It's your favorite comicbook fan, gearing up once again to give you all that comicbook knowledge that you can't get in any college! We're returning to our series, paying homage to the gone, but never forgotten, Sturdy Steve Ditko!!
Today, we will talk about what just may be Steve Ditko's most-beloved, most deeply personal creation:
MR. A!!!
Mr. A was born out of Steve Ditko's passionate support for Ayn Rand's philosophy, Objectivism, which puts forth that reality exists independently of individual consciousness, and therefore, it exists independently of individual power (since you can't "think" reality away, or cause it to not exist, simply by willpower in the focused belief that reality does not exist). Rand believed that reality can only come to be known through our human powers of perception, and inductive logic, and that everything has a specific nature or identity, which she demonstrated in her writings as "A is A". This harkened back to the law of identity, first touched on by Socrates (Plato's dialogue, Theaetetus,), and later expounded upon by Aristotle (Prior Analytics, Book II). Hence, the name, "Mr. A," was inspired by both Ayn Rand's writings, which were inspired by Aristotle's famous proof in Prior Analytics.
Steve Ditko was so enamored with Rand's philosophy that it captured his fertile imagination, and from that imagination sprung, Mr. A, a new superhero that was ruthless with criminals, and heavy with his inflexible philosophy of black and white morality. And it all began here:
This is my copy of Wally Wood's witzend #3, published in 1967. In a story entitled, "Mr. A," in which a young, violent ne'er-do-well comes face to face with the stark reality of justice incarnate in the form of Mr. A, a relentless, white-suited nightmare with a steel mask and steel gloves. Don't let the "comic" in comicbook story, fool you - in this story, written, penciled and inked by Ditko himself, it is ALL business with a deadly serious message inundated in Objectivism and a stern no-tolerance for crime/evil sentiment. You can read it HERE.
Folks, this AIN'T The Amazing Spider-Man.
Mr. A is Rex Graine, a hard-edged, absolutely incorruptible reporter for a newspaper called The Daily Crusader. Even though no origin story ever appears for Mr. A, it makes sense that a guy like Graine couldn't just sit around and do nothing while his city sinks into corruption. Graine dons a white suit, steel gloves, and a steel mask, and pummels crime into submission with his fists, and long, sermon-like speeches on morality and justice. And it's not just the criminals that should be fearful; Mr. A doles out tough love to those with their heads in the sand, those who are indecisive, and those who are unknowing enablers to the criminal hordes descending on his city. It's no wonder that Mr. A never found a really wide audience in the civil unrest and love-fest of the 60s and the good-time chasing of the 70s - a hero so severe was probably just too unpersonable and unrelatable to the comics readers of the time, despite the absolutely INCREDIBLE artwork that Ditko poured onto the pages:
Isn't that art GORGEOUS? Mr. A continued to appear in witzend and other fanzines until 1973 when this happened:
Mr. A #1 (front cover)
Mr. A #1 (back cover)
Above, you can see both the front and back covers to Mr. A #1, published in 1973 by Comic Art Publishers. The series lasted two issues. The first issue featured an all-new story entitled, "The Right To Kill," and several reprints from fanzines. The second, which I don't have, issue featured only all-new material. After that, Mr. A was relegated to a few reprints in the 80s, a couple of false starts in the 90s (stories advertised, but never materialized), until the 2000s, when Ditko teamed up with a publisher named Robin Snyder in Bellingham, Washington, to create a few new stories backed up with old reprints.
Mr. A would go on to inspire the creation of The Question, his comics-code compatible doppelganger, Alan Moore's Rorschach of The Watchmen (sources say that Alan Moore REALLY disliked Mr. A), and even a character named "Q" in the videogame, Street Fighter III.
While Mr. A is neither as well-known nor well-beloved as other Ditko creations, he stands alone as the creation that probably most gives us insight into the inner workings, beliefs, and motivations of the brilliant mind of the enigmatic recluse that gave us Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, The Question, and countless other characters in universes that caused our imaginations to take flight. And the art was simply out of this world!! One could imagine that if Steve Ditko could have taken on the identity any of his creations come-to-life, Mr. A would have been his chosen alter-ego. That alone, in my mind, probably makes Mr. A one of Ditko's most important creations, whether I agree with his philosophy or not. For Steve Ditko, A was indeed A...Mr. A!!
IIN LOVING MEMORY OF STEVE DITKO (1927-2018)
Thank you! Nicely done, and a good selections of artwork. One correction - The Question came first, before Mr. A. Most critics agree that the Question was a kind of template for Mr. A.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Steve!
DeleteWould you happen to have a publication date on witzend #3? I believe that you may be right, but based on an interview Ditko gave with a fanzine called Marvel Main, he implied that he created The Question to use in Blue Beetle's comic because he didn't want to use Mr. A (because he didn't think it would fly with the CCA). Unfortunately, witzend #3 doesn't have a month of publication - but we know that both these characters debuted in 1967. The Vic Sage Site has an excerpt of the interview published here: http://www.vicsage.com/misc/mistera.php
Maybe I am misinterpreting it, but he seems to imply that he created The Question after he created Mr. A out of necessity. If you could shed some light on the the subject, I'd be most grateful!