When you form a superhero team, those champions will inevitably run into a team of super-villains. And that’ll happen sooner, rather than later. Both commercial imperatives and artistic balance demand it.
So the Justice League of America fought a “villainous sextet” in its fifth issue, and the Fantastic Four battled the Diabolical Duo in its sixth issue.
And in the team’s third issue (Jan. 1964), the Avengers faced a pair of belligerent anti-superheroes. One was a green-skinned defector from the superhero team itself, and the other, the Sub-Mariner, had been a member of the Diabolical Duo with Dr. Doom.
The problem with super-villain teams is illustrated in a single panel featuring the two new partners’ silent thoughts. “I’ll string along for a while, then I’ll smash him when he’s off guard,” thinks the Hulk. Meanwhile, Namor muses, “He’s too strong! Too unpredictable! When he’s served his purpose, I’ll destroy him!”
You’d think Namor might have learned something from his “team-up” with Dr. Doom, who’d promptly hurled him into airless outer space at the first opportunity (Fantastic Four 6, Sept. 1962).
Now, without his own title, the Hulk here begins to evolve into the familiar form of the monster triggered by rage or stress.
“(W)e’re starting to get a sense that Stan is maybe figuring out what works about the Hulk, and what doesn’t,” comics historian Don Alsafi noted. “Banner still has the user-activated gamma machine (still a terrible idea) — yet this issue doesn’t show him using it to become the Hulk, but only using it to turn back into Banner.
“Additionally, this might be the first time we see Banner turn into the monster from stress alone, and later in the tale,e that same level of excitement (or simple plot convenience?) turns him back into Banner. Whatever the details, the significant point is that Stan is finally starting to re-emphasize the Jekyll/Hyde curse so effectively conveyed in his first appearance, and rarely seen since: Banner’s a nice guy. The Hulk’s an angry brute. And he’s changing back and forth against his will, regularly experiencing a loss of humanity — and unable to do anything about it.”
The Hulk’s abrupt switch from teammate to antagonist in Avengers 2 demonstrated the kind of surprise that made the expanding Marvel universe exciting.
Alsafi wrote, “In Avengers 1, the team was pulled together by the perceived threat of the Hulk, though he was accepted as one of their own by the end — so the twist in their second issue, when he turns his back on them and leaves the group, was rather shocking. (If this was Stan’s method of telling the readers that Anything Could Happen, it was certainly effective!) But he’s too wild and dangerous a threat to simply let roam, of course, so the Avengers open their third issue by declaring their intention to track him down. Though now he’s not just a threat — he’s a threat with a grudge…!”
The Hulk hadn’t been physically gray since his first issue, but he remained morally gray, as did the Sub-Mariner. Both characters could function as hero or villain, as circumstances dictated and plots required.
Over at DC Comics, heroes were heroes and villains were villains, period. At Marvel, ethical issues weren’t so clear-cut. The Thing might betray the Fantastic Four. Heroes like Spider-Man and the X-Men could be unfairly hated by the public. And that made the storytelling moves available at Marvel more akin to chess than checkers.
Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men also turn up, meaning that this issue features every Marvel superhero then published, with the sole exception of Dr. Strange. The cohesive Marvel universe is now firmly established, providing a cross-pollination that will boost the popularity and sales of the Marvel titles.
About Author
