Category: Apes & Monkeys!

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Mighty Marvel Masterworks Presents volume 3 1963-1964: It Started on Yancy Street


By Stan Lee & Jack Kirby with George Roussos, Chic Stone, Sam Rosen, Art Simek & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-4907-5 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

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 – reintroducing The Flash in 1956 – and 1960’s 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, Jack Kirby settled into his job at the small outfit that used to be publishing powerhouse Timely/Atlas. There he generated mystery, monster, romance, war and western material for a market he suspected to be ultimately doomed. However, as always, he did the best job possible and that genre fare is now considered some of the best of its kind ever seen.

Nevertheless Kirby’s explosive 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 so 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, hidebound editorial strictures there would never have allowed the undiluted energy of the concept to run all-but-unregulated.

Another milestone in the kid-friendly paperback/eBooks line of Mighty Marvel Masterworks, this full-colour pocket-sized compendium collects Fantastic Four #21-29 (spanning cover-dates December 1961 to August 1964) and shows how Stan & Jack cannily built on that early energy to consolidate the FF as the leading title and most innovative series of the era.

As ever the team are maverick scientist Reed Richards, his fiancée Sue Storm, their closest friend Ben Grimm and Sue’s teenaged brother Johnny: survivors of a private space-shot that went horribly wrong after Cosmic Rays penetrated their ship’s inadequate shielding and mutated them all. Richards’ body became elastic, Susan gained the power to turn invisible and her sibling could turn into living flame. Poor tragic Ben was reduced to a shambling, rocky super-strong freak of nature… Soon the FF was recognised as being like no other comic on the market and buyers responded to it avidly if not fanatically…

In late 1963, Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos was another solid newsstand hit for the young “House of Ideas.” Eventually its brusque and brutish star metamorphosed into Marvel’s answer to James Bond. Here, however, he’s a cunning world-weary CIA agent seeking the FF’s aid against a sinister, immigrant-hating racist supremacist 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 heralded ‘The Return of the Mole Man!’ in another full-on monster-mashing fight-fest, chiefly notable for debuting Sue Storm’s new increased power-set. Her ability to project force fields of “invisible energy” also involved a power to reveal hidden things and make others invisible too: advances that would eventually make her one of the mightiest characters in Marvel’s pantheon – and not before time either…

FF #23 enacted ‘The Master Plan of Doctor Doom!’ by introducing his mediocre mercenary 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?)…

‘The Infant Terrible!’ in #24’s is a classic case of sci fi paranoia and misunderstanding and a sterling yarn of inadvertent extragalactic menace and misplaced innocence, with a reality-warping space baby endangering Earth, and is 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 offered 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 conclusion ‘The Avengers Take Over!’ a relentless, lightning-paced, all-out Battle Royale results when the disgruntled emerald 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 (Iron Man, Thor, Giant-Man, The Wasp and recently-defrosted Captain America) horn in, claiming jurisdictional rights on “Bob” Banner and his Jaded alter ego. The tale is plagued with pesky continuity errors which would haunt Lee for decades, but – bloopers notwithstanding – is one of Marvel’s key moments and still a visceral, vital read today.

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 again, the boys call in Doctor Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts to locate them. Issue #28 delivered another terrific promotional infomercial team-up, but remains most notable (for me and many other fans) because of the man who replaced George Roussos as inker…

‘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 as the sinister savants briefly mind-control professor Charles Xavier and order him to set his students on the extremely surprised first family…

Closing this foray into the fantastic comes ‘It Started on Yancy Street!’ (FF #29) opening low-key and a little bit silly in the slum where Ben grew up, before the reappearance of the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes sees everything go wild and cosmic. The result is another meeting with the almighty Watcher, a blockbusting battle on the Moon, and the promise of bigger and even better to come…

To Be Continued…

Bolstered by all Kirby’s covers, this is a truly magnificent treat sharing 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.
© 2023 MARVEL.

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Bunny vs Monkey: The Whopping World of Puzzles!


By Jamie Smart, with Sammy Borras (David Fickling Books)
ISBN: 978-1-78845-350-9 (Digest HB)

Bunny vs Monkey has been the hairy/fuzzy backbone of The Phoenix since the very first issue back in 2012: recounting a madcap vendetta gripping animal arch-enemies in an idyllic arcadia masquerading as more-or-less mundane but critically endangered English woodlands.

Concocted with gleefully gentle mania by cartoonist, comics artist and novelist Jamie Smart (Fish Head Steve!; Looshkin; Max and Chaffy, Flember), his trendsetting, mindbending multi award-winning yarns have been wisely retooled as graphic albums available in digest editions such as this one.

The tail-biting tension and animal argy-bargy began yonks ago after an obnoxiously annoying little anthropoid plopped down in some serene British woodland, in the wake of a disastrous local space shot. Crashed down in Crinkle Woods, scant miles from his launch site, lab animal Monkey reckoned himself the rightful owner of a strange new world… despite every effort to dissuade him by reasonable, rational, sensible, genteel, contemplative forest resident Bunny. No amount of patience, propriety or good breeding on the part of the laid-back lepine could curtail, contain or control the incorrigible idiot ape.

A keen rivalry arose between them, as the ape intruder crudely made himself at home, and to this day Monkey remains a rude, noise-loving, chaos-creating, troublemaking lout intent on building his perfect “Monkeyopia” – with or without the aid of evil supergenius ally Skunky or their “henches” Metal Steve and Action Beaver. Problems are exacerbated by other unconventional Crinkle creatures, like Pig, Weenie, Ai, Lucky, Le Fox. Mad scientist Skunky’s intellect and cavalier attitude to life presents as a propensity for building extremely dangerous robots, Brobdingnagian bio-beasts and sundry other super-weapons…

Here the mundane multi-coloured – albeit rendered here in multifarious shades of mystifying monochrome tones – manic war of nerves and mega-munitions is pettishly paused for a session of traditional entertainment and activities as the entire cast amble ‘To the Woods’ and into a fun-filled framing comic tale. Exploring and ending up somewhere never seen before, our cuddly combatants mutually discover and take charge of a ramshackle and abandoned “lost” fun-fair. Their ingrained competitive lunacy sees all involved revive old rides but also -and this is where you come in – refit and revamp games and puzzles stalls, seeking to make it a holiday fun ride for all…

Cue a selection of character-themed quizzes, puzzles, tests of skill and imagination and other pen and paper activities, Part One of which focuses on reconditioned ‘Games Stalls’. We open with the titular attention-seeking simian lout. His odd-one-out conundrum ‘I am Monkey’ leads to self-explanatory ‘Bunny’s Cross Words’ and more esoteric wordplay in ‘Action Beaver’s Bibblesearch’, ‘Weenie’s Wall of Words’, and ‘Ai’s Speedy Wordswitches’ before naughty wordsearch ‘Monkey’s Too Rude!’ brings us to pencil-driven ‘Metal E.V.E.’s Hall of Mirrors’, ‘Spaces for Faces’ and ‘Embiggening for Beginners’…

Riddles and enigmas abound next in ‘Codewords with Le Fox’ after which traversing the ‘Amazing Mud Maze’ will afford a pause to assess ‘Who Will Win? Only You Can Decide’ prior to Part Two commencing with ‘Costume Conundrums!’ and paper-folding foolishness for ‘Fortune-Telling Monkey’ and his ‘Laugh of Truth’ before ‘Bunny’s Would You Rather?’ poses challenging questions in advance of really AARRRRD! stuff in ‘Name That Pirate with Weenie and Pig’ and ‘Talk Like a Pirate’, before again asking ‘Who Will Succeed? Only you can decide!’

Part Three contains culinary calamities and chewy comestibles aplenty, all bedecking assorted ‘FoodStalls’. Learn how to deal with ‘Candyfloss Quiffs’ and identify ‘Weenie’s Cake a Difference’ whilst cowering in glee over ‘Cookery Corner: Wobbleberry Buns’. Having cooked but not burned, we wonder ‘What’s That Smell?’, ‘What’s That Noise?’ and ‘Who’s in the Loo?’ and reassess how ‘Only One Will Succeed!’ before Part Four brings us to a House of Horror uncovering Skunky’s private lab wherein lurks ‘Skunky’s Monster Maker’, ‘House of Horror’, and ‘The All-Seeing Eye!’

Should you need to take breath ‘Skudoku’ and ‘Badgoku’ are available as are ‘Metal E.V.E.’s Hints and Tips’ and ‘Skunky’s Number Puzzle’ just before a barrage of life-challenging decisions await those tackling adventure quiz ‘None of the Fun of the Fair’…

The comic story resumes and concludes in traditional shocking vulgar fashion before the last survivors stagger up to the bit with all the ‘Answers’…

Daft, compulsively addictive, dangerously read-out-loud-able and fearfully unputdownable, this cutting edge retro-treat is the perfect gift for anyone with crayons, paper and too many kids.
Text and illustrations © Fumboo Ltd. 2024. All rights reserved.

Bunny vs Monkey: The Whopping World of Puzzles! will be published on March 27th 2025 and is available for pre-order now.

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Golden Age Hawkman Archives volume 1


By Gardner F. Fox, Dennis Neville, Sheldon Moldoff & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0418-1 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

There are many comics anniversaries this year. Some of the most significant will be rightly celebrated, but a few are going to be unjustly ignored. As a feverish fanboy wedged firmly in the past, I’m again abusing my privileges here to carp about another brilliant vintage book, criminally out of print and not slated for revival either physically or in digital formats…

Although one of DC’s most long-lived and certainly their most visually iconic character, the various iterations of Hawkman have always struggled to find enough of an audience to sustain a solo title. From his beginnings as one of the assorted second features in new anthology Flash Comics (the others being Cliff Cornwall, The King, The Whip, spoof hero Johnny Thunder and Ed Wheelan’s “Picture Novels/Minute Movies”), adding lustre to the soaraway success of the eponymous speedster helming the title, Winged Wonder Carter Hall has struggled through assorted engaging, exciting but always short-lived reconfigurations.

Over decades from ancient hero to re-imagined alien space-cop and post-Crisis on Infinite Earths freedom fighter, or the seemingly desperate but highly readable bundling together of all previous iterations into the reincarnating immortal berserker-warrior of today, the Pinioned Paladin has performed exemplary service without ever really making it to the big time. Hopefully that’s all changed now, thanks to modern movie trends…

Created by Gardner Fox & Dennis Neville, Hawkman first took to the skies in Flash Comics #1 (cover-dated January 1940, but actually on sale from November 20th 1939). He stayed there, growing in quality and prestige until the title died at the end of the Golden Age, with the most celebrated artists to have drawn the Feathered Fury being Sheldon Moldoff and Joe Kubert, whilst a young Robert Kanigher was justly proud of his later run as writer.

Together with his partner Hawkgirl/Hawkwoman, for over a decade the gladiatorial mystery-man countered fantastic arcane threats and battled modern crime and tyranny with weapons of the past before vanishing with the bulk of costumed heroes as the 1950s dawned. His last contemporary appearance was in All Star Comics #57 (1951) as official leader of the Justice Society of America, after which the husband-and-wife hellions were revived and re-imagined nine years later as Katar Hol and Shayera Thal of planet Thanagar. That was thanks to Julie Schwartz’s crack creative couple Gardner Fox & Joe Kubert – a space-age reinterpretation which even survived 1985’s winnowing Crisis on Infinite Earths. Their long career, regular revamps and perpetual retcons stalled during 1994’s Zero Hour crisis, but they’ve reincarnated and returned many times since. However, despite being amongst DC’s most celebrated and visually vibrant strips over the years, Hawkman & Hawkwoman always struggled to retain sufficient audience share to sustain their numerous solo endeavours.

This spectacular deluxe hardcover re-presentation of their formative years (collecting appearances from Flash Comics #1-22, spanning cover dates January 1940 to October 1941) opens with a fond reminiscence by artist Moldoff (Batman, Black Pirate, Sea Devils, Gang Busters, Mr. District Attorney, Moon Girl) in his Foreword before the magic begins as it should with Fox & Neville’s ‘The Origin of Hawkman’. In an first epochal episode, dashing Carter Hall is a playboy scientific tinkerer and part-time archaeologist with a penchant for collecting old, rare weapons, whose dormant memory is abruptly unlocked by an ancient crystal dagger newly purchased for his collection. Through dreams, the dilettante realises that once he had been Prince Khufu of ancient Egypt, murdered with his lover Shiera by Anubis’ High Priest Hath-Set. Moreover, with his newly returned memories, Hall realises the eternal struggle is primed to play out once more…

As if pre-destined, he bumps into equally reincarnated and recently-remembering Shiera Sanders just as a terrifying electrical menace turns New York City’s subway system into a lightning-fuelled killing field. The new couple soon deduce the deadly genius Doctor Hastor is their reborn ancient nemesis Hastor and, after fashioning an outlandish uniform and anti-gravity harness from mystic Egyptian “Ninth Metal”, Hall hunts the deranged electrical scientist to his lair. He’s just in time to save mesmerised Shiera from a second death-by-sacrifice: mercilessly ending the cycle – at least for now…

Flash #2’s ‘The Globe Conquerors’ concentrated on fantastic science as Hall & Saunders tackle a modern Alexander the Great who builds a gravity-altering engine in a ruthless quest to conquer the world, whilst ‘The Secret of Dick Blendon’ in #3 sees “The Hawk-Man” expose a wicked scheme by insidious slavers turning brilliant men into zombies for profit, to gather riches and to ferret out the secret of eternal life.

Sheldon Moldoff debuted as artist in Flash Comics #4, illustrating a splendidly barbarous thriller wherein the Winged Warrior clashes with ‘The Thought Terror’: a sinister mesmerist enslaving the city’s wealthy citizens, prior to ‘The Kidnapping of Ione Craig’ in #5 pitting the crimefighting phenomenon against “Asiatic” cultists led by legendary assassin Hassan Ibn Saddah. These killers are determined to stop a pretty missionary and secret agent from investigating distant “Araby”. Moldoff has received overly unfair criticism over the years for his frequent, copious but stylishly artistic swipes from newspaper strips – usually those of  master craftsmen Alex Raymond and Hal Foster – in his work of this period, but one look at the stunning results here as the feature took a quantum leap in visual quality should silence those quibblers for good.

Maintaining the use of exotic locales, the story extended in #6 as Hall and Ione struggle to cross burning Saharan sands to the African coast before defeating Arab slavers and their deadly ruler ‘Sheba, Queen of the Desert’ before in #7 further exploring the mystical and supernatural underpinnings of the strip. These readily lent themselves to spooky tales of quasi-horror and barbaric intensity. Generally, “The Eerie Unknown” and deluded dabblers in darkness were oft-used elements in Hawkman tales, as seen in ‘Czar, the Unkillable Man’, wherein the Avian Avenger, back in the USA and reunited with Shiera, contests a merciless golem animated by a crazed sculptor aiming to get rich at any cost. Issue #8 offered another deranged technologist as Professor Kitzoff – ‘The Sunspot Wizard’ – alters the pattern and frequency of solar blemishes to foment riot, madness and chaos on Earth… until the Winged Wonder intervenes, after which in ‘The Creatures from the Canyon’ Hawkman repels aquatic invaders living in the depths 5,000 feet below Manhattan Island after they decide to expand their ancient empire upwards…

Bidding for an old firearm at an auction in #10, Hall is inexorably drawn into a maddening murder-mystery and hunt for a lost Colorado goldmine in ‘Adventures of the Spanish Blunderers’, before ‘Trouble in Suburbia’ manifests after a hit-&-run accident draws plucky Shiera into a corrupt and convoluted property-scam. Boyfriend Carter is quite prepared to stand back and let her deal with the villains – even if Hawkman must exert some surreptitious muscle to close the case. Another murderous scam then involves an old High Society chum as ‘The Heart Patient’ reveals how a devious gold digger and a rogue doctor serially poison healthy young men to fleece them into paying for a cure, whilst in #13, ‘Satana, the Tiger Girl’ preys on admirers for far more sinister reasons: pitting Hawkman and Shiera against scientifically hybridised killer-cats…

‘The Awesome Alligator’ sees an elder god return to Earth, inspiring and equipping a lethal lunatic in a plot to conquer America with ancient secrets and futuristic super-weapons. None of those incredible threats could withstand cold fury and a well-wielded mace, however…

At this time the Pinioned Paladin usually dispatched foes of humanity with icy aplomb and single-minded ruthlessness, and such supernatural thrillers as #15’s ‘The Hand’ gave Fox & Moldoff ample scope to display the reincarnated warrior’s savage efficiency, as when he tracks down a sentient severed fist stealing and slaughtering at its inventive master’s command. In #16,‘The Graydon Expedition’ reinforces the hero’s crusading credentials after ferociously independent Shiera Saunders goes missing in Mongolia, and the Winged Wonder undertakes a one-man invasion of a fabulous lost kingdom to save her. Flash Comics #17 offered ‘Murder at the Opera’, putting the bold birdman on the trail of an arcane Golden Mummy Sect with a perilously prosaic origin and agenda, whilst #18 has him investigating skulduggery in the Yukon after the philanthropic Miss Saunders rushes north to offer aid to starving miners during ‘The Gold Rush of ’41’.

Evidently capable of triumphing in any environment or milieu, Hawkman next derailed deranged physicist Pratt Palmer in #19, when that arrogant savant attempts to become the overlord of crime using his deadly ‘Cold Light’ discoveries. One month later, ‘The Mad Bomber’ sees the Avian Ace ally with a racketeer to stop mad scientist Sathan destroying their city with remote-controlled aerial torpedoes, after which Hawkman must end the tragically terrible accidental rampage of an extraterrestrial foundling raised by a callous rival for Shiera’s affections in ‘Menace from Space’…

This high-flying compilation concludes with October 1941’s Flash Comics #22 and ‘The Adventure of the Killer Gang’, wherein stubborn Shiera witnesses a bloody hijacking and determines to make the bandits pay. Although she again helps Hawkman deal with the murderous vermin as a civilian here, big changes were in store for her…

Already in All Star Comics #5 (July 1941) she had first worn wings and a costume of her own, and in Flash Comics #24 (December 1941) she would at last become an equal partner in peril and fully-fledged hero: Hawkgirl. Sadly that’s a tale for another volume…

Exotic, engaging and fantastically inviting, these Golden Age adventures are a true high-point of the era and still offer astonishing thrills and chills. When all’s said and done it’s all about the heady rush of raw adventure, but there’s also a fabulous frisson of nostalgia here to wallow in: recapturing that magical full-sensorium burst of smell and feel and imagination-overload that finds kids at a perfect moment and provokes something visual and conceptual that almost literally blows the mind.

We re-read stories hoping to rekindle that instantly addictive buzz and constantly seek out new comics desperately hoping to recapture that pure, halcyon burst, and these lost mini-epics are phenomenally imbued with everything fans need to make that breathtaking moment happen. Hopefully DC will realise that one day soon and revive these compelling compulsive collections: either in solid form or at least as digital editions…
© 1940, 1941, 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Fantastic Four Epic Collection volume 10: Counter-Earth Must Die (1976-1978)


By Roy Thomas, Len Wein, Bill Mantlo, Gerry Conway, Archie Goodwin, Jim Shooter, Marv Wolfman, George Pérez, John Buscema, Sal Buscema, Rich Buckler, Ron Wilson, Joe Sinnott, Sam Grainger, John Tartaglione, George Roussos, Dave Hunt, Tony DeZuñiga & various (MARVEL)
ISBN 978-1-3029-5544-1 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Monolithic modern Marvel truly began with the adventures of a small super-team who were as much squabbling family as coolly capable costumed champions. Everything the company is now stems from the quirky quartet and the groundbreaking, inspired efforts of Stan Lee & Jack Kirby…

Cautiously bi-monthly and cover-dated November 1961, Fantastic Four #1 – by Stan, Jack, George Klein & Christopher Rule – was raw and crude even by the ailing company’s standards: but it seethed with rough, passionate and uncontrolled excitement. Thrill-hungry kids pounced on its dynamic storytelling and caught a wave of change starting to build in America. It and succeeding issues changed comics forever. As seen in the premier issue, maverick scientist Reed Richards, his fiancée Sue Storm, their close friend Ben Grimm and Sue’s bratty teenaged brother Johnny survived an ill-starred private space-shot after Cosmic Rays penetrated their ship’s inadequate shielding.

All four permanently mutated: Richards’ body became elastic, Sue became (even more) invisible, Johnny Storm burst into living flame and tragic Ben shockingly devolved into a shambling, rocky freak. After the initial revulsion and trauma passed, they solemnly agreed to use their abilities to benefit mankind. Thus was born The Fantastic Four.

Throughout the 1960s it was indisputably the key title and most consistently groundbreaking series of Marvel’s ever-unfolding web of cosmic creation: a forge for new concepts and characters. Kirby was approaching his creative peak: unleashing his vast imagination on plot after spectacular plot, whilst Lee scripted some of the most passionate superhero sagas ever seen. Both were on an unstoppable roll, at the height of their powers and full of the confidence only success brings, with The King particularly eager to see how far the genre and the medium could be pushed… which is rather ironic since it was the company’s reticence to give the artist creative freedom which led to Kirby’s moving to National/DC in the 1970s.

Without Kirby’s soaring imagination the rollercoaster of mind-bending High Concepts gave way to more traditional tales of characters in conflict, with soap-opera leanings and super-villain-dominated Fights ‘n’ Tights dramas. This stripped-down, compelling compilation gathers Fantastic Four #168-191 and Annual #11, plus crossover components from Marvel Two in One #20 and that title’s first Annual. Collectively spanning cover-dates March 1976 to February 1978 they cemented a change of pace that would eventually move the title away from the glory days of Kirby even as he enjoyed a partial return as cover artist…

A new direction had kicked off with FF #164, courtesy of Thomas and then-neophyte illustrator George Pérez, backed up by veteran inker Joe Sinnott. Now, after another clash with The Hulk, the team seems forever shattered as Ben – returned to human form by extended exposure to the Jade Juggernaut’s gamma radiation – contemplates life as an ordinary mortal and former superhero…

Returned to the massed ranks of humanity the ex-Thing is less than delighted at achieving his greatest desire as Rich Buckler pencils #168’s ‘Where Have All the Powers Gone?’, wherein Reed is forced by contractual obligation to replace him with Hero for Hire Luke Cage.

However, although human again, happiness still eludes Grimm with events taking a worse turn in #169 as ‘Five Characters in Search of a Madman!’ finds Cage attacking his new teammates thanks to the machinations of a veteran FF foe. Pérez & Sinnott reunite for concluding chapter ‘A Sky-Full of Fear!’ as Ben returns to his team and spectacularly saves the day wearing a Thing exoskeleton suit constructed by Reed. Sadly. although the original and genuine is back at last (sort of), there’s no time to pause for applause as the yarn segues directly into Fantastic Four Annual #11.

Momentous time-travel saga ‘And Now Then… The Invaders!’ by Thomas, John Buscema & Sam Grainger, sees Marvel’s First Family flash back to 1942 to retrieve a cylinder of miracle-metal Vibranium. When it somehow then fell into Nazi hands it had started to unwrite history and on arrival, the FF are attacked by WWII super-team The Invaders – comprising early incarnations of Captain America, Sub-Mariner and the original, android Human Torch. The time-repair task goes far better once all the heroes finally unite to assault a Nazi castle where the Vibranium is held, but after the modern quartet return to their own restored era, Ben realises the mission isn’t over yet…

Thanks to Uatu the Watcher, the action continues in Marvel Two-In-One Annual #1 as – with the present unravelling around him – Ben blasts back to 1942 yet again. ‘Their Name is Legion!’ (Thomas, Sal Buscema, Grainger, John Tartaglione & George Roussos) finds him linking up with Home Front Heroes the Liberty Legion (collectively The Patriot, Thin Man, Red Raven, Jack Frost, Blue Diamond, Miss America and The Whizzer) to thwart Nazis Skyshark and Master Man, Japanese agent Slicer and Atlantean turncoat U-Man’s invasion of America. The battle proves so big, it spills over to concludes in Marvel Two-In-One #20 (October 1976) in a shattering ‘Showdown at Sea!’ pitting the massed heroes against diabolical Nazi boffin Brain Drain, courtesy this time of Thomas, Sal B & Grainger.

Cover-dated June Fantastic Four #171 reveals ‘Death is a Golden Gorilla!’ (Thomas, Pérez, Buckler & Sinnott) as a giant alien anthropoid rampages through Manhattan until corralled by the FF. Calmed down and physically reduced to standard gorilla proportions, the talking ape delivers a desperate plea for help from the High Evolutionary. Bill Mantlo scripts Thomas’ plot and Pérez & Sinnott excel themselves as ‘Cry, the Bedeviled Planet!’ sees the heroes head for the other side of the Sun to save Counter-Earth from certain annihilation only to meet their nemesis in the depths of space…

Thomas writes and John Buscema steps in as penciller with #173’s ‘Counter-Earth Must Die… At the Hands of Galactus!’ Inexplicably, the world-devourer debates minor deity High Evolutionary: offering hope to his intended repast before despatching the heroes across the universe in search of a planet that will voluntarily sacrifice itself for Counter-Earth…

‘Starquest!’ (Thomas, Buscema & Sinnott) follows each unsavoury search to its logical conclusion, but as the Evolutionary abandons rhetoric for cosmic combat in a desperate delaying tactic, Sue Richards accidentally locates a civilisation willing to make the ultimate gesture…

Returned and augmenting the Evolutionary, a reunited FF attack Galactus ‘When Giants Walk the Sky!’ (drawn & inked by JB), with the Devourer delivering a cruel delayed punishment to Ben before consuming the planetary substitute and realising he has been tricked in a bizarre and wry conclusion that only adds fresh complications to the First Family of the Marvel Universe. Then another new direction begins with #176 and Thomas, Pérez & Sinnott revealing that ‘Improbable as it May Seem… The Impossible Man is Back in Town!’ The mighty manic shapeshifter – having just saved everybody from Galactus – returns to Earth with our heroes and promptly turns the city upside down in his relentless search for amusement and entertainment. The high point of the day is his impromptu visit to the Marvel Bullpen where even more hilarity and hysteria ensue…

By the time the flustered four drag him back to the Baxter Building in #177, it’s straight into an ambush as ‘Look Out for the Frightful Four!’ finds their evil counterparts gaining the upper hand. There are only three – The Wizard, Sandman and Trapster – but with our heroes shackled there’s no better time for a casting call of evil. Soon a succession of potential fourths (like latterday B-Listers Texas Twister and Captain Ultra) are filing through in search of fame and glory…

Also in the queue are a few valiant allies such as Thundra and Tigra – who almost manage a last-minute rescue – until an unstoppable mystery candidate crushes all opposition and hurls the Thing into the antimatter Negative Zone. Inked by Dave Hunt, FF #178 ‘Call My Killer… The Brute!’ sees the devious, deadly monster revealed as the Reed Richards of Counter-Earth, carrying grudges and enacting his own masterplan until Impossible Man – oblivious to everything since discovering television – responds to the horrific home invasion in typical manner. The Fantastic Four, Thundra and Tigra soon rescue Ben and drive off the bad guys, but in the melee the Brute is fittingly lost in the Negative Zone.

At least, one of the Reeds is…

A joint effort by Thomas, Gerry Conway, Ron Wilson & Sinnott, FF #179 shows the good Dr. Richards ‘A Robinson Crusoe in the Negative Zone!’, and – deprived of his stretching powers (a long running plot-thread finally paying off) – struggling to survive in hostile conditions against appalling monsters… until ultimate predator Annihilus finds him…

Back on Earth, everything seems fine and the deadly doppelganger continues to insinuate himself into all aspects of FF life. The power loss works to his advantage and Reed’s oldest friend Ben is distracted by a giant robbing robot and increasingly flirtatious Tigra…

FF #180 was a new Jack Kirby cover on a deadline-busting reprint from issue #101, so only it stands between us and next episode ‘Side by Side with… Annihilus??’ (#181 by Thomas, Wilson & Sinnott) as the zone-marooned supergenius allies with the antimatter monster. Meanwhile, Ben, “Impy”, Tigra and Thundra form an impromptu quartet to sort out that robot and Susan Richards – just starting to suspect something’s wrong with her man – is distracted when former governess and still-current witch Agatha Harkness flamboyantly abducts her old charge Franklin from Sue’s arms.

Fantastic Four #182 reveals nigh-omnipotent Annihilus has a problem he can’t handle: an incredibly adaptable, constantly mutating android recently banished to the Zone after failing to destroy the quirky quartet. Now its creator has regained control and ‘Enter: The Mad Thinker!’ (Mantlo with Len Wein, Jim Shooter, Archie Goodwin, Sal Buscema & Sinnott) sees Reed and Annihilus working together to stop it, even as on Earth evil Reed tricks the Thing and Torch into the Negative Zone too. Sue, meanwhile, rushes to spooky Whisper Hill to confront Harkness, arriving just in time to see the eldritch elder and Franklin spirited away by ghostly beings…

Her return to the Baxter Building is even more traumatic as the now-exposed Brute attempts to murder her, culminating in a spectacular all action conclusion from Mantlo, Sal B & Sinnott as #183’s ‘Battleground: The Baxter Building!’ sees all opposing elements clash and an unexpected turn of events restore the status quo with one last-minute change of heart and tragic sacrifice…

A new era dawned as Wein took became writer/editor and his artist partners Pérez & Sinnott began as they meant to go on. In FF #184, ‘Aftermath: The Eliminator!’ sees romantic rivals Tigra and Thundra go their own ways as the restored First Family searches for Franklin, reaching the Whisper Hill mansion just as a mystic cyborg begins removing all traces of the edifice and its former occupier. Brutal, pointless battle proves useless but science scores again in #185 as Reed tracks the Eliminator to the Colorado Rockies. The team, with Richards using tech to pinch-hit for his lost powers, head incognito for isolated town New Salem and once there discover ‘Here There Be Witches!’… and they be hostile…

Sequel ‘Enter: Salem’s Seven!’ delivers an explanation for Harkness’ actions, Franklin’s abduction and tantalising hints of a hidden town of mystic refugees led by deranged demagogue Nicholas Scratch, whose dark secret doesn’t stop him unleashing a septet of sorcerous sentinels on the cosmic-powered but woefully human heroes. It does, sadly, ultimately lose him the support of his peers and the battle: resulting in #187 depicting the victorious heroes (and “the help”) heading home just in time for ‘Trouble Times Two!’

When “Master of Sound” Klaw and the almighty Molecule Man ambush the FF, the furious fight raises the ire of TV-addicted Impy with the resultant rumble resolved by Molecule Man’s disembodied intellect possessing Reed’s weary body. In #188 ‘The Rampage of Reed Richards!’ sees the city wrecked and events of cosmic import occur, with Uatu the Watcher closely observing as the heroes triumph in the end, but only at the cost of their leader’s confidence.

Weary, devoid of superpowers, Richard makes the only logical decision and calls it a day for the team…

At the time tensions were especially enhanced as the next issue was another reprint (from FF Annual #4 and again represented here only by Keith Pollard’s cover art from #189). Normal service resumed with #190 as incoming writer/editor Marv Wolfman collaborated with Sal Buscema & Tony DeZuñiga to reassess past glories in ‘The Way It Was’. Here, shellshocked Ben and girlfriend Alicia Masters review the glory days leading up to his current unemployment, before #191 closes this compilation’s story component with ‘Four No More’ wherein Wein, Pérez & Sinnott detail the decommissioning of the Baxter Building and track the fond farewells as the team go their separate ways. However, there’s time and space for one last hurrah as the scurrilous Plunderer tries to steal all the FF’s toys and rapidly learns to regret his impertinence…

To Be Continued

This power-packed package also includes house ads, original cover art, pertinent pages by Sinnott from The Mighty Marvel Bicentennial Calendar 1976, and the Kirby/Sinnott Marvel Comics Memory album Calendar 1977 plus the new material from The Fabulous Fantastic Four Marvel Treasury Edition #11 (December 1976). This bombastic oversized tabloid edition featured a bevy of classic yarns and is represented here by front-&-back cover art by Kirby & John Verpoorten, plus a Marie Severin & Frank Giacoia frontispiece/contents page. Also on view is the letters page from FF #176, explaining how the Impossible Man’s visit to the Marvel Bullpen came about, and the Jim Steranko covers from Marvel Index #4: Fantastic Four from 1977 as well as Peter Iro’s monochrome frontispiece and a cover rough by Dave Cockrum.

Although the “World’s Greatest Comics Magazine” never quite returned to the stratospheric heights of the Kirby era, this collection offers a tantalising taste-echo of those heady heights and a promise of change. These extremely capable efforts are probably most welcome to dedicated superhero fans and continuity freaks like me, but will still thrill and enthral the generous and forgiving casual browser looking for an undemanding slice of graphic narrative excitement. Even if artistically the work varies from only adequate to superb, most fans of Costumed Dramas will find little to complain about and there’s lots of fun to be found for young and old readers. So why not lower your critical guard and have an honest blast of pure warts ‘n’ all comics craziness? You’ll almost certainly grow to like it…
© 2024 MARVEL.

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Planet of the Apes Adventures – The Original Marvel Years


By Doug Moench, George Tuska, Alfredo Alcala, Mike Esposito, Tony Mortellaro, Dave Hunt, George Roussos & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-5073-6 (HB/Digital edition) 978-1-3029-5999-9 (TPB/Epic Collection)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

One of the most effective and long-lasting explorations of failed human ambition and resultant dystopia is not the last 50 years of global government, but rather a film franchise built on a seminal French science fiction novel.

Peirre’s Boulle’s satirical La Planète des singes (1963) was just another tale from a former secret agent/engineer who earned major accolades and rewards as an author. Your entire family has probably seen his other Oscar-winning blockbuster – David Lean’s The Bridge on the River Kwai – never realising it is an autobiographical saga originally called La Pont de la rivière Kwai.

Translated into English 1964, his other epic became Monkey Planet, and – after numerous major rewrites by screenwriters Rod Serling & Michael Wilson – was 1968’s movie sensation Planet of the Apes. The US production inspired four sequels and a TV series which lived on in reruns and reedited TV movies for decades after, plus an animated series, books, toys, games, a home projector pack, records and comics and other merchandise. In 2001 it was added to the US National Film Registry as the Library of Congress deemed it as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”… and that’s all before Tim Burton’s 2001 remake, the 2011 reboot and an ongoing, evolving franchise still growing to this day…

There have been numerous comics iterations and adaptations, beginning with two manga interpretations (1968 & 1971) intersecting a 1970 Gold Key movie adaptation and assorted later international versions. In 1974 – no doubt thanks to the impending TV show – a Marvel Magazine continuation combining serialised comics continuations, expanded comics adaptations of the five original films, features and articles began. Sporting an August 1974 cover-date and on sale from June 25th of that year, Planet of the Apes #1 blended photos and articles with Part 1 (of 6) of an adaptation of the 1968 blockbuster movie, plus all-new ape-ventures set in a time period when humans were still sapient talkers living in notional harmony with equally erudite orangutans, chimpanzees and gorillas. For more on that you could consult our review Planet of the Apes Archive volume 1: Terror on the Planet of The Apes or simply go buy that book too. It’s quite good…

Although the US magazine was resolutely aimed at a readership beyond a standard newsstand kids range, in Britain that material was solidly aimed at 10-13-year-olds. When Marvel US abruptly cancelled PotA in December 1976, the franchise lay fallow until Malibu Comics picked it up in 1990 (reprints, new stories and franchise mash-up Ape Nation). Other companies added new material over the years. However, at the height of the fuzzy fun and furore, Marvel reprinted in colour deftly re-edited and toned-down film adaptations from the magazine. The general release incarnation was a simpler affair, and somewhat sporadic in distribution.

Now that Marvel is again helming the simian franchise these tales are again offered to fans: available in hardback and trade paperback Epic Collection each with its digital versions, backstopping new stories in the niche universe. Scripted by Doug Moench (Batman, Moon Knight, Master of Kung Fu), and with comics veteran George Roussos “colorizing” the monochrome art of George Tuska, Mike Esposito, Tony Mortellaro & Dave Hunt, the first film filled #1-6 (October 1975-June 1976) of Adventures on the Planet of the Apes.

Wilson & Serling’s excoriatingly satirical screenplay was faithfully serialised as ‘Planet of the Apes’, ‘World of Captive Humans’, ‘Manhunt!’, ‘Trial’ and ‘Into the Forbidden Zone’ before at last revealing ‘The Secret’ of the anthropoid world to time-lost astronaut George Taylor. Due to calamity and enemy action Taylor is soon the sole survivor of an Earth space flight that lands him on a primitive devastated world. Here talking orangutans, chimpanzees and gorillas live in tense collaboration and humans are barely-sensate beasts of burden or preferred targets of bloodsports. The civilisation is superstitious, uncompromisingly theocratic but, as Taylor quickly deduces, clearly suppressing some awful secret about the human herds they hunt and enslave…

The rebellious talking human is somehow a clear threat to the power and dogma of the ruling simians, but thanks to the aid of well-meaning chimps scientists Zira, Lucius and Cornelius, Taylor and indigenous human companion Nova are able to escape the schemes of chief scientist Zaius who knows the awful truth Taylor and his allies are stumbling towards…

Although film fans waited two years for what happened next, the comics story seamlessly continues as Moench & Roussos join illustrator Alfredo Alcala (Swamp Thing, Batman, Man-Thing) for Beneath the Planet of the Apes. Paul Dehn & Mort Abrams’ bleak, chilling screenplay sequel becomes a dark, brooding and ultimately apocalyptic quest for answers when Taylor is captured by mutated humans who worship nuclear weapons even as Earth’s follow-up expedition smashes to destruction just like the first…

Eponymous opening ‘Beneath the Planet of the Apes’ sees sole survivor Brent similarly stranded in 3955 AD and equally unaware that his ship has brought him back to a much-altered birthworld. He soon meets Nova, who was ignored by whatever rules the “Forbidden Zone”. The fact that she’s wearing Taylor’s dog tags convinces Brent to accompany the mute, but he thinks twice when Nova leads him to Cornelius and Zira in Ape City. The metropolis is in turmoil with gorilla General Ursus increasingly usurping Dr. Zaius and demanding eradication of humans and conquest of the heretically sorcerous Forbidden Zone…

In this febrile atmosphere, Nova brings Brent to Taylor’s chimpanzee benefactors, before they are captured and ‘Enslaved!’ by gorillas preparing to invade the land of terror. On escaping, and barely ahead of an ape army, Brent and Nova return to the lost land where the shocked explorer delves deep into subterranean ruins and discovers the secret after recognising a place where he used to live so very long ago. Now it’s a tomb of terror and temple to ‘The Warhead Messiah’, ruled by cruel telepaths who are all that remain of sapient humanity. As ape forces advance, these ‘Children of the Bomb’ introduce Brent to their other captive, forcing the ancient astronauts to battle. As Ursus’ killers invade the nuclear cultists anticipate detonating the bomb to end all bombs and as violence and brutality explode everywhere, any chance to stop ‘The Hell of Holocaust’ dwindles and dies…

With the collection cover art by E.M. Gist and individual series covers by John Buscema, Joe Sinnott, Rich Buckler, Dan Adkins, Ron Wilson, Vince Colletta, Gil Kane, Frank Giacoia, Klaus Janson, Jim Starlin, Mike Nasser/Netzer, Esposito, Alcala, Paty Anderson, & Earl Norem, this is a straightforward slice of allegorical action hokum that reads remarkably well even after all these years. Moreover, as Marvel recently regained the franchise rights, this iteration neatly inspired its own sequel of sorts – for which see a forthcoming review….

In equal parts vivid nostalgia and crucial component of current comics expansion, this compelling treat is pure whacky fun no film fan or comics devotee should miss… and there’s more to come…
© 2023 20th Century Studios.

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The Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus volume 2


By Stan Lee & John Romita, with Don Heck, Larry Lieber, Jim Mooney, Marie Severin, Mike Esposito, Bill Everett, Frank Giacoia, Gary Friedrich, Arnold Drake, John Tartaglione, Art Simek, Sam Rosen, Jerry Feldmann & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-2794-3 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Marvel is often termed “the House that Jack Built” and King Kirby’s contributions are undeniable and inescapable in the creation of a new kind of comic book storytelling. However, there was another unique visionary toiling at Atlas-Comics-as-was: one whose creativity and philosophy seemed diametrically opposed to the bludgeoning power, vast imaginative scope and clean, gleaming futurism that resulted from Kirby’s ever-expanding search for the external and infinite.

Steve Ditko was quiet and unassuming, diffident to the point of invisibility, but his work was both subtle and striking: innovative and meticulously polished. Always questing for affirming detail, he ever explored the man within. He saw heroism and humour and ultimate evil all contained within the frail but noble confines of humanity. His drawing could be oddly disquieting… and, when he wanted, decidedly creepy. Crafting extremely well-received monster and mystery tales for and with Stan Lee, Ditko had been rewarded with his own title. Amazing Adventures/Amazing Adult Fantasy featured a subtler brand of yarn than Rampaging Aliens and Furry Underpants Monsters: an ilk which, though individually entertaining, had been slowly losing traction in the world of comics ever since National/DC had successfully reintroduced costumed heroes. Lee & Kirby had responded with The Fantastic Four and so-ahead-of-its-time Incredible Hulk, but there was no indication of the renaissance ahead when officially just-cancelled Amazing Fantasy featured a brand new and rather eerie adventure character…

This compelling compilation confirms the superstar status of the wallcrawler as originally seen in The Amazing Spider-Man #39-67, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #3-5 and The Spectacular Spider-Man #1-2, collectively spanning cover-dates August 1966 to December 1968 plus material from Not Brand Echh #2, 6 & 11 (September 1967, February and December 1968), heralding the start of a brand new era for the Astonishing Arachnid with Peter and his ever-expanding cast of cohorts well on the way to being household names as well as the darlings of college campuses and the media intelligentsia.

It is lettered throughout by unsung superstars Sam Rosen, Art Simek, and Jerry Feldman 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 from Lee & Romita, taken from Marvel Masterworks editions (5-7). There’s also other editorial snippets scattered throughout such as editorial announcements and the ‘Spider’s Web’ newsletter pages for each original issue to enhance that wayback machine experience…

Outcast, geeky high school kid Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider and, after attempting to cash in on the astonishing abilities he’d developed, suffered an irreconcilable personal tragedy. Due to the teenager’s arrogant neglect, his beloved guardian Uncle Ben was murdered and the traumatised boy determined henceforward to always use his powers to help those in dire need. For years the brilliant young hero suffered privation and travail in his domestic situation, whilst his heroic alter ego endured public condemnation and mistrust as he valiantly battled all manner of threat and foe…

Although co-authors of the wonderment, by 1966 Stan Lee and Steve Ditko could no longer work together on their greatest creation. After increasingly fraught months the artist simply resigned, leaving Spider-Man without an illustrator. In the coincidental meantime John Romita had been lured away from DC’s romance line and given odd assignments before assuming the artistic reins of Daredevil, the Man Without Fear. Before long, Romita was co-piloting the company’s biggest property and expected to run with it. After a period where traditional crime/gangsterism predominated, science fiction themes and costumed crazies began to predominate. The world went gaga for superheroes and creators experimented with longer storylines and protracted subplots. When Ditko abruptly left, the company feared a drastic loss in quality and sales but it didn’t happen. For the first time since the Marvel miracle began, Lee was largely left to his own narrative devices on a major feature, without the experimental visual inspiration or plotting acumen of twin comics geniuses Kirby and Ditko. What occurred heralded a new kind of superhero storytelling…

John Romita (senior) considered himself a mere “safe pair of hands” keeping the momentum going until a better artist could be found but instead he blossomed into a major talent in his own right. The wallcrawler continued his unstoppable rise at an accelerated pace, with the scene set and following Lee’s essay ‘Unflagging Efforts’ the new era dawns…

When Amazing Spider-Man #39 appeared, it was as the first of a 2-part adventure declaiming the ultimate victory of the hero’s greatest foe. Ditko was gone and no reader knew what had happened – and no one told them. ‘How Green Was My Goblin!’ and ‘Spidey Saves the Day! Featuring: the End of the Green Goblin!’ calamitously changed everything whilst describing how the arch-foes learned each other’s true identities before the Goblin “perished” in a climactic showdown. It would have been memorable even if the tale didn’t feature the debut of a new artist and a whole new manner of storytelling. The issues were a turning point in many ways, and – inked by old DC colleague Mike Esposito (under the pseudonym Mickey DeMeo) – they still stand as one of the greatest Spider-Man yarns of all time, heralding a run of classic tales from the Lee/Romita team that saw sales rise and rise, even without Ditko. In #41 and on ‘The Horns of the Rhino!’, Romita began inking his pencils. The debuting super-strong criminal spy proved a mere diversion, but his intended target J. Jonah Jameson’s astronaut son was a far harder proposition in the next issue. Amazing Spider-Man #42 heralded ‘The Birth of a Super-Hero!’, wherein John Jameson is mutated by space-spores and goes on a Manhattan rampage: a solid, entertaining yarn that is only really remembered for the last panel of the final page.

Mary Jane Watson had been a running gag in the series for years: a prospective blind-date arranged by Aunt May who Peter had avoided – and Ditko skilfully not depicted – for the duration of time that our hero had been involved with Betty Brant, Liz Allen, and latterly Gwen Stacy. Now, in that last frame the gobsmacked young man finally realises that for two years he’s been ducking the hottest date in New York! ‘Rhino on the Rampage!’ gave the leathery villain one more crack at Jameson and Spidey, but the emphasis was solidly on foreshadowing future foes and building Pete and MJ’s relationship.

Next comes Amazing Spider-Man Annual # 3 and ‘…To Become an Avenger!’ as the World’s Mightiest Heroes offer the webspinner membership if he can capture The Hulk. As usual, all is not as it seems, but the action-drenched epic, courtesy of Lee, Romita (on layouts), Don Heck & Esposito is the kind of guest-heavy power-punching package that made these summer specials a child’s delight. The monthly Marvel merriment marches on with the return of a tragedy-drenched old foe as Lee & Romita reintroduce biologist Curt Conners in ASM #44’s ‘Where Crawls the Lizard!’ The deadly reptilian marauder threatens Humanity itself and it takes all of the wallcrawler’s resourcefulness to stop him in the concluding ‘Spidey Smashes Out!’ Issue #46 introduced an all-new menace in the form of seismic super-thief ‘The Sinister Shocker!’ whilst ‘In the Hands of the Hunter!’ brought back a fighting-mad Kraven the Hunter to menace the family of Parker’s pal Harry Osborn. Apparently, the obsessive big-game hunter had entered into a contract with Harry’s father (Green Goblin, until a psychotic break turned him into a traumatised amnesiac). Now, though, the hunter wants paying off…
Luckily, Spider-Man is on hand to dissuade him, but it’s interesting to note that at this time the student life and soap-opera sub-plots became increasingly important to the mix, with glamour girls Mary Jane and Gwen Stacy (both superbly delineated by the masterful Romita) as well as former bully Flash Thompson and the Osborns getting as much – or more – page-time as Aunt May or the Daily Bugle staff, who had previously monopolised the non-costumed portions of the ongoing saga. Amazing Spider-Man #48 launched Blackie Drago; a ruthless thug who shared a prison cell with one of the wall-crawler’s oldest foes. At death’s door, the ailing and elderly super-villain reveals his technological secrets, enabling Drago to escape and master ‘The Wings of the Vulture!’ Younger, faster, tougher, the new Vulture defeats Spider-Man and in #49’s ‘From the Depths of Defeat!’ battles Kraven until a reinvigorated arachnid can step in to thrash them both.

Landmark issue #50 featured the debut of one of Marvel’s greatest villains in the first of a 3-part yarn that saw the beginnings of romance between Parker and Gwen. It also contained the death of a cast regular, re-established Spidey’s war on cheap thugs and common criminals (a key component of the hero’s appeal was that no criminal was too small for him to bother with) and saw a crisis of conscience force him to quit in ‘Spider-Man No More!’. Pausing to review Romita’s introduction ‘Just One Step Ahead’ the vintage drama picks up again as, life being what it is, Peter’s sense of responsibility forces his return only to be trapped ‘In the Clutches of… the Kingpin!’ until he ultimately and tragically triumphs in ‘To Die a Hero!’ A solid and engrossing change of pace the extended gangbusting triptych saw Romita relinquish the inking to Esposito once more.

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #4 follows as Lee – with his brother Larry Lieber & Esposito handling the art – crafts an blockbusting battle-saga wherein Spidey and the Human Torch are tricked into appearing in a movie. Sadly ‘The Web and the Flame!’ is just a deviously diabolical scheme to kill them both, devilishly orchestrated by old enemies The Wizard and Mysterio, but the titanic teens are up to the task of trashing their attackers…

From the same issue – and all courtesy of Lieber – come pictorial fact-features ‘The Coffee Bean Barn!’ – face-checking then-current Spider-Man regulars – while sartorial secrets are exposed in ‘What the Well-Dressed Spider-Man Will Wear’ and his superpowers scrutinised in ‘Spidey’s Greatest Talent’. Also included are big pin-ups of our hero testing his strength against Marvel’s mightiest good guys, a double-page spread ‘Say Hello to Spidey’s Favorite Foes!’ plus another 2-page treat as we enjoy ‘A Visit to Peter’s Pad!’

The Amazing Spider-Man was always a comic book that matured with – or perhaps just slightly ahead – of its fan-base. Increasingly, the World’s Most Misunderstood Hero became a quirky, charming, thrillingly action-packed soap-opera: a model for an entire generation of younger heroes impatiently elbowing aside the staid, (relatively) old thirty-something mystery-men of previous publications and hallowed tradition. As the feature underwent a rocky period of transformation, the second great era of Amazing Arachnid artists moved inevitably to a close. Although (the elder) John Romita would remain closely connected to the wallcrawler’s adventures for some time yet, these tales would be amongst his last sustained run as lead illustrator on the series. The rise and rise of the webspinner increased pace as the Swinging Sixties drew to a close, and Peter and his ever-expanding supporting cast were on the way to being household names as well as the darlings of college campuses and the media intelligentsia. Stan Lee’s scripts were completely in tune with the times – as understood by most kids’ parents at least – and increasingly melodramatic plot devices kept older readers glued to the series if the bombastic battle sequences didn’t.

Thematically, there’s still a large percentage of old-fashioned crime and gangsterism and an increasing use of mystery plots. Dependence on costumed super-foes as antagonists was finely balanced with the usual suspect-pool of thugs, hoods and mob-bosses, but these were not the individual gangs of the Ditko days. Now Organised Crime and Mafia analogue The Maggia were the big criminal-cultural touchstone as comics caught up with modern movies and daily headlines. A multipart saga began in #53 with ‘Enter: Dr. Octopus’, as the many-tentacled madman changes tactics and seeks to steal a devastating new technology. After being soundly routed, Otto Octavius goes into hiding as a lodger at Aunt May’s house in ‘The Tentacles and the Trap!’, before regrouping and triumphing in ‘Doc Ock Wins!’: even convincing a mind-wiped wallcrawler to join him. before the astonishing conclusion in ‘Disaster!’ as, despite being bereft of memory, the wallcrawler turns on his sinister subjugator and saves the day…

Shell-shocked and amnesiac in #57, Spider-Man roams lost in New York until he clashes with Marvel’s own Tarzan analogue in ‘The Coming of Ka-Zar!’ (with layouts by Romita and pencils from the reassuringly reliable Don Heck), whilst in the follow-up ‘To Kill a Spider-Man!’, vengeance-crazed roboticist Professor Smythe once more makes J. Jonah Jameson finance his murderous mechanical Spider-Slayer’s hunt of his personal bête noir…

With Heck still in the artist’s chair, ASM #59 has the hero regain his memory and turn his attention to a wave of street-crime in ‘The Brand of the Brainwasher!’ Here a new mob-mastermind starts taking control of the city by mind-controlling city leaders and prominent cops – including Police Captain George Stacy, father of Peter Parker’s girlfriend Gwen. The tension builds as the schemer is revealed to be one of Spidey’s old foes in ‘O, Bitter Victory!’ This revelation creates even bigger problems for Peter and Gwen before concluding chapter ‘What a Tangled Web We Weave…!’ sees our hero save the day but still stagger away more victim than victor…

After more Romita recollections in Intro essay ‘A Challenge and a Gamble’ comic fun resumes as Amazing Spider-Man #62 declaims ‘Make Way for… Medusa!’ as Lee, Romita, Heck & Esposito supply a change-of-pace yarn with the hero stumbling into combat with the formidable Inhuman due to the machinations of a Madison Avenue ad man.

Spider-Man’s popularity led to Marvel attempting to expand his reach to older readers via the magazine market. In 1968, the company finally broke free of a restrictive distribution deal and exponentially expanded. These converging factors combined to prompt a foray into the world of oversized mainstream magazines (as successfully developed by James Warren with Eerie, Creepy and Vampirella) which could be higher priced and produced without restrictive oversight from the Comics Code Authority. The result was quarterly Spectacular Spider-Man #1 (of 2, and cover-dated July/November 1968): a genuinely wonder-filled thrill for 9-year-old me, but clearly not the mainstream mass of Marvel Mavens.

Following a painted cover – Marvel’s first – by Romita & illustrator Harry Rosenbaum, the main feature of was ‘Lo, This Monster!’ by Lee, Romita & Jim Mooney: an extended, political thriller with charismatic reformer Richard Raleigh tirelessly campaigning to become Mayor, yet targeted and hunted by a brutish titan seemingly determined to keep the old political machine in place at all costs…

Rendered in moody wash tones, the drama soon disclosed a sinister plotter directing the monster’s campaign of terror… but his identity was the last one Spidey expected to expose. Also included in the magazine and here is a retelling of the hallowed origin tale: ‘In the Beginning…’ Scripted by Lee, Larry Lieber’s pencils are elevated by inks-&-tones by Bill Everett. Rounding out the experience is a tantalising ‘Next issue’ ad which neatly segues back to the four-colour world, as ASM #63 returns the original elderly Vulture, back from the grave to crush his youthful usurper in ‘Wings in the Night!’ before taking on Spidey for dessert as the awesome aerial assaults concludes with carnage atop the city’s highest buildings in ‘The Vultures Prey’. This leads to another art-change (with Mooney’s sumptuous heavy linework briefly replacing workmanlike Heck & Esposito) in #65 as a wounded Spider-Man is arrested and has to engineer ‘The Impossible Escape!’ from a Manhattan prison, incidentally foiling a mass jailbreak along the way.

A psychotic special-effects mastermind returns seeking loot and vengeance in #66’s ‘The Madness of Mysterio!’ (Romita, Heck & DeMeo) as the illusionist master of FX engineers his most outlandish stunt, whilst in the background amnesiac Norman Osborn slowly regains his memory. Although the wallcrawler suffers from a bizarre form of mind-bending, the net result is an all-out action-packed brawl (rendered by Romita & Mooney) entitled ‘To Squash a Spider!’ Perhaps more interestingly, this yarn introduces Randy Robertson, college student son of the Daily Bugle’s city editor and one of the first young black regular roles in Silver Age comics.

At this time Lee and Marvel were increasingly making a stand on Civil Rights, and stories reflecting the social unrest would blaze a trail for African American and other minority characters in their titles. There would also be a growth of student and college issues during a period when American campuses were coming under intense media scrutiny…

However that not the case as The Spectacular Spider-Man #2 arrived, radically different from its predecessor. To offset disappointing sales, Marvel had swiftly switched to a smaller size and added comic book colour. The book also sported a Comics Code symbol. A proposed third issue which would have debuted the Prowler never appeared. It was to be the last attempt to secure ostensibly older-reader shelf-space until the mid-1970s. At least the story in #2 was top-rate. Behind an all-Romita painted cover and following monochrome recap ‘The Spider-Man Saga’, Lee, Romita & Mooney dealt with months of foreshadowing in the monthly series by finally revealing how Norman Osborn had shaken off selective amnesia and returned to full-on super-villainy in ‘The Goblin Lives!’ Steeped in his former madness and remembering Parker was Spider-Man, Osborn plays cat and mouse with his foe, threatening the hero’s loved ones until a climactic closing battle utilising hallucinogenic weapons again erases the Green Goblin persona… for the moment…

Following the magazine’s text feature ‘Sock it to…Spider-Man’ and a full colour teaser for never-seen #3’s ‘The Mystery of the TV Terror!’ we return to regulation comic bookery and close with Amazing Spider-Man Annual #5, by Lee, Lieber & Esposito – still in his clandestine “Mickey DeMeo” guise. The lead tale clears up a huge mystery in the by exposing the secret behind the deaths of ‘The Parents of Peter Parker!’. Played as an exotic spy-thriller, it sees Spider-Man voyage to the Algerian Casbah to confront the Red Skull. Nit-pickers and continuity-mavens will no doubt be relieved to hear the villain was in fact retconned later and designated as the second (Soviet) master-villain – who featured in the 1953-1954 Captain America revival, not the Nazi original Lee & Co had clearly forgotten was in suspended animation throughout that decade when writing this otherwise perfect action romp and heartstring-tugging melodrama.

The annual also provided a nifty Daily Bugle cast pin-up, a speculative sports feature displaying the advantages of Spider-powers, a NYC street-map of various locations where the Spidey saga unfolded, plus a spoof section displaying how the Wallcrawler would look if published by Disney/Gold Key, DC or Archie Comics, or drawn by Al “Li’l Abner” Capp, Chester “Dick Tracy” Gould and Charles “Peanuts” Schulz. It all wraps up with ‘Here We Go A-Plotting!’: a comedic glimpse at work in the Marvel Bullpen, uncredited but unmistakably drawn by marvellous Marie Severin.

With the action over there’s still time for some hearty ha has and more Marie-mirth in a selection of tales from Not Brand Echh. In #2 (September 1967), an outrageous comedy caper by Lee, Severin & Frank Giacoia starred the Aging Spidey-Man! as ‘Peter Pooper vs. Gnatman and Rotten’ and showed how rival comics icons duked it out for the hearts and minds of fandom in a wry jab at the era’s Batmania craze. It’s followed by ‘The Wedding of Spidey-Man, or …With This Ring I Thee Web!’ (written by Gary Friedrich, February 1968) as the hero pursues his destined true love only to suffer a tragic loss, whilst December’s #11 provided a trenchant fable decrying success and merchandising in Arnold Drake, Severin & John Tartaglione’s ‘Fame is a Cross-Eyed Blind Date with B-a-a-a-d Breath!’

Also on view are 13 gems of original art – including unused pages and pencil art from Lieber – sketches and painted magazine covers by Harry Rosenbaum & Romita; house ads; character sketches and notes including Romita’s first sketch of Mary Jane. A run of covers featuring Romita reprints (Marvel Tales #29-50 & Ka-Zar volume 1 #3) leads to Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man (volumes #1-7, 2009), covers by Kirby, Ditko, Romita & Dean White, and a recent cover tribute by Humberto Ramos & Edgar Delgado.

Spider-Man became a permanent and unmissable part of countless teenagers’ lives at this time and did so by living a life as close to theirs as social mores and the Comics Code would allow. Blending cultural authenticity with glorious narrative art, and making a dramatic virtue of awkwardness, confusion and a sense of powerlessness most of the readership experienced daily resulted in an irresistibly intoxicating read, delivered in addictive soap-opera slices, but none of that would be relevant if the stories weren’t so compellingly entertaining.

This book is Marvel and Spider-Man at their peak. Come and see why.
© 2022 MARVEL.

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Walt Disney’s Donald Duck volume 21: Christmas in Duckburg (The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library)


By Carl Barks, with Bob Gregory & Vic Lockman, Rich Tommaso, Digikore, Gary Leach, Erik Rosengarten, Donald Ault & various (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-68396-239-7 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-68396-299-1

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Utter Acme of All-Ages Entertainment… 10/10

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Carl Barks was born in Merrill, Oregon in 1901, and raised in the rural areas of the West during some of the leanest times in US history. He tried his hand at many jobs before settling into the profession that chose him. His early life is well-documented elsewhere if you need detail, but briefly, Barks worked as an animator at Disney’s studio before quitting in 1942 to work in the new-fangled field of comic books. With cartoon studio partner Jack Hannah (another occasional strip illustrator) Barks adapted a Bob Karp script for an animated cartoon short into the comic book Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold. It was published as Dell Four Color Comics Series II #9 in October of that year and – although not his first published comics work – it was the story that shaped the rest of Barks’ career.

From then until his official retirement in the mid-1960s, Barks worked in self-imposed seclusion, writing and drawing and devising a vast array of adventure comedies, gags, yarns and covers that gelled into a Duck Universe of memorable and highly bankable characters. These included Gladstone Gander (1948), Gyro Gearloose (1952), Magica De Spell (1961) and the legendarily nefarious Beagle Boys (1951) to supplement Disney’s stable of cartoon actors. His greatest creation was undoubtedly crusty, energetic, paternalistic, money-mad giga-gazillionaire Scrooge McDuck: the World’s wealthiest winged septuagenarian and the harassed, hard-pressed not-so-silent co-star of this show.

Whilst producing that landmark, material Barks regarded himself as just a simple working guy: generating cover art, illustrating other people’s scripts when required, and contributing characters and stories to the burgeoning canon of Duck Lore. Once Gladstone Publishing began re-packaging his efforts – and other selected Disney strips – in the 1980s, Barks discovered a well-earned appreciation he never imagined existed. So potent were his creations that they even fed back into the conglomerate’s animation output, although all his brilliant comic work was done for licensing company Dell/Gold Key, and not directly for the studio. The greatest tribute was undoubtedly animated series Duck Tales, heavily based on his comics output. Throughout his working life Barks was blissfully unaware that his work – uncredited by official policy, as was all Disney’s cartoon and comic book output – had been singled out by a rabid and discerning public as being by “the Good Duck Artist”. When some of his most dedicated fans finally tracked him down, a belated celebrity began.

Barks was a fan of wholesome action, unsolved mysteries and epics of exploration, which led to him perfecting the art and technique of the comics blockbuster: blending history, plucky bravado, wit and sheer wide-eyed wonder into rollicking rollercoaster romps which utterly captivated readers of every age and vintage. Without the Barks expeditions, there would never have been Indiana Jones…

In 2013 Fantagraphics Books began collecting Barks’ Duck stuff in carefully curated archival volumes, tracing his year-by-year output in hardback tomes and digital editions that finally did justice to the quiet imagineer. These will comprise the Complete Carl Barks Disney Library. Physical copies are sturdy and luxurious albums – 193 x 261 mm – that would grace any bookshelf, with volume 5 – Walt Disney’s Donald Duck: “Christmas on Bear Mountain” (for reasons irrelevant here) acting as debut release and re-presenting works from 1947 – albeit not in strictly chronological release order. Today however, it’s seasonal yarn ‘Christmas in Duckburg’ that lends its title to volume 21 of this unmissable publishing event.

It begins with the eponymous full-length Holidays thriller (from Walt Disney’s Christmas Parade #9; cover-dated December 1958 and scripted by Bob Gregory) as Barks’ most enduring creation Scrooge McDuck pressures Donald Duck and his miracle working nephews Huey, Louie & Dewey to head north and bring back a 100ft fir tree for Duckburg City square. This is not some aberrant act of civic largesse, but simply in response to being publicly joshed and barracked all year by obnoxious business rival “Jolly” Ollie Eiderduck who provided the previous prodigious record-breaking pine for the city’s seasonal blowout. Incensed and outraged, Scrooge gets the boys cheaply, since Donald has made another so-typical financial blunder and must find some way to pay for an entire Ferris wheel…

However, there’s no love lost between the turbulent tycoons, and as the poor young ducks head to a Canadian logging camp, enflamed ire turns to ridiculous wagers, and Jolly Ollie hires the nefarious Beagle Boys to sabotage the expedition. Nevertheless, despite their every spectacular attempt, most of the massive living monument makes it back to Duckburg, where the insidious Eiderduck has one last card to play… but so too do the ingenious nephews…

Undoubtedly, the greatest cartoon creation of legendary magnificent story showman Barks, Downy Dodecadillionaire Scrooge McDuck quickly took on a life of his own after appearing as simple throwaway miserly villain. The old coot was crusty, energetic, menacing, money-mad and yet honest and brave by his own standards and oddly lovable  and thus far too potentially valuable to be misspent. He returned often and eventually expanded to fill all available space in tales from scenic metropolis Duckburg, either as star or as a motivating engine for Donald and the boys.

Another sterling creation – and ideal story cog – was super-lucky butthead Gladstone Gander: eternal foil for Donald and rival for Daisy Duck’s attentions. In ‘Dramatic Donald’ (Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories #217, October 1958) the fortunate one gleefully tramples all over Donald’s thespian aspirations and efforts to score a leading role in Daisy’s Halloween play, bringing out our hero’s dark side and inciting a stage catastrophe. Then, Donald’s hunt for rare and valuable marine creatures sparks a manic sea hunt and nautical chaos only curtailed by a large pod of ‘Noble Porpoises’ (WDC&S #218 November 1958).

Cover-dated February 1959, the duck tale in Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories #221 reveals exactly how parsimonious Scrooge was made to pay for Duckburg’s magnificent new Junior Woodchucks of the World Hall of Science in ‘Tracking Sandy’: a tale of mystery, masked and masquerading gold miners, canny nephews, investigations and a dynamic detective deduction, whilst WDC&S #219 (December 1958) offers a rare moment of failure as Donald, Huey, Louie & Dewey and even wise old Grandma Duck all fail to tame an orphan coyote in ‘The Littlest Chicken Thief’.

Donald and Gladstone clash again at ‘The Beachcombers’ Picnic’ (WDC&S #224, May 1959) where a concatenation of bizarre events and fervent scavenger hunting antics result in a rare victory for “unca Donald” after which the loco parental displays an uncanny ability to transport anything anywhere in WDC&S #222 (March 1959). Typically, however, ‘The Master Mover’ goes too far only to come a crushing cropper after guaranteeing to shift an entire zoo to a mountaintop in one afternoon! A facility for lucky accidents and the nephews’ chemistry set results in a major step forward in ballistic science… until US military intransigence and Donald’s stubbornness reduce the race for space to a ‘Rocket-Roasted Christmas Turkey’ (WDC&S #220, January 1959), in advance of the accidental savant succumbing to ‘Spring Fever’ (WDC&S #223, April). With the sun out and flowers blooming, Donald craves a quiet day’s fishing, but his rush to relax causes chaos for the kids and makes him the target of a ticket-happy game warden…

Volunteer firefighter Donald finds respect, his happy place and victory over gloating Gladstone in all-action romp ‘The Lovelorn Fireman’ (WDC&S #225 June), before Scrooge resurfaces to fall foul of satellite technology after spotting and appropriating ‘The Floating Island’ (#226, July). It turns out to be a rare bad gamble and brutally depreciating asset, after which Donald becomes proxy prey for the Junior Woodchucks in fieldcraft test ‘The Black Forest Rescue’ (#227 August), again learning the kids know their stuff and that nature abhors a smug git…

Anthology Walt Disney’s Summer Fun #2 (August 1959) provides anthropological hilarity as Donald attempts to emulate explorer-documentarians’ ‘Jungle Hi-Jinks’ without leaving the house, only to end up lost, out of his depth and impersonating a caveman in Africa before a quartet of tales bucolic pastoral tales sees Barks as illustrator only. Scripted by Vic Lockman, ‘The Flying Farmhand’, ‘A Honey of a Hen’, ‘The Weather Watchers’ & ‘The Sheepish Cowboys’ all originated in Four Color #1010 (July-September 1959): a themed anthology entitled Walt Disney’s Grandma Duck’s Farm Friends.

With movie star guests such as Dumbo, Big Bad Wolf and Gus Goose augmenting Barks regulars Gyro Gearloose, Daisy, the nephews, Grandma, Scrooge and Donald, the vignettes detail how thieving Zeke Wolf fails to impress as a stand-in scarecrow, what Scrooge learns of the true cost of buying vegetables wholesale, why goats can derange meteorological predictions and where nephews seek size-appropriate steeds for their cowboy games…

With the visual verve done with again, we move on to a cover gallery and validation as ‘Story Notes’ provides erudite commentary for each Duck tale and Donald Ault details ‘Carl Barks: Life Among the Ducks’ before ‘Biographies’ reveals why he and ‘Contributors’ Alberto Beccatini, Craig Fischer, Leonardo Gori, Thad Komorowski, Rich Kreiner, Ken Parille, Stefano Priarone, Francesco “Franky” Stajano, Mattias Wivel and Daniel F. Yezbick are saying all those nice and informative things. We close for Christmas – and the meanwhile – with an examination of provenance with ‘Where Did These Duck Stories First Appear?’ explaining the somewhat byzantine publishing schedules of Dell Comics and origin points of all the fun we’ve just had…

Carl Barks was one of the greatest exponents of comic art the world has ever seen, and almost all his work featured Disney’s characters: reaching and affecting untold millions of readers across the world and he all too belatedly won far-reaching recognition. You might be late to the party but it’s never too soon to climb aboard the Barks Express.
Walt Disney’s Donald Duck “Christmas in Duckberg” © 2020 Disney Enterprises, Inc. “Story Notes” texts © 2020 the respective authors. “Carl Barks: Life Among the Ducks” © 2020 Donald Ault. Other text © 2020 Fantagraphics Books, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Dear DC Super-Villains


By Michael Northrop & Gustavo Duarte, coloured by Cris Peter & lettered by Wes Abbott (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1779500540 (PB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Ideal to Steal Stocking Stuffer… 9/10 (just give it back after reading, okay?)

Superheroes are purely iconic embodiments if not “perfectualisations” of a whole bunch of deep things about humans. Ask any psychologist or modern philosopher. Sadly, such pristine intellectualisations don’t cut much ice (just ask Captain Cold) in the stories-for-money racket; and every hero from Gilgamesh to the Scarlet Pimpernel and every sleuth and super-doer since mass entertainment began owes a huge recurring debt to the bad lurking in the shadows or monster rampaging down main street.

DC have a particularly fine stable of misguided miscreants, justifiable revengers and thieving psychotic loons – just look at how many have their own titles, shows and films – and their antics as much as the heroes we’re supposed to admire are part of children’s awareness and maturing processes (even boys, who I’m forced to admit frequently grow up by a different set of metrics to girls or other flavours of kids).

Reprising or rather expanding their 2019 hit, Michael Northrop (Trapped, Plunked, Gentlemen, TombQuest) and Gustavo Duarte (Bizarro, Monsters! and Other Stories link both please), turn their delightful comedic eyes on the bad guys who might well be a Legion of Doom but still have it in them to answer a few salient questions from some curious kids with a really good search engines…

In Cairo, a major heist is capped by a relaxing moment of downtime as Selina Kyle responds to a ‘Dear Catwoman’ query about getting caught, whilst Earth’s most maximumly imprisoned mad scientist accepts a rash challenge from a heckler who thinks he’s safely anonymous in ‘Dear Lex Luthor’ and ‘Dear Harley Quinn’ shares her experiences of stand-up comedy and chaotic behaviour…

All these messages come courtesy of the Legion of Doom forwarding service but the would-be world conquerors are generally fretful and bad tempered while trying to find a new leader. Those tensions a painfully apparent in ‘Dear Gorilla Grodd’ as the Super-Ape shares school memories – but never bananas – even as ‘Dear Giganta’ offers advice on bullies and being the tallest girl in class.

When a disabled girl challenges ‘Dear Sinestro’ to examine his motivations, it sparks an unexpected sentimental response, and even ruthless hardcase rogue ronin ‘Dear Katana’ also reassesses her life after opening a succinctly sharp email question, whereas the modern-day pirate king only gets “fished” after clicking on ‘Dear Black Manta’, leading to a long-awaited calamitous convergence, supervillain showdown and inevitable big battle with the JLA in concluding chapter ‘Dear DC Super-Villains’…

Big, bold, daft and deliriously addictive, this in another superb all-ages action romp packed with laughs and delivering a grand experience for any who red it. Extra material includes ‘Who’s Who in the Legion of Doom’ of the heroes, and creator biographies in ‘Auxiliary Members!’ plus an extract from Metropolis Grove by Drew Brockington. If you love comics and want others to as well you couldn’t do more that point potential fans this way. Actually, just show, tell, or email them: pointing is rude…
© 2021 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan: The Jesse Marsh Years Omnibus volume two


By Gaylord DuBois & Jesse Marsh (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 978-1-59582-294-9 (HB)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Dynamic Days-Gone-By Derring Do … 8/10

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

I don’t know an awful lot about Jesse Marsh, other than that he was born on 27th July 1907 and died far too young: on April 28th 1966 from diabetic complications at the height of a TV Tarzan revival he was in large part responsible for. What I do know, however, is that to my unformed, pre-fanboy, kid’s mentality, his drawings were somehow better than most of the other artists and that every other kid who read comics in my school disagreed with me.

There’s a phrase we used to use at 2000 AD that summed it up: “Artist’s artist”, which usually meant someone whose fan-mail divided equally into fanatical raves and bile-filled hate-mail. It seems there are some makers of comic strips that many readers simply don’t get.

It isn’t about the basic principles or artistic quality or even anything tangible – although you’ll hear some cracking justifications: “I don’t like his feet” (presumably the way he draws them) and “it just creeps me out” being my two favourites. Never forget in the 1980s DC were told by the Comics Code Authority that Kevin O’Neill’s entire style and manner of Drawing was unacceptable to American readers!

I got Jesse Marsh.

Like many Western Publishing stalwarts Jesse Mace Marsh originally worked for Disney Studios (1939-1948) as an animator on projects including Pinocchio and Fantasia. His first comics work appeared in 1945, and he continued as a staff artist until his death in 1966. In addition to his Tarzan contributions, he illustrated Gene Autry, Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett and more, as well as John Carter of Mars: three 4-Color series issues. In this second compilation, hyper-prolific Gaylord McIlvaine Du Bois (August 24th 1899 – October 20th 1993) is scripter as – nourished by a burgeoning movie franchise, radio, newspaper and new novels – the comic book Ape-Man phenomenon grew and steadied for the long haul. The editor/scripter (for ALL the Tarzan titles and spin-offs, Lone Ranger, Lost in Space, Turok, Son of Stone, Brothers of the Spear, Lassie, Andy Panda, Red Ryder, Tom and Jerry, Bonanza and so many more) would be Marsh’s creative collaborator for the next 19 years.

Situated on the West Coast, Western’s Dell/Gold Key imprints rivalled DC and Marvel at the height of their powers, and the licensee famously never capitulated to the wave of anti-comics hysteria that resulted in the crippling self-censorship of the 1950s. No Dell Comics ever displayed a Comics Code Authority symbol on the cover – they never needed to…

Marsh jobbed around adapted movie properties – mostly westerns – until 1948 when Dell introduced the first all-new Tarzan comic book. The newspaper strip had been running since January 1929 and all previous collections and funnybook releases had featured expurgated and modified reprints of those exploits. Everything changed with Dell Four Color Comic #134 (February 1947) which offered a lengthy, captivating tale of the Ape-Man, scripted by Robert P. Thompson. He had also written both the Tarzan radio show and the aforementioned syndicated strip. link to Tarzan and the Adventurers please.

‘Tarzan and the Devil Ogre’ was very much in the Burroughs tradition: John Clayton, Lord Greystoke and his friend Paul D’Arnot aid a young woman in rescuing her lost father from a hidden tribe ruled over by a monster. The engrossing yarn was made magical by the simple, underplayed magic of a heavy brush line and absolutely unmatched design sense. Marsh was unique in the way he positioned characters in space, employing primitivist forms and hidden shapes to augment his backgrounds. He was a fanatical researcher: his trees, rocks, and constructions were 100% accurate. His animals and natives, especially children and women, were all distinct and recognisable; not the badly-shaded stock figures in grass skirts that even the greatest artists so often resorted to.

Marsh also knew when to draw big and draw small: the internal dynamism of his work is spellbinding. His Africa became mine, and as the try-out comic book was an instant hit he stuck around for decades. Dell never messed with something that was already working. Marsh and Thompson’s Tarzan returned with two tales in Dell Four Color Comic #161, cover-dated August 1947. That was remarkable: Four Colour was a catch-all title showcasing literally hundreds of different licensed properties in rotation, often as many as ten separate and stunningly diverse issues per month. So rapid a return engagement meant pretty solid sales figures…

Following a gracious and wondering Foreword by Gilbert Hernandez discussing the sheer ubiquity of Tarzan comics in households – particularly Latino ones – we return to distant days of rampaging fantasy, garnished by yet another warning from me. In past reviews I’ve described how this character comes with lots of inbuilt colonial baggage and an unhealthy side-order of appalling white supremacy for those readers pre-sensitised pro or con. What I haven’t addressed is the sheerly shocking death toll of animals, killed for food, for sport or because someone needs an action scene proving how cruel villains are or how mighty the hero is. This is not a book for vegans or animal activists, okay?

Volume Two gathers the pertinent material from Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan #5-10, spanning September/October 1948 through July/August 1949) and includes (line art) covers and back covers by eventual painter/illustrator Morris Gollub. Most issues also include two colour frontispieces and endpieces offering lessons in ‘Tarzan’s Ape-English Dictionary’, prompting millions of kids everywhere to shout “Kreegah! Bundolo!” and “Tantor, ho!” in the playground and look like complete loons trying to talk to baboons and monkeys every time we visited a zoo…

The dramas resume with Tarzan #5 (September/October 1948) with harsh morality play ‘Tarzan and the Men of Greed’. Here, wife Jane and son Boy (latterly “Korak”) are kidnapped by American gangsters and a bandit sheikh as a means of forcing Tarzan to bring them and their army of African bandits to the lost treasure vaults of Opar. After an arduous trek, and terrifying ascent of an ancient escarpment, the thieves learn to their eternal cost why it’s not healthy to antagonise the legendary Ape-Man…

As well as the epic 33 page saga and the opportunity to practise primate patois “Mangani to Paco” there’s a stunning back cover pinup of the forest family before – cover dated November/December 1948 – we dig deep into the novels’ mythology for #6 as ‘Tarzan and the Outlaws of Pal-ul-don’ sees Jane abducted (again!). This time it’s raiders from a primordial enclave first introduced in eighth novel Tarzan the Terrible (1921), necessitating man and boy chasing the perfidious primitives all the way back to their lost realm. This is a huge oasis of jungles, mountains, dinosaurs and evolutionary dead-ends at the centre of a vast desert and results in reunion with old Waz-don ally Om-At and war with bandit nation Ho-Don, using Triceratops as tanks…

Following another pin-up, Tarzan #7 (January/February 1949) finds the family back home, and bored Tarzan making a hot air balloon. His efforts lead to more trouble when Boy and his Waziri friend Dombie are accidentally caught when it breaks loose and transported to a land of terrors. ‘Tarzan and the Valley of the Monsters’ sees the Jungle Lord and his ally Muviro (Dombie’s dad) give chase in a plane until brought down by Pterodactyls. From there it’s all fight and flight from giant lizard and volcanoes until the humans are reunited and heading home again.

Morris Gollub takes over covers and pin-up duties with #8 (March/April 1949) as the lost quartet continue the trek home. Traversing mountains and deserts, they almost fail until meeting a strange albino tribe in ‘Tarzan and the White Pygmies’, and in return for aid when they need it most teach their benefactors modern warfare by introducing them to archery, and saving them from predation by legions of giant vultures…

Cover-dated May/June 1949, issue #9 returns to Pal-ul-don as ‘Tarzan and the Men of A-lur’ sees King Ja-Don usurped by surly vassal Dak-Lot, propelling Tarzan, Boy and even Jane into a full-scale civil war (with lots of comparatively shocking violence for a Golden Age comic book!) as humans, pre-men, cave bears, dinosaurs and modern elephants clash to decide the fate of the kingdom time forgot…

This second time-wracked voyage to the past pauses with Tarzan #10 (July/August 1949) as the epic page counts drop to allow side stories and a greater range of fun. Main event ‘Tarzan and the Treasure of the Bolgani’ is a pure sci fi romp as the Ape-man and his Waziri subjects are captured by intelligent gorillas who shrink them to half size so that they can mine gems for them. When the process goes awry, Tarzan becomes a hyper-dense (Must you? Really?) tiny titan who leads a revolt and ends a threat to all of Africa, after which DuBois and Marsh begin years of light-hearted backup tales as Boy tries to avoid his chores and learns to regret running off to become ‘The Baboons’ King’…

Although these are tales from a far-off, simpler time they have lost none of their passion, inclusivity and charm, whilst the artistic virtuosity of Marsh looks better than ever. Perhaps this time a few more people will “get” him, especially if the rest of this series finally makes the jump to digital editions as Volume One has…
Edgar Rice Burroughs® Tarzan®: The Jesse Marsh Years Omnibus Volume Two © 1948, 1949, 2009, Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. Tarzan ® Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. All rights reserved.

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Ant-Man/Giant-Man Epic Collection volume 2: Ant-Man No More (1964-1979)


By Stan Lee, Leon Lazarus, Al Hartley, Roy Thomas, Mike Friedrich, Chris Claremont, Bill Mantlo, Tony Isabella, David Micheline, Dick Ayers, Joe Orlando, Steve Ditko, Carl Burgos, Bob Powell, Ross Andru, Herb Trimpe, P. Craig Russell, Jim Starlin, Jimmy Janes, George Tuska, Ron Wilson, John Byrne, Rich Buckler, Keith Pollard & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-4965-5 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Marvel Comics built its fervent fan base through strong and contemporarily relevant stories and striking art, but most importantly by creating a shared continuity that closely followed the characters through not just their own titles but also through many guest appearances in other comics. Such an interweaving meant that even today completists and fans seek out extraneous stories to get a fuller picture of their favourite’s adventures.

In such an environment, archival series like this one are a priceless resource approaching the status of a public service for collectors, especially when you can now purchase and peruse them electronically from the comfort of your own couch, or the lesser luxury of your parents’ basement, garage or attic…

If you’re of a particularly picky nature – and what comic book superhero fan isn’t? – you may consider the Astonishing Ant-Man to be the second star of the Marvel Age of Comics. The unlikeliest of titans first appeared in Tales to Astonish #27 (cover-dated January 1962, on sale in the last months of 1961) in one of the splendidly addictive men-vs-monsters anthology titles that dominated in the heady days of Science Fiction Double-Feature B-Movies.

It was intended as nothing more than another here-today, gone-tomorrow filler in one of the company’s madly engaging pre-superhero “monster-mags”. However, the character struck a chord with someone, and as the DC Comics-inspired superhero boom blossomed, and Lee sprung The Hulk, Thor and Spider-Man on the unsuspecting kids of America, Henry Pym was economically retooled as a fully-fledged costumed do-gooder for TtA #35 (September 1962). You can read about his extremely eccentric career elsewhere, but suffice it to say Pym was never settled in his persona: changing name and modus operandi many times before junking his Ant-Man/Giant-Man identities for the reasonably more stable and more imposing role of Yellowjacket…

This episodic, eclectic and entomologically edifying compendium gathers the last initial outings of the original Ant-Man, plus the legacy of science adventurer Dr. Hank Pym as his size-shifting discoveries were employed by other champions. Contained herein are pertinent portions of Tales to Astonish #60-69, Marvel Feature #4-10; Invincible Iron Man #44; Power Man #24-25; Black Goliath #1-5, The Champions #11-13 and Marvel Premiere #47-48, convolutedly spanning cover-dates October 1964 to June 1979.

The first tale in this collection follows the beginning of the end after The Incredible Hulk became Giant-Man’s co-dependent in #59. With the next issue, the jade juggernaut began his second solo series and even featured on the covers whilst Giant-Man’s adventures shrank back to a dozen or so pages. Ten issues later Hank and partner Janet (The Wasp) Van Dyne retired, making way for amphibian antihero Namor, the Sub-Mariner. (Gi-)Ant-Man & the Wasp did not die, but instead joined the vast cast of characters which Marvel kept in relatively constant play through team books, via guest shots and in occasional re-launches and mini-series… just like the Hulk had.

Here, however, Tales to Astonish #60 delivers the first half-sized yarn. Stan Lee, Dick Ayers & Paul Reinman’s ‘The Beasts of Berlin!’ is a throwback to the daft old days, as the diminutive duo smuggle themselves over the infamous (then brand-new) Wall and into the Russian Sector to battle Commie primates (no, really!) behind the Iron Curtain.

The writing was on the wall by issue #61. With The Hulk already the most prominent on covers, hastily-executed stories and a rapid rotation of artists, it was obvious the appeal of the Masters of Many Sizes was waning. ‘Now Walks the Android’ was a fill-in rather rapidly illustrated by Steve Ditko & George (“Bell”) Roussos, featuring archnemesis Egghead and his latest technological terror-weapon, after which ‘Versus the Wonderful Wasp’ (by Golden Age icon Carl Burgos & Ayers) recycled an ancient plot wherein a thief steals Giant-Man’s costume and equipment, leaving the “mere girl” to save the day…

‘The Gangsters and the Giant’ by Lee, Burgos & Chic Stone in TtA #63 channelled the plot of #37 with the gem-stealing Protector here re-imagined as The Wrecker, but at least it came with a Marvel Masterwork pin-up of the Diminutive Duo by Chic Stone, after which ‘When Attuma Strikes’ – by Leon Lazarus, Burgos & Reinman – conjured up a happy crumb of imagination and wit as Hank & Jan split up! The heartbroken lass was then abducted with a plane full of air passengers by the undersea tyrant and was reunited with her man when he came to the rescue. This uncharacteristically mature-for-its-time romp was scripted by incredibly under-appreciated and nigh-anonymous comics veteran Leon Lazarus whose Pre-Marvel Age credits included genre stars like Black Rider, Arizona Kid and Kid Colt, Outlaw…

One last sustained attempt to resuscitate the series came with the addition of more Golden-Age greats beginning with Bob Powell (Cave Girl, Blackhawk, Jet Powers) who signed on as artist for issue #65’s ‘Presenting the New Giant-Man’ (scripted by Lee, inked by Don Heck) wherein the frustrated, uncomfortable hero built a better costume and greater powers, but almost died at in attacks by a spider and his own cat, accidentally enlarged in the testing process.

With a fresh new look, the last five tales were actually some of the best tales in the run, but it was too late. Frankie (Giacoia) Ray inked Powell on ‘The Menace of Madam Macabre’ with a murderous “oriental” seductress attempting to steal Pym’s secrets, with Chic Stone applying the brushes for ‘The Mystery of the Hidden Man and his Rays of Doom!’ – wherein a power-stealing alien removes Pym’s ability to shrink – before the series concluded with a powerfully impressive 2-parter in Tales to Astonish #68 and 69. ‘Peril from the Long-Dead Past!’ and ‘Oh, Wasp, Where is Thy Sting?’ were inked by Vince Colletta and John Giunta respectively. So far along was the decline that Al Hartley had to finish what Stan started: concisely concluding a tense, thrilling tale of the Wasp’s abduction by the Human Top and abrupt retirement of the weary, shell-shocked heroes at saga’s end.

Despite variable quality and treatment, the eclectic, eccentric and always fun exploits of Marvel’s premier “odd couple” these tales remain an intriguing, engaging reminder that the House of Ideas didn’t always get it right, but generally gave their all to entertaining the fans.

By turns superb, stupid, exciting and appalling this tome and these tales epitomise the best and worst of Early Marvel (with the delightful far outweighing the duff) and certainly won’t appeal to everybody, but if you’re a Fights ‘n’ Tights fan with a forgiving nature the good stuff here will charm, amaze and enthral you whilst the rest could just be considered as a garish garnish to provide added flavour…

In-world, those aforementioned guest shots from Limbo led to a lengthy stint as Avengers and a convoluted transformation from Giant-Man to Goliath to Yellowjacket, before retiring again. However, after a key role in the legendary Kree-Skrull war (yet not reprinted here!) he returned to his roots and got a second start…

The ball starts re-rolling here with a brief back-up vignette from Invincible Iron Man #44 with Roy Thomas, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito light-heartedly depicting ‘Armageddon on Avenue ‘A”, as Ant-Man Pym clashes again with the sinister creepy crawly the Scarlet Beetle. The evil arthropod stills seeks to eradicate humanity, but is kept too busy battling Pym to notice his secret citadel catching alight as part of a seedy insurance scam. Bah! Biped scum!

Marvel Feature #4 then opens a new series with ‘The Incredible Shrinking Doom!’ (by Mike Friedrich & Herb Trimpe) as a hero history recap segues into ‘The Beginning’ with Peter Parker interviewing Dr Pym before they team up to rescue a kidnapped boy. The son of Curt Conners (The Lizard) has been snatched to force the surrender of a valuable formula. However, whilst cleaning up M’Sieu Téte’s vicious underlings, Pym is injected with a bacterial enzyme that traps him at the size of an insect… and not even Spider-Man can help him…

Tension builds in #5’s ‘Fear’s the Way He Dies!’ as Egghead returns even as Ant-Man loses all that precious technology bolstering his powers. Deprived of his insect-controlling helmet, Pym is helpless until the maniac’s niece Trixie Starr makes him new duds and gear. It’s not quite enough to defeat the villain, but at least the shattering explosion of his mobile HQ seems to drive the killer away…

Janet Pym (née Van Dyne) resurfaces in Marvel Feature #6’s ‘Hellstorm!’ (inked by Mike Trimpe) as the beleaguered hero – thanks to trusty pet hound Orkie the dog – finally reaches his own home, only to be attacked by another old foe: Whirlwind. As a result the house is totally destroyed and Mr & Mrs Pym are officially declared dead. P. Craig Russell, Dan Adkins & Mark Kersey illustrate ‘Paranoia is the Para-Man!’ in MF #7 as a new android enemy captures Hank and Jan. Escape and the mechanoid’s inevitable defeat mutates the Wasp into a true insectoid predator for #8’s deadline-wracked ‘Prelude to Disaster!’

Russell, Jim Starlin & Jimmy Janes’ framing sequence here originally supported a Lee, Kirby & Don Heck origin flashback but you can just consult the first volume in this series if you’re feeling a little completist…

Here and now, however, Marvel Feature #9 revealed ‘…The Killer is My Wife!’ – limned by Russell & Frank Bolle, finally finding Hank battling his mutated. mindless spouse as Pym’s lab partner Bill Foster and Iron Man investigate their “deaths”. Tragically, not so far from them, the tiny terror is overwhelmed and temporarily cured by her husband just in time for both to fall victim to new nutcase Doctor Nemesis, before the saga and the series hastily wrapped up in Friedrich, Russell & Frank Chiaramonte’s concluding chapter ‘Ant-Man No More!’. With that Ant-Man faded from view, eventually replaced by Yellowjacket again, and one among many in The Avengers. Years passed and a new writer decided it was time to try size-shifting sagas again. It began as so often, with a try-out in an already established title…

While hiding in plain sight as a Hero for Hire in Times Square, escaped convict Luke Cage fell in love with doctor Claire Temple. When she abruptly vanished, Cage and buddy D.W. Griffiths scoured America looking for her. The trek fed directly into a 2-part premier for another African American superhero as the trail led to the Ringmaster’s Circus of Crime in Power Man #24 (January 1975, by Tony Isabella, George Tuska & Dave Hunt) for ‘Among Us Walks… a Black Goliath!’.

One of the earliest returning black characters in Marvel’s comics, the above-mentioned Bill Foster was a highly educated biochemist working for Tony Stark and with Henry Pym. Foster first appeared in The Avengers #32 (September 1966), working to find a cure when – as Goliath – Pym was trapped at a 10-foot height. Foster faded from view when Hank regained size-changing abilities. Having continued his own experiments in size-shifting, Foster was trapped as a freakish colossus, unable to shrink back to human proportions. Cage painfully learned he was also Claire’s former husband and when he too became trapped as a giant, she had rushed back to Foster’s substantial side to help find a cure.

When Luke shows up, passions are stoked, causing another classic heroes-clash moment until the mesmeric Ringmaster hypnotises all combatants, intent on using their strength to feather his own 3-ring nest. ‘Crime and Circuses’ (Isabella, Bill Mantlo, Ron Wilson & Fred Kida) sees the heroes helpless until Claire comes to the rescue, before making her choice and returning to New York with Luke. Foster gravitated to his own short-run series, becoming Marvel’s fourth African American costumed hero under a heavy-handed and rather uninspired sobriquet…

Cover-dated February 1976 and courtesy of Isabella, Tuska & Colletta, Black Goliath #1 reintroduced a far better hero. Foster was now in complete control of his powers and leading an exotic, eccentric Stark International Think Tank in Los Angeles. Sadly, his arrival coincides with high tech burglaries proving how out-of-depth ‘Black Goliath!’ was when the gang’s leader was exposed as living nuclear nightmare Atom-Smasher! He doled out ‘White Fire, Atomic Death!’ in #2 as scripter Chris Claremont joined Tuska & Colletta.

Barely surviving the first meeting, Foster brought in his team of maverick geniuses for the decisive second round, blissfully unaware the thermonuclear thug was working for a hidden mastermind. ‘Dance to the Murder!’ offers partial explanations as mystery man Vulcan leads multiple attacks on the Think Tank in his effort to secure an enigmatic alien artefact. The result is chaos and catastrophe, exacerbated in BG #4 when ‘Enter Stilt-Man… Exit Black Goliath!’ – with art from Rich Buckler & Heck – depicts the hero distracted by a supervillain hungry to upgrade his powers and status, whilst the mystery box is swiped from the rubble by a common looter…

The series came to an abrupt halt with #5 (November 1976), with Keith Pollard illustrating a tale of ‘Survival!’ as Foster and two bystanders are transported to a deadly alien world. Meanwhile on Earth, the Box begins to awaken…

The storyline was completed in LA-based team title The Champions (#11, February 1977 by Bill Mantlo, John Byrne & Bob Layton) as ‘The Shadow from the Stars’ saw Foster returned without explanation and building tech for the team (consisting then of Black Widow, Angel, Iceman, Hercules, Ghost Rider and soviet superhero Dark Star) as a side bar to the main event wherein Hawkeye and Two Gun Kid call for help in repelling an alien incursion by vintage villain/sentient shadow Warlord Kaa…

Back at the plot in #12, ‘Did Someone say… the Stranger?’ sees Black Goliath ambushed by Stilt-Man as that long-contested Box begins to activate. When universal Elder The Stranger comes to reclaim his planet-destroying Null-Life Bomb, he deems it too late once the device warps reality and dumps The Champions in the realm of former Thor foe Kamo Tharnn, leaving Foster on Earth to prevent ‘The Doom That Went on Forever!’

Arter the fireworks ended, the Big Guy again faded from sight until revived for 1980s classic the Project Pegasus Saga, where he reclaimed the name Giant-Man, but this collection concludes with arguably the most successful size-shifting centurion: solo superhero, security consultant single dad, Avenger, entrepreneur, comedy turn and screen superstar Scott Lang: a true legacy hero made good.

Comics creators are six parts meddler and five parts chronic nostalgia buff so eventually somebody convinced somebody else that the concept and properties of Ant-Man could be viable again, and thus we end here with the introduction of reformed thief Lang from his debut in Marvel Premiere #47 & 48 (cover-dated April & June 1979).

Those first somebodies were David Michelinie, John Byrne & Bob Layton who produced ‘To Steal an Ant-Man!’: disclosing how a former electronics engineer had turned to crime – more out of boredom than necessity – and, after being caught and serving his time, joined Stark International as a resolutely reformed character. Tragically, when his little daughter Cassie developed a heart condition that wiped out his savings, Scott reverted to his old methods to save her…

Desperate to find the wherewithal to hire experimental surgeon Dr. Erica Sondheim, he cases likely prospects, but is crushed when Sondheim is abducted by psychotic industrialist Darren Cross. The magnate is already using all the resources – legal and otherwise – of his mega-corporation Cross Technological Enterprises to keep himself alive. Needing cash just to broach the CTE complex, Lang goes back to Plan A, burgling the lab of retired superhero Henry Pym. The intruder discovers mothballed Ant-Man gear and size-changing gases and in a moment of madness, decides not to sell the stolen tech as planned but instead use it to break into Cross’ citadel and rescue Sondheim…

That plan doesn’t go so great either, as Lang discovers the dying billionaire – in his attempts to stay alive – has been harvesting the hearts of homeless people to power an experimental device which has subsequently mutated him into a monstrous brute. After learning with horror ‘The Price of a Heart!’ Lang eventually triumphs, unaware until the very last that Pym had allowed him to take the suit and was backstopping him every inch of the way. With Cassie saved, Yellowjacket then invites Lang to continue as the new Ant-Man. And so it begins. Again.

With rousing covers throughout by Jack Kirby, Gil Kane, Giacoia, Joe Sinnott, Trimpe, Starlin, John Romita & Sal Buscema, Russell & Adkins, Wilson, Rich Buckler, Lieber, Al Milgrom, Layton, Dave Cockrum and Bob McLeod, this triptych treat includes extras such as original art pages by Powell & Giacoia, Larry Lieber and Trimpe; lost art samples by mainstream illustrator Dick Rockwell; the unused ending to Marvel Feature #10 by Russell (compared in situ with what actually got published) and a brace of unused Layton covers to Marvel Premiere #48.

Seen here are three of the earliest heroes from a size shifting dynasty every true ant-ficionado (yes. I said that, and I’m not sorry!) will be delighted to see. These itty-bitty sagas range from lost oddities to true classics to dazzle Marvel Movie buffs as well as the redoubtable ranks of dedicated comic book readers all cheerfully celebrating this truly Astonishing phenomenon.
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