Best and the Worst of the Complete Marvel Reading Order # 3

The Best - 596: Fantastic Four (1961) #61

Time to talk about my love affair with Benjamin Grimm, aka the ever-lovin' blue-eyed Thing.  I'm going to get biblical about it, albeit in a way that will likely make any theologians among you cringe.

Matthew 21:28-31 (World English Bible)

28 But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first, and said, ‘Son, go work today in my vineyard.’ 29 He answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind, and went. 30 He came to the second, and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I’m going, sir,’ but he didn’t go. 31 Which of the two did the will of his father?”
They said to him, “The first.”
Jesus said to them, “Most certainly I tell you that the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering into God’s Kingdom before you. 

Ben Grimm is the first son.  He complains and gripes and talks about how much he hates the job.  And yet, when the chips are down and the world is facing mortal peril, Ben Grimm is the guy who straps a nuclear bomb to his back and climbs literally into the mouth of the monster to save the day.  He sees what needs to be done, and he does it.  He always has your back, even when he thinks its a bad idea, but he'll make sure to tell you what a bad idea it is.  He PAYS for his heroism, in blood and cracked hide and shattered emotional health and moral injury and mockery, but he does it anyway.  That's why he is my favorite.

In this issue both Lee and Kirby in their respective ways nail the Thing.  Lee, give him classic dialogue, like these few panels...

"Dontcha even get a a coffee break in the blasted super-heroin' business??"  See what I mean, the first son.

But Kirby and Lee nail ALL the characters in this one.  They have really hit their stride.  They've done some good stuff so far, but counting FF Annual #1 in 1967 and 1968 they made five 5 star stories.  This story builds in a clear progression, the amount of danger facing them from Sandman as well as some out of control technology just increasing, each one of them having their moments of triumph and setback trying to get control of the situation.  The last five pages of this story are still some of the most thrilling pages in the Order; that sounds like hyperbole, but seriously...

Look at all that wreckage hitting Johnny in the face.  Look at all that green kirby krackle.  "KLASH!"  But the ending clinches it, as Reed is forced to enter the Negative Zone without any safety measures...

That last panel...the Thing is meant to be made of stone, but Kirby makes him so wonderfully expressive.  This is a truly thrilling story.  

The Worst - 529: X-Men (1963) #22

The combination of both Plantman and Porcupine make this one of the worst stories in this period. That pair of pestilential pinheads pierces my peace of mind.

But this is really just a single example of the general dreary mess that is early X-Men.  Everything is flat; characters, art, drama, plot, dialogue.  Flat as a plank.  Look at this...

That's what passes for "action" in early X-Men.  

The Best - 617: Strange Tales (1951) #157 [A Story]

This time it isn't Doctor Strange...its Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.!

Jim Steranko has taken over both the writing and art at this point, and wow, does he pack in great stuff!  Baron Strucker!  Hydra Island!  The SATAN CLAW!  The Hallucination Cube!  

Some many great pages in this, its hard to narrow it down without making a mockery of "fair use" copyright provisions, but consider this page...

*MIND BLOWN*

Steranko wrote 19 Nick Fury stories for Marvel by my count.  This is the high point.  His art gets better as the stories go on after this, but the stories get more muddled and confusing.   Its all good, of those 19 none are less than 3 stars, and nine are 4 stars.  This is the only one I gave 5 stars, though. 

The Worst - 594: Daredevil (1964) #26

Here is the thing about Gene Colan.  He was not a bad artist.  When he was doing the things he was good at, he was really good.  For example, look at this panel...

(Digression: Set aside for a moment the sickly grey skin tone of the prosecutor, that's not Gene Colan's fault.  In fact, its not until 1968 or so that African Americans have a consistently non-zombie healthy looking skin tone.  See this page: http://facweb.cs.depaul.edu/sgrais/comics_color.htm for an interesting discussion of early comics coloring.)

That's a pretty great panel!  The facial expressions, the directions of each character's gaze, the panel tells you what is happening in the scene before you even read the words.  Gene Colan is great at this kind of thing, I bet he did some fantastic romance comics and court-room dramas.  But then, they make him do action...

Colan can't even be assed to fill in the backgrounds, and he fills half the page with Daredevil just swinging around.  That's typical.  He just doesn't seem to care to tell a story in the action bits.

That's bad enough.  But Daredevil is also just a mess. No one has any idea what to do with him.  They keep throwing stupid villains at him, each one dumber than the next.  I mean, you would think Stilt Man would be the bottom of the barrel, but you haven't even gotten to the Masked Marauder and the Plunderer yet.  

Add that insult to the injury that this is during the period when inexplicably they decided that Matt Murdock should periodically don the guise of his fictional brother Mike Murdock and act like a total idiot in the most annoying fashion for pages on end, and you have the morass that is early Daredevil.