Face front, True Believers! While we anxiously anticipate another annum of adventurous antics (Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk will hit theaters in 2008), let’s turn to this titanic testament to the House of Ideas: The Marvel Vault!
In truth, this coffee-table history lesson (edited by former Marvel writers Roy Thomas and Peter Sanderson) doesn’t cover much territory that hasn’t been explored before — Les Daniels’ Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World’s Greatest Comics and Sanderson’s own Marvel Universe were similarly handsome overviews. You probably know the basics: Stan Lee revolutionized the comics world with tales of flawed protagonists; Jack Kirby and others provided the dynamic imagery. But the scrapbook-like Marvel Vault also includes reproductions of classic Marvel memorabilia, enclosed in vinyl pouches, which tell a sort of alternate history of the company: the ways in which Marvel connected with its fanbase.
Sure, there had been fan clubs before, but before the M.M.M.S. (Merry Marvel Marching Society) there had never been such a feeling — however illusory it might have been — of community. For a measly dollar, readers would not only receive a button, stickers, 7-inch record, membership card, and stationery, they’d also get their names printed in the comics. Stan Lee’s aw-shucks hucksterism was a big part of the draw. Slangy and relentlessly upbeat — he never met an exclamation point he didn’t like — Smilin’ Stan could seem like a walking, talking Marvel ad, but he knew how to make everything feel like an inside joke. The unhinged alliteration ("A profound potpourri of perplexing pronouncements and preposterous philosophy, all portending practically nothing!") was tempered with a healthy dose of self-deprecation that was just as fresh as Doyle Dane Bernbach’s contemporaneous Volkswagen ads. And beginning in 1964, Marvel did something truly revolutionary: it began talking about the behind-the-scenes action at Marvel as if it was a family.
Marvel had been among the first publishers to credit letterers,inkers, and colorists, but this was unheard of: giving nicknames to thewhole staff ("Jolly Jack Kirby!" "Swinging Steve Ditko!" "Jazzy JohnRomita!") and publishing photos of everyone from secretaries toproduction managers to the head of the subscription department. Okay,so maybe the whole family wasn’t as happy as you’d like to think, but there was a palpable sense that Marvel was at least tryingto be egalitarian. That image of virtue wasn’t lost on college campuses— 50,000 students joined the MMMS and voted Spidey and the Hulk"favorite revolutionaries," on a list that included Che Guevara and BobDylan.
Now, I was at prime comic-reading age in the early ’80s, the time of Chris Claremont and John Byrne’s X-Men and Frank Miller’s Daredevil,which will probably always be my favorite superhero comic. But I’d haveto admit that Marvel was by and large already past its prime. You don’teven have to read the comics to know this: just look at the laterMarvel swag collected in the Vault: we’re treated to such funmementos as a Marvel office building visitor’s pass, a theme-restaurantmenu, and… a stockholder’s certificate? Maybe the dampening of spiritshouldn’t come as a surprise; by this time, Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooterhad already authored a notorious memo about tricking "the little f—s"into buying more comics.
So now, in the Internet Age, one would think that the feeling ofcommunity would return, that Marvel employees and Marvel fans wouldfeel the warm embrace again. But this is how they talked to their fans in 1966. And here’s how they talk to their fans now.
To me there seems a crucial difference even in current honcho JoeQuesada’s blithe sign-off line "See ya in the funnybooks" and StanLee’s energized "Excelsior!" What do you think, PopWatch Pilgrims? HasMarvel Comics’ ability to express fellowship with its fans lostsomething, or is it only my silly nostalgia?
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what makde a good comic book is what makes a good movie (or what makes a good blog for that matter): Passion. Chris Claremont loved the X-Men, and so we loved the X-Men; Sam Raimi loved Spiderman, and so we felt the love; Christopher Nolan loves Batman, and so do we. Ang Lee didn’t love The Hulk and Mark Steven Johnson didn’t care squat about DD. They did it for the money.
http://ronmwangaguhunga.blogspot.com
Comics lost something when they started to market to the collector, rather than the reader. Multiple covers, dozens of spinoffs, far too adult storylines and extremely expensive paper have all combined to move comics away from their traditional market- kids to early teens. Adult comics are fine, but the current publishers have forgotten their core market. Like baseball, they’ll wake up in a decade or so and find that they’ve lost a generation of customers.
Rich, you are 100% right. Rather than adapt to kids’ changing tastes, marvel got greedy in the 1990s and lost a lot of what made their company so great in the 60s-80s.
As a kid, the bullpen bulletins made me feel like a Marvel Insider. They’d publish our letters and would respond to them directly (much like Popwatch writers and Dalton Ross do for EW). The “insider” feeling was part of the fun.
Now, comics are $4 each and seem to be marketed to guys like me (in their late 20’s/ early 30s).
There’s no doubt in my mind that opportunities are being lost by Marvel at every turn to get the kids reading comics again. That’s a real shame.
‘Nuff Said!
I use to like Marvel. I was a collector. Marvel broke my heart when they killed Captain America (Steve Rogers). Joe Q made me want to slap him ;when he seemed not do care who he upset; when he said ” He(Cap) hasn’t been living in the modern world and the world does move.”
That seems to really sum up Marvel Comics these days.
Tradition,integrity,responsibility all out the door for the almighty buck.
I would not have been as upset had Joey ACTED like he cared an icon was being put to rest. Instead he acted like he was tossing out the trash from his drive through meal. I think that sums up his idea of fans — there are more where they came from.
I stopped reading in the mid-late 1990s also mainly due to price, but Marvel also blew it big-time when they resurrected the clone storyline from the 1970s. Yuck. Guess what readers! Peter Parker is really the clone…and the “real” Peter has been wandering the country as “Ben Parker”! If I remember right, there was even a scene where Peter smacked MJ when he found out that he was the clone. That’s about the time I decided to stop reading. Of course when the Clone Saga tanked, Marvel trotted out a 4 part miniseries that reset everything but it was too late…Also, there were other comic books around that time like Astro City and Starman that I enjoyed reading far more.
marvel still kick arse! sure there is an obvious monopoly when it comes to storylines but i dont care: it sucks me in… and thankfully they dont gear to children anymore cause guess what: kids are reading anymore! unless its potter
Rich – also the focus on art over storytelling, or as a cliche style over substance. How can kids nowadays even afford comics (I remember heading to the drugstore with a $1 and walking away with 4 comics).
hi
Nice to see this blog, and this Marvel Vault book is pretty cool to own. Makes me really, REALLY miss the early days of Marvelmania and the MMMS. Stan Lee was the man that brought it all together, but I don’t think there’ll be another phenomenon like the early Marvel days again. I wish so bad there could be. Sigh.