Featuring: Human Torch and Thing
Release: March 11, 1965
Cover: June 1965
12 cents
Written in the magnificent Stan Lee tradition!
Illustrated in the majestic Bob Powell manner!
Inked in the magiloquent Mick Demeo style!
Lettered in the mortgaged Sam Rosen home!
12 pages
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|---|---|---|
| Strange Tales #132 | Reading order | Strange Tales #134 |
| Strange Tales #132, Story B | Strange Tales | Strange Tales #133, Story B |
Due to the tightness of forthcoming FF chronology, we are reading ahead a bit in these Human Torch stories. Since Dr. Strange is still involved in a big saga, we are still holding off on reading Dr. Strange stories.
Dr. Strange at last gets half of the cover, but Kirby’s work here doesn’t quite do justice to the tale Ditko is spinning inside.
Stan notes the story will start in the middle. That is unusual for one of these stories, but it’s a classical storytelling technique, en media res.
This issue promises a surprise twist, an old villain in a new guise. I don’t want to spoil the big surprise.
Actually, I do. It’s the Puppet Master. But he had plastic surgery so nobody would recognize him, including his blind niece. And now he controls giant toys like puppets.
The end.
OK, we’ll give some more detail. Uh, a cat shows up.
And it should be noted this is the last appearance of Human Torch’s girlfriend, Doris Evans.
In general, the Fantastic Four title has rarely mentioned the existence of its embarrassing sibling title. In particular, Dorrie has never shown up or been mentioned in the FF comic. Until recently, I would have said the FF title never mentioned this series. But that has started to change. In particular, three Human Torch villains recently united to form the Frightful Four.
The main title will soon acknowledge the existence of Human Torch’s girlfriend as well. But not depict her. Just mention her in order to write her out and make room for Johnny’s next girlfriend.
Dorrie and Johnny already seemed to be dating when we first met her in Strange Tales #113, and she was definitely his girlfriend by issue 114. Before that (and concurrently in FF pages), he seemed to have a lot of interested girls.
Her big thing was that she liked Johnny, but didn’t like him as the Human Torch, a subversion of the more common trope where the girl loves the hero, but not the secret identity. Dorrie occasionally would grudgingly admit he did some good as the Torch.
This story, like many recent ones, featured a double date between Johnny/Dorrie and Ben/Alicia. Dorrie and Alicia had obviously become good friends. The story ends without fanfare. Just a trip to an art exhibit gone wrong. No hint that Dorrie is bowing out of the series.
The truth is, we don’t know Dorrie well, as she rarely showed up for more than a few panels each issue.
She is best compared to Alicia or to Sgt. Fury’s girlfriend Pam Hawley, both characters whose development has had to fit into relatively few panels. But both are characters with more going on than Dorrie. Alicia is blind, but a brilliant sculptor, and she loves a monster of a man, while living in the shadow of her villainous step-father. Pam’s story begins in tragedy, with the death of her traitorous brother; she is the daughter of a wealthy lord who volunteers as a nurse, performing acts of bravery during the Blitz, all while trying to teach Nick how to be a gentleman. Dorrie just doesn’t quite have the same depth to her as those two women.
Of course, nobody is as well-developed as the characters in Amazing Spider-Man, so Dorrie can’t be compared to the remarkably fleshed out Betty Brant or Liz Allen.
But she is a better character with a better depicted relationship than the interchangeable love interest characters: Jane Foster, Pepper Potts, and Karen Page.
Betty Ross we also haven’t gotten to know well. Dorrie has more going on so far than she does character-wise. And by default, Betty is better than Jane, Pepper, or Karen.
Dorrie will show up again every couple decades when a writer decides to check in on her, but this is goodbye for the foreseeable future.
Bye, Dorrie.
Rating: ★★½, 42/100
Significance: ★☆☆☆☆
You can find this story in Marvel Masterworks: Human Torch vol. 2 or The Human Torch & The Thing: Strange Tales – The Complete Collection. Or on Kindle.
Characters:
- Human Torch/Johnny Storm
- Thing/Benjamin Grimm
- Puppet Master
- Alicia
- Dorrie Evans
Story notes:
- Art exhibit in department store.
- Cat accidentally helps Puppet Master discover new chemi-ray process to control living statues.
- Reference to Strange Tales #126.
- Nuclear-powered automatic clamp, mechanical ice queen.
- Puppet Master turned into mannequin.
- Puppet Master had undergone plastic surgery.
- Final appearance of Doris Evans.
| Previous | Next | |
|---|---|---|
| Strange Tales #132 | Reading order | Strange Tales #134 |
| Strange Tales #132, Story B | Strange Tales | Strange Tales #133, Story B |
Strangely, nothing is said about Alicia’s relationship with her father. Surely Ben would have at least one word balloon to tell Johnny to not mention this – Alicia’s had enough heartbreak.
That one line would add much to her character – maybe another explaining why Alicia is able to enjoy the paintings. Statues, sure – but how well does Dorrie describe those paintings???