POSTLUDE: Marvels #2

Monsters

Featuring: Marvels
Release: December 14, 1993
Cover: February 1994
$5.95
Writer: Kurt Busiek
Artist: Alex Ross
Letterers: Starkings w/ John Gaushell
Editor: Marcus McLaurin
Assitant editor: Spencer Lamm
Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco
Cover design & logo: Joe Kaufman
Interior design: Comicraft
45 pages

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Weird Science #20PRELUDE
Tales of Suspense #72Reading orderSgt. Fury #22
Marvels #1MarvelsMarvels #3

The real story was the people who’d been scared too long. Who’d been wound tight by talk of mutant menaces and hidden conspiracies and shadows under the bed.

I’ve mentioned before I want to frame our reading around the Marvels miniseries from the 1990s. That hasn’t really been obvious yet. We read Marvels #0, which retold a few pages from Marvel Comics #1. And we read Marvels #1, which paralleled 1940s Marvel comics. But our reading is concentrated in the 1960s. Finally, we get to Marvels #2, which parallels the 1960s Marvel stories, ranging from Avengers #6 (May 1964), the 191st entry in our reading, through Tales of Suspense #69 (June 1965), the 404th entry in our reading. Quite the range. We are reading it after completing the Iron Man story from Tales of Suspense #72, because we’d first needed to tie up some continuity ends.

We’ve hinted before at the theme of this comic, and I’d like to just discuss it up front. The two centerpiece stories are the wedding of Reed and Sue in Fantastic Four Annual 3, and the attack on the X-Men by the Sentinels in X-Men #14. The writer Kurt Busiek had noted in his own Marvel Universe research what we also found in our reading here, that these events must occur on nearly consecutive days. That’s not obvious from any comic, but does follow from a close reading of the many interconnected comics. And the two stories make for quite the juxtaposition.

The contrast between these two arcs becomes the central tension of this issue. The Fantastic Four wedding is the celebrity event of the century. The press covered it, crowds of fans gathered, famous people like Tony Stark and Millie the Model attended. The Fantastic Four are super-powered heroes and beloved by the public.

The X-Men are also super-powered heroes. But where the Fantastic Four gained their powers from cosmic radiation, the powers of the X-Men are innate, based on an accident of birth, perhaps from radiation their parents had been exposed to. The “Children of the Atom”. And that difference is big enough that the same public who cheered on the wedding of the FF members would listen with interest and nods of approval as Bolivar Trask went on the airwaves to declare mutants a menace and announce he’d created robot-hunting Sentinels to hunt and kill the X-Men.

We read the Heroes & Legends retelling of the wedding, which focused on this very tension in the form of a child, who was a huge fan of the Fantastic Four, but afraid of the X-Men. He learned better by issue’s end.

Here, the arc will play out within Phil Sheldon, the photojournalist who specialises in shots of the people he’s dubbed the Marvels. A person who idolizes heroes like the Fantastic Four and Avengers, but fears mutants like the X-Men.

It’s entirely irrational, just like all forms of bigotry.

That’s enough belaboring of themes. Let’s dive into the story. As we do, we’ll try to draw the parallels between what’s happening on the page and our reading.

I’ll note that the title is called “Monsters”, which brings to my mind Thing and Hulk. The latter doesn’t appear, and the former is a minor player at best.

It’s 20 years after the events of Marvels #1. Phil Sheldon is now an established freelance photojournalist happily married with two kids. We see hm doing freelance work for Barney Bushkin at the Daily Globe. The shadows on the page somewhat obscure Phil’s eyepatch, a lifelong injury sustained last issue by getting too close to a superhero battle.

We remember meeting Barney in Amazing Spider-Man #27. He’s nicer than Jonah, but asked too many questions for Peter’s tastes.

Continue reading “POSTLUDE: Marvels #2”

Avengers #6

Masters of Evil!

Featuring: Avengers
Release: May 5, 1964
Cover: July 1964
12 cents
Written by the inspired typewriter of: Stan Lee
Drawn by the enchanted pencil of: Jack Kirby
Inked by the gifted brush of: Chic Stone
Lettered by the scratch pen of: S. Rosen
23 pages

As if it wasn’t hard enough trying to figure out how to fit the Avengers’ solo adventures around this title, issue 5 ended with an urgent call from the Teen Brigade to go on a mission unrelated to the Lava Men adventure they just had, which itself was unrelated to the Hulk adventure that started that issue. Leaving almost no space for solo adventures.

Here, the narration informs us they are still on the way to New York to respond to the urgent call, but needed to refuel in Chicago.

Between New York and Chicago, Iron Man and Giant-Man have gotten new costumes, and Wasp has a new hairdo and headpiece.

Captain America meanwhile has new glove magnets and miniature transistors installed in his shield that allow him to control its motion.

Iron Man designed the shield transistors. He is apparently an engineering genius on par with Tony Stark, the man nobody has ever seen him with, despite being Stark’s bodyguard.

And then Thor gives Captain America his mail. Wait? What? I thought this was a refueling stop in Chicago. Where did they get the mail? Where are they?

Not many details in the scene. Some equipment makes it look like a lab. Cap is sitting on a chair, so they seem to not be on a plane or at a refueling station.

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Journey Into Mystery #93

The Mysterious Radio-Active Man!

Featuring: Thor
Release: April 2, 1963
Cover: June 1963
12 cents
Plot: Stan Lee
Script: R. Berns
Art: Jack Kirby
Inking: Dick Ayers
13 pages

I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor vol. 1.

Another Cold War story, but this one tying itself closely to current events, seeming to be set during the Sino-Indian War.

Thor takes quite the interest in particular geopolitical concerns.

This allows us to align the comic’s timeline with our own. The Sino-Indian War mainly took place October-November 1962, about 6 months before this comic came out. And since it takes some number of months to go from concept to the comic being finished, printed, distributed and appearing on stands, they were drawing from pretty current events.

Continue reading “Journey Into Mystery #93”