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. |
43) In "Bring Back My Goblin to Me," Amazing Spider-Man # 27 (Aug 1965) answers at least one of the questions raised in the previous issue: The Crime-Master turns out to be none of the above, but merely one more unknown, would-be kingpin of crime. Left unanswered: who is the Green Goblin? Who is Patch the stoolie? What is Frederick Foswell up to? But the biggest question of all was one that was presumably going to be revealed after this issue's climax. The Crime-Master and the Goblin had exchanged their secret identities as a way of ensuring they 'had something' on each other in the absence of trust, and the Crime-Master had the foresight to place the Goblin's in a secret safe deposit box to be opened by the police in case of his death. Well, the Crime-Master died at the end of this issue, the identity of the Goblin on his lips, but the safe deposit box was never mentioned again! (How different might Spidey's life have been if this plot point had been followed through?!?) Meanwhile, the vignettes continued to unfold: Peter, his cheap costume falling apart, falls into the river trying to retrieve his camera; sells his pictures to the Globe instead of the Bugle; and finally has to sew himself a new costume! It was issues like these that were setting readers of the day on their collective ears and drawing ever more fans to Marvel's books. Unfortunately, it was a pace neither Lee nor Ditko could keep up and within a year would eventuate in the break-up of this astoundingly innovative creative team.
44) Although pathos has been a word often used to describe the trials of Peter Parker, alias Spider-Man, fun is one that can be used almost as often. Beyond Amazing Spider-Man # 28 (Sep 1965)'s striking Ditko cover, (which depicts a glistening Molten Man and a web-highlighted Spider-Man against an all-black background), lay the origin of the Molten Man and Spider-Man's action packed encounter with him. For page after page, Ditko choreographs a fight with an effortless panel to panel progression that matches anything Kirby was doing on his titles. But unlike other heroes, the battle is never easy for our hero as Spider-Man spends most of his fight with the Molten Man being knocked around. But as was becoming more and more frequent with this book, the adventures of Peter Parker were at least as interesting as those of his alter ego. In particular, this issue's main event isn't Spidey's fight with the Molten Man, but Peter Parker's graduation from high school! But before the reader is treated to J. Jonah Jameson's commencement address, he's first informed that Flash Thompson has surprisingly taken the blame for the fight he had with Peter the issue before. As a result, Liz Allen is now angry at both boys. Meanwhile, Peter's identity as Spider-Man is nearly discovered when he switches his cheap, store bought Spider-Man costume for the real thing captured by Prof. Smyth at the conclusion of issue #25. With those plot points taken care of, the story moves on to Peter's graduation, a seemingly mundane event that in its own way, was as clear a dividing line between the years of consolidation and the grandiose years as the more cosmic events just beginning to unfold in such titles as the FF and Thor. One of Lee's most important tools in consolidating his line of super-hero comics into a realistic, coherent universe was to stage events that would not only prove irrevocable, but move the personal history of his characters forward. With events like Peter's graduation, Lee signaled readers that Marvel's characters would grow and change just as they would and not remain static like the competition's. To that end, Amazing Spider-Man # 28 concludes with a definite feeling that like real life, Peter will now leave behind the world of his youth, and enter a newer one with new problems and new acquaintances. Throughout, Lee writes with humor and warmth, capturing the human adventure rather than emphasizing the super-heroic nature of Peter Parker/Spider-Man while Ditko no less, touches visually on the everyman aspect of Peter Parker with characters that not only look like real people, but who also feel as they do. |
|
45) It wasn't often done that a whole story would be given over to telling the origin of a villain, but Marvel made two exceptions during these years: Dr. Doom in FF Annual # 2 and the Red Skull here, in Tales of Suspense # 66 (June 1965). Once more the Kirby/Stone team performs the artistic honors and Lee, as usual, providing the script for one of Marvel's greatest stories. Unlike Dr. Doom (who at least was allowed to be a member of the human race!) the Red Skull was the personification, the embodiment of pure evil. "Whenever a city was leveled, a town was sacked, the Red Skull was there!" he tells a captured Captain America. "Whenever there was injustice, tyranny, ruthlessness, the Red Skull was there!" But Nazism provided only a backdrop to his origin, because what the Skull represented was infinitely more complicated and perhaps damning. Portrayed here as a social outcast, hated and despised by everyone from the street toughs who stole his food to the police who threw him in jail to the employers who treated him like an animal, those responsible for the Skull's creation weren't necessarily Hitler (who trained him) or the storm troopers (who set him his example). The Skull's hate was already in him even before he joined the Nazis. No, the damning truth of the Red Skull was that he was created by you and I, by a society that cared too little for the needy and oppressed in its midst. By comparison with this powerful tale, the Iron Man story in the front of the book, although well executed and written as usual by Heck and Lee, hardly measures up. Undersea shenanigans with Attuma just don't cut it against social commentary, the nature of evil and the hope and faith espoused by Captain America.
46) What could be more appropriate to wind up this survey of the years of consolidation than with a look at Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos # 18 (May 1965)? Released just on that borderline dividing this phase with the next, more serious one, it nevertheless features a subject that would become increasingly common as the years passed: death, sudden and tragic. Readers had already witnessed the deaths of Baron Zemo and Franklin Storm, and in the years to come, they'd be subjected to the deaths of such characters as Frederick Foswell and Gwen Stacy, but perhaps the most poignant is the one that happens in "Killed in Action." A more fully rounded character than those of Zemo and Storm, Pamela Hawley is killed during a Nazi air-raid on London. Although not seen too often in the series, Pamela had nevertheless been around for quite some time and had become a calming influence on Nick Fury, her gruff American suitor. Quietly, subtly, she'd become an endearing personality as well to fans of the strip who perhaps looked forward to seeing a permanent union of the two characters. Fury, it seemed, had the same idea. As this issue's story opens, he buys an engagement ring for Pamela but before he can present it to her, duty calls again in the form of another impossible mission. But unfortunately for Fury, he's doomed never to lay eyes on Pamela again as, upon returning, he learns of her death while she was helping the wounded during an air raid. Curiously, despite Dick Ayers' penciling of the body of this story, Kirby obviously contributes an uncredited splash and final page. Maybe Lee thought that Ayers' initial efforts lacked the emotional intensity the scenes demanded. In any case, Kirby has the last word this issue with his simply designed, but emotionally charged final page. There, Fury is shown getting the bad news and wracked with grief, walking forlornly into the distance. Lee's accompanying script provides the perfect coda to an era of consolidation that began in awkward discovery, continued with a strong sense of obvious fun and ended with hints of the seriousness expected of maturity.
Next: The Grandiose Years! |
|
