But just how arresting was Marvel Comics' output in this month of exactly fifty years ago?
Here's where we dribble off up the wing and find out.
I must have read this tale in Essential Avengers Vol One but can recall absolutely nothing at all of it or of what happens in it.
I don't even remember the Minotaur.
Was he man?
Was he machine?
Was he monster?
Was he a strange amalgam of all three?
Was he even a he?
Hooray! The Stilt-Man makes his debut and sets out to elevate himself into the highest ranks of Marvel villaindom.
Sadly, he fails miserably but you can't help but have a soft spot for him, however impractical his powers.
And he did at least lend himself to dramatic covers.
For me, this is where the FF's great era begins, as our heroes have to battle on without their super-powers as Dr Doom takes control of the Baxter Building.
I believe this is the one where Thor fights the Demon in a somewhat one-sided smackdown, as they say in Asgard.
The Spider-Slayer makes its first appearance.
Maybe it's just me but I have always felt that any story featuring the Spider-Slayer can be safely avoided without fear of missing anything interesting.
Dr Strange is back to getting fifty percent of the cover space. Surely it can't be long before the Torch and Thing are finally driven from the cover, never to return.
Admittedly, I've been saying this every month for about three years but one day I'll be proven right.
"If one picture is worth a thousand words, just imagine what these TWO pictures are worth!" declares the blurb.
I suspect that would be two thousand words.
But now I can't get Telly Savalas' music career out of my head.
What a terrible price to pay for loving comics.
I genuinely have no idea what happens in either of the tales in this issue. I do like the drawing of Giant-Man though.
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4 comments:
I feel the exact same way about the spider slayers, all they ever slew was my interest!
The Avengers #17 was one of the first Silver Age back issues I ever bought, for the princely sum of £1.50, so it holds a special place in my heart - even though it's not a particularly great comic. It's the first adventure for "Cap's Kooky Quartet" as they go Hulk-hunting in "the desert". ( *Spoilers!* They don't find him. )The Minotaur is supposedly the original beast and the inspiration for the legends. The Avengers defeat him by trapping his horns in a rockfall ( ouch! )and the Scarlet Witch advises the team that, if separated from his horns, "death will soon follow". How she became such an expert on Minotaur biology, God only knows...
You get intimations of it earlier, but I think you're right about that FF being the issue where it really takes off. Thor also started to get seriously good around this point too, although that particular issue isn't the best example - it must be one of the last of the "classic" Marvel red scare/anti communist stories (well, not including Iron Man).
Without wanting to get into a Stan v Jack thing, I reckon that's really down to Kirby. People tend to talk about this stuff in terms of the 60s and 70s or Marvel and DC, which can obscure a ten year creative surge from around '65 onward, taking in the classic FF and Thor and the Fourth World. Amazing.
-sean
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