Plotter: Stan Lee
Scripter: Larry D. Lieber
Artist: Al Hartley
Letterer: Terry Szenics
“Trapped by the Carbon-Copy Man”
January 3, 1963
The title of this story is misleading. In a sense, it works, but it comes across sounding like something dopey from Batman’s 50’s Rogue’s Gallery. In fact, the story deals with a race of aliens who, like the Skrull, have the ability to mimic anything they see. They plan to take over the Earth by installing copies of important humans they capture and then enacting crazy laws to confuse humanity so they can sweep in and take over.
On the surface, this sounds fine, but when introduced, these aliens are a warrior race, large, muscular, and fierce in their speech. It makes no sense that they should use such subterfuge, or for that matter need this ability to change shape, compared to the week-looking Skrull. Both father and son are able to go toe-to-toe with Thor. They’re defeated with the father wrapped up in a net and hurled into space, his fleet having to chase after him, but they both hold their own for a time against the Thunder God.
Then there’s the added part that they do not just capture important people, they capture folks like Jane. Her replacement doesn’t do anything to subvert Don Blake other than to quit when he dares question the odd laws being placed into effect, including one where he receives a summons for treating poor people for charity.
Add to it, Don is about to reveal himself to the real Jane at the start of the story but is stopped by a word from Daddy Odin who says he must keep his secret and you have this weird, but intriguing story about Blake’s quest to prove himself to Jane along with an alien son trying to prove himself to his father, the leader of the aliens.
And none of it really works.
Do you know what works, surprisingly? The art. Jack Kirby has been the artist since the start of Thor’s run in Journey into Mystery and he is, of course, amazing. I’m not saying Hartley is as good or even close to it, but there is something intriguing about his art, in particular, his depiction of Don Blake. He really gets the frailty of the man in his human form. The rest is adequate in conveying the story. I see coming down the line that the comic will feature a backup story of a tale from Asgard. This should prove interesting.
Plotter: Stan Lee
Scripter: Larry D. Lieber
Artist: Don Heck
Letterer: Artie Simek
“The Voice of Doom”
January 3, 1963
This is a simple, but cute story. A former radio announcer, named Jason Cragg, who was. never really good at his job, suddenly finds himself with the ability to hypnotize people to do whatever he wants with the sound of his voice thanks to absorbing radiation.
Radiation sure is the miracle worker with so many people surviving doses of it in various forms in the Marvel Universe and either becoming good or evil with the abilities they develop. Cragg realizes he must stop Ant-Man in order to be able to take over Center City without any resistance.
Center City? Did I miss something here? I thought Ant-Man was based out of New York City, but here we are told it’s Center City, which is a little too close to Central City in my book. Cragg convinces the people of the city that Ant-Man is evil and they go out of their way to try and capture him. Ant-Man is forced to remove his helmet when they use magnets to try and capture him. Once the helmet is off, he is susceptible to the hypnotic voice. Cragg orders Ant-Man to drown himself.
But the ants, despite not having the helmet to command them, are loyal to Ant-Man and save him from drowning. Ant-Man then uses microbes that he paints on a microphone that Cragg uses. These microbes give the man laryngitis which alters his voice, making his power disappear. He is run out of town by the people who realize his mischief.
Like I said, a simple fun story. Not earth-shattering, but it is interesting to see that Ant-Man is not New York-based – for now.
