The
Very Best of Marvel Comics
Okay, it’s “The Very
Best of Marvel Comics.” Surely this
one will be a winner. Actually, this was
the one I was most reluctant to pick up.
The hook here is that stories in the book were chosen by various writers
and artists (and Stan Lee). Mostly, they
were picked for being the most personally influential for the creators. I’d already read maybe a bit less than half
of the book. The Fantastic Four stories,
I’d read last year in a Penguin Classics edition. Still, there were interesting-looking comics
inside and for $6 for 200 pages, why not toss it in?
The volume started off strong with a Chris Claremont New
X-Men story drawn by John Byrne. Magneto
single-handedly captures and defeats the X-Men (including Phoenix,
sheesh!). Still, he can’t resist
torturing them instead of finishing them off and they come back and defeat him
in the next issue. Unfortunately, the story
ends on a severe cliffhanger. (No, I
don’t know how it resolves.) Too bad
this book isn’t a trade paperback of just the best of X-Men stories.
Next is a classic two-part Spider-Man encounter with the
Green Goblin. It’s significant as a
double reveal. The Green Goblin finds
out Spider-Man is Peter Parker, one of his son’s friends, and Peter finds out
the Goblin is Norman Osborn. Thankfully,
Osborn loses his memory at the end of their knock down/drag out encounter. Peter, trying to protect Harry Osborn, covers
up the Goblin’s secret identity.
Oh, and Peter has a severe cold. The Goblin also manages to suppress
Spider-Man’s spider sense, so he can sneak up on him. Aunt May’s condition is worsening, and she can’t
endure any shocks, like finding out Peter is Spider-Man. Peter is also having problems with his
classmates and his love life. (He does
manage to out-haggle J. Jonah Jameson for payment for his pictures, so that was
a solid win.) Whew! It’s irresistible. This is peak classic Marvel.
There’s a weird little older story segue with Spider-Man crashing
a party and bothering the Human Torch.
It makes the both of them look really bad, frankly. This leads directly to Doctor Doom’s first
two-part appearance in the Fantastic Four.
Sue is held hostage, while the guys are sent back in time to recover
Blackbeard’s treasure. The Thing may or
may not have ended up becoming the inspiration for the Blackbeard legend. It’s . . . imaginative.
Next was a more modern story with Dr. Strange story
featuring Michael Golden’s finely detailed artwork. I may have gotten this volume mostly to read
this one. Strange is very depressed over
Clea leaving him. (Well, who wouldn’t be
depressed by that?) This personal low
point brings on an attack by a demon, who attacks him on a psychic level. Strange is hit with a lot of very trippy
fourth-wall breaking stuff. It’s weird,
but in a good way, but it made me want more Dr. Strange.
The next story is even weirder. It’s a classic-era story featuring Daredevil
fighting the Submariner for the first time.
Namor comes to New York City in hopes of suing humanity for ownership of
the surface of the earth and retains lawyer, Matt Murdock, for this
purpose. (Only in a comic book.) Yeah, it comes to blows quickly. The military and Daredevil fight Namor. (Where are all those other heroes in
NYC?) The Submariner is very impressed
with Daredevil, who is completely overmatched.
DD does not quit, until Namor finally retires back to the sea to defend
his throne from a usurper.
A second Daredevil story starts with DD in Vietnam. He’s not fighting. He’s part of a USO show. (This story might have been a bit tone deaf
even when it was published.) Matt meets
a black soldier who’s been blinded recently and later helps him out as a
lawyer, when he comes back state side.
Stan Lee recommended this story and said it has an “anti-prejudice
message.” There actually isn’t any sort
of such message in the story. It’s more
about overcoming a disability.
Regardless, Gene Colan’s bold, dynamic artwork is impressive, and the
story is good.
Two things I didn’t know about Daredevil I learned from
these stories. Unlike Spider-Man, DD is
highly respected by the military for some reason and presumably the rest of the
government/media establishment. How’d he
get on their good side? The other thing
is Matt’s forlorn love for his secretary, Karen Page. Admittedly, my knowledge of Daredevil starts
with Frank Miller’s awesome run with the ninjas. (Why isn’t one of those stories in
this?) I’d only ever seen Karen as a
strung-out drug addict resurfacing from Matt’s past. Here, she’s rendered a smart, sweet, blonde
bombshell. (You could easily fall in
love with Colan’s vision of her.) That
was quite a revelation.
The reprint of Thor #337 kind of hurts me. I owned this one and I’m sure it’s worth
money. It’s the start of Walter
Simonson’s epic run with the iconic cover of Beta Ray Bill as Thor. The story brings up some questions, but it is
no doubt a classic and awesome and the start of good things. I got a subscription to Thor shortly after
this issue. Rob Liefield wrote the intro
to this issue as it had inspired him.
This
Man . . . This Monster finishes off the collection. Again, I’d just read this classic Fantastic
Four tale in the Penguin edition. It’s overwrought but has some real emotion to it.
The plight of Ben Grimm as the Thing is clearly illustrated here. It’s subtle subtext that it’s only the love
of his girlfriend, Alicia, and his friends that is keeping him from cracking up
from his condition.
So, you can’t go wrong with the material, but you have to
question the choices. This is such a
random hodge-podge stories it’s hard to get a handle on them in one book. Most of the stories are self-contained, but a
couple end on real cliffhangers and they probably should have not used
those. It’d also make more sense to do
the book as a series featuring different decades. The style difference between 60’s Fantastic
Four and 80’s Thor is jarring. This book
is okay, but it’s just sampler.
This trip for comics was a bit disappointing, as usual,
but at least it was interesting.
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