Dictators! We’ve had enough of them! Atomic power must be used for peace, not war! It must be used to make life better for all people! The coming Atomic Age is not for one man– it is for the common man– for all mankind!
No credits are given. The GCD credits the writing to Batman/Green Lantern co-creator Bill Finger and some of the pencilling to Syd Shores. The Bill Finger credit comes from the writer’s own recollections in the 1960s, related to historian and “father of comic book fandom” Jerry Bails.
I’d been debating when to read this. We’ve done some overview read-throughs of Captain America and Sub-Mariner, and are in the middle of one for the Human Torch. The other main characters to appear in this issue are Miss America and the Whizzer, whom we haven’t met yet. And I don’t have a good reason to introduce them anytime soon. The best excuse will probably be their return in Giant-Size Avengers #1 from 1974, but this blog won’t be getting there anytime soon at the rate I’m going.
This would also pair well with the introduction of the Invaders, but that’s not until 1975.
So let’s read this now along with our Human Torch read-through. It’s an important comic in Marvel history. We’ll just try to figure out who Miss America and the Whizzer are as we go. Something something mongoose something.
Roy Thomas described this comic as “a great idea whose time had gone.”
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
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.
Sigh. This time last week I would have been tuning in to the latest episode of Wandavision. Alas, it has come to an end. Where to get my fill of Wanda and Vision now? Well, the answer is obvious. Comics!
I loved Wandavision very much. I spent the past several weeks pulling out comics from my boxes that Wandavision brought to mind. My nightstand has been a stack of Vision and Scarlet Witch comics constantly on the verge of tipping over. I thought it would be fun to share what I’ve been reading and more.
I’d like to give you an overview of the history of Vision and Scarlet Witch in the comics, point out some of the stories which seemed like direct influences on Wandavision, and make some recommendations of what you can read if you are craving more of Wanda and Vision.
The history of these characters can actually be quite convoluted. I’m not inclined to spare you any details.
HOWEVER, we will not be attempting to understand Wanda’s powers today. That… will have to wait for another day.
Due to its length, this post is broken into 5 pages:
Origins: The introduction of Wanda and Vision. (1939-70)
Love story: Wanda and Vision meet, fall in love, and get married. (1970-75)
Family: Wanda and Vision deal with their extended family, buy a house in the suburbs, and grow their family. (1976-86)
Things fall apart: Wanda and Vision find there is no happily ever after. Plus: Jimmy Woo, Monica Rambeau, and SWORD. (1989-2017)
