Fifty Essentials in Fifty Days 24: Essential Ghost Rider Vol. 1

books and books review, Comix
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cover of Essential Ghost RiderVol. 1


Essential Ghost Rider Vol. 1
Gary Friedrich, Tony Isabella, Michael Ploog, Jim Mooney and friends
Reprints: Marvel Spotlight #5-12, Ghost Rider #1-20 & Daredevil #138 (August 1972 – October 1976)
Get this for: Mike Ploog, Jesus and Satan — three stars

The first thing to remember about The Essential Ghost Rider Vol. 1 is that Johnny Blaze, the Ghost Rider is well, kind of a tool, as well as dumb as a bag of rocks. Created by Gary Friedrich and Mike Ploog in Marvel Spotlight #5, Johnny Blaze is the adopted son of Crash Simpson, stunt motor cyclist extraordinaire, who took him in after his own father died.

Though a natural motor cyclist himself, Blaze made a vow to his adopted mother on her deathbed not to stunt ride himself. Then Crash gets cancer, plans to do one more great stunt to make sure his daughter (Blaze’s love interest, natch) will be taken care off after his death and Johnny, unable to help out due to his vow, makes a pact with Satan to make sure his adopted father does not died of cancer, in return for his own soul. Satan cheats of course, Crash dies doing his stunt and when Satan comes to take his prize, it’s only Roxanne’s love that saves him. But that night he finds out his curse: to be transformed into the Ghost Rider!

Now this origin has been retold every time the Ghost Rider guest starred in another title and when recapped it sort of makes sense, but reading the original story here for the first time just made me realise how incredibly stupid it actually was. The vow Blaze made to his dying stepmother is dumb, but Johnny selling his soul to Satan is even worse. It’s al stated matter of factly, as if the only choice you could make in such a situation is indeed to sell your soul. As a superhero origin it sounds noble when recapped, but Johnny does it for purely selfish reasons, as he would keep doing things for purely selfish reasons as long as Gary Friedrich was writing him. He’s completely unsympathetic as a protagonist, so unsympathetic that you have to have some admiration for Friedrich to keep on writing such a character.

But there’s another aspect to Friedrich’s writing that made me uncomfortable. I don’t mind an unsympathetic hero, though Johnny Blaze did get on my nerves, but I didn’t like the worldview that Friedrich build around him. Especially in the the Marvel Spotlight stories it reminded me too much of a Jack Chick tract. Not only is it possible for a stunt cyclist to call up Satan pretty easily, but there are Indian shamans dabbling in black magic, whose daughter is herself a satanist witch woman, inducted into satanist by a cult of liberated college women, not to mention satanic biker gangs. It’s all a bit too sleazy for my liking.

I’ve never been so glad as to see Tony Isabella take over a series; he may not be the best or most original writer in the world, but at least he manages to lose that Chick tract vibe, as well as make Blaze an actual hero, of sorts. The Ghost Rider, who at that time still clearly is Johnny Blaze, unlike the more demonic figure he would become later on in the series, becomes more of a regular superhero, fighting foes like the Trapster. It’s more mundane and not so wild, but I liked it better. What I also liked is Isabella’s solution to Johnny’s struggle with Satan: a bearded, long haired hippy with a certain resemblance to you-know-who stops Satan by reminding him of the power of love. More neat Isabella touches: a demon named Slifer (Roger Slifer perhaps, or is that coincidence) and two members of the supporting cast once Johnny hits Hollywood: Wendy and Richard Pini…

Artwise, the Ghost Rider never looked as good as in his first few appearances in Marvel Spotlight, when Mike Ploog was drawing him, inked by Frank Chiaramonte. Granted, he does have the same sideburns as that other Ploog hero, Jack Russell of Werewolf by Night, but it’s gorgeous, pulpy, atmospheric art. Ploog inked by Jim Mooney on the other hand doesn’t do anything for either artist. After Ploog, it’s Tom Sutton on the art in his last few Spotlight and first solo title appearances, followed by Mooney, Herb Trimpe and Sal Buscema. In fact, these first twenty issues of Ghost Rider are a parade of Marvel most dependable if least exiting artist of the seventies. Apart from the ones mentioned above, there’s also Frank Robbins, Bob Brown and George Tuska. Only at the very end, in the two part crossover with Daredevil, written by Marv Wolfman and penciled by John Byrne does the art even come close to the standard Ploog set. Byrne is completely the wrong kind of artist for Ghostie though, much too realistic.

Essential Ghost Rider Vol. 1 then shows the evolution of a flawed but original concept into something that’s much more closer to a standard Marvel anti-hero, with his demonic possession degraded to his version of the standard Marvel Hero Handicap. Nothing that’s really unmissable, but Ghost Rider was a mainstay of seventies Marvel, so recommended reading for anybody interested in that era.

Hitler’s Empire – Mark Mazower

books and books review, history
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Hitler's Empire


Hitler’s Empire: How the nazis Ruled Europe
Mark Mazower
726 pages including index and notes
published in 2008

“Germany could have racial purity or imperial domination, but it could not have both.”

That’s the fundamental paradox that Mark Mazower uncovers in Hitler’s Empire: How the Nazis Ruled Europe. On the one hand, there is the Nazi’s obsession with making Germany a pure Aryan state, expelling or murdering the lesser races within its borders. On the other, their equally compelling obsession to rule Europe, or at least “reunite” all those parts of Greater Germany outside the German borders. But with the Anschluss of Austria, the annexation of the Sudetenland, the further invasion of what was left of Czechoslovakia, not to mention the invasion of Poland, it brought not just many more Germans, but also millions of Poles, Czechs, Jews and others under Nazi control. The question was, what to do with them and the somewhat accidental empire Nazi Germany had acquired.

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Fifty Essentials in Fifty Days 23: Essential Silver Surfer Vol. 1

books and books review, Comix
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cover of Essential Silver Surfer Vol. 1


Essential Silver Surfer Vol. 1
Stan Lee, John Buscema and friends
Reprints: Silver Surfer #1-18 (August 1968 – September 1970)
Get this for: whiny Silver Surfer is whiny — four stars

The Essential Silver Surfer Vol. 1 is one Essential collection I dreaded rereading, because I knew that it collected the original Silver Surfer series of the 1960ties, written by Stan Lee and drawn by John Buscema. I also knew that in Lee’s hands, the Surfer’s personality was a bit … melodramatic and self-pitying, shall we say? Throughout the series he’s flying around the world, his noble brow creases with the sorrow of being exiled on Earth away from his beloved Shalla Bal, amongst a hopelessly primitive race of barbarians suspicious of each other and of him. Every other issue sees him get caught up in a fight not his own, as people respond with aggression, hatred and fear against him. It is somewhat tedious reading just one issue, let alone all eighteen of that first series.

Now I’m sure the story of how the Silver Surfer came to be is well known enough not to tell again; how when Stan Lee got the first pages back for Fantastic Four #48 with the first appearance of Galactus, there was a second figure there, a silver figure on a silver surfboard added by Jack Kirby, how Lee got enamoured of him and give him a bigger role in the story and brought him back a few times as a guest star. His solo series was a logical outgrowth of this: the Surfer had always been popular in his appearances and for Lee it was a chance to do something different, from the heart. This was a prestige project for Lee, which is also why the first seven issues were doublesized, 68 pages rather than the usual 32.

Sadly it failed however. The series was no success and with the eight issue became a normal, 32 page sized comic, but only lasted for ten more issues. Issue 18 would be the last, ending on a cliffhanger. The unusual — and expensive — format cannot have helped, but I think the general mopiness of the Surfer himself was the greatest culprit. He was just too depressed and depressing and much more so than any other Marvel hero, seemed to exist in a state of stasis, never catching a break and nothing ever changing for him. He alternates between wanting to be accepted by humanity and wanting nothing to do with us and it’s all a bit tedious.

What makes up for this, more than made up for this even, is John Buscema’s art. I love his late sixties, early seventies style, also seen on Fantastic Four and Thor after Kirby had left those titles. His figures are all bold and imposing, his heroes standing widelegged and ready for action, his villains looming and smoldering with hidden menace. And while the men are handsome or brutish, his females are all beautiful. Buscema’s best work on the series may have been issue four, which saw the Surfer being manipulated by Loki to take on the Mighty Thor. Buscema has great fun drawing all the Norse gods as well as the battle between these two heavyweights.

The switch back to the normal thirtytwo page monthly comics format did not do the series well. Lee had less room for his (unsually even for him) verbose stories, while with the pressures of a monthly series the art started to suffer as well. In the first seven issues John Buscema had been inked first by Joe Sinnott, then by his brother Sal Buscema, both enhancing his art. From issue eight however he was inked by Dan Adkins and that combination is decidedly weaker. I’ve never liked Adkins, who I’ve never seen do anything interesting either as a penciller or an inker. Here he weakens Buscema’s penciling, overshadowing it with his mediocre inks.

Essential Silver Surfer Vol. 1 is the collection of a flawed series, interesting as such if somewhat of a slog to get through and much redeemed by the great artwork.

Fifty Essentials in Fifty Days 22: Essential Power Man and Iron Fist Vol. 01

books and books review, Comix
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cover of Essential Power Man and Iron Fist Vol. 1


Essential Power Man and Iron Fist Vol. 1
Chris Claremont, Jo Duffy, Trevor Von Eeden, Kerry Gammill and friends
Reprints: Power Man and Iron Fist #50-75 (April 1978 – November 1981)
Get this for: a series that should not work, but does — four stars

Right. Back in 1972 Marvel launched a series called Hero for Hire, starring Luke Cage, Marvel’s third Black superhero after Black Panther and the Falcon and the first African-American superhero to get his own title. Depending on your outlook this was either a noble experiment to broaden diversity in comics or a cynical attempt to cash-in on the blacksploitation craze of the early seventies. In any case it never was a great series — white writers trying to write a “gritty” Black hero within the confines of the Comics Code– but popular enough to be kept going for a few years.

There was also another seventies Marvel title born out of a craze, the Kung Fu craze in this case: Iron Fist, starring white boy Danny Rand who had learned the secret of the iron fist from the mystical city K’un-Lun. And when both titles got into problems in 1977, some bright spark got the idea to combine them. Iron Fist was cancelled, he and his creative team joined Power Man and with issue fifty it became Power Man and Iron Fist.

Essential Power Man and Iron Fist Vol. 1 starts with that issue by Chris Claremont and John Byrne: the first would stay on for a few more issues, the latter left after this one. After Claremont left as well Ed Hannigan took over writing duties for two issues, but with #56 Power Man and Iron Fist had the writer who would guide the title the longest: Mary Jo Duffy. She would make the series work, establishing the formula that would guide the later writers on the title while building on the work Claremont and Hannigan had already done. They had created the bare bones, Duffy would flesh it out.

Because really, this is not a title that should work. Power Man and Iron Fist had nothing in common until they were shoved together. The gritty inner city Luke Cage, born and bred in Harlem, never quite comfortable leaving his neighbourhood and the white multimillionaire boy who grew up in an extradimensional city and learned to fight there, somewhat naive about the Big City. It was pure commercial motives that mashed them together, but it worked. They might have been an odd couple but they complemented each other and also had the advantage of a strong supporting cast, including fellow heroes Misty Knight and Colleen Wing, Bob Diamond of another old kung fu series sons of the Tiger and others. The series also benefited from a strong sense of place: it’s recognisably New York and Harlem, but not the New York of e.g. Spider-Man or Daredevil. It does make use though of non-series specific supporting cast like D. A. Towers, somebody who could pop up in any late seventies/early eighties Marvel superhero title set in New York and often did. I miss this sort of thing.

Mary Jo Duffy (just plain Jo Duffy later on) is a writer who’s been somewhat overlooked. She has never quite has had the break to become as well known as say Kurt Busiek (to name another PM/IF alumnus), never quite had a hit series that was uniquely hers. Power Man and Iron Fist came closest. She does very well establishing a good mixture of soap opera and superheroic action that was the hallmark of late Bronze Age Marvel and there wasn’t any issue in this collection that was a chore to read. She has a good blend of supervillains and more mundane threats, sometimes overclassing our heroes completely, as with the Living Monolith in #56-57. No real classic villains, but no duds either.

The art throughout the volume is good. It starts on a high point with that one Byrne issue, moves through Mike Zeck, Sal Buscema and Lee Elias before settling in for a more extended run by Trevor von Eeden (who still has some Byrne influences visible here), which is followed by a fill-in issue by Marie Severin until finally Kerry Gammill sets in for the long haul. Gammill is an artist who like Duffy never quite made it into the big time, never an “exciting” artist, but certainly a good artist here. His realistic, no nonsense style, ably inked by Ricardo Villamonte, suits the series well. It’s completely in service to the story, never flashy but always good, decent work.

Essential Power Man and Iron Fist Vol. 1 is typical of the Marvel I grew up with: well crafted superheroics embedded in soap opera, set as much as possible in the world outside our window, no matter the amount of weird stuff going on in the foreground. It’s the sort of storytelling that’s hugely old fashioned now and no longer practised at Marvel. A pity.