As a casual comics fan, one of my favorite things is just how ridiculous comic books used to be.
Marvel Comics are now the backbone of a multi-billion dollar entertainment industry.
Had you asked me 30 years ago whether this would ever be possible, even on my most optimistic day the answer would have been a resounding “No!”
And to illustrate why my answer would have been so definitive, I present to you “out of context” comic panels. For example, look at these actual panels from an actual comic published by Marvel.
Quick recap to add just a smidgen of context. The two characters in the first panel are:
Doctor Doom: Archenemy of the Fantastic Four – probably their greatest nemesis. His powers include – Super-intelligence (like Iron Man level or greater), an army of robots at his command, ruler of a sovereign nation (Latveria), and mastery over the dark arts of magic.
Namor (aka – The Sub-Mariner): Sometime villain, Sometime hero appearing in comics since 1939. Ruler of the underwater kingdom of Atlantis. His powers are that he’s super-tough, super-strong, and can breathe underwater and fly.
These two major villains – both rulers of their own kingdoms – are fighting over a “sea horn” that is hanging from a drop ceiling like one in a cheaply finished basement.
Actually, they’re not fighting over the horn, simply whether Doom should “toot” said horn. And once he does, this somehow makes him laugh “Ha-Ha!” and then immediately claim mastery over the entire world.
There’s so much more going on here that I could spend too much time analyzing. But, I won’t. I’m just going to leave this filed under “Out of Context Comic Panels” because these make me happy to be a casual comics fan.
Cheers!
– CCG
Casual Comics Guy 
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