Page 4: 10/1963 - 01/1964
Page four has some interesting shifts in quality! Some of the books that I disliked the most in the last page have gotten a lot more interesting, which I'm very excited for.
I've decided that I like reading the books in release order (ok, it's in cover date order which isn't exactly release order, but it's close enough for my purposes) instead of the "story order" that I was following in the past. I'll still use the story order to break ties on which issue to read first, but I'll be using the cover dates for now.
Fantastic Four (1961) #19-#21: This time around, we've gotten less of the Fantastic Four's strengths and more of their weaknesses: fewer fun super-villains (Molecule Man was alright, but Rama-Tut and Hate-Monger both sucked) and more in-fighting. The Fantastic Four are at their best when they're a tight-knit team, and spending most of the Hate-Monger issue effectively mind-controlled into being a bunch of jerks was pretty frustrating.
Since I'm paying attention to it, the book's treatment of Sue is fine, but nothing special. There's some annoying dialogue about her acting like a typical "female", but she's not in peril any more often than the rest of the team. I know that #22 is when she finally gets some force fields, so I'm cautiously optimistic that she'll get some good spotlight soon.
Still, the action scenes are pretty decent and we're starting to get more creative with the way that non-Human Torch characters use their powers (especially Mister Fantastic) which is nice. I'm going to set their grade at a B+ this time, but only because my expectations of this book have been set high in the past, and the gap between them and the next worst book is shrinking.
Journey into Mystery (1952) #97-#100: Journey into Mystery impressed me! We're getting some honest-to-goodness story arcs here! Don Blake's angst about not being able to marry Jane Foster is getting some actual consequences, and they're not even getting resolved by the end of each issue. Combining that with some better action, I'm getting genuinely invested in Thor's adventures! The villains of these stories could be improved, so I'm not about to rank this book up with Spider-Man, but I'm happy with giving Journey into Mystery a B.
But wait, there's more! Starting in #97, there are B-stories telling some flashback stories of Asgard, so I want to rate them separately like I am doing with Doctor Strange. They're... not very good. And not in the way where I can have fun calling a book bad. They're mostly just boring. Oh boy, Odin fights some giants. Oh boy, Odin fights some trolls. Oh boy, Odin fights Surtur. There's not really any stakes, because the fights kinda just happen. They're not bad, just... boring, which is maybe worse. Still, the last one I read (which technically is on page 5 but I'm not going to split an issue in half) featuring a young Thor and Loki was more fun. C.
Tales of Suspense (1959) #46-#49: Last time, I was pretty optimistic because I enjoyed the Happy Hogan and Pepper Potts addition, which made #45 a lot more fun than what came before it. The next couple of issues were... not great, a little higher than the old average but still uninspiring. Iron Man getting a couple of villains with names and costumes was pretty cool, but he didn't fight any of them in interesting ways. Tony even built a new suit (which is a massive improvement in looks and the way that the book feels as a result), but its debut issue was against a villain that resisted a direct fight, so we didn't even get to see it in action.
Happy and Pepper have also devolved into mere comic relief. I hoped that they would give some pathos to the book and make Tony more interesting, but mostly they've served to make how bland and detached he is even more, erm, stark.
However! Yet again, the last issue of the page inspired hope! Iron Man in his fancy, sleek, more interesting suit vs. Angel in a battle of wits that still required power armor? That was fun! Tony's plan was pretty well telegraphed, despite how uncharacteristicly tight-lipped he was about it (seriously, comics in this era are wordy), and it was a satisfying resolution to a hero vs. hero story (of which we are getting an awful lot). I'm gonna give the book another bump like last time based on the strength of the last issue! C+.
Tales to Astonish (1958) #48-51: Ugh. Ant-Man works way better than Giant-Man. Giant-Man seems so antithetical to what made these stories work, which was needing to be clever and use precise strengths instead of just using brute strength, like so many other heroes can get away with. Hank Pym is clumsy, overconfident, and honestly kinda dimwitted now.
And Janet! She's absolutely boy-crazy. Hardly a word comes out of her mouth that isn't flirting (or trying to flirt) with Hank! This is made worse by how dismissive he his of all of her advances, which makes him look even worse than he already did. She used to be spunky, now she really feels reduced to a sidekick instead of a partner. I'm terribly disappointed. C-.
Strange Tales (1951) #114-#116: All three of these issues feature Johnny having some kind of beef with another hero, though the twist always resolves it by the end. First a villain impersonates Captain America in an explicit bid to see how much readers want Cap back in comics, then Johnny is told to find Spider-Man to get him to fight Sandman again but Johnny hates Spidey so much that he goes to fight Sandman himself, and then the Puppet Master comes back again to make the Human Torch fight the Thing. It's not actually repetitive because the plots are all different enough, but I find it interesting how much it happens.
Anyway, the Human Torch solo stories have a lot to prove. I still don't think he really needs his own advetures separate from the rest of the Fantastic Four. Outside of an admittedly pretty cool fight against Sandman where both of their powers get nullified by some fire sprinklers (which I'm also kinda mad about, because this means that Spider-Man doesn't get to be the one to discover that Sandman is weak to water), the stories are really just silly at best. Which I guess is fine, silly can be fun. Still not my favorite. C.
But of course, we have more Doctor Strange. His stories are getting longer, and we got his origin story. We're getting plots that are more than "oh no, Doctor Strange is in trouble! Good thing his amulet kicked in and saved the day with no further explanation", which is certainly welcome. The stories are long enough now that they have room to breathe and do more than just gesture in the vague direction of Doctor Strange having magical powers. I still think he'd benefit from longer stories, but I think he's getting there. B.
X-Men (1963) #2: Only one issue again, though we did get a pretty extended crossover in Tales of Suspense. Having a full-size, non-anthology book means that we get plenty of time to let the villain establish himself, and the action is pretty good.
But oh boy, is the dialogue truly awful. Nobody is really likable, especially not Professor X. He's really strict and austere for no good reason, and his plan here was to just... break the brain of the supervillain enough that he forgot about his powers and who he was! Those are supervillain powers, Xavier! Good guys don't mind control people!
Beast and Iceman are really turning into a less fun Thing and Human Torch, and their dynamic was already kinda tired. Angel doesn't really have any personality at all yet, though I think we saw a little of it during his feature vs Iron Man. Cyclops and Marvel Girl got a little flirty for a couple of panels, but they don't really stand out. Marvel Girl does still have a little of that no-nonsense attitude that she showed in #1, but she doesn't have a lot of spotlight to show it off.
In fact, I think that's the biggest weakness of the book. We have six primary characters all dropped in without giving any of them a lot of time to develop first. I'm sure some of this will change as we get to spend more time with the team, but for now it's a little rough. C.
Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #6-#8: Spider-Man still rules. The stakes of every fight feel just right. Fighting the Lizard while trying to turn him back into Doctor Connors was really compelling, the rematch against the Vulture in the Daily Bugle was fun, and even the Living Brain was interesting. Peter is constantly having interesting tension between his normal life and his Spider-Man life, and he's just barely enough of a brat to be fun without being hard to root for (other than the time that he picked a fight with the Human Torch for no real reason).
I don't really have much more to say. Spider-Man is a good superhero with good comics written about him, news at 11. A+.
Avengers (1963) #2: Just like X-Men, only one more issue to examine. It's... fine? Giant-Man doesn't make the team better, but at least with the Hulk leaving the team he'll stop being quite as redundant. The villain was kinda fun in a silver-agey sort of way, though he fell victim to powers-don't-work-like-that ex machina when Thor showed up right at the end.
I am going to miss the Hulk. Again. Seriously, how did the Incredible Hulk book get cancelled but not anybody else? Hulk is a fun character and he's a very different kind of protagonist. He also works better in the Avengers because the book doesn't have time to waste with Bruce Banner going to get gamma-blasted by a machine every time he wants to turn into the Hulk.
An improvement over the last issue for sure, but perhaps a little bitter-sweet. B+.
Written 05/16/2025