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Marvel Multiverse Role Playing Game Core Mechanics Explained

Marvel Multiverse Role Playing Game Core Rulebook by Matt Forbeck

Hello Marvel fans and tabletop gamers! I have with me the Core Rulebook for the Marvel Multiverse Role Playing Game. I wanted to take a quick look at chapter two of the book. We’ll be going through chapter by chapter on this blog so if you want to, follow along. Some chapters I will take a much deeper look at than others but my goal here is to give you the basic information of what you need to know if you are considering playing this game.

If you want to see the review of chapter one, check it out here.

(Note: this post contains affiliate links. If you purchase something through this post I will get a small commission at no extra cost to you)

CHAPTER 2 – Core Mechanics

This chapter is a short five pages but it gives us almost everything we need to know to play the game. I’ll give a short breakdown of the rules below but for full rules you’ll need to read the book.

There are only a few core concepts you need to know to get started. If you master these, the game flows fairly easily for the most part. There is going to be some addition and multiplication in this game. It’s nothing that should be too intimidating but if you are like me and can struggle with math at times, there’s no shame in using a calculator when needed.

Let’s take a look at the concepts.

The Action Check

The action check is the most basic check of the game. While roleplaying, there are plenty of things you should be able to do without making a check of any kind. For my examples in this post, I am going to use Matt Murdock, aka. Daredevil to demonstrate.

If Daredevil, dressed as Matt Murdock wants to walk into his law offices to talk to his partner Foggy Nelson, there is no check needed whatsoever, he just does it.

Now, let’s say Matt is walking into the law offices and sees Foggy is being held captive by Wilson Fisk, aka, The Kingpin. Matt is able to hear the commotion and knows his partner is in trouble. He needs to take action. But he also needs to do so without letting Foggy know he is, in fact, Daredevil. In this case, Matt wants to act like he is stumbling around and just so happens to knock out Fisk. To try that, whoever is playing Daredevil is going to need to make an action check.

To do that, you take 3d6’s and roll them. In this game this is called rolling the d616 (more about that in a minute). Once the total of the dice is added up, the player then adds any ability scores needed to the total. The player is trying to roll higher than a Target Number the Narrator has given them. (More on this later as well).

If the player rolls high enough, Daredevil is able to pull off his stunt. If not, something else happens, determined by the Narrator.

d616

In this game, the only dice you need are d6’s. But, it’s good to have one die a different color or size than the other two. The way rolls work is the two dice on the outside of the roll (the 6’s in d616) are added up like normal. But on the middle die, also called the Marvel die, both the 1 and the 6 are counted as a 6. We’ll get more into this in further posts but for now, suffice it to say, the higher you roll the better, and if you can get your dice to come up 616, that’s the best result you can get. Ability scores can add even more to this number but we’re not going to go into those in this post because they are better explained during character creation.

Target Numbers (TN)

If you play Dungeons & Dragons you would think of this as the DC of a roll. Basically there is a number the player needs to meet or exceed for success. Most of the time the Narrator sets this based on the circumstances of what is happening in the game. But there are some NPC and player stats that may cause this number to have to be adjusted.

The narrator also still has the freedom most of the time to determine if something is impossible. If it’s impossible it cannot happen. For example, if Daredevil wanted to fly to the moon unassisted, even though he has no flight powers, he can’t do that even with the best die roll result.

Fantastic Rolls

Any time the middle die comes up with a 1 it’s called a fantastic roll. If you roll a 1 on that die and you exceed the target number, you get a fantastic success. This means you do the thing you were trying and also something else good happens. What that thing is can be suggested by the player or the Narrator.

If you have a fantastic roll but your result adds up to less than the target number, you still fail at what you were trying to do but something good happens to mitigate the results a bit. This also is determined by the player or the Narrator. Ultimately, Narrators have final say but player suggestions are often welcome.

The absolute best result you can get is a roll of 616. This is called an Ultimate Fantastic roll. In D&D it would be a critical success. If you roll this, outside of checking against something the Narrator has deemed impossible, you automatically succeed. These rolls can often be the most fun part of the game and can turn the tide of a battle or the narrative in an instant.

Edges

Also like in Dungeons & Dragons there is what amounts to an advantage/disadvantage system in this game. If you are in special circumstances where your hero has an advantage, they get an edge. For example, if Daredevil is fighting someone and the lights are off, Daredevil has an advantage because he doesn’t need to see to fight.

This can stack as well. If Daredevil has and advantage because the lights are out, and he’s sneaking up on an unsuspecting thug, he’d have two edges.

What happens here is with each edge you get, you can re-roll one of your dice and take the higher result. So, with two edges you might have an initial result of 5, 3, 5. You can then decide to re-roll any two of the dice you want. And you get to keep the better result. So if you re-roll and you end up with 5, 1, 6, you’d want to keep the second result. Remember the 1 = 6 so the result on the second roll is 17 compared to the original result of 13.

Trouble

The flip side of edges is trouble. This works in the same way but in the opposite direction.

If Daredevil is trying to fight bad guys and suddenly loud music comes on, he has trouble due to his highly sensitive hearing.

This also stacks, so if Daredevil is not only in a spot with loud music but there is a crowd of people blocking his way, he’s got two instances of trouble.

In these cases you re-roll however many dice you have equal to the amount of trouble. This time, instead of taking the better result, you have to use the lower result.

Edges combined with Trouble

Where this gets really tricky is when you have circumstances which provide edges and trouble. You can have an instance where a character has three edges and two troubles. Or three troubles and two edges, etc.

In those cases, the edges and troubles cancel each other out and you have to take what is left.

If Daredevil has an edge because it’s dark and one because he is sneaking up on someone, but he has trouble because he has been awake for more than 18 hours, he’s got an edge.

If Daredevil has trouble because he’s in a noisy place, and he doesn’t have his weapons with him, but he’s sneaking up on his opponent, he has one trouble.

Hopefully that makes sense but if you play the game for a while, you’ll get used to quickly figuring out how many edges and troubles there are to deal with.

IN CONCLUSION

There’s a few key rules in this chapter. Once you’ve got them down, they become pretty easy to understand but it can take a few sessions to get the full hang of them. There’s a bit of math involved but it’s not anything overly complicated. There are definitely parallels to Dungeons & Dragons but these rules, ultimately, are a lot more streamlined than those.

Next time, we’ll be taking a look at character profiles. There’s quite a bit of info in that chapter but it’s one of the most fun parts of the game. In the meantime, if you are interested enough to buy the book, check out how to do that below. Otherwise, see you next time!

HOW TO BUY THE BOOK

If you have read enough to realize this is a game you want to try out there are a few things you can do to get it. The different methods have some pros and cons so I’ll go into that a bit as well.

And, I’m not trying to make the hard sell here but if you want to help out this blog, buying through the links below goes a long way and it won’t cost you any extra.

  1. You can pick up a copy at your local friendly gaming store. The books should run around $50-60 bucks and not only do you get to support a local business, you get to walk away with a copy in your hot little hands that day, no muss, no fuss.
  2. You can buy a hardcover copy on Amazon for $32. This is a great way to get the core book, although you will need to wait for it to be shipped to you. If you want to help this blog out buy your copy here.
  3. You can get a copy for Roll20 for $30 on drivethrurpg. However, a couple of warnings here. First off, you’re not getting a physical version of the book this way. Also, you need to have an account on the Roll20 Virtual Table Top in order to access the content. (This is a free account and there’s a link in the purchase description on the Drivethrurpg site if you don’t already have one) Finally, and this is my biggest complaint about this purchase method, if you buy this through Drivethrurpg you are not getting a PDF of the book. As far as I can tell, there is no way to get a PDF of this book at this point. If you do want to buy this version and use it on Roll20 it’s a great option. And if you want to help this blog out you can buy your copy here. You can still read the digital book on basically any web browser this way, you just don’t get a PDF.
  4. If you happen to have Marvel Unlimited, you can get the test version of the book by typing in Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game: Playtest Rulebook. This will be an earlier edition and some of the rules have changed but it’s got the basics.
  5. If you don’t have Marvel Unlimited and you are willing to shell out $17 to get the Playtest book, you can get it on Amazon. If you want to help out this blog buy it here. Again, it’s not the full current book but it does cover the basics and it gets you started at a lower price point.

Special Bundles

If you are all in on the game and have cash to spare you could really go all out in a couple of ways.

  1. You could buy the Core Rulebook, the adventure module MARVEL MULTIVERSE ROLE PLAYING GAME: THE CATACLYSM OF KANG and the upcoming MARVEL MULTIVERSE ROLE PLAYING GAME: X-MEN EXPANSION books. Getting all three at once will run you around $100. If you’d like to help out this blog just make your purchase through one of the linked titles above.
  2. If you are already big time into Roll20 anyway, the best value through drivethrurpg is to get the Marvel Multiverse RPG Roll20 Mega Bundle. This will give you the core rulebook, a short module made for the Roll20 system called Revenge of the Super-Skrull, and The Cataclysm of Kang. Just remember this is only for Roll20 and does not include PDF’s. To help out this blog, buy it here. Right now this is on sale for around $70 and is the best deal if you don’t need physical books and want to play on Roll20.
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Marvel 616 Review – Tales to Astonish #45

Photo Credit: Marvel, Writers: Stan Lee, Ernie Hart, Artist: Don Heck

Now that Henry Pym, aka Ant-Man has found a partner in his effort to fight crime, he’s got an advantage. For the most part, ol’ Hank has been able to defeat villains with very little trouble, mostly due to his ant allies. But, there is one person who came pretty darn close to defeating Ant-Man. We last saw Egghead “wanted by the police and hunted by the underworld as he holes up in a dingy bowery flophouse…” in Tales to Astonish #38. Ant-Man has since had a few adventures and met Janet Van Dyne who has now become The Wasp.

Will this duo be able to stop the nefarious plans of one of the smarter criminals in Marvel 616? Let’s find out.

While the cover of this issue, created by Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers is great, I think in this issue they missed out by not putting the amazing teaser panel from the first page drawn by Don Heck on the cover. It’s got an ant-eater and Egghead looming over Ant-Man and the Wasp and it better illustrates the dire position our heroes are in. And it makes you wonder why no other villain has tried this yet.

Just look at that! I’ve never seen a more menacing ant-eater in my life.

The issue then goes on to give us some narration about how Ant-Man defeated Egghead in the past and Egghead is looking to wipe out that defeat.

We are then treated to a long recap of what happened before. This is extremely common in early Marvel 616 for a number of reasons. First, since comics were only ever sold as single issues at the time, if a new reader picked one up they might be lost if they had not read a previous issue. But it was also a way to save time and money for Marvel. There was no need to create new art when you could simply reuse existing art. Sometimes new captions or narrations are added but a lot of it is simply the same panels over and over again.

Rather than summarize this section for you here, I’ll just refer you to my review of the issue where these events took place, Tales to Astonish #38. If you don’t want to read that to refresh your memory, suffice it to say, Egghead assumed the ants were the unwilling slaves of Ant-Man when, in fact, they are his willing partners and friends. Egghead was too narcissistic to realize people (and ants) can work together.

When we finally catch up to the present, two thugs happen to be in the same brewery flophouse (I still love the way that is phrased here) where Eggman is staying. These two thugs are named Twister and Ape. And much to Eggman’s delight they are talking about how they were lucky to get away from Ant-Man and The Wasp.

Egghead is smart enough to spark up an alliance with the two men. First, he asks for them to tell him all about The Wasp. For the recap of that, we only get a single panel where Twister says, “…And that’s the whole story! Ant-Man and The Wasp are partners now!” To be fair, this did happen quite recently so it’s probably still fresh in most readers minds so less of a recap was needed. Twister remembers hearing about Egghead nearly defeating Ant-Man so he and Ape agree to the alliance.

Egghead decides to take on a new identity and he says, “Every man has his achilles heel! We will strike at Ant-Man through his… The Wasp!” Yes, Ant-Man’s The Wasp. Well spoken Egghead!

Egghead who has been thoroughly defeated and was living in a “brewery flophouse” then gets a bunch of scientific equipment from… somewhere I guess? Outside of Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four, the issue of money doesn’t come up a lot in early 616. Especially not for villains.

Egghead makes a machine that can intercept and scramble the signals from the ants to Ant-Man.

Next, he creates a disguise and establishes himself as Professor Carl Striker, Zoologist. He puts on brilliant lectures about insects, well attended by the public. I would think it would be easier to just go on faking you are a zoologist and making some money that way than going up against a super hero duo, but Egghead really wants that revenge.

And wouldn’t you know it? In attendance at the lecture are Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne. The zoologist seems kind of familiar to Henry Pym but he can’t quite place the guy.

And we get a fun panel telling any new readers who these two are.

Egghead’s next move is to lecture at the city zoo and build a fascinating exhibit about wasps. He figures Ant-Man and The Wasp won’t be able to resist showing up. But, as in all good villain team ups, signs of friction begin. Ape and Twister have been running around helping Egghead but not gotten much in return.

Egghead promises the crooks that once Ant-Man and The Wasp are out of the way, he’ll be able to cook up a bunch of perfect crimes that will make them all rich.

Construction on the exhibit begins and Egghead makes sure everything is as precisely detailed as it would be if a real zoologist did it. And we hear in the background a news item about a famous diamond which is about to be cut into a pendant for a priceless necklace.

Egghead plans to use this diamond as bait to capture The Wasp. As the zoo exhibit is being set up, a zoo attendant questions why the wasp exhibit is going into the reptile enclosure but Twister just snaps at the guy. Ape mentions the only thing he’s scared of is snakes.

As the professor Striker, Egghead has somehow obtained blueprints of the place where the diamond is going to be cut. Twister is supposed to take a “dewelding gun” which can cut the alarm wires while Ape is to bring along the insect message interceptor.

Sure enough, the crooks get inside and send out the scrambled insect messages. Hank Pym figures out there is something wrong with the messages and he immediately calls up Janet.

The messages suddenly clear up and Ant-Man is informed by the ants there is a robbery at the diamond cutter’s. Ant-Man uses his catapult and The Wasp flies over to the address. But, it’s too late, the diamond is missing. Henry can’t find any clues to the culprit but he figures they are smart and will strike again.

Twister and Ape want to fence the diamond but Egghead is only using it for bait. The tension between the three increase but they ultimately decide to go along with Egghead’s plan. They rig the reptile enclosure into an elaborate trap which can send electrical current through every crack an ant can crawl through.

Ape wants to know why they don’t just step on Ant-Man and Egghead just replies, “He’s not that easy to step on, my friend!” I know Egghead is smart, but I think Ape kind of has a point here.

They set up the display so The Wasp will notice the diamond and enter into a trap they have created. Janet sees the diamonds in an oversized replica of a wasp’s nest and has a moment where she thinks through what to do. And, she pines for Henry in the process.

That night, Janet returns as The Wasp. She goes into the nest, without realizing bad guys are watching her. And inside the nest is some sort of strange maze. Egghead has made special shoes which won’t allow ants to crawl up on the crooks. He also tells Ape to put the iguana in the aquarium. Egghead figures The Wasp will have to contact Ant-Man.

Sure enough, that’s exactly what happens. Henry is annoyed because he told her not to do any jobs alone but of course, he’s really worried some harm may come to her.

The crooks wear magnifying goggles so they can see Ant-Man and trap him into the aquarium with the iguana. Egghead did allow Ant-Man a fighting chance because he left a pin there. Ant-Man uses that to defeat the iguana off panel. I feel bad for the iguana though, it didn’t do anything wrong.

Ant-Man uses springs in his shoes to jump out of the glass case. Meanwhile, Janet has figured out where Hank fell through into the cage. She’s able to fly to that opening to escape. The two are reunited but now is when we finally get the ant-eater.

Egghead tells Ant-Man there is no escape and tells him about the electric wire which will, “electrocute any insect or insect-sized creature that attempts to pass over it!” Diabolical.

But Ant-Man has a tiny lasso he created from “strands of steel-strong synthetic fiber.” He loops that around the ant-eater’s snout and tosses the ant-eater into the crooks. Again, I feel bad for the animal here. The Wasp disables the electrical wire.

Egghead tells his fellow criminals to use their water pistols filled with liquid gas to stop the heroes. But, The Wasp has recovered the pin Ant-Man used to defeat the iguana. She sticks Egghead who drops his gun and realizes she has found her sting, “The one thing, as The Wasp, that I had lacked!” She makes the other crooks drop their weapons as well.

Ape is trapped in his worst nightmare, surrounded by snakes. Egghead has somehow fled the scene before Hank or Janet noticed.

Hank lectures Janet saying, “As for you, young lady, don’t you ever try anything like that again! We’re a team— and we’ll work as a team! Understand?!” And Janet just wishes Hank could realize how in love with him she is.

And once again, Egghead gets away but from the last panel we know, he is still a threat and will be back. Thus ends the issue.

Tales to Astonish is still, at this point, an anthology series. But with Ant-Man consistently taking over half of the pages, having repeat villains, and a partner who is beginning to be established as a love interest, it feels like there is not much point to the other stories. It will still be some time before Ant-Man is let loose from these pages but it will happen eventually.

While I think there are plenty of egg shaped holes in Egghead’s plan, he did come up with something much more elaborate than any other villain in this series has. And he’s not done yet. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

Next up on the reading list, put on your best armor because we’ll be catching up with Tony Stark aka Iron Man himself in the pages of Tales of Suspense #43!

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Marvel 616 Review – Journey Into Mystery #94

Photo Credit: Marvel, Writers: Stan Lee, Robert Bernstein, Artist: Joe Sinnot, Cover Art: Jack Kirby

At this point in Marvel 616 stories, Thor is without doubt the mightiest of heroes. Perhaps The Hulk could give him a run for his money but that’s debatable. The closest comparison you can make is Thor is as close as you get to Superman in the Marvel comics at this point. He’s super strong, he can fly (with the assistance of his hammer), he can even call down lightning and thunder.

Because of this immense power level, it’s been somewhat frustrating to see stories where Thor bashes communists over and over and goes after bad guys who break into banks and things like that. Those are the types of crimes that seem better suited for Spider-Man and Ant-Man to deal with.

But there has been one standout in the Journey Into Mystery stories. Every time Loki shows up, we get a story that feels more worthy of the god of thunder. The relationship between the two cannot be overstated in the history of Marvel 616. Without Loki’s blind ambition, and Thor’s determination to stop him, we wouldn’t have teams like The Avengers and The Defenders. Those stories are still a ways off but this issue lays more of the groundwork to get us there.

While Thor uses his strength and character to stop evil, he is quite susceptible to the machinations of his evil half-brother. The way we get there in this story is a bit silly but it’s still nice to see this conflict brewing, adding more of the necessary tension needed to expand this universe.

From the cover you can see Loki is able to get Thor on his side in this issue but how does he get there? Let’s dive into the issue and find out.

The issue starts out with a bit of a teaser panel with Thor showing Loki how he can topple the Leaning Tower of Pisa with his little finger.

We then move into the main story where a U.S. bomb testing site in the pacific ocean is launching a test missile. This particular missile is armed with a nuclear warhead which will explode in space. For the moment we’ll ignore the ramifications of this idea but needless to say, this missile is important.

We move to the control room where they are alerted to the fact the missile has started to fly wild. This is a real problem. In the control room they try to hit the self destruct button but it’s non-functional. Thankfully, the people of earth have one person who can help.

Thinking fast, the men in the control room send out an s.o.s. to Thor. The message goes out worldwide. Apparently, Thor doesn’t have super hearing. But luckily, Dr. Donald Blake is listening to the radio in his office. His nurse and love interest, Jane Foster is off for the day, so the good doctor immediately changes to Thor.

The god of thunder rushes to… the phone. The message didn’t say why the Pentagon needed Thor but apparently they take calls and over the land line, they give Thor the position of the missile. Good thing that was not a prank caller.

Thor tosses his hammer and launches himself into space to stop the missile.

Up to this point, this was feeling like a story where Thor would yet again end up fighting communists but it takes a nice turn as we get to see the real bad guy in the next panel. The last we saw Loki, he was imprisoned and bound for his wrongdoing. But Loki’s strength is not in his body but in his mind and magic.

It turns out, Loki has manipulated the missile all the way from his prison. And he counted on Thor’s sense of responsibility to the human race in order to enact his plans. Thor, as anyone might predict, tosses his hammer to destroy the missile. This provides an opportunity for the god of mischief to distract Thor. Loki sends the image of a dragon to Thor, causing him to turn his head at just the right moment. This effort causes Loki to pass out but it also does something to Thor. Mjolnir is flying back and because Thor has his head turned, it hits him just right.

Apparently Asgardians have a chromosomatic gland which can change personalities. I bet you can guess where this is headed. Loki mentally contacts Thor who immediately heads to the bifrost bridge and knocks Heimdall out. Heimdall obviously knows this is unusual behavior so he goes directly to Odin.

In the meantime, Loki is able to convince Thor that it’s Odin who bound Loki when in fact it was Thor. Thor breaks Loki’s chains and frees the villain. Odin and the other gods of Asgard confront Thor but he is too far gone to be convinced of Loki’s wrongdoing. It even goes so far that Thor hits Odin. Loki is smart enough to realize that his wits combined with the strength of Thor are still not enough to overcome all of the Asgardian gods. Instead, he cooks up a scheme to threaten Earth until Odin lets Loki and Thor rule Asgard.

As Thor and Loki storm off to Earth, Odin realizes he needs to ponder over what has happened. Odin’s strength is undoubtedly in his wisdom.

On Earth, Thor and Loki go on a spree of destruction, toppling landmarks, causing earthquakes, moving monuments, and generally proving to be the immense threat they could be. And we do, indeed, see Thor topple the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Loki, for his part, causes fear and chaos by sending around illusions that make everyone run for their lives.

Finally, a group of people who Thor describes as, “strangely garbed” show up waving the white flag of surrender. These people explain they are a special committee from the United Nations. They say they are scholars who study the ancient Norse legends and are confused as to why the Asgardians are behaving this way. The scholars ask Loki and Thor to come to the U.N. building so they can send a request to Odin to let humanity surrender to Thor and Loki.

The two Asgardians are taken into the building. They ask Thor how they can contact Odin and Thor replies, “It will require a signal… and the most fitting signal of all will be the destruction of the U. N. emblem which stands behind me!”

Thor then tosses his hammer at the symbol which opens up a trap door. The hammer stays in the air as Thor falls and Loki is able to tell someone is controlling it. Sure enough, the hammer conks Thor right on the noggin again where his chromosomatic gland is.

Turns out, Odin and company had some tricks up their own sleeves. They faked being the U.N. representatives to cure Thor. Thor tosses his hammer at Loki and says, “Though you are my brother in name, my brother in fact, you shall always be my enemy in spirit!” If Thor wasn’t cross with Loki before, he sure is now.

The god of thunder then goes on to ask the people of Earth to forgive him. He also promises the gods of Asgard will repair all the damage that was done to the planet. And Odin says he will remove the memory of these events from the minds of men. Loki is taken back to Asgard and imprisoned once more.

But we end with a panel here that sets us up for a lot of the future of Marvel 616. It both teases us that further adventures are to come, and assures us that Thor will be triumphant. It’s the basic relationship of Thor and Loki for decades to come.

Not only that, this hints at what an epic level threat Loki could be. If even the strongest of the heroes on Earth may not be able to defeat Loki, what can be done? There’s an answer for that but it won’t come until we get the Avengers together.

All in all, this is a great issue not only for Thor and Loki but for the history of Marvel 616. Things are slowly starting to heat up, threats are getting bigger, and heroes are going to need to come together.

Next up on the reading list we’ll be getting micro again as we check in with Ant-Man in the pages of Tales to Astonish #45!

P.S. Want to check this issue out for yourself? You can find it in Thor Masterworks Volume 1 by clicking the image below or on Marvel Unlimited!

(Note: this post contains affiliate links. If you purchase something through this post I will get a small commission at no extra cost to you)

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Marvel 616 Review – Strange Tales #110 [C Story]

Photo Credit: Marvel, Writer, Stan Lee, Artist, Steve Ditko

Strange Tales #110 is a landmark issue in the history of Marvel 616. It establishes repeat villains teaming up against The Human Torch and contains the introduction of a new hero to the universe. Because there are two important stories here, I will be splitting my review of the issue up into two parts. This time I will be going over the C story, which introduces us to the enigmatic and unusual hero known as Dr. Strange. There is a completely forgettable tale sandwiched between these two but it’s not considered part of the Marvel 616 universe so I’ll be ignoring that one altogether.

Dr. Strange is introduced to us as a Master of Black Magic! Strange is differentiated from other heroes at the time for several reasons. For one, he doesn’t gain powers through some random nuclear accident. We’re not told how he becomes this sorcerer in our first introduction to him at all. All we know is he is capable of wielding magic and from the first panel, he’s wearing rather unusual garb.

The story is provided by Stan Lee and as great as the stories here become, Dr. Strange owes most of his success to the incredibly inventive imagination of one Steve Ditko. He’s also the person responsible for the creation of Spider-Man’s iconic look. But in the panels of Dr. Strange, his artistry is allowed to take on the surreal and do so in a way that works to support the story.

It’s in 1963 that Strange makes his first appearance. While this certainly predates the weird and wild later 60’s that would give us free love and hippies, Dr. Strange was definitely out there leading the way. He’s more of a beatnik in the beginning, riffing with his magical prowess in ways other heroes are not. He’s not about strength of mind, but power of soul and spirit.

Not to mention, this is the first hero story since the debut of Fantastic Four where the creators decided even before the first issue was sold, Dr. Strange would have a continuing series.

So, let’s take a look at the humble beginnings of this debut story of our Sorcerer Supreme and see what he’s all about.

We start the story with a man in distress. He’s got a relatable problem. He’s unable to sleep. It seems he’s been having a recurring dream that plagues him and he’s powerless to stop it.

This man gives us our first inkling of Dr. Strange. The man realizes he needs help and and knows of a name spoken only in whispers. One Dr. Strange who dabbles in black magic.

Right from the first page it’s apparent this story is going to be different. This is not someone performing acrobatics to recover bags of gold from a bank robber. This is not someone who is an Asgardian god who has immense power at his fingertips. This is someone who works in secret, in the dark places Marvel 616 has truly not gone yet. And while he’s clearly a helper, he performs black magic. As the reader we don’t exactly know what that means but it sounds like someone playing around with some pretty serious stuff.

We then switch our scene to Greenwich Village and the home of Dr. Strange. The sleep deprived man is let into the house by a servant in a strange green outfit. As the sleep deprived man tries to explain his situation, he is told, “Dr. Strange knows all! Enter!”

On the next panel we get the full picture of Dr. Strange. There is smoke in the room, giant books behind him, and a general feeling of being in an otherworldly place. We also find out he’s got a powerful amulet.

The distressed man tells Dr. Strange about his dream. A figure, bound in chains keeps appearing and staring at him. This is enough for Strange to agree to help. He tells the man he will visit that night and find the answer to his dream. The man asks how it will be done and Dr. Strange simply answers, “…By entering your dream!!!”

It’s clear from this exchange Dr. Strange has some sort of impossible mystical power at his disposal. But how or why it works is much less clear.

We next see Strange sitting in front of an incense burner. This answers where the smoke has been coming from. Strange says it is time for him to visit the master from whom all his powers stem.

We get the first instance of Dr. Strange using astral projection here as his spirit flies to “a hidden temple somewhere in the remote vastness of Asia…”

We see a man with a white beard sitting before Strange. He tells Strange that he senses danger and warns Strange that his days are numbered. He says Strange will need to take his place in the battle against the forces of darkness and evil.

From this exchange, it’s becoming more clear that although Dr. Strange practices so called black magic, he is on the side of good.

The white bearded man then tells Strange to depend upon his amulet.

While there is a lot to like in the introduction of Dr. Strange, there are a few things to criticize here. One, the mysterious man is drawn in what could be considered an insulting stereotype. Secondly, the whole white savior complex is pretty apparent here. This definitely figures more into later stories of Dr. Strange but make no mistake, it’s appearing here too.

Dr. Strange, no longer in astral form, visits the sleep deprived man. Strange instructs the man to sleep. Once the man is asleep, Dr. Strange goes into another trance and his spirit enters the dream.

It’s here we get one of the first instances of wild background art we will start to see from Steve Ditko in this series.

Sure enough, the figure bound by chains appears. Dr. Strange asks the figure why he torments the sleepless man so. The figure states that he is the symbol of evil the man has done. The figure then tells Strange to ask Mr. Crang about it.

We next see the introduction of a major villain who will often return to plague Dr. Strange. This is a thin figure riding on a thin horse. This is apparently Dr. Strange’s ancient foe, Nightmare.

Nightmare reminds Strange of the rule that, “those who enter a hostile dimension must be prepared to pay for it–with their lives!”

Back in the waking world, the sleepless man awakes and realizes Dr. Strange must know all about whatever it is he has done. This man then grabs a gun with the intention of killing the dark magician. Strange sees this as Nightmare points out his imminent physical destruction. Nightmare tells Strange nothing can save him now.

But Dr. Strange is not out of tricks yet. He calls to the master. This master hears the call and decides to help Strange through his amulet.

In the room where Strange is about to be gunned down, his amulet begins to glow with an unnatural brightness. The amulet opens a metal eye and this eye instantly hypnotizes the gunman who goes rigid.

This moment also gives Strange the opening he needs to dash past Nightmare in the dream dimension. Strange makes it safely back to our reality but Nightmare vows revenge.

Dr. Strange then releases the sleepless man from his hypnosis and orders him to tell the truth. It turns out this man had ruined many men in business, the last of which was Mr. Crang. Poor Mr. Crang had been robbed but could never prove it. The sleepless man states he will confess and Dr. Strange tells him it’s the only way he’ll ever sleep again.

We’re left with a teaser for the next story and that ends the introduction of Dr. Strange.

For the most part, when the Marvel team says they have a hero unlike any ever seen before, they are only telling half truths. There had definitely been superheroes who were some sort of magician or had access to magic powers before. So, it’s not quite true to say there had never been a hero like Dr. Strange before. But, it was still an impressive introduction to a newer kind of character in the 60’s. And the artwork that will be displayed in the issues to come is simply out of this world, as it should be.

It’s also great to see this story set up what is essentially a new corner of the Marvel 616 universe, that of magic. It leaves room for lots of wild stories that take tremendously creative turns. For now, we’ll need to leave Dr. Strange where he is but he will be back soon with more mystic tales for us to review.

Next up on the reading list we’ll be checking in once again with the golden haired god of thunder, Thor in Journey Into Mystery #94!

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Marvel 616 Review – Strange Tales #110 [A Story]

Strange Tales #110 Photo Credit: Marvel, Writers: Stan Lee, Ernie Hart, Artist: Dick Ayers

Strange Tales #110 is a landmark issue in the history of Marvel 616. It establishes repeat villains teaming up against one of our heroes and contains the introduction of a new hero to the universe. Because there are two important stories here, I will be splitting my review of the issue up into two parts. This time I will be going over the A story, which features Johnny Storm in his most intense battle to date against not one but two of his mortal foes.

Villain team ups are pretty standard these days. They show up in comics constantly and there have even been a few movies and television shows where we’ve seen this happen. DC had perfected this type of story long before the Marvel 616 universe started to do it. But, it is always interesting when a hero we know has to go up against a new combination of evil characters. Johnny Storm, aka, The Human Torch has had his share of enemies both on his own and with his family The Fantastic Four. Two of the most dangerous for him were The Wizard and Paste-Pot Pete. The Wizard uses all kinds of gadgets and tricks to trap the hero while Paste-Pot Pete has a special glue gun that proves surprisingly adept at trapping Johnny. Ridiculous names aside, these guys are dangerous.

The issue starts with a teaser page, like most of the early 616 universe does but this one has my favorite pre-read warning so far where we are told to be cautious if we have a heart condition before we read on.

The story then gets going with a few panels showing Johnny Storm making his way as The Human Torch through an obstacle course he has set up for himself. He is compared to a trained athlete but it is noted that if Johnny makes a mistake, he doesn’t lose a game, he could lose his life.

Johnny next hits his school books which at one point mentions wizards. This gets Johnny’s mind drifting and he starts to remember The Wizard who he faced off against in the past. He takes a look at his scrapbook and we get a flashback scene reminding us of the last time Johnny faced The Wizard. This is a pretty common technique in the earlier Marvel 616 stories because they could reuse old art and fill up pages at the same time with adding just a bit of narration.

And, of course, it’s not just The Wizard who gets this treatment. We next see Johnny reminisce about ol’ Paste-Pot Pete himself. For a guy with a paste gun he sure got close to getting rid of Johnny. He had The Human Torch strapped to a missile and everything.

At the end of his reminiscing, Johnny wonders where both The Wizard and Paste-Pot Pete are now and what they are doing. It’s no surprise to the modern reader that we then find out, and it’s not good.

Paste-Pot Pete has returned to the country and he is clearly looking for revenge against The Human Torch. Pete realizes he alone is not enough to go against the super hero and he remembers how The Wizard nearly took Johnny out. The only problem? The Wizard is in solitary confinement at a place called Cortraz Penitentiary. And The Wizard still holds just as much of a grudge as Pete does.

Luckily for The Wizard, Paste-Pot Pete has some truly incredible paste. It’s so good, it can be used to make powerful binocular lenses.

Pete figures out the delivery schedule for the food supply trucks and hijacks it. Paste-Pot Pete makes his way into the jail and he is apparently a quick draw with the paste gun because none of the guards are fast enough to stop him. He then uses the same gun to glue onto The Wizard’s cell door and uses the, “reverse suction switch” on his gun to pull the door off.

Needless to say, The Wizard is all in on the plan to get our favorite hothead. The Wizard even has a little gas pellet he cooked up in prison that blows the gates open so the pair can make their escape.

But, like any good super villain team up, there is tension almost from the start. The Wizard basically starts giving Pete orders which he doesn’t take too kindly to. The plan is to first discredit and humiliate The Human Torch and then defeat him permanently.

Immediately they frame Johnny for being a spy. Reed and the rest of the FF call Johnny up to make sure he is okay. Johnny basically takes this the wrong way thinking his team thinks he can’t handle himself.

Johnny is ridiculed at school for being a traitor although some kids defend him. Not being one to take this sort of thing lightly, Johnny has a plan.

We switch perspectives back to the villains who read in the newspaper that one of the world’s richest men is going to arrive in town. The Wizard plans to wait until the man takes his nightly walk and then rob him. He’s also going to frame Johnny for this by wearing his asbestos suit, making it look like it’s Johnny in the dark.

Rest assured The Human Torch has this well in hand as it’s him who was walking down the street. He was just disguised.

The villains run back into their house where The Wizard has laid several traps for our hero. They get Johnny into a room which is basically a hall of mirrors. The Human Torch flounders for a bit as he tries to find a way out.

Johnny gives up momentarily and asks the bad guys what is next. They tell him they are going to flood the room with a fire extinguishing liquid The Wizard has invented. But first, Paste-Pot Pete pastes The Torch to the floor.

The villains then make the classic villain mistake of leaving the hero. Johnny thinks fast and makes a flame version of himself. He then burns the paste off of his feet to free himself. He then uses as much heat as he can to burn his way out through the ceiling of the room.

In another part of the house, the bad guys put their little contraption to work and watch what they think will be Johnny’s demise. But they soon notice that the figure disappears. This does give Johnny just enough time to recharge his power and come after the bad guys. Pete and The Wizard aren’t exactly friends but they both basically vow their revenge on Johnny as they are taken away by the police.

The kids at school are once again fans of The Human Torch and Johnny complains he missed so much schoolwork because of needing to fight the bad guys. And this is where the story ends.

While this may not have been overly groundbreaking it was a fun story and it showcased how even minor villains teaming up against a Marvel hero could make things much more difficult. Over the years, The Fantastic Four and The Human Torch alone will be dealing with plenty of villains getting together.

If this was the only story in this issue relevant to Marvel 616 it might only be mildly interesting. Yet this issue has something else worth noting.

Next up on the reading list we’ll be reading about the introduction of the sorcerer supreme himself as we see Dr. Strange in Strange Tales #110 [C story]!

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Marvel 616 Review – Tales of Suspense #42

Tales of Suspense 42 Photo Credit: Marvel Writers: Stan Lee, Robert Bernstein Artist: Don Heck

One of the harsh realities of reading all of Marvel 616 in order is you can come across a really engaging and landmark issue, as with the introduction of The Wasp in Tales to Astonish #44, only to have it be followed up with a rather bland and boring story the next issue. This is the case with Tales of Suspense #42. It stars Tony Stark aka Iron Man doing what Iron Man does. Fighting communists. Over and over and over again. That’s not to say I am not interested in reading those stories but at this point they are getting repetitive and at times seem designed just to fill pages. To be fair, they had to come up with a lot of content at the time on multiple comics so there is no way all of the stories are going to be great.

This issue starts with a page promising we’ll have a shocking surprise coming to us, “as the knight in shining armor walks straight into this, the greatest danger he has ever faced!” It shows Iron Man walking into the lair of someone named The Red Barbarian.

The action begins on a boat where a group of spies is proud of themselves for stealing the latest American atomic bomb. They figure they will be well rewarded by this Red Barbarian but to make sure everything is looking good, they decide to open the crate with the bomb.

But to their surprise, Iron Man is waiting in the crate. Turns out the whole thing was a setup by the F.B.I. Iron Man stops the crooks with the use of some of his patented transistor technology and uses magnets to cause their guns to fire away from him. The overhead magnet is so strong, in fact, that it pulls the bad guys up with the guns. Not sure why they didn’t think to let go of their weapons but we’ll just figure they panicked. Iron Man also explains his armor contains alloys that reject magnetic attraction so he is not affected by the magnet. Glad we got that cleared up!

The F.B.I. do show up to collect their prize but Tony warns them that the Red Barbarian is probably planning some new kind of mischief. This person seems to be news to the F.B.I. and all Tony really knows is the bad guy is known for his brutality and lives somewhere behind the iron curtain. So, not a lot to go on.

We next see Tony changing out of his Iron Man suit and going back to his lab. He is now storing his suit in a suitcase and he is working on what he calls a, “pocket-size disintegrator ray.”

We see his heavily guarded lab as Tony takes comfort in the fact that no spy can get inside. Tony then demonstrates his ray to the U.S. Military. He is able to disintegrate tanks and walls and tells the men how it could be adapted to destroy whole enemy fleets. He does warn them that it is not yet perfected. The military is suitably impressed and everyone realizes how devastating it would be if the technology got into enemy hands.

The scene then shifts to The Red Barbarian’s headquarters where his men tell him of Tony’s new weapon. He demands the plans but his men say Stark’s compound is impenetrable, after which The Red Barbarian throws a ham at the messenger and threatens to shoot his incompetent staff.

As he is in his rage, The Red Barbarian is interrupted by someone who he thinks is Comrade K, a high ranking general in the communist party. This, however, is a ruse. The man is really someone who calls himself The Actor. He is able to mimic the look and manners of anyone he sees and claims to be the ultimate spy. The Actor changes his look to that of Tony Stark and claims he can steal all of Stark’s plans. The Red Barbarian hires him on the spot, promising him anything he wishes. The Red Barbarian also warns of what will happen should The Actor fail.

The Actor is quite bold in his claims as he says he can defeat both Tony Stark and Iron Man. He puts his plan into action by first impersonating a famous actor so he can get into the United States. The Actor then goes to the telegraph office in Washington D.C. and impersonates a senator. Next he finds the communist spies in the area to help him fake an entrance into Stark’s lab while Stark is away.

The Actor shows up at Stark’s lab once he knows Stark is gone. He tells the guards there, who assume he is Tony Stark, that the Pentagon meeting was cancelled and he has returned to his lab to do some work. The guards do try to stop the men with The Actor but he claims they are top men of the Pentagon and his office is open to them.

The ruse works well enough to get The Actor into the office where they go about the task of raiding Stark’s plans. While doing this, The Actor finds parts of Iron Man’s suit and puts the pieces together. He knows Stark is Iron Man. Deciding to keep the information to himself in case his life is threatened, he has the others find the plans for the disintegration ray. The Actor takes the plans and tells his men to wait for Stark and assassinate him when he returns. As Stark, The Actor dismisses all of Tony’s usual guards, telling them the Pentagon men will do the guard duty for the night.

The real Stark, realizing the invitation from the senator to the Pentagon was a fake, returns to his lab. The bad guys try to kill him but luckily he is still wearing his Iron Man chest plate under his clothes. Stark kills the lights and gets into his full armor and makes short work of the bad guys. He gets them to tell him why they are there, where to find The Red Barbarian, and when The Actor is scheduled to meet with his employer. To get there, Stark has to take a missile in order to arrive in time. The missile launch is successful and Stark arrives where he intended.

He stops The Actor who is driving on his way toward the headquarters. Iron Man basically folds up The Actor’s car as a way to keep the guy in place. He gags The Actor and walks right into The Red Barbarian’s headquarters.

Iron Man tells the bad guys he is The Actor and gives The Red Barbarian an attache case with a timed lock on it. He tells the The Red Barbarian the lock is a miniature atom bomb. Tony then leaves and goes back to let The Actor out of his trap. Tony flies away.

The Actor goes to The Red Barbarian to apologize for not giving him the disintegrator ray plans. The Red Barbarian flips out on The Actor and basically ends up shooting the guy (although we never see a body so who knows?).

Tony hears all this as he flies off and the story ends there.

While there are some mildly interesting things here, such as how close Stark is with the government, and how secure his compound is, for the most part this story is a bit of a dud. The bad guys are drawn like crude caricatures and borderline offensive. There are a couple of neat tricks like the suitcase for the Iron Man suit but we don’t learn much new here. It’s a passable story about espionage but it just doesn’t quite grab the reader and it really doesn’t help us understand Tony Stark or Iron Man more than we already do.

There are a couple of non-cannon stories in this issue of Tales of Suspense, one about a haunted house and one about a prisoner in the future who is taken to space. Both are much shorter than the Iron Man story and actually a bit more engaging in this case, although with decidedly less heroics. Those don’t count at all toward the larger story though.

Next up on the reading order we’re catching up once again with the hothead Johnny Storm as we read about him in the pages of Strange Tales #110!

Posted on by slickdungeon

Marvel 616 Review – Tales to Astonish #44

Tales to Astonish 44, Photo Credit: Marvel Writers: Stan Lee, Ernie Hart, Artist: Jack Kirby

Up to this point in the Marvel 616 comics we’ve had plenty of stories staring Henry Pym, aka Ant-Man. For the most part these have been short stories featuring our hero taking on crime of one kind or another. Quite often he has faced off against communists. We know he is a brilliant scientist who does secretive work for the government but it would be false to say we’ve ever gotten a full understanding of his motivations. There haven’t been any stories which really dive into his background, he’s just kind of there.

This all starts to change when Henry Pym gets his partner in peril in Tales to Astonish 44. This is both his first full length story and introduces The Wasp to the 616 universe.

Technically Tales to Astonish is an anthology series and in this issue there is a backup story after the main story of Ant-Man but as far as I can tell it does not relate to the rest of the 616 continuity. But this is still the most amount of pages dedicated to Ant-Man we have seen in a single issue. And, truth be told, at this point it was Ant-Man who was selling the magazine.

The issue starts with a teaser page that looks a lot like the cover but basically acknowledges that we haven’t really had a back story for Hank Pym up to this point and promises us one here.

The story itself starts with Ant-Man coming back from some heroic mission to his lab where he tells his ants to return to nature and lets them know he will call them again when needed. Pym releases his growth gas and goes back to human size.

Ant-Man takes a break and laments how he must always be alone and can’t reveal his secret identity to anyone. And he mentions someone named Maria for the first time.

It turns out, Maria, was Henry’s wife. We see in flashback panels that Henry and Maria went to Hungary for their honeymoon where Maria and her father had once been political prisoners. Hank has some valid concerns about going there but Maria says they won’t know her since she is now Mrs. Pym rather than Maria Trovaya.

For a brief moment in time the two have a good time together and Hank wishes he could always be on vacation with Maria. She replies that he is becoming a lazy husband and tells him her father always used to say. “go to the ants, thou dullard!” I think that’s supposed to just be a way of saying don’t be lazy but it lays the groundwork for Henry’s future fascination with ants.

The bliss cannot last long as Maria is kidnapped at gunpoint. Although Hank tries to stop the men, he gets pistol whipped and goes to the American embassy. While he is there, the embassy receives a call. Maria’s body was found with a note which said, “This is what happens to those who attempt to escape from behind the iron curtain!”

Now all this communist hunting Ant-Man has done in previous issues makes a heck of a lot more sense. The dude is looking to even the score. But as if that were not bad enough, as they attacked Maria in Hungary, back in the states they also blew up the lab where Maria’s father worked.

Hank storms out of there furious and vowing revenge. But within a few days he ends up in jail,”on the verge of a mental and physical breakdown!”

Henry Pym was unable to track down and find the killers but the American embassy has arranged for him to be set free and sent back to America.

Not knowing what else to do, Hank thinks about the past and about his wife. And then he remembers what she said. The funny part of this is that he actually misquotes her from a few panels before as he quotes her as, “Go to the ants, thou sluggard!”

Henry then works tirelessly to invent his reducing gas, perfect his cybernetic helmet and become Ant-Man. It has a Batman feel to it as Henry is basically vowing to wipe out crime because someone he cared about was a victim of it. The difference though is that Henry takes a decidedly scientific approach to it.

Back in the present, Ant-Man decides doing this himself is not going to be enough. What he wants is a partner who can carry on his mission in the case of his death. But he doesn’t know anyone he can trust with his secret identity and who would have the attitude to take on the task.

Just in case he ever does meet this person, Dr. Pym studies wasps and realizes he can shrink a human and give them wasp-like wings and antennae.

At that very moment, fate steps in as his doorbell rings. A Dr. Vernon Van Dyne has come to see the famous Pym. Dr. Van Dyne is also a scientist and he has brought his daughter Janet with him. Hank lets them in and is struck by how much Janet looks like his dead wife. Although, he admits she is not much more than a child at this point. Janet, for her part thinks Henry is handsome but figures he’s a bore since he is a bookish scientist.

Interestingly, what Dr. Van Dyne wants sounds more like something that would be worked on by Dr. Bruce Banner. he is working on a gamma-ray beam to pierce space and detect signals from other planets. Henry admits he has heard of Van Dyne’s work but says his specialty is in molecular cell transition and cell specialization. Van Dyne wants the beam strengthened but leaves Dr. Pym alone.

Despite the lack of help, Dr. Van Dyne is able to get his beam to work. This turns out to be his demise. Some vast, shapeless, darkness comes at him and starts to take form. This alien thing comes into the lab and Van Dyne asks what it is.

It tells him, “I am from the planet Kosmos deep in space! We of Kosmos are a fluid form of life! I escaped down the path of your ray to this, your planet!”

Dr. Van Dyne keys in on the word escaped and the creature admits it is a criminal who nearly enslaved his whole society. And he figures if he failed there, maybe he can succeed here on Earth.

The alien commands the good doctor to look into its eyes. Van Dyne tries to resist but is unable to. The creature smashes the lab and Janet returns to find an awful mist and her father dead. Not knowing what else to do, Janet calls Henry Pym because she knows her father trusted the man.

At first Henry Pym doesn’t believe Janet and thinks she is just a, “bored society playgirl” who is trying to get her kicks by making up stories. But in short order, ants confirm the situation through Pym’s cybernetic helmet.

He goes into action as Ant-Man and shows up at Dr. Van Dyne’s lab where Janet is understandably upset. Ant-Man tells her he is there to help. She thought he was a myth, which is odd, since there have been literal newspaper stories about him in the past but we’ll let that slide for now. Janet explains the situation and Hank figures out right away it had to be some kind of alien force to have done the type of damage to the lab he sees.

And in what seems to be the first instance of an Avenger wanting to avenge something, Janet Van Dyne knows what she wants to do. She wants to avenge her father.

Hank tells Janet to call the F.B.I. and ask for Lee Kearns and tell him what happened. He then instructs her to go to the lab of Henry Pym. Janet agrees.

Oddly, the ants that accompanied Ant-Man have left him alone. He catches up to them and asks why they left. They tell him that whatever was in there secrets formic acid like the ants do but it is alien and they are afraid. Henry has them take him back to his lab and spread out to look for the monster and go to the F.B.I. headquarters to see what they find out there.

Hank grows back to human size and meets Janet at the door. He asks if Janet really would do anything to avenge her father’s death and risk anything for justice. She says not only that but she wishes she could help track down all criminals.

For the first time ever, Dr. Henry Pym reveals to someone else that he is Ant-Man and tells Janet he needs a partner. It’s quite a fateful moment in the history of the 616 because here we have the foundations for what will one day become The Avengers. We’ve been introduced to Thor, Iron-Man, Ant-Man, The Hulk, and now The Wasp. It will still take some time but these are all founding members of the super group and Janet Van Dyne should not be underestimated here.

Janet agrees to become Hank’s partner and The Wasp. Moments later, Dr. Pym has injected Janet with wasp cells, shrunken her down, given her an outfit which seems to perfectly fit her, and allowed her to grow wings and antennae which is only possible for her to have while she is small.

Meanwhile, Kosmos seems to be tearing up the city. He smashes the Van Dyne lab, destroys the docks and causes a general commotion.

Hank gets word of this from his ants and tells Janet to change into her new costume. We get confirmation for the first time that Ant-Man actually lives in New York as he sees Kosmos head towards the George Washington bridge and clearing out Manhattan.

Ant-Man gives some quick instructions to Janet on how to use the reducing and enlarging gas and how she can communicate with the insect world through her antennae. They launch themselves into the air with Ant-Man’s miniature cannon and immediately Janet is hooked on adventuring.

Not only that, she tells Hank, in case they are killed, that she is falling in love with him. For his part, Hank gives a pretty hard no here, although with his background we all know he can love someone. He says, “No! You mustn’t say that, Janet! You’re only a child! Let’s get this straight… I chose you as my partner simply because I thought you had a reason, as I have to fight for mankind! I never want to love again! I– I couldn’t bear it if I had to lose a loved one– twice!”

This basically sets up the relationship dynamic we’ll see with these two for years to come. It will come to be much worse than this sort of thing but we’ll review that when we get there.

Hank’s rebuke only makes Janet more determined to make him fall in love with her. And Hank realizes if he is not careful, he will fall in love with her.

Ant-Man then introduces his ants to The Wasp and the ants tell Henry they can’t confront Kosmos.

The military comes to try to stop Kosmos but they retreat in fear. Janet decides to tackle the problem head on herself. Janet seems to be drawn to the creature but Hank saves her. He realizes he can defeat this thing through science and the pair go back to the lab. Hank whips up the antidote to formic acid, realizing the creature is mostly made of formic acid. They become Ant-Man and The Wasp once more but this time they have the ants carry shotguns filled with pellets full of the antidote.

They make it up to a rooftop and fire the shotgun at the creature and luckily for humanity this does stop Kosmos. Janet cheers and puts her arm around Hank who tells her, “Er.. we— we’d better get back to the lab! And from now on you must not display such emotion! It– it isn’t proper!”

Janet seems to just be happy she made him blush. Back at the lab Henry calls Lee Kearns at the F.B.I. and tells him everything is okay. Kearns says he wants to meet Ant-Man because they share the same goals and Ant-Man can’t keep going it alone. Looking at Janet, Hank replies, “I’m not going it alone, Kearns… not anymore… not ever again!”

In her mind, Janet vows to always be beside Hank and make him love her but until that day she will be his partner as The Wasp. The issue ends here but we know we have a lot more in store for these two.

This is absolutely a landmark issue for 616. It introduces a backstory for Henry Pym, finally gives him some motivation for what he has been doing, and provides a love interest and important character in her own right. No matter the problematic nature of the relationship between these two, this is the most fleshed out, well rounded, and best Ant-Man story so far. It also starts to feel like the pieces are coming together to tell a much larger story, although at the time readers would not have known this.

This issue also finally puts Ant-Man in the same city as The Fantastic Four and Spider-Man so our heroes are beginning to gather.

Next up on the reading list we’ll be checking in with another character who has it out for communists as we read about Iron Man in the pages of Tales of Suspense #42!

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Marvel 616 Review – Strange Tales #109

Strange Tales Issue 109, Photo Credit: Marvel, Writers: Stan Lee & Robert Bernstein, Art: Jack Kirby

What would you do if you had the power of Pandora’s box? If you’re anything like The Sorcerer in Strange Tales #109, you’ll probably run around trying to steal stuff and attacking The Human Torch. The issue gets a bit weird as it dives into magic which is a newer threat for Johnny Storm.

The issue starts with a teaser page showing our hero threatened by a giant tidal wave. A man in a green robe is telling Torch that “Flood is the evil I’ve selected to destroy you!”

So, who is this guy and why does he have it out for ol’ flame head? Basically, it’s a kids get off my lawn story but let’s take a look at it anyway.

The story starts back at the Baxter building where three of the Fantastic Four are all gathered. Johnny flies in through the window and The Thing scolds Johnny for skipping school. But, of course, Johnny has done no such thing. His teachers are just having a conference so he got out early. Johnny was basically bored and missing his family so decided to drop on by. He complains a bit about school and then notices a map in the room and rightly realizes the rest of the team are planning a mission. Johnny wants to join but is told no because it has to happen the next day when Johnny is in school.

We don’t get any real information about the mission, other than the FF plans to “…make life a little tougher for the commies!” Which, yeah sounds about right for these comics at that time. Johnny complains about how boring it is being a full time student at boring Glenville. As Johnny flies off we get a rare glimpse of how Ben Grim actually feels about Johnny. He says he loves the hot-head like a brother.

On his way out, Torch sees a fire in a building and uses his powers to suck in all the flames and saves the people in the upper floors. Then he sees a flash flood which has washed out some train tracks. Luckily for the passengers, Johnny is able to convert the flood water into steam and the train passes by safely.

Yeah, sometimes the powers of The Human Torch are kind of silly and so are the random dangers he flies by. But his powers, especially at this time, are a bit flexible anyway.

The next disturbance Torch hears is some commotion at a place where he knows an “eccentric old hermit known as The Sorcerer lives!”

So what’s the big trouble about? Well, this dude is literally trying to get kids off of his lawn. But this time, with dogs. Dogs which are leashed I should mention. As far as I can tell, this guy isn’t actually breaking any kind of law, even if he is being rather unpleasant.

Not quite sure who voted The Human Torch the head of the neighborhood watch, but he decides to take things into his own hands. He puts a leash of flames around the dogs and basically yells at The Sorcerer for scaring the kids. Johnny tells the guy to put his dogs away or Johnny will take them to the dog pound. The Sorcerer puts the dogs away and asks Johnny to tell the kids to stay away from him and give him privacy. Johnny asks if The Sorcerer knows what he’s called around the neighborhood. The dude says yes and the name is well earned because he has studied black magic for years. Johnny then tells the guy if he wants privacy so bad, he’ll give it to him with a wall of flame around his house. The Sorcerer points out he won’t be able to come and go if there is a wall of flame there. Johnny responds he can’t have it both ways, “If you want freedom of movement, others must have it as well!” The Sorcerer gives in but tells Johnny he won’t forget it.

At this point, let’s sum up here. I’m not one to be on the side of a wealthy property owner or anything but in the last few minutes a guy who lives on private property tried to get kids off his lawn, with pets he legally owns and properly kennels, was called an eccentric by a super powered human, nearly had his dogs burnt by said super human, had his lawn burned by fire and was then told he had to let people just come onto his property. I think rather than threaten this guy, perhaps Johnny should have looked up real estate egress laws because, yeah, now this guy is going to go full villain.

Johnny doesn’t really think the guy has black magic so feels pretty safe leaving and taking the kids back to their home. But what Johnny does not know is that The Sorcerer is about to discover Pandora’s box. You know, the one from the myth where basically all bad things were let out into the world? Yeah that one. Which seems weird because if we believe the myth, the stuff in the box couldn’t be put back so how would owning it help? The only thing left inside was supposedly hope and we already have that too so, I think Pandora’s box is just a box at this point. Also, if we believe the myth it was a jar not a box but whatever.

Ah, but see, these are comics we’re reading so they have a ready excuse. The Sorcerer explains (to himself), “But what other experts on Greek legend don’t know is the Circe, the greatest sorceress of ancient times, used her fantastic magic to force all the evils to return to the box…” Circe then seals the box with a magic incantation. So there you have it, perfectly logically explained and we’re good to continue with the story.

If we are to believe The Sorcerer he got that very box “…unwittingly sent to him in a crate full of Greek artifacts by an expert from Athens!” If it was sent unwittingly, then this expert was not much of an expert. Or maybe they were looking for a jar not a box instead?

Anyway, The Sorcerer continues studying ancient texts and vowing revenge on The Human Torch. He also points out he can unleash and recapture all of the imps which are in the box through his magic.

Two weeks later he shows up at a bank holding a box. He is not taken seriously at first when he demands money from the bank and the security guards want to take him in to have his mental health checked. They don’t put it quite that nicely.

But the Sorcerer is prepared and unleashes the evil of hatred. Before you know it, everyone in the bank is fighting with one another over trivial stuff. The Sorcerer uses the opportunity to grab as much cash as he can and strolls out of the bank. He then recalls the imp of hatred and lets out the imp of… forgetfulness. I guess that’s a kind of evil in some cases? Anyway, it causes everyone there to forget what just happened. Johnny goes to investigate and realizes the people there are not lying, they’ve been manipulated somehow.

The Sorcerer goes on a bit of a crime spree, stealing jewels with the imp of… sleepiness, stealing art from a museum with the imp of… paralysis, and furs with the imp of… cold. And he covers his tracks in the same way after each one.

One night in Glenville the police hold a meeting where Johnny is present and one of the officers says it seems like the crook is some sort of wizard which makes Johnny think of The Sorcerer. The Human Torch rushes off to find the bad guy sorting his ill gotten gains. The Torch has the advantage of surprise but The Sorcerer unleashes disease from the box to sicken Johnny. This works for a moment until Johnny heats himself up enough to burn off any germs. So, instead The Sorcerer lets out the evil of a tidal wave like we were teased in the beginning.

Sure enough, Johnny is soaked and his flame goes out. The cops show up but The Sorcerer unleashes foolishness on the cops. But there are still more cops who are not affected yet and they fire shots at The Sorcerer. Good thing for him magic can apparently ignore the rules of physics completely because The Sorcerer unleashes… laziness… to slow down the bullets. Yeah, not kidding.

Johnny stalls for time by asking about the box, hoping he can dry out enough to flame on. And, as The Sorcerer thinks he has Johnny defeated, Johnny asks if he can choose the manner of his own death. The Sorcerer agrees and unleashes fire which, of course, only powers up our hero. Johnny grabs the box from The Sorcerer and welds it shut, saying he is going to take it to the ocean so it can’t be found again.

The Sorcerer is terrified when Johnny gets back. This is because, just before Johnny left, the imp of fear poked out of the box in the direction of The Sorcerer. This guy is probably going to be permanently scared of everything.

The last panel is Johnny reuniting with the rest of the FF who seem to have heard about Johnny’s exploits and all is well again.

There are a few interesting things about this issue. One, it firmly establishes magic as being a real and regular thing in the world of 616, thus truly paving the way for Dr. Strange to show up soon. Second, it separates Johnny Storm from the FF a bit so there is the possibility of splitting this group up into different adventures at any time.

Also, while I certainly don’t condone the behavior of The Sorcerer once he has Pandora’s box, Johnny sure seems bossy to random people in the neighborhood in this issue. This certainly doesn’t mean Johnny is bad or evil in any way but it would be easy to see how a super powered person could intimidate the heck out of someone for, you know, wanting kids not to hang around their lawn or whatever.

We’ve certainly not seen the last of Johnny Storm, or of magic in the 616 but it’s a long way from being fully explored just yet.

Next time we’re getting small again with Ant-Man but he’s going to bring along a new player in the 616 as we first meet The Wasp in Tales to Astonish #44!

Posted on by slickdungeon · 3 Comments

Marvel 616 Review – The Amazing Spider-Man #3

The Amazing Spider-Man Issue #3 Photo Credit: Marvel Written by Stan Lee, Art by Steve Ditko

Few heroes are as defined by their villains as Spider-Man is. Outside of Batman, Spidey has the most recognizable gallery of rogues in all of super hero comics. Undeniably one of the most infamous of those rogues is the one and only Dr. Octopus. He’ll have a huge and complicated influence on the life of Peter Parker and everyone around him. But he had to appear for the first time somewhere. For him it was the third issue of The Amazing Spider-Man. While his intro establishes a good number of the baselines of what we will come to know about the scientist turned villain, much of his origins will be revised and updated to become more intricate and complicated.

Yet, even at his debut, the cover of the issue promises something special with Dr. Octopus. He seems to be the first villain who can truly claim to have more power than Spider-Man. So who is he, where did he come from, and why does he have it out for Spider-Man? Let’s find out.

The first teaser page of the comic promises Doctor Octopus is the only enemy ever to defeat Spider-Man. This is a bold claim considering Spider-Man has been down a time or two but it does turn out to be the case, as Obi-Wan Kenobi would say, from a certain point of view. And we get the promise of a special appearance by the Human Torch. He’s already wrapped up in Spider-Man’s life but I find it intriguing every time Stan Lee brings on a guest in a comic because it helps to establish the shared universe of heroes each time it happens.

The story begins with a run of the mill bank robbery. The crooks think they’ll have an easy time of it until Spider-Man flashes his Spider signal at them and proceeds to knock the bad guys out with ease.

In fact, it’s so easy it leads Spidey to wish he had an opponent who would give him a run for his money. This kind of wish is a bit of a precursor to a running theme in Peter Parker’s life. Every time he thinks things are going well, or that he’s got his job as a superhero down pat, a huge threat will appear and often times come close to destroying him. As readers, we all know, if a hero is wishing for a bigger challenge, he or she won’t need to wait long.

The scene shifts to the generically named US Atomic Research Center where someone called Doctor Octopus is about to perform an experiment. We get our first glimpse of the doctor wearing his specially designed arms that become the defining physical feature of the bad guy.

What should be a tool of science will soon become the very thing which traps a decent man into doing evil things. The guards in the room observing Dr. Otto Octavius say he is the most brilliant atomic researcher in our country today. I’m not sure, but I would bet if Dr. Bruce Banner heard that, he’d disagree. And speaking of Dr. Bruce Banner, other than being brilliant scientists, they have something else in common. Failed science experiments. There is an accident involving radiation, although this issue doesn’t go into what the cause was, or how it happened. But, the end result is an explosion. Unfortunately, Dr. Octavius is caught in the heart of the blast. He survives but apparently absorbs an immense amount of radiation.

In the real world, an accident like this would without question kill the victim. But, in the world of Marvel comics in the 1960’s? Getting hit by radiation is virtually guaranteed to give you super powers. Quite frequently they turn out to be animal based super powers.

Sure enough, in the hospital the doctors know two things about Dr. Octopus. First, he is brain damaged. In other words, something has altered his mind, so even if he was a good and noble scientist at one time, there is no telling what he’ll be like now. Secondly, they cannot remove his artificial arms. It’s a bit unclear if doing so would actually kill Octavius or if they are simply fused into him and there’s not a clear way to remove them. This is something that will come up a lot in later stories involving Dr. Octopus.

When Dr. Octopus wakes up he insists to the doctor he must return to his work. I’m not sure if this was intentional or not but the doctor who is telling Octavius to stay put sure resembles one Dr. Donald Blake, and the nurse in the background looks a lot like Jane Foster. It’s never officially mentioned but it would be easy to assume Dr. Blake could have been asked to treat Dr. Octavius.

More importantly than who is in the background, this scene establishes how altered Dr. Octavius’ mind is. Rather than assume the medical doctor is acting in his best interest, Otto assumes people are jealous of him and want to keep him away from his work.

The window of the hospital room has bars on it, most likely to prevent accidents from a high floor, but Octavius thinks he is being kept prisoner. With a thought, his mechanical arms move and remove the bars for him and Dr. Otto Octavius officially becomes Dr. Octopus.

The Doc immediately uses his newfound power to intimidate others.

Meanwhile, J. Jonah Jameson wants pictures of the notable scientist at the hospital and one Peter Parker is more than happy to volunteer to be the one to get them. Peter figures that as Spider-Man, this will be as easy as taking out those bank robbers was. The hospital itself, known as Bliss Hospital seems a bit sketchy as it is fenced off and locked up when Spider-Man gets there. Spidey easily climbs the walls and wishes once again for a bit of real competition.

Be careful what you wish for, because as soon as he gets to the window, Spider-Man sees Doctor Octopus for the first time. Octavius has imprisoned the staff at the hospital and demanded they bring him equipment. He is refusing to let them go, even though they have given in to his demands.

When Dr. Octopus dangles someone out of a window, Spider-Man decides he has to launch into action and for the first time he takes on what will become one of his key villains. The artwork in this particular panel is notably exciting and I think one of the main reasons Doctor Octopus keeps coming back.

Peter doesn’t really know what he’s walking into here and Doctor Octopus wallops him with the mechanical arms hard enough to make Spider-Man think twice. Even though Spider-Man manages to web up a couple of the mechanical arms, Dr. Octopus snaps the webbing. This already puts Octavius in a stronger category than any other villain Peter has faced.

I’m not sure if this was a mistake, or a joke, or what but at one point Dr. Octopus refers to Spider-Man as Super-Man. Octavius also says his power is the energy of an atom, born of a nuclear accident. Pretty strong claims here. Dr. Octopus gets the upper hand and essentially tosses Peter right out of the window he came through.

Now, it must be said that although this only the third issue of The Amazing Spider-Man, there have been times when Spider-Man has lost a battle before. The Fantastic Four were able to subdue him, and the Vulture made a pretty good run at Peter. But, I would still say this is the first time Spider-Man was defeated. Why do I say that? Because that’s what Peter himself thinks. And Spider-Man is only truly defeated when he is doubting himself. This is the lowest point we’ve seen him anywhere so far.

Although Spider-Man was defeated here, he did win a small battle. The people who were being kept prisoner escaped during the fight, causing Dr. Octopus to realize he needed to flee.

But Octavius has a new plan and he heads right for the US Atomic Research Center. Dr. Octopus wants to destroy part of the nuclear plant to demonstrate his power and he lowers the lead shielding which was keeping the radiation at bay.

The authorities realize they are up against incredible odds and post sentries to keep anyone from going in or out of the research center.

At home, Peter is feeling pretty down after his defeat. He also has to tell J.J.J. that he can’t get the pictures of Doctor Octopus. But all is not lost. The Governor asks the Fantastic Four for help. Most of them are away on a different mission but the Human Torch has been asked to try and help out. Unfortunately the Torch is flamed out because he’s, “used my flame so much recently, I have to wait a few days to let it get strong again!”

And so, I guess, everyone thinks the best use of the Human Torch’s time is to go do an assembly at Midtown High where Peter Parker happens to be in the audience. Johnny Storm does a few fire based tricks but nothing major. Then he gives a bit of an inspirational speech where he talks about how the Fantastic Four have been discouraged before but it’s important to never give up.

Peter really takes this to heart. I find this super interesting because one of my favorite things about Spider-Man is how he refuses to give up the fight even when the odds are hopeless. Turns out, we have one of his contemporaries, Johnny Storm to thank for that.

After the speech, Peter thanks the Torch for the moving words but Johnny doesn’t seem to think much of it.

So, of course, Peter gets right back in the game and heads back to face Dr. Octopus. He’s able to use his spidey-sense to evade all the traps and security Octavius has set up.

And then, Peter does something else I love about this character. He uses his brains before his muscles. Instead of taking Dr. Octopus head on, he first makes his way to the chem lab.

We don’t know right away what he’s doing but it’s clearly risky and Peter has a plan in mind. He next goes to find Dr. Octopus and we learn that the chemicals Peter was messing around with were a chemical compound he made that would fuse Dr. Octopus’ metal arms together.

There is quite the fight but ultimately, Spider-Man prevails. Peter then decides to find The Human Torch to let him know Dr. Octopus is all taken care of and cryptically thanks him for saving Spider-Man.

The issue ends with Peter back in school watching Johnny do a demonstration in the sky as Flash Thompson tries to get under Peter’s skin.

There is a pin up page in this issue and for everyone who had an issue and cut that page out, well, ouch because this issue has at least once sold for $144,000.

This issue is a landmark issue for both Peter Parker and Dr. Otto Octavius which sets up stories for literally decades to come. It helps that the good Dr. got a full comic book length story for his debut and it sure didn’t hurt that The Human Torch showed up to help sales out a bit.

Next time we’ll be seeing more exploits of the one and only Human Torch as we catch up with him in the pages of Strange Tales #109!

Posted on by slickdungeon · 3 Comments

Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game Core Rulebook Chapter 1 Breakdown

Marvel Multiverse Role Playing Game Core Rulebook by Matt Forbeck

Hello Marvel fans and tabletop gamers! I have with me the Core Rulebook for the new TTRPG Marvel Multiverse Role Playing Game. I wanted to take a quick look at chapter one of the book. We’ll be going through chapter by chapter on this blog so if you want to, follow along. Some chapters I will take a much deeper look at than others but my goal here is to give you the basic information of what you need to know if you are considering playing this game. When the first adventure for the game comes out, I’ll review that as well.

(Note: this post contains affiliate links. If you purchase something through this post I will get a small commission at no extra cost to you)

Chapter 1 – How to Play

Coming in at just five pages, this is one of the shortest chapters in the whole book. There is still plenty of information in the chapter but how relevant it is to you is going to depend on how experienced a TTRPG player you are. If you are an experienced player, most of this chapter is going to sound familiar and a lot of it can simply be skipped. If you are brand new to TTRPG’s you’ll definitely want to read the chapter but, to be honest, there are better sources out there that summarize what a TTRPG is and what is expected in that type of setting.

The essential things to know in the chapter are what you need to play, the ways to make your table a safe setting for everyone, and the house rules section.

All you need to play is the book, a group of friends, a set of 6 sided dice, character sheets and something to write with. It’s a pretty standard list for most TTRPG’s and it’s not too hard to come up with the materials so entry into this game is pretty easy.

The section about using safety tools for your TTRPG’s has some good advice in it which applies to basically all role playing games. What it gets down to is making sure everyone is on the same page with what kind of game you want to play, being considerate of everyone at the table, and making sure you have ways to make the game friendly and fun for all involved.

One thing they do recommend, and I strongly agree with, is having a session zero. If you’re not familiar with this concept, think of it as a session where you meet with your players to go over any ground rules, make characters, decide on what kind of game they are looking to play and making sure you as the Narrator don’t cross any lines that would make the game a traumatic experience for anyone.

There is also a list of recommended safety tools which are all very helpful. For a superhero game, these may be a little less necessary than in something like a dark horror game, but they are always good to have.

The book mentions that there are an infinite number of universes in the Marvel multiverse so your game is playing in your own unique version of that idea.

Finally, the chapter lets Narrators know they are free to change rules as they see fit at their table. This is also fairly standard in most TTRPG’s but it’s always nice to see the official rulebook acknowledge that players can make the game into their own, with the permission of the publisher. I’m sure there will be plenty of rules I’ll be homebrewing in the course of my game but I do try to stick to rules as written when I can.

In Conclusion

There’s really not a lot to go over in this chapter. If you are experienced with TTRPG’s feel free to sail right past this one. If this is your first game, read it but just remember this is a pretty short resource to get you started. In fact, some of the safety tools mentioned in this chapter have a larger, and in some cases better, breakdown of what a TTRPG really is and how to make sure everyone has a good time.

Next time, we’ll also be looking at a short chapter but there will be a lot more of a breakdown as we get into the core mechanics. In the meantime, if you are interested enough to buy the book, check out how to do that below. Otherwise, see you next time!

To read that post just click here.

How to Buy the book

If you have read enough to realize this is a game you want to try out there are a few things you can do to get it. The different methods have some pros and cons so I’ll go into that a bit as well.

And, I’m not trying to make the hard sell here but if you want to help out this blog, buying through the links below goes a long way and it won’t cost you any extra.

  1. You can pick up a copy at your local friendly gaming store. The books should run around $50-60 bucks and not only do you get to support a local business, you get to walk away with a copy in your hot little hands that day, no muss, no fuss.
  2. You can buy a hardcover copy on Amazon for $53.99. This is a great way to get the core book, although it does come with a hefty price tag and of course you will need to wait for it to be shipped to you. If you want to help this blog out buy your copy here.
  3. You can get a copy for Roll20 for $49.99 on drivethrurpg. However, a couple of warnings here. First off, you’re not getting a physical version of the book this way. Also, you need to have an account on the Roll20 Virtual Table Top in order to access the content. (This is a free account and there’s a link in the purchase description on the Drivethrurpg site if you don’t already have one) Finally, and this is my biggest complaint about this purchase method, if you buy this through Drivethrurpg you are not getting a PDF of the book. As far as I can tell, there is no way to get a PDF of this book at this point. If you do want to buy this version and use it on Roll20 it’s a great option. And if you want to help this blog out you can buy your copy here.
  4. If you happen to have Marvel Unlimited, you can get the test version of the book by typing in Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game: Playtest Rulebook. This will be an earlier edition and some of the rules have changed but it’s got the basics.
  5. If you don’t have Marvel Unlimited and you are willing to shell out $10 to get the Playtest book, you can get it on Amazon. If you want to help out this blog buy it here. Again, it’s not the full current book but it does cover the basics and it gets you started at a much lower price point.

Special Bundles

If you are all in on the game and have cash to spare you could really go all out in a couple of ways.

  1. You could buy the Core Rulebook and pre-order the upcoming adventure module MARVEL MULTIVERSE ROLE PLAYING GAME: THE CATACLYSM OF KANG and the upcoming MARVEL MULTIVERSE ROLE PLAYING GAME: X-MEN EXPANSION books. Getting all three at once will run you around $135. If you’d like to help out this blog just make your purchase through one of the linked titles above.
  2. If you are already big time into Roll20 anyway, the best value through drivethrurpg is to get the Marvel Multiverse RPG Roll20 Mega Bundle. This will give you the core rulebook, a short module made for the Roll20 system called Revenge of the Super-Skrull, and the preoder for The Cataclysm of Kang. Just remember this is only for Roll20 and does not include PDF’s. To help out this blog, buy it here.