FANTASTIC FOUR 10
cover by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers
TALES TO ASTONISH 39
cover by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers
THE INCREDIBLE HULK 5
cover by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers
JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY 88
cover by Jack Kirby & Steve Ditko
from the GCD: "Synopsis: Loki discovers Thor’s secret identity and separates him from his hammer, forcing him to remain a human. Loki torments humanity, but Dr. Blake tricks him into allowing him to regain the hammer and become Thor, defeating Loki and returning him to Asgard."
6 episodes in and JACK KIRBY continues rotating the themes between sci-fi, cold war & ASGARD. Isn't it amazing how often bad guys want "revenge" for things THEY started in the first place? The actual mythological Loki seems to have been a much more complex and interesting character than the nearly-one-dimensional version Jack Kirby came up with, but at least under Kirby he's a compelling villain anyway.
Larry Lieber & Dick Ayers continue on dialogue & inks, although page 13, panel 5 had a "correction" done by STEVE DITKO (which may explain how he wound up inking the cover).
(1-24-2014)
A friend of mine made the following observations:
"Interesting. I had not put the Thor/Superman connection together, but Thor is probably cut from the same cloth; just wouldn't want to get too close since DC was distributing those Marvel comics at the time. Thor was from Viking mythology, which was their religion. Superman now has been compared to Jesus (a father giving his only son to the earth), when he was created by a couple of Jewish boys from Cleveland. There is just all kinds of stuff mixed up in these characters.
Speaking of Captain Marvel, I thought Simon and Kirby's origin of The Fly was a steal of Captain Marvel. Orphan Tommy Troy visited by fly-being who gives him powers which he gets by rubbing a ring and saying, "I wish I were the Fly." Shazam! he's the Fly! Powerless child to powerful adult. Later Kirby said the Fly was their unsold character the Silver Spider, and that became the basis for Spider-Man. I always wondered about that, because I felt with the Fly being a swipe of Captain Marvel that probably meant the Silver Spider was also...yet Spider-Man didn't have any such origin."
STRANGE TALES 104
cover by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers
Synopsis:
While waiting in line at the bank, Johnny observes a robbery pulled by Paste Pot Pete-- "Master Criminal", who, while called a "cornball" by one of the customers described his paste-gun as "the ultimate weapon". After trying to keep his identity a secret, Johnny pursues Pete to his next crime-- stealing a "Delta Cosmic Missile" from a neaby missile base! (Quite a leap in one day!) A running battle around the base results in Johnny being stuck to another missile and launched toward space! After escaping, Johnny tears after Pete "like a wrathful living inferno". Pete barely escapes, and manages to rendezvous with the captain of a small boat he paid to get him out of the country "in case something went wrong". With the money returned, Johnny wonders if Pete will show up again.
Indexer notes:
1st appearance & Paste-Pot Pete. Next appearance in STRANGE TALES #110 (July 1963). Pete became The Trapster in FANTASTIC FOUR #38 (May 1965). 1st time a villain in this series got away at the end. A genuine animosity seems to have developed very quickly, perhaps as a result of such a "ridiculous" looking baddie almost killing Johnny during their fight. Don Simpson paid tribute to Pete (and Spider-Man) with his character "The Slick" in BIZARRE HEROES.
(2007)
(Continued in February 1963)
All Text (C) Henry R. Kujawa
Artwork (C) Marvel Comics
Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa
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