Welcome to Make Ours Marvel, the weekly show where Michael Kaiser and Jon M. Wilson read chronologically through Marvel Comics’ spandex adventures and discuss their thoughts with little to no authority.
In this episode…
- Tales of Suspense #54 (Jun 1964)
- Strange Tales #121 (Jun 1964)
- The Fantastic Four #27 (Jun 1964)
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Let’s see, FF #27. I had to laugh to myself when Dr Strange poofed Ben and Johnny to Atlantis, like “well that’s all I needed to do. I wonder how it’ll all work out. Oh well, what shall I do with myself today? Maybe a cappucino on the way home? Ooo, I could really go for a slice with pepperoni!” You know, it’s a trope for some magic guy to zap others around like they’re Uber, but rarely do we see the follow up where Mr Magic actually sees or cares if things worked out. I just thought it funny. But… then Strange does check out his iCrystal at the end, so … yeah.
The whole Reed-Sue-Namor “love” triangle just screams out how a man in the 60s writes about love/romance in a book aimed at kids, or specifically boys. The men drive the action, the woman isn’t standing up for herself, but in the end, still lets the jerk down easy. All the ugh.
Likewise for “go on a few dates, time to propose.” Just seems dumbed way down for the expected audience. And maybe this wasn’t too different from how TV shows portrayed romance at the time? So I’ll cut some slack that noboby was expecting old nerds like me to be dissecting the story 55 years later. If nothing else, it serves as a benchmark of how far we’ve (tried to) come since then(?).
You guys are sorely tempting me to read those Iron Man and Dr Strange stories. But time, oh where’s the time to do so? (insert Burgess Meredith Twilight Zone clip here)
Until Namor has a ponytail and tries to date Sue again, make mine Make Ours Marvel.