Falcon - The Green And The Gold!

In the Golden Age Captain America's partner was a youngster named Bucky. But in the Silver Age and beyond it was a man named Sam Wilson who fought crime alongside Cap as "The Falcon". I was in the front row for the Falcon's debut and saw him don his distinctive green and gold togs for the very first time to help Cap whomp up on those disgruntled former allies of the Red Skull, the mean and nasty Exiles.

As the original artwork for the issue shows, the costume was originally to have featured short pants. I'm pretty much pleased they decided not to go that direction.

It was part of a long yarn in which the Red Skull had used the Cosmic Cube to transfer his consciousness into Cap's body and vice versa. Bereft of his "Super-Soldier" might the Living Legend had to resort to his wits and on a brave young black man from the heart of Harlem who was especially good with falcons. His affinity with one falcon in particular named Redwing. He had been hired by the Exiles, ignorant of their true nature and now was fighting against them to help the natives on their island escape their thrall.

Cap saw the potential and had Sam Wilson put together some fighting togs and off they went to fight crime. I've always preferred these original colors and I consider the falconer's glove an essential element.

The defeated the over-confident Red Skull and then were shifted back to the United States where they parted company. Cap to seek a different direction and the Falcon to pursue his new one -- fighting for his people on the streets and alleys of Harlem.

They fought together again, when a gang dubbed "The Diamond Heads" had the Falcon on the run for his life. Cap came along just in time to help defeat the enemy and it's probably then that a new idea was beginning to grow.

It would take many months later when A.I,M. attached Cap himself on the streets of Harlem by using an android to knock down the old buildings and gain some short-sighted support from the denizens that Cap and the Falcon fought together again. They defeated the schemes of the enemy and then Cap made Falcon on offer he couldn't refuse.

And then something quite radical happens. The Falcon's name joins Cap's on the cover (though the official title of the comic never changes) and that would be the way it would be for many years to come. Captain America and the The Falcon were a team for the times. The Living Legend in red, white, and blue and social worker Sam Wilson in his vibrant green and gold. 

They end up fighting for and against SHIELD when one of its agents turns himself into a ferocious giant gorilla and they all end up fighting the Mole Man and his minions deep beneath the surface of the Earth.

The only time I recollect that the green and gold Falcon appeared outside of the Captain America comic was in an issue of the Avengers when the team took on Psyklop thanks to the imagination of Harlan Ellison among others.

Already Sam Wilson is begining to chafe at the partnership when he feels it necessary to track down Spider-Man on his own. Gene Colan leaves the title in the middle of his tale and Johnny Romita steps in. The Falcon has never looked better than he did when Romita drew him during this era. Romita has a real knack for drawing handsome black men and women.

Stan feels the need to introduced a real sideswipe to the proceedings when he has Cap become an undercover rookie policeman. It's an interesting callback to the Golden Age when he was a buck private under the heel of an abusive non-com. Here Officer Rogers gets dressed down by a cat named Muldoon.

The Falcon and Cap find their way to working together again when the Gray Gargoyle whips up a zany scheme to get control of some secret element which will give him power enough for world domination, or so he thinks before Cap and Falc send him into orbit for a few rotations. This one features a spaceship made of stone and that's enough to make any good comic book and sci-fi fan shake his head.

The green and gold Falcon makes his last hoorah fighting on the streets of Harlem and alongside Cap when they try to stop a race riot from breaking out. This is a humdinger of a giant-size story and features the old Red Skull, inexplicably back for more. It's fitting he's the villain that the original Falcon goes out on. The cover gives a hint of what's to come.

In the very next issue we see the new red and white Falcon. I guess the powers thought his costume was more complimentary alongside Cap's classic look, but will always prefer the green and the gold.

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Masterpieces Of Fantasy!

Of all the myriad of reprint comics that Mighty Marvel unleashed upon the world over the course of its long multi-decade existence, none will in my mind ever be cooler than Fantasy Masterpieces. First there's the name, the essence of bombast and insane seriousness which marked the early days of the Marvel experience. Marvel at one level took its comics more seriously than did the Distinguished Competition and consequently also took its fans more seriously too. That was felt by the youngster reaching for entertainment which not only passed the hours but lifted up their senses of themselves. Comic books might have been for kids, but Marvel comic books were a bit different, seemingly designed for a select cadre of readers who could truly appreciate the art of comics.

And so in the earliest issues the artists are the starts with not only Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko getting name-checked on the cover but also others like Don Heck, Joe Sinnot, and Dick Ayers. This wasn't a
"Batman comic" or a "Spider-Man comic" but a "comic by (fill in the blank)", a more adult and sophisticated attitude about literature which these comics aspired to be, if only just. Name checking the talent has proven to be a winner for comics which for many years eschewed such personal glory and promoted a company brand. Jack Kirby and Joe Simon had been the first really to break this pattern in the 40's when they took their trade to DC and later on their own. Kirby and Ditko now were at the spearhead of a wave of celebration of pop culture of which comics were a part.

Sadly by the third issue that attitude had given way somewhat and despite a cost rise there was suddenly a shift in focus as not just the Atomic Age was there to be gleaned but the Golden Age as well. Captain America by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon was back and he was soon to be followed by others of his ilk.

In issue seven Sub-Mariner and the Human Torch joined the jolly band of heroes and monsters and weird science fiction tropes which filled up the pages.

And ultimately a team from Marvel's Timely past, the All-Winners came to visit. The first of their only two yarns was in issue ten and the second would find its way into the magazine after its name change.

These were raucous packages of vintage work, and some of it every bit as good as what was being done in the then modern day. The Black Knight by Joe Maneely was an exquisite example of what could be done on a comic page. But soon Captain Marvel would come to Earth and the title would become Marvel Super-Heroes. Still they were masterpieces.

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