Marvel comics Highlights #2: 1965-1975

1965 was the year Marvel began developing each of its characters for the first time. Spiderman was the easiest to see how, as he graduated from high school and went to college where he hooked up with Gwen Stacy, marking the beginning of his sexually active life. A thing to notice is that up until the 80s the heroes were aging in real time. They were also openly mentioning real world events at the time they were happening. This was a great way for the readers to identify, since they were essentially growing up along with their heroes.

In the same year, Magneto was kidnapped by an alien, an event which caused the Brotherhood of Mutants to disband for awhile. Two of their members join the Avengers who reform for the first time. This was a missed opportunity for the X-men who didn’t add more mutants to spice up their awful team. On the other hand it was a great move for the Avengers, who basically renewed the roster and prevented it from becoming stale. You just wanted to see what interactions these new characters would have, especially when Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, and Hawkeye were former villains.

1966 is the introduction of Galactus, the consumer of worlds, the first villain who the Fantastic Four were incapable to defeat and could only keep away with a doomsday device that would not kill him but would rather starve him because it would kill all planets with life. It felt like an allegory to the Cold War, where both sides form a truce through the fear of weapons of mass destruction that would destroy both sides if they are ever used. It was a great way of showing brute force not being the solution all the time, as well as maintaining tension by having galactic threats of this magnitude.

1967 is the introduction of two more heroes, both of which I consider a big mistake. One is Adam Warlock, an artificial super being who eventually becomes space Jesus and goes against the moral message of the previous year. This guy’s so broken to the point the only worthy threats he faces are his own alter egos. If he is not performing miracles, he is constantly sabotaging himself by sleeping or being self-exiled for decades. You cannot make a character interesting like that and his very existence is a lazy deus ex machina.

The second unfortunate character that was introduced the same year is Mar-vell, an agent of the Kree empire who was constantly messing around with everyone’s business without ever managing to stand out. The X-men eventually became interesting, he never did. This is bad handling 101 which will lead to some really big bullshit later on, one of which is copyrighting his name and causing DC to rename their homonymous superhero, even though he predates Mar-vell, his name is clearly different, and naming him after the word that activates and deactivates his powers makes no sense. DC fucking sucks at properly handling any character who is not Batman.

1968 is the introduction of Ultron, the most iconic enemy of the Avengers. He was created during an experiment by Henry Pym (not Tony Stark, as the movie implies) and is trying to destroy humanity ever since, while never staying permanently destroyed because he has a back-up program that begins its restoration every time he is destroyed. He is very cheesy as a villain but you can’t help but love how viciously determined he is.

In the very same year, Ultron creates Vision, easily one of the most interesting Avengers of all times. Remember how in Star Trek Spock and Data stand out from everyone else and constantly try to understand what it means to be human? That’s Vision and he is amazing. Aside from how he refuses to obey his creator in destroying life, he also has an interesting existential crisis when he finds out that his brain patterns are based on those of the deceased Wonder Man (that’s why I told you to keep him in mind). Who is real, who is fake, what is the meaning of life? Later on he even has a romantic relationship with the Scarlet Witch that leads to some of the most tragic stories in the whole franchise. Vision is one of the best things comics of that time had to offer.

I am jumping ahead 5 years, since nothing else of importance happened during this time. 1973 was the notorious death of Gwen Stacy. This was far from the first time someone died in Marvel comics, but it was the first time a character dies after years of being a major support character. Up until now, if someone was still alive 2 issues after he was introduced, he remained alive forever. It doesn’t mean anything today but it was a major shock back then and Gwen Stacy was the one to initiate the age where a character can die even after 2 issues. It’s actually way cheaper if you know that the producers had to kill her as means to keep Spiderman a tragic hero who is not going to find happiness and thus lose his appeal in the eyes of the readers. Marketing ploy or otherwise, it was still treated as a major event in Peter Parker’s life, reminding him that he can’t save everyone even with his powers. And it’s not like the end of the world for his sex life, as he hooks up with Mary Jean Watson in the very next year. By the way, this event also marks the end of Spiderman’s character development, as hereon everything else that happens in his life will be gimmicks surrounding his powers and nothing will change him as a character. The black symbiote suit, the clone saga, the spiritual animal totems, joining the Avengers, and in general all future events about him are not worthy of analyzing. And that is why I am not going to mention him again for a long time.

1975 is when the X-men finally become interesting after a dozen years of nothing. With the excuse of the classic team being in danger, Xavier brings together lots of way better characters, such as Wolverine, Storm, Colossus, and Nightcrawler. Each one of them had a hundred times more fleshed out personality and backdrop stories, and even the up until now completely worthless Jean Grey gets the Phoenix Force the following year, which instantly turned her into one of the most iconic characters in the franchise. Also, thanks to the floodgates Gwen Stacy’s death opened, every one of them could die at any given moment, maintaining the tension sky high.