|
this page on-line 17 Oct 2004 |
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
Page 12
Page 13
Page 14
Page 15
Page 16
|
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
|
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. |
17) Diametrically opposed to the familiar humanism of Ditko's Spider-Man was Kirby's Thor. Where Peter Parker struggled with family, friends and homework, Thor busied himself in combating a constant stream of awesome menaces that took him from the home of the gods to Earth, Hades and the furthest reaches of uncharted space. It was what made the Thor strip a flagship title (along with the FF), of the Grandiose Years. In fact, many of the adventures the Thunder God experienced in those places began immediately after the departure of inker Chic Stone (Kirby's collaborator during the 'Years of Consolidation'). Overnight it seemed, with Vince Colletta replacing Stone, the regular Thor strip acquired the same timeless, antique feel as Colletta's work over Kirby in the Tales of Asgard feature. The inking style changed the whole feel of the book, making even down-to-earth stories such as those featuring the return of the Absorbing Man seem grander than they would've been with Stone. Whether it was the inspiration of Colletta's inking, a continuation of the kind of stories that they'd been telling in Tales of Asgard or simply the trend that Marvel had been drifting towards through its first two phases, Lee and Kirby now launched the Thor strip into an unprecedented series of inter-connected stories whose structure was unlike anything done in comics before. Because of the division of work between the two men, (including Lee's increased reliance on Kirby for plotting the books they did together and a lighter editorial hand), stories began to wander. Each number featured a main story that might end unexpectedly in the middle of an issue (or might not!), ongoing plotlines that would become main stories and even subplots that never amounted to anything! For instance, in Journey Into Mystery # 125 (Feb 1966), we join Thor in the middle of a battle with the Demon, an African witch doctor who gained super-strength when he discovered a lost Norn Stone. Loki had used the stones to cheat during the trial of the gods back in # 116 and disposed of them on Earth before being found out by big daddy Odin. But Thor convinces Odin of Loki's trickery and goes to Earth to retrieve the stones. He finds most of them but then gets embroiled with the resurrection of the Destroyer in issues 118-119 and the return of the Absorbing Man in 120-123. In # 125 Thor finally wraps up the norn stone business in a contest with the Demon…which brings things back to the issue at hand, "When Meet the Immortals," which doesn't refer to the Thor/Demon fight at all but to the opening scenes in the rematch of the millennium: Thor vs Hercules! Here's the set-up: Thor has been separated from his girlfriend Jane Foster for who knows how long (what with all the fighting he's been doing!), then gets caught by Odin for disobeying his wishes and telling Jane about his secret (Don Blake) identity. As punishment, Thor has to endure the 'Ritual of Steel' and even if he wins, is barred from ever returning to Earth! Of course Thor pulls through and disobeying Odin again, escapes to Earth. Meanwhile, Hercules has arrived on Earth himself (sent there by Zeus on a mysterious 'mission' that's never referred to again!) and has not only gotten himself a Hollywood contract but is making time with Jane! By now, Thor is not in a good mood and any reader who paid attention could see what was coming next: a patented, Marvel bludgeoning battle issue, that's what! But suffering fans would have to wait until the next issue to see it! Although the spirit of the Grandiose Years would affect nearly every Marvel title, there were only two strips that captured it so perfectly as to establish them as the flagships of the movement: the Fantastic Four and Thor. In a way, by loosening the editorial reins on Kirby, Lee had allowed his partner to change the character of Silver Age Marvel from its more humanistic beginnings to a colder, more technologically dominated one. Kirby's wildly creative talent was so powerful, it tended to pull everything else after it. To keep that from happening and at the same time to suffuse Kirby's work with the humanity necessary to make it meaningful to readers, would require someone with an equally compelling vision. Fortunately, Stan Lee was that person.
18) That equally compelling vision couldn't have been made more plain than in a great symbolic sequence in The Mighty Thor # 126 (Mar 1966) (the book had finally made the change from 'Journey Into Mystery' to the name of its title character). There, despite their similar powers, the two antagonists couldn't be more different: Thor is earnest and melancholy, having long since learned his lesson in humility and responsibility; Hercules is the way Thor was before he became Don Blake, careless, insensitive, a party animal. The two begin slugging it out, ostensibly over Jane, but really begun by Thor more or less because he needed an outlet for the expression of his frustrations. To Hercules, it's mostly all fun and a chance to settle once and for all the question of who's the strongest (a contest begun in Journey Into Mystery Annual # 1). "Hah! How puny are the products of mere mortals! How they shatter and crumble before the might of Hercules!" But as the battle continues, playing havoc with private property, there comes a point where Thor comes to his senses. "Strength alone is a hollow virtue, son of Zeus! Without conscience, without respect for those who may be weaker than thee, thy power rests only on pillars of sand!" So even as Kirby revels in the growing grandeur of his art, in the titanic proportions of his imagery, Lee, in a few well chosen words, manages to bring it all back down to earth, to ground the incredible events taking place in sentiments every bit as powerful as any of Kirby's monumental quarter and full page panels. This one scene, symbolic of the two men's approach to their work, is in microcosm what the Grandiose Years were all about, a blending of sensibilities that kept the grand style in equilibrium, neither tilting toward scenes of empty combat nor to those dominated by mawkish sentimentality. Lee and Kirby were simply the greatest creative team in the history of comics! |
|
19) The Mighty Thor # 127 (Apr 1966) is an interim issue between the continuing Thor/Hercules storyline and another example of the kind of rambling plotting that ruled Kirby drawn books at this time. Returning to Asgard to settle things with Odin, Thor finds things aren't what they're supposed to be beyond the Rainbow Bridge. During his fight with Hercules the issue before, Thor was stripped of his godly power by his father as punishment for leaving Asgard in # 125. Weakened and defeated by Hercules, Thor can't face Jane and decides to confront his father and settle things between them. But unknown to him Odin, who couldn't bring himself to punish Thor personally, transferred his own power to “trusted” advisor, Seidring. Seduced by possession of the Odin Power, Seidring attacks Odin and seeks to make himself master of Asgard. In a game of chicken, Seidring blinks as Thor threatens to pull the OdinSword from its scabbard (bringing on Ragnarok, the twilight of the gods!) if he doesn't return the Odin Power to its rightful owner. Meanwhile, back on Earth, Hercules finds himself in Hollywood, the victim of an unscrupulous booking agent (so what else is new?).
20) It seemed as if Lee and Kirby weren't sure whose name should go beneath the logo of The Mighty Thor # 128 (May 1966), Thor or Hercules, because with the neat division of pages between scenes of Thor recuperating from his battle with Seidring the issue before and those of Hercules' adventures in Hollywood, a reader couldn't be blamed for being slightly confused! Another example of the wayward plotting that had overtaken Kirby's full-length book assignments, this issue was devoted to concurrent sub-plots, marking time before the main story involving Thor and Hercules got going again in # 129. Shifting back and forth between Asgard and H-wood though, the reader had a chance to see Kirby tackle the domestic side of Asgardian life in scenes such as a recuperating Thor being examined by physicians, Thor on a relaxing hunting trip with pal Balder and Thor in mock combat with the voluminous Volstagg. Meanwhile in tinseltown, Hercules proves to be a soft touch when he's duped into signing an ironclad 'Olympian pact' that forces him to exchange places with Pluto as the ruler of the Netherworld. Of course, he resists and just as things seem the most hopeless, enter Thor, recovered and looking for a rematch with the Prince of Power. But seeing Hercules' predicament, Thor chooses to help him instead. Would Lee and Kirby ever get back to the main plot? Stay tuned!
21) Things move into high gear in The Mighty Thor # 129 (June 1966) with "The Verdict of Zeus" (apparently the issues leading up to this one were but prologue!). It begins innocuously enough with one of those little vignettes that Lee and Kirby would often use to contrast Thor (usually on his way to, in the middle of or just finishing up some impossibly cosmic, earth shattering adventure) with the average man on the street. Here, Thor is rescued from a pressing crowd by a New York cabbie who in effect, summarizes what made Marvel's heroes so much more interesting than their two dimensional counterparts at the competition: "The way I see it, you ain't much different than a guy like me! I'll betcha you worry about dames, 'n politics, 'n the world series just like me 'n everybody else!" Lee couldn't have made Marvel's approach to its heroes any more plain than that! Then, carrying the point further, the reader is told in effect, that he can be every bit the hero in his normal life as the heroes in the comics. "But I been around too!" says the cabbie. "I caught me a bullet at Anzio, in the big war!" "Then you too have done your share for freedom!" says Thor with a look on his face that shows neither surprise nor condescension. "Yeah, just like you! In spite of them crazy golden curls, you're an A-1 joe in my book!" The transition from this domestic scene to the next couldn't be more jarring as the action moves directly to Mount Olympus where the gods are at play. Suddenly, Pluto appears to inform Zeus that his son has signed an Olympian pact to become ruler of the Netherworld. With no choice but to enforce the contract, Zeus tells Hercules that he must honor the agreement. But there's one way out: if Hercules can find a champion to fight and defeat the hordes of Hades in his stead. What follows is a lesson in humility that changes the Prince of Power forever and transforms what might have been a hollow slugfest into a story worthy of the actual myths that inspired it. Approaching everybody he knows in Olympus to ask them if they'd risk Hades for him (Ares despises his 'blustering manner' and 'vain conceit' while Apollo just hasn't got the time), Hercules soon learns that his overblown ego has rendered him friendless. "For the first time since the dawn of consciousness, Hercules knows at last, the meaning of, fear!" But then, just as he's about to be ushered into his new kingdom, Thor comes to the rescue!
22) Despite their seemingly inexhaustible supply of inventiveness, Lee and Kirby could still resort to shameless cliché when the need arose. So it was with Thor's coincidental arrival in Olympus to fight for Hercules. It seems that, showing up in Asgard last issue, he was told by Odin of a conveniently timed prophecy which called for him to go to limbo and "stake all, on behalf of another!" It was there that he hears Hercules wondering aloud that "…somewhere in the vast, limitless universe there must be one, one who will heed my call--!" And so begins "Thunder in the Netherworld," the climactic chapter to one of the greatest heroic sagas in the history of comics. Thor would have other grand adventures with Ego the Living Planet, the Enchanters, the High Evolutionary and even Galactus, but somehow none would capture so perfectly the feel of ancient myth, of the epic events of such classics of western literature as the Iliad and the Odyssey. But more importantly, was the story's overarching theme (familiar to readers of the Amazing Spider-Man but not often associated with Marvel's other features) that with great power there must also come great responsibility. It was set up nicely in the opening chapters with the naïve but vain Hercules, reckless in the use of his strength meeting Thor, his wiser, more serious counterpart. Then came their clash in a monumental battle that highlighted Hercules' insensitivity while emphasizing Thor's awareness of the responsibilities of power. His lesson still unlearned Hercules, then doomed to banishment to Hades, learns that his carelessness has left his life friendless and empty. Meanwhile, Thor recuperates in Asgard, surrounded by a caring group of family and friends. The lesson so far is obvious: honor and maturity earn the reward of recognition and love, vanity and a lack of sympathy bring only resentment and loneliness. The Mighty Thor # 130 (July 1966) is the payoff as Thor battles the assembled might of the Netherworld to free Hercules: Cerberus, guardian of the entrance to Hades, an army of monstrous demons armed with the most outlandish weaponry ever imagined and even Pluto himself. Art by the Kirby/Colletta team meanwhile, is equal to the outscale spectacle while Lee's script is tinged with all the drama and power called for in the pictures. At last, unable to tolerate seeing his kingdom destroyed, Pluto calls a halt to the carnage and declares Thor the winner. But the real winner is Hercules. Not only is he freed from the Netherworld, but he finds the first real friend he's ever had and learns a valuable lesson too. "What riotous revels we shall enjoy together! What battles we shall share at each others' side!" says Hercules. "…my hammer swings only for justice, never for the thrill of battle alone!" replies Thor. "But what good then to be a god?" asks Hercules. "Thy careless query Hercules, is far more profound than thou suspect!" It was the Grandiose Years writ large and what other comics before or since, ever inspired such positive values as those expressed here? If there were well written comics before silver age Marvel, they generally dwelled on the horrors of war or crime and if they came afterwards, they were permutated by the cynicism and moral relativism of the post-Reagan era. Lee, Kirby and the rest of the Marvel bullpen may well have represented the last openly optimistic generation in comics.
23) If Don Heck had been one of the three most important artists working at Marvel in the 'Early Years' and the 'Years of Consolidation', then Tales of Suspense # 73 (Jan 1966) has to be considered one of the milestones by which the transition into the grandiose years is marked. Heck's departure from the strip in # 73 would leave him with the Avengers as his only regular feature. In another year, he would be gone from that book too and henceforth appeared only sporadically in various titles, his peak creative years with the company over. As if to underscore the change from the less serious years of consolidation to the more dramatically inclined grandiose years, his replacement on the Iron Man strip would become one of the mainstays of the company until completely dominating its artistic talent in the twilight years. Appearing at first under the pseudonym of Adam Austin, veteran artist Gene Colan's style was more sophisticated than Heck's, in fact more sophisticated than any other artist working at Marvel including Kirby and Ditko. (Just compare it to the Kirby/George Tuska art for the Captain American strip in the second half of this book!) However brilliant their artistic styles, it was Colan's photographic realism that set him apart from everyone else and made him the most suited of all Marvel's artists to portray characters and situations in the 'relevant' kind of stories that would become more prevalent as the years passed. In the meantime however, his style brought a new three-dimensional quality to Tony Stark, Senator Byrd and the strip's other cast of characters that proved perfect for the growing mood of oppression that would soon overtake the feature. And Colan's interpretation of Iron Man was so dynamic that it would eventually eclipse Heck's and, rightly or wrongly, become the definitive version. But for now, Colan hit the ground running with a fabulous cover of Iron Man in aerial combat with the Black Knight and interior artwork that's positively eye-popping! It's hard to believe that after the great sequence here of Iron Man moving through the darkened corridors of the Black Knight's castle that Colan had been relegated to romance comics and the occasional war book at the competition for years! Getting him over to Marvel was easily one of the most inspired decisions editor Lee ever made.
24) But what was a strong point for Colan, had always been a weak spot for Kirby. Returning to do full pencils on the SHIELD strip in Strange Tales # 141 (Feb 1966), Kirby opened the 12 page story with climactic scenes involving the end of Hydra (whom SHIELD had been at war with since # 135), segued quickly into a presentation of SHIELD's ESP research and finished with the Fixer's dramatic escape from prison. Again, Kirby's open-ended plotting style is in full play here with the first 7 pages given over to the end of the Hydra storyline and the rest devoted to the beginning of the Mentallo/Fixer plot. With all that going on, there was no opportunity for readers to find out anything about Nick Fury or the strip's cast of supporting characters. There was so much going on in fact, that Lee was hardly able to let readers know what they were thinking! This was Kirby's great weakness in the Silver Age (and in fact in much of his work anywhere else); the inability to perceive his characters as anything but empty costumes. If not for his teaming with Lee, it's doubtful that any of the features he drew, regardless of their visual beauty, would've been any more successful than the other super-hero strips he worked on immediately before and after his stint at Marvel. In the early days, Lee managed to get Kirby to include such character building scenes as "A Visit With the Fantastic Four" in FF # 11, but as the Grandiose Years progressed, scenes like that appeared less and less. In the Twilight Years, when Lee had abandoned everything in the production of the FF and Thor but the scripting, characterization had all but disappeared. Contrast Kirby's books at Marvel in the Years of Consolidation and the Grandiose Years with strips where presumably Lee had more direct control: Daredevil, Avengers and Iron Man. The interest level of those books were driven by the force of the characters' personalities and the strength of their supporting casts. There was very little of that in Kirby's books where Lee was forced to inject characterization wherever he could. In this issue for instance, the character of the daughter of the Imperial Hydra, who rushes to his side after he'd been shot dead by his own agents, could've been developed into an interesting supporting player, but there was no time! She disappears on page 6 and never shows up again. Meanwhile, after mopping up operations and visiting SHIELD's ESP Division, Fury himself seems to wonder why Kirby never gives him a break: "They didn't even gimme a chance to grab some grub!" But before he can even think of eating, Fury is struck down by alarm waves. It seems that Operation Brain Blast is an attempt to recreate the power SHIELD had in one man, Mentallo, before he was drummed out of the organization for trying to take it over himself. Mentallo however, hasn't given up, teaming with an ex-convict named the Fixer, he plans to attack SHIELD. But all that was only for openers! The second half of this book features the latest chapter in the Lee/Ditko Dr. Strange serial in which our hero has been captured by Baron Mordo and taken to the evil, other-dimensional being named Dormammu. But the effect of Mordo's banishment to the 'dimension of demons' and Strange's defeat of Dormammu this issue (in hand to hand combat using mystic pincers!) only leads to more challenges arising out of his larger struggle with them. First Dormammu (who has promised Strange not to threaten Earth), taunts him with the sight of Clea (a girl who'd helped Strange when he found himself stranded in Dormammu's realm) being exiled to an unknown dimension, then the Ancient One tells him that before he can rescue her he must first deal with leftover evil that Mordo had scattered over the Earth when he was loose, and finally, unknown to him, Mordo's allies have planted a bomb in Strange's home set to go off at any time!the next eight issues… |
|
