March 1982: Shout ‘Kimota!’ and Transform Comics

 

Before his own Watchmen, before Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns, there was 1982’s Marvelman, Englishman Alan Moore’s milestone deconstruction of the American superhero.

If you need an example of why real art requires an outsider’s viewpoint, this is it. Moore took his loving familiarity with American comic book conventions — the superhuman powers, the magic words, the skintight costumes, the youthful sidekicks, the secret identities, the archenemies — and juxtaposed it all in his imagination with mundane British reality. The result was not the usual parody, but aesthetic insights that cut in more than one direction.

Using this American dreamscape to expose the American collective unconscious, Moore also explored a theme that paralleled Plato, who’d suggested that with great power comes catastrophe. 

And Moore did it with a character who had an impeccable, if convoluted, pedigree. Marvelman was the son of Captain Marvel, the grandson of Superman.

When the Superman-DC lawsuit finally put Captain Marvel out of business here in 1953, his British publisher L. Miller & Son saw no reason why such a great concept should die there. Writer-artist Mick Anglo replaced “Shazam!” with “Kimota!” and created Marvelman, clearly a pastiche Captain Marvel, in 1954. The feature and spinoffs ran until 1963. 

In 1982, Moore revamped the character for the British comic magazine Warrior (that version of Marvelman is now called “Miracleman” for corporate branding purposes).

The original character was juvenile even by 1950s standards, pretty thin stuff, but Moore’s reimagining was anything but.

Moore’s flair for dramatic surprises that amplify his themes is in evidence. When his wife expresses concern for his safety, Micky tells her not to worry — nothing can hurt him, he’s a superhero. Then, in an elevator, strangers hand him a baby, point out that he can’t transform without incinerating the child, and shoot him point blank. As Micky sinks into darkness, he is mocked by his own swaggering words…

The deconstruction of the superhero had begun. He’s never been the same since.

May 1974: Legacy and the Living Weapon

Iron Fist, a superhero created by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane for Marvel Premiere 15 (May 1974), was the result of pop cultural cross-pollination.

The Marvel Age of Comics was already more than a decade old, and to freshen it up the Bullpen tried superhero titles reflecting popular trends. 

Thanks to a relaxed Comics Code, more vivid horror stories could then be published, so Ghost Rider was born in Marvel Spotlight 5 (Aug. 1972).

Martial arts had been popularized by the David Carradine TV series Kung Fu in 1972 and the Bruce Lee movie Enter the Dragon in 1973. Add the superhero trappings of a lost-child Tarzan origin, a secret identity, a colorful costume and the ability to focus chi into a punch of overwhelming power, and you have Iron Fist.

The character was presented in his Netflix series as a kind of billionaire super-Buddhist. And that may well ring a bell.

Comics readers might remark on the similarity of Danny Rand to Adrian Veidt, the superhero Ozymandias created by by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons for their 1986 Watchmen graphic novel.

Well, yes, and there’s a reason for that.

Iron Fist was in part an homage to Amazing-Man, Bill Everett’s original variation on the Superman theme introduced in Amazing-Man Comics 5 (Sept. 1939). That Tibetan-trained super-being also inspired Pete Morisi to create Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt for Charlton Comics in 1966. And Moore and Gibbons used Thunderbolt as the template for Ozymandias.

The history of superhero comics is a wonderfully multi-faceted and multivariate thing.

June 1940: The Doctor Is Strange

This house ad appeared in the pulp magazine Thrilling Wonder Stories.

Strange doctors have been prowling around superhero comics almost from the beginning.

The first Dr. Strange, or Doc Strange, debuted as the lead feature in Pines/Nedor’s Thrilling 1 (Feb. 1940), the creation of writer Richard Hughes and artist Alexander Kostuk.

In the wake of the spectacular, multi-media success of Superman, rival superhero characters could have powers similar to Superman’s, or a costume similar to his, but they’d better not have both.

That mistake made Fox’s Wonder Man a 1939 one-issue wonder.

“Just as Fox had wasted no time before launching his Superman rip-off, DC wasted no time before suing him,” comics historian Don Markstein noted.

Powered by a solar atomic drug he called Alosun, Doc Strange acquired Superman’s abilities — super-strength, flight, invulnerability — but wisely eschewed the fancy dress.

Strange also appeared with Captain Future, The Black Terror and Fighting Yank in Nedor’s version of World Finest Comics, called America’s Best Comics. His last adventure was published in November 1948.

In 2001, renamed Tom Strange, the character was revived by the inimitable Alan Moore in his superb Tom Strong title.

Doc’s first name was Hugo, and that may ring a bell. Coincidentally, Prof. Hugo Strange was an early Batman villain, introduced in Detective Comics 36 (Feb. 1940), and the first foe to figure out Batman’s secret identity.

In May 1963, Marvel Comics got into the act — but not yet with Dr. Stephen Strange. Tales of Suspense 41 introduced Dr. Carlo Strange, a lightning-born criminal genius who threatened Earth until his daughter betrayed him by aiding Iron Man.

Stan Lee must have liked the sound of the name “Dr. Strange,” because two months later (Strange Tales 110, July 1963) he reused it for the first appearance of Steve Ditko’s legendary superhero magician, Dr. Stephen Strange.

Of course, you could argue that there’s yet another Dr. Strange, whose first name is Adam. The intrepid archeologist-spaceman almost certainly has his Ph.D, but just doesn’t make a big deal about it.