Joe Sinnott’s Fairy Tale Thor

Your appeal has reached my ears Thor! What trouble besets my favorite son? – ODIN

Journey Into Marvel – Part 87

The fairy tale panel.

Extremites, if you’ve followed this series with fanatical vehemence, and some of you have, you’ll be familiar with ‘Marvel Rush Job;’ those issues that don’t cut the mustard. They rely on hackneyed villains, convenient plots, caricatures.  Every early Earth-616 — main Marvel Continuity — title was helmed by comic book artist extraordinaire: Jack Kirby. Imagine you are Jack Kirby and had to crank out seventy or so pages of high quality work every month — and also the occasional  new creation. The task is daunting. In the summer of ’63 Stan Lee auditioned other artists to take over some of the titles. Sometimes this was a huge success. Look at the work of Don Heck. Sometimes this was a great failure — Al Hartley I’m looking at you. Whatever the result, it’s neat to experience other names take Jack Kirby creations and making it theirs. Today’s issue is the audition piece of long time Marvel mainstay Joe Sinnott and his fairy tale interpretation of Thor.

Iron Man’s Second Issue: Abandon All Logic Ye Reader!

Any girl who’d stand you up, darling, would have to be stark, raving ma-a-ad! – Marion

Journey Into Mystery – Part 86

Even Iron Man has to do the talk show rounds.

Extremites, in Silver Age Marvel, reputation is everything. When the Fantastic Four were created they were thrust into fame. They had to navigate super villains and bank robbers but also fan mail and paparazzi. Iron Man, too, must navigate the dreary annoying world of public relations.

Ant-Man’s Charisma Problem: Why Early Ant-Man Was Unpopular

Gather to me! Hear my words! I, Jason Cragg, speak truth! Truth! – The Voice

Journey Into Marvel – Part 85

Today’s issue

Extremites, Ant-Man stories are haphazard and make little sense.  Hank is unlikable. He’s reclusive. He’s quick to anger and downright abusive. Today’s story pits cold, uncouth Ant-Man against an antagonist who’s power is his radioactive charisma. It shows that Ant-Man is never going to be a darling of the public. 

Monkeying Around On The Moon: The Fantastic Four and the Space Race

Only a genius such as I, Ivan Kragoff, could have trained a gorilla to operate a space-ship! – Red Ghost

Journey Into Marvel – Part 84

The Transparent Space Race

Extremites, I am obsessed with space; the idea of travelling beyond the clouds, into nothingness, enthrals me. I keep Apollo 13 on repeat. Glow in the dark stars bedeck my bedroom ceiling. The ingenuity of  the Space Race inspires me. I wonder what it felt like to witness the nightly news in 1963.  In today’s issue we get a glimpse into what that feeling was.

Young vs. Old Part II: Spider-Man and the Terrible Debut of the Tinkerer

Well well! So teacher’s pet is gonna help the nice little doctor with some experiments this week-end, eh? While us other dumbheads waste time having dates and livin’ it up – FLASH THOMPSON

Journey Into Marvel – Part 83

Extremites, the Tinkerer’s, the antagonist of the B-Story in the second issue of Amazing Spider-Man, conflict is the same as the Vulture. It is based on age.

Zzzaaap. Zzzap

Young vs. Old Part I: The Debut of Spider-Man’s Vulture

Nothing I like better than taunting my enemies! – The Vulture.

The Vulture vs. Spider-Man

Journey Into Marvel – Part 82

Extremites, Spider-Man’s age defines him. Most of his early conflicts centre around some disparity with age. This  is clear in this story where Vulture, Spider-Man’s first super powered villain, debuts.

Like Vulture, J. Jonah is out of step with the youth and wants to see their kind erased from the face of New York. His outrageous vendetta against Spider-Man is unexplained; it just is. In last issue Spider-Man saved his son from certain death. He should be grateful to him. Peter Parker decides to sell pictures of Spider-Man to triple J.  Peter Parker is in this game for personal gain.

A Human Torch Story That’s So Bad It’s ‘Van Vile’

Journey Into Marvel – Part 81

Van Vile paints a 3 headed ape to terrorize us.

Extremites, I have discovered the best way to enter a story in the Strange Tales solo Human Torch issues is to expect the worse. Today, my expectations were lived up too and then some. This is the most terrible Human Torch story I have read thus far.

Loki ‘The Vice:’ Marvel’s Thor Goes Judeo-Christian

Journey Into Marvel – Part 80

A building rising in the air and then vanishing! People losing their memory for no physical reason! It smacks of supernatural mischief…and that smacks of the god of evil, my old enemy…Loki!

The Movies don’t even try and pretend… Milton could see the similarities. (Joke only works if you get that JM was blind)

Extremites, like most western fiction the comic’s roots lie in campfire stories. Religious stories, mythologies, and legends all descend from these roots. One of the recurring archetypes that comes out of these traditions is the vice character. I have brought him up before in this series; think Satan or any crux character that coaxes the hero to act against his or her nature. Thor, based out of Norse myth, is the closest Marvel line to these roots.  It’s right that his line has the strongest and most obvious vice character in Loki.

Prisoner of the Same Plot: Stan Lee Ignores Ant-Man Again

Journey Into Marvel – Part 79

Even the title page is unremarkable.

Extremites, I like Ant-Man. I knew Hank Pym only as a character that committed an act of domestic abuse. I have come to know him as varied and turmoiled. Alas, I have also noticed the lack of quality in construction of his stories. Sure, there are some good plots, but then there are stories that aren’t worth the paper they are printed on. Today’s issue, is an example of the latter.

Examining the Campy Propagandist Beginning of Iron Man

Journey Into Marvel – Part 78

There he is…

Have you never seen an Iron Man before?! 

Extremites, with the loss of one hero, the Hulk, we gain another in Iron Man. Tony Stark is by no means the most important part of the Marvel Universe, nor is he even the most popular; he has been on the forefront of big changes at Marvel. His debut comes as the larger interconnected creative universe was designed. Iron Man, like all things comic, begins as propaganda.