Tales of Suspense #64

Hawkeye and the New Black Widow Strike Again!

Featuring: Iron Man
Release: January 12, 1965
Cover: April 1965
12 cents
Powerful script by: Stan Lee
Poignant art by: Don Heck
Punchy inking by: Chic Stone
Polite lettering by: Sam Rosen
Plenty of kibitzing by: The Bullpen Gang!
12 pages

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X-Men #10Reading orderTales of Suspense #64, Story B
Tales of Suspense #63, Story BTales of SuspenseTales of Suspense #64, Story B

What is this “Bullpen” they refer to?

We just met the “new” Giant-Man. It was really just Giant-Man with a new outfit and gizmo. Similarly, the “new” Black Widow is just the Black Widow with some new gimmicks.

These gimmicks make her more formidable, but still no match for Iron Man.

She can now climb walls and fire a line of suction-tipped nylon, a web of sorts. She is a spider-themed heroine, so it makes sense her gimmicks will have hints of Spider-Man.

We also see the first hints of a possible road to redemption for Black Widow. She has decided she wishes to stop being evil and tells Khrushchev this to his face. He shows her that her parents are his prisoners, and they will be killed unless she cooperates. That Khrushchev is a villain, indeed.

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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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