Comics Explained: Black Widow

Black Widow, thanks to her regular appearance in Marvel movies since Iron Man 2, has made her one of Marvel's best known heroes. Debuting in Marvel's soar to supremacy over the comics industry in the 1960s Black Widow has become one of Marvel's major characters - she's appeared in most major Marvel-wide events, been part of the Avengers, dated Daredevil, and even led SHIELD. Today we'll give an overview of the main Black Widow, Natasha Romanova, and some of her appearances. I would also highly recommend watching Variant Comics' video on her here for some recommended reading. 

Creation

Black Widow was co-created by Stan Lee himself in a story written by Don Rico, and drawn by Don Heck. Her original design was quite different from her now iconic design - she had black, middle-length hair instead of her long, red hair, and she wore dresses/cat-suits instead of her black costume with wristbands. Arris Quinones from Variant Comics has pointed out how her design bore a stark resemblance to that of Catwoman from the Batman TV show - this show was incredibly popular and had a major impact on comic books. As a result, Black Widow was a Catwoman-esque femme fatale, although sexism of the period meant that even if there was no Catwoman in Batman, she would likely have been created as a femme fatale. Black Widow debuted in 1964, during the Cold War, so the paranoia associated with the Cold War resonates in her story. Natasha Romanoff, later Natasha Romanova, first appeared in Tales of Suspense #52 in a story straight out of an Ian Fleming novel. Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow, was sent by the KGB to capture industrialist Tony Stark, and to assassinate defector Anton Vanok, the first Crimson Dynamo. Allied with fellow spy Boris Turgenov, who had his own Crimson Dynamo suit, they got into Stark Industries. Natasha tried to seduce Stark as Boris went to kill Anton, but it went wrong. Stark realised the plot and used gas to escape from Natasha, while the Crimson Dynamo shot Boris's suit blowing it, and him, up. A few issues later, Tales of Suspense #57, she encountered the incredible archer, Clint Barton aka Hawkeye, who was wrongly accused of robbing a jewelry store. Teaming up they fought Iron Man, and this initial team-up would set the stage for a long history together. 

Origins

There have been several contesting origins for Natasha Romanova, which have actually been worked into her character. With a contested past which she herself doesn't fully know it very much fits into her whole character arc. Her original origin, from Daredevil #88 from 1972, has her being saved by a Russian soldier Ivan Petrovitch during the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942. Ivan raised the baby as his own daughter, that is until she is picked up by the Soviet authorities who trains her to be a super-spy and a ballerina. The KGB even got her married to another operative, Alexei Shostakov, until he became the new Red Guardian, and she was told that he 'died' so she wouldn't go after him. When Black Widow got another solo title in 2005 her origins were retconned; her original story was still quasi-canon, but it became consumed in the brainwashing which she experienced. A fire broke out in a house in Stalingrad in 1928, and a dying mother passed her baby daughter to Ivan Petrovitch. However, Petrovitch wouldn't be able to solely raise the young Natasha. Instead, she was taken and inducted into the 'Black Widow Program' where she and another 28 young girls were taken to the 'Red Room' to be trained. In the Red Room they would be brainwashed in order to become efficient spies, trained to become deadly fighters, and bio-technologically and psycho-technologically enhanced. This way her ageing was extremely slowed so, by the 2010s and 2020s, she still looked like she was in her thirties. These enhancements also made Natasha reach peak physically fitness that a human can have without being classed as a superhuman. During her training she also met Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier.

Joining the Avengers

After her debut Black Widow was an antagonist of several Marvel characters as she tried to take down Iron Man to win back favour with the KGB. Some of them had her fighting alongside Hawkeye, and fighting against Spider-Man. Her superiors brainwashed her again in Avengers #29 to use other villains to wipe out the Avengers, but in the next issue she shook off the brainwashing and helped her former foes. In Avengers #32-33 to prove herself to the Avengers, and to a reformed Hawkeye whom she started seeing, she helped the team fight a fascist group called the Sons of the Serpent. The Avengers were willing to accept her, but there was an issue. The Avengers had a no killing policy, something which has since changed to an extent, and, as she refused the have the same policy, Natasha was not made a full Avenger. Instead, she was made a 'reserve' Avenger - while affiliated and fighting alongside the Avengers Natasha was not a formal member of the team. While this was happening she continued having romantic interests with Hawkeye forming a 'power couple' in the media of the Marvel Universe. Imagine Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie just fighting aliens and robots. While part-time with the Avengers the head of SHIELD, Nick Fury, would approach her to become an agent of SHIELD. This began a long history of Natasha Romanova being a member of the super spy organisation, and at times she would even lead the group.

In The Amazing Spider-Man #86 from 1970, with her popularity increasing, Marvel decided to give her a costume re-design. Gone was the Catwoman inspired outfit. She now had her iconic long, red hair, and a black suit with accompanying wristbands. Called her 'Spider Bites' the wristbands could release tasers, tear gas pellets, explosives and knock out gas. Accompanying that, Natasha was still physically deadly being an expert marksmen, a master in various hand-held weapons, and knew various fighting styles ranging from jiu jitsu to sambo. Throughout the 1970s she would be a member of SHIELD taking missions to disrupt organisations, like Hydra, and allying herself with 'street-level' heroes, like Spider-Man. In 1970 she somewhat got the first of several solo titles - The Inhumans and Black Widow. This comic was split into two, with half focusing on stories about the Inhumans by Jack Kirby and the other half focusing on Black Widow by Marie Severin. However, the comic didn't last long. After the eighth issue Black Widow was dropped, and two issues later it was cancelled altogether. Meanwhile, she continued fighting for social justice issues. Writer Les Daniels, in 1971, noted how Marvel used her Left-wing upbringing to fight for oppressed people in the US. This was a greater reflection on how Marvel started moving away from the fairly conservative Comics Code Authority which restricted what comics could or could not write about. Among her adventures she helped Puerto Ricans fight against police brutality and hippies against organised crime.

Daredevil and the Champions

In Daredevil #81 in 1971 Black Widow started teaming up with Daredevil, this was during a time when he had started to become an alcoholic. She helped him start to recover, and the two formed a romantic relationship. They actually made comic book history by being the first romantic couple in comics, who weren't married, to cohabit. The Comic Codes Authority had frowned upon non-married couples living together, so, as soon as the Authority's influence started to wane, Marvel jumped at the chance to experiment with stories. It was during this period that Black Widow began helping oppressed people, part of which was facilitated by Daredevil. Although Daredevil has regularly become involved with the Avengers he is very much a street-level hero; with Natasha regularly appearing alongside Daredevil this gave her the chance to tackle real-world issues. Marvel also decided to tackle misogyny. Natasha became angered by how Daredevil kept on trying to protect her; quite ironic considering that she was a near-superpowered super-spy. As a result, in 1975 she left to go to the West Coast, and she co-founded the Champions in Champions #1. This was a smaller version of the Avengers, based on the East Coast, consisting of Black Widow, the former X-Men Iceman and Angel, the Spirit of Vengeance Ghost Rider, and the literal god Hercules. In their debut they teamed up to stop the Greek/Roman god of war Pluto from taking over Olympus. However, the team did not last long. They were bankrolled by Angel's fortune, and, unsurprisingly, funding a super team is expensive. Due to bankruptcy the Champions had to fold - in real life sales were low so Marvel canned it. Since then the Champions have occasionally reformed, and characters have regularly made fun of it. In the 1990s Iceman called it an embarrassment...

2000s - Marvel Heavy-Hitter

After the folding of the Champions in the 1970s Black Widow remained a big Marvel character, but it was largely through appearances alongside the Avengers, SHIELD, and Daredevil. That is until the 2000s. Black Widow, especially since the resurgence of her own title which began in 2004, has become such an important character in Marvel - she has played a major role in most of Marvel's universe-wide events. In her own title, her past came back to haunt her. After seeing her husband, again, (he was constantly believed dead and turning up alive), she retired to Arizona until the other Black Widows were soon being found killed. It was here that we found out her new origin. Natasha had to hunt down who are killing off the other Black Widows, and avoid being killed herself. In 1999 we were introduced to another Black Widow who was also trained in the Red Room - Yelena Belova. The two have since had a somewhat antagonistic relationship - while occasionally working together they have an intense rivalry. Later, she took part in the Secret War event. Supervillains had somehow been getting new, improved weaponry, and Nick Fury found out the new leader of Latveria was using the master engineer Tinkerer to fund American supervillains. She went on a covert mission with Fury, Luke Cage, Wolverine, Daredevil, Spider-Man, and Daisy Johnson to take her down. During the Superhero Civil War she sided with Iron Man, and when Norman Osborn (the Green Goblin) took over SHIELD she knew that he would use it for his own means. Osborn formed his own Avengers, and hired Yelena to be his version of Black Widow. However, it wasn't Yelena - it was Natasha. 

Death and Resurrection

In 2017 the Secret Empire event happened - you might remember it from the now infamous image of Captain America saying 'Heil Hydra'. For my sins as a comic fan I have still yet to read Secret Empire, so most of this next part is what I've learnt from later comics and general discussions. To basically summarise, Captain America has been replaced by a copy created by the Red Skull manipulating a Cosmic Cube - this version lived a life where he had been raised by Hydra. A fascistic Captain America helped Hydra take over the US, so many heroes formed a resistance called the Underground. Black Widow, however, was angry at the Underground for not adopting more direct, and lethal, methods. Following the events of Civil War II the new young heroes re-formed the Champions, and they followed Natasha with the hope to talk her out of killing Cap. She decided to train the Champions in order to fight, and they went after the fascist doppelganger. However, trying to protect Miles Morales she was killed by the evil Cap. Because comics there turned out to be a clone with all her memories. So, as usual, comics ended up reversing the emotional impact of death for characters and readers.

Thank you for reading. For other blog posts please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.

Comics Explained: Different Versions of the Hulk

Anyone who has seen Avengers: Endgame will know that the Hulk is quite different from how we normally see him. Being one of Marvel's oldest and most popular characters the Hulk has gone through various iterations in the mainstream comics alone. As a fun little short post I thought it would be good to look over some of the various versions of the big green monster. Most importantly, don't get them angry. You wouldn't like them when they're angry.

Savage Hulk

This is the Hulk that everyone knows. A manifestation of Bruce Banner's rage and anxiety he turns into the tall, muscular monster. Savage Hulk's power is connected to his anger - the angrier he gets, the stronger he gets. As a result, in theory, there is nothing stopping the Hulk from getting stronger and stronger. However, there are drawbacks. The Savage Hulk has his intelligence and reasoning skills decreased so he often becomes a destructive force of rage that causes more damage than good. In the comics written by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in the 1960s the Hulk could hold basic sentences and reasoning, but as the comics have progressed the Savage Hulk has become increasingly volatile. That's why his most famous phrase is 'Hulk Smash'. Not everyone sees Savage Hulk as a hero. The Planet Hulk storyline involved Earth's heroes jettisoning an unruly Hulk to an apparently uninhabited planet so he cannot hurt anyone again, and the world cheered when Bruce Banner was accidentally killed during the Civil War II event. Finally, on top of his super strength the Hulk has intense durability so bullets, and even tank fire, cannot hurt him.

Grey Hulk

This was the original Hulk, and Stan Lee was heavily inspired by Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde when he co-created the Hulk with Jack Kirby. Instead of a formula it was a gamma bomb which turned Bruce into the Hulk. In the original comics the Hulk was more like a Mr. Hyde to Bruce Banner's Jekyll. Like all other incarnations, he is a manifestation of Banner's repressed anger, but, unlike many other versions, Grey Hulk retained most of his intelligence, was shorter, and not as strong. He was a brute, but a cunning one. He also only turned into the Hulk at night, his anger levels had nothing to do with his transformation. Kirby had differing opinions on the Hulk to Lee - for one, he argued that he shouldn't be grey for the simple fact that it was hard to keep a consistent shade over panel to panel with their printing techniques. He was correct. In the first few issues the Hulk's skin kept changing shades, and at times even looked green. Lee had to back down, and with that, Savage Hulk replaced Grey Hulk. Grey Hulk has, however, resurfaced a few times.

Joe Fixit

This was a version of Hulk who first appeared in Hulk #324. The writers wanted to spice up the Hulk so had Banner permanently stuck in his Hulk form. With his mind trapped in the Hulk's subconscious this allowed the beast out, however, he was different to the Savage Hulk. Instead, he was more like the Grey Hulk - he was grey, had some intelligence (albeit not a lot), was shorter, and was weaker but still easily stronger than any human. Unsure about what to do with himself now that he couldn't turn back into Banner or Savage Hulk, he became an enforcer for Las Vegas casinos. He even got his own suit! Eventually Banner managed to regain control of the Hulk and we got the Savage Hulk back.

Merged/Professor Hulk

In the 1990s Marvel wanted to do something different with the Hulk again, and Merged Hulk was the result. Bruce Banner, Savage Hulk, and Grey Hulk were all fighting for dominance in the mind of Banner himself, so an ally of the Hulk, Doc Samson, decided to use hypnosis to solve the situation. He managed to hypnotise Banner and merge the three identities together. He would have the body of the Savage Hulk, the drive of Grey Hulk, and the mind of Bruce Banner - he was the Merged Hulk. No longer fearing that he could lose control and hurt people, Banner decided to become a regular member of the Avengers. When the Marvel vs. DC event came around it was this version of the Hulk who fought Superman (and lost), and was later merged with Solomon Grundy to form the Skulk. Despite Doc Samson's best efforts, the psyches in Banner's mind kept on fighting and tearing each other apart. One time he reverted back into Banner form but with the Savage Hulk's mind! Due to this, Merged Hulk gave way to Savage Hulk once more. Later, in the alternate future MC2 it is revealed that Banner managed to solve this issue and become Professor Hulk - he had the body of Savage Hulk and the mind of Banner. This version would become the Hulk which we saw in Avengers: Endgame.

World War and World Breaker 

During the Planet Hulk storyline, the ship which sent the Hulk to space went off course and landed on the planet Sakaar where the Hulk was enslaved, and forced to fight as a gladiator. His mind improved, despite locking Banner deep down in his subconscious, and he retained his Hulk body. He managed to overthrow the planet's ruler, get a wife, and almost became a father. The ship which sent him to Sakaar then exploded killing most life on Sakaar, including his pregnant wife, Caiera. Blaming the heroes of Earth he formed a team to return to Earth and get revenge - this gave birth to World War Hulk. When arriving on Earth he had so much rage that his power levels grew to unknown levels. Upon seeing Mr. Fantastic he yelled 'None of this would have happened. I'll hate you forever, almost as much as I hate myself'. His anger peaked and the force of him slamming his feet started breaking the tectonic plates of the Earth! This was World Breaker Hulk.

Maestro

Maestro is the only alternate reality version of the Hulk that we're going to look at - if we were going to look at more we would be here for a long time. Maestro was introduced in The Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect in 1992 when the regular Hulk was sent into a future where nuclear war had dosed the Hulk with radiation. Instead of dying it made him even stronger, and somewhat merged the minds of Banner and the Hulk. Maestro had Banner's intelligence with the malevolence and strength of the Hulk creating one of the most powerful superheroes. Maestro then wiped out the Earth's heroes and became king of the planet for a century. Just like Red Skull in Old Man Logan he had a room of the paraphernalia of the slain heroes and villains including Dr Doom's mask, some Iron Man suits, Spider-Man's mask, and Magneto's helmet. Truly showing Maestro's power you can even see Thor's hammer and the broken board of the Silver Surfer.

Red

The Red Hulk is not Bruce Banner - it is instead the father of Betty Ross (Banner's love interest) Thunderbolt Ross. In 2008's Hulk #1 a Red Hulk appeared and killed the Abomination, and we later find out that, two years later, that it's Ross. Ross underwent a project by the US military to create a more powerful version of the Hulk that had a tactical mind. As a result, Ross became the Red Hulk - a being stronger than the Hulk, and had the ability to increase his power by absorbing radiation from others. This power makes him hotter to the point that his skin can go on fire! With ease, in his initial appearance, he caused an earthquake in San Francisco, killed two of Hulk's enemies, destroyed the SHIELD Helicarrier, and had to be defeated by the combined forces of the Hulk and Thor. Despite being far stronger than the regular Hulk his own power was his undoing. When fighting the Hulk got madder, so Red Hulk absorbed more energy, which made the Hulk even madder, so the Red Hulk absorbed too much that he could handle and collapsed. Betty also underwent this project becoming a red version of She-Hulk.

Totally Awesome

The final version of the Hulk that we're going to discuss today is also the most recent introduction. Since the mid-2010s Marvel has updated its roster to include younger and more diverse heroes - these include Miles Morales and the new Ms. Marvel. This new version of the Hulk was Amadeus Cho, who had been introduced as a close ally of the Hulk in Amazing Fantasy Vol. 2 #15 when the Hulk saved him. Amadeus is one of the ten smartest people on Earth, something serious considering that some Marvel characters can make a time machine as easily as a mechanic can make a car, and when Banner was hit by a new dose of radiation he decided to help the scientist. Making a device that could absorb the radiation he took all the gamma radiation from Banner and stored it in himself which he could control via a machine. As a result, in Totally Awesome Hulk #1 in 2016 Bruce Banner finally could stop being the Hulk, and Amadeus Cho became the new one. Cho could control his Hulk identity so he basically became a version of Professor Hulk - super strong and super intelligent. However, the strength of the Hulk kept on pulling at him, and he quickly found it hard to keep control. When Banner died in Civil War II he almost lost control of the Hulk and came close to rampaging. Since 2018, in Champions Vol 2. #22, Cho has given up most of his Hulk power becoming Brawn instead. He still looked like the Hulk and was very strong, but not nearly as strong as the Hulk.

These are just a fraction of the many different versions of the Hulk. We haven't covered the Old Man Logan Hulk, MCU Hulk, Marvel Zombies Hulk, and, of course, She-Hulk (she deserves an entire post for herself). Anyway, I hope you found this interesting. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.

The Lives of Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and Jack Kirby

Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko

On November 12 2018 Stan Lee tragically passed away at the age of 95. Earlier this year fellow Marvel artist Steve Ditko tragically passed and last year would have been Jack Kirby's one-hundredth birthday if he had not passed in 1994. Lee, Kirby, and Ditko were some of the biggest driving forces in the comic book industry and Marvel as a whole - you could describe them as possibly being 'Marvel's Trifecta'. This is not to diminish the others who made Marvel what it is today - John Romita Sr. and Larry Lieber are just two of the many artists and writers who contributed to Marvel's rise. Today we'll honour the three and look at how they got into writing comics, and how they greatly shaped popular culture, not just comics.

Origins

Marvel existed before Lee, Kirby, and Ditko came along - in fact it existed before it was even called Marvel. A while ago we discussed Marvel's origins which you can read about here. Jack Kirby, born Jacob Kurtzberg, had been in the comic book industry since 1936 before he joined Marvel's predecessor Timely with artist Joe Simon. Kirby, as a side note, also worked as an assistant animator for Popeye cartoons. The duo immediately jumped into Timely writing several comics which would set up the later comics in the 1960s; Marvel Mystery Comics #13 written by the duo introduced the first character named Vision, however, this character later inspired Roy Thomas and John Buscema who made the Vision we all now. Most importantly, in March 1941 the two created the most important character in Marvel's history - Captain America. Captain America Comics #1 proudly displays Captain America suckerpunching Hitler in one of the most iconic comic book covers of all time. This was even before the US entered the war; both Simon and Kirby was Jewish (due to antisemitism Jack had to write under the name Kirby instead of Kurtzberg) so were naturally very scared of the Nazis. Simon and Kirby would leave Timely after ten issues of Captain America Comics as the publisher of Timely, Martin Goodman, would only pay them $75 a week instead of a combined $500 which they wanted. Before they left they did get a sidekick. An aspiring young writer born in 1922 who wanted to write the 'Great American Novel' happened to be the cousin of Goodman's wife Jean. In 1940 the eighteen year old Stanley Lieber was hired as an assistant. His roles were fairly basic saying in 2009 'In those days [the artists] dipped the pen in ink, [so] I had to make sure the inkwells were filled. I went down and got them their lunch, I did proofreading, I erased the pencils from the finished pages for them'. Lieber even managed to write his first comic under Simon's and Kirby's tutelage, Captain America Comics #3. As he wanted to become a novelist he feared that writing comics would damage his image with publishers, so he invented a pseudonym: Stan Lee.

Lee and Kirby in 1966

Simon and Kirby went to work for National Comics, the company which would soon become DC, and their work soon became well renowned. In 2010 a DC executive said 'Like Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster [the creators of Superman], the creative team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby was a mark of quality and a proven track record'. Back with Timely now that Goodman lost two of the greatest comic writers he was left without an editor so made the young Stanley a temporary editor. This turned out to be short lived. The bombing of Pearl Harbor brought the United States into the Second World War and in 1942 Stan Lee enlisted so Vince Fago became Timely's editor-in-chief. Kirby was also drafted in 1943 where the lieutenant placed him charge of reconnaissance and mapping enemy lines due to his career as an artist. As Kirby fought at Omaha Lee was drafted into the Signal Corps repairing communications equipment and telegraph poles. After the war Lee returned to Timely and before Kirby rejoined he would hire several key individuals who would later shape Marvel - such as Gene Colan and later Steve Ditko. Kirby, with Simon until the late-1950s, flit around working for different companies, even launching their own (Mainline Publications) in 1956. Kirby would continue to resent Timely (now called Atlas) as Goodman was still in charge. When Atlas created a new Captain America in 1954 to battle communism, bearing in mind this was during the height of the Red Scare and McCarthyism, the duo decided to get their own back. Simon said that 'We thought we'd show them how to do Captain America' in their new comic Fighting America. Only the first issue really took part in the Red-baiting of the 1950s - the duo soon felt uncomfortable so turned it into a comedy as well as a satire of Atlas' Captain America and McCarthyism. Kirby would even write for Archie Comics occasionally. 

Over at DC Julius Schwartz had revived the superhero genre. Throughout the post-war period comic companies focused primarily on Westerns and romances; briefly horror comics dominated the scene but were soon destroyed by the Comics Code of Authority which you can read about here. The only superhero comics to really survive this period were some of the massive DC ones including Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. As the Space Race began Schwartz revived superhero comics by bringing back old characters and giving them science-fiction origins; among those to be brought back included the Flash and Green Lantern. Soon enough, Marvel would come onto the scene.

Steve Ditko

So far we've only discussed two of the Trifecta - where was Steve Ditko during this time? It's surprising how Ditko often gets forgotten. He didn't have the large personalities of Lee and Kirby, had radically different politics to them (he was an ardent supporter of Objectivism), and he shied away from interviews saying that his writing was all that was needed. In 2007 the BBC produced a documentary hosted by Jonathan Ross called In Search of Steve Ditko where he refused to directly appear on it. As a result Ditko has unfortunately been swept under the rug. Ditko came from New York, like most of Marvel's staff, and became interested in comics by reading Batman and The Spirit in 1939. Enlisting in the army in 1945 he spent most of his career drawing comics for the army as he was stationed in Germany before being discharged. He soon fell on his feet - his idol and Batman artist Jerry Robinson was teaching at an Illustration school in New York so Ditko enlisted. As he wanted to impress his idol he worked hard and Robinson would later say that 'It was very intense.' Lee even visited the school and became impressed by Ditko's work. After graduating he managed to work under Simon and Kirby as well as several other companies, including Charlton Comics whom he would work for until the company collapsed in 1986. In 1954, during the horror craze, for Charlton he would draw his first comic cover with The Thing #12 depicting vampires attacking in a Gothic building. 

The Thing #12

In 1954 Ditko had to take a break from comics as he contracted tuberculosis but when he recovered he went to work for Atlas first creating Journey into Mystery #33 in 1956. Unlike the early 1960s he was a regular writer for Strange Tales, Tales to Astonish, and Tales of Suspense. These comics were well-renowned for featuring out of the ordinary stories and visuals which Ditko would later continue when he created Doctor Strange. He also first started working with Kirby and Lee regularly; Kirby would draw a monster, and he would write a story with Lee. 

The Marvel Revolution

By 1960 DC's revival of superheroes had caused a pop culture craze so Atlas, now called Marvel, with Lee as editor-in-chief decided to bring their own spin on the genre. Traditionally, superheroes were flawless, gallant, and ideal characters; this has actually become a joke in the DC Universe where characters refer to Superman as 'the big, blue boy scout'. Lee's wife, Joan Boocock, played an influential role in creating the character traits of Marvel's heroes. Unlike their DC counterparts the Marvel heroes would be flawed: they could be bad-tempered, argue with their friends and family, have self-doubt, get ill, and had to deal with everyday problems. Marvel was also willing to engage in politics a lot more readily. X-Men is famous for being an allegory for the African-American civil rights, and with the global Cold War Marvel characters would often become involved in global events. It has been suggested that the Lee-Kirby run was the comics equivalent of the British Beatlemania. Comic historian Peter Sanderson wrote:

Marvel was pioneering new methods of comics storytelling and characterization, addressing more serious themes, and in the process keeping and attracting readers in their teens and beyond. Moreover, among this new generation of readers were people who wanted to write or draw comics themselves, within the new style that Marvel had pioneered, and push the creative envelope still further.

Marvel introduced a new way of creating characters. Normally, Lee would throw an idea at a writer, normally Kirby, who would then turn that character into a comic. As a result some writers, like Ditko with Spider-Man, actually contributed more to a comic at times than Lee did. Below is a quite funny example of how this worked. During the 1990s comic writers had a habit of creating violent and dark comics but still aiming them at a young audience. As a result, quite a lot of unrelateable and over-the-top characters came into being. A few were made by Todd McFarlane and Rob Liefeld, although both made even more good characters, whom Stan Lee decided to mess around with in this video:

Marvel also created a very personal community. Many comics featured letters to Lee and Kirby, and 'Stan's Soapbox' became famous for Stan Lee commenting on and answering questions. These could be about a variety of topics ranging from the price of comics to discussions on people's favourite characters. In 1968 one featured a condemnation of bigotry in society:

Lee and Kirby in particular attracted a lot of attention. Calling fans 'True Believers' and signing off comments with the phrase 'Excelsior!' soon become synonymous with Lee, and Kirby earned the affectionate nickname of 'The King'. Lee and Kirby even appeared in the comics themselves, including the duo being turned away at the wedding of the Fantastic Four. Thanks to Ditko's quieter personality he featured less in the letters compared to other writers but Spider-Man fans did write to him. Through interesting comics and a connection to the creators Marvel soon dominated.

Creations

It is an understatement to say that the trio contributed a lot to popular culture. If you name a Marvel character there is quite a high chance that they were created, or co-created, by Lee, Kirby or Ditko. We'll look at a few of these characters now.

Fantastic Four

We cannot speak about Marvel without mentioning the Fantastic Four. The Fantastic Four placed Marvel on the map and set the stage for the rest of the Marvel Universe. Seeing the popularity of DC's Justice League Martin Goodman wanted Marvel to have its own superhero team. Inspired by Joan Lee and Kirby created the Fantastic Four. These new heroes didn't talk like normal superheroes and bickered like a real family, the Human Torch was even a hotheaded teenager (literally!). The Thing was far from the typical hero - he looked like a villain and spoke in a broad New York accent. You can tell there is a lot of Kirby in the Thing; they came from a similar background and the Thing's old street gang is clearly based off of Kirby's old gang. Unlike other heroes the Fantastic Four wouldn't even have a secret identity! Together they produced Fantastic Four #1 in November 1961. It was soon a hit. Fantastic Four would be Marvel's biggest comic in the 1960s and when Marvel wanted to introduce or promote a character they would appear in Fantastic Four. The 'Galactus Trilogy' spanning Fantastic Four #48-50 introducing the Silver Surfer and Galactus has been seen as one of the greatest stories in comic book history.

The Hulk

The Incredible Hulk #1 would have been unthinkable ten years earlier. How could a hulking monster fuelled by rage be a hero? The duo wanted to combine Cold War paranoia with The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde where a mild-mannered scientist unleashes his dark side thanks to experimental bombs instead of a potion. Lee and Kirby actually clashed during the making of the first comic. Kirby wanted the Hulk to be green while Lee wanted him to be grey - Kirby argued it was easier to keep the same shade of green across panels which they couldn't do at the time with grey. As Lee was editor-in-chief he won out and in the first issue the Hulk was grey; except, Kirby was proven right and he kept changing colour throughout the comic even turning green at one point. From the second issue the Hulk went through a second mutation turning him green.

Spider-Man

When he was younger Lee had enjoyed a pulp magazine called The Spider, Master of Men and that influenced him to want a character with spider powers. Breaking the mould again this character wasn't meant to be a strong, muscular figure like Superman or Batman, instead he was supposed to be small and meek. Kirby originally designed Spider-Man to be a strong character, so Lee instead went with Ditko. Ditko made Peter Parker to be a typical teenager - not very athletic, trying to find his way in the world, and fairly nervous. It hit gold and from his first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15 Spider-Man soon became one of the world's most influential comic character and the closing lines of the comic is a valuable life lesson. With great power there must also come - great responsibility! Soon, Spider-Man replaced the Hulk as Marvel's new big hero getting his own comic within a year. As the years have gone on we have found out that Ditko did most of the work with Spider-Man, and even decided to insert a joke about Stan Lee in the comics. Lee could be quite demanding so Ditko modelled the infamous J.Jonah Jameson after Lee! Eventually, Ditko got recognition for writing Spider-Man by #25. Thanks to Ditko we have most of the major Spider-Man villains including Dr Octopus, Vulture, Scorpion, and Green Goblin. Spider-Man is easily Marvel's most popular character and we can attribute this to Ditko.

Thor

Kirby wasn't good for Spider-Man but he was good for a different character. Lee had always loved Norse mythology and threw an idea at Kirby so he could focus on other comics. Kirby was joined by Larry Lieber, Stan Lee's younger brother, who had already contributed greatly in creating Marvel characters. Kirby and Lieber had already worked together creating Iron Man, Ant Man, and the Wasp, so they could create fantastic stories together already. Lieber took a more hands-on approach compared to his brother writing full scripts for a comic which Kirby would draw around. They wanted a character stronger than Hulk and took notice of Lee's love for mythology: who was stronger than a mortal but a god? Thanks to Kirby's expert drawing and Lieber's writing we saw Thor appear in Tales Into Mystery #83. They changed the script again by making Thor a god banished to Earth who cannot remember his Norse origins until he lifted his hammer, Mjolnir.

X-Men

Within a couple years Marvel was selling so many comics that they could actually print more titles but Lee and Kirby hit an issue. It was difficult creating new origins: Spider-Man was bitten by a radioactive spider, the Hulk was hit by a bomb, Iron Man had been injured and had to fix himself, and the Fantastic Four were hit with cosmic rays. Then they thought: what if people were born with powers? They knew that one day humanity would evolve so they thought that maybe humanity could evolve to have superpowers. The duo also knew it was difficult for teenagers as they were finding their place in the world and going through puberty many felt like freaks and outcasts. This was also the same time as the Civil Rights movement. It all came together: humanity would evolve into a new species who get superpowers at puberty and face discrimination in society. This teenage super-team was originally going to feature in a comic called The Mutants but Goodman vetoed this idea believing kids wouldn't know what a mutant was. Instead they opted to name the comic The X-Men. Issue one combined fears over the recent Cuba Missile Crisis, teenage issues, and racial discrimination. Professor X even states in the comic 'When I was young, normal people feared me, distrusted me, I realized the human race is not yet ready to accept those with extra powers! So I decided to build a haven...A school for the X-Men.' 

Dr Strange

Strange was, strangely, always acknowledged as Ditko's creation. Ditko in 2008 said 'On my own, I brought in to Lee a five-page, penciled story with a page/panel script of my idea of a new, different kind of character for variety in Marvel Comics. My character wound up being named Dr. Strange because he would appear in Strange Tales.' Reflecting the psychedelic imagery of the 1960s Dr Strange would embrace the absurd and surreal featuring mind-blowing images straight from the far-reaches of Ditko's imagination. Some of Marvel's strangest and greatest images comes from Ditko's run writing Doctor Strange stories. Strange was a magician, and former surgeon, so Ditko used this to create the surreal imagery that we saw in the Marvel adaptation.

She-Hulk

So far we have only scratched the surface of the characters created by the trio - we haven't mentioned yet the Avengers, Black Panther (the first black hero), Dr Doom, and the return of the original Captain America. Instead we'll just look at Stan Lee's last big character that he created: She-Hulk. With the success of a Hulk TV series and The Bionic Woman Marvel executives feared that the TV series would introduce a female Hulk, and they wanted to make sure that they could keep the rights to a female Hulk. By this time Lee had stepped back from writing, and Kirby and Ditko had moved from Marvel, but he decided to help Marvel create a new character. Teaming up with John Buscema Lee wrote the first issue of Savage She-Hulk and because of that She-Hulk went on to be a major Marvel character. People were disappointed that Spider-Woman had nothing to do with Spider-Man so Lee made Jennifer Walters the cousin of the Hulk. A blood transfusion between cousins grants her the powers of the Hulk, but she could keep her mental state combining the strength of the Hulk with her own intelligence.

After the Revolution

By 1971 both Ditko and Kirby had left Marvel. There is controversy behind this. Due to Stan Lee's self-promotion he got virtually all the credit for creating the comics and other contributors were often cast to the sides. Also, it was Marvel, not the creators, who owned the characters - this creator/publisher clash continues to this day in the comic book industry. As a result, Lee got most of the credit, and money, for the comics, and not other creators. This especially angered Kirby who did a lot of the creative process. Ditko quietly left Marvel in 1966 due to creative clashes with Lee. Also, Ditko wanted to push objectivism more in comics which Lee was against. John Romita, who replaced Ditko as Spider-Man's artist, later said 'they disagreed on almost everything, cultural, social, historically, everything, they disagreed on characters'. Ditko would write all the way up to his retirement in 1998 for various companies ranging from DC - where he created Shade, the Changing Man and the Creeper - to Charlton - where he made his objectivist hero Mr A. My personal favourite comic writer, Alan Moore, would parody Mr A in Watchmen with Rorschach - Ditko later joked that Rorschach was 'Mr A but insane'. Kirby left in 1971 over clashes with Goodman, not being credited, and not controlling the rights to the characters. He went over to DC where he would create the New Gods, including Darkseid who soon became a major Superman and Justice League villain. He would return to Marvel in 1975 but would leave again a few years later over the same clashes. After, although he would always write comics he would return to his roots by doing animation - he even teamed up with Stan Lee to create The New Fantastic Four cartoon. Finally, Lee in 1972 would write his last full-time comics for Marvel and take a step back from the creative process with a few exceptions - such as creating She-Hulk and writing a Silver Surfer comic series in 1978 with Kirby. Lee would remain a figurehead and adviser for Marvel throughout the 1970s and 1980s, even briefly acting as president. In the 2000s Lee would help make a manga and even worked for DC writing a series called Just Imagine... where he wrote stories featuring his takes on DC characters - one example is Wonder Woman being an activist called Maria Mendoza granted powers by an Incan God. Of course, we also have his famous cameos across the Marvel movies leading to the theory that he is Uatu the Watcher.

In 1994 Kirby tragically passed away at his home in California thanks to heart failure. Steve Ditko passed away passed away in June 2018. Tragically, he lived alone and was only close to his nephew, and Marvel fans everywhere mourned for the man who brought the world Spider-Man. Stan Lee's mental and physical health had declined rapidly since the passing of Joan the year prior, and making matters worse there were allegations of elder abuse and Lee exposing himself. Suffering from pneumonia for several months Lee unfortunately passed on November 12 2018.

Legacies

Marvel's trio helped shape modern popular culture. The stories created by Lee, Kirby, and Ditko touched the hearts of people across the world and influenced more stories. Alan Moore, John Romita Jr, and Alex Ross are just some in the comic book industry inspired by parts of the trio not even to mention those inspired outside of the industry. In 2010 I was diagnosed with depression and what got me through the self-harm and suicide attempts were comics, in particular Marvel comics. The comics created by Lee, Kirby, and Ditko offered the a way to escape and get me through it all; I may not be here without their stories. Marvel has touched the lives of so many people, and now three of the key figures involved in making those stories are gone. For Stan Lee and Jack Kirby may their memory be a blessing, and for Steve Ditko may he rest in peace.

Thank you for reading. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.

Comics Explained: Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers)

As of writing this week Marvel released the trailer for Captain Marvel marking the debut of Captain Marvel into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Carol Danvers has had a long, and complicated, history in the Marvel universe. For decades she has been an integral part of the Marvel universe constantly being regarded in the top spots of the most important Avengers being referred to as 'quite possibly Marvel's mightiest Avenger'. Due to her having a long history in Marvel we won't go over everything that has happened in her publication history so we'll go over the major parts of her history.

Debut

Carol Danvers appeared in 1968 in Marvel Super-Heroes #13 where she worked for the US Air Force coming into contact with the secret identity of the Kree hero Captain Marvel. The Kree Empire had sent Mar-Vell to Earth to check if the human race was a potential threat but while on Earth he became enamoured with the planet. Seeing him as a hero and mishearing his name the people of Earth named him Captain Marvel. Danvers had left the Air Force and became the head of security at NASA where this brought her into contact with the internal power feuds of the Kree Empire which spilled over onto Earth. In a short story in Captain Marvel #16-18 Captain Marvel fought his rival Yon-Rogg resulting in Carol being thrown into a device called the Psyche-Magnitron. The Kree's technology comes almost straight out of fantasy and the Psyche-Magnitron is an example of this - it can rewrite DNA on the fly and give people superpowers. As Carol had been in contact with Mar-Vell it rewrote her DNA so she became half-Kree, and later giving her superpowers. Until she finally became a superhero afterwards she would make bit appearances in the comics. 

Before we go onto how she became a hero we should go over her childhood and other aspects of her life. Most of her life was revealed in the Ms. Marvel comics, mostly volumes one (in the 1970s) and two (in 2007). Carol was born to a former US Navy officer and a current construction worker who was controlling, abusive to his three kids and very misogynistic. Despite being strong, independent, and smart he preferred her brothers to her, even though that didn't prevent him from beating her brothers, so much so that he paid to put her brother through college but not her despite Carol having superior grades. With no other choice she joined the Air Force on her eighteenth birthday as it was her dream to fly and see the stars. In several prequel comics it was revealed that she took up a few contracts with Nick Fury meeting the pre-X-Men Wolverine. Fastforward past her encounter with the Psyche-Magnitron. In Ms. Marvel 1-5 it was revealed that she did wrote an expose on NASA and started working for the Daily Bugle's feminist publication, Woman Magazine. 

Ms. Marvel

In 1977, during a new feminist wave, Carol Danvers became Ms Marvel - Ms. magazine was one of the most popular feminist publications so Marvel wished to create a connection. Written by Amazing Spider-Man's Gerry Conway and later by X-Men heavyweight Chris Claremont Ms. Marvel became a quick hit. The Psyche-Magnitron had not just changed Carol biologically. By mixing her DNA with that of the Kree Mar-Vell she developed a second personality: that of a superpowered Kree warrior. Carol would experience black-outs where she would become a Kree warrior with the ability to fly and have super-strength. She adopted the name Ms Marvel in reference to Captain Marvel who gave her the powers she now had. In later comics her black-outs would come under control with the help of the Kree Ronan the Accuser. In her other life she would be one of the major feminist figures in New York campaigning for equal pay and rights for women. In Ms. Marvel #16-18 in a story by Chris Claremont she would come to blows with a mysterious woman called Raven Darkholme who could change her appearance. We found out that Darkholme really had dark blue skin, amber eyes and red hair, and she would later become one of the X-Men's major opponents: Mystique. Issue #20 also changed Ms Marvel's costume to her iconic costume, her original costume was often voted the Worst Female Super Hero Costume. She did repeatedly team-up with other heroes until she became an official member of the Avengers in Avengers #183 when Scarlet Witch briefly went on a leave of absence. Ever since Carol Danvers has remained one of the most powerful and integral members of the Avengers. Ms. Marvel #23 would be the last entry in her solo publication until the 2000s through a mixture of sales dropping and the fact that she was now an Avenger.

The debut of her most well known costume

This brings us to one of Marvel's most controversial moments which they've tried to sweep under the rug. Comic book historian Carol Strickland described Avengers #200 as 'The Rape of Ms. Marvel' and there is no other way to describe it. A character called Marcus, implied to be the son of the villain Immortus, kidnapped Ms Marvel and took her to a different universe where he brainwashed, 'seduced', and then impregnated her before sending her back to Earth. Back on Earth she went through a rapid pregnancy and gave birth to a boy who rapidly aged into Marcus who revealed that this was his attempt to escape his realm. The two then returned to his universe. This was rightly criticised as Carol Danvers was literally raped and the Avengers did nothing. Chris Claremont loathed this so much that he tore apart the story as soon as he could. Avengers Annual #10 revealed that returning to his universe did not stop Marcus's rapid ageing and he aged so much that he turned to ash; Carol then used that to escape. Returning to Earth she ended up chastising the Avengers saying: You screwed up, Avengers. That's human. What is also human is the ability to learn from those mistakes. To grow. To mature. If you do that -- even a little -- then perhaps what I went through will have a positive meaning. It's your choice.

Powerless, X-Men, Binary and After

In Avengers Annual #10 the unconscious body of Carol Danvers fell from the Golden Gate Bridge until saved by Spider-Woman and given to the X-Men as all of her identity had been removed. At the same time the Avengers were attacked by Mystique and her Brotherhood of Evil Mutants where manages to roundly defeat several of the team, Rogue. You may recognise Rogue from the X-Men movies but she actually started out as a villain; she was originally meant to debut in Ms. Marvel #25 but the comic was cancelled beforehand. Rogue had the ability to absorb an individual's powers and memories on touch, and too much contact could result in Rogue taking them all. However, when trying to use Carol's powers the memories of her victims clouded her mind allowing the Avengers to defeat the Brotherhood. Going to the X-Men Mansion the Avengers handwaved what happened to Carol rightly enraging her so she quit to remain with the X-Men. With Claremont writing Uncanny X-Men Carol became a key player in the X-Men despite being powerless since Uncanny X-Men #150. Carol would remain with the X-Men until #163 when she encountered a new alien race: the Brood. The Brood are an insect species that uses hosts for their spawn and the X-Men were given to the Brood for that reason. The Brood accidentally sparked the latent augmented genes in Carol's body granting her superpowers again: linked to a white hole she could generate heat, light, radiation and access all other forms of energy as well as control gravity, to an extent. In #174 she decided to leave Earth to join a team of space adventurers called the Starjammers.

The return of her own solo series

Eventually, Carol would lose her connection to the white hole and return to Earth with her old powers returned. Rejoining the Avengers she would adopt a new title in Avengers Vol. 3 #4 called Warbird. During this time she would also develop alcoholism as a way to cope with what had happened to her and her losing her powers once again. By the time of the Avengers Disassembled story in 2004 she was back to being Ms Marvel, and during that story she would help the Avengers try and resist the reality warping effects from an emotionally and mentally broken Scarlet Witch. Although she would not later join the New Avengers she would regularly fight alongside them. Then we come to House of M; in this story Magneto convinced the broken Scarlet Witch to warp reality where now mutants were in control. Despite this Carol became loved acting as Captain Marvel and being the world's most loved hero even though she was a human, not a mutant. An underground resistance against Magneto's rule 'awakened' her to the original reality so she joined the resistance. When reality was restored to normal, albeit with the world's mutant population largely depowered, she missed the prestige she had in the House of M world. As a result her new solo series, Ms. Marvel Vol. 2, revolved around her trying to be one of the world's major heroes. It was during this period that she went from one of Marvel's 'B-heroes' to its 'A-heroes'. During Civil War she would side with the government becoming one of the major pro-registration fighters and after she would lead the Mighty Avengers in New York. Again, she would prove to be a key figure in World War Hulk, Secret Invasion and Siege joining the New Avengers afterwards.

Captain Marvel

In Amazing Spider-Man #9 she would finally don the moniker of Captain Marvel. After seeing a resurrected Captain Marvel sacrifice himself she knew that she had to become the new Captain Marvel. Since then she has become one of Marvel's key characters alongside Captain America and Iron Man having her own title as well as being a major figure in several key stories, including Secret Wars. She also led one side during Civil War II. An Inhuman called Ulysses has the ability to predict the future with a certain degree of accuracy so Carol wanted to use Ulysses to neutralise threats before they emerged straight out of Minority Report. However, Iron Man disagreed viewing this as being dispensing justice before someone has actually done something wrong, and although accurate Ulysses's visions aren't entirely accurate. Things came to ahead and the superhero community became divided which escalated further and the two sides fought. She fought Iron Man and thanks to the fight he went into a coma. In July a new series entitled The Life of Captain Marvel started so I would advise keeping an eye on that.

As Captain Marvel has had a long publication history here's a reading list if you want to get into her stories:
-Ms. Marvel Vol. 1
-Ms. Marvel Vol. 2
-Uncanny X-Men #164
-Captain Marvel (2012-2014)
-The Life of Captain Marvel

Thank you for reading and I hope you found it interesting. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.

How can you beat Thanos?

Avengers: Infinity War truly shows how powerful Thanos is. The 'Mad Titan' is perhaps one of Marvel's most powerful beings whose powers aren't into the reality warping scale like that of Franklin Richards or Scarlet Witch. This begs the question: how can you beat Thanos? Today we'll answer that question but we'll make it interesting. We won't be using reality warping abilities - we can't just get Molecule Man to turn him into a chocolate teapot or Scarlet Witch to teleport him to the surface of the sun. We'll also be basing our version of Thanos from the Earth-616 (the mainstream) universe in a pitched battle. 

What are Thanos' powers?

Thanos defeating Thor

Even before he wielded the Infinity Gauntlet Thanos was, and still is, extremely powerful. The Nova Corps even counts him as a Category 1 Life Ender, something he ended up actually doing in the Infinity Gauntlet story. Thanos is a Deviant Titanian, a mutated member of the Titanians from Titan, which gave him enhanced abilities to an already powerful species. Titanians already had enhanced endurance, strength, speed, and agility and as a Deviant these abilities were amplified. As a result Thanos can move at fairly quick speeds despite his immense size, (quite paradoxically his reflexes are actually average for a member of his species), and withstand intense pressure. In Infinity #4 Thanos stood against Black Bolt shouting - to show how powerful this is a whisper from Black Bolt can cause powerful earthquakes. Thanos even was hit by Thor who was wielding the Power Stone and just got a nosebleed! He has intelligence to match his physical abilities as well. His mind is perhaps his most powerful weapon. Thanos is extremely intelligent, most of the ships and devices he uses he made himself, and his intelligence passes that of Earth's smartest heroes, like Bruce Banner. He is a skilled tactician as well. Mid-battle Thanos can form expert plans to change how he fights. Thanos is also a telepath, can manipulate matter and energy, and may even be able to use magic. Overall, even without the Infinity Stones Thanos is extremely powerful.

Thanos has minions as well. For our case study we'll focus on the ones shown in the new movie: the Black Order. A while back I looked at the Black Order here and I would recommend reading it to just know their powers, I will go over some of their abilities later though. Corvus Glaive, Proxima Midnight, Black Dwarf, Ebony Maw and Supergiant (who is not featured in the movie) are all powerful individually and can prove to be a huge challenge before we even get to Thanos.

Fighting Thanos

Corvus Glaive about to kill Hulk

Thanos has been beaten and killed several times - once even against Squirrel Girl but we'll ignore that as she's an intentionally jokey character. First we'll have to defeat the Black Order. For this scenario we'll have to fight the Order and then Thanos although the best way to be to eliminate the Order beforehand and even then individually. The best way to do this would be to eliminate the two non-fighting members of the order: Supergiant and Ebony Maw. Supergiant is a powerful telepath being able to control several individuals at once and even consume their mind; meanwhile, Ebony Maw can manipulate minds and even manipulated Dr Strange into releasing the demonic Shuma-Gorath into the world. For reference it should be impossible to manipulate Strange's mind. These two can defeat our heroes before we even get to Thanos. An easy solution to this is to get someone like Hawkeye to put an arrow through their eyes, or get Cyclops to render them unconscious although these are unlikely to work. Instead we'll have to use magic and telepaths. Dr Strange, Professor X, Jean Grey and Emma Frost can be used to distract these two and then we may be able to get someone like Hawkeye in if possible. Despite their intense mental abilities they are mortal - Supergiant was blown up with bombs for example. Black Dwarf is quite simple to beat. He can be described as the Black Order's version of the Hulk or the Thing. He is slow and his head is a weak spot. In Infinity Black Dwarf was defeated by Black Panther and the Dora Milaje so we can simply use them. Like with Maw and Supergiant Glaive and Midnight will be difficult. At the end of Infinity the two for a while, (and with little input from Thanos), held their ground against the Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Captain Marvel and Hyperion (Marvel's version of Superman). In the end they didn't really defeat Midnight - both she and Thanos were betrayed by Maw and that is how they were defeated. To defeat these two we just need one thing: luck. Midnight's spear never misses a target and through sheer luck in Infinity it hit Captain America's shield which made it rebound and hit Glaive. This in turn gave Hyperion an opening to vaporize Glaive. We would to hopefully replicate that ideally hitting Midnight instead. The final one would still be a challenge but would be far easier to defeat - ideally if Maw or Supergiant (or both) were taken out the ones fighting them could intervene or could distract Thanos.

Now for Thanos. He can be beaten in physical combat but it is very difficult. With his strength, speed, agility and intelligence on top of his energy/matter manipulation it will be a challenge to personally fight him. It would take several heroes working together to take him down and even then there would have to be a mix. Strong, heavy hitting characters like Captain Marvel, Thor and Hulk would be needed, agile characters like Spider-Man, and telepaths/magic users like Dr Strange and Emma Frost. Thanos has a regenerative ability but it is not as powerful as that of the Hulk or Wolverine. During Annihilation Drax actually tore out his heart which killed him. We would need to do that but how we do that is difficult. Drax only managed to kill Thanos as he was distracted and Thanos was defeated during Infinity as at last minute he was betrayed and frozen in an amber like substance. Someone like Dr Strange would have to cast a spell to make it appear that someone, like Wolverine, has been defeated so Thanos would not be expecting them to fight back. Then when Thanos is fighting someone like Captain Marvel our surprise hero can spring out and land the blow. However, they would have one shot to do this. Despite not being an efficient regenerative ability it is still a powerful one so whoever does strike Thanos would have to make sure that they could hit the heart, brain or even decapitate him. Wolverine could be a good option; in an alternate reality What if? story Wolverine did cut of his arm. Wolverine has a chance of decapitating Thanos or cutting through his heart. Similarly, Captain Marvel could possibly punch her way through his body to get to his heart. It is difficult to do but not impossible.

Drax killing Thanos

What if Thanos had the Infinity Gauntlet?

Everything would change if Thanos had the Gauntlet and the simple answer is this: you don't beat him. During Infinity Gauntlet when Earth's remaining heroes go to fight Thanos he demolishes them: Wolverine's bones are turned to rubber, Thor is turned to glass, Captain America is killed by a backhand, Scarlet Witch's hex is reversed onto her, and Cyclops is suffocated when a glass block is placed over his head. Thanos' one hubris is the thing to bring him down. After the defeat of the heroes the Cosmic Entities including Marvel's devil Mephisto, the world-consuming Galactus, and the embodiment of Love all went to face Thanos and were turned to stone. One such beings was Eternity, the living embodiment of the universe, and with Eternity gone Thanos decided to become the new embodiment which meant that his soul left his mortal body. Nebula (currently in the Guardians of the Galaxy movie) then obtained the Gauntlet and reversed all that Thanos did. You do not defeat Thanos, you let him create his own weakness.

Thank you for reading. If people like this post I'll do others about how you defeat other comic book characters. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or get me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.