"That can't be true, John. I can't imagine saying that." I Am Stan (and Stuf' Said) review

A few years ago I read and enjoyed Jack Kirby: The Epic Life of the King of Comics, a graphic novel biography of Jack Kirby written and drawn by Tom Scioli. When I learned he had recently released I Am Stan: A Graphic Biography of the Legendary Stan Lee I was immediately intrigued and quickly read a copy. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this book as I had the earlier tome.

I Am Stan covers Stan Lee's life from childhood to death and as he lived a good 95 years that's a lot of ground to cover. Early on the book traces events from his life as a fairly linear biography but once Marvel Comics becomes a success in the 1960s the narrative gets a little snarled as Scioli moves events around chronologically for dramatic effect and frequently years pass between pages without notice.

If you're very well-versed in the life of Stan Lee then you should have no problem following Scioli's account of his life -- everything he represents has already been covered by other biographies. If you're not familiar with the other biographies you will probably find yourself at a loss to understand why Scioli dramatizes episodes from Stan's life without context.

For instance, early in Stan's life Scioli puts great effort into contextualizing and explaining what's going on; when Stan becomes editor at Marvel, Scioli takes the time to name check all the artists in the bullpen at the time. You would assume that it will important to know the names of all these men since Scioli took the time to name them, but that would be an incorrect assumption; Syd Shores makes one more brief appearance but knowing who was who in the 1940s bullpen matters not a whit to the rest of the book. Similarly, late in the book there's an episode where the police engage in a wellness check on Stan Lee and there are references to a business partner called "Keya." If you're up on your Stan Lee lore then you know why the police are talking to Stan and who "Keya" is but Scioli doesn't frame this.

Like the police wellness check scene, many pages of I Am Stan feel weightless, without narrative. His Jack Kibry was guided by narration told in Kirby's voice but there is no one to guide Lee's life. If you haven't already read a recent biography of Stan Lee (such as my favourite, True Believer by Abraham Riesman) you won't understand the weight of certain scenes; as well, the story is told strictly from Stan Lee's perspective - so when Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby leave Marvel the reader doesn't really understand why they did so, only that Stan didn't understand.

If I understand Scioli's efforts, it seems like he just wanted to put the reader into Stan Lee's shoes and experience moments from his life, but the longer the book went on the less connected I felt to Stan as the narrative wandered from one moment to another on each page. Rather than a long-form narrative, I Am Stan reads like a webcomic that was meant to be enjoyed one page at a time rather than all at once - and as an addendum to a proper biography, not a biography in its own right.

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Seeking out I Am Stan led me to Stuf' Said by John Morrow, a publication that was originally an issue of Morrow's Jack Kirby Collector magazine in 2019. A large part of why we comics fans have such complicated misgivings about Stan Lee have to do with the way he treated his collaborators, particularly Jack Kirby. In Stuf' Said, Morrow created a chronology from interviews and statements by Lee, Kirby and others close to them to track the sequence of events that led to Lee and Kirby's collaboration at Marvel and its dissolution.

Stuf' Said is definitely for the serious comics devotee - the one who really wants to know 'who said this and when.' For all that I know about these periods of history, there was a lot I didn't know such as the complete timeline on Kirby's involvement in the creation of Spider-Man; Kirby claiming a hand in creating Spider-Man was divisive to fans (although reading Morrow's book, Kirby's actual quotes are not as dismissive to Ditko as I saw others claim online) so discovering the earliest published mention of Kirby's involvement actually appeared in Marvel's own Foom magazine surprised me.

Riseman's True Believer had earlier made an impression on me with how passive-aggressive Stan seemed towards his collaborators and that not every artist was willing to put up with it (certainly not Steve Ditko or Wally Wood). Stuf' Said is particularly good at piecing all of those slights together; it's particularly instructive to note how many times Stan disparaged Dr. Strange while he was scripting that series - indeed he only seemed to consent that Ditko created Dr. Strange because he didn't want credit for those comics. But decades into his role as Marvel's perennial pitchman, he would repeatedly claim Dr. Strange was a favourite of his.

Stuf' Said is definitely not for the layman, it's for the dedicated comics fan who has a firm grasp on Lee and Kirby's careers. But I found it a fine book with a great deal of interesting discernments on the part of the author (particularly noting Kirby's satire of Stan Lee would have been invented at the same time Romita was satirizing Kirby in Captain America).

Both I Am Stan and Stuf' Said are best enjoyed by the experienced comics fan, but while I Am Stan is all very familiar and loosely-structured, Stuf' Said has excellent research and a very firm layout. It's obvious which I prefer.

Iron Man: A Retrospective

I'd like to perform a little retrospective on the publishing history of Marvel Comics' Iron Man. Before I start, I'm going to invoke a spoiler warning for Avengers: Endgame.

SPOILERS!

...I'm looking back on Iron Man in part because with the death of Tony Stark in Avengers: Endgame, it seems an appropriate season for reflection. Not that his counterpart in the comics is even the least bit under the weather - comic book Tony Stark will live forever. However, let's face it... if there is just one person who is the most influential creator in terms of Iron Man's acceptance by the general public, it comes down to Robert Downey, Jr. and his performance in the last 11 years of Marvel Cinematic Universe films, not anything which Marvel Comics has published before or since he came along.

And let's take a moment to appreciate that prior to the film, Iron Man was not a huge property. I remember the days when people on the internet questioned why Marvel was still publishing Iron Man other than sheer inertia. The Iron Man series has a fairly uneven history compared to other Marvel properties. For instance, Daredevil had a similarly difficult time finding its footing (in fact, there was a point in the early 70s where Marvel considered merging Iron Man and Daredevil into one book), but after Frank Miller's first tenure on Daredevil the series found a new way to tell its stories which has kept the property more or less consistent ever since. But while fans of Iron Man have their favourite creators and runs (and definitely their favourite armours) I don't think there is one single creative team who figured out how to write an enduring take on the character; to some extent, every creator has tried to veer away from what their predecessor was doing.

I was not a huge fan of Iron Man (series or character) growing up. In fact, most of the series was unread by me until, thanks to the Iron Man movie, I became head writer/coordinator of an Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe publication called All-New Iron Manual. I am extremely proud of that book (it has art by Carlo Pagulayan & Ron Lim! and an armour diagram by Eliot R. Brown!) and I read everything up to that point in order to guide the project. Later, to coincide with Iron Man 2, I headed up Iron Manual Mark 3, a comic so nice, even Robert Downey, Jr. bought a copy!

I resigned from Marvel Comics in 2012 and since then have not really followed what's been going on with the characters (I do check in on certain creators). So, my tour of Iron Man's publication history is only going up to 2012. I've divided the history by writers and I'm going to observe how the character of Tony Stark changed over the years, how his supporting cast developed and highlight a few memorable stories.

Follow along...

Stan Lee (1963-1968) wrote Tales of Suspense #39-98 with writing assists from Larry Lieber, Robert Bernstein, Al Hartley and Roy Thomas, art by Don Heck, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and Gene Colan. So, here's where it all begins - Tony Stark is touring his defense plants in Vietnam when he walks into a booby trap set by the Viet Cong. With shrapnel in his heart, Stark and scientist Ho Yinsen build a suit of armour to keep him alive. There is a lot of important Iron Man history in these issues, naturally, but it is mostly foundational to what comes next. Stan Lee had long been giddy about pitting his comic book heroes against the 'red menace' of communism and no 1960s hero demonstrated that better than Iron Man. Iron Man battled communists in Russia, China, Vietnam and Cuba! Further, as an industrialist who was building weapons for the government, Tony Stark had a stake in the Cold War which other heroes simply didn't have (Lee also established him as the arms dealer to S.H.I.E.L.D. over in his Nick Fury stories as well as the financier of the Avengers).

It took a while for the series to build a supporting cast and it's still very small at this point; the most important were Harold 'Happy' Hogan and Virginia 'Pepper' Potts, who formed a love triangle with Tony, the sort of thing Lee enjoyed writing. However, Lee eventually decided to bring the triangle to a close by having Happy & Pepper hook up and get married. That kind of resulted in them leaving the series, unfortunately, but eventually nostalgia would cause the Tony-Pepper-Happy triangle to return. The only other notable characters were Senator Harrington Byrd (a gruff J. Jonah Jameson-type) and Jasper Sitwell, who immigrated from Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Meantime, there were plenty of notable villains created: the Crimson Dynamo, Titanium Man, the Melter, the Unicorn, Ultimo, the Black Widow, Hawkeye... the biggest of them all, however, was the Mandarin. The least-appreciated villain must be Tony's cousin Morgan Stark, a fascinating character who surprisingly few writers have taken an interest in over the decades.

A few trends began during this run: we have Tony's first health problems as his armour needs to keep him alive; Tony's 'transistor-powered armour' as the first of many charmingly bad comic book science concepts; Tony repeatedly altering and improving his armour; the first time Tony shares his armour (with Happy); and we have the author leaving in the middle of a story which his successor has to complete (in this case, the Whiplash/Maggia story).

Archie Goodwin (1968-1970) wrote Tales of Suspense #99 and Iron Man #1-28 with art by Gene Colan, Johnny Craig, George Tuska and Don Heck. This, to me, is the first great run on the series. As I was reading through the entire series, I found myself slowing down to enjoy the stories. The storyline in Iron Man #17-19 where Tony's LMD takes control of his life is an amazing read! Goodwin brought in characters like Janice Cord (Tony's new love interest) and villains the Controller, Madame Masque and Midas. In the course of these stories, Tony finally had heart surgery so that his armour no longer needed to keep him alive (however, it left him extremely weak and less-powerful afterward). And if you thought James Rhodes was the first black Iron Man... nope! It was Eddie March, whom Tony tried to make the new Iron Man in issue #21, only for Eddie to have health problems of his own. And in #22, Janice Cord died at the hands of the Titanium Man several years before the Green Goblin would kill Gwen Stacy over in Amazing Spider-Man (one wonders why Titanium Man isn't Tony's #1 enemy, considering how killing Gwen elevated the Goblin to Spider-Man's top arch-foe).

Allyn Brodsky and Gerry Conway (1970-1972) wrote Iron Man #30-44 with art by Don Heck, George Tuska and Herb Trimpe. Here we have the first low point in the series. This run of issues was so bad it nearly got the series cancelled! It includes the infamous 'Mr. Kline' story which had also been dragging Daredevil into the sewer. Kevin O'Brien was introduced as a new supporting cast member and got his own armoured identity as the Guardsman (only to be killed off in one of the fill-ins between creative runs) and Tony's new love interest was Marianne Rogers, a psychic. Yeah, a psychic... However, Brodsky did introduce the villain Spymaster, who would go on to be a major villain throughout the series (with various characters assuming the identity).

Mike Friedrich (1972-1975) wrote Iron Man #48-81 with art by George Tuska, Bill Everett, Jim Starlin, P. Craig Russell, Arvell Jones and Chic Stone. This run of issues includes a number of fill-ins. The series didn't have too many running subplots in the 70s, many issues were 'done-in-one'. Still, Friedrich brought out some memorable stories - obviously, #55 which introduced Thanos & Drax the Destroyer is a pretty significant episode in Marvel Comics history. Friedrich also introduced Firebrand and his sister Roxanne (Tony's new love interest) and brought back Happy & Pepper, complete with the love triangle despite their marriage. Friedrich also featured a number of stories where Tony had to deal with labour unrest and student demonstrations, plus Tony's company expanded significantly as for the first time we saw the company's offices in Detroit, Cincinnati, Seattle and such. Unfortunately, his promising 'war of the super-villains' storyline with the Black Lama came down an immensely goofy finish where the Lama turned out to be an alternate reality Gerald Ford.

Bill Mantlo (1976-1978) wrote Iron Man #86-115 with art by George Tuska, Keith Pollard, Carmine Infantino, Keith Giffen and John Romita Jr. Bill Mantlo's 'run' is full of all kinds of fill-ins and it's hard to tell where his run really 'starts'. Of course, I have to mention Mantlo's fill in during Friedrich's run: in issue #78, Mantlo penned a tale where Tony witnesses the impact of his weapons in Vietnam and, struck by the horror of it, determines to get out of weapons. It was a pretty major development for a fill-in story and it began to set up Tony as someone who no longer blindly championed technology but who would wrestle with the effects of his inventions on the world around him. Mantlo tried to set up his own creation Jack of Hearts as Iron Man's protege but it didn't pan out; he also brought in Kevin O'Brien's brother Michael as a means of bringing back the Guardsman and he created the memorable villain Arsenal.

Bob Layton & David Michelinie (1978-1982) wrote Iron Man #116-157 with art by John Romita Jr., Carmine Infantino, Sal Buscema, Jerry Bingham, Alan Weiss, Joe Brozowski, Luke McDonnell and Alan Kupperberg (also inks by Bob Layton). Here we have the first tenure of Layton/Michelinie on the book and they're probably ranked #1 to the majority of Iron Man fans. In their hands, the supporting cast exploded as, for the first time, Stark's company seemed to have a life beyond Tony's office - new characters like Mrs. Arbogast, Bethany Cabe (Tony's new love interest), Vic Martinelli, Yvettte Avril, Artie Pithins... even Scott Lang (Ant-Man) would chime in from time to time. But the most important addition to the cast was James Rhodes, Tony's personal pilot. Rhodey could handle himself in a fight and after Layton & Michelinie established him as being adjacent to Tony's origin story, it pretty much guaranteed he'd be moving on to big things in the series. Michelinie & Layton brought an increased emphasis on Tony as a businessman, not only by pitting him against S.H.I.E.L.D. in an attempted hostile takeover, but by introducing the new villain Justin Hammer, a corrupt businessman who challenged Tony on a different level. Basically, any writer since Michelinie/Layton who didn't use Justin Hammer instead used a different character with the same purpose (ie, Obadiah Stane, Kearson DeWitt, Sunset Bain). Michelinie & Layton are also beloved by fans for introducing armours for special environments, such as the stealth armour. But their biggest influence on the character was felt in issue #128, the first time Tony struggled with alcoholism, a major addition to his character which gave him a new physical weakness to replace what the heart injury had once done for him.

Dennis O'Neil (1982-1986) wrote #158-208 with art by Carmine Infantino, Steve Ditko, Luke McDonnell, Mike Vosburg, Don Perlin, Rich Buckler, Sal Buscema, Herb Trimpe and Mark Bright. O'Neil's run is best known for promoting James Rhodes to the leading role (from #169-199), but is also remembered for introducing the villain Obadiah Stane and the red & silver armour (in issue #200). O'Neil wrote virtually every one of Michelinie & Layton's supporting characters out of the book and brought in the twins Clytemnestra & Morley Erwin as the new supporting cast (Morley died in #199 and the next creative team turned Clytemnestra into a villain, then killed her). Personally, the highlights of this run are issue #182 where Tony finally seeks help for his alcoholism and #192 where Tony earns back Rhodey's friendship.

Bob Layton & David Michelinie (1987-1990) returned for a second run in Iron Man #215-256 with art by Mark Bright, Bob Layton, Barry Windsor-Smith, Jackson Guice, Denys Cowan, Alan Kupperberg, Paul Smith and John Romita Jr. (also inks by Layton). In some respects, this run is a lot like the earlier Michelinie/Layton run: most of the supporting characters whom O'Neil wrote out were brought back, Tony regained his company, Rhodey stopped wearing the armour, Justin Hammer was back, new special environment armours were introduced and Tony eventually went back to the red & gold colours. However, they didn't simply rehash what they'd done before: they brought Tony through one of his most controversial arcs in what they called 'Stark Wars' but which everyone else calls 'Armor Wars' (#225-231), in which Tony obsessively hunted down both villains and heroes wearing armour, trying to prevent his designs from taking lives. They also critiqued Tony's love life as his latest girlfriend Kathy Dare shot Tony in the spine, crippling him. Although Tony regained his mobility by the end of their run it set in motion major complications for the character. Like many creative runs on Iron Man, this one had some problems going on in the background - Bob Layton was supposed to continue writing the series solo, but instead they brought in a new writer...

John Byrne (1990-1992) wrote Iron Man #258-277 with art by John Romita Jr., Paul Ryan and Mark Bright. John Byrne was in the middle of his 'corporate Namor' material in Namor the Sub-Mariner at the time so this was an interesting choice... it was also something to see John Romita, Jr. return to this series with his own art style now fully developed. Most of Byrne's run was taken up by 'Armor Wars II', which, despite the title, had nothing to do with the earlier storyline. The story concerns Kearson DeWitt going after Stark for revenge (and in a nice twist, Stark has no idea who DeWitt is or what he wants revenge for). The microchip in Tony's spine from the end of Michelinie/Layton's run turns out to contain a weapon designed by DeWitt to seize control of Tony's nervous system. By the end of the story, Tony is a nervous wreck... I mean, he's barely able to walk. Byrne also wrote a major Mandarin storyline which tied his origin into Fin Fang Foom (seriously!) and revealed his ten rings belonged to space dragons who now wanted them back... I have no idea why they left them unguarded for several hundred years, frankly.

Len Kaminski (1992-1995) wrote Iron Man #278-318 with art by Paul Ryan, Kevin Hopgood, Barry Kitson, Tom Morgan, Tom Tenney, Steve Ellis and Dave Chlystek. Kaminski came to the book in the middle of the 'Operation: Galactic Storm' crossover with the Avengers but he very quickly became a fan-favourite writer - for a long time, he was the only serious rival to Michelinie/Layton in the fan community. Much of Kaminski's run simply revisited earlier ideas like new special environment armour (eventually he introduced the modular armour which could refit for special situations), Rhodey becoming Iron Man again and the conclusion to Tony's nervous system woes. I really admire him for seemingly killing off Tony Stark, but never tricking the readers, who knew from the outset that Tony was still alive; most comic book writers would have tried to trick the audience. Anyway, Kaminski did a great job of maintaining and building on the supporting cast from the Michelinie/Layton years, reestablished Rhodey as War Machine, introduced Veronica Benning (Tony's newest love interest) and even brought Happy and Pepper back into the cast. In retrospect, this was a very stable time for the series, with no sense of the tumult which would follow.

Terry Kavanagh (1995-1996) wrote Iron Man #319-332 with writing assists from Dan Abnett and James Felder and art by Tom Morgan, Adriana Melo, Hector Oliveira, Sergio Cariello, Jim Cheung, Mark Bright, Jim Calafiore, Dave Hover, Marc Campos and Joe Bennett (basically, Kavanagh never had a regular penciler). And here's what most fans would call the worst creative run on Iron Man. Kaminski evidently fled the series rather than write this story, in which the Avengers crossover 'The Crossing' unmasks Iron Man as a murderer who had been a sleeper agent for Kang for years and begins killing off members of the Avengers (well, unpopular members, anyway). The crossover ended with Tony making a heroic sacrifice while his college-aged self from another reality became the new Iron Man. Pretty much the only people who enjoy these comics are of the 'I like it ironically' school. The entire experience left a bad taste in fan's mouths and I don't recommend they be read by anyone other than researchers.

Jim Lee, Scott Lobdell & Jeph Loeb (1996-1997) wrote Iron Man #1-12 with art by Whilce Portacio, Ryan Benjamin, Jim Lee, Terry Shoemaker and Ed Benes. The entire family of Avengers titles were brought low by 'The Crossing', causing them to dwindle in number instead of thriving, which is supposed to be the point of a good crossover, y'know? So, along came Jim Lee & Rob Liefeld, who rebooted the Avengers & Fantastic Four characters. These comics didn't do much more than provide a cushion between the despised 'Teen Tony' stories and the next revamp, basically clearing the ground for...

Kurt Busiek (1998-2000) wrote Iron Man #1-25 with writing assists from Richard Howell and Roger Stern and art by Sean Chen, Patrick Zircher, Mark Bagley and Tom Lyle. This is an interesting mix of nostalgia for the Lee & Goodwin years which, at the same time, tried to move the series forward. Tony sets up a new company as an independent contractor, which basically turns him into James Bond with power armour. Sean Chen's armour design was great, but it was disappointing to see the Happy-Pepper-Tony triangle brought back yet again. Highlights included Rumiko Fujikawa (Tony's new love interest), Tony becoming an AA sponsor to Carol Danvers and the obscure Machine Man villain Sunset Bain established as a villainous female counterpart to Stark. Lowlights included Tony discovering his armour was causing him new health problems, only for him to fix the problem within one issue; coupled with that was Tony using a telepathic weapon to erase people's memories of his secret identity, all of which seemed like a misguided effort to de-complicate Tony's problems instead of escalating them - not good drama.

Joe Quesada (2000) wrote from Iron Man #26-30 with art by Sean Chen and Alitha Martinez. Quesada basically wrote just one story (although he hung around to co-plot with Tieri as he assumed full writing duties), but it's a pretty good one: 'The Mask in the Iron Man' had Tony's armour become sentient, turn against Tony and finally sacrifice its life for him. It's something of a retelling of Archie Goodwin's LMD story and it brought back Tony's heart problems. I think it works well, as long as you ignore the follow-up story.

Frank Tieri (2000-2002) wrote Iron Man #31-49 with writing assists from Joe Quesada and art by Alitha Martinez, Paul Ryan, Keron Grant, Udon Studios and Chris Batista. So, this one is a pretty despised creative run. Initially fans were interested but around the time Tony's never-before-seen best friend Tiberius Stone had an affair with Rumiko, the knives came out. Keron Grant designed a new suit of armour whose introduction was supposed to be an exciting revelation, but which was ultimately so unpopular that over in the Avengers, creators would go out of their way to avoid depicting Tony in armour. Tieri also brought back Ho Yinsen as the leader of a floating city full of Iron Men, then revealed it (and the sentient armour) were all a plot by Ultron. Oh, and for part of the series Tony changed his name to 'Hogan Potts' and worked at an office job. Let's move on.

Mike Grell (2002-2003) wrote Iron Man #50-66 with writing assists from Robin Laws and art by Michael Ryan, Ryan Odagawa, Mike Grell, Ivan Reis and Alan Davis. This run has been pretty much forgotten by fandom, although it is here that Tony Stark finally went public as Iron Man, a development which will probably never be rolled back (thanks to the movies). The new armour designed by Michael Ryan was much liked, but almost no one remembers Grell rewrote Tony's origin, shuffling it to eastern Europe instead of Vietnam. This all happened during the Bill Jemas era at Marvel Comics where almost every comic would tell stories in six-issue arcs and super-villains, team-ups and crossovers became somewhat scarce. There's not too much that's flashy about these stories and Grell wound up leaving mid-story.

John Jackson Miller (2003-2004) wrote from Iron Man #73-85 with art by Jorge Lucas and Philip Tan. Miller seemed to be a huge fan of the series and filled his rather short run with all kinds of references from across the series, bringing back not only Michelinie/Layton cast members but also stuff which had been left dangling since the Kaminski era. Miller chose to make Tony Stark the US Secretary of Defense, making the book more overtly political than it had been in the past. It might have been an interesting change for the character but it didn't last very long. Miller only really got to tell one story with Tony as SOD, and while I think he wrote a compelling take on the Iraq War, artist Philip Tan's choice to draw the Kurdish female revolutionary Vitriol in T&A poses really worked against the tone of the story.

Warren Ellis (2005-2006) wrote Iron Man #1-6 with art by Adi Granov. This story, 'Extremis', really should have been a limited series. Incredibly, it took 18 months for all six issues to ship! By the end of it, Tony had his body rebuilt by the Extremis technology, turning him into a post-human able to link into virtually any computer. This made Tony ridiculously powerful. I fondly recall a phone conversation I had with Eliot R. Brown while making The All-New Iron Manual where I explained to him how Ellis defined the Extremis powers. Brown scoffed at Ellis' 'pseudeoscience', told me how it was all wrong, then explained how he'd achieve the same ends using ideas extrapolated from real science. I told him to go for it; I doubt my editors noticed. Anyway, Granov had been painting covers for Iron Man since the Miller run but his visuals in these stories wound up having a huge impact on the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In the comics, Ellis' Extremis would hang around for some time to come and his characters Maya Hansen & Sal Kennedy remained in the supporting cast for the next team.

Daniel and Charles Knauf (2006-2008) wrote Iron Man #7-28 with art by Patrick Zircher, Roberto de la Torre, Jackson Guice and Carlo Pagulayan. This creative run started off fairly modest, but by the end, I found I really enjoyed the Knaufs. The shadow of Marvel's 'Civil War' event hovers on their work, as it was during their run that - due to the machinations of Mark Millar - Tony Stark became director of S.H.I.E.L.D., which is kind of an amped-up version of what John Jackson Miller tried to do during his run. In the midst of that, the Knaufs had Tony deliver a mercy kill to Happy Hogan at Pepper's request, which just makes Tony and Pepper hooking up seem all the more wrong-headed. However, they delivered a fantastic Mandarin epic wherein the Mandarin tries to obtain Extremis for himself; it turned out to be the Knafus' farewell to the series.

Matt Fraction (2008-2012) wrote Invincible Iron Man #1-33 & 500-527 with art by Salvador Larroca. This series launched while the Knaufs' book was still coming out so Marvel could see if the Iron Man movie would increase people's interest in Iron Man comics. As it turns out, nope, but the Fraction/Larroca series wound up becoming the principal ongoing title and they remained together for many years, easily the most consistent creative team in the series' history. There are ups and downs in this run, but I think most fans are down with the 'World's Most Wanted' storyarc (#8-19), where Tony loses control of S.H.I.E.L.D. to Norman Osborn and is hunted around the globe by Osborn's resources while his mind slowly unravels. It included Pepper donning her own armour as Rescue and made Tony & Pepper a couple (plus Tony & Maria Hill, for both of the people who wanted that). Fraction/Larroca introduced a number of new threats for Tony based on relatives of long-dead adversaries, like Obadiah Stane's son Ezekiel and Justin Hammer's daughter Sasha. The crossover 'Fear Itself' (which was written by Fraction) threw the book off its game, but Fraction & Larroca did a fine job overall.

And that's it; since 2012, the writers have been: Kieron Gillen (2013-2014), who, bafflingly, decided to retcon Tony's parentage, making him the son of some S.H.I.E.L.D. agent instead of Howard & Maria Stark, a situation I'm sure someone will fix eventually; Tom Taylor (2014-2015) who wrote the 'Superior' Iron Man; Brian Michael Bendis (2015-2018), who eventually killed off Tony and replaced him with two Iron Men - Riri Williams and Doctor Doom - then brought Tony back before jumping ship from Marvel Comics; and Dan Slott (2018-), the current writer.

As I said before, I didn't care too much for Iron Man initially. Thanks to going through the series, however, I came to really appreciate the character. I enjoy him the most when he's heroic, but flawed; savvy in technology, blind to his shortcomings; pitted against villains who challenge him physically and mentally; and supported by a cast of well-developed characters.

All covers taken from The Grand Comics Database.

Space-Born Super Hero Part 2: Marvel Super-Heroes #12

We now begin my feature Space-Born Super Hero in earnest with Marvel Super-Heroes #12, the first appearance of Captain Marvel!

I should begin by talking about the series Marvel Super-Heroes. For the previous 11 issues, it had been titled Fantasy Masterpieces and reprinted various giant monster/sci-fi stories and Golden Age super hero tales. Beginning here, the new look for the series was to lead with a brand-new super hero tale (note the "All New! Never Seen Before!" on the cover) with the reprinted stories in the back.

Although Captain Marvel would quickly graduate from the pages of Marvel Super-Heroes to his own series, the other rotating stars weren't so lucky - features like Medusa and Phantom Eagle (issues #15 & 16) led to naught; although Ka-Zar and Doctor Doom (issues #19 & 20) would obtain their own books, it would be with different creative teams and plotlines than those seen in Marvel Super-Heroes, making them something of a false start; there was, of course, the Guardians of the Galaxy in issue #18, although they wouldn't make a second appearance until Steve Gerber intervened many years later. The real diamond in the rough is the Doctor Doom story in issue #20, which became a very well-regarded story in the villain's characterization.

Anyway, on with our tale, "The Coming of Captain Marvel!" Which is also the only place in the story where the lead character is called "Captain Marvel", which is something of a problem. The story is by Stan Lee & Gene Colan (inks by Frank Giacoia). We open aboard a Kree spaceship en route to Earth. Aboard we meet three of the officers: blue-clad Colonel Yon-Rogg, purple-clad Medic Una and green-clad Captain Mar-Vell, our hero. Yon-Rogg orders Una to administer the 'breathing potion' to Mar-Vell, who will be the lone member of their landing party. This concerns Una as it's against "all standard practice." Mar-Vell whispers to Una that Yon-Rogg is trying to split the two of them apart because he wants Una for himself. They probably shouldn't whisper about this roughly five feet from where Yon-Rogg is standing, but whatevs. Una surmises that Yon-Rogg hopes Mar-Vell will be killed in action. He's like King David to Mar-Vell's Uriah, if you will.

Yon-Rogg tells the duo "There will be no whispering in my presence!" So yes, he's not a moron. Mar-Vell takes Una's breathing potion, which will permit him to breathe Earth's atmosphere for 60 minutes without his helmet. The spaceship adopts "the aura of negativism" to avoid detection (this is the same technology Ronan the Accuser used in his first appearance) and lowers closer to the ground. Yon-Rogg orders Mar-Vell to exit the craft; Mar-Vell notes "space regulations" permit a 30-second farewell, so he hugs Una and shakes her hand farewell. "May the Supreme Intelligence ever watch over you, my captain!" Una states woodenly. "Your love will be enough to sustain me!" Mar-Vell answers. Mar-Vell exits the craft using his "air-jet belt" which allows him to fly (unfortunately it means when he flies it looks like he has exhaust fumes coming out of his butt). Mar-Vell observes "the pull of gravity is far stronger in the Kree Galaxy than it is on Earth--my freedom of movement--and sheer physical power--will be many times greater than any ordinary Earthling here on this light gravity world! But, that's only true so long as I continue to wear my protective helmet and battle suit! For, if it should be be necessary to disguise myself with the simulated Earth clothes I've packed in my carry-all cylinder--my strength will decrease in exact proportion to the time I am exposed to this alien atmosphere!" Are you following all of this? He has a breathing potion, a battle suit and 'sheer physical power' but he can only breathe Earth's air unaided for 60 minutes and he gets weaker without his battle suit. Stan has spent barely any time explaining what Mar-Vell is capable of, but damn, he loves piling on what Mar-Vell's weaknesses are, doesn't he?

Exposition continues as Mar-Vell notes how Earth people recently defeated Sentry#459 & Ronan the Accuser, thus referencing the Fantastic Four stories which introduced the Kree. Finally, we get to know a little about the purpose of Mar-Vell's visit to Earth: "It is my duty to succeed where Ronan failed! I must make the Earthlings realize that no race may--" and then he's cut off. We'll have to get back to this. Mar-Vell comes upon a missile base where a test launch is being conducted. Mar-Vell's presence creates radiation which throws the missile's guidance off-course. Man, if he's that radioactive it's little wonder he died of cancer! Instead of using his air-jet belt, Mar-Vell takes a variety of Hulk-style leaps to try and get away. Naturally, that's not quick enough and the military deploys a squad to investigate.

Mar-Vell whips out his gun, the Universal Beam Blaster, which emits a black light beam to blind the pursuing soldiers. Mar-Vell is amazed that humans are "unfamiliar with the galaxy's most common all-purpose weapon!" Uh, which galaxy would that be, Mar-Vell? You said you hailed from the "Kree galaxy." Anyway, with our action scene over, Mar-Vell finally thinks to turn on his air-jet belt and streaks away. Switching into the civilian clothes he brought, Mar-Vell flags down a truck and gets a ride to a hotel where he checks in on the register by "Americanizing" his name to "Marvel". "It was simple!" Mar-vell boasts, having just written down a derivation of his actual name while on an undercover assignment. Methinks Mar-Vell is more suited to combat than subterfuge. Just as Mar-Vell is getting settled in, Yon-Rogg activates the wrist monitor on Mar-Vell's left wrist. It seems only Yon-Rogg can remove this device and when it's active Mar-Vell is totally paralyzed. That seems like a terrible way to communicate with a field agent, as it could inadvertently cause the soldier's death. Then again, we've already established Yon-Rogg wants Mar-Vell to die.

However, the transmission isn't from Yon-Rogg, it's from "the Imperial Minister of the Supreme Intelligence." Although unnamed here, this guy will eventually get the name Zarek. One wonders if Stan Lee had expected to see the Supreme Intelligence itself in that panel and had to write around it when Colan drew simply some alien guy rather than the big green spaghetti-head which Kirby had earlier established. Anyway, Zarek tells Mar-Vell that the Sentry and Ronan both failed in their missions but Mar-Vell must succeed. So all he says are things we've already established that Mar-Vell knows and we the audience know. What a hoser. That very important message imparted, Mar-Vell regains control of his body with just enough time to get his helmet on before his 60 mintues are up. Mar-Vell muses that he is "Alone--unknown, and unsuspected, I hold the fate of a planet within my hands!" And there the story ends.

Thoughts: Not a very good start. To be most fair to Stan Lee & Gene Colan, they only had 15 pages with which to tell this story. Then again, since the 1950s these two had been telling stories for Marvel Comics which at times could fit an entire character arc within 4-5 pages. This story is much too fragmentary.

On the one hand, Stan takes advantage of the existing stories with the Kree and could rely on a little reader familiarity with those concepts. But all it really amounts to is that the Sentry and Ronan got into fights on Earth and lost - now Mar-Vell has a very vague mandate on Earth. To what, pick ineffectual fights with super heroes? What is the premise of this series? I mean, I know because I'm reading this book as a retrospective, but based on Mar-Vell's first appearance, what is this series about?

We only meet Mar-Vell, Yon-Rogg and Una (although Zarek will eventually get a name and motivation). Everyone is quite simple: Mar-Vell is a duty-driven warrior; Yon-Rogg seems to be his shady superior; Una is a dewey-eyed damsel. But what are they up to? What do the Kree want with Earth? What is Mar-Vell's mission supposed to accomplish? Is this basically a super-villain strip?

What makes this frustrating is that Stan Lee doesn't stick around to finish establishing the book's premise. Gene Colan carries on, but as of the next issue, Roy Thomas takes over. And what's more, once Stan is gone, he stays gone. For most of the Marvel heroes he helped launch, Stan would take occasional breathers (usually because he prioritized scripting whatever Kirby & Ditko were drawing) but would later return to the series (as he did during the initial run of Thor, for instance). But Stan not only never writes another issue of Captain Marvel, he never writes the character again.

There are basically two reasons why this Captain Marvel exists: first, because it was a good super hero name which was then up for grabs by anyone and it made sense for Marvel Comics to control the name; second, because there was interest in a cartoon series called Captain Marvel. Basically, all Marvel Comics really wanted was the name - everything else was secondary. Unfortunately, in this story you can see an early example of Stan Lee's "make-a-buck" persona - the kind of work he would hack out to pay the bills and satisfy his overlords but had little passion for. Similarly, years later he would help introduce the character She-Hulk by writing her first appearance (so Marvel Comics could control the 'She-Hulk' trademark), then left the character behind. Much like Mar-Vell, She-Hulk would face an uphill battle to win over comics fandom and faced a massive amount of resentment for existing primarily due to commercial concerns.

This book has way too much exposition without really getting into the storytelling engine. You really need the next issue just to grasp what this series is going to be about. Mar-Vell's powers and abilities are barely introduced and his vulnerabilities are far too numerous and require too much explanation. Worse, the story keeps repeating these points, such as the constant reminders that Mar-Vell can only breathe for 60 minutes.

Stan Lee had a gift for bringing creative zest into comic books at a time when it was thought no one took them very seriously. Unfortunately, when he wasn't invested in the characters the work always suffered. Boy, imagine what 15 pages by Kirby would have looked like! There would have been so much action, so much space spent explaining how Mar-Vell's powers work and probably a few great action scenes; you just know Stan would have brought his A-game to one of Kirby's tales. Colan on the other hand - he didn't excel at drawing spaceship interiors with weird futuristic technology - it all becomes abstract, dull spaces. Colan could do great super hero strips, but this isn't the best places for his considerable talents.

Does it get any better from here? We'll find out...

Next: Roy Thomas arrives in Marvel Super-Heroes #13!

Space-Born Super Hero Part 1: Introduction

The recent movie version of Captain Marvel got me thinking about the Marvel Comics hero - specifically, the character of Mar-Vell who was Marvel's first character to use the name.

Mar-Vell is kind of interesting in so far as how uninteresting he was. The popular opinion in comics fandom is that the best story starring Mar-Vell was The Death of Captain Marvel - that is, the one where he died. Generally speaking, most people's favourite interpretation of the character is the one by Jim Starlin. Even though Mar-Vell had been around about 7 years before Starlin started drawing the series with issue #25 and he ultimately only worked on the book for about 11 issues (plus the graphic novel), Starlin was the one who gave Mar-Vell his blond hair and Cosmic Awareness powers, to say nothing of pitting him against Thanos. Starlin is pretty much the only reason Mar-Vell is remembered favorably today.

This is despite the fact that the Captain Marvel comic book series had a lot of talented hands toiling on it. He was created by Stan Lee and Gene Colan and other contributors prior to Starlin included Roy Thomas, Arnold Drake, Don Heck and Gil Kane - not exactly a bunch of Joe Schmoes.

However, prior to Starlin, Captain Marvel had a pretty lousy reputation. If you look at the nascent comics fandom of the late 60s and early 70s, you'll notice a number of fan publications which seriously pooh-poohed this series. Some of this was simply due to the character's name; the original Captain Marvel (published by Fawcett) had been the single most widely-read super hero of the 1940s. Aging fans mythologized the then-defunct Fawcett hero to the point that seeing another hero assume his name was taken as a personal affront. In that sense, comic book fandom has not changed much in the last 50 years...

But beyond fandom's antipathy regarding the hero's moniker, there was also a great deal of scorn directed at the comics themselves. Marvel had been producing one hit after another in the 1960s but Captain Marvel was the first hero who did not impress audiences right out of the gate. Heck, even the much-mocked Ant-Man had his early adventures illustrated by Jack Kirby. But while most Marvel heroes were introduced with either Kirby or Ditko participating in the character creation, Captain Marvel proved unfortunate. Gene Colan is no slouch, to be sure, but it was Kirby and Ditko who established the Marvel look and at a time when Kirby was designing almost all of the Marvel heroes' visuals, his lack of participation seemed to mark Captain Marvel as an also-ran. Beneath the King.

True. the Kree had been created by Kirby in the pages of Fantastic Four, but they hadn't yet been codified into one of Marvel's great extraterrestrial races. Further, Colan took very little from Kirby's own designs and when he did attempt to draw the same Kree whom Kirby had created, it appeared off-brand. Even fans who weren't incensed at Mar-Vell for bearing the name Billy Batson once held considered Captain Marvel to be possibly the single worst Marvel super hero comic of the 1960s.

So! Why then am I blogging about this series? Despite having been an author of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe for eight years, I didn't delve too deeply into Mar-Vell, reading only those issues which I needed to. Therefore, the pre-Starlin stories are mostly unknown to me and what I did read wasn't in sequential order. Thus, I'm going to read the saga of Mar-Vell in original publication order and blog about what I find until I reach issue #24. Will I find Captain Marvel to be as bad as its reputation holds? Dunno. I have an open mind and I enjoy finding something interesting within neglected works. Let's see what I find...

Tomorrow: We begin with Marvel Super-Heroes #12, the first appearance of Captain Marvel!

Stan Lee: "It's complicated."

As I indicated when I wrote about Stan Lee's death, there are certain criticisms I have about him, but it didn't seem right to bring them up when his life really does deserve to be celebrated.

Stan Lee's most obvious failing was his knack for putting his name on all kinds of terrible products. As more and more time elapsed, he would put his name on an increasingly-large market of subpar products, not only in comics but in film, television and cologne.

But the aspect of Stan Lee's character which I found problematic was his approach to credits. As I noted before, he did a great thing by standardizing creator credits at Marvel Comics - he frequently would talk up the artists who collaborated with him. Virtually all of his collaborators found him a very fine guy.

The way in Stan wrote comic books was to provide artists with a rough idea of what the plot could be, then he would dialogue the pages as they came in. It became called the "Marvel Method" but it was primarily a means to an end - Stan didn't have the time to type up full plots/scripts. Fortunately, artists like Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko & Don Heck didn't require any hand-holding, they could throw together the pages on their own. Kirby in particular would offer suggestions for dialogue and we know from existing samples that Stan would often take Kirby's suggestions.

The problems began as Marvel Comics became famous and the media started approaching Stan. Stan eagerly adopted the role of spokesman for comics, but because journalists didn't understand much about how comics were made, they tended to assume Stan was the person most responsible for the comics - heck, they'd even assume he drew the comics unless expressly told otherwise. What Stan was doing was a collaboration and the media didn't quite get it - and they definitely didn't get how heavily skewed the collaboration was towards the artists' strength.

The problem deepened as Stan would, as he often said, "take any credit that wasn't nailed down." He would shrug off his credit-stealing by blaming his faulty memory, but there was a definite change in how he spoke about his creations over time; in the 1960s, he readily admitted Dr. Strange was 100% Steve Ditko and the Silver Surfer was 100% Jack Kirby - but more and more, he would refer to himself as "the" creator of the Marvel Comics super heroes. It's understandable why he thought this, because the concepts frequently originated in his mind, then he would ask an artist to develop the idea. But those characters did not really exist until the artists visualized Stan's idea and plotted out their adventures.

Detractors of Jack KIrby & Steve Ditko have often pointed to their post-Marvel work as being inferior. I recall several people complaining to me about Kirby's scripting on The Eternals back when I ran an Eternals fan page. But heck, the Eternals, Devil Dinosaur, New Gods, the Question, the Creeper - those characters may not be as good as the 1960s Marvel super heroes, but they're a thousand times better than anything Stan Lee created after 1972.

It's a difficult thing to talk about, even now - the weird alchemy of time and place and of writer and artist (colorist too, for that matter); what makes a Stan Lee/Jack Kirby super-villain instantly memorable and a Stan Lee/Don Heck super-villain instantly forgettable?

Because Stan Lee was such a wonderfully friendly person and because journalists weren't usually educated on how the comics were made, it was difficult to discuss these matters throughout Stan's life. I recall being amazed at Jonathan Ross' documentary In Search of Steve Ditko because Ross actually tried to pin down Stan during an interview - it's the only time I've ever seen footage of Stan Lee with a camera on him and uncomfortable about it.

Some people try to turn these questions into "are you pro-Stan or anti-Kirby" etc. I have no interest in that. I definitely agree they did their best work together, and I likewise adore Lee/Ditko. (Lee/Romita, Lee/Maneely & Lee/Colan were pretty good too) But now that Stan has passed away and I've taken this off my chest, I don't think it will bother me too much... except for all the times in the future where I'll see the phrase "Marvel Universe credited by Stan Lee" and sigh a little. There are so many more creators to talk about. So many.

RIP: Stan Lee

Stan Lee died today. He was 95 years old. My feelings about him are somewhat divided, so today I'm going to celebrate his life; tomorrow, I'll criticize him.

Stan came to work for Marvel Comics in the 1940s as a mere teenager, an office boy hired by his cousin's husband, who just happened to be Martin Goodman, owner of Marvel Comics. With aspirations of being a great author, Stanley Lieber used a variety of pennames when writing comics so as to preserve his real name for his hoped-upon literary career; the penname he used most often was 'Stan Lee.'

From scripting, Stan eventually added editing to his duties. Marvel Comics were an also-ran in the comics industry, never publishing the sort of trend-setting fare such as Fawcett, DC or EC printed, instead chasing whatever new trend their competition had unearthed. Although major talent like Jack Kirby and Harvey Kurtzman passed through Marvel in the 1940s, their defining work was published elsewhere.

Marvel Comics imploded in 1957, going out of business for several months after losing their distributor. Stan was one of the few to keep his office job while Goodman let the others go; when they resumed publishing comics, Stan was left scripting most of what Marvel printed. Fortunately, Marvel was blessed with the work of Jack Kirby, who quickly became Stan's preferred artist. With Kirby, Steve Ditko and Don Heck as his most prolific artists, Stan wrote a variety of science fiction and western comics, favouring stories with giant monsters on Kirby's evocative covers.

When Lee and Kirby launched the super hero comic Fantastic Four in 1961, it was supposed to be yet another instance of Marvel chasing another popular trend - in this instance, the renewed interest in super heroes over at DC. But what Lee & Kirby turned in was different - a super hero soap opera which compelled readers to return month after month to follow the development of the heroes' lives. Unlike the stagnant world of Superman and Batman, the Marvel Comics heroes could change and grow; Spider-Man's initial love interests Liz Allan and Betty Brant were gradually phased out of his love life (yet not the comic) while he developed affections for Mary Jane Watson and Gwen Stacy; the Fantastic Four's Mister Fantastic and Invisible Girl got married and had a son; wartime hero Nick Fury lost an eye and became a secret agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

The stories which Lee scripted were also willing to push boundaries. This had been true of Lee even in the 1950s when he railed against the attempts to regulate the comics industry, but even under the 1960s auspices of the Comics Code Authority, Lee's scripts would confront racism and, eventually, reflect young people's anger at the Vietnam War.

But most importantly, the Marvel Comics of the 1960s were ingratiating; they were welcoming; Lee's caption boxes would often break the fourth wall to joke with the reader. It was a lightning-in-a-bottle situation which was only helped by Marvel's status as the bottom rung of a marginalized artform - he made reading a super hero comic book feel subversive, hip, counter-cultural. His became the "voice" of Marvel Comics, one which other scripters like Roy Thomas would emulate. For once, Marvel Comics had taken the lead; the rest of the industry took years to comprehend what was going on and how to respond. Since then (by and large) Marvel Comics have been the industry's trend-setter for what is popular in super hero comics.

Lee stopped writing comics regularly after 1972 to become president of Marvel Comics after Goodman sold the company (a move Goodman regretted almost instantly). Most of Stan's efforts from then on were focused on widening Marvel Comics' audience, such as shopping them around to television and Hollywood, which did bear fruit in places such as the live action Incredible Hulk television show or the animated TV series Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. Stan Lee himself would narrate the openings to the latter animated show, which was the first time I took notice of his name; I soon recognized his signature in the masthead of every Marvel comic book I owned. "Stan Lee" was the first comic book creator whose name I knew.

Although Stan returned to write an issue or two of comics here and there from the 70s-00s, he didn't do so on an ongoing basis. His writing presence at Marvel Comics was most keenly felt in his editorials, 'Stan's Soapbox', which would appear in places such as the Marvel Bullpen page and in Marvel Age magazine; at one time, I think I had read more entries of Stan's Soapbox than I had Stan Lee comic books.

Originally a man ashamed to sign his real name to the comic books he wrote, Stan Lee ultimately embraced his new identity, registering 'Stan Lee' as his official name and going before journalists to speak passionately about comic books, making himself the ambassador of comics - largely because when he started talking to the media, no one else was speaking up. Stan Lee became a known name to people who had never read comic books and eventually his cameos in Marvel-branded motion pictures would make his face and voice recognizable around the world.

Perhaps the greatest thing Stan Lee did to comic books was to standardize the credits box; not every comics writer or artist would sign their work (especially writers) and publishers would sometimes wipe their signatures off the page, creating the impression that comics were made by committee, not by people. Stan made the credits box standard and expected within the industry; he even made it fun, peppering the credits box with nicknames for the creators and in-jokes.

What I enjoyed the most about Stan Lee's stories were the jokes he would include to liven up scenes; when he wanted to be dramatic, he went all-in, but the rest of time, he had a lightness of touch, a warm joshing manner in his scripts which was very appealing.

Rest in peace, Mr. Lee.

Here are some blog entries about his work I penned in the past:

I Love Atlas Comics: "Burton's Blood"

Why Do I Like Super Heroes?

Thor: 40 Years of Favourite Moments

Captain America: Recommended Reading List

And this one, which I posted right after Steve Ditko's death earlier this year:

Unearthed: "The Man Who Captured Death"

Unearthed: "The Man Who Captured Death"

"The Man Who Captured Death!" is one of my all-time favourite comic book stories. It was originally presented in Amazing Adult Fantasy #9 (1962), but I first discovered it as a reprinted back-up feature in Astonishing Tales #21 (1973). It's by Stan Lee & Steve Ditko.

It's a very simple tale: an old inventor in his laboratory wants to continue his research but he realizes his time is running short. "If only I could triumph over death!" he remarks. His final project is to complete a large sphere which emits a beam of energy. Exhausted, he falls asleep.

Awakening, the old man sees Death himself before him, having taken a corporeal body with green skin and wearing a long black cloak. Death explains: "Only once in every mortal's lifetime does he glimpse me... and this is your moment! Now come, professor -- come to me!" But the inventor activates his last invention and it immobilizes Death within a barrier. Death protests, warning the inventor he doesn't realize "what forces" he's tampering with, but the inventor can only see the advantage: "So long as you are my captive, the world need never fear death again!"

And this is true! Death no longer has any effect on the Earth... and so, beetles become immune to pesticides and devour crops unfazed. Predatory animals increase in strength. Rats multiply at a frightening rate. Viruses in sick people's bodies can't be eliminated. Hospitals are overcrowded with the infirm, unable to die.

From his television set, the inventor sees the chaos he's unwittingly unleashed on the Earth. Horrified, he realizes Death was correct; he deactivates his device, releasing Death from its prison. Rather than approaching the old man in a spirit of menace, Death places an arm around the old man and speaks words of comfort: "I shall bring you -- peace! As I have brought so many others before you --" and guides the old man into death.
Thoughts: Many of the Lee/Ditko stories in Amazing Adult Fantasy are of this quality, telling a very simple fable in an economical, elegant manner. This one, however, has really remained with me. The inventor's triumph over Death is ultimately a greedy act, the old trying to place their desires ahead of the young. I love that the old man comes to the realization of his wrong and corrects all of this himself, rather than being forced or coerced into the proper action. In this 5-page story the unnamed inventor undergoes character development which many Marvel characters with decades of stories under their belts have never achieved.
I had wanted to cover this story on the blog at some point - perhaps in a series of posts on my favourite Steve Ditko stories - but considering the subject matter and the recent death of Steve Ditko, I can think of no better time than now to bring it up. I hope that for Ditko, death came upon him gently and granted him peace. Seek this one out, it is Ditko at his finest.

Do Not Panic! Steve Ditko is 90!

This week Steve Ditko celebrated his 90th birthday! Ditko is one of the few living comic book creators who can unequivocally be termed "living legend." Although best-known for being the creator of Doctor Strange and co-creator of Spider-Man, Ditko's unique artistic styles have keep him a perpetually devoted (albeit shrinking) fanbase. He still publishes comic books to this day, as I have occasionally pointed out on this blog. Ditko's unique perspectives, his way of depicting alien realms, his lightness of touch matched with grotesqueries and, of course, those expressive fingers he draws have made their mark upon my mind. If Jack Kirby was not the greatest comic book artist of all-time, then surely Steve Ditko is.

One of my early favourites is the story "Do Not Panic!" which first appeared in Strange Tales #95 (1962), although I first encountered it as a reprint in Curse of the Weird #1 (1994). Stan Lee was scripter and signed his name, as he often did on Ditko tales.

From a worm's eye perspective we see people panicking as an otherworldly craft descends from the skies. From there the perspective moves to people indoors listening intently to radio broadcasts of the craft's descent; people lock their doors. A squad of tanks arrive to encircle the craft at its landing sight. It's very much in the spirit of The Day the Earth Stood Still.

A lone astronaut emerges from the craft, clad from head to toe in a spacesuit. The wary soldiers demand he drop his gun belt; the astronaut politely complies. Offering friendship, the astronaut removes his helmet to reveal he is a normal-looking human man. The soldiers are Martians and the setting has, from the start, been upon Mars rather than Earth.

"Do Not Panic!" is only four pages and it's the right length. The story has a very simple premise and the tale gets in and out right on cue. Ditko was very careful to avoid depicting the Martians' faces until the last panel, but he did so in ways which would not tip the readers off to the twist - the lack of faces simply adds to the sense of paranoia gripping the populace. This tale is representative of many of those which Ditko produced for Atlas (nearly all of them scripted by Lee). These tales were almost all based around a very simple twist ending, but sometimes that twist could be unclear or require too much explanation at the climax. Here, the twist is told entirely through visuals, not text and that makes this a particularly special thing in comic books, a medium where all-too-often emphasis is placed on text instead of image.

Do enjoy your ninetieth year, Mr. Ditko.

The allure of the vigilante hero

"We do not need to get good laws to restrain bad people. We need to get good people to restrain us from bad laws."

-G.K. Chesterton

Another tribute to Colin Smith's Too Busy Thinking About My Comics II; image from Rawhide Kid#36 (1963): "the Prisoner of Outlaw Town!" by Stan Lee & Dick Ayers.

Why do I like super heroes?

Last week I began preparing what would have been a series of posts about why I stopped reading, supporting and working for Marvel Comics. However, after looking over my first draft I felt disappointed in myself; there's no derth of upset comic book fans raging at how the industry has failed to live up to their standards and this attempted post was just another grain of sand on the beach.
Therefore, in the interest of producing something positive to say about the super hero genre, I asked myself: why exactly did I invest so much emotion into these characters?

While Jim Salicrup was editor of Captain America in the early 1980s, he pointed to the above panel from Avengers#4 (1964) by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby as a defining characterization of Captain America. Captain America is facing the Sub-Mariner in combat, an antagonist whose superhuman strength places him well above Cap's own human strength level. Cap is canny enough to realize how outclassed he is, but remains confident in his ability to win the fight. "He's stronger than me -- but I'll find a way to outmaneuver him!"

This scene has been echoed by other writers through the years and it's often invoked at moments of extreme cosmic peril. For instance, take the Avengers#177 (1978) by Jim Shooter & Dave Wenzel. In this, the climax of the lengthy Korvac Saga, the godlike Michael Korvac quickly plows through the Avengers' ranks, killing each member regardless of their might; in the midst of this, Captain America enters the fray and briefly holds his own against Korvac. "Or maybe you don't even count me -- because I'm just a man? Hear that, Mike? This is no god hitting you -- no super-man! Just a man! It doesn't matter how strong you are! I'll find a way to stop you! I'll find a way!" This brief turn of events ends as Korvac strikes Cap through a wall with so much force that it kills him. Later, of course, all of the Avengers are brought back to life.

Years later in Infinity Gauntlet#4 (1991) by Jim Starlin, Ron Lim & George Perez, the all-powerful Thanos battles what few heroes remain after he's already killed 50% of the universe. The entire fight is a joke; Thanos is in no real jeopardy and engages the heroes only to divert himself and hopefully win the favour of Death, herself. After Thanos kills most of the heroes, only Captain America is left standing. Even with so little hope of victory, Cap fights to the end: "As long as one man stands against you, Thanos, you'll never be able to claim victory. I've lived my life by those sentiments. They're well worth dying for." Captain America does indeed die (after landing one punch across Thanos' jaw), but is later brought back to life.
Why do I like Captain America? Because he struggles against superior forces, heedless of the cost.

Look also to Tales of Suspense#59 (1964) by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby. A gang of ten heavily armed criminals (one wearing Iron Man-like armour) break into Avengers Mansion and find Captain America is the only Avenger present. They assume they can handle just one Avenger - the only Avenger without super powers - but he proves to be more than a match for them. After he defeats the gang, Cap can only remark: "But it's lucky you broke in while I was on duty! If any of the other Avengers were here, you might have gotten hurt! They're really tough!"
Why do I like Captain America? Because he's humble.

In one of the best Avengers stories of them all, Baron Zemo leads a version of the Masters of Evil whose members both outnumber and overpower the Avengers' own. By the events of Avengers#274 (1986) by Roger Stern & John Buscema, the Black Knight has been beaten unconscious, Captain Marvel has been exiled to another dimension, Hercules has been beaten to the point of death and Captain America has been captured, leaving only the Wasp at liberty. Zemo lets his wrath get the better of him as he kicks the bound-up Captain America in the face, gloating he'll finally get revenge on Cap for supposedly killing his father. As he lies helplessly on the floor, bleeding from the mouth, Captain America tells Zemo he hasn't won yet... not while the Wasp is free. And he's right: the Wasp eventually returns to rescue the captured Avengers and round up Zemo's forces.
Why do I like Captain America? Because he believes in his friends.

During the days when Captain America was romantically involved with Diamondback, a former costumed criminal who was inspired to reform by his good example, Diamondback was nearly murdered by her enemy Snapdragon. Traumatized by the episode, Diamondback eventually tracked down Snapdragon and seemingly killed her. After struggling with this secret for more than a year, Diamondback finally confessed what she'd done to Cap in Captain America#424 (1994) by Mark Gruenwald and Phil Gosier. Diamondback thinks Cap could "never love a murderer," but he promises to first, ascertain if Snapdragon is dead and second, get Diamondback the best legal aid possible. He fully intends to help Diamondback redeem herself for the attempt on Snapdragon's life. "I can't presume to judge you. I don't know what you went through. But I do know you're basically a good person. You've more than earned my support."
Why do I like Captain America? Because he supports his loved ones and doesn't judge them, even when they've fallen short.

One of Stan Lee & Steve Ditko's best multiple part stories was a lengthy Doctor Strange arc where his foes Baron Mordo & Dormammu joined forces against him. With Mordo's spies found across the globe, Strange is constantly in danger as he searches for the means to combat Mordo & Dormammu. In Strange Tales#135 (1965), Strange's journey brings him to England, where he asks Mordo's former agent Sir Baskerville for help. However, Baskerville is secretly still an agent of Mordo. He contacts his master and Mordo teleports a minion to Baskerville's castle to destroy Dr. Strange. When Baskerville and the minion return to ambush Strange, they find he's gone, but a suit of armour suddenly comes to life. Believing Strange is inside the armour, the minion attacks it and pursues it through a passageway... right into the path of Dr. Strange, who defeats the minion with a single punch to the gut. How did Strange animate the armour? Simple: he placed his cloak of levitation inside.
Why do I like Doctor Strange? Because he wins fights not through superior power, but superior tactics.

My personal favourite comic book is Doctor Strange#55 (1982) by Roger Stern & Michael Golden. After his lover Clea breaks up with him, Strange is so despondent that his psyche breaks down; it's dangerous for a sorcerer to lose control of his senses because he can't tell what's real and what's being conjured by his subconsciousness. In a moment of anger, Strange wishes he'd "never learned the ways of magic." At this point, a spirit appears and claims his wish has been granted. Strange is soon thrust into a horrible, nightmarish world in which the super hero Doctor Strange... is just a fictional character who appears in comic books. Confronted with this horrible reality - one we readers know is all too true - Strange is coerced to commit suicide as the ultimate escape from reality. Although tempted, Strange finally refuses and fights back against the forces trying to destroy his life.
Why do I like Doctor Strange? Because in the depths of despair, he chooses life over death.

Much has been made of Stan Lee & Steve Ditko's "Final Chapter" story from Amazing Spider-Man, particularly the moment where Spider-Man lifts an immense burden off his back. Personally, there's another moment I like at least as much in Amazing Spider-Man#33 (1966): while trying to escape the fortress of Doctor Octopus and bring a life-saving serum to his Aunt May, Spider-Man is confronted by a gang comprising eight of Dr. Octopus' men. The hero is weary from his struggles, nearly delirious, but flies into battle with them. Without any grace or form, he swings wildly at his foes; the batle goes on for 2.5 pages as the henchmen hold their own for a time. Moments later, Spider-Man is startled to discover he's defeated all of his opponents without realizing it.
Why do I like Spider-Man? Because he's stronger than he thinks he is.
I could carry on, but I hope you've enjoyed this little list.