POSTLUDE: Marvel: Heroes & Legends #1

For Better and For Worse!

Featuring: Everybody
Release: August 21, 1996
Cover: October 1996
$2.95
Scintillating script by Stan Lee
Prurient plot by Fabian Nicieza
Pulse-pounding pencils by Sal Buscema, John Buscema, John Romita, Sr., Steve Ditko, Gene Colan, Marie Severin & Ron Frenz
Incredible inks by Tom Palmer, Joe Sinnott, Terry Austin, Bill Reinhold, Marie Severin & Al Milgrom
Kaleidoscopic colors by John Kalisz (with perfect page one and colossal cover coloring by Paul Becton)
Lascivious letters by Richard Starkings and Comicraft/ad
Effervescent edits by Matt Idelson
Aching assistant edits by Paul Tutrone
Evil editing-in-chiefing by Bob Harras
Very special thanks to: Mariano Nicieza, Darren Auck, Scott Koblish, Gil Kane, The Raiders, and the many terrific talents of the Mighty Marvel Bullpen
Based on Fantastic Four Annual #3 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
48 pages

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Just between us, Alicia– I’ve been ready ever since I met the man!

I’m not trying to include too many POSTLUDE entries, but don’t have a clear standard for when I do. Having a copy of the comic in my living room as opposed to in storage somewhere is a good motivator. Plus, I actively used this comic as a reference when making my Fantastic Four Annual post, in deciding who might have been present at the wedding but off-panel.

Heroes & Legends is a loving retelling of the wedding of Sue and Reed from 1996, by continuity nerd Fabian Nicieza with a rotating cast of classic artists and a script by Stan Lee.

We know Steve Ditko very well by this point. We’ve seen some early work of John Romita, but he’s just about to join our regular cast of artists. Gene Colan just started drawing Namor’s adventures. Marie Severin has been working behind the scenes, and we’ll see her artwork soon enough. We’ve already seen some artwork of her brother John. John and Sal Buscema will be shaking things up eventually, and Ron Frenz in the more distant future. We’ll see Tom Palmer soon enough. We’ve briefly met Joe Sinnott a couple times, but he’s just about to become a regular. I’d bemoaned he wasn’t the original inker on the annual. It came out just one month too early. The other inkers will be coming along later.

This tells the same story as the Fantastic Four Annual, but with over twice as many pages.

In a short while, we’ll also read Marvels #2, which includes yet another take on this wedding to contrast with these two takes.

We’ll compare the new comic to the original and note the artist on the new comic. The original art is all by Jack Kirby and Vince Colletta. As noted above, for everything but the first page, John Kalisz did the colors in the new one.

The opening page deliberately mirrors the original.

The big addition is a kid named Mark, a superhero fan who gets separated from his father in the commotion, and targeted by villains and saved by heroes. He serves as the centerpiece for this retelling.

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PRELUDE: Young Men #27, Story B

The Return of the Red Skull!

Featuring: Captain America
Release: January 25, 1954
Cover: April 1954
10 cents
7 pages

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Young Men #24, Story BPrelude
Sgt. Fury #16Reading orderTales of Suspense #65

No credits given. The GCD credits Don Rico and John Romita.

With a big sigh of relief, we come to the last Red Skull story from the pre-Marvel era. By my count he made 13 appearances, and we’ve read 11 of them, all to get ready for his triumphant return in 1965. That was more than I meant to read, but there was a particular reason for each choice.

Captain America and Red Skull, now a card-carrying Communist, battle one final time.

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PRELUDE: Young Men #24, Story B

Back from the Dead!

Featuring: Captain America
Release: August 19, 1953
Cover: December 1953
10 cents
6 pages

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Sgt. Fury #16Reading orderTales of Suspense #65

No credits are given. The GCD attributes the story to Don Rico and John Romita, except the first panel which it attributes to Mort Lawrence.

It is 1953, 4 years since the final Captain America story, which itself brought and end to the company’s entire line of superhero books, the Human Torch and Sub-Mariner sagas having ended a little sooner.

Marvel’s only nod to the superhero genre in the time since is their science fiction hero, Marvel Boy, whose series lasted 6 issues.

They’re ready to try again. Now generally branded as “Atlas Comics”, the company that had been known as “Timely” and would be best known as “Marvel” offers this superhero revival, bringing back their 3 most successful superheroes of the 40s: Human Torch, Sub-Mariner, and Captain America.

All three return in this very issue. We read the Sub-Mariner story previously. Spinning out of this Young Men series, all three will soon get their own titles as well. Sub-Mariner’s return will last 10 issues, while Human Torch and Captain America each get three issues, before again being consigned to oblivion for another decade.

We read several issues of the Captain America revival to prepare to read Captain America’s lasting return in 1964. Those posts met with the sharpest criticism in the comments section I have yet received. I was called naive, arrogant, ignorant about comics… The internet can be a cruel place sometimes.

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PRELUDE: Captain America #78, Story D

The Hour of Doom

Featuring: Captain America
Release: May 19, 1954
Cover: September 1954
10 cents
By: John Romita
6 pages

We bring Captain America’s very short 1950s revival to a close with the final story of the final issue. We read the first story of this issue, where Captain America fought Electro. We skipped the terrible racist second story and we skipped a Human Torch story and a prose story.

This might be the best Captain America story of the era, but it’s a low bar to clear.

The story concerns Chuck Blayne, a television pundit who has become very influential amongst children. Captain America does not like what he has to say, even comparing his words to Hitler’s.

Blayne’s plans seems subtle and insidious, to influence the hearts and minds of America’s youth. Then he goes and plants a bomb at the UN. So much for subtlety.

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PRELUDE: Captain America #78

His Touch is Death!

Featuring: Captain America
Release: May 19, 1954
Cover: September 1954
10 cents
By: John Romita
6 pages

Well, that didn’t last long. After getting his old series back with issue 76, it’s cancelled with issue 78. Something about “Captain America… Commie Smasher!” didn’t resonate with audiences the way anti-Nazi propaganda had a decade earlier.

Captain America fights Electro. Not to be confused with the Spider-Man villain who will be introduced a decade later. Or the robotic superhero introduced 15 years earlier. (Of course, the only reason we are reading this story is to cover our bases and meet all the Electros.)

The opening splash has a lot of detail. The sign in the background was at first confusing, but makes sense within the story. That appears to be a fireman checking out the battle.

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PRELUDE: Captain America #76

The Betrayers

Featuring: Captain America
Release: January 18, 1954
Cover: May 1954
10 cents
6 pages

Credits aren’t evident. My copy of the Marvel Masterworks claims John Romita is the artist, but I don’t think that’s correct. The GCD offers a different interpretation, citing the same Marvel Masterworks volume I am looking at. Perhaps they have a newer edition. I am anyways assured the GCD credits are correct by no less an expert than Michael Vassallo, and that this story is the work of Bill Benulis and Jack Abel, not John Romita. It is possible Romita touched up some of the faces.

It’s 1954. The publisher once known as Timely is now known as Atlas. It will eventually be best known as Marvel.

We last checked in with Captain America in 1948, when an injured Bucky was replaced as Cap’s partner by Betsy Ross, the Golden Girl. Let’s briefly review his publishing history in the interim.

Bucky recovered in issue 71 for a couple more adventures. Captain America Comics continued until issue 73, published in 1949. Golden Girl remained his occasional partner until the end.

With issue 74, the series changed its name to Captain America’s Weird Tales. We saw one final battle between Captain America and Red Skull along with a handful of horror short stories. This was the end of Marvel’s time publishing superhero comics. For the next several years, they would focus on romance, humor, horror, crime, and western tales. The final Sub-Mariner story had been published 4 months earlier, with the final Human Torch and Blonde Phantom stories 3 months before that.

Captain America’s Weird Tales #75 (1949) did not feature Captain America at all. His name adorned the comic’s cover, but he was nowhere to be found amongst the horror stories within. With that, the series ended. A somewhat ignoble end to the comic career of America’s favorite superhero.

Jump forward to August 1953. Young Men #24 gave us the return of Captain America, Human Torch, and Sub-Mariner. We already reviewed that issue’s Sub-Mariner story. In that issue, we learned Steve Rogers had retired from being Captain America, but was still teaching at the Lee School, except it now seems to be a college. Bucky was now a college student, though he didn’t look any older. The Red Skull’s return convinces Captain America and Bucky to come out of retirement.

I plan to do a survey of Red Skull’s history separately, so am purposely not covering that story in any more detail now.

We turn now to Captain America #76. The numbering picks up where Captain America’s Weird Tales left off, but Captain America reclaims the book’s interior.

For 3 issues.

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