Don Heck (1929–1999)

Sigh.

Y'know, I know everyone's all about Stan Lee, the Guy Who Created The Marvel Universe! ...or so he told everyone, and yeah, he did...with a huge amount of mostly unrecognized help from Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Don Heck, Larry Lieber, and a bunch of others.

Stan The Man was a genius level marketer. Absolute myth maker. But what he was not, was a very good plotter...or writer, for that matter. I feel like he had a selection of maybe ten plots (and I'm being very generous with that) that he show more just worked and reworked and worked again. Did he have flashes of brilliance? Sure he did.

But I have to say, I'd forgotten how often he liked to show training scenes, to get action without any plot in there to fill some pages. I'd forgotten how often he turned team members against team members (Captain America freaking out and attacking the rest of his teammates because one villain lied to him, or the Hulk working great with others, then...not.) I'd forgotten how often the Earth was visited by villains from a different planet/the future/a different dimension intent on conquering ours, until they meet the team and run away, never to return. But mostly, I'd forgotten how absolutely stereotyped his women were. The Wasp simply can't help jonesing after any male in the room, or speculating on how handsome they are under that mask. Even when the Invisible Girl shows up, she's off to go shopping, or hanging out with her female friends at some garden party or something.

These stories are interesting, because they show the genesis of the Marvel Age of Comics, but I'm so glad that, in a few years, Lee would step back and we'd see the soap operatic hand wringing and unders3xed women fade away and deeper, stronger stories emerge.

I mean, all the plots above will still show up, but there would be far better writers than Stan pushing the heroes to greater heights. show less

Collecting the first 34 Iron Man stories when he was still a second-string character without his own book. It’s very much a product of its time full of military-industrial complex jingoism, anti-communist rhetoric, insidious racism, and blatant sexism. The science is at times laughable in retrospect, and the plots repetitive. But woven throughout are some interesting characters that you really start to engage with. Revisiting the introductions of Hawkeye and the Black Widow as villains is show more a little jarring but sets up their relationship, while the interplay between Pepper Pots and Happy Hogan is a joy. Perhaps most surprising is that even this early there is some thought provoking introspection from Tony Stark on what it is to be a hero and how Iron Man impacts his life and aspirations. show less

Disabled Dr. Donald Blake vacations in Norway and finds a walking stick in a cave, one that, once he handles it, turns into Mjölner and turns Blake into the Norse god of thunder, Thor. It's quite cheesy and the plots are super-hero-tastic, but it's really wonderfully enjoyable. I know being Swedish may have something to do with why I like Thor a little more than I ought to, but I don't care. Having Odin's big face appear in the sky with invaluable advice and having Loki come up with his show more loony schemes is just hilarious. For those who go for Kindle-versions, though, know that that edition contains 10 fewer issues than the equivalent paper-version. show less

Oh, the misogyny! Still, it's not really fair to judge these comics on our standards, and there is some fun to be had here....many of these are simply goofy fun, with some dynamic art by Kirby and Don Heck doing some of his best work on the title. The last few issues get a little repetitive, sadly forecasting what's to come, but the first 16 issues are classics.