Featuring: Wasp Release: January 3, 1964 Cover: April 1964 12 cents Dreamed up by: Stan Lee Scribbled + sketched by: Larry Lieber Finished in India ink by: Sol Brodsky Lettered + bordered by: At Simek 5 pages
Last issue, Porcupine seemed very interested in trying to learn Giant-Man’s secret identity. But Wasp’s mask has never covered her face and she doesn’t seem that concerned about her secret identity.
In fact, here we see her babysitting a friend’s child in costume. He refers to her as “Aunt Jan”. Maybe Porcupine wasn’t the genius he thought he was. It’s like thinking people somehow knew Sue was Invisible Girl but not that Johnny was Human Torch.
Featuring: Giant-Man and Wasp Release: January 3, 1964 Cover: April 1964 12 cents Daringly written by: Stan Lee Dramatically drawn by: Don Heck Deftly lettered by: Art Simek 13 pages
The placement of this story is tricky. Where we have it, Hulk and Namor are still on the loose, so this is no time for Wasp to be talking about a vacation. Doesn’t mean she wouldn’t be. Hank does note they don’t have time for a vacation. I choose to treat this as a veiled reference to the whole Hulk/Namor situation, whether intended or not.
On the subject of chronological concerns, notice Giant-Man is in his older outfit, last seen in issue 51. This indicates to me that he alternates between the outfits. In reality, the outfit seems to correspond to the artist. Ayers drew the issues with the thick suspenders. Kirby and Heck seem to be drawing Giant-Man with the lighter stripes. They will all eventually converge on thicker suspenders.
We see some pretty rough play between Giant-Man and Wasp. It seems to be all in good fun, but may be early warnings of an abusive relationship forming.
Featuring: Thor Release: December 2, 1963 Cover: February 1964 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Drawn by: Jack Kirby Inked by: G. Bell Lettered by: S. Rosen 13 pages
We are one week late reading this comic because it begins a two-part battle against Tomorrow Man. How this comic fits in with Thor’s appearances in Avengers is pretty complicated, and we’ll be addressing that in a later post.
I’ll remind readers that the Avengers really do have some urgent business to get back to. Both Hulk and Namor remain at large. It should also be noted that Giant-Man recently fractured his ankle, but seems better now.
Jack Kirby is back and here to stay. Perhaps he’ll be able to turn around what up to this point has been one of the worst comics. Perhaps not, as he was there for the earliest issues of Thor and they were still of low quality. But Stan Lee was also farming out the writing to a variety of people. Now, for the first time, Stan and Jack will be the team on this book, just like on Fantastic Four and Sgt. Fury. They’ve also reached the point in their working relationship where their “coplotting” of the stories likely involves Stan less and less. Kirby will be taking greater control of the storytelling going forward. We’ll see how it goes.
Now that Lee is scripting, there is a detectable difference in Thor’s speech patterns. Under other writers, he had slowly evolved from talking like he was Don to talking like he was Thor. Now, there’s a certain haughty regality to the language. Words like “naught”.
Featuring: Wasp Release: December 2, 1963 Cover: March 1964 12 cents Story plot: Stan Lee Script + Art: L.D. Lieber Inking: D. Heck Lettering: R. Holloway 5 pages
Once again, we get a Wasp story where she narrates another story. This time, she tells her story to Hank before heading to the Veterans hospital.
It concerns a warlord named Mingo (perhaps inspired by Ming from Flash Gordon). An atheistic conqueror, he takes advantage of his targets’ religious beliefs, easily defeating a people who don’t believe in fighting at night and another who can’t fight soldiers wearing sacred animal garb.
Featuring: Giant-Man and Wasp Release: December 2, 1963 Cover: March 1964 12 cents Story by: Daring Stan Lee Art by: Dazzling Dick Ayers Lettering by: Dynamic S. Rosen 18 pages
Porcupine is only Dr. Pym’s second recurring villain. Egghead was the first.
Giant-Man’s costume seems to be undergoing frequent slight alterations. I’m not sure what’s going on with the black suspenders. They may be adjustable. Whatever is going on, this issue they seem to form an “x” on his back.
Featuring: Avengers Release: November 5, 1963 Cover: February 1964 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Illustrated by: Jack Kirby Inked by: P. Reinman 25 pages
We see a new cover box. Acknowledges that Hank is now Giant-Man and that Wasp exists.
Welcome to a special Mothers Day post. What makes this a Mothers Day post? Well, today is Mothers Day. Also, my mother likes the Sub-Mariner, and this is the issue where the Avengers meet Sub-Mariner.
Sub-Mariner doesn’t show up until page 15, but still gets the issue titled after him. Good for him.
In the first issue, Loki tricked the Avengers into attacking the Hulk.
In the second issue, Space Phantom tricked the Avengers into attacking the Hulk.
This issue, the Avengers just decide to attack the Hulk.
Featuring: Wasp Release: November 6, 1963 Cover: February 1964 12 cents Story plot: Stan Lee Script and art: Larry Lieber Inking: G. Bell 5 pages
Wasp visits an orphanage to tell another sci/fi tale. The main plot about prisoners pursued by the Space Patrol doesn’t have too much going for it. But along the way, one convict lists some weird planets he was aware of. And those planets all represent some cool sci/fi ideas.
Featuring: Giant-Man and Wasp Release: November 6, 1963 Cover: February 1964 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Illustrated by: Dick Ayers 18 pages
This story is 18 pages. They’d been seeming to have trouble filling 13, but 18 will be the new norm. The 5-page difference is made up for by the lack of a science fiction backup, save the tale the Wasp tells. An era is soon coming to an end.
While I mostly think of him and appreciate him as an inker, I’d like to note that Dick Ayers is a pretty solid draftsman in this issue. I complained recently about his Strange Tales work with George Roussos. But, inking himself, he gives a very clean take on these characters.
We meet the new Black Knight, Professor Garrett. He’d been a spy busted by Giant-Man. He fled the country to his castle in the Balkans. (Yes, another super-villain with a castle; at least this one’s in a part of the world with lots of castles.) He used his science knowledge to genetically engineer a winged horse and build a lance that has all kinds of weapons attached.
In particular, his lance can melt metal. Since that’s the only power of the Melter, the Melter would feel pretty useless if the two ever teamed up.
Featuring: Iron Man Release: October 8, 1963 Cover: January 1964 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Illustrated by: Steve Ditko Inked by: P. Reinman 18 pages
Paul Reinman on inks. It’s not often Ditko gets an inker. He usually does his own finishes. His first Iron Man story had Don Heck doing “refinement”. I think that’s the only other time we’ve seen anybody else finishing Ditko. Paul Reinman has been inking the X-Men comics, so he may be here to help keep their faces on-model.
Once again, that weird note at the beginning; we’ve seen something similar in every crossover. Stan thanks the editors of X-Men for letting the characters appear. You are the editor, Stan. But there may be legal reasons for this. Martin Goodman played all types of crazy games with shell companies and such to save a buck here and there.
The idea is it’s all one continuity, one universe. That’s why we read these comics together. But we don’t know that any character is part of that continuity until they cross over. At first, crossovers were sparse. It was a while before there was any hint Iron Man and Thor might be in this world. Crossovers have become increasingly common. After only two issues of X-Men, we learn they are a part of this world. The main story is a battle between Iron Man and Angel, but all the X-Men and Avengers will also show up.
Featuring: Wasp Release: October 1, 1963 Cover: January 1964 12 cents Story plot: Stan Lee Script and art: Larry Lieber Inking: G. Bell 5 pages
Wasp finally gets her own solo adventures… the first female character to do so. And she’ll spend the series… reading science fiction stories to sick children.
Huh. Not exactly where I thought her character arc was going.
So far, she has shown an interest in men, makeup, and fashion. At least her interest in science fiction is less stereotypical.
Really, this is the same type of story that has been appearing in this series after the Ant-Man tales all along. Weird little science fiction shorts. We’ve been skipping most of them. But now they’re part of our superhero reading because the Wasp is narrating them.
