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. 

Tales to Astonish #44

 "Go to the ants, thou sluggard!"

A new writer, a new beginning, a bit of a retcon.. and a new sidekick-cum-love interest- could Ant-Man finally be worth reading? Early signs are good. By early '60s comic book standards, in fact, very good.

 This new writer has a very different style. Henry Pym's friends are described, in splendidly sesquipedalian fashion, as his "hymenoptera colleagues" and his "hexapoda friends". They now can and routinely do talk. Although, happily, Ant-Man is still firing hmself from his miniature cannon and landing on a makeshift ant hill. Some things must never change.

And Henry Pym suddenly has a tragic backstory, giving this previously very bland character a bit of depth. He was once married to Maria Trovava, a refugee from communist Hungary with a not very Hungarian name, who was tragically kidnapped and murdered during the newlyweds' honeymoon in the perhaps not overly wise location of Hungary. Pym is now heartbroken, bitter, motivated to fight injustice and yearning to one day to find a partner... a wish which will, by an incredible coincidence, be fulfilled in this issue.

We meet Dr Vernon Van Dyne and his daughter Janet who is described, rather ickily in light of what's going to happen, as "not much more than a child", and there follows the most textbook superhero sidekick origin story imaginable. Janet's beloved father is brutally murdered by an evil, green, alien criminal! She's filled with grief and a deep desire to fight crime ("I wish I could track down all the criminals") and... Pym very suddenly reveals his secret identity to Janet, offers to give her powers (wings and antennae when shrunk), immediately does so, and... gives her an already existing superhero costume, which apparently fits perfectly. Well then. In no way is there any undue haste or dodginess surrounding this grieving teenage girl...!

Of course, Janet declares her love for him but, in typical Marvel fashion, Ant-Man is too damaged to face the prospect of love again, however blatantly he may subconsciously yearn for it. We end with the baddie beaten, and Pym gently chiding Janet for her emotional reaction... but she sees right through him. 

Ant-Man, up until now the weakest of the whole stable of superheroes, feels much more Marvel, with  angst and a potential love interest. Will this soft reboot do any good overall?