One day in September 1964, I woke up too sick to go to school. I was in sixth grade, although that’s not really relevant to this post. But I started feeling better as the day went on, so by that afternoon when my mother announced that she was going to the drugstore, I asked if I could come along.
Well, of course, you know how she reacted. She glared at me and said, “If you
were too sick to go to school, you’re too sick to go to the drugstore.” I
explained that I was getting over whatever was bothering me and just wanted to
get out for a little while. I didn’t mention what I actually wanted, which was
to check the comic book and paperback spinner racks at Tompkins’ Pharmacy
because I hadn’t been there in a while.
I talked her into it—I could be very persuasive where reading matter was
concerned—and during our trip to the drugstore that afternoon I bought several
comic books, one of which was THE AVENGERS #8 featuring the debut of a villain
who would prove to be iconic, Kang the Conqueror. How do I know I picked up that
particular comic on that particular day? I can’t explain it other than to say
that I have a trick brain for some things, and knowing where and when I bought
a certain book or comic book is one of those tricks.
Now, the point of all this reminiscing is that I recently read a collection of a new mini-series from Marvel Comics (the first thing I've read from Marvel in ages) called THE AVENGERS: WAR ACROSS TIME, which is set in the classic Marvel era (or as I call it, my childhood) and is a direct sequel to THE AVENGERS #11 and features Kang the Conqueror as the villain. It was written by Paul Levitz, his first script for Marvel after literal decades as a writer/editor for DC, and drawn by Alan Davis, one of the latter-day comics artists whose work I like quite a bit.
Levitz’s script hits all the right beats from that era: the Avengers battle their former member The Hulk, they encounter the menacing Lava Men (who first appeared in THE AVENGERS #5, bought by me off the spinner rack in Trammell’s Pak-a-Bag Grocery—there’s that trick brain again), and a king of the dwarves steals Thor’s hammer, which he can do because he helped forge it, causing Thor to turn back into Dr. Don Blake. Kang is behind all this, and in the course of their struggle against him, the Avengers see bizarre visions of their future, most of which will turn out to be true.
This is just great fun for an old comics codger like me. Thor spouts mock-Shakespearean dialogue. Captain America, who hasn’t been an Avenger for long after being thawed out from the ice, is brave and stalwart. The Wasp spends most of her time in flirtatious banter but is courageous and capable when she needs to be. Iron Man and Giant Man alternate between being science nerds and walloping bad guys. To be honest, Alan Davis’s artwork isn’t quite as good as I’ve seen it in the past, but it’s still worlds better than most of what you’ll find in modern comics, and he can draw a story so that you know what’s going on, again something that’s lacking in a lot of comics these days.
So, is THE AVENGERS: WAR ACROSS TIME as good as vintage Lee/Kirby? No, but I never expected it to be. For one thing, I’m not eleven years old anymore. The best modern comics can do is remind me of that time, not recreate it. But this one certainly does remind me of those days, and I had a fine time reading it. If you have good memories of that era, too, I give it a high recommendation. You can find it in trade paperback and digital forms on Amazon.
And hey, any excuse to wallow in nostalgia, right?
3 comments:
I too can remember where and when I bought many of the Lee/Kirby/Ditko/Heck-era Marvels, even after 60 years. The newsstands and drug stores where I bought them are now long gone.
I too have vivid memories of getting certain issues of comics at specific drugstores or liquor stores or supermarkets. One of those liquor stores is actually still there, I pass by it every few weeks. But they got rid of their spinner rack years and years ago.
b.t.
I mostly had one drug store to buy from in 1973-1975 when I was doing my early buying (with lawn-mowing allowance money) of comics off the rack, so they can all kind of run together...still trying to figure out what DC sf comic it could possibly be that my father bought for me at my request in (probably) 1969...(recently was finally able to figure out what vampire film it was that was my first mostly-solo film experience, at age five in that year or 1970, a rerelease of the 1963 film KISS OF THE VAMPIRE...mostly solo since my mother sat with me for the first few minutes to determine if it would be Inappropriate for my youthful eyes...probably at a Jerry Lewis Theater, since we had one of those). Almost exclusively was just buying MAD by late '75 and started buying new fiction magazines in late '77, with the Jan '78 AHMM.
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