More On The Man Of Steel Reboot

When is a reboot not a reboot? When the reboot actually started 2 years ago! DC Comics announced a New Era with the release of the 2018 Man of Steel mini series which just wrapped up Wednesday. We all thought this was another new beginning but actually they are picking up on the Superman from 2016’s Rebirth Reboot of the whole DC Universe. So what’s new, you might ask as we did? Well, as near as we have been able to figure out, it’s mostly the fact that the series has a new writer by the name of Brian Michael Bendis.   Bendis is the award winning comics creator, who just happens to be one of the most successful writers who also, for the last 20 years or so, worked mainly for Marvel Comics. Brian’s books have ranked near the top of the nationwide comic and graphic novel sales charts for most of that time period. Most of that time he lead  a renaissance for Marvel’s Avengers titles. He has been instrumental in bringing you the New Avengers,  Avengers, Mighty Avengers and Dark Avengers. He has also been the primary source for such fan fav projects as  Avengers Versus X-Men, House Of M, Secret War, Secret Invasion, and Siege. This is no small coo which DC publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee have pulled off. But don’t get us wrong, this isn’t the only newness of the new Superman line up. There are new characters, new villains and more or less a new direction for the Man of Steel as the mini series by the same name has established.

Most Mega Minions rate it at least an 8 on a scale of 10. We would have given it a 10 but we thought the plot could have been a little tighter and one of the main plot threads, the Metropolis Fire Attacks did not even get close to a resolution. We are sure that was meant as a dangling plot thread to be picked up in the Superman titles but come on, DC! A six issue mini-series which will also be a collected trade paperback should have some closure. Don’t ya think?

We gave you the premise for #1 last week but here it is again ALONG WITH the plot synopsis for each issue: 

“Man of Steel (2018) #1  – A new era begins for Superman as a threat from his earliest origins reemerges to destroy the Last Son of Krypton. As Superman struggles to come to grips with what has happened to his wife and son, he must also face a new threat that’s determined to burn down Metropolis.

Man of Steel (2018) #2  – With an arsonist loose in Metropolis, Superman’s powers are almost useless in finding the culprit. And back at the Daily Planet, everyone wants to know what’s going on with Lois Lane. How can Clark hold on to the secret of what happened to Lois and Jon much longer? 

Man of Steel (2018) #3  – The merciless killer and zealot calling himself Rogol Zaar has searched the cosmos for Superman-and when he reaches the Fortress of Solitude, his actions will cut Superman to the core.

Man of Steel (2018) #4  – Rogol Zaar has committed a string of atrocities across the cosmos that have led him to the Fortress of Solitude-and now Superman and Supergirl plan to crush his schemes! But are even two Kryptonians enough to stop his sinister machinations? 

Man of Steel (2018) #5  – Beaten by Rogol Zaar, his city burning at the hands of an unknown arsonist and the secret of what happened to Lois and Jon drawing closer to revelation-even Superman feels powerless against all that stands before him.

Man of Steel (2018) #6  – The fate of Lois Lane and Jon Kent is revealed! Metropolis’ survival hangs in the balance! And Superman must somehow put an end to Rogol Zaar’s rampage! It’s do-or-die time for the Man of Steel in the final chapter of this explosive miniseries!”  (Source: Comixology.com)

Man of Steel (2018) #1-6 – Page Count 24,  Print and Digital formats available. Release Date May 30, 2018, Age Rating 12+ Only.

If you want to save a little money wait until October and buy the collected edition:

“Man of Steel (2018) Collected Trade Paperback  Collects issues #1-6 and stories from DC Nation #0. – Genre-defining author Brian Michael Bendis makes his triumphant debut writing Superman in Man of Steel!

In the aftermath of Dark Nights: Metal, the Man of Steel has been challenged like never before. As he faces his greatest challenge to date, the status quo for Superman will be changed forever! With an all-star team of illustrators including Ivan Reis, Evan “Doc” Shaner, Ryan Sook, Kevin Maguire, Adam Hughes and Jason Fabok, Bendis takes us back to the roots of the Man of Steel and questions the very foundations set 80 years ago by Joe Siegel and Jerry Shuster!

Brian Michael Bendis, the scribe behind some of the greatest comics of all time, including Ultimate Spider-Man, New Avengers and Daredevil, dives headlong into the DC Universe in this precursor to his debuts on both Superman and Action Comics.” (Source: Comixology.com)

It is with great sadness we have learned of another of Marvel Comics founding father’s passing. Steve Ditko died Friday, June 29, 2018 at the age of 90. As far as it is known, he never married and had no surviving children at the time of his death. He did have a nephew named after him. We mourn his loss with his family and the rest of fandom and at the same time we want to give tribute to his lifetime of accomplishment. He will never be forgotten.

We will start with his bio from the fine folks at Wikipedia and include several of our favorite Ditko drawings and photos.

Steve Ditko 1927–2018

Co-Creator of Spider-Man

Stephen J. Ditko was born November 2, 1927 and passed away on June 29, 2018. He was an American comics artist and writer best known as the artist and co-creator, with Stan Lee, of the Marvel Comics superheroes Spider-Man and Doctor Strange.

Ditko studied under Batman artist Jerry Robinson at the Cartoonist and Illustrators School in New York City. He began his professional career in 1953, working in the studio of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, beginning as an inker and coming under the influence of artist Mort Meskin. During this time, he then began his long association with Charlton Comics, where he did work in the genres of science fiction, horror, and mystery. He also co-created the superhero Captain Atom in 1960.

During the 1950s, Ditko also drew for Atlas Comics, a forerunner of Marvel Comics. He went on to contribute much significant work to Marvel. In 1966, after being the exclusive artist on The Amazing Spider-Man and the “Doctor Strange” feature in Strange Tales, Ditko left Marvel for reasons he never specified.

Ditko continued to work for Charlton and also DC Comics, including a revamp of the long-running character the Blue Beetle, and creating or co-creating the Question, the Creeper, Shade the Changing Man, and Hawk and Dove. Ditko also began contributing to small independent publishers, where he created Mr. A, a hero reflecting the influence of Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism. Ditko largely declined to give interviews, saying he preferred to communicate through his work.

Ditko was inducted into the comics industry’s Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1990, and into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 1994.

Ditko learned that his idol, Batman artist Jerry Robinson, who was teaching at the Cartoonists and Illustrators School (later the School of Visual Arts) in New York City. Moving there in 1950, he enrolled in the art school under the G.I. Bill. Robinson found the young student “a very hard worker who really focused on his drawing” and someone who “could work well with other writers as well as write his own stories and create his own characters”, and he helped Ditko acquire a scholarship for the following year.”He was in my class for two years, four or five days a week, five hours a night. It was very intense.” Robinson, who invited artists and editors to speak with his class, once brought in Stan Lee, then editor of Marvel Comics’ 1950s precursor Atlas Comics and, “I think that was when Stan first saw Steve’s work.”

Ditko began professionally illustrating comic books in early 1953, drawing writer Bruce Hamilton’s science-fiction story “Stretching Things” for the Key Publications imprint Stanmor Publications, which sold the story to Ajax/Farrell, where it finally found publication in Fantastic Fears #5 (cover-dated Feb. 1954). Ditko’s first published work was his second professional story, the six-page “Paper Romance” in Daring Love #1 (Oct. 1953),published by the Key imprint Gillmor Magazines.

Shortly afterward, Ditko found work at the studio of writer-artists Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, who had created Captain America and other characters. Beginning as an inker on backgrounds, Ditko was soon working with and learning from Mort Meskin, an artist whose work he had long admired. “Meskin was fabulous,” Ditko once recalled. “I couldn’t believe the ease with which he drew: strong compositions, loose pencils, yet complete; detail without clutter. I loved his stuff”.^[12] Ditko’s known assistant work includes aiding inker Meskin on the Jack Kirby pencil work of Harvey Comics’ Captain 3-D #1 (Dec. 1953). For his own third published story, Ditko penciled and inked the six-page “A Hole in His Head” in Black Magic vol. 4, #3 (Dec. 1953), published by Simon & Kirby’s Crestwood Publications imprint Prize Comics.

Ditko then began a long association with the Derby, Connecticut publisher Charlton Comics, a low-budget division of a company best known for song-lyric magazines. Beginning with the cover of The Thing! #12 (Feb. 1954) and the eight-page vampire story “Cinderella” in that issue, Ditko would continue to work intermittently for Charlton until the company’s demise in 1986, producing science fiction, horror and mystery stories, as well as co-creating Captain Atom, with writer Joe Gill, in Space Adventures #33 (March 1960). He first went on hiatus from the company, and comics altogether, in mid-1954, when he contracted tuberculosis and returned to his parents’ home in Johnstown to recuperate.

Marvel Days

After he recovered and moved back to New York City in late 1955, Ditko began drawing for Atlas Comics, the 1950s precursor of Marvel Comics, beginning with the four-page “There’ll Be Some Changes Made” in Journey into Mystery #33 (April 1956); this debut tale would be reprinted in Marvel’s Curse of the Weird #4 (March 1994). Ditko would go on to contribute a large number of stories, many considered classic, to Atlas/Marvel’s Strange Tales and the newly launched Amazing Adventures, Strange Worlds, Tales of Suspense and Tales to Astonish, issues of which would typically open with a Kirby-drawn monster story, followed by one or two twist-ending thrillers or sci-fi tales drawn by Don Heck, Paul Reinman, or Joe Sinnott, all capped by an often-surreal, sometimes self-reflexive short by Ditko and writer-editor Stan Lee.

These Lee-Ditko short stories proved so popular that Amazing Adventures was reformatted to feature such stories exclusively beginning with issue #7 (Dec. 1961), when the comic was rechristened Amazing Adult Fantasy, a name intended to reflect its more “sophisticated” nature, as likewise the new tagline “The magazine that respects your intelligence”. Lee in 2009 described these “short, five-page filler strips that Steve and I did together”, originally “placed in any of our comics that had a few extra pages to fill”, as “odd fantasy tales that I’d dream up with O. Henry-type endings.” Giving an early example of what would later be known as the “Marvel Method” of writer-artist collaboration, Lee said, “All I had to do was give Steve a one-line description of the plot and he’d be off and running. He’d take those skeleton outlines I had given him and turn them into classic little works of art that ended up being far cooler than I had any right to expect.”

The Creation of Spider-Man

The original cover for Amazing Fantasy #15 by Steve Ditko. The published AM #15 cover, which is pictured below, was drawn by Kirby and inked by Ditko.

After Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Stan Lee obtained permission from publisher Martin Goodman to create a new “ordinary teen” superhero named “Spider-Man”, Lee originally approached his leading artist, Jack Kirby. Kirby told Lee about his own 1950s character conception, variously called the Silver Spider and Spiderman, in which an orphaned boy finds a magic ring that gives him super powers. Comics historian Greg Theakston says Lee and Kirby “immediately sat down for a story conference” and Lee afterward directed Kirby to flesh out the character and draw some pages. “A day or two later”, Kirby showed Lee the first six pages, and, as Lee recalled, “I hated the way he was doing it. Not that he did it badly — it just wasn’t the character I wanted; it was too heroic”.

Lee turned to Ditko, who developed a visual motif Lee found satisfactory, although Lee would later replace Ditko’s original cover with one penciled by Kirby. Ditko said, “The Spider-Man pages Stan showed me were nothing like the (eventually) published character. In fact, the only drawings of Spider-Man were on the splash [i.e., page 1] and at the end [where] Kirby had the guy leaping at you with a web gun… Anyway, the first five pages took place in the home, and the kid finds a ring and turns into Spider-Man.”

The iconic AM #15 cover by Kirby and Ditko which introduced the world to Spider-Man!

Ditko also recalled that, “One of the first things I did was to work up a costume. A vital, visual part of the character. I had to know how he looked … before I did any breakdowns. For example: A clinging power so he wouldn’t have hard shoes or boots, a hidden wrist-shooter versus a web gun and holster, etc. … I wasn’t sure Stan would like the idea of covering the character’s face but I did it because it hid an obviously boyish face. It would also add mystery to the character….”

Much earlier, in a rare contemporaneous account, Ditko described his and Lee’s contributions in a mail interview with Gary Martin published in Comic Fan #2 (Summer 1965): “Stan Lee thought the name up. I did costume, web gimmick on wrist & spider signal”. He added he would continue drawing Spider-Man “if nothing better comes along.” That same year, he expressed to the fanzine Voice of Comicdom, regarding a poll of “Best Liked” fan-created comics, “It seems a shame, since comics themselves have so little variety of stories and styles that you would deliberately restrict your own creative efforts to professional comics[‘] shallow range. What is ‘Best Liked’ by most readers is what they are most familiar in seeing and any policy based on readers likes has to end up with a lot of look-a-like (sic) strips. You have a great opportunity to show everyone a whole new range of ideas, unlimited types of stories and styles—why FLUB it!”

From 1958 to either 1966, or 1968  (accounts differ), Ditko shared a Manhattan studio at 43rd Street and Eighth Avenue with noted fetish artist Eric Stanton, an art-school classmate. When either artist was under deadline pressure, it was not uncommon for them to pitch in and help the other with his assignment.  Ditko biographer Blake Bell, without citing sources, said, “At one time in history, Ditko denied ever touching Stanton’s work, even though Stanton himself said they would each dabble in each other’s art; mainly spot-inking”,  and the introduction to one book of Stanton’s work says, “Eric Stanton drew his pictures in India ink, and they were then hand-coloured by Ditko”.  In a 1988 interview with Theakston, Stanton recalled that although his contribution to Spider-Man was “almost nil”, he and Ditko had “worked on storyboards together and I added a few ideas. But the whole thing was created by Steve on his own… I think I added the business about the webs coming out of his hands”.

Spider-Man debuted in Amazing Fantasy #15 (Aug. 1962), the final issue of that science-fiction/fantasy anthology series. When the issue proved to be a top seller, Spider-Man was given his own series, The Amazing Spider-Man.  Lee and Ditko’s collaboration on the series saw the creation of many of the character’s best known antagonists including Doctor Octopus in issue #3 (July 1963);  the Sandman in #4 (Sept. 1963);  the Lizard in #6 (Nov. 1963);  Electro in #9 (March 1964);  and the Green Goblin in #14 (July 1964).  Ditko eventually demanded credit for the plotting he was contributing under the Marvel Method. Lee concurred, and starting with #25 (June 1965), Ditko received plot credit for the stories. 

One of the most celebrated issues of the Lee-Ditko run is #33 (Feb. 1966), the third part of the story arc “If This Be My Destiny…!”, and featuring the dramatic scene of Spider-Man, through force of will and thoughts of family, escaping from being pinned by heavy machinery. Comics historian Les Daniels noted, “Steve Ditko squeezes every ounce of anguish out of Spider-Man’s predicament, complete with visions of the uncle he failed and the aunt he has sworn to save.” Peter David observed, “After his origin, this two-page sequence from Amazing Spider-Man #33 is perhaps the best-loved sequence from the Stan Lee/Steve Ditko era.”  Steve Saffel stated the “full page Ditko image from The Amazing Spider-Man #33 is one of the most powerful ever to appear in the series and influenced writers and artists for many years to come.”  Matthew K. Manning wrote that “Ditko’s illustrations for the first few pages of this Lee story included what would become one of the most iconic scenes in Spider-Man’s history.”  The story was chosen as #15 in the 100 Greatest Marvels of All Time poll of Marvel’s readers in 2001. Editor Robert Greenberger wrote in his introduction to the story, “These first five pages are a modern-day equivalent to Shakespeare as Parker’s soliloquy sets the stage for his next action. And with dramatic pacing and storytelling, Ditko delivers one of the great sequences in all comics.”

More at Marvel

Ditko also penciled the Iron Man feature in Tales of Suspense #47–49 (Nov. 1963 – Jan. 1964), with various inkers. The first of these debuted the initial version of Iron Man’s modern red-and-golden armor, though whether Ditko or cover-penciler and principal character designer Jack Kirby designed the costume is uncertain.

Though often overshadowed by his Amazing Spider-Man work, Ditko’s “Doctor Strange” artwork has been equally acclaimed, for its surrealistic mystical landscapes and increasingly psychedelic visuals that helped make the feature a favorite of college students. “People who read ‘Doctor Strange’ thought people at Marvel must be heads [i.e. drug users],” recalled then-associate editor and former Doctor Strange writer Roy Thomas in 1971, “because they had had similar experiences high on mushrooms. But … I don’t use hallucinogens, nor do I think any artists do.”

Eventually Lee & Ditko would take Strange into ever-more-abstract realms. In an epic 17-issue story arc in Strange Tales #130–146 (March 1965 – July 1966), Lee and Ditko introduced the cosmic character Eternity, who personified the universe and was depicted as a silhouette whose outlines are filled with the cosmos. As historian Bradford W. Wright describes,

The cartoonist and fine artist Seth in 2003 described Ditko’s style as “oddball” for mainstream comics. Whereas Kirby’s stuff clearly appealed to a boy’s sensibility because there was so much raw power, Ditko’s work was really delicate and cartoony. There was a sense of design to it. You can always recognize anything that Ditko designed because it’s always flowery. There is a lot of embroidered detail in the art, which is almost psychedelic.”

Whichever feature he drew, Ditko’s idiosyncratic, cleanly detailed, instantly recognizable art style, emphasizing mood and anxiety, found great favor with readers. The character of Spider-Man and his troubled personal life meshed well with Ditko’s own interests, which Lee eventually acknowledged by giving the artist plotting credits on the latter part of their 38-issue run. But after four years on the title, Ditko left Marvel; he and Lee had not been on speaking terms for some time, with art and editorial changes handled through intermediaries. The details of the rift remain uncertain, even to Lee, who confessed in 2003, “I never really knew Steve on a personal level.” Ditko later claimed it was Lee who broke off contact and disputed the long-held belief  that the disagreement was over the true identity of the Green Goblin: “Stan never knew what he was getting in my Spider-Man stories and covers until after [production manager] Sol Brodsky took the material from me … so there couldn’t have been any disagreement or agreement, no exchanges … no problems between us concerning the Green Goblin or anything else from before issue #25 to my final issues”.  Spider-Man successor artist John Romita, in a 2010 deposition, recalled that Lee and Ditko “ended up not being able to work together because they disagreed on almost everything, cultural, social, historically, everything, they disagreed on characters….” 

A friendly farewell was given to Ditko in the “Bullpen Bulletins” of comics cover-dated July 1966, including Fantastic Four #52: “Steve recently told us he was leaving for personal reasons. After all these years, we’re sorry to see him go, and we wish the talented guy success with his future endeavors.”

Regardless, said Lee in 2007, “Quite a few years ago I met him up at the Marvel offices when I was last in New York. And we spoke; he’s a hell of a nice guy and it was very pleasant. … I haven’t heard from him since that meeting.”