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Marvel Reviews

The Evolution of Marvel Cosmic, Part 4: King Kirby & Princeling Thor’s Mission to Space, 1966

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[covers & interiors by Jack Kirby (p), Vince Colletta (i), Stan Goldberg (c), Artie Simek/Sam Rosen (l)]

Part 3 of this “Evolution of Marvel Cosmic” series is here, along with links to previous posts.

Before the introduction of the imperial but adorable Rigellians—of the fictional galaxy Rigel, a name taken from a real star in the Milky Way, part of the Orion constellation—Jack Kirby and Stan Lee’s Thor comics were thoroughly rooted in two things: a pulpy, streamlined reinterpretation of Thor-centric Norse myths, squeezed into backstories (excellent stuff, really), and very silly, mostly mundane villains for him to fight (like Cobra and Mr. Hyde)—but there was a lot of potential with screwball ideas like the Absorbing Man (imbued with Asgardian enchantments courtesy of the God of Lies) and having the Nordic Thunder God encounter the gods and heroes of Ancient Greece (Ares and Hercules). [Read more…] about The Evolution of Marvel Cosmic, Part 4: King Kirby & Princeling Thor’s Mission to Space, 1966

The Evolution of Marvel Cosmic, Part 3: Terror & Wonder, 1966

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[FF covers/interiors by Jack Kirby (p), Joe Sinnott (i), Stan Goldberg (c), Artie Simek & Sam Rosen (l)]

Part 2 of our Evolution of Marvel Cosmic series can be found here (along with a link to the first piece).

Yes, yes, these tales of moody pulp adventure likely never terrified anyone, not even the rugrats of 1966, but they did and still do offer visual wonders galore, from cosmic grandeur to those little melodramatic glimpses of a character’s essence (Ben Grimm’s deep sadness; Reed’s Jekyll/Hyde-like smooth arrogance breaking into cruel hysterics; Sue’s put-upon fury—these are, of course, their Silver Age iterations); now, admittedly these character moments are of types, sculpted, often grotesquely, in the bold manner of peak Jack Kirby. He and Stan had a knack for taking unsettling bizarro ideas from the surreal pulp magazines of their youth, but where Stan’s talent was for rather simplifying the interesting concepts behind these stories, for the sake of broader or perhaps just more juvenile consumption—Kirby’s pencils kept the weirdness alive and thrilling in demonstration of how deeply attuned he was to the art of mid-century, pop fantastika.

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Eternals Vol. 2: Hail Thanos Review!

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The first volume of Eternals by Kieron Gillen and Essad Ribic is a revelation in a couple ways. For one, it manages to completely reorient the Eternals’ relationship with humanity by revealing that their signature immortality comes at the cost of human life, the very beings they believed they were intended to protect, a revelation which led the core cast of the series to cast their lot with the Eternals’ previously-sworn enemies, the Deviants. For another, it had us all going “hey, there’s an Eternals comic that’s actually good and fun?” for the first time in a long time (possibly ever). [Read more…] about Eternals Vol. 2: Hail Thanos Review!

When the Avengers Ruled, Part 2 (continued): Power Drama, Avengers #164-166

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[covers by George Pérez]
This piece continues from last time our discussion of the first half of Jim Shooter’s 1970s Avengers run. Here, we’ll cover his “Nefaria Supreme” or “Nefaria’s Lethal Legion” arc with artist John Byrne. Next up will be the epic “Korvac Saga,” drawn by George Pérez and closing out this relatively brief era that nevertheless stood as proof that the Avengers could be more than just a wildly inconsistent smorgasbord of kooky or far-out ideas that, in the execution, largely failed to impress. This was a transitional period that would ultimately lead to one of the very few multiyear runs that easily redeem and justify the existence of this 60-year-old franchise—the Roger Stern run, followed over a decade later by the Kurt Busiek run. So far in this century, we have the Bendis and Hickman runs, with little of interest in the title since early 2015.

The back-to-back classic Avengers stories, “The Bride of Ultron” (#160-162) and “Nefaria’s Lethal Legion” (#164-166), are available in both a smaller trade edition and a much bigger Epic Collection.

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Omnibussin: The Saga of Wanda, the Scarlet Witch

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Scarlet Witch variant cover by Russell Dauterman for Avengers Forever #1

Wanda Maximoff. Wanda Frank. Just Wanda. Or the Scarlet Witch. The Great Pretender. The Great Redeemer. Whatever you may call her, she’s one of Marvel’s powerhouses, and that universe’s Nexus Being—that is, the living focal point for all its mystical energies… and, if that mumbo-jumbo doesn’t clue you in, she’s a character with a remarkably complicated history, too. I’ve discussed her before in this site (my first time writing for Comic Book Herald, actually), so I’ve already made my case for why she’s a worthwhile character despite all the many, many controversies and mistreatments. What I’m here to do today is try and coalesce all her convoluted continuity, which has mostly been told through team books instead of her own title, into a single omnibus Marvel could believably publish… as well as a fantasy version they certainly won’t.

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