Strange Tales #111 (C Story) Photo Credit: Marvel, Writer: Stan Lee, Artist: Steve Ditko
When Dr. Strange first appeared there hadn’t been much out there like him. Sure, there were some comics that featured magic or magic users. But the groundbreaking artwork of Steve Ditko left an impression on first glance with this series. It was like looking at a surrealist painting and falling into a world where the rules of physics did not apply.
So one would think the introduction of one of Strange’s main rivals would be just as groundbreaking. Strange Tales #111 (C story) introduces us to Baron Mordo. He will go on to be a thorn in Strange’s side for years to come. But this story feels rather mundane for such a villain.
Probably the most interesting thing in the story is the narrator comments on the scroll at the beginning of the story which says, “Men call him Dr. Strange, and speak his name in whispers! But there is another– One who is still more dreaded! In this tale of the occult you are about to meet Dr. Strange’s arch-foe, the dreaded Baron Mordo!!”
The story begins in a heavily guarded castle in the heart of Europe. Baron Mordo is at home and is angry there is still one man who knows more secrets of black magic than he does. No, it’s not Dr. Strange. It’s the Master. Mordo wants to know all of this man’s secrets and he’s willing to kill for it. Mordo figures once he has this knowledge, he can do away with Dr. Strange.
Mordo goes into a trance and enters the astral plane. This is a key component of Dr. Strange stories. What does Mordo do? He finds the servant who prepares the Master’s meals. He hypnotizes this servant and gets him to put poison in the Master’s food.
Sure enough, The Master eats his food and is poisoned. Perhaps Mordo doesn’t have the best planning skills though. He demands the Master give up all his secrets but the Master is willing to die to guard them. If that happens, Mordo is left with nothing.
Coincidentally, Dr. Strange has just finished a black magic experiment and projects into the astral plane to tell his Master about it. Through Strange’s enchanted amulet he can tell the Master is in trouble. His astral projection races to Tibet to protect his mentor.
Mordo and Strange have what amounts to a metaphysical fist fight. Strange can’t understand why Mordo wouldn’t want to help his fellow man and Mordo can’t understand why Strange wouldn’t want to rule over them. Strange uses a bit of trickery telling Mordo his amulet can trace Mordo’s spirit to where his body is. Mordo’s astral projection races back to his body. This was just a ruse, Strange’s amulet couldn’t do that but the trick enabled Strange to follow Mordo to where he actually was. Since Mordo is no longer on the astral plane, his control over the servant is severed.
Mordo vows never to rest until he has destroyed Dr. Strange and the Master. Dr. Strange knows he has won this round but also knows Mordo will be back for more. We’re then promised more tales of the occult in future issues of Strange Tales.
While this issue does introduce a big villain, it’s largely uninspired and doesn’t show the flare of future stories. There’s not artwork in this one that is truly groundbreaking and if you took the astral projection out, this would essentially be a fist fight between two students who hate one another.
There are much bigger, much more interesting, and far more revolutionary stories in store for Dr. Strange but that’s where we must leave him for now.
Next up we’ll be checking in on our family of heroes, The Fantastic Four in the pages of Fantastic Four #16! And they’ll be joined by the Ant-Man himself in this issue!
Photo Credit: Marvel, Writers: Stan Lee, Ernie Hart, Artists: Dick Ayers, Jack Kirby
Well, we’ve come to it. The first appearance of the unforgettable villain, Asbestos Man.
According to Wikipedia asbestos is “a group of naturally occurring, toxic, carcinogenic, and fibrous silicate minerals.”
In 1963 when Strange Tales #111 debuted, asbestos was seen as a nearly miraculous substance. It was fire resistant and in America it was promptly used in everything in the building process from cement to paint. It was not widely known at the time that asbestos also has very negative effects such as causing lung cancer, mesothelioma (a cancer of the lung lining), and asbestosis (lung scarring). Buildings built in the 1980s and earlier often used the stuff for insulation as well. In other words, asbestos was everywhere. It wasn’t until 2024 that the EPA finalized a ban of the substance.
So, it seems ridiculous to have made a character named Asbestos Man. But at the time it totally made sense. It was a revolutionary and modern material thought to reduce the number of deaths from fire. What if there was a man who could master this material? Who better to be a villain for our hot headed hero Johnny Storm, aka The Human Torch?
In walks Asbestos Man in our Marvel 616 story. Who is this guy and what is his deal?
The first page is a teaser panel showing Asbestos Man fighting Johnny Storm. The press around them are in disbelief as Asbestos Man has the upper hand. The narrator asks, “Will the Asbestos Man ring down the curtain on the brilliant career of the teen-age torch?”
Even Johnny himself thinks, “… nothing, even my most intense flame, affects him in the least! It looks like I’m beaten at last!”
Seems pretty dire. So how did we get here? Well the story proper starts by introducing us to Professor Orson Kasloff walking down the street deep in thought. This guy is up to no good.
Why would a scientific genius need to contact the underworld? We’ll find out in a moment. The professor sees a commotion in the street and wants to find out what all the fuss is about. It seems The Human Torch has just stopped some jewel thieves. Kasloff sees him in action and realizes the power of fire is too much for the common criminal.
At the same time, Blackie Barker “of the underworld” is watching on wishing there was some way to get rid of our hero. He’s the mastermind of this little robbery but he escapes without Torch knowing he was involved.
At this point Kasloff decides to “review the past” giving us a glimpse into his troubles. He’s a brilliant and valued chemist but he doesn’t think he’s being paid what he is worth. He’s big mad that his company profits from his ideas while paying him a mere pittance.
I think a lot of us can relate to this problem but it seems to me filing some patents or asking for a raise might be the way to go here. Instead, Kasloff decides he’s only going to work for himself. That’s also a fine option if you want to go into business for yourself. Kasloff even has a product that might sell. He’s invented a liquid solvent that can melt steel and iron upon contact. Rather than sell that, Kasloff thinks about using it to melt the company safe. I don’t know how much is in the safe but I bet it’s less than he would get for selling his formula.
Naturally, Kasloff decides his best answer is to become a criminal.
Kasloff thinks of other criminal ideas he could pull off too. He thinks he can invent a pen that can mimic any signature as a perfect forgery. He also thinks he could make a machine that will reproduce any bill, bond, or legal paper, making perfect counterfeits.
Personally, I think between the forgery and counterfeit he could stop there. I mean if you can literally print your own money and not get caught, why do you need to do anything else? But Kasloff is just full of ideas. He thinks about ways to raid Fort Knox and plunder world treasures.
We then come back to current day where Kasloff makes his first attempt at crime. He does try to rob the company he works for. But an alarm sounds and he escapes just in time.
Say what you will about Kasloff, he knows his limitations. Although he is a scientific genius he has no experience in crime. He concocts a plan. He goes to the city slums and tells shady looking people in bars (Blackie Barker himself in fact) that he is, “…looking for a member of the underworld to take into partner-ship…” That goes about as well as you’d expect.
Once Kasloff sees The Torch, he has an idea. Defeat the superhero and the criminals will come to him. To implement the plan he first buys a literal castle far from any other habitation, yet in a rural area close to town. It’s a bargain because everyone thinks it’s haunted.
Kasloff gets to work and invents his own form of asbestos which he says is made from, “chrysotile, calcium, and iron.” He makes a whole suit of this stuff and includes a net and a shield which are also fire resistant. And we finally get our first full glimpse of Asbestos Man in his suit.
Kasloff may be a villain but he’s also impolite. He sends a letter to Johnny Storm and addresses it to “The cowardly Human Torch.” It’s a challenge to face off against the guy. Johnny is furious but he’s talked down by Reed and The Thing. But then those two go off to, “work on our tax report with Sue!” Johnny tries to burn the note but it doesn’t work and now the teenager is intrigued. He does his research and realizes that asbestos is, in fact, fireproof for all intents and purposes.
Asbestos Man then has the gall to call Johnny directly and challenge him to a fight. There’s no way he’s backing down now. Johnny is invited to the castle for a knock down drag out brawl in front of the press.
Johnny arrives and starts fighting. His fire stream can’t break past Asbestos Man’s shield. He tosses fire balls only to have them caught by the fireproof net. These get thrown right back at Johnny. The Kasloff drops Johnny through a trap door.
Just an aside here but there are so many times members of the Fantastic Four end up falling through trap doors. You’d think they’d be more cautious of where they step when they see giant levers in a room.
This trap door drops Johnny into a moat filled with water which extinguishes his flames. And the press now has pictures to prove the defeat. This really gets to Johnny and I don’t think I’ve seen a panel where he looks more dejected than this one.
The next day the other members of the FF offer to help Johnny but this is one fight he feels the need to win on his own. For his part, Kasloff breaks Blackie Barker’s gang out of prison. They go back to Kasloff’s castle. The gang is worried about being caught by The Torch but Kasloff assures them he has plenty of escape routes for them. The group starts to plan their next heist.
Being a good sister, Sue Storm reminds Johnny he was depending on his flame alone. That’s not going to work when someone is fireproof. Johnny realizes he can’t use a direct attack. He goes back for another round. This time he’s planning on using the things around Kasloff to defeat him.
He starts by melting the iron handle of Kasloff’s net. Johnny next melts a chandelier above Kasloff’s head making it drop on him. Kasloff throws some of his steel melting formula at The Torch but Johnny melts the bottle in mid air. Then The Torch melts the floor right under Asbestos Man’s feet. Finally Johnny creates enough flame around Kasloffs head to suck away the oxygen until the criminal gives up.
The story ends with the police capturing the criminal and Johnny saying, “Rember professor, you can never play with fire without… getting burned!“
Not to worry Johnny, you also can’t play with Asbestos without having some seriously negative health issues.
It’s certainly odd to read a story about a man whose powers are based off a substance we know to stay away from. But as far as the story goes it was fairly entertaining. I still can never quite wrap my head around why any member of the FF is dealing with crimes as mundane as burglary. And I still find it hard to figure out why some of these criminals don’t just sell some of this stuff they invent. The stories will get more sophisticated and we haven’t nearly seen the end of Asbestos Man.
This isn’t exactly a landmark issue for Marvel 616 but it does set up one of the main antagonists for our favorite teenager on fire. We’ll be checking back in on the whole Fantastic Four again soon. But for now it’s on to the next story.
Next up we’ll be catching up with the Sorcerer Supreme Dr. Stephen Strange in the pages of Strange Tales #111 (C story) where we will meet another new villain in the form of Baron Mordo!
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!
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]!
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!
Strange Tales Issue 108 D Story, Art by Steve Ditko, Script by Stan Lee
Strange Tales is an anthology book so sometimes there are multiple stories in a single issue which relate to the 616 universe. The D story in issue 108 is a bit of an oddball because while it doesn’t entirely relate to a lot of what is going on in 616, it does introduce some characters who will come up in the long run. Also, it’s one of the few comics so far in the 616 universe not available on Marvel Unlimited. If you want to read the issue you may have to do a bit of Google sleuthing to find it. Merlin the Magician, famous from the Arthurian legends shows up here and this will not be the last time we see him. We do also see a character called The Black Knight but this is not the modern character, nor is it the character who showed up in the Golden Age of comics. We also run into King Arthur himself, as well as our villain Sir Mogard. The Black Knight is nothing more than a construct and is the twist of the story but the rest of the characters mentioned do all come back into 616 at various times.
The story here is quite short, running only four pages long. It’s titled The Iron Warrior and relates a short incident in the life of Merlin the Magician. Basically, Sir Mogard thinks Merlin is not so powerful as he seems. Sir Mogard accuses Merlin of being a fake and throws down his gauntlet. Merlin is instructed to choose a champion and meet Mogard in battle. Merlin accepts.
Merlin shows up the next morning with his champion, a knight in black armor. There is a joust and a melee with swords. The Black Knight bests Sir Mogard who has to surrender. Mogard then says Merlin had nothing to do with the battle, therefore Merlin is not so powerful. The twist here is that Merlin was controlling the knight, nothing but an empty set of armor, the whole time with his magic. It also says Mogard is struck dumb from the wonder he beheld. We’ll see if that is true the next time he shows up.
And that is the whole story. A short one, but it has a few implications for 616. It reestablishes magic as a real theme and gives us a couple of characters who will become important later. Also, it was kind of nice to have a little bit of fantasy thrown into the superhero mix just to have something a little different to read. I don’t think the intention with this story was to set up anything long term and likely could have been a throw away story. Still, in the long run Stan Lee will make use of it and he does come back to Arthurian legend a few times.
Next up on the reading list we’ll be checking in on the wall crawler himself in The Amazing Spider-Man #2!
Strange Tales #108 Photo Credit: Marvel, Writers Robert Bernstein & Stan Lee, Artists Steve Ditko & Jack Kirby
While a lot of the rest of Marvel 616 has been chugging along, Johnny Storm in Strange Tales has had a bit of trouble finding an arch nemesis equal to his powers. He usually seems like he can just blow past these guys and if he really gets stuck, he can always call on the rest of the Fantastic Four to help out. So far, not many of the bad guys have really stood out, and neither does, The Painter. This is a bad guy who can paint anything in record speed and it will come to life.
The issue starts us off with The Painter drawing Johnny’s demise in an asbestos lined room fighting the other members of his team.
We next jump back in time to see a bunch of crooks having a rough time committing their crimes because Johnny is in town. Torch then stops a getaway car by melting the asphalt right under it. Not sure if Johnny is on the hook for the repairs but the bad guys are stopped. We see Johnny stop a bank robbery using smoke rings, and flame scissors to cut away the bags of loot. The police seem more than happy for the assists from Torch and everything is going his way. But Johnny knows this isn’t the end. He tells the cops, “Mark my words, right now some master criminal or evil genius is figuring out some so-called brilliant scheme to get rid of me! It’s happened before..”
Then, as you might expect we see a clip show worth of flashbacks of enemies Johnny has faced. He mentions The Wizard, The Destroyer, Paste-Pot Pete and Zemu, Despot of the 5th dimension. They’re all out of commission at this point but Johnny is still around. Johnny knows it’s just a matter of time before he’ll face a new villain.
Of course he is right and that’s where we see the criminal element come together. There is an organized crime leader named “Scar” Tobin and he is interrupted by, “Wilhelm Van Vile, the counter-feiter the Torch caught… but busted out of jail last week!”
This dude wants revenge and he has… a set of paints. He demonstrates his powers by drawing a three headed gorilla to intimidate the gangsters. He does this at lightning speed so they don’t even seem to have time to pull their guns. The painting comes to life and Wilhelm Van Vile is able to control it telepathically. The other bad guys try to stop him but The Painter just keeps painting stuff that stops them, including making one of their guns super heavy, and it crashes through the floor. Van Vile paints a magic carpet and he takes the gangsters along with him on it. This gives Van Vile the opportunity to narrate his origin story.
He was locked up first for making poor imitations of famous art and trying to sell them as originals and then he gets locked up again because he was making counterfeit bills but Johnny caught a mistake on the bills. He does have to turn into the Human Torch to get the job done and The Painter swears his revenge. The Painter then tells the tale of breaking out of prison and digging into a strange underground cavern. He finds a set of paints that look brand new but Van Vile is also aware of “ancient Egyptian picture-writing” and believes the pictures are saying the paints are magical. He also thinks these paints come from a group of aliens who traveled through space by using the paints. (What can I say, it’s a comic book. They have to have aliens or communists at this point right?) The Painter takes a chance and paints his way out of the cave.
We go back to the present where The Painter says he wants to be, “The King of Crime!” I do feel like parts of this issue are a precursor to the character who will become the The Kingpin. “Scare” Tobin kind of looks like him and this is the first real mention that there could be a “King of Crime” at all in 616.
We see The Painter toy with Torch for a bit. He draws a Fantasti-car and giant fire hydrants and he does manage to douse Torch. Johnny is safe but he definitely knows something is up. The Painter then makes some creatures at a carnival come to life. We get to see a couple of weird monster drawings from Jack Kirby which is always fun. Torch drives them into the sea and saves the day. Then The Painter draws a volcano of sand to stop Johnny but that doesn’t work either.
We finally come back to the point of the beginning of the story where The Painter draws Johnny losing a fight to his teammates. And we see him lose this fight. The crooks all hear on the radio this was the end of Johnny Storm and they are overjoyed and plan to take on the rest of the FF as soon as they can.
But The Human Torch suddenly shows up. Johnny burns up the the paintings and magic paints. Turns out Johnny had figured out who was doing this, waited until the bad guys were all asleep and painted a living picture of himself with the magic paints so he was never in any actual danger.
The Painter is baffled as to how Johnny figured this out but it turns out it was Van Vile’s own fault. He was careless in his paintings. He didn’t put nozzles on the fire hydrants, didn’t put any litter baskets in the beach scene, and didn’t even put a 4 on the uniforms of The Fantastic Four. So Johnny combed the area until he found The Painter.
The story ends kind of abruptly right there.
The story was pretty standard for the time but it is clear the creators are trying to find the right person to be the consistent bad guy for Johnny. He’s gone up against a few who will be completely forgotten but he’s also had a run in or two with some who will eventually become major players in 616 continuity. For now, it’s still kind of a bad guy of the week situation for this character.
Next up on the reading list, we’re actually staying on this issue for the D story. I thought it would be better to separate out the reviews, however because they are totally different stories. So next is Strange Tales #108 (D story)!
Here we have one of the first grudge matches of the Marvel 616 universe. On the cover you can see it is Namor vs. Johnny Storm, an epic match up of fire against water. This type of story will become a regular staple of Marvel comics but this one does have some unique features.
The issue starts with Johnny Storm coming home from school to see the rest of the team has had a meeting without him. This is definitely a boys club because Reed remarks how they were working on the notes for their next Fantastic Four adventure and, “Sue was nice enough to type them up for us!” It’s a little ridiculous that Sue Storm has one of the strongest powers in all of Marvel with her ability to become invisible and create force fields but she’s seen as what amounts to as a secretary even by her own team.
Anyway the team, especially The Thing, kind of antagonizes Johnny, reminding him of quitting the team in the last issue. Johnny then decides he’s tired of being treated like a kid and decides to set his sights on winning a fight with a foe single handed. His idea is to go after Namor all alone and beat the Sub-mariner.
He shoots out of his apartment and flies to the sea. His flame dies out and he has to land on a boat. He tells everyone on board who he is but they all think he’s just some stowaway. After the waters get foggy, Johnny is able to light the way for the boat and the sailors realize their mistake.
Johnny sky writes a challenge to Namor just above the surface of the water and Namor gets it. He’s none too happy with Johnny. The pair duke it out going back and forth as to who looks like they might win. Namor uses the power of a puffer fish to save himself at one point, while Johnny goes supernova underwater with his flames. Namor is able to hypnotize Johnny at one point and gets the upper hand. It doesn’t last long though and Johnny is back in the fight.
Johnny is able to flame on while he’s under the water. His powers are still rather loosely defined at this point in the 616 so this kind of thing happens often where it seems like he shouldn’t be able to use his powers but does anyway. Eventually Johnny traps Namor in an underwater cave and gets away.
Exhausted, Johnny meets the same boat he helped earlier, and they give him passage on the ship.
Of course, Namor is not stuck for long and he breaks out. He assumes Johnny has left since he doesn’t see him around anywhere and figures he would have flown back to the continent by this point. Namor is somewhat relieved as the fight has gone out of him a bit. He also realizes Johnny is much stronger than Namor thought. Add that to the fact Johnny is not fully grown and Namor understands what a powerhouse of an ally he could be.
Namor imagines the two of them joining forces to beat the FF and holding the entire world in their hands.
A lot of this issue is just typical fighting for the sake of fighting. But the end with Namor contemplating what could be seems like it could be the foundation for a What if? story.
This was the first real one on one grudge match with Johnny and Namor but it won’t be the last. I also think it’s interesting how Namor was minding his own business and Johnny decides to start a fight. That’s not typically a hero move but it seems to work out in this case.
Up next on the reading list we’ll be sticking with Johnny Storm and the rest of his pals as he and the team meet The Hulk in Fantastic Four #12!
In Strange Tales #102 Johnny Storm met the supervillain known as The Wizard for the first time. He laid a series of traps but Johnny evaded them eventually and with a little help from Sue Storm he was able to trick The Wizard into thinking he had psychic powers. It wasn’t very wizardly for someone who claims to be smarter than anyone considering it’s pretty public knowledge that The Human Torch hangs out with The Invisible Girl.
Despite his less than perfect debut, The Wizard is back for round two with ol’ hothead. The issue starts with a brief recap of the events from issue 102. Then we’re shown The Wizard in prison. He’s been a model prisoner just so he could get placed to work in the prison hospital where there are a bunch of chemicals within reach. He concocts a mixture that is capable of eating through a wall and he proceeds to make a man sized hole in the prison. The guards assume he escapes out this hole but while they are busy looking around for him, The Wizard, who was simply hiding, waltzes right out of the cell door the guards left open for him.
The Wizard sneaks onto a train and heads in the direction of his estate where he observes police looking for him. It’s exactly what he expected and he’s smart enough to have created an electromagnetic force field to keep people out.
While The Wizard is smart, he’s dumb enough to challenge The Human Torch to battle and Johnny gets word of it on the news. He’s not about to give up on a challenge and the opportunity to show up an escaped convict. Sue Storm is not comfortable with the idea though and tries to talk Johnny out of it.
Johnny whips up a fire made double of himself to fool Sue while he goes and takes on The Wizard. The only trouble is his double can’t talk or respond to Sue. She calls up Reed Richards and Ben Grimm but they basically tell Sue to leave it to Johnny because “He has to grow up and stand on his own two feet sometime!” So, yeah, showing not a lot of concern for Johnny’s safety here.
The Human Torch makes it to The Wizard’s estate where he is let in but the police are still kept back. If I was a villain inside of an estate with an impenetrable force field the last thing I would do is to let my rival super hero in but that’s exactly what The Wizard does. His ego is just too big to allow him to do the sensible thing here.
He does have a pretty big rocket launcher though and he fires it at Johnny. The Torch just melts it. Next The Wizard tries to drop Johnny into an asbestos-lined dungeon. Of course, Johnny flies so that backfires. Next up is nerve gas but Johnny stops that with a wall of fire to insulate himself from the gas. I’m really not clear on how the physics of that would work but we’ll just assume it does.
The Wizard boldly claims he was simply testing Johnny when an alarm goes off. Someone else entered the house. He can’t see anything on his security cameras and figures it has to be The Invisible Girl. At least he learns from his mistakes. He goes to the room Sue is in and sprays the air with a special spray he made which reveals where she is. I mean, paint would have worked fine, but sure a special spray, why not? In the room she is in some walls come up and trap Sue. The Wizard then plants a device in the wall and heads back to check on Johnny.
Turns out the device in the wall is an explosive and if Sue can’t escape in five minutes, well, that’s the end of her. The Wizard offers to let Johnny into the room if he flames off. Of course Johnny is going to take that offer. And in a classic villain blunder, The Wizard has placed two heroes in the same deadly room, increasing their chances of escaping.
Once The Wizard is safely away he lets Johnny know if the temperature increases in the room by a single degree the bomb is rigged to go off. Johnny heats up just his hand and fires a small flame at the mechanism for the bomb. He melts the hammer that would hit the bell to cause the chain reaction of the explosion. It melts fast enough the bell is never triggered. Thus, Johnny is free to flame on once again without risking death. But the bomb is about to go off so he melts the wall as fast as he can. He gets lucky and exposes the bomb.
Then, in one of the more ridiculous parts of the issue, Johnny creates a “catapult of flame” which launches the bomb through the roof of the house and into the air where it can explode harmlessly.
After all that, Johnny is ready to grab The Wizard. He heats up the air vents to trigger the sprinkler system. And the floor gets wet enough The Wizard slips and falls. He draws some kind of gun but Johnny does what anyone would expect and… yeah… he… um… makes a saw out of flames and carves the roof above The Wizard so the ceiling falls on him to knock him out. A little silly but we’ll just go with it again.
Sue switches off the lever keeping the forcefield up and by the time the police enter The Wizard is being held by a flame lasso. Sue tells Johnny if The Wizard is smart “…he’ll stay in prison where he’s safe!” so we all know he’s going to break out again. Torch has to have some kind or rival in his own book so it makes sense.
Back at home Sue admonishes Johnny for going against direct orders. The issue ends with a little sibling rivalry as Sue throws a pillow at Johnny for making a joke about her help in the whole thing.
The issue is pretty interesting and does sort of expand Johnny’s fire powers even more. More importantly, it continues to set up The Wizard as a recurring villain who becomes a staple in the foes of not only Johnny but all of the Fantastic Four and several other Marvel heroes.
Next up on the reading list we catch up with the god of thunder once again in the pages of Journey Into Mystery #89!
Allow me to introduce to you the incredible supervillain Paste-Pot Pete! That’s right, he’s the only villain who chooses as his weapon of choice, a pot of paste and a paste gun that shoots out… paste.
Eventually this guy will become known as “The Trapster” but he starts his criminal career with paste. These kinds of stories are why I love Marvel. They have some of the strangest ideas and somehow a lot of them seem to work. In fact, Paste-Pot Pete actually comes fairly close to defeating The Human Torch on his first time out.
One thing you have to say for Paste-Pot Pete is he’s got a lot of flare. Our story starts in Glenville where Johnny Storm is going to school. He’s at the bank and very nearly writes The Human Torch on his deposit slip thus giving away his secret identity. As far as the Fantastic Four goes the idea of secret identities is kind of nebulous. Everyone pretty much knows where they live and that they were four space explorers who got their powers from cosmic rays. Even before the days of Google it wouldn’t have been that hard to put two and two together.
Leaving that aside, in comes Paste-Pot Pete who proudly announces “Meet Paste-Pot Pete… master criminal!” It’s quite an entrance even if you could argue shouting you’re a master criminal is not something a master criminal would do. Then he goes to town on the bankers and security guards. He’s gluing people to walls, gluing guns to guards hips, and rocking an amazing purple bow tie and beret paired with a green suit. It looks like he took some fashion tips from a combination of The Joker and an art student dropout.
Johnny is in the bank but he can’t just burst into flame without giving away who he is. So instead he sends a flame copy of himself to follow the crook. Pete races on out of there, gluing feet to the street as he goes. He even glues a group of police into their own cars so they can’t run out and get him.
Johnny is finally able to flame on and catch up to Pete but not before Pete has broken into a nearby missile base and defeated several armed and trained soldiers by shooting paste at them.
Pete’s there to grab the latest missile and sell it to the highest bidder. He literally captures the missile by shooting it with paste as soon as it is fired. I don’t know what his glue is made of but he mentions that it is super strong and will only last for an hour. Does that remind anyone else of a certain teenager who uses web fluid to swing around?
Pete does get a great line in at the missile base when he flees with the missile saying, “And anyone who tries to stop me will get a taste of paste!”
Of course, Johnny inevitably catches up to the crook. He first tries to shoot flame arrows at the tires of Pete’s truck but Pete’s reflexes are too good and he maneuvers out of the way.
Johnny’s next idea is to burn a ditch in front of the truck but again Pete is too fast for The Human Torch. This time Pete glues some nearby lumber and uses it as planks to get across. For Pete’s first time out, he’s doing really well. He has escaped one of the Fantastic Four three times already which is no easy feat. Johnny is about to just melt the truck as much as he can when he runs out of flame. As that happens, Pete glues Johnny to the missile he’s carting around.
Unfortunately for Pete his glue gets into the housing of the missile and triggers it to fire. Just when it looks like it’s curtains for Johnny he realizes the intense heat of the missile is enough to give him his flame back. He carefully cuts himself out of the glue by flaming on a single finger. Luckily the missile drops into the ocean so no one is harmed. (Although I suppose if Namor hears about it he’s not going to be happy)
Torch catches back up to Pete and this time does melt the truck. Pete gets out alive but Johnny is smart enough to target Paste-Pot Pete’s paste pot. (Try saying that five times fast) Pete is not out of tricks though. There is still paste in his paste gun even when he doesn’t have his pot. He fires glue at a passing airplane and hitches a ride.
While Johnny does recover all the stolen goods, Paste-Pot Pete manages to escape and rendezvous at a boat waiting for him in the ocean. And thus, Paste-Pot Pete enters the annals of Marvel history being one of the few villains who can actually get away from The Human Torch.
Believe it or not, Pete’s character in the future does get to be a lot more complex and interesting. This is a guy who knows how to plan and to be patient which gives him an advantage over other criminals.
I just love that there are characters like Pete in comic books. I would love to see this dude show up and just take on an Avenger or two in the MCU sometime. But until then, we’ll just have to wonder if Paste-Pot Pete is gone for good. (He’s not)
Next up on the reading list we’ll be checking up on Johnny and the rest of the first family of super heroes with Fantastic Four #10!
