Marvel Tales #23

Background

This issue begins with a reprint of Amazing Spider-Man #30, November 1965 except…wait a minute…didn’t the last issue reprint ASM #27, August 1965? What happened to the other two issues? Well, that’s easily explained. ASM #28, September 1965 was already reprinted in…uh…well, ASM #29, October 1965 was previously seen in…okay, the truth is, for whatever reason, both of these issues were skipped and were not reprinted until Marvel Tales #166, August 1984 and Marvel Tales #168, October 1984 respectively, which is too bad because, if you were reading these to catch up, then you just missed out on Peter Parker’s High School graduation (in #28). Was there a reason to evade these issues or was it simply carelessness? I’ve never heard it stated either way.

Story Details

So, if #28 and #29 were reprinted in MT #166 and #168, then what was reprinted in Marvel Tales #167, September 1984? Amazing Spider-Man Annual #2, 1965. Does that answer all the questions? Let’s get to the stories that are here.

As I said, we begin with ASM #30 entitled The Claws of the Cat!. Its splash page is reproduced as this issue’s cover, as, for the first time since Marvel Tales #1, 1964 our cover does not feature the image from the Amazing Spider-Man issue. The original cover is an odd one but I suspect it was replaced because this “periscope-view” allows plenty of room for images of the Human Torch and Thor and for blurbs covering all three stories. But it also gives us a cover on which Spidey’s back is turned.

In my original review, I called this “one of the great overlooked issues of the early Spidey.” I added, “Look what else you get in this issue: Aunt May having another faint, J. Jonah Jameson robbed, the introduction of the Master Planner's men, Liz Allan in the working world, Ned Leeds proposes to Betty and Peter allows the specter of Spidey to end his relationship with her. And there's plenty of action, as well, if that is your thing. Besides the tussle with the Cat Burglar, Spidey takes on Flash Thompson, a recently fired employee with a grudge against his old boss, four bank robbers, and the Master Planner's men. Through it all, Ditko's artwork gets more expressionistic, more noirish, more powerful.” I gave it four webs.

We’re not skipping any issues with our Thor stories, going from Journey Into Mystery #109, October 1964 to Journey Into Mystery #110, November 1964. This one features the return of the Cobra and Mr. Hyde, last seen in Journey Into Mystery #106, July 1964 and Marvel Tales #19, March 1969 as well as the return of Loki, last seen in Journey Into Mystery #108, September 1964 and Marvel Tales #21, July 1969. It’s by Stan and Jack with Chic Stone inks and it’s called Every Hand Against Him!.

Loki is back on Earth and ready to cause trouble. First, he disguises himself as a “measly earth-bound mortal,” then he goes to the 14th precinct and bails the Cobra and Mr. Hyde out of prison by paying bail of a half a million dollars. How does he know that the Cobra and Hyde are at the 14th precinct? Because, he’s Loki, that’s why. As Thor returns from a patrol and turns back into Dr. Don Blake, Loki talks to the Cobra and Hyde in a “locked hotel room on the other side of town.” He reveals himself as Loki, uses his magic to double the power of both villains, and sends them to kidnap Jane Foster. Back at Dr. Blake’s office, Don busies himself with his microscope while Jane stands too close to an open window. The Cobra reaches in and grabs her before Don can do anything. He transforms into Thor but can’t reach the Cobra before he passes Jane along to Hyde. “So! My information was correct! Capturing this puny female was enough to bring you to me!” says Hyde. Thor backs off, not wanting Jane to be hurt. Hyde tells him to “Meet us again on this same corner in 24 hours. At that time, you’ll surrender your hammer to us and I’ll finish you off forever!” Then he, Cobra and Jane leave in a taxi which is probably the same taxi, that I neglected to mention, that ran into Hyde on the previous page (the driver fleeing after the crash). Although, how they managed to repair it is beyond me.

Kidnapping Jane Foster is nothing new to these two. The Cobra does it in his first appearance in Journey into Mystery #98, November 1963 (and Marvel Tales #12, January 1968) and Mr. Hyde nabs her and Don Blake in Journey into Mystery #100, January 1964 (and Marvel Tales #14, May 1968).

Now, why did Loki bother to recruit the Cobra and Hyde? Why did he double their powers instead of attacking Thor himself? Because he’s busy up in Asgard talking smack about Thor to Odin who is as big an easy-to-fool sap as a professional wrestling referee. Loki tells Odin that Thor has become too cowardly to pursue Cobra and Hyde. Angered, Odin appears to Thor and bellows, “Since when does the son of Odin let evildoers escape his vengeance?” Thor tells him that he dares not pursue since Jane’s life is at stake. This only angers Odin more. “Again, your forbidden love for that mortal female has caused you to shirk your duty!!” (With two exclamation points!) And with that he orders Thor “banished from Asgard!”

Realizing that Loki must be his “true foe,” Thor ignores Odin’s edict and heads to the Rainbow Bridge where Heimdall already knows of the banishment and tells him “You may not pass!” They fight, with Heimdall wielding a sword containing “the blue flame from countless cosmic suns!!” Thor finally blows Heimdall aside by conjuring “the winds of a thousand worlds” with Mjolnir. (A thousand worlds apparently being stronger than countless cosmic suns.) But, getting past Heimdall, Thor faces other warriors trying to enforce Odin’s order. (Which gives us our “Every Hand Against Him” title.)

Making his way to the royal castle, Thor encounters Loki and accuses him of being behind Cobra and Hyde. Loki, sniffing a flower, admits nothing but tells Thor, “I do have the power to conjure up a vision” and shows Thor that Jane is being held at “a lonely estate on the Jersey highlands.” Odin enters and berates Thor for ignoring his command. Thor and Loki both bow to Odin with Thor explaining that “an innocent life depended upon my finding Loki.” Odin sends Thor back to Earth, telling him he will suspend his judgment for now. And even though Odin doesn’t know anything about Thor’s conversation with Loki, his power is such that he sends Thor “within sight of the destination he seeks!” Thor enters the house but the house, Cobra, and Hyde are waiting for him. First, the walls of the hallway turn inside out and attack Thor but he fends them off with his hammer. Then, Cobra slithers past and drops a tear gas grenade. Thor covers his face with his cape but Hyde, wearing a gas mask, attacks. Thor realizes that Loki must have amped the villains’ powers since Cobra is much faster and Hyde much stronger than before. He loses his hammer in the fight and rips “a grid right out of the wall” trying to recover it. The grid exposes “a live pipe which ignites with the thick tear gas fumes, causing a deafening explosion.” When the smoke clears, Hyde emerges and sees Thor buried in sand and debris. Hyde thinks Thor is dead so he leaves to tell the Cobra about it. But Thor recovers and recovers Mjolnir, only to find that Jane has been caught in the explosion. Taking her to a bed, he realizes she is dying and “can’t last more than a few more minutes.” Even as Cobra and Hyde return, Thor uses his hammer to “create a time warp…which will envelop this entire house.” In that way, “In this very place, there is no time…and that means Jane Foster will remain alive.” (But Thor and Cobra and Hyde can still move around as if there is time. Yeah, I don’t get it either.) “Sleep, my beloved!” Thor tells the unconscious Jane, “Now must I turn from you and do battle once again!” But that battle will take place in the next issue.

A ”Marvel Masterwork Pin-Up” of Thor follows the story but it is not the pin-up from JiM #110. Instead, it is the Thor statue from the splash page of JiM #109, October 1964 and Marvel Tales #22, September 1969 with the pedestal redrawn into a mountain top and the absent parts of the illustration filled in. Why did they bother with this when they could have used the JiM #110 pin-up? I’m afraid there’s almost no one left to ask.

Now, the Human Torch story. It's the return of the Plantman in Prisoner of the Plantman! from Strange Tales #121, June 1964, written by Stan with art by Dick Ayers. Believe me, in spite of what Stan tells us on the splash page, Planty is NOT “One of the most fearsome foes the Torch has ever faced!” In case you were lucky enough to miss his ridiculous first appearance from Strange Tales #113, October 1963 or Marvel Tales #16, September 1968, Stan fills us in on page 2. Sam Smithers was the gardener for Dorrie Evans’ father (Dorrie being the Human Torch’s girlfriend) but he spends too much time making his “strange invention” so Mr. Evans fires him. It turns out Sam’s invention actually works! (Well, once it’s hit by lightning.) It gives “any type of plant life intelligence and make[s] the plant [his] slave!!” So, Sam dresses up in a slouch hat and trenchcoat and becomes the Plantman, using plants to aid him in his “career of crime.” Ultimately, the Human Torch defeats the Plantman by “creating a giant fireball at the last moment and wilting the attacking plants,” who turn on the Planty and destroy his device. But Plantman escapes and Johnny knows that “someday he’ll return.”

Johnny is correct for, “in a hidden lab,” in a country home resembling the Bates house in “Psycho,” Sam has created “a plant ray even more powerful than my other one.” (And he does it without the help of a bolt of lightning.) It seems to me that, if he can afford the house he’s in and the land surrounding it, that he’s doing pretty well without going all super-villain again but, no, he wants to put on a “new, more dramatic costume” and take on the Human Torch.

And so, as Johnny sleeps, an animated tree sneaks into his room and douses him with a bucket of water. Johnny wakes and recognizes the Plantman right away even though Sam is in his new, leafy costume that is nowhere near as cool as his old hat-and-trenchcoat look. While Johnny is too wet to flame on, Planty locks him in a closet and yanks his phone out of the wall. He then goes across the street to a hotel where he instructs a potted plant to hold the doorman helpless. (At this point, our locations are rather sketchy. Is Johnny in his home in Glenville? If so, when did that across-the-street hotel get built? Or is Johnny in Manhattan? If so, shouldn’t he be staying at the Baxter Building instead of flying to the Baxter Building later on?) Anyway, inside the hotel, Planty takes care of the house detective and uses his plants to rob the hotel safe. He tells the house dick, “My victory is doubly sweet because the Human Torch lives nearby and couldn’t help you at all!” (“Nearby” is right. As Planty said before, “Now to cross the street and commit my boldest crime without worrying about any interference from the Torch!” But is this really his “boldest crime?” I think he has to work harder.)

Apparently, Johnny dries off and gets out of his closet. Somehow, he knows that the Plantman robbed the hotel across the street. He flies in and asks if anyone has seen Planty. The house dick says, “He robbed our safe and left five minutes ago!” Well, he can’t have gotten far but, instead of going out to look for him, Johnny gabs with Dorrie Evans who has also shown up at the hotel because “I heard what happened” even though it only took place FIVE MINUTES AGO. (Now does Dorrie live in Manhattan or are we in Glenville?) She’s worried that Planty will get revenge on her father and tells Johnny “You’ve got to catch the Plantman,” and Johnny promises her that he will. But when he flies off, he doesn’t search for Planty. He goes to “the headquarters of the Fantastic Four,” which does not appear to be across the street from the hotel. There, he tells Reed, Sue, and Ben that Planty has returned and makes them promise not to interfere since he wants him all to himself. But he does ask Ben for “one favor.”

Back we go to Planty’s hideout that Stan calls a “ramshackle house.” And getting a closer look, we see that a window is smashed and a picture is crooked on the wall. Inside, Sam crows about his “first big haul” and, sure enough, he’s got a suitcase full of money, a valise full of gold coins, and gold ingots on the floor. (All of that was in the hotel safe? How did he transport it back to his house?)

Meanwhile, Johnny is out scouring the city, looking for the Plantman, right? No, he’s sitting around with his feet up, watching TV! Suddenly, a plant comes through the window, knocking him out of his chair and handing him a note, which is a “challenge from Plantman! He wants me to meet him in the botanical gardens in the park!” (Which botanical gardens is this? The one at Bronx Park? Does Johnny live in The Bronx?) The Plantman is waiting right outside Johnny’s window (as Johnny should have figured since the plantgun doesn’t seem to work over long distances) and he hops into his convertible to “reach the park at the same time as the Torch!” (The guy has a convertible! And gold ingots! Why is he bothering? And, oh yeah, Johnny’s room was on the ground floor so he probably isn’t staying at the Baxter Building.)

Both men show up at the park entrance at the same time…Johnny flying and Sam driving. Once they settle in, Planty has some oak trees “hurl their acorns at you – with the sting of angry hornets!” Worse, the acorns are so covered in dew that they put out Johnny’s flame. (To quote my review of Marvel Tales #16, “These plants have a lot of dew.”) The Plantman instructs his plants to use a conveniently-placed hose to soak Johnny and then to grab him. But, when Planty instructs all the plants to “bow to your master,” the bowing allows Johnny to get free. Except the Plantman again instructs his plants to soak Johnny with the hose and to hold him fast again. What was the point of the first escape? Well, it filled up a page of the story. It also allowed Johnny to grab an even-more-conveniently-placed canister of weed killer which he uses on the plants holding him.

Planty retreats to the greenhouse where he has the cacti shoot their quills at the Torch who says “Although I can’t flame on yet, I can still generate enough body heat to melt them by moving my arm in a wide sweep as they come towards me!” He then uses that previously-unknown power of “shooting concentric heat signals” up into the air where they go through the greenhouse roof without causing any damage and appear as glowing white 4s. “And, miles away, in the heart of the city,” Reed and Sue see them but don’t interfere because they are “Johnny’s police alert signal,” which he could have used at any time but then there would have been 4 pages to fill.

Johnny tells Planty that the police will arrive soon and he should surrender but Planty has “an ace in the hole.” It turns out that his plant ray does work over long distances after all. “I ordered my most trusty plants to wait with [Dorrie] till they get a signal from me…If I don’t signal my plant within sixty seconds, [so, he predicted the end of the fight almost to the second?], I cannot guarantee your girl friend’s safety!” But Johnny “expected something like this” and had asked the Thing (when he asked for that favor) to guard Dorrie, which he does by ripping the plants to shreds. Johnny decks Planty with one punch and the police show up to take him away. As he goes, he vows, “you haven’t heard the last of me,” (unfortunately, true).

Later, Johnny arrives at Dorrie’s door for their date. He has brought her a package, which worries her. It’s a box of candy but Dorrie says, “For a second I thought it might be…a plant!”

You’d think a dopey villain like the Plantman would be one (or two) and done but he actually has quite a few more appearances, including in ASM #437, August 1998. He’s next in a cameo capacity in Fantastic Four (Vol. 1) Annual #3, 1965.

General Comments

The Thor stories continue to improve as they will soon hit the peak of the Kirby/Lee collaboration. This one, with Loki ramping up Hyde and Cobra’s powers, Thor banished from Asgard, and Jane at death’s door is a great read but is not quite there as it’s hampered a tad by the “freezing time” bit and Odin’s infuriating gullibility (although that remains a theme throughout the whole series). I do love Chic Stone’s inks on Kirby and I love the “innocent” Loki sniffing a flower while talking to Thor. Call it four and a half webs.

The Torch story, however, is a mess, even by early Marvel Age standards. Here, it’s not just Plantman’s powers that conveniently suit the situation but Johnny’s as well. (“Concentric heat signals,” anyone?) And here, not only is “place” messed up but “time” as well. Where, exactly, is the hotel? Where are the botanical gardens? Where does Johnny live? Where does Dorrie live? Where does Sam live? If it was only five minutes since Planty robbed the hotel, how did Dorrie hear about it and get there? Johnny leaves the hotel and arrives at the Baxter Building “seconds later.” After fighting for some time, Planty, suddenly, must contact his trusty plant within sixty seconds to save Dorrie. Is a “second” a different unit of time in the Marvelverse? There’s more. Did Sam get all those bills and coins and ingots from the hotel safe? Why does Johnny sit around and watch TV, waiting for Planty to strike first after he has promised Dorrie he would catch him? If Sam can send commands long distance, why does he lurk outside Johnny’s window when he issues his challenge? Where does the hose come from? Where does the weed killer come from? And, to be really picky, why does Dorrie think that a rectangular box with a red ribbon might be a plant? Nothing really works here. Call it one-half web.

Overall Rating

As with some previous issues, the Spidey and Thor stories make this issue worthwhile, in spite of the reprehensible Torch story. It averages out to 3 webs.

Footnote

Next: Amazing Spider-Man Annual #6! But, yeah, you guessed it. It’s all reprint.