Featuring: Human Torch
Release: June 11, 1963
Cover: September 1963
12 cents
Story plot: Stan Lee
Script: Joe Carter
Art: Dick Ayers
13 pages
Script is by Joe Carter. Carter… Hmmm… I’ve read a lot of comics, but not sure I know the name. Let’s google. Ah, it’s a pen name. No biggie. So is “Stan Lee”. His real name is apparently Jerry Siegel. Ah, apparently he wrote some comics under his own name. Let’s check his bibliography and see if anything sounds familiar.
This seems to be his first Marvel work, but he’d done some stuff for DC (and probably wants to hide that he’s freelancing for Marvel). Often collaborated with Joe Shuster. He co-created Dr. Occult. That’s cool. Oh, and Slam Bradley. I like Slam. And some new members for the Legion of Superheroes like Bouncing Boy and Matter-Eater Lad. That’s quite the resume for this “Jerry Siegel” fella. Almost seems like slumming to work on a lowly Human Torch story for a creator of Slam Bradley. You’d think he’d be rolling in dough from royalties for all the characters he helped create for DC. He created a bunch more characters too, but I think those are the most notable ones.
Is Ted Braddock going to be Johnny Storm’s Jonah Jameson?
No, he repents by the end. Because the Torch saves his son and almost dies to do so. Wait… Spider-Man also saved Jameson’s son, and that didn’t help him at all… Basically, we see that people are pretty fickle. The whole town hates the Torch at the beginning, but seems to love him again by the end.
We meet a new villain, The Eel, a cut above the normal Torch villain. He is one of the few that will become a recurring Marvel baddie, and a solid enough villain. He’s got eel powers, plus his own helicopter-thingie, and a secret headquarters in an aquarium.
As they go, this is a pretty involved Human Torch story plotwise. We meet a new super-villain, but actually get a separate story out of him, as he doesn’t realize the gizmo he stole is going to explode. We get this media pundit turning the town against Torch. And solid drama between Johnny and his teammates leading up to Johnny’s brush with death. Along with a couple cameo appearances by the Wizard from his prison cell. That’s more plot than most Human Torch stories get by a decent factor.
This seems to be a slang use of “worthy” that is by now archaic. I am unfamiliar with such use.
The last two issues of Strange Tales featured Dr. Strange stories in addition to Human Torch ones. Not so here. Just two one-off “weird tale” backups. A man who awakens a giant statue and a sci/fi story with a cool twist ending. But I have a feeling Dr. Strange will return. Stan is just waiting to see what the reader reaction to those first two stories was.
And, hey, check out this ad…
I’m excited.
Rating: ★★½, 48/100
Significance: ★★★☆☆
I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: The Human Torch vol. 1. You can also find it in The Human Torch & The Thing: Strange Tales – The Complete Collection. Or on Kindle.
Characters:
- Johnny Storm/Human Torch
- Susan Storm/Invisible Girl
- Ted Braddock
- The Eel/Leopold Stryke
- Charles Lawson
- Moxie Gahagan
- Mr. Fantastic
- Wizard
Story notes:
- Everybody in Glenville angry at Johnny.
- Ted Braddock, TV commentator with anti-Torch punditry.
- Lawson a famous inventor; Eel breaks into his lab to steal “Project X”, a miniature radioactive pile. Once exposed to air it will explode in an hour unless a lever is pressed. We later learn Eel also stole Lawson’s aqua attractor gun.
- Eel presses his electro-actuator and costume gives off electric shock.
- Lawson builds transmito device to track Eel.
- Torch absorbs heat of atomic explosion into his body.
- Mr. Fantastic has experimental ray that saves Johnny.
#92 story in reading order
Next: Strange Tales Annual 2
Previous: Fantastic Four #18
