Strange Tales #103

4:15 PM Brad No comments

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My Take: This was one of those really outdated stories that just too naive to work today.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

Posted in: Human Torch,Reed Richards,Strange Tales