Back Issue #139 by TwoMorrows Publishing

BACK ISSUE OCTOBER 2022

No.139

TWOMORROWS COMICS GROUP STARFOX • THUNDERBIRD • WUNDARR • WOODGOD • MODRED

$10.95

™

82658 00477 1

All characters TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

NOT-READYFOR-PRIMETIME MARVEL HEROES!

RetroFan: The Pop Culture You Grew Up With! Remember when Saturday morning television was our domain, and ours alone? When tattoos came from bubble gum packs, Slurpees came in superhero cups, and TV heroes taught us to be nice to each other? If you love Pop Culture of the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties, TwoMorrows’ new magazine is just for you! Editor MICHAEL EURY (author of numerous books on pop culture, former editor for DC Comics and Dark Horse Comics, and editor of TwoMorrows’ Eisner Award-winning BACK ISSUE magazine for comic book fans) has assembled an unbeatable roster of regular and rotating Celebrity Columnists to cover the pop culture you grew up with: • ANDY MANGELS (best-selling sci-fi author and award-winning pop culture historian) • ERNEST FARINO (Emmy Award-winning visual effects designer, animator, and director) • SCOTT SHAW! (acclaimed cartoonist, animator, Emmy Award-winning storyboard artist, and historian) • WILL MURRAY (pulp adventure novelist and pop culture historian) • SCOTT SAAVEDRA (graphic designer, cartoonist, and COMIC BOOK HEAVEN creator) • MARK VOGER (renowned pop culture newspaper columnist and book author), and others!

RETROFAN #21

RETROFAN #22

RETROFAN #23

RETROFAN #24

RETROFAN #25

Meet JULIE NEWMAR, the purr-fect Catwoman! Plus: ASTRO BOY, TARZAN Saturday morning cartoons, the true history of PEBBLES CEREAL, TV’s THE UNTOUCHABLES and SEARCH, the MONKEEMOBILE, SOVIET EXPO ’77, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Surf’s up as SIXTIES BEACH MOVIES make a RetroFan splash! Plus: He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, ZORRO’s Saturday morning cartoon, TV’s THE WILD, WILD WEST, CARtoons and other drag-mags, VALSPEAK, and more fun, fab features! Like, totally! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Meet the stars behind the Black Lagoon: RICOU BROWNING, BEN CHAPMAN, JULIE ADAMS, and LORI NELSON! Plus SHADOW CHASERS, featuring show creator KENNETH JOHNSON. Also: THE BEATLES’ YELLOW SUBMARINE, FLASH GORDON cartoons, TV’s cult classic THE PRISONER and kid’s show ZOOM, COLORFORMS, M&Ms, and more fun, fab features! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Interviews with Lost in Space’s ANGELA CARTWRIGHT and BILL MUMY, and Land of the Lost’s WESLEY EURE! Revisit Leave It to Beaver with JERRY MATHERS, TONY DOW, and KEN OSMOND! Plus: UNDERDOG, Rankin-Bass’ stop-motion classic THE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY, Christmas gifts you didn’t want, the CABBAGE PATCH KIDS fad, and more! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Meet Mission: Impossible’s LYNDA DAY GEORGE in an exclusive interview! Celebrate Rambo’s 50th birthday with his creator, novelist DAVID MORRELL! Plus: TV faves WKRP IN CINCINNATI and SPACE: 1999, Fleisher’s and Filmation’s SUPERMAN cartoons, commercial jingles, JERRY LEWIS and BOB HOPE comic books, and more fun, fab features! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Now shipping!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Oct. 2022

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Dec. 2022

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Feb. 2023

TwoMorrows. The Future of Pop History.

RETROFAN #17

RETROFAN #18

RETROFAN #19

RETROFAN #20

Dark Shadows’ Angelique, LARA PARKER, sinks her fangs into an exclusive interview. Plus: Rankin-Bass’ Mad Monster Party, Aurora Monster model kits, a chat with Aurora painter JAMES BAMA, George of the Jungle, The Haunting, Jawsmania, Drak Pack, TV dads’ jobs, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by FARINO, MANGELS, MURRAY, SAAVEDRA, SHAW, and MICHAEL EURY.

Our BARBARA EDEN interview will keep you forever dreaming of Jeannie! Plus: The Invaders, the BILLIE JEAN KING/BOBBY RIGGS tennis battle of the sexes, HANNABARBERA’s Saturday morning super-heroes of the Sixties, THE MONSTER TIMES fanzine, and more fun, fab features! Featuring ERNEST FARINO, ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW!, and MICHAEL EURY.

Interview with Bond Girl and Hammer Films actress CAROLINE MUNRO! Plus: WACKY PACKAGES, COURAGEOUS CAT AND MINUTE MOUSE, FILMATION’S GHOSTBUSTERS vs. the REAL GHOSTBUSTERS, Bandai’s rare PRO WRESTLER ERASERS, behind the scenes of Sixties movies, WATERGATE at Fifty, Go-Go Dancing, a visit to the Red Skelton Museum, and more fun, fab features!

MAD’s maddest artist, SERGIO ARAGONÉS, is profiled! Plus: TV’s Route 66 and an interview with star GEORGE MAHARIS, MOE HOWARD’s final years, singer B. J. THOMAS in one of his final interviews, LONE RANGER cartoons, G.I. JOE, and more! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive Raleigh, NC 27614 USA 919-449-0344 E-mail:

store@twomorrows.com

Order at twomorrows.com

Volume 1, Number 139 October 2022 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow

Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond!

DESIGNER Rich Fowlks COVER ARTISTS Mike Zeck and Rudy Nebres, Jack Kirby and Frank Giacoia, George Pérez and Gene Day, and Herb Trimpe and John Severin COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADER David Baldy & Co. SPECIAL THANKS Miki Annamanthadoo Jim Beard Randy Bowen Kurt Busiek Ed Lute Jarrod Buttery Ralph Macchio Glen Cadigan Andy Mangels Ed Catto Brian Martin Chris Claremont David Michelinie Peter David Ian Millsted J. M. DeMatteis Fabian Nicieza Steve Englehart Joseph Norton George Freeman Benjamin Raab Grand Comics Jim Salicrup Database Jerry Smith Charles Hatfield Roger Stern Glenn Herdling Dan Tandarich Heritage Comics Roy Thomas Auctions Chris Wildrick Tony Isabella Marv Wolfman Douglas R. Kelly Dr. Christina Knopf James Heath Lantz Jeph Loeb

Don’t STEAL our Digital Editions! C’mon citizen, DO THE RIGHT THING! A Mom & Pop publisher like us needs every sale just to survive! DON’T DOWNLOAD OR READ ILLEGAL COPIES ONLINE! Buy affordable, legal downloads only at

www.twomorrows.com or through our Apple and Google Apps!

& DON’T SHARE THEM WITH FRIENDS OR POST THEM ONLINE. Help us keep producing great publications like this one!

BACKSEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 BRING ON THE BAD GUYS: Nighthawk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 The ruffled feathers of villain-turned-hero Kyle Richmond BACKSTAGE PASS: Stingray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Oceanography 101 with the scientist and occasional superhero FLASHBACK: Doc Samson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Get inside the head of Marvel’s gamma-irradiated go-to shrink FLASHBACK: Thundra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 This product of Women’s Lib had a thing for the Thing FLASHBACK: Starfox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 From Titan with love, Thanos’ brother who became an Avenger FLASHBACK: Wundarr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 How Steve Gerber’s Superman pastiche became Marvel’s problem child ONE-HIT WONDERS: Thunderbird . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 An X-Man’s sacrifice inspires a vengeful brother to pick up his mantle BEYOND CAPES: Modred the Mystic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 After a short-lived solo career, this horror hero became a Marvel villain FLASHBACK: Jack of Hearts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 From a kung-fu magazine emerged this explosive hero with a complicated costume FLASHBACK: The Shroud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 This master of shadows keeps the company of crooks and creeps WHAT THE--?!: Woodgod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 The scattershot appearances of Bill Mantlo’s weirdo man-beast BRING ON THE BAD GUYS: Paladin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 This Daredevil villain became an antihero and ally to Silver Sable FLASHBACK: Union Jack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 The multi-generational spy-buster and vampire hunter BACK TALK: Reader Reactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 BACK ISSUE™ issue 139, October 2022 (ISSN 1932-6904) is published monthly (except Jan., March, May, and Nov.) by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Periodicals postage paid at Raleigh, NC. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Back Issue, c/o TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief, 112 Fairmount Way, New Bern, NC 28562. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Eight-issue subscriptions: $90 Economy US, $137 International, $39 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Doc Samson, Incredible Hulk, Jack of Hearts, Stingray, Union Jack, and related characters TM & © Marvel. All Rights Reserved. All editorial matter © 2022 TwoMorrows and Michael Eury. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING

Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 1

From its theme to its cover, this issue has an interesting backstory. This issue started with Stingray. A while back writer Dan Tandarich pitched an article about the aquatic hero who, charitably, is Marvel’s oceanic third-stringer, after the Sub-Mariner and Triton. But BACK ISSUE covers the lesser-known comics and their characters as well as the bigger names, so I okayed Dan writing about Stingray with the understanding that he’d have to wait for an appropriate theme before scheduling it. But what theme would that be? “Wonders of the Deep” (with apologies to View-Master)? One of my challenges in managing this magazine is building a viable theme each issue to provide editorial structure to its contents, while keeping each edition fresh by not retreading previously covered material. We had earlier looked at Sub-Mariner and Aquaman, published an Aquaman-themed issue, and even explored the waterlogged TV adventure series Primus. Clearly, the sea-theme well was dry. So I started thinking about Stingray’s other qualities around which a theme might be built. (“Superheroes in Red and White Costumes” wasn’t one of them, to the chagrin of the Doom Patrol’s tailor.) Then Stingray’s other noteworthy characteristic came to mind—that as cool as his costume looked, and despite his zingy name, he was, let’s face it, never gonna be a star. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Somebody’s gotta sing backup behind the diva. And some-super-body’s gotta provide relief to the headlining hero. Some heroes, despite their merit, simply aren’t ready for primetime. Cue the idea light bulb over ye ed’s head. “Not-Ready-for-Primetime Heroes.” What a great theme! It could provide a home to lots of the oddball characters that for whatever reason had not yet been featured in BI. Joining Stingray on an early list of “Not-Ready-for-Primetime Heroes” were the White Tiger, Woodgod, Ultra (from Gerry Conway’s Justice League of America), Swashbuckler, Jack of Hearts, Modred the Mystic, Tim Trench, and the Elongated Man. (You’ll note the presence of a few DC characters.) I quickly removed Marvel’s White Tiger and DC’s Swashbuckler after remembering they had previously been featured. Next, Ralph (Elongated Man) Dibny was removed from consideration because, while he’ll always be a B-lister despite his JLA membership, he and his wife Sue were profiled not long ago in our “Superhero Romance” issue. Taking out the Elongated Man left the issue with very little DC representation, while my research reminded me of many of the other Marvel second-stringers that could support their own articles—Doc Samson, Wundarr, Thundra, Starfox, Union Jack, etc. Instead of letting the Marvel characters outnumber the DC heroes, I decided to solely target Marvel characters in the issue—which was a better choice and streamlined the theme to “Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes.” The cover image was the next hurdle. Originally I went looking for a commissioned illustration or piece of previously published original art solo-spotlighting one of the issue’s better-known characters. Actually, only two characters were considered: Doc Samson, who has Incredible Hulk fame in his

TM & © Marvel.

by M

ichael Eury

corner, and Thundra, the female fury who had a thing for the Thing in Fantastic Four and Marvel Two-in-One. But the more I thought about it, choosing a single character for the cover was a disservice to the other characters of equal (i.e., lesser) stature— and it placed commercial emphasis on the broad shoulders of a single character that was, as the theme suggests, not ready for primetime. When browsing through Marvel covers featuring our spotlighted characters, this one stood out (below): Cue the idea light bulb (again)! Fantastic Four #183 (June 1977) was an issue bursting with subplots, and cover artist George Pérez (inked by Joe Sinnott) cleverly opted for that electrifying layout previewing four scenes from inside. Giving credit where it’s due, Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott had originally done a similarly designed four-frame “Sizzling Big ACTION Issue!” cover, way back on FF #71 (Feb. 1968). A few years later, John Romita, Sr.—inked by (you guessed it!) Joe Sinnott—segmented the FF into four cover blocks on the cover of issue #106 (Jan. 1971). Still, it was the #183 variation that provided the basis for our cover layout. And so I went fishing for “money shots” from our “NotReady-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes” to fill the FF’s spots, and our cover designer, Michael Kronenberg, expertly assembled them. For you purists, the sources of the images are: Jack of Hearts (Marvel Premiere #44), Union Jack (The Invaders #8), Stingray (Marvel Two-in-One #64), and Doc Samson (Incredible Hulk #141). The encircled headshots’ sources: Nighthawk (Marvel Team-Up #101), Thundra (Marvel Two-in-One #56), the Shroud (Marvel Team-Up #94), and Paladin (Marvel Premiere #43). And a tip o’ the hat to Mr. Kronenberg for weaving together these elements into a striking BACK ISSUE cover! Now that you know how we got here, get ready for the stories behind the characters that didn’t quite make the big leagues (although a few have made Marvel Studios movie cameos) but imprinted enough of us to warrant this look back at their roots and adventures. (Oh, you DC fans who are sad that Tim Trench, Private Eye was cut from the roster—he’s included in BI #141, themed “Spies and “P.I.s”!)

2 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

While a number of Bronze Age heroes were given a tough time by their various writers, I would have to say that Kyle Richmond, a.k.a. Nighthawk, was put through the wringer as much as or more than any of them. Let’s examine his many trials and tribulations.

NOT SO BAD TO THE BONE

by B r i a n

Martin

For a start, Nighthawk debuted as a villain, in the final panel of The Avengers #69 (Oct. 1969). In that tale, the cosmic-game-playing Grandmaster creates Nighthawk and his fellow members of the Squadron Sinister as pawns in a contest against Kang the Conqueror. The Squadron members are analogues of competitor DC Comics’ Justice League of America: Nighthawk (Batman), Hyperion (Superman), Dr. Spectrum (Green Lantern), and the Whizzer (The Flash). To differentiate Nighthawk from DC’s Darknight Detective, he is given a marginal superpower by a serum that endows him to double his normal strength when the Moon shines. The Squadron Supreme’s appearance in the following issue, Avengers #70, was accompanied by an unofficial company crossover with Marvel analogues appearing in DC’s Justice League of America #75 (Nov. 1969). While DC had an existing Western character with the same sobriquet, Avengers writer Roy Thomas had a different inspiration for Nighthawk’s name. In The Justice League Companion (written by BACK ISSUE’s own Michael Eury), Thomas revealed that the name came from “a hoax that [legendary comic fan] Richard Kyle pulled on Don and Maggie Thompson’s newszine Newfangles, in which he referred to a pulp mag named ‘Nighthawk’ with a Batman-like character, and later it turned out that pulp had never existed.” In the contest in Avengers #69, Nighthawk is the only Squadron member who manages to kayo his opponent, Captain America in his case, as he lassos the good Captain’s feet and propels him into a wall. Unfortunately, to win their bout it seems he has to destroy the Statue of Liberty. Yet for his part, the Star-Spangled Avenger merely needs to knock Nighthawk unconscious, which he of course proceeds to do. Maybe that foreshadowed our subject’s entire career. The pinioned paladin made one more villainous appearance before he decided to change the color of his hat. In Daredevil #62 (Mar. 1970) he masquerades as a hero to basically steal from crooks he pretends to capture.

…And It’s Only Gonna Get Worse If Nighthawk is repulsed by his past at this early stage of his career, wait’ll he gets a load of what’s in store for him in future issues! Defenders #32 (Feb. 1976) cover by Gil Kane and Klaus Janson. TM & © Marvel.

Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 3

A Bad ‘Batman’ (left) Nighthawk, in his original costume, was one of writer Roy Thomas’ Squadron Sinister, evil analogues of DC’s Justice League, in Avengers #70 (Nov. 1969). Iconic cover art by Sal Buscema and Sam Grainger. (right) Nighthawk horns in on Ol’ Hornhead in Daredevil #62 (Mar. 1970). Cover by Marie Severin and Syd Shores. TM & © Marvel.

CHANGES IN ATTITUDE, CHANGES IN… WARDROBE

Kyle’s true calling manifests itself in the two-part tale contained in Defenders #13 and 14 (May and July 1974). Richmond is invited to a reunion of his old gang. Therein, they reveal they have teamed with a different celestial entity, Nebulon by name, and have consented to flood the Earth for him by melting the polar icecaps! (Just remember, folks, Climate Change is in reality a plan by a nefarious interstellar entity!) Nighthawk wants no part of this plan, but goes along until he can sneak out and try to contact the Avengers. Unfortunately, he finds that Nebulon has arranged things so that he becomes immaterial if he comes near the Avengers. Luckily, he overhears mention of the Marvel’s “nonteam,” the Defenders, and the rest, as they say, is history. The Defenders manage to foil this nefarious plot, even allowing Nighthawk to be the hero. But the victory does not come without a price. Nighthawk is mortally wounded, and the only way to save him is by Dr. Strange taking a small portion of each of the other Defenders’ life forces and giving them to him. Nighthawk is incredibly grateful and joins the group. “Adding Nighthawk gave me a character to play with who didn’t have a whole lot of previous history,” Defenders scribe Len Wein told Dan Johnson in BACK ISSUE #19. “Essentially, it gave me at least one character I could do anything I wanted to without worrying how it would affect any other titles that character might appear in.” Befitting his new heroic role, Kyle dons a new costume as Defenders #15 (Sept. 1974) begins. Further distancing him from his derivative origins, Nighthawk is also provided with a jet pack concealed beneath his cape. From the very beginning it is established that Kyle Richmond is, well, rich, befitting a Batman knockoff. In the same sequence, he also makes a phone call to his financial wizard Pennysworth to have him buy a riding academy when fellow Defender Valkyrie announces she needs to board her winged horse while she investigates the life of the woman whose body she inhabits. (Sorry, that story is waaay too long to go into here. And while I think of it… Pennysworth??) In Defenders #17 (Nov. 1974), Valkyrie does in fact depart, but not before Kyle gives her a kiss full on the lips. The academy itself has been outfitted to house the fledgling super-group, telegraphing

Kyle’s vision for them, though it would be a while before they would actually inhabit it. The bad luck for Kyle continues as he is informed that someone is knocking down buildings owned by Richmond Enterprises. This leads to the first appearance of the villainous quartet the Wrecking Crew, while revealing that behind-the-scenes machinations by Pennysworth are responsible for the Crew’s rampage. Valkyrie’s identity issues are partially solved in Defenders #20 (Feb. 1975), the debut of the writer who is arguably the most identified with the Defenders, Steve Gerber. Gerber soon reveals that Valkyrie’s host body, Barbara Norriss, is married. Her husband Jack is introduced in issue #23 (May 1975). This does not sit well with Kyle when he finds out, and he leaves in a huff. Dr. Strange reveals what we readers realized: that Kyle was beginning to develop feelings for the Asgardian swordswoman.

A RELATIVE PROBLEM

To soothe things, though, arriving back in New York, Nighthawk receives a visit from an old girlfriend, Trish Starr. If that name seemed familiar to readers, they only had to wait until Giant-Size Defenders #4 (Apr. 1975) to receive a refresher on her place in the Marvel Universe. Trish Starr is the niece of Ant-Man foe Egghead, and she and Kyle renew their relationship. Meanwhile, Egghead has become destitute, while Trish is a successful model. So in true villainous fashion, as revenge for this cruel twist of fate, Egghead plants a bomb in Richmond’s car that explodes with Kyle and Trish inside. In a truly inspired move, neither is killed since Egghead siphoned most of the gas from the car, his blood-chilling rationale being that he did not want to kill her, only to maim her. He succeeds, as Trish loses an arm. Kyle recovers, probably since the explosion took place at night when he was at double-strength. As a further punch to the gut to Nighthawk, however, Trish, fearing Kyle’s main feeling for her now is pity, says she will only stay if Kyle marries her. He is not ready for that step, and she walks out of his life. It was probably just an error, but those events affected Kyle so much that for the entirety of the next regular Defenders issue, #22 (Apr. 1975), his hair was colored blond instead of its regular brown! For that issue and the next three, the Defenders battle the Sons of the Serpent, Marvel’s bigoted hate group. As the arc ends, we dis-

4 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

cover the money behind the Serpents comes from… Pennysworth. When Kyle confronts him, he is told that much of his money has been invested in questionable endeavors about which Kyle never had a problem, as long as it made him a profit. This leads to our hero flying off at tale’s end to do some well-needed soul-searching.

THANKS FOR STOPPING BY

In the midst of these events, Nighthawk joins the Marvel big time by making a guest stint in Marvel Team-Up #33–34 (May–June 1975). Not quite groomed for stardom, however, our hero doesn’t even rate a distinctive logo on the cover. The story inside, by writer Gerry Conway and artists Sal Buscema and Vince Colletta, teams Nighthawk with Spider-Man against Spidey foe the Looter. In the course of their adventure, Kyle determines that the villain is not evil but in need of mental help, and he decides to let the miscreant alone. Spidey vehemently opposes this idea, to the point that Kyle takes a poke at him! Nighthawk departs, but in the second issue, he speaks to Valkyrie about the encounter. She chastises him for what she sees as negligence and heads off to clean up the matter. For Nighthawk this wasn’t a completely flattering appearance, but consistent with his tendency in Defenders to be portrayed as slightly aloof.

BRAIN DAMAGE

The next trial for Nighthawk—and admittedly it is a major one—begins in Defenders #31 (Jan. ‘76). In the aforementioned BI #19, Defenders writer Steve Gerber admitted, “For me, the fun in comics has always been writing those ‘backwater’ characters, the ones that haven’t become inviolable icons and trademarks.” “Violation” is a kind way to describe what is next done to Nighthawk, as he becomes probably the first prominent comic-book hero to be subjected to a brain transplant! The perpetrators of this heinous act are the Headmen, as iconic a Gerber group as there ever was, owing to the fact that their stated goal is taking over the world. Peacefully. They replace Kyle’s brain with that of their own mystical member, leading the altered “Nighthawk” into conflict with the Defenders… and into horror for the heroes as they almost kill him, thinking him an imposter! Now, poor Nighthawk’s brain has been removed, and his body has had the stuffing knocked out of it! The Defenders manage to reacquire Nighthawk’s gray matter in #33 (Mar. 1976), with Jack Norriss’ mind now in control of Kyle’s body (don’t ask). In issue, #36, the transplant is reversed. In between, though, Defenders #32 (Feb. 1976) presents the hitherto untold life history of Kyle Richmond. But beware, as you probably expect by now, it is not pretty.

INTERSECTION

Standing at a misty crossroads, Kyle reflects on the trials and tribulations of his pre-Nighthawk life. These include: his mother dying when he was quite young, an absentee father, and an underlying rage that causes considerable trouble at school that his father’s money always manages to smooth over. That is, until he kills his girlfriend Mindy in an accident while driving drunk. A heart murmur keeps him from military service, and the replay climaxes as his father dies in a plane crash, and we return to Kyle stranded at those crossroads with all of these occurrences, explaining much about who he is and why he does what he does. His reflections on his experiences during his period of disembodiment are related in a conversation with Dr. Strange in issue #37 (July 1976) and put Kyle in touch with his spiritual side. Nighthawk gets another semi-starring moment in the very next issue as he finally resumes his superhero career with a stunning panel by regular Defenders penciler Sal Buscema and inker Klaus Janson.

Joining the ‘Non-Team’ (top) With his snazzy new threads, Nighthawk—or “Birdnose,” as Hulk called him—was flying high in Defenders #15 (Sept. 1974). Cover by Sal Buscema and Mike Esposito, with alterations by John Romita, Sr. (bottom) Writer Steve Gerber got inside Kyle Richmond’s head—literally—in the bizarre Defenders #31 (Jan. 1976). Cover by Gil Kane and Frank Giacoia. TM & © Marvel.

Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 5

Kyle Gets Riled (left) Nighthawk vs. the Ringer, in Defenders #51 (Sept. 1977). Cover by George Pérez and Pablo Marcos. (right) A superhero cattle call, in Defenders #62 (Aug. 1978). Cover by John Romita, Jr. and Bob Layton. TM & © Marvel.

Trish Starr makes a return appearance in issue #41 (Nov. 1976), and sparks seem to fly between her and Kyle again. This was to be Steve Gerber’s final issue of The Defenders, however, and its hopeful ray of happiness for Kyle Richmond was dropped as the book changed creative hands.

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE

Around this time, the Defenders guest-star in Incredible Hulk #207 (Jan. 1977), by Len Wein, Sal Buscema, and Joe Staton. The Hulk is on another rampage—one that is justified, as he is antagonized while distraught after the death of the love of his life, Jarella. Nighthawk gains a little respect as he is the one who finally calms the Jade Giant down. A little further along, Nighthawk becomes more visible in the Marvel Universe for a couple of months. First up is a team-up with the Thing in Marvel-Two-inOne #34 (Dec. 1977), by Marv Wolfman, Ron Wilson, and Pablo Marcos. This is followed by a guest-shot in Avengers #167 (Jan. 1978) by Jim Shooter, George

Pérez, and Pablo Marcos as they send Kyle to a fashion show. Not exactly the perfect setting for white-knuckle superhero action, right? Think again, as the fashion show is put on by Janet (The Wasp) Pym and comes under attack by the pernicious Porcupine! Nighthawk is nicely integrated into the tale and even gets its best line as he tells Jan, “Your fashion show had much more zing than the usual.” Dr. Strange #29 (June 1978) by Roger Stern, Tom Sutton, and Ernie Chan is the final appearance in this flurry of Nighthawk appearances as it features Kyle as a guest-star.

FEARLESS LEADER

Once Defenders #46 (Apr. 1977) arrives, Dr. Strange, who had been the group’s nominal leader, chooses to leave. Strange feels that Nighthawk is the logical choice to take over, but by this time, writers Roger Slifer and David Anthony Kraft, along with penciler Keith Giffen, are guiding the team. “He so desperately wanted to be leader, he would be telling everyone what to do, but no one would listen to him,” Kraft said in a Defenders history in BACK ISSUE #65. Kyle does manage to persuade the team to switch their headquarters to his riding academy as he envisioned from the start, though. By issue #51 (Sept. 1977), Kraft is solo-writing Defenders and authors a Nighthawk solo battle against a villain called the Ringer. Kyle’s jetpack is ruined, leaving him flightless for the next seven issues.

BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE

Thankfully, when Nighthawk does get his jetpack back, in Defenders #59 (May 1977), Kraft and artists Ed Hannigan and Dan Green give Kyle’s arsenal a few upgrades including in-flight radar and special mask lenses.

6 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

That stuff would not get much play. Soon after, Dollar Bill, a student friend of Valkyrie’s, manages to turn some footage he has shot of the Defenders into a documentary about the group and gets it broadcast on TV! This encompasses Defenders #62–64 (Aug.–Oct. 1979), where almost every B-, C-, and maybe even D-list Marvel character shows up thinking he or she can be a Defenders member, much to Nighthawk’s chagrin. In issue #67 (Jan. 1979), Ed Hannigan takes over first as co-writer, then as sole scribe, shortly joined by Herb Trimpe on pencils for a year or so, followed by Don Perlin, who pencils almost all of the remaining Defenders run. Like most other scribes, Hannigan takes no time at all adding to Nighthawk’s woes, as in that very issue… he kills him! At least the other Defenders are done in as well, as part of a plot involving Valkyrie in Valhalla. Fortunately, they are all soon returned to life. Back on Earth, in the previous issue there is a subplot that will become very important to Nighthawk as the Justice Department has found irregularities in Kyle’s financial dealings. This comes to a focal point in #74, when Kyle meets with his lawyer and decides it would be best if he gives up being a superhero for a while, a decision the US government makes official two issues later by issuing an injunction specifically forbidding him to become Nighthawk. Rubbing salt into the wound, after Kyle informs his teammates of his decision, an old Steve Gerber character, the Foolkiller, shows up… and during his battle with the Defenders, he burns down Kyle’s riding academy!

BORN AGAIN

The Defenders soldier on to the point that by issue #79 (Jan. 1980) they have run afoul of the Mandrill and call in Nighthawk for assistance. As the next issue begins, Nighthawk takes flight for what he believes will be the last time, with a new costume, this time one augmented with an aggressive weapons package that had been hinted at in previous issues. This includes wing-mounted laser cannons and titanium talons! The battle is won, but unfortunately federal agents soon arrive to arrest Kyle for contempt of court. Legal entanglements go on until in issue #88 (Oct. 1980), when a court of appeals allows Nighthawk to fly again. He celebrates by foiling an aircraft hijack attempt. As with most of Kyle’s small joys, this would be very short-lived. By issue’s end, he is informed that the grand jury has decided to indict him. Ed Hannigan was almost done with his stint writing The Defenders and revealed in BI #65, “We planned to put [Nighthawk] away for good. Everyone kept asking me how I planned to get him out of jail. I didn’t. I was going to let him rot.”

AT LEAST IT CAN’T GET ANY WORSE

The next person to control Kyle’s destiny first handled the character in Marvel Team-Up #101 (Jan. 1981): writer J. M. DeMatteis. Along with illustrators Jerry Bingham and Mike Esposito, DeMatteis brings Mindy back into Kyle’s life. Yes, the same Mindy who had only ever appeared in two panels in Defenders #32, where she was killed! Turns out that was not the case. She was crippled, but Kyle’s father paid her a lot of money to go away to avoid

Legal Eagle Beleaguered businessman Kyle Richmond hangs up his Nighthawk wings in Defenders #74 (Aug. 1979). Written by Ed Hannigan, penciled by Herb Trimpe, and inked by Steve Mitchell. Original art courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). TM & © Marvel.

a scandal, money she eventually spent on a revenge scheme. DeMatteis recalls the genesis of the tale, telling BI, “That story about Mindy’s tragedy stuck with me and fascinated me. The fact that it was only a few panels made it even more intriguing. I wanted to know what happened and how it impacted everyone involved.” The impact has Spidey helping out, and the duo make Mindy realize she really loves Kyle, and he promises to get her help. On the plus side, Nighthawk even manages a solo story in the back of the issue, by writer Mike W. Barr and Steve Ditko! [Editor’s note—and shameless plug: Barr discusses this Nighthawk backup in ye ed’s new book, The Team-Up Companion, now available from TwoMorrows.] DeMatteis begins writing The Defenders the very next month and loses little time getting with the program where the treatment of Nighthawk is concerned. Starting his stint with the previous issue, DeMatteis opens issue #93 (Mar. 1981) with Kyle suddenly succumbing to a debilitating paralysis. Remember the denouement to issue #14? That comes back to haunt Kyle here as it is determined that the reason for this latest setback is that something has disrupted the flow of life giving energy imparted way back then. This is slightly mitigated in issue #95 when it is revealed Nighthawk can still move after sundown. DeMatteis reveals to BACK ISSUE that, “I remember thinking about his name, Nighthawk, and wanting to lean into the ‘night’ aspect of the character: paralyzed during the day, only free to move at night… almost like a vampire. And that, of course, gave me room to explore and expand Kyle’s character. It was fun and interesting to peel back his psyche and see what else we could do with him.” Kyle plays a regular role in the “Six-Fingered Hand” Defenders saga that continues on until issue #100 (Oct. 1981). You might say it is all downhill from there. Even so, through all of this, DeMatteis follows through on his promises and makes Kyle a more calm and centered character. Defenders #102 (Dec. 1981) serves as a spotlight tale for Kyle, though he may have preferred to remain in the wings. Kyle visits Mindy in the sanitarium she was placed in after their last encounter. Nighthawk discovers that the institution’s head, August Masters, having discovered Mindy has latent psi powers, is using her to manipulate other patients with psychic abilities in an effort to create a government-controlled telepathic weapon. Mindy’s feelings for Kyle trump her conditioning, and she ends up ruining the project. Of more interest is the revelation that a seizure Mindy

Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 7

experienced during an initial test is what caused Kyle’s paralysis! DeMatteis doesn’t think this was his initial plan, though. “I often write intuitively, letting the story and characters lead me on. So it could be that I had planned it, but it’s just as likely that I didn’t know about Mindy’s role in Kyle’s paralysis till it happened!” On the good news side, in the very next issue, all of Kyle’s problems with the Feds simply go away, albeit under the condition that he pays a whopping amount in back taxes. The downside? It seems August Masters and his government connections are responsible for this windfall. “I wasn’t at all interested in that particular storyline, so Masters seemed like the perfect person to make it all go away,” reveals DeMatteis. Kyle and surely every reader had to know there was a catch, so it is no surprise that in issue #104 (Feb. 1982), Masters’ agents kidnap Kyle and a couple of fellow Defenders.

YOU’RE KILLING ME HERE

The entire plotline, as well as the Bronze Age Nighthawk’s story, climax in Captain America #268 and Defenders #106 (both Apr. 1982). Masters’ plan only suffered a minor setback before, and he is currently gearing up to begin World War III with a massive psychic attack on the USSR from a facility in the Colorado Rockies. The thing is, Mindy is central to his plan, and she will not remain emotionally stable unless Kyle is with her. The other thing is, as we have seen, Mindy adores Kyle. So when things start to go bad and Captain America’s rescue attempt is thwarted, Kyle really wishes the Defenders and specifically Dr. Strange were there. Picking up on this intense emotion, Mindy sends out a psychic distress call to the Master of the Mystic Arts and company. The rescue mission goes well, but during the resultant chaos Kyle shows up in the facility control room. Another player had entered the game. The subconscious minds of the imprisoned psychics have decided they do not agree with j. m. dematteis Masters’ plan, and use their energies to merge Federico Vinci. with Kyle. He sets the destruct sequence for the enclave, and using the psychic power entrusted to him seals himself in the room and instructs Dr. Strange to save the Defenders. The facility explodes, taking with it Masters, his minion, the captured psychics…. and Nighthawk. Readers (I know this one, for sure) were shocked. But so was someone else. “I don’t think I planned Kyle’s death, it just… happened,” reveals DeMatteis. “Probably surprised me as much as it surprised the readers. That’s the fun of writing: the stories really do come alive, rear up, and take you to unexpected places.” Defenders #109–114 (July 1982–Jan. 1983) offer a red herring as Kyle seemingly survived. While we are concentrating on the Nighthawk that was featured on the main Marvel Earth in this article, Marvel also featured an alternate-Earth Nighthawk who was a hero with the Squadron Supreme. Though this version would not be prominently featured concurrently with his counterpart, this was eventually revealed as the version that appeared in that story. A flashback in Defenders #119 (May 1983) is the “real” Kyle Richmond’s swan song, but would Kyle have stayed dead had DeMatteis written the series for significantly longer? “It’s comics. Everyone comes back. Although I didn’t have specific plans, I’m sure that somewhere in the back of my head, there was a story brewing. I suspect if I’d stayed on the book longer, I would have found a way to eventually resurrect Kyle.” J. M. Dematteis, along with most of the other creators who handled him, did give Kyle some significant character development, and turned him into a truly good person. Adversity builds character, as they say. In retrospect, I’m thinking Kyle Richmond might have preferred to remain a spoiled little rich boy. Nighthawk remained dead for the rest of the Bronze Age. When he was returned to life, it was in his own miniseries, with a first issue dated September 1998. In that series, Kyle turns up comatose, but is returned to the living by an angel. Of course, this is Nighthawk, so the “angel” turns out to be the demon Mephisto. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

Get Me Outta Here! If readers thought things were tough for Nighthawk on this Mike Nasser–drawn cover for Marvel Team-Up #101 (Jan. 1981), its writer, J. M. DeMatteis, was only getting started, as more troubles awaited Kyle Richmond in the DeMatteis-penned pages of Defenders. TM & © Marvel.

The writer wishes to thank J. M. DeMatteis for his assistance with this article, as well as the previous BACK ISSUE writers whose articles he was able to mine for quotations. BRIAN MARTIN lives in Oakville, Ontario, Canada, and reads lots of comics at night. And a lot during the day. He first encountered Nighthawk in the issue where the character had his brain removed and liked him right away. There’s a message there, but he has no idea what it is.

8 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

by D

a n Ta n d a r i c h

In the Marvel Universe, when the situation needs an underwater superhero, the Sub-Mariner makes the scene. When the Sub-Mariner can’t make it, the Inhuman Triton gets the call. When Triton takes a vacation, Stingray dives into the action, Marvel’s third favorite aquatic superhero! But that’s the way he wants it, as he’s a researcher first and superhero second. First appearing in the pages of Sub-Mariner as a human ally to Prince Namor, Dr. Walter Newell, a.k.a. Stingray, oceanographer and marine humanitarian, wanted to help save the planet, starting with the ocean. Hydrobase would be synonymous with the character for years. The floating artificial island would bring the part-time superhero into the action, eventually becoming a member of the Mighty Avengers, although more reserve-status than full-time starting lineup. And he may have one of the coolest costumes in the Marvel Universe! No more supporting character—for this article, Stingray gets the spotlight!

AQUATIC ORIGINS

Dr. Walter Newell, who would later become Stingray, made his debut in the “Sub-Mariner” feature of Tales to Astonish #95 (Sept. 1967) by Roy Thomas, Raymond Marais, Bill Everett, and Vince Colletta. Newell created a sub-sea city complete with a waterproof dome to help access minerals and food for an overpopulated world as well as a mutually beneficial relationship between humans and Atlanteans. But he didn’t run that idea past Namor first, creating a problem. Newell only had good intentions, and although Namor and Newell didn’t exactly become the best of friends in this issue, the Sub-Mariner did gain a human ally. Dr. Newell, still in full scientist mode and working for the US government, made his next appearance more than two years later in Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner #16 (Aug. 1969) by Thomas, Marie Severin, and Joe Gaudioso, in “The Sea That Time Forgot!” The stage was being set for Newell to become a bigger supporting player in the Sub-Mariner’s world and a superhero in his own right. Enter: Stingray! Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner #19 (Nov. 1969) boasted a stunning cover by Marie Severin featuring a new red-and-white–colored character emerging out of the water with the cover copy “Nothing Can Stop the Sting-Ray!” Even though he and the Sub-Mariner battled (who hasn’t fought with Namor at one time or another?), Stingray makes his first costumed appearance here in

Roy Roils Royal Waters Stingray—originally Sting-Ray—makes his first appearance (in costume) in Sub-Mariner #19 (Nov. 1969), written by Roy Thomas. Cover by Marie Severin and Johnny Craig. TM & © Marvel.

Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 9

Water You Guys Fightin’ For?? (top) This house ad appeared in Marvel’s November 1970 cover-dated titles. Courtesy of Dan Tandarich. (bottom left) Marie Severin’s cover rough for Sub-Mariner #31 (Nov. 1970), courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). (bottom right) Sal Buscema’s finished rendition of Severin’s layouts. TM & © Marvel.

“Support Your Local Sting-Ray!” by Thomas, Severin, and Johnny Craig. Upon first seeing Dr. Newell’s alter ego, Sub-Mariner exclaims, “A man—but garbed like some gliding manta-ray from the teeming ocean floor!” In effect, he transformed into a human stingray. Like his namesake, Stingray had fins/glider membranes that allowed him ease of movement underwater. Instead of a deadly stinger that can secrete venom, Newell came equipped with electro-stings that emanated from his hands. His outfit included a reinforced exoskeleton and body armor to withstand the pressure of the ocean depths. After Newell’s heroics in his last appearance almost killed him when he steered a freighter into the path of a deadly submarine, he explains, “I developed this sub-sea outfit, whose artificial powers may even surpass your [Namor’s] own! You were captured by… Sting-Ray!” DAN TANDARICH: Do you remember if you and Marie Severin collaborated on the superhero costume of Stingray or did Marie design it herself? The look of Stingray is one of the great Marvel costumes! ROY THOMAS: Marie designed it… she knew I wanted it to look like a human stingray, but she had lots of leeway. I don’t recall having her change it at all. Sub-Mariner #19 takes on significance for the character of Dr. Newell because, other than his superhero debut, he also meets his future wife, Diane Arliss. Diane and Todd Arliss, sister and brother, made their debuts in Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner #5 (Sept. 1968). They also first encounter Dr. Dorcas, who turned Todd, the once-Olympic swimmer, into the villainous Tiger Shark using both the powers of a shark as well as the strength of Namor.

10 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

Versus the Hulk (left) Stingray battles the Green Goliath in Incredible Hulk #221 (Mar. 1978). Cover by Rich Buckler and Joe Rubinstein. The story was reprinted for UK audiences in (right) The Mighty World of Marvel #296 (May 31, 1978), featuring this little-seen (in the US) cover, which appears to be the work of Pablo Marcos. Scans courtesy of Dan Tandarich. TM & © Marvel.

in the memorable “Serpent Crown Affair!” in Marvel Two-in-One (MTIO) #64–66 (June–Aug. 1980). It’s Walter Newell who shows up at the Baxter Building, home of the Fantastic Four, to get help for Dr. Henry Croft, one of those transformed by the demented ecologist, Dr. Hydro. Gruenwald and Macchio used threads from Sub-Mariner continuity as the springboards for new stories. With art by George Pérez and Gene Day, Gruenwald and Macchio’s “The Serpent Crown Affair!” begins when Newell spots a suspicious oil rig while traveling with the Thing and Croft to meet Triton off the coast of California. The writers reestablish Stingray for new readers with his passion for the ocean and his self-professed parttime superhero status as his research takes precedence. Stingray fights “an angry aquatic army” and gets ambushed by the new Serpent Squad, and he looked good while doing both! Ralph Macchio shares his thoughts on Stingray with BACK ISSUE. “I wish I could tell you that we had a long-term plan for Dr. Newell. We [Macchio and Gruenwald] just really liked the character. He had a great visual. He also had an interesting kind of motivation. He was contacted by the government to go after the Sub-Mariner, who they ralph macchio thought was working with aliens to siphon water THE RETURN OF STINGRAY from the ocean. He got involved and he developed Dr. Walter Newell went back to his research. The © Marvel. Incredible Hulk #221 (Mar. 1978) by Roger Stern, Sal Buscema, and the suit to work underwater and to be able to pursue Namor in Alfredo Alcala featured Stingray’s return. While working at his regu- case something violent was occurring. But he never got like Barry lar job as an oceanographer, Newell encountered someone in need Allen [the Flash] once he got hit by the chemicals and realized he of rescue in the open water. The Hulk’s latest adventures left Bruce had super-speed and it was time to go out and fight crime… this Banner in another impossible situation. Newell wanted to help him was completely different. He got the suit as sort of something that but realized, “Heaven help me! I’ve just let the Hulk loose in Man- was necessary for his mission. He was kind of a reluctant sort of a hattan!” Newell tracks him down and it turns into a slugfest—the superhero in that sense. He wasn’t going out there because it was time to fight crime and do all the good stuff. He was doing it as a Hulk versus Stingray! Guess who wins?! The other Marine Marvel became a recognizable character scientist and he developed the suit to better aid him in his missions. between this issue and his stint in the “Defender for a Day” And I kind of liked that.” MTIO #66 by Gruenwald and Macchio as your “water-logged storyline in Defenders #62–64 (Aug.–Oct. 1978). These appearances were just the warm-up lap for his big breakthrough with the cre- writers” with Jerry Bingham and Gene Day as your “undersea ators who would shepherd and guide Stingray even deeper into the artists” added the Scarlet Witch to the cast as “The Serpent Crown Affair!” concludes. Stingray feels out of his comfort zone during this larger Marvel Universe. Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio saw Stingray’s potential fracas as the Thing and Scarlet Witch take charge as veteran superand added him to the roster of players to co-star with the Thing heroes. Stingray thinks, “I’m a scientist not a superhero!” He adds, Hydrobase made its debut in the pages of Sub-Mariner #61 (May 1973), written by Steve Gerber, with art by Bill Everett, Win Mortimer, and Jim Mooney. The cover copy read “The Hellspawn of Dr. Hydro!” I’ll let the villain take over for a moment. “I am Dr. Hydro—once a very human teacher and student of ecology. Now—I am a creature of both land and sea, as you shall soon be. You see, my studies have convinced me that man has but one chance for survival: We must return to the sea!” The action took place on Hydrobase, Dr. Hydro’s staging ground for this operation of turning humans into water-breathing amphibians. In response to Namor’s arrival, Dr. Hydro exclaims, “It’s not an island, Namor, but a floating fortress!” For Stingray, the Sub-Mariner series gave him a few things—a connection to Prince Namor; a love interest in Diane Arliss; an antagonist in Diane’s brother, Todd Arliss (a.k.a. Tiger Shark); and an association to the floating island called Hydrobase. Walter Newell would function as Namor’s voice on the surface world, his de facto public relations guy, trying to make humans understand Namor’s good intentions, even going so far as to try and arrange amnesty for him.

Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 11

“I’m startin’ to wear down fast—I guess being a weekend superhero doesn’t cut it in something this serious!” Macchio continues, “Stingray seemed like he wasn’t going to be sort of a first-string character, but we thought there was just enough there with him and his whole thing with Hydrobase. We wanted to keep in mind with Stingray that he wasn’t the kind of guy who thrived on being this [superhero]. This was like he put on a lab coat to do some work and here he put on a Stingray outfit to do what needed to be done. It was always with a certain assignment in mind. It wasn’t because he was going out on patrol to fight crime or that he had a rogues’ gallery of villains like Spider-Man had or Iron Man or the rest of them. What was most important to Newell was not being Stingray but being an oceanographer, taking care of his work, exploring the oceans, and learning about subsea life, and that was what motivated him. We learned our lesson through Stan [Lee] as everybody did. It’s who you were as a person that was more important than who you were when you put on that costume.” Macchio and Gruenwald took the character under their wings. As in their other Marvel Two-In-One stories, the Thing became friends with Stingray just as he had with Quasar and the new Giant-Man, Bill Foster. MTIO #71 (Jan. 1981) featured “Holocaust on Hydrobase!,” with art by Ron Wilson and Gene Day. Stingray and Hydrobase start to become affiliated together as the Thing says, “I forgot you had set up shop on Hydrobase, Stingy,” to which he replies, “Yep, what could be better for an oceanographer than a floating island?”

WELCOME TO… AVENGERS ISLAND!

And what could be better for the Avengers than using Hydrobase as a location for their headquarters? Avengers #262 (Dec. 1985), by the team of Roger Stern, John Buscema, and Tom Palmer, with Gruenwald as editor, saw Stingray’s first meeting with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. The team could no longer land their quinjets in Manhattan. Walt and Diane Newell (they had since gotten married) had a solution—use Hydrobase! This issue of the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’ magazine began Walter Newell’s/Stingray’s association with the team that he, too, would eventually become a member of, although in a much more reserve-status way. The Newells were listed as part of the Avengers Support Crew in Avengers #300 (Feb. 1989), with Walt listed as oceanographer and Diane as secretary. In Avengers #301 (Mar. 1989), Hydrobase officially became Avengers Island! Unfortunately, it didn’t last long. The new base of operations took on a massive assault and sank beneath the Atlantic Ocean during the “Act of Vengeance” storyline. Stingray, along with Quasar, led the salvage operation. Stingray lamented, “I was the caretaker of Hydrobase back when it was just a government oceanographic research facility. Never thought I’d see it come to this.” By now, Stingray had been hovering on the fringes of Avengers territory for a few years. He received his Avengers membership, finally, during “The Crossing Line” saga running through Avengers #’s 319–324 (Early July 1990–Early Oct. 1990) by Fabian Nicieza, Richard Levins, Paul Ryan, Christopher Ivy, and Tom Palmer. The international incident featured the Avengers, Russia’s People’s Protectorate, a rogue group of Atlanteans, and Canada’s Alpha Flight. Stingray mused, “If there’s a problem under the ocean waves, they call Namor. If he’s too busy to answer—they call me. And noble, caring, altruistic dunce that I am, I always say yes.” With #320, Stingray appeared on the cover box featuring the Avengers. In #321, he made the first page Avengers roster and “Reserve Status.” Stingray finally landed a lead spotlight with the “Family Matters” mini-epic in Marvel Comics Presents #53–56 (1990) by Len Wein, Jim Fern, and Mike DeCarlo. Tiger Shark reared his villainous head once again and caused trouble for his sister, Diane, and his now brother-in-law, Walter Newell.

CITY BENEATH THE SEA

Stingray Team-Ups (top) Stingray joins forces with the Thing in the “Serpent Crown Affair!” storyline. Cover to Marvel Two-in-One #64 (June 1980) by George Pérez and Gene Day). (bottom) As a guest-star in Iron Man #226 (Jan. 1988). Cover by Mark Bright and Bob Layton.

The Sub-Mariner received his own title again with the launch of Namor, the Sub-Mariner #1 in 1990. Roy Thomas, M.C. Wyman, and Bud LaRosa reunited Stingray with the Sub-Mariner in Namor, the Sub-Mariner #42 (Sept. 1993). Thomas established that the Newells now had two children. Glenn Herdling took over as writer of the Namor series and added Walt and Diane Newell to the supporting cast starting with Namor, the Sub-Mariner #45 (Dec. 1993), with Geof Isherwood on art and Ralph Macchio as group editor. Herdling not only picked up on Thomas’ plot from a few issues earlier, but picked up story threads from when Thomas first introduced Walt Newell back in 1967. Newell started construction on a new domed city named Hydropolis. He wanted to eradicate old prejudices and create harmony between the races with Namor as ambassador. Namor added, “Let us rebuild Hydrobase!” It’s like the old band was getting back together.

TM & © Marvel.

12 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

glenn herdling

Twitter.

Fathom Force The Deep Six—Stingray, Triton, Tamara Rahn, Andromeda, Tiger Shark, and the Sub-Mariner— as illustrated by Geof Isherwood. From Namor, the Sub-Mariner Annual #4 (1996). TM & © Marvel.

TANDARICH: What did you like about Stingray? GLENN HERDLING: What I enjoyed about writing Stingray was that he’s not a superhero or an adventurer. He’s a researcher. Walter Newell developed his underwater armored exoskeleton purely for research reasons using his exclusive design (which Tony Stark learned to his dismay when he accused Newell of stealing his tech [“Armor Wars” storyline in Iron Man #226]). He’s one of the few characters in the Marvel Universe who first appeared as a non-powered guest-star and didn’t assume a costumed identity until two years later. I first came across Stingray in Incredible Hulk #221, and I remember thinking how cool his costume looked. I based my version of Newell on Dr. Robert Ballard, the oceanographer known for finding the wrecks of the Titanic and the German battleship Bismarck. Ballard served as the technical consultant on the science-fiction series SeaQuest DSV, an underwater version of Star Trek that was on TV at the same time I began writing Namor in 1993. A new, short-lived team called Deep Six made their debut in Namor, the Sub-Mariner #58 (Jan. 1995), by Herdling and Isherwood. Stingray gathered a group to help Namor. Members included the two of them plus Triton, Tamara Rahn, Andromeda, and… Tiger Shark! The arch-enemies had made up by this point. The new team took on the Avengers, of all people. TANDARICH: When did you find out that Namor was ending with #62? Did you have a lot of stories planned out? HERDLING: I found out just as I started planning out the “Atlantis Rising” storyline. I had also planned a follow-up story arc to “Atlantis Rising” called “Deities of the Deep,” which would have pitted Namor against the Norse god Aegir and other powerful water elementals. Stingray and the other members of Deep Six would have played a pivotal role in that storyline. I always saw Walter as representing the calm, rational disposition that Namor often lacked, which is why they complemented each other so well in a team setting.

kurt busiek

particularly the way Marie Severin drew it back when he debuted. She drew his “wings” as huge and bulky, so that they were always bowed out, not neatly fitting in between his arms and his torso. And that mask, with the arrow down the face—it’s just a stunning costume design. As a result, I’ve always liked him and wanted to use him when I got the chance.

More scientist than superhero, Stingray never gained solo-star headlining heights but earned fan-favorite status when making guest appearances with his redand-white diving suit. Glenn Herdling gets the last word on Stingray. “Walter Newell is a researcher first and foremost. I accept the situations that made him an Avenger, but that’s not his raison d’etre. He’s at his best when he’s trying to make the world a better place by using his scientific know-how to quell natural disasters like tsunamis, storm surges, blooms of toxic algae, pathogen contamination of coastal waters, and the recurring and long-term effects of climate change—not by smashing the bad guys to a pulp.”

Joshin Yamada/Wikimedia Commons.

Avengers #1 (Feb. 1998), by Kurt Busiek, George Pérez, and Al Vey, brought Stingray back into the Avengers’ world. Eager to get back to his oceanographic research, Newell left once the adventure concluded. Using Newell’s underwater skills and scientific knowledge, Busiek gave Stingray a return engagement with the team starting in Avengers #43 (Aug. 2001) in his massive “Kang War” storyline. Behind the scenes, Stingray felt the love on the “Avengers Assemble” letters page starting in Avengers #47. Fans reacted favorably to him. Assistant editor Marc Sumerak wrote, “And judging by Stingy’s continued appearances over the past few months, it looks like our creative team’s a bit smitten with our aquatic adventurer as well. If you want to see a vote, a vote it is [for full-time Avenger status]! All you Stingray fans, now’s your chance!” And in Avengers #50, Sumerak continued, “It definitely has opened our eyes to a strong following for the Aquatic Avenger!” Eat your heart out, Namor!

Thanks to Kurt Busiek, Glenn Herdling, Fabian Nicieza, Jim Salicrup, and Roy Thomas. And an extra special thanks to the guys who kept Stingray afloat, Ralph Macchio and Mark Gruenwald.

TANDARICH: What did you like about Stingray as a character? KURT BUSIEK: What I like most about Stingray is his costume,

DAN TANDARICH is an educator in New York City. Contact him at yellowjacket74@hotmail.com.

Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 13

Doctor Leonard Skivorski, Jr., better known as Doc Samson, has had to deal with a lot since his first appearance in Roy Thomas and Herb Trimpe’s classic The Incredible Hulk #141 (July 1971). In addition to battling various gamma radiation–spawned creatures with his fists, since his psychiatric career began in the early Bronze Age Samson has had to help heal people’s psychological wounds that were caused by the Hulk, the Hulk’s indefatigable pursuer General “Thunderbolt” Ross, Bruce Banner’s abusive father Brian, and so many others. BACK ISSUE is about to show readers why Doc Samson rivals I Dream of Jeannie’s Dr. Alfred Bellows when it comes to being one of the greatest shrinks in pop culture. Just remember to duck if he’s punching the Hulk.

SAMSON BEGINS

The early Bronze Age of Comics, which began in 1970, unveiled a number of key moments from Marvel. Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian made his comic-book debut. Luke Cage became the first African-American superhero to star in his own title, Hero for Hire (later retitled Power Man). And a psychiatrist named Leonard Samson was introduced to readers. One of the men behind the aforeroy thomas mentioned milestones, including Samson, is legendary writer Roy © Luigi Novi / Thomas. Thomas and artist Herb Wikimedia Commons. Trimpe brought the good doctor into the Green Goliath’s life in the aforementioned Incredible Hulk #141. Trimpe, according to ComicVine, had based Samson’s costume on that of obscure Golden Age superhero and Tootsie Roll mascot Captain Tootsie. Roy Thomas confirms this while discussing the creation of Doc Samson and his perception of the character with BACK ISSUE. “I was thinking of that [Amazing] Spider-Man issue in which Spidey saw a shrink,” Thomas states, “and I decided to turn a shrink into a superhero. Why not, when so many superheroes were scientists already? Herb had never heard of Captain Tootsie, but I liked his basic look. I showed a picture of him to Herb and instructed him to adapt it. That he did enthusiastically, I think, and quite well. It amused me because the look of Captain Tootsie was partly based on that of the original Captain Marvel, having been designed by the original CM artist C. C. Beck. Of course, Doc Samson had to have green hair. In addition to the natural Hulk connection, I always remembered a tale of prejudice from my

James Heath Lantz

Lime-Locked He-Man You’ve gotta have some nerve—and superstrength—to take on the Green Goliath. But Doc Samson seems up to the challenge in his inaugural appearance, in The Incredible Hulk #171 (July 1971). Cover art by Herb Trimpe. TM & © Marvel.

14 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

childhood movie-going days—a young Dean Stockwell in The Boy with Green Hair. “I used him as much or as little as I wanted,” Thomas says of the Doc Samson character. “I was happy to see a ‘Len’ (obviously meant to be Samson) in one of the Hulk movies, and I hope he makes it into the MCU yet. He’s as good a character as many of them, better than some. Samson is just a good man trying to reconcile his intellectual and physical prowess.” After Hulk’s Betty Ross is turned to crystal, her father General Ross hires Dr. Leonard Samson to cure her. Samson’s experimental Cathexis Ray must siphon gamma radiation from the Hulk to do this— possibly ridding Bruce Banner of his angrier, emerald alter ego in the process. Betty is cured, but Samson later exposes himself to controlled gamma bursts to become the superhuman being he had always wanted to be—Doc Samson. While Incredible Hulk #141 was the first time readers saw Doc Samson, much of his past before the events of that issue were actually revealed in the late Bronze Age and beyond. Samson was born Leonard Skivorski, Jr., in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He grew up in a Jewish family and regularly attended yeshiva, as discussed in Peter David and Dale Keown’s Incredible Hulk #373 (Sept. 1990) when a Catholic soldier is scolded by the Mother Superior of the convent where Bruce and Betty Banner had sought asylum. Samson comments humorously, “Intimidated by nuns, eh? Common phobia for Catholic school grads. Now me, I attended a yeshiva. I’m fine, unless a very strict rabbi shows up.” Samson’s father, Leonard “Leo” Skivorski, Sr., was a prominent psychiatrist specializing in eating disorders, according to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Hulk (2004) and 2010’s Hulk #18. He was given the nickname “Samson” by his wife because of his long hair. The elder Leo spent little time with his wife and son, instead delving

into his work and affairs with female patients. The Skivorskis were left broken by Leo’s actions. In his youth, Leonard, Jr. hated his father for what his profession and his infidelity had done to his family and originally had no desire to follow in Leo’s professional footsteps. As the man who would become known as Doc Samson got older, perhaps sometime after Leo had passed away, he wanted to understand both his own feelings and his father. Thus, he, like Leo, earned a Ph.D. in psychology and became a psychiatrist.

‘BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR’

Hulk vol. 2 writer Jeph Loeb tells BACK ISSUE of his perceptions of Doc Samson and of his work with artist Whilce Portacio on Hulk #18 (Feb. 2010), which gave readers a deeper look into Samson’s past and psyche. “I was very lucky during the three years I was on Hulk,” Loeb says. “Editor Mark ‘Panic’ Paniccia made it so I could work with my friends, who happen to be the most talented artists in the business. I’d known Whilce for a long time and really admired his work on so many things, but I got to know him better during Heroes Reborn. He drew the Hulk with such power. So when it came time to do a Doc Samson story, Whilce was my first and only choice. It just happened that he was available. “Looking back over that story, his storytelling is just so masterful. Really, a gift. Samson was a character I often felt was kept in the background, sort of like his own story. I thought if we could bring him into the foreground, make him more of the detective, then twist back on the reader as to his real motivations, it would fit in nicely with the stories that had been told before. “That was the amazing thing about doing my research and homework,” Loeb admits. “All the previous writers and artists had left this wonderful

Inspirations Doc Samson’s roots include (left) the C. C. Beck–created Captain Tootsie #1 (Oct. 1950) and (center) the 1948 movie The Boy with Green Hair (poster courtesy of Heritage), both of which imprinted writer Roy Thomas. (right) Writer/artist Erik Larsen brought Captain Tootsie out of retirement in his Savage Dragon series, even riffing on Herb Trimpe’s classic Hulk #141 cover for issue #241 (Dec. 2018). The Boy with Green Hair © 1948 RKO Pictures. Savage Dragon TM & © Erik Larsen.

Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 15

The Unstoppable Samson Leonard looms large over the Green and Red Hulks on the Whilce Portacio– drawn cover for writer Jeph Loeb’s Hulk vol. 2 #18 (Feb. 2010). TM & © Marvel.

the very values that he held so dear. But in the end, the best heroes have tragedy in their stories. Now Leonard has his.” Leonard Samson is quite sure of himself when we meet him in The Incredible Hulk #141. However, the gamma radiation increased his self-esteem to the point of arrogance when it gave him superhuman strength. He fell in love of Betty Ross after becoming so powerful. Samson himself described his behavior in his case study on the Hulk, “Psychological Ramifications of Gamma Radiation” (written by Peter David in the May 1992 coverdated Incredible Hulk #393), as the gamma rays bringing out his repressed childhood need to gain superpowers like his biblical namesake. This fact is cemented even further in Samson’s self assessment when he moved to New York and saw such superheroes as the Fantastic Four, Ant-Man, and Thor sometime before he met General Ross in a flashback chronicled in Loeb and Portacio’s Hulk #18. Samson most likely wouldn’t admit this to himself, but he was very similar to his father in his early appearances in The Incredible Hulk. His romance with Betty Ross was much like Leo Skivorski, Sr.’s liaisons with his patients of the fairer sex. Writer/editor Roger Stern discusses this and other aspects of Doc Samson’s character with BACK ISSUE. “Samson was a learned man in need of redemption,” Stern states. “Think about it. He had cured Bruce Banner of being the Hulk, and used the energy drawn from the Hulk to save the life of Betty Ross. That’s a career-defining moment. But then, he let his ego get the better of him. He used the rest of that energy he’d taken from the Hulk to empower himself. At that point, Samson basically ignored Banner and stopped treating him. In fact, he started romancing Betty Ross. That was a major breech of professional ethics. As a result, a bereft and troubled Banner used his own scientific expertise to recreate the Hulk. Sure, Samson can claim credit for curing Banner, jeph loeb but he also was responsible for Gage Skidmore. driving the man to reawaken the monster within. Samson is at least partly to blame for anything the Hulk did after that point in time. Live with that!” All of the above may be true about Doc Samson, but another possibility comes to mind when perusing his adventures in Marvel comic books. He suffers from an inferiority complex that has perhaps been with him since he was a boy. Nothing he ever did would ever be good enough, or so he thought as the specter of his father loomed over him years after his death. Seeing superhuman beings becoming the modern-day myths of their time and his encounters with the Hulk only increased this trauma within him. He built a wall of self-assurance around himself to hide how he truly felt in the presence of the Jade Giant and the rest of the Marvel Universe.

trail of breadcrumbs about who he was and what he dreamed of being. I got to weave all that together and have him be the hero of his own story. “Samson was a great foil to Banner,” Loeb continues. “He wanted to be irradiated by the gamma rays. He wanted to be the hero. But as the saying goes, ‘Be careful what you wish for.’ So, despite his good looks, and his ability to control his power, he was never really accepted by the hero community. “It’s a devastating moment in the story when Leonard (Samson’s repressed dark side) points out to Samson the number of teams that never asked him to join. Just the list of Avengers is both hilarious and hurtful. And while making the hero into a villain certainly wasn’t groundbreaking, I was amazed that it was all there from the beginning. Samson never could have achieved the science that saved Betty and created his powered self without help. Who helped him, and why? That’s where I began, and it led me down the rabbit hole of Doc Samson’s own insecurities and how he could be manipulated into betraying

THE BRONZE AGE TRIALS OF SAMSON

The aptly titled “The End of Doc Samson” in The Incredible Hulk #147 (Jan. 1972) saw our gammapowered psychiatrist help the Hulk battle the Leader’s gigantic android, only to lose his superhuman strength and green hair color. He is distraught over this, because his boyhood dreams came true 16 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

Green with Envy (left) Doc pulls no punches in Incredible Hulk #193 (Nov. 1975), where Samson regains his powers. Cover art by Gil Kane and John Romita, Sr. (right) The superhero wannabe re-dons his fighting togs on this dynamite Herb Trimpe/ Joe Staton original art page from #193, courtesy of Heritage (www.ha.com). TM & © Marvel.

when he became the muscled superhero like those he saw when he began his medical practice. When we next see Leonard, Major Glenn Talbot is in a catatonic state. Samson the psychiatrist arrives to help in Incredible Hulk #192 (Oct. 1975), only to learn he will need Bruce Banner’s assistance. To get Banner, one must obviously deal with the Hulk. The overloading of the Gammatron device gives Leonard the dose of gamma radiation needed to become Doc Samson once again. It should be noted that in that issue and #199 (May 1976), there is still an arrogance and selfassurance in Samson as he tries to cure Glenn Talbot. This diminishes to some degree with his defeats at the hands of the Hulk. Yet, it also lessens as we see Leonard’s character in the hands of writers who took over The Incredible Hulk. Toward the end of Len Wein’s Hulk run, Samson wants to help a mysterious amnesiac who turns out to be the Leader. This shows Leonard’s heart is in the right place, while his ego has been tempered like the steel of a newly forged sword.

Speaking of the Leader, during one of his many attempts at world domination, he once again took over Gamma Base. He put Samson under a post-hypnotic suggestion that prevented the emerald-haired psychiatrist from attacking the villain or leaving the premises. However, it didn’t impede Samson from aiding Bruce Banner. He assisted Banner—who believed he was cured of the Hulk—in constructing a control harness that manipulated a robot of the Jade Giant. This shows that Leonard Samson didn’t need brawn to fight the bad guys. His willingness to be a hero and his mind were his weapons of choice in Incredible Hulk #224 (June 1978). Yet Samson used both brains and muscle when he and the Hulk battled the Leader and his army of humanoids in the following issue. While the Hulk and Doc Samson often got into numerous slugfests that could rival those of Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed, Samson would also do his best to help the Hulk and Bruce Banner in

Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 17

Inside Hulk’s Head

about that, like my problems ate his brain. ‘I’m sorry, what were we talking about…?’” Is the Hulk beyond help? Doc Samson psychoanalyzes David’s impressive run of nearly 12 years on the title had the not-so-jolly Green Giant on the splash page of Leonard Samson put his Ph.D. to good use. In Incredible Hulk #373 (Sept. 1990), Samson came to the revelation that Bruce Banner Incredible Hulk #227 (Sept. 1978), from scribe Roger Stern. suffers from Multiple Personality Disorder/Dissociative Identity TM & © Marvel. Disorder after the longtime dormant, childlike Green Hulk had returned in the #372 after the Hulk’s previous return to his original gray form. Once he less physical ways. The Septsaw that Bruce Banner and ember 1978 cover-dated the Green and Gray Hulks Incredible Hulk #227 has co-existed and battled Leonard Samson using his for control of the former’s psychiatric skills on the psyche with destructive reGreen Goliath. Hypnosis sults, Samson, with the aid allows Samson to see of the Ringmaster’s hypnomoments of Banner and sis, merged Banner’s three Hulk’s past from the latter’s selves into one being in The point of view. Roger Stern, Incredible Hulk #377’s (Jan. the Hulk writer at the time, 1991) “Honey, I Shrunk The reminisces with BACK ISSUE, Hulk.” “I don’t recall any major “I knew at that point plans for Doc Samson, aside that we were building from having him psychotoward issue #377, which analyze the Hulk. I was sort was going to be the merge of surprised that no one issue,” David says. “We were had thought to do that begoing to need a psychiatrist fore. It seemed like a natural in the issue for that, and development. Doc was the natural choice “I used Doc in my earbecause he’s pretty much ly stories because Len Wein the only psychiatrist we had reintroduced him to the have in the Marvel Universe. series in issue #192, and he’d Just like whenever someone been a regular supporting gets a cab in New York City, cast member ever since. Marc Spector is driving it, “Samson was a handy because we only have one fellow to have around, but I cabbie.” was running out of things to Three issues later, in do with him. So I wrote him #380, Doc Samson had a out of the series with issue solo outing without the Hulk #238, sending him off to aid when he talks to death-row in General Ross’ recovery. I inmate Crazy Eight before had hoped to eventually bring her execution. As with many him back, once I’d thought stories in his Hulk run, Peter of something new to do David tackled social issues— with him had I stayed on The in this case, the debate Incredible Hulk.” over capital punishment. “I Samson’s attempts to help read an article about how a the Hulk, including his psych analysis, have been hit and miss. psychologist was brought in to speak to someone on death row,” Writer/artist John Byrne’s Incredible Hulk #315 (Jan. 1986) had David tells BACK ISSUE, “and I thought it’d be interesting if we Samson physically separate the Jade Giant from Bruce Banner. Yet, showed Doc in that capacity. I was always really proud of that like Captain Kirk in the Star Trek episode “The Enemy Within,” story because I got letters from angry conservatives complainSamson learns that half a man cannot live. Both Bruce Baning I had written an anti–capital punishment story, and ner and the Hulk must co-exist within the same body in letters from angry liberals complaining I had written a order for each to survive. pro–capital punishment story. I managed to tick off This was a humbling experience, but Samson both sides without giving a clue as to what my own never gave up on treating Bruce Banner. In fact, he sentiments on the subject were.” had some help from someone who brought the In addition to Doc Samson’s hit-or-miss Hulk and Samson on interesting paths. attempts to check on the newly merged Hulk’s psychological wellbeing in David’s time on Incredible Hulk, Samson kept his medical practice SAMSON AND DAVID going on for other superhuman beings. Marvelites While many who worked on The Incredible Hulk read this in David’s collaboration with Joe had put their spin on Doc Samson, perhaps the Quesada on the fan- and creator-acclaimed creator who has had the greatest impact on the X-Factor #87 (Feb. 1993). Jeph Loeb reveals character is writer Peter David. to BACK ISSUE about what makes that issue a “Samson’s a super-strong man whose greatest peter david favorite of his. strength is his ability to think,” David reveals “The best of all of the comics I read for Doc to BI. “My version of Doc Samson was entirely © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. an original. The only psychiatrist I ever knew was the one I Samson research for me will forever be X-Factor #87,” Loeb states. went to when my first marriage fell apart. I went to him for six “Peter David and Joe Quesada did a truly landmark story about months, and then he died of brain cancer. I always felt guilty Samson having therapy sessions with each member of the X-Factor 18 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

Len’s Lab Doc Samson— in his updated ponytailed, leather look—has Gray and Green Hulks on his mind on this original art page from writer Peter David’s Incredible Hulk #334 (Aug. 1987), courtesy of Heritage. Signed by penciler Todd McFarlane. Inks by Jim Sanders III. TM & © Marvel.

Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 19

Mutant Minds Double-page credit sequence at the conclusion of the landmark X-Factor #87 (Feb. 1983), featuring Doc Samson. TM & © Marvel.

team. I wanted to tip my hat to them, and that’s how those clinking steel balls (I have no idea what they are really called) came into Hulk #18 with Whilce. The truth is, I couldn’t have told that story without Peter and Joe’s brilliant work.” Of Doc Samson’s part in X-Factor #87, Peter David reveals to BI, “At the time, Chris Claremont was writing the mutant books, and he had a very distinctive style. Characters would have lengthy thought balloons that detailed every aspect of what they were thinking. “I didn’t write that way. I didn’t have the characters always say what was on their mind, and I expected readers to pick up on subtext. They didn’t. They were accustomed to Chris spelling everything out for them, and I was getting cranky letters from fans complaining that the characterizations weren’t sufficiently spelled out. That they had no characters because I wasn’t detailing everything they thought. “And I said to myself, ‘Okay… I’m going to do an entire issue where they talk about themselves: their hopes, their dreams, their weaknesses. I’m going to spend one issue spelling everything out so I can do it once and move on.’ Of course, I didn’t want to imitate Chris’ tendency to have extensive word balloons; I had to have them talking to somebody. Who better than a psychiatrist? I figured there could be a government rule that when they go through a particularly traumatic experience, they have to sit down with a therapist and talk about things. And since, as noted earlier, we have one psychiatrist in the Marvel Universe, it was going to be Leonard.”

Doc Samson continued his adventures as a psychiatrist and superhero in the pages of two eponymous miniseries and in the pages of various Marvel comic books. He most recently can be seen as Gamma Flight member Doc Sasquatch in Al Ewing and Joe Bennett’s The Immortal Hulk and Crystal Frasier and Lan Medina’s Gamma Flight. Check them out along with all the stories from the Bronze Age and beyond for more of Leonard’s gamma-irradiated journey. For Lil Lipy and Shady, a pair of small sisters with hearts bigger than a million Doc Samsons. Dedicated to my beautiful and incredible wife Laura, whose love is stronger than every gammapowered psychiatrist; Jadis, Pupino, Odino, and our four-legged feline and canine Doc Samsons who could merge every Hulk personality in two seconds; my nephew Kento, who invented the Gammatron; and to Roy Thomas, Roger Stern, Peter David, Jeph Loeb, and all creators past, present, and future responsible for giving Doc Samson his Ph.D. May all your green-haired heroes always protect you. JAMES HEATH LANTZ is a freelance writer whose stories, essays, and reviews can be found online and in print at Sequart.org, Superman Homepage, his blog, and such publications as his self-published Trilogy of Tales and PS Artbooks’ Roy Thomas Presents Sheena vol. 3. James currently lives in Italy with his wife Laura and their family of cats, dogs, and humans from Italy, Japan, and the United States.

20 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

Ed Catto

She was a strong, striking woman with a purpose. She was oftentimes overwhelming, frequently intimidating, and always interesting. She’s part Ronda Rousey, part quintessential tall supermodel. She could be as frightening as a sudden thunderstorm. And she could bring issues of gender equality to the forefront in a fresh and important way. Well… that last part, maybe not so much. At first glance, there are many echoes of Wonder Woman in Thundra. Both warriors come from a distant matriarchal society. But when Thundra burst onto the scene, she embodied everything scary, yet interesting about mainstream America’s view of the 1970s Women’s Movement. She was demanding. She was driven and strong. She had “had enough and wasn’t going to take it anymore.” And while Thundra was aggressively confident, she was statuesque and beautiful. Thundra, the warrior woman from the far-flung future, was full of unrealized potential. And for a woman of the future, as a Marvel heroine she might have simply been before her time. So, to best understand Thundra, we need to start with another character. And as is often the case with so much of comics history, it starts with Jack Kirby.

BIG AND BEAUTIFUL

Former Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Roy Thomas reveals that Thundra’s pop-cultural antecedent was Kirby’s Big Barda, For Thomas, creating Thundra was “a kind of casual response to a character like Kirby’s Big Barda—not that anyone was especially calling out for such. But I wanted a woman who’d give the Thing a tussle, and Thundra fit the bill. I had that bandolier (the ammunition belt strung over her shoulder) because a few ardent feminists of the time were affecting such things. The name was probably inspired by the Magazine Enterprises hero Thun’da [King of the Congo, a Tarzan clone].” Who was this Big Barda, and why is understanding her important to the origins of Thundra? Big Barda was created by Jack Kirby as part of his visionary Fourth World saga, published by DC Comics in the ’70s. She was the female lead in Mister Miracle. Unlike many of the heroines of the time that may have used weapons, magic lassos, or martial arts to overcome opponents, Barda was all about brute strength. She was a towering woman— beautiful and strong. And like Thundra, Barda “wasn’t from around here.” Big Barda was raised on the distant planet Apokolips by the cruel Granny Goodness to become the ultimate warrior woman. In fact, she was an “Alpha Female,” leading the Female Furies, a group of battle-ready women. While the word “furies” has historical and mythological origins, the implied notion is that women who are blinded by rage, i.e., their fury, are dangerous and out of control.

She Is Woman, Hear Her Roar Thundra’s first appearance, in Fantastic Four #129 (Dec. 1972). Cover by John Buscema. TM & © Marvel.

Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 21

FEMIZONIA

Thundra comes from an Amazonian society in an alternate future of the 23rd Century. In this possible future, Earth—Femizonia— is a world dominated by women. “Her origin came from the Stan Lee/John Romita ‘Glamazons’ story in the black-and-white Savage Tales #1, which was not either of the legendary creators’ finest hour,” explains writer Tony Isabella. “Stan Lee, with John Romita, had created the Femizons for Savage Tales #1,” adds Roy Thomas, “and I thought Marvel might as well get some more use out of them. I had heard that Stan didn’t voucher Femizons because he wanted to have some ownership of it, but I never asked him about that rumor… and he never objected to the Femizons connection.” During the “second wave” of women’s rights efforts, Marvel Comics offered a similarly cynical perspective on the future of the Women’s Liberation Movement, says Dr. Christina Knopf, a rhetorician, qualitative sociologist, and comics studies scholar from SUNY Cortland. “In 1971, Savage Tales asked of Women’s Lib, ‘What if women turn the rascals out—and we do mean out!

22 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

Bruce Timm.

John Buscema, Thundra’s co-creator, designed a striking look for the Femizon. One can consider her outfit an update of the original Captain Marvel’s design, right down to the lightning bolt design, buccaneer books (originally dark blue, later yellow), and off-the-shoulder look. “The Women’s Movement in the early 1970s was in full gear and comics were right there at the forefront,” explains artist Joe Jusko. “Marvel made its mark with the Valkyrie and the Lady Liberators in Avengers #83. The classical design of the Valkyrie was pure John Buscema, an artist who preferred classical design to superheroes (though his brilliant work in that genre always belied his protestations). A couple of years later, Big John got another shot at a strong, liberated character. Thundra was more generically ‘superhero’ in design than Valkyrie, but Buscema played her for all she was worth. Over seven feet tall and weighing over 300 pounds, she was built and dressed like a futuristic WWF wrestler, all the while exhibiting Buscema’s undeniable skill at rendering beautiful women. You can tell he had fun drawing as her body language, posturing, and no-nonsense attitude all instantly defined her personality. You could always tell when John embraced a character and this one was pretty obvious.” Rich Buckler, the third artist to illustrate a Thundra adventure (Fantastic Four Detail from Fantastic Four #129. TM & © Marvel. #148–149), was also drawn to strong female characters. “Medusa was okay,” he reported in Back Issue #74. “She had a great look, with all that hair, and she moved a lot. But she wasn’t a particular favorite of mine. Thundra was more fun to draw. And overall, I prefer drawing female characters in aggressive roles. Feminine, but strong—and not helpless. The ‘helpless female’ is such a boring cliché.”

Big Barda TM & © DC Comics. Cover art by

LIGHTNING STRIKES: THE LOOK OF THUNDRA

Jim Kingman, in his “Furious Female” Barda history in Back Issue #54 (Feb. 2012), revealed that “Big Barda’s statuesque body and strong facial features were inspired by actress and singer Lainie Kazan, while aspects of her personality came from right at home, that of Kirby’s beloved wife, Rosalind (Roz).” Jack Kirby admitted as much himself to J. Michael Stracyznski and Larry DiTillio in an interview on April 13, 1990 for Mike Hodel’s Hour 25 radio show. “I happen to like big girls and Big Barda was a natural type of girl for me to draw,” said Kirby. “If you’ll dig into this a little deeper, in a psychological way, you’ll find that short men like large women. If you’ll notice my wife, she’s maybe an inch or two taller than I am.” While Kirby wasn’t focused on any feminist or equal rights issues, it is clear he liked the concept of a powerful woman, and thought it was a fresh idea that would help the story. “Barda was a character that Jack put in because he thought it was a great idea, one that was not being done in super-hero comics at that time,” said writer and Kirby expert Mark Evanier, in a Comic Book Special Edition #1 (Oct. 1999) interview. “There had never been a really strong woman character who looked strong, except maybe for Little Lotta. Jack noted that female bodybuilders were starting to catch on in the mass media. He saw these pageants on ABC’s Wide World of Sports, and in other places, and he said, ‘That’s a great idea for comics.’ So Big Barda was suddenly in the next Mister Miracle he drew. He was also inspired by Lainie Kazan being in Playboy... But ultimately, the personality of Big Barda was pretty much Roz, and Jack was pretty much Scott [Mister Miracle] Free.” It makes all the sense in the world that Big Barda would be an impressive character to interact with Ben Grimm, the Thing, in The Fantastic Four. Since Barda was published by publishing rival DC, Roy Thomas did the next best thing—he, along with artist John Buscema, created Thundra.

What would we have then?’ The answer offered THE BATTLE OF THE CENTURY— was ‘The Fury of the Femizons’—a gender-based ANY CENTURY! tribal society in which women ruled ruthlessly over Thundra debuted alongside the sturdy FF enemies enslaved men. The only hope for a harmonious fu- the Frightful Four in Fantastic Four #129 (Dec. 1972), ture was for the genders to again exist ‘as the first of a two-part story that concluded in lady and lover’—as was in the forbidden #130, by the aforementioned Roy Thomas days of old so that the female and John Buscema. She promptly has a ‘warrior becomes a woman— falling-out with the Frightful Four, and fulfilled.’ (This idea, posited by shows particular interest in sparring Stan Lee and Johnny Romita, with the also-thunderous Thing. echoed turn-of-the-century carIt didn’t take long for her to make toons that suggested suffragists a comeback, in FF #133 (Apr. 1973), were too ugly to find husbands or the issue that premiered Gerry Conway were angry at men because they had as the series’ writer. In Back Issue never been kissed.)” #74’s “The Fantastic Four in the 1970s” “Like many others, I presume, article, Jarrod Buttery interviewed I was exposed to the Femizons Conway about this adventure. story in the 1977 Fireside book The “It was fun for a couple of john buscema Superhero Women,” recalls writer, reasons,” Conway remarked. “First editor, and publisher Jim of all, I was taking over from Roy Beard. “At first I skipped over [Thomas], who had plotted the isit because, y’know, it wasn’t superheroes and sue. My job was basically just to come in and write the it wasn’t even in color, but eventually went dialogue, which made it much easier for me to start back and read it. Well, I was 12 in ’77 and off on the book because I wasn’t required to come up the story was pretty racy and sexy for a young lad with my own idea right off the bat. But the two things like myself… in a good way. It took a little while that made it really special for me were: One, writing to get past the near nudity to appreciate the in- a character like Thundra, who is a very powerful triguing science fiction behind it, although today female figure. The second, and probably more I can see how dated it is in concept. The art’s still fanboyish element for me, was the opportunity to gorgeous, though.” work with [artist] Ramona Fradon, who was also a

A Thing or Two (left) The first Thundra/Thing tussle, by Roy Thomas and John Buscema, from Fantastic Four #129. (right) They’re at it again in issue #133, by Roy Thomas/ Gerry Conway and Ramona Fradon. Inks on both by Joe Sinnott. TM & © Marvel.

Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 23

powerful female, whose work I had really loved for years on Metamorpho. She was such an interesting stylist and so different from anything that any artist had been working at Marvel at that time. It was a lot of fun.” Ramona Fradon, a Grande Dame of comics, is best known for her work on Aquaman, the comic strip Brenda Starr, and the co-creation of Metamorpho, the Element Man with writer Bob Haney. Her only work for Marvel was FF #133 and an unpublished Claws of the Cat issue [see BI #17—ed.]. Nonetheless, it is appropriate that an impressive woman like Fradon would illustrate one of Thundra’s earliest appearances. Throughout Thundra’s comics history, there has been a paucity of contributions from female creators.

“When I drew that character I had been leave from drawing comics for five years,” said Fradon. “In that time, comics had changed. I was used to drawing stories for young readers at DC and I was shocked to encounter a female character who flung around chains and was knocking around some hapless monster covered with scales.”

PERFECT STORM

After a brief appearance in GiantSize Super-Stars #1, Thundra returns in Fantastic Four #148 (July 1974). It’s a difficult time for Marvel’s first family as they battle the Frightful Four and divisions within their ramona fradon family-like group. The ever-lovin’ blue-eyed Thing Courtesy of Ramona Fradon. has been clobbered by the villainous Sandman, and just before the killing blow is delivered… Thundra appears! She ensnarls the villain’s arm in her chain. “After all these months. Why did that crazy dame have to show up?” asks the Frightful Four’s Sandman. “My name is Thundra, Sandman,” she shouts, “—not ‘crazy dame’! When I quit your group, I warned you not to attack the Fantastic Four again—and especially not the male called the Thing. I told you, he’s mine—and if anyone is to destroy him—I WILL!” This doesn’t really explain why Thundra has returned, of course. After the Frightful Four are defeated, Reed (Mr. Fantastic) Richards tries to quiz Thundra again about her reappearance, but is interrupted by the intrusion of both the Sub-Mariner and the next-issue blurb. This era of Fantastic Four focused on a long-running plot of Sue Richards’ separation from her husband. Sue, like many middle class white women of the time, was frustrated by her narrowly defined role and bristled at the actions of her husband. So she ran off with old boyfriend Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner. “But while Thundra’s focus on humiliating men as the ‘weaker sex’ embodied a perversion of feminist goals, Sue Storm more accurately symbolized, and spoke for, its ideal of equality,” says Dr. Christina Knopf. “In between the throwdowns of Thundra and Thing, Sue/Invisible Girl told her husband Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, in Fantastic Four #130, ‘In the heat of battle, you didn’t think of me as a member of the team—not even as a wife—only as the ‘mother your child’! I won’t accept that, Reed. Not now—not ever! So, until you feel you can treat me as an equal, I’ve made up my mind… I’m leaving!” Gerry Conway started off with good intentions. “The divorce rate was skyrocketing, [and] women were really pushing to be taken seriously as equals in their relationships with men,” the writer said in BI #74. “It was the cultural flowering of Women’s Liberation.” But the creative team failed to explore this to the fullest. It was a missed opportunity to discuss current Thundra Cover Gallery issues, especially in contrast to Thundra’s aggressive approach to “equality.” (top left) Alongside the Frightful Four, in FF #130 (Jan. 1973). Cover Instead, Thundra battled Prince Namor. “And by Steranko and Sinnott. (top right) Versus the Thing. #133 (Apr. Thundra fears no male—this or any other!,” Thundra proclaims, speaking in the third person as she of1973) cover by Buckler and Sinnott. (bottom left) Meet Mahkizmo! ten does. The Richards’ separation was patronizingly reFF #151 (Oct. 1974) cover by Buckler. (bottom right) With the solved via secret behind-the-scenes machinations of Thing’s freaky FF. Cover to #180 (Mar. 1977) by Kirby and Sinnott. their friends. The whole battle, and presumably Sue’s time “staying with” the Sub-Mariner, was a setup! TM & © Marvel.

24 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

THUNDRA AND LIGHTNING

The three-part “Thundra and Lightning” (Fantastic Four #151–153) introduces Mahkizmo the Nuclear Man and his hyper-masculine world, Machus. In some ways, this might have been the “ultimate” Thundra story. Thundra’s motivation for fighting the Thing over the past few years is finally revealed: She is worried that her world was merging with the world of Machus, a future world where men are the dominant gender. Thundra believes if she defeated Earth’s strongest mortal male in the modern age, specifically Ben Grimm, she could prevent this merger from happening. From today’s perspective, it all seems over-the-top and heavy-handed. The characters were the personification of scary female aggression versus a male counterpart. And the horrible fate to be avoided is a “merging.” Although Gerry Conway wrote the first two issues of this adventure, Tony Isabella was called in to finish it. “For a time, [editor] Roy Thomas would regularly call on me to fill in when deadlines loomed or had already been missed,” Isabella tells BI. “For one thing, I knew the characters pretty well. For another, I was right there in the office. My memory is the issue was already running late when previous writer Gerry Conway left the title.” Nonetheless, this storyline made a lasting impression on some readers. “I first ‘met’ Thundra in Fantastic Four #153,” recalls Jim Beard. “I was a nine-year-old boy and while I didn’t realize it then, she challenged my perception of female comic-book characters, a tough broad who both had a ‘thing’ for my favorite Marvel hero the Thing, but also wanted to beat the crap out of him. It was much later when I recognized that my Golden Age of comics came at a time when Women’s Lib was too big of a deal in the 1970s for male comic writers to ignore, and the response was badass women like Thundra at Marvel and Power Girl at DC. I’ve always liked Thundra, especially for her connection with Ben Grimm. She was not quite a superhero, but very cool. It was a treat when she showed up from time to time.”

MORE RUMBLINGS

By the time Fantastic Four #177 (Dec. 1976), which reintroduces the Frightful Four, was published, its writer, Roy Thomas, had been back on the series for a while. Both Thundra and Tigra the Were-Woman are drafted into this adventure and hang around afterwards. Both women express a romantic interest in the Thing, although nothing comes of it for either one of them. Thundra appears just long enough in Avengers Annual #8 to cause another brawl. In this issue, she’s applying for a job at a health spa, and demonstrates her prowess by lifting an entire weight-training machine off the ground. It works, one of the male employees exclaims, “You’re hired! Now put that down before every man here gets an inferiority complex!” Again, in the Marvel Universe, Thundra represents a powerful woman, feared by men, who might shame them by just being herself. Soon, the Avengers drop in. It turns out one personal trainer is a Marvel Superman stand-in, Hyperion (posing as a “Mr. Kant”), and the Avengers are there to confront him. After another short battle based on misunderstandings, Thundra ceases hostilities.

STRIKING TWICE: TEAM-UP TIME

When Project Pegasus (also P.E.G.A.S.U.S.) hired Ben Grimm as security chief, co-writers Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio were setting the stage for a six-part storyline in 1979’s Marvel Two-inOne #53–58 that allowed the Thing to team up with various heroes, as mandated by MTIO’s format. Thundra’s part of this drama starts as she’s aimlessly wandering through Manhattan’s Lower East Side, mulling over her place in the world. She is soon recruited by a “promoter” named Herkimer Oglethorpe to be a part of a women’s wrestling act. At Kowalski’s Gym, as leader of four women wrestlers

Early Thundra Merchandise (top) Front and back views of the 7-Eleven Thundra Slurpee cup from the mid-1970s (photos by Ed Catto). The “Thundra” logo was designed by Gaspar Saladino (confirmed by Todd Klein) and first used in the “Thundra and Lightning” cover blurb on Fantastic Four #151. The Thundra figure on the cup, by Rich Buckler/Joe Sinnott with additional alterations, hails from (bottom) FF #148. TM & © Marvel.

Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 25

(Titania, Screaming Mimi, Poundcakes, and Letha), Thundra finds herself in a role like that of Big Barda and the Female Furies. It turns out they are more than just wrestlers. They all invade Project Pegasus on a secret mission, and things quickly go south. Thundra, in a classic Marvel misunderstanding brawl, uses the opportunity to reveal her true feelings to the Thing. “Why must we struggle, Ben? In truth, when I first came from Femizonia to defeat Earth’s mightiest male, I saw you merely as my advisory. But since then, I have come to realize that we are destined for each other. Yet you have continually spurned my advances—Why can’t you see we are fated to be mates?” Ben feeds Thundra some Hallmark wisdom about true love, and she quickly turns on him as the patter devolves into name-calling. “I see now that you are right, Thing. We are not perfectly matched—for you possess all the fighting skill and finesse of a gorilla!” Eventually, all seems to be forgiven and Thundra even takes an active role in the climactic battle in Twoin-One #58.

LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE

As Marvel Two-in-One #64 (June 1980) begins the Gruenwald and Macchio’s next multi-part epic, “The Serpent Crown Affair!,” Thundra’s next arc is teased as a B-Story. She returns to Kowalski’s Gym to confront her manager, Oglethorpe. Unexpectedly, Hyperion, who she ran across in Avengers Annual #8, is there too. This might have been the perfect ending to Thundra’s tale. She finds a way to go back to the future—her specific alternate future—via the Nth Projector. As she is about to leave, Thundra sweetly kisses Ben on the brow. “Goodbye, Ben. I love you.” And at the last minute, Hyperion decides to go along for the ride. Thundra nonchalantly accepts his company. “As you wish, Hyperion,” says Thundra, as she’s whisked off to the future, leaving Ben to contemplate his inaction.

Electrifying Company (top) Thundra “fears no male,” even the seafaring Prince Namor. Original Rich Buckler/Joe Sinnott art page from Fantastic Four #149 (Aug. 1974). Story by Gerry Conway. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). (bottom left) Thundra stormed into the pages of the kid-friendly Spidey Super Stories for an appearance in issue #24 (July 1977). Cover by John Romita, Sr. (bottom right) She was one of the players in Marvel Two-in-One’s epic “Project Pegasus” storyline, including her co-star status in issue #56 (Oct. 1979). Cover by John Byrne and Terry Austin. TM & © Marvel. Electric Company TM & © Children’s Television Workshop.

26 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

EMPRESS THUNDRA

Years later, In Fantastic Four #303 (June 1987), Ben Grimm is yet again feeling glum after being (seemingly) rejected by his girlfriend, Alicia Masters. He’s walking through a Manhattan thunderstorm, appropriately enough, when Thundra appears before him! This issue also reunites Thundra with her co-creators, Roy Thomas and John Buscema. Thundra explains she has traveled back from the 23rd Century via a time-spanning “D-Belt,” and she reluctantly needs Ben’s help to battle a villain back home who uses Alpha Waves to subjugate female warriors so they can’t fight him. “Loathe as I am to admit it,” explains Thundra, “only a male can hope to stand against it. You must know you are the only male I can admire as almost an equal.” Readers are reminded of Thundra’s feminist origins via the

Thing’s wisecracking dialogue. He calls her a “seven-foot female chauvinist” and her time period as “the 23rd Century, Gloria Steinhem <sic> version.” The two travel to the future, and after defeating the villain, Thundra, revealed to now be the Empress of the Femizons, asks Ben to marry her. He declines and is sent off on a sort of It’s A Wonderful Life–type adventure before returning to the present day. After it all, Ben rejects Thundra yet again, but tries to reassure her. “Sorry Thundra, you’re a dynamite lady, but you deserve somebody who’d marry you for your seven-foot self—and not because he’s on the rebound.” In the interior art for this adventure, inker Romeo Tanghal and colorist Glynis Oliver seemed to have forgotten give Thundra her trademark lightning-bolt pant stripes.

MARVEL AND THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT It’s hard, from the perspective of 2022, to think about “Women’s Lib” and all it entailed. “It was in the air,” says Roy Thomas.” My [then-] wife Jeanie wasn’t politically active as such, but some of her (and my) friends were, in addition to all the reading I did in newspapers and magazines on the subject. And that’s how I got my ideas. Now, what I did with them is good or bad depending upon the reader’s viewpoint.” “The real issue with the portrayal of the feminism movement in mainstream comics during the Bronze Age was twofold,” notes Darlynne Overbaugh, Fan Culture Specialist of ComicsInMyLife.com. “First, the characters/ stories themselves and second, more importantly, the lack of representation behind the comics themselves. If Marvel (and other publishers) really wanted to show their support to the Women’s Rights Movement and beyond, it should have started right in their offices… giving equal-pay jobs to the existing women in the industry, making a concentrated effort to include up-and-coming women. “I’m sure there are some scholars and fans who point to this character or even time period of comics as the starting point for more inclusion in mainstream comics, but these comics were still derived from the male gaze and male understanding of what ‘Women’s Lib’ was all about,” contends Overbaugh. “That’s what makes characters like Thundra and the Femizons virtue signaling. The argument could also be made for pretty much any female character in comic’s pre-Modern Age.” “The idea that a female character exceeds their own control, exceeds their own power, and is ‘too much’—even for themself—reminds me of all the different things that have been written about the fecund female who can’t be contained, who exceeds her boundaries,” says Dr. Diane R. Wiener of Syracuse University. “I think this representation or idea connects with a cultural trope, a mainstream orientation of female power, a kind of power that is confusing and threatening to people who are not female. And it is confusing, in particular, to people who do not necessarily

welcome the idea that a woman could be more powerful than societal expectations suggest. I think that, in a way, this character is a little bit like that. “What happens is the woman winds up not being really central after he gets his needs met and so he uses her for her talents, she benefits him and his heroism, but it’s very classic stuff. So inside of the stories is this tendency of the woman to be supplanted by the male hero, and these are white characters in most of these cases, frankly. They forward the process of the male hero, but they can’t be the full-board hero, and it’s interesting because she has a kind of Amazonian thing going on. “It seems like part of the intention, here,” speculates Dr. Wiener, “was or is to try to advance what some people would consider to be a positive representation, without— and I say this respectfully—without really disrupting the status quo. I don’t mean to be unpleasant or not respectful of the people who intended to do a good thing. “The sexuality, the class dynamics, the power dynamics, the role involvements, the fact that you’re damned-if-youdo, and you’re damned-if-you-don’t. If you wanted to work and managed to support the family, then, somehow, you couldn’t also be understood fully as a childbearing person, you know?” Tony Isabella didn’t purposely focus on the Women’s Liberation movement during the one time he scripted Thundra. “I didn’t think much about it, though, even then, I found it amusing when male comic writers wrote about ‘the Women’s Liberation movement’ in super-hero comics,” Isabella recalls. “It always seemed awkward to me. I tried not to be awkward. I likely didn’t succeed. My job was to wrap up the story in one issue under a ridiculously tight deadline. It’s been a while since I’ve read that issue, but I kind of recall it involved merging two worlds (female dominated and male dominated) into one and a lot of implied subsequent merging of the populations. ‘Wink, wink,’ you know what I mean.”

Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 27

Thundra Returns (left) Another Thing encounter in FF #303 (June 1987), by the team that created her, Thomas and Buscema. (right) War-weary Thundra has a beef with the World’s Mightiest Heroes. From Avengers vol. 3 #17 (June 1999). Story and pencils by Jerry Ordway, inks by Al Gordon. TM & © Marvel.

PAWNS OF THUNDRA

The FF and the West Coast Avengers are tricked into another trip to the future, to aid Thundra in a battle against Arkon in Avengers West Coast #75 (Oct. 1991). Here Arkon seems to be a stand-in for Mahkizmo, although he and Thundra fall in love by the story’s end. Arkon and Thundra are still together during an adventure in 1993’s Avengers #358–359. In 1997, Thundra pops up in Quicksilver #2 and 3. “Any book starring the overbearing Quicksilver and the animalistic Knights of Wundagore is going to need guest-stars who aren’t shy and retiring,” says Quicksilver writer Tom Peyer. “And nobody’s more bombastic than Thundra.” Arkon and Thundra are still together during a stunning Jerry Ordway–written-and-penciled twopart adventure in 1999’s Avengers vol. 3. #17–18.

RUMBLINGS IN THE POST-BRONZE AGE

Thundra has been used sparingly in recent times, occasionally partnering with other Marvel heroines in titles like Fearless Defenders and She-Hulk. “By 2009 even Marvel acknowledged, through the words of She-Hulk in All-New Savage She-Hulk, that Thundra’s gynocentric sisterhood was a ‘bad Rush-Limbaugh-parody-of-feminism future’,” says Dr. Christina Knopf. Lyra, a spinoff character, was the daughter of Thundra and the Hulk from an alternate future. She

debuted in Hulk: Raging Thunder #1, which featured an impressive Thundra vs. Hulk cover. In the Squadron Supreme series from 2018, Thundra essentially replaced that series’ evil version of Wonder Woman. But the party was over all too soon. “This ‘family’ is over,” she sadly said, referring to the super-team. “I’m gone. Good luck to you.” Can Thundra be relevant in the future? Co-creator Roy Thomas has the last word. “She’ll be as relevant as the stories people make up about her. I just don’t imagine that anything written or drawn of Thundra today has anything to do with what I originally envisioned as the character. It may or may not be, by sheer coincidence.” ED CATTO is a marketing and startup strategist, with a specialty in pop culture. As founder of Agendae, Ed is dedicated to helping brands and companies innovate and grow. As part of the faculty at Ithaca College’s School of Business, Ed teaches entrepreneurial courses and one unique class focusing on comic conventions and Geek Culture. Ed’s also an illustrator, having won the 2019 and 2021 Pulp Factory Awards, and a retropreneur, rejuvenating brands like Captain Action.

28 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

THE RETRO COMICS EXPERIENCE!

Edited by MICHAEL EURY, BACK ISSUE magazine celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through recurring (and rotating) departments like “Pro2Pro” (dialogue between professionals), “BackStage Pass” (behind-the-scenes of comicsbased media), “Greatest Stories Never Told” (spotlighting unrealized comics series or stories), and more!

Go to www.twomorrows.com for other issues, and an ULTIMATE BUNDLE, with most issues at HALF-PRICE!

BACK ISSUE #130

BACK ISSUE #131

ER EISN RD !! AWA NER WIN

BACK ISSUE #127

BACK ISSUE #128

BACK ISSUE #129

SOLDIERS ISSUE! Sgt. Rock revivals, General Thunderbolt Ross, Beetle Bailey in comics, DC’s Blitzkrieg, War is Hell’s John Kowalski, Atlas’ savage soldiers, The ’Nam, Nth the Ultimate Ninja, and CONWAY and GARCIA-LOPEZ’s Cinder and Ashe. Featuring CLAREMONT, DAVID, DIXON, GOLDEN, HAMA, KUBERT, LOEB, DON LOMAX, DOUG MURRAY, TUCCI, and more. BRIAN BOLLAND cover!

BRONZE AGE TV TIE-INS! TV-to-comic adaptations of the ’70s to ’90s, including Bionic Woman, Dark Shadows, Emergency, H. R. Pufnstuf, Hee Haw, Lost in Space (with BILL MUMY), Primus (with ROBERT BROWN), Sledge Hammer, Superboy, V, and others! Featuring BALD, BATES, CAMPITI, EVANIER, JOHN FRANCIS MOORE, SALICRUP, SAVIUK, SPARLING, STATON, WOLFMAN, and more!

TV TOON TIE-INS! Bronze Age HannaBarbera Comics, Underdog, Mighty Mouse, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Pink Panther, Battle of the Planets, and Smokey Bear and Woodsy Owl. Bonus: SCOTT SHAW! digs up Captain Carrot’s roots! Featuring the work of BYRNE, COLON, ENGEL, EVANIER, FIELDS, MICHAEL GALLAGHER, WIN MORTIMER, NORRIS, SEVERIN, SKEATES, STATON, TALLARICO, TOTH, and more!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

BACK ISSUE #132

BACK ISSUE #133

BACK ISSUE #134

BRONZE AGE PROMOS, ADS, AND GIMMICKS! The aborted DC Super-Stars Society fan club, Hostess Comic Ads, DC 16-page Preview Comics, rare Marvel custom comics, DC Hotline, Popeye Career Comics, early variant covers, and more. Featuring BARR, HERDLING, LEVITZ, MAGUIRE, MORGAN, PACELLA, PALMIOTTI, SHAW!, TERRY STEWART, THOMAS, WOLFMAN, and more!

THE KIRBY LEGACY AT DC! Explores Jack Kirby’s post-Fourth World Bronze Age DC characters! Demon, Kamandi, OMAC, Sandman, and Kirby’s Odd Jobs (Atlas, Manhunter, and more). Plus: the SIMON & KIRBY Reunion That Wasn’t! Featuring BISSETTE, BYRNE, CONWAY, GIBBONS, GOLDEN, GRANT, RUCKA, SEMEIKS, THOMAS, TIMM, WAGNER, and more. Demon cover by KIRBY and MIKE ROYER!

1980s MARVEL LIMITED SERIES! CLAREMONT/MILLER’s Wolverine, Black Panther, Falcon, Punisher, Machine Man, Iceman, Magik, Fantastic Four vs. X-Men, Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D., Wolfpack, and more! With BOGDANOVE, COWAN, DeFALCO, DeMATTEIS, GRANT, HAMA, MILGROM, NEARY, SMITH, WINDSORSMITH, and more. Cover by JOE RUBINSTEIN. Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

STARMEN ISSUE, headlined by JAMES ROBINSON and TONY HARRIS’s Jack Knight Starman! Plus: The StarSpangled Kid, Starjammers, the 1980s Starman, and Starstruck! Featuring DAVE COCKRUM, GERRY CONWAY, ROBERT GREENBERGER, ELAINE LEE, TOM LYLE, MICHAEL Wm. KALUTA, ROGER STERN, ROY THOMAS, and more. Jack Knight Starman cover by TONY HARRIS.

BRONZE AGE RARITIES & ODDITIES, spotlighting rare ‘80s European Superman comics! Plus: CURT SWAN’s Batman, JIM APARO’s Superman, DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT’s Marvel custom comics, MICHAEL USLAN’s unseen Earth-Two stories, Leaf’s DC Secret Origins, Marvel’s Evel Knievel, cover variants, and more! With EDUARDO BARRETO, PAUL KUPPERBERG, ALEX SAVIUK, and more. Cover by JOE KUBERT.

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

TwoMorrows. The Future of Comics History.

BACK ISSUE #135

BACK ISSUE #136

BACK ISSUE #137

BACK ISSUE #138

SILVER ISSUE, starring the Silver Surfer in the Bronze Age! Plus: JACK KIRBY’s Silver Star, SCOTT HAMPTON’s Silverheels, Silver Sable, Silver Banshee, DC’s Silver Age Classics, and more! Featuring BUSIEK, BUTLER, BYRNE, ENGLEHART, STAN LEE, LIM, MARZ, MOEBIUS, POLLARD, MARSHALL ROGERS, ALEX ROSS, JIM STARLIN, and more. Cover by RON FRENZ and JOE SINNOTT.

BRONZE AGE COMICS STRIPS! SpiderMan, Friday Foster, DC’s World’s Greatest Superheroes starring Superman, Howard the Duck, Richie Rich, Star Hawks, Star Trek, MIKE GRELL’s Tarzan, and more! Plus Charlton’s comic strip tie-ins and the MENOMONEE FALLS GAZETTE. With COLAN, GOODWIN, GIL KANE, KREMER, STAN LEE, ROMITA, THOMAS, TUSKA, and more.

1980s PRE-CRISIS DC MINISERIES! Green Arrow, Secrets of the Legion, Tales of the Green Lantern Corps, Krypton Chronicles, America vs. the Justice Society, Legend of Wonder Woman, Conqueror of the Barren Earth, and more! Featuring MIKE W. BARR, KURT BUSIEK, PAUL KUPPERBERG, RON RANDALL, TRINA ROBBINS, JOE STATON, CURT SWAN, ROY THOMAS, and others. VON EEDEN and GIORDANO cover.

CLASSIC HEROES IN THE BRONZE AGE! The Lone Ranger and Tonto, Flash Gordon, Popeye, Zorro and Lady Rawhide, Son of Tomahawk, Jungle Twins, and more! Featuring the work of DAN JURGENS, JOE R. LANSDALE, DON McGREGOR, FRANK THORNE, TIM TRUMAN, GEORGE WILDMAN, THOMAS YEATES, and other creators. With a classic 1979 fully painted Gold Key cover of Flash Gordon.

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99

TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive Raleigh, NC 27614 USA 919-449-0344 E-mail:

store@twomorrows.com

Order at twomorrows.com

Pop Culture Books from TwoMorrows!

BRITMANIA

by RetroFan’s MARK VOGER

Remember when long-haired British rock ’n’ rollers made teenage girls swoon — and their parents go crazy? BRITMANIA plunges into the period when suddenly, America went wild for All Things British. This profusely illustrated full-color hardback, subtitled “The British Invasion of the Sixties in Pop Culture,” explores the movies (A HARD DAY’S NIGHT, HAVING A WILD WEEKEND), TV (THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW, MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR), collectibles (TOYS, GAMES, TRADING CARDS, LUNCH BOXES), comics (real-life Brits in the DC and MARVEL UNIVERSES) and, of course, the music! Written and designed by MARK VOGER (MONSTER MASH, GROOVY, HOLLY JOLLY), BRITMANIA features interviews with members of THE BEATLES, THE ROLLING STONES, THE WHO, THE KINKS, HERMAN’S HERMITS, THE YARDBIRDS, THE ANIMALS, THE HOLLIES & more. It’s a gas, gas, gas! (192-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $43.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-115-8 • SHIPS OCTOBER 2022!

Get Mark Voger’s three other books for $99.95! Monster Mash • Groovy • Holly Jolly Normally 120, get this specially-priced trio for only $ 99.95! $

Save $24!

IT CREPT FROM THE TOMB

Since 2000, FROM THE TOMB has terrified readers worldwide. This second “Best of” collection of the UK’s preeminent magazine on the history of horror comics uncovers Atomic Comics lost to the Cold War, rarely seen (and censored) British horror comics, the early art of RICHARD CORBEN, GOOD GIRLS of a bygone age, TOM SUTTON, DON HECK, LOU MORALES, AL EADEH, BRUCE JONES’ Alien Worlds, HP LOVECRAFT in HEAVY METAL, and a myriad of terrors from beyond the stars and the shadows of our own world! It features comics they tried to ban, from ATLAS, CHARLTON, COMIC MEDIA, DC, EC, HARVEY, HOUSE OF HAMMER, KITCHEN SINK, LAST GASP, PACIFIC, SKYWALD, WARREN, and more! Edited by PETER NORMANTON. (192-page Trade Paperback) $29.95 ISBN: 9781605490816 (Digital Edition) $10.99

HERO-A-GO-GO!

HERO-A-GO-GO! celebrates the camp craze of the Swinging Sixties, when just about everyone—the teens of Riverdale, an ant and a squirrel, even the President of the United States—was a super-hero or a secret agent. RETROFAN magazine and former DC Comics editor MICHAEL EURY takes you through that coolest cultural phenomenon with this all-new collection of nostalgic essays, histories, and theme song lyrics of classic 1960s characters like CAPTAIN ACTION, HERBIE THE FAT FURY, CAPTAIN NICE, ATOM ANT, SCOOTER, ACG’s NEMESIS, DELL’S SUPER-FRANKENSTEIN and DRACULA, the “Split!” CAPTAIN MARVEL, and others! Featuring interviews with BILL MUMY (Lost in Space), BOB HOLIDAY (It’s a Bird … It’s a Plane … It’s Superman), RALPH BAKSHI (The Mighty Heroes, Spider-Man), DEAN TORRENCE (Jan and Dean Meet Batman), RAMONA FRADON (Metamorpho), DICK DeBARTOLO (Captain Klutz), TONY TALLARICO (The Great Society Comic Book), VINCE GARGIULO (Palisades Park historian), JOE SINNOTT (The Beatles comic book), JOSE DELBO (The Monkees comic book), and more! (272-page FULL-COLOR TRADE PAPERBACK) $36.95 ISBN: 9781605490731 (Digital Edition) $13.99

AMERICAN TV COMIC BOOKS (1940s-1980s) From The Small Screen To The Printed Page

A fascinating and detailed year-by-year history of over 300 television shows and their 2000+ comic book adaptations across five decades. Author PETER BOSCH has spent years researching and documenting this amazing area of comics history, tracking down the well-known series (STAR TREK, THE MUNSTERS) and the lesser-known shows (CAPTAIN GALLANT, PINKY LEE) to present the finest look ever taken at this unique genre of comic books. Included are hundreds of full-color covers and images, plus profiles of the artists who drew TV comics: GENE COLAN, ALEX TOTH, DAN SPIEGLE, RUSS MANNING, JOHN BUSCEMA, RUSS HEATH, and many more giants of the comic book world. If you loved watching The Lone Ranger, Rawhide, The Andy Griffith Show, The Monkees, The Mod Squad, Adam-12, Battlestar Galactica, The Bionic Woman, Alf, Fraggle Rock, and “V”—there’s something here for fans of TV and comics alike. (192-page FULL-COLOR TRADE PAPERBACK) $29.95 ISBN: 9781605491073 (Digital Edition) $15.99

THE BEST OF FROM THE TOMB This first collection compiles features from its ten years of terror, along with new material meant for the NEVER-PUBLISHED #29 • (192-page Digital Edition) $10.99

LOU SCHEIMER

CREATING THE FILMATION GENERATION

Biography of the co-founder of Filmation Studios, which created the first DC cartoons with Superman, Batman, and Aquaman, ruled the song charts with The Archies, kept Trekkie hope alive with the Emmy-winning Star Trek: The Animated Series, taught morals with Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, and swung into high adventure with Tarzan, The Lone Ranger, Zorro, live-action shows Shazam! and The Secrets of Isis, and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Written by LOU SCHEIMER, with RetroFan’s ANDY MANGELS. (288-page Digital Edition) $14.99

TwoMorrows. The Future of Pop History. Phone: 919-449-0344 E-mail: store@twomorrows.com Web: www.twomorrows.com

TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614

Okay, we’re not perfect. Every hundred issues or so, BACK ISSUE makes a mistake. This issue’s theme is “Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes,” and yet—in the time it has taken to prepare what you hold in your hands—this particular rogue has inveigled himself onto the big screen. One might almost suspect some sort of coercive abilities…

LOVE AND DEATH

by J a

rrod Buttery

Thanks to a couple of films that did reasonably well at the cinema, Thanos is now a cultural icon. However, until recently, the general public was unaware that the Mad Titan has a brother. In his introduction to Thanos: The Infinity Ending (2019), Jim Starlin wrote of his youth: “A psychology class, without fanfare, introduced me to the Freudian concept of Thanatos and Eros, the darker and lighter side of human nature. Only years later would I come to realize that was a life-changing event.” Starlin created Thanos and introduced him in Iron Man #55 (Feb. 1973). Therein, a flashback reveals that Titan—largest moon of the planet Saturn—hosts a paradise below its surface: the home of the Titans, maintained by the gargantuan supercomputer ISAAC, “and ruled jim starlin by wise Mentor and his sons… Eros… and Thanos.” Thanos was exiled for the crime of creating weapons, but returned with “a raging horde of interstellar malcontents” to conquer Titan. Amusingly—in this flashback—Thanos, Eros, and Mentor all appear to have purple skin. Starlin quickly made Thanos the major antagonist during his run on Captain Marvel, and in issue #27 (July 1973) we and Rick Jones meet Mentor and Eros (both of whom have pink, or Caucasian, skin). Eros sports his red-and-white unitard (with yellow chest-symbol and accents). When Rick inquires, he’s told, “The name’s Eros, lad… man of love, man of adventure. I’m famous in Earthly legends… and also Thanos’ brother.” Rick summons Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell), who joins Mentor and Eros in battling Thanos’ hordes. We see Eros throwing a punch, so we know he’s strong. Soon after, in Captain Marvel #32 (May 1974), we see Eros flying into battle alongside Mar-Vell and Iron Man, so we know he can fly. After Thanos is defeated, we see Eros—in Captain Marvel #34 (Sept. 1974)—celebrating with three scantily clad women, so we know that he is, indeed, a man of love.

And You Thought ‘Hot Stuff’ Was a Harvey Character The lover of adventure (and other things) becomes an Avenger! Avengers #232 (June 1983). Cover by Al Milgrom. Special thanks to Jarrod Buttery for this article’s art scans. TM & © Marvel.

Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 31

He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother (top) A Titan-ic melee rocks Jim Starlin’s pulse-pounding cover of Captain Marvel #27 (July 1973). (bottom) Inside, Eros reveals his family ties. By Starlin/Mike Friedrich/ Pablo Marcos. TM & © Marvel.

We next see Eros when writer Doug Moench begins a “Return to Titan” story in Captain Marvel #58 (Sept. 1978). During this tale, Mar-Vell and Elysius begin a romance. Eros is given his first real opportunity to shine when Starlin returns for The Death of Captain Marvel (Apr. 1982). Mar-Vell— aware of the cancer within him—asks his friend to take care of Elysius after he’s gone. Of course, Eros agrees—shedding a silent tear—but it is testament to their friendship that Mar-Vell would ask such of him.

A STERN OPPORTUNITY

Time is a great healer. In Avengers #230 (Apr. 1983), Eros is feeling antsy. Elysius tells him that he can leave—and so he does. Straight to Earth, arriving at the tail end of Avengers #231 (May 1983). The cover of Avengers #232 (June 1983) sports an iconic image of Eros by Al Milgrom and Joe Sinnott. Eros has arrived just as the team is short on active members, and proclaims, “I am a lover of adventure… among other things… and what better way to seek it than as an Avenger!” The Wasp (Jan), as Avengers chairperson, gets presidential approval for Eros to become an Avenger-in-training but tells him he needs a codename: “The president was hesitant to approve of anyone named Eros. He would rather you were called something less provocative in public. You’re a pretty foxy guy… and you’ve been out among the stars… how about ‘Starfox’?” And just like that, he gets a 1980s John Byrne–pencilled headshot in the corner box on the cover. Roger Stern scripted Avengers for five years and very kindly spoke with BACK ISSUE. Stern was the editor during Doug Moench’s Captain Marvel storyline. Did that exposure to Eros pave the first steps to Starfox becoming an Avenger? “What really came first was assembling a roster of fulltime Avengers,” Stern replies. “At the time, Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor all starred in monthly series—and that complicated things for the Avengers title. Due to the events in his own title, we’d already lost Iron Man for the foreseeable future. And Thor would soon be tied up with Walter Simonson’s first major storyline. Even Hawkeye was about to get a four-issue limited series, which would take him away from the Avengers for a few months. We had Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau) about to graduate to full-time Avenger status, but we needed to find at least one additional Avenger to round things out. To the best of my recollection, it was Mark Gruenwald who suggested that we add Eros to the Avengers. His reasoning was that having a more cosmic hero on the team could lead to some interesting group dynamics. “I liked Mark’s idea of introducing Eros to the series, but felt that we should give him a superhero codename of some sort. That’s when Mark pointed out that the design on the front of Eros’s tunic resembled the head of a fox. I looked at him and said, ‘So… Starfox?’” A seemingly impenetrable force field (generated by Annihilus from the Negative Zone) appears in New York in Avengers #233 (July 1983). The Vision turns intangible to walk through the barrier but then collapses. Starfox considers, “I came here from Titan in search of adventure, but I seem to be of no help in this mission. Neither my strength nor my flying ability are of any use… and I doubt my other talent would cause the wall to crumble.” Starfox is incorrect: his Titanian scientific knowledge is definitely useful. When a second force-field begins to grow within the first, he recognizes that when the positive and negative fields merge, our universe and the Negative Zone will also merge—destroying both universes. Starfox correctly hypothesizes that if Captain Marvel uses her energy abilities to slingshot around the Sun and transform into a high-powered gamma-ray laser, she may be able to pierce the barrier.

32 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

Good Morning, Starfox Subtly portrayed by writer Roger Stern and artists Al Milgrom and Joe Sinnott, this “Avengers sleepover” scene, from Avengers #234 (Aug. 1983), slipped past the often-puritanical eyes of the Comics Code Authority. TM & © Marvel.

WELCOME TO THE PLEASUREDOME

Threat averted, the injured Vision is transported to Avengers mansion in issue #234 (Aug. 1983). After, She-Hulk (Jen) asks, “Hey, Starfox! You have any plans for tonight?” He answers, “Well, I’d considered checking out the local sights, but if you have a better offer…” “Spaceman, I can show you some things you won’t believe!” she replies. The next day, an apparently naked She-Hulk rises (fashionably late) from one side of her rumpled double-bed, dons a robe, and heads to the bathroom while singing. A barefoot (but otherwise dressed) Starfox emerges and thanks her for the use of her shower. He dons his boots and asks, “Will I see you this evening?” She waves, “Count on it, spaceman!” BACK ISSUE thanked Stern for the brave and mature depiction of two characters (who are completely comfortable in their sexual confidence) enjoying each other’s company—particularly in what is a typically conservative medium—and asked if there was any feedback. “Well, we never showed the two of them ‘enjoying each other’s company’ in Avengers #234,” Stern confirms. “Certainly, something like that might have happened off-panel, but all we saw was that She-Hulk had let Starfox use her shower. Maybe it was just a matter of the shower in Starfox’s quarters being down for repairs. Anyway, I don’t recall getting any feedback on that scene, and the Comics Code Authority—known back then for having a slightly prudish nature—didn’t even blink. “I don’t know that what we did in the story was all that brave, and any maturity is mainly in the eye of the readers. But I will say that, yes, it was in keeping with the personalities of both She-Hulk and Starfox.” Starfox received an entry in the original Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #10 (Sept. 1983). His powers were listed as flight, strength, and longevity (not immortality). Interestingly, the Handbook stated: “Originally called Eron, Eros was given his current name (a Greek word meaning ‘love’) at the age of 5 when his parents noticed his prodigious interest in the opposite sex.” In Avengers Annual #12 (Jan. 1984), Starfox tussles that would have a similar effect. It made a certain with Triton, and Triton starts to laugh uncontrolamount of sense, so we went with that.” lably. Between breaths, Triton gasps, “What are Starfox’s psionic powers don’t work on everyyou doing to me?” Starfox replies, “Oh, just tickling body. They were ineffective against Surtur’s you in my own special way.” Bill Mantlo scripted the demons in Avengers #249 (Nov. 1984), and did not Annual, but Stern was asked if he had any involvecalm an out-of-control Hulk in Incredible Hulk #300 ment: “I didn’t have any direct input into the plot, (Oct. 1984), but they did snatch victory from the but since the team roster was still in development, jaws of defeat against a newly merged Ultron/ Mantlo wasn’t all that familiar with either the new roger stern Hank Pym in Avengers: Rage of Ultron (Apr. 2015). Captain Marvel or Starfox. So, Mark Gruenwald had me read over Bill’s dialogue and play script Alexander Fuld Frazier. doctor. After all these decades, I couldn’t tell you exactly what I NOT JUST A PRETTY FACE tweaked—but I vaguely recall setting up a few things about Star- As mentioned above, the Vision was drained of all energy upon entering the Null-Field of Annihilus. To speed up his recovery, fox that would later play out in the regular series.” Finally, in Avengers #243 (May 1984) we see Starfox overtly use Starfox connects the Vision to Titan’s supercomputer ISAAC psionic abilities to calm a bank robber. Stern was asked about this in Avengers #238 (Dec. 1983). The Vision subsequently becomes revelation: “Once again, I have to credit Mark [Gruenwald] for sug- one with ISAAC and all of the Avengers’ computer systems, gesting what we wound up calling Starfox’s pleasure power. As I changing the Vision’s personality and status quo forever—due recall, he suggested that Starfox might possess a power that was to Starfox. Avengers #246 (Aug. 1984) sees Starfox and the Wasp crashing something along the lines of a tasp, a device which author Larry Niven had come up with in his ‘Known Space’ stories. Niven’s a New York socialite’s party. The host turns out to be Sersi, which tasp was a gizmo that could stimulate the pleasure center of the leads to a meeting with the Eternals, and discussion that Mentor brain. Mark thought that Starfox might have a natural psi-power is an Eternal who long ago left Earth for Titan. Our Terran Eternals Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 33

Deserving of more space than is available here (and perhaps the subject of a future “Greatest Stories Never Told…”) is Starfox’s Swingin’ Spring Break Super-Special, which was slated for release in May 2000— before it was cancelled. Writer/artist Gregg Schigiel described on his blog how Thanos—tired of being rejected by the object of his desires (the personification of Death)—turns to his brother for romance advice. At the time, to drum up interest, Schigiel explained, “Starfox’s powers would make him a perfect villain… and a very dangerous one at that. I essentially implied that, if a guy’s powers are he can convince you of anything, who’s to say he can’t convince you he hasn’t done anything wrong?”

LAW & ORDER

Writer Dan Slott toyed with this idea years later. In She-Hulk #6 (May 2006), Starfox seeks legal advice from his old partner after being accused of using his pleasure power to seduce a woman against her will. In seeking Avenger character references for the trial, Jen meets with the Wasp. Jan admits that she previously considered putting the moves on Starfox, and accuses Jen of actually putting the moves on Starfox—which Jen does not deny. In court, the woman admits that she made advances towards Starfox, but couldn’t help herself: “There was this pull. This irresistible pull.” Jen suddenly realizes that Starfox may have done the same to her! She becomes enraged and changes to her She-Hulk persona. Starfox attempts to flee but she beats, binds, and gags him. Displeased at the treatment of his son, Mentor teleports Starfox back to Titan.

All You Need Is Love (left) Starfox outfoxes a bandit in Avengers #243 (May 1984). By Stern, Milgrom, and Sinnott. (above left) During his Avengers days, Starfox managed a guest shot alongside Spidey in Marvel Team-Up #143 (July 1984). Cover by Greg LaRocque. (above right) Eros and the Eternals drop in (literally) on the Milgrom/Sinnott cover of Avengers #248 (June 1984). TM & © Marvel.

34 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

TM & © Marvel.

accept Starfox as a Titanian Eternal! “Partly, I was following what Mark had set up in Thor and What If?,” explains Stern, “and partly I was asked to set things up for an Eternals limited series that Peter Gillis was launching.” Before he attempts to take control of every computer on Earth, the Vision—who has assumed command of the Avengers— sends Captain Marvel on a wild goose chase in Avengers #252 (Feb. 1985). He asks her to investigate Sanctuary II—the starship of Thanos—which had been abandoned beyond the orbit of Pluto. In issue #257 (July 1985), she meets the space-pirate Nebula, who has claimed Sanctuary II by right of being the granddaughter of Thanos! Nebula escapes and Starfox vows an obligation to bring her to justice. He leaves the Avengers (accompanied by Firelord) in issue #261 (Nov. 1985). Stern comments, “The Eros/Thanos rivalry had been an interesting struggle in Jim Starlin’s Captain Marvel stories, and—since Nebula was Starfox’s grand-niece—Eros had a sort of family responsibility to track her down and deal with her threat. I did have long-range plans to eventually bring Starfox and Firelord back into the series as part of a major confrontation with Nebula. But then I was fired from The Avengers, and never got a chance to follow through on that.” Starfox made occasional subsequent appearances, but next played a supporting role in Infinity Gauntlet #1–6 (July–Dec. 1991)— albeit as a captive of Thanos for most of the story. Quasar #59 (June 1994) shows how—at Mentor’s command— Eros and Thanos meet once every year, under “The Truce,” to set aside their differences and remember that the same blood flows in their veins. Eros tells Quasar, “I don’t forget that no matter what Thanos has done in the past… he’s still my brother.”

Mentor stages a Titanian trial to clear his son’s name—with all testimony relayed telepathically, so that there can be no deception—in She-Hulk #12 (Nov. 2006). She-Hulk is enlisted as Earth’s official observer. Astonishingly, Thanos arrives: “I am here to testify… on my loving brother’s behalf.” Thanos relates a tale from their youth: while gambolling, young Thanos was devastated when he accidentally killed a wild animal. All participants then see the telepathically relayed memory (shared by both Eros and Thanos) of Eros reaching out with his gift and telling Thanos that… “Death was part of life. That you should welcome it. That you should embrace death with all of your heart.” This, seemingly, makes Eros responsible for Thanos’ love of Death! Cliffhanger! She-Hulk #13 (Dec. 2006) sees She-Hulk and Eros telepathically enter Thanos’ mind. Fortunately, they discover: 1. This Thanos is a clone with false memories created by the real Thanos. 2. Eros was recently abducted by the real Thanos, who implanted similar false memories. 3. Eros swears he did not use his pleasure powers on Jen when they were teammates in the Avengers, and she believes him. Jeff Lemire made Eros a supporting character in his 12-issue run on Thanos. Issue #1 (Jan. 2017) sees Eros recruited by Thane in a quest to kill Thanos—his own father. However, the tables are turned when Thane acquires the Phoenix Force and threatens the universe. Eros helps a dying Thanos to the God Quarry at the edge of the universe, where Thanos aims to regain his might and deal with his son. Thanos is killed (again) in Infinity Wars Prime #1 (Sept. 2018). Eros opens Thanos’ will in Guardians of the Galaxy #1 (Mar. 2019), where Thanos states: “I have taken measures to have my consciousness uploaded and implanted into the mind of another upon my untimely demise.” Bizarrely, Eros concludes that the prime candidate is Gamora and orders her killed. Of course, Eros is wrong. Thanos has uploaded his consciousness into Eros himself—who is subsequently slain by Gamora in an attempt to prevent Thanos’ resurrection. She is too late. Currently in the Marvel Universe, Thanos is alive but Eros is not.

FULL CIRCLE

Jim Starlin released three final original Thanos graphic novels in 2018–2019. In an interview with Dave Richards in Comic Book Resources, Starlin noted that Marvel Entertainment owns Thanos and so these will be his final stories with the character. And in Thanos: The Infinity Siblings (2018), Eros is a true co-star: “Eros was a bit of a throwaway character right from his inception,” Starlin said. “Like Mentor (now deceased) he was added to the mix to give Thanos a background story, a history. Time went on and I never really got back to Eros, to fill him out more. Others have written and drawn Eros stories and done some interesting things with the character along the way. But basically Eros has remained a very charming cypher, extremely one-dimensional. So I thought adding a few new angles on his personality might be in order.” One such angle manifests when Thanos tellingly states, “Eros, you are a sociopath who cares about nothing but yourself and your own pleasures.” And Eros replies, “You know?” Continued in Thanos: The Infinity Conflict (2018), and Thanos: The Infinity Ending (2019), the siblings (with help) attempt to save the Multiverse from Thanos’ insane(r) future self. Pivotally, Adam Warlock slays Eros, who then finds himself in the presence of Mistress Death. She recognizes him as the younger brother of Thanos and banishes him from her realm— making him deathless and, like Thanos and Warlock, a being who now exists outside of the norm. Only thus is he able to elude future-Thanos and contribute to his defeat. The thrilling trilogy, by his creator, gives Eros a co-starring role at last. And now Eros has made it to the big screen—portrayed by Harry Styles in the mid-credits scene of the Eternals film. In an article on comicbook.com, Starlin said of Eternals, “Eros was very much a big surprise, and all the impact that Harry Styles playing Eros is quite a surprise. I didn’t see that one coming. I think he’ll be perfect as Eros. I mean, he’s a really good-looking guy.” The author would like to express his sincere gratitude to Roger Stern for his invaluable help. JARROD BUTTERY lives in Western Australia. He hopes his pleasure powers have made this article enjoyable.

The Goodbye Guy Starfox bows out of Avengers active duty in this dramatic scene in Avengers #261 (Nov. 1985). Script by Roger Stern, art by John Buscema and Tom Palmer. Original art courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). (bottom left) They’ve hooked up again! She-Hulk #6 (May 2006) cover by Greg Horn. (bottom right) Battling brothers as illo’ed by Alan Davis and Mark Farmer on the cover of Thanos: The Infinity Siblings #1 (2018). TM & © Marvel.

Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 35

IT CAME OUT OF THE SKY

If they had left him alone, Wundarr might have been a one-hit wonder. Writer Steve “Baby” Gerber’s takeoff of DC Comics’ mighty Man of Steel first appeared in—of all places—Marvel’s Man-Thing story in Adventure into Fear (Fear) #17 (Oct. 1973). The story clearly signaled to readers that it was a parody. “It Came Out of the Sky!” not only described the Val Mayerik/Sal Trapani–drawn spacecraft whose nosecone was mired into the swamp on the splash page, but the title itself was Gerber’s playful appropriation of the name of a song from Creedence Clearwater Revival’s 1969 album, Willy and the Poor Boys, as Gerber’s “special thanks” note to the band and front man John Fogerty confirmed. Like the upside-down spaceship, Gerber— the madcap Marvel scribe renowned for challenging the medium’s norms with offbeat material like The Defenders, Omega the Unknown, Crazy Magazine, KISS, and his most famous creation, Howard the Duck—was turning comics on its ear as he was so prone to do, poking fun at the best known of all superhero origins. That familiar tale has been updated and redressed over the decades but has essentially stayed the same: Scientist Jor-El of the highly advanced world of Krypton warns his learned colleagues of his discovery of the planet’s impending doom. When his dire predictions come to pass and Krypton quakes in its death throes, Jor-El and wife Lara stay behind and rocket their infant son to a distant world, affording the child a new lease on life as a superhuman. by

BORN ON THE BAYOU

In Gerber’s version in Fear #17, the superhuman named Wundarr hails from Dakkam (possibly a nod to Daxam, DC Comics’ home world of Mon-El, an analogue of the Silver Age Superman’s teenage self, Superboy). Wundarr’s parents are an astronomer named Hektu and his wife Soja. And on a fateful day Hektu stands before Dakkam’s Planetary Triumvirate, requesting the budget to build a fleet of spaceships to allow the world’s inhabitants to escape, as the star-studier has reckoned that their sun will soon go supernova. With unwavering conviction he warns, steve gerber “Picture the sun growing ever larger, hotter, until it hangs in the sky like a great orange fireball, Courtesy of Alan Light. drying up our rivers and seas!” It will be hell on Dakkam from then on, Hektu claims, and a horrifying montage panel by artists Mayerik and Trapani shows readers the astronomer’s worst nightmares. It’s here where Gerber goes gonzo with the legend of Superman. In early 2006 in an interview conducted for my TwoMorrows book The Krypton Companion, Steve Gerber, who died of pulmonary fibrosis on February 10, 2008, told me, “Wundarr’s home planet never exploded. His father was the alarmist the Krypton elders supposed Jor-El to be.” It always pays to triple-check your calculations, Hektu! And thus, Dakkam Internal Security Police raid the workshop of the “traitor” Hektu, whom they regard a threat to the populace

Wonder Who This Guy Is? Appearances are deceiving on this dynamic Frank Brunner–illustrated cover for Adventure into Fear #17 (Oct. 1973), as newcomer Wundarr’s costume colors are reversed and the character, intellectually a baby, is articulate. Still, it grabs your eye, doesn’t it? TM & © Marvel.

36 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

Michael Eury

with his crackpot theory. Hektu and Soja, with baby Wundarr, attempt to flee Dakkam, but armed officers execute the adults before they can escape the notdoomed-after-all planet. Before she draws her final breath, Soja squirrels away the infant Wundarr into the space cruiser intended for the entire family and blasts off her baby toward who knows where (Hektu also lacks Jor-El’s trip-planning proficiencies). Wundarr’s ship traverses the cosmos on an unchartered course, crash-landing in an Earth swamp in the vicinity of Citrusville, Florida. Old-timers “Maw” and “Paw” witness the ship’s descent. But this is July 1951, when the Red Scare has gripped the US in atomic war paranoia and inspired Hollywood movies about alien invasions. Paw is inclined to investigate, in case there’s someone on board who might need help. “It could be Martians—or Communists—! You could get your fool self ray-gunned t’death,” admonishes Maw. The frightened elderly couple skedaddles in their sedan away from the crash site. And so Wundarr remains cocooned inside his spaceship there in the swamp—for 22 years, until Fear #17, when Man-Thing stumbles across the rocket on the story’s splash page. The muddle-minded muck-monster attempts to crack the spaceship’s impervious hull like a squirrel would an acorn. Once he flails the ship against a tree, it smashes open. Emerging from its smoky wreckage is an auburn-haired Adonis in navy muscle tights with red briefs and boots and a rock star’s mane. Despite having physically matured into a young man during his years inside the ship, Wundarr, devoid of socialization, has remained an emotional and mental infant. Here’s where Gerber once again toys with the Superman mythos. He’s not only riffed on the most famous of origins, now he characterizes this man of steel as Superbaby, evoking the adventures of Superboy as a toddler, those charming, goofy tales from the Silver and early Bronze Ages where a rambunctious li’l Clark Kent, whose use of personal pronouns mirrors the Bizarros (“Me hungry!”), gets into no end of trouble in his adorable red and blue playsuit. Wundarr’s wide-eyed curiosity leads him into both comical and destructive discoveries of his superpowers that include super-strength and flight. His inability to comprehend the confusing world around him triggers a series of confrontations, including his apparently lethal retaliation against a jaw-snapping “friend” (an alligator) and culminating with a covertouted urban smackdown with Man-Thing.

BAD MOON RISING

“It was hardly an original plot,” commented fan Ken Meyer, Jr. about Fear #17 in the “Mail-Things!” letters column of Man-Thing #1, as the muck-monster had just graduated to his own title. “You know what it was taken from. We all know. But you made it beautiful.” The mailbag snippets shared by editor Roy Thomas included a letter of praise from future novelist and Swamp Thing scribe Nancy A. Collins (who beamed, “Dear Steve, I love you to pieces! Wundarr was a masterpiece!”) and a charge by reader Zachary R. Troume that the issue lacked “imagination or originality.” “As expected, the introduction of Wundarr in FEAR #17 stirred up a storm—nay, hurricane!—of controversy,” Thomas penned in response. The editor noted that reader “opinion split largely three ways”: those who “got” Gerber’s intentions and praised the story, those who criticized Marvel for “stealing” DC’s headliner, and those who liked the character of Wundarr but were disenchanted by his origin. “Only a very few Marvelites, apparently, picked up on what we were really trying to do,” Thomas wrote. “Steve’s aim with the story was to introduce a wholly original character—

Twisting a Familiar Fable (top) From Fear #17, Hektu cries that Dakkam’s sky is falling! (bottom) Later in the origin sequence, Wundarr’s ship finds a destination—Earth. Words by Steve Gerber, art by Val Mayerik and Sal Trapani. TM & © Marvel.

Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 37

Rocket Man (top) Wundarr ages physically—but not intellectually or emotionally—in his spacecraft in Fear #17. (bottom) In his original Supermanlike costume, Wundarr clumsily takes to the air in that same issue. TM & © Marvel.

a total innocent, a psychological babe-in-arms who just happened to be powerful enough to rip cities apart—while at the same time satirizing one of the competition’s more colorful characters.” Gerber, in our Krypton Companion interview, confessed that his creation of Wundarr was the result of his “love of the Superman character and my desire to do a little parody/homage.” Among those who didn’t “get” Steve’s intentions were parties at DC Comics, Superman’s home turf. An angry letter to Marvel from DC written not in Kryptonese but legalese infuriated Stan Lee, now Marvel’s publisher. Stan the Man took Roy Thomas to task for not policing Steve Gerber on this story and came close to firing Gerber over the incident. “What I had intended as parody, DC saw as plagiarism,” Gerber told me. “Under the circumstances, of course, Stan had every right to be displeased. I’m still amazed, though, that DC took it so seriously.” To quell the roiling waters between the two competitors, Marvel agreed to produce another Wundarr appearance “that would set him drastically apart from Superman—which is what I had always intended,” Gerber explained. And so, once again Wundarr “came out of the sky,” literally and gracelessly plummeting from the heavens with zero control over his dexterities that one might say are “far beyond those of mortal men.” That was what readers witnessed as they cracked open Marvel Two-in-One (MTIO) #2

(Mar. 1974) and spied the opening page of its Gerber-scripted Thing/Sub-Mariner team-up. With penciler Gil Kane and inker Joe Sinnott, Gerber once again plays with a famous hero’s mythology—this time Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan— and cribs from an old Johnny Weismuller movie. Wundarr helplessly plunges into the depths of the Atlantic near the oceanographic research facility called Hydrobase, where Prince Namor’s cute cousin Namorita spies his plight. She fishes the baffled starman out of the brine. Instantly attracted to one another, they share a gender-reversed “Me Tarzan, you Jane” introduction. “Nee-tah,” the full-grown “newborn” calls his attractive savior as Wundarr speaks his first words (despite his verbosity on the cover of his first appearance in Fear #17). Wundarr falls under the protective arm of Namorita’s big cuz, Sub-Mariner, who mixes it up with the Thing later in the issue when the everlovin’ blue-eyed one tries to clobber a solution to the bewildered Wundarr’s destructive super-temper tantrum on the crowded streets of Midtown Manhattan. The MTIO co-stars soon patch things up and Subby and Namorita place Wundarr— described by Namor as “but an infant in a man’s body—lost, alone, afraid—and unable to cope”— in the custody of the Thing. “B-but ya can’t make a blasted babysitter outta me—ya mackerel brain,” the Thing protests in the tale’s final panel. But it’s too late: the Atlantean cousins have departed, and bashful Ben Grimm is left holding the unconscious super-man-child.

FORTUNATE SON

The supposed de-Supermanization of Wundarr commences in Marvel Two-in-One #3 (May 1974), as the Fantastic Four’s resident genius Reed Richards fashions an open-chested navy and silver outfit that regulates Wundarr’s explosive and uncontrollable bursts of power. Gerber’s flair for levity perfectly characterizes the Thing as the caretaking curmudgeon at the beginning of the next issue, as the Thing grouses over being “stuck playin’ nursemaid to a teenage infant from outer space” while carting Wundarr to the zoo. Wundarr has now matured to the intelligence level of a small child, calling his gargoyleish guardian “Unca Ben-Jee.” But it is Gerber here who takes on the role of a bored child no longer enchanted by a new toy. The writer pushes aside the Thing’s new charge— and the editorially mandated Wundarr subplot— by yanking away a Wundarr-less Grimm and MTIO #4’s co-star Captain America on a time-traveling journey to future Earth. Ben and Cap stay in the future in issue #5 to assist the Guardians of the Galaxy in their quest to liberate their enslaved society. By the time the Thing returns to the 20th Century for Marvel Two-in-One #6 and 7, co-starring Dr. Strange and the Valkyrie, respectively, a shakeup has occurred at the House of Ideas. Editor-in-chief Roy Thomas stepped down from to post to be a freelance writer-editor, with Len Wein plopping into his vacated editor’s chair. Wein’s writing assignments were parceled out to others, including The Defenders to Steve Gerber, with Gerber threading together MTIO #6 and 7 with his new assignment as a crossover with Defenders #20 (Feb. 1975). The scribe ran late on his scripting of Marvel Two-in-One, and his Wundarr subplot suffered along with the book’s production schedule. 38 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

Check Under the Hood? Car hoisting (and throwing) was common in Wundarr’s first two appearances, in (top) Fear #17 and (middle) Marvel Two-in-One #2. That imagery was, of course, inspired by (bottom left) Superman’s first appearance, in Action Comics #1 (June 1938). (bottom right) Even cute li’l Superbaby had his vehicular bang-ups! Wundarr, Man-Thing, and Marvel Two-in-One TM & © Marvel. Superman, Action Comics, and Superboy TM & © Marvel.

In issue #8’s Thing/Ghost Rider yuletide team-up, Wundarr is briefly spied at the Fantastic Four’s Christmas party, with playmate (and intellectual peer) Franklin Richards, then a toddler. Wundarr and Namorita made a brief cameo in MTIO #9’s Thing/Thor tale, which Gerber plotted. Editor Wein tapped new Marvel writer Chris Claremont to dialogue the issue, as Gerber continued to lag behind. The editor still regarded Marvel Two-in-One as Gerber’s title, pledging on #9’s letters page that Wundarr would “be popping up more frequently again in the future.” Len had to swallow his words when Steve’s tardiness led the editor to assign MTIO #10 to the eager Claremont, bidding Gerber goodbye in the lettercol. A few issues later, on the letters page of #14 (Mar. 1976), reader David A. Lovfers complained that “something is missing” from Marvel Two-in-One, mainly, “the subplot featuring Wundarr and Namorita. They’re too GOOD to fade into limbo. How about an entire issue featuring the Thing and these two?” An editorial reply admitted that the characters “DO seem to be in limbo” with Gerber’s departure, announcing, however, that Wundarr “is slated for a future solo-issue of MARVEL PREMIERE.” That solo shot never happened. Several different writers traipsed through the Thing team-up book in the months that followed, and one of them, the aforementioned Chris Claremont, offered Wundarr a token cameo in Ms. Marvel, which he was writing. In Ms. Marvel #15 (Mar. 1978), Wundarr is described in a caption as “a star-born super-being with the consciousness of a toddler—who sees things with a toddler’s directness.” He blunders into a brief battle with Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers), who thinks, “He’s got the body of Adonis and the brain of the Hulk. Not to mention Ol’ Greenskin’s raw power.” But not staying power, as Claremont’s plot depended more upon Wundarr’s gal pal Namorita than Wundarr, so the man-child who “came out of the sky” slipped back into limbo.

LOOKIN’ OUT MY BACK DOOR

But not for long. In an email of August 30, 2021, in response to my queries about Marvel Two-in-One for my 2022 TwoMorrows book, The Team-Up Companion (now available at twomorrows.com!), Ralph Macchio recalled the beginning days of his decades-long relationship with Marvel Comics. His pal Roger Stern had become the editor of MTIO and “asked me to come up with an idea or two [for Thing team-ups] over the weekend. I was a big fan of Kirby’s DNA Project from his run on Jimmy Olsen and I thought along those lines, but not in terms of genetics. [This] was a time of energy shortages and gasoline lines, so I conceived of a place that would investigate alternative energy sources. I recalled the underground nature of Project Wildfire from The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton and based the design of the place roughly on that. And I liked the image of the winged steed Pegasus denoting movement, energy, etc., as the visual trademark. So I called my creation Project: Pegasus. I wrote up a two-part story synopsis over the weekend and presented it to Roger on Monday.” Stern approved the outline, and Macchio became a Marvel writer. Project: Pegasus, better known as Project Pegasus, a high-tech research facility in upstate New York, would become a fertile source of plots for the Marvel Universe. It got its start in the Ralph Macchio–scripted Marvel Two-in-One #42 (Aug. 1978), a Thing/Captain America team-up. Macchio saw the potential in Wundarr, and showed that the Thing hadn’t forgotten the “superhuman man-child from the stars” as a furious Ben Grimm punches his way into the new Pegasus compound after learning his former ward is being kept there—as a superhuman guinea pig. Project Pegasus is attempting to tap into the properties of the handy-dandy Marvel plot device the Cosmic Cube, studying Wundarr’s explosive uses of super-energy as a possible conduit of the Cube’s power. The terrified child-like starman is thrilled to see his “Unca Benjy,” who, at Captain America’s urging, calms down after being convinced that the Pegasus scientists have Wundarr’s welfare in mind. Yet Wundarr’s Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 39

Bashful Blue-Eyed Babysitter (top) Grumpy Grimm takes the childlike Wundarr to the zoo in Marvel Two-in-One #4. (bottom) Wundarr’s transformation into the Aquarian occurred in MTIO #57 (Nov. 1979) and 58, the concluding chapters of “The Project Pegasus Saga.” Covers by George Pérez, inked by Al Milgrom (#57) and Terry Austin (#58). TM & © Marvel.

mind—what little the babe-in-a-grownup’sbod has—is nearly fried by the villain Victorius, disguised as a Pegasus technician, who snatches the Cosmic Cube, the resultant shockwaves pitching Wundarr into a coma. Wundarr had now been reintroduced into the pages of Marvel Comics! But ironically, as with MTIO #4, he promptly fades into the background once the Thing and Cap rush off into yet another co-adventure, this time pursuing Victorius in a two-parter that concludes in issue #43 with a guest-appearance by the character that hosted Wundarr’s debut, Man-Thing. The potential of Project Pegasus was not lost upon another newbie to the Marvel ranks, assistant editor and neo-scribe Mark Gruenwald. A few weeks after the publication of MTIO #43, Gruenwald approached Macchio “with a six-part Pegasus storyline sketched out, detailed schematics of the Project, and a ‘go’ from editor Stern,” Macchio penned in his introduction to the 1988 trade paperback The Project Pegasus Saga. The Project Pegasus storyline launched with Marvel Two-in-One #53 (July 1979), co-written by the duo soon to be dubbed “The Two-in-One Twins,” Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio. As “Gru” wrote in his own intro to the 1988 Pegasus collection, he embellished Macchio’s concept by determining that Pegasus (or P.E.G.A.S.U.S.) stood for Potential Energy Group/Alternate Sources/United States. Mark and Ralph made the Thing and the research facility itself the stars of their six-part opus. But costars were needed since MTIO was a team-up book, so the writers “lined up lesser luminaries,” as Gruenwald called them, with whom they had the potential to explore without interfering with other editors’ series: Quasar, Deathlok, Thundra, Giant-Man (who shed his dreaded Black Goliath moniker in the storyline), and MTIO’s own castaway, Wundarr. Branded “The Pegasus Project” on the title pages, the six-parter ran from MTIO #53–58. It’s beautifully illustrated, with John Byrne and Joe Sinnott on the first three chapters and George Pérez and Gene Day on the final three. “The Pegasus Project” is an early prototype for what readers today might call an “event” comic. Gruenwald and Macchio nimbly juggle multiple subplots involving the guest characters, plus the duplicity of Project Pegasus scientist Dr. Lightner; a wrestling storyline involving Thundra and Marvel’s counterparts of DC’s Female Furies, the Grapplers (each of whom was based upon a female staffer at Marvel, according to Ralph Macchio); the machinations of Pegasus-incarcerated supervillains Solarr and Klaw; and the evolution of the power of the Cosmic Cube. 40 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

Follow in His Footsteps The Aquarian as a guru, from Marvel Comics Presents #46 (Apr. 1990). Script by Fabian Nicieza, art by Hugh Haynes and Fred Fredericks. TM & © Marvel.

LONG AS I CAN SEE THE LIGHT

A Thing/Wundarr team-up is presented in Part Five of “The Pegasus Project” in MTIO #57, although Wundarr is barely seen in the issue and only slapped onto the cover in a small, lower-corner box. As reader Roger Schoolcraft observed of the character-heavy storyline in a letter published in MTIO #65, “The only one you could’ve listed out of the heroes involved so far was Wundarr [since the others had already been cover-billed], yet he did little this issue [#57]. As it turned out, Ben and Wundarr never even saw each other once!” The editorial reply offered a halfhearted explanation: “Since the name of this mag is not MARVEL TEAM-UP, there’s no law saying that the two cover-billed stars have to meet, only that there are at least TWO stars IN ONE story.” Yet despite its absence of an actual Thing/Wundarr team-up, issue #57’s “When Walks Wundarr!” significantly accelerates the starchild’s saga. Arising from the coma he fell into back in issue #42, Wundarr—no longer the horrified infant trapped in a superman’s body—calmly, quietly strides through the Project Pegasus facility, “…like a man reborn,” as a caption describes. “He has seen the light, and it is within him.” Through Pegasus’ often-cruel experiments Wundarr has achieved oneness with the omnipotent Cosmic Cube, which beckons to him as a father might call a son. Once Wundarr touches the Cube, he merges with its vast energies in a “cosmic communion.” It’s in the next issue, MTIO #58—the conclusion of “The Pegasus Project”—where we see the result of this union, as Wundarr has evolved into the Aquarian, touted on the cover as “Marvel’s latest, greatest super-star.” Every aspect of his being, including his clothing, has been recreated as Wundarr is now “the living son of the Cosmic Cube” and the possessor of a protective “null-field” that deactivates energy sources around him. Steve Gerber’s Superman homage has now become Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio’s Jesus Christ analogue. As the writers bring their Project Pegasus epic to its pulse-pounding conclusion, the Aquarian bids the Thing farewell. “It is my mission to open the way for a new age—to bring mankind the peace I’ve found,” the erstwhile star-child softly intones.

TM & © Marvel.

SWEET HITCHHIKER

The Two-in-One Twins’ reinvention of Wundarr into the Aquarian had promise, but another Superman curse plagued the character. Whereas the planet-pushing Superman’s near-omnipotence confounded some DC writers like Denny O’Neil, Marvel’s writers showed little interest in a “Messiah” in the Marvel Universe. Mark Gruenwald, as the writer of Quasar, the monthly series starring Marvel’s “Cosmic Avenger,” utilized the Aquarian in several issues. Quasar #4 (Dec. 1989) is the most notable, with a “band of followers” who “seek enlightenment” flocking around the peacemaker, who now looks like the Anglo depiction of Jesus with his full beard and luxurious chestnut-colored hair. In that issue the Aquarian learns more of his heritage upon encountering Quantum, a superpowered émigré from his home world of Dakkam who had originated in the Steve Englehart–penned pages of West Coast Avengers #12 (Sept. 1986).

In the short story “A Gift of Death” in the anthology title Marvel Comics Presents #46 (Apr. 1990), the Aquarian is portrayed by writer Fabian Nicieza as a robed guru who walks “the world, searching for answers to the questions I ask, and questions for the answers I know.” Actually, the Aquarian walks on air, a few inches off the ground, a Bible-inspired bit of razzle-dazzle. The Aquarian—under the evil thrall of Quantum—temporarily reverted to his primitive Wundarr self, move savage than before, during the “Infinity Crusade” event, clashing with some of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in the pages of Avengers West Coast #97 (Aug. 1983). He’s since popped up in a couple of Marvel events, as a member of the super-group the Command or as a free agent, to quickly be forgotten until another writer dusts him off for another appearance. While nostalgia-pining Marvelites might applaud these infrequent uses of the character, a reader has to, well, wonder, What would have happened to Wundarr if DC Comics had not objected to his original appearance? There are other counterparts of Superman in the Marvel Universe, of course, as well as analogues of the entire Justice League of America in the form of the Squadron Supreme. It’s unfortunate that Wundarr wasn’t allowed to exist among them. A tantrum-prone big baby would have stood out among the pack. A cloud of controversy often hovered over Gerber, sometimes generated by his own audacity. Too bad that cloud cast its shadow over this fun, cracked-lens version of comics’ premiere superhero. BACK ISSUE editor MICHAEL EURY also wonders why Marvel’s Wundarr and Solarr end with two “R”s but Thor only has one.

Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 41

When Giant-Size X-Men #1 (cover-dated May 1975) hit the newsstands in February 1975, it ushered in a new era of greatness for Marvel’s Merry Mutants, with the issue becoming one of the most iconic and important Bronze Age comic books. It was the beginning of X-Men’s rise to becoming one of Marvel’s premier titles and made superstars out of its cast of mutant superheroes including Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Thunderbird. Wait! You don’t know Thunderbird, the Native-American mutant superhero? Even though the other characters went on to great success in comic books, animated series, video games, toy aisles, and movies, Thunderbird is oftentimes seen as little more than a footnote in X-Men history. He’s more than that, however, as you will see as BACK ISSUE explores the legacy of both John Proudstar (Thunderbird) and his younger brother James Proudstar (Thunderbird II/ Warpath), and shows how they both made their mark on the Marvel Universe.

THUNDERBIRD

by E

d Lute

When writer Len Wein and artist Dave Cockrum developed what would become the seminal classic Giant-Size X-Men (GSXM) #1, they wanted a more diverse cast of characters. The issue featured several characters that previously appeared in the title as adversaries to the team, including Banshee from Ireland (issue #28, Jan. 1967) and Sunfire from Japan (#64, Jan. 1970). Our neighbors to the North were also featured dave cockrum in the form of the Canadian Wolverine, who had made his debut in The Incredible Hulk © Eliot R. Brown. #181 (Nov. 1974) after a cameo appearance in the previous issue. GSXM #1 also featured several newly created characters, most of which were international and developed with diversity in mind, with Storm (Africa), Nightcrawler (Germany), and Colossus (Russia) being introduced. The creators did save one roster spot for an American, with Native-American John Proudstar taking part in the new X-Men’s mission to save the original X-Men from the menace of Krakoa. John’s X-Men codename was Thunderbird. In a May 2014 interview with the m0vie blog, writer Chris Claremont (who began his 16-year writing stint on the title when co-wrote the second appearance of the new X-Men in The X-Men #94, Aug. 1975), discussed the diverse cast of the new team. “That was the intent for the title from the beginning. [Publisher] Stan Lee, [editor-in-chief] Roy Thomas, and Len [Wein] were all working on the presumption that the X-Men would be a possible means of expanding the sales to foreign venues. “Marvel had a reprint operation going in England, they were starting to talk to people in Paris and Italy, so there was this hope of moving beyond the domestic United States. And this was the thought of saying, ‘Let’s see what happens if we make it a more international group.’ Because, at that point, all the Marvel teams were all collections of White Anglo-Saxon Protestant males, with an occasional girl as a chaser.” John Proudstar was an Apache. His costume contained many ‘Not a Hoax! Not a Dream!’ elements that were reminiscent of what many Americans at the time thought to be Native-American cultures. There was an Thunderbird, with barely any “screen time” behind eagle motif to the brightly hued red-and-blue costume that also contained tassels on his arms and legs. However, this wasn’t him, was the ill-fated X-Man touted to die on Cockrum’s original design for the character’s costume. this dynamite Gil Kane/Dave Cockrum cover to In a 1999 interview with editor Jon B. Cooke for TwoMorrows’ Comic Book Artist vol. 1 #16, Cockrum discussed designing the X-Men #95 (Oct. 1975). costume. “When I brought in the first design, everyone said, ‘He looks like an Air Force pilot!’ I had this strange helmet on TM & © Marvel. 42 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

TM & © Marvel.

him that was an Indian design but nobody liked it, so I went back and re-did it.” While the other members of the new X-Men have become household names even amongst people who don’t read comics, Thunderbird has been almost totally forgotten. He was only on the team for two adventures, dying on his second mission in X-Men #95 (Oct. 1975). In the tale entitled “Warhunt,” Count Luchino Nefaria and his Ani-Men had taken over the North American Air Defense Command Center in the Cheyenne Mountain area of the Colorado Rockies. The X-Men defeated them, but Count Nefaria attempted to escape by jet plane. Thunderbird jumped onto the plane and attempted to stop him by pummeling its hull with his fists. His last words, delivered telepathically to X-Men mentor Professor Charles Xavier, were, “I’ve been a loner all my life, Xavier—an outcast—dumped on my everybody I met—but I’m a man, Xavier, a warrior of the Apache—an’ today I’m going to prove it.” The plane exploded, killing John Proudstar. Why did the creators decide to kill off Thunderbird in only his third appearance? Claremont tells BACK ISSUE, “The decision was made by Len Wein, in his dual role as series writer (and characterseries co-creator) and [newly appointed] editor-in-chief. Usually, placing a character in such jeopardy has impact because the readers have come to embrace him/her emotionally over a period of time. S.O.P. [standard operating procedure] in a normal series. The challenge with Uncanny is that it was a quarterly title [in its original Giant-Size format]. To take 20-plus issues to develop such a relationship between character and readers would for this series mean over five years. Plus, there was an initial feeling that the abilities and personalities of John Proudstar and Wolverine were too much alike. One of them was redundant. He also felt that it would be a good thing from a storytelling perspective to demonstrate to the readers that this was a title where anything could happen. Heroes could actually die.

Tough-Talking X-Man (top left) The prickly John Proudstar is recruited by Professor X in Giant-Size X-Men #1 (May 1975), where (top right) he appears in costume on the next page alongside his fellow mutants. By writer Len Wein, penciler Dave Cockrum, and inker Sam Grainger. (bottom left) Cockrum’s original, rejected Thunderbird costume sketch. TM & © Marvel.

Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 43

“So this was [Len Wein’s] call: we start by yanking the rug out introduced his younger brother, as Warpath, wearing the same from under both characters’ and readers’ legs right at the start outfit, there seemed less and less of a rationale. My own feeling and reveal to them in no uncertain terms that here was a series back then, especially following the Jean Grey resurrection, was to where anything could happen. The story had already been plotted leave things alone, simply to keep solid—at least in my head— [as GSXM #2] and was significantly penciled when Len decided the idea that death was something real for the X-canon, even if not for anywhere else in the Marvel continuity.” on departing and I took over the writing chores. The other While Thunderbird may not be as recognized as the thing that happened was that Marvel decided to rest of the new X-Men team, his memory and sacricease production of the Giant-Sized concept books. fice wouldn’t be forgotten. His legacy and the name Presto, [X-Men] became a bimonthly, regular-sized Thunderbird would carry on… most notably in the comic. Which meant that a 34-page giant-sized form of his younger brother, James Proudstar. comic was now suddenly a two-parter. With GSXM #1 already in print, and #2 significantly drawn, there was no time to re-think the story, THUNDERBIRD II much less re-draw it. We had to go with what was Within a few years, X-Men was one of Marvel’s already in progress. The saving grace being that hottest properties. Naturally, the company wanted making the series bimonthly bought us an extra another mutant-related book to share the spinner month (kinda) to sort out details.” racks with the X-Men. In a 1993 interview for Wizard: The Comics In Marvel Graphic Novel #4 (Nov. 1982), readers Magazine, Cockrum echoed Claremont’s recwere introduced the New Mutants. This book, chris claremont ollection: “We created him as an obnoxious written by Claremont with artwork by Bob loudmouth, and we already had an obnoxious © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. McLeod, and the New Mutants series that folloudmouth in Wolverine. So, one of us decided to lowed it focused on younger mutants who kill him off after all, just for shock value.” were honing their powers much like the When a comic-book character dies, this is usually followed original X-Men when they first debuted in 1963. The team by a resurrection. This wasn’t the case with John Proudstar, as was formed and led by Professor Xavier, who in then-current stohe wasn’t revived (at least during the BI era of the 1970s and rylines thought that the X-Men had died. 1980s). What do the New Mutants have to do with the Proudstar When asked if he had ever considered reviving John Proudstar, family? James Proudstar, the younger brother of John, took over Claremont responds, “Considered, yes. But the canon kept the mantle of Thunderbird to honor the memory of his brothgetting more and more crowded with characters, and once we er. However, he wouldn’t be doing it with the New Mutants but with their adversaries, the Hellions, led by Emma Frost, the White Queen! Blaming Professor Xavier and the X-Men for the death of his older brother, James joined the Hellions in New Mutants #16 (June 1984), written by Claremont, penciled by Sal Buscema, and inked by Tom Mandrake and Kim DeMulder. The cover to the issue showed James attired in a magenta outfit like the other Hellions, but this wouldn’t last long. This wouldn’t be the last time that James and the Hellions clashed with the New Mutants, as the teams continued to be adversaries. In Uncanny X-Men #193 (May 1985), written by Claremont with artwork by John Romita, Jr. and Dan Green, James donned an outfit like his brother’s and kidnapped former X-Man Sean Cassidy (Banshee) in order to lure Xavier and the X-Men to the site where John died. In a nod to the inspirational story, this issue was titled “Warhunt 2.” James’ goal was to kill the Xavier and his team in retribution. However, when presented with the opportunity, he was unable to do so. Claremont presented James Proudstar with a great story arc that started James on his path to the hero that he would become. The issue also saw Xavier offer James a spot on the New Mutants, but he declined to remain with his teammates on the Hellions. Did Claremont ever consider making James a member of the New Mutants? Claremont tells BI, “No. From James’ perspective, why would he? He doesn’t trust Charley [Xavier] in the least. He has his own friends, his own life, with the Hellions— he likely thinks the New Mutants are the ones being ‘controlled’ by Charley.” James Proudstar eventually left the Hellions and returned to his family’s reservation. However, readers would soon reencounter him… but this time under a different codename than Thunderbird.

The Ultimate Sacrifice Astoundingly gorgeous Cockrum/Grainger original art from X-Men #95, showing the valiant Thunderbird’s last heroic act. Scripted by Wein and Claremont. Courtesy of Heritage (www.ha.com). TM & © Marvel.

44 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

Vengeful Sibling (left) James Proudstar (foreground), angered over his brother’s death, fought with the villainous Hellions in New Mutants #16 (June 1984). Cover by Tom Mandrake. Within a few years, James had settled into the role of hero as the new Thunderbird and (right) redubbed himself Warpath in New Mutants #99 (Mar. 1991). Cover by Rob Liefeld. TM & © Marvel.

WARPATH

New Mutants #99 (Mar. 1991) saw James Proudstar finally accept an invitation to join the team. However, this wasn’t the same team that he had faced early in his career as Thunderbird. The New Mutants team had undergone many changes since its inception, but under the guidance of writer Fabian Nicieza and artist Rob Liefeld, it would undergo its biggest change yet. The super-team that had started out as a training group for young mutants under the direction of Professor X became a paramilitary mutant force under the leadership of Cable, who was introduced in New Mutants #87 (Mar. 1990). [Editor’s note: See BACK ISSUE #102 for a Cable history.] Issue #100 (Apr. 1991) was the last issue of New Mutants. With the change in direction, the team took on the new name of X-Force and was given its own self-titled series. X-Force #1 (June 1991) by Nicieza and Liefeld became the biggest-selling comic of the time until X-Men #1 (Oct. 1991) debuted. James Proudstar followed his new teammates into this incarnation. According to Liefeld in 2018 on CBR.com, “You know, back when I created X-Force, as a fan I was kind of tired with the X-Men. They had become what I would say kind of a mopey group. A mopey bunch of people. They were always drowned in their own sorrows, and I like action—I like kickass characters. “When I transformed [the New Mutants comic] and turned it into X-Force, I think each of the characters, from Cable to Domino to Deadpool, are a kickass group of badass mutants that don’t take any sh*t. They knock down your wall. They ask questions later. They are very much a more aggressive arm of the X-Men.” Along with the more in-your-face nature of the new team, James took on the more in-your-face name of Warpath. Although he changed his codename, he continued to use the Thunderbird costume to honor his brother. Like his older brother, James has superhuman strength, agility, and healing ability. However, X-Force #3 (Oct. 1991) presented a James Proudstar that was more powerful than his brother was shown to be. James faced off against one of the X-Men’s most physically powerful foes, the Juggernaut, and was able to hold his own against this dominant force.

LEGACY

X-Force #-1 [minus 1] (July 1997) featured a flashback story of young John and James Proudstar written by John Francis Moore, with art by penciler Adam Polina and inkers Mark Morales, Jon Holdredge, and Al Milgrom. The issue featured the brothers interacting with Destiny, Mystique, and the Ringmaster. It did a nice job of showcasing the bond between the two brothers. While both Proudstars never achieved the popularity that other members of the Merry Mutants did, they are more than just footnotes in comic-book history. Both are important to both Marvel history and to the X-Men. What started off as a one-note character created to die turned into a family legacy that continues to this day. James Proudstar remained a valuable member of X-Force for many years and eventually followed in his brother’s footsteps and became a member of the X-Men in Uncanny X-Men #475 (Sept. 2006), written by Ed Brubaker, with artwork by penciler Billy Tan and inker Danny Miki. He continues to appear in Marvel’s mutant books and was also seen, played by Booboo Stewart, in the 2014 live-action film X-Men: Days of Future Past. But what of his older brother John? His legacy and sacrifice haven’t been forgotten either. X-Men #1 (July 2021), by writer Gerry Dugan and artist Pepe Larraz, continued the Proudstar Legacy over 40 years after John’s death. As Cyclops shows Polaris the X-Men’s new plane, he remarks that they aren’t going to call it the Blackbird, the name they traditionally use for their planes. He tells her, “We’re trying to decide between the Thunderbird and the Proudstar. We’d like to honor John’s sacrifice.” And the Proudstar legacy continues… The author would like to thank Chris Claremont for his time and recollections for this article. ED LUTE is a mutant-loving member of the Merry Marvel Marching Society. He first encountered the Proudstar family with Thunderbird in Classic X-Men #1.

Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 45

The Marvel Universe is well stocked with characters that have taken the path of redemption from villain to hero—Black Widow, Hawkeye, the Swordsman. You can probably name many more. Less familiar is the descent from good guy to evildoer, but such was the plight of Modred, and to be honest, it may ultimately have been the right career move. From his secret fortress near Stonehenge, Ian Millsted explores the brief, heroic career of the twice and future mage, Modred.

HE’S A MAGIC MAN

In 1975 Marvel was still launching many new titles, partly to squeeze out the emergence of Martin Goodman’s Atlas (Seaboard) Comics. Among these was Marvel Chillers #1 (Oct. 1975), featuring the brand-new character of Modred the Mystic. At just 16 pages, “Magic is Alive” starring Modred was originally intended as a backup strip in a Giant-Size title. But as Marvel’s Giant-Size books were being discontinued by this time, the story was repurposed for a starring slot in what was clearly intended to be a tryout title for horror-tinged heroes. In fact, the first of those 16 pages is an add-on frontispiece by Ed Hannigan, inked by John Romita, Sr. and Frank Giacoia, to entice the reader in and bulk out the meager 15-page count for the story. The story proper starts on page 2, with two archaeologists investigating caves on the Isle of Wight, England. The explorers, Janet Lyton and Grant Whitaker, find a human figure dressed in a hooded cape, instead of the Darkhold they had been looking for. “Darkhold” was a reference to events in the Werewolf by Night title from Marvel, suggesting the intention was to link Modred to the publisher’s horror line. The inevitable, and legitimately Arthurian, revival of the long-dormant Modred is quickly accomplished and the second act of the story moves into flashback to tell who and what Modred is. Modred tells his rescuers that he had lived 11 hundred years earlier, in the 9th Century, and had been an apprentice to a secondtier mage, Gervasse, during the reign of King Arthur. He was also in love with Gervasse’s daughter, which might be why the old mage was intending to send him off to continue his studies with Merlin. A less-than-thrilled Modred instead seeks the shortcut option of gaining access to the Book of Darkhold, to acquire magical powers that will enable him to tell Gervasse and Merlin where to go. What could possibly go wrong with that? It is interesting to note that the narrative in this section places the story toward the end of King Arthur’s reign, when he is engaged in civil war with his half-brother and has been deserted by his wife. Back in the present day (well, 1975, anyway), Modred uses unspecified magical powers to move earth and rock around so that he, Janet, and Grant can get back to the surface while burying the legacy of the Darkhold. The final caption promises the reader that the next issue of Marvel Chillers will feature Tigra the Were-Woman. This debut outing for Modred was written by Bill Mantlo and drawn by Yong Montano. Montano clearly had fun on the section set in Arthurian times, but the bookends seem a little cramped. Unfortunately, Bill Mantlo is not in a position to be able to share any memories of this story due to a brain injury. The editor, Len Wein, is no longer with us. The credits also list the tale as “inspired by” Marv Wolfman, who shares with BACK ISSUE, “Honestly, I don’t remember anything other than we did it.” We should also mention the dramatic cover by Gil Kane.

Magical Mystery Tour Modred began his brief history as a hero in Marvel Chillers #1 (Oct. 1975). Cover by Gil Kane and Tom Palmer. TM & © Marvel.

46 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

Ian Millsted

Do You Dare Enter… the Tower of Darkhold? Modred the Mystic as a hero may have been ill-conceived, but Yong Montano’s deliriously detailed artwork on Bill Mantlo’s script was certainly breathtaking! From Marvel Chillers #1. Original art courtesy of Heritage (www.ha.com). TM & © Marvel.

Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 47

Modred’s ‘Other’ Shot As a Hero (left) Marvel Chillers #2 (Dec. 1975). Cover by Rich Buckler and Frank Giacoia. (right) From the Heritage archives, original art to its title page, illustrated by Sonny Trinidad. TM & © Marvel.

Despite the promise of Tigra, Marvel Chillers #2 (Dec. 1975) actually featured a second outing for Modred, so there apparently was some love in the Marvel offices somewhere. With an allaction cover by Rich Buckler, inked by Frank Giacoia, this time we are in central London, which the narrative tells us has “increased bombing by Irish Republican Army Sympathizers.” The bold type was used in the actual comic book. Why “sympathizers”? Why the bold type? Was Mantlo, or someone in editorial, trying to suggest the IRA never planted bombs themselves? In any case, the London police are having more trouble with a clearly-not-quite-himself Modred using his powers to break up the roads due to imagining the people and cars are, actually, demons and dragons. Sonny Trinidad replaced Yong Montano as the artist for this issue and seemed comfortable with the action scenes in particular. Note, also, the splash page by John Byrne. Modred collapses and is rescued by Janet and a reluctant Grant, who drive him away in a VW van, which is a fun touch. The trio try to head north, away from London, but are mysteriously diverted off into a weird forest, where Modred fights an elemental demon. Although the Modred character is troubled by visions in this story, when he is fully conscious he is clearly trying to fight for good against evil. At the end of the second issue, he pledges to fight against further incursions by the forces of the Darkhold. However, it is the long-promised arrival of Tigra that really proves his undoing as Modred’s run as a solo feature ends here, just two issues in. Marvel Chillers continued for another five issues starring Tigra.

ROCKY TIMES AHEAD

Modred next appeared in Marvel Two-in-One #33 (Nov. 1977) in a team-up adventure alongside The Thing. This was part of a linked series of adventures in which Ben Grimm and Alicia Masters travelled in England. They had already encountered Shang-Chi and Spider-Woman and were seeking some togethertime by taking a trip to Stonehenge. Clearly, Ben Grimm isn’t the only pile of old rocks that Alicia is interested in. The Thing and Alicia are attacked at Stonehenge by four massive demons that claim to be acting on the orders of Merlin. Spider-Woman also appears, having followed the couple. We have to wait until halfway though the story before Modred appears, but he does so in style. Modred is on his own, it seems, with no sign or mention of Janet or Grant. He claims to have greater power from being close to Stonehenge, while the demons have been sent from back in time and are removed from the source of their power (Merlin). Merlin’s agenda is that Modred is an errant student that needs to be brought back under control.

MTIO #33 was written by Marv Wolfman, with art by Ron Wilson and Pablo Marcos and a cover by none other than George Pérez. The Modred they show here looks more like the finished article, acting with agency and self-awareness. If the character was to have had a future as a hero it might have continued from here, but the readers obviously didn’t demand more. Despite featuring a British character and being set in England, the above three stories were never selected for reprinting in the British Marvel titles of the era, which suggests another lack of confidence in the concept. Not that Modred had gone unnoticed. When Dez Skinn took charge of the Marvel UK line, he initiated some original material designed to appeal to a British readership. Among these was a serial (in Hulk Comic from 1979 to 1980) starring the Black Knight and a supporting cast of characters drawn from myth and literature [see BI #28 for more info—ed.]. Writer Steve Parkhouse included Merlin, King Arthur, the Six Walkers, and Mordred, the half-brother of King Arthur. In a text piece in Captain Britain Summer Special (June 1980), Skinn sought to assimilate Modred and Mordred as a single character. The construct was cleverly done but unnecessary. While the Black Knight and Modred (and Captain Britain, for that matter) all have links to Merlin, the established origin for Modred clearly establishes him as a new character and not the Mordred familiar from the various tales of Camelot. There have been numerous iterations of Merlin/Merlyn in the Marvel Universe, and explaining how they all fit together is an article for another day. [Editor’s note: The same can be said of Merlin in the DC Universe. Readers, do you have any interest in a “Merlin in Comics” article?] When Modred next appeared in US Marvel comics it was in the pages of The Avengers #185 (July 1979). Avengers writer

48 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

David Michelinie was given an assist in plotting by tain America #305 (May 1985) by writer Mike Carlin, Mark Gruenwald and Steve Grant. Michelinie shares penciler Paul Neary, and inker Dennis Janke. Having defeated Captain Britain and stolen his armored some memories with BACK ISSUE. “I have no idea how Mark and Steve worked costume, Modred poses as the hero to fight Captain together on this project,” Michelinie admits. “I was America around the sights of central London. The story continues into Captain America #306 merely handed the approved plot and cop(June 1985). By the end, Modred is defeated ies of the penciled pages and tasked with and Merlin appears to take him to writing the dialogue, captions, etc. Otherworld, the dimension in which “I don’t recall having used the Merlin continues to exist. Modred character anywhere before After that the comics career of this storyline, and never talked Modred takes a different, and quite the character over with Bill Mantlo. involved, turn in the pages of such I was in something of a crunch, 1990s titles as Darkhold, Morbius, work-wise, writing an Avengers Spirits of Vengeance (the Midnight Sons paperback novel during the day and group of titles), and Doctor Strange. writing the Avengers comic at night. That sequence of stories and titles deAll the while keeping one eye on the serves a detailed examination in a TV news to see if Three Mile Island future issue. Suffice to say, the was actually going to melt down. (I david michelinie character evolved significantly lived about 50 miles away from that beyond the young wizard we first installation at the time.) So, I pretty much did what I could with what was in the plot I saw in Marvel Chillers, but perhaps found a niche in which to play a part in the ongoing Marvel Universe. was given.” The Modred the Mystic that appeared roughly With a cover by George Pérez and interior art by John Byrne (pencils) and Dan Green (inks), the every couple of years from the mid-’70s to the midreturn of Modred looked spectacular, although ’80s always seemed to have more potential than Modred choosing to appear in the bedroom of was shown much of the time. Personally, I always Wanda (the Scarlet Witch) was possibly under- got a kick out of seeing Marvel characters in stories mined in the eyes of some readers who may have set in England, where I was born and live, whether been paying more attention to the revelation that that was Spider-Man trying to find Gwen Stacy, the Invaders defending these isWanda slept in the buff! Since his last appearance, Modred has been lands in World War II, or even corrupted by the Book of Darkhold and the demon the often unloved Modred Cthon. Acting as Cthon’s puppet, Modred lures the the Mystic. Come and visScarlet Witch into a trap wherein she can be pos- it anytime—I’ll have the tea waiting. sessed by Cthon. The story continued in Avengers #186 and 187 (Aug. and Sept. 1979). This set the precedent With thanks to Marv Wolfman and for subsequent writers to use Modred as a mystical David Michelinie. villain. There are cameo appearances in Marvel Two-in-One #74 (Apr. 1981) and The Vision and the IAN MILLSTED is a writer and teacher based in Bristol, a city Scarlet Witch #4 (Feb. 1983) before the next stage in surrounded by woodlands and the Modred story takes place in the pages of Cap- hills full of legends. And cows.

Bring on the Bad Guy (left) Modred teamed with the Thing in Marvel Two-in-One #33 (Nov. 1977). Cover by George Pérez and Pablo Marcos. (middle) By the time he appeared in Avengers #186 (Aug. 1979), Modred was no longer one of the good guys. Cover by John Byrne and Terry Austin. (right) The malevolent mystic puppets two Captains on Paul Neary’s cover to Captain America #306 (June 1985). TM & © Marvel.

Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 49

BOOKS FROM TWOMORROWS PUBLISHING

REED CRANDALL

Illustrator of the Comics

MAC RABOY

Master of the Comics

MIKE GRELL

HERO-A-GO-GO!

KIRBY & LEE: STUF’ SAID

History of Crandall’s life and career, from Golden Age Quality Comics, to Warren war and horror, Flash Gordon, and beyond!

Documents the life and career of the master Golden Age artist of Captain Marvel Jr. and other classic characters!

LIFE IS DRAWING WITHOUT AN ERASER

Career-spanning tribute to the Legion of Super-Heroes & Warlord comics art legend!

Looks at comics' 1960s CAMP AGE, when spies liked their wars cold and their women warm, and TV's Batman shook a mean cape!

Presents JACK KIRBY and STAN LEE’s own words to examine the complicated relationship of the creators of the Marvel Universe!

(256-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $13.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-102-8

(160-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-090-8

(160-page FULL-COLOR TPB) $27.95 (Digital Edition) $12.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-088-5

(272-page COLOR paperback) $36.95 (Digital Edition) $13.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-073-1

(176-page COLOR paperback) $26.95 (Digital Edition) $12.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-094-6

OLD GODS & NEW

JACK KIRBY’S DINGBAT LOVE

IT CREPT FROM THE TOMB

THE WORLD OF TWOMORROWS

MLJ COMPANION

The complete history of ARCHIE COMICS’ super-heroes known as the “Mighty Crusaders”, with in-depth examinations of each era of the characters’ history! (288-page COLOR paperback) $34.95 (Digital Edition) $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-067-0

COMIC BOOK ARTIST BULLPEN

Collects all seven issues of JON B. COOKE’s little-seen self-published zine, produced just after the original COMIC BOOK ARTIST ended its TwoMorrows run in 2003! (176-page paperback with COLOR) $24.95 (Digital Edition) $8.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-105-9

AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES

FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER SERIES

documents each decade of comics history!

8 Volumes covering the 1940s-1990s

Documents the genesis of JACK KIRBY'S FOURTH WORLD series, his gods in THOR and other strips, how those influenced his DC epic, and affected later series like ETERNALS and CAPTAIN VICTORY!

The final complete, unpublished Jack Kirby stories in existence: Two unused 1970s DC DINGBATS OF DANGER STREET tales, plus TRUE-LIFE DIVORCE & SOUL LOVE mags!

Digs up the best of FROM THE TOMB (the UK’s preeminent horror comics history magazine), with early RICHARD CORBEN art, HP LOVECRAFT, and more!

An anniversary behind-the-scenes retrospective with publisher JOHN MORROW, JON B. COOKE, MICHAEL EURY, ROY THOMAS, GEORGE KHOURY, and others!

(160-page COLOR paperback) $26.95 (Digital Edition) $12.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-098-4

(176-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $43.95 (Digital Edition) $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-091-5

(192-page paperback with COLOR) $29.95 (Digital Edition) $10.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-081-6

(224-page FULL-COLOR TPB) $37.95 (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-092-2

GROOVY

A psychedelic look at when Flower Power bloomed in Pop Culture. Revisits ‘60s era’s ROCK FESTIVALS, TV, MOVIES, ART, COMICS & CARTOONS! (192-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $15.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-080-9

OUR ARTISTS AT WAR AMERICAN TV COMICS (1940s-1980s)

JOHN SEVERIN

TWO-FISTED COMIC ARTIST

Examines US War comics from EC, DC COMICS, WARREN PUBLISHING, CHARLTON, and more! Featuring KURTZMAN, SEVERIN, DAVIS, WOOD, KUBERT, GLANZMAN, KIRBY, and others!

History of over 300 TV shows and 2000+ comic book adaptations, from well-known series (STAR TREK, PARTRIDGE FAMILY, THE MUNSTERS) to lesser-known shows.

A spirited biography of the EC COMICS and MAD mainstay, co-creator of Western strip American Eagle, 40+ year CRACKED magazine contributor, and Marvel Comics artist.

(160-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $27.95 (Digital Edition) $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-108-0

(192-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $29.95 (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-107-3

(160-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $14.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-106-6

TwoMorrows. The Future of Comics History. Phone: 919-449-0344 E-mail: store@twomorrows.com Web: www.twomorrows.com

TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614

by A

ndy Mangels

He wears one of the most intricate costumes in deadlines were missed by other creators. A fill-in comic-book history, designed by an artist lat- on Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #7 (Dec. 1974) led er known for his minimalism. He is a half-alien to him being offered the writing job on the strip with a tragic backstory, but he was introregularly, often working with newcomer duced in an urban martial-arts series. artists like a young George Pérez and Written almost exclusively by one Keith Giffen. With Pérez, Mantlo crewriter, he guest-starred in a dozen ated the White Tiger, comicdom’s or so Marvel titles, over the course first Hispanic hero, in Deadly Hands of eight years, before he finally #19 (Dec. 1975). got his own miniseries. If there Because he didn’t really care was ever a hero that defined “Not for martial arts, Mantlo wanted to Ready for Primetime,” it was Jack add more cosmic and superhero of Hearts, the cosmic creation of Bill elements to the series. He had Mantlo and Keith Giffen. another new hero up his sleeve to At the age of 23, Bill Mantlo introduce a few months later, got a job at Marvel Comics in but Pérez was unavailable. The 1974, working first as an assistant concept was Jack of Hearts, a bill mantlo to production manager John character that would wear a Verpoorten, then as a colorist for © Marvel. costume inspired by playing seven months. Mantlo debuted as a writer in cards. “George left the strip and an artist named October 1974, and became indispensable in the Keith Giffen came along and I mentioned the Marvel offices for writing fill-in issues for when idea to him, and he came up with the incredible

What’s in the Cards for Jack? (left) Decked out for a solo shot, the Jack of Hearts got the spotlight in Marvel Premiere #44 (Oct. 1978). Cover by Mike Zeck and Rudy Nebres. (right) Its splash page, by Bill Mantlo, Keith Giffen, and Nebres. TM & © Marvel.

Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 51

Eye of the Tiger (top) The Jack of Hearts squares off against the White Tiger in Jack’s first appearance, in the “White Tiger” feature in the B&W mag The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #22 (Mar. 1976). Story by Bill Mantlo, layouts by Keith Giffen, finishes by Rico Rival. (middle) Costume model sheet by Dave Cockrum, in color. From the collection of Miki Annamanthadoo, courtesy of Glen Cadigan. (bottom) Among the Jack of Hearts’ guest-appearances: Incredible Hulk #214 (Aug. 1977, cover by Rich Buckler and Ernie Chan); Iron Man #103 (Oct. 1977, cover by George Pérez and Mike Esposito); and Marvel Two-in-One #48 (Feb. 1979, cover by Chic Stone). TM & © Marvel.

52 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

costume,” Mantlo said in a 1983 Amazing Heroes interview. “We developed a character which was supposed to be our answer to boring kung fu characters.” Despite incorrect sources that credit Pérez, it was Keith Giffen that designed the colorful-but-busy costume. In the tales, Jack Hart was the son of wealthy scientist/industrialist Philip Hart, who was working on a renewable energy source that could replace fossil fuels… a very forward-thinking plot element for 1975. After his father created the liquid fuel known as “Zero Fluid,” he intended to give it freely to the world, but the evil Corporation (yes, that was its name) wanted to either profit from it or destroy it. Philip was killed in front of his son, and the killers caused Jack to be doused in the corrosive Zero Fluid. Instead of melting him, the fluid mutagenically changed him to a being that could emit ultrapowerful and destructive bursts of pure energy. Fashioning a containment suit from his father’s armor collection and naming himself after a playing card found next to his father’s corpse, Jack vowed vengeance against the Corporation. His deadly energy blasts and singleminded quest put him into conflict with the White Tiger and the Sons of the Tiger in Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #22–24, 26, and 29–32. When that series was cancelled, Mantlo brought Jack of Hearts with him to Iron Man, another series he wrote (though not before Len Wein borrowed Jack for two issues of The Incredible Hulk). Iron Man mentored the vigilante to become more of a hero throughout much of 1977 and 1978 before Marvel finally gave Jack his one shot at solo adventures. In Marvel Premiere #44 (Oct. 1978), Mantlo was rejoined by Keith Giffen on art for a story that recapped all that had come before and also defined Jack’s powers and limitations; thanks to Tony Stark’s Neutro-Mist, Jack could shed his energy-containing armor for 60 minutes at a time, but the radiation burns from the Zero Fluid could not be healed. In the letters column for the issue, Mantlo printed a model sheet for Jack, writing, “Dave Cockrum designed this character sheet of Jack when our artists and coloring department started going crazy trying to keep Jack’s costume straight every issue.” In text below, Mantlo urged fans to write in their support to Marvel for a Jack of Hearts series: “A one-shot is chancey. Characters may appear again, or just slip back into the Marvel limbo from whence they came. As Jack’s creator I’d hate to see that happen,” Mantlo wrote. Although no series was *ahem* in the cards, Jack of Hearts did reappear from time to time in the years following. David Anthony Kraft used him in three issues of Defenders, Mantlo teamed him up with the Thing in Marvel Two-in-One, the Hulk in an Incredible Hulk two-parter, Spaceknight ROM in the licensed toy-based comic series of the same name, and Spider-Man in an issue of Marvel Team-Up. Mantlo also made sure Jack of Hearts appeared in Marvel’s companywide crossover book Contest of Champions, and probably had a hand in making sure that Jack appeared in Marvel’s kids’ activity book series, Fun and Games. In a 1979 interview with the fanzine BEM, Mantlo talked about wanting to start a new

superhero group with Jack, White Tiger, Hawkeye, and Black Widow, and had this to add about his ownership of the character: “If Jack was given his own book, based on the sales from his appearance in Marvel Premiere, I would say that, knowing [editor-in-chief] Jim Shooter, I would be given the mag to write. Whether I stay on it would depend on the quality I bring to it, and to some extent, the sales figures. But I’m realistic and professional enough to realize that, under present circumstances in the industry, I don’t own any character or concept I create for a Marvel mag—Marvel owns it. So, if Marvel chose to replace me on my own character, which I don’t think Stan [Lee] or Jim would do without overwhelming reasons, I would have little to complain about, having entered into the arrangement with my eyes open.”

Jumpin’ Jacks! A “Jack” word search puzzle “hosted” by you-know-who, from Marvel’s Fun and Games Magazine #5 (Jan. 1980). Puzzle and art by Owen McCarron. TM & © Marvel.

Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 53

54 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

A HAND WITH FOUR CARDS

Though he appeared less frequently in the early 1980s, word of Jack’s return reached fans that he would star in a four-issue miniseries, set up by events in Marvel Team-Up #134 (Oct. 1983). By now, Jack was being poisoned by the energy within him, and a painful death seemed in his future. In a surprising turn for a comic character, Jack considered suicide, though he feared that in destroying himself, he might also unleash destructive energy on the Earth. Although biophysicist Marcy Kane offered to help find a cure for the hero, the question of just how terminal Jack of Hearts was—and how deadly he might become—became prominent. Picked to draw the Jack of Hearts mini was George Freeman, a Canadian artist who had debuted in the field on the Canadian superhero series Captain Canuck in 1981, and who had done various jobs for First Comics and DC in the time since. In a 2022 email interview for BACK ISSUE, Freeman reveals, “Bill Mantlo saw my Captain Canuck stuff and got ahold of me to draw that Daredevil story (Marvel Fanfare #7, Mar. 1983). Afterward he suggested the Jack of Hearts miniseries. He asked if I minded drawing a costume as complicated as this one. I said it was detailed but strong and geometric, so no problem.” Mantlo referred to the costume in an interview for Marvel Age #9 (Dec. 1983). “Among the that things that have precluded doing much with Jack over the last few years, much as I wanted to use him, was the fact that the artist who first designed him has left Marvel. No other artist wanted to handle Jack—especially because of that marvelous, but incredibly complicated costume. And then George Freeman said he’d be interested.” In a much smaller comic world, Freeman was familiar with the character before he ever drew him. “I followed most of the Marvel books, although it was harder after their big expansion,” Freeman says. “Marvel Premiere was a favorite… their version of DC’s Showcase. So, of course, I saw the Keith Giffen/Rudy Nebres Jack of Hearts there.” As for if the costume drove him as crazy as everyone else who drew it, Freeman demurs. “Not at all. It had its own internal logic. Dave Cockrum did a good job tightening it up, so I just followed what he did. Also, I think a costume should have its own distinctive silhouette.” Freeman worked with Mantlo in the infamous “Marvel style” of an artist drawing from a plot without dialogue, rather than a “full script” which dictated each panel and dialogue. “As far as I remember, it was Marvel style,” Freeman says. “I was comfortable working that way from the Captain Canuck books.” Of his collaborators of the series, Freeman tells BI, “I liked working with Bill. He had a lot of enthusiasm and didn’t mind working hard. Nick Burns was my suggestion as a colorist. He [later] worked with me on Elric as well. Bob Budiansky was great as an editor. I’m sure I was a headache, but he handled it all with equanimity and good humor. At one point I got it into my head to draw the entire cover, not just the image, but the logo, character corner box, and issue

It’s a Big Deal! Original George Freeman art to a Marvel house ad promoting late 1983–early 1984’s Jack of Hearts four-issue limited series. TM & © Marvel.

Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 55

Jack’s Cosmic Odyssey The miniseries took the hero on a space mission, allowing Freeman the opportunity to illustrate science fiction, as seen in these pages from issue #4. TM & © Marvel.

number. The production department probably just expenditure of his power. I was going to have him kill himself at that point.” Mantlo discussed this glued their stats over top of them. Insane!” In the Jack of Hearts series, Jack finds that he has with his artist, and Freeman talked him out of a unexpected ties to the alien planet of Contraxia, suicidal denouement. “I’ve never been into dark and that not one, but two women close to him in comics,” Freeman says. “I’m a happy person and his life were extraterrestrials! The resulting story took I like to do positive things. And I thought Jack of Hearts had more stories to tell.” a previously Earthbound character and made Freeman himself rarely worked for him far more cosmic, as Jack was enlisted Marvel after the series ended, producing to help revive the dying Contraxian only a Cloak and Dagger story for sun. The alien culture was exquisitely Marvel Fanfare, and a 1990 Black Widow rendered by Freeman, whom Mantlo series that found him tremendously said had requested to draw extradissatisfied with his treatment at the terrestrial landscapes, cities, and company. He says that there was no aliens. “I didn’t want [Jack] to fight real talk of a further Jack of Hearts John Buscema gangsters,” Freeman series, and that “Black Widow turned says. “I was a huge Jack Gaughan me off the Marvel management. I [a famed science-fiction illustrator] worked a couple of times with friends fan and wanted to bring that graphic(Al Milgrom, Dave Ross), but I soon design science-fiction style to the started working as Art Director at series. I ended up very pleased with george freeman Digital Chameleon, and that curthe Contraxia spaceship.” Indeed, tailed my freelance work.” that request to draw aliens gave Today, the Jack of Hearts miniMantlo the idea to link Jack’s own series is still remembered fondly by fans, mostly for past and origins to the Contraxians. The series was almost far darker than it be- Freeman’s gorgeous artwork. Freeman says, “I think came. “I always knew Jack’s power was going it was too science fiction for the Marvel Machine but to increase to the point where he’d want to that’s one of the elements fans enjoyed. Both Bill and kill himself,” Mantlo told Marvel Age. “And then I had a lot of fun with the series and I hope that came he’d be confronted with a situation where he’d through. I liked working with Bill and I wish I could have to sacrifice himself to save others from the have done so again.”

56 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

Luck of the Draw Jack’s back, in: (top) Avengers #35 (Dec. 2000, cover by John Romita, Jr. and John Livesay), and (bottom) She-Hulk #3 (May 2022, cover by Jen Bartel). TM & © Marvel.

JACK TO THE FUTURE

Following his miniseries, Jack again appeared spottily through the next four decades. Following a self-imposed exile in space, Jack became a “cosmic” hero, eventually appearing in books such as Quasar and Silver Surfer. He eventually gained a short-lived new set of armor that— unlike every other costume designed in the 1990s—was not filled with pouched or unnecessary costume elements. The new costume was relatively plain, and soon forgotten as Jack returned to his original, busy, containment-suit armor. That old costume was also eventually used for a minor amount of Jack of Hearts licensed products: a bust from Randy Bowen (see inset), a metal figurine in the UK, a pair of Heroclix game pieces, and a handful of trading cards. Jack of Hearts became the 52nd Avenger in 2001, and shortly thereafter was part of the JLA/Avengers crossover series, which finally gave artist George Pérez a chance to draw the character he had been blamed for so many times. Later, in Avengers vol. 3 #76 (Feb. 2004), Jack finally faced the fact that his body was going to explode. Taking a child murderer with him as he flew into space, Jack erupted with energy, and his naked, blackened corpse floated off into infinity. In the years following, Jack of Hearts has returned several times, as a zombie, as a spirit in the afterlife, and as a plot device in a timealtering storyline. Ironically, Jack did finally return to life in the Marvel Zombies Supreme series. Recently, he has become a part of the cast of the newest She-Hulk series (vol. 4, which began in March 2022), back in a version of his old armor, but finally regaining some elements of humanity such as the ability to eat, sleep, and shower! Jack seems to be acclimating successfully to the She-Hulk series as a cast member. Whether he will ever appear in a Marvel film or TV project—including the She-Hulk TV series—is yet to be revealed, but he did have a small cameo in Fox’s short-lived 1998 Silver Surfer: The Animated Series, as a member of Nebula’s crew. He may not be ready for primetime, but 47 years after his debut, Jack of Hearts still holds a special place in fans’… hearts. Unless otherwise noted, artwork and photos are courtesy the collection of Andy Mangels. ANDY MANGELS is the USA Today bestselling author and co-author of 20 books, including the TwoMorrows book Lou Scheimer: Creating the Filmation Generation, as well as Star Trek and Star Wars tomes, Iron Man: Beneath the Armor, and a lot of comic books. He recently wrote the bestselling Wonder Woman ’77 Meets the Bionic Woman series for Dynamite and DC Comics, and wrote six Fractured Fairy Tales graphic novels for Junior High audiences, released by Abdo Books in 2021. He is currently writing a book about the stage productions of Stephen King, editing a prose LGBTQ+ horror anthology, co-editing The Complete Gay Comix/Comics for Fantagraphics (Christmas 2022), and working on other projects. Additionally, he has scripted, directed, and produced Special Features and documentaries for over 40 DVD releases. Andy’s “Retro Saturday Morning” column is featured regularly in RetroFan magazine! His moustache is infamous. www.AndyMangels.com and www.WonderWomanMuseum.com.

Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 57

The Bronze Age was a wild time for Marvel— titles were coming and going, the bizarre storyline was commonplace, and the newly introduced titles were even more out there. During the Bronze Age, Marvel Comics capitalized on its ever-growing market share and its reputation for more energetic and anythinggoes characters, and wasn’t afraid to introduce them at a fast pace to further distance itself from their Distinguished Competitor’s stagnant stable of old reliables. Just a year after characters like Colossus, Storm, and Nightcrawler were introduced in Giant-Size X-Men #1 (May 1975), Maximillian Coleridge, a.k.a. the Shroud, made his debut. The Shroud wasn’t quite as exciting or groundbreaking as the New X-Men and was certainly the opposite of colorful, but he was an example of what made the Marvel Universe so exciting to so many readers. Over the ’70s, ’80s, and into the ’90s, the Shroud was used as a stable supporting character with his own internal established continuity, a strong storyline that evolved in several titles like Spider-Woman, Captain America, and West Coast Avengers. Not only did the Shroud make the expected appearances in titles like Marvel Team-Up and Solo Avengers, books known for their utilization of B-level steve englehart heroes and more often C-level villains, he was given an unfolding storyline that culminated steveenglehart.com. in the Shroud leading in his own super-team… with the rubber stamp of Captain America himself! BACK ISSUE examines the Shroud’s origin, his strange journey from hero to possible villain to undercover hero and back again, and why he just kept missing the big time.

Joseph Norton and E d L u t e

SUPERVILLAINOUS ORIGIN

Created by writer Steve Englehart and artist Herb Trimpe, the Shroud is first seen in Super-Villain Team-Up (SVTU) #5 (Apr. 1976), teaming up with Prince Namor, who is embroiled in a clash of royal egos with Dr. Doom that eventually dragged in the Red Skull as well. The Shroud is introduced in this storyline (which contains a panel of US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger shaking hands with Doom, ruler of the nation of Latveria, as the Shroud observes from the darkness) pretty much as he has lived out his character arc to the current day, a shadowy figure with ultimately noble intentions working both ends of the game. In SVTU #7 (Aug. 1976), the Shroud is given an origin story reminiscent of other familiar genre characters, albeit with a martial-arts theme tossed in to please readers of the ’70s. A rich kid who watched his parents gunned down by a mugger (Sound familiar? Everything but a broken string of pearls is there…), Maximillian Coleridge channeled his grief into the study of martial arts and criminology. In his own words: “As I entered manhood, suddenly others appeared to seemed to share my goal, super-heroes. In turn I decided to share their methods! I set out to become personally a force, a symbol, a power against evil.” Such grandiose language is as common in comics as the origin tale, but Englehart tying the Shroud’s own origin to the rise of Marvel’s super-hero community is a great touch, giving the Shroud instant credibility to share the stage with the powerful figures that graced the pages of SVTU at the time. Englehart also throws in a splash of pulp heroes into the mix, as well as a touch of Iron Fist’s K’un L’un (a red-hot Cult of Kali brand to the face, blinding him) to top off the bloated origin. Martial-art skills, a long and dark distracting cowl, and a thirst for vengeance are all the Shroud needs to defeat evil!!

The Dark Knight Rises The mysterious Shroud—just whose side is he on anyway? Super-Villain Team-Up #7 (Aug. 1976). Cover by Rich Buckler and Klaus Janson. TM & © Marvel.

58 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

Steve Englehart describes the Shroud as “Batman + Shadow + Spider = a dark pulp hero, and so, ‘The Shroud.’” When asked if he intend to make him an amalgamation of several different characters, Englehart tells BACK ISSUE, “Only as a concept. He was always his own guy, but I wanted to introduce a dark hero into a book about (supposedly) dark villains.” Even the Shroud’s visual appearance is reminiscent of these other characters. “I told Herb [Trimpe] that the Shroud was from the Batman/Shadow/Spider side of the street, then he came up with the visual,” divulges Englehart. “Herb was always great to work with. He and [Marvel art director John] Romita, Sr. sat next to me in the Bullpen, so when Herb and I did The Hulk or SVTU, we were completely in sync at all times.” The exciting and world-spanning SVTU essentially has the Shroud as the main protagonist for several issues, holding his own surprisingly well against Dr. Doom in issue #7 and going undercover in the Ringmaster’s Circus of Evil in issue #8 (Oct. 1976), until teaming up with Doom and Captain America against the Nazi scourge of the Red Skull in issue #11 (Apr. 1977). The Shroud’s introductory story comes to an unsatisfying conclusion when, while spacewalking to disarm the Red Skull’s Hypno-Ray device in SVTU #12 (June 1977), he is crippled by the surging “brain numbing waves” and carted off by Captain America to a hospital. Why was the Shroud introduced in a series that contained so many top-tier villains? Englehart reveals, “The villains were the stars, but they had to lose, so I wanted someone who could be the winner, but with enough mystery to make it unclear if he was a hero.” In a 2005 interview with CBR.com, Englehart revealed, “I would like to write the Shroud again. He’s one of those guys, like Deadshot and Nomad, that I created (well, I didn’t create Deadshot) as a throwaway—not realizing that nothing is ever thrown away in comics.”

Doom Is Doomed!

THE SHROUD AND THE SPIDERS

replaced by (inset) this

The Shroud isn’t seen again until Spider-Woman #13 (Apr. 1979), where he and SpiderWoman (Jessica Drew) get mixed up with Nekra and the Cult of Kali. The Shroud’s mysterious agenda involves using S.H.I.E.L.D. to discover more about the Cult of Kali, which blinded him. In a major power upgrade to his abilities, a side effect of the Hypno-Ray dose he suffered in SVTU #12, the Shroud now possesses the ability to summon the darkness of the Darkforce Dimension.

(left) The Shroud minces no words about his intentions on this shocking page from Steve Englehart’s Super-Villain Team-Up #7. Original Herb Trimpe/Pablo Marcos artwork courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). (right) Really, we think that Carmine Infantino’s original cover (courtesy of Heritage) for Spider-Woman #13 (Apr. 1979) was pretty darn spiffy— but it was rejected and equally stunning version by Dave Cockrum and Bob McLeod. TM & © Marvel.

Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 59

This new power adds a value to his Shadow-like costume, with the Shroud’s ability to summon clouds of darkness proving an effective visual on the comic page and furthering the mysterious atmosphere of the character. The Shroud’s anti-crime agenda continues with a Mark Gruenwald and Steven Grant–written and Steve Ditko–drawn tale in Marvel Preview #21 (Mar. 1980), where he attempts to join the Crooked Man’s gang. With his profile increasing, the Shroud’s next landing spot is the expected run-in with Marvel’s top mixer, Spider-Man, in Marvel Team-Up #94 (June 1980), co-starring in the second part of a two-parter that began with issue #93’s Spider-Man/Werewolf (by Night) team-up. Here the Shroud infiltrates the criminal underworld on the West Coast. Nicely complementing the Shroud’s power set and spooky vibe are the frightening Tatterdemalion, the villainess Dansen Macabre, and another Bronze Age wonder, Jack Russell’s Werewolf himself. After the obligatory fight, Shroud offers a small insight into his motivations to when he captures Dansen Macabre but does not turn her over to the police. Though not explicitly stated by the Shroud, disguised but out of costume, as he leaves Peter (Spider-Man) Parker in an airport, it is clear from that appearance he is up to something out there in California. The biggest step yet in the Shroud’s still-undefined plan is another appearance in Spider-Woman, in the series’ final issue, #50 (June 1983). Here he is captured and jailed by the Locksmith, as are Spider-Woman and a large group of villains and heroes that appeared in the Spider-Woman run including Tigra, Gypsy Moth, Werewolf, the Needle, and Tatterdemalion, among others. After they escape, the Shroud’s plan becomes clearer: muscling out the bad guys by posing as one.

(ALMOST) AN AVENGER

Next, the Shroud made a full-page cameo in the penultimate chapter of the classic “Under Siege” storyline in Avengers #276 (Feb. 1987), written by Roger Stern and drawn by John Buscema and Tom Palmer. But no more visible and important showcase for the Shroud was the front cover of West Coast Avengers #1 (Sept. 1984), a four-issue limited series written by Stern, with pencils by Bob Hall and inks by Brett Breeding. The Shroud unknowingly breaks into the newly minted West Coast Avengers’ headquarters to check on his friend Tigra and ends up overmatched by the new team. Hawkeye, reminiscent of his own introduction to the Avengers, offers the Shroud membership in this California-based expansion of the New York City–based Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. This is a big moment for the Shroud, but he passes, stating that his preferred method is “building a false reputation as an outlaw” to tackle the “gangs from within.” Later in the miniseries, the Shroud helps the West Coast team against Graviton. His interactions with such powerful heroes against a major villain clearly show he could be an Avenger.

THE NIGHT SHIFT

He Knows What Evil Lurks (top) From the Shroud solo story in the B&W mag Marvel Preview #21 (Mar. 1980). Art by Steve Ditko, story by Mark Gruenwald and Roger Stern. (bottom) The Shroud and his offbeat ensemble, the Night Shift, join forces with the Star-Spangled Avenger. Detail from Captain America #330 (June 1987). Art by Tom Morgan and Sam de la Rosa, story by Mark Gruenwald. TM & © Marvel.

We finally meet the biggest weapon in the Shroud’s tool kit when, in Captain America #330 (June 1987), the dark force called the Night Shift makes an appearance when Cap encounters them in the sewers of Los Angeles. A collection of bizarre villains and figures— Dansen Macabre, the Brothers Grimm, Gypsy Moth, the Needle, and the Werewolf, among others—attack Captain America, only to be interrupted by their villainous leader… the Shroud! Captain America remembers him from the Hypno-Ray incident in SVTU. Under the cover of his cloak of darkness, the Shroud explains to Cap his plan, that he has persuaded the villains he has encountered in his career to organize with him to take on other gangs. Captain America has his doubts but opts to trust his old ally to challenge the Power Broker, and thus Cap leads the rag-tag crew of the Shroud and the Night Shift into battle. We meet the Night Shift again in West Coast Avengers vol. 2 #40 (Jan. 1989). With the Shroud out of town, his crew goes wild, going rogue and creating havoc on their own. The Shroud shows up at the end of the issue and convinces Hawkeye to hold off his Avengers

60 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

Dark Doings in the Marvel Universe (top left) With Spidey, in Marvel Team-Up #94 (June 1980). Cover by Al Milgrom. (top right) Will the Shroud make the team? West Coast Avengers vol. 1 #1 (Sept. 1984). Cover by Bob Hall and Brett Breeding. (bottom left) Mixing it up with Moon Knight in Solo Avengers #3 (Feb. 1988). Cover by Hall and Stan Drake. (bottom right) The Shroud’s Night Shift guest-stars in WCA vol. 2 #40 (Jan. 1989). Cover by Milgrom. TM & © Marvel.

team so he can maintain his bad-guy facade with Night Shift. A tense cliff-top meeting between Hawkeye and the Shroud reveals cracks in the Shroud’s hold over both the Night Shift and his plan of posing as a villain. We see more cracks in the Shroud’s persona in both Solo Avengers #3 (Feb. 1988) and 9 (Aug. 1988). Issue #3 finds Moon Knight objecting to Shroud’s influence over Jack Russell, the Werewolf, who’s kept at bay by Dansen Macabre’s mental manipulation, and the two heroes face off. In issue #9, Hawkeye calls Shroud a “glory grabber” when he interferes in the Avenging Archer’s plans. Clearly the Shroud’s tap dance with evil is wearing thin with his uneasy allies in the Avengers. This sort of character development over multiple titles and years was the hallmark of the Marvel Universe for its main protagonists. Considering the Shroud’s limited usage at this point, it’s a fascinating testament to Marvel’s strong editorial direction that the character was allowed his own supporting cast and story arc.

INTO THE DARKNESS

Unfortunately for the Shroud, that was the peak of his tenure as a cloaked force for justice. However, he would continue to make appearances throughout the Marvel Universe. The Shroud explores his connection to the Darkforce in New Warriors #33–34 (Mar.–Apr. 1993), tying his ability to “summon absolute darkness” from that dimension as do similarly equipped Marvel characters including the former Champion Darkstar, Cloak, and Black Out. Spectacular Spider-Man #207–208 (Dec. 1993– Jan. 1994) briefly touch on Shroud’s mission, but disappointingly forget the brief conversation between the Shroud and Peter Parker in MTU #94. A backup story in Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #14 (June 1994) shows Maximillian Coleridge coming to grips with his childhood, his Shroud identity, and his past of “running with evil” for so long. In 1994, a four-issue Shroud miniseries returns the Cult of Kali to the character’s journey and sheds little on his role as an undercover operative against evil. It does, however, provide too much attention to the Scorpion and Spider-Man, but that was always a side effect of Marvel’s use of Spider-Man as a guest-star for a sales boost in the early 1990s. The Shroud miniseries left an invigorated Shroud ready to pursue evil anew, but was symbolic of the character’s failure to make it as an A-level superhero, even in his own title. Throughout his appearances, the Shroud was always eclipsed by his co-stars, and his refusal to join the Avengers proved an unfortunate road not taken for the mysterious hero. In the hands of a master storyteller like Roger Stern, who had proven he could mine mystery and excitement in long runs on series, the notion of the Shroud as an undercover hero pretending to be a villain was ripe with fantastic potential. We see glimpses of the ways that dual role created tension amongst his peers in Solo Avengers and amongst the villains he was masquerading with in WCA. All those plot points were fertile jumping-off points for the Shroud to gain prominence. It just never happened. More recently the Shroud has appeared prominently in Ms. Marvel and Civil War, Daredevil’s “Shadowlands” event, and Daredevil vol. 4 as he is pitted in a gang war with the Owl, but in that story he

is portrayed more as crazed than driven. This is a shame, and not the well-rounded characterization readers had seen before. Why did the Shroud stay on the B-list when he was clearly positioned for more? Steve Englehart provides BI with plausible speculation: “I had a particular idea in mind for him, but I left the [Super-Villain Team-Up] book soon thereafter, and the book itself went under—so although people immediately liked him, he had no showcase for a while. Then, no later writer really championed him. (I’m reminded of the original X-Men book, which debuted at the same time as The Avengers. The Avengers became a smash hit overnight, so the X-Men always seemed to be a ‘lesser’ title—until Cockrum and Claremont rebooted them. A character’s popularity is based on intrinsics and on outside influences beyond his control.)” Maybe the answer to that question will always remain in a fog of “absolute darkness.” The authors would like to thank Steve Englehart for his invaluable assistance with this article. JOSEPH NORTON (pictured) fell into a well at the age of 12, surviving for the past 40 years on acorns and several long boxes of Bronze Age comics. Now that he has been released from captivity, he has no choice but to share thoughts on his reading material with the fans of BACK ISSUE in his first of what he hopes to be many articles. ED LUTE never fell in a well, but fell for the allure of comic books, especially from the Bronze and Copper Ages. He enjoys sharing this love with BACK ISSUE readers.

Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 61

As this edition of BACK ISSUE proves, not every character is ready for primetime—not every creation is an immediate star. Although Rocket Raccoon is now a household name but only made ten appearances in the initial 30 years following his debut. Never say never.

MANTLO WITHOUT FEAR

Just as Rocket Raccoon was conceived by Bill Mantlo, so too was Woodgod. If nothing else, it can be said that Bill Mantlo was not afraid to take chances and try new things. One such experiment manifested in the pages of Marvel Premiere #31 (Aug. 1976). Mantlo’s tale opens with Woodgod—a satyr-like creature— calling for his father while wandering the seemingly deserted New Mexico town of Liberty. Woodgod is attacked by a rabid dog, and we’re told: “Scream starts within him, echoed in the madness of the slavering animal. Scream screams out as foam-flecked teeth bite deep into the skin/muscle of his arm… and Scream goes mindlessly berserk as animal takes over… Scream screaming out again as animal breaks animal… and it is over except for Scream.” Through a flashback we learn that scientist David Pace—on an isolated farm that doubles as a laboratory—has genetically engineered his “son”: “Born of a clone graft… a combination of human and animal genes.” Within two days, the fully grown Woodgod was walking and talking. David tells his wife, Ellen, “We’ll just let him grow his own way. Let him play. We’ll just let him alone and watch the beast-boy become a Woodgod.” Unfortunately, rednecks storm the farm, break into the laboratory, and smash a canister containing nerve gas—killing everybody in the town almost instantly, except for the genetically engineered Woodgod. The scene changes to the nearby Vertigo military base, which is monitoring the town. Major Del Tremens monologues that David and Ellen Pace were working on the nerve gas they’d been ordered to synthesize. Seemingly, genetic engineering was an unauthorized side-project, because Tremens has no knowledge of Woodgod. Tremens takes a military team into Liberty and Woodgod kills them all, except for Tremens himself—who vows that Woodgod is going to pay…

Jarrod Buttery

HULK SMASH I

It doesn’t take long for Mantlo to write the follow-up. Thirty-six hours later, in Marvel Team-Up #53 (Jan. 1977), drawn by John Byrne, the Hulk lands in Liberty, thinking it a quiet, empty town. Almost immediately, he encounters Woodgod. Meanwhile, Spider-Man and the X-Men are flying nearby after an adventure in Marvel Team-Up Annual #1 (1976). They intercept a communication from Tremens and Spider-Man decides to investigate. We soon get a better idea of Woodgod’s abilities. Previously, Woodgod dispatched the military, but here he effortlessly snaps Spider-Man’s webbing and holds his own against the Hulk. Clearly, he’s a powerhouse. Woodgod earns the Hulk nickname of “Goat-Face,” and we also get an explanation of “Scream.” While it seems fairly obvious that “Scream” is Woodgod’s child-like description for pain and grief, his unusual mode of speech prompted a text box in the letters page. Mantlo writes: “Jovial Jim Shooter has asked me to clear up the concept I call ‘Scream’ as used in conjunction with this issue’s extra guest star… the ManBeast called Woodgod. “When I first created Woody (back in Marvel Premiere #31), I wanted to portray him as a child-innocent, rapidly maturing due to bio-genetics, but with an animalistic, pathological side that would take over in moments of anger/tension/rage, etc. I wanted to personalize that side of my creation, so I called it… Scream.

Satyr Day in the Park Cover to Marvel Premiere #31 (Aug. 1976) by Jack Kirby and John Verpoorten. All scans illustrating this article are courtesy of Jarrod Buttery. TM & © Marvel.

62 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

It seemed to work well in Premiere, and, as I undertook to resurrect Woody in the pages of MTU, I found it worked just as well here—and rather than include a footnote of explanation in the body of the book, I figured (or rather, Jim consented) to do it here on the Letters Page. Hope that clears it up. (Funny. I didn’t have any trouble understanding it! Ouch! Jim! STOP THAT!)” The story continues into Marvel Team-Up #54 (Feb. 1977). Tremens arrives, gasses our heroes, and captures all three. Spider-Man escapes and frees Woodgod and the Hulk, earning their gratitude. For his troubles, Spidey is accidentally thrown into a rocket and launched into space. In the opening pages of MTU #55, Woodgod states, “Bug-eyes is gone… claimed by Scream. Scream takes all who are good to Woodgod… his mother, his father… his friends. But Woodgod knows now what he must do. I will hunt Scream in the places of man, and when I have found it… I will destroy Scream and man along with it!” as he stalks off into the forest.

HULK SMASH II

When Mantlo started writing the Hulk’s book, he wasted little time in laying the seeds for Woodgod’s return. In Mantlo’s second issue— Incredible Hulk #246 (Apr. 1980)—we find General “Thunderbolt” Ross convalescing in a cabin in the Colorado Rockies, under the care of Doc Samson. In issue #248 (June 1980), Ross shoots at a creature in the woods, thinking that it’s the Hulk. The following issue, Betty Ross, Rick Jones, and Fred Sloan arrive for a visit—just as we all discover that Ross has shot a centaur! A surprisingly lucid Woodgod arrives in issue #251 (Sept. 1980), insisting that his are the only hands that can heal the centaur. We all discover that Woodgod has brought several other animal people with him… Woodgod explains all in Incredible Hulk #252 (Oct. 1980). He takes Betty, Rick, Fred, and the general captive, deeming them responsible for the injury to one of his people: the Changelings. They travel to an isolated village in a hidden mountain pass, where we meet centaurs, a minotaur, a siren, a merman, and an antagonistic lion-man named Leoninus. When questioned by Rick, Woodgod replies, “Once I would have answered that we came from Scream and to Scream we would return. In the beginning, Scream was the name I gave to the hatred, fear, and despair within me.”

Primal Scream (top) Woodgod is clearly a problem child, as this opening page from his Marvel Premiere #31 first outing shows. By Bill Mantlo, Keith Giffen, and Klaus Janson. (bottom left) Woodgod next popped up in the Bill Mantlo–written Spidey/Incredible Hulk tale in Marvel Team-Up #53 (Jan. 1977). Cover by Dave Cockrum (with John Romita, Sr. alterations). (bottom right) Incredible Hulk #252 (Sept. 1980). Art by Rich Buckler and Frank Springer. TM & © Marvel.

Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 63

He recaps his previous appearances and explains, “I fled from mankind seeking the solitude of the woods where, eventually, I returned to the Pace farm. There, I found books. With my rapidly increasing intelligence, I soon taught myself to read. Shortly thereafter, I fled north to these mountains. Using my father’s notebooks, I learned how to duplicate… other animals… the very act of creation that had made me. The Changelings were

made after my own image. I was no longer alone.” The Hulk arrives in time to help prevent a coup d’état by Leoninus, who has used Woodgod’s research to create his own, vicious Changelings. Al Milgrom was asked about these issues but admits, “If my name was on the credits I was the editor. But I have virtually no recollection of those issues, sorry to say. Don’t even recall the Changelings…”

Cockrum and Campanella Courtesy of writerinker Robert Campanella, scans of Dave Cockrum’s pencils from the Woodgod story in Marvel Comics Presents #76 (May 1991), compared against those pages in published form. TM & © Marvel.

64 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

And You Thought Woodgod Couldn’t Get Any Weirder… Page 1 of Dean Haspiel’s “The Left Hand of Boom,” from Strange Tales II #3 (Feb. 2011). TM & © Marvel.

LONELY AT THE TOP

Woodgod was not seen for another ten years. Chronologically he was glimpsed on the Stranger’s laboratory planet in Quasar #14 (Sept. 1990), suggesting that the reason we hadn’t seen him was because he’d been abducted for study by the Stranger (as had Rocket Raccoon, and many other obscure Marvel characters). Woodgod returned to Earth in Quasar #20 (Mar. 1991). Marvel Comics Presents #76 (May 1991) contains a Woodgod story by Robert Campanella and Dave Cockrum. Therein, Woodgod is back in his village of the Changelings in the Colorado Rockies. As their leader, he rebuts the interest of a female Changeling. A jealous Leoninus delivers several of the female Changelings to Roxxon, where Dr. Malachi Oz intends to use the females to breed beasts of burden. Woodgod uses his scientific expertise to track the faint radioactive aura of the Changelings, then storms the lab. Leoninus escapes and Woodgod reaffirms that he must remain a lonely leader. “I probably wrote the story in ’89–’90,” volunteers Campanella. “Terry Kavanagh, the editor, asked me to come up with ten springboards. He asked me to give him five stories about better-known characters and five about lesser-known characters. Then he gave me ‘the talk’: ‘I want ‘eight-page stories,’ not ‘incidents.’ Incidents are in stories. However, ‘stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end,’ he said. ‘If you can write an eight-page story, you can write anything.’ So, I went out and bought a set of Marvel Universe Handbooks. I used them to pick the five better-known, and lesser-known, characters. Reading the information about the characters suggested possible story ideas to me. That’s how I became informed about their status quo and powers and such. That’s how I knew all about Woodgod. I used that info to write a Woodgod story, and so forth. “When I wrote those ten stories for Terry, they were the first ten stories that I’d ever written,” Campanella says. “I had just graduated from the Joe Kubert School. Also, each story was given the name of a song. ‘Lonely at the Top’ was a song from Mick Jagger’s first solo album. I think the story came out about six months after I wrote the plot. There were no changes made to my plot. I was very happily surprised when the full-sized photocopies arrived in a manila envelope from Marvel for me to write the script from. Dave Cockrum! Oh boy! What a treat! Terry assigned the story to Dave and I had no idea that that was so! What a great job he did. I think that Dave’s wife [Paty Cockrum] colored it. I inked it, but Dave was credited as the inker by mistake. I met Dave several years later at a convention in New York City and had the chance to thank him for the terrific job. He was great to meet and spend a little time talking with at that con way back when.”

DISDAIN AND REDEMPTION

Inexplicably, the armed forces of Trinity Base storm the village and murder all the Changelings—all except Woodgod—in Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #37 (July 1991). Fury arrives to find that Woodgod has reverted to his “Scream” persona. Fury repeatedly addresses Woodgod as “friend” and asks why Woodgod doesn’t recognize him (perhaps because they’ve never previously met…?). When Woodgod attacks the soldiers, Fury shoots and kills Woodgod. However, it’s all a ploy to relocate Woodgod in a fresh part of the forest. Fury calls Woodgod his buddy and states, “There’s a brilliant mind beneath those horns on his head… I don’t doubt fer a second he’s gonna get his act together some day.” The story ends with the discussion that Woodgod may one day prove a valuable asset to S.H.I.E.L.D. Perhaps this story was laying that groundwork, but nothing eventuated. In Alpha Flight #13 (Aug. 1998), Woodgod is shown in a tube in a lab in Canada’s Department H (which is working on a new Weapon

X program), as attempts are made to extract his unstable DNA. In Hulk #30 (Apr. 2011), a barely recognizable Woodgod arrives from space, claiming to have been remade from beyond the stars, and attacks the Red Hulk. It goes poorly. Compared to these ignominies, Woodgod’s redemption as a character is the out-of-continuity story by Dean Haspiel in Strange Tales II #3 (Feb. 2011). It asserts Woodgod has evolved the power to crush continents and, by unanimous decree of the Celestials, Woodgod’s “Apocalypse Fist” has been cuffed to his neck to stop him from ever employing “The Left Hand of Boom.” Ben Grimm frees Woodgod and they play stickball before the Celestials pass judgment. On his blog, Haspiel wrote: “I wanted to use the Thing, my favorite Marvel character, but I wanted to employ Marvel’s worst character, too. Who could that be? It was a challenge to excavate but I finally arrived at Woodgod. In his origin story, he basically cries the whole time. He sucked. I wanted to dust him off and give him some honor. Grace him with star-crossed romance. I wound up devising an epic in four pages that incorporated Woodgod, the Thing, Alicia Masters, the Yancy Street Gang, and the Celestials. Because it was so purple yet corny, I don’t think I wrote a comedy, but you’re meant to smirk at the heartfelt absurdity of a tale entitled, ‘The Left Hand of Boom.’” From genetically engineered infant to Celestial concern, evolution proves there’s no such thing as a bad character—just those that are finding their way. The author expresses his sincere gratitude to Robert Campanella & Al Milgrom. JARROD BUTTERY lives in Western Australia. He is hoarding copies of Marvel Premiere #31 for when Woodgod turns up on the big screen.

Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 65

“Have gun – will travel” reads the card of a man… a knight without armor, in a… wait, what? Oh, that’s the other Paladin, the hired gun that appeared in the television series Have Gun – Will Travel. And then Marvel Comics introduced its own Paladin, who was a… hired gun… in the pages of Daredevil. The television series and the Daredevil issues with Paladin weren’t separated by too many years—the show ran on CBS from 1957 until 1963, while Marvel’s Paladin debuted in Daredevil #150 in late 1977. Perhaps writer Jim Shooter, the creator of Marvel’s character, figured that readers wouldn’t remember or even know of the television character. Or he may simply have been unaware of the television character himself. The two Paladins shared a name and occupation, and Marvel’s version could reasonably be seen as a modern-day updating of the character. For that matter, the television Paladin likely was named for the Twelve Paladins, a group of knights that served under Charlemagne in Europe during the early Middle Ages. They were known to be elite warriors devoted to a strict code of honor, dedicated to helping those who were vulnerable and helpless. But there were basic differences between the television and comic-book characters. Have Gun – Will Travel was set in the Old West of the 1870s, while the Marvel Paladin plied his trade a century later, in the 1970s. The television Paladin was a gunfighter who relied for the most part on a Colt .45 long-barrel revolver to capture his quarry, while the Marvel character possessed super-strength and superhuman reflexes, which enabled him to hold his own even with other similarly enhanced characters. But perhaps the most important difference was that the Paladin on television lived by a moral code of ethics that governed his actions and decisions. True, he sold his services, and they didn’t come cheap; but he generally did so to those who were unable to protect themselves. He also often waived his fee when he felt that a client couldn’t—or shouldn’t have to—pay it. In contrast, the comic-book character sold his services to whomever would pay his price. This mercenary, “bottom-line first” approach would come to define Marvel’s Paladin, as we’ll see as we look at the best of the stories in which he appeared.

by D

ouglas R. Kelly

Horning in on DD Without a doubt, the coolest Paladin cover of them all: Daredevil #150 (Jan. 1978), featuring the debut of the “Man-Stalker.” Cover art by Gil Kane and Frank Giacoia. All scans accompanying this article are courtesy of Doug Kelly. TM & © Marvel.

66 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

THREE’S A CROWD Like Marvel’s Paladin, the television Paladin had a way with women. The actor who played him? Maybe not so much. Richard Boone, who starred as Paladin for six seasons in Have Gun — Will Travel and later starred in Hec Ramsey, attended a circa 1973 Washington, DC-area cocktail party and ran into my parents, who were there as part of my father’s work with the Federal government. As my mother told it, my dad had gone to get them drinks when Boone walked up to her, introduced himself, and started flirting with her. She told us that she knew who he was from his television work and that she did her best to be polite. When my father returned, my mom—probably more relieved than anything else—said to Boone, “Richard, I’d like you to meet my husband, Bob Kelly.” At which point, said Mom, Paladin more or less faded into the woodwork, giving my parents a laugh and a story to tell the grandkids.

Rooftop Roughhousing Two scenes from Paladin’s first appearance, in Daredevil #150. Art by Carmine Infantino and Klaus Janson. TM & © Marvel.

MAN-STALKER

Writer (and soon-to-be editor-in-chief) Jim Shooter and artist Carmine Infantino created Paladin, debuting the character in Daredevil #150 (Jan. 1978) in a booklength story, “Catastrophe.” The cover, a stunner by legendary artist Gil Kane, with inks by Frank Giacoia, touts Paladin as “THE MAN-STALKER WITHOUT EQUAL!” Infantino penciled the interior art, with Klaus Janson as inker. Daredevil is searching for Killgrave, the Purple Man, who is mind-controlling Heather Glenn’s father, Maxwell, forcing him to commit crimes. As Daredevil swings around town, his radar sense tells him he’s being followed. The figure in the shadows is Paladin, a mercenary and gun-for-hire to the wealthy. Daredevil doubles back and surprises Paladin, and they fight on the roof of a building. As they’re mixing it up, Paladin introduces himself and Daredevil asks him why he’s sneaking around. The two of them then crash through a wall and into a room in a YWCA, where two women appear to be preparing to go out. Paladin is suddenly Mr. Smooth, welcoming the ladies to New York and behaving like the perfect gentleman. Later, Paladin tells Daredevil that he also is looking for the Purple Man, but he won’t tell Daredevil who his client is. The two part company, with Paladin wondering how Daredevil can be so cool under fire. Paladin appears for just six or seven pages in his debut story, but it’s enough to give the reader a taste of who he is: an able and intelligent mercenary who, although not a superhero, does have a degree of “super strength,” telling Daredevil that he has the strength of three men. The mercenary next appeared in Daredevil #152 (May 1978) in the book-length story, “Prisoner!” written by Roger McKenzie, with Infantino pencils and Janson inks. While trying to help his friends Foggy Nelson and Debbie Harris, Daredevil encounters what is presumably a mugging taking place. When he catches up to them, Daredevil is shocked that it’s Paladin chasing a two-bit thug. After the thug has escaped, Paladin reads Daredevil the riot act for interfering with him. He also tells Daredevil that he’s very close to nailing the Purple Man and in fact knows where he is, that all he has to do is beat the thug he was chasing to the Purple Man (for whom the thug works) and he’ll have him. The two of them do battle once again, with things not going Daredevil’s way as Paladin demonstrates his fighting abilities and enormous strength. Daredevil #154 (Sept. 1978) completes Paladin’s first three appearances as he plays a key role in the final showdown with Killgrave. Written by Roger McKenzie, with Gene Colan pencils and Steve Leialoha inks, “Arena!” takes us to Riker’s Island prison. There a battle royale takes place, with Daredevil and Paladin finally teaming up to take on Hyde, Cobra, the Jester, and the Gladiator, who are doing Killgrave’s bidding. These three stories in Daredevil characterize Paladin as a mercenary motivated by money. He’s not without a heart—and a degree of style and charm—but when the smoke clears, what matters to Paladin is getting paid. Reader Meredith Ellen Robbins, writing in the letters page of Daredevil #154 about issue #150, contends,“Paladin was probably the most sophisticated and deserving villain to appear in comics in years. Every panel of his conflict with Daredevil was a joy.” Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 67

PHANTASM’S FURY

The Mercenary Resurfaces (top left) Paladin is back, in Daredevil #152 (May 1978). Cover by Gil Kane and Klaus Janson. (bottom left) He’s a little late to the party, but Paladin pulls his weight in DD #154. (right) Dave Cockrum and Joe Rubinstein did the art chores for the cover of Marvel Premiere #43 (Aug. 1978), in which Paladin takes on Phantasm. TM & © Marvel.

Daredevil #154 alerted readers to Paladin’s next adventure, as the Bullpen Bulletins page announced that the character was starring in Marvel Premiere #43 (Aug. 1978). Written by Don McGregor, with Tom Sutton pencils and inks, “In Manhattan, They Play for Keeps” has Paladin working for a Marsha Connors, who wants protection from a being named Phantasm, a radioactive psychopath with whom she has a history. Paladin does his best to protect his client, but in the process becomes emotionally involved with her—a vulnerability that Phantasm uses against Paladin. Three years went by before Paladin showed his face again, in Marvel Team-Up #108 (Aug. 1981), in “Something Wicked This Way Kills!” The script was by David Michelinie, with Herb Trimpe pencils and Mike Esposito inks. Tom DeFalco was credited with the plot, which teams our partly purple mercenary with Spider-Man as they track down Walter Michaels, a nutritional researcher who had a lab accident that resulted in his gaining the ability to absorb (take) the body heat of others through touching them. He calls himself Thermo, and he’s become unhinged, killing a lab colleague by draining the life from him. Spider-Man and Paladin catch up with Thermo, but things don’t go as planned. In one scene, Paladin and Spider-Man draw each other out on their “fees,” with Paladin laughing when Spider-Man tells him he doesn’t charge people for helping them. He says to the Wall-Crawler, “You risk your life for free? Talk about naïve!” Despite wearing a costume that’s off-the-charts lame, Thermo is an interesting character whose fighting prowess propels the story into the next issue. Marvel Team-Up #109 (Sept. 1981), produced by the same creative team as #108 except that Dave Kraft provided the script, features Dazzler coming to the aid of Spider-Man when he needs it most. Paladin helps the two of them nail Thermo, and the story closes with Paladin watching Spider-Man help an exhausted Dazzler to recover. Figuring that even if he didn’t get the girl, he at least gets the money, Paladin thinks to himself, “Money isn’t everything, but it sure can make life a lot more comfortable, till something better comes along!”

68 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

He Works Hard for the Money (top left) The mercenary has the Web-Slinger in his sights in Marvel Team-Up #108 (Aug. 1981). Cover by Herb Trimpe and Joe Sinnott. (top right) Paladin and Spidey don’t see eye-toeye on why they do what they do in MTU #108. TM & © Marvel.

PARDON THE INTERRUPTION

Writer David Michelinie got another crack at Paladin with Amazing Spider-Man #320 (late Sept. 1989), this time plotting the story as well as writing the script. “License Invoked” was Part One of “The Assassin Nation Plot” story arc, with the art chores handled by Todd McFarlane. Spider-Man stumbles across Paladin, following him to a car dealership in Brooklyn, where Spider-Man interrupts him as he tries to capture a gang of bad guys. The gang pulls out the big guns, including actual tanks, which our heroes manage to dispatch. As the dust settles, Paladin tells Spider-Man, “Because of your meddling, Drake and Chakane both got away!” Paladin tells Spider-Man that he’s been retained by Silver Sable to find this guy Chakane, in order to extract information from him about a possible plot against Sable’s country, Symkaria. Drake is head of an outfit called the Life Foundation, a group of “capitalistic survivalists” that may be mixed up in the plot. Spider-Man teams up with Paladin and Silver Sable to try to make up for his mistake. He gets his chance in Amazing Spider-Man #321 (early Oct. 1989), in “Underwar!,” also written and drawn by Michelinie and McFarlane. Following a battle with Drake’s and Chakane’s “protectors,” Sable and the boys manage to get to Chakane. Spider-Man doesn’t agree with Sable’s methods of getting information from Chakane, but he agrees to travel to Symkaria with her, while Paladin takes a pass.

Have Gun – Will Kill (inset) Todd McFarlane art on the cover of The Amazing Spider-Man #320 (late Sept. 1989). (bottom) A team-up, from inside that issue. TM & © Marvel.

Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 69

Alpha Male (top) Punisher crashes the party with Paladin and the U.S. Agent on the cover of 1990’s The Punisher: No Escape. Cover by Joe Jusko. (inset and bottom) Paladin cover appearances on Avengers #271 (Sept. 1986) and Silver Sable and the Wild Pack #16 (Sept. 1993). TM & © Marvel.

McFarlane’s art in these two issues is superb, and Michelinie’s writing is sharp and keeps the stories moving well. The Paladin character is true to what was established in the 1977–1981 stories: a friendly but professional and able mercenary. “My only previous exposure to Paladin was in the script I wrote in 1981 for Marvel Team-Up #108,” says Michelinie, “which was plotted by Tom DeFalco [who had become editor-in-chief at Marvel by the time ASM #320 and 321 were produced]. So I pretty much based my handling of the character on that. I imagine if there are similarities to the Daredevil stories, then that was likely due to Tom’s efforts to stay true to Paladin’s characterization in those earlier tales.” From a continuity standpoint, it’s important to note that Michelinie reaches back in these two stories to a specific aspect of the story in Team-Up #108: Some eight years later, Paladin still thinks it’s amazing that Spider-Man risks his life for free. Meantime, Spider-Man thinks it’s disgusting that Paladin actually charges for helping people. “Yeah, that was an intentional focus in the two-parter [#320 and 321],” says Michelinie. “It was something that I felt helped define the characters through their differences, helped round them out for readers who might not be familiar with the Team-Up story.” In 1990, Paladin also appeared in a Marvel Comics one-shot graphic novel entitled The Punisher: No Escape, written by Gregory Wright, and with a cover by Joe Jusko and interior art by Tod Smith and Danny Bulanadi. Part of the story involves Paladin being hired by a Maggia crime boss to kill the Punisher for a fee of $10 million. At one point, Paladin introduces himself to the Punisher, saying, “You mean you haven’t heard of Paladin? Have gun, will travel.” It’s a cool, inside reference to the TV show character and in a way, it connects the two Paladins. Paladin got around in the Marvel Universe of the 1970s and 1980s. Among others, he also appeared in such series as The Defenders #62 (Aug. 1978) and 63 (Sept. 1978); The Avengers #251 (Jan. 1985, where he also goes by the name Paul Denning), 271 (Sept. 1986), and 273 (Nov. 1986); and Spectacular Spider-Man #105 (Aug. 1985) and 106 (Sept. 1985). The character also had a recurring role in Silver Sable and the Wild Pack during the 1990s. [Editor’s note: See BACK ISSUE #135 for a Silver Sable history.] Now for the question that’s on everyone’s mind: Just exactly what does Paladin have on his head when he’s working? What in the world is that… part of an antique roll-top desk? “That’s correct,” says David Michelinie, “part of a roll-top desk. It’s where Paladin keeps his expense receipts.” Just goes to show, once again, that it’s attention to detail that separates run-of-the-mill characters from legends. DOUGLAS R. KELLY is editor of Marine Technology magazine. In addition to BACK ISSUE, his byline has appeared in Antiques Roadshow Insider, Model Collector, Collecting Toys, Diecast Collector, and Buildings magazines. Two years ago, craving higher taxes and a more complicated life, he and his family relocated from North Carolina to Connecticut.

70 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

Hero identification time! He is a Marvel hero, forged in the fires of a world war, has no superpowers, carries a weapon at his side, and wears a version of his country’s flag on his costume. Easy! Captain America. Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz! Sorry. Think European. Oh. Captain Britain, right? Judges say… wrong! But you’re getting warmer. Must be the Black Knight! Nice try, but no chest flag. Give up? Today we are taking a deep dive into the history of one of the UK’s most long-lasting but obscure heroes who has never really had his day in the sun… perhaps because he lives in England (apologies, British readers!). No, today we speak of that patriotic paragon of virtue formed in the crucible of World War I: Union Jack.

UNION JACK I

by J e

rry Smith

Created by comic-book creative fountain Roy Thomas and first drawn for publication by Frank Robbins, Union Jack sprang into life in the pages of The Invaders #7 (July 1976). The Invaders, of course, were Marvel’s premier superhero team of World War II. Team membership at the time included Captain America and Bucky; the original Human Torch, Jim Hammond, and his kid sidekick, Toro; and Namor the Sub-Mariner (then an ally of the Allies—for the moment). The Invaders fought the Axis all over the world, but in issue #7 they were licking their wounds in England after a recent battle. In the story, which also introduces Nazi vampire supervillain Baron Blood (see BACK ISSUE #116 for a BB history), Jim (Human Torch) Hammond rescues a woman on the street from an attack by Baron Blood. Escorting her home to recover, he discovers she is none other than Jacqueline Falsworth, daughter of aristocrat Lord James Falsworth. With Jacqueline safe, Lord Falsworth confesses to the Torch that he was World War I’s famous war superhero Union Jack, a “special secret operative of His Majesty’s government.” Lord Falsworth relates that not only was he the famous masked spy-buster, but he was part of a WWI superhero team known as Freedom’s Five, consisting of Union Jack, Phantom Eagle, Crimson Cavalier, Sir Steel, and the Silver Squire. The team is stocked with typical Roy Thomas war superheroes (a good thing), and Robbins’ rubbery art makes for a fun visual of the WWI team. Union Jack fought to the end of the war, with the defeat of Baron Blood being his last official mission as the hero. Writer-editor Roy Thomas was kind enough to explain to BACK ISSUE the creation of the flagged champion. “Since the book was called The Invaders,” Thomas relates, “I didn’t want them to spend all their time in the US. And I also felt it was high time Marvel

You Don’t Know Jack …but now you do! Comics’ most famous Jack—Kirby, of course—inked by Frank Giacoia, produced this powerful Union Jack cover for The Invaders #8 (Sept. 1976). TM & © Marvel.

Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 71

‘The Masked Spy-Buster’ of WWI Flashback page from The Invaders #7 (July 1976), by Roy Thomas, Frank Robbins, and Vince Colletta, retelling Union Jack’s original exploits. TM & © Marvel.

had an English superhero. I’d already given Marvel heroes/villains from Ireland, Japan, and Canada. Britain was our ally, so it should have a hero allied with them.” When asked if UJ was specifically created as a nemesis for Baron Blood, Thomas replies, “Baron Blood just happened to be a villain created at the same time.” As for representation, Thomas states that Union Jack represents Great Britain as Captain America stands for the highest ideals of the US. “Like Captain America, he both represented a country… and he had to be an individual with his own personality and problems.” After hearing Lord Falsworth’s incredible story, the Torch signals the other Invaders, and they come running. They track down Baron Blood and have a thrilling but indecisive battle in the sky. The tale continues in Invaders #8, blurbed on the cover as “The Coming of Union Jack!” The fight against Baron Blood is so dire, the aged Lord Falsworth once again dons his uniform to help the Invaders take down the evil Nazi vampire (is there any other kind?). And what a uniform it is! Full face mask, dark blue costume, and a huge Union Jack from neck to crotch. His

weapons are more offensive in nature than Captain America’s, as instead of a shield, UJ is armed with a razor-sharp dagger and a Webley .455 caliber pistol. Regarding the costume design, Thomas observes, “I drew the first picture of Union Jack myself, with the flag design, pretty much exactly as it came out. Frank [Robbins] picked it up from there… and then Jack [Kirby] did the cover. Far as I can recall, I drew only six characters for Marvel, costumes and all, to hand to the artist: Union Jack, Hyperion, Nighthawk, Dr. Spectrum, the late-‘60s Whizzer… and later, at DC, Mr. Bones. And my visual description of the costume of Red Wolf was so close to what John [Buscema] drew that it might as well have been sketched for him.” To inform readers, the Union Jack, or Union Flag, is the de facto national flag of the United Kingdom. Although no law has been passed officially making it their national flag, it has effectively become so through precedent. And it looked great on a superhero. Our story continues in Invaders #9, with Lord Falsworth, now back in the Union Jack uniform, reliving his glory days in a climactic battle with the Invaders against Baron Blood. Jack strikes the final blow to destroy the villain, but loses the use of his legs in the process. Evil vanquished, this ends the saga of Union Jack I.

Life During Wartime Brian and Jacqueline Falsworth, England’s dynamic duo of Union Jack and Spitfire, fight alongside WWII’s greatest superheroes in The Invaders #20 (Sept. 1977). Cover by Gil Kane and Frank Giacoia. TM & © Marvel.

72 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

UNION JACK II

Turns out Lord Falsworth had a son, Brian, who was busy doing his part fighting in World War II as well. Later, in Invaders #18 (July 1977), Brian is revealed to be the English superhero the Destroyer, and teams with the Invaders to foil a Nazi plot. During the adventure, Brian reveals that, while imprisoned in a Nazi cell with German biochemist Professor Eric Schmitt, Schmitt gave him a vial of the German version of the super-soldier serum, which he took. The serum immediately made him “stronger— faster than before!” While not quite as strong as Captain America’s super-soldier serum, the potion still enabled him to trounce the Germans and escape his cell to become the Destroyer. The battle continues until Invaders #19, where, in the last panel of the last page, Brian swings into action for the first time as Union Jack, the second to bear the name of that sparkling red and blue British hero. In Invaders #21 (Oct. 1977), a victorious Union Jack explains he dropped the Destroyer persona and embraced being Union Jack “to carry on, shall we say, a family tradition!” And to honor his father’s service as Union Jack. Jack is now a full member of the Invaders, along with his sister Jacqueline, who has become the heroine Spitfire (after a blood transfusion from the android Human Torch, back in Invaders #11). When asked directly, Roy Thomas admits it was always his intention for this new Union Jack to join the Invaders. “I liked the idea of a WWI Union Jack, but mainly as a precursor of the WWII one,” says Thomas. Brian and Jacqueline Falsworth, as Union Jack and Spitfire, respectively, continue fighting for wartime Britain as an integral part of the Invaders until issue #34, where Union Jack takes on Master Man (unfortunately, not faring well) and welcomes a new Destroyer, Brian’s friend Roger Aubrey. At the end of the story, the Invaders are called back to the States and leave Union Jack and his compatriots to watch over England. As Union Jack shakes hands with Captain America, he promises to “hold the fort” while the Invaders are gone. Alas, that is the end of Union Jack II in the Invaders title—he doesn’t even join them for their next confrontation with Baron Blood in Invaders #40-41, with #41 (Sept. 1979) being the last issue of the series. Our flag-draped hero does manage to pop up in a few panels from What If? #4 (Aug. 1977), “What if the Invaders Had Stayed Together After World War Two?” Although UJ is not a major player, the story about a post-WWII Invaders team battling the android villain Adam-II, who wants to replace Congressional hopeful John F. Kennedy with a robot, is an absolutely charming must-read.

UNION JACK III

The third and final Union Jack, still active today, was created for one of the finest runs on any comic, anywhere. That is, of course, Captain America vol. 1 issues #247–255, by the team of writer Roger Stern and artist John Byrne. The best story of that wonderful run is the return of Baron Blood, and his career-long nemesis Union Jack, in Cap #253 (Jan. 1981). After a series of suspicious attacks, original Union Jack Lord Falsworth, now in his 90s and in a wheelchair, calls Captain America to England to investigate. Falsworth suggests Baron Blood has returned to wreak havoc, but his now-middle-aged daughter Jacqueline is skeptical, to say the least. Readers also discover that Union Jack II, Brian Fals-

worth, perished in an automobile accident in 1953. No one has currently claimed the Union Jack mantle. According to writer Roger Stern, “Captain America #253–254 had its origins in a rough idea John [Byrne] had for the return of Baron Blood. He’d originally meant for the Baron to appear in an Avengers story—this was back when I was that title’s editor—but for one reason or another, we just never got around to it. When we later worked together on Captain America, we turned John’s idea into a Cap story. We took the opportunity to explore Cap’s relationship with any surviving Invaders—including, in this case, Union Jack.” Jacqueline’s son Kenneth Crichton happens to be home from university for a visit as well, with his classmate Joey Chapman. After some investigation, Cap drives Baron Blood out of hiding, and Blood proceeds once again to terrorize the Falsworth family. During their final confrontation, a young man in the Union Jack costume bursts into the room and assists Cap in dispatching the threat of Baron Blood— this time forever. Expecting that Kenneth Crichton has donned the uniform to once again continue the family heroic tradition; the entire cast is wrong. In this case, the person who took up the mantle of Union Jack isn’t part of the nobility—but working-class college student Joey Chapman.

Patriotic Pals Original John Romita, Sr. art of Union Jack and Captain America produced for the convention booklet of the UK’s Comicon ’76. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). TM & © Marvel.

Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 73

I’m Still Standing Baron Blood’s rampage leads an elderly Lord Falsworth to reenter the superhero game in Captain America #254 (Feb. 1981). Art by John Byrne and Joe Rubinstein, story by Roger Stern. TM & © Marvel.

Commenting on the surprise turn of events, Stern observes, “Joey Chapman was partly inspired by John Lennon’s song “Working Class Hero.” I figured it was about time that a national hero like Union Jack should be represented by someone who wasn’t part of the aristocracy. If the readers were expecting that Ken Crichton would become Union Jack, good! I like to do the unexpected.” Joey Chapman was a non-traditional choice of a character representing their country. At least at first, Chapman’s personality had a touch of anger and rebelliousness. When meeting Captain America for the first time, Cap immediately complimented his handshake grip. Chapman replied, “Ken an’ me are both on a wrestlin’ team. Care to go a few rounds?” Later, when Cap asks him where he was during a Baron Blood attack, he overreacts, shouting, “What?! You’re accusin’ me of bein’ a bleedin’ Nazi vampire? You’re as daft as ol’ Lord Falsworth!” He then physically attacks Cap, who makes short work of him. The man certainly had no shortage of courage. At the end of the “fight,” Cap warns Joey to watch his step. Chapman’s grawlix-filled word balloon of “@x!%!@*!! American!” is priceless. Despite some early personality rough patches, Joey Chapman has proved to be a popular and resilient character since his creation in 1981. While never having headlined his own ongoing series, the

character has appeared regularly as a guest in myriad comics and has had two eponymous miniseries devoted to his exploits. The character’s next major appearance is spotlighted in his own three-issue miniseries, written by Benjamin Raab with co-writing and luscious artwork by John Cassaday. Union Jack #1 (Dec. 1998) framed the flag-draped hero as a full-time vampire hunter, perhaps to give him a unique angle for a superhero. In a sad and brilliant twist, one of the antagonists he battles is his old friend Kenneth Crichton, grandson of Lord James Falsworth, the original Union Jack. Kenneth is suffering from deadly anemia. His only hope for respite is to be turned into a vampire in a deal offered by villainess Baroness Blood, in an attempt to make Kenneth the new Baron Blood. If anything, the Baroness is more evil than her sire, the original Baron. Kenneth accepts the deal, and Joey is forced to fight his friend, transformed now into a bloodthirsty monster. Kenneth, embracing his role as the new Baron Blood, steals the actual Holy Grail from a museum, giving the Baroness an artifact that will make her invincible. She betrays Kenneth to the sunlight, to crumble into dust in the arms of his friend Joey Chapman. Thus Union Jack declares a bitter goodbye to the final Baron Blood, his friend, and the last male heir of the original Union Jack.

74 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

With all of the Marvel characters available ple’s minds. The timing for a new Union Jack story to Raab and Cassaday, why did they choose the couldn’t have been more perfect.” Union Jack went on to sporadically guest-star flag-draped Brit to explore? Writer Raab explains, “John and I were both fans of the character... across the Marvel Universe, most notably in Capparticularly the Roger Stern/John Byrne run on tain America. His next major appearance was in his Captain America. For us, the appeal of Union Jack second spotlight miniseries, Union Jack: London started with the look. Like Cap and Alpha Flight’s Falling (Nov. 2006), this time four issues by writer Guardian, Union Jack is an iconic-looking hero Christos Gage and artists Mike Perkins and Andrew who wears his flag as a symbol. But unlike his Hennessy, another action-packed artist. No longer American and Canadian counterparts, there’s a a full-time vampire hunter, UJ is now working with darkness about him. Whether as a wartime spy MI-5, the British spy organization. Gage goes slightly overboard with the “working stiff” (Lord Falsworth) or a vampire hunter (Joey angle, as Joey is portrayed with a day Chapman), this was a man who’d seen job of painting houses and living in a some serious sh*t.” roach-infested flat without a pound Raab also addresses the heritage to his name. His mission, which he of Union Jack. “From a deeper decides to accept, is stopping a character standpoint, we were London terrorist attack with an inboth drawn to Joey Chapman ternational cast including Sabra, himself. That fish-out-of-water Arabian Knight, Boomerang, Jack quality he brought to Union Jack. O’Lantern, Crossfire, Batroc the The idea of a working-class son Leaper, and Nick Fury’s former love of a shipbuilder grappling with the interest Contessa Allegra Valentine De La responsibility of having to uphold Fontaine as a S.H.I.E.L.D. liaison. the mantle passed down to him In addition to anchoring his was something we thought we benjamin raab two miniseries, Union Jack has could sink our teeth into (pun appeared as a supporting character intended). That notion of inherited in several modern comics, inlegacy reminded us a lot of the Phantom—another character John and I were both cluding Knights of Pendragon (1990), New Invaders big fans of. So, in an effort to build on the foun- (2004), and Invaders Now (2010). Most recently as dation that Thomas and Stern and Byrne had laid, of this writing, UJ can be seen as an integral part John and I wrote up a pitch and sent it in to editor of The Union (2021), a UK-based superhero team Tom Brevoort. Around that time, Wizard Maga- created by Paul Grist and Andrea Di Vito. Joey zine had listed Union Jack on one of their Top Ten Chapman’s personality doesn’t particularly stand lists—‘Coolest Costume,’ I think?—and were giv- out or further develop in most of these books, ing readers a chance to get an exclusive Union Jack but he is part of the team and it’s always good to action figure. So the character was fresh in peo- see Union Jack in action.

Vampire Hunter (left) Cover to Union Jack #1 (Dec. 1998) and (right) pages 4–5 of its story, with Joey Chapman mixing it up with the undead. By Benjamin Raab and John Cassaday. TM & © Marvel.

Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 75

All Jacked Up (top left) Mike Perkins and Andrew Hennessy’s cover to Union Jack vol. 2 #1 (Nov. 2006) inspired (top right) the pose of this Eaglemoss UJ figurine. Photo by Jerry Smith. (inset) Randy Bowen’s original thumbnail sketch design for Bowen Design’s UJ statue. (bottom) The statue, as sculpted by the Kucharek Brothers from Bowen’s layout. Courtesy of Randy Bowen. Union Jack TM & © Marvel.

Union Jack has never been a superstar, but enjoys steady popularity and is still active in the Marvel Universe. The character has been turned into statues, action figures, figurines, and has been featured in everything from T-shirts to video games. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, James Montgomery Falsworth appears in the live-action Captain America: The First Avenger, portrayed by JJ Feild. UJ even has a low-budget, live-action fan series on YouTube. It doesn’t bear much resemblance to the comic-book character, but at least someone cares enough to try! So, what do UJ’s original writers think of the character’s longevity? Of Joey Chapman, Roger Stern muses, “It’s nice to hear that our Union Jack continues to turn up after all these years. At the time, John and I were just trying to come up with characters to enrich the story. That we managed to create a new hero who caught the interest of other writers and artists over the decades is very flattering. Of course, we were building our character on the foundation established by Roy Thomas and Frank Robbins in The Invaders.” And what of Roy Thomas, Jack’s creator? When asked if he was surprised that UJ is still going strong, he replies, “No. He was a welldesigned character (blush, blush) with a good name—even if it wasn’t that original—but it was new to American comics.” After 45 years of flying the Union Jack in comics, the character shows no signs of aging or slowing down. He can lead his own miniseries, play a supporting role in a group of much more powerful heroes, sell an action figure, and destroy the most dangerous vampires, all while looking fashionable. Would that there were more like him. The author is sincerely grateful to Roy Thomas, Roger Stern, and Benjamin Raab for assistance with this article. Don’t you love it when your heroes are nice people? JERRY SMITH is a non-profit fundraiser and freelance writer living in Northern Kentucky. He has quite a large comic-book collection.

76 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

Advertise With Us! RetroFan & BrickJournal Ad Rates: Back cover or inside cover: $1000 ($900 for two or more) Full-page interior: $800 ($700 for two or more) Half-page interior: $500 ($425 for two or more) Quarter-page interior: $300 ($250 for two or more)

Alter Ego • Back Issue • Comic Book Creator • Draw • Jack Kirby Collector: Back cover or inside cover: $800 ($700 for two or more) Full-page interior: $600 ($500 for two or more) Half-page interior: $300 ($250 for two or more) Quarter-page interior: $150 ($125 for two or more) AD SIZES: COVERS & FULL-PAGE: 8.375” wide x 10.875” tall trim size, add 1/8” bleed. (7.625” x 10.125” live area.) HALF-PAGE: 7.625” x 4.875” live area (no bleeds). QUARTER-PAGE: 3.6875” x 4.875” live area (no bleeds).

Call or e-mail for frequency discounts! Send ad copy and payment (US funds) to: TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive Raleigh, NC 27614 919-449-0344 E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com

We accept check, money order, and all major credit cards; include card number and expiration date.

These rates are for digital ads supplied (PDF, JPEG, TIF, EPS, InDesign, or Quark Xpress files acceptable). No agency discounts apply.

Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation Publication Title: Back Issue Publication Number: 1932-6904 Filing Date: June 17, 2022 Issue Frequency: Monthly, except for January, March, May, and November Number of Issues Published Annually: 8 Annual Subscription Price: $90 Address of Known Office of Publication and General Business Office of Publisher: TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Dr., Raleigh, NC 27614 Contact Person: John Morrow Telephone: 919-449-0344 Editor: Michael Eury, 112 Fairmount Way, New Bern, NC 28562 Publisher and Managing Editor: John Morrow, TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Dr., Raleigh, NC 27614 Owner: John Morrow, 10407 Bedfordtown Dr., Raleigh, NC 27614 Known Bondholders, Mortgagees, and Other Security Holders: None Issue Date for Circulation Data: July 2022 Average No. Copies Each Issue During Preceding 12 Months: 3718 No. Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date: 3800 Paid Circulation (By Mail and Outside the Mail) (1) Mailed Outside-County Paid Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3541 (Include paid distribution above nominal rate, advertiser’s proof copies, and exchange copies): 253 (2) Mailed In-County Paid Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3541 (Include paid distribution above nominal rate, advertiser’s proof copies, and exchange copies): 0 (3) Paid Distribution Outside the Mails Including Sales Through Dealers and Carriers, Street Vendors, Counter Sales, and Other Paid Distribution Outside USPS®: 2465 (4) Paid Distribution by Other Classes of Mail Through the USPS (e.g., First-Class Mail®): 39 Total Paid Distribution: 2757 Free or Nominal Rate Distribution (By Mail and Outside the Mail) (1) Free or Nominal Rate Outside-County Copies included on PS Form 3541: 110 (2) Free or Nominal Rate In-County Copies Included on PS Form 3541: 0 (3) Free or Nominal Rate Copies Mailed at Other Classes Through the USPS (e.g., First-Class Mail): 0 (4) Free or Nominal Rate Distribution Outside the Mail (Carriers or other means): 7 Total Free or Nominal Rate Distribution: 117 Total Distribution: 2874 Copies not Distributed: 776 Total: 3650 Percent Paid: 96% I certify that all information furnished on this form is true and complete. I understand that anyone who furnishes false or misleading information on this form or who omits material or information requested on the form may be subject to criminal sanctions (including fines and imprisonment) and/or civil sanctions (including civil penalties). John Morrow, publisher

Send your comments to: Email: euryman@gmail.com (subject: BACK ISSUE) Postal mail: Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief • BACK ISSUE 112 Fairmount Way * New Bern, NC 28562

Find BACK ISSUE on

MORE INK TO INFINITY, INC.

I fell behind on my reading and only just now caught up to BI #132. It’s probably not worth addressing, but I would like to respond to Daniel Brozak’s letter about my Infinity, Inc. article in BI #126. In the published Infinity, Inc. series, Nuklon was Al Pratt’s godson, but in Roy Thomas’ original proposal, he was Atom’s grandson. Mr. Brozak is correct about Fury’s parentage. I should have said that it was implied that Iron Munro was her father, but never openly stated. I’m saddened to hear about David Anthony Kraft. We’re losing the greats of the Bronze Age now. Good thing you are capturing as much as you can now, before they are all gone. Maybe you could do an article in a future issue about DAK’s Comics Interview! – John Schwirian

WOT ABOUT ZOT!?

I love BACK ISSUE. It hits the sweet spot of my comics fandom! However, there is one 1980s series that I can’t believe that I haven’t seen an article on yet. ZOT! Scott McCloud! Kurt Busiek! A 36-issue run and an online story afterward to boot! Michael, ZOT! needs to be chronicled as only BACK ISSUE can do! – Robert J. Fronczak

moon. I don’t think either of the “Big Two” would touch a book like this today. More’s the pity. Thank you, James Robinson, Tony Harris, and Peter Snejbjerg for taking us on that ride. It was worth more than the price of admission. Thank you, BI, and you, Michael, for keeping the torch lit for books like this and the many others you have covered over the years. Make Mine BI! – Jeff Mitchell Thanks for being a loyal reader and subscriber, Jeff!

WHEN DYNAMIC DUOS MEET

Enjoyed your comprehensive and informative “Starmen” issue! I’d like to offer an apparently “lost” footnote to the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy chronology that I remember from my boyhood comic-reading days during the Golden Age. Featured in World’s Finest Comics #9 (Spring 1943), the two patriotic partners meet up with Batman and Robin for four surprising panels. As I recall, the cameo appearance by the Dynamic Duo has no real relevance to the story—it’s just two superhero teams happening to cross paths for the first time. A crossover was rare indeed at National/DC at the time, except of course for the JSA and Seven Soldiers of Victory coming together in the early ’40s. Any idea how that unusual meet-and-greet came about? Also, I think it would provide a nice final touch to your allinclusive BI coverage if you offered readers a look at those four panels. Just hoping… – Gerald F. Lehrer Hope no more, Gerald! Those panels—the first which also features the Joker—appear below. They hail from World’s Finest #9’s Star-Spangled Kid story “Turn Back the Clock,” illustrated by Hal Sherman and thought to have been written by Jerry Siegel. We’re unaware of there being a pertinent backstory to this cameo, but if any of you Golden Age experts out there know anything about this, please email me at euryman@gmail.com and we’ll share the news. Thank you for bringing this under-the-radar crossover to our attention. This was news to me, and I’m sure it’ll surprise most of our readers.

Robert, we flirted with a ZOT! feature way back in BI #22, through a Scott McCloud interview, but I agree that only scratched the surface. We will do our best to feature—maybe even cover-feature— ZOT! in an upcoming issue. Thanks for the great suggestion.

I renewed my BI subscription a little over a week ago, and issue #133 made me very glad I did. What a wonderful issue full of great stories. I especially enjoyed the extensive coverage given to the James Robinson/Tony Harris run on Starman. Starman came to me at a time of my life when things weren’t so great. Starman was that ray of shiny hope that kept me going when things were dark for me. Jack Knight was a very relatable hero, and Robinson’s writing lifted him above what other superhero comics were doing at the time. This is what comics could be if the writer and artist were given the freedom to tell a story the way they wanted; to dream big and allowed to address their audience as if they are intelligent people who can understand nuance and not have everything spelled out for them. This was Art with a capital A. There is a reason this book is remembered so fondly by so many. Things like Starman come around in comics once in a blue 78 • BACK ISSUE • Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes Issue

STARRY-EYED OVER STARMAN

TRUMBULL TRIUMPHANT