Black Widow - The Golden Age!

The "Falcon", the "Vision", the "Angel", the "Whizzer", and even the "Human Torch". These are all names of vintage Golden Age Timely heroes who had their names lifted for Silver Age counterparts who were at times mostly different. (Following the model developed with great success by Julie Schwartz at DC.)  Another bygone name in this bunch was the "Black Widow", a strange, dour and grim character who dealt with the wicked of this world in service to Satan himself. 

Madame Claire Voyant is a medium who is murdered after she predicted the death of a woman in an accident. The woman's lover was miffed and took Voyant's life. But Satan himself shows up and snatches up Madame Voyant and takes her to Hell. There he imbues her with ghastly powers including a deathly touch so that she can go back to Earth and get vengeance on her murderer. She does so but then awaits further orders from her new master, Satan himself. It's a brisk and energetic story in the vintage Golden Age style. And for a long time the Black Widow was a forgotten character. 

She is revived so to speak in the limited series The Twelve in which she joined eleven other obscure Timely heroes, all given another chance at newsstand glory. It's pretty compelling storyby Michael Straczynski and Chris Weston. We learn that Claire had a sister Debbie and in this amended origin it is the murder of Debbie which causes her to seek supernatural assistance in gaining revenge on the murderer, a man deemed untouchable by society. 

There is even a "new" Black Widow story available right now in the trade Marvel featuring the work of Alex Ross among many others. One of those "others" is Ryan Heshka who provides a compelling version of the Golden Age Black Widow in a little four-page story from Marvel #3. 

You can find the debut story of the Golden Age Black Widow in Marvel Firsts: WWII Super Heroes. Marvel took the name but not the character and gave it new life in the Silver Age. More on that tomorrow. 

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The Twelve - Spearhead!

While The Twelve languished in comic book limbo, the artist Chris Weston produced a very handsome and compelling installment all on his own. It's a prequel of sorts which takes the story of our twelve Golden Age heroes right back to the days just before they fell into suspended animation in the Nazi controlled Berlin. We see lots of things which, if not mysteries, were questions about the characters as they roll into the occupied city alongside the United States army. This is danged fine story and I wanted more of it. It also features Captain America, The Human Torch, and other Timely heroes not part of the primary Twelve. Neat stuff! It was a shame and pity that this remarkable series fell on such hard times, because I wouldn't have waited all these years to read it.

And while I'm talking up The Twelve, two comics to look out for are the zero and one half issues which offered up some tasty Golden Age reprints starring some of the heroes. In the former we get stories about The Phantom Detective, Rockman and the Laughing Mask. In the latter we get the Firey Mask, Mister E and another Rockman advnture. Grand stuff and neat peak into how things were done long long ago in an industry far away.

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The Twelve - Half Dozen Of The Other!

The Twelve are time lost heroes from the Golden Age who find themselves thown together like castaways in time in a United States which has changed mightily since they all fell victim to Nazi suspended animation. Ironically The Twelve, the graphic novel also became time lost when a major delay hit it just after the halfway point, leaving a mystery story merely an annoying enigma for many moons thereafter.

In this story we follow The Phantom Reporter as he tries to solve the murder mystery of one of his colleagues, knowing the murderer is almost certainly one of his twelve colleagues.

He also must navigate affairs of the heart as he finds himself head over heels in love and lust with the enigmatic and dangerous Black Widow.

The Blue Blade is a callow fellow who seeks fame and fortune and seems little interested in deeper affairs of the heart. His story lies at the heart of the mystery we follow.

The robot Electro is a fascinating character, spending almost all of the story inert, a lost artifact who is the subject of court battles. Ownership issues and legalities are no small part of this groups re-entry into the modern world.

Even a hero like Dynamic Man who seems all too ready to find a new role in the brave new world has secrets which might make that difficult.

The story is a thriller and I don't want to spoil it too much for those who might want to take a tumble. The artwork is oustanding and the story is robust. These final chapters though hail mostly from the year 2012, four years after the series went on a hiatus due to writer Stracynski's other obligations. The fracture of this story was the source of no small amount of aggravation on my part at the time and was a major reason I just swore off new comics for the most part. The idea that I'd have to wait years to get the ending of a story which was intended to be a tight coherent whole was extremely frustrating.

Chris Weston was all too ready to continue the tale and he does in a manner of speaking. He wrote and drew a wonderful interlude which predates the events of this series and shows us more about the World War II world these heroes are from .

More on that tomorrow.

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The Twelve - Six Of One!

I was at a crossroads in my comic book collecting career when The Twelve came along. It had a number of things I really liked, a revival of some offbeat Golden Age characters and some lush Chris Weston artwork. Michael Stracynski wasn't a draw for me since he'd was just at that time demolishing The Avengers I'd loved for many decades. But despite some concerns about series that sometimes don't arrive on schedule, I took a tumble for The Twelve. And things went along rather well for a time.

We were introduced to a marvelous assortment of wacky Golden Age characters who looked very distinctive and slightly less silly in the hands of Weston. We see them at the very end of WWII alongside the Invaders and other Timely heroes as they marched into Berlin to put down the Nazis once and for all. But it went sideways when our Twelve heroes got stranded in a basement facility and were trapped and put into suspended animation by some renegade Nazis who themselves then quickly fell victim to the invading Russian army. The twelve heroes were lost and forgotten until renovations in Berlin in 2008 uncovered their ersatz tomb. They were revived by the United States government who sought to make use of these ready-made and presumably exceedingly patriotic heroes. Then that play goes sideways.

The story is told to us by Richard Jones, the Phantom Reporter, a masked mystery man who sans powers had been one of the twelve lost heroes. He tells us what happens to them as they attempt, each in his or her own way to deal with a life which has been put on hold for decades. Some like Wonder Man discovers that his family is dead and he, a good and noble man is distraught.

Other heroes like the Firey Mask, Mastermind Excello, Mister E, The Laughing Mask, and others attempt to find out what is left of their lives. Some like Dynamic Man adapt quickly and immediately start doing heroic deeds again. Some like Blue Blade try to trade on their fame to jump start an entertainment career. We have the Black Widow who does stuff by night that you can't really share out. And then there's the robot Electro who appears inert and to be cut off from his remote control master who is long dead.

The Laughing Mask gets into some trouble early on and the Phantom Reporter reveals himself to be a man with all too human desires. Mister E has to confront the differences between the modern world and the one he left behind in which he had to deny fundamental truths about himself.

The Witness is a hero who appears to have a mission from beyond to stand forth and confront evil doers. That mission has not disappeared even though he has.

And there's Rockman, a mighty strong man who says he came from a distant kingdom beneath the Earth, a land which he is unable to find. His pining for his lost family is heartbreaking.

As all this is happening we are confronted with a flash-forward scene which establishes at once a mystery and the murder of one of our heroes. The Phantom Reporter is committed to finding the answer, but the story is told in such a way that even getting to crime will take time.

This is a beautifully rendered story. Chris Weston's artwork is outstanding, giving a handsome but gritty realism of a kind to events which are long gone in history but still vivid in the imagination. The story of The Twelve will continue in another volume, but that's another post.

See you tomorrow.

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The Almost Twelve!

Chris Weston
The Twelve from Mighty Marvel has to be one of the grandest eggs ever laid in comics. It was in fact the series that convinced me finally at last to give up on mainstream comics and just dabble in vintage reprints and whatnot. The series by Michael Stracynksi and artist Chris Weston began with great promise. It was the Weston artwork ultimately that got me to give the series a try despite Stracynksi's spotty rep with deadlines.


The story is not that novel really at this point, but it was the characterization that drove it. Twelve WWII era heroes get packed away for decades and when they are released into the modern world they have some difficulties adjusting. It was sort of like twelve variations on the classic Captain America myth.

That's a decent premise, but after eight issues (with a few oddball extras thrown in) the series ground to a halt uncompleted. And in the years since, despite some rumours to the contrary, it has remained unfinished. It seems now at long last Weston himself will attempt to bring it to a conclusion, though I'll actually believe that when I see it in actual stores. Whatever the case, the series left a bad taste in my mouth and hastened my exit from mainstream comics.


But there were virtues to The Twelve, not least of them was the charming cover artwork above by Chris Weston for the zero issue. As I've said many times, I love covers that feature other comics and this one showcasing Daring Mystery Comics #3 is a gem.

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