Suddenly freed from its cramped distribution deal with DC, the company was now in a position to launch as many titles as it wanted to.
Needless to say, it wasn't going to turn down a chance like that and, thanks to it, the venerable titles Tales of Suspense and Tales to Astonish were about to breathe their last, in order to be replaced by a brand new group of books.
Doctor Doom's brilliant plan to gain entry to the Baxter Building, by pretending to be Daredevil, gathers pace.
Meanwhile, Daredevil's plan to have Latveria declare war on every single one of its neighbours and be destroyed in a nuclear holocaust, if Doom doesn't come rushing back and reverse their body swaps, also gathers pace.
I can't help thinking Doom didn't think this one through properly.
The Avengers come up against Typhon.
I do believe this was the last issue of Hercules' original run in the strip.
I wish I could say he'd made a huge impact while he was there but I can barely recall what he did in any of the stories. My main recollection of him is him fighting an imaginary Hydra for an entire issue while all the real action was going on elsewhere.
Regardless, thanks to his departure, the group is about to be reduced to just three members, only one of whom has super-powers - and that one is the Wasp who isn't exactly in the Galactus category when it comes to abilities.
How will the world's mightiest super-team survive this? How?
Isn't this the one in which the Silver Surfer decides that the only way to stop human beings fighting each other is to go on the rampage and become a threat to all mankind, in order to force it to unite against him?
And there was me thinking Doctor Doom came up with stupid plans.
I do believe the whole point of this tale is to reintroduce him to readers and rob him of a large chunk of his power, in readiness for the launch of his own strip, a few months after this. Yet again, the end of that distribution deal is making its presence felt.
I also believe this cover was re-used for issue #1 of Marvel UK's The Super-Heroes, seven years later.
Hooray! The Spider-Slayer's back!
In fairness, I must declare this to be my favourite incarnation of the robot. I especially like the scene in which it crushes a phone box, with its bare arms, while Spider-Man is trying to use it.
It's the final issue of Tales of Suspense and, judging by that cover, it could be the final adventure of Iron Man.
I do believe he's trapped on a Maggia gambling ship that's under attack by SHIELD, just as it's in the process of sinking.
Can Shellhead survive?
More importantly, can Jasper Sitwell and Madame Masque find true love and happiness among the waves?
Not to be outdone in the defunctory stakes, Tales to Astonish also arrives at its final issue.
But that clearly isn't getting the Hulk down. He's too busy invading Asgard.
I don't recall the exact reasons he ends up there but I suspect Loki may have a hand in it all. Possibly, he wants the Hulk to beat up Odin or to beat up Thor or possibly both of them.
Sadly, beating up Odin is a bit beyond even the Hulk, and Thor is nowhere to be seen but that doesn't stop Hulkie getting up to his usual mayhem and mischief.
No wonder Thor's not in Asgard. He's too busy trying to stave off death.
Literally.
The Wrecker's given our hero a good whacking with his crowbar and now Hela's showed up to take him on the journey for which there's no return ticket.
Except she doesn't, because Thor asks her to give him another chance to fight the Wrecker...
...and, like a mug, she agrees.
What kind of death deity is that woman? Does she have no sense of duty?
"The Death of Professor X! Not a hoax! This is for real!"
Didn't it turn out to be a hoax?
Didn't it turn out he'd been hiding in the cellar for about two years, pretending to be dead, for no good reason, and getting Jean to play along with it all? I have a good mind to sue for false advertising.
Then again, I don't suppose the X-Men were exactly in a good mood either, when they found out what he'd been up to.
I don't have a clue who Voltorg is but I do feel the master of the mystic arts shouldn't be battling robots.
I genuinely don't have a clue what that giant lettuce thing is that's coming between our hero and his foe. If Strange shouldn't be fighting robots, he definitely shouldn't be fighting lettuce.
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14 comments:
As well as the new distribution deal, Steve, we're coming to the point where Avengers finally takes off after treading water for (IMHO) the best part of 50 issues. Issue 50 us still one that I wouldn’t be tempted to pick up. The next four issues look more and more interesting and by 54 we're rocking and rolling.
I was thinking the same thing as I wrote the post, that Herc's departure does seem like a watershed in the strip's history, with what I'd see as its golden era starting just four issues later, thanks to a certain prince stepping in to fill the gap Hercules left in the team.
AIM attacked the Maggia's ship, and Iron Man was trapped in it as it sank. I think his power was exhausted after his fight with Whiplash. Or something.
Captain America was in Wakanda, helping the Black Panther fight Zemo's invaders. After the mandatory misunderstanding and hero vs. hero fight in last month's issue. Sharon Carter/Agent 13 was impersonating an agent of Zemo's, and he ordered her to shoot Cap. I *think* the last panel was a cliffhanger with her pointing the pistol at him, and a thought balloon saying she couldn't refuse without blowing her cover and aborting her mission.
Captain America #100 and Hulk #102 continued the numbering from Suspense and Astonish. There was an Iron Man & Sub-Mariner one-shot that wrapped up their respective serials, then each began in his own self-titled comic, starting with issue #1.
This could be where the Silver Age ended and the Bronze Age began.
The Daredevil story led into a crossover in Fantastic Four #73. Yet another misunderstanding (they thought Doom was still in Daredevil's body), resulting in yet another hero vs. hero fight.
Hey All! What super powers did Wasp have? I thought she just shrank, flew, and shot people with a wasp sting or something, and these were all through "science" not like she could do it on her own?
I still would call this the Silver Age if for no other reason than the comics cost $.12 each
and it's pre- 1970? I've heard the demarcation between SA and BA has oft been debated so...
Is it still snowing in the UK? It was a balmy, sunny 45 degrees in Chicago!
Shrinking, flying and shooting people with a sting not good enough for you, Charlie?
"Science" eh? Next they'll be telling us the world wasn't created in 4004 bc and men have really been to the moon.
Personally, I'm not that keen on categorizing comics by "ages" - whats wrong with "60s" and "70s"? - but yes, if we're going to do it the 12c price tag is as good an indication of Silver Age as any.
-sean
TC, thanks for all the Maggia/AIM/Captain America/Daredevil/FF/Subby info.
Charlie, the snow has stopped and is rapidly thawing. It is currently 37 degrees Farenheit where I am.
As for the the Bronze Age debate, I do always take the view that, if it ever existed, the Bronze Age began with the 1968 Marvel expansion but, having said that, it's clearly pointless trying to divide the history of comics into ages. The development of the form is a gradual, bit by bit evolution, not a thing of strictly demarcated ages.
1968 is far too soon to call it the Bronze Age. I'd say Bronze Marvel began some time between Jack Kirby leaving and the month when the whole line went double-sized and knocked DC off the top place in sales (albeit by hitting below the belt).
I remember all the new Marvel titles in 1968, and it was exciting at the time. Within a year or so some of them were visibly struggling though - Nick Fury, Dr Strange, Captain Marvel, and the Silver Surfer.
I have to admit I never really pondered the SA vs BA demarcation much. It was really just a feeling I had as a young kid around 11-12 years old around 1972 and suddenly Marvel started changing...
- price inflation
- leaving the strict chronology (one hero, one mag) w/ titles like Marvel Team Up, Two-in-One
- the whittling down of Stan's Soap Box, Checklist, Letters Pages
- this explosion of monster titles like Dracula, Mummy, etc.
Sean, I moved near Wheaton College where the recently deceased Billy Graham went to University. I thought the earth was 5,000,000,000 years old. Little did I know...
Anyhow, I thought the Wasp could turn her powers on/off due to science, unlike Daredevil or Spidey or Hulk who were "stuck" with theirs b.c their bodies had changed for good?
Charlie, I was just bemused by the way you put science in quote marks -"science"- as if was somehow obviously suspect...
The Avengers comics I read never went into much detail about how the Wasp and Ant-Man changed size, except for the very early Kirby/Lee stories when they took pills (not hard to see why that might have been played down by the later 60s)
Anyway, I looked it up and apparently the Wasp was permanently mutated by repeated exposure to the pills, so I guess that means she does indeed have superpowers...
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasp(comics)#Powers_and_abilities
(I don't recall her also growing to giant-size sometimes - that must have started after my time as a regular reader)
Ah, '72 - the relaxation of the comics code and the proliferation of monster comics... didn't they used to call it "Phase two of the Marvel Revolution" or something like that?
-sean
Great post Steve. Whatever "official" category of age these fall into (Golden, Silver or Bronze) it was a golden age to me. I read most of these years later in the UK reprints and completely agree that we are close to a peerless run of Avengers stories that lasted close to 50 issues! As much as I enjoyed a lot of Marvel's output pre-1968, it was only really (IMHO) the FF and Spiderman books that were never bettered. Most of the others improved during the late 60's and early 70s. That really went with the artwork for me too. I loved Kirby on the FF and Ditko on Spidey (although I loved Jazzy John too) but most, if not all, of the other titles had better artwork later. The pinnacle being John Buscema's (and briefly)Neal Adams' run on the Avengers. Just my opinion though folks!
Thanks, Mike. I agree. I think most of the strips covered in this feature hit their peaks after the 1968 expansion. I'd list Thor and the FF as the exceptions. I'd say the FF started to go into decline shortly before it, while Thor stayed at his peak for another eighteen months or so after it.
Steve, you're probably right about Thor - I lost interest in the strip after the early years so can't offer any informed critique.
In fact, its strange that the Avengers was always my favourite strip but I had little interest in the solo adventures of Thor or Iron Man (too much commie-bashing for my liking!). Its probably why I preferred the kooky quartet to the original lineup. I still believe the period when the Panther (love the movie by the way), the Vision and Yellowjacket were introduced as the greatest run (together with the Kree-Skrull war obviously).
Steve- Hurry up and give us Thursday's post! The suspense is killer!
Charlie, your wish has been granted.
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