Book review: Young Marvelman Classic Volume 1

This was not a book I was thinking I'd read. Sure, I bought it off Amazon, but I had tried to buy MARVELMAN CLASSICS vol. 1, and got sent this instead. Well, at least it's still Mick Anglo's take on the Marvel Family, post-DC copyright lawsuit win. (By the way, the seller, FunFoodandFashion on Amazon, made everything right, and will be getting my return business.)

The art and the stories in this hardcover are actually pretty good. The British comic book always seemed a tad different than their US counterpart to me. I'm thinking because they always seemed to come out every week rather than every month like we're used to - they always seemed a little hurried. Up until the sixties, they had a definite golden age minimalism about them. If you're looking at the cover and expecting that kind of artwork on the inside, I'd go buy some Rob Liefeld if I were you. Always better to be disappointed by something you know is gonna suck beforehand.

The stories in this book are no hokier than C.C. Beck's Captain Marvel tales were: Simple, straight-forward, a lot of action, and a bit of pleasant goofiness. One thing I found odd is that the stories appear to be set in a vaguely US city rather than a British one. Maybe Mick Anglo was using ideas that were in the final Marvel Family stories and kept that aspect? I don't know, and I suppose it doesn't really matter. They're solid comic book stories.

I think of the three artists in represented in this book, George Parlett has the style I like best - very stark, with fine detail. It reminds me of the comic book art in the A-Ha video "Take on Me" for some reason. The other two artists, James Bleach and Frank Daniels, aren't quite as refined, but all are very enjoyable to look at.

This book is ALL black and white on newsprint stock, with the exception of a full color section at the end that features the original covers on glossy paper. If you like comic books in general, I don't think that's going to bother you too much, if it wasn't for the price tag. I wouldn't pay the $35 cover price for these though; there are plenty on Amazon and eBay for considerably less.

This was an unexpected jaunt into an area of comic books I'm a little unfamiliar with, so I'll have to say I enjoyed Young Marvelman Classics Vol. 1. I'll be looking out for inexpensive copies of the rest of the series, and the rest of the Marvelman reprints.

Week of Good Stuff Day 2: Nextwave Agents of H.A.T.E.

For my second entry for my "Weekof Good Stuff" theme, I've picked a short-lived comic book that I found to be damn fun: Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. This was a rather strange Marvel Comic from the team of Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen. It was strange in that it was funny, didn't really care about continuity and was very enjoyable, which was a strange thing to say about a Marvel Comic in 2006. Or even now for that matter.

For anyone who isn't familiar with the book, Nextwave was about a group of renegade heroes who were working for an anti-terrorist organization along the lines of S.H.I.E.L.D. They discovered the group had different aims than what was told to them, so they stole a high-tech aircraft and went off on their own to destroy selfsame organization.

The group includes some long-running Marvel Comics characters. Monica Rambeau, former Avenger and Captain Marvel, was the leader, adopting her Photon identity. Aaron Stack, also known as Machine Man was the ship's pilot and beer and sex-obsessed android. Boom-Boom was a former New Mutant and X-Man, and could create explosions.

Eliza Bloodstone and the Captain rounded out the team. Eliza was the latest in a hereditary line of nigh-immortal monster hunters. The Captain was the powerhouse of the group, as he had received amazing abilities from aliens one night when he was drunk. His actual name was Captain #!%&@, but he doesn't use it much, after Captain America beat the crap out of him and washed his mouth out with soap.

The series lasted for a year. Most of the stories had Nextwave trying to stop the Beyond Corporation, the evil group behind H.A.T.E., while avoiding the former commander, Dirk Anger. Along the way, Fin Fang Foom, Devil Dinosaur and even Forbush Man battled our heroes.

The characterizations were what was the highlight of the book. Just seeing Machine Man annoy the hell out of his teammates was worth the price of the whole series. I'm really hoping that someday Marvel decides to remember that there was a time when comic books were a joy to read and not just a soap opera chore with bad plots, characters and crossover schemes. Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. was one of the last entertaining series that Marvel created. It is collected in a couple of different trade formats, and is definitely worth the time and money to procure.

M. F. Enterprises, Part 2

As I said in my previous post, M. F. Enterprises had a lot going for it, but unfortunately it was a little late to the starting gate. Having a major golden age creator like Carl Burgos working for you was a major feather in your cap, and I think perhaps they let Burgos get away will a little too much. Considering how many of the characters in this Captain Marvel's universe were either uninspired or blatantly used the names of preexisting comic book characters, it doesn't appear the stories were given a proper editorial going-over before they went to press.

The Number One offender was, of course, their star attraction, Captain Marvel. You learned a little (and probably more than you wanted to) about this pretender to the crown of the Big Red Cheese. Combine him with his young sidekick Billy Baxton, and it's probably a good thing Fawcett Publications comic division had gone belly-up about a decade earlier. This was legal fodder that would make lawyers drool.

Most folks know Plastic Man. Even if they don't, it's the first name that pops into your head when you think of stretchy characters. Okay sure, maybe children of the seventies think of Stretch Armstrong first, but that's not the point here. Jack Cole's comic masterpiece was still a very fond memory in the heads of kids and comic book creators back in 1965. There's no way anyone could've thought that was an original name any more than they could've forgotten someone had already used Captain Marvel. It seems though that someone must've said something somewhere along the line, as M. E. Enterprises' Plastic Man got a name change to Elastic Man by the time of his second appearance in Captain Marvel Meets the Terrible 5 #1. This particular Venusian menace just stretches, and has none of the witty repartee of the original hero. 

The cover of Terrible 5 #1 also proclaims the names of two other characters that had previous histories: Dr. Fate and Dr. Doom. National Periodical Publications (soon to be known as DC Comics) had the rights to the name "Doctor Fate", having published the adventures of a sorcerer super-hero by that name in the pages of More Fun Comics and All-Star Comics through much of the forties. The character has gone threw many incarnations in later decades and still holds an important place in the DC Universe. M. F. E.'s Dr. Fate was an old guy who used a lot of gadgets. 

Doctor Doom was perhaps an even more egregious name theft, as Marvel Comics was using the character as one of their iconic villains at the same time. Marvel's Doctor Doom was the revenge-filled, armored master of the land of Latveria, and sworn enemy of the Fantastic Four. M. F. E.'s Dr. Doom was an international criminal who led the devious organization known as B.I.R.D. Yeah, I know. So much for panache. Doom himself looked very similar in appearance to DC Comics' second-team villain Ira Quimby, the scientist-criminal known as I.Q., who was noted for elaborate schemes that he forgot to double-check and would end up being captured because of a dropped decimal point. Luckily, in the actual story, he was called Mister Doom, so no axe was lowered for that particular bit of plagaristic perfidy.

The Terrible 5 weren't an actual team, as only a couple of the villains actually met up to face Captain Marvel. Elastic Man got teamed with the unimaginatively-named Tinyman. Much like Quality Comics' Doll Man, DC's the Atom and Marvel's Ant-Man and the Wasp, Tinyman could shrink to small size. Later on, in the next few issues of Captain Marvel, the villain turned to the side of good, joined a circus and then got a law degree and became a District Attorney, working with Cappy M to bring his former felonious mates to justice.

The final villain of the original Five was Atom-Jaw. The character had a metal mandible, though it wasn't atomic-powered; he had just lost his original jaw in an atomic accident. This character was far too similar to the arch-enemy of Crimebuster, Iron-Jaw, seen in golden-age issues of Boy Comics.

The lack of originality didn't end there, as one of Captain Marvel's early enemies was the Bat, a caped hero who looked annoyingly akin to a certain Caped Crusader. The character was revamped into the Ray, with the same powers and intentions as the Bat for the final issue of Terrible 5, which was also the final M. F. Enterprises' super-hero comic book.

I think the blurb on the final issue (and final appearance of Captain Marvel) says it all: "The worst bad guys in comicdom!" The whole endeavor had a lot of promise, but even back in the sixties, comics would just sell themselves: They needed something to bring the readers back to them each month. Unfortunately, M. F. Enterprises didn't have that, and ended up on the wayside like many unimaginative publishers have in the past.

Next week: Truly the worst super-hero ever created in the history of four-color comics. Be here as I save you from having to deal with the monstrous evil known as ... Fruitman!

The Adventures of M. F. Enterprises Part 1

M. F. Enterprises was a strange little publishing house. It was run artist Myron Floss, whose main claim to fame was also running the company that produced the legendary black-and-white horror comic magazine Eerie. That was a somewhat pioneering publication, and a far cry from the output of M. F. Enterprises. M. F. Enterprises actually did have a lot going for it, but for one problem: It came into being about a decade too late, or about three years too early.

The publishing house, to my knowledge, put out a total of four different comic series (for a grand total of 11 known issues). Henry Brewster was a standard teen book of the Archie genre. There was a series called Great West, apparently an anthology title, but I don't think anyone's actually found a copy of the book, so whether or not it actually came out is up in the air. The final two books featured the star of the M. F. Enterprises' comic galaxy: Captain Marvel. But alas, not the Captain Marvel you're thinking of.

I said the company had a lot going for it, and I meant it. Among the creators working there, Carl Hubbell had done a lot of work on Blue Ribbon Comics,  Airboy and Boy Comics in the forties and early fifties. The true feather in the firm's hat was Carl Burgos. Burgos, as most old-time comic fans know, created one of the very first super-heroes, the original Human Torch. He also worked on a plethora of Marvel/Timely, Harvey and Centaur Publications comics in the golden age and the opening years of the silver age of comics. He also created M. F. Enterprises' star, Captain Marvel.

Most folks know there are two Captain Marvels. The original Captain Marvel is remembered now as Shazam! from the TV show of the same name. Young Billy Batson had the ability to change into the World's Mightest Mortal whenever he said the name of an old wizard. For many years, Captain Marvel's Fawcett Publications' comics were the best-selling comics on the planet. After a trademark infringement lawsuit ended his reign, the character (and all of Fawcett's stable of characters) were bought up by the victor, National Periodical Publications (now DC Comics) and has been republished, rebooted and re=envisioned several times since. But in the time between the end of Fawcett and the rise of Shazam!, another Captain sprung out of the woodwork.

The second Captain Marvel is Captain Mar-Vell, a renegade alien Kree warrior who decided to keep the Earth of the Marvel Comics universe safe from his own race. This Captain first appeared in an issue of Marvel Super-Heroes and, much like the original hero, has gone through many series and incarnations. Marvel Comics did do one classy thing and had the actual character die from cancer (in a truly poignant graphic novel) and then remain dead. There have been several characters in the Marvel stable to use the "Captain Marvel" name since then (for trademarking purposes, of course).

Carl Burgo's Captain Marvel was a conglomeration of both the Captain Marvels (even though Mar-Vell hadn't been created yet), Burgo's own Human Torch, and apparently a bottle or two of absinthe somewhere along the line. This Captain Marvel was an android from an unnamed planet. He was created to repel many invaders at once, but the first time he took to the air, his planet was engulfed in a catastrophic war and destroyed. He wandered the stars for a short while until coming upon Earth, where he became quickly earned a professorship at a college (using the name Roger Winkle) and spent his time grading papers and going on adventures to protect the Earth, often aided by his young student sidekick and trying to graciously spurn the amorous advances of a colleague.

Well, right there you have major elements from the origins of the Human Torch and Superman. Add into the mixture that Captain Marvel used a special word to activate (and deactivate) his powers and that his young sidekick was named Billy Baxton, and you've almost got the original Big Red Cheese. The absinthe comes in when you get to Captain Marvel's powers. He can fly, has laser-beam vision, and can split his body up.  Whenever he says the world "Split", Captain Marvel and separate all his body parts (or just one or two) at their joints. The average joe super-villain could be minding his business robbing your average jewelry store and sudden be caught in a fusillade of arms and legs. If Cappy M says the word "Xam", his body parts come back and reunite.

While derivative, this little concept might've had some wings if it had come along during the "camp" craze of 1966-1968, but as it stood, with all the talent behind it, Captain Marvel was a Golden Age hero in a Silver Age. Burgos had a lot of creativity in the stories, but they still had the joie de vivre of your standard Golden Age story, in an industry that was beginning to feel the first pangs of growth as an art form.

And if using the name of a legendary super-hero wasn't enough, using the names of several for super-villains is even worse, as we'll see in Part 2.

So be here, Same Bat-Time, Same Bat-Channel!