Featuring: X-Men Release: April 5, 1966 Cover: June 1966 12 cents Exemplary editing by: Stan Lee Extraordinary writing by: Roy Thomas Exceptional art by: Jay Gavin Exhilarating inking by: Dick Ayers Exasperating lettering by: Artie Simek 20 pages
Featuring: X-Men Release: March 3, 1966 Cover: May 1966 12 cents Expertly edited by: Stan Lee Skillfully scripted by: Roy Thomas Perfectly penciled by: Jay Gavin Ideally inked by: Dick Ayers Laxly lettered by: Artie Simek 20 pages
With this issue, Roy Thomas takes over as regular writer on The X-Men, a position he will hold for the next two years. Some sources suggest Stan gave a writing assist on this and the next issue, but Stan is only credited as Editor. (Of course, even as editor, Stan’s credit goes first.)
It begins with fake X-Men, villains seeking to ruin their reputation.
As Mark had previously noted in comments, you can spot the villains by the smoking of cigarettes.
Featuring: Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos Release: March 10, 1966 Cover: May 1966 12 cents Energetic editing by: Stan Lee Rambunctious writing by: Roy Thomas Actionistic art by: Dick Ayers Dynamic delineation by: John Tartaglione Lethargic lettering by: Sam Rosen 20 pages
Awright you yardbirds… keep firin’! You want the Fascisti ta forget we’re here?
The Howlers parachute into Italy. This is momentous for Dino. We knew he was Italian-American, but we learn a couple new facts, including that he was born in Italy, but moved to America as a baby. We also learn he loves spaghetti.
Unusually, Sgt. Fury orders the Commandos to surrender, and they are taken to a prison camp. The Canadian Captain in charge has been planning a great escape. But Sgt. Fury has other plans.
Soon, my limbs shall be swifter than ever before– while your hex power once again shall dazzle and defeat your enemies! All we need is patience, my sister– and an unaltering faith!
The Avengers are off to South America to save Goliath. And presumably will be here when Galactus attacks.
Hawkeye now likes Captain America, but still dislikes orders. As do I, Hawkeye. As do I.
Wasp recalls how they all used to share the command. It’s the first time they’ve really addressed this change. The original team had rotating chairs. The new team had Captain America as permanent leader. Given this, Hawkeye’s annoyance was understandable.
Featuring: Avengers Release: May 10, 1966 Cover: July 1966 12 cents Stan Lee: Writer Don Heck: Artist Frank Giacoia: Inker Sam Rosen: Letterer Irving Forbush: Arbitrator 20 pages
But, the past is over now! The past is dead! You are the master no longer! I’m free of you… at last!
We just saw Galactus appear in the middle of New York. There to devour the Earth. The Avengers have a mansion in the middle of New York. Why didn’t they help out?
Well, maybe they were away. Where? Surely not just elsewhere in New York fighting Black Widow. Maybe off wherever the Collector’s castle is? Or in the middle of the Atlantic fighting Attuma? Or perhaps they were in the “Far-Off Land”, as the title suggests. It seems likely they were quite far away.
Now, the Avengers won’t make it to the titular Far-Off Land this issue, but next issue.
And Marvels will claim this is where the Avengers were when Galactus attacked. Which is good enough for me.
But he was not as before when he emerged from the atomic fireball! No… he was charged with unlimited nuclear power… and this power enabled him to hurtle through space at fantastic speeds! Almost indestructible, with superior vision, hearing, and strength, he became the champion of good men… and the enemy of evil everywhere!
With his time at Marvel coming to an end, Steve Ditko started putting out work for other publishers, beginning with a return to the superhero he created for Charlton Comics, Captain Atom. His very first superhero creation.
This was published concurrently with Amazing Spider-Man #32 and Strange Tales #140, the month before climactic stories in each series, and 6 months before his final issue of each series.
Captain Atom had been on hiatus since Ditko’s departure in 1961, though Charlton had recently been reprinting the old Captain Atom stories.
His return sees him facing off against aliens sabotaging our space program. These aliens seem powerful enough to attack en masse and defeat Earth pretty easily, but subterfuge is their method.
One scientist, Professor Jupe, notices the disasters are too frequent to be random. This scientist has a lovely daughter Leah who will catch our hero’s eye. Both will find themselves captives of the aliens.
We get a recap of Captain Atom’s origin and some details of his powers. Captain Atom is charged with unlimited nuclear power, can hurtle through space at fantastic speeds, and is almost indestructible, with superior vision, hearing, and strength.
Meet Captain Adam… the Air Force career man who knew more about rocketry, missiles, and the universe than any man alive… a specialist of the missle age, a trained, dedicated soldier who was a physics prodigy at eight, a chemist, a ballistics genius! In short, Captain Adam was an invaluable space-age soldier even before that memorable day at Cape Canaveral, Florida, when an Atlas missile was being readied for blast-off… with an atomic warhead inside… and Captain Adam making the final last second adjustments!
GCD credits the story to Joe Gill and the art to Steve Ditko. They say Ditko’s signature appears, but I can’t prove that. Maybe someone has better eyes than I do. UPDATE: My readers do have better eyes than I!
I’m curious what happens to Steve Ditko after he leaves Marvel. And the answer can be found before he even leaves Marvel. About 6 months before his last Spider-Man and Dr. Strange story appear, his work starts showing up from other publishers. The first work to grace newsstands is a return to his character, Captain Atom, published almost concurrently with Amazing Spider-Man #32, part of the story that reads like Ditko’s last Spider-Man story.
I thought it would be good to check out that story, but for context I thought it would be worth first going back to the creation of the character, which came out over 2 years before the first Spider-Man story.
We’ll retroactively place this in the reading order alongside the comics concurrent to Captain Atom’s return.
Before Spider-Man and Dr. Strange, Steve Ditko teamed with writer Joe Gill to create Captain Atom. Let’s check out his first adventure from 1960.
Featuring: Spider-Man Release: April 12, 1966 Cover: July 1966 12 cents Written and edited by Stan Lee Plotted and drawn by Steve Ditko Lettered, unfettered by Artie Simek 20 pages
We come at last to the final Steve Ditko Spider-Man story. We just saw the final Steve Ditko Dr. Strange story. One thing they have in common is awful covers. My best guess is Ditko had resigned before turning in a cover for either. So like the Dr. Strange cover, this cover is cut and paste from Ditko’s artwork within the issue.
Here are the interior panels the cover cribs from:
I’ve been pretty clear that the saga of the Amazing Spider-Man as told by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko is basically my favorite story ever. I won’t belabor why any further than I have in the posts on the last 37 issues.
I’d also been pretty clear that I thought that story ended extremely well with issue 33. And that these last 5 issues represent a step down in quality, and a story that no longer seems to be going anywhere in particular.
I find it unfortunate that that was not Ditko’s final issue of Spider-Man. As the man says, it’s better to burn out than to fade away. I wish he’d gone out at the top of his game.
That excellent climax of the Spider-Man saga came out the same month as the excellent climax of the Dr. Strange saga in Strange Tales #141. Both series then went at the same time into a phase I’ve described as “spinning their wheels”. Where any of the next 4 months of issues could have been removed with minimal consequence. Ditko had one more great Dr. Strange story in him, a final confrontation between Dormammu and Eternity.
Does he have one more great Spider-Man story in him?
It’s worth nothing that the last several issues have not been bad and they have their charms. Despite the small number, this phase can actually be broken into two subphases. Issues 34-35 pit Spider-Man against returning foes, Kraven and Molten Man respectively. Some minimal advancement to the romantic supblots surrounded by action that is well told, but not adding much to Spider-Man’s previous encounters with these villains.
Issues 36-38 take a different tactic. They all introduce new villains, none of whom will become the iconic villains that the rest of the series had introduced. But all are interesting in their own right, and all have stories that center around them. Spider-Man becomes almost a secondary character, as we get to know the Looter and the Robot Master.
And they’re actually good comics, taken on their own terms, and not compared to the expectation of Spider-Man comics we’d developed over the previous 4 years of stories. Just offbeat tales about some offbeat characters who run into Spider-Man, tales that function more as satire than drama.
This falls into that mold. The story, Ditko’s final Spider-Man story, isn’t really about Spider-Man. It’s about this guy named Joe.
Hello faithful readers. I am here to apologize. My goal is to get a post out at least every week, but suddenly it’s been two months since the last post. Some travel, some illness, some other life things. And before I know it, a week behind becomes two months behind. I unfortunately still have a lot of travel in the coming months, but will strive to get back onto that at-least-once-per-week rotation. And hopefully even more frequent than that.
The slowdown began with the last post just being a difficult one, as we need to bid farewell to Steve Ditko’s time at Marvel comics. A more-complicated-than-usual post intersected with other life demands, and I fell behind.
Anyways, sorry this next post is so late, but look for it soon!
Featuring: Dr. Strange Release: April 12, 1966 Cover: July 1966 12 cents Edited by the enchanter– Stan Lee Penciled + inked by the prestidigitator– Steve Ditko Scripted by the sorcerer– Dennis O’Neil Lettered by the letterer– Artie Simek 10 pages
We recently described Fantastic Four #50 as the most disappointing cover yet. This may top it. Again, just compare the cover of the issue to the first page of the issue and see the contrast.
This is sad because it’s Ditko’s last Dr. Strange story, and because Dr. Strange has been snubbed from the covers of Strange Tales for the entire run. Even more insulting because the spotlight was instead given to the inferior Human Torch stories. The one time Dr. Strange was finally given the cover spotlight, Kirby, not Ditko, was assigned to draw it.
So here we are, Ditko’s final issue of one of the greatest superhero runs in history and finally we seemingly get our very first Ditko Dr. Strange cover. Except it’s a lie.
That is a Ditko Dr. Strange but it’s been badly cut and pasted from interior art. Resized, flipped around, generally mangled. The Eternity image is also cut and paste from the interior.
I don’t believe Ditko actually made this cover, though it’s generally credited to him. I think someone else made the cover, assembling bits of interior art by Ditko.
I hate it.
The issue is good. This first page is closer to what the cover should look like.
I’d given a lot of hype to this extended saga, which I’m calling “The Eternity Saga”. And I think the first 12 issues are unimpeachable. From #130-141, the action flows crisply to a climax, ending with the final defeat of Mordo and Dr. Strange and Dormammu in something of a stalemate after Strange’s humbling of Dormammu. The story then completely lost momentum as Dr. Strange dealt with Mordo’s underlings and searched for the woman who had helped him, facing some unrelated threats along the way. The last 4 issues have been solid comics, but don’t help make the case that we have a great 17-part saga. We have a great 12-part saga, then 4 more issues, then this conclusion.
Let’s see how Ditko brings this home. And this will be bringing it home. With this story, Ditko bids goodbye to Marvel for the foreseeable future and to the character of Dr. Strange forever.
Stan seems utterly indifferent to the importance of the moment. In addition to the sloppy cover, Stan has junior writer Dennis O’Neil onboard for his second Dr. Strange story and one of his earliest comics, period. It doesn’t matter too much who the writer is, as Ditko does most of the writing anyway. O’Neil will stay on the title a few more issues, but soon enough move to DC, where he will go on to great things.
