Recently in Marvel Comics Category

Marvel Comics' superhero, Captain Marvel, first appeared in Marvel Super-Heroes #12 (1967) and launched his own series soon afterward.  Captain Marvel was a Kree soldier named Mar-Vell and came to Earth wearing a white and green uniform.  After sixteen issues and fading sales, a fashion emergency was called.  Gil Kane drew the cover to Captain Marvel #17 (1969) that proclaimed one of the most extreme makeovers in comics history:

I think Captain Marvel's read and blue costume design is one of the greatest in the world of comics.  The yellow exploding sun in the center of his chest, the mysterious nega bands around his wrist, and the weird half-mask that exposes his hair--every detail just makes him visually unique and unmistakable.

More than just the costume design--it was the way the Gil Kane drew the character.  Don Heck had briefly drawn the new costume at the end of issue #16 and it wasn't nearly as exciting.

Besides the new costume, Captain Marvel #17 has a story that focuses not on Mar-Vell, but perennial sidekick Rick Jones.  After Rick's brief stint as Captain America's all-new Bucky ends, he leaves Avengers Mansion feeling destitute.  Holographic visions of Captain America lead him to a secret base, where he discovers the nega bands.

After donning the nega bands and clanging them together, Rick Jones exchanges places with Mar-Vell, who had been trapped in the Negative Zone.  It seemed like kind of a raw deal to me, but Jones was excited to be back in the superhero game.  Gil Kane really makes Mar-Vell explode back into Earth's dimension in this full page splash.

Roy Thomas crafted this pairing of Rick Jones and Mar-Vell to become the Marvelized science-fiction version of CC Beck's Captain Marvel character.  Rick Jones slamming the nega bands together is akin to Billy Batson saying the magic word, Shazam!  After DC Comics had acquired the rights to Beck's Captain Marvel, they never published a comics series featuring the character.  Their rights to a comic book series with that title had lapsed.  Marvel Comics had latched onto the opportunity, which made perfect sense--here was a Captain named after the company.  But it completely shutdown any future comics from DC with the title Captain Marvel or Captain Marvel Jr--two comics that had a long publication history in the 1940s and 1950s.  One of the smartest landgrabs in the world of comics.

Rick Jones and Mar-Vell basically had a timesharing arrangement as far as "Earth-time" was concerned.  One stayed on Earth, while the other one watched his partner's activities from the Negative Zone.  They remained in telepathic communication, giving each other advice, or in Rick's case, making a lot of jokes.   Years later, Gerry Conway would partner up Firestorm's Ronnie Raymond and Professor Stein with a similar device.

Regardless of this nifty costume change and the Rick Jones gimmick, Captain Marvel was cancelled with issue #21.  Mar-Vell and Rick would go on to play a big role in the Avengers Kree-Skrull war saga.

While Captain Marvel #17 was a landmark issue, it wasn't the first one I bought.  DC Comics revived the Billy Batson Captain Marvel in 1972, in a comic titled Shazam!  I read that one first, but a short time later, Marvel announced they were reviving their character.  I bought Captain Marvel #22 when I saw it on sale at 7-Eleven during the summer in Phoenix, Arizona.  I couldn't quite understand why there were two Captain Marvels, but the cover to issue #22 by Gil Kane really made Marvel's version more attractive.  Mar-Vell's flying in a typical Kane pose and you've got that dude in the foreground where you can see his nostrils.  Nothing says panic like a Kane nose shot!

The cover blurb said:  He's back!  The Hero Who Wouldn't Die!  There you go, I was hooked.  Billy Batson was buddying up with Talky Tawny and exclaiming Holy Moley on every page.  Steranko's History of Comics had explained to me why kids in World War 2 went gaga over CC Beck's creation, but in the 1970s, that seemed weak to a kid raised on Star Trek and Spider-Man.  Mar-Vell had a cool costume and had returned from the dead.  There was no competition in coolness, Mar-Vell had won me over.  Nuff said.

When a new Marvel character appears, they’ve quickly got to establish their rep…by fighting an established hero!  As a young lad, I had devoured all the early adventures of the X-Men and loved Hank McCoy.  Imagine my surprise in 1972 when I saw Hank looking like a grey monkey in  Amazing Adventures #12!

One Avenger: Dead on Arrival!  It looked like the newly mutated Beast had severely beaten down Iron Man on this cover, perfectly executed by Gil Kane.  Had Hank McCoy turned into a villain?  The blurb was right, I couldn't afford to miss it.

Naturally, it was all a big misunderstanding, and Hank became a hero—and blue—after a few issues.  Nuff said.

Wow.  Brian Bendis has been hyping Jim Cheung's artwork in the Avengers 2009 Free Comic Book Day issue, and he wasn't over-exaggerating.  Cheung's artwork is a tour de-force.  He's one of my favorite Avengers artists and he's really knocked himself out drawing this story that features both the New and Dark Avengers, with Thor making a guest appearance.

The story by Bendis is extremely new reader friendly, narrated by Spider-Man, who introduces all the characters and explains why there are two Wolverines and the whole Dark Avengers concept.  It's a done-in-one issue story where the two teams must band together to fight Ymir, the Frost Giant.  I think it's a bit difficult to give all the characters a chance to shine in this story.  Spider-Man, Wolverine, Ares, and Osborne's Iron Patriot get the most attention.

Two things really standout here visually: the new costumes for both Captain America and Thor are truly bad-ass.  Unfortunately, Thor's appearance is very brief and Captain America is kind of hovering in the background.  It's cool to have Bucky as Cap, but we haven't seen him take a strong leadership position as Steve Rogers did.

This Avengers issue is one of the finest comics ever produced for Free Comic Book Day.  I'd happily pay $3.99 for it, and I look forward to seeing it collected in a hardcover collection.  Nuff said.

Drawing a cover for a team book is a unique challenge.  In Adam Kubert's variant cover for New Avengers #50, the characters are not all clustered together.  Here's the pencil rough:

Each hero is charging toward the reader, posed in a unique way that describes their character.  Kubert's left out certain details, like Spidey's webbing that he's going to add himself in the inked version:

I like Spider-Woman's pose here, for some reason that really reminds me of her old school roots.  Now let's see the finished product with color and logo:

Notice how the colorist added the sun sparkle around Ms. Marvel's hands where Kubert had indicated.  The shadows and highlights really make this cover pop.  Nuff said.

Adam Kubert kind of silently migrated back over to Marvel Comics (while his brother Andy is staying put at DC Comics).  I am glad he is back, because we are getting some great covers.  Like this one from Wolverine #73…

I like the design of this cover, with the perspective of Wolverine shot from below the motorcycle.  The speed lines are drawing your attention into Wolverine’s figure.

The color version really pops when you notice those sparkle-reflections from Wolvy’s claws as he hurtles toward this prey. 

This cover gave me an idea.  Wouldn’t Jason Aaron and Adam Kubert produce a kick-ass comic if they worked together?  Nuff said.

An eerie sense of déjà vu possessed me when I looked at the May 2009 Marvel previews.

All New Savage She-Hulk #2 by J Scott Campbell.  She Hulk faces off against the spawn of Thundra and the Hulk!  Add Skaar to this mix and you have a Hulk family reunion.

This shot from behind a woman's legs, facing down her opponent seemed familiar to me.  Where have I seen this before?

Oh yes.  1981.  James Bond.

This movie poster: For Your Eyes Only.  Terrible movie, classic pose.  Loved this a teenager.  Would be better if Roger Moore had been removed.

Swipe or inspiration?  I am sure this isn't the first time someone used the For Your Eyes Only pose.  Nuff said.

Step into the shoes of Nick Fury, leader of S.H.I.E.L.D.

You’ve got thousands of agents, Helicarriers that constantly seem to fall from the sky, Life Model Decoys, and lots of super-gadgets to pay for.  Who pays for that?  Tax-paying True Believers!  And once in a while, Nick Fury has gotta do something great to show our government how these well these billions are actually spent.

In 1971 (Captain America #144), Fury gave President Richard Nixon, Vice President Spiro Agnew, and Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird this little show.

Presenting the newest S.H.I.E.L.D. squad, Femme Force One!  Led by Sharon Carter, Captain America’s girlfriend.  It’s her big chance to prove that women are as valuable to S.H.I.E.L.D. as men, in their skintight super-suits.  Diamondback was never this ambitious.

It sure doesn’t hurt that John Romita drew Femme Force One.  Right on, Sisters!  These girls look like supermodels! It only lasted for two panels, but it made me forget about the Femizons for a while.  Keep in mind, the Wonderbra had not been invented at this point in time.  Right on Sisters!

Nixon’s grinning from ear to ear, but he makes one thing perfectly clear to Fury, by explaining how the government really works.  I really didn’t like Nixon after reading this—he’s treating Fury like a high school dropout!  Basically by the time this proposal makes it through all stages of government, Nixon’s out of office and it’s dropped like a hot potato.

Defense Secretary Melvin Laird also insults Nick Fury in this panel.  You can see why these guys lost the war in Vietnam, they are totally ignoring the dude who saved our bacon time after time.  Spiro Agnew, however, appears to be so sexually excited that he is speechless!  What a horndog he appears to be, grinning from ear to ear.  Hopefully these images were a comfort to Agnew after he resigned in disgrace.

I wonder if Quentin Tarentino read this issue of Captain America?  Uma Thurman makes a reference to a fictitious TV show called “Fem Force Five”. 

I’ll bet anything that John Romita voted for George McGovern.  Nuff said.

I had to struggle to think for awhile about who was my favorite African-American Superheroine.  Misty Knight?  Photon/Captain Marvel?  There aren’t that many major players in this category.  Then the answer hit me, so obvious: Storm (Ororo) from the X-Men!

I really like this cover to Classic X-Men #3 by Arthur Adams.  This was a month in which all Marvel Comics featured a character portrait on the cover.  Adams, who was always great at drawing Storm (more later), captures her nobility and innocence at the same time.

In the early adventures of the new X-Men, Storm was a supporting character.  Sure, we knew she could fly, zap bad guys with lighting bolts and exclaim “Goddess!” when the shit hit the fan.  What I liked was Storm’s inhibitions.  She would come home to the X-Mansion and immediately shed her clothes.  Hey, I was going through puberty, and scenes like this one in X-Men #109 with Peter at the lake helped out a lot.  You can tell what Peter is looking at and thinking about in this scene.  No wonder he has no words to describe his homeland, he’s thinking about doing the nasty with Storm!

After reading this issue, I kept expecting Storm to have a romance with Colossus.  That never happened.  The X-Men thrived on romance triangles, and I was surprised that Claremont never put Storm in this situation.

Storm had a few weaknesses to overcome: mainly her naiveté with city-life and claustrophobia.  She could have been written off as simply eye-candy.

But Chris Claremont loves strong female characters, and had a bigger character arc in mind. 

Storm started to come into her own character after the death of Phoenix.  Scott Summers left the team and Ororo took over as leader.  I remember all the guys in my local comic shop hated this idea with all the intensity of Rush Limbaugh’s dislike for Bill Clinton!  Yet this led to Storm’s defining moment in X-Men #170 (1983) when the team was trapped in the lair of the underground Morlocks.

Callisto, the leader of the Morlocks, was holding Kitty Pryde hostage.  There ain’t nothing more you can do to piss off Storm than to threaten Kitty.  Callisto challenges Storm to a knife fight, with Kitty as the prize.  This fight was well choreographed by artist Paul Smith.  Callisto, who looks like she learned knife fighting in Brazil, gets in a few slices on Ororo.  Then Storm displays a cold-blooded streak of intelligence when she stabs Callisto and calmly walks away, proclaiming herself the leader of the Morlocks!

After this event, we would no longer view Storm as a naive young woman.  We knew she would go to any lengths to protect the mutants on her team. 

This was all happening during a great era for the X-Men.  Claremont and Smith were firing on all cylinders.  We were shocked when this led to Storm’s transformation in X-Men #173 when she became a punk!  Again, most of the guys in my LCS hated this punk look, with the mohawk haircut, leather outfit, and studded collar.  I secretly thought it was totally kinky and hot.  I just love the 1980s and this was one of the highpoints of that decade.

Paul Smith mentioned this remake in an interview done for Marvel Spotlight Uncanny X-Men 500 issues celebration:  Oh my god, that was just a bad joke gone too far!  I knew they were gonna cut the hair, so I did a number of head sketches with varying short hair sytles and as a joke—as a joke—I put a Mr. T Mohawk on her.  Louise Simonson (the editor) looked at it and said, “You know we’re gonna get hung no matter what we do, so let’s commit the crime!”  So we went with the Mohawk.  I went ahead and switched to the Wendy O. Williams (of the Plasmatics) style instead, more free flowing.  But once you get into that, you had to get into the whole leather and stud thing.  So it was just a bad joke that got way out of hand.

Mohawk Storm was used to great affect in the Uncanny X-Men Annual #9 in 1985.  This was the second half of the great Asgardian two-part epic (that began in New Mutants Special #1) drawn by Arthur Adams.  The cover features Storm swinging an Asgardian hammer in a very Kirby-inspired Thor-like pose.  Notice how Storm’s mohawk works so nicely in the middle of that winged helmet.

Storm is the object of Loki’s master plan in this storyline, seducing her with power and brainwashing her to fight her fellow mutants.  Loki creates an Asgardian hammer for Storm, which she wields in this sequence, where Adams competes with another Asgardian artist—Walt Simonson.

There are many other adventures of Storm, but for me, these early ones really stand out in my memory.  There was a backup in Marvel Team-Up #100 (1980) featuring Storm meeting the Black Panther in her youth.  This was later used as the spark to get these two married.  Ororo’s profile in the X-Men universe has diminished somewhat as a result, but it’s interesting to see her working with the team again in Astonishing X-Men.  Nuff said.