tales to astonish – Coke ⊕ Comics

Tales to Astonish #89, Story B

…Then, There Shall Come a Stranger!

Featuring: Hulk
Release: December 8, 1966
Cover: March 1967
12 cents
Handled with Hulktitude by Stan (The Man) Lee and Gil (Sugar) Kane
Lettered by: Sam Rosen
10 pages

Previous	#646	Next
Tales to Astonish #89	Reading order	Daredevil #25
Tales to Astonish #89	Tales to Astonish	Tales to Astonish #90

For, it is my intention to cleanse the Earth… to purify this tortured planet… in the only way possible… Civilization… as you know it… must be obliterated! The works of man… indeed, man himself, must be all but wiped out! Only then… with the planet scourged clean… scourged of the seeds of evil… can a new day dawn! Then, these humans who have survived the coming holocaust, shall build a better world… under my command! But I sense your thought! You are concerned about the fate of the millions who must perish! That can be of no concern to me! Human life means nothing to the Stranger! If all the solar system must be destroyed to bring peace to the universe, I would not shed a single tear at its passing! For I am the Stranger! I walk ever alone!

Boomerang is dead. Bruce Banner lies unconscious.

The Stranger had previously collected Magneto and Toad for his zoo. Has he come for the Hulk? Not for his zoo, apparently.

Tales to Astonish #89

The Prince and the Power!

Featuring: Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner
Release: December 8, 1966
Cover: March 1967
12 cents
Story by Smilin’ Stan Lee
Art by Wild Bill Everett
Lettering by Adorable Art Simek
12 pages

Previous	#645	Next
Tales to Astonish #88	Reading order	Tales to Astonish #89, Story B
Tales to Astonish #88, Story B	Tales to Astonish	Tales to Astonish #89, Story B

I? I am Prince of the Realm! I am Atlantis! Thus, here do I stand!

Recall that passing aliens accidentally dropped a robot on Earth, which landed in the ocean. Attuma has taken control and turned it into a weapon against the Sub-Mariner. I think that’s literally all that happened last issue.

This issue Namor actually fights the robot.

My life belongs to the people– to the Realm Eternal! I do what I must– I cannot do less!

Tales to Astonish #88

A Stranger Strikes from Space!

Featuring: Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner
Release: November 3, 1966
Cover: February 1967
12 cents
Written by: Stan the Man Lee
Illustrated by: Wild Bill Everett
Lettered by: Swingin’ Sammy Rosen
12 pages

Previous	#644	Next
Ghost Rider #1	Reading order	Tales to Astonish #89
Tales to Astonish #87, Story B	Tales to Astonish	Tales to Astonish #88, Story B

There must be no new battle till our fighting strength has been restored! Else, the death knell of fair Atlantis may be at hand!

We read the second half of this issue some time ago. It’s a thing that happens. Namor and Hulk share a title. When there are ongoing stories, I try to group a few issues together, looking for decent pause points within the series. But what happens when a good pause point for Namor isn’t a good pause point for Hulk?

Well, I make the reluctant decision to read an issue ahead for one of the characters. Even though that means picking up this comic, flipping to the middle, putting it down, then later picking it up again and reading from the beginning. Almost certainly what nobody reading this comic in 1966 did.

Ah well. I try to balance a lot of things when choosing the reading order and some things have to give.

Tales to Astonish #88, Story B

The Boomerang and the Brute!

Featuring: Hulk
Release: November 3, 1966
Cover: February 1967
12 cents
Hulkamorous script by: Stan (The Man) Lee
Hulkitudinous art by: Gil (Sugar) Kane
Hulkifying lettering by: Sammy (Dozin’) Rosen
10 pages

Previous	#605	Next
Tales to Astonish #87, Story B	Reading order	Sgt. Fury #33
Tales to Astonish #88	Tales to Astonish	Tales to Astonish #89

The poor, lumbering brute! He was guilty only of being feared– and misunderstood!

Gil Kane is going to become a big name at Marvel. We’ve seen him once before on a Hulk story a dozen issues back under the alias of Scott Edward and we reviewed his career at the time.

It’s possible this is his first properly credited Marvel work.

He brings a distinctive style, a very different take on Hulk from that of John Buscema the past two issues.

It’s been 7 issues since Boomerang entered Hulk’s life. We finally see that saga reach a conclusion. It’s been a long road, and I summarize in painstaking detail that road below. These past 6 months have been the most interconnected the Marvel Universe has yet been. Perhaps fittingly we will soon see that the phrase “Marvel Universe” also debuted in that timespan.

At this point it seems like everybody knows Hulk’s secret identity. But the first person to learn it after Rick was the President of the United States, presumably President Johnson. And that is presumably President Johnson now interceding on Hulk’s behalf.

Unfortunately, Boomerang intervenes and drives Hulk to a rampage and another conflict with the military.

Tales to Astonish #87, Story B

The Humanoid and the Hero!

Featuring: Hulk
Release: October 11, 1966
Cover: January 1967
12 cents
Story: Smilin’ Stan Lee
Art: Big John Buscema
Inks: Mighty Mickey D.
Lettering: Adorable Artie S.
10 pages

Previous	#604	Next
Tales to Astonish #87	Reading order	Tales to Astonish #88, Story B
Tales to Astonish #87	Tales to Astonish	Tales to Astonish #88

“Have you gone mad?”
“I hope so! It’s what I’m counting on!”

Every issue has a nickname for these creators. I claim the most enduring for Lee is Stan (The Man) Lee. Though I might guess that in our reading so far, Smilin’ Stan Lee is the most common nickname.

This is only John Buscema’s second month in his return to Marvel, and Stan has already found the nickname that will stick. Big John Buscema is the one I most associate with him.

Adorable Artie is also one of the more common ones. Stan loves his alliteration.

We left Hulk in Manhattan battling the Leader’s Hulk-Killer Humanoid. The Secret Empire is defeated. Boomerang is still up to stuff.

Tales to Astonish #87

Moment of Truth!

Featuring: Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner
Release: October 11, 1966
Cover: January 1967
12 cents
Story: Stan (The Man) Lee
Illustration: Wild Bill Everett
Lettering: Adorable Artie Simek
12 pages

Previous	#603	Next
Tales to Astonish #86, Story B	Reading order	Tales to Astonish #87, Story B
Tales to Astonish #86, Story B	Tales to Astonish	Tales to Astonish #87, Story B

Rise, my lady! Let your head be lifted– avert not your eyes! From this moment forth–by imperial decree– the Lady Dorma may never again kneel in the presence of her liege! She stall stand at my side–with all due honor– as one who shall someday be princess of the realm! –As one who is truly a peer! And, know you, my lady– whatever befalls– the gratitude– the trust– and the heart of your prince shall be yours– while Atlantis endures!

Big day for Bill Everett, creator of the Sub-Mariner. He had half-returned to his creation, supplying finishes to other artists’ pencils. But starting this issue, he becomes the regular artist on the character who in any world with sensible laws would have belonged to him all along.

We’ve been following not quite a story, but let’s call it a sequence of events that has propelled us from issue 77 to here. Across 11 issues, Namor has had a lot of misadventures unified by the scheming of Krang, and his kidnapping of Dorma, which Namor mistook for Dorma’s betrayal. It finally comes to and end, and we can put Namor’s arc down for a while.

Krang and Dorma have been captured by the military. Krang’s serum has worn off, revealing their blue skin, and leaving them unable to breathe on land. Namor comes to them, but the military has a trap for him. Because they blame Namor for Krang’s flooding of Manhattan.

Tales to Astonish #86, Story B

The Birth of… The Hulk-Killer!

Featuring: Hulk
Release: September 1, 1966
Cover: December 1966
12 cents
Superlative script: Smilin’ Stan Lee
Ameliorative art: Jovial John Buscema
Imaginative inks: Mirthful Mickey Demeo
Lucrative lettering: Adorable Artie Simek
10 pages

Previous	#602	Next
Tales to Astonish #86	Reading order	Tales to Astonish #87
Tales to Astonish #86	Tales to Astonish	Tales to Astonish #87

Though I’ve lived as the monstrous Hulk– I’ll die as Bruce Banner– I’ll die as– a man!

John Buscema still on art.

The Secret Empire stands defeated, but their agent Boomerang remains at large. The Orion Missile is heading for New York. Hulk leaped at the missile, and somehow this calmed him down. So now Bruce Banner is riding a missile.

The transformation here is really badly storyboarded; just Bruce one panel and Hulk the next. Stan compensates with narration to make up for the artistic failings. Come on, Big John!

Tales to Astonish #86

The Wrath of Warlord Krang!

Featuring: Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner
Release: September 1, 1966
Cover: December 1966
12 cents
Story by Smilin’ Stan Lee
Pencilling by Merry Jerry Grandenetti
Inking by Wild Bill Everett
Lettering by Adorable Artie Simek
12 pages

Previous	#601	Next
Tales to Astonish #85, Story B	Reading order	Tales to Astonish #86, Story B
Tales to Astonish #85, Story B	Tales to Astonish	Tales to Astonish #86, Story B

But, not even a prince of the blood can possess patience without limit!

Grandenetti is a new name to us, and really to me as well. This is one of very few Marvel works; we’ll see him again on Sgt. Fury in the near future. He got his start assisting and ghosting for Will Eisner on The Spirit and has been working comics at DC since the early 1950s, focused on war comics, and has lately started to do some side work for Warren, Charlton, Tower, and apparently Marvel at least once, sometimes ghosting for Joe Orlando. Here’s a sampling of his art.

Boy Meets Girl #2, Lev-Gleason, 1950
Western Comics #27, DC, 1951
All-American Men of War #127, DC, 1952
House of Mystery #8, DC 1952
The Brave and the Bold #1, DC, 1955
Strange Adventures #63, DC, 1955
Our Fighting Forces #62, DC, 1961
Our Army at War #115, DC, 1962

Tales to Astonish #85, Story B

The Missile and the Monster!

Featuring: Hulk
Release: August 2, 1966
Cover: November 1966
12 cents
Script: Stan Lee
Pencils: John Buscema
Inks: John Tartaglione
Lettering: Ray Holloway
Hulk’s pants-pressing: Irving Forbush
10 pages

Previous	#600	Next
Tales to Astonish #85	Reading order	Tales to Astonish #86
Tales to Astonish #85	Tales to Astonish	Tales to Astonish #86

Banner! He’s a weakling! He’s helpless! The Hulk is strong– can do anything!

We reach the 600th story in our read-through of the Marvel Universe. It’s cool when that happens to be a significant story.

Which this, for the most part, isn’t.

But there is one very significant thing about it. And I’ll take that.

The fainting woman is my favorite character in the comic.

John Buscema is joining the Marvel artists with this issue. He’s also doing this month’s Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD story, which we’ll get to later.

Tales to Astonish #85

–And One Shall Die

Featuring: Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner
Release: August 2, 1966
Cover: November 1966
12 cents
Script written by: Stan Lee
Drawings pencilled by: Gene Colan
Inking rendered by: Bill Everett
Panels lettered by: Artie Simek
Confusion compounded by: Irving Forbush
12 pages

Previous	#599	Next
Amazing Spider-Man Annual 3	Reading order	Tales to Astonish #85, Story B
Tales to Astonish #84, Story B	Tales to Astonish	Tales to Astonish #85, Story B

“Who is it, Phil?”
“We’ll probably never know! From the looks of things, I’d say he was pretty much beyond recognition!”

Colan has been the regular penciller on Namor’s adventures of late. Bill Everett is the creator of Namor, and this is his second time working as Colan’s inker on the series.

Where were we? The head of the ruined Secret Empire had tricked an amnesiac Namor into being his pawn, until a blast from Krang’s ship sent Namor into the ocean, where he regained his memory. We pick up with Krang flying away, thinking he has killed Namor.

Dorma has been with Krang for a while now. Originally she had agreed to marry him in exchange for saving Namor’s life. Namor doesn’t know this and is mad at Dorma for betraying him. Krang keeps trying to kill Namor anyway, and Dorma keeps staying with him, so it’s all a bit confusing.

Also confusing that Number One blames Hulk for the destruction of the Secret Empire, when the Hulk had nothing to do with it. It was a combination of internal strife and infiltration by Gabe Jones of SHIELD that took them down.