MARVEL ISSUES FROM JANUARY 1969

For this weekend’s escapist and lighthearted superhero post I will take a look at Marvel’s January issues from 1969. 

X-MEN Vol 1 #52 (January 1969)

Title: Twilight of the Mutants

X-Men Roster: Cyclops, Iceman, Beast, Marvel Girl, Angel, Polaris

Villains: Magneto, Mesmero, and the Demi-Men

NOTE: This is the fourth and final part of the storyline which saw the X-Men get drawn back together after they disbanded following the first of Professor X’s many false “deaths.” Polaris (Lorna Dane) joins the team.

Synopsis: The recently arrived evil mutant called Erik the Red says he has come to Magneto’s subterranean lair out west to join his forces. Erik demonstrates his powers against the Demi-Men, Magneto’s latest team of mutants intent on conquering humanity.

Polaris, who has joined Magneto’s team under the impression that she is his daughter, learns the truth about his villainous intentions from conversations among Mesmero, Magneto and Erik the Red. While Mesmero plots against Erik, and Magneto assigns Polaris to keep an eye on both figures for him, Marvel Girl, Angel and the Beast slip back into Magneto’s headquarters.

They used the diversion caused by Erik the Red’s scrimmage with the Demi-Men to reenter this stronghold. Erik now encounters the returned X-Men, revealing to us readers that he is really Cyclops in a new costume with voice-changer and ruby quartz technology that channels his eye-beams so that he can fire them from his gloved hands. (This reinforces his deception since his powers seem different from Cyclops’s.)

NOTE: For X-Men newbies, this fake “Erik the Red” identity used by Cyclops is why the evil Shi’Ar Emperor D’Ken had one of his agents use it years later.

Iceman now shows up, having spent the past day or so further investigating his girlfriend (at the time) Lorna/ Polaris’ mysterious past. Magneto has Mesmero lead the Demi-Men in a battle against the X-Men now that he knows Erik the Red is really Cyclops.

Polaris, still feeling divided loyalties (and because she believes Magneto is the long-lost father she has been searching for), initially obeys Magneto’s orders to help defeat the X-Men. Amid the chaotic battle, Iceman proves to Lorna that his investigation showed who her REAL father was, and it’s not Magneto.

Furious at the way our villain lied to her, Polaris joins the X-Men in fighting Magneto, Mesmero and the Demi-Men. Ultimately, as so often happens in pulp fiction, the battle ends with the headquarters blowing up. The X-Men escaped in time, but it appears that the villains died in the explosion.

NOTE: No surprise, they didn’t die and returned years later.  

With Magneto’s latest plan thwarted, and with the team reunited, the X-Men agree they should stay together to keep alive Professor Xavier’s cause. They also welcome Polaris to the team. 

SPIDER-MAN Vol 1 #68 (January 1969)

Title: Crisis on the Campus

Villain: The Kingpin

Synopsis: The Kingpin, at this point in time still strictly a Spider-Man villain, gathers his criminal underlings in a plan to steal a priceless, ancient stone tablet that is currently on display at Empire State University, where Peter Parker is a student.

That same day, Peter, Gwen Stacy, Harry Osborn, Mary Jane Watson, Flash Thompson and other students get caught up in outrage over ESU’s decision to eliminate some student housing to accommodate the number of experts around the world who are coming to ESU to try translating the mysterious tablet.

That evening the students mount a protest about the way some of them are being thrown out of their housing to make room for the arriving archeologists. The Kingpin and his thugs take advantage of the protest as it rages out of control to break in and steal the priceless tablet.

Peter Parker sees this and slips away to become Spider-Man. He battles the Kingpin and his men and manages to get the tablet away from the villain. Spider-Man leaves the defeated Kingpin for the police, but the crimelord takes advantage of our hero’s clouded reputation to convince the cops and the media that Spider-Man was his partner in the theft and has double-crossed him to keep the tablet all for himself.

NOTE: And that cliffhanger ending led into the rest of this eleven-part storyline which saw the tablet being fought over and passing through the hands of villains like the Shocker, Man Mountain Marko, the Lizard, and Maggia (Marvel’s “mafia” pastiche) Families led by the likes of Silvermane and Cesar Cicero. Quicksilver and the Human Torch guest-starred along the way.

IRON MAN Vol 1 #9 (January 1969)

Title: There Lives a Green Goliath

Villain: The Mandarin and his Hulk robot

NOTE: For anyone wondering why Iron Man’s series is only at issue number 9 despite him having first appeared back in 1962, that’s because his stories used to appear in the Marvel publication Tales of Suspense before being split off into his own title.

Synopsis: Iron Man’s archenemy the Mandarin has established a secret base in New York City. He has smuggled in a life-sized Hulk android to impersonate the real thing. Using satellite surveillance technology, the villain plans to use the robot against Iron Man while he observes and takes note of whatever improvements have been made to Iron Man’s armor since their last battle.

To that end, the Mandarin has the Hulk android burst in and abduct Janice Cord when she and Tony Stark are about to finalize their deal to merge their respective companies. Plus, Janice is Tony’s current love interest, since Pepper Potts married Happy Hogan. 

As the Mandarin planned, the Hulk-droid’s attack on the Stark-Cord meeting flushes out Tony’s “bodyguard” Iron Man (this was back when Tony kept it a secret that he was really Iron Man and passed the hero off as his bodyguard to explain why they were both at the same locations so often.)

Donning his Iron Man armor, Tony frees Janice and battles the Hulk-droid all over New York City. In the end, the android is destroyed, revealing its artificial status. The Mandarin, having watched everything today from a distance, has figured out that Tony Stark IS Iron Man and plans to use that information in his newest scheme.

FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #82 (January 1969)

Title: The Mark of the Madman

Villain: Maximus the Mad

Synopsis: With the Invisible Woman on maternity leave, the Johnny Storm Human Torch’s girlfriend – Crystal of the Inhuman Royal Family – agreed in the previous issue to replace her in the Fantastic Four until her return. Now she feels that she should obtain permission from her cousin Black Bolt, the king of the Inhumans and their secret, futuristic city called Attilan the Great Refuge.

Crystal has her big, horse-sized dog Lockjaw teleport the two of them to Attilan in the Himalayas, where she is taken captive by Maximus the Mad, Black Bolt’s evil brother. Once again, Maximus has overthrown Black Bolt and imprisoned the rest of the Inhuman Royal Family along with him.

Taking advantage of the residue of Lockjaw’s teleportation beam, Maximus sends a brigade of Alpha Primitives (beings genetically engineered by the Inhumans for labor and military use) to the Baxter Building hq of the Fantastic Four.

The Alpha Primitives are defeated by Mr. Fantastic, the Thing and the Human Torch, who realize something must have happened to Crystal. They use one of their aircraft to fly to Attilan, and when they arrive, Maximus has his kaiju-sized android Zorr attack them. 

The three heroes are defeated, and Maximus the Mad reveals his latest creation – an enormous hypnotic device which will enable him to enthrall everyone on Earth and make them his slaves.

DAREDEVIL Vol 1 #48 (January 1969)

Title: Farewell to Foggy

Villain: Stilt-Man

Synopsis: Picking up from the previous issue, Karen Page has returned to New York City and rekindles her romance with Matt Murdock. Meanwhile, Foggy Nelson is still running for District Attorney and looks like the probable winner, making organized crime hire Daredevil’s old villain Stilt-Man to assassinate Foggy before he can be elected.

Daredevil manages to stop Stilt-Man from killing Foggy, who wins in a landslide. Karen becomes Foggy’s secretary at the D.A.’s office.

AVENGERS Vol 1 #60 (January 1969)

Title: ‘Til Death Do Us Part

Villains: The Circus of Crime

NOTE: Wedding stories at Marvel Comics were always a big deal and often featured many superheroes guest-starring. The media in this fictional universe always made the weddings an event with massive coverage, adding to the fun.

Synopsis: Captain America arrives at Avengers Mansion for the wedding of the Wasp (Janet Van Dyne) to Dr. Hank Pym (now using Yellow Jacket as his nom de guerre). After signing autographs and working his way through the crowds thronging the street, Cap enters and hangs out with the Black Panther, Hawkeye and the Vision while Invisible Woman and Crystal from the Fantastic Four, serving as bridesmaids for the Wasp, are tucked away with her helping her get into her wedding dress.

Meanwhile, members of the Circus of Crime (circus-themed supervillains) infiltrate the catering staff and other personnel to set themselves up inside Avengers Mansion. The Circus of Crime plans to blow up the mansion when it is full of superhero guests, in one blow killing off many of the figures who have defeated and jailed them over the years. (The Avengers did it in issue #22.)

Eventually, Avengers Mansion is full of guests, and in a massive bit of fan service, readers are shown several heroes interacting, like the aforementioned Cap, Vision, Black Panther & Hawkeye. Invisible Woman and Crystal continue prepping the Wasp.

Other guests are Iron Man, Nick Fury, his love interest Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Dr. Strange, the newly reunited X-Men, the Thing, his blind girlfriend Alicia Masters, Mr. Fantastic, the Human Torch and the Black Knight.

(Thor was off on a solo adventure, Hercules was back on Mount Olympus, Hulk was a fugitive and the Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver had moved back to their homeland. The Black Widow was on a mission for S.H.I.E.L.D. that would cross over with Captain Marvel and the Avengers within a few issues.)

The time for the ceremony arrives, and the clergyman marries the Wasp and Yellow Jacket in the mansion. The reception begins and is running for a while when the Circus of Crime idiotically tips its hand prematurely.

A battle erupts and the villains are defeated for the happy ending. FOR QUICKSILVER AND CRYSTAL’S WEDDING CLICK HERE  FOR PART ONE AND  HERE  FOR PART TWO.

FOR THE WEDDING OF THE SCARLET WITCH AND THE VISION CLICK HERE

FOR THE WEDDING OF MR. FANTASTIC AND INVISIBLE WOMAN CLICK HERE.

HULK Vol 1 #111 (January 1969)

Title: Shanghaied in Space

Villains: The Galaxy Master and his troops

Synopsis: The Galaxy Master’s space fleet abducts the Hulk from Antarctica and heads for their home planet. The head villain is curious and wants to study the creature (Hulk) that was able to destroy their machine intended to knock the Earth out of its orbit. 

Just above the home planet of the Sagittarian spaceships, Hulk escapes imprisonment and fights his captors, on the ship and then in the vacuum of space when that vessel is destroyed in the fight. The wreckage and the Hulk crash-land on the planet below, and when our hero regains consciousness, he is confronted by the huge energy-creature calling itself the Galaxy Master, who still plans to destroy the Earth.

CAPTAIN AMERICA Vol 1 #109 (January 1969)

Title: The Hero That Was

Villains: Nazis

Synopsis: Captain America and Nick Fury are sharing a leisurely visit together, reminiscing about their World War Two activities. At length, the conversation turns to Captain America’s origin.

The bulk of the issue is a rehash of Cap’s origin from Captain America Comics #1 back in 1941.

NOTE: Marvel and DC often did flashbacks to the origins of their superheroes because back then there was no internet and new fans could not just go online and look up a hero’s origin details.

THOR Vol 1 #160 (January 1969)

Title: And Now … Galactus

Villains: Galactus and Ego the Living Planet

Synopsis: Tana Nile, a female alien of the race called the Colonizers of Rigel, returns to Earth to seek help from Thor against menaces at large in the Black Galaxy at present – Galactus and the living planet called Ego.

NOTE: Ego the planet and Ego Prime are two different entities. Ego Prime was a chunk of the living planet Ego which grew into its own sentient, powerful being. Kurt Russell played Ego Prime in the Marvel movies.

Back to the story, Thor and Tana are aboard Tana’s spaceship when they link up with a fleet of several different alien species who collectively call themselves the Wanderers. They are all survivors of planets devoured by Galactus over the centuries and who happened to be off-planet when Galactus fed on their homeworlds.

Eventually, Thor, Tana and the Wanderers arrive in the Black Galaxy, where Galactus is trying to feed on Ego the Living Planet. Ego has been fighting back, including shooting biospheric energy beams at Galactus.

For the cliffhanger ending, the ship carrying Thor and Tana Nile is caught in the crossfire and is torn apart.

DR. STRANGE Vol 1 #176 (January 1969)

Title: Oh, Grave Where is Thy Victory?

Villains: The Sons of Satannish

Synopsis: Picking up from the previous issue, Dr. Strange is searching for his disciple and love interest Clea (Charlize Theron in the movies), who has fallen into the hands of the demon-worshipers called the Sons of Satannish in honor of the entity they serve. Strange defeats a group of those mystically powered cultists but finds no clues to either Clea or the Sons’ leader, a sorcerer calling himself Asmodeus.

Returning to his Sanctum Sanctorum, our hero sees the enthralled Clea stealing the Book of the Vishanti, as she has been ordered to do by Asmodeus. The doctor follows her at a distance and she leads him to Asmodeus’ hidden lair.

Doc attacks the villain but is defeated by Asmodeus’ own power combined with his mystic Crystal of Conquest. The demon-worshiper defeats Dr. Strange, takes his Eye of Agamotto amulet and his Cloak of Levitation, then exiles Strange and Clea to a hellish dimension for the cliffhanger.

NICK FURY, AGENT OF S.H.I.E.L.D. Vol 1 #8 (January 1969)

Title: Thus Speaks Supremus

Villain: Supremus

Synopsis: Ulysses Abboud, a mad scientist with bone disease, designs a suit of high-tech armor to increase his strength and let him move around at will.

Calling himself Supremus he sets out to destroy S.H.I.E.L.D. and use nerve gas to take over the world.

Aided by Abboud’s half-sister Fatima, Nick Fury manages to defeat Supremus, who seems to die, but decades later turns up alive. You know comic books!

SUB-MARINER Vol 1 #9 (January 1969)

Title: The Spell of the Serpent

Villains: Tiger Shark and the Serpent Crown of Lemuria

Synopsis: Now that Sub-Mariner has destroyed the supervillain Destiny and stopped him from taking over the entire world, he and his love interest (since 1939) Lady Dorma head back to Atlantis in a high-tech sub.

On board with them is the Helmet of Power which had granted superpowers to Destiny. Prince Namor (Sub-Mariner) and Lady Dorma are welcomed back to Atlantis. In the days ahead, Atlantis’ scientists tell Sub-Mariner that they still cannot restore the homicidal mutate Tiger Shark back to his non-powered human form. The imprisoned villain still threatens our hero maniacally.

Meanwhile, the Helmet of Power is broken out of by its real form – the Serpent Crown of Lemuria.

NOTE: The Serpent Crown became a Marvel Comics relic which frequently showed up over the decades. This is its first appearance in its true form.

The Serpent Crown compels Lady Dorma and others to try it on, thus entangling them in its power. The Crown forces Namor’s army and Lady Dorma to attack him. The now-freed Tiger Shark joins in.

Namor fights his way free and leaves Atlantis far behind. When he finds the Serpent Crown is too invulnerable to be destroyed, he rashly puts it on and the Naga intelligence in the Crown fills his mind with visions of the ancient sinking of both Atlantis and Lemuria as this issue ends.

CAPTAIN MARVEL Vol 1 #9 (January 1969)

Title: Between Hammer and Anvil

Villains: Cyberex, Aakons and the Organization 

NOTE: This story takes place back when Kree Captain Mar-Vell still wore his high-tech green and white Kree battle armor into action. It’s also when Mar-Vell was using the identity of the slain Dr. Walter Lawson to infiltrate America’s space program at Cape Canaveral in preparation for the Kree invasion. 

Synopsis: Cape Canaveral’s Head of Security Carol Danvers (yes, THAT Carol Danvers, who later became Ms. Marvel) is still suspicious of Dr. Lawson’s behavior since his return. (She doesn’t know it’s Mar-Vell impersonating the late PhD.)

Carol slips into Walter Lawson’s residence while he is out to look through his things. A powerful android called Cyberex sneaks in and, failing to find Lawson, takes Carol with it as it leaves.

Captain Marvel defeats some aliens from Aakon (featured in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies) and returns home. The next morning he resumes using his Walter Lawson identity and reenters Cape Canaveral. Once there he learns of Carol’s disappearance, slips into costume and flies off to look for her.

Our hero learns that the dead man whose identity he assumed was really a villainous member of a group called the Organization, which has sinister plans. The Cyberex android was created by the real Lawson before his death, and the dead man’s old colleagues in the Organization sent Cyberex to find out why Lawson has stopped keeping in touch with his co-conspirators.

Captain Marvel finds the Organization’s headquarters, defeats them all and destroys Cyberex with his Uni-Beam. Having been rescued by the Captain once again, Carol Danvers gives him a passionate kiss from the attraction that has been growing between them.

On board one of the Kree vessels orbiting Earth, Mar-Vell’s true love Una watches this on a viewscreen and fears she is losing her man to the Earth woman. Our hero’s jealous fellow Kree officer Yonn-Rogg (Jude Law in the movies) grows even more embittered toward him as this issue ends.

MARVEL SUPER-HEROES Vol 1 #18 (January 1969) 

Title: Earth Shall Overcome 

NOTE: This was the very first appearance of the original Guardians of the Galaxy.

Synopsis: In the year 3007 A.D. the aggressive humanoid lizard race called the Brotherhood of Badoon invaded our solar system with their fleet of starships. They attacked Earth as well as the Earth’s extensive colonies on Mercury, Jupiter and Pluto, where millions of genetically engineered humans lived, bred to thrive in each planet’s unique environments.

In addition, Earth had reached the Alpha Centauri star system and on Centauri IV had formed a peaceful government with the native Alpha Centaurans. The Badoon also struck there, wiping out all of the humans and Alpha Centaurans.

The Badoon killed every Alpha Centauran because they considered them and their control of the living metal Yaka to be a threat. Similarly, the lizard-like aliens committed genocide on Pluto, Jupiter and Mercury as well, because they felt threatened by large numbers of foemen possessed of the enhanced abilities of those genetically engineered humans.

On Earth itself, the Badoon allowed roughly fifty-three million humans to remain alive as slave labor, since baseline humans did not have any extraordinary abilities which might pose a threat to them. But the Brotherhood of Badoon had not killed off every single member of the Earth colonies like they thought they had. Four figures survived to oppose them in a war to free humanity, four figures who called themselves the Guardians of the Galaxy.

MAJOR VANCE ASTRO – This tragic hero was the leader of the team. Vance Astro was an American astronaut placed into suspended animation and launched toward the Alpha Centauri star system around 1999 (which was still the future when this story was published in 1969). During the centuries when the sleeping Astro’s ship was crossing the gulf between stars the Earth people created warp-drive and wound up reaching the sole inhabited planet of the Alpha Centauri star system well in advance of good old Vance.

To Major Astro’s bitter surprise, when his slow-poke of a vessel at last reached its destination, he was far from a pioneer – humanity and the blue-skinned Alpha Centaurans were expecting him and were happy to welcome the would-be explorer, who forever after wallowed in the same type of “man out of his own era” self-pity that characterized Captain America for so long.

YONDU UDONTA (Played by Michael Rooker in the movies) – The sole survivor of the native race on Centauri IV, Yondu alone retained the special link with the living metal Yaka, which the Centaurans had long used as arrows in battle. The living metal was nearly indestructible and the arrows, once fired, could be used like miniature “smart missiles” controlled by Yondu’s whistling. (And Yondu has an entire quiver full of Yaka arrows, not just one like in the movies.)

When the first Earthlings had reached Centauri IV, the Centaurans had been at a stage of development roughly similar to Native Americans in the 1500s. Yondu combined the qualities of a stronger than human warrior with shamanic insight and a spiritual bond with nature.

Yondu and Vance Astro encountered each other in the brutal aftermath of the Badoon’s attack on Centauri IV. Finding themselves to be the only living beings left on the planet, they headed for Earth to see how things stood there.

CHARLIE-27 (Played by Ving Rhames in the movies) – Charlie was the sole survivor of Earth’s Jupiter colonies, immense floating cities in the gaseous Jovian atmosphere. Jovians like Charlie-27 had been genetically engineered to possess incredible super-strength to function in the extreme gravity of Jupiter. 

Charlie returned from a six-month space mission to find the Badoon army mopping up after their conquest of Jupiter. One man against an army, he sought help by teleporting himself to Earth’s colonies on Pluto, where he faced bio-engineered Saturnian Hound-Hawks, winged canine-like creatures that the Badoon were using as blood-hounds to track down any survivors on Pluto.

He eventually encountered the sole survivor of the Pluto colonies and the pair used a teleportation chamber to go to Earth to search for survivors there.

MARTINEX T’NAGA (Played by Michael Rosenbaum in the movies) – The science officer of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Martinex first met Charlie-27 when the scientist was destroying as much of the Pluvian Colony’s technology as possible to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Badoon race. The pair soon teleported to the Earth.

Once on Earth, he and Charlie-27 met up with Major Vance Astro and Yondu, who had escaped Badoon custody on Earth and were fugitives. The four banded together and launched a rebellion against the Brotherhood of Badoon.

Martinex, as Pluto’s sole survivor, had been genetically engineered with temperature related powers. He could shoot fire from one hand and could freeze things and shoot ice from his other hand.

This first story of the Guardians of the Galaxy ended with the formation and naming of their team. FOR THEIR NEXT ADVENTURE CLICK HERE.

FOR MARVEL’S JANUARY 1970 PUBLICATIONS CLICK HERE.

FOR MARVEL’S JANUARY 1971 PUBLICATIONS CLICK HERE.

FOR MARVEL’S JANUARY 1972 PUBLICATIONS CLICK HERE.

FOR MARVEL’S JANUARY 1973 PUBLICATIONS CLICK HERE.

FOR MARVEL’S JANUARY 1974 PUBLICATIONS CLICK HERE.

FOR MARVEL’S JANUARY 1975 PUBLICATIONS CLICK HERE.