STRANGE TALES 109 (1963)
written by Stan Lee & Robert Bernstein
pencils and cover by Jack Kirby
First Lois Lane, then Jimmy Olsen, now it’s the Human Torch who finds Pandora’s box!
Johnny is happy because high school is off.
Reed Richard has had enough of him.
At least Johnny gets to do something useful, saving people from both a fire and then a flood.
The Torch flies above the mansion of a crazy old man calling himself “The Sorcerer”.
Yeah, uhm, this looks a little less urgent than the previous threats.
I get that this guy is a jerk, but the Human Torch might be going just a little overboard here!
Pissing off The Sorcerer turns out to have been a terrible idea, since he’s the owner of Pandora’s Box. Which still contains all the evils of the world thanks to Circe.
Here’s hoping that Johnny doesn’t get turned into a horse.
He might be the only person who ever tried to rob a bank using a box.
Hatred in a bank? In New York? It’s more likely than you think.
Out of all the “evils of the world”, I didn’t expect to see Forgetfulness. Or to see how useful it is!
Or Sleepiness, for that matter!
I was with you up until now, Sorcerer, but Cold is stretching your theme a bit!
Even by 1963 standards, the Human Torch’s jump in logic is AMAZING.
He confronts The Sorcerer, who has access to Disease now. So we jumped from the very specific to the extremely generic, when it comes to Evils Of The World.
The Sorcerer has an Evil for everything. When the cops shows up, he even makes the bullets too lazy to hit him. (WTF!?)
Okay, so this guy has a bunch of random demons at his disposal. How does the Torch beat him?
Considering the absurd ways the Torch has used his powers in the previous issues, it’s hard to believe he couldn’t weld the box without going through any of this.
And so The Sorcerer is defeated with all the dignity he deserves.
Historical significance: 0/10
Pandora’s Box will pop up again in the Marvel Universe, seemingly with no relation to this one.
Silver Age-ness: 8/10
Pretty high on the Marvel scale.
Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
Kirby’s art is the only saving grace. In addition to being very naïve, the story makes no sense: it’s clear from his very first panel that The Sorcerer is already extremely wealthy, so why does he concentrate on stealing and forgets that he swore revenge against the Human Torch?