Strange Tales #142

Featuring: Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD
Release: December 9, 1965
Cover: March 1966
12 cents
Stan Lee, writer! (Our answer to Bond)
Jack Kirby, penciller! (Our answer to UNCLE)
Mike Demeo, inker! (Our answer to Brand echh)
Artie Simek, letterer! (Our answer to Rosen)
12 pages

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Amazing Spider-Man #37	Reading order	Strange Tales #142, Story B
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We’re a team, blast it! We trained month after month ta live like a team– fight like a team– die like a team!

I’d like to open this post with a happy birthday to the issue’s artist, Jack Kirby. He would be 106 years old today.

The story breaks have become increasingly unclear. Last issue seemed to both end the Hydra saga and begin this Mentallo/Fixer saga we find ourselves embroiled in. We took a pause at the end of the last issue, so let’s recall where we were.

Hydra was finally defeated, the Supreme Hydra murdered by his own agents; Nick allowed his daughter Agent H to escape because he had a soft spot for her. We were then introduced to the “Thinkers”, SHIELD’s ESP division. Mentallo had been a former agent of this division, who had gone rogue. Mentallo decides to form an alliance with a villainous inventor called the Fixer. And Nick Fury realizes Mentallo must be stopped at all costs.

This issue opens with a robot out of control. Lee, as the narrator, lets us know this robot has nothing to do with the main story. Sometimes it feels as though he is offering his commentary on Kirby’s storytelling as we go.

But whatever, Stan. Check out Jack’s awesome robot design!

After this unrelated robot episode, we return to Mentallo, seeking out the Fixer in his underwater lair.

Nick has to make a phone call. Kirby makes even the phones seem fancy and dramatic.

He checks on a SHIELD operation to recover Inferno 42, and expresses concern about Batroc the Leaper. The editor’s note clues us in that we’ll meet Batroc in the month’s Captain America story, which we’ll be sure to read soon. (Hopefully next week, life permitting.)

Kirby gives a large portion of the page to the digging vehicle, basically to show off his design.

Fury describes the Fixer as in Stark’s class as a weapons designer, but Mentallo describes him as a “poor man’s Tony Stark.”

A lot is happening in these issues. Hydra. Mentallo. Fixer. A reference to Batroc. And now a reference to something called Them. Them is an organization that is a secret benefactor to the Fixer. Mentallo wants to know more but Fixer won’t tell him. Can’t Mentallo read minds? Isn’t that his whole shtick? We won’t learn any more this issue about who Them is (are?).

Mentallo and Fixer invade SHIELD HQ. Some ground-based HQ, not the Helicarrier. SHIELD has protective walls, but Fixer’s Jericho tubes create a sonic pitch to destroy the walls. They are presumably named for the biblical Jericho, whose walls were brought down by Joshua’s army blowing horns.

The story ends with Fury the prisoner and mental slave of the villains. And of course a reminder of the series’ tagline: “Don’t yield! Back SHIELD!”

Let’s check out the month’s Marvel Bullpen Bulletins.

• Stan claims the reason for the line-up change in Avengers was to make tighter continuity by not having heroes appear in multiple comics. Also citing this as the reason for the change in Strange Tales, where Human Torch and Thing no longer star. Of course Cap appears in two comics a month now, and Giant-Man and Wasp don’t appear in any. (Though we’ll see soon that they’ll guest star in this month’s Sub-Mariner story, perhaps hinting at a comeback.)
• Stan’s explains how the Marvel Method works. These explanations are always worth noting, as this method of working is the root of many a controversy surrounding Lee. In his telling, he gives the germ of the story to Kirby/Heck/Ayers (Ditko not mentioned); they make up the details as they draw and plot the story. Then Lee takes the art and adds dialogue and captions.
• Stan mentions Johnny Hayes, the business manager and circulation director, who I confess to knowing little about.
• Fantasy Masterpieces will feature work from monsters and aliens from before what Lee calls the “Marvel Age”.

A few directions to go now. Obviously this ended on quite the cliffhanger and we are eager to see what happens next. But the dialogue let us know something is happening in parallel with Batroc and Inferno 42, and we’re curious to check that out. I think we will see one more chapter of the Mentallo/Fixer saga before we see what’s up with Batroc.

But first I want to turn this comic to the next page, where we find it also contains a Dr. Strange story…

Rating: ★★★½, 63/100
Significance: ★★★☆☆

This story gets added to the Best We’ve Read list, displacing the Tales of Asgard story from Journey Into Mystery #103, in which we learned of Thor’s role in the creation of our world.

Characters:

• Wild Bill (robot)
• Colonel Nick Fury
• Mentallo
• Fixer
• ESPer male agent
• ESPer female agent
• ESPer older male agent

Story notes:

• “Wild Bill” robot out of control.
• Scientist working on automatic encephalogram-inducer, for cybernetic visualization– a transistorized innovation from Tony Stark.
• Hypersensitive subjects sit under brainwave stimulator to locate Mentallo.
• Flintstones reference.
• Sensitives locate Mentallo swimming underwater. He seeks Fixer’s hideout and evades the many traps. He offers Fixer a chance to partner to take over SHIELD.
• SHIELD able to telepathically observe the meeting.
• Fury observes training session where men fight with portable distorters, broadcasting inaudible frequencies which upset any opponents’ nervous systems.
• Fury hooked up to intercontinental phone.
• Nick Fury checks in with SHIELD units around the globe; learns Inferno 42 has not been received, and asks to be notified if Batroc the Leaper shows up. Editor’s note points us to Suspense #75.
• Fixer was helped with the construction of a thru-the-ground tank by Them.
• SHIELD dropped protective wall of 20-foot-thick concrete in front of Mentallo and Fixer. Fixer modifies turbo-blowers, transforming them into giant Jericho tubes. His device magnifies sound to a sonic pitch which crumbles the walls.
• Fixer’s static distorter makes communication impossible.
• Mentallo able to mentally detect weakest spot in wall; Fixer places radar crab on area.
• Mentallo senses hidden armaments ahead.
• Mentallo senses Fury and his men behind door.
• Fixer is confident Element Z will bring victory. It seeps through material and paralyzes the agents.
• Electronic mask placed on Fury, which will alter the cerebellar pattern of his brain, making him theirs to command.

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Amazing Spider-Man #37	Reading order	Strange Tales #142, Story B
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