Tales of Suspense #46

Cover Date: October 1963

Plot Overview: Anton Vanko has developed a suit for Communist Russia. The suit gives him control over all things electrical. He can use the suit to short circuit electrical equipment or to directly control it. He puts on an impressive display for his leader and is sent off to America to sabotage some of Tony Stark's weapons.

Stark is testing a new rocket and decides to watch the test as Iron Man. The rocket goes out of control thanks to the Dynamo and Iron Man is forced to save the day. The Dynamo continues to sabotage various Stark plants over the next few weeks and the U.S. government starts to lose faith in him. There are murmurings that Stark might be a Communist himself and they talk about pulling all his government contracts.

The Dynamo decides that he's had enough of sabotage and wants to face Iron Man head on. He shorts out the electricity at Stark's main facility and the battle is on. Iron Man immediately realizes that the Dynamo controls electricity and put up a shield to save himself. Iron Man takes to the air where the Dynamo can't hurt him and traps him with a bunch of uprooted trees.

Iron Man then picks up the Dynamo and threatens to drop him in the water which gets the Dynamo to surrender. Iron Man plays a fake conversation from Russia that convinces the Dynamo to defect to America. Stark later hires him to head up electrical research.

My Take: Fun issue this time out. The Crimson Dynamo and his electrical abilities were kind of unique as far as villains I've seen in the past. He didn't so much shoot electrical beams as he caused short circuits or took over other things. It felt like someone really thought outside of the box when they worked on him.

I really enjoyed the plot of this story. It was nice to see Iron Man squaring off with another guy in a suit for I think the first time in a series. It was also nice to get an actual fight at the end of the book. It was one sided but a lot of times in these Silver Age books you don't really get a fight. A lot of times you get a gimmicky way to defeat the villain and a really brief encounter. So  I always get a kick out of an issue that gives me a fight of some kind.

The art on this issue was okay. The Iron Man suit fared a little better than usual as he wasn't contorting in weird impossible ways. The Crimson Dynamo suit was downright terrible though. I added a picture to this post so you could see how bad it was. It wasn't quite as bad as the Porcupine from the last issue of Tales to Astonish but you would have to try and look as bad as the Porcupine did. Just for the sake of comparison, I added a picture of the Porcupine as well.

I wanted to take this issue to go on a brief tangent. The last few months at Marvel has really seen the focus shift towards super villains and that makes me happy. During a lot of the early issues it was just Thor or Iron Man taking out a Communist threat or some one shot sci-fi threat. That's fine here and there but it really makes you yearn for some real baddies after awhile. In just the past couple of months we've been introduced to Jack Frost, the Super Skrull, Sandman, Doctor Octopus and the Eel. There's varying levels there but those are all super villains that had some staying power with multiple appearances over the years. It's nice to see them building a rogue's gallery for the Marvel Universe.

I give this issue *** out of *****.

Notes: This issue features the first appearance of the Crimson Dynamo. 4 or 5 guys take up the Dynamo armor over the decades at Marvel but he stays a fairly constant presence in the Iron Man titles. I would call him a strictly B list villain but I would also include him in Iron Man's rogue gallery. He definitely has a place in the lore of the Iron Man books.

There are also some other minor first appearances here. Senator Harrington Byrd makes a few more appearances in the Marvel Universe so I included him.

Next Issue: Amazing Spider-Man #5

Tales to Astonish #48

Cover Date: October 1963

Plot Overview: Alexander Gentry has invented a new suit for the military. He decides that he's tried of not getting the fame and glory for his creations. So he becomes the Porcupine and wants to become the king of crime.

Meanwhile, Hank and Jan attend the grand opening of a bank that is using security measures that Pym created. The opening is disrupted by the Porcupine who uses gas to knock out the crowd as he robs the vault. Jan passes out and Hank gets them to an office and breaks open a window. The Porcupine escapes and Hank takes the feverish Jan back to their HQ. Hank uses his ants to track down the Porcupine and finds him at a local army base.

Ant-Man manages to sneak in but gets captured by the Porcupine. The Porcupine leaves Ant-Man in water and leaves him to die. Meanwhile, Jan recovers and realizes that something is wrong. She tracks down Ant-Man and saves him from the water. They devise a plan to clog the Porcupine's suit with cement. The Wasp attacks and then they cover the Porcupine in cement. With his suit jammed, Ant-Man uses his lasso and throws the Porcupine out of a window. The Porcupine flees promising to make his suit even stronger.

Jan complains that Hank was treating her like an invalid earlier and he says she should go back to bed, much to her great annoyance.

My Take: This was a solid issue this time out. Nothing too memorable but it was a fairly fun read. It was nice to see the Wasp play the role of rescuer this issue. It was a nice change of pace. This issue was also your typical Silver Age story. The heroes find some way to take out the villain and win the day. I took this format and accomplished it in a solid way.

The art was pretty hit and miss with this issue. I blame that mostly on the Porcupine's costume. I think most artists would have trouble making such a ridiculous costume looking good consistently. It really is one of the worst creations that Marvel has thought up to this point in their history. I hope they figure out how to streamline the suit a bit after this. It really was an eyesore.

Despite, how awful the suit was, I do like the Porcupine. I love obscure villains from the 60s and 70s and he's a prime example of one. He was just a fun stupid little villain to take up everyone's time for an issue. He did his job well in this issue.

I give this **1/2 out of *****.

Notes: This issue features the first appearance of the Porcupine. He kind of becomes a notable C-list villain among the Marvel fanbase. He's easily the most well known as far as obscure Marvel characters from the 60s and 70s. He eventually joins up with guys like the Eel in Count Nefaria's group of villains.

Next Issue: Tales of Suspense #46

Fantastic Four #19

Cover Date: October 1963

Plot Overview: Reed calls for The Thing and Alicia Masters to come to the Baxter Building. When they arrive, he explains that he had been studying up on ancient Egypt and discovered a tale of a blind ancient Pharaoh. This Pharaoh was cured by a radioactive plant. Reed proposes that they use Doctor Doom's time machine from issue #5 to travel back in time and retrieve this plant for Alicia Masters.

They head to Doom's abandoned castle and teach Alicia to use the machine. She sends them to the past where they are immediately confronted by an ancient Egyptian army. The army is no match for the FF until suddenly their powers are sapped away and they all collapse.

The FF are captured and taken to the Egyptian leader Rama-Tut. He explains that he's a time traveler from the year 3000. He came back in time in the Sphinx to loot history. He crashed and damaged his ship when he arrived and was stranded here. He was also blinded in the crash but still managed to conquer the Egyptians with his special gun. His damaged ship leaked radiation and infected the plants which then healed him. He further explains that his gun can dominate the FF and make them slaves.

Rama-Tut sends Reed, Thing and the Torch off as slaves and decides that Sue will become his bride. Each member of the FF try to fight the rays powers but have no success. Until one day, the hot Egyptian sun turns the Thing back into Ben Grimm. The change removes the effects of the ray gun and he escapes from slavery.

Ben manages to get the gun away from Rama-Tut and releases Sue from it's power before becoming the Thing again. Sue uses the gun to release the Torch and then the Thing. Rama-Tut escapes to his Sphinx ship while the Torch finds Reed and releases him as well.

The FF storm the Sphinx and are briefly caught in a water trap but the Torch manages to defeat the trap. They find Rama-Tut but he escapes in a smaller ship and travels back to the future. They muse about who Rama-Tut might actually be until Sue finds the plant that restored Rama-Tut's vision. The Thing is overjoyed at this news. They head to the present only to discover the vial didn't return with them. Reed explains that a fail safe in the machine probably won't allow radioactive material to travel with them. Everyone is dismayed at this setback as the issue comes to an end.

My Take: Rama-Tut as the villain here is a little silly but I enjoyed this issue. It was a straight forward adventure with nothing too ridiculous. This issue also holds up quick well following the Annual. It didn't feel like a giant letdown after a really good story there.

I really enjoyed the time traveling here. It was a little different of a situation from the more recent issues. It's also nice to get a villain that isn't Dr. Doom or Namor for variety. I also really liked that the ending was a downer. Spider-Man has been doing that a lot but it really feels like a novelty for this time period. It was cool that things weren't wrapped up in a nice little package when everything was all said and done.

The art was good as always when it comes to the Fantastic Four. It's Jack Kirby, what more can you say on the art front? He has the character models down and is pumping out consistent quality on a monthly basis.

This gets *** out of *****.

Notes: This is the first appearance of Rama-Tut. Rama-Tut himself is a fairly minor character but he branches out into more important characters like Kang the Conqueror and Immortus. There are multiple versions of Rama-Tut over the year due to his time traveling. Like I mentioned, Kang is the most important version of Rama-Tut to the MU. Kang himself will appear in Avengers #8 about a year later.

Next Issue: Tales to Astonish #48

Fantastic Four Annual #1

Cover Date: September 1963

Plot Overview: Namor has found the citizens of Atlantis and take his place as their king. Lady Dorma professes her love for Namor while Warlord Krang professes his love for Dorma. Namor has decided to exact his revenge on the surface world with the armies of Atlantis.

We switch scenes as the Thing and Torch are up to their usual antics around the Baxter Building. Reed breaks things up and says the group needs a vacation. Strange sea creatures have been spotted so he booked them a cruise. While out at sea, Johnny spots a monster. The FF head out to sea in a boat and are captured by Namor. He tells them to warn the U.N. of his coming and then expels them back to the surface.

Reed and a professor tell the U.N. of Namor's origin. How he is the product of a marriage between a surface man and an Atlantis princess. After their discussion, Namor reveals himself, he was disguised as the professor, and Atlantis invades New York. The Torch counterattacks but can only do so much damage by himself.

Meanwhile, Reed has developed a device to fight the Atlantis invasion and sends the Thing out to catch a prisoner. The Thing eagerly follows orders and brings some soldiers back. Reed notices that they can not breath water and knows he can use his machine. Reed's machine works and Atlantis is forced to retreat.

The last half of the issue is a giant brawl between the FF and Namor. He captures Sue at one point and takes her to his main ship. The Lady Dorma gets wind of his affection towards her and tries to drown Sue as a result. Sue is nearly lost until Namor and the other members of the FF put their differences aside briefly to save her. Sue ends up recovering and Namor returns home. Upon his return, the other citizens of Atlantis have left him. He chose the surface over them and they abandoned him for it.

My Take: This was a 37 page story with a ton of action. It really felt like a culmination of the Namor appearances in the Fantastic Four book up until this point. Namor got a lot of screen time here and they really developed him in a big way. He is a much more tragic character and you can see the seeds of him being more of an anti-hero than a villain in this issue.

After that, it feels like they have the Fantastic Four formula down with this Annual. The Torch/Thing antics feel right, the Reed/Sue relationship feels right. The book just feels like the Fantastic Four now.

This was a really great annual. It had bios on most of the villains from the series up to this point and it reprinted the origin of the FF from issue 1 as well. This would've been a fantastic buy for 25 cents when it was initially released.

I left my review a little vague on the details because of the length of the story on this one. The fight was pretty big and long and I didn't want to give away too many of the details on this one. Honestly, if you were to read an early Fantastic Four issue, you should check out the Annual. It was a really good tale.

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

Notes: This book features the first appearance of Warlord Krang. He'll be around as time progresses. I wouldn't call him important by any means. This book also features the re-introduction of Atlanteans, Lady Dorma and many other characters into the Silver Age of Marvel. The Atlanteans will be an important part of the Marvel Universe going forward. Lady Dorma is mostly a side character with a minor role in Marvel history.

Next Issue: Fantastic Four #19

X-Men #1

Cover Date: September 1963

Plot Overview: Professor X summons the X-Men to start the issue. Cyclops, Angel, Beast and Iceman answer the call. Xavier tests the members of the team. Angel can fly, Beast has super strength and agility, Iceman has ice powers and Cyclops has eye beams. The team rough houses a bit until Xavier stops them and tells them a new student is coming today. Jean Grey arrives to the delight of the male students. She reveals telekinesis as her powers. Xavier explains that the X-Men exist to protect the world from evil mutants that want to harm mankind.

The scene shifts to a man named Magneto. He proceeds to use his magnetic powers to take over a base at Cape Citadel.

Xavier summons the X-Men and tells them about the attack and tells them this will be their first mission as a team. The team flies to Cape Citadel and the military agrees to let them try to save the day.

Cyclops uses his eye beams to break Magneto's shield around the base. Magneto sends missiles after the X-Men but they manage to disable the missiles with relative ease. Magneto then throws a flaming cart of fuel at the team but Iceman saves the day with an ice shield. The X-Men return and Magneto decides to flee the scene. The military thank the X-Men as the issue comes to a close.

Fun Fact: Professor X named the X-Men with the X standing for Ex-tra power.

My Take: I had read this issue at a much younger age and didn't have many fond memories towards it. I remembered it as being pretty boring and kind of a dry read. This reading of it went better in my head.

There isn't a lot of story to this issue. It's really 23 pages used to explore each character's power with a justification for them to show off. In that regard it works. Everyone on the team has a bit of personality and you have a really good idea of what each member of the team can do power wise. Magneto is kind of a blank slate but they were trying to show what he is capable of as well.

I enjoyed this read quite a bit. The team is likable for the most part. It's interesting to see that Cyclops was a bore from almost day 1. My only complaint with this is Jean Grey is really similar to Sue Storm powerwise and Iceman is essentially an ice version of the Human Torch. But those are really minor issues and I expect that to get better as more issues are released.

The art for this issue was Jack Kirby so you know it was good. The action scenes were good and the team has a very distinct look from anything else in the Marvel Universe at this point.

A little aside to this review. The advertising for this issue was interesting. Marvel revealed the name of the team in several ads but didn't show what the members of the team looked like at all. I thought it was a good way to get people to check out this book.

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

Notes: This book features the first appearance of the X-Men. Professor X, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Angel and Iceman all go on to be important members of the team to this very day. This would essentially be the X-Men throughout the 60s and the early 70s. This book also features the first appearance of Magneto who is the main antagonist of the X-Men. Magneto would be their most popular nemesis throughout the entire run of the series.

A sidenote here as well. Cyclops is introduced as Slim Summers in this issue.

Next Issue: Fantastic Four Annual #1

Strange Tales #112

Cover Date: September 1963

Plot Overview: The Torch flies over Glenville and realizes the people are annoyed with him. He heads home and Sue shows him a broadcast with a Tom Braddock running him down. The Torch leaves to confront Braddock but only makes things worse for himself.

Meanwhile, the Eel steals a secret project from a local scientist. The Eel plans to sell the device. Unknown to the Eel, it's a mini-nuke and he's failed to turn the device off. He's a Living Bomb. Everyone sets out to find Eel including the Torch.

The Eel has set down the bomb in a remote wooded area and is set to escape. The Torch arrives on the scene and the fight is on. The Eel briefly has the advantage until the Torch melts his gun. The Eel tries to convince the Torch to help him conquer the world but the Torch declines. The police arrive and tell the Torch that the bomb was placed near a Veteran's Hospital.

The Torch springs into action and uses his powers to absorb the bomb blast. He falls to the Earth and is saved by Reed at the last moment. Johnny is dying and the FF rush him to the Baxter Building. Reed tries a radical new treatment to try and save him. The world holds its breath and celebrates when Johnny Storm is saved.

My Take: This was a decent issue. It was a little different from some of the other books I've read in this time frame. I liked how the Eel stumbled into a nuclear device and how he actually tried to place the device where it wouldn't hurt anyone. It was a nice touch for him to not be a super evil guy.

I really liked how the Thing was broken up by the Human Torch potentially dying. It was a really good way to develop his character. Whenever these situations come up, you always see that the Thing really has a giant soft spot for the Torch. I really like the way their character dynamic has developed thus far.

The art was solid for this issue as always.

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

Notes: This issue features the first appearance of the Eel. He would hang around as a minor villain throughout the 60s and into the 70s. He'll usually be involved with a team of guys though.

Next Issue: X-Men #1

Journey Into Mystery #96

Cover Date: September 1963

Plot Overview: Thor returns to the office and becomes Dr. Don Blake to start things off. Jane Foster is upset because Blake again disappeared and all of his patients gave up and went home. She thinks that Blake needs to be more responsible while Blake wonders what she would think if she knew he was Thor. There's a brief flashback of Thor saving a bus that had fallen into the river.

We switch scenes as the casket of Merlin has been discovered and brought to New York. Scientists open the casket and leave. Merlin immediately revives as he had used a spell on himself centuries ago. Merlin reflects on his days in Camelot and how his powers came from within himself, not the potions he used. He makes an interesting comment about being a mutant. Extremely interesting since the X-Men make their debut around the same time as this issue. Merlin decides that he will find the ruler in this time and become their adviser as well.

Merlin decides to show off his powers and knocks a rocket off course. Thor springs into action and rights the rocket. Thor suspects Loki to be involved and seeks him out on Asgard. Loki claims innocence and shows Thor that Merlin is the one responsible.

Back on Earth, Merlin entered the White House in search of the President. He passes JFK but assumes he is too young to be the President. Thor confronts Merlin and the battle begins.

Merlin hypnotizes Thor and throws the Washington Monument at him. The spell breaks and Thor rights the Monument with relative ease. Merlin then tries to bury Thor under the Pentagon but Thor escapes as well. Merlin finally tries the Lincoln Memorial but Thor uses his Hammer to defeat that as well. Thor decides to gamble and becomes Don Blake. He claims to be a great magician that can take many forms and threatens to destroy Merlin if he continues. Merlin begs for mercy and Blake has him cast a second spell to go back to sleep.

My Take: This was an okay issue. It was a quick read and had a decent fight. The dialogue was also solid enough. I would classify this issue as mostly average. Nothing great or memorable but it wasn't overtly bad either.

The art was a solid effort yet again but I've said that ever since Joe Sinnott took over the art duties on this book.

Ultimately, nothing of importance happened in this issue. I would call it a total status quo issue. Thor meets a threat and defeats it. This issue was solid, very solid, there's probably just better stuff to read from this time period.

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

Notes: This is the first appearance of Merlin. I looked him up and he appears a handful of times over the years.

Next Issue: Strange Tales #112