MARVEL’S JANUARY 1967 ISSUES

This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post here at Balladeer’s Blog looks at Marvel’s January 1967 publications, excluding reprints.

FANTASTIC FOUR Vol 1 #58 (January 1967)

Title: The Dismal Dregs of Defeat

Villain: Dr. Doom

Synopsis: Picking up from the previous issue’s cliffhanger ending, the Fantastic Four’s archenemy Dr. Doom, monarch of Latveria, has succeeded in stealing the Power Cosmic from the Silver Surfer. With the drained and helpless former Herald of Galactus lying on the floor, Dr. Doom summons his “surfboard” and flies off on it. 

Doom reaches New York, where he publicly defeats the Fantastic Four with ease. He taunts them about having stolen the Silver Surfer’s incredible power and – in Supervillain Cliche Number 18 – refrains from killing them right now because he wants them to witness his conquest of the Earth and know he’s now too powerful to stop.

TALES OF SUSPENSE Vol 1 #85 (January 1967)

Iron Man Title: Into the Jaws of Death

Villain: The Mandarin

Synopsis: Resuming from the previous issue, Happy Hogan, who knows Tony Stark is Iron Man and who was wearing a set of Iron Man armor, has been abducted (teleported) to the Mandarin’s castle in his autonomous area of China. The Mandarin assumes he has taken the real Iron Man and begins battling the armored Hogan.

NOTE: Happy was dressed in Iron Man armor to help Tony throw off people who were beginning to suspect that Tony really is Iron Man. This deception let onlookers see both Tony Stark and Iron Man at the same time.   

Back in the U.S. Tony – who recognized the teleportation beam as the kind his archenemy uses – dons one of his spare suits of armor.  He then uses one of Stark Industries’ experimental intercontinental rockets to fly him to China ASAP to try saving Happy Hogan.

Meanwhile, the Mandarin easily defeats the inexperienced Hogan in the Iron Man suit, unmasks him and spends the next hours torturing him. Just in time before the villain decides to kill Happy, the real Iron Man arrives and fights his way through the high-tech defenses & army of the Mandarin’s castle. The Mandarin now turns to take on his real nemesis. 

Captain America Title: The Blitzkrieg of Batroc

Villains: Batroc and Hydra

Synopsis: Hydra lures Captain America to an abandoned hospital to try freeing S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent 13 (Sharon Carter) from their clutches. When Cap arrives at the location, he is attacked by his old supervillain foe Batroc, whom Hydra has hired to kill our hero.

The battle goes on and on, while Hydra agents on the premises hold the bound Sharon Carter in one of the rooms. At length, the armed Hydra soldiers try to ambush Captain America since Batroc is taking so long to kill him.

Batroc, an “honorable” mercenary, wanted to kill Cap in a fair fight and is outraged at Hydra for trying to kill our hero from hiding. Batroc and Captain America defeat the Hydra soldiers together, then while Cap frees Sharon, Batroc jauntily departs, saying they’ll no doubt meet again.

SPIDER-MAN Vol 1 #44 (January 1967)

Title: Where Crawls the Lizard

Villain: The Lizard

Synopsis: At Empire State University, Gwen Stacy, Harry Osborne and Flash Thompson meet up with Mary Jane Watson, whom Peter has already met from the many times his Aunt May tried to fix him up with her. Flash has been drafted and will be leaving soon to fight in the Vietnam War.

Action-wise, Dr. Curt Connors – who is working on a means of turning the Soviet supervillain the Rhino back into a non-powered human – once again transforms into his monstrous alter ego the Lizard, for the first time since Spider-Man #6 (November 1963). Spider-Man assures Curt’s wife and son that he will find the Lizard and bring him to them so they can try to return him to normal again.

Our hero and the Lizard fight a few times in public over the next night and day. At length, the Lizard inflicts an arm injury on Spider-Man and escapes. In costume, Peter has a doctor put a sling on his injured arm. That night, at the apartment he shares with Harry Osborn, our hero tries to recover as soon as possible so he can take on the Lizard again. 

TALES TO ASTONISH Vol 1 #87 (January 1967)

Hulk Title: The Humanoid and the Hero

Villain: The Hulk-Killer Humanoid

Synopsis: Picking up from the previous issue, the Hulk is still fighting the rampaging Hulk-Killer Humanoid that is trying to destroy a city. NOTE: General “Thunderbolt” Ross foolishly activated this incredibly strong model of the Humanoids mass-produced by the Hulk’s archenemy the Leader. Ross hoped it would kill the Hulk, but instead it ran amok.   

Eventually, the Hulk wins the day, destroying the rampaging Humanoid. His old foe Boomerang is glad to see news reports that our hero survived, giving him another chance to kill the Hulk himself.   

Sub-Mariner Title: Moment of Truth

Villain: Warlord Krang

Synopsis: Picking up where the previous issue left off, Sub-Mariner manages to free his true love (since 1939) Lady Dorma and his frequent foe Warlord Krang from the U.S. Army, thus thwarting Krang’s latest attempt to provoke a war between Atlantis and the surface world nations.

Back in Atlantis, our hero shrewdly decides to destroy what political support that Warlord Krang has left by challenging him to public combat. The next day, Namor pits his massive strength against Krang with all the high-tech weapons he brought with him. Our hero wins and banishes Krang from Atlantis. 

AVENGERS Vol 1 #36 (January 1967)

Title: The Ultroids Attack

Villain: Ixar

Synopsis: The Scarlet Witch, who took Captain America by surprise at the end of the previous issue with her unexpected return from Transia, the homeland of the Witch and her brother Quicksilver. It turns out that Quicksilver has been taken prisoner by aliens and Transia is being used as a base for their plan to conquer the Earth.

Cap, the Scarlet Witch, the Wasp, Goliath, Hawkeye and the Black Widow travel to Transia and battle the Ultroids, alien warriors led by the powerful Ixar. In the cliffhanger ending, our heroes are defeated by the Ultroids and join Quicksilver in captivity.

THOR Vol 1 #136 (January 1967)

Title: To Become an Immortal

Villain: The Lurking Unknown

Synopsis: Arriving in Asgard after their encounter with the High Evolutionary, Thor and Jane Foster see that Asgardian troops have captured a Troll who reveals that his kind are plotting another war. Because Odin has at last agreed to grant Jane Foster immortality as a prelude to her marrying Thor, he transforms Jane into a goddess.

Next, Jane is subjected to a rite of passage that all Asgardians are subjected to upon adulthood – she is pitted against a deadly other-dimensional demonoid called the Lurking Unknown. Reeling at “godhood” and the unfathomable evil of the entity she faces, Jane is so terrified she wants to forsake immortality and leave Asgard forever.

Odin agrees and banishes Jane back to Earth while Thor and Sif fight together to defeat the unleashed Lurking Unknown. (Yes, in actual Norse myths Thor and Sif were married, but Marvel Comics played it differently.) The pair defeat the entity. 

NOTE: The subplot about the Trolls being on the verge of launching another war against Asgard sets up the very next issue, which presented Thor’s first-ever fight with one of his classic foes: Ulik the Unconquerable, a Troll as strong as Thor himself.  

X-MEN Vol 1 #28 (January 1967)

Title: The Wail of the Banshee

X-Men Roster: Cyclops, Iceman, Marvel Woman, Angel, Beast and Mimic

Villains: Banshee, the Ogre and Factor Three (first appearances by all)

NOTE: This was during the period when the Mimic was a member of the X-Men (and feuding with Cyclops for leadership). Since his costume doesn’t match those of the rest of the X-Men (see cover), Marvel should have had all the X-Men switch to individual costumes when the Mimic joined the team rather than after the lengthy Factor Three story was over.

Synopsis: Banshee (at right) and the Ogre, two members of the enigmatic group of mutant supervillains called Factor Three, are in the New York City area. In between their missions advancing Factor Three’s plans to take over the world, the roguish Banshee (who will join the X-Men in 1975) has been robbing art galleries and the like.

Ogre’s abilities have at last located the X-Men’s secret headquarters at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters in upstate New York. He and Banshee raid the school to abduct Professor X for their unnamed (in this issue) teammates in Factor Three.

After an epic and destructive battle throughout X-Men HQ, our heroes prevent the intruders from kidnapping the professor, forcing a retreat.

NOTE: In a few issues, the X-Men will learn that the other members of Factor Three are the new mutant supervillain the Changeling in command of their old foes the Vanisher, the Blob, Mastermind and Unus the Untouchable.

DAREDEVIL Vol 1 #24 (January 1967)

Title: The Midnight Stalker

Villain: The Plunderer

Synopsis: Having defeated the Tri-Man and the Masked Marauder at a remote European stronghold of the Maggia (Marvel’s Mafia) last issue, Daredevil now attacks and knocks out Maggia drug dealers who deliver their product in an airplane.

Piloting the criminals’ plane to England (just go with it), Daredevil makes his way to London where he hopes to get enough money to buy civilian clothes and get a new passport and a ticket home to New York City from his former client, Lord Kevin Plunder aka Ka-Zar.

NOTE: Ka-Zar, who first appeared in X-Men #10, was a Tarzanesque Lord of the Savage Land’s prehistoric jungle. That land was in the center of Antarctica and geothermal heat had kept it a rain forest for millions of years. Dinosaurs plus other prehistoric animals and peoples had been preserved there. 

Making his way to Plunder Castle, Daredevil learned that Ka-Zar was besieged by British cops who wanted him for the recent Midnight Stalker murders which seem to have been committed by a man with a huge animal at his side. (That would be Zabu, Ka-Zar’s saber-tooth tiger companion.)

Ka-Zar mistakenly thought his former ally Daredevil was on the side of the police so they fought. Our hero eventually made it clear that he wanted to help Lord Plunder again. Soon, he proved Ka-Zar was being framed for the murders by his villainous brother Edgar Plunder aka the supervillain called the Plunderer. 

The two heroes defeated the villain and his men, and a few days later, Daredevil, back in his Matt Murdock identity, was on board a return flight to New York City, wondering how he would explain his long absence to Foggy Nelson and Karen Page.

STRANGE TALES Vol 1 #152 (January 1967)

Dr. Strange Title: Into the Dimension of Death

Villainess: Umar the Unspeakable

Synopsis: Picking up from the previous issue, Dr. Strange continues fighting his way through the Dark Dimension to try finding and saving his love interest Clea.

NOTE: Clea was played by Charlize Theron in Dr. Strange 2.

After surviving several more menaces, Strange comes face to face with Umar the Unspeakable, Dormammu’s equally evil sister, who has been ruling over the Dark Dimension since Dormammu disappeared during his clash with the entity called Eternity months earlier.

Umar reveals to Dr. Strange that Clea is trapped in the realm of the monstrosities called the Mindless Ones, beings so powerful they once posed a threat to the entire Dark Dimension. Strange heads into their realm to save Clea for the cliffhanger ending. 

Nick Fury Title: The Power of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Villains: Hydra, led by the Supreme Hydra (Baron Strucker)

Synopsis: Continuing from last issue, Nick Fury has escaped from Hydra captivity and is flying a damaged exoskeletal aircraft that prevents him from radioing his identity and status to S.H.I.E.L.D. Unaware of this, Agent Jasper Sitwell, fearing the approaching craft may be a Hydra weapon, launches S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Strato-Mine missile at it. 

Colonel Fury realizes that he may not be able to make radio contact with anyone, but with the Strato-Mine locked on his aircraft he knows it will follow him anywhere. He turns around and flies the craft toward the secret location of Hydra’s latest weapon, the Overkill Horn, whose locale he learned before escaping last issue.

Bailing out in a parachute just before his craft can crash-land in the fortress containing the Overkill Horn, Fury watches as the pursuing Strato-Mine Missile follows his abandoned aircraft in crashing into that fortress. The explosion destroys the Overkill Horn. 

SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS Vol 1 #38 (January 1967)

Title: This One’s for Dino

Villains: Nazis

NOTE: This series presented the adventures of Nick Fury and his special unit during World War Two. This was 1967, when it was still reasonable that a man who had served in World War Two could still be alive and healthy enough to be the head of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Synopsis: Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos make a paratrooper assault on Danton Island in the Baltic Sea. Their goal is to take down the Nazi forces there and liberate Dr. Warren Parker, a German captive who is “the only surgeon” who can perform the operation to save injured Howling Commando Dino Manelli’s ability to use his legs.

Along on the attack are Nick, Dum Dum Dugan, Gabe Foster, “Reb” Rawlins, Izzy Cohen, Pinky Pinkerton, Jim Morita and Eric Koenig (Fury’s future Assistant Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. decades later). The assault is successful and the Howlers get Dr. Parker to the hospital to operate on Dino in time to save his legs.

With Dino set to return to Fury’s commandos soon, Japanese-American Jim Morita decides to transfer to the historically real “Yankee Samurai” unit of Japanese-Americans who served in the U.S. military during the war, despite some of their families being interred stateside. I covered that often-overlooked unit HERE. 

FOR MY LOOK AT MARVEL’S JANUARY 1970 ISSUES CLICK HERE.