Continuing the review of the three separate books reprinted together, as per last time.
Fantastici Quattro #55 (1973)
Published by: Corno
The title is an almost accurate translation of the original “The dismal dregs of defeat”, without the alliteration. It baffled me for a long time, even wondering if they used the word feccia (“dregs”) instead of faccia (“face”) by mistake.
Especially because amara can both mean “dismal” but also “bitter”… and I still think “The bitter face of defeat” makes slightly more sense than “The dismal dregs of defeat”.
Fantastic Four #58 (1966)
by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby
Something I never noticed before: Doom isn’t standing on anything, meaning the cover scene DOES happen in the story!
Specifically here:
No sense going through the entire issue since I already reviewed it.
But I have to mention that the three issues reprinted in the book were the ONLY Fantastic Four stories from the Lee&Kirby that I owned, so once again this was THE COOLEST THING I HAD EVER SEEN.
Historical significance: 10/10
Silver Age-ness: 2/10
Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
I think the original scores still hold up. Reed’s attitude towards Susan is basically the only flaw.
Personal significance: 10/10
If anything THIS story made me love Doctor Doom even more than the previous one.
Tales To Astonish #96 (1967)
by Raymond Marais & Bill Everett
cover by Dan Adkins
After a lackluster introduction in the previous issue, it’s time for Namor to go against Plunderer.
If it wasn’t for Dorma, Namor would have declared war on the surface world fifteen times by now.
Looking for clues on where to find Plunderer, Namor returns to the original location of Atlantis.
That city has been moved around only a few times less than Attilan.
It’s also the place where his mother is buried.
Her Silver Age incarnation is quite different from the Golden Age one, both in terms of looks and attitude.
Thinking about how the old city was devastated by undersea nuclear testing… yes that was the original explanation…
…Namor decides AGAIN to declare war. Which sounds bad, but he does this every other Tuesday.
But not before sneaking into Skull Island.
While he fights a giant sea monster…
…Dorma gets captured by Plunderer. She followed Namor because she correctly predicted he was due for another declaration of war.
Once again I must stress that Plunderer is a terrible match for Namor.
He doesn’t have any powers, just some gadgets that he typically uses to fight Daredevil or Ka-Zar, he’s nowhere NEAR Namor’s league.
Look, I like Namor and I like Dorma, but this is getting repetitive.
This distracts Namor long enough to allow Plunderer to use his main weapon, the Vibra-Ray™ and capture him.
For a guy as strong as the Hulk, Namor ends up being imprisoned by minor villains surprisingly often.
Historical significance: 0/10
Not even all that important in Plunderer’s history.
Personal significance: 2/10
I only have very vague recollections of this one.
Silver Age-ness: 2/10
Nor particularly, except maybe the vague link to undersea nuclear testing.
Does it stand the test of time? 4/10
The length doesn’t do these Namor stories any favors: it’s just 12 pages, since he’s sharing the title with Hulk. So not a lot happens.
Namor reminiscing about his past and his loss is well done, but when EVERYTHING makes him declare war on the surface world it loses its impact.
Tales To Astonish #97 (1967)
by Roy Thomas & Werner Roth
cover by Marie Severin
Hulk gets the cover for this one, but we’re not talking about HIS story today.
With Namor as his audience, Plunderer gets to recap his origin story for the readers.
While it wasn’t clear in the previous issue, Skull Island is actually part of the Savage Land.
The Savage Land doesn’t come up often in my reviews. Makes me wonder why Doctor Doom never tried to take it over.
The connection is because Plunderer is actually the brother of Ka-Zar, the Savage Land hero.
Who is basically “What if Tarzan grew up fighting dinosaurs?”.
It’s kind of nuts that Ka-Zar was introduced on X-Men and Plunderer was introduced on Daredevil, because neither of those books sounds like it should have anything to do with a secret continent with dinosaurs.
Plunderer is a D-tier villain at best, but he’s somewhat historically significant for introducing Vibranium to the Marvel Universe!
That’s because his Vibra-Gun™ is powered by “Anti-Metal”, which will later retconned into being an unstable version of Vibranium that emits vibrations that destroy metals.
Without the gun, Plunderer is a joke. But that thing is seriously overpowered.
Also notice that he calls “Plunderstone” what was originally called Anti-Metal and is later simply called “Antarctic Vibranium”.
He really should take more care of who he hires as goons, because they’re VERY easily taken out by the Savage Land locals.
Yeah there’s a reason why Plunderer is not in the World Conquerors Club.
Stick to Daredevil, Plunderer. He will STILL kick your butt of course, but it’ll be less humiliating.
He only survives because one of the locals drops a boulder on Namor.
Which is ridiculous: this is a guy who regularly goes toe-to-toe with the Hulk and the Thing, why would a boulder knock him out?
To the best of my knowledge, Plunderer is wise enough to never seek another round against Namor.
During this entire thing, Dorma (now back to Atlantis) and Namor’s vizir have been looking at the whole thing with some vaguely defined technology… but they were cut of juuuuust when Plunderer was offering Namor an alliance.
Which results in Namor being exiled from Atlantis.
Which SOUNDS important, but it’s all part of Namor’s routine.
On Mondays he saves Atlantis from some kind of threat.
On Tuesdays he announces he’s going to declare war on the surface world.
On Wednesdays someone convinces him NOT to declare war.
On Thursdays he declares war anyway.
On Fridays he understands he declared war for stupid reasons and retreats.
On Saturdays he’s removed from the throne. Five minutes later, Atlantis is in danger.
On Sundays he saves Atlantis and is restored to the throne.
On Mondays he saves Atlantis from something else, and the cycle continues.
Historical significance: 0/10
I’m not particularly knowledgeable in this era of Namor, but I don’t think anything substantial comes from this.
Personal significance: 3/10
I thought Plunderer was a cool villain, but again how could he possibly compete with THE COOLEST THING I HAD EVER SEEN?
Silver Age-ness: 6/10
It was very low until Namor was knocked out by a regular boulder. It wasn’t even dropped from very high!
Does it stand the test of time? 4/10
Worse than I remembered it, mostly because by this point I’ve read a lot of really good Namor stories and even a couple of good Plunderer stories.
Tales of Suspense #52 (1964)
by Stan Lee & Larry Lieber
We will DEFINITELY talk about the cover story at some point, since it’s first appearance of Black Widow…
…but we’re here for the Watcher story.
He’s watching a possible future where humanity has ended all wars, hunger and poverty.
Possibly thanks to the invention of the Magneto-Pool™.
This is the second Watcher story IN A ROW that focuses on a guy who is antagonized by his brother because he’s not after money.
Stan Lee really liked that plot, didn’t he? Made particularly awkward by the fact that the pencils are by his own brother Larry!!!
Something tells me Stan was not exactly keen on society putting pressure on people to make money at the expense of everything else.
And then aliens invade!
But not to conquer the planet: they want the guy who is not interested in money, and his love interest even volunteers to follow him.
Does humanity suck or what?
The twist is that the aliens didn’t come to Earth to take a test subject: they want a new ruler.
The moral of the story is that if you love your neighbor, you might be made supreme ruler.
Historical significance: 0/10
I kind of want this guy to meet Starlord.
On a more serious note, this is the last time the Watcher narrates a science fiction story: in future Tales of Suspence issues, he plays a part in the story.
Personal significance: 4/10
I thought it was cute.
Silver Age-ness: 6/10
The Magneto-Pool.
Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
A short and to the point morality play. If anything, I think it’s more relevant to the 2020s than the 1960s.