Who's the Best... Comic Book Future?

Martinex1: Whether dystopian or utopian, which comic book future world is the most fascinating, well thought out, and creative?   Which future is the best?

Face-Off: Martian Mayhem!

Karen: In honor of the recent announcement about the discovery of liquid water on the surface of Mars, we give you the opportunity today to throw your support behind one of two books that each dealt with the red planet: In War of the Worlds, Killraven and his band of rebels fought back against invading Martians in a dark future, while John Carter, Warlord of Mars followed the adventures of the Edgar Rice Burroughs character as he rescued princesses and battled six-limbed martians on Mars itself. Which book survives this interplanetary death match?

Guest Post - If I Had a Buck... Barbarians

Doug: Here we have another of Mike S.'s budgetary nightmares -- picking and choosing Bronze Age goodness, but armed only with a dollar! Today's fare -- the animal loincloth crowd!

I Need to Buy Some Pants But Only Have a Buck!  A Barbarian Shopping Spree!

Mike S.: Back in the height of the Bronze Age, it seemed the comic choices were well balanced with Super Heroes, Funny Animals, Teenage Jokesters, Richie Rich (in a category all his own) and of course the Barbarians and Warriors. 

It was not uncommon at all to find a fine selection of loin clothed, weapon wielding, long maned combatants in the comic rack. Savages, warlords, destroyers, and she devils armed with sword, sorcery, and sometimes just their bare hands battled wizards, creatures, and even dystopian futures.

Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard seemed to have invaded the industry as their numerous creations came to life in four glorious colors. Their success was of course followed by numerous copycats armed with knives, battleaxes, and broadswords.

In my youth, in my assessment of what to buy, I lumped these many characters together. From Tarzan to John Carter, from Conan to Killraven, from Kull to Kamandi, I considered these adventure series to be secondary to those of their powered and costumed super heroic counterparts. I dismissed them as cavemen of no interest (even if they battled Martian technology). But I was wrong. Later in life, I found joy in seeing John Buscema’s depiction of the Hyborian Age in Conan, and the kookiness of Kirby’s impending animal rule in Kamandi, and the drama of Joe Kubert’s jungle action in Tarzan.   

So I offer to you another $1 challenge of “If I Had A Buck…” With no competition from other genres, if the comic rack was limited to only adventurers, warriors, and barbarians, who would you choose? There are nine titles, nine stories to choose from, but you only have one measly dollar.  Make your selection wisely or you may lose your head (metaphorically speaking of course). This was a difficult list to assemble, as there were so many titles and great covers to choose from and I am honestly no expert. Titles like “Turok, The Dinosaur Hunter” and “Skull, The Slayer” didn’t make the cut.  Nor did “Ironjaw” or “Wulf, The Barbarian”. But that does not mean you can’t discuss them if they interest you. 

What were your favorite titles in this genre? What did you like about the characters and stories? Did you get drawn in and did you collect these series? Or were you like me and only picked up issues here and there? Do you lump the futuristic fighters with their ancient equivalents, like I do? Is there a storyline that you would recommend? How did you choose to spend your dollar? And most importantly, why were these characters so averse to wearing shirts and why did so many of their names start with a hard “C” sound?

Have fun and here is the list of choices:

Amazing Adventures featuring Killraven, Warrior of the Worlds #32; $0.25

Conan the Barbarian #72; $0.30

John Carter, Warlord of Mars #13; $0.35

Kamandi, The Last Boy on Earth #17; $0.20

Lord of the Hidden Jungle, Ka-Zar #13; $0.25

Korak, Son of Tarzan #58; $0.25

Kull the Destroyer #18; $0.30

Red Sonja, She-Devil With a Sword #11; $0.35

Tarzan #222; $0.20

Readers' Musings -- It's 'Totally Random' Day!

Today let's hear what's on your mind, regardless of what it is.

Doug: Here's one that's occurred to me on multiple occasions -- Why does Black Bolt wear a mask? I understand why Medusa does -- after all, she started off as a goon. But what's the rationale for a monarch, unknown by the public and with no secret identity, to cover up his face?

Doug: I vividly recall seeing the Amazing Adventures with Killraven and the War of the Worlds series when I was a kid. But to this day I have never read a single story. They always looked great on the shelf, but always got squeezed by the other mags I bought regularly.

OK -- your turn!

The Future: Awesome or Awful?

Karen: Regular BAB reader and commentator Sean Strange suggested the idea for this post -thanks Sean! Today we look at the future -actually, a whole bunch of futures. Comics have always presented a variety of outlooks on the future: some positive, but most pretty negative. The time in which these possible future are conceived seems to have a strong influence on whether the future depicted is utopian or dystopian in nature.

For example, one of the best known comic book futures is that of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Created in 1958, the Legion originally depicted a glowing future of triumphant technology and prosperity. This reflected the attitude of the post-World War II years in America, where the middle class grew and life was good. Despite having to fight world-threatening menaces like Mordru and the Fatal Five, in general, the early Legion's universe was an orderly one.

If we move forward more than a decade to the 1970s, the era of Vietnam, Watergate, and the energy crisis, the future no longer seems so bright. Marvel had at least three different possible futures represented at this time, all of them unpleasant. There was the run-down world of Deathlok, the conquered Earth of Killraven, and a thousand years in the future, the war-torn reality of the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Deathlok had the military-industrial complex in charge, experimenting on people and generally showing no morals whatsoever. Things were so bad that cannibals were running free in the streets of New York! In Killraven's future, the martians of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds returned to Earth in the 20th century and wiped out most of humanity, and enslaved the rest. The Guardians of the Galaxy saw their worlds conquered by the Badoon, a reptilian race. One added attraction to the Guardians was that their leader, Vance Astro, was born in the 1960s, so he provided a viewpoint character for readers.

Over at DC again, Jack Kirby came up with Kamandi in 1972. Inspired by Planet of the Apes, Kamandi was "the last boy on Earth," stuck on a world controlled by intelligent animals. It might not have seemed as grim as Marvel's dystopias, but it wasn't the sweet future of the Legion either.

Of course, in 1989, the Legion (and its readers) were in for a rude awakening with the 'Five Years Later' Legion, in which the Dominators had conquered Earth. Not even the Legion it seems was safe from the "grim and gritty" fad.

Back at Marvel, one of the most famous alternative futures in comics was born in X-Men 141-142 with the "Days of Future Past" storyline. In this future, Sentinels had subjugated mutants and humans alike. Although this was a very creative and memorable story, it unfortunately had a huge influence on the X-Men comics for years, seemingly dominating the books for years.

Of course there have been many other possible futures presented in comics -and most of them of the darker variety. I've left out quite a few, such as Hercules Unbound, Omac, Atomic Knights, Mighty Samson, Judge Dredd, Jonah Hex, and all the Marvel 'The End' series. Which ones are your favorites? Do you prefer a more positive future, or do you like the post-apocalyptic ones?

BAB Two-In-One: Marauding Martians and the Warriors Three!

Karen: I recently read H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds for the first time, so I thought it might be fun to go back and revisit Marvel's effort at a sequel -Amazing Adventures featuring War of the Worlds. The first issue in this on-going series was #18, published in May 1973. This book was a true group effort. Roy Thomas conceived of it, Gerry Conway scripted it, and both Neal Adams and Howard Chaykin drew it! The basic premise is that the Martians figured out how to protect themselves from the germs that killed them when they first came to Earth, so in 2001, the aliens show up and conquer our planet. To provide entertainment, they have humans train as gladiators and pit them against one another. Our protagonist, Jonathan Killraven, is one such gladiator.Killraven has managed to escape and has decided to go after the Keeper, a human servant of the Martians.

Karen: The story itself is mostly exposition, explaining how the Martians took over and how Killraven survived in post-invasion New York. It's not bad but like most origin stories, it just leaves you wanting to move forward and see where things are going to go. The Neal Adams art in the first half of the book is just great, although Killraven's costume is surely a solid candidate for another "fashion disaster"! Luckily, he would get a less giggle-inspiring suit later on. A text piece by Thomas in the back of the book explains how he had devised the basic concept, and Adams then came up with the plot and character of Killraven. Unfortunately he got bogged down in other assignments and so Chaykin finished up the book . His work wasn't terrible but he was no Adams! Thomas also didn't have time to write it - this seemed to have happened a lot when he was editor in chief -so Conway was brought in to do the job.
Karen: Not a bad first issue as such things go. There were definitely enough ideas tossed out to make a reader curious enough to come back for more. And I will, in some later Two-in-Ones.

Doug: Marvel Spotlight #30 (October 1976) is today's literary fare, kids. This really fun story was brought to the light of day by scribe Len Wein and the classic pairing of Big John Buscema and Joltin' Joe Sinnott. You know, part of the appeal of the Mighty Thor through the years has always been the Son of Odin's supporting cast, and none among that pantheon of gods is any more entertaining than the Warriors Three: Fandral the Dashing, Hogun the Grim, and Voluminous Volstagg!

I used the hardcover Marvel Visionaries: John Buscema as the source of this story, which is entitled, "A Night on the Town!" Our tale begins with a bar fight involving our protagonists. Buscema's splash page is just the kind of fun Big John allegedly poured his heart into -- swashbuckling, lots of heavies and miscreants, and pure pandemonium. But that's not the beginning of our story...

Fandral, along with his mates, laments that Thor has left them to confront Firelord (c. Thor 246-7). But then he decides to make the most of it and the three begin to scheme where and what kind of fun they might find. Hiring a cab, the three enter and bid the driver to take them to where the fun is. Wein has their voices down perfectly -- on one panel Hogun bristles over the lack of space in the rear seat, saying "I desire only a bit more room, Fandral. Our voluminous friend fairly fills the seat entire!" To which Volstagg characteristically responds, "Pfah! A man's girth is the true measure of his nobility!" As the cab proceeds, they eventually hit a traffic jam, gapers stopping to watch a young lady perched on a ledge as if to jump. Emerging from the cab, Fandral scales the wall and eventually talks her down.

The lady, Mary, was on the ledge because her fiancee, Arnold, was mixed up with some loan sharks and as a way to pay off his debts had been forced to assist in the robbery of a diamond exchange. Fandral pledged to help her to free Arnold from those bozos, so back in the cab they go. Enlisting the aid of a local wino, the boys get into the jewelry exchange and foil the burglary only to find that Arnold had been left outside to watch and had left via another cab as soon as the burgling had commenced. After busting a few skulls, the troupe piles back in their own cab and heads to the waterfront where Arnold had allegedly fled.

Arriving at McGinty's, a seedy tavern wherein our story began, the Asgardians enter to a less than amicable greeting. Inevitably Volstagg touches off the brawl and it's full on. Buscema is again at his best here and just cuts loose with a lot of fun. Wein's words really compliment the pictures. As the battle winds down and finishes, the boys file back outside and who do they find but Mary with Arnold. Arnold Slackmyster, that is. Explanations are given, the couple pledges to take Arnold's story to the police, Fandral insists they find a justice of the peace to be wed that evening, and finally Fandral settles up with their cabbie.

A happy ending for all; until Fandral hails another cab!

What a fun story! Books like Marvel Premiere, Marvel Spotlight, etc., when done with top-flight talent, prove that the done-in-one format works and even with minor characters. These sort of books were a staple of the Bronze Age and a great place to seek out a favorite B-lister. I miss 'em!