Phantom Eagle Day!

Herb Trimpe was born on yesterday's date in 1939. He was one of Marvel's mainstay artists in the Bronze Age. His version of the Incredible Hulk was the definitive version of the era. Trimpe had a style which worked well on lots of projects such as Godzilla and Shogun Warriors. The Power of Angels is one of the most powerful books written in regard to 9-11. 

It's pure happen chance that I picked up Marvel Super-Heroes #16 featuring the one and pretty much only solo appearance of "the Pulse-Poundng Phantom Eagle". He was an American of German heritage and who feared for his family who was doing his best under disguise to bring the German menace during World War I to an end. What makes the Phantom Eagle fly is the exquisite artwork of the late Herb Trimpe, an artist ideally suited for the task. Trimpe was in addition to being one of Marvel's most trustworthy and reliable talents, a flyer of just the kinds of planes featured in this comic.

Here is some of the original artwork from that story from so many years ago.

What a neat character. Phantom Eagle was one of the earliest comics I've ever chanced across when a mere tot. The story in Marvel Super-Heroes #16 by Gary Friedrich featuring the scrumptious artwork by Herb Trimpe really appealed to me. The story's absolute merits have diminished somewhat through the decades as adult critical judgment comes into play, but I still think the Trimpe art, especially those planes holds up magnificently. His attention to detail in this story is exceptionally keen. Airplane stories are hard to tell and keep the storytelling effective in a comic, but Trimpe does it very well in the Phantom Eagle's single outing.

The character popped up a few more times over the decades. Trimpe brought him back in the Hulk for a one-off adventure and later the Eagle appears in Ghost Rider. But that was about all she wrote (literally) for the hero who does get a nod in the Invaders as a member of the Freedom's Five, a WWI precursor to the Invaders themselves.

Then Phantom Eagle got dusted off a few years ago by Howie Chaykin and given a limited series. This isn't the charming Phantom Eagle I loved as a kid, this is a pretty wretched young man in a world far more brutal than the kid-friendly war pictured in the old Marvel comics. Men die horribly and for no good damn reason in this series, and Phantom Eagle is far from a hero. He's a self-centered buffoon for most of the story, but he does grow as tragedy strikes again and again. It's a decent WWI story, but it's not really a Phantom Eagle story. I'm afraid only Herb Trimpe and Gary Friedrich can tell those, and together they only told one.


I got to meet Trimpe and Friedrich a few years ago at Mid-Ohio Con, and they were both nice fellows. I went wanting specifically to thank Trimpe for decades of great work and I took my copy of Marvel Super-Heroes #16 to get it signed. Trimpe and Friedrich had adjoining booths and when he saw the comic, Trimpe shouted to Friedrich to take a gander a book I suspect they don't see a lot. I now have a precious copy with both signatures. I also took advantage to commission Trimpe to draw a portrait of Phantom Eagle for me. It's a great treasure and occupies a place of honor in the non-virtual dojo.

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A Trimpe Down Memory Lane - Part 2!

Eventually Herb Trimpe simply was the Hulk artist, the guy most associated with a character visually created by Jack "King" Kirby and drawn by such powerhouses as Steve Ditko, Gil Kane, John Buscema, Marie Severin, and Bill Everett. The Incredible Hulk was a comic that looked none other on the stands and when Trimpe inked himself it was at its most pure. But that proved unreliable and a host of inkers such as John Severin and especially Sal Buscema (another blooming talent) helped shape the final product. With Trimpe firmly rooted in the artist chair, Roy Thomas proved to be just as steady as a writer and these two cranked out quite a few Hulk gems in their time.

One peculiarity in "In The Hands Of Hydra", the fourth Hulk Epic collection is the inclusion of Marvel Super-Heroes #16 which showcased for one memorable issue the origin of WWI flying ace The Phantom Eagle. Apparently Herb Trimpe was an aviation buff and this was a pet project, one which makes a mark in the Hulk run when Greenskin is hurtled through time by Kang the Conqueror to meet the World War I hero. It's a neat way to pay homage to one of Marvel's most significant talents from those days when the company was learning how to fly without "King" Kirby's ever ready layouts and designs and especially the omnipresent "Kirby Dot".

The one word that comes to mind when I think of Trimpe's art from this era is "warmth". There's an accessibility to Trimpe's art, which somewhat eludes even a master stylist like Jim Steranko. Maybe it's that you can always see Steranko thinking on the page, planning just where to position this and that while with Trimpe it all seems to flow out of him more naturally. Now I'm not saying one is better or whatnot, my adoration for Steranko's work is well documented. Even the brilliant Neal Adams for all the sense of reality he injects into his work lacks this singular charm. Trimpe was distinctive which is all the more pity that Marvel felt the need to make him adhere to the then new "Image" style before sending Trimpe on his way entirely. What Herb Trimpe did then perhaps shows us why, as he ended up a chaplain ministering to folks suffering after the 9-11 attacks, giving of his heart to heal them as he'd done for so many decades to entertain us all.

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Kang In Love And War!

The saga of Kang the Conqueror takes an interesting twist when he returns to battle the Avengers in the twenty-third issue of that comic. This team of Avengers is different from the one he battled before save for Captain America, and technically even Cap had walked out on the team of Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver when a mysterious additional floor added itself to the top of the Avengers mansion. Investigating the trio are whisked into the future where they find Kang seeking not just vengeance but the hand of a woman he has fallen in love with, the fair Ravonna.

Cap quickly joins the fray in the very next issue, and the Avengers and Kang actually end up working together for the first time when a more deadly threat appears from the brutal ranks of Kang's own army. To save the life of his beloved Kang rejects his own ruthless ways and his men mutiny. Only the Avengers can save the day and they do, but not before Ravonna is seemingly killed.

Ravonna doesn't show up in Thor #140 when Kang resurfaces in the 20th Century. This time he is testing a new weapon, something called a "Stimuloid", but which is called by those who see it "The Growing Man". Thor faces off against this menace and Kang himself, but the battle ends when Kang escapes into the time stream yet again.

In The Avengers #69, arguably my all-time favorite Kang story begins when The Growing Man shows up to kidnap an injured Tony Stark.

The Avengers seek to defend him, but are themselves whisked into the future to find that Kang has entered a contest with the enigmatic Grandmaster for the fate of the entire Earth. The Avengers agree grudgingly to help Kang who wants the power of life and death so that he might heal his beloved Ravonna.

This trilogy is a masterpiece as demonstrated by the next installment which introduces The Squadron Sinister. This quartet of DC-lite enemies faces off against some select Avengers in a cosmic game of chess. Cap battles Nighthawk atop the Statue of Liberty. Iron Man faces down Doctor Spectrum in the gardens of the Taj Mahal. Thor slugs it out with Hyperion in the shadow of the Sphinx. And finally Goliath reaches a stalemate with Whizzer in London when the Black Knight intervenes.
 

The contest enters a new phase in the very next issue, when Yellowjacket, Vision, and Black Panther are shipped off to Europe and World War II to battle "The Invaders". They weren't called that yet, because this is the story that introduced Cap, Namor, and the Human Torch in that assembly. The Avengers manage to eek out a victory just barely but because the first contest was left in doubt Kang is only granted either the power of death or the power of life, not both. Forced to choose his desire for revenge on the Avengers overwhelms his love and he chooses death over the team, but is foiled when the Black Knight, not yet an Avenger, defeats him. The Avengers quickly make Dane Whitman a member.

A lot of great things in just three mere issues.
 

We wrap up this look at past Kang yarns with a stellar one-off. After his crushing defeat in the Avengers, Kang continues to plot and comes up with a scheme to stop the team before they even begin by traveling to World War I and killing the ancestor of Bruce Banner.

Without a Hulk to stop the Avengers will never form and Kang will rule. But he cannot get to the desired time himself so he ironically chooses the Hulk himself to do it and it is old Jadejaws who battles Phantom Eagle in the skies over France. But as it turns out Hulk himself ends up saving his own ancestor and his own life foiling Kang's schemes yet again.

But Kang ain't done, not really. More to come. 

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A Day Of Dojo Delights!

Let me paint the scene. I've just returned home after a hard day's work, having stopped by the local comics shop as I do almost every Wednesday, to pick up my cache of new reading (if any). This week the haul consisted of the latest Popeye reprint from YOe Books and issue #137 of Alter-Ego from Twomorrows.

This issue boasts articles on the early work of Jim Shooter on the Legion of Super-Heroes,  the last of multi-part look at the chaotic career of Flash Gordon artist Dan Barry, a regular Mr.Monster entry from Michael T. Gilbert, the monthly installment of FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), two heartfelt tributes to recently the late great Herb Trimpe, and an article on the surviving members of the group that attended the first Comicon way back in those halcyon days of 1964.

But it was in the letters column that I got the shock as I turned the page innocently enough and there before my eyes was the lovely image of the Phantom Eagle seen above. The thing is, this one-of-a-kind item is hanging in my back bedroom where the small mountain of long boxes which contain my still-to-big collection resides. There's my name, the inscription and Herb Trimpe's signature where he made this beautiful portrait of one of his more obscure heroes for yours truly. Also on that day by the way I was able to get both Herb Trimpe and Gary Friedrich to sign my very own copy of Marvel Super-Heroes #16. 

It seems that the folks at Alter-Ego, eager to locate images of Phantom Eagle chanced upon this post of mine from five years ago and used Herb's beautiful art in an answer to a question about a recent Trimpe reflection the magazine did.

I was startled to see the picture and to see this blog credited as the source. I'm not someone who is accustomed to seeing his name in print. It was rather a thrill to be honest and I hopped up (as best I could since I'm nursing a mild sprain to my knee) and shared the discovery with my wife and as it turns out my oldest daughter to whom she was then speaking on the phone. That daughter was in fact with me at the convention where I happily met Trimpe and where he produced the Phantom Eagle drawing for me.

It's not big deal, but I have to say it was an exceedingly pleasant surprise.

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