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…
- Amazing Spider-Man #21 (Jan 1965)
- Strange Tales #129 (Feb 1965)
- The Fantastic Four #35 (Jan 1965)
Images from Discussion:
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All 3 issues featured the Human Torch! Talk about a Torrid Trio!
Speaking of trios, how about that Terrible Trio? Really, how about … they quietly disappear? They’re too annoying to laugh at. I only just managed to get through that story. Yeesh.
Doctor Strange and the “debate me” news show. Comparing that to modern internet culture was remarkably fun. The story was kinda wonky, but that’s probably why I enjoyed it. And it starts to establish Strange with that James Bond kind of contradiction: the “famous” secret agent, where Strange is the “celebrity” urban legend. Ooo, he’s totally an example of the “Streisand effect” long before the internet was a thing! Trying to keep himself under the radar, but inadventantly bringing more attention.
FF versus Diablo and Dragon Man. Diablo has a pill for *everything*! Finding super-heroes, giving biographies on scientists, bringing statues to life, and most importantly, changing costumes! But seriously, bad message in this book with him throwing those pills at the FF. Don’t take pills, kids.
I first read Dragon Man in Power Pack #6, where the 2 girls in the family tried to adopt him, and named him … “Baby.” Before you laugh, consider, he wears a big purple diaper. You’re welcome. Likewise, when you guys said Sue was pulling a “Hey big guy, sun’s going down”, I was rolling! Thank you for that!
Spider-Man versus the Beetle. Hey look, Spidey’s fighting another green-wearing villain! Early Marvel really missed an opportunity to form that villain team everyone would love: Gang Green!
The Beetle’s early costume is so crazy alien-looking and is hard to see how it even works. His 5 fingers are moving those 3 on the glove? Big metal canoes let him fly? How do you see when your helmet is a bucket and can only rotate left or right with fixed eyeholes? By contrast, it looks super practical when fighting the Torch, complete with firehose fingers. But it just wasn’t sold that way. As a general-purpose super-villain, his second costume was much better.
Great episode, guys. Until a rabbit and walrus are inspired by the trio’s proud tradition to carry on as “The Terrible Two”, make mine Make Ours Marvel.