Sequart Organization » Silver Age comics

How Carmine Infantino Designed DC’s Silver Age

Paul Jaissle — Thu, 17 Jul 2014 11:00:27 +0000

DC Comics’ Showcase #4, cover dated October 1956, is usually recognized as the book that launched the so-called Silver Age of comics by reintroducing the Flash and effectively reviving the superhero genre. The iconic cover… [more]

Thor’s Early Identity Crisis

Mark Ginocchio — Fri, 08 Nov 2013 12:00:07 +0000

Marvel’s introduction of Thor in Journey Into Mystery #83 (published in August 1962) ushered into the world a comic book character that transcended traditional superhero characteristics. Stan Lee, who created Thor, along with his brother… [more]

How “Tales of Asgard” Changed Everything

Julian Darius — Mon, 04 Nov 2013 12:00:17 +0000

In Journey into Mystery #83 (Aug 1962), Donald Blake finds a magical walking stick that transforms him into Thor. It’s a rather inauspicious beginning. In that first story, Thor fights stone-skinned aliens, who simply land… [more]

The Renaissance Man, The Master Of The World?: One Last Look at the Ditko / Lee Doctor Strange (Part 12)

Colin Smith — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 12:00:19 +0000

One recurrent criticism of Doctor Strange as a character is that he’s simply too powerful. A great many writers and fans alike have contended that comic book magic provides him with the tension-destroying ability to… [more]

You Just Haven’t Earned It Yet, Baby: On What Made Doctor Strange Unique (The Penultimate Part)

Colin Smith — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 12:00:31 +0000

Why would the Ancient One wait until after Strange had confronted Dormammu before rewarding his triumphant student with “new powers”? Perhaps the physical and magical enfeeblement caused by the Dreaded One’s spell had left the… [more]

Father, Son; Mentor, Student; Friends: On Doctor Strange & the Ancient One (Part 10)

Colin Smith — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 12:00:08 +0000

It was the unprecedented degree of conflict, of course, which marked out the earliest Marvel superhero comics from their characteristically more polite, repressed competitors. No-one had ever produced the likes of Fantastic Four #1 before,… [more]

Who’s the Superhero, Who’s the Supporting Player? On Doctor Strange & the Ancient One (Part 9)

Colin Smith — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 12:00:47 +0000

In the years since Ditko and Lee stepped away from writing Doctor Strange, the Ancient One tended to be characterized in terms of, at best, his moral authority and, at worst, his physical decrepitude. Yet… [more]

On the Ancient One, Earth’s Greatest Super-Hero (Part 8)

Colin Smith — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 12:00:45 +0000

Steve Ditko was often displeased with Stan Lee’s interpretation of his plots during the last few years in particular of their collaboration. Sadly, there seems to be no way of telling how the artist felt… [more]

On the Coyly Affectionate Doctor Strange (Part 7)

Colin Smith — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 12:00:51 +0000

It took almost two years of monthly adventures before Strange finally realized how tremendously fond he was of Clea. As if the relief of finally rescuing her from Dormammu’s banishment had cut through the magician’s… [more]

On the Romantically Disengaged Doctor Strange (Part 6)

Colin Smith — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 12:00:22 +0000

As with friendship, so with romance. Love, or at least lovelornness, tended to ground Marvel’s superheroes in a version of mundane reality that reflected the world-view of young boys just learning to recognise both longing… [more]

On the Entirely Uncomplaining, Yet Distinctly Overworked Doctor Strange (Part 5)

Colin Smith — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 12:00:09 +0000

It seems hard not to believe that Strange was deliberately making himself and his mission known to the world in a somewhat indirect and yet undeniably insistent way. In doing so, he walked a careful… [more]

On the Profoundly Rational Doctor Stephen Strange (Part 4)

Colin Smith — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 12:00:42 +0000

Even smiling at the literal-mindedness of the West was no little matter in the Marvel books of the period. To be a super-hero was to be a Cold Warrior, and it was taken for granted… [more]

On the Profoundly Rational Doctor Stephen Strange (Part 3)

Colin Smith — Tue, 25 Dec 2012 12:00:12 +0000

The Sorcerer’s Code committed Strange to the defense of the Earth, and it obliged him to place the welfare of humanity above that of any alien race. Yet the Code also seems to have set… [more]

On the Profoundly Rational Doctor Stephen Strange (Part 2)

Colin Smith — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 12:00:26 +0000

Having found his way to “India, land of mystic entanglement” in the hope of having the “Ancient One” heal his hands, the still entirely cynical Strange discovered that magic really did exist. Prior to that… [more]

On the Profoundly Rational Doctor Stephen Strange

Colin Smith — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 12:00:04 +0000

Who’d pitch a character such as Steve Ditko and Stan Lee’s Doctor Strange to one of the Big Two today? Sorcerers and magic simply don’t sell where the audience for the super-hero comic’s concerned. Decades… [more]

On the Ethics of How and Why Hank Pym Created a Wasp (Part 2)

Colin Smith — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 11:00:11 +0000

By design and chance, Tales to Astonish #44 had presented a fledgling romance between Pym and Van Dyne which had the potential to constantly and plausibly generate both conflict and reconciliation over and over again.… [more]

On Stan Lee and H.E. Huntley’s the Wasp and Ant-Man (1963 to 1966)

Colin Smith — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 11:00:30 +0000

Suddenly, Ant-Man’s wife was dead. Killed by the Reds some years before, no less, and apparently with at the very least the connivance of the Hungarian branch of that fiendish Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist-Maoist ungodly, transnational conspiracy. There’d… [more]

X-Men #1-19 by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, et al (1963-66), Part 2

Colin Smith — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 11:00:19 +0000

X-Men #1-19 by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, et al (1963-66), Part 2" title="X-Men #1-19 by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, et al (1963-66), Part 2" style="float:left;" />In the wake of their first public appearance, the X-Men appear to have been briefly embraced by the American people. Having defeated Magneto’s attempt to seize the U.S. military base of “Cape Citadel”, Cyclops and… [more]

X-Men #1-19 by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, et al (1963-66), Part 1

Colin Smith — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 13:00:18 +0000

X-Men #1-19 by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, et al (1963-66), Part 1" title="X-Men #1-19 by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, et al (1963-66), Part 1" style="float:left;" />In a profoundly reactionary society, even a gentle and sincere challenge to the status quo can be read as a significant marker of dissent. When that dissent is expressed in a medium and a form… [more]

The Adventures of Henry Pym (1962 to 1965)

Colin Smith — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 11:00:44 +0000

Don’t print the legend. There was no such thing as an archetypal “Marvel superhero” for the first few years following the publication and unexpected success in 1961 of the Fantastic Four. What would in hindsight… [more]

On Iron Man in 1963, by Stan Lee, Don Heck, and Jack Kirby

Colin Smith — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 14:00:16 +0000

Why should we care about Tony Stark? More importantly, why should we pity him? The Reds have done for his heart, it’s true, and he can never remove the super-scientific chest plate that ensures that it keeps… [more]

On the Batman of Three Worlds, by Bill Finger and Sheldon Moldoff (1963)

Colin Smith — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 13:15:56 +0000

It’s not so long ago that the very idea would have sounded thoroughly absurd. Yet, the Batman tales of the late ’50s and early ’60s by editor Jack Schiff, writer Bill Finger, and penciler Sheldon… [more]

On Jeff Hawke: Overlord, by Sydney Jordan and Willie Patterson (1960)

Colin Smith — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 11:00:58 +0000

Jeff Hawke: Overlord, by Sydney Jordan and Willie Patterson (1960)" title="On Jeff Hawke: Overlord, by Sydney Jordan and Willie Patterson (1960)" style="float:left;" />“Adult” all too often has a different meaning now. But in the very best sense of the term, Jordan and Patterson’s Jeff Hawke was a newspaper science-fiction comic strip for adults. In an age in… [more]

On Adventure Comics #332, by Edmond Hamilton and John Forte (1965)

Colin Smith — Tue, 22 May 2012 11:00:54 +0000

Adventure Comics #332, by Edmond Hamilton and John Forte (1965)" title="On Adventure Comics #332, by Edmond Hamilton and John Forte (1965)" style="float:left;" />The received wisdom has it that the future world of the Legion Of Super-Heroes was originally an inspiringly optimistic, comfortingly cosy, super-scientific utopia. And there are amateur pundits given to insisting that the Legion will… [more]

On Wally Wood and Stan Lee’s Daredevil #7

Colin Smith — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 11:00:33 +0000

Daredevil #7" title="On Wally Wood and Stan Lee’s Daredevil #7" style="float:left;" />The years steam past, the comics pile up, and the canon for any single moment of time soon collapses to a ridiculously over-simplified, back-of-a-Trivial-Pursuit-card answer. The facts of the Marvel Revolution of the Sixties have… [more]

On Bill Finger and Wayne Boring’s “The Girl in Superman’s Past”

Colin Smith — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:00:53 +0000

It’s hard to tell at first from looking that the Clark Kent of 1959’s “The Girl In Superman’s Past” is desperately in love. Yet despite the absence of the typical signs of comic-book romantic longing… [more]

Musings over Space Adventures #35

Cody Walker — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:00:18 +0000

Space Adventures #35" title="Musings over Space Adventures #35" style="float:left;" />When I was a kid, I remember asking my dad which superhero was his favorite. Of course, he said the Green Hornet, but I didn’t know who that was, so I asked him who his… [more]

Seeing through Spectacles

Gene Phillips — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 11:00:58 +0000

Julian Darius’s essay Hollow Spectacle cites a current DC comic for its overuse of meaningless spectacular scenes, such as a scene in the recent Justice League #1, in which Green Lantern uses his power ring… [more]

The Mighty Thor, the “Frail and Feeble” Donald Blake

Colin Smith — Thu, 12 May 2011 12:00:42 +0000

What are we to make of the hero and his alter ego in “The Mighty Thor and the Stone Men from Saturn,” from August 1962? Nowadays we’d hope that Donald Blake would have been raised to… [more]

Batman #678: The Zur-En-Arrh Connection

Timothy Callahan — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 11:00:36 +0000

Batman #678: The Zur-En-Arrh Connection" title="Batman #678: The Zur-En-Arrh Connection" style="float:left;" />Grant Morrison’s Batman #678 relies heavily on reference to Batman #113 (February 1958), specifically Zur-En-Arrh. Batman #113′s cover story, “Batman — the Superman of Planet X” is the relevant bit, although it’s the third of three Batman… [more]

Batman #673: The Lingering Shadow of 1963

Timothy Callahan — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 12:00:06 +0000

Batman #673: The Lingering Shadow of 1963" title="Batman #673: The Lingering Shadow of 1963" style="float:left;" />Grant Morrison’s Batman has been courting controversy since it began. Batman has a son? Man-Bats learned ninjitsu? Comics can be full of words instead of pictures? A future Batman who’s not Robin or Tim or even… [more]

Reviews out of Time 3: Amazing Spider-Man #1

Julian Darius — Sun, 09 Nov 2003 18:00:51 +0000

Amazing Spider-Man #1" title="Reviews out of Time 3: Amazing Spider-Man #1" style="float:left;" />Greetings, True Believers! Welcome to the third installment of my continuing attempt to enlighten you about the weird comics I’m discovering down at Clark’s Drugs! And man, have I got a weird one for you… [more]

Reviews out of Time 2: The X-Men #1, Tales of Suspense #39, and Sgt. Fury #1

Julian Darius — Sun, 27 Oct 2002 12:00:12 +0000

The X-Men #1, Tales of Suspense #39, and Sgt. Fury #1" title="Reviews out of Time 2: The X-Men #1, Tales of Suspense #39, and Sgt. Fury #1" style="float:left;" />I’m told that there’s been a lot of e-mail in response to the last column, and what’s apparently called “printouts” of it has been sent to me, since I don’t do e-mail myself. In fact,… [more]

X-Men is Not an Allegory of Racial Tolerance

Julian Darius — Wed, 25 Sep 2002 11:00:11 +0000

X-Men is Not an Allegory of Racial Tolerance" title="X-Men is Not an Allegory of Racial Tolerance" style="float:left;" />It’s funny that it’s so resoundingly universally accepted. It’s been repeated so many times, from everyone from fans and comics professionals to scholars, that it’s become an article of faith. X-Men is about racial tolerance,… [more]

Reviews out of Time 1: Fantastic Four #1, The Incredible Hulk #1, and Amazing Fantasy #15

Julian Darius — Sun, 08 Sep 2002 11:00:49 +0000

Fantastic Four #1, The Incredible Hulk #1, and Amazing Fantasy #15" title="Reviews out of Time 1: Fantastic Four #1, The Incredible Hulk #1, and Amazing Fantasy #15" style="float:left;" />Guys, I’d like to tell you that there’s some good stuff going on over at this company called Marvel Comics! They got this guy Stan Lee writing, and he’s doing some weird stuff. Not all… [more]

Against Silver Age Marvel, the Cult of Stan Lee, and Fantastic Four (Annual) #1 / For Comic Books as Literary Art

Julian Darius — Mon, 13 May 2002 11:00:04 +0000

Fantastic Four (Annual) #1 / For Comic Books as Literary Art" title="Against Silver Age Marvel, the Cult of Stan Lee, and Fantastic Four (Annual) #1 / For Comic Books as Literary Art" style="float:left;" />To this day, one hears otherwise intelligent comic book creators saying that they want to recapture the joy of reading Fantastic Four #1, of its fun and its newness. This always shocks me, especially when it… [more]