Marvel in 1969 did not become the new Harvey Comics

Due to finances and my family’s move to America, 1969 (as I’ve mentioned before) became a blank spot in my comics awareness. I usually think of that in terms of not knowing what Spidey, Superman or Flash were doing that year (though reprints have filled me in about a lot of that). I don’t think of it as Marvel not only launching a comic book I’d never heard of but in a genre I totally don’t associate with them.

In Homer, the Happy Ghost #1 (cover by Dan DeCarlo) Marvel reprinted the whimsical 1950s adventures (by DeCarlo and Stan Lee) of the eponymous protagonist, a knockoff of Harvey’s Casper (details here if you’re curious). Much like Marvel’s 1969 efforts to get into horror anthologies and love comics, it didn’t succeed. Homer’s original book lasted 22 issues; the revival lasted four. Peter, the Little Pest, another book in the same vein, didn’t do any better.

I’m guessing regular Marvel readers didn’t have any use for a Casper-wannabe; Casper readers probably saw no reason to stray from brand loyalty to Harvey’s lineup. Still, one can hardly blame Goodman for looking for the next big thing rather than sticking with pure super-heroicss. Times were tough; November 1969 marked Marvel’s first superhero cancellations since the original Hulk book went belly-up.

In 1968, Marvel finally broke free of relying on DC for distribution, which freed them up to distribute more books. Turning Tales of Suspense and Tales to Astonish into four books was a snap: now they had Sub-Mariner, Incredible Hulk, Captain America and Iron Man on the spinner racks. Splitting Strange Tales into Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Dr. Strange didn’t work out so well. By mid-1969, both books had dropped to bi-monthly. The issues cover-dated November, 1969, would be their last.

Dr. Strange #183, “They Walk By Night” (Roy Thomas, Gene Colan, Colan cover) let the good doctor go out on a win, though a frustrating one. Responding to a call from an explorer friend, Strange learns the man uncovered an eerie and terrifying figurine on his last expedition, one inscribed with an ominous warning for all mankind. In the course of the issue Stephen’s friend, already shattered by the cosmic revelations, dies. Dr. Strange destroys the demons keeping him a prisoner but the dying monsters warn Stephen they are not alone — and even he cannot match the power of the Undying Ones!

It’s a strong start to a new arc and reading now, I’d love to have seen Thomas continue with it. Instead, it gets wrapped up the following year in Sub-Mariner and Incredible  Hulk, both of which were Roy Thomas-scripted at the time. Reading back in 1969, with no guarantee I’d ever get a resolution, I’d have been out of my mind (I was one of those kids who took my reading material very seriously).

Nick Fury’s final issue wasn’t as good though the cliffhanger was meant to be even more shocking. The Gary Friedrich/Herb Trimpe “The Assassination of Nick Fury” (Trimpe also did the cover) has Hydra recruit Bullseye to kill Nick. No, not the Bullseye but a less interesting assassin who uses a computerized rifle to ensure he never misses.

The plot, such as it is, has Bullseye tracking Nick all day because he needs to study his prey — except he doesn’t because, computerized rifle. And he doesn’t have to shadow Nick because he’s already been told where the hit goes down: Central Park that night, when SHIELD agent Laura Brown drags Nick to a Country Joe and the Fish concert. It’s all an easy way to fill pages but not a good one. The Hydra leader isn’t memorable either: we’re now in the long interregnum where instead of Baron Strucker or Madame Hydra, we have generic, interchangeable leaders trying to push Hydra back into the big leagues.

Nick Fury dead is a shocker … but is it a shocker anyone would take seriously? It’s not as convincing as the death of the Doom Patrol, and I imagine most SHIELD fans would have suspected the out (a life model decoy) revealed the following year.

Homer, the Happy Ghost did foreshadow what would make Marvel the #1 comics company in the coming years: reprinting old material in addition to the new. Marvel is already reprinting a fair amount of its earlier Silver Age material in Marvel Tales (with a Steve Ditko cover) and Marvel Super-Heroes. In the early 1970s they’d flood the market with similar books, to the joy of fans who hadn’t been around for the originals. Supposedly one of the things that got Jack Kirby’s DC Fourth World books canceled is that they were competing with Jack Kirby’s Silver Age work and people liked it better.

Since I’m talking Marvel, I’ll throw in a couple of books worth mentioning that don’t merit posts of their own. First Daredevil #58, “Spin-Out on Fifth Avenue,” by Gene Colan and Roy Thomas.

It’s a mediocre book (as you may recall I’m not a fan of Silver Age Daredevil) though with the usual great Colan art (including the cover). It does have a nice character bit, though, when Karen Page learns Matt Murdock’s not only alive but he’s secretly Daredevil. Karen realizes that means not only did he fake his death, he lied about his non-existent twin brother Mike. Hell, he’s been lying the whole time she’s known him about being blind — obviously Daredevil can see fine! Matt explains about his hyper-senses, but I think that assumption on her part was a great touch.

Then we have Captain America #119, “Now Falls the Skull” by Lee and Colan (with another Colan cover), which finally wraps up the god-awful arc in which the Red Skull wields the Cosmic Cube as if he had no more brains than Johnny Thunder. After Cap and the Falcon defeat the Exiles, the Red Skull finally decides it might be smart to kill his arch-foe instead of toying with him. He summons the two heroes for a showdown, unaware that Modok (having survived his death—who could have guessed?) has triggered a failsafe on the Cube to prevent it being used against AIM. In the middle of the battle, the Red Skull discovers his power absolute vanishing, after which he goes down. So Cap and the Falcon don’t even beat him on their own. How’s that for an ending?

(Minor side note: Steve Englehart’s later retcon that the Skull planted Sam Wilson on the Exiles’ island as a sleeper agent to use against Cap makes no sense. The Red Skull didn’t think for one second that Cap would be around long enough that he’d need a sleeper to someday take care of him).