superman.nuMary Immaculate of Lourdes NewtonHolliston School Committeefacebook    
  •   forum   •   COUNTDOWN TO MIRACLE MONDAY: "IT'S REAL!" •   fortress   •  
Superman Through the Ages! Forum
News: Superman Through the Ages! now located at theAges.superman.nu
 
*
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?
March 28, 2024, 06:25:15 PM


Login with username, password and session length


Pages: 1 [2]   Go Down
  Print  
Author Topic: Avengers: Cap's kooky Quartet  (Read 7524 times)
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
Kurt Busiek
Last Son of Krypton
*
Offline Offline

Posts: 214



WWW
« Reply #8 on: November 06, 2006, 08:26:38 PM »

Thanks!

It looks like #150 was a partial reprint of #16 so I'm assuming that the term is used in a descriptive caption like, "And now a glance back at the origins of Cap's Kooky Quartet.." or something like that. 

Close.  I think it's newsman Sam Reuther, during a news report on the history of the team.

kdb
Logged
JulianPerez
Council of Wisdom
*
Offline Offline

Posts: 1168



« Reply #9 on: November 07, 2006, 02:43:24 PM »

The nickname "Cap's Kooky Quartet" first officially showed up "in continuity" in AVENGERS #151 by Steve Englehart, Jim Shooter, and Gerry Conway, when there was a recap of Avengers history from start to finish. It was one of those "now we'll choose a new roster" type issues.

The nickname is far far older than that. But it should be noted that nowhere in the original tenure of the Kwartet, from #15 - #30 or so, are they called that!

The nickname comes from - as you might guess - wordsmith supreme and snake oil salesman Stan Lee, who referred to the team as "Cap's Kooky Kwartet" in lettercolumns in order to compare the Avengers to the Beatles "the Fab Four," all the way back during Stan's writing tenure on the book before Roy Thomas took over. This was the sixties and John, Paul and the rest were at the zenith of their prestige, and Stan the Man wanted to, presumably, tap into that counterculture "vibe." And to this day, they remain the only incarnation of the Avengers that I can seriously imagine smoking ganja and listening to Jimmy Hendrix over in Avengers Mansion (...except maybe Quicksilver, he seemed a little uptight).

My all time favorite "Cap's Quartet" "hippie" moment came when the mighty shield-slinger Captain-friggin-America himself sat down and said "What are you reading, Cap?"

"LORD OF THE RINGS! I dig FAR-OUT fantasy!"

By the way, this was years and years before Englehart had Captain America discover America on motorcycle EASY RIDER-style. So I guess the spirit of the sixties was always kind of in that guy.

Speaking of Roy Thomas and LORD OF THE RINGS, I'd love to write a Roy Thomas Drinking Game. "Take a shot every time there's a reference to LORD OF THE RINGS." Man, Roy must really love Tolkien. The biggest one I can think of was the original Black Knight's horse (and later, the Valkyrie's) "Aragorn."
Logged

"Wait, folks...in a startling new development, Black Goliath has ripped Stilt-Man's leg off, and appears to be beating him with it!"
       - Reporter, Champions #15 (1978)
TELLE
Supermanica Council
Council of Wisdom
*
Offline Offline

Posts: 1705



WWW
« Reply #10 on: November 08, 2006, 05:08:49 AM »

Julian and Kurt, thanks for your great memories and for digging around.

Julian, any issue # for Stan's first usage in a lettercol? 
Logged

Everything you ever wanted to
know about the classic Superman:
Supermanica
The Encyclopedia of Supermanic Biography!
(temporarily offline)
Pages: 1 [2]   Go Up
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

CURRENT FORUM

Archives: OLD FORUM  -  DCMB  -  KAL-L
Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.21 | SMF © 2015, Simple Machines

Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS! Dilber MC Theme by HarzeM
Entrance ·  Origin ·  K-Metal ·  The Living Legend ·  About the Comics ·  Novels ·  Encyclopaedia ·  The Screen ·  Costumes ·  Read Comics Online ·  Trophy Room ·  Creators ·  ES!M ·  Fans ·  Multimedia ·  Community ·  Supply Depot ·  Gift Shop ·  Guest Book ·  Contact & Credits ·  Links ·  Coming Attractions ·  Free E-mail ·  Forum

Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster
The LIVING LEGENDS of SUPERMAN! Adventures of Superman Volume 1!
Return to SUPERMAN THROUGH THE AGES!
The Complete Supply Depot for all your Superman needs!