162: Tales of Suspense #56

Tales of Suspense #56
May 12, 1964

• This issue sees the introduction of the Unicorn - and, although he'll never go on to become a major foe, he's still one of those villains so darn goofy in concept and design that you wonder how he ever came back at all. I mean, he wears a suit with a power-beam mounted on his forehead - so, sure, why not name him after a mythical creature from European folklore (and one with a quizzical connection to virginity, at that)? This naming is made even more inexplicable when it's revealed that the character hails from Soviet Russia, and that the suit was designed by the Crimson Dynamo before his defection to the West. Although I suppose we could speculate that the suit was perhaps named after the Russian myth of the Indrik...?
  
  
  
  Um. Nobody wants to see Emo Tony.
  
  
• On the more human side of things, the cover hints at a closer look into the psyche of Tony Stark, and this is revealed as a re-emphasis on his mortality, poignantly held in check during Iron Man's origin story, but oddly underplayed ever since. The doubled-edged sword of this premise - that the chestplate he wears represents not just his enormous strength, but also his greatest weakness - is a powerful one; strange, then, that it's been overlooked for so long. In virtually all of the Iron Man stories that have touched on it since, this vulnerability - Tony Stark's need to recharge his chest battery at regular intervals, in order to keep his very heart beating - has always been presented as little more than a lighthearted "Whoops!" moment, rather than something more akin to "My God - I lost track of time and nearly died!"
  
  
  
  "Black light tracker"?  I think this is another case of
  what we can generously deem "Marvel science".
  
  
• In this issue, as well as the two following, Iron Man's feature is upgraded to 18 pages again, and so it's worth taking a moment to talk about format. As we've previously discussed, Marvel's various anthology books - Tales of Suspense, Tales to Astonish, Journey into Mystery and Strange Tales - all began life in the 1950s as comic books that featured multiple stories per issue, all of them unconnected from any other, and each story finite unto itself; no continuing stories with returning heroes there! Stan's early innovation, not long after the introduction of the Fantastic Four, was to place an ongoing superhero feature as the lead story in each one of these mags, so we got Thor in JIM, the Human Torch in Strange Tales, Ant-Man in TtA and Iron Man in ToS. At first the lead feature continued to be rounded out by unconnected tales as of old, but then the backup strips started, featuring the Wasp, the Watcher, Doctor Strange and "Tales of Asgard". With most of these, there was still just enough space left for one of the "filler" strips - perhaps burning off purchased, yet-unused inventory? - but as of now, they're done and used up. From this point forward, all of the superhero-related titles contain only superhero features (barring a couple of one-page text stories still trickling out over the next few months). The anthology titles will further concretize in the next few months into the double-feature books that will define the next period, but there's no denying it: Truly, the Marvel Age of Comics has taken hold!
  
  
  
  Did you ever think you'd see the Watcher in love?
  No, neither did anyone else.
  
  
• Along similar lines, this title's backup strip, "Tales of the Watcher", has only a few months left to live. (Don't worry; it'll get another brief run in '68.) Interestingly, just as the last couple Wasp backups have focused more on the character in question rather than just using her as a framing device, so too do these last few Watcher tales take a greater interest in the enigmatic alien himself, as evidenced from the titles alone: "The Watcher's Sacrifice", "The Watcher's Power", and "The Watcher Must Die!" And why not? If they're going to (temporarily) take the character off the table, they may as well go out swinging!
  
  
  
  The Watcher seems to have an oddly flimsy
  interpretation of "non-interference".

161: Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #8

Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #8
May 5, 1964

• Well, this is a first! When Stan needed to come up with a retroactive arch-nemesis for Captain America in Avengers #6, he created Dr. Zemo. (The "Baron" title would come later.) And what better way to show how long this villain has been around than by showing us his beginnings in World War II? You've got to admit that's a pretty cool idea - and even better, both this and the Avengers issue came out on the stands during the very same week of May 5, 1964! That said, despite being the focus of the Howlers' mission this time out, he doesn't actually appear in the story until the last five pages. Fortunately, that doesn't impinge on the issue's success in the slightest, and it's a highly enjoyable tale.
  
  
  
  Zemo's missing his distinctive pink hood; clearly, this adventure
  must predate that terrible glue catastrophe.
  
  
• But there are actually two reasons why this is something of a milestone issue, because the Howling Commandos gain a new member! You may recall that in issue #4, "Lord Ha-Ha's Last Laugh", the Howlers lost one of their own, "Junior" Juniper - a genuinely shocking occurrence for the time. While stationed in England, however, they're joined by British soldier Percival "Percy" Pinkerton, who initially is mocked by other soldiers for his more erudite speech and manners - quite different from the generally gruff, working-class American troops we've seen thus far - but who quickly dispels such doubts with his ability to take down his attackers in no time flat, and otherwise prove himself on the field of battle.
  
  
  
  Introducing Percy.
  
  
• You want controversy? We've got controversy! See, back in 2002, Stan Lee turned some heads when he revealed that he had always written Percy as gay. The times being what they were, and specifically in an artform under the strict scrutiny of the Comics Code Authority, Lee could never make it explicit - or even mildly hinted at, for that matter - but this was (Stan claims) his intention; simply a hidden aspect of Percy's character that informed Stan's writing. And yet, if this was in fact the case, then it was certainly a closely-guarded secret, one that Stan didn't even reveal to Sgt. Fury stalwart Dick Ayers. So what's the answer? Was Stan just making something up in that interview to get attention? Possibly. On the other hand, the Howling Commandos are such an unfamed piece of Marvel lore - absolutely unknown to pretty much every "person on the street" you might wish to ask - that it would be an extremely odd thing to invent. As with so many questions we have about the Silver Age, it's something we may never discover a definitive answer to ... but it's an idea worth keeping in mind, and continuing to wonder about, as we read future issues.
  
  
  
  Whoa!  Don't get this guy angry.
  
  
• Having co-created a damn fine war comic with Stan, Jack Kirby has now left the battlefied, and will return briefly only a couple of times hereafter. A significant factor might be that, starting with this issue, the comic is going monthly! (Was that perhaps more than Jack could give, while juggling his other responsibilities?) Instead, stepping into the breach, as alluded to above, is penciller Dick Ayers. The transition isn't a seamless one - the change in art styles is a bit jarring, at first - but we can assume any wrinkles will be ironed out pretty fast; after all, barring the occasional fill-in, Ayers remain on the series for the remainder of its run, pencilling in total nearly one hundred issues over the next several years! Not a bad record, especially for someone who seems to be close to Jack in terms of enormous output; after all, at this time he's currently drawing the lead features in Strange Tales and Tales to Astonish, as well as the adventures of Two Gun Kid! Like I said: Not bad, not bad at all....
  
  
  
  This is one of three explosions depicted in the story, all of them
  uncluttered by narration or dialogue.  It really helps sell the terror of war.

160: Tales to Astonish #58

Tales to Astonish #58
May 5, 1964

• Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne are busy at Hank's lab, when their Avengers teammate Captain America drops on in. And isn't it notable that such a thing's not even an event anymore, so much as something he can just do to casually hand out a mission to them? Said mission requires them to hop a plane to Africa, where the (archaically stereotyped) native population is being menaced by a gargantuan being calling itself "Colossus". Oddly enough, this isn't the same creature as from the Wasp's tale only five issues back - despite both of them being such central figures as to lend their shared name to each story's title. Strange that Stan would have chosen such an identical name after so short a time; was his famously shoddy memory so sieve-like even then?
  
  
  
  Aww - how sweet.  Even when he's saving their lives,
  he still has time to condescend!
  
  
• And yet, despite the reappearance of certain identical elements, in other ways there are clearly changes afoot. For one thing, Giant-Man revamps his size-changing ability so as to obviate its previous need for pill-popping, becoming now able to trigger the change mentally, via his cybernetic helmet. And in the debut outing of what will in time become something of a character-defining trait, the Wasp changes her uniform for the very first time! (In this case, the adjustment is comparatively mild; future costume changes will be much less so.) Finally, in what's clearly intended to be a thoughtful gift, Pym also reveals that he's revamped her abilities so that he can mentally change her size at will too, and not just his own! - but note that he doesn't design it so that she can change her own size mentally. Indeed, what appears at first glance to be a nice surprise takes on a more troubling tone upon further perusal; after all, by implementing this new design, he's essentially taking away her agency of change and keeping it for his own use and approval. Might we catalogue this as another subconscious step in his growing paranoia?
  
  
  
  Somehow, I doubt this is an accurate portrayal of Africa circa 1964.
  
  
• But at the same time as we see additions and expansions in our heroes' repertoires, the tale also takes pains to set specific limitations. When Giant-Man and the Wasp reach the 30-foot-tall Colossus, Hank decides to try matching the creature in height, despite not having attempted this size before. He's able to do so, but just barely and briefly; having stretched his mass so thin, he finds he's so weak he nearly passes out. Once he recovers, he realizes that he should never try growing taller than twelve feet ever again - answering, perhaps, certain reader questions on the fact? In the end, though, the Colossus is revealed as the member of an invading race, who is eventually scared into fleeing Earth - making the whole thing a pretty blatant retread of their equally globe-trotting adventure from TtA #46, "...When Cyclops Walks the Earth". (Also: Colossus? Cyclops? I suppose we should count ourselves lucky that Hank & Jan don't next find themselves tasked to Siberia to fight a giant wolverine.)
  
  
  
  Of course they've got a trophy room!  How else would their friends
  know they defeated such villains as El Toro and the Hijacker?
  
  
• Meanwhile, in the backup story the Wasp finds herself pitted against their old bunny-wielding menace from two whole months ago, The Magician! Finding herself lured downtown by the promise of a line of clothing inspired by her superheroic look, the entirety of the battle therefore takes place in a department store - even allowing her a whimsical moment behind the wheel of a tiny car from the toy department, as the Ant-Man famously did in his fantastic encounter with the Scarlet Beetle! Though flawed, it's undeniably a fun 7-page story, and one that gives the enjoyment of showing Jan fully on her own. Sadly, this is the last solo adventure we'll see from her for some time ... but that's only because Very Big Changes are coming to this title! Kicking off, in fact, next month....
  
  
  
  Snagged by an escalator.  Small wonder he never again showed
  his face - not out of fear, but embarrassment!

159: Journey into Mystery #106

Journey into Mystery #106
May 5, 1964

• Happy New Year! Now let's get back to Thor: Picking up from last issue, we return to the danger of Thor separated from his hammer, and thus quickly transformed back into Don Blake (due to the enchantment which turns the god back into his mortal guise after 60 seconds). Unfortunately, this issue turns out to be just more of the same, with Don having to trick the villains into getting the object back to him, and then finding a way to transform into Thor without their knowledge. Again. Really, it's just a naked retread of the action from last ish, which is a shame; last month's cliffhanger may have been an effective one, but Stan & Jack don't seem to have had any new idea to carry on from after. I suppose it just goes to show that not every story is worthy of being broken into two installments!
  
  
  
  When I see scenes like this one, I wonder about the poor contractor
  who has to redo the entire floor.  It's not just gonna meld back together!
  
  
• Correspondingly, there's actually very little human drama in the story at all, despite the revolutionary mix of superhero action and human drama being the foundation of Marvel's early success. The tale really is just a series of separations and recaptures - Thor from his hammer; the villains from Thor - until the very end, when Blake returns to his medical practice to find Jane enrapt by television news coverage of the fight. But since Blake had tricked the villains into thinking that he'd betray Thor to them - rather publicly, at that - Jane calls him a coward and angrily runs out. Note that this parallels rather nicely Jane's supposed betrayal of Thor in Hyde's own two-part origin story, which was the event that caused Odin to declare her unworthy of his son in the first place! However, there's no indication in the narrative that Stan is aware of this parallel or that it's at all intentional; instead, it's likely just a happy accident in the midst of his rapid-fire plotting.
  
  
  
  Something tells me there might be a design flaw in that paint machine.
  Does it paint just one side of the building?  How does it know what not to paint?  Etc.
  
  
• Meanwhile, "Tales of Asgard" turns its focus to another of the divine cast: Balder the Brave. In a post-battle rehash, Odin demands to know why Balder fell behind when the rest of their forces pursued the deadly Storm Giants. But when Balder defends himself by saying that he stopped to help a baby bird that had fallen from his nest, Odin is seriously not amused and sentences Balder to death on the execution fields. And yet the first arrow shot at Balder is snatched from the air by a hawk, while a subsequent spear is blocked by the fast-moving shoots of a nearby plant. Finally, when Thor raises his hammer to smite his friend, Odin stops his hand - claiming that he himself had summoned the hawk and the plant, and that the proceedings had been designed to test Balder's bravery as well as his gentleness.
  
  
  
  Look at the feathering on Balder's back, and the
  stippling effect on his leggings. Impressive!
  
  
• Additionally, this "Tales of Asgard" segment merits a note on the art. These have all been pencilled by Kirby, but so far the inking has been by whomever was seemingly available: George Roussous, Paul Reinman, Don Heck, and Chic Stone have all taken part. And, although more expert inking connoisseurs than I might be inclined to disagree, none of them have really let their inking styles come to the fore, instead being willingly subsumed by the style of the great Jack Kirby - all bold strokes and deep blacks. Here, though, Kirby is inked by Vince Colletta - a controversial figure, to be sure - and the inks on "ToA" look incredibly distinctive for the first time, with a light scratchiness that evokes some of Don Heck's pencilled art, yet overlaid onto the powerful figures as drawn by Jack. It's a bit of a marriage of opposites, and one I wouldn't have expected - yet I can't deny that the combination, for me at least, really works! Fortunately, the rotating cast of inkers looks as if it will cease, and within a year Vince will be inking the lead story as well.
  
  
  
  There really is something of a Prince Valiant feel to these images, don't you think?

158: The X-Men #6

The X-Men #6
May 5, 1964

• Just a couple of months ago, the Sub-Mariner fought the Avengers, before returning to menace the Fantastic Four once again. And now, he (temporarily) teams up with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants to face off against the X-Men. As Stan has already done with the Hulk, so too might he be intentionally keeping Subby in the reader's sights, certain that the time will come when he can spin the multifaceted character off into his own feature. It won't happen as soon as it will for the Hulk - another year and a half, as opposed to just a couple of months till the Hulk's new strip - but you can tell Stan is already planting the seeds...!
  
  
  
  Dude's got some major anger management issues.
  Also: Duck!!
  
  
• On a similar note, Stan's not letting the readership forget about Magneto, as this is the fourth issue - out of a mere six - to feature the Master of Magnetism. And it's the third issue in a row to feature the Evil Bro's! Readers could be forgiven for wondering if Stan & Jack had fallen into a creative rut on this new title already, but that's not the case; rather, they've realized that Magneto and the Evil Mutants make for some fantastic foils against Professor X and his X-Men - and that with a truly rich cast of villains like this, it's worth spending some time on exploring who they are.
  
  
  
  That is one seriously bad superpower:
  Tie your shoelaces and you might detonate the car!
  
  
• That said, this issue featuring the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants came out the same week as The Avengers #6, in which that team fought the Masters of Evil. Sense a theme? In the comments to that post, we talked about the preponderance of bad guys who freely refer to themselves in such a fashion, and why that might be. (As Barry put it, "Does anyone ever call themselves evil? These guys have very low self-esteem.") In the ensuing discussion, we agreed that it's simply part of the shorthand of the time, where Stan used names and descriptions that told you all you needed to know about a character or a group in as few words as possible. Yes, it came at the cost of subtlety, but when applied across the breadth of an entire issue, it contributed to an economy of storytelling. Compare this to the common complaint with many comics today, where the storytelling may be realistically subtle, yet distressingly takes six whole issues to tell a single story. A year later, you've not read twelve distinct stories - you've read TWO! Is there a "sweet spot" to be had, a compromise that could combine the narrative density of years past with the subtle storytelling skills of today? I believe there can be, yes - but to my continued frustration, it seems few modern creators are interested in exploring that.
  
  
  
  And it seemed like they were getting on so well...!
  
  
• To have some fun with nitpicking, there are definitely some developments in this issue that are laughable or otherwise just bizarre. Along with the "Evil" naming conventions already described, the cover shows Magneto attacking with our heroes with a magnet. And not just any magnet, but a ridiculously unsubtle horseshoe magnet. And early on, in his bid to track down the Sub-Mariner, Magneto settles himself into his throne and relaxes his mind, sending out his astral self to search the seven seas. Wait a minute, what? Magneto can astral project? How?! Professor X: Sure, that makes sense. And Doctor Strange: Of course! That entirely fits his mystical makeup. But what on earth does astral projection have to do with magnets?! I suspect this is something that later writers probably went back and explained, but right here, out of the blue, it seems like a case of Stan's occasional sloppiness in granting characters brand-new powers just because it makes the plot easier, like the Human Torch's trick of creating living, thinking duplicates which can operate with complete independence, or the Sub-Mariner's quickly-forgotten ability to mimic the abilities of the creatures of the sea. Fortunately, this isn't an error in judgment that Stan falls prey to very often - perhaps with an instinctive understanding that operating within the limits allows for far more drama than operating without - but that does make it all the more noticeable on the few occasions when he falters.
  
  
  
  Say it again!
  BAM! BAM! BAM!

157: The Avengers #6

The Avengers #6
May 5, 1964

• Introducing the Masters of Evil! Just as the Avengers were Marvel's first team assembled from pre-existing heroes, so too are the M.O.E. Marvel's first team of (mostly) pre-existing villains. And it's a pretty inspired thought! After all, since just about every hero on the Avengers has his own comic - why not take a villain from each and put them all together? Wham - instant crisis!
  
  
  
  Baron Zemo in the Jungle.
  
  
• Of course, the exception to this formula is their leader, Baron Zemo, since Captain America doesn't have his own mag - not yet anyway - and thus currently has no enemies to call upon. (The obvious choice might have been to bring back the Red Skull, who appeared in Cap's first issue back in 1940, but maybe Stan hadn't yet thought of that - or if he did, realized that the return of Cap's first supervillain should require its own story, when the time was right.) In any case, the solution that Stan hit upon was to create a brand-new villain, but one retrofitted into Captain America's past. In fact, it's made clear that Zemo is the bad guy they were fighting when Cap lost Bucky, right before he went into the deep freeze! And with his hand revealed in that tragic back story, an archenemy is instantly born.
  
  
  
  The villains return.
  
  
• Still, if there's one complaint we can voice about this new team of villainy, it's that it does seem thrown together somewhat at random. I mean, the Melter as the foe for Iron Man? Fine. Melting is about as opposite of hard iron as you can get, so he's conceptually a great foil. But the Black Knight fought Giant-Man and the Wasp just the once, and will only be really remembered in later decades, when at all, for his connection to the later Avenger by the same name. And the Radioactive Man - while a fine baddie, I suppose, and certainly emblematic of the nuclear terror of the times - isn't intrinsically a "Thor villain", in the same way that, say, Loki is. Fortunately, later incarnations of the team would be a bit more appropriately matched!
  
  
  
  Only in the Silver Age, y'all!
  
  
• Finally, a note on the new villain, Zemo. We get a bit of his origin, set twenty years earlier in World War II, when he was supposedly so hated a figure that he had to wear a hood everywhere he went. (Although you'd think he might have chosen a color less conspicuous, no?) But a chance conflict with Captain America accidentally smashed a nearby container of Zemo's dastardly new superglue - Adhesive X - and the hood has been stuck on his face ever since. As origin stories go, it's not bad - somewhat reminiscent of Superboy's accidental baldifying of a teenage Lex Luthor, maybe - but c'mon, glue? That was going to be the secret weapon to win the war? I was at that point musing, and thinking how funny it would be if they ever showed a connection between Baron Zemo, and that other gluemeister, Paste-Pot Pete ... and so was caught completely off-guard when I turned the page and saw, to my astonishment, that they DID! As someone the Avengers phone up to help them defeat Zemo's special adhesive, yes, but still: Two villains, one a war criminal and the other a petty thief, yet both of them connected ... by glue.
  
  
  
  This has to have been the most welcome surprise cameo in all of 1964!

This Month in Marvel: May 1964

• Another month of Silver Age Marvel means another look at Stan's "Special Announcements" pages, as he crowed to the readers about all the other superhero delights Marvel would be putting out that month. As mentioned last time, Stan didn't just write up the blurbs once and then copy them into each new mag, but would instead write them from scratch, every time, for every book! Nutty, man. So, as a point of comparison, here are two separate examples of the "Special Announcements" from May 1964; the one above is from Amazing Spider-Man #15, while the one below is taken from The Fantastic Four #29. Compare and contrast!
  

• As before, these scans come courtesy of Barry Pearl, author of The Essential Marvel Age Reference Project. Thanks, Barry!

156: Amazing Spider-Man #14

Amazing Spider-Man #14
April 9, 1964

• Here we have another impressively significant, key issue from the Silver Age - and isn't it amazing how many of those Stan & co. produced, in such an astoundingly short period of time? - with the first appearance of the character who would go on to become Spider-Man's greatest enemy. (Granted, the main and lasting reason for that notoriety wouldn't come about until years later, after Stan was no longer writing the title.) This first appearance particularly plays up the "Halloween goblin" aspect of his character; note not only the high-cheeked grin, but also the fact that he rides around not on the Goblin Glider - that would come later - but on a mechanical flying broomstick.
  
  
  
  In his first appearance, the Goblin looks almost ... cute!
  
  
• And yet the story itself is unmistakably silly. The Goblin wants to take down Spider-Man - so what does he do? What's the most evil and dastardly plan he can think of? Clearly, to approach a movie producer and claim he'll bring him Spider-Man, so the studio can film a story featuring them. WHAT? Spidey takes the pitch - hey, he could certainly use a film star's salary! - and they all fly out to the New Mexico desert. As the camera crew begins to set up, the Green Goblin and the Enforcers tell Spidey they should step away from the cameras to rehearse for a bit ... and that's when they attack in force. Without a doubt, this has to be one of the most convoluted plans for a villain that Stan's come up with yet!
  
  
  
  Uh ... no. I don't think anyone was expecting that!
  
  
• But as goofy as the setup may be, you certainly can't argue with Lee & Ditko packing as much action as possible into the pages - because we get a guest-appearance by the Hulk as well! (And is it truly just coincidence that both the villain and the guest-star are the same emerald shade? It's certainly never mentioned in the dialogue, as you'd expect.) We're just a couple of months away from the Hulk finally getting his shot at an ongoing feature once again, and Ditko will be Stan's partner there - for a while, at least. Was that plan already in place, and this outing was just to test their work on the creature once again, while reminding the readers that the Hulk was still extant? Or was it actually the other way round - with Ditko & Lee's work this issue providing the impetus to make them realize they could give the monster another go?
  
  
  
  Hulking out.
  
  
• So, all in all, the first appearance of the Green Goblin isn't the most impressive of debuts, and could easily have been forgotten - until the final few panels. Through some clever staging and dialogue, Stan & Steve shine a spotlight on the question of just who the goblin is, and as a result the readers' interest is suddenly piqued. We know now, of course - but as with so many of the successes in this era, they were just making it up as they went along (and the actual reveal would be famously controversial). Still, that smallest of decisions did give the readers a bit of a mystery with which to end the tale, and something for Lee & Ditko to follow up on ... and soon!
  
  
  
  The mystery begins!
  (Click to enlarge.)

155: Fantastic Four #28

Fantastic Four #28
April 9, 1964

• Hey, check that out! For the first time ever, we've got the Fantastic Four teaming up with the X-Men! And so soon after the two-part tale featuring the FF's adventure with the Avengers in #25-26. (Heck, there was only a single issue separating that story from this one!) By now, Stan's figured out that the best way to sell these new titles is through ample cross-promotion - and with the FF being the flagship title in his stable, that's clearly the book in which to do it.
  
  
  
  Sue's almost right.  It's actually the Avengers who fought the Space Phantom!
  
  
• And speaking of success - you have to admit that's a great visual Jack Kirby's conjured up for the cover. Let's face it: the Awesome Android is a great visual period, and one that's far more eye-catching than that of the Thinker (despite the fact that the Android hardly appears). And Jack must have realized this too; after all, contrast the cover above to that which graced the Thinker's first appearance in Fantastic Four #15. There's simply no comparison!
  
  
  
  Um.  Wouldn't adding more clay just make the puppet look like the Blob?
  
  
• Continuing to focus on the cover for a moment, it's not just the art that's a resounding success, as even the copy holds its weight. A potential reader wouldn't even have to look within to glean that the story inside must be an absolute pile-on: The Fantastic Four AND the X-Men, AND the Thinker and his Awesome Android ... AND the Puppet Master too??? Whew! And yet it's notable that the villains are exclusively FF baddies, and not (as would often feature in later team-up stories) a pair for each of them - like, for example, Magneto and Doctor Doom.
  
  
  
  Usually in these face-offs, the two token females are matched up.
  But here, Marvel Girl takes on the powerhouse that's The Thing!  Nice.
  
  
• The only downside to the issue is that the plot is rather, well, bunk. The Thinker has the Puppet Master mentally take control of Professor X, who directs his X-Men to fight the Fantastic Four. They fight them at the Baxter Building, then lure the FF to a lonely mesa and fight them there. At the end, the Beast manages to smash the Master's puppet, and the fracas is over (albeit with the villains escaping). Ho-hum. But in all honesty - the plot's not the important thing here. Instead, it's really all about the excitement of pitting two of Marvel's mightiest teams against one another, and seeing what happens. It may not be the most compelling story for either of them - but to any kids who picked this up off the stands, it gives enough of an intriguing glimpse of these characters to make them maybe pick up the next issues of not just one, but two, new comic mags...
  
  
  
  Whoa!  Trippy.

154: Strange Tales #122

Strange Tales #122
April 9, 1964

• Previously, it had been a bit of a surprise to see a story open with a reference to another book. Well, here it goes even further, as we start with a footnote to a previous story on the very cover! And if that's not enough, the story begins with a recap of that adventure; not the most striking way to kick off a story. What's worse, the recap doesn't end until the bottom of page 3! And, y'know, when you've only got 14 pages to tell your story in the first place, that's not a very economical approach. Did Stan realize too late there wasn't that much story in the Terrible Trio's return, and was just stalling for time?
  
  
  
  Even Stan's aware of this story's excess.
  
  
• Oddly enough, this story's over-reliance on the past isn't the only direction in which it looks, as the yarn unusually features not one but two instances of teases as to future tales. At the end of the recap detailling the Trio's original exile, we're once again shown the image of Doom flying off into unknown space. The next panel, however, goes on to say: "Now, before we resume our tale, for the benefit of those who wonder with the Fantastic Four whether Dr. Doom will ever return, we have this word ... He does return ... more dangerous than ever ... in the Fantastic Four Annual #2 'The secrets of Dr. Doom!'" And later, the final shot in the story is one of the Torch speaking directly to the reader, hawking the FF's next adventure in the pages of Fantastic Four #28. Stan's always been a natural salesman, yes - but usually this kind of promotion and cross-marketing has taken place via the house ads, or in the "Special Announcements" section of the letters pages. Putting them directly into the story itself might just be a step too far....
  
  
  
  A somewhat rare occurrence of the Marvel characters breaking the fourth wall.
  
  
• The Terrible Trio seems to possess the self-esteem of whipped dogs. At the end of their last fiasco, Dr. Doom tricked them - giving them not their promised pay of $5000 each, but instead a one-way ticket to another dimension. Having now escaped from their exile, though, their thoughts are surprisingly not on revenge for their betrayal, but rather on an overeager desire to impress Doom and regain his favor (once he returns himself, that is) by capturing the Fantastic Four, one at a time - starting with the Human Torch. And what, do they think, is to prevent Doom from turning on them again? The thought seemingly never occurs. Well, I suppose that, out of this makeshift foursome, Doom had been the brains of the group....
  
  
  
  Note how Ditko's crazy interdimensional visuals morph
  into the green design of Nightmare's garb.  Snazzy!
  
  
• Meanwhile, the Doctor Strange back-up story makes an odd misstep at its beginning, when the Doc falls asleep to find himself in a different dimension, being attacked by magicks and sources he can't predict. It soon turns out to be Nightmare, of course - and yet it seems odd that even this small bit of suspense at the identity of his attacker is telegraphed by the opening splash page of the story, which identifies Mr. Mare as the villain of the piece. You may recall that a similar predicament occurred in The Amazing Spider-Man #13, when the mystery of the crime-committing Spidey was spoiled by the cover appearance of the new villain. But there, it was understandable - because Mysterio has an incredibly eye-catching design, and his appearance on the cover might have sold more copies than not. Here, though, there's no excuse! And that's a shame, because although the story isn't a bad one, it's also not the most distinctive - and that bit of mystery at the beginning could have gone a long way towards imparting just a bit more flavor to the tale.
  
  
  
  The haunting tone in Strange's closing speech is surprisingly effective....