Friday, December 30, 2011

Lo! There Shall Come Endings Week: "Whatever Happened to Scorpio?" by Jim Steranko

Happy New Year, Groove-ophiles! We're wrapping up LO! THERE SHALL COME ENDINGS WEEK with something a little different. Marvel's Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't end with issue #5, but "What Ever Happened to Scorpio?" was innovator Jim Steranko's swan song as the series' writer/artist. By this time Steranko was a bona-fide comicbook superstar and was ready to spread his wings and broaden his horizons. And why not? He had already helped broaden the horizons of the entire comicbook industry! Ol' Groove knows you're gonna dig this all-time fave...



















And don't forget, Marvel has just released S.H.I.E.L.D. Masterworks Vol. 3 featuring this and many other classic tales featuring Momma Fury's oldest boy!
at

12 comments:

  1. AnonymousDecember 30, 2011 at 2:51 AM

    As close to perfection in a simple comic book as you get. Thanks for sharing this one!

    Bill

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rip JaggerDecember 30, 2011 at 3:15 AM

    Reading these SHIELD stories when I was a youngster and not much practiced yet at comics vocabulary, was a real hang-on-by-your-fingertips experience. One little miscue and you lost the narrative entirely.

    It's so very good though.

    Rip Off

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousDecember 30, 2011 at 11:45 AM

    Well-

    While the drawings are nice to look at, and some of the techinal aspects of the art were certainly ground breaking at the time, I don't think it works from a story telling perspective in a few spots.

    Page 4 is interesting to look at, but the image has nothing to do with the text, and is so jarring that it takes one out of the story. A "Hey look at this" piece of art.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Simon B December 30, 2011 at 11:45 AM

    Now you're talking! Thanks for posting this, O Groovy One!

    One of my all-time faves - simply beautiful work by Jaunty Jim. I love it!

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousDecember 30, 2011 at 11:50 AM

    Part 2-

    I originally thought there was a page missing between pages 18 and 19, as it wasn't clear what was going on. A hand appears behind an opening door, and then a close up of a face. It isn't clear that the two are connected because they happen on different pages (which had an ad between them in the original printing).

    Based on this one issue, I can't see what the big deal was about Steranko. Anytime the art calls attention to itself and takes the reader out of the story, I think it's a failure in storytelling.

    Even if it is pretty to look at.

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousDecember 30, 2011 at 11:52 AM

    Beautifully done, even if Steranko's drawing still had some rough spots. It's difficult to think of (m)any other comics that are so intellectually & emotionally engaging and yet FUN! His stories crackled with great dialogue, situations, references to old films, noir novels, etc.

    ReplyDelete
  7. swiDecember 30, 2011 at 7:27 PM

    and there's been nothing better since... at least not till his Captain America trilogy, that is.

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousDecember 31, 2011 at 3:02 PM

    BTW, Scorpio's identity was revealed in Avengers #72, reprinted in Marvel Super Action #33.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Tony RobertsonJanuary 1, 2012 at 11:54 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Tony RobertsonJanuary 1, 2012 at 11:57 AM

    Would it be possible to re-post the story with the ad-pages included, as these pages were taken into consideration by Steranko when these stories were designed and written. The story does not read right without them.

    ReplyDelete
  11. kirk gJanuary 4, 2012 at 4:48 PM

    Tony, are you suggesting that some of the pages require a left or right orientation, or require the reader to turn the page to a reveal?

    When reprinted, some of these stories don't have the same page count (horrors!) or when the double page spread is coming up, the masterworks will insert a logo page so that the reveal works right.

    Is this what you mean?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Tony RobertsonJanuary 4, 2012 at 7:03 PM

    Yes, that is exactly what I mean. The masterworks only do it for the double page spread to work, but Steranko designed the entire story around knowing where the ad pages were going to be placed. So a page beside an ad page was designed to be seen as a single page. Pages that were side by side were designed with that in mind. and like you mentioned, a reveal would be after a page turn. Read a Steranko comic with the ad pages and then read a reprint. It makes a huge difference.

    ReplyDelete