Comic Books – Page 30 – Coke & Comics

Avengers #13

The Castle of Count Nefaria

Featuring: Avengers
Release: December 10, 1964
Cover: February 1965
12 cents
Rather exceptional story by: Stan Lee
Somewhat distinctive art by: Don Heck
Fairly compelling inking by: Dick Ayers
Moderately clear lettering by: Artie Simek
20 pages

Previous	#310	Next
Tales of Suspense #63, Story B	Reading order	Avengers #14
Avengers #12	Avengers	Avengers #14

The cover is pretty off for a Kirby composition. I’m pretty sure Count Nefaria is supposed to be manipulating the controls, but he looks passed out to me.

Solid opening splash page of the Avengers looking furtive near the wanted ad.

The story opens with Iron Man and Thor stopping a fur robbery. Honestly, that seems somewhat beneath them; I’d be more comfortable with such crimes being left to conventional authorities or more down-to-earth vigilantes.

Up to this point, there was no evidence the Avengers were proactively seeking out any types of crimes to stop. They responded to two global threats–the Lava Men and Kang. They occasionally seek out the Hulk to fight, but usually just wait for a villain to attack them. Villains in these stories tend to be much more proactive. But now we learn the Avengers have been actively fighting crime for a while now.

This story introduces the Maggia, an organized criminal organization, perhaps inspired by real-life Mafia.

Tales of Suspense #63, Story B

The Origin of Captain America!

Featuring: Captain America
Release: December 10, 1964
Cover: March 1965
12 cents
Writer: Stan Lee
Illustrator: Jack Kirby
Inked by: Frank Ray
Lettered by: Art Simek
10 pages

Previous	#309	Next
Tales of Suspense #63	Reading order	Avengers #13
Tales of Suspense #63	Tales of Suspense	Tales of Suspense #64

Rather than trying to tell a new Captain America story, this comic will retell the origin of Captain America. Subsequent adventures will recap his earliest issues and others will be new stories set in World War II.

I can only guess what’s going on here. One, you can imagine Kirby would like a bit of a break from drawing 5 stories a month, and it may be easier on him to retell old tales. Or, perhaps he is looking back on those tales now that he has grown as an artist and is looking to revisit them and tell them better.

I also suspect that Stan is starting to notice how much his readers care about the intercontinuity of the titles, something he probably doesn’t want to think about at all. Telling Captain America stories set in the past saves him the trouble of worrying that they line up with current Avengers comics.

I tend to find the best thing to do with these retellings is just go in depth and try to spot any differences from previous tellings, particularly the original story in Captain America Comics #1 (1941).

Tales of Suspense #63

Somewhere Lurks The Phantom!

Featuring: Iron Man
Release: December 10, 1964
Cover: March 1965
12 cents
Have you the nerve to read this great Stan Lee story?
Should we preserve these thrilling Don Heck drawings?
Dare we observe this unique Dick Ayers inking?
Do we deserve the impact of this Sam Rosen lettering?
12 pages

Previous	#308	Next
Strange Tales #130	Reading order	Tales of Suspense #63, Story B
Tales of Suspense #62, Story B	Tales of Suspense	Tales of Suspense #63, Story B

Introduces a new villain, the Phantom, who is sabotaging Stark’s plant. I thought about naming all the Iron Man villains whose plan has involved attacking or sabotaging Stark’s plant, but it would be easier to name the rest of them.

This resolves the story arc where Tony Stark seemed to be dead. He turns out not to be.

He pretended to be dead because he was trapped in his armor. Yet… trapped in his armor, he could still remove his helmet and gloves, at least. He has always been trapped in the chest plate and just puts clothes over it. So I don’t understand why he couldn’t have just put clothes over the rest of his armor.

Whatever the explanation, he modified a transistor so now only needs the chestplate. Basically, his new invention allowed him to take his pants off.

Strange Tales #130

Meet the Beatles!

Featuring: Human Torch and Thing
Release: December 10, 1964
Cover: March 1965
12 cents
Story by Swingin’ Stan Lee
Art by Bouncin’ Bob Powell
Inking by Chucklin’ Chic Stone
Lettering by Sizzlin’ Sam Rosen
12 pages

Previous	#307	Next
Amazing Spider-Man #122	Reading order	Tales of Suspense #63
Strange Tales #129, Story B	Strange Tales	Strange Tales #130, Story B

Dr. Strange finally gets the cover almost to himself… but we won’t be reading his story. As we’ve discussed, the plan is to take a break from Dr. Strange, but keep reading the Human Torch/Thing stories. The Dr. Strange stories have mostly been happy to be single short episodes that fit in 10 pages. The only exception has been the 2-part battle against Dormammu. But even that epic was only 20 pages, the length of a normal Fantastic Four or Spider-Man story. Not one to make incremental change, Ditko decided he needs 170 pages and 17 months to tell the next story.

I’ve made no secret that I’ve found these last 30 issues of Human Torch stories to be almost entirely worthless. Putting Ben and Johnny in Beatles wigs is probably the single most worthwhile thing that has happened yet. Especially since Johnny is wearing the wig over his flaming head. The fact that it’s not burning means it must be made from unstable molecules.

Stan Lee made a big deal last issue and in recent letters’ pages about the exciting new artist for this series. That artist is Bob Powell. Powell will be the Human Torch/Thing artist for as long as this series has left. He will not be turning the quality of stories around. Powell is another returning artist from back when, having worked in comics since the 1930s, occasionally doing some Marvel work. He’ll also be taking over the Giant-Man title this month… and not turn the quality around on that one either. He’ll have the honor of putting Marvel’s two worst series to bed.

Amazing Spider-Man #22

Preeeeeesenting… The Clown, and his Masters of Menace!

Featuring: Spider-Man
Release: December 10, 1964
Cover: March 1965
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Illustrated by: Steve Ditko
Lettered by: Artie Simek
20 pages

Previous	#306	Next
Sgt. Fury #15	Reading order	Strange Tales #130
Amazing Spider-Man #21	Amazing Spider-Man	Amazing Spider-Man #23

Yes, I counted the ‘e’s closely in the title. We strive for accuracy here at Coke & Comics.

I appreciate that Spider-Man doesn’t really appear on the cover. Just the spider signal and his shadow, as the bad guys stand in awe.

I assume you all have the same confusion about the first page as I do. As usual, I blame Stan. Ditko’s drawings are eerily consistent across issues. The two trapeze artists and human cannonball are just as depicted the last time Spider-Man fought the Circus of Crime in Amazing Spider-Man #16.

But Stan had the human cannonball refer to himself as the Great Gambino. When we first met the Circus of Crime in Incredible Hulk #3, the human cannonball was named, sensibly, the Human Cannonball. Lee is basically back to that, referring to him as “the man called Cannonball”. He refers to the two trapeze artists as the Great Gambinos, which I suspect was Ditko’s intention all along. I’m going to claim Cannonball to be the same character we’ve met three times now, and just call his name in issue 16 a typo. He is not the Great Gambino; the trapeze artists are.

Ditko’s Clown is clearly modeled off the clown Kirby drew in Incredible Hulk #3, and doesn’t look particularly like any of the clowns in issue 16. He looks so much like Kirby’s clown that I’m going to declare them the same character. CMRO agrees, though also thinks he was one of the clowns in issue 16. There are a lot of clowns in that issue; one could be him, just with different make-up.

Princess Python is clearly new, and will be the most popular of these villains, making a name for herself entirely separate from the Circus of Crime, for example finding a home with the Serpent Society. She is notably Spider-Man’s first female super-villain and one of very few female super-villains we’ve met at all.

Falcon & Winter Soldier: The Comics

The comics that inspired the show

I’ve spent the last several weeks reading along to the Falcon & Winter Soldier TV series, another excellent show to come out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With the show finished last week, I’d like to share the comics the show inspired me to revisit: the adventures of Falcon and Winter Soldier, John Walker, the Power Broker, Flag Smasher, Batroc, Zemo, etcetera.

I also found myself very interested in the idea of the mantle of Captain America, and what happens when the shield passes to the hands of another. It turns out that happens all the time in the comics. We’ll read through at least 10 different times when somebody else has wielded the shield.

Let’s read some comics.

This post is broken into 4 pages.

Page 1: 1941-1979. Meet Captain America, Bucky, Zemo, Batroc, Sharon Carter, Falcon, and Contessa Valentina Allegro de Fontaine.
Page 2: 1972-1988. Meet 4 other heroes to assume the identity of Captain America. Visit Madripoor; learn about the Power Broker.
Page 3: 1985-1992. Meet the Flag Smasher. See John Walker become Captain America, with Battle Star as his partner.
Page 4: 2003-2020. Meet Isaiah Bradley, the true Captain America of the 1940s. Then see Bucky Barnes assume the mantle of Captain America. Then see Sam Wilson do the same. We end with some reading recommendations.

Pages: 1234

Sgt. Fury #15

Too Small to Fight, Too Young to Die!

Featuring: Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos
Release: December 10, 1964
Cover: February 1965
12 cents
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Dick Ayers
Inker: Steve Ditko
Letterer: S. Rosen
20 pages

Previous	#305	Next
Journey Into Mystery #113, Story B	Reading order	Amazing Spider-Man #22
Sgt. Fury #14	Sgt. Fury	Sgt. Fury #16

This is pretty exciting. Ditko inking Ayers. Definitely the first time we’ve seen that. And the opposite of the roles I most associate each artist with. It’s mostly not obvious to my untrained eye that Ditko is the inker, but I think I see him shining through on some of the faces, particularly Captain Sawyer and some of the ladies.

George Roussos had been the regular inker up to this point, under the pseudonym George Bell. It looks like last month marked the end of his regular Marvel work for now. He will return in a couple years and eventually become a staff colorist at Marvel.

Roussos has likely been coloring many of the comics we’ve read as well, but I don’t often have colorist credits in front of me, and am anyway often reading these stories in recolored reprints. So I’ve certainly failed to appreciate his coloring contributions.

We’ll see Roussos once more in the near future, because we still haven’t read the Hulk story from last month. And then we’ll see him again, eventually.

The idea of these 15 issues has been to take the Commandos to every theatre of the war– Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, England, Japan, Africa… Holland was due.

Journey Into Mystery #113, Story B

The Boyhood of Loki!

Featuring: Tales of Asgard
Release: December 3, 1964
Cover: February 1965
12 cents
A Stan Lee and Jack Kirby fabulous featurette!
Inked by: Vince Colletta
Lettered by: Artie Simek
5 pages

Previous	#304	Next
Journey Into Mystery #113	Reading order	Sgt. Fury #15
Journey Into Mystery #113	Journey Into Mystery	Journey Into Mystery #114

The story is credited to Stan and Jack without any breakdown of who did what.

Stan refers to this as the “biographies-in-depth” series. There’s not that much depth. This is the second chapter of Loki’s “biography” and the third character spotlighted after Heimdall and Balder.

Journey Into Mystery #113

A World Gone Mad!

Featuring: Thor
Release: December 3, 1964
Cover: February 1965
12 cents
A tale told with gusto by: Stan Lee
A drama drawn with grandeur by: Jack Kirby
An idyll inked with gallantry by: Chic Stone
A legend lettered with glee by: Artie Simek
16 pages

Previous	#303	Next
Daredevil #6	Reading order	Journey Into Mystery #113, Story B
Journey Into Mystery #112, Story B	Journey Into Mystery	Journey Into Mystery #113, Story B

Jack opens the story with Odin and Thor leading Asgardian soldiers aboard a giant sky ship into battle against the “demon men” of Jotunheim.

And Stan basically apologizes for that, assuring readers that Thor will soon be on Earth fighting a super-villain that’s no match for him and pining over Jane.

Stan and Jack are not on the same page with the direction Thor stories should take. I’m with Jack.

While it’s true that Stan is basically joking, he carries on with it for two pages while neglecting to actually script or provide real narration for the epic battle he seems somewhat embarrassed by. He offers us only, “For Asgard– and freedom!”

Nice sentiments, but I’m not convinced that “freedom” is a key value in Asgard, where an absolute monarch has ruled for millennia according fickle whims that must be obeyed without question, while seeming to exist in a state of perpetual war with all their neighboring realms.

Daredevil #6

The Fellowship of Fear!

Featuring: Daredevil
Release: December 3, 1964
Cover: February 1965
12 cents
Written with the fabulously flawless fantasy of… Stan Lee
Illustrated in the magnificently modern manner of… Wally Wood
Lettered in the screamingly sophisticated style of… Sam Rosen
20 pages

Previous	#302	Next
Fantastic Four #35	Reading order	Journey Into Mystery #113
Daredevil #5	Daredevil	Daredevil #7

A neat effect that’s unique to Daredevil is the little logo box. For the first few issues, it was just his logo in the top corner of the first page, not so different from what we see in other titles. Then the next couple issues added a close up of Daredevil’s face to the logo. Now Wood is varying the theme, showing a mini-picture of Daredevil leaping into action over the logo. We’ll get a new logo picture next issue.

I’d like to talk about super-villains vs. super-villain henchmen. Most of the villains we’ve met like to be in charge. They are their own boss and plan their own crimes. They sometimes team up, but then fight over who is in charge. Occasionally, independently minded super-villains can form a team and have someone be in charge, as with the Masters of Evil, led by Zemo.

The Enforcers are different. We met them when they were working for Big Man. Then later Green Goblin, then later Sandman. They don’t try to be top villains. They are for hire, and work for the big super-villains. Dr. Doom had a similar gang, the Terrible Trio. They’ve tried to strike it on their own as their own bosses, with limited success.

Of course, the Evil Mutants serve Magneto. He’s the big super-villain they take orders from.

Understand the two tiers of the super-villain hierarchy?

In this issue, we see Ox for the first time apart from his fellow Enforcers. But he’s still doing what he does, hiring himself out to super-villains. In this case he works for Mr. Fear.

Eel does something unique here. He was a super-villain in his own right, with his own plans and his own base of operations. He twice fought the Human Torch. But now he’s a henchman, working for the bigger super-villain, Mr. Fear. It’s something of a demotion for the Eel.