First Look Review of Strange Tales Annual #2

This issue brings together two of the biggest stars of early Marvel and the two main teenagers Stan Lee had in his stable of heroes. Johnny Storm and Peter Parker were both about the same age in 1963 but they have been going about the hero business a bit differently. Parker has been pushed into being a superhero through his Uncle Ben’s encouragement that “with great power comes great responsibility”. He’s a pretty responsible kid who’s tryin hard to support his Aunt May and go to school at the same time (good thing he’s a pretty decent science student). Johnny on the other hand is a much different student and is more of a ladies man. He likes to work on cars and impress his buddies with his flaming abilities. Oh yeah, he’s pretty much the antithesis of Parker when it comes to privacy since Johnny and his Fantastic Four team have identities that are pretty well know to the world while Peter has kept his alter-ego secret.

In any case, this issue brings these two teenagers together and while they both usually work to bring criminals to justice, they don’t necessarily start out on the same side in this one.

Strange Tales Annual #2

Human Torch on the Trail Of the Amazing Spider-Man by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko. Published by Marvel Comics, 1963.

The story starts out well enough with Sue Storm working with her brother to improve his training but soon Johnny’s throwing a hissy fit that Spider-Man is getting all kinds of positive publicity in the papers – this certainly isn’t an issue of Amazing Spider-Man where J. Jonah Jameson is always trying to take down Parker in the press. Well the positive news is short lived as Spider-Man is soon wanted by the police for stealing a priceless painting.
Of course we know Spidey didn’t do it but Johnny has no problem teaming up with the police to track down Spider-Man. Funny thing is, though, Parker had sought out Johnny to help clear his name and catch the real criminal, so he was right outside the Torch’s house when Johnny came looking.

A pretty intense battle that runs from rooftops to swimming pools and from a forest to a construction site. All the while, Spider-Man keeps trying to convince Torch that he’s innocent of the crime. Eventually Spider-Man stops trying to get his point across and decides to prove his innocence solo. That’s when Johnny talks to the police and realizes our hero is in fact innocent.

Long story short, Torch and Spidey with some help from the police figure out the bad guy is the Fox and they hunt him all over New York and finally catch him.
I really enjoyed this issue and I think the team up worked great for these two teenagers. They both seem realistic with Johnny being the more popular, hip high schooler while Peter plays the nerd pretty well. The media plays a weird role in this issue as they start out glorifying Spider-Man and then they turn him into a villain once rumors have him involved in the crime. Usually the tabloids are just against our hero but I guess Jameson doesn’t run all the papers in New York.

I give this issue a First Look Rating of a B+ and I hope to see more team ups between these two heroes..

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

Comic Corner | First Look Review of Strange Tales Annual #2