Fantastic Four #87
Title: The Power and the Pride!
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Jack Kirby
Fantastic Four: Reed Richards, Ben Grimm, Johnny Storm, Crystal
Villain: Doctor Doom
Regulars: Susan Richards
The Fantastic Four prepare their final assault on Doctor Doom. While the other members of the Fantastic Four battle their way through scores of guards, Susan Richards and Crystal fall through a trapdoor and come face to face with Doctor Doom himself.
Doctor Doom offers them a meal and politely asks whether Susan has named her baby boy. She answers No. No? It's been seven months since the boy was born! She needs to get a move on. Can't she think of a name on the spur of the moment? My suggestion is Victor.
It's been a few months since we last heard the Thing's battle cry: it's clobbering time!
Doctor Doom intends to kill the Fantastic Four with hyper-sound generated when he plays piano. Through a monitor Doctor Doom sees that Reed, Ben and Johnny are in his art gallery facing his servant Hauptmann. He wants to destroy the Fantastic Four with a flame thrower. This angers Doctor Doom, because he doesn't want the priceless art to be destroyed. He turns the hyper-sound against Hauptmann.
After this, Doctor Doom says he's grown tired of fighting, and the Fantastic Four are free to leave in peace.
Captain America #114
Title: The Man behind the Mask!
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: John Romita
Villain: AIM, Red Skull
Regulars: Rick Jones, Nick Fury, Sharon Carter
Guests: Avengers (Vision, Black Panther, Yellowjacket, Wasp, Goliath))
Dum Dum Dugan, Gabriel Jones, Jasper Sitwell
Now that Captain America has "killed" his Steve Rogers identity, he tries to find a new life for himself. First he goes to SHIELD headquarters to contact Sharon Carter. Nick Fury tells him that she's gone into action against AIM without backup. Aided by Rick Jones he rescues her. He asks her to resign from SHIELD, for his sake, but she refuses. Her duty to her country is more important than any man. You go, girl!
Captain America returns to his shabby little hotel room. The Red Skull suddenly appears, brandishing the Cosmic Cube (known in the Marvel films as the Tesseract), which was discarded by the Mole Man in Avengers #40.
Amazing Spider-Man #73
Title: The Web Closes!
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: John Romita
Villain: Man-Mountain Marko, Maggia, Lizard (vision)
Regulars: Captain Stacy, Gwen Stacy, J. Jonah Jameson, Joe Robertson, Randy Robertson
The Saga of the Stone Tablet continues. Spider-Man visits Captain Stacy to ask if he knows where the Shocker took the stone tablet. He's told that the Shocker might have left it with his girlfriend, an exotic dancer. Spider-Man pays her a visit, but when he arrives a large man called Man-Mountain Marko is trying to retrieve the tablet for the Maggia. Marko throws the girl out of the window, so Spider-man has to rescue her while Marko escapes.
The Maggia kidnaps Dr. Curt Connors from his laboratory in the Florida everglades, because they think he can help them understand the tablet.
Iron Man #14
Title: The Night Phantom Walks!
Writer: Archie Goodwin
Artist: Johnny Craig
Villain: Night Phantom (Travis Hoyt)
Regulars: Janice Cord
Johnny Craig is the guest artist for this issue, but Sam Rosen has spelt his name wrong. Maybe Stan Lee should start attacking the letterers in the credits box again.
Tony Stark's factory on an unnamed Caribbean island is destroyed by someone called the Night Phantom. The superstitious islanders consider him to be an ancient demon. Tony is more practical and investigates as Iron Man.
Travis Hoyt, an American novelist, has settled on the island. After being crippled in a plane crash he discovered an underwater radioactive lake. Regular bathing in it has corroded his skin and made him ugly, but it's given him superhuman strength. He now calls himself the Night Phantom. The experiments carried out at Tony's factory have caused a fissure, and the waters of the lake are receding, so he destroyed the factory to prevent further damage.
After fighting Iron Man the Night Phantom leaps into the lake to make himself stronger. The fissure has grown so large that he's sucked into the Earth and dies. Do I need to add the S word? Supposedly!
Sub-Mariner #14
Title: Burn, Namor, Burn!
Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: Marie Severin
Villain: Mad Thinker, Egghead, Puppet Master
Guests: Toro
Guests (flashback): Reed Richards, Susan Storm (sic), Johnny Storm, Ben Grimm
Guests (cameo): Spider-Man, Nick Fury, Dum Dum Dugan, Tony Stark, Ben Grimm (again)
Avengers (Black Panther, Vision, Yellowjacket, Wasp)
X-Men (Cyclops, Beast, Iceman, Marvel Girl)
Sub-Mariner is attacked by a flaming being that he assumes to be Johnny Storm. He identifies himself as the original Human Torch, who was Sub-Mariner's ally during World War Two. He says that he now obeys the Thinker. A collar round his neck is controlling him. When the collar is damaged he regains his free will and teams up with Sub-Mariner against the Thinker.
The Human Torch then regains his memory and realises that he's really Toro, the Human Torch's junior sidekick. He stops the Thinker as he's fleeing, and the explosion kills both of them. Supposedly.
Note: this story is out of sync and takes place before last month's Avengers #64. This is the first part of a three-part interlinked story (Sub-Mariner #14, Captain Marvel #14, Avengers #64).
Captain Marvel #14
Title: When a galaxy beckons
Writer: Gary Friedrich
Artist: Frank Springer
Villain: Puppet Master
Regulars: Carol Danvers
Guests: Iron Man
The soldiers at the Cape have been ordered to shoot Captain Marvel on sight, but Carol Danvers pleads for his life. Tony Stark is currently flying over Miami on his way home from the Caribbean. The Puppet Master makes a puppet of Iron Man and orders him to attack Captain Marvel. The battle is evenly matched until Tony has a heart attack. The Puppet Master doesn't know why Iron Man has failed to obey him, so he throws his puppet away in anger. There's an explosion that kills him. Supposedly.
This is another inventive layout by Frank Springer. His artwork is growing on me.
Iron Man recovers in the ambulance. Zo contacts Captain Marvel and tells him to return to the Kree homeworld and wait for further instructions.
Note: this story is out of sync and takes place before last month's Avengers #64. This is the second part of a three-part interlinked story (Sub-Mariner #14, Captain Marvel #14, Avengers #64).
Daredevil #53
Title: As it was in the beginning
Writer: Stan Lee, Roy Thomas
Artist: Gene Colan
Villain: Fixer
Regulars: Foggy Nelson, Karen Page
Daredevil sits on a snowy rooftop thinking about his past. He comes to the conclusion that he has to give up his identity as Matt Murdock.
Sandwiched between the first and the last pages, there's a 19-page retelling of Daredevil's origin from Daredevil #1. The story is identical, and on many pages Stan Lee's original dialogue is reproduced without change.
The Avengers #65
Title: Mightier than the Sword?
Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: Gene Colan
Avengers: Goliath, Black Panther, Vision, Yellowjacket, Wasp
Villain: Egghead, Swordsman
Regulars: Jarvis
After being defeated in the last issue, Egghead makes another attempt to get revenge on Hank Pym, who he incorrectly assumes to be Goliath. He calls upon the Swordsman, who we last saw in Captain America #105. He has inside knowledge of the Avengers after briefly being a member in Avengers #20.
The Swordsman attacks the Avengers, who fight among themselves, because Goliath wants to face his old circus partner by himself. This helps the Swordsman to defeat them easily. He captures Goliath and carries him back to Egghead, not realising it's the wrong person. Goliath wakes up and defeats both Egghead and the Swordsman.
Thor #165
Title: Him!
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Jack Kirby
Villain: Him, Karnilla, Haag
Regulars: Odin, Sif, Balder
Guests: Watcher
Oh no! It's Him again! I hate writing about Him, because my reviews are full of bad grammar. Can't Stan Lee hurry up and give Him a better name?
After defeating Pluto, Thor, Balder and Sif enter the Advanced Science Research Center to see what the creature is that even Pluto feared. It's Him, who left the Earth and flew into space at the end of Fantastic Four #67. Him doesn't know how he's returned to Earth, but we know. The Watcher was in deep space gathering rocks, and he accidentally pulled Him's cocoon into his ship. Realising that Him was a native of Earth, he put Him into a space probe that was returning to Earth with samples.
Karnilla is watching Balder with her seeress Haag, waiting for a moment to seize him. Odin is still seeking for information about Galactus' origin.
Him comes out of his cocoon and says that he's lonely and wants a mate. Him takes Sif and teleports himself to a distant planet. Thor and Balder follow Him. During the battle, Haag appears and grabs Balder's arm. Thor forces her to release him, but after she's gone they see that Him and Sif have disappeared.
The Incredible Hulk #116
Title: The Eve of Annihilation
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Herb Trimpe
Villain: Leader
Regulars: General Ross, Major Talbot, Betty Ross
The Leader remains at the army base, being treated as its saviour. He's secretly planning to launch its missiles to start a nuclear war. Betty Ross finds this out when she overhears him talking to himself. All his intelligence and he makes such a stupid mistake? Tut tut. Betty informs Glenn Talbot, and he tries to free the Hulk from his plastithene prison. He fails, and the Leader uses his brainwaves to hypnotise everyone on the base. Almost everyone. Betty Ross fires a ridiculously over-sized ray gun at the plastithene prison and frees the Hulk.
The Hulk battles the Leader's giant robot. Then the Leader fires a smaller ray gun at the Hulk, which encloses him in plastithene once more. The Leader prepares to start a nuclear war.
X-Men #57
Title: The Sentinels Live!
Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: Neal Adams
X-Men: Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Angel, Beast, Iceman
Villain: Professor Abdol (Living Monolith)
Regulars: Alex Summers, Lorna Dane
This issue has a delayed splash page that doesn't come until page two, but I'll show you the first page as well, as an example of Neal Adams' outstanding artwork.
The Sentinels return, who we last saw in X-Men #16. After the death of their creator Bolivar Trask, they've been rebuilt and improved by his son, Larry Trask. First the Sentinels capture Lorna Dane. Then they capture Alex Summers, who's struggling to control his powers.
Iceman and the Beast return to New York to check on Lorna Dane, while the remaining X-Men remain in Egypt searching for Alex Summers.
The Crazy Credits say that Sam Rosen has two left hands. Maybe that's why he misspelt Johnny Craig's name in this month's Iron Man comic.
This comic includes a five-page featurette in which Marvel Girl explains her powers.
Silver Surfer #6
Title: Worlds without end!
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: John Buscema
Villain: Overlord
Regulars: Shalla Bal
After five brilliant issues, this Silver Surfer story falls flat on its face. It's so full of errors that I am forced to strike it from the canon.
The Silver Surfer has the idea that if he travels forward in time he might come to a time when the barrier created by Galactus no longer exists. Flying faster than light he arrives in the far distant future, and he sees that the Earth has been devastated. The barrier no longer exists, so he flies to Zenn-La. It has also been devastated. He flies from galaxy to galaxy, and every planet he finds is the same.
Finally he finds a planet with ugly, misshapen creatures who say that they serve the Overlord. He's a powerful mutant who has conquered the entire universe. He was born with exceptional strength after his father was bathed in atomic rays in an explosion. The Silver Surfer travels back through time and visits the Overlord's planet to prevent the explosion.
So now he's back where he started. Or is he? Let me list the errors:
1. How could the Overlord possibly have defeated cosmic beings like Galactus?
2. After travelling back in time, the Silver Surfer visited the Overlord's planet, so he was still outside of the barrier.
3. Why didn't the Silver Surfer visit Zenn-La in this future time?
4. Why didn't the Silver Surfer travel back to the present time, still outside the barrier?
5. Instead of visiting the future, why didn't the Silver Surfer go back a few years in the past before the barrier was created? He could have gone to Zenn-La and lived happily ever after with Shalla Bal.
This is a very bad story, one of Stan Lee's worst. I suspect that he was stretching himself too thinly with all his new romance comics.
Title: The Unsuspecting!
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Syd Shores
This story is a redrawn version of a story in Amazing Adult Fantasy #13, published in June 1962. Unlike the Tales of the Watcher in the last five issues, it has hardly been changed at all. I laid the two versions side by side, and I could hardly find any changes in the text; only four changes in eleven pages, if I counted correctly. The Watcher doesn't speak in this story. We just see his face in the sky in a few pictures.
An alien race wants to conquer the Earth. To influence humanity they disguise themselves as television sets. To be certain that this will succeed they send the story of their invasion to Marvel, and even when people like me read the story they think it's only fiction.
The artist Syd Shores was one of Marvel's main artists in the so-called golden age of Marvel. In the silver age he worked mainly as an inker.
Other comics published this month:
Millie the Model #171 (Stan Lee, Stan Goldberg)
Mad About Millie #2 (Stan Lee, Stan Goldberg)
Chili #2 (Stan Lee, Stan Goldberg)
Rawhide Kid #70 (Larry Lieber, Larry Lieber)
Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #67 (Gary Friedrich, Dick Ayers)
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