Page 5: 01/1964 - 04/1964
This page was the first one where the order was pretty significantly altered by my decision to read by cover date order instead of the "story order." In fact, there's still one issue of Journey into Mystery that's on page 5, but this is the right time for a new batch. Nobody but me really cares about those specifics, anyway!
Journey into Mystery (1952) #101-#103: This page has mostly brought more of the same for Thor. He has some of the most consistent issue-to-issue plots out of the rest of the books I'm reading. It's unfortunate that I think the plot of "Odin is mad at Thor because Thor's in love with a human" is really friggin' annoying, because that plot has been going on for a bit now.
Thor spent a couple of issues with his strength being sapped, which has forced him to be a little more clever and a little less... Thor, which could be good in some books, but it's only okay here. You can really tell the difference in the dialogue styles between some of the books, despite all being written (apparently?) by Stan Lee. All of the anthology books are pretty bad there, even if they still have some fun moments.
I don't want to complain too much. #103 has Thor fighting the Executioner, which is pretty fun. Thor's best villains all come from Asgard, where they have powers in the same style as his own. Enchantress wasn't as fun, but it didn't sour the whole issue. Journey into Mystery is going fine, and I'm honestly interested in seeing how the plot will eventually develop: it might go on for a while, but eventually either Thor or Odin will break on this issue. B.
The B-Stories continue, and they're all "the Boyhood of Thor!" which worked a lot better than watching Odin do some stuff. They're short and don't really give enough space to set the stakes, but they're not awful. Still pretty uninteresting. C+.
Avengers (1963) #3-#4: Avengers has gotten more interesting for sure. I was surprised to learn that Avengers is one of the more cohesive books, plotwise. There's plenty of connective tissue from issue to issue (oh hey a rhyme), where we get the consequences of the Hulk leaving the team, plus Namor coming back for a quick round two in the next issue.
Issue #3 was more fun than #4, at least as far as the action is concerned. Hulk and Namor are a much more fun villain threat than... Namor and some nameless Atlantean dudes. We did start to see a hint of the Hulk changing unpredictably again, which will be awesome... once he can find some stories for himself.
Issue #4 brings us Captain America though, and I genuinely enjoyed the way he was written. I didn't expect to spend so much time with him grappling with being a man out of time, at least not in this era. I really expected his return to be "oh hey guys I'm Captain America, lets be friends!" and have the more introspective stories get told retroactively, but they did a pretty good job! He was fun at the start of the issue when he was saving the rest of the Avengers, but he was pretty boring in the actual fight vs Namor. I'm happy he's here, though, because Giant-Man is boring and I don't trust the writers to write the Wasp in ways that don't make me pull my hair out. The competition is fierce now, so it's another B+.
Fantastic Four (1961) #22-#24: They did it! Issue #22 gave Sue her force fields and she's awesome! And the very same issue gave us our first "it's clobberin' time!" from Ben! The Fantastic Four is back, baby!
Seriously, the quality of the stories here have gone way up. The rematches against the Mole Man and Doctor Doom were both stellar, and they included some really fun and creative ways the team use their powers. Sue especially is using her force fields really creatively right out of the gate, and not just using them as bubbles to protect the team.
If there's anything annoying me, it's that we got two issues in a row of Reed being the most insufferable leader, but being proven right in the end. Just a lot of "I'm the leader so what I say goes!" I've enjoyed the way they've handled characterization for the rest of the team, it's just Reed who's being a pain now.
The Thing in particular has had an incredible shift since the first couple of issues. He was all angsty at first, but now he's saying stuff like "who would ever want to hurt lovable ol' me?" all the while blaming the Yancy Street Gang for every slight inconvenience, which is super funny to me.
The plot of #21 was kind of a stinker, which is the only reason I'm leaving the grade as low as an A. Good job, team.
X-Men (1963) #3-#4: The X-Men are shaping up a little better than last time. I think Issue #2 was mostly an outlier because these two were more fun.
I liked the Blob and his carnival gang. The prolonged fight they had against the X-Men was honestly really exciting, because we had a drawn-out fight that the heroes didn't actually win! They stalled long enough for Professor X to steal the show again, but even then it felt earned (and Xavier also was mad at himself for making a stupid mistake, which is nice because of how much of a turd he's been).
The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants was fun. They're the first honest-to-goodness Villain Team we've had that's not just a temporary team-up between two villains. Sure, they start bickering and in-fighting immediately, but it's still more fun to have a team fighting a team. Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch have been very obviously telegraphed to be good people on the inside, but it's made for some good drama even if it's predictable.
Oh yeah, and Beast started being smart! He's the most fun member of the team I think, ever since Jean stopped getting to tell off the boys for peeping at her. I don't really hate any of them. Even Professor X has mellowed out a bit (though he's still boring). B+.
Strange Tales (1951) #117-#119: This book really doesn't need to exist. Taking Johnny out of the Fantastic Four just forces too much spotlight on him, where the only trick that keeps him from trivializing every villain is "running out of flame" every gosh dang issue. One story even had the rest of the Fantastic Four rescue him, but then he went right on to fight the villain on his lonesome.
He's building up quite the rogues gallery with repeat visits from the Eel and the Wizard, but they're just not very fun. We also met the new "Rabble Rouser" who was a red scare villain in disguise who was advertised on the cover as "a strangely different type of super villain" but his whole shtick has been done already, including in Strange Tales. The stories aren't all extremely bad but oh boy there are no winners here. D+.
Doctor Strange, meanwhile, is certainly faring better, though that's not saying much. He gets a story where does a little globe-trotting, and he ends up fighting some interdimensional aliens. It was an alright issue, but it would have been more fun if the villain some supernatural instead of extraterrestrial. Again, the stories don't have enough space to breathe and establish stakes. We get basically just enough time to set the tone of the story, and then see Strange win using a clever trick or just straight up instant-win magic. I'd love for him to get an A-story instead of being stuck where he's at. C+.
Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #9-#11: Spider-Man is still good! This is one of the books I was talking about where the dialogue is just better than the others. We keep getting great panels of Peter thinking to himself about just how bad his current predicament is, followed immediately with him being snarky and confident to the villains. It's a classic, but it's fun every time.
I was sure that issue #10 was gonna be a stinker. All of the other covers had villains that were either already iconic or who I recognized as becoming iconic over the years, and it was just some mafia-lookin' goons standing around in front of Spidey. But then, the issue was great! Spider-Man gets into this really long drawn-out fight where he's fighting a big gang all at once, plus some elite thugs with gimmicks. Seriously, it's one fight that goes on for 6 pages. It never got old! Every time a twist came up that extended the fight, it just renewed the tension!
Doctor Octopus comes back in issue #11, and he's solidified himself as my favorite villain so far. He's so menacing! He spends most of the fight chasing Spider-Man, and you just know that he'd rip Peter right in half if he ever caught up to him. He's a perfect mixture of smart and strong that puts him ahead of even the likes of Doctor Doom in my eyes.
Spider-Man just keeps knocking it out of the park. Another A+.
Tales of Suspense (1958) #50-#52: Iron Man is... alright? He's doing way better than the garbage his first few issues were, which is nice. At worst they're uninspiring, which is much better than before. He's starting to get some colorful villains. The Mandarin has some obvious issues, but was honestly not written nearly as racist as he could have been. Scarecrow was alright, but it was kind of hard to take him seriously considering the Batman villain.
We're really getting to spend some time with the Mk. II Iron Man suit, and it's a huge improvement. One of the panels in issue #52 was a flashback that included the old gold suit, and the comparison made the new suit feel that much better.
I wish there was less time spent on plots about villains attacking Tony Stark's facilities. He doesn't seem to do much beyond protecting his own interests. B-.
Tales to Astonish #52-#54: Giant-Man sucks and the Wasp is a misogynistic sterotype. The two of them have such terrible chemistry and they hardly say a word to each other that isn't them bickering. It's honestly a shame that we get two books with this duo now because they're in the Avengers at the same time.
I do want to focus on the stuff I like, though. We are starting to get a little more action where the trick that the heroes has is size changing instead of just "being big" or "being small". Switching between them is fun and it's getting used pretty creatively. It's a shame that Jan never gets to be big, but it's a miracle she ever gets to do anything, so...
Also: the Porcupine? I kinda like him! His costume is really dumb, but he's actually a pretty good foil to Hank Pym. He's a creative inventor who knows the value of subtlety, and I honestly hope we haven't seen the last of him (though I hope he gets a redesign eventually).
The stories themselves are just barely creative enough that I can bear to read the incredibly unlikable heroes. C.
Daredevil (1964) #1: Hot dang. I never really cared for Daredevil, but this was a strong first impression. Bill Everett did the art on this one, and the first couple of panels did such a good job establishing the tone, getting dark and dirty, it's something nobody else is really doing.
Daredevil's powers are already fun. You can tell that Matt is being surprised at how useful his enhanced senses are, and it's delightful. Him rolling after the Fixer on a trash can is pretty silly, but the rest of the action was all great so I can forgive a little tomfoolery.
The cover and front page are doing a lot of bragging about how this is the next Spider-Man or Fantastic Four, and I gotta say I agree. It's one issue, but it's one of my new favorites. A+.
Written 05/28/2025