JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #91

“Sandu, Master of the Supernatural!”
Plot: Stan Lee
Script: Larry Lieber
Art: Joe Sinnott
Letters: Terry Szenics

IN A NUTSHELL
From his Asgardian imprisonment, Loki imbues earthly magician Sandu with incredible power, in hopes that Sandu will defeat Thor. And he almost does, but Odin sends the Valkyries with Thor’s magical belt in his moment of need. Later, Sandu separates Thor from his hammer, and as he greedily strains his mental powers to lift the darn thing, he gives himself a “mental short circuit.” With Sandu’s link to Loki broken, Thor easily beats him, and Sandu is sent away for “a long stretch in prison.”

WHAT’S HOT
• In the 1960’s, doctors still made house calls. What’s even hotter: they brought their nurses along! At least in the Marvel Universe.
• We get another “Holy Hannah!” I don’t know why, but that phrase always gives me a chuckle.
• And speaking of chuckles, when Thor finally breaks free from his imprisonment, the sky is filled with a giant “BAR ROOM!” Time for a drink, Thor, after a long day of fighting evil?

WHAT’S REALLY HOT
• Though I have previously lamented the poor artistic depiction of women in these early comics, here the Valkyries—two gorgeous Asgardian babes—are very…ahem…well-drawn.
• And speaking of well-drawn, both Jane and Blake look much more attractive.

WHAT’S NOT
• Loki…not so attractive. Is he getting uglier as we move through the issues?
• What good is it to lock up Loki if he can still exert power from prison? I’m beginning to think Odin doesn’t have any real control over this mischief maker.

And now a few thoughts which I call…

WELL, THAT EXPLAINS A LOT
Thor calls to Odin, identifying himself as “thy eldest son.” If Thor refers to himself as the eldest, there must be others, and perhaps the other “son of Odin” we saw in Journey Into Mystery #90 is indeed Thor’s brother.

In that same book, I didn’t understand why Odin’s insistence that Thor not reveal his true identity served as Blake’s excuse for not confessing his love to Jane. But now, Blake muses, “If she knew I loved her, I’d be able to keep no secrets from her.” So it seems that Thor/Blake, being an honorable sort of guy/guys, would never consider keeping secrets from his significant other. I guess with honorable guys, it’s all or nothing.

Last time, I joked about how the Watcher moved the FF and Kragoff to a “secluded” location because we wouldn’t want to run into anyone else moseying about on the moon. Well…depending on the chronology, those moon-battle participants might have run into the bank, jewelry store and other remnants of Sandu’s crimes. If that happened, someone would have a lotta splainin’ to do!

VILLAIN
The real villain is Loki, and not even imprisonment can put an end to his hijinks. The only thing Sandu has going for him is a bit of ESP and an incredible lack of ethics. Now that Loki knows that this Earthly magician is incapable of subduing Thor, it’s unlikely they’ll team up again.

STRANGE TALES #107

“Face to Face with Prince Namor, the Mighty Sub-Mariner”
Plot: Stan Lee
Script: Larry Lieber
Inks: Dick Ayers
Letters: Art Simek

IN A NUTSHELL
When Johnny is left out of Fantastic Four business, he decides to prove his worth by fighting Sub-Mariner alone. The expected skirmishes between fire and water ensue, with each gaining, then losing the advantage. They fight above and below the water’s surface, until both are exhausted, and the epic battle concludes, unresolved. The Sub-Mariner develops a new respect for the Human Torch, and Johnny is just glad to get home and lie down in his bed.

WHAT’S HOT
• Sue can type! And what’s more, she has a new, relatively attractive hair-do.
• Namor and Torch call each other fun nicknames like “Match-Head” and “Fish-Face.”
• Johnny is kind to animals: he takes care not to harm the porpoise when burning the bonds Namor has placed upon him.
• Namor displays a variety of superpowers, taking on the characteristics of various aquatic lifeforms.

WHAT’S NOT
• As much as I enjoy the fact that Namor can “make like a fish,” I didn’t enjoy seeing him as a puffer, looking all bloated and fat like an old man on the verge of some serious health issues.
• Reed, Sue and Thing have a FF meeting, and leave Johnny out of it. I don’t blame him for being pissed! Of course, he had to go to school. Perhaps Stan is attempting to clobber his young readers over the head with the importance of education. If so, I doubt the audience was thrilled with the lesson.

SO CONVENIENT
Johnny has no way to know how long his flame will last. This is inconvenient for him, but I can’t help noticing it’s extremely convenient for putting the teenage superhero into precarious situations.

We know that asbestos is just about the only thing that can stop the Human Torch. I’ve never actually seen asbestos, but there seems to be an endless supply in the Marvel Universe.

TALES OF SUSPENSE #40

“Iron Man Versus Gargantus!”
Plot: Stan Lee
Script: Robert Bernstein
Pencils: Jack Kirby
Inks: Don Heck
Letters: Jo Duffy

IN A NUTSHELL
Realizing his Iron Man costume frightens women and children, Stark paints it gold. As a knight in shining armor, he investigates a wall that the citizens of Granville have built around their city and finds everyone under the hypnotic spell of a giant Neanderthal, Gargantus! With his superior intellect, Stark deduces that Gargantus is actually a robot, then uses magnets and transistors to blow the robot apart. The people are released from their spell, and the aliens controlling Gargantus flee in terror.

WHAT’S HOT
• It’s only the second Iron Man story, but already Stark has moved from his head-in-hands lamenting of the first story (“In order to remain alive I must spend the rest of my life in this iron prison!”) to merely having to wear a chestplate. I guess Stan saw pretty quickly that trapping Stark in the iron suit was going to severely limit the billionaire playboy aspect of our hero.
• Not only is the Iron Man suit now a much more attractive gold, but it also collapses for easy portability in an X-ray proof attaché case.
• Oh yes! And Stark has invented 60MPH roller skates for the military. Woo hoo! That’s pretty hot.

WHAT’S NOT
• Stupid aliens. Before traveling halfway across the galaxy to conquer Earth, these little green men didn’t do enough research to realize that Gargantus is no longer the man of the moment. They assume that nothing has changed…in 80,000 years! And you know what happens when you assume…well, at least it happens to these aliens.
• They also fear “those iron men,” assuming that because they saw one iron man, there must be more. This alien race is not identified as Skrulls, but they seem suspiciously similar, both in appearance and intellect. It’s always amazing to me when, in Marvel Comics, we run into alien races that have perfected interplanetary travel, yet might have trouble tying their own shoes.

TALES TO ASTONISH #42

“The Voice of Doom!”
Plot: Stan Lee
Script: Larry Lieber
Art: Don Heck
Letters: Art Simek

IN A NUTSHELL
A stream of electrified particles gives radio announcer Jason Cragg’s voice the power of persuasion. When Cragg sees that Ant-Man is respected by the police and loved by the people, he uses his golden voice to turn everyone against the tiny superhero and hunt him down as a criminal. In the end, Ant-Man tricks “the Voice” into retracting his anti-Ant-Man propaganda, just before a gaggle of cleverly placed laryngitis-producing microbes kicks in, robbing Cragg of his amazing power.

WHAT’S HOT
• Cool superpower! Being able to command people with your voice is probably one of the most useful superpowers imaginable. However, Cragg grandly underestimates his gift by employing it for little more than obtaining free train tickets and hot meals.
• Super-stretchy fabric. Pym has designed his Ant-Man costume from “unstable molecules,” so they can shrink and enlarge as he does. How convenient!
• Henry Pym with his yellow-blonde wavy hair, wearing a black shirt and smoking a pipe. I may have to take back my previous comment that Tony Stark is our first SEXY superhero!

WHAT’S NOT
• Stupid Criminals. So many details of Cragg’s plans simply don’t make sense. When he finally gets Ant-Man on his hand, why does he command him to walk a mile to the pier and drown himself? Why not just crush him like a bug? Later, after the ants rescue their leader from a watery death, why doesn’t Cragg use his voice once again to force Ant-Man to show himself? And this time, don’t come up with these elaborate plans, just step on him. I mean, I’m glad Cragg was stupid enough to keep messing up so that Ant-Man can go on living, but it makes the story less enjoyable when it’s so contrived.
• Inexplicable Superhero. Cragg is not the only one making mistakes. Why does Ant-Man discard his shrinking and enlarging gases, just when he needs them most? There’s no narrative reason for him to jettison his most important assets when he does.
• The Yuck Factor. When Cragg’s voice is empowered for radio advertisements, people are so convinced they need to buy the Peppo dog food he’s hawking, they exclaim, “We don’t even have a dog, but we can eat it ourselves!” As I mentioned…YUCK!!

SEMANTICS
Our story begins with the proclamation that Cragg is “the most dangerous mortal on Earth.” Really? Better be careful with those superlatives, Stan! What comes after “MOST dangerous”? And if Cragg is the most dangerous we’re going to see, I’m gonna start putting my twelve cents in my retirement fund!

Cragg’s power emanates from a near-accident at an “atomic experimental laboratory.” Somehow those three words just don’t sound right together. If you’re going to have an Atomic Laboratory, don’t announce to the world that it’s “experimental.” Experimental suggests that what you’re doing may or may not work. If you’re messing around with atomic energy, you’d better know what the heck you’re doing, or if you don’t, at least keep quiet about it.

But then…if scientists in the Marvel Universe didn’t engage in these wild experiments, we wouldn’t be having half as much fun as we do!