Featuring: Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos Release: August 10, 1965 Cover: 12 cents Stirring story by: Stan Lee Powerful pencilling by: Dick Ayers Bold brushwork by: Frank Ray Lilting lettering by: Artie Simek 20 pages
Years from now, when our grandchildren tell stories of those who came before them, I rawther suspect that the exploits of Percy Pinkerton will be those that endure the longest!
I always have a general concern about Marvel’s depiction of Asian people during this era, which comes into play when the Commandos encounter the Japanese army on the Burma Road. I’m more on the fence about it than usual here.
The Commandos use racial slurs to refer to the Japanese, and the Japanese officers are depicted attempting to commit horrible atrocities. However, the language likely accurately (if tamely) reflects language soldiers of the time used. And the Japanese military really is responsible for countless atrocities during World War II, many far more horrific than the accusations here. There are certainly ethnic stereotypes in place, but it’s very similar to how the German soldiers are depicted.
The Commandos are sent to rescue Sister Theresa and a group of children who had been living at her mission. The Japanese had burned the mission and are seeking to kill the nun and children.
Featuring: Spider-Man Release: August 10, 1965 Cover: November 1965 12 cents Heroically written and edited by: Stan Lee Homerically plotted and drawn by: Steve Ditko Hastily lettered and bordered by: Artie Simek 20 pages
Why wouldn’t he listen?? What is it that always stands between us? The one secret he keeps locked within him– the secret he never shares, or talks about–!
We may as well start with the striking cover. Extremely unusual when compared to every cover we’ve yet seen. Look at how small Spider-Man is on the cover, your eyes hardly drawn to him. The covers usually have the hero big and bold. The issue’s super-villain is easy to miss at a glance. He’s a small figure up in the corner. What draws your eye is the falling water tower. Everything else is designed to give you a sense of scale, to make it look like Spider-Man might have a long drop ahead of him.
Similar to the recent Daredevil story we read, this is another story where behind-the-scenes drama has bled onto the page, but perhaps in ways more subtle.
Let’s try to keep off my soapbox for the moment and read the comic. The question is, which comic do I read? The comic that Ditko wrote? Or the one that Stan wrote? I guess we’ll go with what Stan wrote, since that’s what got published, and maybe we’ll note some oddities as we go.
The opening splash page is a great mini-cover for the story, one that again emphasizes the importance of the supporting cast.
We must find and train at least three special agents… the best!
We’re breaking my normal format for posts beyond the fact that this is plainly not a Marvel comic.
Normally, we read one story at a time, but I want to read the entire issue in one go. It consists of several shorter stories by different creative teams that add up to one larger story, all overseen by Wally Wood.
The issue has no credits, though sometimes artist signatures are visible. I have this in a collection, which credits the writers and artists involved when known. One or two names may be lost to history.
One of the disagreements between Wood and Lee was Lee taking the writer’s credit when Wood felt he was doing most of the writing. But this comic doesn’t credit anybody. In fact, most comics of the era don’t credit their creative teams. Lee was ahead of his time in trying to credit everybody. He just claimed a lot of credit for himself as well. Perhaps to Wood it was more about credit in the form of compensation than his name appearing in a box.
A couple notable differences from what we’ve been reading. First, the publisher is Tower Comics, a brand new publisher. Second, the price is 25 cents rather than 12 cents. Marvel prices its Annual comics at 25 cents, but its normal comics at 12 cents.
For 12 cents, Marvel comics give you 20-22 pages of content. The Annuals tend to be 70-72 pages for 25 cents, but with a lot of that dedicated to reprint material. This give you 60 pages of story for 25 cents.
Across the decades, comic prices had not changed much. Marvel Comics were 10 cents in 1939 and 10 cents in 1961 and 12 cents in 1965. They were very averse to raising the price, and had instead steadily decreased the page count over the years.
Thus, the page count of this comic is more reminiscent of 1940s comics than of its contemporary competitors. The idea that the individual stories all tie loosely together isn’t novel either, as 1940s Justice Society stories from DC had a similar structure, one Marvel imitated in the later 1940s with its All-Winners Squad.
We learn from the cover that THUNDER is an acronym. (Note for this blog, we’re not often including the “.”s in acronynms. I’m just too lazy to repeatedly type out S.H.I.E.L.D., finding it easier to type SHIELD.)
THUNDER: The Higher United Nations Defense Enforcement Reserves.
I can’t believe the “T” stands for “The”.
This title is a mix of superhero and spy adventure, with the acronym name likely inspired by “The Man from UNCLE”, and of course, the aforementioned SHIELD.
The concept was created by Len Brown and Wally Wood, who had previously co-created the science fiction trading card series, Mars Attacks.
Why are we reading this anyway? Because I wanted to see what Wally Wood got up to when he left Marvel. I think it will illuminate some discussions.
We’ll read through each story at a time, noting the title, creative team, and page count as we go. So don’t just stop when you get to the character lists. More stories to come below.
Wally Wood wrote part one of this two-parter just for a lark! But now it’s up to sly ol’ Stan to put all the pieces together and make it come out right in the end! Can he do it? See for yourself!
This really is goodbye for Wally Wood. He was heavily involved with 4 issues of Daredevil, then partially involved with 3 more. Now he’s just on inks, making no claim to having written this story in any part. After this job, he’s out the door.
Bob Powell provides the main art.
The narration box is again important. Stan is speaking in his normal salesman voice, but it barely conceals the behind-the-scenes drama of Wood writing the first half of this tale and then resigning.
I’m guessing Wood left before making a cover, as the cover is just a repurposed interior panel.
Here’s a good rundown from the Marvel in the Silver Age blog about Wally Wood’s career and time with Marvel and on Daredevil.
We’re left with one of those “What If” scenarios. What if Wood and Lee had gotten along better? Then Wood was probably going to be the one to revive Sub-Mariner instead of Colan. We got a taste of Wood’s Sub-Mariner in Daredevil #7.
I want to take a peek at Tower Comics to see what Wood is up to next. We’ll see he’s cocreated the superhero/espionage team the THUNDER Agents. Maybe he could have brought ideas like that to Marvel. Who knows what he and Lee could have come up with if they’d been able to work together.
Featuring: Daredevil Release: August 3, 1965 Cover: October 1965 12 cents Exquisite editing by: Stan Lee Lustrous layouts by: Bob Powell Stunning script and art by: Wally Wood Lots of lettering by: Artie Simek 20 pages
Wally Wood has always wanted to try his hand at writing a story as well as drawing it, and big-hearted Stan (who wanted a rest anyway) said okay! So, what follows next is anybody’s guess! You may like it or not, but, you can be sure of this… it’s gonna be different!
This comic’s cool because if you look closely you can see all the behind-the-scenes drama playing out on the page.
The hype box is unusually important. Stan notes Wally had always wanted to try writing a story as well as drawing it, so Stan’s giving him a shot. Really, Wally claims he’s already been writing these comics, but not being paid for doing so.
The precise way in which this issue was constructed is unclear to me, in part because the people who could describe it to history weren’t in agreement, and nobody involved is still living. My best guess is the process here is something like this. Wally came up with the story and gave it to Bob Powell to lay out. Wood filled in the final art and supplied the script. Lee made his final edits.
The other important part of that narration box is that this is a mystery with clues. We’ll see that the mystery isn’t resolved in this issue, but we’ll also see that Wood doesn’t write the next issue and instead leaves the company.
Having his one writing gig be the setup to a mystery he doesn’t tell anybody the ending of may have been an intentional parting shot from Mr. Wood.
Featuring: Marvels Release: December 14, 1993 Cover: February 1994 $5.95 Writer: Kurt Busiek Artist: Alex Ross Letterers: Starkings w/ John Gaushell Editor: Marcus McLaurin Assitant editor: Spencer Lamm Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco Cover design & logo: Joe Kaufman Interior design: Comicraft 45 pages
The real story was the people who’d been scared too long. Who’d been wound tight by talk of mutant menaces and hidden conspiracies and shadows under the bed.
I’ve mentioned before I want to frame our reading around the Marvels miniseries from the 1990s. That hasn’t really been obvious yet. We read Marvels #0, which retold a few pages from Marvel Comics #1. And we read Marvels #1, which paralleled 1940s Marvel comics. But our reading is concentrated in the 1960s. Finally, we get to Marvels #2, which parallels the 1960s Marvel stories, ranging from Avengers #6 (May 1964), the 191st entry in our reading, through Tales of Suspense #69 (June 1965), the 404th entry in our reading. Quite the range. We are reading it after completing the Iron Man story from Tales of Suspense #72, because we’d first needed to tie up some continuity ends.
We’ve hinted before at the theme of this comic, and I’d like to just discuss it up front. The two centerpiece stories are the wedding of Reed and Sue in Fantastic Four Annual 3, and the attack on the X-Men by the Sentinels in X-Men #14. The writer Kurt Busiek had noted in his own Marvel Universe research what we also found in our reading here, that these events must occur on nearly consecutive days. That’s not obvious from any comic, but does follow from a close reading of the many interconnected comics. And the two stories make for quite the juxtaposition.
The contrast between these two arcs becomes the central tension of this issue. The Fantastic Four wedding is the celebrity event of the century. The press covered it, crowds of fans gathered, famous people like Tony Stark and Millie the Model attended. The Fantastic Four are super-powered heroes and beloved by the public.
The X-Men are also super-powered heroes. But where the Fantastic Four gained their powers from cosmic radiation, the powers of the X-Men are innate, based on an accident of birth, perhaps from radiation their parents had been exposed to. The “Children of the Atom”. And that difference is big enough that the same public who cheered on the wedding of the FF members would listen with interest and nods of approval as Bolivar Trask went on the airwaves to declare mutants a menace and announce he’d created robot-hunting Sentinels to hunt and kill the X-Men.
We read the Heroes & Legends retelling of the wedding, which focused on this very tension in the form of a child, who was a huge fan of the Fantastic Four, but afraid of the X-Men. He learned better by issue’s end.
Here, the arc will play out within Phil Sheldon, the photojournalist who specialises in shots of the people he’s dubbed the Marvels. A person who idolizes heroes like the Fantastic Four and Avengers, but fears mutants like the X-Men.
It’s entirely irrational, just like all forms of bigotry.
That’s enough belaboring of themes. Let’s dive into the story. As we do, we’ll try to draw the parallels between what’s happening on the page and our reading.
I’ll note that the title is called “Monsters”, which brings to my mind Thing and Hulk. The latter doesn’t appear, and the former is a minor player at best.
It’s 20 years after the events of Marvels #1. Phil Sheldon is now an established freelance photojournalist happily married with two kids. We see hm doing freelance work for Barney Bushkin at the Daily Globe. The shadows on the page somewhat obscure Phil’s eyepatch, a lifelong injury sustained last issue by getting too close to a superhero battle.
We remember meeting Barney in Amazing Spider-Man #27. He’s nicer than Jonah, but asked too many questions for Peter’s tastes.
Featuring: Spider-Man Release: July 8, 1965 Cover: October 1961 12 cents Writing and editing by: Stan Lee Plotting and drawing by: Steve Ditko Lettering and loafing by: Sam Rosen 20 pages
I don’t believe in false modesty! The best thing about being a publisher is you can write what you please about yourself!
Again, notice the plotting credit for Ditko. Ditko has plotted every issue and exclusively plotted the last several issues, but Stan is doing better at giving him credit in an attempt at appeasing Ditko’s concerns. It will prove to be too little, too late.
We’ve remarked repeatedly on just how many iconic villains Ditko came up with in a short period of time. By issue 15, we’d met: Chameleon, Vulture, Tinkerer, Dr. Octopus, Sandman, Lizard, Living Brain, Electro, Big Man and the Enforcers, Mysterio, Green Goblin, and Kraven the Hunter. That’s insane. Since then, Ditko has slowed down some, and Spider-Man has had rematches with foes like Green Goblin, Sandman, and Mysterio, while also borrowing foes from other heroes, like the Circus of Crime or the Beetle. However, we’ve still gotten some good creations in the latter half of this series, including Scorpion, the Spider Slayer, and just last issue, the Molten Man.
Ditko is basically done with creating cool iconic villains for Spider-Man. He’ll create a few more villains, but they won’t fall anywhere near the iconic camp: the Cat, the Looter, Robot Master… Otherwise, he’ll just have Spider-Man fight the villains he already has. Hence, this issue is a rematch with the Scorpion. The series is winding down. Ditko is winding down. He has one great Spider-Man story left in him, and then it’s time to say goodbye.
This issue is treading water. It’s still well told. Ditko’s a good storyteller and can churn out a solid action yarn. But we’re basically biding time.
Featuring: Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos Release: July 8, 1965 Cover: September 1965 12 cents Story: The greatest, by Stan Lee Art: The first-ratest, by Dick Ayers Inking: The ornatest, by Carl Hubbell Lettering: The straightest, by Art Simek 20 pages
“Figure it wuz worth it, Sarge?” “That’s for the history books, soldier!”
This story sets the Howlers on a mission that ties into a famous mission from World War II, Operation: Tidal Wave. This shows us where we are in time. It’s now August 1, 1943. The real-life operation was an ambitious bombing of Nazi oil refineries near Ploiești, Romania, which this comic will spell “Ploesti”.
Sergeants Fury and McGiveney will both be assigned to take their squads to provide preliminary support by destroying Nazi flak guns. McGiveney’s Maulers will be assigned to sabotage the main emplacements, while Fury and his Howlers will be assigned to destroy a train used to deploy mobile flak guns.
Of course, these two squads don’t get along and we’ve never before seen them try to work together. In fact, the story opens with them in a typical brawl, which gets interrupted by Captain Sawyer.
A Sergeant Lee and Corporal Ayers witness the Howlers going off to their mission. Lee decides he’s going to write stories about the Howlers one day and that Ayers can draw them. Indeed, we’ve met this Lee fellow a couple times before. We know he would go on to write the Fantastic Four comics, but would not get an invite to the FF wedding.
Sure enough, the rival squads step on each others’ toes a bit come the mission. The squads run into each other in the dark and mistake each other for the enemy. The confusion created leads to the capture of Fury and McGiveney.
The Grand Comics Database credits the plot to Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein with a script by Feldstein. The coloring is credited to Marie Severin and the lettering to Jim wroten. The artist is Wally Wood.
Astute observers will notice our latest entry in our Marvel reading is not a Marvel comic. This was published by EC Comics in 1953.
Why are we reading it?
Three reasons. One, Wally Wood is soon finishing up his time at Marvel. I’d alluded before to his astounding science fiction work in the past. We may as well read a story. Two, thematically, this is basically the story of the X-Men in comic form a decade earlier. Three, we are about to read Marvels #2, which explicitly references this comic, drawing the parallels to the X-Men.
The issue features 3 other sci/fi tales and a text story, including an adaptation of a Ray Bradbury story, and the story about cryogenic slumber and space travel the cover is based on (eerily similar to that awful film Passengers, except more self-aware). Another tale is titled “The Reformers”, and non-subtly mocks those who would foment outrage about comics. Great stories, all.
Warning. This is much darker and more intense a story than our normal Marvel reading. EC Comics were famously dark, to the point where they became the center of a nationwide outrage against the comics medium.
This is the story of a mutant girl.
It begins with then-current events. Operation Ivy. The US military conducted a nuclear test on Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands, October 31, 1952, the first successful explosion of a hydrogen bomb.
This comic then speculates on the fate of a soldier exposed to the radiation from the fallout. A soldier who goes home, marries, and sires a child. A child who is born hideously deformed.
Featuring: Iron Man Release: September 9, 1965 Cover: December 1965 12 cents Writer: Stan Lee Penciller: Don Heck Inker: Mickey Demeo Letterer: Artie Simek 12 pages
The nation asks– no, it demands to know the true identity of one of its greatest heroes! We must learn– Who is Iron Man?
Let’s start with a bit of an apology to Iron Man. His character was introduced in Tales of Suspense #39, released December 10, 1962. So we just passed his 60th birthday and failed to mark the occasion with appropriate fanfare. Happy belated 60th, Iron Man.
Iron Man returns to America and cheering crowds, having triumphed over Titanium Man. But the victory was costly, as Happy now hovers on the edge of death.
Reporters seem eager to get the scoop on Iron Man’s true identity. I don’t really think it’s that hard if you want to do any amount of investigating.
Nobody ever seems concerned how casually Iron Man walks into Stark’s office and makes himself at home.
