The Golden Age Of... The Vision!

One of the more interesting storylines involving the Avenger known as the Vision laid a lot of groundwork before reaching its resolution, stringing the reader along for over twenty issues of The Avengers while dropping clues and subtle developments that had us all wondering: What is going on with the Vision? The short answer is that he was planning take control of the world. But it's the how and the why that would have writer Roger Stern creating an entirely new approach to the character, setting the stage for future developments for not only the Vision but also a deeper focus on his relationship with the Scarlet Witch as well as the possibility of a family life.

But we should start at the beginning--and that point arrives during a dramatic conflict between the Fantastic Four and Annihilus, the despotic spawn of the Negative Zone. In a mad bid to destroy two universes, Annihilus has established an impenetrable barrier near the Baxter Building, one that required the special talents of the Avenger whose powers were best suited to breach it. Unfortunately, no one was aware at the time that this barrier was actually a "null-field," a term which implied that anyone successful at piercing it would suffer the consequences.

Consequences which in the Vision's case meant total deactivation, or possibly even death. But despite appearances, things would get even more complicated for the Vision, though from his perspective he would likely claim that this incident gave him a new lease on life. But eventually that would mean sacrificing that life for the good of the world.

Revenge Is A Dish Best Served Shaken

Can YOU

Name This Marvel Villain??

Willie Lumpkin: X-Factor!

When it comes to recycling, it looks like comic books had a head start on environmentalists, though for comics writers it was more a matter of successful concepts that were dusted off and adapted to later stories. Take the opening pages of the Fantastic Four issue which featured the team's first clash with the mad Thinker, in a sequence that can't help but take you back to issue #1 and the introduction of this famous foursome. It's a dramatic opening that still works, over a year after it was introduced.

Here, however, we have the advantage of knowing all about the characters who are responding to the alert and converging to meet--and there's also the familiar presence of the Baxter Building anchoring the scene, the official headquarters of an established team that's now riding high in comics circles and can still generate excitement and interest in being summoned by a flare gun.

There are other elements in this story that are the result of being tweaked to one degree or another and reused--such as the team leaving their headquarters and striking out on their own, as they did when they went bankrupt. This issue would also get the ball rolling on other concepts that would be retooled and used later, such as the invasion of FF headquarters by criminals or villains, or the team having their own devices and weapons used against them.

But in this classic issue, it's the Thinker that the story has us focus on, the calculating planner who makes use of his computers to deduce his next move down to the second and take into account anything or anyone who would seek to stop him. The Thinker's ability to advance his agenda is really dependent on collating the data that his computers gather and mapping out the steps he needs to take, based on certain things taking place at a certain time (or not taking place, as the case may be). Yet the whole point of uncertainty is that you cannot eliminate it or predict it, however careful and meticulous you are in your calculations--but just try telling that to the Thinker.

It's quite a claim the Thinker makes: "Nothing has been left to chance!" That's presuming that he's isolated the uncertainties involved and based his calculations only on the events and incidents that will occur without fail. Credit where credit is due: if he can pull that off, his programming skills are far ahead of his time.

Yet, all things considered, the Thinker comes off as a third-rate villain in this tale, in spite of how far his planning takes him in going up against the FF. We know in hindsight that the Thinker will go on to become a deadly threat to be reckoned with--and while it may not seem like it, his first clash with the Fantastic Four will open many doors for him in that regard.

Speaking of our foursome, we'll see in this story their first exposure to battling organized crime, a theme that Amazing Spider-Man would be more successful at integrating into its plots but which the FF would be bound to encounter in their line of work. We'll also get our first look at the Thinker's talent with androids, which would make him quite formidable against the FF as well as other super-powered beings he would later come into conflict with. But what's his immediate goal here and now? He doesn't exactly mince words with the crime bosses he's gathered to hear his plans.

I can guess what some of you are thinking: It's amazing that the Thinker could find a crown big enough to fit that head of his.

The crime bosses are naturally concerned with interference from the Fantastic Four--but to placate his new associates, the Thinker reveals he has a two-pronged approach for dealing with the team. First he plans to see that each of the FF is offered some personal career enticement that will tempt them into pursuing time away from the team, which breaks down as follows:

• Mr. Fantastic: A new position in a New England electronics firm as part of their R&D division.
• Invisible Girl: Starring in a Broadway production after being approached by a producer who's been on the lookout for his next star.
• Human Torch: Becoming a circus performer, thanks to one of his cousins who's fallen on hard times and asks him as a favor to become the star attraction in his show.
• The Thing: A new star in the wrestling ring--his first exposure to the professional wrestling circuit, which we know would later become a fallback career he would turn to in many future stories.

It so happens that all of these decisions are mulled over just as the FF have hit a lull in their activities--and so they all treat their offerings as a vacation of sorts, and off they go.

The second part of the Thinker's plan involves a meteorite that crashes into the New York bay (those are some computers--are they linked into NASA?), causing a tremor that damages the city's power grid and wreaks havoc with repair crews. While the city is in crisis, the Thinker and his men are ready to take advantage of the situation as they penetrate their foes' headquarters.

Meanwhile, checking in on the FF, none of them are exactly thrilled with the choices they've made. (For whatever reason, Sue's choice has been revised to replace Broadway with a trip to Hollywood and have her starring in a sci-fi film.) But, returning home, they're greeted with quite a site, as well as a deadly challenge.

The Thinker is true to his boast, utilizing the FF's own building defenses as well as the many devices found in their labs to halt the FF's approach to the 35th floor--but the team makes its way through, while also dealing with the crime bosses who were armed with weaponry from Reed's armory. That leaves one piece of research which Reed was just getting started on--research notes that have now been realized in a hulking android that will also go on to make future appearances.

So far, it doesn't look like the Thinker's plans are panning out, does it? Things look especially dicey for him when the FF confront him--after all, if you boast that your calculations take into account the smallest detail and leave nothing to chance, why would you need a contingency plan? For all the good it does him. It seems Mr. Fantastic isn't such a slouch in the planning department himself--and all he needs for his calculations to come off without a hitch is a fellow professional whose motto is "Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow, nor super-villain..."

It's off to the hoosegow for the mad Thinker--who might want to give some thought to all those crime bosses who are going to insist on joining him at his table in the prison cafeteria.

Fantastic Four #15 Script: Stan Lee Pencils: Jack Kirby Inks: Dick Ayers Letterer: Art Simek

This Rage Unyielding!

Compared to the prior story profiled here at the PPC from Incredible Hulk #255 which featured the jade giant trading blows once again with Thor, the God of Thunder, its unofficial sequel in the Mighty Thor title is nothing less than a knock-down drag-out slugfest--a blockbuster battle from cover to cover, where both opponents bring their A-game and each intends to leave no doubt as to which of them is the stronger. By the time it's over, we as readers may be prepared to make that call ourselves, which in itself is something of a milestone in a string of titanic battles which has always left that in doubt.

Plotted by Jim Shooter and published in 1987 (the same issue that announced he was stepping down as Editor in Chief), with Stan Lee (at 65 years young) tapped to script, and art by Erik Larsen and Vince Colletta (reportedly Larsen's first work for Marvel, while also contributing to the plot), "Be Thou God, Or Monster!" arguably has the makings of one of the most memorable Thor vs. Hulk clashes to date. The man of the hour, however, is unquestionably Larsen, who turns in impressive work here for a first effort with the company, working out the plot with Shooter two years earlier at the Chicago Comic Con and then drawing and submitting the story, which finally saw publication as a fill-in Thor story in '87.

You might find yourself having the opinion that Larsen's fighting style for Thor is far from ideal, though perhaps that's the point. For the first time, Thor finds himself having to adapt to and counter with the type of ruthless brawling that the Hulk excels at, and at the Hulk's pace--and he comes off as ill-equipped to fight as savagely as his foe. As an Asgardian whose immortal, adult life has been filled with war, and death, and bloody, vicious battle against wave upon wave of deadly enemies and having fought his way through all of them, Thor finds himself on the receiving end for far too much of this battle. That said, Larsen is choreographing this fight with a specific ending in mind; but more on this train of thought when the time comes.

There's also Lee's rather dated scripting style to consider, which in this story resembles his style of writing as it was 15 years in the past while in the closing days of his time on Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and Thor--sparse and lacking in any meaningful characterization or dialog beyond the basic actions and reactions expected of his characters. In addition, Thor himself is often too above-it-all here, deciding on his course of action as if he's not really in a battle for his life, as well as often acting like he's a rookie at this. Is this the God of Thunder duking it out with the Hulk, or the God of Uncertainty and Introspection? To be fair, with a mouthful of the Hulk's fist during much of this struggle, acting and reacting are perhaps all that Thor can do; but visually, it's very disconcerting to see Thor unable to seize the initiative and hold it against a foe whose fighting style he knows so well.

To give you an idea of the kind of Thunder God waiting for us as scripted by Lee, let's catch up to him just after he's captured a gang of bank robbers and receives word that there's a much more serious challenge that needs his attention.

It may read like it, but no--this story is not a flashback to 1972.

This Battle Unending!

There have been many occasions where the mighty Thor has met the incredible Hulk in battle, either in their own respective titles or in stories taking place in other mags. The question of which character is stronger is one that's been raging forever, no doubt to the delight of their company's accountants--and it's not likely to be definitively answered, even if we were to take a crack at it here and look for a smoking gun that would put the matter to rest. Instead, it's sometimes equally interesting to look at it from a different perspective, namely: How does a writer approach the subject if devoting an entire issue to it? What new angle can be used to make it a classic battle in its own right? And how can they avoid adding fuel to the fire as far as declaring a winner?

There are a number of such battles which have these characters squaring off, only to have them interrupted by something or someone before a clear-cut winner can be declared; there are also circumstances which lead to the battle being called a draw in one way or another. As such, it's often a frustrating experience to dive into one of these stories knowing that the reset button is going to be pushed when all is said and done, whether or not one of the fighters walks away with their head held a little higher. So it's often more satisfying to see how well-written the story is--how successful it is at grabbing the reader's attention and holding it with an approach that hasn't quite been seen before, and how much the artwork is able to inspire creative dialog and narrative as well as offer a new and dynamic look at this classic matchup. We have here a Norse god steeped in nobility and a time-tested sense of invincibility vs. a savage brute who's driven by off-the-scale anger and convinced that he's more powerful than anyone, with neither one even thinking about losing, much less surrendering--surely there has to be more than enough there for any writer/artist team to craft one hell of a story, even knowing how it must ultimately end.

To get a reasonably balanced picture of the worth of these two opponents without tilting the scale too much in either direction, let's take a look at two such stories, selecting one from each character's title in the interests of fairness, with the stories published six years apart. Each story's writer will take a different approach than the other--and while many elements of both stories will ring familiar to any reader who's seen their share of Hulk vs. Thor battles, there will be one or two new twists that will serve to keep things interesting.

The earlier of the two stories comes from a 1981 issue of Incredible Hulk, written by Bill Mantlo with art by Sal Buscema--a tale that really doesn't seek to shake up the status quo between these two powerful characters, but acts as a decent placeholder until the next time they come to blows. Admittedly, that doesn't provide much motivation for flipping the pages of this issue--but the experience will depend on how Mantlo handles things and how successful he is at doing so. The first step, of course, is getting Thor and the Hulk in the same place at the same time--and in this case, that translates to Dr. Donald Blake and Bruce Banner, respectively, with one providing pro bono medical services to transients at a YMCA located at a freight yard, while the other has climbed aboard one of the freight cars at another yard in the hopes of leaving New York City behind. As you might have guessed, the former is more successful at keeping a lower profile than the latter.

Oh, sure, Thor--tease us with that old carrot on a stick, why don't you.

Marvel In Your Mailbox

It wasn't until the mid-1970s when I began spotting Marvel cranking up its own subscription service. At the time, dedicated comic book stores were still a ways off, and those of us who were getting our feet wet with comics collecting were forced to make the rounds at newsstands or the spinner racks at drug stores or mini-markets to pick up the books we wanted--locally covering as wide a radius as possible, in order to compensate for walk-in traffic that may have hit our spot(s) before us, or a particular vendor possibly not stocking a title or two on our list. Eventually, it made more sense to take advantage of some of the mail-order comics vendors who were popping up in the nested ads pages found tucked into our comics, featuring dealers who stocked in bulk and offered to pull, package and mail your monthly books to you, a method which seemed (you'll excuse the phrase) made to order for those who didn't have the time or perseverance to "hunt" for their comics, while also allowing buyers to get their books in as pristine a condition as possible.

If you went that route, you had to shop around for the most reliable company to meet your needs, and cost was definitely a factor in your decision since you had to consider shipping costs along with the sticker price of your books; there might also have been miscellaneous "handling" fees attached, since these vendors had to make sure their business made a profit. It also stood to reason these private vendors may not have been cut a deal by Marvel for buying in bulk--and like any distributor, they would have had to monitor supply and demand carefully and adjust the cost of their service accordingly. (Usually in the upwards direction.) And they weren't the only ones who had to keep an eye on things. I remember finding a vendor in Canada that provided good service, for awhile at least--and then there were unexplained delays that had me on the phone with them (on my dime, at that) more often than not, finally making it necessary to find another supplier.

When local comics dealers began popping up, a lot of that hassle became a thing of the past, since these shops also offered to maintain "pull lists" of the books you wanted. Each time you came in, your books were waiting for you, practically guaranteed; when the books arrived at the shop, those customers with lists received priority and had their books pulled and stashed immediately, assuring that even a book that was likely to sell out quickly would be in your stack whenever you made it into the store. To encourage a steady customer base, most of these stores also cut the buyer a deal and discounted the cost of your stack (usually around 10%, which wasn't bad and was pretty consistent with other such stores)--and since the stores wanted to remain competitive with each other, there were no other fees to deal with, which eventually became the kiss of death for mail-order vendors who began shifting much of their focus to back-issue sales.

Yet back in the day, when Marvel got their foot in the door and offered their own subscription service, it obviously put them in direct competition with independent mail order suppliers--though Marvel weren't necessarily the best choice simply because you were getting your books straight from the source. Clearly Marvel saw the value of advertising the fact that you were assured of getting each and every copy on your list, as opposed to taking your chances in finding them on your own; but despite the implication that shipments were timely, their mailings tended to lag behind their competitors, sometimes to the tune of weeks. (And since Marvel made no mention of shipping costs, the cause of delay was likely attributed to how efficient their operation was at collecting and packaging the books and getting them to the post office.) In addition, you had to sign up for a 12-month subscription for each book you ordered, a cost which you paid up front--which in turn forced you to keep a careful accounting of receiving the full year's shipment of every book on your list. On the bright side, the cost markup seemed reasonable; depending on the price of the comic at the time you subscribed, Marvel was making a 40-50¢ profit on each subscription, which was probably funneled into postal costs.

If you decided to wait until the '80s to become a Marvel subscriber, you were rewarded for biding your time since Marvel, like many subscription services, eventually found it necessary to offer enticements to its subscribers and forgo its profit in favor of a larger customer base. For instance, at the time that Dr. Doom was drafted into being a common sales hawker, the price of a comic was 50¢, which meant that each 12-issue subscription at $5.00 was saving you $1.00, a cost that Marvel ate (along with postal costs) in order to get your business. The good doctor's terms saved you even more if you subscribed to at least four titles, giving you one subscription at no cost.

In essence, Marvel's subscription service amounted to a method to drum up business. It was no doubt your best deal if you preferred to get your books by having them shipped to you, albeit with certain drawbacks that weren't present with independent suppliers. But with the proliferation of local comics retailers, and with those stores cutting their own deals with customers, mail order subscription services mostly went the way of the dinosaur domestically and in other parts of the world where such shops sprung up and thrived. Yet in their heydey, they certainly did their part to fuel the collecting bug that had bitten many of us, something which may also have waned with changing times.

The Triple Threat of... The Terrible Trio!

If the group known as the Terrible Trio gives you a strong sense of déjà vu, it may be because you've seen their type of group before in various comics over time, whether in Marvel's books or those of other Distinguished Companies. (Some of these groups even call themselves the same name--if you can list all of these "terrible trios," you win a free comic! Not really!) Sometimes the members are super-powered; sometimes they're normal joes who have out-of-the-ordinary abilities that set them apart from just hired muscle. The Terrible Trio I'm most familiar with hails from 1964, a trio of henchmen employed and enhanced by Dr. Doom to assist in a plan to capture the Fantastic Four: "Handsome" Harry Phillips, Yogi Dakor, and Bull Brogin, each with their own list of priors in small-time criminal endeavors and assaults, and, collectively, not even a blip on anyone's radar if it weren't for the interest of their benefactor. The Trio might remind you of the Enforcers, another threesome with special talents who were employed by the crime lord known as the Big Man; perhaps that familiarity owes to the fact that the Enforcers were presented in comics just one month after the Trio made their own debut.

But while the Enforcers were involved in organized crime and were used to intimidate those who didn't fall in line with the Big Man, the Trio were groomed specifically for a single job: to attack and trap each member of the FF, one at a time. But what do small-timers like Phillips, Dakor, and Brogin bring to the table that would make Doom take the trouble to bail them out of jail and empower them for this mission? Not to call into question the instincts of a man like Doom, but presumably he could have chosen any three men (incarcerated or not) to use as his team. Writer Stan Lee seems to think that these men are best suited to undergo Doom's procedure--but are they really so exceptional that anyone else wouldn't do in their place?

Brogin appears to be the only one in the group who has something for Doom to work with--though tough guys are a dime a dozen, so much so that Doom doesn't have to bother with navigating the judicial system in order to find a candidate. (For example, the roughneck from FF #48, who slugged it out with the Thing for a grand total of five seconds before hitting the pavement.) But Phillips has no "power" to speak of; and Dakor's ability to resist fire is likely only part of a rigged carnival show act.

But Doom has made his choices--and it seems his reputation precedes him, even among three small-time criminals who have now hit the big time.

To Hela And Back!

With Cate Blanchett stirring up things in Thor: Ragnarok as Hela, Goddess of Death (and with her fanfare being provided by Led Zeppelin, no less), it seemed appropriate to take a closer look (but not TOO close) at this grim harbinger of the inescapable, as well as her fixation on the God of Thunder. The appearances of Hela go as far back as 1964--yet another creation of artist Jack Kirby that has stood the test of time, in this case over fifty years. Then again, half a century is the blink of an eye to the kind of entity we're talking about, isn't it?

As first presented, there doesn't seem much to fear about Hela beyond the obvious aspect of her being and purpose. She's ruthless, to be sure, but not entirely unscrupulous. When Thor meets her, she's bribed a storm giant with the promise of immortality if he delivers the goddess Sif to her; but when Thor offers to take her place, it's almost as if she's displaying a conscience.

You can't help but note that the qualities she admires in Thor that win his freedom--youth, bravery, nobility--are apparently attributes she feels that Sif doesn't possess. And maybe she doesn't yet, until writer Stan Lee gives her a refit in order for her to take Jane Foster's place in Thor's life.

But Sif isn't the only goddess who's recycled into a more visible role. With her actions here, Hela has taken baby steps at stepping outside of her assigned role in the pantheon of Asgardian gods, actually snatching one of the living before "her time," as she would put it--but soon enough, she begins doggedly pursuing Thor with the same intent, whether taking advantage of an opportunity that presents itself to her or by taking the initiative herself. You'd think that an agent of Death would have enough deaths to keep her busy indefinitely--but perhaps the very nature of death is that it can never be sated.

The Stolen Destiny of... Star-Lord!

It took me decades to get on board the Star-Lord train, but I know it happened well before the Guardians of the Galaxy took off in the cinema. My best guess in narrowing down the timeframe is when I took interest in the character during the Annihilation series of stories in 2006; but he really caught fire for me when he became part of the new GOTG group whose series launched in 2008. Written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, with art by Paul Pelletier and Rick Magyar, and with the team assisted by a talkink... er, talking dog named Cosmo, that series was pure (dare I say it) Marvel magic, and it's where Peter Quill unquestionably belonged.

As happy as I was to read the adventures of the Guardians--and of Star-Lord--from that point on, I was still curious about this character's beginnings. "Star-Lord" may be a cool name for a hero, but it doesn't really "fit" Quill in terms of his role in the galaxy. What the heck is a Star-Lord? Why and how did Quill acquire this type of name? For that answer, I needed to go back over thirty years to the character's introduction in the pages of Marvel Preview in early 1976, where Quill seems to be just as confused by this new designation he's given.

We can thank Marv Wolfman for the name itself, though he had no preconceived notion of what kind of character would be attached to it. The task for developing the who and why of Star-Lord would be passed on to writer Steve Englehart, who would use his background in astrology to inject the character with a kind of pre-destined aspect that unfortunately falls short of giving Quill's new status any true meaning, for either himself or the reader. In addition, the Peter Quill that Englehart presents is a far cry from the present-day Quill whose wit and sense of responsibility carry the day as much as his style of shooting from the hip and thinking outside the box. Quill, as originally written, seems like the last person you'd want to have any measure of power, ordained by destiny or otherwise; on the contrary, Quill's road to the stars is littered with the bodies of those he's killed in his rage at being denied what he considered his due.  This man should have wound up in court with the book thrown at him, followed by either a heavy prison sentence or an indefinite stay in an insane asylum for observation and treatment.

The introduction of "Star-Lord" doesn't paint a pretty picture of Peter Quill at all--and when reaching its conclusion, it's very difficult to look forward to his adventures, much less sympathize with this borderline psychopath. In Marvel's second look at the character over a year later, editor John Warner seemed to acknowledge as much--reintroducing Star-Lord with a few changes, dumping the astrology angle, and smoothing his path to being the type of character who didn't react to personal setbacks by mowing down anyone who got in his way:

"We also set the story some bit of time after Starlord's first appearance so that we could make some alterations on Peter Quill's chracter. We did so because both Chris [Claremont] and I felt uncomfortable with Quill being quite as twisted as he was in the first story. However, I don't think we have contradicted anything in the first issue. Time and his new awareness have mellowed Quill out just a bit."

In the original story's preface--the ideal place for an author to get you stoked on the new character you're about to see--even Englehart appears to have difficulty finding the words to express what it is about Quill that you'll find interesting and compelling, in spite of a title that reads "The Starlord: Who He Is and How He Came To Be." In a full page with three columns of text, the subject of Quill isn't really broached until the point where the introduction is being wrapped up, and then only in words cautioning that Quill's journey in becoming this character is going to require some effort on our part to understand and accept. You may find that it's Quill himself who should first admit to that.

The Mastermind Of The Master Mold!

Around the time that the Hulk began undergoing psychoanalysis with Leonard "Doc" Samson, the monster was briefly borrowed from Gamma Base by writer Roger Stern to take part in the 1978 Hulk Annual--and it looks like he had some company along for the duration!

The issue is a bit of harmless fun for the reader, with no real impact on or consequences for the heroes involved in the story, as its conclusion makes perfectly clear. Stern also chooses two unusual co-stars for the issue: the Iceman and the Angel, former X-Men who are under the radar as far as characters you'd want to plunk down 60¢ for to see in their own story, to say nothing of an odd fit for a conflict involving the Hulk. But Stern crafts more of an adventure here that isn't meant to be heavy reading by any measure, a fine story for the Hulk fan who's picked up the mag wanting to see the rampaging Hulk beat the holy crap out of his foe.

And that beating may well start with his analyst.