Comic Books – Page 36 – Coke & Comics

Tales of Suspense #59, Story B

Captain America

Featuring: Captain America
Release: August 11, 1964
Cover: November 1964
12 cents
Author: Stan Lee
Illustrator: Jack Kirby
Inked by: Chic Stone
Lettered by: S. Rosen
10 pages

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Tales of Suspense #59	Reading order	Avengers #9
Tales of Suspense #59	Tales of Suspense	Tales of Suspense #60

Captain America is back with his own series, more or less. He doesn’t get the title of the magazine, but he gets a regular feature. He and Iron Man will be sharing Tales of Suspense. Very few characters get the title of the magazine. Daredevil and Spider-Man are special like that.

Captain America of course debuted in his own self-titled mag, Captain America Comics, way back in 1941. He was one of Marvel’s most popular superheroes for the entire decade. His comic was then retitled into Captain America’s Weird Tales for its final two issues to focus on the burgeoning horror genre. The final issue in 1950 didn’t even feature Captain America.

They tried a revival of the Captain America series in 1954, but it only lasted three issues. Fans were not as interested in seeing Cap smash Commies as they had been seeing him battle the Nazis a decade earlier.

Ten years later, they’re ready to try again. This time, the character will endure. Within 4 years, they’ll change the title of this comic to Captain America and that series will basically continue (with the occasional renumbering) to the present, over 55 years later.

All that said, this series doesn’t quite begin with a bang.

Tales of Suspense #59

The Black Knight!

Featuring: Iron Man
Release: August 11, 1964
Cover: November 1964
12 cents
Never has a Stan Lee script, or Don Heck artwork been greater!
13 pages

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Daredevil #4	Reading order	Tales of Suspense #59, Story B
Tales of Suspense #58, Story B	Tales of Suspense	Tales of Suspense #59, Story B

As the cover indicates, it’s a moment of big change for this title. The science fiction tales are gone, and the horror stories (or tales of suspense) this title was founded on are long gone. But gone now also are the Watcher stories, which blurred the line between the older science fiction tales and our new superhero ones.

Henceforth, this title will contain two stories: an Iron Man adventure and a Captain America adventure.

Captain America’s return has been successful enough to give him his own title, but Marvel is still artificially limited in the number of titles it can publish, and seemingly reluctant to get rid of titles, preferring to repurpose them. Thus Captain America and Iron Man have to share a book. Just as Hulk has to share Tales to Astonish with Giant-Man and Wasp, and as Dr. Strange has been sharing Strange Tales with Human Torch and Thing.

Recall that Professor Nathan Garrett adopted the identity of Black Knight and fought Giant-Man and Wasp. He was not the first Black Knight, but the first of modern times. He genetically engineered a flying horse and built an arsenal of gadgets and weapons, primarily his multifunctional lance.

The fancy credits neglect the contributions of Chic Stone and Art Simek.

Having been defeated, he agreed to join the Masters of Evil to fight Giant-Man and the rest of the Avengers.

Having been defeated by the team of superheroes he attacked, he now wants revenge, and so is planning to attack the Avengers individually. He begins with Iron Man, starting with an attack on Stark’s factory.

Daredevil #4

Killgrave, the Unbelievable Purple Man!

Featuring: Daredevil
Release: August 4, 1964
Cover: October 1964
12 cents
Sensational story by: Stan Lee
Awe-inspiring art by: Joe Orlando
Infallible inking by: Vince Colletta
Lots of lettering by: S. Rosen
22 pages

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Journey Into Mystery #109, Story B	Reading Order	Tales of Suspense #59
Daredevil #3	Daredevil	Daredevil #5

Daredevil still has that stupid hood sack thing to keep his civilian clothes. They had somehow taken a bad costume and made it even worse.

Fortunately, he’ll realize early in the issue that it’s impractical to the point of imbecilic and we’ll be rid of it.

This issue introduces Purple Man, who has the power to sap people’s wills and make them responsive to his commands. Only Daredevil seems resistant to his influence.

Journey Into Mystery #109, Story B

Banished from Asgard!

Featuring: Tales of Asgard
Release: August 4, 1964
Cover: Ocotber 1964
12 cents
Author: Stan Lee
Illustrator: Jack Kirby
Delineator: Vince Colletta
Letterer: Sam Rosen
5 pages

I think the Mountain Giants are a new set of villains. They seem to be careful naming the groups of giants. We’ve met the Frost Giants and the Storm Giants. Now, we meet Mountain Giants. Their queen is Knorda, a normal-sized woman.

Journey Into Mystery #109

When Magneto Strikes!

Featuring: Thor
Release: August 4, 1964
Cover: October 1964
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee, the monarch of the Marvel Age, at the pinnacle of his power!
Illustrated by: Jack Kirby, the prince of pageantry, at the height of his titanic talent!
Inked by: Chic Stone, the dean of line design, at the peak of his prowess!
Lettered by: S. Rosen, the sultan of spelling, at the little table in his studio!
18 pages

I don’t know what to make of these Thor stories since Kirby returned to the title. The art is certainly improved. This is very iconic Kirby, especially with Stone on inks. Everything very melodramatic, especially the posing.

And it’s cool that Thor meets Magneto. The battle between them starts off pretty well. Again, Kirby on that dramatic action depiction.

But the weaknesses of the story increasingly detract as the issue goes on. That battle which had been going well then moves to the now familiar trope where Thor loses his hammer and becomes Dr. Blake mid-battle, luckily just out of view of the villain. How did he lose it? He dropped it, then forgot about it.

After 60 seconds, the hammer turns into a walking stick. Sometimes that is what happens, and sometimes it is not.

Fantastic Four #31

The Mad Menace of the Macabre Mole Man!

Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: July 9, 1964
Cover: October 1964
Written by: Stan Lee, the man with the talented typewriter!
Illustrated by: Jack Kirby, the man with the power-packed pencil!
Inked by: Chic Stone, the man with the panoramic paint-brush!
Lettered by: S. Rosen, the man with the leaky lettering pen!
21 pages

I’d like to reflect back to Fantastic Four #11. Things were revealed there which are contrary to my general impression of these characters. Some key facts were that Reed and Ben had served in World War II. Prior to the war, they had both finished college. Further, he and Sue were sweethearts prior to the war.

We did a lot of math about what that meant, math I’m sure Stan Lee never did. But he must have had some sense of what he was saying. He had been a sergeant himself in World War II. He must have known that claiming Reed and Ben served in the same war he did made them about his age. He similarly knew that it was quite odd to have a sweetheart for 20 years and still not be married. He must have known these things.

The one thing I suspect he didn’t think about was that Johnny was in high school. This necessarily put a gap of almost twenty years in age between brother and sister. I have a friend whose brother is 30 years older than he, so I know this is possible. But I really don’t think Stan intended it.

Stan certainly gives the impression in the stories that Reed has let Sue stay single too long, but I assume he intends to mean she should have been married by 23 and she’s now like 26 or something. But that’s inconsistent with the World War II facts, which suggests she’s pushing 40 and still unmarried, but with at least two suitors.

Either way, Johnny is in high school. And whether his sister is ten or twenty years older than he, she is definitely much older and seems to be his guardian. There has been no mention of parents.

Until now.

Tales of Suspense #58, Story B

The Watcher Must Die!

Featuring: The Watcher
Release: July 9, 1964
Cover: October 1964
12 cents
A tale of most compelling merit by: Stan Lee
Illustrations of singular excellence by: George Tuska
Lettering of breath-taking adequacy by: Art Simek
5 pages

If you caught an early draft of my write-up for the previous issue, you saw me accidentally claim that was the final Watcher story. Either way, it ends with so little fanfare, that it’s hard to tell.

It’s hard to make a story about a character who never does anything. You’re tempted to have him do something in every issue, which is exactly what they did for this series.

The editor enthusiastically welcomes returning artist George Tuska. Tuska’s been working in comics since 1939, and worked for Marvel in the 1950s. Let’s see a sampling of his work.

The samples of Tuska’s work are from (in order, left to right, top to bottom):

Mystery Men Comics #1 (1939)
64 Pages of New Captain Marvel Adventures #2 (1941)
Crime Does Not Pay #22 (1942)
Casey – Crime Photographer #1 (1949)
Strange Tales #1 (1951)
Adventures Into Terror #7 (1951)

If Lee was that excited to have Tuska back, you’d think he could have found a more interesting assignment than filling in on the final Watcher story.

Tuska will continue to do occasional fill-in work for Marvel over the next few years, before eventually settling into a longterm stint on Iron Man.

The rest of the series had been drawn by Stan’s brother, Larry Lieber. Sad he’s not the one to bring it to a close. He’s already started what will be a very long run on Rawhide Kid. We’re not generally reading the western titles, so this is the last we’ll see of Larry for a while. He will pop up again here and there for the occasional fill-in issue or special, so this isn’t good-bye forever.

Tales of Suspense #58

In Mortal Combat with Captain America!

Featuring: Iron Man
Release: July 9, 1964
Cover: October 1964
12 cents
Every word you are about to read was written by ol’ faithful Stan Lee, one of the world’s most prolific script writers!
Every drawing you are about to marvel at, was created by Don Heck, one of America’s most promising illustrators!
Every bit of inking you are about to savor was done by Dick Ayers, one of the industry’s most painstaking artists!
Every sentence you are about to scan was hand-printed by Sam Rosen, one of Marvel’s most perspicuous letterers!
18 pages

The story begins with Iron Man battling a shark. That’s cool.

This story will guest star Captain America. Remember in Strange Tales #123 when Thing was a guest star, and then he was sharing title billing by issue 124? Or how Hulk was a guest star in Tales to Astonish #59, and then had his own regular feature in Tales to Astonish #60? I don’t know why I’m bringing those up.

Kraven and Chameleon return to America after their most recent deportations. Iron Man catches Kraven sneaking ashore, but Chameleon gets away.

I really appreciate the battle between Iron Man and Kraven. So often in superhero comics, they exaggerate the threat the villain poses against the hero. This has been a particularly pernicious problem with heroes as powerful as Thor and Iron Man, who tend to outclass their villains. It is thus rather refreshing to see the battle between Iron Man and Kraven resolved within 3 panels, as it should be.

Strange Tales #125, Story B

Mordo Must Not Catch Me!

Featuring: Dr. Strange
Release: July 9, 1964
Cover: October 1964
12 cents
How proud we are that Stan Lee wrote this sensational thriller!
How fortunate we are that Steve Ditko drew these magical masterpieces!
How triumphant we are that Geo. Bell inked these priceless panels!
How ecstatic we are that Artie Simek lettered these deathless phrases!
10 pages

This is the actual first page for the comic, found online. The Masterworks version colors the characters white, as though both in their astral form. Marvel Collectors’ Item Classics #16, where most of the scans below come from, colors all the astral forms a weird bluish color, and the front page from that issue follows suit.

The Masterworks also colors Mordo’s disciples white. They are garbed in green in the original and light blue in the scan below.

This is the last of the “filler” issues of the Dr. Strange stories. One more issue until Ditko returns to full art duties and the series kicks into high gear. As these go, this issue’s actually pretty good. Despite the story where Dr. Strange and Mordo battle for the 77th time.

The most egregious coloring error in my reprint is the coloring of Dr. Strange’s cloak. It is quite possibly an intentional error, aimed at consistent marketing to match Dr. Strange’s cloak at the time of the reprint. But, quite obviously, Dr. Strange’s cloak should be blue, as it is in any other reprint of this story.

Strange Tales #125

The Sub-Mariner Must Be Stopped!

Featuring: Human Torch and Thing
Release: July 9, 1964
Cover: October 1964
12 cents
Written by: Word-slingin’ Stan Lee
Drawn by: Picture-sketchin’ Dick Ayers
Inked by: Ink-splatterin’ Paul Reinman
Lettered by: Pen-pushin’ S. Rosen
13 pages

Dr. Strange gets a mention, but the cover real estate is again mostly devoted to Human Torch and Thing.

Thing and Human Torch battle Namor at sea, where they really are completely outmatched.

This turns out to be an issue of misunderstandings.