STRANGE TALES 112 (1963)
written by Stan Lee & Jerry Siegel
pencils by Dick Ayers
cover by Jack Kirby
Jerry Siegel writes under the pseudonym “Joe Carter”: DC didn’t like its writers to work for Marvel.
We being with the Torch trying to get a reaction from the public and failing spectacularly.
Quite an accomplishment to be ignored when you’re on fire!!!
Since this series is trying its best to try the Spider-Man formula on the Torch, he gets his own J. Jonah James on the form of TV commentator Ted Braddock.
The Torch confronts Braddock in his studio, and it goes just about as badly as you’d imagine.
Then the Eel makes his sudden debut: stealing an invention by using his super-helicopter.
Dude, I don’t want to tell you how to be a supervillain, but at least pick a theme and stick to it!
Then again, his main gimmick is that his costume makes him super-slippery… and the first time it’s used it’s not even shown!!!
He also kind of shoots electricity. Kind of.
He doesn’t even know WHAT he stole!
Which is both a good and a bad thing, since that’s A POCKET ATOMIC BOMB!!!
See, that’s what happens when you don’t know what you’re stealing!
Reed offers the Fantastic Four’s help, but it’s actually the bomb’s inventor that gives the Torch the gadget that will find the Eel.
Aaaand the Torch immediately loses it.
Note the dialogue proving TONS of exposition. I guess Jerry Siegel wasn’t really used to the Marvel Method or didn’t have great chemistry with Stan Lee and Dick Ayers, because look at the size of the speech bubbles!
Just look at the tiny Thing, crushed by the weight of that balloon!
I checked: that panel is literally 83% speech balloon and only 17% artwork.
SEVENTEEN PERCENT!!!
That panel is so hilarious that I have a hard time following what they’re saying.
Anyway, the Eel dumps the bomb to get the authorities off his back.
Once the Torch finds him, the Eel “fights” him with the Aqua Attractor Gun ™ that he stole.
Okay that’s a little closer to the Eel theme than the helicopter, but come on.
At least the Eel gets to use his electric shock gimmick… which proves useless because it reactivate the Torch’s “molecular flames”.
Sounds legit.
At least the Eel is smart enough to realize that he’s WAY out of the Torch’s league.
The Eel reveals where he hid the bomb, but there’s no more time: the Torch’s flame molecules (WTF!?) warn him that it’s about to explode… AND IT DOES.
Then the Torch SIPHONS THE ATOMIC BLAST INTO THE STRATOSPHERE.
That made no sense whatsoever but was SO badass!!!
The Torch’s in pretty bad shape after this stunt: his only chance is for Reed Richards to pull a solution out of absolutely nowhere.
That was impressive enough for Braddock to confess that he was hard on the Torch only because he envied his “spunk and mighty powers”.
Subtle.
He also gets to announce the bad news: Reed’s treatment was ineffective and the Torch is dying!
Just kidding! LITERALLY NEXT PANEL:
And so we end with the Thing, who had promised himself that he’d go easy on the Torch if he recuperated, giving us the only funny line in the story.
Historical significance: 3/10
The Eel will become a minor villain that will fight whoever needs a street-level thug, even getting a successor once he’s killed off.
Silver Age-ness: 10/10
On the DC scale this would barely be a 4/10, but the absolutely-out-of-nowhere crazy inventions at Marvel tend to come from known super-geniuses, not from random scientists we’ll never see again. And the Torch’s powers make even less sense than usual this time.
Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
You can definitely tell that Stan Lee and Jerry Siegel have too many stylistic differences to work well together. The plot is clumsy, the Eel is completely wasted, Braddock is a childishly simplistic character, and of course who can forget those speech bubbles!?