X-Men: Part 1

BACK IN THE EARLY 1960s there was no "woke" agenda. There wasn't even much call for fairness, equality and general decency. But there was Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Though it didn't overtly start out that way, The X-Men very quickly became a metaphor for the struggle for equal rights that was going on in the United States at the time.

It was 1963, and the fledgling Marvel Comics was enjoying sudden and unexpected success, largely due to the efforts of editor/scripter Stan Lee and legendary - though temporarily down on his luck - artist Jack Kirby.

The ascension of Marvel began when, at a request from owner/publisher Martin Goodman in 1961, Stan was tasked with coming up with a superhero team book. Working with his lead artist Kirby, Lee based the four team members on the classic elements of earth, air, fire and water, putting a revised Human Torch in the fire role, presumably to please Goodman who considered the Torch his "lucky charm". Fantastic Four 1 (Nov 1961, on sale August) was quite quickly followed by The Incredible Hulk 1 (May 1962, on sale March), when Stan realised that the earth character from the FF, The Thing, was the most popular and, indeed, the early Hulk talked a lot like Ben Grimm. Three months later, Lee and Kirby's take on Superman, The Mighty Thor, made his debut in the fantasy anthology title Journey into Mystery 83 (Aug, 1962, on sale June), the same month that The Amazing Spider-man made his debut in the Steve Ditko vehicle Amazing (Adult) Fantasy 15. Two months after that, the FF's Human Torch was awarded his own series in Strange Tales 101 (Oct 1962, on sale July), the same month that Ant-Man made his return in the anthology title Tales to Astonish 35. That's a pretty aggressive expansion for just a single year, but both Goodman and Lee must have been encouraged by the burgeoning sales of Fantastic Four, which went monthly as Strange Tales 101 and Tales to Astonish 35 went on the stands.

Marvel unleashed a flurry of superhero books, starting at the tail end of 1961 and continuing through the whole of 1962.

The following year continued the trend of Marvel's incursion into the superhero field, though only at a slightly slower pace. Spider-Man was awarded his own title after Goodman got past his notion that the public didn't like spiders, debuting with issue 1 (Mar 1963, on sale December 1962). That same month saw the first appearance of Iron Man in Tales of Suspense 39. We'd then have to wait until the late summer of 1963, when Stan dropped on us, in quick succession: The Strange Tales Annual 2 (Sep 1963, on sale June), featuring the first Human Torch / Spider-Man teamup; the Fantastic Four Annual 1 (Sep 1963, on sale July); then two more team books - The Avengers 1 (on sale July), matching The Hulk (whose book had recently been cancelled), Thor, Ant-Man and the Wasp and the newly-hatched Iron Man - and The X-Men 1 (on sale June) which featured an entirely new group of heroes, termed "mutants". (Daredevil 1 was also supposed to be part of that Sept 1963 drop, but Bill Everett's inability to deliver the artwork pushed the publication date back to April 1964, on sale February.)

The cascade of super-characters continued into 1963, with Stan adding Iron Man, teaming up his anthology book heroes in The Avengers and unleashing a different kind of hero book, The X-Men. (Lurking in there somewhere is Doctor Strange's first appearance in Strange Tales 110 (Jul 1963, on sale April).

Stan has told the story many times and in many slightly different versions how The X-Men came to be created. In his biography Excelsior, Stan mused, "Why couldn't I create a group of teenagers who had simply mutated and therefore gained some varied and extraordinary powers? No further explanation was needed and I could introduce as many as I wanted because Nature never set a limit on such things. The title would be simplicity itself. I'd call our new group, The Mutants. Martin liked the concept but hated the title. He said our readers wouldn't know what a mutant was. I wasn't prepared to hassle with him over a title selection, so I tried to dream up another name. And then it hit me. They were heroes with extra powers. I had even named their adult mentor Professor Xavier. So why not call them The X-Men? This time Martin okayed the title although I never understood his logic. If our readers wouldn't know what a mutant was how would they know what an X-Man was?"

In the notorious Comic Journal 134 interview in 1990, Jack disputed that Stan created anything and made a curious claim. "Stan didn’t know what a mutation was. I was studying that kind of stuff all the time. I would spot it in the newspapers and science magazines."

I'm going to call Jack out there, because in a recent entry in this blog, where I was looking at alleged "prototypes" for later Silver Age Marvel characters in the pre-hero Marvel books, I covered a couple of examples of super-human mutants in old Lee-scripted fantasy tales.

I won't rehash that in detail here, but you can go back and take a look at the entry for Amazing Adult Fantasy 14 (Jul 1962), where Lee and Ditko serve up a story in which a young lad discovers he's a mutant and is forced into hiding because of other humans' instant and irrational hatred of his mutant nature.

And there's the Carl Wessler/Jack Kirby story in Strange Tales 69 (June 1959), where a bald, wheelchair-bound man, Vermeer, insists on chartering a ship to explore a certain part of the ocean. The story is credited by some as a prototype for Professor X, but I don't think Lee or Kirby took anything other than Vermeer's superficial appearance for the X-Men character.

Then there's a Lee-plotted, Larry Leiber-scripted story, drawn by Joe Sinnott, in Tales of Suspense 6 (Nov 1959), "The Mutants and Me", in which a sceptical man scoffs at the idea of superhuman mutants until he discovers he himself is one.

So, no, Jack. I think Stan knew full well what a mutant is.

WHAT LIES BENEATH

Though The X-Men didn't start off as a metaphor for the racial intolerance that persisted in some parts of the United States during the opening years of the 1960s, the seeds for that were in-built from issue one.

I've seen other sources claiming that the idea of human prejudice against mutants didn't show up in the comic until issue 8, but as you can see ... not true.

After Professor X has introduced all the team members to each other (and to us) he gives a little information about his own background. We're told that the professor had experienced the distrust of humans earlier in his life, and for that reason he believes that keeping mutants' existence a secret is the safest way to go, at least for the moment. So human prejudice is mentioned right there in the first issue, even though we haven't seen it happen yet. That would change.

Great idea, Magneto ... you should definitely set yourself up as the leader of a master race that will overwhelm and rule over all other races on Earth. That's bound to end well.

So that's the good mutants. But of course ... there has to be bad mutants, doesn't there? And here comes one now, the shape of Magneto, a character driven by his resentment of the emnity he and his fellow "Homo Superior" experienced from regular humans, "Homo Sapiens". And again, that concept of "them and us" is right there in the first issue of X-Men.

There has been speculation from various quarters that Charles Xavier was inspired by Israel's first prime minister David Ben-Gurion, while Magneto's darker approach to the issues facing mutants was more in line with Menachem Begin. Later in the 1960s, others compared Xavier to Martin Luther King and Magneto to Malcolm X. But neither of these theories particularly convinces me.

Throughout his presidency, Roosevelt avoided being pictured in a wheelchair, and the media of the period were happy to go along with that.

My theory is that Xavier was more likely inspired by Franklin Roosevelt, who served an unprecedented four terms as President of the United States from 1932 to 1945 ... from a wheelchair. Roosevelt was president when both Stan Lee and Jack Kirby served in the US Army during the Second World War and so, in their minds, would have been the principal opposer of Hitler and Nazi Germany.

Magneto's helmet wasn't originally conceived as protection against mental attacks, and you can see here that it didn't shield him terribly well against Xavier's psychic onslaught in X-Men 1.

This would naturally cast Magneto in the Hitler role - not too much of stretch when you consider all his talk of Homo Superior (mutants) being destined to dominate Homo Sapiens.

But it wasn't just some sort of political nostalgia that underpinned the fundamental premise of Stan and Jack's new X-Men comic.

CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING

Given the era in which Stan Lee was co-creating and scripting the first wave of Marvel superheroes since the 1940s, it was inevitable that the liberal-leaning Lee would incorporate the injustices of the real world into the comic book characters he presided over during those formative year of the early 1960s.

Right: Rosa Parks, circa 1955. Centre: The Greenboro Four at that same Woolworth's lunch counter in Greenboro, North Carolina, Feb 1960. Right: Martin Luther King gives his historic "I have a dream" speech at the nation's capital in 1963.

Lee couldn't have failed to notice the growing civil rights movement that had begun in the mid-1950s with Rosa Parks' refusal to sit at the back of the bus with the other black folks - which resulted in a boycott that left the Montgomery, Alabama transit system crippled - to the extra-ordinary bravery of the four black college students who sat at a segregated lunch counter in a Woolworth store, and the march on Washington in August 1963, culminating in Martin Luther King's "I have a Dream" speech.

It's also important to note that both Stan Lee and Jack Kirby came from jewish backgrounds and while Stan never publicly mentioned his jewish heritage nor experiencing any prejudice in his life, Jack Kirby did say of his youth in his Comics Journal interview (134, Feb 1990), there was "a lot of [anti-Semitism]. They were confrontational days when people of different backgrounds had to live together. And it hasn’t changed. There’s anti-Semitism today."

AAANND ... BACK TO THE PLOT

The X-Men 1 suffers the same flaws that many first issues do. The creative team have to establish the main characters and the world they inhabit first ... and that invariably gets in the way of the action. Pretty much the first half of the book is taken up with introductions and scene-setting. It's not until page 12 that the story gets under way with villain Magneto (it really is Mag-neet-oh, not Mag-nett-oh), trying to take over a US Army missile base, quite topical for a story published just a few months after the Cuban Missile Crisis.

All thing's considered, the structure of the plot does mean that we get 11 pages of non-stop action in the back half of the book, without the good guys (or the bad guy) pausing every other panel to explain what they're doing and how their powers work.

With the Army helpless before Magneto's extraordinary magnetic powers, The X-Men show up and take on the terrorist/aggressor, using their unique abilities and teamwork to drive him off ... at least for the present.

It's not often that a first issue establishes the hero's / heroes' principle nemesis. I'm hard-pressed to think of another Marvel Silver Age debut where the antagonist was every bit as defining at the protagonist. Magneto would go on to be almost as important as Professor Xavier in X-Men canon and, post-SilverAge, even be retro-conned as a more noble, if morally ambiguous, figure.

Yes, he's an alien not a mutant, but The Metal Master makes for a more convincing prototype for Magneto than anything else in Marvel Comics around the same time period.

Another thing I remembered as I'm typing these words. There had been another metal-manipulating super-villain just months before X-Men 1 in another Marvel Comic. In his final, non-Kirby, issue The Incredible Hulk had battled an alien menace who could manipulate the molecules of any metal object. In his page-long explanation of his power, the Metal Master very clearly says that he can control the molecules of metals so that they change shape at his command. Which he does ... a bit. But being able to control the molecules doesn't explain how he can levitate and fling lumps of metal at The Hulk. 

... and here's Magneto actually hurling lumps of metal at the X-Men. He doesn't do it much in this first appearance, but he does do it.

That ability is much more like Magneto's powers ... just a case, I think, of Stan re-using an idea from six months earlier under the pressure of impending deadlines.

The first eight issues of The X-Men would ring-fence the stories in a hidden mutant world where all their battles would be against other mutants, meaning it would be over a year before the team branched out and began to tackle non-mutant menaces. And the main characters would evolve quite a bit over those few issues.

The villain in X-Men 2 was another mutant. The Vanisher didn't seem quite as terrifying as Magneto, as his power was more defensive than aggressive and so was, in the end, a bit forgettable.

The second issue (Nov 1963) went on sale on 3 September, exactly two calendar months after X-Men 1. I'm really not sure what Stan and Jack's intention was with The Vanisher's costume. It looks decidedly reptilian, with a collar that looks like it was inspired by a frilled lizard and a scaley pattern on the fabric. The back of the collar has a diamond motif, like a diamondback snake, and then there's the squiggly snake motif running from the neckline to the waistline. But I don't understand what the reptile motif has to do with vanishing.

Does anybody want to offer a theory as to why The Vanisher's costume looks like a cross between a snake and a lizard? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

It seems pointless to speculate, except to note that the Thor villain The Human Cobra debuted the same month in Journey into Mystery 98, so maybe Stan thought two reptile villains in the same month was one too many and changed the intention in the scripting.

I think the would-be henchmen haven't thought this through, properly. The Vanisher can save himself from capture by, well, vanishing. But how do they expect he's going to save them? Don't they just get left behind to face the music?

Another thing that doesn't make a great deal of sense about The Vanisher ... after his exploits are reported in the newspapers, the scum of the underworld flock to join him as his henchmen. No mention is made of how the criminals find The Vanisher's lair ... unless the newspapers reported the location of that, too.

Wuxtree, wutree ... read all about it. Super-secret X-Men defeated by Vanisher. Star Bulletin reveals location of secret lair.

And my final gripe about the storytelling here is that I'm pretty sure Professor X made a big thing about keeping the existence of the X-Men a secret in the previous issue. Yet by issue 2, their exploits are being reported in the papers and the general public are bemoaning the fact that even the X-Men can't save them from The Vanisher.

Of course, it was early days for the title, and it's plain that Stan and Jack were winging it, and trying to nail down the concept as they went along, so it's inevitable that some contradictions would creep in.

In the end, it's Professor X who defeats The Vanisher by telepathically wiping his memory so he has no idea of who he is or how to teleport away to safety, leaving the X-Men to mop up the mob of wannabe henchmen.

That's right, Hank. How could anyone ever figure out that Charles Xavier is the leader of the X-Men?

And, with menace of the Vanisher squared away, it just remains for the X-Men and their leader to return to their Westchester home to await the next mutant menace to threaten the world.

Reprints are generally less highly-prized than the originals, but Fantastic was an essential purchase for me, as the original Marvel Comics were very hard to come by in the area of London where I was brought up.

Though I think this is the weakest of the first few issues of The X-Men, for some reason it stuck with me over the years. And though I'd bought the British reprint comic Fantastic from the first issue, it is issue 3, with its reprint of the Vanisher story, that seems the most familiar to me.

Fred Dukes is what used to be referred to as a "circus freak" ... an unusual human who earned a living being gawped at by the "rubes". Think Elephant Man (1980). But Dukes is no ordinary carnival performer. He's a mutant ... and a fairly unpleasant one at that.

The X-Men 3 (Jan 1964) was on sale for 5 November 1963, and featured another mutant foe, but this one was not the typical costumed baddie. 

Danny Fingeroth, author of Stan Lee: A Marvellous Life, mentions a news item from the letters page of Fantastic Four 23 (Feb 1964) - this was before there were Bullpen Bulletins - "We needed a name for the villain in X-Men 3 and Stan and Jack were kicking a few around when a boy delivering sandwiches walked in and jokingly said, 'He looks like a big blob. Call him The Blob' ... Stan and Jack looked at each other sand said, 'Why not?'"

Whether it's true or not (unlikely that Stan and Jack were in the office at the same time, or that a delivery boy would be able to walk into Stan's office and overhear the conversation - wouldn't Flo Steinberg have taken any sandwiches in to Stan and Jack?), its a better story than the the more likely explanation that Stan just lifted the name from the sci-fiction movie of the same name. Stan's cover line even quotes the theme song of The Blob (1958), for goodness sake.

The theme song from the 1958 science fiction monster movie was a minor hit in the singles charts that same year. And a catchy little ditty it is, too.

Fred Dukes, a sideshow performer known as "The Blob", is detected by Professor Xavier's psychic abilities and the X-Men are despatched to find him and bring him to the Westchester mansion, where he'll be invited to join the team. But things don't go to plan as Dukes' boorish behaviour ruffles the feathers of Prof X's students and the meeting deteriorates into a brawl, ending with The Blob escaping into the sewage tunnels.

Ten pages of Kirby action has the X-Men struggle to hold their own against The Blob and his circus henchmen, eventually turning the tables by following Professor X's tactical advice.

With Dukes on his way back to the carnival, the Professor has to find a way to bring him physically close enough that his memory can be wiped. To further complicate matters, Dukes is sure to tell his fellow performers about the X-Men's headquarters, and the Professor cannot allow that. So while The X-Men keep Dukes and his carnival gang busy in an epic ten-page battle, Xavier rushes to finish a device that will enable him to wipe not just Dukes' memory but all the carny folk's, as well.

When we first meet Hank McCoy, he seems to be just another variation on the early Hulk/Thing prototype, with the tone of voice of a truck driver.

As might be expected, there are some changes in tone in The X-Men 3, when compared to the preceding issues. The first is there's a noticeable transformation in Henry McCoy's personality. In the first issue, he's a bit of a bruiser, fitting his assigned code-name, The Beast.

Just two issues later, Hank's starting to sound like the scientist character he would eventually morph into, as Stan began to find a characterisation for him.

But by issue 3, he's starting to talk a bit like William "Johnny" Littlejohn, from the Doc Savage pulps, using more sophisticated phrasing, like the educated man that he is.

In issue 1 of The X-Men, it was the heroes who behaved like insensitive clods. Just four months later, that sort of thing was left to the bad guys.

And in issue 1, while it was Hank behaving like an self-unaware oaf towards Jean Grey, in X-Men 3 it was the villain behaving in that manner. So, my guess is that Stan wanted to move Hank away from being just another Ben (The Thing) Grimm type and contrast his personality with the "Beast" label.

I had always presumed Xavier was supposed to be about 40. Jean grey is 17 or 18, here? But despite the age difference, he's her teacher. Even as a kid, I thought that was a bit off.

Another noticeable development in X-Men 3 was the start of Charles Xavier's slightly creepy infatuation with Jean Grey. It goes on for a little while, but then Stan - quite rightly - later abandons the idea. Maybe it was just a sign of the times, but it doesn't play very well today. Fortunately, Xavier's attraction to Jean wasn't mentioned again directly and by X-Men 11, Stan had shifted the focus to Scott's unrequited romantic feelings for Jean.

The next issue would see the return of an old enemy (not that there's many to choose from at this stage), and the introduction of some new characters who would become key to Marvel Comics canon. But that can wait till next time, as I feel I may have already outstayed my welcome for this particular edition.

Next: Mutants ... hordes of them

Marvel Comics Cover Gallery - 1959

AS 1959 HOVE INTO VIEW, we would see fewer covers by Joe Maneely, as the last of his work filtered through the system, and more by Jack Kirby, as he bedded in as Stan Lee's go-to artist.

Publisher Martin Goodman continued to fiddle with the line-up, cancelling romance and kiddie titles to make way for science fiction and fantasy books that he thought would sell better.

JANUARY 1959

Marvel's eight titles cover-dated for the first month of 1959 were on sale between 2 Sept and 2 Oct 1958.

Fans of Homer the Happy Ghost and of Patsy Walker Miss America were due to be disappointed by the lineup. Both of those titles were deep-sixed to make space for two new fantasy books - Tales of Suspense and Tales to Astonish - forging a new look for the company's output that would shape it for the next eight or nine years.

Unusually, the cover art for Suspense was by Don Heck, who drew few covers during this era. The cover for Astonish was by the Kirby/Rule team.

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These two new books would last a hundred issues before Marvel next big transformation in 1968. The rest of the month's titles were stalwart sellers and would, for the most part, survive Goodman's incessant tinkering.

Interestingly, the newer additions to the line didn't sport the vestigial Atlas corner-flash on their covers, an anachronism that would cling on to the older titles until well into 1960.

FEBRUARY 1959

The lineup for the second month of 1959, on sale between 2 Oct and 4 Nov 1958, looked exactly like the Dec 1958 roster. Not a single change, which seems odd given the non-stop tinkering that Goodman was inflicting on the lineup during this unstable time for his company.

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Once again, the western covers were by EC stalwart Jack Davis, who also drew all three stories in Two-Gun Kid 46, but no interior art for Wyatt Earp 21. Davis had started drawing for Martin Goodman's company after the failure of Harvey Kurtzman's Humbug magazine, in which several of the former EC artists were also part-owners. Davis wasn't an investor but did hold the post of Assistant Editor. The sudden loss of income meant that Davis had to find work wherever he could and even Goodman's miserly rates were better than no money at all.

Joe Sinnott drew the covers for Battle and Strange Tales. Steve Ditko supplied art for the Strange Worlds cover and Carl Burgos contributed the cover art for World of Fantasy. As usual, Al Hartley was in charge of art chores on the two Patsy books.

MARCH 1959

The first March cover-dated comics on sale from Goodman's Magazine Management, on 4th November, were Kid Colt Outlaw, Tales of Suspense and Tales to Astonish. The last one was Journey into Mystery which was available on 2nd December. The remainder would have been released between those two dates, though I've not been able to find reliable data on those.

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Jack Kirby and Christopher Rule supplied art for both the Gunsmoke Western cover and the Kid Colt Outlaw one. It was a bumper month for Steve Ditko as he supplied covers for another pair of second issues, Tales of Suspense and Tales to Astonish. Dan de Carlo did the Millie the Model cover and Vince Colletta (studio?) provided the cover for My Own Romance. The remaining two covers - Journey into Mystery and Love Romances - were drawn by Russ Heath, making a rare return to Stan Lee's bullpen. 

Heath had been a fixture at the company from 1948 till about 1955, when he added DC Comics as a client and also provided to odd job to EC's fledgling Mad magazine. During 1957, his output for Stan Lee dwindled and by the end of that year he was working almost exclusively for DC. Those two covers, plus a four pager for Love Romances and another for Tales of Suspense, were Heath's sole output for Stan in 1958 ... after that Heath was pretty much exclusively a DC artist until, in the early 1960s, he began to acquire other clients, like Harvey and Dell. And let's not forget his unforgettable "204 Revolutionary War Soldiers" ad artwork ...

Who didn't want to have a 204-piece Revolutionary War set?

APRIL 1959

Strange Tales 68 was one of the first April cover-dated Magazine Management comic books on sale, hitting the stands on 2nd December 1958. The last would have been Patsy Walker, on sale 2nd January 1959. The others would have been scattered between these two days, but the only other confirmed on sale I could find was for Patsy and Hedy on 29 December.

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As Jack Kirby's assignments began to ramp up, he had four cover assignments for April - Strange Tales, Strange Worlds 2, World of Fantasy 17 and Wyatt Earp 22 - all inked by Christopher Rule. 

Al Hartley drew covers for the two Patsy books and the Battle cover was credited to Carl Burgos, though you could be forgiven for thinking it looks like a Russ Heath DC cover. Jack Davis did the cover for Two-Gun Kid, though the interior stories were all drawn by legendary "good-girl" artist Matt Baker.

MAY 1959

The first May cover-dated comics on sale from Goodman's company - Kid Colt Outlaw, Tales of Suspense and Tales to Astonish - were on the stands on 2nd January 1959. A month later, the May Journey into Mystery went on sale. The remaining titles were, presumably, on sale between those two dates. I'm not sure what the logic was here. I could understand if the titles were on sale a week or two apart, but a full month does seem excessive.

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Jack Kirby drew three covers for this month - Gunsmoke Western, Journey into Mystery and Tales to Astonish - all inked by Christopher Rule. The Kid Colt cover was by John Severin, and the Tales of Suspense art was by John Buscema, making a rare early appearance at the fledgling Marvel. The Millie cover was by Dan De Carlo, the Love Romances was drawn by Jay Scott Pike and the cover for My Own Romance was by the Vince Colletta studio, with possible pencils by Dick Giordano.

JUNE 1959

The June issues of the Magazine Management comics line hit the stands between 3rd February and 3rd March 1959. There was no change in the lineup from the February and April issues, so Marty must have been happy with the spread of genres, at least in these even-month titles.

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Month by month, Jack Kirby's share of the cover chores was increasing. This month, he drew five of the eight covers published - Battle (his first on that title), Strange Tales, Strange Worlds, Two-Gun Kid and World of Fantasy. Only the two Patsy covers (by Al Hartley) and the Wyatt Earp cover (by John Severin) were assigned to different artists.

JULY 1959

Most of the July dated issues were on the news-stands on 3rd March. For whatever reason, Journey into Mystery went on sale pretty much a whole month later.

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It was another bumper month for Jack Kirby. All but three of this month's covers were by Jack (with his inker de jour Christopher Rule). Millie the Model was a cover-to-cover Dan de Carlo fest, while the two romance books had cover art from the Vince Colletta studio.

AUGUST 1959

The earliest title on sale for this month was the Strange Tales, hitting gthe stands on 3rd April. The latest was the August cover-dated issue of Patsy Walker, going on sale on 5th May. The others would have scattered between those two dates, but I wasn't able to confirm any of the other release dates.

Click the image to enlarge.

Jack Kirby seemed to settling in as Stan's go-to cover artist, contributing, once again, five of the eight covers for this month. The Patsy titles sported covers by regular artist Al Hartley, and the Two-Gun Kid cover appears to be a re-purposed Joe Maneely inventory cover, originally drawn for Kid Colt - Outlaw, and likely fished out of a drawer and redrawn by production man Sol Brodsky.

Kirby's Strange Tales cover is probably the first to qualify as a Giant-Monster cover. There had been other Kirby-drawn monsters on previous anthology covers, but these were distinctly science fiction aliens. Here, we see the accent on the main fantasy titles moving away from sf towards a more Kaiju-style take on the genre.

SEPTEMBER 1959

The still-not-Marvel comics cover-dated September started going on sale on 5th May. Confirmed books on the stands on that day were Gunsmoke Western, Millie the Model, Tales of Suspense and Tales to Astonish. I can't vouch for any of the others, though I can tell you that Journey into Mystery arrived, stylishly late as usual, on 5 June.

Click the image to enlarge.

Jack Kirby was still knocking out covers at a rate of knots, pencilling Journey into Mystery, Love Romances, My Own Romance, Tales of Suspense and Tales to Astonish. The two western comic covers were by a pair of EC alumni - Jack Davis and John Severin. Can you tell which is which? And Dan De Carlo was still making Millie look like an Archie book.

OCTOBER 1959

Finally, as the end of the 1950s peeped above the horizon, Magazine Management publisher Martin Goodman decided to shake things up a bit. Strange Worlds and World of Fantasy were both dropped. An odd move, because the new fantasy titles, Tales of Suspense and Tales to Astonish by all accounts were doing quite well. In their place were an all-new teenage character book, Kathy (the Teenage Tornado) and, in another odd decision by Goodman, a new Millie title, A Date with Millie, making Millie effectively a monthly. So why not just make Millie a monthly title and save himself the cost of revving up a new title?

Click the image to enlarge.

For anyone keeping score the line was now: five teen titles, four westerns, four fantasy/monster books, two romance comics and a war book.

Kirby's cover output took a bit of a hit as a result. Down from his usual five covers, Jack only contributed two for the October issues - Battle and Wyatt Earp. The remaining 75% of the cover art was supplied by Al Hartley (Patsy Walker and Patsy and Hedy), Jack Davis (Strange Tales), John Severin (Two-Gun Kid), Dan De Carlo (A Date With Millie) and Stan Goldberg (Kathy).

NOVEMBER 1959

The comics for the penultimate month of 1959 maintained the status quo. No more dispatching and hatching - at least for the time being. The earliest on sale date for this batch was 1st July (Kid Colt Outlaw, Tales of Suspense and Tales to Astonish). Journey into Mystery followed a full month later on 31st July.

Click the image to enlarge.

The Gunsmoke Western cover was patched together from two old Joe Maneely covers (Wyatt Earp 18, Aug 1958 and Kid Colt 75, Nov 1957). Jack Kirby pencilled Journey into Mystery, Kid Colt, Love Romances, My Own Romance, Tales of Suspense and Tales to Astonish. Stan Goldberg was left with the Millie cover, as Dan De Carlo was pretty much exclusive with Archie Comics from the November cover dates onwards.

DECEMBER 1959

The last Magazine Management comics cover dated for 1959 were on sale during September of that year. Except for Strange Tales which was on the stands for the end of July. Go figure. The even months were now down to just one fantasy book, and overloaded with teen titles, but I guess Marty must've known what he was doing.

Click the image to enlarge.

Kirby contributed pencil art for the Battle, Strange Tales and Wyatt Earp covers. Stan Goldberg stepped into Dan De Carlo's shoes for the Date with Millie and Kathy titles and Al Hartley continued to soldier on with the Patsy titles. That left John Severin to pick up the art chores on the Two-Gun Kid cover.

Here's a bit of wild speculation. What if Martin Goodman launched A Date with Millie and Kathy, thinking that Stan Lee would get De Carlo to draw them. Of course, that would have meant De Carlo giving up his Archie work, as he wouldn't have time to do it all. If I'm right, then the plan backfired mightily when Dan packed up his pencils and moved over to Riverdale, leaving Goodman without his star teen-book cartoonist.

Next: Teenage Mutant Marvel All-Stars

Prototypes, Schmototypes: Part 2

LAST TIME, I WAS TRAWLING THROUGH THE PRE-HERO MARVEL COMICS that some pundits would have us believe are forerunners of the later, more famous, superhero characters. I got to the end of 1960 before I realised that this was going to be a two-part undertaking ... so let's take a look at the later "prototype" Marvel Comics for 1961-1962.

Not listed in the Overstreet Price Guide as such, but I'd say Kid Colt 117 (Jul 1964) has more claim to showcasing a prototype of a later, well-known character (The Kingpin) than any of the other "prototypes" we're looking at here.

As before, there are more than a couple of issues in the following batch that feature the second (and sometimes third) "prototype" of the same character. I'm going to stick with the logic that only the first one could be a prototype. Any others are just Stan and the Bullpen re-using old ideas.

TALES TO ASTONISH 15 (Jan 1961)

"I Learned the Dread Secret of The Blip" is listed in the Price Guide as a prototype story for the later Spider-Man villain Electro (Max Dillon). 

I'm not sure why Blip is a decidedly unelectrical grey colour on the cover of Astonish 15 when he's a crackly yellow inside. Still, not much similarity between the two characters - not even the name, in this instance.

Aside from the fact that Steve Ditko would rather gnaw his own arm off than copy someone else's creation, there's not a great deal of resemblance between the friendly electrical star creature and morally bankrupt Dillon.

Electro would go on to be a staple villain for Spider-Man (he also fought Daredevil in the early days). And there was a robot called Electro in Marvel's Golden Age, first appearing in Marvel Mystery 4 (Mar 1940) and running for 16 issues.

One of the more tenuous prototype connections.

Verdict: Not a prototype.

TALES TO ASTONISH 16 (Feb 1961)

The second (alleged) Stone Men prototype, called Thorr, which I rolled up into the Tales to Astonish 5 item last time.

Like I say, the second appearance of a similar character cannot be considered a prototype. Proto literally means first.

Verdict: Not a prototype, either.

STRANGE TALES 84 (Apr 1961)

OK, this is a surprise. Here's a prototype issue where the featured character in the story "The Wonder of the Ages: Magneto" does have similarities to a later major Marvel villain.

Hunk Larken gets his magnetic powers in a way similar to the origin of the Fantastic Four, but the ability to generate magnetic fields does align with the X-Men villain, Magneto.

In this case, protagonist Hunk Larken is more misunderstood than an outright menace, though he does use his newly-acquired magnetic powers to fling a motor car through the air. But he's not a mutant and doesn't wear a bucket on his head, so there's that.

Verdict: Nearly a prototype.

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY 70 (Jul 1961)

More than two years before Spider-Man met Flint Marko, an escaped con who was merged, atomically, with the sands of a beach in Amazing Spider-Man 4 (Sep 1963), there was an ambulatory pile of sand who comethed in Journey into Mystery 70 (Jul 1961).

Jack Kirby's Sandman is defeated with a bucket of water and Steve Ditko's Sandman is beaten with a vacuum cleaner ... so both meet a slightly comedic end.

Though the earlier Sandman is an alien bent on conquering Earth and the Spidey-foe is a criminal who accidentally gains his sandy powers, there are still some similarities in the way both can shapeshift from sandy to human form. But I think these are either Stan feeding the plot points to Ditko or just possibly Ditko coming up with a similar scenario by coincidence. Or a bit of both.

Verdict: Nearly a prototype.

TALES TO ASTONISH 21 (Jul 1961)

Here's one more Hulk prototype. This time it's a movie monster that comes out the screen to menace the audience.

This Hulk doesn't look much like the big green guy, is only named on a movie poster and may actually only be a movie monster. But so much for Stan plucking the name out of thin air in early 1962.

Just, No ... okay?

Verdict: Not a prototype.

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY 73 (Oct 1961)

This one made me smile - the monster in Journey into Mystery 73 is a prototype for ... you guessed. Spider-Man! The resemblance to Peter Parker is remarkable, wouldn't you say?

So there's this giant, intelligent, fifty-foot spider, the result of atomic radiation, and Stan somehow thought at the start of 1962, "How about we re-use that giant spider story, but make the hero a nerdy high school kid who ..."

If anything The Spider in JiM 73 is a swipe of the classic 1955 Jack Arnold monster movie Tarantula, a trend Marty Goodman was exploring in the first years of the 1960s, several years after the monster movie boom had petered out.

The giant Tarantula in the movie was the result of experimental growth hormones rather than atomic energy. The same arachnid went on to star in Jack Arnold's Incredible Shrinking Man (1957).

Verdict: Not nearly a prototype.

STRANGE TALES 92 (Jan 1962)

As 1962 hoves into view - remember, this is the month that Fantastic Four 2 is on sale - the Price Guide is still attributing prototypes. This one was supposed to be an early version of Doctor Strange's mentor, The Ancient One, and there may be a superficial resemblance.

Well, he's ancient, and there's only one of him, but after that any similarities are hardly there at all. It's stretching credibility to suggest that this is any kind of prototype for Stephen Strange's mentor.

But the title character of "Somewhere Sits The Lama", designed by Don Heck is more a standard-issue Far East sage than a direct ancestor of Steve Ditko's later creation.

Verdict: Not a prototype.

TALES TO ASTONISH 27 (Jan 1962)

This is listed in the Price Guide as "1st Ant-Man app[earance]", but it's not, is it? It's the first appearance of Henry Pym, a scientist who invents a shrinking formula (sounds familiar) and tests it on himself, leading to an adventure in an anthill. The name Ant-Man isn't mentioned and there is no familiar red costume to be seen. Picky maybe, but let's keep this accurate.

I think the reason Ant-Man/Giant-Man never really caught on as a solo character was because everything flowed out of this throw-away fantasy story, something that was never meant to become an ongoing feature. If it had, I think Stan would have taken more care with his world-building.

I'll tell you what it might be, though. It could very possibly be a prototype. The story wasn't created with an ongoing series in mind. It's more likely that Stan was casting around for another superhero idea and recalled the fantasy story he'd done with Kirby just a few months earlier, and decided to retool the Dr Pym as a costumed hero.

Ah, there he is - the Ant-Man we all know and love. No seriously, this was my favourite incarnation of Hank's superhero career.

From there Hank Pym's progress was quite ramshackle, with constant tweaks to try to get the premise to work - swapping from fluid, to gas, to pills, to "cybernetic control" to manage his size changes, adding a partner to goose up the stories a bit, then hiatus and return as Goliath. It never really hung together as a solid premise.

Verdict: Sort of a prototype.

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY 78 (Mar 1962)

Now, normally I'd dismiss this as a prototype for Doctor Strange because there was an earlier claim in Strange Tales 79 (Dec 1960) ... but after searching that comic from cover to cover a couple of times, I couldn't find anything that looked like Doctor Strange, at all. So let's examine this later claim more closely. 

Yes, there's a sorcerer, but he's a young lad from (presumably) another dimension, not a selfish surgeon seeking out an aged far-eastern mentor for a cure. His powers appear natural, not learned and there's no incantations.

There is indeed a magician in this issue, but it's a fairly generic version. This could just as easily be a swipe of DC's Mark Merlin who was running in House of Secrets around the same time. A kid shows up from another dimension, gets a job as a handyman, fixing an electric clock so it runs unplugged. Then three oddball characters show up to take him back where he came from. There's a bit of a magic battle, which the kid wins. Then, he's allowed to stay in our reality, but stripped of his powers.

None of that sounds like Doctor Strange. Why isn't it considered a dry run for Dr Droom in Amazing Adventures 1 (Jun 1961), who was Marvel's real first continuing magician hero?

Verdict: Not a prototype.

STRANGE TALES 94 (Mar 1962)

This one is a real stretch ... the main character in "He Came from Nowhere" is alleged to be a prototype for The Thing.

I don't know who looked at Strange Tales 94's character Groff and thought, "Yep, looks exactly like The Thing from Fantastic Four." Matt Murdock?

Well ... the toad lookalike is Groff, an alien from a future Uranus. He's an escaped criminal who changes places with an Earthling. I don't think he looks a bit like The Thing, do you? I was even generous and chose the first version of the Thing from January 1962's Fantastic Four 2 ... hang on a minute! 

The Thing first appeared in FF1 (Nov 1962) ... how in the hootin' heck can an alien from a comic cover-dated March 1962 be a prototype of a character that appeared four months earlier? I even checked the job numbers - Fantastic Four 1 has a job number of V-372, the Strange Tales story's is V-525, so there's no doubt which came first.

Verdict: Not in any way a prototype.

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY 79 (Apr 1962)

The story "The Midnight Monster" is the reason for JiM79 being given the status of a Mr Hyde prototype issue. And there are some similarities between Victor Avery's alter ego and the classic Thor villain, Mr Hyde.

I don't see how anyone can claim that Thor's foe Mr Hyde can be anything but a swipe from the classic horror story, filmed, oh, dozens of times before the character appeared in JiM 99. It's certainly not inspired by a fantasy story in JiM 79.

But - and it's a big but - surely if anything is an inspiration and prototype for Mr Hyde in Journey into Mystery 99 (Dec 1963), then it has to be Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novella "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde".

Verdict: Seriously ... not a prototype.

TALES OF SUSPENSE 28 (Apr 1962)

Oh, flippin' heck ... it's another Stone Men story. Didn't I already tell you, Bob? Only the first one can be a prototype.

Just a quick reminder for everyone ... The Stone Men appeared for the first time in DC's House of Mystery 85 (Apr 1959), then in Tales to Astonish 5 (Sep 1959), and again in Tales to Astonish 16 (Feb 1961), and here in Suspense 28.

I think you can relax, now. That's the last of them.

Verdict: Not a prototype.

STRANGE TALES 97 (Jun 1962)

Strangely, Strange Tales 97 is billed as a first appearance rather than a prototype comic. For me that's a bit debatable. The story "Goodbye to Linda Brown" tells of a young girl living by the sea with her Uncle Ben and Aunt May. The couple become concerned when the wheelchair bound young girl begins "sleep-walking", wheeling her chair to the water's edge without waking.

The story stars two older citizens, addressed as "Uncle Ben" and "Aunt May" by their "niece". But their surname is Brown, not Parker, and they don't really look much Peter Parker's Uncle and Aunt.

The tale is a re-tread of an old Atlas story "The Sea Waits for Me", in Journey into Unknown Worlds 43 (Mar 1956) by an uncredited writer (though probably Stan) and artist Dick Ayers. But some will have you believe this is the first appearance of Peter Parker's Uncle Ben and Aunt May.

The original story in Journey into Unknown Worlds 43 featured an unnamed family - we're only told the daughter is called Joan.

Given that Steve Ditko is the artist on this story and would later draw Spider-Man's first appearance in Amazing Fantasy 15 (Aug 1962) you might be forgiven for thinking there might be some similarities, but they don't even have the same names, so I don't think this can be counted as a first appearance in the same way that "The Man in the Ant Hill" in Tales to Astonish 27 showcased Dr Henry Pym, who would go on to be the costumed Ant-Man.

Verdict: Probably more of a prototype than a first appearance.

TALES TO ASTONISH 32 (Jun 1962)

It's the Sandman, again ... but not really. In "Quicksand!", Geoffrey Wickshire contrives for his blind half-brother to stumble into quicksand so he can inherit the entirely of their estate. But poor Sir Edmund is saved by leprechauns who promise to restore his sight magically if he'll just agree to remain with them for seven days. Then they return him to dry land, covered in the quicksand so he can tell his brother the wonderful news.

In the story "Quicksand!" Sir Edmund isn't made of quicksand, he's just covered in quicksand, which scares the bejeezus out of his conniving brother Geoffrey.

But Geoffrey thinks his brother has returned from a quicksandy grave for vengeance and in panic falls out a handy window to his death.

Verdict: Not a prototype.

AMAZING ADULT FANTASY 14 (Jul 1962)

When I checked this on in the Price Guide I thought, "Oh no, not another Professor X prototype claim." But on reading the story "Man in Space", I think it's actually something else. There's no character in there that looks or sounds like Charles Xavier, but there is a wider-reaching precedent being set here.

When Tad Carter reveals his super-human abilities, he's set upon by his friends, prefiguring the humans' fear of mutants that would be integral to the worldview in The X-men right from its start.

This includes one of the earliest mentions of the term "mutant" in a Marvel book (I think Tales of Suspense 6 pre-dates it, and there is mention of mutants in Yellow Claw 3). The mutant characters from these stories were later ret-conned in John Byrne's X-Men: Hidden Years).

The earliest mentions of mutants in Marvel comics - The Yellow Claw 3 (Dec 1956) had the arch-villain using mutants for his own nefarious purposes and Tales of Suspense 6 (Nov 1959) featured a story about paranoiac fear of super-powered mutants.

But in this world, Tad Carter is properly a super-powered mutant, hated and feared by regular humans. Tad is contacted mentally by another mutant who tells him he'll have to live in hiding until humans are ready to accept mutants. All these idea would get recycled in The X-Men.

Verdict: Actually is a kind of prototype.

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY 82 (Jul 1962)

So this is supposed to be a prototype for the Spider-Man villain, The Scorpion. What do you think? My take is that this is just a retread of the Grottu story from Strange Tales 73 and The Spider story from Journey into Mystery 73.

The third giant red insect in the series. Collect them all. And when Tales to Astonish 39 comes out, collect that one too.

One of the lamer examples.

Verdict: Not a prototype.

TALES OF SUSPENSE 31 (Jul 1962)

Someone, somewhere though that the monster on the front cover of Tales of Suspense 31 was a dead ringer for Dr Doom. Trouble is a thirty foot space monster and a normal-sized, if megalomaniac, criminal scientist don't bear even the remotest resemblance to each other.

The story itself is quite interesting - no one can figure out how to defeat the invading creature. But a washed-up magician figures that the key to the monster's power is misdirection.

Spoiler alert: The monster isn't wearing a mask. That's his real face! So, I'm not buying today.

Verdict: Not a prototype.

TALES OF SUSPENSE 32 (Aug 1962)

It's Doctor Strange, again. So this is the third prototype for Marvel's Master of the Mystic Arts listed in the Price Guide. And, to be fair, there is a wizard featured in the story "Sazzik the Sorceror". But the connection to Stephen Strange is thin indeed.

When you've no ideas, for your violent plays, who you gonna call ... Sazzik the Sorceror.

Producer of violent tv shows Boris Grumm searches for his next big hit and comes across the grisly tale of Sazzik the Sorceror in an old book. Thinking to make the story into a tv play, Grumm sets about filming the evil exploits of Sazzik. But it all goes wrong when he reads a spell from the book aloud, and Sazzik appears, miffed at having been summoned without good reason, and banishes Grumm to limbo.

I mean, Sazzik and Dr Strange are both magicians. But that's all there is.

More interesting is the myth - still being pushed by the Price Guide - that the cover story of this issue, "Man in the Beehive" was somehow in a competition with "Man in the Ant Hill" for the next available slot in Stan's Marvel super-hero lineup. But even the most cursory examination casts more than a little doubt on that story. Here's the facts:

Tales to Astonish 27 (Jan 1962, on sale 28/09/61), job-number - V-430.

Tales of Suspense 32 (Aug 1962 on sale 08/05/62), job-number - V-765

Tales of Suspense 35 (Sep 1962, on sale 05/06/62), job-number - V-795

Now, with that timeline, and those gaps between the job-numbers, there's no way Ant-Man and Bee-Man were ever in a race for one insect-based costumed-character feature.

Verdict: Not a prototype.

TALES OF SUSPENSE 35 (Nov 1962)

The finish line is finally in sight. Here's the last of the stories officially designated as prototype stories by the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. This time we're looking at a character some pundits think is the basis for The Watcher, and while they might appear slightly similar in appearance, there would need to be more of an overlap in concept to convince me.

It's complicated, but pilot Dave Bartlett faces mandatory retirement because of his age and his lack of modern skills, preferring to fly by instinct and skill rather than computer control, so he concocts a preposterous hoax to get himself reinstated.

As it transpires, the plot is lifted from the 1951 sf movie, The Day the Earth Stood Still. An alien representative of the Galactic Federation, Zarkorr, appears on Earth and says unless Earth can prove themselves worthy of space travel, Earth will be isolated or perhaps even destroyed. Turns out it's a hoax so that an aging space pilot can get himself reinstated.

In the film The Day the Earth Stood Still Klaatu is the boss. But in the book it's based on, Farewell to the Master by Harry Bates, Klaatu was the servant and robot Gort was the Master.

The plot doesn't stand up to scrutiny, but makes for goofy fun. "Zarkorr" is less of a parallel with the non-interfering Watcher than he is with Klaatu, the intergalactic policemen who tells Earth, No more war or else!

But as far as Zarkorr being an early version of The Watcher ... I don't think so.

Verdict: Not a prototype.

"NOT PROTOTYPES"

There are a few examples of other characters that show up in early Marvel non-superhero comics that could be classed as prototypes but haven't been, particularly in the western titles.

KID COLT OUTLAW 110 (May 1963)

I'm sure if Kid Colt 110 had come out just three months earlier, many would be claiming Iron Mask for an Iron Man prototype. But it didn't, so it's not. For what it's worth, I don't think there's really much to connect the two. Iron Mask is just an outlaw who wears armour under his shirt and a metal mask to make himself appear bulletproof.

"Bullets Can't Stop Him!" - Iron Mask is a baddy that's made himself an armour suit that makes him bulletproof, which is bad news for Kid Colt.

There's none of Tony Stark's clever gadgets, even allowing for the time period difference. Visually, Iron Mask resembles Doctor Doom, but really his armour just a variation on the kind that, say, the original Black Knight might have worn.

Who inspired who? Is Kid Colt's Iron Mask any distant relative of Iron Man, or is he just a latter day variation on the medieval knight in armour?

We'd see Iron Mask again in Kid Colt 114 (Jan 1964), so someone must have liked him, even it it was only writer Stan Lee.

KID COLT OUTLAW 115 (Mar 1964)

Also not listed in the Price Guide as a prototype issue, though it seems to have as much claim as anything else that we've looked at here ... Kid Colt Outlaw 115, featuring a villain called The Scorpion.

When is a Scorpion not a Scorpion? When they're two completely different characters who look nothing alike, with wildly different powers and who only share a name.

As with most of these other "prototypes", the only similarity between Kid Colt's Scorpion and Spidey's arachnid nemesis, Mac Gargan, is their name.

KID COLT OUTLAW 117 (Jul 1964)

I'll quite pleased that Kid Colt 117 hasn't been listed as a prototype issue, otherwise I would have had to pay a lot more for my copy. But I do think that, of any of the "not prototypes" I'm looking at in this final section, this more has more of a claim that almost any of the others.

He might look like just someone with weight management challenges, but looks can be deceiving. I'd bet money that Stan revisited this character when he came up with the Kingpin during the early days of John Romita's run on Amazing Spider-Man.

He's just call "The Fat Man" in this and wields a boomerang rather than a gem-topped cane, but what Kid Colt's villain shares with the later Spidey baddy is that though appearing fat, he's really "solid muscle".

TWO-GUN KID 77 (Sep 1965)

I've saved this one till last, bringing us full circle to the pic I started my charting of prototype Marvel comics last time. In the September 1965 cover-dated Two-Gun Kid, there appeared an acrobatic villain called The Panther, who sported a black leotard costume.

This western villain, the spritely Panther gave Two-Gun Kid a run for his money in a story by Al Hartley and Dick Ayers a full ten months before King T'Challa showed up in Fantastic Four 52.

Around the same time, Jack Kirby was toying with an idea for a new standalone series featuring a black super-hero of African origin to be called The Coal Tiger (terrible name, Jack). The Panther and The Inhumans were intended to be two new titles to add to the Marvel lineup. But Martin Goodman couldn't get Independent News' permission to expand the line, even by two titles, so the characters were worked into the Fantastic Four storyline.

Jack Kirby's original design for The Coal Tiger, not Kirby's best work. The costume was revised and Jack submitted the cover art for Fantastic Four 52. But that was rejected and Kirby had to do it again. I've included the uncoloured final art here so you can see what's going on under the murky colour job.

In the end, The Coal Tiger became The Black Panther and underwent, no doubt at Stan's urging, a complete visual makeover, using the costume design by Dick Ayers for the earlier Panther villain.

SO WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

I don't think anyone can believe that any of the examples we've see in this blog entry and the last are actually prototypes ... in the sense that Stan thought, "Hey, let me try out this idea and if it works, I can use it later as the basis for a superhero or a supervillain."

A case in point is Stan's account of how he thought up the name for The Hulk, groping around until he thought of just the right descriptive noun. Did Stan really forget that he'd used the same name three or four times before for his pre-hero monsters? But that fact is enough evidence to cast doubt on Jack Kirby's claim that he came up with The Hulk (and all the other Marvel superheroes) by himself.

It's all too often forgotten that during this period of comics history, especially at Marvel Comics, Stan and the staff were struggling on a month-by-month basis just to fill their comics on time and on a very limited budget. Stan had been forbidden by publisher Martin Goodman to build up any inventory material, so they were literally operating hand-to-mouth. If there was a gap in a comic, and no fresh idea for a story, they'd just reuse an old idea.

It's not like Stan was creating high art or even enduring properties that could be used for a multi-billion dollar franchise of movies forty-odd years later. He was just trying to fill 12 cent comic books with stories that didn't bore him to tears, with the help of whatever artists he could afford on his miserly budgets.

Classifying these old comics retrospectively as "prototypes" is just a cynical money-grabbing exercise that only costs fans and collectors more.

Next: Marvel Cover Gallery 1959