roy thomas – Page 2 – Coke ⊕ Comics

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

Previous	#628	Next
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

Previous	#613	Next
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

Previous	#608	Next
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

Previous	#607	Next
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.

Strange Tales #150, Story B

The Conquest of Kaluu!

Featuring: Dr. Strange
Release: August 9, 1966
Cover: November 1966
12 cents
Gloriously edited by Stan Lee
Graniloquently scripted by Roy Thomas
Gorgeously drawn by Wild Bill Everett
Grudgingly lettered by Artie Simek
10 pages

Previous	#584	Next
Strange Tales #149, Story B	Reading order	Tales of Suspense #81
Strange Tales #150	Strange Tales	Strange Tales #151

It is the Sacred Griffin– the beast appointed by the priests of the Babylonian god Marduk to stand eternal vigil over the mystic text! It has ever been written in the Words of Flame that he who defeats the fearsome sentinel… is the destined possessor of the book!

Dr. Strange gets the cover again. Seems like he and Nick Fury will be trading off who gets featured.

We’re skipping the Nick Fury half of this comic to finish off the Kaluu arc.

O’Neill had been the writer for the last few issues, but Thomas fills in for this one. His scripting is described as “graniloquent”. Looks like Stan will return to the title next issue.

As you can see from the list down the page, Thomas is all in on the invocations.

So far, the Kaluu story has been terrible. Will Thomas turn it around?

Four issues into the battle, and Dr. Strange and Kaluu still haven’t met. So if we get that far, it will be a step up.

We’d heard Ancient One whine for several issues now about how powerful Kaluu is. But now Kaluu seems to fear that he will lose if his foes get any time to plan.

Tales to Astonish #82

The Power of Iron Man!

Featuring: Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner
Release: May 3, 1966
Cover: August 1966
12 cents
Plotted by Smilin’ Stan (who then went on vacation!)
Scripted by Rascally Roy (who wishes he had!)
Begun by Gallant Gene (who caught the flu after finishing the first two pages!)
Finished by King Kirby (who drew the last ten pages, then asked who Sub-Mariner was!)
Inked by Darlin’ Dick (who else?)
12 pages

Previous	#572	Next
Tales of Suspense #81, Story B	Reading order	Tales to Astonish #82, Story B
Tales to Astonish #81, Story B	Tales to Astonish	Tales to Astonish #82, Story B

Never will Prince Namor surrender! Never shall your eyes view the true Sovereign of Atlantis humbled! Not all your vaunted power will give you the final triumph!

Yesterday was Mother’s Day, and my mother, this blog’s most loyal reader, always liked Namor in her youth. So this is for her.

The digital reprints leave off the letterer credit, and I don’t own the original of this comic. And my reprint in Marvel Masterworks has the same misprint as the digital version. But the GCD tells me there should be one more line in the credits, which reads:

Adorable Arthur (Who??)

Where were we? Red Skull is alive and has been working with Them, and AIM and Them may be the same organization. AIM/Them had created the Cosmic Cube, which Red Skull used to make himself a god, but was still defeated by Captain America. AIM is a defense contractor trying to worm its way into SHIELD and convince the government to remove Col. Fury. But Fury suspects what they are up to.

The Secret Empire is after the Orion Missile, and has hired Boomerang to the task. He has kidnapped the General’s daughter, Betty Ross, as the first step in his plan.

To save Namor from the Behemoth, Dorma agreed to marry Krang, and they ran off together. Unaware of her noble intentions, a furious Namor pursued them to the surface.

Returning to America from a battle with Ultimo, Iron Man found that his factories had been closed, and that he was running low on power and friends. Happy, Pepper, the Avengers… none were home when he desperately needed them. Happy and Pepper may have been on a date. The Avengers may have been in a hidden kingdom in South America.

Krang attacked Iron Man, then escaped. Namor blamed Iron Man for the escape, and decided to stop pursuing Krang and battle Iron Man instead.

This is the direct continuation of the story from Tales of Suspense #80.