wasp – Page 4 – Coke & Comics

Tales to Astonish #61

Now Walks the Android

Featuring: Giant-Man and Wasp
Release: August 4, 1964
Cover: November 1964
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee (He’s getting to be a habit)
And then the credits get complicated.
14 pages

Previous	#265	Next
Amazing Spider-Man #19	Reading order	Tales to Astonish #61, Story B
Tales to Astonish #60, Story B	Tales to Astonish	Tales to Astonish #61, Story B

We get a new logo for the shared title. Giant-Man never got a logo before. Tales to Astonish had remained the logo despite his starring role. The new logo somewhat cramped to fit all the names. “Giant-Man” is spread across two lines and has to share its text box with “and the Incredible”. No mention of Wasp in the logo. The cover real estate is split about equally between the two stories, with Hulk’s story up top. The cover box is similar to last issue, just rearranged a bit to put Hulk on top.

Somebody’s muscling in on your territory, Giant-Man.

The first page has Stan Lee’s credit, then some typed text pasted over the rest of the credit box. It explains that Ayers is on vacation, they had hired a new artist to fill in, but circumstances altered the plan, and Ditko and Roussos stepped in last minute to draw the issue.

As with most things Stan Lee says, that text box contains partial truths and partial falsehoods. Last issue, they had announced the artist would be Dick Rockwell. Rockwell had been working in comics since 1949. He did a little work for Marvel at the time.

Amazing Spider-Man #18

The End of Spider-Man!

Featuring: Spider-Man (for the moment)
Release: August 11, 1964
Cover: November 1964
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee, author of “The Fantastic Four”
Illustrated by: Steve Ditko, illustrator of “Dr. Strange”
Lettered by: Sam Rosen, letterer of… “Patsy Walker”???
22 pages

Previous	#259	Next
Amazing Spider-Man #17	Reading order	Strange Tales #126
Amazing Spider-Man #17	Amazing Spider-Man	Amazing Spider-Man #19

Check out that cover. Quite the contrast with pretty much every other superhero cover. The superhero is usually portrayed as tough, dramatically standing against the odds. In the worst case, the cover might show the villain winning, but the superhero remains defiant. This one has Spider-Man cowering and hiding from the villain.

In this story, Peter decides to quit being Spider-Man. He’s thought about it before, but he’s about to actually quit for the first time. It won’t be the last time, or even necessarily the most famous time. A similar story will get told and retold across decades of Spider-Man stories and even make its way into Spider-Man 2. (More directly, the film borrowed from Amazing Spider-Man #50, which borrowed from this issue.)

Note we’re reading this and the last issue together because they make a strong arc when read together. In terms of continuity, it has been weeks since the conclusion of the last issue, so it’s likely several other heroes’ adventures we’ve read occurred in the interim.

The story begins with everybody reacting to Spider-Man’s retreat: heroes, villains, people on the street… guy can’t run away from a single fight without everybody having an opinion. Ditko is great at people reacting to things.

Wasp notes that wasps and spiders are natural enemies. Always found that a weird thing to say. But she’s said it before and she’ll say it again; it’s an obsession of hers whenever the topic of Spider-man comes up.

This is an excellent comic for helping shape the nature of the relationship between Human Torch and Spider-Man. They’ve had some banter and conflict before, but also teamed up. A friendly rivalry. We saw how friendly last issue when Johnny attended the Spider-Man Fan Club meeting and then was quick to help Spider-Man against the Goblin. Now, he seems uncertain. He witnessed Spider-Man’s cowardice firsthand, but still wants to think better of his friend.

Avengers #9

The coming of the… Wonder Man!

Featuring: Avengers
Release: August 11, 1964
Cover: October 1964
12 cents
Sensationally written by: Stan Lee
Superbly illustrated by: Don Heck
Selectively inked by: Dick Ayers
Sufficienty lettered by: Art Simek
21 pages

Previous	#256	Next
Tales of Suspense #59, Story B	Reading order	Sgt. Fury #11
Avengers #8	Avengers	Avengers #10

To ring in the new year, we get the debut of a promising new character with a solid design aesthetic: Wonder Man.

I have questioned characters whose logos are just letters, but at least the “W” here is nicely stylized.

That title is probably the last time he is ever referred to as “the Wonder Man”.

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.

Fantastic Four #31

The Mad Menace of the Macabre Mole Man!

Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: July 9, 1964
Cover: October 1964
Written by: Stan Lee, the man with the talented typewriter!
Illustrated by: Jack Kirby, the man with the power-packed pencil!
Inked by: Chic Stone, the man with the panoramic paint-brush!
Lettered by: S. Rosen, the man with the leaky lettering pen!
21 pages

I’d like to reflect back to Fantastic Four #11. Things were revealed there which are contrary to my general impression of these characters. Some key facts were that Reed and Ben had served in World War II. Prior to the war, they had both finished college. Further, he and Sue were sweethearts prior to the war.

We did a lot of math about what that meant, math I’m sure Stan Lee never did. But he must have had some sense of what he was saying. He had been a sergeant himself in World War II. He must have known that claiming Reed and Ben served in the same war he did made them about his age. He similarly knew that it was quite odd to have a sweetheart for 20 years and still not be married. He must have known these things.

The one thing I suspect he didn’t think about was that Johnny was in high school. This necessarily put a gap of almost twenty years in age between brother and sister. I have a friend whose brother is 30 years older than he, so I know this is possible. But I really don’t think Stan intended it.

Stan certainly gives the impression in the stories that Reed has let Sue stay single too long, but I assume he intends to mean she should have been married by 23 and she’s now like 26 or something. But that’s inconsistent with the World War II facts, which suggests she’s pushing 40 and still unmarried, but with at least two suitors.

Either way, Johnny is in high school. And whether his sister is ten or twenty years older than he, she is definitely much older and seems to be his guardian. There has been no mention of parents.

Until now.

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.

Avengers #8

Kang, the Conqueror!

Featuring: Avengers
Release: July 9, 1964
Cover: September 1964
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee (our answer to Victor Hugo!)
Illustrated by: Jack Kirby (our answer to Rembrandt!)
Inked by: Dick Ayers (our answer to Automation!)
Lettered by: Sam Rosen (our answer to Artie Simek!)
21 pages

This is more like it.

If you look to Amazing Spider-Man, you’ll see that Lee and Ditko introduced 6 super-villains in 7 issues (Chameleon, Vulture, Tinkerer, Dr. Octopus, Sandman, Lizard), and the pace hasn’t slowed down by issue 16. By contrast, over 7 issues Avengers introduced the Space Phantom and Zemo.

So it’s good that we’re getting a new villain at all. More than that, it’s good that this villain is plausibly a threat to the Avengers. That’s what they should be about, after all. Threats so great no single hero can stand against them. It’s also great this is an independent menace. Too much of the series was focused on internal squabbles or villains whose sole goal was to defeat the Avengers.

Kang is actually here to conquer the world. He’s tough enough that it’s going to take a team of superheroes to stop him.

Thank god Rick Jones is there for the Pentagon top priority meeting.

Technically speaking, Kang’s perhaps not a new villain. But close enough. While we’re being technical, Zemo was perhaps introduced in Sgt. Fury.

Of more personal significance, this is the oldest Avengers comic I actually own. I have a complete run of Avengers comics starting with issue 31 and going until I stopped collecting them in 2007. And then I have a handful of older issues, starting with this one.

Tales to Astonish #60

The Beasts of Berlin!

Featuring: Giant-Man and Wasp
Release: July 2, 1964
Cover: October 1964
12 cents
Excitingly written by: Stan Lee
Exquisitely drawn by: Dick Ayers
Extravagantly inked by: Paul Reinman
Emotionally lettered by: Art Simek
14 pages

The cover hints at a significant change to the title, but we’ll save discussion of that for the next post.

We begin with Giant-Man throwing a temper tantrum and kicking out his fan club. Wasp complains he’s scaring way their fans. She uses the phrase, “our fans”, but all the signs say “Giant-Man”, never “Wasp”.

This series is weird about secret identities in multiple ways. They sometimes act like they have secret identities that are important to protect. Other times, they seem pretty nonchalant about it. For example, Wasp calls him “Hank” in front of the fan club.

Journey Into Mystery #108

At the Mercy of Loki, Prince of Evil!

Featuring: Thor
Release: July 2, 1964
Cover: September 1964
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee, the idol of millions!
Illustrated by: Jack Kirby, the toast of the town!
Inked by: Chic Stone, the man of the hour!
Lettered by Art Simek, the people’s choice!
18 pages

Stan Lee grants himself the tagline that will eventually get applied (usually self-applied) frequently to Ben Grimm: “the idol of millions”.

We get an offbeat opening sequence. Maybe it’s cool. I find it stretches credibility, though I confess a difficulty expressing what doesn’t in Thor stories. Thor appears to go mad, striking the ground with his hammer to create an earthquake. This shaking threw a truck off the ground a few blocks away, just high enough to not hit a boy. I find it hard to believe Thor could be that precise, and that nobody else was injured. Thor claims there was only some damaged property, which could be paid for out of the Avengers emergency fund.

The notable event in this issue is the first meeting of Thor and Dr. Strange. Dr. Strange had just barely defeated Baron Mordo and was left weakened by the battle. Strange fights Mordo pretty often. The last battle we saw was a few months ago and didn’t seem to leave Strange this weakened. There is likely some untold battle between Strange and Mordo that precedes this story.

Amazing Spider-Man Annual 1

The Sinister Six!

Featuring: Spider-Man
Release: June 11, 1964
Cover: 1964
25 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Drawn by: Steve Ditko
Lettered by: S. Rosen
41 pages

It’s 1964. You’re young. You don’t have a lot of money. But you know some math. Most comics cost 12 cents. This one costs 25. You could get two comics for that price! But wait… those two comics between them would only net you 42-46 story pages. This one promises 72 pages! 72 big pages, at that.

Indeed, this first story is 41 pages, enough to give you your money’s worth. But there’re over 30 pages of bonus features as well!

Plus, most of those comics will give you one super-villain, two at most. This cover promises a sinister six villains for your hard-earned quarter.

If you’re not yet sold to drop two bits, the first page should do it. Aunt May and Betty Brant have been captured by the Sinister Six, and Spider-Man has lost his powers! Now that’s a story!