San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
Traveling Marvel exhibit digs deep with lots of surprises.
History and subtext help fans appreciate a bonanza of backstories behind traveling exhibit in Chicago — here are 18
‘Marvel: Universe of Super Heroes,” the massive new traveling exhibit that just opened at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, does a surprisingly evocative job of replicating our experiences with the Marvel Universe itself. If you’re a tourist in this world — you recognize the icons (Spider-man, Hulk, et al.) you’ve seen a few films — you can blow through in 30 minutes and come out with a perfectly breezy appreciation. Or you could spend a lifetime here, soaking in the legacy, sorting out 60 years of plot and character — what Marvel leader Stan Lee’s most recent biographer, Abraham Riesman, called the “massive latticework” of soap opera at the heart of Marvel (and the business of Marvel).
I spent more than three hours.
I was not expecting that. It’s a great deal more thoughtful than the Instagram-ready cash-in it appears to be. On the other hand, during a pandemic, with squiggly children in tow, maybe a deep dive is not possible? Here, then, is a guide to some of the secret wars, the subtleties, the subtexts, rivalries and Easter eggs in “Marvel: Universe of Super Heroes”:
1
The Marvel story, in many ways, is an immigrant story — specifically, an Eastern European story. The show begins with a pair of quotations from Marvel’s most seminal architects, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby: Lee, a son of Romanian immigrants, says he based the Marvel Universe in New York because New York is what he knew; Kirby, whose parents settled on the Lower East Side after leaving Austria, says, “I don’t know where your father comes from, but where I came from, everybody was an immigrant.” Danny Fingeroth, a longtime editor of “Spider-man” who worked on the exhibit, told me, “We thought it was essential to remind people these characters were created by the descendants of Jewish refugees. Because the superhero concept itself is a paradox: Most superheroes are very much about maintaining the status quo in society, and yet Marvel superheroes are also outsiders who feel they never quite fit American society.”
2
In that first room of the exhibit, a copy of “Marvel Comics” No. 1 from 1939 stands in a glass case. The show doesn’t mention it’s the most valuable Marvel comic, having sold for $1.26 million. Benjamin Saunders, the English professor at University of Oregon (and Marvel historian) who curated the show, said a handful of those issues are out there. He’s more excited by the single page of original art from the comic that hangs nearby. It’s actually a “real holy grail piece,” he said, the only known surviving art of issue No. 1.
3
Among the first images in the exhibit is the flood that Namor the Sub-mariner unleashed on New York in an early comic. This panel, a contemporary photo-realistic recreation of a 1941 image, was made by Alex Ross, a longtime resident of Chicago’s North Shore whose celebrated style often reframes vintage superhero comics as paintings.
4
One of the several selfie stations includes a full-size replica of the Thing from the Fantastic Four. He sits on a couch, beckoning you over. But look behind him — that seemingly static illustration in the window eventually moves. Gargantuan god Galactus stomps through Manhattan, Iron Man flies by, Spider-man plops down. (Now for a deep cut: The view from that window is the view from the Fantastic Four’s headquarters.)
5
One more thing on Thing: Saunders initially wanted him watching TV, his feet up on a coffee table. He settled for the Thing on a couch. Either way, the point comes across: The basis of the Marvel Universe, however extraordinary, is prosaic everyday existence. Which means — and the exhibit illustrates nicely in later galleries — characters wrestling with boredom, body shaming, alcoholism. Male heroes become female (Captain Marvel), and later
generate even smarter progeny (the Muslim teenager Ms Marvel). A page of original art from Billy Graham (the first Black artist to work on “Black Panther”) shows T’challa taking down the KKK inside a supermarket. Another sequence shows Black Panther asking to be called “Black Leopard,” because of the “political connotations” of the Black Panther Party in the early 1970s.
6
Look closely at the original art of “Not Brand Echh,” the Mad magazine-like comic that Marvel published briefly in the late 1960s to satirize itself. In a panel spoofing Kirby, there’s a letter behind him signed “Carmine.” It’s a reference to Carmine Infantino, an editor at crosstown DC Comics who was forever trying to lure Kirby away from Marvel. Not mentioned: Soon after this parody, DC did hire Kirby, who had grown tired of his lack of recognition, having been overshadowed for years by the infamously self-promoting Lee.
7
Speaking of due credit: Flowing through the exhibit (in gentle, constructive ways) is the enduring argument of who created what at Marvel. This is probably the most sensitive question in superhero history. A decades-long saga made short: Though Lee is often thought to be the creator of Spider-man, Hulk and the rest, Kirby (and others) had at least an equal hand. Kirby’s family spent years in legal battles with Marvel, settling just before the case headed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The exhibit ignores the lawsuits but does a nice job explaining “the Marvel Method” without stepping into ugly stuff. The Marvel Method, in short, begins with an idea, which goes to an artist, whose work then heads to a writer for dialogue. That’s not always true, of course. But the show does such a good job explaining the production cycle, the point is evident: No Marvel comic was ever created by one person. As Saunders said: “It’s such a unique form of making comics, it renders our understanding of authorship inadequate. It was a mash (of people). When these characters were created, I doubt anyone thought the question of credit would matter.”
8
Partly for those reasons, Saunders said Kirby receives “as much physical space (in the exhibit) as Stan.” Two artifacts here to look for: A “Happy Hanukkah” card from the Kirby family featuring the Thing in a yarmulke. (The Thing, who looks a bit like Kirby, is also Jewish.) Lee is represented by a 1947 book he wrote (“Secrets Behind the Comics”) and magazine article (“There’s Money in Comics!”), both spotlighting his role as ringleader. Ann Nocenti, a former Marvel editor/writer of Daredevil and X-men comics who consulted on the show, told me: “In a way, Stan became Marvel’s Ronald Mcdonald, but then, even if he’s thought to have gone a little credit-mad, without the unrelenting cheerleading it’s possible Marvel would have never gotten off the ground.”
9
One more legal matter: For years, Kirby had asked for his original art back from Marvel, and Marvel would not give most of it back. But eventually Marvel caved. Since at least the mid-1980s, it’s been fairly routine for Marvel (and DC) to return original art to its creators. And that is why most of the original art at the exhibit does not come from Marvel. Instead, each is a loan from either a comic book collector or a Marvel artist.
10
Don’t pass the (very) small exhibit of Ant-man’s lab, assuming it’s filler. It only looks like this: Watch closely and, via cleverly inserted animation, Antman and the Wasp soar into the room, marshaling a colony of ants and providing a little history of themselves.
11
The show is refreshingly upfront on trend chasing. When Godzilla and 1950s monster movies take off, Marvel goes monster comic crazy. Even better: Look for art from “Homer Hooper” (an Archie doppelganger) and “Homer the Happy Ghost” (a Casper twin), both by Marvel, and both hilariously lazy intellectualproperty land mines. (One more monster-comic note: Hanging above the Groot prop from “Guardians of the Galaxy” is a comic book panel. The monster in it is the original treelike Groot, a bad alien who was defeated by termites.)
12
Among the props in the exhibit: Captain America’s shield (from “Avengers: Endgame”), Black Panther’s suit, Cate Blanchett’s buck-like headdress (“Thor: Ragnarok”), and many others. But there are no props, or costumes, or mutant movie items, from the X-men films. That’s because 20th Century Fox made those movies and props, and not Marvel, which had licensed the film rights to the X-men and Fantastic Four in the 1990s when Marvel (and other comic publishers) were in a nosedive. (For the record, two years ago, after the exhibit was created, Disney, which owns Marvel, acquired 20th Century Fox, and so the X-men film rights are now back with Marvel.)
13
Saunders said the show was not designed to preview any upcoming Marvel films or TV series, and that’s why there are only a couple of pieces of original art featuring Vision and Scarlet Witch, but no items from their blockbuster TV series, “Wandavision,” which just had its season finale. That said, it’s hard to overlook that Hawkeye, Black Widow and the martial arts hero Shang-chi, all relatively minor Marvel characters but with upcoming TV series and films, receive a somewhat outsized amount of attention.
14
A fun inclusion is the list of restrictions dictated by the once-mighty Comics Code Authority, which aimed to save young minds from harmful material. A comic, the Code said, must use “good grammar,” show unchecked respect for authority and avoid “werewolfism.”
15
Read the fine print of those Captain America ads from the 1940s, intended to help the war effort through fan-led paper drives and stamp sales. Children could also purchase a “Sentinels of Liberty Badge” and — echoing a certain contemporary strain of American politics — “join the more than 10,000 red-blooded young Americans in a gallant crusade against the spies and traitors who attempt treason against our nation.”
16
If you have ever wondered about some of the jobs listed in the credits of a comic book — colorist, letterer, etc. — you have probably wondered what an “inker” actually does. Just trace over pencil marks with ink? The exhibit has a terrific interactive screen that allows you to select various professional inkers, then trace over a comics page using a stylus, revealing the distinctive style brought to the job.
17
Though the show doesn’t hammer this, some of the original art on display are key images in the endless Marvel saga — the death of Gwen Stacy, the addiction of Tony Stark, Hulk holding up stone lettering of the word “HULK.” For comic book fans, it’s as if “American Gothic” and “Nighthawks” were off in a corner of the Art Institute, hanging behind some other stuff.
18
Some of the works being shown come from the personal collection of curator Saunders, including the comic panels reflected in the show’s Doctor Strange mirrors. That said, Saunders, a native of Wales, teaches 16th and 17th century literature at the University of Oregon. He’s also the school’s director of its comics and cartooning studies minor.
“A lot of people have understood for a long time this is a medium whose time for serious study has come. Librarians stopped wondering decades ago. And yet, do a show like this, every now and then you run into people who can’t believe it,” Saunders said.
“I’m kind of delighted by it. I always want to say, ‘Wow, people like you still exist! That is so cool!’ ”
For more information on the exhibit, visit msichicago.org.