Here’s a fun mashup of two early Jack Kirby Marvel Silver-Age images: Hulk, from the title splash of Avengers #2, and Iron Man from the cover of Tales of Suspense #39.
About 10-12 years ago, Angel was drawing some Kirby-recreations and original reinterpretations, and offering them online. He included this specific art with some other items I acquired from him, with this inscription. Very lovely, especially since I like to think he was really thanking Jack here, not me.
And I like it better that way.
It’s also the appropriate art to segue into a celebration of the Avengers 60th anniversary, coming in February.
Iron Man vs. Magnus: Robot Fighter, Commission, 2012
Mike Allred tackles the Magnus vs. Iron Man theme with great results, including a fully hand-lettered logo!
I acquired both the Paul Smith IM-Magnus commission and this one at the same time, from the same dealer, so I assume the original owner had moved on from this concept.
If there are any others out there that look as good as these two, I would probably try to obtain them as well.
You know where to find me.
For a look at some additional Allred Iron Man (classic and modern), click here.
Classic Iron Man vs. Magnus: Robot Fighter, Commission, 2001
Mankind advances more than 2000 years into the future, and the greatest superhero of the era apparently can’t distinguish between a robot and a man in a suit of armor?
No matter, it’s a superb piece of art by the terrific Paul Smith. And a perfect way to honor both characters’ 6oth anniversary.
Continuing our Iron Man 60th anniversary series, here’s another great Bob Layton piece.
This time, we have a 2005 re-imagination of Gil Kane’s Iron Fist #1 cover(1974). Bob completely changes the POV of the action, transforming the piece into his own — while still honoring the original.
Since the background equipment is still intact in Bob’s version, lets call it: “One Minute Earlier.”
Iron Man celebrates his 60th anniversary in 2023. (Actually, Tales of Suspense #39 was on the newsstands in December of 1962 with a cover of date of March 1963. But why quibble?)
What better way to honor Shellhead’s anniversary than with a dramatic —and iconic — 2013 title splash from Bob Layton’s (breakdowns by Dave Ross) “variant” story of the Armor Wars sequel.
Bob, with John Romita Jr. and David Michelinie created the original and memorable Armor Wars I in 1987, and a few years later was scheduled to be the solo writer and on the sequel. But… Valiant comics presented Bob an offer he couldn’t refuse, and he jumped ship at Marvel. John Byrne stepped in and wrote the already announced sequel, and then 23 years later, Layton — with Michelinie and Ross — had his chance again to do his own take.
Follow all that?
Don’t worry, if I got anything wrong, Bob will definitely let me know.
Tim Sale (with writer Jeph Loeb) creates a cool and dynamic page from an early clash between Gray Hulk and “Gold” Iron Man in the classic Hulk Gray mini-series.
The Hulk surprisingly didn’t battle with IM in the early years of the original Silver age, with the very notable exception of the first few issues of Avengers — which was the first team book that seemed to have more fighting within the group than without.
Of course, Loki helps manipulate their clash in issue #1, and the Space Phantom does the same in issue #2. By issue #3, Tony has switched into the first version of his now famous sleeker red and yellow model. (They duke it out there, too.) And by the end of issue #3, Hulk will disappear altogether from the book for quite a while.
As a side note, I miss hand-drawn sound effects even more than I miss traditional lettering. Thoom indeed.
Hulk and Iron Man spend most of issue #1 of Avengers fighting each other, then, astonishingly do it all over in issue #2.
George Perez delivers what George Perez does best: Multiple characters with terrific detail, and imaginative “camera angles” on this great page from the original Infinity Gauntlet mini-series.
It’s almost impossible to believe that this week marks the 2-year anniversary of Avengers Endgame, which wrapped up the Gauntlet saga, and the “early” phases of the MCU. Except for the December 2019 Spider-Man: Far from Home flick (which although in the greater MCU, is a SONY production) no Marvel films in two years just seems… wrong. Thanks, pandemic.
The bad news — if there is any — is that Marvel is setting up so many potential storylines at this point that we are going to have to keep a character encyclopedia and Gantt chart with us at all times.
Dark Avengers?
Thunderbolts?
Young Avengers?
House of M?
Kree Skrull War?
Secret Invasion?
A Multiverse thread in both Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, at a minimum.
Plus, Kang as the next “big bad?”
Like I said… whew.
It’s one thing to accomplish all of this in 80 or so monthly comic books. It’s another to do it in filmed media. But if anyone can, I think Marvel and Disney might pull it off.
Fasten your seat belts…
Despite the comics inclusion of many characters that are not in the MCU version of Infinity Gauntlet / Endgame, this Perez page does highlight three of the films’ most important heroes: Iron Man, Captain America and Spider-Man.
Pin-up, Rocket’s Blast and Comic Collector (RBCC) #4, 2003
Kraven the Hunter, a classic Spider-Man nemesis, is getting his own film?
Er… ok.
I like the character, especially since I’ve been a fan of the legendary Richard Connell short story “The Most Dangerous Game” since, well, forever.
But… Kraven without Spider-Man is useless to me. Actually all of the Spider-man villains are pointless without the main protagonist.
What, exactly, was the point of the Venom film. A bad guy we root for? Especially one who looks like a monstrous version of… Spider-Man. Huh? What? Tom Hardy was fine as Eddie Brock as the title character, and the film looks great, but it is ultimately pointless. No Spider-Man, no Venom, as far as I’m concerned.
Of course, none of this apparently bothered mass audiences whatsoever. Venom grossed more than $800 million worldwide.
And so, back to Kraven. I would love to see him, even as cameo in Spider-Man 3, before we get to a feature length Kraven film.
In the meantime, the late Eduardo Barreto delivers a terrific splash of Spider-Man capturing Kraven with terrific tonal quality throughout. It appeared in Rockets Blast and Comic Collector #4, the final issue of the short-lived revival of the famous comics zine.
The one question I have is…. Why does Spider-Man look surprised? Did another wall-crawler grab Kraven first? Is this an early and prescient look at the Spider-verse?
But I digress.
Barreto, a Uruguayan artist who passed away at the too young age of 57, was better known for some excellent work at DC (New Teen Titans, Batman, Superman, et al), but his first actual US assignment was in fact Spider-Man, inking Marvel Team-Up #88, featuring Spidey and The Invisible Girl.
As for the actual Spider-Man 3 villains? Start with Scorpion, who is in the Easter egg at the end of Spidey 1, along with possibly the Vulture (ditto), and head down the rabbit hole from there…
And you never know… maybe Kraven after all.
Kraven First appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #15, and returns about a month later with a few “friends” in ASM Annual #1.
The shortest — and possibly most lopsided — hero vs. villain fight in history. Iron man takes care of Kraven in three panels to support narrative involving The Chameleon posing as Captain America. Convoluted, but hilarious.
Some of the earliest Marvel Comics I purchased at the candy store as a kid, and coincidentally about the time where John Romita comes into his own as Spider-Man’s artist. Compared to everything DC and the other companies were doing, this was heady stuff.
Kraven is the villain in one of the most beloved and critically Spider-Man stories of all time, “Kraven’s Last Hunt”. Also pictured: RBCC #4 where the Barreto pin-up appears, and the film poster for the first adaption of Most Dangerous Game, an obvious inspiration for the Kraven concept.
X-Statix 24 Unpublished CoverX-Statix 24 Published Cover
Dissecting unpublished vs. published covers is a fun activity, especially if you can’t find someone who knows specifically why a change was made, which leads to amusing speculation. (And I have forgotten to ask Mike on two different occasions. Sigh.)
In the case of these Allred X-Statix covers, logic dictates that the main reason to change here was necessary to match Iron Man’s costume in the series. That said, it’s interesting that quite a bit more was also changed in the final version. The IM figure in the published cover is much more prominent in the foreground of course, and, changing the Paris landmark from Arc de Triomphe to The Eiffel Tower fascinates me.
I acquired these covers separately, and a few years apart, but I remember the first time I saw the unpublished version at a quick glance I assumed the Arch was actually the well known Washington Square Arch in New York City which, although much smaller, is actually based on the Arc de Triomphe. (This piece of information has sent me down the Wikipedia rabbit hole — but I digress.)
Avengers… New York…. Makes sense, right? Except when I actually had the piece in hand, I realized that not only is the Arc de Triomphe very nicely photo referenced, it includes tiny-silhouetted figures for some scale. Definitely Paris.
But that couldn’t be the reason for the additional change? Could it? No one said, “The Eiffel Tower is more recognizable as Paris” did they?…. Would they?…
Regardless, I like some elements’ of both covers, but if I had my pick, I prefer the unpublished version. That might be the “wrong” Iron Man costume, but the retro feel is cooler, especially in Allred’s distinctive style. And overall, the inks are more appealing to me in the unpublished version.
