The Wizard and Paste-Pot Pete!
Featuring: Human Torch
Release: April 9, 1963
Cover: July 1963
12 cents
Plot: Stan Lee
Script: H.E. Huntley
Art: Dick Ayers
13 pages
I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: The Human Torch vol. 1.
Wizard and Paste-Pot Pete team up.
First, we dedicate 3/13 pages to recapping the last encounter with each villain. It sticks pretty close to the original story.
Continue reading “Strange Tales #110”Kala, Queen of the Netherworld!
Featuring: Iron Man
Release: April 9, 1963
Cover: July 1963
12 cents
Plot: Stan Lee
Script: R. Berns
Art: Jack Kirby
Inking: Don Heck
13 pages
I read this story in The Invincible Iron Man Omnibus vol. 1.
If there’s one thing I associate with Kirby (and there’s a lot more than one), it’s stylish headpieces on women.
Beyond that and maybe some of the machinery, the issue mostly reminds me of Heck’s art. I’m guessing Kirby’s art is really pretty loose design and layout, leaving a lot of the details, particular facial details, to Heck’s finishing. Just a guess.
Anthony Stark leaves costume behind, figuring it will be safe. This is called foreshadowing.
The world beneath the surface seems pretty crowded. I guess there’s lots of room down there, enough for a few underworld kingdoms. Kala is the third ruler of a subsurface kingdom we have met, after Moleman and Tyrannus. She won’t be the last. Let’s see who Thor fights next month…
Continue reading “Tales of Suspense #43”The Strangest Foe of all Time… Doctor Octopus
Featuring: Spider-Man
Release: April 9, 1963
Cover: July 1963
12 cents
Story: Stan Lee
Art: Steve Ditko
21 pages
| Previous | #70 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Tales to Astonish #45 | Reading order | Tales of Suspense #43 |
| Amazing Spider-Man #2, Story B | Amazing Spider-Man | Amazing Spider-Man #4 |
What do I do now? I’ve never been beaten before! But this time my spider powers were not enough! Is this the end of Spider-Man?
I read this story in Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection vol. 1: Great Power.
I’m going to go ahead and confess that I don’t know what the title of this comic is. I often don’t. Many times, the title is in quotes to make it clear. Even though what’s in quotes is often preceded by the name of the title hero with a “versus” or a “battles” after.
For example, Fantastic Four #15 had the opening text: “The Fantastic Four Battle… The Mad Thinker and His Awesome Android!” With the latter part in a much bigger font. Online sources vary.
This is even more confusing because the arrangement of the different pieces make the order unclear.
Possible titles:
The internet generally doesn’t agree on which of the above makes sense. For my part, I’m trusting the table of contents in the collection I’m reading this in.
The title page describes Doctor Octopus as “the only enemy ever to defeat Spider-Man!” Not sure that’s accurate. Vulture and Tinkerer both handed Spider-Man initial defeats last issue before Spider-Man was able to come back and win in round 2. Which is basically what’s going to happen in this issue.
Continue reading “Amazing Spider-Man #3”The Mysterious Radio-Active Man!
Featuring: Thor
Release: April 2, 1963
Cover: June 1963
12 cents
Plot: Stan Lee
Script: R. Berns
Art: Jack Kirby
Inking: Dick Ayers
13 pages
I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor vol. 1.
Another Cold War story, but this one tying itself closely to current events, seeming to be set during the Sino-Indian War.
This allows us to align the comic’s timeline with our own. The Sino-Indian War mainly took place October-November 1962, about 6 months before this comic came out. And since it takes some number of months to go from concept to the comic being finished, printed, distributed and appearing on stands, they were drawing from pretty current events.
Continue reading “Journey Into Mystery #93”Trapped by the Red Barbarian
Featuring: Iron Man
Release: March 12, 1963
Cover: June 1963
12 cents
Plot: Stan Lee
Script: R. Berns
Art: Don Heck
13 pages
I read this story in the Invincible Iron Man Omnibus vol. 1.
I also have it reprinted in Marvel Collector’s Item Classics #5 from 1966, and include scans from that reprint below.
Robert Bernstein has been scripting more and more Marvel books. We just saw him in our last Human Torch entry and his name is showing up on Ant-Man and Wasp stories.
As we’ve discussed before, the comic treats Stark’s military work as entirely noble, as opposed to the more nuanced take the movie would have decades later. It’s about changing attitudes. But this comic really seems to push it. Stark invents a disintegrator ray, and notes among its applications that it could destroy a metropolis. Surely we recognize that as a purely evil application? That’s not much better than building a nuclear bomb.
Hulk’s origin had a subtle swipe at weapon-building, given that Dr. Banner was a victim of his own bomb. But it’s not clear to me how intentional that was on the part of Lee or Kirby. Or whether it’s interpretation that comes from reading the comic through a modern lens.
Continue reading “Tales of Suspense #42”The Sorceror and Pandora’s Box
Featuring: Human Torch
Release: March 12, 1963
Cover: June 1963
12 cents
Plot: Stan Lee
Script: R. Berns
Art: Jack Kirby
Inks: Dick Ayers
13 pages
I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: The Human Torch vol. 1.
The Sorceror is a hermit who is mean to kids who trespass on his property. In return, Johnny is extremely mean to him. I thought Johnny was being quite the bully to a harmless hermit who just wants to be left alone.
Torch tells him: “You can’t have it both ways. If you want freedom of movement, others must have it as well!” But that hardly makes sense. In context, Torch is saying: “If you want to leave your own property, you have to let others onto it.”
Anyways, the Sorceror is not harmless. He’s actually a sorceror and has found Pandora’s Box. Which contains a bunch of evils, also called imps. We meet some of them: Flood, Hatred, Forgetfulness, Sleepiness, Paralysis, Cold, Disease, Foolishness, Laziness, Fire, Fear. They range from human traits to natural disasters.
We learn a bit of Greek myth, how Pandora released the evils but Circe put them back. Not clear what connection Circe will have to the Eternal named Sersi we will eventually meet.
In the last post, we spoke about characters getting ruined by having lame ambitions. The Sorceror has access to all the evils of the world. And what does he want to do with it? Rob a bank. Boring.
The most interesting thing in this story to me is that Johnny notes it’s 1963. He had noted in an issue of Fantastic Four that it was 1962, suggesting at least a year has passed. I am fascinated by trying to track how much time has passed and am looking for clues. But I must be careful reading too much into a single line of dialogue stating the year. As writers will almost always claim their story is happening in the current year, whether or not that makes sense.. But Reed is already in his ’40s by 1961 when we meet him. So he only has so many decades of superheroing left in him.
Rating: ★★☆☆☆, 39/100
Characters:
Story Notes:
#71 story in reading order
Next: Tales of Suspense #42
Previous: Fantastic Four #15
The Mad Thinker and His Awesome Android!
Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: March 12, 1963
Cover: June 1963
12 cents
Script: Stan Lee
Art: Jack Kirby
Inking: Dick Ayers
20 pages
I read this story in Fantastic Four Omnibus vol. 1
In general, the desire to be king of the city’s gangs is an uninteresting motivation. The FF villains are better when they think bigger than the Thinker seems to be thinking here. The lack of a good supervillain plot cheapens the new villain out of the box. Nonetheless, the Thinker (sometimes called the Mad Thinker) will become a major FF adversary.
Continue reading “Fantastic Four #15”Sgt. Fury, and His Howling Commandos/Seven Against the Nazis!
Featuring: Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos
Release: March 5, 1963
Cover: May 1963
12 cents
Story: Stan Lee
Art: Jack Kirby
Inking: Dick Ayers
21 pages
I read this comic in Sgt. Fury Epic Collection vol. 1: The Howling Commandos.
So why are we reading this comic in with the superhero stories? Well, the answer is probably obvious, but let’s think it through a little. What else is Marvel putting out in March of 1963 that I could be reading?
Two western comics: Gunsmoke Western and Rawhide Kid. And a few later time-travel stories will intersect these heroes with our superhero comics, so they’re not irrelevant. The problem is there are so many western comics, going back to well before we started our reading in 1961. The original Two-Gun Kid debuted in 1948, the same month as Annie Oakley #1. Kid Colt, Blaze Carson, Tex Morgan, and Tex Taylor debuted soon after. Point is, we are nowhere near a good jumping on point for the western stories.
There are two romance titles out this month, Love Romances and Patsy and Hedy. As we’ve mentioned, Patsy Walker will eventually become a superhero. But there are also a lot of these comics going back to the 1940s. Patsy’s had a regular feature since 1945.
(Notice that’s also Jack Kirby on the Love Romances comic. So he’s telling a lot of stories in a lot of genres this month.)
There are four fantasy anthology titles, each with a superhero feature we’ve been reading as the lead story. One pure superhero comic.
And now a war comic set in World War II. Why read the war comic with our superhero reading and not the westerns or romance comics?
Two answers, there.
Continue reading “Sgt. Fury #1”The Day Loki Stole Thor’s Magic Hammer
Featuring: Thor
Release: March 5, 1963
Cover: May 1963
12 cents
Plot: Stan Lee
Script: R. Berns
Art: Joe Sinnott
13 pages
I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor vol. 1.
The somewhat awkward title of this story underscores they haven’t yet decided that Thor’s magic hammer should have a name.
Now, the title also sounds pretty ominous. For we know that if Loki were to steal Thor’s magic hammer, the thunder god would be helpless within 60 seconds. Indeed, that is what happened in both of Thor’s previous encounters with Loki, both of which involved Loki stealing his magic hammer.
Continue reading “Journey Into Mystery #92”The Stronghold of Doctor Strange!
Featuring: Iron Man
Release: February 12, 1963
Cover: May 1963
12 cents
Plot: Stan Lee
Script: R. Berns
Art: Jack Kirby
Inking: Dick Ayers
13 pages
Confession time. I just made a dumb mistake here. Got confused by numbers and dates. This post should have come before my previous Journey Into Mystery post, as this issue is from February and the Thor story is from March. It’s a little confusing because both are cover-dated May. The Thor stories always seem a month out of sync in terms of their cover dates for some reason.
Robert Bernstein returns on scripting duties. He will be the regular scripter for a while. This is the first Iron Man story without Don Heck involved with the art (either as primary or finisher). This is perhaps why Tony looks so radically different from the previous 2 stories.
Though part of the problem is that his hair is brown in my omnibus (scanned above). Other modern recolorings make it black. It’s hard to speak intelligently to the coloring of these comics because of how wildly it varies between reproductions.
Iron Man is falling into a somewhat familiar pattern 3 issues in. After a very good origin issue, we get a sequence of pretty forgettable stories. Last issue, he fought Gargantus, and this issue introduces Dr. Strange. Neither of whom am I expecting to show up any time soon in a major motion picture.
Another familiar trope is that we’ve skipped the establishing of the hero. In this issue, the third Iron Man story, the first of which was set in a Vietnam jungle, we learn that children idolize Iron Man. So he, like the rest of the heroes, has fast become a sensation.
