Articles with the Tag Don Heck

A Heck of an artist

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Diversions of the Groovy Kind has a series of splashpages from Marvel titles published in February 1971, exactly forty years ago. Some great art there, but the one that really grabbed my attention is the one above, by Don Heck (and Sal Buscema) for the Black Widow feature in Amazing Adventures. Heck is never really been one of my favourite artists, but having seen his work on early Avengers and Iron Man in the various Marvel Essential collections I read last year I gained a new respect for him.

1971 Black Widow splashpage by Don Heck

The page above is a good reason why. Most of the other splashpages featured just consist of one single, dramatic image, but Heck[1] has chosen not to do this. Instead, he puts a sequence of five, narrow, vertical panels above the title, building up to the payoff below the title, as the Widow judochops her stalker with such force his feet break through the panel border. Not a single panel is wasted here, each adding a new element, contributing to the tension. The first panel shows the widow in medium focus walking past a building, then we see a close up of shoes, clearly not the Widow’s, followed by an overhead shot showing the Widow walking as well as the lower legs of her stalker, in shadow. Next a reaction shot, as it’s clear the Widow has noticed him, then the menace as the guy sticks out his hand with a sneer on his face, followed by the payoff, as she quickly overpowers him, which is also the first time we get both dialogue and sound effects. Elegant, simple, done with the least amount of effort, seemingly nothing special happens on this page, it’s a sequence we’ll have seen dozens of times before, but it’s drawn with such craft by an artist who clearly thinks in page layout as well as images.

[1] Of course, both Roy Thomas, who has written the script Heck will have had to follow to draw this page and Sal Buscema, who inked Heck’s layouts have something to do with the choices made here as well, but I assume it was Heck who translated Thomas’ script, who made these layout choices.

Fifty Essentials in Fifty Days 28: Essential Iron Man 03

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Essential Iron Man Vol. 3
Archie Goodwin, George Tuska, Don Heck and friends
Reprints: Iron Man #12-38 and Daredevil #73 (April 1969 – June 1971)
Get this for: solid but not outstanding superheroics — Three stars

The trouble with getting your Essentials from a remainders shop is that sometimes you miss a volume. In this case, they had Essential Iron Man Vol. 1 and 3, but not 2. Which means that I got to read the first half of Iron Man’s stint in Tales of Suspense, but missed the second half or the first eleven issues of his solo title. Oh well.

Essential Iron Man Vol. 3 opens with Iron Man #12 and the aftermath of a conflict I never got to see. While Iron Man/Tony Stark is trying to clear up the wreckage of that fight, we are introduced to a new villain: the Controller. This is one of the classic Iron Man villains, somebody I’ve always liked, especially the design of him. For some reason I thought he was a Jim Starlin creation, but instead it turns out Archie Goodwin and George Tuska were responsible for him. Here Basil Sandhurst is an archetypal mad scientist made an invalid by a lab accident and using his research into mental powers to enslave people and used their strength. Old shellhead is at a bit of a disadvantage with him, not as strong and having to hold back for fear of hurting the controller’s victims as well. It all seems hopeless for Iron Man, but he manages to defeat the Controller in the nick of time, just as the issue ends, in what seems to become a pattern over the volume. Villain is introduced, fights shellhead, stalemates or even defeats him, Iron Man returns to fight again, has some trouble still and then overtly quick resolution.

It’s typical for the stories in this volume, these rushed endings. The writing is a bit sloppy, whether it’s Archie Goodwin, Allyn Brodsky or Gerry Conway at the helm, none of the stories really stand out, not even the ones introducing villains like Midas or Spymaster and there’s no way of escaping the fact that this is a rather mediocre run of issues in general. All titles have periods like that, when even good writers like Goodwin can’t make them come alive. The central irony of the series is that Tony Stark’s weak heart means he has to be Iron Man; because he has to wear a heart regulating iron chest plate all the time he’s just as safe in his armour, maybe even safer, as he is behind his desk. It’s a good concept, but it’s played out by now and the drama it causes feels tired.

You also get the feeling that neither Goodwin, nor Brodsky or Conway quite knows what to do with Iron Man. So you get offbeat stories as in #26, in which the Collector forces Iron Man to travel to another dimension to steal a Solar Sword, or #32 in which black skinned emissarry from the starts crossed paths with shellhead or even the second part of the Spymaster saga, in which old Avengers villains the Zodiac turns up and the climax sees them, Iron Man and his allies Daredevil and SHIELD agents Nick Fury and Jasper Sitwell transported to another world to fight their duel there. There is also a lot of late sixties/early seventies ecological concern creeping into the series, several stories dealing with pollution and the like and the suspicion a big conglomerate like Stark Enterprise is held in, though Tony Stark is of course on the side of the righteous.

There’s no great political sophistication in these stories. Eco protestors are shown as basically good people, if sometimes naive or misguided, when pollution occurs at a Stark plant it’s caused by criminal underlings, not deliberate policy and while the protesters make good points, they should give the system (and Tony Stark) a chance to set things right. The usual vague liberal stew in other words, where problems are always caused by bad people rather than have more systemic causes.

The artwork in this volume is mostly by George Tuska, with fillins by Johnny Craig and Don Heck. To be honest, it’s difficult to know who draws which issue were it not for the credits; their style is very similar. It’s decent, not very exciting, somewhat bland but does what it has to do.

So yeah, not quite an essential volume of Iron Man.

Fifty Essentials in Fifty Days 26: Essential Avengers Vol. 2

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Essential Essential Avengers Vol. 2
Stan Lee, Don Heck, Roy Thomas and friends
Reprints: Avengers #25-46, Special #1 (February 1966 – November 1967)
Get this for: Avengers hitting their stride — four stars

Essential Avengers Vol. 2 starts where the first volume ended, with Lee and Heck getting into their stride and the Avengers themselves reduced to Captain America and his three juvenile deliquents: Hawkeye, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. This combination worked much better than the original Avengers, who all had their own titles and didn’t mesh together that well. Of the New Avengers on the other hand only Cap had his own title, which meant there was room in The Avengers for some character development. It took a while for Lee to get a handle on the new team, but in this volume he has managed it.

The “kooky quartet” did not stay a quartet for long however; in the second issue collected here Giantman and the Wasp join the team, Giantman rechristening himself as Goliath. They’re not the only additions to the team: both the Black Widow (last seen in Iron Man) and Hercules (from Thor) drop by later in the volume and keep hanging around. In the King-Size Special things go even further, as a long running Avengers tradition was established as every Avenger but the Hulk and the Black Widow teamed up to defeat the Mandarin.

This volume is wall to wall action, with few issue to issue subplots, apart from the Black Widow’s problems with her old masters back behind the Iron Curtain. Lee doesn’t try to do anything difficult here with the Avengers, but just keeps throwing villains at them, from Attuma to Doctor Doom to the Living Laser to the Sons of the Serpents. It’s all very entertaining if a bit slight. things do pick up a bit as Roy Thomas takes over scripting duties, but here he’s not doing that much different from Lee.

The only time Lee does add some depth to The Avengers is with the Sons of the Serpents story, in which the Avengers take on a KKK standin and reveal it to be led by … a foreign communist leader. This also has the first appearances of Bill Foster, one of the first Black supporting characters in a Marvel comic. Yes, he is largely used solely for a clumsy parable about the state of race relations in America, but at least Lee means well…

Don Heck handles most of the artwork in this volume and his sleek style started to win me over. In the previous volume he wasn’t at his peak quite yet, here he has a good handle on all the characters and especially seems to have fun to draw the ladies. It’s less flashy and more restrained than a Kirby’s or a Ditko, but it suits the less powerful Avengers team.

This is still not the classic Avengers, but it’s getting there.

Fifty Essentials in Fifty Days 16: Essential Avengers 01

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Essential Avengers Vol. 1
Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Don Heck and friends
Reprints: Avengers 1-24 (September 1963- January 1966)
Get this for: Kang and Cap’s Kooky Quartet — three stars

The Avengers was one of the weaker Marvel Silver Age titles. Though created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, it’s neither’s strongest work and neither’s heart seems to be in it. Of course Stan Lee was running Marvel comics at the time as well as writing the other nine series they were then putting out, so it’s no wonder he would take it easy on certain titles. And whereas The Fantastic Four from the start had its own voice, The Avengers put together five heroes with their own titles and not that much in common as a somewhat belated Justice League of America knockoff. If you then have Kirby leaving after only eight issues to be replaced by an uninspired Don Heck you have a problem.

Which is why it was a bit of a slog getting through The Essential Avengers Vol. 1, as quite a few of the stories in here are dull. The origin story is an example. Loki is looking for a way to get back at Thor, spies the Hulk and manipulates him into smashing up a train bridge. Rick Jones and his Teen Brigade attempt to contact the Fantastic Four but Loki redirects their signals to Thor, but what he doesn’t know is that Iron Man, as well as Ant Man and the Wasp have received his message as well. Off they all head to New Mexico to find the Hulk, a big fight breaks out which ends as Thor reveals the real villain. As a story it doesn’t really gell and the Hulk never really fits in with the Avengers. His replacement by Captain America in #4 is a great improvement.

But even then the stories remain a bit dull. Having Rick Jones hang around isn’t helping, as he’s just annoying. Let’s not even mention the Teen Brigade. Then there are the villains. I’ve never liked Loki, the Space Phantom in #2 is alright but not spectacular, then there are two issues with Namor, followed by no less than three issues with Baron “Help my mask is glued to my face! Curse you Captain America!” Zemo. Or there are the Lava Men, yet another subterranean menace. Or the Red Menace threat of the Commissar, slightly later on. As threats, these are all strictly from dullesville.

All is forgiven however with the introduction of Kang the Conquoror in issue eight. Now there’s a real threat, with his mastery of future super science, so confident of his victory he receives the Avengers in a lounge chair. He completely overclasses them at first, defeating the Avengers with ease. He does get his comeuppance of course, but he’s one of the few villains here you could imagine winning. Another great early issue, the next issue in fact, is that which introduces Wonderman, another villain who seems to easily get the upper hand over the Avengers before he has a change of heart.

I felt that The Avengers only reached their stride once the original members had buggered off, leaving Captain America only with three novice heroes, each of which actually started out as a villain: Hawkeye, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. Now that Lee only has to deal with one member with his own title, it gets much easier for him to get some character development going on. Granted, much of it is somewhat artificial as Lee squares off old square Cap against young hotheads Hawkeye and Quicksilver, which is again somewhat tedious. But on the whole much better than the first ten issues or so.

Artwise, while Kirby at this time was incapable of turning in bad stories, it didn’t compare favourably with his work on e.g. Fantastic Four. His replacement with Heck works in the title’s favour, once Heck has found his style. I like his slim, streamlined figures here, as well as the touch of glamour he brings to them, especially to the Scarlet Witch. In general Heck keeps improving over this volume.

Overall this volume shows a title that started out bad, got slightly better after Captain America joined, but only started really improving with “Cap’s Kooky Quartet”. This volume does not show the Avengers at their best, but ends just as they start getting better.

Fifty Essentials in Fifty Days 08: Iron Man Vol. 1

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cover of Essential Iron Man vol 1


Essential Iron Man Vol. 1
Stan Lee, Don Heck and friends
Reprints: Tales of Suspense #39-72 (March 1963 – June 1968)
Get this for: Don Heck at his best — three stars

Having done Captain America’s run in Tales of Suspense yesterday, it’s no more than fair to feature the guy Cap was sharing the title with today: Iron Man. Iron Man got his start in #39; this volume brings us roughly halfway through his run, to issue #72. Interestingly, Iron Man was one of the few Silver Age greats in which neither Ditko nor Kirby had much of a hand developing him. Instead Don Heck is the principal artist throughout this part of his Tales of Suspense run. Heck might not be quite as good as those two, but his suave, streamlined style works quite well here.

You do get the feeling however that Iron Man, no matter what he became later, was a second tier title to Stan Lee at least. His writing misses the sparkle it has on Fantastic Four, Spider-Man or even Captain America. Evidence of this is also the use of scripters, with Lee only doing the plotting. It results in a run of stories remarkably less complex than the top tier Marvel Silver Age titles.

Most of the stories revolve either around rivals of Tony Stark using their own inventions to become supervillains in order to put him out of business or a communist saboteur doing the same. Apart from the Mandarin there are no recurring villains here; even classic Iron Man villains like the Melter only appear once. Soap opera wise there’s not much going on either, apart from the love triangle between tony, his secretary Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan, his chauffeur. They’re not bad stories, just a bit samey after a while.

On the art front, Don Heck starts out decent and gets better over the volume, establishing a look for Iron Man and his armoured villains like the Crimson Dynamo and Titanium Man that would be used by every artist after. Heck is a somewhat underrated artist, but if you do want to see him at his best, this is it.