WELCOME TO THE SECOND INSTALLMENT OF SUPER-BLOG TEAM UP MERRY
MARCHERS! My colleagues in comicdom and I are positively pleased to rollickly
welcome you to this installment’s special theme of…retroactive continuities or
better known as…RETCONS*! (*Retcons are when a creative team decides to take an
already established character and reinvent them and their storyline-Jubilant
Jeff V!) In this issue of Super-Blog Team Up as your very own merry marcher of
marveldom, Jubilant Jeff V, I will be exploring one of the earliest, if not the
earliest retcons of a major character in the Silver Age of Marvel Comics! This
issue will be exploring the retcon better known as…AVENGERS #4.
Avengers #4 (1964) has been acknowledged by Stan Lee himself in the book entitled “Stan Lee’s Amazing Marvel Universe” and by many other merry marvel marchers as a watershed moments in Marvel Comics history. It is on these pages, pages written by Stan Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby, that the red, white, and blue avenger is REBOOOORRRNNNN!!!! (should be read the same way Cobra Commander sounds!- GI JOE Loving Jeff!)
It is this rebirth that thus begins one of the most beloved retcons in Marvel Comics history as Captain America officially makes his lengthy leap from the pages from whence he began; pages printed during the era of WWII.
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Fun fact, the last few issues of Captain America, such as the one depicted above, were actually drawn by Jazzy John Romita himself, the man responsible for drawing your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man after Snazzy Steve Ditko left Marvel. Now, onward about that lengthy leap that Cap made. Stan had been teasing and hinting at reintroducing Captain America to the present day audience but he wasn’t sure how good old Winghead would be received. With this in mind, Stan decided to run a little Captain America pilot study.
Filled with positive feedback and demand for Cap, Stan decided to give the people what they wanted and Captain America officially returned to the present day in trademark Silver Age fashion!
The decision to bring Cap back marked the 1st major retcon in Silver Age Marvel. Instead of Cap simply fading into the sunset as time went by, maybe settling down and having a few kids, Stan must have said NO! I SHALL NOT HAVE CAPTAIN AMERICA GO FROM PUNCHING ADOLF HITLER IN THE FACE TO FAMILY LIFE!!NICHT*!(*Means "no" in German)I WOULD RATHER "PUT HIM ON ICE" UNTIL THE RIGHT TIME! Well Stan The Man, sounds like a good plan to me. As they say is Marveldom, the rest is merry Marvel History!
To check out the other issues in this #SuperBlogTeamUp mini series, follow these links loyal ones!
Loved the old school Marvel feel of this post Jeff!! Great work as per usual man!
ReplyDeleteGrazie my man! I mediated before hand chanting 'Excelsior" in order to channel Stan The Man! ;)
DeleteCap has always been my favorite comic book hero -- at first just because he was colorful, or I liked him in a cartoon or whatever -- but eventually because of his actual history, and his connection to World War 2. Marvel Comics would have developed quite differently if this character hadn't come back when he did. Long may he serve!
ReplyDeleteExcelsior! Long may he serve!
DeleteNice look at a landmark story! My first exposure to the story was actually the parody version presented in Not Brand Ecch! #5. Only years later did I get to read the original tale. And what a cover!
ReplyDeleteThanks very much! I've never actually read a full story of Brand Ecch but I know that Stan had LOVED the idea!
DeleteGreat post Jubilant Jeff. It felt like you were channelling Stan The Man himself for this one. Comics would be in a very different place today if they hadn't dug Cap out of the ice!
ReplyDeleteGrazie! I love channeling Stan The Man; it just makes writing all the more fun and flows naturally for me!
DeleteSuch an enjoyable read which evokes memories of taking that first journey with Cap, The Avengers, and much of Marvel's early Silver Age. Call it an act of genius (on Stan's part) or simply an act of desperation to keep the genre alive, but bringing Captain America into the Silver Age succeeded in giving Marvel an icon that was at least an equal to DC's, Batman, and the move also succeeded in completing the Avengers roster in a very big way.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely! Bringing Cap back gave Marvel that feeling of an established history that DC already had!
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