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The majority of the credit should go to Kirby and Ditko - these guys would draw out 22 pages of story based on what was often little more than a single-line synopsis -"This month Spider-Man fights Doctor Doom on the statue of Liberty." Both would often write suggested dialogue themselves, which Lee would then refine to make the final script (sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse - through mere dialogue Stan managed to change Jack's inital, more powerful concept of the Silver Surfer as stern, ruthless sentinel into angst-ridden spacehippie).
Lee's dialogue could often be a lot of fun, though, and when bolstered by the beautiful drawing of Kirby, Ditko, Romita Sr, et al, it made for some really excellent comics.
I suggest reading the Lee/Kirby Fantastic Four comics - I can't really express how great they are as well as the Comics Journal:
quote: It was the balance between the outlandish and the human that made the Fantastic Four stand out, the rhythms of storytelling which allowed characterization to blossom in the midst of world-shaking chaos. Not only were the foundations of the Marvel Universe laid out in these pages - Doctor Doom, the return of the Sub-Mariner, the Black Panther, the Watcher, the Silver Surfer, Galactus and the Inhumans - this bounty of imagination was balanced by a great deal of humor, empathy and wonder. The Thing in a Beatle wig, his persecution at the hands of both the hot-headed Torch and the Yancy Street Gang, the Invisible Woman's frustration at Mister Fantastic's absent-minded professor tendencies, Willie Lumpkin's bid for membership....these small touches were what gave the series heart.
And the heart was pumping for the most muscular of Silver Age spectacles: namely, the visual elan Kirby brought to the series. Silver Age Marvel was indisputably Kirby's finest moment, and the FF was his showcase. Kirby's art grew progressively more polished until it reached the solid, blocky dynamism that remains the standard for superhero comics today. The generosity of Kirby's storytelling, the detail brought to every panel, to every stance, to every fight scene, fleshed out a world he dared us to believe in. Even the photocollages, quaint as they look now, pushed the limits of what "cosmic" meant to the fanboy imagination.
In short, the versatility of the series - especially within the constraints of a relatively obvious genre - was remarkable. It could be cosmic on one page and homespun the next. The coming of Galactus was earth-shattering, but the marriage of Reed Richards and Sue Storm was equally momentous. Few have come close to capturing what Lee and Kirby did on Fantastic Four - and to be honest, the formula hasn't always remained in favour over the years. But this remains the classic model, the superhero comic all others should be measured against.
Try and say that about Alias.
It's also worth considering these stories in their proper context - many of the characters and ideas seem banal to us now (!) because they've been replayed so many times by so many different artists and writers, but try and imagine what it must have been like to read these comics back when NO ONE HAD EVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THEM. Reed Richards travelling into the Negative Zone, the mighty Galactus arriving to destroy the Earth - the scope of imagination on display would have blown these kids' heads wide open...
[ 30-12-2001: Message edited by: CameronStewart ] |
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