Marvel Boy Day!

Mark Gruenwald was born on this date in 1953. Gruenwald loved comics and his work at Marvel in the 80's and 90's was remarkable in many ways. He took the Squadron Supreme and made them real. He co-created the DP7, arguably the best of the New Universe. But I most adore his work on Quasar, a hero for the time. Gruenwald gave depth of character to that rarest of things in comics in the 90's, a nice guy. 

It all began in the 50's with Marvel Boy. I always liked the over-the-top adventures of Marvel Boy, so when this Atlas era hero was revived in the Marvel Universe I was all for it.

I first ran across Marvel Boy in Marvel Tales alongside Spidey, Thor, and Torch. He was a cool looking hero as rendered by the slick Bill Everett. I liked the hokey adventures then, but I have to confess reading a whole batch of them, the weaknesses in the storytelling really show up.

The thing is that Marvel Boy was a series that seemed to almost have a new premise each issue and often each story. He began as a space warrior, a displaced Earther from Uranus who came back to his home planet to save us from ourselves and from alien threats. But the desire to put out horror material changed Bob Grayson into a battler of ghosts, ghouls, and vampires. Some of those were real, some were bogus. He had a partner in the beautiful circus performer turned secretary Starr Ryder, and then she just disappeared. He was an insurance investigator and then that background seemed to fade. Even his name as Marvel Boy dissolved as the series developed.

He was drawn by greats like Russ Heath and the aforementioned Bill Everett. But despite the handsome gloss of the stories and some really genuinely exciting moments, the series was seriously uneven. It seemed torn between slamming the Commies in one tale about water on Uranus and then finding for real vampire queens in another set in Italy. Each story had its charms and weaknesses but taken as a whole the mind boggled as the reading unfolded.

I still adore Marvel Boy, he's a character in search of the right circumstances, but he appeared at a time when sadly he was not allowed to become all he might have been. Or perhaps they were just trying desperately to find a formula that worked, but alas none of them seemed to have time to catch hold.

Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott

George Perez and Joe Sinnott
Marvel Boy returns in a Bronze Age two-part story from Fantastic Four #164 and #165 (written by Roy Thomas and drawn magnificently by George Perez and Joe Sinnott) featuring the reemergence of Bob Grayson into the Bronze Age of Marvel Comics, and dubbing himself "The Crusader".

It's a tragic tale, but it's an important one as this story set up scores of stories dealing with the technology which powered Marvel Boy, and this was the same equipment which made the career of Wendell Vaughn, later called "Quasar" so important. No superhero at Marvel was more intriguing to my mind than Quasar. This saga created by Mark Gruenwald, of nice guy trying his best to finish first, but always trying to do good was a ray of sunshine in a decade of comics overwrought with over-sized pistols and abundant bladed weapons.

Quasar was a great superhero, a hero who properly carried on the legacy of another superhero by the name of Marvel Boy.

When Marvel decided to revive him he was a bit of a joke as part of a special SHIELD strike force called the "Super-Agents" in the pages of Captain America, but he evolved beyond that being the only hero in the lot worth the name. Wendell Vaughn went on to become part of the Pegasus Project in Marvel Two-In-One and took the name Quasar and a new hero was well and truly born.

He was a throwback, a decent guy trying to do good. In the Marvel Universe ruled by Wolverines and Punishers, Quasar seemed quaint and naive, but in the capable hands of Mark Gruenwald, he became something aspirational. He was a hero, a man intent on helping the world become better and he has a nice somewhat retiring personality to go along with his sincere motivations.

The character went thought many a change and transformation along the years, especially after the untimely death of his co-creator Gruenwald. But during the 90's no superhero spoke to my heart like Quasar, a good and decent man trying to do the right thing. Isn't that supposed to be what a hero is?

Rip Off

Cannon Day!

Happy Birthday to comic legend Wally Wood.  Wood, born on this date in 1927 was among the giants in the comic book field. His lovely dames were intoxicating to look at. Wood was a complicated chap and seemed always to be looking for something better. He is much imitated and his efforts to find new markets for comics were pioneering. 

Cannon is in many ways Wally Wood's most mature creation. That might sound odd given the prurient nature of many of the panels laced both with brutality and with unmitigated misogyny.

These rough and tumble adventure comic strips were originally produced beginning in 1971 for The Overseas Weekly, a newspaper for American soldiers stationed across the world. This is a mature audience indeed. I've always considered it the underground version of the THUNDER Agents.

Cannon is a "man's man", which mostly means he uses guns proficiently, is not afraid of a fight and does so, and treats women abominably in a morally ambiguous "cold war" of both personal and international proportions. That's not to say that some of the women he confronts aren't dangerous, but there's little doubt in Cannon's world that women are for screwing, whether you are screwing them or they are screwing you, both figuratively and literally.

The violence in Cannon is rugged, though hardly graphic by any modern definition. This is after all Wally Wood, and his lean craftsmanship shines through always in glorious black and white. The spare orderliness of Wood's designs give the rugged world of Cannon a handsome veneer which makes it seem less grotesque than it actually is.

I first ran across the Cannon saga in four of Wally Wood's over-sized self-published comic magazines from the late 70's and early 80's. As the covers proclaim, these are for "Adults Only" and that's true enough. The sex and violence, which blends into a sado-mashochistic mishmash at times is not for the kiddies. These are comics, but not those kind of comics.

What they are though is highly recommended and nigh essential reading for any Wood fan.

The volume also includes the color Cannon precursor stories produced independently by Wood with penciling help from Steve Ditko in Heroes Inc. Presents Cannon  There are two issues, the one below from 1969 and a later volume from 1976 from the CPLGang. Both stories, one in splendid color and one in glorious black and white are included. Given the format designed to showcase the comic strip  they reproduced somewhat smaller than the ideal, but it's good to have them. (Note: These Heroes Inc. Cannnons are also available at more than full-size in Vanguard's Dare-Devil Aces. Commandos & Other Sagas of War.)

Cannon is rough, Cannon is tough, but Cannon is worth it.

Rip Off

Strikeforce Morituri Day!

Brent Anderson was born on yesterday's date in 1955. I first became aware of his work when he was the artist of Ka-Zar the Savage. But I grew to love his work when he drew Strikeforce Morituri, a series he co-created with writer Peter B. Gillis. He has been the key interior artist on Kurt Busiek's Astro City series since its inception nearly two decades ago. 

Vyking, Radian, Adept, Blackthorn, Marathon and Snapdragon are the names. Strikeforce Morituri was one of the finest comic book series in the history of the medium. It seems a little obvious now, but in the 80's such realistic storytelling was an up and coming thing. Science fiction was notoriously a low-sales effort for comics, for whatever reason. Though science fiction concepts underlay nearly all superhero series to some degree, the pure stuff did not find purchase save for a few clear exceptions, usually linked to movie or TV franchises.

But Strikeforce Morituri pushed into all of that. Adult-themed stories set firmly in a science fiction setting and gave us a delightfully fresh take on superheroes. One of the failings of most superhero books is the limited motivation which makes the heroes take such risks. They are given altruistic attitudes which work well enough but don't really speak to the broad spectrum of human motivations. This book dives right into that and gives us a range of answers to the question of why risk your life for others. In fact it goes further and asks why one would willingly and knowingly lay down your life for others. The reasons are patriotism, self-aggrandizement, love of family, and more.

These stories by writer Peter B. Gillis and artist Brent Anderson are superb. The pacing is amazing as we meet and follow the "heroes" involved with the Morituri process. Inker Scott Williams adds some wonderful gloss and Whilce Portacio steps in on a few issues to help out. This first volume collects up the first year of the series, thirteen issues which give us the stories of of these young people who could die at any moment. Some of them do as we see in the very first issue which shows the "Black Watch", the first humans to undergo the process and attack the invaders.

And now volume two. 

Scaredycat, Scatterbrain, Toxyn, Backhand, Hardcase, Sheer, Backhand, Silencer, Brava and Wildcard -- these are the names of the Morituri who followed the first generation. In the latter issues of the series we follow them and see as some of them come to the end of their personal stories. To my mind the saga of Strikeforce Morituri lasts twenty issues. That's when writer Peter B. Gillis and artist Brent Anderson leave the title. They have told the stories of the original volunteers and the second and third generations who sacrifice themselves for their fellow men. None end in quite the way you'd have imagined and that's the cold beauty of this story which makes you feel for these characters very deeply as they confront the ultimate. Not all the individual stories end by the time Gillis and Anderson leave the saga. The story goes on by other hands and it's fine, but it never felt like the same series to me.

I have been rather vague in my reviews of this series because it's crucial that the reader come to it without being spoiled. Don't cheat yourself, get some and enjoy!

Rip Off

Father's Day -The Super Sons!

The Super-Son stories by Bob Haney and Dick Dillin in some selected issues of World's Finest are a delight. Bob Haney had the uncanny knack to make even the most ludicrous concept click, and he did that with these tales of the offspring of the World's Finest team. The mothers of these fine young men are kept in the shadows but most likely are Lois Lane (of course) and Kathy Kane (Batwoman). The idea I guess was to keep the iconic looks of Superman and Batman but infused with a younger more unrestrained youthful vigor. Dick Dillin (assisted by a cavalcade of inkers - Henry Scarpelli, Vince Colletta, Tex Blaisdell, John Calnan) draws these two young heroes with the clean handsome faces he's so adept at depicting. These boys are heroes but brimming with idealism (not unlike the youth of their day) but often are betrayed by their lack of experience. 

The boys are revealed ultimately, many years after the actual end of the series to have been products of a computer program which predicted a world with the kids of the Cape and the Cowl. It's a nice rationale, but something in me prefers the Haney approach of unapologetic rip-roarin' storytelling. Haney didn't need to explain the hows because his stories rolled along at such a clip that you often didn't have time to ask.

Here are the covers for the appearances of the boys including some of their later post-crisis looks. The trade which reprints these stories is a real gem, something any fan of the DC Bronze Age can enjoy.

Rip Off