BHOC: THE MIGHTY MARVEL COMICS STRENGTH AND FITNESS BOOK

The ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS line wasn’t the only thing Marvel-related that Simon & Schuster published back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Indeed, there was a whole line of other volumes: a bunch of puzzle books and the like. And there was also this, an exercise book featuring the Marvel characters, presumably in the hope that a love for the Hulk would make sedentary kids more likely to exercise. This too showed up in my stack of presents that Christmas of 1978, a gift purchased by my father.

My dad wasn’t himself a hugely athletic person, but he had a love of sports and especially golf, an activity that he pursued avidly. As the first born child, my dad had some unrealistic expectations for me, it seems. He clearly always hoped that I’d be an athlete of some kind–he was a major Mets fan and so exposed me to baseball with a loving push that never quite took, despite a couple of years in Little League. He was also an avid reader, and that’s likely where I get part of my love of reading from. But there’s no question, he really would have loved to be watching me play in big games, almost regardless of the sport involved. And in that respect, I let him down utterly.

And by 1978, I was beginning to put on weight. Not that much in the grand scheme of things, but enough for it to concern him. I also by that point didn’t have any interest in sports, having proven myself to be hopeless at all of them. But that didn’t deter him from continuing to encourage me in those directions. And so I think giving me this book was a genuine attempt to put me on the right path as he saw it. Unfortunately, this was a wasted effort. I wasn’t ever going to be disciplined enough at that age to do any sort of work-out just because some super heroes were depicted as doing the same.

THE MIGHTY MARVEL COMICS STRENGTH ANS FITNESS BOOK was written by Ann Picardo, whom I assume had some expertise in the realm of physical fitness. She attempted to mimic the self-effacing Marvel style of dialogue while still conveying all of the pertinent information about each exercise. Often, though, her one-liners felt like the sort of thing you’d see on the overtly comedic line of Marvel Stickers from around the same era. Possibly that was a deliberate choice. It definitely got across the idea that Marvel was willing to laugh at itself. And oddly, there are a couple of references to DC’s characters and line in it, something that I’m surprised Marvel allowed.

The artwork was provided by Joe Giella, who didn’t do much of anything for Marvel but who had a long career at DC, primarily as an inker. He worked steadily in Julie Schwartz’s editorial stable. His work here is clean and open, and while perhaps lacking the inherent power of a John Buscema or a John Romita, it’s professional stuff.

And yes, some of the material in this book doesn’t date well at all, in particular this line from Sue Richards that defines her motivation for maintaining her health as being to please her husband Reed Richards. This kind of sentiment was typical in 1978, but even then, women were becoming more vocal about desiring their own agency and not just living their lives for their romantic partners.

Anyway, I was a bit distressed to receive this volume as a gift, and my dad’s follow-up encouragement to use it didn’t do anything to bolster my young confidence. He thought he was doing something good, but in actuality, he probably made the situation marginally worse. So this book sat on my shelf along with the other ORIGINS volumes, but it was seldom referenced.

I will say, it was kind of fun that even J. Jonah Jameson got a section of this book dedicated to him. That “El Cheapo” gag in teh headline is another product of the era.