I was thinking, what if there was no Marvel Comics made by the team of Stan Lee, Kirby and Ditko at Marvel?

I shudder and actually could picture it! And am thankful for the Silver Age of Marvel and for the creative talent of Lee, Kirby and Ditko who it is pretty much acknowledged were the 3 stone pier that held Marvel Comics up and made them great.

Without them, I feel Marvel would not be a great company and DC comics would still be number one.

I know this answer and can picture it because all I have to do is look at ALL the, in my opinion, Terrible concepts from the 1970’s and see this as: The creative juice the industry had back then.

Without the big 3 at Marvel back then.

-We’d be subjected to guys who got their powers from outer space beings. Like Nova

-Kung Fu and similar fad concepts like Iron Fist and Luke Cage

-Blatant second rate characters like Moon Knight

-Characters you can’t relate to or really feel much for such as Ghost Rider
and so many more.

To judge these characters, you only have to judge their staying power. Most of these 70’s characters, on their own merits can hold a book for a long run. Their series always get cancelled because of low sales.

Why? Because plain and simple, the creative juice and energy is not there.

I picture a Marvel where if not for Lee and company, we’d have a comic universe with concepts like that seen in the 1970’s.

Which from my view, are pretty much lackluster characters with no real staying power. Characters who are good for small term use. But none really having that juice, that extra special edge that could make them great.

And from a personal view, outside of the Superman concept. I really don’t like the whole: Person got his powers from an out of space alien encounter. (Remember reading the Savage Dragon origin and it just totally lost my interest big time when i found out what he is.) That idea has always seemed science fiction and not science fantasy for me. And just not interesting. I’m more interested in the characters that I could relate with, or feel for their situations.

I guess that’s why I like the Silver Age Marvel Comics creations so much, cause those characters had that appeal. Call it charisma, call it magic, or just call it luck. But most all of the Stan Lee creations with Kirby and Ditko, had that appeal and edge that made them great.

And if it easy to capture this process, then we’d have thousands of more characters of similar caliber by now in comic books. But we really don’t. Since Marvel’s Silver Age, no company has produced so many popular characters that have stood the test of time, lasted with continuous series, and held an appeal with each new generation of readers.

The Silver Age Marvel struck Gold, or make that Silver when they had Lee, Kirby and Ditko working for them. And they have not seen the likes of it since.