Back in 1968, Marvel shook off its restrictive distribution deal with DC and began expanding its line. Simple enough for them to do: instead of Tales of Suspense with Iron Man and Captain America —
— we had Cap and Iron Man in their own books!
Dr. Strange, Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., Hulk and Sub-Mariner all got the same treatment, busting out of Strange Tales and Tales to Astonish respectively. With Captain Marvel and Silver Surfer added to the roster the same year, Marvel rested. No more new superhero books and, of course, several superhero cancellations: X-Men, Dr. Strange, Nick Fury and eventually Captain Marvel and Silver Surfer all shut up shop. Perhaps that explains why Marvel’s two new superbooks (cover dated August, 1970) played it old school, divided between two features each.
Amazing Adventures launched the Black Widow’s new series alongside a Jack Kirby written-and-drawn Inhumans strip (Kirby would, of course, be gone before long to launch the Fourth World at DC). Neither lasted: within two years they’d be replaced by the Beast’s solo series, followed by Killraven.
Astonishing Tales offered a more unusual pair of co-stars: Ka-Zar and Doctor Doom (I’m guessing his solo story in Marvel Super-Heroes the previous year worked well). While I’ve never cared much for Ka-Zar, I do like the Lee/Kirby story premise of Kraven deciding he’s found his perfect prey at last. No, not Ka-Zar — Zabu, Ka-Zar’s beloved saber-toothed cat. That just tickles me. The Dr. Doom story is notable in that his robots are still just robots, not “doombots.”
Of the four features, Ka-Zar did best, taking over the book with #9 and running through #20 (he got his own series a couple of years later). Astonishing Tales replaced him with that classic flop, It, the Living Colossus and then Deathlok (with the original Guardians of the Galaxy getting a one-issue tryout).
Now as to the old. DC and Marvel in the Silver Age both knew reprinting old stories was profitable. DC launched its first 80-page giant in 1960 —
— and man, did I love them. Particularly for my favorite books because how else could I get to read the origin of the Justice League?
Marvel launched Marvel Tales in 1964 as the equivalent of DC’s Secret Origins (I had this issue at one time).
By 1970, Marvel Tales was primarily a Spider-Man reprint book, with other backups — Doctor Strange in the issue below, for instance.
I think one of the distinctive features of the Bronze Age is that both companies began mining their history a lot more. As I’ve already mentioned, DC turned Strange Adventures into an SF reprint book spotlighting Adam Strange, plus a second SF series, From Beyond the Unknown.
Marvel kept Sgt. Fury alive by mixing reprints in with new issues starting with #80 (reprinting #24)
It did the same with Kid Colt.
DC did that for three issues of Challengers of the Unknown following their brief stint of horror-tinged stories
Marvel’s annuals, which had started with all-new stories backed up with reprints, were now all-reprint. DC continued with its annuals, though no longer 80-pages. It also introduced a new reprint series in 1968, DC Special.
As this Infantino-centric reprint issue shows, the DC Special series had the advantage of not being tied to any particular series. A Batman Annual had to feature Batman; this one had Flash, Batman, Detective Chimp, Adam Strange and a Strange Sports Story. A couple of later Specials would reprint most of the Strange Sports Stories from Brave and Bold. Then there’s this one.
#8, Wanted — the World’s Most Dangerous Villains hit a sweet spot: the concept got a sequel special (#14) and then spun off a nine-issue series in 1972. Intellectually, I know it’s just four super-hero stories but framing it as villain stories made it much more intriguing. I still feel the same.
By the end of my Silver Age reread in early 1972, we’ll see a lot more reprint books (whether or not I write about them). DC’s 100-Page Super-Spectaculars, Marvel Triple Action, the X-Men returning as a reprint series (let’s face it, nobody’s ever going to make them a hit), Monsters on the Prowl reprinting early Silver Age monster yarns. Plus DC had reprint backups in most of its regular books to atone for hiking the price to an unthinkable 25 cents.
Not everyone liked the reprints but a lot of us did, enough that they sold well; supposedly one of the things that sunk the Fourth World was that Jack Kirby’s new stuff was competing and losing against reprints of his classic Silver Age Marvel work. Many of the reprint books did well enough they eventually switched to new material.
It’s a part of the Bronze Age that deserves more attention than I think it gets.
Covers by Jack Kirby, Jim Steranko, George Tuska, Kirby, Marie Severin, Curt Swan, Mike Sekowsky, Steve Ditko, Severin, Neal Adams, Dick Ayers, Herb Trimpe Carmine Infantino, Murphy Anderson, Bob Oksner.
I also love the age of DC and Marvel reprint books. As a kid, I often bought them more than the titles with all-new material. (Hey, I’d never seen any of it, so all of it was new to me!)
I do wonder if an “All-Infantino Issue” was a big selling point on the newsstand.
I was the same — if anything, reprints from the ancient past were more fascinating.
I imagine All Infantino might have appealed to kids older than me or those who had a better eye for art. I’d have picked it up for the stories though.