Along with the infamous marriage of Yellowjacket and the Wasp, Marvel had a few other books cover-dated for January 1969. Here are some of them, starting with Amazing Spider-Man #68.
As I’ve mentioned before, comic books are shaped by their times. “Crisis on the Campus” (Stan Lee, Jim Mooney), tackling campus protests, is a good example of the rush to relevance. Though isn’t dangerously relevant. The protesters are concerned with student issues, not anything too controversial like the Vietnam War or racism (I have no idea if the issue of low-rent dorms was a thing at the time — if you know, feel free to enlighten me).
It’s carefully even-handed: if everyone stays cool and the administration and the students sit down and talk, things can work out! Still, I think the creators did a decent job — much better than the Kingpin plotline that provides the real action. It centers on an ancient stone tablet which serves as the McGuffin for the next half-dozen issues.
Older than the Dead Sea Scrolls! And we all know the scrolls’ cosmic secrets gave anyone who could translate them power absolute — oh, wait, it didn’t. Even if it did, Wilson Fisk seeking cosmic secrets feels rather off-brand.
The Kingpin pulling off the crime himself is completely, utterly off-brand. The whole point of being the Kingpin of Crime is that you don’t do the dirty work yourself. The only reason for Fisk (his name as yet unrevealed of course) to take point is that we get him and Spider-Man going mano-a-mano again. It’s not enough.
Then there’s Thor #160 (Stan Lee, Jack Kirby). It’s an epic story in which the alien Colonizers recruit Thor to save them from a clash of titans between Galactus and Ego, the Living Planet, a battle that could tear everything in that sector of space apart. What I’m blogging about today though is this page.
As I’ve previously discussed, I don’t buy the idea Galactus is somehow beyond good and evil. This attempt to rationalize Galactus’ point of view only makes his claims look thinner. “None have cause to attack Galactus?” You mean, besides you trying to destroy them? If Galactus is justified in killing entire planets to survive, they’re equally justified in fighting back for the same reason. A being truly above good and evil would accept that; Galactus sounds more like a professional extortionist (“Sammy, Sammy, I’m just trying to earn a living, nothing wrong with that — if you’d paid your insurance, you sweatshop wouldn’t have burned down with all those workers in it. That’s on you.”).
Kirby’s work on Thor in this period continues to be more interesting than his work on Fantastic Four. In issue #82 (with Lee, again), we get the unfortunate introduction of the Inhumans slave race, the Alpha Primitives — let’s face it, anything which involves race slavery is never going to work out well.
Then there’s Maximus, the villain of the piece. I’ve always found Maximus underwhelming and he doesn’t improve here. Worse, his outfit — I’m sorry, it just ain’t one of Jack’s better efforts.
Skipping ahead one month, we have one the most sexist bits of writing I’ve seen in the Silver Age and I’ve seen plenty.She’s needs Reed’s wisdom because she’s confused by the challenge of choosing baby names? Give me a break. And isn’t it unusual to wait until after the baby’s born to think of names?
Lee and Kirby’s (wow, they get around!) Captain America #109 is a straight retelling of Cap’s origin. It’s framed by Steve reminiscing with Nick Fury. Here he broods about the fact he’s still a kid yet completely out of step with Kids These Days.
Up to this point, Lee and his various artistic collaborators treated Cap as if he were a middle-aged veteran who’d lived the twenty years since WW II. I’ll give them credit for acknowledging at least once that wasn’t the case.
Sub-Mariner #9, by Roy Thomas and Marie Severin, strikes me as a road not taken. After the defeat of Paul Destine, Namor takes his helmet of power back to Atlantis (after a hero vs. hero with the Thing to obtain it). Once in Atlantis, the helmet transforms into a chapeau more familiar to Marvel readers, the Serpent Crown.
While Namor’s out of town, the Serpent Crown takes over Atlantis, turning Dorma into its high priestess. Namor is almost caught and sacrificed to the diabolical cult, with Dorma, the enslaved high priestess, wielding the knife!
Outside of Tiger Shark, currently locked up in Atlantis, the story has no connection with the surface world. It’s not that far from a sword-and-sorcery story with Kull battling the ancient Serpent-Men (on the Hero Envy website, Roy acknowledges the resemblance). Were he and Severin thinking of shifting to fantasy underwater adventures as an alternative to conventional superheroics (or, I suppose, super-antiheroics)? If so, it didn’t take root.
By contrast Hulk #111 (Lee and Herb Trimpe) feels like a road most definitely taken. In the previous issue, Hulk smashed an alien doomsday device. The pissed-off aliens show up to dole out some punishment, otherwise they’ll answer to … the Galaxy Master. Hulk’s response? Hulk smash!
This reminds me of why I never got into the Hulk in the 1970s — for every entertaining issue with some character bits, it seemed like there’d be three or four where the plot consists of someone attacking Hulk, Hulk punching back, some yelling about he’s the strongest one of all … it didn’t work for me. Not even a little.
#SFWApro
I’ve always thought that the Serpent Crown story was Roy trying to show how well sword & sorcery would work in comics. I think the letters pages in subsequent issues of Sub-Mariner had people mentioning Conan.
Could be. We’re getting to the time when he must have been thinking of trying sword and sorcery (though his first pick was Thongor: https://www.cbr.com/marvel-conan-barbarian-other-license/)
I definitely agree about the Hulk stories from the early ’70s. About a year and a half ago, I read the early issues of the then newly-launched solo series (up to #117) – as collected in two Panini pocketbooks – and I mostly found them a tough slog, because they were so repetitive: Hulk just goes (or rather, gets taken) from one place to another, including Asgard and outer space, and gets into fights.
“– or rendered
you HELPLESS —
by coating your
HAIR with a
CHEMICAL of
my own invention?”
Stan, Stan, Stan… amazing, really.
It turns out next issue Maximus’ traps are all the result of his hypno-ray making everyone think they’re helpless. I believe that included his Bat-hair neutralizer.
P.S. Herb Trimp rules.
The stories maybe not so much.
To Lee and Trimpe’s credit, the follow-up to the Hulk story here is enjoyable. Doesn’t make me reconsider any of the Bronze Age Hulk Smash stuff.
And then I read the next one, in which Sandman decides to make Hulk into his slave and Hulk Will Smash. Seriously, even given Sandman’s no Reed Richards, that’s one dumb-ass move.