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. |
31) Over in Journey Into Mystery # 114 (Mar 1965), Chic Stone was supplying his final services over Kirby's Thor in a titanic two-part story headlined by a spectacular cover of two elemental forces in perfect balance as Thor and the Absorbing Man meet, hammer to ball and chain. In keeping with Marvel's growing reliance on bigger, more consequential stories in the closing months of the 'Years of Consolidation' (after all, it was called a 'super epic' right on the cover!), this issue's "The Stronger I Am, the Sooner I Die" features Loki's latest scheme to do in his hated brother, the Mighty Thor. This time, Loki provides escaped convict 'Crusher' Creel with a potion that enables Creel to take on the physical properties and the power associated with anything he touches ... in other words, become an Absorbing Man. In no time, he and Thor come to blows as our Thunder God realizes that the Absorbing Man can duplicate every power which he himself possesses. By this time in the company's development, such a scenario would be too momentous to limit to a single issue, so readers had to wait until the next month to find out who would triumph in this epic struggle, and whether Loki would get his comeuppance (as if there were ever any doubt!)
32) Journey Into Mystery # 115 (Apr 1965) opens in Asgard as Thor confronts his evil brother Loki. But their fight is interrupted by all-Father Odin, who, despite his omniscience, refuses to listen to Thor's explanations and orders him to report in 48 hours for "The Trial of the Gods." With free time on his hands, Thor returns to earth to finish his battle with the Absorbing Man. Catching up to him, battle ensues. In the climactic scene, Crusher Creel absorbs all the properties of the terrain around him and becomes a towering behemoth of stone, metal and wood but just as all seems hopeless for our hero, Thor surrounds him in a cloud of helium and, having been forced to become that gas, the Absorbing Man drifts helplessly into space. Throughout the book, Kirby, in a sign of things to come, begins to 'open up' the art to include more quarter and half-page panels that give the story more drama and power (something he'd been doing right along in the book's "Tales of Asgard" back-up), a feature that would come into more common use in the next phase of Marvel's development. Lee too has begun to subtly alter the speech patterns of his godly characters so that they now begin to sound more stentorian, more in keeping with their aloof removal from the doings of Earth. With these elements in place, Lee's new style of scripting, Kirby's more open layouts and Colletta's detailed inking, in a year or so, the strip would reach its zenith and become the standard bearer of the next, more serious phase in Marvel's development. |
|
33) As the end of the years of consolidation drew to a close, there was an overlap of characteristics with the next stage of Silver Age Marvel, the Grandiose Years when the sense of experimentation with continuity evolved into a deliberate cultivating of serious, larger-than-life themes. Stories became longer and the stakes higher, with endings sometimes blurring into the beginnings of the next issue. For instance, what starts out in Avengers # 15 (Apr 1965) as a battle between the assemblers and the Masters of Evil, metamorphoses in the next issue and becomes the historic first change in line-up of the Avengers. "Now, By My Hand, Shall Perish a Villain" starts out with the original founding members Thor, Giant-Man, the Wasp and Iron Man, as well as Captain America, in combat with their respective arch-enemies, Zemo, the Executioner and the Enchantress, the Black Knight and the Melter. Involving the elements we'd become familiar with: the crossover and continued story, the action leaves off just as the two teams square off for a showdown. Meanwhile, in the jungles of South America where Captain America has trailed Zemo, another battle takes place resulting in the accidental death of the Nazi villain, an event that'll be used more often and to equally dramatic effect in the Grandiose Years. Kirby, after Avengers # 8, had relinquished the penciling chores to Don Heck but returned in # 14 to do the layouts through # 16. Here, beneath a solid team versus team cover and despite all the bases he had to cover, Kirby delivers an exciting, fast-paced yarn that gives little hint of the unprecedented to be wrought in the next issue.
34) Avengers # 16 (May 1965) was in many ways a radical departure in the way comics were generally handled at the time. It was assumed that the readers were a fickle lot who'd easily get upset if their favorite book deviated too far from its expected delights. Consequently, editors liked to keep books as much the same from issue to issue as possible. What writer would dream of removing the Flash from the Justice League? In his conscious decision to make the Marvel universe a coherent place (and no doubt to make it easier for him to keep track of each character's continuity), Lee decided to take a chance and remove Thor, Iron Man, Giant-Man and the Wasp from the group and replace them with three new members. In "The Old Order Changeth", all the headliners (except Captain America) left and in their place came in Hawkeye, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch…hardly big guns! With tighter than usual layouts, Kirby, aided this time by Dick Ayers, managed to have the Avengers dispose of the Masters of Evil in the first four pages. Soon, our heroes decide that they no longer have the time to divide between their team duties and their personal lives. They put out the word for candidates to replace them in the team and by the time Cap returns from South America, the nation's press has Avengers Mansion hemmed in and his teammates have already elected their replacements. There's a happy reunion among the old comrades until first Giant-Man leaves, then a somber Iron Man, who seems to echo a nation's young President as he thinks, "The mantle has been passed to a new and younger group…It has to be this way…The old must ever give way to the new…" Nearly forty years later, Lee's deft scripting still carries a wistfulness that readers at the time must have felt for an era they hardly knew was passing.
35) The title said it all: "The Almost Indescribable Menace of the Juggernaut." It was the first chapter of a two part story beginning in X-Men # 12 (Jul 1965); a yarn featuring a villain completely different from your average world-conquering bad guy (or the villains that had been routine in Marvel's first two developmental phases). "Whosever touches this gem shall possess the power of the crimson bands of Cyttorak. Henceforth, you who read these words, shall become…forevermore…a human Juggernaut." That's the way Cain Marko read the words on the gem he'd found during the Korean War before promptly having a mountain fall on him. But now, years later, the transformed Marko has returned and, under the curse of the Juggernaut, once he's set his mind on a goal, nothing can keep him from it, not even the formidable defenses ringing the X-Men's headquarters. As the story unfolds and the suspense builds, the Juggernaut smashes them, his form never fully revealed. Meanwhile, Professor X fills in the X-Men on the Juggernaut's origin and incidentally that he was once his step-brother! Finally the last defense is destroyed, and the Juggernaut, more a force of nature than a man, stands revealed before the X-Men. Although Kirby had quit penciling the X-Men with # 11, he managed to stay on to do the layouts for this issue. Penciled and inked by an army of artists (including Alex Toth, Vince Colletta and "the whole blamed Marvel bullpen"), in many places Kirby's distinctive style can still be seen. A wonderfully plotted and dramatically written story, the awesome nature of the Juggernaut couldn't have been better captured had Kirby penciled the issue himself. As it was, Lee managed to create in words a truly fearsome villain and a story that in places actually conveyed the dread and
wonder of the events taking place.
36) In X-Men # 13 (Sep 1965), the battle between the X-Men and the Juggernaut begins in earnest and doesn't stop until the last page. Choreographed by Kirby and finished by artist Jay Gavin (actually Werner Roth, who began an extended run on the title with this issue, without Kirby's help from # 18 onwards, but not under his own name until # 23), the team of mutants wage a losing fight against the unstoppable Juggernaut while Professor X searches telepathically for reinforcements. Finding an ally in the Human Torch, he leads him to the battle site and completes a plan that involves ripping off the Juggernaut's helmet. Thus exposed, the creature that had once been his brother becomes susceptible to the mutant leader's psychic power. With his flattened, concealing helmet, the Juggernaut was built like a tank, giving him an aura of supernatural menace that seemed to emphasize the fact that he was very far removed from the once-human Cain Marko (and certainly not the rather droll humpty-dumpty figure he'd become in later years). The oppresive mood of menace is skillfully lifted by Lee in the last two panels, as readers are treated to the spectacle of Scott, Warren, Hank and Bobby (a.k.a. Cyclops, The Angel, The Beast and Iceman) convalescing in a makeshift hospital ward, with Jean (Marvel Girl) as nurse, while Professor X reminds them that as soon as they've recovered from their injuries, there's a broom waiting for each of them, as "the school is a shambles after your fight, and somebody has to tidy it up!"
the next six... |
|
