On a whim, I pulled out one of my longboxes where I had a nearly complete run of Amazing Adventures starting in 1970, along with its "sister" title, Astonishing Tales. It was a return of the "split-book" concept that Marvel abandoned in 1968 when it greatly expanded their line of books. I soon realized that while I have these books, I never actually read them, at least with any scrutiny.
It featured two established Marvel supporting heroes: the Inhumans and the Black Widow.
Commentary to follow!
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Amazing Adventures #1-2 (Au-N'70) Part One
THE INHUMANS
Written and drawn by Jack Kirby. Inked by Chick Stone. Edited by Stan Lee.
The credits themselves are interesting as I can't recall another pre-1970 Marvel book where Jack was listed as the writer. Also there was the obvious "top billing" status of Stan as editor as if readers couldn't except a book not be "Stan & Jack", though to be fair he got the same top billing in the Black Widow feature.
The Inhumans, or more exactly the Royal Family of Black Bolt, Medusa, Gorgon, Karnak, Triton and Lockjaw, spend the first installment driving away Chinese soldiers, who know that there is a Hidden City in the Himilayans. They are successful but Black Bolt realizes "the Technology Gap between Man and Inhuman is closing fast. The CLASH must come soon!" Each Inhuman is given a chance to explain their powers but they still are ciphers more or less. As soon as they return to Attilan, they are shocked to learn that not one but TWO nuclear missiles are headed for them. Black Bolt manages to save the Hidden City but debris from the missiles are stamped with "Made in the USA" and branded with a familar "4" logo. Since the Fantastic Four atre the only outsiders who know where Attilan truly is, they are immediately suspected of trying to destroy the Inhumans. Black Bolt orders the counter-attack on the Baxter Building.
However the missiles came from Black Bolt's insane brother Maximus the Mad, living in exile on a tropical island, surrounded by the fawning and servile "Evil" Inhumans from Incredible Hulk Annual #1. He wants to start a war between the Inhumans and the Outside World, apparently so the Inhumans would turn on Black Bolt and make him king....if they survive!
The Royl Family invade the Fantastic Four's HQ where Black Bolt, Karnak and Lockjaw incapacitate The Thing, Medusa quickly subdues Crystal and Gorgan extinquishes the Human Torch and they make it look easy!
Meanwhile Maximus walks down the shoreline, cocky and confident, boasting of his "victory" until Triton appears and drags him underwater, stuffs him in a sea sled and brings him back to Attilan in disgrace. Obviously Black Bolt suspected his brother's involvement and had a two-pronged plan to cover both theories. Once Triton signals Black Bolt of Maximus' crime, the King of Attilan ceases all hostility against the FF just as Reed and Sue arrive. After explaining their reasons, they leave in peace with a cryptic warning: Would humanity investigate a sneak attack or quickly retaliate?
How nice to see t his revisited.
I have heard recently that once again, this was the begining of a full Inhuman's book that Jack was to write...and then someone (Goldman? Lee?) got cold feet and decided to do split books instead. As a result, Jack had to do some surgury to split this up and end on a cliffhanger. The next tale is the same way, as I recall. However, almost simultaneous with this appearing is the final issue of the Silver Surfer, and Jack was gone to DC....which triggers a flood of Kirby reprint books by Marvel. (This was Marvel trying to blunt the "Kirby's Coming" and "Kirby's Here" campaign over at DC.)
I found the Black Widow tale to be passable, but I didn't know why we put her in a black leather or skin tight leotard just to have her strip it off each issue to take a shower... And when Gene Colan takes over the drawing chores, not only is she MORE of a tease for young boys, but it also makes an unpalatable story tolerable...but the rest of the artwork on the Astrologer story arc is DREADFUL.
I think the wonderful Neal Adams artwork on the next four installments of Inhumans are SUPERB, even though the storyline is a bit odd...and it dovetails nicely into the current run of the Kree-Skrull War in Avengers... except for the dangling thread of a murder charge against Thor for his actions against "Black Bolt"/Uncle Rosco. But I'm getting ahead of us here. I'll reserve more comment until those issues come up.
The first thing one notices about Jack Kirby's work on the Inhumans feature is that he obviously isn't being that creative anymore. He uses repeat villains and introduces no new characters or concepts. Did he already make up his mind about leaving Marvel and was simply going through the motions? The Inhumans seem to suffer from "Bugged-Out Eyes" here!
Some (including myself) have criticized Jack's dialogue but that's not an issue here. The Inhumans always spoke in a stiff manner, being a stiff people. In fact I see similarities in tone and composition here to the forth-coming New Gods. Still he does little with the Inhumans as characters. They are still aloof, proud and haughty. There are no moments between Black Bolt and Medusa. Black Bolt's greatest "gimmick", his devastating voice, is not mentioned. He could simply be mute for any first time reader to know.
Also Black Bolt's powers are undefined, he can do anything the story requires him to do. Kirby goes out of his way to make the Fantastic Four seem lesser than the Inhumans as they are mere pawns in Maximus' plot, unknowing and clueless. In fact Maximus' plan is ill-conceived as Attilan could have been easily destroyed, leaving him with nothing to rule.
The story details are lax, too as neither Jack or Stan were too worried about the details like getting two of the Evil Inhumans' names wrong or Medusa calling Crystal her cousin when they are sisters. Jack also gave Black Bolt a thought ballloon. Mistakes like that should have been caught.
On the plus side, Jack makes the Inhumans appear as major players, being a threat to the Communist Chinese and taking out the Fantastic Four. Triton giving Maximus his comeuppence is handled well. The message, while hardly subtle, is a good one.
Next : The Black Widow in "Good Help Is Hard to Find!"
I've not read this one. There's a plot resemblance to Kirby's last FF issue before his departure. There Magneto, who has been taken to Atlantis by the Sub-Mariner, attacks the FF long-distance. Reed determines the attack was from Atlantis. As part of the FF's response Ben sends a missile that the dialogue describes as a harmless warning type. Namor decides on war and launches his fleet.
Hadn't thought of the resemblance angle at all... however, if one considers that Jack certainly knew he was leaving as he's creating these stories....if he truely was plotting and receiving credit for it now....then there's a certain sense of logic to it...he's leaving Marvel and about to launch a long-distance strike on them...from DC. Taken along with the final issue of theSurfer, I can see message all over these two books.
Remember, Jack had been promised an Inhumans book, multiple times...only to have Goodman step on the concept AFTER the artwork was done, time and time again. I can think of three instances...in the back-up Tales of the inhumans strip...here in Amazing Adventures...and also in the FF Annual #6 (where the FF are barely even gueststars in their own annual!) where he's trying to launch them time and time again.
See Mark Evanier's description of where the Inhumans came from for the full story on how Jack came up with them, a piece at a time and how it was a response that he and Stan were preparing for the onslaught of Tower Comics and a new line of Superhero books by Joe Simon and Wally Wood! (IIRC)
Come to think of it, FF #99 also involved conflict between the FF and the Inhumans, and the story of FF #95 was set against a background of international tension that might lead to war.
Yeah, no slam on Jack but he seemed mentally checked out already during his brief Inhumans run. There's a striking change between issues 4 and 5 when Jack leaves and Neal Adams takes over. It's like a tectonic shift. For me, it kind of signals the shift from the Silver Age to the Bronze Age.
It's my understanding that Jack Kirby's growing frustration with his editor and his publisher was a long, protracted thing that happened in stages.
For example, one turning point was the "Him" story in FF #66-67 (Sep'Oct'67), where the entire 1st episode was completely re-written so the entire intent and point of the story was completely changed. Kirby was doing a lot of 4-parters right then, and it has been strongly suggested that the "Him" story was intended as a 4-parter. This becomes even more obvious when you see the "sequel" in THOR #165-166 (Jun'Jul'69), and you realize that that entire story would have made MUCH more sense if it had featured Ben Grimm going insanely berzerk over Alicia-- rather than Thor, over Sif!
Right after this, the flood of new characters for the most part STOPPED. The next thing we saw in FF was a 4-part "grudge match" (maybe the greatest "grudge match" in 60's Marvel history, but that's besides the point). It's interesting that FF ANNUAL #5 with the Inhumans and the Black Panther (and the Silver Surfer in the back) mentioned above came out about the same time as the "Him" story.
Then there was the Galactus "sequel" in FF #74-77 (May'Aug'68), which, when I re-read all my 60's Marvels in sequence, I interpreted in a completely different way that I had never noticed before. I believe now it was intended to "finish" the "big story" of both The Silver Surfer and Galactus. Since I came to this conclusion (entirely on my own, from reading the comics), I've read online that the story was ALSO intended to reveal Galactus' origin. Neither happened-- because SILVER SURFER #1 (Aug'68) came out, and totally contradicted and invalidated everything Kirby wanted to tell in his story. (It also made no sense at all within the context of every previous Surfer appearance.) Kirby was PISSED.
It was during the period of 1967-68 that Kirby came up with most of the characters & concepts for his "Fourth World" epic. He refused to give them to Marvel, deciding to wait for a better deal.
It was about the same time that Martin Goodman sold Marvel to Perfect Film. Kirby's contract was about to run out, and the new owners refused to talk to him about a new contract. They refused to talk to his lawyer, as well. This went on for some time, with Kirby working without a contract! At one point, Perfect Film sent him a contract that was actually a step down from his previous one, and a note that essentially said, "Sign it or GET OUT." They had been LIED to by Martin Goodman, who told them that Stan Lee had created all their characters on his own, and part of the deal of buying the company involved making sure that Lee was under contract. They had NO IDEA who Kirby was, and saw him as some kind of trouble-maker. And so, these IDIOTS essentially pushed their biggest potential asset into the hands of their competition!! On several occasions, Carmine Infantino (who had worked FOR Simon & Kirby back in the 40's) approached Kirby about coming over to DC. He finally agreed to, out of sheer frustration.
It's really no surprise that the last year or so before Kirby left Marvel for DC, the quality of his output had slumped a bit. Of course, most "creators" in the biz should wish they were operating at even that level.
...Which " grudge match " are you referring to , Henry ?
FF #68-71, the return of The Mad Thinker. He brainwashed Ben into wanting to kill his team-mates (just like The Wizard did earlier), and at the end, sends his "indestructible android" after them, even though he's in jail by that time. It took an entire issue (#71) to beat that thing!! Some fans have knocked this story as being the point where the book began to repeat itself, but in this one instance, at least, it was really damn well-done.
A few years back, I did a review of the story, in which I suggested by all rights it should have been the LAST Mad Thinker story, EVER, since the guy has come back countless times since then, and every single return appearance since then has been crap. Plus, after what he did to Ben, he deserved to get what was coming to him. I pictured him trying a 2nd time, still in prison, only the remote would have developed a fault. And as a result, his next android would come AFTER HIM-- and NOBODY would be able to stop it!!! One DEAD mad scientist-villain... a real case of poetic justice.
Instead, Marvel in general developed a bad trend of villains actually escaping at the end of stories, not even being taken to prison. Shouldn't the Comics Code have had a problem with this? It's clear the only reason it was happening was because it made it easier to write the NEXT return bout grudge match, and that way, nobody had to come up with any NEW characters, since they already had enough. That way, ANYBODY could write the next sequel, and the one after that, and the one after that...
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