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when Wraiths and humans mix, "Hybrid," which nevertheless I found a scary story at the time. In retrospect, then, it's interesting as a sign of some things moving about in the subconscious of the culture at the time, but again, I doubt Mantlo was thinking this. It was kind of the structure that he had to work with. (Tellingly, overt reference is made by a Clairton veteran character to the Nazi 5th column) It seems to me that Mantlo may have just absorbed a lot from reading too much stuff about the Nazi era, and there was a lot of that in the 70s. I do think it's interesting the way the history influence plays out in his work between those two books, which he was writing simultaneously.

Now, I'm not saying there's anything "genius" about either of these books. But Mantlo was trying to inject something heavy into them that, perhaps, they couldn't bear, but so much effort for books that were, after all, toy tie-ins and very much for kids is a little impressive. (I remember a letter in the book thanking him for using the word "heinous," which helped the kid win a spelling bee, and Mantlo responded about how he's always felt comics should be educational, so I think his intentions were far from unconscious in some ways) Though possibly also the very definition of pretension. The reason all this stuff can be seen at all is, after all, because of its heavy-handedness.

As far as the writing style itself, it's typical Marvel phrasing. Karza talks like Dr. Doom, ROM talks like Thor. You see that in almost everything from the 70s from Marvel except Steve Englehart. (I mean, even Marv Wolfman's Dracula talks like Doom) So it's kind of hard to really fault it for that.

Not really so much a good writer as one with really good intentions.

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