THE EVERLASTING FIRST: Quick Takes For Q [comics edition]

Continuing a look back at my first exposure to a number of rock 'n' roll acts and superheroes (or other denizens of print or periodical publication), some of which were passing fancies, and some of which I went on to kinda like. They say you never forget your first time; that may be true, but it's the subsequent visits--the second time, the fourth time, the twentieth time, the hundredth time--that define our relationships with the things we cherish. Ultimately, the first meeting is less important than what comes after that. But every love story still needs to begin with that first kiss.




We'll eschew alphabetization for a moment. Today's first entry has to be:

THE QUESTION



The passing of artist Steve Ditko this month brought Ditko's name into the general public's awareness for, really, the first time. Although Ditko is credited as the co-creator of The Amazing Spider-Man, most folks think of ol' Spidey as the product of writer Stan Lee's imagination. Comics fans and historians have had a greater knowledge of the integral role Ditko played in crafting the wall-crawler we know, and not merely in terms of the character's look. Much of the zip and attitude of the early Spider-Man stories came directly from Ditko, and that initial run remains unique, and it's still my favorite run of one of my many favorite characters.

Spider-Man was ultimately Ditko's best-known (co-) creation. Lee and Ditko also conjured up Dr. Strange, and Ditko later fled to Marvel's rival DC Comics to create The Creeper and Hawk & Dove. His most emblematic creation was the independent character Mr. A, an Ayn Rand-inspired work which reflected Ditko's own objectivist beliefs. In between his unhappy departure from Marvel around 1966 and the beginning of his brief stint at DC in '68, Ditko returned to Charlton Comics, where he'd done a lot of assignments before Spider-Man, Spider-Man started doing whatever a spider can. "Returned" might be the wrong term; I think Ditko was freelancing on Charlton's revived Captain Atom (which he'd co-created back in 1960 with writer Joe Gill) while still toiling in Stan Lee's virtual bullpen. In any case, Ditko's 1966-68 Charlton output included a slightly revamped Captain Atom (with a new female supporting character called Nightshade), and two brand-new Ditko characters: a new version of The Blue Beetle, and the stern hero who appeared as a back-up strip in The Blue Beetle: The Question.



I'm not sure of when I first encountered Ditko's work. I first noticed the name in late '67/1968 DC house ads, proclaiming his involvement with The Creeper and The Hawk and The Dove. Before that, although Ditko was no longer working for Marvel by the time I started reading Marvels, I'm sure I saw reprints of his earlier work, Spider-Man in Marvel Tales, Dr. Strange in Marvel Collectors' Item Classics, even (I think) Ditko's work on The Incredible Hulk in a Hulk paperback. Given the spotty nature of Charlton's distribution, it's likely I saw The Creeper's debut in DC's Showcase # 73 in 1968 before I saw any of Ditko's Charlton stuff.

But I can tell you exactly where I was introduced to The Question: in the pages of The Blue Beetle # 5. My copy was coverless, a contraband purchase from Van Patten's Grocery in North Syracuse, but it would have been cover dated November 1968 if it had a cover.



In that issue, The Blue Beetle and The Question team up to face Our Man, a no-account defeatist determined to rid the world of heroes, because heroes create unrealistic standards that normal people can't hope to equal. Holy Fountainhead, Batman! Yeah, The Question was the precursor of  Mr. A's Randian polemic. I'm no fan of Ayn Rand, and I can be relied upon to vote against any politician who espouses Rand's objectivist philosophy. But it worked for me with The Question. Since I was a little kid, I've believed in the concept of heroes, of people in fiction and reality who can rise above limitations and become something better. I acknowledge the need for occasional compromise, for seeking the greater good within practical frameworks. But the idea that there can be heroes, ideals, goals to which we can aspire, perhaps even achieve? I'm fine with that notion. I was fine with The Question in The Blue Beetle # 5. In the '70s, I acquired copies all of Ditko's Blue Beetle and Question material for Charlton, including the former's back-up strips in Captain Atom and the latter's lone featured appearance, as the star of Mysterious Suspense # 1, an even more overtly Randian outing.

Ditko was known to be...I hate to say reclusive, because that may imply an eccentricity I don't intend to suggest. But he was private, resistant to publicity and interviews, generally preferring that his work be allowed to speak for itself. Over the subsequent span of decades, Ditko would work for independent publishers, and he would work again for both DC and Marvel (though never again with Stan Lee). DC wound up purchasing the rights to Charlton's Action Heroes line, but I don't think Ditko ever returned to any of his Charlton creations. It's interesting to me that DC's revival of The Question was written by Dennis O'Neil, who had freelanced at Charlton (as Sergius O'Shaughnessy) and had scripted some of Ditko's DC work on Beware The Creeper. When I was at the Super DC Con in New York in 1976, I heard O'Neil field a question (har!) about his opinion of Ditko's Mr. A. He's all right, O'Neil replied sarcastically, I'd put him up there with Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, if you like those guys. Ouch. It borders on the ironic that O'Neil would later be given charge of Mr. A's predecessor, The Question.

I retain my affection for the Charlton Action Heroes, for Ditko's Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, Nightshade, and The Question, and for non-Ditko heroes like The Peacemaker, Judo Master, and Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt. I wish DC's revivals of these characters (save Thunderbolt, which DC doesn't own) had been more faithful to the originals. If some quirk of space/time probabilities granted me an opportunity to write Justice League Of America, my dream story would have been a Justice League-Justice Society team-up with the original Charlton Action Heroes.

Their prospective foe? Our Man, of course. Because heroes are important. No question there.





QUEEN BEE



Queen Bee, the evil Queen Zazzala, first appeared in Justice League Of America # 23 in 1963, which was before my time as a comics reader. I did eventually read a reprint of her first appearance, but my first Queen Bee story was in 1968's Justice League Of America # 60. To me, that issue was more notable for its guest appearance by Batgirl, the Dominoed Daredoll's only Silver Age appearance in JLA. At the age of eight, I probably had simultaneous crushes on both Batgirl and Queen Bee. I was a fickle lad.



QUICKSILVER (Quality Comics)



My previous pieces on Kid Eternity and DC's 100-Page Super Spectaculars--and, to a degree, an earlier piece about Plastic Man--revealed my affection for 1940s characters that DC acquired from Quality Comics. Alas, Quicksilver (no relation to the Marvel hero discussed here) never made much of an impression on me. Without checking, I'd guess Quicksilver was maybe possibly mentioned in passing in Steranko's History Of The Comics. My first Quicksilver story was a reprint in the 100-pager The Flash # 214. I don't know if DC ever reprinted another Quicksilver story, but I did somehow wind up with a copy of National Comics # 71 from 1949, so that doubled my Quicksilver stash right there. In the early '90s, writer Mark Waid revived ol' Quicksilver with a new name, Max Mercury, and a new purpose as mentor to The Flash and to impetuous young speedster Impulse. Waid's work with the character was much more interesting than any of Quicksilver's original Golden Age adventures.



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