villain crossover – Coke & Comics

Tales of Suspense #66

If I Fail, a World is Lost!

Featuring: Iron Man
Release: March 11, 1965
Cover: June 1965
12 cents
Written in the Marvel tradition of greatness by Stan Lee
Illustrated in the Marvel tradition of grandeur by Don Heck
Inked in the Marvel tradition of drama by Mickey Demeo
Lettered in the coziest corner of the room by Sam Rosen
12 pages

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Sgt. Fury #18	Reading order	Tales of Suspense #66, Story B
Tales of Suspense #65, Story B	Tales of Suspense	Tales of Suspense #66, Story B

Stark is never around when you want him!

Due to circumstance, I lost the write-up for this particular story I had completed. I’m not a big fan of the Iron Man stories, and I was just unenthusiastic about writing this entry again. Please excuse me if I do a poorer job than usual. I just kind of want to get through this one.

In particular, I feel like I’d previously worked out where Attuma ranks in a particular metric, and I’m not sure I care to recompute it; I’ll just go off the top of my head and let somebody correct me if I’m wrong. Iron Man is the third distinct hero Attuma has fought, after facing the Fantastic Four and Giant-Man and the Wasp. I think that might be a record?

We have to define ‘distinct’ a bit carefully. I think fighting a hero and the team that hero is on should only count as one: Sandman fought both the solo Human Torch and the Fantastic Four; Loki fought both Thor and the Avengers.

With that caveat, Attuma is only the second villain to fight three distinct heroes. The first being Chameleon, who has faced Spider-Man, Iron Man (along with the Avengers), and Hulk.

Journey Into Mystery #109

When Magneto Strikes!

Featuring: Thor
Release: August 4, 1964
Cover: October 1964
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee, the monarch of the Marvel Age, at the pinnacle of his power!
Illustrated by: Jack Kirby, the prince of pageantry, at the height of his titanic talent!
Inked by: Chic Stone, the dean of line design, at the peak of his prowess!
Lettered by: S. Rosen, the sultan of spelling, at the little table in his studio!
18 pages

I don’t know what to make of these Thor stories since Kirby returned to the title. The art is certainly improved. This is very iconic Kirby, especially with Stone on inks. Everything very melodramatic, especially the posing.

And it’s cool that Thor meets Magneto. The battle between them starts off pretty well. Again, Kirby on that dramatic action depiction.

But the weaknesses of the story increasingly detract as the issue goes on. That battle which had been going well then moves to the now familiar trope where Thor loses his hammer and becomes Dr. Blake mid-battle, luckily just out of view of the villain. How did he lose it? He dropped it, then forgot about it.

After 60 seconds, the hammer turns into a walking stick. Sometimes that is what happens, and sometimes it is not.

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.

Daredevil #2

The Evil Menace of Electro!

Featuring: Daredevil
Release: April 2, 1964
Cover: June 1964
12 cents
Story: Stan Lee
Art: Joe Orlando
Inking: Vince Colletta
Lettering: S. Rosen
22 pages

The credits have two names that are new to us. Last issue was drawn by Bill Everett, who did an excellent job, but apparently also missed his deadline by a wide margin. Whatever happened, he was not invited back.

The artist is now Joe Orlando, who has been working in comics since the early ’50s, including occasional freelance work for Marvel. This is his first superhero work, previously drawing horror, western, and war comics, most notably for EC Comics. He worked in the comics field for many decades as artist, writer, and editor, most of that time with DC comics. As far as I can tell, this short stint on Daredevil is the last work he’ll ever do at Marvel.

Here’s a peek at some of the work he’d been doing in the previous 13 years.

Vault of Horror #9 (1951), Battle #47 (1956), Classics Illustrated #147 (1958), Mad #44 (1959)

Vince Colletta had been working as an artist for Marvel for about a decade, primarily on romance comics. He had recently moved toward inking. He will soon become a regular inker over Jack Kirby, and begin a very long run inking Thor. I believe this is also his first ever superhero work.

His work is not always loved by critics or his colleagues. He has a reputation for choosing professionalism over artistry. I see no evidence of this or any other flaw in this particular comic. I will caveat that I haven’t always the best eye for art, nor any particular talent for separating the contributions of the penciler from the inker when I look upon a page.

Here’s a sampling of his prior work.

Love Romances #44 (1954), Jungle Action #4 (1955), Love Diary #6 (1959), Kid Colt Outlaw #100 (over Kirby’s pencils, 1961)

Strange Tales #115

The Sandman Strikes!

Featuring: Human Torch
Release: September 10, 1963
Cover: December 1963
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Drawn by: Dick Ayers
13 pages

Stan really doesn’t know what he has. Strange Tales #115 includes one of Marvel’s all-time greatest stories, yet the cover shows not a hint of that. It focuses entirely on a mediocre Human Torch tale.

We get another villain crossover. We haven’t seen too many yet. Dr. Doom has shown up in the pages of Spider-Man. That’s pretty much the only one unless you want to count Loki showing up in the Avengers.

But now, Spider-Man’s foe Sandman will menace the Human Torch. Spider-Man himself might pop in to say hello. (Actually, he’ll pop in to express that he’s upset Human Torch took on his villain.)