Action and adventure
Action and adventure |
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Page 33 of 42  A hippie festival-goer enjoys a copy of Superman. More immediately succesful, 1962 saw the introduction of The Mighty Thor (in Journey into Mystery, number 83), about a weedy doctor who goes on holiday in Norway and there finds the hammer of the god Thor in a cave. When he picks it up, he is tranformed into a super-Viking, complete with flowing blond locks. In subsequent issues, Norse mythology was introduced to an increasing degree, including the appearance of Thor's traditional nemesis, Loki. Thor was eventually given his own title in 1966. But the biggest Marvel hit came in 1963: The Amazing Spider-Man. This was another Lee-Kirby creation, but featured art by Steve Ditko. It concerned the story of a bookish teenager, Peter Parker, who is bitten by a radioactive spider during a scientific demonstration. Thereafter he finds he is able to climb walls, dangle from ceilings and spin webs. The attraction of this ostensibly very simple story for readers was that they could identify with the protagonist's adolescent angst. He at least tries to do the right thing, even when his life is in a mess (in some stories, Peter Parker's bookshelves are stacked with existential texts). It was a powerful formula, given a final twist with the introduction of a suitably twisted super-villain, the Green Goblin.  One of the great forgotten joys of American adventure comics from the 1960s was the adverts. Body-building was always an attraction for the weedy male readership, eager to imitate their muscular heroes, while for a few dollars the punter could purchase a six-foot-high Frankenstein monster, or a pair of 'x-ray specs'. (Marvel Comics, 1965 and 1966). |