stan lee – Page 44 – Coke & Comics

Amazing Spider-Man #8

The Living Brain!

Featuring: Spider-Man
Release: October 8, 1964
Cover: January 1964
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Illustrated by: Steve Ditko
17 pages

The cover calls this a special “Tribute-to-Teen-Agers” issue. I don’t really appreciate the significance of that. There are teenagers in this issue, and most issues of Amazing Spider-Man, a series which stars a teenager.

Significant couple panels. Last time Peter will wear glasses. The implication is that his spider-powers fixed his eyesight, but he’s continued to wear them anyway.

Fantastic Four #22

The Return of the Mole Man!

Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: October 8, 1963
Cover: January 1964
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Drawn by: Jack Kirby
Inked by: G. Bell
22 pages

Happy birthday, Mom!

Lee and Kirby put their heads together to solve a problem that’s plagued this series since the beginning: Sue.

Readers have written in to complain. Lee and Kirby even had Reed and Ben respond in-story to their complaints. They listed everything Sue had accomplished with her powers, but also compared her importance to that of Lincoln’s mother and claimed her place was to help morale. Stan even had a poll as to whether she should even stay on the team. Readers voted overwhelmingly in her favor.

But there are genuine problems with her, at least 3. The first is that Lee is very bad at writing female characters. Not sure how to fix that. Maybe hire a single female writer or artist? Perhaps you could lure Ramona Fradon away from DC. There’s a woman named Marie Severin who I think is presently working on the production end of your comics. Perhaps she could help.

The second is that all the female characters feel like tokens. They have 3 superhero teams, each with precisely one female character. The Avengers are four extremely powerful males and a woman the size of a wasp. They will soon introduce the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, again with one female. When we get an all-new team of Avengers in a dozen issues, it will again consist of exactly one female. This is a clear problem with their titles.

The final problem is her powers. Invisibility can be handy, but its uses in a fight are limited. It’s just not a very offensive power.

It’s this final problem they tackle this issue. They will expand the limits of her invisibility powers to actually make her a formidable fighter. This is a good step in the right direction.

Tales of Suspense #49, Story B

The Saga of the Sneepers!

Featuring: The Watcher
Release: October 8, 1963
Cover: January 1964
12 cents
Story plot: Stan Lee
Script and art: Larry Lieber
Inking: G. Bell
5 pages

“The Saga of the Sneepers” is the type of story that’s occupied this title since before Iron Man showed up, and has continued to exist in the form of backups to the main Iron Man stories. The difference between this and the ones we’ve opted not to read is that the Watcher is narrating it. That is the format of the first of these “Tales of the Watcher” stories.

The same format showed up this month in Tales to Astonish with “The Wonderful Wasp Tells a Tale“. The Watcher seems a more natural narrator of science fiction tales than the Wasp. The Wasp seems like she should be living adventures. The Watcher is forbidden to interfere in events, so narrating the events he observes is a more sensible use for the character than what he’s done in his two Fantastic Four appearances: interfering in events.

A notable difference between the two is that Wasp was presumably spinning a fictional story about the future to entertain, whereas the Watcher is narrating actual events. So the Sneepers are an actual alien race within the Marvel Universe; the Wobbows likely are not.

Tales of Suspense #49

The New Iron Man Meets The Angel!

Featuring: Iron Man
Release: October 8, 1963
Cover: January 1964
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Illustrated by: Steve Ditko
Inked by: P. Reinman
18 pages

Paul Reinman on inks. It’s not often Ditko gets an inker. He usually does his own finishes. His first Iron Man story had Don Heck doing “refinement”. I think that’s the only other time we’ve seen anybody else finishing Ditko. Paul Reinman has been inking the X-Men comics, so he may be here to help keep their faces on-model.

Once again, that weird note at the beginning; we’ve seen something similar in every crossover. Stan thanks the editors of X-Men for letting the characters appear. You are the editor, Stan. But there may be legal reasons for this. Martin Goodman played all types of crazy games with shell companies and such to save a buck here and there.

The idea is it’s all one continuity, one universe. That’s why we read these comics together. But we don’t know that any character is part of that continuity until they cross over. At first, crossovers were sparse. It was a while before there was any hint Iron Man and Thor might be in this world. Crossovers have become increasingly common. After only two issues of X-Men, we learn they are a part of this world. The main story is a battle between Iron Man and Angel, but all the X-Men and Avengers will also show up.

Tales to Astonish #51, Story C

Somewhere Waits a Wobbow!

Featuring: Wasp
Release: October 1, 1963
Cover: January 1964
12 cents
Story plot: Stan Lee
Script and art: Larry Lieber
Inking: G. Bell
5 pages

Wasp finally gets her own solo adventures… the first female character to do so. And she’ll spend the series… reading science fiction stories to sick children.

Huh. Not exactly where I thought her character arc was going.

So far, she has shown an interest in men, makeup, and fashion. At least her interest in science fiction is less stereotypical.

Really, this is the same type of story that has been appearing in this series after the Ant-Man tales all along. Weird little science fiction shorts. We’ve been skipping most of them. But now they’re part of our superhero reading because the Wasp is narrating them.

Tales to Astonish #51

Showdown with the Human Top!

Featuring: Giant-Man and Wasp
Release: October 1, 1963
Cover: January 1964
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Drawn by: Jack Kirby
Inked by: Dick Ayers
13 pages

This continues the story of the previous issue. This is arguably the first real 2-part story we’ve seen. The Fantastic Four took two issues to defeat Dr. Doom in Fantastic Four #16–17. But as one encounter was in the Micro-World alongside Ant-Man, and the other was not, it could be argued those were two different stories, the main plot of issue 16 being resolved. Here, issue 50 clearly ended with a note the story was to be continued. Nothing was resolved. So that makes this something of a milestone within our reading.

They presumably mean his worst defeat since becoming Giant-Man. As Ant-Man, he was defeated by a vacuum.

Tales to Astonish #50

The Human Top!

Featuring: Giant-Man and Wasp
Release: September 3, 1963
Cover: December 1963
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Illustrated by: Jack Kirby
Rendered by: Steve Ditko
23 pages

Kirby and Ditko is a rare and special combination. I think this is now the 4th time we’ve seen the combo.

Giant-Man gets a costume change, though less dramatic than the Iron Man one we just saw. Since he’s no longer Ant-Man, the ant logo is vestigial. He thus drops it in favor of some vertical stripes that resembles suspenders.

We get a major new villain, Human Top. For many characters, it’s obvious who their arch-nemesis is. Thor has Loki, the X-Men, Magneto. For Dr. Pym, it’s less clear. I had suggested it was Egghead, but a friend argued it was the Human Top. Both are contenders.

We learn Dave Cannon was born with super speed and the ability to whirl really fast like a top. This makes him a mutant as Professor X explained the term. Though this comic does not use that word.

Tales of Suspense #48

The Mysterious Mr. Doll!

Featuring: Iron Man
Relese: September 10, 1963
Cover: December 1963
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Art: Steve Ditko
18 pages

Iron Man gets a new look.

Steve Ditko is the artist on this issue. Jack Kirby drew the cover. Covers were often completed first. Most internet sites claim Ditko designed the new armor, but it might have been Kirby. These questions have been the subject of decades of debates and lawsuits. I do not know what is true, though I have my guesses.

I do know this new armor is better than the old one. I also know Ditko is responsible for the quality storytelling in the interior.

I also know that Mr. Doll looks much more like a Kirby villain than a Ditko villain. Simple color scheme. Weird headgear. All seems trademark Kirby.

Also, he has a dumb name. The GCD informs me Mr. Doll was supposed to be named Mr. Pain. That’s slightly better, I guess.

Fantastic Four #21

The Hate-Monger!

Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: September 10, 1963
Cover: December 1963
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Drawn by: Jack Kirby
Inked by: George Bell
22 pages

The cover tells me not to dare reveal Hate-Monger’s identity. I fear that I am going to have to do just that. Spoilers ahead.

This is George Roussos’ first time on Fantastic Four and the effects are noticeable. He makes less effort than the other inkers to smooth out Kirby, and if anything only emphasizes the sharp angles of the faces, creating a more exaggerated style. The first page is meant to show the FF looking angry and hate-filled, so perhaps is not the ideal introduction to his take on the characters.

The first page lets me know this will be the most unusual, thought-provoking tale I will read this season. Often, Stan uses hyperbole in these opening pages. But I think the ending (yes, the one I plan to spoil; you are warned) more than lives up to Stan’s promises.

Strange Tales #115, Story B

The origin of Dr. Strange

Featuring: Dr. Strange
Release: September 10, 1963
Cover: December 1963
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Drawn by: Steve Ditko
8 pages

We learn the origin of Dr. Strange, one of the greatest superhero origins ever. Probably the second-greatest. It will thus be only the second Marvel Age story I give the (presumably) coveted 5-star rating.

A brilliant surgeon cared only for wealth and fame. When an accident damaged his hands, his desperate quest to be able to operate again led him to seek out a mystic healer. There he learned of the nature of black magic and the threat to the world posed by Mordo. He spent years studying under the Ancient One to become a master of black magic.