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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. |
25) There was still no rest for Fury in Strange Tales # 142 (Mar 1966) as Mentallo and the Fixer (who can whip up any kind of gizmo using whatever spare parts are at hand) attack Shield's underground New York headquarters. It was Kirby at his most imaginative as he comes up with one fantastic device after another (a "through the ground" tank, sound amplifying "Jericho tubes", static distorters and a mechanical "radar crab!"). The story ends in a cliffhanger as still another device is fastened to Fury's face, (altering the "cerebellar pattern of his brain!") and leaving him under the complete control of Mentallo and the Fixer! Meanwhile, Dr. Strange manages to detect the bomb hidden in his 'sanctum sanctorum' in time to get rid of it but then quickly falls prey to Mordo's now leaderless allies. He too has a mask affixed to his face but resemblances between the two stories ends there. Strange's mask prevents him from uttering spells while 'mittens' about his hands keep him from making mystic motions. Besides that, a spell prevents him from releasing his ectoplasmic self. From there, the story becomes an ingenious little puzzle as Strange (who manages to free his ectoplasmic self) is forced to escape his foes while sightless as well as powerless! When it started, this strip featured single issue stories most likely plotted by Lee and simply drawn by Ditko, but when the artist took over direct plotting of the series, he turned it into an organic whole, serializing the chapters (it may have been Ditko after all, who suggested the serial format to Lee for their collaboration on the Hulk feature in Tales to Astonish) as new plots, like scattered seeds, grew continuously out of the old.
26) Strange Tales # 143 (Apr 1966) concludes the Mentallo/Fixer storyline with "To Free a Brain Slave" in which Fury, now fastened to a "miniature H-bomb", is rescued by agents wearing "scramble helmets". The helmets prevent the agents' thoughts from being detected by Mentallo and enable them to sneak up behind the two bad guys and hit their own helmets with pellets that make them too hot to continue wearing. Ripping them off, Mentallo and the Fixer now become susceptible to extra sensory attack by Shield's ESP Division. What began strongly in # 141 with full Kirby pencils, ends here in a visual whimper with only layouts by the artist completed by Howard Purcell (with the exception of the first few pages which Kirby seems to have had the time to finish). In contrast, the Dr. Strange feature in the second half of the book looks great! Here, Roy Thomas replaces Lee on the writing chores as Ditko once again guides our hero from the predicament he was left in last issue (namely being struck blind and helpless in the face of Mordo's minions) and back on the trail of the hapless Clea. Stashing his vulnerable corporeal form (his physical body, natch!) inside a water tower, Strange uses his ectoplasmic form to retrieve his stolen cloak of levitation and use it as an offensive weapon to entangle and subdue one of his enemies. Then, in a confusing, multi-pronged battle, Ditko choreographs the struggle between Strange in his ectoplasmic form, his cloak of levitation, Mordo's disciple whom Strange controls mentally and the remainder of Mordo's followers still at large! It's a wonderful, even exhilarating sequence that only went to show just how far Ditko had come since the days of his five page mystery stories of the 1950s. It proved that with the proper encouragement, the right creative environment, some artists could produce material even they may never have suspected was in them. But it was just another dividend yielded by the Marvel way of doing things. |
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27) Well on its way to becoming just another war comic, the Sgt. Fury strip had lost much of its early vitality when Kirby left it for good with # 13. Although Lee kept the book interesting, even he couldn't prevent it from falling by the wayside in the face of the increasing popularity of the super-hero features. The situation wasn't helped by artist Dick Ayers who could come up with a solid cover now and then (# 26 is a fine example) but who couldn't maintain such a level of quality over many pages. Also, the emerging grand style of this phase of Marvel's history had little effect on the Fury title. Stories still tended to be single issue in length and characters, particularly the Howlers failed to develop much farther than they were when they first appeared. But as the grandiose years progressed, it became apparent that many of its elements were incompatible with the "a war book for people who hate war books". What the strip really needed was a heavy dose of hard hitting, reality based stories which the series had touched upon earlier in its run. They'd finally come, but too late to save the title from the ignominy of reprints and eventual cancellation. In the meantime, the early years of the title seemed to reach a climax of sorts in Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos # 29 (Apr 1966) as Fury's arch-enemy, Baron Strucker is ordered by Hitler to destroy an entire city in retaliation for past defeats by the Howlers. Aptly titled "Armageddon", the story (begun by Lee in # 28 and completed here by Roy Thomas), manages to give Strucker some personality by allowing him feelings of resentment towards and doubts about the sanity of his Fuhrer: "I have no desire to kill unarmed civilians to satisfy the power-mad maniac we call our Fuhrer!" In a showdown, Fury manages to get Strucker to evacuate the town before destroying it and then the two men settle their differences personally. Unfortunately, Ayers manages to make what should've been a slam-bang finish into a rather dull exchange of fisticuffs (sometimes blows were struck off panel, leaving readers with talking heads and with figures either about to spring into action or falling away from it!). Sales on Sgt. Fury during this period must've still been fairly strong however, because Marvel tried to duplicate it with new titles such as Capt. Savage and His Leatherneck Raiders and Combat Kelly and the Deadly Dozen. But neither lasted very long and Sgt. Fury wasn't far behind. By the twilight years, war comics at Marvel were dead; along with such other genres as westerns, romances and science fiction. The company it seemed, had become a victim of its own success.
28) When Fantastic Four # 49 (Apr 1966) opened with a splash page proclaiming "Galactus has landed on Earth!" and showing the startled, even fearful faces of the FF staring into the heavens, who could've predicted that it was the start of a tale unlike any ever seen in the history of comics? By now, Lee and Kirby had mastered all of the elements learned from trial and error during Marvel's first two phases and had already begun to apply them in a manner that can only be described as the grand style, with stories being played against backdrops of increasing power and grandeur. It seemed those years acted as a true apprenticeship for both of them. Accomplished professionals in the comics industry long before they teamed up for FF # 1, Lee and Kirby nevertheless couldn't have produced a story like this without having first passed through Marvel's early years and years of consolidation. In those few short years, Kirby's art had evolved from the accepted conventions of super-hero action (which he practically invented), to a style that seemed to transcend panel boarders and extend outward to embrace the whole world, the galaxy or the universe itself. Figures now had weight and heft, they dominated the scenes they were in and their activities seemed too much for even the borders of a full page illustration to hold. At the same time, Lee's writing style had also changed. He'd learned that there wasn't any need to "write down" to his readers, nor to skimp on words. Gradually, he learned to adapt his writing style to different features giving Thor a neo-Elizabethan patois, infused Spider-Man with a hip, with-it sensibility and even invented his own lingo for Dr. Strange. Eventually, Lee cut back on his verbiage and what he kept, became streamlined, more alliterative, even sing-song as language fell from the mouths of his characters as smoothly as honey. Sometimes, his lines could even approach the quality of poetry. Together, the vaulting talent of these two men could produce stories that were not only entertaining, but filled with power and wonder. The amazing thing is that they did it with such regularity and with such seeming ease. Take "If This be Doomsday" for example. Right off the bat the reader is presented with a full page drawing showing the towering figures of Galactus and the Watcher as they discuss the relative worth of human lives. The scene quickly segues onto a page divided boldly into large, quarter page panels effectively emphasizing the issue that's at stake. The FF try to show Galactus that he can't treat the human race with condescension but their efforts to get his notice prove hardly successful. Meanwhile, what about the Silver Surfer? After being batted away from atop the Baxter Building by the Thing last issue, he was rescued by the long arm of coincidence: taken in by Alicia, the Thing's girlfriend, he recuperates and has his first exposure with such human qualities as compassion and nobility. Alicia's pleadings with him to help the human race proves more fateful than any of the more direct action taken by the FF back at their headquarters. Then, as things look their bleakest, as Galactus completes the construction of his world devouring energy converter, the Watcher decides to break his vow of non-interference and sends the Human Torch "into the center of infinity" to retrieve "the one object that may stop Galactus!" Never did the stakes seem as high as they were in this story and though comic book villains had threatened the world before, never had the danger been conveyed as convincingly as it was here. Galactus was easily the most awesome menace ever to confront comic book heroes and he had no weak spots, neither physically nor emotionally. He even considered mankind no more intrinsically valuable than insects! The Torch expressed it best when he returned from the cosmic journey on which the Watcher had sent him: "I traveled through worlds…so big…so big…there…there aren't words…! We're like ants…just ants…ants!!"
29) It's been said before that the past is but prologue, and in the case of the Galactus trilogy that definitely holds true! If the culmination of everything Marvel had been doing, from the vaguely thought out early, formative years through the years of conscious consolidation to the full flowering of the grandiose years can be pinpointed in a single, representative tale, it would have to be this story. In fact, if the entire history of comics could be divided into two distinct eras, everything that came before and everything that came after, the defining moment would have to be Fantastic Four # 50 (May 1966). In it, Lee and Kirby (aided in no small measure by inker Joe Sinnott) reach their finest hour. Art and script mesh perfectly to tell the myth-tinged story of the fall of the Silver Surfer, a sinless angel who sacrifices his freedom for millions he doesn't even know ("…in truth, I should betray myself if I did not fight to prevent the annihilation of a people! For here…on this lonely little world…I have found what men call…conscience!") and the man-god Galactus who, despite the cold isolation that keeps him aloof from mankind, comes to realize at last the value of human life. Although the Surfer determines to defy his master, he's easily defeated by Galactus, but in doing so, buys time for the Watcher to guide the Torch back from the ends of the universe from which he's brought back the 'ultimate nullifier', a device that can "destroy a galaxy…to lay waste a universe!" "And, should the universe crumble…can Galactus survive?" asks Mr. Fantastic. "You did this!" Galactus accuses the Watcher. "You have given a match to a child who lives in a tinderbox!" But if this issue of the FF is accepted as the great creative dividing line in the history of comics, it's the contention here that that line can be refined even further, to that of a single page. The initial point of the "new universe" of comics that would emerge post-FF # 50 is page 9. Divided into quarter page panels, Kirby fills the four huge spaces with close-ups of the god-like figures of Galactus and the Watcher. Suiting their removed stature, the reader sees them looking downward or over their shoulders at the figures of the Fantastic Four (and perhaps of the teeming crowds far below the Baxter Building) who are too far below the picture plane to be seen. Lee's scripting here not only reads like a kind of blank verse, but infuses this story of energy bolts, cocoons of ethereal energy, solar destructogen and dimensional displacements with all the humanism, optimism and anthro-centrism that made Marvel's books the thrilling, even vaulting experience thousands of fans thought they were. "Though they are still in their infancy, you must not disdain them! Did not your race…and mine…evolve from such humble beginnings? Do they not possess the seed of grandeur within their frail human frames?" the Watcher asks Galactus. "So! For the first time…since the dawn of memory…my will has been thwarted! But I bear no malice! Emotion is for lesser beings!" On the next page, Galactus prepares to depart: "With those words, the towering figure of Galactus is transformed into a living, raging fury of pure power…as the very atoms in the air seem to crackle in elemental disarray…!" "The game is ended!" says Galactus. "The prize has eluded me! And at last I perceive the glint of glory within the race of man! Be ever worthy of that glory, humans…be ever mindful of your promise of greatness! For it shall one day lift you beyond the stars…or bury you within the ruins of war! The choice is yours!" "Get back, all of you!" warns Mr. Fantastic as Galactus makes his departure. "This sight was never meant for human eyes!" It was left to the Thing to have the final word: "Can't you ever get struck speechless, like the rest of us?" With a finish like that, readers couldn't be blamed if they'd expected the issue to end there, but it didn't! Once again, Kirby's loose plotting finishes a story in the middle of a book with the rest of it given over to the development of new plots: the Silver Surfer, now trapped on Earth, soars off to explore his new prison, a mysterious new villain vows to destroy the FF, Johnny attends his first day at Metro College where Coach Thorne has football problems and Reed and Sue experience marital difficulties. Whew!
30) With the triumph of the Galactus trilogy, Lee and Kirby had inadvertently forced themselves into a corner: how do you follow up a story that took all of mankind to the edge of extinction and back? In retrospect, the only answer was the one they came up with for Fantastic Four # 51 (Jun 1966), taking the action from an essentially impersonal perspective involving the fate of billions of anonymous human beings to a more intimate struggle between just two men. In what may have been the single most moving story in all of Silver Age Marvel, Lee and Kirby define what it means to be not only a man, but just a plain old member of the human race. Optimism, as has been shown, was always one of the main themes running through Marvel's books, whether expressing the belief that all men were basically good or that human beings as a race had a glorious destiny to fulfill. The latter was expressed in no uncertain terms in the just concluded Galactus storyline and now, in "This Man, This Monster", Lee and Kirby would remind readers of the former and do it in the new grand style. The story opens with the Thing wandering the rainy streets of New York, once more despondent over being trapped in the body of a monster. Befriended by a stranger and drugged, his body is used as the template by which the stranger transforms himself into a lookalike Thing. But who is this guy? It turns out he's one of the thousands of faceless scientists inhabiting the Marvel universe whose work can't help but fall in the shadow of the accomplishments of the brilliant Reed Richards. But unlike most of the others, this man (who isn't named in the story) is filled with envy and spite and personal failure that he blames on Richards. Determined to kill Mr. Fantastic, he's waited years for the chance to impersonate the Thing and infiltrate the Baxter Building. But then, a strange thing happens, exposed to the real man, he finds out everything he'd imagined about Richards is wrong, that he's actually modest, altruistic and completely self-sacrificing. Qualities that put the stranger to shame. "All these years, when I thought I never got the breaks, now I know the truth! It was my fault, nobody else's! I wouldn't work hard enough, I wouldn't make the sacrifices that a Reed Richards would…" His transformation begins with his arrival at the Baxter Building just as Richards is about to embark on his first trip into the Negative Zone (here called "sub-space"). Part of his efforts to learn the secret of FTL (Faster Than Light travel), he tells Sue and the stranger that he must take the personal risk in order give the Earth parity with such space faring entities as Galactus. In a staggering full page collage by Kirby, Lee's prose once again waxes almost poetic as the leader of the FF plunges into sub-space: "I'm drifting into a world of limitless dimensions! It's the crossroads of infinity, the junction to everywhere!" But the pursuit of knowledge sometimes comes at a high price and Richards soon realizes that he's being drawn toward certain doom. Signaling the faux Thing to pull him back to safety, he wonders why nothing is happening. But back on Earth, the stranger has a crisis of conscience: "All I gotta do is ignore him, and I'll have beaten the one man I've always envied, the one man no one else could ever defeat! But, all of a sudden, I don't envy him any more! I, I never knew how brave he was, how unselfish--!" Then in a dramatic, defining moment, the stranger, in trying to save his enemy, instead allows himself to be drawn into the Negative Zone. When he joins Richards, he gets bawled out for putting himself in danger. "…even now, he's worried more about me than himself!" he thinks. Then, at last coming to the full realization of how wrong he'd been, the stranger throws Richards back to safety, resigning himself to certain doom. "I'm not gonna feel sorry for myself! Not many men get a second chance, to make up for the rotten things they've done in their lifetime!" The reader is alerted to the stranger's death when, back on Earth, Ben Grimm suddenly reverts to the Thing and, dashing back to the Baxter Building, comes upon a grieving Reed and Sue. At last, they figure out what must've happened. "We'll never know what monstrous things he had done in the past, or, what monstrous plans he had made!" concludes Mr. Fantastic. "But one thing is certain, he paid the full price, and he paid it, like a man!" It's not often a comic magazine lives up to its potential, but with this coda to the Galactus trilogy, Lee and Kirby proved that the FF truly was "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine!"
31) After all the heavy action going on in such books as the FF and Thor, Daredevil # 16 (May 1966) must've come as a bit of a relief to shell-shocked fans! A throwback to the years of consolidation, this book featured the first of a two-part story involving a team up between DD and Spider-Man. But the real significance of this book is its artist. Up to now, Spidey had never strayed too far from his own title giving Ditko, who co-plotted the stories, the opportunity to define the look of the character on his own terms. But a rift had developed between he and Lee over what direction the Spider-Man book should take. Unable to compromise or to live with the fact that the editor had the final word, Ditko decided to leave Marvel. At the time of the release of this issue, Ditko had probably already left, but with enough warning, Lee had decided on his replacement. It would be a tough act to follow, but artist John Romita would not only do it, but make the Spider-Man book the top seller of the decade. Like Colan, Lee had recruited Romita from the competition's romance comics where he'd languished for years. But it hadn't always been so. Romita had worked for Lee years before, drawing the Captain America strip in the 1950s. But the company had changed radically since then and not least among those changes was the way Lee worked with his artists. Romita has admitted that he had trouble getting used to the new Marvel method that required the artist to plot out a story from a synopsis provided by the writer. To make the transition easier for him, Lee had Romita work over Kirby's layouts on his first assignment. A three-part story in DD # 13-15 followed, whose slow pace and lack of visual dynamism showed an artist who continued to struggle with the new way of doing things. But he got the hang of it fast, as this issue shows! Up to now, the DD title had been slow to get started. The early issues seemed to cast about for an approach to the character and when the art was taken over by Wally Wood, the strip was granted a semblance of cohesion. But still, there was little direction, little to give it its own personality. When Romita took over the art in # 13, Lee seemed to be trying to shake loose some of the cobwebs that had gathered around the strip, but it wasn't until this issue that he finally got a handle on it. Now, the book's cast of characters, Matt Murdock, law partner Foggy Nelson and secretary Karen Page began to work together in the style that'd worked for years on the Spider-Man strip. In addition, Lee introduced a new villain who'd return time and again to plague DD and whose identity, again like the Green Goblin in the Spider-Man book, would remain secret for some time. In his first appearance here, the Masked Marauder schemes to steal the blueprints for an advanced engine design and in order to distract Spider-Man (who's interfered with him before), he arranges for him to be attacked by some of his men disguised as Daredevil. And so, while the two heroes battle, the Marauder makes off with the plans. A twist ending has Spider-Man tracking DD to Matt Murdock's law office and, figuring Daredevil can't be a girl or a blind man, attacks Foggy!
32) Daredevil # 17 (Jun 1966) opens with a splash page (beneath a simple but elegant cover by Romita) showing Spider-Man dangling a hapless Foggy out of a window high above the street. Convinced that his spider-sense can't be wrong, but unable to get Foggy to admit being Daredevil, Spider-Man eventually leaves ("He sure is flabbier than I expected him to be!"), but his actions set in motion a hilarious (and dangerous!) sub-plot which has Foggy maintaining the pretence that he really is Daredevil in order to impress Karen! But that's a story for a future issue, at the moment, the Masked Marauder is still loose in the city and up to no good. Entitled "None Are so Blind", the story is filled with situations to which that line can apply: Spidey's mistaking Foggy for DD, the misunderstanding that leads to fighting between Daredevil and Spidey, Foggy's pretending to be DD, the Marauder's ability to temporarily blind his opponents. Bumping into each other while on the Marauder's trail, our heroes once again start fighting, but before Spidey has a chance to pulverize DD, he spots a giant dirigible sailing toward the World Motors building. Suspecting what's up, the two heroes team up and tackle the Marauder just as he and his men descend from the hovering blimp. The issue ends with the villain's plot foiled, but in making his getaway through the World Motors Building, a disguised Marauder runs into Foggy and Karen and overhears Foggy hinting that he's DD! Over the course of this issue and the one before it, Romita proved beyond doubt that he had what it took to be another successful addition to the growing Marvel bullpen. And if the story had also been intended as a dry run for taking over the Spider-Man book, it seemed that in Romita, Lee had found his man. |
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