In #114 Human Torch meets a Cap look-a-like who arrives in Glenville of all places, trying to unseat Human Torch as the favorite local hero.
This gets Johnny so mad he wrecks the linoleum at his girfriend’s mom’s house.
These kinds of slapstick scenes are relatively frequent in this book. They’re not bad, but it’s pretty dated humor.
Bad Cap breaks some local mobsters out of prison,
And that’s enough for Torch to reveal his true nature and take him out. And he’s unmasked in the end as Acrobat.
The issue ends with this strange reader poll in the last panel of the issue…
Cap would indeed return, in just a few short months. Stan Lee would often invite readers to participate in the creation of comics, but he usually did it on the letters pages or on an editorial page. Whenever he would do this, it would really make feel like they were a part of Marvel–it helped him develop an avid fanbase, which was important when you understand that DC had been the preeminent superhero publisher for decades. They owned Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman…And all of Marvel’s heroes were new and unknown.
As for Doctor Strange, he appears in #114, but no stories in #112 or #113, making this his third official appearance.
And Baron Mordo is the villain for the second time. And it’s actually a pretty important story for several reasons.
Mordo lures Strange into a trap and, once imprisoned, Strange refuses the help of his Master because he wants to prove himself.
Strange doesn’t say it, but Stan Lee’s caption box calls him The Ancient One. That’s the first time he gets that name.
Then, in order to fight Mordo, Strange possesses a woman named Victoria Bentley.
She will later be revealed as a person with strong magical powers. But in this issue, she asks to be Strange’s student…
…And he refuses.
I’m grading as slightly above average for the curiosity factor of the fake Cap, the way they ask readers for their views at the end–in the actual comic, not on the letters page—and the introduction of Bentley.