Namor, the Sub-Mariner Epic Collection volume 4: Titans Three (1970-1972)


By Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, Allyn Brodsky, Sal Buscema, Gene Colan, Ross Andru, George Tuska, Marie Severin, Frank Springer, Mike Esposito, Jim Mooney, Bernie Wrightson, John Severin, Sam Grainger, Tom Palmer, Dick Ayers & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-5539-7 (TPB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Salty Stalwart Superhero Action… 8/10

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

In his most primal incarnation (other origins are available but may differ due to timeslips, circumstance and screen dimensions) Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner is the proud, noble but exceedingly bellicose offspring of the union of a water-breathing Atlantean princess and an American polar explorer. That doomed romance resulted in a hybrid being of immense strength and extreme resistance to physical harm, able to fly and thrive above and below the waves. Over decades, a wealth of creators have played with the fishy tale and today’s Namor is often hailed as Marvel’s First Mutant. What remains unchallenged is that he was created by young, talented Bill Everett, for abortive cinema premium Motion Picture Weekly Funnies: #1 (October 1939) so – technically – Namor predates Marvel, Atlas & Timely Comics.

The Marine Miracleman first caught the public’s avid attention as part of an elementally appealing fire vs. water headlining team-up in the October 1939 Marvel Comics #1 (which renamed itself Marvel Mystery Comics from #2 onwards. The amphibian antihero shared honours and top billing with The Human Torch, having debuted (albeit in a truncated, monochrome version) in the aforementioned promotional booklet which had been designed to be handed out to moviegoers earlier in the year. The late-starter antihero rapidly emerged as one of the industry’s biggest draws, and won his own title at the end of 1940 (cover-dated Spring 1941). His appeal was baffling but solid and he was one of the last super-characters to vanish at the end of the first heroic age.

In 1954, when Atlas (as the company then was) briefly revived its “Big Three” – the Torch and Captain America being the other two – Everett returned for an extended run of superbly dark, mordantly timely fantasy fables. However, even his input wasn’t sufficient to keep the title afloat and eventually Sub-Mariner sank again. Seven years later as Stan Lee & Jack Kirby were reinventing superheroes with landmark title Fantastic Four, they revived the awesome, all-but-forgotten aquanaut as a troubled, semi-amnesiac antihero. Decidedly more bombastic, regal and grandiose, this returnee despised humanity: embittered by the loss of his subsea kingdom – seemingly destroyed by atomic testing. His rightful revenge was infinitely complicated after he became utterly besotted with the FF’s Susan Storm.

Namor knocked around the budding Marvel universe for a few years, squabbling with other star turns such as The Hulk, Avengers, X-Men and Daredevil before securing his own series as one half of Tales to Astonish, and duly graduating in 1968 to his own solo title. This fourth subsea selection collects Namor, the Sub-Mariner #28-49, Daredevil #77 and material from Ka-Zar #1 covering August 1970 to May 1972, and sees the sea lord as a recently self-appointed guardian of the safety and ecology of all Earth’s oceans. As we open the Prince of Atlantis furtively returns to the surface world, to recover from wounds earned in service of ungrateful humanity in the company of human Diane Arliss. Wandering Manhattan streets Namor is incensed by the actions of an unrepentant industrial polluter and joins teen protestors fighting developer Sam Westman’s thugs and mega machines in ‘Youthquake!’ before we pause for a little diversion…

Beginning as a Tarzan tribute act relocated to a lost world in a sub-polar realm of swamp-men and dinosaurs, Ka-Zar eventually evolved into one of Marvel’s more complex and mercurial characters. Wealthy heir to one of Britain’s oldest noble families, his best friend is Zabu the “sabretooth tiger”, his wife is feisty environmental-crusader Shanna the She-Devil and his brother is a homicidal super-scientific bandit. Kevin Reginald, Lord Plunder is perpetually torn between the clean life-or-death simplicity of the jungle and the bewildering constant compromises of modern civilisation. The primordial paragon even outranks Namor in terms of longevity, having begun as a prose pulp star, boasting three issues of his own magazine between October 1936 and June 1937. They were authored by Bob Byrd – pseudonym for publisher Martin Goodman or one of a fleet of writers on his staff – and he was latterly shoehorned into a speculative new-fangled comic book venture Marvel Comics #1. There he roamed alongside another pulp mag graduate: The Angel, plus Masked Raider, the Human Torch and Sub-Mariner

When Ka-Zar reappeared all rowdy and renovated in 1965’s X-Men #10, it was clear the Sovereign of the Savage Land was destined for bigger things. However, for years all he got was guest shots as misunderstood foe du jour for Daredevil, Sub-Mariner, Spider-Man, and the Hulk. In 1969, he took his shot with a solo saga in Marvel Super-Heroes and later that year – after Roy Thomas & Neal Adams used him so effectively in their X-Men run (i#62-63) – was awarded a giant-sized solo title reprinting previous appearances. The title also incongruously offered all-new stories of Hercules and the second, mutant X-Man Angel. That same month, Ka-Zar’s first regular series began in Astonishing Tales. That aforementioned Hercules back up from Ka-Zar #1 (August 1970 by Allyn Brodsky, Frank Springer & Dick Ayers) is reprinted here as prelude to Namor’s next exploits…

‘In his Footsteps… The Huntsman of Zeus!’ sees the Prince of Power on the run from an Olympian agent despatched by the King of the Gods. Following another bitter dispute with his sire, Hercules returns to Earth leaving Ares to foment trouble and prompt Zeus to set his terror-inducing Huntsman on the godling’s trail. After fruitlessly seeking sanctuary with the Avengers, Hercules sees his mortal friends brutally beaten and flees once again…

The panicked rush takes him to Sub-Mariner #29 and the distant Mediterranean where the Huntsman ensorcells Namor and pits him against the fugitive. Although Hercules soon breaks the hypnotic spell, ‘Fear is the Hunter!’ readily revealing why the pursuer is so dreaded as he sends mythical terrors Scylla, Charybdis and Polyphemus against the outcast heroes and pitiful mortals of the region, until a valiant breakthrough ends the threat and forces a paternal reconciliation…

Another guest star treat materialises in #30 as ‘Calling Captain Marvel!’ finds Namor again reduced to a mesmerised puppet: attacking the Kree warrior and human host Rick Jones. This time the condition is due to the amphibian’s falling in battle against toxic terrorist Mr. Markham currently trying to blackmail Earth by threatening to poison the seas with his molecular polluter. Once Mar-Vell batters Namor back to his right mind, they make quick work of the maniac in a concerted twin assault…

Fallout from his recent actions have unsettled Namor’s old friend Triton, and the Inhuman goes looking for the prince in #31, just as apparent Atlantean attacks on surface shipping mounts. Meeting equally concerned human Walt Newell (who operates as undersea Avenger Stingray) they finally find – and fight – Sub-Mariner, only to learn the crisis has been manufactured by his old enemy who is now ‘Attuma Triumphant!’ The barbarian’s plans include destroying human civilisation, but he still has time to pit his captives against each other in a gladiatorial battle to the death; which of course is Attuma’s undoing…

Jim Mooney comes aboard as inker with #32 as a new and deadly enemy debuts in ‘Call Her Llyra… Call Her Legend!’ when fresh human atomic tests prompt Namor to voyage to the Pacific and renew political alliance with the undersea state of Lemuria. However, on arrival he finds noble ruler Karthon replaced by a sinister seductress who lusts for war and harbours a tragic Jekyll & Hyde secret. By the time the prince reaches Atlantis again the Sunken City is being ravaged by seaquakes and old political enemy Byrrah is seizing control from Namor’s deputies and devoted partner Lady Dorma. ‘Come the Cataclysm’ sees him first accuse surface-worlders before locating and defeating the true culprits – an alliance of Byrrah with failed usurper Warlord Krang and malign human mastermind Dr. Dorcas. In the throes of triumph, Namor announces his imminent marriage to Dorma…

Antihero super-nonteam The Defenders officially begin with Sub-Mariner #34-35 (cover-dated February & March 1971). As previously stated, the Prince of Atlantis had become an early and ardent activist and advocate of the ecology movement, and here takes radical steps to save Earth by fractiously recruiting The Hulk and Silver Surfer to help him destroy an American Nuclear Weather-Control station. In ‘Titans Three!’ and concluding chapter ‘Confrontation!’ (Thomas, Sal B & Jim Mooney) the always-misunderstood outcasts unite to battle a despotic dictator’s legions, the US Army, UN defence forces and Avengers to prevent the malfunctioning station vaporising half the planet…

Inked by Berni Wrightson, Sub-Mariner #36 heralds a huge sea change in Namor’s fortunes that begins with time-honoured holy preparations for a happy event as ‘What Gods Have Joined Together!’ Elsewhere, arcane enemy Llyra is resurrected and seeks to steal the throne by abducting and replacing the bride-to-be, whilst Namor is distracted by an invasion of Attuma’s hordes. Ross Andru & Esposito take over illustration with #37 as an era ends and tragedy triumphs, leading to a catastrophic battle on ‘The Way to Dusty Death!’ Betrayed by one of his closest friends and ultimately unable to save his beloved, the heartbroken prince thinks long and hard before abdicating in #38 ‘Namor Agonistes!’ (inked by John Severin): reprising his origins and life choices before choosing to henceforth pursue the human half of his hybrid heritage as a surface dweller…

Despite his abdicating the throne and pursuing the human half of his hybrid heritage as a surface dweller, Namor’s tragic tribulations instantly intensify in Sub-Mariner #39 as seasoned scripter Roy Thomas bows out with ‘…And Here I’ll Stand!’ Illustrated by Andru & Mooney, it sees the former royal arrive in New York City and move onto abandoned, desolate Prison Island. Intrusion is taken for invasion by curmudgeonly human authorities who mobilise the military to drive him out. A tense stand-off soon escalates and a typically bombastic response all round reduces Sub-Mariner’s sanctuary to shards and rubble.

In the aftermath, human friends Diane Arliss and Walt Newell bring the twice-exiled Prince staggering news. Meanwhile in Manhattan – and depicted in Daredevil #77 – Gerry Conway, Gene Colan & Tom Palmer embroil Namor in a 3-way clash after a strange vehicle materialises in Central Park. Irresistibly summoned by telepathic force, Namor arrives just in time for the Sightless Swashbuckler to jump to a wrong conclusion and attack… Then a late-arriving third hero butts in…

Guest stars abound in ‘…And So Enters the Amazing Spider-Man!’ and when the uncanny alien artefact explodes, a mysterious woman ominously invites DD, the webspinner and Namor to participate in a fantastic battle in a far-flung, dimensionally-adrift lost world. Exhausted by the traditional misunderstanding and subsequent fight, Daredevil begs off and goes home, leaving the wallcrawler to join now-nomadic Namor on a fantastic voyage and bizarre adventure that concludes in the Atlantean’s own comic…

Sub-Mariner #40 sees Conway, Colan & Sam Grainger detail how Spider-Man and Namor are compelled ‘…Under the Name of Ritual…’ to save The People of the Black Sea from murderous usurper Turalla. The telepathic subspecies has undisclosed links to Atlantis and a claim on Namor’s honour: demanding he fight on their behalf since their true king has been missing for decades. In distant Boston, angry, reclusive elder Stephan Tuval is psionically aware of what’s transpiring and – just when arachnid and amphibian are about to fall in the brutal duel – strikes with all the terrifying power of his mind…

Returned to Manhattan, the heroes part, and Sub-Mariner #41 reveals Namor following up revelations shared by Diane and Walt. Illustrated by George Tuska & Grainger, ‘Whom the Sky Would Destroy!’ sees the sea lord struck down over rural New York state by mutants artificially created by deranged scientist Aunt Serr. Her son Rock is terrifying, but the real threat is meek, gentle, deceptive Lucile, and before long Namor has fallen to the demonic clan. Considered raw material, the former prince barely escapes destruction in #42’s ‘…And a House Whose Name…is Death!’ as Conway, Tuska & Mooney briskly build to larger epic featuring Tuval. If you’re completist, this issue offers a brief Mr. Kline interlude, as Conway continued an early experiment in close-linked crossover continuity. Issue #42 contributes to the convoluted storyline involving a mystery mastermind from the future, twisting human lives and events. For the full story you should see contemporaneous Iron Man and Daredevil collections: you won’t be any the wiser, but at least you’ll have a complete set…

For one month, Marvel experimented with double-sized comic books (whereas DC’s switch to 52-page issues lasted nearly a year: August 1971 to June 1972 cover-dates). November’s Sub-Mariner #43 held an immense, 3-chapter blockbuster beginning with ‘Mindquake!’ as Namor reaches Boston, still searching for his father Leonard McKenzie, whom he believed had been killed by Atlanteans in the 1920s. Instead, he finds Tuval driven mad by his re-emerging psychic abilities and now a danger to all. Crafted throughout by Conway, Colan & Esposito, the tale of the aged tele-potent reveals how he has built a cult around himself ‘…And the Power of the Mind!’, before his increasingly belligerent acts trigger ‘The Changeling War!’ and cause his downfall…

Cruelly unaware how near he is to his dad, Sub-Mariner is distracted by the return of Llyra and new consort Tiger Shark in #44’s ‘Namor Betrayed!’ Illustrated by magnificent Marie Severin & Mooney, the story reviews the antihero’s love-hate relationship with Human Torch Johnny Storm, just in time for the sultry shapeshifter to orchestrate a heated clash with the teen hero. The blistering battle concludes in #45 with McKenzie’s abduction, as ‘…And Fire Stalks the Skies!’ sees Namor surrender himself to save his sire…

Conway, Colan & Esposito pile on the trauma in #46 in ‘And Always Men Will Cry: Even the Noble Die!’ with the son’s quest ending in death and disaster, despite the best – if badly mismanaged – interventions and intentions of the Torch and Stingray. Doubly orphaned and traumatised, Namor loses his memory again, and is easily gulled by ultimate manipulator Victor Von Doom in #47’s ‘Doomsmasque!’: duly deployed as cannon fodder in the Demon

Doctor’s duel with M.O.D.O.K. and A.I.M. to control a reality-warping Cosmic Cube.

The war is dirty and many-sided, with a frontal assault in #48’s ‘Twilight of the Hunted!’ leaving Namor to a pyrrhic triumph in concluding chapter ‘The Dream Stone!’ (Frank Giacoia inks) before retrenching in confusion to ponder his obscured future…

To Be Continued…

Sunken treasures salvaged here include Buscema’s cover to all-reprint Sub-Mariner Annual #1 (January 1971, reprising the underwater portions of Tales to Astonish #70-75); Bill Everett’s similar job on Sub-Mariner Annual #2 plus an Everett pinup of the Golden Age iteration, house ads, glorious Marie Severin cover sketches and a vast gallery of original art by Sal B, Tuska, Gil Kane & Giacoia; Andru & Mooney.

Many early Marvel Comics are more exuberant than qualitative, but this volume, especially from an art-lover’s point of view, is a wonderful exception: historical treasures with narrative bite that fans will delight in forever. Moreover, as the Prince of Atlantis is now a bona fide big screen sensation, now might be the time to get wise and impress your friends with a sunken treasure…
© 2024 MARVEL.

Marvel Firsts: The 1960s


By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Larry Lieber, Roy Thomas, Gary Friedrich, Arnold Drake, Steve Parkhouse, Don Heck, Bill Everett, Dick Ayers, Gene Colan, John Buscema, George Tuska & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5864-6 (TPB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Marvel’s Most Magical… 9/10

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

For most fans, the Marvel Age of Comics began with Fantastic Four #1 at the tail end of 1961, but the company itself cites Marvel Comics #1 from 1939, when the outfit was called Timely, as the big natal event. That means this year is their 85th anniversary. So with the year rapidly closing it’s time to celebrate some big-ticket compilations.

This hefty tome from 2011 isn’t one of them, but is a superb compilation of the decade which made the House of Ideas a global force and household name. It gathers the first story of each character’s own series (not necessarily the same as a debut appearance) highlighting key moments via material taken from Rawhide Kid #17, Amazing Adventures #1, Fantastic Four #1, Tales to Astonish #27, 51 & 70, Incredible Hulk #1, Amazing Fantasy #15, Journey into Mystery #83, Strange Tales #101, 110 & 135, Two-Gun Kid #60, Tales of Suspense #39, 49 & 59, Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandoes #1, The Avengers #1, X-Men #1, Daredevil #1, Ghost Rider #1, Marvel Super-Heroes #12, 19 and 20, Captain Savage #1 and Silver Surfer #1, collectively covering August 1960 to May 1969 and incorporating a vast gallery of covers from other titles that came and went with such breathtaking rapidity in those days.

As stated, the company-that-became-Marvel was still going – albeit in dire straits – when Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and a select few others started their comics revolution, and these tales offer unmatched insights into how that all happened by re-presenting official first appearances. Opening in January 1960 with a selection of 16 genre covers ranging from Battle #70 to Love Romances #87 to Patsy Walker #89, the first inklings of what’s to come are seen in Rawhide Kid #17, by Lee, Kirby and inker Dick Ayers.

The Kid was one of Atlas’ older icons, having starred in his own title since 1955. A stock buckskin-clad sagebrush centurion, he was one of the first casualties when Atlas’ distribution crisis forced the company to cut back to 16 titles in the autumn of 1957. However, with westerns huge on TV and youthful rebellion a hot topic in 1960, Lee & Kirby conceived a brand-new six-gun stalwart – a teenager in fact – and launched him in the summer of the year, tidily retaining the numbering of his cancelled predecessor. It’s important to remember that these yarns aren’t trying to be gritty or authentic: they’re accessing a vast miasmic morass of wholesome, homogenised Hollywood mythmaking that generations of consumers preferred to learning the grim everyday toil, travail and terror of the real Old West, so sit back, reset your moral compass to “fair enough” and revel in simplistic Black Hats versus White Hats, with all the dynamic bombast and bravura Kirby & inker Dick Ayers could muster…

It all begins with adopted teen Johnny Bart teaching all and sundry in a cow-town named Rawhide to ‘Beware! The Rawhide Kid’ after his retired Texas Ranger Uncle Ben is gunned down by fame-hungry cheat Hawk Brown. After very publicly exercising his right to vengeance, the naive kid flees Rawhide before he can explain, resigned to living as an outlaw forevermore…

His reputation is further enhanced when he routs a masked gang robbing the ‘Stagecoach to Shotgun Gap!’ after which Don Heck delivers one of his sleekly authentic western tales when a veteran gunslinger devises a way to end his own fearsome career ‘With Gun in Hand!’ The issue closes with by Lee, Kirby & Ayers revealing how another tragic misunderstanding confirms Johnny Bart’s destiny ‘When the Rawhide Kid Turned… Outlaw!’

Following a trio of romantic comedy covers – My Girl Pearl #7, Teen-Age Romance #77 and Life with Millie #8 – we turn to the company’s splendidly addictive men-vs-monsters anthology titles wherein Amazing Adventures #1 (cover-dated June 1961) begins a cautious experiment by launching a low-key – un-costumed – paranormal mystically empowered investigator for a short run of pre-superhero escapades. ‘I Am the Fantastic Dr. Droom!’ (Lee & Kirby with Ditko inking) finds a seemingly sedate American drawn to Tibet to learn ancient mysteries before returning home as an occult consultant after which, the cover for Linda Carter, Student Nurse #1 takes us to the big moment when everything changed…

Fantastic Four #1 (November 1961) introduces a brave new world in eponymous landmark ‘The Fantastic Four’ as maverick scientist Reed Richards summons fiancée Sue Storm, their pilot pal Ben Grimm and Sue’s kid brother Johnny before heading off on their first mission. In a flashback we discover that they are driven survivors of a private space-shot that went horribly wrong when Cosmic Rays penetrated their ship’s inadequate shielding. On crashing back to Earth, they found they’d all been hideously mutated into outlandish freaks.

Richards’ body became elastic, Sue gained the power to turn invisible, Johnny Storm could turn into living flame and tragic Ben turned into a shambling, rocky freak. Shaken but unbowed they vow to dedicate their new abilities to benefiting mankind. Crafted by Lee & Kirby with inks by George Klein & Christopher Rule, the drama intensified with ‘The Fantastic Four meet the Mole Man’, foiling a plan by another outcast who controls monsters and slave humanoids from far beneath the Earth. This summation of the admittedly mediocre plot cannot do justice to the engrossing wonder of that breakthrough issue – we really have no grasp today of just how different in tone, how shocking it all was.

Next comes Ditko’s cover to Amazing Adult Fantasy #7, preceding a throwaway vignette from another of the company’s anthological monster mags. Taken from Tales to Astonish #27 (January 1962) a 7-page short introduces Dr Henry Pym, a maverick scientist who discovers a shrinking potion and discovers peril, wonder and a kind of companionship amongst the lowliest creatures on Earth and under it. This engaging piece of fluff – which owed more than a little to the movie The Incredible Shrinking Man – was plotted by Lee, scripted by his brother Larry Lieber and stunningly illustrated by Kirby & Ayers.

The Incredible Hulk smashed right into his own bi-monthly comic and, after some classic romps by Young Marvel’s finest creators, crashed right out again. After 6 issues, the series was cancelled and Lee retrenched, making the Gruff Green Giant a perennial guest-star in other titles until such time as they could restart the drama in their new “Split-Book” format in Tales to Astonish where Ant/Giant-Man was rapidly proving to be a character who had outlived his time. Cover-dated May 1962, that first issue observes puny atomic boffin Bruce Banner, sequestered on a secret military base in the American desert and perpetually bullied by bombastic commander General “Thunderbolt” Ross as the clock counts down to the world’s first Gamma Bomb test. Besotted by Ross’s daughter Betty, Banner endures the General’s constant jibes as the timer ticks on and tension increases. At the final moment Banner sees a teenager lollygagging at Ground Zero and frantically rushes to the site to drag the boy away. Unknown to everyone, the assistant he’s entrusted to delay the countdown has an agenda of his own…

Rick Jones is a wayward but good-hearted kid. After initial resistance he lets himself be pushed into a safety trench, but just as Banner prepares to join him The Bomb detonates…

Somehow surviving the blast, Banner and the boy are secured by soldiers, but that evening as the sun sets the scientist undergoes a monstrous transformation. He grows larger; his skin turns a stony grey. In 6 simple pages that’s how it all starts, and no matter what any number of TV or movie reworkings or comicbook retcons and psycho-babble re-evaluations would have you believe that’s still the best and most primal take on the origin. A good man, an unobtainable girl, a foolish kid, an unknown enemy and the horrible power of destructive science unchecked. Written by Lee, drawn by Kirby with inking by Paul Reinman, ‘The Coming of the Hulk’ barrels along as the man-monster and Jones are then kidnapped by Banner’s Soviet counterpart the Gargoyle for a rousing round of espionage and Commie-busting…

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 and their 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 Fantastic Four and the ahead-of-his-time Incredible Hulk, but there was no indication of the renaissance to come when the cover of officially just-cancelled Amazing Fantasy #15 (August 1962) highlighted a brand new and rather eerie adventure character.

The wonderment came and went in 11 captivating pages: ‘Spider-Man!’ telling the parable of Peter Parker, a smart but alienated kid bitten by a radioactive spider on a high school science trip. Discovering he has developed arachnid abilities – which he augments with his own natural engineering genius – Parker does what any lonely, geeky nerd would do when given such a gift… he tries to cash in for girls, fame and money. Creating a costume to hide his identity in case he makes a fool of himself, he becomes a minor celebrity – and a vain, self-important one. To his eternal regret, when a thief flees past, he doesn’t lift a finger to stop him, only to find when he returns home that his Uncle Ben has been murdered.

Crazy for vengeance, Parker stalks the assailant who made his beloved Aunt May a widow and killed the only father he had ever known, to find that it is the felon he couldn’t be bothered with. Since his irresponsibility led to the death of the man who raised him, the boy swears to always use his powers to help others…

It wasn’t a new story, but the setting was one familiar to every kid reading it and the artwork was downright spooky. This wasn’t the gleaming high-tech world of moon-rockets, giant aliens and flying cars – this stuff could happen to anybody…

The tragic last-ditch tale struck a chord with the reading public and by Christmas a new comic book superstar was ready to launch in his own title, with Ditko eager to show what he could do with his first returning character since the demise of Charlton action hero Captain Atom

The Mighty Thor was the comic series in which Jack Kirby’s restless fascination with all things Cosmic was honed and refined through his dazzling graphics and captivating concepts. The King’s examination of space-age mythology began in modest fantasy title Journey into Mystery where – in the summer of 1962 – a tried-and-true comicbook concept (feeble mortal transformed into god-like hero) was revived by fledgling Marvel to add a Superman analogue to their growing roster of costumed adventurers. JiM #83 (August 1962) saw a bold costumed warrior jostling aside the regular fare of monsters, robots and sinister scientists in a brash, vivid explosion of verve and vigour.

The initial exploit follows crippled American physician Donald Blake who takes a vacation in Norway only to encounter the vanguard of an alien invasion. Fleeing, he is trapped in a cave where he finds an old, gnarled walking stick. When in his frustration he smashes the stick into a huge boulder obstructing his escape, his puny frame is transformed into the Norse God of Thunder Mighty Thor! Plotted by Lee, scripted by Lieber and illustrated by Kirby & inker Joe Sinnott (at this juncture a full illustrator, Sinnott would become Kirby’s primary inker for most of his Marvel career), ‘The Stone Men of Saturn’ is pure dawn Marvel: bombastic, fast-paced, gloriously illogical and captivatingly action-packed. The hugely under-appreciated Art Simek was the letterer and logo designer. It was clear that they were making it up as they went along – not in itself a bad thing – and all that infectious enthusiasm shows…

Amazing Fantasy #15 came out the same month as Journey into Mystery #83 and a month later Tales to Astonish #35 – first to feature Henry Pym’s Astonishing Ant-Man costumed capers – appeared. Here you’ll find the cover to TtA #35 to mark that occasion. Hot on the heels of the runaway success of Fantastic Four, Stan & Jack spun the most colourful and youngest member of the team into his own series, hoping to recapture the glory of the 1940s when the original Human Torch was one of the company’s “Big Three” superstars. Within a year, the magic-&-monsters anthology title Strange Tales became home to the hot-headed hero: in #101, Johnny Storm started his ancillary solo career in eponymous exploit ‘The Human Torch’.

Scripted by Lieber (over a plot by brother Stan) and sublimely illustrated by Kirby & Ayers, the plucky lad investigates sabotage at a new seaside amusement park and promptly discovers Commie-conniving thanks to Red spy the Destroyer. Kirby would pencil the first few yarns before moving on, after which Ayers assumed control for most of its run, although The King generated some of the best covers of his Marvel career throughout the Torch’s tenure.

An odd inconsistency – or more likely tension- and drama-inducing gimmick – did crop up here. Although public figures in the FF, Johnny and sister Sue live part-time in Long Island hamlet Glenville where, despite the townsfolk being fully aware of her as the glamorous and heroic Invisible Girl, they seem oblivious to the fact that her baby brother is the equally famous Torch. Many daft-but-ingenious pages of Johnny protecting his secret identity would ensue before the situation was brilliantly resolved…

Despite the runway success of its new superheroes, Marvel was still offering a range of genres such as westerns. August 1962 saw the retooling of another Atlas property as Two-Gun Kid #60 (cover-dated November) introduced Eastern lawyer Matt Hawk who moved to barbarous and unruly Tombstone, Texas in ‘The Beginning of the Two-Gun Kid’ (Lee, Kirby & Ayers). After merciless and relentless bullying, the tenderfoot is mentored by aged gunslinger Ben Dancer and transforms into a powerful, ultrafast deadly accurate shootist. When Ben is driven out of town by a pack of thugs working for land baron Clem Carter, Hawk adopts a masked identity to see justice done. Don Heck limned stand-alone tale ‘The Outcast’, revealing the naked ambition of a Navajo warrior before Hawk returns to complete his origin story in ‘I Hate the Two-Gun Kid!’ as romantic interest Nancy Carter falls foul of a scheme by her stepbrother to defraud her and frame the new hero in town…

More striking covers – Modelling with Millie #21 and Amazing Spider-Man #1 – precede the debut of the next Marvel milestone in Tales of Suspense #39 (March 1963 and on the newsstands for Christmas 1962). Created in the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis and at a time when “Red-baiting” and “Commie-bashing” were national obsessions in the U.S., the emergence of a brilliant new Thomas Edison employing Yankee ingenuity and invention to safeguard the World was an inevitable proposition. Combining the cherished belief that (US) technology could solve every problem with universal imagery of noble knights battling evil and the proposition became certainty. Of course, kids thought it great fun and very, very cool.

Scripted by Lieber (over Lee’s plot) and illustrated by criminally unappreciated Don Heck, ‘Iron Man is Born’ see electronics wizard Tony Stark field testing his latest invention in Viet Nam when he is wounded by a landmine. Captured by Viet Cong commander Wong-Chu, he is given a grim ultimatum. Create weapons for the Reds and a doctor will remove from his chest the shrapnel that will kill him within seven days. If not…

Knowing Commies can’t be trusted, Stark and aged Professor Yinsen – another captive scientist – build a mobile iron lung (remember this was years before heart transplants and pace-makers) to keep his heart beating, equipping it with all the weapons their ingenuity and resources can secretly build. Naturally they succeed, defeating Wong-Chu, but not without tragic sacrifice…

Next was a new genre title, once again given a fresh treatment by Lee, Kirby & Ayers. Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos (May 1963) was an improbable, over-the-top WWII combat comic series similar in tone to later ensemble action movies such as The Magnificent Seven, The Wild Bunch and The Dirty Dozen. The surly squad of sorry reprobates were the first of three teams concocted by men-on-fire Kirby & Lee to secure fledgling Marvel’s growing position as the publisher to watch. Sgt. Fury started out as a pure Kirby creation. As with all his various war comics, The King made everything look harsh and real and appalling: the people and places are all grimy and tired, battered yet indomitable.

The artist had served in some of the worst battles of the war and never forgot the horrific and heroic things he saw – and more graphically expressed in his efforts during the 1950s genre boom at a number of different companies. However, even at kid-friendly, Comics Code-sanitised Marvel, those experiences perpetually leaked through onto his powerfully gripping pages. The saga began with blistering premier ‘Sgt. Fury, and his Howling Commandoes’ (that’s how they spelled it in the storrie-title – altho knot ennyware else): a rip-snorting yarn bursting with full-page panels interrupted by ‘Meet the Howling Commandos’ – a double-page spread spotlighting the seven members of First Attack Squad; Able Company. This comprised Fury himself, former circus strongman/Corporal “Dum-Dum” Dugan and privates Robert “Rebel” Ralston (a Kentucky jockey), college student Jonathan “Junior” Juniper, jazz trumpeter Gabriel Jones, mechanic Izzy Cohen and movie heartthrob Dino Manelli.

Controversially – even in the 1960s – this battle Rat Pack was an integrated unit, with Jewish and black members as well as Catholics, Southern Baptists and New York white guys all merrily serving together. The Howling Commandos pushed envelopes and busted taboos from the very start. The first mission was a non-stop riot pitting ‘Seven Against the Nazis!’ and putting the squad through their unique paces: a ragged band of indomitable warriors taking on hordes of square-necked Nazis to save D-Day and rescue a French resistance fighter carrying vital plans of the invasion…

A low-key introduction served for the next debut as something different debuted at the back of Strange Tales #110. When the budding House of Ideas introduced a warrior wizard to their burgeoning pantheon in the summer of 1963 it was a bold and curious move. Bizarre adventures and menacing monsters were still incredibly popular but mention of magic or the supernatural – especially vampires, werewolves and their eldritch ilk – were all severely proscribed by a censorship panel which dictated almost all aspects of story content.

At this time – almost a decade after an anti-comics public campaign led to Senate hearings – all comics were ferociously monitored and adjudicated by the draconian Comics Code Authority. Even though some of the small company’s strongest sellers were still mystery mags, their underlying themes and premises were almost universally mad science and alien wonders, not necromantic or thaumaturgic horrors. That might explain Lee’s unobtrusive introduction of Steve Ditko’s mystic defender: an exotic, twilit troubleshooter inhabiting the shadowy outer fringes of rational, civilised society in one of those aforementioned monster titles.

Tales of Suspense #41 (May 1963) had seen newcomer Iron Man battle deranged technological wizard Doctor Strange, and with the name legally in copyrightable print, preparations began for a truly different kind of ongoing hero. The company had recently published a quasi-mystic precursor in balding, trench-coated Doctor Droom (later renamed Dr. Druid) and when Stephen Strange scored big, the prototype would be subsequently retro-written into Marvel continuity as an alternative candidate and precursor for the ultimate role of Sorcerer Supreme. Thus, without any preamble, our first meeting with the man of mystery comes courtesy of a quiet little chiller which has never been surpassed for sheer mood and imagination. Lee & Ditko’s ‘Doctor Strange Master of Black Magic!’ in Strange Tales #110 (July 1963) saw a terrified man troubled by his dreams approach an exceptional consultant in his search of a cure. That perfect 5-page fright-fest introduces whole new realms and features deceit, desperation, double-dealing and the introduction of both a mysterious and aged oriental mentor and devilish dream demon Nightmare in an unforgettable yarn that might well be Ditko’s finest moment…

After a period of meteoric expansion, by mid-1963 the ever-expanding Marvel Universe was finally ready to emulate the successful DC concept that cemented the legitimacy of American comics’ Silver Age – the concept of putting a bunch of all-star eggs in one basket which had made the Justice League of America such a winner and inspired the moribund Atlas outfit to try superheroes again. Nearly 18 months after Fantastic Four #1, the fledgling House of Ideas had a viable stable of leading men (if only sidekick women) so Lee & Kirby assembled a handful of them and moulded them into a force for justice and soaring sales…

Seldom has it ever been done with such style and sheer exuberance. Cover dated September 1963, The Avengers #1 kicks off with ‘The Coming of the Avengers’: one of the cannier origin tales in comics. Instead of starting at a zero point and acting as if the reader knew nothing, Stan & Jack (plus inker Dick Ayers) assumed readers had at least passing familiarity with Marvel’s other titles and wasted very little time or energy on introductions.

In Asgard, God of Mischief Loki is imprisoned on a dank isle, hungry for vengeance on his half-brother Thor. Observing Earth, the wicked Asgardian espies monstrous, misunderstood Hulk and mystically engineers a situation wherein the man-brute seemingly goes on a rampage, simply to trick the Thunder God into battling the brute. When the Hulk’s sidekick Rick Jones radios the FF for assistance, devious Loki diverts the transmission and smugly awaits the outcome of his trickery Sadly, Iron Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp also pick up the redirected SOS. As the heroes converge in the American Southwest to search for the Jade Giant, they soon realize that something is oddly amiss…

This terse, epic, compelling and wide-ranging yarn (New York, New Mexico, Detroit and Asgard in 22 pages) is Lee & Kirby at their bombastic best, but that same month they also premiered another super squad that was the hero team’s polar opposite. X-Men #1 introduced gloomy, serious Scott Summers (Cyclops), ebullient Bobby Drake AKA Iceman, wealthy golden boy Warren Worthington III codenamed Angel, and erudite, brutish genius Henry McCoy as The Beast. These teens were very special students of Professor Charles Xavier, a wheelchair-bound telepath dedicated to brokering peace and achieving integration between the sprawling masses of humanity and Homo Superior: an emergent off-shoot race of mutants with incredible extra abilities.

Scripted by Lee, ‘X-Men’ opens with the boisterous students welcoming new classmate Jean Grey (promptly dubbed Marvel Girl): a young woman possessing the ability to move objects with her mind. Whilst Xavier is explaining the team goals and mission in life, actual Evil Mutant Magneto is single-handedly taking over American missile-base Cape Citadel. A seemingly unbeatable threat, the master of magnetism is nonetheless valiantly driven off by the young heroes on their first outing in under 15 minutes…

It doesn’t sound like much, but the gritty, dynamic power of Kirby’s art, solidly inked by veteran Paul Reinman, imparted a raw aggressive energy to the tale which carried the bi-monthly book irresistibly forward.

As Henry Pym matured from Ant-Man to Giant-Man, he took on a crimefighting partner in Janet Van Dyne – The Wasp. Although she almost never got a chance to solo star, with Tales to Astonish #52 (January 1964) Jan won a back-up series where she narrated horror stories like this one. Crafted by Lee, Lieber & Roussos, ‘Somewhere Waits a Wobbow!’ is a standard cautionary tale of fate and justice catching up to a crooked ne’er-do-well and is followed here by a similar new position for an alien first introduced in Fantastic Four #13. By the same team and in the same month, Tales of the Watcher launched in Tales of Suspense #49 as the omnipotent intergalactic voyeur relates ‘The Saga of the Sneepers!’ wherein predatory extraterrestrials observe Earth and make plans to conquer humanity…

As the evolved Atlas Comics grew in popularity, it gradually supplanted its broad variety of genre titles with more and more superheroes. The recovering powerhouse was still hampered by a crippling distribution deal that limited the company to 16 titles per month (which would restrict their output until 1968), so each new untried book would have to fill the revenue-generating slot (however small) of an existing title. Moreover, as costumed characters were selling, each new similarly-themed title would limit the breadth of the monster, western, war, humour or girls’ comics that had been the outfit’s recent bread and butter. It was putting a lot of eggs in one basket, and superheroes had failed twice before for Marvel.

So, Daredevil, the Man Without Fear (April 1964) might have seemed a risky venture. Yes, the artist was one of the industry’s most talented veterans, but not to the young kids who were the audience. Crucially, he wasn’t Kirby or Ditko. ‘The Origin of Daredevil’ recounts how young Matthew Murdock grew up in the slums, raised by his father Battling Jack Murdock, a second-rate prize-fighter. Determined that the boy will be something, the father extracts a solemn promise from his son that he will never fight. Mocked by other kids who sarcastically dub him “Daredevil”, Matt abides by his vow, but secretly trains his body to physical perfection.

One day he saves a blind man from being hit by a speeding truck, only to be struck in the face by its radioactive cargo. His sight is burned away forever but his other senses are super-humanly enhanced and he gains a sixth: “radar-sense”. He tells no-one, not even his dad. The senior Murdock is in dire straits. As his career declined, he signed with The Fixer, knowing full well what the corrupt promoter expected from his fighters. Yet Jack’s star started to shine again and his downward spiral reversed itself. Unaware he was being set up, Murdock got a shot at the Big Time, but when ordered to take a dive, refused. Winning was the proudest moment of his life. When his bullet-riddled corpse was found, the cops had suspicions but no proof. Heartbroken Matt graduated college with a law degree and set up in business with his room-mate Franklin “Foggy” Nelson. They hired a lovely young secretary named Karen Page and, with his life on track, young Matt now had time to solve his father’s murder…

His promise stopped him from fighting; but what if he became somebody else?

Scripted by Lee and moodily illustrated by the legendary Bill Everett (with assistance from Ditko) this is a rather nonsensical yet visually compelling yarn that just goes through the motions, barely hinting at the magic yet to come.

A cover gallery highlighting Marvel Tales Annual #1, Tales to Astonish #60 and photo mag Monsters to Laugh With #1 then leads to the return of Captain America in his own series. After his resurrection in Avengers #4, the Golden Age Cap grew in popularity and was quickly awarded his own solo feature, sharing Tales of Suspense with Iron Man. Sparsely scripted by Lee with the ideal team of Kirby & Chic Stone illustrating, ‘Captain America’ is one phenomenal fight scene as an army of thugs invades Avengers Mansion because “only the one without superpowers” is at home. They soon learn the folly of that misapprehension…

Veteran war-hero Nick Fury was reimagined in Fantastic Four #21 (December 1963) as a grizzled, world-weary and cunning CIA Colonel at the periphery of really big events in a fast-changing world. Fury’s latter-day self then emerged as a big-name star once espionage yarns went global in the wake of popular TV sensations like The Man from U.N.C.L.E. The elder iteration was given a second series beginning in Strange Tales #135 (August 1965). Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. combined Cold War tensions with sinister schemes of World Conquest by a subversive, all-encompassing, hidden enemy organisation. The unfolding saga came with captivating Kirby-designed super-science gadgetry…

Kirby’s genius for graphic wizardry and gift for dramatic staging mixed with Stan Lee’s manic melodrama to create a tough and tense series which the writers and artists who followed turned into a non-stop riot of action and suspense. The main event starts with ST #135 as the Human Torch lead feature is summarily replaced by ‘Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ – which back then stood for Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-enforcement Division

In the rocket-paced first episode, Fury is asked to volunteer for the most dangerous job in the world: leading a new counter-intelligence agency dedicated to stopping secretive subversive super-science organisation Hydra. With assassins dogging his every move, the Take-Charge Guy with the Can-Do Attitude quickly proves he is ‘The Man for the Job!’ in a potent 12-page thriller by Lee, Kirby & Ayers.

Originally devised by Bill Everett in 1939, Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner is the offspring of a water-breathing Atlantean princess and an American polar explorer: a hybrid being of immense strength, highly resistant to physical harm, able to fly and exist above and below the waves. Namor technically predates Marvel/Atlas/Timely Comics. He first caught the public’s attention as part of the fire vs. water headlining team in Marvel Comics #1 (October 1939 and Marvel Mystery Comics from the second issue onward), sharing honours and top billing with the original Human Torch, but he had originally been seen (albeit in a truncated black and white version) in Motion Picture Funnies: a weekly promotional giveaway handed out to moviegoers earlier in the year. Rapidly emerging as one of the company’s biggest draws, Namor gained his own title at the end of 1940 (cover-dated Spring 1941) and was one of the last super-characters to go at the end of the first heroic age. In 1954, when Atlas briefly revived its “Big Three” (the Torch and Captain America being the other two) costumed characters, Everett returned for an extended run of superb fantasy tales, but even so the time wasn’t right and the title sunk again.

When Lee & Kirby started reinventing comic books in 1961 they revived the all-but-forgotten awesome amphibian as a troubled, semi-amnesiac, and decidedly more regal, grandiose anti-hero in Fantastic Four #4. The returnee despised humanity; embittered at the loss of his sub-sea kingdom (seemingly destroyed by American atomic testing) whilst simultaneously besotted with Sue Storm. Namor knocked around the budding Marvel universe for a few years, squabbling with other assorted heroes such as the Hulk, Avengers and X-Men, before securing his own series as one half of Tales to Astonish. In 1968 the company ended its restrictive publishing commitments and expanded exponentially.

After spectacularly battling Daredevil in the Scarlet Swashbuckler’s 7th issue, Tales to Astonish #70 heralded ‘The Start of the Quest!’ as Lee, Gene Colan (in the pseudonymous guise of Adam Austin) & Vince Colletta set the Sub-Mariner to storming an Atlantis under martial law ordered by his usurping Warlord Krang. The effort is for naught and the returning hero is rejected by his own people. Callously imprisoned, the troubled Prince is freed by his oft-neglected and ignored paramour Lady Dorma, compelling him to begin a mystical quest to find the lost Trident of King Neptune which only the rightful ruler of Atlantis can hold…

More covers follow – Monsters Unlimited #1, Patsy Walker’s Fashion Parade #1, reprint anthologies Marvel Collectors’ Items Classics #1, Fantasy Masterpieces #1, Marvel Tales #3, King Size Special Marvel Super-Heroes #1 and Thor #126 (a first issue as Journey into Mystery was sensibly retitled) before a new masked-&-costumed western hero debuted in Ghost Rider #1 (December 1966). ‘The Origin of the Ghost Rider’ by Gary Friedrich, Roy Thomas, Ayers & Colletta revealed how Eastern teacher Carter Slade is shot by fake Indians and brought back from the brink of death by real ones. Saved by recently-orphaned Jamie Jacobs, Slade is healed by shaman Flaming Star who trains him in combat and gives him gifts which enable him to perform tricks of stage magic (such as night-time invisibility, image projection and bodily discorporation). Creating a glowing costume, Slade goes after the plundering white men impersonating native tribes – and who killed Jamie’s parents – as a spectral avenging spirit: “He who rides the Night Wind”…

Older fans – or their parents – might possibly recognise this hero as the western legend created by Ray Krank & Dick Ayers for Tim Holt #11 (Magazine Enterprises, 1949), later immortalised by Frank Frazetta. They are stunningly, litigiously similar and Marvel made good use of the original’s reputation and recently voided copyright ownership…

The same holds true for their next superhero addition, who crops up following another cover gallery featuring Not Brand Echh #1 and animated cartoon tie-in one-shot America’s Best (TV) Comics #1. After years as an also-ran/up-and-comer, by 1968 Marvel Comics was in the ascendant. Their sales were catching up with industry leaders National/DC Comics and Gold Key, and they finally secured a new distribution deal that would allow them to expand their list of titles exponentially. Once the stars of Tales of Suspense, Tales to Astonish and Strange Tales all got their own titles, the House of Ideas just kept on going.

One dead-cert idea was a hero named after the company – and one with a huge amount of popular cachet and nostalgic pedigree as well. After the DC/Fawcett court case of the 1940s-1950s, the name Captain Marvel disappeared from the newsstands, but in In 1967 – during the superhero boom and camp craze generated by the Batman TV show, publisher MLF secured rights to the name and produced a number of giant-sized comics featuring an intelligent robot who could divide his body into segments and shoot lasers from his eyes.

Quirky, charming and devised by the legendary Carl (Human Torch) Burgos who had recently worked for Marvel, the feature nevertheless could not attract a large following. Upon its demise, the name was quickly snapped up by the resurgent Marvel Comics Group.

Marvel Super-Heroes was a brand-new title: it had been giant-sized reprint comic book Fantasy Masterpieces, combining monster and mystery tales with Golden Age Timely classics. With #12, it added an all-new lead experimental section for characters without homes such as Medusa and Black Knight when not debuting new concepts like Guardians of the Galaxy, Phantom Eagle (for some reason not included here) – and, to start the ball rolling, a troubled alien spy sent to Earth from the Kree Galaxy. He held a Captain’s rank and his name was Mar-Vell.

Courtesy of Lee, Colan & Giacoia, the initial MS-H 15 page-instalment ‘The Coming of Captain Marvel!: Phase One!!’ devolved directly from Fantastic Four #64-65 wherein the quartet defeated a super-advanced robotic Sentry from a mythical alien race, only to be attacked by a high official of those long-lost extraterrestrials in their very next issue!

After defeating Ronan the Accuser, the FF heard no more from the far-from-extinct Kree, but the millennia-old empire was once again interested in Earth. Dispatching a surveillance mission, the Kree wanted to know everything about us. Unfortunately, the agent they chose was a man of conscience; whilst his commanding officer Colonel Yon-Rogg was a ruthless rival for the love of the ship’s medical officer Una. No sooner has the good captain made a tentative planet-fall and clashed with the US military from the local missile base than the first instalment ends…

Although cover-dated January 1968, Capt. Savage and his Leatherneck Raiders #1 was released in November of the previous year, and promoted a supporting character from Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos to lead status and WWII’s Pacific Theatre of War. Crafted by Friedrich, Ayers & Syd Shores, ‘The Last Banzai!’ sees US submarine commander Simon Savage placed at the head of a squad of elite (multicultural/multi-ethnic) marines to clear the way for the imminent Allied landing on the fortified atoll of Tarawa. It’s a dirty job but…

The aforementioned expansion is celebrated in the covers for Groovy #1, Captain America #100, Incredible Hulk #102, Iron Man and The Sub-Mariner #1, Iron Man #1, Sub-Mariner #1, Captain Marvel #1, Doctor Strange #169, Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 and Spectacular Spider-Man #1 and cemented by the first full solo tale of one the company’s breakthrough stars. Although pretty much a last-minute addition to Fantastic Four #48-50’s ‘Galactus Trilogy’, Jack Kirby’s scintillating creation the Silver Surfer quickly became a watchword for depth and subtext in the Marvel Universe and one Stan Lee kept as his own personal toy for many years.

Tasked with finding planets for space god Galactus to consume and, despite the best efforts of intergalactic voyeur Uatu the Watcher, one day the Surfer discovers Earth, where the latent nobility of humanity reawakens his own suppressed morality; causing the shining scout to rebel against his master and help the FF save the world. In retaliation, Galactus imprisons his one-time herald on Earth, making him the ultimate outsider on a planet remarkably ungrateful for his sacrifice. The Galactus Saga was a creative highlight from a period when the Lee/Kirby partnership was utterly on fire. The tale has all the power and grandeur of a true epic and has never been surpassed for drama, thrills and sheer entertainment. It’s not included here: for that treat you’ll need to see a Fantastic Four Epic Collection or many other Marvel collections…

In May 1968, after frequent guest-shots and even a solo adventure in the back of Fantastic Four Annual #5, the Surfer finally got his own (initially double-length) title at long last.

‘The Origin of the Silver Surfer!’ is illustrated by John Buscema & Joe Sinnott, with the drama opening on a prolonged flashback sequence of the outcast’s forays on Earth and repeated examples of crass humanity’s brutal callousness and unthinking hostility, detailing how Norrin Radd, discontented soul from an alien paradise Zenn-La, became the gleaming herald of a planetary scourge. Radd had constantly chafed against a culture in comfortable, sybaritic stagnation, but when Galactus shattered their vaunted million years of progress in a fleeting moment, the dissident without hesitation offered himself as a sacrifice to save the world from the Devourer’s hunger.

Converted into an indestructible, gleaming human meteor, Radd agreed to scour the galaxies looking for uninhabited worlds rich in the energies Galactus needs to survive, thus saving planets with life on them from destruction. He didn’t always find them in time…

The stories in this series were highly acclaimed – if not really commercially successful – both for Buscema’s agonised, emphatic and lush artwork as well as Lee’s deeply spiritual and philosophical scripts. The tone was accusatory; with the isolated alien’s travails and social observations creating a metaphoric status akin to a Christ-figure for an audience that was maturing and rebelling against America’s creaking and unsavoury status quo.

The company had early learned the value of reprinting their past glories; both to update new readers and to cheaply monopolise sales points and here a gallery blends ongoing titles such as newly retitled Captain Savage and his Battlefield Raiders #5 and adult-oriented Pussycat #1 with double-sized classics compilations Tales of Asgard #1 and The Mighty Marvel Western #1 before Marvel Super-Heroes #19 (March 1969 and on the stands in December 1968) saw Tarzan analogue Ka-Zar in his first solo story ‘My Father, My Enemy!’ courtesy of Arnold Drake, Steve Parkhouse, George Tuska & Sid Greene,

Beginning as a barbarian wild man in a lost sub-polar realm of swamp-men and dinosaurs, Ka-Zar eventually evolved into one of Marvel’s more complex – and exceedingly mutable – characters. Wealthy heir to one of Britain’s oldest noble families, his best friend is a sabre-tooth tiger, his wife is feisty jungle warrior/zoologist Shanna the She-Devil and his brother is a homicidal super-scientific bandit. He is one of Marvel/Timely’s oldest heroes. Prose pulp hero Kazar predates Martin Goodman’s first foray into comics and strip incarnation Kazar the Great was in Marvel Comics #1, right beside The Human Torch, Sub-Mariner and The Angel…

Lord Kevin Plunder was perpetually torn between the clean life-or-death simplicity of the jungle and the bewildering constant compromises of modern civilisation as he guest-starred in titles as varied as X-Men, Daredevil and Amazing Spider-Man.

As this enjoyable, under-appreciated tale unfolds, many of the hero’s inconsistencies and conflicts are squared as the aristocratic outsider leaves his British castle for the Antediluvian Savage Land to investigate claims that his dead father was a scientific devil intent on using his discovery of anti-metal for evil. Tragically, his warped brother Parnival is ruthlessly determined to hide the truth for his own vile ends. A wild excursion to Antarctica follows, featuring the discovery of a lost land, dinosaurs, lost cities, spectacular locations, mystery and all-out action: it doesn’t get better than this…

Ending the astounding adventures is a tale taken from February 1969 as the industry began experiencing a downturn in superhero sales and the rise of other genres. Co-written and pencilled by Lieber with Thomas, Giacoia & Vince Colletta, ‘This Man… This Demon!’ was the last solo try-out from Marvel Super-Heroes (#20, cover-dated May) before it became an all-reprint vehicle. It restated Dr. Victor von Doom’s origins and revealed his tragic, doomed relationship with a gypsy girl named Valeria. That relationship is then exploited by demon alchemist Diablo who claims to need an ally but actually wants a new slave. The terrifying monarch of Latveria deals with the charlatan in typically effective style…

Marvel continued expanding for the remainder of the decade, but not with superheroes, as a final clutch of covers – Mad About Millie #1, Chili #1, My Love #1, Tower of Shadows #1, Chamber of Darkness #1, Our Love Story #1, Marvel’s Greatest Comics #22, Homer, the Happy Ghost #1, Peter the Little Pest #1, a revived Kid Colt Outlaw (#140), Ringo Kid #1 and Where Monsters Dwell #1 – comes full circle and highlights the publisher’s return to genre themes, after which a brief bonus section reveals Stan Lee’s original synopsis for Fantastic Four #1 and house ads from the early moments of the decade…

The 1960s was the turning point in the history of American comic books: the moment when a populist industry became a true art form. These are the tales that sparked that renaissance and remain some of the best stories and art you will ever experience. Nuff Said?
© 2017 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

Avengers Epic Collection volume 10: The Yesterday Quest 1978-1979


By Jim Shooter, David Michelinie, Roger Stern, Marv Wolfman, George Pérez, Bill Mantlo, Roger Slifer, Steve Gerber, Tom DeFalco, Mark Gruenwald, Steven Grant, Scott Edelman, Dave Wenzel, John Byrne, Sal Buscema, Carmine Infantino, Jim Mooney, Don Newton, Michael Netzer & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-8790-5 (TPB/Digital edition)

The Avengers have always proved that putting all one’s star eggs in a single basket pays off big-time: even when all Marvel’s classic all-stars such as Thor, Captain America and Iron Man are absent, it merely allows the team’s lesser lights to shine more brightly.

Of course, all the founding stars were regularly featured due to the rotating, open door policy, which means that every issue includes somebody’s fave-rave – and the boldly grand-scale impressive stories and artwork are no hindrance either. With the team now global icons, let’s look again at the stories which form the foundation of that pre-eminence.

Re-presenting Avengers #167, Avengers Annual #8 & 9 and material from Marvel Tales #100 (cumulatively spanning January 1978 to October 1979), these stories still see the team in turbulent transition. That was as much a result of creative upheaval at the House of Ideas as narrative exigency. Times were changing for the company which would soon become a plaything of relentless corporate forces.

The storytelling begins in #167 as an epic opens. Jim Shooter’s connection to the series, although episodic, was long-lived and produced some of that period’s greatest tales, none more so than the stellar – if deadline-doomed – saga that unfolded over succeeding months: a sprawling tale of time-travel and cosmic conquest which began in Avengers #167-168 before an enforced brief pause saw a diversion before resuming for #170 through #177.

In previous issues Captain America and Iron Man’s difference of opinion over leadership styles had begun to polarise the team. Cracks appeared and tensions showed in #167’s ‘Tomorrow Dies Today!’ (by Shooter, George Pérez & Pablos Marcos).

In the Gods-&-Monsters filled Marvel Universe there are entrenched and jealous Hierarchies of Power, so when a new player mysteriously materialises in the 20th century the very Fabric of Reality is threatened. It all kicks off when star-spanning 31st century freedom Fighters Guardians of the Galaxy blip into Earth orbit, in hot pursuit of cyborg despot Korvac. Their arrival inadvertently sets off planetary incursion alarms, so their moon-sized ship is swiftly boarded by an Avengers squad, where – after the obligatory introductory squabble – the future men (Charlie-27, Yondu, Martinex, Nikki, Vance Astro and enigmatic Space God Starhawk) explain the purpose of their mission…

Captain America had once fought beside them to liberate their home era from Badoon rule and Thor recently battled the fugitive Korvac, so peace soon breaks out, but even with the resources of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, the time travellers are unable to find their quarry…

Meanwhile on Earth, a mysterious being named Michael lurks in the background. At a fashion show staged by The Wasp, he achieves a psychic communion with model Carina Walters before they both vanish…

‘First Blood’ (Avengers #168) stirs up more trouble as Federal liaison/doctrinaire martinet Henry Peter Gyrich makes life bureaucratically hot for the government-funded superhero team. Meanwhile in Colorado, Hawkeye gets a shock as his travelling partner Two-Gun Kid vanishes before his eyes.

In suburban Forest Hills, Starhawk – in his female iteration Aleta – approaches a quiet residence. Michael/Korvac’s scheme consists of subtly altering events as he gathers strength in secret preparation for a sneak attack on those aforementioned Cosmic Hierarchies. His entire plan revolves around not being noticed. Thus, when Starhawk confronts him, the villain kills the stellar intruder but instantly resurrects him – minus the ability to perceive Michael or any of his works…

The drama screeches to a halt in #169, which instead declares ‘If We Should Fail… The World Dies Tonight!’ The out of context potboiler – by Marv Wolfman, Sal Buscema & Dave Hunt – sees Cap, Iron Man and The Black Panther scouring Earth in search of doomsday bombs wired to the failing heart of a dying man, after which the major mayhem resumes in #170 with ‘…Though Hell Should Bar the Way!’ by Shooter, Pérez & Marcos. As Sentinel of Liberty and Golden Avenger finally settle their differences, in Inhuman city Attilan, ex-Avenger Quicksilver suddenly disappears, even as dormant mechanoid Jocasta (designed by maniac AI Ultron to be his bride) goes on a rampage before vanishing into the wilds of New York City.

In stealthy pursuit and hoping her trail will lead to Ultron himself, the team stride into a trap ‘…Where Angels Fear to Tread’, but nevertheless triumph thanks to the hex powers of The Scarlet Witch, the assistance of pushy, no-nonsense new hero Ms. Marvel and Jocasta’s own rebellion against the metal monster who made her. However, at their moment of triumph the Avengers are stunned to witness Cap and Jocasta winking out of existence…

Problems pile up in #172 (Shooter, Sal Buscema & Klaus Janson) as Watchdog-come-Gadfly Gyrich is roughly manhandled and captured by out-of-the-loop returnee Hawkeye. He responds by rescinding the team’s Federal clearances. Badly handicapped, the heroes are unable to warn other inactive members of the ongoing disappearances even as a squad of heavy hitters rush off to tackle marauding Atlantean maverick Tyrak the Treacherous who is bloodily enacting a ‘Holocaust in New York Harbor!’

Plotted by Shooter, with David Michelinie scripting for Sal Buscema & D(iverse) Hands to illustrate, answers to the growing mystery are finally forthcoming in Threshold of Oblivion!’ As the vanishings escalate, the remaining Avengers (Thor, Wasp, Hawkeye and Iron Man – with the assistance of Vance Astro) track down their hidden foe and beam into a cloaked starship to liberate the ‘Captives of the Collector!’ (Shooter, Bill Mantlo, Dave Wenzel & Marcos)…

After a staggering struggle, the heroes triumph and their old foe reveals a shocking truth: he is an Elder of the Universe who foresaw cosmic doom millennia previously and sought to preserve special artefacts and creatures – such as The Avengers – from the approaching apocalypse. As he reveals that predicted end-time is here and that he has sent his own daughter Carina to infiltrate the Enemy’s stronghold, the cosmic curator is obliterated by a devastating blast of energy. The damage, however, is done and the entrenched hierarchies of creation may well be alerted…

Issue #175 started the final countdown as ‘The End… and Beginning!’ (Shooter, Michelinie, Wenzel & Marcos) sees the amassed and liberated ranks of Avengers and Guardians follow clues to Michael, just as the new god shares the incredible secret of his apotheosis with Carina, before ‘The Destiny Hunt!’ and ‘The Hope… and the Slaughter!’ (Shooter, Wenzel, Marcos & Ricardo Villamonte) depict the army of champions eradicated and resurrected when Michael easily overpowers all opposition but falters for lack of one fundamental failing…

Spread through a series of lesser adventures, the overarching epic ponderously and ominously unfolds before finally exploding into a devastating and tragic Battle Royale that is the epitome of superhero comics. This is pure escapist fantasy at its finest.

Despite being somewhat diminished by the artwork when the magnificent Pérez gave way to less enthused hands and afflicted by the inability to keep a regular inker (Pablo Marcos, Klaus Janson, Ricardo Villamonte and Tom Morgan all pitched in), sheer epic scope nevertheless carries this story through to its cataclysmic and fulfilling conclusion. Even Shooter’s reluctant replacement by scripters Dave Michelinie and Bill Mantlo (as his editorial career advanced) couldn’t derail this juggernaut of adventure. If you want to see what makes Superhero fiction work, and can keep track of nearly two dozen flamboyant characters, this is a fine example of how to make such an unwieldy proposition easily accessible to the new and returning reader…

Jim Shooter, having galvanised and steadied the company’s notional flagship, moved on, leaving David Michelinie to impress his own ideas and personality upon the team, but such transitions are always tricky and some water-treading fill-ins were necessary before progress resumed.

After the death and resurrection of the heroes, focus slipped seamlessly into Avengers Annual #8, getting back to business with monolithic Fights ‘n’ Tights melee ‘Spectrums of Deceit!’, courtesy of Roger Slifer, Pérez, Marcos & Villamonte as the sentient power-prism of archvillain Doctor Spectrum systematically possesses Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. The upshot is another blockbusting battle against The Squadron Sinister and ethically ambivalent extra-dimensional “Femizon” Thundra and offers another guest shot for mighty Ms. Marvel

A subtle change of pace and tone came in Avengers #178. ‘The Martyr Perplex!’ – by Steve Gerber, Carmine Infantino & Rudy Nebres – sees mutant Hank McCoy/The Beast targeted by master brainwasher The Manipulator in a tense psycho-thriller teeming with shady crooks and government spooks. Then Tom DeFalco, Jim Mooney, Al Gordon & Mike Esposito deliver a 2-part yarn introducing tragic mutant Bloodhawk and an ambitious human hitman in ‘Slowly Slays the Stinger!’

Whilst Stinger cautiously executes his commission, another cohort of champions accompany Bloodhawk to his desolate island home of Maura for a ‘Berserkers’ Holiday’, just in time to battle an animated and agitated stone idol. When they return victorious, Stinger is waiting and the assemblage loses its newest ally forever…

Finally back on track, Avengers #181 introduces new regular creative team Michelinie & John Byrne (augmented by inker Gene Day) as ‘On the Matter of Heroes!’ sees intrusive, obsessive Gyrich lay down the law and winnow the legion of heroes down to a federally acceptable seven. As the Guardians of the Galaxy head back to their future, Iron Man, The Vision, Captain America, Scarlet Witch, Beast and Wasp must placate Hawkeye after he is rejected in favour of new recruit The Falcon – reluctantly parachuted in to conform to government affirmative action quotas…

Almost immediately, Gyrich’s methodically calculated plans are in tatters as an elderly Romani sorcerer attacks. Claiming mutants Wanda and Pietro Frank as his long-lost children, the mage traps their souls inside little wooden dolls, with the resultant clash in #182’s ‘Honor Thy Father’ (inked by Janson) creating even more questions as overwhelming evidence seems to confirm Django Maximoff’s story. The upshot sees Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver leave with him on a quest for answers…

Michelinie, Byrne, Janson & D Hands provide a breathtaking all-action extravaganza in #183-184 as ‘The Redoubtable Return of Crusher Creel!’ finds Carol Danvers/Ms. Marvel cleared by Gyrich to replace Wanda. Elsewhere in the Big Apple, the formidable Absorbing Man has opted to leave the country and quit being thrashed by heroes. Unfortunately, his departure plans include kidnapping a young woman “for company”, leading to a cataclysmic showdown with the heroes and Hawkeye (still determined to win back his place on the team) and resulting in carnage, chaos and ‘Death on the Hudson!’

Historical continuity addicts Mark Gruenwald & Steven Grant plotted #185’s ‘The Yesterday Quest!’ for Michelinie, Byrne & Dan Green to execute as, in America, robotic ally Jocasta strives to entice The Vision even as his wife and brother-in-law arrive in Balkan state Transia. In the shadow of mystic Mount Wundagore, Wanda is beguiled by Modred the Mystic, leaving Quicksilver to perish if not for the ministrations of talking humanoid cow Bova. The wetnurse once employed by the High Evolutionary doesn’t mind. After all she was midwife to Pietro’s mother years ago…

‘Nights of Wundagore!’ unpicks years of mystery with secrets of the mutants’ origins: how Bova passed them off as the stillborn children of American WWII superhero Bob Frank and offers big hints as to their true father’s identity. Wanda, meanwhile, has lost a magic duel with Modred and is now possessed by ancient demon Chthon. Pietro barely survives his clash with her/it, and calls for help, but thanks to more pointless bureaucracy from Gyrich, it is hours before the Avengers – missing Iron Man but including Wonder Man – arrive to face the world rending ‘Call of the Mountain Thing!’

Although they ultimately triumph, not every participant makes it out alive…

The way home is just as momentous, as #188’s ‘Elementary, Dear Avengers’ (Bill Mantlo, Byrne, Green & Frank Springer) begins with a side trip to Attilan and news that Quicksilver is about to become a dad, and ends with the team causing an international incident by diverting over Russian airspace. Thankfully, the incident overlaps with a secret Soviet science experiment going badly wrong, compelling the heroes to tackle sentient elements with a taste for death and destruction…

Avengers Annual #9 then introduces a lethal secret from the past as Mantlo, Don Newton, Jack Abel & Joe Rubinstein introduce a deadly robotic sleeper locked for decades beneath Avengers Mansion. ‘…Today the Avengers Die!’ reprises Iron Man’s recent battle against deadly vintage mechanoid Arsenal and reveals how the Howard Stark-built weapon was cached in his old townhouse. Now ‘Something Deadly Lurks Below!’ proves that they should have let sleeping bots lie…

Rounding out the chronologically completist action is a snippet from Marvel Tales #100 (February 1979) as time-displaced Two-Gun Kid and Hawkeye battle Killgrave the Controller in ‘Killers of a Purple Rage!’ by Scott Edelman, Michael Netzer & Terry Austin.

Supplemented by previous compilation covers courtesy of Pérez & Joe Rosas and Steve Epting & Tom Palmer, contemporary House Ads, editorial material debating the new origins for Pietro and Wanda, an epilogue strip by Mark Gruenwald & Tom Morgan from Avengers: The Korvac Saga, and a wealth of original covers/page art by Pérez, Byrne, Dave Cockrum and more, this archival tome and type of heroic adventure might not be to every reader’s taste but these – and the truly epic yarns that followed – set the tone for fantastic Fights ‘n’ Tights dramas for decades to come and informed all those movies everybody loves. This science fiction double feature can still boggle the mind and take the breath away, even here in the quietly isolated and no less dangerous 21st century…
© 2023 MARVEL.

Adam Warlock Omnibus


By Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas, Mike Friedrich, Ron Goulart, Gerry Conway, Tony Isabella, Jim Starlin, Bill Mantlo, David Anthony Kraft, Len Wein, Mark Gruenwald, Gil Kane, Bob Brown, Herb Trimpe, John Buscema, Tom Sutton, John Byrne, Steve Leialoha, Jerry Bingham, Joe Sinnott, Vince Colletta, Dan Adkins, Jack Abel, Josef Rubinstein, Al Milgrom, Alan Weiss, Dave Hunt, Frank Giacoia, Mike Esposito, Gene Day & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-4987-7 (HB/Digital edition)

And lo… there came another star to the firmament…

During the 1970s in America and Britain (the latter of which deemed newspaper cartoons and strips worthy of adult appreciation for centuries whilst fervently denying similar appreciation and potential for comics), the first inklings of wider public respect for the medium of graphic narratives began to blossom. This followed avid and favourable response to pioneering stories such as Denny O’Neil & Neal Adams’ “relevancy” Green Lantern run, Stan Lee & John Buscema’s biblically allegorical Silver Surfer or Roy Thomas’ ecologically strident antihero Sub-Mariner; a procession of thoughtfully-delivered depictions of drug crime in many titles, and the sustained use of positive racial role models everywhere on four-colour pages.

Comics were inexorably developing into a vibrant forum of debate (a situation also seen in Europe and Japan), engaging youngsters in real world issues relevant to them. As 1972 dawned, Thomas took the next logical step, transubstantiating an old Lee & Kirby Fantastic Four throwaway foe into a potent political and religious metaphor. As described in his Introduction ‘Rebirth’ the kernel of that character debuted as FF foe Him before being re-imagined by Thomas & Gil Kane as a modern interpretation of the Christ myth: stationed on an alternate Earth far more like our own than that of Marvel’s unique universe.

This massive epistle re-presents Fantastic Four #66-67, The Mighty Thor, #165-166, Marvel Premiere #1-2, Warlock #1-15, Strange Tales #178-181, Incredible Hulk #176-178 and Annual #6, Marvel Team-Up #55, Avengers Annual #7 and Marvel Two-in-One #61-63 and Annual #2 – collectively spanning cover-dates September 1967 to May 1980 – and starts with that cataclysmic clash as Ben Grimm and his friends search for The Thing’s true love Alicia Masters.

The mystery of her disappearance is revealed in ‘What Lurks Behind the Beehive?’ by Lee, Kirby & Joe Sinnott, as the outraged FF trail the seemingly helpless artisan to a man-made technological wonderland. Here a band of rogue geniuses have genetically engineered the next phase in evolution only to lose control of it even before it can be properly born…

Fantastic Four #67 exposes the secret of the creature known as Him in ‘When Opens the Cocoon!’ where only Alicia’s gentle nature is able to placate the nigh-omnipotent creature until the heroes save her and the creation deals with its squalid makers, before heading into the starry universe to mature…

‘Him!’ resurfaced in Thor #165 & 166 (June & July 1969), returned to earth in his gestation cocoon and stumbling into battle with a severely over-stressed Thunder God. The situation intensified when the creature created by evil scientists to conquer mankind sees Sif and decides it’s time he took a mate…

Conclusion ‘A God Berserk!’ sees Thor trailing the artificial superman across space and assorted dimensions with companion Balder who witnesses his gentle comrade’s descent into brutal “warrior-madness” resulting in a savage beating of naive childlike Him. By the time the Thunderer regains his equilibrium, he is a shaken, penitent and guilt-ridden hero eager to pay penance for his unaccustomed savagery whilst the modern homunculus has retreated to the chill depths of space again…

Jump forward to tumultuous turbulent 1971 where the story really begins with the April cover-dated Marvel Premiere #1 (on sale from November 1971) which boldly proclaimed on its cover The Power of… Warlock. Inside, the stunning fable by Thomas, Kane & Dan Adkins declared ‘And Men Shall Call Him… Warlock’: swiftly recapitulating the artificial man’s origins as a lab experiment concocted by rogue geneticists eager to create a superman they could control for conquest. Also on view is the manufactured man’s face off with the FF, and clash with Thor over the rights to a mate before returning to an all-encompassing cosmic cocoon to evolve a little more. Now the shell is plucked from the void thanks to the moon-sized ship of self-created god The High Evolutionary. Having artificially ascended to godhood, he is wrapped up in a bold new experiment…

Establishing contact with Him as he basks in his cocoon, the Evolutionary explains that he is constructing from space rubble a duplicate planet Earth on the opposite side of the sun. Here he will replay the development of life, intending that humanity on Counter-Earth will evolve without the taint of cruelty and greed and deprived of the lust to kill. It’s a magnificent scheme that might well have worked, but as the Evolutionary wearies, his greatest mistake intervenes…

Man-Beast was over-evolved from a wolf and gained mighty powers, but also ferocious savagery and ruthless wickedness. Now he invades the satellite, despoiling humanity’s rise and ensuring the new world’s development exactly mirrors True-Earth’s. The only exception is the meticulous exclusion of enhanced individuals. The beleaguered orb has all Earth’s woes but no superheroes to save or inspire its people.

A helpless witness to the desecration, the golden being furiously crashes free of his cocoon to save the High Evolutionary and rout Man-Beast and his bestial cronies (all similarly evolved animal-humanoids called “New-Men”). When the despondent, enraged science god recovers, he decides to erase his failed experiment but is stopped by his rescuer. As a helpless observer, Him saw the potential and value of embattled humanity. Despite all their flaws, he believes he can save them from imminent doom caused by their own unthinking actions, wars and intolerance. When his pleas convince the Evolutionary to give this mankind one last chance, the wanderer is hurled down to Counter-Earth, gifted and graced with a strange “Soul Gem” to focus his powers, on a divine mission to find the best in the fallen and a name of his own…

Marvel Premiere #2 (July 1972) sees the golden man-god crash down in America and immediately win over a small group of disciples: a quartet of disenchanted teen runaways fleeing The Man, The Establishment and their oppressive families. His cosmic nativity and transformation leave the newcomer briefly amnesiac, and as Warlock’s followers seek to help, all are unaware that Man-Beast has moved swiftly, insinuating himself and his bestial servants into the USA’s political hierarchy and Military/Industrial complex.

This devil knows the High Evolutionary is watching and breaks cover to introduce unnatural forces on a world previously devoid of superbeings or aliens. The result is an all-out attack by rat mutate Rhodan, who pounces on his prey at the very moment Colonel Barney Roberts, uber-capitalist Josiah Grey and Senator Nathan Carter track their missing kids to the desolate Southern Californian farm where they have been nursing a golden angel. Men of power and influence, they realise their world has changed forever after seeing Warlock destroy the monstrous beast and ‘The Hounds of Helios!’

Doctor Strange was revived to fill the space in MP #3, as the gleaming saviour catapulted into his own August cover-dated title. Inked by Tom Sutton, Warlock #1 decreed ‘The Day of the Prophet!’: recapping key events and seeing the High Evolutionary safeguard his failing project by masking Counter-Earth from the rest of the solar system behind a vibratory screen.

With his mistake securely isolated from further contamination, HE asks Adam if he’s had enough of this pointless mission, and is disappointed to see Warlock’s resolve is unshaken. That assessment is questioned when the disciples take the spaceman to his first human city. Senses reeling, Warlock is drawn to a bombastic street preacher and his psychic sister Astrella, both seemingly targeted by the Man-Beast. Of course, all is not as it seems…

This issue saw the first letter page ‘Comments from Counter-Earth’ and is included here as are all subsequent editorial columns.

Mike Friedrich scripted Thomas’s plot and John Buscema joins Sutton in #2’s illuminating ‘Count-Down for Counter-Earth!’: taking biblical allegory even further as Warlock is captured by his vile foes and tempted with power in partnership with evil, even as his young disciples are attacked and deny him. Counter-Earth has never been closer to damnation and doom, but once more the saviour’s determination overcomes the odds…

The epic expands with Friedrich in the hot seat and Kane & Sutton reunited to steer the redeemer’s path. ‘The Apollo Eclipse’ begins with Adam and his apostles harassed by the increasingly impatient High Evolutionary following a breaching of his vibratory barrier by the Incredible Hulk and the Rhino (in Hulk #158 and reprinted in many volumes… but not this one). That episode is soon forgotten when they are targeted by another Man-Beast crony, hiding his revolting origins and unstable psyche behind a pretty façade. The hirsute horror attacks a rocket base where Adam seeks to reconcile his youthful followers with their parents, but the subsequent clash turns to tragedy in #4’s ‘Come Sing a Searing Song of Vengeance!’ as the exposed monster takes the children hostage. Astrella senses that visiting Presidential candidate Rex Carpenter holds the key to the stalemate, but when he intervenes at her urging, unbridled escalation, death and disaster follow…

Although super-beings were excised from the world’s evolution, extraordinary beings still exist. Warlock #5 (April 1973) sees Ron Goulart write the anxious aftermath as the doubt-riddled redeemer emerges from another sojourn in a recuperative cocoon. In the intervening months Carpenter has become President and ordered increased weapons testing to combat the incredible new dangers he personally witnessed. Tragically, he also ignores warnings from government scientist Victor Von Doom, and when a military manoeuvre sparks ‘The Day of the Death-Birds!’ Adam helps when a dam is wrecked. His divine might is sufficient to halt autonomous robotic drones programmed to strafe ground-based beings, but cannot stop the grateful citizenry turning on him when Carter declares him a menace to society…

Friedrich scripts Goulart & Thomas’ plot and Bob Brown joins the team as penciller in #6 as Warlock battles the army and Doom contacts fellow genius Reed Richards for help. Sadly, the Latverian is unaware of a shocking change in his oldest friend who is now ‘The Brute!’: a mutated cosmic horror enthralled by the malign thing running the White House and now ordered to ambush Warlock as Astrella brings him to truce talks…

It’s a pack of lies and a trap. As the Golden Gladiator defeats Richards, enraged mobs egged on by PotUS attack Warlock’s growing band of supporters. Now, though, the alien’s very public life-saving heroics have swayed fickle opinion and Carter is forced to reverse his stance and exonerate Warlock. Even this is a ploy, though, allowing him to set the energy-absorbing Brute on the redeemer in ‘Doom: at the Earth’s Core!’ Beyond all control, Richards’ rampage threatens to explode Counter-Earth, and only the supreme sacrifice of one of Adams’s constantly dwindling band of supporters saves the planet…

Warlock’s rocky road paused with the next issue. Cancelled with #8, Friedrich, Brown & Sutton dutifully detailed ‘Confrontation’ in Washington DC as the supposed saviour’s supporters clashed with incensed cops. Intent on stopping a riot, Warlock’s work magnifies when Man-Beast’s New-Men minions join the battle. The saga ends on an eternal cliffhanger as Warlock finally exposes what Carpenter is… before vanishing from sight for 8 months.

The aforementioned Hulk #158 had seen the Jade Goliath dispatched to the far side of the Sun to clash on Counter-Earth with the messiah’s enemies. Although it is excluded here, the 3-issue sequel it spawned was concocted after the Golden Godling’s series ended. When the feature returned, the tone – like the times – had comprehensively changed. All the hopeful positivity and naivety had, post-Vietnam and Watergate, turned to world-weary cynicism in the manner of Moorcock’s doomed hero Elric. Maybe a harbinger of things to come…?

The cosmic codicil completing Warlock’s initial cosmic journey came after The Hulk’s encounter with the Uncanny Inhumans and a devastating duel with silent super-monarch Black Bolt. Following the usual collateral carnage, the bout ended with the monster hurtling in a rocket-ship to the far side of the sun for a date with allegory, if not destiny. Counter-Earth had seen messianic Adam Warlock futilely battle Satan-analogue Man-Beast: a struggle the Jade Juggernaut had learned of on his previous visit. Now he crashed there again to end the cruelly truncated metaphorical epic, beginning in ‘Crisis on Counter-Earth!’ (Incredible Hulk #176, June 1974) by Gerry Conway, Herb Trimpe & Jack Abel.

Since his last visit Man-Beast and his bestial flunkies had become America’s President and Cabinet. Moving deceptively but decisively, they had finally captured Warlock and led humanity to the brink of extinction, leaving the would-be messiah’s disciples in total confusion. With America reeling, Hulk’s shattering return gives Warlock’s faithful flock opportunity to save their saviour in ‘Peril of the Plural Planet!’ but the foray badly misfires and Adam is captured. Publicly crucified, humanity’s last hope perishes. The quasi-religious experience concludes with ‘Triumph on Terra-Two’ (Conway, Tony Isabella, Trimpe & Abel, Incredible Hulk #178). Whilst Hulk furiously battles Man-Beast, the expired redeemer resurrects in time to deliver a karmic coup de grace before ascending from Counter-Earth to the ever-beckoning stars.

The epic pauses here for Douglas Wolk’s critical appreciation of what happens next in ‘Unmistakable Talent’ before even more grandiose events are revealed…

The messianic saga apparently ended when Warlock died and was reborn, thwarting Satan-analogue Man-Beast with the aid of the Jade Juggernaut enacting a cosmic resurrection and ascending into the unknown. However, when the feature returned at the end of 1974 the tone, like the times, had hugely changed. In the wake of Vietnam and Watergate, hope, positivity and comfortable naivety had become world-weary cynicism. The new Adam had changed too, and was now draped in precepts of inescapable destiny in the manner of doomed warrior Elric. It was a harbinger of things to come…

The story resumed in Strange Tales #178 as ultra-imaginative morbid maverick Jim Starlin (Captain Marvel, Master of Kung Fu, Infinity Gauntlet, Dreadstar, Batman, Death in the Family, Kid Kosmos) turned the astral wanderer into a nihilistic, Michael Moorcock-inspired, death-obsessed, constantly outraged, exceedingly reluctant and cynical cosmic champion. The slow spiral to oblivion began in February cover-dated Strange Tales #178, wherein Starlin introduced alien Greek Chorus Sphinxor of Pegasus to recap the past by asking and answering ‘Who is Adam Warlock?’

Handling everything but lettering – that was left to Annette Kawecki – Starlin’s solitary stellar nomad Warlock is brooding on a desolate asteroid in the Hercules star cluster just as a trio of brutes attack a frightened girl. Despite his best efforts they execute her, proud of their status as Grand Inquisitors of the Universal Church of Truth who have ecstatically excised one more heathen unbeliever…

Appalled to have failed another innocent, Warlock employs the Soul Gem at his brow to briefly resurrect her and learns of an all-conquering ruthless militant religion dedicated to converting or eradicating all life. His search triggers a chilling confrontation as ‘Enter The Magus!’ manifests the living god of the UCT who attacks Warlock with a crushingly awful truth: the man who has subjugated worlds, exterminated trillions and fostered every dark desire of sentient beings is his own future self. Adam vows to end this perverse impossible situation, doing whatever is necessary to prevent becoming his own worst nightmare…

With Tom Orzechowski lettering and Glynis Oliver-Wein doing colours, Starlin’s pilgrimage sees Warlock attack a UCT warcraft transporting rebels, “degenerates” and “unproductives” from many converted worlds. The church only deems basic humanoids as sacred and worthy of salvation, with most other shapes useful only as fodder or fuel. However, despite their appearance as humanish, The Church does make an exception for the universally deplored, vulgar and proudly reprobate race called “Trolls” who are too salacious to exist…

In the dungeon-brig of the ship Great Divide, Adam’s gloomy mood is irresistibly lifted by disgusting troll Pip: a lout revelling in “independent manner and cavalier ways”, unphased or frightened by the imminent death awaiting them all. Meanwhile, enhanced true believer Captain Autolycus gets a message from Temporal Leader of the Faithful The Matriarch. She has decided to ignore her god’s instruction to capture Warlock and keep him unharmed…

As Adam instructs his fellow dregs in the nature of rule, Autolycus acts on her command, losing his entire crew and perishing when Warlock finally breaks loose. After escaping the ‘Death Ship!’, Adam realises Pip – keen to share a new adventure – has stowed away, but lets it go. He has a bigger problem: in the climactic final battle, the Soul Gem refused his wishes. Acting on its own, it consumed Autolycus’ memories and persona, binding them inside the twisted champion’s head…

With additional inking by Alan Weiss, ST #180’s ‘Judgment!’ finds Pip and Warlock submerged in the heaving masses of Homeworld whilst hunting the living god. Terrified of the uncontrollable spiritual vampire on his brow, Adam tries to remove it and discovers it has already stolen him: without it he will perish in seconds…

Living on borrowed time and pushed into precipitate action, the apostate avenger invades the Sacred Palace and is offered a curious deal by the Matriarch who imprisons him when he refuses. Subjected to ‘The Trial of Adam Warlock’, the appalled adventurer endures a twisted view of the universe courtesy of Grand Inquisitor Kray-Tor, even as in the city, Pip thinks he has scored with a hot chick when in fact he’s been targeted by public enemy number one. Called “the deadliest woman in the whole galaxy” Gamora has plans for Adam, which include him being alive and free…

Back in court, the golden man rejects Kray-Tor’s verdict and, revolted by the proceedings, foolishly lets his Soul Gem feed. The carnage it triggers and his subsequent guilt leaves Adam catatonic in the hands of the Matriarch’s cerebral re-programmers…

Starlin was always an outspoken, driven creator with opinions he struggled to suppress. His problems with Marvel’s working practises underpin ST #181’s ‘1000 Clowns!’ as old pal Al Milgrom inks a fantastic recap and psychological road trip inside the champion’s mind. None of the subtext is germane if you’re just looking for a great story however, and – in-world – Warlock’s resistance to mind-control is mirrored by Pip and Gamora’s advance through the UCT citadel to his side. Embattled by the psychic propaganda assaulting him, Warlock retreats into the safety of madness, learning to his horror that this is what The Magus wanted all along. Now the dark messiah’s victory and genesis are assured…

The triumph was celebrated by the resurrection of the hero’s own title. Cover-dated October 1975, Warlock #9 revealed the master plan of Adam’s future self. Inked by Steve Leialoha, ‘The Infinity Effect!’ depicted the mirror images in stark confrontation with evil ascendent, unaware Gamora was an agent of a hidden third party and that all the chaos and calamity was part of a war of cosmically conceptual forces. The saga heads into the Endgame as the Magus explains in cruel detail how he came to power and how warlock’s coming days are his past, before summoning abstract conceptual terror The In-Betweener to usher in their inevitable transfiguration. There is one problem however: the first time around Adam/Magus was never attacked and almost thwarted by an invisible green warrior woman…

Crushed by realisation that he will become a mass-murdering spiritual vampire, Adam reels as the hidden third element arrives to save everything. Inked by Leialoha, #10’s ‘How Strange My Destiny!’ finds Pip, Gamora, Adam and Thanos of Titan battling 25,000 cyborg Black Knights of the Church who rapturously pay ‘The Price!’ of devotion in a horrific stalling tactic until the In-Betweener comes…

Kree Captain Mar-Vell narrates a handy catch-up chapter detailing ‘Who is Thanos?’ as the beleaguered champions escape, before ‘Enter the Redemption Principle!’ explores some of the Titan’s scheme and why he opposes the Magus and his Church, even as the dark deity realises that Thanos’ time probe is the only thing that can upset his existence…

How Strange My Destiny – with finished art by Leialoha from Starlin’s layouts – continues and concludes in #11 as ‘Escape into the Inner Prison!’ sees the Magus and his Black Knight death squads brutally board Thanos’ space ark. A combination of raw power and the Soul Gem buy enough time for Warlock and Pip to use the time probe, which deposits them in the future, just as In-Betweener arrives to convert the hero and supervise ‘The Strange Death of Adam Warlock!’, resulting in a reshuffling of chronal reality and mad Thanos’ triumph…

After months of encroaching and overlapping Armageddons, Warlock #12 digresses and diverts with ‘A Trollish Tale!’ as Pip’s fondness for hedonism and debauchery entrap him in professional harlot Heater Delight’s plan to escape a life on (non)human sexual trafficking in a star-roaming pleasure cruiser. He’s happy with the promised reward for his efforts, but hasn’t considered that her pimp might object to losing his meal ticket…

Cosmic conflict returns in #13 as ‘…Here Dwells the Star Thief!’ introduces an existential threat to the entire universe lying in a hospital bed on Earth. New England’s Wildwood Hospital houses Barry Bauman, whose life is blighted by a total disconnection between his brain and nerve functions. Isolated, turned inward for his entire life, Barry has developed astounding psychic abilities, the first of which was to possess his nurse and navigate an unsuspecting outer world by proxy. Barry’s intellect also roams the endless universe and brooding, doomed Warlock is there when Barry consumes an entire star just for fun…

Outraged at such cruel wilful destruction, Warlock uses his own powers to trace the psionic force, resolved to follow it back to the planet of his original conception even as ‘The Bizarre Brain of Barry Bauman’ explores the Star Thief’s origins and motivations prior to the psionic savant formally challenging Adam to a game of “stop me if you can”…

Spitefully erasing stars and terrorising Earth as Warlock traverses galaxies at top speed, Bauman knows a secret about his foe that makes victory assured, but he still lays traps in the hero’s interstellar path. The ‘Homecoming!’ is accelerated by a shortcut through a black hole, but when Adam arrives in Sol system, he receives a staggering shock: his voyages and simple physics have wrought physical changes making it impossible to ever go home again. Sadly for gleeful Barry, the frustration of his foe distracts him just when he should be paying closer attention to his physical body…

The series abruptly ended again (November 1976), Starlin returned to full art & story chores in #15’s ‘Just a Series of Events!’ Exiled from Earth, Adam rants as elsewhere, Thanos expedites long-term plans. With The Magus removed, his desire for total stellar genocide can proceed, but the Titan worries that his adopted daughter Gamora might be a problem, when he really needs to be more concerned about his own nemesis-by-design Drax the Destroyer. The saga then pauses with Adam confronting a host of plebian injustices and seemingly regaining command of his Soul Gem at last…

Vanished again, Warlock only languished in limbo for a few months. In mid-December 1976, Marvel Team-Up #55 (cover-dated March 1977) addressed his physically altered state as Bill Mantlo, John Byrne & Dave Hunt crafted ‘Spider, Spider on the Moon!’ For reasons too complicated to explain here, Spider-Man had been trapped in a rocket and blasted into space before being happily intercepted and left by Warlock in Luna’s habitable “Blue Area”. The nomad then assisted the Arachnid and mysterious alien The Gardener against overbearing exotic ephemera collector The Stranger who sought possession of the Golden Gladiator’s life-sustaining Soul Gem, but soon discovered an equally fascinating alternate choice…

Despite his sporadic and frankly messy publishing career, Warlock has been at the heart of many of Marvel’s most epochal and well-regarded cosmic comic classics, and ending this compendium is probably the very best: an extended epic spanning two summer annuals and seemingly signalling the end on an era…

‘The Final Threat’ (by Starlin & Joe Rubinstein in Avengers Annual #70, sees Protector of the Universe Mar-Vell AKA Captain Marvel and Titanian ultra-mentalist Moondragon back on Earth with vague anticipations of impending catastrophe. The premonitions are confirmed when Warlock arrives with news that death-obsessed Thanos has amassed an alien armada and built a soul gem-fuelled weapon to snuff out stars like candles. Spanning interstellar space to stop the scheme, the assembled heroes forestall alien invasion and prevent the Dark Titan from destroying the Sun, but only at the cost of Warlock’s life…

‘Death Watch!’ (Starlin & Rubinstein, Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2) then finds Peter Parker plagued by prophetic nightmares. These disclose how Thanos had snatched victory from defeat and now holds The Avengers captive whilst again preparing to extinguish Sol. With nowhere else to turn, the anguished, disbelieving webspinner heads for the Baxter Building, hoping to borrow a spacecraft, and unaware that The Thing also has a history with the terrifying Titan. Utterly overmatched, the mismatched Champions of Life nevertheless upset Thanos’ plans for long enough to free the Avengers before the Universe’s true agent of retribution ends the Titan’s threat forever… at least until next time…

Meanwhile on Earth, events are unfolding that will impact the future. The Hulk, bereft by the death of his subatomic lover Jarella, joins Defender chief Doctor Stephen Strange in David Anthony Kraft, Herb Trimpe and inkers Frank Giacoia & Mike Esposito for Incredible Hulk King Size Annual #6’s ‘Beware the Beehive!’ Here three of the mad scientists who made Him attempt to recreate their greatest success and failure. Morlak, Shinsky and Zota of rogue science collective The Enclave reactivate their hidden “Beehive” for another go at building a compliant god they can control, and abduct Doctor Strange to replace their missing fourth. The undercover magician summons the Jade Juggernaut to extract him from the experiment’s inevitable consequences when a compassionless super-slave dubbed Paragon emerges from a cocoon.

Before The Hulk arrives the natal menace tries to eradicate Strange and subdue mankind, but happily, after a border-shattering, army-crunching global rampage, that’s when the Hulk kicks the wall in and goes to work, forcing Paragon to return to its chrysalis and pursue further growth…

The stellar epic continued in Marvel Two-In-One: a title that had become a clearing house for unfinished plotlines and sagas. In #61 (cover-dated March 1980), Mark Gruenwald, Jerry Bingham & Gene Day unveiled ‘The Coming of Her!’ as time-travelling space god and 31st century Guardian of the Galaxy Starhawk became entangled in the birth of a female counterpart to artificial superman Adam Warlock. Picking up threads of the Hulk tale as well as Warlock’s quest, the tale told how Paragon awoke fully empowered and in female form and configuration and instantly began searching Earth for her predecessor. The fading psychic trail led to Ben Grimm’s girlfriend Alicia and Moondragon, who were pressganged across the solar system, arriving by MTIO #62 in time to witness ‘The Taking of Counter-Earth!’

Hot on their heels, The Thing and Starhawk catch Her just as the women encounter a severely injured High Evolutionary, and discover the world the self-created science god so carefully built and casually discarded has been stolen. Now united in mystery, the strange grouping follow the lost planet’s trail out of the galaxy and uncover the incredible perpetrators, but Her’s desperate quest to secure her predestined mate ends in tragedy when she learns ‘Suffer Not a Warlock to Live!’

The sidereal saga seemingly done, this collection also offers a bonanza of bonus treats which include a gallery of covers by Kirby, Sinnott & Colletta, Kane & Adkins, Frank Giacoia, John Romita, John Buscema, Trimpe, Starlin, Weiss, George Pérez & Terry Austin, house ads, original art pages by Kirby, Sinnott & Colletta, the 1972 Marvel Bulletin Page announcing Adam Warlock’s debut, John Romita corner-box art for Marvel Premiere #1, unused and corrected page & panel art, 9 pages of Kane finished art and numerous pencil roughs, augmented by 16 pages by Starlin and the cover of F.O.O.M. #9 (March 1975 and a “Special Cosmic Issue”) plus Duffy Vohland’s illustrated essay ‘Man is the Father to Him’.

Also on view are Starlin & Alan Weiss’s contributions to The Mighty Marvel Bicentennial Calendar 1976, and 16 pages of unused pencils by Weiss. (The photostats come from an issue lost in transit, and are supplemented by before-&-after panels judged unsuitable by the Comics Code Authority, the various production stages of Starlin & Weiss’ cover art for Warlock #9, with sketches, designs, frontispieces and full pages of original art). More Starlin original art and Weiss’ ‘Thanos War’ plate for the Marvel Team-Up Portfolio (1982).

Fact-filled pages on Warlock, The Enclave, Drax the Destroyer, The Gardener, In-Betweener, Gamora, Her, High Evolutionary, Moondragon, Pip the Troll, Thanos and 8 Alien Races from The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (1983-1985) precede a comedic offering from August 1982’s What If? #34 and Bob Budiansky & Bob Wiacek’s cover for Marvel Treasury Edition #24: The Rampaging Hulk (reprinting the Warlock saga from #175-178). The Fantastic Four “Him” debut was reprinted in Marvel’s Greatest Comics #49 & 50 (May & June 1974) and the covers are included here, as are those of Fantasy Masterpieces volume 2 #8-14 (1980-1981 reprinting Starlin’s early Warlock stories). They are augmented by the wraparound covers from 1983’s Warlock Special Edition #1-6 reprint series – including additional bridging pages, text and cartoon editorials by Al Milgrom and Starlin pin-ups.

A Craig Hamiliton Warlock plate from 1986’s Marvel’s Comics Limited Edition Superhero Print Series is followed by covers for 1992-1993’s Warlock rerun series (#1-6 and released to support the Infinity Gauntlet miniseries) and 9 prior collection and omnibus covers by Kane, Adkins, Richard Isanove, Starlin, Tom Smith, Weiss, Thomas Mason, Dean White and InHyuk Lee.

Ambitious, unconventional and beautiful to behold, Warlock’s oft-reprinted adventures are very much a product of their tempestuous, socially divisive times. For many, they proved how mature comics might become, but for others they were simply pretty pictures and epic fights with little lasting relevance. What they unquestionably remain is a series of crucial stepping stones to greater epics: unmissable appetisers to Marvel Magic at its finest.
© 2023 MARVEL.

Ms. Marvel Epic Collection volume 1: This Woman, This Warrior 1977-1978


By Gerry Conway, Chris Claremont, John Buscema, Sal Buscema, Jim Mooney, John Byrne, Keith Pollard, Carmine Infantino, George Tuska & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-1639-8 (TPB/Digital edition)

Until relatively recently American comics and especially Marvel had very little in the way of positive female role models and almost no viable solo stars. Although a woman starred in the very first comic of the Marvel Age, The Invisible Girl took decades to become a potent and independent character in her own right – or even just be called “woman”. The company’s very first starring heroine was Black Fury: a leather-clad, whip-wielding crimebuster imported from a newspaper strip created by Tarpe Mills in April 1941. The sultry sentinel was repackaged as a resized reprint for Timely’s funnybooks and renamed Miss Fury to enjoy a 4-year run (1942-1946) – although her tabloid incarnation fought on until 1952. Fury was actually predated by Silver Scorpion, who debuted in Daring Mystery Comics #7 (April 1941), but she was relegated to a minor position in the book’s line-up and endured a very short shelf-life.

Miss America premiered in anthological Marvel Mystery Comics (#49, November 1943), created by Otto Binder & artist Al Gabriele. After a few appearances, she won her own title in early 1944. Miss America Comics lasted, but the costumed cutie didn’t as – with the second issue (November1944) – the format changed, to become a combination of teen comedy, fashion feature and domestic tips magazine. Feisty take-charge superheroics were steadily squeezed out and the title is most famous now for introducing virginal evergreen teen ideal Patsy Walker. A few other woman warriors appeared immediately after the War, many as spin-offs and sidekicks of established male stars such as female Sub-Mariner Namora (debuting in Marvel Mystery Comics #82, May 1947 before graduating to her own 3-issue series in 1948).

She was soon joined by the Human Torch’s secretary Mary Mitchell who, as Sun Girl, helmed her own 3-issue 1948 series before becoming a wandering sidekick and guest star in Sub-Mariner and Captain America Comics. Draped in a ballgown and wearing high heels, masked detective Blonde Phantom was created by Stan Lee & Syd Shores for All Select Comics #11 (Fall 1946) whilst sort-of goddess Venus debuted in her own title in August 1948, becoming the gender’s biggest Timely-Atlas-Marvel success until the advent of the “Jungle Girl” fad in the mid-1950s. This was mostly by dint of the superb stories and art by the great Bill Everett and by ruthlessly changing genres from crime to romance to horror every five minutes…

Jann of the Jungle (by Don Rico & Jay Scott Pike) was just part of an anthology line-up in Jungle Tales #1 (September 1954), but she took over the title with the 8th issue (November 1955). Jann of the Jungle continued until June 1957 (#17), spawning a host of in-company imitators like Leopard Girl, Lorna the Jungle Queen and so on…

During the costumed hero boom of the 1960s, Marvel experimented with a title shot for Inhuman émigré Madame Medusa in Marvel Super-Heroes (#15, July 1968) and a solo series for the Black Widow in Amazing Adventures #1-8 (August 1970 to September 1971). Both were sexy, reformed villainesses, not wholesome girl-next-door heroes – and neither lasted solo for long.

When the costumed crazies craze began to subside in the 1970s, Stan Lee & Roy Thomas looked into creating a girl-friendly boutique of heroines written by women. Opening shots in this mini-liberation war were Claws of the Cat by Linda Fite, Marie Severin & Wally Wood and Night Nurse by Jean Thomas & Win Mortimer (both #1’s cover-dated November 1972).

Contemporary jungle queen Shanna the She-Devil #1 – by Carole Seuling & George Tuska – was out in December 1972; but despite impressive creative teams none of these fascinating experiments lasted beyond a fifth issue.

Red Sonja, She-Devil with a Sword, caught every one’s attention in Conan the Barbarian #23 (February 1973) and eventually won her own series, whilst The Cat mutated into Tigra, the Were-Woman in Giant-Size Creatures #1 (July 1974), but the general editorial position was “books starring chicks don’t sell”…

The company kept on plugging though, and eventually found the right mix at the right time with Ms. Marvel who launched in her own title cover-dated January 1977. She was followed by the equally copyright-protecting Spider-Woman (in Marvel Spotlight #32: February 1977), who secured her own title 15 months later) and Savage She-Hulk (#1, February 1980). She was supplemented by the music-biz sponsored Dazzler who premiered in Uncanny X-Men #130 the same month, before inevitably graduating to her own book.

Ms. Marvel was actually Carol Danvers, a US Air Force security officer first seen in Marvel Super-Heroes #13 (March 1968): the second episode of the unfolding tale of Kree warrior Mar-Vell, dispatched to Earth as a spy after the Fantastic Four repulsed the alien Kree twice in two months. In that series the immensely competent Carol seemed stalled, perpetually investigating Mar-Vell’s assumed and tenuous cover-identity of Walter Lawson for months. This was until Danvers was caught up in a devastating battle between the now-defecting alien and his nemesis Colonel Yon-Rogg in Captain Marvel #18 (November 1969).

Caught in a climactic explosion of alien technology, she pretty much vanished from sight until Gerry Conway, John Buscema & Joe Sinnott revived her in Ms. Marvel #1 (January 1977) where ‘This Woman, This Warrior!’ opened a new chapter for the company and the industry.

This sturdy economical tome collects Ms. Marvel #1-14 plus guest appearances in Marvel Team-Up #61-62 and The Defenders #57, cumulatively spanning cover-dates January 1977 – March 1978, diving straight into the ongoing mystery. The irrepressible but partially amnesiac Danvers has relocated to New York to become editor of “Woman”: a new magazine for modern misses published by Daily Bugle owner J. Jonah Jameson.

Never having fully recovered from her near-death experience, Danvers left the military and drifted into writing, slowly growing in confidence until the irascible publisher makes her an offer she can’t refuse. At the same time as Carol is getting her feet under a desk, a mysterious new masked hero begins appearing and as rapidly vanishing, such as when she pitches up to battle the sinister Scorpion as he perpetrates a brutal bank raid. The villain narrowly escapes to rendezvous with Professor Kerwin Korwin of AIM (high-tech secret society Advanced Idea Mechanics). The skeevy savant has promised to increase the Scorpion’s powers and allow him to take long-delayed revenge on Jameson – whom the demented thug blames for his freakish condition…

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

The second issue announced an ‘Enigma of Fear!’ in a return engagement for the Scorpion as Korwin and AIM make Ms. Marvel their new science project. As he turns himself into armoured assassin Destructor, Carol’s therapist Mike Barnett achieves an analytical breakthrough with his patient and discovers she is a masked metahuman before she does…

Although again felling the Scorpion, Ms. Marvel is ambushed by the Destructor, but awakes in #3 (written by Chris Claremont) to turn the tables in ‘The Lady’s Not for Killing!’

Travelling to Cape Canaveral to interview old friend Salia Petrie for a women-astronauts feature, Danvers is soon battling an old Silver Surfer foe on the edge of space, where all her occluded memories explosively return just in time for a final confrontation with Destructor. In the midst of the devastating bout she nearly dies after painfully realising ‘Death is the Doomsday Man!’ (with Jim Mooney taking over pencils for Sinnott to embellish).

The Vision guest-stars in #5 as Ms. Marvel crosses a ‘Bridge of No Return’. When Dr. Barnett reveals he knows her secret, Carol is forced to fight the Android Avenger after AIM tricks the artificial hero into protecting a massive, mobile “dirty” bomb. ‘…And Grotesk Shall Slay Thee!’ then pits her against a subterranean menace determined to eradicate the human race, culminating in a waking ‘Nightmare!’ when she is captured by AIM’s leader Modok and all her secrets are exposed to his malign scientific scrutiny. Grotesk strikes again in #8 as ‘The Last Sunset…?’ almost dawns for the planet, whilst ‘Call Me Death-Bird!’ (art by Keith Pollard, Sinnott & Sam Grainger) introduces a mysterious, murderous avian alien who would figure heavily in many a future X-Men and Avengers saga, but who spends her early days allied to the unrelenting forces of AIM as they attack once more in ‘Cry Murder… Cry Modok!’ (Sal Buscema & Tom Palmer).

A push to achieve greater popularity saw the neophyte in consecutive issues of Marvel Team-Up (#61-62, September & October 1977). Claremont had actually begun scripting that title with issue #57 with a succession of espionage-flavoured heroes and villains battling for possession of a mysterious clay statuette. As illustrated by John Byrne & Dave Hunt, the secret of the artefact is revealed in #61 as Human Torch Johnny Storm joins his creepy-crawly frenemy Spider-Man in battle against Super-Skrull and learns ‘Not All Thy Powers Can Save Thee!’, before the furious clash calamitously escalates to include Ms. Marvel with follow-up ‘All This and the QE2’. Here, the Kree-human hybrid uses knowledge and power she didn’t know she had and comes away in possession of an ancient, alien power crystal…

Frank Giacoia inks Sal B in Ms. Marvel #11’s ‘Day of the Dark Angel!’, wherein supernal supernatural menaces Hecate, the Witch-Queen and The Elementals (a group formerly seen fighting The Living Mummy) attack the Cape, tragically preventing Carol from rescuing Salia and her space shuttle crew from an incredible inter-dimensional disaster…

With Sinnott inking, the astonishing action continues in ‘The Warrior… and the Witch-Queen!’ before ‘Homecoming!’ (Mooney pencils) explores Carol’s blue-collar origins in Boston as she crushes a couple of marauding aliens before the all-out action and tense suspense concludes when ‘Fear Stalks Floor 40’ (illustrated by Carmine Infantino & Steve Leialoha) with the battered and weary warrior confronting her construction worker, anti-feminist dad whilst saving his business from the sinister sabotage of The Steeplejack’.

Wrapping up the show is another guest shot – this time from The Defenders #57 (March 1978). Crafted by Claremont, George Tuska & Dave Cockrum, ‘And Along Came… Ms. Marvel’ sees the “non-team” of outsiders and antiheroes paid a visit after Carol’s prescient senses warn her of their imminent ambush by AIM. Cue cataclysmic combat…

This comprehensive chronicle includes Ms. Prints’: Conway and David Anthony Kraft’s editorials on the hero’s origins from Ms. Marvel #1 & 2, original character sketches by John Romita Senior, a house ad, and unused cover sketches by John Buscema and Marie Severin and pages of original art by Sal Buscema, Giacoia & Sinnott and Infantino & Leialoha.

Always entertaining, frequently groundbreaking and painfully patronising (occasionally at the same time), the early Ms. Marvel, against all odds, grew into the modern Marvel icon of capable womanhood we see today in both comics and on screen as Captain Marvel. These exploits are a valuable grounding of the contemporary champion but also still stand on their own as intriguing examples of the inevitable fall of even the staunchest of male bastions: superhero sagas…
© 1977, 1978, 2018 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

Captain Marvel: Game On (Marvel Action Captain Marvel)


By Sam Maggs, Sweeney Boo, Mario Del Pennino, Isabel Escalante, Brittany Peer, Heather Breckel & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-5115-3 (TPB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Total Entertainment Perfection… 10/10

In 2003 the House of Ideas instituted a Marvel Age line: an imprint to update classic original tales and characters for a new, young readership. The enterprise remodelled in 2005, reduced to core titles Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man. The tone and look mirrored the company’s burgeoning TV cartoon franchises, in delivery if not name. Supplemental series including Super Heroes, The Avengers, Hulk and Iron Man chuntered along merrily until 2010 when they were cancelled. In their place new volumes of Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man debuted. Since then a wealth of material crafted for more innocent audiences (often TV and movie affiliated) has been crafted under the umbrella of “Marvel Action”. This mega compilation – gathering together three earlier collections comprising Marvel Action Captain Marvel (2019) #1-6, and Marvel Action Captain Marvel (2021) #1-5 – offers a bonanza of role models for girl readers and furious fun-filled thrills for all lovers of light hearted superhero silliness and mayhem. And that’s most of us, right?

Written throughout by Sam Maggs (The Unstoppable Wasp: Built on Hope, Tell No Tales, Marvel’s Spider-Man) Carol Danvers steps up as premier super-doer of Earth beginning with a tale of cats breaking newsreaders and other stuff.

Illustrated by Sweeney Boo and colourist Brittany Peer, it opens with ‘Big Flerken Deal’, as Kree colonisers gather up and weaponize all those scattered fluffy house pets with interdimensional voids in their mouths. It should have been a secret but their tech also affected cats on Erath, triggering the weirdest, cutest assault New York ever experienced…

Happily Captain Marvel and Spider-Woman were having a girls-night-in and were ready for action, even if it did lead to Carol being abducted to the little sweeties’ new homeworld and another insane battle in ‘Don’t Be Flerken Ridiculous’.

Some last-minute assistance from her BFF and tagalong Chewie (that’s Carol’s own house-flerken as seen in films and mainstream comics), Star-Lord and the Guardians of the Galaxy show up, and everything finally ends well for all but the Kree in ‘I’m Flerken Out!’

MACM #4-6’s ‘Bug Out!’ co-starred The Unstoppable Wasp (Nadia Van Dyne) and begins with the secret teenaged daughter of Hank Pym getting driving lessons from Carol. Of course things go awry – they’re using Tony Stark’s favourite sports car after all – when Advanced Idea Mechanics attack, trapping them at miniscule height and unable to use Carol’s powers without blowing up the city – and maybe the world…

Forced to ‘Hive It Your Way!’, Carol and Nadia invade AIM and uncover “Operation Roadkill”: a plot to destroy all superheroes using stolen Pym Particles. Incensed at being used as a trial run and using The Wasp’s Genius In action Research Labs (G.I.R.L.) associates as technical support and the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl as back-up, the ticked off team of ‘Queen Bees!’ target AIM Supreme Scientist Monica Rappaccinii, shatter her plan and save themselves from exploding before “fixing” Tony’s wheels and riding off into the sunset…

Although the title ended there, Marvel Action Captain Marvel restarted in 2021. That volume opens with Mario Del Pennino, Isabel Escalante & Heather Breckel rendering ‘Look at Meme Now!’ and ‘Do Androids Meme of Electric Sheep?!’ as a chance meeting with Ghost Spider Gwen Watson intersects with The Mad Thinker hijacking social media to program kids into being his mind slaves. Sadly, that workforce now includes almost every teen metahuman in the world, but those are mere distractions as the Thinker’s Awesome Android uses the crisis to go sentient and go solo…

With order restored, and Carol (a little) more computer literate, Captain Marvel faces a realty crunching crisis as Sweeney Boo & Brittany Peer return for 3-part thriller ‘Game On!’ as a mystery opponent traps Earth’s Strongest Hero in a constantly-shifting cyberspace whilst her allies can only watch and wait…

With covers and variants by Brianna Garcia, Sara Pitre-Durocher, Yasmín Flores Montañez, Karen Hallion, Megan Levens & Charlie Kirchoff, Nicoletta Baldari, Gretel Lusky, Kaela Lash, Nicole Goux, this is a star bright and breezy procession of witty and wonderful all ages escapades to delight and enthral, and inevitably inspire.
© 2023 MARVEL.

Captain Marvel: Shadow Code


By Gilly Segal (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-80336-180-2 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-80336-181-9

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Compulsive Marvel Madness …8/10

After a few half-hearted and ultimately abortive attempts in the 1960s followed by a more strategic but no more enduring attempt at the close of the 1970’s, Marvel finally secured a regular presence on prose bookshelves in the 1990s with a series of hardback novels. Since then, fans who want to supply their own pictures to gripping MU exploits have enjoyed a successive string of text thrills in all formats.

British publisher Titan Books has been supplying many such powerhouse prose publications and here caters to the interests of fans brought in by movies like Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame and The Marvels and lifelong devotees of the ever-enlarging continuity in a gripping yarn set firmly in comic book continuity.

When half-Kree/half human superhero Carol Danvers is asked by token hero guy Tony Stark (in both annoying genius mode and as Iron Man) to investigate a family problem besetting third-generation coding prodigy Mara Melamed, she uncovers a cyber threat to the entire world apparently gamed out by leading braintrust DigiTech and a viper’s nest of family betrayals.

As corporate skulduggery escalates to hostile surveillance, disinformation, blackmail, murder, and indiscriminate attacks by top-secret ordnance, Danvers calls in a team of trusty female super-friends (Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman, Jenn Takeda/Hazmat, Monica Rambeau/Spectrum) and after much dangerous investigation learns an old enemy is behind everything… or is she?

Written by Gilly Segal (I’m Not Dying With You Tonight, Why We Fly) this Titanic tome offers strong, accurate characterisation, fast-paced, non-stop super-powered conflict, perplexing mystery, ever-ratchetting tension and even a few laughs to make Shadow Code an ideal diversion between all those comics and live action adventures…
© 2023 Marvel.

Captain Marvel: The Many Lives of Carol Danvers


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Captain Marvel Mighty Marvel Masterworks volume 1


By Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Arnold Drake, Gene Colan, Don Heck & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-4889-4 (PB/Digital edition)

It’s a year of many anniversaries for Marvel, and 1968 marks a couple of truly significant ones. It was the year the company finally broke free of a restrictive distribution deal and began an explosive expansion that led to market dominance. The other was more symbolic and seminal: the company secured the rights to an evocative and legendary name which it has successfully exploited ever since. Moreover, that name led to the soft introduction of a character who has become one of the faces of the modern Marvel Age.

Happy birthday Mar-Vell and Carol…

The stories re-presented here are timeless and have been gathered many times before but today we’re enjoying another example of The Mighty Marvel Masterworks line: designed with economy in mind and newcomers as target audience. These books are far cheaper, on lower quality paper and smaller – like a paperback novel. Your eyesight might be failing and your hands too big and shaky, but at 152 x 227mm, they’re perfect for kids. If you opt for digital editions, that’s no issue at all.

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

After the notorious decade long DC/Fawcett court case that began in 1940, the title Captain Marvel disappeared from newsstands. In 1967, during the superhero boom and “camp” craze generated by the Batman TV show, publisher MLF seemingly secured rights to the name and produced a number of giant-sized comics. Their star was an intelligent alien robot who could fly, divide his body into segments and shoot lasers from his eyes.

Despite a certain quirky charm, and being devised by comics veteran Carl (Human Torch) Burgos, the feature failed to attract a large following. On its demise, the name was quickly snapped up by expansionist Marvel Comics Group.

Marvel Super-Heroes was a brand-new title: it had been giant-sized reprint comic book Fantasy Masterpieces: combining monster and mystery tales with Golden Age Timely Comics classics, but with the 12th issue it added an all-new experimental section for characters without homes. These included Inhuman Medusa, Ka-Zar, Black Knight and Doctor Doom, along with new concepts like Guardians of the Galaxy, Phantom Eagle and, to start the ball rolling, a troubled alien spy sent to Earth from the Kree Galaxy. He held a Captain’s rank and his name was Mar-Vell.

This cosmically conceived, kid-friendly collection offers that origin adventure from Marvel Super-Heroes #12-13, the contents of Captain Marvel #1-7 plus a humorous take from Not Brand Echh #9: collectively spanning cover-dates December 1967 to August 1968.

Crafted by Stan Lee, Gene Colan & Frank Giacoia, the initial MS-H 15 page-instalment ‘The Coming of Captain Marvel!’ The tale derived directly from Fantastic Four #64-65, wherein the quartet defeated a super-advanced Sentry robot marooned on Earth by a mythical and primordial alien race, only to be attacked by a high official of those long-lost extraterrestrials in the very next issue!

After defeating Ronan the Accuser, the FF heard no more from the far from extinct Kree, but the millennia-old empire became once again interested in Earth. Dispatching a surveillance mission, the Kree wanted to know everything about us. Unfortunately, the agent they chose was a man of conscience, whilst his commanding officer Colonel Yon-Rogg was his ruthless rival for the love of the ship’s medical officer Una.

No sooner has the dutiful operative made a tentative planet-fall and clashed with the US Army from a local missile base (frequently hinted at as being Cape Kennedy) than the instalment ends. Stan & Gene had set the ball rolling leaving Roy Thomas to establish the basic ground-rules in the next episode.

Colan remained, this time with Paul Reinman inking. ‘Where Stalks the Sentry!’ sees the spy improving his fantastic weaponry before a blatant attempt by Yon-Rogg to kill him collaterally destroys a light aircraft carrying scientist Walter Lawson to that military base.

Assuming Lawson’s identity, Mar-Vell infiltrates “The Cape” but arouses the suspicions of security Chief Carol Danvers. He is horrified to discover the Earthlings are storing the Sentry (defeated by the FF) on site. Yon-Rogg, sensing an opportunity, reactivates the deadly mechanoid. As it goes on a rampage, only Mar-Vell stands in its path…

That’s a lot of material for 20 pages but Thomas & Colan were on a roll. With Vince Colletta inking, the third chapter was not in Marvel Super-Heroes but in the premiere issue of the Captain’s own title – released for May 1968. ‘Out of the Holocaust… A Hero!’ is an all-action thriller, detailing the Kree-man’s victorious clash with the superbot, but which still found space to establish twin sub-plots. Succeeding issues would focus on “Lawson’s” credibility and Mar-Vell’s inner doubts as the faithful Kree soldier rapidly loses faith in his own race and falls under the spell of the strangely beguiling humans…

The Captain’s first foray against a super-villain comes in the next two issues as we learn the Kree and Skrull Empire have been intergalactic rivals for eons, and the shapeshifters now need to know why there’s an enemy soldier stationed on neutral Earth.

Despatching their own top agent, ‘From the Void of Space Comes the Super Skrull!’ and the resultant battle almost levels the entire state before bombastically concluding with the Kree beaten, captured and interrogated. A month later he rallies ‘From the Ashes of Defeat!’ and spectacularly triumphs, whilst on the orbiting home front the romantic triangle sub-plot intensified as Yonn-Rogg looked for ways to send Mar-Vell to a justifiable death…

Issue #4 saw the secret invader clashing with fellow anti-hero Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner in ‘The Alien and the Amphibian!’ even as Mar-Vell’s superiors make increasingly ruthless demands of their reluctant agent.

Captain Marvel #5 saw Arnold Drake & Don Heck assume the creative chores (with John Tartaglione on inks) in cold-war monster-mash clash ‘The Mark of the Metazoid’, wherein a mutated Soviet dissident is forced by his militaristic masters to kidnap Walter Lawson (that’s narrative symmetry, that is).I ssue #6 then places the Captain ‘In the Path of Solam!’: battling a marauding sun-creature even as Carol Danvers gets ever-closer to proving that something’s not right with the enigmatic consultant Lawson. Meanwhile, the man impersonating him is forced to prove his loyalty to his species by unleashing a Kree bio-weapon on an Earth community in ‘Die, Town, Die!’ However, all is not as it seems because murderous animate Quasimodo, the Living Computer is also involved…

To Be Continued…

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

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

Secret Invasion


By Brian Michael Bendis, Leinil Francis Yu, Mark Morales & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3297-4 (TPB/Digital edition Marvel) 978-1-84653-405-8 (TPB Panini/Marvel UK)

The Skrulls are shape-shifting aliens who have threatened Earth since the second issue of Fantastic Four, and have long been a cornerstone of the Marvel Universe. After decades of use and misuse the insidious invaders were made the stars of a colossal braided mega-crossover event beginning in April 2008 and running through all the company’s titles until Christmas. That landmark worlds-shaking epic has since been adapted to the company’s burgeoning, blockbuster Marvel Cinematic Universe. If you were a real fan, you’d have already seen the first episode…

We, however, are all about the comics so let’s revisit the stunning and all-pervasive source material. The premise is simple enough: the everchanging, corruptive would-be conquerors have undergone a mass religious conversion and are now utterly, fanatically dedicated to taking Earth as their new homeworld. To this end they have replaced over an unspecified time a number of key Earth denizens – including many of the world’s superheroes.

When the lid is lifted on the simmering plot, no defender of the Earth truly knows who is on their side…

Moreover the cosmic charlatans have also unravelled the secrets of humanity’s magical and genetic superpowers, creating amped-up equivalents to Earth’s mightiest. They are now primed and able to destroy the heroic defenders in face-to-face confrontations.

With the conquest primed to launch, everything starts to unravel when Elektra dies in battle and is discovered to be an alien, not a ninja. Soon, two teams of Avengers (Iron Man, The Sentry, Wonder Man, Daredevil, Ms. Marvel, Spider-Woman, Wolverine, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Ronin, Echo, Cloak and Black Widow) and certain agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  are covertly investigating in discrete operations. All are painfully aware that they have no way of telling friend from foe…

Crisis and confusion are compounded when a Skrull ship crashes in the primordial Savage Land, releasing a band of missing heroes claiming to have been abducted and experimented on. Among them are another Spider-Man, Luke Cage, recently killed Captain America Steve Rogers, Phoenix/Jean Grey and Thor, plus other heroes believed gone forever. Some must be Skrull duplicates but are they the newcomers or the ones facing them…?

As the champions second guess each other, the second strand triggers. Earths space defence station S.W.O.R.D. is blown up and a virus rips through the internet shutting down crucial systems including the Starktech comprising the operating systems of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Iron Man’s armour…

Now all over Earth, Skrulls attack and heroes – and even villains such as Norman (Green Goblin) Osborn – respond and retaliate in a last ditch effort to survive: a war of survival that ends in shock, horror and unforeseen disaster…

Rather than give any more away, let me just say that if you like this sort of blockbuster saga you’ll be in seventh heaven, and a detailed familiarity is not vital to your understanding. However, for a fuller understanding, amongst the other Secret Invasion volumes accompanying this, you should particularly seek out Secret Invasion: the Infiltration, Secret War (2004), Avengers Disassembled, and Annihilation volumes 1-3, as well as the Avengers: Illuminati compilation.

This American volume contains all 8 issues of the core miniseries plus a monumental covers-&-variants gallery (31 in total) by Gabriele Dell’Otto, Steve McNiven, Leinil Yu, Mel Rubi, Frank Cho, Laura Martin and Greg Horn, and a series of chilling house ads imploring us to ‘Embrace Change’, but is just one of 22 volumes comprising the vast number of episodes in convergent storylines of the saga.

Fast-paced, complex, superbly illustrated and suitably spectacular, this twisty-turny tale and its long-term repercussions reshaped the Marvel Universe, heralding a “Dark Reign” that pushed all the envelopes. If you are a comics newcomer, and can find the British edition from Panini, it also includes one-shot spin-off Who Do You Trust? and illustrated data-book Skrulls which claims to provide a listing and biography for every shapeshifter yet encountered in the Marvel Universe (but if they left any out, could you tell?).
© 2017 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.