History of the Marvel Universe: May 1968

FANTASTIC FOUR #74

Galactus is getting hungry again. He’s having trouble finding an eatable world without a herald to scout things out for him. So he heads back to Earth to re-recruit the Silver Surfer.

But the Surfer doesn’t want to go. Though this would end his exile on Earth, scouting worlds for Galactus means helping to commit genocide—something he’s no longer willing to do. So he goes to the FF for help.

The Punisher (no, not THAT Punisher—the robot the big G used to beat up the Fantastic Four back in issue #49) is sent to Earth to find the Surfer and most of the issue is Ben , Johnnie and Reed fighting the nigh-unbeatable mechanism. Sue is still sitting out the action do to her pregnancy.

When the Punisher realizes that the Surfer is too well-hidden to be found, it teleports away. The issue ends with Galactus personally beginning a search for his former herald.

This is a strong, well-plotted opening for another extended story arc. Stan and Jack continue to mesh character moments and action sequences smoothly together. The issue opens when Ben stops by to see Alicia and finds the Surfer there. Jealous, he acts like an immature jerk until the Surfer literally has to blast him and insist that the world may be in danger. What makes this scene perfect is that this works—getting knocked back by an angry Surfer is what makes Ben shut up and listen. It’s yet another small but important moment that shows how thoroughly Stan and Jack understood their characters.

And I like the motivation for bringing Galactus back to Earth—it makes sense even in light of his promise never to return.

SPIDER MAN #60

This issue balances so many plot threads so perfectly that it’s impossible to summarize it faithfully without droning on about it far too long. So, just as Indigo did for Westley before attacking the castle, I’ll sum up.

Captain Stacy is brainwashed and working for the Kingpin; Gwen thinks Peter has attacked her dad and now wants nothing to do with him; Peter gets pictures of Stacy stealing police records and Jamison publishes these in a special edition. That leaves Peter in even deeper hot water with Gwen.

That’s the situation as the issue ends. The story leading up to it is packed to the gills with great storytelling that covers an amazing amount of territory without ever seeming dense or rushed. It’s literally a textbook example of graphic storytelling exposition. If you hope to write comics one day, this is an issue you need to study—taking note of how much plot and character stuff is expertly worked into it.  Action; characterization; exposition; moments of high melodrama—it’s all there in exactly the right amounts. This isn’t the best-ever Spidey story, but it’s still an excellent one. And it’s better told in terms of story construction than just about any other comic book I can think of.

THOR #152

The fun thing about this story arc is that there’s not really just one main villain. Every issue or two, the story kind of shifts gears and goes in a different direction. But each of those shifts is very smooth and makes perfect sense in context to the universe Thor and his fellow Asgardians inhabit.

It started with Loki vs. Thor. This morphed into the Wrecker vs. Thor. Then Sif’s life force is zapped into the Destroyer.

This issue begins with Thor—fully powered again—still fighting the Destroyer. But, in the meantime, Ulik is threatening Karnilla. In order to get Balder to agree to defend her, she returns Sif’s life force to its proper place. The Destroyer falls over, inanimate once again.

Balder and Ulik wail on each other for awhile, until Karnilla zaps Thor up to her realm. So the fight shifts to Thor vs. Ulik.

In the end, the troll is knocked into the “bottomless Abyss of Shadows,” in which he’s lost forever—which in this case actually means one issue.

As the dust settles, Thor realizes his hammer is missing—magically stolen by Loki. So it looks like the story will morph back into Thor vs. Loki once again.

There’s a definite rhythm to the story arc. As with this month’s Spider Man, we get an excellent example of just how skilled Stan Lee (and whichever artist he was working with) was at story construction and pacing.

By the way, I’ve been whining about Odin’s less-than-logical actions during this story arc, but the All-Father gets a Crowning Moment of Awesome this time around, when he appears in a police station to take possession of the Destroyer. Despite being dressed in normal clothes, he over-awes the cops, shoos them out of the room containing the Destroyer, and teleports away with it. The poor cops are left baffled and wondering if this was the “decision from Asgard” that Thor told them would be handed down regarding the robot.     

That’s it for May. In June 1968, the FF follow the Silver Surfer to a very unusual hideout; Spider Man gets a rematch against Kingpin; and Thor/Don Blake has to multi-task.

Cover Cavalcade

 Before and After. Gold Key was producing the comic Space Family Robinson, basically the Swiss Family Robinson in space.  Then CBS debuted Lost in Space in 1965, which was basically the Swiss Family Robinson in space. Gold Key started putting Lost in Space on the covers of its comic, even though it still used its own characters and vehicle designs rather than those from the TV show. Irwin Allen, the TV show's producer, didn't seem to mind and in fact Gold Key later put out comic adaptations of other Allen SF shows. Consequently, the TV version of Lost in Space never got a comic book adaptation while the show was first airing. (I believe it did some years later.)

Friday's Favorite OTR

Phillip Marlowe: “The Girl from Pitchfork Corners” 7/5/50

Marlowe is hired via a special delivery letter (which includes a $50 bill) to find out if a particular man is leaving Los Angeles on a particular train. He doesn’t find the man and reports to his client.

Not surprisingly, he stumbles across a body. What follows is the sort of complex but strongly plotted hard-boiled tale that was typical of this great show. Marlowe follows a twisting trail of blackmail that leads him to a naïve country girl. Or is she naïve?

The ending is a little contrived—the killer conveniently explains the whole plot while Marlowe is nearby listening. But the overall strength of the plot, colorful supporting characters, and a few good twists more than make up for this one minor flaw.

Click HERE to listen or download.

“In this house, you’ve got to believe what you can’t see.”

Read/Watch ‘em in order #7: The Invisible Man’s Revenge (1944)

Robert Griffith returns to England after spending years in a Capetown insane asylum, determined to take vengeance on the family he thinks once cheated him.

But his plans seem to go awry until he stumbles across the cabin of a mad scientist—a fellow who has developed an invisibility serum and is anxious to try it out on a human. (He’s already made an invisible dog and an invisible parrot.)

The title character is played by Jon Hall, who portrayed the invisible spy in the previous entry in the series. But this time he’s no hero, but rather a madman who has already committed a couple of murders before the movie even begins.

So he doesn’t need an invisibility serum to send him to crazy-town. He’s already there.

This is probably the weakest of the series. It’s a little slow-moving for a B-movie, taking a good 20 minutes to set up the plot and get to the invisibility stuff. (That’s a pretty big chunk of a 78-minute movie.) Remember that the first two movies started with the main characters already invisible, while Invisible Agent had a suspenseful encounter with fascist agents to set up the story. Revenge just has a lot of conversation. The dialogue is perfectly well-constructed, but an element of danger or excitement wouldn’t have hurt.

Still, it’s a fun movie. John P. Fulton’s special effects continue to be remarkable. A shot in which Griffith splashes water on his face, making his face and his hand partially visible, is perhaps the creepiest moment in the series.

Jon Hall does a solid job of playing a unpredictable psychotic. John Carradine gives a classy performance as the scientist, continuing his long and honorable connection with the Universal Monster universe. (He was one of the hunters that found Frankenstein’s monster hanging out with the blind hermit in Bride of Frankenstein (1935), and he’d take over the role of Dracula for two movies in 1945.)

But IS this movie a part of the mainstream Universal Monster universe? The main character is named Griffith, but there’s no indication that he’s related to the original invisible man. And he doesn’t use the same formula—Carradine’s Dr. Drury creates a serum on his own.

This races a vitally important question. Is this movie a part of the same continuity as the rest of the monsters and the other invisible man films, or does it exist in its own separate little universe?

Why is this question so important? Well, because….  because…

Because… um….

Well, because it just IS. If you have to ask, you’re probably reading the wrong blog. Heck, this is an issue we’ve dealt with herein the past.

Of course, it’s possible that Carradine simply creates an invisibility serum independent of the one created by Jack Griffith. And perhaps Robert Griffith’s last name is an ironic coincidence.

But I place it in a separate universe. What convinces me of this is the fact that everyone is pretty much shocked by the existence of an invisible man. Remember that Jack Griffith’s original rampage was a very public one and the possibility of making a man invisible was known to everyone in later films. Yes, other sequels to the original had some continuity glitches in them, but this one is simply too big to ignore.  So we’ll consider The Invisible Man’s Revenge, a flawed but still enjoyable B-film, to be located one reality to the left of the world in which Jack Griffith began his invisible shenanigans. 

This is such an important issue that I think we'll spend next week discussing whether a series of novels and a comic strip should belong in the same universe.

That leaves us with Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951), which is without question part of the original universe. We’ll pay the boys a visit very soon.

The Original JLA

I “met” Walter Paquette via an online  forum about the superhero miniatures game Heroclix, where he occasionally chided me for concentrated too much on the FF and Spider Man in my discussions of comics. Well, I challenged him to do a guest review of any Golden or Silver Age comic he wanted and he took me up on it. So here is this blog’s first guest review:

BRAVE AND THE BOLD #28 (May 1960)

Recently DC comics rebooted their universe—The Justice League, among other books, has gotten a "do-over" complete with a new origin story. Today I would like to go back to where it all started with the first appearance of the Justice League of America in The Brave and the Bold.

The team consisted of Aquaman, Batman, Flash (Barrry Allen), Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Martian Manhunter, Superman, and Wonder Woman. At this point you may be wondering to yourself “What kind of enemy would bring some of the most powerful super heroes from the DC Universe to fight together for the first time?”

A giant starfish from space, named Starro the Conqueror.

The story starts out with Aquaman being told about the threat by his good friend, Peter the Puffer Fish! Peter tells Aquaman of how Starro appeared, making deputies out of other starfish to help him conquer Earth.

Once Aquaman is told about the threat, he sends out a signal to his friends to let them know that they are needed to save the Earth! First person to receive the signal is Wonder Woman, who quickly leaves the date she is on to help. Hal Jordan is flying an aircraft designed to fly around the world in 24 hours, but he quickly suits up into Green Lantern and wills the aircraft into autopilot. Flash is trying to stop a tornado (which he quickly takes care of), and Martian Manhunter is about to go on vacation. Batman is busy on the tails of some Gotham looters and Superman is busy protecting Earth from an impending meteor threat, so those two decide that the others can manage without them until they finish up their current Business.

The team members then show up to discuss what to do, where they all decide it is best for them to patrol different areas and try to find out just what kind of threat this Starro character is. During these patrols the first person to run into one of Starro’s deputies is Green Lantern. The deputy attacks a military aircraft and steals an atom bomb, which it quickly sets off in order to absorb its immense power. Green Lantern takes it out with a quick shot to its single eye, reverting it back to its starfish state.

Meanwhile, Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter are at the Hall of Science, where another deputy is attacking. While Wonder Woman is distracting the Starro deputy, Manhunter takes to the upper atmosphere looking for some sort of weapon to take the creature out. J’onn finds some meteor pieces (which he mentions is from the same meteors Superman is taking out at this time) and also uses his super breath. All this causes the Starro deputy to fly off, taking the Hall of Science with it!

A fight ensues between the three, with the Starro deputy trying to take out Wonder Woman and Manhunter with its atomic beams. They easily protect themselves from the beams while making quick work out of the deputy.

We cut to Flash, where he is at the coastal town of Happy Harbor where Starro’s deputy has begun to mind control the entire town, except for one unfortunate soul named Snapper. The deputy shoots an atomic laser at Snapper,  but Flash manages to save him. The Scarlett Speedster  tales care of the deputy by creating a vortex to make the creature spin, leaving it unable to aim its atomic beams. Soon the deputy retreats to a nearby lake.

Flash follows the deputy to the lake, using vibrations to part waves in an attempt to find it. He then allows the waves to collapse down on the deputy, knocking it out. The mind controlled town folks are released from the deputy’s spell and are able to tell Flash where Starro is located.

Flash takes his new buddy Snapper with him, thinking he might be key to figuring out how to defeat the alien monster. Upon meeting up with the other five Justice League members,  Green Lantern decides to take on Starro. A problem arises when Starro reads Green Lantern’s mind and finds out his weakness…the color yellow! The alien turns himself yellow, gaining immunity to GL’s ring.

At this point, Flash figures out that there might be some reason that Snapper is unaffected by Starro’s powers, so he has Green Lantern make a spectroscope with his ring where they find out that Snapper is covered in Calcium Oxide, or Lime, from doing yard work earlier in the day. Aquaman then mentions that oysters use lime to defend themselves from being eaten by starfish. The five members of the Justice League then gather up a bunch of lime and quickly cover Starro with it, imprisoning the monster.

I was slightly disappointed that Aquaman didn't do much of anything in the story other then warn them of the threat then added in some information on why the lime worked. I was also bothered by the fact that Flash can take out a Starro deputy by himself while Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter had to team up. Also I guess I am more used to stories stretching out longer--nowadays comics like that would be stretched out into a 6 issue series plus tie ins while this one solved the problem in just the one issue.

ME AGAIN: I agree that Aquaman was underused in the story. But then that’s always been a chronic problem with the King of the Seas whenever he appears in team books. If the story doesn’t take place underwater, writers have always had a hard time coming up with something useful for poor Arthur to do. Over in Marvel, Prince Namor’s personality and power levels have always seemed to allow him more leeway in being useful on dry land.

For some years, DC Comics tried dumping constant tragedy and angst on Aquaman while also amping up his powers to an extent in a desperate effort to make him interesting. But it wasn’t until the recent Batman: The Brave and the Bold animated series that we finally got a really awesome version of the character.

I do kinda like, though, that the world is basically saved because Aquaman passes on a message from PETER THE PUFFER FISH!!

Walter makes an interesting point about single issue stories versus multi-part epics. Nowadays, comics are published with the intention of collecting just about everything into trade paperbacks—a format that I understand to be a major revenue source for the publishers. And the debut of the JLA might have been improved by drawing the story out for several issues and allowing the various characters to get more of a spotlight. But artificially stretching it into a long, long story with multiple crossovers  would not have been a good thing. Stories should be as long or short as they need to be to fulfill the requirements of drama and good storytelling. Though I concede that the publishers have every right to turn a profit, I’ve always felt that the need to produce multi-part epics almost exclusively has been damaging to the overall quality of modern superhero stories.

Thanks to Walter for his guest review.

Cover Cavalcade

There are some people you just don't mess with. John Carter of Mars would be on the top of that list.

Friday's Favorite OTR

Jeff Regan: “The Man Who Liked the Mountains” 8/7/48

Regan’s agency is hired by one gangster to find another gangster. Regan doesn’t like it—and it soon turns out it has good reason. The missing man has a cabin in the mountains, but that cabin now contains a dead man. Before he has time to blink, Regan is hip-deep in corpses and on the run from a frame-up.

Not only is this a very good story, it also has a great cast playing the various supporting roles. Joining Jack Webb is Jeff Chandler (who would eventually play Michael Shayne) and William Conrad (the future Matt Dillon). This episode is so hard-boiled, if it were an egg you’d need dynamite to crack open its shell.

Click HERE to listen or download.

Identifying the killer doesn’t always identify the killer

The first two movies in the Sherlock Holmes film series staring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce were quite properly set in Victorian England. The first was a faithful adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles (the best of Conan Doyle’s novel-length tales), while the second was a loose adaptation of the famous William Gillette play.

Then World War II broke out. The series, originally produced at 20^th Century Fox, moved to Universal Studios and updated Holmes to contemporary times. That allowed the Great Detective to match wits with Nazi spies.

Later on, the films moved back to more traditional mystery fare, but remained set in what was then present day. For this reason, they are, though always entertaining, never quite as satisfying as they could be—in the end, Holmes and Watson belong in Victorian or (late in their career) Edwardian England. The two never really fit in later times.

All the same, there are a few gems in the series. The Scarlet Claw (1944) is one. Holmes and Watson are visiting Canada. Holmes learns that a woman was brutally murdered in a nearby village. Soon after, he receives a letter from her (obviously mailed just before her death), asking him to protect her from a vaguely-defined danger.

Holmes notes that it’s the first time he’s been commissioned by a dead person, then determines to find the murderer. He heads to the village, where most of the locals have decided that the killer is a legendary monster. 

But Holmes soon finds clues pointing to a more rational solution. (I like it when Watson refers to The Hound of the Baskervilles and “The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire” as examples of supposedly supernatural crimes that proved to have a rational explanation.)  A little investigating finds a motive for the first killing—a motive that also indicates several other people are in danger.

It really isn’t long before Holmes knows who the killer is. But bizarre circumstances (which I don’t want to spoil if you haven’t seen the film) mean that, in this case, identifying the killer doesn’t really identify the killer. Holmes knows who it is without really knowing who it is.

So begins a race to find a murderer before he or she can murder again.

The movie is great to look at—the Universal storytellers had more than enough experience at producing horror movies to succeed in giving the village an appropriately creepy and dangerous vibe. The various supporting character all have… well, character—both in their appearance and their behavior. Rathbone, as always, is excellent as Holmes. (Arguably beaten out as the best-ever Great Detective only by Jeremy Brett.)  Bruce, if you can accept a comic relief Watson, is funny and likable. And the mystery is well-constructed, with clues that are uncovered in a logical manner and make sense when revealed.

Also, it’s very easy to imagine this movie being set in the early 20^th Century—lets say 1902, perhaps a year before the most likely date of Holmes’ retirement in “real life.” Neither the war nor any then-current events are mentioned. It’s not too much of a stretch to accept the prevalence and reliability of telephones, even in a remote village. Flashlights are used instead of lamps and a character takes a bus when leaving town, when a train or a coach might have been more likely forty-two years earlier. But even these are within the realm of possibility for an Edwardian era mystery. The first dry cell flashlight, for instance, was invented in 1896. So we have room to think of this movie as being set in a proper Holmesian universe.

But, well, then Holmes spoils it all in the very last scene by quoting Churchill. No way to fit that into 1902. Gee whiz, Holmes, you just had to blow it, didn’t you?

Despite the 1940s setting, the Universal Holmes series really is quite good. And maybe it’s just as well that Holmes occasionally gets updated to modern times. After all, someone has to match wits with all those criminal masterminds. Heck, I’ll take Holmes over those annoying CSI guys any day of the week.

History of the Marvel Universe: April 1968

DAREDEVIL #38

FANTASTIC FOUR #73

Before dealing with this month’s FF adventure, we first gotta jump over the pages of Daredevil for a moment.

Dr. Doom is back and his latest nefarious scheme involves swapping bodies with Daredevil.  But Daredevil turns the tide on Doom by convincing Lavarian officials he’s the real Doom, then declaring war on the rest of the world. This forces Doom to switch their bodies back so he can put a stop to that.

But Doom uses a voice modulator to call Reed and, claiming to be Daredevil, tells him that the real Daredevil is really Doom.

I’ve always felt that the Daredevil stories from these years were often a little weak, but this was a fun and clever story.

That leads us into this month’s Fantastic Four.  Daredevil’s on his way to the Baxter Building to warn our heroes about Doom’s return. But Reed, Ben and Johnnie (Sue is still out of town) are getting ready to meet “Doom” head on when he “attacks.”

Daredevil runs into Spider Man and Spidey had earlier noticed a still de-powered Thor wandering around, so DD now has some allies on his side. The FF, though not completely sure, figure “Spidey” and “Thor” are probably Doombots. What follows are extended fight scenes (DD vs. Reed, Thor vs. Thing, Spidey vs. Torch) until Sue shows up to tell her husband he’s acting like an idiot. She just saw the real Doom holding a televised press conference and booked back to New York to put a stop to the fight.

The whole situation is pure fun. That Daredevil “just happened” to run across Spider Man and Thor is a little contrived, but it’s the sort of thing that happens quite often in a comic book universe.

Also, I do wonder why Spidey and Thor simply assumed DD was telling the truth about being real. Both are aware that stuff like body-swapping technology does exist in the world they inhabit.

But those are minor points. Stan Lee seemed to have gotten into a rhythm for the books he was writing, dropping in a few single-issue stories between extended story arcs. This actually worked quite well and, backed by Jack Kirby’s typically magnificent artwork, he gives us a cool fight scene between characters who would normally be allies.

On top of this, the dialogue between DD and Reed, debating over how the heck someone can prove he’s not a body-swapped imposter (taking place during their fight), was entertaining and interesting.

SPIDER MAN #59

Well, while the Fantastic Four is having its “breather” before jumping into another multi-part epic, Spider Man is getting started with his next multi-part epic. Spidey’s “breather” was his fight-to-the-death against a Spider-Slayer last issue.

Peter finally shows up after being “missing” and supposedly kidnapped by Spider Man. Aunt May perks up immediately upon seeing him. Peter tells the cops what is actually a pretty good story—Spidey had amnesia; saw Peter taking photos; assumed he was an enemy and captured him; got his memory back and let Pete go.  In a comic book universe, it’s a perfectly reasonable story. It’s a nice wrap-up to the amnesia story arc and it brings an end to Aunt May’s latest brush with death (something Stan Lee was leaning on a little bit too often).

It also gives Peter a chance to overhear the cops talking about how a lot of dangerous thugs were getting bailed out of jail. In addition, he meets Captain Stacy for the first time and learns that Stacy has made a special study of Spider Man.

But on with the story. Mary Jane has gotten a job dancing at a new club. But the place is really part of a plot to lure city officials there and brainwash them. When Peter and his friends are there one night, he notices something suspicious and investigates. This leads to the first of many, many, many occasions in which Mary Jane is rescued from certain death by Spider Man.

Spidey eventually fights his way to the back room of the club, where he finds Captain Stacy being brainwashed. The final panel is the big reveal—the Kingpin turns out to be behind the whole thing.

I’m getting to the point where I’m almost wishing John Romita or Jack Kirby would have an off issue. I’m repeating myself so often in abject praise of their art that I’m starting to sound like a broken record.

But Romita, darn him, does do another magnificent job here. Mary Jane looks gorgeous enough to make it completely believable that she’s a hit as a professional dancer and the action sequences flow smoothly and logically, providing perfect support for the plot of the story.

THOR #151

This issue takes only a moment to sum up, because it’s pretty much an all-battle issue. Thor is in New York fighting the Destroyer (animated by Sif’s life force and with her unable to control the robot’s instinct to destroy). Back in Karnilla’s realm, she makes a play for Balder—having the hots for Balder will pretty much be her primary motivation in future stories. But he rejects her. But when Ulik (powered up by enchantments from the troll king) shows up to do her in as part of his plan to re-establish himself as the baddest dude in the Seven Realms, Karnilla and Balder are forced to team up. The issue ends with Thor still facing off against the indestructible robot and Balder facing off against Ulik.

And darn Jack Kirby, too. He continues to make it look awesome, so I’m forced to repeat myself again.

While all this is going on, one of Odin’s wizards reestablishes a video link with Earth. But it turns out all-knowing Odin already knew his son was in a life-and-death fight. He explains his plan all along has been to teach Thor some humility. That’s apparently been accomplished, so he gives Thor his powers back. The Thunder God is still facing off against an opponent more powerful than he is, but it’s not quite the mismatch it had been.

I mentioned recently that I hadn’t read this story arc in years and accused Odin of acting like an idiot—the one major flaw in an otherwise sound plot. But I also realized he might have a secret plan behind it all that’s I’d simply forgotten about.

Well, it turns out that Odin DID have a master plan that I’d forgotten about, but all the same, I’m going to continue to defend my “Odin is an idiot” premise.

The whole trouble is that Thor HAD NOT BEEN ACTING ARROGANT OR FULL OF HIMSELF. He hadn’t. Over and over again, he’s been using his powers intelligently and bravely to defend the Earth, Asgard and those weaker than him. Even when he argued with his dad, it was usually because he wanted to return to Earth to protect a world he loved. Odin was teaching him something he already seemed to know.

Heck, the recent Thor movie (which I thought was flawed, but still enjoyed) handled this aspect of the story better than here. It had Thor initially acting without thought and with over-confident arrogance, making his epiphany about humility and service to others have real impact later on.

Though these past issues have handled epic-level action much better than the movie did, I gotta say that Odin’s actions are very contrived. It simply comes across as random. “Ah, it’s Wednesday. Time to teach my son an unnecessary lesson in humility. On Friday, I’ll teach him how to throw a baseball.”

That’s why I didn’t remember Odin’s motivation. It’s because it didn’t make any sense.

Oh, well, perfect stories are rare. This one still rates a 9.3, with great action, a plot unfolding on several levels at once and some nice character moments for Sif and Balder.

That’s it for April. Next week, I’m going to feature a guest writer’s look at the Justice League of America’s first mission. We’ll return to the Marvel Universe in two weeks, when the Fantastic Four will again face off against a certain planet-eating foe; Gwen Stacy’s dad goes on a crime spree; and Thor has a rematch against his butt-ugliest opponent.

Cover Cavalcade