MARVEL COMICS: YEAR ONE

I've been  working on my Silver Age Marvel Super Heroes campaign once again. I wanted to go back to the very beginning and see how Marvel Comics became so popular. Obviously, there was a lot of difference between the Marvel Comics I grew up with in the mid 1970s and those published only a decade prior. It was a completely different time, before the wild late 1960s and the turbulent years of the early 1970s. I've written up a list gleaned from re-reading Marvel Masterworks and Marvel Essentials reprinting the original stories. There's a lot of hokey dialogue in these stories and situations that most people nowadays wouldn't appreciate. The overwhelmingly effeminate nature of women, for example, makes most of these stories seem chauvinistic. However, one can appreciate the stories more when you realize that all the comic book conventions of modern plots and characters did not exist yet. All they had to work with were their wild imaginations and the need to tell a story in about 12 pages of artwork. The heroes and villains listed with an asterisk (*) are both heroes AND villains simultaneously. They are either misunderstood (like the Sub-Mariner) or dealing with alter egos (like the Hulk). Villains listed in bold-face are recurring, iconic villains who return to plague the heroes time and time again, rather than being one-shot, throw-away adversaries (even those who were supposedly killed or "dealt with" permanently).

Year One (Nov. 1961 to Nov 1962)

Cast of Marvel Heroes

Mr. Fantastic (limits to his stretching)

The Thing (lumpy-rock form, turned back by Reed’s serum but only temporarily)

Invisible Girl (can only turn invisible)

Human Torch (limited time aflame; flight, flaming body and fireballs only)

Dr. Henry Pym (later as Ant-Man)

Hulk* (both hero and villain; transforms at night, later by gamma pulse)

Thor (Donald Blake’s personality; 60 seconds without hammer transforms him back)

Spider-Man (Peter Parker) (debut only)

Cast of Marvel Villains

Mole Man

Skrulls (aliens with shape-shifting abilities)

Miracle Man (master hypnotist)

Sub-Mariner*

Giganto (giant whale creature)

Dr. Doom (mixes mysticism with super-science)

Toad Men (aliens with magnetic technology)

Rock Men from Saturn (aliens)

Executioner (communist dictator)

Ringmaster and the Circus of Crime

Kurggo from Planet X (abandoned on the doomed planet)

The Destroyer (saboteur)

Loki (loses his powers when immersed in water, sent back to Asgard)

Comrade X (communist agent)

Puppet Master (presumed to have fallen to his death in the end)

The Wizard (outwitted by the Human Torch and his sister)

Zarrko the Tomorrow Man (defeated by amnesia)

The Protector (jeweler in a robotic exoskeleton)

Mongu, Gladiator from Space (actually communist in robotic suit)

Supporting Cast

Rick Jones

General “Thunderbolt” Ross

Betty Ross

Aunt May

J. Jonah Jameson

Alicia Masters

Nurse Jane Foster

Heimdall

Odin

Marvel Comic Titles (in order of publication)

FANTASTIC FOUR

TALES TO ASTONISH (Ant-Man)

HULK

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY (Thor)

STRANGE TALES (Human Torch)

AMAZING FANTASY #15 (Spider-Man)

TIMELINE

Nov. 1961

FANTASTIC FOUR #1: Origin of the Fantastic Four and debut of the Mole Man.

Jan. 1962

FANTASTIC FOUR #2: The Skrulls invade and try to pose as the Fantastic Four.

TALES TO ASTONISH #27: Dr. Henry Pym creates potions to shrink and restore himself to normal size; after having an adventure in an anthill, he destroys the formulae as being too dangerous.

Mar. 1962

FANTASTIC FOUR #3: Miracle Man challenges the group; they unveil the Baxter Building, Fantasti-car, and new costumes.

May 1962

FANTASTIC FOUR #4: Sub-Mariner found by the Human Torch who restores his memory; he vows to destroy humanity for what it did to Atlantis after WWII.

HULK #1: Origin of the Hulk; gray-skinned and turns into the Hulk only at night; first appearance of Rick Jones. First and last appearance of the communist scientist known as the Gargoyle.

Jul. 1962

FANTASTIC FOUR #5: Dr. Doom throws an electrified net over the Baxter Building and takes Sue hostage; he then sends the other members of the FF back in time to collect Blackbeard’s treasure; they return and fool Doom then escape and burn his castle to the ground; Doom escapes.

HULK #2: Invasion of the Toad Men; aliens with great magnetic weapons invade the Earth; they capture the greatest mind on the planet (Banner) and accidentally trigger his transformation to the Hulk; the spaceship is shot down and Banner is held prisoner for treason.

Aug. 1962

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #83: First appearance of Thor when Donald Blake finds the hammer in a cave; deals with the invasion of rock men from Saturn.

AMAZING FANTASY #15: First appearance of Spider-Man, a young teen bitten by a radioactive spider who avenges his uncle’s death and becomes a super-hero.

Sep. 1962

FANTASTIC FOUR #6: Sub-Mariner teams up with Dr. Doom against the F.F. (now monthly title)

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #84: A Communist dictator known as the Executioner captures Thor.

TALES TO ASTONISH #35: Ant-Man takes on the Reds with a new Helmet to control ants and his newly re-created shrinking serum.

HULK #3: The Hulk is tricked into entering a rocket and shot into space where the radiation belts have a strange effect on him, linking him to the conscious mind of Rick Jones who can now control him. Jones is hypnotized by the Ringmaster and summons the Hulk to face the Circus of Crime.

Oct. 1962

FANTASTIC FOUR #7: The F.F. are recruited to help Kurggo save Planet X from destruction. Although Richards agrees and succeeds in saving the population, Kurrgo is left behind and presumed killed.

STRANGE TALES #101: Human Torch in his first solo story faces the Destroyer, a saboteur.

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #85: Thor faces off against his evil half-brother Loki in Manhattan.

TALES TO ASTONISH #36: Ant-Man tackles the communist threat of Comrade X (actually Madame X)

Nov. 1962

FANTASTIC FOUR #8: The Puppet-Master attacks the F.F.; first meeting of the Thing and Alicia Masters.

STRANGE TALES #102: Human Torch faces the Wizard for the first time (in non-costumed form).

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #86: Tomorrow Man steals a test bomb and retreats to the future to enslave mankind (first evidence that Thor can time travel with the hammer).

TALES TO ASTONISH #37: Ant-Man takes on the Protector.

HULK #4: Hulk faces the alien Mongu, Gladiator from Space (actually a communist agent luring Hulk for capture).

Converting all this information into game material is going to take a long while. There are so many strange limitations to the powers of the heroes and even stranger uses of their powers in never-before  documented ways. The Silver Age played fast and loose with the laws of physics and the other sciences, but still more "realistic" than the stories being printed at DC. Some of my favorite heroes are yet to be created (Iron Man, the modern Captain America, Doctor Strange, the X-Men, etc.) and it seems that most of the villains are simply ordinary men and women either working for the communist governments of the world or seeking world domination through super-scientific means. There are a lot of aliens in these stories as well (as can be expected since they were still all the rage at the movies and in the comics). The heroes themselves seem to be less heroic than the standard super-hero, with more character flaws than merits in most cases (like the Hulk, Thing, or Spider-Man). Again, it was a different time. Who knew it would soon be referred to as the Marvel Age?