Iron Man #55 |
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Death also appeared in the "War Is Hell" series a year later, gaining the cover top left corner spot, but that Death had definite male characteristics.
Posted by: Mark Drummond | August 15, 2011 1:09 AM
Has anyone wondered, given Mentor & Co's skin colour is shown as purple, that Starlin intended them to somehow be linked to the Magus?
Posted by: Nathan Adler | September 20, 2012 7:23 AM
Nathan, your questions usually turn out to be Socratic, so i'm waiting to see where you're going with this, but the obvious answer is pretty mundane. The Titans were initially grey-purple because Thanos was, with the idea that Thanos' coloration was just a trait of his species. Cynics will say Thanos is that color because Darkseid was; in any event i think the idea was to give Thanos a stone-face look. And Magus, created later, is purple because he's a dark version of Warlock and purple prints better than black. Also, by the time Magus was introduced the rest of the Titans were being colored pink.
Posted by: fnord12 | September 20, 2012 9:20 AM
Given the Titans were all shown as initially purple-skinned it was obvious they were not intended to be Eternals (a later retcon I didn't like).
Wondering if Starlin initially intended there to be something about the atmosphere on Titan that turned its inhabitants purple-skinned!?
I still believe he intended Sui-San to secretly be a Skrull (and not a Deviant-strain).
Posted by: Nathan Adler | September 20, 2012 8:55 PM
I recall Starlin at some point saying the Magus was supposed to be silver, but they couldn't get the coloring to work so he became purple. Warlock of course is meant to be gold but usually looks orange.
Posted by: Walter Lawson | September 21, 2012 12:09 AM
Foom #1 announced Sub-Mariner to be co-star for MF #12.
Posted by: Mark Drummond | February 3, 2013 7:07 PM
A sign in #25 reads "Milgrom", but Al Milgrom isn't listed in the credits for that issue, so he may have done some uncredited work there.
Posted by: Mark Drummond | April 7, 2013 4:42 PM
In #27, some of Thanos' army include some unnamed Badoon and what looks like one of the fake aliens from Amazing Spider-Man #2(depicted as a real alien). A Z'Nox appears on the cover. Michelangelo's horned Moses statue appears on Titan.
Posted by: Mark Drummond | April 8, 2013 2:48 PM
As for the alteration in Mar-Vell's suit, take a loot at his boots.
Posted by: Instantiation | August 17, 2014 11:06 PM
Ha! Oops, I was typing quickly and of course meant "look." (Wish you could edit these posts -- oh, well!)
Posted by: Instantiation | August 19, 2014 4:50 PM
Too late. I looted Mar-Vell's boots and they are very stylish and i'm not giving them back. (Thanks for pointing out the costume change, Instantiation, and sorry my primitive system doesn't allow editing of comments.)
Posted by: fnord12 | August 19, 2014 5:02 PM
Can't blame you! (about either the boots or the system . . .).
One quick further thought here: These issues really represent Starlin's apprenticeship phase or something like that. You can clearly see him evolve as both a writer and an artist, throwing out tons of ideas and getting it together. My feeling is that by CM #27 he's *there*. And that's quick. Thanos now looks like himself. And there's that great touch about how he gives the Super-Skrull, who is terrified of Drax, that Unisphere, which he says will protect him. But then it turns out to be worthless, just a ball of glass -- and what a great page that is. Many more would follow . . .
Posted by: Instantiation | August 19, 2014 6:11 PM
I don't know- I think he's still having trouble in issue 30- the narrator lecturing the reader about how great Mar-Vell's inner strength was, etc. was just horribly overwritten. Starlin said that after that issue, Roy Thomas gave him a speech about how words are tools, not pearls.
Posted by: Michael | August 19, 2014 6:22 PM
Just to clarify, I wasn't trying to say his work was "perfect" from that point or anything, just that he was finding his groove, esp. as an artist.
And maybe it's just me, but I never considered Roy Thomas's work to be "beyond criticism" either.
Also wanted to say the obvious to fnord12 -- what a fantastic resource this is. Thanks for all the hard work you've invested in it.
Posted by: Instantiation | August 20, 2014 10:23 AM
About the one strike I can give against my precious Marvel Essentials is that typically they're super good about throwing in sibling issues of a storyline but sadly not so with the original Thanos storyline. Damn thing kept getting cut up between Iron Man and Avengers books and so on so I always felt like I needed to read further back.
Since I plan on getting several trades of Captain Marvel, Thanos and Quasar maybe I'll finally appreciate this.
There just better be some Blood Brothers in a future Marvel movie!
Posted by: david banes | September 14, 2014 3:02 AM
So, wait. Originally they just created Drax? And then only later decided to have him be Moondragon's father? Who thought THAT was a good idea?
Posted by: Erik Beck | March 1, 2015 12:50 PM
It really isn't that bad a concept that someone as cosmic as Drax the Destroyer is actually a human "rebuilt" to be this super-being, especially with the connection with Moondragon. With all the crazier things done to humans in this universe, what happened to Drax is nothing and it sort of gives more stakes to Heather.
This arc doing what it did really is sort of the works of a mad genius, with Starlin starting out as an artist with Iron Man, having this crazy idea that also cleaned up some messes in continuity (Rick Jones in that preposterous end to the Kree/Skrull War) and created a rival to some of the innovative ideas going on at their "Distinct Competition" (Kirby's Fourth World) while giving a greater importance and development to the more cosmic aspects in the Post-Kirby world. Even with some seeing him as a Darkseid ripoff, Thanos really is a class by himself with all that starts from here on...and heck, it even saved Captain Marvel's reputation considering the conundrum mess he was in from birth.
Posted by: Ataru320 | March 1, 2015 4:21 PM
Ataru, would do you mean by the conundrum mess Captain Marvel was in from birth?
Posted by: Michael | March 1, 2015 5:07 PM
I meant all the stuff with the Captain Marvel character from '68 to just before Starlin. Reading it over on here and seeing all the crazy things done with him, it just shows no one had any idea what to do with him other than to create another hero to exploit cosmic aspects like the Surfer or Thor.
Posted by: Ataru320 | March 1, 2015 5:19 PM
One of the things I quite like about Thanos here is that he comes across as a villain who knows the cliches and is determined to avoid them or make them work for him. He works through pawns, avoids direct conflict with the heroes even tough he physically outpowers them, uses misdirection, and clearly has multiple ways of getting what he wants and plans within plans.
Posted by: Omar Karindu | November 17, 2015 8:08 AM
Randau the Space Parasite appears as part of Thanos army briefly in Captain Marvel #27. Page 14, panel 2.
There's a better pic of him on the cover, albeit miscolored, but costume design-wise it makes it clear it's Randau and not a generic Space Parasite.
Posted by: AF | February 22, 2016 5:37 PM
Nice find, AF. I've added a scan and some notes in the Considerations.
Posted by: fnord12 | February 22, 2016 6:51 PM
"poorly drawn skinny dude."
Yeah and Volcana is obese.
Never mind the poorly drawn part Thanos looks pretty ripped and strong there. I mean yeah he's smaller compared to how he's drawn later.
Posted by: david banes | May 21, 2016 7:39 PM
Thanos clearly evolves over the years, but he's hardly a "poorly drawn skinny dude" in his debut panel.
Posted by: Jack | May 22, 2016 7:00 AM
Considering Thanos #1 was basically a robot...maybe he didn't think it was worth building something closer to himself. It's not like Thanos always has to worry about needing Doombots or an LMD of himself.
Posted by: Ataru320 | May 22, 2016 7:16 AM
It's possible this robot was a test run for his later copies.
Posted by: D09 | June 7, 2016 8:04 PM
I'd give those explanations a No-Prize.
Posted by: david banes | June 7, 2016 8:27 PM
A panel in #30 showing the Controller's thralls includes Spiro Agnew and Archie Bunker.
Posted by: Mark Drummond | June 24, 2016 9:25 PM
The Controller mentions that Thanos rescued him from an asylum; presumably this is Pinehurst Sanitarium from his previous appearance in Iron Man v.1 #28.
Posted by: Omar Karindu | December 28, 2016 11:27 AM
I'm years late to this, but LOL @ "Roy Thomas gave him a speech about how words are tools, not pearls." Roy Thomas of all people.
Posted by: gfsdf gfbd (G Something) | February 26, 2017 1:36 PM
So what was going on here with the Zeus/Zuras thing? Well, not here, really, I suppose, but...
The retconned version is that both Zeus and Zuras, who look very similar, are both sons of Chronos? Or Chronos and Kronos are two different characters with near-identical histories? I've learned by googling that Zeus and co. were represented by Zuras and the Eternals on Earth because of their similarities, but can't find how it was supposed to have come to be that they both exist (also learned that even the ancient Greeks couldn't decide if Chronos and Kronos were one being or not, which I never knew before).
Did this retcon come about because of the Eternals not being in continuity, originally?
Posted by: Dave77 | May 6, 2017 1:18 AM
Zuras is an alien, Zeus is a God. There's no connection in origin. Chronos was later renamed as Kronos and retroactively is just known as Kronos. Zeus has no connection to Kronos. The Zuras-posing-as-Zeus/Eternals-as-Olympians was Mark Gruenwald in Thor #300. Gruenwald in Untold Tales of the Marvel Universe and then Roger Stern in Avengers #246-250 (which were edited by Gruenwald too) were the ones who establish the Titans as Eternals.
Posted by: AF | May 6, 2017 3:38 AM
The Titans are aliens, but Zuras and the Earth Eternals are surely 'from' Earth?
Posted by: Dave77 | May 6, 2017 6:37 PM
Well, I was trying to be succinct with it.
Posted by: AF | May 7, 2017 7:35 AM
See the comments for Thor #283-301 for a little more on the ambiguity between the Eternals and the Greek gods.
Posted by: fnord12 | May 10, 2017 10:21 AM
Benjamin Savannah should have a tag here, since he's seen for a panel or two -- long enough to be killed.
@Ataru320: Interestingly, in issue #32 ISAAC explicitly compares the unliving demons Thanos creates to Drax.
Posted by: Omar Karindu | October 15, 2017 2:32 PM
Added Benjamin Savannah. Thanks.
Posted by: fnord12 | October 16, 2017 11:23 AM
Another Titan coloring comment: Ben refers to the Blood Brothers as Purple-People-Eaters in a quip in the Marvel Feature issue. They're colored blood red in the reprint, but the scans above make it seem like it was closer in the original.
The original Sheb Wooley song plays off the ambiguity about whether the People-Eater was purple itself, or if it ate purple people. So maybe they were snacking on purple Titans. :)
Some of the trippy ways Eon is drawn also suggest some of the lyrics of the song to me, at least in a way that might have been filtered through Jim Starlin and a heavy dose of LSD.
Posted by: ff3 | November 4, 2017 1:56 PM
I have a question about the hooded silent character that appears in these stories: is it Death? If so, where was it revealed, exactly?
Posted by: Piotr W | May 6, 2018 3:13 PM
Yes, it's Death. It's revealed in Captain Marvel 33.
Posted by: Michael | May 6, 2018 3:34 PM
33 is where we first see her with a skull face, but she's first named in the scan fnord has above from issue 28, where Thanos "introduces" her to the Destroyer.
Posted by: Andrew | May 6, 2018 4:47 PM
That was Starlin being clever- Thanos tells Drax that he's introducing Drax to Death- Drax thinks it's a threat and doesn't realize Thanos was being literal. It's not 100% clear she's Death until Captain Marvel 33.
Posted by: Michael | May 6, 2018 5:13 PM
Eros' appearance is interesting here too -he has that fox-like symbol on his chest without explanation -I wonder what Starlin's idea here was? He didnt take the "Starfox" name until Stern's Avengers run, right?
Posted by: Hugh Sheridan | May 7, 2018 6:05 PM
@Hugh, no, he didn't. I personally found it very weird when they changed his "professional" name, and you'll notice it hasn't been used for a long, long time. Eros gets his name from the Freudian idea of the life and death drives, Eros and Thanatos. But, yeah, the fox was always there. We know Starlin stole Gamora's look from Esteban Maroto; maybe Eros's look was a rip-off as well. Alternately, knowing Starlin's fondness for cats (see Dreadstar's Oedi), maybe the symbol was supposed to be a cat. Sometimes it looks like a dog.
@Michael, I didn't read these books in realtime, so if there is anyone on this site who did, I'd be interested to hear when any of them picked up on what was really going on with Thanos. Curiously, if you reread 33 carefully, neither Isaac nor Mantis knew who Thanos' "dark-robed companion" really was prior to his defeat, but everyone somehow sensed it as soon as he was gone.
Posted by: Andrew | May 8, 2018 6:49 AM
I like that set of panels where after Captain Marvel gets his upgrade he re-faces the Controller who is like 'nah, take him down my goons!' He monologues and off screen Marvel pummels them. Then the Controller has the nerve to look shocked when he realizes Captain Marvel easily beat them. "HUH!? How did you defeat my perfectly ordinary mooks!?"
Posted by: david banes | May 12, 2018 2:25 AM