Monday 2 December 2013

Fifty years ago today - December 1963.

Hooray! It's December - the only month of the year that rhymes with, "Dismember."

But will our favourite Marvel heroes of fifty years ago be taking their foes apart - or merely falling to pieces under the pressure?

Only a journey in Steve's wibbly wobbly time machine can tell us.

Fantastic Four #21, the Hate-Monger

The Hate-Monger makes his aggro-packed debut.

But what oh what can his senses-shattering secret be?

Click here to find out. But be warned, your sanity might not be able to take it.
Journey Into Mystery #99, Thor v Mr Hyde

Mr Hyde makes his first appearance and it's another of those weirdly defeatist covers that Thor specialised in.
Amazing Spider-Man #7, The Vulture returns

Someone call the nurses. The Vulture's escaped from the retirement home again.
Strange Tales #115, the Human Torch v the Sandman

By the looks of it, Marvel cunningly use the fact that Spider-Man's not in the tale to make you think Spider-Man's in the tale. That Stan Lee was a marketing genius.

As for the Sandman; if you're made of sand, is it really a good idea to take on someone whose power is flame?
Tales of Suspense #48, Iron Man v Mister Doll

Thanks to Steve Ditko, Iron Man gets a new costume and unveils possibly the least likely piece of technology in the history of comics, as he takes on the power of Mr Doll.
Tales to Astonish #50, Giant-Man v the Human Top

I had a reprint of this, in an Alan Class comic, when I was a kid. I always had a soft spot for it, even though poor old Hank Pym comes across as being completely useless in it. Frankly, the sight of him being pitied by the Wasp every step of the way - it's not a dignified thing.

4 comments:

Kid said...

Y'know, I think I'd much rather re-read these comics again than some of the tedious tripe of today. Maybe it's just the nostalgia factor, but they seemed a lot more fun back then.

Anonymous said...

Back then, comics were unpretentious entertainment, rather than a vehicle for pedantic, self-proclaimed geniuses.

Anonymous said...

The Thor cover reminds me of DC's war comics (especially when "The Losers" was the lead strip in Our Fighting Forces), where the good guys don't realize that they are about to walk into an ambush or a mine field. Re: the FF issue, was that the first time that Nick Fury appeared in a story set in the present? IIRC, this story portrayed him as a CIA agent. Later, it was mentioned in the Avengers that he was being appointed the head of a new counter-espionage agency, which, of course, later turned out to be S.H.I.E.L.D.

Steve W. said...

Anonymous, I think you're probably right about it being Nick Fury's first modern day appearance but I couldn't say it with 100% certainty.