In September 1966, Squire The magazine had an article on Marvel Comics, specifically the popularity of comic books among students. He reads (courtesy of Barry Pearl who transcribes it):
Earlier this year, the Marvel Comics writer received a letter from William David Sherman, a professor of English at the State University of New York at Buffalo. “Enclosed you will find a money order for three dollars,” he wrote. “Please send me twenty-five copies of issue #46 (“Those Who Would Destroy Us”); I want to use them in my course on contemporary American literature. There is evidence that students are already digging them.
The Princeton Debating Society invited Stan Lee, author of all ten Marvel superhero comics, to speak in a lecture series that also included Hubert Humphrey, William Scranton and Wayne Morse. Other lectures were held at Bard (where he attracted a larger audience than President Eisenhower), at NYU, and at Columbia. Some fifty thousand American students, paying one dollar per head, belong to the Merry Marvel Marching Societies and wear “I Belong” buttons on more than a hundred campuses. Bundles of mail flow into Marvel’s offices every day from more than 225 colleges. Twenty-four disc jockeys are loyal members of MMMS and never let their listeners forget it. And in the fall, at least twenty-five television channels will broadcast Marvel cartoons. If anyone still suspects that kids are Marvel’s only readers, it’s worth pointing out that the company has sold 50,000 printed T-shirts and 30,000 sweatshirts, and is running out of adult sizes for both. Why all this furious enthusiasm?
As an Ivy Leaguer told Stan Lee. “We view Marvel Comics as the mythology of the 20th century and you as this generation’s Homer.” At this point in the game, it’s not yet clear whether Marvel Comics’ deep impact on campus reveals more about the comics or the campus. Perhaps a clue can be found on the next page; you understand.
The Gimmick: Marvel superheroes, despite their superpowers, all have human problems. And that’s why your college friends return them. Spider-Man, in real life, a college student named Peter Parker, is guilt-ridden, money-conscious, socially insecure, and gets blamed for things he didn’t do.
The Fantastic Four are always arguing among themselves. Thor’s father won’t let him marry the girl he loves, and Hulk is completely alienated. This, plus a tongue-in-cheek approach, which requires more than a third-grade education to appreciate, is Marvel’s appeal. For example: In one issue, Spider-Man desperately fights the Raiders while they both float above the city suspended from a helium balloon. As the Raiders prepare to kick him in the face, Spidey asks, “Have you ever considered medical help due to your antisocial tendencies?” And then, “Why is everyone I fight brimming with neurotic hostility?” The Looter, sensitive to the absurdity of Spidey’s chatter, retorts, “You must be crazy, talking that way while you’re fighting for your life!” Now where else would you find stuff like this? Certainly not in your Brand Ecchs comics. Nosirée.
This, of course, refers to the 1963-1966 Spider-Man comics, directed by Steve Ditko, John Romita, and Stan Lee. These comics were fantastic. I’ve written about them many times and how awesome they were. However, let’s face it, they were definitely of the moment. These are exceptional comics, but they were written for the times. So what’s interesting is seeing great writers take original concepts and interpret them in a modern style. Kurt Busiek did a wonderful job in Spidey’s high school days in Untold Tales of Spider-Manand now J. Michael Straczynski is doing the same for Spider-Man’s college years.
Amazing Spider-Man: Torn #1 is by writer J. Michael Straczynski, artist Pere Pérez, colorist Guru-eFX, and letterer Joe Caramagna, and takes place during Spider-Man’s college years, when something goes horribly wrong, unleashing a horrific new villain.
How does Straczynski deal with this era?
The main thing Straczynski is doing with this series is what Busiek did with Untold Tales of Spider-Man. The original stories were great, but if they lacked anything, they lacked a bit of character depth, as that was simply the style of comics of the time. Ditko, Romita and Lee primarily aimed their comics at a very young audience. So while there was a lot more depth in a standard issue of Amazing Spider-Man than in OTHER comics, it’s nothing compared to the depth that writers typically find themselves in now. Again, it’s just a difference in times and HOW the stories were written. It’s not that Steve Ditko didn’t know how to go further, as OF COURSE he did, it just wasn’t the style of the time.
In Untold Tales of Spider-ManBy placing his stories within the pages of these earlier stories, the best thing Kurt Busiek could do was take established concepts and expand on them. For example, he developed Peter Parker’s mostly anonymous classmates, giving them personalities, hopes, dreams, etc. (one of them even tragically became an unfortunate superhero). Here, Straczynski does a similar thing, delving into things like Peter Parker’s experiments in classes he’s unfamiliar with like his science classes.
Logistically, it’s difficult to be an active superhero AND do all your German homework, and Peter’s German teacher really blames him for what he sees as Peter’s lack of responsibility. Can you imagine PETER PARKER hearing about a lack of accountability? And yet, how else can we explain how Peter acts all the time? He sure acts like a guy who stays up all night, he just can’t explain WHY he stays up all night.
Plus, Straczynski’s more modern approach looks cool in the comic’s more daring scenes. Pere Pérez and Gur-eFX do a wonderful action sequence in which Spider-Man takes out terrorists, and they are shocked by his lack of banter, and he explains that their hostages are already so terrified that he won’t do anything to make their rescue take longer than necessary. It’s a great time.
How did Straczynski deal with the group dynamics of the time?
As good as Pere Pérez is in action scenes, I almost like him BETTER in character scenes. We see Peter, Harry Osborn, Gwen Stacy, and Mary Jane go to a “beach thing” together, and they talk about their lives and what they hope their future will be.
This allows Straczynski to really understand the motivations of each character of the era in a way that we never really got to see in 1960s comics, because, again, who was doing that sort of thing in the 1960s?
The end result is a comic that serves both as an homage to the great comics of the 1960s, but also as a way to take the promise of those comics, take them to a more modern level, and give us a more meaningful reading experience that is truly a delight.
All that, and a horrible demonic creature as a new villain too (also an example of putting 1960s Spider-Man in a situation where he has to deal with a more modern style threat, and to see how he handles such a contrast. It’s really cool, and Pere Pérez designed one hell of a demonic villain).
Source: Wonder