Doctor Strange Epic Collection, Volume 1: Master of the Mystic Arts by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, et al.

Exciting occult adventures, fabulously illustrated

Back in the 1980s and ‘90s, when I was actively reading comics, Doctor Strange was a solid B-list Marvel hero. He has since been elevated to A-list status in the MCU, with the help of Benedict Cumberbatch. Doctor Strange made his debut in Strange Tales #110, published in July of 1963. Strange Tales was a Marvel anthology comic in which Doctor Strange got second billing behind a cover feature starring the Human Torch and the Thing, or Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD. In 2018, Marvel collected the initial stories of Doctor Strange in one of their Epic Collection paperbacks. Doctor Strange, Volume 1 reprints the sorcerer’s stories from issues 110 to 146 of Strange Tales, ending in July 1966. The volume also includes Amazing Spider-Man Annual #2, which features a Spider-Man/Strange team-up. Marvel’s Epic Collection paperbacks reprint classic comics in full-color on bright white matte-coated paper.

Doctor Strange is the creation of writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko. Probably the second most important artist in Marvel history, behind Jack Kirby, Ditko was also the co-creator of Spider-Man. While the stories written by Lee in this early Doctor Strange run are perfectly good comic narratives of their era, it is really Ditko that elevates these comics into the realm of the exceptional. Doctor Strange might not be the most charismatic or flamboyant of Marvel characters, but his mystic adventures really allow an artist to let his imagination run wild. Judging from the fantastic visuals of these Strange Tales, Ditko’s imagination was virtually boundless. There had been plenty of other wizard heroes in comics prior to Doctor Strange, most notably DC’s Doctor Fate, but Ditko really took the mystic genre to a whole new level. With his mind-blowing depictions of parallel universes and alternate dimensions, Ditko came up with amazingly innovative graphics that set the template for decades of Doctor Strange adventures to come. The character of Eternity, who debuts in Strange Tales #138, is a work of pure genius. I always thought Ditko’s art for Spider-Man was a little awkward (although he did create some superbly original villains), but his art for Doctor Strange is really quite elegant and lyrical. Ditko’s work here combines the solid fundamental rendering skills of a classic newspaper comic artist (think Milton Caniff or Alex Toth), with the surreal and bizarre imaginings of a sci-fi/fantasy visionary.

The stories are quite exciting as well. Lee and Ditko find myriad ways to employ Doctor Strange’s power of astral projection, his cloak of levitation, and the Eye of Agamotto, so the magic never gets too repetitive. The half-issue length of each installment actually helps, since there’s no space to waste on filler or overly drawn-out plot lines. Within this run of Strange Tales, there is a continuing story that runs through the course of at least a dozen issues, which was quite unusual for the 1960s. The only drawback to that strategy is that it limits the number of featured villains, since Baron Mordo and the Dread Dormammu appear in almost every installment. Also appearing briefly in this run are Nightmare, Tiboro, Loki, Xandu, and the Demon (later called Demonicus).

Having never been a particular enthusiast of Doctor Strange nor an avid fan of Ditko, I was really pleasantly surprised by the exceptional quality of these comics. I have read quite a few of these Marvel Epic Collections, and these stories from Strange Tales hold up well amongst the best of what Marvel had to offer in the early- to mid-’60s.

Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos: Marvel Epic Collection Vol. 1 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, et al.

Quite exciting when Kirby’s on duty

Before there was Nick Fury, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., there was Sgt. Fury, who led his Howling Commandos on impossible missions for the Allies during World War II. The surly, cigar-chomping sergeant, a creation of Marvel Comics legends Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, made his debut in 1963. The Marvel Epic Collection trade paperback of Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos, Volume 1, published in 2019, reprints the first 19 issues of the comic book of the same title. These issues originally ran from May 1963 to June 1965. Marvel’s Epic series reprints classic comics in full-color on bright white matte-coated paper, and the reproduction quality in this volume is really beautiful.

Sgt. Nick Fury, the roughest, toughest sarge in the European Theatre, leads a ragtag bunch of half a dozen military misfits in special forces operations. Based in London, their missions take them to Germany, France, Africa, and even Japan. Each member of the Howling Commandos has his own distinct look, skill set, and personality. The most notable character in the squad is the colorful Corporal Dum Dum Dugan, who would later serve as Fury’s right-hand man in S.H.I.E.L.D.

All 19 of these issues were written by “ex-sgt.” Stan Lee. About half of them were drawn by “ex-infantryman” Jack Kirby. The rest were drawn by “ex-corporal” Dick Ayers, who was also the inker of Kirby’s art. Ayers is a fine artist, but nothing spectacular. Kirby’s work, on the other hand, is really phenomenal. Even when he wasn’t drawing cosmic superheroes or mystic gods, Kirby managed to excel in every genre, even westerns and war comics. Although many panels are spent on the seven commandos just standing around chatting and insulting each other, Kirby, like the Hitchcock of comics, makes these scenes visually exciting, and of course that’s even more true of the combat action sequences. Lee’s stories are well-written as well. The plots are sometimes rather formulaic, as one would expect from adventure fiction of this era, but there is enough complexity and variety in the Howlers’ exploits to keep things interesting. It is amazing how many words of dialogue Lee packed into his 1960s comics. Fury and company have got to be the most loquacious commandos in the history of the U.S. military.

Unlike Harvey Kurtzman’s tales of the horrors of war in EC Comics’ Two-Fisted Tales, these are not the kind of stories that win awards. This is pure popcorn-munching pulp fiction. In Lee and Kirby’s hands, WWII is a stage for adventure, heroism, and patriotism. In television terms (for those who remember the 1970s), Kurtzman and company might have been making M*A*S*H, but Lee and Kirby were making Baa Baa Black Sheep. The Germans in these Sgt. Fury stories are typical evil stereotypes like one sees in war movies of the period. Racism and anti-Semitism feature in a few issues, but there’s no hint of the Holocaust. Though Fury and the Howlers do not fight any supervillains, they are still connected to the Marvel Universe. Nazi Barons Strucker and Zemo make appearances, and Captain America and Bucky guest star in one issue. Even Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four makes a pre-superhero cameo as an OSS agent.

In general, I would rather read a superhero comic or a western comic than a war comic, but Lee and Kirby kept me well-entertained with these first 19 issues of Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos. Although they present a sanitized version of the war, that was the norm for this time period. Subject to the comics code, Marvel had to keep things kid-friendly, and I know that my childhood friends and I, whose parents and grandparents served in WWII, would have loved these stories.
If you liked this review, please follow the link below to Amazon.com and give me a “helpful” vote. Thank you.

https://www.amazon.com/review/R2VATEW2G273YA/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm

Essential Daredevil Volume 2 by Stan Lee and Gene Colan

Gene the Dean gives great art, but Stan the Man’s writing is poor

Marvel’s paperback Essential series features reprints of their classic comics in black and white on newsprint paper. The lack of color is made up for by the fact that you get at least two dozen issues of continuity in one volume. Essential Daredevil Volume 2 reprints Daredevil issues 26 to 48, plus Daredevil Special #1, a “giant-sized” issue. These comics were originally published from March 1967 to January 1969. All these issues were written by Stan Lee and drawn by Gene Colan. The volume also includes one crossover issue of the Fantastic Four written by Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby.

While Kirby was Marvel’s heavy lifter throughout their Silver Age, Colan carved out a name for himself as the artist of the Daredevil title for most of its run up until Frank Miller took over in 1979 with issue #158. Colan was a consummate anatomist along the lines of Neal Adams. In his hands, every Daredevil fight scene looks like a well-choreographed ballet, if shot by a director of film noir. Colan’s art is exceptional throughout this volume and greatly exceeds the quality of Lee’s writing, which really isn’t very good here. Through these 24 issues, one can see Colan’s personal style develop to become more innovative and expressive over time. His art would continue to evolve further as the Daredevil title progressed, making him one of the most impressive and expressive Marvel artists of the ‘70s.

Unfortunately, Lee’s writing is not up to the same level. With the exception of perhaps the last few issues in this volume, Lee just doesn’t seem to know what to do with Daredevil. What was great about Marvel’s Silver Age is that every comic had its own unique atmospheric niche. Fantastic Four was the amazing sci-fi comic, Dr. Strange was the mystical fantasy comic, X-Men was the mod teenage comic, etc. Daredevil, on the other hand, seemed to have trouble finding a personality. Ostensibly he’s an urban vigilante, like Batman, but there’s no sense of darkness to these early issues. Lee just gives DD the same wise-cracking personality as Spider-Man. Because of Matt Murdock’s love affairs, there was also often a soap opera element to the Daredevil title that called to mind the romance comic genre. For the most part, however, the stories are just fights, which thankfully look beautiful under Colan’s pencil. Daredevil wins by kicks and punches, and rarely uses his wits. Lee also gives DD the most absurd secret identity since Clark Kent when blind lawyer Matt Murdock pretends to be his own identical twin, non-blind blowhard Mike Murdock.

The Daredevil of these issues is a second-tier hero badly in need of a decent villain. At this time, Bullseye and the Hand hadn’t been invented yet, and the Kingpin was still a Spider-Man villain. What the reader gets instead is a slew of unpowered bad guys dressed in silly super suits: Stilt Man, Leap Frog, Gladiator, Cobra, Matador, the Masked Marauder. Appearances by Dr. Doom are refreshing but incongruent. Other than that, the only really interesting baddies are the Ani-Men and the Jester.

Judging from this volume, the early run of the Daredevil title was not one of Marvel’s better offerings of the 1960s. Fans of Colan’s art, however, will enjoy this volume. As is often the case with these Essential volumes, however, the reproduction quality of the art is not always great.
If you liked this review, please follow the link below to Amazon.com and give me a “helpful” vote. Thank you.

https://www.amazon.com/review/R12IIA7D50TMBZ/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm

Essential Fantastic Four, Volume 1 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

Glory days of the Silver Age

Essential Fantastic Four, Volume 1 reprints the first twenty issues of the Fantastic Four comic book, which originally ran from November 1961 to November 1963, as well as the first Fantastic Four Annual from 1963. Marvel’s Essential series reproduces comics in black-and-white on newsprint paper. I have previously read the first ten issues of Fantastic Four in Marvel Masterworks: The Fantastic Four, Volume 1, which reprints the comics in color on glossier paper. With over twice as many issues included, however, the Essential version gives one a better idea of how the characters and the series developed over time.

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s work for Marvel in the 1960s was truly groundbreaking, and perhaps no title was more innovative than Fantastic Four, which they immodestly subtitled “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Though the FF bears obvious similarities to an earlier team of heroes that Kirby created for DC, the Challengers of the Unknown, the addition of a woman to the cast and the introduction of a family dynamic among the heroes made the FF a unique reading experience for its era. While saving the world, the FF faced real-life problems and displayed the personality flaws of mere mortals. At the same time, however, this was the most sci-fi of Marvel’s Silver Age superhero titles, and the Four faced bizarre and outlandish menaces at every turn. In these first 20 issues, Lee and Kirby introduced villains that would prove eminently memorable for decades to come, most notably Dr. Doom, Marvel’s all-around top bad guy. In addition to resurrecting Bill Everett’s Golden Age character the Sub-Mariner, Lee and Kirby introduce readers to the Mole Man, the Skrulls, the Puppet Master, the Impossible Man, the Red Ghost and his Super Apes, the Mad Thinker, the Molecule Man, and Rama-Tut (later revealed to be an incarnation of the time-traveling Kang).

These landmark stories are not without their flaws, however. The first is the role of Susan Storm, the Invisible Girl. She hasn’t yet discovered her ability to create force fields, so her powers here are limited to just turning herself invisible. This gives her very little to do but play the hostage in most situations. On the other hand, the other three members protest too much when they assert that she plays a valuable role in the team by providing moral support to the men. In contrast, the powers of the Human Torch and Mr. Fantastic seem almost limitless. Like some orange version of Green Lantern, the Torch seems to be able to make all sorts of unreasonable constructions out of flame. He can even create “fire that doesn’t burn” and holographic “flame images.” He already knows he can burn hotter than a supernova, which always seemed ridiculous, but even more so in these earlier tales. Reed Richards can manage his stretching ability so well he’s able to squeeze through molecule-thin gaps, and one panel describes him as a judo expert!

Though these issues were some of the most innovative comics for their day, to the modern reader the first 20 issues do start to get a bit monotonous. Dr. Doom and the Sub-Mariner make multiple appearances, the Thing continually changes to Ben Grimm and back, and the squabbles between team members start to get repetitive. Fantastic Four Annual #1 is a great addition to this volume because the epic 37 page story gives Kirby a chance to indulge in elaborate world-building visuals for the Sub-Mariner’s Atlantis, like an undersea Asgard. In terms of plot, these first few years of the Fantastic Four have their ups and downs, but Kirby’s art is always a joy to behold, and there’s no denying that these initial stories laid a monumental foundation upon which to build many classic comic adventures to come.
If you liked this review, please follow the link below to Amazon.com and give me a “helpful” vote. Thank you.

https://www.amazon.com/review/R23RSEYJWVJQGN/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm

Marvel Masterworks: The Fantastic Four, Volume 1 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

The dawn of Marvel’s Silver Age
The Marvel Masterworks series reprints classic Marvel Comics in hardcover and trade paperback editions. Marvel Masterworks: The Fantastic Four, Volume 1 reprints the first ten issues of The Fantastic Four, which were originally published from November 1961 to January 1963. The FF was created by Marvel’s greatest Silver Age creative duo, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, who handle the story and art for all ten issues featured here.

As early as issue number 3, Marvel began billing The Fantastic Four as “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine,” but the first two or three issues don’t quite live up to such high praise. In the debut issue, the origin story is breezed through very quickly, the FF become instant celebrities without proving themselves, and a very underdeveloped Mole Man shows up for a story not much different than many of the monster comics Lee and Kirby used to crank out in the 1950s. In the next couple issues, the Skrulls are introduced and the Sub-Mariner is resurrected from the 1940s, but the stories so simplistic they make you wonder how Marvel ever went on to build such elaborate mythologies around these characters. In these first few issues, Kirby’s art is also subpar and appears a bit rushed.

By issue number 4, however, the series is in full swing and perhaps worthy of its tagline. Kirby’s art really starts to shine, and one begins to see the complex stories one expects from this creative duo. Doctor Doom makes his debut, and right from the get-go he is one of the most interesting and formidable villains in superhero comics. The odd family dynamic between the group members blossoms, with all their unique quirks and personal grievances on display, such as the constant animosity between the Thing and the Human Torch and the uncertain romance between Reed Richards and Sue Storm. (She’s got a thing for the Sub-Mariner.) The team’s fantasticar and the Baxter Building headquarters are already established by issue 3. In fact, the FF’s mythology gets developed so quickly that by issue 10 one can already see the repetition of familiar themes. In these first ten issues, the Thing reverts back to Ben Grimm three times, and on at least two occasions some form of mind control causes one of the members to battle the others, as will happen again so many times over the next few decades.

Although Lee takes most of the credit for creating the Fantastic Four, the group bears some notable similarities to the DC series Challengers of the Unknown, which Kirby worked on as early as 1957. Though that team was composed of four non-superhero adventurers, they engaged in sci-fi adventures similar to the FF. Two of the Challengers had similar personalities to Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm and engaged in the same persistent bickering, teasing, and attempted clobbering.

One of the great things about the Marvel Universe is that each of the major titles has its own style and tone: Iron Man is the tech hero, Dr. Strange is the mystical hero, Daredevil is the urban hero, and the Fantastic Four are the sci-fi heroes. Likely no other Earth-based superheroes have encountered as many memorably bizarre alien races, lost civilizations, and alternate dimensions as the FF. Even in these first ten issues, the reader begins to see the epic scope of Lee and Kirby’s sci-fi vision. The Fantastic Four was a truly pioneering comic book, and issues one through ten are still a pleasure to read over a half century later. The series would go on to even bigger and better stories, but it would have never gotten there without the strong foundation of these first ten issues.
If you liked this review, please follow the link below to Amazon.com and give me a “helpful” vote. Thank you.
https://www.amazon.com/review/R1F74T0BRHDC2M/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm

Monsters Unleashed Prelude by Stan Lee, et al.

Old monsters gooooood! New monsters baaaaaad!
Before the incredible Hulk, the Thing, or the Man-Thing made their first appearances in the Marvel Comics universe, there were Grottu, Gorgilla, Groot, Goom, and Googam. Prior to the Silver Age superhero explosion, creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby filled the pages of titles like Strange Tales, Tales to Astonish, and Tales of Suspense with stories of giant monsters terrorizing humanity. In 2017, Marvel paid tribute to its monster-comics heritage with Monsters Unleashed, a crossover event in which Marvel heroes clashed with a variety of creatures, including some resurrected from those early Lee and Kirby stories. The trade paperback Monsters Unleashed Prelude was published as a companion volume to this event. The first half of the book reprints 13 of those classic Lee and Kirby monster tales of the 1950s and early ‘60s. The second half of the book reruns five issues of monster-related comics from 2015 and 2016. All art is reproduced in full color.

Since comic books like Tales to Astonish were anthology titles, the Lee and Kirby stories generally run about seven pages, or fourteen pages for a two-parter. The stories adhere to a common formula, but with enough variation to keep them interesting. Each monster is either the result of a science experiment gone wrong or an alien visitor set on conquering Earth. Some of the creatures are dumb brutes, but most are highly intelligent and have some way of communicating with English speakers either through telepathy or quick study. After each monster makes his entrance and reveals his fearsome name (e.g. Rommbu, Vandoom, Orrgo, etc.), he will then show off his destructive power for three or four pages. At this time it was prohibited, or at least highly frowned upon, to show anyone getting killed in a comic book, so you won’t find these monsters tearing up big cities like Godzilla. Instead, they are always in rural locations with few people around, and they mostly scare rather than hurt. In the end, one clever fellow, usually a scientist by trade, discovers some ingenious method of outsmarting the monster, neutralizing its power and defeating it. The stories tend to blend into one another after awhile, but the main attraction here is Kirby’s visionary art.

The comics reprinted in the second half of the book include Fearless Defenders #8 and Marvel Zombies #1, which give the reader an introduction to monster hunter Elsa Bloodstone. Next is Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #1, a recent retread of an old Jack Kirby creation. Rounding out the volume is Totally Awesome Hulk issues #2 and #3, which feature another powerful lady monster hunter named Lady Hellbender. Presumably these issues were chosen because these characters would feature prominently in the Monsters Unleashed crossover. At times the flashy art is appealing, particularly Frank Cho’s work on Totally Awesome Hulk. The writing, however, barely amounts to stories, and the scripts consist of choppy dialogue that rarely includes a complete sentence. In many ways, these random issues demonstrate how far Marvel has fallen from the glory days of the Silver Age.

It was my interest in classic comics that led me to read this volume, so not surprisingly I much prefer the vintage selections to the book’s contemporary latter half. A comprehensive volume reprinting old Kirby monster comics would easily be at least a four-star read, but this volume is severely hampered by its inferior latter half.
If you liked this review, please follow the link below to Amazon.com and give me a “helpful” vote. Thank you.
https://www.amazon.com/review/R3GEZ4OGAN3AS0/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm

Essential Captain America, Volume 3 by Stan Lee, et al.

Featuring the Falcon
Picking up where Volume 2 left off, Essential Captain America, Volume 3 reproduces issues 127 to 156 of the Captain America comic book, which were originally published from July 1970 to December 1972. I really enjoyed this volume because it begins to get into some of the random issues I own and first read when I was a little kid. After all these years, I finally got to find out what happened with the Scorpion and Mr. Hyde! When I think of Marvel Comics, I remember fondly the visual style and storytelling of the 1970s to the early 1980s, and these issues exemplify that period very well.

At the start of the volume, Stan Lee is still penning the stories himself, but at about the halfway point he starts delegating the writing duties to others, beginning with Gary Friedrich and Gerry Conway, who each get a couple of issues before settling on Steve Englehart. Gene Colan continues as the lead artist for several issues, but his work here, in the hands of a succession of journeyman inkers, doesn’t look as good as it did in Volume 2. John Romita Sr. takes over for several issues, doing an excellent job, before the torch gets passed for an extended run by Sal Buscema, who, after Jack Kirby, might be considered the quintessential Captain America artist.

With issue number 134, the Captain America series underwent a title change to Captain America and the Falcon. Not only was this obviously an important change in the direction of the magazine but it also greatly improved the quality of the stories. The Falcon, though less physically powerful than Cap, is more than just a sidekick like Bucky Barnes. Cap and the Falcon are equal partners, with each getting equal time in the spotlight. Sometimes they fight side by side, sometimes alone pursuing different adversaries, and sometimes, in the Marvel tradition, they end up fighting each other. Black Panther may have been the first black superhero, but he lives in a fantasy land in the jungles of Africa. Sam Wilson, a.k.a. The Falcon, lives in Harlem, and he faces the real world problems that an urban black man faced in the 1970s. In his day job as social worker, Wilson is never at his desk, and we never see him with a client, but the stories cover the gamut of African American issues from race riots to slumlords to racial profiling. Since the writers are white, the stories often read like a mixture of well-intentioned liberalism and ‘70s blaxploitation. Conway does the best writing in this vein, but his tenure is short-lived. Then Englehart takes over, and many of the social issues are ditched in favor of immediately retconning Cap’s history.

When not dressed as Captain America, Steve Rogers has a job as a cop who rarely shows up for work, which is a rather silly and unbelievable premise. For bad guys, the Red Skull still shows up occasionally to bore the reader with another giant robot. A-list fascists like Baron Strucker and MODOK make appearances, as does the fan favorite Frenchman Batroc. Odd choices for villains are the Grey Gargoyle, who overstays his welcome, and the cosmic collector The Stranger. Spider-Man teams up with Cap and the Falcon for a couple issues, and SHIELD’s Femme Force makes their debut. Overall, there’s a lot to like in this collection. The stories take silly turns and get a bit kitschy at times, but that’s what makes ‘70s comics so lovable. For the most part, Essential Captain America, Volume 3 is vintage Marvel.
If you liked this review, please follow the link below to Amazon.com and give me a “helpful” vote. Thank you.
https://www.amazon.com/review/R3CI6RVY8OMWB6/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm

Essential Captain America, Volume 2 by Stan Lee, et al.

More 1960s fun with Cap (and introducing the Falcon!)

This second volume of classic Captain America comics from the Marvel Essentials series picks up where Volume 1 left off. Essential Captain America, Volume 2 reprints issues 103 to 126, which were originally published from 1968 to 1970. All the stories were written by Stan Lee, and initially the art is provided by Jack “King” Kirby, but he departs after the first several issues included here. The middle of the book features brief stints by artists John Romita, John Buscema, and Jim Steranko. The latter was highly regarded back in the day for his innovative page layouts and psychedelic imagery, but in hindsight his art seems overrated and takes too many liberties with the human figure. With issue #116, Gene Colan settles in for an extended stay as artist, and his work is superb. This unsung master’s artistic style, combining the thunderous bombast of Kirby’s work with the anatomical fidelity of Neal Adams, is the perfect graphic complement to Stan Lee’s rollicking adventure stories.

Speaking of which, Lee’s storytelling has improved since the last volume, but it’s still pretty bizarre. The Red Skull continues to make frequent appearances, but thankfully he’s not as ubiquitous as before. MODOK and AIM show up more often, Batroc makes a couple reappearances, Dr. Faustus is introduced, and bad guys from other Marvel titles, like the Trapster and the Scorpion, each stop by for an issue. These villains usually have no plan or objective beyond the assassination of Captain America. Rick Jones (the Hulk’s best friend) decides he wants to be Cap’s sidekick and dons the old costume previously worn by Bucky Barnes. The ease with which he falls into the role defies belief, and his presence is usually more of a burden than a help. In Volume 1, Cap’s secret identity was revealed, and the whole world came to know him as Steve Rogers. In this volume, Lee comes up with a cockamamie plot to fake Steve Rogers’s death, thus negating the identity reveal, but then Cap goes back to being Steve Rogers anyway, as if nothing ever happened. The biggest development within these issues, however, is the debut of the Falcon, one of Marvel’s pioneering black superheroes. He won’t become Cap’s official partner until Volume 3, but he appears in four or five of the issues included here. Although his origin story is a little weird, towards the end of Volume 2 the Captain America title starts to display inklings of an increase in urban realism that would characterize the Falcon’s tenure as co-headliner. 

The tone and subject matter of these issues vacillates between scenes of artfully violent hand-to-hand combat and more pensive moments in which Cap broods over thoughts of loneliness and love. He is still chasing Sharon Carter, but their relationship is not working out because he wants her to give up her career as a SHIELD superspy. (Cap may be a liberal, but he’s not yet a feminist). These moments of heartache and tribulation often seem lifted from a sappy romance comic, but when drawn by Kirby or Colan they at least have the appearance of film noir.

In summation, there’s nothing here that will really go down in history as a Marvel masterpiece, but for the most part it’s just good solid storytelling and art. At times the plot points come across as kitschy or ridiculous, but that’s part of the nostalgic fun. Like it’s predecessor, Volume 2 is an enjoyable trip down memory lane, and I am looking forward to reading the further exploits of Captain America and the Falcon in Volume 3.
If you liked this review, please follow the link below to Amazon.com and give me a “helpful” vote. Thank you.
https://www.amazon.com/review/R858L18T0R4EF/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm

Essential Captain America, Volume 1 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

Cap’s freshly thawed adventures of the 1960s
When I was growing up and reading comics in the 1970s and ‘80s, Captain America was my favorite character. He was never as powerful as most of the other heroes in the Marvel Universe, but he triumphed through sheer bravery, tenacity, and nobility of spirit. Captain America was created in 1941 by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby for Timely Comics. In 1964, after Timely became Marvel, the character was revived by Kirby and Stan Lee. When Lee and Kirby created the Avengers, Captain America was found frozen in a block of ice and brought back to life to fight evil anew. Shortly thereafter, Cap received his own adventures in the pages of Tales of Suspense, beginning with issue number 59. At issue number 100, Marvel changed the title from Tales of Suspense to Captain America. Essential Captain America, Volume 1 reprints these adventures of the resurrected hero through issue number 102.

Tales of Suspense was a series shared between Captain America and Iron Man, therefore each character only got 10 pages in each issue. Even so, it’s pretty amazing what Lee and Kirby could do with Cap in just 10 pages, especially when you consider most of those 10 pages were devoted to fight scenes, with the creative duo constantly finding new ways to write and draw hand-to-hand combat. Even though Cap was an active member of the 1960s Avengers, a large portion of the stories here take place during World War II. That’s a bit disappointing, because the war stories get somewhat monotonous, and the only villain who’s in any way remarkable is the Red Skull. These WWII adventures of Cap and Bucky are not nearly as interesting as those created for the Invaders series that Marvel would publish beginning in 1975. 

The latter half of the book more satisfyingly focuses on Cap’s present-day (1960s) adventures, but still the Red Skull dominates almost every story. Although he may be Cap’s arch-enemy, he is not one of Marvel’s more creatively evil supervillains, just a sort of Lex Luthor-type mastermind who once served Hitler. He comes up with master plans, but somehow never manages to kill Cap when he has the chance. The number of times the Red Skull is presumed dead is just ridiculous. Some welcome variety is provided by the first appearances of Batroc the Leaper, MODOK, and the Super-Adaptoid. The scientific mafia A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics) is also featured in several of the later issues. There aren’t many guest stars in these stories but for the occasional Avengers cameo, until issues 98 to 100, in which Cap teams up with the Black Panther. 

Cap has a love interest who makes several appearances in this volume, but although he just about proposes marriage to her at one point, issue after issue goes by without him ever asking her name. Known only as Agent 13, she will eventually be revealed as Sharon Carter, though that doesn’t happen in this book. Cap also remembers a love he lost in World War II, which likely will eventually turn out to be Peggy Carter.

Even when the stories get tiresome, Kirby’s art is phenomenal. In the glory days of the Silver Age, no other artist could touch him. He only draws about two-thirds of this book, with various other artists filling in here and there. Personally, I think the Captain America stories of the ‘70s, when he teamed up with the Falcon, were better than these rather simplistic ‘60s tales. Still, it’s a lot of fun to read these newly-thawed adventures of my favorite childhood hero and to marvel at Kirby’s spectacular art.
If you liked this review, please follow the link below to Amazon.com and give me a “helpful” vote. Thank you.
https://www.amazon.com/review/R91M9BKFLDS5T/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm

Marvel Comics: The Untold Story by Sean Howe

From excelsior to excess
At first I was a little skeptical about the subtitle of Sean Howe’s 2012 book Marvel Comics: The Untold Story. I grew up reading Marvel Comics and have read other books on the company’s history. After finishing Howe’s version, however, I’m happy to report that his investigative journalism into Marvel’s past is quite impressive, and the book makes for a truly fascinating read.

For the first couple chapters, I wasn’t so sure. In Chapter 1 Howe covers the entire history of Marvel, formerly known as Timely Comics, up through the 1950s. That’s the entire Golden Age in less than 30 pages! Howe isn’t really concerned, however, with the myriad genres that Timely used to publish—western, horror, romance, funny animals, and so on. This is really a history of what Marvel is most famous for—the superheroes, beginning with the Silver Age pantheon created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, and in some cases, Steve Ditko. Chapter 2 covers the birth of the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Thor, the Avengers, X-Men, and Spider-Man. Howe’s recaps of origin stories and mythologies get a little long-winded, leaving one to wonder when the “untold story” is going to begin.

From that point on, however, the book really hits its stride and becomes incredibly addictive, with vivid details and surprising revelations on every page. This isn’t a literary history of Marvel’s creative glories, but rather a true business history, replete with mergers, acquisitions, and struggles for administrative power. I’ll confess some of the financial and legal details were over my head, and at times, I could have used a little less detail. Over the course of superhero comics history, writers and artists continually defected from Marvel to DC and back again, and Howe keeps you apprised of each and every arrival and departure. Nevertheless, it’s better to commit sins of excess than omission, and Howe’s thorough, behind-the-scenes exposé of life inside the Marvel bullpen is probably the next-best thing to working there.

Though written in the third person, the book has the feel of an oral history, likely because Howe interviewed about 150 former Marvel employees. Howe lets all sides get their two cents in without passing judgment. The long-fought battle between Lee and Kirby over creative ownership of certain characters, for example, is handled in a fairly balanced manner. Howe diligently follows the trail of rancor, and neither party comes out smelling like a rose. Stan the Man comes across as somewhat pathetically clueless, while King Kirby is depicted as taking his justifiable grievances to delusional excess. In general, Howe subtly favors individual creators over big business, but he always presents both sides of an argument.

Though Howe celebrates the company’s creative triumphs, his overall picture of the Marvel empire is rather unflattering. As he charts the trajectory of the publisher through boom and bust periods, he makes it pretty clear that over time the company has sacrificed creative quality in favor of commercialism, diluting the integrity of its treasured characters for a quick buck. As one of the many fans Marvel lost in the ‘90s, I have a tendency to agree with him, which is perhaps why I enjoyed the book so much. There are other good books on Marvel history out there, like the self-congratulatory Marvel Chronicle: A Year by Year History or Mark Evanier’s excellent biography Kirby: King of Comics, but if you’re looking for one book that’s going to give you the clearest, most complete picture of the Marvel story, this is it.
If you liked this review, please follow the link below to Amazon.com and give me a “helpful” vote. Thank you.
https://www.amazon.com/review/R1OL8XYTGTODVJ/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

Marvel Westerns by Stan Lee, et al.

Old stuff: great! New stuff: meh.
Marvel Comics has a long history of producing comics in the western genre, going back as far as the 1940s, before the company was even called Marvel. Some of their most popular gunfighters, like the Rawhide Kid, Two-Gun Kid, and Kid Colt, even hung on well after the superhero explosion of the 1960s, but it’s been a long time since Marvel put any effort into its western universe. In 2006, they attempted to at least harken back to their cowboy glory days by publishing a four-issue series called Marvel Westerns, which combined classic 1960s stories by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby with 21st-century interpretations of Marvel’s classic western heroes. This hardcover volume contains the four issues of that series, along with some supplemental material.

In addition to the three aforementioned Kids, the contemporary writers and artists involved with this book have dug up a lot of lesser-known characters from the past, including the doctor turned vigilante Black Rider, the avenging Indian Red Wolf, and the superhumanly fast gunfighter Hurricane. Some of the stories include supernatural monsters or cameo appearances from Marvel Universe superheroes, which is perfectly fine. There’s a long tradition in pulp fiction of the “weird western” genre, which incorporates sci-fi and horror elements. Yet despite such creative twists, these new stories feel uninspired. Probably the most famous writer involved here is Joe R. Lansdale, but his story is illustrated in such a murky and expressionistic style that’s it’s difficult to even tell who wins the final gunfight. A few of the artists do turn in very attractive work, but despite all the flashy figures and vivid computer color, these new offerings don’t hold a candle to the visual storytelling of the ‘60s stories written by Lee and drawn by Kirby, Don Heck, and Dick Ayers. Given the subject matter, the fact that these stories are a half century behind the times only adds to their appeal. They have the quality of good old-fashioned campfire yarns, and are drawn in a classic style that doesn’t require gimmicks or city slicker razzle-dazzle. These old masters even manage to build an engaging story around the questionable premise of a living totem pole. Unfortunately, the only classic character represented in these older tales is the Rawhide Kid. The rest of Marvel’s western pantheon is left to the new kids on the block.

The book closes with a collection of fictional newspaper articles, letters, interviews, and other ephemera that act as a sort of unofficial handbook of the Marvel Western Universe. Each piece summarizes a plotline from some old Marvel tale. While it’s interesting to learn about all the different characters, there’s just too much of it, and in the end it feels like you just read 50 Wikipedia entries. This section does succeed in illustrating the wide breadth of Marvel’s rich western heritage. It’s obvious there’s a great deal of potential in all these characters and storylines; potential that’s not realized in this volume. It’s too bad Marvel can’t maintain a western series to utilize all this material. If today’s artists and writers can’t come up with a decent western comic, Marvel should at least reprint more of the old stuff. They have published two volumes of the Rawhide Kid in their Masterworks series, but those are now out of print. They should really round up an assortment of their classic western characters and compile a volume or two for the Marvel Essentials series. This collection proves that there’s still life left in these old western tales.
If you liked this review, please follow the link below to Amazon.com and give me a “helpful” vote. Thank you.
http://www.amazon.com/review/R1HJDK5ONGDFKG/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm