Essential Fantastic Four volume 7

Essential Fantastic Four volume 7 is made up of #138 to #159, including #154 which contains a reprint of a Human Torch story from Strange Tales, plus Giant-Size Super-Stars #1 which morphs into Giant-Size Fantastic Four #2 to #4 and Avengers #127. Bonus material includes early versions of the covers for issues #141, #155 and #156. Approximately the first half of the regular series plus the first two Giant-Sizes are written by Gerry Conway. The rest of the regular series is mainly by Roy Thomas with individual issues by Len Wein and Tony Isabella, the reprint by Stan Lee with a framing sequence by Wein, the remaining Giant-Sizes by Gerry Conway & Marv Wolfman and Len Wein & Chris Claremont, and the Avengers issue by Steve Englehart. The art on the regular and Giant-Sizes is nearly all by John Buscema, Rich Buckler and Ross Andru with the reprint by Dick Ayers with the framing sequence by Bob Brown and the Avengers issue by Sal Buscema. That's a lot of creators and so there's a separate post for some of the labels.

This volume contains the first four issues of Giant-Size Fantastic Four although the first comes under the awkward full cover title of Giant-Size Super-Stars featuring Fantastic Four. These are mostly written by the contemporary writer on the regular series but none of them tell particularly critical adventures and instead we get a series of standalone tales. Given the nature of the contemporary comics market with nearly all distribution still being via newsstands where not all titles were carried this may have been a wise choice in 1974 (indeed I've heard it claimed that none of Marvel's Giant-Size issues made it over to the United Kingdom back in the day), and even today Marvel's digital releases on Comixology are often very patchy when it comes to both annuals and Giant-Size series. But in a collected edition with them all contained together it feels like an opportunity missed. We get another fight between the Thing and the Hulk, an odd tale in which the Fantastic Four's postman Willie Lumpkin stumbles into a time machine and accidentally changes the course of history under the machinations of the mysterious Tempus, and a battle with the alien Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (nothing to do with a later group by the same name). The final issue in this volume seems to be an attempt to introduce a character who will go on to be a big star in some other series, and even has Professor X show up at the end to use his powers to bring about a resolution. However Jamie Madrox the Multiple Man doesn't come across as a very interesting character in spite of a back story that establishes him as the ultimate loner, forced to grow up in isolation and trapped in a full body suit designed to contain his powers. It's easy to spot the influence of Chris Claremont on what I think is his earliest ever work on any of the X-Men characters and concepts, although it's a rather indirect link given that Multiple Man wouldn't make it into the All-New X-Men and would stay on the periphery for many years. Overall these Giant-Sizes show themselves up as glorified annuals by another name and at a greater frequency.

The issues in this volume covers most of the period of Medusa's membership of the Four. And it can't be truthfully be said she makes the greatest impact. Part of the problem is that her powers operate in a way that is far too similar to Reed's, thus rendering her somewhat redundant at times. She shows a strong sense of daring and character and is clearly a far cry from the weak shrinking violets that so many of the female heroes of the Silver Age had been portrayed as. Yet for all this and her friendliness with the rest of the Four she just never quite feels as though she truly belongs. Part of it is the lack of a direct history with the others that makes her a natural part of the family. She may be the sister of Johnny's ex (although in one story she's relegated to being one of the many cousins) but that isn't a particularly direct link and not much is ever made of it. Nor is her role as an emissary for the Inhumans in the humans' world. Instead she's left as someone who may care for the others - in particular she is quite supportive of Reed throughout his marriage difficulties - but doesn't really seem to fit in with them. When at one point she declines to free the others from a prison and instead rushes off it actually feels like she could have turned traitor, but this doesn't feel like it was the plan all along. All in all her presence doesn't make the greatest of impacts and it's easy to see why her time in the Four is so easily forgotten even though she is around for nearly thirty regular issues, only leaving in the final pages of this volume.

In terms of character development Johnny and Ben are left largely to their own devices for much of the volume, perhaps because both were appearing regularly in team-up books that gave more scope for in-depth exploration. Johnny does get a little attention here as he faces up to fears about being increasingly outdated in his look and chat-up lines, but right at the end he's reunited with Valeria, a lady from the Fifth Dimension whom he met in one of the earliest of his 1960s solo tales back in Strange Tales.

But it's Reed and Sue who have the greatest development throughout this volume. It begins with them still separated but with the hope that they might reconcile soon. However hope is dashed when Annihilus captures not only the current Four but also Sue, Franklin and Agatha Harkness. In the course the adventure the insect (who is now given an origin) tries to use Franklin to tap into a great power source but it goes wrong and Franklin's power levels start building up towards dangerous levels. Facing the prospect of a psychic blast that could wipe out all life in the Solar System, Reed grabs an untested device in the form of a gun and blasts his own son. The effect turns off Franklin's power and his mind, rendering him a vegetable.

To say Sue is furious is an understatement. She is not convinced by all Reed's talk about the danger. All she sees is a man who treated his son with the same indifference that he might treat a gas leak. And she's not alone, with both Ben and Johnny also turning away in disgust though both are soon drawn back into the Four when Doctor Doom kidnaps them all as part of his scheme to destroy almost all free will on the planet. Then the two plus Medusa encounter yet another race in the Himalayas that are the supposed basis for the myth of the Yeti, with a would-be tyrant called Ternak seeking conquest. But Sue is not part of this and continues her absence from the team. Instead she finds shelter with Namor the Sub-Mariner and files for divorce from Reed. The moment when the others find Reed sunk into a chair holding the formal court summons is a chilling opener to a tale in which they think they're out to rescue Sue from being held against her will, only to find she has chosen Namor instead. The Frightful Four minus one provide a distraction before Namor summons sea monsters from the depths to seemingly attack the surface world once more. In battle Sue slowly realises how she and Reed truly feel about one another and reconcile. Unbeknownst to either of them the whole thing was staged by Medusa, Namor and Triton to get the couple back together, with Namor having no real intention of conquest.

Although she is back with Reed, Sue does not immediately rejoin the Four. Franklin is cured when at the wedding of Crystal and Quicksilver Ultron attacks through the body of Omega the Ultimate Alpha and uses a weapon to try to destroy minds but instead restores the child's who immediately destroys the android. It's a bit contrived but works to make issue #150 a happy ending issue all round as Crystal marries the man of her choice (hence the crossover with Avengers) and Johnny accepts it all. But Sue doesn't truly return until another adventure with the Inhumans when the Human Torch's old foe Xemu from the Fifth Dimension conquers the Inhumans as a launching point for wider conquest and destruction. Reed tells Sue to stay behind and the others rush to free the Inhumans. But salvation comes only because Sue stores away and shows great initiative in using Xemu's equipment to her own advantage, making a striking return to the Four as a much stronger and more powerful character than before. But just as one returns another leaves with Medusa opting to return to the Inhumans and especially Black Bolt.

Elsewhere we get another Silver Surfer saga that follows up on threads from his own original series with the revelation that Shalla Bal is on Earth and under the control of Doctor Doom. Once more Doom seeks the Surfer's Power Cosmic only this time he transfers it into a new Doomsman robot. The tale has a bittersweet ending as the Surfer leaves believing "Shalla Bal" to only be a Latverian woman who looks like her and was given false memories, but we learn that in fact those are the false memories and Mephisto has once again used Shalla Bal to torment the Surfer. With the story ending with Shalla Bal on Earth with false memories and nobody out of her, the Surfer, the Four or Doom any the wiser, it's a surprisingly downbeat ending and the story is not followed up here.

Other past characters return in various tales with the Miracle Man attacking Wyatt Wingfoot's tribe and gaining power beyond mere hypnotism, or an epic exploring Thundra's origins in rival alternate futures, one dominated by women called Femizons and the other by men under the rule of Mahkizmo, with the male members of the Four dismissed as week and "effeminate". The two worlds are soon set to rights but in the process Thundra is left in our time as an anomaly. Deadline problems lead to an issue with a substantial flashback to an old Strange Tales adventure in which Johnny and Ben battled the "Mystery Villain" whose identity was painfully obvious (maybe the real mystery was why anyone thought it would fool any readers). Now in the present day someone else has adopted the identity.

Overall this volume is a mixed bag. It may show a lot of the Bronze Age traits such as trying to introduce The Next Big Thing and instead debuting a rather forgettable foe, rehashing earlier adventures, having auxillary issues that are unnecessary to the main saga or the dreaded reprint fill-in, but there's more as well. There's actually a real sense of direction to Reed and Sue's story as they come to learn more about both each other and themselves. There's also a real attempt to actually mix up some the main ancillary elements of the series to present strong new takes on them instead of just retelling the same old tales. Although it's by no means a rise to past glories, this volume shows the series making a concerted effort to pull itself forward.

Essential Captain America volume 6

Essential Captain America volume 6 consists of Captain America and the Falcon #206 to #230 ("and the Falcon" is dropped from #223 onwards) plus Annual #4 and the crossover issue Incredible Hulk #232. The early part of the volume, including the annual, is written and drawn by Jack Kirby. The rest of the run sees a lot of creators including writers Roy Thomas, Don Glut, Steve Gerber, David Anthony Kraft, Peter Gillis, Roger McKenzie and Roger Stern plus a couple of back-ups by Scott Edelman. The most persistent artist after Kirby is Sal Buscema; others include George Tuska, Dave Cockrum, John Buscema and Mike Zeck plus Bob Budiansky and Steve Leialoha on the back-ups. One issue also contains a framed reprint of a Human Torch story from Strange Tales #113 drawn by Jack Kirby and scripted by Stan Lee. The Incredible Hulk issue is plotted by Roger Stern, scripted by David Michelinie and drawn by Sal Buscema. And with so many creators, invariably there's a separate labels post.

The early part of this volume contains the tail end of Jack Kirby's 1970s return to the title. And whilst the art remains as powerful as ever, the writing still doesn't feel terribly spectacular with the only long term addition of note being the geneticist Arnim Zola. Truly an artist's creation he has replaced his original body with a new one that has the brain in the more protected chest, with a camera in place of a head and a video screen to display a face on his chest. Zola has created all manner of creatures that he deploys, of which the most notable is Doughboy, an organism that can adjust its entire body to form itself into the equipment Zola needs to hand. Zola is certainly a bold creation but some of his impact is limited by the revelation that he's working for the Red Skull and undertaking a project to give Hitler's brain a new body. Hitler surviving by some strange scientific means was a common trope in 1960s and 1970s science fiction but today it feels cliched. It's also a sign of Kirby's habit of ignoring Marvel continuity where it suited him and it would eventually fall to the final issues of Super-Villain Team-Up to tidy the various Marvel accounts of the last days of Hitler.

Issue #207 contains a scene that has caused quite some debate, especially due to the panel on the right. As Steve changes costume in the Latin America jungle, he thinks about his experiences and the sadistic prison commandant:

Whoever runs that banana jail seems to get his kicks out of kicking the inmates! This man they call "The Swine" must be typical of the kind of bully that flourishes in these two-bit dictatorships. But this is not my country and not my place to fight for causes I know nothing about. My immediate problem is to beat this jungle -- find my way to a fair-sized town and... home!

This triggered off some debate in the blogosphere a few years ago - see Scott Edelman: Shame on you, Captain America!, Kirby Dynamics: "Shame on you, Captain America?" Part 1 and Kirby Dynamics: "Shame on You Captain America" Part 2 for the main posts on this (although be warned they drift into the different matter of 1970s Marvel staffers' attitudes about and actions to Kirby). On its own though this feels like a very clumsy attempt both to move beyond the simplistic morality of Golden Age and early Silver Age comics and also to reflect the changed outlook on US foreign policy in the post-Vietnam era. The idea that every situation has clear-cut goodies and baddies and that heroes should jump aboard every rebellion going was now being challenged, not just in the comics themselves but also in the wider world as once heroes of liberation and independence had become authoritarian dictators. The problem is the dialogue isn't terribly nuanced and the situation up to now hasn't really been presented as such. Instead the Swine has been portrayed as a latter day Nazi, right down to the uniform (but not insignia) and even drawn to resemble Himmler whilst dealing out sadistic torture. Nor is Captain America acknowledging the complexities of the situation. Instead he's just turning his back on the matter and looking to flee the land. This is not a man weighing up the difficulties of what is worse out of the current situation or the potential chaos that can be unleashed by simply overthrowing a regime without a clear successor infrastructure. Nor is he declining to back an ambiguous group of unknown rebels because they may contain even worse elements. Rather this comes across as a "None of my business" dismissal even if such cack-handedness was never the intention. And indeed the story doesn't see Cap take on the dictator but instead the Swine is killed by one of Zola's creatures, with Zola himself taking Cap back to a castle in Switzerland for the rest of the story.

There's some improvement on Kirby's earlier issues in regards the treatment of women with both Leila (who has had a massive quick recovery from her brainwashing at the end of the previous volume) and Sharon showing greater boldness and intelligence. In particular Sharon holds her own with the Red Skull. However it's also clear that Kirby had little time for the Falcon, keeping him largely out of the picture during most issues. The final two see a temporarily blinded Cap in hospital where the shady Corporation sends the Night Flyer to assassinate a patient known as "the Defector". The Falcon has a run-in with the Night Flyer but it's Cap who ultimately triumphs despite his temporary blindness. The final piece of 1970s Kirby work in the volume is the annual which sees Cap battling Magneto for the fate of a strange mutant with two separate bodies. It feels rather run of the mill with Magneto a rather generic cackling villain who wants the smaller body to investigate a tiny spaceship. All in all the Kirby run on the title has been so-so and not the return to the greatest ever days of Cap that it was hyped as.

Kirby's departure leaves a hole in the series and its not really filled for the remaining sixteen issues in this volume. Instead we get all the hallmarks of a series in creative chaos as no less than seven writers (not including the reprint or the Incredible Hulk issue) struggle with key storylines without really knowing where they're going or how long they'll last for. (The art is, however, more stable from issue #218 onwards with Sal Buscema providing at least breakdowns on all but one issue.) There are fill-ins, although efforts are made to actually include them in the ongoing narrative, and two other staples of a series in a rush - a retelling of the origin and a reprint.

These both come at the start of a run in which Captain America is slowly exploring his past to find out just who he is and who Steve Rogers is, The reasons behind this level of introspection are never made totally clear; nor is it explained just why Cap appears to have amnesia about his life before he received the Super Soldier Serum. But the result is an exploration that doubles as an exercise in retroactive continuity as new elements are added and some of what we were told before is shown to be questionable at least. The origin retelling in issue #215 runs through all the basics but for the first time in the series the two replacement Captain Americas of the late 1940s are included, following a What If? story that reinstated to continuity the Cap stories published in 1945 to 1950 as well as the All-Star Squadron. Also recapped is the previously seen Captain America of the 1950s. Following this we get a single new page as the real Cap sets out to discover about the one other Captain America, but we never learn if he does and instead enjoy a reprint of the Strange Tales story where the Human Torch battled a fake Captain America who was actually the Acrobat in disguise, complete with a floating helicopter platform including a rocket ship & launcher plus an asbestos lined lorry. It's reprinted as in the original with no attempt to explain away some of the early Silver Age silliness or just how Cap could maintain a secret identity when it was published in comics the Torch read as a child.

Back in the present, Cap's quest for his past brings up the notion that his childhood in New York was an invention and he was actually from a small town in Maryland. Through returning memories and a chat with a local he learns how Steve Rogers was a weak younger brother, more interested in art than in following in his elder brother's footsteps as first a sports star and then a soldier, much to his father's disapproval. However news reports from Europe and his brother's death at Pearl Harbour led him to attempt to enlist but he was rejected on medical grounds until a government agent identified him as suitable for a project. Although Steve's weak physique had long been an established part of the character, his family background feels like an attempt to increase his identifiability with the presumed readership of this era. It also feels like an attempt to root him in a stereotypical small town America rather than the exceptional urban New York, though with his family all dead it seems hard to build much on this at this stage and it's not followed up on in this volume.

More bizarre is another adventure told in flashback as the series sets out to explain how, in looking back at the end of the Second World War, Cap could recall falling off a missile launched from the coast of the English Channel and land in waters off Newfoundland. This could have been explained away as a confusion caused by a disoriented man just revived from suspended animation or a case of poor geographic knowledge, or just become a lettering error to be corrected in reprints. But instead we learn how Cap was picked up by a submarine commanded by renegade Nazi scientist Lyle Dekker, then taken to a base on Newfoundland before escaping in a plane carrying nerve gas , only to be shot down with the gas interacting with the Super Soldier Serum to put Cap in suspended animation with amnesia of his last battle.

There was simply no need to complicate the wonderful resurrection story by adding on this interim adventure. Nor is Dekker a particularly memorable foe even after he transfers his consciousness into the oversized artificial body dubbed the Ameridroid, who soon realises he has sacrificed his humanity for no great gain. This is retroactive continuity for the sheer heck of it and adds no more than another flashback tale in which Cap plays himself in a wartime movie serial of his life. Ultimately the search for Cap and Steve Rogers's past just rings hollow and seems to make no significant addition to the character or the series at all.

Making an addition of a rather different nature is the Corporation storyline. Picking up a thread from the last of Kirby's issues the battle with this sinister organisation runs through the second half of the volume, and also in the contemporary issues of the Incredible Hulk, before climaxing in the crossover at the end. There are a number of long-term changes in the series in the interim, including the ending of the team-up between Cap and the Falcon. Sam has been largely relegated to a bit part in many adventures here before he accepts the role of leading the Super-Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., a short-lived team of new and obscure super powered beings including Marvel Man (later Quasar), the Texas Twister, the Vamp and Blue Streak. The team doesn't last long with the last two members revealed as agents of the Corporation whilst the Texas Twister leaves in disgust at the Vamp's brutal killing of Blue Streak (in fact to silence her fellow agent). Another Corporation agent is Veda, supposedly the daughter of a wartime agent present when Cap first received the Super Soldier Serum. She briefly becomes Cap's new romantic interest, with Sharon running away in pain, only to be killed off in internal power struggles within the Corporation without Cap even realising it. Other Corporation agents include the Hulk's past foes the Constrictor and Moonstone, plus the alien Animus who turns out to be the real form of the Vamp. There's also a separate attack on Cap and S.H.I.E.L.D. by the Red Skull. Tensions between Cap and Nick Fury are increasing ever more, with the former sick of being used by the agency so often.

The crossover at the end is a rare one that builds on events in both series, bringing a climax to the separate struggles with the Corporation as well as establishing the Falcon as the uncle of the Hulk's sidekick Jim Wilson. All the plot threads are tidied up which is no small achievement given the high turnover of writers. However some of the characters and events from the Incredible Hulk are not really introduced for readers of Captain America only. Consequently the whole thing can be a little confusing when read on its own.

Overall this is frankly a dull pedestrian volume. Neither Kirby nor those who followed him have been able to lift the series to new heights and instead we've had a mix of rather slow and dull adventures plus some needless retcons that try to fix things that frankly weren't broke in the first place. Captain America is a difficult series to do well and needs good long-term writers to have a real impact. This volume fails to find them.

Essential Fantastic Four volume 2

Essential Fantastic Four volume 2 contains issues #21-40 and Annual #2, plus, as a bonus in the earliest editions, the Human Torch and Spider-Man team-up from Strange Tales Annual #2. Everything is scripted by Stan Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby, continuing their astoundingly long uninterrupted run.

After the intense creation in the first volume it's unsurprising to find this volume contains a lot of consolidation, with many existing foes returning and the emphasis being placed on different types of encounter rather than new faces. Having said that there are some new foes and menaces, including the Hate-Monger, Diablo, Gregory Gideon, Attuma, the Infant Terrible and Dragon Man, though the last two aren't really menaces in their own right There's a couple of teams of foes assembled as well. Doctor Doom's team appears only once, though the other three members - Bull Brogin, Yogi Dakor and Harry Phillips - would go on to plague the Human Torch and the Thing in Strange Tales. In return the Frightful Four would draw most of its members from the Torch's strip - the Wizard and Paste-Pot Pete had both debuted there and the Sandman had also clashed with the Torch though he originated in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man. A new villain is introduced as the team's fourth member - Medusa, although she bears limited resemblance to the monster of mythology.

The Hate-Monger was a pretty daring creation for 1963 by designing him with elements of the Ku Klux Klan uniform and then revealing him to be Adolf Hitler. For the era, linking contemporary racism to the Nazis was a bold statement against hatred and bigotry, but from a modern perspective it succumbs to the clichés of Nazis having fled to South America to continue their plans and of Hitler having survived the end of the Second World War. I've often found such tales to be rather crass that almost trivialise one of the most evil men in the history of the real world by reducing him to a stock villain's role, and the suggestion that the Hate-Monger may have actually been one of the Führer's doubles doesn't reduce the impact.

The other new foes are generally fairly forgettable - Gregory Gideon is an early example in comics of the tycoon who uses his wealth and influence to bring down his foes; here he targets the Four purely because he's made a bet with rival businessmen in the hopes of driving them out of business. The Infant Terrible is just an alien child with incredible powers and no sense of control over them, whilst Dragon Man is an artificial being brought to life by Diablo who subsequently rebels. Diablo and Attuma are the most prominent of the additions. The former is a nineteenth century alchemist who found success with chemicals but has been sealed in a castle for a century until he tricks the Thing into releasing him. Attuma is an undersea warlord and leader of a tribe of barbarians; he seems to have been created in part to release the Sub-Mariner from the role of the main undersea villain in the Marvel universe so Namor could be used more as an anti-hero or even a hero.

Coming from a period in which the Marvel universe was steadily growing, there are a number of guest appearances. Nick Fury makes his first present day appearance in issue #21, in return for an appearance by Reed Richards in Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #3. Now holding the rank of Colonel and working for the CIA, Fury enlists the aid of the Four in preventing a revolution overthrowing a democracy in a Latin American country and dealing with the Hate-Monger's operations, noting "...we couldn't interfere in another nation's affairs!" That's an interesting take on the CIA's role and actions. There's a return encounter with the Hulk spread over two issues that also brings the Four's first meeting with the Avengers; with the two teams getting in each other's way at times. Oddly the battle is resolved by the Avengers with the Four not doing much in the last few pages, as though somebody forgot whose series it was. Similarly the first meeting with the X-Men sees the Beast break the Puppet Master's hold over Professor X, who in tun brings down the Mad Thinker's Awesome Android. Between these two encounters comes an issue guest starring Doctor Strange but fortunately his role is limited to finding where the Sub-Mariner has taken Sue and transporting Johnny and Ben there. That's four consecutive issues worth of guest stars, an early sign of how the balance could be tipped from an integrated universe to endless plugging of other series. Daredevil also appears in two issues at the end of the volume. Only Spider-Man (plus the western and soap/comedy characters) is left out of the Fantastic Four issues and even he gets a one panel cameo when he swipes a sandwich at Reed and Sue's engagement party, plus a slightly larger alter ego cameo as Peter Parker is on an open day at State University when the Four visit Reed and Ben's old stomping ground. And of course there's the bonus story.

Such a heavy use of guest appearances is a sign that this volume shows a series starting to stumble about a bit, as the novelty and initial burst of creativity wear off, resulting in a somewhat mediocre period full of returning foes, rather weak new ones and lots of guest appearances. There seems to be very little direction or progress until some way into the second half of the volume and instead it all feels rather bitty. There are some attempts to flesh out all four heroes' backgrounds through first an encounter with Sue and Johnny's father and then with a visit to Reed and Ben's old university, but it's rather piecemeal. The one existing character who gets substantial development is Doctor Doom, with the annual carrying a substantial story recounting his youth and origin (oddly despite feeling like a back-up feature it's printed before the main one, a mistake dating back to 1964). However the later issues show signs of development and improvement, starting with Reed and Sue's engagement and a succession of adventures that test whether or not the team will last.

One of the oddest moments comes in the annual when Doctor Doom encounters Rama Tut, the time travelling Pharaoh who believes he is a descendant of Doom. During their encounter the two ponder the possibility that they are somehow the same person at different points in time, with no certainty as to who came first. But there's very little to support such a notion, not even the coincidence of Rama Tut arriving at just the moment to save Doom from suffocating in space. Rather than adding mystery to either character it just creates more confusion, especially given that Rama Tut would go on to become the Avengers foe Kang the Conqueror, and his later encounters with Doom often ignored the issue or even contradicted its implications outright. Nor is there anything suggesting Doom was an amnesiac time traveller in Doom's origin recounted in the same annual. All this shows is how easy it is to get confused when time travel is involved and how what might seem like a cool idea can rapidly turn into incomprehensible nonsense.

There's one idea that was long overdue when it finally arrives in issue #22 and that's an enhancement of the Invisible Girl's powers. Sue retains the ability to turn herself invisible but she can now also turn other things invisible or even generate an invisible forceshield around either herself or others. However at this stage she's only able to utilise one manifestation of the power at a time and her role in battles is still largely defensive. There's also a lot of sexism on display, particularly from Reed who is over protective and dismissive of her usefulness at times. In spite of this the two have strong feelings for each other, even though Reed tries to restrain them out of fear acting on them would turn Sue into a hostage target, but at the end of issue #35 he takes the plunge and proposes. For a superhero series less than four years old to make such a move past the endless "will they/won't they" state of affairs then common to the genre must have been a real shock to readers at the time. Aquaman had only just tied the knot but he was never the highest profile of heroes whereas Mr Fantastic and the Invisible Girl were Marvel's first couple. The proposal is almost the moment it becomes clear the series is getting back on track.

In the meantime the series has largely meandered through a succession of foes in rather forgettable adventures. Amongst the few really memorable ones from this era are the annual in which Doctor Doom is established as the "monarch" of a tiny European country, Latveria. I'm not sure Lee and Kirby quite understood the use of the term "monarch" at a time when a number of countries were getting dictators-for-life. The position gives Doom diplomatic immunity as a head of state, allowing him to act without fear of arrest though in his second appearance the police and the Four don't show any restraint on those grounds when seeking to retake the Baxter Building. Also of note is the storyline in which Sue and Johnny's father Franklin Storm reappears, having sunk low after the death of his wife in a car accident and then having spent many years in jail after a struggle with a loan shark let off a gun and killed a person. He is impersonated by the Super Skrull who in turn poses as "the Invincible Man" and uses his powers to defeat the Four, leaving them subject to hostile public opinion in the belief they've held back against their own relative. Finally the Skrulls try to use the real Franklin to deliver a bomb to the Four, but he instead takes the blast and sacrifices himself, achieving redemption in death.

The biggest drama comes at the end when the Four are caught in a nuclear test and lose their powers, with Ben reverting from the Thing to human form. This leads to some bizarre attempts to duplicate the powers with technology, ranging from a flame suit for Johnny to a radio-controlled robot for Ben. In the meantime Doctor Doom captures the Baxter Building and the Four, plus Daredevil, have to fight to regain it. The story shows the determination of the team even when they don't have their powers to save them, but has a slight cop-out at the end when Reed grabs a device and uses it to restore everyone's powers, declaring that the only reason he didn't use it before was because it was still recharging. It feels very much a deus ex machina solution to the problem, though it brings drama of its own when Reed feels forced to use it on Ben against his will, forcing him to become the Thing again because his strength is needed. Doctor Doom is defeated in one-on-one physical combat,  but the Thing's anger at being restored to his form causes him to declare he's leaving the team. And there the volume comes to close. Well almost.

The Human Torch/Spider-Man team-up from Strange Tales Annual #2 is included as well. When this volume originally came out this was the first time in many years that the story had been reprinted (hence the appalling quality in the earliest edition, looking like a direct scan of the original published comic, with the colour coming through as a lot of greys) and it made for a nice bonus. Now, however, the full Human Torch strip has been collected elsewhere and so the story's inclusion here feels superfluous, especially as the volume could have instead carried a further issue of Fantastic Four which follows on issue #40's cliffhanger.

Overall the art in this volume is generally suitably fantastic and really conveys both the action and the drama, but there are a handful of pages in various issues that try to use real photographs, some straight singles, some collages of multiple images, in order to show space and individuals and captions are added on top. When used today this technique can deliver wonders but 1960s' printing technology just wasn't up to the task and the result is the photos look awkwardly out of place and pixelated. It's surprising that the technique was tried so often. The individual issues are well written and keep the team as distinct characters. However overall most of this volume feels like it was done on autopilot, with the creativity of the first twenty issues largely transferred to other series, leaving the title to start going through all too familiar motions. Fortunately the last few issues show a real uptick in direction, putting the tension back into things. This is the classic problem the Essentials have with rigidly collecting a series in order - the weaker periods come with the strong and often the dividing points produce individual volumes that are an uneven mixture of the two.

Essential Human Torch volume 1

The first of the “extra” volumes is Essential Human Torch volume 1, which reprints the Human Torch stories from Strange Tales #101-134 and Annual #2. As previously noted, Strange Tales was one of a number of anthology series produced by Marvel that carried various genres during its run and is best known for introducing Dr. Strange, then also running Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD. But before that the Human Torch was given his own solo feature from issue #101 onwards. This was a boom time for Marvel - following the success of the Fantastic Four, the summer of 1962 saw four superhero strips launched in separate anthologies - as well as the Torch there was Spider-Man in Amazing Fantasy (although it was cancelled after one issue), Thor in Journey into Mystery and Ant-Man in Tales to Astonish (reviving a character from a previous one-off science fiction story - if you’re ever on QI and get asked which was Marvel’s second superhero feature, think carefully before you risk an answer), all launched in June or July (cover dated August or September). But note that in the long run the only one of the strips to last was Thor, with Spider-Man seeing his anthology immediately cancelled whilst neither the Human Torch nor Ant-Man would last more than a few years. These last two strips languished in obscurity and the Human Torch became the very last of the early Silver Age Marvel superhero features to get an Essential volume, with this one not coming out until the start of 2004, just after a period when it seemed the Essentials had died. So was the obscurity deserved or unjust?

Both the writing and art in the series is a little turbulent. All but one issue is at least plotted by Stan Lee who takes over the full writing from Annual #2 and issue #114 onwards, bar #132 which is written by Larry Ivie. The earlier issues are scripted by Larry Lieber, Robert Bernstein, Ernie Hart and “Joe Carter” who was a pseudonym for Jerry Siegel (yes that Jerry Siegel, the co-creator of Superman). Most of the art is by Jack Kirby or Dick Ayers, with one issue by Carl Burgos (the creator of the original Human Torch) and the last five by Bob Powell. This is quite an impressive line-up of creators, suggesting the strip wasn’t regarded as in any way disposable, though a more permanent creative team would have been helpful.

The “Marvel Age” saw comics doing things different from the norm. In place of the almost timeless adventures where characters went through much the same pattern over and over again, there was now a stronger emphasis of character growth and development. Heroes were no longer gods in mortal form, but instead real people with real problems. The public were no longer all accepting, all worshipping of their heroes. It was a very changed era in which the same old same old types of strips were superseded by something bold and dynamic.

But not everything reflected the changes. Some strips just presented heroes going through a string of adventures with no real developments, no serious obstacles in their personal lives, and few signs of the changes coming elsewhere. One such strip was the Human Torch.

Obscurity has been kind to these adventures. When compared to many of the contemporary Marvel offerings they feel highly disposable and inconsequential. At the same time Spider-Man was going from strength to strength, the Torch was going from forgettable villain to forgettable villain. In no way was the world being set on fire.

Now some of this could be the restraints of being a spin-off from the Fantastic Four, with the expectation that major developments for the Torch would happen there, leaving his own strip as a mere side offering. But the strip itself tried to offer a different perspective, with the focus being on the Torch’s hometown of Glenville rather than Manhattan and beyond as seen in the FF’s own book. However this volume does not show the setting being really built on. There are very few regular supporting characters and hardly any attempt to build on situations in Johnny Storm’s regular life. In the first twenty-two issues we get some appearances by the other members of the Fantastic Four and more rarely the Thing’s girlfriend Alicia Masters, but otherwise the supporting cast is limited to his girlfriend Doris Evans who appears from time to time (and it may just be the black & white, but there are a number of times when she and Susan Storm look so similar it’s easy to confuse them at a glance). And even she is underused, largely appearing only to berate Johnny for a constant string of broken dates, even though she knows perfectly well why he’s done so.

This is to my mind one of the biggest missed opportunities in the series. In the first few issues Johnny tries to maintain his secret identity, even to the point of staging elaborate gimmicks to disguise his going into action. Yet he’s living with his sister whose identity is publicly known as is the family nature of the Fantastic Four. Why precisely did Johnny ever think people wouldn’t realise he was the Torch? Issue #107 solves this with the revelation that in fact everybody knows Johnny is the Torch and was just respecting his privacy. Was it really the case that up to now his home life was never disturbed by eager fans, anti-fire busybodies, reporters or enemies? Was John F. Kennedy’s America really such a place where public figures were given such respect and privacy? (Okay the President himself may have been doing things in private, but elected politicians usually had the benefit of experience and actively took steps to guard themselves.) Once even Johnny knows he doesn’t have a secret identity, very little is done with this although the odd foe does know where to come looking. But there’s no real exploration of the impact in areas such as his school life. How does he cope with trying to be an ordinary student who has so many distractions? How do his fellow students react to having a celebrity in their midst? Do the school authorities try to capitalise on his celebrity status? Similarly whilst his sister may also have powers and protections, how do the neighbours react to having a superhero in the vicinity? Does he send house prices soaring through fame, or plummeting because of the perceived danger both from his powers and from the foes he might attract? The obvious point of contrast is with the early Spider-Man adventures where Peter Parker’s non-costumed life was quite prominent, especially his experience in school. It is a pity that such opportunities were missed.

The last dozen issues see a change of focus as the Thing is permanently added, turning the strip into a permanent team-up, predating the likes of Captain America and the Falcon, Daredevil and the Black Widow or Power Man and Iron Fist by several years. But there was already a regular team book featuring these two – Fantastic Four. And the similarity is compounded by an even greater use of foes from that title, as well as further appearances by Mr Fantastic and the Invisible Woman plus other supporting FF cast members such as Alicia Masters. Was it really necessary to have “Half the Fantastic Four” when the whole thing was available elsewhere? Indeed several of the stories could easily have been run in Fantastic Four, particularly “The Mystery Villain!” in issue #127, a mystery that is so hard to penetrate that the only reason it takes until page five to deduce is because the villain doesn’t appear as such until then. The very core idea of the Fantastic Four is that it a family of adventurers who all bring different elements to the reckoning. As a result it’s been very rare for any replacement members to actually last and the original line-up invariably reasserts itself. Having only half the team for an extended run just doesn’t generate the same magic, but nor does it offer the special focus that solo stories offer. This run straddles the two and misses the magic of both.

The stories contain a variety of villains who can be broken down into three categories – brand new creations, villains from Fantastic Four and villains from other series altogether. In the first category we have the Destroyer (unrelated to others of that name), the Wizard, Zemu, Paste-Pot Pete, the Acrobat, the Painter, the Sorcerer, Asbestos Man, the Eel, the Fox, Plantman, the Rabble Rouser, Captain Barracuda, the Beetle, “the Mystery Villain” and Professor Jack. You could perhaps add broadcaster Ted Braddock, who wages a J. Jonah Jameson style campaign against the Torch but it lasts less than an issue as he changes his mind, and publicly says so, when the Torch’s actions save his son. Overall this is quite an intense creative rate. But I’m willing to bet many of you are already copying and pasting some of these names into a search engine to find out who the heck they are. Only about four have really made a lasting impact – the Wizard, Paste-Pot Pete (albeit under a new name of “the Trapster”), the Eel and the Beetle. And none of these are remotely A-List villains – the Wizard may have been treated as the Torch’s arch enemy and gone on to be used quite a bit, but the truth is he hasn’t aged as well as some foes and his role in the “Acts of Vengeance” conspiracy was very much punching above his weight. The Beetle and the Eel have been at best third tier foes seeking greater recognition but never really making it, whilst the name “Paste-Pot Pete” has dogged the character and kept him as a figure of fun despite his attempts to become more serious (which begin here, though he doesn’t adopt his new name in this volume). Otherwise the originated foes are generally forgettable and most have only come back on a few occasions to reinforce their lowly status. The Destroyer is the obligatory Evil Communist Agent that many of the early Silver Age heroes fought – this particular one is trying to close tall rides at an amusement park because customers can see the quiet bay where a Communist submarine surfaces. Zemu is the ruler of the other cliché of the era, the alien race seeking to conquer Earth by bizarre methods – here they’re reaching Earth from another dimension by using a portal in a swamp and have to stop a housing estate being built next to it. The other foe who gets referenced quite a bit is the Acrobat, primarily for his second appearance in which he disguises himself as the long missing Captain America!

“The Human Torch meets Captain America” may have won the Alley Award for Best Short Story that year, but soon after it dropped off the radar such that it wasn’t until 1999 (real time) that any Captain America story dealt with the real Cap’s reaction to having been impersonated. Looking at it now it’s easy to see why as it’s actually very silly even by the standards of this volume as there are some major leaps of logic. After having disappeared for many years (precisely how long is never specified), the legend of World War II comes out of retirement to appear at an antique car fair! After an attempt to steal a priceless car fails, Captain America passes himself off as the hero to the acclaim of all but the Torch, then later frees his two accomplices. The henchmen set off in a Ferrari to lure all the cops and the Torch after them, whilst Captain America breaks into a small town banks and steals three bags of money, then retreating to his floating sky platform. When the Torch shows up, Cap escapes via a rocket but with the Torch in pursuit Cap steals an asbestos-lined lorry and traps the Torch inside it. However the Torch burns his flame to turn it into a compressed gas that explodes open the truck and he captures “Captain America” to unmask him as the Acrobat. Later the Torch looks at an old Captain America comic, which gives away his identity as Steve Rogers, and wonders what happened to the real Cap and will he ever return. (A caption confesses the story was a test to see if the readers wanted this. Looking back it’s surprising that Captain America took a few years to be revived, and had to be tested first, whilst the Human Torch was re-envisaged from the start and the Sub-Mariner revived much as before just a few months later.) The whole story just doesn’t work – does nobody see the silliness of Cap coming out of retirement for a car fair? And why does a man with all the resources to have a disposable Ferrari and a floating sky platform go to all this effort to steal a rather small amount of cash? Does nobody see through all this? And finally like so many other villains the Acrobat can get his hands on asbestos quite easily. It’s true that in 1963 asbestos did not have the reputation it does today (although the health and legal communities had been aware of it for some decades), but the number of villains who just happen to have this fire-proof material to hand, even when they weren’t expecting the Torch, strains credulity.

As well as the originated villains, the stories also see several from other series. The ones used from the pages of the Fantastic Four are the Sub-Mariner, Puppet Master, the Terrible Trio – Bull Brogin, Yogi Dakor and “Handsome Harry” Phillips – and the Mad Thinker. This is a more mixed bag as the Sub-Mariner was initially built up to be the main rival to Doctor Doom as the Four’s archenemy, but the Puppet Master and Mad Thinker are again foes who haven’t stood the test of time. And the Terrible Trio is a rather lame team of three villains with different skills. I guess with the Enforcers running about there wasn’t much room for a second version of that concept. Meanwhile villains from other series include the Sandman (from Amazing Spider-Man), Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch (from the X-Men; this is when they were still part of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants) and Kang the Conqueror (from the Avengers). Their appearance here was one of the earliest to show Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch actually trying to escape from Magneto, but finding the wider world hostile, and helped to lay the foundations for their eventual reformation as part of the Avengers. Meanwhile the Sandman’s appearance sees the Torch almost force himself on a foe looking for revenge on Spider-Man, and started the process by which the Sandman became at least as much a Fantastic Four villain as a Spidey one, later becoming a member of the Frightful Four.

As well as the villains we get a few guest stars. The other Fantastic Four members show up in some stories and occasionally help the Torch. Then there are two of the other obvious teamings. Annual #2 guest-stars Spider-Man in his first ever guest appearance, in what seems to be the first ever Marvel story to employ the formula of one hero being mistakenly assumed to have gone bad, leading to the other fighting him before realising the truth and the two team up against the real villain. It’s an okay piece and shouldn’t be blamed for all its imitators, but the villain is the forgettable Fox. (It’s also let down by the worst reproduction in the volume; whilst all the regular issues look pretty good, the reproduction of the annual is far cruder.) Issue #120 features a team-up with Iceman that doesn’t involve a fight between the two heroes but instead sees them fighting crooks who raid a tourist boat, with each hero helping to deal with the other. More surprisingly is issue #130’s tale, “Meet the Beatles!” (a title which probably carries even more weight in the US where an album of that name was released) although the Fab Four only meet the members of the Fan Four very briefly as the Torch and Thing wind up missing the concert to chase crooks who steal the payroll. I wonder if the band’s brief appearance was licensed? (Though given some of the terrible deals made in this era, I doubt the Beetles themselves would have seen anything of it.)

The Torch’s powers in this volume are somewhat in flux, often adapting to suit the purposes of the plot. At times it seems as though he can manipulate fire as if it were a living safe energy like Green Lantern’s energy powers and create constructs such as cages and fake Torches out of fire with seemingly no fuel at all. At other times the Torch finds his flame exhausted, limiting his effectiveness for a while, but again this weakness only occurs when needed. There’s some weak comic book science about the flame becoming a gas in confined spaces that allows him to escape traps with pressure when needs be, but he doesn’t always use this. It’s another sign of how the strip was something of a throwback to the simpler sillier era when powers suited the convenience of the stories and development was rare.

The stories in this volume came out during a time of great change in superhero comics. However whilst the Fantastic Four was setting new standards for bold adventuring and the Amazing Spider-Man was offering developed, ongoing teen angst and soap, Strange Tales’s Human Torch stories were something of a throwback. There were a few brief signs of the changes with a hero who argued with his fellows, but otherwise this is a story of a teen hero who had no real problems that couldn’t be overcome in a single issue, who had next to no supporting cast of his own and who fought a series of largely forgettable villains. Whilst Spider-Man was taking the genre boldly forward, the Human Torch was very much parked at the rear. The comparison between the two strips could not be starker. It’s unsurprising that the Thing had to be brought in to shore up the strip or that it ultimately lasted less than three years and was then mostly forgotten. Marvel had a good string of hits in the early 1960s, but this was very definitely a miss.

Into the spin-offs

I’m waiting for the next Essential Spider-Man volumes. They may be some time. So in the meantime, following the reaction to my look at the Spider-Woman and Punisher volumes, I’ve decided to take a look at some of the similar or related series that have also been collected in the Essentials. Some were launched to seemingly capture a similar field to Spider-Man. Others initially built themselves around characters from his series, sometimes borrowing guest cast members, sometimes spinning off minor characters.

The largest collection by far is Essential Daredevil, which has so far notched up five volumes, and, in addition, several later issues have also popped up in some of the other Essential volumes (such as Essential Punisher volume 1). On top of all this ol' Hornhead's book is also the most frequent one to appear in the guest appearances posts. Daredevil was created in part as a reaction to the success of Spider-Man (as shown most obviously on the first issue’s cover) and over the years he has become one of the wallcrawler’s closest allies but not without some tension as their relationship developed, particularly due to different outlooks. The two series have shared villains, supporting cast members, creators and more, so it feels natural to take a look at Daredevil’s adventures to see how they compare.

Another character who has frequently overlapped with Spider-Man over the years is the Human Torch, who once had his own solo series in the pages of Strange Tales which lasted for nearly three years and included Spider-Man’s first significant guest appearance. In later years he would go on to be Daredevil’s sole rival as Spider-Man’s best friend amongst other superheroes. (Early in the planning stages for Marvel Team-Up the series was going to feature a regular teaming of the two, similar to the early Super-Villain Team-Up issues focusing on Doctor Doom and Namor the Sub-Mariner, rather than a rotating guest-star book. A permanent teaming of Spidey and the Torch would have made for quite an interesting series...) Both because of this and because he was Marvel’s other teenage solo hero of the early Silver Age, it’s interesting to see how differently he was handled and why he wasn’t as successful as his rival turned friend.

Moving into the 1970s we find another take on the concept of a teenager who unexpectedly gains superpowers, this time a supposedly ordinary one, which came with The Man Called Nova. Intentionally homaging Spider-Man, the first issue even proclaimed this with the wording “In the Marvelous tradition of SPIDER-MAN!” right at the top of the cover. Rather less intentionally the series’s initial set-up was also homaging DC’s Green Lantern (the Silver Age version). The book lasted nearly three years, although it went bimonthly after the first year and a half, and en route it actually included a crossover with Amazing Spider-Man midway through the series (which is also included in Essential Spider-Man volume 8). This time it’s interesting to see just how far the homages ran and whether that was a factor in the series’s ultimate failure.

A second 1970s series of interest that lasted only a couple of years was one that initially entrenched itself in Spider-Man’s world (as shown most dramatically by the characters on the cover of the first issue) even though the wallcrawler himself didn’t appear in costume. Ms. Marvel was a spin-off from Captain Marvel and represented an attempt by the company to simultaneously ride the era’s wave of feminism, secure a trademark with the company name in it (according to this comment by later Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter), and try to have a lasting series with a female superhero. But instead the series crashed within a couple of years, clocking up few issues than her (near) contemporaries Spider-Woman, She-Hulk and the Dazzler. The overlap in characters with Spider-Man strongly encourages a look.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be posting my opinions on the various Essential volumes as before (although the postings will be a little slower), with a particular focus on comparisons with Spider-Man and how many elements overlap. So stick around!

Some non-essential Spider-Man Essentials

Spider-Man has made many guest appearances in other titles over the years. Thanks to the Essential series many of the earlier ones have also been reprinted. I’m going to skip the numerous cameos but there are a number of more substantial stories that are worth noting here. A full listing of appearances can be found on SpiderFan.org, who have an amazing year by year timeline of all appearances from full issues down to one panel cameos at Comics: By Year. I’ve made use of that timeline to track down the substantial guest appearances. (Sometimes when checking an issue I’ve discovered the appearance is just a cameo so I’ve not included it here, in case there’s you see something on SpiderFan.org’s list that isn’t here.)

I’ve decided to split this into in several sections – first all the substantial guest appearances from the first twenty years are listed as broadly most of these issues have now been “Essentialised” and it’s possible to list the few absentees. In turn I’ve broken the first twenty years in two at 1972, partially for length but also because the cut-off point roughly coincides with the launch of Marvel Team-Up. After 1981 I will just list the handful of ones from the remaining thirty years that have so far been covered in the Essentials. I don’t have access to every single one so a selection only follows:


Strange Tales Annual #2, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (with Steve Ditko inking), reprinted in Essential Human Torch volume 1 and also in Essential Fantastic Four volume 2

Strange Tales was one of a number of anthology series produced by Marvel that carried various genres during its run and is best known for introducing Dr. Strange, then also running Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD. But before that the Human Torch was given his own solo feature from issue #101 onwards (although from issue #123 the Thing became a co-star), which has become probably the single most forgotten of Marvel’s 1960s superhero features. The second annual has Spider-Man’s first ever guest appearance in another title. The story has what would become a fairly standard plot – one hero is framed for a crime, the other hero fights him for a while before realising his innocence and the two team up to bring the real criminal to justice. There’s some interesting features here such as Spider-Man seeking the Torch in the hope that if he can convince a publicly acceptable hero he can more easily clear his name, the Torch being a jealous hothead angry that Spidey gets all the headlines, there’s the first time Spider-Man adapts his webbing to deal with a particular foe – here adding supercold crystals to neutralise the Torch – and the real criminal is identified by a police inspector taking just a few minutes to go through the files. Curiously despite Spider-Man being framed for a crime and the newspapers falling for it, there’s no sign of Jonah or the Bugle. Indeed in general Spider-Man’s supporting cast are often completely absent in his guest appearances. Otherwise it’s a pretty fast-paced tale and only seems unoriginal in hindsight after so many later takes on the same formula. Unfortunately the art is an example that Jack Kirby generally just couldn’t draw a great Spider-Man, even with Ditko’s inking. The story also suffers from having the worst reproduction in this particular Essential volume. But it shows how Spidey and the Torch make for a good pairing, despite their irritations with each other.

The theme of the relationship of irritation between the two is covered again in #115 of the regular comic by Stan Lee & Dick Ayers, though Spidey himself makes only a cameo appearance. The Torch is informed that Spider-Man’s foe the Sandman is back in town, but instead of tipping off Spider-Man he challenges the Sandman himself, even disguising himself as Spidey when the Sandman doesn’t want to fight anyone else. The Torch succeeds but at the end Spidey arrives on the scene and notes the tensions between him and the Torch.

(Oh and another interesting story in this Essential volume, albeit absolutely nothing to do with Spidey, is #114 which has the first Silver Age appearance of Captain America – in a way. This Lee-Kirby story was widely forgotten about, even by Lee himself, until the late 1990s, when the team behind the brief-lived series Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty rediscovered it and created a sequel, with Cap and the Torch commenting on the absurdities of the original.)

Fantastic Four Annual #1, a back-up story by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (again with Steve Ditko inking), reprinted in Essential Fantastic Four volume 1

This six pager is the first retelling of a Spider-Man story, as it expands on the two & a third pages in Amazing Spider-Man #1 detailing Spider-Man’s first meeting with the Fantastic Four. This is literally just an extended fight sequence as Spidey takes on each of the Four one by one in more detail before Mr Fantastic stops the fight. A caption at the start claims this was created by popular demand after the letters received from readers. I hope the contemporary audience was satisfied – this was one of the earliest Marvel annuals but like many back-up features in subsequent annuals it’s entirely skippable.

Tales to Astonish #57 by Stan Lee and Dick Ayers, reprinted in Essential Astonishing Ant Man volume 1

Tales to Astonish was another of the anthology series, best known for giving a home to both the Incredible Hulk and the Sub-Mariner. But before that Ant-Man debuted way back in issue #27 and returned (by popular demand) in issue #35 for a run that lasted until issue #69. En route he gained a sidekick in the form of the Wasp, and then inverted his powers to also become Giant Man. Additionally the Wasp gained her own back up feature, first merely narrating stories but from #57 it became a more conventional adventure story. Issue #57 was also the issue in which the Wasp was given her “sting” weapon – and it features an encounter with Spider-Man. This time the villain Egghead tricks Giant Man and the Wasp into fighting Spider-Man as a distraction whilst he steals a payroll truck. When Giant Man discovers the crime the fight is cancelled and the heroes track down and defeat the villain. Once again we have an early example of what would become a stock formula for team-ups in years to come. And this is the third time that Spider-Man’s encounters with other heroes leads to a fight between them. The Wasp’s dislike of Spider-Man is introduced here and would remain poor for years – “I guess it’s because wasps and spiders are such natural enemies!” But the Wasp doesn’t have any real wasp power in her and it’s just a silly dislike. Also noticeably absent is Spider-Man’s witty banter during the fights. Here he’s just a standard hero, if a little angrier than most when attacked, and really anyone could have filled his role. In general this is a fairly mundane piece and entirely forgettable. But someone remembered it...

The story gained additional interest thirty-five years later in 1999 when John Byrne wrote and drew the 12 issue series Spider-Man: Chapter One retelling & refining Spidey’s first year. For some reason he opted to devote the penultimate issue (#11) to retelling this story even though I don’t think it was on many people’s list of key adventures to cover in the limited space available (condensing some 20+ issues into 12). Was the intention to show an example of Spidey’s usual early relationship with other superheroes? (That would at least explain why this one and not a Human Torch story.) Or was Byrne under pressure to include at least one story that isn’t in Essential Spider-Man volume 1? Or was it just creative indulgence?

Avengers #11, by Stan Lee and Don Heck, reprinted in Essential Avengers volume 1

This story sees the Avengers’ enemy Kang the Conqueror create a robotic duplicate of Spider-Man who successfully tricks the Avengers into believing the absent Iron Man has been kidnapped and taken to a temple in Mexico. The Avengers each make their own way there whilst Kang time teleports the robot over, and one by one the robot picks them off, helped by a soft nerve gas in the area dulling the heroes’ abilities. But before the robot can send the Avengers to Kang’s time the real Spider-Man shows up and declares his spider-sense spotted the duplicate and so he followed it to see what it was up to. Spidey fights the robot, eventually finding its deactivation switch and destroying it. This is a rather silly issue and I get the impression that it had a late in the day rewrite to include the real Spider-Man, possibly in place of a suddenly returned Iron Man who appears on the cover but not in the tale, either because Iron Man’s own story went a different way (but I’m not too familiar with contemporary Iron Man continuity) or because someone in Marvel realised it would be cheating the readers to lure them in with a promise of Spider-Man and not deliver the real thing. The most ludicrous point is the real Spider-Man suddenly showing up in Mexico – there’s no way he could have followed a teleporting robot there, and then since he doesn’t directly interact with the Avengers how is he to get back home? The artwork of Spider-Man is also quite bad (although there’s an even worse example in this volume in a cameo in issue #3, drawn by Jack Kirby) – he looks too muscular and the web lines aren’t kept under control. Overall this is a pretty poor story also let down by some of the silliness of the early Avengers years such as their rigid adherence to meeting protocols and their limited equipment that prevents them all going to Mexico together. This feels like the first case of a gratuitous guest appearance for the sake of sales rather than to tell a decent story.

Daredevil #16-17, by Stan Lee and John Romita, reprinted in Essential Daredevil volume 1

When Daredevil’s series originally launched the cover proclaimed it was in the same Marvel tradition that had brought Spider-Man, and Daredevil himself was given an early boost by his guest appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #16 (which came out the month between Daredevil #3 & 4). It’s surprising that it took so long for Spider-Man to make a reciprocal full appearance (these issues came out the same months as Amazing #36 & #37). This two part appearance saw John Romita draw Spidey for the first ever time, coming out a few months before he took over on Amazing Spider-Man. Romita’s first take on Spider-Man is a little different from what would come, as at this stage he’s largely trying to match Steve Ditko’s version of both Spidey and Peter Parker. However he gets Jonah straight off and doesn’t do too badly with Aunt May.

Plotwise we have a near rerun of the Giant Man and Egghead plot. Once again a villain is planning a big crime and as a distraction he frames one hero to trick another into fighting him, whilst the real crime happens. On this occasion the villain is the Masked Marauder but curiously it’s the host hero, Daredevil, who is framed whereas my impression is that it’s more usual for the guest hero to fall victim to this (although with Jonah briefly appearing, Spider-Man gets blamed by the Bugle anyway). Also unusually the Marauder doesn’t hide his own involvement with many assuming one or other of the heroes is in league with him. The second part sees a climax as Daredevil sets a trap for both Spider-Man and the Masked Marauder and the two heroes fight once more before the villain shows up, forcing them to join forces. The main point of originality in the story comes at the end of the first issue as Spider-Man searches for Daredevil with his Spider-sense and finds Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson’s office and assumes Foggy is Daredevil. Spidey breaks in to challenge Nelson upfront, even dangling him out of the window. Often the Spider-Man we get in guest appearances seems more hotheaded and aggressive than in his own series, and this is more than just presenting events from others’ point of view. Spidey’s accusations would also have repercussions in Daredevil’s series as Foggy is in no rush to deny them when secretary Karen Page asks if they’re true, instead enjoying her assumption that he’s a heroic adventurer. However at the end the escaping Marauder overhears them...

In general we’re yet again seeing a use of a stock formula of a framing, a fight and then a team-up. When read in close succession the heavy reliance on this formula does stand out, although during the original publication these stories came out months if not years apart and readers may not have noticed the similarities so readily.

Daredevil #27, by Stan Lee and Gene Colan, reprinted in Essential Daredevil volume 2

The Marauder storyline concludes in this issue, which contains a small guest appearance by Spider-Man. He is fighting a few thugs when Daredevil cuts in, to Spidey’s annoyance as this can damage a hero’s reputation. Daredevil asks if he’s seen Stilt-Man (who was actually taken seriously in those days) and they go their separate ways whilst Stilt-Man and the Marauder team up to kidnap Matt, Foggy and Karen in order to learn Daredevil’s identity. Stilt-Man is sent to find Matt’s twin brother Mike (actually Matt in disguise – don’t ask!) but runs into Spider-Man who is eventually defeated with a gas pellet. Meanwhile Daredevil has defeated the Marauder, who falls to his death, and then disables Stilt-Man’s mechanism. For Spider-Man this is quite a brief encounter that shows his continued tense relationship with other heroes.

X-Men #35, by Roy Thomas and Werner Roth, reprinted in Essential Classic X-Men volume 2

This appears to be the first time a substantial Spider-Man appearance was written by someone other than Stan Lee. Spidey had had a previous brief cameo in issue #27, also by Thomas and Roth, where he beats the Beast and Iceman to capture some bank robbers. With the X-Men badly understrength at this point Spider-Man is offered membership but he declines, having recently gone through the mess of the Avengers’ offer (in Amazing annual #3).

Issue #35 is another fight due to wrong assumptions but they’re accidental this time. The issue is part of a wider story involving the kidnap of Professor X by Factor Three. The X-Men’s ally Banshee locates Factor Three’s base where he encounters a robotic spider guard, and before he passes out he sends a message “Beware the spider” to the X-Men. Meanwhile Peter Parker has gone a motorcycle ride outside New York and finds himself strangely drawn up to Westchester where a metal egg appears of the sky and lands, revealing the robotic spider. Peter changes to Spider-Man and fights the robot, tricking it into destroying itself. Meanwhile the X-Men’s computer Cerebro detects mutant activity in the area and the X-Men dash to deal with it. They assume Spider-Man is the menace Banshee warned off and battle him until Marvel Girl contacts them with the news Cerebro’s activity has ceased suggesting Spider-Man is not the menace. Spidey tells them about the robotic spider but refuses to let the X-Men give an apology and explanation. This is quite a packed issue and generally Thomas gets the hang of Spider-Man’s dialogue, though the journey into the countryside and “drawn by fate” seem at odds with the regular series. However we get yet another fight for the sake of it which doesn’t really contribute to the ongoing storyline, and more jerkish behaviour from Spider-Man as a hero who’s been misunderstood more times than any other is reluctant to give the X-Men the benefit of the doubt. The artwork also doesn’t quite capture Spider-Man correctly. Again this feels like an appearance for the sake of it.

Fantastic Four #73, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, reprinted in Essential Fantastic Four volume 4 and also in Essential Daredevil volume 2

This is a crossover climax to a storyline in Daredevil (hence appearing in both Essentials) in which Daredevil and Doctor Doom briefly swapped bodies. After the process is reversed Daredevil escapes and heads to warn the Fantastic Four, but Doom is able to mimic Daredevil’s voice and tells the FF that Daredevil is Doom in disguise, coming to attack them. After briefly overpowering the Human Torch, Daredevil runs into Spider-Man who believes him and agrees to help, and then goes off to get another pair of hands – Thor, who has recently had his powers stripped from them. This leads into a protracted battle as Daredevil fights Mr Fantastic, Thor the Thing and Spider-Man the Human Torch, defeating him by luring him into a chemical plant and overpowering him with fumes. The entire battle is ended by the arrival of the Invisible Girl who confirms that Daredevil is the real one because he can’t be Dr. Doom as she’s just seen the real Doom on television, giving a speech in Latveria. (Now which Marvel villain has more robotic duplicates than any other...?) This particular issue as a whole is pretty poor and little more than an excuse to have the Fantastic Four fight some guest stars. However it does show that Spider-Man’s relationship with other heroes is evolving in that he is first willing to trust Daredevil and then able to talk Thor into joining them by suggesting he’s a coward. This issue came out the same month as Amazing #59 and is a sign of how Spidey’s early antagonistic relationship with other superheroes has been refined to one where he’s more willing to work with others and even knows which buttons to press.

Silver Surfer #14, by Stan Lee and John Buscema, reprinted in Essential Silver Surfer volume 1

The Surfer’s original series ran into early troubles sparking radical changes, including ditching the bi-monthly double sized format in favour of a standard monthly, and then started running guest stars in most issues. Spider-Man was the first of the regular guest stars and we get another fight when Spider-Man’s webbing accidentally catches the Surfer’s board and the two soon come to blows as Spidey wants off but the Surfer believes he is being tricked by humans so he can be attacked yet again. Spidey is pretty aggressive, pursuing the matter further but the Surfer declines to use his full force. The police and military show up to take down the Surfer, but when he leaves himself vulnerable to save a boy both they and Spidey back off. Spidey leaves realising he’s been guilty of the same misjudgement he is so often the victim of. Spidey once more shows his aggressive, hotheaded side that is so often the main focus of his guest appearances and the similarities between the way the world treats him and he treats the Surfer aren’t as fully explored as they might be. Given the direction of the book it’s hard to deny this is an audience boosting appearance though.

Captain America and the Falcon (as it was then titled) #137-138, by Stan Lee, Gene Colan (#137) and John Romita (#138), reprinted in Essential Captain America volume 3

This story focuses upon the relationship between Cap and the Falcon, with the latter feeling undervalued and seeking to prove his worth, and a Harlem gang lord blackmailing the government by threatening to start riots. The Falcon spots Spider-Man and decides to bring him in to prove his worth, and he sends his companion hawk Redwing to follow Spider-Man, leading him to Peter and Harry’s flat. The Falcon assumes Harry is Spider-Man and captures him, only for the real Spider-Man to save him, knocking the Falcon out in the process. The following issue sees Spider-Man seeking the Falcon for a rematch and to learn why he attacked him, only to find the Falcon has been captured by the Harlem gang lord. Spidey rescues the Falcon and fights him, with Captain America and Redwing joining in, until the Falcon realises he’s been a jerk and they all team up to take down the gang lord. Similar to the earlier Daredevil appearance we see heroes proving rather better than everyone else at getting close to other heroes’ secret identities, only to accuse the first able-bodied man in sight upon arrival. The Falcon’s motivations for fighting Spider-Man are understandable, though Spider-Man’s reluctance to leave the matter after his first fight isn’t so clear. The story is mainly a spotlight on the Falcon but as a hero with a poor relationship with the law, Spidey is one of the few who could serve the role in this story and so his appearance here feels more natural than many.

Daredevil #77 by Gerry Conway and Gene Colan, reprinted in Essential Daredevil volume 4

An interesting little tale that starts with Spider-Man seeing Daredevil passing in the night and each man reflects on his recent relationship issues – Spider-Man on Gwen Stacy thinking he killed her father and how she doesn’t know Spider-Man is her boyfriend (this issue came out the same month as Amazing #97), Daredevil on how Karen Page does know his identity couldn’t marry him with both his identities. It’s a nice little compare and contrast moment between the two heroes. Peter gets back to his flat where he’s visited by Mary Jane (although the inker confuses her with Gwen so in black & white, at least, she looks blonde). However Peter quickly aborts the meeting because of commotion outside which also draws in Daredevil. In Central Park a glowing giant teardrop speaks, demanding to speak to Namor the Sub-Mariner who has been drawn there. Just as Namor approaches, Daredevil shows up and assumes Namor is responsible and the two get in a fight. Spider-Man subsequently arrives and also engages in battle, refusing to accept Daredevil’s claim it’s his fight, and the two take on the Sub-Mariner with Spider-Man almost competing with Daredevil. The fight is stopped when the teardrop explodes to reveal a mysterious woman who demands Namor come with her, and having detected vibrant young power within Spider-Man she asks for him also. The woman, Namor, Spidey and the teardrop all vanish, leaving Daredevil to head home. Whilst there are some subplots advanced in this issue, the main part feels very much like both Namor and Spider-Man are intruding upon Daredevil’s title. Spider-Man is given some good scenes in the early part of the issue that tie in well to then-current events in his own title, but once in action he acts like the jerk he so often is in guest appearances, refusing to back off and being quite competitive.

Spider-Man and Namor’s story continues in Sub-Mariner #40, again by Gerry Conway and Gene Colan, but as Daredevil didn’t accompany them that issue isn’t included in his Essential run, whilst the Sub-Mariner has probably been served worse by the Essentials than any other Silver Age Marvel hero, with just one solitary volume so far that only gets as far as the first issue of his series, and that didn’t appear until 2009. Maybe one day we’ll get further volumes that reach #40 and I’ll be able to come back and add my thoughts on that particular issue.


With the exception of that Sub-Mariner issue, that’s all the major appearances I’m aware of from this era. And look how few there were. Spider-Man may have been an early hit whose popularity then grew and grew, but he wasn’t mercilessly dropped into numerous other series to boost them (though the Silver Surfer appearance was an exception). Instead the guest appearances are limited and aiming to tell good stories, to mixed success. Spider-Man also encountered a number of other heroes in his own series, but wisely Marvel limited those and created a specific title for team-ups at the end of this period.

The thing that stands out the most in many of these appearances is just how much of a hot-headed jerk Spider-Man can be, getting into fights all too easily. It’s little wonder that so many other heroes automatically assume the worst of him. But it’s also disappointing that so often this is almost all there is to Spider-Man. Whilst it would be possible to present him as a mysterious, uncertain figure as seen from the host character’s point of view, the stories invariably assume familiarity and show or reference his life as Peter Parker, so removing that angle of approach. This just leaves a jerk who easily gets into fights for the sake of it – but very often that’s all he’s there for.