Marvel 2-In-One #9

   I'm not a big fan of stories about super-heroes who are suddenly not "super" anymore (there have been good stories with that premise before, I admit it - but they are rare).

   Still, that's the territory we find ourselves in with the latest issue of Marvel 2-In-One, which returns the Thing and the Human Torch to their unpowered human selves (no torch), and has them stranded on a parallel Earth that's loaded with all kinds of dangers.

   But the biggest threat comes from their own home planet, as a certain long-time Fantastic Four foe turns up with some home-grown villains - and a familiar team name.

   It's not a bad story at all, but the series - which I've enjoyed a lot up to this point - just feels like it's marking time while the regular FF continuity gets sorted out in the pages of the new FF comic.

   After eight great issues, the creative team is entitled to a slight stumble here - but I look forward to a return to greatness with the next issue. 

   Hopefully.

Grade: B

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Marvel 2-In-One #1

   My reaction to this comic is: it's about dad burn time.

   For reasons that elude me, Marvel cancelled its flagship title, the Fantastic Four, two-and-a-half years ago, and scattered the team to the four winds.

   Mr. Fantastic, the Invisible Woman and their children disappeared. The Thing went to work for SHIELD. The Human Torch (for some reason or another) joined the Inhumans.

    But now there seems to be movement back in the right direction. In the real world, Disney (which owns Marvel) has bought out 21st Century Fox, bringing the film rights to the X-Men and the Fantastic Four back to the home office.

   As a possible precursor to the team's return, this month we see the return of Marvel 2-In-One, a team-up comic that starred The Thing and the guest of the month.

   This issue's "guest" is the Torch, and the issue gives us a recap of what they've been doing - and a familiar face brings the impetus that brings the two together, and hopefully will end with a reunion of the entire team.

   It's a strong first issue by writer Chip Zdarsky and artists Jim Cheung, John Dell and Walden Wong - with powerful, expressive art and solid characterizations all around.

   The FF are important to Marvel's history, of course - and I for one can't wait to see them getting the kind of film treatment they deserve - but before that, we should be seeing them back in the pages of The World's Greatest Comics Magazine.

   It's the right thing to do and it's long past time for it to be done.

Grade: A-

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The Classics - Strange Tales #117

   As best as I can remember, this issue of Strange Tales from 1964 was my first encounter with Dr. Strange.

   I was a big fan of the Fantastic Four, so it was natural to want to follow the solo adventures of the Human Torch in this title.

   The adventures rarely lived up to the stories in the FF, but they were still fun and each issue included backup fantasy or science fiction stories, mostly drawn by Steve Ditko and written by Stan Lee.

   This issue's conflict with the Eel was pretty straightforward stuff, with a bit of humor injected by Johnny Storm's visiting teammates.

   The distribution of Strange Tales was pretty spotty, I assume, since I'd go months without seeing a new issue. So even though Dr. Strange premiered back in issue #110 and appeared in #111, finally becoming a regular feature with #114, I had missed him - until #117.

   My only memory of reading that first encounter is that I was absolutely fascinated. Ditko's art was amazing to view - dark, shadowy, loaded with mood and texture and unusual characters.

   There was no origin provided, but the story was clear and easy to follow. The story followed a mystic attack by the evil Baron Mordo, first on Dr. Strange and his home - and then on his teacher, the Ancient One.

      Trapped in his home (which has been moved to an unknown dimension), Strange releases his ethereal self (his astral form) and seeks out Mordo - only to be trapped again in a cylinder of mystic energy.

   Mordo leaves to attack his aged foe, and Strange must escape and rescue his teacher.

   And let me point out that all this happens - from beginning to final battle, in the space of eight pages!

   The main character is still in his formative stages here. There's no scarlet Cloak of Levitation (he wears a dark blue cape), the Eye of Agamotto is a small, square amulet (he receives the Eye and Cloak in a later adventure), and his eyes have a squinted, somewhat oriental look to them (they're eventually drawn as Caucasian eyes) - but his tunic, tights and gloves stay mostly the same.

   But even at this early stage - this is his sixth adventure - the format is set, and a mystic world of menaces and challenges is established.

   After this issue I made a greater effort to find Strange Tales, and I missed only a few. The Torch's adventures never quite caught on - he'd eventually be replaced by the more dynamic Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD - but Dr. Strange's adventures just got better and more incrfedible with each issue.

Grade: A

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The Classics - Strange Tales #120

Continuing our Strange Tales reviews, lets move back a little over a year from our last review, when Nick Fury took over the front half of this "split" comic.

From issue #100 to #134, the front half starred the Human Torch (with frequent guest appearances by other members of the Fantastic Four).

This issue from 1964 was a natural, as the Torch met his "opposite number" from the X-Men, the mutant hero Iceman. But when this comic hit the stands, young Chuck didn't pick it up.

Not because I didn't want it - I just never saw the issue. (Circulation was hit-and-miss in the early '60s.)

But the adventure was mentioned in an issue of the Fantastic Four, so I searched for it - but I didn't manage a copy until a couple of decades later, when I picked it up at a comics convention.

I wish I could say it was worth the wait - but it really wasn't, even though the story features the team supreme - Stan Lee on script and Jack Kirby on art (with Dick Ayers inking).

But with only 14 pages to work with, not every issue could be a classic. This one is pretty straightforward, as the two heroes happen to be on a teen cruise that's hijacked by the evil Captain Barracuda (who was never heard from again after this issue, as far as I know).

The battle was inventive, and it was fun to see the two heroes working together, but there's really nothing exceptional here.

The second half of the issue goes to Dr. Strange, with Stan Lee and Steve Ditko handling the creative chores. It's not one of his better adventures, as he confronts the terrors of a haunted house with a plot twist torn from the pages of The Twilight Zone.

Like the first half of the comic, the art is exceptional, but the story is mighty thin.

That was typical for these split comics - they really didn't establish strong storylines until they started using continued stories, which didn't really kick in until 1965.

At that point, the stories (and artists) could spend more time developing the plot and characters - but it didn't do the Torch any good, since by that time he (and Giant-Man) had been booted back to their team books (though it took a while for Giant-Man to return to the Avengers).

The pre-'65 stories were solid fare for kids, but Marvel - and Stan and Jack and Steve - were just about to hit their stride.

Grade: B-

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The Classics - Fantasy Masterpieces #7

Time can be scary.

Take this issue of Fantasy Masterpieces, printed in 1967. When I read it, I was amazed to be able to read stories from the earliest days of Marvel, with stories dating back to 1940 - 27 years in the past (to an 11-year-old, that's an eternity).

Here I sit today, looking at that comic printed 45 years ago, and I think 27 years doesn't seem like such a long time anymore.

But in the '60s, it was almost impossible to read an adventure from the Golden Age of Comics. Reprints were very rare, and most of them focused on more "recent" stories from the late '50s and early '60s.

I believe Fantasy Masterpieces was the first comic to consistently reprint those old stories (though it mixed in some '60s monster magazine stories to fill out the issue).

And while I was interested to see those stories, I have to admit - I wasn't impressed. The art was very crude (though the printing didn't help much), and the stories were pretty thin, too.

This issue included a story from Marvel Mystery #8 (1940) with the Human Torch fighting the Sub-Mariner (if just on the last page), there's an early adventure of Namor from Marvel Mystery #3 (1940) as he learns to fight the Nazis, and a Captain America adventure from issue #7 of his series (1941) involving a deadly baseball game.

But even if the stories were a far cry from the far more polished fare Marvel served up in the '60s, it was still a treat to see these comics from the long-ago days of my parents.

That new cover by Gil Kane didn't hurt, either.

So, not a great comic (though Golden Age fans would probably disagree), but still a great treat for a young fan.

Grade: B

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The Classics - Strange Tales #123

In the world of comics today, it's not unusual for comic books characters from different companies to meet.

But in the early days of the Silver Age, a crossover into a character's comic book was a rare event, even within the same comics company (not counting books designed to be crossovers, like Justice League of America, World's Finest or the Avengers).

But it was a tool Marvel used to great effect. Sometimes the "crossover" would last all of a panel or two, like the time Thor flew past Spider-Man and kept right on going. It wasn't unusual for heroes to call each other on the phone to ask for advice.

This issue of Strange Tales (cover date August 1964) is one I fondly remember for the double-crossover it includes. The comic's pages were split evenly between the Human Torch's solo adventures and the mystic adventures of the (relatively new) hero Dr. Strange.

The comic features a great Kirby cover, although Kirby's art never looks right on Ditko's characters for some reason - he always seemed to struggle with Dr. Strange and even moreso with Spider-Man. But he co-created four of the six characters on the cover, so we can easily forgive him (and yes, I'm kidding - Kirby was ever the master).

The first story features the first appearance of The Beetle, and features as a guest star The Thing (who would soon become a regular co-star on the comic).

The art is by Carl Burgos, who created the original Human Torch in the Golden Age, and demonstrated that he'd lost none of his skill. It's an entertaining, fast-paced adventure that veers over onto the silly side occasionally, but it's so much fun you can't help but enjoy it.

But as much as I enjoyed the lead-in story, it's the backup feature that really made the comic. Dr. Strange was the most unusual hero Marvel had on its roster in the '60s, as much for Steve Ditko's amazing art as for his fantastic adventures written by Stan Lee.

Here he is fooled by Loki, the Norse God of Mischief, into stealing Thor's hammer - which quickly escalates into an all-out battle between a mortal and a god. It's a battle that pushes Strange right to the brink of defeat, and it's only his quick wits and his courage that allows him to survive.

This was the issue that made me a Dr. Strange fan (and Lee and Ditko fan) for life - he was a "normal" person who used his special education (magic, natch), to fight the forces of evil, succeeding thanks to his determination and intelligence. The stories bristled with imagination and amazing adventures!

I've been reading his adventures faithfully every since. Well, when they appear.

Grade: A-