tales of SILVER AGE TIME TRAVEL travel back to AVENGERS #23-24 (DEC 1965 – JAN 1966)
—The best-ever two-month period of comic books came from Marvel in the final month of 1965 and the opening month of 1966. Yes, there were only nine superhero series coming out of the House of Marvel at that time, but—Wow!—what books and what a time! That was the first time that all nine series were on a monthly schedule, and it was those nine series—nothing later, nothing earlier—that defined the one and true Marvel Age of Comics.
That much is well established fact that nobody disputes. But what made it so? I have a little theory that the cause of the entire Marvel Silver Age was two seemingly insignificant decisions made by none other than DC, and both those decisions happened in a two-month period eight years before those two marvelous months that spanned 1965/1966. I’m gonna make you wait until the end of the column to hear the theory, but you won’t regret the wait because in the meantime I’ll tell you about the two-part Avengers time travel story from those two months of 1965/1966. And in case that doesn’t keep your interest, I’ll pepper the margin with the
all 18 montly Marvel comics from that time. Can you guess the artists of those 18 covers as they appear? These first two are obviously Jolly JACK KIRBY’s work, but examine the others as you read, and I’ll reveal their artists at the end along with my theory.
Another Majestic Milestone in This, the Majestic Age of Comics!
I admit, it took me a while to warm up to the new Avengers—HAWKEYE, QUICKSILVER, the SCARLET WITCH, and that ubiquitous holdover, CAPTAIN AMERICA. They first appeared together seven months before the first part of the Avenger’s two-part time travel story in Avengers #23. That issue begins with his teammates arguing over who was the proximate cause of Winghead’s departure (Hint: Not Wanda, not her speedy brother).
Whatever the cause, Cap has run off to upstate New York, determined to make a quiet, anonymous life for himself as a mild-mannered sparring partner for a boxing champ. As you might imagine, that peaceful life lasts barely longer than in takes for Marvel’s most notorious time traveler, KANG, the CONQUEROR, to notice (from the far future) that the missing leader who holds the Avengers together presents a perfect opportunity to strike . . . to make the Avengers pay for the humiliating defeats Kang has suffered at their hands. (He doesn’t seem to care that the Avengers that he fought are no longer together—and in fact, when I read about his plan and the fact that he didn’t mind that the Avengers had a new line-up, that was the moment that I realized that I was no longer broken up about the original Avengers break up. Yep, the new avenging foursome had grown on me!)
The Infallible Plan!
So, Kang heads back to 1965 and drops his time machine on top of the Avengers headquarters, disguised as a new top floor, of course. Once in place, he easily traps the three arguing Avengers and takes them back to his own century. And when Cap hears about it on the radio*, you can imagine what happens next:
* I speak of a real over-the-air radio, indicated, of course, by jaggedy word balloons.
But what of our three captive Avengers in the far future**? They manage to escape, causing some Hawkeye-twwannging chaos, complete with his 60’s style male chauvinist patter.
** Sadly, this is another one of those stories where the time traveler might as well be a space traveler. Do we really care (in this story) whether Kang hails from the far future or from a distant planet? Sigh. My GRANDPA MAIN taught me about the danger of thinking that time travel stories were no more significant than space travel stories.
Cap to the Rescue!
Back in the 20th-century, Cap uses a Tony Stark gadget called the Recreator*** to figure out that Kang is behind his teammates’ disappearance, and from the Avenger’s headquarters, he shouts out a challenge to the future dictator, a challenge that is immediately**** accepted by Kang, who yanks Cap into the future (or is it onto a far planet!?!) with a cool sound effect.
*** It actually seems more like Mr. Hyde’s Time Reversal Ray from Journey into Mystery #105 than anything Tony Stark ever dreamed up, but who am I to say? I wonder whether that ray should count as time travel? I haven’t covered it as such in Silver Age Time Travel, because I don’t consider viewing the past to be time travel.
**** does immediately really have a meaning in this context?
With Cap in the future, it can’t be long before Kang gets his just desserts, . . . or can it? With all four of the Avengers on the loose in the future, some alien-guy future-guy heads do roll, but even so, the final panel does not bode well for the Earth’ s mightiest heroes. (However, I do love the detailed art from DON HECK and JOHNNY ROMITA.)
Don Heck is still around to pencil the second part of the story in Avengers #24, but the inking duties reverted back to DICK AYERS. And oddly enough, the various sides of the battle change their alliances, with Kang’s love for the princess of the time playing a pivotal role. I won’t reveal the ending except to say their trip back to the present had a dearth of cool sound effects.
Should you get a chance to read the story yourself, I’d be interested in hearing your opinion on the question of whether most comic book time travel in the Silver Age was of the boring might-as-well-be-an-alien-planet variety. Is the situation any different today in comics? Or for that matter, is the situation any different in the explosion of tv and movie time travel in the 21st century?
The Theory
As you know, despite the uninteresting time travel, the Marvel comics of this age are still the best. As for those 18 issues from December 1965 and January 1966, Jack Kirby was the primary penciller on twelve, including the bizarre mash-up of Doc Strange reading an issue of Strange Tales. (I doubt if that one was intended to be a cover when Kirby drew it, and I’m unsure whether he actually drew Doc Strange.) The two Spider-Man covers are STEVE DITKO, of course, although he was near the end of his tenure at Marvel. JOHNNY ROMITA, the artist who would take over for Ditko on Spider-Man in mid-1966, pencilled his first Marvel cover on Daredevil #12, although that might have been based on a Kirby layout (as was the interior of that issue). The other Daredevil cover is by BOB POWELL, and GENE COLON gets two credits: Iron Man and the Black Knight on Tales of Suspense #73 and Subby holding his beloved Dorma on Tales to Astonish #74.
All those Kirby covers certainly have something to do with the mind-bending 60s being the best time ever for comics. Which brings me to my theory about the cause of that greatness. Two things:
- First of all, in late 1957, Jack Kirby got fed up with the way he was being treated at DC. Perhaps it’s ironic that he was disturbed by the lack of credits and future royalties that he was receiving. In any case, he moved to Marvel, where he incorporated pieces of his Challengers of the Unknown into a new 1961 comic (perhaps you’ve heard of it, perhaps not).
- But equally important, was the bankruptcy of Marvel’s (aka Atlas Comics) distributor in the fall of 1957. Atlas was able to strike a new distribution deal with Independent News Co., but
because IND. was owned by National Periodical Publications (aka DC!), the agreement limited the number of comics that Atlas (and later Marvel) could produce. Without that limitation, I’m not sure that Stan, Jack, Steve, and the rest of the gang would have been able to reach the heights they did. Certainly, for me, the strength of the storylines and are fell off when the distribution limits were lifted in 1968. So before I sign off, any thoughts on that?
Face Front!
Coming Soon!
Coming soon! Be sure to be here on the first Wednesday of May when Silver Age Time Travel brings you one of those 18 issues that you see above! Can you guess which one? No, it’s not Spider-Man, but the webcrawler is wondering which one it’ll be, just like you are!
avengers interior art by don heck with inks by johnny romita (#23) and dick ayers (#24) ©1965/1965 marvel comics group. spider-man question mark by steve ditko, ©1964 marvel comics group. the watcher by mike espisito, ©1966 marvel comics group. all other cover images as credited above, ©1965/1966 marvel comics group.