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Silver Surfer #34-35 are the most important Thanos apps of all after IM #55

Started by RockMyAmadeus,

218 posts in this topic

joe_collector

joe_collector

Posted
Posted
So we all agree that this is the 1st real appearance of Thanos in the Marvel universe in the same since that Warlock's first appearance was in Marvel Premiere #1.

 

This sounds like something Rocky would post. :roflmao:

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RockMyAmadeus

RockMyAmadeus

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That's true, it does sound like something I'd post...jokingly, like Whet did.

 

More like "trollingly".

 

Vince, I almost never respond to your posts unless you refer to me. Who, here, is the troll....?

 

And in case it's unclear, it's you.

 

Stop posting snide comments about people. It's really that simple.

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jcjames

jcjames

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Obviously the reason the books are important is because Starlin himself got to bring back the character seemingly on his own terms after 10 years of staying dead. (Which at marvel is hard to do)

 

 

It's that, but it's more than that....

 

In a nutshell (yeah, right):

 

The Thanos of the early sagas was, like most Marvel villains, two-dimensional, lacking depth. No one cared about him, because no one had any reason to. He was a standard Marvel foil for the 70's. Cool looking, but that's about it. Even when Starlin wrote him, which was most of the time, he was just a typical villain with power. There are hints of greater things in the Warlock saga, but only hints.

 

Then, Thanos "dies" in Two In One Annual #2, and the character, except for brief cameo flashbacks, essentially disappears from the Marvel U for 13 years (1977-1990)

 

And Marvel, for one reason or another, respected this, and didn't try to use the character (remembering, again, that villains wouldn't really have their heyday of popularity until the 90's.)

 

Along comes Surfer #34...and Starlin brings back his greatest creation, although his greatness wasn't really appreciated at this point. But what he begins in #34 revolutionizes the character, giving him a depth and personality heretofore undeveloped. Even though the Thanos Quest is a retread of an idea that Starlin initially had in the 70's, this time it connects with an audience in a way that it hadn't before. The things that Starlin puts the Surfer through, via Thanos, not only brings Thanos back as a major player, but rescues the Surfer from boring obscurity (which threatened his series in the late 80's.)

 

And then came Infinity Gauntlet.

 

Again, though this idea was a retread, it is fleshed out and expanded in a way that made it the smash summer crossover hit of 1991...and launched multiple new series, and a new cosmic bent in the Marvel U that had been lacking since the late 70's. Throughout the 80's, the Marvel U had been decidedly earth-centric, with not very many cosmic, star spanning sagas...again, until Infinity Gauntlet, which spawned Inifnity War, Crusade, and a host of related titles.

 

It was THIS incarnation of Thanos that the audience connected with, likely due to the rise of both the heroic villain and the anti-hero of the late 80's. It certainly helped that Starlin now had the help of two decades in the business behind him, giving him ideas he hadn't had before, and the talent and skill to develop these characters in ways that were very well received.

 

What's more, the character wasn't retired after Starlin left the titles, but continued to be a presence, however small, in the Marvel U to the present day.

 

And now, in the midst of the 2010's, Thanos has re-emerged as a potent figure in the Marvel U, and has made such an impact that he is certain to be the main villain of a major Marvel motion picture.

 

It wouldn't have happened if not for Infinity Gauntlet. And Infinity Gauntlet wouldn't have happened without the Thanos Quest. And the Thanos Quest wouldn't have happened without Silver Surfer #34.

 

For good or for ill, Thanos' emergence as a major villain in the Marvel U can be traced all the way back to that little mag that hardly anyone noticed, Silver Surfer #34.

 

Don't misunderstand...his early appearances are fun. They're not awful. Warlock #10 is especially fun. But, clearly, the focus for Starlin in those days was NOT Thanos....it was his "flawed hero" concept, whether it was Captain Marvel, or Warlock, or even Spidey and the Avengers. That's where his focus was, then. Thanos was only the foil (and a ripoff of Darkseid!)

 

But when Surfer #34 came around, and after....it was all about Thanos.

 

And that's why, after IM #55, SS #34-35, which brings the character back after a long hiatus, and begins Thanos' trek to Marvel U superstardom, are the most important Thanos appearances of all.

 

Had Thanos NOT appeared in the 70's, I have little doubt that Thanos would be hailed as one of the single greatest creations of the Copper Age, and those books would be worth more than NM #87, 98, X-Men #266, or any of the other Copper Age first appearances.

 

lNEg8.gif

 

 

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joe_collector

joe_collector

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And whoever created it (I cringe to even look) should be committed.

 

My God, Thanos was the man in the 70's, throughout the Iron Man, Captain Marvel, Warlock and Avengers appearances, and the only reason he faded was because he was DEAD and in those days, Marvel kept them dead.

 

I can only hope this thread is a joke.

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vaillant

vaillant

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Isnt Captain Marvel #33 and Warlock #10 much more important than the Silver Surfer issues? (shrug)

 

Not if you started collecting comics in 1990. :roflmao:

Right, not "reading", "collecting", because that was the attitude which brought so much damage: collecting before reading, or collecting by some sort of short term nostalgia alone.

 

I have yet to read the Infinity Gauntlet but the Silver Surfer stories were not at the same level of the original work on Warlock, no matter if the focus was on Thanos or not. And Lim's artwork was very very limited, not even remotely comparable to the average level of quality of the 1970s books. :shrug:

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