Marvel Compass #3

Tales To Astonish #27

 “It works! I've done it!!" -Henry Pym

"The Man In the Ant Hill" by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Inks by Dick Ayers, Colors by Stan Goldberg, Letters by Artie Simek
                         

In the splash page opening, like blood flowing through your veins after a wound, a man is being chased by hundreds of ants through their colony.
Having successfully shrunk a chair, a scientist named Henry Pym declares that his formula is ready. He pours a growth serum onto the chair, turning it back to normal size. Henry recalls a science convention months ago, where his peers had mocked him for his wild theories. He tells them he will show them all, and prove to be a better scientist than any of them. While working on his formula, he envisions a world where he can shrink items to reduce shipping costs, and able to shrink an entire army so they will all fit in one plane.
Back in the present, Henry uses the shrinking serum on himself, and begins to shrink. Too fast it turns out, suddenly he is reduced smaller than a blade of grass. He quickly runs out of his lab to the outside. Henry has left the growing serum on a table out of reach, and cannot turn back to normal height without it. As he runs through his lawn some ants working on their ant hill hear his shouting, and run towards him, ready to attack.
Henry Pym outruns the ants and uses their ant hill to escape. Falling through their colony, he lands in a puddle of honey. He struggles with the sticky honey, when an ant spots him. Coming towards Henry, the ant offers a limb which the scientist grabs to pull himself out with. Henry spots a matchstick poking out of the ground, as more ants start to come after him. He throws a pebble, striking the match head.
The fire keeping the ants at bay, Henry climbs up a lasso he has made to the top of a cliff. Up there another ant awaits him, but he manages to knock it down using Judo. He flees the ant colony outside to right next to his building where he spots his enlarging serum on his windowsill. The ants come out and begin to rush him, Henry spots the one that rescued him out of the honey, and signals to the window to it. The ant comprehends, and Henry mounts the ant up the wall of his building to the waiting serum.
Bathed in the serum, Henry grows back to his normal size. He decides to dump what is left of his formulas, so there will be no danger of them being used on an unprepared society. When he sees his science peers again, he tells them that his experiment simply did not work.

Bearings

• Henry Pym will appear again in Tales To Astonish #35

Notes/Observations/Thoughts

• Our second superhero. Not yet, but in his next appearance he will be able to communicate with ants more fully, and begin many new adventures, as Ant-Man. Not many of them are all that good, but we might find something interesting as we go through them. At least they only take up about 8 pages of story.

• I love that of all things, the benefits Henry Pym thinks up for his serum, is a reduced shipping rate. How would those items then get back to normal size?

• A lot of this reminds me of Alice in Wonderland with all the growing and shrinking going on.

• Not a whole lot more to say about this issue. A lot of good shading effects by Ayers in this story. It's a bit of a stealth origin, since I don't think Stan or Jack had in mind turning him into a hero until later, when their hero books started to become successful and decided to bring him back for competition with DC's The Atom.

• I’m not going to talk about the other 2 stories in this issue, just the Marvel Universe related one. This goes for the other anthology titles. I just want to focus on that for these Marvel Compass segments. Maybe somewhere down the line I’ll feature some of those in a different section.

Quotes

“Then, you shall know I’m a greater scientist than any of you!" -Henry Pym

“Nobody *gasp* can even hear my small, weak voice now!" -Henry Pym

The images, story, and all character names on this page are trade marked Marvel Characters, and used without permission. No infringement is intended.

Marvel Compass #2

Fantastic Four #2

 “Well, maybe they're right! Maybe I am a monster! I look like one-- and sometimes I feel like one!" -Thing

"Skrulls From Outer Space" by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Inks by George Klein, Colors by Stan Goldberg, Letters by Artie Simek

                         

The Thing is swimming toward an oil platform in the ocean. When he reaches it he destroys it, bringing the whole structure down. At a jewelry store, the Invisible Girl is looking at a diamond worth nearly ten million dollars. She vanishes with the gem, causing the shopkeep and guards to panic. They are both simply gone. In the midwest, a priceless, marble statue is being presented to a crowd, when the Human Torch flies through it, melting the marble down. I don’t know how it melts, I thought marble cracked. In the middle of a large city, Mr. Fantastic’s arm reaches through the window of a power plant. He pulls a switch, and the entire city is powerless. The four meet up to reveal that they are shapeshifting aliens named Skrulls who have taken on the appearance of the Fantastic Four in preparation for an alien invasion.
The earth, or at least the United States, are now set even more against the Fantastic Four who have been vacationing in a cabin. They hear the news on the radio, and after a recount of their origin, the military arrive. They surround the cabin, forcing the Fantastic Four to come out, who then become their prisoners. The army isolates them in separate cells designed to counteract each of their powers. However, when two guards come to feed Invisible Girl they don’t count on her going invisible, and she slips right by them, leaving them confused. Human Torch manages to burn his way out of the air duct of his asbestos coated cell. The Thing smashes the steel wall of his cell enough that it all shatters. Mr. Fantastic finds a loose rivet in the door to his cell, and uses his stretching powers to squeeze his body through it. The Fantastic Four escape the army base and hide in one of their many safe houses.
In order to draw the Skrulls out, the Human Torch decides he will sabotage a rocket launch. His plan works, and the Skrulls whisk him away to their lair, thinking he is their false Human Torch. When they reach the building the Skrulls are hiding out in, they see that they have taken the real Human Torch. He fires a flare out the window to signal the rest of his team, before the Skrulls can attack him. As their battle commences, Thing smashes through a wall and Mr. Fantastic appears through a window, saving Johnny from getting shot by one of the Skrulls. Reed grabs the gun, and holds the Skrulls at bay with it, while Thing wants to simply smash them all for making them outcasts. They calm Thing down, and make the Skrulls reveal their plan.
Mr. Fantastic decides that they will pose as the Skrulls and board their ship waiting in space to make the fleet leave. They enter a ship concealed as a water tower and blast off to the mother ship. Aboard the ship, posed as the Skrulls still on earth, Reed convinces the Skrull general that earth is too dangerous for them to invade. He shows the Skrull clippings from Journey Into Mystery and Strange Tales of giant monsters and ants “I pray he doesn’t suspect that they’re actually clipped from “Strange Tales” and “Journey Into Mystery”!” Reed tells him that they will remain behind to remove all evidence of the Skrulls invasion from earth. The Skrull general gives him a medal for his supposed sacrifice.
They fly water tower ship back down to earth. As they do, they pass through the cosmic rays that gave them their powers. This forces Thing to change back into Ben. When they land, the police have caught up with them. Ben happily notices his change back into his human form, but it doesn’t last long, and he quickly changes back into the rocky monster. The police chief  tells them that they are all under arrest, but Reed promises he can clear their names if they follow his group.
The Fantastic Four have the officers follow them to the building that they fought the Skrulls in. The 3 remaining Skrulls burst out and have another big fight with the cops and the Fantastic Four. Reed decides that the only thing they can do with the Skrulls his hypnotize them, which the Skrulls agree to “We hate being Skrulls! We’d rather be anything else!” Reed hypnotizes them into cows, to live rest of their lives as cattle on a farm.

Bearings

• The Fantastic Four will appear again in Fantastic Four #3

• The Skrulls will appear again in Fantastic Four #18

Notes/Observations/Thoughts

• We understand in this issue a bit more why Reed is the leader of the team. Where Johnny and Ben's plans to beat the Skrulls involve just beating on the ones that have landed, his is much more strategic to make all of the Skrulls fear earth with their giant ants and mining satellites and whatnot.

• Johnny shouts "Flame on!" for the first time in this issue during the team's second battle with the Skrulls.

• Thing's first transformation into Ben Grimm starts here, a situation we will see many, many times.

• Sue doesn't do very much this issue except tripping a Skrull, and just trying to keep everyone, mainly Thing, calm while they are hunted by the army.

• Johnny and Thing have their first petty argument, setting up the foundation of their relationship.

• We see the impact of having such super powered beings on the planet. The army has made special prisons just for the Fantastic Four. They don't work very well, but they are adapting to the change.

• For some reason, Reed thought they were going to Mars when he retells their origin.

Quotes

• "No wonder our leaders dare not invade earth until the Fantastic Four are stopped!" -Skrull Invader

• "Never in our history has there been so noble a deed! Take this highest award of your bravery" -Skrull General

• "Mooo!!" -Skrull Invader

The images, story, and all character names on this page are trademarked Marvel Characters, and used without permission. No infringement is intended.

Comic Site links

Comic sites I like

http://www.dcindexes.com/index.php

http://www.comics.org/

http://www.chronologyproject.com/

http://twotruefreaks.com/shows.php?show=14

http://ffcast.libsyn.com/

http://mindlessones.com/

Marvel Compass #1

FANTASTIC FOUR #1

 WELL, THIS IS IT!! -The Human Torch

"The Fantastic Four" created by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, inked by George Klein, colors by Stan Goldberg, letters by Artie Simek

                                                  
                                              A flare shoots out over a panicked crowd that forms the words "The Fantastic Four!" The man who shot it hopes he'll never have to use it again.
                                             Susan Storm is visiting a socialite friend of hers, when her friend tells her she sees the word from the flare. Hearing this, Sue turns invisible and leaves. Sue rushes through a crowd while invisible, and reaches a taxi to driver her towards the signal.
                                             In another part of the city, a large man is trying to purchase some clothes, but the shop clerk tells him they have nothing in his size. The clerk notices the flare alerting the large man, who immediately undresses to reveal his large, orange, plate-like skin. He bursts out of the doorway, breaking it, forcing the police to chase after him gun a-blazing. The orange skinned man drops down into the sewer to escape, and makes his way towards the flare as he re-emerges. People scattering out of his way.
                                             Meanwhile in yet another part of the city, two teenage friends, one whose name is Johnny, are working on a car together at a service station. Johnny's friend witnesses a giant 4 in the sky, and tells him. Johnny suddenly bursts into flame, melting through the car, and flying off into the sky. As Johnny streaks across the sky, the government officials signal the army to attack it. Planes are sent up after Johnny, which he manages to melt out of the sky. One plane manages to loose a missile, with a nuclear warhead on it, right at Johnny, before it goes down. Johnny tries to out fly the missile, when two very long arms grab the missile and dunk it into the sea where it will explode harmlessly. The stretchy human then grabs Johnny, whose flame has gone out, and starts to plummet to the ground. The four figures are finally gathered together. The narrator informs us they are the Fantastic Four and proceeds to tell us their origin.
                                         Ben Grimm refuses to fly Reed Richard's rocket out of fear of hitting cosmic rays, until Reed's fiance, Sue, calls Ben a coward. Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben race over to the rocket base and sneak on board Reed's lightly guarded rocket. All seems to be going smoothly until they leave the earth, reaching the cosmic rays Ben had warned them about. RAK-TAC-TAC-TAC-TAC The rays penetrate the rocketship. Everything starts going crazy. Either Reed or Sue has a headache, Johnny seems to be smoldering, and Ben feels an extreme increase in weight in his arms. Unable to control it anymore, the rocket crashes back down to earth, and they all die!!! 

Well, that would be a pretty abrupt ending. Especially given how the whole thing begins. I just want to divert from our story for a moment to point out that this story is not very realistic. I am very dissatisfied with the ongoing "realism" in comics these days. If you don't care, just skip this font when it rears its ugly head. Now on with our story.

                                       The rocketship crashes back onto earth. The group emerge relatively unscathed, or so they thought. Suddenly, Susan vanishes before everyone's sight. She quickly becomes visible again a Reed runs to comfort her. Ben angrily warns them that it might happen again, when he suddenly turns into the orange-skinned monster, and grabs a tree to belt Reed with. Reed instantly starts stretching around Ben in a hold to keep from getting hit by him. Johnny shouts that, "You've turned into monsters... both of you!!" when Johnny himself bursts into flame and flies around. After they've all calmed down, they agree that they will use their powers to help mankind as a group. Johnny decides to call himself The Human Torch. Sue, The Invisible Girl. Ben, The Thing. And Reed says he'll call himself Mr. Fantastic. The Fantastic Four is formed.
                                     As we get back to where they are now, Reed has assembled them together to show them some pictures of giant, gaping holes, where nuclear power plants have been snatched across the world. Just then a machine tells them that one plant is being attacked right now in French Africa. A huge monster comes out of the hole whom the French military fails to defeat. Reed figures out, based of the various locations, that the most likely place the attacks are coming from is Monster Isle.
                                   Off the Fantastic Four fly to Monster Isle. They park their plane on the sea and start wandering the isle when a giant three-headed monster with wings confronts them. Sue turns invisible and Reed makes a lasso out of his arm, tossing the monster into the sea. The floor abruptly gives way under Johnny and Reed, who manage to land safely underground where they find a trap wall. They are both blinded upon entering and rendered unconscious. Johnny and Reed awake in odd suits. A voice tells them that they are blind from the glare of diamonds, because they have entered The Valley of Diamonds. The voice belongs to their captor, The Mole Man.
                                  Back on the surface of Monster Isle, a big blue creature approaches Sue from behind. Thing notices and rushes to her aid, hurling the blue creature into the sea.
                                   In Mole Man's chamber, Mole Man explains to Johnny and Reed how he got here. He was such an ugly human that he was shunned by society. So, he decided to live alone, where he wouldn't be mocked by others. He found Monster Isle and fell deep within, eventually becoming master over the creatures that live down there. He tosses a stick to Johnny or Reed (can't tell which) and begins to duel him, nearly beating him, when Thing and Sue show up.
                                   The Mole Man summons more subterranean monsters after the Fantastic Four. Johnny flames on, and burns the ground causing a cave-in as the rest of the Four escape. They all get back in the plane as Monster Isle seems to blow up behind them, sealing the Mole Man off from the surface.

Bearings

• First appearance of The Fantastic Four; we will see them again in Fantastic Four #2. First Appearance of Mole Man; we will see him again in Fantastic Four #22

• Next we will look at Fantastic Four #2

Notes/Observations/Thoughts

• Welcome to my first post aside from the introduction! My plan is to cover every Marvel Comic from this issue onwards. Not counting westerns, or romance, or "funny" books. I might dip into those at some point in the future, right now I'll concern myself with superhero comics. I do plan on covering Sgt. Fury, too.

• If the Fantastic Four had not turned into the family unit we know them to become, I think a lot of this story makes more sense. Reed is this rich inventor who happens to be engaged to a rich socialite whose big power now is to turn invisible. Her brother Johnny must also be a bit wealthy, while Ben is just a pilot. I wonder if some of that animosity, prior to developing their powers, is class based.

• Was it Johnny who decided they should have "superhero" names other than their normal ones? In later issues, we learn that Johnny reads comics, and knows about golden age heroes. So, did he select his naming knowing about the original Human Torch? It's my understanding (and I could be wrong) that eventually it gets explained that most of the golden age adventures took place in the comics published in the Marvel Universe itself, while The Invaders is what "really" happened.

• How does this stop the Mole Man exactly? Once he recovers, can't he just start grabbing power plants again by making his giant holes?

Favorite Quotes

• "And I'm taggin' along with sis-- So it's settled!"

• "And I'll call myself... Mister Fantastic!!"

The images, story, and all character names on this page are trademarked Marvel Characters, and used without permission. No infringement is intended.

Introduction. Why a Comics Blog?

Well... I was bored. I like comics. I've been listening to a bunch of other comics podcasts, and thought my opinions are just as valid as anyone else.

The first comic I ever remember buying and reading was Sensational Spider-Man #18 from 1997. Before that I had only met Spider-Man from his cartoon on Fox, and before that the X-Men, although my brother watched that more than me, and before that Batman. All around the time I was 6-8 years old.

I don't plan to cover any superheroes depictions beyond the medium of comics. There are plenty of blogs for that, but for some reason when I come across those I tune out or skip them. I'm just not interested in reviewing how they're portrayed beyond a sequential art spectrum. I love the Batman series up until it switched to the WB. But I'm not interested in talking about those anymore than that they were my gateway into the worlds of Marvel and DC.

To get a sense of me and my likes, here are some lists.

Some of my favorite creators include: Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas, Steve Ditko, Grant Morrison, Jim Steranko, Kurt Busiek, C.C. Beck, Neal Adams, Bill Mantlo, Denny O'Neil, Murphy Anderson, Joe Kubert, Mark Waid, Jim Kruger, Alex Ross and Stan Lee

Some of my favorite titles: The Filth, The Defenders, Earth X/Universe X/Paradise X, Astro City, The Invaders, The Atom, All Star Squadron, Fantastic Four, The Demon, OMAC, Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne

I grew up reading Marvel more than DC, but I like what both companies have to offer. My favorite character from the Marvel universe is Namor, the Sub-Mariner (before he was established as "Marvel's first mutant") My favorite character from the DC universe is a bit hard for me to narrow down. I lost interest in most of DC during Flashpoint and the reboot. Before the reboot, it was probably Zatanna. I dunno, Dove is kinda interesting I guess.

With this blog I plan to synopsis the Marvel Universe from Fantastic Four #1 onwards and see where we go. I've seen a few other blogs attempting to do this, this is mine.