Journey into Mystery #95

 "Great Scott! I'm seeing things!"

Another fairly throwaway Thor story here, courtesy of the pen of Robert Bernstein; this is a title that badly needs to be lifted out of its early rut. Nice start, though, with Odin summoning Thor to use his power over thunderstorms to deal with a drought in Asgard, something that would have been useful here in the English Midlands in recent weeks.

Sadly, we then proceed to move on to a rather generic little romp with our mad scientist du jour, one Professor Zaxton, a one off villain. Indeed, we know from the moment he sees Don Blake turn into Thor that he won't survive this issue. And so we get a simple little tale of a duplicating ray that creates doubles which, for some reason, have the opposite personality of the original. Neatly, though, Thor is able to defeat his evil duplicate, with its two hammers, because the duplicate is not worthy, which is a clever resolution.

Still... Don Blake is a physician. Could he really invent a super intelligent and invincible robot thingy? And there's a lot of exposition by thought bubble here. Still, I've read worse. 

Strange Tales #111

 "Bah, you are a weakling! Why would you help men when you can rule them?"

A rather odd issue this time round. The Doctor Strange story is a rather perfunctory introduction for Baron Mordo while the Human Torch story, despite its silly premise ( I mean, Asbestos Man? Come on! It's heath and safety gone mad.) is... actually rather good.

Yes, this week's baddy is yet another embittered scientific genius who craves worldly riches and is thus tempted by crime... albeit after some almost Marxist muses on how his employer, and not he, profits from his genius labours. And so he goads the Torch into battle from an "old castle", for such things apparently exist in the United States, which he can somehow afford on his meagre salary. And so he publicly disgraces the Torch, before impressing some gangsters (including a "king of the underworld" who will never be heard from again) into joining him in crime.

Wonderfully, it's Sue, armed with a truly magnificent beehive, who is the brains of the operation here, suggesting a successful strategy to her literally hot headed little brother- use flame not on Asbestos Man himself, but the environment outside him. Brilliant.

Meanwhile... well, Baron Mordo comes across in his first appearance as just a generic former pupil of the "Master", as he's still known, who now uses magic for greed and power, ending up in a bizarre astral fight with Dr, Strange. It's a very early story, and not many pages, but Strange wins with a trick and... is that it? Hopefully, things will get more substantial in time. 

Strange Tales #110

The Human Torch vs. The Wizard and Paste Pot Pete

"Wait a minute! I'm a partner- not a servant, you know!"

The team-up we were all waiting for, right? I mean, the Wizard is sort of ok, a generic super genius undone by his own arrogance... but Paste Pot Pete, with his literal paste pot? How on Earth did he get to be more than a one-off baddie?

I like how the story leans into his rubbishness, though. He's the supplicant, the one who springs the Wizard from prison and asks to join forces, something the Wizard would certainly never have reciprocated. And, naturally, Pete spends pretty much the whole story resenting the fact that he's being bossed around.

The actual plot is very perfunctory, though, not helped by the fact it doesn't actually start until page five of thirteen, with loads of space taken up with flashbacks of previous stories and the Torch training and, er, doing homework.

Oh, and the Wizard announcing that he and Pete will just operate from his massive house because "The police would never dream I'd go there"? I think you'll find that's "always", not "never", 

Dr. Strange, Master of Black Magic

"I am the symbol of evil! The evil he has done!"

For a very brief five page story introducing Doctor Strange (at last), this is both very good and utterly fascinating. We're introduced to Doctor Strange, with as yet no origin, but just told that he practises what is rather interestingly called "black" magic. We see an unnamed Wong in one panel and briefly meet the Ancient One, here called the "Master". We learn that the "Master" doesn't expect to live long, and that Strange is his successor. We briefly meet Nightmare, and see the Nightmare Dimension. And, as far as lore goes, that's pretty much it. Strange is an alluringly mysterious figure who keeps his magical cards to his chest.

Indeed, with the excellent, creepy art of Steve Ditko, Strange has the touch of the sinister about him. This looks and feels as close to a horror comic as the Comics Code will allow in 1963, a refreshing change. The writing, too, is a huge step up from the Human Torch stuff, with cool concepts and a twist at the end, even if the client being bad is already becoming a bit of a Marvel trope.

But a Nightmare Dimension! Strange entering another person's dreams! This is awesome stuff. 

Strange Tales #107

 "Oh well... boys will be boys!"

Two Strange Tales Human Torch stories in a row... sometimes that's just how it goes. As a reminder, I'm going by the Complete Marvel Reading Order. It's early days as yet, but I'm hoping to get at least as far as the early '90s.

Anyway, this issue is good fun. It's pretty much entirely the Torch challenging the Sub-Mariner to a fight, nothing too serious or acrimonious, and having fun with that while giving both of them bizarre one-off powers (Namor with, er, puffer fish powers?) just because Johnny wants to prove himself to the rest of the FF... but then proceeds not to tell anyone when he beats the Sub-Mariner. This is top japery, though.

And once again there are interesting points to note. Reed is still smoking that pipe. The FF are taking notes of their exploits to Stan and Jack... and Sue did the typing, naturally! The Torch doesn't know how long his flame will last until it goes out, so he'd better not be in the air at the time!

Oh, and you know how this issue acts as though the bends is not a thing? Don't try this at home, kids... 

Strange Tales #106

 "You landed your fish!"

So the story here is meh, and the forgettable baddie- the Acrobat- is barely a recurring villain. This is eminently skippable... almost.

Because there's one thing here that really is awfully clever in how it subverts the secret identity trope. I've commented before on how Johnny's secret identity is absurd and here we have confirmation, from the mouth of Sue, no less, that... yeah, everybody blatantly knows that he's the Torch, and he's the only one who didn't know that they knew. I love that.

Oh, and Johnny very briefly leaves the FF in order to very briefly join the, er, Torrid Twosome(!) because an arrogantly pipe-smoking Reed (wonder when he'll be last soon doing this? It's hard to notice when something is done for the last time.), who incidentally is a millionaire, refuses to allow Johnny a salary (from "reward money"- the early FF are still crime fighters as opposed to explorers) in favour of scientific research. Is it me, or is that totally unreasonable? Is being on the team not a commitment that would preclude a full time career?

Not a particularly great issue, then, but this certainly raises some questions about the FF. Oh, and another baddie with a beret? Is it open season on Bohemian existentialists? Will Johnny be battling Jean-Paul Sartre next?