Avengers #12

This Hostage Earth!

Featuring: Avengers
Release: November 10, 1964
Cover: January 1965
12 cents
Written in the Marvel manner by smilin’ Stan Lee
Illustrated in the Marvel tradition by dazzlin’ Don Heck
Delineated in the Marvel style by darlin’ Dick Ayers
Lettered in the nick of time by swingin’ Sam Rosen
20 pages

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Avengers. Mole Man. Let’s check it out.

Mole Man is plotting to conquer the world. Ants are the first to notice his schemes, and they warn Giant-Man who warns the Avengers who… don’t take the ants seriously.

Iron Man is rocking those roller skates!

The moral of the story is to take warnings from ants seriously.

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Twelfth Day of Classic Comics Christmas

Dr. Doom and Magneto

See my initial post for the context. Suffice to say that I will be sharing my entries to the Classic Comics Forum tradition, “Twelve Days of Classic Comics Christmas“. This is a cross-post of my twelfth entry, representing #1 on my list of favorite comic book Crossovers.

Today is the final day. Thank you for reading along.

1. Dr. Doom and Magneto
“A World for the Winning”
from Super-Villain Team-Up #14 (Marvel, 1977)

by Bill Mantlo, Bob Hall, Don Perlin, and Duffy Vohland

[This isn’t quite a complete story; it concludes in the Champions, but the contest I’m playing along with was specifically not about teams, so we’re focusing on the first chapter. All that said…] this was a clear #1 for me.

These are my favorite super-villains. And Dr. Doom has conquered the world. Like, it’s over. He’s won. His only enemy left is boredom. And out of that boredom, he gives Magneto a chance, a small chance, to free the world.

This story would get reused and reworked for Marvel Graphic Novel #27, “Emperor Doom”, also by Bob Hall. And the bare premise of a super-villain in psychic control of an entire world has shown up here and there, since. Most recently in Tom King’s Batman.

But this is the one. Doom’s finest hour. The best story for Marvel’s best villain.

Strange Tales #110

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.

Ooh, the paste is flame-proof now.

First, we dedicate 3/13 pages to recapping the last encounter with each villain. It sticks pretty close to the original story.

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