Category: Graphic Novels

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Avengers Omnibus volume 1


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To Be Continued…

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

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

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Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Color Sundays “Call of the Wild” (volume 1)


By Floyd Gottfredson & various: edited by David Gerstein & Gary Groth (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-643-0 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: A Mouse in Every House… 10/10

Happy technical 100th Anniversary Disney, but we all know it all REALLY started with this little guy…

As collaboratively co-created by Walt Disney & Ub Iwerks, Mickey Mouse was first seen – if not heard – in silent cartoon Plane Crazy. The animated short fared poorly in a May 1928 test screening and was promptly shelved. That’s why most people who care cite Steamboat Willie – the fourth Mickey feature to be completed – as the debut of the mascot mouse and co-star and paramour Minnie Mouse, since it was the first to be nationally distributed, as well as the first animated feature with synchronised sound. The astounding success of the short led to a subsequent and rapid release of fully completed predecessors Plane Crazy, The Gallopin’ Gaucho and The Barn Dance, once they too had been given soundtracks. From those timid beginnings grew an immense fantasy empire, but film was not the only way Disney conquered hearts and minds. With Mickey a certified solid gold sensation, the mighty mouse was considered a hot property and soon joined America’s most powerful and pervasive entertainment medium: comic strips…

Floyd Gottfredson was a cartooning pathfinder who started out as just another warm body in the Disney Studio animation factory. Happily, he slipped sideways into graphic narrative and evolved into a pioneer of pictorial narratives as influential as George Herriman, Winsor McCay and Elzie Segar. Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse entertained millions – if not billions – of eagerly enthralled readers and shaped the very way comics worked. Via some of the earliest adventure continuities in comics history he took a wildly anarchic animated rodent from slap-stick beginnings and transformed a feisty everyman/mouse underdog into a crimebuster, detective, explorer, lover, aviator and cowboy. Mickey was the quintessential two-fisted hero whenever necessity demanded. In later years, as tastes – and syndicate policy – changed, Gottfredson steered that self-same wandering warrior into a sedate, gently suburbanised lifestyle, employing crafty and clever sitcom gags suited to a newly middle-class America: comprising a 50-year career generating some of the most engrossing continuities the comics industry has ever enjoyed.

Arthur Floyd Gottfredson was born in 1905 in Kaysville, Utah, one of eight siblings in a Mormon family of Danish extraction. Injured in a youthful hunting accident, Floyd whiled away a long recuperation drawing and studying cartoon correspondence courses. By the 1920s he had turned professional, selling cartoons and commercial art to local trade magazines and Big City newspaper the Salt Lake City Telegram.

In 1928, he and wife Mattie moved to California where, after a shaky start, the doodler found work in April 1929 as an in-betweener with the burgeoning Walt Disney Studios. Just as the Great Depression hit, he was personally asked by Walt to take over the newborn but already ailing Mickey Mouse newspaper strip. Gottfredson would plot, draw and frequently script the strip for the next five decades: an incredible accomplishment by of one of comics’ most gifted exponents.

Veteran animator Ub Iwerks had initiated the print feature with Disney himself contributing, before artist Win Smith was brought in. The nascent strip was plagued with problems and Gottfredson was only supposed to pitch in until a qualified regular creator could be found.

His first effort saw print on May 5th 1930 (his 25th birthday) and Floyd just kept going for fifty years. On January 17th 1932, Gottfredson crafted the first colour Sunday page, which he also handled until retirement. At first he did everything, but in 1934 Gottfredson relinquished scripting, preferring plotting and illustrating the adventures to playing about with dialogue. Thereafter, collaborating wordsmiths included Ted Osborne, Merrill De Maris, Dick Shaw, Bill Walsh, Roy Williams & Del Connell. At the start and in the manner of film studio systems, Floyd briefly used inkers such as Ted Thwaites, Earl Duvall & Al Taliaferro, but by 1943 had taken on full art chores.

This superb archival compendium – part of a magnificently ambitious series collecting the creator’s entire canon – re-presents the initial colour sequences, jam-packed with thrills, spills and chills, whacky races, fantastic fights and a glorious superabundance of rapid-fire sight-gags and verbal by-play. The manner by which Mickey became a syndicated star is covered in various articles at the front and back of this sturdy tome devised and edited by truly dedicated, clearly devoted fan David Gerstein who also provides an Introduction. The tome is stuffed with lost treats such as a try-out sketch (of the Wolf Barker storyline) by Carl Barks from 1935 when he joined Disney Studios.

Under the guise of Setting the Stage unbridled fun and incisive revelations begin with J.B. Kaufman’s ‘Mickey’s Sunday Best: A New Arena’ introducing us to this unique graphic world before Kevin Huizenga’s Appreciation ‘A Brief Essay About Floyd Gottfredson’ details the pictorial pathfinder’s visual innovations prior to The Sundays: Floyd Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse Stories With Introductory Notes concluding scene-setting with Gerstein offering some preliminary insights in ‘Sunday Storytelling’…

At the start – just like the daily feature – the strip was treated like an animated feature, with diverse hands working under a “director” and each day seen as a full gag with set-up, delivery and a punchline, usually all in service to an umbrella story or theme. Such was the format Gottfredson inherited from Walt Disney for his first full yarn, and here generally unconnected Gag Strips spanning January 10th to July 24th 1932 were by Duval (story & pencils) and Gottfredson until they switched and Floyd drew with Duval and Al Taliaferro inking. The result was a barrage of fast-paced and funny anthropomorphic animal antics starring Mickey, Minnie Mouse, Horace Horsecollar, Clarabelle Cow, plus prototype pet Pluto dodging dogcatchers, visiting circuses and funfairs, fighting fires, skating, fighting Indians (sorry, it was an inescapable factor of less-evolved times), joyriding, farming, fishing, gardening, cooking, quarrelling, messing with model planes and trying to make money. As the weekly funfest progressed, Pluto’s part grew exponentially and – after a monochrome poser for film short Puppy Love (1933) – a brief briefing in ‘The Peter Principle’ leads to the first extended storyline.

Running from July 31st to September 4th 1932 ‘Dan the Dogcatcher’ saw Gottfredson inked by Ted Thwaites in a dogged (sorry, not sorry) battle of wills as future returning foe Peg-Leg Pete debuted as an unscrupulously uncivil civil servant seeking to put Pluto in the pound at any cost. The tale wandered eccentrically and frenetically all over the small town scenario, adding drama and bathos to chaos and comedy before seamlessly slipping into more Gag Strips (January 10-July 24 1932) with story & pencils by Duval & Gottfredson and inks by Duval and Al Taliaferro.

One last Gag Strip (September 11th 1932 by Gottfredson & Thwaites neatly segues into ‘Mickey’s Nephews’ (September 18th – November 6th 1932 by Gottfredson & Thwaites) and is notable for introducing Mickey’s mischief-making nephews when he looks after the anarchic offspring of neighbour Mrs. Fieldmouse for a few weeks. The sentient cyclones soon start calling the guardian/jailer “unca Mickey”…

Gag Strips spanning November 13th 1932 to January 22nd 1933 (story Gottfredson & Webb Smith, pencils by Gottfredson inked by Thwaites & Taliaferro) leads to an essay detailing ‘Mickey’s Delayed Drama’ before landmark romp ‘Lair of Wolf Barker’ (January 29th – June 18th) changed the tone of the strip forever.

The first extended Mickey Sunday colour epic was partially scripted by Osborne and inked by Taliaferro & Thwaites, but is pure Gottfredson at his most engaging: a rip-roaring comedy western featuring a full wide-screen repertory cast: Mickey, Minnie, Horace, Clarabelle and Goofy, who originally answered to the moniker Dippy Dog.

The gang head west to look after Uncle Mortimer’s sprawling ranch and enjoy fresh air and free lodgings but after meeting his foreman Don Poocho stumble into a baffling crisis. Mortimer’s cattle are progressively vanishing, with the unsavoury eponymous villain riding roughshod over the territory and terrorising assorted characters and stock figures culled from a million movies. Desperados and deviltry notwithstanding, before long Barker gets his ultimate and well-deserved come-uppance thanks the Mouses’ valiant efforts. This is action comics on the fly, with plenty of rough-&- tumble action, twists, turns and surprises always alloyed to snappy, fast-packed sight and slapstick gags.

Without pausing for breath the cast’s return home leads to more unconnected frenzied Gag Strips (June 25th 1933 to March 4th 1934: story by Osborne, pencils by Gottfredson and inks by Thwaites & Taliaferro) with Mickey as much silly nuisance as closet hero until extended tales return, with ‘The Longest Short Story Ever Told!’ first supplying some context about the filmic origins of the next epic ‘Rumplewatt The Giant.’

The fantasy fable ran March 11th to April 29th 1934 by Osborne, Gottfredson, Thwaites & Taliaferro and sees Mickey reading a bedtime story to youngsters with himself as a giant killer in fairyland, after which rustic domesticity and free enterprise dominate as Mickey and Minnie anticipate – over a number of episodes – replacing the decrepit horse in his new delivery service. Many mishaps occur until ‘Tanglefoot Pulls His Weight’ (May 6th – June 3rd), and a single Gag Strip (June 10th 1934) leads to essay ‘Call of the Wild’ debating the history and tangled relationship of Horace Horsecollar, Clarabelle and Goofy prior to Osborne, Gottfredson & Taliaferro dipping into sinister mad science courtesy of ‘Dr. Oofgay’s Secret Serum’ (June 17th– September 9th 1934). A double date camping trip to the woods goes awry when the reclusive scientist – seeking a way to tame ferocious animals by chemistry, instead injects Horace with the antidote turning him into a rampaging beast…

‘TOPPER Strip “Introducing Mickey Mouse Movies”’ (June 24 1934 by Osborne, Gottfredson, & Taliaferro) reveals the ancillary feature that augmented the weekly feature and precedes more unconnected but house-based Gag Strips (September 16th to December 2nd 1934) and article ‘Death Knocks, Fate Pesters’ explores the strip’s early use of what we now call disaster capitalism before ‘Foray to Mt. Fishflake’ (December 9th 1934 to February 10th 1935 by Osborne, Gottfredson & Thwaites) finds the four friends seeking to scale a peak for prize money – a thrilling romp that led to also included Gag Strips from January 27th to February 10th and saw the comics debut of new Disney screen sensation Donald Duck…

‘Beneath the Overcoat’ is a treatise on Osborne, Gottfredson & Thwaites’ landmark crime yarn running from February 17th to March 24th that reshaped the Mouse’s modus operandi and future exploits before serialised gem ‘The Case of the Vanishing Coats’ sees Mickey helping Donald’s Uncle Amos solve a baffling mystery of invisible shoplifters just before Morty and Ferdie Fieldmouse return to Gag Strips appearing between March 31st and July 21st in pranks and hijinks exacerbated by wild spark Donald….

Another Gottfredson promo drawing precedes the next big addition with text tract ‘Hoppy the Ambassador’ bringing readers up to speed on previous antipodean animals just so Osborne, Gottfredson & Thwaites can fully enthral and beguile with the saga of originally unwelcome new pet ‘Hoppy the Kangaroo’ (July 28th – November 24th). The bouncy ’roo eventually wins everyone over after a boxing bout with a gorilla named Growlio, managed by old enemy Peg-Leg Pete…

Osborne, Gottfredson & Thwaites’ Gag Strips carry the feature over the Holiday period of December 1st – 29th 1935, but although the chronological cartooning officially concludes here, there’s still a wealth of glorious treats and fascinating revelations in store. A 1935 painted colour cover by Gottfredson & Tom Wood for Italian magazine Modellina takes us into The Gottfredson Archives: Essays and Special Features section that follows. Here a picture packed essay on ‘The Monthly “Sundays”’ by Gerstein & Jim Korkis reveals a long-lost publication for Masonic youth in “Mickey Mouse Chapter” (A Mickey Supplement) sourced fromInternational DeMolay CordonVol. 1 #9-11, Vol. 2 #1-2 (December 1932 – May 1933) and written by Fred Spencer (first 4 strips) & Gottfredson (5), with art by Spencer.

International reprints of our opening saga are seen in ‘Gallery Feature – Gottfredson’s World: Dan the Dogcatcher’ whilst background and context on ‘The Cast: Morty and Ferdie’ by Gerstein segues into a sidebar project detailed in ‘Behind the Scenes: Minnie’s Yoo-Hoo’.

More international editions can be seen in ‘Gallery Feature – Gottfredson’s World: Mickey’s Nephews.’ A foray into pop-up books is covered in Gerstein’s ‘The Comics Department at Work: The Mouseton Pops’, supplemented with covers and interior art from Gottfredson, Taliaferro & Tom Wood. More reprint covers of many nations are gathered in ‘Gallery Feature – Gottfredson’s World: Early Epics’ after which ‘The Gottfredson Gang: In “Their Own” Words’ sees Gerstein revisit text by Irene Cavanaugh from 1932, introducing Dippy Dawg to the world and revealing Mickey’s astrological aspects…

Topolino covers fill the ‘Gallery Feature – Gottfredson’s World: Going Places’ whilst storyboards by Homer Brightman adorn Gerstein’s ‘Behind the Scenes: Interior Decorators’ before William Van Horn’s ‘“Wrapping Up” The Case of the Vanishing Coats’ focuses on later reprintings and alterations…

Another tranche of foreign imports can be seen in ‘Gallery Feature – Gottfredson’s World: Curiosities of 1935’ and ‘Gallery Feature – Gottfredson’s World: Hoppy the Kangaroo’ in advance of feature article ‘The Heirs of Gottfredson’s World: Topolino’ by Sergio Lama & Gerstein leading to capacious translated Christmas-themed Gag Strips in Verse (A Mickey Supplement) offering excerpts from Italian Il Popolo Di Roma (May-July 29 1931: story by Guglielmo Guastaveglia); The Delineator (December1932: story & art by Gottfredson et al) and Italian Topolino #1 & 7 (December 31st 1932 & February 11th 1933 with story & art by Giove Toppi & Angelo Burattini) before closing with an illustrated quote – “Any time you can tell a story…” – giving Gottfredson himself the last word…

Floyd Gottfredson’s influence on not just Disney’s canon but sequential graphic narrative itself is inestimable: he was among the first to produce long continuities and “straight” adventures, pioneered team-ups and invented some of the art form’s first “super-villains”.

When Disney killed their continuities in 1955, dictating henceforth strips would only contain one-off gag strips, Floyd adapted seamlessly, working until retirement in 1975. His last daily appeared on November 15th with a final Sunday published on September 19th 1976.

Like all Disney creators, Gottfredson worked in utter anonymity. However, in the 1960s his identity was revealed and the roaring appreciation of previously unsuspected hordes of devotees led to interviews, overviews and public appearances, leading to subsequent reprinting in books, comics and albums which now all carried a credit for the quiet, reserved master. Floyd Gottfredson died in July 1986. Thankfully we have these Archives to enjoy, inspiring us and hopefully a whole new generation of inveterate tale-tellers…
Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Color Sundays “Call of the Wild” © 2013 Disney Enterprises, Inc. Text of “Mickey’s Sunday Best: A New Arena” by J.B. Kaufman is © 2013 by J.B. Kaufman. All contents © 2013 Disney Enterprises unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

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Invincible Iron Man Omnibus volume 1


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Crisis on Multiple Earths Book 3: Countdown to Crisis


By Gerry Conway, Roy Thomas, Kurt Busiek, George Pérez, Marv Wolfman, Dick Dillin, Don Heck, Adrian Gonzales, Chuck Patton, Keith Pollard, Rich Buckler, Alan Kupperberg, Jerry Ordway & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-7795-2176-7 (TPB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Unmissable Family Get-togethers… 9/10

As I’ve incessantly mentioned, I was a “Baby Boomer” raised on Julie Schwartz, Gardner Fox and John Broome’s gradual reintroduction of Golden Age superheroes during the halcyon, eternal summery days of the early 1960s. To me, those fascinating counterpart crusaders from Earth-Two weren’t vaguely distant memories rubber-stamped by parents or older brothers – they were cool, fascinating and enigmatically new. And for some reason the “proper” heroes of Earth-One held them in high regard and treated them with obvious deference…

The transcendent wonderment began in The Flash: pioneering trendsetter of the Silver Age Comics Revolution. Showcase Editor Julie Schwartz ushered in a new age with his landmark successes – which also included Adam Strange, Green Lantern, The Atom and (in The Brave and the Bold) Hawkman – directly leading to the invention of the Justice League. That in turn inspired the Fantastic Four and Marvel’s entire empire – changing forever the way comics were made and read…

Whereas the 1940s were about magic and macho, the Silver Age polished everything with a thick veneer of SCIENCE and a wave of implausibly rationalistic concepts which filtered into the dawning mass-consciousness of my generation. The most intriguing and ultimately rewarding was, of course, the notion of parallel worlds. After triumphantly ushering in the return of superheroes, the Scarlet Speedster – with Fox & Broome writing – set an unbelievably high standard for costumed adventure in sharp, witty tales of science and imagination, illustrated with captivating style and refined simplicity by Carmine Infantino.

The epochal epic that changed American comics forever was Fox’s ‘Flash of Two Worlds’ (Flash #123 September 1961, reprinted in many places, but not here): introducing to an emerging continuity the concept of alternate Earths and, the multiversal structure of the future DCU, as well as all successive cosmos-shaking yearly Crises sagas that grew from it.

… And again, where DC led, others followed…

Received with tumultuous acclaim, the notion was revisited in Flash #129 which teasingly reintroduced evergreen stalwarts – Wonder Woman, Hawkman, Green Lantern, The Atom, Doctor Mid-Nite and Black Canary: venerable members of the Justice Society of America. Clearly Editor Schwartz had something in mind…

The tale led to the elder team’s first meeting with the Justice League of America and start of an annual tradition. When ‘Flash of Two Worlds’ brought us the notion of Infinite Earths and alternate iterations of costumed crusaders, fans began agitating for the return of the Greats of the Golden Age. Editorial powers-that-be were hesitant, fearing too many heroes would be silly and unmanageable, or worse yet, put readers off. If they could see us now…

These innovative adventures generated an avalanche of popular and critical approval (big sales figures, too) so inevitably the trans-dimensional tests led to the ultimate team-up in the summer of 1963. Once DC’s Silver Age heroes began regularly meeting their Golden Age predecessors from “Earth-Two”, a yearly tradition commenced and every summer (ish) the JLA would team-up with the JSA to combat a trans-dimensional threat. This gloriously enthralling volume celebrating Infinite Diversity in Infinite Costumes gathers the last combinations and summer double-headers starring the JLA & JSA and includes another outreach team-up designed to set young hearts racing and pulses pounding.

Encompassing October 1979 – November 1984, Justice League of America #171-172, 183-185, 195-197, 207-209, 219-220, 231-232, All-Star Squadron #14-15 and DC Comics Presents Annual #1 cover a transitional period as DC prepared for its 50th anniversary by planning to destroy everything they had built in Crisis on Infinite Earths. The collection opens with a locked-room mystery by Gerry Conway, Dick Dillin & Frank McLaughlin as ‘The Murderer Among Us: Crisis Above Earth One!’ sees the League feting the Society in their satellite HQ and horrified to find one of their veteran guests throttled by unseen hands.

With no possible egress or exit, the greatest detectives of two worlds realise one of their heroic complement must be the cold-blooded killer and a methodical elimination of suspects leads to tense explorations and explosive repercussions in the revelatory finale ‘I Accuse…’

With the next summer’s team-up an artistic era ended as criminally underappreciated illustrator Dick Dillin passed away whilst drawing the saga. He and McLaughlin only completed Conway’s first chapter – ‘Crisis on New Genesis or, Where Have All the New Gods Gone?’ – leaving up-and-coming star George Pérez to fill some very big boots (and gloves and capes and…).

An epic confrontation between JLA, JSA and futuristic deities of Jack Kirby’s astounding Fourth World in #183-185 (October-December 1980) begins with the assembled heroes unilaterally shanghaied out of the regular universe and transported to transdimensional paradise planet New Genesis. That world is utterly deserted but for a furiously deranged warrior Orion who seems set on crushing them all. Happily, he is stopped by late-arriving Mister Miracle, Big Barda, Oberon and Metron who reveal their fellow gods have been captured and sent to hell-world Apokolips by three Earth-2 villains. The world has been in turmoil since Orion killed evil overlord Darkseid. In the interim the vanquished devil’s spirit travelled to Earth-Two and recruited The Shade, Icicle and Fiddler to resurrect him…

Details are reviewed in ‘Crisis Between Two Earths or, Apokolips Now!’ (Conway, Pérez & McLaughlin) as – freshly restored – Darkseid strives to make his still-tenuous existence permanent. In response, the heroes split up to stop him by hitting key components of his technology and support teams. En route they encounter a resistance movement of battle-scarred super-powered toddlers, the horrific reason New Genesisians were initially taken and even how Darkseid plans to invade the natural universe by cataclysmically warping Apokolips into the space currently occupied by Earth-Two…

The diabolical denouement reveals a ‘Crisis on Apokolips or, Darkseid Rising!’, as the scattered champions reunite to stop imminent catastrophe and set the worlds to rights in an explosive clash with no true resolution. Such is the nature of undying evil…

Issues #195-197 (October-December 1981, edited by Len Wein) offered action and intrigue in ‘Targets on Two Worlds’ (Conway, Pérez & John Beatty), as Earth-Two’s premiere mad scientist and serial body-snatcher The Ultra-Humanite gathers a coterie of villains from his own world and Earth-One into a new incarnation of the Secret Society of Super-Villains.

The wily supergenius has divined that by removing five specific Leaguers and JSA-ers from their worlds he can achieve an alteration of the Cosmic Alignment and create a world utterly devoid of all superheroes. Selling the plan to his suspicious pawns Monocle, Psycho Pirate, Brain Wave, Rag Doll, The Mist, Cheetah, Signalman, Killer Frost and Floronic Man is relatively easy. They can see the advantages and have no idea the duplicitous savant is playing them for his own ultimate advantage…

Inked by Romeo Tanghal, the plan successfully concludes in ‘Countdown to Crisis!’ as Earth-One’s Batman, Black Canary, Wonder Woman, Firestorm and Atom are ambushed with their other-world guests Flash/Jay Garrick, Hourman, Hawkman, Superman and Johnny Thunder. Despatched to an inter-dimensional void, they learn the longed-for Realignment results in a hero-free planet as the triumphant miscreants quickly fall out. Similarly banished, Earth-One’s villains spitefully retaliate by freeing the lost heroes from a ‘Crisis in Limbo!’ (illustrated by Keith Pollard, Pérez & Tanghal) and join them in crushing the Ultra-Humanite to restore the previous status quo…

DC Comics Presents Annual #1 (September 1982) then adds another crucial component of Crisis on Infinite Earths, as Marv Wolfman, Rich Buckler & Dave Hunt reintroduce the world where good and evil are transposed. ‘Crisis on Three Earths!’ sees the Supermen of Earths One & Two again thrash their respective nemeses Lex and Alexei Luthor only to have the villains flee to another universe…

In Case You Were Wondering: soon after the Silver Age brought back an army of costumed heroes, ‘Crisis on Earth-One’ (Justice League of America #21, August 1963) and ‘Crisis on Earth-Two’ (in #22) became one of the most important stories in DC history and arguably one of the most important tales in American comics. Sequel saga ‘Crisis on Earth-Three’ & ‘The Most Dangerous Earth of All!’ (JLA#29-30) reprised the team-up thrills after the super-beings of yet another alternate Earth discovered the secret of multiversal travel.

Unfortunately, Ultraman, Owlman, Superwoman, Johnny Quick and Power Ring were super-criminals The Crime Syndicate of Amerika on a world without heroes. They see the JLA and JSA as living practise dummies to sharpen their evil skills upon…

Back at the DCCP Annual, the Luthors land on Earth-3 and begin transdimensional attacks on their archenemies: even tentatively affiliating with Ultraman whilst treacherously planning to destroy all three Earths…

This potential cosmic catastrophe prompts the brilliant and noble Alex Luthor of Earth-Three to abandon his laboratory, turn himself into his world’s very first superhero and join the hard-pressed Supermen in saving humanity three times over…

That same year later – specifically October-December 1982 – the annual scenario expanded into a sprawling multi-title extravaganza: a team-up and chronal crossover encompassing Justice League of America #207-209 and WWII set All-Star Squadron #14-15. Played out across alternate universes and divergent histories, the drama commenced in Justice League #207 as ‘Crisis Times Three!’ (Conway, Don Heck & Tanghal) sees members of the JSA diverted from a trans-dimensional exchange and rendezvous with the JLA.

They are deposited on a terrifying post-apocalyptic alternate Earth where 1962’s Cuban Missile Crisis resulted in atomic war, whilst the JLA are smashed by the unexpected arrival of their evil counterparts the Crime Syndicate of Earth-Three. As the lost JSAers explore a nuclear nightmare, the story unfolds and an old enemy is exposed. This Earth was devastated due to the intervention of malign time-meddler Per Degaton…

Having barely survived the attack of the Syndicators, a team of Justice Leaguers – Superman, Zatanna, Firestorm, Hawkman and Aquaman – jump to Earth-Two and discovers a fascistic society which has been ruled by Degaton since the 1940s. Barely escaping, they then plunge back down that timeline to January 1942 to solve the mystery and stumble upon the JSA’s wartime branch: the All-Star Squadron…

After the creation of Superman and the very concept of Superheroes, arguably the next most groundbreaking idea for comic books was to stick a bunch of individual stars into a team. Thus when anthology title All Star Comics #3 revealed its previously solo line-up interacting as a comradely group, the very nature of the genre took a huge leap in evolution.

The Justice Society of America inspired innumerable similar iterations over decades but for many of us tragically nostalgia-paralysed fans, the original and genuine pioneers have always been Simply the Best.

Possibly their greatest living fan, advocate and perpetuator is writer, editor and historian Roy Thomas who has long championed – when not actually steering – their revivals and continued crusades against crime, tyranny and injustice. When he moved from Marvel to DC in the early 1980s, Thomas created Arak, Son of Thunder and Captain Carrot, wrote Batman and Wonder Woman and inevitably revived the world’s original Super-Team. Moreover, he somehow convinced DC’s powers-that-be to put them back where they truly belonged – battling for freedom and democracy in the white-hot crucible of World War II. The All-Star Squadron was comprised of minor characters owed by DC/National and All American Comics, retroactively devised as an adjunct to the main team and indulging in “untold tales” of the War period…

The action resumes in All-Star Squadron #14, courtesy of writer Thomas and illustrators Adrian Gonzales & Jerry Ordway. In ‘The Mystery Men of October!’ they are an unknown quantity to the recently arrived Leaguers in search of Degaton. Their arrival coincides with the rogue recovering his erased memories, stealing his boss’s time machine (long story: buy the book for the full details) and heading into the time stream where he encounters and liberates the Crime Sydicators from an energy-prison the heroes had created for them…

Joining forces, the murderous monsters foray forward and across the realities. Arriving in a 1962 and stealing nuclear missiles Russia had stockpiled in Cuba, they precipitate a clash of wills between President John F. Kennedy, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev and Fidel Castro triggering atomic Armageddon. Sadly, none of this is known to the JLA or All-Stars in 1942 who see costumed strangers and instantly attack…

That battle ends in JLA #208 after Degaton makes his ultimatum known: America and the world’s total surrender or successive detonation of dozens of atomic super explosives in many nations. Happily the heroes of two eras are ready to stifle ‘The Bomb-Blast Heard ‘Round the World’ (Conway, Heck & Sal Trapani) and deploy accordingly. They are soon joined by JSA comrades from 1982 who have escaped their dystopian dungeon dimension and headed back 40 years for the beginning of the end in A-SS #15’s all-action clash of titans ‘Masters of Worlds and Time!’ (Thomas, Gonzales & Ordway).

The senses-shattering conclusion comes in JLA #209 with Conway & Heck detailing the cautious restoration of all consensus realities in ‘Should Old Acquaintances Be Forgot…’

Thomas joined Conway scripting the penultimate pairing (JLA #219-220 October to November) with Chuck Patton, Tanghal & Pablo Marcos illustrating ‘Crisis in the Thunderbolt Dimension!’ and ‘The Doppelgänger Gambit!’

Here an attack on Earth-One by a coterie of villains from both worlds begins with the magical Thunderbolt of retired JSA stalwart Johnny Thunder inexplicably ambushing the Justice League’s biggest guns. With the heroes in comas, The Wizard, Fiddler, Felix Faust, The Icicle, Chronos and Dr. Alchemy plunder the planet as the remaining costumed champions uncover a shocking secret about Earth-Two émigré Black Canary and clash with a long-forgotten foe who can also control the electrical genie who exposes an awful secret and the hidden history of the JSA… before the good guys and – late addition Sargon the Sorcerer – lower the boom again…

The end of the tradition came one year later as Kurt Busiek, Alan Kupperberg & Buckler debuted a quarrelsome clan whose ‘Family Crisis!’ had cosmic repercussions. Spanning #231 & 232 it begins when Dr. Joshua Champion inadvertently opens the doors of reality and allows a marauding force to enter and endanger all existence. Altered by the exchange, Champion’s children enlist the aid of the JLA and JSA to resist and repel the ghastly Commander on all ‘Battlegrounds!’ imaginable…

Guest-starring Supergirl, the nuanced saga saw realities topple and reborn, as an appearance of The Monitor and his future Harbinger presaged bigger surprises in store…

With previous collection art, covers by Dillin, Dick Giordano, Jim Starlin, Bob Smith, Pérez, Mike DeCarlo, Buckler, Joe Kubert and Patton, plus full biographies of creators, this is a nostalgic delight for all who love superheroes and villains, crave carefully constructed modern mythologies and adore indulgently fantastic adventure, great causes and momentous victories: captivating Costumed Dramas no lover of Fights ‘n’ Tights fun could possibly resist.
© 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 2023 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Ian Gibson 1946-2023

We pause now to mark the death of writer/artist and thoroughly wonderful bloke Ian Gibson (AKA Emberton, Joe Kerr and Q. Twirk). He was an agent of change in British comics and a founding force on 2000 AD who reshaped the look and feel of the art form and industry in works as varied and groundbreaking as Judge Dredd, Robo-Hunter, The Ballad of Halo Jones, Death Wish, Ace Trucking Co., Anderson: Psi Division, Millennium, Mister Miracle, Green Lantern Corps, The Chronicles of Genghis Grimtoad, Annie Droid, Meta 4 and Star Wars, and lesser licensed properties such as Kung Fu, The Bionic Woman and The Invisible Man. We will be running a long overdue and now too late selection and celebration of his creations in the New Year.

A true giant and always deeply appreciative of his adoring fans, Gibson will be remembered for his unique artistic style, sly wit and incisive challenges to status quos political, social and visual.

And that he liked to make people laugh.

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Three Wise Buys Triple bill X-mas books

Batman Returns One Dark Christmas Eve – The Illustrated Holiday Classic

By Ivan Cohen & JJ Harrison & various (Insight Editions)
ISBN: 978-1-64722-754-8 (HB)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Mirthful Movie Moments… 9/10

The Holiday Season means many things to most people. For comics fans – legendarily the sappiest and most sentimental people on Earth – it has always delivered delightful festive tales that break hearts, gladden spirits and thrill the pants off you.

Batman has owned Christmas in comics since the Golden Age – and where’s my archive collection of those stories huh? In 1992 Tim Burton and his talented cinematic cohort perfectly addressed all that Holiday Heritage in the blockbuster Batman Returns – the first X-Mas Superhero movie.

You’ve either seen it or not, but its legacy looms large in this delicious (practically) all-ages treat from author/graphic novelist, journalist and TV writer Ivan Cohen (Space Jam: A New Legacy, Star Wars, Batman and Scooby-Doo Mysteries, Teen Titans GO!) and gallery artist/illustrator JJ Harrison (A Die Hard Christmas, Ninja Boy Goes to School, Gremlins: The Illustrated Storybook).

Batman Returns One Dark Christmas Eve whimsically revisits the film in a deviously approachable spoof based on the screenplay by Daniel Waters and Sam Hamm: a strange attractor taking plot and dialogue from the film, setting it to a familiar Christmas carol and somehow succinctly synthesising the epic into a wry, wittily hilarious picture book with sharp edges. This Bat-bauble highlights the fun side of heroes and villains, perfectly capturing the charms of Bruce Wayne/Batman and Alfred as they contest The Penguin, Catwoman and killer capitalist Max Shreck whilst ensuring a “Merry Christmas, and to all a Dark Knight”…

© 2022 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

A Wish for Wings That Work

By Berkeley Breathed (Little, Brown & Co.)
ISBN: 978-0-31610-758-7 (HB) 978-0-31610 691-7 (PB)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Bird of Absolutely Good Omen… 10/10

For most of the 1980s and early 1990s Berke Breathed dominated the American newspaper comic strip scene with his astoundingly funny surreal political fantasy strip Bloom County – and latterly its spin-off Outland – (both fully still available digitally – so don’t wait for my reviews, just get them now!).

At the top of his game he retired from strip cartooning and began to create a series of lavish children’s fantasy picture books – such as Red Ranger Came Calling and Mars Needs Moms! – that rank among the best America has ever produced. That first foray into the field was A Wish for Wings That Work: a Christmas parable featuring Breathed’s signature character, and his most charmingly human. It was adapted into an animated feature film, and that’s worth tracking down too…

Opus is a talking penguin, reasonably educated (for America), archaically erudite yet ultimately emotionally vulnerable, insecure yet unfalteringly optimistic. His most fervent dream is that one day he might fly like a “real” bird…

As Christmas approaches his desperation and desolation grow, but he remains dolorously earthbound. And then on December 24th Santa Claus has a little accident…

Breathed’s first children’s book is still in many ways his most poignant and joyous. It’s an old-fashioned Christmas miracle tale, laconically told and beautifully painted; stuffed with dry wit and uproarious belly-laughs to melt the hardest heart. It belongs on the bookshelf of every parent, spiritual or rationalist.

When the family have almost ruined the holiday, or if you find yourself somewhere other than where you’d want or expect to be, this is what you want to restore your spirits. Kids might like it too…
© 1991, 1995 Berkeley Breathed. All rights reserved.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas 3 images

By Dr. Seuss (Random House/Harper Collins Children’s Books)
ISBN: 978-0-00717-024-1, 978-0-00736-554-8, 978-0-00717-304-4

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Perfect. Just Perfect… 10/10

The son of a wealthy beermaker of German origins, Theodore Seuss Geisel was born in Springfield Massachusetts on March 2nd 1894. Some years later, he attended Dartmouth College, where he edited the college magazine, before graduating in 1925 – despite a few narrow escapes from the opprobrious oversight of college authorities.

Geisel liked to party and preferred drawing to his studies. It was apparently how he got his penname: after the Dean banned him from drawing after a particularly raucous binge, the young artist took pains to sign his work only with his middle name…

Theodore studied English Literature at Lincoln College, Oxford in 1927, where he met his first wife Helen. Upon returning to America he became a cartoonist and illustrator, doing spot gags, political panels and covers for a variety of publishers. He produced weekly strip Birdsies and Beasties for prestigious humour magazine Judge and his work also appeared in Life, Vanity Fair, The Saturday Evening Post, Liberty and PM among others.

He even briefly – in 1935 – produced a newspaper strip (‘Hejji’) and tried his hand at animation and advertising. During WWII Geisel turned to political cartooning, advocating a strong response to the Fascist threat and in 1943 enlisted as a lead animator and director for the US Army: winning an award in 1947 for documentary Design For Death which explored Japanese cultural history.

Geisel published his first poem/cartoon book And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street in 1937, but only truly and gradually became a literary god after the war when news reports about relative illiteracy and lack of vocabulary in young children (particularly a damning report in Life from May 1954) led him to create a string of easy-reading books like The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, Gerald McBoing-Boing, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, Horton Hears a Who! and 38 others before his death in 1991.

In 1957 he released the How the Grinch Stole Christmas!: a Yuletide evergreen, immortalized in a brilliant Chuck Jones animated short in 1966 and a brace of so-so big budget movies in 2000 and 2018. Over and above any of these, the actual book still towers as a masterpiece of cartoon fiction and one I beg you to read if you already haven’t.

If you’re one of the three westerners who still don’t know the story…

The Grinch is a mean hermit who, for no apparent reason, loathes everything about the whole Christmas Season. So, one X-Mas Eve he creeps into all Who-houses in nearby Who hamlet and nicks every trinket that Christmas espouses. No Trees, Tinsel, Presents or Tasty Treats are left: the nasty old codger has left Who-ville bereft.

But just at the moment when his triumph is paramount the Grinch sees what Christmas is actually all about. Heart bursting with joy and good feelings re-surging, Grinch returns all the treats he was wickedly purging and joins Who-ville’s people in their grand feast – and even shares some of their glorious Roast Beast!

Seriously though; the simple heart-warming tale of the old monster – and his trusty, long-suffering and illogically faithful hound – as they fail to ruin Christmas, the miraculous change of heart and eventual redemption is the perfect examination of what the Season should mean. And let me be clear here: it’s people not the festival he truly found fault with…

Moreover, it’s written in a captivating manner with bold rhyme and incredibly enthralling artwork that embeds itself deep inside every reader. Wily, wise and wonderful, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is absolutely the best kid’s Christmas book ever created and one you simple have to read. If your house has kids (or not) but no copy, it must be brought up to code immediately and forthwith.

Doctor’s orders… so don’t make me put coal in your socks…
© 1957, 2016 Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. All rights reserved

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Mighty Thor Omnibus volume 1


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Loki: Journey into Mystery


By Katherine Locke (Titan Books)
ISBN: 978-1-80336-254-0 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-80336-255-7

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Marvelous Mischief and Merriment … 7/10

Modern Marvel is a truly multimedia entertainment colossus but all those many branches and subdivisions ultimately derive from stories in comic books. Thanks to recent developments in movie and television interpretations, primal Marvel Age villain Loki is now a hot property, which no doubt inspired this prose reinterpretation based on his comics reinvention in the early 21st century…

Marvel’s sustained presence on non-graphic bookshelves began in the 1990s with a string of hardback novels. Since then, those who want to supply their own pictures to gripping MU exploits have enjoyed a successive string of text-based thrills in all book formats. Titan Books has been supplying such powerhouse prose publications and here addresses the interests of fans brought in by the Thor and Avengers movies as well as those lifelong devotees of the ever-enlarging continuity who can’t bear to miss a single instance of their fave raves.

Written by Katherine Locke (The Girl with the Red Balloon, This Rebel Heart, The Spy with the Red Balloon), Loki: Journey into Mystery magically transforms a classic comic book saga: component parts of 2011’s publishing event Fear Itself and later tales spinning out of it. Primarily interpreting expanding and elaborating upon work by Keiron Gillen, these delve into what happened to an inveterate villain desperately seeking renewal and salvation… or is that one last Hail Mary ploy to escape an apparently inescapable fate?

All You Need to Know: as his last wicked scheme was spectacularly failing, the Asgardian God of Evil seeming had a too-late change of heart, but perished anyway and was reborn as a young boy…

What May Help: running from April to November 2011, Fear Itself shook up the Marvel Universe. In its wake, Gillen’s spin-off Loki Series appeared in Journey into Mystery starring a rejuvenated and mostly repentant (for which perhaps read forewarned and “once-bitten-twice-shy”) juvenile and rejuvenated God of Mischief, Stories and Lies, trying to be helpful, and keen to not end up like and dying just like his previous self …

The multi-part, intercompany braided comic book megasaga Fear Itself focused on Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and The Avengers, recounting how an ancient Asgardian menace was aroused by the Red Skull. Awake and hungry Asgard’s primordial fear-god possessed seven of Earth’s mightiest mortals, compelling them to wreak unimaginable death and destruction on the global population whilst he drank in the terror the rampages generated. In response, Odin decided to deprive The Serpent of sustenance by destroying Earth…

The core miniseries was supported by dozens of sidebar series and tie-ins focussing on peripheries of the main event. The saga of an antediluvian Asgardian menace sparking a terrifying bloodbath of carnage to feed on the fear of mankind and topple the established Norse pantheon was the stepping stone to Loki’s advancement. With all that spiritual energy unleashed other supernatural entities felt threatened and boy Loki realised that it was up to him to do what he could. The Nine Realms were grievously disrupted and the nation-city of Asgard crashed to Earth in Broxton, Oklahoma. The merging of human and godly culture was a shock to all but at least now “Kid Loki” could get Wi-Fi and good phone reception…which was immeasurably helpful as his old magic was curtailed by his new principles…

By tangentially recapitulating, extrapolating and embellishing what a scared, guilt-ridden and forewarned potential universal nemesis did next is observed against a background of crises that saw the destruction of Odin’s Asgard, imprisonment, death and resurrection of Thor and other heroes (don’t panic: in comics nobody dies forever) and the rise of opportunistic mystic forces seeking to capitalise on the upheaval.

Just how self-interest and self-revulsion in equal measure drive the magical lad in a vastly changed multiverse is the meat of this missive: encompassing teen Loki’s diligent struggles against his own nature as he tries to be better, tries to be different and tries to avoid making all his old mistakes again. It would have been far easier if he wasn’t taking advice from his old adult self (manifested as bird of ill omen Ikol) or increasingly infatuated with Leah, an age-appropriate and distracting potential paramour who is also a handmaiden of death goddess Hela ordered to keep him on mission and report any problems to truly unrepentant villains…

Loki’s rite of passage sees him face the consequences of The Serpent’s fall, and scam dream demon Nightmare and a coterie of rival fear-lords whilst manipulating Asgard’s death goddess Hela and her nemesis – multiversal arch-devil Mephisto. He then – as a secret agent for Asgard-on-Earth/Asgardia and its devious ruling triumvirate The All-Mother – must mediate between predatory new pantheon The Manchester Gods and the realm of Otherworld to redefine the spiritual identity of Britain: allowing the concepts of Faerie, Avalon, Albion, Celtic gods, Industrial Revolution, Capitalism, Marxism, Pop and Punk to co-exist. It does not go according to plan and in the final reckoning everything burns when the well-meaning kid unleashes and refuels ultimate universal ravager Surtur…

Loki’s enigmatic voyages span the Nine Realms, a range of Hells, the Dream Dimension, Camelot and even wilder places with MU guest-stars including Daimon Hellstrom, (The Son of Satan), Captain Britain, and all Asgardian favourites but I fear that this might be one of those rare occasions where fullest understanding and enjoyment might require a brief refresher course via the original comics. At least everything you need is readily available in collected editions and it will definitely enhance your enjoyment of this skilful and evocative peek inside the head of a Lordly boy who wants to be good and not misunderstood…
© 2023 MARVEL.

Loki: Journey into Mystery will be released on December 19th 2023 and is available for pre-order now.

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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.

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Fantastic Four Omnibus volume 1


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To Be Continued…

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

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