roy thomas – Coke ⊕ Comics

X-Men #27

Re-enter: The Mimic!

Featuring: X-Men
Release: October 11, 1966
Cover: December 1966
12 cents
Edited by Stan Lee
Scripted by Roy Thomas
Drawn by Werner Roth
Inked by Dick Ayers
Lettered by Sam Rosen (Wouldja believe Artie Simek?)
20 pages

Previous	#636	Next
Fantastic Four #60	Reading order	Sgt. Fury #37
X-Men #26	X-Men	X-Men #28

…as long as there are evil mutants abroad in the world, the X-Men must remain vigilant!

Recall last issue ended with Cyclops accidentally (or so he claims) injuring Angel. Meanwhile, Jean Grey ran into Cal Rankin at Metro College. Cal Rankin had fought the X-Men as Mimic, but he doesn’t recall the encounter because Professor X futzed with his brain.

We pick up with the X-Men battling Mimic again, now seeming to recall their last encounter. After the in media res opening, we see how we got here.

Sgt. Fury #36

My Brother, My Enemy!

Featuring: Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos
Release: September 8, 1966
Cover: November 1966
12 cents
Block-buster editing by Stan Lee
Bullet-scarred script by Roy Thomas
Battle-ready art by Dick Ayers
Bomb-happy inking by John Tartaglione
Ballpoint-pen lettering by Sam Rosen
20 pages

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Captain Atom #83, Story B	INTERLUDE
Daredevil #23	Reading order	Fantastic Four #57
Sgt. Fury #35	Sgt. Fury	Sgt. Fury #37

A traitor? Nein, I think not! If there be any traitor to the Fatherland, it is rather those who would lead it to the brink of disaster for the sake of their own personal glory!

The stories from this title had fallen into a pattern. The premise was always location-based. The Howlers had some mission in a new location. They completed it and went home.

Since taking over, Thomas has been trying to tell actual stories and have character arcs.

This issue is location-based. The Howlers go to the neutral territory of Switzerland, breaking any number of laws and treaties.

But there’s a premise and a larger character arc as well.

We met Eric in Sgt. Fury #27, when he defected from the Germans and came to Britain. But last issue it was decided Eric (whose last name we learned was Koenig) should join the Howlers, since Manelli was injured and recovering back in the States. This is his first mission with the Howlers.

So Thomas writes about a couple things pertaining to that, ideas that are more than “the Howlers have a mission and succeed”. The first is that he’s eager to prove himself, sometimes too eager and to everyone’s detriment.

I must prove myself… show the Commandos I am as good as any of them! I must! For, only thus will I ever be certain that they look on me as a man… not as an ex-Nazi!

Avengers #35

The Light that Failed!

Featuring: Avengers
Release: October 11, 1966
Cover: December 1966
12 cents
Edited (ecstatically) by Stan Lee
Scripted (surprisingly) by Roy Thomas
Drawn (dynamically) by Don Heck
Lettered (legibly) by Sam Rosen
20 pages

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Avengers #34	Reading order	Daredevil #22
Avengers #34	Avengers	Avengers #36

To be an Avenger is to surrender a part of one’s life… to be ever at the beck and call of humanity! Still, in these quiet moments, each of the others has another human being to whom he can reach out… only I have no one… no life, except behind the mask of the Red-White-and-Blue Avenger!

This begins a 70-issue run on Avengers by Roy Thomas. Thomas will have his highs and lows over those 70 issues, and it will take him a minute to warm up and get into the groove, but on the whole I think his Avengers will be much better than Stan Lee’s.

We’ll try to note along the way milestones marking an increase in quality. I’ll offer a hint that a new artist is going to help a lot.

The slow move of Stan off scripting duties, and the expanding bullpen of artists… this is a transition into the next era of Marvel Comics. Where it’s not Stan and Jack and Steve making most of the comics.

Strange Tales #154

Beware… the Deadly Dreadnought!

Featuring: Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD
Release: December 8, 1966
Cover: March 1967
12 cents
Edited by: Stan Lee
Scripted by: Roy Thomas
Plotted and drawn by: Jim Steranko
Lettered by: Sam Rosen
12 pages

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Strange Tales #153, Story B	Reading order	Strange Tales #154, Story B
Strange Tales #153, Story B	Strange Tales	Strange Tales #154, Story B

Leave the thinkin’ to AUTOFAC…

The training wheels are off for Jim Steranko. In his first couple issues, he’d been drawing off layouts from Kirby, but Kirby has stepped away. The newcomer Steranko has drawn this all by himself.

And he even gets a plotting credit for his work. Something it took Ditko and Kirby years to get. That folks like Orlando and Wood left the company over.

Roy Thomas was also on scripting duties last issue, but this won’t be a regular gig for him. This is his second and final turn on the series.

AUTOFAC is the AI system that does SHIELD’s thinking. If they feed it what they know about Supreme Hydra, it will deduce their identity.

Can you, reader, deduce the identity of Supreme Hydra before AUTOFAC can? If not, maybe we should just surrender to AI.

We get a detailed diagram of the Heli-Carrier. Below the story notes, we recorded all the rooms and notes.

Strange Tales #153

The Hiding Place!

Featuring: Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD
Release: November 10, 1966
Cover: February 1967
12 cents
Seldom-equalled editing by Stan Lee
Seldom-surpassed scripting by Roy Thomas
Seldom-lacking layouts by Jack Kirby
Seldom-rivaled rendering by Jim Steranko
Seldom-legible lettering by Artie Simek
12 pages

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Strange Tales #152, Story B	Reading order	Strange Tales #153, Story B
Strange Tales #152, Story B	Strange Tales	Strange Tales #153, Story B

The hour of Hydra has come at last– And nothing that the human race can do will cease our relentless march toward world domination!

Steranko takes on the cover solo, and does an impressive job. He probably won’t need Kirby’s handholding much longer.

Inside, it’s still the Kirby/Steranko art team, with the art seeming more and more Steranko each issue. What’s changed is the writer. Thomas has been the regular on X-Men and Sgt. Fury and occasionally filled in elsewhere. This is in that fill-in category. He won’t be a regular writer on this series.

We open in the barbershop. Not clear the status of it after the attack by AIM. Is it still a SHIELD base? Is it still secret?

We recognize the two agents working in the barbershop, but still haven’t learned their names.

X-Men #26

Holocaust!

Featuring: X-Men
Release: September 1, 1966
Cover: November 1966
12 cents
Editing.. Stan Lee
Script.. Roy Thomas
Art… Werner Roth
Inks.. Dick Ayers
Lettering… Sam Rosen
Mayan headdresses… Irving Forbush
20 pages

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X-Men #25	Reading order	Strange Tales #150
X-Men #25	X-Men	X-Men #27

I hate to sound like a poor man’s Hawkeye, but I can’t seem to stop myself! Why should Jean prefer Scott over me?

Last issue, the gem-hunter El Tigre found a pendant which transformed him into the Mayan feathered-serpent god Kukulcán. He now has the power of the sun. Which sounds pretty powerful.

This seems to be basically what happened to Don Blake. He found a mystic artifact and now finds himself the avatar for a god.

X-Men #25

The Power and the Pendant!

Featuring: X-Men
Release: August 2, 1966
Cover: October 1966
12 cents
Edited by: Stan Lee
Scripted by: Roy Thomas
Illustrated by: Werner Roth
Inked by: Dick Ayers
Lettered by: Sam Rosen
Imitated by: Brand Echh
20 pages

Previous	#612	Next
Fantastic Four Annual 4	Reading order	X-Men #26
X-Men #24	X-Men	X-Men #26

Come back an’ fight, ya crummy mutant!

At some point, we are faced with the question, are all these heroes interchangeable, or are their distinctions amongst the titles, making some stories more suitable for one title than another.

There are hints here of what I think the X-Men are about. Moments.

Sgt. Fury #35

Berlin Breakout!

Berlin Breakout!
Featuring: Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos
Release: August 9, 1966
Cover: October 1966
12 cents
Edited by Stan Lee
Scripted by Roy Thomas
Drawn by Dick Ayers
Inked by John Tartaglione
Lettered by Sam Rosen
Picketed by Baron Strucker
20 pages

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Sgt. Fury #34	Reading order	Fantastic Four #55
Sgt. Fury #34	Sgt. Fury	Sgt. Fury #36

I am not a traitor to my homeland! I want to save it… to free it from the tyranny of a madman like Adolf Hitler!

The Howlers are in custody in Berlin, set to be executed. Nick Fury intends to rescue them, but he’ll need help.

Part of that help will come from Fury’s good friend, Bull McGiveney. As well as Corporal Rickets Johnson from the Maulers. We learned his name two issues back, but now we get to put a face to it.

The other person is Eric, a German we met in Sgt. Fury #27. He’d been an aide to Goering, but defected to join the Allies. We didn’t get his surname then, but we now learn his full name is Eric Koenig.

Sgt. Fury #34

The Origin of the Howlers!

Featuring: Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos
Release: July 7, 1966
Cover: September 1966
12 cents
The peerless editing of Stan Lee
The preciocious scripting of Roy Thomas
The power-packed pencilling of Dick Ayers
The pulse-pounding inking of John Tartaglione
The pussycat lettering of Sam Rosen
20 pages

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Sgt. Fury #33	Reading order	Sgt. Fury #35
Sgt. Fury #33	Sgt. Fury	Sgt. Fury #35

“I don’t like Hitler’s goose-steppers any more’n you do, but as long as he don’t attack America, it ain’t my war!”
“It’s everybody’s war, Mister… I just hope they realize it before it’s too late!”

Recall last issue the Howlers were separated from Nick Fury during a mission in Greece. He is back in England now without them.

With nothing to do but wait for G-2 to bring back word on the fate of the Commandos, Captain Sawyer reflects on how he first met Nick Fury, and the group’s beginnings.

Sgt. Fury #33

The Grandeur that was Greece..

Featuring: Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos
Release: June 9, 1966
Cover: August 1966
12 cents
Stan Lee, editor
Roy Thomas, writer
Dick Ayers, artist
John Tartaglione, inker
Sam Rosen, letterer
Irving Forbush, camp mascot
20 pages

Previous	#606	Next
Tales to Astonish #88, Story B	Reading order	Sgt. Fury #34
Sgt. Fury #32	Sgt. Fury	Sgt. Fury #34

My countrymen, the much-vaunted invincibility of our so-called Aryan conquerors is but a myth! They can be stopped… but only by a united front! Do not let petty jealousies divide you in this time of crisis!

Greece. You get the sense these stories are written by looking at a map of where the Howlers haven’t been yet.

We open with a fight between the Howlers and Maulers. A typical Tuesday.

Besides Sgt. McGiveney, we’ve not learned the names of any of the Maulers; we first met the group in issue 7. We now learn that one of them is named “Rickets” Johnson. It’s not clearly identified which one. Izzy claims he started the fight by slugging Rickets.