This post starts a new series on the site that focuses on the MCU from the 1970s. I don’t know how many parts it will be but it’ll be a few. Marvel actually started putting out stuff in the 60’s (which believe it or not I was to young for and started watching the reruns in the 70’s). However, they really started cooking in the 70’s & 80’s and thats what I’m going to discuss here because well, dagnabbit I actually remember it! I’m also doing a series of articles on Dc Comics media in the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s because there was a lot of it but more on that later.
Man, I have to say that I love the MCU. You see I grew up in the 70’s, reading all the crazy Marvel titles that all this stuff is based on. My mother was actually a teacher during that time and to make me form a reading habit she would bring home stacks of this stuff to keep me out of the streets and reading constantly. Well, half of that worked. I read constantly but at that time tapes from the Brooklyn and Bronx began to find their way into my neighborhood. This was HipHop before it actually hit records. The older guys in the neighborhood used to bring out big sound systems into the park and plug everything into the parks light poles. Well, that was it for me. THAT drew me into the streets and I was exposed to … well, everything. However comics kept my reading level at least 2 or 3 grades higher than it was supposed to be.
Officially the MCU started in 2008 with the release of Iron.Man starring Robert Downey, Jr.
Man, I must have watched that movie 100 times. You see, I had a book called the “Origin of Marvel Comics” . It came with another book in a slick 4 color case called “the Son of Origins of Marvel Comics”.
These books collected the first issues of various famous Marvel comics presumably so that you could see how the stories actually looked and how they started. They happened to contain the origin of Iron Man. The movie added a whole bunch of new stuff but the basic story is EXACTLY the same. I think the only core thing that they changed was the Vietcong to the Middle Eastern factions as the enemy that Tony escapes from.
Now I really loved the MCU but I have to credit a movie that came out much earlier and was a success in terms of setting up the MCU and all the movies that followed it. Blade!
It came out during a kind of Super Hero movie lull. I mean we had Superman the movie and Batman much earlier but some terrible stuff came out after that and Blade came busting through, unapologetically with innovative special effects and exceptional filmmaking. It pretty much saved the genre.
However, I’m an old fart. I can remember a time when all we had was a set of cartoons, one by Hanna Barbera, the Fantastic Four, and one made by a company named Grantray-Lawrence Animation which made a Spiderman cartoon. And let’s not forget “The Marvel Superheroes”!
This show was actually made with the use of actual comics! The makers would actually take artwork straight off the pages of a comic book and then the animators would use limited animation and voice overs to bring the stories to life. Admittedly these were probably my favorite because this show was the closest thing to what I had read in the books. In terms of Marvel comics They made up the bulk of Marvel comics in the media.
Now, those cartoons were made in the late 60’s but they really became popular when they were rerun in the 70s & 80s. if I really want to go back to when I was a tot I’d have mention the Electric Company program. It was the first live action rendition of Spiderman that I can remember and I was absolutely thrilled whenever this guy came on the screen. Now, they didn’t depict scenes from the comics the way the animation did but they did present the character in a comic book setting. He even appeared in panels like a comic book! I’m going to paste a segment from the educational show below so, that you get an idea of what I’m talking about.
I’m going to leave this post right here. In the next installment we’re going to move into Marvel live action stuff which actually made it into prime time and was actually pretty successful… until it wasn’t. See you next time true believers!
Whew… Forgive me Stan…
L
