SILVER AGE DEATH MATCH: Justice League of America vs. Fantastic Four
Fred Van Lente pays (another) birthday tribute to Gardner Fox — who was born 110 years ago on May 20, 1911 — with a new column concept…
COMIC BOOK DEATH MATCH: 1966 WEEK collides with STAR TREK’s 60th Anniversary… — Welcome to 1966 WEEK — a 60th anniversary celebration of an extraordinary, landmark year in popular culture. For seven days, we’re bringing you a whole host of features on everything from Star Trek, to Batman, to the Beatles, to the Monkees, and much, much more. (Just check out Walt Grogan’s latest fab banner, above!) Click here for more of the far out fun! — Dan — By FRED VAN LENTE Welcome back, Panel Pugilists, for a first-ever three-way COMIC BOOK DEATH MATCH battle in honor of the 60th anniversary of Star Trek, which debuted in the U.S. via NBC on September 8, 1966. My personal history with Star Trek is a sporadic one. I watched TOS as a kid, even though my dad hated it: A naval history nut, he couldn’t get over the fact the captain aways went along with the lower ranks on landing missions, which he found ridiculous (we all have our pet bugaboos). I missed Next Generation completely, but when I came home from work at the mall the summer I spent in Syracuse, N.Y., in between college semesters, the only thing watchable on TV was Deep Space Nine, a show I fell in love with. During the pandemic lockdown I did a complete DSN rewatch, which was followed by a TOS rewatch, and since then, in my 50s, I’ve become a fairly hardcore Trekkie. Better late than never, I guess. Mostly I’ve consumed my Star Trek on TV, as God intended, with the occasional movie thrown in, and have never actually read a Trek comic before (or read a Trek novel, or played a Trek video game, though the TTRPG from Modiphius is quite good) so this is my first perusal of the ’60s-’80s Gold Key, Marvel and DC series. In honor of Enterprise’s five-year mission, I’ll give each title five issues to wow me before I decide which is best. As an extra bonus, I’ll pepper the match with photos of me at the mind-blowing recreation of the TOS sets found at the Star Trek Original Series Set Tour in Ticonderoga, New York, which I had the extreme pleasure of visiting this summer. In addition to the sets itself, which you need to see to believe, the Tour has an...
WHO REIGNS SUPREME? Fred Van Lente brings you a 65th ANNIVERSARY BATTLE ROYALE! By FRED VAN LENTE Welcome back, fight fans! In honor of the 65th anniversary of the Aug. 8, 1961, publication of Fantastic Four #1, 13th Dimensional Grand Poobah Dan Greenfield requested I pit two of the most storied runs of the book against each other: that of plotter/artist/co-creator Jack Kirby and that of writer/artist/Alpha Flight co-creator John Byrne, two runs I love deeply. But which one is better? Using extremely scientific methods developed by the North American Comic Book Death Match Commission, of which I am the chair and sole member, I set about determining that FOR ALL TIME in this here article. I should point out that in just a couple weeks, on August 20, the play my wife Crystal Skillman and I wrote about Jack, King Kirby, will be returning to the New York stage for a limited run, thanks to BrooklynOne and director Bill Coulter (tickets here). Our poster was created by the late, great Tommy Lombardozzi, one half of the Jacked Kirby podcast, who passed away far too soon and far too young in July. You are missed, brother. As this is the record-setting third time Kirby’s FF has entered the Death Match octagon (you can awe at the other matches here and here), I had to change up the formula a bit: Since we’re celebrating the title’s debut on August 8 — 8/8 — I’ll match every eighth issue of these runs against each other once (Kirby lasted a couple years longer than Byrne, so he begins at #8). Cool? Cool. Ring that bell! — ROUND ONE Fantastic Four #8: “Prisoners of the Puppet Master!” Reed discovers a way to turn the Thing into Ben Grimm, just in time for him to meet Alicia Masters, his soon-to-be love interest, who prefers him rocky. (Sad trombone noise.) I love Kirby’s grotesque design of her awful stepfather, the Puppet Master, who looks like a demented marionette himself. This befits a sociopath who crafts mind-control puppets of people from radioactive clay so he can make them jump off bridges and start prison riots just (as far as I can tell) for funsies. P-Mas gets annoyed at the FF’s interrupting his psycho jollies and sets out to destroy them. In an inadvisable move, he makes a...
Fred Van Lente pays (another) birthday tribute to Gardner Fox — who was born 110 years ago on May 20, 1911 — with a new column concept…