Strange Tales #103

Cover Date: December 1962

Plot Overview: Johnny Storm investigates a series of houses sinking into a swamp. The houses are being built here because swamp land is cheap. An old man continually warns the workers about swamp demons. The Torch returns at night and sees the old man and two aliens use some device to make the house sink into the Earth.

The Torch confronts the old man and he reveals himself to be an alien himself. The alien uses a gun to put out his flames. The alien takes Johnny to his home world and takes him to see Zemu. Zemu orders that Johnny is locked up in a giant water tank to show how powerful he is.

A young woman Valeria and her father free Johnny from the water tank. Johnny once again becomes the Torch and destroys the army of Zemu. The Torch alerts the planets population and convinces them to revolt against their master. Zemu is captured and Valeria declares her love for the Torch. The Torch returns home and gets in trouble in class for day dreaming about Valeria.

My Take: This was one of those really outdated stories that just too naive to work today. The villains and supporting cast were all pretty forgettable. This was really similar to the Thor story that was in the last Journey Into Mystery so that's kind of annoying. Johnny Storm, as a character, doesn't work by himself. He needs other characters to bounce his personality off of. You can't be a wise guy if there's no one around to crack wise at. Unless you're Spider-Man and just talk for the sake of talking.

The art was pretty good in this issue. The splash of the futuristic city was really nice but it was really close to the futuristic city in Journey Into Mystery. You can look at that in two ways. You can look at it as lazy or look at it as being good continuity. I'm going to go with good continuity just this one time. There was a decent amount of action in this issue and it came off pretty well.

Overall, I found this story to be utterly forgettable and not that fun of a read. It was a quick read but there was nothing that made me want to keep going. I was kind of glad when it was over honestly.

I'd give this *1/2 out of *****

Notes: This is the first and only appearance of Zemu and this unnamed race of people.

Next Issue: Fantastic Four #10

Journey Into Mystery #87

Cover Date: December 1962

Plot Overview: Several American scientists have shocked the world by defecting to the Communist side of the world. Dr. Don Blake reads about this in the newspaper and devises a plan. He approaches the U.S. government and proposes that he pretend to do a special project to lure the Communists out.
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Shortly a photographer arrives for Blake and uses a gas to hypnotize him. They take Blake to Russia where he meets the other scientists. They were all hypnotized and woke up here. Blake becomes Thor and works on escaping. Thor springs a trap and has to fight off man eating sharks.

The Russians blackmail Thor into surrendering and leave him tied up and without his hammer. Thor becomes Blake and easily escapes the now loose chains. He once again becomes Thor and frees the scientists. Thor then calls on a great storm to destroy the Communist base.

The issue ends with Jane talking about how dreamy Thor is and Blake secretly pining away for her.

My Take: This issue was a really quick read. The art was really good and the story had a nice crisp pace to it. I had fun with the issue as it felt like a lot happened in just 10 pages.

The splash teaser page is still bothering me though. This was a 10 page book and a page of that was lost to teasing the rest of the story. That really just burns me. You could add a whole page of character development or action instead.

Overall this was another one of those fun yet forgettable 10 pagers from an anthology title.

I'd give this ** out of *****

Notes: Nothing of note happened in this issue.

Next Issue: Strange Tales #103

Tales to Astonish #38

Cover Date: December 1962

Plot Overview: Several underworld types get together and complain that the Ant-Man has made the city unsafe for crime. They decide they need brains, not brawn to defeat the Ant-Man. As they chat the scene changes to a man named Egghead being fired by the government. They suspect that he's been selling secret atomic plans to foreign powers. The mobsters hear of this and hire Egghead to defeat the Ant-Man.

Egghead studies film of the Ant-Man and devises a plan. He will learn how to communicate with the ants and get them to betray Ant-Man. Egghead develops a device and goes to an anthill. He tells the ants to bring Ant-Man to the museum where he'll capture Ant-Man with flypaper. He promises to make Ant-Man their slave.

Later that night, Ant-Man arrives on the scene and falls into the trap. Suddenly, Ant-Man escapes the trap and makes short work of the criminals. The police arrive and capture the mobsters while Egghead has managed to escape. Ant-Man explains that the ants aren't motivated by greed and don't feel oppressed by him. So he came to the museum ready for the trap. The issue ends with Egghead hiding out and muttering to himself about ants.

My Take: Out of the 5 issues of Tales to Astonish I've read, this was probably the best. The story was a really quick read and it wasn't too riddled with Silver Age ridiculousness. Having a real super-villain in the story was a nice change. It felt more like a superhero story than a sci-fi story trying to be a superhero story.

There were some huge gaping logic holes on the part of Egghead. He just kind of assumed that the ants agreed with him. It made the outcome obvious but it didn't really bother me that much.

It wasn't a classic story or really a memorable story. It was just a nice story to sit down and read for 5-10 minutes and then move on to something else.

I'd give this **1/2 out of *****

Notes: This is the first appearance of Egghead. Egghead will be considered the main rival of Henry Pym for a long time but is never an A level villain in the Marvel Universe.

Next Issue: Journey Into Mystery #87

Fantastic Four #9

Cover Date: December 1962

Plot Overview: The Fantastic Four are bankrupt. Reed Richards invested a vast amount of their money into the stock market but the market crashed. Reed has decided to sell all of their equipment to pay off their creditors. They get into a big argument and the Thing briefly leaves the group. While he's gone the rest of the FF get an offer to do a movie. The Thing returns after visiting Alicia Masters and they decide to do the movie. They're out of money so they have to hitchhike to Hollywood.

They arrive in Hollywood and it's revealed that Namor the Sub-Mariner is the one that offered them the movie roles. He wants to make a movie about one of his battles with the FF and is offering a million dollars if they agree to do it. The FF agree.

Namor tricks the FF and sets a trap for Reed, Johnny and Thing. He sets Reed down on an island with a Cyclops. He puts Johnny on an island with natives that have an anti-fire potion. And finally he battles the Thing on a random beach. Reed and Johnny manage to escape their traps with clever thinking. Namor and the Thing have a great battle. The Thing figures out that he can only beat Namor if he gets him out of the water. So Thing drags Namor to the shore and holds him until he starts to wear down. Suddenly, a lightning bolt hits the Thing and turns him back to Ben Grimm. Namor easily defeats Ben Grimm.

Namor returns to Sue and explains what he's done. He explains that with them out of the way he wants Sue to be his bride. Sue refuses and says that Namor will have to defeat her too. Namor uses various powers to find her but Sue manages to elude him. Reed, Johnny and the Thing arrive and attack Namor. Sue breaks up the fight and explains that they signed a contract. Namor agrees and pays them the money and returns to the sea. The movie ends up becoming a giant hit and the FF's financial troubles are over.

My Take: This was another one of those ridiculous Silver Age plots in action. Usually for a plot like this to work the characters have to be written as stupid to fall for the plot. But Stan Lee actually had a solid approach. The FF never really trusted Namor, they just were desperate for money. So at least the characters had a motivation to look the other way for this one.

I enjoyed this story quite a bit. The Thing and Namor duked it out for about 3 pages and that's been a rarity in these early Marvel titles. It was nice to get a taste of some real action. The art was great again and the plot worked despite being a product of the Silver Age. This issue really shows why Marvel was so revolutionary at the time though. It took a ridiculous Silver Age plot and made it workable by motivating the characters instead of bending the characters to the plot.

I'd give this *** out of *****

Notes: There were several celebrity cameos in this issue. I vaguely recognize them but the only one that was said by name was Jackie Gleason. Alicia Masters made a brief appearance in this issue so it looks like she was meant to become a regular cast member. Her primary role here seems to be humanizing the Thing. She sees his inner beauty and relates that to him on a regular basis. That's about it for this issue. I think this is appearance number 3 for Namor as he's the main antagonist for the team at this point. Sorry for brief layoff, I was busy with life for the last week.

Next Issue: Tales to Astonish #38