Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Dick Ayers
Letterer: Artie Simek
“The Master of Flame Vs. The Monarch of the Sea”
January 10, 1963
I have to start off by saying I really love the cover to this one. It seems somewhat like it could be Namor Vs the original Human Torch from the 40’s based on the way it’s drawn. There’s something very old school about it and it really works.
While Johnny may have gotten over his hurt feelings from the last adventure in Strange Tales #106, he still gets easily triggered when he feels slighted by Reed and Ben at the start of our story. Rather than quitting the team and unknowingly teaming up with a village, he decides to prove his worth by wiping the floor with the Submariner.
Easy, right?
I mean, this is a kid who has a powerful flaming ability, one that allows him to control flames and create flaming images and write in the sky and all, but he also gets tired easily and has to rest for a spell, like when he flies out into the ocean and needs to touch down on a ship where he is taken as a stowaway and made to swab the deck. He proves who he is when the ship runs into a bank of fog and he is able to guide it to safety.
Meanwhile, his skywriting singes some flying fish which gets Namor’s attention. At first, he is amused by the Torch, but when he sees how serious he is, he decides to teach the kid a lesson. He lures the Torch towards him with a glowing statue that hypnotizes the Torch so that Namor can get in close and strike him with an asbestos-covered fist.
The Torch follows Namor into the water, turning his heat up to supernova, boiling away the water before it can touch him. Namor traps himself in an underwater cave as the Torch comes to the surface believing he has defeated Namor. Namor gets out and lets the Torch get away, thinking that someday the two may team up to defeat the FF and take over the world.
It’s not a bad little story and the Torch actually wins. I figured he’d get his head entirely handed to him and it would make him all the more despondent, but instead he knows what he did, even though he doesn’t relate it to Sue who catches him sleeping in his costume later that day. The art by Heck is pretty good. The faces of the two are reminiscent of character faces from comics in the 40s, which I appreciated. One of the better stories in this run.
Plotter: Stan Lee
Scripter: Richard Bernstein
Penciller: Jack Kirby
Inker: Don Heck
Letterer: Artie Simek
“Iron Man Versus Gargantus”
January 10, 1963
It’s interesting to note that the story opens showing us that Iron Man has been busy since the events of his first story. He foils thieves and mad scientists, but cannot find love because any time things might get in any way intimate, even something as simple as a moonlight swim, he has to leave. He can’t let anyone know about the armor plating he wears around his chest to keep his heart going. It’s also interesting to note that although he is still in the large, somewhat clunky-looking suit of armor, he has managed to streamline the armor he wears under his everyday clothes that look close to what he wears as Iron Man today.
It is also in this story we see the first “upgrade” to the Iron Man armor as Tony realizes while rounding up escaped animals from a circus that his armor frightens women and children with its size and drab gray color. He changes it to gold at the suggestion of the woman he is dating at that moment. It certainly makes him more distinctive.
When he tries to meet up with her in her hometown, he finds the town is surrounded by a wall and will not allow any traffic in or out. Upon investigating as Iron Man, he discovers the people under the thrall of a being called Gargantus. At first, he thinks it’s just a giant statue that has them under control, but its destruction proves useless.
The town turns on Iron Man and hunts him. He issues a challenge, via his speakers, to Gargantus to take him on in a fight. The mute creature, looking like a Neanderthal, tries to grab Iron Man, but he uses a series of floating magnets to rip the creature apart. It turns out the creature was a robot, placed by an alien race that was returning after visiting 80,000 yers previous, thus the look of the robot. They escape, fearful that the powerful magnets will rip their vessel apart.
Kind of a meh story after the great introduction, but the upgrade to the armor is interesting and only the first.
