Category: Avengers

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The X-Men Omnibus volume 1


By Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas, Werner Roth, Alex Toth, Jack Sparling, Paul Reinman, Dick Ayers, John Tartaglione, & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-3289-3 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Incomparable Strangers Bearing Gifts … 9/10

In 1963 things really took off for the budding Marvel Comics as Stan Lee & Jack Kirby expanded their diminutive line of action titles, putting a bunch of relatively new super-heroes (including hot-off-the-presses Iron Man) together as the Avengers, launching a decidedly different war comic in Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos and creating a group of alienated heroic teenagers who gathered together to fight a rather specific, previously unperceived threat to humanity.

Those halcyon days are revisited in this splendid but weighty compilation: gathering from September 1963 to April 1967, the contents of X-Men #1-31, pertinent letters pages, sundry historically pertinent extras and a trio of Introductions by Lee and Roy Thomas culled from previous Marvel Masterworks collections.

Issue #1 introduced Cyclops, Iceman, Angel and the Beast: very special students of wheelchair-bound telepath Professor Charles Xavier who has dedicated his life to brokering peace and integration between the masses of humanity and the emergent off-shoot race of mutants dubbed Homo Superior. The story opens as the students welcome newest classmate Jean Grey, a young woman with the ability to move objects with her mind. No sooner has the Professor explained their mission than an actual Evil Mutant, Magneto, single-handedly takes over American missile base Cape Citadel. Seemingly unbeatable, the master of magnetism is nonetheless driven off – in under 15 minutes – by the young heroes on their first mission…

It doesn’t sound like much, but the gritty dynamic power of Kirby’s art, solidly inked by veteran Paul Reinman, imparted a raw energy to the tale which carried the bi-monthly book irresistibly forward. With issue #2, a Federal connection was established in the form of FBI Special Agent Fred Duncan, who requests the teen team’s assistance in capturing a mutant who threatens to steal US military secrets in ‘No One Can Stop the Vanisher!’.

These days, young heroes are ten-a-penny, but it should be noted that these were Marvel’s first juvenile super-doers since the end of the Golden Age, so it’s perhaps unsurprising that in this tale of a terrifying teleporter the outmatched youngsters need a little adult supervision…

Issue #3’s ‘Beware of the Blob!’ displays a rare lapse of judgement as proselytising Professor X invites a sideshow freak into the team only to be rebuffed by the fully felonious mutant. Impervious to mortal harm, The Blob incites his carnival cronies to attack the hidden heroes before they can come after him, and once again it’s up to teacher to save the day…

With X-Men #4 (March 1964) a thematic sea-change occurs as Magneto returns, leading ‘The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants!’ Intent on conquering a South American country and establishing a political powerbase, he ruthlessly dominates Mastermind, Toad, Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch, who are very much unwilling thralls in the bombastic struggle that follows. From then, the champions-in-training are the prey of many malevolent mutants.

As well as beginning letters page ‘Let’s Visit the X-Man’, #5 reveals ‘Trapped: One X-Man!’ as an early setback in that secret war sees Angel abducted to Magneto’s orbiting satellite base Asteroid M, where only a desperate battle at the edge of space eventually saves him, after which ‘Sub-Mariner Joins the Evil Mutants!’

The self-explanatory tale of gripping intensity is elevated to magical levels of artistic quality as the superb Chic Stone replaced Reinman as inker for the rest of Kirby’s tenure. The issue also incorporates a stunning ‘Special Pin-up page’ starring “Cyclops” before genuine narrative progress is made in ‘The Return of the Blob!’ as their mentor leaves on a secret mission, after appointing Cyclops team leader. Comedy relief is provided as Lee & Kirby introduce Beast and Iceman to a Beatnik-inspired “youth scene” whilst a high action quotient is maintained courtesy of a fractious teaming of Blob and Magneto’s malign brood…

Another and very different invulnerable mutant debuted in ‘Unus the Untouchable!’: a wrestler with an invisible force field who attempts to join the Brotherhood by offering to bring them an X-Man. Also notable is the first real incident of “anti-mutant hysteria” after a mob attacks Beast – a theme that would become the cornerstone of X-Men mythology – and added delight ‘Special Pin-up page – ‘The Beast’.

X-Men #9 (January 1965) is the first true masterpiece of this celebrated title. ‘Enter, The Avengers!’ reunites the youngsters with Professor X in the wilds of Balkan Europe, as deadly schemer Lucifer seeks to destroy Earth with a super-bomb, subsequently manipulating the teens into an all-out battle with the awesome Avengers. This month’s extra treat is a Marvel Masterwork Pin-up of ‘Marvel Girl’.

This is still a perfect Marvel comic story today, as is its follow-up ‘The Coming of Ka-Zar!’: a wild excursion to Antarctica, featuring the discovery of the Antediluvian Savage Land and a modern incarnation of one of Marvel/Timely’s oldest heroes (Kazar the Great was a pulp Tarzan knock-off who migrated to comics pages in November 1939’s Marvel Comics #1).

Dinosaurs, lost cities, spectacular locations, mystery and action: it never got better than this…

After spectacular starts on most of Marvel’s Superhero titles (as well as western and war revamps), Kirby’s increasing workload compelled him to cut back to just laying out most of these lesser lights whilst Thor and Fantastic Four evolved into perfect playgrounds and full-time monthly preoccupations for his burgeoning imagination. The last series Jack surrendered was still-bimonthly X-Men wherein an outcast tribe of mutants worked clandestinely to foster peace and integration

His departure in #11 was marked by a major turning point. ‘The Triumph of Magneto!’ sees our heroes and the Brotherhood both seeking a fantastically powered being dubbed The Stranger. None knew his true identity, nature or purpose, but when the Master of Magnetism finds him first, it signalled the end of his war with the X-Men…

With Magneto gone and the Brotherhood broken, Kirby relinquished pencilling to others, providing loose layouts and character design only. Alex Toth & Vince Colletta proved an uncomfortable mix for #12’s tense drama ‘The Origin of Professor X!’: opening a 2-part saga introducing Xavier’s half-brother Cain Marko and revealing that simplistic thug’s mystic transformation into an unstoppable human engine of destruction.

The story concludes with ‘Where Walks the Juggernaut’: a compelling, tension-drenched tale guest-starring The Human Torch, most notable for the introduction of penciller Werner Roth (as “Jay Gavin”). He would be associated with the mutants for the next half decade. His inker for this first outing was the infallible Joe Sinnott.

Roth was an unsung industry veteran, working for the company in the 1950s on star features like Apache Kid and the inexplicably durable Kid Colt, Outlaw, as well as Mandrake the Magician for King Features Comics and Man from U.N.C.L.E. for Gold Key. As with many pseudonymous creators of the period, it was DC commitments (mostly romance stories) that forced him to disguise his moonlighting until Marvel was big enough to offer full-time work.

From issue #14 and inked by Colletta, ‘Among us Stalk the Sentinels!’ celebrated the team’s inevitable elevation to monthly publication with the first episode of a 3-part epic introducing anthropologist Bolivar Trask, whose solution to the threat of Mutant Domination was super-robots that would protect humanity at all costs. Sadly, their definition of “protect” varied wildly from their builder’s, but what can you expect when a social scientist dabbles in high-energy physics and engineering?

The X-Men took the battle to the Sentinels’ secret base only to became ‘Prisoners of the Mysterious Master Mold!’ before crushing their ferrous foes with ‘The Supreme Sacrifice!’ Dick Ayers had joined as inker with #15, his clean line blending perfectly with Roth’s crisp, classicist pencils. They remained a team for years, adding vital continuity to this quirky but never top-selling series. X-Men #17 dealt with the aftermath of battle – the last time the US Army and government openly approved of the team’s efforts – and the sedate but brooding nature of ‘…And None Shall Survive!’ enabled the story to generate genuine apprehension as Xavier Mansion was taken over by an old foe who picked them off one by one until only the youngest remained to battle alone in climactic conclusion ‘If Iceman Should Fail..!’

Lee’s last script was ‘Lo! Now Shall Appear… The Mimic!’ in #19: the tale of troubled teen Cal Rankin who possesses the ability to copy skills, powers and abilities of anyone in close proximity. Scripting fell to Thomas in #20, who promptly jumped in guns blazing with ‘I, Lucifer…’: an alien invasion yarn starring Xavier’s arch-nemesis plus Unus the Untouchable and Blob. Most importantly, it revealed in passing how Professor X lost the use of his legs.

With concluding chapter ‘From Whence Comes Dominus?’, Thomas & Roth completely made the series their own, blending juvenile high spirits, classy superhero action and torrid soap opera with beautiful drawing and stirring adventure.

At this time Marvel Comics had a vast and growing following among older teens and college kids, and the youthful Thomas spoke and wrote as they did. Coupled with his easy delight in large casts, this increasingly made X-Men a welcoming read for any educated adolescent …like you or me…

As suggested, X-Men was never one of young Marvel’s top titles but it found a dedicated following, with the frantic, freakish energy of Kirby’s epic dynamism comfortably transiting into the slick, sleek attractiveness of Roth as the fierce tension of hunted, haunted juvenile outsider settled into a pastiche of college and school scenarios so familiar to the students who were the series’ main audience.

A crafty 2-parter then resurrected Avengers villain Count Nefaria who employed illusion-casting technology and a band of other heroes’ minor foes (Unicorn, Porcupine, Plantman, Scarecrow and The Eel, if you’re wondering) to hold Washington DC hostage and frame the X-Men for the entire scheme. ‘Divided… We Fall!’ and ‘To Save a City!’ comprise a fast-paced, old-fashioned Goodies vs. Baddies battle with a decided sting in the tail. Moreover, the tale concludes with Marvel Girl yanked off the team when her parents demand she furthers her education by attending New York’s Metro University…

By the time attitudes and events in the wider world were starting to inflict cultural uncertainty on the Merry Mutants and infusing every issue with an aura of nervous tension. During the heady 1960s, Marvel Comics had a vast following among older teens and college kids, and youthful scribe Thomas spoke and wrote as they did. However, with societal unrest everywhere, those greater issues were being reflected in the comics. A watered-down version of the counter-culture had been slowly creeping into these tales of teenaged triumph and tragedy, mostly for comedic balance, but they were – along with Peter Parker in Amazing Spider-Man – some of the earliest indications of the changing face of America…

Illustrated by Roth with Dick Ayers inking, the action opens with college girl Jean visiting her old chums to regale them with tales of life at Metro University. Her departure segues neatly into a beloved plot standard – Evil Scientist Grows Giant Bugs – when she meets an embittered, recently-fired professor, leading her erstwhile comrades to confront ‘The Plague of… the Locust!’ X-Men #24 isn’t the most memorable of the canon but still reads well and has the added drama of Marvel Girl’s departure crystallizing a romantic rivalry for her affections between Cyclops and Angel: providing another deft sop to the audience as it enabled many future epics to include Campus life in the mix…

Somehow Jean managed to turn up every issue even as ‘The Power and the Pendant’ (#25, October 1966) found the boys tracking new menace El Tigre. This South American hunter was visiting New York to steal the second half of a Mayan amulet which would grant him god-like powers. Having soundly thrashed the mutant heroes, newly-ascended – and reborn as Kukulkan – the malign meta returns to Amazonian San Rico to recreate a lost pre-Columbian empire with the heroes in hot pursuit. The result is a cataclysmic showdown in ‘Holocaust!’ which leaves Angel fighting for his life and deputy leader Cyclops crushed by guilt…

Issue #27 saw the return of old foes in ‘Re-enter: The Mimic!’ as the mesmerising Puppet Master pits Calvin Rankin against a team riven by dissention and ill-feeling, before ‘The Wail of the Banshee!’ sees Rankin join the X-Men in a tale introducing the sonic-powered mutant (who eventually became a valued team-mate/team-leader) as a deadly threat. This was the opening salvo of an ambitious extended epic featuring the global menace of sinister, mutant-abducting organisation Factor Three. John Tartaglione replaced Ayers as regular inker with bright and breezy thriller ‘When Titans Clash!’, as the power-duplicating Super-Adaptoid almost turns the entire team into robot slaves before ending Mimic’s crime-busting career.

Jack Sparling & Tartaglione illustrated ‘The Warlock Wakes’ in #30 as old Thor foe Merlin enjoys a stylish upgrade to malevolent mutant menace whilst trying to turn Earth into his mind-controlled playground. and the Costumed Dramas pause for now as Marvel Girl and the boys reunite to tackle a deranged Iron Man wannabe who is also an accidental atomic time bomb in Roth & Tartaglione illustrated ‘We Must Destroy… The Cobalt Man!’

Once the stories pause the extras start with essays Dawn of the Marvel Mutants: The X-Men of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby by Jon B. Cooke and Bruce Canwell’s A Mutant By Any Other Name, supplemented by a tee-shirt design by Kirby & Stone, unused covers.

As well as original art and House ads, there are covers for reprint comics Marvel Tales #2, Marvel Super-Heroes #21-27 & 21, Amazing Adventures #1-14 (with additional bridging art by Ron Wilson, Al Milgrom &Carmine Infantino) and X-Men: The Early Years, plus previous collections’ covers by Bruce Timm, Alex Ross, Kirby, Roth & Dean White.

These tales perfectly display Marvel’s evolution from quirky action tales to the more fraught, breast-beating, convoluted melodramas that inexorably led to the monolithic X-brand of today. Superbly drawn, highly readable stories are never unwelcome or out of favour though, and it must be remembered that everything here informs much of today’s mutant mythology. These are unmissable stories for the dedicated fan and newest convert.
© 2022 MARVEL.

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Captain Marvel Omnibus volume 1 (Captain Mar-Vell Omnibus volume 1)


By Stan Lee & Gene Colan, Roy Thomas, Arnold Drake, Gary Friedrich, Archie Goodwin, Gerry Conway, Marv Wolfman, Jim Starlin, Mike Friedrich, Steve Englehart, Don Heck, Dick Ayers, Frank Springer, Tom Sutton, Gil Kane, John Buscema, Wayne Boring & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-4865-8 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Behold A New Star… 9/10

After years as an also-ran and up-&-comer, by 1968 Marvel Comics was in the ascendant. Their sales were catching up with industry leaders National/DC Comics and Gold Key, and they had finally secured a distribution deal allowing them to expand their list of titles exponentially. Once the stars of “split-books” Tales of Suspense (Iron Man & Captain America), Tales to Astonish (The Hulk & Sub-Mariner) and Strange Tales (Doctor Strange & Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.) all won their own titles, the House of Ideas just kept on creating. One dead-cert idea was a hero named after the company – and one bringing popular cachet and nostalgic pedigree as well.

After the notorious decade-long DC/Fawcett court case that began in 1940, the title Captain Marvel disappeared from newsstands. In 1967, during the superhero boom and “camp” craze generated by the Batman TV show, publisher MLF seemingly secured rights to the name and produced a number of giant-sized comics. Their star was an sapient alien robot who could fly, divide his body into segments and shoot lasers from his eyes. Despite a certain quirky charm, and being devised by comics veteran Carl (Human Torch) Burgos, he failed to attract a following. On its demise, the name was snapped up by expansionist Marvel Comics Group.

Marvel Super-Heroes was new: formerly reprint title Fantasy Masterpieces, it combined monster mystery tales with Golden Age Timely Comics classics, but from the 12th issue it added an all-new experimental lead section for characters without homes – The Inhuman Medusa, Ka-Zar, Black Knight and Doctor Doom -whilst premiering original concepts like Guardians of the Galaxy, Phantom Eagle and – to start the ball rolling – an alien spy sent to Earth from the Kree Galaxy. He held a Captain’s rank and his name was Mar-Vell.

Assembled here, accompanied by three Introductions by Roy Thomas from previous Marvel Masterworks collections and pertinent letters pages are that origin adventure from MS-H#12-13 plus the contents of Captain Marvel #1-33, Invincible Iron Man #55 and a comedy gem from Not Brand Echh #9 collectively spanning cover-dates December 1967 to July 1969…

Crafted by Stan Lee, Gene Colan & Frank Giacoia, the initial 15 page-instalment ‘The Coming of Captain Marvel’ devolved directly from Fantastic Four #64-65 wherein the quartet defeated a super-advanced Sentry robot left behind by a mythical alien race, only to be attacked by a high official of those long-lost extraterrestrials in the very next issue…

After defeating Ronan the Accuser, the FF heard no more from the far from extinct Kree, but the millennia-old empire was certainly interested in Earth. Dispatching a surveillance mission, the Kree wanted to know everything about us. Unfortunately, the agent they chose was a man of conscience; whilst his commanding officer Colonel Yon-Rogg was a ruthless rival for the love of the ship’s medical officer Una. No sooner has the good captain made a tentative planet-fall and clashed with the US army from the local missile base (often hinted as being Cape Kennedy) than the first instalment ends. Stan & Gene had set the ball rolling but it was left to Roy Thomas to establish the basic ground-rules in the next episode.

Colan remained, with Paul Reinman inking as ‘Where Stalks the Sentry!’ sees the alien spy improving his weaponry before an attempt by Yon-Rogg to kill him destroys a light aircraft carrying scientist Walter Lawson to The Cape. Assuming Lawson’s identity, Mar-Vell infiltrates the base but arouses the suspicions of security Chief Carol Danvers. He is horrified to discover the Earthlings are storing the dormant Sentry on base. Sensing opportunity, Yon-Rogg, reactivates the mechanoid. As it goes on a rampage only Mar-Vell stands in its path…

That’s a lot of material for 20 pages but Thomas & Colan were on a roll. With Vince Colletta inking, the third chapter was not in Marvel Super-Heroes but in the premiere issue of the Captain’s own title (May 1968). ‘Out of the Holocaust… A Hero!’ is an all-out action thriller, which still made space to establish twin sub-plots of “Lawson’s” credibility and Mar-Vell’s inner doubts. The faithful Kree soldier is rapidly losing faith in his own race and falling under the spell of the Earthlings. With this issue fans also enjoyed letters page ‘Mail it to Mar-Vell’.

The Captain’s first foray against a super-villain came over the next two issues as we learn that the Kree and the shapeshifting Skrulls are ancient intergalactic rivals, and the latter now want to know why there’s an enemy combatant stationed on Earth. Sending their own top agent in ‘From the Void of Space Comes… the Super Skrull!’, the resultant battle almost levels the entire state before bombastically concluding with the Kree-man triumphant after coming back ‘From the Ashes of Defeat!’

Issue #4 saw the secret invader clashing with fellow antihero Sub-Mariner in ‘The Alien and the Amphibian!’ as Mar-Vell’s superiors make increasingly ruthless demands of their reluctant agent and order him to steal deadly bacteria from a human spaceshot after it crashes off New York Harbor and really ticks off the already fractious Prince of Atlantis.

Captain Marvel #5 saw Arnold Drake & Don Heck assume the creative chores (with John Tartaglione on inks) in cold-war monster-mash clash ‘The Mark of the Metazoid’, wherein a mutated Soviet dissident is forced by his militaristic masters to kidnap Walter Lawson (that’s narrative symmetry, that is). Then  #6 finds the Captain ‘In the Path of Solam!’: battling a marauding sun-creature before being forced to prove his loyalty by unleashing a Kree bio-weapon on an Earth community in ‘Die, Town, Die!’ However, all is not as it seems since Quasimodo, the Living Computer is also involved and pulling some unseen strings…

The romantic triangle subplot was wearing pretty thin by this time, as was the increasingly obvious division of Mar-Vell’s loyalties, so a new examination of Dr Lawson, whose identity the Kree man purloined, begins in #8’s ‘And Fear Shall Follow!’. Another alien war story is revealed as Yon-Rogg is injured by rival space imperialists the Aakon. In the battle Mar-Vell’s heroism buys him a break from suspicion but all too soon he’s embroiled with a secret criminal society and the robot assassin apparently built for them by the deceased Lawson. Trouble escalates when the surviving Aakon stumble into the mess in #9’s ‘Between Hammer and Anvil!’…

The war of nerves with Yon-Rogg had intensified to the point that the colonel was openly planning murder and the romantic bond to Una was fractured when Carol Danvers began making her own overtures to the heroic Marvel. Thus, when Ronan orders Mar-Vell to make allies of Lawson’s super-scientific criminal syndicate – at the cost of Carol’s life – the war-hero ignores his orders and pays the penalty. Arrested by his crewmates he faces a firing squad in #10’s ‘Die Traitor!’ and is only saved by an ambush perpetrated by the survivors of the Aakon ship Yon-Rogg had previously targeted in #11’s ‘Rebirth!’

Illustrated by new penciller Dick Ayers, the attack’s aftermath sees the Kree colonel trap his despised rival on a missile hurtling into infinity and assuming his problems are over. During the battle Drake took the opportunity to kill off – as nobly as possible – insipid Medic Una, giving staunch Mar-Vell justifiable reason to openly rebel against his entire race and be reborn under the tutelage of a cosmic entity known only as Zo! who saves the trapped hero from death in the intergalactic void…

Moribund for months, this new beginning with the honourable, dutiful soldier remade as a vengeful vigilante was a real shot in the arm, but it was still clear Captain Marvel the comic was struggling to find an audience. ‘The Moment of… the Man-Slayer!‘ (Drake, Ayers and the great Syd Shores) sees a reconstituted hero gifted with a whole new power set by Zo! and return to Earth.

He is hunting Yon-Rogg but soon distracted by a marauding synthetic assassin at The Cape, in a taut thriller with The Black Widow in deadly guest-star mode. ‘Traitors or Heroes?’ concludes the Man-Slayer storyline with Gary Friedrich, Frank Springer & Vince Colletta as creative team, with the Captain finally confronting Yon-Rogg. The villain escapes by threatening Carol…

In #14’s ‘When a Galaxy Beckons…’ Mar-Vell clashes with a Puppet Master-controlled Iron Man as part of an early experiment in multipart crossovers (Sub-Mariner #14 and Avengers #64 the other parts of a triptych) before leaving Earth… forever, he believes. The going gets all cosmic in #15 (magnificently illustrated by Tom Sutton & Dan Adkins in a boldly experimental manner) as ‘That Zo Might Live… A Galaxy Must Die!’ sees Mar-Vell return to his home world on a mission of total destruction that wraps up the first career of Captain Marvel in spectacular style.

Beguiled and grateful, the hero revisits his homeworld determined to obliterate it for his almighty sponsor only to uncover an incredible conspiracy before the awesome truth is exposed in #16’s ‘Behind the Mask of Zo!’ by Archie Goodwin, Heck & Shores. This yarn is the first great “everything you know is wrong” story in Marvel history and captivatingly makes sense of all the previous issues, supplying a grand resolution and providing a solid context for the total revamp of the character to come. That’s how good a writer Archie Goodwin was. And when you read Thomas’s aforementioned Introduction, a clandestine creative secret is finally revealed…

Captain Marvel #16 is a magical issue and I’m being deliberately vague in case you have yet to read it, but I will tell you the ending. After saving the entire Kree Empire, Mar-Vell is flying back to Earth in his new red-&-blue costume, when he is suddenly sucked into the antimatter hell of the Negative Zone…

It’s probably best to think of everything previously discussed as prelude, since Captain Marvel as we know him really begins with #17 when Thomas, Gil Kane & Dan Adkins totally retooled and upgraded the character. ‘And a Child Shall Lead You!’ sees the imperilled Kree warrior inextricably bonded to voice-of-a-generation/professional side-kick Rick Jones who – just like Billy Batson (the boy who turned into the original Fawcett hero by shouting “Shazam!”) – switched places with a mighty adult hero when danger loomed by striking together a pair of ancient, wrist-worn “Nega-bands”. This allowed them to temporarily trade atoms: one active in our universe whilst the other floated, a ghostly untouchable, ineffectual voyeur to events glimpsed from the ghastly Negative Zone.

As thrilling, and as revolutionary as the idea of a comic written from the viewpoint of a teenager was, the real magic comes from Kane’s phenomenally kinetic artwork and whose mesmeric staging of the perfect human form in motion rewrote the book on superhero illustration with this series.

With pinch-hitting pencilling from John Buscema for the last nine pages, CM #18 at last categorically ended the Yon-Rogg saga and started Carol Danvers on her own superhero career as the Mar-Vell swore ‘Vengeance is Mine!’ The next issue embraced the “Relevancy Era” (where realism and themes of social injustice replaced aliens and supervillains as comics fodder) with a crazed sociologist and too-benevolent landlord revealed as ‘The Mad Master of the Murder Maze!’.

And that’s when the series was cancelled.

As happened so often during that tempestuous period, cutting edge, landmark, classic comic-books just didn’t sell. Silver Surfer, Green Lantern/Green Arrow and many other series modern readers consider high points of the form were axed because they couldn’t find enough of the right audience, but Captain Mar-Vell refused to die. Six months later, CM #20 was released, and the quality was still improving with every page. ‘The Hunter and the Holocaust’ has Rick attempt to free his trapped body-and-soulmate by consulting old mentor Bruce Banner. En route out west, a tornado destroys a town and Mar-Vell first renders assistance and then fights off resource-looters The Rat Pack. With the next issue Cap and Rick’s mentor finally meet, in ‘Here Comes the Hulk!’ but that’s just a garnish on this tale of student unrest and manipulative intolerance. The book was cancelled again after that… only to return some more!

Captain Marvel returned again in the summer of 1972 for another shot at stardom and intellectual property rights security. It all begins rather inauspiciously with Captain Marvel #22 wherein scripter Gerry Conway and artists Wayne Boring & Frank Giacoia reintroduce the cosmic crusader. ‘To Live Again!’ sees Mar-Vell still bonded to Rick by the uncanny Nega-bands, having languished in the Negative Zone for a seeming eternity. Jones had been trying to carve out a rock star career and relationship with new love Lou-Ann, but eventually his own body betrays him and the Kree Captain is expelled back into our reality…

Luckily, Lou-Ann’s uncle Benjamin Savannah is a radical scientist on hand to help Rick’s transition, but as the returned Marvel unsteadily flies off, across town another boffin is rapidly mutating from atomic radiation victim to nuclear threat and #23 (by Marv Wolfman, Boring & Frank McLaughlin) sees the Kree Warrior calamitously clash with rampaging maniac Megaton, resulting in ‘Death at the End of the World!’.

Wolfman, Boring & Ernie Chan then deal ‘Death in High Places!’ as Jones is targeted by murderous Madame Synn and felonious cyborg Dr. Mynde. They need Mar-Vell to help them plunder the Pentagon…

After seemingly running in place, perpetually one step ahead of cancellation (folding many times, but always quickly resurrected – presumably to secure that all important trademark), the Captain was handed to a newcomer Jim Starlin who was left alone to get on with it…

With many of his friends and fellow neophytes he began laying seeds (particularly in Iron Man and Daredevil) for a saga that would in many ways become as well regarded as Jack Kirby’s epochal Fourth World Trilogy which it emulated. However, the “Thanos War”, despite superficial similarities, soon developed into a uniquely modern experience… and what it lacked in grandeur it made up for with sheer energy and enthusiasm.

The first foray came in Iron Man #55 (February 1973) with Mike Friedrich scripting Starlin’s opening gambit in a cosmic epic that changed Marvel itself. ‘Beware The… Blood Brothers!’ (inked by Mike Esposito) introduces haunted humanoid powerhouse Drax the Destroyer, trapped by alien invader Thanos under the Nevada desert and in dire need of rescue. That comes when the Golden Avenger storms in, answering a enigmatic SOS…

A month later in Captain Marvel #25, Friedrich, Starlin, & Chic Stone unleashed ‘A Taste of Madness!’ and the alien outcast’s fortunes changed forever. When Mar-Vell is ambushed by a pack of extraterrestrials, he must finally concede that his powers are in decline. Unaware an unseen foe is counting on that, Rick manifests and checks in with Dr. Savannah, only to find himself accused by his beloved Lou-Ann of the scientist’s murder. Hauled off to jail, he rings in Mar-Vell who is confronted by a veritable legion of old foes before deducing who in fact his true enemies are…

CM #26 sees Rick freed from custody and confronting Lou-Ann over her ‘Betrayal!’ (Starlin, Friedrich & Dave Cockrum), before he and Mar-Vell realise they are targets of psychological warfare. In fact she is being mind-controlled whilst Super Skrull and his hidden “Masterlord” are manipulating them and others in search of a lost secret. When a subsidiary scheme to have Mar-Vell kill The Thing is foiled the true manipulator appears banishing Mar-Vell and capturing Rick because his subconscious conceals the location of an ultimate weapon.

Rick awakes to find himself ‘Trapped on Titan!’ (Pablo Marcos inks) not realising the villain has already extracted the location of a reality-altering Cosmic Cube from him. Rescued by Thanos’ father Mentor and brother Eros, the horrified boy sees first-hand genocide the death-loving monster has inflicted upon his own birthworld and summons Captain Marvel to wreak vengeance…

Following a comprehensive cutaway ‘Map of Titan’ from #27, a return to Earth sees still-enslaved Lou-Ann warning the Mighty Avengers before summarily collapsing. By the time Mar-Vell arrives she lies near death. Inked by Dan Green, ‘When Titans Collide!’ reveals another plank of Thanos’ plan. As the heroes fall to psychic parasite The Controller, Mar-Vell is assaulted by bizarre visions of an incredible ancient being. Fatally distracted, he becomes the massive mind-leech’s final victim…

Al Milgrom inks ‘Metamorphosis!’ as the Kree captain’s connection to Rick is severed as he is transported to an otherworldly locale where 8-billion year old Eon reveals the origins of life whilst overseeing the abductee’s forced evolution into the ultimate warrior: a universal champion gifted with the subtly irresistible power of Cosmic Awareness…

Returned to Earth and reconnected to his frantic atomic counterpart, the newly-appointed “Protector of the Universe” goes after The Controller, thrashing the monumentally powerful parasite in a devastating display of skill countering super-strength in #30’s ‘…To Be Free from Control!’

Much of this saga occurs in other titles and for the full picture you will need to hunt down more comprehensive compilations but here and now, the story continues in Captain Marvel #31 with ‘The Beginning of the End!’ (inked by Green & Milgrom) wherein the Avengers – in a gathering of last resort – are joined by psionic priestess Moondragon and Drax – one of the Mad Titan’s many victims resurrected by supernal forces to destroy Thanos…

The Titan is revealed as a lover of the personification of Death and he wants to give her Earth as a betrothal present. To that end, he uses the Cosmic Cube to turn himself into ‘Thanos the Insane God!’ (Green) and with a thought captures all opposition to his reign. However, his insane arrogance leaves the cosmically aware Mar-Vell with a chance to undo every change; brilliantly outmanoeuvring and defeating ‘The God Himself!’ (inked by Klaus Janson)…

Wrapping up the comics in this first volume is a burst of light relief from Marvel’s sixties parody comic Not Brand Echh – specifically # 9’s ‘Captain Marvin: Where Stomps The Scent-ry! or Out of the Holocaust… Hoo-Boy!!’ as Thomas, Colan & Frank Giacoia wickedly reimagining the origin. It’s either funny or painful depending on your attitude…

With covers by Colan, Colletta, Heck, Tartaglione, John Romita, Marie Severin, John Verpoorten, Barry Windsor Smith, Herb Trimpe, Springer, Shores, Kane & Adkins, Frank Giacoia, Joe Sinnott, Starlin, Marcos, Milgrom & Janson, the bonus section begins with the December 1967 Marvel Bullpen Bulletins page advertising a new hero and includes a wealth of pencilled pages and sketches from Colan and Kane plus many of their original art pages. Also on show is a tee-shirt design and unused Severin cover, covers, endpieces and Milgrom Captain Marv-Al intros from 1980s reprint series The Life of Captain Marvel, redesigned pages used to bridge issues in that series and Milgrom’s lengthy text introduction. Wrapping up is a selection of previous collection covers by Colan, Starlin & Richard Isanove.

Mar-Vell (and Carol Danvers) have both been Captain Marvel and starred in some of our art form’s most momentous and entertaining adventures. Today’s multimedia madness all started with these iconic and evergreen Marvel tales, and it’s never too late for you to join the ranks of the cosmic cognoscenti…
© 2023 MARVEL.

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Avengers Omnibus volume 1


By Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, Larry Lieber, Paul Laiken, Larry Ivie, Don Heck, Dick Ayers, Paul Reinman, George Roussos, Chic Stone, Mike Esposito, Wally Wood, John Romita, Frank Giacoia, Sam Rosen, Art Simek, Morrie Kuramoto & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5846-2 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Ironclad Guarantee of Total Wonder… 10/10

Probably Marvel’s biggest global franchise success, The Avengers celebrated their 60th anniversary in September 2023, so let’s close that Birthday Year with acknowledgement of that landmark event and one more grand adventure…

After a period of meteoric expansion, in 1963 the burgeoning Marvel Universe was finally ready to emulate the successful DC concept that had cemented the legitimacy of the Silver Age of American comics. The concept of putting a bunch of all-star eggs in one basket which had made the Justice League of America such a winner also inspired the moribund Atlas outfit – primarily Stan Lee, Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko – into inventing “super-characters” of their own. The result – in 1961 – was The Fantastic Four.

Over 18 months later, the fledgling House of Ideas generated a small but viable stable of costumed leading men (but only sidekick women) so Lee & Kirby assembled a handful of them and moulded them into a force for justice and soaring sales. Seldom has it ever been done with such style and sheer exuberance. Cover dated September 1963, The Avengers #1 launched as part of an expansion package which also included Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos and The X-Men…

Faithfully compiling the groundbreaking tales from #1-30 of The Avengers (spanning March 1963 to September 196???) and including contemporary pin-ups, letters pages and other hidden delights as well as trio of Stan Lee Introductions from earlier Marvel masterworks collections, the suspenseful action kicks off with ‘The Coming of the Avengers!’ Instead of starting at a neutral beginning Stan & Jack (and inker Dick Ayers) assumed buyers had at least a passing familiarity with Marvel’s other heroes and so wasted no time or space on introductions.

In Asgard, immortal trickster Loki is imprisoned on a dank isle, hungry for vengeance on his noble half-brother Thor. Whilst malevolently observing Earth, the malign god espies the monstrous, misunderstood Hulk and mystically engineers a situation wherein the man-brute seemingly goes on a rampage, simply to trick the Thunder God into battling the monster.

When the Hulk’s teen sidekick Rick Jones radios the FF for assistance, devious Loki scrambles and diverts the transmission and smugly awaits the blossoming of his mischief. Sadly for the schemer, Iron Man, Ant-Man and The Wasp also pick up the redirected SOS. As the heroes all converge in the American Southwest to search for the Jade Giant, they realise that something is oddly amiss…

This terse, epic, compelling and wide-ranging yarn (New York, New Mexico, Detroit and Asgard in 22 pages) is Lee & Kirby at their bombastic best, and remains one of the greatest stories of the Silver Age (it’s certainly high in my own top ten Marvel Tales) and is followed by ‘The Space Phantom’ (Lee, Kirby & Paul Reinman), wherein an alien shape-stealer almost destroys the team from within.

With latent animosities exposed by the malignant masquerader, the tale ends with the volatile Hulk quitting the team in disgust, only to return in #3 as an outright villain in partnership with ‘Sub-Mariner!’ This globe-trotting romp delivers high-energy thrills and one of the best battle scenes in comics history as the assorted titans clash in abandoned World War II tunnels beneath the Rock of Gibraltar.

Inked by George Roussos, Avengers #4 was a groundbreaking landmark as Marvel’s greatest Golden Age sensation returns for another increasingly war-torn era. ‘Captain America joins the Avengers!’ has everything that made the company’s early tales so fresh and vital. The majesty of a legendary warrior returned in our time of greatest need: stark tragedy in the loss of his boon companion Bucky, aliens, gangsters, Sub-Mariner and even subtle social commentary and – naturally – vast amounts of staggering Kirby Action. It even begins with a cunning infomercial as Iron Man unsuccessfully requests the assistance of the company’s other fresh young stars, giving readers a taste of the other mighty Marvels on offer to them.

Reinman returned to ink ‘The Invasion of the Lava Men!’: another staggering adventure romp as the team battle incendiary subterraneans and a world-threatening mutating mountain… with the unwilling assistance of the ever-incredible Hulk. That issue also started a conversion with fans as letters column ‘All About The… Avengers’ began…

However, even that pales before the supreme shift in artistic quality that is Avengers #6.

Chic Stone – arguably Kirby’s best Marvel inker of the period – joined the creative team just as a classic arch-foe debuts. ‘The Masters of Evil!’ reveals how Nazi super-scientist Baron Zemo is forced by his own arrogance and paranoia to emerge from the South American jungles he’s been skulking in since the Third Reich fell, after learning his despised nemesis Captain America has returned from the dead.

To this end, the ruthless war-criminal recruits a gang of previously established super-villains to attack New York City and destroy the Avengers. The unforgettable clash between valiant heroes and vile murdering mercenaries Radioactive Man, Black Knight and The Melter is an unsurpassed example of prime Marvel magic to this day.

Issue #7 found two more malevolent recruits for the Masters of Evil as Asgardian outcasts Enchantress and The Executioner ally with Zemo, just as Iron Man is suspended due to misconduct occurring in his own series. This was the dawning of the close-continuity era where events in one series were regularly referenced and even built upon in others. The practise quickly became a rod for the creators’ own backs and lead to a radical rethink…

It may have been ‘Their Darkest Hour!’, but #8 delivered the team’s greatest triumph and tragedy as Jack Kirby (inked with fitting circularity by Dick Ayers) relinquished his drawing role with the superbly entrancing invasion-from-time thriller which introduced ‘Kang the Conqueror!’ Riffing on the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still, the tale sees an impossibly powerful foe defeated by the cunning of ordinary teenagers and indomitable spirit of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes…

Whenever Kirby left a title he’d co-created, it took a little while to settle into a new rhythm, and none more so than with these collectivised costumed crusaders. Although Lee and the fabulously utilitarian Don Heck were perfectly capable of producing cracking comics entertainments, they never had The King’s unceasing sense of panoramic scope and scale which constantly sought bigger, bolder blasts of excitement.

The Avengers evolved into an entirely different series when the subtle humanity of Heck’s vision replaced Kirby’s larger-than-life bombastic bravura. The series had rapidly advanced to monthly circulation and even The King could not draw the massive number of pages his expanding workload demanded. Heck was a gifted and trusted artist with a formidable record for meeting deadlines and, progressing under his pencil, sub-plots and character interplay finally got as much space as action and spectacle. After Kirby, stories increasingly focused on scene-stealing newcomer Captain America: concentrating on frail human beings in costumes, rather than wild modern gods and technological titans bestriding and shaking the Earth…

Inked by Ayers, Heck’s first outing was memorable tragedy ‘The Coming of the Wonder Man!’, wherein the Masters of Evil plant superhuman Trojan Horse Simon Williams within the heroes’ ranks, only to have the conflicted infiltrator find deathbed redemption by saving them from the deadly deathtrap he creates…

Another Marvel mainstay debuted with the introduction of (seemingly) malignant master of time Immortus, who briefly combined with Zemo’s devilish cohort to engineer a fatal division in the ranks by removing Cap from the field in ‘The Avengers Break Up!’ A sign of the Star-Spangled Sentinel’s increasing popularity, the issue is augmented by a Marvel Masterwork Pin-Up of ‘The One and Only Cap’ courtesy of Kirby & Ayers…

An eagerly-anticipated meeting delighted fans in #11 as ‘The Mighty Avengers Meet Spider-Man!’ A clever cross-fertilising tale inked by Stone, it features the return of time-bending tyrant conqueror Kang who attempts to destroy the team by insinuating a robotic duplicate of the outcast arachnid within their serried ranks. Accompanied by Heck’s Marvel Master Work Pin-up of ‘Kang!’ it’s followed by a cracking end-of-the-world thriller with guest-villains Mole Man and The Red Ghost doing their best avoid another clash with the Fantastic Four.

This was another Marvel innovation, as – according to established funnybook rules – bad guys stuck to their own nemeses and didn’t clash outside their own backyards. ‘This Hostage Earth!’ (inked by Ayers) is a welcome return to grand adventure with lesser lights Giant-Man and The Wasp taking rare lead roles, but is trumped by a rousing gangster thriller of a sort seldom seen outside the pages of Spider-Man or Daredevil, premiering Marvel Universe Mafia analogue The Maggia and another major menace in #13’s ‘The Castle of Count Nefaria!’

After crushingly failing in his scheme to frame the Avengers, Nefaria’s caper ends on a tragic cliffhanger as Janet Van Dyne is left gunshot and dying, leading to a peak in melodramatic tension in #14 – scripted by Paul Laiken/Larry Ivie & Larry Lieber over Stan’s plot – where the traumatised team scour the globe for the only surgeon who can save her.

‘Even Avengers Can Die!’ – although of course she doesn’t – resolves into an epic alien invader tale with overtones of This Island Earth with Kirby stepping in to lay out the saga for Heck & Stone to illustrate. This only whets the appetite for the classic climactic confrontation that follows as the costumed champions finally deal with the Masters of Evil and Captain America finally avenges the death of his dead partner.

‘Now, By My Hand, Shall Die a Villain!’ in #15 – laid-out by Kirby, pencilled by Heck and inked by Mike Esposito – features the final, fatal confrontation between Cap and Zemo in the heart of the Amazon, whilst the other Avengers and the war-criminal’s cohort of masked menaces clash once more on the streets of New York City…

The battle ends with ‘The Old Order Changeth!’ (broken down by Kirby before being finished by Ayers) presaging a dramatic change in concept for the series; presumably because, as Lee increasingly wrote to the company’s unique strengths – tight continuity and strongly individualistic characterisation – he found juggling individual stars in their own titles as well as a combined team episode every month was just incompatible if not impossible…

As Cap and substitute-sidekick Rick Jones fight their way back to civilisation, The Avengers institute changes. The big-name stars retire and are replaced by three erstwhile villains: Hawkeye, Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch.

Eventually, led by perennial old soldier Captain America, this relatively powerless group with no outside titles to divide the attention (the Sentinel of Liberty did have a regular feature in Tales of Suspense but at that time it featured adventures set during WWII), evolved into another squabbling family of flawed, self-examining neurotics, enduring extended sub-plots and constant action as valiant underdogs; a formula readers of the time could not get enough of and which still works today…

Acting on advice from the departing Iron Man, the neophytes seek to recruit the Hulk to add raw power to the team, only to be sidetracked by the Mole Man in #17’s ‘Four Against the Minotaur!’ (Lee, Heck & Ayers), after which they then fall foul of a dastardly “commie” plot ‘When the Commissar Commands!’ – necessitating a quick trip to thinly-disguised Vietnam analogue Sin-Cong to unwittingly battle a bombastic android…

This brace of relatively run-of-the-mill tales is followed by an ever-improving run of mini-masterpieces: the first of which wraps up this initial Epic endeavour with a 2-part gem providing an origin for Hawkeye and introducing a roguish hero/villain.

‘The Coming of the Swordsman!’ sees a dissolute and disreputable swashbuckler – with just a hint of deeply-buried flawed nobility – seeking to force his way onto the highly respectable team. His immediate rejection leads to him becoming an unwilling pawn of a far greater menace after being kidnapped by A-list would-be world despot The Mandarin.

The conclusion comes in the superb ‘Vengeance is Ours!’ – sublimely inked by Wally Wood – wherein the constantly-bickering Avengers finally pull together as a supernaturally efficient, all-conquering super-team…

By this time the squad – Captain America, Hawkeye, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch – was a firm fan-favourite. with close attention to character interplay and melodrama subplots, leavening action through compelling soap-opera elements that kept readers riveted.

In Avengers #21 Lee, Heck & Wally Wood – without pausing for creative breath – launched another soon-to-be big name villain in the form of Power Man. ‘The Bitter Taste of Defeat!’ depicted his creation and a diabolical plan hatched with evil Asgardian witch Enchantress to discredit and replace the quarrelsome quartet. The scheme was only narrowly foiled by sharp wits and dauntless determination in the concluding ‘The Road Back.’

An epic 2-part tale follows as the team are abducted into the far-future to battle against and eventually beside Kang the Conqueror. ‘Once an Avenger…’ (Avengers #23, December 1965 and, incidentally, my vote for the best cover Kirby ever drew) is inked by John Romita (senior), pitting the heroes against an army of fearsome future men, with the yarn explosively and tragically ending in ‘From the Ashes of Defeat!’ by Lee, Heck & inker Ayers. The still-learning team then face their greatest test yet after being captured by the deadliest man alive and forced to fight their way out of the tyrant’s kingdom of Latveria in #25’s ‘Enter… Dr. Doom!’

Since change is ever the watchword for this series, the next two issues combined a threat to drown the world from subsea barbarian Attuma with the return of old comrades. ‘The Voice of The Wasp!’ and ‘Four Against the Floodtide!’ (pseudonymously inked by Frank Giacoia as “Frank Ray”) is a superlative action-romp but is merely a prelude to #28’s return of founding Avenger Giant-Man in a new guise as ‘Among us Walks a Goliath!’ This instant classic introduced the villainous Collector whilst extending Marvel’s pet theme of alienation by tragically trapping the size-changing hero at a freakish 10-foot height… seemingly forever…

Avengers #29 features ‘This Power Unleashed!’ and brings back Hawkeye’s lost love Black Widow as a brainwashed Soviet agent attempting to destroy the team. She recruits Power Man and Swordsman as cannon-fodder but is foiled by incompletely submerged feelings for Hawkeye, after which ‘Frenzy in a Far-Off Land!’ sees dispirited colossus Henry Pym embroiled in a futuristic civil war amongst a lost south American civilisation. The conclusion threatened to end in global incineration but that’s a denouement you’ll have to wait for…

To Be Continued…

Augmenting the narrative joys is an abundance of behind-the-scenes treasures such as contemporary house ads, a dozen original art pages and covers by Kirby, Ayers, Heck & Wood, production-stage pencilled page photostats and a fascinating sequence of “tweaked” cover-corrections. Covers for reprint comics Marvel Tales #2, Marvel Super-Heroes #1 & 21 and Marvel Triple Action #5-24, plus 16 previous collections front-&-back covers by Stuart Immonen and Arthur Adams. Still more extras include earlier Kirby Avengers collection covers modified by painters Dean White and another by Alex Ross taken from the 1999 Overstreet Guide to Comics.

Unceasingly enticing and always evergreen, these immortal epics are tales that defined the Marvel experience and a joy no fan should deny themselves or their kids.
© 2019 MARVEL.

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Invincible Iron Man Omnibus volume 1


By Stan Lee & Don Heck, Jack Kirby, Larry Lieber, Robert Bernstein, Don Rico, Al Hartley, Steve Ditko, Roy Thomas, Gene Colan & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-5358-4 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Cast Iron Comics Cheer… 10/10

One of Marvel’s biggest global successes thanks to the film franchise, Iron Man officially celebrated his 60th anniversary in 2023, so let’s again acknowledge that landmark one last time…

Tony Stark is a super-rich supergenius inventor who moonlights as a superhero: wearing a formidable, ever-evolving suit of armour stuffed with his own ingenious creations. The supreme technologist hates to lose and constantly upgrades his gear, making Iron Man one of the most powerful characters in the Marvel Universe. There are a number of ways to interpret Stark’s creation and early years: glamorous playboy, super-rich industrialist, philanthropist, inventor – even when not operating in his armoured alter-ego.

Created in the immediate aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis and at a time when “Red-baiting” and “Commie-bashing” were American national obsessions, the emergence of a brilliant new Thomas Edison employing Yankee ingenuity and invention to safeguard and better the World seemed inevitable. Combining that era’s all-pervasive belief that technology could solve any problem with the universal imagery of noble knights battling tangible and easily recognisable Evil, the proposition almost becomes a certainty.

Of course, it might simply be that we kids thought it both great fun and very, very cool…

This fabulous full-colour compendium of the Steel Shod Sentinel’s early days reprints all his adventures, feature pages and pin-ups from Tales of Suspense #39 (cover-dated March 1963 on newsstand from December 10th 1962) through #83 (November 1966), revisiting the dawn of Marvel’s rise to ascendancy.

The collection also offers Introductions by Lee and Tom Field from earlier collections (Marvel Masterworks volumes 1-3 & Son of Marvel Origins) and essays by Bob Layton (‘How Communism Changed My Life for the Better!’) and Nick Caputo (‘Just a Guy Named Don: An Appreciation of Don Heck’s Super Hero Art’) plus assorted other extras.

This period saw the much-diminished and almost-bankrupt former comics colossus begin challenging DC Comics’ position of dominance, but not quite yet become the darlings of the student counter-culture. In these tales, Stark is still very much a gung-ho patriotic armaments manufacturer, and not the enlightened capitalist liberal dissenter he would become…

Scripted by Larry Lieber (over brother Stan Lee’s plot) and illustrated by the criminally unappreciated Don Heck, Tales of Suspense #39 reveals how and why ‘Iron Man is Born!’, with engineering and electronics genius Stark field-testing his latest inventions in Viet Nam before being wounded by a landmine.

Captured by Viet Cong commander Wong-Chu, Stark is told that if he creates weapons for the Reds he will be operated on to remove the metal shrapnel in his chest that will kill him within seven days. Knowing Commies can’t be trusted, Stark and aged Professor Yinsen – another captive scientist – build a mobile iron lung to keep his heart beating. They also equip this suit of armour with all the weapons their ingenuity can covertly construct whilst being observed by their captors. Naturally, they succeed and defeat the local tyrant, but not without a tragic sacrifice.

From the next issue, Iron Man’s superhero career is taken as a given, and he has already achieved fame for largely off-camera exploits. Lee continues to plot but Robert Bernstein replaces Lieber as scripter for issues #40-46 and Jack Kirby pencils for Heck. ‘Iron Man versus Gargantus!’ follows young Marvel’s pattern by pitting the hero against aliens – albeit via a robotic giant caveman intermediary – in an action-heavy, delightfully rollicking romp.

‘The Stronghold of Doctor Strange!’ (Lee, Bernstein, Kirby & Dick Ayers) features a gloriously spectacular confrontation with a wizard of Science (not Lee & Steve Ditko’s later Mystic Master), after which Heck returns to full art for the espionage and impostors’ thriller ‘Trapped by the Red Barbarian’ before Kirby & Heck team again for science-fantasy invasion romp ‘Kala, Queen of the Netherworld!’

Heck goes it alone when Iron Man travels to ancient Egypt to rescue fabled and fabulous Queen Cleopatra from ‘The Mad Pharaoh!’ before new regular cast members – bodyguard “Happy” Hogan and secretary Virginia “Pepper” Potts – and the first true supervillain arrive as the Steel Sentinel must withstand ‘The Icy Fingers of Jack Frost!’ Stark then faces (and converts to Democracy) his Soviet counterpart ‘The Crimson Dynamo!’ after which Tales of Suspense #47 presaged big changes. Lee wrote ‘Iron Man Battles the Melter!’, and Heck inked the unique pencils of Steve Ditko in a grudge match between Stark and a disgraced corporate rival, with the big event coming in the next issue’s ‘The Mysterious Mr. Doll!’

Here Lee, Ditko & Ayers scrapped the old, cool-but-clunky golden boiler-plate suit for a sleek, gleaming, form-fitting red-and-gold upgrade to aid the defeat of a sadistic mystic blackmailer using witchcraft to get ahead. The new suit would – with minor variations – become the symbol and trademark of the character for decades to come.

Paul Reinman inked Ditko on Lee’s crossover/sales pitch for the new X-Men comic book when ‘Iron Man Meets the Angel!’, before the series finally found its feet with Tales of Suspense #50.

Heck became regular penciller and occasional inker as Lee delivered the Armoured Avenger’s first major menace and perpetual nemesis in ‘The Hands of the Mandarin!’: a modern-day Fu Manchu derivative who terrifies the Red Chinese so much that they manipulate him into attacking America, with the hope that one threat will fatally wound the other. The Mandarin would become Iron Man’s greatest foe and remains so even in a more evolved era far removed from the now abhorrent attitudes that were part and parcel of patriotic Americanism back then.

Our ferrous hero made short work of criminal contortionist ‘The Sinister Scarecrow’, and also the Red spy who appropriated a leftover Russian armour-suit to declare ‘The Crimson Dynamo Strikes Again!’ scripted – as was the next issue – by the enigmatic “N. Kurok” who was in truth Golden Age veteran Don Rico. That issue also premiered a far more dangerous threat in the slinky shape of Soviet Femme Fatale The Black Widow.

With ToS #53 she became a headliner when ‘The Black Widow Strikes Again!’: stealing Stark’s new anti-gravity ray but ultimately thwarted in her sabotage mission, after which ‘The Mandarin’s Revenge!’ began a 2-part tale of kidnap and coercion, concluding by disproving in #55 that ‘No One Escapes the Mandarin!’ It’s followed by a “Special Bonus Featurette” by Lee & Heck, revealing ‘All About Iron Man’: detailing how the suit works and even ‘More Info about Iron Man!’ including a ‘Pepper Potts Pin-Up Page’…

‘The Uncanny Unicorn!’ promptly attacked in ToS #56, faring no better as his power-horn proved pointless in the end, but segueing neatly into another Soviet sortie as Black Widow resurfaced to beguile a budding superhero. ‘Hawkeye, The Marksman!’ was gulled into attacking the Golden Avenger in #57 during his debut moment: briefly making him the company’s latest and most dashing misunderstood malefactor.

Another landmark occurred next issue. Formerly, Iron Man had monopolised Tales of Suspense but ‘In Mortal Combat with Captain America!’ (inked by Ayers) depicted an all-out battle between the Avengers allies resulting from a diabolical substitution by evil impersonator The Chameleon. It was a tasty primer for the next issue when Cap would begin his own solo adventures, splitting the monthly comic into an anthology featuring Marvel’s top two patriotic paladins.

Iron Man’s initial half-length outing in #59 was against technological terror ‘The Black Knight!’, and as a result of the blistering clash, Stark was rendered unable to remove his own armour without triggering a heart attack: a situation that hadn’t occurred since the initial injury. Up until this time he had led a relatively normal life by simply wearing the heartbeat regulating breast-plate under his clothes. The introduction of such soap-opera subplots were a necessity of the shorter page counts, as were continued stories, but this seeming disadvantage worked to improve both the writing and the sales. The issue was also notable for the debut of letter column Mails of Suspense which is included here with subsequent features appearing hereafter following each new instalment of IM’s shortened exploits.

With Stark’s “disappearance”, Iron Man was ‘Suspected of Murder!’, a tale boasting the return of Hawkeye & Black Widow, leading directly into an attack from China and ‘The Death of Tony Stark!’ (complete with a bonus pin-up of ‘The Golden Avenger Iron Man’). The sinister ambusher then provided ‘The Origin of the Mandarin!’ before being beaten by Stark’s ingenuity once again.

After that extended epic, a change of pace came as short complete yarns returned. The first was #63’s industrial sabotage thriller ‘Somewhere Lurks the Phantom!’ (by Lee Heck & Ayers), followed by the somewhat self-explanatory ‘Hawkeye and the New Black Widow Strike Again!’ (inked by Chic Stone and with the Soviet agent abruptly transformed from slinky fur-clad seductress into gadget-laden costumed villain), after which ‘When Titans Clash!’ (inked by Mike Esposito as “Mickey DeMeo”) sees a burglar steal the red & gold armour, forcing Stark to defeat his greatest invention with his old suit.

Mike stuck around to see subsea tyrant Attuma as the threat du jour in ‘If I Fail, a World is Lost!’ and crime-lord Count Nefaria use dreams as a weapon in ‘Where Walk the Villains!’ The Maggia’s master resurfaced in the next issue to attack Stark with hallucinations in ‘If a Man be Mad!’: a rather weak tale introducing Stark’s ne’er-do-well cousin Morgan. It was written by Al Hartley with Heck & Esposito in top form as always.

Issues #69-71 form another continued saga: a one of the best of this early period. Inked by Vince Colletta, ‘If I Must Die, Let It Be with Honor!’ sees Iron Man forced to duel a new Russian opponent called Titanium Man in a globally-televised contest national super-powers see as a vital propaganda coup. Both governments are naturally quite oblivious of the cost to the participants and their friends…

DeMeo inks ‘Fight On! For a World is Watching!’ amplifying intrigue and tension as the Soviets, caught cheating, pile on pressure to kill America’s champion if they can’t score a publicity win, and final chapter ‘What Price Victory?’ affords a rousing, emotional triumph and tragedy made magnificent by the inking of troubled artistic genius Wally Wood.

Tales of Suspense #72’s ‘Hoorah for the Conquering Hero!’– by Lee, Heck & Demeo – deals with the aftermath of victory. Whilst the fickle public fête Iron Man, his best friend lies dying, and a spiteful ex-lover hires diabolical super-genius the Mad Thinker to destroy Stark and his company forever before #73 picks up, soap opera fashion, on Iron Man, rushing to the bedside of his best friend Happy Hogan, who was gravely wounded in the battle against the Titanium Man, and is now missing from his hospital bed.

‘My Life for Yours!’ – by a veritable phalanx of creators including Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Gene Colan & Jack Abel (in Marvel modes as “Adam Austin & Gary Michaels”), Sol Brodsky, Flo Steinberg and Marie Severin – pits the Armoured Avenger in final combat against the Black Knight to rescue Hogan. After this, the creative team stabilised as Lee, Colan & Abel, for ‘If this Guilt be Mine..!’, wherein Stark’s inventive intervention saves his friend’s life but transforms the patient into a terrifying monster.

Whilst in pitched battle against ‘The Fury of… The Freak!’ (who scared the stuffings out of me as a comic-crazed 7-year-old), Iron Man is helpless when The Mandarin attacks again in #76’s ‘Here Lies Hidden,,,…Unspeakable Ultimo!’

The epic expands in ‘Ultimo Lives!’ and closes as the gigantic android goes bombastically berserk in ‘Crescendo!’: dooming itself and allowing our ferrous hero to escape home, only to face a Congressional Inquiry and a battle crazed Sub-Mariner in ‘Disaster!’

The Prince of Atlantis had been hunting his enemy Warlord Krang in his own series, and the path led straight to Stark’s factory, so when confronted with another old foe, the amphibian over-reacts in his customary manner. ‘When Fall the Mighty!’ in #80 is one colossal punch-up, which carries over into Tales to Astonish #82, where Thomas & Colan begin the final chapter before the penciller contracted flu after only two pages. The inimitable Jack Kirby, inked by Dick Ayers, stepped in to produce some of the finest action-art of their entire Marvel career, fully displaying ‘The Power of Iron Man!’ as the battles rages on to a brutal if inconclusive conclusion.

Tales of Suspense #81 trumpeted ‘The Return of the Titanium Man!’ – and Colan – as the Communist Colossus attacks the Golden Avenger on his way to testify before Congress, threatening all of Washington DC in the Frank Giacoia inked ‘By Force of Arms!’ until ultimately succumbing to superior (Yankee) fire power in ‘Victory!’

With the comics wonderment completed, those aforementioned essays lead to bonus features including a house ad promoting two new titles out the same month – Tales of Suspense #39 and Amazing Spider-Man #1 – and another plugging all the heroes extant as of May 1963. That one also announced the company rebrand as “Marvel Comics Group”.

With covers throughout by Kirby, Heck, Ayers, Wood, Colletta & Colan, Abel, we close with a selection of pre-correction original art covers and pages: 17 wondrous treats by Kirby, Heck, Wood, Colletta & Ayers, and a 1965 T-Shirt design by Kirby and Chic Stone. Also on show are the covers of Marvel Collectors’ Items Classics #1, 3-28,and Marvel Super-Heroes #28, 29 (and its unused Marie Severin alternate Cover art), 30 & 37: reprint titles that kept Iron Man’s history alive and accessible to new readers, concluding with a gallery of previous collection covers from Bruce Timm, and classic Kirby covers modified by painters Dean White and Richard Isanove, plus variants by Adi Granov, Ryan Meinerding and Gerald Parel.

Iron Man developed amidst the growing political awareness and consequent social unrest of the Vietnam Generation who were the comic’s maturing readership. Wedded as it was to the American Industrial-Military Complex, with a hero – originally the government’s wide-eyed golden boy – gradually becoming attuned to his country’s growing divisions, it was, as much as Spider-Man, a bellwether of the times. That it remains such a thrilling romp of classic superhero fun is a lasting tribute to the talents of all those superb creators that worked it. The sheer quality of this compendium is undeniable. From broad comedy and simple action to dark cynicism and relentless battle, Marvel Comics grew up with this deeply contemporary series and so could you.
© 2023 MARVEL.

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Mighty Thor Omnibus volume 1


By Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, Larry Lieber, Robert Bernstein, Joe Sinnott, Al Hartley, Don Heck, Chic Stone, Frank Giacoia, Vince Colletta & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-8835-3 (B/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: A Yule Jewel of Great Import… 9/10

Even more than The Fantastic Four, The Mighty Thor was the arena in which Jack Kirby’s restless fascination with all things Cosmic was honed and refined through dazzling graphics and captivating concepts. The King’s string of power-packed signature pantheons began in a modest little fantasy/monster title called Journey into Mystery where – in the summer of 1962 – a tried-and-tested comic book concept (feeble mortal transformed into god-like hero) was revived by the fledgling Marvel Comics to add a Superman analogue to their growing roster of costumed adventurers.

This monumental tome re-presents the pioneering Asgardian exploits from JiM #83-120 and Journey into Mystery Annual #1, spanning cover-dates August 1962 to September 1965 in a blazing blur of innovation and seat-of-the-pants myth-revising and universe-building.

It is lettered throughout by unsung superstars Art Simek, Sam Rosen, Ray Holloway, Terry Szenics and Martin Epp and sadly an anonymous band of colourists. As well as a monolithic assortment of nostalgic treats at the back, this mammoth tome is dotted throughout with recycled Introductions by Stan Lee, taken from the earlier Marvel Masterworks editions and includes editorial announcements and ‘The Hammer Strikes!’ newsletter pages for each original issue to enhance overall historical experience…

The eternal Edda unfolds with the lead feature of Journey into Mystery #83 (August 1962) which saw a brawny bold warrior jostle aside the regular roster of monsters, aliens and sinister scientists in a brash, vivid explosion of verve and vigour. The initial exploit follows disabled American doctor Donald Blake who takes a vacation in Norway only to encounter the vanguard of an alien invasion. Fleeing, he is trapped in a cave and finds an old, gnarled walking stick. When in his frustration he smashes the stick into a huge boulder obstructing his escape, his puny frame is transformed into the Norse God of Thunder, Mighty Thor!

Officially plotted by Stan Lee, scripted by his brother Larry Lieber and illustrated by Kirby and inker Joe Sinnott (at this juncture a full illustrator, Sinnott would become Kirby’s primary inker for most of his Marvel career), ‘The Stone Men of Saturn’ is pure early Marvel: bombastic, fast-paced, gloriously illogical and captivatingly action-packed. The hugely under-appreciated Art Simek was the letterer and logo designer.

It was clear that they whey were making it up as they went along – not in itself a bad thing – and that infectious enthusiasm shows in the next adventure. ‘The Mighty Thor Vs. the Executioner’ is a “commie-busting” tale of its time with a thinly disguised Fidel Castro wasting his formidable armies in battle against our hero.

The tale introduced Blake’s nurse Jane Foster: at this point a bland cipher adored from afar by the Norse superman’s timid alter-ego. The creative team settled as Dick Ayers replaced Sinnott, and with #85’s ‘Trapped by Loki, God of Mischief!’, the final element fell into place with the “return” of a suitably awesome arch-foe – the hero’s half-brother. This evil magician and compulsive trickster escaped divine incarceration and his first thought was to bedevil Thor by causing terror and chaos on the world of mortals he was so devoted to.

Here, a new and greater universe was revealed with the first tantalising hints and glimpses of the celestial otherworld and more Nordic gods…

JiM #86 introduced another recurring villain. Zarrko, bristling at the sedentary ease of 23rd century life, travels to 1962 to steal an experimental “C-Bomb”, forcing the Thunderer into a stirring sortie through time and inevitable clash with super-technology ‘On the Trail of the Tomorrow Man!’ With his return, Blake became a target of Soviet abductors: the sneaky spies even managed to make Thor a ‘Prisoner of the Reds!’ before he eventually emerged unscathed and triumphant…

JiM #88 saw ‘The Vengeance of Loki’ as the malevolent miscreant uncovered Thor’s secret identity and naturally menaced Jane whilst ‘The Thunder God and the Thug’ offered drama on a human scale as a gang boss runs riot over the city and roughshod over a good woman’s heart, giving the Stormbringer a chance to demonstrate his sympathetic side by crushing Thug Thatcher and freeing poor abused Ruby from his influence.

Issue #90 was an unsettling surprise as the grandeur of Kirby & Ayers was replaced by the charming yet dynamism-free art of Al Hartley, who illustrated Lee & Lieber’s stock alien-invasion yarn ‘Trapped by the Carbon-Copy Man!’ A month later the Storm Lord took on ‘Sandu, Master of the Supernatural!’, with Sinnott pencilling and inking a thriller starring a carnival mentalist who – augmented by Loki’s magic – came catastrophically close to killing our hero. Sinnott limned JiM #92’s ‘The Day Loki Stole Thor’s Magic Hammer’ – scripted by Robert Bernstein over Lee’s plot – which moved the action fully to Asgard for the first time as Thor sought to recover his stolen weapon after Loki ensorcelled the magnificent mallet. Kirby & Ayers momentarily returned for Cold War/Atom Age thriller ‘The Mysterious Radio-Active Man!’ Again scripted by Bernstein it sees “Mao Tse Tung” unleash an atomic assassin in retaliation for Thor thwarting China’s invasion of India. Such “Red-baiting” fare was common for early Marvel, but their jingoistic silliness can’t mar the eerie beauty of the artwork. With this tale, rangy, raw-boned Thor completed his slow metamorphosis into the husky, burly blonde bruiser who dominated any panel he was in.

Sinnott returned for the next three (somewhat pedestrian) adventures. ‘Thor and Loki Attack the Human Race!’, ‘The Demon Duplicator’ and ‘The Magic of Mad Merlin!’, but these mediocre tales of magic-induced amnesia, science-generated evil doppelgangers and an awakened ancient mutant menace were the last of an old style of comics. Stan Lee took over scripting with Journey into Mystery #97 and a torrent of action wedded to soap opera melodrama began a fresh style for a developing readership.

‘The Lava Man’ in #97 was drawn by Kirby, with subtly textured inking by Don Heck adding depth to the tale of an invader summoned from subterranean realms to menace humanity at the behest of Loki. More significantly, a long running rift between Thor and his stern father Odin was established after the Lord of Asgard refused to allow his son to love mortal Jane.

This acrimonious triangle was a perennial subplot attempting to humanise Thor, because already he was a hero too powerful for most villains to cope with.

Most importantly, this issue launched a spectacular back-up series. ‘Tales of Asgard – Home of the Mighty Norse Gods’ gave Kirby a vehicle to indulge his fascination with legends. Initially adapting classic tales but eventually with all-new material particular to the Marvel pantheon, he built his own cosmos and mythology, which underpinned the company’s entire continuity. This first saga, scripted by Lee and inked by George Bell (AKA Jack’s Golden Age collaborator George Roussos), outlined the origin of the world and the creation of the World Tree Yggdrasil.

‘Challenged by the Human Cobra’ introduced the serpentine villain (bitten by a radioactive cobra, would you believe?) in a tale by Lee & Heck, whilst Kirby – with them in attendance – offered ‘Odin Battles Ymir, King of the Ice Giants!’: a short, potent fantasy romp which laid the groundwork for decades of cosmic wonderment of years to come.

The format held for issues #99 & 100 with the lead story (first 2-parter in the run) introducing the ‘Mysterious Mister Hyde’ – and concluding a month later with ‘The Master Plan of Mr. Hyde!’ The modern yarn featured a contemporary chemist who could transform into a super-strong villain at will who framed Thor for his crimes whilst in primordial prehistory Kirby detailed Odin’s war with ‘Surtur the Fire Demon’, and latterly (with Vince Colletta inking) crafted an exploit of the All-Father’s so different sons in ‘The Storm Giants – a Tale of the Boyhood of Thor’ (Paul Reinman inks). As always, Lee scripted these increasingly influential histories…

Breaking for another recycled Lee Introduction, the modern myth-making resumes with JiM #101 (entirely inked by Roussos) which saw Kirby finally assume pencilling on both strips. In ‘The Return of Zarrko, the Tomorrow Man’ Odin halves Thor’s powers for disobedience just as the futuristic felon abducts the Thunderer to conquer the 23rd century. Another 2-parter, it’s balanced by another exuberant tale of boy Thor. ‘The Invasion of Asgard’ sees the valiant lad fight a heroic rearguard action introducing a host of future villainous mainstays such as Rime Giants and Geirrodur the Troll.

Epic conclusion ‘Slave of Zarrko, the Tomorrow Man’ is a tour de force notable for Chic Stone’s debut as inker. To many of us dotards, his clean, full brush lines make him The King’s best embellisher ever. The triumphant futuristic thriller is balanced by brooding Reinman-inked short ‘Death Comes to Thor!’ as the teen tyro faces his greatest challenge yet. Two women who would play huge roles in his life premiered in this 5-pager: young goddess Sif and Hela, Queen of the Dead.

Lee, Kirby & Stone introduced more memorable misanthropes in ‘Menaced by The Enchantress and The Executioner!’: ruthless renegade Asgardians resolved to respectively seduce and destroy the warrior prince in the front of JiM #103 whilst the rear revealed ‘Thor’s Mission to Mirmir!’ and how the gods created humanity. That led one month later to a revolutionary saga when ‘Giants Walk the Earth!’.

At last Kirby’s imagination was given full play as Loki tricks Odin into visiting Earth, and subsequently liberates ancient elemental enemies Surtur and Skagg, the Storm Giant from Asgardian bondage to ambush the absent All-Father…

This cosmic clash saw noble gods battling demonic devils in a new Heroic Age, with the greater role of the Norse supporting cast – especially noble comrade-in-arms Balder. This was reinforced by a new Tales of Asgard backup feature focussing on individual Gods and Heroes. ‘Heimdall: Guardian of the Mystic Rainbow Bridge!’ was first, with Heck inking.

Issues #105-106 teamed two old foes in ‘The Cobra and Mr, Hyde!’ and ‘The Thunder God Strikes Back!’: another continued story stuffed with tension and spectacular action, proving Thor was swiftly growing beyond the constraints of traditional single issue adventures. Respective back-ups ‘When Heimdall Failed!’ (Lee, Kirby & Roussos) and ‘Balder the Brave’ (Lee, Kirby & Colletta) further fleshed out the Asgardian pantheon deviating by more and more from the classical Eddas and Sagas.

JiM #107 premiered a petrifying villain ‘When the Grey Gargoyle Strikes!’: a rare yarn highlighting the fortitude of Dr. Blake rather than the Thunder God who was increasingly reducing his own alter-ego to an inconsequentiality. Closing the issue, the Norn Queen debuted in ‘Balder Must Die!’: a quirky reinterpretation of myth by Kirby & Colletta.

After months of manipulation, the God of Evil once again took direct action in ‘At the Mercy of Loki, Prince of Evil!’, With Jane Foster a victim of Asgardian magic, the willing assistance of new Marvel star Doctor Strange made this a captivating team-up must-read, whilst ‘Trapped by the Trolls!’ (Colletta inks) showed the power and promise of tales set solely on the far side of the Rainbow Bridge as Thor liberates Asgardians from subterranean bondage.

Journey into Mystery #109 was another superb infomercial adventure and a plug for a recent addition to the Marvel roster. ‘When Magneto Strikes!’ pits Thor against the X-Men’s greatest foe and his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants in a cataclysmic clash of fundamental powers, but you couldn’t really call it a team-up since the heroic mutants are never actually seen. Tantalising hints and cropped glimpses are fascinating teasers now, but the kid I then was felt annoyed not to have seen these new heroes – Oh! wait… maybe that was the point?

Young Thor feature ‘Banished from Asgard!’ is an uncharacteristically lacklustre effort as Odin and Thor enact a devious plan to trap a traitor in Asgard’s ranks. This issue also saw the launch of the letters page The Hammer Strikes and a Special Announcements Section, all included from here on for your delectation…

By #110 the ever-expanding world of Asgard was fully established: a mesmerising milieu for Thor’s earlier adventures and exotic setting for fresh wonders all hinting at a forthcoming era of cosmic fantasy to run beside the company’s signature Manhattan-based superhero sagas. ‘Every Hand Against Him!’ (Lee, Kirby & Stone) combines both, as Loki has earthly miscreants Cobra and Mr. Hyde kidnap and wound nigh unto death Thor’s mortal beloved Jane, even as Odin again overreacts to Thor’s affections for the human.

Following a stunning Kirby & Stone Thor Pin-up, and balancing that tension-drenched clash of Good and Evil, is a crafty vignette of Young Thor describing ‘The Defeat of Odin!’ in an old and silly plot sweetened by breathtaking battle scenes. It’s followed by another Lee Introduction before the concluding clash with Cobra & Hyde redefining ‘The Power of the Thunder God!’ With a major role for Balder the Brave and further integrating “historical” and contemporary Asgard in a spellbinding epic of triumph and near-tragedy, it’s complimented by a Loki Pin-up and precedes a fable co-opting a Greek myth (Antaeus if you’re asking) as ‘The Secret of Sigurd!’ (inked by Colletta).

Journey into Mystery #112 gave readers what they had been clamouring for with ‘The Mighty Thor Battles the Incredible Hulk!’: a glorious gift to all those fans who perpetually ask “who’s stronger…”? Arguably Kirby & Stone’s finest collaborative moment, it details a private duel that apparently appeared off-camera during a free-for-all between in The Avengers #3 when the heroes battled Sub-Mariner and the eponymous Green Goliath. The raw aggressive power of that clash is balanced by an eagerly anticipated origin in ‘The Coming of Loki!’ (Colletta inks): a retelling of how Odin adopts the baby son of Laufey, the Giant King.

In #113’s ‘A World Gone Mad!’ the Thunderer – after saving the Shining Realm from invasion – again defies Odin to court Jane:  a task made hazardous by the return of the Grey Gargoyle. A long-running plot strand – almost interminably so – was the soap-opera tangle caused by Don Blake’s love for his nurse – a passion his alter ego shared. Sadly, the Overlord of Asgard could not countenance his son with a mortal, in another heavy-handed example of that acrimonious triangle.

The mythic moment at the back then exposed ‘The Boyhood of Loki!’ (inked by Colletta), a pensive, brooding foretaste of the villain to be, before JiM #114 opened a 2-part tale starring a new villain of the kind Kirby excelled at: a vicious thug who suddenly lucked into overwhelming power.

‘The Stronger I Am, The Sooner I Die!’ finds Loki imbuing hardened felon Crusher Creel with the ability to duplicate the strength and attributes of anything he touches, but before Creel endures ‘The Vengeance of the Thunder God’ (inked by Frank Giacoia as “Frankie Ray”) we’re graced with another Asgardian parable – ‘The Golden Apples!’…

Issue #115’s back-up mini-myth ‘A Viper in our Midst!’ sees young Loki clandestinely cementing relations with the sinister Storm Giants, before a longer Thor saga began in #116, with Colletta becoming regular inker for both lead and support features. ‘The Trial of the Gods’ disclosed more aspects of Asgard as Thor and Loki undertake a brutal ritualised Trial by Combat, with the latter cheating at every step, after which ‘Into the Blaze of Battle!’ finds Balder protecting Jane even as her godly paramour travels to war-torn Vietnam seeking proof of his step-brother’s infamy.

These yarns are supplemented by stellar novellas ‘The Challenge!’ and ‘The Sword in the Scabbard!’, wherein Asgardian cabin-fever informs an official Quest instituted to expose a threat to the mystic Odinsword, the unsheathing of which will destroy the universe…

Journey into Mystery #118’s ‘To Kill a Thunder God!’ ramps up the otherworldly drama as Loki, to cover his tracks, unleashes an ancient Asgardian WMD – The Destroyer. When it damages the mystic hammer of Thor and nearly kills The Thunderer in ‘The Day of the Destroyer!’, the God of Mischief is forced to save his step-brother or bear the brunt of Odin’s anger.

Meanwhile in Tales of Asgard The Quest further unfolds with verity-testing talisman ‘The Crimson Hand!’ and ‘Gather, Warriors!’ as a band of literally hand-picked “Argonauts” join Thor’s flying longship in a bold but misguided attempt to forestall Ragnarok…

With The Destroyer defeated and Loki temporarily thwarted, Thor returns to America and then Asgard ‘With My Hammer in Hand…!’ only to clash once more with the awesome Absorbing Man in the start of another multi-part saga that will continue in the next volume…

However, before that bombastic battle there’s not only the next instalment of the Asgardian Argonauts who boldly ‘Set Sail!’ but also the superb lead story from Journey into Mystery Annual #1, wherein in undisclosed ages past the God of Thunder fell into the realm of the Greek Gods for a landmark heroic hullabaloo ‘When Titans Clash! Thor vs. Hercules!’

This incredible all-action episode is augmented here by a stunning and beautiful double-page pin-up of downtown Asgard – a true example of Kirby magic – plus one last Lee Intro essay.

There’s a relative paucity of bonus material here but it’s all first rate: including unretouched original artwork, house ads and a full run of covers from Marvel Tales #1, 3-27 and Special Marvel Edition #1-2 from the 1960s where his early exploits were first reprinted. Closing the section is the cover art for this collection by Olivier Coipel, Mark Morale & Laura Martin.

These early tales of the God of Thunder show the development not only of one of Marvel’s core narrative concepts but, more importantly, the creative evolution of perhaps the greatest imagination in comics. Set your common sense on pause and simply wallow in the glorious imagery and power of these classic adventures and revel in what makes comic book superheroes such a unique experience.
© 2022 MARVEL.

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Fantastic Four Omnibus volume 1


By Stan Lee & Jack Kirby with Chrisopher Rule, Steve Ditko, Dick Ayers, Joe Sinnot, George Roussos, Chic Stone, Sam Rosen, Art Simek & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-8566-6 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Reliving How it All Began… 10/10

I’ve gone on record as saying that you actually can have too much of a good thing, by which I mean this collection of utter marvels is really, really heavy (and pricey) if you get the paper version. However, if you opt for electric formats, only the second quibble counts and the stories contained herein truly need to be in every home and library, so…

I’m partial to a bit of controversy so I’m going start off by saying that Fantastic Four #1 is the third most important Silver Age comic book ever, behind Showcase #4 – which introduced The Flash – and The Brave and the Bold #28, which brought superhero teams back via the creation of The Justice League of America. Feel free to disagree…

After a troubled period at DC Comics (National Periodicals as it then was) and a creatively productive but disheartening time on the poisoned chalice of the Sky Masters newspaper strip (see Complete Sky Masters of the Space Force), Jack Kirby settled into his job at the small outfit that used to be the publishing powerhouse Timely/Atlas. He churned out mystery, monster, romance and western material in a market he suspected to be ultimately doomed, but as always he did the best job possible and that genre fare is now considered some of the best of its kind ever seen.

But his fertile imagination couldn’t be suppressed for long and when the JLA caught readers’ attention it gave him and writer/editor Stan Lee an opportunity to change the industry forever.

According to popular myth, a golfing afternoon led to publisher Martin Goodman ordering nephew Stan to do a series about a group of super-characters like the JLA. The resulting team quickly took the fans by storm. It wasn’t the powers: they’d all been seen since the beginning of the medium. It wasn’t the costumes: they didn’t have any until the third issue.

It was Kirby’s compelling art and the fact that these characters weren’t anodyne cardboard cut-outs. In a real and recognizable location – New York City – imperfect, raw-nerved, touchy people banded together out of tragedy, disaster and necessity to face the incredible. In many ways, The Challengers of the Unknown (Kirby’s prototype partners in peril for National /DC) laid all the groundwork for the wonders to come, but staid, nigh-hidebound editorial strictures there would never have allowed the undiluted energy of the concept to run all-but-unregulated.

This full-colour compendium collects Fantastic Four #1-30 plus the first giant-sized Annual issues of progressive landmarks (spanning cover-dates November 1961 to September 1964) and tellingly reveals how Stan & Jack cannily built on that early energy to consolidate the FF as the leading title and most innovative series of the era.

Following a typically effusive “found footage” Foreword from Stan – with two more to follow as the many pages turn – we start with Fantastic Four #1 (tentatively bi-monthly by Lee, Kirby, George Klein & Christopher Rule) which is crude, rough, passionate and uncontrolled excitement. Thrill-hungry kids pounced on it.

‘The Fantastic Four’ saw maverick scientist Reed Richards summon his fiancée Sue Storm, their close friend Ben Grimm and Sue’s teenaged brother before heading off on their first mission. They are all survivors of a private space-shot that went horribly wrong when Cosmic Rays penetrated their ship’s inadequate shielding and mutated them all.

Richards’ body became elastic, Sue gained the power to turn invisible, Johnny Storm could turn into living flame and tragic Ben turned into a shambling, rocky freak. In ‘The Fantastic Four meet the Mole Man’ they quickly foil a plan by another outcast who controls monsters and slave humanoids from far beneath the Earth. This summation of the admittedly mediocre plot cannot do justice to the engrossing wonder of that breakthrough issue – we really have no awareness today of how different in tone, how shocking it all was.

“Different” doesn’t mean “better” even here, but the FF was like no other comic on the market at the time and buyers responded to it hungrily. The brash experiment continued with another old plot in #2. ‘The Skrulls from Outer Space’ were shape-changing aliens who framed the FF in the eyes of shocked humanity before the genius of Mister Fantastic bluffed them into abandoning their plans for conquering Earth. The issue concluded with a monstrous pin-up of the Thing, proudly touted as “the first of a series…”

Sure enough, there was a pin-up of the Human Torch in #3, which headlined ‘the Menace of the Miracle Man’ (inked by Sol Brodsky), whose omnipotent powers had a simple secret, but is more notable for the first appearance of their uniforms, and a shocking line-up change, leading directly into the next issue (continued stories were an innovation in themselves) which revived a golden-age great.

‘The Coming of the Sub-Mariner’ reintroduced an all-powerful amphibian Prince of Atlantis and star of Timely’s Golden Age but one who had been lost for years. A victim of amnesia, the relic recovered his memory thanks to some rather brusque treatment by the delinquent Human Torch. Namor then returned to his sub-sea home only to find it destroyed by atomic testing. A monarch without subjects, he swore vengeance on humanity and attacked New York City with a gigantic monster. This saga is when the series truly kicked into high-gear with Mister Fantastic as the pin-up star.

Until now the creative team – who had both been in the business since it began – had been hedging their bets. Despite the innovations of a contemporary superhero experiment, their antagonists had relied heavily on the trappings of popular trends in other media – and as reflected in their other titles. Aliens and especially monsters played a major part in earlier tales but Fantastic Four #5 took a full-bite out of the Fights ‘n’ Tights apple by introducing the first full-blown super-villain to the budding Marvel Universe.

No, I haven’t forgotten Mole Man: but that tragic little gargoyle, for all his plans of world conquest, wouldn’t truly acquire the persona of a costumed foe until his more refined second appearance in #22.

‘Prisoners of Doctor Doom’ (July 1962, and inked by subtly sleek Joe Sinnott) has it all. An attack by a mysterious enemy from Reed’s past; magic and super-science, lost treasure, time-travel, even pirates. Ha-Haar, me ’earties!

Sheer magic! And the creators knew they were on to a winner since the deadly Doctor was back in the very next issue, teamed with a reluctant Sub-Mariner to attack our heroes as ‘The Deadly Duo!’ – and inked by new regular embellisher Dick Ayers.

Alien kidnappers were behind another FF frame-up resulting in the team briefly being ‘Prisoners of Kurrgo, Master of Planet X’: a dark and grandiose off-world thriller in #7 (the first monthly issue), whilst a new returning villain and the introduction of a love-interest for monstrous Ben Grimm were the breakthrough high-points in #8’s ‘Prisoners of the Puppet Master!’ The saga was topped off with a Fantastic Four Feature Page explaining how the Torch’s powers work. The next issue offered another detailing with endearing mock-science ‘How the Human Torch Flies!’

That issue, #9, trumpeted ‘The End of the Fantastic Four’ as Sub-Mariner returned to exploit another brilliant innovation in comic storytelling. When had a supergenius superhero ever messed up so much that the team had to declare bankruptcy? When had costumed crime busters ever had money troubles at all? The eerily prescient solution was to “sell out” and make a blockbuster movie – giving Kirby a rare chance to demonstrate his talent for caricature… and prescience…

1963 was a pivotal year in Marvel’s development. Lee & Kirby had proved their new high concept – human heroes with flaws and tempers – had a willing audience. Now they would extend that ideation to a new pantheon of heroes. Here is where the second innovation would come to the fore.

Previously, superheroes were sufficient unto themselves and shared adventures were rare. Now and here, however, was a universe where characters often and literally stumbled over each other, sometimes even fighting other heroes’ enemies! The creators themselves might turn even up in a Marvel Comic! Fantastic Four #10 featured ‘The Return of Doctor Doom!’ wherein the arch villain used Stan and Jack to lure the Richards into a trap where his mind is switched with the bad Doctor’s. The tale is supplemented by a pin-up of ‘Sue Storm, the Glamorous Invisible Girl’ and another Lee Foreword…

Innovations continued in #11, with two short stories instead of the usual book-length yarn, opening with behind-the-scenes travelogue/origin tale ‘A Visit with the Fantastic Four’ with a stunning pin-up of Sub-Mariner segueing into baddie-free, compellingly comedic vignette. ‘The Impossible Man’ was like superhero strip ever seen before.

Cover-dated March 1963, FF #12 featured an early landmark: arguably the first Marvel crossover as the team are asked to help the US army capture ‘The Incredible Hulk’: a tale of intrigue, action and bitter irony. The argument comes as Amazing Spider-Man #1 (not included here) – wherein the arachnid tries to join the team – has the same release date…  Fantastic Four #13’s ‘Versus the Red Ghost and his Incredible Super Apes!’ is a Cold War thriller pitting the quartet against a Soviet scientist in the race to reach the Moon: and notable both for its moody Steve Ditko inking (replacing Ayers for one glorious month) and the introduction of cosmic voyeurs The Watchers.

‘The Sub-Mariner and the Merciless Puppet Master!’ unwillingly co-star in #14, with one vengeful fiend the unwitting mind-slave of the other, followed by ‘The Mad Thinker and his Awesome Android!’, embarking upon a chilling war of intellects between driven super-scientists but with plenty of room for all-out action. After a notable absence, pin-ups resume with a candid group-shot of the team.

Fantastic Four #16 reveals ‘The Micro-World of Doctor Doom!’ in a spectacular romp guest-starring new hero Ant-Man plus a Fantastic Four Feature Page outlining the powers and capabilities of elastic Mister Fantastic. Despite a resounding defeat, the steel-shod villain returns with more infallible, deadly traps a month later in ‘Defeated by Doctor Doom!’, before FF #18 heralds a shape-changing alien who battles the heroes with their own powers when ‘A Skrull Walks Among Us!’: a prelude to greater, cosmos-spanning sagas to come…

The wonderment intensifies with the first Fantastic Four Annual: a spectacular 37-page epic by Lee, Kirby & Ayers as – finally reunited with their wandering prince – warriors of Atlantis invade New York City (and the world) in ‘The Sub-Mariner versus the Human Race!’.

A monumental tale by the standards of the time, it saw the FF repel the undersea invasion through valiant struggle and brilliant strategy whilst providing a secret history of the secretive race Homo Mermanus. Nothing was really settled except a return to a former status quo, but the thrills were intense and unforgettable…

Also included are rousing pin-ups and fact file features. The Mole Man, Skrulls, Miracle Man, Sub-Mariner, Doctor Doom, Kurrgo, Puppet Master, Impossible Man, The Hulk, Red Ghost and his Super-Apes, and Mad Thinker comprise ‘A Gallery of the Fantastic Four’s Most Famous Foes!’, whilst ‘Questions and Answers about the Fantastic Four’, and a diagrammatic trip ‘Inside the Baxter Building’ evoke awe wonder and understanding. Short story ‘The Fabulous Fantastic Four Meet Spider-Man!’ then reexamines in an extended re-interpretation that first meeting from the premiere issue of the wallcrawler’s own comic. Pencilled this time by Kirby, the dramatic duel benefitted from Ditko’s inking which created a truly novel look.

Cover-dated October 1963, Fantastic Four #19 premiered another of the company’s major villains as the quarrelsome quartet travelled back to ancient Egypt and ‘Prisoners of the Pharaoh!’ This time travel tale has been revisited by so many writers that it is considered one of the key stories in Marvel history introducing a future-Earth tyrant who would evolve into overarching menace Kang the Conqueror.

Another universe-threatening foe was introduced and defeated by brains not brawn in FF#20 when ‘The Mysterious Molecule Man!’ menaced New York before being soundly outsmarted, after which one last Lee Foreword precedes another cross-pollination: this time guest-starring Nick Fury, lead character in Marvel’s only war comic.

Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos was another solid hit, but eventually its brusque and brutish star metamorphosed into Marvel’s answer to James Bond. Here, however, he’s a cunning CIA agent seeking the team’s aid against a sinister demagogue called ‘The Hate-Monger’: a cracking yarn with a strong message, inked by comics veteran George Roussos, under the protective nom-de-plume George Bell.

By this juncture the FF were firmly established and Lee & Kirby well on the way to toppling DC/National Comics from a decades-held top spot through an engaging blend of brash, folksy and consciously contemporaneous sagas: mixing high concept, low comedy, trenchant melodrama and breathtaking action.

Unseen since the premiere issue, #22 saw ‘The Return of the Mole Man!’ in another full-on monster-mashing fight-fest, chiefly notable for debuting Sue Storm’s new powers of projecting force fields of “invisible energy.” This advance would eventually make her one of the mightiest characters in Marvel’s pantheon.

Fantastic Four #23 enacted ‘The Master Plan of Doctor Doom!’, by introducing mediocre minions “the Terrible Trio” – Bull Brogin, Handsome Harry and Yogi Dakor – and the uncanny menace of “the Solar Wave” (which was enough to raise the hackles on my 5-year-old neck. Do I need to qualify that with: all of me was five, but only my neck had properly developed hackles back then?)…

In #24’s ‘The Infant Terrible!’ is a sterling yarn of inadvertent extragalactic menace and misplaced innocence, followed by a 2-part tale truly emphasising the inherent difference between Lee & Kirby’s work and everybody else’s at that time.

Fantastic Four #25-26 featured a cataclysmic clash that had young heads spinning in 1964 and led directly to the Emerald Behemoth finally regaining a strip of his own. In ‘The Hulk vs The Thing’ and ‘The Avengers Take Over!’, a relentless, lightning-paced, all-out Battle Royale results when the disgruntled man-monster returns to New York in search of side-kick Rick Jones, with only an injury-wracked FF in the way of his destructive rampage.

A definitive moment in The Thing’s character development, action ramps up to the max when a rather stiff-necked and officious Avengers team horn in, claiming jurisdictional rights on “Bob” Banner (this tale is plagued with pesky continuity errors which would haunt Stan Lee for decades) and his Jaded alter ego. Notwithstanding bloopers, this is one of Marvel’s key moments and still a visceral, vital read.

Stan & Jack had hit on a winning formula by including other stars in guest-shots – especially since readers could never anticipate if they would fight with or beside the home team. FF #27’s ‘The Search for Sub-Mariner!’ again saw the undersea antihero in amorous mood, and when he abducts Sue the boys call in Doctor Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts to locate them. Issue #28 was another terrific team-up, but most notable (for me and many other fans) for the man who replaced George Roussos…

‘We Have to Fight the X-Men!’ sees the disparate super-squads in conflict due to the Mad Thinker and Puppet Master’s malign machinations, but the inclusion of Chic Stone – Kirby’s most simpatico and expressive inker – elevates the illustration to indescribable levels of beauty.

‘It Started on Yancy Street!’ (FF #29) starts low-key and a little bit silly in the slum where Ben Grimm grew up, but with the reappearance of the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes, it all goes Cosmic, resulting in a blockbusting battle on the Moon, with the following issue – and last saga here – introducing evil alchemist ‘The Dreaded Diablo!’ – who briefly breaks up the team while casually conquering the world from his spooky Transylvanian castle….

To Be Continued…

Bolstered by all Kirby’s covers, every ‘Fantastic 4 Fan Page’ (with letters from adoring fans many here will recognise), Lee’s concluding essay ‘Reflections on the Fantastic Four’ and appreciations from Paul Gambaccini, Tom DeFalco and Roy Thomas, the joy concludes with added attractions including Lee’s original synopsis for FF #1, a selection of house ads, unused pages and cover art for #3, #20 and Annual #1.

This is a truly magnificent book highlighting pioneering tales that built a comics empire. The verve, imagination and sheer enthusiasm shines through and the wonder is there for you to share. If you’ve never thrilled to these spectacular sagas then this book of marvels is your best and most economical key to another world and time.
© 2022 MARVEL.

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Captain Marvel: The Many Lives of Carol Danvers


By Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, Chris Claremont, David Michelinie, Howard Mackie & Mark Jason, Kurt Busiek, John Jackson Miller, Brian Reed, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Gene Colan, John Buscema, Carmine Infantino, John Byrne, Dave Cockrum, Tomm Coker, George Pérez, Jorge Lucas, Paulo Siqueira, Adriana Melo, Dexter Soy & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-2506-2 (TBP/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: A Miraculous Ascension to Marvel At… 8/10

In comic book terms, the soubriquet “Marvel” carries a lot of baggage and clout, and has been attached to a wide number of vastly differing characters over many decades. In 2014, it was inherited by comics’ first mainstream first rank Muslim superhero, albeit employing the third iteration of pre-existing designation Ms. Marvel.

Career soldier, former spy and occasional journalist Carol Danvers – who rivals Henry Pym in number of secret identities – having been Binary, Warbird, Ms. Marvel again and ultimately Captain Marvel – originated the role when her Kree-based abilities first manifested. She experienced a turbulent superhero career and was lost in space when Sharon Ventura became a second, unrelated Ms. Marvel. This iteration gained her powers from the villainous Power Broker, and after briefly joining the Fantastic Four, was mutated by cosmic ray exposure into a She-Thing…

Debuting in a sly cameo in Captain Marvel (volume 7 #14, September 2013) and bolstered by a subsequent teaser in #17, Kamala Khan was the third to use the codename. She properly launched in full fight mode in a tantalising short episode (All-New MarvelNow! Point One #1) chronologically set just after her origin and opening exploit. We’ll get to her another day soon, but isn’t it nice to see her annoying trolls on screen as well as in print?

Here we’re focusing on Carol Danvers in many of her multifarious endeavours, glimpsed via a wide set of comics snapshots spanning cover-dates March 1968 to September 2012, and comprising Marvel Super-Heroes #13, Ms. Marvel #1, 19, Avengers #183-184, Uncanny X-Men #164, Logan: Shadow Society, Avengers (1998) #4, Iron Man (1998) #85, Ms. Marvel (2006) #32-33, and Captain Marvel (2012) #1.

She began as a supporting character as the House of Ideas pounced on finally vacant property title Captain Marvel and debuted in the second instalment. Marvel Super-Heroes #13 picks up where the previous issue ended. That was ‘The Coming of Captain Marvel!’ – derived directly from Fantastic Four #64-65, wherein the quartet defeated a super-advanced Sentry robot marooned on Earth by a mythical and primordial alien race the Kree. They didn’t stay mysterious for long and despatched a mission to spy on us…

Dispatching a surveillance mission, the Kree had to know everything about us. Unfortunately, the agent they chose – Captain Mar-Vell – was a man of conscience, whilst his commanding officer Colonel Yon-Rogg was his ruthless rival for the love of the ship’s medical officer Una. No sooner has the dutiful operative made a tentative planet-fall and clashed with the US Army from a local missile base than the instalment – and this preamble – ends.

We begin here as Roy Thomas, Gene Colan & Paul Reinman took over for ‘Where Stalks the Sentry!’ as the spy assumes the identity of recently killed scientist Walter Lawson to infiltrate that military base and immediately arouses the suspicions of security Chief Carol Danvers. He is horrified to discover the Earthlings are storing the Sentry defeated by the FF on site. Yon-Rogg, sensing an opportunity, reactivates the deadly mechanoid. As it goes on a rampage, only Mar-Vell stands in its path…

Over many months Mar-Vell and Danvers sparred and shuffled until she became a collateral casualty in a devastating battle between the now-defected alien and Yon-Rogg in Captain Marvel #18 (November 1969). Caught in a climactic explosion of alien technology (latterly revealed to have altered her biology), she pretty much vanished until revived in Ms. Marvel #1 (January 1977). Crafted by Gerry Conway, John Buscema & Joe Sinnott, ‘This Woman, This Warrior!’ heralded a new chapter for the company and the industry…

Here irrepressible and partially amnesiac Danvers has relocated to New York to become editor of “Woman”: a new magazine for modern misses published by Daily Bugle owner J. Jonah Jameson. Never having fully recovered from her near-death experience, Danvers left the military and drifted into writing, slowly growing in confidence until the irascible publisher made her an offer she couldn’t refuse…

At the same time as Carol is getting her feet under a desk, a mysterious new masked “heroine” (sorry, it was the 70s!) started appearing and as rapidly vanishing, such as when she pitches up to battle the sinister Scorpion as he perpetrates a brutal bank raid.

The villain narrowly escapes to rendezvous with Professor Kerwin Korwin of Advanced Idea Mechanics. The skeevy savant promised to increase Scorpion’s powers and allow him to take long-delayed revenge on Jameson – whom the demented thug blames for his freakish condition…

Danvers has been having premonitions and blackouts since the final clash between Mar-Vell and Yon-Rogg and has no idea she transforms into Ms. Marvel during fugue state episodes. Her latest vision-flash occurs too late to save Jameson from abduction, but her “Seventh Sense” does allow her to track the villain before her unwitting new boss is injured, whilst her incredible physical powers and knowledge of Kree combat techniques enable her to easily trounce the maniac.

Danvers eventually reconciles her split personality to become a frontline superhero and is targeted by shape-shifting mutant Mystique in a raid on S.H.I.E.L.D. to purloin a new super-weapon. This triggers a blockbuster battle and features the beginnings of a deadly plot originating at the heart of the distant Kree Imperium…

The scheme culminates with our third tale as ‘Mirror, Mirror!’ (Chris Claremont, Carmine Infantino & Bob McLeod) sees the Kree Supreme Intelligence attempts to reinvigorate his race’s stalled evolutionary path by kidnapping Earth/Kree hybrid Carol Danvers. However, with both her and Captain Marvel hitting hard against his emissary Ronan the Accuser, eventually the Supremor and his plotters take the hint and go home empty-handed…

Avengers #183-184 from May and June 1979 then see her seconded onto the superteam by government spook Henry Peter Gyrich just in time to face ‘The Redoubtable Return of Crusher Creel!’ Courtesy of David Michelinie, John Byrne, Klaus Janson & D(iverse) Hands, a breathtaking all-action extravaganza sees Ms. Marvel replace the Scarlet Witch just as the formidable Absorbing Man decides to leave the country and quit being thrashed by heroes. Sadly, his departure plans include kidnapping a young woman “for company”, leading to a cataclysmic showdown with the heroes resulting in carnage, chaos and a ‘Death on the Hudson!’…

Carol was later attacked by young mutant Rogue, and permanently lost her powers and memory. Taken under the X-Men’s wing she went into space with The Starjammers and was eventually reborn as cosmic-powered adventurer Binary: the exact how of which can be seen in Claremont, Dave Cockrum & Bob Wiacek’s ‘Binary Star!’ from Uncanny X-Men #164 (December 1982)…

Jumping to December 1995, one-shot Logan: Shadow Society – by Howard Mackie, Mark Jason, Tomm Coker, Keith Aiken, Octavio Cariello & Christie Scheele – delves into Danvers’ early career as set pre-debut of the Fantastic Four. She links up with a sometime associate to counter a new and growing menace… something called “mutants”. She has no idea about the truth of her savagely efficient partner Logan but certainly understands the threat level of the killed called Sabretooth…

Following the Heroes Return event of 1997, a new iteration of The Avengers formed and in #4 (May 1998), Kurt Busiek, George Pérez, Al Vey & Wiacek decree there are ‘Too Many Avengers!’ prompting a paring down by the founders and admission of Carol in her newest alter ego Warbird, just in time to trounce a few old foes, whilst Iron Man #85/430 (August 2004, by John Jackson Miller, Jorge Lucas &Antonio Fabela), sees the beginning of the end in a prologue to the Avengers Disassembled event as Warbird is caught up in the breakdown…

Brian Reed, Paulo Siqueira, Adriana Melo, Amilton Santos, Mariah Benes & Chris Sotomayor then collaborate on a revelatory dip into the early life of USAF officer Major Carol Danvers as a chance encounter with boy genius Tony Stark gets her captured by the Taliban, tortured and turned into a secret agent in ‘Ascension’ and ‘Vitamin’: a brace of epic gung ho Top Gun meets Jason Bourne tales from Ms. Marvel (2006) #32-33 (December 2008 & January 2009), before this collection reaches its logical conclusion with her being officially proclaimed “Earth’s Mightiest Hero” in Captain Marvel #1 (September 2012) as Kelley Sue DeConnick, Dexter Soy & Joe Caramagna depict Carol’s embracing her past lives to accept the legacy, responsibility and rank of her universe-saving Kree predecessor…

With covers and variants by Colan, John Romita & Dick Giordano, John Romita Jr. & Joe Rubinstein, Pérez & Terry Austin, Cockrum & Wiacek, Coker & Aiken, Pérez & Tom Smith, Steve Epting & Laura Martin, David Yardin & Rain Berado, Ed McGuinness, Dexter Vine, Javie Rodriguez and Adi Granov, plus dozens of sketches, layout and original art pages, this epic retrospective is a superb short cut to decades of astounding adventure.

In conjunction with sister volume Captain Marvel vs Rogue (patience!, we’ll get to that one too) these tales are entertaining, often groundbreaking and painfully patronising (occasionally at the same time), but nonetheless, detail exactly how Ms. Marvel in all her incarnations and against all odds, grew into the modern Marvel icon of affirmative womanhood we see today.

In both comics and on-screen, Carol Danvers is Marvel’s paramount female symbol and role model. These exploits are a valuable grounding of the contemporary champion but also stand on their own as intriguing examples of the inevitable fall of even the staunchest of male bastions: superhero sagas…
© 2020 MARVEL.

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Ghost Rider Marvel Masterworks volume 3


By Jim Shooter, Roger McKenzie, Gerry Conway, Don Glut, Don Perlin. Jim Starlin, Don Heck, Gil Kane, Tom Sutton & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-2214-6 (HB/Digital edition)

At the end of the 1960s American comic books were in turmoil, much like the youth of the nation. Superheroes had dominated for much of the previous decade; peaking globally before explosively falling to ennui and overkill. Established genres such as horror, war, westerns and science fiction returned, fed by contemporary events and radical trends in movie-making where another, new(ish) wrinkle had also emerged: disenchanted, rebellious, unchained Youth on Motorbikes seeking a different way forward.

Green Lantern/Green Arrow, Jack Kirby’s Jimmy Olsen, Captain America and many others all took the Easy Rider option to boost flagging sales (and if you’re interested, the best of the crop was Mike Sekowsky’s tragically unfinished mini-masterpiece of cool Jason’s Quest in Showcase). Over at Marvel – a company still reeling from Kirby’s defection to DC/National in 1970 – canny Roy Thomas green-lighted a new character who combined the freewheeling, adolescent-friendly biker-theme with the all-pervasive supernatural furore gripping the entertainment fields.

Back in 1967, Marvel published a western masked hero named Ghost Rider: a shameless, whole-hearted appropriation of the cowboy hero creation of Vince Sullivan, Ray Krank & Dick Ayers (for Magazine Enterprises from 1949 to 1955), who utilised magician’s tricks to fight bandits by pretending to be an avenging phantom of justice.

Scant years later, with the Comics Code prohibition against horror hastily rewritten – amazing how plunging sales can affect ethics – scary comics came back in a big way. A new crop of supernatural superheroes and monsters began to appear on the newsstands to supplement the ghosts, ghoulies and goblins already infiltrating the once science-only scenarios of the surviving mystery men titles.

In fact, softening the Code ban resulted in such an avalanche of horror titles (new material and reprints from the first boom in the 1950s), in response to the industry-wide down-turn in superhero sales, that it probably caused a few more venerable costumed crusaders to – albeit temporarily – bite the dust.

Almost overnight, nasty monsters became acceptable fare for four-colour pages and whilst a parade of pre-code reprints made sound business sense, the creative aspects of the fascination in supernatural themes was catered to by adapting popular cultural icons before risking whole new concepts on an untested public.

As always in entertainment, the watchword was fashion: what was hitting big outside comics was incorporated into the mix as soon as possible. When proto-monster Morbius, the Living Vampire debuted in Amazing Spider-Man #101 (cover-dated October 1971) and the sky failed to fall in, Marvel moved ahead with a line of shocking superstars – beginning with a werewolf and a vampire – before broadening the scope with a haunted biker to tap into both Easy Rider’s freewheeling motorcycling chic and the prevailing supernatural zeitgeist.

Preceded by western hero Red Wolf in #1 and the aforementioned Werewolf by Night in #2-4, the all-new Ghost Rider debuted in Marvel Spotlight #5 (August 1972) and this sturdy hardback and equivalent digital compendium collects a third heaping helping of his flame-filled early exploits: specifically Ghost Rider #21-35, plus added attraction Marvel Premiere #28, spanning December 1976 to April 1979, and is preceded by an informative Introduction from Ralph Macchio.

What Has Gone Before: Carnival trick cyclist Johnny Blaze sells his soul to the devil in an attempt to save his foster-father Crash Simpson from cancer. As is the way of such things, Satan follows the letter but not spirit of the contract and Simpson dies anyway. When the Dark Lord later comes for his prize, Blaze’s beloved virginal girlfriend Roxanne Simpson intervenes. Her purity prevents the Devil from claiming his due and, temporarily thwarted, Satan spitefully afflicts Johnny with a body that burns with the fires of Hell every time the sun goes down…

After dancing with the Devil and assorted demons for months, and even dabbling with team superheroics on the Champions, Johnny has moved to Hollywood and works as stuntman on the Stuntman TV show: a hazardous gig that has brought him into a romantic dalliance with starlet Karen Page, a team-up with Daredevil and many clashes with supervillains.

As the action opens in GR #21’s ‘Deathplay!’, Gerry Conway, Kil Kane & Sam Grainger build on the trend as manic hireling The Gladiator attacks the Delazny Studio seeking a deadly weapon left by a sinister hidden foe.

After spectacularly repelling the armoured assassin, Blaze does a little digging into the studio and its staff only to clash with another veteran villain – The Eel, abruptly reinforced by Gladiator seeking a rematch. Thrashing them both only gets him in more trouble with the cops and – on the run again – he finally faces the criminal mastermind who has orchestrated many months of woe and learns ‘Nobody Beats the Enforcer!’ (Conway, Don Glut, Don Heck & Keith Pollard). The ganglord has his fingers dug deep into the studio and seeks ultimate power in LA, but somehow Blaze is always in his way, such as here, foiling the costumed killer’s attempt to steal a deadly ray concealed in a ring.

Attempts to further integrate Ghost Rider with mainstream Marvel continuity intensify with the arrival of new scripter – and actual motorbike afficionado – Jim Shooter. With Dons Heck and Newton illustrating, ‘Wrath of the Water Wizard!’ sees the embattled biker battling a hydrokinetic hoodlum at the Enforcer’s behest, only to be betrayed and beaten in anticipation of a blockbusting clash in Shooter, Heck & Dan Green’s ‘I, The Enforcer…!’

Cover-dated August 1977, Ghost Rider #25 presaged a return to wandering ways as Shooter, Heck & Tony DeZuñiga’s ‘Menace is a Man Called Malice!’ finds the infernal antihero implicated in an arson attack on a wax museum before battling a high tech madman. Blaze’s diabolical overreaction in victory signalled dark days ahead…

Don Perlin began his long association with the Spirit Cyclist in #26 as ‘A Doom Named Dr. Druid!’ (words by Shooter & inks by Grainger) as recently-revived and revised proto Marvel superhero Anthony Druid (who as Dr. Droom actually predates Fantastic Four #1) hunts a satanic horror and attacks the Ghost Rider. Only after beating the burning biker does the parapsychologist learn the dreadful mistake he’s made, but by then Blaze’s secret is exposed, his Hollywood life ruined and the end of an era looms…

Back on the road again Johnny encounters two fellow travellers, aimless and in trouble when he pals up with disgruntled former Avengers Hawkeye and time-displaced Matt Hawk – The Two-Gun Kid. Crafted by Shooter, Perlin & Green ‘At the Mercy of the Manticore!’ sees Blaze save the heroes from The Brand Corporation’s bestial cyborg monstrosity, but drive them away with his demonic other half’s growing propensity for inflicting suffering…

Still roaming the southern deserts, Blaze is targeted once again by his personal Captain Ahab in ‘Evil is the Orb!’ (Roger McKenzie, Perlin, Tom Sutton, Owen McCarron & Pablo Marcos). His vengeance-crazed rival abducts Roxie and mesmerises a biker gang to do his dirty work but hasn’t reckoned on an intervention by Blaze’s buddy Brahma Bill…

What seemed an inevitable team-up at last occurred in #29 as “New York Tribe” McCarron, DeZuñiga, & Alfredo Alcala augment McKenzie & Perlin for a saga of sorcerous subterfuge as Johnny Blaze is abducted and inquisition-ed by Doctor Strange. Sadly, it’s all a trick by the Mage’s greatest foe who turns Ghost Rider into a ‘Deadly Pawn!’, rigging a murderous retaliation and death duel between ‘The Mage and the Monster!’ as delivered by McKenzie, Perlin & Jim Mooney.

The clash concluded in an extreme expression of ‘Demon’s Rage’ (#31, with illustrator Perlin co-plotting with McKenzie and Bob Layton inking) as the diabolical scheme is exposed and expunged just in time for the fugitive Johnny Blaze to be captured by a mystical Bounty Hunter…

A story tragically similar to Blaze’s own unfolds in McKenzie, Perlin & Rick Bryant’s ‘The Price!’ before Blaze postpones his dark destiny yet again, only to plunge into a super-science hell to contest a medley of western biker and dystopian tropes run amok in ‘…Whom a Child Would Destroy!’ With both chapters uniquely enhanced by an all-Perlin art job, the mutagenic tragedy catastrophically concludes with ‘The Boy Who Lived Forever!’ before this collection closes with a long-deferred, primal thrill-ride.

Commissioned years earlier, ‘Deathrace!’ is a true Jim Starlin gem with Death and the Devil battling our hero in a war of wheels and will, with Steve Leialoha and pals updating and embellishing what we’d call today a Grindhouse shocker…

A big bonus section opens with another, much reprinted yarn. Courtesy of Bill Mantlo, Frank Robbins & Steve Gan is an attempt to create a team of terrors long before its time. Marvel Premiere #28 (February 1976) introduced the initial iteration of The Legion of Monsters in ‘There’s a Mountain on Sunset Boulevard!’. When an ancient alien manifests a rocky peak in LA, the Werewolf by Night Jack Russell, the macabre Man-Thing, current Hollywood stuntman/Ghost Rider Johnny Blaze and living vampire Morbius are irresistibly drawn into a bizarre confrontation which could have resulted in the answer to all their wishes and hopes, but instead only leads to destruction, death and deep disappointment…

With covers by Jack Kirby, Frank Giacoia, Al Milgrom, John Romita Sr., Steve Leialoha, Kane & Dave Cockrum, George Pérez & Rudy Nebres, Sal Buscema, Ernie Chan, Rich Buckler, Robbins, Pollard, Layton, Bob Budiansky, Bob Wiacek, Perlin, and Nick Cardy, other assets include a June 1978 house ad for all of Marvel’s supernatural series, original art pages and covers by Kirby, Romita Sr., DeZuñiga, Perlin & Alcala and Chan, as well as fascinating art edits by Milgrom & Michael Netzer to Starlin’s ‘Deathrace!’ story and the unused cover he originally drew for it.

These tales return Ghost Rider to his roots, and imminent threat of the real-deal Infernal Realm: portraying a good man struggling to save his soul from the worst of all bargains – as much as the revised Comics Code would allow – so brace yourself, hold steady and accept no supernatural substitutes…
© 2021 MARVEL.

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Marvel Adventures Avengers: Thor and Captain America


By Paul Tobin, Scott Gray, Todd DeZago, Ronan Cliquet, Ron Lim, Lou Kang & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5584-3 (Digest PB)

In 2003 the House of Ideas instituted a Marvel Age line: an imprint updating classic original tales and characters for a newer, younger readership. The enterprise was modified in 2005, with core titles reduced to Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man. The tone was very much that of the company’s burgeoning TV cartoon franchises, in delivery if not name.

Supplemental series including Super Heroes, The Avengers, Hulk and Iron Man chuntered along merrily until 2010 when they were cancelled. In their place came new volumes of Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man.

Most of the re-imagined tales were collected in gleefully inviting digest-sized compilations and digitised; this – except for a electric version – was the case with this engaging ensemble featuring fabulous  forays starring the God of Thunder or Sentinel of Liberty and their Avenging allies: a quartet of all-ages tales from the second volume of Marvel Adventures Super Heroes (#13-16, spanning June-September 2011).

The action opens with a mythological masterpiece by Paul Tobin, Ronan Cliquet & Amilton Santos wherein plucky novice hero Nova is invited by Avenging comrades Thor and Valkyrie to accompany them on an annual errand for All-Father Odin.

In the distant past when Asgardians warred with Trolls, godling messenger Glane failed in his mission and was banished to the ghastly Fields of the Fallen to pay penance by continually battling the Golden Realm’s vilest enemies. Periodically, Thor has been sent to add new tasks to the sinning failure’s heavy burden, and this year – as the Thunderer and Valkyrie ready themselves for the trip – they invite starstruck neophyte Nova along.

However, as the trio war their way through horrific monsters and overwhelming odds, Nova finds himself increasingly uncomfortable with the sentence meted out to Glane. He even begins doubting the motives of his immortal mentors. All that changes once he meets and battles beside the convicted penitent…

Originating in MASH #14, ‘Out of Time!’ is by Todd DeZago, Ron Lim & Scott Koblish (inspired by Gerry Conway & Ross Andru’s tale from the original Marvel Team-Up #7). Here, the Lord of Storm intercepts Spider-Man after the wallcrawler is blasted high into the sky whilst battling raving maniac the Looter.

That happy coincidence occurs just a bizarre force freezes time around them. When the heroes discover that only they have escaped a devastating weapon deployed by Trollish tyrant Kryllk the Conqueror to paralyze and overwhelm both Asgard and the mortal plane, they must divide their strength to simultaneously smash the conqueror in Manhattan and Asgard if they are to set time running free again…

Captain America takes the spotlight in #15 as ‘Back in Time’ (Tobin, Cliquet & Santos) finds him battling Neanderthals with ray-guns in a National Forest after tracking down rogue geneticists who have stolen a huge amount of plutonium.

A mere mile away, Peter Parker’s girlfriend Sophia Sanduval is getting back to nature and chilling with her furry, scaly and feathered friends. As Chat, the mutant teen’s power to communicate with animals makes her a crucial component of the mystery-solving Blonde Phantom Detective Agency, but even she has never seen anything like the wave of extinct creatures which appear after Cap begins battling the tooled-up cavemen.

Soon Chat has been briefed on the deadly experiments of rogue technologist Jerrick Brogg. The villain’s ambition is to build an army out of revived extinct creatures, but she and helps The Star-Spangled Avenger frustrate those save all the beasts he has re-created from short painful lives of terror and brutal exploitation, before putting the maniac away for good.

Wrapping up the action comes ‘Stars, Stripes and Spiders!’ by DeZago, Lou Kang & Pat Davidson (based on Len Wein & Gil Kane’s tale from Marvel Team-Up #13). When a certain wallcrawling high-school student/occasional masked hero stumbles into Captain America tackling an AIM cadre stealing super-soldier serum, the nervous lad learns a few things about the hero game from the legendary guy who wrote the book. Sadly, not making that lesson any easier is petrifying supervillain Grey Gargoyle, whose deadly touch almost ends Spidey’s homework worries – and continued existence – forever…

Fast, furious, funny and enthralling, these riotous mini-epics are extremely enjoyable yarns, although parents should note that some of the themes and certainly the level of violence might not be what everybody considers “All-Ages Super Hero Action”…
© 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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The Invaders Classic: The Complete Collection volume 1


By Roy Thomas, Frank Robbins, Rich Buckler, Dick Ayers, Don Heck, Jim Mooney, Carl Burgos, Don Rico, Lee Elias, Alex Schomburg, Sal Buscema & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-9057-8 (TPB/Digital edition)

The adage never grows stale: the best place to see American superheroes in action is in World War II, thrashing Nazis and their evil Axis allies. And yes, that includes their so-numerous copycats and contemporary legatees like Hydra, The National Southern Baptist Convention, Reclaim, The LGB Alliance and The Bullingdon Club too… whether contemporaneously or retroactively…

That was especially true in the 1970s when many guilt-free hours were devoted to portraying the worst people on Earth getting their just deserts (or just getting mocked in shows like Hogan’s Heroes and films like The Producers or To Be or Not to Be). In an era of generational backward-looking fostering cosy familiarity and with Lynda Carter on TV screens crushing the Third Reich every week in The New Adventures of Wonder Woman, admitted aficionado and irredeemable nostalgist Roy Thomas (Conan the Barbarian, X-Men, All-Star Squadron, Wonder Woman, Shazam!, Fantastic Four, Thor, Spider-Man, Daredevil ad infinitum) sought to revisit the “last good war”. Here he would back-write a super-team comprising Marvel’s (or rather Atlas/Timely’s) “Big Three” – Captain America, Sub-Mariner and the Human Torch – and however many minor mystery-men as he could shoehorn in…

Long before this series debuted, Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner was the hybrid offspring of a sub-sea Atlantean princess and an American polar explorer: immensely strong, highly resistant to physical harm, able to fly and thrive above and below the waves. Created by young Bill Everett, Namor technically predates Marvel/Atlas/Timely Comics.

He first caught the public’s attention as part of the elementally electrifying “Fire vs. Water” headlining team in Marvel Comics #1 (October 1939 and Marvel Mystery Comics from the next issue) alongside The Human Torch, but had debuted earlier in the year in monochrome Motion Picture Funnies, a weekly promotional giveaway handed out to moviegoers.

Swiftly becoming one of the new company’s biggest draws, Namor gained his own title at the end of 1940 (cover-dated Spring 1941) and was one of the last super-characters to go at the end of the first heroic age. In 1954, as Atlas, the company briefly revived the Big Three and Everett returned for an extended run of superb fantasy tales. The time wasn’t right and the title sunk again.

When Stan Lee & Jack Kirby began reinventing comics in 1961 with Fantastic Four, they revived the forgotten amphibian as a troubled, semi-amnesiac, yet decidedly more regal and grandiose anti-hero, embittered at the loss of his sub-sea kingdom – seemingly destroyed by American atomic tests. He also became a dangerous bad-boy romantic interest: besotted with the FF’s Sue Storm.

Namor knocked around the budding Marvel universe, squabbling with assorted heroes like Daredevil, The Avengers and X-Men before securing his own series as half of “split-book” Tales to Astonish with fellow antisocial antihero The Incredible Hulk, eventually returning to solo stardom in 1968.

Crafted by Carl Burgos, the original Flaming Fury burst into life as a humanoid devised by troubled, greedy Professor Phineas Horton. Instantly igniting into a malfunctioning uncontrollable fireball whenever exposed to air, the artificial innocent was consigned to entombment in concrete but escaped to accidentally imperil New York City until he fell into the hands of malign mobster Sardo. His attempts to use the android as a terror weapon backfired and the hapless, modern day Frankenstein’s Monster became a misunderstood fugitive. Even his creator only saw the fiery Prometheus as a means of making money.

Gradually gaining control of his flammability, the angry, perpetually rejected android opted to make his own way in the world. Instinctively honest, he saw crime and wickedness everywhere and resolved to do something about it. Indistinguishable from human when not afire, he joined the police as Jim Hammond, tackling ordinary thugs even as his volcanic alter ego battled outlandish fiends like Asbestos Lady. Soon after, the Torch met his opposite number when the New York City Chief of Police asked him to stop the savage Sub-Mariner from destroying everything. The battles were spectacular but inconclusive, and only paused after policewoman Betty Dean brokered a tenuous ceasefire.

The Torch gained a similarly powered junior sidekick Toro, but both vanished in 1949: victims of organised crime and Soviet spies working in unison. They spectacularly returned in 1953’s revival, renewing their campaign against weird villains, Red menaces and an assortment of crooks and gangsters before fading again. In the sixties it was revealed that atomic radiation in the Torch’s body finally reached critical mass and Jim – realising he was about to flame out in a colossal nova – soared into the desert and went up like a supernova…

Jim Hammond was resurrected many times in the convoluted continuity that underpinned the modern House of Ideas and is with us still…

Created by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby in an era of national turmoil and frantic patriotic fervour, Captain America was a dynamic, emphatically visible response to the horrors of Nazism and the threat to democracy. Consequently, the concept quickly lost focus and popularity once hostilities ceased. The Sentinel of Liberty was lost during post-war reconstruction, only to briefly reappear after the Korean War: a harder, darker Cold Warrior hunting monsters, subversives and “Reds” who lurked under every American bed.

He vanished once more, until the burgeoning Marvel Age resurrected him just in time to experience the Land of the Free’s most turbulent, culturally divisive era. He became a mainstay of the Marvel Revolution in the Swinging Sixties, but arguably lost his way after that, except for a politically-fuelled, radically liberal charged period under scripter Steve Englehart.

Despite everything, Captain America evolved into a powerful symbol for generations of readers and his career can’t help but reflect that of the nation he stands for…

Devised in the fall of 1940 and on newsstands by December 20th, Captain America Comics #1 was cover-dated March 1941, and an instant monster, blockbuster smash-hit. He had boldly and bombastically launched in his own monthly title with none of the publisher’s customary caution, and instantly was the undisputed star of the Big Three. He was, however, the first to fall from popularity as the Golden Age ended.

You know the origin story like your own. Simon & Kirby depicted scrawny, enfeebled patriot and genuinely Good Man Steven Rogers – after constant rejection by the Army – is recruited by the Secret Service. Desperate to stop Nazi expansion, the passionate kid joined a clandestine experiment to create physically perfect super-soldiers.

I have no idea if the irony of American Übermenschen occurred to the two Jewish kids creating that mythology, but here we are…

When a Nazi infiltrated the project and murdered the pioneering scientist behind it all, Rogers was the only successful result and became America’s not-so-secret weapon. When he was lost, others took up the role and have periodically done so ever since. I might be wrong, but as I recall every substitute and replacement was white and male…

When Thomas was writing The Avengers, issues #69-71 featured a clash with Kang the Conqueror spanning three eras. It saw some of the team dumped in WWII Paris and manipulated into fighting in situ Allied costumed champions. When that memorable minor skirmish was expanded and extrapolated upon in 1975, history was (re)made…

Re-presenting Giant-Sized Invaders #1, The Invaders #1-22 & Annual #1, Marvel Premiere #29-30, and Avengers #71 – collectively spanning June 1975 to November 1977 – this initial foray charts the course of the team and exponentially expands Marvel lore and history, opening with an extended multi-chapter romp.

Cover-dated June 1975, and crafted by Thomas, Frank Robbins (Johnny Hazard, Batman, Superboy, The Shadow, Morbius/Adventure into Fear, Captain America, Man from Atlantis) & Vince Colletta, ‘The Coming of the Invaders!’ saw a revisionist Big Three saving British Prime Minister Winston Churchill during a US visit in December 1941…

Nazi spies and saboteurs are crushed by boy marvel Bucky and ‘A Captain Called America!’ who is then recruited by the FBI to safeguard a mystery dignitary. The duo are ordered to cooperate with another extraordinary operative in ‘Enter: the Human Torch!’.

A tale of sinister super-science unfolds, revealing how Nazi Colonel Krieghund and the enigmatic Brain Drain have bult their own super-soldier. Master Man (AKA Ubermensch) has already beaten the Fiery Fury and sidekick Toro in pursuit of the plot. Grudging associates at best, the quartet of heroes rush to Chesapeake Bay in time to see how ‘The Sub-Mariner Strikes!’ when Master Man targets Churchill’s battleship. On the clash’s conclusion, the grateful premier suggests the saviours shelve their innate animosity for the duration and work together to crush the Axis alliance.

The blockbuster origin tale is augmented here by its accompanying editorial ‘Another Agonizingly Personal Recollection by Rascally Roy Thomas’…

The launch was a huge success and The Invaders #1 (August) was rushed out. Like Giant-Size X-Men #1, an in production second issue was rapidly retooled, with the first half appearing as ‘The Ring of the Nebulas!’ and ‘From the Rhine… a Girl of Gold!’ with the new team relocated to blitz-blasted London and arriving in the middle of shattering air raid. As their flying compatriots bring down German bombers, Cap and Bucky land Namor’s Atlantean sky-sub Flagship and help clear burning buildings of casualties and rescue a strange, shellshocked woman who – although amnesiac – proves to be ‘A Valkyrie Rising!’ With “Hilda’s” help the heroes infiltrate ‘Beyond the Siegfried Line!’ and invade Brain Drain’s citadel only to be ambushed by a trio of Teutonic gods…

Following second editorial ‘Okay Axis, Here We Come!’, the saga explosively concludes in the second bimonthly issue (cover-dated October) as ‘Twilight of the Star-Gods!’ reveals the incredible truth about Hilda, Loga, Donar and Froh, the source of Brain Drain’s scientific advances and why it’s bad to abuse and exploits guest from other planets…

Action was never far away and #3 opened with the triumphant Invaders saving a convoy from U-Boats before briefly returning to America to forestall a ‘Blitzkrieg at Bermuda’. The crisis was instigated by an Atlantean traitor siding with and working for the Nazis.

Namor’s alliance with the Allies only existed because the Germans had depth-charged his undersea city to eradicate its sub-human inhabitants, but now a rogue named Merrano has artificially augmented his strength and led a cadre of Atlanteans and sea beasts against surface bases. The aquatic blockbuster was once Namor’s chief scientist and has misused Atlantean technology for his own purposes as U-Man. Regal pride stung, Namor demands to fight the traitor alone, sparking a split with his newfound comrades. In the end, he and Bucky go on without the others or any official sanction….

As the marine man-monster and his hordes head for Churchill’s secret meeting in the Caribbean, the quarrellers at last agree that ‘U-Man Must be Stopped!’ and take all necessary steps, spurred on and umpired by Namor’s human girlfriend Betty Dean.

The drama intensified with #5 (March 1976) as Thomas expanded his niche universe by creating a second squad of masked stalwarts. Pencilled by Rich Buckler and Dick Ayers, with inks from Jim Mooney. ‘Red Skull in the Sunset!’ opens a 4-issue epic which sees the Invaders captured by the ultimate fascist and turned into weapons against America. Only Bucky – disregarded as too puny to exploit – remained free. The tale continued in #6 (‘…And Let the Battle Begin!’ with art by Robbins & Colletta May) and also crossed over into Marvel Premiere #29’s ‘Lo, The Liberty Legion!’ & 30’s ‘Hey Ma,! They’re Blitzin’ the Bronx’ (April and June 1976) wherein Bucky recruited a number of new superheroes and made them into a team to defeat the Invaders and scupper the Skull’s schemes.

As delivered by Thomas, Don Heck, & Colletta the recruits – The Patriot, Whizzer, Miss Marvel, Blue Diamond, Red Raven, Jack Frost and the Thin Man – came from assorted Timely strips of the 1940s and remained state-side as Home Front heroes. A fabulously engaging primal romp, the epic is inexplicably divided, with the Marvel Premiere instalments (the second and fourth/final chapters) relegated to the back of the book along with editorial features ‘Give Me Liberty – or Give Me The Legion!’ parts 1 and 2.

With the confusion and reputations all cleared up, the liberated Invaders return to war-torn London for #7 (July 1976) to tackle ‘The Blackout Murders of Baron Blood!’, with a costumed German vampire terrorising the capital. During a nighttime assault, the Torch saves Air Raid Warden Lady Jacqueline Falsworth from the bloodsucker and is gratefully introduced to her father: a legendary “masked spy-buster of World War One”.

James Montgomery Falsworth had worked with an international group of proto-superheroes dubbed Freedom’s Five, and on hearing of the vampire, comes out of retirement to finish his duel with the Kaiser’s top secret weapon…

Meanwhile, the other Invaders have also clashed with Baron Blood and are happy that ‘Union Jack is Back!’ (inked by Frank Springer): blithely unaware that the beast is actually a member of Falsworth’s household waiting to pick them off at his leisure. It begins as Union Jack is crippled by Blood and seemingly helpless to save his daughter from being drained in #9’s ‘An Invader No More!’

With justice finally served, the need for a deadline-saving reprint sees #10 mix new framing sequence ‘The Wrath of the Reaper!’ with a remembrance amongst the heroes as they rush father and daughter to hospital: ‘Captain America Battles the Reaper!’ by Al Avison & Al Gabriele as first seen in Captain America #22 (January 1943) rowdily recounted the failure of one of Adolf Hitler’s top agents…

The new history resumed in #11 as Montgomery learns he will never walk again, and Jacqueline is saved by an emergency transfusion of the Torch’s artificial, instantly regenerating blood. However, the combination of vampiric body fluids and the Torch’s liquid fuel source transform her into something new and powerful…

In another wing of the hospital, refugee Dr Gold has been building an advanced warsuit which he inexplicably turns on the Invaders until Jacqui lends a fast and fiery hand on the ‘Night of the Blue Bullet!’

As she seeks to replace her father on the team as Spitfire, Captain America ferrets out the reason for Gold’s betrayal and orders a rescue mission ‘To the Warsaw Ghetto!’ to save the boffin’s hostage brother Jacob. The foray is a complete disaster and the squad is captured by macabre Gauleiter Eisen, but his triumph is short-lived as it provokes Jacob to summon ancient forces in #13’s ‘The Golem Walks Again!’

A new team debuted in the next issue with ‘Calling… The Crusaders!’ as a (mostly) British ensemble – comprising Spirit of ‘76, Ghost Girl, Captain Wings, Thunderfist, Tommy Lightning and Dyna-Mite – start outshining The Invaders and boosting morale. Tragically all is not as it seems and a deadly propaganda coup is barely thwarted in concluding episode ‘God Save the King!’

Penciller Jim Mooney joined Thomas and inker Springer for #16 and the start of an extended epic in ‘The Short, Happy Life of Major Victory!’ It begins when US soldier Biljo White (that’s an in-joke I’m not explaining here) is snatched off London’s streets despite the best efforts of Captain America and Bucky. It transpires that the young PFC is the creator of a comic book hero whose origin so-closely mirrors the actual process that turned Steve Rogers into a living weapon that the Nazis have deduced he must have inside knowledge…

Fuelled by guilt and outrage, Cap leads the team straight to Hitler’s Berchtesgaden fortress, only to have entire team ambushed and defeated by a re-invigorated Master Man.

Biljo has been tortured by sadistic officer Frau Rätsel, but only revealed under deep hypnosis how he heard the story of a super soldier in a bar: recalling a key clue allowing her to perfect Brain Drain’s Master Man process.

At that moment a male superior reprimands her for exceeding her authority (Aryan dogma being that women were only meant for breeding and entertainment purposes) and her violent rebuttal causes an explosion that wrecks the lab and totally changes her. ‘The Making of Warrior Woman, 1942!’ consequently frees the Allied captives, but their short-lived liberty ends when Master Man and the newly-minted Krieger-Frau (Warrior Woman) double-team them. With Captain America hurled to his death and the others despatched to Berlin to provide an obscene spectacle, events take a sudden shocking turn in #18 as ‘Enter: The Mighty Destroyer!’ reintroduces another Golden Age Great by way of a complex web of family ties and debts of honour finally repaid…

When Cap was thrown off the mountain, he was saved by a mystery-man who had been fighting behind enemy lines since 1941, terrorising the Wehrmacht through a one-man war of attrition. He reveals that he was imprisoned in Hamburg where fellow inmate Professor Erich Schmitt made him swallow his own version of the super-soldier serum to keep it from the Nazis. The potion made him a veritable superman and he’s been making them pay ever since. He also reveals to Cap his real name…

As they prepare an assault to free The Invaders, in England Spitfire has met with former Crusader Dyna-Mite and discovered some painful family secrets. Ignoring orders to say out of harms way, she commandeers a plane and heads for Germany with the Tiny Titan. Insubordination is a proudly inherited trait however, and the heroes cannot prevent wheelchair-bound Lord Falsworth and his “chauffeur” Oskar joining the expeditionary force…

Bach in Berchtesgaden, the ruthless infiltration is successful but too late. Namor, Bucky, Torch and Toro have already been shipped to Berlin for public execution, before #19’s ‘War Comes to Wilhelmstrasse’ sees Captain America’s futile attempt to save them foiled and his capture, augmented by the untold tales of Falsworth’s son Brian and companion Roger Aubrey. Conscientious objectors, they had shamefully gone to Berlin before vanishing years prior to war being declared, only for one of them to suddenly return as Dyna-Mite.

Another deadline debacle allowed a brace of classic reprints to resurface in #20 and 21 with climactic conclusion ‘The Battle of Berlin!’ cleft in two. The first half sees the Allied heroes saved from death by a revitalised Union Jack and the resultant battle for freedom allow Krieger-Frau to dodge the forced marriage to Master Man that Hitler had ordered…

That issue also held a colorized reshowing of ‘The Sub-Mariner’ by Everett from Motion Picture Funnies, after which ‘The Battle of Berlin! Part Two!’ follows the traumatic flight bac to Britain and the critical injury suffered by one of the heroes…

Another Everett ‘The Sub-Mariner’ mini-masterpiece – from Marvel Mystery Comics #10 (August 1940) – then sees the sea prince targeted by murderous surface men…

Their plane ditched in the English channel, The Invaders are saved by the Navy and treatment begins for bullet-riddled Toro. Again reduced to anxious waiting, the team learn how he began his career in #22’s ‘The Fire That Died!’ (by Thomas, Mooney & Springer and adapted from The Human Torch #2: September 1940).

Ending the official chronology is Invaders Annual #1 (November 1977),which tells the other side of the originating story from Avengers #71, from the viewpoint of the 1940s heroes. Moreover, each individual chapter is crafted by a veteran who worked on the characters during the Golden Age. The mission begins with ‘Okay, Axis… Here We Come!’ by Thomas, Robbins & Springer, with the heroes separately pursuing insidious supervillains. ‘The Human Torch’ battles The Hyena as limned by Alex Schomburg; Don Rico’s ‘Captain America’ clashes with Agent Axis and ‘Sub-Mariner’ sinks The Shark thanks to Lee Elias & Springer, before the Invaders are teleported to Paris by a mysterious power.

That’s Kang and his opponent the Grandmaster meddling with time to facilitate a duel with three Avengers from 1969, and concludes here with ‘Endgame: Part II’. A semblance of sense is afforded by Thomas’ essay ‘Okay, Axis… Here We Come – Again!’

Woefully misfiled, the contents of Marvel Premiere #29 & 30 are next, before we end with the opening shot from the Avengers #71, by Thomas, Sal Buscema & Sam Grainger. ‘Endgame!’ was the final chapter in a triptych that saw the World’s Mightiest Heroes hijacked to the future to by old enemy Kang: living pieces in a cosmic chess-game with an omnipotent alien. If the Avengers fail – Earth would be eradicated from reality. the tale was significant for introducing 2/3 superteams: Squadron Supreme, Squadron Sinister and The Invaders. The saga culminated with The Vision, Black Panther and Yellowjacket sent to 1941 to fight the WWII incarnations of Namor, Human Torch and Captain America…

With covers by Robbins, John Romita Sr., Jack Kirby, Gil Kane, Ed Hannigan, Alex Schomburg, Joe Sinnott & Frank Giacoia, this is a no-nonsense, albeit convoluted thrill-ride for continuity-addicts and fervent Fights ‘n’ Tights fans that is full of fun from first to finish.
© 1969, 1975, 1976, 1977, 2014 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.