Time For Marvel! Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Fantastic Four

The Fantastic Four, the creation of Jack Kirby, harking back to his days at DC in the 50s and early 60s, was a quartet of four good friends: Reed Richards, siblings Sue and Johnny Storm, and Benjamin Grimm, who embarked on an experimental space flight and were exposed to cosmic rays.

These rays gave them exceptional powers: Reed Richards became elastic; Sue became a wielder of invisibility powers, including the ability to raise invisible shields; Johnny, a human ball of flame and Ben, a super strong monster with lumpy, orange skin.

This group, patterned after Kirby's "Challengers of the Unknown" which he did for DC, had some of the most incredible adventures and supporting characters ever to stretch an imagination.

Answer: Herbie

"Herbie", also known as "H.E.R.B.I.E.", was a chubby, slightly pre-pubescent, food loving nerd, with a soup bowl haircut and glasses, who was never without his lollipop. This "lolly", after Timely and Atlas coalesced into Marvel, gave Herbie fantastic abilities like Green Lantern's power ring or Mandrake's wand.

It was a very original character concept, but, alas, didn't last too far beyond the early sixties.

Answer: True

For some odd reason, Thor made almost no appearances as "Donald Blake"
on Earth in the 70s. His adventures during that decade, and part of the next, almost all took place in Asgard, dealing with the Machiavellian treachery of his half-brother, Loki, the God of mischief. Loki seemed bent on bringing about Ragnarok, the mythical "end of all things" in Norse mythology, so Thor and his cohorts were kept busy.

Since Odin, his father, deemed him paid up for his penance for what he had perceived as Thor's arrogance, the original reason for him being earthbound to begin with, Thor only spent time on Earth to take part in the occasional mission with The Avengers, Marvel's answer to DC's "Justice League of America". The character has gone through many changes since the 80s.

Answer: Zenn-La

The Silver Surfer is a former "scout" or "herald" for one of comicdom's most incredible forces of nature, Galactus. Galactus was a being who sapped the life-force out of entire planets for sustenance. Both were major supporting characters in the pages of "The Fantastic Four", along with his successors in the role of "scout": Firelord, Blastaar and Nova.

Originally volunteering for the job of "scout" to find worlds for Galactus to drain in a deal to spare his own world, The Surfer eventually became a solo, noble entity that fought injustices that were too small or obscure for other heroes. However, most of his adventures in his first solo magazine seemed to involve him being misunderstood, as in his trip to Asgard.

The one fault of this character was that he could seem very pompous and melodramatic at times, (of course, just about every Marvel character with a three digit IQ could, particularly the villains,) especially when pining for his beloved "Shalla Bal", the girlfriend he left behind on Zenn-La.

Answer: Gwen Stacy

During the 70s, Peter ignored Mary Jane for a bit and shifted his affections to Gwen Stacy, the fetching daughter of police Captain George Stacy. She was one of the few love interests of a comic superhero to actually die, and it is doubly tragic in that her father preceded her in death. Spiderman was nearby in both cases, as well.

Gwen, even before Mary Jane, was the true love of Peter's life. Pepper Potts was Tony Stark's (Iron Man) secretary and Harry Osborn's girlfriend and both the Black Cat and Betty Brant were short-lived Spidey/Peter heartthrobs. Spidey, in fact, pretty much considered the Black Cat a nuisance.

Answer: Yes

Way back in 1978, director Philip DeGuerre did a TV movie treatment of Dr. Strange, one of the more interestingly handled characters in comicdom. It starred Peter Hooten, Clyde Kusatsu and Jessica Walters as Stephen Strange, his assistant Wong and the evil Morgan La Fey, respectively. It actually wasn't half bad, but like all comic to TV or movie transfers, something was lost. For instance, Clea was just an ordinary girl, and not an otherwordly sorceress in love with Strange, as in the magazine. Baron Mordo, another staple of the comic book, was nowhere to be found, either. The Ancient One, however, was.

"Dr. Strange" has had a long, but odd, tenure at Marvel. Frequently canceled as a title, it's also frequently revived, having done so at least three times over the course of the last 35 years, as far as I know.

It was created by Steve Ditko and, (supposedly,) Stan Lee, and has always been noted for its eerie, otherworldly depictions of spirits and demons. Artists who have drawn it have included: Ditko, Marshall Rodgers, Marie Severin, Gene Colan, Frank Brunner, Johnny Romita Jr. and Paul Davis.

Answer: The Thing

Ben Grimm, the ever-lovin', blue-eyed Thing, uses this catchphrase every time he sets his sights on an opponent, or bunch of opponents. The Thing has been known to lift whole buildings off their foundations to swat a baddy! The epic battle with the Shi'ar warrior "Gladiator" being a case in point.

Answer: The Kree and the Skrulls

The Kree Empire were a race of humanoids whose homeworld was the far off world, Hala, in the Magellanic Clouds outside the Milky Way. The Skrulls, a race of lizard-like, bipedal changelings from the planet Skrullos in the Andromeda Galaxy, have been engaging in a war with them since the beginning of time. While the Kree have been essentially benign to the human race, the Skrulls have been a menace almost from day one, frequently seeking out the Fantastic Four to engage their "Super Skrull" warrior, a creature that can replicate all four of their powers. The FF constantly defeated them, but did not kill them off. In fact, the Skrull were essentially destroyed by Galactus devouring their homeworld 20-some odd years ago. The Shi'ar Empire, peopled by a race of avian humanoids, essentially decimated the Kree, as well, thus ending the war between the two races.

The Kree, it was revealed, were actually the catalyst that created the Inhumans, who were supposed to be bred as Kree warriors within the Terran solar system. The Skrulls were originally peace-loving, too, believe it or not.

There's still a remnant left of both of the empires... somewhere!

Answer: A voice able to shatter just about anything

Black Bolt, a character that never, ever talks, can, if he so desires, shatter anything from cliffsides to geodescic domes with his voice. However, he chooses to channel this awesome power for flight, most of the time. His consort is his follicle-ly talented distant cousin, Madame Medusa, who can use her hair like an octopus uses its tentacles.

His royal family, essentially the entire tribe of Inhumans, resides in Attilan, a bio-friendly area of the moon. His inner circle includes Medusa, Gorgon, Karnak and Triton.

His main nemesis is his insane brother, Maximus, who is constantly trying to depose him as leader.

Answer: It's a living, massively intelligent entity.

Ego, "The Living Planet", has been bandied about the entire Marvel Universe. He/It has been a guest villain in Dr. Strange, Thor, The Silver Surfer, The Fantastic Four, and who knows what other Marvel titles. His worst enemy, though, is Galactus, naturally, though he also seems to be a tad obsessed with Thor as well.

Ego is able to reshape its surface at will, or put on a face to converse with "microbes", such as humans. Galactus fashioned a "sidereal propulsion unit" to Ego for it to propel itself away from Earth's segment of the galaxy.

Concepts like this are a dime a dozen at Marvel, if you can believe that!

Answer: Amazing Fantasy #15

Hands up, every baby-boomer who had this gem in their collection and their mother threw it out after the bugs reduced it to shreds in your garage...1,2,3...oh, it's too gruesome!

Answer: Barry Windsor Smith

Ah, Barry Smith. Talk about your transformations on the fly! This is the man who started out as a Jack Kirby clone, pretty much aping the Marvel corporate style that included Dick Ayers, Larry Lieber and Vince Colletta, duplicating Kirby's lines, so as not to shock the average Marvel "Quite 'Nuff Sayer".

From day one on "Conan", though, his style was a good double of Aubrey Beardsley's, the famous art nouveau luminary of the late 19th/early 20th century. By issue 26, he was Alphonse Mucha himself, producng panels that you could, literally, hang up in a gallery without shame. Easily one of the premier graphic artists extant! A nice guy, and great to talk to!

The other choices were all artists that worked on Conan over the years, with John Buscema, by far, being the one who drew it the longest. Adams' art, though always excellent, didn't quite suit the character, since Neal usually handled more modern titles and characters, and his style is tailor-made for the modern tabelau. Gil Kane was an even more bizarre choice! His work on the ERB Marvel title "John Carter: Warlord Of Mars" was excellent, especially with Rudy Nebres inking, but for some reason, his angular, chiseled style just didn't jibe with the organic look and feel pioneered by Smith. Buscema, especially with a good, solid inker, was actually a half-decent choice, but he was no Barry Smith!

Answer: John and Marie Severin

Though John did a lot of work for "Cracked", a clone of "Mad" magazine in the 60s and 70s, he and his sister Marie, worked exclusively for Marvel amongst the comic book publishers.

John's style was very reminiscent of the "etching" style of illustrative art, with a lot of little lines used for shading, rather than actual brushstrokes, but he was not a cross-hatcher! Marie's style, however, was totally different, and she had a real propensity for "cuteness" and humor, especially as pertained to child subjects, without laying it on too thick. They were both considered top pros in the field.

Answer: Prince Namor, The Sub-Mariner

What do you know?! Prince Namor, also known as the Sub Mariner, created by Bill Everett during the 40s, was the one Marvel character, created long before Marvel was Marvel, that inspired a DC character...Aquaman, who also resided in and ruled over an "Atlantis". Both characters also had command over sea creatures, though this power is emphasized a bit more with Aquaman.

The main differences between the two, besides Aquaman being blonde and fully clothed as opposed to Namor having dark hair, winged feet and just swimming trunks for modesty, was that the DC guy had a secret identity: Arthur Curry. Namor had none. Namor also didn't have Aquaman's fatal dependence on water.

Answer: The Falcon

"The Falcon" was Sam Wilson, a black social worker from Harlem became chums with Captain America after helping him defeat the Red Skull. His raison d'etre was a trained falcon named Redwing, who was essentially a second sidekick for the star-spangled Avenger. The Falcon was also good in a fight and had similar athletic abilities to Cap's, though he wasn't enhanced by any "super sauce" like Cap was, until a later incarnation.

There was a very bad rethinking of the character in the mid-70s that reduced Sam to a pimping gangster. A dirty shame, since he was one of the more respectable non-white characters in superhero comics. He has not been as great a part of Captain America's world since this time, however, he has turned up recently.