75 years of Marvel on ABC

[Mr.Marion]

In case you missed it last night its on ondemend listed under agents of shield. It's host by the lovely Emily Vancamp.

[madmarva]

It was a good primer for those who've never read or heard the stories about Marvel's history. Cool to see comic creators and editors get some face time on network TV. I guess Roy Thomas must be on the outs with Marvel. If he was interviewed, nothing was used. Was a bit surprised to see Denny O'Neil since the last half of his career was spent at DC, but he was one of the first writers Lee added. Englehart, Wein, Starlin, Conway, Steranko and Shooter all had bits.

Kirby and Ditko were mentioned prominently. I was a little surprised at how much play the Fantastic Four got in the special with the feud between Marvel and Fox going on, but you really couldn't tell the story of Marvel without the FF.

I have a feeling I'm going to like Agent Carter more than SHIELD from the clip. I think it is smart of Marvel to sandwich eight episodes of Agent Carter between SHEILD's Fall and Spring sections instead of filling with re-reuns. But, aren't there ratings sweeps in February? It would seem the studio would want its primary show appearing then.

[Earth 2 Chris]

So Thomas was out, but Shooter was in? I thought Shooter was on the outs with Marvel? Interesting.

Chris

[palitoy]

Not surprising, no Bill Jemas either.

I am just winding up the Untold Marvel book, it was nice to see these faces again.

My only quibble is the election coverage covered a full 1/3rd of the screen. I really don't care who the comptroller is going to be in a state I don't live in. I'll have to try and find it on demand.

[madmarva]

So Thomas was out, but Shooter was in? I thought Shooter was on the outs with Marvel? Interesting.

Chris

Yeah, I was surprised to see Shooter. It glossed over the musical-chairs of editors following Lee and went straight to Shooter. The omission may have been for brevity and clarity. To me Shooter's era was a second high point for Marvel. It was my personal golden age for buying off the racks.

If the program is put on DVD, it would be cool if the raw interviews were provided as extras. I'd like to see what wasn't used.

I don't know if Thomas is on the outs, but it just seemed odd to me he wasn't mentioned at all.

But, hey they spoke to Jimmy Kimmel to garner his expertise, so all is good.

[palitoy]

Thomas may have been omitted for time or perhaps he's too candid in that fanzine of his, who knows?

This should have been longer, it is nice to see so much mention of Martin Goodman, he's often obscured.

[Earth 2 Chris]

^Yeah, a lot of histories paint him as "Stan Lee's uncle" who happened to hire him, and he took over. Not true.

Chris

[YoungOnce]

Enjoyed it. I'd say that most of the info was common knowledge for most of the folks on this forum, but it was fun nonetheless. I think of all the kids growing up now that can't remember when the superheroes were rare outside of comicbooks. A good primer for this generation...

[Blue Meanie]

My one gripe about it was the fact that they really didn't get into what made Marvel go bankrupt. It wasn't bad stories or art...it was the fact that Marvel was getting greedy with all the multiple covers. Hologram covers etc. and the fact that Perelman and Icahn destroyed Marvel. They made it sound like it was the stories. Couldn't have been the fact that there were also about 10 million Spiderman and X-Men titles??!!??

[monitor_ep]

I love how they keep forgetting that Stan Lee stole the idea of Spider-Man from The Spider. If you know your golden age heroes you would be surprised at how many of them were just recycled character.

[enyawd72]

I love how they keep forgetting that Stan Lee stole the idea of Spider-Man from The Spider. If you know your golden age heroes you would be surprised at how many of them were just recycled character.

What in the world are you talking about? The Spider was a millionaire playboy detective/vigilante who wore a slouch hat disguise. He and Spider-Man have absolutely NOTHING in common...they aren't even remotely similar in any way.

[thunderbolt]

^^^ Agreed, the only possible inspiration from the Spider they could have gotten was from the serial and his costume, and that's even pushing it.

The pulp character has more in common with the Shadow and Batman than Peter Parker outside his name.

[Earth 2 Chris]

I have heard Stan mention he remembered the name of "The Spider". Spidey has more in common with DC's Tarantula, who shot a "web line" out of a gun and used suction cups to climb walls. In his first story, he's referred to as a "spider-man". He was a minor and forgotten DC character, until Roy Thomas dusted him off again in the 80s in All-Star Squadron. I doubt he was much of an influence, thought. Just coincidence there.

Chris

[The Toyroom]

In "Origins of Marvel Comics", Stan may have mentioned the old Spider character as a source of inspiration for the name. Same as how he references Frankenstein/Jekyll & Hyde for the Hulk and Chandu the Magician for Dr. Strange in the same book.

[kingdom warrior]

What in the world are you talking about? The Spider was a millionaire playboy detective/vigilante who wore a slouch hat disguise. He and Spider-Man have absolutely NOTHING in common...they aren't even remotely similar in any way.

It's not The Spider it's actually an Unpublished hero that Joe Simon had worked on called "The Silver Spider" Kirby had told Stan about it. That's where the Genesis of Spiderman began.....C.C.Beck actually worked up a few pages of it. Greg Theakston published a whole comic book with the artwork called the Origin of Spiderman...