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Journey into Mystery (1952) #84 recap

"The Mighty Thor vs. The Executioner" by Larry Lieber & Jack Kirby

This issue is a bit of a strange one reflecting the politics of the time. It's also (in my opinion, at least) not a very interesting story, but here we go!

We begin with Dr. Blake back in the U.S., who it seems is a medical doctor who works together with Jane Foster (whose name is Jane Nelson in the actual issue before continuity was established), his nurse.

Looks like old Donny has a crush! Good thing she returns it, although it seems as though they have a little bit of a communication problem.

The issue then moves to establish its central conflict. While Dr. Blake was off gallivanting in Europe, a war has broken out between democratic and pro-communist factions, the latter led by some guy named the Executioner, in a South American country. Don and Jane volunteer to go play doctor to the war casualties and set off on a ship there.

But uh oh! The Executioner decides to attack their ship! Good thing Don still has his cane/hammer.

Thor makes quick work of the airplanes by literally jumping over to them and then smashing. Nice.

On his way back down, he makes an interesting choice. I wouldn't normally think that you'd expect to hit the bottom of the ocean so quickly, but I guess one of his powers is incredible luck!

You'll notice that Jane is rather taken with Thor, which seems to be a bit of a Marvel love interest pattern.

Once they land at their destination, they run into the communist army. Don decides to create a thunderstorm to get out of the pickle this puts him in.

He also uses a tree as a giant lever to fling a tank into the air, which is pretty sweet.

Unfortunately, while he's doing this Jane gets kidnapped! :0 He can't face the soldiers as Thor, however, without risking Jane's life, so he approaches them again as Dr. Blake. Also weird creepy misogynistic stuff happens.

The Executioner responds to a bluff and gets too close to Don, allowing him to grab his cane back. He creates a lightning bolt to blind everyone while he transforms back into Thor and then begins his attack, which includes sending Mjolnir to drop a tent on advancing troops and triggering a volcano's eruption.

Meanwhile, the Executioner meets a violent end at the hands of his own men:

And with that all the danger subsides, our medical heroes get to treat their patients, and our story ends!

Next up is Incredible Hulk #3!

#journey into mystery #journey into mystery (1952)#comics #marvel #comics recap #comics liveblog #thor #jane foster

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Journey into Mystery (1952) #83 recap

"The Stonemen from Saturn!" by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby

Hello! As the cover of issue implies, this is Thor's first appearance, and my ignorance is showing because I had no idea that he was ever anything but the Norse thunder god himself.

Our issue begins with the Stonemen arriving on Earth (in Norway, where Dr. Don Blake is on vacation) and quickly showing off their strength.

They're witnessed by an old fisherman, who flees back to town to tell the story. Dr. Don Blake overhears the tale and goes to see for himself. He wanders into a cave once they give chase and comes upon a mysterious wooden cane.

Picking up the cane transforms him into Thor, and the cane transforms into a proper hammer as well. Wow, what a find!

With his newfound powers he escapes the cave and sits down by a tree to have a rest. As laid out in the following panels, however, he makes the discovery that if he puts the hammer down for a full 60 seconds he transforms into his regular Don Blake self.

This prompts him to run some other tests of how the hammer stacks up to the mythology, and he learns that: the hammer acts like a boomerang; if he hits the ground twice with the handle he can summon a storm; to end the storm he must hit the ground three times; he must hit the ground once to transform back and forth between Don Blake and Thor.

Meanwhile, a NATO airbase bears witness to a gigantic dragon hologram that the Stonemen project into the sky.

Dr. Blake/Thor sees that mankind is losing the fight and decides to intervene. He covers the distance by using his hammer to fling himself there.

Long story short, Thor wrecks the Stonemen. They try to capture him in a cage but he simply bends the metal. Then they send a "mechano-monster" after him, but all it takes is a singular smash of the hammer to destroy it.

The Stonemen flee (wisely), Thor transforms into Dr. Blake in time to not be caught by the NATO soldiers, and the issue ends with our conflict resolved.

#journey into mystery (1952)#journey into mystery #thor #marvel #comics #comics recap #comics liveblog

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marvelinorder · 2 years

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just a quick announcement that i'm sorry but i really don't have the spoons (or the time) to keep writing image descriptions for the panels i pull in my recaps anymore, so apologies to anyone who has been reading this blog expecting them. i really wish i could continue to do it but it's just not feasible! the previous post (amazing fantasy #15) will be the last one with full image descriptions.

#admin

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Amazing Fantasy (1962) #15 recap

"Spider-Man!" by Stan Lee & Steve Ditko

Here we've got Spider-Man's debut right before he officially gained his own title. This issue covers his origin story, which will be familiar to just about everybody as the movie adaptations don't change it all that much.

The narrator does a nice job of explaining that while Peter is beloved by Uncle Ben and Aunt May, as well as his teachers, he is not popular with the other kids at school. He asks out a girl named Sally, who tells him he's not her type and that she prefers Flash Thompson. He asks some of his peers to accompany him to the science exhibit, but they decline, calling him a bookworm.

The spider that bites Peter gets hit with a radioactive ray during the experiment and, according to the narration, bites Peter in shock right before it dies. He leaves the exhibit feeling pretty weird, almost gets hit by a car, and jumps onto the side of a building on instinct.

With sticky hands and super strength, Peter decides to go challenge himself by entering a fighting contest with Crusher Hogan. He wears a disguise so if he fails he doesn't turn into a laughingstock. Good thing he "crushes" it!

A TV producer in the audience takes note of Peter and convinces him to go on TV, but first Peter designs his iconic Spider-Man costume and invents his web shooters.

He becomes a TV sensation, but sadly his new fame goes to his head.

From here, we all know how it goes. Peter arrives home to find Uncle Ben murdered one night, and the police tip him off about the criminal's whereabouts. He finds him in a warehouse and after beating him up, unmasks him only to realize it was the very same guy he could have stopped.

However, the truly important thing about this next panel is not that revelation, but the fact that for some reason they decided to give Peter a set of black dots for eyes here. Spooky!

And so Peter learns the lesson that with great power comes great responsibility...

Join me next time for Journey into Mystery (1952) #83!

#amazing fantasy (1962)#comics #marvel #comics recap #comics liveblog #id in alt text #spider-man #peter parker #flash thompson #ben parker #may parker

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Fantastic Four (1961) #5 recap

"Prisoners of Doctor Doom!" by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby

This issue contains the very first appearance of Doctor Doom, who as I'm sure many of you know is a pretty significant recurring villain. On the opening page, he claims that he's the only one on Earth that can defeat the FF and takes a helicopter to go see them.

The FF themselves are engaging in leisure activities, one of which being Johnny's reading the Incredible Hulk comic, which is a fun Easter egg:

As one can probably predict at this point, Johnny's barb devolves into a whole fight between him and Ben, with Reed stepping in to pin Ben to the ground with his stretchy limbs, and Sue firing at Johnny with a fire extinguisher. All seems well again.

But suddenly! The power goes out and Doctor Doom drops a giant net over their building from his helicopter! He introduces himself, which prompts Reed to recognize him from his voice as someone he knew from college. Read the explanation below.

von Doom tells the FF he wants Sue as hostage, and she agrees to go to his ship so that she can lure him out for the rest of them. Once she's onboard, von Doom tells the rest of them to board the ship but to promise not to attack, which, uh, sure, dude, just take their word for it. He picks them up via a contraption that looks to me like a golden plunger:

He flies them to his castle, where he informs them of his real motives: he wants to send them back in time via time machine to recover Blackbeard's treasure! With Sue still hostage, they agree and are sent back a few hundred years.

As the next panels show, once there they decide they need new clothes, but this doesn't go the way I, at least, expected it too, for they don't steal the pirates' actual clothes, just their "booty."

They don their disguises, and, as Reed says, Ben looks like a real natural!

The lads go to a tavern, unsure where exactly Blackbeard is, but a pirate crew sees them and roofies their drinks in order to kidnap them and force them to work as their crew.

When they wake up, they make quick work of their kidnappers, with Ben busting up through the ship's deck, and Reed manipulating his height to punch the guy in the crow's nest. Johnny, for his part, melts a pirate's sword.

This doesn't mean they're in the clear, however, for just then they're attacked by another pirate ship!

Johnny uses his flames to turn the ocean into steam, destroying the ship's visibility, and Reed stretches across to their ship to provide a walkway for the rest of them to board the other ship.

They fight gallantly, but there's one unexpected side effect-- the pirate crew nickname Ben Blackbeard, taking him as their leader.

Oh hello, time paradox.

After they swap out the jewels for a worthless set of chains to give to von Doom, Ben decides he quite likes being Blackbeard as opposed to the Thing and tries to send Reed and Johnny away so he can live out a life here in the past, but a storm hits the ship before anything too fatal can occur. They wash ashore along with the chest, and it's then that they get zapped back to the present.

While von Doom is checking the contents of the chest, the following happens:

That was a nice touch of foreshadowing for a later plot with Namor, there.

Doctor Doom isn't kidding and he really does start to suck the oxygen out of the room, but luckily Sue turns invisible and short circuits his machine while he's not paying attention, saving them. Once they're all together, they bust out of the castle, which provides an opportunity for Johnny to demonstrate a new ability:

Johnny then tries to smoke von Doom out of his castle, but he escapes handily. The issue ends with them expressing concern that now both Namor and Doctor Doom are still on the loose, and there's no telling what they'll do.

And with that, another recap ends! Next on the docket is Amazing Fantasy #15.

#fantastic four (1961)#fantastic four #comics #comics recap #marvel #id in alt text #comics liveblog #ben grimm #reed richards #susan storm #johnny storm #doctor doom

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Amazing Adult Fantasy (1961) #14 [B Story] recap

"The Man in the Sky!" by Stan Lee & Steve Ditko

Our story today is a pretty short one, about a chap named Tad Carter. The title page introduces him below:

As we learn from the first few panels, Tad was born to a nuclear scientist whose sperm was contaminated by radiation, which caused him to be born a mutant.

As he grows, he finds that he can make strange things happen by willing it. For instance, when he can't reach a baseball that's rolled away, he's suddenly able to call it back to him via telekinesis. And when he can't figure out the answer to a question on a test, he develops telepathy to read the teacher's mind. Young Tad gets it into his mind that he should share his gift with others and simply teach them how to do it too. This doesn't go well, as we see in the following panels:

Tad's fellow students decide that he's a freak and try to attack him, but they are repelled away from him by a mysterious force, and then Tad begins to rise into the air. While he's up there, a disembodied voice starts talking to him. Spooky.

So what is this truth? The owner of the voice claims to be of a group of powerful mutants. When Tad asks him why they've been hiding from the regular humans, he gets the following answer:

Looks like Tad's not the only one who's been bullied! His mutant friend spouts some bullshit though about how the humans are "too savage" and "too primitive" to understand, and that they'll remain in hiding until "mankind comes of age," which is not ominous at all. :)

During this guy's speech Tad appears to be drawn to some sort of city, where I assume all these mutants are holed up. And since he's not the one directing his flight...is this technically kidnapping? Did they kidnap Tad?? Seems this was a rough day for him all around!

Either way, we won't see Tad again till X-Men: The Hidden Years (1999), so say goodbye, everybody! As for us, join me for Fantastic Four #5 in our next installment!

#amazing adult fantasy #marvel #comics #comics recap #comics liveblog #id in alt text #tad carter

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Incredible Hulk (1962) #2 recap

"The Terror of the Toad Men" by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby

This time we've got an action-packed issue ahead of us! Our story begins with the Hulk terrorizing the public and engaging with law enforcement. Luckily, his friend Rick Jones (the teenager he saved last time) leads him away from all the hubbub. Phew! All is well.

Or is it?

Bruce Banner may be in danger, as the Toad Men, an alien race that rides in spaceships that look eerily like toads with teeth (see below), want his brain! Specifically, they use a magnetic beam to locate the "most brilliant scientific brain on Earth" (take that, Reed Richards!) in order to find out how advanced humans are.

Meanwhile now that it's daytime, Bruce and Rick are departing on a little trip. They run into Betty and her father, General Ross. Their dynamic from the first issue hasn't changed much; Betty is still apologizing for her father, and he's still calling Bruce things like "milksop."

They leave Betty and the General and go to their true destination: an underground cave where Bruce has set up what is basically a prison cell made of 10-foot thick concrete walls. He tells Rick to lock him in there every night so he can no longer wreak havoc as the Hulk.

But they are interrupted! The Toad Men have found them with their magnetic beam, which is turns out has other applications!

The Toad Men transport our guys onto their ship and tell them about some of their technological capabilities in the hopes of getting Bruce to open up about ~science~. Their magnetic force can apparently empty oceans and pin humans to the ground! Oh my!

Rick starts to annoy them so they send him back to Earth. Which leaves Bruce open to go apeshit once their ship makes its way to the dark side of Earth where it's night!

Hulk takes care of the Toad Men, locking them in a separate part of the ship, and then plans to use their weapons to make the humans who have been hunting him pay. The military has other ideas, though, and they shoot the spaceship out of the sky, completely ignoring Rick's protests that Bruce is aboard.

Since it's daylight during the ship's crash landing, Bruce is taken in for treason and locked up in prison. While he's stuck there, the Toad Men and their king (who looks very funky indeed) declare war on Earth:

The Toad Men are going to use their magnetic ray to draw the moon close to Earth, disrupting the tides, causing earthquakes, and finally crashing into Earth! How horrible!

Good thing the sun goes down again and Bruce Hulks out. Motivated by revenge for being imprisoned, he busts out of his cell and makes his way to the General's home, where he encounters none other than Betty! Somehow the army is also outside the house, and again despite Rick's protests, they storm in and swarm Hulk.

That didn't work out so well for them, did it?

Anyway, taking Betty hostage, Hulk runs out of there. Rick tracks him to Bruce's lab, and they're about to duke it out when an earthquake strikes and knocks them both out till sunup. Convenient for Rick! He never would have stood a chance! Betty is still unconscious as well, meaning she still has no idea that Bruce is the Hulk.

That's all well and good, but what of the Toad Men? Bruce has a plan! He aims his gamma ray at the Toad Men's magnetic field and sends them far, far away. For his heroism, General Ross agrees that Bruce doesn't have to go back to jail. He seems to be getting a bit suspicious of Bruce and the Hulk's connection, though... I wonder how many issues it'll take him to discover the truth!

The End! Join me next time for Amazing Adult Fantasy (1961) #14 [B Story].

#incredible hulk (1962)#incredible hulk #marvel #comics #comics liveblog #comics recap #id in alt text #bruce banner #rick jones #betty ross #general ross #toad men

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Tales to Astonish (1958) #32 [D Story] recap

"The Girl in the Black Hood" by Stan Lee & Don Heck

Our story this time around is called "The Girl in the Black Hood" and notably it features the character [REDACTED-- sorry, that's a spoiler]. See its title page below.

The story begins at a photographer named May Dusa's gallery, where patrons wonder about why she never shows her face. Not all of them are here to admire her photos, however...

The crook, whose name is Casper Jones, makes an appointment with Ms. Dusa with the intent to rob her. While she's setting up, he explores the premises a bit more than he should.

I'm gonna start calling money lettuce too from now on.

May calls Casper in to his appointment finally, but he no longer wants his picture taken. He informs her of his intent to rob her and tells her to show her face. She is, surprisingly, totally chill about him taking all her money but she draws the line at showing her face! That is, until he pulls this stunt:

May Dusa has had it! She decides to lift her veil at last! But this is much more than Casper had bargained for...

gasp! Okay, who didn't see that one coming? I know I sure didn't...

The End! See you next time for Incredible Hulk #2. :D

#tales to astonish (1958)#tales to astonish #comics #marvel #comics recap #comics liveblog #casper jones #medusa #id in alt text

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Incredible Hulk (1962) #1 recap

"The Hulk" by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby

Ooh, #1 issues are always exciting and today it's time to recap Incredible Hulk (1962)!

Our story begins with Dr. Bruce Banner and his associate Igor about to test their gamma-bomb. Igor is complaining that Bruce hasn't shared the deets of the gamma ray with him when General Ross walks in and tells them to hurry the heck up. Luckily, his lovely daughter Betty steps in to cool everybody down:

They get ready to launch the bomb, but as Bruce is looking out at the test site he sees a kid driving a car right in the danger zone and leaps into action! Meanwhile, Igor is about to prove himself a bad bitch by pressing the button to fire instead of delaying the launch. Bruce manages to get the boy to safety just in time but is hit with the bomb's rays himself and radiation fried!

That didn't look too comfortable...

Bruce comes to back inside the lab, looking surprisingly good for a dude with major radiation poisoning. He and the boy, whose name turns out to be Rick Jones, wait in a room with two cots for something to happen. And something does!

Wait...hang on. The Hulk was originally blue??

Okay, I'm over my shock. The Hulk smashes his way out of the facility and Rick follows since he feels indebted after Bruce saved his life. Soldiers soon come looking for the Hulk and christen him with that name as seen below:

The Hulk, retaining vague memories from his life as Bruce Banner, smashes his way into a cabin where he kept the gamma ray formula. Once inside he finds none other than that bastard Igor trying to steal it from him!

Hulk totally wastes Igor and in the process upends a flask which had the gamma ray formula taped to the bottom. Rick grabs it for him as Hulk sees a photo of himself as Bruce and freaks out, saying he was weak and he's glad he transformed. Just then, though, the sun comes up and with its rays Hulk turns back into Bruce.

Funny, I didn't realize Hulk was some sort of vampire.

The army arrives along with Betty, who supposedly wanted to come apologize for her father's behavior earlier.

Once she leaves, Bruce angsts over potentially becoming the Hulk at sundown again. But that might be the least of his worries, because Igor might be in jail now but that doesn't mean he can't still scheme with his... thumbnail!?

The Russians send word to the Gargoyle, who they all seem to be afraid of. I wonder what his powers are aside from a funny-looking head.

The Gargoyle manages to make his way to the US via rocket just in time for Bruce to change back into the Hulk while driving a jeep with Rick. Hulk wants to go see Betty, and it seems she has Bruce on her mind as well. She wanders outside but faints at the sight of the Hulk.

Unfortunately there's no time to deal with that, as the Gargoyle opens fire using bullets that will supposedly make Hulk his slave. He captures Hulk and Rick and brings them all the way to Russia, but on the way not only do the bullets' effect wear off, Hulk turns back into Bruce!

This is a total wtf moment for Gargoyle, and it turns out he's not one to keep his cool. In fact, he is totally jealous that Bruce gets to be normal at all, and they strike up a deal.

The Gargoyle gets a normal-sized head and also turns on his mother country. He blows up some Russian soldiers along with himself, but not before he sends Bruce and Rick back to the US in another rocket.

And with that, our first issue of Incredible Hulk is finished! Poor Gargoyle... He really wasn't so bad...

#incredible hulk (1962)#incredible hulk #bruce banner #marvel #comics #comics liveblog #comics recap #betty ross #general ross #rick jones #igor drenkov #gargoyle #id in alt text

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Tales to Astonish (1958) #30 [E Story] recap

"Quogg" by Stan Lee & Steve Ditko

Once again I'll only be focusing on the relevant story from this issue rather than reviewing all of them. Our story is called "Quogg!" and as you can see didn't merit a spot on the cover. I want to say this is because the story just isn't very good and the creators probably knew it. Anyway, on to our recap!

Our protagonist is a guy who gets caught stealing and flees from the authorities and into the jungle! They follow him, so he tries to shake them off by...throwing his car over a ledge.

Not surprisingly, this maneuver doesn't work and the men continue to follow him until he steps onto a crumbling cliff and falls into some water and they give up.

He eventually makes his way to a village, where in no time he's already making plans to be an asshole.

As you can see above, he sneaks into Quogg's valley. Once inside, he sees there's a lone hut. He begins making plans to fool the villagers, assuming they are merely superstitious...because man, this guy is an asshole.

At this point, I don't know about you but I'd very much like this guy to get his comeuppance. Luckily, this turns out to be the case because there IS a Quogg!

The hut was Quogg the whole time! Welp, can't say I'm sorry for our racist criminal. I hope Quogg ate the shit out of him.

If you're wondering what the hell this issue is doing in the Order, it's because Quogg reappears in Monsters Unleashed (2017) #3, making him a reoccurring character.

The End! And see you next time for Incredible Hulk #1!

#tales to astonish (1958)#tales to astonish #comics #marvel #comics recap #comics liveblog #quogg #id in alt text #cw racism

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Tales to Astonish (1958) #29 [A Story] recap

"When the Space Beasts Attack!!" by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby

As mentioned in my previous Tales to Astonish recap, this comic typically has 5 different stories in it, 4 comic and 1 prose. In the Order (the list from the website linked in my bio), they've noted the story relevant to the 616 continuity as the first one in the issue. In the interest of my own time (and laziness) I'm going to limit my recap to that one instead of covering all 5 stories.

Our story here is "When the Space Beasts Attack!" and apparently it's relevant because a space beast shows up in a comic about 50 years from when this was published, but I'll be upfront that I don't think it's very good on its own.

We begin our story with the space beasts, an alien warrior species, attacking the planet Earth. First, they use a magno-repulsion field to ward off the military's planes:

Once they land on the Earth's surface, they begin to disintegrate things such as monuments and bridges.

Eventually, they make their way to a farm in the Midwest owned by a guy named Jeb Harris. They threaten old Jeb, but he doesn't back down!

As the panels show, the Space Beasts' ray guns only affect metal, so they can't hurt the humans. Once they realize this, the humans start to fight back with their guns and run the Space Beasts off the planet!

As you are probably thinking, the whole conceit of this story immediately falls apart once you realize that most guns have metal as their central element. Not to mention there's the iron that helps bind oxygen to human blood within the body... Oh well! Comics!

The End!

#tales to astonish (1958)#tales to astonish #comics #comics recap #marvel #comics liveblog #id in alt text

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Fantastic Four (1961) #4 recap

"The Coming of ... Sub-Mariner!" by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby

This issue starts out with the remaining 3 members of FF (if you'll remember, in our last issue Johnny quit the band) discussing going to find Johnny. Ben thinks they should just leave him to rot, but he's easily outvoted.

The gang take the Fantasticar, leaving Johnny's section behind, and then split up to search the city. Sue decides to search while invisible and continues to menace the public with no remorse. (Also just a note but I think this is the first issue where she's referred to as Sue and not Susan.)

She's not the only one to earn the title of public menace in my book, though. Reed is out here grabbing people right off their motorcycles. Does he lack the foresight to know that without a driver that motorcycle is going to wreck or does he just not care?

It turns out Johnny is with some friends working on their sports car engines, which the Thing guesses correctly. He then threatens Johnny by reminding him there's gasoline all over the garage so if his flames get out of control he'll wind up blowing up his friends. Ben actually gets a bit out of control himself, picking up one of the cars and hurling it at Johnny, reportedly in retaliation for calling him ugly before.

In the midst of it all, Ben turns back into a human, which gives Johnny a chance to escape. Tragically, his transformation doesn't last long.

Johnny flees to a "men's hotel" in the Bowery, which seems to be a somewhat seedy location. He picks up an old comic from the 1940s that has the Sub-Mariner on it, and then men there insist that an old guy who's been there a while is just as strong. They provoke him and a fight breaks out, but Johnny stops them. It turns out the guy has amnesia and can't remember who he is, so Johnny helps him out...by giving him a shave with his flames!

Meanwhile, in the name of continuing his search Reed holds a helicopter hostage. Completely normal behavior.

Sue walks right past Johnny and Namor and narrowly misses Johnny picking up Namor and throwing him into the sea to jog his memory.

When Namor returns to his undersea kingdom, however, he finds that it's been destroyed due to nuclear tests and vows revenge on the human race. Learning of this, Johnny sends up a flare and the other members of the FF rush to his aid.

Back in the ocean, Namor grabs a trumpet-horn from his ancestors and awakens a giant fish-monster called Giganto! (This guy is basically a giant whale with legs.) He leads it to the surface, where it attacks New York City and puts Johnny's flame out with his blowhole lmao. Not to worry, though, because the Thing comes up with a plan to blow the monster to smithereens by entering its mouth with a nuclear bomb strapped to his back...

Ben's mission succeeds and Giganto is blown up. Namor still has the horn, though, which means he can continue to call sea monsters. Sue tries to grab it from him, but he captures her, which leads to this interesting situation:

Namor offers to leave mankind alone if only she'll marry him. She almost agrees to sacrifice herself for the rest of humanity, but Johnny saves the day by flying upward in a spiral and creating a tornado with which he moves Namor and the sea monster's carcass back over to the deepest part of the ocean. Namor ends up dropping the horn in the ocean so he now needs to figure out a different plan for revenge, but he swears not to give up.

The End!

#fantastic four (1961)#fantastic four #comics #ben grimm #johnny storm #reed richards #susan storm #comics recap #comics liveblog #marvel #namor the sub-mariner

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Fantastic Four (1961) #3

"The Menace of the Miracle Man" by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby

There's a new guy in town: the Miracle Man! Our story opens with the FF attending what appears to be a magic show. The Miracle Man makes himself appear gigantic, turns himself into a cloud of gas, and harnesses lightning! Seeing the FF in the audience, he provokes them and Ben ends up joining him on stage for a little wood chopping competition.

Get rekt, Ben. Somewhat predictably, he doesn't take the humiliation well and tries to punch the Miracle Man, but it doesn't seem to affect him. 🤔

After the show, Reed expresses that he's sure glad the Miracle Man isn't a criminal...

Oops! I think he just jinxed himself. Good thing Sue just made them all costumes so that they're extra prepared to fight him! The '60s girlboss energy is unparalleled.

The Miracle Man brings a large monster statue that was in front of a movie premiere to life and sends a memo to the commissioner that he is declaring war on the whole human race.

The FF try to stop the monster, first with Reed's stretchy limbs and then by burning it with Johnny's fire (which works, but then Johnny gets caught in the crossfire and most of his flames get put out). Meanwhile, the Thing gets trapped in a sudden sinkhole and Susan turns invisible to sneak off with the Miracle Man as he escapes.

While she's doing her thing, the rest of the FF regroup, but instead of doing anything useful they fight amongst themselves. As usual, Ben has a point.

Johnny also storms (heh) off. But what's happening with the Invisible Girl? Well, she's encountering her mortal enemy, dogs! (And mine when I'm playing The Last of Us Part II and the dogs sniff me out.)

Uh oh... Under the Miracle Man's command, Sue signals the other FF members and they come running. When they get there, Miracle Man is holding...a giant key?

Luckily, Reed is well-equipped to handle a little machine gun action. By turning into a giant rubber ball lmao.

Ben also jumps in to block some of the bullets a la Luke Cage. How touching. 🥺

Unfortunately, the Miracle Man starts to escape in his tank, so the crew go after him in a car. But uh oh, the Miracle Man shoots out one of their tires! So Reed fills in.

Johnny winds up temporarily blinding the Miracle Man with his flames, which causes Reed to figure out that the Miracle Man doesn't actually have any powers-- he's been hypnotizing them the whole time!

Of course, we can't end the issue without Ben getting up in a tizzy about Johnny getting most of the credit for saving the day, and Johnny gets so mad that he quits the FF and flies off! Not without an ominous last word from Reed, however: "What can we do, if... if he should turn against us?!!"

Foreshadowing for the next installment, perhaps?

The End!

#fantastic four (1961)#fantastic four #reed richards #susan storm #ben grimm #johnny storm #marvel #comics #comics recap #comics liveblog #miracle man

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marvelinorder · 2 years

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Tales to Astonish (1958) #27 recap

"The Man in the Ant Hill!" by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber & Jack Kirby

Tales to Astonish is an anthology-type series. This issue is broken up into 5 different stories, the most notable of which is "The Man in the Ant Hill" because it debuts Hank Pym.

Hank develops a potion that can make things small and then return them to normal size (Alice in Wonderland, anyone?). Motivated mostly by spite since other scientists had mocked him before, he dreams of what he could accomplish with his serum.

Personally, I think good old Henry here is overlooking how easily that army could be obliterated with the right intel leak.

Anyway, Hank decides to test it out on himself, but he shrinks so fast that he can't reach the enlarging serum which is still on the counter. He ventures outside and runs away from some ants into tunnels where he gets trapped in a pool of honey. An ant saves him (🥺) but for whatever reason the rest of the horde rushes Hank to attack. Luckily, Hank sees a matchstick! And.....

Somehow, against all odds, throwing a rock at the match actually works and the fire drives the ants away--or most of them, anyway.

...Good thing Hank knows judo...

At the end of all this, he manages to return to normal size and immediately pours his serum down the drain, which cannot be good for the city's water supply.

The next story is called "Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall" and is about a guy who buys his wife a cursed mirror. She spends more and more time looking into it and gets possessed by an evil sorcerer inside, luring her husband into a locked room. What does he do? He thuds on the wall from inside the room and knocks the mirror off the wall, smashing it. Admittedly an interesting solution.

The following story was a little more up my alley. Seriously, I love this snarky horse.

Our jockey is abusive to horses and is also in debt to some gangster guy. Just when he's wondering what the heck he's gonna do to get the money he needs, he stumbles upon a talking horse in the stables.

The horse tells him he can win the race for sure, so the jockey places a lot of money on the race and tells the gangster dude to do so too. Unfortunately, the horse isn't actually able to win the race, leading him to apologize. This isn't good enough for the jockey, and he tells him to shut up. When the gangsters come for him, he tries to get the horse to talk so he can blame it, but the horse keeps its mouth shut and the jockey gets his comeuppance.

There is also a story written in prose called "Trouble Bubble" which is about a kid who invents indestructible bubbles and one of them traps his parents' dinner guest. But the next comic story is much more interesting, one called "Dead Planet."

A member of an alien race called Komoks that go to planets and wipe out the inhabitants winds up on one such planet prepared to destroy it, but even though his life sensor indicates there's life on the planet, he cannot find any.

Look at this sad dude! My heart breaks for him.

And with that neat little story, this issue of Tales to Astonish is complete!

#tales to astonish (1958)#marvel #comics #hank pym #ant man #comics recap #comics liveblog #tales to astonish #id in alt text

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marvelinorder · 2 years

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Fantastic Four (1961) #2 recap

"The Fantastic Four Meet the Skrulls from Outer Space!" by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby

In the opening to the second issue of Fantastic Four, we see our heroes committing unforgivable acts of crime. The Thing ruptures the support beam to an off-shore Texas Tower (which if you're like me, you discovered was a radar facility used during the Cold War while writing this post), toppling it. The Invisible Girl makes off with a $10 million gem by turning invisible and walking out of the jewelry store. The Human Torch melts a new monument (seen below), and Reed (gasp) switches off the power to the whole city using his absurdly long arm.

In Johnny's defense here, this monument looks suspiciously like one of those Confederate ones so maybe he did us all a favor.

But how could our heroes do such horrible things? Well it turns out that they are in fact being impersonated by Skrulls. (This is the first issue in which the Skrulls appear.) Watch "Reed" transform back into one below.

Naturally, the FF get some slack in the media for supposedly having committed these crimes, and they hole up in a cabin to talk things over. The Thing suggests a hands-on strategy:

Ben looks so sad here it breaks my heart. And he does have a point. Reed lucked out comparatively in the whole mutations game.

But they don't have time to work out a strategy before the army comes and throws them in federal prison. They're locked in separate cells and each work out ways to escape. Susan, predictably, turns invisible and makes her way past the guards. Johnny, seen below, is totally going to be able to sue the prison in a few years when he gets sick from the asbestos. Ben does what he does best and smashes his way out. And Reed? Well... See the panels I've picked out below.

Once they're out of the prison, the group decide to sabotage a rocket in order to lure the Skrulls out and convince them they're also Skrulls. Johnny and Ben fight about who will do it, and wow, didn't expect Ben to go so dark. New sadboi blorbo acquired?

Johnny manages to infiltrate the Skrulls' headquarters and shoots off a flare gun to call the others. They fight, and rather than be killed by the Thing the Skrulls end up telling them about their impending invasion of earth.

The FF decide to impersonate the Skrulls and talk to their leader, giving them "proof" that the FF are actually monsters by showing them monster drawings. Frightened, the Skrulls decide to leave Earth alone for their own safety. And the FF tell them they'll sacrifice themselves on Earth to remove evidence they were ever there.

Mission accomplished, they go back to Earth, but not before the cosmic rays hit them again, mutating Ben back into a human briefly. Sadly, though, it doesn't last.

The end of the issue has the FF proving to the authorities that they were being impersonated by Skrulls, and they also decide what to do with the Skrulls who were left on Earth.

I know I, for one, am amused by the cow thing.

The End!

#fantastic four (1961)#fantastic four #reed richards #susan storm #johnny storm #ben grimm #comics #marvel #comics recap #comics liveblog #id in alt text

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marvelinorder · 2 years

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Fantastic Four (1961) #1 recap

My inaugural read is Fantastic Four (1961) #1 by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby. Image descriptions are in alt text.

In this comic, Reed Richards calls the Fantastic Four together to beat evil for the first time! How exciting! The opening pages spend a great deal of time detailing how each of the members get to Reed, and... I'll be frank. These guys are clearly menaces to society.

Susan Storm, or the Invisible Girl, seemingly forgets how to maneuver around people when she goes invisible.

Meanwhile, Ben Grimm, or the Thing, not only smashes through a doorway on his way out of a business establishment, but then after traveling through the sewer he busts right out of the street, totaling an oncoming car!

Johnny Storm, aka the Human Torch, is possibly the worst of them all. Because he doesn't take the time to get out of his car before transforming, he melts it right in front of the serviceman who just fixed it. (Inconsiderate, to say the least.) He also melts several airplanes, endangering the pilots. Yeesh.

Luckily, Reed is there to save the day with his stretchy, horrifying body. (Seriously, have you seen this guy?)

His fight with Ben after they first gain their powers in a flashback scene is one for the body horror books. For the record, while there seems to also be some kind of love triangle of jealousy going on here, I think Ben is in the right. He didn't want to go into outer space and risk his safety, but Reed was adamant they go, cosmic rays be damned. And now look at them both:

Anyway, once our team is assembled and we've gotten their origin story, they end up on Monster Isle after tracking seismic activity. Predictably, they fight a bunch of monsters, Johnny uses Reed as a parachute, and they fall into a pit...where they meet Mole Man!

He plans to send his mighty mole creatures to attack the world's surface from underground and wipe out everybody. How nice of him. But the Fantastic Four have other ideas and fight their way out of his lair, sealing Mole Man in his cave supposedly for all eternity!

And with that, our first issue of Fantastic Four (1961) is over. I actually enjoyed this one a lot more than I thought I would initially, but it was very silly in a good way.

#fantastic four (1961)#fantastic four #mole man #reed richards #susan storm #johnny storm #ben grimm #comics #marvel #comics liveblog #comics recap

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marvelinorder · 3 years

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Journey into Mystery (1952) Masterpost

#83, #84

#journey into mystery #journey into mystery (1952)#journey into mystery masterpost

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