Best and Worst of the Complete Marvel Reading Order #4

Best - 683: Tales of Suspense (1959) #94 [B Story]

I'm honestly not sure what more can be said...except...

MODOK!

Oh how I love MODOK.  He is simultaneously ludicrous and disturbing, a weird mix of body horror and slapstick. 

The lead in stories to this in ToS 92 and 93 are four stars each, so its a great story arc overall.  AIM as an organization was introduced a few years earlier, but this arc is where they become the classic crime science gang we all know and hate.  Also Agent 13 (aka Sharon Carter) is cool, if a bit damsel in distress-y. 

But mostly...MODOK.  Between Ego the Living Planet and MODOK Lee and Kirby were exploring the limits of super-villain ideas and then pushing them out, I think further than had ever been pushed.. 

Worst - 626: Tales of Suspense (1959) #91 [A Story]

I have an incredibly high tolerance for comic book science, but if Stephen Hawking had ever read the first and second pages of this Iron Man story, I think his IQ would have dropped so far that cosmology would have suffered beyond repair.  In other words, don't read this story, cosmologists! 

Not only that, but we go immediately from the bad science description to a racially stereotyped propagandist's Cuba for...reasons?  I guess they got tired of monstrous strong men being from New York and decided they could earn brownie points with the comics code by making him Cuban and making Castro look like an oaf?  

Also, remember in that last post where I said Gene Colan had a hard time with action?  Yeah, still has that problem.

At least he is filling in the panels a bit.  

That pretty much sums up early Iron Man; bad science and stupid propaganda and weak action.

Best -776: Captain America (1968) #100

Ignore the Avengers in the background, this story is all about Captain America, the Black Panther, and Agent 13 (aka Sharon Carter).  And of the three, Cap is the least impressive!

First, Agent 13.  Remember above where I said she was a bit "damsel-in-distress-y".  Well, not this story...  

For example...

What's really in the briefcase, Agent 13?  Oh, yeah, a FLAMETHROWER!

Flamethrower briefcase, that's just the way S.H.I.E.L.D. rolls, Zemo.  Agent 13 gets to be what you want her to be in this one; super-competent badass spy.  

And, of course, T'Challa, the Black Panther...

This story started two issues earlier in Tales of Suspense #98, and throughout the whole story there is never any doubt in the mind of the reader that the Panther is Captain America's equal.  They have different strengths, of course, but after the expected "super-hero meet cute" of a brief fight in #98 they immediately fall into an easy partnership built on mutual respect and shared virtue.  This panel is a great example...

Cap and T'Challa trade off taking the lead throughout the story, each one maximizing their strengths.  Its a cool dynamic, and it really makes the story.  

One publication note: this title actually continues on from Tales of Suspense, which ended at #99, dropping Iron Man.  There was a single Iron Man/Sub-Mariner issue, that completed the Tales of Suspense and Tales to Astonish titles, and then all of Captain America, Iron-Man, Sub-Mariner, and the Hulk had their own books.  Which leads me to... 

Worst - 687: Tales to Astonish (1958) #95 [A Story]

Oh, Dorma, I'm really worried about you...

Dorma, the love interest for Namor in these early stories, is a good character.  I find her interesting.  But her love for the paranoid monster that is Namor is simply inexplicable.  He isn't noble, he is arrogant. He isn't powerful, he is brutal. With a better writer, this would be Shakespearean tragedy in the making. With Roy Thomas and Bill Everett, it's just painful.  

Speaking of Bill Everett, he could actually do good work.  On Doctor Strange he does great things.  But here, with a character he is well known for, he is flat and uninspired.  For example, look a this page:

I could care less what is happening on that page.  Characters are moving around, and there are a lot of words, but not one spark of creativity.  

That being said, I think this story demonstrates a very important element of Marvel comics, especially ones this early.  Marvel comics have always been, first and foremost, a product.  As a product, they need to be created on time and delivered on time.  Regularity was far, far more important than creativity.  I read somewhere, I can't find it now, that one reason so many comics in the '70s and '80s were written by Bill Mantlo (who will show up in the Worst, just wait and see) was because he was absolutely the Rock of Gibraltar in terms of reliability.  He NEVER was late on a script, ever.  And, you know what, I respect him for that.  It might not be a virtue in a comic writer I would care about as a reader, but reliability and punctuality are virtues nonetheless, and I can see how they would be the most important virtues if I were a comics publisher.

So I think this story is just a case where a tight deadline on the script and the art meant that neither Roy Thomas nor Bill Everett were bringing their A game (which was usually at best a C+ game anyway, let's be honest).  They needed to fill pages, and they did it.  The book got printed on time and shipped to all the drug stores, newstands and barber shops of America.  That's what mattered. 

Oh, and also...the Plunderer is just the worst.  He is an excellent example of a super-villain who is simply not a super-villain.  You can put a cape on him and goofy white tights...

But in the end he is just this rich guy who is a pirate. Super-villains don't need to have super-powers, I mean, look at the Joker!  But they need a personality and some kind of schtick with staying power.  The Plunderer is just a schmo.