Reading the Marvel Universe – Page 58

Strange Tales #106

Johnny’s new costume has a beret!

The Threat of the Torrid Twosome
Featuring: Human Torch
Release: December 10, 1962
Cover: March 1963
12 cents
Plot: Stan Lee
Script: Larry Lieber
Art: Dick Ayers
13 pages

I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: The Human Torch vol. 1

This blog took a short hiatus while I traveled a bit. I did bring my Human Torch book along with me with the idea of getting this written while abroad, but I didn’t get it done. It doesn’t help that we’ve now read Amazing Spider-Man, so know how good a superhero comic can be. That doesn’t make it easy to return to these Human Torch comics.

This is the first Human Torch story not drawn by Kirby. Regular inker Dick Ayers is stepping up as the main artist. That’s a common theme for the month. After 18 months of Kirby drawing all the titles we’ve been reading, he’s dialing it back. We just saw Don Heck on Ant-Man and Iron Man.

This story finally addresses–albeit clumsily–the nagging flaw at the heart of this series: the secret identity of the Human Torch. We learn that he does not in fact have a secret identity, and that all his friends were pretending to not know his identity to be nice. That doesn’t explain a lot of things, like why the Torch so frequently risked lives to protect his identity, why he was so open and cavalier about his identity in the Fantastic Four comics, or why the Wizard’s plan depended so heavily on the Human Torch guarding his identity.

Amazing Spider-Man #1, Story B

Spider-Man vs. The Chameleon
Featuring: Spider-Man
Release: December 10, 1962
Cover: March 1963
12 cents
Script: Stan Lee
Art: Steve Ditko
10 pages

Previous	#47	Next
Amazing Spider-Man #1	Reading order	Strange Tales #106
Amazing Spider-Man #1	Amazing Spider-Man	Amazing Spider-Man #2

How much does the job pay? I figure I’m worth your top salary!

We come now to the fourth and final Marvel superhero milestone of December 10, 1962

Milestone #1 of December 10, 1962:
Fantastic Four meet the Hulk!
Milestone #2:
Iron Man
Miletone #3:
Amazing Spider-Man #1
Milestone #4:
Fantastic Four meet Spider-Man!

A pretty exciting day in the history of Marvel superheroes indeed.

While the first story of Amazing Spider-Man #1 was largely a character-focused tale, this one gets more into the superhero action.

There are two main thrusts. The first is the meeting between Spider-Man and the FF! And of course, when they meet, they fight. The FF were understandably unhappy about Spider-Man breaking into their headquarters, and Spider-Man saw taking them on as a way of proving his worth to them.

In fairness, the FF get into fights with everybody, including each other.

He thought joining the Fantastic Four would be the secret to solving his money woes, but he learned they are a non-profit organization that pays no salary.

Amazing Spider-Man #1

Spider-Man
Featuring: Spider-Man
Release: December 10, 1962
Cover: March 1963
12 cents
Script: Stan Lee
Art: Steve Ditko
14 pages

Previous	#46	Next
Tales of Suspense #39, Story C	Reading order	Amazing Spider-Man #1, Story B
	Amazing Spider-Man	Amazing Spider-Man #1, Story B

I say that Spider-Man must be outlawed! There is no place for such a dangerous creature in our fair city!

Spider-Man is back! He appeared briefly, set to be a recurring star in Amazing Fantasy, a comic which was cancelled immediately after he appeared. Sometime between making that decision and now, we learn the publisher received lots of letters and postcards, so now Spider-Man gets his own comic. Probably good they brought him back, as he’ll go on to become Marvel’s most enduringly popular character.

We are still on December 10, 1962. A day with four major Marvel superhero milestones. The first was the crossover between the Fantastic Four and the Hulk. The second was the debut of Iron Man. The third of these is Spider-Man getting his own series.

Milestone #1 of December 10, 1962:
Fantastic Four meet the Hulk!
Milestone #2:
Iron Man
Miletone #3:
Amazing Spider-Man #1

The tale begins with a 2-panel recap of his origin from Amazing Fantasy #15. But, strangely, they leave out what most today would consider the most pivotal part, Peter’s culpability in Ben’s murder by letting the burglar run past him. True, it’s only two panels, but they seem to go out of their way to not mention it. He instead uses phrases like, “All because I was too late to save him!” and “…while I was busy showing off…”; so they keep Peter’s feelings of guilt but leave off the reason he feels so guilty. It seems like a rather intentional and conscious decision. But I don’t know why they made it.

Tales of Suspense #39, Story C

Gundar!
Featuring: Odin
Release: December 10, 1963
Cover: March 1963
12 cents
Script: Stan Lee
Art: Steve Ditko
5 pages

A short story we’ll cover for a couple reasons. One is that it’s the other new comic story in the issue that introduces Iron Man. So noteworthy in and of itself. Another is that it includes Odin. And this is after Odin has become a regular in the Thor stories. That doesn’t mean Stan sees any particular connection between this Odin and the one in the Thor stories. But Odin is here.

A shipwrecked man finds immortal vikings trapped there by a curse. Their captain Gundar had been evil, and they once questioned his orders, so he attacked and ultimately cursed them. Odin apparently took Gundar’s side in the conflict; so he’s not entirely benevolent here. Or perhaps he’s just literal-minded about the laws– the crew had taken up arms against their captain; that he attacked them may be immaterial to the laws Odin enforces.

Tales of Suspense #39

Iron Man is Born!
Featuring: Iron Man
Release: December 10, 1962
Cover: March 1963
12 cents
Plot: Stan Lee
Script: Larry Lieber
Art: Don Heck
13 pages

I read this story in Invincible Iron Man Omnibus vol. 1.

Don Heck is the artist on this issue, but the cover is by Jack Kirby. The cover was drawn first, and Jack Kirby is thus responsible for designing this version of the Iron Man armor. Heck claims credit for the look of Anthony Stark and generally the interiors. I’ve read conflicting reports on how much input Kirby had to the interior art and storytelling.

Recall that Kirby had been drawing every ongoing Marvel superhero series prior to this month. One week earlier, Don Heck took over as artist on the Ant-Man feature, and now Heck will also be the artist on the Iron Man stories. And a new Marvel superhero title premieres this same day which will be drawn by Steve Ditko, so the load is getting shared now.

That’s right! It’s Iron Man! The character nobody had heard of in 2007 who was everybody’s favorite superhero by 2009.

As we discussed, December 10, 1962 is a day with four big milestones in Marvel superhero history. This is the second.

Milestone #1 of December 10, 1962:
Fantastic Four meet the Hulk!
Milestone #2:
Iron Man

Anthony Stark is a rich, handsome, glamorous playboy, a bachelor and socialite. Also a brilliant scientist helping out the US military. He’s invented a tiny transistor that increases the force of any device, which he’s helping the military deploy in South Vietnam.

As I understand the problem in Vietnam, it will take more than a tiny transistor to solve…

Wong-Chu is described as a “Red Guerilla” conquering villages is South Vietnam. I assume the implication is he is with the Việt Cộng, but that is not explicit.

The depictions of Asian people remain awful, with Wong-Chu as racist a caricature as General Fang.

Fantastic Four #12

The Incredible Hulk/Mission: Stop the Hulk!/Who is the Wrecker?/The Hulk at Last!
Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: December 10, 1962
Cover: March 1963
12 cents
Script: Stan Lee
Art: Jack Kirby
Inking: Dick Ayers
23 pages

I read this comic in Fantastic Four Omnibus vol. 1.

Let’s review the key dates so far.

August 8, 1961 — The Fantastic Four debut
March 1, 1962 — The Incredible Hulk
June 5, 1962 — The most important day in Marvel’s history thus far: introducing Spider-Man, Thor, and Ant-Man!

It’s now December 10, 1962.

Another hugely important date in Marvel’s history. Four milestones, which we’ll be covering over the next few posts: we’ll see the debut of another iconic superhero; a superhero we haven’t seen in 6 months makes his return in the debut of his solo title; and, most excitingly, the Marvel comics start to coalesce into a universe. On this day, we get not only our first crossover of the Marvel Age, but our first two crossovers! The Fantastic Four will encounter two iconic Marvel characters on this very date.

Tales to Astonish #41

Prisoner of the Slave World!
Featuring: Ant-Man
Release: December 3, 1962
Cover: March 1963
12 cents
Plot: Stan Lee
Script: L.D. Lieber
Art: Don Heck
10 pages

I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: Ant-Man/Giant-Man vol. 1.

This is a pretty momentous issue. We’ve read a variety of Marvel comics together here. We’ve taken peeks into the past and the future, and checked out some of Marvel’s “weird tales” books with tangential connections to our superhero comics. But we’ve mostly been reading superhero series of the early ’60s. We’ve followed the Fantastic Four, Hulk, Human Torch, Thor, and Ant-Man. What have all these series had in common? They’d all been drawn by Jack Kirby.

Now, for the first time, Jack is going to take a break from drawing several comics a month and draw one less. This issue of Ant-Man will be drawn by Don Heck. We’ve met Heck once before. He drew a Medusa story we checked out in Tales to Astonish. A great artist in his own right. He’d been associated with the company that will become Marvel off and on for almost a decade at this point, drawing westerns, war stories, and sci-fi/fantasy tales.

Journey Into Mystery #89

The Thunder-God and the Thug!
Featuring: Thor
Release: December 3, 1962
Cover: February 1963
12 cents
Plot: Stan Lee
Script: L.D. Lieber
Art: Jack Kirby
Inking: Dick Ayers
13 pages

I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor vol. 1.

Ray Holloway is credited as the letterer. First credit we have seen for him. Art Simek has been doing most of the lettering when it’s been credited.

As with his battle against the Soviets, fighting mobsters is unworthy of Thor’s power. They really don’t stand a chance. The only trick that works is taking a hostage, usually Jane.

Tales to Astonish #40

The Day that Ant-Man failed!
Featuring: Ant-Man
Release: November 8, 1962
Cover: February 1963
12 cents
Plot: Stan Lee
Script: L.D. Lieber
Art: Jack Kirby
Inking: Sol Brodsky
11 pages

We’re 6 issues in to these Ant-Man stories, and it’s time to state the obvious conclusion: they’re not very good. Now, the first story in issue 35 was good. It was a clever story about a scientist quickly having to put his inventions to work to stop some Commies. But it then falls apart. Somewhere between issue 35 and 36.

In issue 35, Ant-Man is forced to be born by circumstance– he has hostages to rescue. The issue ends with him musing whether he will ever be forced to become Ant-Man again. Issue 36 begins some time later. Ant-Man is now a regular crimefighter, internationally famous, beloved by people and law enforcement, who has specially constructed an ant-sized headquarters in his home, and who uses his network of ant friends to help him find crime to battle.

That’s a pretty big leap. It’s possible there’s some interesting character development there– but we don’t see it. In that first story, Dr. Pym had lab assistants. We’ve since met nobody else in his life: no friends, no colleagues, no love interest. The entire story in each issue is devoted to the mission. We learn nothing about his inner life, nothing about his personal life, and get no good sense of why he is Ant-Man. He just battles boring villain after boring villain (plus one giant beetle— that was cool.)

Journey Into Mystery #88

The Vengeance of Loki!
Featuring: Thor
Release: November 1, 1962
Cover: January 1963
12 cents
Plot: Stan Lee
Script: L.D. Lieber
Art: Jack Kirby
Inking: Dick Ayers
13 pages

Loki is Thor’s first repeat villain. Coming up with new villains every month is exhausting, so it’s worth repeating the best ones. Loki was the best one. (His competition is: the Stone Men from Saturn, the Executioner, Zarrko, and some Soviet soldiers.) The Fantastic Four have now fought Doom and Sub-Mariner three times each. Human Torch has faced off twice against the Wizard. Ant-Man hasn’t had a repeat villain yet, but I suspect we’ll see the return of Egghead soon enough. Hulk has a persistent nemesis in Thunderbolt Ross, but otherwise hasn’t encountered any actual villains twice. I think repeating villains is good, unless it’s overdone. It is how you develop good rivalries and get an arch-nemesis. But once Joker appeared in the old Batman comics, he started showing up in every single issue of Batman. It’s a balance of having some variety in the foes while giving a chance for a proper rivalry to develop. So far, these comics are doing well enough on the variety side.

We see Heimdall at his post for the first time, guarding the Bifrost. Loki is forbidden to leave Asgard, so he must somehow sneak past Heimdall. He does so by disguising himself as a snake. I really thought of Heimdall as being better than that.