Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Follow the Leader: Episode 65: Bronze Age Time Capsule!


Martinex1: Another episode of a favorite feature... Follow the Leader!  Who will jump on early with a comment to get our conversation rolling?  What will it be?   Music, Television, Comics, Bad Habits...who knows?  Only the Leader knows!

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are asked to contribute to a time capsule that will be buried for 100 years. You donate one comic that perfectly represents the Bronze Age - which one would you choose?
There's a catch to this question: you MUST HAVE OWNED the comic you choose. It doesn't matter if you no longer own it but at some point you must have owned the comic you choose!

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Colin That is one awesome question. I'm speechless at the moment!!!

Anonymous said...


My knee-jerk reaction is to pick a favourite classic like Daredevil #181 or X-Men #137 but reading the question closely, I'm trying to think more in terms of Bronze Age representation.

After only a bit more thought, I'm going to go with:

Marvel Two-In-One Annual #2 by Jim Starlin: Spider-Man, Thing, and Avengers vs. Thanos.

It's got crisp clean art, bombastic super-heroics, characters in a shared universe coming together, trippy cosmic ideas, fun dialogue and melodramatic captions, nods towards not-so-innocent death and darkness, and the resolution to a good-old fashioned multi-part "saga" where a major villain dies, and another dead hero (Warlock!) comes back to save the day.

All that, and plus it's just a darned good read!

So that's one...

-david p.

Charlie Horse 47 said...

I'm going with Luke Cage Hero for Hire #1. It represents the growing awareness of how "the other half lives" in so, so many ways (and I'll stop there to avoid politics).

Dr. O said...

Amazing Spider-Man #248 - a little late, sure - but between the fun Thunderball main story an the CLASSIC "Kid Who Collected Spider-Man" back-up story - I think it is great.

Redartz said...

Great topic, Colin!

As Dr. O picked my first choice (Good call, Osvaldo- perhaps my favorite Spider-Man issue ever ), here's another: Giant Size Super Stars 1, with the Thing vs. Hulk. Fun done-in-one with nice art. It represents the Bronze age experimentation with different formats. With Thundra and Medusa prominently featured, it shows some advances in gender issues. Oh, and did I mention it has Thing vs. Hulk?

Edo Bosnar said...

ASM #248 is a pretty good choice, and so is X-men #137 (although that one would require at least a few of the preceding issues).
However, I'm going to go with X-men Annual #3, a.k.a. the best annual ever. Dramatic yet fun and action-packed story, with damn near perfect art by Perez and Austin. If any single issue comes close to encapsulating everything great about the Bronze Age, it's this one.

jeirich said...

The one that leaped immediately to mind is Captain America #175.

Honorable mention goes to Green Lantern/Green Arrow #86 (you really need to include #85 as well, but since we're limited to one . . .)

Mike Wilson said...

Hmmm, interesting question. I'll go the DC route and say Batman #244, with the duel in the desert between Batman and Ra's Al Ghul. Great story, great art, and it heralds Batman's (and the Bronze Age in general's) return to darker stories after the campiness of the 60s.

Martinex1 said...

Great question. This is tough; I want to lean toward one of my favorites but those don’t scream Bronze Age enough (or at all).

Not sure if this counts but I’m going to go with a Treasury Edition - just the big oversized craziness of it all could probably have only existed In the Bronze Age! The only one I recall owning though was the Marvel Team Up Treasury focused on Iron Man and early X-Men alongside Spidey. It is #18 with the Band on the Run homage cover.

Doug said...

Excellent question, Colin! And Martinex, I love the Treasury suggestion. I might add my pick, which would be MTE #1, the first Spidey Treasury.

So many comics to choose from. My main problem is that when I think of characteristics that are somewhat unique to the Bronze Age, such as the expansion of the use of monsters and their ilk, B&W magazines, Conan and various copycats, etc. I did not have much of that when I was a child. I've certainly gotten caught up since, but back in the mid-70s I just didn't buy those things.

I am going to toss out a handful of comics for your rumination, and these come to you simply because they are among the oldest Marvels I can recall picking off the drug store shelf myself: Fantastic Four 161, Avengers 130, Amazing Spider-Man 146, and Marvel Two-In-One 7. I don't know that any of those scream "Bronze Age!!", but they hold great sentimental value for me and are indicative of my buying habits when I was 7-8 years old.

Doug

Jack Alberti said...

Over on Twitter I posted my contribution as a Marvel Medallion - the Spider-Man coin would be my choice. But it seems the question regards a comic. In that case, I have to go with Amazing Spider-Man #136. For a few reasons - one of my first comic books, love the cover, love the story, and it is a key issue (1st Harry as the Goblin).

Dr. O said...

Maybe Giant Size X-Men #1 would be a good choice, too. I think a better choice than #137, even if not a better comic.

Martinex1 said...

Over at our twitter site, there are additional great suggestions for other things to go into the time capsule from the aforementioned medallion to Megos. I know it’s not just comics but pop over to @backinthebronze for some interesting thoughts.

ColinBray said...

The 1976 Marvel Convention programme. Gorgeously Bronze.

William said...

I think I have to go with GIANT SIZE X-MEN #1. It is one of the key Bronze-Age books. It updated a Silver-Age team of superheroes and added more diversity to the team, as well as a more international line-up which represented Marvel's expanding influence on pop culture in other countries throughout the world.

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