Marvel Genesis

185: The Fantastic Four #31

2013-01-31T11:57:00.001-06:00

The Fantastic Four #31 July 9, 1964

Hey, guys - the Mole Man's back! What, no great cheer? That's understandable: After all, it's the Mole Man. This is the third time he's appeared in these pages - his last outing being in issue #22 - but Stan keeps on bringing him back. The problem is that he was the villain seen in the Fantastic Four's very first adventure, so it'd be nice if the readers cared about him ... but the sad truth is that he's just not very interesting. And maybe Stan & Jack will start to realize that, as he won't be seen again in these pages until 1969's issue #88! (Also: What's up with his coloring? Previously he'd sported a green jumpsuit and green cape, but now it's a green and purple ensemble. Except... on the cover he's got a green suit and purple cape, while inside it's a purple suit and green cape! Maybe that's why he'll be back to green-on-green the next time we see him.)

"New Look" Mole Man seems almost debonair!
(Now, now - I did say "almost".)
The tale opens with the FF in their Baxter Building headquarters, shocked by a sudden and inexplicable earthquake. When they rush out to investigate, they find an entire city block has vanished, leaving a gaping hole in its place! Oddly enough, the Thing wonders if the Hulk might be responsible - despite the fact that when their own building had been plucked out of the ground, it was due to the machinations of Dr. Doom. Upon descending the newly-created block-sized pit to its bottom, the Four discover the Mole Man, who reveals that his end goal is the same as it ever was: conquest of the surface world. BORING! Have none of these villains ever thought about how much work, management, and, ultimately, paperwork must be required if they ever once attained their aim of global conquest? The first time I recall this point ever being made was in 1987's surprisingly decent Emperor Doom graphic novel; 1964, on the other hand, is probably far too early to expect that kind of self-awareness. (This is, after all, when a villain like The Wizard can come back for no greater reason than settling a grudge against the hero who first defeated him - again and again and again. Deep motivations they definitely lack!)

That's a bit harsh, Sue. It's not Stan & Jack's
best tale by far, but it's not terrible...!
After the Mole Man takes Sue Storm hostage - yes, the Invisible Girl's role in the story is relegated to simply a prisoner to be fought over, once more - ol' Moley tells the FF to leave him to his conquest ... and that if they or anyone else attacks him, Sue's life is forfeit. They return to the surface, as directed, and immediately find the Avengers investigating the enormous hole, ready to descend. This of course is a very artificial way of providing the two teams an opportunity to fight - and yet this guest-appearance isn't even teased on the cover, as you might expect. The manufactured tension fortunately lasts not much longer than a page, but even this minor diversion can't distract from our noticing that the plot is paper thin: Our heroes go to the Mole Man, then they head back to the surface, then they return and defeat him. It's somewhat reminiscent of the famously padded stories in early Doctor Who, for instance, which could often be broken down into broad strokes of "captured - escape - captured - escape", and a lot of running about from place to place.

Yes, but how do the city blocks stay in place once they're raised?
Fortunately, the issue does see one element that genuinely excites the reader's interest. Near the start of the tale, Sue sees a newspaper article and photo proclaiming the daring escape of a certain prisoner, and reacts with alarm. She doesn't want to discuss it, but instead heads to the police station to investigate on her own, leaving an insecure Reed to wonder if the older man in the photo is some lost love from her past. Only in the tale's finale, as Sue lies hospitalized from an injury sustained in the subterranean battle, does the escaped prisoner step forward. Not only is he a world-renowned surgeon, and the only person who can safe her life - but he's also Sue & Johnny's long-lost father! After successfully performing the needed operation, the police come to take him away again, but we finish this otherwise humdrum tale with our interest fully piqued: Who is this mysterious character, and what is his story? Readers would have to come back the next month to find out...!

Father revealed ... and a mystery teased.

184: The Amazing Spider-Man #17

2013-01-21T12:16:00.000-06:00

The Amazing Spider-Man #17
July 9, 1964

Get ready: It's the return of the Green Goblin! And this marks the beginning of an extended run of appearances that will form the strip's earliest ongoing mystery - one that won't resolve until the departure of Steve Ditko in 1966. A couple of commenters in the discussion of #14 pointed out the obvious comparison that I entirely missed: namely, that the character's terrifying grin recalls that of main Batman baddie The Joker! And this similarity might have crossed the minds of Lee & Ditko too, as they her start to reposition the character as the archenemy he would go on to be. Note, for instance, how they've already upgraded the villain's mode of transport from his previous (and laughable) "flying broomstick" to the much more successful Goblin Glider. Perhaps they realized they needed to shy away from the Halloweenesque elements, if they wanted to focus on making him a truly menacing character? And yet: The Goblin's first weapon of choice this outing is still "an electrically-charged toy FROG". 'Nuff said!

"Mr. Brant"? No, that's Mr. Allan! Apparently,
even Stan can't keep Peter's girls straight.
This issue, constant aggravator Flash Thompson surprises Peter Parker (and the readers!) by forming a local Spider-Man Fan Club. Since said club impacts the plot of this issue pretty heavily, it's perhaps worthwhile to take a moment and explicitly ponder the question: What unconscious gains are had by the choice to have Flash be such an enthusiastic fan of Spidey? Well, it's undeniable that Peter has always craved a certain amount of adoration and praise - remember that one of the first things he did upon gaining his powers was to go on television, lured by promises of fame and money - but instead he's usually met with suspicion and scorn. (Note the contrast with this issue's guest star Johnny Storm, whose exploits as the Human Torch do indeed net him the kind of easy life and worldwide praise that Peter envies.) Notice too that this development taps into the eternal hope of the lonely and misunderstood child, that "they'd like me if they only knew who I really am!" - a fantasy of wish-fulfillment that goes right to the heart of the secret identity itself, and provides ample hook with which many readers could self-identify. The irony, of course, is that Peter is thus able to receive a degree of affirmation from his peers, yet it doesn't actually change anything for his social life or public persona. Finally, Flash's hero worship allows for an increasing depth of character than the one-dimensional boor we met in the earliest issues - showing us that he has the depth of insight to see that Spider-Man isn't the "menace" the Daily Bugle make him out to be, and giving him a heroic role model to look up to, admire and try to emulate.

Flash Thompson: The best frenemy a guy could ever have.
Near the start of our tale, Spider-Man notices a gaggle of costumed ne'er-do-wells fleeing along a rooftop and jumping into a waiting 'copter. He immediately races after, and apprehends them in the course of their getaway ... whereupon he's extremely chagrined to find that he's only interrupted the filming of a motion picture, and the "villains" are just actors! The scene is slightly contrived, yes - would he really get that far along without a glimpse of the cameras filming? - but also oddly familiar. Hasn't Stan used this very scenario once before, and rather recently? (The eerily strong sense of deja vu would suggest so, but I can't quite place it.) Clearly Stan is enormously enamored of the movies, as they pop up in these pages far more often than either television or radio - and recall their use in other notable stories, such as Namor's own movie studio in Fantastic Four #9, or the convoluted scheme involving the fake film shoot in the Green Goblin's first appearance, just three months earlier. It's no surprise that Stan would leave the publishing biz behind and move to California as soon as he reasonably could!

The stage is set.
The main plot of the issue concerns Flash's decision to hold the first meeting of the Spider-Man Fan Club at the Avenue Dinner Club - complete with special appearance by Spider-Man! - and what happens when the Green Goblin crashes the party. Fortunately for the readers, what could have been a humdrum affair is actually pretty darn exciting! Critically speaking, this doesn't appear to be down to any one narrative strand, but rather because Stan & Steve have set up a bunch of different elements at the club, and then juggle our attention from one to the next, letting them all come into conflict with each other as they will. For instance, J. Jonah Jameson has requested the presence of Peter as Bugle staff photographer, but gleefully watches to see Spider-Man fail. Betty Brant has come with Jameson, but since she's been jealous of the attention Liz Allan has been paying to Peter, Pete doesn't want her to see him there (and especially under Liz's unasked-for affections). Johnny Storm's girlfriend Dorrie Evans is fed up with him always hogging the glory of others, and makes him swear not to steal the spotlight ... which puts him in an awkward position when he begins to wonder if the attack by the Green Goblin really is just part of the show, as the audience first thinks, or is instead all too real. The primary dilemma - that both Spider-Man and Peter Parker are expected to attend the same event - is obvious, and would certainly have fallen flat on its own, but is quite successful as the dramatic backdrop against which all the other concerns play out. Even the eventual Human Torch team-up adds to the thrills, which really indicates what an exciting and effective Torch solo strip might have looked like, rather than the bland effort we've consistently gotten in Strange Tales. And then, in the midst of all that, Peter receives the terrifying news that Aunt May has suffered a heart attack too! Readers of the time, upon reaching that last page, must surely have felt they'd gotten their money's worth, and then some.

Of all the lame excuses Peter's had to use ... that might be the worst.

183: Strange Tales #125

2013-01-10T12:10:00.000-06:00

Strange Tales #125
July 9, 1964

Hey, it's the Sub-Mariner again! Which isn't anything especially newsworthy; after all, he's been appearing off and on since his reintroduction in The Fantastic Four #4, and was most recently seen just two months back in The X-Men #6. But we're now in the period when those appearances will become slightly more frequent, as his own ongoing strip is less than a year away. In this manner, Subby's trajectory kind of mirrors Stan Lee's approach to the Hulk after the monster's initial cancellation: Make sure to keep the character alive in the readers' minds, until he could figure out how to best utilize this hero/villain concept successfully.

Aha! This must be what the kids call ... "comedy".
On the other hand, the Human Torch strip hasn't felt particularly inspired in some time - possibly ever - and unfortunately, this revised "Torch and the Thing" version (now that The Rocky One is the ongoing, official costar) isn't actually new or improved. To be blunt, it mostly just feels padded, like Stan's out of ideas and is just phoning it in. The plot? After the pair drive off a couple of journalists for wanting to interview Reed and Sue instead of the two of them, they hear that Namor has been sighted off the coast. So they track down the Sub-Mariner and fight him, for no reason other than him being around (and, okay, past egregious behavior) ... and that's the story! Sure, there are some clever reveals at the end - but that just means that the only interesting parts come on the final page, and the previous dozen mostly encompass just mindless fighting and other meandering maneuvers. (Johnny & Ben spend an entire page reminiscing about the events of FF Annual #1, and Ben spends most of a page - in a story only 13 pages long! - towing the Torch & Subby, both unconscious, back to land.) The effect is a tale that feels utterly unengaging up until the very, very end - and then it's suddenly over.

Regrettably, so did Stan.
In a frustrating bit of synchronicity, however, the Dr. Strange story feels similarly plotless. Baron Mordo has kidnapped and imprisoned the Ancient One, so our hero and villain both take to their astral forms and trade mystic blows all over the world, while Doc also searches where his Master has been stowed. And when Strange finds the place, he & Mordo fight some more. There's not much beyond that - and while Steve Ditko's rich visuals make this a marginally more interesting yarn than the preceding Thing / Torch story, it's not perfect; we've already seen Strange & Mordo battling in spirit form before, while the "fighting across global landmarks" device clearly recalls Thor & Loki's battle across the same, and questions raised early on (for instance: why did Mordo send his henchbeings to attack Strange when he knew they wouldn't be successful, and would only arouse the Doc's suspicions?) are never answered. Part of the problem may be that Baron Mordo has been designed almost from Day One as Doctor Strange's primary enemy, his Doctor Doom or Magneto ... but really, he just isn't very interesting. (At least not yet.) Fortunately, a new and more successful archfoe will make his first appearance next month!

The preceding images of the Eiffel Tower and the pyramids of Egypt
aren't nearly as compelling as this stark, crumbling ruin.
This is, perhaps, as opportune time as any to discuss the magical naming conventions found in this strip. At several points in every story, Doctor Strange or his sorcerous enemies will cite some magical being or force in their incantations, and it's usually a recurring name that we've heard before. (It's impressive that Stan can come up this mystic gobbledegook and mostly keep it straight from month to month; he must have been keeping notes.) For instance, here Mordo calls upon the "vapors of Valtorr" and "the hoary hand of Hoggoth", and the Ancient One has intriguingly been imprisoned via the "crimson circle of Cyttorak" - a mystic being who will become more famously associated with an X-Men villain, starting the following year. Granted, Stan doesn't always get it right: Readers know that Doctor Strange's "Eye of Agamotto" refers to the force that resides in the eye-shaped amulet clasped at the front of his cloak, but in this issue he enters his Chamber of Shadows (What a great name! Was that room ever referenced again?) in which, he says, "stands the all-seeing Eye of Agamotto!" The implication being that he's referring to the mystic globe stood in its center. A particularly enterprising fan could come up with reasons why this is not actually a mistake - and for all I know, some future writer may have noticed this oddity and crafted a tale to explain just that - but, as stated above, it's impressive enough that the famously improvisational Stan was able to maintain as much consistency of detail as he did. Finally, another name of note comes when he calls out, at the start of the story: "In the name of the dread Dormammu, begone!" It's not the first time he's invoked that name as a source of mystic power, and to date the entity has seemed as invocationally interchangeable as with, say, Oshtur or Munnopor. Starting next issue, however, that will no longer be the case....

Baron Mordo? Or Doctor Octopus?
Perhaps it's Baron Octopus!

182: The Avengers #8

2013-01-01T08:00:00.000-06:00

The Avengers #8 July 9, 1964

Introducing Kang the Conqueror! In time he will go on to be one of the Avengers' greatest single villains, and quite possibly their primary archenemy. The Masters of Evil are certainly tops when it comes to team vs. team, and Ultron will arguably become their most fearsome returning baddie with a personal connection to our heroes literally built-in - but that won't occur for another four years. So Kang's arrival here is important, as the brand-new villains introduced thus far have included Lava Men (just a recooked version of the Mole Man's Moloids), shape-changing goofy-faced dude The Space Phantom, and ... Broccolli-head. In other words, we're rather overdue for somebody truly fearsome. Fortunately, you can tell from the outset that he's destined to be a classic: Groovy, alliterative name? Check! Impressively arresting visual design? Check! Now if he just happens to have any interesting abilities or an unusual back story, we may have something!

Wh... Why on Earth do they have THOR on tech duty?!
Stan & Jack may have suspected that this villain had real potential. Rather than introducing him to our heroes with a humdrum arrival on the scene as per usual, the Avengers first hear that something is amiss via an emergency Pentagon alert regarding an approaching UFO. Once it lands, the hatchway doesn't immediately open, but instead sits immobile: Watching. Waiting. After an hour, it's been surrounded by the national security forces, and only after a nozzle protrudes from within to dispose of the army tanks does its master step out to greet the Earth in suitably dramatic fashion. The scenario is more than a little reminiscent of Klaatu's arrival in The Day the Earth Stood Still, to the extent that I wondered if Stan was deliberately cribbing ... but that film came out in 1951 - 13 years before! (Did movies get second releases back then, as much as a decade later?) Still, it is worth pondering from whence the Kang concept came. Sure, the idea of time travel had been popularized as far back as H.G. Wells' The Time Machine, and we've already seen the trope used by Stan himself in the past couple of years, via Dr. Doom's time machine, Zarrko the Tomorrow Man, and Pharaoh Rama-Tut. Speaking of which...

As the Avengers meet Kang, Janet's "characterization" continues.
When Kang begins to divulge his back story to the Avengers, we're shocked to discover that his mystery identity alluded to on the cover is that of Rama-Tut! (In actuality, the readers are more shocked than the Avengers, who have likely never heard of the Pharaoh in question.) We'd last seen Rama-Tut in the pages of The Fantastic Four Annual #2, which just came out the previous week. That's actually pretty cool, and with hindsight makes Tut's appearance there, and the question as to whether he might be the past or future incarnation of another villain - which at the time seemed entirely unnecessary - to suddenly make a strange kind of sense. Whether intentional or a bit of genius improvisation, it almost seems like Stan has had a plan all along! So how did Rama-Tut become Kang then? Well, after dropping Doom off in the 20th century, the Pharaoh headed off towards his own time in the 30th. But due to a mysterious glitch, he overshot his mark by 1000 years and instead landed in the 40th century - which he soon conquered entirely and made his home. (Though that does bring another question to mind: Why the change from the 30th century to the 40th? Did Stan notice the setting of DC's Legion of Superheroes, and decide to leave the 30th to them?)

Kang conquers.
In record time, the male Avengers find themselves captured, and the only ones left to free them are the Wasp, Rick Jones and the Teen Brigade! It's honestly a bit mystifying seeing the Teen Brigade get the spotlight as much as they do; they've appeared in nearly every issue, been instrumental in the team's formation, and their increased involvement here even ranks a shout-out on the cover. Stan clearly seems to think they're a concept the readers might respond to, perhaps in the same vein as Joe Simon & Jack Kirby's 1940s DC creation The Newsboy Legion - and yet, unlike the Newsboys, Stan consistently forgets to give any of the Brigade special talents, or unique traits, or even recurring names - anything that would make them actual characters, and not just the barest sketch of a concept. Still, despite their admittedly coglike sameness, they're nevertheless resourceful enough to break the Avengers out of captivity ... which is honestly more excitement than the Wasp gets, whose contribution is limited to flying to Hank Pym's lab to fetch his shiny new Stark-designed raygun, then flying back. Stan's heart is in the right place, but his execution is still lacking. Ah well: In another couple of years, the Teen Brigade will have faded into obscurity, while future decades will see Janet Van Dyne become a strong, rich and complexly-layered heroine. All she needed, really, was ... time.

Thanks, Rick Jones!
Now let's grab some RandomTeens.

181: Tales of Suspense #58

2012-12-10T11:18:00.000-06:00

Tales of Suspense #58 July 9, 1964

Here we have the final piece of the puzzle, in which the Marvel of old can fully be said to have transitioned to that of the new. We've seen how the Marvel superhero comics grew out of the '50s craze for monster stories, before quickly establishing a footing for themselves. And in recent months we've seen the elimination of "filler" material of the sort that used to dominate: One-off short stories featuring characters and situations which didn't return. (Indeed, we can theorize that the "Tales of the Watcher" and "The Wonderful Wasp Tells a Tale" backup strips might have been devised as ways to burn off unused inventory, as the Watcher and the Wasp were usually used - at first - only as framing segments.) The final move was begun last month, as the Hulk guest-starred in Giant-Man's story in Tales to Astonish, as a seamless lead-in to the following issue in which the two characters would begin sharing the book for the foreseeable future. Here the same thing occurs, as Captain America guest stars in Iron Man's regular feature; next issue, the title will likewise become a split-comic with each hero getting half the book. This will last until 1968, when Captain America will claim the book entirely, kicking Iron Man out to get a full-length mag of his own. Of historical note is the fact that when Cap's new strip starts next month, it will be the first solo series Cap has had since his very brief revival attempt during Marvel's "Atlas Era" in the 1950s, and which lasted a mere three issues. This time, though, will be much more successful, and his adventures have run continuously ever since.

Hey, that's a good point. Why is there an
Iron Man tracer in Iron Man's car?
While the format change is taking the approach utilized by Tales to Astonish as its cue (the two characters fight one issue, then split-book the next), the result is sadly far less successful. Whereas the Hulk / Giant-Man tale was an astonishingly impressive example of a "stealth pilot", elegantly conveying to the reader everything he or she might need to know about the Hulk's origin, supporting characters and general milieu in the course of the story, the same can't be said here. Instead, Cap shows up as Iron Man's Avengers teammate, and someone for Iron Man to fight ... and that's it. Sure, maybe the reason we're not treated to Cap's supporting characters and setting is because he - as of yet- doesn't really have any, but it's still undeniable that his appearance here is simply that of a random guest-star in an Iron Man yarn (whose function could have been filled by anyone) ... as opposed to the TTA tale, which really did read as a Hulk story just as much as a Giant-Man one. The rest of the story is no less frustrating; for instance, face-changing Spider-Man foe The Chameleon may be a decently clever way to get two heroes to fight each other via mischief and confusion, but it's harder to see why Stan had The Chameleon return to the American shores in the company of Kraven the Hunter - who is defeated in the space of two pages, and not seen again. The rest of the comic is then hampered by case after case of "idiot plotting", that unfortunate example of lazy writing where a simple misunderstanding could be cleared up in ten seconds by the characters talking to each other, rather than by fighting or otherwise overreacting. It's probably not the worst Marvel tale we've come across thus far ... but it might be in the bottom ten.

Iron Man goes for a spin. And Don Heck's
Captain America seems oddly off-model, doesn't he?
Still: Let's talk about the coming changes! Because if Captain America is going to be taking over the other half of Iron Man's book, then that surely means the "Tales of the Watcher" must end. (Although the feature will return, briefly, as a backup strip in 1968's Silver Surfer.) And so we receive the final tale, "The Watcher Must Die!" From that title, I had hoped we might get a story purporting to show the Watcher actually dying / transcending / whatever, even temporarily: a fitting sendoff to the backup strip, and an acknowledgement that its time had now passed. Instead, what we get is the Watcher's planetoid being invaded for the third time in the last four issues. (If this plot is all that could be conceived for the character, perhaps it was indeed time to retire the strip.) This time, instead of providing the readers with a shocking twist like the kind seen last issue, the Watcher instead defeats his enemy by speeding up time in the area around him, and watching him die. Not only does this display near-godlike abilities on a level I'm not sure we'd previously seen ... but it's also not that far distant from the "cosmic filibuster" seen in issue #55. It's just that this time the "wait him out" approach hinges on near-magical powers, rather than a genuinely clever ploy.

The plot may be hokey, but I love the design sense Heck uses
to convey the sequence of events.
And as we say farewell to "Tales of the Watcher", having already seen the final Wasp strip, so too do we see the last of Larry Lieber's monthly backup features. (Surprisingly, his final tale was last month, as this outgoing story is by Stan Lee - and not altogether better for it!) More than one reader of this blog previously took me to task for being perhaps unduly harsh on Larry's writing in the early Ant-Man stories, but I really took a shine to his work on these later backup strips - and it's safe to say that he enjoyed them far more as well! We've not seen the very last of his pen in the Marvel U - he'll continue to put in the occasional appearance, from time to time - but for the most part, he'll be much happier from here on out toiling in the realm of cowboys and gunslingers. Coincidentally enough, while this last tale signals the departure of one voice, it also sees the introduction of another ... as Golden Age artist George Tuska here returns after several years away, going on to become a Marvel mainstay for many years to come.

THE END
of an era

180: Fantastic Four Annual #2

2012-12-04T09:17:00.000-06:00

Fantastic Four Annual #2
July 2, 1964

All-Doom Special! Yes, this second annual for The Fantastic Four is packed with superhero goodness. But what, might you ask, do the "72 BIG PAGES" shouted on the cover contain? Well, first it starts off with a 12-page origin of Doctor Doom - expanding greatly on the half-page seen in Doom's first appearance - before then getting the now-traditional (see here, and here) gallery of full-page dossiers of their newest foes, from #18 through #30: The Super Skrull, Pharaoh Rama-Tut, the Molecule Man, the Hate Monger, the Infant Terrible and Diablo (6 pages in all). A reprint of Doom's debut in Fantastic Four #5 follows (23 pages), along with 5 pages of pin-ups (one for each of the Fantastic Four, and Alicia). Rounding things off is a new Fantastic Four story clocking in at 25 pages - which means that the "double length epic" billed on the cover is a blatant lie. If you've added all these up, however, you've noticed that this only accounts for seventy-one pages. What's the other? Simply a Marvel house ad for the two other annuals on the stand that summer!

From the lost pages of Grimm's Fairy Tales?
Doom's origin story actually has a very fairy-tale quality to it, beginning when he was but a young boy, the son of a gypsy healer in the Bavarian Alps. When the local baron's wife falls deathly ill, he has his men take the older Von Doom by force, demanding that he save her with his healing arts - or else. Von Doom is unable to do so, however - she's simply too far gone - and he is thus hounded through the woods, doing whatever he can to protect his boy, and eventually dying from the strain. The young Victor Von Doom swears vengeance, of course, so it rather dovetails nicely when he discovers that his dead mother had been a sorceress, and he finds a strange chest containing all manner of magical artifacts and paraphernalia. Using these magics and his own mechanical genius (learned from where, we might ask?), he soon begins a campaign of swindling the upper class through a variety of tricks and potions, nobly giving all his ill-gotten gains to the poor. Yes, as incredible as it might seem, Doctor Doom first began as a strange sort of Robin Hood, waging class warfare against the aristocracy!

Marvel continue to be unable to spell "pharaoh"
Before long, we're told, Doom's numerous inventions bring him to the American attentions of State University, who offer him a scholarship on the spot. There he meets - and instantly rebuffs - a young Reed Richards, who instead becomes fast friends with football star Ben Grimm. One day, Reed stops in at Doom's dorm room while he's out, and reads over Doom's notes about his newest invention, having to do with "matter transmutation and dimension warps" - all culminating, in fact, in an attempt to "contact the nether world". (Later stories would expand this into his first of many attempts to contact his dead sorceress mother, giving this portion of his origin story a personal, driving motivation it here lacks.) When Doom appears at the door, Reed tries to point out a few mathematical errors, but the arrogant Doom banishes Reed from his room, and goes on to try the experiment anyway. The machine explodes, of course, disfiguring Doom's face and causing his expulsion. Subsequently turning his back on the world, he goes into seclusion, tracking down and then training with a hidden group of secret Tibetan monks. At the end of this time, he has them create for him an ominous suit of armor and mask ... and thus garbed, ready to finally take his leave and return to the world, Doctor Doom is born.

In a slight continuity gaffe, Doom wouldn't wear this particular cloak until
his second appearance. It's a great scene anyway.
This being the first time we've encountered Doom's full origin, we can talk about the several theories which have arisen regarding the initial accident, and the status of Doom's face. As presented here, Doom is said to be horribly scarred in the explosion, which is why he had to go into hiding; that's certainly the impression Stan's dialogue presents. However, Jack Kirby would later express his own theory that the explosion only gave him a very slight scar - but that the unyielding Von Doom, witnessing his own perfect beauty ruined, thus declared himself unfit to be seen by the world. In a later story which some have questioned - but I actually find quite satisfying - writer/artist John Byrne would try to marry these two opposing viewpoints by indicating that the initial scarring was minimal ... until Doom instructed the monks to set the iron mask upon his face while it was still red-hot. (Note how even in this issue Kirby draws the mask being set on Doom's face as it still gives off clouds of steam.) This idea seems to me a very rich combination of the vanity and perfectionism found in Kirby's theory, while making Doom's accident the result of his pride - the very Shakespearean flaw favored by Lee - not just once, as originally portrayed, but in fact twice over.

Silly is definitely the word for this!
The main story opens with a very pedestrian occasion, as Ben loses control of the Fantasticar and is forced to bring them in for a rough landing on the Manhattan streets, rear-ending a civilian's automobile in the process. As might happen with any accident, the out-of-town owner jumps out of the car and starts laying into the Thing, yelling about damages and remuneration and the like. Up walks another man, however, introducing himself as an art dealer and offering to buy it from the driver on the spot. As soon as the cash trades hands, he asks the Thing to bust up the auto even more, claiming he'll sell it as an original "Clobber Creation!" It's a pretty funny way to kick off the tale, illustrating the impressive mixture of character realism and delightful absurdity that's made The Fantastic Four such a hit.

A clearly momentous meeting.
Meanwhile, we check in with the current goings-on of Doctor Doom, who was last seen drifting off into deep space at the end of Fantastic Four #23. Against all odds, however, he's picked up in the nick of time by Rama-Tut, the time-travelling pharaoh introduced in FF #19! Recall that at the end of that issue Reed had theorized that there might be some connection between Rama-Tut and Doom; unfortunately, this new meeting does little to answer the question. At first, Rama-Tut claims that Doctor Doom is clearly his ancestor who created the time machine which the Pharaoh's own time travelling sphinx was based on. But then they get to wondering if the two of them might actually be the same man, at different points in his life: Does Doom eventually travel to the 25th century and start calling himself Rama-Tut? Or, alternately, will the Pharaoh take a visit to the past and become the gypsy who would one day call himself Doctor Doom? It's really a very bizarre conversation, because neither of them asks the obvious question: If that were the case, in either regard, wouldn't the future version of the person remember his earlier deeds? The latter theory is especially perplexing, given that the annual opened with Doom's origin story - beginning with Victor as a young boy...

Kirby really excels that that "villain stalking
through the crowd" thing, doesn't he?
The time logic gets even weirder, in fact. Rama-Tut suggests that the two of them team up to take down the FF, which has now defeated them both, but Doom says that they can't attack together - because if they're the same person, and the younger version is slain, the older version will die too. So Rama-Tut instead just drops Doom back on Earth, to pursue their vendetta on his own, and goes to live his conquering life back in the 25th century. It's a bizarre, bizarre development that doesn't really go anywhere, and doesn't answer the Doom-Pharaoh question that was first poised back in #19 ... so you have to wonder what the point was in bringing these two together in the first place. Did Stan have a plan, and first wanted to remind readers of the question? (Unlikely, given his usual, improvisational working method.) Or was it just a flashy, if convoluted, way to rescue Doom and get him back on Earth?

Does this remind anyone else of the famous
J. Jonah Jameson soliloquy?
As the plot gets underway, our heroes receive an invitation to a gala at the Latverian embassy, honoring them with a scientific fellowship. And yet none of them so much as bats an eye or sees anything suspicious, which I found odd. A few panels later we see them at the event, where Sue comments, "Reed, I'm rusty on my current events! Who is the actual ruler of Latveria?" And suddenly, with a shock, I realized: This annual was the first time Latveria had ever been seen! (For all we know, Doom's previous castle may have been located in upstate New York.) Doom and Latveria have been so completely connected in readers' minds ever since - the land can be said to be an intrinsic part of his character - that I had entirely forgotten the fact that we'd never seen or heard it before now.

Hey, look! It's that bizarre limitation on Sue's powers!
(Wonder if it ever comes up again?)
When the Fantastic Four's drinks are drugged at the embassy, they quickly hallucinate and turn on each other before discovering Doom as the culprit. Reed then leads them back home to the Baxter Building, where Doctor Doom awaits for their final confrontation. Wanting to put an end to Doom's madness once and for all, Mr. Fantastic whips out the most INSANE device imaginable: The encephalo-gun! This device, we're told, pits two combatants' willpowers against each other, and whoever loses ... is sent away to a timeless limbo forevermore. The idea that Reed would have invented something SO outlandish, and yet so ruthless, seems completely unbelievable ... until we're subsequently shocked to see Doctor Doom win the battle of wills, gloat over Reed's disappearing form, and then walk away satisfied. Sue is quite confused at Doom's actions, and asks Reed for an explanation - now seen casually leaning against the door - who points out that the gentleman's toast which Reed offered Doom before their duel was spiked with the same drug that had been used against them earlier that night, causing Doom to merely imagine his final victory against his foe. Now, what I find fascinating here is that apparently some readers have interpreted this to mean that it was only the victory itself which was imagined, and that everything up to that point was real. I think this misses the point: Everything that occurs after Reed & Doom drink was entirely imagined, up until we see Reed explaining the plan to Sue. I mean, something called "the encephalo-gun"? With that insane of a premise, and with such an iconic-yet-ludicrous visual design? In such a case, the revelation that it was all just a trick actually works because of the excesses in Lee's words and Kirby's designs, rather than in spite of them. Heck, even Sue's melodramatic outburst makes sense in retrospect: "Reed! Not the encephalo-gun!! Not that!! You can't!!" Exactly the kind of over-the-top histrionics a megalomaniac would imagine his cowed foes shrieking, don't you think?

Crazy. Beautiful. Nuts.

179: Tales to Astonish #60

2012-11-19T08:00:00.000-06:00

Tales to Astonish #60
July 2, 1964

In this issue: The return of the Red Menace! When Hank Pym receives news that his old FBI contact Lee Kearns has been captured in East Berlin, he heads off on a solo mission behind the Iron Curtain to track Kearns down and free him. In the course of doing so, he learns that the Reds (which, by the way, is the only referent to the baddies in these pages; unlike previous "Red" stories, this issue avoids the words "Communist", "Socialist" and "Soviet" alike) have accidentally invented a super-ray which gives gorillas human intelligence. Fortunately, Pym is able to gain the upper hand when he turns the ray on the German officers and is delighted to find that the ray has the opposite effect on humans, giving them the intelligence of apes. It's a good thing it didn't end up making the humans super-intelligent - which would have been my guess! And yet at the end of the story, one question remains: Man, what IS it with the Reds and their intelligent apes?

This is Pym's idea of travelling incognito.
Despite being a solo story, this story unusually has a couple of callbacks to Tales to Astonish #44, which contained the first appearance of the Wasp. For one thing, a footnote points to that issue being the previous appearance of Kearns, and it is - if just barely. See, at the end of that story, Pym phones up Kearns to tell him that he & Janet have defeated the Creature from Kosmos. Kearns gets one snippet of dialogue in response - unseeen and in a single panel. Hardly meaty enough to dig up the name 16 issues later, is it? More significant - if also more problematic - is Pym's decision to tell Jan about his "secret origin" from that same issue, when he lost his new wife Maria to Red forces in Hungary. I noted at the time how odd it was to give Ant-Man a deeply personal, unsolved mystery, yet go nowhere with it; here again it's odd to bring up the story - as if to refresh readers' memories - and then not follow it up. (Perhaps Stan originally had an idea on where that was leading, but realized it could be problematic to further develop the romance between Pym and Van Dyne if he continued to hint that Hank's wife might still be alive somewhere.) Fortunately, in the 1980s writer Steve Englehart would finally revisit and resolve this plotline in the pages of The West Coast Avengers. In fact, Englehart's storyline would additionally include the return of not only this issue's superintelligent gorillas, but also that of Madame X, the Scarlet Beetle, El Toro and The Voice! Guess Steve was a pretty big fan of these early Hank Pym adventures, huh?

They're gorillas! But they're intelligent! But they're gorillas!
Meanwhile, the backup strip is pretty darn notable - as we now begin the Hulk's second lease on life, after the "stealth pilot" intro last month. In an interesting move, his new adventures aren't initially illustrated by his co-creator, Jack Kirby, but rather Spider-Man and Dr. Strange artist Steve Ditko! It actually provides a nice bit of accidental continuity between the Hulk's first series and this second, since Ditko was the artist on the Hulk's final issue of that initial run. And in terms of callbacks, this issue has a couple (unintentional?) similarities to the Hulk's debut story - arguably the most successful one out of those first six - as this opening tale also features the army base being infiltrated by an enemy spy, as happened there, and a moment when someone tries to stop the atomic test being conducted, but it goes off anyway...

Banner realizes the nature of the beast.
It's no secret that the Hulk's second go will turn out to be far more successful than his first, as the character has been continuously in print ever since. And it's easy to see why! From reading those first six issues, it seemed as if Stan & Jack had created a compelling character from the outset, but then been at a loss as to what to do with him. Here, though, we can see that Marvel have already begun to figure out what would prove to be the lasting formula. In what was quite probably an insight on the part of the deeply reflective Steve Ditko - who, though uncredited, was responsible for plotting much of the stories he worked on in this period - Banner realizes that the changes now come at times of emotional stress: When he loses his cool, the Hulk comes out. Or, as Barry Pearl puts it, "When Kirby introduced him, his change was caused by external factors, dusk and dawn and later a machine. Ditko’s Hulk changed for an internal issue, anger management." Clearly this change is one that would really hit home with the fans! It's worth noting, though, that they're not yet all the way there, as emotional stress also turns the Hulk back into Bruce Banner - which slightly breaks the resonating theme of The Hulk as a physical manifestation of Anger. Before too long they'll perfect it though, and the Hulk will become human again when the crisis has passed, and he's started to calm down...

Whoops! Little Hulky's falling off this ride.

178: The X-Men #7

2012-11-12T08:00:00.000-06:00

The X-Men #7
July 2, 1964

In this issue: The X-Men graduate from Xavier's academy! Yes, despite having set up the presumably rife premise of "super-powered teenagers in high school" in their debut, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby surprise us by seeming to resolve it a mere half-dozen issues later. It's impressive to see how casually Stan introduces real change, and doesn't shy away from acknowledging the real passage of time - things which would happen less and less in Marvel Comics as the years go by. (That said, it's worth pointing out that casual yet radical changes proved utterly disastrous once before; hopefully such a significant change to the status quo was considered carefully this time, weighing benefits gained against any potential lost.) Still, such a graduation does give rise to a number of questions, like: How can they all graduate at the same time, if the X-Men are different ages? Does that mean they were all, effectively, in the same grade? What kind of academic program did the Professor teach them? Wouldn't it have been neat to show the occasional classroom session (a welcome insight which would be seen regularly, and to great effect, in the 1980s series The New Mutants)? And most importantly: Where do they go from here - and why did Stan choose this moment to graduate them? Well, as we soon learn, because it's now time for the X-Men to grow up...

These aren't graduation caps affixed to their heads.
They're incredibly unfortunate secondary mutations.
Under the less-than-illuminating pretext of "unfinished tasks", Professor Xavier announces to his students that he's going away for a while. In his place, he's chosen Scott to be team leader in the interim, and reveals to him (and us) his secret invention "Cerebro" - an advanced machine which can duplicate Xavier's ability to locate new and previously-identified mutants. This, more than anything else, should drive the point home, as the Professor is now giving his charges the means to track down and investigate new cases without him. In practice, Xavier's departure is to last only a short stint, as he'll return in the issue-after-next - yet it's worth noting that this is the very first time he's leaving the X-Men on their own, an event that will recur a number of times in the decades to come. (On those occasions, his absence will often last for many years at a stretch, with the team massively changed as a result.)

What they don't tell you is this is how Magneto
spends every Sunday afternoon.
After having debuted in issue #4, and returned in every issue since, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants will take a break for a bit after this story, unseen again until issue #11. Last time, they tried to recruit the Sub-Mariner and failed. (Amusingly, because the arrogant-yet-chivalrous Namor didn't appreciate the way Magneto spoke to a lady.) This time out, the Brotherhood heads to to the carnival to recruit The Blob! Hey, they probably need a bit of a powerhouse in their ranks, don't you think? And yet this new alliance is trounced once again by Mag's inability to play well with others, or even marginally conceal his contempt for those he considers beneath him - which, let's be honest, means just about everyone. At the end of the tale, The Blob turns his back on both heroes and villains, dejected, and returns to the carnival ... the only place, he believes, a freak like him can ever truly belong.

Dig this swingin' sixties hangout!
We'll be seeing a lot more of this.
The rest of the plot is fairly pedestrian, as the main importance of the issue is the introduction of elements like Cerebro and the X-Men working on their own, as well as continuing to flesh out the characters' lives via new settings and situations. To this end, we get our first trip to the Cafe A-Go-Go (though not named as such in its first appearance) over in trendy Greenwich Village, and some of the regulars of that joint, such as Bernard the Poet and Zelda. Meanwhile, Scott Summers - already a tightly-wound young man - settles into his new role, and is further cemented as the personality he'll become known for: seemingly destined to bear the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Scott as grim and lonely leader.
We'll also be seing a lot more of this...!

177: Journey into Mystery #108

2012-10-23T09:23:00.001-05:00

Journey into Mystery #108 July 2, 1964

The opening scene to this story is one of the most credibility-stretching premises we've seen for some time. The splash page shows Thor on the streets of New York City, smashing his hammer into the pavement in front of a score of onlookers and causing an untold amount of city damage. Why? It seems he had just been flying over NYC when he spied an out-of-control truck about to hit a boy playing in the street. Knowing that he could never reach the scene in time, he instead flew to the ground and slammed his hammer down, sending out shock waves in one controlled direction, which reverberates through miles of the city (causing how much more damage along the way?) until it reaches the desired spot, 1.2 seconds later - at which point it causes the truck to leap into the air, and thus bounce over the terrified child in question! This comic should have come with a health warning, as the unparalleled degree of eye-rolling evinced could very likely lead to ocular damage ... and yet the opening is entirely appropriate too. After all, yes, that scene is in one sense ludicrous - but in another, it's a way of declaring what kind of story this is: A melodrama, with stakes and situations we can understand, but raised to operatic proportions. And for a comic book story starring a thunder god, isn't that exactly right?

Thor's getting a little cavalier with those emergency funds!
As seen on the cover, this issue guest-stars Lee & Ditko's sorcerer supreme, Dr. Strange. And it's worth noting that Dr. Strange appearing in Thor's comic feels right in a way that doesn't necessarily hold true in other books, as they're both heroes that come from a foundation of mysticism and lore. (Compare this, for instance, to the slightly mismatched feeling when the magical Strange guest-starred in the super-scientific world of the Fantastic Four!) Interestingly, Strange summons Thor from afar to where he has collapsed in his home, entirely spent after defending the city from his archenemy Baron Mordo - which has the unusual effect of making it almost seem as if Thor is the guest-star, suddenly popping into a Dr. Strange adventure already in progress! Was this Stan thinking on the standard storytelling tropes, and purposely inverting a formula that he was consciously aware of? Or was this simply a matter of him striking gold while winging it - as usual?

The Doc after an all-night bender.
On to the plot: Devious trickster god Loki flies to Earth, kidnaps Nurse Jane Foster from the medical office of Dr. Don Blake, and then throws Blake's cane out the window so that he can't transform into his alter ego Thor and thus stop him. But when Don gets outside - the cane is gone! To find it, Blake therefore enlists the aid of Dr. Strange, whose life he had just saved at the hospital hours earlier, to scour the city with his astral form. This favor Strange does indeed return, seeking afar while his physical self remains sat in the hospital wheelchair. So, to sum up: Thor comes upon Dr. Strange collapsed in his own house, rushes him into surgery to save his life, and then later begs for help in finding his lost stick. Surely one of the most heart-pounding guest-appearances Marvel had ever wrought! (I kid.)

I love the intimation that it's the resulting shock wave
that sends them all flying back, and not the blow itself.
In a similar vein, this month's "Tales of Asgard" feature is but a short vignette telling one of the exploits of the young Thor - as opposed to the recent Tales we've had filling in the background on the other Asgardians. It came to pass that Sindri, king of the dwarves, had been sending Asgardian captives to the trolls, as part of a terrible pact to keep them from attacking his kingdom. Accordingly, a disguised Thor gets himself captured and sent off, then leads the Asgardian prisoners in revolt and ultimately seals away the land of the Trolls. It's a very simple story (even by TOA standards) - but even if it doesn't have the mythic resonance that most of these instalments usually do, it still does a decent job of illustrating more of the Asgardian lands than we've seen to date, and the relationships between the people and monsters therein.

Finishing touches.

This Month in Marvel: July 1964

2012-09-21T12:40:00.000-05:00

As we've already seen, the summer of 1964 is when certain things started to fall into place for Marvel. "Filler" stories were on their way out, the Hulk had been announced as sharing a book with Giant-Man ... and as declared in the Special Announcements page below (from Fantastic Four #31), Captain America will soon be joining Iron Man in a similar capacity. And just look at how many heroes are now guest-starring in each other's books!

(click to enlarge)
Once again, these scans come to us thanks to Barry Pearl, author of The Essential Marvel Age Reference Project. And as an extra treat this month, Barry's also included an ad that ran in that selfsame comic, appearing right after the letters page. Take a gander at this fascinating artifact from the past!

176: Marvel Tales Annual #1

2012-09-19T10:32:00.000-05:00

Marvel Tales Annual #1
June 11, 1964

By June of 1964, it had been nearly three years since the advent of The Fantastic Four #1, and all the many changes wrought in its wake. New titles were still being added, with Daredevil on only its third issue, and yet Stan Lee knew that there were new readers encountering Marvel's entire stable of superheroes for the very first time each and every month, and perhaps wondering from where this dazzling array of heroes had sprung. To fulfill that need - and perhaps give readers an attractive sampler pack of Marvel's varied offerings, for the price of one shiny quarter - Stan assembled the very first issue of the reprint title Marvel Tales, which would end up running in one form or another until 1994.

So what was in this 72-page collection, you may ask? Quite a lot! Stan wisely kicks things off with the very first Spider-Man story from Amazing Fantasy #15, before excerpting the first half of The Incredible Hulk #1, dealing with the monster's origin. Hank Pym is next, with his first costumed outing from Tales to Astonish #35 reprinted in full (skipping over Hank's first experience with the shrinking formula from #27), and then two pages from #49 introducing his new persona as Giant-Man, as well as showing his crime-fighting partner and love interest in Janet Van Dyne, the Wasp. The costumed adventures are then paused for a few pages as we're treated to an excerpt from the first issue of Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos, followed up by the origin story of Iron Man from Tales of Suspense #39, as well as the three pages of Tony demonstrating his new red-and-gold armor from #48. The final tale reprinted is the first appearance of Thor from Journey into Mystery #83. Stan makes a few adjustments to the start and end of the stories, telling readers what issues the tales originally came from, and ending each reprint with a caption, like "The Hulk's own mag has been discontinued, but our popular roving hero-villain will now be appearing each month in Tales to Astonish!" Amusingly enough, Stan didn't take the opportunity to correct the notorious mistake at the end of JIM #83 - where the original inscription on the hammer in the final panel read "THORR" - but simply laughs it off in an end note. (Would correcting the art have taken more resources than was presently available?)

Although this comic was almost entirely a reprint title, there was one new feature included which must have tickled readers, and which has probably given the comic a bit more historical cachet than it otherwise might have retained. Sandwiched neatly between the Sgt Fury and Iron Man segments are two pages entitled "Meet the Gang in the Merry Marvel Bullpen!", and displaying photos of many of the Marvel staffers of the time. Of particular note is the inclusion of publisher Martin Goodman, and the omission of Steve Ditko! Stan's note on the second page playfully refers to several staffers having been "out of town" - but given Ditko's legendarily reclusive status, one can't help but wonder if he simply refused the offer.

And that's the first Marvel Tales Annual! Note that out of all stories contained, the only reprint of a team book is that from the Howling Commandos; the X-Men and Avengers would have to wait till the next year. By contrast, the FF's origin wouldn't be featured in these pages at all - but in fairness, it had already been reprinted as one of the backup features in the first Fantastic Four Annual, just one year before. Of course, if you want more musings on the early Marvel annuals, I'd like to direct you to a couple of recent blog posts by Nick Caputo and Barry Pearl. By the purest coincidence we realized that all three of us were writing on the same subject at the same time: Seemingly now, just as then, it's the Summer of Marvel Annuals!

Thanks to Barry Pearl for the scan!

175: Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1

2012-07-12T11:47:00.000-05:00

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1
June 11, 1964

It's Spider-Man's first Annual! The previous year (1963) saw the first couple of annuals for Marvel's superheroes, with the Strange Tales Annual #2, and Fantastic Four Annual #1. This year, with more titles under their belt and even greater confidence in their direction, you'd think that Stan and company might have several more ready for their readers - and yet the growth is a conservative, gradual one. This first annual for Spider-Man came out the same week as Marvel Tales Annual #1 (an all-reprint book), followed a few weeks later by the Fantastic Four Annual #2 (published the same week as Millie the Model Annual #3) - and that's all for 1964! Sgt. Fury and Journey into Mystery won't receive annuals of their own until the following year, and books like The Avengers, The X-Men and Daredevil will have to wait even longer.

This doesn't forward the plot at all.
It's just incredibly, effectively funny.
So, what's contained in this mammoth, 72-page package? Glad you asked! Stan Lee & Steve Ditko kick things off with a 41-page lead story (an increase over last year's 37-page epic in FF Annual #1); there's a wry caption at the start claiming that "It's taken us a year to produce this double-length epic," and you can almost believe it's true. Taking a cue from the aforementioned FF Annual, this is then followed up by 14 pages of "A Galley of Spider-Man's Most Famous Foes!", full-page illustrations of every Spidey baddie to date (up through #15, at least). Nine pages of "The Secrets of Spider-Man" follow, discussing and explaining such elements as the "bitten by radioactive spider" origin, Spidey's strengths and abilities, his webbing, his mask, and beyond. Several more full-page illustrations follow, including not just a Spider-Man pinup - albeit one so iconic that it would be emulated a few years later for the cover of Spectacular Spider-Man Magazine #1 - but also scenes spotlighting Betty Brant, Peter Parker's classmates, Aunt May and their Forest Hills house, and occasional guest-stars the Fantastic Four. Possibly the most amusing bonus feature, however, is the 3-page strip that rounds off the package, "How Stan Lee and Steve Ditko Create Spider-Man!" In Stan's typically jocular fashion, it portrays the two men as haranguing each other over the course of days as Lee calls up Ditko at all hours with his new ideas, making demands both incredible and unreasonable, while Ditko's pencil flies along, trying to keep up. It's an enjoyable tale, clearly designed to give readers an insight into (a version of) the creation process, while unafraid to poke fun at themselves ... and yet, it's hard to read the blatantly parodic figures hurling insults and aggravations at each other, and not think of the legendarily acrimonious rift that would lead to Steve's departure in 1966.

Is Ditko drawing the story from
last year's Strange Tales Annual #2?
Over the course of the prior year, Stan Lee & Jack Kirby seemed to really embrace the "team of bad guys" concept, first introducing it with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants over in the pages of The X-Men, then creating the Avengers' villainous analogues in The Masters of Evil. Here, Lee & Ditko offer yet another take on the concept, introducing an alliance composed of the most heinous baddies of a single hero - and then launching them at the poor hapless schlub! As we've seen, the Spider-Man villains to this point have nearly all been destined to be remembered as "the classics", and so it makes a certain terrifying sense to see them come together and pool their various, nefarious forces.

The Sinister assembled.
Appropriately enough, the story opens on one of the villains, Doctor Octopus, in prison after his last bid of naughtiness. Having thought better of his last stay, the authorities have this time separated the bad Doctor from his tentacular additions, and locked them up. But then we find that Otto has learned to mentally control them from afar, thus using them to effect his own breakout! So we begin the tale with not just the returning menace of one of Spidey's top villains, but one who has suddenly received an upgrade. And if that wasn't bad enough, he in short order calls together the Sandman, the Vulture, Kraven the Hunter, Mysterio and Electro - to form the chillingly-named Sinister Six!

On the downside, he's not in the Six.
Then again, he's in the new movie and they're not!
As much as this comic may rely on the past (assembling a team composed entirely of preexisting enemies), we should note that this appealingly-full package also takes pains to introduce Spidey's world for any new readers who might be encountering it for the first time. On the first page of the story, Spider-Man pesters Jonah in his office at the Daily Bugle, who rants "If only that blasted Peter Parker was here to snap some photos of him!!" Take a moment to marvel at how much information is delivered in that one moment: character points for both Spider-Man and Jonah, Peter's occupation at the Bugle, the two completely separate relationships which our hero has with the publisher, etc. Two panels later, a flying Thor narrowly misses our hero in mid-swing, thus establishing that this superhero solidly occupies the same cityspace as the other Marvels on the rack. (Similar walk-on appearances subsequently abound by Doctor Strange, the Fantastic Four, Ant-Man and the Wasp, and more - all with helpful footnotes pointing the new reader to the monthly mags in which those characters appear.) And soon after scenes showing the teenaged Parker being bullied by Flash Thompson and other schoolmates, and the introduction of Aunt May, we're treated to a very short flashback retelling the origin of Spider-Man - although note that this flashback doesn't refer us to the original story from Amazing Fantasy #15, already two years old and thus unobtainable to readers of the day, but rather the reprint found in the Marvel Annual #1, on sale that very same week. And all this occurs in the first five pages alone! It's incredibly, undeniably impressive to see how masters such as Stan Lee and Steve Ditko could craft a tale which certainly rewards long-time readers, yet remains the perfect introduction for any kid who'd never read a Spider-Man tale before.

Five decades later, Ben's words seem slightly prophetic.
Also, note with amusement Reed's oddly dark description of Spidey!
So here we have a comic which assembles the worst of Spider-Man's villains into a nightmarish force. Each of them alone tested his strength, ingenuity and resolves, so he's clearly going to have to be at the top of his game to survive the coming assault. Which is why it's so shocking to find, before the villains have even attacked, that ... Spidey's lost his powers?! Despite happening as he's swinging across the city, he somehow manages to safely make it back down to the ground, but he (and we) wonder how this could happen - and what this means for the days ahead. Having not yet begun the gauntlet the villains will soon be subjecting him to, he wonders if maybe now he can just live an ordinary life again, without always having a secret to protect, and the superhuman abilities begging to be used as a force for good. (Although note that this occurs right after he see him wishing he "were just like any normal teen-ager!")

This is the kind of comic panel that I love:
Pathos, menace and hilarity all in one place.
After the requisite amount of stage-setting and plot maneuvering, the Sinister Six begin their deadly assault. And Doc Ock's ingenious plan is for the villains to attack him ... one at a time?! And not even in any strategically-conceived sequence, but rather ordered by a simple luck of the draw?! (One wonders, yet again, just how much the supposedly-brilliant Doctor's brain chemistry changed in his originating atomic accident.) And yet this seeming randomness appears to be contradicted when Otto tells the assembled villains that the cards they drew at random also list the sites at which they should engage their enemy: places chosen to be "best suited for [their] particular talents!" Well ... which is it? Were the cards distributed at random, or were they strategically distributed to each specific baddie? In what seems nothing short of an outright flub on the part of Stan Lee, the dialogue seems utterly and hopelessly confused on the matter.

Check out that power pose! It's enough to
make the reader stand up and cheer.
The bad guys kick off their plan by kidnapping Betty Brant (whom Doc Ock knows Spidey has fought for twice before) - and, coincidentally, the older lady she was meeting with: Aunt May. When Peter finds out, he immediately accepts the challenge laid out by the Sinister Six and goes to tackle them, one by one, despite the fact that he's now powerless. But on tackling his first foe, Electro, he's surprised to find that he can dodge the villain's bolts just as nimbly as before! Upon later reflection, he realizes he never lost his powers after all; he just imagined he did, as a psychosomatic result of the deep guilt he was feeling as he recalled the death of his lamented Uncle Ben.

Each of the villains gets a full-page action shot in mid-fight.
It's a neat device, and gives an unusual, welcome rhythm to the tale.
At the end of the day, the first Amazing Spider-Man Annual is an entertaining, extra-stuffed, deserving classic that will go on to be remembered for years; the "villain team-up" approach is a popular and well-used device, and it truly is great seeing all the baddies in one place, and putting all their efforts into fighting their common foe. But at the same time, this narrative trope has never entirely worked for me, even as a kid. After all, since the bad guys have to share the same comic (even an oversized one, as here), that means each villain can only take up a very, very small amount of space - which, if one stops long enough to really think about it, actually serves to diminish the menace of each baddie, rather than increase it. For instance, the original tale in which Spider-Man first fought Kraven the Hunter was a harrowing experience for our hero, and one he only survived by the narrowest of margins ... but in this comic, he defeats and moves past the villain in just over two pages. And I know, I know, that's not the point here - the aim, rather, is to provide a thrilling spectacle starring all of Spidey's top foes, and on that level it massively succeeds! - but still...

Man. Is it just me, or was Silver Age
Aunt May kind of a ditz?

174: Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #9

2012-06-04T14:18:00.001-05:00

Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #9
June 9, 1964

One would be hard pressed to find a story premise more bold or shocking than "Mission: Capture Adolf Hitler!" Even the cover says "The world knew that it couldn't be done!" But perhaps it would be more appropriate to say "The story Marvel knew they could never tell (at least, not really)!" - and we aren't surprised to find that such an astounding event has not, in fact, happened by story's end. There are several reasons for this, of course: For one thing, the natural limitation of the war story genre is that by virtue of being set within the cracks of history, we know how the story (as played out on the world's stage) will eventually end; one can make small inventions or embellishments, but any such dramatic departures would divorce the setting from our own world far too much. And even if we approached the idea on purely narrative terms, we can easily see why such a story couldn't take place, as the mythologized dictator is "the great white whale" of not just Nick Fury, but every Allied soldier: Were they to capture him, or finish him, their tale would be finished too. Finally, there's the inherent danger in utilizing any historical period of real trauma as simply story fodder, as it's not unreasonable to conclude that one of the countless souls who had lost so much in the Holocaust - a family, a homeland, a culture - could take real offense at a kids' story seeming to trivialize the very source of their suffering. (Though, again, Sgt. Fury co-creators Stan Lee & Jack Kirby were themselves both Jews who served in World War II.)

Till now I've had problems with the inks of George Roussos, but his occasional use of
heavy blacks here lends a somewhat stylized approach I find very appealing.
In addition to the seemingly outrageous story hook, this issue also sees the return of Baron Strucker! In his debut outing, the character seemed strongly influenced by the "Baron" part of his name; he was first introduced at his home castle, idle and pampered, initially dismissing the idea of taking down Fury because he deemed the American unworthy of his time. And even when he was convinced - well, ordered - to do so, he didn't come across as much more than an arrogant, aristocratic weapons master. Here, on the other hand, he's presented as a dangerous and high-ranking officer in the Nazi regime, and the character is all the better for it. After all, for the many reasons cited above, Hitler himself can't really be an effective or believable recurring villain for Fury and his Howlers - but the Baron can, and that really begins now.

These "translation" arrows are hokey as all get-out.
I'm not sure we'll ever see them again.
With a premise as provocative of this, you could be forgiven for wondering how Lee & Ayers could credibly pull it off! And the answer is ... well, they can't, really. Not credibly. Even the "plan" is jaw-droppingly naive, as it consists of no more than parachuting the Howling Commandos into Germany, having them attend one of Hitler's crowded rallies, and hoping they can somehow capture him there. In front of hundreds upon hundreds of supporters? And then get away without being seen? It's little wonder that a fight breaks out around them before they've even approached the Führer in question! Before too long, any remaining credibility flies straight out the window when a disguised Fury captures Baron Strucker, forces him at gunpoint to convince Hitler to attend the public execution of the captured Commandos in person, and then chauffeurs the pair of them to the site. (!!) There are countless times over the course of this increasingly ludicrous story when the reader is forced to wonder why Fury might not take down Adolf himself when in such close proximity, or why Strucker wouldn't turn the tables on Fury when the sergeant is occupied with such distracting business as, oh, say, driving the villains around town.

The situation is becoming frankly untenable.
And yet, readers must have been shocked upon nearing the end of the tale to find that, against all odds, Fury's Commandos seem to actually capture Adolf Hitler after all, triumphantly whisking the dictator back to their Allied base! It's at this point, however, that their notorious prisoner removes his fake nose and moustache, revealing himself to be but one of Hitler's many doubles, used for the Nazi commander's various public appearances. While based in fact, the concept of "Hitler doubles" has of course proven rife for use (and misuse, and overuse) in fiction ever since, even forming the basis for numerous myths and conspiracy theories of the "Elvis is alive!" variety. Of course, recall that one of these potential doubles had already been seen some months before...!

Well, I guess we can be thankful it wasn't a lifelike rubber mask!

173: Fantastic Four #30

2012-05-21T12:29:00.000-05:00

Fantastic Four #30
June 9, 1964

Introducing Diablo, the Master of Alchemy - the latest in a long line of classic Lee/Kirby villains! This issue starts with the action in full swing, with the FF in the danger-filled woods of Transylvania, where Reed has decided to take the foursome for vacation. Given the odd choice of locale, you might be surprised to find that neither a Dracula nor a Frankenstein are anywhere to be found! (Not to worry; they'll show up in Marvel stories starting in the next few years.) Yet despite the lack of vampires, there's still a force that seems to hypnotize the Thing from afar, getting him to leave his bed in the middle of the night and trudge through miles of wilderness to a sinister castle, where he is compelled to open a certain tomb - and thus free Diablo from the prison he's been sealed within for over a hundred years!

When far from home and in strange surroundings,
it can be hard to find a bathroom in the middle of the night.
When the rest of the Fantastic finally awake, they note Ben's absence with alarm and quickly track him down to the castle in question. It's then that they receive their biggest shock, as they find the Thing's rocky form partially cured! This is a canny and economical bit of plotting, as it not only provides Ben with a heart's-desire bit of temptation, effectively separating him from the rest of the group, but also provides readers with a reminder of just how different Ben Grimm is from the others. Out of the four who journeyed in that same fateful rocket, Ben is the only one who came back as something which could understandably be deemed a monster, and is the only member of the group whose life has been consistently handicapped by the change (any advantages notwithstanding). For the Fantastic Four's first handful of issues, Ben was thusly characterized by a large degree of self-loathing; however, Stan soon lessened this aspect of the character, perhaps intuiting that while such a trait might lend itself towards a finite drama, it might grate on readers as time went by. But Reed had vowed to his friend to never stop looking for a cure - so it's a surprise to all to see the antidote come not from Mr. Fantastic, but someone new!

If it's not one Thing, it's another.
And Johnny looks positively gobsmacked!
As soon as Reed, Sue and Johnny see the Thing's significantly regressed condition, Ben tells them that in return he's agreed to serve Diablo for the following year. Reed, of course, is flabbergasted by this declaration, assumes the Thing is under Diablo's mental control - and instantly attacks! But is he? What's interesting here is that the situation, as presented, is subtle enough that we honestly can't tell; after all, the change of heart is a sudden and drastic one, but Ben doesn't come off as a mindless automaton or seem otherwise out of character. Accordingly, the reader is forced to wonder: Is Reed's leap to the attack the mark of someone saving a friend who's been brainwashed, and therefore unable to help himself? Or is it instead the sign of someone so arrogant and sure of himself that he presumes to know the minds of his friends better than they know themselves? (And further, given Diablo's apparent ability to succeed where all of Reed's researches never could, we might wonder if jealousy is part of his real motivation as well.) We often talk about Stan's startling innovation at creating a group of heroes who don't always get along, but having our heroes' brilliant leader sometimes show these less than admirable traits really illustrates what sets the Marvel heroes apart from the rest.

"It's Magneto's helmet on a plinth!"
Perhaps the most refreshing thing about this issue, however, is the way the plot progresses at an almost dizzying speed. After Ben Grimm has freed Diablo, been transformed partway back to human and subsequently left the group, the remaining Fantastic Three depart - whereupon Diablo then begins dazzling the nations worldwide with his chemical wonders, offering instantaneous solutions to all manner of earthly ills. And this is only by page eight! There have been any number of issues where the tale has been hampered by its seemingly lackadaisical pace; after having written eight- or twelve-page stories for much of his career, Stan still seems occasionally troubled in his attempts to figure out the full potential of the feature-length format, and it's not been unusual to find the first several pages of a tale effectively stalling for time, possibly offering some enjoyable character moments but not much besides. Maybe Stan's finally begun to crack just how much plot can fit into twenty pages, and how many twists and turns can be offered when the material is condensed just enough. Everyone says these next couple of years are when Marvel really starts hitting its stride; if so, this might be yet another turning point down that road!

Li'l Diablo's favorite game was always
"light as a feather, stiff as a board".

172: Strange Tales #124

2012-05-18T08:00:00.000-05:00

Strange Tales #124
June 9, 1964

Hooray - it's the return of luckless baddie Paste-Pot Pete! Recently released after having helped the Avengers, Pete has decided that he needs a major redesign, as he's tired of being perceived as a "clown". (One can assume this change was Stan responding to reader criticism.) To that end, he takes over an abandoned glue factory, invents a far more powerful form of paste, and - for the first time - designs an actual supervillain costume too! His paste gun is made lighter & sleeker, he does away with the ridiculous paste-pot entirely, and instead store his reserves of paste inside the armored torso he now wears. Stan's certainly doing what he can to try to make the character more than the joke he's always been ... but come on. At the end of the day, he's still a guy who shoots glue!

Dick Ayers' Thing is bizarrely off-model here. Can we attribute
that to the presence of new inker Paul Reinman?
Far from the early days when this was just a Human Torch solo strip, this outing is a Torch / Thing team-up in which the rocky hero gets even more of the spotlight than the flaming teen! (In fact, an end note announces that the feature has caved to popular request, and it's all "Thing / Torch" tales from here on out.) So that may be why this issue's two ludicrous examples of Goofy Silver Age Writing both feature Ben Grimm. The first occurs when Pete commandeers the Thing's Fantasticar and flips it upside down, spilling Benjy out towards the earth below! Somehow this disaster is narrowly averted, though, by Ben flapping his limbs enough during the fall that he's able to change the direction of his descent and land instead in the lake at the middle of Central Park - rather than plummeting straight down, like the massive stone weight that he is. Later, ol' Paste-Pot has Ben pinned to a wall, fixed at the wrists with his new super-glue, and despite all the Thing's straining and pulling, he just can't break his arms free. At least not until the Torch suggests Ben stop trying to wrench free from the glue, and instead aim towards breaking free from the wall itself (which the Thing does quite easily). In such a situation, I somehow suspect there wouldn't be much difference!

That's a pretty smart addition!
Anyone know if we ever see it again?
Meanwhile, in the backup story "The Lady from Nowhere!", Doctor Strange comes across a robed woman wandering the streets, confused and helpless under the power of some enchantment. Tracking down the source of this malady, his mentor The Ancient One sends Strange back in time, where the Sorcerer Supreme confronts an evil magician named Zota. It's really quite refreshing to see Lee & Ditko introduce another villainous spellcaster besides the increasingly overused Baron Mordo - so the fact that the wizard is defeated with incredible ease is a bit of a letdown. Surprisingly, the character would return nearly three decades later, as part of a different time-travel adventure due to events in Marvel's 1991 "Infinity Gauntlet" crossover. Then again, that story was written by Roy & Dann Thomas, and Roy has always had a knack for taking superhero lore from decades gone and crafting impressive, new tales from their forgotten past.

In the original printing, Zota wasn't colored with the darker complexion
befitting an Egyptian. (You'll note this was corrected in the 1991 story.)
In an interesting storytelling twist, Strange ends up defeating the villain only two-thirds of the way through his tale. The final obstacle then comes about as he attempts to race back to the present day, as the route back would only be revealed to him for the length of a candle's burning - and while the Doctor is between dimensions, the flame goes out! Back home, the Ancient One mourns for his pupil, distraught at the knowledge that he now has no one to take his place when he finally must move on; however, Doctor Strange is ever resourceful, and uses the light from his amulet to dimly light his path, lasting just long enough for his return. And in a surprise twist, the "lady" of the title turns out to be Cleopatra! This enchantment, and the subsequent return to her own time at tale's end, likely occurred (from her point of view) before her appearance in Tales of Suspense #44, which begs the question: She really had a knack for attracting those power-mad magicians, didn't she?

Doc Strange goes for a spin.

171: Tales of Suspense #57

2012-05-14T13:48:00.000-05:00

Tales of Suspense #57
June 9, 1964

Introducing, for the first time ever: Hawkeye the Masked Archer! And this character, who would go on to become one of the most well-known of the Avengers, certainly has some interesting beginnings. We can discuss any number of precedents, as The Archer has long been a well-loved archetype of fiction; Robin Hood, of course, being the most famous and quintessential example thereof. (Recall too that the definitive film version was portrayed by screen legend Errol Flynn, of whom Stan was famously a great admirer.) And though not explicitly spelled out in the narrative, the name "Hawkeye" is clearly taken from Natty Bumppo, the protagonist of Jame Fenimore Cooper's classic 1826 novel The Last of the Mohicans; notice how when we first meet Hawkeye, he's working for a carnival as their "World's Greatest Marksman" attraction (mirroring the excellence attributed to Bumppo), and dressed in the clothes of a frontiersman. But the most relevant, and recent, comparison would be from superhero comics themselves, in the form of DC Comics character Green Arrow, who not only shoots with the same unerring accuracy, but similarly employs trick arrows - as Hawkeye does here, utilizing such novelties as suction-tipped grappling arrows, rust-inducing arrows, and even one tipped with a "demolition blast warhead" (!!). Green Arrow's high visibility means that this swipe must have been a blatant one; after all, GA had already been the star of a long-running backup feature in both Adventure Comics and World's Finest Comics - a 1958 run of which was illustrated by none other than Jack Kirby - and he'd joined the high-profile Justice League of America not much later, in 1961's issue #4 of their own title. Then again, Stan Lee has cited creating the Fantastic Four after being directed by Martin Goodman to ape DC's new superteam ... so if Hawkeye was (at least in part) a direct swipe, it was just the latest in a line!

Tin
Man
Rusted!
And yet with this new character, we can't help but ask: Isn't the role of an archer rather anachronistic, even by 1964? To be fair, the cover itself acknowledges this implausibility, and Iron Man's first reaction at being shot with arrows is one of bemused disbelief. Still, it does seem odd that a bow-and-arrow character could be conceived as a worthy antagonist in any time period which had also developed guns; heck, even 19th century Bumppo was most renowned for his skill with a rifle. One factor worth considering is that although personal firearms did exist in 1964, they perhaps didn't feature in the fiction of the time quite as prominently as they do today. Alternatively, it's not unreasonable to think that part of what makes characters like Hawkeye and Green Arrow so darn cool is the fact that they are skilled enough to still be complete badasses even when using weaponry so archaic; viewed this way, the choice of weapon becomes a deliberately showy, cocksure flaunting of one's excellence - similar to the boxer or swordsman so good that he can fight with one hand tied behind his back.

"One of the most startling arch-villains of all time"?
Not for very long...!
Not to bury the lede, but you may have heard of a little film called The Avengers which opened just over a week ago, and is currently annihilating box office records. So it's a funny bit of timing for me that fully half of the movie's team appears in this one comic! And yet, how much of the movie-going public would be surprised to find that the Black Widow and Hawkeye both started out as bad guys? The pair will start on their road to redemption the following year, though newcomer Hawkeye will have a bit of a head start over the Widow in being accepted by the Avengers; then again, he's shown from the first to be something of a reluctant baddie (as opposed to the Black Widow, at this point a femme fatale clearly devoted to her Communist leaders). Hawkeye, see, starts out by attempting to foil a robbery - even if his main motivation is fame and recognition, envious of the public acclaim showered on heroes such as Iron Man. But when the criminals in question flee the scene, the arriving police think that he stole the loot, and he quickly finds himself on the run. In short, he's portrayed from the beginning as a very human character, with genuine flaws like jealousy, hotheadedness, and a certain gullibility, so it's easy to see why Stan might have gleaned, after a few early appearances, that the character might have even greater potential as a struggling goodie. And in this way - although it was almost certainly accidental - Hawkeye reflects the conflicted nature of his namesake; just as Bumppo was both frontiersman and Native American, so Hawkeye will always (to some extent) straddle the worlds of both hero and villain, from his role as reluctant bad guy here, to his lasting reputation as something of a loose cannon later on.

Witness our morally-gray antagonist, easily duped
by the seductive Madame Natasha.
Meanwhile, the 5-page backup strip "Tales of the Watcher" gives us "The Watcher's Power!" And it's a bit different than what we've seen before. When spacefaring invaders come to the planet on which the Watcher currently resides, we fear a disappointing retread of the story seen just two issues ago; after all, the space pirates land because they need a base from which to attack other words, and since the Watcher's vow of noninterference is well-known, they confidently proclaim - just as in the other story - that they have nothing to fear. But instead of cleverly stalling for time until it's too late, as before, we're shocked to see the Watcher not only melt their Giant Space Cannon with just a thought, but also alter the aliens' entire physiological makeup, before then throwing them through time and space to strand the aliens on a faroff prehistoric world. WOW! How, the reader wonders, could the Watcher do such a thing, and not break his sacred oath? Easily, as it turns out: Yes, he and his kind are sworn to never interfere in the affairs of other races, but the planet which the space pirates had intended to attack was actually none other than the ancient homeworld of ... the Watchers.

A Watcher's fury looks suspiciously akin
to a trickster god's mischief.

170: The Amazing Spider-Man #16

2012-04-27T14:02:00.000-05:00

The Amazing Spider-Man #16
June 9, 1964

This is an issue that really takes advantage of the world-building that Marvel have been taking great pains to employ. After all, the comic guest-stars a hero who has his own magazine (showcasing their first meeting, in fact - despite Spidey having been emblazoned upon the cover of Daredevil #1), and featuring a set of villains which debuted in the title of yet another! And Lee & Ditko's use of Daredevil really is an effective one; the story doesn't feature the hero only in mighty action scenes - as so many guest-spots tend to do - but also illustrates more character-driven ones, such as Matt Murdock's interactions with Foggy & Karen back at his law office. It even touches on the "But I mustn't reveal my feelings!" romantic subplot which most of Stan's solo heroes seem to have at this point (cf. Iron Man and Thor, for instance).

A comparison of the original splash page, and

the retouched Marvel Masterworks version.
Circuses may have long passed their heyday, unable to compete with the fast & flashy home entertainments available now, but the continued appearance of such a setting in these comics (including, you'll recall, The Avengers #1) shows that they still had a viable presence at the time. In fact, Barry Pearl points out that the Circus of Crime is a concept that Stan Lee just couldn't seem to let go of! An evil Ringmaster first appeared in 1941's Captain America Comics #5 - and though that may have been a Simon & Kirby production, Stan certainly would have been aware of it, as he was already working for Marvel at the time (and in fact had a couple of contributions to that selfsame issue). And if that's not enough, Stan also featured a Circus of Crime in June 1962's Kid Colt #106 - in fact, just one month before debuting the Ringmaster's circus in The Incredible Hulk!

Early versions of the villains.
(Scans courtesy of Barry Pearl!)
As entertaining as the comic may be, it's also undeniable that the plotting is, as ever, a bit nuts. To entice audience members to come to the circus, and thus provide a full house ripe for the thieving, the Ringmaster advertises that the show will feature the performances of a certain daring Spider-Man! And yet when Peter inevitably spies ones of these circus posters, rather than suspecting that something may be afoot, he instead thinks: Hey, maybe he should go! (Matt Murdock likewise hears about it, and joins Foggy and Karen in attending.) Interestingly, Spidey performing ostentatious antics can't help but recall (intentionally? or not?) memories of his show business obsessions in Amazing Fantasy #15. Despite everything he's learned about priorities and responsibility in his still-fresh career, he's still an insecure kid craving the accolades and attention of the crowd.

Ditko's rendition of Daredevil is incredibly appealing!
As he did in The Hulk #3, the Ringmaster waits until the crowd is enthralled with the action and then hypnotizes them, en masse, into giving over all their valuables (with no memory of the event). But he didn't reckon on a blind man in the audience, upon whom the Ringmaster's hypnotizing headgear has no effect! This, then, is how Stan & Steve get the two heroes to fight upon first meeting: because, after all, the Ringmaster has Spidey hypnotized too. But I wonder if Stan considered such an event a risky proposition, to have the star of the book be so thoroughly controlled, and someone else's patsy, for so much of the tale. Might his fans, protective, feel that their favorite hero was being dissed? If so, Stan would be sure to hear about it in the letters page....

Really? 'cause it kinda seems like Spidey does think for
himself there.... (Not that Daredevil would know it!)

169: The Avengers #7

2012-04-08T10:38:00.000-05:00

The Avengers #7
June 9, 1964

This issue opens with Iron Man being reprimanded for having deliberately ignored an Avengers call for aid, something that happened in the last issue of his own magazine. Marvel really are doing a decent job building the idea of one large, interconnected story that takes place over the course of all their different superhero comics, and are subtly encouraging readers to pick them all up if they want the whole picture! (That said, Stan's still careful to explain the salient details for those who might have missed it.) In The Fantastic Four #1, Stan introduced the idea of a superteam that did not get along all the time - unlike, say, the Justice League of America, over at DC - and in the pages of The Avengers, he's continued that tradition: first, by having one of the founding members quit at the end of their second issue, and now again by showing that heroes will be called on the carpet and duly disciplined when they happen to screw up.

Even with the villains, Stan will write in a love triangle!
The Masters of Evil were introduced last month - and yes, that's "month", as the comic has now gone monthly! - and yet they're already back, albeit in a different form. (It's worth noting that the MOE name is never applied to the three in this issue; however, given the membership that the villainous team will soon take, it's clear that this is an indisputable link in that chain.) And if this seems a familiar move, that's because it's similar to what's been happening in the pages of The X-Men, where the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants debuted in issue #4, and have thus far reappeared in every issue since. Clearly, Stan and Jack know when they've happened upon a concept with a lot of potential in it, and this "team of baddies" idea is it! But here they're already tinkering with the lineup of the group, even in its second appearance - as the leader, Zemo, is the only one to return! But that's okay - he's joined by Thor villains the Enchantress and the Executioner, freshly banished from fabled Asgard by All-Father Odin.

Gotta love those kooky villain masks!
Meanwhile, in an early interlude Stan teases us again with the idea of making Rick Jones into Cap's new partner, replacing his World War II sidekick Bucky - something that's been hinted at and foreshadowed since Cap's return back in issue #4. But when Rick finds Bucky's old costume and decides to try it on and surprise Captain America, Cap freaks out! Perhaps this whole Rick-as-new-sidekick thing has been one massive misdirect all along....

These days, we'd call that a case of PTSD.
Having been soundly defeated by the assembled Avengers before, the MOE's tack this time is seemingly to pick the heroes off, one by one. With Iron Man suspended, they wait till Giant-Man and the Wasp head off to New England for some scientific insect research, and then lure Cap to South America, so that the Enchantress can use a magic potion to brainwash Thor into perceiving his fellow teammates as evil demons whom he must surely destroy. It's a devious plan, and one which makes for an exciting adventure - marred, unfortunately, by the hurry and nonsense with which the tale is suddenly wrapped up. For instance, the baddies are making their getaway ... and yet they stop to throw the unconscious Captain America off their ship, rather than (say) take him with them as their prisoner. And then, as if Stan and Jack felt the need to give the Avengers some sort of victory, we see Thor whirl his hammer round to whip up a space warp (!!) into their path, whisking the villains away to ... oh, I dunno, somewhere. Of course, they won't be gone for very long...!

Wow! I'll bet that image gave more than a few kids nightmares for a week.

168: Tales to Astonish #59

2012-03-28T10:37:00.000-05:00

Tales to Astonish #59
June 2, 1964

With this issue, we've reached another milestone. Before The Fantastic Four #1, the majority of Marvel's comics at the time (maybe all of them?) were anthology books. Then superheroes arrived on the scene, and Stan started up a couple of new titles (FF, The Incredible Hulk, and some months later The Amazing Spider-Man) which were devoted entirely to one hero or team. At the same time, he created new heroes to take up residence in the anthology books, so Thor was the first story in each issue of Journey into Mystery, Iron Man kicked off each issue of Tales of Suspense, and the FF's Human Torch had solo adventures at the start of every new Strange Tales, with 2-4 unrelated and non-continuing backup stories still filling out the remainder of the pages; anthologies these books remained. Then a few small continuing backup strips (usually about 5 pages long) started appearing - such as The Wasp in TtA, The Watcher in ToS, "Tales of Asgard" in JiM and Dr. Strange in (appropriately enough) Strange - but small backups remained for a while, even if just the occasional 2-page text story. Well, hang on to your hats, because next month that finally starts to change - and the three remaining anthology books will each become 50/50 split books, with one hero taking up the first half of the comic, and a second hero taking up the entirety of the latter. (Journey into Mystery will become solely a Thor book just by lengthening the lead.) So say your goodbyes to filler material now! Marvel will never really see its like again.

Is this the first instance of the now-classic
"The madder Hulk gets, the strong Hulk gets"?
But hey, this book also represents a second milestone, because this is when the Hulk gets his second chance - and this time, the green monster succeeds. Stan & Jack first tried out the lumbering creature two years earlier in his own brand-new magazine - which, again, in an era of anthologies certainly must have indicated some confidence in the concept - but despite their efforts, it was cancelled with the sixth issue. Sadly, this was due in no small part to the fact that they just couldn't figure out what kind of character they wanted him to be - a Jekyll-and-Hyde monster cursed with his other half? A superhero able to put on his Hulk suit at will? A freak? - and the book's six issues are thus a fascinating and mystifying illustration of whiplash inconsistency, as they leap from one concept to the next without ever settling down on any of them. This time around, though, they'll make him work. In fact, the character will go on to become so successful, and so popular, that by issue #102 he'll even boot his co-star out of the other half, take over the book entirely, and the name of the comic will change from Tales to Astonish to, once again, The Incredible Hulk. (Yes, trivia fans, that means that The Incredible Hulk Vol. 1 has issues numbered #1-6 and #102 on up, but is missing #7-101!)

A new era dawns for the emerald aggressor.
But this split-book format, as mentioned, starts next month; Canny Stan was much too smart to launch the Hulk in a new feature completely out of the blue and with no lead-in or set-up. (Not a second time, anyway!) So Stan eases him into the title with an 18-page story which pits Giant-Man and the Wasp against the green behemoth! And yet what's really interesting is that the story functions incredibly well as a stealth pilot, not simply using the Hulk as a bland antagonist, but doing so in a story that contains and conveys all of the character's background and supporting cast: the New Mexico desert setting, the strained and lamented relationship between the Hulk and Banner, the way the monster is hounded by General Ross of the US Army, whose daughter Betty is enamored of the scientist Banner... All of the things that will be so central to the strip, as it goes forward, are quietly restated here - but because of the action that ensues, the exposition and back story never feel forced.

This is disastrous! Somebody stop him!
He's deliberately snubbing genre conventions!
Hilariously, the story features not just Giant-Man, the Wasp and the Hulk - but also perpetually lame villain the Human Top! At first I feared that the plot might just recycle The Avengers #1, with the Top aiming the easily-manipulated Hulk at Hank & Jan, just as Loki had against them and the rest of the soon-to-be-team in that inaugural issue. Refreshingly, that isn't the case here; instead, Hank takes Jan to New Mexico because he feels bad about the Hulk having left the Avengers under such terrible circumstances, and wants to try talking him into joining up again. (It's nice to see Hank acting truly noble and selfless for a change, instead of arrogant and cocky!) That's when the Human Top gets involved, first following the pair on their journey to the Southwest, and only afterward directing the maddened Hulk at Giant-Man and the Wasp - and then aiming the US Army at the Hulk! The increasing escalation of all this chaos and hostility is so effective that for once it finally makes a nutty sort of sense when an atomic bomb is launched into the fray as well...!

Take it from one of the Marvel U's leading scientists:
Explanations are boring!

167: Journey into Mystery #107

2012-03-10T19:06:00.001-06:00

Journey into Mystery #107
June 2, 1964

This issue sees the introduction of Marvel baddie The Grey Gargoyle - who, though he would never go on to become anyone's archnemesis, is still a decently solid villain. As implied by his name, the Gargoyle's fearsome power is the ability to turn anyone to stone with but a touch (albeit temporarily); refreshingly, this is one of the more unique superpowers to grace the pages, and not something we've seen a hundred times before. Oddly enough, despite his power's similarity to that of the Medusa of Greek legend, the character is instead named for the carved stone creatures seen to perch at the edges of buildings ... and yet the only time he's ever shown in that pose is on the opening splash.

Wow! Now that is one creepy image.
Meanwhile, the Don Blake / Jane Foster subplot which had been simmering the past several months gets a bit of resolution. When Jane happens to enter Blake's office just after he'd turned into Thor, he decides to cover by demanding the location of Blake, intent on making Don pay for having sold him out. Not only does his ruse work, but Jane in fact pleads with Thor to spare Don Blake - because she still loves him, you see. Struck by this revelation, Thor flies out the window and immediately starts flying up and down the sky in joyful abandon, giving us one of the more cartoony sequences we've seen in the strip for some time. Is it silly? You bet. But that's not unappreciated!

Thor does his best impression of Daffy Duck.
Lest you think Thor's "She loves me! She loves me!" antics are the only break of levity to be had, the rest of the issue provides quite a bit of Goofy Silver Age Writing as well. Chief among them are the Gargoyle turning a paper airplane into a stone one and then hurling it into the wall, as well as the revelation that he's not covered in stone all the time - but rather, has to periodically touch himself all over in order to spread the stone effect across his body. (No mention of that hard-to-reach spot between the shoulder blades.) The coup de grace, though, comes when Don Blake requisitions a special "3-D type projector", mounts it to the front of a motorcycle, and drives all over the city to entice the Gargoyle to chase a flying hologram of Thor. Surprisingly, it works on GG for much longer than it should!

The Norn Queen gets quite the portentous intro.
By contrast, this month's "Tales of Asgard" backup is a much meatier story - and impressively, still in just the standard 5 pages! Loki, jealous of the favor that Odin bestowed on Balder the Brave in the last installment, seeks out the mystic Norn Queen and learns from her that Odin forced all living things to protect the hero in question ... except "the tiny mistletoe made no such pledge!" Armed with this deadly secret, Loki bids the trolls under his command to forge him a (rather shiny) blowgun, and lies in wait to pierce Balder with a dart made from this innocuous plant. At the deciding moment, however, the Norn Queen gets in the way and scuttles his plan, reminding Loki that she too swore that same pledge. This is where the story deviates from the original mythology; for in the legends, Balder is indeed slain. And yet, although this last-minute save does work wonderfully to preserve the format of an ongoing comic story, it does beg the question: Does the subject of Balder's weakness ever come back, to some time be successfully exploited? After all, the Norn Queen can't watch out for him all the time! (Answer: This story will in fact be told to its mythic conclusion - but not until 1978!)

I'm, again, stunned at the level of craft on display here. Balder's mail,
Loki's expression, the mosaic on the walls... Breathtaking!

166: Daredevil #3

2012-03-01T09:31:00.002-06:00

Daredevil #3
June 2, 1964

In this issue, we see Daredevil menaced by the villainy of ... The Owl! The funny thing is that although the character seems somewhat ridiculous in design (and, in concept, certainly hasn't aged well over the years), he is here played up as a real and believable threat, thanks to the efforts of Stan Lee and Joe Orlando. And while he may not ever become an archfoe - both Bullseye and the Kingpin wouldn't be created until years later - he is still the first classic Daredevil villain to grace these pages. Interestingly, the surprising influence of Batman continues: After all, is the Owl here so very different from that other avian-themed crime lord, the Penguin?

Yet another reason to enjoy artist Joe Orlando's stint on the title.
The Owl's entrance is filled with a sense of mystery and menace!
However, unlike the Kingpin (of whom, it must be said, this Owl seems protypical: a possible ur-Kingpin), our villain is not just a crime lord. Indeed, he can also fly! So he's quite like a white-collar version of the Vulture then, yes? Oddly, no explanation is given for his unusual talent beyond the rather vague ability to "glide with the air currents", which at a stretch is only slightly implausible on a cliff by the sea - and far more so in the city proper. Tellingly, it doesn't matter; perhaps Stan has realized that nuclear origins and technobabble are much less compelling, and much less interesting, than the colorful characters themselves. Either that, or he simply forgot!

Hey, look - it's the start of Marvel merchandising!
Needless to say, this cute little backpack doesn't last long.
The Owl is introduced to us with an air of real menace, and Matt Murdock can even sense the criminal's evil intent upon their first meeting. So it's something of a surprise to see Matt and his law firm take the Owl's case! Although we're used to seeing the good guy as Defender of the Helpless, our hero waxes eloquent on the rights of every person to have a proper defense, no matter how obviously guilty they might seem. "If we attorneys refuse to help accused people because we think they're guilty," he muses, "then we're judging them without trial!" These are pretty heady themes for what's ostensibly a kid's comic; as ever, Stan avoids talking down to his readers.

Whoa.
Despite the surprisingly effective villainy on display, this isn't the most complex or groundbreaking story. Once the plot kicks in, it's really just: Villain captures hero, hero escapes, they fight and the villain gets away. So it's perhaps a testament to the pairing of Lee and Orlando that the issue is a highly enjoyable one regardless! We get just enough personal moments with Daredevil to be really rewarding, and little details like the Owl's insane lair or Daredevil's new backpack give us just enough additional elements to spice things up. And Stan is mindful enough to have the Owl escape at the end; he will certainly be back...!

They've got a real Don Blake / Jane Foster thing going here, don't they?
(Which, yes, is just the Marvel version of the Clark / Lois / Superman triangle...)

This Month in Marvel: June 1964

2012-02-21T08:00:00.000-06:00

We're now into June of 1964. And you know what that means: Another look at Stan's "Special Announcements" page, wherein he tantalized readers with all the new offerings that were coming out! This one comes from The Fantastic Four #30:

As always, thanks for these scans go out to Barry Pearl, author of The Essential Marvel Age Reference Project. Am I going to keep plugging his book every time I post the new "This Month in Marvel" page? I sure am! It's just that good.

165: The Amazing Spider-Man #15

2012-02-13T10:15:00.000-06:00

The Amazing Spider-Man #15
May 12, 1964

With this issue we see the introduction of Kraven the Hunter, and at the risk of sounding repetitive: The hits keep coming! Seriously, it's nothing short of astounding how the pairing of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko on The Amazing Spider-Man has created classic villain after classic villain - foes who would be seen again and again and again, precisely because they work so well - with hardly a clunker in the bunch. (The sole exception would seem to be The Living Brain from #8.) Compare this, on the other hand, to the indisputable hotbed of creativity that was Lee and Kirby's The Fantastic Four, but which nonetheless featured occasional bozos like The Miracle Man and Kurrgo, Master of Planet X (amongst genuinely great creations like Dr. Doom and the Skrulls). But then, I suppose we could write off The Living Brain, MM and Kurrgo as all fading relics of Marvel's earlier age; after all, even hokey supervillains like The Mad Thinker or The Red Ghost and his Super-Apes would be back time after time, in large part because they fit the requirements of the new Marvel supervillain so very well.

So they're not even trying to hide their source of inspiration.
In fact, one thing that makes Kraven so great, as a character, is the directness of Ditko's visual design: With a single glance, from the leopard-skin leggings to the lion-head vest, you already have an idea who this guy is - and the cover splash sobriquet, "Kraven, the Hunter!", clears up any ambiguity. The villain who is a ruthless hunter of men is, of course, a classic literary trope, most famously in Richard Cornell's short story "The Most Dangerous Game". It's a fascinating approach, because for once Spidey isn't being targeted so the villain can make a name for himself, or because Spidey got in the way of his crime, or for revenge - but just because he can. Which makes the villain legitimately scary, in a very serial-killer way.

Later stories would reveal that these two are far more
connected than this first meeting would have us believe!
And if that's not enough: The Chameleon's back! In fact, he's the one who's hired Kraven and put Spider-Man in his sights. Note the subtlety with which Stan and Steve are forging these connections between characters; instead of just making up Random Reason #18 for new-character Kraven to go after Spider-Man, as per usual, they use a preexisting piece of the canon, making Spidey's world seem bigger and more organic. Oddly, although the Chameleon hires Kraven because he's back in town and wants to prevent Spidey interrupting his criminal ways ... this master of disguise won't actually show up again in these pages for another six years. Guess he learned his lesson! (For a while, at least.)

The very first mention of someone who will
become quite a force in Peter's life.
As new villains go, Kraven's quite a success! Rather than being something as simple as a flying thief, he's got several powers and abilities that make him quite a challenging foe: He's an expert at tracking his prey, for instance, and a master of hand-to-hand combat. One secret potion gives him his enormous strength, and another is used to incapacitate Parker for a full day, giving our hero nausea and the shakes. And he's got mechanical aids too, like his special manacles that not only clamp the arm and leg together, but incorporate a ringing bell in case the prey tries to escape. He's a well-thought-out baddie, and Lee & Ditko know it - which is why he'll be back not in some number of months, as you'd expect, but rather in just a few weeks...!

Does anyone else find that last bit of dialogue out of character for Spidey?
Could Stan have thought he was penning a narrative caption box?

164: Fantastic Four #29

2012-02-06T12:33:00.002-06:00

Fantastic Four #29
May 12, 1964

You may argue with me if you'd like, but I propose that Fantastic Four #29, "It Started on Yancy Street!", boasts one of the most striking, most compelling covers of the Silver Age. Just look at it: Our fantastic foursome crossing an empty cityscape (Johnny, tensed, looking off to his left at ... something), their shadows long and lean and reaching toward the reader, with the ghostly figure of the enigmatic Watcher towering over the nighttime sky, filled with far-off planets and space clouds and starbursts. It's a cover that tells remarkably little about what's inside, but does so by conveying a real sense of mystery and foreboding.

Fleeing isn't the reaction we normally expect from our intrepid adventurers!
With such a great cover, then, as well as its equally intriguing title, it's a shame that the story inside is such a disappointment. The villain of the piece turns out to be the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes - and how implausible is it that our heroes don't immediately know who their foe is as soon as they're attacked by three super-powered apes they've fought once before? Bereft of any new motivation for the character, Stan Lee falls back on his oft-used trope of "wanting revenge solely for being beaten before"; never an interesting reason, even at the best of times. In fact, in every way the tale seems a rehash of their first appearance in issue #13, right down to the return to Earth's moon and the resolution being facilitated in part by the Watcher (who's still not interfering at all, honest you guys, seriously).

This early instance of Kirby's photo-collage is too dark to be really
successful, but surely prefigures further innovation to come.
The funny thing is that the idea inside is executed well - it's just not very original. (Which thus prompts reflection: Is this, then, better or worse than a good idea done bland?) Kirby's art is in top-form - including one of his rare, at this point in time, photo-collage efforts - and the Red Ghost's scheme to capture the FF and take them to the site of his prior lunar defeat is impressively planned, on a level of that which we'd expect from the Mad Thinker. I'm tempted to say "Imagine if this kind of creativity had been applied to an idea that was fresh, new and exciting!" - but on further reflection, I don't have to; we have most of the other issues of Lee and Kirby's FF to deliver on that.

Does anyone else think that last panel was Stan playfully commenting on the art?
Still, despite the story's flaws (which also include a meandering pace whereby the action doesn't really begin until page 6), there are nevertheless a number of great moments to be seen within. The story does, as promised, open on Yancy Street, and the sight of the Four running away from a bunch of hidden pranksters is richly funny. When they return to the Baxter Building, The Thing and his girlfriend Alicia get a short scene in which each of them starts to break up with the other - convinced they're only being dated out of pity - before they realize they're both being sweetly dumb. And the climax of the story takes place within the Watcher's home on the moon, where the design and household accoutrements really do convey a sense of wonder and alien-ness that's only fitting for a being so removed.

I love Marvel's occasional pop-psychedelia.
Very "sixties", and very cool!

163: Strange Tales #123

2012-01-30T08:00:00.055-06:00

Strange Tales #123
May 12, 1964

Now, just take a look at that cover! Some covers are more worthy of comment than others - some are more dynamic, while others deadly dull - but this one has more going on than a quick glance might suspect. For one thing, note that the design (through no real intention, I'm sure) hints at the evenly-split double feature status which all the anthology books will soon be moving to, as recently discussed. Not only that, but the cover also takes full advantage of the guest-stars in each tale within, advertising four heroes for the price for one! What kid, the thinking must have been, could possibly resist?

Good grief! Is every guy who invents his own super-suit
inviolably destined to first fall down in it?
Inside we see the introduction of the Beetle and - you know what? In his first few panels there's a sense of real potential! After all, he's not yet another in a long line of super-geniuses, or petty thieves with access to high-tech gear, but rather a factory mechanic who's just spectacularly skilled at engineering. A bit of a change, to be sure, and a nicely realistic one - right up until he dons his new villainous getup. And falls down. Even the heroes can't take his outfit seriously, as Johnny immediately shrugs, "Maybe he's an insect lover! Well, let's get it over with!!" And yet the goofy bug-man inadvertently helps to inject a welcome amount of humor into the story, aided further by the addition of the Thing. These two elements combined actually make the strip more enjoyable than it's been for - well, if we're being honest, most of its existence - and that isn't lost on Lee; from here on out it's no longer a Torch solo series, but rather will be a Torch/Thing buddy book to the end.

Aw, just look at that li'l guy! Isn't he cute?
The real item of interest, though, isn't some new goofy bad guy, but rather the fact that this story is illustrated by Carl Burgos: the man who created the very first Human Torch way back in 1939's Marvel Comics #1. WOW! For those old enough to remember back that far - and this would certainly have included Stan & Jack - it had to have been a real treat to see how the Golden Age legend rendered the new, then-modern version of his original fiery hero. As a bonus, we also get Carl's portrayal of the 1964 New York World's Fair, as the site of this story's climax! And rather timely too, as the expo would have opened to the public only a few weeks before the issue hit the stands. In fact, given that the story had to have been done some months prior to that, does this mean that Burgos perhaps had a chance to tour the grounds before the fair's official opening?

And this Golden Age Great even gets honored with an in-story
cameo (abeit one he had to draw himself). Prety nice!
Meanwhile, in the Doctor Strange backup strip, we're treated to the villainy of Loki! And yet, surprisingly (or perhaps not?), it's an underwhelming affair. Loki has, of course, appeared outside of Thor's home in Journey into Mystery before - notably, it was his own mislaid plot that created the Avengers in the first place - but the inclusion of both him and Thor marks the first real introduction of superhero elements to what had previously been an almost entirely mystical-based strip. It's not really bad, per se, but it does seem strangely out of place, and the results jar rather than gel. Fortunately, this ill-judged mixing of genres will rarely reoccur - for some time, at least.

Well-drawn it may be, but still and all: In the end,
it's little more than a standard superhero slugfest.