by Chris Ryall
When Gruenwald left the series, writer Mark Waid and artist Ron Garney took over with Captain America # 444 (October 1995) and kick-started the series out of its creative doldrums. Waid and Garney approached the series like a Tom Clancy thriller, and suddenly Cap did a lot less speechmaking and a lot more ass-kicking. When Cap did speak, however, his voice was dead-on.
More recently, writer Ed Brubaker and artist Steve Epting have embarked upon a critically acclaimed run on the Cap series, in which they pulled off the impossible: bringing Bucky Barnes back from the dead in a clever, convincing and acceptable way. Bucky is revealed as the brainwashed and cryogenically frozen Winter Soldier, an unwitting tool of the Soviet Union for decades. Only recently has Bucky regained his memories and free will.
Brubaker and Epting were behind the newsmaking “death of Captain America” storyline in Captain America Vol. 5 #25 (March 2007). Steve Rogers is assassinated while turning himself in for violation of the federal government's Superhuman Registration Act. Brubaker and Epting continue to tell compelling Captain America stories even without Steve Rogers, starring Bucky Barnes as the new Cap. While Steve Rogers will undoubtedly return, in the meantime the series remains in excellent hands.
Baron Zemo feels the grip of a free man, courtesy of the Star-Spangled Avenger.
THE AVENGERS #6: © 1964 MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT, INC. USED WITH PERMISSION. ART BY JOE SIMON AND CHIC STONE.
3 The Fantastic Four
The way it beganLet us set the Wayback Machine for 1961, in which a successful comics publisher called Timely (or Atlas, depending on what month it is and who you ask) was eking out a living by treading water and following the trends. If Westerns were in vogue, it cranked out Westerns by the bushel. If romance seemed to be moving well, then it was love stories all around. At the time, the trend was monster comics, so Timely turned out Godzilla knockoffs like you wouldn't believe. Timely's managing editor and art director was Stanley Martin Lieber, although you might be more familiar with his sobriquet: Stan Lee. Lee had been working at the publisher since he was seventeen years old, and had risen from the ranks of office boy. Although his monster comics were doing OK, Stan was bored, bored, bored and about ready to leave comics for good.
Meanwhile, Timely's publisher, Martin Goodman, was having a legendary golf game with National Comics publisher Jack Liebowitz, during which he told Goodman what a big success he was having with the new Justice League of America comic. When Goodman left the links, he called Lee and told him to get to work on a superhero-team comic book, and fast.
As Lee tells it in Origins of Marvel Comics, he was also set on the right track by his wife Joan. She reminded him that since he was ready to quit anyway, why not do whatever he wanted with this new book instead of following the same comic-book clichés he'd been repeating for years?
Inspired, Lee began to flesh out his new concept for the book. First to go were secret identities. As Lee reasoned, if he himself had superpowers, he'd never be able to keep them secret, so why should they? Next, out was the classic superhero love triangle in which Our Hero's girlfriend would really fall for him if only she knew who he really was. Instead, not only would the girl know who the hero really was, they'd both be on the team, and treat each other as equals. Also, no costumes. Again, Lee couldn't see himself wearing tights and a cape, so neither would his new characters. (Of course, this rule didn't last long — about two issues. Still, they kept to the spirit of the concept by wearing more utilitarian uniforms rather than gaudy costumes.) Finally, this new team wouldn't always get along; they'd bicker, they'd squabble. Sometimes it would seem that certain members outright hated each other.
Having decided the direction he wanted this new series to take, Lee typed up a synopsis for the premiere issue and handed it off to his ace in the hole: artist Jack Kirby. Kirby had just returned from a stint at National Comics, and was currently keeping Timely/Atlas afloat with his work on the monster comics. Over the next nine years, the Lee/Kirby partnership would flourish, and generate not only 102 consecutive issues of Fantastic Four (an amazing body of work), but also a sizable portion of what would become the Marvel Universe. Though their partnership would later wither, at the time, neither man had any idea that the comic book they'd created would launch a publishing and merchandising empire.
RUNNING THE SPACE RACE
In The Fantastic Four #1 (November 1961), readers are introduced to genius scientist Reed Richards, his fiancée Susan Storm, Sue's kid brother Johnny, and test pilot Ben Grimm, Reed's friend and college roommate. In a bid to beat those dastardly Commies to outer space, Reed and company hijack the rocket that he's designed, with plans to take it into orbit pronto, despite Ben's concerns about the rocket's insufficient shielding from cosmic radiation. You'd think Reed “Super-Genius” Richards might have listened to what seems a perfectly rational request for increased safety from a close friend and professional test pilot, right? Nope. After Sue questions Ben's manhood, he's totally on board — in retrospect, not one of Mr. Grimm's best decisions.
The foursome sneak on board the rocket and launch, and are soon in Earth orbit. Almost immediately the ship is hammered by cosmic radiation, with adverse effects on the crew, especially Ben, who manages to pilot the ship to a soft landing despite an almost unbearable heaviness in his limbs.
Fantastic Four #1, the start of the Marvel Universe as we know it.
FANTASTIC FOUR #1: © 1961 MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT, INC. USED WITH PERMISSION. ART BY JACK KIRBY. COPY FROM PERSONAL COLLECTION OF CHRIS RYALL.
GUEST LECTURER
GENE SIMMONS, KISS bassist, god of thunder and Simmons Comics Group founder
THE BEST CREATIVE TIME ON THE TITLE
World's Finest never really did it for me. It was simply my entree. Once I discovered Lee and Kirby's Fantastic Four, it wasn't long until I studied every panel and every inker (Dick Ayers, Vince Colletta and the rest). Even letterer Sam Rosen was studied by my twelve-year-old eyes. The FF's finest hour? Every issue, baby. Every issue.
THE BEST COVER
Spider-Man #1's cover had the biggest impact on me. Spidey climbing up a wall, with the FF in pursuit. I loved ‘em then. I love ‘em now.
THE BEST STORYLINE ON THE TITLE
Silver Surfer stories always intrigued me. Here is an alien whose world has been destroyed and his family killed and yet he is the herald for the world-eater, Galactus? When Surfer meets human beings and has second thoughts about their humanity, there is an almost Shakespearean level of literature that creeps in. “What fools these mortals be,” indeed.
THE GOOFIEST STORYLINE
The Impossible Man. And yet, no matter how goofy or impossible, I loved it.
Back on Earth, as the quartet begins to bicker over the failed flight, the effects of the radiation become clear. First Sue fades away, then mysteriously reappears. Then Ben begins to grow and mutate, becoming an orange rocklike creature. Enraged, Ben lashes out at Reed, who, in attempting to defend himself, begins to stretch and distort, his limbs and torso freakishly elongating. Finally, emotionally upset at the conflict, Johnny suddenly bursts into flame, and then erupts into flight, soaring over the wreckage. The four resolve to serve mankind with their new abilities (some more begrudgingly than others) and dub themselves the Fantastic Four: Mr. Fantastic, the Invisible Girl, the Human Torch and the Thing.
So, was the book as revolutionary as Stan envisioned? Well, there was nothing else out there like it, that's for sure. Central to the book's uniqueness early on was the very palpable antagonism between Reed and the Thing. Unlike the others, whose powers don't preclude them from leading relatively normal lives, Ben Grimm is cursed by his powers, forced to live in hiding. He often takes out his frustrations on his own teammates, especially Reed, whom he (quite rightly) blames for his misfortune. To make matters worse, Ben, from time to time, reverts back to his human form, but never for any significant length of time. Just long enough to get his hopes up for a normal life, before being dashed once more.
“T
his Man … This Monster” focuses on Ben Grimm's tortured existence as the Thing and is widely considered the best single issue of Fantastic Four by the Lee/Kirby team.
FANTASTIC FOUR #51: © 1966 MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT, INC. USED WITH PERMISSION. ART BY JACK KIRBY AND JOE SINNOTT.
IT'S CLOBBERIN' TIME
The series' unprecedented emphasis on characterization and personal conflict struck a chord with readers, rocketing The Fantastic Four up the sales charts. In addition, the fan mail began to arrive in record numbers, giving Lee a pipeline to his readers he never had before, and helping to build a brand loyalty and “character first” formula that would serve him on success after success at Marvel.
The Fantastic Four's adventures were unique, as well. Rather than falling into the standard “answering a call for help” storylines, the Fantastic Four were more of explorers and adventurers rather than crimefighters, often finding themselves in peril as a result of one of Reed's experiments. There was also a sense of realism about the series. The characters grow over time; Reed and Sue eventually marry and have children. The FF lives in Manhattan, not an imaginary Gotham City or Metropolis, and they have real problems, be it angry neighbors or empty coffers. For example, when supposed genius Reed Richards puts all of the organization's money in the stock market, which then goes belly-up, the repo men show up to start taking the team's equipment. Stuff like that never happens to Batman.
But best of all are the villains. Lee and Kirby hit a period of sustained creativity, with one outstanding concept following the next. They started strong in the premiere issue with the Mole Man, an unwanted soul who rules a subterranean kingdom miles below the surface. This allowed Kirby to bring some of his trademark monsters to the forefront.
GUEST LECTURER
MARV WOLFMAN, writer, Fantastic Four
THE FIRST ISSUE OF FANTASTIC FOUR I EVER READ
Fantastic Four #4 (May 1962). I started pretty early on and quickly got the back issues. It was so different from anything I had read until then — I actually didn't know what to make of it. Within a few issues, however, I understood and loved it.
THE BEST CREATIVE TIME ON THE TITLE
There was only one: Stan and Jack. Nobody else came close. Everyone since has only tried to continue what they did, but nobody has come close to constantly surprising us with incredible ideas and characters.
THE BEST COVER
Fantastic Four #8 (November 1961), with the Puppet Master, followed by FF #39 (June 1965) and FF #48 (March 1966). This is the book that completely changed all superhero comics to come. It was the most creative, original and constantly inventive superhero comic ever done. Nobody, right up to today, has ever approached this title in sheer inventiveness.
THE BEST STORYLINE
The Galactus saga (FF #48–50). Like, duh. Best and most creative superhero story ever done to its time.
Also facing off against the FF are the alien shapechangers the Skrulls, who impersonate and frame the team; and the Puppet Master, a twisted sculptor who uses his radioactive clay to craft miniature duplicates that allow him to control the minds of others, and whose blind stepdaughter Alicia becomes the sole joy in Ben Grimm's life.
THE DOCTOR IS IN
None of Lee and Kirby's FF creations measure up to what is arguably the single best comic-book villain ever created: Doctor Doom. Unlike previous comic-book villains, who were just evil for evil's sake, Doctor Doom is as much a fully realized character as any of the heroes, with motivations you can sympathize with and faults you can identify with.
Although Doom first appears in Fantastic Four #5 (which features a hilarious adventure of Reed, Johnny and Ben posing as pirates in the seventeenth century), the character's true defining moment comes in Fantastic Four Annual #2 (1964), in which we learn “The Fantastic Origin of Doctor Doom!”
Victor Von Doom is born the child of gypsies in the eastern European country of Latveria. His father, a gypsy healer who is marked for death by a local baron, dies trying to save Victor from the baron's wrath. After his father's death, Victor discovers that his late mother had been a sorceress, so he embraces the black arts, combining them with his own scientific genius to fleece riches from the upperclass aristocrats, then give the money to the poor. Eventually, word of the unstoppable young gypsy genius spreads to the West, and Von Doom accepts a scientific scholarship to an American university in order to have access to the latest equipment and resources. At college, he meets fellow scholarship student Reed Richards and rebuffs Reed's friendly offer to room together.
Obsessed with his work, Von Doom builds a massive device designed to breach the netherworld and allow him to contact the spirit of his mother. Wandering past Von Doom's room, Reed eyeballs his plans for the device and notices that some of his calculations are off by a few decimals. Reed tries to warn him, but Von Doom will have none of it, and haughtily shows Reed the door. When Von Doom throws the switch, the device explodes, disfiguring his face. Expelled, Von Doom leaves the university and wanders Tibet, seeking “forbidden secrets of black magic and sorcery.” There, Von Doom is taken in by a mysterious order of monks, who teach him “ancient secrets and lore” and help him create his infamous armored suit and mask, behind which he hides his disfigured face from the world. From there, Doctor Doom sets off to conquer, first seizing control of his home nation of Latveria, and then making plans for the rest of the world.
Doom has real motivations and foibles. He wants to rule the world, but his reign over Latveria is shown as a benevolent dictatorship. His subjects are devoted to his rule, and in turn, Doom is devoted to their care. He wants to retrieve his mother's soul from torment, and he's bitterly jealous of Reed's genius, exemplified in the single moment when Reed is right and Doom is wrong, his scarred face now a perpetual reminder.
SCOTT SAYS
I was lucky enough to meet Jack Kirby before he passed away, and got the chance to listen to him talk about some of his characters at length. His conception of Doom was that the explosion at the university had only left Doom with a single, tiny scar across his left cheek, but that this single imperfection of his handsome face was intolerable, and Doom would rather hide his features behind the stifling iron mask than show his imperfection to the world. A brilliant take on Doom's character, and one I'd never before considered.
A FAMILY AFFAIR
Other than the Lee/Kirby classics, most FF fans consider writer/artist John Byrne's lengthy run on Fantastic Four (issues #232– 292, 1980–1986) the next-best thing to Stan and Jack. Byrne went back to the basics, placing heavy emphasis on the Fantastic Four as a family first and a superhero team second. Byrne also reinforced Reed's status as a near-unparallelled scientific genius, stepping away from the “Mr. Fantastic” identity. Sue was also made a much stronger and more powerful character under Byrne's tenure. One noteworthy and heartbreaking Byrne story involves a desperate Reed Richards trying to convince Spider-Man villain Doctor Octopus to assist in the delivery of their second child, which is complicated by radiation poisoning.
The art doesn't disappoint, either. Byrne's clean, detailed style fit the Fantastic Four like a glove, and this period is some of his best work.
4 The Incredible Hulk
Driven by rageMaybe the best known of Marvel's characters after Spider-Man, the green-skinned Goliath the Incredible Hulk has found success in animation, live-action television and the silver screen, but it all started on the four-color pages of the comics.
Stan Lee was looking to follow up the success of his first big hit, Fantastic Four. He considered another team book, but didn't want to repeat himself. He thought about doing a Superman-style strong man, but rejected the notion as too routine. Then inspiration struck: What about a comic where the good guy is also the bad guy? A longtime fan of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, as well as the classic Universal horror movies, Stan had always empathized with the misunderstood creature. Why not transfer the misunderstood monster to comics? Stan also borrowed from Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde, giving his monster hero the ability to change back and forth from man to beast. As Stan recalls in Origins of Marvel Comics, “Now all that remained was to find a name… I knew I needed a perfect name for a monstrous, potentially murderous hulking brute who – and then I stopped. It was the word ‘hulking' that did it. It conjured up the perfect mental image. I knew I had found his name. He had to be: The Hulk.”
And with that, Stan sent his synopsis to Marvel's artistic ace, Jack Kirby, who illustrated the Hulk's first issue and designed all the major characters. Stan and Jack's creation hit newsstands in May 1962, with the premiere issue of The Incredible Hulk.
SEVEN FEET OF UNFETTERED FURY
The story introduces Dr. Bruce Banner (later amended to Robert Bruce Banner, after Stan had a bit of a brain freeze and started referring to the character as “Bob Banner”), nuclear scientist and creator of the gamma bomb, a potentially devastating new atomic weapon about to be tested by the U.S. military. Banner is cautious of safety regulations, but General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross demands that the bomb be detonated immediately. Bruce is defended by the General's daughter Betty, who has eyes for the shy scientist.