The Annuals of '83!

 

What do these seven Marvel Annuals appear to have in common?

For one thing, they were all published in 1983; but more to the point, it looks like they're all depending on their lead character(s) to sell the book on the stand, in a solitary pose with nothing and no one else pictured that might help in that regard--a curious decision on (presumably) Editor-In-Chief Jim Shooter's part that banks on the titles' readers and nonreaders alike to make a purchase without having an idea of what the story is about or what antagonists are involved. We do see, however, that three of the annuals make exceptions in that regard, if minimally:

• The background of the Captain America annual, for instance, cube-shaped to accompany the caption that tells us of the Cosmic Cube's involvement (as well as its UPC symbol appropriated to indicate who else is in the issue);
  
• Wording on the Iron Man annual indicating that the Eternals are featured, while we can make out in the collection of facial outlines that their foes, the Deviants, are also involved;
  
• Thor's caption is vague but gives off a Tales Of Asgard vibe; and
  
• The Marvel Team-Up issue gets around the problem by virtue of the fact that it is a team-up book and can feature any and all characters who are joining forces with Spider-Man.

It's the only year that I recall seeing this sort of thing done across the board in this way, as opposed to isolated instances (e.g., the '81 Cap and the '94 Iron Man annuals). Interestingly, there were some notable absences of annuals that year, including The Avengers and X-Men, along with Daredevil (no surprise there, having lapsed from 1977-88) as well as Marvel Two-In-One, which gets a pass since the series came to an end in June of that year.*

*I've been corrected on the Avengers and X-Men annuals--see the info from alert reader David P. in the comments section!

And so in terms of what's left, how did these particular annuals do with you at the store? Were you tempted to browse the issue based on its star power, or even pay your buck and take it home on faith? Or did you decide it was better to just wait a few decades and let the PPC size them up for you? No problem, friend, we've got your back.

Don't Miss These Fabulous First Issues!

 

It's naturally very eye-catching when an iconic comics cover is paid homage by other artists or is otherwise recreated for a specific purpose. To date, the PPC has thrown the spotlight on Avengers #4, where Captain America makes his first post-war appearance and joins the team (while retroactively becoming an "original" Avenger in the process); 1962's Incredible Hulk #1, with its recreations restricted to the series itself; Fantastic Four #249, featuring a memorable pose which inspired similar drama elsewhere; June, 1938's Action Comics #1, which surely received more play than the few covers we featured; and of course Fantastic Four #1, which may hold the record for the sheer number of homage covers created for a single issue (and a diverse lot it is).

So it may come as a surprise to find 1963's X-Men #1 added to the list--a cover by artist Jack Kirby which, like the original lineup itself, I didn't find to be especially compelling.

Taking into account that Kirby's work here (like that found on just about any comics cover) is designed to grab the interest of the buyer, it could still reasonably be judged as if it were an accurate representation of what happens in the story, a balance which ideally should be struck if at all possible. For the most part, the cover's simple premise of the X-Men going up against Magneto provides just that--but how well do the abilities of these new heroes against this villain draw us into the story? Well, the guy with the eye-beam is certainly impressive, and it looks like we've got a barefoot acrobat--plus there's a snowman whose aim appears to be way off. There's also a female who appears to be little more than eye candy--though for Stan Lee's Son Of Origins of Marvel Comics from 1975, as well as the Marvel Milestone edition from 1993, the decision has been made to give her an action pose rather than have her appear to be simply hanging back without joining the battle.

As for the winged character, he has little choice but to pick up a makeshift weapon to use, since his power of flight offers no recourse against Magneto--but it's unclear how he expects to make any headway against this villain with a pole when his partner's force beam isn't doing the trick. In the story, however, he's not even doing that--so what can he do to add to the team? Other than force his teammates to come to his rescue, not much.

So what approach can other artists take to bring new life to this sort of cover? In the series itself, Dave Cockrum takes a stab at giving the new X-Men their shot:

And in another offering, John Byrne returns to the original lineup, though obviously we're catching the members at different points in their lives.

It looks like our acrobat is fated to swing to the attack and little else, no matter who's rendering him. Both covers, however, avoid Kirby's choice of having the villain's back turned to us and instead show us the full menace of what this team is up against, a noticeable improvement. (And in the process, giving Iceman a better target!)

If it's possible to make this issue's cover far more dynamic, however, Alex Ross shows us the way:

Our villain may be taking up more cover space, but there's visibly less of Magneto than before, though Ross follows Kirby's presentation which makes the X-Men, after all, this first issue's focus. I'd be curious as to who the colorist is on this work (assuming it isn't Ross), since the choices of colors here add so much to what we see. In addition, Ross's approach touches on the notion that the effect of Iceman's power need not be limited to tossing snowballs (or anything else, for that matter)--instead, he could choose to substantially reduce the temperature inside Magneto's field to the point of weakening or even incapacitating him.

In other efforts, when Hasbro's action figures of the X-Men arrived in 2014, a new cover of this issue wasn't far behind:

Artist Gerald Parel gives us another idea of how Kirby's original concept could be further enhanced, in this variant cover for the Facsimile issue--while DeviantArt artist Mikeyzou adds a contemporary polish.

And to inject a bit of artistic "wizardry," artist Blair Campbell shows us Hogwarts' version of our heroes:

Finally, Byrne presents this battle in a way that could have given Marvel its first wraparound cover, had the masthead and captions been included. (And believe me, I gave it a try--anyone else care to take a crack at it?)

Torches, Redux!

As we saw in the finale to the Avengers/Invaders series, Thomas Raymond--a/k/a Toro, the former partner of the original Human Torch--was returned to life through the use of the Cosmic Cube, now a man picking up the pieces of his life in the 21st century. While that saga was taking place, in Captain America we were also witness to a plot by a former Chinese scientist to use the Torch's remains as a weapon which would destroy nearly half the population of the world in a depraved effort to salvage and preserve the Earth's ecosystem. Both stories would serve to pave the way for The Torch, the 2009-10 series where the two flaming heroes would reunite only to find themselves again at the mercy of a man who had used each of them in prior schemes that led to their respective deaths.

And long-time Marvel readers can probably guess that villain's identity right off.

It's arguably the Mad Thinker who is the driving force of this eight-issue series, though Raymond would also have a central role. Commissioned by A.I.M. to produce a weapon of destruction, the Thinker is sitting pretty as the one responsible for the weapon's conception and design, with the resources of A.I.M. at his beck and call. The character is given virtual carte blanche by scripter Mike Carey to set the tone for the plans that will take shape for both A.I.M. and himself, and he proves to be a very deadly foe to be reckoned with, chewing the scenery from the moment he's introduced.

The insertion of Toussaint as an informal assistant to the Thinker makes for a splendid thorn in the side of the latter, with Toussaint also instructed to keep an eye on the Thinker's progress and informing A.I.M. of any deviations in the agreed-upon project. It's Toussaint who keeps the Thinker engaged with the reader, since otherwise the Thinker would simply be hunched over his equipment scribbling notes and making adjustments without much to say. And the fact that Toussaint also attempts to converse with the Thinker on equal ground, provoking the expected reaction from one who considers him an annoyance, is icing on the cake.

Meanwhile, Raymond is finding it difficult to acclimate to his new life, especially after seeing how his former wife has moved on with her life following his death. He's basically a blank slate in terms of his new existence, with no family, no direction, and no documents or papers to offer a potential employer, while the thought of hooking up with the heroes of this era seems a poor fit for him. The Vision, who became Raymond's impromptu guide following his rebirth, makes for a fascinating shadow to Tom, given their contrast in temperament--the intermittent presence who gently attempts to bring Tom out of his depression and encourage him to choose a direction for himself.

Finally, despondent and frustrated, Raymond indeed makes a decision as to what he should do next. Whether it's one that meets with the Vision's approval or disapproval is unclear, since the Vision gives no indication either way--but then, that's generally the way the Vision operates here, and it has the effect of making the character more intriguing. In any case, our focus should be on Raymond, given his state of mind and what he now disturbingly considers a priority in this new lease on life.

The All-New, All-Insane Captain Marvel

In late 2002, the current Captain Marvel title took a sharp but interesting change in direction which almost made it seem as if the previous 35 issues never happened. With that change came the decision to "relaunch" the book with issue #36, with only a change in its masthead design and its numbering reset to "1" to mark the occasion. If memory serves, there were a number of other titles experiencing the same flux in issue numbering, particularly those books that had reached such a pinnacle in numbering that they were also being rebooted as first issues--though not long after, Marvel appeared to renege, and adopted a dual numbering display which kept the new numbering sequence but also displayed the issue number as it would have appeared had the book never been rebooted. And for added confusion, eventually the book numbering was dialed back to the original sequence. It was a dizzying time to be a comic book collector.

The Captain Marvel relaunch, however, at least began with the dual numbering display, perhaps to make sure that any readers who overlooked Assistant Editor Marc Sumerak's notice on the final page of the prior issue that the book was "starting over" wouldn't be confused. Though if you were a reader of other Marvel titles, that ship had likely already sailed.

As for the title character himself--Genis, the "son" of Mar-vell created by Elysius of Titan with technology and clone material from his predecessor after his death--writer Peter David makes a number of changes that return the book's focus to Captain Marvel, who had virtually become a supporting character in his own mag. Gone for the duration were characters like Moondragon and Rick's wife, Marlo, whose histrionics (along with Rick's) reduced Genis to a cosmically-aware stand-in who would save the day mostly on cue when the others' drama had been exhausted.

And in case you're thinking that "histrionics" is overstating the matter:

Peter David and Chris Claremont--at times it seemed as if they were two sides of the same coin.

The character of Genis first caught everyone's eye when, as Legacy, he donned the same nega-bands that his father wore and swore to carry on his tradition of heroism. But being awarded his own title in 2000 was likely in response to the bump he experienced from his exposure in the Avengers Forever ten-issue series, after which he merged with Rick Jones in order to save Rick's life--a process which also triggered Genis's latent cosmic awareness. Factor in the decision of Monica Rambeau to pass on her title of Captain Marvel to Genis (while rechristening herself as "Photon"), and we had ourselves a new hero, and a new series.

Yet in 2002, after 30+ issues, it becomes apparent that a change in direction is needed, though some changes are already in effect by the time of the 2002 relaunch. For instance, while it's true that Genis and Rick still switch atoms with each other, it's more of a voluntary act than anything triggered by X number of hours, with the two having agreed to switch when no later than 24 hours have elapsed. Nor does the one being switched out wind up in the Negative Zone; instead, they're sent to the Microverse, in what seems a "been there/done that" wave-off to the N-Zone, with its explosive atmospheres and distortion zones and its living death that walks having apparently overstayed their welcome.

But also, Captain Marvel has become impossibly powerful (by "manipulating photonic energy"--that's all we're really told), and has been using his cosmic awareness far more proactively than Mar-vell did by keeping it constantly "on" and tuned to disturbances anywhere in the universe that require his intervention--much like the Sentry's behavior on Earth, but obviously on a much broader scale. Yet, just as was the case with the Sentry, Genis's power threatens to overwhelm him--and therein lies part of the problem.

And then there are the choices he must make. In an ideal situation, his cosmic awareness--which now is akin to prescience and lets him see the past, present, and future in relation to the subject--would function in a way that allows him to act responsibly when he intervenes in a situation, by giving him the whole picture all at once. Yet that isn't the case; instead, he sees enough to know he must act, but must count on his interpretation of what he's become "aware" of to act responsibly. As a result, the use of his power in this way is almost certain to yield tragic results.

For instance, given that he can't be in two places at once, Genis is inevitably forced to choose between using his might to halt an invasion of a world by the Brotherhood of the Badoon, or instead to prevent an alien girl from being beaten to death by her boyfriend. To him, the choice is clear: thousands of lives at stake, vs. the life of one girl. He chooses the Badoon conflict--and only realizes after the fact the repercussions of his misjudgment.

Overwhelmed by his power, Genis crashes to the ground and lies in a catatonic state for days, until Rick is finally able to snap him out of it. Unfortunately, the damage is done, with Genis having been driven insane--a startling development to be sure, but, from a reader's standpoint, fascinating at the same time. But his state of mind doesn't become clear until we see how his priorities have changed--specifically, exploring the use of his cosmic awareness in ways that demonstrate a voluntary and deliberate pivot from goals and methods that once were altruistic and instead substitute the sadistic.

Frank Castle, a/k/a the Punisher, sums up Genis's new character colloquially, but right on the money: "A lot of these supertypes are a few bricks shy, but I think this guy's missing a whole fireplace."

Genis's intervention begins by effectively dismantling the gunman Tomas's advantage of using a human shield, by using his cosmic awareness to completely invalidate the hostage's self-worth. And in Genis's current state of mind, you can probably guess what comes next.

With that, Genis incinerates Mr. Fisher, and allows Tomas to flee, to Castle's outrage. But Castle isn't given much time to process the scene, when Genis reveals his true purpose in seeking him out: to learn from him, having found appealing the Punisher's method of going about his business in an organized, ruthless fashion. That doesn't bode well for the future vis-à-vis Genis--but at this point, any reader of the previous Captain Marvel series is probably more interested in the character than they've been in quite awhile. In fact, more than a few of us were probably checking the cover again for a MAX Comics designation, Marvel's imprint for its mature content comics line.

With Genis's help, Castle is led to confront Tomas's employer, in a scene which makes Mr. Fisher's execution look pale by comparison. At the end, Genis grants Castle a few moments of cosmic awareness to close the circle of events--and it becomes clear that Genis is now on a course which he has every intention of embracing.

By the third issue, David's changes for Captain Marvel take visible shape as well, with a new costume designed by Alex Ross that returns the character to his Kree roots--which Genis himself never had, though that's beside the point. The nostalgia card for Captain Marvel has only been played through Mar-vell's dealings with the Kree both prior to and following his metamorphosis by Eon, but never to the extent of donning his old uniform and reclaiming his commission. Those opportunities present themselves a month later, when Genis confronts a Kree task force sent to conquer a planet strategically placed in relation to the Skrull Empire--a planet the Kree are shocked to discover has already fallen to a ruthless, and familiar, conqueror.

Genis's time in Ross's modified uniform would last another fifteen issues before it finally played out, by which time the character's supporting cast had already begun returning to the book with a roar. By the time Genis ditched his Kree uniform and returned to being Genis--"Marv is still somewhat nuts; he's simply playing it closer to the vest and is channeling his energies in positive instead of negative directions," as the book's introductory narrative puts it--it really does feel as if the insanity angle was ready to be retired. There were only so many of David's quips that Genis could recite while constantly getting the drop on his enemies--and only so many scenes of Captain Marvel's superior might crushing them--before it all started becoming stale. Captain Marvel was never in danger of being surprised or outgunned, with the combined assaults of entire star fleets proving to be wasted effort before he would turn the tables on those who opposed him--appearing in their midst with calm, mocking words meant to punctuate the fact that these otherwise formidable races were helpless against his power. Captain Marvel had a bad habit of winning all the time, and his wit well was second to none--which proved entertaining until it wasn't, and limited him to repeating the same behavior ad nauseam.

Captain Marvel ended its second run after 25 issues (or 60 issues, depending on which numbering system you're paying attention to), as David humorously writes finis to the character by breaking the fourth wall and folding the comic in a striking-the-set issue. By this time, there's a new Captain Marvel (Phyla, his sister), who exits with Moondragon to new adventures. As for Genis, who might have once held promise but whose staying power didn't hold up as expected, David dresses down the character in brutally blunt language: "[Your readers] became bored. Bored because they didn't know what to make of you. Your unpredictability became your liability. Furthermore, they didn't really care about you that much in the first place. That, combined with boredom, was fatal." Good lord--after taking on and writing this character's entire series from the ground up, whose fault is that? There were readers paying between $2.25-$2.99 a pop every month who probably wished they'd had a little of that cosmic awareness themselves, so they would have known going in that even the book's writer would come to condemn the direction the character had taken.

BONUS!

A few pages from Alex Ross's sketchbook on the new Captain Marvel.

Heroes Reborn

We've come to the end of our three-part look at the Avengers/Invaders twelve-issue series from 2008-2009, where the Invaders find themselves brought forward in time to 2008 and the Avengers struggle to gain their trust while trying to find a way to return them home. In Part One, that seemed unlikely, with the Invaders convinced that the Avengers were part of some Nazi deception and the Avengers unable to provide any proof of their bona fides for fear of corrupting the timeline. But in Part Two, the two teams found themselves fighting in common cause against S.H.I.E.L.D. Life Model Decoy units and slowly coming to an understanding of each other, while other members of the Invaders worked with the "New" Avengers to discover just how and why they were taken from the year 1941.

Seemingly at the nexus of this affair is a young soldier, Paul Anselm, whose comrades were killed while the Invaders battled behind enemy lines and a mist from the Cosmic Cube appeared to transport them through time. Paul had been caught up in the wake and arrived with the team in 21st century New York City, where he visited his still-alive older self and came to terms with the fate of his comrades in '41. Or, did he? Once the two teams of Avengers put aside their differences and prepared to use the Cube to send the Invaders back, Paul decided to make a grab for the Cube and attempt to not only save his friends, but also to affect the outcome of the war. To say that the timeline reacted disastrously is an understatement.

But with the third and final part of this story focusing on events in 1941 once the Invaders return (with the Avengers caught in the wake, this time), we have the opportunity to see where things went wrong. Did Paul manage to succeed in not only saving the lives of his buddies, but also in changing the past and thereby making sure that all the death and destruction of a world at war was avoided? It would seem like child's play with a device like the Cosmic Cube at your disposal. But with the haunting words of the 1940s hero called the Vision, we know that there's more to the Cube than simply its ability to alter reality. And we may see that there may be more to Paul Anselm, as well.