Category: Marvel Essentials

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Essential Avengers Volume 2


By Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Don Heck, John Buscema & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 0-7851-1862-4

With the Avengers the unbeatable and venerable concept of putting all your star eggs in one basket continued to score big dividends for Marvel even after Jack Kirby moved on to other Marvel assignments and the all-stars such as Thor and Iron Man were replaced and supplemented by lesser luminaries.

With this second collection (reprinting Avengers 25-46 and the first Annual in economical black and white) the team – consisting of Captain America, Hawkeye, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch – was already a firm fan-favourite and the close attention to melodrama sub-plots leavened the action with compelling soap-opera elements that kept the fans riveted.

The team faced their greatest test yet when they were captured by the deadliest man alive in #25’s ‘Enter… Dr. Doom!’ by Stan Lee, Don Heck and Dick Ayers but, as change was ever the watchword for this series, the following two issues combined a threat to drown the world with the return of an old comrade. ‘The Voice of the Wasp!’ and ‘Four Against the Floodtide!’ (Lee, Heck and inker Frank Giacoia) made for a superlative action-romp but was simply a prelude to the main event, issue #28’s return of Giant-Man in a new guise as ‘Among us Walks a Goliath!’ This instant classic introduced the villainous Collector and extended the company’s pet theme of alienation by tragically trapping the size-changing hero at a freakish ten-foot height, seemingly forever.

Avengers #29, ‘This Power Unleashed!’ brought back Hawkeye’s lost love the Black Widow – a brainwashed Soviet agent – in an attempt to destroy the team using their old foes Power Man and Swordsman as cannon-fodder, whilst ‘Frenzy in a Far-Off Land!’ found the dispirited colossus embroiled in a civil war amongst a lost south American civilisation: a two-part yarn that threatened to end in global incineration in the ludicrously titled but satisfyingly exciting ‘Never Bug a Giant!’

‘The Sign of the Serpent!’ and its concluding chapter ‘To Smash a Serpent!’ from Avengers #32-33 (with Don Heck providing raw, gritty inks over his own pencils) was a brave, socially-aware tale as the heroes tackled a sinister band of organised racists in a thinly veiled allegory of the Civil Rights turmoil then gripping America. Marvel’s bold liberal stand even went so far as to introduce a new African-American character, Bill Foster, who would eventually become a superhero in his own right.

It was back to basics in #34’s ‘The Living Laser!’ but the second part ‘The Light that Failed!’ (scripted by Roy Thomas, who officially began his long association with the team here) again took on a political overtone as the super-villain allied himself with South American (and by implication, Marxist) rebels for a rollercoaster ride of thrills and spills. The team’s international credentials were further exploited when the long-departed Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver returned heralding an alien invasion of the Balkans in ‘The Ultroids Attack!’ and ‘To Conquer a Colossus!’ (Avengers #36-37).

Thomas clearly had no problem juggling a larger roster of characters as he promptly added Hercules to the mix, first as a duped and drugged pawn of the Enchantress in #38’s ‘In our Midst… An Immortal’ (inked by George Roussos, nee Bell) and then as a member from the following issue onwards, when the Mad Thinker attacked during ‘The Torment… and the Triumph!’. No prizes for guessing who was throwing the punches in #40’s ‘Suddenly… the Sub-Mariner!’ and another creative landmark occurred in ‘Let Sleeping Dragons Lie!’ when John Buscema took over the penciling in an epic of assorted monsters, insidious espionage and sheer villainy as the mad alchemist Diablo attacked the team.

The extended plotline continued in ‘The Plan… and the Power!’, and with Diablo defeated the team concentrated on rescuing the now reformed Black Widow from the Communist Chinese in #43’s ‘Color him… the Red Guardian!’ before the saga climaxed in ‘The Valiant also Die!’(inked by Vince Colletta), a blistering all-out clash to save the world from conquest.

Buscema had replaced Don Heck so the latter could work on the first Avengers Annual: a “49 page free-for-all” entitled ‘The Monstrous Master Plan of the Mandarin!’. Scripted by Thomas and inked by Roussos, this prodigious tribute to the golden Age Justice Society of America and All-Winners Squad saw Captain America, Goliath, Hawkeye, Hercules, Iron Man. Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Thor and the Wasp battle Enchantress, the Executioner, Living Laser, Power Man, Swordsman and the artificial behemoth Ultimo to save the world from the Mandarin’s boldest scheme. It’s everything a fan could want from a superhero tale – sheer escapism, perfectly handled.

Following some cutaways secrets of Avengers Mansion and a very cool pin-up the stories continue with Avengers #45, and a ‘Blitzkrieg in Central Park’ (Thomas, Heck and Colletta) wherein the triumphant team are attacked by the power-stealing Super-Adaptoid, before the avenging ends with a deadly attempt by an old foe to destroy Goliath and the Wasp.

‘The Agony and the Anthill!’, by Thomas and Buscema (inked by Colletta) is a taut, human-scaled drama, which began a long period of superb collaborations that would change the face of team-comics (as we’ll see in the next edition) but before that there’s one last treat here as the very first appearance of Henry Pym rounds out this book.

Written by Stan Lee and his brother Larry Lieber with art from Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers ‘The Man in the Anthill!’ was a simple yet compelling monster yarn from Tales to Astonish #27 where a young scientist experimenting with size changing serums was catapulted into a world of fantastic adventure when he became trapped at insect size. When the Fantastic Four’s success proved that superheroes were back to stay Lee and Kirby quickly retooled this tale into a series (also conveniently collected for your pleasure in Essential Ant-Man, ISBN 0-7851-0822-X).

Although the intermittent and inept use of mechanical grey-tones, and even some poorly reproduced artwork, occasionally mar the flow of this volume the superb content still shines through. These stories set the tone for Marvel’s superheroes: the group dynamics, the themes and even the kinds of menaces they faced. Where the Fantastic Four were as much explorers as champions; a family with the same passions, the Avengers were disparate individuals called together to get a job done. How well these adventures still read is testament to how well they did that job…

© 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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Essential Fantastic Four volume 2


By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby & various (Marvel)
ISBN 0-7851-0731-2

This second big value, low priced compendium starring the World’s most popular adventure quartet collects Fantastic Four #21-40, the second (1964) Annual and includes a seldom seen team-up of the Human Torch and Spider-Man from Strange Tales Annual #2.

By this juncture the FF were firmly established and creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were well on the way to toppling DC/National Comics from their decades-held top spot with their brash, folksy and consciously contemporaneous sagas, blending high concept, low comedy, trenchant melodrama and breathtaking action.

The first tale here is from Fantastic Four #21 (cover-dated December 1963) guest-starring Nick Fury, then the lead character in Marvel’s only war comic Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos but eventually to metamorphose into the company’s answer to James Bond. Here he’s a CIA agent seeking the team’s aid against a sinister demagogue called ‘The Hate-Monger’ in a cracking yarn with a strong message, inked by comics veteran George Roussos, under the protective nom-de-plume George Bell.

Unseen since the premiere issue, #22 finally saw ‘The Return of the Mole Man!’ by the same creative team; another full-on fight-fest, chiefly notable for the debut of the Invisible Girl’s new powers of projecting force fields and “invisible energy” – which would eventually make her one of the mightiest characters in the company’s pantheon.

Number #23 heralded ‘The Master Plan of Doctor Doom!’, which introduced his frankly mediocre minions the Terrible Trio of Bull Brogin, Handsome Harry and Yogi Dakor, although the eerie menace of “the Solar Wave” was enough to raise the hackles on my five year old neck. Issue #24’s ‘The Infant Terrible!’ was a sterling yarn of extra-galactic menace and innocence, followed by a two-part epic that truly defined the inherent difference between Lee and Kirby’s work and everybody else at that time.

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

A definitive moment in the character development of the Thing, the action was ramped up when a rather stiff-necked and officious Avengers team horned 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 the bloopers, this is one of Marvel’s key moments and still a visceral, vital read.

The creators had hit on a winning formula by including their other stars in guest-shots – especially as readers could never anticipate if they would fight with or beside the home team. ‘The Search for Sub-Mariner!’ again found the sub-sea anti-hero in amorous mood, and when he abducted Sue Storm the boys called in Doctor Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts, to aid them. Issue #28 is a superb team-up tale too, most notable (for me at least) for the man who replaced George Roussos.

‘We Have to Fight the X-Men!’ found the teams battling due to the machinations of the Puppet Master and the Mad Thinker, but the inclusion of Chic Stone, Kirby’s most simpatico and expressive inker, elevates the art to indescribable levels of quality.

‘It Started on Yancy Street!’ (FF#29) may start low-key in the slum where Ben Grimm grew up but with the reappearance of the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes the action quickly goes Cosmic, and the next issue introduced evil alchemist ‘The Dreaded Diablo!’ who nearly broke up the team while conquering the world from his spooky Transylvanian castle.

Next up is Fantastic Four Annual #2 from 1964, which boldly led off with ‘The Fantastic Origin of Doctor Doom!’, before storming into the climactic adventure epic ‘The Final Victory of Dr. Doom!’ The monthly wonderment resumes with #31’s ‘The Mad Menace of the Macabre Mole Man!’ which balanced a loopy plan to steal entire streets of New York City with a portentous sub-plot featuring a mysterious man from Sue’s past, as well as renewing the quartet’s somewhat fractious relationship with the Mighty Avengers.

The secret of that mystery man was revealed in the next issue’s ‘Death of a Hero’, a powerful tale of tragedy and regret that spanned two galaxies, and which starred the uniquely villainous Invincible Man who was not at all what he seemed…

‘Side-by-Side with Sub-Mariner!’ brought the aquatic anti-hero one step closer to his own series when the team lent surreptitious aid to the embattled undersea monarch as the deadly barbarian Attuma made his debut in FF #33, whilst in ‘A House Divided!’ the team were nearly destroyed by Mr. Gideon, the Richest Man in the World.

‘Calamity on the Campus!’ saw the team visit Reed Richard’s old Alma Mater in a tale designed to pander to the burgeoning college fan-base Marvel was cultivating (there’s even a cameo role for Peter Parker), but the rousing yarn that brought back Diablo and introduced the monstrous homunculus Dragon Man easily stands up as a classic on its own merits. Fantastic Four #36 introduced the team’s theoretical nemeses with ‘The Frightful Four’ a team of villains comprising The Wizard, Sandman, Trapster (he was still Paste Pot-Pete here, but not for long) and an enigmatic new character called Madame Medusa, whose origin would have a huge impact on the heroes in months to come. Also notable in this auspicious but inconclusive duel was the announcement after many months of Reed and Sue’s engagement – in itself a rare event in the realm of comic books.

Issue #37 found the team spectacularly travelling to the homeworld of the shape-shifting Skrulls in search of justice in ‘Behold! A Distant Star!’ and they returned only to be ‘Defeated by the Frightful Four!’ in FF# 38, a momentous tale with a startling cliff-hanger that marked Chic Stone’s departure in landmark manner.

Frank Giacoia, under the pseudonym Frank Ray, stepped in to ink #39’s ‘A Blind Man Shall Lead Them!’ wherein a powerless Fantastic Four were attacked by an enraged Doctor Doom and only the sightless vigilante Daredevil had a chance to keep them alive. The tale concluded in #40 with ‘The Battle of the Baxter Building‘ as Vince Colletta assumed the ink chores for a bombastic conclusion that perfectly displays the indomitable power and inescapable tragedy of the brutish Thing.

There’s pin-ups galore scattered throughout this volume and as an added bonus a Spider-Man/Human Torch clash from Strange Tales Annual #2 in 1963, a period when the Flaming Kid had his own solo series (see Essential Human Torch, ISBN 0-7851-1309-6).

‘On the Trail of the Amazing Spider-Man’ is a mediocre story at best, blessed with superb art from Kirby inked by Steve Ditko, but sadly even that saving grace is marred here by some pretty amateurish application of grey-tones, which reduce too many pages to monochromatic mud (hopefully just a glitch that can corrected in later editions).

Despite this last cavil this is still a magnificent book to read and these are the 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 black and white book of marvels is your best and most economical key to another world and time.

© 1963, 1964, 1965, 2003, 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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NEW, EXTENDED REVIEW Essential Monster of Frankenstein


By various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-1634-9

There’s a tremendous amount of value in these phone-book sized cheap’n’cheerful monochrome Essential editions. This particular collection reprints Marvel’s 1970’s interpretation of the Mary Shelly classic from a time when the censorious Comics Code Authority first loosened some of its strictures banning horror material from the pages of comics.

Much American comic art should only be seen in colour – that is after all how it was intended to be – but in this instance that moody black and white only serves to enhance the groundbreaking artwork of Mike Ploog. A young find who had worked with Will Eisner, Ploog illustrated Gary Friedrich’s pithy adaptation of the original novel before moving on to new ventures as the strip graduated to in-house originated material.

‘Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein!’ debuted with a January 1973 cover-date and introduced Robert Walton IV, great grandson of the sea-captain who had rescued scientist Victor Frankenstein from the polar Ice and was regaled with the incredible tale of “the Modern Prometheus”. Leading a band of rogues, cutthroats and sullen Inuit, Walton finds the fabled monster in 1898, interred in a block of ice, and brings it aboard his ice-breaker. He recounts the story to the fascinated cabin-boy unaware of the fear and discontent simmering below decks…

A bloody mutiny in a terrible storm opens the second issue as the burning ship founders. Meanwhile the flashbacked tale of the tragic Victor reaches the terrible moment when the monster demands a mate. The guilt-plagued scientist complies only to balk at the last and destroy his second creation. ‘Bride of the Monster!’ concludes with the creature’s fearsome vengeance on his creator paralleling the grim fate of the storm-tossed ship…

The Monster of Frankenstein #3, ‘The Monster’s Revenge!’ has the reawakened creature freed from its ice-tomb and hearing the continuation of his life-story from Walton’s lips as the last survivors struggle to find safety in the Arctic wastes. ‘Death of the Monster!’ (with inker John Verpoorten taking some of the deadline pressure off the hard-pressed Ploog) turns the tables as the monster reveals what happened after the polar showdown with its creator, which leads to a new beginning when Walton reveals that the Frankensteins were not all eradicated by the Monster’s campaign of vengeance. The blood-line continued…

A new direction began with issue #5 as ‘The Monster Walks Among Us!’. Making his way south the tragic creature arrived in a Scandinavian village in time to save a young woman from being burned at the stake on a blazing longboat, only to rediscover that when villagers pick up pitchforks and torches to go a-screamin’ and a-hollerin’ for blood, they usually have a good reason…

With issue #6 the comic-book renamed itself The Frankenstein Monster. The undying creature reached the village of Ingolstadt a century after it wreaked bloody vengeance on his creator’s loved ones. ‘…In Search of the Last Frankenstein!’ is a mini-classic of vintage horrors scripted as usual by Friedrich but plotted, pencilled and inked by Ploog who was reaching an early peak in his artistic career. It was also his last issue.

Ploog was followed by John Buscema and Bob Brown before Val Mayerik settled as regular artist and Friedrich gave way to Doug Moench, a writer once synonymous with Marvel’s horror line.

Issues #7, 8 and 9 bowed to the inevitable and pitted the Monster against Marvel’s top horror star (albeit 75-ish years prior to his contemporary adventures). Beginning with ‘The Fury of a Fiend!’, continuing in ‘My Name is… Dracula!’ and concluding with ‘The Vampire Killers!’, this is a classy tribute to the old Universal movies and then current Hammer Films in equal measure wherein the misunderstood misanthrope battled an undying evil for ungrateful humanity, consequently losing the power of speech; and becoming more monstrous in the process.

Produced by Friedrich, John Buscema and John Verpoorten these tales lacked the atmosphere of Ploog’s tenure, but the action was very much in the company’s house-style. With #10 (inked by Frank Giacoia and Mike Esposito) the creature finally found ‘The Last Frankenstein!’ much to his regret.

With number #11 (‘…And in the End…!?’ illustrated by Bob Brown & Vince Colletta) and #12’s ‘A Cold and Lasting Tomb’ by Doug Moench, Val Mayerik and Colletta) the Monster finished his historical adventures by falling into a glacial sea and froze into another block of ice only to be revived, Captain America-like, in modern times.

My only real quibble in a book that re-presents the entire 18-issue run of the comic, plus the crossover from Giant-Sized Werewolf #2 and all the strips from the adult-oriented horror magazines Legion of Monsters and Monsters Unleashed, is that a little more attention to publishing in chronological order might have made for a smoother read.

If you’re the type who prefers to experience his or her yarns in the proper sequence this is the stage where flipping to the back is necessary as the stories from those aforementioned Marvel magazines – which originally ran concurrently with the four-colour comic-book – can be found. Most of those adventures take place between pages 13 and 14 of The Frankenstein Monster #12!

Just reading the book however, the next thing you’ll find is a rather tame team-up/clash from Giant-Sized Werewolf #2 wherein ‘The Frankenstein Monster Meets Werewolf by Night’ (by Moench, Don Perlin and Colletta) collaterally quashing a band of run-of-the-mill West Coast Satanists in the process.

Issue #13 ‘All Pieces of Fear!’ (Moench, Mayerik and Jack Abel) shoe-horned the Monster into mid-1970s America in a tale heavy with irony as men acted like beasts and an obsessive father ignored his family whilst building his own abominations with the new science of cloning. With a hip young kid as a sidekick/spokesperson ‘Fury of the Night-Creature’ (with Dan Green inking) extended the saga by introducing I.C.O.N. (International Crime Organizations Nexus) yet another secret organisation intent on corporate conquest.

Issue #15 ‘Tactics of Death’ (with a young Klaus Janson on inks) briefly concluded the acronym agenda as the Monster and his companion Ralph mopped up the men in suits only to be shanghaied to Switzerland to meet the latest Last of the Frankensteins in ‘Code-name: Berserker!’ (with inks by Bob McLeod – who managed to handle the next issue too).

Veronica Frankenstein was still absorbed in the family business, but claims to be fixing her ancestors’ mistakes when those incorrigible I.C.O.N. bounders show up demanding her biological techniques in ‘A Phoenix Beserk!’. Beautifully inked by Mayerik and Dan Adkins, the last colour issue ended on a never-to-be completed cliffhanger (although scripter Bill Mantlo covered elements of the story in Iron Man a few years later) when the Monster and his new friend met ‘The Lady of the House’ – the utterly bonkers creature-crafter Victoria Von Frankenstein…

Perhaps the abrupt cancellation was a mercy-killing after all.

As I’ve laboriously stated above, the man-made monster also featured in a few mature reader magazines, beginning with Monsters Unleashed #2. ‘Frankenstein 1973’ (by Friedrich, Buscema and Syd Shores) relates how an obsessive young man found the Monster preserved as a carnival exhibit, but his jealous girlfriend revived it by trying to burn down the sideshow. The story continued in Monsters Unleashed #4 (by the same team and Golden-Age Great Win Mortimer). ‘The Classic Monster’ had a mad scientist actually put his brain in the monster’s skull but all was put right in #5’s ‘Once a Monster…’

Monsters Unleashed #6, by Moench and Mayerik, ‘…Always a Monster!’ wrapped up the introduction to today storyline with a good, old-fashioned Monster hunt, and lead directly to #7’s ‘A Tale of Two Monsters!’ a dark, socially relevant tale of the modern underclass, carried on in ‘Fever in the Freak House’ and concluded in #9’s ‘The Conscience of the Creature’.

The horror boom was fading by this time and Monsters Unleashed #10 was his last outing there, a superbly dark and sardonic Christmas offering complete with Elves, snow, terrorists and a Presidential assassination attempt. One final tale ‘The Monster and the Masque’ appeared in one-shot The Legion of Monsters, by Moench and Mayerik (whose painted wash-and-ink artwork for the magazine line was some of the best of his career) assisted here by Dan Adkins and Pablo Marcos. This bittersweet morality play saw the creature accidentally accepted at a fancy dress party which was ruined when a different sort of monster got carried away…

With additional pin-ups, cover illustrations and pertinent text pages from the Marvel Universe Handbook, this collection is great treat for fantasy and horror fans and should be a first choice for introducing civilians to the world of comics.
© 1973, 1974, 1975, 2004 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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ESSENTIAL CAPTAIN AMERICA VOLUME 2


By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Jim Steranko, Gene Colan & various (Marvel)
ISBN13: 978-1-9041-5949-0

Marvel’s inexorable rise to dominance of the American comicbook industry really took hold in 1968 when a number of their characters finally got their own titles. Prior to that and due to a highly restrictive distribution deal the company was tied to a limit of 16 publications per month. To circumvent this limitation, Marvel developed “split-books” with two series per publication, such as Tales of Suspense where original star Iron Man was joined by Captain America with #59 (cover-dated November 1964). When the division came Iron Man started afresh with a First Issue, but Cap retained the numbering of the original title; thus he premiered in number #100.

This second Essential black and white compilation of those early classics begins from Captain America #103 with Stan Lee scripting and original co-creator Jack Kirby (the other being Joe Simon) still firing on all-action cylinders, ably assisted by inker Syd Shores, a superb draughtsman in his own right and another golden-ager who had worked on the original Star-Spangled Avenger.

‘The Weakest Link!’ sees a budding romance with S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent 13 (finally revealed after two years as Sharon Carter) interrupted by the nefarious Red Skull. The über-fascist’s scheme of nuclear blackmail extended to a second issue, wherein his band of war-criminal assassins, The Exiles, tested Cap nigh to destruction on the hidden isle where he became ‘Slave of the Skull!’

That issue and the following super-villain team-up wherein the Living Laser and the Swordsman joined with another old Cap foe to attack. ‘In the Name of Batroc!’ featured the loose flowing inking of Dan Adkins whilst Frank Giacoia embellished the spies-and-evil-doppelgangers romp ‘Cap goes Wild!’ in issue #106, before Shores returned in #107 for the sinister ‘If the Past Be Not Dead…’ an action-packed psycho-thriller that introduced the malevolent, mind-bending psychiatrist Doctor Faustus.

The Star-Spangled Avenger was rescuing Agent 13 again in the breakneck thriller ‘The Snares of the Trapster!’ before Captain America #109 (January 1970) redefined his origin with ‘The Hero That Was!’, a spectacular end to Kirby’s run on the Sentinel of Liberty – at least for the moment.

Comics phenomenon and one-man sensation Jim Steranko took over the art chores with #110, for a brief stint that was everybody’s favourite Cap epic for decades. After a swift and brutal skirmish with the Incredible Hulk, Rick Jones became his new sidekick in ‘No Longer Alone!’, just in time for the pair to tackle the iconic Madame Hydra and her obedient hordes in #111’s ‘Tomorrow You Live, Tonight I Die!’, both inked by Joe Sinnott in an landmark tale that galvanised a generation of would-be comics artists.

Seemingly killed at the issue’s close, the next month saw a bombastic account of Captain America’s career by fill-in superstars Kirby and George Tuska, before Lee, Steranko and Tom Palmer concluded the Hydra epic with ‘The Strange Death of Captain America’ in #113.

A period of artistic instability then kicked off with John Romita the Elder illustrating a tense spy-caper. ‘The Man Behind the Mask!‘ in Captain America #114 was merely the prologue to an extended war against the Red Skull. Issue #115, ‘Now Begins the Nightmare!’, drawn by John Buscema and inked by his brother Sal, saw the villain use the reality-warping Cosmic Cube to switch bodies with the Star-Spangled Avenger, whilst ‘Far Worse than Death!’ followed his frantic attempts to escape his own friends and allies. This issue saw the start of Gene Colan’s impressive run on the character, accompanied by the smooth inks of Joe Sinnott.

The third instalment returned him the Isle – and clutches – of the Exiles in a tale that introduced Marvel’s second black superhero. ‘The Coming of … the Falcon!’ was a terse, taut build-up to issue #118 where the neophyte hero took centre-stage in ‘The Falcon Fights On!’ and all the ducks fell into place for a spectacular finale in ‘Now Falls the Skull!’ in Captain America #119.

As 1970 dawned the company imposed a moratorium on continued stories for most of their titles, and Cap hopped on the disaffected youth/teen revolt bandwagon at this juncture for a series of slight but highly readable puff-pieces that promised nothing but delivered much. Kicking off was ‘Crack-up on Campus!’ in #120, an odd mélange of student radicalism and espionage that saw itinerant Steve Rogers become a Physical Education teacher to foil a scheme by the sinister Modok and his AIM cohorts.

A demented bio-chemist rediscovered the Super Soldier serum that had originally created Captain America in ‘The Coming of the Man-Brute!’ and Spider-Man’s old sparring partner mugged the wrong guy in #122’s ‘The Sting of the Scorpion!’ Issue #123 tapped into the “battle of the sexes” zeitgeist with ‘Suprema, The Deadliest of the Species!’ and AIM returned with their latest hi-tech weapon in ‘Mission: Stop the Cyborg!’ before Captain America #125 dipped into more headline fare when the hero was ‘Captured… in Viet Nam!’ although the mystery villain was anything but political…

Frank Giacoia returned to ink the last yarn in this fabulously economical monochrome compilation as did the Sentinel of Liberty’s erstwhile associate and partner. Issue #126’s ‘The Fate of… the Falcon!’ tapped into the blossoming “blacksploitation” trend to tell an entertaining (sadly not always intentionally) tale of gangsters and radicals in funky old Harlem that still has a kick to it. Just play the theme from Shaft whilst reading it…

Any retrospective or historical re-reading is going to turn up a few cringe-worthy moments, but these tales of matchless courage and indomitable heroism are fast-paced, action-packed and illustrated by some of the greatest artists and storytellers American comics has ever produced. As Captain America struggled for a place in the new ever-changing USA the graphic magic never wavered, never faltered. This is visual dynamite and should not be slighted or missed.

© 1968, 1969, 1970, 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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ESSENTIAL FANTASTIC FOUR vol. 1


By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3302-5

I love a bit of controversy so I’m going start off by saying that Fantastic Four #1 is the third most important American comicbook of the last sixty years, behind Showcase #4, which introduced the Flash and therefore the Silver Age, 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 (for details see our Complete Sky Masters of the Space Force review or better yet get your own copy – ISBN: 1-56685-009-6) Jack Kirby settled into his job at the small outfit that used to be the publishing powerhouse Timely/Atlas, churning out mystery, monster, romance and western material in a market he suspected to be ultimately doomed.

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

Depending upon who you believe a golfing afternoon led publisher Martin Goodman to order his nephew Stan to try a series about super-characters like the JLA, and the resulting team quickly took the industry and 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 even have any until the third issue.

It was Kirby’s compelling art and the fact that these characters weren’t anodyne cardboard cutouts. In a real and recognizable location – New York City – imperfect, rather touchy people banded together out of tragedy and disaster to face the incredible.

In many ways The Challengers of the Unknown (Kirby’s prototype quartet is available in two wonderful DC Archives – ISBN’s 1-56389-997-3 and 1-4012-0153-9, as well as in a single economical, black and white compendium similar to this FF volume: ISBN13: 978-1-4012-1087-8) laid all the groundwork for the wonders to come, but the staid, almost hide-bound editorial strictures of National would never have allowed the, undiluted energy of the concept to run all-but unregulated.

Fantastic Four #1 (bi-monthly and cover-dated November 1961, by Lee, Kirby and an uncredited inker whose identity remains a topic of much debate to this day) is raw: rough, passionate and uncontrolled excitement, Thrill-hungry kids pounced on it.

‘The Fantastic Four’ saw maverick scientist Reed Richards summon his fiancé Sue Storm, their 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 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 before the genius of Mister Fantastic bluffed them into abandoning their plans for conquering Earth.

Issue #3, with inks by Sol Brodsky, featured ‘the Menace of the Miracle Man’ whose omnipotent powers had a simple secret, but is more notable for the first appearance of their uniforms, and a shocking line-up change, which lead 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 the all-powerful amphibian Prince of Atlantis, who had been lost for decades, a victim of amnesia. Recovering his memory thanks to the Human Torch, Namor 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…

Until now the creative team, who had 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 the media – and as reflected in their other titles. Aliens and especially monsters played a major part in the earlier tales but Fantastic Four #5 took a full-bite out of the fight n’ tights apple and introduced 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 the subtly slick 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 as the deadly Doctor returned the very next issue, teamed with a reluctant Sub-Mariner to attack our heroes as ‘The Deadly Duo!’ inked by new regular embellisher Dick Ayers.

Alien kidnappers were the motivating force when the team became ‘Prisoners of Kurrgo, Master of Planet X’, a dark and grandiose off-world thriller in FF#7 (the first monthly issue), and a new villain plus the introduction of a love-interest for the monstrous Ben Grimm were the breakthrough high-points in #8: ‘Prisoners of the Puppet Master!’

The December issue, #9, trumpeted ‘The End of the Fantastic Four’ as the Sub-Mariner returned to exploit another brilliant innovation in comic storytelling. When had a super-genius, superhero ever messed up so much that the team had to declare bankruptcy? When had costumed crimefighters 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…

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

Previously, super-heroes were sufficient unto themselves and shared adventures were rare. Here, however was a universe where characters often tripped over each other, sometimes even fighting each other’s 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 innovations continued. Issue #11 had two short stories instead of the usual book-length yarn; ‘A Visit with the Fantastic Four’ and ‘The Impossible Man’, with a behind-the-scenes travelogue and a baddie-free, compelling, comedic tale. FF #12 featured an early crossover as the team were asked to help the US army capture ‘The Incredible Hulk’.

This was followed by ‘Versus the Red Ghost and his Incredible Super Apes!’ a cold war thriller pitting them against a soviet scientist in the race to reach the Moon: a tale notable both for the moody Steve Ditko inking (replacing the adroit Ayers for one month) of Kirby’s artwork and the introduction of the cosmic voyeurs called The Watchers.

Issue #14 featured the return of ‘The Sub-Mariner and the Merciless Puppet Master!’ and was followed by ‘The Mad Thinker and his Awesome Android!’ a chilling war of intellects with plenty of room for all-out action. FF #16 revealed ‘The Micro-World of Doctor Doom!’ in a spectacular romp guest-starring new hero Ant-Man, yet the villain promptly returned with infallible, deadly traps next month in ‘Defeated by Doctor Doom!’

A shape-changing alien with all their powers was next to menace our heroes when ‘A Skrull Walks Among Us!’ and issue #19 introduced another of the company’s top-ranking super-villains as the FF became ‘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.

Fantastic Four #20 introduced ‘The Mysterious Molecule Man!’ and the next guest-starred Nick Fury (fresh from his own World War II comicbook and soon to be the company’s answer to James Bond) to battle ‘The Hate-Monger!’ (inked by veteran George Roussos, using the protective nom de plume George Bell).

The rest of this terrific book is taken up with reprinting the first summer Annual: a spectacular thirty-seven page epic battle as, reunited with their wandering prince the warriors of Atlantis invaded New York City, and presumably the rest of the world, in ‘The Sub-Mariner versus the Human Race!’.

Also included is the charming short tale ‘The Fabulous Fantastic Four meet Spider-Man!’, a re-interpretation of the first meeting between the two most popular Marvel brands from the premiere issue of the wall-crawlers own comic. Pencilled this time by Kirby, Ditko once more applied his unique inking for a truly novel look. To close out the book there’s also a large selection of pin-ups and information pages illustrated by Kirby and chums to accompany earlier pages that dot the book and even the un-used, alternative cover for the annual.

Although possibly – just, perhaps – a little dated in tone, these are still classics of comic story-telling illustrated by one of the world’s greatest talents just approaching his mature peak. They are fast, frantic fun and a joy to read or re-read. This comprehensive, joyous introduction (or even reintroduction) to these characters is a wonderful reminder of just how good comic books can – and should be.

© 1961, 1962, 1963, 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Essential Thor volume 1

Essential Thor
Essential Thor

By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby & various (Marvel)
ISBN 0-7851-1866-7

Even more than the Fantastic Four The Mighty Thor was the arena in which Jack Kirby’s restless fascination with the Cosmic was honed and refined in dazzling graphics and captivating concepts. His string of pantheons began with a modest little fantasy title called Journey into Mystery where in the summer of 1962 a tried-and-true comicbook concept (feeble mortal transformed into God-like hero) was employed by the fledgling Marvel Comics to add a Superman analogue to their growing roster of costumed adventurers. This gloriously economical tome represents those Asgardian exploits from JiM #83-112 in clean crisp black and white for your delectation.

Journey into Mystery #83 (cover-dated August 1962) featured the tale of crippled 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 where he finds an old, gnarled walking stick. When in his frustration he smashes the cane into a huge boulder obstructing his escape, his puny frame is transformed into the Norse God of Thunder, the Mighty Thor! Plotted by Stan Lee, scripted by Larry Lieber and illustrated by Kirby and Joe Sinnott (at this juncture a full illustrator, Sinnott would become Kirby’s primary inker for 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.

They were making it up as they went along – not in itself a bad thing – and the infectious enthusiasm shows in the next adventure ‘The Mighty Thor Vs. the Executioner’, a “commie-busting” tale of its time with a thinly disguised Fidel Castro wasting his formidable armies in battle against our hero. Dr. Blake’s nurse Jane Foster was introduced, a bland cipher adored from afar by the timid alter-ego of mighty hero. The creative team settled as Dick Ayers replacing Sinnott, and with #85’s ‘Trapped by Loki, God of Mischief!’ the last element fell into place with the introduction of a suitably awesome arch-foe; in this case a half-brother evil magician. We also saw a new world revealed with the first hints and glimpses of the celestial otherworld and more Nordic gods.

Issue #86 introduced another recurring villain. Zarrko, bristling at the sedentary ease of 23rd century life, travelled to our time to steal an experimental “C-Bomb” forcing the God of Thunder into a stirring chase through time and battle with super-technology ‘On the Trail of the Tomorrow Man!’, whilst on his return Don Blake became a target for Soviet abductors. Those sneaky spies even managed to make Thor a ‘Prisoner of the Reds!’

‘The Vengeance of Loki’ saw the god of Evil’s flamboyant, bombastic return in #88, but ‘The Thunder God and the Thug’ was an adventure with a much more human scale as a gang boss runs riot over the city and roughshod over a good woman’s heart, giving the Asgardian a chance to demonstrate a more sophisticated and sympathetic side. Issue #90 was a total surprise to fans as the grandeur of Kirby and Ayers was replaced by the charming but drama-free art of Al Hartley, who illustrated a stock invasion tale of shape-changing aliens. ‘Trapped by the Carbon-Copy Man’ was followed a month later by ‘Sandu, Master of the Supernatural!’, with Joe Sinnott handling all the art, in a thriller starring a carnival mentalist augmented by Loki’s magic who comes close to killing our hero.

Sinnott also drew #92’s ‘The Day Loki Stole Thor’s Magic Hammer’ scripted by Robert Bernstein over Lee’s plot which moved the action fully to the mythical realm of Asgard for the first time as the hero sought to recover his stolen weapon. Kirby and Ayers returned for the Cold War thriller ‘The Mysterious Radio-Active Man!’, again plotted by Bernstein, as Mao Tse Tung unleashes an atomic assassin in retaliation for Thor thwarting China’s invasion of India. Such “Red-baiting” was common in early Marvel titles, but their inherent jingoistic silliness can’t mar the eerie beauty of the artwork. With this tale the rangy raw-boned Thunder God completed his slow metamorphosis into the husky, burly blonde bruiser that dominated any panel he was drawn in.

Sinnott illustrated the next three adventures ‘Thor and Loki Attack the Human Race!’, ‘The Demon Duplicator’ and ‘The Magic of Mad Merlin!’, but these mediocre tales of amnesia, evil doppelgangers and ancient menaces were the last of a old style of comics. Stan Lee took over the scripting with the Journey into Mystery #97 and action wedded to melodrama produced a fresh style for a developing readership.

‘The Lava Man’ was again drawn by Kirby, with the subtly textured inking of Don Heck adding depth to the tale of an invader from the subterranean realms, as a long running rift with Thor’s father Odin was established when the Lord of Asgard refused to allow his son to love the mortal Jane Foster. This acrimonious triangle was a perennial sub-plot that fuelled many attempts to humanise Thor, because already he was a hero too powerful for most villains to cope with. This issue was also notable for the launch of a spectacular back-up series. ‘Tales of Asgard – Home of the mighty Norse Gods’ gave Jack Kirby a space 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 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 and Heck, whilst Kirby, with them in attendance contributed ‘Odin Battles Ymir, King of the Ice Giants!’ a short but potent fantasy romp which presaged the cosmic wonderment of years to come. The same format held for issues #99 and #100, where the main story (the first two-part adventure in the run) introduced the bestial ‘Mysterious Mister Hyde’, and concluding ‘The Master Plan of Mr. Hyde!’ dealt with a contemporary super-villain Kirby produced ‘Surtur the Fire Demon’ and latterly (with Vince Colletta inks) ‘The Storm Giants – a tale of the Boyhood of Thor’. As always Lee scripted this increasingly influential comicbook.

JIM #101 saw Kirby finally assume complete control of the pencilling on both strips. ‘The Return of Zarrko, the Tomorrow Man’ sees Odin halve Thor’s powers for disobedience just as the futuristic felon abducts the Thunder God to help him conquer the 23rd century. Anther two-parter (the first half inked by Roussos), it was balanced by another exuberant tale of the boy Thor. ‘The Invasion of Asgard’ sees the valiant lad fight a heroic rearguard action that introduced a host of future villainous mainstays. ‘Slave of Zarrko, the Tomorrow Man’ is a tour de force epic conclusion most notable for the introduction of Chic Stone as inker. To many of us oldsters, the clean full brush lines make him The King’s best embellisher ever. This triumphant epic is balanced by the brooding short ‘Death Comes to Thor!’ as the young hero faces his greatest challenge yet. Two females that would play huge roles in his life were introduced in this brief 5-pager, the young Goddess Sif and Hela, Queen of the dead.

On a creative roll, Lee Kirby and Stone next introduced ‘The Enchantress and the Executioner’ ruthless renegade Asgardians in the front of JIM #103 and in ‘Thor’s Mission to Mirmir’ revealed how the gods created humanity, which lead to a revolutionary saga ‘Giants Walk the Earth’ in the next issue. For the first time Kirby’s imagination was given full play as Loki tricked Odin into visiting Earth, only to release ancient foes Surtur and Skagg, the Storm Giant from Asgardian bondage.

This cosmic saga saw noble gods stride the Earth battling demonic evil in a new Heroic Age, and the greater role of the Norse supporting cast was reinforced by a new Tales of Asgard strand focussing on individual Gods and Heroes. Heimdall the Sentry was first, with Don Heck inking. Issue #105-106 saw the teaming of two old foes in ‘The Cobra and Mr, Hyde’ and ‘The Thunder God Strikes Back’, another continued story packed with tension and spectacular action, which showed that Thor was swiftly growing beyond the constraints of traditional single story adventures. The respective back-ups ‘When Heimdall Failed!’ (Lee, Kirby, Roussos) and ‘Balder the Brave’ (Lee, Kirby, Colletta) further fleshed out the back-story of an Asgardian pantheon deviating more and more from the classical Eddas and Sagas kids had to plough through in schools.

JIM #107 introduced another major villain in ‘When the Grey Gargoyle Strikes’, a rare tale that highlighted the fortitude of Don Blake rather than the Thunder God, who was increasingly reducing his own alter-ego to an inconsequentiality, and the Norn Queen debuted in the quirky reinterpretation of the classic tale ‘Balder Must Die!’ illustrated by Kirby and Colletta. After months of manipulation the God of Evil once again took direct action in ‘At the Mercy of Lokj, Prince of Evil!’ With Jane a helpless pawn to Asgardian magic the willing help of new Marvel star Doctor Strange made this a captivating team-up to read, whilst ‘Trapped by the Trolls’ (inked by Colletta) showed the power and promise of tales set solely on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge. Issue #109 was another superb adventure masquerading as a plug for another new series. ‘When Magneto Strikes!’ pitted Thor against the X-Men’s greatest foe in a cataclysmic clash, but you couldn’t actually call it a team-up as the heroic mutants were never seen. The teasing hints and cropped glimpses are fascinating teasers now, but the kid I was annoyed not to have seen these new heroes. Oh… maybe that was the point?

The young Thor feature ‘Banished from Asgard’ is uncharacteristically lacklustre but the concluding part ‘The Defeat of Odin!’ in JiM #110 makes up for the silly plot with breathtaking battles scenes. The lead story in that issue is ‘Every Hand Against Him’ as Loki, the Cobra and Mr. Hyde kidnap Jane as Odin once again over-reacts to Thor’s affections for the mortal girl. The concluding part ‘The Power of the Thunder God’ features a major role for Balder the Braver, further integrating the “historical” and contemporary Asgards in a spellbinding saga of triumph and near-tragedy, whilst the Tale of Asgard co-opts a Greek myth (Antaeus if you’re asking) for ‘The Secret of Sigurd’.

This wonderfully economical black-and white compendium closes with the contents of Journey into Mystery #112. ‘The Mighty Thor Battles the Incredible Hulk!’ is a glorious gift to all those fans who perpetually ask “Who’s stronger…?” Possibly Kirby and Stone’s finest artistic moment, it details a private duel between the two super-humans that occurred during a free-for-all between The Avengers, the Sub-Mariner and the eponymous Green Goliath. The raw power of that tale is followed by ‘The Coming of Loki’, a retelling of how Odin came to adopt the baby son of Laufey, the Giant King.

These early tales of the God of Thunder show the development not only of one of Marvel’s fundamental story concepts but more importantly the creative evolution of one of the greatest imaginations in comics. Set your commonsense on pause and simply wallow in the glorious imagery and power of these classic adventures for the true secret of what makes graphic narrative a unique experience.

© 1962, 1963, 1964, 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Essential Captain America, Vol 1

Essential Captain America, Vol 1

By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, & various (Marvel)
ISBN 0-7851-0740-1

During the Marvel Renaissance of the early 1960’s Stan Lee and Jack Kirby tried the same tactic that had worked so tellingly for DC Comics, but with mixed results. Julie Schwartz had incredible success with his revised versions of the company’s Golden Age greats, so it seemed natural to try and revive the characters that had dominated Timely/Atlas in those halcyon days. A new Human Torch had premiered as part of the revolutionary Fantastic Four, and in the fourth issue of that title the Sub-Mariner resurfaced after a twenty year amnesiac hiatus (everyone concerned had apparently forgotten the first abortive attempt to revive their superhero line in the mid 1950s).

The Torch was promptly given his own solo feature in Strange Tales from issue #101 (see Essential Human Torch vol.1, ISBN 0-7851-1309-6) and in #114 the flaming teen fought an acrobat pretending to be Captain America. The real thing promptly surfaced in Avengers #4 and after a captivating and centre-stage hogging run in that title was granted his own series as half of the “split-book” Tales of Suspense with #59 (cover-dated November 1964).

That initial outing ‘Captain America’, scripted by Stan Lee and illustrated by the staggeringly perfect team of Jack Kirby and Chic Stone is a simple fight tale as an army of thugs invades Avengers Mansion since only the one without superpowers is at home, and the next issue held more of the same, when ‘The Army of Assassins Strikes!’. ‘The Strength of the Sumo!’ was insufficient when Cap invaded Viet Nam to rescue a lost US airman and Cap took on an entire prison to thwart a ‘Break-out in Cell Block 10!’

After these gloriously simplistic romps the series took an abrupt turn and began telling tales set in World War II. ‘The Origin of Captain America’, by Lee, Kirby and Frank Ray (AKA Giacoia) recounted how physical wreck Steve Rogers was selected to be the guinea pig for a new super-soldier serum only to have the scientist responsible die in his arms, cut down by a Nazi bullet.

Now forever unique he was given the task of becoming a fighting symbol and guardian of America, based as a regular soldier in a boot camp. It was there he was unmasked by Camp Mascot Bucky Barnes, who blackmailed the hero into making the boy his sidekick. The next issue (Tales of Suspense #64) kicked off a string of spectacular thrillers as the heroes defeated the spies Sando and Omar in ‘Among Us, Wreckers Dwell!’ and Chic Stone returned – as did Cap’s greatest foe – for the next tale ‘The Red Skull Strikes!’

‘The Fantastic Origin of the Red Skull!’ saw the series swing into high gear as sub-plots and characterisation were added to the all-out action and spectacle. ‘Lest Tyranny Triumph!’ and ‘The Sentinel and the Spy!’ (both inked by Giacoia) combined espionage and mad science in a plot to murder Winston Churchill, and the heroic duo stayed in England for ‘Midnight in Greymoor Castle!’ (with art by Dick Ayers over Kirby’s layouts – which are very rough pencils that break down the story elements on a page) and the second part ‘If This be Treason!’ had Golden Age and Buck Rogers artist George Tuska perform the same function. The final part (and the last wartime adventure) was ‘When You Lie Down with Dogs…!’ which added Joe Sinnott inks to the mix for a rousing conclusion to this frantic tale of traitors, madmen and terror weapons.

It was back to the present for Tales of Suspense #72 and Lee, Kirby and Tuska revealed that Cap had been telling war stories to his fellow Avengers for the last nine months. ‘The Sleeper Shall Awake!’ began a classic adventure as a Nazi super-robot activates twenty years after Germany’s defeat to exact a world-shattering vengeance. Continuing in ‘Where Walks the Sleeper!’ and concluding in ‘The Final Sleep!’ this masterpiece of tension and suspense perfectly demonstrated the indomitable nature of this perfect American hero.

Dick Ayers returned with John Tartaglione inking ‘30 Minutes to Live!’ which introduced both the Batroc the Leaper and a mysterious girl who would eventually become Cap’s long-term girl-friend, S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Sharon Carter, in a taut 2-part countdown to disaster ending with ‘The Gladiator, The Girl and the Glory’, illustrated by John Romita (Senior). This was the first tale which had no artistic input from Jack Kirby, but he laid out the next issue (TOS #77) for Romita and Giacoia. ‘If a Hostage Should Die!’ again returned to WWII and hinted a both a lost romance and a tragedy to come.

‘Them!’ returned Kirby to full pencils and Giacoia to the regular ink spot as Cap teamed with Nick Fury in the first of the Star-Spangled Avenger’s many adventures as a (more-or-less) Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. It was followed by ‘The Red Skull Lives!’ as his arch nemesis returned from the grave to menace the Free World again. He was initially aided by the subversive technology group AIM, but stole their ultimate weapon in ‘He Who Holds the Cosmic Cube!’ (inked by Don Heck) and ‘The Red Skull Supreme!’

‘The Maddening Mystery of the Inconceivable Adaptoid!’ pitted Cap against AIM’s artificial life-form, capable of becoming an exact duplicate of its victim in a tale of psychological warfare. ‘Enter… The Tumbler!’ (inked by Ayers) and ‘The Super-Adaptoid!’ completed an epic of breathtaking action that further cemented the links between the various Marvel comics, building a shared continuity would carry the company to market dominance in a few short years.

‘The Blitzkrieg of Batroc!’ and ‘The Secret!’ returned to the earliest all-action, overwhelming odds yarns and ‘Wanted: Captain America’ (by Roy Thomas, Jack Sparling and Joe Sinnott) was a lacklustre interval involving a frame-up before Gil Kane had his first run on the character with ‘If Bucky Lives…!’, ‘Back From the Dead!’, ‘…And Men Shall Call Him Traitor!’ and ‘The Last Defeat!’ (TOS #88-91, these last two inked by Sinnott) in a superb drama of blackmail and betrayal starring the Red Skull.

Kirby and Sinnott were back for ‘Before My Eyes Nick Fury Died!’, ‘Into the Jaws of… Aim!’ and ‘If This Be… Modok!’ as the hero fought a giant brain-being manufactured purely for killing. ‘A Time to Die… A Time to Live’ and ‘To Be Reborn!’ has the hero retire and reveal his secret identity, only to jump straight back into the saddle with S.H.I.E.L.D. for #97’s ‘And So It Begins…’ a four part tale that finished in issue #100, with which number Tales of Suspense became simply Captain America. Guest starring the Black Panther, it told of the return of long-dead Baron Zemo and an orbiting Death Ray.

‘The Claws of the Panther!’ was inked by both Sinnott and the great Syd Shores, who became the regular inker with ‘The Man Who Lived Twice!’, whilst that premier hundredth issue (how weird is that?) used the extra page length to retell the origin before concluding a superb thriller with ‘This Monster Unmasked!’

Captain America #101-102 saw the return of the Red Skull and another awesome Nazi revenge weapon in ‘When Wakes The Sleeper!’ and ‘The Sleeper Strikes!’.

This volume concludes with an extra adventure from his actual war career. ‘Captain America and the Terror That Was Devil’s Island’ is from Captain America Comics #10, 1941, written by Stan Lee and illustrated by Joe Simon.

These are tales of dauntless courage and unmatchable adventure, fast paced and superbly illustrated, which rightly returned Captain America to the heights that his Golden Age compatriots the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner never regained. They are pure escapist magic. Great, great stuff for the eternally young at heart.

© 1941, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 2000, 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.