User blog:Nausiated/1954

On my forward progression through each year of Marvel publications I am just finishing reading through the year 1954, doing my usual updates on in-continuity titles and it’s time for another one of my blog recaps of the year in question. 1954 was an interesting year for Atlas as there was a major shift in the type of titles they were pumping out. The Korean War had just winded up and so a lot of war stories were becoming more generalized in that the one-off stories dealt with various different wars over history shifting the focus from the Korean War to the two prior World Wars. Title character Battle Brady was phased out while Combat Kelly and Combat Casey were retconned to having the characters fight in World War II as well as having served in the Korean War. This created an interesting continuity gaffe with Combat Casey in particular. In his first appearance in War Combat #5 (from 1952) Combat was captured by the Chinese and taken prisoner where he meets Penny Pennington for the first time. However by the time they started telling stories circa World War II, Penny appears to be fighting alongside Combat during the war.

Outside of that, Combat Kelly and his partner Cookie Novak’s origins were partially explored. Turns out Cookie’s real first name is actually Cookie, and although Combat is an orphan he apparently knew his father fought in World War I. That aside, the stories were usually the typical fare that the titles had presented in the past, the major villains always being wily female gorilla warriors with silly names like Red Mary. Interestingly enough in Combat Kelly # there is a major cross-over with a number of these female villains as the all try to get revenge against the title hero, including Yalu River Rosie, Kaesong Katie, and oddly enough (as she was a Battle Brady foe) General Olga (who also was depicted in that story as a Russian instead of Chinese… Which given her name made a little more sense). The only new recurring wartime character introduced during this period was Battleship Burk, a Naval officer who fought in the Korean War, he was featured in issues of Navy and Navy Action, but did not establish the same level of popularity as Combat Kelly or Combat Casey to get a series of his own and he did not last very long. 1954 also saw some revivals and new characters introduced as part of Atlas Comics line of western characters. The previous year saw the return of both the Two-Gun Kid and the Black Rider in their own titles and they continued on in full force, as well as appearing in back-up stories in Wild Western (which for the past year featured only Kid Colt tales and one-off western stories for back-up tales). This also saw a return of the characters appearing in back-up stories in each other’s books replacing the standard on-off western tales, and restoring the status quo that hadn’t been seen since the late 40s. Also returning at the end of the year was the Apache Kid who was on a hiatus throughout much of 1953. ’54 also saw three new characters popping up, the first being the Native American warrior Arrowhead, who was another attempt to tell stories from the Native American perspective of the American Frontier. Much like Apache Kid and Red Warrior before it, it was different in that Arrowhead was attempting to force white settlers off his people’s land, which was revolutionary for the time. However the title was fraught with the same ignorant racial stereotypes and inaccuracies that were prevalent in the genre during this period of time. The second was the outlaw hero the Ringo Kid, who had a modest run, a reprint series in the 70s and had a brief appearance in some later Avengers time travel stories. The third character introduced during this period was the Western Kid, who was basically a Two-Gun Kid/Kid Colt clone only that his animal companions (Thunder the horse and Lightning the dog) often helped him in his adventures. Another revival was that of the jungle tale, the previous year saw the start of that with the introduction of Lorna the Jungle Queen (renamed Jungle Girl in 1954). There also came Jungle Tales which introduced characters such as Jann of the Jungle, Waku the Prince of the Bantu, Cliff Mason White Hunter, Lo-Zar Lord of the Jungle, Leopard Girl, Manoo the Might and Jungle Boy. The only character ever expanding to their own title being Jann of the Jungle. These stories were typical of the time, usually involving a predominantly white cast of jungle heroes (with the exception of Waku who was Congolese and Manoo who was an gorilla) who helped the various jungle tribes of the Congo from everything from communist spies to dinosaurs. Also thriving were Atlas Comics various horror, and science fiction titles which were for the most part one-off stories, however two characters later became regular mainstays in current Marvel continuity. Those characters being the Gorilla Man and M-11 who appeared issues of Menace. The tales they appeared in were stand-alone tales, but these early origins were incorporated when the characters were retconned in early issues of Agents of Atlas. And of course 1954 saw the continuation of the brief revival of golden age heroes the Sub-Mariner, the Human Torch and Captain America. It was around this time that rival National Comics (later DC Comics) was in the process of reviving and revamping their old heroes, with characters like the Flash and Green Lantern making returns alongside mainstays like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. Atlas saw this and how successful it was attempted to emulate it by bringing back some of their previously popular characters. The characters began appearing in Young Men and Men’s Adventures as well as having their own titles resurrected for a brief period. The Sub-Mariner was mainly handled by series creator Bill Everett who brought back much of Namor’s past history that was largely abandoned during the late 40s during the time that Everett was drafted in World War II. This saw the return of supporting characters such as Princess Fen, Lady Dorma, and Emperor Thakorr. Thakorr was an oddity given he was supposedly killed back in Sub-Mariner Comics #1 back in 1941. His “resurrection” wasn’t explained until the 90s series Saga of the Sub-Mariner which stated he was not killed only seriously injured and was in a coma. Other characters who returned were Betty Dean and Namora. Another return to the series of Namor’s frustrations with both his own people and the surface world, but he did not revert back to his destructive villainous ways that was his trademark in early appearances circa 1939-1940. Namor also gained a recurring villain in Byrrah, the king’s step-son who is still a regular Namor foe to this day. In Namor’s own title stories were also devoted to Namor’s youth focusing on how he learned that he could breathe on land, fly, and had enhanced strength. Meanwhile, the Human Torch and Toro were back fighting crooks and spies (this time Communists instead of Nazis) However, their title soon centered around encounters with alien races in stories that were social commentaries on the state of the world at the time, usually suggesting that although man was reaching for the stars, the conflicts of the time (namely the Korean and Cold Wars) insured that they were not yet ready to explore space. In later tales the two heroes got involved in the case fire following the Korean War, combating gorilla forces and freeing prisoners of war from behind enemy lines. The pair also had a brief supporting cast from Chief Wilson and his daughter Mary/Betty and a regular recurring villain in the Vulture, an atomic scientist with visions of world domination. Captain America and Bucky meanwhile became “commie smashers” fighting communist forces. The Red Skull made a brief reappearance, appearing in a few stories having become a communist agent. Captain America and Bucky mostly fought run-of-the-mill communist spies and regular criminals. The only other notable costumed villains they fought during this period were the Man With No Face (who has recently resurfaced in relatively recent issues of Captain America) and the original Electro. Of course, the Captain America, Bucky and Red Skull depicted in these stories were intended to the the originals, but following the revival of Cap in the 60s with the back story that he was in suspended animation since 1944, this was retconned in Captain America #153, revealing that these were entirely different people. Cap and Bucky were really William Burnside and Jack Monroe, later the Grand Dictator and Nomad respectively, huge Captain America fans who uncovered an impure version of the Super-Soldier Serum and used it to replace the missing and presumed dead originals. The Red Skull turned out to be a communist spy named Albert Malik who co-opted the guise when the original Red Skull went missing. However, these super-hero revivals were not as popular as the ones being done by the competition and in 1954 both the Human Torch and Captain America were cancelled from regular circulation after only three issues each. The Sub-Mariner actually managed to last a little longer seeing publication through to 1955. And that about sums up 1954. 1955 goes back to the post-world war II status quo of westerns and war comics with a smattering of jungle adventures in-between.