Friday 28 February 2014

Fifty years ago today - March 1964.

In a daring development that's sure to rock the internet to its very foundations, Steve Does Comics challenges the authority of the Time Police themselves by posting its quick overview of Marvel's mighty mags from March 1964 a day early.

Can the fabric of the universe survive such insolence?

And what's more, by the time I've finished, will it even want to?

Amazing Spider-Man #10, the Enforcers

The Enforcers make their debut.

I believe this is that rare thing, a Spider-Man cover drawn by Jack Kirby, who some of us felt never quite got to grips with drawing the character.

Avengers #4, Captain America

Captain America returns from his icy tomb, ready to take on all-comers - and owes it all to the block-headed idiocy of the Sub-Mariner.
Fantastic Four #25, Infant Terrible

Forget Galactus. Years before he showed up, the FF find themselves up against a far earlier all-powerful alien.

I've always loved this tale. It has a certain charm.

And pictures of ice cream.
Journey into Mystery #102, Thor and Zarrko

It looks like Zarrko's still causing trouble for our long haired battler.
Strange Tales #118, the Human Torch and the Wizard

The Human Torch's adventures continue to limp along but surely their days are now numbered, as Dr Strange begins to make his presence felt on the cover.

You do fear it can only be a question of time before it's a case of, "By the Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth - begone!" for the Torch.
Tales of Suspense #51, Iron Man and the Scarecrow

The Scarecrow! A, "Super-villain to make you gasp and wonder!"

To be fair, mostly what you wondered was how come Iron Man was having so much trouble against a foe whose only super-power was having two pet crows.
Tales to Astonish #53, Giant-Man and the Porcupine

Poor old Giant-Man, still lumbered with less than stellar opponents - and still having endless trouble dealing with them. No wonder he eventually went mad.
X-Men #4, Magneto and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants

Magneto's back. And he's got his mates with him.

You do wonder why he allied himself with a witless, spineless sycophant and two people who didn't like doing bad things.

Maybe, like Thanos, he secretly wanted to be stopped.

6 comments:

Kid said...


Actually, Jack only drew the Spidey figure on that cover - Steve drew the baddies. (Jack also drew the covers to AF #15 and ASM #1.) As for that FF story, a similar one appeared in Challengers of the Unknown a few years before - also drawn by Jack.

Joe S. Walker said...

"You do wonder why he allied himself with a witless, spineless sycophant and two people who didn't like doing bad things."

Well, Magneto was later retconned into being Wanda and Pietro's dad. As for the Toad, I've always thought that Magneto kept him around simply so he could have someone to call a dolt and clout around the head with no fear of consequences, in keeping with his early characterisation as the nastiest person in the Marvel Universe. I liked him better then, when he was just a bastard instead of being a Holocaust survivor and having a bit of a point.

Anonymous said...

I've read that the "evil" in evil Mutants is supposed to be ironic but I'm sure it wasn't at the time - it was a silly title as Magneto was standing up for downtrodden mutantkind as far as he was concerned and he wouldn't have considered himself to be evil - a champion of justice more like !

John said...

"The Infant Terrible" story was loosely made into a FF cartoon episode and a pretty good one at that, though he looked quite different in the cartoon. It was in the 2nd FF cartoon series, the one with Herbie the Robot. I recall it well because the Invisible Girl was captured by him for a while.

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry I missed Iron Man's epic battle with the Scarecrow and his two murderous crows.
Iron man had kind of a punk rogues gallery didn't he? Lotta low-scoring players on that bench.
And then we have the Porcupine. His main power was he had a lotta pointy quills sticking out of him.
Very effective against coyotes and even wolves, and Ant-man.

John Pitt said...

Alas , I never had ANY of these. It would be another couple of years before I discovered Marvel. At this time I was strictly DC.