POSTLUDE: Ultimate Spider-Man #1

Powerless
Release: September 6, 2000
Cover: November 2000
$2.99
Story: Bill Jemas and Brian Michael Bendis
Script: Brian Michael Bendis
Pencils: Mark Bagley
Inks: Art Thibert
48 pages

I want to pause our main reading to jump forward into the future again, to the year 2000 and a new modern take on Spider-Man’s origin called Ultimate Spider-Man. This takes an 11 page story and spreads it over 135 pages and 5 issues. I’d like to look at exactly where that factor of 12 in the page count comes from. And also consider what changes the writers felt they need to make and why they made them. I agree the original story skimped on some details, but 124 pages worth of details?!?

This first issue is 48 pages long and covers the ground of about 3 pages of the original Spider-Man story. Why so much longer?

Part of the answer lies in focus. The original story was Peter Parker’s story and his story alone. Any characters we met, we met in relation to Peter. Peter was in every scene and most panels. Peter’s story never paused to make way for another character’s plot.

Continue reading “POSTLUDE: Ultimate Spider-Man #1”

Amazing Fantasy #15

Spider-Man!

Featuring: Spider-Man
Release: June 5, 1962
Cover: August 1962
12 cents
Credits: Stan Lee and Steve Ditko
11 pages

Previous#12Next
POSTLUDEUltimate Spider-Man #1
Incredible Hulk #2Reading orderJourney Into Mystery #83

In this world, with great power there must also come– great responsibility!

I’ll just go ahead and let you know up front that I think this is the single best story in the history of comics.

It suffers only from being too often imitated. It has been retold so many times over the years in comic books and other media that many feel they know the story too well before ever picking up this comic. It can lose something in the repetition. But imagine coming to this story fresh, having never heard of Spider-Man, having never heard the phrase, “With great power there must also come– great responsibility!”

The story is this. Peter Parker is a nerd, loved by Aunt and Uncle, but ostracized by his high school classmates. When a bite from a radioactive spider gives him super powers, he tests them by entering a wrestling contest. An agent spots him and helps make him a celebrity. Caught up in his interest in fame and money, the self-absorbed Spider-Man doesn’t try to help a police officer chasing a burglar. In a twist of fate, the burglar he allowed to escape kills his Uncle Ben. He learns a valuable lesson about responsibility.

Continue reading “Amazing Fantasy #15”

Incredible Hulk #2

The Terror of the Toad Men
Enter…The Toad Men/
Release: May 1, 1962
Cover: July 1962
12 cents
Credits: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Inks: Steve Ditko (uncredited)
24 pages

I read this comic in Incredible Hulk Omnibus vol. 1. The table of contents credits Steve Ditko with inks.

I know a Ditko face when I see one.

In truth, lots of aspects of this comic look more like Ditko than Kirby to me. Hulk himself looks very different from the first issue, and I attribute that to Ditko having a heavy influence on this issue.

It’s also attributable to Hulk being green. Pretty sure he was grey last issue. Did something happen to cause him to change color? Well, they recap his origin and when they illustrate him in events which happened last issue, they also color him green.

Continue reading “Incredible Hulk #2”

Fantastic Four #5

Prisoners of Doctor Doom!/Back to the Past!/On the Trail of Blackbeard/Battle!/The Vengeance of Doctor Doom!
Release: April 10, 1962
Cover: July 1962
12 cents
Credits: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Inker: Joe Sinnot (uncredited)
23 pages

I read this comic in Fantastic Four Omnibus vol. 1. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby signed the issue. The omnibus credits Joe Sinnot as the inker in the table of contents.

I am of two minds about this comic. Let me tell you of both of them.

One the one hand, the premise of the series is that this team gets into fantastic adventures. Travelling back in time to battle pirates qualifies as such an adventure. And as stories about the FF travelling back in time to battle pirates go, this one is pretty solid.

On the other hand, this issue introduces Dr. Doom. Dr. Doom is perhaps my favorite super-villain ever, and this issue just doesn’t quite capture the Dr. Doom that I first met. Whatever I envisioned about the first encounter between our heroes and their arch-nemesis, it wasn’t this.

Continue reading “Fantastic Four #5”

Amazing Adult Fantasy #14, Story B

The Man in the Sky!
Release: April 3, 1962
Cover: July 1962
12 cents
Credits: Stan Lee and Steve Ditko
5 pages

I read this story in Amazing Fantasy Omnibus vol. 1.

This is one of my all-time favorite story tropes; has been ever since I read my first X-Men comic 28 years ago. Though my first encounter with it would probably be the film Escape to Witch Mountain I saw as a young child.

The basic idea is that there is a child or children with special abilities, and there is a place where they gather together in secret. Perhaps they have a teacher. Perhaps there are competing teachers, each trying to recruit them. Perhaps they encounter prejudice from people who fear them.

Continue reading “Amazing Adult Fantasy #14, Story B”

Tales to Astonish #32, Story C

The Girl in the Black Hood!
Release: March 8, 1962
Cover: June 1962
12 cents
Credits: Don Heck (uncredited)
5 pages

The story doesn’t have credits. The artist is Don Heck, and the writing is likely Stan Lee and Larry Lieber.

I think that’s a pretty cool picture and set-up. Made me want to read more.
Continue reading “Tales to Astonish #32, Story C”

Incredible Hulk #1

The Coming of the Hulk/The Hulk Strikes!/The Search for the Hulk/Enter… The Gargoyle!/The Hulk Triumphant!

Featuring: Hulk
Release: March 1, 1962
Cover: May 1962
12 cents
Credits: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Inks: Paul Reinman (uncredited)
24 pages

I read this issue in Incredible Hulk Omnibus vol. 1. Stan and Jack signed the issue. The omnibus’ table of contents notes Paul Reinman is the inker.

Now it seems like we’re getting somewhere. I began with a promise of reading this shared Marvel Universe starting with Fantastic Four #1. But it’s been a week and you might be asking, “Where’s the universe?” We’ve read 4 issues of Fantastic Four, a few random sci-fi/horror comics from the period, and you’ve read a handful of comics from BEFORE Fantastic Four #1. All fair points. Where are the other Marvel heroes?

We have covered in the last week about 6 months worth of ground. We started in August of 1961 and have found our way to March of 1962. Finally, we meet our next recognizable hero.

Continue reading “Incredible Hulk #1”

Fantastic Four #4

The Coming of… Sub-Mariner
On the Trail of the Torch/Enter the Sub-Mariner/Let the World Beware!/Sub-Mariner’s Revenge!
Release: February 8, 1962
Cover: May 1962
12 cents
Credits: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Inks: Sol Brodsky (uncredited)
23 pages

Famously, Human Torch meets a random amnesiac hobo and decides without permission to burn the hobo’s beard off his face. The hobo looks like a character Torch read about in a comic, which convinces him to toss the hobo into the ocean. I would argue this behavior on the part of the Torch is inappropriate. But nobody on the team is setting a better example.

Continue reading “Fantastic Four #4”

PRELUDE: Marvel Comics #1, Story C

The Sub-Mariner
Credits: Bill Everett
12 pages

I read this comic in Marvel Masterpieces Golden Age Marvel Comics vol. 1. My copy of the book is filled with printing errors: pages missing or repeated; and, the copy seems off. The colors and inks seem pretty blurred, compared to scans I’m finding online. The coloring wasn’t great in those days to begin with, so it’s hard to tell without seeing the comic what it actually looks like, as reproductions vary widely. It’s particularly tricky as Everett wanted to make the undersea scenes murky.

This story is the beginning of a serial and doesn’t reach a satisfying conclusion in and of itself. It concerns Namor of the race of Sub-Mariners, recently come of age. He learns from his mother Fen of the ravages done to their people by the experiments of the surface dwellers, (who the comic refers to as the “white men”) and leads a crusade against the surface. His first step is to destroy a lighthouse. We’ll have to tune in next issue to see more.

The surface world will never recover from the destruction of the lighthouse; they may as well surrender now.

It begins in a familiar fashion, from the viewpoints of ordinary sailors, leaving the Sub-Mariner as a mystery in the background. Namor will become the point-of-view character soon, but first we learn who he is in snatches, as the humans do. An undersea diver notices oddities, like evidence that somebody had recently been there, even though they are the only ship in the area. It’s a mystery to investigate, a deadly one as it will turn out. It’s a technique we’ve seen frequently in superhero films (plus many a movie before them). Famously, when Batman first dons the suit in Batman Begins, the movie shifts its point-of-view to that of criminals. They only know something strange is happening, that they see out of the corner of their eye and hear above them– and that their numbers are thinning. This comic gives us a similar scene with divers.

Continue reading “PRELUDE: Marvel Comics #1, Story C”

Tales to Astonish #30, Story A

The Return of the Gorilla-Man
Release: January 9, 1962
Cover: April, 1962
12 cents
Credits: Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers
7 pages

The issue has no credits. The Grand Comics Database identifies the artists as Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers, and guesses the writing credits are due to Stan Lee and Larry Lieber. I think Marvel only had two writers at the time, so this is a reasonable guess.

Continue reading “Tales to Astonish #30, Story A”