STRANGE TALES #116 (1964)
Torch and Thing fight each other because of Puppet Master.
The whole point of Strange Tales was to give Human Torch some alone time, but he keeps having Fantastic Four members crashing his party.
Dr. Strange takes on Nightmare. The first page of the story has a blurb explaining that everyone loved the character’s first appearance. Steve Ditko is now showing the great level of artistic imagination that made his work on Strange famous.
Creators: Stan Lee and Dick Ayers (Torch), Steve Ditko (Strange)
Grade: C- (Torch), C+ (Strange)
TALES OF SUSPENSE #49 (1964)
Okay, so this is the first truly GREAT issue of this comic since the Iron Man origin story way back in ToS #39. First off, we get an extra-long Iron…
THE AVENGERS #3 (1964)
This is almost the first “Hulk vs. Everybody” comic. The Avengers hunt him down, after having fought him in issue #1 (albeit he was under Loki’s thrall), and try to…
STRANGE TALES #118-119 (1964)
Some Dr. Strange stories. Some solo Human Torch stories. I’m going to bundle them because they’re short stories and not a lot happens. Of note: It is about now that…
TALES OF SUSPENSE #50 (1964): 1st Mandarin
Iron Man finally gets his first “iconic” villain. It’s too bad the character is from China and named Mandarin, but, hey, racism to one side: Four rings, each with a…