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Editor's Note: The following piece is part of an expanded version of Pierre's article "The Four Fantastic Phases of Silver Age Marvel" which featured 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 III: The Grandiose Years
Marvel Comics' Silver Age stretched across at least ten years (1960-1970) and over that time developed from the self-contained, single issue stories common in the industry, to longer tales involving mature subjects and more complex themes. Dividing the company's progression over this period into four phases allows for a clearer understanding of how editor Stan Lee, aided by his stable of artists, moved from one phase to the next. Although far from proven, it’s the contention here that in the first phase, the early, formative years, Lee was not working according to any plan beyond approaching super-heroes in a more realistic way. It was in the second phase, the years of consolidation that he became conscious of themes he’d inadvertently raised in the first. Using such literary tools as the continued story and crossovers, he extended these new ideas to all the company's heroes and in the process created a multi-textual shared universe. In the grandiose years to be considered here, with the foundation of the Marvel style in place, Lee would pursue a deliberate sense of humanism, adapting his comics to the spirit of the times (the 1960s) which resulted in comics written and conceptualized in such a way as to appeal to adults as well as children. Furthermore, it seems that in the first two phases, Lee was firmly in the driver's seat, directing the course of his entire line of new books while infusing them with doses of “reality” in the form of characterization, continuity and real world problems. In the third phase Kirby, driven by a vision fully awakened to the new way of doing comics and freed somewhat from the editorial hand of Lee (whose increased recognition outside the company's offices prevented him from giving complete attention to his comics), became the active force behind the full flowering of Marvel’s evolution into the grandiose phase. With the freedom given by stories that could be continued from issue to issue for as long as the plot demanded, strengthened by the use of a shared, coherent, self-contained universe, and imbued with a semblance of realism, Marvel was now able to take its readers either to the ends of the universe in cosmos spanning adventures or to the streets of New York City to experience the anguish of drug abuse, racism and environmental pollution. The resulting mix would change comics forever. |
9) It might be hard to believe after the confused shenanigans of the Inhumans saga, but the next storyline (which begins in the middle of this issue!) would be its complete opposite. The Galactus trilogy was what the grandiose years were all about, the culmination of everything that had been building from the early, formative years through the years of consolidation. It would be Silver Age Marvel at its creative, imaginative peak, the grand style writ large, the rule by which all subsequent comics would be measured. Fantastic Four # 48 (Mar 1966) would be the start of a story whose permutations affected not just the FF but the whole planet. Galactus, although he looked like a human being and rode through space in a ship, was far from an ordinary mortal. Anyone who could devour planets and destroy whole galactic systems was far from human and his arrival on earth boded almost certain doom for every living being. Beside such a menace, villains like the Frightful Four, the Mole Man, even Dr. Doom, paled in comparison. In fact, as news spread of the coming of Galactus, readers could imagine Doom and the others sitting in as much fearful hope for the success of the FF as any helpless resident of New York! So maybe it was a good thing the FF didn’t know about the approach of Galactus as they faced the Inhumans in the Great Refuge. Not even featured on the cover (which was given over to a frightened looking FF accompanied by a towering Watcher gesturing to something beyond the reader’s view), the Inhumans must battle Maximus to shut down his atmo-gun which is intended to destroy every human on earth. But instead of killing the humans, Maximus inadvertently proves they and the Inhumans are part of the same genetic stock. It happened because the gun effected both peoples the same: that is, not at all! But the evil madman has one last gambit, throwing a switch, he encloses the Great Refuge in an impenetrable shell of negative energy imprisoning the Inhumans inside and locking the FF out for all time. And that’s only page 7! Meanwhile, the first hint of the coming of Galactus comes with the appearance of the Silver Surfer as he soars through space looking for a likely planet for his master to drain of its life-giving energies. Lee has said many times that the presence of the Silver Surfer in this story came as a complete surprise to him, further proof that he and Kirby were not working as closely in this grandiose phase as they had been in the first two periods of the company's evolution. What to make of this goofy character who rode on a surfboard of all things? Give Lee credit for turning such a visually ridiculous creation into one of the most famous and dramatic comic characters to emerge over the last thirty-five years. The Surfer's development here would be relatively simple, over a naïve, other-worldly sensibility, Lee would eventually expand on the character's vaguely messianic origins and create in him a voice that would offer objective commentary on the state of mankind. But that was a few months down the line, here, the Surfer would rebel against his master, have his wings clipped and find himself stranded on earth. But not before humanity got the scare of its collective life! That scare begins on page 10 as the population of New York City is thrown into a panic when the sky over their heads turns first to flame and then is filled with floating debris. The effects are caused by the Watcher, who's decided to break his oath against interfering in events to camouflage the earth against its discovery by the Surfer. Briefing Mr. Fantastic about the looming threat of Galactus, the Watcher is interrupted when the Surfer sees through his subterfuge and lands on the roof of the Baxter Building! Wasting no time, the Surfer signals Galactus to land. Earth's remaining hours of existence are now numbered, a pessimistic Watcher tells the FF. Then, following one of Kirby's oddball collages that's supposed to represent Galactus' descending spacecraft, the god-man himself arrives. "My journey is ended!" he says. "This planet shall sustain me until it has been drained of all elemental life!"
10) In retrospect, the Iron Man strip in Tales of Suspense # 71 (Nov 1965) seemed like the end of an era. Although he'd continue on the Avengers, providing some of his best work of the Silver Age (especially when inking himself), Don Heck was leaving Iron Man. Sure, he still had one more issue to go, but that book's tale seemed only to act as a footnote to this issue's concluding chapter of Iron Man's first epic contest with the Titanium Man. After an excellent build-up over the previous few issues, it provided one of the most thoroughly satisfying climaxes of any series and no small part of that was because of Heck's skill. One of the original three musketeers in the pre-hero era of Marvel's mystery titles (he, Kirby and Ditko practically drew them all with Heck as the middle man between Kirby's lead story and Ditko bringing up the rear), Heck had been a mainstay for the company for years. But where Kirby and Ditko flourished with the coming of the super-hero titles, Heck seemed to languish. Oh, his art was as good as ever, but his strips seemed to move at a more sedate pace than those of the others. Maybe it was fortunate then, that his main assignment turned out to be Iron Man, a strip that seemed to demand more subtlety than Thor or the FF. In on Iron Man from the beginning (he drew the origin story) Heck was nevertheless replaced by Kirby on the early issues and was later spelled for a few more by Ditko (who redesigned Iron Man's armor). Despite those interruptions however (and being initially uncomfortable with the Marvel method where much of the plotting of a story was left up to the artist), Heck nevertheless made the strip his own and his portrayal of the character the definitive one. It was Heck who gave Tony Stark his dashing good looks and pencil thin mustache, Heck who introduced supporting characters Pepper Potts (whom he deliberately designed to look unappealing) and Happy Hogan (whom he gave cauliflower ears that Lee later demanded he eliminate) and it was Heck's handling of the melodramatic twists and turns of the strip (Stark's weak heart and eventual disappearance, Iron Man's being wanted for murder, Senator Byrd's investigating committee, Stark's problems with government contracts, sabotage and labor unions, the romantic triangle between Stark, Pepper and Happy and not least of all, his helping to turn the Iron Man strip into a cold war parable) that made it one of the most successful of the Marvel line. Giant-Man, the Torch and even the Hulk had fallen by the wayside but Iron Man always kept on going. Especially in the year or so of stories leading up to this issue's thoroughly satisfying besting of the Titanium Man. Serving as the ultimate metaphor for the east/west struggle, the superiority of the American way of life (symbolized by Iron Man) is triumphant over the oppression of Soviet style Marxism (the Titanium Man). Fittingly, "What Price Victory?" seemed to mark the end of the communist threat in Marvel Comics which Lee had made a recurring menace, a threatening subtext in his books, since the start of his hero titles. Maybe the spirit of the times was having an influence on Lee (his contact with young people on college campuses and in his own letters pages) or maybe it was simply that villainous organizations like Hydra made the commies look dull, whatever it was, Heck's slam bang finish here served as complete a symbolic finish to communism as the company was ever likely to get. Soon, a new artist would take over the strip, Heck would concentrate on the Avengers and in a year or two, his peak years at the company would come to an end, but his run on Iron Man, epitomized by this issue (inked by Wally Wood by the way!) will always stand as one of the major contributions to the development of Marvel in the Silver Age. |
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11) The X-Men's role in the Grandiose Years turned out to be an unexpectedly minor one. Jumping in early with the Juggernaut two-parter in issues 12 and 13, and continuing through the introduction of the Sentinels here, the strip seemed to lose steam (and its way) fast. With the conclusion of the Sentinel storyline in # 16, the strip descended quickly into just plain good stories, then mediocre stories (which were interspersed with sometimes even downright bad stories). It wasn't a pretty sight and although the strip had good contributions by writer Roy Thomas, artists such as Werner Roth and Jim Steranko and more involved storylines like the Factor Three serial, no one seemed able to bring it into the spirit of the grand style. With the departure of Magneto and his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants in # 11, it was as if some vital force had left the strip that even the continued presence of Lee and Kirby (who'd given up doing full pencils on the strip for simple layouts, leaving former romance artist Werner Roth to finish up) couldn't hold onto. It wasn't for lack of ideas though as the two men followed up their introduction of the Juggernaut with an equally interesting menace in X-Men # 14 (Nov 1965): the Sentinels. The Sentinels were specially designed robots created by Dr. Bolivar Trask to hunt down mutants which he declared a threat to the very survival of homo sapiens. Whether he meant it to or not, Trask's claim ignites a fear and hatred of mutants that had only simmered in previous issues. Now open hostility to mutants breaks out everywhere. In this volatile climate, Prof. X agrees to debate Trask on television. "Before giving way to groundless fears, we must first consider--what is a mutant?" Prof. X tells the viewing audience. "He is not a monster! He is not necessarily a menace! He is merely a person who was born with a different power or ability than the average human!" For the first time, Lee has spelled out the series' racist subtext, that the hatred and distrust of mutants is nothing but a thinly veiled metaphor for the real world's prejudices. And like that real world, the ordinary citizens of the Marvel universe react predictably: "He's got some nerve! No kid of mine is a mutie! I'll bet he's a communist! Nah! He looks like one of those right-wingers to me! What does an egg-headed old stuffed-shirt like him know?" So even as Lee seemed to back away from the more overt menace of international communism in strips like Iron Man, he was moving forward with the development of more subtlely insidious themes, a course that would become characteristic of the grandiose years. Finally, when Trask introduces his mutant hunting robots to the audience, the automatons rebel. Then, in a running battle with the X-Men (who have to fend off hate-filled mobs while trying to protect them at the same time), the Sentinels escape, taking Trask with them.
12) In X-Men # 15 (Dec 1965), the adventure continues as Trask discovers that he's programmed his robots too well. Taken to the Master Mold, leader of the Sentinels, he soon learns to what extremes his original programming has been taken. Ordered to help the Master Mold to create an army of robots with which to conquer the entire human race, Trask argues "But you were made for only one purpose, to guard the human race from mutants! That is your only duty!" Too late, he realizes the folly to which his unreasoning fears have led him. "We can only guard the human race by becoming its master!" reply his creations. "Humans are too weak, too foolish to govern themselves! Henceforth, we shall rule!" Trask's personal torment is made the greater after the Beast is captured and placed beneath a psyche-probe. Under its influence, Trask learns the truth about the X-Men: that far from presenting a menace to mankind, their mission is to protect the human race. "How wrong I was about them," he thinks. "I wanted to help humanity, to fight the mutants! What a fool I was! What a blind, dangerous fool!" The issue ends as the rest of the X-Men, after fighting their way into the Sentinels' fortress, are also captured. (Bonus! This issue also includes the origin of the Beast!) Is this the end of the human race? Has Trask learned his lesson too late to do any good? Stay tuned!
13) Things continued to look bleak at the start of X-Men # 16 (Jan 1966) with our heroes helpless captives and Trask being forced to help his renegade Sentinels with their plan to conquer the world. Fortunately however, Prof. X is on the ball. Back at the television studio where he debated Trask in issue # 14, he discovers that the Sentinels can be disabled if the transmission beams that guide them are interfered with. Together with local authorities, he uses a giant, commercial crystal to do just that. Just in time too, as the hard pressed X-Men, after making their escape, are about to be subdued again by the relentless robots. Meanwhile, Trask has been helping the Master Mold to create new robots and some of them are about to be birthed! But then, reaching a last minute crisis of conscience, he destroys the reproducing machine, giving up his own life in the process. In "The Supreme Sacrifice," Lee and Kirby seem to express a belief that all men are basically good. It was a theme they'd revisit frequently as the Grandiose Years progressed; an optimism that insisted on the creation of hero-villains and villains who often demanded the readers' sympathy. That attitude represented a broadening of the definition of what it meant to be a hero and further differentiated Marvel from its competition. And so, the mob who chased down mutants, could otherwise be responsible citizens and characters like George Stonewell in Sgt. Fury # 6, might be bigots but still be capable of the sacrifices expected of a soldier. It was a graying of the line between good and evil and of the guilt of those casting stones as well as those being stoned, a moral confusion that suited perfectly the X-Men feature but that would barely be explored through most of the strip's run - a missed opportunity that might have accounted for the strip's disappointing sales.
14) Without his direct participation, other Marvel titles were still relatively free from Kirby's growing tendency to stretch out storylines, relying instead on the occasional two-part story. This pattern was especially true of the Spider-Man feature, whose direction Ditko probably had more control over than Kirby did that of his own books (if a much earlier plotting credit for Ditko is any evidence). Although the suggestion for using a serial format for the Hulk strip in Tales to Astonish may have been Ditko's idea, the extra-length story was never used in Spider-Man (unless the endless travails of Peter Parker's private life and the somewhat disjointed events of issues # 17-19 could be counted as such). That changed when Amazing Spider-Man # 31 (Dec 1965) presented the first chapter in what may have been our hero's finest hour. It began somewhat stumblingly with a prologue the previous issue. Scenes there involved a band of masked flunkies whom following issues would identify as the Master Planner’s men. In # 30 however, they refer to their boss as "the Cat." The Cat was a resourceful second story man whom Spidey spent that issue trying to capture. Then, in this issue, the same costumed goons are shown working for someone else, the Master Planner! Obviously there was the same lack of communication between Lee and Ditko as there had been on the FF with Lee and Kirby! Be that as it may, by the time “If This be My Destiny” hit the stands, things had been straightened out. The first of three parts, this issue begins beneath a classic Ditko cover that's been endlessly copied ever since: a multi-image illustration with each picture segmented among the eight legs of a spider motif. Below it a blurb (Lee at his most ingratiating!) reads "Dedicated to you, the great new Marvel breed of reader!" But it was no idle boast as inside, Lee and Ditko immediately plunge their fans into the maelstrom of freshman orientation as Peter attends his first day at Empire State University. Registering for classes, picking up textbooks and filling out paperwork were no doubt familiar scenes for the company's growing number of college age readers. But if fans had some idea that things would get better for their hero once he was out of high school, they’d soon be disillusioned! Peter not only runs into high school rival Flash Thompson (attending ESU on a football scholarship) but learns that his Aunt May has suffered a heart attack. Things only get worse when, distracted by concern for his aunt, Peter gives the cold shoulder to everyone he meets at school and, fueled by Flash Thompson, resentment of him builds among his classmates (who include Harry Osborn and Gwen Stacy appearing here for the first time). What’s worse, with Aunt May's hospital bills piling up, Peter is forced to prowl the city by night in order to pick up cash taking pictures of himself in action as Spider-Man. Meanwhile, with little sleep, his performance in class suffers. Could things get any worse for our hero? Don't ask!
15) In Amazing Spider-Man # 32 (Jan 1966), Lee and Ditko continue to add complications to the plot, ratcheting up the suspense until, unable to bear any more, the story collapses under their weight in a shattering climax that's left fans talking ever since. What makes this story even more interesting, are the tests to which Lee and Ditko force Peter to undergo. One the one hand, as Spider-Man, he must fight the Master Planner (revealed this issue as his old foe Dr. Octopus) and his men while on the other, he must face challenges to his spirit. First, in order to complete his breakup with former girlfriend Betty Brant, Peter forces her to hate him by acting like a clod with rival Ned Leeds. Next, in his hour of greatest need, his efforts to sell some photos to J. Jonah Jameson are met with cold rejection. Finally, and worst of all, he learns that he must suffer the guilt for his aunt's worsening condition when doctors tell him that an unknown radioactive particle in Aunt May’s blood might be the cause of her illness. In an agony of guilt, Peter concludes that the radioactivity in his aunt's blood could only have been introduced through a blood transfusion he once gave her. (It was the bite of a radioactive spider that had given him his spider powers). Could anyone but Lee and Ditko have maneuvered a character into a position of such exquisite agony as this? Fortunately, they didn’t do it without leaving him a way out. In his identity as Spider-Man, Peter enlists the aid of Dr. Curt Connors (another former foe named the Lizard) to help him find a cure. Connors suggests that a new serum, Iso-36, might do the trick but it'll be expensive. But after selling all of his most precious possessions to pay for it, the serum is stolen at the airport by the Master Planner! Now, with Aunt May's life hanging in the balance (the serum loses its potency quickly), a maddened Spider-Man tears up the city looking for the Master Planner. Finding his headquarters, he fights his way into the inner sanctum only to find that he must face his most powerful foe! In a whirlwind battle, Spider-Man defeats Dr. Octopus but in the process is pinned beneath tons of crumpled machinery too heavy to lift and, even as the ceiling of the underwater sanctum begins to leak, he spies the canister of Iso-36: just beyond reach!
16) Has there ever been another story quite like this one in the entire history of comics? Sure, elsewhere, Lee together with Kirby were giving readers glimpses of cosmic vistas never before imagined within the confines of a comic book, but none of that could match the much smaller in scale (but no less important) human drama of Amazing Spider-Man # 33 (Feb 1966). Where Kirby preferred to draw full page illustrations of physically imposing entities whose massive bulk left little room for doubt about their ability to survive almost any situation, Ditko excelled in scenes of daily life, the ordinary travails of normal human beings where success in a school test or earning a living could be as satisfying a victory as stopping the rampage of a living planet. There wasn't any room in Kirby's universe for an Aunt May. In an extraordinary five page sequence opening this issue, Ditko provides the tableau upon which just such a human drama is performed. Trapped in the crumbling, leaking headquarters of Dr. Octopus, Spider-Man is dwarfed beneath the weight of a gargantuan piece of fallen machinery. Although he tries repeatedly, Spidey can move the huge weight no more than a few inches before collapsing in exhaustion. With visions of his ailing aunt before his eyes, the innate strength that Peter has always possessed, that he's demonstrated time and time again in dealing with the numerous problems with which Lee and Ditko have complicated his life, prevails and slowly, agonizingly, he lifts and then throws the great weight from him. "Anyone can win a fight, when the odds, are easy! It's when the going's tough, when there seems to be no chance, that's when it counts!" Lee's ringing prose (underlined by Ditko's triumphant sequence) couldn't have failed but hit the readers where they lived! It was one of the secrets of the success of the Spider-Man strip: many of the problems that plagued Peter Parker were the same as those faced by most of the book's teenaged readers and if some of the ones facing Peter were insurmountable, like him, they also needn't give up, needn't buckle under to bullies or rejection or whatever. They too, could muster the determination to succeed even if the world seemed to be against them. Sensing the growing dedication of the company's youthful fans, Lee was clearly inspired to take their side (remember the blurb from the cover of # 31? "Dedicated to you, the great new Marvel breed of reader!"), a position he'd make more obvious as the grandiose years progressed. In the meantime Spider-Man, freed from beneath the machine, wasn't out of the woods yet! Surviving the flooding of the undersea headquarters, he wades through the remainder of Octopus' men and gets the serum to Connors in the nick of time. Reinforcing the dedication he'd made on the cover of # 31, Lee's final lines in the book were meant to speak directly to his young readers when he has a nurse wonder at the retreating figure of Peter Parker: "That Peter Parker certainly is a nice boy! He’s sincere, well-mannered, devoted to his aunt! Too bad there aren’t many more young men like that! Too bad someone like him can't be an idol for teen-agers to imitate…instead of some mysterious, unknown thrill-seeker like, Spider-Man!" These lines no doubt resonated with many of the book's young readers who felt misunderstood by parents, teachers or friends who saw only their faults, and none of their virtues. It was fuel like this that primed the Spider-Man book and allowed it to become one of the most popular titles in comics' history.the next eight issues… |
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