don heck – Coke ⊕ Comics

Tales of Suspense #80, Story B

He Who Holds the Cosmic Cube

Featuring: Captain America
Release: May 10, 1966
Cover: August 1966
12 cents
Stupifying script: Stan Lee
Electifying illustration: Jack Kirby
Dazzling delineation: Don Heck
Luminiferous lettering: Artie Simek
Frantic fund-raising: Irv Forbush
10 pages

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Tales of Suspense #80	Reading order	Tales of Suspense #81, Story B
Tales of Suspense #80	Tales of Suspense	Tales of Suspense #81

So long as evil lives– to muster the forces of bigotry, greed, and oppression– the fight goes on! So long as men take liberty for granted– so long as they laugh at brotherhood– sneer at honesty– and turn away from faith– So long will the forces of the Red Skull creep ever closer to the final victory!

Them is an evil organization. AIM is an ordinary defense contractor. But Fury suspects a connection. Captain America remains unaware of this.

Eisenhower did warn us about the military industrial complex.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. . . .Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. . . . In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

Avengers #31

Never Bug a Giant!

Featuring: Avengers
Release: June 9, 1966
Cover: August 1966
12 cents
Story: Smilin’ Stan Lee
Art: Dazzlin’ Don Heck
Lettering: Adorable Artie Simek
Bugle calls: Honest Irving Forbush
20 pages

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Avengers #30	Reading order	Sgt. Fury #30
Avengers #30	Avengers	Avengers #32

Soon, my limbs shall be swifter than ever before– while your hex power once again shall dazzle and defeat your enemies! All we need is patience, my sister– and an unaltering faith!

The Avengers are off to South America to save Goliath. And presumably will be here when Galactus attacks.

Hawkeye now likes Captain America, but still dislikes orders. As do I, Hawkeye. As do I.

Wasp recalls how they all used to share the command. It’s the first time they’ve really addressed this change. The original team had rotating chairs. The new team had Captain America as permanent leader. Given this, Hawkeye’s annoyance was understandable.

Avengers #30

Frenzy in a Far-Off Land!

Featuring: Avengers
Release: May 10, 1966
Cover: July 1966
12 cents
Stan Lee: Writer
Don Heck: Artist
Frank Giacoia: Inker
Sam Rosen: Letterer
Irving Forbush: Arbitrator
20 pages

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Amazing Spider-Man #38	Reading order	Avengers #31
Avengers #29	Avengers	Avengers #31

But, the past is over now! The past is dead! You are the master no longer! I’m free of you… at last!

We just saw Galactus appear in the middle of New York. There to devour the Earth. The Avengers have a mansion in the middle of New York. Why didn’t they help out?

Well, maybe they were away. Where? Surely not just elsewhere in New York fighting Black Widow. Maybe off wherever the Collector’s castle is? Or in the middle of the Atlantic fighting Attuma? Or perhaps they were in the “Far-Off Land”, as the title suggests. It seems likely they were quite far away.

Now, the Avengers won’t make it to the titular Far-Off Land this issue, but next issue.

And Marvels will claim this is where the Avengers were when Galactus attacked. Which is good enough for me.

Strange Tales #146

When the Unliving Strike!

Featuring: Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD
Release: April 12, 1966
Cover: July 1966
12 cents
Far-fetched script by Stan Lee
Fantastic layouts by Jack Kirby
Fabulous pencilling by Don Heck
Fanciful inking by Mickey Demeo
Freehand lettering by Sam Rosen
12 pages

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Fantastic Four #51	Reading order	Strange Tales #146, Story B
Strange Tales #145, Story B	Strange Tales	Strange Tales #146, Story B

We’re dealin’ with an outfit that can turn out artificial men to do any kinda job… just like Marvel can grind out comic books!

The word of late has been Them. Them financed the Fixer. Them sent a chemical android to attack Nick Fury and Captain America. Them consists of several brilliant scientists.

Spinning right out of the Captain America adventure, Nick Fury has traced that android to this swampland.

In a bit of bravado, and a wink at the other titles, Fury notes that SHIELD agents aren’t superheroes. They don’t always win.

Strange Tales #145

Lo! The Eggs Shall Hatch!

Featuring: Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD
Release: March 10, 1966
Cover: June 1966
12 cents
Writer: Stan Lee
Designer: Jack Kirby
Penciller: Don Heck
Inker: Mickey Demeo
Letterer: Sam Rosen
Badge polisher: Irving Forbush
12 pages

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Strange Tales #144, Story B	Reading order	Strange Tales #145, Story B
Strange Tales #144, Story B	Strange Tales	Strange Tales #145, Story B

A simple smoke grenade should do the job nicely in this instance… and it won’t cost the taxpayers as much as a noisy, explosive grenade! For we guardians of the public trust must ever have the average citizen’s interests close to our hearts!

Quite the opening page. Somewhat disturbing.

Curious if it inspired images in the modern horror series, Locke & Key.

Where were we? The Druid wants to destroy SHIELD for some reason. He pretends to have mystical powers, but technology underpins everything he does. Oh, and we just met the eager new recruit, Jasper Sitwell.

Avengers #29

This Power Unleashed!

Featuring: Avengers
Release: April 12, 1966
Cover: June 1966
12 cents
Savage script by: Stan Lee!
Powerful pencilling by: Don Heck!
Explosive embellishment by: Frank Giacoia!
Lethargic lettering by: Sam Rosen!
20 pages

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Avengers #28	Reading order	Thor #127
Avengers #28	Avengers	Avengers #30

No matter what else… he’ll always be an Avenger! Just as he’ll always be… the man I love!

Frank Giacoia going by his real name for perhaps the first time. He’s usually been under the pen name Frankie Ray or similar.

Dr. Henry Pym. Ant-Man. Giant-Man. Goliath. He who can’t choose a name.

Or a status quo. His latest shtick is that he can only turn exactly 25 feet tall and only for a period of exactly 15 minutes. What happens if he exceeds 15 minutes? We’re about to find out. He did so last issue, then collapsed while shrinking, having gotten down to about 10 feet.

I think it’s cute how quickly all the Avengers have taken to calling him Goliath. There’s probably a lesson for people today to take from this.

Avengers #28

Among Us Walks… A Goliath!

Featuring: Avengers
Release: March 10, 1966
Cover: May 1966
12 cents
Brilliantly conceived by: Stan Lee, writer
Cleverly perpetrated by Don Heck, penciller
Daringly executed by: Frankie Ray, inker
Stoically buried by: Artie Simek, letterer
20 pages

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Avengers #27	Reading order	Avengers #29
Avengers #27	Avengers	Avengers #29

Goliath! I like the sound of that! That’s what I’ll call myself from now on– Goliath!!

Today… Hank Pym will be infamous for having taken on too many superhero identities… but this isn’t new. This was a pretty early feature of the character. In under 5 years, he’s on 3, and sort of 4, identities.

When we met him, he wasn’t a superhero at all, just a scientist named Dr. Henry Pym. A year or so later he jumped on the superhero bandwagon as Ant-Man. Another year down and Lee decided the public wanted more powerful superheroes, so Ant-Man became Giant-Man. Those changes all somewhat made sense. But now… he’s no longer Giant-Man… he’s Goliath. That change seems gratutitous.

With the new name comes a new status quo. But he’s had a lot of status quos already. We attempted to recount in the final issue of his ongoing series, Tales to Astonish #69. The rules just keep changing. He drinks a liquid or takes a pill or uses his mind. And he can only chage size every so often or hold the new size for so often or…

Anyways, now he can grow to 25 feet and only 25 feet and remain that way for exactly 15 minutes, no more, no less.

We’ve met one other Goliath, the biblical one, in Avengers #10.

How does he get the new name anyway? It’s a bit weird. We basically learn it’s happening from the cover and title.

We are getting ahead of ourselves. The story begins with Hank Pym contacting the Avengers to help him find the Wasp. We’d last seen her attempting to escape from Attuma. Of course, they don’t know who Dr. Pym is. Because of secret identites.

Now, as secret identities go… Wasp’s costume often didn’t cover her face… she often called Giant-Man Henry or Hank in the presence of others… Giant-Man’s lab was a well known location where his fan club hung out… the kids Jan read sci/stories to knew she was the Wasp… Hank sometimes did experiments in his own house and one day he accidentally turned giant and came bursting out of his house…

Avengers #27

Four Against the Floodtide!

Featuring: Avengers
Release: February 10, 1966
Cover: April 1966
12 cents
Mad, mixed-up story by Stan Lee
Ickie, insane illustrations by Don Heck
Daffy, dizzy delineation by Frankie Ray
Loony, lampoony lettering by Artie Simek
20 pages

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Avengers #26	Reading order	Avengers #28
Avengers #26	Avengers	Avengers #28

Only a fool– or a liar– says he’s never afraid, Wanda!

A lot of plot threads to pick up on from last issue. Namor headed to New York (though we’ve already seen how that plays out in the pages of Tales to Astonish). Dr. Pym busy with research on ship. Other Avengers captured in attempt to rescue Wasp. Attuma engaging them in trial combat to impress men, as the sea poured in. Hawkeye in a coma attempting to remember his password. A mysterious figure in the shadows. Wasp has escaped Atttuma but her fate is unknown.

The password thing is quite funny. People forget their passwords at work and need to call IT support to get it reset. No such backup here. Hawkeye must hook himself up to a fancy memory-jogging machine.

But the number he couldn’t remember was 1313. How hard is that? It’s not like the password was something actually secure like _b9<Jgu_X^TZDS.

Avengers #26

The Voice of the Wasp!

Featuring: Avengers
Release: January 11, 1966
Cover: March 1966
12 cents
Incredible script by: Stan Lee
Inconceivable art by: Don Heck
Indescribable inking by: Frank Ray
Indelible lettering by: Artie Simek
20 pages

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Tales to Astonish #80	Reading order	Avengers #27
Avengers #25	Avengers	Avengers #27

He endures so much– to hold the Avengers together! And yet– none can help him! He walks– alone!

A recap. Giant-Man and the Wasp left the Avengers in Avengers #16. Then in Tales to Astonish #69, they agreed it was time to retire from superheroing and work on their relationship. And presumably on Pym’s scientific interests as well. Flash forward to Tales to Astonish #77 and Hank’s experiments involve drilling into the ocean to learn the secrets of life. These experiments are wreaking havoc on Namor’s domain. This leads to conflict. Namor breaks their equipment and then decides to head to New York. In a nonsensical plot decision, Jan decides to become the Wasp once more to race Namor across the ocean to New York. But she’s the size of a wasp, and can presumably fly at about the speed of a wasp. She obviously can’t cross an ocean. But she tries anyway.

Unsurprisingly, we haven’t heard from her since. Surprisingly, we will hear from her again.

I’d like to start thinking about something as we read the next several Avengers comics. At some point very soon, the Fantastic Four are going to fight a massive global threat, one the Avengers probably should have helped them with. The Avengers do not show up to help, which implies the Avengers are busy. So let’s be on the lookout for where the Avengers might be at the time that they don’t notice a very noticeable world-ending threat.

Avengers #25

Enter… Dr. Doom!

Featuring: Avengers
Release: December 9, 1965
Cover: February 1966
12 cents
Writer: Stan Lee
Penciller: Don Heck
Inker: Dick Ayers
Letterer: Sam Rosen
20 pages

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Sgt. Fury #25	Reading order	Fantastic Four #44
Avengers #24	Avengers	Avengers #26

The blind fools! They do not realize that Doom cares nothing for them! He merely plays a role for purposes of his own! Truly, he is evil incarnate! If only the simple peasants could see it!

The Avengers fight Dr. Doom!

For maybe the first time, unless you count Avengers #1½–published in 1999 but set before Avengers #2–as canon: the untold first meeting of the Avengers and Dr. Doom.

Either way, it’s the first time any of these Avengers have met Dr. Doom.

Dr. Doom decides to trap the Avengers. Basically just because. His motivation shifts slightly over the course of the issue. At first, it’s because humiliating the Avengers will inspire fear in the Fantastic Four. Then it’s to take them prisoner and use them as bait for the Fantastic Four.