Children Of The Atom!

Captain Atom created by Steve Ditko and Joe Gill for Charlton Comics, is almost certainly the most famous and most enduring of the many superheroes who were born of the atomic age. He was the very byproduct of an atomic blast, a man transformed by the destructive power of an atomic bomb into something which could use atomic power for the betterment of the world. But while he was the most famous, he was hardly the only hero. 

From Atoman by Jerry Robinson from Spark in 1946 to Radioactive Man from Bongo in 1996, here are fifty years of fun-loving characters who adore nothing so much as to play with the very fabric of nature and reality. But then, that's what comics are all about anyway Enjoy a good look at these four-color "Children of the Atom"!

More Atomic Action tomorrow!

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Doctor Weird Day!

Jim Starlin was born on this date in 1949. He made his mark at Marvel with stellar runs on Captain Marvel and Warlock. His creation of Thanos has given the MU a villain worthy of the entire universe itself. Starlin's The Death of Captain Marvel is one of Marvel's finest productions and that death has never been undone to my knowledge. But before all that, there was Doctor
Weird. 

Created by Howard Keltner, a fan-talent and part of the "Texas Trio", Dr. Weird has gotten a life in comics outside his fanboy beginnings. Keltner is not timid about saying that Mr. Justice, the old MLJ hero was Weird's inspiration.

I first chanced on the good Doctor in a Caliber Comics reprint of vintage Dr. Weird stories by now-famous writer George R.R. Martin and now-famous comics artist Jim Starlin. They kindle with the robust energy of youth and have a vigor and life missing from most modern comics, overcome by ironic commentary. Starlin's artwork is very like the stuff he first showed up at Marvel with on Iron Man and Captain Marvel, a fusion of Kirby and Kane and others, a synthesis of what was good in comics art at the time. The special reprints the contents of the two Dr. Weird issues published by Keltner along with a few other short tales.

The stories are a blend of science and sorcery. The Doctor is a lost time traveler who dies before he was born creating a paradox that gives him a weird unlife in which he's given the mission to use vast powers to help mankind in the 20th century. The threats are cults and demons and whatnot, vaguely Lovecraftian with a comics twist.

Dr. Weird got a few issues from Caliber of new adventures but these don't have the same magic somehow. Then he was folded into the Big Bang universe and had some fun things happen there. I've seen a few other issues advertised but I don't have those.

He's also shown up at Hamster Press in some classic reprints from the 60's with artwork Landon Chesney and others, really fine stuff. Howard Keltner his creator apparently sold the rights to the Big Bang guys, but I don't know where they reside now since Keltner passed away. Dr. Weird is good reading for fans of vintage comic book heroes and fans of Jim Starlin. 

When Jim Starlin broke into Marvel, he brought with him a new character named Drax the Destroyer. Drax was introduced in the pages of Iron Man, but soon became a central part of the battle against Thanos, the Mad Titan. 

Here we see Jim Starlin's Drax the Destroyer in full on destroyin' mode as he attacks the Mad God Thanos with Death looking on. Since Drax is risen from the dead and Thanos worships death, it's a most appropriate image. This is the classic Drax, the original design which I have to believe was based in part on Dr.Weird, a fanzine hero Starlin had worked on previously.

Here's that double page spread from Captain Marvel #32 in all its original black and white glory. Beautiful!

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Marvel's Space-Born Super-Hero Day!

Happy Belated Birthday to Gene "The Dean" Colan who was born on the first day of September in 1926. Colan was a fabulous artist for Marvel, breaking out on Daredevil and later such works as Guardians of the Galaxy and The Avengers. I will always adore Colan for his fantastic work on Doctor Strange and Marvel's Space-Born Superhero - Captain Marvel. 

I simply adore the Captain Marvel - Marvel's Space-Born Super-Hero. That adoration is no doubt to a degree the result of nostalgia. Captain Marvel was my first "favorite" comic book character. I started reading him with his debut issue and continued to do so for decades.

Those earliest episodes though, the more solidly science fiction ones are my favorites. The later cosmically aware hero is dandy, but the sci-fi warrior from the distant planet Kree, a secret agent among Earth's humans, here to take our measure and deciding ultimately to fight for us against his own people, that's the guy I fell for, that's the hero I admire.

The stories in this trade paperback Masterworks volume collect pretty much all of Cap's first wave. Here is merely a Kree warrior sent to Earth in wake of the Fantastic Four encountering the Sentry and then Ronan the Accuser. For more on the Sentry see this link.

He finds himself hidden in plain sight as Dr. Walter Lawson, a man with plenty of secrets whose identity gives Mar-Vell access to some of the most powerful weapons at an American rocket base. He struggles to fulfill his mission of espionage and battle threats from the likes of the Super Skrull, the Sub-Mariner, the Metazoid, Solamm, Quasimodo, and others, all the while surviving the manipulations of his devious commander Yon-Rogg. And there's his girlfriend Una too to attend to.


Mar-Vell is a man, a soldier in a faraway land who wants to be loyal to his society, but finds himself torn as the orders he is often given make little sense, seem callous and needlessly cruel. He begins to identify with the population he has hidden himself among, finding a kinship with the enemy as it were. He is a soldier in crisis, on a mission he doesn't understand, fighting a foe he doesn't hate. If that sounds screwy in 1967 and 1968 it is, and for a whole American generation being commanded to fight a spurious war in a faraway land, such ideas were potent. There's a lot to grok in the early days of Captain Marvel, that's for sure.

The series features the work of some of Marvel's best, starting with scripts by the big man himself Stan Lee, who created the character under direct orders from Martin Goodman, to monopolize the most logical name for a superhero the Marvel Universe could have. Gene Colan was tapped as artist and was inked by Frank Giacoia, Paul Reinman, and Vince Colletta. Colletta stayed on board as Don Heck stepped in to take the artistic reins. Roy Thomas had taken over the writing, but gave way to Arnold Drake after several issues. Lots of diverse hands were certainly involved in this alien saga.

It's pretty clear that Captain Marvel was a character who did not find the sales success they wanted as they began to tinker with his premise pretty quickly. The original set-up pretty much dwindles away by the end of the stories in this volume. In this one we see the alien soldier try to remain true to his oaths as well as to the basic decency this warrior of the Kree feels for us mere humans.

Roy Thomas in his introductory essay admits to the quiet echoes of Superman, an alien come to Earth and  getting some powers and living secretly among us. It's a great premise and this variation is intriguing in many ways. It's too bad it didn't yield better sales. Roy also admits to giving Cap his distinctive green and white color scheme, an offbeat look I love. Roy hates it and soon as we all know he'll ditch it for the more common blues and red and yellow.

But in this volume it's all the green and white soldier born in space. Good stuff!

Here's a gallery of the covers of the comics inlcuded included.

NOTE: This is a Dojo Revised Classic Post. 

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Gene "The Dean" Colan at the height of his powers was a compelling comic book artist, able to blend mundane reality with the utterly fantastic in a way which made you believe. His layouts were sometimes arcane, but his ability to draw real people was nearly unmatched. Here we have sundry examples of his work on Marvel's Space-Born Superhero, Captain Marvel. Vince Colletta, often derided and dismissed, really brings out the the best in Colan in these samples and adds a necessary snap to the pages.

 Mar-vell-ous stuff indeed!

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