist. But such virtuosity didn’t come easy, and with the exception of Klaus Janson (who began working at Marvel in the twilight years), Palmer had few imitators.

Daredevil #44 “I, Murderer!” Stan Lee (script), Gene Colan (pencils), Dan Adkins (inks) Cover: Gene Colan (pencils), Jim Steranko (inks)

After a single-issue interlude, the Jester was back to plague DD in Daredevil #44 (Sept. 1968), but the time off

Strange Adventures #212, page 14. Colan’s only serious competition in the area of innovative panel layout was Neal Adams over at rival DC.

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didn’t help his mental equilibrium any. Still suffering from a massive case of egocentrism, the Jester makes his debut this issue by having a jewelry heist interrupted by the police. And even though his plans are foiled, he considers escape victory enough. “He really is a fulltime nut!” wonders one of the police officers. “He goes to all that trouble to grab these jewels—then leaves ’em behind—and he thinks he’s won!” But to the thespic Jester, “All that truly matters is the excitement of the game—the thrill of the chase!” But Lee’s delightful portrayal of the Jester was only the frosting on the cake for a story that turns out to have been as radically written as it was laid out. Although Neal Adams’ concurrent work at rival DC has been credited as opening up the typical comic book page to the limitless possibilities of layout beyond its traditional 4-, 5- or 6panel grid, Colan demonstrates in this issue that he was as far out on the artistic edge as any of the younger innovators that would enter the industry in the years following 1968. Having begun stretching the limits of panel borders (and sometimes breaking them!) with his work on Dr. Strange, Colan swiftly developed the wideopen layout style that would become his trademark over the next few years. In “I Murderer!” Colan not only took this style to the extreme, but created a whole new visual dynamic that even dictated the form in which Lee would shape his script. In particular were those pages where Colan uses a series of downward plunging panels and even a spectacular full-page shot of DD swinging vertiginously over its suspension cables in order to emphasize the high altitude action atop the George Washington Bridge. A few pages later, Colan and Lee team-up to offer the reader a breezy combination of leading dialogue and overlapping panels the better to depict DD’s struggle with Jonathan Powers (alias the Jester!) high over the river. Finally, Colan tops it all off with a radically designed broken, split page layout that has the effect of pulling the viewer irresistibly downward in the wake of the falling villain. (Actually, the Jester jumped off the bridge as part of his plan to frame DD for murder!) If he’d done nothing else in his career, this issue alone would’ve been enough to put Colan on the map! Meanwhile, forced to give up the visually intrusive text blocks traditional with comics’ storytelling, Lee instead produced a script that was stripped to the bone and, combined with Colan’s tumbling panels, keeps the story moving along at a breakneck pace and rushing it to a surprise conclusion as the manic Jester frames Daredevil for murder. Throughout, the seamless scripting is perfect. Lee the writer never showed more self-restraint or wrote more naturalistic dialogue, while Lee the editor rarely shone brighter than in the wisdom he displayed here in placing the text and allowing Colan such artistic freedom.

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Daredevil #45 “The Dismal Dregs of Defeat”; Stan Lee (script), Gene Colan (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks) Cover: Gene Colan (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks)

The second chapter of the greatest DD saga of all continues directly from the previous issue’s cliffhanger ending in which our hero, wanted for murder, suffers the irony of being captured by the very man he’s accused of killing! You see, the Jester, in his alias as Jonathan Powers, failed actor, maneuvered Daredevil to the George Washington Bridge by announcing to the world that he knew DD’s secret identity and it was there that he intended to make it public. Worried, Daredevil confronted Powers at the bridge just as news cameras were being set-up. Powers grabbed a startled DD yelling that the hero was trying to shove him from the bridge and a moment later, threw himself into the drink. Caught on film, the civil authorities could only conclude that Daredevil had killed Powers to preserve the secret of his true identity! Simple right? But things get more complicated in Daredevil #45 (Oct. 1968) as the roles of hero and villain are reversed with DD the hunted and the Jester the darling of millions. Once again, Colan lays out the book in his new, radical style with crazy shaped panels that literally zig-zag across the pages while Lee provides the super-slick, snappy repartee between the characters. In no time, the plot winds its way to the end of the book and climaxes with a DD/Jester battle at another famous New York landmark, the Statue of Liberty (the subject of this issue’s neat photo-cover; had avowed film fan Colan just finished watching Hitchcock’s Saboteur [1942])? Colan provides a last spectacular flourish by having DD swing from Liberty’s observation crown in a huge three-quarterpage panel shot from high above a severely foreshortened monument. The issue ends in yet another cliffhanger: captured by the police and placed in a jail cell, an unconscious DD is about to be unmasked by a curious trustee…!

wasn’t good (like Kirby, it was practically impossible to do a bad job on Colan), but there seemed to be something missing in his work. For instance, a lack of shadow in a scene in which Matt Murdock is standing against a wall makes it seem as if a nearby telephone is suspended in mid-air! But as it is, things were moving much too fast in Daredevil #46 (Nov. 1968) for anyone to pay much attention! It’ll be remembered that at the conclusion of last issue, DD was about to be unmasked by a sinister prison trustee and not too surprisingly, he wakes up just in time to stop him. From there, things take a weird twist. Just as DD and the Jester’s roles were reversed the issue before, it happens again here as Daredevil, playing on the would-be thespian’s outsized vanity, impersonates him on the Johnny Carson Show (!) in order to lure him into the open. (DD had learned that Jonathan Powers and the Jester were one and the same when his heightened sense of hearing enabled him to realize that both men’s heartbeats were alike!) The plan works. (“No one—no one cashes in on the Jester’s glory! All those frustrating years—when I couldn’t make it as an actor. When fame—and stardom—were denied me. I planned—and worked—and sacrificed to achieve this moment of triumph! And no one shall rob me of it—no one!”) With the cameras rolling, the Jester bursts in on the studio and immediately plunges into a fight with DD. (Obviously enjoying himself, Lee even has time to poke fun at his own scripting when he has the Jester say, “You brainless,

Daredevil #46 “The Final Jest”; Stan Lee (script), Gene Colan (pencils), George Klein (inks) Cover: Gene Colan (pencils), George Klein (inks)

Although Colletta did a good job inking the first two-parts of the Jester saga (as well as the character’s first appearance in #42), he was replaced this issue by veteran George Klein who, although very nice on John Buscema over in the Avengers, turned out to be a tad too literal for the more subtle pencils of Gene Colan. Not to say he

An acknowledged film fan, could Colan have had Alfred Hitchcock’s film Saboteur (1942) in mind for the scenes he drew in Daredevil #45?

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barnstorming, bumbling, boor! There’s nothing plain about the Jester—not even his conversation!”). At last, Daredevil manages to unmask the Jester, publicly revealing him as Jonathan Powers, the man he was supposed to have killed! It was a wild and woolly three-part story with hero and villain perfectly matched in ability and temperament and two creators, Lee and Colan at the top of their respective forms. It’d taken nearly four years from the title’s early, uncertain issues through the transition stories by Romita when Lee finally seemed to find his editorial footing to this final flowering under Colan. And now, just as the book seemed to reach its zenith, it would all come to a sudden end as Lee relinquished the scripting chores to Roy Thomas. But that was only scheduled for #49; in the meantime, Lee and Colan had one more DD story to tell, and it may very well have been the best yet.

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grandiose years that Lee seemed to embark on a deliberate campaign to use his comics to enlighten readers on the important issues of the day. Sometimes the commentary was subtle, such as when the Watcher let drop the fact that there was a God (“There is only one who deserves that name [all powerful]! And his only weapon…is love!”) or the frequent appearance of African-Americans in crowd scenes. Later, minority

Daredevil #47

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“Brother, Take My Hand”; Stan Lee (script), Gene Colan (pencils), George Klein (inks) Cover: Gene Colan (pencils), George Klein (inks)

Daredevil #46, page 17. By the conclusion of the Jester saga, Colan’s layouts, bleeding over from his work on Dr. Strange, had broken wide open. It was too bad that he would end up leaving the strip only a few issues later—but what was Strange ’s loss was DD ’s gain as happily, he’d be back permanently by #53!

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characters began to be introduced as major characters in various strips, such as the Black Panther in the FF and Robbie Robertson in the Spider-Man strip. Also in these years, Lee inaugurated his monthly “Soapbox” column on the Bullpen Bulletins page that appeared in each of the company’s comics. In the beginning, the column was used to answer questions from the readers or to inform them about behind the scenes happenings at Marvel. But soon, the pace of current events began to impress themselves on Lee (as they had a habit of doing to everyone who lived through the 1960s; but then again, maybe he was finding out that readers he met on his college lecture tours were interested in other things besides comics) and little by little, he started to address them in his Soapbox. Beginning modestly with a few paragraphs about such general topics as toleration, understanding and love, Lee eventually expanded his remarks to cover more weighty subjects. Told in the quasi-hip, breezy voice he’d developed over the years, Lee lectured readers on the evils of racism, the problems of war and peace, pollution, drugs and even religion. More than ever, Lee’s entreaty for the community of comic book readers to come together in their mutual love of the medium and to consider the letters pages of Marvel comics neutral ground for the reasoned discussion of sensitive topics appealed to readers. And when Lee began to practice what he preached by using the subjects he talked about in the Soapbox as themes for his stories, he inspired such loyalty (even a kind of cult of Stan Lee!) and pride among his readers that in some cases it would take decades to break. Convincing himself of the power of comics to influence young people, Lee would eventually challenge the Comics Code Authority itself in order to do stories warning of the dangers of addictive drugs. Although never in danger of being rejected by the Code Authority, the story of Willie Lincoln in Daredevil #47 (Dec. 1968) is one of the most powerful examples of Lee’s desire to introduce relevant topics into his comics. The story of “Brother, Take My Hand!” begins in Vietnam as DD performs for the troops. In the audience is Willie Lincoln, a black soldier recently blinded when he risked his life to save his squad from a VC grenade. Later, speaking to him privately, Daredevil discovers that although Willie is due to be discharged, he has little hope of living a normal life on the outside. “There are lots of people-without sight—who lead useful, productive lives! All it takes is guts!” DD tells him, aware of the irony that he himself is blind! Back home, Willie is unable to rejoin the police department as a detective due to his being tainted by the mob, and so hires Matt Murdock to help clear his name. In one of the strip’s rare instances where the readers get to

Despite Marvel’s anti-communist enthusiasms of the early years, it never quite faced up to the country’s major military conflict of the 1960s. When Vietnam was used as story material during the grandiose years, it was usually done in a neutral manner such as in DD #47 or Captain America #125 (where the Mandarin turned out to be the real bad guy).

see Matt Murdock in the courtroom, Willie is cleared of all charges. But to the ex-soldier, it’s a pyrrhic victory. “…Without my sight—where can I go? What can I do?” “There are lots of things a blind man can do!” Matt assures him. “That’s easy enough for you to say!” And then Willie gets the shock of his life as he learns for the first time that Matt is blind too. “You? But—you’re one of the top lawyers in the country!” Then, alone in his apartment, Willie reflects. “…a short time ago I thought I’d hit bottom! But then I found me a friend—and cleared my name! Now, even without my eyes—I’m looking forward to tomorrow—for the first time! I feel like I’m part of the human race again!” and “…when you get down to where it’s at—maybe that’s what brotherhood is all about!” It was a beautiful, well paced, thoughtful story that even had its quota of action told in the style that Lee had made completely his own—that is, enlightening, even uplifting, without sounding preachy. And the amazing thing about it was, despite the easy opportunities to have made it a story about race, Lee again (as he did with the Panther in FF #52), ignored it to concentrate on the problems of the handicapped instead. Easily one of the most well rounded, memorable characters Lee (and Colan of course!) ever created, Willie Lincoln, war hero, police detective and human being was one of the little known and unsung triumphs that definitely made these years what Lee used to call the Marvel Age of Comics! The Grandiose Years

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Captain America #105 “In the Name of Batroc!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Dan Adkins (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Dan Adkins (inks), John Romita (inks [assist])

On the face of it, it didn’t seem likely that Captain America #105 (Sept. 1968) would be the vehicle for one of the most momentous (and overlooked) breakthroughs of the grandiose years. An example of the kind of subtle, revolutionary act committed by Lee in his attempts to make his books more socially relevant, the mention by Captain America here of Jesus Christ (although not by name), was a specific acknowledgement that, yes, in this realistic world of super-heroes that is the Marvel universe, characters wrestle with all the same issues of human endeavor and inquiry as the reader does in his own, including the existence of God and the challenges of the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount. While not necessarily on a par with more obvious, booklength efforts such as the Willie Lincoln or Gabe Jones stories and on a different, non-partisan plane than Thor’s interludes with young people, the acknowledgement by one of Marvel’s most popular super-heroes of the existence and worth of a religious figure (even from a non-supernatural point of view) was nevertheless shocking and even bold. Long held taboo in the entertainment portions of such media as film, television and genre literature, religious expression was usually avoided on the grounds of alienating parts of their audience. Comics were no different, and except for the occasional direct adaptation of episodes from the Bible or denomination-specific biographies, it was rarely if ever done. So when Lee first raised the possibility of the existence of God in the Marvel universe with the Watcher’s fateful uttering in FF #72, it opened the door to more such expressions. And the last Picture Stories place anyone could’ve From the Bible #1. expected it was in this Except in specialty rather weak issue of publications, the subject of God was Captain America. It starts rarely raised in off with one of the comics, especially book’s least interesting super-hero comics. covers (the figure of Cap 208

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was redrawn from Kirby’s original) and goes on to tell a story essentially lifted from an earlier Cap adventure in Tales of Suspense: something called a “seismo-bomb” has been brought into New York, and if it isn’t recovered soon, it’ll go off and destroy the city (in Tales of Suspense #76, the dangerous device was called “Inferno 42”). When Cap takes off after the bomb, he runs into Batroc the Leaper, the Living Laser and Power Man, each of whom is defeated handily by the end of the book (and Cap needs 20 pages to beat Paste-Pot-Pete, er, the Trapster, in #108?). But just as he does, the third and final shockwave erupts from the seismo-bomb and he and Batroc face a crucial decision: to make a run for it before it blows up or make one last desperate effort to defuse it. “I’m gonna try to reach it…and de-fuse it…or die trying!” declares Cap. “And if you fail, even Batroc will be among zee victims! The bomb is yours, mon ami! My so-great speed will take me to safety…while you stupidly risk your life for zee undeserving masses!” And as the francophone villain makes for the hills, Cap remains behind, alone with his thoughts. “There was another who gave his life for the masses, many centuries ago,” he muses. “And though he was the wisest one of all, he never thought of the humblest living being as undeserving!” It was vague and not at all specific, but in its humble way was just as much a triumph of the grandiose years as Kirby’s towering art or Ditko’s humanism or Lee’s many other, more obvious efforts to address the concerns of the real world. Disappointingly, although some of the social issues raised by Lee were followed up in later years by other writers, religious expression was rarely, if ever again, to be explored.

Dr. Strange #178 “With One Beside Him”; Roy Thomas (script), Gene Colan (pencils), Tom Palmer (inks) Cover: Gene Colan (pencils), Tom Palmer (inks)

Of course, it goes without saying that the other half of the art team that made the Dr. Strange strip so fantastic was Gene Colan. Who could’ve predicted from Colan’s past career that the wild, psychedelic, no holds barred, free-form style he employed for Dr. Strange was in him? Where in the world did it all come from? Certainly, there was nothing beyond maybe some cinematic/photographic influences in his work in the war and romance genres to suggest that he’d so suddenly and thoroughly dispense with the conventions of the comic book form. Even in his super-hero work for Marvel, on “Iron Man” and Daredevil, despite learning to open up the page in emulation of Kirby’s brand of dynamism and action

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there was barely a hint that he’d some day just throw out all the rules of laying out stories. And yet, even in his very first issue of Dr. Strange, Colan burst onto the strip with page after page of dizzying scenes, each seemingly melting and dissolving into the other, punctuated now and then (as if showing mercy to the unsuspecting readers who were probably completely blindsided by this new radicalism) by an unusual number of full-page illustrations. Obviously, in retrospect, Colan’s wide-open approach to Dr. Strange could’ve been predicted in his increasing use of overlapping and odd shaped panels in the Daredevil strip and maybe in a possible conscious desire to match the example of the otherworldly, even abstract precedent set by Ditko. In any case, aided immeasurably by the embellishing skills of Tom Palmer, Colan hit the ground running on Dr. Strange and never looked back. Each succeeding issue only seemed to get wilder and weirder and challenged Roy Thomas to write scripts that made sense of the kaleidoscope of imagery that virtually cascaded from the artist’s pen. And one of the pair’s most incredible forays into the realm of the supernatural took place in Dr. Strange #178 (March 1969) which featured such mundane elements as a traditional team-up (with the Black Knight) and Strange’s appearance having been changed from his more sorcerous garb to one more closely resembling a typical super-hero. But readers would get very little help beyond that, because from the very first page they’re thrown into the middle of a battle between the good doctor and a doppelganger of himself! In no time, panel borders vanish and images begin to dissolve into each other as Dr. Strange seeks out the Black Knight (a good guy version of the old Iron Man villain recreated by Thomas in a previous issue of the Avengers) and together, they bridge the dimensions between Earth and the realm of the evil Tiboro. A huge, double-page spread leads into a series of pictures all flowing in the direction of the action, whether the thrust of a sword or the hurling of a deadly spell, and then, in the climactic scene, Tiboro is defeated. But there’s no time for celebration as a new threat looms for the Earth! Dr. Strange and the Black Knight again change locales, but this time instead of crossing dimensions, they cross over to Avengers #61 where the action continues!

Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner #5 “Watch Out For Tiger Shark”; Roy Thomas (script), John Buscema (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks) Cover: John Buscema (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks)

With Lee still dominating the scripting chores on most of Marvel’s titles, it sometimes took some effort for a reader to find his way off the preserve

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Compared to Marvel’s angry and hard to like Sub-Mariner, DC’s sea king could be just a tad bland.

and into uncharted waters. But once finding himself there, a reader was most likely to discover that rising star Roy Thomas was there first! Picking up Lee’s castoffs (he began briefly on the teen humor titles before graduating to Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandoes), Thomas wasted little time in making them his own. He was doing it with Dr. Strange and was well on his way (in partnership with John Buscema) to making the Avengers one of the company’s most exciting strips. So how could the same team fail to make the Sub-Mariner any less so? Answer: easy! Never one of the most exciting concepts for a strip of his own, the Sub-Mariner was better used as the angry, wronged or misunderstood hero-villain that he was frequently presented as in the years of consolidation. And although he’d had his own strip in Tales to Astonish for years and graduated to his own book, his stories in general tended to be episodic (and seemingly endless!) and less than earth-shattering. In addition, it suffered from having The Grandiose Years

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weak artists after the departure of Colan and only picked up visual steam when Buscema came aboard with the character ’s debut issue. From there, despite Buscema’s growing skill working in the Marvel style and Thomas’ increasingly lucid scripting, things seemed doomed to continue in the dull, Sub-Mariner way until Sub-Mariner #5 (Sept. 1968). Suddenly, it seemed, everything changed! Maybe all it took was to get Subby out of the deep and into a land-bound laboratory, but whatever it was, it worked. The story opens with Sub-Mariner being washed ashore and attacked by a lumbering robot. Knocked unconscious, when he comes to, he finds himself at the mercy of Dr. Dorcas, a mad scientist type who wants to use Namor’s power to energize a former Olympic swimmer named Todd Arliss into the super-human Tiger Shark. On the face of it, the story doesn’t sound like anything too original, but it finally gave the Sub-Mariner his first real (and real interesting!) super-villain. What a change from such generic warlords as Krang and Attuma! And Tiger Shark even had a flashy looking, Buscema-designed costume too! But that wasn’t all the artist gave the story; becoming more comfortable in the new actionoriented manner demanded by Marvel’s storytelling, Buscema started to break out of his more traditional style and spread himself out across the pages. Panels grew larger, figures stretched out, even his faces became more expressive. This sure wasn’t your father’s SubMariner strip! 210

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Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner #6 “And To the Vanquished, Death”; Roy Thomas (script), John Buscema (pencils), Dan Adkins (inks) Cover: John Buscema (pencils), Dan Adkins (inks)

The action continued in Sub-Mariner #6 (Oct. 1968) as the near insane Tiger Shark escapes from the laboratory and takes Namor’s girlfriend, the Lady Dorma, hostage. It seems that he’s gotten the idea that on the basis

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Sub-Mariner #6, page 6. With fast moving scripts by Roy Thomas and sprawling art by a John Buscema (who was just entering his most dynamic period), the early issues of the Sub-Mariner strip were some of the best kept secrets at Marvel!

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of getting away from the Sub-Mariner, he’s entitled to the crown of Atlantis! (We told you he was crazy!) In the meantime, his curvaceous sister, Diane Arliss, dons a diving suit and in defiance of Dr. Dorcas (“I’m going after my brother… and…you’d better hope that I find him, before it’s too late, or else you’ll learn that a woman, too, can know the thirst for revenge!”) goes off to look for her brother but finds the Sub-Mariner instead (whom Tiger Shark has left for dead beneath a pile of wreckage). Here, Thomas scores a second time (Tiger Shark was the first). By coming up with the courageous character of Diane Arliss, he’s managed to add not just the first new female character to the strip since the dull Lady Dorma (whom he would finally start doing some interesting things for with the help of the vigorous Warlord Seth…), but set the scene for Sub-Mariner to do some much needed self-analysis in upcoming issues. In the meantime, he defeats Tiger Shark, but unable to do anything for the condition that’s driven him mad, is forced to imprison him until a solution can be found. The two-part Tiger Shark story (besides being one of, if not the best Sub-Mariner stories of Marvel’s Silver Age) represented a sea change for the strip, giving it a new dynamism that it always seemed to lack; unfortunately, it wouldn’t last long. Thomas and Buscema would soon move on to concentrate on such other features as the Avengers and Silver Surfer and after a few issues by returning veteran Gene Colan, the strip would begin a long slide into mediocrity and eventual cancellation.

the years of consolidation Lee had begun to adapt literary and Biblical references to story titles (usually varying them slightly to make them sound more colloquial but keeping enough of their original wording so as not to lose their familiarity with readers). Often the result was that the titles, taken as they were from “serious” literature, gave stories an added veneer of importance. Titles like “None Are So Blind!” from Daredevil #17, “Vengeance Is Ours!” from Avengers #20, “A House Divided” from FF #34 and even the whimsical “Bring Back My Goblin to Me!” from Spider-Man #27 made stories sound so much more cool than those of the stuffy competition (“Riddle of the Robot Justice League!” “I Was a Pawn in a Space Duel!” “Attack From the Tentacle World!”) and went a long way toward working the company into the good graces of the college students who were an increasingly significant part of Marvel’s reader base. Suffice it to say that by the time Roy Thomas made the scene, Lee had already made pilfering the larger world of literature for catchy phrases standard operating procedure. Maybe it was because he was a former English teacher, but the possibilities of such borrowing really seemed to grab Thomas’ imagination. In no time, he began to take liberties with literary quotes and references to popular culture that perhaps even Lee hadn’t considered taking. Quotes for titles went from short and punchy to whole lines, such as the title used for Avengers #64: “Twinkle, twinkle, little star; How I wonder what you are; Up above the world so high; Like a death ray from the sky!” Which brings us to Avengers #61 (Feb. 1969) (continued from Dr. Strange #178 in which the master of the mystic arts joins with the Avengers to stop the twin menaces of Ymir, the frost giant and Surtur, the fire demon) which opens with the familiar lines to the poem by Robert Frost “Some say the world will end in fire…Some say in ice!” He may have taken his advantages, but it didn’t take Thomas long since being hired to get into the Marvel swing of doing things. Taking the ball from Lee, so to speak, Thomas ran with it, and within a few years, he’d even take over the legendary editor’s job. As things turned out, hiring the school teacher from Kansas was one of the smartest decisions Lee ever made!

Avengers #61

Avengers #57

“Some Say the World Will End in Fire, Some Say in Ice”; Roy Thomas (script), John Buscema (pencils), George Klein (inks) Cover: John Buscema (pencils), George Klein (inks)

“Behold, the Vision”; Roy Thomas (script), John Buscema (pencils), Marie Severin (pencils assist), George Klein (inks) Cover: John Buscema (pencils & inks)

Sometimes, like Lee’s subtle references to God, it was the little things that helped put the grand in the grandiose years. Little things like story titles. During

From quoting individual lines, it was only a short step to using whole poems, which is exactly what Thomas did in Avengers #57 (Oct. 1968) when he adapted Percy

Bringing the mysteries of the deep to America’s living rooms, the undersea adventures of real life explorer Jacques Cousteau became a fixture on television screens in the 1960s.

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Avengers #58 “Even an Android Can Cry”; Roy Thomas (script), John Buscema (pencils), George Klein (inks) Cover: John Buscema (pencils & inks)

Roy Thomas drew upon Greek literature (and not a little Freud) for inspiration regarding the motivations of Avengers villain Ultron.

Bysshe Shelley’s “Ozymandias” for its concluding scene. There, he used the classic poem to underline the fate of Ultron, a robot created by Henry Pym (Goliath/Giant-Man/Ant-Man). Ultron, although possessed of the ability to continually recreate itself in more and more deadly versions, had an Achilles’ heel: programmed with almost human-like intelligence, Ultron regarded Pym as its “father” and as it evolved, the notion developed into a fixation of Oedipal proportions. Focused solely on the death of its creator, Ultron’s early quest for becoming more human (and ironically, for conquering the human race) was sublimated to this seemingly pointless hatred. But knowledge of Ultron’s motivations would remain a mystery to the Avengers for some time to come. Meanwhile, Thomas’ script was still being aided and abetted by the pencils of John Buscema who was at the height of his powers in these years and, in contrast to his work over Colan on Daredevil, George Klein was easily Buscema’s best inker to date (not surprising, Tom Palmer would be the best when he took his turn on the job). From his moody introductory scenes of the Vision, to his action-packed battle scenes in Ultron’s hidden lair, Buscema never fails to excite! But the highlight of the issue is also its final page. With Ultron (apparently) destroyed and its severed head lying in a vacant lot, Thomas and Buscema construct a justly classic scene around the event. In a wordless sequence, a young boy discovers the robot’s head and in a contemporary twist on Shelley’s cautionary lines on the transitory nature of power and glory, kicks it around to the ironic cadences of “Ozymandias”: “My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair.” 212

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But the story of Ultron 5 didn’t end with #57. It continued in Avengers #58 (Nov. 1968) where every member, past and present, comes together to learn the secret of the murderous robot and why it wanted them all dead. At the center of the mystery is the Vision, a synthetic being created by Ultron to assassinate the Avengers. The Vision embarked on his mission in #57 when his first victim (perhaps not so coincidentally, given Ultron’s Oedipal motivations!) was the Wasp. But somehow, the Vision overcomes his orders to kill and instead joins the Avengers in seeking out and destroying Ultron. Which left the Avengers (and Thomas) with a problem: what to do with the Vision when his original purpose seemed over? Well, it just so happened that the team was shorthanded at the time with its active membership cut back to only Goliath, Hawkeye, the Black Panther and the Wasp. Something more, it seemed, than the return of old standbys like Captain America and Iron Man was needed to vary the mix. That’s when Thomas decided to reach back to both Marvel’s Silver and Golden Ages for inspiration. Having been a fan of comics before becoming a professional, Thomas always enjoyed bringing in elements from the past, expanding on them, introducing them into current continuity and then exploiting them for story possibilities. From the company’s early days in the 1940s, he took the name and green tint of a character called the Vision and coupled it with another created in issue #9 called Wonder Man. But unlike the older hero, the new Vision, of course, wasn’t human but a “synthezoid,” and could pass through solid objects instead of traveling between dimensions. He did it by regulating his body mass in such a way as to make him light enough to float or pass through walls (like a…vision, get it?) or dense enough to fall through floors. On top of that, he could fire a heat blast from a gem on his forehead. In addition, the new Vision came with the “brain patterns” of Wonder Man, which were recorded by the Avengers just before his death (Why? “Perhaps he’ll live again, another day, in another form!” says Iron Man without addressing any of the possible ethical questions involved). Now things get complicated: In a flashback sequence, the Avengers learn that Henry Pym had been experimenting with “synthetic life,” and created a “crude, yet workable robot.” But this simpler “Ultron 1” is born with the desire to improve itself and to destroy its maker. It brainwashes Pym to forget its existence and escapes. Months later, Ultron creates its own far more advanced robot, the Vision

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(“You’re basically human in every way, except that your body is made of synthetic parts!”). But what makes the Vision so humanlike is the fact that Ultron has animated him with the recorded brain patterns of Wonder Man! “What must it be like to be trapped forever in an android body, with the thoughts, the emotions, of a human being?” asks Goliath. “I wonder,” muses the Vision, “is it The question of possible to be, ‘basically whether or not robots could be human?’” This question considered human of whether the Vision met or possess such the definition of a human intangible qualities being or not would as love and hate become the most was not a new one, having been interesting aspect of the explored in the new character, a question Adam Link stories that Thomas would by Earl and Otto spend the rest of his long Binder. tenure on the Avengers attempting to answer. For now however, the Avengers themselves are willing to put aside any doubts and fully embrace the synthezoid’s humanity by making him one of them. “Is a man any less human because he has an artificial leg, or a transplanted heart?” Goliath explains to the Vision. “We ask merely a man’s worth, not the accident of his condition!” It was a ringing endorsement of everything Marvel stood for, the essential worth of every living being, even its villains (despite the questionable logic behind the definition of what it is to be human in the case of the Vision when the Avengers know he’s “made of synthetic parts. And your brain…” “is not truly a brain at all, but a maze of printed circuits…of a mind long dead!”). Supporting a great story is an equally fabulous art job by Buscema, who (aided by George Klein) knocks ’em dead this issue with a full roster of colorful heroes, none of whom seem to ever just stand still! Constant movement seems to be the name of the game with Buscema, especially skillful at showing the emotions of the characters either through their faces or, more interesting still, their hands, with the climactic example coming in the last page of the story as the Vision, upon learning of his acceptance into the Avengers, sheds a single tear.

Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #5 “What Ever Happened To Scorpio?”; Jim Steranko (script & pencils), John Tartaglione (inks) Cover: Jim Steranko (script, pencils & inks)

In what would be his last job on a regular monthly assignment, Steranko went out with a bang and an array of special graphic effects that made the conclusion of his Scorpio storyline in Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #5 (Oct. 1968) one of the most spectacular send-offs in comics. Our tale begins in the post-modernist surroundings of Fury’s apartment and segues directly to the darkened interior of a key shop, the quintessential setting for the opening of any self-respecting film noir. But Steranko is nothing if not bold about shifting from one visual style to another at the drop of a hat, and things are no different here as the key shop gives way to a full-page collage of what purports to be “…the ESP chamber…citadel of the incredible communicator beam!” Next, Fury is caught in a “fantastic wave of force” as his Ferrari 330/P4 Berlinetta is hurled into the air amid a whorl of color. The two pages following are typical Steranko, that is, designed as a full-scale assault on the reader’s visual sensibilities (to coin a Steranko-type phrase!). The figure of Scorpio is drawn only in a set of concentric swirls and spirals against a background of blue-colored force with the holding lines dropped. At the bottom of the first page, Fury’s car is thrown against a force field made in a black-and-white pattern surrounding the outline of Scorpio seen as only a man shaped hole in space. The top of the second page has a row of five panels showing close-ups of Scorpio’s face drawn in simulation of the shifting patterns of a color negative photo. When the “focus” at last clears, the reader is treated to a three-quarter-page panel of Scorpio himself as he lifts Fury from the wreckage of his car. But Steranko doesn’t stop there; panels on the following page are shaped like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle (symbolic of the different pieces of the Scorpio story that are only now coming together) and in a diabolical plot to kill Fury, Scorpio fixes it so that the SHIELD ramrod is mistaken for a test LMD and forced to run a deadly, abstract gauntlet of Steranko-styled killing technology (set across a double-page spread). Of course, Fury survives and even manages to catch up with Scorpio, who’s infiltrated SHIELD in the guise of Fury himself. Finally, Scorpio is gunned down in a fusillade of gunfire and, falling into the nearby river, is never seen again. But before the end, Fury saw him without his mask and recognized him for his own long lost brother. Or did he? Steranko never let on but the story was a fitting end to one of the most impressive, wildly inventive series in comics history. Made all the more interesting, even intriguing due to the The Grandiose Years

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Scorpio-like enigmatic nature of its creator, will anyone ever really know from what wellspring of creative energy the self-taught Steranko tapped it all?

Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #5, page 8. Leaving regular series comics at the height of his artistic development, there is little evidence in Marvel comics of Steranko’s decline as an artist (save perhaps in a handful of covers he did for the company in the twilight years). It is a truism that most artists inevitably lose much of the creative powers that energized them in youth but Steranko chose to leave regular comics before that happened. And as this page of the SHIELD strip amply demonstrates, Steranko had no intention of going out with a whimper!

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X-Men #50 “City of Mutants”; Arnold Drake (script), Jim Steranko (pencils), John Tartaglione (inks) “This Boy--This Bombshell!”; Arnold Drake (script), Werner Roth (pencils), John Verpoorten (inks) Cover: Jim Steranko (pencils & inks)

By X-Men #50 (Nov. 1968), the title had fallen on hard times. Abandoned most recently by Thomas, scripting chores on the strip had been handed over to DC veteran Arnold Drake. Now, in addition to having suffered through the death of Prof. X, splitting up and the indignity of appearing under a different masthead every issue, the mutant team would have to bear the burden of Drake’s leaden prose. To be fair, it really wasn’t his fault. Trained in the rigid, rule-bound atmosphere of DC comics where editors reigned over their books like absolute monarchs and the product was rarely considered to be more than fodder for the kiddies, Drake was in over his head at Marvel. Hired by Lee (perhaps on the strength of his having worked on DC’s Doom Patrol, a strip similar in many ways to the X-Men that failed miserably to live up to its otherwise cool title), Drake was placed where it was presumed he could do little harm and proceeded to give Cyclops a long lost brother (eventually code-named Havok) and to create Lorna Dane, a woman with mild magnetic powers (eventually code-named Polaris) who was purported to be the daughter of Magneto. Into the mix Drake then introduces a villain called Mesmero, a kind of worshipper at

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redesign the book’s original logo (only recently restored with #49) with a new, 3-D masthead that virtually screamed excitement and energy. Beneath it was what has since become a classic Steranko image: Lorna Dane hovering in the air like a green goddess, her arm outstretched in regal command as energy crackles all around her. Beneath her, poised as if in fearful reverence, are the X-Men. If the promise of a cover like that could’ve been maintained through the whole book, it would’ve made for an incredible comeback for a feature that really hadn’t been exciting since the departure of Lee and Kirby. Unfortunately, again, it wasn’t to be. Sure, the insides were filled with more wonderful Steranko images, but the soul had been leached out of his work. Matched with inker John Tartaglione, a serviceable but in this instance, unsatisfying partner, Steranko’s art appeared lackluster, even half-hearted. But such was the artist’s talent that his design sense alone would keep it from being ruined by even the most inept of embellishers. A full-length shot of Lorna Dane in all her curvaceous grandeur is a knockout and a nice team profile of the X-Men reacting to her is good too. But even the surprise appearance of Magneto himself in the final panel isn’t enough to save this book, which was all the more disappointing because of the glimpse it gave of what might’ve been but failed to deliver.

X-Men #51 Doom Patrol #115. A somewhat more dramatic cover than the Doom Patrol was used to, it was nevertheless the training ground from which Lee hired Arnold Drake.

“The Devil Had a Daughter!”; Arnold Drake (script), Jim Steranko (pencils), John Tartaglione (inks) “The Lure of the Beast-Nappers!”; Arnold Drake (script), Werner Roth (pencils), John Tartaglione (inks) Cover: Jim Steranko (pencils & inks)

the altar of Magneto with delusions of grandeur. Something interesting might’ve been made from it all, but unfortunately the story that continued into this issue wasn’t that good and a definite air of strangeness and unfamiliarity hung about it that just didn’t sit well with what the X-Men readers had known for so long. Not helping was Drake’s script: “What gross evil lurks behind that grim gothic façade?” wonders the Beast as the X-Men prepare to invade Mesmero’s lair. “It gives me the screaming meemies just to look at it!” thinks Marvel Girl. “That’s one cookie jar I’m gonna like bustin’ into!” muses the Angel. “Carefully! A wily mind hides behind those murky walls!” Cyclops warns the reader. It was pretty bad, but the kicker is that the whole mess was illustrated by the hottest artist in comics! Fresh off the SHIELD strip, Steranko signed on for a short stay on the X-Men. The first thing he did was

Steranko struck again in X-Men #51 (Dec. 1968) with another classic cover image, this time with the figure of a Viking blasting a set of diminutive and dramatically posed X-Men. Inside, it was more of the same from the previous issue as John Tartaglione again did the inking honors. This time however, he appears to have applied himself a bit more, because there seemed to be increased detail in the figures (with, unfortunately, a corresponding lack of detail in the backgrounds). Although Steranko didn’t provide any really memorable graphic images this issue, he does treat readers to a series of impressive shots showing figures in various action poses (a shot of the Angel alighting behind Cyclops as the team’s leader lets loose with an energy blast is particularly fine). The story however, still isn’t anything to write home about with Drake at least managing not to offend the readers’ intelligence. Drake also provides the words for the origin of the Beast back-up The Grandiose Years

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Avengers #59

feature drawn by Werner Roth. The origin of the X-Men backups, which began under Thomas back when the book was teetering on the edge of extinction (not that it still wasn’t by the time of this issue!) turned out to be extreme disappointments with their lack of solid characterization and exploration of the anti-mutant hysteria. The stories were also hampered by the decision to include some kind of super-villain in each of the origins, which tended to dilute the more immediate struggle of the young mutants with the fear and bigotry they experienced from almost everyone they met before finding sanctuary at Prof. Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. The good news was that the X-Men book wouldn’t have to suffer much longer. After another few issues of mediocrity (which nevertheless had the distinction of featuring the debut of a young artist named Barry Smith), Thomas would return, fired up from his great work on Dr. Strange and the Avengers and teamed with an artist, new to Marvel, who’d help turn the strip around, making it one of the best ever to come out of Marvel.

“The Name Is Yellowjacket”; Roy Thomas (script), John Buscema (pencils), George Klein (inks) Cover: John Buscema (pencils), George Klein (inks)

Wow! Were Thomas and Buscema hot or what? On the heels of the

X-Men #51, page 1 (opposite page). Not well served in this instance by the inks of John Targlione, Steranko’s sense of design still managed to come through in his issues of the X-Men. In a kind of holding pattern, Steranko’s creative juices would come to a boil again only the next month when he took over from Kirby on the Captain America feature.

Avengers #59, page 11. At the height of his dynamism, John Buscema turned in a number of extraordinary jobs around the same time as this issue of Avengers including work on the SubMariner and Silver Surfer. Unfortunately, the sense of artistic freedom he felt in these months was cut short and Buscema would return to more standard layouts for all the years he remained at Marvel.

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Ultron/Vision saga, they follow right up with another great story that not only features a colorful new character, but also comes tinged with an undercurrent of psychological tension. Avengers #59 (Dec. 1968) introduces Yellowjacket, a new hero on the block with a chip on his shoulder the size of a redwood tree: “The witness stand is for stoolies, Clyde!” snarls Yellowjacket when told by a police officer that as a material witness, he’d have to appear at the trial of three fur thieves he caught in the act and knocked senseless. “I play cops ’n’ robbers, let somebody else play judge ’n’ jury!” Meanwhile at Avengers Mansion, Thomas keeps his stock in trade characterizations moving with a neat two-page sequence (each page is further divided into two pairs of vertical panels) by Buscema devoted to each Avenger’s personal problems (the Wasp worries about the disappearance of her overworked boyfriend, Henry Pym; the Black Panther is torn between the fun of being an Avenger and his duty as king of the Wakandans; the Vision broods over being accepted by larger society and Hawkeye fears for the safety of the absent Black Widow). Suddenly, a figure appears in a doorway: it’s Yellowjacket, smirking and chewing on a wad of gum. It seems he’s killed off Hank Pym and now expects to take his place on the team! The others give him time to talk, to tell them how he defeated Goliath, then attack him. Yellowjacket holds them all off until, taking the Wasp hostage, escapes with her. Later, in a treetop hideout, he apparently seduces her, and when next the reader sees them, it’s to announce their engagement! But hold on! Is everything here the way it seems? How, for instance, did Yellowjacket get into Avengers Mansion so easily? Where did he get such insect-type abilities as his stingers, control over real yellowjackets and especially the power to shrink? What happened to Hank Pym’s body? And most of all, why would the Wasp agree to wed Goliath’s murderer? It was a fast-moving yarn told in such breathless style that it left little time for a reader to think things through. Adding A colorist at Marvel in the grandiose years, Stan Goldberg turned in extraordinary work on Buscema’s books.

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to the distraction, was the slam-bang artwork of Buscema (still aided by the impressive inks of George Klein) and an eye-catching coloring job by unsung Stan Goldberg (who began life as an artist himself until finding his true calling in Marvel’s coloring department). And what a chance Goldberg had with the Avengers strip to show off his palette! Goliath in red, purple and yellow; Hawkeye in violet and purple; the Vision in yellow, red and green; the Panther in blue and Yellowjacket in yellow and gray! With Buscema, Klein and Goldberg on the job, it was a lead pipe cinch that no other strip in the company’s line-up looked as snazzy as the Avengers!

Avengers #60 “Till Death Do Us Part”; Roy Thomas (script), John Buscema (pencils), Mike Esposito [as Mickey Demeo] (inks) Cover: John Buscema (pencils), George Klein (inks)

Although Buscema and Goldberg continued to provide the visual pyrotechnics in Avengers #60 (Jan. 1969) (Klein had been replaced on the inks by the serviceable but unexciting Mickey Demeo), its story was undermined by a couple lapses in logic. Of course, Thomas’ intentions for “‘Til Death Do Us Part” were probably noble: to get Goliath and the Wasp hitched while slowing down the story as little as possible. So what results is still, by any definition, a rollicking good yarn! It opens with Captain America receiving an engraved invitation to the wedding of Yellowjacket and the Wasp, an event no one on the team can believe is actually happening, but it’s true. “Hank’s gone,” says the Wasp. “But I’ve got another chance at happiness! And, I won’t let this one slip away, not for anything!” The lady apparently means it! Meanwhile, as all the heroes in the Marvel universe gather in the parlor of Avengers Mansion (they could do that in those days), the Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime plan to crash the party by replacing the caterers and jumping the heroes by surprise. First lapse in logic: did Thomas expect anyone to swallow such an outrageous mismatch? Anyway, the marriage proceeds accordingly with the vows being exchanged followed immediately by the not completely unexpected appearance of the Circus of Crime. (By this time, it was de rigeur for super-hero weddings to be interrupted by a gang of super-party poopers). The only question to decide is, which heroes will get to demolish them? Fortunately, everyone gallantly steps aside to allow the Avengers the honor (it was their book after all). The ensuing battle is mercifully swift and climaxes with the surprise revelation that Yellowjacket was

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Barry Smith Barry Smith had the distinction of being the first fan artist hired

by Marvel without possession of any prior professional experience. Although a trailblazer for many other young artists who followed in his footsteps, Smith’s own early work was slavishly in the style of Jack Kirby. But very soon his art began to evolve, moving through different phases until he was chosen as the penciler for Conan the Barbarian, Marvel’s first licensed property. Perhaps inspired by Robert E. Howard’s often stirring prose, Smith’s work quickly improved until, outgrowing comics, he left the industry to strike out on his own.

really Goliath all along (growing to giant size, he bursts out of his Yellowjacket togs; but are we to believe that, suffering from amnesia until this moment, he had the foresight of wearing his Goliath threads underneath them all this time? Or maybe it was the conscientious Wasp who had something to do with it?) Apparently, Goliath got a whiff of schizophrenia inducing gas that split his personality in two: the Yellowjacket personality was the more reckless, bolder side of himself that dared to go after whatever he wanted which, in this case, was the Wasp. As plain old Henry Pym, he was always wracked by such doubt and guilt (over the death of his first wife behind the Iron Curtain) that he could never bring himself to pop the question. Which raises the final lapse of logic: the Wasp said that she found out the truth about Yellowjacket when she kissed him, but would she really have gone through a wedding with the knowledge that she may have been marrying a lunatic? And what about the ethical question of marrying someone who didn’t know what they were doing? Was it even legal? Sure, it doesn’t sound like much, but in a world that’d been built slowly and painstakingly over the years on bringing realism to its characters and stories, it was at least a disappointing misstep for Marvel.

X-Men #53 “The Rage of Blastaar!”; Arnold Drake (script), Barry Windsor-Smith [as Barry Smith] (pencils), Mike Esposito [as Michael Dee] (inks) “Welcome To the Club, Beast!”; Arnold Drake (script), Werner Roth (pencils), John Tartaglione (inks) Cover: Barry Windsor-Smith [as Barry Smith] (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks)

Readers in 1968 could’ve been forgiven for not seeing just what made X-Men #53 (Feb. 1969) special. It sure wasn’t the story (still by Arnold Drake) nor was it the artwork, which was nothing to write home about. In fact, it was a pretty bad, third-rate imitation of Jack Kirby. Who could’ve predicted then that the penciler, newcomer Barry Smith, would end up making one of the most amazing personal transformations in the history of comics, become one of the industry’s best and most popular artists and finally (like Steranko before him) transcend the medium itself? The first of the new breed of artists to rise from the ranks of fans that had grown up reading and devouring Marvel comics, Smith, like the character he’d become most closely associated with, would “tread the jeweled thrones” of the comics industry “under his sandaled feet.” But that was a few more years in the future. Right now, Smith was just breaking in, and according to him, this issue’s story was drawn on a park bench (having come to America from Britain to work in comics Smith, in his eagerness, hadn’t thought about securing someplace to live) and intended for presentation at the Marvel offices as part of his portfolio. To his surprise, it was promptly accepted for immediate use in the X-Men book! Smith’s tale is probably apocryphal, but fits well with the desperate straits the X-Men had fallen into. But however Smith’s first story came to appear, it at least sported more energy than the X-book had seen (outside of Steranko’s efforts) since Kirby left off on full pencils in #11. And if Smith had to be influenced by someone, he couldn’t have picked a better model than the originator of Marvel’s visual style. Later, his influences would expand to include Steranko (himself, a progeny of Kirby) before metamorphosing into a more personal, The Grandiose Years

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but still relatively primitive, style. It was to be a pattern followed by all the upcoming artists of his generation: the influence and crude emulation of Kirby or other artists of the 1940s or ’50s, the first awkward steps toward the development of their own personal styles and finally a full flowering of individual expression. Such would be the paths of artists like Jim Starlin, Craig Russell and Paul Gulacy (and at DC, Bernie Wrightson and Michael Kaluta) who were destined to supplant their idols and redefine the look of Marvel in the twilight years.

Captain America #108 “The Snares of the Trapster!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Syd Shores (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Syd Shores (inks)

Despite the grandiose years having already crested, there could still be no better example of the zenith of that style than that encapsulated in Captain America #108 (Dec. 1968). But under its placid surface, dangerous currents were running: although well disguised beneath another fabulous inking job by Shores, Kirby’s art style had reached the end of its evolution. Already it had begun to feed upon itself, repeating the same tropes of figure work and layout. But relying on the traditional 4-, 5- or 6-panel per page layout (while throwing in an occasional full-page illustration), Kirby still had no trouble dazzling his fans by using it to present the heroic figure of Captain America to greatest effect. Nevertheless, for the remainder of his career at Marvel, Kirby would mark time as his style began its long descent into creative senescence. It would be in marked contrast to the more vibrant styles of such artists as Gene Colan, John Buscema and Jim Steranko who were eagerly exploring the limits of the medium by using more dynamic figure work, discarding traditional panel layout and applying the full As the grandiose years came to a range of graphic tools to close, Syd Shores’ the insular world of inking, like those of comics. In comparison to Bill Everett, gave them, Kirby looked new life to Kirby’s increasingly stodgy and increasingly by the numbers pencils. inflexible. But the faults in Kirby’s style were 220

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hardly apparent this issue as he delivers a short masterpiece of action that’s barely encumbered with plot or characterization (Cap has to rescue girlfriend, Sharon Carter, who’s been kidnapped by a pumped up Trapster [nee Paste-Pot-Pete]). What it does have is a script by Lee (whose once wordy writing style had itself been pared back to its most sparse) and together, the two men endow a simple, bare bones, single-issue story (that was basically no different than those they once told in the early, formative years) with the sense of raw power that readers had come to expect of the grandiose years. But representing the full realization of the grand style, this issue illustrates how it was also becoming a hollow imitation of itself and anticipated the time when the cutting edge of creativity would pass from such flagship titles as the FF, Spider-Man and the Avengers, to new features with only the slightest relation to the larger super-hero universe. Marvel, just on the cusp of its twilight years, was coasting on the titanic achievements of its own recent past.

Silver Surfer #3 “The Power and the Prize”; Stan Lee (script), John Buscema (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks) “Why Won’t They Believe Me?”; Stan Lee (script), Gene Colan (pencils), Paul Reinman (inks) Cover: John Buscema (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks)

Meanwhile, Lee seemed to be pouring most of his personal creative energies into the ongoing Silver Surfer strip. Still a blockbuster 40 pages long and still illustrated by John Buscema, the book continued to appeal mainly to the older Marvel cognoscenti, those initiates into the inner mysteries of the company’s mystique. With his intended audience clear, Lee turned the strip into a combination allegorical/representational exercise whose symbolism college students studying Poe, Faulkner and Steinbeck wouldn’t have been unfamiliar with. And though readers might’ve been forgiven for not “getting it” with the feature’s first couple of issues (those expecting Kirby’s detached, emotionless Surfer from FF #s 49-50 were sorely disappointed), there was no excuse after Silver Surfer #3 (Dec. 1968)! Now whatever messianic overtones the strip may have hinted at before were made explicit in this, the best issue of the series. Lee might as well have pointed a sign at the scene, early in the story, that showed the Surfer, arms outstretched Christ-like and appealing to the heavens: “Forgive me for what I am about to do! And grant me the strength so that I may forgive them who have driven me to do it!” Though the Surfer continues to try to help humanity, he remains misunderstood and rejected, feelings familiar to Mephisto(pheles): “How oft before have I trembled in the presence of such awesome goodness.

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Martyrs all, whom men themselves, in their abysmal madness, did forsake! And now, he too has been forsaken, he too has been denied!” Although not referred to as such, Mephisto is the devil, the personification of evil, jealous of his purpose in testing and seducing human beings to deny their innate goodness. Now, he perceives a threat in the example of the Surfer and determines to capture him for Hell by corrupting his soul. And then, like Christ’s temptation in the desert, the Surfer is presented with visions of riches beyond comprehension, the pleasures of the flesh and dominion over vast galactic empires. But, also like Christ, the Surfer spurns them all and though he wins the battle against Mephisto, the war will go on because “The choice between good and evil is made by all who live, with every single heartbeat!” But a story like this wouldn’t have worked unless it had just the right kind of art and here John Buscema provided one of the best jobs of his career. Truly at the height of his powers with his work this issue and over in the Avengers, Buscema transforms what’s ostensibly a super-hero strip into a neo-religious woodcut, a cautionary tale of the power of evil with images of a regal, brooding Mephisto that would remain for decades as comics’ preferred look for the devil. This issue of the Silver Surfer was a fabulous vindication of Lee’s unique ability to tell exciting super-hero adventures while at the same time structuring plots around more serious themes and ideas and was proof that the grandiose years had not yet run out of steam.

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Daredevil #48 “Farewell To Foggy”; Stan Lee (script), Gene Colan (pencils), George Klein (inks) Cover: Gene Colan (pencils), George Klein (inks)

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Daredevil #48, page 20. Before there was Rudy Juliani there was—Foggy Nelson? When Marvel first located its heroes in New York City, it instantly gave them more credibility than their counterparts living in such mythical places as Central City, Star City, or Metropolis. With the door opened, it was only a matter of time before characters such as Foggy moved up to real life positions like district attorney. It was only too bad that the portly lawyer’s political career was never exploited as well as it should have.

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One of the most important elements that separated Marvel from its competitors was its heightened sense of realism not only in how it handled its characters, but how it portrayed the world they lived in. For instance, characters struck by flying bullets could be killed (as Frederick Foswell was in Spider-Man #52) or they could lose their homes due to such mundane reasons as inability to pay the rent (as the FF did in Fantastic Four #9) or live in real life cites (like New York or San Francisco) or even real world personalities (such as Kruschev,

Captain America #109, page 1. Kirby’s swan song on the character that he had become most identified with was fittingly a return to its roots. Bolstering the artist’s vision were inks by Syd Shores whose own style continued to complement Kirby’s massive figures allowing them to explode from panels that had seemingly grown too small for them.

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Lyndon Johnson or even the Beatles!) might take part in stories. But none of those examples seemed to have the immediacy that came when a fictional character occupied the place of a public figure. Now obviously, there were some jobs that had to be off limits, like President of the United States for example. If a fictional character occupied a high profile position like that, it would be too much to ask of a reader ’s suspension of belief (since everybody knew who the real president was). But other positions, those not necessarily in the eye of the general public (would readers anywhere but those in Boston say, know who the city’s Deputy Mayor was?) were certainly up for grabs. Such was the case in Daredevil #48 (Jan. 1969) when Foggy Nelson runs for and wins the position of District Attorney for New York City! Not only was the move a great way to add to the realism of Marvel’s comics (after all, even if the same event took place at the competition, a character there would only end up as DA of “Central City,” “Coast City” or “Star City!”), but it opened up lots of new possibilities for future storylines (in his capacity as DA, Foggy would pop up in other titles unrelated to his role in Daredevil). Why, even in this issue, Foggy’s already become the target of an underworld fearful of his reputation for being hard on crime. They hire the Stilt Man to knock him off (or at least frighten him from the race) and what follows, naturally, is action, action, action as only Gene Colan at the top of his form can dish it out!

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Captain America #109 “The Hero That Was!”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Syd Shores (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Syd Shores (inks)

All good things eventually come to an end and although he’d continue working at Marvel for another two years, creatively speaking, the end had come for Jack Kirby. Oh, there’d be a few more entertaining issues of Thor and the FF, but none would have the visual impact that came with the introduction of the Inhumans, Galactus or the Negative Zone. No artist could maintain that kind of creative energy forever; and Kirby had set the bar too high, even for himself. Sooner or later his energies were bound to run out and when it happened a kind of mental fatigue would set in: the mind would slip into familiar patterns and tend toward the smooth road rather than the one filled with stones. But unlike many of his contemporaries, Kirby had still been able to beat the odds for years, remaining for decades one of the most influential and exciting artists in the history of comics. Now, however, his luck had run out and Captain America #109 (Jan. 1969) was to be Kirby’s last great art job for Marvel. In the past, inkers such as Dick Ayers, Chic Stone, Joe Sinnott and Vince Colletta had all made prime Kirby look even better, but one by one they’d either fallen by the wayside or lost some of their own creative powers. That left Syd Shores to fill the creative gap and much of the reason why this issue (indeed, much of Kirby’s output for the last year) would be Kirby’s last hurrah (the cover showing the massive figure of a starspangled Cap bursting through a sheet of newsprint should settle any argument to the contrary!) was because it would also be his final team-up with the veteran artist/inker. Fittingly Kirby’s last Cap story was a retelling of the character’s origin. The story opens with a vignette harking back to the days of World War II, which then “fades out” into the face of Steve Rogers as he reminisces with Nick Fury. It was plain here that despite their familiarity to long-time readers, Kirby’s tropes still worked! Next there’s a huge, full-page portrait of Rogers, suddenly grown introspective: “I have to live in a world that should have passed me by! Too young for the generation which should be mine, and yet too old for the role in which fate has cast me.” The paradox of a man caught out of his time and his struggle to adjust would become the dominant theme in future issues. With Lee assuming full control of the strip following Kirby’s departure, the balance between action and characterization would be equalized. In the meantime, Cap’s origin story continued largely the way it had been presented in Tales of Suspense #63. But that took place during the years of consolidation, now, under

the influence of the grand style, all the familiar scenes seem heightened in their dramatic impact as Steve Rogers is transformed into America’s super-soldier, subdues the Nazi assassin of Prof. Reinstein (“Fascists have always misjudged free men! No man fights as well as the one who battles to rid the earth of tyranny!”) and teams up with partner Bucky Barnes. So ended Marvel’s grandiose years, the culmination of one of the most exciting developments in the history of pop culture. And in an America that was becoming increasingly youth-oriented, with pop culture quickly replacing high culture, that was no small feat: just look at the competition there was in film, television, music, theater, and fine arts! Through it all, Marvel Comics grew and flourished and due in no small part to the inventiveness of its writers and artists and the creativity they lavished on every page of their work, the company managed not only to revitalize an industry that had been on life support, but to thrust it into the public consciousness as well. At last, it was hip to read comics and those behind their creation began to emerge from the anonymity that had always surrounded them to take their rightful place in the spotlight. It would be ironic then that the spotlight would begin to fade all too soon. Though no one knew it at the time, the company was entering its twilight years as both Stan Lee and Jack Kirby began to lose interest in their work. In another year, Kirby would leave Marvel for DC, hoping to quit penciling and to become an editor of his own line of books, while Lee preferred wheeling and dealing in Hollywood to slaving over a typewriter. In the meantime, though Marvel would continue to ride the roller coaster for a few more years, the vital energy that had launched it to greatness was to become ever more dissipated. A wave of new creators would flourish, initiating a new artistic paradigm. Instead of a house style patterned on Kirby’s brand of action, the focus would now be more along the lines of personal expression. Away from the flagship titles, homogenization would no longer apply. So much so, that when Kirby returned to Marvel in the mid-1970s he would find himself an anachronism. The twilight years would also be marked by an explosion of new titles that further diffused the company’s editorial focus. Things would begin to spin out of control and leadership become unstable until by the 1980s, it would take a strong hand to put it all back together again. But the story of how that happened is a tale for another volume covering Kirby’s last months at Marvel, the rise of Roy Thomas as editor in chief, and the recruitment of an exciting new group of writers and artists. The Grandiose Years

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presents a step-by-step look at how a company that had the reputation of being one of the least creative in a generally moribund industry, emerged as one of the most dynamic, slightly irreverent and downright original contributions to an era when pop culture, from Tom Wolfe to Andy Warhol, emerged as the dominant force in the artistic life of America. In scores of handy, easy to reference entries, Marvel Comics in the 1960s takes the reader from the legendary company’s first fumbling beginnings as helmed by savvy editor/ writer Stan Lee (aided by such artists as Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko), to the full maturity of its wild, colorful, offbeat grandiosity. With the history of Marvel Comics in the 1960s divided into distinct phases, author Pierre Comtois explains just how Lee, Kirby, Ditko, et. al. created a line of comic books that, while grounded in the traditional elements of panel-to-panel storytelling, broke through the juvenile mindset of a low brow industry and provided a tapestry of full blown pop culture icons.

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Pierre Comtois was born and currently resides in Lowell, Massachusetts. A freelance writer, Comtois has had dozens of articles and short stories appear in magazines as diverse as Nocturn and The Horror Show, Military History, Civil War Magazine, Comic Book Marketplace, and Comics Source and books such as The Ithaqua Cycle, Book of the Dead, Lin Carter’s Anton Zarnak: Supernatural Sleuth, The Way the Future Was, an anthology of science fiction stories, and Our Lives, Our Fortunes, Our Sacred Honor: Capsule Portraits of Figures From the American Revolution. You can visit Pierre on the internet at www.pierrevcomtois.com.

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