What Were YOU Reading in 1983?

 

Forty years ago in August of 1983, we had these items of trivia occupying our minds and media:

• 12-year-old Samantha Druce becomes the youngest female to swim the English Channel (21 miles), at 15 hours, 27 minutes (and locks it in for good--the minimum age for solo attempts to swim the Channel is now 16 years)
• John Sain of South Bend, IN builds a 3.91-meter house of cards (hopefully avoiding drafts)
• San Diego Comic-Con International opens at Hotel San Diego
• La Cage aux Folles opens at the Palace Theater, NYC and runs for 1761 performances, winning 6 Tony Awards
• Revival of the Jerry Herman musical Mame starring Angela Lansbury closes in NYC after 41 performances
• Albums released: Billy Joel, "An Innocent Man"; Elvis Costello, "Punch The Clock"; Jackson Browne, "Lawyers In Love"; Heart, "Passionworks"; Cheap Trick, "Next Position Please"; Bette Midler, "No Frills"; Rick James, "Cold Blooded"
• Rock singer David Crosby is concurrently sentenced to 5 years in Texas state prison for possession of cocaine and 3 years for illegal possession of a loaded handgun (i.e., the 5-year sentence controls) (I believe he ended up serving nine months--there are conflicting accounts as to when he was released)
• Nuclear tests are carried out by the U.S. (Aug. 3 and Aug. 27), France (Aug. 4) and the USSR (Aug. 18)
• Marriages: Paul Simon (41) and Carrie Fisher (26) (divorced the next year); Film director Philippe de Broca (50) weds actress Margot Kidder (34)
• Birthdays: Chris Hemsworth (39); Andrew Garfield (39); Mila Kunis (you guessed it, 39)
• Top Five Songs in the U.S.: (1) "Every Breath You Take" (The Police); (2) "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)" (Eurythmics); (3) "She Works Hard For The Money" (Donna Summer); (4) "Maniac" (Michael Sembello) (no relation to this guy); (5) "Is There Something I Should Know" (Duran Duran)
• Deaths: lyracist Ira Gershwin (86); actress Carolyn Jones (53); actor Simon Oakland (61)
• Cost of Living: Avg rent, $335/mo.; Gallon of gas $.96; Ford Mustang $6,572; Avg. income/year, $21,070; Price of a comic book: $.60

And speaking of your hard-earned 60¢...
The Marvel checklist of books published during August of 1983. What were you reading around this time?

Birth(s) Of A Living Legend

 

There have been no less than four full-fledged origin tales of the star-spangled Avenger known as Captain America, which in a way is astonishing considering that Cap's origin is among several that could probably be easily repeated by any number of comics aficionados or laymen, even if one doesn't go into detail. Nor did that change (and you'll discover why shortly) when Marvel decided in 2010 to revise the origins of a number of select characters whose pasts were deemed to need a fresh approach or were otherwise too dated to bring forward through the years. And yet, researching this topic yielded a certain level of fascination for me--and I imagine similar feelings must have occurred to writer Roger Stern and artist John Byrne when they put together the definitive (emphasis by Mr. Stern) origin to celebrate the character's fortieth anniversary issue, a story which weaves in elements of those four tales as well as new tidbits of history for Cap as well as Steve Rogers prior to the latter's astounding transformation.

Add to that the curious coincidence that three of those four tales were published in the same month of their respective years, and taking place roughly fifteen years apart each, and you have to figure that their creators might have each been tipping their hats to history.

So in the spirit of both discovery and nostalgia, let's take a look at the ways in which writers in more contemporary times did their part to add to the material which Joe Simon and Kirby first crafted in 1941, introducing their readers to a character who would continue to endure over eighty years later.

Accept The Word Of One Who Knows

 

As a fan of the original Guardians of the Galaxy since their inception, I was bound to take an interest in Starhawk, the enigmatic individual who was folded into their ranks following the Earth's liberation from its conquerors, the Brotherhood of the Badoon. Created by Steve Gerber and Sal Buscema and first appearing in The Defenders, this new character was appropriately given few details (if we can even use that word) to pique our interest. He described himself, for instance, as "the light, and the giver of light"... he has three young children, settled in an Earth-like environment on a dome-covered asteroid... he appears involved with a woman named Aleta, whom he communicates with via a computer console screen and describes in a way that implies more at work than a depth of feeling ("all that I am, all I can be, flows from her," a connection alluded to in Starhawk's later battle with Korvac)... and, perhaps most mysteriously, he often offers information and/or assurances to others on various matters of interest as "One Who Knows," a description which is often taken at face value though never accompanied by explanations regarding what or how.

Initially, we as readers are exposed to Starhawk when he appears on the Badoon homeworld to give aid to Maj. Vance Astro (one of the Guardians) and the Valkyrie (one of the Defenders) who have been transported there mistakenly. Yet once Starhawk has healed the Valkyrie of her injury suffered in this world's swamps on arrival, she and Astro find no sign of Earth's conquerors; instead, they discover their female progenitors, living separately in peace in an advanced civilization where they remain ignorant of the Brotherhood's activities of conquest throughout the galaxy.

Eventually, the Defenders are reunited, and set about their task of freeing the Earth from Badoon tyranny. But once Strange has mystically set free all of the imprisoned humans worldwide, Starhawk plays a crucial role in the Defenders cutting their mission short and returning to their own time period.

The "story for another time" that the narrative speaks of arrives a few months later in early 1976, where Gerber and artist Al Milgrom launch the Guardians in their own series of stories in Marvel Presents which, among other things, serve to further explore the character of Starhawk. In fact, we'd do well to keep in mind Maj. Astro's words* in that last panel, as they'll come to mean more than he and ourselves are, at present, aware of.

*Hint: Pay close attention to the verb.

Bonus Features: Spider-Annuals, 1964-1999

 

Aside from rogues' galleries, pin-ups, and, in all too many cases, reprinted material, a staple of Marvel "king-size" annuals has been the informative bonus features that came in the form of exploring a character's abilities, being provided with a tour of their headquarters, a rundown of their supporting cast, or a supplemental tale consisting of only three or four pages, on the occasion that the main story didn't fulfill the expected page count. You'll find many of these bonus features given their due throughout the PPC over the years--but for a little variety on the subject, we'll begin digging through and dusting off some of the more under the radar material where a little extra creative effort went into these features.

In this inaugural post on the subject, we turn our focus to one of Marvel's inaugural characters, the amazing Spider-Man--and as long as we're going that far back, it seems fitting to include a few of the bonus features from the character's first annual from 1964, itself packed with additional material to no doubt titillate Spidey's growing fan base and including a number of pages which spotlight the work of the book's artist, Steve Ditko.

Judgment Day (Or Not)

 

As an unofficial encore to Captain Marvel's role as chairwoman of the Avengers during writer Roger Stern's run on the title, those of you who have followed Stern's Marvel work and were fans as well of either The Avengers or X-Men might have caught the four-issue limited series The X-Men vs. the Avengers from mid-1987, which Stern would write ¾ of (at which time a different writer/artist team would take the reins of the story for its conclusion). The series takes place roughly between the time Captain Marvel accepts Captain America's nomination for the team's leadership position, and the Avengers' mission to Olympus which would conclude Stern's work on the book. The true focus of the series, however, would prove to be Magneto, the Master of Magnetism--and, more specifically, the resolution of the Paris trial which had been convened to hold him accountable for past crimes against the human race.

Yet the prelude to this story occurs years earlier, with the explosive arrival of an alien we would come to know in the New Mutants as Warlock.

Magneto survives the impact, thanks to the ministrations of Lee Forrester, who fishes him out of the ocean and brings him to the island where he once fought a pitched battle with the X-Men--the repercussions of which led, in part, to his trial. As for his asteroid, two sizable parts of it survive their fall to Earth a few years later, and draw the interest of not only Magneto but three super-teams which would vie to decide his ultimate fate.

Invoke The Planes of Pohldahk At Your Own Risk

 

Mid-1984 saw the first volume of Doctor Strange arguably at the height of its acclaim and pivoting toward a new chapter in its run, with writer Roger Stern continuing in the series after taking a two-issue break (which, for a bimonthly comic, worked out to four months) following an ambitious storyline which saw the eradication of all vampires from the Earth. Joining Stern again would be artist Paul Smith, who contributed a one-shot issue previously profiled in the PPC and who would remain with the writer (with the exception of a single issue in October) until they would both depart the book near the end of '85. Leading off their collaboration was what appeared to be an understated story involving a man who wanted to stake his own claim as a practitioner of the mystic arts--but as we'll see, the danger he posed went beyond the threat he represented to the Sorcerer Supreme.

You'd Better Shape Up At Camp Hammond, Ladies

 

As my interest in collecting comic books started to wane sometime around the mid-1990s, I found myself beginning to "taper off" the habit of steadfastly sticking with a complete run of a series and instead shifting to a more selective posture in reading new comics, giving a new series a fair chance to hold my attention before cutting it loose when that threshold was reached. No regrets since; in fact, I sometimes wonder if that should have been the way to enjoy a comics habit all along. :) Twenty-five years later, however, I've surprisingly found myself giving a second glance to those books that were dropped from my reading list, a number of them having long since been forgotten but are now proving to be interesting to revisit after unbagging and turning their pages once more. It's something of a mixed bag (heh) laying eyes on them again, since I was hardly expecting them to have any more staying power with me than they did before; yet having diverted from collecting to reminiscing in written form via the PPC, I've found that my perspective has changed quite a lot in the decades since, which makes these old issues virtually new again to the eye. Consequently, for at least a few of these series I've found myself more appreciative of both story and art in certain respects--something which became more apparent as this Easter egg hunt took me from the late 1990s and into the 2000s when Marvel would get its second wind.

Here, then, is a brief rundown of a selection of those books which had a limited run (for Marvel and even more so for myself) as opposed to their mainstream series--and since the notion for this retrospective occurred alphabetically as I was thumbing through the top of my comics shelves, we start with those books which spun off from one of Marvel's most successful franchises. (Synopses are edited from various sources.)

---

Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective - September 1993 (4-issue series, monthly)
Writer: Mark Gruenwald
Issue(s) Collected: #s 1-4

Synopsis: The sequel to "Citizen Kang" guest-stars Thunderstrike, US Agent, and War Machine (with other Avengers dealt in as needed). Terminatrix, who deposed Kang, attempts to expand Chronopolis beyond Kang's seven-millennium boundaries, and discovers a shocking secret about time.

"Citizen Kang" was a crossover event taking place in a number of annuals prior to this series, an event I also collected mostly because I was collecting annuals at the time but otherwise failed to make an impression on me beyond its loose reference to the Orson Welles film. I was intrigued by the fact that Terminatrix is portrayed as both a more-than-a capable adversary while also written as someone who may have bitten off more than she can chew in assuming the role of Kang for all intents and purposes.

"Come Into My Sanctum, Said The Sorcerer..."

 

OR: "Second Time's The Harm"

Previously we were witness to a Stan Lee/Steve Ditko tale from 1966 which featured a life-and-death struggle between the Master of the Mystic Arts, Dr. Strange, and the minions of Baron Mordo--a trio of sorcerers who assumed the worst when they could no longer contact their master and set out to assassinate Strange by use of a conventional explosive device hidden in his own sanctum. The attempt failed, but led to Strange's captivity, and a lopsided battle where Strange was limited to the use of his astral form against three powerful foes who were determined to prevent his escape. As villains go, these nameless minions--consisting of a sorceress who acted as Mordo's deputy, a one-time foe of Strange's who called himself the Demon, and Mordo's disciple--were a surprisingly viable and well-coordinated threat who also had the manpower available to hunt down Strange, with the ambitious deputy assuming the role of their ringleader. But through resourcefulness and perseverance, Strange was able to turn the tables on them and reclaim his physical form, finally casting a spell of forgetfulness upon them which would deal with them indefinitely.

Which serves as our segue to December of 1982, where Strange now holds the distinction of Sorcerer Supreme and is currently scheduled for, of all things, a television interview to be conducted by his good friend and love interest, writer Morgana Blessing. The appointment has come as something of a surprise to Strange's manservant, Wong, who never imagined his master would be so forthcoming with the news media; but to look at Strange's calm demeanor, it's obvious he's not only comfortable with the idea but also eager to begin. That is, if we don't think to read between the lines of his greeting to Morgana which assures her of his readiness.

And if we do so read, we must ask:  Just what is it he's ready for?

A Tale Of Two Origins

 

Can YOU

Name This Marvel Villain??

Special Agent Fred Duncan, At Your Service

 

Given how prevalent the plotline of anti-mutant sentiment has been in Marvel's line of X-books, and how we've seen increasingly powerful forces engage in operations to target and incapacitate or eliminate mutants, it was no surprise to find even the mutant X-Men questioning Charles Xavier's dream of peaceful co-existence between humans and mutants--at one point, even holding an impassioned meeting with their founder and mentor which called into question their taking on field missions which often only served to put targets on their backs. Such a meeting could only bring to light the injuries and deaths the team has suffered and grieved; and to his dismay and sadness, Xavier also discovers from Rachel Summers, who has arrived from an alternate timeline where mutants have been openly hunted and enslaved, that he and his school and students were early casualties in the outbreak of full-scale war against mutants.

As we've learned from Nightcrawler, and as we've seen for ourselves, there were serious consequences for Storm during the operation against Rogue which was sanctioned by the United States government. Yet in the beginning, before the "X-Men" were formed and Xavier began to see humans becoming aware of and alarmed at the existence of mutants in their midst, he reached out to the office of the F.B.I. charged with investigating the situation and proposed working closely with its agents as a joint task force, comparing notes on the mutant situation as it developed while also making contact with any mutants who appeared in order to ascertain and, if necessary, curtail any threat they might pose.

Thus would begin a long and productive quid pro quo relationship between Xavier and the office of Special Agent Fred Duncan, as Xavier assembled a staff of his own to respond to incidences where it was necessary to learn the abilities and intentions of a new mutant.* Strange that Duncan and Xavier didn't choose to make contact with each other when Magneto had attacked Cape Citadel; instead, Xavier was alerted to the incident by, of all things, a radio bulletin. But the two men were on the same page when it came to the Vanisher.

*Xavier would be more direct with the X-Men themselves as to their ongoing mission: "There are many mutants walking the Earth... and more are born each year! It is our job to protect mankind from those mutants who hate the human race, and wish to destroy it... the evil mutants!" (paraphrased from The X-Men #1)

Duncan's communications with Xavier (and vice versa) take place behind the scenes from this point on (alerting Xavier to the sightings of Ka-Zar, for instance). But when Xavier suddenly dies after a fatal encounter with the "sub-human" named Grotesk, Duncan addresses the X-Men after the funeral regarding their future. (Writer Gary Friedrich has him named "Amos" Duncan, for whatever reason.)

Time passes, and Duncan would appear here and there in other titles such as Ka-Zar, Shanna the She-Devil--as well as X-Men: The Hidden Years, a title which picks up where the cancelled X-Men series left off and of course features a once-more-alive Xavier who had recovered by the end of the original series' last issue. Here, he mostly makes a cameo appearance, but it's a nice nod to the character by writer/artist John Byrne.

Much later, however, when the new X-Men have established themselves, Senator Robert Kelly, who heads an ad hoc Congressional committee on mutant affairs, begins stoking anti-mutant fervor once more--and the team's below-the-radar ties with the U.S. Government now work against them.

The X-Men's plan succeeds (though not without complications)--and if you're wondering why Duncan himself didn't head this off, stay tuned.

---

An interesting companion piece to the relationship between Xavier and Duncan can be found in the 2008 issue X-Men: Odd Men Out, which publishes two previously unreleased stories by former X-Men artist Dave Cockrum two years after his death and adds context to pivotal points in the existence of the team which Duncan and of course Xavier played a role in. The first story, written by Roger Stern, reunites the two old friends after Duncan had retired from the Bureau and began working as a security consultant while also writing a book (hoping to "blow the lid off the government's mishandling of anti-mutant hysteria."

The issue is a pleasant trip down memory lane for the two, as well as an interesting retrospective--while Stern, no stranger to past lore of Marvel's stable of heroes, provides sensible explanations for those instances where Duncan's activities "behind the scenes" could have shed some light on things occurring in the book during the late '60s. For example, Duncan's true reason for instructing the team to split up following Xavier's "death" (a sham which both Duncan and Jean Grey had been made fully aware of by Xavier):

While "Project Wideawake," which involved the Government constructing and deploying a new series of Sentinels as part of an effort to seek out and end the mutant threat, barrels ahead while shutting out Duncan's input entirely.

As for the virus that Carol Danvers deploys to erase the Pentagon database on the X-Men, Duncan is there when Project Wideawake's head, Henry Gyrich, comes looking to roll some heads but is outraged by Duncan's seeming inability to reconstruct the data. And when Gyrich pulls rank, he finds that Duncan has already prepared his response.

---

In a later series published in 2012-13, The First X-Men by Neal Adams and Christos Gage, where Logan and Sabretooth take it upon themselves to gather a group of young people (not yet denoted as "mutants" by nongovernment personnel) and train them in the use of their powers, Duncan is presented as a counter to the plans of Bolivar Trask, who offers a different, aggressive approach to dealing with those powered individuals who have begun appearing in news accounts. The shocked expressions of both men (the exception being Mr. Hartfield's casual introduction) indicate the arrival of the hideous entrance of Lyle Doorne, aka Virus, whose mobility depends on grafting onto and gradually draining the life of a human host--a mutant who assures them that it can neutralize the threat presented by Logan and Creed and add them to the government's ranks in "controlled" form.

As for Duncan, he continues his own efforts in these early days of his career... encountering Logan and his group as they attempt to recruit the (at this point in time) vagrant Sub-Mariner... butting heads with Trask... and unknowingly crossing paths with Xavier when he was a private in the army while the government had yet to make their investigations into the growing population of mutants public.

Regrettably, Logan's efforts implode, and, demoralized, he washes his hands of the entire debacle and goes his own way--but not before Duncan takes a last stab at bringing him into the fold in a more formal capacity.

* * *

While each of these later series in their own way brings us full circle, Adams' series of course finds a way to blend in new material which serves to start the ball rolling on what would become a distinguished career of public service for Duncan. It's gratifying to see such attention paid to what essentially amounted to a footnote in the history of the X-Men, and fortunately these stories were told at a time before Marvel began to so radically reinvent its print product. As for Agent Duncan making it to the big screen, the closest we come to Duncan appearing in film was with the character's uncredited portrayal by actor Oliver Platt in "X-Men: First Class"--a C.I.A. man in his new role, but an adjustment that we know Fred Duncan would have taken in stride.

The Mission Within The Mission

With Avengers writer Roger Stern establishing his own pace for the book in 1983 as he redefined the characterization and chemistry of the team (while of course providing the adventure and action necessary for it to thrive), there was often ample time to slow that pace occasionally and allow us to peek behind the doors of the team's Fifth Avenue mansion to see the Avengers concept at work as its members conducted day-to-day business, training, and other routine matters--something we've seen to an extent in other team books, but a rare privilege in a loose-knit group such as the Avengers who lead their own lives (and, in some cases, in their own homes) while off the clock.

Yet even personal and/or private matters can draw the Avengers together, as was the case in an issue from September of that year which sees two of their members preoccupied with a sense of loss--and, as it turns out, only a villain can make things right.

By the time of this particular story, we've seen the Avengers perform their duties while attempting to cope with certain events which continue to weigh on their thoughts in one form or another. One of those episodes involves Anthony Stark, who as Iron Man has abruptly left the team without warning or explanation--though readers of Invincible Iron Man know that the reason stems from Stark's losing struggle with alcoholism. And when Captain America and the Avengers' chairwoman, the Wasp, decide to pay a call on Stark in order to get to the bottom of his recent erratic behavior, they learn first-hand the extent of Stark's difficulties--or, more to the point, his downward spiral.

With nothing left to say (at least on Stark's part), Cap and the Wasp are forced to finally accept Stark's decision and leave it at that, though seeing their friend and one of their founding members slowly destroying himself through alcohol addiction no doubt leaves them feeling despondent and helpless (as it does with many people in their position).

The Scarlet Witch is also experiencing such feelings, due to a situation created when she and the Vision, as Avengers reservists, were called in to help with a crisis involving the Fantastic Four and a strange null field emanating from the Baxter Building. If not stopped, the danger the growing field presents to the entire city is clear--but for the Vision, his own encounter with it has an immediate effect on himself, and on his wife.

Regrettably, injuries suffered by the FF and those they care for have been devastating and require all of Reed Richards' attention, forcing Wanda to keep a bedside... er, tubeside vigil as she monitors the Vision for signs of life. But each of these instances continues to have profound effect on both Cap and Wanda; and in the aftermath of damage caused by a mysterious force that would prove to be responsible for the disappearance of Reed, it's becoming apparent that something will need to be done.

Roger Stern Reassembles The Avengers!

While I stopped reading new comics from Marvel well before 2019, I couldn't resist the temptation to take a look at a one-shot issue published that year during the company's 80th anniversary celebration--reuniting one of its most popular super-team titles with one of its most distinguished writers, while fulfilling its anniversary obligation by dealing in the very adversary responsible for the team's creation.

By this time, over thirty-two years had passed since writer Roger Stern had left The Avengers due to a dispute with Editor Mark Gruenwald over the book's direction; and so it's perhaps understandable if this scripting assignment for the sake of commemorating a well-publicized anniversary comes across as rather belated. Jude Terror, writing for Bleeding Cool, is less tactful in his own assessment, though he makes a fair point:

"... one might be tempted to wonder how much Marvel really respects creators who helped build their universe, like Stern, or Chris Claremont, for example, when they only trot them out for one-shots like this rather than actually use their talents to create comics on a regular basis. But lofty questions like that are outside of the scope of this press release, we suppose. Besides, it's not like Marvel publishes 118 new comics in a single month or anything, so there just aren't that many slots open for the industry's legends to take up... oh, wait, they did publish exactly 118 comics in May. Hmmm. Well, beats the @#$% out of us then."

At any rate, Stern, now in his late 60s, turns in some nice work in this thirty-page tale--picking things up directly after the siege of Avengers Mansion by the Masters of Evil, as the Avengers literally begin to pick up the pieces in the aftermath. Joining Stern is artist Ron Lim, who has adapted his style to reflect Marvel's across-the-board preference for character appearance that has left the work of greats like John Buscema, Neal Adams, John Romita, et al. far behind in favor of a more inviting "kid-friendly" look (there's no other way to put it)--perhaps not so much a stretch for Lim, whose style in the '80s and '90s wasn't far removed.

As we turn the page, the story opens as it did in the fall of 1963, with the scheming of Loki, the God of mischief and evil--in this case, searching for new sources of power, with his wife, Sigyn, at his side, hoping to be of help. As for the Avengers, they haven't the luxury of such diversions, having suffered a brutal battle that has gutted their mansion headquarters and left casualties in its wake--leaving four of their original members to convene and assess their situation.

Reflections

It came as something of a surprise to witness the departure from the pages of Doctor Strange of the character we know as Clea--the lover and disciple who had become a fixture in the sorcerer's life since 1964, after he liberated her from the Dark Dimension of the Dread Dormammu. Perhaps equally surprising were her reasons: feeling that she was ill-suited to be a disciple to Earth's Sorcerer Supreme, and also having become convinced that another woman harbored even greater love for Strange than herself. A presence in both of Strange's series (as well as, to some degree, in The Defenders), Clea's exit created a void in his life as depicted by writer Roger Stern, shattering his resolve and leaving him vulnerable to despair. Only after prevailing in a life-or-death struggle was Strange able to put the episode behind him--effectively reclaiming his book's solo status after over seventeen years of having Clea featured in it.

But would her absence create a void in Doctor Strange? While I feel obliged to raise the point, I can't bring myself to argue in its favor, since I've admittedly never warmed to Clea as a compelling character in her own right. Once the "disciple" trigger was pulled by Steve Englehart, it would have been difficult to sever Clea's status with Strange or with the book, short of the character's death; but I still felt that her position as Strange's disciple should not have been the reason for her becoming a mainstay in the book and factoring her into all of its plots. Eventually, you wind up with covers like this one, carrying a caption which virtually grants her co-star status:

Can you say you were shelling out 50¢ to read the adventures of "Doctor Strange and Clea"? Looking back, I can see the wisdom of locating Strange, himself a disciple at the time, half a world away from the Ancient One and having Strange be the one to take point on whatever threat needed dealing with.

Curiously, it was a story in this very issue--taking place just seven issues before Clea would depart--which had me wondering if Stern might have been thinking out loud (through Strange) about Clea's viability in both the book and at Strange's side. I wouldn't go so far as to say it was the story's focus--mostly a one-shot which supplements the issue's main tale--but it adds some interesting perspective to a situation which wouldn't be long in coming. This could of course just be me reading between the lines here... but feel free to weigh in with your own thoughts on the subject, and on Clea in general.