Fantastic Four #93
Title: At the Mercy of Torgo!
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Jack Kirby
Fantastic Four: Reed Richards, Ben Grimm, Johnny Storm, Crystal
Villain: Skrulls
On the Skrull planet The Thing faces the reigning champion Torgo in the arena. Their first battle is declared void, because the Thing clobbered Torgo while the Skrulls (in the form of 1920's gangsters) were discussing the rules. In the second fight Torgo defeats the Thing, but he refuses to kill him. The other members of the Fantastic Four arrive, also dressed as gangsters. That's funny. They destroy the deadly disruptor ray, rescue the Thing and free the slaves. They fly back to Earth. The Thing regrets that he'll never see Torgo again. But he will! The Marvel Universe is a small place.
And Reed Richards' baby still doesn't have a name after 13 months. This is getting ridiculous.
Amazing Spider-Man #79
Title: To prowl no more!
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: John Buscema
Villain: Prowler (Hobie Brown)
Regulars: Gwen Stacy, J. Jonah Jameson, Joe Robertson, Aunt May (vision)
Did you notice the message at the top of the splash page?
"This tale was originally planned as a 3-part epic, but since we promised to eliminate our continued stories, we've laboured heroically to conclude it in this issue".
That's dreadful. We want continued stories! I would rather have read a 3-part epic.
Peter Parker can't fight with the Prowler in his civilian clothes, so he pretends to fall out of the window. The Prowler thinks he's a committed a murder, so he leaves without stealing anything. Peter changes into his Spider-Man costume and faces the Prowler on the roof.
Spider-Man is stronger than the Prowler, but the Prowler makes him groggy with gas pellets and manages to flee.
Last issue Peter saw his girlfriend Gwen Stacy with Flash Thompson in a cafe, and as we can expect from a jealous teenager, he assumed they were on a date. Nothing could be further from the truth. Gwen knew that Flash was an old schoolmate of Peter Parker, so she met him to ask if he knew why Peter disappears so often.
The Prowler still wants to be a hero, not a villain, so he makes a plan. He knows that Spider-Man is a villain because he read it in the Daily Bugle, and newspapers never lie. He pretends to be robbing a diamond store to attract Spider-Man's attention. This time Spider-Man is wearing a gas filter in his mask, so he easily defeats the Prowler. When he unmasks the Prowler he sees that it's just a boy. After talking to him he lets him off with a warning. I'm sure we'll see him again soon.
Captain America #120
Title: Crack-up on campus!
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Gene Colan
Villain: AIM, Modok
Regulars: Falcon, Nick Fury, Dum Dum Dugan, Sharon Carter (vision)
Captain America visits SHIELD's headquarters in New York to ask where Sharon Carter is. He's told that she is away on a mission. Then Nick Fury does something I consider highly unethical. He tells Captain America to sit on SHIELD's new Slumber Seat (TM). It's called that because it sends anyone who sits on it to sleep. It can also give the person dreams or nightmares. In the dream Captain America is shown a job offer for a Physical Education teacher at Manning College. As soon as he wakes up, Captain America applies for the job.
What's wrong with Nick Fury? Couldn't he just have told Captain America it was what he wanted?
When Captain America, using the name Roger Stevens, arrives at the college, he finds that riots are going on. They've been incited by AIM, because they want to kidnap the mathematics teacher, Professor Fosgrave, an expert in atomic equations. Couldn't they have done it a lot more easily? Captain America changes into his costume and captures the AIM agents who have infiltrated the campus. Then he quits the job. It's too tough for him.
This story is slightly out of sync. It must have taken place before Nick Fury's death in Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #15.
Captain Marvel #19
Title: The Mad Master of the Murder Maze
Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: Gil Kane
Villain: Cornelius Webb
Regulars: Rick Jones
That's a terrific title! Roy Thomas likes alliterating almost as much as his mentor Stan Lee.
Rick Jones is looking for a job with on-site accommodation. He's hired by Cornelius Webb, who lets him live and work in Minos Towers. Cornelius is an expert in the psychology of rats.
Strange things happen in the building that make everyone run in terror. Captain Marvel investigates, and he finds that Cornelius is doing experiments on humans. He wants to show that they behave like rats when they're trapped in a maze.
In this comic Captain Marvel says that returns to the Negative Zone automatically if he doesn't slam his Nega Bands together within three hours. I wonder how he found that out.
The Avengers #71
Title: Endgame!
Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: Sal Buscema
Avengers: Captain America, Thor, Goliath, Vision, Yellowjacket, Wasp, Black Panther, Iron Man
Villain: Kang, Grandmaster
Guests: Black Knight, Captain America (1941), Sub-Mariner, Original Human Torch
The Black Knight uses his mystic powers to reunite himself with his sword, which Goliath grabbed from him last issue. This takes him to the 40th Century.
Since the battle between Kang's champions (the Avengers) and the Grandmaster's champions (the Squadron Sinister) has been declared void, the Grandmaster decrees that a second round of battle should take place. Kang's new team consists of the Vision, Black Panther and Yellowjacket. They're sent back to Paris in 1941, where the Grandmaster's champions are Captain America, Sub-Mariner and the original Human Torch. They don't realise that they're fighting for the Grandmaster. They assume that the Avengers from the future are Nazis.
The Avengers defeat the old team and are transported back to the 40th Century. The Grandmaster accepts Kang's victory and offers him either the power of life or the power of death as victor. Rather than choose the power of life to resurrect Ravonna, he chooses the power of death to kill the Avengers. The Avengers are powerless before him. As he is about to kill them, the Black Knight arrives and knocks Kang back with his sword. The Grandmaster says that he granted Kang the power of death over the Avengers, but the Black Knight isn't an Avenger, so he can't harm him.
The Grandmaster sends the Avengers and the Black Knight back to their own time, making a few mistakes. He sends the Black Knight back to America, not his original England, so he needs to buy a plane ticket home. He sends Iron Man back with the Avengers, even though he was taken from another time while Tony Stark is lying in hospital. Maybe the latter mistake was made by Roy Thomas. It could have had catastrophic results. Let's hope that it was only a small temporal overlap, and Iron Man didn't attempt to visit himself in hospital.
The Black Knight is made an Avenger, even though he intends to carry on living in England. Here's the new team line-up.
Iron Man #20
Title: Who serves Lucifer?
Writer: Archie Goodwin
Artist: George Tuska
Villain: Lucifer, Charlie Gray
In X-Men #21 Lucifer was banished to an alien dimension which he refers to as Limbo. Now he wants to return. He's of the opinion that only Tony Stark is capable of building a machine capable of bringing him back from Limbo. To do this he needs help. He contacts Charlie Gray, a disgruntled security guard who works for Stark Industries, Lucifer gives Charlie his costume and powers and his powers to capture Tony Stark. Effectively, Charlie Gray becomes Lucifer.
Charlie Gray is more powerful than Iron Man, but Lucifer can only give him power for a limited time. When the time is up Charlie reverts to his normal self, and he regrets that he was ever unhappy with his job and his happy family life.
Thor #171
Title: The Wrath of the Wrecker!
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Jack Kirby
Villain: Wrecker
While Donald Blake is operating on a patient suffering from a gunshot wound, the Wrecker escapes from prison after being heavily sedated since Thor #150.
The first thing the Wrecker does is search for his enchanted crowbar, which the police have conveniently stored in the room next to his prison. I thought it had been shattered by the Destroyer.
This is the scene in Thor #150 in which it was destroyed. Maybe its magic powers caused it to reassemble itself? I don't know.
Donald Blake interrupts his operation and becomes Thor. He defeats the Wrecker by combining the power of his hammer with electricity in order to return him to his mortal form. I doubt that it will last long. Thor rushes back to the hospital to become Donald Blake again.
The Crazy Credits say that Irving Forbush is the Caliph of Confusion. I almost failed to notice it, because there haven't been any Crazy Credits for a few months.
Daredevil #59
Title: The Torpedo will get you if you don't watch out!
Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: Gene Colan
Villain: Crime-Wave, Torpedo
Regulars: Foggy Nelson, Karen Page, Willie Lincoln
Daredevil saves a shop owner who's being extorted in a protection racket, but when the police come he refuses to testify. Everyone is scared of the new gang boss, Crime-Wave.
Foggy Nelson reveals that the only person willing to testify against Crime-Wave is the blind ex-policeman, Willie Lincoln. He's put in a safe house, but Crime-Wave sends an assassin called Torpedo to execute him. After a rooftop battle, Torpedo falls to his death. I'd say my usual word after a death, "Supposedly", but this time it's a villain who really does stay dead.
Sub-Mariner #20
Title: In the darkness dwells Doom!
Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: John Buscema
Villain: Doctor Doom
Regulars: Dorma, Vashti
Guests: Triton
Sub-Mariner flees from the police and stumbles by chance into the Latverian embassy, where he's welcomed by Doctor Doom, who we last saw in Fantastic Four #87. Doctor Doom asks Sub-Mariner to become his partner again, which happened once before in the long distant past, namely Fantastic Four #6. Sub-Mariner refuses, so Doctor Doom orders his servants to remove every drop of water from the embassy. When they fight, Sub-Mariner becomes gradually weaker. In desperation, he starts a fire. When the fire brigade arrives, the water restores his strength, and he can leap out of the building to safety.
Meanwhile, Triton returns Neptune's trident to Atlantis.
I hope Marie Severin enjoys her holiday in the Bahamas.
The Incredible Hulk #122
Title: The Hulk's Last Fight!
Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: Herb Trimpe
Regulars: General Ross, Major Talbot, Betty Ross
Guests: Fantastic Four (Reed Richards, Ben Grimm, Johnny Storm, Crystal), Susan Richards
The Hulk turns back into Bruce Banner while he's asleep. When he wakes up he sees a newspaper report in which Reed Richards says he's discovered a serum to cure the Hulk and make him human again. Bruce catches a ride on a train heading northwards to New York City.
When Bruce arrives at the Baxter Building a trigger happy soldier stops him with a gun. The excitement makes him turn back into the Hulk, and he climbs up the elevator shaft to the Fantastic Four's apartment on the top floors. He fights with the Fantastic Four, especially with the Thing. He crashes through a window and falls down to the pavement. Reed Richards uses some sort of gun, probably a gas gun, to stun him, so that he can have enough time to administer the cure.
This might be the Hulk's last fight, but it's the first time that the Thing has yelled his battle cry in this comic: It's clobbering time!
The Crazy Credits say that Artie Simek has been splattering ink. I'm sure that his nib never drips. He's a perfect example to his daughter Jean.
X-Men #63
Title: War in the world below!
Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: Neal Adams
X-Men: Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Angel, Beast, Iceman
Villain: Magneto, Lorelei, Amphibius, Barbarus, Brainchild, Gaza, Lupo
Guests Ka-Zar
The X-Men fight against Magneto and his evil mutants in Ka-Zar's hidden kingdom. Magneto reveals that his mutants aren't natural mutants, he gave them their powers.
His newest creation is Lorelei, a woman whose song hypnotises men and makes them unable to move. Only Marvel Girl isn't affected. She telekinetically controls Cyclops' visor to attack Magneto. The laboratory collapses on Magneto and kills him. Supposedly.
Silver Surfer #11
Title: O Bitter Victory!
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: John Buscema
Villain: Yarro Gort, Communists
Regulars: Shalla Bal
Yarro Gort's spaceship is hit by a rocket and crash lands in the town occupied by the Communist oppressors. He offers to make them weapons with which he can kill the Silver Surfer. They accept his offer, planning to kill him later.
These weapons are not enough to stop the Silver Surfer. He finds Shalla Bal, but she's hit by a bullet. He carries her away on his surfboard, and in anger he kills the Communist leaders and Yarro Gort. The Silver Surfer knows that Shalla Bal is close to death and can only be healed on Zenn-La, so he repairs Yarro Gort's spaceship and sends it back to Zenn-La on auto-pilot.
Other comics published this month:
Millie the Model #177 (Stan Lee, Stan Goldberg)
Mad About Millie #6 (Stan Lee, Stan Goldberg)
Chili #8 (Stan Lee, Stan Goldberg)
Our Love Story #2 (Stan Lee, John Buscema)
Rawhide Kid #73 (Larry Lieber, Larry Lieber)
Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #73 (Gary Friedrich, Dick Ayers)
Chamber of Darkness #2 (Roy Thomas, Marie Severin)
Do you remember the horrifying announcement three months ago in September that Marvel would no longer be writing continued stories? This understandably created an uproar among Marvel fans worldwide. Now Stan Lee has made a partial retraction by saying that sub-plots will continue, and he's left it open that Marvel might return to its old multi-issue stories.
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