"When a Man Loves A Woman.....He Invades the Skrulls!"

    How far would you go to make your girlfriend happy?  If you're Reed Richards, the answer is through a space-warp to an alien planet in a distant galaxy.   Easily the best issue Marvel published in April 1965, Fantastic Four #37 has the FF go to the Skrull homeworld to avenger the death of Sue and Johnny's parents.  There is a lot of inventiveness this issue: getting a glimpse of Skrull politics, the fact that the FF's powers quickly diminish on the Skrull planet, and the lengths Reed goes to to make his fiancee happy as their wedding nears.  Kirby's art has never been better, and for me, this is the first use of an art collage that enhances instead of detracts.  Maybe its the reproduction values on reprints and digital issues, but most of them before have come across as murky or as disconnected from the story.  Here it give a realistic 3D effect to the ship as it sails through space.  Lee's dialogue crackles with some hilarious Ben Grimm lines.  My favorites: "Boy! Give ya (Reed) a piece of chalk an' a blackboard and there's no stoppin ya'." when Reed explains how their craft is getting to the Skrull homeworld, and later when judging how much of his strength is gone by hitting a wall: "Nothin but a puny WHAP!!  Me -- who usedta never get anything less than a BAROOM or at least a KAPOW!"  The only weakness is the coloring.  If you're reading an original copy on over half of the panels the Skrulls are a pale yellow and without the bumpy chins could be mistaken for Asian characters as depicted in the 40s and 50s.  This issue also has, I believe, the first appearance of Anelle, who would become important in the late 80's/early 90's.  I don't know how often she appeared, but she was mentioned a lot in the first 30 or so issues of that period's Silver Surfer volume.

Honorable Mentions
- www.twotruefreaks.com.  I can't cover it any better and highly recommend you download and give it a listen.

Amazing Spider-Man #23 has Spider-Man go up against a bunch of gangsters being targeted by the Green Goblin.  Great fight scenes with Spidey being swarmed by large groups of thugs, and a blink-and-you'll-miss-it-first appearance of Norman Osborn.  My only hang-up is that it features the Green Goblin.  I started reading comics in 1980 when the Green Goblin was popular in multimedia and merchandising but was Spider-Man's legendary deceased arch-nemesis.  Reading the Lee/Ditko Spider-Man era, the Green Goblin is one of the least interesting villains.  The only thing going for him is the mystery of his identity.  It is still a well-told tale by two greats in the midst of their peak.  Andrew Leyland has covered this issue in Part 4 of his Walloping Web-Slinger series on Palace of Glittering Delights podcast available on iTunes and at

-Daredevil #7 is noteworthy for introducing the classic red uniform for DD, and after spending a little too much time on his bill club, giving a knock-down drag out fight between Daredevil and the Sub-Mariner, who clearly outclasses hornhead in pure power.  Daredevil is forced to get inventive, luring the Sub-Mariner into a construction site and using everything from a wrecking ball, steam shovel, and exposed electrical wires to his advantage.  While the premise doesn't 100% work, I also like that it hangs on Namor trying to be reasonable for a change: the surface-dwellers have what is rightfully his, so he will sue for it in the court of law.  He even goes on a rampage to force the court to recognize him.  Unfortunately this is quickly dropped so the fight can begin, and while it is a glorious fight, one almost wants to see the kind of case Nelson and Murdock would put together.
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Tales to Astonish #66 has Giant-Man facing Madame Macabre who can change the size of inanimate objects the way that Giant-Man can control his size.  Its a bit of a cheat listing this here, but I've not posted about some of the better Ant-Man/Giant-Man stories here, and I really have a soft spot for Hank.  He is my favorite founding Avenger, and this story does have an interesting angle with him facing someone with a very similar power set with a different limitation.

Notable Events
- Baron Zemo dies in Avengers #15.  The issue wasn't bad, but what starts as a large Masters of Evil roster coming together to tear apart the Avengers gives way to a one-on-one showdown between Zemo and Captain America.  This is where all the drama was because of their history, bit the unseen (at least in this issue) battle between the Avengers and a Masters of Evil Roster of Enchantress, Executioner, Melter, and Black Knight had to be more exciting than what was focused on here.
- Black Widow goes from a Bond femme fatale to super villainess and Peggy Carter first appears as Agent 13 in Tales of Suspense #34.

Housekeeping
It looks like the blog is settling into a weekly posting schedule with Sundays being the most likely day for a new post to go up.  The reading order has changed again:  The Golden Age will now only focus on DC and Marvel.  Trying to also read golden age Fawcett, Quality, and Dell was too much (at least for now).  I'll still read it as the mood strikes me, but it won't be intentional reading for the blog.  The blog has mostly focused on my Marvel silver age reading, but the past two posts, I've purposefully focused on the Golden Age.  Ultimately I'll cover what I enjoyed most for that week, but I'll try to strive for some kind of balance.