It’s the Avengers vs. the Destroyer in this great action page from the first issue of the underrated reboot of the Thor mythos. Dan Jurgens wrote the series and John Romita Jr. and Klaus Janson provided the visual storytelling for the launch.
Cool bonus feature: Both artists signed the page the year the issue was published.
Marvel definitely floundered after the Image exodus in 1991, but by the late 90s stated putting the comic book pieces back together as evidenced here and in the launch of the Marvel Knights imprint, produced by Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti. The Ultimate universe came along a few years later, and the rest, as they say is history.
Marvel announced only last month that John Romita Jr. will celebrate Spider-Man’s 60th Anniversary with… a return to drawing Spider-Man.
To quote Matthew Jackson on SyFy Wire:
“Romita Jr. made a name for himself as a key Marvel artist thanks in large part to his work on Spider-Man. He first drew the character in 1977, as the rising star son of the legendary John Romita Sr., and went on to become one of the definitive pencillers to ever work on the character… Now, he’s back in full force at his original superhero home, and he’s teaming up with one of the 21st century great Spider-Man writers for a whole new era on the character.”
For an overview of some of Romita’s greatest Marvel work, see the article at Comicbook.com:https://comicbook.com/news/10-greatest-john-romita-jr-creative-runs/
Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America #3, July 2007
“Classic” Hawkeye (Clint Barton) — briefly takes on the guise of Captain America, while Kate Bishop’s Hawkeye looks on disapprovingly in this terrifically moody page by John Romita Jr. (With the Patriot — Eli Bradley — in the mix for good measure.)
Confused? You might have to catch up to a few storylines to get this point including the first Young Avengers series, as well as the Civil War and Death of Captain America stories and follow-ups. Ultimately, the resolution of this story leads to some additional key plot points in Hawkeye’s modern career.
Given Kate’s star billing in the new Hawkeye series, along with the other character intros we’ve already seen in the MCU, I have a feeling we will be hearing from the entire “Young Avengers” team in the near future.
Jack Kirby’s Celestials walk the earth, courtesy of Neil Gaiman and John Romita’s 2007 mini-series, as detailed previously here.
And finally, after a year or so of pandemic-related delays, they (presumably) walk on the big screen this Friday.
Early buzz on the film is quite good, but if I’m guessing, regardless of story and cast performance, Kirby fans will judge the film on whether the cinematic realization of the Celestials matches — or even amplifies — Jack’s giant vision.
In a few days, we will all see for ourselves
Oddly enough, Arishem (the greatest of the Celestials, apparently) appears on the final page splash in many of the first few issues as the tease for the following issue. The only hiccup is that he doesn’t typically appear in any of the following issue’s action.
Stan Lee, nearly 85 years old at the time, returns to the Fantastic Four for one last tale.
It’s not a groundbreaking story by any means. And it’s not meant to be. Is the dialogue corny in places? Certainly. Is the plot surprising? Nope. An all-powerful big bad (The “Adjudicator”) comes to destroy Earth and pretty much everyone is helpless to stop him. Its up to Reed Richards to figure something out, which ultimately involves the previous almost all-powerful big bad, Galactus.
The entire issue could definitely be an unused story from Lee and Kirby’s FF heyday in the 60s.
Who cares? Not me. Great art from John Romita Jr. (inks by Scott Hanna) make this a fun tribute to the “old days.” Stan works in most of the great supporting characters from the original run, including Doctor Doom and the Silver Surfer.
This page of course features both of them, along with the entire FF. Plus, it’s signed by the entire creative team, because, for once, I had the presence of mind to remember to get that done.
Frank Miller returns to Daredevil and brings an all-star art team with him in the origin story, “Man Without Fear.”
Ok, easy to call “all-star” an oft-overused cliché, but in this case, no exaggeration. The artistic team of John Romita Jr. and Al Williamson is a stunning compliment to Frank’s storytelling.
This is Romita’s best work up until this point in his career, and Al certainly still had his inking chops as well.
I’m guessing (and strictlyguessing) that Miller provided a full script or close to it, because the layouts and storytelling are so “Milleresque.” Either that, or Romita Jr. channeled his inner Miller.
Probably a combination of both.
In this page, young Matt Murdoch discovers his true powers for the first time in a sink or swim training session provided by his tutor, the mysterious “Stick.”
The page layout cleverly and beautifully uses the nine-panel grid to show the development of Matt’s reaction time to Stick’s attack.
A great page from one of the all-time great limited series.
By now, we should be in the next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but unfortunately, we have a six-month delay. So, for the first time in a dozen years, no Marvel film to launch the summer movie-going season.But, we won’t let that delay slow us down here — this week, we’re looking at some comics art related to the next three scheduled films.
Jack Kirby’s Eternals was a natural extension of Jack’s interest and abilities in all things cosmic — Norse Gods, New Gods, et al. In my mind, this series was the most engaging of Jack’s efforts during his brief return to Marvel in the mid 70s.
When Jack left Marvel again in 1978, Eternals went into mothballs and only made a brief reappearance in 1985 (without Kirby) before disappearing again.
Then in 2006, another take, this one, a mini-series (7 issues) by Neil Gaiman and John Romita Jr. appeared. It seemed like an odd team-up — the Vertigo “alternative” star writer, paired with the more “meat and potatoes” (superheroes) star artist. But ultimately, the talents meshed and it’s a well-done series, bringing the Eternals into the “modern” Marvel Universe, with some twists.
If anything did the series a disservice, it was the main covers by Rick Berry. Berry is super talented artist of course, and in a vacuum the covers are wonderful paintings. But they don’t match the stylistic content of the stories. I’m guessing he was hired because the editors wanted the covers’ artistic style to match the established Gaiman “brand” – despite the fact the stories are so much more traditional than Neil’s Sandman work.
Nonetheless, great Romita Artwork is still great Romita artwork, and this splash of Ikaris and Thena (inks by Danny Miki) is one of the best pages in the series. The page (pencils version) was used as the cover for a sketchbook from the series.
Jack Kirby’s original series, followed seven years later by a second series by Peter Gillis and Sal Buscema. (Cover of that first issue by Walter Simonson.)Eternals match game, comics and film.
