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
|
Part II: The Years of Consolidation
Although there were isolated examples that indicated the direction Marvel's new line of comics would take between the Early, Formative Years and the later, Grandiose Years, it was in the two years or so that separated them, the "Years of Consolidation", that certain themes would be adopted in earnest. It was in these years that Stan Lee and his stable of artists, particularly Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, began to actively exploit the disparate elements that had begun to define the increasingly popular 'Marvel style' (which they themselves had more or less stumbled upon), and started to weave them into a coherent universe. What characterized these years of consolidation? Mostly the deliberate attempt by Lee to tie his growing universe closer together, to develop its own internal consistency and give it a semblance of verisimilitude. To that end, a number of devices were used, most notably the crossover and the continued story. The reliance on multi-issue stories, some lasting more than a year, would become a hallmark for Marvel in the later, grandiose years, but began in the years of consolidation as more modest two-part tales. Also important in these years was that element of fun and excitement good writing invariably provides as Lee began to take upon himself the scripting for all the super hero titles. Such control in the hands of a writer/editor whose overall vision of the line was mature but experimental would prove crucial to Marvel's success. Lee, in partnership with such talented artists as Kirby and Ditko, whose skills were perfectly suited to the emerging 'Marvel Method' of creating comics, was able to strike a balance between the melodramatic elements that made them seem realistic while at the same time giving broad hints that none of it was to be taken too seriously. And so, working within the Comics' Code, Marvel found a way to simply have fun with the universe it had created in its early, formative years, mixing and matching its elements and seeing how they turned out. And an enthralled readership was the beneficiary. |
19) For giving a reader his money's worth, there was nothing like Marvel's early annuals! Where the competition only gave fans reprints of old stories, Marvel not only offered an extra long original adventure but all kinds of fun features. A great example of that, and of how Lee in these years was busily creating the friendly, familiar atmosphere that would soon inspire in his readers a fanatical loyalty, was Amazing Spider-Man Annual # 1 (1964). Of course, the star feature of this book was its 41-page extravaganza that included a team-up of every major villain our hero had fought in his first year (the Vulture, Dr. Octopus, Sandman, Mysterio, Electro and Kraven the Hunter!) as well as cameos by every hero in the youthful Marvel universe. Besides a fast, fun-filled plot, the story served as a wonderful vehicle for showcasing Ditko's growing talent for super-hero slugfests. Coming a long way from his first crude outings on Spider-Man, Ditko here lets out all the stops offering six full-page action shots of Spider-Man in action against each member of the Sinister Six (the one with Electro is the standout!). But beyond the lead story, the book was filled with such extras as pin up pages, 'secrets of Spider-Man' pages, supporting character profiles and a self-parodic gem in which Lee and Ditko fill readers in on how they come up with such great stories. It was this last item, in which the creators poke fun at themselves, let their hair down and give the readers a figurative nudge and wink indicating that it's all done in good fun, that Marvel began to solidify its chummy relationship with fans. In effect, Lee was taking them into his confidence, inviting them in and making them feel part of the Marvel 'bullpen.' It was a device that would be used again, but was soon to vanish in the wake of such all-parody titles as Not Brand Echh that made poking fun at the company a full time occupation. In the meantime however, Lee would continue to solidify his relationship with the readers with other tools such as the Bullpen Bulletins page, Stan's Soapbox, fan clubs like the Merry Marvel Marching Society (MMMS) and the Friends Of Ol' Marvel (FOOM) and letters' pages that included sometimes lengthy personalized replies.
20) Tales of Suspense # 54 (Jun 1964), Iron Man's usual hangout, featured the beginning of a slam-bang actioner by Lee and artist Don Heck. Although frequently maligned, and not without some justification, Don Heck truly was a great comic artist; his only problem was that his window of greatness doing super-heroes was a narrow one. Not really cut out to be a super-hero artist and uncomfortable with the Marvel method, Heck went along with the trend when the company's characters hit it big and eventually made the Iron Man strip his own. In the beginning, his awkward, scratchy art style didn't seem to agree with his regular assignment, but gradually he got the hang of it, and by this period in his Suspense run, Heck was really hitting his stride. Not only did he lose much of his scratchiness, but he developed an economy of line and dynamism of panel to panel continuity that, coupled with Lee's smooth scripting, carried the reader along as effortlessly as Kirby was doing elsewhere. By the time Heck left the strip with # 72, he'd earned his reputation as being the Iron Man artist. And this first part of another continued story had plenty for him to keep up with as Lee's breakneck plot had Tony Stark move quickly from Washington D.C. to Vietnam to China and into the clutches of his arch-enemy, the evil Mandarin, who'd been stealing Stark's experimental observer missiles in mid-flight. A battle ensues, with Iron Man ending up captured, helpless, and at the mercy of the Mandarin! |
|
21) Looking past the dramatic symbolic cover by Jack Kirby, to the inside of Tales of Suspense # 55 (Jul 1964), the reader is immediately plunged into the action as Iron Man manages to break free of the trap set for him by his arch-foe, the Mandarin. Trailing the oriental mastermind to where he's stored the stolen Stark missiles, Iron Man destroys the ray machine used in capturing them. Faced with the malevolent Mandarin again, Iron Man inevitably runs another gauntlet of deadly traps until finally defeating his foe in a hand-to-hand fight. The issue is rounded out with a five-page feature, “All About Iron Man” - the sort of bonus which Marvel normally included in its value-packed annuals to add background and verisimilitude to its characters. There was never to be a Suspense annual, so this issue is probably the nearest thing to it. As mentioned above, artist Don Heck enjoyed a relatively narrow window of excellence during his stay at Marvel in the Silver Age, totaling not much more than about three years, but during that period he produced many classic stories that could rank alongside any by Kirby or Ditko and this two-part adventure was definitely one of them. As for the Iron Man strip itself, it had finally come into its own by this time, with not only Shellhead himself, but also the relationships between the various members of the strong supporting cast: Iron Man's alter-ego Tony Stark, his feisty secretary Pepper Potts, his chauffeur Happy Hogan and the soon-to-appear Senator Byrd, all of whom Lee had interacting like a well-oiled machine.
22) If there was a single unifying factor besides Lee and Kirby themselves during the years of consolidation, it would have to be Chic Stone. After spotty work by Reinman, George Roussos and even at times the uncomfortable fit of Steve Ditko, Stone's bold but heavy inking style strengthened Kirby's pencils. Taking into account Kirby's work doing all of Marvel's covers and the interiors of at least four full books and a feature in Tales of Suspense, Stone's regular inking lent a cohesion to the line that complimented Lee's efforts to consolidate
its universe. A perfect example is Stone's work over Kirby on Journey Into Mystery # 109 (Oct 1964). Another classic battle issue that had the unique pairing of Thor versus X-Men villain, Magneto, Lee continued his growing practice of using crossovers to tighten up the Marvel universe. The story begins when the city is caught in a wave of magnetic force. Following the phenomenon to its source, Thor discovers that Magneto is behind the disturbance and mayhem, of course, ensues. The combination of Lee's dramatic dialogue and Kirby's powerful art, create just the right characteristics in the arrogant Magneto and the noble Thor to make this first meeting the offbeat encounter that the reader would expect it to be. In any case, during the battle Thor is separated from his hammer and, out of Magneto's sight, is forced to survive a gauntlet of magnetic traps in human guise as lame Don Blake before managing to get it back and forcing Magneto to flee into hiding. A nice touch here is Lee having Thor fail to recognize Magneto, thus strengthening the feeling of insularity between the clandestine battle among good and evil mutants over in the X-Men book and the rest of the Marvel universe. Even Magneto acts as if fighting a “straight” super-hero rather than a fellow mutant is somehow strange. But is it coincidence that after Stone left Marvel and such inkers as Sinnott and Colletta began inking Kirby that this earlier period when Marvel comics were just plain fun ended and the next, more serious one began? But for the short time he was aboard, Stone's more playful style perfectly suited the years of consolidation.
23) One of the key crossover events in these years was Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos # 13 (Dec 1964), in which Fury and his fightin' fanatics meet Captain America and Bucky. Although a connection between the World War II era and Marvel's present continuity had already been hinted at in smaller ways (Reed Richards of the FF met Fury and the Howlers in Sgt. Fury # 3, Ben Grimm was shown in flashback as a Marine air combat ace in the Pacific theater, a pre-masked Baron Zemo had appeared in Sgt. Fury # 8 and Fury himself guest starred in FF # 21 as an agent of the CIA), Captain America's appearance in this issue, left readers in absolutely no doubt that the inter-related history of the Marvel universe stretched farther back than FF # 1. Now the possibilities were endless: could all the old heroes of the 1940s be part of the same universe? Did their older selves reside somewhere in the present Marvel universe waiting to once again step onto the stage? And what about the company's western heroes? Were they included too? Lee took the wise course of picking and choosing which elements of past comics to graft onto his new line of books and when he did, he invariably wrote them in his new, more mature style. For instance, his scripting for Captain America and especially Bucky, was a great deal more realistic and natural than the infantile scripts of the forties which were clearly aimed at young children. For this issue, Kirby re-teamed with inker Dick Ayers (who had taken over the penciling chores on the book when Kirby left with #7) to deliver a story jammed with action and laughs. Lee's script captures all of the myriad characters' personalities especially in the opening pages with Fury and his main squeeze, Pamela Hawley visiting a local pub. When rival Bull McGiveney walks in and starts to give a luckless private a hard time (who turns out to be Steve Rogers!), Fury cannot contain himself. "Get that cigar outa your mouth, gruesome! Ya want me to burn my pink little knuckles while I'm caressin' your kisser?" When the MPs arrive, it's with the usual exaggerated remarks about the Howlers' reputation: "We must be nuts runnin' in there without tank support! No wonder the captain said he wanted volunteers! He knew it was a suicide mission!" But fun and games don't last forever and soon Fury and the Howlers team up with Cap and Bucky to find and destroy a Nazi tunnel beneath the English Channel (!) with which they intend to invade Britain. Coming just before the presentation of Cap's wartime adventures in Tales of Suspense, it's possible that this story was either the inspiration for them or intended to introduce readers to the concept. In either case, Lee, Kirby and Ayers here produce one of the very best entries for the 'Years of Consolidation'.
24) It wasn't often in these years of consolidation that continued stories would go beyond two chapters but as we have seen there were exceptions that perhaps pointed to the more open-ended storytelling of the 'Grandiose Years'. The story sequence in Spidey # 17, 18 and 19 is one of them. With "The Return of the Green Goblin" in Spider-Man # 17 (Oct 1964), Lee and Ditko manage to gather together in one place, all the little idiosyncrasies of Spider-Man/Peter Parker as inexperienced super-hero while creating a series of vignettes that have since become legendary. The story's simple: Peter Parker's nemesis at school, Flash Thompson, decides to start a Spider-Man fan club while the Green Goblin sees its opening night as the perfect opportunity to defeat and humiliate his enemy before an adoring public. Events proceed pretty much as you'd expect until a phone call alerts Peter that his Aunt May is gravely ill. Leaving his fight with the Goblin, Spider-Man appears to be running away, stunning his fans as the Daily Bugle labels him a coward. Ditko's quirky, unassuming style is perfect for such scenes as the gang at school; the establishment of the fan club; Spider-Man mistaking a movie set for an actual hold-up; the building complications between Peter, Betty Brant and Liz Allen; his rivalry with the Torch; and Aunt May's continuing attempts to have Peter meet the mysterious Mary Jane as Stan and Steve continue to pile absurdities one atop the other. Throughout, Lee's scripting is natural and fun to read as he and Ditko weave every plot thread to an expert climax that's guaranteed to leave readers in a state of nervous exhaustion!
the next six... |
|
