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What?!? That makes absolutely no sense considering the theme of the recently announced "Avengers Prime" mini with Tony, Thor and Cap.
From: New York, NY | Registered: Jul 2003
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Just read Reboots spoiler. Ugh. Seems like a big cop out.
And they'd basically moved on from the anti-Tony stuff since the movie was such a success. Seems like it's a little beside the point too.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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Between this and what was done with Spidey...maybe the decisions of the folks in charge over there aren't so good.
From: Turn around... | Registered: Jul 2003
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Picked up Iron Man: Legacy #1, the second new ongoing Iron Man title. I'm actually quite pleased with it!
After becoming what seems to be the second flagship face of the company and with another blockbuster movie on the way, Marvel is wasting no time to capitalize on a potential sales success. I actually don't mind as Iron Man is one of my favorites and if its good, I'll definitely buy it.
Though largely a set-up issue, I thought the writing was tight and the storyline is interesting. Of course, writer Fred Van Lente is on board and I was confident he'd do a great job. In Lardy's Roundtable thread I was just singing the praises of Van Lente, who awesomely co-created the new Scorpion and has written all of the best Spider-Man stories since BND. Here, he continues to show that (A) he knows and loves Marvel history and is willing to use it while (B) he's creative and ready for new stories without being derivative or hamstrung by the past (I'm looking at you Dan Slott). Some posters & readers think Marvel is all "Bendis, Bendis, Bendis", but Van Lente and Jeff Parker are putting out some damn fine work these days and they write more comics than Bendis does I think.
Artwork was great and they've got Tony in a new armor that is visually appealing, something that hasn't felt right to me in awhile.
Something that could be improved is explaining where this story falls exactly. Is it set in the past? I'm pretty sure it is but its not spelled out. Is Legacy going to have stories spread out over Tony's past?
I also loved that #1 included a reprint of the first Iron Man story from Tales of Suspense #39, with updated coloring. I love when Marvel does that, which they did in the reprint Tales of Asgard mini last year. It's still a great story after all these decades. The references to the 'reds' and look of the story place it firmly in the 60's but I think it still stands up. So much is accomplished in like 12 pages or something. I wish Marvel would include more of these (but without raising the price ).
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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While Iron Man: Legacy is so far pretty terrific with great Fred Van Lente writing, I'm also trying to catch up on Matt Fraction's Iron Man title. So far, the Heroic Age issues, in which we move on to new stories have been an improvement but aren't quite really nailing it yet.
Subtle tweaks to Iron Man's history are okay to keep the title moving forward but I feel like the title is basically just ignoring everything and following the movie. Sure, Tony was shown to have been a cad in his pre-Iron Man days, but he wasn't a total asshole. That's the Ultimates/Movie version of him; I think the story he told in this issue was a bit over the top.
Mainly though, I think I realized what's hurting my enjoyment of the title. First, the art by Salvador Larocca; something about it just feels very flat. He can be a dynamic artist at times, but he can also feel scratchy and ugly. That's how I'm viewing it here. Compiled on top of that are the colors by Frank D'Amrata, which really feel very flat to me. The art just doesn't pop at all with these two things in effect. I wonder if a better art team would be making Fraction's scripts feel more dynamic? Whatever it is, there is a reason Iron Man falls to the bottom of my reading pile each month.
On the good side, I'm pleased to see Spymaster back!
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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For the past 9 days I have been on vacation and I was able to begin what I’ve been dying to do for several months, begin rereading the first 18 issues of SGT Fury & the Howling Commandoes and Tales of Suspense #39 - #99 (the Iron Man issues), both series from the Marvel Silver Age. Well, I didn’t do as many as I wanted, considering I now have an 11 week old baby to keep me distracted, but I did have a lot of fun beginning the process and have decided to continue for the rest of the summer.
I’ve read most of the Tales of Suspense stories years ago in my pre-teen/early-teen years. By the time I started reading comics my father already had almost every Iron Man story (we now do), and had all of the Suspense stories. But it was so long ago that it almost feels like I’m doing it for the first time since I’m looking at it with the new eyes of an experienced comic book reader.
I’m not sure who will read this (other than Prof, who I really can’t wait to hear from), but I’m going to post some reviews on the first Iron Man stories. I won’t do every story, but the ones that stick out in my mind from the last week. I also will throw in some impressions on things such as covers, house-adds, back-ups, etc. I also plan to reread all of Prof’s various comments on Suspense since my reread was influenced by several of his comments (particularly the ‘casting of Happy Hogan’).
Tales of Suspense #35 – this is a pre-Iron Man issue of Suspense that I decided to include because it has the awesome Jack Kirby cover for the story “I Accepted the Deadly Challenger of Zarkor”, which is a very prototypical science-fiction story cautioning kids against too much reliance on machines. Two things stick out in my head: first, Kirby’s artwork here is much more in tune with DC’s science-fiction stories (Space Ranger, Tommy Tomorrow, Adam Strange) than his typical ‘weird menace’ type look, which was refreshing; secondly, the end of the story, which reveals that the pilot who ends up accomplishing the impossible and proving men are stronger than machines—was actually Zarkor all along!!!. Which means, the hero basically pulled a ruse to teach society a lesson—a pretty heavy-handed, ‘Dad knows best’ mentality. I think there is no way this story would fly with today’s older readers so I found it kind of amusing. Back then, when it was expected the average age of a comic book reader was probably 12, it probably seemed perfect.
Also in this issue was Steve Ditko’s “Never Threaten a Witchman”, in which a greedy businessman attempts to gain fame and fortune by manipulating an old gypsy ‘witchman’ and ends up becoming a deformed / mutilated / monstrous-looking freakshow. What I found most amazing is not this story in particular but that in #40 in ‘Prophet of Doom’ there was a similar story and in #41 ‘Sorcerer’s Plot’ there was yet another Sorcerer/Witchman story. You can see this was a very common subgenre of the Marvel monster comics in the pre/early-superhero days and usually done by either Steve Ditko or Larry Lieber. Ditko’s were better but Lieber had a knack for making his monster stories incredibly ugly to look at which enhances the creepiness factor. These stories are nowhere near as scary or gruesome as the old EC Comics (which I’ve also had the pleasure of reading) but they are pretty good and are still able to convey the creepy horror / weird menace feel very well within the confines of the code (and when done by either Kirby, Ayers, Ditko, Heck or Lieber, is what I call the “Marvel Monster Comics”).
Tales of Suspense #39 – The first Iron Man story, which was recently reprinted with great, updated coloring in Iron Man: Legacy #1. I hope a new generation of readers read this excellent story, which I think is one of the finer Silver Age origins of a superhero. Heck really outdoes himself and even though he doesn’t come back to Iron Man for awhile, this story and his later Iron Man work makes him worthy of having his name in the same conversation with Kirby & Ditko. What’s also so noteworthy is that the first Iron Man movie is almost 75% taken from the first Iron Man story and is just an amazing tribute and love letter to this issue.
I’ve always had a soft spot for the gray original Iron Man armor as well. It’s very brief time partially makes it so special.
Also in #39 is “The Last Rocket”, a short story by Lee & Lieber, which uses the idea of an alien race sending out a rocket with a man and woman and when they arrive on Earth, they are Adam & Eve, and restart humanity. This idea of aliens helping kick off the human race is an old one but a good one IMO, and I like seeing it in science-fiction. It’s something my father has always found really fascinating and that’s because of this story here.
Tales of Suspense #40 – Kirby did all of the covers for the Marvel Comics besides Ditko’s Spider-Man and they were nothing short of amazing, but it was here that he comes on as the early Iron Man artist. It seems Stan decided to commit to a lead, and Suspense was the last to have one. As with just about every non-Ditko/non Daredevil lead character in the Marvel Silver Age, the standard practice was to bring Kirby in to kick things off. Based on hundreds of articles and interviews about Jack Kirby I know he was a major believer in superhero costumes being based on the three primary colors, and it was his belief in this that influenced most Marvel characters having this color scheme (see: Spider-Man). So I firmly believe Kirby was the driving force in turning Iron Man’s armor from gray to gold in his second appearance and I think that was a good move.
What’s interesting about the early ‘gold armor / Kirby Iron Man’ stories is that they kind of exist within their own world and don’t have that great a connection to the larger Iron Man mythos of the last 50 years. It’s almost like Iron Man’s career in his old armor was this entirely separate thing unconnected to the MU. The stories were firmly within the ‘Marvel Monster Comics’ blueprint, even moreso than the Fantastic Four at times. I hope I’m not spoiling anything too big but Gargantus is a Neanderthal who takes over a city by hypnotizing the population; it is later revealed he is a robot created by aliens. It’s a quintessential Challengers of the Unknown plot—I like it a lot, but it doesn’t really fit with the later Iron Man / American vs. the Communists / soap opera type vibe the series has.
One thing that is firm throughout the Silver Age Iron Man is the idea of romance within the series. Certainly more than any other Marvel series besides possibly Spider-Man, Iron Man was a feature completely entrenched in soap opera—and that is something I love. Early on, the soap opera is more in the mold of subtly referencing Tony’s romantic liaisons. He’s very much like early Silver Age Hal Jordan at DC, the quintessential bachelor of the 1950’s / early 1960’s, which doesn’t really exist anymore in popular culture. He dates starlets and heiresses and woman find him irresistible. It’s the total opposite of Peter Parker, Bruce Banner, and other Marvel scientists as well as the lovable pugs like Ben Grimm. That has always made Tony Stark stick out from the rest of the crowd and is one of those things that many comic book fans hate about him, I suspect. In the Silver Age, Marvel made sure to remind readers every story that he was on the verge of death because of the shrapnel in his heart and therefore could never become intimate with a woman; this way, readers were sympathetic more than anything. Once they lost that, I think that was the beginning of the ‘I hate Iron Man’ fandom.
Tales of Suspense #41 – Marvel’s first ‘Dr. Strange’ was a one-off Iron Man foe that is largely forgettable although the story does feature a really intriguing father/daughter relationship where the daughter of the villain turns against him and the father forgives her because it’s his daughter. That’s a lot of characterization in 13 pages, only to never be seen again.
Perhaps the best story in the issue was Steve Ditko’s 5 page “The End of the Universe” where he presents a story in a similar vein to DC’s “Krona looking at the hand at the creation of the universe and bad things happening”. The thirst for knowledge crossing lines was a common Silver Age theme.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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Tales of Suspense #42 – The Red Barbarian battles Iron Man and kicks off a string of Communist enemies for Tony Stark. What is most noticeable is Stan Lee’s dialogue does not pull any punches: Iron Man says “commies are cowardly” and “commies can’t be trusted”; JFK is slightly seen at times, and Khrushchev shows up again and again (unnamed) and always as a cowardly conniver. Iron Man is the quintessential propaganda comic of the Silver Age against the Communists and I think its part of its charm.
Ditko again presents a terrific back-up in “I Speak of the Haunted House” in which two friends make a bet on a house being haunted and one decides to spend the night there; it’s creepy but not overdone and the twist ending is not the kind of shocking one you’d get in the post code days, but a more quietly eerie one where the House only exists on one day of the year and the House is actually the ghost. I thought it was pretty groovy and at 5 pages, a lot of fun.
Tales of Suspense #43 – In “Kala, Queen of the Netherworld”, we get one of many Atlantis origins that didn’t stick (as the MU continuity was not quite as cohesive yet in the pre-Avengers days). My favorite part, Kala, the Queen falls in love with Iron Man. Between this and the next tale, in which Cleopatra falls in love with Iron Man, I could swear I was reading the adventures of Cobalt Kid in the LMB!
Tales of Suspense #44 – The most over the top Kirby Iron Man story is in #44 with “The Mad Pharoh” in which Iron Man helps an Archeologist friend dig up a hidden tomb in a pyramid, accidently free “The Mad Pharoh”, then travel back in time with the Pharoh to see what he’s up to, and then defend Cleopatra from his schemes—all the while, causing Cleopatra to fall in love with him.
Tales of Suspense #45 – Suspense #45 is a big turning point in the series as it begins several issues of change. Kirby has now left the series to launch X-Men and Avengers, and Don Heck comes on. Heck will become the quintessential Iron Man artist of the early Marvel Age of Comics but not right away, he’ll be gone pretty quickly. What’s more important is this issue introduces Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan, the two most important members of Tony’s cast ever (as well as Rhodey two decades later) which begins the process of turning Iron Man from a Challengers of the Unknown/Fantastic Four type comic into the comic it was known to be, a politically charged, soap opera that is more in line with the classic superhero series we remember it as.
Pepper, the loyal secretary who has a crush on her womanizing boss, was a 1950’s archetype character in films, books, sitcoms and just about everywhere. Pepper isn’t quite as attractive as she’ll become; in the early days, she was actually modeled after Ann Davis, who played a similar character on TV (Ann would go on a decade later to be Alice on the Brady Bunch).
Happy is the lovable pug type character Stan Lee loved so much and he brings a few great things to the series: the loyal friend archetype; the roughneck with a big heart archetype; and a nice dose of a sense of humor. By now it was Fall 1963 and Stan was hitting his stride on dialogue. It was not quite as over the top as it would become but it was getting there: in SGT Fury, the dialogue was hilarious at times; Spider-Man and the Thing cracked jokes like no one else. Here, Happy Hogan will have at least one great one-liner every issue. Often, it’s through these characters that Stan is able to add something of value to the stories with his dialogue.
From the onset, the soap opera begins with Happy falling for Pepper but Pepper having a thing for Tony. Over time, as Pepper has her look changed and becomes super-attractive, Tony will fall for Pepper as well, and Pepper will grow to love Happy, creating a terrific love triangle, as Tony realizes he can’t let Pepper love him because of the life he lives, while also Tony & Happy being incredibly loyal to one another and therefore not wanting to step on each other’s toes at times. It’s the best love triangle at Marvel in the Silver Age, and is the only thing they have to compete with Superman/Lois/Clark.
Tales of Suspense #46 – Suspense #46 introduces the first of the great Iron Man villains, the Crimson Dynamo, whose premise is pretty simple at its core: the Communist Iron Man. What complicates the Dynamo is the convoluted history of the character overtime, which is actually quite interesting. In his first appearance, the first Dynamo, Professor Vanko, is turned by Tony to the side of the capitalists and actually joins Stark Industries, defecting from the USSR. That’s some heavy stuff for a story set in the Cold War! (And again, JFK and Khrushchev appear). It sets up the need for in the next Dynamo appearance, there will be a second Dynamo, though the first will return, as he has one of the better Silver Age stories in comics.
Tales of Suspense #47 – The Melter debuts next, another classic Iron Man foe, though he doesn’t make quite the same splash (I personally suspect he would have been forgotten in a big way if Stan hadn’t decided to bring him back in Avengers #6 as part of the first Master of Evil, setting up his second Masters appearance in Avengers #15 and cementing his place as one of the B-level Marvel villains destined to be in group after group of villains). More intriguing is the switch yet again of artists as Steve Ditko comes on for a brief three issue run as penciller of Iron Man, making me wonder “what could have been” had he remained the Iron Man artist. I suspect he got tired of the series quickly and moved on to start Dr. Strange in Strange Tales and based on many, many interviews I’ve read about him, the reasoning is probably his inkers.
Ditko notoriously hated the way the inkers worked over his pencils and often would only let himself ink himself. He notoriously once through unfinished pages of Kirby’s Thor in the trash because he believed Vince Colleta was destroying the pencils with his inks (Kirby was one of the very few people Ditko was friendly with because of a mutual respect). Seeing #47, I can see his point: Don Heck pretty much butchers Ditko’s pencils with his inks. I like Heck’s own pencils but the art here stands out as really not working.
In the next two issues, Dick Ayers comes on to pencil Ditko’s inks and I think it’s an improvement. I suspect Ditko did not and he’d leave. More on that in a sec.
Something interesting is the cover, which was still being done by Kirby, is inked by Sol Brodsky, as he would still step in to pencil or ink at times, even though he was basically the entire marketing/production department during this time when Marvel only had three official employees I believe (Stan, Flo Steinberg and Sol).
Tales of Suspense #48 – Another major milestone happens in Suspense #48 as these transition issues bring Iron Man ever closer to how the majority of comics fandom has always seen him: he goes from his bulky golden armor to the classic red & yellow armor that he is most famous for. The design is from temporary penciller Steve Ditko and it is very Ditko-esque in it’s look: the bulkiness is removed and despite being armor, it’s very smooth and apt to give a more fluid look when Iron Man is in battle. In the long run, a lot of Iron Man’s staying power IMO comes from this armor: it’s more colorful and the sleekness of it really lends itself to placing Iron Man within group shots—he just really looked great among the Avengers!
The villain is Mr. Doll, who is largely forgettable but something noteworthy is Dick Ayers comes on as inker to Ditko, which is a huge improvement to Heck’s inking over Ditko. Ayers was already the penciller/inker on the Human Torch series in Strange Tales and just on the verge of becoming the penciller/inker on SGT Fury in two months when it went monthly; I just reread a whole bunch of his SGT Fury. The major difference is Heck used a notoriously thin line, and while it would look good when he inked his own work, sometimes it just didn’t work. With Ditko, it looked scratchy and Heck couldn’t capture the quirks of Ditko. Ayers has a much more traditional inking approach and a very distinct, clear line. His inking enhanced the penciler’s work rather than altered it so it still looked like Ditko.
Tales of Suspense #49 – Ditko’s final issue is with Ayers again and marks two smaller milestones in the history of Tales of Suspense. The first is it is the very first cameo in the Iron Man feature by another Marvel character, the Angel and in a sense ties Iron Man further into the MU. Iron Man was already co-starring in the Avengers for 6 months (3 issues—Avengers was bi-monthly still) but the Suspense feature continued to have that unconnected feel leftover from the early Kirby issues. Here, not only does the Angel guest-star, there are cameos by the entire Avengers (Thor, Hulk, Giant Man & the Wasp) though they were all in their civilian guises, as well as the rest of the X-Men; the X-Men even battle the Angel for three pages. I always thought the Angel should have had a more ongoing connection to Iron Man with continued guest appearances; as part of high society, they both were naturally to run in the same circles, with the only real limitation being their age difference (though Warren has aged over the years and Tony has not). I’d have liked to have seen a team-up every year or so between the two like Spidey & the Torch!
The other big milestone is here Suspense gets its first clear back-up feature to Iron Man also set in the Marvel Universe: Tales of the Watcher. Many people forget or do not realize that before Cap joined Iron Man and the Hulk joined Giant-Man, the two series had different back-ups: Iron Man had Tales of the Watcher and Giant-Man had Tales of the Wasp (to go along with Thor’s Tales of Asgard, which was never changed and the Torch’s Dr. Strange, which lasted longer than the Torch). The stories are by Larry Lieber and basically serve as the exact same thing Lieber was already doing, monster/sci-fi back-ups, but now narrated by the Watcher much like the old EC narrators. The first back-up is one of the very best in which the Watcher introduces a race of aliens who have monitored the Earth for centuries to see mankind’s progress; overtime they see our technological progress in aviation and naval transportation and begin to grow worried we may one day threaten them; then the come to see the development of the vast array of atomic weaponry mankind had in the Cold War and at last relax: they realize mankind will destroy each other in a nuclear armageddon before it can ever threaten the rest of the galaxy. In the final panels, the Watcher implores the youth of America to prove them wrong. A powerful message for 1964.
The Tales of the Watcher series are for the most part hit or miss. The ‘misses’ aren’t ever bad though, so that is a misnomer—some are just a little bland. But wow, there are some really great 5 page stories in there that are surprisingly good.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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Tales of Suspense #50 – In Suspense #50 Don Heck returns as penciller & inker and establishes himself over the course of the next few issues as the quintessential Iron Man artist of all time, perhaps matched only by Gene Colan who followed him. Heck’s inking job on Ditko may not have been great but when doing his own work, he was terrific. As I said earlier, his work on Iron Man is good enough to allow his name into the conversation when discussing the Silver Age greats.
Suspense #50 does a few things to bring the transition period to a close and get the ball really moving for the great Silver Age run of Iron Man. Pepper Potts gets a total makeover so she’s now a red-headed beauty that fits in with super-models and Hollywood starlets. Much earlier in the thread, Prof mentioned that he wondered who the redone Pepper may be cast as. I have a theory for the very early ‘recast Pepper’: Natalie Wood with red hair. Something about her personality and her smile/eyes just screams Natalie Wood to me. But Heck sometimes draws her a bit different. Happy also gets recast; I recalled Prof saying Happy would be recast once more later on as a more handsome version. Here, he goes from roughneck to sourpuss, which lasts awhile (I forget the actor who he resembles here, it’s a former boxer). I’m looking forward to the more handsome Happy who looks like Jim Braddock, which is the final version of Happy. This 2nd Happy is very dour and looks like something out of Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy strip. Still, Stan’s dialogue and Happy’s personality make him an extremely likeable character.
#50 of course also introduces Iron Man’s greatest nemesis, the Mandarin, who IMO is truly one of the great Marvel villains and should rank among Dr. Doom, Magneto and the Red Skrull. But like many others, such as Dr. Octopus, there have been enough bad Mandarin stories to kind of make him less than he once was. That’s unfortunate because even here in his opening story, you can see he is not only the most powerful and most cunning foe Iron Man has faced, he’s also apparently more clever than Iron Man! Tony barely makes it out of this scrape alive and there is a sense of he’s just trying to get out while he still looks good rather than actually beat the Mandarin. The Mandarin not only has the 10 rings but he’s the ultimate fighting weapon his ancient kung-fu methods, and he’s a rich nobleman with a private army and advanced weaponry—he’s a huge threat!
The Mandarin is very much in the tradition of the Yellow Peril villains, but IMO a lot more respectful than the previous 50 years worth. By 1964, Marvel was always trying to be respectful to other races (political affiliations like the Commies, however, not so much), so Stan goes out of his way to mention several times that the Mandarin is both cunning, but also totally against the Communists as well. He stands on his own so there is a Dr. Doom type quality to him. Also, unlike those Yellow Peril predecessors, the Mandarin has a colorful costume and super-powers.
In terms of pure battle scenes, the first Iron Man/Mandarin battle is the very best so far in the entire run.
Tales of Suspense #51 – Iron Man gains another super-villain foe in the Scarecrow in #51, which comes after the early 1940’s/50’s Scarecrow appearances but before his return in the late Silver Age, so it’s during that time frame where DC Comics had forgotten all about him (like the Riddler and Killer Moth—DC had a knack for forgetting its history every so often, much like the Dark Ages of real history). It’s perhaps because of the Scarecrow’s later return in Batman and his rise to fame that Marvel’s Scarecrow has never really taken off. Which is actually a shame, because I found him to be one of the better antagonists for Iron Man thus far. He’s a contortionist, which is odd enough to be different (though the Cobra was the same, and better, over in Thor and then Daredevil). And his entire reason for being a criminal is because he one day decides ‘why bother using these skills as a stupid magician when I can make some money?’ Simple motivations like that I sometimes like in my villains.
The end of the issue is also incredible and could only happen in 1964: Iron Man chases the Scarecrow to international waters and the Scarecrow gets help from Cuba—Fidel Castro even appears in the issue! It ends with the Scarecrow in exile in Cuba bemoaning the fact that he can’t return to the USA. Castro appearing in a comic book months after JFK’s assassination, considering he was a big enemy of Kennedy, must have been a bit shocking I suspect.
What’s funny is Jack Frost appeared a few issues back when Happy & Pepper debuted and I found him forgettable enough to even mention him. I know later on he gets a whole second shelf-life by changing his name to Blizzard and getting a better costume, and then goes on to be a longtime Iron Man villain. Meanwhile, the Scarecrow has a solid story but is virtually lost to obscurity, only appearing once in a great while (and never well).
Tales of Suspense #52 – Tales of Suspense #52 is what I consider one of the very best Silver Age comic book stories of all time. It is only 13 pages long but is so jam-packed with intrigue, action, poignant moments, suspense and a heartbreaking end that I was quite shocked to have been floored by it yesterday when I reread it. This is the ‘return of the Crimson Dynamo’, which is a misnomer, and also the first appearance of the Black Widow. And it’s also one of those great poignant stories that the Silver Age sometimes produced.
First, the Black Widow: what is so fascinating is when the Black Widow was introduced, she was so cold-blooded and so outright bad. With Hawkeye, you always knew he was a good guy caught up in a bad situation, and you knew the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were simply misguided youths being taken advantage of. The Black Widow, however, was a strait-up really bad communist super-spy with a cold-blooded killer instinct. She only became a superhero by accident years later when they softened her up in Avengers for Hawkeye’s story, and then later after that to capitalize on the spy craze of the late 60’s. Here, I really like that she is not someone to be trifled with: she’ll kill you outright and she’s a master manipulator. The super-sexy female spy is an archetype that’s been around forever, but starting out in Iron Man was a natural choice: it was politically charged with Iron Man always fighting the Commies, and Tony Stark’s romantic life was always a major part of the plot. Natasha fit in perfectly. Also noteworthy is that for like the first 8 years of her existence, she had black hair.
Second, and even more important for this story, was the sheer awesomeness and amazing poignancy of the original Crimson Dynamo’s end, and the 2nd Crimson Dynamo. What happens is the first, Professor Vanko, had already defected to the US and was working with Tony Stark. We even see him helping to build weapons “for mankind” and willing to sacrifice himself for the US. Later, the Black Widow’s partner, Boris (Boris & Natasha—get it? It would be funny if it wasn’t a lame part of the Widow’s history), takes the Crimson Dynamo’s armor and becomes the 2nd Dynamo, with intentions to kill Vanko, Stark and Iron Man. He almost does it too, and he actually beats Iron Man with the Black Widow’s help, but it’s only Professor Vanko who steps in and saves Iron Man, by using his super-laser technology to not only kill Boris, but also kill himself! That’s some pretty heavy stuff! So in two panels, both Crimson Dynamo I and Crimson Dynamo II bite the dust.
Professor Vanko’s story is very moving; everyone doubts his sincerity except Tony and he feels great debt to Tony for that. Later, when it looks like Vanko tricked them, Tony doubts himself for a moment and then feels guilty later as Vanko reveals it wasn’t him and then is willing to die for Iron Man. Great stuff. It’s been done a 1,000 times since but in the world of Marvel Comics, this was a great first, and especially in an era when people didn’t die that often.
Tales of Suspense #53 – The Black Widow returns one month later in #53 and establishes herself as Iron Man’s other major foe early on. This is another great story that further establishes the Black Widow (though her past is entirely mysterious) and how clever she is. In today’s comics, the Black Widow is the Crowning Moment of Awesome in terms of the super-spy, and you can see this was apparent even then. Her orders are to (A) Kill Iron Man, (B) Kill Tony Stark and (C) Rob Fort Knox. Anything else you want, Khrushchev? And again, what’s so great about her earliest stories is she is a true cold-blooded killer.
Also beginning in #53, the Tales of the Watcher back-up reveals at long last, the Origin of the Watchers, in a really great story by Larry Lieber. It’s very epic and has a classic science-fiction message about not every group of people deserved technology if they are going to use it to destroy. The next issue, in #54, is a follow-up story about how Uatu himself is not quite ready to accept being simply a Watcher and finds himself in a dilemma as a cloud of nuclear waste heads toward a planet which he can stop; he does not ultimately and to his surprise, an exploding sun a long distance away causes a meteorite to be hurled through space, also on course to hit the planet. The two calamities destroy one another and the planet is safe, so if Uatu had destroyed the first one, he would have been too drained to stop the second. Thus he realizes sometimes things have a way of working themselves out. I found it to be incredibly religious in its message, which was very surprising for the sci-fi 1960’s.
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Tales of Suspense #54-55 – In April 1964 (cover date), Marvel began experimenting with two-part stories: first was Fantastic Four in the infamous Hulk/Avengers story which was a huge culmination of several prior stories in the MU; next-up was a Giant-Man story that introduced the Human Top (later called Whirlwind); and the third was the second Iron Man / Mandarin battle in #55-56, which is an excellent tale that is one of those great superhero stories where an incredibly clever superhero battles and equally cunning super-villain. Both Tony and the Mandarin show both how powerful they are at various times and also how gutsy they are. And once again at the story’s end, even though Tony got the better of him, you still walk away feeling they are perfectly matched. I’ve got to say, after two Mandarin stories, I’m really impressed by him again and reminded of what a great character he was and could still be.
#55 also is the last 12 page Iron Man story; at this point it was an Iron Man story, a 5 page back-up and then a 5 page Watcher story. Hereafter, it will be an 18 page Iron Man story and a 5 page Watcher back-up. The last ‘back-up’ isn’t really one at all, but an additional “Inside Info about Iron Man” page. I’ve always loved this sort of thing, usually done in Annuals (at this point there were no Iron Man annuals), and there is plenty of great information about Iron Man’s armor and technology. The best parts are the first page, which has a spread of all the villains thus far, and the last page, which is a pin-up of Pepper Potts in a bikini with Happy snapping her photo in the background. Pepper is a pure knock-out by this point, on par with all the great love interests in comics in terms of looks. We learn her first name is Virginia, she’s in her early 20’s, is 5’6’’ and her figure is “the Most!”. She looks great!
The Watcher story in #55 is also another really great one, so you can see by this point, the Watcher series was just on fire. Here, an alien arrives at the moon to steal away the power of Earth’s sun; but first checks to make sure the Watcher will not break his vow. He then goads the Watcher, who fears for Earth’s species, and revels in telling his plan, all the while laughing that the Watcher can do nothing. The Watcher begins asking him questions, the minutest details, and the alien keeps answering his questions until finally—he realizes the Watcher has tricked him; his spacecraft had landed in a sort of quicksand, and is now sinking, and the alien is too late. He also realizes his air will soon run out and he’ll die. He then has a completely different disposition and asks the Watcher if he’ll save him; and the Watcher, ever so cool yet now very cold, simply says “I cannot…for all I can do…is Watch”. Awesome.
Tales of Suspense #56 – Iron Man gets another longtime villain for the first time, the Unicorn in #56. Traditionally, I’ve always written off the Unicorn as being a bit corny; here, in his first appearance, I see how wrong I was because he is an incredibly intense villain. I’ll have to look for future appearances in Iron Man over the years to see if it remained that way or if he did indeed get corny as the decades wore on. What’s interesting is I can see where they were going: he is essentially the heir to the Crimson Dynamo in the same way the Hobgoblin was to the Green Goblin; very similar origin, very similar motif and even a strong connection—the original Crimson Dynamo created his armor and trained him before he defected. All of this, including the Unicorn’s original motif as a Soviet version of Iron Man, was unknown to me because as a kid, I probably wrote him off based on his name alone.
Meanwhile, the Tales of the Watcher story in #56 was yet another great one. Here, we see the Watcher fall in love but sacrifice it to stay true to his role as a Watcher. Thus, for the first time, the Watcher is a little closer to the traditional Marvel character with tragedy & sacrifice. Very interesting! And very cool to see this human element of the Watcher, something we’ve hardly seen in 50 years (other than when he chooses to help Earth).
[ July 17, 2010, 11:33 PM: Message edited by: Cobalt Kid ]
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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Tales of Suspense #57 – One of Marvel’s longest and most well-known heroes is introduced in Suspense #57, Hawkeye. As many readers know, Hawkeye began as a super-villain although saying so is a bit misleading. It’s clear right from the very beginning that while Hawkeye is cocky and rough around the edges, his intentions are actually quite noble—he wanted to be a hero from the get-go. It’s only through circumstance and the Black Widow’s interference that Hawkeye becomes a villain for Iron Man, and his subsequent appearance will further complicate things. So while the Black Widow remains a full-on cold-blooded villainess, Hawkeye is more someone being manipulated; in Avengers #16, it’s quite an easy transition from to superhero.
The interior artwork by Don Heck in #57 may be the single best effort yet, as it is a gorgeous story from beginning to end. The characters are distinct and good-looking and the action is explosive and dynamic. Hawkeye has a great look with a purple Robin Hood motif that encompasses a great superhero mask.
The Black Widow is here for her third appearance as an enemy of Iron Man and at this point in Iron Man’s career she’s certainly on par with the Mandarin as his arch-nemesis.
The love triangle with Happy & Pepper & Tony starts to get more complicated starting here. At first, Tony is trying to stop Pepper from falling for him and so they go on a rather lame date at Coney Island, which I found really amusing. The following day (after Tony had to bail to turn into Iron Man), Tony realizes he is actually falling for Pepper too and decides to really take her out; unfortunately for him, she’s a bit annoyed at Tony and decides to go on a date with Happy to make Tony jealous. It works, but Happy thinks he’s winning her over and Tony is too convinced. The issue ends with Tony feeling sorry for himself and walking on the beach alone. Between the previous Unicorn issue and this issue, the drama and tragedy factor went from about a 7 out of 10 to now a 10 out of 10.
The issue had some great house-ads, as all of the Marvel Silver Age comics do. One of the best ones is the cover for Marvel Tales Annual #1 which reprints the origins for Iron Man, Hulk, Spider-Man, Thor, SGT Fury & the Howling Commandoes and Giant-Man and the Wasp (actually doing Ant-Man first, and then Giant-Man). We own that issue too and it’s great because you get to see a photo gallery of all of the real life Marvel bullpen staffers (Stan Lee, Flo Steinberg, Sol Brodsky, Jack Kirby, Don Heck, Dick Ayers, etc.). The only one who wouldn’t allow his picture to be taken was Steve Ditko, naturally.
The Watcher back-up is another really great one. You’d start to wonder how many Watcher stories they could do before the series became repetitive but at this point they were still new and interesting (and we’d never find out because he had one more story left before Captain America got his own feature at last). In this story, a band of alien pirates land on a planet intending to plunder it and once more, laugh in the Watcher’s face because he can’t interfere. Unfortunately for them, they actually landed on the home planet of the Watchers—and so he can certainly interfere! He does a few things to them but my favorite is “reverses their entire physical and chemical make-up”. The Watcher’s powers are essentially that of the entire Legion of Super-Heroes + the entire New Gods!
Tales of Suspense #58 – In October 1964 a major milestone occurs as Captain America guest-stars in Iron Man’s feature and fans probably suspected what was about to occur: the following issue, Captain America would become co-star of the series so the two would share the cover and split the issue (forever linking them up in the minds of comic fans and as co-leaders of the Avengers). They suspected this because the previous month, the Hulk appeared in Giant-Man’s series to battle him and now in Oct 1964 he became the co-star of Tales to Astonish (replacing the Wasp as back-up, as Cap replaced the Watcher). Cap & the Hulk were two of the last major Marvel heroes without comic books at this time: Cap mainly because he was only just recently reintroduced in the Avengers—Marvel was trying to get him a series as fast as possible. The Hulk’s history is much more interesting and complicated because of his own failed 6 issue series earlier in the Silver Age and Marvel’s continued attempts to keep him in the eyes of fans over a series of appearances: vs. the FF in their title, as part of the Avengers and then their enemy in the first five issues, against Spider-Man in his title, and finally against Giant-Man. Of course, the real reason Marvel combined series with two features rather than give everyone their own series was because their then distributor, American News, was owned by DC Comics, and DC was limited the amount of titles they had to crush the competition (DC is a notoriously vicious business from its very beginnings complete with businessmen of the lowest kind). In the long-run, I think this helped Marvel more than anything. By limiting the amount of Marvel Comics each month to 12, it allowed kids the ability to collect the entire line, and create a feverishly devoted fanbase known as ‘Marvel Zombies’.
On a side note, Namor could also be considered the other great property without a title at this point, but he was still very much in villain mode (despite being the most recognizable star of Marvel’s Golden Age besides Cap or the original Torch). Still, his story is much like the Hulk’s, in that Marvel was sure to move him from title to title to keep him in the minds of fans and he became immensely popular for it. He appeared in FF, the Torch, the Avengers, X-Men, Daredevil and other titles. Once Namor and the Hulk had features, this similar type of role in the Marvel U would fall to Ka-Zar, Black Widow, the Inhumans and others.
Something very rare about Cap’s battle with Iron Man is it is not drawn by his creator Jack Kirby. Either Stan was sure to have Jack always drawing Cap or Jack insisted, but most of Cap’s non-Avengers appearances early on were drawn by Kirby even if he wasn’t the regular series artist, including Cap’s appearance in SGT Fury and the faux-Cap in Strange Tales prior to Cap’s return. Probably it wasn’t a big deal because Don Heck was already drawing Cap since he had taken over as regular penciler of the Avengers.
In this story, Kraven the Hunter and Chameleon appear as the enemies who set the whole thing up, after they had already made waves as big time foes of Spider-Man. This is one of those Spider-villain appearances many forget about. Kraven was a big-time Silver Age super-foe. This is part of the trend of a continued integration of the Marvel Universe that DC Comics and others simply did not have. First the various MU heroes guest-starred in each other’s title and then many villains began appearing elsewhere (really beginning with the various enemies of the heroes teaming up as part of the Masters of Evil in Avengers). After this, Giant-Man’s foe the Black Knight will next appear and essentially become an Iron Man foe for the remainder of his career.
This story also has Dick Ayers providing inks on Don Heck’s art and I think the end result is terrific! Much fuller line work actually does Don Heck’s artwork some real good service. Very pleasing on the eye. I’m pretty sure hereafter Heck would not ink his own work as much, probably because he was now very busy as penciler on the Avengers. Either Ayers or Chic Stone would ink him (later others) and the end result was much better looking. I also think this is the start of what Prof calls the “third Happy Hogan”, which is the more handsome version based on Jim Braddock, the great boxer who was pretty good looking in real life.
The story itself is a good one, and one of the classic two heroes battling one another through trickery type stories. What I like the most is the surprise ending with Giant-Man and the Wasp helping straiten things out.
#57 also has the final Tales of the Watcher story and as I guessed before, they are starting to get slightly repetitive with ill-intentioned aliens seeking the Watcher out and then the Watcher allowing or causing some terrible fate to befall them. What is interesting is the issue starts with a blurb: “SPECIAL ANNOUCNMENT! We’re burstin’ at the seams with pride! We’ve managed to rehire an artist who was one of our top starts many years ago! So after too long an absence, we present the thrilling artistry of—George Tuska!” So it appears Tuska returned to Marvel at this time and this was his first story back. Only at Marvel did the artists get such top billing! No other company would allow something like that. I did check though, and I see he really didn’t do too much more Silver Age Marvel work…a few pencil jobs here, a few ink jobs there but often with months between them.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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"I’m not sure who will read this (other than Prof, who I really can’t wait to hear from)"
Well, now I've got to, don't I?
IRON MAN's long been a fave of mine, I suppose he's probably my FAVORITE Marvel solo character. This may explain why in the late 70's, I got my hands on every issue of TALES OF SUSPENSE with him in it that I could, barring a few I either couldn't find or couln't find at a decent price. I recall the Comicrypt in Oaklyn once had a copy of TOS #40 for $200. That was RIDICULOUS. I'd "only" paid $70.00 for TOS #39, to this day, still the most I ever paid for ANY single comic-book. A few years ago, a friend out in Oregon, in "payment" for inking a book for him, surprised me and mailed me a copy of TOS #52, the debut of The Black Widow-- which I had never read before! Best Christmas present I could recall in many years. When I started scanning & "restoring" old covers for posting online, the early TOS with Iron Man were ones I jumped ahead on, and did a long stretch bewfore hitting most other books from the same period. When I got much better using Photoshop, I even went back and adjusted the colors so they'd be MUCH BETTER than what I'd done originally. I'm proud of making these things look as good OR BETTER than when they were first printed. Stan Goldberg's stunning COLOR work, after all, has NEVER been reprinted.
Check out the first one-- that looks like REAL metal!
posted
It's difficult to know for sure, even after all this time, WHO really contributed WHAT to some of the stories in early-60's Marvel. There's reports that Jack Kirby was heavily involved with IM's origin-- as he was with virtually every series back then (with the notable exception of DR. STRANGE, which seems to me to be 100% Steve Ditko, apart from Stan's wonderful dialogue & the "Lost Horizon tribute" origin story).
For whatever reason, TOS #39 was the only IM story Larry Lieber was involved with. I rank it as one of his BEST works. I rank IM's origin as one of the BEST of any Marvel hero! It's been retold many times, including a "capsule" version in IRON MAN #1 (art by Gene Colan) and again in the late 70's by David Michelinie, Bob Layton, and (of all people) Carmine Infantino. "New and improved" it wasn't. It didn't hold a candle to the Lee-Lieber-Heck original version.
I suppose it's possible Kirby had some influence on making IM yellow, but I've read multiple stories on how back then, the printers had a lot of trouble keeping anything "gray" consistent. Was this true, or was it really an artistic decision to change THE HULK from gray to green, and IRON MAN from gray to yellow? Generally, Stan Goldberg is known as the man who "designed" the color scheme of the entire Marvel Universe, as he colored pretty much EVERY book they put out in the early 60's (about 8 books every month).
The one place Goldberg said he was able to maintain any quality control was on covers, which may explain how many covers he did back then that contained a LOT of shades of gray...
It's been discussed quite a bit at the Kirby yahoo group, but I've long had this overwhelming feeling that the first few IM episodes may not have been published in the order they were created! Legend has it IM was "delayed" for several months before finally debuting in TOS #39. This could be because Kirby was so busy, it could be because Don Heck had NEVER drawn a super-hero comic before, it could be because they were thinking and re-thinking the series to "get it right", and it could be because a couple of episode were done BEFORE they got around to doing the "origin" story-- which in any case, was published first.
TOS #41 had art by Kirby & Ayers-- the guys who by then had gotten into the habit of starting up new series. (see THE HUMAN TORCH, ANT-MAN, SGT. FURY, even NICK FURY!) It also has, if anything, more background info on Tony Stark than the Don Heck origin issue did. That's why it "feels" to me like it may have been created first-- but Stan, knowing Jack couldn't do the series full-time, and having a preference for putting the origins first, may have pushed it back until 3rd. (Just my theory...)
Then there's DR. STRANGE. There IS an awful lot of background info on him, as if he's been around for along time already, and is being set up as a recurring villain. And we never see him again! 2 things about him really stick in my head... he's got a daughter who keeps begging him to give up his ambitions to conquer the world, and, his costume. He reminds me of Dr. Fu Manchu-- or, should I say, THE YELLOW CLAW? Kirby worked on that series back in the 50's, it seems natural he might have wanted to bring him back. Stan Lee, on the other hand, has been reported to have an AVERSION to almost any characters Marvel from before FF #1... unless he was able to "recreate" or "rethink" them to fit his new, more modern "60's" style. IF Jack wanted to bring back YC, Stan may have nixed it, and it may also "explain" why, when IM finally did get an arch-enemy, he was another sinister Oriental, but a NEW one-- The Mandarin.
posted
Tales of Suspense #59 – Suspense #59 arrives with the classic cover of Iron Man introducing Captain America to the readership as his new co-star and Tales of Suspense has at last reached the final format it will use all the way from here to it’s final issue #99. I’ve decided I will not reread the Captain America stories, as I want to focus on Iron Man.
Within, Giant-Man’s villain the Black Knight makes the transition to an Iron Man villain (and it is here where he’ll die, setting up the chance for Dane Whitman to assume the mantel of the Black Knight later on). The story is relatively brief as I’ve now been spoiled by 18 page stories (it’s back to 12), but it’s a solid read. This is a much more traditional superhero vs. super-villain story with the most important change within being Pepper and Happy are now beginning to question Iron Man’s motivations and intentions, which should make for an interesting subplot. I also noticed yet another Avengers sequence in the beginning which lasted three pages—by now the Avengers were a flagship title for Marvel and Stan knew more of these cameos were something the fans wanted.
#59 is also the first issue where Suspense gets a Letters Page. A few titles had gained one earlier but in November 1964 (Cover Date), every Marvel title got one. The Letter’s Page is of major importance to the rise of Marvel and why it came to dominate the comic’s industry as the other half of the Big 2, as fans felt a much more personal connection to Stan and the small Marvel bullpen. In this first Letter’s Page, we see Stan begin the in-joke of Irving Forbush (though it may have started in one of the earlier Letter’s Pages on another title). Eventually, Marvel will have a second page, the Bullpen Bulletins Page. (I read the entire Thor run last summer from his first appearance to the end of Simonson’s run but never reviewed any issues; you get such a great sense of the growth of the company by doing that).
Tales of Suspense #60 – Hawkeye returns for his second appearance in #60 with the Black Widow once again, and it’s another Silver Age classic. Hawkeye has such an interesting dynamic: you know he’s a good guy but he realizes he’s doing the wrong thing and all for a girl, who is using him. He kind of plays the sucker but he’s lovable. His saving grace is how talented he is in being able to combat Iron Man. Meanwhile, Natasha continues her heartless persona right up until the very end, when the Soviet agents working for her turn on her to bring her back to the USSR where a terrible fate awaits her—it’s a pretty intense moment! There is even a caption of her being sold to a ‘red slave nation’; wow! It’s at this final moment that Natasha at last shows a glimpse of a heart and that she actually has feelings for Clint too. Up until then, it wasn’t clear if the Black Widow was another but cold-blooded.
The major gist of the tale is this kicks off the plotline of the world thinking Tony Stark is missing because he can’t remove the Iron Man armor or risk dying. This runs for several issues and is a classic Marvel mid-late Silver Age plot, causing all kinds of upheaval for the character’s personal life and supporting cast. These are usually a ton of fun and this is no exception (another good one: Spidey with amnesia about two years later). What really kicks this plot into high gear is Pepper and Happy begin to suspect Iron Man is responsible for Tony Stark’s disappearance and outright accuse him of it, making for great complications. It’s a tight-knight, albeit very complicated drama and these types of plots are what made Marvel’s star rise so strongly in the 1960’s.
Tales of Suspense #61-62 – Suspense #61-62 continues the ‘Tony Stark is Missing’ subplot as that leads into the third great battle with the Mandarin, and like the previous two, this is another excellent story! Again, I can see why the Mandarin was *the* Iron Man foe; in addition to all the cool things I previously mentioned, he also was in the best stories. Here, readers learn at last the origin of the Mandarin and it is a really cool one at that. The inside reads: “by request of over 500 letters, we are at last printing the origin of the Mandarin!” I believe it. Dr. Doom’s full origin also took years to get to in FF Annual #2, and it paid off in spades. Here, the Mandarin’s origin is a groovy combination of the prototypical pulp ‘Yellow Peril’ origins (descendent of Genghis Khan), updated with modern political connotations (the Reds took his family’s noble wealth) and then with a 1960’s science-fiction twist. The latter is actually the much more prominent aspect, which gives it more strength (eliminating any of the old racism of the Yellow Peril genre), and connects it to an ancient valley and ancient alien visitor (and of course, the Mandarin’s 10 rings). It even ties in Chinese dragon myths.
The battle ends in yet another draw—all three of Iron Man’s first battles with the Mandarin end in just about a draw. Iron Man usually is slightly the victor but not clearly; both are ready to get out of there while the getting is good.
Also noteworthy is Dick Ayer’s inks on Don Heck’s pencils just get better and better. By the start of 1965 Marvel was just totally cooking and all of their comics were looking great. Iron Man’s strip had a quality that let it be right on par with Kirby’s incredible Captain America strip.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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Wow, now that is a beautiful restoration! I’ve had a lot of fun over the last few months checking out your various restorations on that incredible website. I wish he’d do the entire 70’s and 80’s too!
Also, I love hearing about how people completed their collections. Suspense #52 makes for a great Christmas present, indeed!
quote:Originally posted by profh0011: It's difficult to know for sure, even after all this time, WHO really contributed WHAT to some of the stories in early-60's Marvel. There's reports that Jack Kirby was heavily involved with IM's origin-- as he was with virtually every series back then (with the notable exception of DR. STRANGE, which seems to me to be 100% Steve Ditko, apart from Stan's wonderful dialogue & the "Lost Horizon tribute" origin story).
For whatever reason, TOS #39 was the only IM story Larry Lieber was involved with. I rank it as one of his BEST works. I rank IM's origin as one of the BEST of any Marvel hero! It's been retold many times, including a "capsule" version in IRON MAN #1 (art by Gene Colan) and again in the late 70's by David Michelinie, Bob Layton, and (of all people) Carmine Infantino. "New and improved" it wasn't. It didn't hold a candle to the Lee-Lieber-Heck original version.
I suppose it's possible Kirby had some influence on making IM yellow, but I've read multiple stories on how back then, the printers had a lot of trouble keeping anything "gray" consistent. Was this true, or was it really an artistic decision to change THE HULK from gray to green, and IRON MAN from gray to yellow? Generally, Stan Goldberg is known as the man who "designed" the color scheme of the entire Marvel Universe, as he colored pretty much EVERY book they put out in the early 60's (about 8 books every month).
The one place Goldberg said he was able to maintain any quality control was on covers, which may explain how many covers he did back then that contained a LOT of shades of gray...
After my initial few posts, I reread a lot of your old comments and came across a lot of fascinating information on Stan Goldberg. I’ll admit that while I know quite a bit about Marvel’s writers, pencilers and inkers, I don’t know much about the colorists. I find it fascinating about Goldberg, who sounds like an unsung hero of the age. Also interesting is how much more control he had on the covers as opposed to the interiors.
Another thing I’m not that knowledgeable about is Letterers. Funny story: when I was 11 my father was getting the CBG subscription which came in monthly. They had annual awards which fans can vote on (and still do). He let me do all the voting for the first few years—this was in the early 90’s. Every year, I’d vote for Artie Simek as favorite Letterer, because he was the only one whose name I could remember, from the Marvel Silver Age titles. Turns out, Artie passed away in 1975, which I only recently learned. Hopefully he’d get a kick out of that, a lasting impression he made on a kid who was born 6 years after he died.
quote:Originally posted by profh0011: It's been discussed quite a bit at the Kirby yahoo group, but I've long had this overwhelming feeling that the first few IM episodes may not have been published in the order they were created! Legend has it IM was "delayed" for several months before finally debuting in TOS #39. This could be because Kirby was so busy, it could be because Don Heck had NEVER drawn a super-hero comic before, it could be because they were thinking and re-thinking the series to "get it right", and it could be because a couple of episode were done BEFORE they got around to doing the "origin" story-- which in any case, was published first.
TOS #41 had art by Kirby & Ayers-- the guys who by then had gotten into the habit of starting up new series. (see THE HUMAN TORCH, ANT-MAN, SGT. FURY, even NICK FURY!) It also has, if anything, more background info on Tony Stark than the Don Heck origin issue did. That's why it "feels" to me like it may have been created first-- but Stan, knowing Jack couldn't do the series full-time, and having a preference for putting the origins first, may have pushed it back until 3rd. (Just my theory...)
Wow, I’ve never heard of that before! It makes total sense though considering how later issues have so much more information as you pointed out. Really cool!
[ July 20, 2010, 06:50 PM: Message edited by: Cobalt Kid ]
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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Just a theory of mine, putting together several bits from different places... it seems to make sense to me. (Whereas with DR. STRANGE, his origin being pushed forward was something I came up with on my own. There's about 6 episodes after the origin where Doc still looks like Vincent Price, but in the origin, he's more like Ronald Colman. The art on the origin seems more evolved than the next several, and I can't shake the feeling Ditko may have gotten 8 episodes done "on spec", perhaps planning to shop it around to Charlton, before Stan decided to publish it with no fanfare whatsoever in the back of STRANGE TALES.)
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