John Romita 1930-2023

 I have just seen the sad news that John Romita Sr has died, broken by his son.

I say this with a heavy heart, My father passed away peacefully in his sleep. He is a legend in the art world and it would be my honor to follow in his footsteps. Please keep your thoughts and condolences here out of respect for my family.
He was the greatest man I ever met. pic.twitter.com/Pe2K3ywbWX

— John Romita JR (@JrRomita) June 14, 2023

He will be much missed but his legenedary artwork will live forever. Courtesy of Jonathan Ross, I especially like this self-portrait with so many of the Spider-Man cast:

A sad, sad day for those of us who grew up adoring and obsessing over Marvel comics. The great John Romita Sr has died. A wonderful artist and a truly beautiful, kind, generous, compassionate and thoughtful man. He was the rock that provided a gloriously rendered foundation to… pic.twitter.com/1R8W0y9lEm

— Jonathan Ross (@wossy) June 14, 2023

What If... Essential Deadpool volume 1? - creator labels

Hi readers! Lots and lots of creators worked on this next set of stories so here's the usual oh so interesting post to squeeze all the labels in. Isn't it exciting?

Essential Fantastic Four volume 5

Essential Fantastic Four volume 5 consists of issues #84 to #110 and Annuals #7 & #8 although these are all-reprint issues represented by the covers. Bonus material includes some pencils of individual pages and a gallery of photographs of Marvel staffers. The first two thirds are by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, still credited on the actual issues as co-producers and on the contents page with Lee as "Writer" and Kirby as "Penciller". The last issues see Kirby succeeded by first John Romita and then John Buscema, with issue #108 being a Kirby drawn issue from file with modifications by both Johns.

And so we come to the end of the Lee-Kirby run, with the final nineteen issues occupying the first two-thirds of this volume. But this is far from the most memorable part of their run. Instead much of it sees a return to some of the most familiar foes for more of the same but without a great increase in excitement that ramps the adventures up to the greatest ever battles. With one notable exception the new characters and situations remain fairly unimpressive and it's easy to see why they rarely feature on lists of the Four's greatest foes and adventures. And at times the stories feel extremely drawn out, decompressed far beyond the length they would have had in earlier years.

It starts with a multi-part saga in which the Four are captured by Doctor Doom and held in a part of Latveria where they are treated as guests amongst a group of hippies whilst being conditioned to think they have lost their powers as a prelude to their destruction. Then back home Sue has found a new home isolated from other dwellings, but it's a trap by the Mole Man. Afterwards Ben is kidnapped by Skrulls and taken to a bizarre planet where the local Skrulls have based their civilisation on Prohibition era gangster movies. Whilst there Ben is forced to fight the robotic man Torgo, appearing for the first time. Back on Earth comes an attack by the Frightful Four, having seemingly recruited Medusa once more. Then we get one of the few new foes introduced at this stage, the spy known as the Monocle who stands out because of his, you've guessed it, eyepiece. His attempt to start the next World War by attacking a United Nations summit seems a rather bizarre way to trigger it. After this we get the resort to the standard cliché of the identical duplicate story, here in the form of androids built by the Mad Thinker. Then there's a misunderstanding with an alien monster just trying to repair its ship and return home. Other aliens have different plans for Earth as a Kree Sentry tries to prevent the Apollo Moon Landing. Then there's a misunderstanding with the Inhumans, a team-up between the Puppet Master and the Mad Thinker as they unleash a whole range of robot duplicates of old Fantastic Four foes for the anniversary issue #100, followed by an odd issue as the Maggia try to defeat the Four but get divided between those who wish to use corporate warfare and those who prefer the physical methods. The last issue of the Lee-Kirby run begins a multi-part saga in which Magneto is manipulating Namor the Sub-Mariner into launching another war on humanity.

The encounter with the Frightful Four also introduces the baby's new nanny, Agatha Harkness and her cat Ebony. It rapidly becomes clear that she is more powerful than she is letting on, but is also a benign witch who helps the Four on more than one occasion throughout this volume. But her introduction is a sign of the imagination starting to run thin as magic ranks second only to mutation as a convenient short cut for a source of powers. Also there's something a little off about its appearance here as the series has hitherto been primarily an exaggerated science fiction fantasy which has steered away from such themes. Still the introduction of a nanny for the baby, now named Franklin Benjamin Richards after a seemingly inordinate amount of time, does fit into the family themes of the title that remain at its core.

The series is finding the real world catching up with it, most notably in issue #98 which is set around the Moon landings despite coming out over six months after Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon. In the real world this was a moment of great excitement. The issue reflects some of that, showing people the world over rushing to televisions and radios to keep up with the news. But in the context of this series it's all nonsense. The Fantastic Four have already visited the Moon on multiple occasions and gone out to other planets on many others. Numerous aliens have visited Earth and many have been seen by the public at large. And it's hard to envisage a scientist such as Reed keeping all his discoveries in this field a secret from the broader scientific community. The result is that this is one of those times when real life brings up awkward questions about just how different the Marvel universe is from our own and how this has impacted upon society at large. It would doubtless have been better to simply ignore the situation rather than addressing it, especially as this issue originally came out far too late to have been in any way a topical tie-in to boost sales.

Issue #102 is the final one in the continuos run by Jack Kirby. Long runs are rare in comics, unbroken ones even more so but to have the same artist and scripter on a run of this length with the title on a regular schedule is almost completely unheard of. Adding in the six original extra large annuals which were done without taking any time out of the regular series and the achievement is even more extraordinary. It's a testament to the dedication of both Kirby and Lee that they lasted the course for so long on a title that was originally created just to jump onto the latest fad in comics with the twist that they would go for a more human and vulnerable cast than traditionally found in superhero comics. I doubt anyone realised just how long the title would last and that it would get to this point with both creators still on it. But for all the great achievements of the run as a whole, with a revolutionary approach to the genre, flawed but likeable characters and a great stream of imagination that produced the universe around them populated by such memorable allies and enemies, it cannot be denied that this volume covers the fag end of the run. I've written quite a bit about the dropping off in imagination during the contemporary final days of their run on Thor (over in my review of Essential Thor volume 4) so I won't go over all of the same ground again. But as with the last days of their run on that title, these ones too seem to be running on a deliberately near empty tank of imagination, with very little actually added to the mythology of the series. Again Kirby departs on the first issue of a multi-part saga, though it has to be said that the team-up between Magneto and Namor is infinitely more interesting than the conflict with the Maggia in the preceding issue. Once again it's a pity that he seems to have been holding back whilst working out his contract, but equally to blame is Stan Lee for not filling the gap when he is still credited in an equal role.

Kirby does make a brief return of sorts with issue #108 but this comes "with last-minute revisions, deletions, and addenda by S. Lee, J. Buscema and J. Romita", suggesting this was an early example of the stand-by fill-in issue that was dug out of the files, modified to match the current cast and given an addition preceding issue to lead into it. "The Monstrous Mystery of the Nega-Man!" is nowhere near as mysterious as the title suggests, with the Nega-Man himself one of the least memorable of all the foes the Fantastic Four have faced up until now. This is far from a final hurrah for Kirby and instead betrays itself as literally leftovers. Kirby's art is, however, still on top form throughout the volume.

The last third of the volume may be post Kirby but Lee is still around and it's clear that for now the series is going to be building on the lengthy Lee-Kirby run rather than moving forwards. As most of the issues are following up on storylines begun by one Kirby storyline or another this is not surprising. The Magneto and Namor story is soon resolved with John Romita once again taking over on one of the leading Marvel titles and producing art that matches the existing style and holds up well. There's a forgettable two-parter with the strange "Monster in the Streets" that is more notable for cast developments than the actual foe. The Nega-Man story is built on to produce another trip into the Negative Zone where the Four face Annihilus, with Reed nearly lost there until Agatha Harkness works magic and provides a deus ex machina solution.

There's some small changes to the line-up during this run, with at one stage the number Four feeling a little inaccurate. At other times there's a strong sense of sexism, affecting Sue more than Crystal. Indeed at one point Sue tries to call Reed out on it and gets told to not be so "feminine". Sue drifts back into the team as she returns from maternity leave but it's never too explicit at just what point it's formalised. Twice Crystal leaves to return to the Inhumans, once for reasons she fails to explain to Johnny, once because she lacks the immunities necessary to live in the humans' world. The impact on Johnny is devastating. Meanwhile Ben seemingly achieves his dream when Reed performs a bold experiment that results in Ben being able to change between human and rocky form at will. But it seems to be having bad side effects on his personality, to the point that the volume ends on the cliffhanger of Ben storming out of the team in anger.

Overall this is a rather dull period in the team's history. There are no great storylines or much in the way of memorable new characters and instead we get a regurgitation of existing concepts both before and after Jack Kirby's departure. The end of the legendary Lee-Kirby run is far from the greatest part of it and what limited sight we get of the series after that suggests that for now it's going to carry on wallowing in the memory of that run.

Showcase Presents Doc Savage volume 1

It's time for a special side-step to look at a Marvel series collected in a black and white on cheap paper - but it's not quite an Essential.

Over the years Marvel have seen many licences come and go, often making it hard to reprint some adventures in later years - we've already seen issues of Giant-Size Spider-Man or Marvel Team-Up amongst other series that have had to be left out of the Essentials because of the guest stars involved. But often the terms of the original licence are more favourable for reprinting the character's own series, albeit in unusual places. Usually the rights to the stories end up being held by the characters' copyright owners and so later licensees can reprint the adventures. The likes of Marvel's Conan, Transformers, G.I. Joe and others have found their way back into publication under these terms (although joint adventures with Marvel's own characters can remain problematic). Doc Savage is another such series, with the rights held in recent years by DC.

Showcase Presents Doc Savage volume 1 reprints the eight issue magazine series Doc Savage from 1975-1977. Everything is written by Doug Moench, with plotting on one story by John Warner and John Whitmore. The art is by the likes of John Buscema, John Romita, Tony DeZuniga, Rico Rival, Marie Severin, Val Mayerik and Ernie Chan. The volume includes a number of pin-ups from the series but leaves out articles and interviews even though it only comes to 448 pages - Showcase Presents volumes have shown a much greater flexibility on page counts than Essentials.

Doc Savage first appeared in 1933 and has very much remained a man of his time. The amazing men - and they were invariably men - of the pulp magazines of the era are the direct ancestors of the superheroes who emerged at the end of the decade but often they haven't aged as well. Whereas the superheroes have been subject to a steady updating over the years, reflecting changing priorities and attitudes, the pulp action heroes and some of the contemporary comic strip characters have proved harder to adapt and update into complex and fallible characters struggling against the odds. As a result there are usually two latter day ways of presenting them - either in a self-mockery that extenuates the ridiculousness of the characters and the situation around them or else played straight in a reasonably accurate recreation of their original era give or take some the embellishments of the original stories. A lot of the movies of heroes of this era or homages to them just fall flat with only the Indiana Jones series really succeeding.

A movie version of Doc Savage was released in June 1975, but I've never seen it in full (and it's not had a conventional DVD release but rather a burn on demand one; a sign of a perceived limited market). Clips on YouTube suggest it was a rather campy take on the character and it frankly looks like it felt at least a decade old on its original release. The trailer is not the most enticing. But it's clear that there was an attempt to drum up interest in the character following the success of the republishing of the original pulp magazine stories as paperback books in the previous decade with James Bama's stylised covers forming the basis for the character's look in subsequent comics. Earlier in the 1970s Marvel had run an eight issue normal sized colour series and there was a both a Giant-Size reprint special and a team-up with Spider-Man in his own Giant-Size series in the first half of 1975. Then came this magazine series, which is a blatant tie in as the first issue came out the same month as the movie and both use the subtitle "The Man of Bronze" although the magazine's cover drops it from issue #3 onwards.

The man himself is not the most developed of characters, reflecting his pulp roots. Doc Savage has trained his body and mind to the ultimate perfection, making him super strong and super intelligent, with fast reflexes and the ability to solve any problem or situation with the utmost ease. He is highly disciplined with most stories showing him taking two hours each day to undertake a physical and mental workout to enhance himself. He is also focused - like many traditional heroes of serialised fiction he shows no interest in romance at all and is instead dedicated to the mission at hand. But here come the two problems with the character. He is too perfect with no substantial flaws that cause significant problems in his adventures. About the only flaw on display is his sexism towards both his cousin Pat and Monk's secretary Monica, declaring "Adventure is no place for a woman" (page 267) when brushing off the former. But even this flaw isn't used efficiently as Pat forces her way into going on the adventure with the regular team from the outset rather than coming in to the rescue. Beyond this Doc Savage is a know-all and do-all who can achieve just about anything and this makes it harder to get excited about such a hero. And at times he seems beyond human - indeed some of his foes explicitly shout this in frustration. On only one occasion do we hear of how he deals with captured criminals (most foes die in the climaxes) and it is to "perform certain surgical procedures upon your brains after which you will remember nothing of this -- nothing of what you did..." (page 389) In other words he will perform lobotomies on them. From a modern perspective the practice itself is horrifying but what's also concerning is the way in which Doc Savage feels he has the right to arbitrarily impose a punishment and literally change how people think. Given the characterisation and the era it is hard to avoid thinking of the concept of the übermensch, especially as that word has historically been translated as "superman".

Now Nietzsche's philosophy is generally unfamiliar to me and his own ideas have had their reputation damaged through association with the Nazis, so it's hard to judge just how far Doc Savage conforms to the übermensch model as originally conceived, though it's notable that Doc Savage's adventures often start out as the straightforward helping of others rather than proactively seeking to save the world and personally make history. But the perfect man is not a character concept that works well in this day and age. It didn't really in the 1960s & 1970s which is why so many film and TV adaptations went down the road of camp and self-mockery. But here we have a straight adaptation of the original pulps that is all too faithful to their 1930s sensibilities and outlook. And that just doesn't feel right.

To some extent Doc's aides, only once here called the "Famous Five", offer a more realistic approach. Several defy stereotypes in their appearance and characterisation but they are all experts in one way or another. They consist of:

• "Monk" aka Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Blodgett Mayfair - expert in chemistry and owner of a pig called "Habeus Corpus" (sic - occasionally the correct spelling "Habeas Corpus" is used instead) who sometimes accompanies him on his adventures.
• "Ham" aka Brigadier General Theodore Marley Brooks - top attorney and stylish dresser
• "Renny" aka Colonel John Renwick - engineer
• "Long Tom" aka Major Thomas J. Roberts - electrical expert
• "Johnny" aka William Harper Littlejohn - archaeologist and geologist expert

What immediately dates this group is its composition, being all male and appearing to all be from the same ethnic and social background. Had the not been created until at least the 1960s then there would have almost certainly been a woman there and if created in the 1970s the group would have been multi-racial. The military ranks are mentioned on each introduction and raises questions as to how the first four, who all appear to be around their 30s, could have risen to such high ranks. None of them appear to be career soldiers but equally they seem a little young to have achieved these ranks as recruits in the First World War, especially given that the United States was only a belligerent for less than two years before the Armistice. The problem is slightly compounded by the adventures being given dates between 1933 and 1939, yet nobody seems to age in this time. It feels like these titles have been given to the characters just to enhance their standing as expert support for Savage. Monk and Ham get the most attention, with the two constantly bickering, fighting and playing practical jokes on each other. Ham fancies himself as a ladies' man, although women he flirts with do not always want the same outcome, but most of the team are attracted to at least one woman throughout the run, leaving Doc Savage above sexuality.

Issue #3 states it is starting a series of solo adventures for the five as back-up tales; however that issue's solo story of Monk is the only one to appear and subsequent issues revert to the format of full-length adventures. The story is set at the same time as the issue's main adventure, with Monk thus absent from it, and this restriction may have proved the feature's undoing.

The other character of note from the original pulps to appear here is Pat Savage, Doc's cousin who appears in just issue #5. There isn't room to fully explore her skills and strengths but she is similar to her cousin in many regards and more than a match for any of his aides as well as resourceful enough to force her way into an adventure to Loch Ness. Clearly a forerunner of the likes of Supergirl, she is rather underused and could have appeared more to provide balance in the series and help to pull it forward.

The adventures themselves are very much in the pulp tradition with lots of over the top villainy, some science fiction and fantasy, globe trotting, fancy gadgets and the resolution of matters with fists. There are monsters, mutants, deformed men in iron masks, secret bases, global conspiracies and more. It's all traditional adventuring that sticks to its roots. None of the villains are recurring and the dates given suggest the adventures may take place out of publication order. There's some sophistication, with problems to be solved and so providing a challenge beyond getting to a place and fighting a solution. Some of the puzzles are immensely complicated such as a pair of multi-levelled cryptic clues in the first issue that take nearly four whole pages for Doc Savage to unravel and seem almost impossible for any readers bar perhaps the most advanced crossword solvers. Yet the same issue features a blatant clue to the villain's identity in the form of his name, though notably this isn't remarked upon. Perhaps Doc Savage doesn't want to admit to being so complicated that he overlooked the obvious. On another occasion Savage is able to deduce that "Maison Blanche" is a translation from not English but Spanish and so the destination is not the White House but Casa Blanca.

The reproduction on this volume is quite good considering that the source material for the magazines is often in a worse state than the regular sized comics. A small note on the front page thanks Mark Waid "for loan of source material" suggesting that this volume has been compiled from original copies of the printed magazines themselves. If so then an excellent job has been done in remastering them. Unfortunately a few errors have crept in such as the inversion of pages 166 & 167. I don't know if that error was made in 2011 or 1975.

Overall this volume is of interest as a curiosity, being one of a surprisingly high number of times when one of Marvel's licensed titles has been reprinted by the current rights holder. Unfortunately the contents aren't that great. If you're a fan of the 1930s pulp adventures then this volume is a good homage to them. But if you're expecting something more sophisticated and reflecting the sensibilities of the 1970s then it's a disappointment. Both the character and the wider cast are very clearly dated and no real attempt has been made to update them in any way. That may have been an artistic decision or a restriction of the licence but the result is a fairly lightweight series that fails to hold up by even the standards of when it was first printed.

Essential Marvel Horror volume 2 - creator labels 2

We have a volume with a huge number of creators, so here's a separate post to carry the labels for some of them.

Essential Captain America volume 3

In addition to continuing our Captain America month, today sees the return to UK screens of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. So here's a volume with, amongst other things, some appearances of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Essential Captain America volume 3 is made up of issues #127-156, with the book's title becoming Captain America and the Falcon from #134 onwards. Additionally it contains the covers from the all-reprint annuals #1 & #2. The writing covers the end of Stan Lee's run, brief runs by Gary Friedrich and Gerry Conway, and then the start of Steve Englehart's. The art is a mixture of runs by Gene Colan, John Romita and Sal Buscema, with individual issues contributed to by Gray Morrow and Gil Kane.

This volume continues the search for a clear identity and direction for both the character and series, with a mixture of science-fiction spy drama, down to earth tales from the road, gritty urban crime and some bizarre out of this universe moments all presented as a succession of authors grapple with the problem. However, solutions slowly present themselves. The first issue in this volume sees a blow to the status quo as Cap falls out with S.H.I.E.L.D. and Nick Fury after they question his loyalty and put him through a fierce test to smoke out a traitor in the ranks. S.H.I.E.L.D. may nowadays be portrayed as a ruthless organisation who will suspect anyone easily, but at the time its portrayal in earlier issues was as a cosier, friendlier organisation. Such an abrupt shift in presentation is jarring, even though it serves a purpose in cutting down on Cap's ties to allow him to go on the open road. The next few issues see Cap climb on the bandwagon of going out on the road to find one's self, taking off on a motorbike into the country at large. Although it doesn't last long, it does allow the opportunity to take him away from the various trappings around him and drill down into the character as he sees the country at large and faces up to the fact that not everything is black and white. At one stage he tries to ditch his costumed identity but he soon finds himself drawn back to it. "Looks like I can no more shed my shield-slinging other self than Nixon can shed ol' Spiro!" declares Cap in issue #129. (Clearly he didn't foresee events of the next few years when Spiro Agnew would prove rather easier to lose than the average Vice President.)

"Here's where I oughta step in and make like a swingin' hero! But how do I know whose side to take?" thinks Cap as he watches a student riot in issue #130. The famous Green Lantern/Green Arrow #76 was only five months old at this stage, and indeed may not have been the first to highlight this point, but the idea was clearly taking root that heroes can't always simply swoop into a tense situation and put things to right by vanquishing one side. Later in the same issue Cap goes on television to talk about law and order, but instead he steers a middle line against both violence and aloof establishments that drive people to desperate measures. Here we see the first clear repositioning of Cap as loyal to the concepts underlying his country rather than to the authorities of the day. It may at this stage seem to be a subtle splitting of the hair but it helps to move the character away from an authoritarian, establishment line that would likely have doomed him to cancellation as the 1970s wore on.

And then we get multiple attempts to provide Cap with a partner. A two-part story during this road stage sees the seeming return of Bucky, but it feels badly disjointed. The first part sees Baron Strucker searching the gyms of San Francisco for suitable bait to trap Cap and coming across an amnesiac young man who looks exactly like Bucky. Strucker is soon defeated and Cap is left apparently reunited with his partner. However the next issue reveals that this is in fact a robot duplicate made by Doctor Doom as part of a challenge set by Modok and A.I.M., with Strucker having been manipulated by Modok. Unfortunately Doom has made the robot too well so that it perfectly duplicates Bucky's outlook and thus it cannot bring itself to kill Cap. Although the elements of the plots are actually quite good when considered on their own, give or take Doctor Doom so easily performing a task for others just because his skill has been deliberately questioned, the way Strucker is suddenly revealed to have been unknowingly guided by thoughts implanted by Modok feels like a fast U-turn. The fact that it comes so close to Cap acquiring a regular partner - notably an equal rather than a mere sidekick - suggests that originally the intention was to bring back the real (and original) Bucky before someone decided that this wouldn't be such a great move and so retconned him out this way, then went down the Falcon route.

The Falcon had already been introduced in the previous volume but he returns in #133 where he and Cap realise they have a lot in common, both being lone heroes but they soon come to work together. The pairing may seem surprising, with Cap traditionally focused on national or global threats and the Falcon operating against urban crime in Harlem, but there's a strong bond between the two that sees each drawn into the other's world, helped somewhat by Cap also gaining a day time job in his alter ego of Steve Rogers. Initially asked to go under cover as a police officer to investigate disappearances in Harlem, Steve opts to maintain the role, finding a purpose for himself away from the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. However there are signs that he can't maintain the job forever, often having to call in sick or go away because of his work as Cap, ad by the end of the volume his sergeant and patrol car partner are secretly investigating him. Still it allows Steve a chance to evolve away from the mask.

Meanwhile the Falcon finds himself caught between multiple roles. As Sam Wilson, his day job is a social worker in Harlem but he finds himself often denigrated for working with whites and being "an Uncle Tom". Even a woman he is attracted to attacks him for this. At the same time his relationship with Cap has its ups and downs and the two briefly split but soon find they need each other the more. The Falcon is loyal and dependable but absolutely not a subordinate sidekick, and the two make for a good odd couple many years before the teaming of Power Man and Iron Fist.

Although Cap initially breaks with S.H.I.E.L.D., the organisation doesn't disappear and he soon finds himself working with them again and again, though Nick Fury is angry about Cap's refusal to become a full time S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and at one stage issues an order revoking Cap's S.H.I.E.L.D. clearance and banning any agent from having contact with him. Fortunately for Sharon Carter this doesn't last and she and Steve soon resume and develop their relationship. Meanwhile S.H.I.E.L.D. demonstrates what passes for its equal opportunities policy when it presents "Femme Force One", with Sharon yelling "Right on, sisters!" and "If this doesn't make you believe in the women's lib movement... I don't know what will!" Cap quietly just says he believes in Femme Force "and let it slide at that!" It's not the most liberated presentation of women and the unit is not helped by a rather catty relationship between Sharon and her deputy, Val de Fontaine, due to the latter's flirting with Cap, apparently in reaction to Nick Fury's relations with another woman. The whole mess climaxes when Fury turns up at Steve's apartment to have it out with him, until Val shows up to explain her actions. The whole storyline feels awkward, forcing several people to act out of character to make it work, and it's unsurprising that it's swept aside so easily in the first issue by a new writer.

There's an attempt to develop a supporting cast away from S.H.I.E.L.D. with a couple of significant characters introduced, each a part of the down to earth urban environment both heroes are now based in. Leila is a strong minded woman from Harlem who looks down on Sam for supposedly selling out, but he is nevertheless strongly attracted to her. Sergeant Muldoon is Steve's immediate superior as a police officer. A hardliner who reminds Steve of his wartime superior Sergeant Duffy, Muldoon is subsequently suspended for bribery and corruption but then embarks upon a private investigation of Steve's affairs.

As on a number of titles, Stan Lee departs on a cliffhanger, here midway through a saga involving the Grey Gargoyle and S.H.I.E.L.D. Lee's final page shows the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier destroyed and the Gargoyle about to seize the most dangerous substance on Earth. A replacement helicarrier is soon deployed and the Gargoyle defeated, but it's a telling sign of how series were often written on the hoof as though it were a game of Consequences.

If there's one area where the series continues to be particularly deficient, it's in the villains. Only two new foes of any substance are introduced in these pages. One is Stone-Face, a Harlem crimelord, and the other is the Monster Ape, a scientist who becomes a giant primate. There are a few imports from other series in the form of encounters with first the Mole Man and later the Grey Gargoyle and the Kingpin, then the Scorpion and Mr Hyde in tandem. Meanwhile of Captain America's more established foes, the Red Skull shows up here on no less than three separate occasions whilst Batroc appears twice, the first time with "Batroc's Brigade" made up of Whirlwind and the Porcupine, the second time with a Brigade made up of ordinary thugs. Baron von Strucker, Modok and AIM also all appear again, albeit in just one storyline. And then there's Hydra, with the Supreme Hydra on this occasion revealed to be the son of the Kingpin, actually serving as a subordinate to reclusive Las Vegas millionaire "Harold Howard" who is in fact the Kingpin himself, who in turn doesn't realise it's his son under the mask, but both are in fact being manipulated by the real mastermind, the Red Skull, who unleashes yet another sleeper robot to attack the US. Isn't this all a wee bit excessive? Or there's the case of Batroc's second appearance in this volume when he's again accompanied by his Brigade, who are kidnapping on behalf of an unseen contractor who seemingly turns out to be the Stranger but is in fact the being Jakar, the sole survivor from another universe, impersonating the Stranger. I suspect the original plan was to use the actual Stranger until there was an editorial intervention, and the result is the rapid creation of a lookalike character to cover the usage.

Whatever the intention, the Jakar story sees the series at a low, entering a science fiction world in which the villain is trying to repopulate his world and has hired Batroc to kidnap people for it. The two just jar heavily, even more if Jakar was actually meant to be the Stranger, and the whole thing feels like a storyline more at home in the Fantastic Four or Thor. The earlier storyline with Hydra, the Kingpin and the Red Skull also feels out of place, with the setting of Las Vegas and a villain having kidnapped a Howard Hughes type reclusive millionaire and using his business empire for criminal schemes showing the influence of the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever a little too much.

The last four issues see the arrival of Steve Englehart as writer and almost immediately the series makes a bold step forward, starting to explore more deeply the role of Captain America amidst competing visions of patriotism. Englehart's first storyline explains the Captain America stories published in the 1950s, revealing that the Captain America and Bucky (and, in passing, also the Red Skull) seen in them were all replacements. With Roy Thomas as the editor, it's easy to see where the idea came from. But instead of a straightforward exercise in retroactive continuity, we get something that works on a whole different level as we get a solid contrast between differing visions of patriotism and the eras the Captain Americas are drawn from. For the 1950s Captain America embodies fanatical super-patriotism that denounces disagreement as Communism and treachery, and dismisses blacks and others as not being "pure-blooded Americans". Together with an equally fanatical and vicious Bucky by his side, the result is a strong clash of ideologies between the original Captain America, with his Roosevelt-Kennedy liberal patriotism, and the 1950s Captain America, awash with McCarthyism. When originally published in the early 1970s the President of the United States was Richard Nixon, who had built his national reputation as an anti-Communist two decades earlier. Was this story also an early subtle jab at Nixon? The 1950s Cap and Bucky have been brought out of suspended animation by men upset by Nixon's to China (now there's a challenge and a half for those who try to update the Marvel timeline!) but for many these actions did not negate his earlier role. At a more personal level the original Captain America is left shaken by the possibility that he too could have easily gone down the route of "super-patriotism, madness, and mayhem" but for having received the vita-ray treatment which his successor did not get. Equally chilling is the fact that his 1950s counterpart was a fan and historian who took his worship of his subject all the way to having plastic and vocal cord surgery to completely resemble the original. The very term "fan" is short for "fanatic" and often fanatics can do the most terrible things in the name of their idols, with the idols having no say in the matter.

It's fitting that it's an issue (#155) from this final story which provides the cover, as it's here that the series gives every indication of stepping up a pace. Most of the earlier adventures are so so with some dips as the series takes an awkward turn or two, but the Falcon has proved a successful new element who has shaken up the series for the better. Things are encouraging for the next volume.

Essential Captain America volume 2

This month sees the release of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and so all this month I'll be looking at more of Cap's adventures...

Essential Captain America volume 2 consists of Captain America #103-126. The art sees the end of Jack Kirby's run and the start of Gene Colan's, with the period in the middle drawn by Jim Steranko, John Romita and John Buscema. Everything is written by Stan Lee.

The stories in this volume were originally published between 1968 and 1970, during some of the most turbulent years in modern US history. Abroad the country was embroiled in the Vietnam War, a conflict against a small country that proved much harder to win militarily than many expected, damaging self-confidence. At home that conflict, the methods involved and the actions of soldiers on the ground were growing ever more controversial, and many were resisting conscription whilst there was other deep social unrest. Racial tensions continued. Many a university campus erupted into riots and chaos. Automatic respect for authority that believed it was inherently right simply by virtue of being authority was evaporating. Assassinations took the lives of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy.

"[1968] was a year in which everyone was protesting, it seemed: the South against blacks, the blacks against whites, the young against the war, the Northern working class against the young, and the 70 per cent of Democrats who remained faithful to their party against Richard Nixon."
Brogan, Hugh The Penguin History of the United States of America (London; Penguin, 1990) p.682

It was a country uneasy with itself and with its traditions. And it was a country where it was no longer possible to simply point to the flag and use patriotism to garner instant support. It was a very different world from the one in which Captain America had been created.

"Throughout the world, the image of Captain America has become a symbol -- a living embodiment of all that democracy stands for! But now -- there are those who scorn love of flag -- love of country! Those to whom patriotism is just a square, out-moded word! Those who think of me -- as a useless relic -- of a meaningless past! I'm like a dinosaur -- in the Cro-Magnon age! An anachronism -- who's out-lived his time! This is the day of the anti-hero -- the age of the rebel and the dissenter! It isn't hip -- to defend the Establishment! -- only to tear it down! And, in a world rife with injustice, greed, and endless war -- who's to say the rebels are wrong? But, I’ve never learned to play by today's new rules! I've spent a lifetime defending the flag -- and the law! Perhaps -- I should have battled less - and questioned more! Yet evil comes in many forms -- and it isn't only the young -- and the rebellious -- who dare fight it! Somewhere -- somewhere -- there must be a place for me -- a use for me -- a life for me!"
Captain America, issue #122

Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and others had done many amazing things in creating the Marvel universe and a whole new style of comics. However they weren't always so good at adapting to prevailing social forces outside the comics market. And there was an age factor. Everything in this run is written and, with the exception of Jim Steranko on three issues, drawn by men born before Franklin D. Roosevelt became President of the United States, and who had all worked on comics since at least the 1940s. Of course it's not impossible for longstanding industry veterans to adapt to a changing environment - in the wider field it's a prerequisite for survival - but it can make it difficult to adapt to circumstances that now make a particular individual character problematic. Captain America is a man out of his time in more ways than one, and it's unsurprising to see that this is reflected ever more in the series as he searches for a purpose and Marvel searches for a way to keep selling the tales of a man literally wrapped in the flag in such an environment. Whilst the long term answer has not yet been found in this volume, the questions are raised here and a number of individual issues do show signs of the trends in wider society, even if the fictional versions put a superhero spin on cause and effect.

One of the most obvious signs of reflecting events in the real world comes in issue #120 as Nick Fury tricks Cap into going undercover on a university campus where the students are protesting violently. However it's mostly down to the interference of AIM as they try to kidnap an expert on atomic equations under cover of riots they've stirred up and once Cap has defeated them things calm down with the student leaders and university administrators more prepared to sit down and negotiate rationally. But before then some of the students' demands seem bizarre, particularly the one that a student committee be put in charge to decide what is taught and to whom - although such nonsensical demands really were made in real life. And not all students followed them - we see counter protests by those who feel their reasonable demands have been met and complaining about the disruption to their education. The whole thing feels stilted, as though written with no greater research than news reports and almost mocking the student protesters but then tying to pull away from alienating a potential key section of the readership. As far as I know Stan Lee's politics are moderate US liberal (too liberal for Steve Ditko but too conservative for Kirby) but whilst he may have had sympathies with the student radicals, the tone of the story feels far more pro administration, showing it as trying to work reasonably and only disrupted by outside influences.

The other big sign of the changing times comes in issue #125 sees the strip make only its second visit to Vietnam. And it's a very interesting take on the war. Coming at the start of 1970, when in the real world the US embarked on a policy of "Vietnamization" to transfer the burden of active ground conflict to South Vietnam, there is no overt sign (at least in black and white) of any military involvement by the US or other foreign countries and instead the war as shown is being entirely fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. US involvement is largely shown as humanitarian, with a high profile neutral doctor going missing and each side blames the other, using his disappearance the intensity of the conflict, so Cap goes on a rescue mission to find the doctor and reduce tensions, helping peace talks along. This is a very different take on the US's overseas military activities from past tales, particularly the gung ho crusading of the Second World War where there was a clear enemy to be fought and victory to be won, or the anti-Communism of many 1960s Marvel stories. Instead, here we have the living symbol of the United States of America on a mercy mission, trying to do his bit to bring about a negotiated peace. The two sides of the conflict are shown as so similar that it's not even clear which is which, with generic terms such as "the enemy" used for the opposing forces and Cap's costume does not yield any mention of whether the US has backed or fought the troops who fire on him. The story does have "goodies" and "baddies" in the form of Cap and the Mandarin (the doctor's actual kidnapper) respectively, but the conflict itself is not reduced to such a level. With only nineteen pages - a victim of Marvel's brief policy of restricting all stories to a single issue - there's not enough space to go into a nuanced consideration of just what the US's role in the world should be, though such a debate was raging at the time. But it's an interesting step away from Cap's origins as a flag waving crusader and implicitly reflects the question raised by Cap himself in his earlier soliloquy as to just what his role is in a changed world.

What of the overall direction of the series? We get yet more conflicts with the Red Skull and Cap working for S.H.I.E.L.D. plus tensions between him and Sharon over the latter's work (though oddly these aren't explicitly presented as a clash of generational views on the role of women), but a few small attempts to develop a distinctive niche. At one point Cap fakes the discovery of a mask that makes the world assume that "Steven Rogers" was just a disguise adopted by him, allowing him to regain his secret identity, and he moves out of Avengers Mansion, though because of his lack of background or identification the only place he can find to live is a bedsit. Still it allows him to start to find his own place in the world. Although a number of his adventures still arise out of his S.H.I.E.L.D. or Avengers connections, Cap is also starting to assemble some of his own connections. But first there are his existing relations.

The volume kicks off with the revelation that Agent 13's real name is Sharon Carter. Why it's taken so long for Steve to discover this is a mystery, as are the circumstances in which he learnt it. Still it gives her a stronger identity of her own, but her role in these adventures is a mixture of being absent of S.H.I.E.L.D. missions and disagreeing with Cap about whether she should step back from the danger, to the point they split. Also fading out for now is Rick Jones who is dismissed by what he thinks is Cap (actually the Red Skull in disguise) and concludes he will never be a true successor to Bucky so he tears up his mask and leaves Avengers Mansion and the series, departing for new ventures in Captain Marvel.

But the big introduction is the Falcon. Another character whose real name isn't initially given (though that's rectified in his second appearance), he is first encountered on the Exiles' island where he's been tying to help the native population fight back against the intruders; he is a bird handler with his own falcon, Redwing. Lacking success until now, he accepts the suggestion of a stranger - Cap in the form of the Red Skull - that he adopt a symbolic identity to inspire them and so he becomes the Falcon. Working together with Cap to defeat the Red Skull, he shows himself to be a good viable character and one who works well with Cap. Although he opts to settle and stay in Harlem, there is a clear level of respect between the two suggesting that they can work together as equals against the various threats Cap faces.

Introduced in the last issues of the first volume but not really used until now are the Exiles, a group of would-be conquerors from various powers who've been in hiding since the end of the Second World War. Made up of characters with names such as Baldini, Gruning, Cadavus, Iron-Hand Hauptmann, Krushki, General Ching and Gottfried, between them they represent most of the US's main enemies of the preceding thirty years. Baldini even looks a bit like Mussolini and Gruning like Göring, and the group as a whole reminds me of the assembly of various anti-American leaders in the opening scene of the film The Naked Gun, but getting there a couple of decades earlier. The group initially work with the Red Skull but later fall out when he refuses to share the power of the recovered cosmic cube. However he is brought down by the intervention of Modok and AIM. Meanwhile Batroc returns, this time working with the Swordsman and the Living Laser, both from the pages of the Avengers, or the Trapster from Strange Tales and the Fantastic Four, or the Scorpion from the Amazing Spider-Man, plus the aforementioned Mandarin from Iron Man. We also get some more traditional propagandising when the Chinese, under the orders of Mao Zedong (though he's not actually named on panel; which seems to have been standard practice for depicting real world leaders of hostile states), created a replica of Cap intending it to kill and replace him then destroy his reputation. New foes include Doctor Faustus, a criminal psychiatrist and illusionist, Madame Hydra, now better known as the Viper, the ruthless female commander of the organisation, the Man-Brute, the result of an attempt to recreate the super soldier serum, Suprema and Scarbo, siblings who performed a hypnotism act but have now turned to trying to become crimelords, and Diamond Head, the leader of a black supremacist group.

Issue #109 carries yet another retelling of Cap's origin (in issue #121 a character actually thinks to himself "the origin of Captain America has been told and retold endlessly" before leading into a brief two-page further retelling), with the main addition being the use of "Vita-Rays" to accelerate and stabilise the effects of the serum, and move away from the implication that Cap is using a performance enhancing drug. Was it a coincidence that this issue would have been written around the time of the Olympics? However the story retains the awkward origin of Bucky - he discovers Steve Rogers wearing the Captain America costume and immediately deduces that this weakling soldier is the real Cap, who in turn decides he is unable to explain the situation away and instead accepts a minor's demands to become his sidekick in highly dangerous situations. Whilst this dubious scenario dates back to the original telling in 1941, both comics and their audience had grown more sophisticated in the intervening years and it strains credulity that Steve made no attempt to cover up his situation or dissuade Bucky from joining him. He is shown to feel guilt about Bucky's death (which is ruthlessly exploited by Doctor Faustus), but usually it's a mix of survivors' guilt and a focus upon his failure to save Bucky on that critical day, rather than guilt over ever taking on a sidekick in the first place. More on Cap's past comes in issue #112, which has the hallmarks of an emergency fill-in issue as Jack Kirby briefly returns. With Cap presumed dead, Iron Man reviews his Avengers file and the reader is treated to a summary of Cap's career, including name-checking many of his Golden Age foes. By this time in 1969, Marvel had now reprinted a number of his Golden Age adventures in Fantasy Masterpieces and so came the time to acknowledge them as part of the current continuity. However once again the post-1945 adventures weren't addressed, even though the debut of the All-Winners Squad from 1946 had been reprinted there.

Overall this volume works as a fast paced speed through Captain America's continuing adventures but raises more questions than it answers about the lead character's role and purpose in a very changed world. It was bold to actually bring up the problem within the strip itself, but often Cap spends a lot of his time brooding on his problem rather than seeking a solution. There's also a continued overuse of the Red Skull in two more multi-part adventures, whilst most of the new foes don't feel like they'll last too long. But the introduction of the Falcon offers a sign for the future and the dips into real world problems such as chaotic university campuses and Vietnam at least show a willingness to adapt with the times even if the initial attempts aren't the greatest. This is a volume of a series in a degree of transition.

Essential Captain America volume 1

It's Thanksgiving Day in the United States so it's time for a look at the most American of heroes...

Essential Captain America volume 1 contains the Captain America strips from Tales of Suspense (the anthology series which also featured Iron Man) #59-99 and then, following the 1968 expansion of the Marvel line, the series became a solo Captain America, with issues #100-102 included here. All but thirteen issues are drawn by Cap's co-creator Jack Kirby who provides layouts on another three, with finishes by George Tuska, Dick Ayers and John Romita. Tuska and Romita also draw a few issues as do Jack Sparling and Gil Kane. As a bonus is a story from the 1940s Captain America Comics drawn by Joe Simon, Cap's other co-creator. Everything is written by Stan Lee, bar one issue by Roy Thomas.

Looking back it's astonishing how long it took to revive Captain America in the Silver Age. A new version of the Human Torch was present from Fantastic Four #1 and the original Namor the Sub-Mariner was revived as early as Fantastic Four #4, but Captain America took longer to appear and was first given a try-out via an impostor in the Human Torch's strip in Strange Tales. Eventually he was resurrected in Avengers #4 but as a team member and it took several more months before he finally got a solo strip. By this point all the big name early Silver Age Marvel titles and characters had appeared, and so the Captain America strip comes from Marvel's second phase of the Age when the main burst of creation had now passed and the focus was upon consolidation and giving deserving existing characters their own strips. Captain America's came just a few months after the Hulk's strip had been restored, whilst some months later the Sub-Mariner would also swim forth in solo tales.

The early stories in this volume suggest part of the reason for this hesitation was down to Kirby and Lee simply not knowing what to do with the character. We get an initial four strips in which little is developed and instead there are three tales of Captain America simply fighting large numbers of foes and one where he goes to Vietnam (long before the US's presence there became controversial back home) and confronts an ex-Sumo wrestler turned general. The whole thing is still heavily tied into the Avengers with the first story starting at Avengers Mansion whilst the already established Jarvis and Rick Jones are the only supporting characters and Baron Zemo the only significant foe appearing.

Issue #63 sees a serious change of pace by retelling Captain America's origin, followed by further adventures from his war years. At the time war comics were still part of the landscape and as well as tapping into that vein this approach also allowed readers to see Cap's early years at a time when the originals would have been hard to access. Issue #65 even declares "we wrote it in the style of the 1940's because so many of you have wondered how these stories were written years ago". I'm not convinced the tale printed actually answers such curiosity and anyway at this point (early 1965) most of the glimpses of the Marvel Bullpen given in other comics had focused upon writers and artists brainstorming ideas rather than the nuts and bolts of whether the dialogue was written at the same time as the plot or after the pictures had been drawn. However it helps reinforce the nostalgic approach to this part of the series.

The sequence itself establishes some details, most obviously restating Cap's origin albeit in a condensed form, and then showing the importance of Bucky. Also revived in these strips is Sergeant Duffy, who routinely puts Private Steve Rogers through his paces at the army camp, little realising he's ordering Captain America around. There are a few other appearances of Golden Age characters, most notably both of the 1940s Red Skulls, with the precise relationship between the two restated, perhaps to see off any confusion if some of the original stories were to be reprinted. Issue #64 features an American female spy identified only as "Agent 13", but it's not clear if this was meant to be a deliberately unnamed Betsy Ross (to prevent confusion with the character in the Incredible Hulk strips), later the Golden Girl, from the Golden Age stories, or instead to be a new character, later expanded a little as Cap's wartime romance and the sister of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s modern day Agent 13, or if she's a completely one-off character and it's just a coincidence the code name was reused. I suspect she was most likely intended to be a new character to take the place of Betsy Ross in the modern telling of Captain America's war years - at this stage Marvel wasn't following exact continuity with its pre-1960s superhero titles (Captain America having been out of action since the end of the war being the most obvious example) and in as far as the point was actually considered this was a soft reboot of the character rather than retellings and new tales slotted around two decades-old comics that next to none of the 1960s readership were likely to have seen. However she isn't seen again in this run of war stories.

Otherwise the stories are broadly true to the spirit of the earlier tales, with Captain America and Bucky taking on a mixture of saboteurs at home, including a new take on the first ever appearance of the Red Skull, attempts to steal weapons and assassinate key officers, and taking on a scientist who has developed special weapons. This last one is probably the least likely to have appeared at the time as it focuses upon Nazi spies and traitors in the United Kingdom seeking to use rockets to destroy London, technology that came late in the war and probably wouldn't have been the focus of fiction at the time. The stories also give us the origin of the true Red Skull, setting him up for the future. Overall these tales are okay but beyond establishing some key points about Cap's past - something that later issues will do even better whilst staying in the present day - they don't really add much. It just reinforces the idea that Kirby and Lee just didn't know what to do with the hero. He served a strong role in the Avengers, to the point he was fast being recognised as the definitive member, but on his own he seemed an anachronism. Perhaps this is why in the strip itself in the present day we would often see Steve Rogers feeling the weight of the years and the curse of being a man out of his time. The gap between 1945 and the mid-1960s may not seem much from today's perspective, but a lot can change in twenty years. On the same scale, today is about the same distance from the end of the Cold War, the first Gulf War and major leaps in technology. There may have been a connected network of computers and portable telephones then, but nothing like the modern internet and the mass use of mobiles and smartphones of today. The number of channels available on the average television set has exploded. Global terrorism has soared as the great concern in world affairs. Fashions have changed a lot. Political ideas have risen and fallen. A person from the early 1990s who awakened today would find many things different and strange.

One thing that doesn't change so much is the concept of patriotism and loyalty to the flag. In many subsequent eras writers on Captain America would delve into the nature of this, at times exploring just what the flag and "America" actually symbolise, how Captain America could be loyal to the country yet opposed to the actions of the government of the day, just what his own vision of the American Dream is and how it squares with alternative visions, and the darker side of America. But here there's very little of that. One issue sees Captain America on a mission in Vietnam but it's the only time he goes there and there's not much overt propagandising in the story. Nor is there in another issue when Cap goes to a Far East Communist country to rescue an agent working under cover - it could be any hostile power for all the difference it makes. The retelling of the origin does state that Cap is "A new defender, born in an hour of need -- destined to be a living symbol of the glory that is America!" but that's about the fullest extent of it. Captain America may have a patriotic name and a costume based on the flag but here there's no actual development beyond this and he's just a big name superhero from the Second World War revived in the present day.

In the present day Cap frequently can't escape the shadow of the war. The return to the present kicks off with a multi-part story in which a giant robot built by the Red Skull and stored in three parts, called "Sleepers", emerges from hibernation after twenty years and tries to destroy the world. Later on the Red Skull is revived in the present day in issue #79 and over the next twenty-four issues he appears in no less than three multi-part stories. It's even more noticeable when bearing in mind that the half-length format of the strip until #99 means that this is the equivalent of just thirteen and a half full-length issues. Other foes include Batroc the Leaper, a French fighter with zees outrageous accent. Maybe he was a rare example of the influence of world politics at a time when the Americans (and many, many others) found de Gaulle to be a right pain. Cap also takes on a number of shadowy organisations, most of them already seen in the Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. strip over in Strange Tales. Amongst them are new group "Them", the nucleus of the existing A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics), who develop the Super Adaptoid. Meanwhile the wider A.I.M. creates the Cosmic Cube, which the Red Skull steals to gain incredible power, though he doesn't use much of it before he is defeated and the Cube lost. Later on A.I.M. appear again, led by their own creation, the genetically advanced Modok. Then there's the terrorist group Hydra. A trip to Wakanda and team-up with the Black Panther sees Cap at first think he's up against a resurrected Baron Zemo, but it turns out to be Zemo's ex-pilot taking on the mantle. Other one-off foes include the Swordsman and Power Man, both from the Avengers, who are both briefly used by the Skull, plus various assorted thugs or the Sniper, a top marksman.

At times the series seems to forget that Cap has spent most of the time since the war trapped in an iceberg, as we find him looking over old items such as the Red Skull's list of locations of the Sleepers, or old photographs including the mysterious woman who worked with the French Resistance who he fell for during the war. He wonders why she never tracked him down afterwards, as though he was around all the time to be found. He eventually finds a woman who resembles her, but she's too young to be the same woman. In fact, although Cap doesn't discover this on panel, she is his wartime sweetheart's younger sister (a point that has had to be retconned in recent years as the war grows ever further distant in time). "Agent 13" is never actually given a name in the series even though she already knows Cap's real one. The two find themselves drawn to each other without realising it and at one point Steve actually proposes to her, but she declines because of her duty to S.H.I.E.L.D. This leads to Steve briefly retiring as Cap, and actually admitting his identity to the world in the process, but he comes back after a succession of copycats come to grief. He and Agent 13 continue together and it's clear her skills make her a good partner for him.

On two occasions Cap faces foes who want to steal his shield to make use of the transistors Iron Man installed in it back in the pages of Avengers. The first time is in issue #62, not long after Cap has realised what a mistake this is and removed them, but issue #87 sees a similar plot years later, albeit from a fill-in writer, Roy Thomas. Perhaps this is a early example of a fill-in story being held in reserve for so long that by the time it was needed it was out of date?

Overall I felt this volume shows a series that's really treading water more than anything else. There's very little attempt to develop much, whether a civilian life for Steve Rogers or a substantial Rogues' Gallery. At times his connections to either the Avengers or Nick Fury provide him with some support and directions towards adventures, but there's not much that really gives the series its unique flavour. Nearly a fifth of the volume is taken up with wartime adventures, and many other issues also draw on those days, most obviously the encounters with the Red Skull and both the real and fake Baron Zemo. This limits somewhat the effect of showing the effects upon Cap of being a man out of time and adapting to life in this strange new world. Instead we have the "Living Legend of World War II" all too often trapped by other legends of World War II. Only Agent 13 represents any real sign of development for the future. Other strips in the anthology titles had managed to develop a lot within the confines of just ten to twelve pages a month so it's not as if the available length is an excuse. There just seems to be a lack of bold imagination and too great a willingness to wallow in the memory of the Golden Age.

Essential Marvel Horror volume 1 - artist creator labels

We have a volume with a huge number of creators, so here's a separate post to carry the labels for most of the artists.

Essential Hulk volume 1

Essential Hulk volume 1 contains, in the original edition, all six issues of the original Incredible Hulk series and then the Hulk strips from issues #60-91 of Tales to Astonish (the anthology series that also starred Ant-Man/Giant Man and which later featured Namor the Sub-Mariner). Everything in the volume is written by Stan Lee. Jack Kirby draws the first five issues before being succeeded by Steve Ditko who carries on into the early Tales to Astonish stories. Kirby then returns for a few issues before switching to do layouts which are finished by a mix of "Mickey Demeo" (Mike Esposito moonlighting whilst at DC), Bob Powell, Scott Edward, John Romita and Bill Everett, then issue #84 is credited to "Almost the whole blamed Bullpen". After this (and probably not coincidentally) we get full pencils from John Buscema and Gil Kane. Later editions have added the Hulk's guest appearance in the Giant-Man strip in Tales to Astonish #59 (written by Stan Lee and drawn by Dick Ayers) which served as a trailer for the Hulk's own strip. (This strip can also be found in Essential Ant-Man volume 1.)

This is literally a volume of two halves albeit unequal ones. The first consists of the original Incredible Hulk series that lasted just six issues back in 1962-1963. Reports are divided as to whether it actually a poor seller or if it was just a victim of Marvel's limited number of titles due to its distribution deal and displaced by Sgt Fury and his Howling Commandos. But either way the result was that the Hulk soon lost his own title and was relegated to wandering through the pages of other books such as the Fantastic Four, the Avengers and even the Amazing Spider-Man. Then after about a year and a half without his own feature, he was given a slot in Tales to Astonish.

This disjoint in the early years has often affected how they've been viewed. The original six issues have been reprinted many times - a pocketbook reprint lent to me by a friend many yeas ago was the first time I read any Silver Age Marvel stories (but I honestly can't remember what colour the Hulk was in the first issue) - but there's been much less attention given to the Tales to Astonish strips. Indeed a note at the start of the original edition of this volume specifically states that many of them hadn't been reprinted "since... well, even Stan Lee can't remember when!" (The Masterworks didn't start on them until a few years later.) It's apologising for the variation in reprint quality due to the nature of the archival material, but it's also a reminder that the Hulk entered his first forgotten era earlier than almost any of his contemporaries.

(The reprint quality is more than passable though. Indeed the worst looking page in my edition is actually one with 1990s artwork! It's a divider page between the two series with the front and back cover art on either side. Unfortunately one side seems to have the images overlaid on each other, like a double exposure. Later editions have better reproduction and lack the note.)

The Hulk's origin story is mostly timeless but there's one element that has bcome dated. Scientist Bruce Banner develops a powerful bomb emitting a special kind of radiation but gets caught in the blast of an undelayed test whilst saving a teenager who has wandered onto the site for a bet, and the resulting energy causes him to change into a monster - that's pretty easy to map to any era. Yes there's a bit of silly science about the effect of the rays. The arms race may have been a more prominent factor of the Cold War but even today nuclear weapons are a live and argued issue and it doesn't matter if it fits current US weapons testing policies. It's the presence of a Communist agent amongst the test staff and the interest of the Soviets that makes the first issue a little dated, though one could reasonably airbrush Igor into being a generic foreign spy of an unnamed or fictitious country. (Making him an alien infiltrator in disguise might be simultaneously timeless and also true to the spirit of some of the era's science fiction but... well... "Yeeesh!") The origin is retold in issue #3, for no real purpose (unless it was to fill up the page count), but with all the spy elements removed.

There are some other aspects to the series that show the silliness of the time, most obviously the way that Bruce is able to obtain a lot of scientific equipment on the sly and easily assemble everything from a gamma machine to the door to the Hulk's underground prison, with a ten foot thick concrete slab held in place by a steel rod. Later on Rick Jones is able to obtain and install a replacement rod with no-one noticing. And there's one issue where Rick is able to charter a private plane at only a few minutes' notice to fly him and the Hulk to confront the latest villain.

One thing rapidly becomes clear that there didn't seem to be a strong sense of direction for the series. At first we get the tale of a man who transforms into a brutish monster at night - a latter day take on Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, or at least the popular impression of it. But this doesn't last and soon we shift towards the scenario of the Hulk being a mistrusted hero and Bruce controlling the transformation through a gamma ray machine. However issue #6 shows signs that the control is beginning to break down with delayed and incomplete transformations and then signs that the change can be brought on by extreme aggression. Issue #6 also sees the Hulk granted a Presidential pardon, suggesting a further shift in direction but the run ends before we can see where it goes. The Hulk's personality is initially that of a simple giant but midway through Bruce gains control of the monstrous form. However there are signs that either Bruce is losing control to the Hulk's personality or else he is changing with the power, as the Hulk becomes ever more brutish.

We also see the debut of the most prominent of the Hulk's supporting cast, with all of them introduced on the first few pages of the original issue. Rick Jones is a carefree orphaned teenager who sneaked onto the test site for a bet, but he rapidly becomes loyal to Bruce for saving his life. Rick is about the only teen sidekick in the early Silver Age Marvels - teenagers are otherwise the stars, full members of teams or absent altogether. But unlike many DC sidekicks, Rick largely helps away from fights, looking after Banner/the Hulk, obtaining equipment for him and so forth. At one stage a second accident temporarily results in the Hulk being under Rick's control, a very different arrangement from the norm. At the end of the series Rick and friends form the "Teen Brigade" (well it was 1963) of amateur radio operators across the country to help when needed. The slang was probably dated even at the time but it's good to see some independent organisational initiative. However the main romantic interest is a bit of a washout. Betty Ross at this stage is a rather weak Daddy's Girl who has fallen for Bruce and will defend him against her father's criticisms but otherwise seems to spend most of her time pining for Bruce, being scared by the Hulk or serving as a damsel in distress to be rescued. It's only in the very last few panels that she and Bruce step out together.

Betty's father becomes the Hulk's main foe. General "Thunderbolt" Ross rapidly decides the Hulk is a menace, in part because of Betty's fear of him. Most issues see him trying to capture or destroy the Hulk and sometimes the former is achieved but not for long. Although other military officers are shown with a sceptical view of the Hulk's attempts to do good, Ross believes the worst at all times and thinks others are tricked. The result is a tense backdrop as the Hulk is often on the run and in hiding.

The Hulk battles several other foes in these tales but it's surprising how obscure most of them have remained. The first issue features the Gargoyle, a man deformed by bomb tests who is now a genius working for the Soviets but wishing only to be normal again. He gets his wish in the issue and dies at the end. Death isn't normally an obstacle for a Marvel villain but as far as I'm aware he's never returned outside flashbacks. Issue #2 has that traditional type of enemy, an alien race seeking to invade Earth, though with the Toad Men we actually get an entire invasion armada, rather than just an advanced scoutship as is more normally the case. Issue #3 sees the first big name villains in the form of the Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime. And at this stage it's amazing they can get away with their trick - they turn up in a small town, hold a circus performance where they hypnotise the audience and make them hand over all their valuables before going round the rest of the town to do the same to the handful of inhabitants who didn't come. Then they leave for another. It's little surprise that the FBI soon spot the connection. Issue #4 sees an attack by Mongu "the Gladiator from Outer Space!" but he's just a Soviet agent in a giant suit trying to catch the Hulk and I don't think he's been seen since. The following issue introduces General Fang, a Chinese warlord, and Tyrannus, another underground ruler. Finally issue #6 sees the debut of the Metal Master, an alien with the power to control and change the atoms of all metal. Oddly, despite the tendency of Marvel to leave few ideas unmined, very few of these foes have made many return appearances. The Ringmaster and the Circus of Crime and Tyrannus are about the only ones who've popped up a lot but the rest have made few to none.

These early issues show a series in flux, not really sure whether it wants to be a monster saga or a superhero series. Elements of both genres are present but without a firm sense of direction and at some points such as issue #3 it feels as though the intention is to start again, retelling the origin and transforming the Hulk. Whereas later eras of the Hulk would make a virtue out of constant change, here it feels more like uncertainty. The result is a weak series that deserved a break and a chance to try again later.

Tales to Astonish #59 has been added to later editions and at the time it would have served as a mini recap of the Hulk's status quo. Giant-Man and the Wasp head to New Mexico in the hope of convincing the Hulk to rejoin the Avengers but interference by the Human Top results in Giant-Man and the Hulk battling it out. It's interesting to see some minor changes in the Hulk from his portrayal in his original series - now Bruce Banner changes when he gets stressed and the Hulk doesn't seem to have any of Bruce's mind in control (although he retains the memory that Giant-Man is after him). We're on the Hulk's initial stomping ground and both Betty and Thunderbolt Ross are reintroduced (Rick, however, is now hanging out with the Avengers and Captain America). It's a fairly straightforward tale that could be forgotten.

The revived series in Tales to Astonish picks up largely where things were left off, although Rick is initially away with the Avengers. Early on, we're introduced to the military base's new security chief Major Glenn Talbot, a further antagonist for both the Hulk and Bruce, and a rival for Betty's affections. Talbot is rather unlikeable for much of the run but towards the end he has temptation dropped in his lap when he takes a call clearing the Hulk and could delay relaying the news until it's too late, thus giving him a chance with Betty, but instead realises his duty is to pass on the message immediately.

Once the strip is restored, it rapidly establishes that Bruce transforms into the Hulk at moments of extreme stress and anger, the best known cause of change between the characters. Curiously it's also used to change him back to Bruce until issue #67 when calmness and rest now achieve this. Up until issue #66 the Hulk talks fluently, albeit in a slightly "gangster" manner, but then he starts speaking in the more primitive "Hulk smash!" speech pattern best associated with the character. Issue #70 sees Bruce's mind once more controlling the Hulk but steadily the latter's brutish nature takes over.

Issue #64 sees Rick confessing Bruce's secret to the President (not shown, either because the issue came out near election time or nobody wanted to repeat a notorious mistake Action Comics made when an issue went on sale featuring John F. Kennedy just after his assassination), feeling he will never betray it and can give help. From a modern perspective it's odd to see such reverence given to a mere elected politician. From at least Richard Nixon onwards the phrase "If you can't trust the President of the United States, who can you trust?" has had a very different meaning. The President makes a few further appearances with less reluctance to show him as Lyndon Johnson, but an executive order giving Ross the power to grant the Hulk an amnesty comes too late. Later on when the Hulk is believed to have been destroyed, Rick confesses the secret to Talbot in the hope of clearing Bruce of charges of being a traitor to his country. This has the effect of changing the long term dynamics of the series as Bruce will be ever more a fugitive, though at this stage he's able to hold off the army and prove his worth.

One reason why many of the stories appear to have had few reprints is the continuous serial nature of them. With only ten pages an issue the strip opted to tell an ongoing epic with each issue flowing into the next from issues #60 through to #79. This suits a continuous reprint format series perfectly, but isn't so good for pick 'n mix collections which is probably half the reason why so few had had recent reprints when this volume first came out. The early issues focus on an epic story involving the Leader, another human exposed to gamma rays but on this occasion his brain has been enhanced instead of his strength. The Leader has developed much technology, including his "Humanoid" minions, an artificial lifeform especially grown, and he is seeking to steal various forms of further technology to advance his goals and spots the potential for using the Hulk. This ultimately leads to his sending the Hulk to the home of the Watcher to obtain the "Ultimate Machine" - something that looks like a goldfish bowl but contains all the knowledge of the universe. Here the Leader's intelligence is his own downfall as the machine overloads his mind and kills him.

The Leader is by far the biggest foe introduced in these issues, though in the last few issues we also see the debut of the Abomination. Otherwise the new foes introduced are comparatively minor players for the Hulk, though some have played bigger parts elsewhere - the Amphibian, the Secret Empire and the Boomerang. We also get a handful of foes from other series including the Chameleon, the Executioner, the Mole Man and the Stranger. It's interesting to see a number of themes that would appear again during Peter David's epic run on the character. As well as a Hulk who seemingly fuses both his and Bruce's personalities, there's a trip to a dystopian future, and conflict between different sub-surface rulers (also a step towards tidying up some of the duplication in the early Marvel universe). In a way it suggests the Hulk was taken back to his roots, even if those roots were pretty obscure.

Towards the end of the volume there appear to be signs of the series meandering with some abrupt changes of direction. Issue #81 introduces the Secret Empire, a shadowy criminal organisation, and over the next few issues there's considerable build-up as we see the start of a power struggle. But then the Secret Empire abruptly disappears from the strip and the only acknowledgement comes a few issues later when Boomerang comments on how they've now been "smashed". Possibly this is a consequence of the art chaos as the crucial issue would have presumably been #84 which is drawn by "Almost the whole blamed Bullpen", suggesting a rush job to get the issue to the presses in which key plot points were lost. (Actually the Secret Empire was picked up in the other half of Tales to Astonish in the Sub-Mariner strip but there's nothing here to actually tell the reader of this.) Later on there's a report of an attempt on Betty's life but we never see it. The art situation also results in the last four issues here being some of the worst art in the entire volume. Gil Kane drew many great comics in his career but all artists can have their off moments and this is one of his. The art is far too cartoony, with both the Hulk and the Abomination looking especially silly, and it detracts from a crucial moment as for the first time the Hulk battles a super strong foe that is the product of gamma rays. Often the best foes for a hero are those who offer a dark reflection of them and the Abomination is the obvious candidate to serve that role with the Hulk. Unfortunately we get a rather limited clash here before the Stranger takes the Abomination away, and the art just lets it down completely.

In general the Tales to Astonish strips aren't really anything spectacular. When read together they flow quite quickly, but readers at the time must have found the ongoing stories took forever to complete. Although we get a couple of new foes with strong potential, one is killed off in his first storyline and the other taken away from Earth. Neither of these necessarily restrict a villain's use in the future but they can leave the series in a weakened state in the meantime. The chaos surrounding the Secret Empire is a real let down, especially as all the issues have the same scripter. Add in the repeated pursuit and conflict with the military, which can eventually tire, and it's all a bit of a letdown. Consequently this era of the Hulk somewhat deserves its obscurity.

Overall this volume shows that the Hulk is a great idea on paper but very difficult to realise in practice. The original series shows a complete uncertainty about what to do with the character and when revived later on he's let down by very long storylines, repetition with the military and some artistic confusion. Perhaps the original series had a mercy killing and there's not a great deal in the rest of the volume to suggest the best direction for the Hulk had yet been found.

Essential Luke Cage, Power Man volume 1

This one is sometimes also listed as "Essential Power Man", in part because of where the series's ever changing title eventually went (but we'll wait until issue #50 for that) and in part because "Luke Cage" was never actually part of the original series's registered title (but that's all in the legal information). Anyhow whatever it's called, it contains the first twenty-seven issues of the character's series, which was entitled on the cover "Luke Cage, Hero for Hire" until issue #16 then "Luke Cage, Power Man" until issue #49. The only missing material is a back-up reprint in issue #15 of a story from the 1950s Sub-Mariner Comics #35.

The first issue is written by Archie Goodwin and drawn by George Tuska with "Creative contributions" by Roy Thomas and John Romita. After that the writing is by variously Goodwin, Steve Englehart, Gerry Conway, Tony Isabella, Len Wein and a fill-in by Bill Mantlo, with some co-scripting by Billy Graham. The art is mainly by Tuska, Graham and Ron Wilson with the last issue here drawn by George Pérez.

The lead character's origin is relatively straightforward but with enough elements that allow for several stories to be spun out of it. Framed for a crime he didn't commit by his partner who steals his girlfriend, who is later killed in a car crash, and jailed, Carl Lucas agrees to undergo a scientific experiment in the hope of a parole. A maverick prison officer interferes in the experiment and he winds up with super strength and skin as strong as steel. Thinking he's killed the officer, Lucas flees and escapes but finds difficulty in getting a job without a past. Then after being given a reward he decides to go into business as a hero for hire under the alias "Luke Cage". It's a surprisingly natural approach to origins. Cage doesn't have huge resources he can draw upon or even a supportive relative and altruism is all well and true but it doesn't put food on the table. He's in a down to earth situation dealing with ground level problems and is all the stronger for it.

It's no secret that Marvel hasn't had many successful black characters over the years. There have been a number on various teams, most obviously Storm of the X-Men, but it's often difficult to transfer a team member to an ongoing solo title. The Falcon became a co-star with Captain America for an extended period but buddy books aren't quite the same thing as solo titles (again something to come back to when considering issue #50). Of the solo title characters, only two have so far been collected in the Essentials - Luke Cage and Black Panther, but they're by far the most successful. The only others whose titles lasted two years or more that I can think of are War Machine and Deathlok (but give the current Ultimate Spider-Man a few more months). But note that most of those names have used by more than one character, sometimes without any actual connection between them, and the most prominent versions have used other identities. Both problems have afflicted other prominent black Avengers, such as the second Captain Marvel/the first Photon/Pulsar or Triathlon/the second 3-D Man, and the same is true of Black Goliath/the second Giant-Man. I've probably got the numbering wrong on some of those. But the general point stands that multiple identities for a character and multiple characters for an identity can often drown their profile in confusion and limit their opportunity to grow in popularity. Perhaps that's why the moniker "Luke Cage" has been the primary usage in recent years (although even during the 1997 title Heroes for Hire the term "Power Man" could be found on covers), as it's much harder for that name to get taken by a different character.

And the names themselves can be a mess. A lot of black superheroes of this era wound up with "Black" in their name - e.g. Black Goliath, the Black Panther or (over at DC) Black Lightning. As late as 1981, the cartoon character Blackstar was going to be black until somebody decided such an approach was cliched and made him white. (Changing the name might have been better, even if he was someone who had gone through a black hole.) Luke Cage was lucky to avoid this but could have come close - in issue #17 when he's looking for a new name he says "Just chalk it up to black power, man" and thinks "Black power, man? Power Man?" and decides on the latter as his codename. Luckily he didn't go down the road of "Black Power Man" which sounds as silly as "Black Goliath" - neither of the earlier heroes were "White Goliath", nor for that matter was the villain who later took the "Goliath" name but at this stage was still called "Power Man".

Speaking of the previous Power Man, he shows up in issue #21, seeking to stop Cage from using his name but instead loses and gets told to find another. It's a rare appearance from the wider Marvel universe and amazingly for an early 1970s Marvel series it instead largely focuses on creating its own characters and villains instead of drowning the hero in guest appearances. The first significant foe from outside doesn't appear until issue #8 but you can't get much bigger than Doctor Doom. Bizarrely he hires Cage to take down some renegade androids who look like people, and chooses the Hero for Hire because the androids are black and none of Doom's Latverian subjects are. Then Doom chooses to shut down the Latverian Embassy in New York rather than honour his subordinate's promise of a fee of US $200 and this leads Cage to visit the Fantastic Four to borrow a rocket to pursue Doom for the debt where he briefly gets involved with a rebellion led by the mysterious Faceless One. However this story has no full on team-up with the Four, whilst a Spider-Man appearance promised on the back cover is largely just a glimpse of an encounter that took place over in the Amazing Spider-Man (covered in Essential Spider-Man volume 6). Otherwise issues #24 & #25 see Cage visit California where he clashes with the Circus of Crime and also introduces a new hero. The dialogue isn't always clear if he's "Goliath" or "Black Goliath" but the cover puts it beyond doubt. The most significant team-up with an existing hero comes in issue #17 when Cage somewhat gullibly falls for the story told by Orville Smythe that he's being hired to steal a new deep-space exploration suit to test Stark Industries. This leads to a battle with Iron Man but the two eventually deduce the real culprit.

Apart from these issues, plus the odd reference to his appearance in early issues of The Defenders, Cage largely operates aside from all that. This allows the series to develop on its own terms rather than feeding off an endless string of guest appearances. The signs are that the series initially took off well, starting bimonthly but going monthly with issue #4. However it soon ran into sales problems. Issue #17 brought not only a new name but also a reversion to bimonthly publication. Was it initially riding the wave of the blaxploitation bubble and then declining when that bubble burst? Or is my chronology off? But even with the slip in frequency Cage was blessed with a hard, edgy series that does things a little differently. As well as a hero who solicits money for his services, there's also a dark edge with a number of supporting characters dying. Villains also die easily with many falling to their deaths. And the fantasy element present in many series is downplayed here, with first a ghost and later a vampire revealed to be multiple men in masks.

The main supporting cast are well drawn. Dr Noah Burnstein is the scientist whose experiments empowered Cage in the first place; he now runs a clinic in New York and although he recognises Cage he opts against turning him in, instead encouraging him to find a way to clear his name. Working alongside Burnstein is Dr Claire Temple. Cage helps and protects the clinic and he and Claire soon fall for each other, but there's the brief complication of her former marriage to Bill Foster, now Black Goliath. Once that is resolved Claire and Cage admit their feelings and seem set for further developments. D. W. Griffith is a film student who works at his uncle's cinema which contains Cage's office; he rapidly becomes Cage's strongest friend.

Less lucky characters include Mrs. Jenks, the widow of an indebted accountant who had turned to Cage for help. A less likeable character comes in the form of Daily Bugle journalist Phil Fox who is pursuing Cage for stories. At one stage he discovers Cage's past but then gets involved with Rackham, the prison officer who caused the accident that gave Cage his full powers. In the process Fox and Rackham kidnap Mrs. Jenks, but Fox is killed by Rackham and when Claire discovers the scene she is arrested for the murder. However in the showdown Rackham is killed and Mrs. Jenks is fatally shot; before dying she claims responsibility for Fox's death, freeing Claire. Death also eventually strikes Flea, a street informant who eventually gets poisoned. Luckier are Comanche and Shades, two fellow inmates of Cage's who hunt Rackham; when Cage saves their lives they repay him by not turning him in. A odd character is "Big Ben" Donovan, a lawyer who drunkenly tries to attack Cage when he assumes something is going on with Mrs. Jenks but subsequently becomes a friend and provides his services when needs be.

The new villains are largely low key, and rarely survive their first appearance, often falling to their doom. Diamondback is Cage's former partner who set him up over a woman; now a local crime boss who fights with trick switchblades it seems his capture will clear Cage's real name, but he falls through a skylight and an explosive knife of his detonates, killing him. Gideon Mace is an ex-army colonel discharged in disgrace whose right hand was lost in an explosion and has been replaced by a prosthetic mace. In his fist appearance it seems he has drown because of the mace, but he late resurfaces. A radical extremist who has come to hate what his country has become, he first assembles a militia and later sets up a seal community in the west to keep a community pure. Others include Phantom of 45th Street, a "ghost" who is actually the son of a former business partner of the owner of businesses on the street, Black Mariah, who runs a fake ambulance scam with bodies stolen and looted, or Raymond Fosythe, the seemingly lost grandson of a rich man who is trying to ensure he inherits his grandfather's riches. A particularly odd foe is Marley, who is planning to destroy New York with a nuclear device but decides to see if there are any good people left by disguising himself as a succession of victims and attackers one Christmas Eve. Señor Muerte is a casino operator who adopts a costume with a built in roulette wheel that decides which is his hands contains a lethal electric shock, but when Cage's chains get wrapped around him the shock backfires. Another foe whose weapon accidentally turns on him is Chemistro, who invented a gun that could change material into another form of matter but only temporarily before it disintegrates. He seeks revenge on his former employers who stole the patent, but in a struggle with Cage he turns his own foot to steel and it disintegrates. Also seeking revenge on his employer is Steeplejack, a construction worker whose brothers had an accident and fell to their deaths, but his own blow torch melts the girder and he plummets to his death. Then there's Lionfang, a scientist who transferred intelligence into animals until his funding was cut off; he is yet another foe to fall to his death. Or there are Stiletto and Discus, two would-be mercenaries who try to take Cage in; they turn out to be the sons of his former prison warden. Crimelord Cotton Mouth and his aide, Mr. Slick, had been involved in the crime that Cage was framed for. Realising their records may potentially clear his name, Cage pretends to join them but is soon discovered. Unfortunately he only learns that the sole source of records is Slick after the latter has fallen to his death. The tale also brings Cage into conflict with rival drug dealer Morgan. At the more bizarre end is the Night Shocker, seemingly a vampire but actually a fake set-up to try to get Cage to kill a man for money. And finally there's the Man Called X, a washed up wrestler who temporarily gains extra powers and gets into fights until his manager restrains him - there's a touch of the Spider-Man character "Just A Guy Named Joe" about him and the story is even entitled "Just a Guy Named X", though the manager has a different fate.

Overall this series is reasonably well drawn, though there's something odd looking about issue #18. It's by George Tuska but is more off than other issues - then I spotted it was inked by Vince Colletta. Maybe it's the reproduction but compared to subsequent issues inked by him some of the art looks particularly crude, suggesting Colletta's critics may well have a case. As for the writing it generally holds up well except in one area. Cage's slang has long been a source of dislike and ridicule. I don't honestly know what was standard on the streets on New York in the early to mid 1970s but I'd very surprised if people really did use such classics as "motherless" (and that's often a generic adjective rather than a noun referring to people), "sweet sister" and "Christmas". Cage's most famous expression, "Sweet Christmas", doesn't appear until issue #27, and under his sixth writer, and for much of the volume I wondered if this was a misquotation (or if used later on then a latter day confusion). Would it have been viable to actually do a bit of research to find out just what was actually in use on the street and safe to print? It doesn't sound like it would have required much effort.

But dubious slang aside, this is quite a good start to the series and character. It was a bold move of Marvel's to launch a new character straight off in his own title - most of his contemporaries were given some issues of try-out series to establish a newsstand presence first. Luke Cage was luckier and the series rewarded that faith. We get a self-confident hero who holds his own in spite of his troubled past and who doesn't need endless guest appearances by the rest of the Marvel universe to prop his series up. A few covers proudly highlight Cage as the America's first black superhero - presumably because he was the first to get his own title because otherwise the Black Panther and the Falcon might want words - but there isn't a great overt push of race in the series. At least not one I can spot but I'm a white man in another country reading this forty years later. Cage wears a big chain around his waist "as a kind of reminder", but is that of his time in prison or of his ancestors? I have no idea just how accurate or stereotypical the environment Cage occupies is - but then the same could be said of Iron Man, Daredevil or any number of other series. What I can say is the series broadly works and gives Cage a strong starting point.