70 Years of Marvel - 2007

One of the highlights of 2007 was this little gem, MODOK's 11, in which the Big Giant Head recruits a couple of fistfuls of followers, including second-stringers like Mentallo, the Armadillo, and the Chameleon, to commit the ultimate robbery. With the rest of the Marvel Universe getting increasingly grim and gritty, this was a nice lighthearted little romp, and got Fred Van Lente his first start in the Marvel Universe proper.

Other than this, most books in 2007 revolved around either the fallout from Civil War, the consequences of the Annihilation Event, or the Hulk's invasion of New York. The Spider-Books were being culled left, right, and centre, whilst Spidey himself was making a deal with the devil to save his Aunt May. Elsewhere, JMS was being recruited to revamp Thor, Captain America was getting shot, and Iron Man was being appointed Director of SHIELD. The world was getting weirder, that was for sure.

70 Years of Marvel - 2006

By 2006, "event comics were rampant at Marvel. We had, in no particular order:

X-Men: Deadly Genesis - in which Ed Brubaker finally answered the question of who Cyclops and Havok's mystery brother was, about a decade after anyone had last expressed an interest in finding this out. The third brother, Vulcan, believed dead, and erased from the memories of everyone who met him (by that good guy, Professor X), came back from the dead, kidnapped the X-Men, killed Banshee, then went off into space to conquer the Shi'ar Empire.

Civil War - in which Mark Millar spins a yarn in which the New Warriors accidentally blow up a school, and the superhero community is torn in half, with factions arguing for and against superhero registration led by Iron Man and Captain America respectively, Spider-Man reveals his secret identity to the world, and Hank Pym builds a clone of Thor.

Planet Hulk - in which Mr Fantastic, Iron Man, Black Bolt and Dr Strange decide to exile the Hulk into space, accidentally sending him to a planet of enslaving insects, whom he proceeds to conquer. Planet Hulk's writer, Greg Pak, would subsequently return the Hulk to Earth to kick some arse, but this was a far superior tale.

Annihilation - in which Annihilus and his Negative Zone pals try to conquer the "Positive" Universe. Used by Keith Giffen and others as a means to jumpstart Marvel's "cosmic" characters, who had been somewhat underused in recent years.

Additionally, 2006 saw the Black Panther marry the X-Men's Storm, Warren Ellis launch Nextwave, comedy misadventures of some b-list heroes, and Neil Gaiman relaunch the Eternals. In all, a busy year for Marvel's marketing department.

70 Years of Comics - 1987

1987 saw Walt Simonson bring to a close his four-year run on Thor, a run which he'd used to reestablish Thor's godly credentials. Simonson had used ever Norse legend out there, up to and including Ragnarok. In the process, Thor had been mostly pulled out of his usual interactions with the rest of the Marvel Universe, although he would still be involved in major events like the Siege of Avengers Mansion and the Morlock Massacre. For most of the run, Simonson was both writing and drawing the book, though for the later issues the art was handled by workhorse Sal Buscema, who showed he was just as capable at handling the epic stuff as he had been the day-to-day activities of Peter Parker and Bruce Banner. Like Frank Miller's run on Daredevil, Simonson's run on Thor has never been matched; unlike Miller's run, no-one's even come close to matching Simonson.

1987 was the year that Steve Rogers was replaced in the Captain America suit by John Walker, who would later be better known as the U.S. Agent. It also saw Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson marry move in together, setting a fine example to the youth of America.

1987 also saw Terry Waite kidnapped in Beirut, where he'd spend the next 4 years in captivity. Ronald Reagan and Oliver North were embroiled in the Iran-Contra Affair. And despite Michael Fish's assurances to the contrary, there was a hurricane coming to the south of England.

My First Comics

I may never know which Borders comics fan's mum decided to turf out his November and December-dated Marvel comics, but it was my good fortune that, rather than binning them, she instead donated them to one of the stalls at the Liberal Party's pre-Christmas Bazaar. At the event, where I was dragged by my mum and dad, not only did I get to meet the impressively-statured Cyril Smith, I was confronted with a selection of comics of which, until then, I was sadly unaware.


Alpha Flight #4 & #5 (both by John Byrne)
Alpha Flight #4 featured the tail end of a multi-parter in which the so-called Master of the World attempted to conquer the world, using Marrina the Fish-Girl. It also featured the Invisible Girl and Sub-Mariner, and introduced the idea of Aurora's multiple personality disorder. Issue #5 featured the dwarf, Puck, investigating a drug-smuggling ring based out of a hospital. For a comic featuring only one character I'd even heard of, Alpha Flight had me hooked from the start.


Fantastic Four #260 & #261 (both also by John Byrne)
FF #260 introduced me to the FF's nemesis, Doctor Doom (I may have been aware of him from things like the Spider-Man cartoons, but it would be a very vague awareness), and, before the end of the issue, had killed him off, in a battle between the Silver Surfer and Tyros. This was also the end of a multi-parter, but was also reasonably straightforward to fathom. Alpha Flight #4 was set immediately between #260 and #261, introducing me to the idea of crossovers between titles. #261 had the FF off in space, bumping into the Watcher, and had the team trying to justify not having let Galactus die in an earlier issue. This was a bit of a mystery, but by the end of the book, I pretty much understood what it was all about. The issue also featured a recap of the FF's origin, which was handy for newbies like me.


Amazing Spider-Man #246 & #247 (by Roger Stern and John Romita Jr)
ASM #246 was, essentially, an imaginary story, in which J. Jonah Jameson, Mary Jane Watson, the Black Cat, and Spidey himself daydreamed about their perfect day. Oddly, whilst Jameson and the Cat's dreams ended well, neither Mary Jane or Peter Parker were able to sustain their delusion, suggesting that both have some psychological issues to deal with. #247 featured Spidey teaming up with the fabulous Frog Man, a hunt for the Hobgoblin, and a mystery villain, Thunderball (of the Wrecking Crew). It would be years before I would find out who Thunderball is, and I have no idea to this day about Frog Man. The Hobgoblin was another story, of course.


Spectacular Spider-Man #84 (by Bill Manto and Dave Simons) and #85 (by Mantlo and Al Milgrom)
PPTSSM #84 featured Spidey hunting down a gang of child abductors, and was a purely self-contained story. #85, on the other hand, had the Hobgoblin show up to take on Spidey and the Black Cat. It also, handily, showed the story so far of the Hobgoblin, and featured Peter Parker having a get together with his old college friends, including Harry Osborn, which in turn introduced me to the history of the Green Goblin, which made Spider-Man's obsession with the Hobgoblin a lot more explicable.


Avengers #237 & #238 (both by Roger Stern and Al Milgrom)
Avengers #237 featured Spider-Man trying out for the team, an event alluded to in Spidey's own book, and had the Avengers fighting a whole load of supervillains in Project Pegasus. Looking back, I'm not sure why I accepted supervillains being imprisoned with their costumes on, but it's not something that gave me cause for concern at the time. Issue #238 had the Vision, in a coma due to an earlier battle, recover unexpectedly, showed the She-Hulk househunting, and featured a last-page appearance by Tigra and the ghost of Spider-Woman, the last of which confused the heck out of me.


Captain America #288 (by JM DeMatteis and Mike Zeck)
Set in the future world of 1993, this featured Cap teaming up with the cyborg, Deathlok, to take on the ruler of a destroyed New York. This was pretty much double-dutch to me at the time, and since I didn't have the next issue, it would be a long time before I'd find out how Cap stopped the imminent destruction of the world.

Daredevil #202 (by Dennis O'Neil and William Johnson)
This book had Matt Murdock's firm hired by an African tribe do do PR for their boss, Micah Synn. Micah turns out to be a nutjob, prone to dangling policemen out of windows. As a one-shot, it does a fine job of introducing DD and his significant others, and as an introduction to Micah Synn, it made me want to read more about him, which handily was what Denny O'Neil intended.


Defenders #125 (by JM DeMatteis and Don Perlin)
My first issue of Defenders featured the departure of the original team, the wedding of Patsy Walker and Daimon Hellstrom, and a new team being formed. it also featured an Elf. Much of this made little sense, but thankfully, there was a handy letters page which clarified some of what was going on.

The Thing #5 (by John Byrne and Ron Wilson)
This book had Ben Grimm getting beaten up, for no readily apparent reason, by Wonder Man, She-Hulk, and Spider-Man, before being possessed by his old foe, the Puppet Master. I didn't know at the time who the Puppet Master was, nor why he was out to get the Thing, so this was a less successful introduction to the book, but since the book was essentially an FF spin-off, it wasn't too much of a problem.


Incredible Hulk #289 (by Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema)
The Hulk was intelligent at this point in his history, which seemed odd at the time, less so now. It had MODOK setting the Abomination to attack Bruce Banner, who was working for the government on gamma ray research - which with hindsight seems less logical than the Hulk's intelligence. Mostly the issue involved Hulk beating up the Abomination, which for a Hulk book is pretty much what you'd expect.

Marvel Team-Up #135 (by Bill Mantlo, again, and Ron Frenz)
This issue featured Kitty Pryde (note the lack of codename) rescuing some kidnapped children from the Morlock tunnels, with the help of Spider-Man. I didn't know who the Morlocks were at the time, and I'm not sure why they were kidnapping people, but it was a decent enough tale, at the time.


The Mighty Thor #337 (by Walt Simonson)
This was a flummoxer. Thor lost his powers, whilst an alien invader gets them. Nick Fury turns up, with little explanation of who he is and why he has a flying car and a helicarrier. And out in space, someone is forging something big. Now, having read the succeeding two years worth of issues, I know this is a classic, but at the time, it was not a good first issue. Not at all.

Uncanny X-Men #175 (by Chris Claremont, Paul Smith and John Romita Jr)
Speaking of confusing first issues, this issue features the wedding of Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor, the return of Dark Phoenix, and Mastermind looking for revenge against the team for what Phoenix had done to him. Confusing stuff, but with enough exposition (this was a Claremont book) to make it explicable.

So there you have it. My first 18 Marvel books. Some classics, and some, less than classic, but enough to get an 11 year-old me hooked on the things, if not for life, then at least for the forseeable future. To my bank manager's horror.

70 Years of Marvel - 1983

1983 was a big year for Iron Man. Tony Stark, the original party animal, had always liked a drink, but this was the year that a business rival, Obadiah Stane, took advantage of Stark's weakness for the sauce, creating a set of circumstances to push him deep into a bottle. Consequently, Stark became bankrupt, losing his company, and his pilot / sidekick, Jim Rhodes, was forced to take over using the armour. Stark spent most of 1983 in various states of drunkenness, and it would a couple of years before he'd be back in the Iron Man suit. Rhodes, meantime, would get his own suit of armour, dubbed War Machine, and spend the next 25 years participating in the storylines deemed too racy, adult, or violent for Iron Man.

Meantime, 1983 also saw Starfox, half-brother of Thanos, make his debut as superhero, and saw Jack Monroe, retconned sidekick to the retconned Captain America of the 1950s, back in action as the new Nomad. Over in the UK, Captain Britain's sister, Betsy Braddock, was starting out on a path that would end up with her becoming the X-Men's Psylocke. Beta-Ray Bill was being given the power of Thor. Colossus' little sister, Illyana, was becoming ruler of Limbo, in the Magik mini-series. And Rogue, member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, ditched her old gang and went off to join the X-Men.

In the real world, NATO decided to pretend to start World War 3, an exercise known as Able Archer 83, and as a result, the Soviets nearly launched a real one. Whoops.

Thor's Personality Profile

Journey Into Mystery #101-102, February - March 1964.
(By Lee, Kirby, George Roussos & Chic Stone)


Arrogance!


Selfishness!


Domineering Parentage!


Whiny!


Persistent Foes!


Still Arrogant!


Still Whiny!


Arrogance, Gullibility, and Something of a Lack of Imagination!


Equally Gullible Parent!


Sulky!


Not As Dumb As He Seems!


Really Sulky!


Determined!


Too Fond of Exposition for his Own Good!


Poor Anticipation Skills!


Reckless!


Definitely Not as Dumb as He Seems!

Oh, and about Thor's hammer:

Seriously, why doesn't he use it every other issue to save the day? I know I would...

The Avengers Meet ... Sub-Mariner!

Avengers #3, January 1964.
(By Lee, Kirby, and Reinman)

So, where were we? Ah yes, the Avengers, a team consisting of Iron Man, Thor, Ant-Man (now Giant Man), the Wasp, and the Hulk. Only, the Hulk's not much of a team player, so he's quit the team. Needless to say, the Avengers don't want to leave him wandering the deserts of the United States, so they're on his tracks. Cue a few gratuitous cameos:


Yes, the Marvel Universe has quickly become a unified body, in a way that DC rarely managed at that time. We've had cameos, guest appearances, but not yet a full-blown crossover. Watch this space.

Anyhoo, fortunately, the Hulk's old pal, Rick Jones, has managed to track down the Green Goliath, and he can always be relied on to do the right thing.


Even if the right thing, in this case, is to nark out the guy who saved his life a few months ago. Cheers, Rick..!

So, the Avengers show up to take down the Hulk, who's not so keen on a reunion with his former co-workers.


He's a shrewd one, that Hulk. He knows better than to trust Tony Stark as far as he can throw him, and history will vindicate that opinion. Naturally, conflict ensues, including an almighty broohaha aboard a speeding train.


Lucky for the Hulk, his cunning flour bomb catches pretty much the only Avenger who doesn't have any way of avoiding being blinded by the smoke screen - if only he had super-lungs or some other get-out.

And in case you were wondering, yes, the Hulk has not yet arrived at his "Hulk smash puny fish man!" persona.

And speaking of puny fish men...


Namor has just (in Fantastic Four Annual #2) been thwarted in his plan to invade the surface world, and has been abandoned by his own people, to boot. And, like the Hulk, he's got a serious grudge against humanity.


Yes, it's time for a Super-Villain Team-Up! Agreeing to work together to defeat the Avengers, the two rogues start out on stage one of their plan: the invasion of Gibraltar!

You heard me.


You see, Gibraltar has a network of caves under it, filled with military ordinance left over from WW2. Useful if a gang of superheroes turns up to arrest you, I suppose, although I'm surprised that Subby doesn't have any weapons lying around in that underwater kingdom of his.

The Avengers waste no time in setting out to confront their foes, but the Sub-Mariner is well-prepped.


However, no amount of preparation can take the place of team-work, and that, tragically, is what Subby and the Hulk are missing:


Yes, apparently, the Hulk and the Sub-Mariner have been watching too much tag-team wrestling, and are unaware of the benefits of, say, both fighting at the same time.

The result is fairly inevitable:


Bruce "Must shout out my secret identity!" Banner flees the scene, whilst Sub-Mariner decides that discretion is the better part of valour.


So, if you fight well, Thor will let you go free? That doesn't seem to be a very sensible attitude for the forces of law and order. I'm with Iron Man on this one.

The Coming Of The Avengers!

Avengers #1, September 1963
(By Lee, Kirby, and Dick Ayers)

So, what do you do when you've got a whole raft of superheroes kicking arse and taking names on a regular basis? Team them up, that's what! Taking a leaf from the Distinguished Competition, Stan and Jack decided to take their new generation of superheroes, Thor, Iron Man, Ant-Man, Wasp, and the Hulk, and shove them in a book together. Interesting to note that they chose not to crowbar Spider-Man into the title, establishing his outsider credentials early on.

But, you might ask, what mighty threat to bring together four of the most exciting heroes of the Marvel Universe together, along with Hank Pym? None other than Thor's evil step-brother, Loki, engaging in that well-known supervillain plot, "Hey, let's you and him fight!" Banished to a remote island for his latest scheme, Loki decides to use the Hulk to destroy Thor


Loki swiftly frames the green goliath, making it appear he attacked a railway line, almost causing a disaster. When news of this hits the papers, teen sidekick, Rick Jones, decides to enlist the Fantastic Four to help his big pal. But...


(Donald Blake is, as longtime readers know, the secret identity of the Mighty Thor!)

Thor races off to find the Hulk. However, Loki's cleverly guided radio transmission has gone awry.


Before you know it, every spare hero in New York has descended on the southwest United States, and a potential team-up is in the offing. Fortunately, Loki can always count on Thor being a jackass.


And where is the real Hulk? Glad you asked.


Apparently, the owners of the circus, in a world which constantly doubts the existence of the Hulk, are readily prepared to believe that a giant green robot with superstrength just happened to wander into town, and have swiftly hired "Mechano" to entertain the masses. Putting his stronger allies to shame, Ant-Man decides to take down the Hulk single-handedly, with only an army of ants to help him.


Needless to say, 10 million ants are no match for an angry Hulk, so the capture plan rapidly goes wonky. Iron Man decides to have a go, but...


Meanwhile, in a leap of comic book logic, Thor has fathomed that Loki is behind his trip to New Mexico, and has gone to confront him, not realising that this is part of Loki's plan.


That Loki's a cunning one, right enough, though why he didn't just post Thor a letter inviting him to come and visit him, I'm not sure. Anyway, to no-one's real surprise, Thor beats up the trolls, grabs up his brother, and returns to Earth, just in time to stop Iron Man and the Hulk beating seven bells out of each other. Shame.

As the heroes are about to go their seperate ways, Ant-Man makes the speech the readers have been waiting 22 pages to hear:


So there you have it. Loki's cunning ruse, intended to destroy his brother, ends up bringing about his own downfall, and giving Thor some new pals to play with. That there, folks, is hubris. Can't beat a good bit of hubris.