Marvel Spotlight On Ditko!

In the latter part of the 70's and into the early 80's Steve Ditko returned to working for Marvel. Ditko did not want to return to characters he was famous for helping to fashion over a decade before, so he worked on the outskirts of the Marvel Universe and did fill-in jobs. One comic he worked on was one of the final Captain Marvel stories before the famous Jim Starlin graphic novel which resulted in the death of Mar-Vell. The story appeared in the fourth issue of the revived Marvel Spotlight and was written by Marv Wolfman using a plot by Archie Goodwin. Ditko delivers a wild adventure which has Mar-Vell journey to a distant shadow dimension to battle some rough looking creatures. The story feels very much like one Ditko himself might've delivered for Doctor Strange some years before. 

For me it was a treat to see Ditko draw this version of Captain Marvel, a character revised by Jim Starlin years before to resemble in many ways Ditko's own Captain Atom. 

Ditko joined forces with Michael Fleisher to create a fill-in issue for Daredevil. To my knowledge Ditko had only ever drawn DD one time, and that was in The Amazing Spider-Man where the Man Without Fear guest-starred, still wearing his early yellow and red togs. In this one DD loses his memory and becomes a boxer, but when he's approached to take a dive for a criminal, he turns down the offer as did his tragic father long before. Dito even gets to draw that early version of DD's outfit in one panel. 

And finally, Ditko returned to one character he had been instrumental in developing and that was The Incredible Hulk. This story by Bill Mantlo was not a fill-in as it fitted the continuity, but it does give artist Sal Buscema a break on the character. The Hulk comes up against some hunters he doesn't care for and ends up being driven into the depths of a mountain by an avalanche where he encounters a solitary Jack Frost. Frost dislikes being disturbed and he and the Hulk mix it up. 

I'll have more on some of Ditko's other Marvel later outings in upcoming posts. 

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