STRANGE TALES #130: Evil vs. Good

Published: March, 1965

This issue of Strange Tales provided me with a jarring Jekyll and Hyde experience. It plunged me into the depths of despair, contemplating the nature of evil, yet also lifted me into the stratosphere of delight, recalling so many wonderful memories! Let’s get the nasty stuff out of the way first, so we can finish on a high note.

CROSS MY HEART & HOPE TO DIE
Are you at all surprised that it’s the Doctor Strange story—rather than Torch and Thing—that gives me this great feeling of foreboding? As Dormammu and Mordo team up to thwart our hero, we find so many villains acting so villainously that the malevolent atmosphere of the story caused me to contemplate the very nature and characteristics of evil—specifically, those of the super-villain.

To start with, super-villains don’t play fair. We know that, of course, but in this story, Dormammu gives a classic example by using shrewd pretzel logic to insist he is keeping his promise not to attack Doctor Strange, when actually, he is. Sure, he himself is not attacking Strange, but he gives Mordo extra special powers to do so. In the real world, if you hire a hit-man, you’re still guilty of a crime, right? Is it different in the Marvel Universe?

But that’s not even the point! Mostly, I’m wondering why Dormammu is even concerned with the honor of not breaking his promise. After all, he’s a freaking super-villain! Being dishonorable is what they DO, part of the job description. Perhaps Dormammu is taking pride in his crafty ability to keep his promise and yet break it at the same time? Does this make him feel smarter…more powerful? Or perhaps even…more evil than all the other garden-variety super-villains?

NO HONOR AMONG THIEVES
And then there’s this: Once Mordo becomes convinced Doctor Strange is in China, he group texts “all the dabblers in the mystic arts,” commanding them to locate Strange and report to him. But when a sorcerer in red finds Doctor Strange, this unnamed villain greedily tries to pry Strange’s secrets from him BEFORE delivering him to Mordo, as instructed. This, of course, gives Strange time to get away. Mordo should have known: if you lie down with pigs, you might get dirty. Or, at the very least, you might get hoodwinked.

This reminds me of that time in Avengers #3, when Namor and Hulk teamed up, but each is thinking about how he is just USING his partner to get what HE wants, and plans to drop his cohort in crime at the first possible moment. Super-Villains…you simply can’t trust them.

Now let’s contrast this image with what happens between Doctor Strange and the Ancient One’s accountant, Sen-Yu. As Strange implores Sen-Yu for help, Sen-Yu immediately says yes, of course, “My life is yours, if need be!” And he’s completely sincere.

NEVER ENOUGH
We know that super-villains love to talk about themselves in the third person, but another hallmark of their speech patterns is that so often they tend to speak in outlandish superlatives. At one point, Mordo exclaims, “I am about to cast a spell—one such as you have never dreamed of!!” Really? Is it not enough to cast a powerful spell, a great spell, a wonderful spell? Why does it have to be something that has never been dreamed of before, something no one could have ever imagined? Isn’t that simply…exhausting? I guess not, because among super-villains, it appears everything must be done BIGLY.

GOT ME!
But in the end, at least in this particular story, I find that the creators are the greatest super-villains of all, because they leave the story hanging, hooking us for multiple future issues! Russ tells me this is the first time we’ll have a story that spans not just two, but numerous issues. Thus assuring the creators that they will sell many many comic books—even perhaps, as some people are saying, a tremendous number of comic books—well into the future.

“Meet the Beatles!”
Script: Stan Lee
Pencils: Bob Powell
Inks: Chic Stone
Letters: Sam Rosen

Whew! Okay, I’m glad I’m done with that part of the book. Contemplating the nature of super-villains has put a damper on my spirits, so now I’ll lift those spirits by detailing how the accompanying Torch and Thing story, like a breath of fresh air, revived so many pleasant memories.

FAN FICTION
Let’s start with this: From the moment I saw the title, I knew that my pre-teen self would have squealed with delight over this story of two average girls getting thrown into the same orbit as THE BEATLES! Reading this, I’m ten years old again, writing myself a little fan fiction (decades before Fan Fiction was ever “a thing”) about a girl very much like myself just happening to meet Bobby Sherman. I don’t know how much the presence of the Beatles thrilled the average 1965 comic book audience, but years later, it works for me!

KNUCKLEHEAD
In the first two pages of this story, Torch and Thing use a total of seven different nicknames for each other (Match-head, Bird-brain, Big Buddy, Chuckles, Knucklehead, Glamor Pants, Half-Pint). Obviously, that’s way too many corny nicknames weighing down two pages, but… Ahhh! Knucklehead. Back in my college days, renting a ramshackle bug-infested house in “The Student Ghetto” with three roommates, we entertained an outdoor cat named Knucklehead. Yes, those were good times…

IT’S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD
Help! As Thing gives chase, the robbers escape first on a rollercoaster, and then board an out-of-control Ferris wheel. Such shenanigans take me back not only to the slapstick screwball comedies of the 60’s (think Mad Mad Mad Mad World, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Who’s Minding the Mint?), but also the rollicking musical romps from my favorite TV show of the late 1960’s, The Monkees. To this day, I have a special place in my heart for screwball comedy in all its many forms.

AIN’T BACON
Finally, on the splash, we learn that the art for this story is by “Bouncin’ Bob Powell.” I’ve never seen his art before, and right now I’m thinking I would be fine if I never saw it again. Looking at my beloved characters I have to wonder, “Who ARE these people?” They sort of look like who I think they are but…not quite. And frankly, that’s a little creepy.

Oddly, this reminds me of something that happened a few years back, when we went to Hardee’s and saw a woman bring her breakfast back up to the counter, saying “I don’t know what this is, but it ain’t bacon!” Which doesn’t exactly sound like a wonderful story from my past…except that it is, because at the time, we were actually INSIDE the restaurant, with no face masks or hand sanitizers anywhere in sight. So I am now wistfully remembering those good ol’ days, when going into a restaurant was something that could be done on a regular basis, with no fear of sickness or death.

Sigh…

Those days will come again I know, and hopefully sooner, rather than later. But in my wildest dreams, a day may yet come when I actually get to meet Bobby Sherman, and he invites me for breakfast, and we eat (real) bacon and eggs together, as we reminisce about how lovely it was to be a young person in the 1960’s.