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 - 1988

Excalibur had been devised in 1987, in the aftermath of the two X-Events: the Morlock Massacre, which had seen Kitty Pryde and Nightcrawler injured and forced to retire from the team; and The Fall Of The Mutants, in which the rest of the X-Men had been apparently killed (in fact, they hadn't died, they'd just gone to Australia, but that's another story). For no particularly good reason, Kitty and Nightcrawler, along with Cyclops' daughter from a possible future, Rachel, teamed up with Marvel UK's Captain Britain, and his girlfriend, Meggan, moved to London and embarked on a series of trans-dimensional adventures. The best of these adventures were written and drawn by Chris Claremont and Alan Davis, and no-one else really seemed to have a feel for how to write this book, which mostly turned into just another X-Book, except for a brief stint where Warren Ellis tried out some of the superhero noir stuff which would make him a name on Image's Stormwatch a few years later.

Elsewhere, in '88, Speedball the Masked Marvel was making his debut, courtesy of Tom DeFalco and Marvel legend, Steve Ditko.

In the real world, 1988 saw the Lockerbie Disaster, and George Bush Sr winning the US Presidential Election. On TV, tiresome sci-fi show, Red Dwarf, was using up money which might have been better spent elsewhere, and Roseanne Barr was making a star out of John Goodman, whilst Roger Rabbit was the talk of Hollywood.

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 - 1969

As you can see from the picture above, 1969 saw the first appearance of Havok, who was the long-lost brother of the X-Men's Cyclops. Well, one of them anyway.

1969 also saw the arrival of the 31st century Guardians of the Galaxy, as opposed to the 21st century whom I've come to love in recent years. In the pages of Captain America, a new hero was appearing, the Falcon, which gave the Marvel universe the grand total of 2 black heroes. (DC fans needn't gloat, since it'd be the mid-70s before they managed even one black hero.)

Meanwhile, in 1969, Tricky Dickie was being sworn in as President. The Beatles were splitting up. And man was landing on the moon. On the television, kid's icon, Scooby Doo made his debut, as did Monty Python's Flying Circus, as well as the endlessly-popular Benny Hill. At the pictures, Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper were Easy Riders, whilst Michael Cane was embarking on The Italian Job. Meanwhile, on the novel front, The Godfather was doing good business, and Billy Pilgrim was spastic in time.

"We Have To Fight - The X-Men!"

Fantastic Four #28, July 1964
(By Lee, Kirby, & Chic Stone)

Well, here we are. Stan has gotten the hang of the whole shared universe thing, and in the past three months, he's had:

The Hulk show up in the pages of Fantastic Four #25 & 26.

Iceman teaming up with the Human Torch in Strange Tales #120.

The FF try to hire the services of Nelson & Murdock in Daredevil #2.

Dr Strange help the FF take on the Sub-Mariner in FF#27.

Spider-Man and the Green Goblin running into the Hulk in Amazing Spider-Man #14.

Spider-Man and Giant-Man tricked into fighting each other, in Tales To Astonish #57.

Whilst I'm sure that these appearances weren't purely designed to flog more copies of the guest stars' own books, I have my doubts at times...


With the gratuitous plugs out of the way, we'd best track down the villains of the piece. Here they are, folks!


That there baldy fella is the Puppet Master. He can sculpt clay into little voodoo dolls. His daughter is also the Thing's girlfriend. The bloke with the big hair is the Mad Thinker. He's a genius, dontcha know?

Both the Thinker and the Puppet Master have had their heads handed to them by the FF in the past, and they want revenge. What's the plan? Glad you asked.


Either the Mad Thinker is incredibly smart, or Prof X needs to spend less time accompanying the team on missions. The Puppet Master does his thing, and before we know it, Professor X is under his mental thrall.


And here we see the benefits of Xavier's policy of training his students to obey orders without question: even when those orders are clearly bonkers, his students rush to obey them. The X-Men hop in their helicopter and head over to the Baxter Building, where they lure the FF out of the city, by dint of (that already clichéd strategem) kidnapping the Invisible Girl.

The FF are soon in hot pursuit, but the X-Men are waiting for them...


You tell 'er, Cyclops, you fascist drone.

Anyway, Professor X's plan, it appears, is for the X-Men to beat up the Fantastic Four. Naturally, violence ensues.


Ok, so, Human Torch versus Iceman, fair enough, could be a long fight, but it makes sense, I guess. Personally, I'd get the Invisible Girl to catch Angel in a force-field, given how hopeless Reed is at achieving that goal. And, really, Cyclops versus the Thing? Poor Cyclops. I'm assuming Beast is off-camera reading a biology book or some such, rather than joining in the bruhaha?

To liven up the battle, the Mad Thinker has set various booby-traps on the field of battle, which succcessfully capture the FF, who are too distracted by the fight to avoid said traps. Not a bad plan, as far as it goes, but naturally, the Thinker can't help but gloat.


Crivvens, what a scunner! Puppet Master orders the Professor to knock out his merry mob, but reckons without the super-brain of Hank McCoy, who can resist mental domination just be dint of being really smart. The Beast crushes the Prof X voodoo doll and rescues his team, whilst the FF free themselves, just in time for the big fight!


The Awesome Android, you may not know, can copy superpowers, which, when he's fighting nine superheroes, gives him a bit of room to get his groove on.


Unfortunately, no amount of superpowercopying mojo can overcome our heroes, particularly when Professor X gets in on the act.


And what of our villains? They're escaping in the Thinker's escape plane. Ready to work together again, boys?


Hmm, guess not. Anyway, just time for some weasil words from Cyclops...


That's right, boys, kiss and make up, until your next fight...

Ten Things We Learn From These Two Issues Of Uncanny X-Men

Uncanny X-Men #5-6, March-May 1964.
(By Lee, Kirby, and Reinman)

Or rather, ten character traits which will become well-established over the next 40 years or so.


1. The Scarlet Witch (here in her first appearance) takes no guff from anyone!


2. The Toad (in his first appearance) is a grass.


3. Mastermind (yes, it's his first time out as well!) holds a grudge (just ask Phoenix in about 16 years).


4. Professor X and Magneto like to rant at each other on the psychic plane.


5. Angel, heir to the multi-billion dollar Worthington Industries, apparently has amnesia! (OK, this one is a cheat, and I guess Warren Worthington's not been established as a billionaire-to-be yet, but, hey, it made me laugh.)


6. Magneto likes to have a cool secret headquarters.


7. And he gives one heck of a pep talk!


8. Cyclops doesn't appreciate being interrupted when he's brooding.


9. Quicksilver (you guessed it) really cares for his sister.


10. Professor Xavier is a jerk. Continued, forever.

X-Men

X-Men #1, September 1963
(By Lee, Kirby, and Paul Reinman)
Even as they were releasing the first issue of The Avengers, featuring some of their best known characters, Stan and Jack were sticking their necks out by *also* releasing another team book, featuring an entirely new group of characters, all with WEIRD FREAKY POWERS. Like, um, wings and ice and shit. Well, not that last one, but you get the picture. Here they are now, summoned by Professor X, headmaster of the School For Gifted Youngsters.


(It's not actually a call to action - the Professor just wants to know who's pinched the wheels off his chair.)

Having assembled his class, Professor X welcomes a new student, the most famous redhead in comics history.


Note the stylish fashions of the pupils of Professor X's school. Check trousers and a bow tie, 'Slim'? Ouch. And is that a blue safari suit that Hank's dolled up in?

Ms. Grey is understandably confused about Professor X's motives for luring her to this school for squares, so the Professor gives her the 4-1-1.


Fortunately, despite being members of an all-male school, the X-Men know well how to handle one of the fairer sex. sort of.


Yeah, this is going to work out well. Anyhoo, whilst the boys quarrel over who's going to nail Miss Grey first, the action shifts to Cape Citadel, where the US government are launching one of their mighty space rockets (apparently, although he's already gotten to the moon, six months earlier, Reed Richards hasn't bothered to give Uncle Sam any help with their space program). But wait, what's this?


After twatting the rocket out of the sky, Magneto (for it is he) proceeds to launch a one-man invasion of the missile base.


True to his word, Magneto makes short work of the army personnel, and confronts the man in charge.


I love how much respect the letterer shows the art in this panel. Was it a particularly bad shot of Magneto's head? Anyway, back at the school, the boys are continuing to get used to their new classmate.


It's all a bit Porky's American Pie, isn't it? Any second now, Hank McCoy's going to sticking his knob through the hole into the girl's shower-block. Before Jean can tear the boys a set of new arses, the Professor summons the class to his study, tells them about Magneto's assault on Cape Citadel, and sends them off to defeat him. Unfortunately, they seem to have forgotten that the Master of Magnetism is in control of the base defences...


The X-Men are put through their paces, both by the missiles and by Magneto himself. For a brief moment, the bad guy even manages to overcome them. But this being fiction, and they being the heroes, it doesn't last long.


And so it begins, the rivalry between the X-Men and Magneto. And also, the beginnings of the X-Mens' reputation as being feared and hated by humanity.



Eh? Oh well, enjoy the popularity while you can, guys...