Human Torch: Plot by Stan Lee – Script by H.E. Huntley – Art by Dick Ayers – Letters by S. Howard
Doctor Strange: Written by Stan Lee – Art by Steve Ditko – Letters by Terry Szenics
With Doctor Strange apparently settling in as a regular backup feature, Strange Tales #111 gives us another double feature. And already, the two halves of the book seem to be moving in opposite directions.
The Human Torch story returns to a familiar formula. Another disgruntled middle-aged scientist decides the best way to launch a criminal career is by defeating Johnny Storm. Midlife crisis seems to be the origin story for half of the Torch’s rogues’ gallery.
Professor Kasloff considers himself a scientific genius but believes he’s underpaid and underappreciated. Deciding crime might finally bring him the fame and fortune he deserves, he quickly encounters a problem. He doesn’t actually have the skolls for burglary and has no idea how to contact the underworld.
Kasloff comes up with a solution. If he can publicly defeat the Human Torch, surely the crooks and gangsters will come looking for him. He creates an asbestos suit that gives him the appearance of some kind of armored gladiator and dubs himself Asbestos Man.
He then challenges the Torch to a fight by sending him a letter. And calling him on the telephone. I love the mundane logistics of being a supervillain in 1963.
Johnny accepts the challenge but at least has the good sense to study asbestos beforehand. Unfortunately, that doesn’t help much. The two meet at an agreed-upon location in front of the press, where Asbestos Man’s suit allows him to easily withstand Johnny’s flames and hand the Torch a humiliating defeat.
Johnny goes home dejected, continuing a pattern we’ve seen throughout his solo stories. For all his confidence, he’s still a teenager who can be goaded into a fight and takes failure personally.
Sue helps him see the problem differently. Rather than attacking Asbestos Man directly, Johnny needs to use his flames on everything around him.
Round two goes considerably better.It’s not a particularly memorable story, and by now the structure is becoming very familiar. A brilliant but bitter man turns to crime, creates a gimmick specifically designed to counter the Human Torch, defeats Johnny once, and forces him to think his way through the rematch.
But there’s something charming about how ordinary these villains’ motivations can be.
One last note: the comic mysteriously credits the lettering to “S. Howard,” a name I haven’t encountered at Marvel before and couldn’t find any information about. Modern databases generally credit Sam Rosen, but I couldn’t find a clear explanation for the discrepancy.
Doctor Strange, meanwhile, is only two stories old and already feels like he’s moving forward. Much like Lee and Ditko’s work on Spider-Man, so much of what will define Doctor Strange is already here. His world is taking shape remarkably fast.
Lee and Ditko introduce Baron Mordo, who will become one of Doctor Strange’s most recognizable adversaries across comics, animation, and film. It’s another remarkably enduring piece of Strange’s world to arrive almost immediately.
Mordo attacks the Ancient One, and Strange senses that something is wrong with his mentor. When he investigates, the confrontation moves into the astral plane, giving Ditko another opportunity to show why Doctor Strange already looks unlike anything else Marvel is publishing.
Strange and Mordo confront each other as intangible astral forms, and Ditko finds different ways to illustrate an invisible, supernatural struggle.
Strange ultimately wins through deception rather than force, tricking Mordo into returning to his physical body and breaking his control over the Ancient One.
And that’s essentially the entire story. Like the Doctor Strange debut, it’s short and simple. But Lee and Ditko use those few pages to add another piece to a world that already includes the Ancient One, Nightmare, astral projection, the Eye of Agamotto, and now Baron Mordo.
That’s the interesting contrast within Strange Tales #111. The Human Torch has been appearing here for more than a year, but his solo stories still regularly fall back on the same basic structure. Doctor Strange has barely arrived, and his world already feels like it’s expanding with every five-page story.
One feature is searching for somewhere to go.
The other seems to know exactly where it’s headed.
Marvel in the 60s – Entry #70
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