The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 922: Avengers v.1 #249, November 1984

I will say this of the early 80s Marvel stuff I've been reading over the last little while: the beginnings of the continuity-heavy storytelling that has plagued the industry for decades now definitely gets its beginnings here. I've written elsewhere (and incompletely) about the crossover series , but these days I find myself coming to the conclusion that such "Events" (as they're now called), though epic and possibly even great stories, are still unfortunately disseminated through a model of capital, which means access to the complete story (whatever that might mean) is the province of the wealthy. It's not a new thought, for certain. The relationship between the narrative side of comics (that being the stories and those who create them) and the commercial side (those who own the characters and profit from that ownership) has always been contentious. I often find myself conflicted, because there's little, if anything, that happens outside of the system of capital nowadays, so corporate ownership and control is simply a fact of life. But then there's the argument for the greater cultural value of such works. Comics endure. There have literally been cultural attempts to destroy the medium, but there is something remarkable and powerful about it.

I'm getting off topic.

Today's issue is a crossover with events transpiring in Walt Simonson's Thor. This is, similar to Miracleman, one of those legendary superhero runs about which I have next to no awareness. Thor gets turned into a frog, I think. What I have read of Mr. Simonson, mostly in his also-lauded run on Fantastic Four, tells me that he understands and embraces the madness of the superhero universe. And that's something that I admire immensely in any creator - a willingness to commit to the irrational. It's part of what pushes these stories toward myth, I think.

Tomorrow, we finally get to an annual that was written by Roger Stern. And, I've just read in one of the solicitation pages in today's comic that it's pencilled by Steve Ditko and inked by John Byrne. Promises to be a pretty spectacular comic, I think. To be continued.