tales of suspense – Page 5

Tales of Suspense #61

The Death of Tony Stark!

Featuring: Iron Man
Release: October 8, 1964
Cover: January 1965
12 cents
Story by: Stan Lee because we wanted the best!
Art by: Don Heck because we wanted the finest!
Inking by: Dick Ayers because we wanted the tops!
Lettering by: S. Rosen because we wanted to keep him busy!
12 pages

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Strange Tales #128, Story B	Reading order	Tales of Suspense #61, Story B
Tales of Suspense #60, Story B	Tales of Suspense	Tales of Suspense #61, Story B

The cover boasts that Tony Stark will die at the hands of the Mandarin. Covers often exaggerate or outright fabricate such things. This caption is closer to true than usual, though.

We are informed the Mandarin returns by overwhelming popular demand. I was not given a vote. He remains my least favorite Marvel villain.

We meet Inspector Flint, investigating the disappearance of Tony Stark. I spent some mental cycles trying to decide if he was the unnamed inspector we met last issue. He resembles that inspector, and it makes sense he would still be on the case. However, since he introduces himself to Happy and Pepper, that implies they’ve never met. So I assume he is a different inspector.

A journalist overhears Flint talking to Happy and Pepper, so the papers reveal that Iron Man is top suspect in Stark disappearance. Clearly, Iron Man is the only suspect. Either Stark is on vacation like Iron Man claimed, or Iron Man is lying. So if there is a criminal case, Iron Man is at the center of it. Or, Iron Man is telling the truth, and there is no criminal case.

Tales of Suspense #60, Story B

The Army of Assassins Strikes!

Featuring: Captain America
Release: September 8, 1864
Cover: December 1964
12 cents
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Jack Kirby
Inked by: Chic Stone
Lettered by: Art Simek
10 pages

Previous	#274	Next
Tales of Suspense #60	Reading order	Avengers #10
Tales of Suspense #60	Tales of Suspense	Tales of Suspense #61

Last issue, Captain America fought a gang of generic villains in purple jumpsuits. This issue, the generic villains are wearing green jumpsuits and work for Zemo. “Army of Assassins” may be their official name, as it’s used repeatedly.

There really won’t be much in the way of a story here, so what value we find will have to be in dramatic expressions and posing, and of course in the high energy action on display. I suspect Kirby will come through.

Tales of Suspense #60

Suspected of murder!

Featuring: Iron Man
Release: September 8, 1864
Cover: December 1964
12 cents
Written by the king of comi-drama: Stan Lee
Illustrated by the master of panoramic spectacle: Don Heck
Inked by the prince of line design: Dick Ayers
Lettered by the sultan of shaky borders: Sam Rosen
13 pages

Previous	#273	Next
Fantastic Four #33	Reading order	Tales of Suspense #60, Story B
Tales of Suspense #59, Story B	Tales of Suspense	Tales of Suspense #60, Story B

Iron Man is suspected of murdering Anthony Stark! But how can that be when Iron Man and Stark are the same person!

The art team is Heck and Ayers. We recently saw their work on Avengers #9 and will soon see it on Avengers #10. I was not impressed with their Avengers work. They acquit themselves much better here, even when rendering the Avengers. The faces are clear and distinct. The lines are clean.

Here’s where we were. Iron Man’s heart problems have accelerated. He needs the constant flow of power from his suit to his heart. He cannot remove his suit even for a minute, lest he risk his heart giving out. This means he cannot appear as Tony Stark. He made some excuses as Iron Man for Tony’s disappearance, but Pepper and Happy are suspicious.

This story seems to take place pretty soon after the ending of last issue. Pepper and Happy are searching for Mr. Stark. We saw that Avengers #9 explicitly took place in the middle of all this, with Iron Man reflecting on Stark’s disappearance and Pepper and Happy’s suspicions.

Tales of Suspense #59, Story B

Captain America

Featuring: Captain America
Release: August 11, 1964
Cover: November 1964
12 cents
Author: Stan Lee
Illustrator: Jack Kirby
Inked by: Chic Stone
Lettered by: S. Rosen
10 pages

Previous	#255	Next
Tales of Suspense #59	Reading order	Avengers #9
Tales of Suspense #59	Tales of Suspense	Tales of Suspense #60

Captain America is back with his own series, more or less. He doesn’t get the title of the magazine, but he gets a regular feature. He and Iron Man will be sharing Tales of Suspense. Very few characters get the title of the magazine. Daredevil and Spider-Man are special like that.

Captain America of course debuted in his own self-titled mag, Captain America Comics, way back in 1941. He was one of Marvel’s most popular superheroes for the entire decade. His comic was then retitled into Captain America’s Weird Tales for its final two issues to focus on the burgeoning horror genre. The final issue in 1950 didn’t even feature Captain America.

They tried a revival of the Captain America series in 1954, but it only lasted three issues. Fans were not as interested in seeing Cap smash Commies as they had been seeing him battle the Nazis a decade earlier.

Ten years later, they’re ready to try again. This time, the character will endure. Within 4 years, they’ll change the title of this comic to Captain America and that series will basically continue (with the occasional renumbering) to the present, over 55 years later.

All that said, this series doesn’t quite begin with a bang.

Tales of Suspense #59

The Black Knight!

Featuring: Iron Man
Release: August 11, 1964
Cover: November 1964
12 cents
Never has a Stan Lee script, or Don Heck artwork been greater!
13 pages

Previous	#254	Next
Daredevil #4	Reading order	Tales of Suspense #59, Story B
Tales of Suspense #58, Story B	Tales of Suspense	Tales of Suspense #59, Story B

As the cover indicates, it’s a moment of big change for this title. The science fiction tales are gone, and the horror stories (or tales of suspense) this title was founded on are long gone. But gone now also are the Watcher stories, which blurred the line between the older science fiction tales and our new superhero ones.

Henceforth, this title will contain two stories: an Iron Man adventure and a Captain America adventure.

Captain America’s return has been successful enough to give him his own title, but Marvel is still artificially limited in the number of titles it can publish, and seemingly reluctant to get rid of titles, preferring to repurpose them. Thus Captain America and Iron Man have to share a book. Just as Hulk has to share Tales to Astonish with Giant-Man and Wasp, and as Dr. Strange has been sharing Strange Tales with Human Torch and Thing.

Recall that Professor Nathan Garrett adopted the identity of Black Knight and fought Giant-Man and Wasp. He was not the first Black Knight, but the first of modern times. He genetically engineered a flying horse and built an arsenal of gadgets and weapons, primarily his multifunctional lance.

The fancy credits neglect the contributions of Chic Stone and Art Simek.

Having been defeated, he agreed to join the Masters of Evil to fight Giant-Man and the rest of the Avengers.

Having been defeated by the team of superheroes he attacked, he now wants revenge, and so is planning to attack the Avengers individually. He begins with Iron Man, starting with an attack on Stark’s factory.

Tales of Suspense #58, Story B

The Watcher Must Die!

Featuring: The Watcher
Release: July 9, 1964
Cover: October 1964
12 cents
A tale of most compelling merit by: Stan Lee
Illustrations of singular excellence by: George Tuska
Lettering of breath-taking adequacy by: Art Simek
5 pages

If you caught an early draft of my write-up for the previous issue, you saw me accidentally claim that was the final Watcher story. Either way, it ends with so little fanfare, that it’s hard to tell.

It’s hard to make a story about a character who never does anything. You’re tempted to have him do something in every issue, which is exactly what they did for this series.

The editor enthusiastically welcomes returning artist George Tuska. Tuska’s been working in comics since 1939, and worked for Marvel in the 1950s. Let’s see a sampling of his work.

The samples of Tuska’s work are from (in order, left to right, top to bottom):

Mystery Men Comics #1 (1939)
64 Pages of New Captain Marvel Adventures #2 (1941)
Crime Does Not Pay #22 (1942)
Casey – Crime Photographer #1 (1949)
Strange Tales #1 (1951)
Adventures Into Terror #7 (1951)

If Lee was that excited to have Tuska back, you’d think he could have found a more interesting assignment than filling in on the final Watcher story.

Tuska will continue to do occasional fill-in work for Marvel over the next few years, before eventually settling into a longterm stint on Iron Man.

The rest of the series had been drawn by Stan’s brother, Larry Lieber. Sad he’s not the one to bring it to a close. He’s already started what will be a very long run on Rawhide Kid. We’re not generally reading the western titles, so this is the last we’ll see of Larry for a while. He will pop up again here and there for the occasional fill-in issue or special, so this isn’t good-bye forever.

Tales of Suspense #58

In Mortal Combat with Captain America!

Featuring: Iron Man
Release: July 9, 1964
Cover: October 1964
12 cents
Every word you are about to read was written by ol’ faithful Stan Lee, one of the world’s most prolific script writers!
Every drawing you are about to marvel at, was created by Don Heck, one of America’s most promising illustrators!
Every bit of inking you are about to savor was done by Dick Ayers, one of the industry’s most painstaking artists!
Every sentence you are about to scan was hand-printed by Sam Rosen, one of Marvel’s most perspicuous letterers!
18 pages

The story begins with Iron Man battling a shark. That’s cool.

This story will guest star Captain America. Remember in Strange Tales #123 when Thing was a guest star, and then he was sharing title billing by issue 124? Or how Hulk was a guest star in Tales to Astonish #59, and then had his own regular feature in Tales to Astonish #60? I don’t know why I’m bringing those up.

Kraven and Chameleon return to America after their most recent deportations. Iron Man catches Kraven sneaking ashore, but Chameleon gets away.

I really appreciate the battle between Iron Man and Kraven. So often in superhero comics, they exaggerate the threat the villain poses against the hero. This has been a particularly pernicious problem with heroes as powerful as Thor and Iron Man, who tend to outclass their villains. It is thus rather refreshing to see the battle between Iron Man and Kraven resolved within 3 panels, as it should be.

Tales of Suspense #57, Story B

The Watcher’s Power!

Featuring: Watcher
Release: June 9, 1964
Cover: September 1964
12 cents
Story plot by: Stan Lee
Script + Art by: Larry Lieber
Inking by: Geo. Bell
Lettering by: Art Simek
5 pages

Larry Lieber celebrated his birthday last week. 89 years young. I think he is the only still-living creator we have encountered thus far. The Marvel superheroes of this era have become a cornerstore of our culture, but we have few remaining connections to those who helped make them. The most notable of those connections is Larry Lieber, younger brother of the late Stan Lieber, better known as Stan Lee.

Space pirates set to attack a world run afoul of the Watcher. Like the last would-be attacker to do so, they think the Watcher won’t be a problem, due to his oath. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t read the fine print of the oath.

Tales of Suspense #57

Hawkeye, the Marksman!

Featuring: Iron Man
Release: June 9, 1964
Cover: September 1964
12 cents
Written by: Smiling Stan Lee
Illustrated by: Sparkling Don Heck
Lettered by: Sterling S. Rosen
18 pages

Interestingly, this is the first Iron Man cover not drawn by Kirby. In fact, it’s the first major cover of the era not drawn or partially drawn by Kirby or Ditko. In general, Ditko has been drawing the covers of his books, and Kirby has been drawing the covers of his own and everybody else’s. For example, Kirby has drawn very few Giant-Man stories, but has drawn every cover. Since covers were often drawn before the issue, Kirby often had a hand in the creation of the new villains, by virtue of being the first to actually draw them. But not Hawkeye. Hawkeye may be the first major character we’ve met not in any way attributable to Kirby or Ditko. He seems to be entirely the creation of Stan Lee and Don Heck.

For example, Kirby is generally not credited as a creator of Black Widow, but he was involved at the beginning, having drawn her first cover appearance. Same story for Daredevil. I see none of his fingerprints on Hawkeye, but may be unaware of some behind-the-scenes work.

When we met Daredevil, I declared our cast of original stars complete. That was an admittedly arbitrary cut-off. I could have waited just a few months and claimed Hawkeye completes the package.

I said what I said because Hawkeye is not of our stars. At least not yet. He is a just a new super-villain, one of many. Like Black Widow. Like Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch…

See the Our Cast So Far page to see how I’m breaking out the characters.

Tales of Suspense #56, Story B

The Watcher’s Sacrifice!

Featuring: Watcher
Release: May 12, 1964
Cover: August 1964
12 cents
Story plot: Stan Lee
Script + art: Larry Lieber
Inking: Geo. Bell
Lettering: Art Simek
5 pages

This story makes me cringe a bit.

There have always been off-color jokes made about the character of the Watcher, suggesting a certain voyeurism to his character. After all, he watches. There seem to be no limits to what we can or will watch. Personal privacy is not a particular concern of his.

I have always taken such comments as jest and not a serious critique of the character of the Watcher, who, after all, is an impossibly advanced cosmic being, indistinguishable to us from a god.

But then we come to this story. Where he falls in love with a woman he is watching.