Featuring: Thor Release: November 5, 1963 Cover: January 1964 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Illustrated by: Don Heck 13 pages
Congratulations to Journey Into Mystery on reaching 100 issues. The cover doesn’t see this milestone as something worth making a big deal out of. Nor does the story. This is just another Thor story, as far as I can tell.
For contrast, check out Superman #100 from almost a decade earlier. They seemed proud to reach 100.
Let’s celebrate the milestone by briefly reviewing the history of the title and peeking into its future.
Featuring: Thor Release: October 1, 1963 Cover: December 1963 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Illustrated by: Don Heck 13 pages
Yes, we are jumping back in time a week. This begins a two-part story, so I wanted to get #99-100 together. The CMRO actually puts the Thor stories from each issue together, and then goes back to the “Tales of Asgard” stories from 99-100. I think I’m going to treat reading a whole issue at once as the more important consideration. Of course, I will eventually break that rule. So the plan is to read the whole of Journey Into Mystery #99 followed by the whole of #100, even though that inserts a Tales of Asgard story in the middle of Thor’s battle with Mr. Hyde.
Marvel’s already had a few characters inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’s story, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Hulk is the most famous one, but his character arc has so far been a rambling mess. Lizard did it well, though it made the character of Curt Connors far more sympathetic than Stevenson made Dr. Jekyll.
Now, we get an explicit reference with a villain named Mr. Hyde. Calvin Zabo is written as even less sympathetic than Dr. Jekyll. He is a straightforward super-villain who transforms himself into Mr. Hyde to commit crimes.
Featuring: Tales of Asgard Release: September 3, 1963 Cover: November 1964 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Drawn by: Jack Kirby Inked by: Don Heck 5 pages
In this same issue, we saw Thor’s lackluster battle against Cobra. There is also a prose story taken from an old issue of Uncanny Tales, and a new Larry Lieber sci/fi tale. And then this. The second installment of the “Tales of Asgard” series.
We get more detail on a battle spoken of in the previous issue. We see Odin’s great war against Ymir and the Ice Giants. A simple enough tale, but told with a bold forcefulness. This is a better use of Kirby’s talents than a lot of what he has been doing of late.
Featuring: Thor Release: September 3, 1963 Cover: November 1963 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Illustrated by: Don Heck 13 pages
The issue begins with Thor throwing a temper tantrum. “It isn’t fair!” he cries. The narrator notes it may surprise us to see a superhero throw a temper tantrum. No, I’ve been reading Fantastic Four.
Of course I imagine Thor’s voice sounds like Tommy Wiseau as he shouts.
An ex-convict named Klaus is bitten by a radioactive cobra and gains the powers of a cobra. This is pretty well-established as what happens when radioactive creatures bite you.
Featuring: Iron Man Release: August 8, 1863 Cover: November 1963 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Interpreted by: Steve Ditko Refined by: Don Heck 18 pages
Interesting credits this issue. “Interpreted by”, “Refined by”. But more interesting than the colorful descriptors used is the name of the person doing the interpreting: Steve Ditko. Currently the artist on Marvel’s two best series: Spider-Man and Dr. Strange. Iron Man has not been very good. Can Ditko turn it around?
Short answer: yes. Long answer: Probably not in a single issue. This is probably the best Iron Man story since his first appearance, but the character still hasn’t reached his potential. And he won’t while wearing that clunky costume…
Featuring: Ant-Man and the Wasp Release: August 1, 1963 Cover: November 1963 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Drawn by: Jack Kirby Inking: Don Heck 18 pages
Ant-Man gets a new identity, and there’s a new little corner box to go with it.
The story is this. Ant-Man and Wasp joined a superhero team. Their teammates are Hulk, Iron Man, and Thor. All extremely powerful. Ant-Man is very small and controls ants. Perhaps this situation would have been tenable if Wasp didn’t keep commenting on how handsome Thor was. But she did. And Dr. Pym’s ego could not take this feeling of inferiority anymore. He needed to measure up.
So he thought and thought. He had a gas which shrunk him to ant-size. And a gas which allowed him to grow back to normal size. He had a routine. Reduce to ant-size. Grow to normal size. Now remember, he’s a genius. And it finally occurred to him: what if he skips a step in that cycle? What if he takes the growing gas when already normal-sized?
It worked! If he simply doesn’t take the reducing gas, he is no longer Ant-Man: he is now Giant-Man. And has strength that is at least closer to par with his Avengers teammates.
I have a science question about that, though. When he shrinks to ant-size, he retains human strength. They are very clear on that point. So he is the size of an ant but can punch as hard as an ordinary human. So why does his strength increase when he grows if it doesn’t decrease when it shrinks? Ah, never mind. I’m sure it would make sense if I knew science better.
Featuring: Iron Man Release: July 9, 1963 Cover: October 1963 12 cents Story plot: Stan Lee Script: R. Berns Art: Don Heck 13 pages
The cover bears a resemblance to the Ant-Man cover we just examined. The hero and villain are not actually in the same picture, with one confined to a separate panel.
Get it? “Shocked”.
Professor Vanko is Russia’s top scientist. He has built a suit that makes him master of electricity, the Crimson Dynamo. By the end, Tony Stark tricks him into defecting to the West.
Featuring: Ant-Man and the Wasp Release: July 2, 1963 Cover: October 1963 12 cents Story plot: Stan Lee Script: H.E. Huntley Art: Don Heck 13 pages
Something of an odd cover. It makes no attempt to showcase the Porcupine’s powers. Instead, it just has Porcupine standing in his own panel while the main cover focuses on Ant-Man drowning in a bath tub. Drowning in a bathtub is indeed a scene from this issue. Were it not, I would wonder if they just took any old Ant-Man cover they had and inserted that image of the Porcupine. Either way, spectacularly unimpressive work by Jack Kirby.
This issue has two “weird tale” backups. Grayson’s Gorilla by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber. And “The Little Green Man” by Lee and Ditko. The era of these little sci/fi shorts is fast coming to an end.
In her very first issue, they tried to motivate Wasp’s character around her father’s death and a passion for justice. We’ve seen no real hints of that since. Her character has since been dominated entirely by swooning over random men, when not trying to convince Hank Pym to settle down with her.
I think she’s just trying to make him jealous. It doesn’t appear to be working.
As a side note, she does call Ant-Man “Hank” in both this issue and the last one. I think she’s the only one to call him that. He’d always been “Henry” before.
Featuring: Iron Man Release: June 11, 1963 Cover: September 1963 12 cents Story plot: Stan Lee Script: R. Berns Art: Don Heck 18 pages
We meet a new villain, Jack Frost. His special suit covers himself in ice and he can freeze people. He isn’t the first ice-themed super character and won’t be the last. Though off the top of my head, I am not thinking of any earlier examples within Marvel. Over at DC, we met Captain Cold in Showcase #8 (1957) and Mr. Zero in Batman #121 (1959).
But Jack Frost is something of a footnote in the Marvel Universe. This is the first of 6 stories he’ll appear in, making him the most significant Iron Man villain we’ve met, but still not all that significant.
The bigger news is that Iron Man gets a supporting cast!
The writers must know that having a supporting cast is a good idea. This isn’t new. Superman has had Lois since his first issue. Jimmy and Perry followed eventually. Batman has had Alfred for a couple decades at this point. It’s just not a new concept. And it’s working really well for Spider-Man. Aunt May, J. Jonah Jameson, Flash Thompson… they help make the book. But the other stories have mostly not bothered with the concept. Thing has Alicia and Thor has Jane, but that’s the extent of it so far.
Featuring: Ant-Man and Wasp Release: June 4, 1963 Cover: September 1963 12 cents Story plot: Stan Lee Script: H.E. Huntley Art: Don Heck 13 pages
I read this story in Marvel Masterworks:Ant-Man/Giant-Man vol. 1.
After alternating between crediting himself with either “story” or “plot”, Stan has decided to cover his bases and give himself credit for “story plot”.
