The last part of the “Doom steals the powers of Silver Surfer” that I originally had.
Fantastici Quattro #56 (1973)
Published by: Corno
The cover is a correct translation of “Doomsday”, but the wordplay with Doctor Doom is lost: it’s literally the same translation of “Judgment Day”.
Fantastic Four #59 (1966)
by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby
I’m not a big fan of the Fantastic Four not interacting with the rest of the cover.
The first three parts of this saga were the only issues from the Lee&Kirby that I owned, so once again I must stress that this was THE COOLEST THING I HAD EVER SEEN.
But I’ve already reviewed this one; what did I score it?
Doom significance: 6/10
Silver Age-ness: 3/10
Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
I stand by the significance, since Doom doesn’t do a lot in this issue except showing off, and the Silver Age-ness. But I might have been too harsh on the test of time. Today I might bump it up to a 9/10 (the FF are a bit too depressed to reach a 10/10).
Personal significance: 10/10
You can’t imagine the frustration of only having the first three parts. The last issue was quite hard to find; took me something like twelve years to FINALLY read the ending.
The fact that Doom stole the powers of Silver Surfer was mentioned many times in other stories I read before the ending, sure, but none of them said HOW Doom was defeated!
I distinctly remember that I learned how it happened through a reprint of Daredevil #37.
Which I remind you includes my favorite bit of Marvel trivia: the fact that the very first meeting between Doctor Doom and Galactus was on the pages of Daredevil.
Tales To Astonish #98 (1967)
by Roy Thomas & Werner Roth
cover by Dan Atkins
That is one of the coolest Namor covers ever! So naturally it wasn’t included in the translation.
The villain of the story is STILL Plunderer, who is really starting to overstay his welcome.
Namor vowing to destroy the surface world is also getting repetitive.
He also fights a killer whale… despite the fact that this is taking place on the ruins of the original Atlantis, so it’s supposed to be on the bottom of the ocean.
They don’t typically go deeper 100 meters (330 feet) but some are known to have gone ten times deeper to hunt. Still doesn’t sound deep enough for Atlantis.
The killer whale is already more interesting than Plunderer.
I absolutely did NOT remember Plunderer’s ship being able to cause THIS much damage to Atlantis!!!
It’s easy to forget, but Atlantis has some serious firepower at its disposal. It’s still not enough to damage Plunderer’s ship!
That sounds a bit much… I can buy the danger of its rays because he has access to “Anti-Metal”, but the rest is stretching it. That’s not as versatile as Vibranium, all it can really do is destroy stuff.
As if things weren’t complicated enough already, the battle is felt by an American submarine that is there to test experimental depth charges.
Right above Atlantis.
You know it’s getting reeeally hard to blame Namor for holding a grudge.
You might recall that last time the Atlantean Council decided to declare Namor an enemy because they thought (on pretty flimsy grounds) that he allied himself with Plunderer.
Nice to see that the general population is not buying it.
We don’t even get to see Namor fighting the cool ship, because it’s attacked by the American submarine.
Our main villain of the saga, ladies and gentlemen!
Man, does he suck in this storyline.
At this point Namor wouldn’t bother with Plunderer even if he wasn’t distracted by saving a child.
The American submarine was useful when Plunderer was there… but now that he has left, they end up bombing Atlantis.
This results in Atlantis declaring war on the surface world, but… didn’t America just commit the first act of war?
I mean Atlantis and Plunderer were fighting each other; the American submarine wasn’t even damaged, and yet they decided to bomb a civilian population.
That’s a war crime, right?
Historical significance: 2/10
Basically filler, but it does influence the following issues.
Personal significance: 0/10
I have absolutely no recollection of reading this story.
Silver Age-ness: 2/10
Plunderer having that kind of technology stretches credibility today.
Does it stand the test of time? 3/10
Plunderer continues to be a real disappointment, Namor is not given much to do, and the artwork is not exactly stellar. Also today it would be completely impossible NOT to get deeper into the geopolitical implications of that war crime.
Tales To Astonish #99 (1967)
by Roy Thomas & Dan Atkins
cover by Marie Severin
The Hulk gets the cover again, but we’re not here for him.
We start where we left off: with Atlantis sending even more ships. At least the artwork has seriously improved in quality.
Sir, with all due respect, they didn’t fire AT YOU.
I’m pretty sure actual submarines don’t do these crazy maneuvers.
Namor decides to sneak inside the main Atlantean warship. That’s not going to help his case of NOT being a traitor.
That’s because his main concern is avoiding Atlantis from unleashing their superweapon: the Hurricane Inducer™.
Told you this wouldn’t help his case.
But he DID manage to destroy the superweapon.
Namor then ends up piloting the warship to stop the entire fleet.
Don’t expect a peace prize for this, sir.
Historical significance: 2/10
It’s the backstory for Namor meeting the Hulk next issue.
Personal significance: 0/10
I don’t recall reading this one either. Which is a pity because it’s a MUCH better story than the rest of the storyline!
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Not really.
Does it stand the test of time? 6/10
Its short length is what really hurts it, plus the total lack of consideration for America bombing Atlantis. But it’s a neat little story about Namor trying to stop his own people from committing an even bigger war crime, at the cost of the faith his people have on him.
Plus the artwork is very good!
By the way, this almost the end of Tales To Astonish by that title.
The next issue is a team-up between Namor and Hulk, who had been sharing the title since issue 70.
Tales To Astonish #101 will return to split the title, but the series will be re-titled Incredible Hulk starting from #102 and Namor will get his own series.
Tales of Suspense #53 (1964)
by Stan Lee & Larry Lieber
We will eventually talk about the cover story once I get to Black Widow’s origins…
…but there’s arguably a more significant story here: the origins of the Watchers.
We already knew that the Watchers were an incredibly old and advanced race, but this is where we learn why they’re immortal.
The secret is taking a shower once every century.
In ALL the Watcher stories reprinted, he’s colored with a weird sickly yellow tone.
I could only find modern digitally recolored versions, so I have to guess: did they have yellow skin in the original, or is this a Corno thing?
It sure makes that shower scene feel different.
Earth’s Watcher won’t even be named Uatu until 1975 (until then he’s always “the Watcher”).
Weirdly enough his father Ikor DOES get a name later on, and the third Watcher also gets a name.
The Watchers, who obviously don’t call themselves that yet (later stories will say the original name for the race was “Luminous”) decide to help a less developed planet.
They decide to do so by transforming into energy, which allows them to travel in space as “NEARLY” the speed of light… which requires months to find the planet they’re looking for.
That must be a VERY nearby star system, if it only takes them months! By comparison, the solar system closest to Earth is 4 light-years away.
Obviously this is ridiculously underpowered for what we know about the Watchers… but this flashbacks takes place billions of years ago, so I have no problem believing they got better over time.
The Prosilicans are naturally happy about the gift of advanced technology.
Although we’re still figuring out the “nuclear energy cures all diseases” thing.
Having done their good deed, the Watchers decide to travel to the edge of the galaxy to witness a cosmic phenomenon.
Based on the earlier comment, is the edge of the galaxy like a light-year away or something?
At any case, it’s enough time for the Prosilicans to learn nuclear war.
And they’re pretty good at it.
For Star Trek fans, this translates to the Watchers talking about the Prime Directive: interfering with less technologically advanced civilizations is just asking for trouble.
However this predates Star Trek, which began airing in 1966 while this is a 1964 story.
Not saying Stan Lee invented the concept… it has a lot of precedents in classic science fiction… but it had not been popularized yet.
However the Watchers take this to an absurdly extreme level: they swear to never interfere with the affairs of other beings, completely unrelated to the development of the race that could benefit from their help.
Guys, just because you screwed up ONE goodwill mission, shutting yourself from the universe is a bit of an overreaction!!!
Historical significance: 10/10
Not only it gives a backstory to a very important corner of the Marvel Universe… this was also the basis of the 2022 event “Reckoning War”, where the descendants of the Prosilicans have a huge role.
It also makes the Watchers’s reaction a bit more comprehensible, since according to that storyline the Prosilicans didn’t just blow themselves up: they started a war against every single civilization in the cosmos, unleashing a super-weapon that consumed nine tenths of the whole universe!!!
Personal significance: 8/10
I absolutely remember this one.
Silver Age-ness: 6/10
Traveling at just “nearly the speed of light” is still a big deal. How cute!
Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
It’s a bit naïve at places, and like I said it doesn’t really make the case for the Watchers going to that extreme, but it’s still a nice little morality play.