Journey Into Mystery #88

Cover Date: January 1963

Plot Overview: Loki wanders Asgard planning his revenge on Thor. Loki spies on Thor from afar and learns his secret identity of Don Blake. Loki sneaks to Earth and puts Jane Foster under a spell and then challenges Thor to a battle. They meet in Center Park to do battle. Thor throws his Hammer and just then Jane Foster arrives. Loki turns a tree into a tiger and Thor is forced to battle the tiger instead of grabbing the Hammer.

Loki puts a force field around the Hammer and Thor reverts back to Don Blake. Loki declares his victory and then wanders the world playing various pranks. He turns people blank and also turns a city into candy. Meanwhile, Don Blake devises a plan to get his Hammer back.

The newspapers declare that Thor vows to defeat Loki so Loki goes to check up on the Hammer. When he arrives, Thor is waiting for him. Loki drops the barrier and suddenly Blake grabs the Hammer. He reveals that it was just a dummy that he was hiding behind. Blake becomes Thor and Loki turns into a pigeon to try and escape. Thor grabs a bags of peanuts because if there's one thing pigeons love it's peanuts! Loki reveals himself and Thor captures him. Thor returns Loki to Asgard and Odin hopes that Loki never surpasses Thor in power as the issue ends.

My Take: This was a quick little read. I thought the overall concept was better than Loki's original appearance. You got to see him as more of a trickster and I feel like he outsmarted Thor in a more plausible way this time. The sad part is, I think Loki is now a more developed character than Thor is. Thor to me is still a bland one dimensional character.

I really liked the art to this issue. It seemed really colorful compared to some of the other books around it. There also seemed to be a ton of detail added to the backgrounds. Asgard is really a nice addition art wise as it's an excuse to add as much color as possible to the book. Asgard also really sets this book apart from the other Marvel titles.

I have to complain again though, the splash page is a real waste. This was a 13 page story and yet again an entire page was wasted on a splash teaser for the other 12 pages. I really wish they would make that page part of the story or just start with a standard page. I want more story.

I did enjoy this story a lot. I've said it a lot lately but it remains true. This wasn't an all-time classic or a game changer in anyway. It was just a fun little read that filled 10 minutes of my life. I enjoyed it for the fun little adventure that it was. Stan Lee really seems to be getting the pacing down for this shorter anthology stories at this point.

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

Notes: There wasn't anything too notable in this issue.

Next Issue: Incredible Hulk #5

Tales to Astonish #39

Cover Date: January 1963

Plot Overview: Henry Pym decides to investigate strange signals he's been receiving from the ants. He heads into the sewers and finds a large gathering of bugs. The Scarlet Beetle is making a speech about how bugs should conquer mankind. He's been effected by radiation and given human intelligence. Pym intervenes but is defeated by the sheer number of bugs. The Scarlet Beetle takes his enlarging gas and becomes the size of a human.

The Scarlet Beetle uses his army of bugs to reek havoc on the population of the city. Meanwhile the ants rescue Pym. Pym heads to the surface and uses his ants to defeat the bug army of the Scarlet Beetle. Pym and the Beetle face off and end up in a toy store. Pym used a toy lance to break the gas canisters on the Beetle and he returns to normal size. Pym then uses his scientific knowledge to rob the Beetle of his human intelligence. The issue ends with regular people wondering where Ant-Man was when they needed him.

My Take: I would say this issue was delightfully ridiculous. The Scarlet Beetle was a great villain for a one shot. His plot was great and the scenes really worked for some reason. The police being unable to use their guns due to a bee attack was great. This is the first issue where I felt that Ant-Man kind of worked as a solo concept. It felt like the Scarlet Beetle was a suitable villain for him. The situations presented were also unique to Ant-Man.

The art to this issue was pretty solid. The story was also a really quick read. This was a very nice issue to cleanse the palette after how awful Fantastic Four #10 was. Nothing in this issue was ground breaking but then who needed it? Sometimes a short little romp with no consequences can be fun especially in this anthology titles.

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

Notes: This is the first appearance of the Scarlet Beetle. I'm pretty sure he never appears again.

Next Issue: Journey Into Mystery #88

Fantastic Four #10

Cover Date: January 1963

Plot Overview: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby make their Marvel Universe debut here. They're working on a story for the Fantastic Four when Dr. Doom makes his return. He forces them to call Reed Richards so that he can ambush him. Reed arrives and Doom successfully captures him.

Doom explains to Reed that after their last encounter he encountered a superior race of aliens. Doom shows off his newest trick and switches bodies with Reed. The rest of the FF arrive and Doom as Reed has the FF capture Reed as Doom. The Torch and Thing offer some ideas but Doom has the best idea. They put Reed in this tube prison. After the FF leave, Doom reveals that Reed will run out of oxygen in about an hour.

Back at the Baxter Building the other members of the FF discover zoo animals that have been shrunk to a tiny size. They confront Doom Reed about if he's the one that stole them from the zoo. Doom Reed explains that he wants to shrink the FF to increase their powers. The FF are excited by this idea and Doom Reed reveals that he's going to shrink them into nothingness.

Reed Doom manages to escape and arrives at the apartment of Alicia Masters. Sue also happens to be there and KOs Reed Doom. Alicia senses an inner good in Doom. The Torch and Thing arrive. Reed Doom pleads with them and Thing hesitates. They decide to take him back to Doom Reed. During the encounter the Torch and Thing sense something off about Doom Reed.

The Torch creates a mirage and Doom Reed reveals himself. He loses his mental control and they switch back to their real bodies. Doom tries to fight them off but wanders into the reducing ray. Doom shrinks into nothing. Reed finds it to be a fitting end as the issue comes to a close.

My Take: Boy, this issue was a real mess. Dr. Doom spent a whole page explaining this ridiculous idea to the other members of the Fantastic Four. And honestly, who would believe that? This is a case where the characters were dumbed down in order for the villain to get one over on them. Dr. Doom's idea wouldn't even make sense to a lay person as he said at the time. And you would think he could've just said they had to shrink down to go do something for the U.S. government or something like that.

I just didn't like this issue at all. It was too complicated, the logic gaps were hard to overlook and it just came off poorly. It was also a fairly boring issue as it felt like people sat around talking for the entire issue.

I can't really think of anything about this issue that I enjoyed. It took me forever to read because I kept getting bored with it. This was easily the least enjoyable issue I've read thus far during this project. On the bright side of things, the Impossible Man makes his first appearance in Fantastic Four #11. He's one of my favorite villains.

A quick side note to all of this, they really need to get some new villains in there. I think Dr. Doom and Namor combined have appeared in 5 out of the 10 issues so far. I know that they're the main bad guys but I get tired of seeing the same antagonists over and over again. Hopefully starting with issue #11 that starts to improve.

I'd give this 3/4* out of *****

Notes: This is the first appearance of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in a Marvel comic.

Next Issue: Tales To Astonish #39

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