|
Post by owene on Nov 7, 2010 12:30:16 GMT -5
Journey into Mystery 83 Thor Meets the Stone Men of Saturn. By Stan Lee with Larry Leiber, Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott Villains: The Stone Men of Saturn Guest Appearances: none So what happens?: Frail American Doctor Don Blake is on holiday in Norway. A local fisherman claims to have seen an alien spaceship landing and despite his compatriots failing to believe him Blake decides to investigate his story.
He finds the aliens, giant stone monsters, planning to kill anyone who discovers them. They notice Blake and send him fleeing. He falls into a cave at the bottom of a ravine and seems trapped until he strikes the stone wall with a stick he found in the cave.
Blake instantly transforms into the powerful figure of Thor, Norse God of Thunder while the stick becomes Thor’s hammer Mjolnir.
With his new found strength he soon gets out of the cave and is soon familiarising himself with the magical abilities of his hammer. As Thor he flies after the alien invaders and manages to defeat their fleet of ships and their battle robot and then sends them packing back into space.
As NATO troops come to clear up the damage Thor strikes his hammer on the ground and is lame Don Blake once more.
So is it any good?: Not really, the Kirby/Sinnott art isn’t bad and Joe Sinnott would actually be associated with the title’s art chores for a lot of the early period before Kirby and Colletta settled down as the regular art team. I also quite liked the design of the aliens, their looming rocky forms being well suited to Kirby’s style particularly in black and white, in fact Kirby had used similar designs many times in monster comics.
The one thing that isn’t classic blocky Kirby is Thor himself who is a lot younger and slender than he would become in later years and has something of the polished Joe Sinnott look about him rather than the heavy solidity of Kirby.
Aside from the art it doesn’t really rise above the average. That said it does strike me as being more of a classical super hero story than we have seen so far.
In Don Blake we have an unassuming secret identity and he has control over when he can become Thor and that transformation is unquestionably positive and welcomed. So far we haven’t really seen a Marvel book on those lines, while the Fantastic Four do of course have powers they are far closer in feel to the teams of adventurers who featured in books like the Challengers of the Unknown or even Rip Hunter Time Master (which even featured the lead characters best friend and girlfriend, and her kid brother) at DC.
The Hulk of course had a secret identity but he hardly welcomed changing into the dangerous Hulk and the Hulk himself hadn’t really acted in any way heroically in his first two appearances. Don Blake on the other hand tries to remember half forgotten stories about Thor to discover what he can do and then willingly goes into battle against the aliens.
Even as Blake he had been willing to investigate the aliens, simply unable to tackle them despite his bravery. It’s a much less complex relationship (at least at first) than Banner’s with the Hulk and, in the way it outlines immediately what happens when Thor drops his hammer or taps it on the floor, a lot more like the classic DC or Fawcett heroes who are pure of heart but have set weaknesses that provided the drama in their stories. There is a lot of Captain Marvel in the transformation but also a lot of Superman in the secret identity and powers.
It would be a very long time before the run found its feet and dealt with an eternal immortal with his Asgardian supporting cast. Right now it is very much a crippled human doctor being empowered by the hammer to enable him to deal with threats and then returning unassuming humanity at the stories end.
There are a lot of ideas and story hooks inherent in the concept but this is quite an average story.
Are there any goofy moments? Apparently it takes two taps of Mjolnir to summon a storm, three taps to get rid of it, and one tap to transform from Thor to Don Blake. Is there some sort of time delay on transforming while Mjolnir waits to see if a second tap is coming? In issue 84 Blake does indeed summon storms using the two taps without becoming Thor at any point.
The Stone Men notice that they are far stronger on earth than on their homeworld and one then immediately leaps from a high cliff onto the rocks below to show off their invulnerability. He must have been pretty sure of the limits of that strength boost.
The inscription on the side of Mjolnir promising the power of Thor to whoever can wield it is pretty corny. Especially as it is only visible when Mjolnir is a hammer, which only happens when Thor is wielding it.
Thor is misspelt Thorr in the box detailing the next issue.
Trivia: The Stone Men of Saturn eventually got named Kronans and revealed to be from a lot further afield than Saturn. Apparently they were from the planet Ria with a base on Saturn. The band of Kronans from this story reappeared in Thor 255 during a space epic and one, Korg, went on years later to become a supporting character in the Incredible Hulk. This wasn’t their first attempt at invading the Earth. Here they had the misfortune of timing their invasion alongside Don Blake becoming Thor. In Captain America Annual 11 they ran into a time travelling Cap in ancient Mesopotamia.
When Don Blake becomes Thor he clearly still has the mind of Don Blake, having to remember what he can from childhood tales of Norse Mythology to work out what Thor can do. It is very much Blake becoming Thor for the length of the incident and not some eternal mythological figure. This would eventually be addressed in Thor 159 that revealed that Don Blake was a creation of Odin, designed to give his son humility.
Is it a landmark?: Yes, although it is a long way from what most people think of as Thor.
|
|
|
Post by sharkar on Nov 7, 2010 15:55:11 GMT -5
... while the Fantastic Four do of course have powers they are far closer in feel to the teams of adventurers who featured in books like the Challengers of the Unknown or even Rip Hunter Time Master (which even featured the lead characters best friend and girlfriend, and her kid brother) at DC. Apparently it was a not uncommon "team" composition, another instance of is in DC's Sea Devils (which premiered about a year before the FF). I'm sure this is quite a familiar story for collectors everywhere. It certainly goes for me. In the mid 90s those giant early MCIC and Marvel Tales showed up at our local second hand book stores and markets for a couple of pounds each, often in the sort of condition that put the actual Kirby FF's I could afford to shame. and they had so much else in them. I'd always been an FF and Spider-Man fan and was looking for the early stories from their titles but the giant reprints introduced me to everything else from the period. I read a couple of Marvel Tales back then , but they didn't appeal to me, probably because I was not an avid Spider-Man fan. In addition to a great cross-section of characters, these reprint comics also (obviously) contained an impressive sampling of artists: Kirby (MCIC: FF, Hulk; MT: Thor), Ditko (MCIC: Strange and later on, Hulk; MT: Spidey), Heck (MCIC: Iron Man; MT: a few Wasp tales), Ayers (MT: Johnny Storm), and others. MCIC and MT were a great way to become acquainted with Marvel's beginnings. I also read Marvel Super-Heroes when it turned into an all- reprint comic and began reprinting the earliest X-Men comics; this is how I became familiar with Wanda and Pietro's background as members of Magneto's group. Since leaving the Avengers about a year earlier, W & P's appearances had been few and far between (a Spider-Man issue; a few panels in the Thomas-Adams Sentinels X-Men arc), so it was great to see them in MSH!
|
|
|
Post by owene on Nov 7, 2010 17:31:56 GMT -5
Amazing Fantasy 15 Spider-Man. By Stan Lee and Steve Ditko Villains: The Burglar Guest Appearances: none So what happens?: Shy and nerdy, Peter Parker is an outcast at High School. Despite his talent for science and the love of his Uncle and Aunt he is unhappy at school and rebuffed by the popular Sally Avril when he asks her to come on a date at an upcoming science exhibit.
Peter goes alone and is bitten by a glowing spider that had just spun through a radioactive ray. The bite burns and leaves Peter feeling extremely woozy.
So woozy in fact that on the way home he stumbles in front of a car and has to leap to safety. He is shocked by how far he leaps and finds himself several meters up and clinging to a sheer wall. By the time he has pulled himself up to the roof above he has realised it must be down to the spider bite and he has soon discovered new found levels of strength and agility.
Determined to use his new powers for financial gain he quickly earns $100 by putting on a mask and not only venturing into the ring with a pro-wrestler but lifting him over his shoulder and leaping around the ring. A watching TV producer promises him a regular job as long as he continues to stay masked for publicity.
At home that night Peter designs himself a spider themed costume and invents a set of web spinners that he can wear on his wrists and shoot webs from.
His career as a TV variety act is a smash hit and, full of himself, Peter chooses not get involved when the TV offices are robbed. He could easily have stopped the criminal but felt it wasn’t his job.
Things are going great for Peter, his Aunt and Uncle buy him a microscope and the TV career remains a hit. However things come to a crashing halt when he returns home one night and learns that his uncle has been murdered in an attempted burglary.
Learning that the criminal is holed up nearby Peter puts on his spider suit and goes after him. He easily manages to capture him but learns to his horror that it is the same thief he let go at the TV show. His guilt over his uncle’s death overwhelms him as he learns that he needs to have the sense of responsibility to go with his great power.
So is it any good?: It is incredibly familiar from retellings in various media and it can be hard to really evaluate it as a story. Almost everything in it has been expanded in some format or other and this now feels like a very boiled down version of the classic origin.
At the same time it is a story from a failing mystery anthology book and while it obviously introduces Marvel’s premier super hero it isn’t really a super hero story as such.
Peter gets huge gifts from the spider bite, it provides physical power that he had previously lacked, money that his family had been short of and adulation to make up for the taunts of his school mates. However by the end it has all come back to haunt him and he would clearly prefer to turn back the clock and have things back the way they were.
While he displays his super powers here and gets himself a costume, and the ending definitely suggests Stan was planning more stories, Peter is a long way from being a hero and his encounter with the burglar is over in a handful of panels. It is the twist ending of a mystery story not the climax of a super hero tale.
The brief, twelve page, tale introduces a lot of classic aspects of the mythos. We don’t meet any of the classic leading ladies but Sally Avril’s treatment of Peter is much the same as Peter will get from them during the Ditko years.
Flash Thompson is already there as the classic leading guy who has everything Peter will never have in the high school world.
Uncle Ben is only briefly seen but the love between him and Peter is evident in scenes of him ruffling Peter’s hair and buying him the microscope he has always wanted. It’s clear that Ben and May love Peter for the nerdy science geek that he is. Aunt May doesn’t really feature as much as Ben, it has to be his link to Peter that provides the emotional weight here.
Like most of the other silver age titles it actually took a little while for Spider-Man to find its feet. Despite the story containing the seeds of many classic spider-man traits Ditko hasn’t quite worked out what sort of story he is drawing here, everyone is almost drawn in the short hand of a horror or mystery story where a character would only get a panel or two and the reader had to be able to tell everything about their personality instantly.
It’s a long way from the classic soap opera where Peter’s little victories and heartaches would matter so much. This issue instead builds up to that one moment of emotion that would live with Peter forever, every character in the story is really only important for how they drive Peter to that moment. It is Uncle Ben’s death rather than the spider-bite that actually creates spider-man.
This leads to an origin that still packs a punch today, it really is something that Peter should never get over and it clearly is his fault. He may well have made up for it over the years but the heart of the character is the fact that he will never believe that, and to pack that punch this story needed to be a twist ending morality tale and not a classic marvel super hero soap opera.
Are there any goofy moments? It’s a fairly heavy handed morality tale so some of the dialogue can be a bit strange if you don’t get into the spirit of it.
Peter’s hard luck with girls will obviously be a huge part of the series with a lot of its emotional strength coming from the idea that the girls would probably welcome him if they knew his secret. However it’s hard to really see Peter’s side of things here. A night listening to a lecture on atomic power is hardly a hot date.
Some of the images are a bit weird as well, I’m a big Ditko fan but his first priority when drawing each panel seems to be the overall mood he is trying to convey, it’s very impressionistic and some of the people’s faces, particularly Ben and May, are very strange.
Trivia: The burglar next appeared in one of the rogues gallery featurettes in Spider-Man annual 1 where he got his own logo much like the costumed villains Spider-Man had faced until that point. He also gained about 15 years and changed his hair colour from his original appearance. The inconsistency is a pity as Ditko’s art in the annual is superbly atmospheric, much better than the burglar’s appearance here.
The Burglar eventually returned in the run up to Amazing Spider-Man 200 which added the detail that he chose to target the Reilly house to search for a gangster’s treasure. Later sources, although generally not the mainstream comics, have also given him a surname, Carradine.
Sally Avril, who here, in her one silver age appearance, turns Peter down in favour of Flash Thompson was briefly the adventurer Bluebird during Kurt Busiek’s Untold Tales of Spider-Man run.
The last caption of this issue promises more Spider-Man in the next issue. Of course this was the final issue of Amazing Fantasy and it would be a number of months before Amazing Spider-Man #1 replaced it. Amazing Fantasy 16 actually arrived in 1995 telling stories set between this one and Spider-Man 1.
Is it a landmark?: Yes, of course.
|
|
|
Post by humanbelly on Nov 10, 2010 5:59:13 GMT -5
...In a way, though, you could make a case that Rick was maybe a "Marvel-ized" take on a typical DC archetype: the earnest, youthful sidekick. A bit of a hard-luck Jimmy Olsen, as it were...But you're right-- the whole teen side-kick thing is much more a DC staple--- VERY few in the Marvel Universe. Hmm, and as I think about it, after Johnny & Rick- who appear in Marvel's first two major offerings- do we even ever see another one? I. . . I don't think so. That's kind of neat-- it didn't take long for them to commit even further to their overall break from convention. I wouldn't call Johnny a teen sidekick; he was a full-fledged member of the team. I'm sure many of us here are aware of Stan's oft-proclaimed opinion about teen sidekicks; he didn't like 'em. So once Stan started the Marvel superhero line in the early 1960s, he didn't use teen-agers as sidekicks. As stars in their own features (Spidey, the X-Men), yes--but not as sidekicks. Now as for Rick, sure, on the face of it, he was a teen sidekick. But IMO Stan cleverly and deliberately used him to subvert the whole teen sidekick convention--Rick was almost a Bizarro version of a teen sidekick, at least during the Silver Age. To wit: - Rick is the one who causes Bruce's tragedy. (As you pointed out, HB, their connection is not a healthy one.) - Rick was always whining about not being allowed to join the Avengers (you have NO POWERS you idiot!). Compare this to the JLA, who would express regret whenever their cherished honorary member Snapper Carr couldn't join them on a mission. - Rick fails as Cap's partner in the Steranko Cap issues. - When Rick finally achieves his dream of becoming a superhero (with Cap Marvel), it's closer to a nightmare---RJ ends up in the Negative Zone! (And yes, Roy Thomas never met a Golden Age element he didn't want to recreate!). Let's face it: As a teen sidekick, Rick was a f**k up! ;D Ha! Forgot to mention how much I enjoyed your overview of Rick Jones: Side-Kicker (as it were, heh), Shar. Delightful observations-- particularly about the whining about wanting to join the Avengers. Even upon casual reading, one has to seriously question Rick's grip on reality. What in the world could he contribute? What, exactly, are his unique qualifications to be one of "Earth's Mightiest Heroes"? (At least at that early point in MU history-) His driving need for external validation was both heart-breaking and pathetic (and I mean that w/out the tone of contempt that's often associated w/ the word). Stan really nailed a deeply dysfunctional character in Rick-- possibly w/out fully realizing it. And, am I remembering right that, besides Hulk, Cap, and Mar-Vell, Rick was also the right-hand man for Rom: Space Knight? I never bought that title, but do have a couple of random issues, and seem to remember Rick in a wheelchair. . . or having cancer. . . (or both). Bill Mantlo and Al Milgrom and Peter David all cycled him back into the fold in the Hulk, with varying degrees of success. There was always a very squirmy (and sometimes volatile) relationship between he & Betty Ross/Talbot/Banner. One of the cliche'd moments that would pop up again and again would be Rick holding a weeping Betty tightly, offering her comfort and solace. Usually in a hotel room. Alone. I mean, come on. Aaaaaand Peter David finally did acknowledge this by having them exchange an "unintended" kiss, which later caused Rick much hilarious angst, while Betty dismissed it as an act of the moment. Oh, that crazy kid. . . HB
|
|
|
Post by humanbelly on Nov 10, 2010 12:46:53 GMT -5
Journey into Mystery 83 Thor Meets the Stone Men of Saturn. By Stan Lee with Larry Leiber, Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott Villains: The Stone Men of Saturn So is it any good?: Not really, the Kirby/Sinnott art isn’t bad and Joe Sinnott would actually be associated with the title’s art chores for a lot of the early period before Kirby and Colletta settled down as the regular art team. You know what's kind of neat is that Joe Sinnott still does some of the inking chores on the Spiderman newspaper strip-- not sure if he's handling the daily or the Sunday, though. Larry Lieber (Stan's brother!) pencils one, and Alex Saviuk pencils the other. But, wow, he has to be just about the last guy from that earliest bunch that's still able to produce a good product. I checked out his website awhile back, and there was an over-the-shoulder picture of him (REALLY old little guy in a light jacket and baseball cap) in the process of drawing a frankly quite good picture of Sue Richards. Man, and there he was, on the job for Thor's first outing. . . HB
|
|
|
Post by humanbelly on Nov 11, 2010 9:14:07 GMT -5
Okay-- just checked his website again, and Joe is indeed inking over Saviuk on the Sunday strips. Have to say, I've never been a big fan of Alex's work, so I have a little trouble judging the overall product. The strip is generally visually passable, but never attention-grabbing.
HB
|
|
|
Post by sharkar on Nov 12, 2010 11:06:18 GMT -5
Okay-- just checked his website again, and Joe is indeed inking over Saviuk on the Sunday strips. Have to say, I've never been a big fan of Alex's work, so I have a little trouble judging the overall product. The strip is generally visually passable, but never attention-grabbing. HB Right--Sinnott is the inker on the Sunday Spideys. I've always loved Sinnott's facework--it's unmistakable. His style is as clearly evident in the 1962 FF #5 panel I posted earlier in this thread as it is in the latest Spidey Sunday feature.
|
|
|
Post by sharkar on Nov 12, 2010 11:24:19 GMT -5
Larry Lieber (Stan's brother!) pencils one... Ahhh, Larry Lieber--the real architect behind Marvel ;D! You know, his name will pop up everywhere in these early issues; and y'all already know he came up with many of the non-alliterative names like Henry (Hank) Pym and Don Blake. Not to mention LL came up with the term "Uru Hammer." Roy Thomas has in many an interview that he (RT) spent a lot of time poring through mythology books to see where the Uru Hammer came from, and when he finally asked Larry about it, Larry said he made it up. Also coincidentally, it's been since reported that "uru" means strength in some older languages. (And sorry for the piecemeal responses--I'm at work so I have to be stealthy and get these in when I can... )
|
|
|
Post by sharkar on Nov 12, 2010 11:53:48 GMT -5
Ha! Forgot to mention how much I enjoyed your overview of Rick Jones: Side-Kicker (as it were, heh), Shar. Glad you enjoyed my Silver Age Rick overview, HB --and thanks for the info about Rick's post-SA exploits--boy, the poor kid has sure been put through the wringer, hasn't he? Delightful observations-- particularly about the whining about wanting to join the Avengers. Even upon casual reading, one has to seriously question Rick's grip on reality. What in the world could he contribute? What, exactly, are his unique qualifications to be one of "Earth's Mightiest Heroes"? Re Rick's "grip on reality": I know I've posted this before, but I just can't resist including it here (from Avengers #10): Well, I guess Rick redeemed himself in Avengers #97. ;D And I did like Stan's use of Rick as a connection between various comics/characters; this helped establish the internal consistency of the MU. There was always a very squirmy (and sometimes volatile) relationship between he & Betty Ross/Talbot/Banner. One of the cliche'd moments that would pop up again and again would be Rick holding a weeping Betty tightly, offering her comfort and solace. Usually in a hotel room. Alone. I mean, come on. Aaaaaand Peter David finally did acknowledge this by having them exchange an "unintended" kiss, which later caused Rick much hilarious angst, while Betty dismissed it as an act of the moment. Y'know, I saw an excerpt somewhere a while ago in which Rick mentions kissing Betty and I'd wondered about it. As mentioned I am not a Rick fan but I love the unrequited stuff, people kissing when they shouldn't , and so on! Hmmm, I guess I'll just have to hunt down some of these later Peter David issues...
|
|
|
Post by owene on Nov 12, 2010 18:16:40 GMT -5
Fantastic Four 6 The Diabolical Duo Join Forces By Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers. Villains: Dr Doom Guest Appearances: Namor So What Happens?: The Torch has been hunting for Dr Doom but only succeeds in stirring up the crowd outside the Baxter Building. Sue adds to the commotion by invisibly pushing herself through the throng and making her way up to the team’s headquarters by their private elevator.
When she gets upstairs the team are reading their fan mail and Reed takes the time to stretch across the street and visit a young fan in hospital.
Out at sea Namor is found by Dr Doom and the two of them head to Namor’s undersea palace to discuss their shared enmity for the Fantastic Four. Doom reminds Namor of how the surface dwellers had destroyed Atlantis and provides him with an extremely powerful magnetic module that he wants to use against the FF.
Namor makes his way to the Baxter Building just as Johnny has discovered and burned his sister’s hidden pin up picture of Namor. Their squabbling only comes to a stop when Johnny turns on the Sub-Mariner but Namor manages to easily avoid his attacks.
Despite Sue claiming that the noble Namor must have come in peace the guys aren’t as trusting and search their headquarters for any secret weapons he has brought with them. They fail to find any and are instead taken by surprise when the whole building starts rising in the air and heading towards space.
With Namor having delivered the magnetic device Doom is now able to tow the whole building out of the atmosphere. Despite his part in the plot Namor is also trapped along with the team as Doom sees him as another obstacle towards world conquest.
The heroes try in vain to get at Doom’s space ship. Reed’s attempts to stretch towards it leave him with a burned hand and Johnny forgets that the vacuum of space will kill his flame instantly, leaving him needing rescuing by his team mates. Despite having to fight off the still belligerent Thing it is Namor who saves the day.
He leaps from meteor to meteor to reach Doom’s ship, and uses his electric eel powers to ignore Doom’s energy blasts and then sending Doom fleeing out of an escape hatch so he flies off into the oblivion of space.
Namor quickly gets the hang of Doom’s technology and puts the Baxter Building back where it came from before destroying Namor’s ship and magnetic grabber. Even though he was largely just freeing himself from Doom’s death-trap he has done enough for Reed and Johnny at least to downgrade him from dangerous villain to merely misguided and for Sue to go back to singing his praises.
So is it any good?: It has some nice art, Dick Ayers is a solid, middle ranking, Kirby FF inker. He’s better known for his work on pre-hero titles and is not really up there with Sinnott or Chic Stone on FF but he gives his figures a solid grounded look with far fewer outright bizarre figures or panels than some inkers, he was far less messy than the inkers who would follow like George Roussos or Vinnie Colletta.
I liked the splash of the Torch flying over some construction workers and the art on Doom’s visit to the deserted Atlantis and on the Baxter Building flying away from Manhattan a lot. In fact the art remains strong as the action moves to outer space with only the section of Namor leaping onto Doom’s ship letting it down.
The story is important in that it brought back the adversaries from the previous two issues, something that had been trailed by Johnny worrying about Namor, and indeed about the possibility of him teaming up with Doom, throughout issue 5. In fact everything we have seen since the cliff-hanger ending of issue 3 has been linked together in a way that was extremely rare in the competing DC comics of the time.
While Doom’s plot here wouldn’t have seemed out of place in a contemporary or even golden age DC comic, it is the most ‘super hero’ plot yet, Namor’s role is something new.
Sue spends a lot of time talking about his nobility but it isn’t just talk, it is in fact Namor who defeats Doom once the team has injured and exhausted themselves in vain. The Thing can only contribute by turning on Namor and ignoring the peril they are all in, but Namor manages to singlehandedly deal with Doom. Namor was wheeled out as an adversary for almost every new hero so it would have been easy for readers to discount Sue’s praises and forget his heroic side but in this issue at least he is a very effective anti-hero, he might have his reasons for siding with Doom but he also saves the day far more effectively than the nominal heroes of the book.
Looking for signs of sexism in the treatment of Sue is like shooting fish in a barrel, but this issue is particularly bad. The only times she uses her powers in the whole issue is to try and push through the crowds around the Baxter Building sending several onlookers flying and to try and grab her prized Namor pin up from Johnny. The rest of the time she is swooning over Namor, dealing with her baby brother’s teasing and, with the whole team in danger, contributing only by bandaging Reed’s arm. It’s no wonder that one of the letters in this issue’s column calls her for her to be thrown out on the grounds that she never does anything.
Doom is less effectively written than Namor. As with his previous appearance he really tackles the team from afar via technological gizmos and doesn’t really interact with them at all. He talks about hating them, and Namor, as possible obstacles to taking over the world but there isn’t really a personal element to his rivalry yet. In fact his scene convincing Namor to join him and demonstrating his technology is probably the first real glimpse of Doom we’ve seen and in it he comes across as a lot more of a sly and treacherous ingratiator than as the imperious ruler of later appearances.
When at the end he flies off into space he is given a brief epitaph that suggests it wouldn’t lead to instant death but there is less reason to think he will be back as the teams main adversary than there would be for Namor.
Are there any goofy moments? It was a simpler time and the young audience probably wouldn’t have had much patience with mushy stuff but the whole scene of Johnny finding Sue’s hidden photo of Namor is quite bad. Photographs, especially signed ones, seem to have been the silver age comics shorthand for unrequited love, they obviously allowed the new or forgetful reader to see just who from previous issues the characters were swooning over. It’s all a bit Lois Lane. Namor obviously has one of Sue as well but thankfully nobody takes that one and runs around teasing him like Johnny does to his sister.
Less goofy and more ‘total lack of understanding of astrophysics’ but almost everything that involves the meteor shower is particularly dumb.
Oh yes, Namor absorbing and then redirecting electrical, energy because electric eels can do it (not that they actually absorb it)
Trivia: Namor also used his electric eel powers in a handful of Strange Tales appearances (where he also blew himself up like a puffer fish). The first reprint of the Strange Tales appearances (in Marvel Tales #9 from 1967) had a footnote saying that Namor could no longer use these powers and from that point on they were generally ignored. However John Byrne made use of them in Namor’s own early 90s title.
Very minor, but, as he had in issue 4, Namor wears red trunks throughout this story. He would be back to the Green trunks he wore in the 1940s in his next appearance in issue 8 but the red ones reappeared on the cover (but not the interiors) of FF annual 1. Everyone looks subtly off in this issue, Doom is depicted as being quite green throughout (as indeed he had been in issue 5)
Also on the subject of clothes, Reed visits a young fan in hospital and explains that his outfit is made of unstable molecules. This is the first mention of this and as it comes in a scene where the FF are reading their fan mail presumably had some connection to reader’s questions. The idea obviously stuck, Tales to Astonish 35 published the same month has Hank Pym making himself his Ant man costume from the same substance without any mention of getting the idea from Reed Richards.
Is it a landmark?: Yes. Doom and Namor were still making and breaking alliances as recently as the Dark Reign event and even shared a title in Super Villain Team Up. It is also the first time any non-feature characters had reappeared in a marvel title.
|
|
|
Post by owene on Nov 14, 2010 16:33:46 GMT -5
Tales to Astonish 35 Return of the Ant-Man By Stan Lee with Larry Leiber, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers. Villains: Communist Agents Guest Appearances: none So What Happens?: Having previously decided to throw away his shrinking potions Hank Pym has had a change of heart and created a new batch which he keeps under lock and key in his office. His dangerous encounter with ants has led to an interest in insects and he has brought an ant colony into his office so he can study how they communicate.
He has built himself a helmet that can use electrical frequencies to communicate with them and a protective suit to safe himself from ant bites.
Hank has to leave his ant research for a while when the government comes to him to work on an anti-radiation gas. The Communists soon learn of this and send a team of spies to his lab to get his secrets. Locked in his room while the spies tackle his assistants Hank turns to his shrinking potions and ant-suit and makes his way at tiny size to the garden. Once there he recruits a swarm of ants with his communicator helmet and heads back to his lab, besting a beetle on the way due to retaining his regular strength at a tiny size. The ants swarm up the commie agents’ trouser legs and gum up their pistols with honey while Hank manages to secretly untie his assistants. With the commies now weapon less the American lab assistants make easy work of them and Hank sneaks back to the locked room to wait to be freed with his secret safe.
So is it any good?: It’s readable and the creators seem to be having some fun with some of the insect related stuff. However it’s quite clearly on a different, lower, level than the other Marvel features.
Hank doesn’t really have anyone to talk to throughout; his interaction is largely limited to ordering a bunch of ants to make a nuisance of themselves so his lab assistants can take on the commie spies. Some of this is quite ingenious but it is hardly inspiring or heroic.
He seems to want to be a super hero more than the other marvel characters so far. Designing a costume to go with his invention of Pym particles and, as yet, not having any down side to his heroic identity, but even this counts against him as he isn’t really overcoming much by playing hero and isn't particularly heroic when he does.
In the preceding issues of Hulk we have seen Banner use his scientific genius to save the day despite his being cursed with becoming the Hulk, here Pym seems to be a similar level of genius but he is reduced to asking ants and lab assistants to do his dirty work. Despite effectively having super strength in relation to ants and beetles, he in effect becomes less impressive at the tiny size and is left freeing prisoners under the noses of the commies and then heading back to his locked office.
It is of course possible for a less impressive hero to still be interesting but unfortunately that doesn’t seem to be the case here. A shame because I have liked stories featuring Hank over the years and remember liking a few from this run but this one isn't that good
Are there any goofy moments? While ants can undoubtedly carry impressively large objects relative to their size Kirby goes way over-board in his depiction of a single ant carrying what appears to be an ostrich egg.
To be honest almost every interaction with ants in the story should count. But the same is probably true for all the following issues as well. I think we just have to accept that the silver age ant-man stories are pretty stupid.
Trivia: It was eventually revealed in issue 44 that the murder of Hank Pym’s wife by communists had led to him wanting to make a difference and fight the reds. Unfortunately none of that had been decided prior to this story and his clash with communists here doesn’t seem particularly special to him. A pity as this might have actually given Hank some more, or indeed some, personality.
Hank announces that his special shrinking ant-suit is made of unstable molecules. While these would eventually be considered a Reed Richards invention there is no mention of that here. His regular clothes in issue 27 had shrunk down perfectly well and in fact the Pym particles in that story were shown as being able to shrink and grow all sorts of non-living items so there wasn’t really much need for the unstable molecules explanation.
The wide range of Hank’s scientific abilities is often mocked, especially the idea that he was essentially an entomologist. This story shows that actually he wasn’t and that ants were a side interest prompted by his own encounter with them the first time he shrank. In his first appearance he seems like a typical crackpot scientist, here the government seem to be looking to him as a radiation expert.
Is it a landmark?: Yes, Hank Pym would obviously take on a lot of costumed identities over the year so you could possibly see Astonish 27 as more important but this is his first costumed appearance.
|
|
|
Post by owene on Nov 21, 2010 10:28:23 GMT -5
Journey into mystery 84 The Mighty Thor versus the Executioner. By Stan Lee with Larry Leiber, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers Villains: The Executioner, The Stone Men of Saturn Guest Appearances: none So what happens?: Fresh from his Norwegian holiday Doctor Blake is back in the US. The US media is full of stories about the communist revolution in San Diablo, led by the blood thirsty war-lord called the Executioner.
Blake, his nurse Jane Foster and a bunch of other members of Blake’s medical club sign up to join a mercy mission to the war-torn country.
The ship carrying the medics is attacked by communist jet fighters intent on stopping them reaching San Diablo but Blake transforms into Thor and easily destroys the fighters.
Transforming back into Don Blake he is fished from the sea, claiming to have accidentally fallen overboard in the commotion.
On arrival in San Diablo the medical mission is attacked by tanks only for Thor to again intervene and save the day. Unfortunately Jane Foster is taken prisoner and Thor has to stand down and let the reds take her to the Executioner.
Blake stands up to the dictator and is put before a firing squad before he manages to grab his cane and turn into Thor. Thor causes mayhem in the commie ranks and even ignites a nearby volcano to create more devastation. The Executioner sees the game is up and tries to escape with sacks full of pillaged money. Unfortunately for him his men turn on him and shoot him in front of the same wall here he killed countless others.
As Blake and Foster get to help San Diablo’s peasants Nurse Foster wishes that Blake was a bit more like the heroic Thor.
So is it any good?: It’s a crude propaganda story with some very heavy handed secret identity soap opera elements thrown in. It’s as if Stan and Jack sat down and read the most formulaic Superman story to get pointers on how to write super hero comics.
While Blake showed signs of heroism in his first appearance, and indeed has a lot to recommend him here, he is reduced immediately to pulling incredibly stupid and self deprecating stunts in order to have Thor appear and disappear without raising suspicion. While we are presumably supposed to sympathise with him in the romantic triangle being created with Jane Foster and his alter ego he is left as this pathetic damp squib and Jane’s original thoughts about how she could actually love Don Blake are soon replaced with understandable wishes that he was more like Thor.
The irony that Blake is Thor isn’t really enough to overcome the fact that Blake, like the Clark Kent appearances he is so clearly modelled on, is played as such a wimp that he doesn’t only come off badly when compared to Thor but to most regular folks.
This is a shame because there is something unusual and nice about the fact that plot-wise Blake is actually trying to do good as a doctor as well as when he is Thor, he is ready to put himself in harm’s way to help others and he is also ready to stand up to the executioner as Blake to get his cane back.
It just comes accompanied with claims to have accidentally fallen off an ocean going ship or hidden throughout the action, that might have qualified as dramatic irony to a young audience in 1962 but come across as something worse now.
Some of the art is great, the whole Thor concept was still new and Kirby really goes to town on the idea that Thor throws the hammer and is pulled along by it, showing him winding up to throw it and clearly being tugged along. He visibly isn’t flying in this story in the way he will once things become more established, he at times seems to have to fall in mid air and re-swing his hammer to change direction.
The scenes of Blake being pulled from the sea onto the ship deck are really well done as is the shot of Blake standing up to the Executioner in front of a bullet marked wall. While the Executioner is a stereotypical commie, clearly based on Castro, the scene of him surrounded by the shadows of his men as he attempts to escape with the cash are very dramatic.
So it has it’s good side, but it feels quite clumsy, as if they are a long way from realising what they had. It reads like the sub-plots of a 1960s Superman issue have been grafted onto a 1950s or even 1940s tale where the hero can cause all sorts of devastation in a far off land against an irredeemable foe. The silver age Thor run is one of my favourites but the truth is that it took quite a while to get going.
Are there any goofy moments? The name San Diablo has to be the result of Stan throwing together the first two Spanish words he could remember
There is obviously a lot of competition but this one is possibly the most red-baiting story of the period and it has really really dated. Latin American Communist rebels were obviously topical in the early 60s but I’m not sure any of them actually sent jet fighters to sink American medical ships simply because they wanted their own peasants to stay ill. The Executioner’s demise as he tries to flee with bags of swag is very heavy handed as well.
Even in the era of the peace corps I’m not sure how many times large groups of affluent middle aged American doctors got together in their club and decided to drop it all and head off to war torn South America to help battle the commies.
Thor has dealt with the commie jets and needs to turn back to lame Don Blake without alerting suspicion. Is diving into the sea and undergoing the identity change underneath the keel of the medical ship the best idea? (The fact that Blake is clearly dragged from the water without his cane I’ll put down to an art error)
Trivia: Jane Foster is referred to as Jane Nelson here.
The Executioner obviously wouldn’t reappear. He was dead and the name was soon given to a much more prominent Thor foe in issue 103.
The country of San Diablo was also the home of various incarnations of the Captain America foe Machette, a member of Batroc’s brigade.
The Marvel Atlas published in 2008 established that San Diablo was landlocked. Probably because the coast of central America in the Marvel Universe was taken up by all the fake countries beginning with ‘Costa’. It does rather ignore make the medical ship elements of this story, it’s only real appearance.
Is it a landmark?: Not really, unless you are a real fan of Marvel’s fictional countries as San Diablo is the first (if you ignore Monster Island).
|
|
|
Post by owene on Nov 29, 2010 17:09:40 GMT -5
Hulk 3 Lead story Banished to Outer Space By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers Guest Appearances:, Rick Jones So what happens?: The Hulk rages at being trapped in his cell, but it is strong enough to hold him. Rick leaves him there and tries to get some rest but is taken in by the military who demand he bring them the Hulk so he can test a rocket for them.
Rick returns to the cell just as the Hulk smashes free from it and turns on Rick for locking him in. Rick flees, leading the Hulk to the army’s rocket. Once the Hulk is inside, the rocket launches, on a trajectory that should keep him away from the earth forever.
The rocket passes through cosmic rays that transform the Hulk back to Banner. When Rick realises what he has done he sabotages the rocket’s guidance computers, forcing the rocket to crash back to earth and somehow linking him to the Hulk by a burst of radiation.
Rick runs to the rocket’s crash site and is confronted by the angry Hulk who chases him across the desert. Exhausted Rick eventually stops and faces the Hulk and is amazed to find that the Hulk does as commanded when ordered to stop. In fact, Rick soon learns that the Hulk will follow all of his commands. It seems that the radiation has somehow put the Hulk under Rick’s mental command.
That night when Rick falls asleep th e Hulk slips from his command and goes on a rampage. Rick wakes in time to stop it and commands the Hulk to carry him off to the desert cell and away from civilisation. There Rick forces himself to stay awake so that the Hulk will remain under his control and not hurt anyone.
So is it any good?: It’s a mess. It probably works best if you look at the story as a horror story that stars Rick Jones and look at the Hulk merely as an unstoppable monster who will come back to haunt Rick no matter how far away he is sent and however good Rick’s intentions are.
While decades of Hulk stories have taught us to sympathise with him against the US Military he has as yet not displayed a single heroic action in three stories (as opposed to Banner who has been both resourceful and good hearted throughout), the Hulk in fact decided to attack the planet earth in the previous issue. Based on that Rick’s efforts to hamper the military’s plans for the Hulk are just as misguided as his attempt to go into the bomb test site in issue 1.
Rick’s intentions might be good but the Hulk repeatedly turns on him and here with the bizarre mind-link he is given actual responsibility for any damage the Hulk does to go with the fact that he in fact created the Hulk.
The story is let down by the plot holes, why does Rick using the rocket’s control system give him a mental hold over the Hulk? I guess Stan realised that the setup of the first two issues with a heroic daytime Banner being replaced by a destructive nocturnal Hulk was quite limiting but we have yet to really hit upon the classic setup where anger or strong emotion triggers a transformation.
There is some very effective art, especially if you view the Hulk as a monster and not the lead, it reads like a very good horror comic but it’s still a mess thematically.
Are there any goofy moments? The way the radiation links Rick and the Hulk is pretty inexplicable.
As is the way that a space rocket leaves the atmosphere before Rick even knows what is going on and yet still manages to crash back down within walking distance when Rick finally decides to interfere with the flight.
Trivia: The story is obviously a thematic influence on the countless other times people tried to trick the Hulk and then send him off the planet right up to the recent Planet Hulk storyline.
Is it a landmark?: Not really, it is the first of many changes in the status quo for the Hulk’s transformations but that’s about it.
|
|
|
Post by owene on Nov 29, 2010 17:12:36 GMT -5
Hulk 3 back up The Ringmaster. By Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers Villains: The Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime Guest Appearances:, Rick Jones So what happens?: The FBI investigate a small town where all the inhabitants have been left in a hypnotic daze and everything has been ransacked. This is the latest in a run of similar events and in each case a small circus had been passing through.
At the Circus’s next stop the Ringmaster hypnotises his audience with a spinning disk on his hat while the rest of the circus steal everything in sight.
Rick Jones is still in control of the Hulk and, after ordering him to stay in one place goes to visit his Aunt to freshen up.
He follows this up with a visit to the circus but when the Ringmaster hypnotises him he manages to send a mental message to the Hulk who responds by rushing to Rick’s aid.
The Hulk battles the various criminal performers before Rick falls under the Ringmaster’s spell causing the Hulk to stop moving.
With the Hulk in tow and Rick left hypnotised behind the circus moves on to the next town. Rick is awoken by the FBI and pieces together what must have happened. He takes mental control of the Hulk from afar and uses him to trash the circus.
The army arrive to try and capture the Hulk but Rick manages to appear and causes the Hulk to leap out into the desert with him on his back.
So is it any good?: Not really. That said Kirby has fun showing the Hulk battling elephants and clowns, it is in fact quite a visually inventive issue.
The story starts out fairly creepily, the hypnotised townsfolk are handled well and on the splash at least the circus folk have a real freak show quality that is lost once they start mixing it up with the Hulk.
There are two main problems. Firstly it is a circus of Crime story, and it is a ‘classic’ Circus of crime story as shown in a dozen Marvel cartoons and kids fun books.
They go from town to town hypnotising people and stealing everything. It probably would have read better as the first Circus of Crime story, as I said the battles are quite inventive but it’s impossible at this point for me to really separate it from all of the other appearances I have read.
The Circus of crime had three real phases. Firstly, like this one, there are the early silver age appearances before Marvel got too serious where it was just an excuse for the artist to have fun with the bigtop setting.
Then came the late 60s until the early 1980s where they were kind of established as being a bit lame but turned up a lot in team up comics and fill in issues because they were recognisable, could throw any characters together who happened to go to a circus and had a suitable modus operandi for a one off issue that wouldn’t have any impact on the title as at the end everyone had been hypnotised.
Then came the late 80s onwards when nobody wanted to use them as a legitimate foe and just wrote tongue in cheek or nostalgic stories with them. All of which makes it quite hard to approach any of their early appearances seriously, even if, as in this comic, they are used in a fairly creepy way.
Secondly it’s a story where Rick Jones in effect has a remote control Hulk that he can telepathically call upon to save him from circus related problems. That is at once both silly and a long way from any other incarnation of the Hulk. It does at least get us away from the out of control brutal Hulk of previous stories but not in a particularly good way.
.Are there any goofy moments? Not as many as you would expect given the setting. It goes for quite a creepy vibe and generally manages it. It loses it a bit towards the end with the Hulk battling elephants but it’s still not that silly.
Trivia: The Ringmaster (Maynard Tiboldt) was eventually revealed to the son of a similar 1940s Captain America villain.
None of the regulars from the Circus of Crime really get speaking roles here, there is a strongman called Bruto and some unnamed clowns and a Human Cannonball but they aren’t particularly similar to later appearances. Wikipedia credits the various Circus of Crime as Lee/Ditko creations and this story doesn’t really have any Ditko connections so I’d say they don’t really appear in their regular forms until later.
Rick Jones Aunt Polly doesn’t really get mentioned much, generally he is shown to have grown up in an orphanage with no close family.
Is it a landmark?: The Ringmaster has been a surprisingly durable villain so I guess so.
|
|
martyp
Great Lakes Avenger
Helloooo Nurse!
Posts: 31
|
Post by martyp on Nov 30, 2010 4:16:17 GMT -5
Great thread, but....could you please add what issue it is you are talking about? These post of yours make me want to flip through the pages, but I have no idea where to start.
|
|
|
Post by owene on Dec 1, 2010 15:59:58 GMT -5
thanks for pointing that, must have got lost in the copy and paste from my copies. I've amended them now.
|
|
|
Post by owene on Dec 1, 2010 16:04:40 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #7 Prisoners of Kurrgo, Master of Planet X By Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers. Villains: Kurrgo Guest Appearances: None So What Happens?: The far off planet of Xanthu is due to be hit by an unavoidable asteroid. Kurrgo, ruler of the planet, watches the FF on his monitors and dispatches his robotic servant across the galaxy to go and bring them to him. He has decided that Reed Richards is the only person who can save the day.
The team are busy preparing for a Washington banquet in their honour, however when the alien robot reaches Earth he starts a hate ray that turns everyone against the FF forcing them to flee the Capitol.
The robot intercepts their flight and, showing them images of how hated the team now are, asks them to accompany him to his planet. Despite fearing a trap the team go with him.
Arriving on Xanthu they are informed of the upcoming calamity and told that the alien race has only two space ships to hold its five billion members.
While the Thing and Johnny attack Kurrgo’s invulnerable robot Reed tries to think of a solution to the problem. Demanding the use of a laboratory Reed quickly knocks up some reducing gas that will enable the planets whole population to be shrunk and placed on one of the two space ships.
As the planet starts to break up Reed’s plan is put into action. Kurrgo refuses to join them in shrinking and also refuses to put down the enlarging gas needed to regain normal size on the ship, instead he dreams of remaining normal size and being served by five billion tiny slaves.
Slowed down by the enlarging gas canister Kurrgo is left behind as the billions of tiny Xanthans and the FF just make it off the doomed planet. On the way home Reed announces that Kurrgo had doomed himself for nothing, he had never bothered to create an enlargement gas, the Xanthans would have to start life on their new planet at the tiny size.
So is it any good?: Yes and no. The plot is quite stupid despite a nice homage to ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’ and some visually fun stuff in Washington. Most of the team spend the issue running away from things or futilely raging at Kurrgo’s robot while Reed has big ideas.
The final twist seems to be Stan still thinking in the style of a mystery comic writer, it isn't really neccesary and undercuts Reed's heroism up until that point. At this point in the marvel universe it seems fine to endanger a whole species of aliens simply because they were aliens. It will be a while before you get the Reed who was respected across the universe because he would actually help other cultures.
But I honestly think it’s the first issue that has started to feel like the book would a few years later.
You have the introductory section looking at the, very cool, day to day life of the team.
You have Reed Richards recognised as the smartest man in the universe; able to knock out a shrinking gas that Hank Pym would base a career around as a throwaway five minutes work. This isn’t really based on anything much we’ve seen previously in the title but would obviously become his default characterisation.
You have the team active on a bizarre planet, going there despite it clearly being a trap because Reed wants to explore and while they are there saving an entire alien race.
And you get Kirbytech, huge, baffling but brilliant, Kirby-tech for probably the first time in the Marvel universe. It’s still not quite there, the art is still locked in a nine panel grid that keeps everything too small to really burst from the page but for the first time it is becoming a book where anything can happen and scientific investigation is at the fore.
I’m not saying that it is a particularly good example of the classic formula, it’s a fairly average story at best but it is the first issue of the title where you can actually see that formula taking shape in Stan and Jack’s head.
Are there any goofy moments? The whole plot is fairly goofy, especially the idea of Five Billion shrunken aliens getting on board a, still giant sized, ship in a matter of minutes and escaping from a dying planet.
Trivia: You might think Kurrgo would be a good candidate for the Lee/Kirby FF adversary least likely to ever appear again what with him being a fluffy yellow guy with a huge head whose entire race had left him to die on a planet about to blow up.
But Roy Thomas brought him back in the Marvel Feature story that served as a try out for Marvel Two In One. His end in that story was much less conclusive than this one, being blown up in an explosion that other characters were later brought back from, but that time he stayed gone.
The FF end the story in possession of a working intergalactic flying saucer and having visited another galaxy. The team are occasionally said to be in possession of a Skrull saucer from FF 2 but they didn’t really have any way of acquiring one there so I guess it is actually this one that gets used.
Is it a landmark?: No, out of the first 10 issues this is the one with the least historical significance.
|
|
|
Post by owene on Dec 5, 2010 7:21:28 GMT -5
Journey Into Mystery #85 Trapped by Loki the God of Mischief! By Stan Lee with Larry Leiber, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers Villains: Loki Guest Appearances: none So what happens?: In Asgard Loki has been imprisoned inside a tree for centuries, and will be until someone sheds a tear over him.
He eventually manages to gain a level of control over the tree and causes one of its leaves to float off and hit Heimdall in the eye. The resulting tear is enough to break the spell and free Loki. He instantly decides to get his revenge on Thor but can’t find him anywhere in Asgard and heads down the rainbow bridge to Earth to find him.
On Earth Loki sets a trap for Thor, turning some passersby into negative images of themselves. Thor arrives to put things right with a quick twist of his hammer. Loki announces his presence and demands vengeance for being trapped in the tree.
However Thor has no memories of Asgard at all and doesn’t know what he is on about. Loki quickly manages to hypnotise Thor but can’t get him to give up his hammer. Eventually Loki hits upon the idea of creating a magical double of Thor and the real god happily hands his hammer over to his duplicate.
He sends Thor off to open some zoo cages to cause more mischief. Unfortunately once he has been away from his hammer for sixty seconds Thor becomes Dr Blake and is free of Loki’s hypnosis.
Blake quickly returns and retrieves his hammer, and with it the power of Thor. Loki flees, managing to keep ahead of Thor until he is eventually downed from the sky by a tossed length of piping and knocked into the sea.
Thor knows that Loki cannot cast spells whilst wet and keeps him from drying himself while he brings him to the top of the Empire State Building. Attaching the still dripping Loki to his hammer he tosses it into the sky, delivering Loki back to Asgard. The hammer returns just in time, a few seconds longer and Don Blake would have been stood on top of the sky scraper waiting for the deadly hammer.
So is it any good?: After two issues focusing on commies and aliens it introduces the rest of the Norse gods to the title. Loki is immediately interesting, of the antagonists who predate him probably only Doom and Namor in Fantastic Four had anything like his level of personality.
Kirby has him leaping around clearly having huge amounts of fun with the possibilities for mischief in the modern world. He turns people into negatives, tosses people onto train tracks, tries to free dangerous animals from cages and flies through the air on the backs of pigeons.
His body language is also great, loads of exaggerated poses like a pantomime villain. He is lithe and sneaky and it comes through in the artwork. I particularly liked his outfit when he dressed in modern clothes, a dapper man who charms everyone he comes into contact with despite the evil in his eyes.
Thor seems slightly boring by comparison, constantly chasing after Loki, trying not to be put off by his latest diversion and the other Asgardians who are introduced don’t really do very much but Loki works right from the start.
He is perhaps a little less verbal and a little less evil than he would become, Stan obviously couldn’t have him coming up with multi-issue plots or anything just yet but I do like just how inventively mischievous he is. It’s not the way later writers went with him of course but it has its grounding in Norse myths all the same.
I think a large part of the different characterisation of Loki actually comes from the fact that Thor still isn’t really Thor. He doesn’t know about all the Asgardian things Loki references, to the extent that it comes as quite a surprise at the end when he can throw his hammer to take Loki back to Asgard, with Thor having to wait on earth and hope he doesn’t transform back into Blake while the hammer is away.
Of course the hammer has any number of plot resolving features, but in this story it is clearly still Don Blake’s mind in control with only the level of awareness of Asgard that Blake could gain from books. It makes the initial encounter between Thor and Loki when Loki is amazed Thor can’t remember him a bit odd.
A fun issue for the villain and some nicely inventive clashes with Thor and for the way it shows us a concept in its embryonic form. Stan seemed to see that the other Asgardians could add interest to the strip but doesn’t quite know how to square them with Thor being Blake’s alter ego.
Are there any goofy moments? A fast rotation of Mjolnir produces anti-matter particles which can undo magical transformations.
Fickle Jane Foster gets an instant crush on Loki due to his lovely name and dashing, romantic nature.
Trivia: Loki is shown to have been trapped in a tree for centuries prior to this story. He also comments that Thor hasn’t been in Asgard for a long period of time. I’m not sure how strictly these ideas have been stuck to over the years, Thor’s relationship with Asgard was really up in the air in the early stories, in this one Thor clearly doesn’t actually remember anything about Loki beyond the name which he remembers only from Don Blake’s reading of legends.
Is it a landmark?: Yes, Loki is a major villain but more importantly it introduces the whole Asgardian mythos to the Marvel Universe.
|
|
|
Post by owene on Dec 12, 2010 17:44:13 GMT -5
Strange Tales 101 The Human Torch By Stan Lee with Larry Leiber, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers. Villains: The Destroyer Guest Appearances: The Fantastic Four So What Happens?: Johnny Storm is testing his speed against some of the military’s nuclear missiles before returning to his asbestos lined room to get some sleep. Next day on the way to school he and his chums look in awe at the town’s new funfair.
Little do they know that the town’s newspaper publisher, Charles Stanton, has received a threatening note from someone calling themselves the Destroyer threatening to damage the funfair. Stanton decides not to publish it.
The next day the funfair’s roller coaster is sabotaged and the Torch has to stop riders falling to their deaths. With no publicity from the newspaper the Destroyer’s work is put down to structural failure. He sends another letter to the papers saying he will strike again.
On his next visit to the funfair Johnny notices a parachute ride buckling, threatening to send its occupants to their deaths. He creates a flaming diversion so he can preserve his secret identity from the crowds and then manages to weld the ride safe.
The next day’s newspaper contains another message from the Destroyer, this time challenging the Torch to battle at a cabin outside town. Johnny turns down the offer of help from the Thing and goes there alone. He gets trapped by the Destroyer who, luckily for Johnny, then flees when some kids arrive.
Johnny decides to check out the roller coaster to see what could be annoying the destroyer and from the top of it manages to spot a Russian sub moored in a nearby bay. Johnny flies out over it and warms up the sea until the Russians surrender. He then heads back to the coast and captures the Destroyer himself, actually newspaper publisher Stanton who wanted the funfair closed so that nobody on the roller coaster would spot the sub.
So is it any good?: No, while it theoretically exists in the same world as the Fantastic Four it has a totally different style.
It’s tempting to think that the teenager with a secret identity angle was a way of combining the FF with Spider-Man but the regular spider-man series hadn’t actually started at this point and actually what this in fact is, is just a very dull super hero tale in the DC style.
It reads like a fairly poor Batman mystery from one of that title’s blander periods. It attempts to introduce a mystery with the masked villain but the villain doesn’t really ever confront the Torch, he just sabotages the funfair a few times and then passes up the chance to defeat the Torch because some local kids are walking past.
Even at the end the Torch just jumps to the assumption that Stanton is the Destroyer and goes and captures him in a single panel. Very few of the Marvel stories to this point had actually featured heroes battling villains physically, the villains so far had largely been masked bad guys whose identity was the core of the story rather than their plans.
There is quite a lot of unintended comedy in a very dated story but it isn’t a very auspicious debut.
Are there any goofy moments? So many. The Human Torch’s secret identity would be the cause of much stupidity in the next few issues. This issue creates the problem by insisting that while everyone in town knows that Sue Storm is the Invisible Girl nobody has worked out that Johnny is the Torch. In an incredibly bizarre and detailed caption Stan reveals that four people had previously known but they were all now in the army, at college or working in Chicago. As Johnny regularly has to leave people in danger while he tries to secretly change identities this is all a little bizarre.
The detailed description of Johnny’s room contains an asbestos bed, carpet and wall paper. I guess Johnny felt that between risking his life with the FF and flying with nuclear missiles to relax he didn’t have to worry too much about his long term health.
The panel where Johnny spots, and of course shouts, ‘A Commie Sub’ is a classic.
Stanton throws away the threatening letter he himself wrote to his own newspaper and doesn’t bother to print it because it is seemingly the work of a crank.
Trivia: The Destroyer never appeared again. The code-name was of course quickly reused for the Asgardian ultimate weapon which, along with this stories own flaws, probably stopped this version returning.
|
|
|
Post by owene on Jan 2, 2011 7:45:48 GMT -5
Tales to Astonish #36 The Challenge of Comrade X By Stan Lee with Larry Leiber, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers. Villains: Comrade X Guest Appearances: none So What Happens?: Ant-Man is rapidly making a name for himself capturing bank robbers. His citywide network of ants alert him to crimes and he is able to rush anywhere in the city due to his catapult and loyal ants. His fame travels behind the Iron Curtain and the commies are soon vowing to do something about the new hero. The ants pick up an FBI communication discussing a young woman who needs to see Ant-Man and Hank soon tracks her down and hides inside her purse. Revealing himself to her in her apartment she tells him that she is the ex-lover of the communist master of disguise Comrade X who is in town to deal with Ant-Man. She tells Hank that Comrade X will be onboard a freighter in the docks. Pym manages to get aboard the ship but sets off an alarm and is soon trapped in a plastic tank. However the air holes in the tank allow him to cybernetically contact more ants and they soon swarm all over the Russian gunman watching over the tank, smashing it in the process and allowing Pym to go free. Pym finds Comrade X’s cabin and despite being threatened with DDT he and his loyal ants overwhelm the spy and pull his face mask off, revealing that he is actually the young woman who told Pym about the Russian threat. This wasn’t a surprise to Ant-Man who had actually seen the mask inside the young woman’s purse when he hid in there earlier. The coast guard arrive and arrest everyone. So is it any good?:Some of the art is nice, the unmasked Comrade X has a really classic Kirby femme fatale look and Kirby and Ayers do a solid enough job throughout. That said they did dozens of other stories equally good or better so that doesn’t really make this one a must-read. It is generally said that what made the Silver Age Marvel heroes different was their personalities and the way that the soap opera of their lives was as important as the villains they faced. That is totally missing from Ant-Man, if anything he has even less personality than the DC heroes of the period as well as less interesting adventure plots. Lee’s fall back plot at this point was the commie espionage story and the mood of the times meant that such villains generally had no redeeming features. There might have been some pathos involved in the Hulk’s encounter with the Gargoyle but none of the other reds featured in the fledgling titles have had any plus points at all. Without an interesting lead or two dimensional adversaries you are left pinning everything on the twist ending mystery and the novelty of a tiny hero surrounded by insects and these things don’t really hold up all that well. Comrade X really being a woman is a twist but they had to be someone and we weren’t really introduced to any other candidates so it’s hardly a big surprise when it comes. This is a recurring failure of the stories from the period with the first issue of the Human Torch and the next issue of Ant-Man having a very similar problem. This is perhaps because we don’t really have many super villains yet, merely regular criminals or spies using codenames to protect their identity. Those identities become a plot point but there isn’t enough space or subtlety in the stories to introduce competing candidates for the big unmasking that the stories require. So all in all still quite a flat story, I can’t really dislike any story with Kirby/Ayers art but I was kind of left wishing they had been given a different assignment. . Are there any goofy moments? I liked the way the police precinct house is overrun by ants, hiding in the waste paper baskets and desk drawers on the off chance they get to hear about a crime Ant-Man would be interested in. The ants carrying little chunks of wood who hurl themselves into the sea and raft across to the commie ship are brilliant. The Russian commissar is so annoyed at radio broadcasts about Ant-Man foiling bank jobs that he has to send his best agent to the states to deal with him. Things really must have been perfect in his socialist utopia for that to be his first priority. Rubber full face masks are of course a comics tradition, not sure there has ever been an example quite as weird as this pair of panels though. Trivia:Comrade X would return, as Madame X, in an arc of West Coast Avengers that I am going to have to reference quite a lot during the write ups of the Ant-Man run. It featured the Avengers against Quicksilver, Hungarian communists and every, until then, rightfully forgotten commie Hank Pym villain Steve Englehart could drag up. I can’t really remember anything about it despite having read it. Those issues are her only appearances since this story.
|
|
|
Post by owene on Jan 2, 2011 7:51:31 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #8 Prisoners of the Puppet Master By Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers. Villains: The Puppet Master Guest Appearances: None So What Happens?: The team wants to keep the Thing out of the lab while Reed works and this prompts yet another temper tantrum from Ben who storms off into the city. Sue follows him invisibly and together they spot a man about to leap from the top of a bridge. The FF flare brings Johnny to the scene and he manages to rescue the, seemingly entranced, man before he falls to his death. The would be suicide had been the work of the Puppet Master who, after carving likenesses of people from radioactive clay, had the power to make them live out the little stories he played out on miniature sets. He quickly builds a Thing puppet and seizing control of him, brings the original to the apartment where he lives with his step daughter Alicia. Blind Alicia senses that the Thing hadn’t come alone and the Puppet Master fills the apartment with Ether to knock out the invisible Sue. Noting Alicia’s resemblance to Sue he has her cut her hair in Sue’s style and dresses her in her uniform before sending the mind controlled Thing, and the puzzled Alicia back to the Baxter Building to deal with the rest of the FF. While this is going on the Puppet Master seizes control of a prisoner at the high security jail and stages a break out. The Thing causes havoc at the Baxter Building but eventually crashes through Reed’s latest experiment, covering himself in a solution that turns him back to Ben Grim and breaking the Puppet Master’s control. As they ponder what to do next Ben comforts the confused Alicia and she continues to hug him as the solution dries and he turns back to the Thing. The team regroups and heads to Master’s apartment to rescue Sue. Despite the presence of a huge robot and the villain himself fleeing on a flying horse they manage to retrieve her and then head to the prison where they deal with the jailbreak. His plans in tatters the Puppet Master returns to his apartment where he confronts the tearful Alicia and unveils a new puppet, himself as a world leader. He struggles with his step daughter and as the puppet of himself is thrown to the floor he trips and falls out of the window to the street below. The FF arrive to comfort Alicia with the menace seemingly defeated. So is it any good?:One of the things I wondered about when I started this process was whether there were ever any good Puppet Master or Mad Thinker stories, they seemed like villains who got wheeled out the most for rather ineffective, repetitive stories. This is perhaps more true of the seventies and eighties than Marvel’s earliest days so I wanted to see if they were ever effective, challenging villains. I was pleasantly surprised by this story, or at least half of it. The first half of the Puppet Master’s plan, the bits before it involves the FF, are very effectively told. His grotesque, marionette like appearance and the idea of him insanely slaving away over tiny detailed models in an apartment somewhere combine very well and the sections of his unnamed victim climbing up the bridge and about to throw himself off are excellent. You get a real sense of twisted evil from him here. It is just about held up through the sections where he grabs control of the Thing and the way he uses Alicia’s resemblance to Sue (although why he didn’t just also take control of Sue is a good questions) and also in the way he lashes out when Alicia calls him father. That damaged relationship with Alicia is obviously key to any drama in the character, particularly when she becomes more important to the team. The ending, while telegraphed, is also quite powerful and I liked the final panel wondering whether he had fallen to his doom from the window or whether it had something to do with the treatment of his own, bizarre, Puppet Master puppet. The story loses its power a little once the Puppet Master has to be given a series of weapons and devices that allow him to actually battle or escape the FF physically. Why does he have a huge, powerful robot in his apartment? It might be modelled on a puppet but it doesn’t have anything to do with his radioactive clay or the powers that come from it. This straying from the concept, half way through his first appearance, shows the limitations of the character despite his creepy power. He, like the Thinker, only really works in the obsessive planning stage of a story, once things have slipped from his control he doesn’t really offer much dramatically. However there is a lot to like in his depiction here, he is a very grubby little villain and I liked that his fantasies for world power basically amounted to being fed meals while wearing ermine robes. There is something quite stunted about the character as if to say that yes, he can make puppets that control anyone and as such is fairly powerful, but his power is just as limited and oddball as he was in real life. The other major introduction, Alicia, is l argely important for her reaction to the Thing. The idea that a blind person could see into people’s hearts and be immune to prejudice is pretty clichéd, it was used a lot in earnest 60s movies about racism, but it works here because this issue, like so many before it, had started with the Thing lashing out at his teammates for their own inability to see the man within. He even picks up on the fact that they only call him ‘Ben’ when they want things from him. There hadn’t in truth been much sign of nobility from the Thing in preceding issues but his pain at his transformation had been expressed well and you can see the appeal of a character who likes him for what he is, particularly in a scene that has him returning to his orange state, crushed as normal, but also wondering if he has to change back because Alicia prefers him that way. This would be dealt with a lot in later years but is there right from Alicia’s first appearance. So it’s not a great story, it lacks the courage to continue with the tone of its first section, possibly because a truly evil villain with total control of people was hard to show in a comics code approved book in 1962. His plans had to become more cartoony in the climactic sections, but at the very least they do create a chilling villain in that first half and the story does deal with the Thing in an interesting way and have Sue actually playing a fairly active role. A good issue. Are there any goofy moments? How exactly can the ability to command anyone he models in radioactive clay translate to the ability to create a jet powered flying horse? I’m also not that sure what the point of creating a puppet of himself, dressed as a King, was? Would it allow him to control himself or would it somehow make the world leaders he had modelled treat him as a king? If so why bother with a prison break and throwing people off the Brooklyn Bridge? Similarly why create a puppet of a prisoner who was trusted to go into the warden’s office rather than of the warden himself? Trivia:The Puppet Master eventually got the fitting name of Philip Masters and an origin tying his clay, here just radioactive, to the mystical mountain of Wundagore in Transia. Aside from all the monsters and weapons retroactively tied into Kirby’s Eternals and Deviants Transia and Wundagore must have the record for being tied up in the most origin stories in the Marvel Universe. Alicia isn’t a sculptress in this story, or at least her job isn’t revealed at all. Is it a landmark?:Yes, both the Puppet Master and Alicia went on to play large roles in the title.
|
|
|
Post by starfoxxx on Jan 2, 2011 10:57:51 GMT -5
While Puppet Master always seemed like a lame villain to me, this FF cover is really cool, and kinda scary---PM's face has a doll/clown-like thing going on that creeps me out.
It reminds me of how John Byrne depicted PM in the (80s) Marvel UNiverse Handbook----kinda feminine---but really creepy, esp. when i was a kid. Anyone else remember that OHOTMU drawing?
|
|
|
Post by owene on Jan 2, 2011 11:49:34 GMT -5
While Puppet Master always seemed like a lame villain to me, this FF cover is really cool, and kinda scary---PM's face has a doll/clown-like thing going on that creeps me out. I used to have this issue in one of the Marvel collectors items classics with the tiny reproductions of the covers and it was only when I was googling the cover for this review that I really noticed the detail on the stage and just how odd the Torch looked there. That plus the dozens of strings suggests Kirby really went to town on the detail for this cover. A really creepy image. Yep. Byrne produced some really good FF related pages for that handbook. I liked how they got Simonson to do some great Thor related ones as well.
|
|
|
Post by humanbelly on Jan 3, 2011 18:29:50 GMT -5
Tales to Astonish #36 Y'know, this is a very neat, eye-catching cover, I really do like it a lot, on that level. . . . . . EXCEPT when you start to analyze it with anything like "real-world" constraints. How big is that ant, for Pete's sake?? It's, like, the size of a small squirrel! More like one of those giant bird-eating spiders. . . ! There was an old Outer Limits episode that featured something like it ("Xanthium Misfits" was roughly the title that comes to mind---). Heh. Aaaaaand, oboy, ol' Hank is trapped under a chunk of glass-- even though he still has full-sized strength! And he is prevented from just growing out of this dilemma. . . how? Yep, owen, much as I generally like Ant-Man's existence, your assesment of his half-baked usage in those early days is pretty much on the money. Science classes! Stan & the gang needed to have paid more attention in science classes!!!HB
|
|
|
Post by freedomfighter on Jan 4, 2011 1:28:42 GMT -5
Tales to Astonish #36 Y'know, this is a very neat, eye-catching cover, I really do like it a lot, on that level. . . . . . EXCEPT when you start to analyze it with anything like "real-world" constraints. How big is that ant, for Pete's sake?? It's, like, the size of a small squirrel! More like one of those giant bird-eating spiders. . . ! There was an old Outer Limits episode that featured something like it ("Xanthium Misfits" was roughly the title that comes to mind---). Heh. Aaaaaand, oboy, ol' Hank is trapped under a chunk of glass-- even though he still has full-sized strength! And he is prevented from just growing out of this dilemma. . . how? Yep, owen, much as I generally like Ant-Man's existence, your assesment of his half-baked usage in those early days is pretty much on the money. Science classes! Stan & the gang needed to have paid more attention in science classes!!!HB HB, you're thinking of the zanti misfits. hooo-boy that was a creepy episode of the outer limits
|
|
|
Post by owene on Jan 4, 2011 14:12:22 GMT -5
Journey Into Mystery #87 Prisoner of the Reds By Stan Lee with Larry Leiber, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers Villains: Communists Guest Appearances: none So what happens?:A series of high profile scientists have disappeared, leaving notes to say they have defected to the Russians. This catches the attention of Dr Blake who heads to Washington to meet an FBI contact about the issue. Soon afterwards Blake makes the news for inventing a new virus for germ warfare. This newfound fame leads to a photographer coming to see Blake but his camera lets out a hypnotism gas and the mind controlled Blake only has time to leave a note about his defection before he is bundled on to a plane to Moscow. He soon finds himself locked up with the other missing scientists. Blake quickly transforms into Thor and deals with the armed guards and the facility’s man-eating sharks before he volunteers to be captured when the Russians threaten the other kidnapped scientists. Thor is chained up while the reds try in vain to lift his hammer. As they leave it behind and head back to their posts Thor changes back to Dr Blake and easily slips his chains. Reclaiming his hammer he frees the scientists and tunnels out of the fortress. A quickly summoned storm destroys the whole complex and the scientists make their way to the coast and a place aboard a ship heading west. Don Blake makes it back home safely and has to endure Jane Foster swooning over news of Thor’s exploits. So is it any good?: No, the art is quite weedy for Kirby, the, quite grotesque, Russians look good but Blake is at his frailest and he hasn’t quite hit upon the right look for Thor yet. The short page count leads to a lot of story being crammed in and there not really being any classic Kirby scenes. The story is Lee and Leiber at their red-baiting worst. The commies are of course totally evil but a good old American Doctor like Don Blake can make the media as a hero for developing germ warfare. I quite liked the ending with Blake and the scientists having to make it across Russia to safety although you do wonder if Thor wasn’t endangering everyone for the sake of his secret identity. I also quite liked the heroism of Don Blake here, ok he realises he can become Thor at any point but he is still heroic in his human form. That said I’m not sure about him becoming a genius level cold war scientist, it takes something away from the set up if Blake is actually able to jump from science to science like Richards, Stark or Banner. You could say in this story that he possibly doesn’t actually create the bio weapon just makes the news for doing so but other stories from the period do have him coming up with all sorts of scientific breakthroughs. I prefer him as a regular doctor albeit one who is quite resourceful and brave. It’s not dreadful, I actually enjoyed it more than issue 86 but it’s quite an empty red paranoia story really and isn’t yet the sort of story the creators would be capable of in a few years time. Are there any goofy moments? The commies are so evil they have sharks swimming around under the floors of their scientific establishments. Presumably just in case the Norse god of thunder happens past. This issue’s new power. Thor rubs the side of his hammer so fast that it emits red hot blinding sparks to see off the Russian guards. Trivia:The next issue reveals that Loki was watching the events of this story from Asgard and hence learnt Thor’s secret identity.
|
|
|
Post by humanbelly on Jan 4, 2011 17:36:14 GMT -5
[ HB, you're thinking of the zanti misfits. hooo-boy that was a creepy episode of the outer limits THAT'S the title, FF-- thanks! "Zanti Misfits"-- yep. I know that in a lot of classic sci-fi TV circles its a much-derided episode (apparently the prop guys themselves were embarassed about painting those human faces on the toy bugs), but it truly, truly, truly scared the bejeepers out of me when I saw it as a little kid. I had the classic reaction of nightmares; was SURE they were going to crawl out of the closet across my bedroom floor; was terrified of them biting me, etc, etc. My mom will totally attest to this. HB
|
|
|
Post by visionloveswanda on Jan 12, 2011 1:50:22 GMT -5
Owene--
Re: Thor and the Russians. What a great blast from the past! I love that you do these. Very informative and insightful. Those durn Ruskies I remember being petrified of the Soviets as a kid, now to read that just gives me the giggles. Think I'll show it to my Russian neighbor next door! My how times change...
Well done!
VLH
|
|
|
Post by owene on Jan 13, 2011 13:40:24 GMT -5
Thanks, yeah I guess I forget just how much the cold war probably mattered to people back then, I find the commie stories quite hard to get my head around
|
|
|
Post by owene on Jan 13, 2011 13:45:51 GMT -5
Arrgh just realised that while it was time for a Thor review I used the wrong one. Here is the one I skipped. Journey Into Mystery #86 On the trail of the tomorrow man! By Stan Lee with Larry Leiber, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers Villains: Zarrko the Tomorrow Man Guest Appearances: none So what happens?:In the peaceful 23rd century Artur Zarrko sees his fellow citizens as tender hearted fools who would be easily conquered if only he had any weapons. Designing a time machine he heads back to the warlike 20th Century and steals a cobalt bomb from under the nose of Thor who had volunteered to stand there as it was exploding to measure it’s capabilities. Thor is personally offended at the theft and asks Odin for the ability to follow the thief forward in time. Arriving in Zarrko’s time he learns that the scientist has already used the threat of the nuclear weapon to seize control of the world and Thor is soon on the back foot having to escape from Zarrko’s police force and ends up falling into Zarrko’s prepared magnetic mirror room trap. Luckily that wasn’t actually Thor but was a decoy dressed in a Thor costume and the real Thor confronts Zarrko to get the bomb back. Zarrko attempts to send Thor to another dimension but is stopped by Thor’s hurricane breath. Zarrko then turns to robots who manage to steal Thor’s hammer before he short circuits them by flooding the room before the 60 seconds have passed that will change him back to Dr Blake. Zarrko takes off in an aircraft determined to drop the Cobalt bomb on the unsuspecting city. Thor buffets his craft with a thunder storm and catches the bomb before it hits the ground and detonates. Zarrko crashes to the ground, amnesiac from the damage, and Thor takes the bomb back to the 20th century. So is it any good?: Not really. It’s incredibly silly without really having the level of charm or internal consistency needed to rescue it. The art isn’t even particularly good. The idea of someone coming from a peaceful future to the dangerous 20th century is fairly good but is handled far more effectively with Kang. Zarrko’s visit to the 20th century is hamstrung by the silliness of thor’s nuclear test dummy role. Yes Thor is powerful but if he can stand next to an exploding nuke just to see how powerful it is you can’t really get that bothered by any predicament he finds himself in, I guess that explains why so many of his adventures have to revolve around turning back to Dr Blake and the 60 second rule. Once Thor heads to the 23rd century it all goes downhill, the death traps Zarrko throws at Thor come out of nowhere and the means of escape Thor uses don’t really play fair with the reader. How does he come up with a willing Thor decoy in perfect costume and hammer? Since when has he had hurricane breath? Why would 20 second exposure to knee deep water destroy a bunch of killer robots? So no there’s nothing really great about this one, even the art doesn’t really do a lot for it, like a lot of the poorer early issues it reads like a story where you could swap Thor for Superman without any real changes. It is only really the scene where he asks Odin for the ability to time travel that would need to be changed for this to be a Weisinger era superman story, it even ends on Jane Foster wishing she was working with Thor rather than Dr Blake. Are there any goofy moments? The whole section featuring Thor volunteering to stand next to a new nuclear bomb followed by Zarrko physically running off with the bomb is pretty goofy. The final section features Thor stopping the launched bomb exploding by catching it. The magnetic mirror room is quite comical although you would have to read it to get the full effect. The Thor decoy makes absolutely no sense at all really. There is at least an earlier panel of Thor telling a crowd he has a plan which I suppose was the 1962 version of dramatic foreshadowing. The terrifying robots who short circuit within 20 seconds of getting wet could probably have been dealt with by someone less powerful than Thor. That said they are able to pull Thor’s hammer away from him against his will. Thor’s hurricane force breath hasn’t appeared all that often but it makes a change from Mjolnir always having a new power to save the day. Trivia:Zarrko possibly appeared more than any other non-asgardian Thor villain during the title’s early days although his appearances tailed off quite quickly once Lee and Kirby started on their classic run, with no appearances after 102. He reappeared in the 70s in an early Marvel Team Up storyline and a Thor tale in the 240s. He went on to appear far more frequently in the 90s and 2000s although a lot of his recognised appearances were down to a retroactive decision that Kristoff’s servant Boris was actually Zarrko in dozens of Fantastic Four stories. .Is it a landmark?: I suppose so, Zarrko has reappeared fairly frequently until at least Dan Jurgens volume of Thor even if he isn’t really a major character.
|
|