Skip to main content

Comics

Filter entries by



All entries

Comments

Post a Comment

Support on Ko-fi

Did you read these yet?

Tales of Suspense #45-47 (1963): How to Fix Iron Man in Three Parts

By the summer of 1963, the Marvel creative team had had the time to not only gather feedback on the Iron Man stories published so far , but also learn from the successes of other series. Without being too familiar with the Fantastic Four comics, I can only presume that as the longest-running reliable seller, a lot of the learnings would have come from that direction. But my personal experience with the Amazing Spider-Man , whose bread and butter was human drama and relatability , leads me to believe that the first few adventures of the wisecracking web-slinger were starting to shape into something of a template for what makes a character work. That's why, I'd argue, we started to see the emergence of recurring supporting characters, engaging villains, and moments of struggle for the main hero in the Iron Man stories featured in Tales of Suspense around this time. The character was hardly interesting in its conception, but starting with #45, you can watch the creative team fig...
Post a Comment
Read more

Daredevil #1 (1964)

In the Spring of 1964, Marvel was right in the middle of its super-hero renaissance: Fantastic Four and Spider-Man were enjoying solid popularity, Avengers and X-Men were finding their stride to various degrees of success, and characters like Thor and Iron Man were solidifying a presence in their respective anthology series. It was a mix of conventional super-heroes and more grounded, complex, human characters that were becoming something of a specialty for Marvel. This was the landscape in which Daredevil debuted, leaning hard into that latter side of the Marvel identity. Worth the wait! Daredevil #1: "The Origin of Daredevil" Writers: Stan Lee Artists: Bill Everett, Jack Kirby, Sol Brodsky & Steve Ditko Editor: Stan Lee Publication Date: February 4, 1964 Cover Date: April 1964 Art by Bill Everett and Jack Kirby. © Marvel Comics. Daredevil #1 was initially intended for publication several months earlier, but was delayed due to artist Bill Ev...
Post a Comment
Read more

X-Men #1 (1963): The mutant X-periment

The debut issue of what would eventually become one of Marvel 's flagship titles (with uncountable spinoffs) is an interesting case of a story that feels both ahead of its time and a relic of a bygone era. Even though the deeper socio-cultural commentary attributed to the X-Men only really started to happen later, there's something uniquely interesting about a setup where the villain is essentially the same as the heroes, just ideologically opposed. The storytelling in this first magazine, however, is more reminiscent of early 60s' anthology romps than it is of the more conscious commentary of the Bronze Age and beyond. The new Fantastic Four! X-Men #1 Writers: Stan Lee Artists: Jack Kirby & Paul Reinman Editor: Stan Lee Publication Date: July 2, 1963 Cover Date: September 1963 Art by Jack Kirby and Sol Brodsky. © Marvel Comics. There are conflicting accounts (even between series creators, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby ) about how much of the themat...
Post a Comment
Read more