Category: Marvel Essentials

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Essential Super-Villain Team-Up volume 1


By Roy Thomas, Steve Englehart, Wally Wood, Keith Giffen & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-1-9041-5973-5

Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner was the second super-star of the Timely Age of Comics (but only because he followed after the cover-featured Human Torch in Marvel Mystery Comics #1) and has had the most impressive longevity of the company’s “Big Three” Torch, Subby and Captain America.

He was revived in 1962 in Fantastic Four #4; once again an anti-hero/noble villain and has been prominent in the company’s pantheon ever since.

The following issue introduced the first great villain of the Silver Age in the form of technologically armoured dark knight Doctor Doom, who takes up the lion’s share of this eclectic yet excellent collection of dastardly double-dealings encompassing Astonishing Tales #1-8, Giant-Sized Super-Villain Team-Up #1-2, Super-Villain Team-Up #1-14 and 16-17, as well as pertinent crossover appearances in Avengers #154-156 and Champions 16.

Incidentally, Fantastic Four #6 featured the first Super-Villain Team-Up of the Marvel age as Doom and Namor joined forces as ‘The Deadly Duo’. The Master of Latveria inevitably betrayed and tried to kill the Prince of Atlantis in that tale: an event which colours the relationship of the characters to this day… All of those magical moments appear in Essential Fantastic Four volume 1, by the way.

Although Doom had his first true solo outing in Marvel Super-Heroes #20 (May 1969) this magnificent and monumental monochrome collection opens with his follow-up series which began with ‘Unto You is Born… the Doomsman!’ (July-August 1970) wherein Roy Thomas & Wally Wood revealed the master manipulator’s daily struggle to maintain his iron control over the Ruritanian kingdom of Latveria, building a super-robot to crush the incipient rebellion of ousted Crown Prince Rudolfo and his mysterious sponsor.

However the use of a girl who seemed to be Victor von Doom’s lost love had the desired effect and the rebels almost succeeded in driving the tyrant from Doom Castle. In the attendant chaos the Doomsman device wandered away…

‘Revolution!’ proved Doom was not the only master of mechanoids as Rudolfo and the enigmatic Faceless One used the Doomsman to wreak havoc throughout the country, before a final assault in ‘Doom Must Die!’ (scripted by Larry Lieber) found all the tyrant’s enemies vanquished and the Monarch of Menace once more firmly in control.

Lieber & Wood then pitted Doom against the Red Skull in ‘The Invaders!’ as an army of leftover Nazis stormed into the country whilst Doom was away, only to be crushed and banished in ‘A Land Enslaved!’ (Astonishing Tales #5, by Lieber, George Tuska & Mike Esposito) as soon as he came back.

Issue #6 saw the Lord of Latveria invade the African nation of Wakanda in ‘The Tentacles of the Tyrant!’ determined to seize the vast stock of wonder mineral Vibranium only to fall foul of the furious tenacity of its king and defender T’Challa the Black Panther in ‘…And If I be Called Traitor!’ (Gerry Conway, Gene Colan & Frank Giacoia).

The short solo run ended in high style with a little landmark entitled ‘Though Some Call it Magic!’, wherein Conway, Colan & Tom Palmer revealed Doom’s darkest secret. Every year the ultimate villain was forced to duel the rulers of Hell in the vain hope of freeing the soul of his mother from eternal torment, and every year he failed: a tragic trial which punished both the living and the dead.

With this tormented mini-epic even further depth and drama were added to the greatest villain in the Marvel universe.

The series vanished with no warning and Doom returned to his status as premier antagonist in the Fantastic Four and elsewhere until Giant-Sized Super-Villain Team-Up #1 was released (March 1975), once more bathing the Deadly Despot in a starring spotlight.

In the intervening years the Sub-Mariner had also lost his own series, despite some very radical and attention-grabbing stunts. A nerve gas dumping accident perpetrated by surface dwellers had catastrophically altered his hybrid body, forcing him to wear a hydrating-suit to breathe. The same toxin had plunged the entire nation of Atlantis into a perpetual coma.

Alone and pushed to the brink of desperation, Prince Namor rescued Doom from a deadly plunge to Earth after the Iron Dictator’s latest defeat the hands of the FF and Silver Surfer in an impressive and effective framing sequence bracketing two classic reprint tales. ‘Encounter at Land’s End!’ (by Roy Thomas, John Buscema & Joe Sinnott) saw Doom plucked from the sea and the edge of death by a Sub-Mariner in dire need of scientific wizardry to cure his somnolent race and prepared to offer an alliance against all mankind to get it…

Painfully aware of their unhappy past history the outlaws recalled a previous encounter ‘In the Darkness Dwells Doom!’ (from Sub-Mariner #20, by Thomas, Buscema & Johnny Craig) wherein the fugitive Atlantean was offered sanctuary in New York’s Latverian embassy before being blackmailed and betrayed (again) by the Devil Doctor…

Initially reluctant, Doom reconsiders after recalling a past battle against the diabolical Diablo. ‘This Man… This Demon!’ (Thomas, Lieber, Giacoia & Vince Colletta) is the aforementioned solo tryout from Marvel Super-Heroes #20, which restated the Doctor’s origins and revealed his tragic, doomed relationship with a gypsy girl named Valeria…

The debate ends in a cataclysmic clash of egos and raw destructive power with both parties more bitterly opposed than ever but the follow-up ‘To Bestride the World!’ (Thomas, Mike Sekowsky & Sam Grainger) in the all-new Giant-Sized Super-Villain Team-Up #2 (June 1975), forced Doom to change his mind when his own android army rebelled after the long-lost Doomsman (under its new guise of Andro) returned and co-opted them for a war against organic life.

After blistering battle and extensive carnage Namor and Doom triumphed together and parted uneasy allies, only to regroup in the pages of Super-Villain Team-Up #1 (August 1975) as a chaotic ongoing series began with ‘Slayers from the Sea!’ by Tony Isabella, George Tuska, Bill Everett & Fred Kida.

As Doom actually contemplates treating an ally as a equal in the opening chapter ‘An Alliance Asunder?’, in the second part ‘Frenzy on a Floating Fortress’ (illustrated by George Evans & Frank Springer) Namor is ambushed by old foes Attuma, Dr. Dorcas and Tiger Shark, leading Doom to rush to his rescue in #2 as ‘In the Midst of Life…!’ (with art from Sal Buscema & Kida) the Sub-Mariner’s truest friend was murdered by his assembled enemies, leading to a brutal climax in ‘If Vengeance Fails!’ by Jim Shooter, Evans & Jack Abel.

Super-Villain Team-Up was an intriguing concept cursed with a revolving door creative team crisis: nobody seemed able to stay with the series for more than a couple of issues. Somehow the standards remained high but with no long-term planning the plots and characterisation jumped all over the place.

Bill Mantlo, Herb Trimpe & Jim Mooney produced ‘A Time of Titans!’ in #4 as Doom and Sub-Mariner battled each other and encountered a prototype Deathlok the Demolisher before splitting up yet again, after which Steve Englehart stepped in for ‘…And Be a Villain!’ (illustrated by Trimpe & Don Perlin) wherein the Lord of Latveria artificially exacerbated Namor’s breathing affliction and threatened to annihilate dormant Atlantis. Despite all the efforts of the Fantastic Four the Sub-Mariner was forced to swear fealty to Doom or see his people and himself perish forever…

This tumultuous issue also introduced mystic Batman knock-off the Shroud whose avowed mission was to free the world from the curse of Doom at all costs…

Jack Abel inked ‘Prisoner!’ in #6 as the FF invaded Latveria to rescue the promise-bound Sub-Mariner only to be sent packing by US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger who had just signed a non-aggression pact with Doom. One American observed no such legal or diplomatic niceties in ‘Who is… The Shroud?’ (Pablo Marcos inks) and, after revealing his origins to Namor, the Master of Darkness freed him from his vow by killing Dr. Doom.

As Shroud and Namor fled for the border chaos broke out in Latveria, but in actuality Doom was not dead. He had been rescued and imprisoned by Namor’s cousin Namorita and girlfriend Tamara in ‘Escape!’ (illustrated by Keith Giffen & Owen McCarron) under the misguided apprehension that they could force the Metal-shod Monarch into helping Atlantis and their Prince., The crisis escalated as it segued into an ongoing Avengers storyline, beginning ‘When Strikes Attuma?’ (Avengers #154 by Conway, George Perez & Marcos) as the Sub-sea Slayer enslaved the World’s Mightiest Heroes and commanded them to kill Namor…

The saga continued in Super-Villain Team-Up #9 (scripted by Mantlo, drawn by Jim Shooter & Sal Trapani) as the ‘Pawns of Attuma!’ attacked only to discover Doom in charge and easily able to thwart their half-hearted assault. In Avengers #155 the beaten heroes were helpless, leaving only the confused, battle-crazed Namor and a substitute team to hunt down the barbarian sea lord, with the epic conclusion ‘The Private War of Doctor Doom!’ in #156 (written by Shooter, drawn by Sal Buscema & Marcos) where the liberated and resurgent heroes joined forces to crush Attuma and prevent Doom from turning the situation to his own world-conquering advantage…

Behind the scenes in Latveria, Shroud had installed Prince Rudolfo as a faux Doctor Doom but things went wrong very quickly in Super-Villain Team-Up #10 (by Mantlo, Bob Hall & Perlin) when Captain America investigated ‘The Sign of the Skull!’

In the Latverian Embassy the genuine despot learned from the Star-Spangled Avenger that Red Skull had once more invaded Doom’s homeland, even as the Sub-Mariner discovered greedy surface-men pillaging his comatose city of Atlantis.

As Doom and Captain America battled their way through Latveria’s formidable defences the Skull proceeded in establishing his Fourth Reich, easily defeating the Shroud in ‘My Ally, my Enemy’ but when Namor raged in, tracking the ravagers of Atlantis to Doom’s castle, the tables were finally turned and the Iron Dictator swore to finally cure the Atlanteans in return for the Sub-Mariner’s aid against the Nazi invaders.

Firstly though, the Skull plans to enslave the earth with a hypno-ray had to be crushed in ‘Death Duel!’ with the Iron Doctor pursuing the Nazi mastermind to his hidden moonbase, casually sacrificing the Shroud in the process.

Finally fulfilling his oath Doom resurrected the comatose Atlanteans in #13, but only after a blistering sub-sea battle with amphibian arch-foe Krang and a brobdingnagian sea beast in ‘When Walks the Warlord!’ (by Mantlo, Giffen & Perlin)

With Atlantis and Namor restored a new era began and ended with Super-Villain Team-Up #14 (October 1977). ‘A World For the Winning!’ by Mantlo, Hall, Perlin & Duffy Vohland, opened with mutant villain Magneto tricked into a duel with Doom who was de facto master of the world since he had seeded the atmosphere with a mind control gas.

Ever the sportsman, the Lord of Latveria released Magneto from his control, allowed him to liberate one other thrall and challenged them both to save the world…

It was the last issue of the troubled title and the story concluded in Champions #19 (November 1977) as the Master of Magnetism and the Beast spectacularly overcame all odds and saved the day in ‘A World Lost!’ (Mantlo, Hall & Mike Esposito). A year later Super-Villain Team-Up #15 appeared from nowhere (dated November 1978 and presumably released to safeguard the copyright) with a reprint of the Red Skull story from Astonishing Tales #4-5.

‘Shall I Call Thee Master?’ by Peter Gillis, Carmine Infantino & Bruce Patterson was released a year later ( #16 May 1979, with one final issue 12 months after that) wherein the Skull, Hatemonger and radical geneticist Arnim Zola whiled away the days in a human atrocity lab. This was a dark exploration of monstrous inhumanity where torture and degradation were simply a way of passing the time until the leftover Fascists could build a new Cosmic Cube and reshape all reality to their twisted whims.

In this instance they were thwarted by merely mortal secret agents in the long delayed but savagely effective conclusion ‘Dark Victory!’ (Gillis, Arvell Jones & Patterson), after which the concept and title were shelved for decades.

This eccentric and thoroughly fan-only compendium concludes with a double page spread omitted from earlier reprintings of ‘This Man… This Demon!’ and the rather magnificent cover of that tale from Marvel Super-Heroes #20.

For all its flaws Super-Villain Team-Up was a bold experiment and a genuinely enjoyable dalliance with the different during the 1970s – as long as the reader had an in depth knowledge of the company’s ever- more complex continuity. I truly wish more people would sample the delights of this offbeat saga but I doubt any new reader could cope with the terrifying torrent of unexplained backstory.

Still, I’d be delighted if you prove me wrong…
© 1970, 1971, 1975, 1976, 1977, 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

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Essential Captain America volume 5


By Jack Kirby, Frank Robbins, Frank Giacoia & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4535-6

Created by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby in an era of frantic patriotic fervour, Captain America was a dynamic and highly visible response to the horrors of Nazism and the threat of Liberty’s loss. He faded during the post-war reconstruction but briefly reappeared after the Korean War: a harder, darker sentinel ferreting out monsters, subversives and the “commies” who lurked under every American bed. Then he vanished once more until the burgeoning Marvel Age resurrected him just in time to experience turbulent, culturally divisive 1960s.

This fifth Essential collection features the spectacular return of “The King”, as Jack Kirby took over writing, drawing and editing the Sentinel of Liberty in the year of the country’s two hundredth birthday. This stunning black and white compendium reprints issues #187-205 (July 1975-January 1977) of the monthly comicbook and includes Captain America Annual #3 and the magnificent commemorative tabloid Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles.

At the end of the previous volume the Red Skull had returned in all his gory glory and, after a staggeringly effective campaign of terror, revealed that the high-flying Falcon had been his unwitting secret weapon for years: a cheap gangster named Sam “Snap” Wilson reprogrammed by the Cosmic Cube into the perfect partner for Captain America and a tantalising, ticking time bomb waiting to explode…

Captain America and the Falcon #187 opens the show here with ‘The Madness Maze!’ (by John Warner, Frank Robbins & Frank Chiaramonte) with the Skull fled and the now-comatose Falcon in the custody of super-spy agency S.H.I.E.L.D. Suddenly the Star-Spangled Avenger was abducted by a mysterious flying saucer and attacked by alchemical androids employed by a rival espionage outfit , culminating in a ‘Druid-War’ (Warner, Sal Buscema & Vince Colletta), before Tony Isabella, Robbins & Chiaramonte put Cap into an ‘Arena For a Fallen Hero!’ where psychological warfare and unarmed combat combined into a radical therapy to kill or cure the mind-locked sidekick.

Just as the radical cure kicked in an old foe took over S.H.I.E.L.D.’s flying HQ in ‘Nightshade is Deadlier the Second Time Around!’ (Isabella, Robbins & Colletta), after which the crimes of forcibly-reformed Snap Wilson were examined and judged in the climactic wrap-up ‘The Trial of the Falcon!’ (Isabella, Bill Mantlo, Robbins & D. Bruce Berry) with a predictable court ruling, a clutch of heroic cameos and a bombastic battle against the sinister Stilt-Man.

With the narrative decks cleared, Captain America and the Falcon #192 featured an ingenious, entertaining filler written by outgoing editor Marv Wolfman, illustrated by Robbins & Berry, wherein Cap hopped on to a commercial plane and found himself battling Dr. Faustus and a contingent of gang-bosses on a ‘Mad-Flight!’ thousands of feet above New York.

In 1976 Kirby exploded back into the Marvel Universe with a slew of new creations (2001: a Space Odyssey, Machine Man, The Eternals, Devil Dinosaur) and assumed control of established characters Captain America and latterly the Black Panther. His return was much hyped at the time but swiftly became controversial. His new work quickly found friends, but his tenure on his earlier inventions divided the fan base.

Kirby was never slavishly wedded to tight continuity and preferred, in many ways, to treat his stints on Cap and the Panther as a kind of creative “Day One”.

Captain America Annual #3 was a feature- length science fiction shocker which eschewed the convoluted back-story and cultural soul searching of the recent past and simply confronted the valiant hero with a cosmic vampire in ‘The Thing From the Black Hole Star!’; a riot of rampaging action and end-of-the-world wonderment featuring a fallible but fiercely determined fighting man free of doubt and determined to defend the world at all costs…

Kirby had big plans for the nation’s premiere comicbook patriotic symbol. Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles was released to commemorate the USA’s two hundredth year in Marvel’s tabloid Treasury Format (80+ pages of 338 x 258mm dimensions) and featured the Sentinel of Liberty on an incredible excursion through the key eras and areas of American history.

A vast, expansive, panoramic and iconic celebration of the memory and the myth of the nation, this almost abstracted and heavily symbolic 84 page extravaganza perfectly survives the surrender of colour and reduction to standard comic dimensions, following Captain America when cosmic savant Mister Buda propelled the querulous Avenger into successive significant segments of history: encountering lost partner Bucky during WWII, meeting Benjamin Franklin in Revolutionary Philadelphia and revisiting the mobster-ridden depression era of Steve Roger’s childhood.

Cap met Geronimo during the Indian Wars, suffered the horrors of a mine cave-in, survived a dogfight with a German WWI fighter ace, battled bare-knuckle boxer John L. Sullivan, resisted slavers with abolitionist John Brown, observed the detonation of the first Atom Bomb, saw the great Chicago Fire and even slipped into America’s future…

He experienced the glory days of Hollywood, the simple joys of rural homesteading and the harshest modern ghetto, before drawing strength from the nation’s hopeful children…

Inked by such luminaries as Barry Windsor-Smith, John Romita Sr. and Herb Trimpe the book-length bonanza is peppered with a glorious selection of pulsating pin-ups.

After absorbing the worth of a nation Captain America and the Falcon #193 concentrated on saving it with the opening salvo in an epic storyline leading up the immortal super-soldier’s own 200th issue.

Inked by fellow veteran Frank Giacoia ‘The Madbomb’ revealed a ‘Screamer in the Brain!’ when a tiny new weapon was triggered by unknown terrorists, reducing an entire city block to rubble by driving the populace into a mass psychotic frenzy. Experiencing the madness at close hand Cap and the Falcon were seconded by the government to find the culprits and the full scale device hidden somewhere in America…

‘The Trojan Horde’ introduced plutocratic mastermind William Taurey who intended to unmake the American Revolution and restore an aristocracy. Using inestimable wealth, a cadre of similarly disgruntled millionaire elitists, an army of mercenaries, slaves transformed into genetic freaks and other cutting edge super-science atrocities, the maniac intended to forever destroy the Republic.

Moreover, when he was in charge, the first thing Taurey intended was to hunt down the last descendent of Colonial hero Steven Rogers, who had killed Taurey’s Monarchist ancestor and allowed Washington to win the War of Independence.

Little did he suspect the subject of his wrath had already infiltrated his secret army…

In ‘It’s 1984!’ (inked by D. Bruce Berry) Cap and Falcon got a first-hand look at the kind of world Taurey advocated, battling their way through monsters, mercenaries and a mob fuelled by modern mind-control and Bread and Circuses, before ultra-spoiled elitist Cheer Chadwick took then under her bored and privileged wing…

Even she couldn’t keep her new pets from being sucked into the bloody, brutal Circus section of the New Society as the heroes were forced to fight for their lives in ‘Kill-Derby’ and as the US army raided the secret base in ‘The Rocks are Burning!’ (Giacoia inks) the heroes realised it was all for nought since the colossal Mad-Bomb was still active and lost somewhere in their vast Home of the Brave.

The offbeat ‘Captain America’s Love Story’ took a decidedly different and desperate track as the Bastion of Freedom was forced to romance a sick woman to get to her father – who had invented the deadly device – after which ‘The Man Who Sold the United States’ returned to all-out action as the Cap and Falcon raced a countdown to national disaster as the Bomb was finally triggered by ‘Dawn’s Early Light!’ in a spectacular showdown climax which surpassed every expectation.

With Captain America and the Falcon #201, the pace shifted to malevolent moodiness and uncanny mystery with ‘The Night People!’: a street-full of mutants and maniacs who periodically phased into and out of New York City, creating terror and chaos every evening. When Falcon and Leila were abducted by the eerie encroachers there were soon converted to their crazed cause by the ‘Mad, Mad Dimension!’ they inhabited during daylight hours, leaving Captain America and new associate Texas Jack Muldoon hopelessly outgunned when their last-ditch rescue attempt left them all battling an invasion of berserkers beasts in ‘Alamo II!’

On bludgeoning, bombastic top-form, the Star-Spangled Avenger saved the day once more, but no sooner were the erstwhile inhabitants of Zero Street safely ensconced on Earth than ‘The Unburied One!’ pitted the indefatigable champions against a corpse which wouldn’t play dead. The concluding chapter and last tale in this blockbusting tome revealed the cadaver had become home to an energy being from the far future when ‘Agron Walks the Earth!’ but not even its blistering power and rage could long baulk the indomitable spirit and ability of America’s Ultimate Fighting Man.

This supremely thrilling collection also has room for a selection of Kirby cover roughs and un-inked pencils that will delight art fans and aficionados. The King’s commitment to wholesome adventure, breakneck action and breathless wonderment, combined with his absolute mastery of the comic page and unceasing quest for the Next Big Thrill, always make for a captivating read and this stuff is as good as any of his post Fourth World stuff.

However, it does make this book a bit of a double-edged treat. Engaging and impressive as the first half-dozen stories in this volume are, they are worlds away in style, form and content from the perfect imaginative maelstrom of Kirby at his creative peak.

Not better but very, very different.

You can hate one and love the other, but perhaps it’s better to try to appreciate each era on its own merits…

Fast-paced, action-packed, totally engrossing fights ‘n’ tights masterpieces no fan should ignore and above all else, fabulously fun tales of a true American Dream…

© 1972, 1973, 1984, 1975, 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Essential Ms. Marvel volume 1


By Gerry Conway, Chris Claremont, John Buscema, Sal Buscema, Dave Cockrum, Mike Vosburg & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2499-3

Until relatively recently American comics and especially Marvel had very little in the way of positive female role models and almost no viable solo stars. Although there was a woman starring in the very first comic of the Marvel Age, the Invisible Girl took years to become became a potent and independent character in her own right.

The company’s very first starring heroine was Black Fury, a leather-clad, whip-wielding crimebuster from the newspaper strips created by Tarpe Mills in April 1941. She was repackaged as a resized reprint for Timely’s funnybooks and renamed Miss Fury for a four-year run from 1942-1946 – although the tabloid strip survived until 1952. Fury was actually predated by the Silver Scorpion who debuted in Daring Mystery Comics #7 (April 1941), but she was relegated to a minor position in the book’s line-up and a very short shelf-life.

Miss America first appeared in the anthology Marvel Mystery Comics #49 (November1943), created by Otto Binder and artist Al Gabriele and after a few more appearances won her own title in early 1944 received her own book. Miss America Comics lasted but she didn’t as with the second issue (November1944) the format was changed, becoming a combination teen comedy/fashion/domestics tips magazine, and feisty super-heroics were steadily squeezed out. The publication is most famous now for introducing virginal evergreen teen ideal Patsy Walker.

A few others appeared immediately after the War, many spin-offs and sidekicks such as female Sub-Mariner Namora (debuting in Marvel Mystery Comics #82, May 1947 and graduating to her own three issue series in 1948), the Human Torch‘s secretary Mary Mitchell who as Sun Girl starred in her own three issue 1948 series before becoming a wandering sidekick and guest star in Sub-Mariner and Captain America Comics.

Masked detective Blonde Phantom was created by Stan Lee and Syd Shores for All Select Comics #11 (Fall 1946) and sort-of goddess Venus debuted in her own title in August 1948, becoming the gender’s biggest success until the advent of the Jungle Girl fad in the mid-1950s; mostly by dint of the superb stories and art by the great Bill Everett and by ruthlessly changing genres from crime to romance to horror every five minutes…

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

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

As the costumed crazies craze began to subside in the 1970s, Stan Lee and Roy Thomas looked into creating a girl-friendly boutique of heroines written by women, beginning with Claws of the Cat by Linda Fite, Marie Severin & Wally Wood and Night Nurse by Jean Thomas and Win Mortimer (both #1’s cover-dated November 1972). A new jungle goddess Shanna the She-Devil #1, by Carole Seuling & George Tuska, debuted in December 1972; but despite these impressive creative teams none of these fascinating experiments lasted beyond a fifth issue.

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

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

Ms. Marvel was actually Carol Danvers, a United States Air Force security officer introduced in Marvel Super-Heroes #13 (March 1968): the second episode of the saga of Kree warrior Mar-Vell, who had been dispatched to Earth as a spy after the Fantastic Four had repulsed the aliens twice in two months (see Essential Fantastic Four volume 4 and Essential Captain Marvel volume 1).

The series was written by Roy Thomas and illustrated by Gene Colan and the immensely competent Carol investigated the Mar-Vell’s assumed identity of Walter Lawson for months until she was caught up in a devastating battle between the now-defecting alien and his nemesis Yon-Rogg. She was caught in a climactic explosion of alien technology and pretty much vanished from sight until Gerry Conway, John Buscema & Joe Sinnott revived her for ‘This Woman, This Warrior!’ (Ms. Marvel #1, January 1977) as a new chapter began for the company and the industry…

This volume, collecting Ms. Marvel #1-23, relevant portions of Marvel Super-Heroes Magazine #10-11 and Avengers Annual #10, opens with the irrepressible and partially amnesiac Danvers moving to New York to become editor of “Woman” a new magazine for modern misses published by Daily Bugle owner J. Jonah Jameson. Never having fully recovered from her near-death experience, Danvers had left the military and drifted into writing, slowly growing in confidence until the irascible publisher had made her an offer she couldn’t refuse…

At the same time as Carol was getting her feet under a desk a mysterious new masked heroine began appearing, such as when she pitched up to battle the sinister Scorpion in a brutal bank raid. The villain narrowly escaped to rendezvous with Professor Kerwin Korwin of AIM (a high-tech secret society claiming to be Advanced Idea Mechanics) who had promised to increase the Scorpion’s powers and allow him to take long-delayed revenge on Jameson – whom the demented thug blamed for his freakish condition…

Danvers had been secretly having premonitions and blackouts since her involvement in the final battle between Mar-Vell and Yon-Rogg and had no idea she was transforming into Ms. Marvel. Her latest vision-flash occurred too late to save the publisher from abduction but her “Seventh Sense” did allow her to trace the Scorpion before her unwitting new boss is injured, whilst her incredible physical powers and knowledge of Kree combat techniques enabled her to easily trounce the maniac.

‘Enigma of Fear!’ featured a return engagement for the Scorpion as Korwin and AIM made Ms. Marvel their latest science project. Whilst the Professor turned himself into an armoured assassin codenamed Destructor, Carol’s therapist Mike Barnett made an analytical breakthrough with his patient and discovered she was a masked metahuman even before she did. Although she again felled the Scorpion Ms. Marvel was ambushed by the Destructor, but awoke in #3 (scripted by Chris Claremont) to turn the tables in ‘The Lady’s Not For Killing!’

Travelling to Cape Canaveral to interview old friend Salia Petrie for a women astronauts feature, Danvers was soon battling an old Silver Surfer foe on the edge of space and all her occluded memories returned just in time for a final confrontation with the Destructor during which she almost learnt that ‘Death is the Doomsday Man!’ (by Claremont, Jim Mooney & Sinnott).

Android Avenger the Vision guest-starred in #5 as Ms. Marvel crossed a ‘Bridge of No Return’. After Dr. Barnett revealed he knew her secret, Carol was forced to battle the Vision when AIM tricked the artificial hero into protecting a massive, mobile “dirty” bomb, before ‘…And Grotesk Shall Slay Thee!’ pitted her against a subterranean menace determined to eradicate the human race, culminating in a waking ‘Nightmare!’ when she was captured by AIM’s deadly leader Modok and all her secrets were exposed to his malign scientific scrutiny.

Grotesk returned in #8 as ‘The Last Sunset…?‘ almost dawned for the entire planet, whilst ‘Call Me Death-Bird!’ (illustrated by Keith Pollard, Sinnott & Sam Grainger) introduced a mysterious, murderous avian alien who would figure heavily in many an X-Men and Avengers saga, but who spent her early days allied to the unrelenting forces of AIM as they attacked once more in ‘Cry Murder… Cry Modok!’ (art by Sal Buscema & Tom Palmer).

Frank Giacoia inked #11’s ‘Day of the Dark Angel!’ wherein supernal supernatural menaces Hecate, the Witch-Queen and the Elementals attacked the Cape, preventing Carol from rescuing Salia Petrie and her space shuttle crew from an incredible inter-dimensional disaster…

The astonishing action continued in ‘The Warrior… and the Witch-Queen!’ (Sinnott inks) before ‘Homecoming!’ (Mooney & Sinnott) explored Carol’s blue collar origins in Boston as she battled a pair of marauding aliens and ‘Fear Stalks Floor 40’ (illustrated by Carmine Infantino & Steve Leialoha) pitted her against her construction worker, anti-feminist dad even as she was saving his business from the sinister sabotage of the Steeplejack.

Mooney & Tony DeZuniga provided the art for ‘The Shark is a Very Deadly Beast!’ as undersea villain Tiger Shark kidnapped the Sub-Mariner’s teenaged cousin Namorita and only Ms. Marvel, after a brief side trip to Avengers Mansion, was on hand to provide succour in ‘The Deep Deadly Silence!’ (inked by Frank Springer). ‘Shadow of the Gun!’ (Mooney & DeZuniga) enhanced the X-Men connection by introducing shape-shifting mutant Mystique in a raid on S.H.I.E.L.D. to purloin a new super-weapon, which saw impressive service in #18’s ‘The St. Valentine’s Day/Avengers Massacre!’ (Mooney & Ricardo Villamonte): a blockbuster battle that featured the beginning of a deadly plot from within the distant Kree Imperium.

The scheme swiftly culminated in ‘Mirror, Mirror!’ (Infantino & Bob McLeod) as the Kree Supreme Intelligence attempted to reinvigorate his race’s stalled evolutionary path by kidnapping the Earth/Kree hybrid Carol Danvers. However with both her and Captain Marvel hitting his emissary Ronan the Accuser eventually the plotters took the hint and went home empty handed…

Ms. Marvel #20 saw a great big makeover as Carol Danvers finally created her own look and identity in ‘The All-New Ms. Marvel’ courtesy of Claremont, Dave Cockrum & Bob Wiacek wherein the utterly re-purposed hero tackled a hidden kingdom of intelligent post-atomic dinosaurs infesting the American deserts, leading to a catastrophic clash with ‘The Devil in the Dark!’ (inked by Al Milgrom).

Now one of the most hands-on, bombastic battlers in the Marvel pantheon, she was more than ready for a return match with Death-Bird in ‘Second Chance!’ (art by Mike Vosburg & Mike Zeck), but thrown for a total loop when she was fired from Woman Magazine. All these changes came too late as the series’ sales had earmarked it for cancellation. ‘The Woman Who Fell to Earth’ (inked by Bruce D. Patterson) resolved the long-running disappearance of Salia Petrie in a tale guest-starring the time travelling Guardians of the Galaxy, just in time for the end of the road.

The series ended there but two more stories were in various stages of preparation and finally saw print in 1992 (the Summer and Fall issues of oversized anthology publication Marvel Super-Heroes Magazine #10-11) beginning with an untitled, ferocious fight with mutant maniac Sabretooth (by Claremont & Vosburg), followed by ‘Cry, Vengeance!’ (by Claremont, Simon Furman, Vosburg & Mike Gustovich) as Ms. Marvel, now a card-carrying Avenger, faced off against Mystique and her brotherhood of Evil Mutants. This tale features an additional section which explained how Carol was attacked by the young mutant Rogue, permanently lost her powers and memory and was eventually reborn as the cosmic being Binary: which is all well and good but somewhat takes the punch out of the last tale in this collection.

Admittedly Ms. Marvel only has a peripheral role in ‘By Friends… Betrayed!’ from Avengers Annual #10 (1981, by Claremont, Michael Golden & Armando Gil), as a powerless, amnesiac Carol Danvers was rescued from drowning by Spider-Woman, prior to Mystique and Rogue launching an all-out attack on the World’s Mightiest Heroes whilst attempting to free the Brotherhood from custody.

Spectacular and utterly compelling the tale seemed to write a satisfactory conclusion to Carol’s career but in comics nothing is forever…

This comprehensive monochrome chronicle also includes full entries on Death-Bird, Captain Marvel, the Kree and Rogue, taken from the Marvel Universe Handbook.

Always entertaining, often groundbreaking and painfully patronising (occasionally at the same time), the early Ms. Marvel, against all odds, grew into the modern Marvel icon of capable womanhood we see today. These adventures are a valuable grounding of the contemporary champion but also still stand up on their own as intriguing examples of the inevitable fall of even the staunchest of male bastions – superhero stories…

© 1977, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1992, 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Essential Captain America volume 4


By Steve Englehart, Sal Buscema, Frank Robbins & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2770-3

Created by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby in an era of frantic patriotic fervour, Captain America was a dynamic and highly visible response to the horrors of Nazism and the threat of Liberty’s loss. He faded during the post-war reconstruction but briefly reappeared after the Korean War: a harder, darker sentinel ferreting out monsters, subversives and the “commies” who lurked under every American bed. Then he vanished once more until the burgeoning Marvel Age resurrected him just in time to experience turbulent, culturally divisive 1960s.

By the time of this fourth Essential collection, reprinting issues #157-186 (January 1973-June 1975) of his monthly comicbook the once convinced and confirmed Sentinel of Liberty had become the unhappy, uncomfortable symbol of a divided nation, but was looking to make the best of things and carve himself a new place in the Land of the Free. Real world events were about to put paid to that American dream…

After meeting and defeating an ugly past in the form of the Captain America and Bucky of the 1950s, Steve Rogers hoped for less troublesome times when ‘Veni, Vidi, Vici: Viper!’ (written by Steve Englehart, Steve Gerber, Sal Buscema & John Verpoorten) began an epic, engrossing storyline by introducing a despicable advertising executive-turned snaky super-villain ostensibly working for a enigmatic boss named the Cowled Commander.

It transpired that corrupt connections at the Precinct where Rogers worked as a policeman had been stirred into murderous action by our hero’s presence, leading to good cops being framed, bombs in offices and the Viper taking out survivors with lethally poisonous darts…

When social worker Sam Wilson, in the guise of the Falcon, came to investigate both he and Cap succumbed to the deadly venom until ‘The Crime Wave Breaks!’ (Englehart, Buscema & Verpoorten) saw a last-second escape from death, a ramping up of criminal activity and Rogers’ abduction, leading to a ‘Turning Point!’ wherein super-scum-for-hire Porcupine, Scarecrow, Plantman and the Eel’s ill-conceived attack gave the game away and uncovered the hidden mastermind in their midst.

‘Enter: Solarr!’ (inked by Frank McLaughlin) presented an old-fashioned clash with a super-powered maniac as the main attraction, but the real meat was the start of twin sub-plots that would shape the next half-dozen adventures, as the Star-Spangled Avenger’s newfound super-strength increasingly made Falcon feel like a junior and inferior partner, whilst Steve’s long-time romantic interest Sharon Carter stole away in the night without leaving a word of explanation…

Captain America and the Falcon #161 saw the tension between Steve and Sam intensify as the heroes went searching for Sharon in ‘…If he Loseth His Soul!’, finding a connection to the girl Cap loved and lost in World War II and a deadly psycho-drama overseen by criminal shrink Dr. Faustus, culminating in a singular lesson in extreme therapy which only proved ‘This Way Lies Madness!’

‘Beware of Serpents!’ saw the returning Viper and Eel combine with the Cobra to form a Serpent Squad as the vengeful ad-man began a campaign to destroy the Sentinel of Liberty with the “Big Lie” weapons and tactics of Madison Avenue. Although the instigator quickly fell, the scheme rumbled on with slow but certain consequences…

Issue #164 was a stunningly scary episode illustrated by Alan Lee Weiss, introducing minx-ish mad scientist Deadly Nightshade, a ‘Queen of the Werewolves!’ who infected Falcon with her chemical lycanthropy as an audition to enlist with one of the planet’s greatest menaces…

The full horror of the situation was revealed when ‘The Yellow Claw Strikes’ (Englehart, Buscema & McLaughlin), renewing a campaign of terror begun in the 1950s, but this time attacking his former Chinese Communist sponsors and the USA indiscriminately. Giant bugs, deadly slave assassins and reanimated mummies were bad enough, but when the Arcane Oriental’s formidable mind-control duped Cap into almost beating S.H.I.E.L.D. supremo Nick Fury to death during the ‘Night of the Lurking Dead!’ the blistering final battle could only result in further tragedy when an old ally perished in the Frank Giacoia inked ‘Ashes to Ashes’.

One of the Star-Spangled Avengers most durable enemies sort-of resurfaced in the tense thriller ‘…And a Phoenix Shall Arise!’ (inked by John Tartaglione & George Roussos) before the Viper’s long-laid plans began to finally bear bitter fruit in #169’s ‘When a Legend Dies!’ (additional scripting from Mike Friedrich) as anti Captain America TV spots made people doubt the honesty and sanity of the nation’s greatest hero. As the Falcon and his “Black Power” activist girlfriend Leila Taylor left for the super-scientific African nation of Wakanda in search of increased powers, Cap battled third-rate villain the Tumbler.

In the heat of battle the Sentinel of Liberty seemed to go too far and the thug died…

‘J’Accuse!’ (Englehart, Friedrich, Buscema & Vince Colletta) saw Cap beaten and arrested by too-good-to-be-true neophyte crusader Moonstone, whilst in Africa Leila was kidnapped by Harlem hood Stone-Face: far from home and hungry for some familiar foxy friendship… ‘Bust-Out!’ in #171 found Cap forcibly sprung from jail by a mysterious pack of “supporters” as Black Panther and the newly flying Falcon crushed Stone-Face preparatory to a quick dash back to America and a reunion with Cap.

‘Believe it or Not: The Banshee!’ began with Captain America and the Falcon beaten by but narrowly escaping Moonstone and his obscurely occluded masters, after which the hard-luck heroes followed a lead to Nashville, encountered the fugitive mutant Master of Sound, and stumbled into a secret pogrom.

For long months mutants had been disappearing unnoticed, but now the last remaining X-Men – Cyclops, Marvel Girl and Professor X – had tracked them down only to discover that Captain America’s problems also stemmed from ‘The Sins of the Secret Empire!’ whose ultimate goal was the conquest of the USA.

Eluding capture by S.H.I.E.L.D. Steve and Sam infiltrate the clandestine Empire, only to be exposed and confined in ‘It’s Always Darkest!’ before turning the tables and saving the day in #175’s ‘…Before the Dawn!’ wherein the grand plan is revealed, the mutants liberated and the culprits captured. In a shocking final scene the ultimate instigator is unmasked and shockingly dispatched within the Whitehouse itself…

At this time America was a nation reeling from a loss of idealism caused by Vietnam, Watergate and the partial exposure of President Nixon’s crimes. The general loss of idealism and painful public revelations that politicians are generally unpleasant – and even possibly ruthless, wicked exploiters – kicked the props out of most Americans who had an incomprehensibly rosy view of their leaders, so a conspiracy that reached into the halls and backrooms of government was extremely controversial yet oddly attractive in those distant, simpler days…

Shocked and stunned, Steve Rogers searched his soul and realised he could not be the symbol of such a country. Despite the arguments and advice of his Avenging allies he decided that ‘Captain America Must Die!’ Unable to convince him otherwise Sam Wilson carried on alone, tackling an invasion by a body-snatching old X-Men foe in ‘Lucifer be thy Name’ and wrapping up the threat in ‘If the Falcon Should Fall…!’ Meanwhile, as Steve Rogers settled into an uncomfortable retirement, a few painfully unqualified civilians began trying to fill the crimson boots of Captain America with dire results…

Captain America and the Falcon #179 saw Rogers hunted by a mysterious Golden Archer whose ‘Slings and Arrows!’ convinced the ex-hero that even if he couldn’t be Captain America, neither could he abandon the role of do-gooder; leading to a life-changing decision and ‘The Coming of the Nomad!’ in #180. The Serpent Squad turned up again with Princess Python in tow and maniac nihilist Madame Hydra assuming the suddenly vacant role of the Viper.

When “the Man Without a Country” tackled the ophidian villains he came off second best but did stumble across a sinister scheme by the Squad and Sub-Mariner’s arch-nemesis Warlord Krang to raise a sunken continent and restore an ancient civilisation in ‘The Mark of Madness!’ At the same time Falcon was ignoring his better judgement and agreeing to train a determined young man as the next celebrated Captain America…

An era ended when Sal Buscema surrendered Captain America and newspaper-strip creator Frank Robbins came aboard for a controversial run beginning with ‘Inferno!’ (inked by Joe Giella). Whilst Nomad successfully mopped up the Serpent Squad despite well-meaning police interference, Sam and Captain America’s substitute had encountered the Sentinel of Liberty’s greatest enemy with fatal consequences…

‘Nomad: No More!’ (inked by Giacoia) found the grief-stricken Steve Rogers once more take up his stars and stripes as the murderous Red Skull began simultaneously attacking the hero’s loved ones and destroying America’s economy by defiling the banks and slaughtering the financial wizards who ran them, beginning in the chillingly evocative ‘Cap’s Back!’ (Herb Trimpe, Giacoia & Mike Esposito), rampaging through the utterly shocking ‘Scream of the Scarlet Skull!’ (art by Buscema, Robbins & Giacoia) and climaxing in ‘Mindcage!’ (with additional scripting from John Warner and art by Robbins & Esposito) wherein our titular hero’s greatest friend was apparently revealed as the Skull’s stooge and slave.

And on that staggering cliffhanger note this epic collection concludes…

Despite the odd cringe-worthy moment (I specifically omitted the part where Cap battles three chicken-themed villains, for example, and still wince at some of the dialogue from this era of “blacksploitation” and ethnic awareness) these tales of matchless courage and indomitable heroism are fast-paced, action-packed, totally engrossing fights ‘n’ tights that no comics fan will care to miss, and joking aside, the cultural significance of these tales were crucial in informing the political consciences of the youngest members of post-Watergate generation…

Above all else ‘though, these are fabulously fun tales of a true American Dream…

© 1972, 1973, 1984, 1975, 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Essential Avengers volume 4


By Roy Thomas, John Buscema, Sal Buscema, Tom Palmer, Neal Adams, Barry Smith & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-1485-7

The Avengers always proved that putting all one’s star eggs in on single basket paid off big-time; even when all Marvel’s all-stars such as Thor, Captain America and Iron Man were absent, it merely allowed the lesser lights of the team to shine more brightly.

Of course all the founding stars regularly featured due to the rotating, open door policy which meant that most issues included somebody’s fave-rave and the increasingly bold and impressive stories and artwork were no hindrance either.

This monolithic and monumental phonebook-sized fourth tome, collecting the absolute best of the Mighty Avengers‘ world-saving exploits (presenting in crisp, stylish black and white the astounding contents of issues #69-97 of their monthly comic book and the crossover Incredible Hulk #140), confirmed Roy Thomas as a major creative force in comics and consolidated John Buscema’s status as the foremost artist of Marvel’s second age.

These compelling yarns certainly enhanced the reputations of JB’s brother Sal and increased the high profile of the iconoclastic Neal Adams, whose brief stint here, on the X-Men and in a few other select places, set the industry ablaze and spawned a generation of avid artistic imitators…

Opening this epochal tome is ‘Let the Game Begin’ from Avengers #69, by writer Thomas (who wrote all the stories contained here) and illustrated by Sal Buscema & Sam Grainger, wherein the team – Captain America, Yellowjacket, Wasp, Goliath, Iron Man, Vision and Thor – were called to the hospital bedside of ailing Tony Stark just in time to prevent his abduction by the grotesque Growing Man. After battling boldly against the unbeatable homunculus the team were summarily and collectively snatched into the future by old enemy Kang the Conqueror who co-opted the team to act as pieces in a cosmic chess-game with an omnipotent alien called the Grandmaster.

If the Avengers failed the Earth would be eradicated…

Issue #70 and 71 began a fertile period for writer Thomas as he introduced two new teams who would, in the fullness of time, star in their own stellar series: Squadron Supreme and The Invaders.

‘When Strikes the Squadron Sinister!’ saw the Avengers returned to their own time to battle a team of deadly villains (mischievously based on DC’s Justice League of America) and ‘Endgame!’, guest-starring the Black Knight, found the Vision, Black Panther and Yellowjacket dispatched to 1941 to clash with the WWII incarnations of the Sub-Mariner, Human Torch and Captain America…

After foiling Kang’s ambitions the team victoriously returned to the present where Avengers # 72 featured a guest-appearance from Captain Marvel and Rick Jones as ‘Did You Hear the One About Scorpio?’ introduced the menace of super-mob Zodiac, after which ‘The Sting of the Serpent’ (with art by Frank Giacoia & Grainger) pitted the Panther against seditious hate-mongers determined to set New York ablaze, leading to a spectacular and shocking clash between Avengers and Sons of the Serpent in ‘Pursue the Panther!’; the first in a string of glorious issues illustrated by the dream team of John Buscema & Tom Palmer.

The long-missing mutant Avengers Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch returned in #75, desperate to stave off an extra-dimensional invasion and nuclear Armageddon by Conan prototype Arkon the Magnificent in ‘The Warlord and the Witch!’ before the staggering threat was finally thwarted in ‘The Blaze of Battle… the Flames of Love!’ after which a far more mundane and insidious menace manifested when billionaire financier Cornelius Van Lunt almost bankrupted Avengers sponsor Tony Stark, compelling the team to become his ‘Heroes for Hire!’

Sal Buscema popped in to pencil ‘The Man-Ape Always Strikes Twice!’ as the team were targeted by a coterie of vengeful villains competing to join a new league of evil, culminating in a grand clash with the aforementioned anthropoid, Swordsman, Power Man, Living Laser and Grim Reaper in ‘Lo! The Lethal Legion!’, which also heralded the artistic return of Big Brother John.

Marvel introduced its first Native American costumed hero in ‘The Coming of Red Wolf!’ as the Avengers were drawn into a highly personal and decidedly brutal clash between Cornelius Van Lunt and a tribe of Indians he was defrauding. The dramatic dilemma (heralding the team’s entry into the era of “Relevant”, socially conscious tales) divided the team and concluded with Vision, Scarlet Witch and Goliath aiding Red Wolf in ‘When Dies A Legend!’, whilst the remaining team pursued Zodiac.

Sadly the malevolent mob moved first and took the entire island of Manhattan ‘Hostage!’, leaving only the solitary vigilante Daredevil free to save the day, after which Militant Feminism raised its strident head as the Wasp, Black Widow, Scarlet Witch and Madame Medusa were seduced into joining a new team called the Lady Liberators (yes, I know, but the all-male creative team meant well…). However, the Valkyrie who declared ‘Come on in… the Revolution’s Fine!’ had her own sinister agenda that had nothing to do with justice or equality…

Avengers #84 featured part-time paladin Black Knight who was becoming addicted to the bloodthirsty hunger of his Ebony Blade, resulting in an otherworldly confrontation with Arkon and the Enchantress in ‘The Sword and the Sorceress!’ which left half the team lost on a parallel world.

In ‘The World is Not For Burning!’ (inked by Giacoia), Vision, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver found themselves trapped on an Earth where the Squadron Supreme were the World’s Greatest heroes and a solar Armageddon was only hours away…

‘Brain-Child to the Dark Tower Came…!’ (art by Sal B & Jim Mooney) saw the extremely reluctant allies unite to save a very different world after which, back home, the Black Panther reprised his origin before taking leave of his comrades to assume the throne of his hidden African nation in ‘Look Homeward, Avenger’ (Giacoia & Sal B).

Novelist Harlan Ellison was a very vocal comics fan in the 1970s and occasionally collaborated on Marvel tales. Avengers #88 began a radical adaptation of one his best short stories, beginning with ‘The Summons of Psyklop’ (Ellison, Thomas, Sal Buscema & Mooney) wherein an experiment to cure the Hulk of his destructive nature led to the man-beast’s abduction by a preternatural entity. The saga concluded in The Incredible Hulk #140 (Ellison, Thomas, Herb Trimpe & Grainger) as ‘The Brute… That Shouted Love at the Heart of the Atom!’ saw the Jade Goliath find love and peace in a sub-molecular paradise, only to lose it all…

Avengers #89 began perhaps the most ambitious saga in Marvel’s brief history: an astounding epic of tremendous scope which dumped Earth into a cosmic war the likes of which comics fans had never before seen and creating the template for all multi-part crossovers and publishing events ever since.

It all began relatively quietly as marooned Kree warrior Captain Marvel was finally freed from his prison in the Negative Zone in ‘The Only Good Alien…’ (art by Sal Buscema and Sam Grainger), inadvertently alerting the public to the panic-striking notion that extraterrestrials lurk among us, whilst awakening a long-dormant robotic Kree Sentry which promptly enacted a protocol to devolve humanity to the level of cavemen in ‘Judgment Day’.

Even with Kree heavyweight Ronan the Accuser taking personal charge the scheme was narrowly defeated in ‘Take One Giant Step… Backward!’, but the cat was out of the bag and public opinion had turned against the heroes for concealing the threat of alien incursions.

In a powerful allegory of the Communist Witch-hunts of the 1950s the epic expanded in #92 (Sal B & George Roussos) when ‘All Things Must End!’ saw riots in the streets and political demagogues capitalising on the crisis. Subpoenaed by the authorities, castigated by friends and public, the current team was ordered to disband by their founding fathers Thor, Iron Man and Captain America.

Or were they…?

The plot thickened and the art quality took an exponential leap as Neal Adams and Tom Palmer assumed the chores with the giant-sized #93’s ‘This Beachhead Earth’ as the Vision was nigh-fatally attacked and those same founding fathers evinced no knowledge of having benched the regular team. With Ant-Man forced to undertake ‘A Journey to the Center of the Android!’ to save the Vision’s artificial life, the Avengers become aware of not one but two alien presences on Earth: bellicose Kree and sneaky shape-shifting Skrulls, beginning a ‘War of the Weirds!’ on our fragile globe. Acting too late they were unable to prevent the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and Captain Marvel from being abducted by the Skrulls…

‘More than Inhuman!’ in issue #94 embroiled the hidden race of advanced beings called Inhumans in the mix, disclosing that their advanced science and super-powers were the result of genetic meddling by the Kree in the depths of prehistory. Now with their king Black Bolt missing and the nefarious Maximus in charge, the aliens were calling in their ancient markers…

The second chapter ‘1971: A Space Odyssey’ (pencilled by John Buscema) focused on Captain Marvel increasingly pressured to reveal military secrets to his shape-shifting captors as the Skrulls prepared to launch a final devastating attack on their eons-old rivals, whilst on Earth ‘Behold the Mandroids!’ saw the authorities attempt to arrest all costumed heroes…

Avengers #95 ‘Something Inhuman This Way Come…!’ coalesced the disparate story strands as the aquatic Triton helped defeat the Mandroids before beseeching the beleaguered heroes to find his missing monarch and rescue his people from the press-ganging Kree. After so doing, with a solid victory under their belts the Avengers headed into space to liberate their kidnapped comrades and save Earth from becoming collateral damage in the impending Kree-Skrull War…

‘The Andromeda Swarm!’ (with additional inking from Adams and Al Weiss) was perhaps the Avenger’s finest hour, as the small, brave band held off an immense armada of starships, losing one of their number in the conflict, whilst the Kree Supreme Intelligence was revealed to have been pursuing its own clandestine agenda all along and had snatched bewildered sidekick Rick Jones to clinch its terrifyingly ambitious plans.

The astounding final episode ‘Godhood’s End!’ brought the uncanny epic (and this volume) to a perfect end with a literal deus ex machina as the master-plan was finally revealed and the war ended in a costumed hero overload-extravaganza which has never been surpassed in the annals of Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction.

Roy Thomas and John Buscema gloriously led Marvel’s second generation of creators who brilliantly built on and consolidated Lee, Kirby and Ditko’s initial burst of comics creativity: spearheading and constructing a logical, fully functioning wonder- machine of places and events that so many others were inspired by and could add to.

These terrific tales are perfect examples of superheroes done exactly right and also a pivotal step of the little company into the corporate colossus.

© 1967, 1968, 2001 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Essential Thor volume 4


By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Neal Adams, John Buscema & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3076-5

Whilst the constantly expanding Marvel Universe grew ever more interconnected as it matured, with characters literally tripping over each other in New York City, the Asgardian heritage of Thor and the soaring imagination of Jack Kirby had long been drawing the Thunder God away from mortal realms into stunning new landscapes.

With this fourth Essential black and white compendium however, an unthinkable Changing of the Guard occurred as the increasingly discontented King of Comics jumped ship from the House of (His) Ideas for arch-rival DC where he crafted the unfinished magnum Opus of the Fourth World series as well as a number of other game-changing comics classics…

An era ended at Marvel when the King abdicated his seemingly divinely-ordained position. Left to soldier on were Stan Lee and a couple of budding talents named Adams and Buscema…

In case you came in late: disabled doctor Donald Blake took a vacation in Norway only to stumble into an alien invasion. Trapped in a cave, he found an old walking stick which, when struck against the ground, turned him into the Norse God of Thunder! Within moments he was defending the weak and smiting the wicked. Months swiftly passed with the Lord of Storms tackling rapacious extraterrestrials, Commie dictators, costumed crazies and cheap thugs, but these soon gave way to a vast kaleidoscope of fantastic worlds and incredible, mythic menaces.

This iconic transitional compendium encapsulates the absolute zenith of the fantastic feature, reprinting Mighty Thor #167-195, spanning August 1969 to July 1972 with the mighty Thunder God going both forward and back.

At the close of the previous volume Thor had fallen to a berserker rage whilst retrieving his beloved Lady Sif from the naive artificial superman Him: now as this chronicle opens with ‘This World Renounced!’ (by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby & Vince Colletta and a cover by John Romita: the first ever not drawn by Kirby) almighty Odin punishes his son for succumbing to Warrior Madness by exiling him to deep space, where he must atone by locating the enigmatic world-devourer Galactus.

Just before departure however, Thor got to clear up some outstanding old business, including one last confrontation with Loki, Prince of Evil…

The superb George Klein came aboard as inker for ‘Galactus Found!‘ which saw Balder and the Warriors Three safeguarding Earth as Thor roamed the heavens on his lonely mission. As a new threat emerged in Red China, Galactus came to Thor and revealed ‘The Awesome Answer!’ to his origins – pure Kirby Kosmology of truly staggering proportions, whilst back home the terrifying Thermal Man was making things too hot for both his Chinese creators and the Lands of the Free…

In issue #170 ‘The Thunder God and the Thermal Man’ (inked by Bill Everett) found Thor, with mission accomplished, returned to New York only to tumble straight into cataclysmic combat beside his Asgardian comrades against the unstoppable Atomic menace unleashed by the duplicitous Reds. At the height of the struggle Balder, Hogun, Fandral and Volstagg were abducted by Loki and the Norn Queen but nevertheless the Thunder God triumphed…

Alone on Earth Thor faced in short order ‘The Wrath of The Wrecker!’, the body-swapping plot of billionaire Kronin Krask in ‘The Immortal and the Mind-Slave!’ and the earthbound fury of ‘Ulik Unleashed!’ (with the Circus of Crime thrown in for good measure) as well as ‘The Carnage of the Crypto-Man!’ before the last great epic of the Kirby-era began.

Behind a Marie Severin cover ‘The Fall of Asgard!’ saw Balder and Co. escape to confront the assemble hordes of Giants and Trolls marching on the Home of the Gods. With Odin incapacitated by his annual Great Sleep, Loki had seized the throne and Sif called Thor back for perhaps the Last Battle…

‘Inferno!’ (inked by Colletta) saw the folly of the usurper as the terrifying Fire-demon Surtur broke free of his Odinian prison and began its ordained task of burning down the universe. As everything appeared ‘To End in Flames!’ Loki fled to Earth, having first hidden Odin’s sleeping form in the Sea of Eternal Night. Thor led a heroic last stand as Balder invaded the Dimension of Death to rescue the All-Father just as Surtur fired up for the final foray…

Thor #178 is a landmark: the first issue created without Jack Kirby. An obvious fill-in, ‘Death is a Stranger’ by Lee, John Buscema & Colletta, found the Thunderer snatched away from Asgard by the nefarious Abomination to battle the Stranger – an extra-galactic powerhouse who collects unique beings…

The interrupted epic resumed in #179 with ‘No More the Thunder God!’ as Thor, Sif and Balder were dispatched to Earth to arrest Loki. This story was Kirby’s last: he left the entire vast unfolding new mythology on a cliffhanger as the Thunder God was ambushed by his wicked step-brother.

By switching bodies, the Lord of Evil gained safety and the power of the Storm whilst Thor was doomed to endure whatever punishment Odin decreed…

More than any other Marvel strip The Mighty Thor was the feature where Kirby’s creative brilliance matched his questing exploration of an Infinite Imaginative Cosmos: dreaming, extrapolating and honing a dazzling new kind of storytelling graphics with soul-searching, mind-boggling concepts of Man’s place in the universe. Although what followed contained the trappings and even spirit of that incredible marriage, the heart, soul and soaring, unfettered wonder just were not there any longer: nor would they be until 1983 Walt Simonson assumed creative control with #337 (see Mighty Thor: the Ballad of Beta Ray Bill).

‘When Gods Go Mad!’ introduced the totally different style of Neal Adams to the mix, inked by the comfortably familiar Joe Sinnott, as the true Thunder God was sent to Hell and the tender mercies of Mephisto, whilst on Earth Loki used his brother’s body to terrorise the UN Assembly and declare himself Master of the World…

In #181 ‘One God Must Fall’ Sif led the Warriors Three on a rescue mission to the Infernal Realm as Balder struggled to combat the combined power of Thor and malice of Loki until Mephisto was thwarted and a cataclysmic battle of brothers set the world to rights.

The new era truly began with Thor #182 as John Buscema assumed the artistic reins for ‘The Prisoner… The Power… and… Dr. Doom!’ as the Thunder God became entangled in Earthly politics when a young girl entreated him to rescue her missile-designer father from the deadly Iron Monarch. The decidedly down-to-Earth and mismatched melodrama concluded with Don Blake ‘Trapped in Doomsland!’ until Thor could retrieve his mislaid mallet…

Lee & Buscema began their own cosmic saga in #184 and ‘The World Beyond!‘ as a sinister force began devouring the outer galaxies and psychic reverberations began to unravel life on Earth and in Asgard. Sam Grainger inked ‘In the Grip of Infinity!’ as the cosmic calamity intensified whilst ‘Worlds at War!’ revealed the true architect of the conflagration, leading to a desperate last-ditch ploy in ‘The World is Lost!’ and a final clash which led to ‘The End of Infinity!’ (inked by Jim Mooney).

Although vast in scope and quite clever this tale suffers from excessive padding and a plodding, repetitive pace which isn’t helped by a ponderous epilogue in #189 as the Goddess Hela came calling, demanding Thor feel ‘The Icy Touch of Death!’ to pay for all the souls she didn’t get…

After a big chase she was finally dissuaded in ‘…And So To Die!’ but the distraction had once more allowed Loki to seize the Throne and unleash ‘A Time of Evil!’ which he manifested in the form of an unstoppable artificial hunter/killer dubbed Durok the Demolisher. Unleashing his merciless engine of destruction on Earth, Loki gloated at the ‘Conflagration!’ (inked by Grainger) he had instigated…

Gerry Conway came aboard as writer with ‘What Power Unleashed?’ (Sal Buscema inking brother John) to conclude the tale as Balder and Sif enlisted the Silver Surfer to aid the embattled Thunder God as Asgard tottered on the brink of total destruction until Thor could intercede, culminating in ‘This Fatal Fury!’ where the All-Father finally resumed his rightful place.

This pivotal collection concludes unsatisfactorily ‘In the Shadow of Mangog!’ (inked by Colletta) with the first part on another extended odyssey as Thor and friends are dispatched to the ends of the Universe. In his righteous rage Odin had banished Loki to that fantastic world, momentarily forgetting that once there the Prince of Evil might awaken the most vicious, unbeatable monster in the Asgardian universe …

To be continued…

The Kirby Thor will always be a high-point in graphic fantasy, all the more impressive for the sheer imagination and timeless readability of the tales. With his departure the series foundered for the longest time before finding a new identity, yet even so the remaining stories in this volume are still packed with intrigue and action and magnificently rendered by artists who whilst not possessing Kirby’s vaulting visionary passion were every inch his equal in craft and dedication.  This book is still an absolute must for all fans of the medium.

©1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Essential Defenders volume 2


By Len Wein, Steve Gerber, Sal Buscema & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2150-1

Last of the big star-name conglomerate super-groups, the Defenders would eventually number amongst its membership almost every hero – and a few villains – in the Marvel Universe. No surprise there then since the initial line was composed of the company’s major league bad-boys: misunderstood, outcast and often actually dangerous to know.

For Marvel in the 1970s, the outsider super-group must have seemed a conceptual inevitability – once they’d finally published it. Apart from Spider-Man and Daredevil (both of whom come visiting in this tome) all their heroes regularly teamed up in various mob-handed assemblages, and in the wake of the Defenders’ success even more super-teams featuring pre-existing characters would be packaged – the Champions, Invaders, New Warriors and so on… but never with so many Very Big Guns…

The genesis of the team in fact derived from their status as publicly distrusted “villains”, and they never achieved the “in-continuity” fame or acceptance of other teams, but that simply seemed to leave the creators open to taking a few chances and playing the occasional narrative wild card.

This second semi-chronological monochrome masterpiece collects a wealth of material from a large list of sources: Giant Sized Defenders #1-5 (not 1-4 as it so embarrassingly states on the cover), Defenders #15-30, Marvel Two-In-One #6-7, Marvel Team-Up #33-35 and Marvel Treasury Edition #12 and opens with a stunning combination of highly readable reprints wrapped in a classy framing sequence by Tony Isabella, Jim Starlin & Al Milgrom.

Giant Sized Defenders #1 (cover-dated July1974) begins with Stan Lee, Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers’ ‘Banished to Outer Space’ from The Incredible Hulk #3, followed by a brilliant 1950s Bill Everett Sub-Mariner fantasy-thriller ‘Bird of Prey!’ From there the focus switches to Dr. Strange for the Denny O’Neil scripted Steve Ditko mini-masterpiece ‘To Catch a Magician!’ (Strange Tales #145) and the concoction concludes with a big battle as the three stars plus sorcerer’s apprentice Clea and the valiant Valkyrie dispatch a self-inflicted mystic menace.

After a splendid double-page pin-up by Sal Buscema the regular epics resume with Defenders #15 and a two-part duel manic mutant Magneto who first institutes a ‘Panic Beneath the Earth!’ courtesy of writer Len Wein, Buscema & Klaus Janson, leading X-Men mentor Charles Xavier to enlist the outcast heroes aid.

The concluding clash includes the Brotherhood of Evil and ‘Alpha the Ultimate Mutant’ (inked by Mike Esposito) after which Giant Sized Defenders #2 (October1974) positively astounds with the superb supernatural thriller ‘H… as in Hulk… Hell… and Holocaust’ wherein Wein, Gil Kane and Janson pit the always-embattled Jade Giant against the sinister Sons of Satanish and the Defenders must perforce call on Daimon Hellstrom, Son of Satan, for some highly specialised assistance…

In Defenders #17 the core-group of Dr. Strange, Hulk, Valkyrie and reformed bad-boy Nighthawk engaged with and then enlisted the aid of Hero for Hire Luke Cage in ‘Power Play’ (Wein, Buscema & Dan Green) wherein the bombastic Wrecking Crew’s decimation of New York’s prime real estate while hunting for a hidden super-weapon led to a spectacular ‘Rampage!‘ before the furious finale (Chris Claremont, Wein, Buscema & Janson) found everybody frantically ferreting out the location of a deadly ‘Doomball!’

Immediately afterwards, Strange, Clea and Fantastic Four lynchpin The Thing encountered a disharmonious cosmic challenge in Marvel Two-In-One #6’s ‘Death-Song of Destiny’ (by Steve Gerber, George Tuska & Esposito) that concluded in #7 with ‘Name That Doom!’ (Sal Buscema pencils) as Valkyrie joined the melee just in time to cross swords with the egregious Enchantress and Executioner…

The aftermath of that eldritch encounter spilled over into Defenders #20 as Gerber came aboard to begin a truly groundbreaking run of stories. ‘The Woman She Was…’ (Buscema & Vince Colletta) started to unravel the torturous backstory of Valkyrie’s unwitting human host Barbara Norris during a breathtakingly bombastic battle that also reanimated the diabolical threat of the Undying Ones (see Essential Defenders volume 1 for details).

Steve Gerber was a uniquely gifted writer who combined a deep love of Marvel’s continuity minutiae with irrepressible wit, dark introspection and measured imagination and surreality. His stories were always at the extreme edge of the company’s intellectual canon and never failed to deliver surprise and satisfaction.

In Defenders #21 he began a long and epically peculiar saga with ‘Enter: the Headman!’ (illustrated by Buscema & Sal Trapani) wherein a trio of thematically linked scientists and savants, all “stars” of Marvel’s pre-superhero fantasy anthologies, opened their insidious campaign of conquest and vengeance by driving the city temporarily insane…

Before the next chapter however, a brace of extended sagas play chronological catch-up here: firstly ‘Games Godlings Play!’ from Giant-Size Defenders #3 (written by Gerber, Starlin & Wein with art from Starlin, Dan Adkins, Don Newton & Jim Mooney) with Daredevil joining Strange, Valkyrie, and Sub-Mariner to save the Earth from the Grandmaster, a cosmic games-player whose obsession with gladiatorial combats pitted the heroes against intergalactic menaces from infinity… and beyond.

Then follows a more down-to-Earth tale as the ex-Avenger Yellowjacket popped in to help crush insane criminal genius Egghead and Nighthawk’s old gang the Squadron Sinister on ‘Too Cold a Night for Dying!’ (Giant Sized Defenders #4, by Gerber, Don Heck & Colletta).

Marvel Team-Up #33-35 come next; a triptych of tales by Gerry Conway, Buscema and Colletta opening with Nighthawk and Spider-Man asking ‘Anybody Here Know a Guy Named Meteor Man?’, leading the webslinger to an inflammatory death-cult and requiring Valkyrie to help mop up the sky-borne bandit in ‘Beware the Death Crusade!’.

MTU #35 revealed how Dr. Strange and The Human Torch cleaned out that fiery ‘Blood Church!’ whilst Valkyrie languished in the cultist’s dungeon dimension…

Meanwhile, in Defenders #22’s ‘Fangs of Fire and Blood!’ (Gerber, Buscema & Esposito) the secret society known as the Sons of the Serpent began another hate-fuelled racist terror-pogrom, forcing the outcast champions into an uncomfortably public response in ‘The Snakes Shall Inherit the Earth!’ with Yellowjacket returning to confront his old enemies (See Essential Avengers volume 2).

Even with his assistance the Defenders were defeated and left ‘…In the Jaws of the Serpent!’ (inked by Bob McLeod) necessitating a nick-of-time rescue by Daredevil, Luke Cage and Daimon Hellstrom before the epic ended in a stunning twist as ‘The Serpent Sheds its Skin’ (inked by Jack Abel).

Giant Sized Defenders #5 was another diverse-hands production with the story ‘Eelar Moves in Mysterious Ways’ credited to Gerber, Conway, Roger Slifer, Wein, Claremont & Scott Edelman. Dependable Don Heck & Mike Esposito drew the satisfyingly cohesive results: how the Defenders met with future heroes Guardians of the Galaxy in a time-twisting disaster yarn that set up the next continued arc for the monthly comicbook…

‘Savage Time’ (Defenders #26 by Gerber, Buscema & Colletta) saw Hulk, Strange, Nighthawk and Valkyrie accompany the Guardians back to 3015AD in a bold bid to liberate the last survivors of mankind from the alien, all-conquering Badoon: a mission which opened with ‘Three Worlds to Conquer!’, became infinitely more complicated when ‘My Mother, The Badoon!’ revealed the sex-based divisions that so compellingly motivated the marauding lizard-men and triumphantly climaxed in the stirring ‘Let My Planet Go!’

The pressures of producing regular comics is staggering and constant with the slightest communications delay, illness, personal emergency or even work lost in transit causing all manner of costly hiccups. During the 1970s these “Dreaded Deadline Dooms” occurred all too often and in response Marvel instituted a policy of keeping one-size-fits-all, complete stories for every title in “inventory”: i.e. stashed in a drawer ready to use in an emergency…

Designed to fill pages on time but produced with the intention of never being used, most of them were not that good…

‘Gold Diggers of Fear!’ (Defenders #30, by Bill Mantlo, Sam Grainger & Jack Abel) pitted Strange, Hulk, Nighthawk and Valkyrie against Tapping Tommy, a high-tech assassin who based his modus operandi and weaponry on Busby Berkeley musical numbers…

The 1970s were strange: When Gerber’s eccentric throwaway character Howard the Duck proved popular enough to support his own series it quickly became one of Marvel’s top sellers. So much so that when the 1976 Presidential race began fans began a campaign to nominate the moody mallard through a Write-in Vote. Their satirical slogan was “Get Down, America!”

This bizarrely appealing volume ends with Marvel Treasury Edition #12, originally a tabloid-sized special which followed Howard’s reluctant bid for the Oval Office in ‘The Duck and the Defenders’ (Gerber, Buscema & Janson); an hilarious guest-star stuffed extravaganza pitting the World’s Weirdest Heroes against a dryly sardonic team of mystic wannabes – comprising Sitting Bullseye, Tillie the Hun, The Spanker and their implausible guru Dr. Angst – all bound and determined to frustrate the will of the masses and gain ultimate power themselves…

It’s not serious Fights ‘n’ Tights but it is seriously funny.

For the longest time The Defenders was the best and weirdest superhero comicbook in the business, and this bitty, unwieldy collection was where it all started. The next volume would see the inspirational unconventionality reach stellar heights…

If you love superheroes but crave something just a little different these yarns are for you… and the best is still to come.

© 1974, 1975, 1976, 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Essential Daredevil volume 3


By Roy Thomas, Gene Colan, Barry Smith, Gerry Conway & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-1724-7

Marvel Comics built its fan-base through audacious, contemporary stories with spectacular art and by creating a shared continuity that closely followed the characters through not just their own titles but also through the many guest appearances in other comics. Such an interweaving meant that even today completists and fans seek out extraneous stories simply to get a fuller picture of their favourites’ adventures.

In such an environment, series such as ‘Essential‘ and DC’s ‘Showcase‘ are an invaluable and economical format which approaches the status of a public service for collectors and fans. This particular edition, reprinting the exploits of a very different Daredevil to the one radicalised urban vigilante of Frank Miller and his successors, covers the period from February 1969 (#49) to March 1971 (#74), and includes Iron Man #35-36 wherein two complex extended storylines converged and somewhat confusingly concluded (see what I mean about cross-collecting?).

Matt Murdock is a blind lawyer whose other senses hyper-compensate, making him a astonishing acrobat, formidable fighter and a living lie-detector. Very much a second-string hero for most of his early years, Daredevil was nonetheless a very popular one, due in large part to the captivatingly humanistic art of Gene Colan. He fought gangsters, a variety of super-villains and even the occasional or monster alien invasion. He quipped and wise-cracked his way through life and life-risking combat, utterly unlike the grim, moody quasi-religious metaphor he’s been seen as in latter years.

In these tales from the pivotal era of relevancy, social awareness and increasing political polarisation the man Without Fear was also growing into the conscience of a generation…

The action commences with Stan Lee’s final scripts on the sightless crusader. ‘Daredevil Drops Out’ (#49), illustrated by Colan and the great George Klein, saw Murdock as the target of a robotic assassin built by Mad-Scientist-for-Hire Starr Saxon; a tense action-packed thriller which grew into something very special with the second chapter ‘If in Battle I Fall…!’ when neophyte penciller Barry Smith stepped in, ably augmented by veteran inker Johnny Craig.

Lee left comics Boy Wonder Roy Thomas to finish up for him in ‘Run, Murdock, Run!’ (Daredevil #51, with art by Smith & Klein), a wickedly gripping, frantically escalating psychedelic thriller which saw Saxon uncover the hero’s greatest secret as the Man Without Fear succumbed to toxins in his bloodstream and went berserk. The saga ended in stunning style on ‘The Night of the Panther!’ (Smith &Craig) as African Avenger Black Panther joined the hunt for the out-of-control DD and subsequently helped contain, if not defeat, the dastardly Saxon.

Moreover the ending blew away all the conventions of traditional Fights ‘n’ Tights melodrama and still shocks me today…

Colan & Klein returned for #53’s ‘As it Was in he Beginning…’ as Thomas reprised, revised and expanded Stan Lee’s origin script from Daredevil #1 whilst the hero came to a bold decision, executed in #54 as ‘Call him Fear!’ featured the “death” of Matt Murdock and the triumphant return of long-lost villain Mr. Fear. ‘Cry Coward!’ (beginning a superb inking run by the legendary Syd Shores) revealed DD’s desperate reason for faking his demise and saw the end of one of Horn-Head’s greatest foes.

‘…And Death Came Riding!’ opened a tense two-parter which forever changed Murdock’s relationship with the perennially loved-from-afar Karen Page and introduced a stunningly sinister new menace in Death’s-Head. By the end of ‘In the Midst of Life…!’ Matt and Karen were enjoying the most progressive and mature relationship in mainstream comics…

‘Spin-Out on Fifth Avenue!’ started to re-establish some civilian stability as the resurrected Mr. Murdock became a prosecutor for New York  District Attorney Foggy Nelson and went after a mysterious new gang-boss dubbed Crime-Wave. As the soap operatic plot-threads took hold new threats were waiting such as the amped-up biker Stunt-Master and #59’s far nastier hired assassin who proved ‘The Torpedo Will Get You if you Don’t Watch Out!’

‘Showdown at Sea!’ finished the career of the insidious Crime-Wave and signalled a return to single issue action-based stories beginning with ‘Trapped… by the Trio of Doom!’ featuring a spectacular struggle against Cobra, Mr. Hyde and The Jester whilst the Batman analogue from the Squadron Sinister (see Essential Avengers volume 4) attempted to destroy DD in ‘Quoth the Nighthawk “Nevermore”!’

Horn-Head stopped deadly psychopath Melvin Potter from busting out of jail in ‘The Girl… or the Gladiator’ at the cost of his love-life, then followed the star-struck Karen to Hollywood and took out his bad mood on a handy hood in ‘Suddenly… The Stunt-Master!’ Murdock stayed in Los Angeles to oversee Karen’s first acting gig – a pastiche of then-hot spooky TV show Dark Shadows – and stopped her becoming part of a murder spree in ‘The Killing of Brother Brimstone’, a classy whodunit which cataclysmically climaxed in ‘…And One Cried Murder!’

Still stuck on the West Coast DD tackled another old enemy as ‘Stilt-Man Stalks the Soundstage’ with the now-reformed Stunt-Master ably assisting our hero. Matt finally left Karen to the vicissitudes of Tinseltown, landing in New York just in time to become embroiled in a plot blending radical politics and the shady world of Boxing – ‘The Phoenix and the Fighter.’

The Black Panther returned seeking a favour in ‘A Life on the Line’ as kid gangs and the birth of the “Black Power” movement leapt from the news headlines to comicbook pages and youth protest also inspired the seditious menace of ‘The Tribune’ (written by Gary Friedrich) as youthful ideologues, cynical demagogues and political bombers tore the city apart. The unrest peaked in Daredevil #71 as Roy Thomas returned for his swansong to script the concluding ‘If An Eye Offend Thee…!’

New sensation Gerry Conway took over the scripting with the next issue, easing himself in with an interdimensional fantasy frolic as DD encountered a mirror dwelling mystery man named Tagak in ‘Lo! The Lord of the Leopards!’ before plunging readers into an ambitious crossover yarn which began in Iron Man #35 wherein the Armoured Avenger, seductive free agent Madame Masque and Nick Fury all wanted ‘Revenge!’ (Conway, Don Heck & Mike Esposito) for the near-fatal wounding of S.H.I.E.L.D agent Jasper Sitwell by the mercenary Spymaster.

Their efforts were somehow fuelling an alien artefact called the Zodiac Key and, when its creators sucked DD into the mix to battle Spymaster and a bunch of super-villains affiliated to the cosmic device, everybody got shanghaied to another universe in ‘Behold… the Brotherhood!’ (Daredevil #73, illustrated by Colan & Shores) before the epic concluded with extreme briskness in Iron Man #36.

Oddly though, ‘Among Us Stalks the Ramrod!’ (Conway, Heck & Esposito) concludes the crossover by page 8, yet continues for another 12 with the remainder of Shell-Head’s battle against an alien terra-former. Moreover the episode ends on a cliffhanger you’ll need Essential Iron Man Volume 3 to see resolved…

Daredevil #74 concludes this impressive outing with a mercifully complete conundrum as DD finds himself ‘In the Country of the Blind!’ and must thwart a criminal plot to cripple New York…

The social upheaval of the period produced a lot of impressively earnest material that only hinted at the true potential of Daredevil. These beautifully illustrated yarns may occasionally jar with their heartfelt stridency but the honesty and desire to be a part of a solution rather than blithely carry on as if nothing was happening affords them a potency that no historian, let alone comics fan, can dare to ignore.

And the next volume heads even further into uncharted territory…

© 1969, 1970, 1971, 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Essential Thor volume 3


By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2149-7

Whereas the rapidly proliferating Marvel Universe grew ever more interconnected as it matured with the assorted superheroes literally tripping over each other as they contiguously and continually saved the world from their New York City bases, the Asgardian heritage of Thor and the soaring imagination of Jack Kirby increasingly pulled the Thunder God away from mortal realms into stunning new landscapes.

Admittedly the son of Odin would pop back for an adventure or two, but it is clear that for Kirby, Earth was just a nice place to visit whilst the stars and beyond were the right and proper domain of the Asgardians and their foes.

Crippled doctor Donald Blake took a vacation in Norway only to stumble into an alien invasion. Trapped in a cave, he found an old walking stick, which when struck against the ground turned him into the Norse God of Thunder! Within moments he was defending the weak and smiting the wicked. Months swiftly passed with the Lord of Storms tackling rapacious extraterrestrials, Commie dictators, costumed crazies and cheap thugs, but these soon gave way to a vast kaleidoscope of fantastic worlds and incredible, mythic menaces.

Soon each issue also carried a spectacular back-up series. Tales of Asgard – Home of the Mighty Norse Gods gave Kirby space to indulge his fascination with legends and allowed both complete vignettes and longer epics (in every sense of the word).

This third mind-boggling monochrome collection, encapsulating the absolute zenith of the fantastic feature, reprints Mighty Thor #137-166, spanning February 1967 to July 1969, as a new era dawned for the no-longer Earthbound Thunder God. At the end of the previous volume Thor had just lost his human paramour Jane Foster, but rediscovered his childhood sweetheart, the goddess Sif, now all grown up and a fierce warrior maid to boot.

A good thing too, since ‘The Thunder God and the Troll!’ (by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby & Vince Colletta) which introduced the bestial menace of Ulik saw open warfare begin between the Asgardians and their implacable troglodytic foes. During spectacular carnage and combat Sif was captured and the Thunderer rushed to Earth to rescue her, whilst legions of monstrous subterraneans attacked the very heart of the kingdom…

The Tales of Asgard feature was being gradually wrapped up, but still offered Kirby a place to stretch his creative muscles. ‘The Tragedy of Hogun!’ (Lee, Kirby & Colletta) began revealing the gripping history of the dour warrior in an Arabian Nights pastiche which introduced Mogul of the Mystic Mountain.

In ‘The Flames of Battle!’ Thor was reunited with Sif but deprived of his magical mallet, courtesy of exotic technology the trolls had mysteriously developed. Did the malign invaders have a new ally or a terrifyingly powerful slave? Trapped on Earth, the hammerless Thor had no means of returning to the realm beyond the Rainbow Bridge whilst in Asgard, the war went badly and the heroic gods were close to defeat…

‘The Quest for the Mystic Mountain!’ found Hogun and his comrades edging closer to revelation and vengeance, which culminated in a truly stunning Kirby spectacle in #139 as the wandering warriors discovered ‘The Secret of the Mystic Mountain!’ in the Tales of Asgard segment whilst the lead story ‘To Die Like a God!’ wrapped up the Troll War in eye-popping style as Thor and Sif invaded the bowels of the Earth to save the day…

Thor #140 began a short run of compete, single episode tales heavy on action, starting with ‘The Growing Man!’ as Thor headed back to Earth and discovered New York under attack by a synthetic warrior who grew larger and stronger with every blow struck against him. Time travelling marauder Kang the Conqueror was behind the Brobdignagian brute, whilst in the back-up ‘The Battle Begins!’ Hogun and friends were menaced by a terrifying genie.

In #141 Thor faced ‘The Wrath of Replicus’, a bombastic, bludgeoning epic involving gangsters, alien and super-robots, counter-pointed by stunning fantasy as the wandering Asgardian warriors met ‘Alibar and the Forty Demons!’

‘The Scourge of the Super Skrull!’ pitted Thunder god against an alien with all the powers of the Fantastic Four, whilst in Asgard a new menace was investigated by Sif and the indomitable Balder. The back-up saw Kirby’s seamless melange of myth and legend go into overdrive as ‘We, Who are About to Die…!’ found young Thor and the Warriors Three facing all the mystic menaces of Mogul.

Thor #143 opened another extended epic with ‘…And, Soon Shall Come: the Enchanters!’ (inked by the magnificent Bill Everett) as Sif and Balder found a deadly trio of wizards plotting to overthrow All-Father Odin, only to fall prey to their power. Escaping to Earth they link up with the thunderer, but they have been followed… Everett also inked the Tales of Asgard instalment ‘To the Death!’ as comic relief Volstagg took centre stage…

Colletta return as inker with ‘This Battleground Earth!’, where two Enchanters attacked whilst the third duelled directly with Odin in the home of the gods. At the back the Mogul declared ‘The Beginning of the End!’

At the height of the battle in the previous issue Odin had withdrawn all the powers of his Asgardian followers, leaving Sif, Balder and Thor ‘Abandoned on Earth!’ Victorious, the All-Father then wanted his subjects home, but his son again chose to stay with mortals, driving Odin into a fury. Stripped of his magical abilities, alone hungry and in need of a job the once-god became embroiled with the Circus of Crime: hypnotised into committing an audacious theft…

The Tales of Asgard feature wrapped up in spectacular fashion with ‘The End!’, to be replaced in the next comicbook issue with the Inhumans – but as that’s a subject for a separate volume, the remainder of this chronicle is all-Norse action, beginning in #146 with ‘…If the Thunder Be Gone!’

Deprived of all but his natural super-strength Thor was helpless against the nefarious Ringmaster’s mesmerism and stole a life-sized, solid gold bull, but when the police interrupted the raid the hero awoke to find himself a moving target. Things got worse when he was arrested in ‘The Wrath of Odin!’ and left a sitting duck for the vengeance of his malign brother Loki. However, the god of Evil’s scheme was thwarted when Sif and Balder rushed to Thor’s rescue, provoking Odin to de-power and banish them all in ‘Let There be… Chaos!’

Even as all this high powered frenzy was occurring a brutal burglar was terrorising New York. The Wrecker was Public Enemy #1 and when he broke into the house where Loki was hiding the cheap thug achieved his greatest coup – intercepting a magic spell from the formidable Norn Queen intended to restore the mischief maker’s evil energies. Now charged with Asgardian forces the Wrecker went on a rampage with only the weakened Thor to resist him…

Issue #149 entered new territory with ‘When Falls a Hero!’ as, after a catastrophic combat the Wrecker killed Thor. ‘Even in Death…’ found the departed Thunder God facing Hela, Goddess of Death, whilst Balder and Sif hunted the Norn Queen and Loki. Hoping to save her beloved Sif entered into a devil’s bargain and surrendered her soul to animate the Destroyer, an unstoppable war-machine, unaware that the Thunderer had already convinced Death to release him…

‘…To Rise Again!’ saw the Destroyer, fresh from crushing the Wrecker, turn on the resurrected Thor as Sif was unable to communicate with or overrule the death machine’s pre-programmed need to kill. The situation was further muddled when Odin arbitrarily restored Thor’s godly might, prompting the Destroyer to go into lethal overdrive…

Meanwhile in the wilds of Asgard, Ulik the Troll attacked Karnilla, Queen of the Norns and Balder offered to be her champion if Sif was freed from the Destroyer…

‘The Dilemma of Dr. Blake!’ reached an epic turning point as Thor joined his lost companions to battle Ulik, only to lose his newly re-energised hammer to Loki, who fled to Earth with it. In hot pursuit the heroes followed and Sif was gravely wounded in ‘…But Dr. Blake Can Die!’ wherein Thor reverted to his mortal guise and operated on the dying goddess – an opportunity for further attack Loki could not resist, but which courage and ingenuity managed to frustrate…

A kind of order was restored but soon threatened again in Thor #154 when the vanquished Ulik accidentally released an ancient unstoppable beast in ‘…To Wake the Mangog!’

A creature imprisoned by Odin in his ancient prime, the monster now rampaged towards the heart of Asgard to trigger Ragnarok in ‘Now Ends the Universe!’ laying waste to everything in its path. All the Golden Realm’s resources were unable to slow its deadly progress in ‘The Hammer and the Holocaust!’ but the valiant delaying tactics, depicted in unimaginably powerful battles scenes from Kirby – a genius on fire – resulted in a last-minute save in #157’s ‘Behind Him… Ragnarok!’

The peculiarities of the Don Blake/Thor relationship were examined and finally clarified next; beginning with ‘The Way it Was!’ – a framing sequence by Lee, Kirby & Colletta that book-ended  the very first Thor story ‘The Stone Men of Saturn’ (inked by Joe Sinnott). This neatly segued into ‘The Answer at Last!’ which took the immortal hero back to his long-distant youth and finally revealed Blake was no more than a Odinian construct designed to teach the Thunder God humility and compassion…

With his true identity re-established Thor then answered a call from the Colonisers of Rigel, plunging into the depths of space to face a cosmic menace. ‘And Now… Galactus!’ reintroduced old companion the Recorder and pitted the Eater of Worlds against the living Planet Ego, a clash concluded with the Thunderer’s aid in ‘Shall a God Prevail?’ The Cosmic wonderment then escalated in ‘Galactus is Born!’ as Asgardian magic finally revealed a tantalising fragment of the space god’s origins…

For #163 and 164 Thor was returned to Earth to battle an invasion from the future. ‘Where Demons Dwell!’ found the recuperating Sif investigating a bizarre energy vortex until captured by mutate monsters controlled by the rogue Greek god Hades. Reunited with Thor the pair decimated the horrors from tomorrow ‘Lest Mankind Fall!’ and as Balder joined them in cataclysmic combat a mysterious cocoon hatched a man-made God…

‘Him!’ (Thor #165) and its conclusion ‘A God Berserk!’ close this hugely enjoyable collection in fine style as the creature created by evil scientists to conquer mankind and who would eventually evolve into the tragic cosmic savior Adam Warlock (as seen in Essential Fantastic Four volume 4) woke amidst the turmoil of the battle and seeing Sif, decided it was time he took a mate…

Trailing the naive superhuman Balder witnessed Thor’s descent into brutal “warrior-madness”, and as this volume ends with a shaken, penitent Thunder God eager to pay penance for his unaccustomed savagery, the best and last of Kirby’s Asgardian adventures still remain as part of the next collection.

More than any other Marvel strip Thor was the feature where Jack Kirby’s creative brilliance matched his questing exploration of an Infinite Imaginative Cosmos: dreaming, extrapolating and honing a dazzling new kind of storytelling graphics with soul-searching, mind-boggling concepts of Man’s place in the universe.

The Kirby Thor is a high-point in graphic fantasy and all the more impressive for their sheer timeless readability. These tales are an absolute must for all fans of the medium.
© 1967, 1968, 1969, 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Essential Werewolf By Night volume 1


By Gerry Conway, Mike Ploog, Doug Moench & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-1839-8

Inspiration isn’t everything. In fact as Marvel slowly grew to a position of market dominance in the wake of the losing their two most innovative and inspirational creators, Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby, they did so less by experimentation and more by expanding proven concepts and properties.

The only real exception to this was the en mass creation of horror titles in response to the industry down-turn in superhero sales – a move expedited by a rapid revision in the wordings of the increasingly ineffectual Comics Code Authority rules. Almost overnight nasty monsters (and narcotics – but that’s another story) became acceptable fare within four-colour pages and whilst a parade of 1950s pre-code reprints made sound business sense (so they repackaged a bunch of those too) the creative aspect of the contemporary fascination in supernatural themes was catered to by adapting popular cultural icons before risking whole new concepts on an untested public.

As always the watch-world was fashion: what was hitting big outside comics was to be incorporated into the mix as soon as possible. When proto-monster Morbius, the Living Vampire debuted in Amazing Spider-Man #101 (October 1971) and the sky failed to fall in Marvel moved ahead with a line of scary superstars – beginning with a werewolf and a vampire – before chancing something new in a haunted biker who could tap into both Easy Rider’s freewheeling motorcycling chic and the supernatural zeitgeist.

Werewolf By Night debuted in Marvel Spotlight #2 (preceded by western masked hero Red Wolf in #1, and followed by the afore-hinted Ghost Rider) although the title, if not the character, was cribbed from a classic monster-short thriller from Marvel Tales #116, July 1953.

Marvel had a long-time tradition of using old (presumably already copyrighted) names and titles when creating new series and characters. Hulk, Thor, Magneto, Doctor Strange and many others all got nominal starts as throwaways in an anthology…

This copious compendium collects in moody monochrome the early adventures of a young West Coast werewolf and includes Marvel Spotlight #2-4, Werewolf By Night Volume 1 #1-21, Giant-Size Creatures #1, a guest appearance in Marvel Team-Up #12 and the appropriate half of a horror crossover with Tomb of Dracula #18 and begins with the landmark first appearance which introduced young Jack Russell, a teenager with some very disturbing dreams…

‘Werewolf by Night!’ (Marvel Spotlight #2, February 1972, written by Gerry Conway and illustrated by Mike Ploog from an outline by Roy & Jeanie Thomas) described the worst day of Jack’s life – his 18th birthday, which began with nightmares and ended in something far worse.

Jack’s mom and little sister Lissa were wonderful but his new stepfather Philip and the creepy chauffeur Grant were another matter… That night at his party Jack had a painful seizure and fled into the Malibu night transforming into a ravening vulpine man-beast. The next morning he awoke wasted on the beach to discover that his mother had been gravely injured in a car-crash. Something had happened to her brakes…

He crept into her hospital room and she told him the story of his blood-father; an Eastern European noble who loved her deeply but locked himself away three nights every month… The Russoff line was cursed by the taint of Lycanthopy: every child doomed to become a wolf-thing under the full-moon from the moment they reached eighteen. Jack was horrified and then realised how soon his sister would reach her own majority…

With her dying breath Laura Russell made her son promise never to harm his stepfather, no matter what…

Scenario set with the wolf-boy transforming for three nights every month, the weird, wild wonderment began in earnest with the beast attacking Grant the chauffeur – who had fixed those brakes – but the beast-boy refrained, even in vulpine form, from attacking Philip Russell…

The untitled second instalment saw the monster rescue Lissa from a skeevy biker gang (they were everywhere back then) and narrowly escape the police only to be abducted by a sinister dowager seeking knowledge of a magical tome called the Darkhold – an eldritch spellbook that was the basis of the Russoff curse, whilst the third tryout issue ‘Island of the Damned!’ introduced Buck Cowan, an aging writer who became Jack’s best friend as the pair began to jointly investigate the wolf-boy’s stepfather.

The elder Russell had apparently sold off Jack’s inheritance leaving the boy nothing but an old book. Following a paper trail to find proof Philip had had Laura Russell killed led the pair to an offshore fortress, a dungeon full of horrors and a ruthless mutant seductress…

That episode ended on a cliffhanger, presumably as added incentive to buy Werewolf By Night #1(September 1972) wherein Frank Chiaramonte took over inking with ‘Eye of the Beholder!’ as deadly freak Marlene Blackgar and her monstrous posse captured the entire Russell family looking for the Book of Sins. Once more, as night fell a fearsome force of supernature awoke to accidentally save the day…

With ‘The Hunter… and the Hunted!’ Jack and Buck left the grimoire that had caused so much trouble with Father Joquez, a Christian monk and scholar of ancient texts, but even so they were still hunted because of it. Jack left the rural wastes of Malibu for a new home in Los Angeles, trading concrete for forests but life was no easier.

Dying scientist Cephalos wanted to harness Jack’s feral life-force to extend his own and lived but briefly to regret. Meanwhile Joquez succeeded in translating the Darkhold, but his accomplishment allowed an ancient horror to possess him in ‘The Mystery of the Mad Monk!’ and whilst the werewolf was saddened to end such a noble life it felt far happier dealing with millionaire sportsman Joshua Kane, who wanted a truly unique head mounted on the wall of his den in ‘The Danger Game’ (inked by Franke Bolle).

Half-naked, exhausted and soaked to his now hairless skin Jack next had to deal with Kane’s psychotic brother who wanted the werewolf for his pet assassin in ‘A Life for a Death!’ by Len Wein and Ploog, before ‘Carnival of Fear!’ (Wein, Ploog & Bolle) found the beast a captive of the mystic Swami Calliope and his deadly circus of freaks. The wolf was now the subject of an obsessive police detective too. Lou Hackett was an “old-school cop” – an old buddy of trophy-hunter Joshua Kane and every bit as charming: but his off-the-books investigation had hardly begun when the Swami’s plans fell apart in the concluding ‘Ritual of Blood!’ (inked by Jim Mooney).

The beast was safely(?) loose in the backwoods for #8’s quirky monster-mash when an ancient demon possessed a cute little bunny in ‘The Lurker Behind the Door!‘ (Wein, Werner Roth & Paul Reinman) before returning to LA and ‘Terror Beneath the Earth!’ (Conway, Tom Sutton & George Roussos) and impeding a nefarious scheme by business cartel the Committee. These out-of the-box commercial gurus somehow had a full dossier on Jack Russell’s night-life and a radical plan to use monsters and derelicts to boost sales in a down-turned economy.

However their bold sales scheme to frighten folk into spending more was over before it began as the werewolf proved to be far from a team-player in the wrap up ‘The Sinister Secret of Sarnak!’

Werewolf by Night #11 saw Marv Wolfman sign on as writer for ‘Comes the Hangman’ (illustrated by the incredible Gil Kane and Tom Sutton), in which we learned something interesting about Philip Russell and the Committee, whilst Jack’s attention was distracted by a new apartment, a very odd neighbour and a serial kidnapper abducting young women to keep them safe from “corruption.” When he took Lissa Russell the hooded maniac soon found himself hunted…

The concluding chapter ‘Cry Werewolf!’ introduced the criminally underappreciated Don Perlin as inker, who would in a few short months become the strip’s penciller for the rest of the run, but before that Ploog and Chiaramonte returned for another session, introducing a manic mystic and a new love-interest (not the same person) in ‘His Name is Taboo’. An aged sorcerer wanted the werewolf’s energies for his own arcane purposes but his adopted daughter Topaz found her loyalties divided and her psionic abilities more help than hindrance to the ravening moon-beast.

‘Lo, the Monster Strikes!’ pitted the wolf against Taboo’s undead son and saw revelation and reconciliation between Philip and Jack Russell. As a result the young man and new girlfriend Topaz set off for Transylvania, the ancestral Russoff estate and a crossover confrontation with the Lord of Vampires.

Tomb of Dracula #18 (March 1974) began the clash in ‘Enter: Werewolf by Night’ (by Wolfman, Gene Colan & Tom Palmer) as Jack and Topaz investigated a possible cure for lycanthropy, only to be attacked by Dracula. Driven off by the girl’s psychic powers the Count realised the threat she posed to him and determined to slay her… In Werewolf by Night #15 ‘Death of a Monster!’ (Wolfman, Ploog & Chiaramonte) the battle of the beasts resolved into a draw, but only after Jack learned of his family’s long connection to Dracula…

Sadder, wiser but no less accursed, Jack headed back to America with Topaz but a unplanned stopover in Paris led to an impromptu clash with a modern incarnation of the Hunchback of Notre Dame (he doesn’t sing and he’s not very gentle here) in Ploog’s farewell performance ‘Death in the Cathedral!’

Issue #17 ‘The Behemoth!’ by Mike Friedrich and Don Perlin, saw Jack and Topaz escape Paris only to fall into the Committee’s latest scheme as the blustering Baron Thunder and his favourite monster tried to make the werewolf their plaything again, before the secret of Jack’s mystery neighbour was revealed in ‘Murder by Moonlight!’ as Thunder attacked again aided by witch-queen Ma Mayhem. However that was all a feint for the Committee to kidnap Lissa who would, one day, be a werewolf too…

Whilst searching for his sister Jack fell foul of two undead film-stars haunting the Hollywood backlots in #19’s ‘Vampires on the Moon’ whilst Giant-Size Creatures #1 re-imagined a failed costumed crusader to introduce a new hairy hero in ‘Tigra the Were-Woman!’ (Tony Isabella, Perlin and Vince Colletta) as Greer Nelson, one-time feminist avenger The Cat, was “killed” by Hydra agents, revived by ancient Cat-People and became an unwilling object of temporary affection to the feral and frisky Jack Russell…

Following ‘Waiter, there’s a Werewolf in my Soup!’ a text piece also from Giant-Size Creatures that explained the genesis of Marvel’s horror line, WBN #20 brought aboard Doug Moench to wrap up all the disparate plot threads in ‘Eye of the Wolf!’, a rushed but satisfactory conclusion featuring many werewolves, Thunder, Mayhem and lots and lots of action.

With the decks cleared Moench began to make the series uniquely his own, beginning with #21’s ‘One Wolf’s Cure… Another’s Poison!’ as the writer began playing up the ever encroaching 18th birthday of little Lissa and engineered the final reckoning with off-the-rails cop Lou Hackett, who had been going increasingly crazy in his hunt for the werewolf…

With the stage set for some truly outrageous yarn-spinning (all covered in a second Essential volume) this first compendium ends with a slight but engaging Marvel Team-Up #12 wherein Wein, Conway, Ross Andru and Don Perlin produced ‘Wolf at Bay!’ as the Wall-Crawler met the Werewolf and battled malevolent Mage Moondark in foggy, fearful San Francisco.

Topped off with the werewolf’s text entry from the Marvel Universe Handbook and an unused Ploog cover for Marvel Spotlight #4, this moody masterpiece of macabre menace and all-out animal action covers some of the most under-appreciated magic moments in Marvel history; tense, suspenseful and solidly compelling. If you must have a mixed bag of lycanthropes, bloodsuckers and moody young misses – this is a far more entertaining mix than many modern movies, books or miscellaneous matter…

© 1972, 1973, 1974, 2005 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.