Alliterative and Amusing Attributions

For most of the Silver Age, DC did not include credits for their stories (although it was not uncommon for artists to sign their work). Indeed, probably the most common credit given was fictitious; the one that identified most Batman stories as being drawn by Bob Kane.

Marvel was different. From the very beginning, they included some credits for their stories. From Fantastic Four #1:

At first, as you can see, the credits were rudimentary. Here's something of interest, though, from Amazing Spiderman #1:

Even when DC did go to more commonly including credits later in the Silver Age, back then they never (to my knowledge) gave attribution for lettering. Still, the credits were more or less haphazard at that point at Marvel. For example, ASM #4 does not including lettering credit, and up to and including #9 the credits were pretty simple. In ASM #10, things changed:

This was the beginning of Stan's alliterative phase, which would continue for the rest of the Silver Age (and be continued by later editors at Marvel).  That same month, Fantastic Four #24's credits included another look at the future:

The following issue, Stan put both alliteration and braggadocio together:

But there was still one more element to be added: Humor.  That started to be added with #29:

Stan apparently (I assume he came up with the idea for these credits) delighted in tweaking his letterers; for the next few years this became the template.  Greatness was always implied for the script, pencils and inking; mere competence (or worse) was ascribed to putting the words on the paper.

 Although these amusing credits became a significant part of the difference between Marvel and DC, they did not last anywhere near as long as I remembered.  Indeed, by late 1966, Stan pretty much reverted to a more basic style:

After that the humorous and alliterative credits became more infrequent.  Indeed, Stan often saved that for the Bullpen Bulletin or the letters page.  I suspect that his workload by that point was getting too big; it was around this time that he turned the scriptwriting chores for the Avengers over to Rascally Roy Thomas.

The appeal of these credits was strong.  It gave readers the feeling that they were in for a fun time.  True, the self-promotion could get overbearing at times, but this was also the era where Mohamed Ali amused us all by proclaiming his greatness at the top of his lungs, rather than engage in the more common false modesty of most athletes before and after.

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And On the Third Issue, He Arose Again...

I have talked a little bit about death and resurrection in the past.  Lightning Lad was one of the first major instances of it involving a hero in the DC universe, at least where the resurrection was not immediate.

But in the Silver Age, Marvel seemed to be the place where corpses got up and walked on a regular basis (especially villains), and so I thought I would try to catalog all of their examples.  Of course, an undertaking like this is going to require the assistance of my readers.  Although I have read virtually all of the Silver Age Marvel line, my memory's nowhere near as good as it used to be.

First up is Doctor Doom.  The Lord of Latveria apparently succumbed at the end of several of his early adventures.  For example:

Or:

And:

Let me point out here that there's actually a pretty good reason for the "death" ending; it saves the writers the necessity of explaining how the villain got out of jail.  And Doctor Doom was, in a way copying an earlier DC villain in meeting his apparent demise at the end of many of his early meetings:

And:

This last bit, with the villain falling into water, has become something of a cliche for comic writers.  It has the advantage of giving the appearance of death, combined with the uncertainty.  Plus, conveniently, it doesn't really have to be explained much in the subsequent resurrection.  See there was this pipe/cave nearby with a convenient air pocket....

Anyway, Dr Doom had more than his share of deaths in the early Marvel Age, so we'll skip over him.  The next major villain to "die" in the FF was the Puppet Master:

He returned in FF #14 and, although he apparently bit the bullet at the end of that issue, many more times as well.  One of the interesting things about that initial resurrection, though, was that Stan didn't bother to explain it.  Never mind that (as shown above), we'd seen him fall out of a skyscraper.  This would become the rule, rather than the exception.

I'm not sure if there are any other "deaths" in the Silver Age Fantastic Four, so let's move on to the Amazing Spiderman.  The only real death and resurrection I'm aware of there involves the Vulture:

The original Vulture apparently shuffles off the mortal coil shortly after that scene, although he returns in ASM #63 to battle both Spidey and Blackie Drago, his chosen successor.  I'm again not aware of any other deaths and resurrections in the Silver Age involving Spiderman, although there are some (Silvermane, for example) who died in the SA but didn't respawn until much later.

The only example of a major Marvel hero dying and not coming back for a couple of issues (a la Lightning Lad) involved Captain America.  Death here from CA #111:
Note the "falling into water" bit I mentioned earlier.  Cap's resurrection came in the first issue of his magazine that I ever bought:

I'm struggling now to think of resurrections involving other Marvel villains. About the only one that's coming to mind is the Rhino's passing from Hulk #104:

The Rhino would return along with the Leader to bedevil Bruce Banner's wedding in Hulk #124 as I covered awhile ago. Oh, the Leader, that's right, he died in Tales to Astonish #74:

And both the Leader and the Rhino appear to die at the end of Hulk #124, but we know better. The Black Widow had a couple of brushes with the Grim Reaper, as I have covered in the past. And I know the Unicorn appeared to die in Iron Man #4. Any more examples? I'm mostly interested in cases where the resurrection happened by the end of the Silver Age, simply because there are so many examples after that.

Updates: Some good suggestions in the comments section: The Mandarin's castle was hit by an ICBM in ToS #86:

But he returned with a reasonable explanation:

Multi-dimensional teleportation device. Don't leave home without it! The Mandarin also shuffled off the mortal coil in Avengers Annual #1:

And, as my anonymous commenter noted, he returned in the Hulk #107 with no particular explanation. MDTD, I suppose?

Titanium Man learned the fate of Silver medalists in the old Soviet Union:

But he returned ten issues later, this time apparently supported by the Red Chinese. The Red Skull drowned at the end of ToS #81, weighed down by a suit of golden armor:

He returned in ToS #89 with the explanation that the Cosmic Cube's power kept him alive. Hat tip to Nick Caputo on that one. The Red Skull biffed it again in ToS #91:

The explosion death was also popular, because it can be argued that we missed seeing something due to the flash. The Skull returned in Cap #101:

The Stilt Man shriveled up like Dr Doom up above in DD #8:

When the Leap-Frog asked him about his apparent death, Stilty was rather terse, replying, "You seem to have an uncanny knack for being wrong."

Another commenter pointed out that Magneto died in X-Men #53 and returned in X-Men #62; I can't find those issues at the moment to post panels.

Observations: One thing seems apparent; the villains who "die" on multiple occasions but return just as often tend to be Marvel's top antagonists; Dr Doom, the Mandarin, the Red Skull and the Leader are all on the short list of major baddies.

Update II: Diablo took a dirt nap thanks to his android, the Dragon Man, in FF #35:

He returned in Avengers #41, with the explanation that he owed his survival to alchemy.

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Fighters From Space - 3D

Wishing You All a Happy Republic Day 

Hello Friends,

Today I complete the two years of my association with Books & Comics. I am posting one of the remaining 3D comics with me. You will need Anaglyph 3D glasses to read this comics.  I hope you enjoy it.

Regards

IUnknown

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Hawkeye Versus Captain America

As I have discussed in the past, heroic characters in the Golden and Silver Age for the most part didn't require a motivation. They fought against crime and injustice simply because they were heroes. This is part of what makes Batman and Spiderman so unique; they did have strong personal motivations. Hawkeye, on the other hand, did have a motivation, but it was an odd one: He wanted the acclaim that comes along with being a hero. Remember, the first we see him is when he's simply a carnival side-show act:

When a carnival ride goes haywire, Iron Man appears to save the passengers, and Hawkeye experiences the green-eyed monster:

So he puts together a uniform and some gadget arrows and goes into the hero business. But things go off the rails almost immediately, as the cops mistake him for the accomplice of a smash and grab artist. While getting away, he is picked up by the Black Widow, who recruits him to the cause of international peace:

Which turned out to mostly involve attacking Tony Stark's industrial plants.

Awhile later, after the apparent death of the Black Widow, Hawkeye decided to try out for the Avengers. He showed his suitability for the team by breaking into their HQ and tying up Jarvis:

But as it happened, the Avengers were in no position to turn down new recruits, as in that same issue, Iron Man, Thor, and Giant Man all decide to take a leave of absence from the team. Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, reluctant former members of the gang of Evil Mutants also join up, with Captain America assuming the leadership role. It was this last factor which grated on Hawkeye:

And over the next year or two, Hawkeye frequently bickered with Captain America, questioning both his decisions and his right to command the group. Indeed, it often seemed as though the only reason Steve Rogers kept his position was because Quicksilver also wanted to lead and the Scarlet Witch, with the deciding vote, formed a crush on Cap. Oh, and no particular surprise, Hawkeye didn't have the noblest of reasons for wanting to run the show; he sometimes admitted to himself that he just wanted the glory of being known as the leader of the Avengers.

There was another aspect of the quarrel between Hawkeye and Cap that was interesting. Despite appearing physically the same age, Cap was from a different generation. Hawkeye was brash and arrogant, while Rogers was cautious and a bit stodgy.

At first, I confess that I found their verbal jousting a bit tedious. Stan Lee's arguing characters tended never to resolve their differences. JJJ always hated Spiderman and the feeling was mutual. The Thing constantly bickered with Johnny and Reed.

But then a funny thing started to happen. Gradually, over a period of several years, we began to perceive that Hawkeye was starting to appreciate Captain America. Here's a hint of it:

And when Hawkeye failed to stop Powerman and the Swordsman from escaping because he didn't want to risk hurting the Black Widow, we got this scene:

That's characterization done right, because it's positive for both characters. We see Cap's understanding and Hawkeye's guilt at having treated him badly. In the next issue, Cap agrees when Hawkeye asks to tackle the Widow and her henchmen alone.

And while Hawkeye did not give up the occasional jibes about Captain America being Methuselah, you definitely began to get the feeling that it was pro-forma; that there was no real antipathy between the pair.  It was a nice moment of growth and change.

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Brave and Bold #1

Although it became known in the 1960s as a tryout magazine, and later as a team-up comic, the Brave and the Bold started out as a swashbuckler.

The comic opens with the Golden Gladiator, by France Herron and Russ Heath. The GG only lasted for the first four issues, before the magazine converted to a complete medieval format with the addition of Robin Hood.  Marcus is a young shepherd, falsely accused of attempting to kill a Roman noble.  He is sentenced to the galleys as a slave, where:

You may recall that a similar origin was proposed for Conan's muscles in the first Arnold Schwarzenegger movie.  A lion gets loose in the galley and Marcus manages to break his chains and kill the beast with them.  The slave-master realizes his young oarsman will fetch a good price as a gladiator.  Unfortunately for our hero, he is sold to Cinna, the Roman who accused him of attempted murder.

But Marcus defeats Caius in battle.  His gallantry in battle wins the heart of Cinna's beautiful niece:

In a surprise, the Praetor announces that the gladiator who wins the chariot race will be set free, and become the Golden Gladiator.  But Cinna has plans to prevent that; he gives his favored gladiator a sword, while equipping Marcus with but a shield.  However:

And Marcus rides on to victory, although Cinna still plans to find a way to kill him in the future.

Comments: Entertaining origin story and terrific art by Heath.  Check out the design on Cinna's breastplate in that next to last panel above; just marvelous details. The plot bears quite a resemblance to the novel Ben-Hur, but unfortunately for the feature the famed movie featuring Charlton Heston was still a few years in the future.  Trivia bit: Did you know that Ben-Hur was for many years the best-selling American novel of all time, until the publication of Gone With the Wind?

The issue continues with the Viking Prince.  The story begins with a fishing skiff picking up a young warrior, nearly drowned in the sea.  He has amnesia, but we quickly learn that he was the subject of an attempted assassination by a Viking lord named Thorvald.

Thorvald's guards attack the Captain's home, but the young Viking proves adept as a fighter:

Gunnda names him Jon, after a fighting prince of yore.  Jon trains the fishermen in the manly arts of combat, while they teach him whaling.  The former comes in more useful:

The dragon ship rams the fishermen and things look dire.  But they load Jon onto the giant crossbow used to harpoon whales and he rips apart the sail of the warship.  Then, just as it looks as if Thorvald's men will overwhelm the Viking Prince, the fishermen board and take command of the vessel:

Comments: Another fine story by Bob Kanigher and adept art by Kubert.

The finale features Silent Knight.  Brian Kent is a young prince whose father ruled jointly with Sir Oswald a kingdom "South of the Thames".  Sir Oswald kills his father during a tournament, and there is strong indication that foul play was at work:

Sir Oswald assigns Sir Grot to train the young Brian in the ways of knighthood.  Grot is a crusty and difficult tutor, and Brian finds it difficult to win his praise despite his obvious ability:

He also learns about falconry, and when he scares off Slasher, Sir Grot's prize bird, he chases the animal into the forest, where he discovers:

After trying on the armor, he overhears some of Sir Oswald's men waylaying some travelers (including the requisite fair maiden).  He springs to their rescue, but when the men demand his name, he realizes he cannot speak without revealing his true identity.  Thus they dub him the Silent Knight.  With the help of Slasher, he defeats the brigands and leaves the armor back in the hidden glade.

Comments: Kanigher and Irv Novick team up on this solid origin tale.  Overall the issue was quite entertaining and it must have been at least moderately successful, as the swordfighting continued for the next four years.

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