don heck – Page 5 – Coke ⊕ Comics

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

Previous	#275	Next
Tales of Suspense #60, Story B	Reading order	Journey Into Mystery #110
Avengers #9	Avengers	Avengers #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…”

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

Previous	#256	Next
Tales of Suspense #59, Story B	Reading order	Sgt. Fury #11
Avengers #8	Avengers	Avengers #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”.

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

Previous	#254	Next
Daredevil #4	Reading order	Tales of Suspense #59, Story B
Tales of Suspense #58, Story B	Tales of Suspense	Tales 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.

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.

Tales of Suspense #57

Hawkeye, the Marksman!

Featuring: Iron Man
Release: June 9, 1964
Cover: September 1964
12 cents
Written by: Smiling Stan Lee
Illustrated by: Sparkling Don Heck
Lettered by: Sterling S. Rosen
18 pages

Interestingly, this is the first Iron Man cover not drawn by Kirby. In fact, it’s the first major cover of the era not drawn or partially drawn by Kirby or Ditko. In general, Ditko has been drawing the covers of his books, and Kirby has been drawing the covers of his own and everybody else’s. For example, Kirby has drawn very few Giant-Man stories, but has drawn every cover. Since covers were often drawn before the issue, Kirby often had a hand in the creation of the new villains, by virtue of being the first to actually draw them. But not Hawkeye. Hawkeye may be the first major character we’ve met not in any way attributable to Kirby or Ditko. He seems to be entirely the creation of Stan Lee and Don Heck.

For example, Kirby is generally not credited as a creator of Black Widow, but he was involved at the beginning, having drawn her first cover appearance. Same story for Daredevil. I see none of his fingerprints on Hawkeye, but may be unaware of some behind-the-scenes work.

When we met Daredevil, I declared our cast of original stars complete. That was an admittedly arbitrary cut-off. I could have waited just a few months and claimed Hawkeye completes the package.

I said what I said because Hawkeye is not of our stars. At least not yet. He is a just a new super-villain, one of many. Like Black Widow. Like Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch…

See the Our Cast So Far page to see how I’m breaking out the characters.

Tales of Suspense #56

The Uncanny Unicorn!

Featuring: Iron Man
Release: May 12, 1964
Cover: August 1964
12 cents
Written with consummate skill by: Stan Lee
Illustrated with blazing drama by: Don Heck
Lettered with bloodshot eyes by: S. Rosen
18 pages

The time of the science fiction short stories has ended, allowing this comic to devote a full 18 pages to telling Iron Man’s story. I’m sure that making it longer was the missing ingredient in making it good.

This issue, Iron Man battles the Unicorn. I’m undecided if that name conjures a powerful Soviet menace. It doesn’t sound like something a tough bad guy would call themself, but then I wouldn’t want to have to fight a unicorn.

The character arc of the issue is that Tony Stark decides to give up being Iron Man and live a normal life. He then feels guilty when Happy is injured by the Unicorn because he had neglected his responsibilities.

Tales of Suspense #55, Story B

All About Iron Man

Featuring: Iron Man
Release: April 9, 1964
Cover: July 1964
12 cents
Presented by: Stan Lee and Don Heck
Lettered by S. Rosen
5 pages

This is pushing the line between what I’d call a story and what I’d call a special feature at the end of a story. It’s long enough and told in a comics format, so I decided to give it its own entry, but I could have included it at the end of the last one.

This feature fits in where the science fiction tale would normally have gone, but those are done now.

The first page shows some of Iron Man’s major villains:

Black Widow
Mysterious Melter
Mandarin
Scarecrow
Mr. Doll
Crimson Dynamo
Gargantus
Jack Frost

It’s not an exhaustive list. I don’t see:

Wong-Chu
Kala and the Netherworlders
Dr. Strange
Red Barbarian
The Actor
The Mad Pharaoh

One villain is unnamed, and I don’t recognize him.

Tales of Suspense #55

No one escapes the Mandarin!

Featuring: Iron Man
Release: April 9, 1964
Cover: July 1964
12 cents
Written by: Friendly Stan Lee
Illustrated by: Faithful Don Heck
Lettered by: Fearless Art Simek
13 pages

For the second issue in a row, a comic I own in original form, because it was too hard to find the Watcher story in the back any other way.

The title is, “No one escapes the Mandarin!” Iron Man is currently a prisoner. Willing to bet money someone will escape the Mandarin by issue’s end. (In fact, someone will escape the Mandarin by page 3.)

I need everybody to agree on a couple points. Iron Man is a captive. He is tied up just like he was at the end of last issue. That’s the first point. The second is that he is wearing a different helmet than he was a moment ago. There is a clear lack of bolts down the face. Somebody explain.

Tales of Suspense #54

The Mandarin’s Revenge!

Featuring: Iron Man
Release: March 10, 1964
Cover: June 1964
12 cents
Written (in his magic Marvel manner) by: Stan lee
Drawn (in his famous flashing fashion) by: Don Heck
Lettered (in his smooth subtle style) by: Art Simek
13 pages

We reach a personal milestone for me in this reading. Up to this point, every story I’ve read, I’ve used some form of reprint, often a collection from one of their reprint lines like Marvel Masterworks, sometimes a later comic that happens to reprint the old story.

This comic I own. Cover barely hanging on, brown at the edges, but this is mine. That cover? That’s a scan of my copy. Most of the other covers have been taken from the GCD.

So that’s pretty exciting.

Now for the bad news. The Mandarin returns. Iron Man’s lamest villain yet (despite some stiff competition) is back for round 2.

Iron Man gets a new helmet. The face mask no longer protrudes out, making his head a smoother shape, and there are visible bolts along the mask. I get the bolts along where the facemask meets the helmet, but not sure what the ones down the middle are doing. They won’t be around long. In fact, they’ll disappear mid-story suddenly without any plausible explanation.

It’s a pretty weird look, frankly. It will be better when that middle line of bolts goes away.

Journey Into Mystery #104, Story C

Heimdall, Guardian of the Mystic Rainbow Bridge

Featuring: Tales of Asgard
Release: March 3, 1964
Cover: May 1964
12 cents
A tale told in splendor by: Stan Lee
A drama drawn in glory by: Jack Kirby
Inked by: Don Heck
Lettering: Art Simek
5 pages

I appreciate that the Tales of Asgard stories are willing to try different things. The initial offerings concerned Odin and the early days of creation. Then we got a series of stories about Thor as a youth. Now we will get a series focused on Heimdall. Stories about Balder will follow. The series feels it has the freedom to explore a variety of characters and eras of Asgard.

Heimdall was briefly introduced to us in Journey Into Mystery #85, where we learned he was the Warder of the Bifrost. We are given the general sense that he is very good at his job and that almost nothing slips past him. However, we haven’t seen much evidence of that. Indeed, we’ve seen Loki fool him twice. In issue 88, Loki disguised himself as a snake to escape Asgard. In an ancient tale told in issue 101, young Loki created a hole in Asgard’s defenses without Heimdall realizing it.

We now learn the story of how Heimdall was awarded his post. The right to stand eternal watch at a station is not something I would have competed for, but Heimdall did. Agnar the Fierce and Gotron the Agile both presented their cases to Odin. But they could not compete with Heimdall’s heightened senses. He could hear a plant growing far away in hills thought to be barren, and his eyes that can scan time and space could see an approaching army of Storm Giants still two days away.