Featuring: Giant-Man and Wasp Release: December 2, 1963 Cover: March 1964 12 cents Story by: Daring Stan Lee Art by: Dazzling Dick Ayers Lettering by: Dynamic S. Rosen 18 pages
Porcupine is only Dr. Pym’s second recurring villain. Egghead was the first.
Giant-Man’s costume seems to be undergoing frequent slight alterations. I’m not sure what’s going on with the black suspenders. They may be adjustable. Whatever is going on, this issue they seem to form an “x” on his back.
Featuring: Human Torch Release: November 12, 1964 Cover: February, 1964 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Illustrated by: Dick Ayers Lettered by: Art Simek 14 pages
Hey, look. Dr. Strange has become popular enough that the cover mentions his name in a little text box.
Johnny plans to “streak to the prison”. That could easily be misinterpreted.
The Eel was released from prison having served his sentence. Let’s think that through. He stole Project X. I’m certain that would qualify as felony theft. Even with good behavior, that should carry a minimum 10 months in prison. That is to say, Johnny should have been able to finish a school year in the time the Eel should have been in prison. It’s not exactly clear how old Johnny is, but I’d taken him to be 17 and a senior in high school. Too much younger and you really have to wonder what Reed was doing taking him into space in a stolen experimental spacecraft. They were explicit that one new school year had begun between the start of the Fantastic Four series and the start of this series. And we know he has a driver’s license. I also take Spider-Man to be a senior in high school, though they’re not explicit about that either.
Featuring: Giant-Man and Wasp Release: November 6, 1963 Cover: February 1964 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Illustrated by: Dick Ayers 18 pages
This story is 18 pages. They’d been seeming to have trouble filling 13, but 18 will be the new norm. The 5-page difference is made up for by the lack of a science fiction backup, save the tale the Wasp tells. An era is soon coming to an end.
While I mostly think of him and appreciate him as an inker, I’d like to note that Dick Ayers is a pretty solid draftsman in this issue. I complained recently about his Strange Tales work with George Roussos. But, inking himself, he gives a very clean take on these characters.
We meet the new Black Knight, Professor Garrett. He’d been a spy busted by Giant-Man. He fled the country to his castle in the Balkans. (Yes, another super-villain with a castle; at least this one’s in a part of the world with lots of castles.) He used his science knowledge to genetically engineer a winged horse and build a lance that has all kinds of weapons attached.
In particular, his lance can melt metal. Since that’s the only power of the Melter, the Melter would feel pretty useless if the two ever teamed up.
The Human Torch In the Clutches of the Puppet Master!
Featuring: Human Torch Release: October 8, 1963 Cover: January 1964 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Drawn by: Dick Ayers Inked by : Geo. Bell 13 pages
Can’t say I care much for the Ayers/Roussos team on art. Not sure what they’re doing in their rendering of the Thing.
Stan gives an acknowledgement this issue that the story is inspired by an idea from Tommy and Jimmy Goodkind. These were the children of a friend of Stan’s, who lived in his neighborhood.
Featuring: Giant-Man and Wasp Release: October 1, 1963 Cover: January 1964 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Drawn by: Jack Kirby Inked by: Dick Ayers 13 pages
This continues the story of the previous issue. This is arguably the first real 2-part story we’ve seen. The Fantastic Four took two issues to defeat Dr. Doom in Fantastic Four #16–17. But as one encounter was in the Micro-World alongside Ant-Man, and the other was not, it could be argued those were two different stories, the main plot of issue 16 being resolved. Here, issue 50 clearly ended with a note the story was to be continued. Nothing was resolved. So that makes this something of a milestone within our reading.
Featuring: Human Torch Release: September 10, 1963 Cover: December 1963 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Drawn by: Dick Ayers 13 pages
Stan really doesn’t know what he has. Strange Tales #115 includes one of Marvel’s all-time greatest stories, yet the cover shows not a hint of that. It focuses entirely on a mediocre Human Torch tale.
We get another villain crossover. We haven’t seen too many yet. Dr. Doom has shown up in the pages of Spider-Man. That’s pretty much the only one unless you want to count Loki showing up in the Avengers.
But now, Spider-Man’s foe Sandman will menace the Human Torch. Spider-Man himself might pop in to say hello. (Actually, he’ll pop in to express that he’s upset Human Torch took on his villain.)
Featuring: Human Torch Release: August 8, 1963 Cover: November 1963 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Drawn by: Jack Kirby Inked by: Dick Ayers 18 pages
Why did we choose now to review the origin of Captain America? Because Captain America is returning. “From out of the Golden Age of Comics”, the cover says. Not sure if we’ve yet seen that term in our reading. The era we are reading has been dubbed the Marvel Age.
Weird that he’d choose the Antique Auto Show of Glenville, Long Island to make his return after a decade-long absence.
Captain America and Human Torch get into a fight. Superheroes often do that when they meet.
Featuring: Fantastic Four Release: August 8, 1963 Cover: November 1963 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Drawn by: Jack Kirby Inked by: Dick Ayers 22 pages
“This proves that some form of life must exist in outer space!”
Reed.
You’ve fought the Skrulls twice. You’ve traveled to Planet X, and transported its population to another planet. You’ve met the Impossible Man and the Watcher. You’re about to meet the Watcher again this issue. You’ve seen the ruins of a lost civilization on the moon.
Plus, if you’ve been paying attention, you would have noted earth has been recently invaded by several other alien races, from the Toad Men to the Stone Men from Saturn.
Of course there’s some form of life in outer space!
Maybe I’m misinterpreting. Perhaps he’s not speaking of other worlds or moons or even spaceships, but within space itself.
Featuring: Fantastic Four Release: July 9, 1963 Cover: October 1963 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Drawn by: Jack Kirby Inking: Dick Ayers 22 pages
This bears some resemblance to the Iron Man story where he traveled to Ancient Egypt to battle a time-traveling Pharaoh (Pharoah?). Of course, this is much better.
Mr. Fantastic deduces from some museum hieroglyphs that blindness had once been cured in Ancient Egypt. So the Fantastic Four return to the castle where they first met Dr. Doom, where we find his time machine has just been sitting there this whole time. They use the machine to travel to a time when Egypt was ruled by Rama-Tut, who came from the future. Similar to Zarrko, Rama-Tut has been bored with the peace of his time and craved adventure.
I feel like you should have gone back for this equipment before now…
Attempting to reflect on what future comics will do with this story hurts my brain. There will be contradictions and explanations. Rama-Tut will be connected to several other time-traveling characters. And they’ll further explore this moment in history to learn Apocalypse, Dr. Strange, and the Avengers are lurking around behind the scenes. We’ll spend no more time on such reflections until we need to.
Featuring: Human Torch Release: July 9, 1963 Cover: October 1963 12 cents Story plot: Stan Lee Script: Joe Carter Art: Dick Ayers 13 pages
Once again, Superman creator Jerry Siegel takes on a Human Torch script under the pen name Joe Carter. His scripts seem a cut above what we are used to from Human Torch stories, but it’s a pretty low bar.
Get it… “flame”.
We have seen Johnny on many dates both in this title and the pages of Fantastic Four. It’s been a different girl each time. But this issue seems different. He has a date with Doris Evans, and he describes himself as her “flame”. Puns aside, this suggests something more serious than his usual dalliances. Perhaps it is because Dorrie plays a little hard to get. She is willing to go out with Johnny, but seems to dislike his Human Torch persona. She’s clearly dating him despite his celebrity. The fact that she is given a full name is another hint this one is special.
