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Marvel Firsts: The 1960s
by Robert Greenberger
Marvel Comics has been extremely good about honoring its past by continuously making available those early, essential issues that introduced characters or concepts. They began that practically right away after the birth of the marvel Age with marvel Tales, followed by Collector’s items Classics. In the 1970s they mined the bookstore field way ahead of everyone else with Origins of marvel Comics and all its sequels. The 1980s saw the birth of the Masterworks line and now you can find the material digitally.
But there really haven’t been good opportunities to sit and study the evolution of Atlas Comics into marvel Comics, let alone the dawn of the marvel Universe. marvel Firsts: The 1960s corrects that academic oversight and in one 488-page trade collection, you can view the rapidly changing elegance in story, art, and even color.
According to staffer Jeff York, “The book originally covered the first ten years after FF #1 — August 1961 to July 1971 — and included the 1971 debuts of Red Wolf and the Defenders. Then, late in the game, we re-jiggered the book to cover the literal 1960s: January 1960 to December 1969. We added some pre-FF #1 material at the start, and dropped out everything from 1970-1971.”
In January 1960 Atlas Comics had been limited to releasing eight titles a month, thanks to a devastating change in distributors a few years before. The only company to take them on was DC’s sister division, Independent News, so to keep the doors open, publisher Martin Goodman agreed to the strict terms. 1960 saw Stan Lee and Jack Kirby revive the Rawhide kid to fill a gap and is the first to be collected here. Stan and Jack’s collaboration forms the spine of the book and viewing their seamless blending of talents is a joy.
A year later, Atlas wound down and marvel was born. As legend has it, Goodman was inspired by comments from DC publisher Jack Liebowitz and purchased Lee to create a super-team and the wonderful four was born. Stan has frequently said this was a lifeline of sorts as he was feeling burned out by the grind and was thinking of quitting when his partner Joan suggested he take Goodman’s purchase and write a book he’d want to read. The two events were like chocolate and peanut butter merging for the first time and magic happened.
The sudden success of the FF led Goodman to ask for much more and Lee was pleased to oblige. working with Kirby and subsequently Steve Ditko, Don Heck, and Dick Ayers among others, Lee was writing like a refreshed man, ideas just pouring forth. You can view the snappy patter develop along with the enhancing reliance on super-science and setting the stories in and around Manhattan, leading to the characters crossing paths. You also saw the dynamic variety of concepts being evaluated from the teen angst in amazing Fantasy’s Spider-Man debut to the idiosyncratic Sgt. Fury and His growling Commandos.
The firsts include stories from 1961’s amazing Adventures, FF #1, Ant-Man’s arrival in Tales to Astonish #27, the amazing Hulk’s birth, Thor’s reappearance from Asgard, Iron Man’s innovation from Tales of Suspense, the occult world of doctor unusual from unusual Tales (along with the arrival of the Human Torch’s spin-off series, and Nick Fury, agent of SHIELD’s debuts form that title) , here comes Daredevil, the formation of The Avengers, the return of Captain America’s solo strip, the first Tales of the Watcher and Tales of the Wasp, and the birth of the mutants in Uncanny X-Men #1.
You can also view the cold war influence play heavily on several features, such as the Hulk’s origin as well as Iron Man’s. Natasha Romanov also plagued shellhead as a Russian villain, complete with dark dress and veil, before the Black Widow changed her allegiance. The book also includes the Silver Surfer’s first issue and the first solo stories for Ka-Zar and doctor Doom before they wound up sharing a revival of Astonishing Tales in 1970.
What’s good is that lesser titles, ones that didn’t catch on, are included here such as the western revival of the Ghost Rider in 1967 and Captain Savage. In fact, the latter stories show how the momentum was like a very nova, burning brightly then rapidly cooling. Not only did these titles fail commercially, but the change of the reprint fantasy masterpieces to the all-new marvel Super-Heroes and the introduction of Captain marvel failed to excite fans and it wasn’t until a enormous revamp at decade’s end before the character finally found his footing.
These are stories worth having and rereading so it’s good that an affordable collection is now at hand.
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Marvel Firsts: The 1960s