Machine Man - The Living Robot!

After the departure of Jack Kirby from Marvel for the last time in the late 70's, he left two projects behind. Devil Dinosaur was cancelled and Machine Man was put on hiatus. It returned from hiatus following a high-profile guest-star appearance in The Incredible Hulk.

The series also returned with a new and talented team of creators. Steve Ditko is the other artistic pillar of the early Marvel era and along with Marv Wolfman as a scripter Ditko took on the Machine Man and made him distinctively Ditkoesque.

The first thing the team does is de-power Machine Man, taking away some of his gimmicks and presumably limiting his powers. As it turns out they largely ignore these changes going forward and as with the Kirby books, the Machine Man does pretty much what he needs to do to defeat the villain of the day such as the Binary Bug, a classic Ditko burglar type with a then trend-setting computer motif.

In a story which can only be considered weird, X-51 gives oddball birth to a quintet of humans/gods who attempt to enlighten their "father" before ascending into the heavens.  As I said, this one is weird all the way through.

More standard is the battle Machine Man has with Khan the master of the dirigible home dubbed "Xanadu". The crime lord wants X-51's body for his own purposes to evade mortality, but things don't go as he'd planned.

In the last Wolfman scripted tale, Machine Man has to battle a man pretending to be him (he's green on this cover so it doesn't make sense here)  and working to defend the city and his own reputation.

Tom DeFalco steps in as writer with the fifteenth issue and there is a feeling of greater pace almost immediately. Machine Man matches wits with the Fantastic Four (at least Thing and Torch) while battling a woman who has undergone a terrifying transformation.  We also meet Gears Garvin, a mechanic who comes to X-51' assistance when his legs are damaged.

Gears returns in the next issue when Machine Man must battle a full-blown super-villain named Baron Brimstone, a user of magic maybe and his two henchman who form the Satan Squad. This trio has a real old-fashioned Ditko feel to them.

In the next issue we meet Madam Menace, an arms dealer who covets Machine Man's body for profit. She schemes to get hold of him and loses. Rich Buckler is handling covers on the next few issues.

She returns in the next issue as X-51 comes into conflict with three members of Alpha Flight (Sasquatch, Northstar and Aurora) who are manipulated into the fight by the forgotten Senator Brinkman. This is his swan song as his role comes out and he is disgraced.

Issue nineteen is the last one and sports a handsome Frank Miller cover. Machine Man battle a new villain named Jack O'Lantern who reminded this reader mightily of Green Goblin. This is another slam bang action issue and at the end we have Machine Man reflective about his future.

Machine Man though was now firmly ensconced into the Marvel Universe and he'd show up in sundry places for many years. The final story by Ditko appeared of all places in Marvel Comics Presents and it features art by the great man which was slightly more exotic than his late 70's style. A robot wants access to Machine Man's parts and it's a hoot.

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Ditko Spotlight On Dragon Lord!

One of Steve Ditko's oddest additions to the Marvel Universe in his return engagement was Dragon Lord. Tako Shamata seeks to use control over ancient dragons to exact generational revenge. This creation debuted in Marvel Spotlight #5. (Ditko dominated this series in its short existence.)

It was supposed to be Godzilla that he took over for his vengeful ends. But Marvel lost the license to the great and powerful Big G, so some major monster adjustments had to be made by writer Marv Wolfman and artist Steve Ditko. 

I'm not certain that featuring Godzilla would've made this a better story or not. But certainly, Ditko's replacement called the Wani is a distinctive and worthy replacement. Reminds of those days when Toho couldn't put together Godzilla and Frankenstein in a movie and ended up with two better movies. 

Topped with a handsome cover by Frank Miller, this story has been reprinted and preserved to some degree. 

Turns out there are several Dragon Lords in the Marvel Universe and Ditko has drawn stories featuring two different ones. The second showed up in the pages of Fantastic Four Annual #16 and is a guy who is able to control the Dragon Man. 

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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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Starman - The Solar Sentinel!

Now I must confess that despite Steve Ditko's involvement with the feature of Starman, I mostly went to the quixotic Adventure Comics of this era for the Plastic Man feature by Mike Barr and Joe Staton. Staton I thought the ideal artist for Plas as my beloved E-Man by Staton and the late Nick Cuti had been partially inspired by Jack Cole's classic creation. But if I went to the dance for Plas, I wasn't to sad to spend a bit of time with Prince Gavyn, better known as Starman, one of a myriad of chaps who have held that title. 

The first was the Golden Age Ted Kight created by Gardner Fox and Jack Burnely for early issues of Adventure Comics, who discovered the power of the "Gravity Rod" and used it to become one of the more powerful superheroes of his time. Later dubbed the "Cosmic Rod" it was loaned to Star-Spangled Kid when a younger generation of heroes took charged of the Justice Society on what was once called Earth-2. What it's called today is anyone's guess. 

Gerry Conway and Mike Vosburg created a second Starman who alternately owes his name to the DC original or Ziggy Stardust or some variation of that. He lasted all of one issue of 1st Issue Special though later he was dusted off and made part of the larger DCU canon as a character who pushed the boundaries of not outer space but sexual orientation. 

The fourth Starman was eventually revealed to have become a superhero as a result of getting a charge of energy from Prince Gavin who was the Starman we are most focused on today. This Starman's career blossomed and wilted in the 1980's as recorded by Roger Stern and Tom Lyle among others. 

And finally (I think) the heritage of Ted Knight is returned to when both of his sons become Starman in turn. One is killed while the other has a reasonably long career in the 90's as reluctant hero. James Robinson was the writer and worked diligently to tie together the threads of a saga of "Starmen" from across a number of decades. 

The Starman that Ditko drew for DC was heavily inked by Romeo Tanghal and created by Paul Levitz. He gets a bit of inspiration visually from Ditko's own Captain Atom, created for Charlton with Joe Gill decades before I believe. Those sparkles on his costume give more than hint of his pedigree. 

The sparkly look was something used by Jim Starlin when he revamped another stellar superhero for Marvel Comics called logically enough Captain Marvel. The common blonde hair might also be a reminder of where these similar heroes hail from. 

Ironically enough (or by careful planning) after a somewhat decent run in Adventure Comics alongside Plas and later Aquaman, Starman's adventures come to an abrupt halt. He was a royal who had the ability to live in space and was tapped by an enigmatic alien to use two wristbands ("Nega Bands" anyone?) to channel stellar energy. He used these powers to protect a queen who was also his sister and to rescue many among them his true love another chick of royal blood. 

All this is undone when after the cancellation of the series the story is wrapped in DC Comics Presents and features Jim Starlin using Mongol as the villain who usurps the throne and kills the queen. Prince Gavyn becomes emperor, changes into blue duds and ends up teaming with Superman to not only defeated Mongol but destroying the empire itself which we learn was literally held together by the stellar force of the crown itself. Once free the assembled planets vamoose and the empire is no more but Gavyn is free to find love at long last. 

After the debut Ditko did not draw anymore Starman covers, but talents such as Jim Aparo, Joe Staton, Rich Buckler, Brian Bolland and Ross Andru did many, with the focus shifting among the heroes who shared the title at the time. Here are the covers from the Starman era. 

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Tyme For Man-Bat And The Demon!

When Gerry Conway left Marvel and joined up over at DC he was given his own little playground to toil in. In what was dubbed "Conway's Corner" we saw revivals of All-Star Comics featuring the Justice Society of America, Blackhawk, as well as new items like Firestorm (the hit of the program) and Code Name: Assassin. 

Then there was Man-Bat, a character dreamt up for the pages of Batman. Someone thought it would be a good thing to give him his own book. It lasted two issues. 

In the first issue (featuring a Jim Aparo cover) with a script by Conway, we are treated to pencils by Steve Ditko with heavy inks by Al Milgrom. In this strange debut issue, which throws the reader right into the ongoing storyline of the Man-Bat and his wife the She-Bat, we are introduced to Baron Tyme, a sorcerer who wants to make a slave assassin of She-Bat. Needless to say, Kirk Langstrom is not happy to see his wife so abused and takes efforts to forestall the threat. 

Batman makes a brief appearance in a vain attempt to stop Man-Bat, but the Dark Knight ultimately allows Langstrom to handle the threat his own way, which he does more or less. At least we get to see Ditko's version of the Batman, which is needless to say distinctive. Baron Tyme is defeated and seemingly sent into another dark dimension. Ditko would be replaced by Pablo Marcos for the second and final issue of the run. 

Four years later in 1979 both Baron Tyme and Steve Ditko return. This time the writer is Len Wein and he brings back Baron Tyme in the pages of The Demon, then currently running as a back feature in Detective Comics. Baron Tyme has been suffering since his last appearance, literally torn between two dimensions and he seeks the Eternity Book of Merlin to help solve his problem. The Demon takes exception, but it requires three chapters to finally subdue the Baron and remove his threat for all time. Steve Ditko's artwork is more vigorous this time out and his version of Jack Kirby's Demon is actually quite fetching and effective. 

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