Maybe they sell Polaris subs in funnybook advertisements like in the real world.

Terrorist subs may be lurking in Lake Champlain.  

Strange Tales 102 (Human Torch story) “Prisoner of the Wizard”





Plot by Stan Lee
Script by Larry Lieber
Pencils by Jack Kirby
Inks by Dick Ayers

Cover:

The Torch only gets roughly 1/3 of the cover between the masthead and the other two stories. We see him flamed on and flying as he approaches someone we can only assume is The Wizard. The Wizard is holding a gun on him and apparently is sad because he has a very long face. The robot menacing the man in one of the other vignettes is marginally more interesting.

The Story:

We open with a splash of what appears to be the Torch melting his way through a bank vault door. The title of the story continues the grand tradition of the FF being captured by someone. The next page recaps the last issue and starts our introduction to The Wizard who has a very long face and is the self-professed “World's Greatest Brain/” We find that he's invented an “air chair,” has an ultra-modern home that removes your hat and coat automatically, bested the funkiest “electronic calculating machine” at chess, and performed Houdini like escapes (in a manner that would have had to have killed him if physics worked in the MU the way it does in our universe). So, of course, the only challenge left is for him to “defeat the Human Torch.” Not, y'know, maybe Reed Richards who has a comparable brain...nope...gotta be a teen wonder because he has his own feature.

In order to start this plan Wiz invents an “atomic powered drill” that you ride in...and that somehow disposes of the displaced earth and rock and automatically puts up supports because...well because atomic = magic. Of course it's all a ruse to pretend that he's trapped and lure the Torch into rescuing him which the Torch does by flying down as Wiz is “running out of air...because his flame won't speed up the use of oxygen. And we get the obligatory burning through rock. Torch saves him and is invited to Wizzies wonder home to see his etchings, I mean inventions. Wiz wants to take a photo of him with his 3-D photograph and Johnny is curious what he'll look like in a 3-D photo, because apparently he's never seen a statue. But it's a trap. The device shoots out chemicals that douse Johnny's flame...except his face, because that would reveal his secret identity that the world already knows. Wiz locks him in an asbestos cell and then dons a Human Torch suit that duplicates Johnny's powers, yet leaves his face unburnt somehow. Wiz then goes on a crime spree robbing a bank (splash) and letting loose a bunch of prisoners. His Johnny suit is soooo good that he can melt a vault door, burn through a stone prison wall (instead of just flying over it), throw fireballs and turn the flame off to his bare hands that had previously been gloved. He's even so bad that he sky-writes in flame “Down with Law and Order/” The horror.

Meanwhile, the chemicals wear off and Johnny can fully flame again (as opposed to just his face). And he is able to flame hot enough to burn through the asbestos (so we better never see him defeated by asbestos again (yeah...that's likely)). As he flies around the police shoot at him for Wiz's actions. He does find the Wizard, but apparently can't attack him because The Wizard is unarmed...because...well the plot says so, dangit. Wiz tells him to come to his home for a final showdown and Johnny makes a mysterious phone call that will fix everything. At the Wiz home, Wizzy shows Johnny pictures that prove he was impersonating Johnny. He offers to fight Johnny mano-a-mano for them with no flame or he'll burn the pics (irony). If Johnny flames off then Wiz will know his secret identity, which is already known to the whole world. But Johnny uses his secret mental powers to make the pics float away and then captures the Wizard. The pics prove to the police that Johnny didn't commit the crimes and we find out that it was Invisible Girl who actually took the pics. She was actually useful for a change. The end.

Thoughts…

The secret identity is still stupid. Especially since it's apparently known that Sue is Invisible Girl and also lives in the same town as her brother and The Human Torch. And with that...I may leave this issue alone. Or not. We'll see.

In doing some research, I was shocked at how often The Wizard has appeared. I always thought of him as low B-List or C-List as a villain, but he appears significantly more than the Puppet Master who I have always considered a bigger baddy. Weird.

The Wizard isn't terribly interesting. Really a play on the mad-scientist motif. I do like his long face though.

The Torches powers are entirely plot driven. While he burns out his powers all the time in FF, he never does in this story even though he's flamed on pretty much the whole time. And keeping his face flamed while the rest of him was covered in chemicals was pretty absurd. And he can now burn through asbestos...I bet later he can't though.

The Wizard has a gas powerful enough to blow open a steel safe...but the pressure doesn't pulp his bones...uh...yeah. Magic.

This is the second time that Johnny's powers have been duplicated almost precisely. And the Skrulls duplicated the entire Four's powers. It seems they aren't that unique and heroic after all.

The Wizard isn't much of a genius if he takes incriminating photos of himself. I expect that of a teen putting his stupidity on YouTube. Not of the “Greatest Brain in the World.

I still don't get going after the Torch. His inventions made millions. If he's going after anyone to “prove” himself it should be Reed. This is the same old “silly motivation villain” trope we've seen for decades in comics.

The Story. This is marginally better than the last story. Which is kind of damning with faint praise. It's kind of a silly meaningless story. Many issues...nothing terribly interesting.

The Art: Is Kirby/Ayers. Not at their best. Not at their worst.

The toll: The wall of Wizzy's asbestos cell. 


Grade for historic importance: B. First Wizard. Which I didn't think was that big a deal. But he's a pretty heavily used villain.

Story – C-/D+ Ehh.
Art – C.

I think I'd rather read the two robot stories

The Wizard, like the Ringmaster and a number of other long-faced Kirby villains, is almost certainly modeled after John Carradine.

Cei-U!
I summon the famous phiz!

Poor Slam-never knowing how many Larry Leiber comics he would have to read when he committed himself to this thread. Hang tough, true believer, hang tough

I'm currently stuck at May of 1963 and I find it hard to muster the resolve to get past those Leiber issues, particularly on Thor. The last time I did this (last time I got to late 1966) I kept having to fight the urge to ignore anything not written or drawn by Lee/Kirby/Ditko. It's so hard! Marvel seriously needed the injection of Buscema and Romita Sr. in the mid-60's.