First Look Review of Strange Tales #112

While I reviewed Strange Tales #110 yesterday instead of looking at #111 today, I’m looking at #112…the reason…I got out of order way back when and looked at Strange Tales #111 back in May. In any case, here’s a look at issue 112 and it’s a pretty good one.

The Threat of The Living Bomb!

By Stan Lee, Joe Carter, Dick Ayers, and S. Rosen.  Published by Marvel Comics, 1963.

For the last dozen or so issues (I’ve been reading them since issue 101), Strange Tales has been the venue where Stan Lee has been promoting the Human Torch’s solo stories, and this issue is no different. The Fantastic Four do make a cameo, but only as bit players sprinkled in during the first 10 pages of the issue and then as the mechanism of Johnny’s salvation at the end of the issue. Other than that, this is all Johnny’s tale and while it is filled with pseudo-science, loud ego driven media personalities, and Johnny’s flamboyant teenage antics, the Torch does go above and beyond in this one.

The enemy is The Eel who’s wearing a suit that makes him slippery like an eel and gives him the ability “to shock anyone into insensibility” and he’s looking to steal anything he can get his hands on from the lab of Professor Charles Lawson, the famous inventor. Unfortunately the Eel grabs a device that will cause an atomic explosion and he unknowingly sets the timer in motion. The police, Johnny, and even the rest of the Fantastic Four (in cameo) go on a manhunt for The Eel to stop the explosion and it is Johnny who finds him first.

The story goes from a battle of egos between a journalist and the Human Torch, to a manhunt for The Eel, to a struggle for Johnny to save a veterans hospital from the atomic explosion, and finally the struggle Johnny goes through as his flame molecules absorb the destructive radiation.

As Johnny tries to recover from his injuries we see how much impact this one teenager has on New York and the World as everyone prays for his healing.

It’s a pretty decent issue though it is far from essential reading as it doesn’t seem to add much to the Marvel canon in general other than to add to Johnny Storm’s resume. The little bit of interplay with the Fantastic Four is good and Johnny and Ben Grimm butt heads in a playful manner as usual but the aggressive media personality is more reminiscent of a Spider-Man story rather than a Human Torch tale.

I give this issue a First Look Rating of a B-.

This comic can be found on Marvel Unlimited, Comixology or at your local comic book shop.

Comics Corner | First Look Review of Strange Tales #112