Featuring: Iron Man Release: May 9, 1963 Cover: August 1963 12 cents Plot: Stan Lee Script: R. Berns Art: Don Heck 13 pages
I read this story in The Invincible Iron Man Omnibus vol. 1.
In June 1963, a Cleopatra film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton debuted.
One month earlier, perhaps in an attempt to ride a marketing tail, Iron Man meets Cleopatra!
While there are certainly lots of things Iron Man can do that may seem like sorcery to Cleopatra, having wheels is not one of them.
The comic does end with Iron Man attending the Cleopatra film premiere, to make this a very specific nod.
Now, Anthony Stark is already famously a ladies’ man. And a reporter earlier in the issue asks him about how he’d fare if he met her. It turns out very well. She is smitten with him despite never seeing his face. He wears bulky Iron Man armor the entire time.
Featuring: Fantastic Four Release: May 9, 1963 Cover: August 1963 12 cents Story: Stan Lee Art: Jack Kirby Inking: Dick Ayers 22 pages
I read this story in Fantastic Four Omnibus vol. 1.
We see the first of an effect that will be used again on Fantastic Four covers. Four panels on the cover. One for each member of the team. Perhaps with a centerpiece for the villain.
Alicia gets herself kidnapped by Dr. Doom. The girlfriend being held hostage is an old superhero trope going back to Lois Lane. We’ve seen it in the Marvel Universe already with Jane Foster.
We get a little insight into Doom’s mindset. He relates to the Thing, as both are grotesque. Yet, Thing has found love. Rather than causing him to reflect that maybe it’s okay to remove his mask, Doom still believes nobody can love him and vows revenge on all humanity. Notice that the art is going out of its way to not show us Doom’s face.
Featuring: Fantastic Four Release: April 9, 1963 Cover: July 1963 12 cents Script: Stan Lee Art: Jack Kirby Inking: Dick Ayers 22 pages
I read this story in Fantastic Four Omnibus vol. 1.
Astute readers are noting that this comic is from April of 1963 and recall that we’ve been reading comics from May of 1963. So what gives? Why is this one here in the reading order? Am I even paying attention to what I’m doing?
Well, issue 17 will pick up right where 16 leaves off, and the battle with Dr. Doom basically continues from one issue to the next. So I thought it would be good to read the two stories together.
One other chronology note. This issue also came out a month before Ant-Man’s appearance in Tales to Astonish #46. Which would leave me inclined to put that story after this two-part adventure. However, Ant-Man rides a flying ant in this. He first meets a flying ant in his own comic in issue 46. Prior to that, he always catapulted places. That suggests to me this story fits best after Tales to Astonish #46, despite the publication dates.
He catapults to the flying ants, which he uses like skis.
Now you’re wondering how Dr. Doom can be in this story when you recall him shrinking to nothingness. I, too, was convinced we would never see him again. But it turns out he didn’t shrink to nothingness but ended up in a micro-world populated by micro-people.
Well, I guess I was wrong when I thought he was gone for good.
It turns out sentient life is all around us. We know now the stars are populated by many aliens, some as close as Saturn. We’ve encountered–let’s see, carry the one and… 10 alien races in these superhero tales.
Plus other races live in neighboring dimensions, under the sea, beyond the Rainbow Bridge… and there are at least four underground kingdoms.
Featuring: Ant-Man and Wasp Release: May 2, 1963 Cover: August 1963 12 cents Plot: Stan Lee Script: H.E. Huntley Art: Don Heck 13 pages
I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: Ant-Man/Giant-Man vol. 1.
We have met Cyclopes twicebefore. (Yes, I had to google how to make “Cyclops” plural.) It is not clear what connection if any this character has to those two. Dr. Pym notes that according to myth, there was a whole race of Cyclopes, who came from Thrace. Of course, this turns out to not be a real Cyclops, but a robot sent by alien invaders (basically identical to the Gargantus story). Perhaps the others we have met were real Cyclopes. Or perhaps all were sent by the same alien invaders.
This comic is most notable for introducing flying ants to Ant-Man. Riding a flying ant is a better way for him to keep up with Wasp than his catapult. It’s not clear it’s technically the introduction, as Ant-Man appears with flying ants in Fantastic Four #16, which was released a month earlier than this issue, but which I’ve decided to read after this one. Mainly because here he really seems to be meeting flying ants, whereas there he acts like riding flying ants is just something he does.
Featuring: Dr. Strange Release: May 9, 1963 Cover: August 1963 12 cents Story: Stan Lee Art: Steve Ditko 5 pages
I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: Dr. Strange vol. 1.
Another Dr. Strange story. Again a mere 5 pages. Again no hint on the cover that this tale is within. The cover focuses entirely on Human Torch and the Asbestos Man. The issue also contains a short text story, a sci/fi tale about a computer taking over the world, and this at the end.
The final panel this time lets us know Dr. Strange will not be returning next issue, but rather in “a future issue”. That’s likely Marvel hedging their bets, waiting to see sales numbers or look at letters and fan response before committing to more Dr. Strange stories.
That’s not what irony means.
Dr. Strange doesn’t show up until page 3. When we get a better shot of that cool window we discussed last issue. Well, not the same window, as that was on a door. But the same pattern.
That said, this issue is setting up for future tales: Dr. Strange now has an archnemesis. As Loki is to Thor, Mordo will be to Dr. Strange. Because the fan response will be strong and the character will return. Might even get his own movies one day.
Featuring: Human Torch Release: May 9, 1963 Cover: August 1963 12 cents Plot: Stan Lee Story: H. Huntley Art: Dick Ayers 13 pages
I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: The Human Torch vol. 1.
We again see the cover blurb “Marvel Comics Group ushers in the Marvel Age of Comics!” showing up on a few covers and house ads around this time. As with last issue, the cover includes no mention of the Dr. Strange story within.
The credits are mildly different than usual (besides that Ernie Hart, aka H.E. Huntley, left off his middle initial). Stan Lee usually credits the secondary writer with the “script” and himself with the plot or story. Here, he gives Hart story credit. I have no idea what he thinks the difference between “story” and “plot” is.
I keep accidentally typing “Karloff” instead of Kasloff.
I think the Asbestos Man is the best villain we’ve met in the pages of these Human Torch stories (<– the faintest of praise). I like Professor Kasloff, how arrogant he seems, but also how refined. Arrogance is perhaps the defining trait of a supervillain.
Featuring: Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandoes Release: May 2, 1963 Cover: July 1963 12 cents Script: Stan Lee Art: Jack Kirby Inking: Dick Ayers 23 pages
I read this story in Sgt. Fury Epic Collection vol. 1: The Howling Commandoes. Scans are taken from a reprint in Sgt. Fury #95 from 1972.
The story opens at a Nazi u-boat port in occupied France.
Does 1300 appear to be soon?
The plan is to create a diversion so that Nazis don’t notice a destroyer coming in to destroy the port. I have one concern with the plan. Sgt. Fury notes the destroyer is coming at 1300. The narration tells us it’s currently dark out. The implication is that it’s nighttime, presumably no later than 0400 or so. Are they supposed to create a 9-hour long diversion? Even if it’s just a dark morning, we’re still looking at 0800 at latest, well before it seems an appropriate time to start the diversion.
Featuring: Thor Release: May 2, 1963 Cover: July 1963 12 cents Plot: Stan Lee Script: R. Berns Art: J. Sinnott 13 pages
I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: Thor vol. 1.
Robert Bernstein has become a more frequent scripter of late. And Joe Sinnott has basically become the regular Thor penciller over Kirby, who only returns to the title intermittently. In general, Sinnott will not do a lot of full art for Marvel. But he spends decades as one of their most reliable finishers.
I think the above cover reference is the first time I’ve seen them use the phrase “Marvel Age of Comics”. But as I’m often reading reprints, I may be missing some internal notes. Anyways, that’s what I’ve been calling these tales, differentiating them from the comics the company published in decades prior, the “Marvel Age”. Now, the cover suggests they are just ushering it in. I’ve been describing comics thusly going back to Fantastic Four #1 two years earlier. Before the word “Marvel” was really anywhere to be seen. When there was just a discreet “MC” on the covers. This is part of a new marketing push. A similar phrase will show up on other covers and in house ads over the next month or so.
Still no particular evidence Thor ties in with any of these other stories. Not until the Avengers form. And again, we see everybody acting like Thor is the only superhero out there. When a missile loses control, everyone on earth seems to agree Thor must be tracked down. Nobody seems to consider contacting Iron Man or the Fantastic Four.
Maybe people are also trying to reach Iron Man, and we just don’t see it.
In their first encounter, Loki hypnotized Thor pretty easily. This time he has a much more convoluted plot. He manipulates a complicated series of events to ultimately get Thor to turn his head so his hammer hits him in the chromosomatic gland. And getting hit in that particular gland hard enough changes one from good to evil. Of course, Odin resolves the situation by hitting him again in the same spot.
Featuring: Dr. Strange Release: April 9, 1963 Cover: July 1963 12 cents Story: Stan Lee Art: Steve Ditko 5 pages
The cover focuses on the epic battle between Human Torch and the team of Wizard and Paste-Pot Pete. It makes no mention of any backup stories, not the space adventure that follows it, nor this story shoved into the back.
It’s only 5 pages long. Just like the sci/fi tale that preceded it. A story of a bad man with a problem who encounters some mystical force and gets his comeuppance– recall for example the stories we’ve read with Odin, Merlin, or Medusa.
It seems like not really one of our superhero stories; it’s just like these weird tales that have populated these anthologies for years, and have continued to populate the end of these anthologies which all now begin with a superhero story.
Looks like we’ll meet again.
Now, one of those weird tales did grow into something more in the superhero era. The Man in the Ant Hill used his shrinking formula again–now with a costume and a superhero name–to become Ant-Man.
There is one thing differentiates this story about a mystic from other weird tales. A small note at the end that tells us this character will return.
Seems fitting. After all, the comic is Strange Tales. What is so strange about Human Torch stories? Dr. Strange, Master of Black Magic, seems a much more natural fit to headline such a comic.
It does note he’s a different kind of super-hero.
Some argue that Dr. Strange is not a superhero, that he comes from a different archetype, an older one. The wizard; or the mage. But Stan Lee describes him as a “super-hero” right there on page 1. So that’s good enough for me to call the character a superhero.
Dr. Strange is the creation of Steve Ditko and Stan Lee, but really probably almost entirely Steve Ditko. Let’s see what we’ve got in his inaugural appearance.
Cool gloves. Mustache. Amulet. A cool design on the door window. Astral projection. Some unfortunate Asian stereotypes. The evil Nightmare from the dimension of dreams.
