I don't know that it ever got weirder in superhero comics than when the Defenders were battling the bizarre and utterly dangerous Headmen.
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| Larry Lieber and Vince Colletta |
The seventh issue of
Weird Wonder Tales was a book that was on my must-find and must-buy list for a few years after I learned that in those zesty reprint pages the vintage tales which spawned the notorious Headmen, of Defenders fame, first showed up together. It was this particular comic, which according to Marvel lore, inspired Steve Gerber to take a trio of the characters and fabricate a gang of opponents for his Non-Team.
The trio (Dr.Arthur Nagan, Chondu the Mystic, and Dr.Jerry Morgan) were joined by Ruby Thursday a few issues after their debut and the Headmen were complete. This gang of completely oddball but still dangerous personalities first battled the Defenders in issue twenty-one. The Headmen apparently too strange to feature on the cover.
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| Gil Kane and Klaus Janson |
The original trio first showed their...ahem...heads in the following Atlas classics.
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| (Dr. Jerry Nagan - Gorilla Man) |
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| (Chondu the Mystic) |
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| (Dr. Jerry Morgan - Shrunken Bones) |
The Headmen were wildly entertaining, bizarre and compelling. I miss villainy of this truly weird type, and I find from time to time I miss the offbeat writing of Steve Gerber.
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I found the Headmen stories in the Defenders too wierd for my teen sekf and pretty much stopped reading the Defenders at that point However, I recently reread those issues again and found them entertaining. I had no idea they were originally used in Atlas comics
ReplyDeleteGerber was over my head too. I appreciate him more today than back then.
DeleteAs much as I enjoyed The Defenders before Steve Gerber took over, I REALLY loved the book once he came on board. There was still plenty of superhero goodness there, plenty of but satire & weirdness as well. And in the midst of all that, he could still deliver poignant, deeply human stories about the people who wore the costumes & masks - Trish Starr's story, for example.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree. I balked when Gerber came aboard the series back in the day, but those stories are outstanding today.
DeleteRuby Thursday was a pretty bizarre-looking character. The opposite of a pinhead? Morgan was a bit odd, too.
ReplyDeleteNagan was my favorite. The human head on an ape body is a memorable image. None of them are forgettable, which was the point, just like a great carnival sideshow.
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