Featuring: Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos Release: January 3, 1964 Cover: March 1964 12 cents Written by: Ex-Sergeant Stan Lee, U.S. Army Illustrated by: Ex-infantryman Jack Kirby, U.S. Army Inked by: Geo. Bell Lettering: Art Simek 23 pages
The cover claims this story is based on a little known incident of the North African campaign. There’s a lot going on in this comic, plenty rooted partially in history, so I can’t pinpoint what incident the cover is referring to.
Rommel was a celebrated Nazi general and field marshal of their army in World War II. He did lead Axis forces in the North African campaign. His nickname was “the Desert Fox”. And he was involved in a plot to assassinate Hitler.
Featuring: Tales of Asgard Release: January 3, 1964 Cover: March 1964 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Illustrated by: Jack Kirby Inked by: Paul Reinman Lettered by: Art Simek 5 pages
Anybody else feel like this title would be more dramatic without the quotation marks, which seem to imply that death is not actually coming for Thor.
This completes a trilogy of stories of the Boyhood of Thor. The focus has been on his attempts to earn the right to wield Odin’s magic hammer. We learn from the title that Thor is now 18, a little older than in the last adventures. This is the tale of how Thor finally lifts his magic uru hammer.
Featuring: Thor Release: January 3, 1964 Cover: March 1964 12 cents Cunningly conceived by: Stan Lee Daringly drawn by: Jack Kirby Ingeniously inked by: Chic Stone Lovingly lettered by: Art Simek 13 pages
Well. It’s 1964. Welcome.
But not for Thor. He’s trapped in the 23rd century.
This is our first exposure to Chic Stone. He’s been working in comics since the 1930s, including on Marvel’s own Blonde Phantom, but has spent the last several years doing art direction for assorted magazines. He recently returned to doing occasional jobs in comics, and now has found his way to back Marvel. I think he and Kirby make a good team.
Featuring: Tales of Asgard Release: December 2, 1963 Cover: February 1964 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Drawn by: Jack Kirby Inked by: G. Bell Lettered by: Art Simek 5 pages
Forces of Evil are set to attack Asgard, but Heimdall stands vigilant. However, Loki has created a hole in Asgard’s defenses and somehow kept it secret from even Heimdall. He tricks Thor into thinking he discovered this gap, and suggests that Thor guard it. This leads to the young Thor having to battle the Forces of Evil alone.
Featuring: Thor Release: December 2, 1963 Cover: February 1964 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Drawn by: Jack Kirby Inked by: G. Bell Lettered by: S. Rosen 13 pages
We are one week late reading this comic because it begins a two-part battle against Tomorrow Man. How this comic fits in with Thor’s appearances in Avengers is pretty complicated, and we’ll be addressing that in a later post.
I’ll remind readers that the Avengers really do have some urgent business to get back to. Both Hulk and Namor remain at large. It should also be noted that Giant-Man recently fractured his ankle, but seems better now.
Jack Kirby is back and here to stay. Perhaps he’ll be able to turn around what up to this point has been one of the worst comics. Perhaps not, as he was there for the earliest issues of Thor and they were still of low quality. But Stan Lee was also farming out the writing to a variety of people. Now, for the first time, Stan and Jack will be the team on this book, just like on Fantastic Four and Sgt. Fury. They’ve also reached the point in their working relationship where their “coplotting” of the stories likely involves Stan less and less. Kirby will be taking greater control of the storytelling going forward. We’ll see how it goes.
Now that Lee is scripting, there is a detectable difference in Thor’s speech patterns. Under other writers, he had slowly evolved from talking like he was Don to talking like he was Thor. Now, there’s a certain haughty regality to the language. Words like “naught”.
Featuring: Fantastic Four Release: December 9, 1963 Cover: March 1964 12 cents Lovingly written by: Stan Lee Tenderly drawn by: Jack Kirby Heroically inked by: Geo. Bell Neatly lettered by: S. Rosen 23 pages
The most notable thing about this comic is the credits. “Lovingly written”, “Tenderly drawn”,… Stan is starting to insert a little creativity into that box. This will become a pretty regular thing for him. It begins here. The closest we’ve seen to any embellishment before was in the “Tales of Asgard” story from Journey Into Mystery #99, which was “Presented with pride…”.
The Fantastic Four pose for a photoshoot with Life Magazine. We’ll get to see Alex Ross’s rendering of a Life cover when we get to Marvels #2.
Featuring: Fantastic Four Release: November 12, 1963 Cover: Februrary 1964 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Illustrated by: Jack Kirby Inked by: George Bell 23 pages
We open with a dinosaur running loose. Ben refers to Reed as “Stretch”. This nickname will stick.
We get some drama with the team. Reed is being too bossy, so they try to pick a new leader. It doesn’t go well. Reeds turns out to be the only fit leader on the team. After all, Johnny is a teenager. Ben loses his temper so easily. And Sue is a woman.
The last issue promised the Four would face off against four super-villains this issue. Turns out they meant one super-villain and three henchmen. At least by my count.
Featuring: Avengers Release: November 5, 1963 Cover: February 1964 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Illustrated by: Jack Kirby Inked by: P. Reinman 25 pages
We see a new cover box. Acknowledges that Hank is now Giant-Man and that Wasp exists.
Welcome to a special Mothers Day post. What makes this a Mothers Day post? Well, today is Mothers Day. Also, my mother likes the Sub-Mariner, and this is the issue where the Avengers meet Sub-Mariner.
Sub-Mariner doesn’t show up until page 15, but still gets the issue titled after him. Good for him.
In the first issue, Loki tricked the Avengers into attacking the Hulk.
In the second issue, Space Phantom tricked the Avengers into attacking the Hulk.
This issue, the Avengers just decide to attack the Hulk.
Featuring: X-Men Release: November 5, 1963 Cover: January 1964 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Illustrated by: Jack Kirby Inked by: Paul Reinman 24 pages
Before we start dissecting the bizarreness of this comic, I’d like to draw attention to the cool title font. Hat tip I presume goes to Art Simek.
I have a bit of difficulty assessing this issue. I can see two different stories: the one on the page, and the one Stan meant to write. In the story Stan meant to write, he failed miserably. I am confident he meant to portray Professor X and the X-Men as virtuous heroes. But any reasonable reading of the issue shows them to be the villains. That latter interpretation is interesting to me, but clearly not intentional.
This issue makes clear that Professor X and the X-Men have questionable ethics, though I don’t think Stan intended it that way. He just didn’t think it through. But later writers will look to stories like this as evidence that Professor X has a dark side.
Featuring: Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos Release: November 5, 1963 Cover: January 1964 12 cents Written by: Ex-Sgt. Stan Lee, U.S. Army Illustrated by: Ex-Infantryman Jack Kirby, U.S. Army Inked by: G. Bell 23 pages
Last issue gave us the death of a Howler. The series hasn’t forgotten that, and the opening of the issue shows Sgt. Fury processing the death of Junior Juniper in his own way.
They also haven’t forgotten about the girl Nick met last issue. We see the Sergeant and Lady Hawley on a date. She encourages more gentlemanly behavior on his part. They seem to be an item.
