The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1935: Marvel Two-In-One #71, January 1981

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Featured creator Ron Wilson has shown up numerous times in the project, though I don't know that I've ever spent that much time thinking about his art. Mr. Wilson illustrated the Masters of the Universe comic produced by Marvel's Star Comics, but is better known for his tenure with The Thing, stretching over today's series and Ben Grimm's solo series from the late 80s. I used to have a fair chunk of that series too, but it's disappeared from the collection over the years somehow.

Mr. Wilson's work definitely hearkens to the 70s Marvel style for me - there's a lot of Rich Buckler in there, I think, though I'm really only beginning to appreciate some of the nuance that the artists of that period (the Bronze Age, I suppose) bring to the characters. There's much more of a cleaving to a "house style" during this era, so one has to look very closely to note the differences individual artists put into these characters. For Mr. Wilson, I say there's a lot of Rich Buckler there, but beneath that there's a fair bit of Kirby as well, though perhaps that has more to do with the house style than it does Ron Wilson's particular personal style.

What can I say about the comic otherwise? I really like the Marvel Two-In-One run from this era, especially when Tom DeFalco takes over. I've never really been a big fan of The Thing, but these team-up comics place him in interesting situations and remove him, for the most part, from the larger team dynamic within which he is usually presented. I think it allows us to see Ben Grimm for who he actually is, rather than as back-up for his more dynamic team mates. And it doesn't always work out well, as Grimm's derogatory attitudes toward Native Americans in the Marvel Two-In-One annual I reviewed here, attests. Ben gets better as the years roll on, as, one hopes, does the society that has produced his stories. I find that he's one of the Marvel heroes whose character development is most striking over the course of his existence. While some characters have remained pretty much how they were first portrayed (I'm thinking about Quicksilver, who shows up in this comic), the Thing undergoes quite radical shifts of his perspective. Can we make some preliminary suggestions over the relative traditional monstrousness of a character and their ability to grow and change? Is someone like Ben Grimm, as a result of his appearance, forced to shift and change his personality more than someone who looks stereotypically "normal?"

And just so we're clear here, Grimm then becomes a rather adroit metaphor for the very people whose uprisings I'm here supporting. And that's where our problems begin.

More to follow.

Further Reading and Related Posts

If you're interested in Marvel's young readers output in the 80s, have a look at the Star Comics stuff I've reviewed.

And for some of the Thing's team-based adventures, here's the reviews of the Fantastic Four that I've posted.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1714: Masters of the Universe #3, September 1986

One thing I am curious about is whether or not the artists on these toy-related series had any prior knowledge of the toys that were coming out. I remember when Hordak's Slime Pit was released, but I wonder how close to the release of that toy this comic showed up, similarly with the Meteorbs from last issue. Given the amount of time that a comic takes for production, is it possible that the toys had been out for some time, which would make the comic a reminder of their existence, or is this more a preview of things to come, which would suit the advertisement aspect of the comic far better.

It doesn't really matter, but I find that's the case with so many things that fascinate me. I often think that if I wasn't so drawn to things of ephemeral importance in our society, I'd probably be in a much better state than I am these days. But there's something about the things we throw away, and about the people who love them so much, that I just can't leave behind.

I'm missing two issues of this series, and as nostalgia increases for people of my age, they're harder and harder to track down. I'd like to because I really do think this is the most pure iteration of the characters and series, outside perhaps of the mini-comics that came with the original toys. While the Star series, and the cartoon it's based upon, humanize the characters somewhat, the mini-comics tend to treat the characters far more archetypally, which is perhaps a better way of approaching them. Each character is defined by a single aspect (Triclops, Beastman, Man-At-Arms), a way of thinking about characters that is much more in line with pantheonic thinking, rather than human. If they're Masters of the Universe, shouldn't there be something godly about them? The Star comics series, in giving them more human personalities, takes these aloof gods and renders them much more like the Greek pantheon. Neither is necessarily a bad take on archetypal beings.

"The Slime Pit has exploded! And there, coming through the debris, is He-Man!"

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1713: Masters of the Universe #2, July 1986

I've waxed lyrical about the Star Comics Masters of the Universe before, so what better title that this to kick off a week exploring Marvel's all-ages comics line from the mid-80s. Much like the Transformers and G.I.Joe titles that preceded it, this comic has to wrestle with being both story and prolonged advertisement, and writer Mike Carlin handles this divide with grace. There is the introduction, on an issue-by-issue basis, of new toys and characters, a problem that plagued the Transformers comic to such an extent that I actually stopped buying it at one point. Unfortunately the point that I stopped buying the comic was just as the popularity of the franchise was starting to wane, and the stories were much less dependent on cleaving to the toys. The same happens with MOTU, and by the last couple of issues (which I reviewed a few years back) the attention to the toys has all but disappeared. Not quite the case with today's early issue, but the fact is that the story, action, dialogue, characters, are all very nicely realized, with the advertisement becoming something of a backdrop to the action.

I really love this series, though part of me is wondering if my youthful attachment to it maybe had something to do with the muscular main character and his distinct lack of much clothing...

"I too crave vengeance on the blond one--..and perhaps together we can destroy both of our enemies for all time!"

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 906: The Adventures of the Thing #4, July 1992

When I read the first page of this issue, it read to me like an interaction from The Venture Brothers. Which, of course, is a parody of just this kind of superhero story and series, but it occurred to me that, through parody like VB, it's possible for a Fantastic Four comic to become a retroactive parody of itself. If that makes any sense.

This is a nice little rarity in the life of the malodorous Man-Thing. Rather than a constant state of pain due to the incessant fear that seems to follow him around, the swamp creature instead basks in the radiance of Ben Grimm's heroic nature. There are so many moments in this comic that really are textbook cases of the hyperbolic nature of superhero storytelling. A rooftop Oscar-moment facing the setting sun, flashbacks of old war stories while staggering half-dead, refusing to give up. And, truly, they're glorious. It's over the top and ridiculous, a story of extremes, in art and in letters. I think it may rank as one of my favourites of this era, and reaffirms my opinion of Marvel Two-in-One and writer Tom DeFalco's tenure on the title. They're really, really good.

To be continued.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 782: Masters of the Universe #1, May 1986

I've waxed lyrical about the end of this series already, a fantastic story pencilled by today's featured creator, Ron Wilson, so I thought we'd look at the beginning of the series as well. Unfortunately, it pales in comparison quite a bit. I mentioned in my previous posts on this series that it's only when a toy-based comic gets to a point where the toys upon which it was based are no longer popular that the characters and story can actually come out from beneath the marketing and flourish. At the time of this first comic's appearance, He-Man and his compatriots were still popular enough to have a television series and a still-lucrative toy line. Though the series is only 13 issues long, it was published bi-monthly, so we're seeing 2 years worth of comics. And 2 years can be a long time in the life of a children's toy. By the time 1988 rolls around, and "Lifetime" is presented in the final issues of the series, the toy line was winding down. Hence the good story.

This is, of course, not to say that today's story was necessarily bad, only that it was definitely skewed toward showing the toys to kids, rather than telling them a story. We get two views of castles in this issue, one of Greyskull and one of Skeletor's lair, Snake Mountain. And they are, quite literally, views of what the toy versions of those locations would look like if placed on a rocky, barren landscape. I know this not only because I've seen the toys, but because I had them way back when. Even at the issue's end, when He-Man is trapped in Hordak's "Fright Zone," the creature that attacks him looks literally like the hand puppet that comes with that set. While this might be good for advertising, some creative license needs to be taken in depicting toys as dynamic objects within a narrative.

Mr. Wilson's depictions of these toys, however, are very accurate, and given the ridiculousness of the characters he's been given to draw, he does a decent job of trying to twist someone like Leech, a character who drains life energy through suction cups on his hands, though the toy version simply has large flat suction cups for hands - how exactly does he do anything else? He looks like the toy in the comic, but really looks like he wouldn't survive long trying to do anything other than stick to a window. This said, it's also the first issue of the series. I imagine that rather than doing character design work, Mr. Wilson was simply given reference pictures of the toys and told to go to.

Masters of the Universe continues to be a popular franchise, though mostly with those who enjoyed the toys as kids, and in the later series of the story it gets a bit of a grit-washing in order to appeal to those grown fans. But the Wilson/Carlin iteration of the series was the longest-running comic during the first run of both toy and cartoon, and therefore holds an important place in the history of the franchise.

To be continued.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 420: Masters of the Universe (Marvel) #13, May 1988 ("Hey Kids! Comics!" Week, Epilogue)

Part 2 of the "Lifetime" story is also the final story to be told of the Masters of the Universe in this particular iteration of the series. It's a fitting ending to the series, and offers a more blatant, but still somewhat effecting, version of the end of Final Crisis: Superman Beyond, the notion of the story never ending, of the battle of good against evil being an ongoing struggle.

More and more I think that there's a link between serialization and mythification that's an important thing for us to be thinking about. Why do we create never-ending stories? The easy answer is that to cap a franchise such as this one is to terminate its usefulness as a marketing vehicle. But a quick glance at the revisions and re-imaginings of just about everything these days trumps that idea. Even if a story is finished, it can be (over)hauled back out and told again. There's something deeper happening, some thing pedagogical, I think. If we are presented with a definitive victory of good over evil, we are taught that good can triumph - this is simply unrealistic, and despite the setting and premise of the series, the lessons it teaches need to have real world application. The struggle between good and evil, however one might define such terms, must be ongoing for it to have meaning. And it's not even the external struggle to which such teaching moments are directed, but toward our inner dialogues and the struggle against our lesser angels.

Which is to say that, as He-Man proclaims his renewed dedication to the struggle against Skeletor, the story teaches us to face evil head on, always, and not back down. A simple message, perhaps, but a fundamental one.

Barring suggestions from readers, I think we may move on to a week of romance comics tomorrow. I have some fairly old pieces from the genre, and they're certainly amongst the least-read of the various genres in the collection. Onward!

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 419: Masters of the Universe (Marvel) #12, March 1988 ("Hey Kids! Comics!" Week, Day 7)

I left this comic until last because it's one of my favourite children's/toy comics in the collection. And I think I may have to extend "Hey Kids! Comics!" week by one day so I can read the conclusion to this story. I've read that when the Transformers line of toys started to wane in popularity, Simon Furman was given free reign to tell stories not contingent on the merchandise that was associated with the title, and it's these stories that are actually the best ones in the series. I wonder if such a think might be behind this He-Man tale. We see in this story a post-Skeletor vision of Eternia, a young Prince Adam decrying his heroic alter-ego, and the deaths of beloved characters. It's dark, and a bit grim, and manages to do some remarkably interesting things with characters that are, more than occasionally, ridiculous. The covers of these last two issues of the series are amazing (as you'll see tomorrow as well), and the story within hints at what could have been had the series been given a few more issues to find its feet. It moves from toy-related advertisement to thoughtful fantasy series in a very short space of time - where it might have gone afterward is, sadly, only a matter for speculation.

Masters of the Universe has been revived a couple of times since this comic folded, but I've never been quite as impressed with the stories (though I haven't read that many of them) as I am with this one. There's a naivety around it, in that it hasn't been grit-washed to appeal to the grown fans of the line - it's still a colourful children's comic, but an intelligent one, which is in the minority when it comes to this genre of comics, I'm finding.

We'll really finish up with the kids' comics tomorrow, and then move on to another genre. See you then.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 345: Marvel Two-In-One Annual #6, 1981

Whenever one is about to read a comic that deals with Native Americans, it is wise to take a deep breath and just accept that it's going to get patronizing and cliched.

I am so very happy to report that, with this comic, it's not the case. I'm honestly shocked at the fair and decent treatment given not only to the two main Native American characters in the comic, but to the larger issue of land disputes and of spiritual beliefs. In fact, ironically, it's the usually pretty open-minded Thing that has some of the most deplorable dialogue in the comic. For someone whose life is defined by how he looks, defined by an inability to fit into mainstream Western culture, you'd think he's be a little more accepting of both the Native legend of the two brothers that Wyatt Wingfoot recounts, and of the American Eagle more generally. But it serves an interesting purpose, and one that I'm going to give Doug Moench the benefit of the doubt for as to it being intentional. Grimm's hypocrisy is so very blatant. He dismisses Wingfoot's legend, though the story is only as fantastic as his very own origin story. He treats American Eagle with the same insulting parental attitude that was responsible for residential schools and cultural genocide, even though he is treated as an outsider and freak by just about everyone else in the Marvel U. I'd say that this behaviour is out of character for Ben Grimm, but as a cipher for the treatment of Native American's by the mainstream, he's spot on. And through it all, Jason Strongbow, aka American Eagle, maintains a cool head and a dignified attitude.

This was a good comic. I'm not sure I'd say it was a good Thing comic, because much of his behaviour really seemed to be out of character. But as a piece of social commentary, from a nation just entering the Reagan years, it's a gem. Well worth a read if you can track it down.

Onward!