Featuring: Captain America Release: February 10, 1941 Cover: April 1941 10 cents By: Joe Simon and Jack Kirby 15 pages
This comic was released on my birthday, just 40 years early.
Our buildup to Avengers #4 continues.
Once again, the cover of the comic shows Captain America directly confronting Hitler, this time without the satisfying sock to the jaw. The interior of the first issue disappointed, as Captain America and Hitler did not actually meet. This issue will rectify that, but not with this story. We’ll see Hitler in the next post, concerning “Case No. 2”.
The title of the story alone–“The Ageless Orientals Who Wouldn’t Die”– tells you that this comic is probably extremely inappropriate, and it is. Popular culture depictions of Asian characters were problematic for decades. This comic at least only features giants, not meant to represent actual people.
Featuring: Captain America Release: December 20, 1940 Cover: March 1941 10 cents By: Joe Simon and Jack Kirby 7 pages
The issue’s Table of Contents lists each chapter as a “Case”. The first was “Case No. 1”. This story is “Case No. 2”. Cases 3 and 4 seem to have actual titles, but this one does not.
We read the first “Case” in this comic a little while ago, because I thought Captain America was returning in Strange Tales #114. I was mistaken. I was fooled by the Acrobat in disguise, just like the whole town of Glenville. But I just peeked at the cover of Avengers #4, and it looks like this time Captain America is really going to return.
Yes, I know the old saying. “Fool me once, shame on… shame on you. Fool me… can’t get fooled again.”
But I have a really good feeling that this actually is Captain America. Hence, I would like to review a smattering of his 1940s and 1950s appearances to get a sense of who this fella is and what’s he’s about.
This story is notable for being the first mission of Captain America and Bucky. We learned their origin in “Case No. 1”. Now it’s time for them to go into action.
It’s 1940. Europe is at war. America has stubbornly remained neutral. But there are Axis spies and saboteurs on the homefront, and Captain America and Bucky are ready to deal with them.
Featuring: Tales of Asgard Release: February 4, 1964 Cover: April 1964 12 cents Masterfully written by: Stan Lee Magnificently illustrated by: Jack Kirby Majestically inked by: Chic Stone Meritoriously lettered by: Art Simek 5 pages
This is how it all begins. Quite literally.
The story of Thor’s early days continues. He is now an adult and wields the magic hammer. We see now the story of the dawn of humanity on Earth, and Thor’s role in the tale.
The tale begins in the mountains of Asgard, where the dwarfs dwell. We are told the dwarfs forge all the weapons of Asgard. However, not quite all. We learned in the main story of this issue that Odin himself forged Thor’s hammer. That fact is affirmed in this very story.
Sindri is the king of dwarfs and has built the magical ship, Skipbladnir. It’s a tiny ship that magically grows to full-size when needed. Skipbladnir will transport Thor to Mirmir.
Featuring: Thor Release: February 4, 1964 Cover: April 1964 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee, master of fantasy Illustrated by: Jack Kirby, master of picto-drama Inked by: Chic Stone Lettered by: S. Rosen 13 pages
The phrase “feature-length” clearly means nothing to Stan. 13 pages is the same length the Thor stories have always been. It’s only half a comic.
I had some trouble deciding where it was best to read this story. I had originally posted it a little early, I decided, and moved it to where it fits in terms of publication dates, after the introduction of Black Widow. I’m not sure when it best takes place chronologically.
We start with Thor returning to the 20th century from the future, so there’s no time gap between the beginning of this story and Journey Into Mystery #102. Dr. Blake needs a nap, and we do have a short time gap before the main action of the story begins.
Featuring: X-Men Release: January 3, 1964 Cover: March 1964 12 cents Sensational script by: Stan Lee Dynamic drawings by: Jack Kirby Imaginative inking by: Paul Reinman Legible lettering by: Art Simek 23 pages
The Scarlet Witch seems to be wearing green on the cover.
Pedantic notice. The title of this comic is “The X-Men”. After 3 issues, I decided I was tired of typing that. It’s easier to just call it “X-Men”. I will be doing that from now on. Same for “The Avengers”. I’d already been doing that for “The Amazing Spider-Man” without really thinking it through.
I should be paying more attention to the taglines. They are dubbed “X-Men: The most unusual teen-agers of all time!” Last issue had the same subheading. In #2, it was “the strangest super-heroes of all time. The covers of the first two issues dubbed them the “strangest super-heroes of all”.
I feel it should be pointed out that we’ve already met some pretty darn unusual teenagers, notably Human Torch and Spider-Man. So the tagline may be somewhat hyperbolic.
This issue introduces the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Not what I would name my group of mutants. And it’s not clear who, if anybody, named them that. The cover of the comic and the title of the comic call the group that, but the group is not named within the story.
Professor X calls them “evil mutants”, but he has often referred to “evil mutants”. I could never tell if he was speaking generically, or specifically referring to Magneto’s group. I still can’t.
Designation issues aside, introducing a team of villains to battle the X-Men is a good idea, since they themselves are a team. It’s hard to show a team always fighting against a single individual, even though that’s mostly what the Fantastic Four have done. It’s a bit surprising they are yet to come up with a team of villains for them. They’ve come close. Red Ghost had his Super Apes, and that was now four, er, members who could each match one member of the FF. But I have trouble counting that as a team since they are apes. Dr. Doom recruited the Terrible Trio, so again we had 4 people, each meant to face off with one FF member; but that was not so much a team of super-villains as it was Doom and three henchmen.
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”.
