Tales of Suspense #60, Story B

The Army of Assassins Strikes!

Featuring: Captain America
Release: September 8, 1864
Cover: December 1964
12 cents
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Jack Kirby
Inked by: Chic Stone
Lettered by: Art Simek
10 pages

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Tales of Suspense #60Reading orderAvengers #10
Tales of Suspense #60Tales of SuspenseTales of Suspense #61

Last issue, Captain America fought a gang of generic villains in purple jumpsuits. This issue, the generic villains are wearing green jumpsuits and work for Zemo. “Army of Assassins” may be their official name, as it’s used repeatedly.

There really won’t be much in the way of a story here, so what value we find will have to be in dramatic expressions and posing, and of course in the high energy action on display. I suspect Kirby will come through.

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Avengers #10

The Avengers Break Up!

Featuring: Avengers
Release: September 8, 1964
Cover: November 1964
12 cents
Story superbly written by: Stan Lee
Art adorably drawn by: Don Heck
Inked by darlin’ Dick Ayers
Lettered by stalwart Sam Rosen
20 pages

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Tales of Suspense #60, Story BReading orderJourney Into Mystery #110
Avengers #9AvengersAvengers #11

The issue’s title is “The Avengers Break Up”. Yet, at no point in the issue do the Avengers appear to break up. Instead, characters go to great lengths repeatedly to explain the title via the dialogue. “Now that Thor’s over there and Iron Man’s across the room, it’s basically like they’ve broken up.”

The Heck/Ayers art looks much as it did last issue, which I see as a negative. I’ll give them credit for a couple nice panels. A trippy one of Immortus and an easy-on-the-eyes Enchantress.

We get a weirdly sexist moment in an era filled with weirdly sexist moments. I don’t know if I’m ready to claim it’s the worst, but it’s up there. Iron Man recommends giving Rick Jones a uniform and making him an official Avenger. “…why don’t we make his membership in the Avengers official, as the Wasp’s is…”

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Tales to Astonish #62, Story B

Enter… The Chameleon!

Featuring: Hulk
Release: September 1, 1964
Cover: December 1964
12 cents
Sensationally scripted by: Stan Lee
Dynamically drawn by: Steve Ditko
Impeccably inked by: George Bell
Lovingly lettered by: Sam Rosen
10 pages

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Tales to Astonish #62Tales to AstonishTales to Astonish #63

Even if he escapes this mess, the status quo is unsustainable. If Hulk might revert to Banner at any moment and has no control… he can’t keep that identity a secret.

In a recent issue of Amazing Spider-Man, we remarked the Enforcers were distinguished from other super-villains in that they were content to be lackeys, serving a major super-villain. Most of the super-villains are to arrogant to serve anybody, a plot point whenever two try to team up. The other “lackey” villains we’ve met are Dr. Doom’s Terrible Trio and Magneto’s Evil Mutants. The Terrible Trio tried to make the leap from lackeys to being their own bosses with limited success. Magneto’s mutants only serve him, while the Enforcers are clearly for-hire.

Chameleon is the first villain we see make the leap from super-villain to lackey. He’d teamed up twice with Kraven, but those seemed more like partnerships. Now, he works for the Leader. Chameleon has been getting around. Originally a Spider-Man foe, he recently fought the Avengers, and now faces off against Hulk.

More than the major crossovers, I like the cameos. I like that Captain America can just show up for a panel if the story calls for it. Makes the universe feel cohesive.

I’m loathe to call this the introduction of the Leader since we don’t see his face. I suspect Ditko hadn’t even finished designing him yet.

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Amazing Spider-Man #18

The End of Spider-Man!

Featuring: Spider-Man (for the moment)
Release: August 11, 1964
Cover: November 1964
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee, author of “The Fantastic Four”
Illustrated by: Steve Ditko, illustrator of “Dr. Strange”
Lettered by: Sam Rosen, letterer of… “Patsy Walker”???
22 pages

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Amazing Spider-Man #17Reading orderStrange Tales #126
Amazing Spider-Man #17Amazing Spider-ManAmazing Spider-Man #19

Check out that cover. Quite the contrast with pretty much every other superhero cover. The superhero is usually portrayed as tough, dramatically standing against the odds. In the worst case, the cover might show the villain winning, but the superhero remains defiant. This one has Spider-Man cowering and hiding from the villain.

In this story, Peter decides to quit being Spider-Man. He’s thought about it before, but he’s about to actually quit for the first time. It won’t be the last time, or even necessarily the most famous time. A similar story will get told and retold across decades of Spider-Man stories and even make its way into Spider-Man 2. (More directly, the film borrowed from Amazing Spider-Man #50, which borrowed from this issue.)

Note we’re reading this and the last issue together because they make a strong arc when read together. In terms of continuity, it has been weeks since the conclusion of the last issue, so it’s likely several other heroes’ adventures we’ve read occurred in the interim.

The story begins with everybody reacting to Spider-Man’s retreat: heroes, villains, people on the street… guy can’t run away from a single fight without everybody having an opinion. Ditko is great at people reacting to things.

Wasp notes that wasps and spiders are natural enemies. Always found that a weird thing to say. But she’s said it before and she’ll say it again; it’s an obsession of hers whenever the topic of Spider-man comes up.

This is an excellent comic for helping shape the nature of the relationship between Human Torch and Spider-Man. They’ve had some banter and conflict before, but also teamed up. A friendly rivalry. We saw how friendly last issue when Johnny attended the Spider-Man Fan Club meeting and then was quick to help Spider-Man against the Goblin. Now, he seems uncertain. He witnessed Spider-Man’s cowardice firsthand, but still wants to think better of his friend.

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Avengers #9

The coming of the… Wonder Man!

Featuring: Avengers
Release: August 11, 1964
Cover: October 1964
12 cents
Sensationally written by: Stan Lee
Superbly illustrated by: Don Heck
Selectively inked by: Dick Ayers
Sufficienty lettered by: Art Simek
21 pages

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Tales of Suspense #59, Story BReading orderSgt. Fury #11
Avengers #8AvengersAvengers #10

To ring in the new year, we get the debut of a promising new character with a solid design aesthetic: Wonder Man.

I have questioned characters whose logos are just letters, but at least the “W” here is nicely stylized.

That title is probably the last time he is ever referred to as “the Wonder Man”.

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Tales of Suspense #59, Story B

Captain America

Featuring: Captain America
Release: August 11, 1964
Cover: November 1964
12 cents
Author: Stan Lee
Illustrator: Jack Kirby
Inked by: Chic Stone
Lettered by: S. Rosen
10 pages

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Tales of Suspense #59Reading orderAvengers #9
Tales of Suspense #59Tales of SuspenseTales of Suspense #60

Captain America is back with his own series, more or less. He doesn’t get the title of the magazine, but he gets a regular feature. He and Iron Man will be sharing Tales of Suspense. Very few characters get the title of the magazine. Daredevil and Spider-Man are special like that.

Captain America of course debuted in his own self-titled mag, Captain America Comics, way back in 1941. He was one of Marvel’s most popular superheroes for the entire decade. His comic was then retitled into Captain America’s Weird Tales for its final two issues to focus on the burgeoning horror genre. The final issue in 1950 didn’t even feature Captain America.

They tried a revival of the Captain America series in 1954, but it only lasted three issues. Fans were not as interested in seeing Cap smash Commies as they had been seeing him battle the Nazis a decade earlier.

Ten years later, they’re ready to try again. This time, the character will endure. Within 4 years, they’ll change the title of this comic to Captain America and that series will basically continue (with the occasional renumbering) to the present, over 55 years later.

All that said, this series doesn’t quite begin with a bang.

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Tales of Suspense #59

The Black Knight!

Featuring: Iron Man
Release: August 11, 1964
Cover: November 1964
12 cents
Never has a Stan Lee script, or Don Heck artwork been greater!
13 pages

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Tales of Suspense #58, Story BTales of SuspenseTales of Suspense #59, Story B

As the cover indicates, it’s a moment of big change for this title. The science fiction tales are gone, and the horror stories (or tales of suspense) this title was founded on are long gone. But gone now also are the Watcher stories, which blurred the line between the older science fiction tales and our new superhero ones.

Henceforth, this title will contain two stories: an Iron Man adventure and a Captain America adventure.

Captain America’s return has been successful enough to give him his own title, but Marvel is still artificially limited in the number of titles it can publish, and seemingly reluctant to get rid of titles, preferring to repurpose them. Thus Captain America and Iron Man have to share a book. Just as Hulk has to share Tales to Astonish with Giant-Man and Wasp, and as Dr. Strange has been sharing Strange Tales with Human Torch and Thing.

Recall that Professor Nathan Garrett adopted the identity of Black Knight and fought Giant-Man and Wasp. He was not the first Black Knight, but the first of modern times. He genetically engineered a flying horse and built an arsenal of gadgets and weapons, primarily his multifunctional lance.

The fancy credits neglect the contributions of Chic Stone and Art Simek.

Having been defeated, he agreed to join the Masters of Evil to fight Giant-Man and the rest of the Avengers.

Having been defeated by the team of superheroes he attacked, he now wants revenge, and so is planning to attack the Avengers individually. He begins with Iron Man, starting with an attack on Stark’s factory.

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Fantastic Four #31

The Mad Menace of the Macabre Mole Man!

Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: July 9, 1964
Cover: October 1964
Written by: Stan Lee, the man with the talented typewriter!
Illustrated by: Jack Kirby, the man with the power-packed pencil!
Inked by: Chic Stone, the man with the panoramic paint-brush!
Lettered by: S. Rosen, the man with the leaky lettering pen!
21 pages

I’d like to reflect back to Fantastic Four #11. Things were revealed there which are contrary to my general impression of these characters. Some key facts were that Reed and Ben had served in World War II. Prior to the war, they had both finished college. Further, he and Sue were sweethearts prior to the war.

We did a lot of math about what that meant, math I’m sure Stan Lee never did. But he must have had some sense of what he was saying. He had been a sergeant himself in World War II. He must have known that claiming Reed and Ben served in the same war he did made them about his age. He similarly knew that it was quite odd to have a sweetheart for 20 years and still not be married. He must have known these things.

The one thing I suspect he didn’t think about was that Johnny was in high school. This necessarily put a gap of almost twenty years in age between brother and sister. I have a friend whose brother is 30 years older than he, so I know this is possible. But I really don’t think Stan intended it.

Stan certainly gives the impression in the stories that Reed has let Sue stay single too long, but I assume he intends to mean she should have been married by 23 and she’s now like 26 or something. But that’s inconsistent with the World War II facts, which suggests she’s pushing 40 and still unmarried, but with at least two suitors.

Either way, Johnny is in high school. And whether his sister is ten or twenty years older than he, she is definitely much older and seems to be his guardian. There has been no mention of parents.

Until now.

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Tales of Suspense #58

In Mortal Combat with Captain America!

Featuring: Iron Man
Release: July 9, 1964
Cover: October 1964
12 cents
Every word you are about to read was written by ol’ faithful Stan Lee, one of the world’s most prolific script writers!
Every drawing you are about to marvel at, was created by Don Heck, one of America’s most promising illustrators!
Every bit of inking you are about to savor was done by Dick Ayers, one of the industry’s most painstaking artists!
Every sentence you are about to scan was hand-printed by Sam Rosen, one of Marvel’s most perspicuous letterers!
18 pages

The story begins with Iron Man battling a shark. That’s cool.

This story will guest star Captain America. Remember in Strange Tales #123 when Thing was a guest star, and then he was sharing title billing by issue 124? Or how Hulk was a guest star in Tales to Astonish #59, and then had his own regular feature in Tales to Astonish #60? I don’t know why I’m bringing those up.

Kraven and Chameleon return to America after their most recent deportations. Iron Man catches Kraven sneaking ashore, but Chameleon gets away.

I really appreciate the battle between Iron Man and Kraven. So often in superhero comics, they exaggerate the threat the villain poses against the hero. This has been a particularly pernicious problem with heroes as powerful as Thor and Iron Man, who tend to outclass their villains. It is thus rather refreshing to see the battle between Iron Man and Kraven resolved within 3 panels, as it should be.

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Avengers #8

Kang, the Conqueror!

Featuring: Avengers
Release: July 9, 1964
Cover: September 1964
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee (our answer to Victor Hugo!)
Illustrated by: Jack Kirby (our answer to Rembrandt!)
Inked by: Dick Ayers (our answer to Automation!)
Lettered by: Sam Rosen (our answer to Artie Simek!)
21 pages

This is more like it.

If you look to Amazing Spider-Man, you’ll see that Lee and Ditko introduced 6 super-villains in 7 issues (Chameleon, Vulture, Tinkerer, Dr. Octopus, Sandman, Lizard), and the pace hasn’t slowed down by issue 16. By contrast, over 7 issues Avengers introduced the Space Phantom and Zemo.

So it’s good that we’re getting a new villain at all. More than that, it’s good that this villain is plausibly a threat to the Avengers. That’s what they should be about, after all. Threats so great no single hero can stand against them. It’s also great this is an independent menace. Too much of the series was focused on internal squabbles or villains whose sole goal was to defeat the Avengers.

Kang is actually here to conquer the world. He’s tough enough that it’s going to take a team of superheroes to stop him.

Thank god Rick Jones is there for the Pentagon top priority meeting.

Technically speaking, Kang’s perhaps not a new villain. But close enough. While we’re being technical, Zemo was perhaps introduced in Sgt. Fury.

Of more personal significance, this is the oldest Avengers comic I actually own. I have a complete run of Avengers comics starting with issue 31 and going until I stopped collecting them in 2007. And then I have a handful of older issues, starting with this one.

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