Editor's Note: The following piece is an expanded version of Pierre's article "The Four Fantastic Phases of Silver Age Marvel" which features in the Sept 2000 issue of that excellent publication Comic Book Marketplace, also known as CBM. Without the constraints of the printed medium, we're able to present this fuller version. You might like to compare the two! - Nick
Author's Note: Regular visitors to this site will be familiar with the four phases of Silver Age Marvel's development described here, as they continue to serve as the theoretical basis of this writer's collaboration with Gregorio Montejo in our In-depth Reviews column. I first dreamed up the idea of dividing Silver Age Marvel's development into four phases in the early '90s, just before the completion of the original of this article around 1994. - Pierre
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Part I: The Early, Formative Years
Measured against its impact over the last thirty years, Silver Age Marvel remains the single most important group of comics published by any company in that period. Although Silver Age DC reopened the market to super-heroes in the mid-fifties and led the way in certain innovations, it wasn't until Marvel recreated the image of the super-hero in a new mold that solidified the position of the costumed adventurer as the dominant element in modern comics, sweeping aside such older genres as romance, horror, western and war comics that still existed in abundance in the early sixties. In looking more closely at the development of Silver Age Marvel, an observer can see a certain progression of storytelling complexity as the company, helmed by editor Stan Lee, moved from an early determination to try something new, to a growing consciousness that it had stumbled onto something bursting with potential. This whole Silver Age period can be broken down roughly into four phases: 1) the Early, Formative Years; 2) the Years of Consolidation; 3) the later, Grandiose Years and 4) the Twilight Years. |
7) With little warning, and only a few months after the debut of The Incredible Hulk, Lee launched the third in his fledgling line of super-heroic characters. One month, Journey Into Mystery featured giant monsters and weird stories. The next, a Norse god (in primary colors yet!) doing battle with those selfsame monsters! The character became the first to be launched not in his own self-titled magazine, but as the headliner in a pre-existing book. How did it happen? It seems the success of the Fantastic Four and the Hulk (and no doubt some prodding from publisher Martin Goodman) had inevitably begun to put pressure on Lee to come up with more new features. But there was a problem. In 1957, Goodman had decided to get out of the comic book business canceling titles and selling off the Atlas magazine distribution company he owned. Almost immediately however, he changed his mind and, closing a distribution deal with National Periodicals Publications (DC), jumped back into the business. The only difference now was that he would be limited to just 8 titles (or 16 bi-monthly books) each month. And so, when Lee launched the Fantastic Four and then the Hulk in their own magazines, room had to be found for them by canceling other books. Reluctant to cancel any more until he was more certain of the popularity of the new super-heroes, Goodman instructed Lee to feature any new heroes in pre-existing titles. And so, in the same month as Spider-Man's first appearance in Amazing Adult Fantasy and just a month before Henry Pym became the Ant-Man in Tales to Astonish and the Human Torch graduated to his own feature in Strange Tales, Lee introduced Thor in Journey Into Mystery #83 (Aug 1962). Within another half year, with Iron Man's appearance in Tales of Suspense, all of Marvel's weird menace titles would feature each their own super-hero and in another year or so, with the trend of the future made clear, every last vestige of the company's pre-hero era would vanish completely. In the meantime however, the transition from pure weird fantasy to the somewhat more down-to-earth adventures of the super-heroes would be eased a bit by the continuing appearance of monsters and aliens as adversaries in their adventures. Thor wasn't any different. Debuting on the cover as a somewhat skinny god of thunder, he was seen warding off craggy alien invaders with wide swings of his hammer. It turned out that the stone men from Saturn, under the impression that earth would be easy pickings, had decided to take over the planet. It was only their bad luck to choose a time and place where lame Dr. Donald Blake happened to be vacationing. After landing somewhere in Norway and taking a page to demonstrate to themselves their clear superiority to human beings, the aliens manage to scare off Blake who had been spying on them from behind some rocks. After fleeing in a blind panic, the limping Blake finds shelter in a nearby cave where he discovers a gnarled walking stick. Unbeknownst to him, he has discovered the most awesome weapon of all time, the magical hammer of the Norse god Thor! Striking the stick to the ground, the lame doctor is instantly surrounded by a nimbus of energy and is transformed into the mighty Thor. In quick order, he learns how to use his new-found power, defeats the stone men (“Back! Back to the ships!! We must flee this accursed planet!!”) and becomes dangerously overconfident (“I have proven that the hammer and the might of the thunder-god are invincible! Nothing can conquer Thor! Nothing!”). It was an inauspicious beginning plotted by Lee, scripted by brother Larry Leiber and drawn (with increasing care from the days of FF # 1) by Kirby. By the time Marvel entered its more serious, grandiose phase, Thor put on more weight and became the feature that most captured the full flowering of the company's cosmic sensibilities. |
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8) On the heels of the Mighty Thor came a second solo character, this time appearing in Tales to Astonish # 35 (Sep 1962). But the astonishing Ant-Man had a more curious origin than the one told in that issue. His story actually began a few months earlier in # 27 in a tale called “The Man in the Ant Hill.” A simple fantasy story, one of the hundreds that Marvel had been cranking out since the mid-1950s, it featured a scientist named Henry Pym who discovers a fluid which, upon evaporation, created a gas that could shrink a man down to the size of an ant. Of course, it happens to poor Henry who soon finds himself trapped in the aforementioned ant hill. At the end of the story, Pym decides that his formula is too dangerous and locks it away. But readers thought differently. Months later, when Lee was casting about for ideas to follow up the success of the FF and Thor, fan mail received on the Henry Pym story convinced him that something might be done with its size changing hero. Thus was born the Ant-Man, who was able not only to shrink to the size of an insect, but retain his normal full-size strength at the same time (a nifty idea that would be used to good effect time after time in the course of the strip). Kirby once again stepped in to launch the strip, designing a great costume for the tiny adventurer based on the stylized shape of a segmented ant (the best thing about it though, was the unique, insectoid shape of his cybernetic helmet with which Pym communicated with the ants). Ant-Man had his baptism of fire in a plot by Lee that was scripted by Larry Leiber. The opening pages are given over to Pym's decision to again test his shrinking formula and to design a uniform that would protect him while on field trips among the insects. But just as he finishes, his laboratory is taken over by evil communist agents (sent by Kruschev himself!) out to steal America's anti-radiation formula. Trapped in his office, Pym has no choice but to don his Ant-Man costume and go into action. After showing the ants in a nearby nest who was boss, Ant-Man leads them into the lab against the enemy agents. In no time (don't ask how!) the ants have gummed up their guns with honey and swarmed over them in stinging masses. Then, before the commies realize it, their captives are free and easily mop them up (off-panel of course!) with some good clean-cut American violence! Like Thor, there was nothing here to indicate the kind of human drama that readers were reacting so strongly to in the FF. Its lack was probably the reason why the Ant-Man strip was doomed never to pick up enough steam to be as successful as Marvel's other features. Lee would take occasional stabs at it (like introducing the Wasp in # 44 and turning Ant-Man into Giant-Man in # 49), but eventually Henry Pym's solo career would come to an end in # 70.
9) A month after Ant-Man's debut in Astonish, the Human Torch began a solo series in Strange Tales # 101 (Oct 1962). Of all the members of the Fantastic Four, why did Lee choose the Torch as the first to star in his own feature? It was probably as simple as the fact that another Human Torch had once been a major star for the company in the 1940s and that Lee hoped some of that name recognition would rub off on this new version of the character. But the similarities between the original and the new Torch were a good deal fewer than their differences. Whereas the original Torch had been an android, the current version was teenager Johnny Storm who, as readers learned in this story, lived in a quiet, residential suburb with his sister, the Invisible Girl. Lee and Kirby waste little time in setting the scene as we learn that although everyone in Glenville knows Sue Storm is the Invisible Girl, none suspect that brother Johnny is the Human Torch. An editor's note refers to an earlier scene in FF # 4 where some of Johnny's friends know of his other identity but they've since left town or have been sworn to secrecy! So as long as no one in town checks out Life or Look magazines, and don't put two and two together, Johnny's secret is safe. “The less publicity I have the better I like it! After all, I don't get my kicks by being considered a flaming freak!” (Nevertheless, a later issue would reveal that no one in town was fooled but, respecting his privacy, never let on!) Next, readers were treated to a schematic of Johnny's room (secret compartments etc.) and learn that everything in the room is made of flame-proof asbestos. A quick run-through of the origin of the FF follows and then the reader is plunged into a scheme to blackmail a local amusement park owner by the Destroyer. A little 5 page gem by Lee and Ditko concludes the issue with the mystery of “What is X-35?”
10) The FF continued to set the pace for Marvel's new line of comics with Fantastic Four # 11 (Feb 1963) which led off, not with action or even with the posing of a weird problem that the competition was wont to do, but with an 11 page feature called “A Visit With the Fantastic Four.” The blurb at the top of the splash page stated that it was “the type of story most requested by” readers' cards and letters. If it was true, then the evidence was clear that Marvel had tapped into something altogether different in what was to be expected from comic book readers. Fans enjoyed the color and action of course, but suddenly, they were just as interested in the characters, who they were, where they came from, what motivated them and in the case of the FF, this bickering, tragic and problem laden group, what made them behave the way they did? Readers wanted to know more than how they received their powers, they wanted to understand the reasons for the things they did. The fact that Lee allowed a non-action story to lead off what was supposed to be a super-hero action-adventure comic was proof of the strength of this new dimension in reader interest. But although the story gave readers plenty of new background information on the private lives of their favorite heroes, it was given with the self-deprecating and self-conscious humor that Lee would soon apply to Marvel's entire line of comics. It opens with a splash page showing a line of customers of all ages spilling out the door of a neighborhood variety store, all there for the arrival of the latest issue of the FF! Entering the lobby of the Baxter Building, we meet the group's mailman, Willy Lumpkin (who was once a character in an aborted newspaper strip that Lee had tried to sell to a syndicate!) and find out that access to the four's private elevator can be had only through the use of a signal light from their belt buckles. In their penthouse headquarters, the FF begin their daily routine which starts with opening their fan mail. Later, Mr. Fantastic makes another attempt to return the Thing to his human form, and the Torch announces that he's going to the garage to work on his automobile. The remaining members begin to reminisce and readers learn more details about their lives before they gained their super-powers: Reed and Ben first met in college (Reed on a science scholarship and Ben on one for sports) and while Reed was well-to-do, Ben was “from the wrong side of the tracks.” Later, the two entered the service and fought in World War II, Reed in the O.S.S. (fans had a chance to see him in action a few months later in Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos # 3!) and Ben as a Marine fighter pilot. The relationship between Sue and Reed is made more explicit when Reed says “It's always been you, since we were kids together living next door to each other!” So Ben's crush on Sue expressed in issue # 3 may have only developed much later, but even if that wrinkle had been resolved in succeeding issues, “the shadow of the Sub-Mariner” had since arisen to replace it. Returning to the mail, Reed and Ben notice that one letter has upset Sue. It turns out that fans have been writing in saying that she was useless to the team and should be dropped! Lee responds forcefully through an angry Reed Richards who, pointing directly out of the pane toward the reader, says “Lincoln's mother was the most important person in the world to him! But—She didn't help him fight the civil war! She didn't split rails for him! She didn't battle with his enemies!” The story ends on a happy note as a surprise birthday party is thrown for Sue (but with only one candle on the cake, readers were left in the dark as to just how old she really was!). The balance of the book was given over to the FF's battle (if that's what you could call it!) with the Impossible Man, a story equal parts action and humor that demonstrated the versatility of Marvel's approach to the characters.
11) Fantastic Four #12 (Mar 1963) began what would later become a Marvel staple: the intra-company crossover. Taking a leisurely pace, the FF here meet the Hulk only on page 17 of a 23-page story, and unlike the gentlemanly encounters between heroes at other companies, Marvel's protagonists almost always ended up fighting before settling their differences amicably. Although in the case here, anyone can imagine what difficulty there might be in "settling things amicably" when the adversaries are a suspicious, devious and innately selfish Hulk, and a Thing still filled with rage at the circumstances that have left him a misshapen brute. By this time, Kirby was spending more time on the art, perhaps as sales and his interest in the strip grew, while Dick Ayers, a man long experienced with inking Kirby's pencils, added the finishing touches. As for Lee, this issue demonstrates his growing familiarity with the dynamics between the group members and their developing personalities. A fun scene involves the Torch trying to impress Rick Jones with his flame power, not realizing that Rick is the only person on Earth privy to the secret of the Hulk. “He wouldn't be so swell-headed if he knew I was the Hulk's partner!” observes Rick. This boastful aspect of the Torch's personality would be transferred lock, stock and barrel to the Spider-Man strip (whose first number was on the stands the same month as this issue) and develop into a full-scale rivalry between the two young heroes. Interestingly, the Hulk's appearance this issue coincides with the release the same month of The Incredible Hulk #6, the last issue of the first run of greenskin's own title. The simultaneous release of the two books suggests that the decision to cancel the Hulk's title may have been a hasty, last minute one. Although not impossible, it was hardly likely that the Hulk's guest-starring role here was intended to promote his upcoming membership in the Avengers, a team book that wouldn't debut for another six months.
12) By the time Tales of Suspense # 39 (Mar 1963) appeared, Lee had boiled down his ideas of heroes in the real world to heroes, like you and me, who weren't perfect, who had flaws. A shorthand for this idea became the infirmity, an ironic counterpoint to the hero's outward personality intended for public consumption. The irony of the hero who seemed to live a charmed life but yet harbored a secret, tragic flaw that, even as the acclaim of the public rung in his ears, rendered personal satisfaction illusive, became for Lee, an irresistible starting point in the creation of new characters. Iron Man was the embodiment of this idea. Tony Stark had it all, wealth, genius, women, until he was caught by a booby trap in Vietnam and captured by the Viet Cong with a piece of shrapnel closing in on his heart. Knowing he has only a few days to live, the communists decide to force him to work for them until he drops. Instead, Stark builds himself a chest device designed to keep the shrapnel from entering his heart and at the same time extending the armor to cover his whole body. Then, using its electric power to defeat his captors, he makes his escape. Of course, any adolescent reader worth his salt could have seen the most poignant tragedy suffered by this millionaire playboy: permanently encased in his chest device, he was unable to develop close ties with any of the beauties with whom he'd formerly cavorted and especially not with attractive secretary Pepper Potts who later came to work for him. For Iron Man, Lee would have his best opportunity to explore the nature of the tragic hero and in Don Heck, the perfect artist to dwell on the human inter-relations the strip offered instead of the headlong action that was Kirby's forte.
the next six... |
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