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IT ALL STARTED HERE THE ALL-STAR
SQUADRON
[Part Two]
Roy Thomas has often gone "on the record," during interviews, as categorically proclaiming a decided preference for "playing around with the already established characters of others, rather than creating my own."
While there may certainly be some truth to the assertion -- the three comics series' with which he is most often associated, in fannish memory, being the Stan Lee created AVENGERS; Robert E. Howard's CONAN THE BARBARIAN; and ALL-STAR SQUADRON (comprised, chiefly, of characters created before the gentleman was even born) -- it still, I think, sells Thomas rather "short" overall. In each of the aforementioned instances, Thomas either expanded dramatically upon what were, essentially, "throwaway" characters (Red Sonja and Belit, in CONAN), or else fashioned enduring and significant character conceptualizations outright (The Vision, for instance, during his AVENGERS tenure).
In the case of ALL-STAR SQUADRON... he accomplished both feats.
As a particularly praiseworthy example of the latter, we have All-STAR #23 the introduction of "Will Everett"... a.k.a., Amazing-Man. [See cover, below]
Originally conceived as an unwilling super-powered "catspaw" for the body-swapping ALL-STAR nemesis known as The Ultra-Humanite, Amazing-Man (whom Thomas had named, incidentally, after Golden Age comics legend Bill Everett, and his own seminal four-color creation the original GA "Amazing Man") had much in common with the aforementioned Vision.
Both characters, after all, made their respective comic book "debuts" by being forced to attack their soon-to-be teammates.
Both were (at those times) "working," involuntarily, for major super-villains.
Both characters later betrayed their evil "masters," and threw in their individual lots with the very same heroes whom they had been "created" to annihilate.
... and both, of course, felt unutterably separate and alone -- even while standing in the midst of their respective gaggles of spandexed comrades-in-arms -- as a result of their both being unique and distinct Minorities of One within said costumed clans. (The Vision android construct. Will Everett the sole African-American member of the forty-plus strong assemblage of the ALL-STAR SQUADRON.)
Amazing-Man's powers (the ability to assume the properties and characteristics of any item or substance, merely by touching it) rendered him one of the more manifestly versatile and puissant members of the Squadron, placing him at once squarely within the rarefied ranks of such key players, power-wise, as the Golden Age Flash and Green Lantern. (A later decision by Thomas to change said distinctive and intriguing abilities to a more bland and "generic" array of ill-defined magnetic powers was -- ultimately -- an ill-considered one, as it rid A-Man of much of his visual "punch" in the bargain.)
I made reference, earlier, to Thomas' penchant for "expanding dramatically upon what were, essentially, 'throwaway' characters." As an example of said approach to character explication, I direct your attentions towards the case of one "Jonathan Law" a.k.a., The Tarantula. [See cover, below]
The original baseline conceptualization for the Golden Age Tarantula was of anything but promising pedigree; flitting about the greater metropolitan Manhattan area of the 30's and 40's in a singularly repulsive purple-and- yellow set of danskins, armed with nothing more imposing than a "wirepoon gun" (don't ask). He had no stand-out super-menaces to call his own (just the standard, lackluster Golden Age assortment of tired gunsels and pseudo-Mafiosi, in the main), and seldom enjoyed the attentions of any of the more memorable or innovative comic book creators of the day.
Not to belabor the point unduly, then he was -- in short -- one drab
and eminently forgettable comic book super-hero.
The near-total makeover Jonathan Law received at the hands of the
talented Mr. Thomas, within the pages of ALL-STAR SQUADRON #24, however,
took care of all of that in one big, tearing hurry.
Outfitted with an instantly eye-catching set of crime-fighting togs (courtesy of the almost criminally underrated penciler Jerry Ordway) , the character promptly benefited from a level of visual dynamism which recalled the best aspects of both Golden and Modern Age design, without either one treading upon the toes of the other.
Better still Mr. Law was given a distinctive (and quite clever, really)
rationale for wanting to spend his free evenings swinging from
rooftops and Kicking Big, Mean Beard-Stubbled Men In the Teeth.
As it so happened, The Arachnid Avenger had it in mind to pen himself
an instant non-fiction best seller, by chronicling the wartime
exploits of the spandex-and-super- powers set... cinema verite
style.
The notion that someone might actually be courageous (or lunatic) enough
to launch him/herself versus the quelle dangerous likes of (say)
a Solomon Grundy, or a Per Degaton -- solely in the service
of amassing anecdotes for the 40's equivalent of a coffee table book,
mind -- was just oddball enough of one to make the character "work" within
the larger team context, overall.
Yet another sterling example of Thomas' creative prowess and enthusiasms, re all things Golden Age, was his cobbling up of the teenage super-hero team known as Infinity, Inc. [See cover reproduction, below]
The seven Infinitors -- from left to right, on the cover; top row The Silver Scarab; Northwind. Bottom row Fury; Nuklon; Brainwave, Jr.; Jade; and Obsidian -- were, one and all, blood descendants or extended family members of various World War II super-heroes and/or villains, hailing from the modern-day era. Their group encounter with their progenitors (both inspirationally and in the most literal sense) was one of the undisputed "high points" of a series already chock-full of same.
The tyro team was later awarded their own ongoing monthly title -- also scripted by the versatile and industrious Thomas -- which lasted some fifty issues or so (give or take) before falling prey to non-sales related difficulties occasioned by the ineptly conceived (and executed) "mega-event" known as CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS.
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