From The Vaults: UNCANNY X-MEN #98

While we spend a great deal of time engrossed in the current crop of comic books, let us not forget those fantastic tales from the past that still sit in amongst our collections and are always worth revisiting...

UNCANNY X-MEN #98

Writer: Chris Claremont

Art: Dave Cockrum, Sam Grainger & Janice Cohen

Marvel

Andrew B: At the beginning, she was something of a cliché. In 1963’s launch issue of The X-Men, Jean Grey may have been introduced as the newest student at the Xavier School, but we’d pretty much seen her type before.

“A most attractive young lady,” according to Professor X himself. “A real living doll,” according to Cyclops. And in the high-flying (and permanently leering) Angel’s words, “a redhead. Look at that face… and the rest of her.” More like Objectified Girl than Marvel Girl, perhaps, but there she was. In essence, a token female and potential love interest. A little predictable. A little dull. A little, well, grey.

To be fair, Jean is allowed to hint at her own hidden potential: “You’ll learn more about me, boys, in time!”

The time turned out to be about twelve years.

The Paradoscars 2018

The Paradoscars have been a running for over a decade now, so the process should be familiar to many. We pick the nominations and then you get the chance to vote for your favourites.

The winners have now been announced at a local Bournemouth restaurant with a tipsy PCG. Whilst all the nominees deserved the limelight, we feel the winners have come out on top because they deserved to be there – in other words, they are the best of the best.

Thanks to everyone all of you who voted, especially considering many of our nominees weren’t more mainstream, predictable choices, and we do hope you all come back for more passionate opinions on our beloved medium next year.

And so here they are, the winners of the Paradoscars 2018:

STAN LEE 1922-2018

Andrew B: I first met Stan Lee one Tuesday evening in late October 1972. In our front room. Over beans and poached eggs on toast.

I was ten years old then and, of course, Stan wasn’t there physically. That would have been odd. What was there instead was the first issue of a new comic my Nan who worked in a newsagent had dropped by. It had a big green guy not looking too happy on the cover. The Hulk. And another guy in a red and blue costume swinging across the cover on a kind of web. Spider-Man. And four other guys (one of whom was a girl), one in flames and one made out of what looked like orange house bricks. The Fantastic Four.

The Mighty World of Marvel #1. Day One of the rest of my comic-reading life.

Because the thing about Stan Lee was, he never had to be literally with you to make an impact on you. Like all great writers, all he needed to make you think, to make you feel, to make you change, were words. Words that when written down are just shapes and squiggles on a page, but when spoken to the spirit become stronger than steel, more powerful than plutonium.

“With great power there must also come great responsibility… Fate gave me some terrific super-powers and I realize now that it’s my duty to use them… without doubt… without hesitation…Anyone can win a fight when the odds are easy. It’s when the going’s tough… when there seems to be no chance… that’s when it counts… Somehow, at the last minute, some of your own heroism reached out through the endless void… and touched him… In all the galaxies… I have found no planet more blessed than this… It is as though the human race has been divinely favoured over all who live… And yet… in their uncontrollable insanity… they seek to destroy this shining jewel… this softly spinning gem… this tiny blessed sphere… which men call Earth.”

From The Vaults: WARLOCK #9-10, AVENGERS ANNUAL #7

While we spend a great deal of time engrossed in the current crop of comic books, let us not forget those fantastic tales from the past that still sit in amongst our collections and are always worth revisiting...

Andrew B: He speaks with the grandeur of Dr Doom. He schemes with the insane zeal of the Red Skull. And, yes, he’s got a chin like Darkseid. Thanos of Titan has qualities in common with many of the other great villains of comicdom, Marvel or DC. But there’s one factor that makes him different, darker, deadlier. One feature that sets him apart. The nature of his ambition: nothing less than total stellar genocide.

Take Doom or the Skull, for example. Their world-views are unlikely to be shared by anyone currently reading this article (unless they happen to be sporting a funny little moustache and listening to a CD of SS marching songs), but they can at least be understood. Their dark dreams involve the possession of power and the right to rule over a subject people – not too savoury – but at least they envisage a world with people still in it. There is a twisted rationality in their megalomania, a limit to their plans. Doom for one is even capable of a level of nobility – in Fantastic Four #87, for example, he famously lets the FF go free rather than in battle risk damage to “the immortal art” preserved in his castle. On some level, you can deal with Doom, even the Skull.

None of that with Thanos.

From The Vaults: THOR #132

While we spend a great deal of time engrossed in the current crop of comic books, let us not forget those fantastic tales from the past that still sit in amongst our collections and are always worth revisiting...

THOR #132

Writer: Stan Lee

Art: Jack Kirby & Vince Colletta

Marvel

Andrew B: We all know that Marvel's version of the God of Thunder has only to whirl his enchanted hammer Mjolnir around his head a few times in order to soar imperiously into the heavens. It took a while for Thor as a comic to join its eponymous hero in gaining similarly lofty heights, however.

Apart from the occasional appearance of evil Loki, the first three years' worth of Thor's adventures saw the Asgardian Avenger battle a distinctly unimpressive list of opponents. There was the Cobra and Mr Hyde, the Tomorrow Man, the Grey Gargoyle, small fry every one. No wonder Stan and Jack found the opening to launch a 'Tales Of Asgard' back-up feature. Thor only needed sixteen pages to trounce these guys.

Things began to improve with #114 in 1965 with the first appearance of the Absorbing Man, and by 1966 the book was taking off in a big way. Storylines were becoming more complex and requiring several issues to develop. Admittedly, this could be said of most of Marvel's output as the '60s really started to swing, but with Thor, the reader got the sense that Lee and Kirby had finally begun to see the full potential of the character.

And we're talking considerable potential. Potential of cosmic proportions.

From The Vaults: TALES OF SUSPENSE #79-81

While we spend a great deal of time engrossed in the current crop of comic books, let us not forget those fantastic tales from the past that still sit in amongst our collections and are always worth revisiting...

TALES OF SUSPENSE #79-81

Writer: Stan Lee

Art: Jack Kirby, Don Heck, Frank Giacoia & Stan Goldberg

Marvel

Andrew B: During World War II, it was often complained of the GIs stationed in England prior to D-Day that they were “overpaid, oversexed and over here”. I used to feel much the same way about Captain America.

When I started reading comics lo, those many years ago, the characters that I thrilled to the most were those with whom I seemed to have something in common, teenagers like Spider-Man or the Human Torch. In fact, particularly with Peter Parker, it was the scenes from the hero’s private life, all those personal problems and girlfriend issues, that proved the read-again highlights of many issues. Back in the '60s, Cap didn’t seem to have a private life at all, except a worryingly wallowing fixation with a dead teenage sidekick which these days would no doubt get his shield felt by Operation Yewtree.

Do You Remember The First Time? AVENGERS #27

In Do You Remember The First Time? we take a nostalgic trip back in time to discuss a seminal purchase that introduced us to a character, title, creator, or even a hobby.

During April, we're looking at our first Avengers comics.

Andrew B: So in the foreground there’s this woman in pinky-purple (I later realise it’s supposed to be scarlet). She’s wearing some sort of four-cornered headgear that makes her face look like it’s on a TV screen and her arms are up in the air as if she’s either surrendering or about to start a pole dance. A guy I recognise as Captain America’s got his arm round her – I’m guessing personal space issues aren’t relevant when you’re battling to save the world. In the background two other costumed men look like they’re drunk in charge of a submarine. One of them’s Hawkeye – I remember him from an Iron Man story where he was the Bad Guy – while the other’s having a major bad hair day and looks a bit of a flash character. Water’s pouring in like Noah’s Flood and there are a few blue guys bobbing up and down in it with wide Kirby mouths.

It’s the cover of Avengers #27 (April 1966 issue). My first Avengers comic.

Thought Balloon: What If Marvel Launched The New 52?

By Uatu, The Watcher

I am Uatu, known to some on your world as The Watcher. For countless eons I have observed the planet you call Earth from my home on its solitary moon. Over the millennia I have witnessed innumerable events that have shaped the course of history, for better or worse. Of late I have taken interest in the comics publisher DC and the audacious relaunch of its entire line of comics which they have called ‘The New 52’.

But ours is not the only reality I am able to view. There exists an infinite number of alternate Earths where history has diverged at a crucial juncture to create a new timeline, one similar but entirely different than our own. On one of these alternate Earths exclusive contracts as we know them may not be in place; long running disagreements between creators and publishers may not have manifested themselves at all. On such a world, perhaps we could dare to find the answer to the question:

What if Marvel launched the New 52?

Behold! I can now reveal to you the 52 titles that the House of Ideas of another reality would choose to unleash upon their expectant audience this September: