Alter Ego Day!

Roy Thomas was for many years my favorite writer. His work on The Avengers completely won me over. Roy was Stan Lee's hand-picked successor to the Marvel empire, but after a few years he dropped those duties to concentrate on Conan the Barbarian. Later he jumped to DC, and there went about creating a completely detailed narrative of DC's WWII years in the pages of All-Star Squadron. Roy's work with Alter-Ego began in the late 90's and I've followed every issue since. But that was not the first Alter-Ego. 

In the 1960's Alter Ego was a trail-blazing fanzine and in the 1970's it reappeared as a fascinating prozine. In the 1980's it changed once again and became the very thing which it once viewed with historical perspective, critical acumen and fanboy fervor. It became a comic book. In the 80's as we know the comic industry changed and the newsstands gave way to the comic book shop as the main means of delivering comics into the still oft sweaty hands of its readership, and with that change came many a new company to fill the expanded racks. Pacific, Capitol, Eclipse, AC, and many others. But for my money for a tiny time the cream seemed to be First Comics hailing out of Chicago, a company which seemed to combine the knew attitudes toward talent with a substantial business model. Turns out it was less impressive than I'd imagined and went away faster than I expected, but during its time among the many titles such as  a revived E-Man, Starslayer, Mars, and ground-breaking American Flagg was a humble little limited series with a famous name -- Alter Ego. 

Roy Thomas, an original contributor and eventual publisher of the fanzine Alter Ego got the rights to the name and using a concept he'd imagined back in the misty days of the Sliver Age, brought together a gaggle of public domain superheroes to form a "Limbo Legion" which was to led by a boy turned superman named "Alter Ego". The details are immense for a four-issue series as is the wont of a Roy Thomas effort. The artwork by Ron Harris is adequate to the task but just and is immensely helped by the addition of inker Rich Burhett on the final two issues. 

A boy named Ron Lindsay finds a comic shop and canny eye-patch wearing owner who gifts him a box of Golden Age comics. Soon that shop is destroyed and we discover the owner was none other than Captain Combat (a new name for the hero Captain Battle). In the box is a mask which when worn turns the wearer into the other-dimensional Alter Ego, a superhero of great powers who leads the likes of Skyboy (Airboy), Holy Terror (Black Terror), Scarlet Streak (Silver Streak), and other against the villain Scarlet Claw (The Claw) and his henchmen Rockjaw (Ironjaw), Uriah Heap (The Heap), and Emerald Empress (Green Sorceress) among others. 

It of course turns out there is much more to the story when we learn that the origins of the Scarlet Claw and Alter Ego are actually linked in a weird way. We see batches of airplane heroes battle the Claw's forces and later a squad of jungle heroes stand up to the evil threat, as Alter Ego comes and goes into this dimension which seems still to be fighting a variation of WWII. When not there he's just Rob Lindsay questioning his sanity and trying to deal with the questions of his caretaker Grandfather and his two absent and divorcing parents as well as the officials at the school he sometimes attends. It's the bouncing back and forth between dimensions which I feel is the greatest weakness in the storytelling as it forces the concoction of various motives to drive Rob back into danger. 

Ultimately of course the heroes win the day and it's not a spoiler to tell you that. The way in which it happens is not totally unclever at that. The weakest part of the storytelling is the incessant whining interior monologue by Rob as he moans about whatever situation he's in. It might have the veneer of realism, but it gets tedious to once again have to endure his questioning of the reality he's experiencing. He has a girlfriend who hangs by him for reasons that seem unclear, but that might just be life. Frankly I think the series needed much less of Rob's world (supposedly ours) and much more of the fantasy comic book universe into which he is propelled. But still it's a smart comic book series with a nice evergreen whiff of nostalgia, a Roy Thomas specialty. 

There is a fifth issue of this series celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary and was published along with the rest of the limited series in 2012, but of course it is not included in the 2005 reprint from Heroic Publishing and I do not have a copy of it alas. 

As it turns out, Roy was not the only one who had the spritely notion to harness the power of public domain heroes such as Airboy, Claw and Black Terror. Here are some others examples from the Eclipse, AC, and Dynamite publishing outfits. 

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Hank Pym Day!

Larry Lieber was a powerful creator during Marvel's formative years. Brother of the famous Stan Lee, Lieber was the go-to writer for many of Marvel's earliest efforts when Stan was too busy. Consequently, he is now credited with creating some of Marvel's heroes such as Henry "Hank" Pym the Ant-Man. Lieber went on to draw as well, especially western features such as the Rawhide Kid which he both wrote and drew for several years. Lieber left Marvel for a time when he was tapped as an editor for the brief but bright Atlas-Seaboard line. 

Doctor Henry "Hank" Pym is the most flawed of heroes. One of the earliest heroes in the Marvel Universe, only preceded by the Fantastic Four and the Hulk in the Silver Age, Pym in his role as Ant-Man was always it seemed trying to find a better way to express his clear desire to be of help and to make himself useful.

Early on he fell in love with his partner Janet Van Dyne who became the Wasp and ever after the need in his mind to look big in her eyes proved a fundamental weakness in him.

He became Giant-Man, then after a brief retirement he returned as Goliath and then later when his mind snapped he took on the role of Yellowjacket. In that last role he married his love, but the pairing was ill-fated. 

Their marriage was a ragged one to be sure as Pym continued to alter his heroic pose, even at times eschewing it completely. Eventually his lack of self-worth drove him to abuse his wife and she quite wisely left him.

But still the journey to become a hero worthy of that name continued for Hank Pym. Of the myriad looks that Hank Pym has adopted over the decades, I have to say my absolute favorite is when he first returned to the Assemblers as "Goliath". One of the original Marvel superheroes, Pym began of course as Ant-Man before switching to the somewhat more imposing Giant-Man. He changed up his costume often enough even then. But then he and Winsome Wasp retired briefly from the Avengers only to return some months later all revved up for a new somewhat glitzier run.

The gold and blue he wore was attractive and distinctive among costumed heroes. The design is sleek and modern and eshcews too many goo-gaws. The use of goggles was an inspiration, giving the character a weird but oddly practical look. It rock solid costume, one of Marvel's very best. The look debuted in Avengers #28 and Jack Kirby offers up our first glimpse of the more imposing giant superhero. Goliath will be featured on most all the Avengers covers for the next few years, the first few drawn by Kirby.

Then it became the task of underrated artist Don Heck to illustrate the new hero. And he does a magnificent job. Goliath is a hero inside Heck's wheelhouse as Heck's jaunty lines work well on the simple costume. Avengers covers showcase the new hero to great effect. I recently had the opportunity to see some of the original work Heck did on this run and his inks on his own pencils are simply beautiful. I own one piece of art from this era, and I'd wish I'd had enough bucks to bring this one home as well.

After some months Goliath recedes a bit into the background of the covers, joining his fellow assemblers.

Gil Kane steps in for an issue and offers up a look at Goliath in a decidedly weak position here.

Then came John Buscema to the Assemblers while Don Heck drew the first Avengers annual adventure.

Buscema's arrival marked the end of the focus on Goliath as new Avengers scribe Roy Thomas decided that Hank Pym needed some more angles to his profile. He returned him to his roots, reactivating his Ant-Man persona.

We get one last look at the awesome blue and gold costume, with the added antennae in this powerful drawing of the assemblers by Buscema.

When next he'd appear Goliath would lose the blue and gold and replace it with a somewhat more drab red and blue, making him alas less distinctive and more like other heroes. Soon after that Goliath would be replaced by Yellowjacket.

But for a few years at least Hank Pym was a star, a true "big man on campus".

Then in a startling turn of events he trashed his Goliath identity and became The Yellowjacket. Hank was mildly mad at the time and used the brash personality of the Yellowjacket to win the hand of Janet and the two were finally wed. 

Hank did at one time become Ant-Man for a brief time in the pages of Marvel Feature, but it wasn't long before he'd returned to being Yellowjacket. 

One thing that I have always found fascinating is how many of Pym's identities have been handed off or perhaps purloined by other characters over the years. First of course Hawkeye became the second Goliath with Hank's blessings.

Later still Bill Foster, a longtime associate of Pym's became the third Goliath, this time with the added "Black" to the name. Foster took on another of Pym's identities some years later when he became the second Giant-Man.

Without doubt the most successful hand off was when Scott Lang stumbled onto the Ant-Man identity and then kept it with Pym's permission of sorts.

Many years later we even got a new Yellowjacket, though she was of a quasi-villainous nature for a bit.  I'm sure I'm forgetting some later ones, but frankly I haven't been paying much attention in the last decade or so. For me the power of Pym though still resonates.

The Trial of Yellowjacket is one of the most notorious storylines in the long history of comics. Featuring the downfall of a founding member of the Mighty Avengers, this saga seemed to follow on relentlessly from one of the most debated scenes in comics history. For Jim Shooter's reflection on how it was that Hank Pym came to be comics poster boy for wife beaters see this link.

Whatever the truth of that situation, this story was intended to document the collapse of a fundamentally good man when confronted with his own percieved relative uselessness to those around him. That frustration leading to one bad decision after another until his colleagues are left with only bad choices. Happily this collection not only tells the story of that fall from grace, but showcases how the completely humbled Hank Pym gathered himself and eventually re-entered the ranks of the pantheon of Assembers.

Below is a cover gallery for this sprawling storyline which ran from late 1981 into 1983. The Avengers battled many a foe during this time, not always focused specifically on the drama of Hank Pym, but always that personal tragedy develops through most of these tales if not directly then in terms of a similar theme, not something I realized when these first hit the stands way back when. Artistically it was a somewhat chaotic period for the team, but the storytelling was most memorable. 

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