September 1965: Titanium Man! Molten Man! Seaweed Man?

Journey Into Mystery 120

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Who would have thought that the blast furnaces of Pittsburgh could do what Thor himself could not—weld the pieces of his severed hammer together? Repair complete, the Thunder God returns to Asgard to give Odin the bag of Norn Stones used by Loki to steal victory in the recent Trial Of The Gods. He fails to notice one stone drop on the jungle floor of Earth. Still sentenced to serve Odin’s warlock Ularic, the god of evil bides his time until he unleashes his latest plan. Turning Ularic’s own sorcery to his advantage, Loki puts his captor to sleep, and contains him in a time vault. The pretense of confinement now working to his advantage, Loki scans space for the perfect cats paw to aid in his twofold plan: the defeat of Thor, and the over-throwing of Odin’s rule. Unsuspecting, a restless Thor returns to Earth to see Jane Foster and catch up with Don Blake’s medical practice. He finds his office locked up, and Jane nowhere to be found. Seeking the help of his fellow Avengers, he finds the “new crew” of Quicksilver, The Scarlet Witch, and Hawkeye too young and arrogant to confide in, and storms off to do his own thinking. Thor may be frustrated by her disappearance, but we see Jane, kidnapped, held captive but unharmed, by a brooding hooded figure. Thor doesn’t have long to think however, as a fiery sphere plummets to the city streets. Investigating, Thor finds the “bubble” soon bursts, to reveal Loki’s unwitting but deadly cats paw: the re-energized, helium-to-human Crusher Creel, the Absorbing Man.

In Tales Of Asgard this month, the warriors of Odin “Set Sail.” As the Odinship flies beyond the borders of Asgard, the seeds of mutiny are growing amongst the crew, as division lines begin to form.

PE: Far too many times have I ignored cover art. I just take it for granted most of the time but this cover is unusually striking to me. I love how the covers blend and yet also separate. The insides are another matter. As gorgeous as that cover is, it's a bit of a cheat since Crusher Creel doesn't show up until the final page.

JB: A couple of odd thoughts: Do you guys go with the cover or inside page for the official title each month? I’d say the latter for me. The mystery deepens with the month of release question; I notice they advertise some Oct. ’65 titles in this issue (Sept. ’65), i.e. F.F. 43 instead of 42.

MB: This is pretty good for a story that could have borne a cover burst reading, “Special No-Action Issue!” (although, of course, that’s only true if you define “action” as narrowly as “hero fights villain”).  Once again, I feel that as enjoyable as “Tales of Asgard” can be, the main story cries out for those few extra pages, yet there’s some nice stuff here, starting with the wonderful splash page of Thor repairing Mjolnir and his interaction with the steelworkers.  In a book that recycles villains as quickly as this one, it’s no surprise to see the Absorbing Man returning already, but he’s certainly given a satisfyingly dramatic build-up, and since Loki was in effect his “father,” it’s only right to have him put Creel back on the board.

JB: As we enter the 120’s, some of the best issues of JIM (the words soon to be dropped from The Mighty Thor title) are upon us. The start is rather slow, as you say Mathew, but there’s still enough beautiful (pop) artwork and mystery to keep us going. Crusher Creel looks a lot more menacing this time around, and I love the seemingly endless parts of Asgard we are getting introduced to. Case in point this time is Ularic’s laboratory-- pretty high tech!

PE: Yet another technical question occurred to me when I saw the panel reproduced to my right: Just as I wondered what happens to the "body" of Dr. Blake when Thor arrives on the scene (purgatory? another dimension? Switzerland?), I question whose "personality" rules the brain of Blake/Thor. When the lame doc is wandering the streets of New York, is it always with his own set of memories and thoughts or are they constantly at war or sharing equal time with those of The Thunder God. Does Blake think one thing and Thor swoop in to note "How wrongeth that thought be"? I can't see Thor using the slang term "That cinches it." Why doesn't Blake's soul resent the invasion of another, ala The Hulk and Bruce Banner?

JB: The mystery of the Blake/Thor identity crisis stays with us for some time. Way ahead in issues 158-9 they try to put all the questions to rest. It looks as though Stan and Jack may have been confused themselves with how to reconcile it. I may be the only one glad to see Jane back, but who boo-booed with the blonde hair? Maybe her captor let her try some dye to make her feel better. And look out for Mrs. Volstagg in the TOA!

PE: It's been far too long since the extreme intellect of Jane Foster brightened our Thundery comic books. Thank goodness she's back after what seemed days and none the worse for wear and tear. She's still able to mouth a few inanities during her brief panel-time this issue. But, hmmm... who could that shadowy character in the background be that urges our beautiful but IQ-challenged nurse to forget her love for Don Blake?

Strange Tales 136

Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD

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Hydra spots Fury in midtown Manhattan, but as they summon an assassin squad equipped with jet-packs, he smells a rat, so by the time they converge near the unassuming corner barbershop that conceals S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, he’s ready for them.  The agents following Fury are captured, and he uses a hypno-beam to convince them that their target is actually inside a nearby warehouse.  After effecting their entrance with a Hydra-Ram, the squad of assassins is rounded up, subdued, and captured in a clean sweep.  Round two to Fury and Co.

MB: It’s sad that on S.H.I.E.L.D.’s sophomore effort, Kirby’s contribution is already downgraded from full pencils to layouts; lucky I prepared everybody for a letdown. Golden Age vet John Severin is no slouch, but “sensational stylist” though he may be, said style is rather cartoony, a big disappointment after last issue. We make our first visit to that famous barbershop (shades of Del Floria’s tailor shop on The Man from U.N.C.L.E.), while technology such as the Hydra-Ram and jet-packs shows us that Fury is up against a well-armed adversary that is every bit the equal of the Helicarrier set.

PE: I can't look at Severin's stuff without thinking of Cracked's mascot, Sylvester P. Smythe. I love his art, don't get me wrong, but I think it's better served on war and western comics than here. Severin has the unshaven, gun-toting man in the wilderness down to a science. Fury exclaims at one point that he can't wait to use the new "hypno-beam" that Section W has developed for him. If I was one of these Marvel scientists, I'd pay attention to what's going on around the Marvel Universe. I think there's some trademark infringement going on here and there. You telling me neither Dr. Doom or The Wonderful Wizard (or whatever he's called these days) hasn't devised a "hypno-beam"?

Could that "one" be Agent H?

MB: While I won’t criticize this effort as vociferously as I praised the last one, it does feel as though we’ve missed a chapter or two, or—more precisely—are reading a different strip, in which the mighty S.H.I.E.L.D. suddenly somehow seems rather dingy.  Although the splash page is great, with Fury reflected in the extreme close-up of a high-tech Hydra telescope, Severin’s style so eclipses Kirby’s that Nick looks like a hybrid of Popeye and James Bond.  It’s almost as though they took a breath and realized they couldn’t maintain that pace, but we’ll get back up to speed later, I promise.

PE: I'd liken the first installment last issue to a two-hour pilot of a major action television series, full of set-ups and character introductions, and this issue is naturally a bit of a letdown. It's still massively entertaining when compared to most of the other Marvel fare this month. For heaven's sake though, let's get Fury out of that Wall Street suit and into the iconic black leather. With all the firepower and multi-billion dollar machinery and gizmos, the thing that amazes me the most is that Nick Fury can hold an intelligible conversation while that fat stogie (which always seems to be the same size) hangs from his mouth.


Jack: I will be a voice crying in the wilderness in support of "Johnny" Severin's art in this episode. I am always happy to see an EC stalwart return in a Marvel strip--first Jack Davis on a western, then Wally Wood on Daredevil, and now John Severin on Fury. Next month: Graham Ingels draws the Fantastic Four (I would kill to see that!-Pesky Pete)?

JS: I'll back Jack up here. Perhaps because I didn't think the previous issue was stellar, this one didn't seem that much of a drop in quality to me. I don't know if any of my fellow professors will be able to relate, but after reading this one, I thought that Larry Hama must have read up on these SHIELD tales before working on Marvel's GI Joe series in the 80s. It's not much of a stretch to get from Hydra to Cobra, and Fury running around with his varied SHIELD teammates sure felt like Duke rounding up the GI Joe team. I'll be interested to see if the similarities continue in future issues.

Doctor Strange

Dormammu captures Clea and orders Mordo to stop Dr. Strange before he learns the meaning of Eternity. Dr. Strange flies around the world visiting various mystics and eventually locates a scroll; following a spell written on it, he enters another dimension, thinking he’ll unravel the mystery of Eternity there. Unfortunately, he misread the scroll, and is taken prisoner by a demon. Our hero uses wit and skill to defeat the demon and returns to the Ancient One’s side, determined to probe his mind for the secret he seeks.


MB: Like the recent Shazana story, this is basically a sideshow to the quest for Eternity, yet it’s an undeniably enjoyable one, and if nothing else serves to underscore how difficult and dangerous that quest is. I don’t recall for sure if we see the Aged Genghis again (I think so), but he’s an interesting character and I would welcome a return appearance. As always, there is much to admire here from Steve and Stan, such as the goat-like demon, Ditko’s distinctive dimensions, more tension simmering over the fates of the Ancient One and Clea, and in particular the endlessly entertaining interaction between Baron Mordo and his sorcerous patron, Dormammu (“He searches for Eternity??! You witless clod!”).

Jack: The demon looks a bit like The Creeper, Ditko’s weird DC hero. I thought this was a very good episode, probably due to its having less Mordo and more wackiness.



JS: This continuing storyline has had its share of ups and downs. Fortunately this is one of the more entertaining installments, but I sure hope it gets somewhere before too much longer.

The Amazing Spider-Man 28

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Tired of using his dime store replacement Spider-Man suit, Peter Parker makes a visit to Spencer Smythe's house to switch uniforms (you'll remember, back in #25, that Smythe created the machine designed to capture Spidey for J. Jonah Jameson and his suit was captured instead-Pesky Pete). When he gets there, Peter makes the switch and is about to leave when he witnesses an altercation between Smythe and one of the scientist's assistants, Mark Raxton. The two have been working on a liquid metal alloy and Raxton has decided he wants to keep all the profit for himself. To this end, he's taking his alloy and going home. During the tussle, the alloy is spilled on Raxton and he finds himself a Molten Man, with a body hard as steel. Spider-Man must use trickery to trap his new enemy and get to his graduation in time.

PE: Here we go again with the "Instantly-Named Villain" paradox. Raxton has liquid steel spilled on him and thinks to himself "I've become an actual Molten Man!" That part's not a big deal. It's a few panels later as Spidey swings by and notes that he "heard the crowd mention a man with molten skin!" That's the part that always sticks in my craw. I can see a crowd watching Raxton destroy things and say "Oooh, he's a strong guy. He must be Gold Man!" or something along those lines but who would think to exclaim "That guy's downright molten!"? I know what you're thinking. Just let it go. I should.

JS: I'm willing to bet that a lot of these villains were cretaed in name first. "How about Molten Man?" "Sounds great! We can pour liquid steel on him as his origin." Of course, there's no explaining Paste-Pot Pete.

PE: While we're picking nits, the steel may make his skin harder and easier to bash things in but would it make him strong enough to lift a car? Not sure about that one.  Molten Man has some incredible dance moves as well. Stand up from your sofa for a minute (mind the potato chips) and try kicking out your left foot (as if to come in contact with another body) while delivering a thundering left hook. Can't be done without falling on your ample bottom, can it? I know because I spent all morning trying it and I'm not molten, I'm black and blue. While you're perusing that panel, check out Molty's right foot. Yeah, Steve Ditko was the master of the wiggly worm fingers but this kind of body architecture goes way beyond that.

Don't try this at home

MB:  Featuring Peter’s graduation from Midtown High and the debut of a vintage villain, this is a noteworthy issue; I don’t know if Molty is considered a fan favorite, but I always regarded him as a formidable foe and had a soft spot for him, completely forgetting that he was a former associate of Smythe’s.  The twin scholarships for Peter and Flash and the choice of J.J. to give the graduation speech were satisfying dramatically, yet make the reader feel that—despite being nominally set in the real New York—this strip takes place in its own, hermetically sealed world.  I theorized a different reason for Liz “Hilton’s” fit of pique, but will refrain from explaining why, so as not to spoil anything for those less familiar with the subsequent storylines.

PE: What's up with the Liz "Hilton" thing? How does a writer forget the name of one of his long-running characters? Or was letterer Sam Rosen asleep at the wheel? Ditko critic-extreme Professor Scoleri will find much to rant about this issue including the stretching abilities of Peter Parker's forehead and receding hairline. Most artists study faces and figures but it appears Ditko might also have been studying the White Cliffs of Dover at the time as well.

JS: Did kids in the 60s call each other Ditko-head on the playground as an insult? I find it hard to believe that this is the same artist who was doing much better work with Doctor Strange in Strange Tales. 

PE: I had to chuckle when Raxton rips his trousers in half and says "Here's my costume. Now everyone will recognize the molten Man!" I must admit that seeing Molty in a three piece suit was somewhat startling but then Ditko's version isn't the one I remember most. That one would be Ross Andru's version in the #132-133 storyline (May-June 1974). Not sure I've mentioned this before but if I was backed into a corner and quizzed my favorite Spidey artist, the answer would be Ross Andru. Now, I haven't read those comics in thirty years so I'm interested to see if they hold up on re-reading when we get to them sometime next year. As for Molten Man, he's a lesser villain (I'll go third tier but no higher) but he's memorable and not as disposable as so many of these early 60s Marvel villains. We'll see Molty show up again in a few months but then he'll disappear for the good part of a decade and resurface in the aforementioned 1974 arc.

Avengers 20

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Thanks to the quick action of Quicksilver, Captain America is saved from his skyscraper plunge (see Avengers 19-Pesky Pete) and The Avengers head after The Swordsman. Just as they've cornered him though, he disappears into thin air. This chain of events is startling to the villain as well but becomes crystal clear as soon as he re-vaporizes in the palace of The Mandarin. The oriental master of evil lays out his plan for The Swordsman: The Mandarin will trick The Avengers into allowing The Swordsman to become a member of the team by projecting a faux image of Iron Man into Avengers Mansion. The image supports the hiring of The Swordsman and that's good enough for the team. Cap is suspicious though and keeps an eye out. Swordsman plants a bomb for Mandarin but has a change of heart at the last second (he's falling for Scarlet Witch) and tries to disengage the device. Just then, Cap sees him and misunderstands. A battle royale ensues.

PE: I've got another one of those pesky "new powers alerts" for you. The Mandarin can use one of his rings to molecularly transject someone to his palace but it comes at a cost: it dissipates many months of his Delta Energy source. Which must be why he's never tried it on Iron Man.

Amen, Hawkeye!

Jack: Superheroes make everything so complicated! When Cap is falling from a great height, Quicksilver zips around to make an air current to slow his fall, then Hawkeye shoots an arrow to cut the ropes binding his wrists, then the Scarlet Witch makes rivets pop out of a girder so it moves into place for him to land on. Why didn't the Scarlet Witch just levitate him down to the ground?

PE: When Hawkeye protests the faux Iron Man's request for The Swordsman to be inducted in The Avengers, the fake Shellhead asks the same question I've been asking: if The Avengers hadn't relaxed their "standards," would Hawkeye have been allowed in? Later, Hawkeye muses that the next Avenger will be Doctor Doom. Then The Avengers show what dopes they are by shrugging and exclaiming "Whelp, any friend of Iron Man is a friend of ours!"

Jack: I'm just happy to see the Mandarin. I always liked him as a villain. Maybe it's all those rings---

PE: A very average story (even among average Avengers stories) that goes nowhere but it goes nowhere slowly. I'm not sure, if it wasn't for Stan Lee's crowing (even on the cover), I could tell the difference between Wally Wood's inks and Mike Esposito's inks. There's not a hint, at least to me, that Wood had anything to do with this.

MB: Much as I liked the top half of this two-parter, the conclusion is in some ways an improvement, most noticeably the art:  the firm line of Wood’s inks allows Heck’s dynamic style to shine through, while showing off his pencils to their finest advantage.  We also get the start of the relationship between the Swordsman and the Mandarin (who hates Iron Man so much that he schemes against the Avengers merely in anticipation of Shellhead’s rejoining them), which will come to full flower in Avengers Special #1.  The clever resolution of last issue’s cliffhanger, with Cap’s rock-solid—and justified—faith in his fellow Assemblers to save him, tops off the sundae.

PE: Which just goes to show what I know about inking!

Fantastic Four 42

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Still under the hypnotic grasp of The Wizard, Ben Grimm battles his three partners alongside The Wizard, The Sandman, The Trapster and Medusa. The Wizard draws yet another ace when he manages to trap Johnny Storm in his evil mental cage. Can The Invisible Girl and Mr. Fantastic win back the loyalty of their two zombie-fied partners in time to walk down the aisle? To be continued...

PE: Part Two of the three-part "epic," this feels like yet another "battle for the sake of battle" issue. The Wizard's able to control The Thing and The Torch, arguably the strongest pair of The Four, and then exclaims that he can't get everything he wants in the world until Sue and Reed are destroyed. Why doesn't he think to hypnotize the remaining Two and then he'd have an Amazing Eight rather than a Scary Six? I'm just waiting for the inevitable "The Wizard orders The Thing to kill Reed and his love for the man is so great that it breaks the hypnotic hold" scene that should be the capper of this "saga." If we avoid that, then perhaps we can claim a success. As it is, I'm still not buying this as "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine." I wouldn't even print "Kinda Maybe One of the World's Okayest Comic Magazines" yet.

JS: I don't know what I find more troubling, that Mr. Fantastic can be squeezed into a cocktail shaker, or that when squeezed into it there was still plenty of air for him to breathe for quite a while.

MB: Talk about going from bad to worse:  as the curtain goes up on Act II of our little drama, the Wizard has already turned the Frightful Four—with the Sandman having ditched his color-coordinated purple outfit—into Five by controlling the Thing’s mighty muscles…not to mention those teeth Ben is suddenly sporting.  Then he turns his Id Machine (does this make him the original Wizard of Id?) on Johnny, leaving the soon-to-be-Richardses as the Fantastic Two.  I am thrilled to report that when Reed temporarily turns the tide by borrowing equipment from the Wizard’s own storehouse, it works better than the portable water sprinkler he’d put on the Torch.

Tales to Astonish 71

The Sub-Mariner

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We continue where we left off, with Namor stuck in a cave and a giant monster squid bearing down on him. The first clue to the elusive Trident is supposed to be from a seashell that Namor has found. Instead, he uses it as a weapon, hurling the shell like a razor-sharp discus so that it lops off the squid’s tentacles, killing the beast. Once the prince is victorious, the spirit of Neptune arises from the shell to speak to him. Neptune reveals that the next clue on Namor’s quest is in the Forbidden Deeps, where he must now go. Twirling like a torpedo, Subby launches into the buried cave entrance, burrowing himself free. He comes across the Krang flunkies who buried him and trashes them easily. While this has been going on, Krang’s soldiers are starting to get the citizens upset as they kill whoever doesn’t cough up gold and riches, in taxes, for the military machine. Before he reaches the Forbidden Deeps, Namor finds an old man on the far outskirts away from civilization. The ancient one relates that he was ordered to stay there by Neptune, and when the time was right, he would go forth to tell the underwater people that Namor is the true lord of the sea. Namor’s luck apparently runs out once he goes into the Hidden Deeps. A giant monster, made of sea weed, batters him around like a rag doll. The story ends with the monster crushing the hero in its massive hands.

Tom: Wow! This issue goes on to prove that last month’s story wasn’t a fluke. Another fun read that continues to impress me. Giant-Man wasn’t exactly a hard act to follow, but the bullpen might actually have a classic series in the making. Here’s hoping that the great quality continues onward.

PE: Stan has two females this month use the same schmaltzy line "My heart will turn to ashes." Nurse Jane Foster over in Thor and Lady Dorma here. Stan must have been pretty fond of that line. More than forty years later, I still can't read a Sub-Mariner comic without audioizing the voice of John Vernon every time Namor bloops out a word balloon. For those not familiar with the name, Vernon voiced Namor in the 1966 cartoon series. The actor then went on to fame as the mayor in Dirty Harry and Dean Wormer in Animal House (and the unfortunate spin-off TV series, Delta House). Vernon was so dynamic that his voice was also used in that same Marvel 1966 cartoon run as Tony Stark in Iron Man and as Major Glenn Talbot in The Hulk.

Tom: Namor is his usual arrogant self in this series, which adds to the fun of it. I’ve got a feeling that his attitude will get watered down eventually, into being more of a good guy. For the time being, I’m digging how he handles things. Unlike other heroes, who would have wrapped up the giant squid in a spider-web, or somehow would have knocked out the beast so that it could live another day, Subby has no problem chopping the sucker up and giving the creature a dirt nap.

MB: The last page of this story is torn out of the copy of Sub-Mariner Special #1 that I unwittingly bought (I suspect there was a poster of Namor on the back, since there’s one of Dorma on the facing page); fortunately, I see from the splash page of the next one that I didn’t miss much. Unfortunately, the remainder only confirms that if the moody style of Gene Colan—billed as such in this reprint, although I believe he was originally credited as Adam Austin—is well suited to the wine-dark depths, Colletta’s inks are far less so to his pencils, which frequently look amorphous. As the quest for Neptune’s Trident proceeds, I’m enjoying the larger panels and the unhurried storytelling that allows for episodes like Namor’s morale-boosting encounter with his elderly, loyal subject.

Jack: Yep, in the original comic the art is credited to Adam Austin.

PE: Another well-done story, not one with startling revelations certainly but one that feels like a piece of a big puzzle. Maybe one of the big corner pieces. The Giant Seaweed Man does ring in bell a new age for Marvel: the briefless monster. Had Kirby drawn Seaweed man a few years ago in the pages of Fantastic Four, I bet you money the big hunk of moss would be wearing boxers. The strip is blissfully free of the kind of panel that's become standard in Fantastic Four or Daredevil:

Namor: Oh my, it seems to be a giant man made of seaweed!

The Giant Man Made of Seaweed: I... am... Seaweed... Man!

TV news reporter: Namor was attacked by Seaweed Man today...

We are glad that panels such as this did not appear . . .

Hulk

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Rick Jones warns the Hulk that Ross has launched a super missile at him and the gigantic humanoid that he’s battling. The Hulk grabs Rick up pronto, leaping away just in time before the missile hits the giant goon. The troops gather around the fallen pink humanoid, with plans to taking it for observation. The Leader doesn’t want his creation to fall into their hands, so he detonates a fire ring around the big creature, burning it. The Hulk stops to revive Rick because the kid has stopped breathing from the shock of the leap and the blast of the super missile. After he’s brought back to normal, the two go off to one of their secret caves. The Hulk may now have Banner’s mind, but he is more angry and savage then the mild mannered scientist normally is. Still having a bullet lodged in his skull from a couple issues ago, the Hulk frantically works on the gamma machines so he doesn’t return to human form and die. Ross and the military observed them enter the cave so they surround it. Ross threatens to blow up the cave with nuclear bombs after the Hulk lobs some boulders at them. The Hulk bickers with Rick, telling him to leave, which he finally does. It looks like the Hulk is about to meet his doom until an apparition of the villainous Leader appears. The Leader gives Hulk an ultimatum at the story’s end. Jade Jaws can either stay in the cave and get killed, or pledge allegiance to the almighty Leader and be transported away to his headquarters.


Tom: I didn’t like this one as much as the last issue. The story is starting to get bogged down with the whole bullet lodged in the head predicament along with the Green Goliath now having Banner’s mindset. The artwork is getting stranger as the Hulk’s mug is starting to look mutated. What’s even weirder is the Hulk making a Rock Hudson reference while he and Rick are alone in the cave . . .

Jack: I thought the Mickey Demeo art was terrible until it hit me—this is how the Hulk looked on the Marvel Super Heroes cartoon TV show! I recall that they used stories from the comics and photographed the panels, so this story must have been one that they used and I think one of the close-ups of the Hulk was featured in the advertisements for the TV show.

Tom: When reading a two story series like this, it’s hard not to draw comparisons between the two. If you put them up side by side, the Hulk’s adventures are starting to look like a filled in coloring book tale, while Namor’s comes off as more adult, though I’ll use that term loosely. Good fun all around though.


Jack: The Hulk has had some good moments since being revived in the back of Tales to Astonish, but it has been a very uneven series, probably because of the artwork. It has not been the best work of Ditko or Kirby.


PE: Oh boy, this is bad stuff. If you're going to give a title an "epic" feel and drag a story out over months and months, you better have a story worth telling. This reads like the same 'ol crap every issue with the added bonus of increasingly atrocious artwork. There is no definition in Esposito's characters or landscapes. Everyone looks alike save the color of their hair or skin or the addition of a mustache. His Hulk has the same wide-mouthed grin in every panel, signifying pain, anger, puzzlement, or God knows what.

Tales of Suspense 69

Iron Man 

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The commisar of a (COMMIE ALERT! COMMIE ALERT!) communist work camp near Siberia, Boris Bullski tires of the lack of respect his seniors have for him. He has three scientists concoct a suit made of titanium, a suit so powerful it could destroy that American swine, the commieland-hating Iron Man! The armor ready to go, Bullski, now carrying the moniker of Titanium Man, issues a challenge to Iron Man to fight him in a neutral site. The ultimatum is delivered worldwide so that Iron Man will be humiliated if he turns the challenge down. Shellhead decides he can't let the world down and accepts Tito's invite. When the battle begins, Iron Man quickly realizes he's outmatched by the much bigger, stronger Bullski. The hidden land mines don't hurt the evil Red's chances, either.

PE: Could someone tell me what Tony Stark's latest gizmo, the Sub-Miniature Reverser does? Is it designed to make little things that used to be big things little again? It's so frustrating when we're not given the whole scoop on these fascinating machines. And what a fabulous name for a happenin' nightclub, "The Frug A Go-Go." The Frug, wikipedia tells me, was a short-lived dance craze derived from another short-lived dance craze, The Chicken. Why, oh why, didn't we get to see Happy and Pepper doing The Frug?

JS: Titanium Man? Really? Was Stan even trying at this point?

PE: Just so that we don't miss the message (again), Stan makes sure to remind us (again) that commies don't play fair. The commies lay down traps for Iron Man before he's even at the battlefield (again). An American superhero would never resort to lows such as those. I'll bet you anything Sly Stallone read this comic book when he was a kid and then again just before he wrote Rocky IV.

"I must break you."

JS: Does Tony Stark not have enough goimg on in his life between being an Avenger, a billionaire businessman and a playboy that he's got to fly out to participate in international grudge matches in a carnival atmosphere?

PE: Happy's back to lookin' like a baby who needs his nappy changed. Got news for ya, Hap. The look's not complimentary and I doubt the chicks dig it either. Well, maybe Pepper, but everyone knows (even Hap) that she's only using him to make her boss jealous. Please excuse me while I have a good larf: "The burgomaster of Alberia reviews the agreed-upon rules of combat..." Who's sanctioning this televised match, Don King? 

MB:  One of the fun things about reading Marvel Comics of this era is that an important villain such as the Titanium Man—straight from “Commieland”—is introduced every couple of issues.  Not surprisingly, Shellhead had a number of armored adversaries (e.g., Crimson Dynamo, Guardsman) who thought their tin suits were a match for his, and while they never prevailed in the long run, they often gave the Golden Avenger a run for his money.  The build-up and cliffhanger have obviously deferred the bulk of this fight to the next issue, but it’s clear it won’t be any walk in the park for Shellhead, and the Titanium Man’s historical link with the Crimson Dynamo only adds to the appeal of this story, in spite of the Cold War hysteria of Senator Byrd and his ilk.

PE: Though Countess Stephanie de la Spiroza seems familiar (A lover jilted by Tony Stark? Join the club!), this is her first appearance. She'll be back very soon though. The other guy who seems oddly familiar, of course, is The Titanium Man himself. The character threw me right back to the first year of this strip when every other bad guy was decked out in a suit of whatever metal was popular that month (to Professor Bradley's list above, I'd add The Unicorn). He's certainly no first-string villain so you have to shake your head and sigh that maybe Paul McCartney didn't really know that much about Marvel Comics after all. "Magneto and Green Goblin" has a better ring to it.

Captain America 

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While his partner is helping fight World War II as Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes is kidnapped and taken to the mysterious Greymoor Castle, home to the crazed and bitter scientist, Dr. Cedric Rawlings. Approached by the Nazis to perfect a sure-fire way to eliminate Captain America and Bucky, the scientist has created a way to shrink his subjects down to nothingness. With Bucky trapped at the Castle, the Nazis know it's only a matter of time before Cap will come busting through the door. 

JS: Greymoor Castle sounds appropriately gothic for our tale. It reminded me of the Forgotten Prisoner of Castlemare Aurora model kit. I like to think the hanging Skeleton is all that's left of Bucky!

PE: I didn't mind Dick Ayers' pencil work this time. It's very Kirby-esque. The story reads as though it had been written in the 1940s, which was Stan's goal after all. Bill Mantlo returned Cap to Greymoor Castle in 1981 (#256, April 1981 to be exact), with art by the late, great Gene Colan. This was the first issue after John Byrne's legendary run on Cap (#247-255). 

MB: As with the S.H.I.E.L.D. strip, Kirby here begins contributing only layouts instead of full pencils, and with the Red Skull now only invoked rather than seen, things seem to be throttling back a bit from the greatness of the last few issues.  That said, however, the “rendering” by Ayers isn’t bad, and the combat scenes on page 7 are especially well done, befitting the artist who inherited the Howlers from the King.  The standard-issue traitorous crackpot scientist is no better or worse than most, and it’s nice to see Steve in action in his other uniform for a change, even if his understandable concern for Bucky leads him to overlook a crucial piece of intelligence, so I guess I’ll just sit tight and see where this goes.

JS: Note to Cap: you might want to think twice about busting a hole in the fuselage of an aircraft that you plan to continue flying.

PE: I dig crazy Nazi professors (is he talking about us? -JS) (especially the ones with only one hand) almost as much as those crazy commies! If you were to get all your history from movies and comic books (definitely the route I would recommend) rather than those boring, heavy history books, you'd know that the Nazis didn't have any sane scientists. Rawlings definitely had a Mad Thinker vibe to him and I actually did some research to make sure that somewhere down the road some goofball comic writer at Marvel didn't tie the two (as we'll find out together, everyone in the Marvel Universe is related).




The X-Men 13


Our Story


Continuing the drama from last issue, Professor X's step-brother, Cain Marko, now the deadly Juggernaut, has sworn vengeance on Xavier and is making his way through the X-Men to get to his prey. X throws everything including the kitchen sink (aka Johnny Storm, The Human Torch) at Marko but it doesn't seem to stop him. Fortunately, once X is back up to his normal strength, his and the combined abilities of his X-Kids and The Torch weaken The Juggernaut long enough to separate him from his strength-giving helmet. Once the hat's off, so's the game.


PE: A perfectly average time-waster. Nothing much happens. The entire 20-page saga revolves around the journey of Juggernaut from one end of a room to another, stopping here and there for bumps in the road. There's a big battle with very little consequence (although it must be of some import since X deems it necessary to wipe Johnny Storm's memory of the fight clean -- anyone out there in MU-Land care to explain that one?) and a lot of cliched dialogue. I do not believe for a moment that a common thug, albeit one with super powers, would use a line like "If I must taste the bitter dregs of defeat..."

JS: While I wouldn't argue with your description, I thought it was reasonably entertaining. Did they pull in The Human Torch because they owed him extra appearances when they cancelled his solo strip in Strange Tales?

Call for the Teen Brigade! Call for the Teen Brigade!

MB:  One might think that after the exquisite build-up given to Cain Marko last issue, no battle could possibly do it justice, and that with an unknown named Jay Gavin now providing the pencils over Kirby’s layouts, the artwork would be further destabilized.  Yet the X-Men’s fight with Juggernaut lasts the entire issue, even requiring Xavier to enlist the Human Torch’s aid, and enables them to display excellent teamwork and ingenuity (like Hank luring Juggernaut into the Danger Room).  As for the art, it’s still a little cartoony at times, but the inking credit reveals one of the most satisfying two-word combinations ever found in the English language:  Joe Sinnott.


PE: I don't see any evidence of Jack Kirby here. The layouts must have been some kind of stick figures on a napkin delivered to the pseudonymous Jay Gavin at the 11th hour. Gavin was actually Werner Roth (1921-1973), who worked at Atlas in the 1950s, penciling several issues of the western Apache Kid. His art wasn't bad, it just wasn't Kirby. But who was? He does deliver one of the essential panels for fanboys worldwide: that of Jean Grey in a nurse's outfit tending to her battered partners in the climax. I like to think that this was the reward Professor Xavier handed out to his sexually naive XXX-kids. 

JS: I was trying to figure out where in the Mansion that infirmary would be. Thanks for clarifying that it was the Danger Room dialed in to a 70s porn set.

And a million fantasies are launched!

Also this month

Kid Colt Outlaw #124

Millie the Model #130

Modeling with Millie #41

Sgt Fury and His Howling Commandos #22

Two-Gun Kid #77

August 1965: Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD!

Journey Into Mystery 119

Our Story

Continuing from the battle last month, Thor is held by a floor hardened to Asgardian diamond around him, as the Destroyer approaches with his blasts of elemental force. The Thunder God’s form mysteriously becomes unsolid, and he is able to pass through the floor beneath him and gain some time. The unlikely benefactor who saved him? Loki—who, though imprisoned in Asgard, sent forth his mental energy to save his brother (and himself from Odin’s wrath). The Destroyer catches up with Thor, who decides to stand and fight. He counters his foe's river of lava by crashing millions of tons of rock down on him. While the Destroyer isn’t even scratched, it does allow Thor time to reach the body of the hunter whose spirit inhabits its form. Loki, exhausted, has one final plan. He sends his thought form to his sometime ally, the Norn Queen, who agrees to help by using her mystic powers to safely wake Odin from the Odin sleep. Before Odin can save his son, Thor asks his father for a moment more to resume the battle. The hunter, not wanting to destroy his own body with the Destroyer’s blast, returns to his mortal form, and then tries to dash back to the unmoving shell when Thor turns his back. Thor is too fast for him, and grabs the hunter, taking him to safety while a hammer blow shatters the Temple Of Darkness around them, to bury the Destroyer’s form from prying human interference. Thor lets the hunter go free, while Odin sentences Loki to work for his royal warlock, Ularic.

“Gather Warriors”, has our Tales Of Asgard doing just that, as the crew is assembled for the mission at hand, to find the unseen enemy who has cracked the Odinsword. Odin shows his advisors a frightening warning etched upon the palace wall: Ragnarok is coming!

Nobody does it better

JB: A worthy conclusion to the Destroyer battle. Apparently, there’s no limit to his force beams; changing matter into other elements, disintegration, magnetism, even altering the density of his blasts to match Thor’s unsolid form to name what we’ve seen so far. I’m still wondering where the slice of Thor’s hammer, cut off last month, got to. None of the panels I can see show him picking it up, yet he talks about forging it back together.




PE: Exciting conclusion to the Destroyer showdown. Kirby's work here and in the Fantastic Four continues to be jaw-dropping. Odin seems, at last, to have gotten a handle on the fact that Loki is one little treacherous kid, banishing him yet again, this time to become a menial laborer for a third-rate warlock. Since this is insulting to Loki, and Thor has no other major villains, my money's on a prison break sometime soon. We'll see how many issues this banishment lasts. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the heck out of this strip now that Stan and Jack have come to the conclusion that Thor battling the Communist Chinese Army does not make for "Senses-shattering adventure." Gods should battle Gods, I've always said.

JB: Ditto Pete, on the artwork here. Nice full page of the Temple Of Darkness collapsing, and we get to see more of Odin’s pajamas. The Tales Of Asgard entry is a lot of fun. We see a few more Asgardian warriors, especially some fun antics from ever-cheery Volstagg, who apparently has a nagging wife and fifteen kids!

Amazing Spider-Man Annual 2

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Sorcerer Xandu seeks the powerful Wand of Watoomb, hidden away in the Sanctum Sanctorum of Doctor Strange. To achieve his goal, the evil magician hypnotizes two barroom brawlers and makes them impervious to pain. The thugs defeat Doctor Strange and make off with the Wand, catching the attention of our Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man along the way. Sensing something's up with these two burly characters and jonesing for some action, Spidey tackles the duo but soon finds he's no match and is beaten badly. Not one to give up on a fight, he attaches a Spider-tracer to one of the bullies and tracks them to Xandu's lair. Once there, Spidey is transported to another dimension but, before he can be teleported, he grabs the Wand and soon finds himself fighting the two buffoons again, this time in a nightmarish dream-world of doors that lead to other dimensions and odd angles. Saved in the nick of time by the Master of the Mystic Arts, Spider-Man makes it back to Xandu's hideaway and, together, the two superheroes reaquire the Wand of Watoomb and all is right in the Mystic Underworld.

PE: I'm not sure I fully grasp a hypnotic power that makes two thugs invincible. Granted, Xandu's spell makes the guys a little more impervious to pain, but an uppercut from Spider-Man will draw a bit of blood, no? At least a broken nose. Spidey notes that popping these guys in the kisser is like hitting a brick wall. And his webbing is useless against them? If it's this easy, why not hypnotize an army of thugs?




Jack: I was even more bothered by the fact that two mindless lugs could walk into Dr. Strange's sanctum and knock him out so easily. Good thing Baron Mordo did not know these guys!




PE: Web-head seems pretty calm when he's transported to another dimension, one complete with a Saturn sinking in a pool of water. I'd be at least a little nervous if I found myself in a place that had no rules and lots of Twilight Zone-esque doorways, even if I was a super-powered teenager. I have lots of questions about these alternate worlds: Is the pool of water bottomless? If Spidey falls off the little pathway of bowling balls he's balancing on, does he fall forever?


Jack: And did Xandu have anything to do with a certain 1980 film?

MB: Despite the wildly divergent styles of their strips and personae, it must have seemed like a no-brainer to bring together the two heroes plotted and drawn by Ditko, even though they don’t really interact much in this fun but lightweight story, and where the hell Doc found time to trifle with Xandu in the middle of his Eternity quest, I have no idea. As a contemporary reader pointed out, it feels more like a Dr. Strange story with Spidey dropped in than the subject of a Spidey annual; perhaps their being so prominently featured here accounts for the conspicuous brevity of their appearances in the concurrent FF annual. I would have called Xandu a totally forgettable villain, making it ironic that Strange frets about what a powerful weapon the Wand of Watoomb is, but Len Wein obviously didn’t forget, because he reunited them for a rematch almost a decade later in Marvel Team-Up #21 (which, in its own weird way, sums up what I love about MTU).

PE: I've never been a fan of Doctor Strange nor his Lovecraft-influenced dimension-hopping. I'm alone in that regard here among my professors, I know. So, it's not all that surprising to learn that I didn't get off on this adventure. I think an "annual" should showcase a special story (or, at the very least, a longer story), which is what the earlier Marvel annuals did. There's not much of interest here, just the same kind of story you'd find in Strange's regular monthly strip and, as Professor Matthew notes above, Spidey is more of an afterthought in the entire saga. It could just as easily have been a Dr. Strange Annual #1. The 3 "earliest, greatest, most-requested full-length epics" are: "Spider-Man" from the premiere issue (which may be reprinted every time it's requested!); issue #2's "The Uncanny Threat of The Terrible Tinkerer"; and "Marked for Destruction by Doctor Doom" (from #5). To fill out the colossal 72-page package, there's also a handy 5-page "Gallery of Spider-Man's most famous foes."

Jack: I thought it was cool to see Spider-Man in one of Ditko's crazy Dr. Strange dimensions, but I agree with Prof. Matthew that this story ignores the heavy continuity going on in the good doctor's own strip. And by the way--why doesn't Dr. Strange use some other people's bodies to do his bidding? Every evil magician seems to do it!

Journey Into Mystery Annual 1

Our Story

Seeking adventure, Thor and Loki enter the deadly land of Jotunheim, where the storm giants dwell. They encounter two giants who have found what they believe to be the long lost passage to Olympus, which they are seeking to dig out. Jumping into the fray to prevent them from causing further mischief, Loki quickly makes himself scarce. Thor has no problem dispatching his foes, but in so doing, shatters the ground beneath him, falling into a dimensional vortex. He eventually lands in a chamber that emerges into a land of great beauty and mirth. Thor realizes he is indeed in the fabled land of legend, Olympus, where other immortals dwell. Wanting to return to his homeland, Thor seeks direction from an impressive stranger crossing a bridge. Both Thor and the other god want to cross the narrow bridge first. The Olympian god makes it known that he is Hercules, whose brashness and aloofness anger Thor, after Thor has been tossed in the river when Hercules uproots the bridge. Neither being willing to back down, a battle begins. Both are of almost identical power, and neither seems able to gain much of an advantage. Suddenly, both are knocked to the ground by the arrival of Zeus, ruler of Olympus and father of Hercules. He has witnessed the battle and finds both worthy of victory. Hercules and Thor shake hands as friends, and Zeus returns Thor to Jotunheim. Thor decides not to tell Loki about his adventure. Zeus, to prevent any further access from outside, seals the entrance of the passage to Olympus.

PE: An interesting tale in that Loki rides side by side with Thor into the "Forbidden Land". Where does that put this story in the JIM/Thor chronology since, in the current monthly title, Thor and Loki are sworn enemies (in fact, Loki has kidnapped the beautiful and ultra-intelligent Jane Foster at least 22 times in the last 36 issues) and, though Thor is notoriously absent-minded, I'm sure the Thunder God might remember that and be a bit cautious. Thor seems to be his young, arrogant self in that he challenges Hercules, in the Olympian's homeland, over who will be the first to cross a bridge! The other fascinating aspect is that the duo venture into Jotunheim, home of the Storm Giants, which plays a very important part in the summer film directed by Kenneth Branagh. As a big fan of that film (and one who's coming fresh to most of these Thor adventures), I get a big smile on my face when I see some of the obvious inspirations of the writers.

JB: Hercules is a great rival and friend of Thor’s who will have lots of impact over the years in the series. Thor suggests that the existence of Olympus is known to the outside, but only as a legend; I wish we got to see a little more of it. The battle is almost a panel by panel oneupmanship, but lots of fun, with some great art. It must be a painful life as a warrior god (or a Marvel hero in general), taking such a pounding all the time! The Thor comic has sure come a long way, as we can compare with four reprints of earlier JIM issues included in the annual: #’s 85 (Loki), 93 (Radioactive Man), 95 (Demon Duplicators), and 97 (Lava Man).

PE: Thor notes that Olympus is a land "hinted at by our ancient legends." Another big smile rises on my face as I realize that this is a legend within a legend. When Stan and Jack were on their game with minor details, no one could touch them for comic storytelling (at least until Gerber, Englehart and Thomas, et al., show up, that is). I assume Herc has his initial all over his uniform in case he has to step into a steam room with other muscle men? The only thing that slows down this exciting battle between two really big guys is the endless "You absorb my mightiest punch and pop right back on your feet? What manner of man are you?" dialogue that clutters four full pages of panels. Also included this issue are two depictions of "a simple, ordinary, typical Asgard street scene," including the directions to the Shopping Center.

Strange Tales 135

Nick Fury

Our Story


Now a “spy guy” with G-2 (military intelligence), sporting an eyepatch gained since his Howler days, Col. Fury is summoned to the Pentagon and finds himself serving as the template for several Life Model Decoys (LMDs). Told that his safety is of vital concern to the White House, Fury watches as his android doubles are gunned down and a fighter jet attacks the Porsche he is riding in, which disposes of the plane with a missile and then takes flight itself. We learn that Fury has been targeted by the would-be world-conquerors of Hydra, who dress in distinctive green-and-yellow robes and hoods, serving a master who punishes failure with death.

Reaching his destination, Fury meets Tony Stark, the head of special weaponry for S.H.I.E.L.D. (Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-Enforcement Division), and sees a passel of world leaders. He is stunned when Stark asks him to be the “human weapon” that will smash Hydra, and he sees that S.H.I.E.L.D.’s headquarters is the gigantic Helicarrier, patrolled by military jets thousands of feet above the earth. Fury proves his worth by detecting and disposing of a booby trap and, despite feeling unqualified, accepts the vital assignment to run S.H.I.E.L.D.

Not the Helicarrier, but still pretty neat!

MB: In his S.H.I.E.L.D. incarnation, Fury is perhaps my favorite Marvel character (I’m less familiar with his Howlers era), and since I regard his tragically short-lived strip as a pinnacle, even pre-Steranko, I’m disinclined to challenge Stan when he labels this “The crowning achievement of Marvel’s magnificent renaissance of comics!”  Our stogie-chomping three-striper may seem like an odd fit for the ’60s Bond-mania milieu, but somehow it works.  Even perennial MU whipping-boy inker Dick Ayers rises to the occasion—check out that reveal of the Helicarrier on page 11.

PE: As enthusiastic as you are about this series, let me just add that, after reading 350 or 400 Marvel comics in the last year, my enthusiasm for comic books has waned a bit. Something like this issue reminds me why I love comic books in the first place. Easily the best Marvel Comics story I've read (replacing, ironically, a Sgt. Fury tale as my #1), this is so chock-full of fresh ideas and, yep, future iconic characters and events. Who would imagine that the new Hydra honcho would be a woman? Granted, there are a lot of ideas "borrowed" from Bond and TV's Man From U.N.C.L.E. (which was just about to begin its second season), but Fury has a charisma Sean Connery and Robert Vaughn could only hint at. I expected the bomb on the helicarrier was planted by Stark and co. to prove to the muckety-mucks that Fury was their guy. I've heard this series only got better when Steranko climbed aboard. The mind boggles. Here's the comic book to put in the hands of someone who doesn't like comics. If you've followed our stroll down Marvel Memory Lane, you'll know we hardly ever award a comic book both shields. 

JS: It gets off to a weird start, with a bunch of Fury clones set loose to be canon-fodder, but fortunately, the real Nick Fury, just like we readers, doesn't know what the hell is going on. I don't know if I would shower it with the highest accolades, but I do agree it's one of the more entertaining stories we've come across in a while.

MB: Admittedly, the episodes immediately following this one won’t quite live up to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s dramatic debut, which throws a lot at us.  Right out of the gate, we get such staples as the LMD and the Hydra oath:  “Hail Hydra!  Immortal Hydra!  We shall never be destroyed!  Cut off a limb, and two more shall take its place!  We serve none but the master—as the world shall soon serve us!  Hail Hydra!”  After all of Captain America’s Avengers allusions to Fury’s intelligence work, it’s very appropriate that “Moneybags” Stark forms a connecting link between the groups.

Jack: This great new series comes out of nowhere and starts with a bang—Sgt. Fury has to remain motionless in a mold, yet he still clenches a cigar between his teeth! Sure, the series is a James Bond knockoff, but what a great idea to use the rough-edged Fury in the lead role! Kirby at his best!


PE: You have to admire Stan for having the audacity to steal Blofeld and his "kitty" for the Master.

Dr. Strange:

Our Story


Dr. Strange travels to England in his search for the meaning of Eternity, the word the Ancient One keeps repeating. He visits Sir Baskerville, unaware that the old Brit remains loyal to Mordo. The Baron sends a minion to attack Strange, but the plan backfires, allowing the doctor to read the minion’s mind and learn that Dormammu is the power behind Mordo. Meanwhile, Dormammu discovers that Clea betrayed him and plots revenge.


Jack: A nice, atmospheric chapter, where Dr. Strange travels to an English moor and Steve Ditko gets to draw some foggy scenes. Sometimes I think I like Dr. Strange best in civilian clothes!

MB: This issue not only puts odd-couple strips Strange and Fury side by side, making Strange Tales my über-mag of the era, but also, as with Amazing Spider-Man, begins crediting Ditko as both plotter and artist. Yet scripter Stan the Man is still in there punching with lines like, “the mists close over the fog-shrouded seacoast, and the words of the evil one are lost in the murmuring of the midnight breeze…” Take that, Millie the Model! As ever, Steve gives us more than our money’s worth in words and atmosphere-drenched pictures.

JS: Definitely an upswing after the last few segments, as the astral bodies were kept in check for a change. I would suggest that Baskerville was a tad too excited to help Strange, so I wasn't too surprised by his plot. But the lasting image that creeped me out—that big third eye.

Tales to Astonish 70 

Sub-Mariner




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Namor swims back home to Atlantis in the hopes that the traitorous Krang has not taken over the city as ruler. He is greeted upon his arrival by Dorma, a woman who loves him even though he doesn’t reciprocate. She gives Subby the bad news that Krang is now in charge and loved by the people. She offers her help, but Subby spurns her, believing he needs no one to take care of the situation except himself. Angry, Dorma unleashes guards, who fight briefly with Namor before they knock him out with a Hydro gun. The hero is then brought before Krang, who has him banished to prison. While he sits there angry, Subby is visited by Dorma, sorry for her prior actions. She tells Subby that all is lost because even if he were to escape, he would have to fight all of Atlantis to regain his throne because Krang is so well liked. The cool Sub-Mariner already has a plan and explains to her that the great former king Neptune had hidden away a secret trident before he resigned from power, in case an imposter ever took hold of the throne. The trident’s whereabouts are a mystery; the only clue given was to search in The Cave of Shadows. Dorma helps Subby escape but, unbeknownst to them, Krang has been monitoring them, and has given instructions to his guards to seal the cave once he enters. Namor goes into the cave and is attacked by a giant squid. He defends himself by giving the monster a sock to the eye, then quickly grabs a sea shell that is the next clue. As he tries to escape he finds out that the wall is sealed, as the giant squid torpedoes towards him.

PE: Lady Dorma sure has a strange way of showing a man (or a fish-man) she loves him. She calls his own guards to seize him "for only then may I hope to win his heart." Yet another wacky Marvel damsel. But then she's only reacting to the biggest chauvinist tuna in the sea. Powerful scene when the men who once served Namor are marching him off to his cage. They ask him to forgive them as they're only obeying orders. If you can spit underwater, the Prince does so. "Then you shall stay till you rot! Farewell, Prince of nothingness!" exclaims the soldier as he tosses The Sub-Mariner into his cell. This Namor comes off as nothing but an arrogant prick. He's not fighting for the betterment of his people (they don't look like they're suffering to me) but because he feels he's the rightful monarch of Atlantis. Kudos to Stan for writing an unlikeable character. Let's see how long it takes before Namor is kissing babies and freeing trapped dolphins.


Tom: Now this is more like it. While maybe not regarded as a classic in the history of comics, Sub-Mariner’s first solo outing was a welcome relief from the horrid Giant-Man fables. This series has already proven to be leaps and bounds better then Big Hank’s in just about every aspect. Good artwork, exciting storyline, and best of all, no Wasp!


Jack: I liked this, too. Subby seems to work better underwater. While it seems like he appeared just about every month in one book or another, it’s nice to see him get his own series, and I love the Gene Colan art. 

This is the kind of shadowy Gene
Colan panel we'll see a lot more
of in Tomb of Dracula.

MB: Boy, it’s a big month for Marvel: a Silver Age star gets a second strip catapulting him into a new era, and a revived Golden Age hero gets one turning him from a persistent Silver Age bad guy into the anti-hero we know and love. The late “Gentleman Gene” Colan (aka Adam Austin), a Timely veteran who became a Marvel mainstay, kicks it off in his distinctive style, and we even get a little continuity from Subby’s appearance in Daredevil #7. While the Namor/Dorma affair is off to a rocky start, the quest for Neptune’s Trident is not.

PE: I like this new series, a sort of Thor underwater (with Neptune standing in for Odin), and that's a nice surprise. I didn't like Sub-Mariner when I was a kid (except, for some reason, the Bill Everett issues in the early 1970s) and all that I'd read so far (those annoying guest spots in Fantastic Four) did nothing to prove me wrong. I'm hoping I missed something special when I was a kid and that I can discover its wonders now.


Tom: The Sub-Mariner character has always been a conflict for me as a comics fan. When he would go up against the Fantastic Four and other heroes, he came off as such a stroke that you always wanted to see him get knocked out. Unfortunately, Subby would always prevail, or at least escape in a draw. However, I liked it when he would engage with other bad guys because you always knew, by his tough guy pride, that he would have no problem doing whatever was necessary to come out on top. 

The Hulk

So far, nobody draws the Hulk well!

Our Story


Last issue left off with Bruce Banner being shot and killed. As General Ross and the troops investigate the Leader’s lab, they soon realize that Banner’s corpse is missing. While they weren’t paying attention, Rick Jones was able to whisk the body away. He takes Banner to one of their old hidden hangouts. Hoping that a transformation into the Hulk will revive Banner, he places him onto a machine that is able to turn him into his green alter-ego. The transformation is successful with a twist: the Hulk now has Banner’s mind. Bruce realizes that, with the bullet lodged in his skull, if he reverts back to human form he will most certainly die. The Leader is not out of the picture yet, as he has a conference with some foreign leaders to whom he promised the Absorbatron before the Hulk destroyed it. He offers to give them an even more powerful weapon if they give him a billion dollars, while he secretly plans to use the money to attack them as well as the Americans. The Leader then releases a 500 foot high pink humanoid on a military base. The huge monster easily crushes everything in its path. The Hulk takes on the humanoid and they are pretty evenly matched. When the military shoots the pink giant with several missiles, it staggers, allowing the Hulk to gain the upper hand. Figuring the two monsters are in cahoots, Ross orders the troops to release a super missile at them both to destroy them permanently. Rick hears about this and rushes off into the desert battle to warn the Hulk before it’s too late.   

Tom: I’m always happy to read a comic story with a good monster mash. The Hulk having Banner’s mind is something I’m not a big fan of, but that’s a small quibble. Issues like this one show how the Hulk series is a distant relative of Stan Lee’s old monster stories. 

Jack: You’re right, Professor Tom! Too bad we finally get rid of Giant-Man and the very next issue the Hulk fights a 500 foot tall Humanoid!


Tom: It will be interesting to see if the foreign bad guys are gullible enough to give the Leader a billion dollars without ever seeing his supposed ultimate weapon of mass destruction.


Jack: One billion dollars? Paging Dr. Evil! By the way, the Kirby art on the Hulk series continues to be sub-par. And where did the potion to keep Banner as Hulk for 48 hours come from? Did he just whip that up?

Who else but Kirby would draw this . . .
and label it "Sunday Punch missile"?

Daredevil 9




Our Story


Daredevil mixes it up with some mooks who have hijacked a fancy cruise boat. He starts showing off, which gives one of the thugs the chance to shoot Matt in the arm. The hero jumps overboard, but his delay causes the coast guard to capture the bad guys. The next day at the law office, Karen tells Matt that the special eye surgeon she’s been asking him to see has left America to go live in the country of Lichtenbad. Coincidentally, an old foreign exchange student named Klaus Kruger, who was in Matt and Foggy’s law class in college, is now the Duke of that country, and is in New York visiting. As a surprise, Karen had contacted the Duke, and he shows up to the office to reunite with his former college mates. This is a surprise to Matt, because he didn’t remember the guy being that friendly back in the day. The Duke offers to take Matt with him to his country so that the eye specialist can see if he can help him out. Matt agrees to go, not because he wants his eyesight back, but because he smells a rat. Once they arrive, it’s fairly obvious to Matt that the folks in that little country hate and fear Duke Kruger. While investigating the castle at night dressed in his hero costume, Daredevil observes mechanical robots, dressed as medieval knights, taking away and locking up protesters in a dungeon. He gets caught himself, but is able to escape before the Duke learns his identity. Soon, a huge uprising by the townspeople occurs. DD assists them in fighting the robots. He then takes on the Duke in a brawl that he is easily winning. Sensing that his defeat is eminent, Duke Kruger releases a radioactive cobalt cloud to wipe out everybody. The eye specialist runs over to turn the switches off to deactivate the nuclear cloud. Unfortunately, the radiation from the controls kills him. The Duke just won’t let up until Daredevil flips him over the castle wall where he dies. Meanwhile, back at home, Foggy has begun to show signs of psychosis now that he is pretty sure that Karen lusts for Matt instead of him.



Tom: Surprising twist with DD actually killing (whether it was intended or not) this issue’s villain. This works out great since I hope this weird medieval putz is never seen again in Marvel comics’ continuity. Glad Matt didn’t seem too worked up about the Duke’s demise--no displays of soul searching. Spider-Man probably would have cried if he did this.


Jack: A mediocre Daredevil issue is still better than any number of Marvel comics at this point. It looks like Wally Wood is about ready to check out, since Bob Powell’s inks are pretty heavy and don’t add much.

This panel could be from an EC science fiction comic!

The Avengers 19


Our Story

A character by the name of The Swordsman is asking to be let into The Avengers Clubhouse. He goes about it the same way as Hawkeye did once, storming the Mansion and taking on the members that happen to be there. It turns out that it's appropriate since The Swordsman and Hawkeye once shared a tent together as partners in a circus act. A little embezzlement on the part of The Swordsman broke up the act, however, and Hawkeye was left for dead. He's never forgotten his old mentor, the only man "he ever used to fear." Meanwhile, Captain America is still pacing the floor, waiting for some word from Nick Fury over an employment application Cap sent to S.H.I.E.L.D. Unknown to our man of stars and stripes, that letter has been sitting on Fury's desk as Nick has been away on business. The letter falls into the wrong hands and eventually winds up with The Swordsman (yep, small world!), who decides to use the note to his advantage. In another incredible coincidence, Hawkeye busts up a robbery perpetrated by the goon who sold the Cap letter to The Swordsman. The dope reveals all to the archer. Captain America shows up at a deserted warehouse, expecting to meet with Nick Fury but, instead, he's attacked and defeated by The Swordsman. The remaining Avengers track Cap to the warehouse and arrive just in time to see Cap walking the plank several stories above the street. Swordsman gives The Avengers three seconds to agree to make him the new leader or he'll send Cap to an early grave. Before his teammates can answer, Cap jumps.


PE: The Swordsman is a little too close in both powers and looks to Hawkeye for my taste. He'll remain a super-villain for several more years but, in the grand tradition of Quicksilver, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch and, very soon, the Black Widow, he'll get his membership papers approved in #112, at which point The Avengers will be made up of nothing but ex-cons, I imagine.

MB: I’ll definitely stand up and cheer over the advent of the Swordsman, who has the distinction of being both a worthy villain (especially when teamed with the original Power Man) and a future Assembler himself. His history with Hawkeye only adds to his appeal; funny that he tries the same apply-for-membership-by-breaking-in gambit, albeit with less success. Ayers’s inks are a bit uneven—contrast the great close-up of Cap (above) with the Ditkoesque page 12, panel 2 (below) —but the story is solid, and I love the subplot of Cap’s S.H.I.E.L.D. aspirations. Speaking of shields, there’s something nifty about the low-tech weaponry pervading this issue, from the Swordsman’s planned sword/bow team, like a bifurcated Robin Hood, to the utterly apt sword/shield match-up of Cap’s mano a mano with the Swordsman…and what better display of Cap’s seminal Avengers leadership than the no-surrender suicide dive of this issue’s cliffhanger?

PE: It's so out of character for Captain America to be pouting in The Avengers Mansion workout room, whining about Nick Fury and his conceived brush-off.

Jack: This month marks the first appearance on the covers of the logo, “Marvel Pop Art Productions,” though it doesn’t appear on every book with an August 1965 cover date. Future Marvel scribe Tony Isabella is on the list of M.M.M.S members. The classic T-shirts are now on sale! I enjoyed this story, even with Captain America acting like a kid. The Heck/Ayers team seems to work together well.

Cap does his Sally Field at the Oscars impression.

PE: It's a fab finale when The Swordsman gets the upper hand but Cap gets the final word. We all know he'll survive the fall somehow (The Watcher? Amazing rope untying skills? It's all a dream?) but the point he makes that The Avengers are bigger than one man hits home when he drops off that plank. Powerful moment and the capper (pardon the pun) to one of the better Avengers issues so far.

This issue of the Avengers is
brought to you by Crest toothpaste.

The Amazing Spider-Man 27


Our Story


The big showdown between The Green Goblin and The Crime-Master (two individuals who really don't care for one another) comes to a halt as police raid the hideout and break up the mobster meeting. This is good news for the Amazing Spider-Man, as he's laden with chains and a really bad spare uniform. Able to break the chains (and keep his pants up), he helps the police round up the mob bosses. Alas, both the Goblin and the Master escape. Convinced that Frederick Foswell is one of the villains, Spidey heads for J. Jonah Jameson's office, just in time to witness Foswell's arrival. The wall-crawler confronts Foswell and accuses him , just as a shot rings out. The Crime-Master is shooting it out with police on a nearby rooftop and the cops emerge victorious. The Crime-Master is dead and revealed to be Nick "Lucky" Lewis, just another racket boss. Meanwhile, the crazed Green Goblin vows to bring down his greatest foe but allows that he should probably take a vacation first.


PE: This one starts out nicely with the chain-breaking scene, lets me down with the big reveal, but then regains its composure towards the climax. How could Stan and Steve think that unmasking the Crime-Master, touted as an enthralling mystery ("you'll never believe who this guy is once you find out"--true words, those), as just another crime boss, one who hadn't even made an appearance (that I'm aware of) in the title, would be satisfying? It's such a letdown that my immediate thought was: Hold on, this is Stan The Man, he's got an ace up his sleeve. It'll turn out that "Lucky" Lewis was just an unlucky patsy, the real Crime-Master is.... but nope, it was him. After a quick glance at his entry in Wikipedia, I've read what became of the character and suddenly think that maybe Marvel of the 1970s wasn't perfect after all. In Marvel Team-Up #39 (November 1975), Lewis' son, Nicholas, will don his old man's mask and join forces with a new Big Man, played by, you guessed it, Frederick Foswell's daughter, Janice! Oh heavens! Somebody transport the MU time capsule to 1975. This I have to read.

MB: So, the original Crime-Master’s career is over after a big two issues, which I think is a shame, because even without superpowers he seemed to give Spidey a run for his money, and I like that he turned out to be nobody we knew under that mask (although Steve and Stan seem to have forgotten that he had left the Goblin’s i.d. in the proverbial envelope to be opened after his death). It’s an unusual story, too: often we get several pages of plotting and/or characterization as a warm-up to the big battle or cliff-hanger, yet this time the action is up front, and the rest follows. Interestingly, when future Jungle Action scribe “Dauntless Don” McGregor later wrote in on it—courtesy of the “Post Office of the Past” feature in Marvel Tales—he hit on some points that struck me, like the welcome police action and Ditko’s cool chain-breaking shot.


PE: Yeah, the chain-breaking shot is nice and predicts the iconic "big heavy machine lifting" that comes in a few months. While I was let down by the reveal, I thought all the teasing afterwards was a kick. We see Foswell uncover a bundled costume under his desk. Hold on! Is Foswell the Goblin? No, he's just the snitch. Stan would do almost the same thing with the reveal for the identity of the Goblin as he did for the Crime-Master. Norman Osborn wouldn't be introduced to readers until #37, only two issues before his unmasking.

Fantastic Four 41


Our Story

After Reed transformed him back from Ben Grimm last issue, the Thing decides he's had enough and quits the group. He jumps into the bed of a pick-up truck to New Jersey and falls fast asleep. Along the way, the truck hits a bump and Ben is thrown into the road. His sleep is so deep, however, that he doesn't awaken. He lies in the middle of the road for a few hours but is transported by a mysterious beam to a deserted house. Held up inside are The Frightful Four, who bicker about what to do with the Thing. Meanwhile, the Thrilling Three, as they should be known from here on out, are doing everything they can to find their partner and convince him he's an important part of the group. The Wizard brainwashes Bashful Ben and turns him against his former partners (well, even more than he already was turned).


PE: The Frightful Four make a return appearance. You may not have noticed that they left. Sue notes: "It's like a terrible nightmare! We're being menaced by The Frightful Four again!" This super-villain group fights almost as much as the team this comic is named for, so it's a touch of brilliance on the part of Stan to have the Thing switch sides. Who would notice? Another option would be to have all eight join together (for good or evil) and call them The Angsty Eight.


JS: Things we learn this issue. A sprinkler system can render The Human Torch useless. Medusa plays cards with her hair. And Reed can lift tons of weight. Another day with the FF (either group).


PE: If the Four do indeed call it quits, they could go into the tracking business. With absolutely no leads (in fact, Reed says there are "thousands of homes in the area"), they still manage to find Ben in the isolated mansion. They didn't even know he'd gotten off the truck! He could have been in Florida. Best of all, when they get to the porch of the house, Reed notes that there is a light on inside and the door is unlocked, so they decide to walk in!

MB: I’m sure the senior faculty will provide the requisite quotient of razzing for lines like, “This is no time to go feminine and romantic on me,” so I won’t bother to pile on, but while we’re on the subject of femininity, Medusa shows that Kirby can do va-va-voom as well as burly men ’n’ action (and also proves that she can fight her inner femininity when she needs to!--PE). Alas, he is still suffering from drooping-eye syndrome (e.g., the Sandman on page 17, panel 2). To a longtime reader, this just feels like another in a series of “disgruntled Ben” stories, with that extra mind-control fillip changing the math to the Fantastic Three and the Frightful Five; ironic that the Wizard snaps, “The Frightful Four must not fight amongst ourselves,” when they always do. Weird Science #387: electrical current can pass through hair.


PE: I'm going to continue my broken record analysis of "great art, no story." Stan (or Jack) still seems to be groping in the dark for that door marked Fabulous Fantasy. It's just out of reach. Kirby's art, however, is reaching that peak of magnificence we know he hit somewhere around this time. Just look at that panel reproduced above. It screams "Power!"


JS: I'm beginning to wonder if the stories that are just around the corner, the ones that I recall as being great, are going to arrive and surprise me for not being much better than the rest of what we've been reading. Tell me that can't be possible...


PE: Future lawyer/journalist Keith McWalter commends the cover of FF #37, in the letters page, as "perhaps the most striking and eye-appealing yet produced for the magazine."

Tales of Suspense 68

Iron Man 

Our Story

Tony Stark's misfit cousin, Morgan, has gotten into some monetary difficulties concerning gambling. Unfortunately, it's not just an Atlantic City or Monte Carlo casino that comes to call, it's the nefarious Count Nefaria. Smelling more than just a big payday from this dope, Nefaria cons Morgan into turning on his cousin, Tony, of whom he's always been jealous. Morgan begins a reign of terror using Nefaria's nefarious Visio-Projector, which emits very realistic holograms. Tony Stark sees martians and rocket ships where there none. Slowly but surely the billionaire playboy begins doubting his own sanity. But the joke's on the human race when, in the middle of another hologramic hallucination, a real invasion from space occurs.


PE: Astute Tony Stark (you know, the billionaire playboy so smart he makes his own weapons?) is on his way to a date with a blonde model when he happens upon a rocket off to the side of the road and notes "there's something fishy about that bird!" You mean besides the fact that it's a rocket and it's in the middle of nowhere and you don't generally make discoveries like that? Yeah, a bit fishy, I'll grant.


MB: Okay, I know we’ve got second-stringer Al Hartley at the typewriter, yet am I alone in thinking it odd that Count Nefaria returns not only unhurt after last issue’s explosion, but also with no mention of his mercifully brief stint as the Dream-Master? Mi(c)ke(y) Dem-E-sposit-o, seemingly Marvel’s utility player du jour, does well with Heck’s pencils, and we get our first look at Tony’s well-fed black-sheep cousin, Morgan. If Hartley (who mistakes “censor” for “censure”) sees fit to name his moon-men Edam and Gouda, is it then fair game to call this far-fetched yarn—a big disappointment in an otherwise stellar August—cheesy?


PE: I'll grant also that Count Nefaria's Visio-Projector may just be the sharpest picture this side of HD but the really miraculous stunt Nefaria and his underling, Morgan Stark, pull off is getting Tony to see these visions without anyone else in the world seeing them. That must take incredible luck, as well as timing. After four or five events, the whole thing starts reading like an episode of I Love Lucy. Morgan Stark doesn't come across as particularly bright and yet he seems to have a grasp on Nefaria's technological wonders. He also seems to constantly be in the right place at the right time just as his cuz shows up.


JS: If it were as entertaining as I Love Lucy, it would have been an improvement. Has anyone else noticed that when they did away with the really bad solo stories (Gi-Ant Man and Human Torch), some of the ones that seemed okay by comparison really aren't that much better?


PE: The return of the nasty, but ultimately harmless, Senator Harrington Byrd. This is a supporting character who will pop in and out of the Iron Man story for many years to come. Incredibly, he's just a guy. He's not eventually revealed to be a Sentinel, a Skrull, or even Green Goblin IV.


JS: You realize they're still publishing Iron Man, right? Don't give them any ideas.

PE: Just when you thought this story was dopey enough, along come moon men Edam and Gouda, doubtlessly named for the exotic cheese writer Al Hartley was eating that day at the Marvel offices. Easily the most WTF? Marvel story since Fantastic Four #9, we even get a warning one page before the invasion that we had better get a grip on ourselves before we turn the page. Indeed! Moon people talk slang just like we do. The Gouda squad spit out exclamations like "He moves with the speed of shooting stars!" and "His fists strike like plunging meteors!" Perhaps all the rumors were true about the moon being made of cheese. If so, they're eating pretty well on the moon as these guys are all morbidly obese. I think Gouda and Edam might vacation in San Diego right around the end of July.


JS: Shouldn't the Cheesy-Twins be over in their cousin's book? They sure have that Hulk family resemblance.


PE: This is some reeeeeal bad art here we're subjected to. There's not much left of Don Heck's art under Mike Esposito's inking. But, the story's such a crock of s**t, it's as my grandpappy used to say: put a dress on a pig, it's still a pig. Why waste a good art job on this swill?

JS: I'm wondering now if they had gotten rid of Iron Man, would Captain America have seemed worse? Hmmm...


PE: If you were to take the several hours it would take to research... if you had the drive... if this was important enough to you... if you didn't take my word for it... if you were to search the Marvel database of titles, you'd find that more Marvel stories begin with the word "If" than any other word in the English language. Go ahead and check if you don't believe me!




Captain America



Our Story


Cap snaps out of the hypnotic trance placed on him by The Red Skull just before he's to assassinate the great high exalted commander of things we shouldn't know about. Unshaken by defeat, The Skull then focuses on the extrication of the British Army's new super-secret weapon, a ray-gun that vaporizes anything in its path. Working with an agent placed within a POW camp, The Skull puts his plan into action, not knowing that Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes just happen to be the soldiers assigned to keep an eye on The Skull's secret agent.


PE: It's almost as though Stan (and/or Jack) got tired of the "hypnotized Cap the assassin" plotline and dumped it in a couple of intro panels. Boredom, or maybe they decided they'd painted themselves into a corner not easily turpentined. A huge amount of disbelief suspension must be adopted to enjoy this series as Cap and Bucky always seem to be around the action that previously was being enjoyed by Steve and Bucky. As Professor Matthew alluded to, we're not talking about Cap and Bill here. And how in the world can anyone buy that Steve Rogers can spend his day walking around with a shield strapped to his back? Never mind that the guy's a strong cat. Someone would have to notice (maybe as they're marching behind him) that the guy's got really weirdly shaped shoulders. This particular installment is a filler story. Nothing really happens. Nice art though.


MB: By this point in the arc, the Red Skull is reduced to a three-panel cameo, yet his nefarious influence pervades the story in a satisfying way. I must say that Bucky, masquerading as a Nazi when this episode starts (Mask? What mask?), was fortunate not to have taken a bullet after the general ordered his security forces to “Come in shooting!” The Kirby/Ray art is, frankly, better than ever, from the electrifying splash page—as Cap simultaneously holds off no fewer than four Nazi goons—to that characteristically Kirbyesque mofo vanishing-ray machine.


PE: You mean that ultra-super secret weapon, Project Vanish? The one everyone involved in World War II seems to know about? In the letters page, Stan answers a fan who asks how a Marvel script is typically written: "It's kinda difficult to describe what a mixed-up Marvel script looks like. "Actually, it's mostly a series of hastily scribbled notes, because the stories are usually created by batting them around in the bullpen, and then, after the artist has gone wild with the drawings, Stan swoops down and polishes the dialogue."

JS: You know, the first thing I think when I misplace something is, have I stumbled across Project Vanish?  Unlike Cap, I may never know. Tricky how he uses the old reverse psychology on the Nazi to get him to basically blow himself up. With all the "shoot em in the hand" and "shoot em in the leg" we see, I thought for sure he'd roll his shield over him to incapacitate him. I guess that's what happens when you're mad as hell, and just aren't going to take it any more.








Also this month

Modeling with Millie #40
Patsy and Hedy #101
Patsy Walker #122
Rawhide Kid #47
Sgt Fury and His Howling Commandos #21