"Hey, Steve, we need more commies!!"
Monday, September 3, 2012
Manic Monday--What Early Spider-Man Comics Were Lacking
An astute analysis of what makes a good comic, from the letters page of Amazing Spider-Man #16 (1964):
"Hey, Steve, we need more commies!!"
"Hey, Steve, we need more commies!!"
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4 comments:
If you can't have Nazis, Commies were just as good I guess. I suppose that Nazi Commies would be the BEST villains, except...that really wouldn't work.
In 1943, Captain America and the original Human Torch fought Nazis. In 1964, Cap and Iron Man fought Communists. The one seems as appropriate as the other. But villains like the Mandarin and Titanium Man would have been out of Spider-Man's league. For Spidey to fight Russian or Chinese super-villains would have been like Batman fighting giant monsters and alien space invaders. Oh, wait...never mind.
Interestingly, the Chameleon started out as explicitly a spy for the "Reds," and he got his vaguely Eastern European pal Sergei Kravinoff (Kraven!!) to aid him in an early scheme. So there were some low-power commies for Spidey...
And when Marvel briefly tried to bring back their super heroes in 1953, there was a story where the Russians found the Red Skull in suspended animation or something. They revived him and he went to work for them. So, there was sorta-kinda a Nazi Commie villain. But those comics (Captain America #76-78, Young Men #24-28) were cancelled before long. So, I guess Nazi Commies really wouldn't work, after all.
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