Marvel Tales had a few original stories from time to time, but most of the book was reprints. The first original tale was about Angel.
It’s not even referenced on the cover.
Angel’s uncle(!) puts him and Candy Southern into a tube.
His uncle’s name is “Dazzler” but no, he’s not Allison Blaire. He appears to die in the end.
This story was written by Jerry “Superman” Siegel.
This interesting little unheralded jewel from ‘X-Men’ history has quite a few pros and cons. The cons: An absurdly, one-dimensional cornball, stock-funnybook villain in the “Dazzler”, whose demise at the conclusion of this adventure was, unfortunately, exaggerated. I wonder if the Angel mentioned to Allison Blaire during his failed courtship of her in the early Eighties that he had an evil uncle who used her stage-name, several years before she did. Also, how could Marvel expect this story to catch any attention when they absolutely failed to promote it?? As noted, this story was not mentioned on the cover of this issue, leaving it to be discovered and enjoyed only by new ‘Spider-Man’ fans who wanted to bone up on back-issues that they had missed. This was an important chapter in ‘X-Men’ history in that it deals with the murder of the Angel’s father, which is another con, because, had Worthington Junior been allowed to live, his relationship with his son would have been highly interesting to watch, as it played out across Marvel Comics for many years to come. We lost that. Remember, Worthington Junior was not happy over his son being a mutant. This would have provided the ‘Angel’ saga with many years of that good ol’ fashioned human parent/mutant child ‘X-Men’ angst. As noted, we lost that. The final ‘con’ is the Angel’s outfit. Boy, is that an ugly outfit. It was supposedly designed for him by no less than Marvel Girl herself, as revealed in ‘Uncanny X-Men’#39. Why would she do that to him?? I thought she loved him! Maybe she was trying to punish him for losing the ‘Angel/Marvel Girl/Cyclops’ triangle- ( ?? ) There was a great line delivered by MG in an issue of “X-Men:First Class” where she, the Beast and the Angel were discussing it, whereupon the Beast wanted to know “What was the deal with that yellow and red eyesore with the red suspenders you were sporting there, for a while-??” whereupon the Air Ace responds: “Uh…..you’ll have to ask Jean about that.” whereupon the mutant beauty responds: “HEY!!!! You SAID it was what you WANTED!!!!” I am inclined to believe that, simply because red is the primary color in ALL the costumes that the Winged Wonder has designed for himself! Yuck! No, I have not as of yet had the honor of visiting Heaven, ( yet- knock wood ) but I just do not associate the color red with Heaven, or Heavenly beings! Now, Hell, and hellish beings, well, hell, YES!!! Of course, upon the arrival of the late, mighty titan Neal Adams, the Westchester Birdman was given an outfit ( from MAGNETO, no less!!! ) that has defined his look, to this very day, a good fifty-four years later! So, our hero goes the full gamut from the worst eyesore in superhero history to a slightly-less offensive design, ( ‘Uncanny X-Men’#’s 60-62 ) to, finally, and quite simply, the sharpest and most handsome superhero ensemble ever designed!! Thank God for Neal Adams! Just think! Without Neal Adams, the Angel would quite possibly today still be flying around in his red suspenders!! What a nightmare!! But, anyway….. another ‘pro’ is the presence of the also late-and-beautiful Candy Southern, who always brings a lot to the Angel’s adventures. She was as witty and smart and charming as she was beautiful, she was deeply in love with her Angel ( something that neither Marvel Girl, nor the Phoenix-being, nor Storm, nor even Psylocke could ever claim to be! And why the hell NOT, ladies-??? Warren is the total package!!! He’s Brad Pitt handsome, courageous to a fault, loyal to his friends as a Pit-Bull, not the LEAST he is winged, and- guess WHAT girls-??? He’s FILTHY RICH!!!!! Not even the evil Cameron Hodge could change that!!! Well, I guess SOME girls just don’t go for any of THAT nonsense!!-??? ) and MORE than earned her place in his life!! I loved and miss Candy! Of course, this being funnybooks, I fully expect that she and Worthington Junior will be Returning From The Dead oh, just any time, now!! The Final Pro: This story was written by ‘Superman’ co-creator Jerry Siegel!! What a plus!! As the story goes, by the late Sixties, Jerry Siegel and DC Comics were burned out on each other, because Siegel and his ‘Superman’ collaborator, Joe Shuster both ( correctly ) felt that they were not receiving their proper due from the company for having given the industry it’s greatest ( of the time ) cash-cow. When Marvel got wind of this, they cannily offered Siegel some writing assignments, apparently figuring that swinging a co-creator of ‘Superman’ over to the House of Ideas would be an industry coup! ( take THAT, DC!!! ) And, frankly, it WAS, but why the new collaboration failed to last is a mystery lost to the Mists of Time. ( somebody will reveal it, eventually ) This ‘Angel’ trilogy is the only-known result of the brief collaboration. Isn’t it interesting to realize that Jerry Siegel was apparently reading a lot of ‘X-Men’ comics, in the Sixties-?? He had to be, in order to write this story! I would have thought that the guy who gave us ‘Superman’ would have had more important things to do with his career than to follow the products of his company’s direct competitor! Of course, as noted, Siegel was deeply unhappy with DC at the time, so maybe, that was the reason why. We’ll probably never know all the details. The Angel’s eyesore outfit is the dead-giveaway clue as to where this story fits into ‘X-Men’ history. Following Professor X’s temporary death in ‘Uncanny X-Men’#42, the FBI, in the person of Special Agent Fred Duncan, informs the bereaved team that the Bureau feels that , without the leadership of Charles Xavier, that they can best serve the cause of Mutant-Societal relations by spreading their ranks across the country. Cyclops and Marvel Girl remain in New York, the Beast and Iceman head for sunny California, ( where else?? ) and the Feathered Fury, due to the nature of his mutation, gets to become a roving, mobile agent! ( I wonder if they were on Bureau salary-?? ) It is during this ( mercifully brief ) period of disbandment that the Avian Adventurer spends the most time in this awful sartorial disaster, only finally losing it in issue#60. Siegel’s Angel story clearly takes place while the X-Men are roving agents for the FBI. SO- those are the pros and cons of Jerry Siegel’s ( presumably ) first and only foray into the Wonderful World of Merry Marvel Whackiness! I’d give it a ‘B’! X-celsior!!