involving Galactus and Mangog, our man with the mallet found himself battling the Thermal Man from Communist China in Thor #170; Kronin Krask, a man of extreme wealth and immense girth, in #172; and Crypto-Man in #174. Any of these bogus characters could have come from the dawn of the ’60s, before Marvel became synonymous with quality. Jackson Chadda wrote in Thor #182’s (Nov. 1970) letters page, “I have been quite disappointed with the ‘hero meets villain—hero fights villain—hero defeats villain routine.’ This development seems to coincide with recent change from the related, continued issues of the past to the simplified format of the present. This very lack of quality is the reason I abandoned your competitors. Thor, with all his significance and possibilities, is reduced to violent combat with gimmickladen villains in a repetitious format.” To be fair, the cardboard villains came at the end of Jack Kirby’s long run on Thor. As has been stated in The Jack Kirby Collector, he’d lost interest in creating new concepts or characters for Marvel and saved new ideas for his Fourth World comics at DC. Still, after so many cosmic storylines, to be consigned to Earthbound single-issue stories must have seemed like punishment from Odin himself. Kirby’s heroic figures, large panels, and full-page drawings cried out for sagas. Thor #175 was an exception, with Kirby and Bill Everett delivering a classic first part of a “Loki attempts to steal Odin’s throne” saga. Once the Skrull kidnapping of the Thing storyline ended (influenced by Lost in Space episode “The Deadly Games of Gamma 6,” as well as Star Trek episode “A Piece of the Action”), The Fantastic Four slid into mediocrity. Some of those issues were inked by Frank Giacoia, a once-great Kirby inker who by early 1970 had become the anti-Sinnott, all sharp angles and jagged lines, compared to Sinnott’s thick outlines and flattering embellishments on the King. Even Roy Thomas, at the peak of his superhero writing on Dr. Strange, Sub-Mariner, and The Avengers, suddenly began throwing characters like Crime Wave, Torpedo, and Brother Brimstone at the wall in Daredevil to see if any would stick. They didn’t. This after an incredible arc starting in Daredevil #50 with Starr Saxon discovering DD’s secret identity, which culminated in #57 where DD revealed his identity to Karen Page. No, Thomas hadn’t hit a slump or writer’s block. The reality was that writing six monthly titles under Goodman’s single-issue edict must have been grueling. Perhaps Conan and arguably The Incredible Hulk could thrive in that format, but Dr. Strange, Daredevil, and Sub-Mariner had improved as serials, where even if a foe was defeated in an issue or two, they made up a part of much longer story arcs. Gene Colan could stretch out stories with ease, but in a single issue often ran out of room, forcing the story to an uneasy conclusion in the last page—or even the final panel. Michael Lang put it succinctly in the lettercol of Daredevil #67: “As for DD #61, BOO—BOO! Here you take three great villains, the Jester, the Cobra and Mr. Hyde, and concluded the story in one issue. We Marvelites don’t want you to stop your continued stories or confused sub-plots. How could you combine the FF’s fight with Dr. Doom [#84–87] into one story? Or DD’s fight with Saxon? Or the Sub-Mariner’s story about the Serpentine Helmet?” In the June 1970 Marvel books, Stan included a survey, asking people to respond to, “Hey, man, these are my favorite type of plots”; “These are the kind of yarns that turn me off”; “If I were you Stan (ugh!), these are the changes I’d make at Marvel.” Clearly, to paraphrase Bob Dylan: “You know something’s wrong here, but you don’t know what it is, Mr. Lee…” With Kirby’s departure looming, the new-story policy backfiring among fans, and printing costs forcing a temporary lowering of the page count from 20 to 19, Stan’s survey showed, for the first time, confusion at the top—after nine years of “facing forward” with unquestioning confidence. It’s not that 1970 was universally bad, just wildly inconsistent. After months of Amazing Spider-Man watered down with too little story and art by John Buscema and Jim Mooney creating vague Romita impersonations, Stan and John Romita re-teamed for a three-part story beginning in Spider-Man #83. The Schemer muscles in on Kingpin’s territory, while the Kingpin’s wife seems to split her allegiance between both crooks. (Of course, in Romita’s glamorous art, even a fat, bald,
The Thunder Silenced (top) Lee and Kirby at their zenith with Galactus, in Thor #160 (Jan. 1969). (bottom) By issue #174 (Mar. 1970), Stan and Jack were phoning it in with Crypto-Man. Kirby was also beginning his exodus to DC Comics around this time. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.
4 • BACK ISSUE • Bronze Age Events Issue