A new decade! Below you’ll find our reading selections for the year of 1970, and once we’re finished reading, I’ll post the winners for hero, villain, issue, artist, and writer.
Feel free to discuss the comics and any related thoughts below in the comments!
1970 Comic Reading List
| 1970 | Comic Book Title | Issues |
| 1 | Iron Man | #21, #22 |
| 2 | Uncanny X-Men | #65 |
| 3 | Sub-Mariner | #22 |
| 4 | Thor | #175, #176, #177 |
| 5 | Hulk | #128 |
| 6 | Fantastic Four | #102 to #104 |
| 7 | Silver Surfer | #16, #17, #18 |
| 8 | Amazing Spider-Man | #86, #88 to #90 |
| 9 | Avengers | #83 |
| 10 | Captain America | #132 |
1970 Hero of the Year:
Spider-Man
1970 Villain of the Year:
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Mephisto
1970 Issue of the Year:
Amazing Spider-Man #90
1970 Writer of the Year:
Stan Lee
1970 Artist of the Year:
Jack Kirby
Next: 1971
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Hey all, first time reader, long time commenter.
I have just finished reading every marvel comic (or the marvel wiki for the ones I found uninteresting) from 1961 – 1970. Im super behind on the reading list (like, 1970 behind) but I am doing my best to catch up. I missed out on the voting but ill offer my favorite titles from 1970
Daredevil: Was it good? No. Was it fun? Yes. A year with Stilt Man, Cobra, Mr. Hyde, Matts acting career, Team up with Black Panther. Liked it. I know it gets really good in the late 70s early 80s but I like the camp.
Thor: Rough first half of the year IMO. I mean when you fight “Crypto Man” and it takes more then two panels to knock him out you really have to question a change in occupation. Thankfully it picks up and we get the story line you listed, as well as the freaky friday storyline with Loki and Thor. Good stuff. I know im far off but Beta Ray Bill seems pretty cool. Im stoked to arrive at his debut.
Hulk: Such a fun year for Hulk. Yes Hulk fought some sloppy seconds. Rhino I have no excuse for, but Absorbing Mans story was cool. It’s a slow spring but from summer to the end of the year Hulk is pretty great. We are getting some of the better character depth in the universe at this time. It’s a compelling read.
Also Silver Surfer getting canned? Whattttttttttttttt!
Since I took the challenge and have been reading the first 100 issues of FF and Spider-Man, by far the most momentous thing from this year was getting to the end of Kirby’s run on FF in FF 102. A very understated end of one of the most influential and iconic runs in comic history. It was also really eye-opening to see the differences between Kirby’s artwork and even someone as great as Romita Sr. (who did an outstanding job at handling the transition); the Thing looks noticeably different, as does Namor and Magneto. Kirby will definitely be missed.
Beyond that, the X-Men issue was a little weirdly plotted (Xavier’s deception seems more cruel than a good, coherent plan), but it was a strong issue. The clear winner for the year was Spider-Man 90 with Stacy’s death. I was quite surprised as I found the year very lackluster for Spider-Man, and then that issue has not only a permanent character death but handles the reveal that Stacy knew about Parker being Spider-Man very well. I also very much enjoyed the Fall of Asgard just for the amazing Kirby artwork.
In general, I found this year to be solid but kind of dull, but I guess that’s what happens when you get spoiled by the unbelievable 60s run that Marvel had. I’m very much looking forward to more Cosmic storylines as we get deeper into the 70s.
I love me some Jack Kirby ‘Thing. That’s a miss, and I agree, the Magneto rendering by John Romita is a pretty stark contrast to Kirby’s version. I love Romita’s art as well, but his Mags is quite a bit older, more gaunt.
‘More cruel than good’ seems like a pretty good way to sum up a lot of Professor X’s decision in these days.
I tend to agree with the assessment that 1970 is largely solid – not as exhilarating as the last decade. It’s a particularly interesting moment in Marvel’s history, where suddenly they are far from being new and fresh. We’ll see they’re approach to this really come to fruition in 1972, and yes, Marvel Cosmic plays a big part.
Hero(ine) of the Year: Black Widow. I used to own a copy of the Mighty Avengers Marvel Treasury Edition, a big oversized anthology book, which re-printed Avengers 83. It became one of my favorite issues from the time because it reflected upon the treatment of women in comics, and although there was much to reflect upon, it seemed, genuinely, that Marvel was with the times and advancing women’s characters and stories. I was a male teenager when I first read it, so I guess I didn’t mind the new visual makeover she received (I’m still OK with it). Avengers 83 is a very entertaining comic, and portrays heroines in an adult, empowering way, and at the time Marvel backed it up by awarding the Black Widow character with her own title (well, yeah, it was rather late, and it was only half a book, but it was her on her own!).
Villain of the Year: In review of all of Marvel comics of the year, for as fresh and exciting as the prospects had been in the 24 preceding months, 1970 really consisted of very little challenges to established formulas for the titles. There were no new villains introduced worthy of note, except for Valkyrie, but that was really Enchantress in disguise. But there were some great stories: a Surfer/Mephisto rematch; Captain Stacy murdered by Doc Ock: Magneto, pulled from the rocks and surf after his defeat by the X-Men tricked Sub-mariner into teaming up to attack the Fantastic Four, and Loki again with a devious plot in Asgard. Doctor Doom even got his own title! I voted for Mephisto. I thought his was the best story and villainous characterization, with the most personally at stake for the hero.
Issue of the Year: In approaching this week’s list, I was immediately familiar with the best known highlights of Marvel’s Silver Age that occurred in 1970, such as Amazing Spider-man 90 (Stan Lee and Gil Kane’s work is classic of course) and Avengers 83 mentioned above. Again, I evaluated all the comics of the year in search of the one that stood out. Then the last thing I read, “Before I’d Be Slave,” X-Men #65, stood out. O’Neil/Adams/Palmer created a masterpiece in one movement that captured the feel of all those Lee/Kirby Marvel Silver Age comics of the early 60’s; the re-introduction of Professor Xavier (who had been living in the basement while everyone thought he was dead), who connects psychically with Jean Grey’s mind, focused through Scott Summer’s eyes, to channel a weapon of ferocious power (which happened to be Peace and Love, tapped from mutants earth-wide), to rout alien invaders (with compassion) so that they are forced to flee the solar system. Simultaneously, they expressed these ideas with a beautiful precision of words and lines and colors, as well as any you will see.
Artist of the Year: To award best artist (or writer), it seems that a requirement that the artist (or writer) must have produced at least one year of work on one title (or possible across multiple titles). This rules out Neal Adams or Barry Smith for 1970, although their work is remarkable. The new artist on the scene was Gil Kane, who took over penciling Stan Lee’s stories in Amazing Spider-man, and distinguished himself. But I had to give my vote to Jack Kirby, who penciled his last Fantastic Four comic of the Silver Age in 1970. He also continued to add to Norse mythology with Thor back in Asgard for most of the year, dealing with things Asgardian, as he should. Superhero comic art owes much to Jack Kirby. His 1970 work was as good as it ever was.
Writer of the Year: Again, I decided to not consider less than a year or so of contribution, which excluded Dennis O’Neal. Roy Thomas’ Avengers 83 obviously made a big impression on me, and talent was apparent in other new writers on staff at the time, Archie Goodwin, Gerry Conway, and Gary Friedrich. I voted for Stan Lee. I just love these stories. The death of Captain Stacy. Magneto and Sub-mariner fighting the Fantastic Four, Mephisto tempting Silver Surfer, all of Asgard at war with Loki, Giants and Surtur! There may have not been many challenges to established formulas, but for 1970, the formulas were working fine. Very enjoyable reading, all of it.
GREAT feedback, I love it.
One point I want to address: Doctor Doom’s semi-solo title! I’ll be highlighting all the great 70’s stories (or if not great, at least interesting) that are missing from the Marvel Unlimited library, but Astonishing Tales is chief among them.
X-Men #65: I love the ideas in this one quite a bit. The people of Earth uniting together to stop an alien invasion with the help of the X-Men? Yes, please! I am glad we got Xavier back in this one, as he has some very good parts to play in later Marvel stories. Pretending to be dead was kind of a jerk move, though. Something in the execution made me still give this one three stars instead of bumping to four, but it is still an issue that everyone should read.
X-Men #64: Sunfire has a pretty cool origin issue, and it is nice to know who he is when reading the first X-Men revival issues.
The other essential story here is Amazing Spider-Man #88-90. All of my votes except artist went to this (Stan, Spidey, Doc Ock, and ASM #90).
Incredible Hulk #123 and #124 are both worthy of attention. Hulk and Rhino make good foils for each other. I gave the artist award to Herb Trimpe for his work on the Incredible Hulk series in 1970. Gil Kane is a decent artist, but his penchant for up-the-nose angles keeps me from voting for him.
“Pretending to be dead was kind of a jerk move, though” ~ THIS. Got a pretty big laugh out of me, but classic Charlie.
Good call on the Rhino v. Hulk issues, those two are a pretty fun matchup.