Cunning scientists and power-mad military men

Phew. It's been a busy month. As it turned out, it wasn't just the block apiece of English 11 and English 9 that I took on - it was also a block of English 10 (so three teaching blocks, and three preps) as well as a few weeks of tending to visiting international students from Korea (short-term visits of four to seven weeks). I get my spare back this week, at least.

It has been quite tiring, frustrating, rewarding, and somewhat fun this week.

Texts today: Amazing Spider-Man #2-4, Tales of Suspense # 40-42

Contrary to what was found earlier with Fantastic Four, Spidey hits the ground running with his rogues' gallery. Issue two introduces the Vulture (and the Tinkerer – yes, an extra “-er” on that name), issue three features Doctor Octopus, and issue four has the Sandman. (Recall that at this point the FF had just met the Sub-Mariner – their first really good villain. The Mole Man is bush league.)

There’s not a ton of science to be had in issue two. There are some hijinks in the science lab, as Peter trades barbs with “Moose” and is told off by the teacher for flipping through a magazine instead of minding his experiment. The appeal of the mag is the offer of a substantial payday for pictures of the Vulture, a flight-powered supercriminal clad in shaggy green tights. The first tussle goes badly, but Peter develops an “anti-magnetic inverter” as a countermeasure for the magnetic-powered gear of the Vulture and subdues him. The “B” story opens in the science lab (“A story has to start somewhere, so let’s begin ours in the science lab of Midtown High…”) where Peter is focused on his beakers while the cool kids tease him [ASM #2 - .pdf #11]. Peter’s offered a job helping with weekend research for Professor Cobbwell (“Gosh! A chance to work with the most famous electronics expert in town?”), who apparently doesn’t have grad students or undergrads to help him with his “urgent experiments” [ibid]. Step one is to pick up the professor’s radio from the shop. (An electronics expert’s radio in the shop… sure, why not.) The Tinkerer’s prices are insane – so cheap that even chronically broke Peter Parker is doubtful – and the radio, just like the Tinkerer’s shop, set off the underdeveloped Spider-Sense. If you’ve paid attention to any of the previous issues of other titles, you can already guess that there’s probably invading aliens behind all of this – they’ve been prepping their invasion through the Tinkerer’s low, low repair prices, sneaking spy devices into each radio or TV. After Peter examines the radio and finds odd gadgets in it, he returns to the shop as Spider-Man to take a look-see. Naturally, the “military leader” the aliens are listening in on is about to divulge “our plans for the defense of our eastern seaboard” to his aide just as Spidey is noticed. There’s a fight, Spidey’s zapped by the Tinkerer’s special weapon, Spidey escapes from a deathtrap, the aliens flee the earth (destroying the evidence as they go), and the Tinkerer escapes the patriotic rage of Spider-Man (“They were just doing their duty to whatever planet they were from! But you, you traitor--!”). [ASM #2 - .pdf 16]

Issue three is very nice: a classic villain, no B-story, and lots of sciencey things. Doctor Octopus is probably second in the classic Spidey-villain pantheon to the Green Goblin, and he suits Spidey nicely. The full-on origin story is given as part of the omniscient narrative of this issue, as the reader is segued to the “US Atomic Research Centre” on the edge of town. Doc Ock is introduced as the “most brilliant atomic researcher in our country today” – one who has designed four robotic arms that he can manually control to safely conduct experiments which will allow him to “work safely with volatile chemicals… though others fear radiation, I alone am able to make it my servant!” [ASM #3, .pdf 3] Of course, things go badly (for science and grammar: a worker announces that “There’s gonna be a blow-up!” when his panel goes whacky), and Doc Ock is bathed in radiation. He wakes up paranoid, and takes the hospital hostage. He subdues Spidey and gloats that “mine is the energy of an atom, born of a nuclear accident” rather than that of a mere spider [ASM #3, .pdf 7]. Peter is bummed, and asks for the first time if this is “the end of Spider-Man?” [ibid.] Emboldened and driven from his hospital, Doc Ock next takes over his old workplace and decides to demonstrate his strength by destroying half of the nuclear plant and then rebuilding it to suit himself. (Understandably – have you ever tried to find a nuclear subcontractor to do renos on your nuclear plant?) The “foremost brains of the nation’s armed forces and security agencies confer feverishly,” and one notes that “We’ve never been up against anything like this before! A brilliant scientist, with superhuman powers, on a mad rampage!” [ASM #3, .pdf 9. These guys may be the foremost brains, but they’ve probably not been paying attention to the world around them. Will they be surprised when word gets out about, oh, every other atomic scientist in the vicinity of New York gaining super powers…]

Anyhow, the Human Torch is supposed to beat Doc Ock but he’s got to wait for his fire reserves to build up again. While waiting, he works as an inspirational speaker at Peter’s high school! (No, I’m not kidding.) He tells the students to “stick to your school word and do your best in your studies! Don’t be discouraged if it sometimes seems tough!” [ASM #3, .pdf 9] It’s no speech about a van down by the river, but it works its magic on Peter. (Steve Ditko does really well with pictures of Peter Parker, by the way – the two panel progression from surprise to confidence is pretty fun.) Anyhow, Spidey heads off to battle Doc Ock, takes some time to prepare a chemical compound which will instantly fuse metal (i.e., the arms of Doc Ock), and ultimately fells his antagonist with an “old fashioned punch to the jaw” [ASM #3, .pdf 13]

One letter stands out from the first letters page – a plea for Spider-Man to not deal with invading aliens, written in response to the first issue. I hope, for the sake of the writer of this letter, that he stayed with the book in spite of the previous issue’s aliens…

The fourth issue introduces the Sandman. After – again – Spider-Man loses his first meeting with the villain (due to a mask malfunction which drives him from the fight early), Peter sees the handy backstory exposition news report on the TV while he’s darning his mask. Flint Marko, a hardened and most wanted criminal, had hid out in an atomic testing range and been mistakenly granted the ability to adapt his form to various properties of sand as a result of a test blast. J. Jonah Jameson rants that the advance-seeking Parker is like all other teens – “you think the world owes you a living” – and muses that Spidey and the Sandman may be in cahoots. (Mmmmm…constant red herrings….) Sandman ends up trying to hide out in Peter’s high school, barges in on a class with the principal and a bunch of students, and then demands a diploma (a self-respecting hardened criminal, Sandman never finished his schooling). The principal stands firm on this one, though – “Nothing could make me do that! A diploma must be earned!” – and Spider-Man ultimately lays the vacuum down on the villain [ASM #4, .pdf 9].

Tales of Suspense #40-42 does not feature any members of Iron Man’s stable of villains. Offhand, I’m not sure I can name any other than his Soviet counterparts and the Mandarin. Anyhow, the first villain is a huge Neanderthal called “Gargantus”… which ends up being an android devised by unnamed alien invaders who’d last come by 80,000 years before and figured that this type of masterful, hypnotic figure would be a perfect stalking horse for their invasion. The best part of this issue – actually, of all three of these issues – is the first few pages which present a short bio of Iron Man. Considering that ToS was an anthology series, this cut down the writing load by a page or two each month, but it may have been annoying for some 60s readers. For me, though – well, the idea of transistor-engine-powered roller skates which send US troops down highways at 60 mph is just ludicrous. (And really – unless they were invading Germany or fighting domestically, how much smooth highway does the army expect to encounter?) But it’s all worthwhile for Tony Stark – after all, he does not “neglect America’s Cold War struggle against the communist menace” and he presents himself as “a scientist who realizes that the boundaries of science are infinite…” [ToS #40, .pdf 3] Unfortunately, he has no aesthetic sense. It takes the tears of a small child to convince him of the need to change his look. Alas, it’s just a coat of gold paint, not a new suit. (That comes at the end of 1963.)

[C-story note - #40’s has a time traveler trying to blackmail the United Nations, lest he forewarn nations about their impending doom. And then he finds that the UN functionary he was talking to was… a policeman from his time!]

ToS #41 has a broader tableau of inventions from Stark – it opens with his munitions (“These atomic naval cannons I designed are able to fire a nuclear salvo more than 500 miles, thereby revolutionizing battleship firepower!”), with medicine (“Your flesh-healing serum works perfectly…”), space problems (as he works on shielding to withstand all types of interstellar radiation), and his help for the US defense effort (artillery shells capable of destroying hardened pillboxes and bunkers are miniaturized to the size of .50 cal bullets so that they can be fired upwards of 1000/minute) [ToS #41, .pdf 3]. It also shows us that Iron Man fights both criminals and communist spies (as he throws a set of airline stairs at a taxiing communist charter flight, foiling their getaway). The key villain this time is Dr. Strange – not the Sorcerer Supreme, but a rather disposable villain who arrived a few months earlier than Marvel’s top magician – and he somehow takes control over Iron Man through the power of the mind and some device, forcing the hero to break him out of prison. (He almost reads like an undistinguished early appearance of Doctor Impossible, but without the killer jokes.) Anyhow, this Dr. Strange is doing all of this to patch things up with his daughter, and he assembles a group of accomplices (“the most cunning scientists and power-mad military men on earth!”) who do nothing of note in this issue. (Of note, however, is the glimpses of JFK and Krushchev that are given on the ninth pdf…) Since this was the A-story, it ends very quickly – Iron Man comes in from the sea (“Even a super-genius like Dr. Strange can omit an important detail, like extending his force field underwater!”), knocks out the main power source for the island but is incapacitated by the effort, is gloated over by Dr. Strange, and is renewed by the gift of flashlight batteries by Dr. Strange’s daughter.

[Again, the C-story is kind of worthy of notice – a depressed loner in the year 3000 is tapped to travel faster-than-light to the edge of the universe! Once there, he discovers something that makes him happy – but he can’t say anything other than “I know!” It’s much, much more annoying than the video for Radiohead’s “Just.” Still, at least people still wear fedoras in the year 3000…]

Finally, issue 42 features the spymastering of the Red Barbarian, whose efforts are continually thwarted by Iron Man. After having lost out on a new atom bomb design, the Red Barbarian turns his attention to the disintegration ray that Stark is developing for the military. His only chance is send in “The Actor,” a spy who is a master of disguise; the Actor not only finds the plans, but also uncovers the secret identity of Iron Man. Iron Man sets off to the Red Barbarian’s headquarters by rocket – accurately, in spite of his concerns, and safely, in spite of the optics for an ICBM launched at the USSR from the US – and catches the Actor. Once in control, Iron Man then brazenly walks into the compound, pretends to be the Actor, and then left once he’d set the scene for the Actor’s return. Once the Actor returns without the plans, he is summarily shot before he can spill the beans on the Iron Man/Tony Stark connection. It’s… kind of bloodthirsty for early Iron Man, I’d think.