Marvel Comics – In My Not So Humble Opinion

Sal Buscema: 1936 to 2026

I was very sorry to hear that longtime comic book artist Sal Buscema had passed away on January 24th, just two days short of his 90th birthday. As I have written on several occasions on this blog, “Our Pal Sal,” as he was affectionately referred to by his fans, was one of my all-time favorite comic book creators.

Sal Buscema was born on January 26, 1936 in New York City. Sal was the younger brother of acclaimed comic book artist John Buscema. Enduring some harsh yet undoubtedly effective critiques from big brother John, Sal entered the comic book field in 1968, working for Marvel Comics, where he would remain for the majority of his career.

Buscema initially intended to focus on inking as his speciality, and among his earliest jobs was embellishing the pencils of his brother on the Silver Surfer series for several issues. However, Buscema soon transitioned into penciling, replacing his brother as the artist on Avengers in 1969. Avengers was undoubtedly a baptism of fire for Buscema, as it was a team book with multiple characters, requiring clear storytelling so that the action was not confused or cluttered. Buscema immediately rose to the occasion, turning in dynamic pages that were easy to read, a quality that would remain a hallmark of his for the entirety of his career.

Throughout the next three decades Buscema had lengthy runs on a number of Marvel titles, among them Captain America, Defenders, Incredible Hulk, Rom Spaceknight and Spectacular Spider-Man. Buscema was also called upon to provide fill-ins for numerous late books during the 1970s. Described as a workhorse, he never missed a deadline.

As I’ve previously recounted, it was via his work on Incredible Hulk that my seven-year-old self first discovered Buscema’s work in 1983, and I immediately became a fan. His pencils on Incredible Hulk #285 were powerful and dynamic, making a huge impression on my young mind.

I did not really get into comic books regularly until 1989, when I was 13 years old. By that point in time Buscema was doing full artwork, pencils & inks, on Spectacular Spider-Man. Paired up first with writer Gerry Conway and then with J.M. DeMatteis, Buscema did some of the very best work of his career on Spectacular, and it was a title that I followed regularly.

DeMatteis’ writing on Spectacular Spider-Man culminated in the epic issue #200 (May 1993) which saw the tragic death of Peter Parker’s longtime friend Harry Osborn at the end of the issue. DeMatteis was so impressed by the power of Buscema’s artwork & storytelling that he chose to have the two pages appear completely dialogue-free, allowing Buscema’s pictures to carry the emotional scene all on their own. I cannot think of a greater testament to Buscema’s work than that.

As the 1990s rolled around, I frequently attended comic cons, and I was able to pick up a lot of Buscema’s earlier work on Captain America and Rom Spaceknight, two other titles on which he had excelled.

After the comic book market crashed in the mid-1990s and Marvel filed for bankruptcy, Buscema went to work for DC Comics for a few years, working on a variety of titles there. On some he was providing layouts for up-and-coming artists, on others he was doing inking, and on a few stories he did full artwork. The jobs where Buscema got to illustrate Batman were, in my opinion, especially good. One of my favorites was “The Prison” in The Batman Chronicles #8 (Spring 1997) which was penciled by Buscema and written & inked by John Stanisci.

Entering the 21st Century, Buscema mostly retired from penciling, concentrating mostly on inking. He was paired with penciler Ron Frenz on a lengthy run of Spider-Girl at Marvel, among other projects.

Buscema also worked frequently with artist Guy Dorian Sr. on a variety of books. These included a short return to Rom Spaceknight, which was now being published by IDW. The work of Dorian & Buscema on Rom for IDW was definitely of a high quality, and they made an effective art team. The two continued to work together right up until Buscema’s passing.

I was fortunate enough to meet Buscema on a couple of occasions. I used to have a few pages of artwork that he did, but I regrettably had to sell them years ago to pay the bills. But I am happy that I still have the two convention sketches that I obtained from him. One was of the Green Goblin, and it can be viewed in my Spider-Man sketches blog post. The other sketch is of Captain America, and it can be seen below.

As I’ve written before, for an extremely in-depth look at Sal Buscema’s career, I highly recommend picking up the excellent book Sal Buscema: Comics’ Fast & Furious Artist, written by Jim Amash & Eric Nolen-Weathington, from TwoMorrows Publishing. The print edition is unfortunately sold out, but it is still available digitally.

In a career that lasted nearly six decades, Sal Buscema produced a huge and, more important, highly impressive body of work. I regard him as one of the finest craftsmen in mainstream comic books. In certain respects he was underrated, as he was one of those good, solid, reliable artists who the industry was heavily dependent upon for many decades. I’ll always be a fan of his work.

Comic book reviews: Batman / Deadpool

Having previously taken a look at the Marvel half of the first intercompany crossover between the Big Two in over two decades, I wanted to take a brief look at DC’s contribution. Marvel’s encounter between Deadpool and Batman was relatively straightforward superhero action… well, as straightforward as any story involving Deadpool can be. In contrast, DC / Marvel: Batman / Deadpool is a decidedly unconventional tale.

“The Cosmic Kiss Caper!” is written by Grant Morrison, drawn by Dan Mora, colored by Alejandro Sanchez, lettered by Todd Klein and edited by Marie Javins with Andrew Marino. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I first discovered Morrison’s work on Doom Patrol in the early 1990s, where they collaborated with penciler Richard Case. Morrison & Case crafted some remarkably bizarre stories on Doom Patrol, and Morrison returns to that sort of surreal cosmic weirdness in the Batman / Deadpool special.

Prior to Doom Patrol, Morrison wrote an acclaimed run on Animal Man. I have not read those stories, but I am aware of how the run ended, with Morrison breaking the fourth wall and having Buddy Baker meeting an author insert for Morrison himself. As Deadpool is notorious for his own fourth wall breaking shenanigans, it makes sense for Morrison to bring back the Writer in “The Cosmic Kiss Caper!”

For the story’s antagonist, Morrison utilizes Cassandra Nova from their New X-Men run. I will admit, I did find Nova’s appearance a bit abrupt & confusing, and I got the impression that Morrison is acting under the assumption that readers are going to know who she is. It might have been a good idea for Morrison to have provided at least a little bit of backstory for the character. But other than that, I did find this crossover tale to be an interesting & intriguing read.

There are several back-up stories in Batman / Deadpool, and I have the same criticism that I had for the Marvel half of this event, namely that most of these stories are just too short, and in a few cases I wished they had been their own separate publications.

That is definitely exemplified in the meeting between John Constantine and Doctor Strange. “A Magician Walks Into A Universe” could have been its own separate book, but instead we get a mere 10 pages pairing up these two drastically different sorcerers. It’s a bit surprising that it took three different writers, Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV & Joshua Williamson, to pen such a short tale. At least the artwork by Hayden Sherman and colors by Mike Spicer are really well done. Lettering is by Frank Cvetkovic.

Probably the most satisfying of the supporting features was “Sticks & Snikts,” a team-up between Nightwing and Laura Kinney / Wolverine. It’s a nice little tale of two characters who have found themselves having very big shoes to fill finding common ground with each other. It’s written by Tom Taylor, drawn by Bruno Redondo, colored by Adriano Lucas and lettered by Wes Abbott. I am not familiar with Redondo’s work, but I definitely liked his art here.

There’s a very short, comical Harley Quinn and Hulk tale by writer Mariko Tamaki, artist Amanda Conner, colorist Tamara Bonvillain and letterer Dave Sharpe. It’s a slight bit of humor, mostly silly. At a mere five pages, it’s probably just the right length. Conner’s artwork is always cute & fun, so it was nice to see it here.

Finally, we have a Static and Ms. Marvel story rounding out the issue. Also five pages long, this one was waaaaay too short. I really wanted to see these two characters interact more. It’s written by G. Willow Wilson, penciled by Denys Cowan, inked by Klaus Janson, colored by Francesco Segala and lettered by Steve Wands. At least Cowan & Janson do their usual stellar work on this segment, but I really was left wanting more.

So, I would not call Batman / Deadpool an unqualified success, due to the slight, underwhelming feel that some of the supporting features had. Nevertheless, it was a fun issue, and it was cool to see these various characters from the DC and Marvel universes meet. Hopefully we won’t have to wait another 20 years for the next crossover between the Big Two.

Comic book reviews: Deadpool / Batman

Marvel / DC: Deadpool / Batman is the first intercompany crossover between the Big Two in over 20 years, with Marvel publishing this initial new book. The story sees the Merc With A Mouth arriving in Gotham City to hunt down the Dark Knight. “The Dead of Knight” is written by Zeb Wells, penciled by Greg Capullo, inked by Tim Townsend, colored by Alex Sinclair, and lettered by VC’s Clayton Cowles.

As with pretty much any intercompany crossover involving Marvel and DC, the story is not especially deep or sophisticated. Pretty much the entire appeal is seeing characters from the American comic book industry’s two largest publishers appear together in the same story. To the credit of Wells, he does write a genuinely funny story that shows the rambunctious, loquacious Deadpool hamming it up in reaction to the grim, brooding, taciturn Batman. Wells also gets a fair amount of mileage out of contrasting Deadpool with fellow chaos agent the Joker, who is also possessed of a, well, distinctive sense of humor that frequently revolves around chaos & carnage.

The artwork by Capullo & Townsend is top-notch. Capullo is an industry veteran with a string of hits behind him, among them X-Force, Spawn and Batman. I’ve liked his art since he first got started doing stellar work on Quasar in the early 1990s. Townsend is one of the best inkers in the biz, always bringing solid work. They make a really good team here.

There are a number of backup stories in Deadpool / Batman of varying quality. Probably my favorite was the very cute team-up of Jeff the Land Shark and Krypto the Superdog, who are seen playing volleyball across an Arctic landscape. “Catch” is written by Kelly Thompson, drawn & colored by Gurihiru, and lettered by VC’s Joe Caramagna.

Both the Captain America & Wonder Woman and the Daredevil & Green Arrow stories are too much on the short side, and would benefit from more pages. Considering that the Rocket Raccoon & Green Lantern and the Logo (an Amalgam-type mashup of Wolverine and Lobo) are really slight stories, I’d rather those pages have been used for the Cap & WW and DD & Arrow tales. Speaking of Steve Rogers & Princess Diana, the artwork by Terry Dodson & Rachel Dodson is absolutely top-notch, another reason I wanted more pages for “The Gun & The Sword.” Over on Instagram, Dodson described working on this story as “Getting paid to draw my childhood” and it really shows in the finished work. Adam Kubert’s work on “The Red and the Green” is also very strong.

And then we come to the elephant in the room. “Showdown” teams up Old Man Logan and the Batman from The Dark Knight Returns, courtesy of writer & artist Frank Miller. And it is… not good. It’s goofy, and I thought the artwork was sloppy. I will admit, I’ve never been the biggest fan of Frank Miller, but I definitely recognize that he was a talented, influential writer & illustrator back during the 1980s. However, I feel his work in the 21st Century has been a pale shadow of his former glories, and I dislike the art that he’s been producing the past several years. I feel like if anyone else other than Miller had handed in work like this, it would be roundly rejected by Marvel or DC. Okay, it’s only three pages in a giant-sized issue, but it still feels very disappointing. And, honestly, Old Man Logan & Batman: The Dark Knight Returns could have been its own full-length crossover, but the concept is just thrown away on this poorly-written, poorly-drawn short.

So, Deadpool / Batman is not a perfect package, but in spite of its flaws it’s still an enjoyable one. DC is going to be releasing their own Batman / Deadpool special in a couple of months, and I’ll probably pick that one up to see how the Distinguished Competition handles one of these new crossovers.

Jim Shooter: 1951 to 2025

Longtime comic book writer & editor Jim Shooter passed away on June 30th. He was 73 years old.

Shooter’s career in comic books began in 1965, when he was all of 13 years old. He came from an impoverished background, and entered the field to help supplement his family’s meager income. Shooter submitted, unsolicited, stories to DC Comics editor Mort Weisinger for the “Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes” feature in Adventure Comics. Weisinger purchased a number of stories from Shooter, initially being unaware of just how young his new writer actually was!

One of the strengths that Shooter brought with him, in addition to his fertile imagination, was that he knew how real teenagers think and act. He helped bring a certain authenticity to the super-powered teens of the 30th Century. Shooter also created numerous characters & concepts that became long-running mainstays of the Legion series.

After graduating from college, Shooter went into advertising for a short period of time. However, he returned to the comic book field in the mid-1970s. Shooter initially returned to the Legion of Super-Heroes, who now had their own title; however as he would later explained did not have a good working relationship with then-editor Murray Boltinoff, and so in 1975 accepted an offer from Marvel Comics for a position as an editor.

By 1978 Shooter had become Marvel’s editor-in-chief, a role he would keep until 1987. Shooter’s nearly decade-long tenure as editor-in-chief would prove to be both triumphant and tumultuous.

Throughout the 1970s there had been several people in the editor-in-chief role, and as such Shooter’s lengthy tenure brought a much-needed stability to the company. In addition, while Marvel in the 1970s had witnessed a blossoming of unconventional creativity, it had also seen a plague of blown deadlines, late books & unscheduled reprints. Shooter, with his firm, some would say uncompromising, management style, managed to, if you’ll excuse the expression, get the trains running on time.

Several acclaimed, bestselling titles were published by Marvel during Shooter’s tenure as editor-in-chief. X-Men by Chris Claremont & John Byrne, Fantastic Four by Byrne, Daredevil by Frank Miller & Klaus Janson and Thor by Walter Simonson immediately come to mind as highlights from the first half of the 1980s.

Significantly, Shooter helped implement pay raises, benefits and royalties for Marvel’s freelancers. Shooter also helped to launch Marvel’s Epic line which, overseen by Archie Goodwin, published a number of well-regarded creator-owned series.

However, due to his uncompromising view of precisely how comic books should be produced, Shooter also managed to alienate a number of creators during his tenure. He was widely considered to be an inflexible micromanager.

It’s sometimes commented that Shooter’s management style was learned via his own experiences working for DC’s Mort Weisinger, a man who ruled his editorial fiefdom with an iron first and who was infamous for the verbal & emotional abuse that he rained down on his freelancers. Shooter himself was reported to have commented on more than one occasion that if you thought he was a difficult boss, well, you should have seen what it was like to work for someone like Weisinger.

During his time at Marvel, Shooter did some writing. He had a well-regarded run on Avengers in the late 1970s, for much of which he was teamed with burgeoning superstar artist George Perez. And in 1984 Shooter wrote the 12 issue limited series Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars, which saw the mysterious godlike Beyonder transport a group of Earth’s heroes and villains to the alien “Battleworld” for an epic fight to the death. Secret Wars was drawn by Mike Zeck, John Beatty & Bob Layton.

Despite the success that Marvel experienced during the first several years of Shooter’s tenute as editor-in-chief, by the mid-1980s the wheels were starting to come off the bus. His initiative to create the New Universe imprint of books was widely seen as a failure, and his Secret Wars II sequel crossover, although it sold well, was regarded as but a pale shadow of the first, more successful limited series.

Shooter was fired from Marvel in April 1987.

Bouncing back from this setback, after a failed attempt to purchase Marvel, in 1989 Shooter helped to form Valiant Comics. Soon after licensing the Gold Key characters Magnus, Robot Fighter and Solar, Man of the Atom, Shooter and his collaborators used these two as the basis for launching an ambitious superhero universe that saw the introduction of original characters such as Eternal Warrior, Shadowman and X-O Manowar.

Many of the early Valiant superhero books were highly entertaining and well-crafted. Unfortunately, by late 1992 Shooter was ousted from the company that he had helped to bring to such lofty heights in such a short time.

Undaunted, Shooter founded Defiant Comics in 1993. Although Defiant showed promise, it was quickly hit by a nuisance lawsuit from Marvel which drained it of valuable capital, and the company folded after a little more than a year. Shooter then founded Broadway Comics in 1995, but that company, too, only lasted a short time.

For the rest of his career Shooter would work as a freelancer. Most notably, in 2007 he returned to Legion of Super-Heroes for an ambitious storyline, although disappointingly he was fired by DC Comics before he could bring it to its conclusion. In 2009 Shooter returned to the Gold Key characters of Magnus and Doctor Solar, as well as Turok, who all were now being licensed by Dark Horse Comics.

If there’s one word that I’ve seen used to describe Shooter in the obituaries & remembrances published over the past week, it’s this one: complex. From my position as a reader, a fan with an interest in the history of the medium & industry, that feels entirely accurate. Shooter was a complex person, a very talented individual who accomplished some great things, but who also had some rather serious failings. But I suppose that’s true of a great many of us, that we are complex, flawed individuals.

I was fortunate enough to meet Shooter on a few occasions over the years when he was a guest at conventions. Each time he came across as somewhat formal but nevertheless polite & engaging. From other posts on social media, I’ve seen that he was indeed one of those creators who made time for his fans. I’m glad that I had the opportunity to meet him, and to let him know that I enjoyed his work.

Peter David: 1956 to 2025

Longtime comic book writer Peter David passed away on May 24th after a lengthy illness. He was 68 years old. I was definitely a fan of his work, and was very sorry to hear of his death. I wanted to put together a short tribute to David and his work.

David entered comic books via the direct sales side of the business, but he always had an interest in writing. One of his earliest assignments was on Incredible Hulk. As he explained in an interview several years ago, he became the writer of the series through an unusual set of circumstances:

“[Marvel editor] Bob Harras couldn’t find anyone else to write it. That is literally accurate. At the time there was some hostility toward my writing from the editorial department because I worked in direct sales, and they felt that someone in direct sales had no business being involved in the creative side.”

David’s first issue of Incredible Hulk was #328 in late 1986, and he became the series regular writer with issue #331 in early 1987. He remained on the series for 12 years, with his last issue, #467, coming out in mid-1998. During that decade-plus run, David completely revitalized the series. He took the subplot that Bill Mantlo had previous established of Bruce Banner being the victim of childhood abuse and delved deeply into the psychology of the Hulk, revealing that the character suffered from multiple personality disorder, explaining the character’s various unstable iterations, ultimately merging all of the Hulk’s aspects into a single being.

During his run on Incredible Hulk, David worked with several very talented artists. Among them were Todd McFarlane, Jeff Purves, Dale Keown, Gary Frank, Liam Sharp, Angel Medina, Mike Deodato Jr. and Adam Kubert.

David actually intended to remain on Incredible Hulk much longer, but as his run had progressed, he came to experience greater and greater levels of editorial interference, and he reluctantly departed from the title.

Although Incredible Hulk was one of the cornerstones of David’s career, it was certainly not his only milestone. At Marvel Comics he also revamped X-Factor with a brand-new line-up of characters, and with penciler Rick Leonardi he created Miguel O’Hara, the Spider-Man of the future in the pages of Spider-Man 2099.

Over at DC Comics, David applied his touch to another moribund character. Working with pencilers Marty Egeland and Jim Calafiore, he successfully updated Aquaman for the 1990s, giving the character long hair & a beard and replacing his left hand with a harpoon. Some longtime fans derided these changes, but the fact is that for the first time in many years Aquaman became a must-read series. It was one that I definitely enjoyed. David also had long, successful runs of Supergirl and Young Justice at DC.

David’s writing style was very distinctive. He could tell stories that were poignant & tragic, that delved deeply into the psychology of his characters. Yet he was also possessed of a very strong sense of humor, and there was a comedic element that ran through all of his works.

David’s humor really came to the forefront with Soulsearchers and Company, published by Claypool Comics. Running for 82 bi-montly issues from 1993 to 2007, Soulsearchers and Company was set in Mystic Grove, Connecticut, aka “Fear City,” and featured the misadventures of a ragtag group of supernatural investigators. David co-plotted the series with editor Richard Howell, and a succession of talented artists worked on the series, among them Amanda Conner, Dave Cockrum, Al Bigley, Gordon Purcell, and Joe Staton. Conner, paired with inker Steve Leialoha, drew all 82 covers for the series.

I definitely feel that Soulsearchers and Company is something of an undiscovered gem, one that allowed David to really stretch his comedic sensibilities and turn in some genuinely hysterical stories. If you’re a fan of David’s work and have never read Soulsearchers and Company, I strongly urge you to seek out the series.

David was also closely associated with the Star Trek franchise, working on the comic book series from DC Comics, as well as writing several novels. I always enjoyed David’s contributions to the Star Trek mythos. One of his most noteworthy novels for the franchise was The Next Generation novel Vendetta, which was published in 1991. Vendetta pitted the Borg against the planet-killing weapon from the original series “The Doomsday Machine.”

At the time that Vendetta came out, it was subject to a certain amount of controversy, as it featured a female member of the Borg, something that Star Trek continuity cop Richard Arnold, (a longtime thorn in David’s side) argued was impossible, because supposedly there were no female Borg. This was just a few years before the introduction of Seven of Nine and the Borg Queen, so history would prove David to be correct after all.

David was also involved with Babylon 5, writing two episodes of the television series, novelizing two more episodes, and writing the canonical sequel trilogy Legions of Fire from an outline provided by B5 creator J. Michael Straczynski.

I was fortunate enough to meet Peter David on a few occasions at comic book conventions and store signings. He was one of those creators who always seemed to make time for his many fans. It’s a real tragedy that he experienced so much medical & financial hardship in his final years. He will definitely be missed.

Comic book reviews: Godzilla vs. Fantastic Four

This week’s Godzilla vs. Fantastic Four special sees the return of the King of the Monsters to the Marvel Universe for the first time in 46 years. From 1977 to 1979, Marvel Comics published a 24 issue monthly Godzilla series written by Doug Moench and penciled by Herb Trimpe. Godzilla vs. Fantastic Four is the first of six specials that will feature Godzilla encountering Marvel’s biggest stars.

Godzilla vs. Fantastic Four is written by Ryan North, penciled by John Romita Jr., inked by Scott Hanna, colored by Marco Menyz and lettered by VC’s Travis Lanham. North’s story appears to be set at some point in the late Silver Age, soon after the Fantastic Four first fought Galactus.

Following his apparent demise in Japan by the Oxygen Destroyer, Godzilla resurfaces in the waters off of New York City, and the Fantastic Four rushes to confront the giant radioactive menace. The threat to the planet is soon magnified by the arrival of King Ghidorah, who has been imbued by the Power Cosmic by Galactus, making the three-headed monstrosity his new herald.

This is actually not the first time the FF have fought Godzilla. Marvel’s first family encountered the Big G way back in Godzilla #20, cover-dated March 1979. In that story, though, Godzilla had been shrunken down to the size of a regular dinosaur. So, for those who wanted to see a proper battle between Godzilla and the FF, well, four and a half decades later here we are, with the King of the Monsters at full size, fighting against Mister Fantastic, the Thing, the Human Torch and the Invisible Girl.

Truthfully, there’s not a whole lot of story to Godzilla vs. Fantastic Four. The focus is on fights with giant monsters. But that’s okay, because I think that’s what most of us were expecting.

Romita Jr. and Hanna do a good job with the artwork. I know that there has been a certain criticism of Romita’s work in recent years as his work has become more & more stylized. But, I feel he and Hanna really knocked it out of the park with the action sequences in this story.

One of my quibbles with last year’s Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong miniseries from DC Comics was that the version of Godzilla we got was the massively bulky American “Monsterverse” incarnation. Therefore, I really appreciated the fact that in Godzilla vs. Fantastic Four, Romita Jr. and Hanna draw a Godzilla who looks much more like the original Toho version of the creature. They also draw the cosmic-powered King Ghidorah as a very menacing figure.

The main cover for Godzilla vs. Fantastic Four is by Adam Kubert & Morry Hollowell. As with practically everything else nowadays, Godzilla vs. Fantastic Four has several variant covers. I decided to purchase the very impressive wrap-around variant by Leinil Francis Yu & Romulo Fajardo Jr.

Marvels’ next Godzilla crossover is going to be Godzilla vs. Hulk. I’m sure a lot of long-time Marvel Zombies are looking forward to that one. Way back in the late 1970s it was considered a bit of a missed opportunity that the Incredible Hulk never guest-starred in the Godzilla series, especially considering Trimpe’s longtime association with the gamma-powered Jade Giant. So, after all these decades, we will finally get to see the Hulk and Godzilla mix it up. Hopefully it’ll be worth the wait.

Comic book reviews: The Eternals by Jack Kirby

Jack Kirby, the legendary king of comics, was one of the most imaginative, prolific creators who ever lived. Even towards the end of his career in comic books in the mid-1970s, when he was in his late 50s, he was doing really great work. One of the stand-out projects of this era was The Eternals, published by Marvel Comics.

The Eternals is a series I’ve wanted to read for quite some time now. Back in 2020 Marvel released the trade paperback Eternals by Jack Kirby: The Complete Collection, and at last I’ve obtained a copy.

The Eternals was written, penciled & edited by Jack Kirby. John Verpoorten inked the first four issues and Mike Royer inked the remainder of the series. It was lettered by Gasper Saladino, John Costanza, Irving Watanabe & Mike Royer and colored by Glynis Wein.

It’s important to put The Eternals within the context of Kirby’s career. He had departed Marvel in 1970 under a cloud, unhappy with the lack of creative control, accurate credit, and fair financial compensation. Kirby had hoped to find all of these things at DC Comics, Marvel’s chief competitor. And while he did indeed create some of the absolute best work of his career at DC during the first half of the 1970s, ultimately his tenure there proved to be a very frustrating & disappointing experience, so much so that he eventually felt forced to return to Marvel.

The Eternals was one of the projects Kirby worked on during his mid-1970s tenure at Marvel. The first issue was released with a July 1976 cover date. The Eternals would ultimately run for 19 monthly issues, with an Annual also being produced by Kirby during this time.

With The Eternals, Kirby was very much tapping into the pseudoscientific theories of Erich von Däniken, who popularized the idea of “ancient astronauts” in his book Chariots of the Gods? Running with the idea that primitive human civilizations had been influenced by alien visitors, Kirby devised the Celestials, towering, mysterious “space gods” who periodically visited Earth throughout the millennia.

During the Celestials first visit, the space gods experimented on apes and created three separate branches of human evolution: ordinary human beings, the genetically unstable, warlike Deviants, and the super-powered, immortal Eternals. The Deviants are responsible for humanity’s superstitions about the Devil, demons & other monsters, while the Eternals are the sources of inspiration for mythological gods & heroes around the globe.

Kirby was setting up some ambitious, wild concepts & ideas. What happens when humanity discovers that they are not alone, that in fact they share the planet Earth with two other intelligent species? What happens to all three groups – humans, Eternals and Deviants – when they are faced with the fact that the “gods” who shaped their development countless thousands of years ago have returned to judge if their “experiment” is a success or failure?

At this point in time Kirby very much just wanted to do his own thing. He wanted the freedom to write, illustrate & edit his own titles, without any outside interference. And it seems pretty clear that Kirby intended for The Eternals to take place outside the regular Marvel universe. After all, the entire concept really doesn’t work if you already have godlike beings such as Thor, Loki, Hercules and Galactus showing up on Earth like clockwork.

Unfortunately, Marvel editorial reportedly pressured Kirby to begin using characters & concepts from other titles in The Eternals. Early on a few agents of SHIELD show up and Nick Fury’s name gets dropped, but it’s not really intrusive, because these guys might as well be working for the FBI or CIA or some other agency.

No, it’s what happens next that really causes problems.

For the first 13 issues The Eternals really hums along nicely, with Kirby coming up with all sorts of great new characters, exploring the Eternal and Deviant civilizations, hinting at the mysteries of the Celestials, showing humanity’s reactions to all of this craziness. I found it absolutely riveting.

And then the Hulk shows up. Except that it’s not the really Hulk; it’s a robot duplicate of the Hulk created by a couple of college students which accidentally gets imbued with cosmic energy from the Eternals’ mental gestalt “uni-mind” and goes on a rampage. We then get two and a half issues of the Eternals fighting this “cosmic powered Hulk” and while it’s well-drawn (it IS Kirby artwork, after all) it just completely grinds the story to a halt. The momentum that Kirby was barreling along on just goes totally off the rails, and in the remaining few issues after the “Hulk” there’s just something lacking. It was as if the whole thing threw Kirby off his balance, and in the short time he had left he didn’t have the opportunity to regain it.

In spite of its flaws, though, I really enjoyed The Eternals. I think it speaks to Kirby’s immense creativity & imagination that even in this period of time when he was deeply dissatisfied, he could not help but create an amazing cast of characters. Ikaris, Sersi, Makarri, Thena, Kro, Karsas and the Reject were all interesting & full of potential.

I also want to offer up The Eternals as evidence that Kirby really could draw beautiful women. I’ve heard it argued that his women were unattractive, but just taking a quick look at Sersi and Thena will put the lie to that scurrilous accusation.

I’m not certain if The Eternals was cancelled due to low sales, or if Marvel simply decided to end it after Kirby made the decision to leave for the greener pastures of the animation industry, where at long last he was able to obtain health benefits & a pension. Whatever the case, within a few years the characters & concepts from The Eternals were fully integrated into the Marvel universe. Like a lot of people, I feel that the execution of this was a case of trying to put a square peg into a round hole. But after the fact the Eternals, Deviants and Celestials have regularly appeared throughout the Marvel titles.

In 2021 an Eternals movie was released by Disney as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I watched it after finishing the comic book series. While I liked parts of it, I felt in a lot of areas it strayed too far from the original Kirby concepts & designs, so ultimately it was something of a disappointment. But I hope that at the very least it led to Kirby’s family getting a nice fat check from the House of the Mouse.

If you haven’t read The Eternals, then I definitely recommend picking it up. It really shows the boundless imagination of Jack Kirby, and features some incredible artwork by him.

Comic book reviews: Power Pack: Into the Storm

I’ve been a fan of Power Pack almost since the beginning.

The team of pre-teen sibling superheroes was created by writer Louise Simonson and penciler June Brigman in 1984. I vividly remember seeing the advertisements for the series in Marvel Comics books that came out that Summer. As I recall, I finally had an opportunity to pick up several of the issues that came out during Power Pack’s second year, and I then got some of the back issues that I’d originally missed.

I think the appeal to me was that I was the exact same age as the Power siblings, and I easily related to them. It certainly helped tremendously that Simonson was writing for a younger audience. She also refused to “write down” to that audience; Power Pack was an intelligent, heartfelt series that addressed many serious themes.

Also, I feel that Brigman, coming from outside of comic books, had a design sensibility that was very different from what you were seeing in mainstream superhero books in the mid-1980s. Her work really made Power Pack stand out.

Power Pack ran for 62 issues. In the years since the book’s cancellation, Marvel has periodically asked Simonson & Brigman to return to Power Pack. The new trade paperback Power Pack: Into the Storm collects the recent five issue miniseries, as well as the Power Pack: Grow Up! special that came out in 2019.

Brigman is joined by her husband Roy Richardson on inks. The two of them have always made a good artistic team.

Reading Grow Up! and Into the Storm, it was really good to have the four Power siblings back, along with Franklin Richards, the Kymellians and the Snarks. There’s guest appearances by the X-Men and the Brood, as well. Simonson wrote a pair of enjoyable stories.

By the way, Simonson sets both Grow Up! and Into the Storm several years in the past. That allows her & Brigman to use the original iteration of the team and not have to worry about any changes to the characters that were made in New Warriors or Fantastic Four or any other titles subsequently.

Reading Into the Storm, I have to be honest, at 48 years old, the magic wasn’t quite still there for me personally. Simonson is once again writing for that younger audience, and I’m glad she is, because there’s just not enough people in mainstream comic books gearing their work for readers in their pre-teens and early teenage years. Maybe Into the Storm wasn’t quite the book for me personally, but that’s okay.

I definitely feel like Into the Storm would be a good present for younger readers who are interested in comic books but who are turned off by the dense continuity and grim & gritty found in too many mainstream superhero books. So, consider that my recommendation to older fans to pick up a copy of this book for a younger sibling or child who has an interest in comic books.

It’s good to have Simonson & Brigman back, and hopefully this won’t be their last time working on Power Pack.

Strange Comic Books: Captain Marvel #37-39

It was 1985 and Captain Marvel was dead. He had famously been killed off just three years earlier in the graphic novel The Death of Captain Marvel written & drawn by Jim Starlin.

I was just starting to get into comic books in a major way in 1985. I forget what exactly had prompted my nine-year-old self to purchase a copy of The Death of Captain Marvel, but I did. Even though I was totally unfamiliar with the Kree warrior turned cosmic protector Mar-Vell, Starlin had done a superb job of summarizing his life before bringing it to a moving, tragic end in the graphic novel.

I was left with the impression that Mar-Vell must have been an incredibly important figure… although I now realize that if that had been the case, Marvel Comics would never have killed him off permanently in the first place. But in the mid-1980s, with no awareness of the chaotic publishing history of the Captain Marvel series, I really was convinced that his death was a huge deal, and I wanted to find out more about him.

Soon after my nine-year-old self found a copy of Captain Marvel #37 on sale at the Heroes World comic book shop in the White Plains Galleria. The cover by Gil Kane & Klaus Janson had Mar-Vell dramatically circling the Moon. I forget what I paid for that issue, but it could not have been more than a few dollars, since as I said, I was only nine years old, and I had little in the way of disposable income.

Captain Marvel #37 was cover-dated March 1975, meaning it was released in December 1974. It was co-plotted by Steve Englehart & Al Milgrom, penciled by Milgrom, scripted by Englehart, inked by Klaus Janson, lettered by Tom Orzechowski, colored by Glynis Oliver and edited by Lein Wein.

The issue opens with Captain Mar-Vell meeting with Avengers members Ant-Man and the Wasp, who provide him with evidence that his recent foes, the mysterious Lunatic Legion, are likely based on Earth’s Moon. (For a look at how the Lunatic Legion storyline got started, head on over to Alan Stewart’s write-up on Captain Marvel #34 on his excellent blog Attack of the 50 Year Old Comic Books.)

Mar-Vell resolves to head to the Moon to investigate. Unfortunately, Mar-Vell is currently linked to teen musician Rick Jones, who is trapped in the Negative Zone, and every few hours they automatically switch places. They are also able to switch places at will by slamming together the Nega Bands they wear around their wrists.

Rick is due in five days to perform a concert in Denver, and he worries they won’t be back from the Moon in time. Reluctantly, Rick informs his manager Mordecai, who is accompanied by groovy chick Dandy, that he has to take care of a “personal thing,” but he promises that he will meet them in Denver on schedule. Dandy slips Rick “a present, in case your ‘personal thing’ gets boring” and when Rick questions what the capsule is, Dandy responds “Vitamin C, kid. What do you think it is?”

Mar-Vell realizes that under his own flying power it will take him ten hours to reach Earth’s satellite. So that Rick won’t be exposed to the vacuum of space, he heads to Avengers mansion and borrows a spacesuit. And then they’re off to the Moon, although they are briefly delayed by a robot assassin Nimrod that is dispatched by the Lunatic Legion.

As Mar-Vell flies through space, a bored Rick floats in the Negative Zone. Wishing he had brought along his guitar, Rick shrugs and swallows the “Vitamin C” capsule that Dandy gave him.

And then things get really weird. Rick starts hallucinating, and because he’s linked to Mar-Vell, the Kree warrior’s senses & reflexes are completely off. Which is really bad, because when Mar-Vell arrives on the Moon, he gets attacked by the Watcher, who has forsaken his oath of non-interference, and allied himself with the Lunatic Legion.

The Watcher has the powers of a god, so under the best of circumstances Mar-Vell would be hard-pressed to beat him; crippled by the effects of the “Vitamin C” he stands absolutely no chance and is quickly defeated.

The Watcher delivers Mar-Vell to the Lunatic Legion, and in a final bizarre panel Mar-Vell, who is now also hallucinating, sees their leering faces as insanely warped & twisted.

Well, now… as you can imagine, nine-year-old me had no idea what to make of this crazy story by Englehart & Milgrom! Captain Marvel #37 seriously unsettled me.

A decade later, when I was a regular attendee at comic book conventions, I was able to find copies of Captain Marvel #38 and #39, the concluding two parts of the story. And re-reading #37 before moving on to those next chapters, my teenage self suddenly realized that the “Vitamin C” that Rick Jones took was actually LSD! Pretty sneaky work by Englehart & Milgrom.

Anyway, we learn in Captain Marvel #38 that the Lunatic Legion are a racist, radical faction of “pure blooded” blue-skinned Kree warriors who are disgusted that their race has become “diluted” due to intermarriage with the numerous alien species conquered by their empire over countless millennia.

Returning to the blue city on the Moon that was created in the Kree Year Zero, which marked the beginning of their interstellar empire (and here Englehart recaps his origin of the Kree / Skrull War that he told just a short while before in the pages of Avengers #133 as part of the epic “Celestial Madonna” storyline), the Lunatic Legion want to “reclaim [their] all-but-lost heritage…”

The Legion was convinced that the white-skinned “mulatto” Mar-Vell would oppose them, which is why they have been trying to kill him. And, now that they’ve captured him, they intend to execute him via the Kree rite of positronic disintegration.

And here we see in the positronic disintegration sequence that Milgrom & Janson’s artwork continues to be ultra-trippy!

Unfortunately for the Legion, Rick Jones automatically exchanges places with Mar-Vell mid-execution. Vowing to wait until Mar-Vell returns to normal space so they can dispose of him properly, the Legion half Rick’s unconscious form off. In the Negative Zone, Mar-Vell’s “cosmic awareness” finally succeeds in clearing out the hallucinogens that have been affecting him.

What’s more, the LSD has erased all the barriers between Mar-Vell and Rick’s minds. Mar-Vell is able to remotely cause Rick’s unconscious form to slam his wrists together, swapping places. Mar-Vell is able to quickly dispose of the Legion.

Issue #39 sees the Watcher placed on trial by his own people for his continued interference in humanity. Mar-Vell and Rick hitch a ride to the Watchers’ homeworld uninvited, and there, thanks to the changes caused by the LSD, the two of them are able to finally, explosively separate the two of themselves from one another, freeing them from the Negative Zone, allowing them to exist simultaneously in the positive matter universe for the first time in many months.

So, yes, even though it’s presented in a very oblique manner, Englehart & Milgrom present Rick’s accidental LSD usage as a positive thing that ultimately enables them to defeat the Lunatic Legion and free themselves from the Negative Zone. Far out!

As for the Watcher, after a litany of his offenses is recounted by the prosecutor, he vows to once again observe his race’s oath of non-interference, and is let off with a slap on the wrist.

This was just a short summary of the events of these three issues. You can probably find these comics relatively inexpensively if you’d like to check out the full glory of their weirdness.

As you can see up above from my scan of the cover to Captain Marvel #37, I recently got my copy of that issue autographed by the legendary Klaus Janson. This was very early in Janson’s career. I believe he was only 23 years old when he inked these issues, but as you can see from the scans he was already doing great work. I really like the artistic collaboration between Milgrom and Janson on these issues. When I got this book signed by Janson, I recounted my experience with this issue to him. He seemed quite amused. Or maybe he was just humoring me? Either way, I’m sure it made for a change from signing the umpteenth copy of Daredevil or The Dark Knight Returns.

By the way, Alan Stewart promises that come December he’ll be blogging about Captain Marvel #37 on Attack of the 50 Year Old Comic Books, so keep an eye out for that exciting entry.

It Came from the 1990s: Iron Man: The Iron Age

At the end of 1997, following the “Heroes Reborn” event that saw the various Avengers-related titles farmed out to Wildstorm and Extreme Studios for a year, the books returned to the Marvel universe proper with brand-new creative teams. Kurt Busiek, who had received acclaim for his work on Marvels, Astro City and Thunderbolts, was given both Avengers and Iron Man to write, paired up respectively with pencilers George Perez and Sean Chen. The latter was especially welcomed by fans, as it was felt that before “Heroes Reborn” the Iron Man title had been very far adrift creatively.

Busiek was soon penning another Iron Man project, the two part double-sized bookshelf miniseries Iron Man: The Iron Age, which was released with August and September 1998 cover dates. Joining Busiek on The Iron Age were penciler Patrick Zircher, inker Bob McLeod, colorist Glynis Oliver and letterer Comicraft. On issue #2 Busiek’s longtime friend Richard Howell came aboard to provide a plot assist and to co-script the issue.

The Iron Age is basically “Iron Man: Year One.” Busiek had always proven himself to be very adept at writing superhero stories that were told from the perspective of the “man on the street,” i.e. ordinary people witnessing extraordinary events, and he does so here. The beginning days of Tony Stark’s career running the multinational Stark Industries and his early adventures as the armored Iron Man are seen through the eyes of two people who will become among his closest confidants: Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan.

Iron Man’s actual origin, having already been recounted in detail on several occasions, is recapped briefly. Instead the focus is first on Stark as a young man, adrift & unfocused, struggling to fill the massive shoes of his parents after their sudden, tragic deaths, and then, following his near-death experience in Southeast Asia, his efforts to adjust to having his life dependent on an armored chest plate, while finding an exhilarating form of escape from his corporate responsibilities as a costumed crime fighter.

It’s been said that in the years following the Vietnam War and the end of the Cold War, making the character of Tony Stark, a billionaire industrialist weapons manufacturer, relatable to the average reader can be a challenge. Obviously his heart condition gives him a tragic flaw. But Busiek, as with the best Iron Man writers, understands that the series also needs a supporting cast that grounds Stark, gives him a connection to that aforementioned man on the street. Pepper and Happy both admirably fulfill that role of bringing Tony back to Earth.

Against the backdrop of Iron Man’s early adventures from Tales of Suspense, Busiek very effectively weaves together the strands of Silver Age continuity, and his knowledge of subsequent stories, to reveal how the nascent Roxxon Oil cartel, already a ruthless entity, sought to undermine & absorb Stark Industries.

Busiek was not the first writer to reveal how Stark’s parents had died in a car crash (that would be Len Kaminski) but he was the one to reveal that the “accident” that took their lives was anything but, in fact, having been caused by Roxxon. It’s a plotline that subsequently became a major element of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Hydra taking the place of Roxxon as the killers of Stark’s parents.

The artwork on The Iron Age is superbly done by Patrick Zircher & Bob McLeod. They do a fine job of evoking the Silver Age tone of original Iron Man artist Don Heck. Stark in his first suit of armor is just the right combination of sleek & high tech and bulky & primitive. I really liked the double-page spread wherein they depict the events of Iron Man’s origin from Tales of Suspense #39. Zircher & McLeod are both very talented & underrated, and they work well together here.

The one instance where the art unfortunately does not fit the tone of the story is with the new character the Saboteur, who looks much more like a 1990s “bad girl” type character than any sort of villain that might have been seen in those early Tales of Suspense adventures. I mean, she wears thigh-high boots and a thong, for crying out loud! It’s unfortunate that Zircher didn’t try to come up with a design for the Saboteur that looked like it might have actually originated in the 1960s. It’s the one element of the artwork that always takes me right out of the story.

That flaw aside, Iron Man: The Iron Age is an entertaining, engaging tale. It very effectively weaves together the disparate strands from many of the early Iron Man tales to provide a cohesive backstory & characterization for Tony Stark. I dare say that The Iron Age should be required reading for anyone who has the task of chronicling the armored Avenger’s adventures.

By the way, the footnotes on the inside back cover of the second issue provide a very useful guide to the various characters and events that are peppered throughout The Iron Age. You don’t need to know who any of these people or occurrences are to understand Busiek’s story – he makes it all very stand-alone & accessible – but if you DO want to know more, the footnotes are there to point you in the direction of the original stories.

I reached out to Busiek on Facebook to ask if he had any specific memories of working on The Iron Age. He responded briefly:

“It was a lot of fun to do, and working with Pat Zircher and Comicraft was a real treat.”

Reading Iron Man: The Iron Age, it really does feel like Busiek had a fun time writing this story. I think it’s one of my favorite things that he’s done at Marvel. It’s not nearly as well-known as some of his other projects, so if you have an opportunity to search it out, I recommend it.