The Mirror Attack'd

If you were a reader of the PPC three years ago, you might have felt you were left hanging after reading the story of Ilsa Strangway, a woman who struck a deadly bargain with Count Dracula for immortality and paid the price for her rash choice. Because while we indeed learned in full of the tragic fate of Ilsa after she came to realize her misguided conclusion regarding the bite of the vampire, there was another's fate left to be resolved--the fate of Dracula himself, who fell into Ilsa's trap by making use of a demonic mirror which he could step through in order to transport himself to another century. Ilsa had intentionally omitted crucial information regarding the mirror's operation--and Dracula, seeking escape from his enemies, made use of the mirror to vanish from their midst without knowing that he was headed toward his doom.

To complicate matters, there was one other who burst in just as Dracula was disappearing--Rachel Van Helsing's faithful aide, Taj, who grappled with Dracula just as the dark mirror's incantation was taking effect. Caught up in their struggle, neither of these men realize that the mirror is transporting them to a realm that will mean their deaths--the world of the demons who created it.

No, I don't know why Rachel feels compelled to point out at this moment that Taj is mute, or even that Taj is her servant. Does she think that Frank needs reminding of either?

The Dream and the Nightmare

Can YOU

Name This Marvel Villain??

Jack Kirby's Supplemental Covers, Circa 1976-1977

When artist Jack Kirby returned to Marvel in the late '70s, he chose to steer clear of those titles which readers might have hoped to see him take the reins of again (notably Mighty Thor and Fantastic Four) and instead focus on new projects--which put on his desk six monthly titles, a staggering workload for any artist to juggle, even without taking on the plotting and scripting work for these books that Kirby chose to assume as well. So it was interesting to see him go a step further and pitch in on doing cover work for a number of unrelated titles, including those books and characters he apparently didn't want to return to on a regular basis.

Given Kirby's schedule, as well as the fact that his return to the company turned out to be for only a brief period, the covers of any one title don't number very many; on the other hand, they ended up spanning across eleven or twelve different titles, and were quite the surprise when browsing the comics racks for any given month. In addition, they show a remarkable knowledge of the story material and characters within, accurately representing the events of the story and the stakes involved.

Following are just a few examples of Kirby's "extracurricular" cover work from this period, with some notes and observations after each set.

• Fantastic Four had probably the only set of covers that were a little disappointing, in comparison to those of Mighty Thor where Kirby seemed to have more regard for the character. On the one hand, Kirby is still a master at packing a great deal of imagery into his cover art and having it cover the gist of the entire story; yet the FF are less prominent on the covers, as if they're guest-stars in their own book.
• You'll also notice in his crowd scenes here and in other titles that Kirby, bless him, still rejects the notion that businessmen no longer wore hats in the 1970s. (Yes, even on Counter-Earth, Jack!) To paraphrase the old saying, "you can take the man out of the late-'50s/early '60s, but..."

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• I'm really fond of Kirby's Avengers cover art, since there are a variety of characters usually present for him to interpret. His rendering of the Vision always had me intrigued to see how he would handle the character in a story (ditto for Yellowjacket and the Scarlet Witch).
• There are instances here and in his Defenders covers where you'll notice another artist touching up Kirby's work, usually in facial or body features--perhaps to keep the covers coherent and avoid the look of reprints? Unless Kirby "got someone wrong" in a noticeable way, I don't quite understand the need; on the other hand, touch-ups by other artists coming in behind the original work weren't uncommon.
• Avengers #157: I always felt this cover was too cluttered, even though I appreciated the intention of showing a single, unnamed foe having downed the entire team of Avengers with no apparent difficulty. It's a clever way of putting the Avengers front and center, while still making the threat to them clear; nevertheless, it seems the type of cover that would be rejected in favor of another, something else which also happened from time to time.
• Avengers #156, showing Wanda's injured arm--a nod to the gunshot wound she sustained while fighting thugs at the Brand Corporation and which kept her arm in a sling for the duration of the Avengers' battles with Tyrak, Attuma, and Doom. Nice attention to the events of the story arc.

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• The last place I was expecting Kirby to show up while doing work on various other covers was The Defenders--meaning only that I can't help but wonder why he would take an interest in the book.
• No doubt "the suits" were happy to see Kirby continuing to feature the Hulk prominently, as it seemed to be the consensus that the Hulk was the book's draw and moneymaker (which may have well been true).
• Speaking of which, how curious that Kirby stayed clear of Incredible Hulk covers.

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• It seemed fitting to picture Thor #251 with Kirby's similar rendition of Hela's triumph eight years earlier in #150.
• You may have caught on to the resemblance between issue #249 and issue #434, one of a number of homage covers from artist Ron Frenz.
• Issue #255 was a natural for Kirby to wish to revisit. Were the Stone Men ever seen in comics again?
• I don't believe any of these late-'70s Thor examples were inked by Vince Colletta, which would have certainly brought us full circle.

See more of Kirby's supplemental cover work in this post's follow-up.

Return of the Leopard Lord!

OR: "Because You Demanded It!?"


During the three-issue pile-up where the Defenders were inundated with applicants for membership (thanks to an unauthorized documentary by Dollar Bill, an overzealous E.S.U. film student), one character was conspicuous in terms of the amount of name-dropping he received by writer David Kraft and appearances he made throughout the story--especially considering that Tagak, the Lord of Leopards, had only one earlier Marvel appearance to his name.

For whatever reason, Tagak was pulled out of the obscurity of his one-shot Daredevil tale, dusted off, and given a generous amount of attention (all things considered) in a new story nearly eight years after the fact--a story where his character had no real reason for being present, much less any reason for joining the Defenders. Though admittedly, it's hard to raise such a quibble in a story that's mostly done with a wink and in an atmosphere of "all in good fun." Perhaps the fascination lies in the fact that the choice settled on was Tagak, about as nondescript a character as you could find in comics.

Tagak is really only the "lord of leopards" for marquee purposes, his pairing with a leopard in his appearance in the 1971 Daredevil story being more complex than, say, what you would have with Ka-Zar and his tiger, Zabu.

As we learn here, Tagak hails from an other-dimensional world where presumably all of his race are blind; when traveling to other dimensions, they mentally link with a leopard which acts as their eyes on an unfamiliar world. Tagak had come to Earth in pursuit of Quothar, a thief who travels inter-dimensionally to steal artifacts and thus leaves a cold trail to follow--yet he reckoned without Tagak's people, who have had one of their own artifacts stolen and who can travel as he can. When he arrives on our world, Tagak is understandably disoriented--and it's only Opar, his leopard "guide," which allows him to proceed, though it's clear that Opar's protective instincts are no different than Zabu's.

Once Daredevil clears things up with Tagak, he acts as his wingman when Tagak returns to the site of Quothar's earlier theft in order to hopefully capture him. But with the museum's owner still convinced of Tagak's guilt in the thefts, things quickly go sour--and Tagak is deprived of his means of sight in our dimension.

Daredevil quickly spots Quothar and deals with him, and returns to find that Tagak, at least, has survived the encounter. With Quothar in tow, Tagak returned to his dimension--and that seemed to be that, until Tagak inexplicably showed up on the Defenders' doorstep with all the other applicants for membership.

Dollar Bill would no doubt be ecstatic at discovering that his documentary had received inter-dimensional exposure; but in all seriousness (if such a word could even apply to the story in question), it's mystifying how or even why Tagak would come to know about the Defenders, or why he would return without a leopard at his side to provide his sight, when he doesn't even have the ability of DD's radar sense to hold his own in conflicts with super-beings. Equally interesting is why either Kraft or artist Sal Buscema would take an interest in him, given that neither had any direct connection to the previous Daredevil story. In any event, Tagak, like the other applicants, eventually had the good sense to realize that the Defenders wasn't what he was looking for--that is, whatever that was.

It's Raining Defenders!

In a three-part story from 1978, the dynamic Defenders were forced to part with their anonymity as an under-the-radar informal super-group when they became the subjects of a broadcast documentary that not only outed them to the world and detailed their exploits, but also extended an open invitation for membership to any interested parties--acts taken without the knowledge of the Defenders themselves and, needless to say, entirely unauthorized. How do you think the Defenders reacted to this turn of events? Well, judging by the cover of the initial issue, the state of Nighthawk will probably give you an idea of how smoothly things went down.

Our aspiring filmmaker on the cover's corner is known as Dollar Bill, a film student at Empire State University who probably reads a little too much Variety and whose work as a filmmaker is likely destined to remain in the amateur category. Bill met the Valkyrie while she was taking a stab at attending college, and through her became aware of the Defenders while dealing with a brutal menace on campus known as Lunatik. Bill has a habit of pursuing his art without giving any thought to the possible consequences--and when he became further involved with the Defenders and their adventures, he must have thought he'd hit the mother lode as far as film-worthy subject material.

And so, on a day the Defenders aren't likely to ever forget, Bill makes a surprise announcement to the group of the completion of his documentary project, just as it's about to air as a television special. "Surprise" is without a doubt the word that applies here--but Nighthawk has a few other words for this budding nemesis who's wedged his foot in the Defenders' door.

As Nighthawk says, there's little to do now but watch the film and hope for the best. Dollar Bill of course is stoked that his art is receiving such attention, and his self-confidence is (as usual) off the charts, which gives Nighthawk and the others a cautious sense of anticipation. Do we dare tune in with them to watch this potential disaster?

Without confirming or denying the Hulk's misgivings as to the quality of Dollar Bill's documentary, let's just say that there might be a number of people in the room who want to "smash picture-box" by the time this little presentation is over.

As Doctor Druid Commands!

It was the mysterious Master of the Unknown, Doctor Druid, who played a part in the recovery of the Black Knight from the 12th century, conscripting the Avengers in a plan that also resulted in the Knight returning to his original body and free of the stone curse which the Enchantress had placed upon it. Hawkeye's parting words to Druid were less than cordial, due to Druid involving the Avengers without their consent: "Don't call us, curly--we'll call you." In hindsight, the team might have wanted to take Hawkeye's sentiments more seriously, given that it was Druid's actions that led to the dissolution of the Avengers under his later leadership of the team.

On the other hand, the Avengers were probably grateful that Druid had called on them fifty issues after their first meeting, when the Masters of Evil had laid siege to their mansion and had the Avengers at their mercy. Learning of the development from a news report, Druid took the opportunity to involve himself and repay his debt to them.

It was Druid's involvement that was crucial to the Avengers turning the tables on the Masters, since Druid overcame Zemo's near-mindless puppet, Blackout, and thereby allowed the Avengers to penetrate the Masters' defenses and fight back.

What happens to Druid--and to the Avengers--would hinge on both their continued development by writer Roger Stern and, unfortunately, his later departure from the book; and the point where things become complicated can perhaps be found in a pivotal scene involving Captain Marvel, a character that Stern created (with artist John Romita) and built from the ground up into one of the most exceptional Avengers the book had ever seen. That scene began with the Wasp resigning her long and very successful chairmanship tenure, and continues with the induction of Druid as an Avenger; but the more important moment would be when nominations are made for a new Chairman, and Stern's plans for Captain Marvel come full circle.

Reportedly, the direction that Stern takes the book in from this point became a concern for Editor Mark Gruenwald, who had a different approach he'd wanted Stern to take for both the Avengers and Captain Marvel. As we know, Marvel would eventually accept Cap's nomination and go on to distinguish herself as a strong, decisive leader of the team; yet Gruenwald had apparently wanted Marvel to come to the realization that she wasn't cut out for Avengers chairmanship, and pass the gavel to Cap. That led to a parting of the ways between Stern and Marvel, with Gruenwald correctly (if succinctly) boiling down the problem to "irreconcilable differences" between both men vis-à-vis the direction of the Avengers.

Stern's departure took place following the Avengers' return from Olympus, which occurred in the issue published in November of '87. Given that Gruenwald's conference with Stern and the other writers/editors had occurred in April (the month which featured the Avengers issue where the team defeated the Masters and reclaimed their mansion, or what was left of it), we can assume that plotting was already months ahead and work on the Olympus arc was near its completion by that time. Obviously, Captain Marvel was headed in quite the opposite direction which Gruenwald had in mind--and Stern's objections to doing an about-face on her character, by this point in her long development, become easier to put in perspective.

Not surprisingly, Stern's "good-bye," posted in the same letters page, wasn't nearly as deliberative as his former editor's remarks on the matter:

For what it's worth, Stern elaborates a bit on the subject in a later interview^*, which doesn't go into specifics to any detail but serves as an example that there are two sides to every dispute.

"I wound up at DC because I was fired from the Avengers and no Marvel editor was returning my calls.

"No, I take that back, I did get one call. Jim Salicrup had become the editor of the Spider-Man titles and he called me up and offered me work on Spectacular Spider-Man. But this was right after Spider-Man--well, Peter Parker--had gotten married to Mary Jane Watson, which I thought was a huge mistake for both characters. So I thanked Jim and asked him to give me a call if and when that fell apart.

"But I wasn’t disillusioned with Marvel, so much as I was disappointed in the place. I’d been working steadily for them for nearly twelve years, turning out stories that I thought were pretty good. The readership seemed to agree, and I’d never gotten any complaints from any of my editors. But then, suddenly, it was all over.

"I’d disagreed with one editorial suggestion about the Avengers line-up. My editor wanted a change that I thought distasteful, and I sent him a memo to that effect. I would have liked to have discussed the matter further, but I was never given a chance. Instead, I received a message that I was fired.

"And then, I discovered that my exclusive Marvel contract was pretty much worthless. Thanks to some wording in the fine print, I was required to deliver so many pages of material to Marvel in a given time, but Marvel wasn’t required to give me any assignments. An interesting Catch-22. Fortunately, the contract also had an escape clause, so I exercised it and went calling on Mike Carlin, who by that time had landed at DC."

^*From THE ROGER STERN INTERVIEW: The Triumphs And Trials Of The Writer by George Khoury, for the Marvel Masterworks Resource Page

As for Druid, it's interesting to watch his development both before and after Stern hands off the reins to first Ralph Macchio, who then passes the baton to Walt Simonson. Druid was a fascinating character to watch while Stern was still at the helm, and he seemed to fit in quite well with the team; but it seemed clear as early as Cap's nomination of Marvel for chairmanship that Stern had something in mind for Druid down the road.

Once Macchio began scripting (joined by Gruenwald at times), Gruenwald's plans for Marvel were jump-started, with Druid's off-hand comments and innuendo being the focal point for Marvel having doubts about her leadership abilities.

And as Simonson stepped aboard, the process accelerates, with Druid's ambitions beginning to manifest thanks to his seduction by a strange woman who invades his dreams and stokes his ego and desires.

Simonson's plot is nothing if not labyrinthine, with the mysterious woman's identity turning out to be an old enemy of the Avengers (et al.), Nebula, who's involved with "the Council of Cross-Time Kangs," a group which for the sake of your sanity we'll table for another, er, time. Basically, Nebula seeks to maneuver Druid into becoming the leader of the Avengers, which would in essence place them under her control in order to assist her in penetrating a "time bubble" and gaining access to a Celestial weapon.

Druid, in his haze, remains convinced of a deadly danger that only he has the wherewithal to lead the Avengers to battle. Nebula has corrupted him completely, though he remains ignorant of any duplicity.

The Avengers are at this time involved in a struggle to save the Sub-Mariner's wife, Marrina, who has evolved to savage, leviathan proportions and is rampaging among the world's oceans causing death and destruction. At last, Druid gets the opening he needs to seize leadership of the Avengers, when Captain Marvel overextends herself in an attack against the monster and dissipates much of her mass in the process, benching her indefinitely and certainly rendering her in no shape to swing a gavel. And when Marvel's parents are brought to her bedside, it provides the perfect setting for Druid to make his move.

Almost shockingly, Marvel nominates Druid as Chairman, though it's clear that Druid has subtly prodded her choice--nor does Druid hesitate to similarly coerce the remaining members thus, though he fails with Thor but seems in the clear when Thor declares he will abide by the decision of the majority. The "ayes" have it--and at long last, so does Druid.

Soon enough, Druid shows his true colors, yet with Nebula's help manages to enthrall both Thor and the She-Hulk and embark on the mission to the time bubble.

Captain Marvel, of course, is history (as an Avenger, and perhaps as the character that she held so much promise in becoming)--and by the end of Simonson's run, all but one of the active Avengers that Stern had put in place would be gone. If you're still hearing Druid's words ringing in your ears -- "...the Avengers have a new leader. And the future is going to be much different than anyone expects!" -- well, he nailed that forecast, didn't he?