Strange Tales 107

The Master of Flame Vs. The Monarch of the Seas!!

by

Stan Lee, Larry Lieber & Dick Ayers

About a month after his previous adventure, Johnny Storm walks home from school to find the rest of his teammates at his house. Reed Richards informs him that Ben and he were going over notes with Sue Storm for their next Fantastic Four adventure. When Johnny complains that the group never consults with him on their adventures, Reed berates the lad for his poor judgment last month with the Acrobat.

As Thing and Reed take off, Johnny enters his house. He contemplates how he can contribute more to the team, so they will all take him more seriously. Noticing a picture of Namor on Sue’s nightstand, the photo makes Johnny realize that Namor has never really been defeated by them; if he could take out Namor, Johnny just might be in better standing with the team. Before Sue can figure out what he’s up to, Johnny flames on and takes off for the Atlantic Ocean.

After flying over the ocean a ways, Human Torch’s flame starts to falter. He spots a nearby steamer ship and quickly boards it to recuperate. The crewmen are quick to notice him. Believing Johnny to be no more than a stowaway, despite his insistence that he is the Torch, the crew set him to work swabbing the deck. Johnny complies to allow his flame time to recharge. After a while, the ship runs into some fog and the power goes out. Having allowed enough time to pass, Johnny flames on to rescue the crew. He creates fireballs that surround the ship, bright enough to see through the dense fog. Once the vessel is free of the fog, the Torch continues on to his original plan.

Hovering above a spot in the Atlantic Ocean where the Human Torch knows Namor resides, he writes a flaming challenge just above the water’s surface. Suddenly, a school of flying fish emerge. The heat from the message scorches one of the creatures. It drifts down below the sea until it reaches a wary Sub-Mariner. He looks up to see the Human Torch’s message scrawled in the sky. Namor wishes he could meet Torch’s challenge, but he doesn't want to harm him because of how he feels about his sister.

Namor emerges from the sea and yells at Johnny to go back home. Torch responds by throwing a fire lasso around Namor. This infuriates Namor so much that he forgets all about Sue and starts chasing the lad. Torch leads him towards an iceberg jutting out of the ocean. Before he crashes into it, Johnny quickly dives out of the way, allowing Namor to smash into it. Before he does, Namor uses his powers to bloat himself up like a puffer fish in order to escape the hole he makes smashing into the ice.

Diving back into the ocean, Namor searches for weapons to fight off the Human Torch. In the ruins of Atlantis, he finds a fire-resistant sheet and a statue that has special hypnotic properties. As Namor reemerges, the sunlight hits the statue, causing its eyes to glow and hypnotize Torch. Namor suggests to him that they are friends and that he should come closer. Torch obeys as Namor wraps the fire-resistant sheet around his fist; punching the Torch in his face.

Johnny falls into the sea unconscious. Namor goes after him so he won’t drown. He ties Johnny onto the back of a passing porpoise, then tells the dolphin to take the boy to land. Johnny awakes minutes later. He immediately flames back on, burning off his seaweed restraints and flying off, back towards Namor. Namor takes on the traits of an electric eel and flies towards the oncoming Torch. The two of them collide, the impact sends them both falling under the sea.

The Human Torch chases Namor at the bottom of the sea. Johnny has somehow figured out how to maintain his heat under ocean water. He flies back out into the sky to reignite his body. Johnny goes supernova, making his flame so intense that it ignores the water, but he can only keep to this state for a few minutes before it completely diminishes his flame powers. Namor is buried in a hole in the sea floor created by the Torch’s immense heat. The hole quickly caves in due to the ocean pressure at the bottom of the sea, while the Human Torch travels back to the surface.

Breaching the surface in time for his flame to go out, Johnny is quickly spotted and rescued by the ship crew he had befriended earlier. Meanwhile, trapped in the ocean floor, Namor uses his awesome strength to burrow up out of the ground. Exhausted, Namor is still determined to renew the fight with Johnny. He breaches the surface, only to see a ship departing far off on the horizon. Namor is glad, for the Torch was more powerful than he had anticipated. He contemplates what a powerful team the two of them could make after the Human Torch reaches maturity. Johnny arrives home in the middle of the day exhausted. He crashes out on his bed. Sue passes by, wondering how working on cars could tire him out. “She doesn’t know the half of it,” thinks Johnny as he dozes off.

Notes

The Human Torch has added the supernova fire to his list of maneuvers. He is getting increasingly skilled with his powers, able to go toe-to-toe with Namor. He didn’t prove himself as he intended with the FF, but Namor now regards him as a worthy adversary and possible future teammate.

Namor is still lost without his people, residing in the ruins of Atlantis. The Atlanteans had access to some magical weaponry, in this case a bust that can hypnotize people. Namor performs a few tricks himself, he can take on the traits various sea life, including pufferfish and the electric eel, which we’ve seen used before in FF #6 to betray Doctor Doom.

Sue & Namor’s romance is still playing around in the background. Johnny burned up that picture of Namor in FF #6, so she must have gotten another one, probably when they were in Hollywood in FF #9. Sue is written as being really oblivious again.

Almost every time a story describes something as being asbestos from now one, I’m going to replace it with fire-resistant for my own sanity. I’m of the assumption that Stan Lee at the time thought asbestos equals fire-resistant, instead of it being a very specific type of fire resistant fiber that is extremely toxic to people.

Timely

Reed states that this takes place about a month after the events of Strange Tales #106 and the notes they are working on are for next month's adventure. This could mean a few things. Either they are making notes for their trip to the moon coming up in FF #13, they are making notes for their run-in with the Hulk, but that means they would have intentions to find Hulk and that isn't how the case is presented in FF #12, or they are going over notes for the next issue of Fantastic Four that Stan Lee & Jack Kirby are writing since we know Reed consults with them to make their stories. It's kept pretty vague. I personally think that in-universe they are notes for the FF's trip to the moon, because that would be a thing they had planned out.

Review & Ranking

This is one of the better stories in the Human Torch’s solo efforts. There’s still sticking points that drag this down, with the convoluted nature of how they use Torch’s flame and the strange fish powers of Namor. The small side story of Human Torch working on a ship. The characterization of Sue is once again greatly diminished to being just an annoying foil for Johnny’s adventures. The action between Namor and Johnny is generally better and much more fluid than anything else we’ve had in this series so far. The incredible detail on the strange hypnotic bust, silly as it is, gives it more credence at being a threat. Namor is drawn a bit off model in a few panels, but nothing extremely egregious.

Far and away the best solo Human Torch we’ve seen in Strange Tales yet. The story is of no great importance, it reiterates things we already know to a degree. Being billed as a fight issue on the cover, it delivers, but there is no great depth beyond these two characters fighting it out. I am putting it right above ST #103, the previous best solo Torch story, below the Hulk #4a that also told a pretty straight forward story with only a little meandering that doesn’t get in the way of the main plot.

Next Time

Our very first crossover, as the Fantastic Four meet the Incredible Hulk!

Strange Tales 106

The Threat of the Torrid Twosome

by

Stan Lee, Larry Lieber & Dick Ayers

The Human Torch spends the afternoon training at an obstacle course Reed Richards built him on the outskirts of Glenville. At home, his sister, Sue Storm, lets a strange man who wants to talk with Johnny, named Carl Zante, into their home. The Torch returns home, ducking into an alleyway to flame off so the neighbors don’t see him and get wise to his secret. Except, a couple of kids do see him.

Minutes later, Johnny arrives at his house. Inside, Sue introduces him to Carl Zante. Zante reveals that he knows Johnny is the Human Torch. Johnny wonders how he figured it out, when Sue explains that everybody already knows his “secret” identity. They were all just playing along for his own sake. With that out of the way, Sue leaves her teenage brother alone with the stranger, so the two of them can have what Sue refers to as “man talk.”

Carl Zante proclaims to Johnny that he is the world’s greatest acrobat. He propositions Johnny that he is not getting the credit he deserves as a member of the Fantastic Four. If it wasn’t for his powers, the FF would not have defeated the Miracle Man nor Namor in their first encounters. He wants Johnny to quit the FF and join him as The Torrid Twosome, with the promise to make him rich and more famous. Johnny considers it, but wants to talk it over with Reed Richards first.

Johnny flames on to fly over to the Fantastic Four’s headquarters in Manhattan. He demands that Reed pay him a salary for his contributions to the team. Reed denies him, reminding Johnny that all money they make goes towards scientific research. Thing reiterates Reed’s point by pouring a vase of water over Torch’s head to cool him down. Johnny retaliates, using his powers to cause the smoke from Reed’s smoking pipe to fill the room. This dries him off so he can flame on again while Thing and Reed are choking from the smoke. He announces he’s had enough and quits the team.

Back home, Johnny rings up Carl Zante. He tells him he’s ready to join his team. Zante is delighted as he has more nefarious schemes in mind than his young cohort suspects. After the phone call, Johnny works on designing new costumes for the two of them; a skin-tight green top and pants, with a brown beret and shorts. As Johnny displays it to Sue, he explains they are made of unstable molecules, so they won’t burn up when he flames on. Sue tries to reason with her brother, but Johnny is having none of it.

A day later, Zante shows up at Johnny’s house again. Their first mission is to rescue a bank teller at the Glenville bank. According to Zante, the teller has accidentally locked himself inside the vault and will suffocate if they don't save him. Without any hesitation, Johnny flames on and rushes to the bank. Zante follows behind in his convertible. As soon as the Torch arrives, he melts right through the bank’s vault door. Inside he finds no one.

Carl Zante blocks the Human Torch’s exit. He pulls out a hose attached to some apparatus on his back, and sprays Johnny with a liquid fire retardant, dousing his flame. Johnny warns him about the bank guards, but Zante has already gassed them all. Before he can protest further, Zante pulls out a gun and shoots Johnny. The bullet hits him in the arm. Zante attempts to finish off Johnny, but the gun jams. He starts stealing money from the vault, when the employees start to come to. With the cash in hand, he uses his acrobatic agility to dive out of a nearby window and into his convertible.

The criminal attempts to drive away, but his car is stuck. Johnny’s teammate, the Thing, has grabbed hold of the rear bumper, keeping the car in place with his strength. Carl tries to get out of the car, but finds the roof held shut by the Invisible Girl and the doors stuck closed by Mr. Fantastic using his stretching powers to tangle his limbs around the doors. The three of them question Zante, when the injured Torch emerges from the bank. He explains how Zante betrayed him and declares he wants to fight him alone.

With a wounded arm, the Human Torch confronts Carl Zante. Zante uses his acrobatic skills to swing from a flagpole onto a ladder. As he climbs up to the roof, the Torch flies after him, but finds his balance off due to his shot arm. He lands back down among the FF to catch his breath, before resuming the pursuit. The Torch beats him to the roof and uses his flame to heat up the metal ladder. Zante lets go instantly, falling towards the ground. He maneuvers himself to bounce off the nearby telephone wires instead. He bounces off the wires, towards an open manhole in the street.

The Human Torch melts the street under Carl Zante’s feet before he can hide in the sewer. The loose, melting tar starts to mesh together with Zante’s boots. Stuck in place, Zante admits his defeat. The rest of the Fantastic Four congratulate the Torch on his victory. Johnny seems surprised they all still speak to him after the way he bailed on them.  He claims he never really wanted to team with Zante, it was all a ruse to find out what he was up to. With the case wrapped up, Johnny tosses his Torrid Twosome costume and rejoins the Fantastic Four.

Notes

The first appearance of The Acrobat, a seldom seen, agile villain named Carl Zante.

It turns out everybody knew Johnny was the Human Torch, they just didn't say anything to be polite according to Sue. A weird retcon that throws a major plot hole into The Wizard stories, where part of his plan was to find out who the Human Torch was. At least we are done with the "secret" identity nonsense.

This marks the 2nd time the Human Torch has quit the Fantastic Four.

The first time in a Marvel comic where one of the heroes actually gets shot. Thus ending the short lived career of The Torrid Twosome.

Review & Rank

This is not a good issue by any means. It’s kind of amusing in a B-movie way. Whether on purpose or accident, it highlights one of Johnny Storm’s character traits, that he is kinda stupid. Not in a “he’s lame” way, but as being a bit gullible/naive. Kinda like Karl Pilkington or Butters from South Park. This might just be what the creators think teenagers are like, because Rick Jones shows similar traits. Sue is not a very good guardian for Johnny. She lets this stranger come into their home and then leaves him and her young, teenaged brother alone with him.

I can't figure out if Johnny's stupidity is on purpose or not because of his belief that the rest of the FF don't take him seriously as a teammate and he doesn't get anything out of it, yet this whole thought process is undermined by the fact that in the very beginning of the story he is using an obstacle course that Reed built him to train on. And at the very end of the story, Johnny claims he was just going along with it to trick the villain, but the look on his face says otherwise.

Another completely nonsensical Human Torch story from start to finish. This is in the same ballpark as Strange Tales 105 with The Wizard. There’s a little bit more going on in here, and while the action sequences aren't all that impressive, at least there are action sequences compared to 105. Also, Johnny actually gets shot! They wave it off as the bullet just winging him, but still this is the most danger any of the Marvel characters have been in so far. The explanation of Johnny's "secret" identity is amusing, but incredibly convoluted and problematic for previous Strange Tales stories. I'm placing it right above ST 105.

Next Time: A solo Human Torch faces off against Namor, the Sub-Mariner!