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 

Our Story

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

July 1965: Gi-Ant Man's Last Stand?

Strange Tales 134 

The Torch and The Thing  


Our story

The Watcher visits the Fantastic Four, but since Reed and Sue are out apartment-hunting, he settles for Johnny and Ben. It seems that Kang the Conqueror is at it again. This time, he appears to Merlin the magician in the days of King Arthur. Kang locks Merlin away and then takes over all of Arthur’s knights, planning to change history so that his future foes never exist. The Watcher sends the Torch and the Thing back in time, where they foil Kang’s evil plan and save the world of the future.

Jack: So ends the wretched Torch series not with a whimper, but with a Kang. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.) The sustained mediocrity of this series made it one of the first two in the Marvel Age of Comics to be canceled, along with Giant-Man. Bob Powell’s Watcher looks like the New Year’s Baby! Look for the Human Torch Essentials at the next Mercer County, NJ library book sale, because my copy is going in the donation pile!

Wouldn't it have been faster to fly?

Happy New Year!

PE: As viciously odiferous as this series was, I actually thought the last story was not bad. I said "not bad," not "good." Sure, it's a rip-off re-imagining of that really rotten Fantastic Four story of old, the one where Ben Grimm becomes a pirate and wants to stay back in the past, but it seemed as though Bob Powell might have actually studied Jack Kirby's handling of The Thing one lazy summer day and thought "Hold on, he's not supposed to be an orange gorilla?" I'm probably overreacting with my delight at mere mediocrity rather than bottom of the barrel fish entrails but usually halfway through a Torch/Thing story I vow never to read a comic book again and that "plateau" was only in view this issue. Of course, I may just be excited that I never have to read a solo Torch/Thing story again!

Dr. Strange: 

Our story:

Dr. Strange returns to Earth and parks his body in a comfy chair in a “sidestreet hotel” as he flies off ectoplasmically to give the Ancient One a checkup. In Tibet, he bathes A.O. in a strengthening beam from his amulet (Vitamin B-12?). While trying to solve the mystery of Eternity, he is located by one of Mordo’s spirit minions, and the chase is on again. Meanwhile, over in the Dark Dimension, Clea lends a hand by weakening the barrier that keeps the Mindless Ones at bay. Dormammu is suitably distracted, Mordo is weakened, and Dr. Strange lives to fight another day.

MB: Back on Earth, the game is again afoot, and with only half the book at his disposal, Ditko relies on a high panel-per-page average to cram it all in. The story is chock-full of incident: in the space of a mere ten pages, we get the start of Strange’s search for Eternity, his cosmic game of chicken with Mordo at the heart of the solar system, and the as-yet-unidentified Clea’s brave, selfless betrayal of Dormammu. It is entirely appropriate that she uses the Mindless Ones to distract him, since it was their threat that obliged him to accept Strange’s help in the first place, and besides, those guys just look freakin’ cool, like a cross between Cyclops and a Golem.

JS: I'm growing a bit tired of the unlimited astral reach these guys all seem to have. Do they travel at the speed of light? One moment they're underwater with sharks, and a few panels later they're at the sun?

Jack: Where have I read this story before? Oh, right—two issues ago. Ancient One in a coma? Check! Clea worried about Dr. S? Check! Mordo’s spirit minions giving chase? Check! Dormammu has to sign off Skype to deal with Mindless Ones? Check! While I like this story arc, they had better move it along pretty soon!

Tales to Astonish 69 

Giant-Man  Our story

The battle of the century continues from last month as the evil scumbag, The Human Top, has kidnapped Jan and holds her captive at his secret headquarters. Big Hank is distraught. He sets out to find his loving partner with no luck as the trail has gone cold. Back at the Top’s crib, he reveals to the Wasp his master plan. Around his lair, he has built an artificial little town that is life size. Underneath the fake town, however, is a giant pit that he hopes big Hank will stumble into. Jan is able to secretly communicate with one of her wasps, who goes and finds Giant-Man, revealing her location to him. Giant-Man characteristically falls for the bad guy’s trap, falling through the fake village ground into a metal prison hole. Jan can’t bear to be apart from her boyfriend and she joins him. The Top, who apparently thought he had a shot with Jan as his partner once Hank was given a dirt nap, is enraged. From his control lab, he freezes the heroes into solid ice. After this is done, he has a crane scoop up the Giant-Man ice statue back onto ground level. Just then, Hank and Wasp break out of the giant ice statue’s hand, with Hank back to normal size. The Top tries to escape, but Hank takes him down, using the same freezing method the bad guy had used on them. Giant-Man relates to the police that he and Jan just hid in the hand cavity of the giant ice statue, once Hank shrunk down to normal size after letting the ice form around his huge frame. The ending has our hero contemplating retiring from the super hero game. 

Tom: It’s a sad day, as one of the greatest heroes of all time ends up not having the heart to go on fighting anymore. R.I.P. big Hank. I’ll pour out a little malt liquor in your honor.

Jack: Stan refers to Tales to Astonish #68 as “now famous” and a “sellout” issue. If it was so famous and successful, why cancel Giant-Man? Could Stan the Man be pulling our leg?

Tom: The bullpen points out that the Top will surely have no supporters after he cold cocks Jan for interfering with his plans. I’m not sure if I was still a fan of his after he pulled that stunt, but I still wasn’t completely rooting for Giant-Spam either. More like 50/50 at that point. I really didn’t care who was victorious, just as long as the crappy story ended.

Jack: Poor Human Top—he plops the Wasp on a big, yellow water bed but gets nowhere. Knowing Jan’s past, he must be one of the few men alive who fails to turn her on. 

MB: We really get a sense of the rats leaving the sinking ship as editor Stan shunts scripting chores over to Al Hartley, while the thankless job of inking Powell’s pencils one last time devolves onto John Giunta (who he?). Maybe I missed something, but I’m confused about the Top: this is a guy who later has a resurgence as Whirlwind, during which he works as Jan’s chauffeur, yet here he’s spouting sub-Shakespearean dialogue in his scenes with her. And where does he get the funds for the extensive and elaborate construction with which he traps Hank; can he really have that many ill-gotten gains after his various defeats by Giant-Man?

What Jan really wanted all along.

Hulk 

Our story

We continue from last issue, where the Hulk has been captured by the Leader, along with the super intelligent bad guy gaining possession of the Absorbatron, a device that renders the H-bomb useless. The Leader transports both to his secret hideout in the desert before the Navy Task Force captures him. Thunderbolt Ross and Talbot discuss Banner’s apparent treachery, blaming him for the Absorbatron disappearing and planning on killing him if necessary. Rick Jones happens to hear this outside their office window as he walks by. Meanwhile, the Leader has the Hulk strapped to a gurney, trying to perform tests on him. When he walks away, the sleeping gas he is using to subdue the monster does the opposite, changing the Hulk back to Bruce Banner. Banner sneaks off and, using the Leader’s own technology, sends an urgent message out to be rescued. Lucky for him, Rick has gone to one of their old hangouts and receives the message as to where Bruce is located. He tells Ross, who mobilizes the military to capture back the Absorbatron. When the Leader finds out that the Hulk is no longer in captivity, he releases more sleeping gas to flush him out. This causes Banner to revert back to being the Hulk before the Leader can see who the alter-ego is. The Hulk goes on a tear, destroying the Leader’s lab and trying to destroy the Leader. The villain shoots the Hulk with a special high-powered gun that almost stops him, but not before the monster destroys the precious Absorbatron. The bad guy takes off in his ship just before the troops arrive, furious and more determined than ever to defeat the Hulk. Our story ends with the apparent death of Bruce Banner from the gun blast. He changes back into human form just as Ross, Rick, Talbot, and the army troops show up.   

Tom: I must say that I’m impressed. A good story with decent art work. I couldn’t ask for much more. Well, maybe get rid of Rick, who seems to have replaced the almost as equally annoying Betty, but that’s a small quibble.

Jack: Rick Jones sure can run! Even the army can’t keep him away from Bruce Banner. Captain America is going to be SO JEALOUS! And the poor humanoids get no respect. The Leader vaporizes them and they return to nothingness! If only we could do that with about 35 issues of Human Torch tales. We can now add the Leader’s gas to the ever-growing list of things that cause Hulk to change back to Banner and vice versa. 

Oh no! Can it be true?

Journey Into Mystery 118

Our Story

After the defeat of the Communist troops, Thor returns the Vietnamese girl Kim to the safety of the U.S. troops. Gathering the bag of Norn stones to return to Asgard (to prove that Loki cheated in the recent Trial of the Gods), Thor is struck by with an anesthetic shell from an evil-hearted game hunter who spots him flying by. None other than Loki is guiding the hunter’s actions, for if Thor returns the stones to Odin, the God of Evil’s guilt will be established. Loki’s plan gets still darker; he guides the hunter to a barren plateau that explodes to reveal the Temple of Darkness, built by Odin in ages past. Driven by Loki inside the temple, the hunter finds: the Destroyer. Built by Odin (to remain hidden until such a time as needed to save the Earth from a great menace) as a lifeless shell that only becomes mobile when occupied by someone’s spirit, the willing hunter is the one who is in the right place at the wrong time. Thor catches up with him, aided by the directions of the hunter’s native guides. The Destroyer is designed to kill the first thing he sees, presumed to be an enemy of Asgard, but in this case, Thor himself. Realizing that he has unleashed too powerful a foe, and that should Thor die, his own fate will be sealed, Loki goes to tell Odin, and save Thor. Odin however, is sleeping the sleep of life (otherwise known as the Odinsleep) that he must do one day a year to retain his immortality, and from which he cannot be awakened. The guards toss Loki into the Dungeon of No Escape, not believing that for once, his words are true. Even knowing that Odin made the Destroyer indestructible, Thor nonetheless wages a brave but doomed battle. A bolt of limitless force slices Thor’s slices a piece of Thor’s Mjolnir clean off, so the battle becomes hand-to-hand. Designed to have access all the powers in the universe, the Destroyer melts the ground beneath Thor’s feet, and then as the Thunder God sinks, solidifies it to the strength of Asgardian diamond, trapping him. Another destructive bolt of elemental destruction gets ever closer to, the end?

As the quest to find the enemy who has put a crack in the Odinsword prepares to embark in Tales Of Asgard, a special “weapon” is given to Thor by a wise aid of Odin’s named Morduk, to aid in the mission. “The Crimson Hand,” when shaken by another, forces only the truth to be spoken by both parties.  Loki appears with a recruit named Bragg. Upon greeting him with a handshake, Thor discovers that Bragg has intent of slaying the Thunder God from behind once the quest has departed. A moment is all it takes to dispatch Bragg, as Loki feigns surprise, and quickly departs.

JB: If JIM#114 wasn’t already, this issue is easily the most epic Thor tale yet.  There’s fine attention to detail in the artwork, some nice angles and great full pager of Daddy-O(din) sawing logs. 

PE: I love how Loki comes to rue the decision he's made to release Destroyer and sic him on his half-brother. Of course, his regret is only because he knows Odin will unleash a nasty punishment on him once he gets word of his favorite son's untimely demise. I'm not sure I understand how the temple was revealed to the big-game hunter. It's said several times that Destroyer is Odin's secret weapon for armageddon. A last resort when all else fails. How is it that Loki's able to crumble the mountainside and open the temple? This issue must have been a favorite of the script writers of the Thor film, as there are a couple of inspirations, the obvious being the villain but also Odin's sleep. In the film, Odin sleeps a real big Odin-sleep after having a traumatic experience while here it's just an all-day nap he must endure once a year. Destroyer was much bigger in the movie and I think the upgrade suits him. 

JB: The Destroyer looks pretty intimidating. In the Thor movie they kept nicely visually to the original concept shown here; although he’s far less powerful in the film than here. Actually he’s quite a simple villain, not really evil unto himself, but virtually unstoppable. 

PE: This is a dynamite issue and I'm looking forward to the conclusion.

MB: I have ambivalent feelings about this issue, despite its introducing the Destroyer, one of the all-time great Thor villains, who made such a positive contribution to the recent film. Yet the sight of Thor being felled by a sub-Hemingway reject didn’t go down so easily, nor did the somewhat clumsy introduction of said Destroyer. Why would the ruler of the Scandinavian-based Norse gods have concealed him in the jungles of Indochina, of all places? And, if that temple “built by Odin, untold ages ago” had been “hidden beneath the concealing plateau—since time immemorial,” it seems unlikely that modern man would have heard legends of it. But boy, he sure can mix it up.

JB: Odin’s tired this month; he’s sleeping in the main tale and the TOA. The Crimson Hand is a cool tool; I don’t think it appears again? Not even a mention of Marvel romance this time either. It’s nice to see Loki trap himself with his own evil ways.

The X-Men 12

Our Story

A new and deadly menace is threatening Professor X and his X-Men at X-Mansion: the Professor's estranged step-brother, Cain Marko aka The Juggernaut, who will stop at nothing to put his little brother in a box. Years before, while fighting side by side in the Korean War, Xavier could only stand by helplessly and watch as Cain found the statue of Cyttorak and was infused with incredible power. Marko becomes, in X's words "a gigantic, inexorable force that moves onward irresistibly, crushing anything it finds in its path!"Marko tromps through each new barrier the X-Men throw at him until he tears down the steel wall and smashes into the mansion to face the mutants. To be continued.

PE: For the 12th time in 12 issues, Professor X proclaims that this latest menace will be the deadliest they've ever faced. The menace turns out to be his big bully step-brother. In one of those long drawn-out origins, X tells his X-kids all about the vicious. Are you like me and wonder exactly how the characters tell these stories we see in vivid detail? "And so then my step-brother puts his hand up in my face and says 'Hey, wanna see somethin'? Nyuk-nyuk' and then he slaps me in the face! Can you beat that?" Then, as his brother is knocking the building down around him, Cyclops sensibly says "Shouldn't we go out and fight the guy?" and X says "No, we've got time for me to tell you the rest of this origin story"! Why not say "That's my brother, he's mean, he's a Juggernaut!"

JS: Cerebro will prove to be a very powerful tool in the search for mutants.  We'll have to wait for the next issue to see if there's a story worthy of so much buildup.

PE: The whole story is a build up to a reveal. The longest origin story in the history of Marvel runs concurrently with a big shadowy figure destroying barriers around X-Mansion. What could he look like? How big is he?

JS: And why does he wear that silly headgear?

PE: Professor X as star quarterback??? This sounds like the kind of b.s. the revisionists would be up to years later. This is one line I ain't buying. He was also a track star, we're told. Because he has ESP, he's able to tell when the other runners are tiring and therefore run faster. When I ran track in high school, I could tell the tired ones as well. They were lying in heaps on the grass. How can ESP make a man run faster? How does X use his mental powers to help his brother jump out of a crashing car? We're getting into Daredevil's "let's make up the rules as we go" territory. The first 11 issues of this title ranged from Outstanding to middling. None of them that I can recall would be on a par with The Human Torch or Gi-Ant Man for ludicrosity. Congratulations, Stan.

JS: I don't know if measuring against the bottom of the scale is going to win over any readers...

PE: One of the X-Men's oldest and sturdiest villains, The Juggernaut is not served well with his first outing. The art stinks and I like Alex Toth. There's very little Toth on display here and I have to think that's because of Vince Colletta's inks. Many of the characters look like elementary stick figures in some panels and several times we endure the curse of no backgrounds. Says here that Kirby provided the layouts. I see no evidence nor influence of Kirby and I'm squinting real hard.

MB: Never mind that the Kirby/Toth/Colletta artwork is a bit of a mishmosh; herein true greatness lies, a Landmark Issue if ever there was one, including not only the origin of Professor X but also the introduction and origin of one of Marvel’s greatest villains, Juggernaut. His name rich with Biblical associations, Cain Marko is another of those characters best used sparingly, so as not to diminish his impact, and I love the fact that in such a generally science-based book, his powers come from a mystic force right out of Dr. Strange! Did ever a villain get a better build-up, with his tale told in tense tones by his intended victim while he batters, unseen, at the gates?

PE: Er... Um...

The Avengers 18

Our Story

Captain America is having doubts about his leadership and questions what his life is all about. Quicksilver enjoys a circus act of acrobats, Hawkeye perfects a new, amazing ultra-sonic vibration arrow, so strong it can move a one-ton safe. Meanwhile, (COMMUNIST ALERT!!!!) in the "communist-ruled puppet state of Sin-Cong," the Commissar, another impossibly large Asian ruler is bleeding his people dry. In an effort to gain notoriety, the big guy sends out a faux SOS to The Avengers in order to lure them to his compound. There, he hopes to defeat them and spread his legend throughout Asia. Cap takes the bait and The Avengers head to Sin-Cong. Once there, they realize they've been duped as they're attacked from all sides by The Commissar and his men.

PE: Knowing that it ain't a Marvel team of superheroes without the discord, Stan throws in a bit of discussion about what The Avengers stand for, Cap and Hawkeye on one side, Quicksilver and The Witch on the other. The wedge is removed after only a few panels and the World's Weakest Super-Group is reunited as one. I will say that it's an interesting experiment Stan is conducting here, a super-group void of any super power. I would suspect the letter column will get interesting as well.

JS: Will somebody please slap Cap. I'm tired of his brooding. Hey Steve - they thawed you out already!
 
PE: We're finally getting a peak at The Avengers playbook. Here we witness Captain America call for Plan Seven, which translates to "Quicksilver runs real fast and knocks out the bad guys." I'm still wondering if each Avenger has his own set of Plans (say, The Witch has Plan One through Six, Silver has Seven through Twelve, etc.). If that were the case, what would happen if Cap called out for The Witch to execute Plan Seven and she didn't have one? Obviously, Cap has planned for everything. He tells his partners, as they're passing out from breathing some form of noxious gas, that if they hold their breath as they're going under, their unconscious state won't last too long. Say what? I'm no doctor but don't you breathe even when you're asleep? I think i read that in a high school textbook once.

JS: Is everyone else tired of evil giants that turn out to be robots? I honestly can't recall if we've seen this exact storyline, but it certainly feels as if we have.

PE: The Commissar comes with no explanation as to why he's so big and powerful until the final panels. The expository reveals that the big Asian was actually a very life-like robot controlled by a "Wizard of Oz" behind a curtain. I find it hard to believe that a band of intelligent heroes couldn't discern a robot from a human being. After 18 issues, with but one exception (issue #4), I still find that The Avengers is a waste of precious reading time.

MB: Don’t turn around—the Commissar’s in town! Hardly among the more enduring villains in the Marvel stable, yet since one of those is coming in the next issue, I can afford to be patient. Also not so keen on newly minted Avenger the Scarlet Witch being thrust so soon (or at all, really) into the helpless-female mode, but that’s the damned Reds for you, and of course she ends up saving the day, so there. Heck’s art seems generally solid, despite the disappearance of Hawkeye’s mask on page 11, although I’m not sure that Ayers is exactly doing Don any favors.

The Amazing Spider-Man 26

Our Story

The Crime-Master has been delivering ultimatums to all the big mob bosses in town: work for me or you're through. He's also delivered that message to The Green Goblin, who's not exactly happy about the situation. Meanwhile, our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is up to his ears in problems. As naive, intelligent Peter Parker, he's managed to lose both of his Spidey suits (as seen in issue #25-Pesky Pete) and landed himself in the principal's office after taking on Flash and his crew single-handedly. His love life is a sham: Betty's convinced that Peter sold Spidey down the river last issue and Liz Allan is tired of breaking up Peter/Flash dust-ups. Just when it seems that there are nothing but problems ahead for our teenaged hero, he manages to come up with a spare suit from a Halloween costume store. Not the ideal situation but it'll do in a pinch. Donning his new gear, he heads for battle. The fight is on the docks where The Green Goblin and The Crime-Master are headed for a showdown. The winner will be crowned King of the Underworld. Hindered by the low-budget costume, Spidey is beaten by The Goblin, who plans to use the wall-crawler as a pawn in his scheme for power.

PE: It's nice to see Stan finally moving past the usual Peter/Flash mix-ups. I was getting extremely tired of Flash goading Parker into doing something very un-Parker like but the event stopping before fruition. Usually, as happened this issue, that something would be Liz Allan getting between the two, with the "Jeez, I almost blew my Spidey identity" thought balloon over Peter's head. Yep, that happens this issue but the drama continues when Peter gets called into the principal's office and takes full responsibility. Flash, overhearing the conversation, owns up to his part in the melee. I know, further down the road in this series, the two teens actually become friends but I'm not sure how close we are just yet. Maybe this was the first step.

JS: That part didn't ring true to me. Flash has given Peter so much grief for so long, I find it hard to believe that he's a good guy at heart.  But it's a plot device that's been used again and again in teen movies, so obviously somebody thinks it works.

MB: Webhead’s ongoing costume woes are classic Marvel, and Ditko’s art doesn’t seem so cramped this time; shots like Betty confronting Peter against that shocking pink background on the bottom of page 5 are a little melodramatic, but make things more interesting from a visual standpoint. I like that Flash once again shows himself not to be a total heel, while his simultaneous contempt for Peter and hero-worship of Spidey is always a fun plot device. Crime-Master is a formidable villain, and Steve’s plot provides a nice set-up for the cliff-hanger ending.

JS: So we go to great lengths to establish that the costume is an ill-fitting Halloween costume, and yet the Green Goblin can't seem to get the mask off? Come on, Gobby!

PE: Perhaps two ultra-secret super-villains was one too many? Honestly, I can't remember who The Crime-Master is (and I'm writing this having only gotten up to page 10 so far) and the mystery is killing me, but knowing Stan's track record for ultra-secret reveals, I'm sure I'll be disappointed when I find out who the Big Man is (and I'm not going to cheat by looking him up on Wikipedia or reading ahead). Knowing now that The Goblin turned out to be a character not even introduced yet makes me suspect a similar reveal in the works. He can't really be Foswell, can he? Stay tuned.

JS: Are super villains so dumb that they'd divulge their secret identities to one another?

PE: If The Crime-Master's get-up looks familiar, it's because Steve Ditko later remolded him as The Question in 1967 when he was working for Charlton (and Alan Moore later "borrowed" him for Watchmen's Rorschach). I couldn't get into The Question until Denny O'Neil re-booted the character for DC (who had bought the rights to the Charlton characters) in 1987. It only lasted 36 glorious issues but it's one of my favorite comics series.

JS: He reminded me of Rorschach from The Watchmen.

PE: Is now a good time to talk about spider-sense? I've never understood the rules of Spider-Man's warning system. In this issue, it warns Spidey that The Crime-Master is going to shoot him behind a set of closed blinds from a position across the street. I can understand the tingle going off if the danger is in the general proximity of Spidey's body but this almost seems like ESP. It warns him of a danger that may happen in the future. How far in the future can this power sense the event? If Doctor Doom was going to fire a nuclear missile directly at Spider-Man, at what point would his Spider-sense begin tingling? Pick up your pencils. You have exactly one minute.

JS: He'd feel it shortly before impact... but too late.

PE: Call me nuts but, from start to cliffhanger finish, this is the best Spider-Man issue yet. Never saw this one comin'! The art's fabulous. The plot is intriguing. The sub-plots don't meander and disappear in a puff of meaningless thought balloons. The Goblin's starting to get that wacky, crazy edge. I'm still enthralled by the mystery of The Crime-Master.

JS: I didn't have my hopes up from the cover, but it was more entertaining than I had expected. Let's hope  the next chapter is even better.

PE: On the letters page, Howard the Duck creator Steve Gerber makes his case for Spider-Man guesting in Millie the Model.

Tales of Suspense 67

Iron Man

Our Story

After receiving a tongue-lashing from Pepper Potts, Iron Man sulks in his little charger room, unaware that he's about to be attacked by an old enemy. Count Nefaria has dropped his old moniker and adopted the startling new title The Master of Dreams (or, as one panel addresses him, The Master! of Dreams-PE). His first target, since this is Iron Man's strip, is The Golden Avenger. Nodding off while still awake, he's attacked in his dreams by The Unicorn and The Crimson Dynamo. Fighting them off is almost too easy for Iron Man but we learn that it was just a test dream for The Master! of Dreams! Later, when Iron Man flies to Ireland to try to talk a pouting Happy Hogan into returning to the states, our hero is thrust into another dream-state where he battles more fourth and fifth-tier villains, Jack Frost, The Black Knight, The Melter, and Gargantus. One by one, he defeats the bogus criminals and, upon waking from his dream, decides he needs to take more vitamins, never knowing who his real foe was.

PE: I dug issues like this when I was a kid. It's a veritable who's who of Iron Man villains. Of course, it's all a dream but, no matter, we still get to see all these great villains! Only disappointment: no Paste Pot Pete.

JS: I always felt cheated by this kind of story. They'd do anything to sell a comic.

PE: It's seems at some point every issue Iron Man has to leave to recharge his batteries. Usually it comes just before or during a big battle. This issue it comes just as he's receiving a scolding from Pepper Potts. His constant wearing down reminds me of that wonderful Japanese TV series of the 1960s, Ultraman. The giant silver karate expert had a light on his chest and when his power would wear down it would blink red. We were constantly reminded that if the red light stopped blinking, Ultraman would be no more. I wonder if the producers of that show drew any inspiration from the Iron Man comic.

JS:  I wouldn't think so, but stranger things have happened.  I think I've made my opinion clear when it comes to 'we interrupt today's adventure to plug Iron Man into the wall.'

PE: Why would a super-villain (granted, a fifth tier villain) change his name from the ultra-cool Count Nefaria to the Village People-esque The Master of Dreams? For that matter, why would Stan change it? That's quite the gizmo Dreamy has, a "world-wide electro-scanner" which, it seems, can see anywhere he wants it to. Its first vision is Iron Man charging up. Could he follow I.M. around until he took his armor off and discover his true identity?

JS: Do you think he was just trying to spice things up? It seems like it would just add to the logistical nightmare of juggling all the continuity, not that I think that job landed on Stan's plate (outside what he kept track of by writing damn near every Marvel comic.

MB: It was wise of the Dream-Master—who (shocker) survives that climactic blast—to go back to his old handle of Count Nefaria, under which he would still bedevil various Marvel heroes for years to come. And, although this incarnation of the former Maggia chief is pretty goofy, these rogues’-gallery stories can be fun, even if we just had one in The Amazing Spider-Man two months ago. But please, spare me the laid-on-with-a-trowel brogue! At least my wife, whose favorite words are “Made in the U.S.A.,” enjoyed Tony’s little speech.

PE: One of the most clumsily written comics I've read during this run. It's not even clear if the first attack of The Master! of Dreams! is the villain telling us what he's got planned or a dream attack already under way. The reader doesn't know until the "action" is over. And further, do the villains in the dreams speak with The Master!'s voice or are the bad guys in a dream state as well? Well, no, that can't be right as The Crimson Dynamo is dead. As Shellhead questions: "Would a character in a dream tell someone that he too is in a dream?" Good question, Mr. Stark. I got another one for you: Do the Irish really say things like "Begorra, me boy" and "Faith an' Bejabbers" but otherwise speak perfect English?

This just in: Kelsey Grammer to play Gargantus in Iron Man 3

Captain America

Our Story

Under the influence of The Red Skull, Captain America begins his training to murder the allies' top military leader. Meanwhile, Bucky is lined up on a wall with other prisoners to be executed by his Nazi captors.

MB: I don’t know how long they will last, but this strip is clearly in its glory days now, the artwork having stabilized into the Kirby grandeur we know and love, despite another Stone/Ray switcheroo. The faux German accents are a little distracting, yet the wartime action is solid, and although drugged by the Skull, Cap looks every inch the mighty Sentinel of Liberty. Bucky, for his part, shows himself to be far more than the teen-in-jeopardy sidekick, giving a good account of himself in the battle, and even gunning down a Nazi or two.

PE: You're not kidding about those German "accents," Professor Matthew. Stan should have either gone with straight German word balloons with *translations below (unmanageable, to be fair) or just have the Germans speak in English with a - *translated from German-Snazzy Stan - at the beginning of the story. As it's presented here, it's a distraction comparable to a tea break every ten seconds in a rip-roaring action scene. It stops the flow. Otherwise it's another ace chapter in this Captain America retro-saga.

JS: I was also put off by the overdone German dialogue, but I'll accept that as a product of its time. If they didn't talk the way they do, it would probably have been harder for kids to follow that they were the bad guys. Gotta love Hitler cowering at the sight of Cap.

The Fantastic Four 40

Our Story

The Baxter Building is still under the control of Doctor Doom but, if The Fantastic Four and guest-star Daredevil, The Man Without Fear, have anything to say about the situation, it won't be his for long. DD heads on up to the top of the building to run interference while The Four sneak in via an elevator to get hold of one of Reed's gadgets that will restore their powers. Doom finally realizes that The Four are powerless and he uses that to his advantage until Stretcho is able to sneak away and get hold of The Stimulator. Once blasted with Stimulato-rays, our super team is back on the map. Doctor Doom is defeated but allowed to go free in the end. Ben Grimm has had enough of the superhero life and announces he's quitting.

PE: I'm not sure which bit of Stan Lee hype on the splash page I'm supposed to swallow: that "The Battle of the Baxter Building" is "destined to take its place beside the battles of Waterloo, Gettysburg, and Dunkirk." or that it's "possibly the greatest action-drama you will read this year." How could Stan use the word "possibly" after the comparisons in the first quote?

JS: Are you suggesting that Stan was susceptible to hyperbole?

PE: The concept of The Fantastic Four's armory being used against them is an intriguing one but some of the gizmos Dr. Doom unearths in Reed's lab are almost laughable. Why would Richards install an under-floor refrigeration unit? Of course, Doom has some nifty gadgets up his sleeve )literally) as well, like his "instant hypnotism impulser, which can upset your total sense of balance in one split-second."

JS: Do you get the sense that Stan had some sort of bible where he was keeping track of all this? I'm thinking he was making it up as he went, damn the consequences later!

PE: Holy Deus ex Machina! At least Ben Grimm questions Reed Richards about why they've been running around powerless all this time when there's a machine (The Stimulator) that can recharge The Four's powers. I wasn't going to mention this convenient way out for Stan as I assumed the big reveal about The Stimulator had happened while I'd fallen asleep. Stan must have realized he'd painted himself into quite a corner and his readers were paying their hard earned twelve cents for a comic called The Fantastic Four not The Questionable Quartet. Even in 1965 at the age of 4 years old, I would have howled out loud at this dopey plot twist.

JS: I keep searching for signs of the classic FF that I know is right around the corner, and the shot of Ben Grimm, back in rock form, is just what the doctor ordered. Kirby at his best in this particular issue.

The Thing... as he was meant to be!

PE: And how does this epic end? Doctor Doom attempts to murder Ben Grimm but when the tables are finally turned and Ben gets the upper hand, Reed steps in and reminds The thing that Doom has diplomatic immunity and they have to let him go. Doom walks right out the door with Reed cooing to his teammates that they've stripped the Doctor of his machismo and he'll probably never bother them again. That's the final straw for Ben Grimm. He's tired of being an ugly lumpy orange fella and he quits the group for the fifth time in two months (Marvel time). Stan's about to bring out Marvel Cliche #6 again (stay tuned for our special spotlight on the ten Marvel cliches beat into the ground like dead horses).

Also this month

Kid Colt Outlaw #123

Millie the Model #129

Sgt Fury and His Howling Commandos #20

Two-Gun Kid #76