marvel universe – Page 53 – Coke ⊕ Comics

Fantastic Four #20

The Mysterious Molecule Man!

Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: August 8, 1963
Cover: November 1963
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Drawn by: Jack Kirby
Inked by: Dick Ayers
22 pages

“This proves that some form of life must exist in outer space!”

Reed.

You’ve fought the Skrulls twice. You’ve traveled to Planet X, and transported its population to another planet. You’ve met the Impossible Man and the Watcher. You’re about to meet the Watcher again this issue. You’ve seen the ruins of a lost civilization on the moon.

Plus, if you’ve been paying attention, you would have noted earth has been recently invaded by several other alien races, from the Toad Men to the Stone Men from Saturn.

Of course there’s some form of life in outer space!

Maybe I’m misinterpreting. Perhaps he’s not speaking of other worlds or moons or even spaceships, but within space itself.

Tales to Astonish #49

The Birth of Giant-Man!

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.

Journey Into Mystery #97

The Lava Man

Featuring: Thor
Release: August 1, 1963
Cover: October 1963
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Drawn by: Jack Kirby
Inked by: Don Heck
13 pages

Kirby gets main drawing credit, but the faces (excepting the Lava Man) look more like Heck’s work to my eye. The action is very Kirby though.

Beneath the surface of the Earth, Mole Man rules an army of monsters. The immortal Tyrannus rules a kingdom of underworld natives. The kingdom of Atlantis had once sunk beneath the sea, and continued sinking beneath the world; when Iron Man visited, Kala was the ruler of Atlantis. We’re about to meet our fourth kingdom beneath the surface. Fortunately, the world is big enough for all of them.

Fantastic Four #19

Prisoners of the Pharaoh!

Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: July 9, 1963
Cover: October 1963
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Drawn by: Jack Kirby
Inking: Dick Ayers
22 pages

This bears some resemblance to the Iron Man story where he traveled to Ancient Egypt to battle a time-traveling Pharaoh (Pharoah?). Of course, this is much better.

Mr. Fantastic deduces from some museum hieroglyphs that blindness had once been cured in Ancient Egypt. So the Fantastic Four return to the castle where they first met Dr. Doom, where we find his time machine has just been sitting there this whole time. They use the machine to travel to a time when Egypt was ruled by Rama-Tut, who came from the future. Similar to Zarrko, Rama-Tut has been bored with the peace of his time and craved adventure.

I feel like you should have gone back for this equipment before now…

Attempting to reflect on what future comics will do with this story hurts my brain. There will be contradictions and explanations. Rama-Tut will be connected to several other time-traveling characters. And they’ll further explore this moment in history to learn Apocalypse, Dr. Strange, and the Avengers are lurking around behind the scenes. We’ll spend no more time on such reflections until we need to.

Strange Tales #113

The Coming of the Plantman!

Featuring: Human Torch
Release: July 9, 1963
Cover: October 1963
12 cents
Story plot: Stan Lee
Script: Joe Carter
Art: Dick Ayers
13 pages

Once again, Superman creator Jerry Siegel takes on a Human Torch script under the pen name Joe Carter. His scripts seem a cut above what we are used to from Human Torch stories, but it’s a pretty low bar.

We have seen Johnny on many dates both in this title and the pages of Fantastic Four. It’s been a different girl each time. But this issue seems different. He has a date with Doris Evans, and he describes himself as her “flame”. Puns aside, this suggests something more serious than his usual dalliances. Perhaps it is because Dorrie plays a little hard to get. She is willing to go out with Johnny, but seems to dislike his Human Torch persona. She’s clearly dating him despite his celebrity. The fact that she is given a full name is another hint this one is special.

Amazing Spider-Man #5

Marked for Destruction by Dr. Doom!

Featuring: Spider-Man
Release: July 9, 1963
Cover: October 1963
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Drawn by: Steve Ditko
21 pages

The opening page tells us the names of many characters, two named for the first time. We learned last issue that Peter’s blonde classmate was named Liz. We now get the full name: Liz Allan. Last issue, we met Jameson’s secretary Miss Brant. We learn on that first page her name is Betty.

We’ve now seen plenty of crossover amongst the heroes of the titles; now they’re starting to share villains. One week earlier, Thor brought his archfoe Loki along with him for Avengers #1. Now, the Fantastic Four will lend their favorite villain to Spider-Man. Of course, they’ll also be showing up to lend a hand.

Because they’re borrowing a villain, this is the first issue of Amazing Spider-Man where Ditko doesn’t create a timeless villain. He’ll get back to that practice next issue.

Perhaps for that reason or others, this is one of the weaker Spider-Man stories yet. Of course, a weak Spider-Man story is still on par with the best of the other titles.

They summarize Doom’s most recent appearance in Fantastic Four, showing tight continuity. Also taken from Doom’s previous appearance is his use of robot doubles.

My ranking so far

The 20 best

Now that we have 100 stories under our belt, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on the best of them. These are my votes for the top 20, in order, represented by the cover or the first page of the story.

You’ll notice a preference for character introductions and Spider-Man stories (as well as Ditko stories in general). Not sure why there aren’t any Ant-Man or Human Torch stories…

Click on an image to view my write-up for that story.

The Avengers #1

The Coming of the Avengers!

Featuring: Avengers
Release: July 2, 1963
Cover: September 1963
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Drawn by: Jack Kirby
Inking: Dick Ayers
22 pages

Previous	#94	Next
Marvel Boy #1	PRELUDE
X-Men #1	Reading order	Tales to Astonish #48
	Avengers	Avengers #2

I pity the guy who tries to beat us!

We reach the 100th story in our Marvel reading. Quite the milestone. And what a story it is. Coincidentally, the 100th Marvel Universe story, by my count, is Avengers #1. Did I plan it that way? No. Well, at least not exactly. Six different comics came out this very same day, and it was mostly up to me what order to read them in. The 100th story could just as easily have been X-Men #1 if I’d wanted. But I made that #99. Because.

[Big asterisk on the last paragraph. I have since edited my own reading order to make this story an unexciting story #94. But it was #100 when I first posted it. Now that honor goes to Journey Into Mystery #97]

And what a day for comics. The first Fantastic Four annual had Namor find his people and declare war on the surface world. That’s cool. Sgt. Fury met Reed Richards for the first time. That’s cool. The X-Men were introduced! We read the worst story yet as Thor battled Merlin. That’s… less cool. But overall an exciting day.

Including this. Really, what it’s all been building up to. Why I’ve been intermixing Thor and Iron Man stories, acting like they’re somehow connected even though they clearly haven’t been. This is the heart of it all. Five heroes we’ve been reading about team up. Also, the Fantastic Four show up for good measure.

And, as we’ve discussed, my first comic ever was an Avengers comic. So I’m excited to have reached this milestone.

I just wish it were a better comic.

PRELUDE: Marvel Boy #1

Marvel Boy and the Lost World

Featuring: Marvel Boy
Release: August 24, 1950
Cover: December 1950
10 cents
Credits: Russ Heath
12 pages

No credits are given in the issue. The art is generally recognized as being by Russ Heath.

I was thinking of waiting a long time to introduce Marvel Boy. He’ll show up in the Marvel Age in the pages of What If…? in 1978. The following year, a new hero named Quasar will be introduced, a character modeled partly after Marvel Boy. But it’s going to be a long time before I get to those comics. We’re still in 1963, after all.

And Marvel Boy is a significant superhero. Introduced in 1950 at a time when the company was starting to shy away from superheroes. Plus, his very name will have some significance to the company. Marvel Boy.

So let’s read his origin now, on the pretense that we’ve just been introduced to Marvel Girl.

The origin is a pretty good one, though if you squint a bit, you’ll see some resemblance to Superman’s origin. Marvel Boy’s father, Professor Matthew Grayson, was an early atomic scientist, able to build an atomic rocket in 1934. (Hey… maybe this allows us to add 5 years to Xavier’s age if people were experimenting with atomic power as early as 1934). When his wife and daughter are killed by Nazis, he retreats to space with his son, ending up on the planet Uranus, and discovering an advanced utopian society.

PRELUDE: Marvel Comics #1, Story B

The Angel

Featuring: Angel
Release: August 31, 1939
Cover: October 1939
10 cents
Credits: Paul Gustavson
8 pages

We have already read two stories from this, the very first Marvel comic, appropriately titled “Marvel Comics”. The most important character to debut in this issue is Sub-Mariner, whose story would be revived in the modern era in the pages of Fantatic Four. Next is Human Torch, who would not be revived, but rather reimagined– a new character created with the name and likeness. Another story in this issue features Ka-Zar, who will also get reimagined for the modern age. We’ll read his story when we meet the new one.

That leaves two other features, neither of whom will be revived in the Marvel Age of comics. One is the Masked Raider. Not sure when I’ll find an excuse to read his story, but I will at some point, just to complete the issue.

The other we get to now, the story of the Angel. We’re reading it now on the flimsy pretense that we just met the new Angel, a member of the X-Men. Even though it’s obvious these characters have nothing in common but a name. Not even sure this character was on anybody’s mind when they were creating the new Angel.