Howard the Blog

How Did I Miss The Fantastic Four No. 1?

 

 

By Matthew Clark

Fantastic Four No. 1 came out in the late summer/early fall of 1961, and is recognized today as the start of The Marvel Age of Comics. Back then, I was still buying comic books off the magazine rack inside the long gone Irvington Pharmacy. This beloved institution was located on the northwest corner of the busy intersection of NE Broadway and 15th Avenue in Portland, Oregon.¹ My family lived a block north, across 15th and around the corner on Schuyler Street, in a two bed room house on the edge of the Irvington district. After school, on my way home, I would continue down 14th Avenue past my street to Broadway. I would loop around the block, and go by the drug store. This way, I could glance in the plate glass window on the Broadway side, and see if any new comic books had been put out on the news stand. I don’t remember ever seeing The Fantastic Four back in that distant September. And, in fact, I wouldn’t pick up any Marvel Comics for another six years! Recently, I’ve started to wonder why? What titles caught my attention and my dimes instead of this landmark release?

The cover date on FF No. 1 is November, but that is the date the magazine would be taken off the rack. For this and following articles, we’ll assume that titles were put on the stands roughly two months before the date on their cover. And, so, leaving out the adventures of Atomic Mouse, Little Dot, Archie Andrews, Sugar and Spike, Teenage Romance, Linda Carter - Student Nurse, Dell Comics’ adaptation of Disney’s The Parent Trap and other such ‘non boy’ titles, here’s what else was on the spinner racks in that landmark, history making month of September 1961, when The Fantastic Four first appeared.

Fantastic Four No. 1, we now know, was the start of a new era in comic book art and story telling. These innovations would eventually insure the survival of the comic book, and later spawn major, multimedia licensing franchises. Of course, no one was aware of all that, back then, because Marvel was just a small company, that only put out three or four new titles each week, and so, were easy to overlook. We also didn’t notice, until the next month,  that this was the last month  comic books would be priced at 10 cents! Dell had already increased their books to 15 cents. And by the next month, DC, American Comics Group, Charlton, and Marvel, pretty much all of what was left of the once burgeoning comic book publishing industry of 10 years earlier, would increase their cover prices to 12 cents.²

Back in 1961, Dell seemed to publish most of the comics you would come across. They had all sorts of franchised characters from TV, cartoons, newspaper strips, and movies. They had been putting out Tarzan of the Apes since the late '40s and adapting Disney‘s Mickey Mouse and his friends, and Walter Lantz’s Woody Woodpecker and his friends, since the late '30s. They also published an original adventure magazine called Turok Son of Stone. This featured an Indian brave and his son wandering through this massive, ‘lost in time’ canyon. Each issue would find them fighting dinosaurs and saving cavemen from saber tooth tigers. This book ran for years, and I think has been revived a couple of times since. But on the whole I wouldn’t get too excited for any of the Dell titles, at this time. The writing on the TV adaptations never was as good as the original shows, and the art work never really looked like the characters in the movies. They did have cool photo covers. But, of all the comic book companies, Dell had the most restrictive production code. These were the comics your grandparents would buy for you.

 

DC comics, Nation Periodical Publications, had the titles I was interested in. I was such a fan of the Superman TV show, that I bought all six titles he appeared in, even those featuring Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen. Batman and Robin continued their appearances in Batman and Detective Comics, as they had since 1940. These were the last years before the hit Batman TV show began on ABC. So, most Batman stories were still kid friendly, science fiction adventures, run-a-rounds with wacky gimmicks, or a lot of double date stories where they would go crime fighting with Batwoman and Batgirl. Both these gals went into action carrying utility Bat Purses. Superman, Batman and Robin appeared together in another long running title World’s Finest Comics. And of course, the Boy Wonder would have to stay home and do school work, while the grownups went off to the Justice League of America.

 

 

The other members of the League, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, and Green Arrow, like Superman and the Dynamic Duo, had been appearing uninterrupted, and unchanged, in either their own book or as backup features since the 1940s. Green Lantern and the Flash had been re-launched in their current form a few years before this.³ They each appeared in their own re launched titles and were in the Justice League. Also still in print from the '40s was Superboy, who was in his own book, as well as in Adventure Comics, where he would fly off to the future and join up with The Legion of Superheroes.

The only totally original character to appear in DC’s line up since the 1940s, was John Jonzz , the Manhunter from Mars. An original member of the Justice League when it first appeared, he had started as a backup character in the mid 1950s, a couple of years before The Flash started making his first sporadic appearances in Showcase in 1957.

DC put out Showcase and The Brave and the Bold as try out books, where new, or re-launched, characters, or teams would be given a trial run. And, if proving popular, would be given their own title. Just that spring a reworked Hawkman had appeared and would soon begin his own title. That September, The Atom made his first appearance, with one of the best covers of the period. And over the last summer, Aquaman had appeared in Showcase, finally being given a chance at his own book, after almost two decades as a backup in other titles.

 

 

Up to this month, there were actually as many heroic teams at DC as single heroes. A group of scuba diving adventurers, called The Sea Devils, had just moved from Showcase into their own book. The Challengers of the Unknown, who had been started by Jack Kirby before he went to Marvel, had been appearing in their own book for a few years. There was the high flying squadron of jet pilot adventurers, The Blackhawks, who had also been in print since the early forties, but from a different publisher, Quality Comics, who went out of business also around 1957. DC comics quickly acquired the Quality Comics characters, and The Blackhawks continued in print with no interruption. Starting that September in Showcase there was The Suicide Squad. Besides the Justice League, over in Adventure Comics were the futuristic exploits of the Legion of Super Heroes. Green Lantern was a member of an intergalactic police force, The Green Lantern Corp. In the science fiction anthology titles Strange Adventures and Mystery in Space, there were The Star Rovers, and The Atomic Knights. Which, if you also add from the war comics the ‘Combat Happy Joes’ of Easy Company, Gunner and Sarge, and the crew of the Haunted Tank, it makes 12 different on-going teams.

Also out from DC were Rip Hunter Time Master, Space Ranger, Tommy Tomorrow, Tomahawk and Adam Strange. There were also three war comics, plus one where GIs fought dinosaurs. And, least we forget, Bob Hope and Jerry Lewis had their own comic books, both drawn by Mort Drucker, who also did art for some of the war comics.

The only other costumed hero appearing in comics outside of DC was Captain Atom. He had first appeared about a year earlier in Charlton’s Space Adventures Comic. It was written and drawn by Steve Ditko, while he was also doing freelance work at Marvel. So in all, that makes seven long running unchanged super hero characters; Superman, Batman, Robin, Superboy, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, and Aquaman. With five revamped ones Green Lantern, The Flash, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, and The Atom. Plus, the only two original characters to appear up to that month The Martian Manhunter, and Captain Atom. But, as of that month, as we well know, lowly Marvel Comics would increase that number by four.

Since about 1957, Marvel Comics Group, which was still named Atlas Comics, then, was allowed by their new distributor to only put about 12 comic book titles a month. By the fall of 1961, Marvel’s on-going western, humor, and long running romance titles, would only come out bi monthly. The five giant monster/fantasy titles, Strange Tales, Tales to Astonish, Tales of Suspense, Journey into Mystery and the newly launched, Amazing Adventures, all came out monthly, but had no on going characters.⁴ Marvel did have two Golden Age characters still appearing regularly, Kid Colt Outlaw and the Archie-like humor character Millie the Model. Another long running character, the Two Gun Kid, had been put on hiatus starting this month to make room to try out the new title The Fantastic Four. Which is what they had to do when starting a new title, they had to drop an existing one.

So, for September of 1961, with cover dates for November, Marvel released those five giant monster titles, two westerns, both featuring Kid Colt, one humor title, Millie the Model and three romance comics. And, a new, bimonthly, try out, called The Fantastic Four. Jack Kirby did most of the covers at Marvel, then, including westerns, and the romance titles. He also drew, and plotted, the main giant monster cover story for the five monthly fantasy books. With Steve Ditko contributing an eerie, ‘twilight zone’ sort of story as back up.⁵

 

At this time, the largest number of comic books released, were fantasy/horror anthologies. American Comics Group had started the craze with the release of Adventures into the Unknown back in the late forties. ⁶ By 1961, they also produced two other titles Forbidden Worlds and Black Midnight. But most of their outputs were war titles like Fighting Navy, or Fighting Marines, as well as a few westerns, with artists such as Al Williamson and Frank Frazetta working for them.

Over at Charlton Comics, Steve Ditko was writing, drawing and editing horror anthologies. Along with a series of giant monster movie tie-ins featuring Konga, Gorgo, and even Reptilicus. DC has its own horror anthology titles Strange Adventures, Tales of the Unexpected, My Greatest Adventures, House of Mystery, and House of Secrets. Mystery in Space had been an anthology title, but for the last few years had been featuring the planet hopping science fiction adventures of Adam Strange.

And, of course, running into a giant monster now and then was all part of a super heroe's job. Like that September’s Green Lantern, Batman and Wonder Tot. And straight forward titles like American Comics Group’s Fighting Navy or Billy the Kid would drop in a big lizard or giant octopus. Also out that month from Dell were two movie adaptations of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Mysterious Island; which both featured giant monsters. Even Classics Illustrated wouldn’t be left out.

 

 

But getting back to my question, how did I miss FF No. 1? It could just have been that FF No. 1 had not been put on the stand at the drug store around the corner from my house? I recall that at this time there were many DC titles I would see ads for in the DC comics but for a long time didn’t see them at the store near my house. Occasionally I would walk down to 7th and Broadway to an orange and black fronted Rexall drugstore, an older retail pharmacy chain, and they would have these titles on sale. So maybe I just didn’t get the chance to buy FF No. 1 because, for what ever reason, the distributor didn’t bring them to my store?

Of course, considering that this was a break out comic, and the fan response for it would prompt Stan and Jack to give the FF costumes, a headquarters, and a flying car in issue No. 3, which was being prepared around this time. I might have not seen this issue because it had already been bought out by the time I had got around to the store. Or, maybe I overlooked it because other things were happening with the line of comics I was buying?

 

Just that last summer along with their annual releases of giant reprints books of Superman and Batman stories, DC came out with Secret Origins, a 64 page throw back to the type of comic books that were published in the '40s. Eight different stories about eight different characters, it even had one by Jack Kirby. But, besides seeing the origins of the characters I was reading at the time, and had missed their first appearances, what stuck with me most was in the opening of Flash’s origin. Here, we learn that there been an older version of the Flash and an older group of super heroes back in the forties known as the Justice Society of America. And they all had different looking costumes than did the ones today.

That there had been other versions of the current characters years ago was all very intriguing to a 10- year-old. But, according to the stories, there was no way that you could see them in action; they didn’t exist. They were only in the comic books that people like Barry Allen, The Flash, read.

Another landmark event at DC was in Superman No. 149, which featured a book long story,   rare back then. ⁷ This Superman book haunts readers to this day. In it, Lex Luthor holds Superman’s friends in some sort of deathtrap and he’ll only release them if Superman allows himself to be killed by Luthor by exposing him to a deadly dose of kryptonite. And he actually lets Luther kill him.

Usually, ‘Imaginary Stories’ were about Lois Lane marrying Superman or Robin growing up to become Batman II. But this was a disturbing story. With Superman actually dying, and then Supergirl, who had been in hiding at this time, emerges as earth’s newest champion. A daring move, if they had actually done it. But, come the next issue, Superman is back on the job. It was just imaginary.

I don’t remember which week it was, or what else was on sale that day. I do remember just going into the drug store like normal, and there it was, Flash No. 123! It had a brilliantly designed cover by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson. All I remember was that it said ‘featuring Flash of Two Worlds‘! It also said ‘sure to be a classic’! There they were, the new Flash in his all over red jumpsuit and cowl, and, unbelievably, there was the original Flash, in his pirate boots, red shirt with the lightning flash on it and the tin hat with the wings on it, like that statue of Mercury! In an instant I had it in my hand.

I never read comics at the stand. And I’ve always looked down at those who did. I would take a quick glance through, to decide if I wanted it. That’s if I hadn’t already decided like in this case where I just bought it unread and hurried home to my room to find out how the two Flashes could both exist. It was all a matter of parallel worlds! And only The Flash could vibrate his body at the right frequency to be able to pass from one to another! DC was always filled with science fiction factoids like this. Something I noticed missing when I first read Marvel’s stories.

To me, at the time, it appeared that DC was on the rise. With Flash No. 123 they first laid out a concept of multiple earths and universes that would define DC comics to this day. It looked like they were leading the pack, reëstablishing the costume hero, and establishing the super team. I guess it was easy for me to over look a new and original title due to the goings on at DC.⁸

So, in September of 1961, Dell, Archie, Classics Illustrated and Harvey Comics were still putting out their wholesome products which grown-ups would approve our reading. ACG, Charlton were solidly part of the giant monster/fantasy anthologies trend, as well as the one for war comics. DC continued to successfully reintroduce their line of superhero characters. And Marvel had taken a chance on the emerging superhero genre and would find that they had scored a hit.

 

 

They didn’t know it, but all would soon be in a fight for survival. Time was running out for the traditional outlets for comic books. Mom and pop drug stores, the most common outlets for comic books, were starting to disappear. My beloved Irvington Drug Store would soon be overshadowed by the opening of a Pay n’ Save. A much larger, Walgreen’s style chain drug store. Located a few blocks away, inside one of the world’s first large shopping malls, Lloyd Center. It was all plate glass, bright neon, a row of 10 cash registers, a hundred and fifty times the shelf space, and a big magazine rack – that held no comic books! And by the 1970s, the Irvington Drug Store with its soda fountain, lunch counter, paperback book spinner rack, and magazine stand with comic books, would be gone.

For the comic books, it would all depend on what the publishing companies would do after this month. They had had to raise their cover price, and sales were dropping from the heights they had known in 1950. And, there were less than half of the publishers, since then, still in business. There was a strong possibility that the comic book would just disappear by the end of the decade. Would anyone care?

 

 

Today, at the intersection of NE Broadway and 15th, all the old buildings have all new businesses in them. There is now a pretty good coffee shop where the old Irvington Drug Store once was, with some nice sidewalk seating. Where, if I’m visiting the old neighborhood, I have been know to sit and drink a few triple shot caramel lattes, while watching the traffic, and maybe, even reading some comic books.

1 Since the street car days, two transit lines cross at this intersection, making it the retail heart of the Irvington Community. Besides the drug store I remember there being among other businesses such as a five and dime store which sold plastic model kits, a barber shop, which had copies of Gent and Cavalier on hand for the grown up customers to read while waiting, a shoe repair, and a block west on Broadway and 14th, The Irvington Theate.

2 The price had stayed at a dime since the mid 1930s, when comic books first appeared. It was reasoned, that since only children read comic books, they could only afford to make purchases at such a low price. So, until this month, the priced remained at a dime. But, by then, the costs of production, and a decrease in sales, forced the publishers to start raising the price. By the 1970s, the cover price had moved up past 15 cents to a quarter, and by the 1980s, as comics were now realized as not ‘just for kids anymore’, the price had moved beyond $1.

3 They were originally printed by DC’s sister company, All American Comics. As did a number of other DC characters who would later remerge in the Silver Age. They had ceased their appearances around 1947, soon after publisher, Maxfield Gaines, had sold his share in All American Comics to his partners at DC comics. About eight years later, these characters were brought back under the editorship of Julies Schwartz. Who would totally rework them with more of a science fiction approach.

4 Of the giant monsters titles Strange Tales was the oldest and Amazing Adventures had just begun the previous spring. By next month it would be called Amazing Fantasy, then Amazing Adult Fantasy; by the start of the summer of 1962 it would return to Amazing Fantasy by its last issue No. 16. The return of The Two Gun Kid would replace it.

5 Here we see Stan Lee’s marketing sense. He’s only allowed a limited number of titles, and has no real staff devoted to putting out comics. Kirby, and Ditko are paid as freelancers. And with his duties publishing the other magazines that the Timely company were putting out, Stan has a only a limited amount of time to devote to comics. And, he can’t afford to do any try out titles like DC does with Showcase. He has been able to keep this little operation afloat for the last few years by not spreading his few titles over too many genres. As we can see, all comic companies put out some form of giant monster book. Stan devotes almost half his output, five titles, to this genre. He splits his remaining allotment of titles between the still popular westerns, like what Dell is still coming out with, with humor and romance comics that appeal to young women. Who were also buying comics, as seen by the fact that romance titles were still best sellers until the mid 1970s! This gives the company variety and presence in the most popular story types. Appealing to both male and female readers, but not pushing his resources with unnecessary risks. The new try out, The Fantastic Four, would be a bimonthly release as are the westerns, and romance titles. And with a cover that would appear to bridge the giant monster and the reemerging super hero genre. As we’ll see in later articles, once Stan, Jack and Steve got rolling with super heroes, they would incorporated elements of all these genres into their storylines: the horror story, ‘a man is transformed after exposed to radiation(The Hulk and, The Thing), or bit by a radioactive spider’, the western, ‘young man tries to be a hero but is perceived by the public at large as an outlaw’( Kid Colt and Spiderman), the humor comics, “It’s Clobberin’ Time!”, and the romance comic, “Peter Parker loves Betty Bryant, but she hates Spiderman, whom she blames for her brother’s death” .

6 As I was lining up the covers for this article, I was stuck by how the cover story for this month’s issue of Adventures into the Unknown looks like the source material for the movie Poltergeist!

7 Comics usually had three short stories in them. Either all featuring the title character or having the feature character like Batman as the lead, as in Detective Comics, and then the rest of the book would feature the likes of Johnn Jonzz, Green Arrow, or Congo Bill Bill,  a big game hunter who had also started in the '40s. But by this time he had the ability to swap minds with that of a giant golden ape, called Congorilla. Once in the ape’s super strong body he went out to save the jungle. Strange as this sounds, the character still shows up today, and last year before the big New 52 re-launch, Conggorilla was active in the Justice League!

8 We now know that Marvel would follow what DC was doing, but in a very different way. First, they would rework the Golden Age Character of The Human Torch as a teenage member of the Fantastic Four. And then, three issues later they would bring back the actual Golden Age Sub-Mariner. Not a new Sub Mariner, or a son of Sub Mariner, but the original guy who first wanted to destroy New York City and then helped Captain America and The Human Torch fight the Nazis! This was unlike DC, where they sort of held the Golden Age characters at arm's length for a very long time and only used them sparingly. Marvel brought the characters back and they stood shoulder to shoulder with the new characters. Within the year, Marvel would start introducing original super heroes into their already established anthology titles. First, The Human Torch would move over from  FF to appear in his own solo adventures in Strange Tales. Original characters Ant Man, and The Mighty Thor would headline Tales to Astonish and Journey into Mystery. By the summer of ’62, Spider-man would show up in what was to be the last issue of Amazing Fantasy, formally Amazing Adventures. And in a few months, after the success of  FF, The Hulk would begin in his own solo book, taking the place of the now canceled Linda Carter, Student Nurse. While DC would maintain a status quo till almost the end of the decade. Marvel would keep changing things throughout the '60s. Creating excitement each month over what was going to happen next.

 

Marvel on 30 Rock: Marvel in the Media

While you are waiting desperately for the next entry in this blog, here is a frame capture from 30 Rock a few weeks ago (episoce 6.9). It's the famous Leap Day episode, in part of which Jack is taken back to his childhood, where 8-year-old Jack is on the floor readingi Daredevil, The Human Torch, and a third comic.

 

 

 

The Amazing Spider-Man, No. 9

 

 

 

By D. K. Holm

 

By issue No. 9, the Spider-Man team were a well-oiled machine. Consisted of the tight, credited team of Stan Lee, Steve Ditko (doing both the pencils and the ink) and lettering by the under-appreciated Art Simak,⁰ they managed to come up month to month with interesting villains while squeezing changes out of the Parker-Spider-Man-Aunt May-School, public versus private, hero versus human dichotomies that had defined the series from the first issue. Published in January of 1964 (its cover "pull date" says February), the lead "book-length" story in Issue No. 9 of The Amazing Spider-Man, titled "A Man Called Electro,"  recounts Spider-Man's battle with – and possible defeat by, if the cover is to be believed  – Max Dillon, AKA Electro. More about his origins in a minute.

The issue begins with an attractive cover, drawn by Ditko (historically, covers were the preserve of Kirby). The blend of blues and yellows and greens sticks out from the usuall run of comic book covers which seem to emphasize red and blue, perhaps patriotically, or because those are Superman's colors. The text on Issue No. 9 announces everything that a kid wants from a comic: "Original." "Menace." "A scene you will never forget."

 

The opening splash page pretty much encapsulates Peter Parker's plight up until this moment and foreshadows future woes. A bifurcated PP, half Parker, half Spider-Man, is in the center of a red-backgrounded red web, surrounded by his "problems," the new Electro up top, but J. J. Jameson, his Aunt Bea, Betsy Brant, Flash and the other high schoolers, cops, gun-wielding crooks, and the public, all looking on or pleading for help, or disparaging him from the sides. The image is not only dramatic and surrealistic, in that perfect balance that only comics can attain, especially given the Marvel habit of oft-times coloring people in single hues (here, yellow), but is also a capsule summary of Spider-Man's, indeed all of Marvel's, soap opera roots. The essence of the message is that Spider-Man, with all eyes and fingers on him, is the center of the universe, as all teens feel themselves to be.

Simply on a narrative level, "Electro" juggles numerous complex plot threads with remarkable ease and concision. The tale begins rolling with a clever intro. The muscular Spider-Man is espied on the city streets, lifting off to the rooftops via his web fluid. Onlookers see him.¹ He passes over a gun battle between cops and a gang of amusingly drawn low life crooks. Thinking that Spider-Man is there for the brawl, the cops erupt in delight, and the crooks give up – but Spider-Man passes them by. He is in a hurry to get home to an ailing Aunt May. Had Spider-Man stopped and engaged in the melée, he would have contributed to the ever elusive goodwill he wishes from the public, but instead he is being "selfish" and dashing home. There (on page 3) Parker gives Aunt May her medicine and keeps a "long vigil" at her bedside, while "on the other side of town" (the "bad" side of the tracks?), Electro is getting into costume and charging up – literally – for a night of mayhem.² On page 4, Electro surprises some payroll truck guards and throwing bolts of electricity at them, one charge gaining ingress via a watch band. The next morning, Peter receives dire news from the doctor, making a house call (remember those days?). Aunt May must be hospitalized. At school, Peter is bullied, but barely notices as he is subsumed by his studies and by worry over Aunt May.³

The red-haired Flash is thought-ballooned with some regret over bullying Parker, but his attempt to engage with PP on a human level is rebuffed by an oblivious Parker, which only fuels Flash's resolve to view Parker as "a zero."⁴ Like the crook fly over, another lost opportunity for Spider-Man.  At the hospital to visit Aunt May, Parker finds Betty Brant paying vigil. As BB and PP part outside, Betty⁵ ponders Parker and the "smoldering volcano" beneath Peter's "easy-going" surface, and the narrator-overvoice affirms her intuition, as Spider-Man is next shown in action, out to take some snaps to raise money for Aunt May's unspecified operation.⁶ A rain storm interferes, and because his camera isn't good enough to take clear pix in the rain, he forlornly walks home, where he is shown ringing out his costume in the sink. Even the elements conspire against Parker, in the classic tradition of movie rain.

The next day (we're on page 6), Jameson is in a bank bossing around a clerk when Electro drops in for a robbery. As he is enveloped by an electric shield, Jameson is recognized, which makes the publisher think that Electro is someone who knows him. This sets up the theme of identity in the episode, which looms larger as a complication in the plot, and a foreshadowing of the conclusion. At the bottom of the page, the coincidence of Spider-Man passing by makes JJJ think that Electro is Spider-Man under a different costume.

When not drawing action, Ditko could create "busy" pages and Lee could fill them up with lots of dialogue. Page 8 is one such page – nine panels, six narrator boxes, 18 packed dialogue balloons, and a single thought bubble, plus a newspaper headline to boot. There in that headline, JJJ accuses Spider-Man of really being Electro. The masses, easily swayed⁷, take up Jameson's hints, and begin to debate if not turn against the superhero. Meanwhile, Parker learns that the operation will cost $1, 000 dollars, and asks Jameson for a loan. Characteristically, the tight Jameson refuses, but Parker realizes that there must be a reward for Electro's capture. In another nine panel "montage" page, Spider-Man hits the skies in search of Electro. Finding him on a rooftop, with a Ditkoian water tower in the background, the two engage in battle, but Electro is "charged," and when Spider-Man touches him he is knocked out. Thus the "defeat" announced on the cover. But as Electro stands over Spider-Man in triumph, his thought bubble indicates a measure of regret. These thoughts of Electro's transition to page 11, where in a dense page Parker stages some pictures to "prove" that Spider-Man and Electro are one, and sells them to the Bugle for the needed cash, to Parker's shame. Some of the public don't buy the subsequent headline, while Electro thinks this puts Spider-Man "out of the way."  And here beings Electro's origin story, told in 10 panels, of Max Dillon, greedy electrical lineman. During a routine rescue incident, Dillon is charged, and awakes to find that – like Parker after the bug bite (and with similar imagery) – he has superpowers, the ability to control electricity.

 

 

 

 

The set piece of the tale is a prison riot. While Parker is "trapped" at the hospital awaiting word of May's operation, Electro has "broken into" the West Side House of Detention, where he plans to recruit the inmates as his minions.  Meanwhile, at the hospital, the operation is a success; Betty, also waiting, must return to the office; PP is heading off to the riot. In six panels that hark back to Marvel's romance comic book days, Betty is revealed, too, to have a secret, thoughts of "someone" she "once knew" who also enjoyed "the danger – the excitement." On page 15, Spider-Man takes to the skies, and passes JJJ on his way into the detention center. In a clever and economical – and cinematic – three panel sequence, JJJ sees Spider-Man go by, and puts his head in his hands as he realizes that the stock he put into the Spider-Man-Electro equivalence is bankrupt. The climactic set-piece, five pages, from 16 to 20, is the trademark "final battle," so mimicked and so influential on subsequent motion pictures. When Electro is defeated, Spider-Man pulls off his mask and – finds that he doesn't know him. "If this was a movie, I'd gasp in shock and then I'd say: 'Good heavens, the butler.' But this guy I never saw before."

In the final two page coda, Parker sells the pix of the final fight to the Bugle, saving JJJ's hide from humiliation over his gaffe. In a sequence that is part soap opera, part steal from '30s Hollywood newspaper comedies, Parker gives JJJ the photos of the fight to assuage his own guilty conscience, while a greedy JJJ revels in how he has taken the sucker. Outside the office, Parker and Betty have a falling out, but in the final panels, she finds him outside the hospital after Parker's visit to Aunt May, and in a final image drawn from film noir, and possibly the influence of Will Eisner and The Spirit,  Betty and Peter walk off into the cityscape, sole figures alone together. In the final narration box, the reader is invited back to the next issue, for further details about Spider-Man, the "superhero who could be – you."

0 Simek's lettering -- the words in the balloons, certain sound effects, the helpful emphasis of words using bold face -- are an underrated aspect of Silver Age Marvel and contributed subtly to its overall look and effect. But more about Simek in a subsequent post.

1 Spider-Man looks buff. Ditko may have been famously bad at drawing feet, but he was good on legs, and especially thighs.

2 In four economical panels Ditko takes Electro from his costume change, to recharging, to a dramatic reveal of his masked face, to Electro on the street, hiding behind a corner as a Brinks truck turns a corner.

3 The subject of bullying in Spider-Man, of greater relevance now than even in the early 1960s, will be addressed in a later blog post.

4 This panel on the top of page 5 includes a footnote directing the reader to issue No. 8 for background on Flash's softening. It is characteristic and perhaps unique of Marvel to create through the use of this self-referential apparatus. Classics Illustrated is the only comic book series I can think of that also used footnotes from time to time.

5 Note how huge Ditko draws Betty's eyes.

6 As will be commented on elsewhere, Marvel characters are unusual in comic books by being oppressed by financial worries. What's unusual about Peter Parker in this phase of Spider-Man's existence is that he uses his skills both to fight crime and to get by financially.

7 A view of public moods shared by Randian Libertarians like Ditko and by communists like Lenin.

 

 

 

 

Fantastic Four No. 1

 

By Marc Mohan

 

Only a real cad would take the opportunity of discussing the seminal vesicle of the Marvel Universe as we know it to poke fun at its anachronisms and creakiness.  Luckily, I am that cad.

 

Let's start with the cover.  The blurb box names the four heroes and boasts they are "together for the first time in one mighty magazine."  In fact, it's the first time any of these characters have been depicted either separately or together.  I see what the Mighty Marvel Promotional Machine is doing here--implying that these are already well-known characters about whose long-awaited team-up you should be giddy with anticipation.  Then each of the heroes gets a dialogue balloon of their own, the most ludicrous of which is "It'll take more than ropes to keep Mister Fantastic out of action!"  In short:  well, I should freaking hope so--if I'm gonna plunk my hard-earned dime on the counter for a super-hero rag, I'd prefer my protagonists be able to overcome a length of twisted hemp fibers.

 

Anyway, enough crabbing about the archaic verbiage.  At least, for the moment.  It could, if I hadn't reveled in my caddishness just now, go without saying that FF#1 is possibly the most influential comic like totally ever.  It's at least in the top 5.  It's the beginning of everything any Marvel Zombie worth their salt deems necessary for the existence of advanced life forms.

 

Was it a fluke of timing and/or marketing that made FF#1 the font of all reality, or is it really that amazing of a tale?  Seen from a remove of over fifty years, it’s sometimes hard to tell.

 

Our story begins as Reed Richards sends up a Bat-Signal-esque flare summoning the rest of the quartet.  Each of the men conforms to a recognized stereotype:  Reed is the brainy, confident scientist; Johnny Storm is the hot-headed, hot-rodding teenager; and Ben Grimm is the bull in the china shop, if by china shop we can read Manhattan (or, in fact, 'Central City,' as the FF's home is dubbed in these early days).  The Thing's initial appearance is surprisingly hostile--he's heedless and unapologetic about causing property destruction, drawing gunfire from a cop, and derides the puny humans (to coin a phrase) who flee his fearsome form as "lily-livered cowards."  Ben, of course, will come to exhibit the bitter side of his personality off and on over the next fifty years, but this is still a jarring introduction to what would become one of the most truly heroic characters in all of Marveldom.  Sue Storm, however, occupies an even broader (no pun intended) and more insulting stereotype--she's just the girl, first seen "having tea with a society friend," as if Stan couldn't think of anything else a female on her own could be doing with her time.

 

As Reed's summons gives each of the other members a chance to demonstrate their powers, it's worth noting how the Fantastic Four, consciously or not, were designed to correlate to the four Aristotelian elements.  Mr. Fantastic's rubbery body flows like WATER, while The Thing's rocky hide seems carved from EARTH.  The Invisible Girl can make herself as transparent as AIR, while The Human Torch can convert his entire body into FIRE.  Once they are together, the tale pauses for an origin flashback which is surprisingly brief (five pages) considering how utterly central its events are to the next half-century of comics culture.  Here Stan and Jack demonstrate a remarkable narrative economy.  An experimental spaceship beckons; the quartet surreptitiously launches it (a rather ludicrous concept, but oh well...); the flight is bombarded by cosmic rays (a term first coined in 1925); upon crashing to earth, each of the four finds themselves uncontrollably changed by the radiation.

 

In no time at all, they come up with the code names they’ve continued to use to this day (with the exception of the Invisible Girl’s belated 1980s redubbing as The Invisible Woman), and agree that they’ve “gotta use that power to help mankind.”  Was there any debate about these points?  And how exactly did the Fantastic Four learn to control their powers?  These details are elided in order to get us back to the present.  

 

It seems that nuclear plants all over the globe are disappearing, and Reed Richards has somehow acquired photos of the holes left behind.  (Detailing the manner in which super heroes interacted with governments wasn’t something which concerned most Silver Age scribes.)  Reed, super-genius that he is, decides to find the spot exactly between all of the nuclear plant disappearances.  Never mind that this ‘spot’ might change every time a new theft was committed, or that this method of triangulation probably could have been deduced by the Mystery Machine gang.  Let’s talk about Monster Isle, the spot Reed has pinpointed, for a minute.  It’s a fairy tale, according to Ben, yet the FF fly there and discover the place to be real.  This implies that no one has ever bothered to even do a quick flyby to see if all the myths and legends about Monster Isle (which apparently appears on maps, or else Reed would not have known it was the central point) are true.  I’m sure this has all been retconned in a reasonable fashion, but it’s still a spot where narrative economy slides into sloppy storytelling.

 

So, Monster Isle.  There are monsters, naturally, rendered with Kirby’s typical sense of heft, and there is The Mole Man.  He was simply too ugly to live on the surface world, but happened to discover an enormous subterranean realm in which to dwell and spin his plans of global ruination (Step 1:  Destroy all the nuclear reactors.  Step 2:  Conquer surface.).  How he managed to master the monstrous underground creatures is left unexplained in his brief origin flashback.

 

The idea of enormous underground realms has been a persistent one in human folklore, including Tibetan, Greek, and Celtic mythology.  Edmund Halley, of comet fame, once theorized that the Earth contained several distinct, nested, rotating shells inside it.  The Nazis explored the possibility of an entrance to hidden realms in Antarctica (yes, all that Thule Society stuff in the recent “Fear Itself” crossover is inspired by real history).  Perhaps the most fascinating figure in Hollow Earth tales is Ferdynand Ossendowski, an obscure, peripatetic disillusioned communist whose 1922 book “Beasts, Gods, and Men” relayed stories he heard while traveling in central Asia about a hidden underground city called Agharta.  In the Marvel mythos, Subterranea is the ancient home of the Deviant race, later home to Moloids, Lava Men, and Tyrannus, who battles Mole Man for its control.  But that’s all down the road…

 

Marvel is trumpeted as having introduced an element of coherent reality—physical, geographical, and psychological—to comics, and this is most evident to me in the flawed personalities of its flagship heroes.  These flaws would be fleshed out as the years went on, but they’re present at the creation.

 

Reed can be an arrogant prick:  as the team flies away from Monster Isle after Mole Man has blown it up, he says “It’s best that way! There was no place for him in our world…”  Really?  Just because he’s ugly?  I wonder what your buddy Ben would think about that attitude?

 

Sue is a jingoistic taunter in the lead-up to the flight which gave the group their powers, basically accusing Ben of being a commie and a coward for refusing to pilot the ship.  It’s her he should be mad at for his orange, rocky curse.

 

Johnny is the eternal fifth wheel, quite an accomplishment in a quartet.  He comes on the experimental flight why exactly?  As a blatantly obvious correlative for the teen reader, he makes one wonder if all 1961 adolescents were this bland.

 

And Ben, as we’ve mentioned, possesses an understandable yet still unpleasant bitterness towards the world.  Blaming Reed (and Sue) for his condition would be rational, but barging through walls and pavement is no way to convince humanity to look beyond your appearance.

 

I mean, Superman could be a dick sometimes, but he wasn’t written that way on purpose.