STRANGE TALES 134 (1965)
by Stan Lee & Bob Powell
cover by Jack Kirby
This is the end of the line: the last Human Torch story of the Strange Tales run.
Also note the caption “Dr.Strange is in this ish too, but we couldn’t find any place to put him on the cover!”. Classic Stan Lee.
We’re not wasting any time: the Watcher (looking a bit shorter than usual) shows up at the Baxter Building to recruit the Fantastic Four… but Reed and Susan aren’t home, so the Fantastic Half Four will need to be enough.
Kind of ridiculous that the Watcher can’t recruit the other two because “they’re out”, but don’t worry, it’s going to get even more ridiculous shortly.
And speaking of ridiculous: the menace that the Watcher wants to stop is Kang the Conqueror teaming up with Merlin!!!
Sooo… the Fantastic Half Four need to leave RIGHT NOW because of the threat that a 25th century time traveler poses to the Middle Ages?
Sounds legit.
The battle between Kang and Merlin only takes two panels, but it’s not bad at all. Where has Bob Powell been hiding all this energy and dynamism!?
Technically speaking this SHOULDN’T work with Marvel’s time travel rules: Kang would’ve just created an alternate timeline, not altered the Fantastic Four’s past.
In his defense, at this point the rules haven’t been spelled out.
It’s also weird that he singles out the FF: while he debuted as their villain in Fantastic Four #19 as Rama-Tut, he’s mostly an Avengers villain.
I guess it’s not a big surprise, but Kang manages to defeat the Knights of the Round Table.
Obviously it’s not enough for him: he wants to conquer the entire planet. Which shouldn’t really be all that hard, but he decides to go low-tech about it.
Still, stopping him is kind of important. Not important enough to CALL THE REST OF THE FANTASTIC FOUR, however!!!
So we have the Fantastic Half Four against a bunch of medieval knights. Should be fun!
Aaand the Torch is immediately out of commission. Not only he’s losing his series, this is adding insult to injury.
He does get to rescue Merlin and later save the Thing, so that’s something I guess.
Why do you have to throw the Human Torch with a catapult when HE CAN FLY!?
Kang is about to blast Merlin once and for all…
…but the tech on his ship was disabled OFF-PANEL. Now that’s just disappointing.
Kang still manages to escape, and the heroes don’t even get to meet King Arthur.
The Watcher returns them to the present day, and we end the story with the dignity that this entire series deserves.
And that is, indeed, the end of this absolutely crazy series.
To celebrate the milestone, next I’ll review the first Golden Age story for this site… the very first crossover: the iconic fight between the original Human Torch and Namor!
Historical significance: 0/10
Thanks to future retcons, we’ll learn that this Merlin is not really Merlin but an impostor, who will often use the name “Maha Yogi”. From a much more recent retcon this isn’t really Kang either, but one of the variants created from his time travel shenanigans.
Silver Age-ness: 10/10
The entire premise is ridiculous enough. The execution is equally bonkers.
Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
I had my hopes up with this story. How do you screw up “Torch and Thing fight Kang in the Middle Ages”!? But there’s hardly anything of interest here.
It’s especially disappointing because Marvel does have a super-hero active in Camelot, the original Black Knight. So it could’ve been a cool opportunity for a team-up.
Time travel doesn’t work that way
I never get to use this category for Marvel comics! But the Watcher literally has no reason for rushing things through… he could’ve just waited for Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Girl to get back home, or even better recruit them himself.
Also, THE WATCHER needs the Thing to tell him that they aren’t home!?
Cancer count: 26
Nothing to add from this story, making 26 the total number of times that asbestos is used in this 35 issue run.
Interesting letters: a rather sad post-mortem for this series, though even calling the best issues “hard-hitting” is a bit much.
Surprised you skipped the Strange Tales Annual #1.
It was a Torch book for that annual and he teams up with Spider-Man and a Lee/Kirby issue. Only the third time Spider-Man and the Torch had been together (the second time the TOrch just made a speech at his high school).
Also the first time they met at the Statue of Liberty which years later became a thing.