COMIC DEEP DIVE

Karen Page was a member of Daredevil's supporting cast from the very first issue. Initially written as a typical Silver Age love interest for the hero, she was smitten with Matt Murdock at first sight, and rarely a moment away from tears. And as long as she was written by Stan Lee, that's how she remained. When Roy Thomas took over the writing chores on Daredevil, he shook things up a little. First he had Matt reveal his secret identity to Karen... Then when he refuses to give up being Daredevil, she leaves Matt and moves to L.A. (Okay, she still does a lot of crying, but at least she's taking her destiny into her own hands!) And Karen chooses to stay there and she becomes a successful actress. I love this sequence of her phoning Matt - her relaxed demeanour contrasts beautifully with Matt's disappointment that she's not calling to say she's coming home. Great facial expressions from artist, Gene Colan. Matt gets all emo over Karen for a few issues but then new ...

Considering the popularity of the X-Men nowadays, it's difficult to believe that by 1971, and after 66 issues, the X-Men weren't popular enough for Marvel to continue publishing new stories about them. Rather than cancel their book completely, however, Marvel started reprinting old stories, but continuing the numbering of the title. This continued for the next 3 1/2 years, from #67 to #93. In 1974, Al Landau, Marvel's president, held a meeting with Stan Lee (who, by then, was Marvel's publisher) and Editor Roy Thomas. Landau had decided that Marvel needed a book with an international cast that they could export to the countries represented in the book. Roy Thomas had been wanting to relaunch the X-Men, so he proposed that they create a new team of X-Men with characters from around the world. The idea was approved, and Thomas approached Mike Friedrich to be its writer, arranging to meet him at the Auto Pub in the General Motors building, a themed restaurant where the boo...

In 1976, DC Comics decided it was time they introduced a superhero of colour. Marvel had given Luke Cage his own title in 1972, and they also had the Black Panther and the Falcon, so DC had some catching up to do. A script was commissioned by Gerry Conway from long-time DC scribe, Robert Kanigher, and what he came up with was "The Black Bomber." In a similar vein to the 1970 movie "The Watermelon Man", directed by Melvin Van Peebles, the main character was a racist white guy, who took part in an experiment that caused him to turn into a black superhero in times of stress. Kanigher gives his side of the story below, but DC deemed it unusable. So they called on Tony Isabella and asked him if he could salvage The Black Bomber. Isabella considered Kanigher a friend and a big influence on his writing, but felt that he and Conway were too close to their concept to realise it had gone horribly awry. Instead, Isabella came up with Jefferson Pierce, whom he christened "...

Avengers #83 was the first of many comics to feature the Rutland Halloween Parade. It features cameos from Roy Thomas and his then wife Jean, dressed as Spider-man and Sue Richards, along with parade organiser, Tom Fagan. Tom Fagan helped start the Halloween Parade in Rutland, Vermont in 1960. A big comic fan, he always ensured there was a superhero theme, usually dressing as Batman, or Marvel's Batman analogue, Nighthawk. The first comic it was mentioned in was Detective Comics #327, from 1964. Fagan stayed at the Proctor-Clement house and would host big Halloween parties there. They were frequented by such comics luminaries as Roy & Jean Thomas, Gerry Conway, Len & Glynis Wein, Denny O'Neil, Marv Wolfman, Alan Weiss, Steve Englehart and more. Nowadays, the house is a B&B, and even mentions its place in comic history on their website: https://www.antiquemansionbb.com/mansions-vermont-history/ One of the best known stories featuring the Rutland Parade is Batman #237...

Above is Jack Kirby's depiction of Ragnarok from Thor #128 (1966) and the first page of New Gods #1 (1970). Kirby had a vague plan to end Thor and introduce the New Gods at Marvel, but due to continuing disagreements with Stan Lee, he kept the New Gods to himself until he could leave. There was just one problem; the only other game in town was DC Comics, and Jack believed he had been blacklisted there. In 1958, when Kirby was first working for DC Comics, he'd drawn a syndicated newspaper strip called Sky Masters of the Space Force, which had been brought to him by Jack Schiff, an editor at DC. Kirby agreed to pay Schiff a percentage of his earnings from the strip as a kind of finder's fee. However, Kirby quickly realised he wasn't making any money from the strip because he had to pay the inkers out of his own pocket - initially that was Wally Wood, and later, Dick Ayers. Kirby refused to continue paying Schiff a cut of his earnings, offering him instead, a one-off ...

There was another instance where Kirby's original concept was changed, and that was with "Him", the character who would later become Adam Warlock. Him first appeared in Fantastic Four #66 & 67, the product of an experiment by a group of renegade scientists who wanted to create a race of perfect beings with whom they could take over the world. His visual appearance was inspired by the alien race, the Metrons, from the Star Trek episode, "Arena." Kirby clearly liked the name "Metron," as he'd later use the name for one of his New Gods. Kirby's concept for Him was quite different to what saw print, though. He was intended to be a commentary on Objectivism, Ayn Rand's "philosophy" that inspired much of Steve Ditko's later work, such as The Question and Mr. A. Kirby's original plot was for the scientists to create a being who embodied Objectivism completely, and would lead humanity towards enlightenment. Ultimately, though,...