STRANGE TALES 126 (1964)
by Stan Lee & Dick Ayers
cover by Jack Kirby
This is a pretty important issue of Strange Tales, as the Doctor Strange story is the first appearance of his nemesis Dormammu.
Nobody seems to ever talk about the Human Torch story.
The Mad Thinker and the Puppet Master have teamed up, deciding to attack the Fantastic Four one by one. Considering this is a 1964 story, I’m very surprised to see the weakest member being the Human Torch and not the Invisible Girl.
The Puppet Master’s entire shtick is mind controlling one hero to fight another, but he needs the Mad Thinker to tell him to do just that!?
You had ONE JOB, Puppet Master!!!
Get this: the mind-controlled Thing is so slow that the Torch can duck his blows, but at the same time his punches are so powerful that the air knocks out the Torch. Wait, WHAT!?
The Thing pushes the now unconscious Torch out of the Fantasticar, but is the shock of killing his friend enough to shake him out of mind control?
Oh, we should be so lucky…
No, what actually happens is that he turns back into a human FOR NO FREAKING REASON, and that’s how he escapes the mind control!
And all of this happened so fast that he’s able to pilot the Fantasticar to save the Torch!
I love how even the Thing is like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
At this point in their history the Fantastic Four have exactly ONE enemy who can mind-control people, and they’ve already fought him like five times already.
How do you need help to figure this out!?
YES, YOU SHOULD HAVE GUESSED!!!
Yes, the Puppet Master definitely needed help for his daring plan of… checking my notes… doing exactly the same thing he does ALL THE TIME.
This story doesn’t exactly do a good job of selling the Mad Thinker as a smart guy.
I actually like the Mad Thinker as a villain, but over the years I’ve learned that he’s just pulling those percentages out of his ##s.
His absolutely brilliant plan is… do the same thing that never works, but MORE.
How is the Thing going to protect himself from being mind-controlled again?
By wearing a silly hat built by Mr. Fantastic that short-circuits the Puppet Master’s power.
And that’s the end! Why will the Puppet Master be a problem for the Fantastic Four if they have a way to defend themselves so easily!?
For the record, the next time the Puppet Master attacks again will be… this series, 7 issues from now.
Historical significance: 0/10
Justifiably forgotten.
Silver Age-ness: 8/10
Why does the Thing conveniently transform? How does the Torch survive that fall? Why are both the Puppet Master and the Mad Thinker idiots? Whatever happened to that mind-control defense?
Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
And I thought that last issue was the most forgettable of this series… this was even worse!
Both villains are completely wasted, the plot makes little to no sense, and the Thing randomly transforming is particularly bad.