The Exploitation of Dr. Doom and Spider-Man

When I reviewed The Amazing Spider-Man #4, I compared the recent Spidey story lines to wrestling matches in that they are essentially pair ups of outrageous characters going up against a no-holds-barred vigilante. Up until then this thematic had worked to create great comic yarns. This time, it did not and this failure is surprising. It is surprising because the antagonist chosen is the well established, fan favourite, Dr. Doom. This issue proves that action for the sake of action, while superficially entertaining, ends up being empty when the reader wises up to the scheme. 

In September 1963 Marvel was crossover mad. They had just risked it all by teaming up mediocre solo performing lines like Thor, Ant-Man and Iron-Man into the Marvel answer to the Justice League: The Avengers. Spider-Man was not invited to that party as his line was the top selling title. This popularity was astounding considering lines like Fantastic Four and Journey Into Mystery had triple the amount of stories and The Amazing Spider-Man was comparatively young. Spider-Man struck a core with readers. To capitalize on that popularity, Stan Lee thought it a good idea to combine the most popular villain (at the time) with the most popular superhero. The stunt makes sense on paper but when reading through the issue it doesn’t pan out. Probably, because the exploitation is so transparent. 

The story begins so well! 

Peter Parker is dealing with jibes and barbs from Flash Thompson while we, as the reader, are privy to the knowledge of Pete’s alter-ego. This knowledge touches the part of every nerd’s heart that yearns to be secretly powerful in the face of bullying. Suddenly, an armoured figure appears over a screen, depicting the schoolyard theatre, suggesting that there is something larger then this teenage drama. Dr. Doom is far worse then any bullying red headed, sweater clad, ‘cool guy.’ Alas, that’s the end of plausibility and excitement for this issue because absurd Lee ‘science’ begins from this point on. Doom, wanting to reach out to Spider-Man because he still smarts from the last encounter with the Fantastic Four and needs a friend, uses the energy waves that are supposedly emanated from spiders to contact Spidey. The idea that any character can just tap into an energy to communicate with any creature is absurd! If anybody can do it, then Ant-Man is negated to being just a really small guy. The whole idea smacks of laziness and convention. 

Lee’s laziness continues when he has Doom offer friendship to Peter then turn around and attack him. Doom is many things but unhinged is not one of them. Historically, it is Doom’s logical calculations that have made him a formidable foe. This irrationality is out of character and serves to leave the resulting conflict empty and without tension. These two characters are going through the motions, albeit very entertaining and well drawn motions. Ditko’s artwork far outreaches the work of Jack Kirby and ably constructs a rich, colourful environment. 

Flash’s accidental capture is the most interesting part of this issue.

The Wasted Flash Thompson moment. 

Thompson gets his hands on an identical Spider-Man costume and attempts to ambush the unsuspecting Parker. Flash believes that Pete is the worst type of coward; afraid of literally everything. The ambush fails and he ends up the prisoner of a very inexplicably angry Dr. Doom. Another irrational moment brought to you by a bastardized Dr. Doom. How can an armour clad Dr. Doom capture a neon red spandex wearing superhero in the middle of a New York road without being seen by anybody?  Certainly not a great plan. The only thing missing from the plan is a baby sans lollipop. This mistaken identity could have been a great twist but is never capitalized on.

What a wasted opportunity. Imagine the story possibility with New York thinking that Spider-Man was the jerky red head jock Flash Thompson. The anger that would have overtaken Pete would be legendary. 

There is much criticism against comics as an important medium. Many believe they are empty, sensationally written, pulp literature. We as comic nerds know otherwise, but when hastily written story lines like this come about, it is very difficult to make the case for the literary significance of Superhero comics. Action, while entertaining, means nothing when character is sacrificed for explosions and ‘what if’ scenarios. What a shame that the two most legendary and 3 dimensional characters of the Marvel Silver Age were sacrificed to sell a large amount of issues. 

Rating: 2 out of 5

Pros: The Art, Spider-Man’s sardonic quips to a rarely tested Dr. Doom and canonicity. 

Cons: Improbable and poorly thought out motivation. Questionable logic. Dr. Doom’s out of character irrationality without explanation. The coincidental nature of the whole issue. 

 Upcoming Review: “The Living Bomb” (Strange Tales #112 Sept 1963)

The First Avengers Team and Marvel Hierarchy

The Story I read: “The Coming of the Avengers” (The Avengers #1 Sept, 1963)

Even the cover feels reverential.

It occurred to me today that my readers on the Marvel wikia are in the dark as to the reason I decided to launch this journey through the complete Marvel comic universe. As my blog followers are already aware, I am an avid DC fan and write often for a lot of fan blogs on DC related topics, particularly Hellblazer. Recently, I became interested in some of the work of Marvel, namely the additions to X-Men, which stirred in me a want to become more familiar with the Marvel Universe as a whole. Not knowing where to start, I plunged into the full comic library and began to write reviews for each one. That was 72 issues ago. 

If there is checkpoints in this quest, the premiere of the Avengers would be the first. It is this moment that a loose knit group of ragtag characters became beings that inhabited a whole far reaching world. Sure, there had been crossovers before this, but they always seemed to be special events that were often hastily written exhibitions stemming from fan requests. This issue, however, is the moment that showed Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and the other Marvel creatives wanted to construct a vast comic gallery that would be able to compete with the massive and older DC counterpart. Reading this story felt almost like a religious moment; if comic fandom could be considered such. 

This story reveals a glimpse into how the Silver Age Marvel world works. On the face of  this, it is a caper flick, not unlike The Dirty Dozen. A group of rag tag Superheros come together to defeat a common enemy.

 Thus enters the Incredible Hulk. 

...Wait a minute. The antagonist is actually Loki. Never mind that, neither Ant-Man, Wasp, or Iron-Man can pose any threat to the trickster god so only Thor confronts him. The rest pursue the supposed villainous Hulk only to find out that he is not such a bad guy. He’s just a circus performing monster who was the victim of an Asgardian plot. I waster 20 pages on this? Is not every Hulk story to date?

This is the problem of Hulk and probably the reason for his lack of success in the period; he is too believable as the villain. He is a selfish, violent monster, who is out for his own survival. Not to mention he is a malady to Bruce Banner. Hulk is difficult to spin as a legitimate hero, for he lacks humanity and a moral code, the two prerequisites for a superhero. It is telling that the Disney Marvel film franchise has had such trouble translating the character to film, till Joss Whedon of course figured it out by making Jekyll and Hyde one: “I’m always angry.” - Says Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce. In the Silver Age, Hulk was not the result of rage as depicted in modern Marvel but is a character that bares more resemblance to Jekyll/Hyde. Perhaps, it was pages devoted to Thor’s solo adventure that happened proper development for Big Green. 

Thor’s contribution to this story bares more similarity to an issue of Journey Into Mystery then as a team up with the Avengers. The moment he found out that Loki had a plot to capture him he flew away to Asgard to fight. The three others duked it out on Earth. This is not the actions of a team mate. There is no group cohesion in this story and I blame it on haphazard writing. The group comes together out of happenstance which results in a themeless issue. Weirdly, this is not the case with the film, which was vaguely inspired by this plot, because of the creation of the S.H.I.E.L.D. assemblage. 

I felt empty at the end of what should have been a fantastic experience. 

I also wonder why it was these five characters that were chosen to be a part of the first Avengers crew. It makes sense that Dr. Strange is not included as he has only had two stories devoted to him by this point and frankly they were very odd. I doubt Stan Lee intended the good Doctor to be a common fixture. The Fantastic Four, though creatively mentioned in the story, have really nothing to do with the creation of the Avengers. This is strange as some time has been spent making the Four (particularly Jonny Storm) the flag ship line. Perhaps, their was a fear that the Four’s egos, the topic of my last review, would over power these less established characters. I for one would have enjoyed a Tony Stark comic lashing of Thing. I know it will come in the future. 

Overall, this is a very messy issue with some really great action with Hulk, and some brilliant use of Ant-Man and Wasp, also some wonderful art by Kirby. Yet, there is an absence of Iron-Man, wasted focus on Rick Jones and his Teen Brigade, and confusion as to the plot. I give this one a 3 out of 5. I flirted with a lower mark but it felt sacrilegious as this Issue is so important and a gamble of an undertaking. This makes the endeavour as a whole, respectable.  

Cold War Xenophobia and The Fantastic Four

The Story I Read: “A Skrull Walks Among Us!” (Fantastic Four #18, Sept 1963)

The Super-Skrull in action.

When I first saw the title of this issue, I held out little hope for a good story as the dreaded word ‘Skrull’ was in the title. The Skrulls made an earlier appearance in the Fantastic Four (issue #2) and it is etched into my mind as a hokey pathetic story that had all the wrong kind of camp. With expectations low, I dove in and, happily, I was surprised. This issue, while no means Earth shattering, is a hilarious little romp that plays with the major weaknesses of the Four. Namely, their egos.

Skrulls are pathetic looking creatures that are reminiscent of frogs and strike me as a fairy tale remnant of the penny dreadfuls Marvel used to create in the Golden Age. Stan Lee attempts to shake that reputation by coming up with a very smart plan for them to beat the Four at their own game. The masters of ‘Skrulldom’ create a Super-Skrull that possesses all the Four’s individual powers in greater quantities. It is established the Skrulls possess some sort of malleability so they seem to create this Super-Skrull in some earlier experiment not discussed. When the fun begins I didn’t care much that I had no clue how the Super-Skrull was created. The fight begins and as is standard Fantastic Four battle strategy each character launches themselves individually to face the extraterrestrial villain. One by one they are all predictably defeated and run back to the penthouse to come up with a new strategy. The plan turns out to be to fool the Super-Skrull into a live burial.  Long story short, they team up, fool the ‘ultra-Frog’ and leave him to die in a hole.  If it weren’t for all the laughs this would be a terrible story. 

Campiness aside this story does have an interesting theme; a theme that has reared its head countless times in these issues. Aliens seem to invade Earth on the regular. Ignoring the fact that highly idiotic normal folk continue going on with their simple lives pretending aliens do not exist and gods aren’t tossing their hammers around New York, it’s astounding that every alien race seems to come to Earth in a petty attempt to destroy superheroes and not, you know, rape the Earth of its resources or resettle the planet. What does this say about the mindset of the 60s sci-fi reader and writer? There is a belief prevalent in which every foreigner and alien wants to destroy the American way of life. This is an expression of Cold War xenophobia which permeated the Red mad West of the time. These stories open a glimpse to the anxieties of the common bread eating full blooded 60s American. Their lives were not all about going to the department store and getting an ice cream float. While they were happy, perhaps the happiest in American history, they lived under the constant threat of dominance and destruction from the Soviets (real or invented, it’s what they believed). It is the duty of every American super hero therefore to destroy or torture anything that doesn't belong. I’d love to see a positive alien force in one of these issues  because the invasion story line is really getting tired. 

As I mentioned before, there is some great moments of humour in this issue. The Four go on a hilarious shopping trip that descends into chaos when they become bombarded with fans.  I laughed as each character in their own way escaped what must surely be a burden to public personalities. The metahumour is many times the best part of the Fantastic Four. By this point Fantastic Four have almost become parodic; less like a series and more like a comment on comics as a medium. 

The art is improving. Detailed backgrounds have become de rigueur and there is a cleanliness to action that was not there even two issues ago. Jack Kirby’s Reed Richard’s facial features have become soft and it looks like he is attempting to shave some years and harshness off his formerly forbidding persona. Maybe in an effort to make the relationship between Reed and Sue more believable. 

This issue is a 3 out of 5. A mundane storyline with a great sense of humour and not a lot to moan about. I remain curious as to the future of the buried Super-Skrull.   

A Cartoon Showing the Irrational Fear of Communism

The Beast Within Captain Kirk (My Trek Through Trek - Part V)

What we’re watching: “The Enemy Within” Episode 4, Season 1 of TOS (October 6, 1966)

My Rating Out of 5 Tribbles: 3 Tribbles that think they are “THE CAPTAIN OF THE SHIP!” 

My After Episode Thoughts: “A brilliant performance that places Shatner in the pantheon of the acting gods.”

Pros: Shatner’s performance, Epic moment in McCoy history, did I mention Shatner’s performance?

Cons: Spock’s supposed logic, Sulu’s B-Plot, the chauvinism, the damned dog in an alien suit!

Shatner Giving IT ALL HE'S GOT!

If there was any doubt that William Shatner is one of the most important and special actors in television history, this episode should put all of them to rest. From the opening moment when we see Beast Kirk materialize on the transporter deck, his presance is astounding.  The way he uses his eyes and physicality to embody his alter-ego’s predatory nature is no easy feet for any actor. Kirk’s two sides are clearly set up as opposites and there is not a lazy moment in which we can see this conceit. His two characterizations are grabbed by the throat and he forces the watcher to believe that his personality has literally split in two. 

William Shatner raves aside, this episode is sadly ‘run of the mill’ and backward. The sexism of the last episode is still frighteningly present. At one point Beast Kirk attempts to rape the unsuspecting Yeoman Rand in a scene that is unsettling and ahead of its time in brutality. The result is a moment that is very unusual for the largely melodramatic television of 60s. A moment of real fear. Grace Lee Whitney who played Yeoman Rand says in her memoir that to achieve the right kind of brutality for the scene Shatner slapped her to catch her off guard. Bill is truly a man that goes into these things full throttle and I wonder if that kind of conduct would be tolerated in this day. 

After this frightening moment the crew allows the Captain interrogate Rand after she accuses him of attempted rape. The prospect of a suspected rapist interviewing the victim is an unpalatable idea and dates the episode horribly. The final dialogue of the episode, uttered by Spock, further serves to paint the show with a chauvinistic brush. Spock suggests to Rand that Beast Kirk had some desirable qualities for a mate. This strikes me as an extremely insensitive and barbaric comment. Trekkers might attribute this up to Spock’s coldly logical nature. I, however, believe it is the result of dated chauvinistic writing, and it really put me off my overall experience. 

Further, I question Spock’s logic in this episode. Usually his logical explanations are entirely on the mark, but in the case of this episode, I am not sure. When Kirk denies the misdeeds that are perpetrated by Beast Kirk, Spock arrives at the conclusion that there must be an impostor aboard the ship. Is this really the most logical answer? Is it not more logical, that with the example of all these crew member's accusations, Kirk maybe lying? No character ever entertains that idea. This seems like a missed opportunity narratively. 

Then again, the episode only had so much time to cover the main story as a lot of screen was wasted on a distracting B-plot. Crew members are freezing on the planet and cannot return to the ship because the transporter is down. In later episodes this conundrum would be fixed by a shuttle bay, but this is still early in the series so no one obviously thought of this yet. The B-Plot only serves to distract from the far more interesting core plot of Kirk’s issues. 

There are two fantastic moments that occur in this episode and they served to etch themselves into Star Trek Lore.First, there is a poor dog in an alien costume that is tossed from character to character. It is the most distracting prop/character I think I have ever seen. The stuffed carcass that later doubles for him would have served better then a nervous canine covered in rainbow fluff. Nevertheless this canine’s performance is iconic and is a running gag in Trekkerdom. Second, this is the first episode in which McCoy explodes toward Jim that something is dead. 

This was the best they could do?

Wow. 

When it happened I actually applauded. It was like the feeling the Wright Brothers must have had at Kitty Hawk. 

What a wondrous moment! 

All problems aside, this episode remains the moment Shatner stepped out from space oddity to the mythological titanic force that he became known for. I am happy I witnessed it but sad it was in a terrible episode. 

Review of Tales of Suspense # 43: The Netherworld of Stark and Silver Age Sexism

What we are reading: Iron Man Vs Kala, Queen of the Netherworld- Tales of Suspense#43

The Spandex Iron Man

When reading through the Silver Age establishment of the Marvel universe you get to see both the very illuminating stories that set up beloved characters and the utterly atrocious, politically backward hogwash, which permeated the comics and the zeitgeist of the period. This Iron Man story is the latter. 

Before jumping into the negatives of this story let’s examine the one positive: the Atlanteans make their first appearance in this one. They are, in later arcs, subterranean threats that are in many ways apocalyptic. Here, though, their motives are flat and really not examined thoroughly. They want to take over Earth because they are angry that a geological event sank their empire. Let’s get revenge on humanity which runs volcanos or something. I don’t know. Even the one positive makes little sense. That being said, this story is a mess. Not only because it espouses backwards Sixties morals but because arc-wise, it has none.

The story begins at Stark Industries in the middle of a wind tunnel test. The tunnel stops working and turns the station into a veritable hurricane. Stark calls down and explains luckily by happenstance Iron Man is visiting the factory so he can save the windblown scientists. It is flimsy excuses like this that no doubt caused Anthony and Stan to strip the facade later.  It’s an excessively obvious and convenient piece of writing; so unintelligent a moment that it doesn’t even pass as charming camp.

After this minor incident of blowhardism at the wind tunnel, Tony climbs into his spandex iron suit and gets sucked into the center of the Earth. Sidebar: The Iron suit in this one is actually depicted as a spandex body suit. It’s stupidity like this that shows you Jack “I don’t care for plausibility” Kirby is back at the artistic helm. When Tony arrives in the in the centre of the Earth he and his spandex iron suit are embroiled in a hastily thought out thousand year old plan to take over the surface. We soon find out that Supreme General Blaxu resents taking orders from the female ruler Kala. Tony concurs  and he flies her off to the surface where she sees her complexion age in seconds. Iron Man tells her that if she wants her beauty she should stay underground. She does for “what is a women without her beauty.” 

This story is disgusting. A female leader that cares so much for her looks that she abandons her long held goal and just to nail another has to be one grossest example of female stereotype. Just to nail another peg into the chauvinist coffin Tony tells Blaxu to marry Kala so that she has proper guidance.

 ‘Women can’t lead, young Marvelites. They need a man.’ 

No wonder Sue Storm can’t get a shred of decent dialogue.

I know chauvinism has always been a part of Tony Stark, as he is a millionaire playboy with the face of Errol Flynn after all, but in later stories he is usually offset with a strong female to take him to task. It also may be unfair of me to judge a story written in a vastly different time by the ethics of today, but the sad thing is, that even under all the sexism this story is poorly constructed and frankly worthless. Nothing feels connected and no character really sticks out a vital or interesting. It feels like hastily written filler. 

At least Jack Kirby has started to draw backgrounds. That’s a plus.  

0 out of 5.