How Loki’s Second Appearance Signalled the Coming of a Titanic Change at Marvel

Journey Into Marvel – Part 64

Loki has a Don Blake too!

Extremites, what is it about Thor and Loki? Loki tries to take Thor’s hammer, either fails or briefly holds power until Thor rights everything and we as fans come back in droves to see versions of this story over and over.

I wrote an article that took Forbes to task for calling Loki “Marvel’s only decent villain.” Forbes is wrong. There’s plenty of decent villains in Earth-616. However, they are correct in noticing the mass appetite for Loki. But why?

Hulk and Yellow Face: Stan and Jack Take On China’s Annexation of Tibet

Journey Into Marvel – Part 63

General Fang… and Yellow Face

Extremites, you may not have known that in the Marvel/Atlas comic company  all of the creative team, with the exception of those who were to young like Steve Ditko and those who were rated 4-F by the draft board like Stan Lee — served in the military. Knowledge of the military often bled into the creative work of the period. The culture of the military bled in too, and sometimes, that culture was negative. That’s clear in today’s story.

You may or may not have run into a World War II veteran who has trouble discerning cultural differences when it comes to Asian peoples. That is the fault of American and Canadian (for me) propaganda. ‘Yellow-face: a caricature of Oriental Asians is still present, seen recently in Rob Schneider’s character in I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. It was very prevalent in the 1940s and the decades after the cultural conscience came to terms with the horrors of that World War. When the Maoists took China this stereotype bled to combine with Communism. General Fang the central villain in this Hulk story is an example of the stereotype.

Examining Tyrannus: The Hulk’s Knockoff Sub-Mariner

Journey Into Marvel – Part 62

Tyrannus is definitely a looker that’s for sure.

Extremites, a creative war floods every panel of the Hulk series. That greyish-purple Hyde knockoff monster of Issue #1 has disappeared into an altruistic, albeit selfish, Thing knock off. In comparison with the Fantastic Four series, which predates the Hulk by a few months, by their fifth issue they had solidified character intentions, traits, and even a few arch baddies. In contrast, in Hulk’s fifth we have Hulk who is barely defined as a character, Bruce Banner: who seems to both be a seeker of justice and a character that wants nothing to do with justice, and Rick Jones — I write with biting disdain.

Where’s the villains?

Hulk has no villains!

How the Debut of Amazing Spider-Man Signalled a Coming Change At Marvel

Journey Into Marvel – Part 61

The Official First Spider-Man

Extremites, up until now — aside from the tangent into 1963 when I couldn’t find the early issues — we’ve been progressing through the Marvel universe chronologically. The Marvel Universe doesn’t work like this. Some issues and stories occur before each other; regardless of date. This is why Amazing Spider-Man #1, which is issued March 1963, happens here even though my last review was issued December 1962.

SO TO SPIDER-MAN!