Which of Jack Kirby's DC creations could be thought of as a break-out character? The New Gods have had at least three revivals since the cancellation of the original Fourth World titles; Mr. Miracle also has made at least three comebacks. Every decade or so, Kamandi is revived. Etrigan the Demon has probably been one of the most enduring, even appearing in animation ( 2017's Justice League Dark, for instance, being a recent example ).
When it comes to the King's Marvel creations of the 70s however, none have really had legs, have they? When the Eternals movie is released, we'll see if Kirby's Bronze Age opus really has any more cultural impact that the Inhumans, where Jack previously explored ideas of genetic engineering, isolationist policies and mythology.
As we saw last time, Machine Man made his debut in an era where "cute" robots were rife in pop culture and Marvel was also exploring Japanese mecha and Kaiju characters in Shogun Warriors and Godzilla. Even so, he only managed to sustain nine issues.
However, not unlike the Kree Captain Marvel, who at least had a dynamic costume design, Machine Man was revived by master stylist Steve Ditko. I don't know what the circumstances were- whether Ditko had any investment in reintroducing a Kirby title or if it were simply "work for hire". However, the question of identity and one's place in society would seem to chime with some of Ditko's own visually bizarre heroes.
Eight months after his cancellation, Machine Man experienced "Renewal". His multi-coloured eyes were changed and his in-built, modular gadgets largely removed, leaving him with abilities not dissimilar to Mr. Fantastic or the Elongated Man. He gains a new antagonist in the form of "robot scourge" Senator Brickman and a new writer: Marv Wolfman.
Maybe that's another new antagonist. Readers of this blog will be aware that I intensely dislike Wolfman's writing. I met him decades ago in Glasgow at the height of publicity for Crisis on Infinite Earths and he was perfectly civil and accommodating, I just can't bear his sickly sentimentality, his melodramatic use of repetition and his complete absence of a sense of humour. I find his work cliche, awkwardly expressed and overblown.
Fortunately, he only produces half of the ten issues in this revival.
Wolfman gives MM a new status quo at the offices of Delmar Insurance and a couple of Lois and Lana characters: Pamela Quinn and self-styled "swinger" Maggie Jones whose liberated sexuality is implied in some rather sleazy dialogue. Also, Wolfman's pop culture references- Jackie Onassis, Raquel Welch- seem extremely dated as the Eighties beckon.
An appearance by Brock Jones, Maggie's brother aka the Torpedo ( a Z-list hero in a flying battlesuit, who had a solo adventure in 1977-78 issues of Marvel Premiere) is teased. It doesn't happen. I don't think the Torpedo, another insurance salesman, would've added anything to the series anyway.
A new technological villain, the Binary Bug, is killed in his first appearance in an electrical accident and the Blofeld-like Kublai Khan is also killed off two issues later. I'm not entirely sure if the "reversed polarity" which does him in is a Doctor Who reference. Nor am I sure whether the fate of sculptor Anton Gregorian-pitched out of Khan's dirigible hq by a hidden chute- inspired a similar scene in 1985's A View to A Kill.
Khan's pulpy henchman Tong, whose nerves have been severed so he can feel no pain , reminds me of Dr. Sun's deformed henchman Juno. Khan's plan to transfer his brain into Aaron Stack's robot body is not unlike Sun's plans for Dracula back in 1974.
Aaron attends another party ( I can't tell if Wolfman knew about Tracy Warner's fancy dress party in #5) and this time he gets drunk and ends up with a hangover (Hee Hee! Pissed robot!!). I can tell however that Wolfman or the letter thinks a "tract" of land is a "track" of land. Neither moment improves my opinion of his work.
There are two other Wolfman stories in the Khan arc. The first I saw in part in the 1980 Forces in Combat UK weekly. Machine Man is the catalyst for the evolution of five super-beings. Wolfman went on to create a similar psionic entity, the Futurist in the March 1980 FF. Of course, Kirby's High Evolutionary had already gone down this Roddenberry-esque path in the 60s (as did Wein's Alpha the Ultimate Mutant in the 70s.) At least the Gods in #12 have a cute design, a little like Firestorm.
In his last issue, Wolfman ramps up Brickman's political threat while other malignant individuals manipulate poor Barry Witherspoon, the victim of an experiment gone wrong. The zombie-like Witherspoon, "The Man Who Could Walk Thru Walls", is used to implicate MM in crimes he didn't commit. Happily for Barry, his robotic condition is cured. This was a little like Spidey's "Just a Guy Named Joe" and Lon Chaney vehicle, Man-Made Monster.
The hokey, dull plots are enlivened by Ditko's designs and sense of pace but they're no improvement on the Kirby issues. Wolfman ended his contract at Marvel - he talks about an editor in chief with whom he had conflicts- could that have been the controversial Jim Shooter? In any case, with George Perez, Wolfman co-created the New Teen Titans and for a time rivalled the X-Men as the most popular super-hero team of the early 80s. In fact, he created a number of enduring characters at DC-Raven, Slade Wilson, Starfire, Cyborg, Terra- but he certainly didn't light a fire under Aaron Stack.
In the next post, we'll look at how Machine Man developed in Wolfman's wake. I'll also discuss the Avengers leading man of the Seventies, Marvel's answer to Mr. Spock. Upcoming posts will feature more Star Trek too ( coincidentally another series Marv Wolfman worked on for Marvel).
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