In his "Deus ex Comica" series of essays, Adam Besenyodi is taking a look at the impact of comic book pop culture on a personal level, from the Marvel titles' influence on his mid-'80s preteen and early teen years to the friendships formed around the books and characters, to what it's like rediscovering that world as an adult. 
   

    I was never a huge fan of the Fantastic Four, or Thor, or Captain America back in the day.  The Original Collection has only a smattering of these books, maybe a couple dozen issues combined for all three titles.  Yet these are among my favorites of the current runs I now read month-in and month-out. 

    Though I still love Fantastic Four #275 ("What's big and green and has a staple in her navel?"), by and large the Fantastic Four never really got me excited.  I can appreciate now how revolutionary the title was when originally launched in 1961, but to my preteen sensibilities in the early '80s, I found it kind of, well, thick.  It always felt too heavy on the "science" side of superhero science-fiction for me.  I even went back last year and read volume 1 of the John Byrne Fantastic Four Visionaries trade paperback in an effort to give those old entries another fair shake without much success.  I also picked up volumes 2 and 3 of the trades, but I'm having a hard time motivating myself to read them at the moment.

    I only have three monthly issues and one annual of Reagan-era Thor, but that was another fairly dense title to me at the time.  All that mythology and crazy-speak: "Odin... My husband... Ne'er before have my thoughts consorted with rumor... but this time, my mind hath been overcome by my heart..."  Seriously.  That was enough to send me straight to the back cover to drool over the Parker Brothers Empire Strikes Back Atari video game cartridge ad. 

    Captain America, on the other hand, always struck me as a bit hokey.  Not Cap himself, necessarily, but the situations he was put in.  A fresh look through my old issues and the first installment of "Marvel Tales" on the Marvel Noise podcast that featured Cap's adventure behind bars in Captain America #260 unfortunately did nothing but reinforce this for me.  (Don't get me wrong, I love Marvel Noise and I love that segment, and David Price does a great job over there and is just a genuinely nice guy, but that particular issue highlighted everything I didn't like about Captain America as a kid.)  Then there were Cap's surrounding characters, like the Jack Monroe Nomad, The Slayer, even The Red Skull I suppose.  It's difficult to articulate why, but they just never really did much for me as a kid. 

    This all might be heresy to many among the Merry Marvel Marching Society, but bear with me, because we're about to turn a corner.

    Given that history, I was as surprised as anyone when the death of Captain America actually ended up being my jumping on point for buying current run monthlies.  I had just been lured back into the Marvel Universe with trade paperbacks of Avengers Disassembled, House of M, and Civil War when the second wave of mainstream press attention was cresting with the release of the director's cut of Captain America #25.  I picked up that issue July Fourth weekend and began collecting the Fallen Son limited series I had been seeing on the shelves at the local comic book shops since late spring as well.  The writing was mature, and the visuals were as jarring as seeing a person with a holographic projection of their face on their midsection (yeah, I'm looking at you, Arnim Zola).  The same held true for the five issues of Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America -- a loose arc using the stages of grief as guideposts and all that stunning art.

    Both of these titles served as good introductions to just how varied the art of comic books had become.  Maybe it had as much to do with the lack of sophistication of my 12 year-old eye as it did the style of the era, but visually, the comics of my childhood all looked relatively the same.  But what I found in these two present-day titles was a sampling of artists' styles that resembled little of what I remembered as a kid.  Steve Epting, Leinil Yu, Ed McGuinness, John Romita, Jr., David Finch, John Cassaday, and Michael Turner provided an eye-opening primer for both the diversity and complexity the art of comic books had risen to.

    Initially I found Yu's work in Fallen Son #1 bewildering.  When I finally had worked my way through New Avengers #22 in the Civil War: New Avengers trade and into #27 of the monthlies, though, I was completely taken with his work.  It's gotten to the point where I already miss him on the title and can't wait for Secret Invasion to start in earnest so I can get my Yu fix back on.  And it's a similar torch I now carry for Epting.  Originally I had problems getting my head around the art, but now I can't imagine that particular Captain America storyline rendered any other way.

     While I didn't bother with any of the supplementary storylines under the Avengers Disassembled or House of M banners, I did dip into the sundry Civil War titles.  And it was the Civil War: Fantastic Four trade, and my love of X-Man Ororo Monroe, Storm, that goes back to her Mohawk-sporting punk days and beyond, that drove me to the current run.

    Ironically, I have always found Marvel's First Family more interesting when they are replaced and/or splintered (see She-Hulk's tenure with the group while The Thing stayed behind on Beyonder's Battleworld planet, post-Secret Wars in his own title).  So I guess it's not all that surprising that the idea of Storm and Black Panther joining the team in the post-Civil War/Reed and Sue Richards marriage reconstruction world would draw me to the book.  While it didn't always flesh out the way I'd anticipated, Dwayne McDuffie's arcs from issue #542 through #553 were a fun read.  And, at the moment, I'm still riding high off of the first two issues from the title's new creative team, Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch, despite my frustration over Johnny Storm's lack of character development and continued portrayal as the Paris Hilton of the Marvel Universe.

    Thor was another character I respected but didn't have affection for until J. Michael Straczynski and Olivier Coipel launched their recent reimaging of the character and title.  I picked this one up on the recommendation of the comic shop owner. I must have had that hungry, "give me something more to read" look that day, and the Asgardian God of Thunder was what I needed.  The story has deftly balanced intrigue and action and provided stunning visuals.  Though I had originally thought it may have peaked too soon with the beat-down Thor delivered to Iron Man in Thor #3, it is obvious with stellar follow-ups like issue #6 that I had nothing to fear.  And I'm even more excited to see what cover artist Marko Djurdjevic will do visually with the stories when he moves inside for these next couple of issues.

    Sure, you could argue the reason I'm taken with these characters now is based largely on the writing and art, but that negates historically recognized (if not endeared by me) work from industry icons like Walt Simonson and John Byrne.  And you could dispute the fact that, at least in the case of Captain America and Thor, that these are technically different titles from the ones I read in the '80s because they are different volumes based on reboots.  I suppose it's a combination of all these factors, coupled with my familiarity with these characters and their histories, and my general nostalgia for the '80s as I approach middle-age that makes me so responsive to them.  Regardless, it's interesting that titles I really never cared for are suddenly (if you can call 25 years later "suddenly") so meaningful to me.

Miss an installment of "Deus Ex Comica?" Here you go:

Part 1: Gateway Drugs

Part 2: Judging a Book by its Cover

Part 4 - "Sweet Christmas!"

Part 5: Bound for Greatness

Part 6: Marvel 1985

Part 7: A Real American Hero

Part 8: It's a Sickness

Adam Besenyodi loves to talk pop culture. He is a former editor and staff writer for PopMatters, a participant in the Pop Conference and a freelance writer.

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