Meanwhile… : April, 1963

Posted on January 10, 2013 by Chrissy

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #91

jim91“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.

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STRANGE TALES #107

st107“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.

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TALES OF SUSPENSE #40

tos40“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.

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TALES TO ASTONISH #42

tta42“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!

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Posted in Ant-Man, Human Torch, Iron Man, Meanwhile, Strange Tales, Tales of Suspense, Tales to Astonish, Thor | 2 Comments

FANTASTIC FOUR #13: Monkeying Around on the Moon

Posted on December 27, 2012 by Chrissy

Published: April, 1963

“The Red Ghost and His Indescribable Super-Apes!”
Script: Stan Lee
Art: Jack Kirby
Inks: Steve Ditko
Letters: Art Simek

As our story opens, Reed experiments with meteor energy in hopes of creating a booster fuel powerful enough to help the United States catch up with the Reds in the race to the moon. Sue marvels, “This means America may win the space race!”

This jumped out at me right away, and made me say, “Now wait just one cotton-pickin’ minute there!” I know I was only a kid in the 1960’s, but to the best of my recollection, there was never any doubt that America would beat the Commies to the moon. At least that’s the way it was portrayed by my patriotic teachers, propagandist textbooks, and all the brainwashed grownups I knew. It rattled me to read here that the FF would even consider the possibility that the Commies could outshine the US in anything—never mind something as important as the race to the Moon.

This is not the same world I grew up in.

And of course, the Marvel Universe is NOT the same world I grew up in. So I comfort myself with the the idea that the Commies beating us to the moon might be nothing more than Stan’s attempt to generate a bit of drama for his 12-cent tale. Yeah, that must be it. Right? Sounds like a good explanation to me. I’m going with that.

In hindsight, we know what actually happened in the race to the Moon, but in this story, the FF get to the moon at pretty much the same time as their antagonist, Communist scientist Ivan Kragoff, and his trio of trained apes. Kragoff, a Fantastic-Four-wannabe, has designed his spaceship of “transparent ceramic plastic,” so he and his ape followers can easily absorb the same cosmic rays that imbued the FF with their superpowers. powerWell, it works, because as their ship passes through the cosmic belt, Kragoff and the apes are imbued.

Only, not with the same powers. Kragoff acquires the ability to walk through walls, thus earning him the code name “Red Ghost.” (Red…get it? Ghost….get it?), which is pretty cool, but if you ask me, still one of the lesser superpowers. As for his motley crew, the baboon becomes a shape-shifter, the gorilla super-strong, and the orangutan magnetized.

An aside: in several stories so far, magnetic power has been hailed as a mighty force. But speaking of lesser superpowers, so far I haven’t been that impressed with magnetism in Marvel Comics. I think I’ll wait till Magneto shows up before waxing eloquent on this particular “superpower.”

uatuAnyway, they all get to the moon at the same time, and the two parties find not only each other, but an ancient ruined city…and…something stranger still…

Enter the Watcher! “The most dramatic being of all time!” (It says so on the cover). The Watcher is from a planet that is “one vast gigantic computer,” a member of a race so evolved they have ceased to strive in all matters of existence and their sole remaining activity is to take notes on other civilizations: thus the name, “Watcher.”

Sensing that the Commies and the good guys are about to devastate planet Earth with acts of savagery, the Watcher decides to break the silence of the centuries to intervene in their conflict. That, and I think he’s also pissed that they’ve brought their quarrel to the Moon, which he considers his domain. (The Watcher has a broad sense of “personal space.”)

But you might never suspect the Watcher’s high level of annoyance because when he speaks, it’s always slowly…quietly…emotionlessly. I guess that’s to show us how detached he is from his surroundings, a being who thrives on cold objectivity. This early Marvel tale comes to us years before Spock of Star Trek, but I sense the same vibe going on here with the Watcher.

To avoid all-out war, the Watcher decides that the FF will have to fight Kragoff and his apes for the fate of the entire Earth. He whisks them off to a secluded combat area on the moon (secluded, because like, we wouldn’t want to disturb anyone else who happened to be moseying scarinabout on the moon), where Thing gets the chance to square off against the apes and their elusive leader.

I guess little boys (and maybe bigger boys?) like this kind of thing, but I’m going to skip right to the obvious theme of the piece:

COMMIES BAD. “FREE PEOPLE” GOOD.

COMMIES STUPID. “FREE PEOPLE” SMART.

While all the fighting is going on, Kragoff temporarily immobilizes Reed with the stun of a freeze-gun. But once Reed thaws out, he suggests to his teammates that the way to beat the enemy is to “outsmart” them, and from that point on, at every turn, Reed leads the good guys to glory with cleverly devised strategies and devices.

In fact, the story goes out of its way to show us that while Reed employs his American ingenuity to invent things to aid the cause of the “free people,” Kragoff is only capable of discovering and using the leftovers from the ancient jetengineMoon city. While Kragoff fires up a “pneumatic-powered car” he finds laying around, Reed invents a mode of transportation, using Torch as the fuel source.

Later, Kragoff attacks with a disintegrator gun he discovers on a junkheap, but in the end, it’s the paralysis ray Reed designs that leads to the ultimate defeat of the Red Ghost.

Reed’s resourcefulness is so impressive that at one point, Thing exclaims, “Hey that gizmo you put together really works, chum!” The apes, however, offer no such praise or encouragement to Kragoff. Of course, Kragoff is not deserving of praise or encouragement, because, even though he is a brilliant scientist, among the best the Communist nation has to offer, he is only capable of stealing and using other people’s inventions.

Which leads me to ask: Is Kragoff lazy, or stupid…or both?

FATAL MISTAKE
But worse than that, Kragoff makes a fatal mistake when he assumes that if he keeps the apes hungry and imprisoned, their obedience will increase. Of course, “free people” know this is not true, and when Sue is captured by Kragoff, she reasons that if she can free the apes, she would rather take her chances with them, because they are not intrinsically evil: “They are like the communist masses, innocently enslaved by their evil leaders.”

Wow! That was a significant moment in this story. Once again going back to 1960’s international politics, I remember an overwhelming agreement that ALL Commies are BAD. In grade school, as our thoughts would sometimes wander to the poor little Russian children in their cold, barren schoolrooms, reading their propagandist textbooks, we were encouraged to feel sorry for these children as victims of their own society. Once they got past a certain age, though (we were taught), the menace of Communism would take root in their souls, and no salvation would be possible. So I thought it was pretty big of Stan to separate for his young readers the reality of the communist people from the ideology of the communist party.

The apes are in a cell behind a force field (which Kragoff discovered in the ancient ruined city), and Sue is left on the other side. Kragoff makes yet another fatal mistake when he assumes that the “helpless female” is not going to be resourceful enough to throw a monkeywrench into his plans (pun intended). But of course she does, quickly discovering a control panel in the wall that breaks the force field. YOU GO, GIRL!

eyehatredNow that the apes are “no longer under the Red Ghost’s mental control, they want their FREEDOM!” So they bust down the door and grab all the food, and we don’t see Moe, Larry and Curly again until the end of the story, when they attack Kragoff with Reed’s paralysis ray gun and their eyes “gleaming with hatred.”

In addition to underestimating the power of a “free woman,” it is Commie Kragoff’s lazy stupid ways that ultimately cause his downfall. He doesn’t fully understand the technology he swipes, so he doesn’t recognize the weak spots. Because he uses a force field he discovered (not created), he’s not aware how easy it is for Sue to disable it. Because he uses a disintegrator gun he discovered (not invented), he doesn’t realize it will have no effect on Sue when she is invisible. And because of this, Sue is able to rescue the others so they can deal with Kragoff.

It’s not surpising that when Kragoff sneaks into the Watcher’s house, everything there is beyond his understanding (“It’s too alien—too different! I—I don’t even know what I’m looking at!”). Funny, but somehow I bet Reed would know what he was looking at, and be fascinated.

THE WATCHER
But what of the Watcher? He’s an oddity in the Marvel Universe, not a superhero, not a villain, just an entity that is there, passively observing. Can we say, perhaps, he is the “voice of reason”?

Russ assures me we will see the Watcher again. Right now, I’m not sure what use he is, if all he’s going to do is WATCH. Kind of reminds me of those annoying Star Trek episodes where Kirk kirkspock(or Picard) is constantly moaning about the Prime Directive and how it would be wrong to interfere and help all those needy people on some underdeveloped planet. Sorry, but I don’t have any patience with the Prime Directive—which, btw, the Enterprise crew probably ignored more often than not. But don’t get me started on THAT!!

Anyway, all’s well that ends well, as Kragoff is attacked by his disgruntled apes and the Watcher declares the Four the winner of the contest, proclaiming, “Space is your heritage! See that you prove worthy of such a glorious heritage!” Well, we know the “free people” will prove worthy, and thus we are bound to have many more adventures on the moon, and other planets, as we continue to explore new frontiers here in the Marvelous Zone.

tos40avatarIn fact, next time, we’ll explore several frontiers, on land and sea, even touching mythical kingdoms, as my usually bland Meanwhile… post expands to examine the adventures of superheroes who remain vital, despite the fact that they don’t even have their own title!

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Meanwhile… : March, 1963

Posted on December 20, 2012 by Chrissy

Here are the other “Marvel Universe” books published in March, 1963:

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TALES OF SUSPENSE #39: Enter Iron Man

Posted on December 13, 2012 by Chrissy

Published: March, 1963

“Iron Man Is Born!”
Plot: Stan Lee
Script: Larry Lieber
Art: Don Heck
Letters: Art Simek

In the Marvel Universe, mythological Norse god Thor is the anomaly, but the other heroes we’ve met thus far owe their existence to “Science gone mad.” Gamma rays, cosmic rays, radioactivity—biological and scientific accidents. Only Henry Pym’s Ant-Man can make the claim “I meant to do that.” But even so, you must admit, the idea of taking a serum that makes you really, really small does sound somewhat…mad, more like magic than science. Ant-Man is an oddity, a hero despite himself.

Not so Iron Man. Not only did Tony Stark mean to do that, but once he puts on the armor, he is large and in charge, a marvel of modern technology. The explosion that almost takes Stark’s life forces him to use his smarts to devise a way to stay alive. Iron Man is thus a hero by necessity, not accident. In some ways, you could say Iron Man is our first “proactive” hero. This is new, and exciting.

His superpower is not something that happened to him that he now has to live with. Rather, something happened to him, and in response, he gives himself a superpower.

But probably best of all, a delicious twist is incorporated into the Iron Man origin story. Because if not for the greed and stupidity of the evil Commie, Wong Chu, Iron Man would not exist. After Stark is injured, Wong Chu decides that rather than kill his captive, or simply let him die, he will “TRICK him into spending his last days on earth working for US!” Not only does Wong Chu fail to understand the patriotic passion of any red-blooded American in the Marvel Universe (you think they would’ve learned by now, right?) but very specifically, he completely underestimates the resourcefulness and ingenuity of Mr. Tony Stark, scientist/engineer/inventor extraordinaire.

If Wong Chu had just said, “Let him die,” we would have no Tony Stark, no Iron Man, and no story. But because the Commie got greedy, he unknowingly participates in the creation of one of Marvel’s greatest threats to the Red empire—Iron Man, who lives not only to defeat Wong Chu personally, but also fight all manner of evil, well into the future.

I love this about the Iron Man origin story. It’s so…IRONIC. Pun intended.

TONY STARK
But it all starts with Tony Stark, and honestly, I’m hard pressed to decide who is the real star of this story: Stark, or his creation, Iron Man. Of course, you can’t have one without the other, but I contend: who would want to? To me, Stark is the most interesting protagonist we’ve met so far, even more interesting than Iron Man.

Yes, of course, Tony Stark is a brilliant scientist, but oh! He’s so much more than that! After meeting him in the laboratory, perfecting transistor weapons for the military, we quickly fly to an exotic beach, where beautiful women swoon for the handsome bachelor (“The Riviera was a real drag till you showed up, darling!”) The narrator informs us that Stark is “both a sophisticate and a scientist! A millionaire bachelor, as much at home in a laboratory as in high society!”

Two…two…two mints in one! I ask you: could there be any more complete man than Tony Stark?

But the perfect Tony Stark would surely get boring to read about, if not downright annoying, so Stan inflicts on him a “tragedy” of epic proportions.

The tragedy, of course, is his newly acquired medical condition, where he is kept alive only by the tiny transistors in his iron chest plate. Stark must deal with the prospect of spending the rest of his life “in this iron prison,” if his heart is to keep beating. Certainly, he can continue his work as a military industrialist in this get-up, but I doubt the honeys on the Riviera will be swooning for him now.

So then…is that the tragedy?

At this early stage of the game, Stark is not yet aware of how many modifications he can make to his “iron prison,” or that his Iron Man persona will fight crime and evil as few before him ever could. At this point, Stark is simply interested in staying alive for a “moment of reckoning” with Wong Chu in retaliation for the murder of his friend, the most helpful and kind Professor Yinsen.

As Iron Man, Stark has that moment with Wong Chu. He employs a number of technological marvels incorporated into his iron suit to defeat and presumably kill the evil Chinese warlord. In the end, Iron Man stands alone declaring, “It’s all over! Now, Profeesor Yinsen, rest easy! You who sacrificed your life so save mine, have been avenged!”

Avenged? Already are we thinking of the Avengers? I wonder if the word “avenge” this early in the Iron Man story was a deliberate attempt to plant the idea of “The Avengers” in the readers’ minds. Or did Stan come back to this panel later and say “Hey! Avenge…Avengers…yeah, that’s the ticket!” Does one lead to the other…or perhaps there’s no connection at all?

I guess it doesn’t matter. All that matters at this point is that the Marvel Universe has now been made stronger by one superhero, who brings to the table the amazing powers of science and technology beyond even that which has been supplied by our resident super-scientists, Henry Pym, Reed Richards and Bruce Banner.

Reading this issue, I get a real sense that Marvel Comics is evolving, growing up. The 1960’s saw the advent of the Silver Age of comics, just as advancements in technology were becoming a more important part of people’s everyday lives. It comes as no surprise that at this point in history, Marvel introduces the super-modern, technology-based Iron Man. Just as significantly, though, Marvel also gives us Tony Stark who, with his amazing conglomeration of money, power, brains and sex appeal, has just raised the bar for what a superhero ought to be, both on and off the field.

This time, our story was straightforward, a simple narrative of epic proportions. Next time, we have an epic narrative of interplanetary proportions, involving the race to space, monkeys on the moon, commies, and a cosmic couch potato.

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