VS

Ken Gage

Ah, pushing the boundaries of living the life properly misspent means filling your head with junk. I have been, lately, reading the early issues of the Fantastic Four series by Marvel Comics. And, having web space to kill, I thought to myself, "Why not share my observations about old comic books with my devoted fans?" (You are devoted to something, aren’t you?)

Anton LaVey-like characters often pop up in comic book art, especially if the illustrations are drawn by the likes of Jack Kirby. The above illustration demonstrates my point perfectly, while the pictures below do so only mildly. In most cases, one might assume that the artist has merely employed a general villain archetype, borrowing from sources close to him or her, such as popular comic book antagonists (like Ming the Merciless). However, many artists also "borrow" faces and poses from the mass print media cluttered about their studio chambers. So when one considers the mysterious appearance of Anton LaVey in so many comic books over the years, it is no real miracle at all. Frequently, the likeness of old "Doc" LaVey is so detailed that there is no research to do other than going through a musty collection of then-current magazines and finding the specific feature articles and photographs of Anton that had been used as source material.

After Susan Storm met Anton LaVey, she soon found her love life moving in a more agreeable direction. The poor frantic dear took his advice in spades, and soon she was attracting more male attention than she could handle. (And that’s really saying something, because this love-sick girl was already handling very strong attention from the likes of Prince Namor and Doctor Doom.)

Susan admits that she sometimes misses the antics of her former pursuers: "Prince Namor had a fantastic body as I recall...hard muscles and always trying to steal me away to his undersea kingdom. On the other hand, Doctor Doom was always tying me up in rope, threatening me and...well, just constantly brooding. Being restrained that way was very scary at the time, but now I kind of miss it!"

In the beginning of her career, though, Sue faced an unusual amount of sexism under the normally-progressive pen of Stan Lee. Now that you understand the ugly story about how Marvel Comics has been slipping the foundations of evil into its pages for so many years, the following link should further your knowledge, giving you the dirt on the sexual politics behind popular comic books. And all hidden in open daylight!