Tinkers, tricksters, hypnotists and lies.

 The Mighty World of Marvel #6

Week Ending 11th November 1972.

Another fine and functional composite cover from Jim Starlin and Joe Sinnott, this time its the Fantastic Four's turn to feature the most. I'm loving Starlin's Thing and can forgive (a little anyway) the positioning of Reed with out-stretched arm and Sue in the monsters hand, both seen behind the building the Thing is standing on, while at the sometime the Thing clobbers the monster with a right hook on the kisser. Not sure my 70's child-self would notice or even care, this cover just looks cool.

This weeks Hulk adventure leads on from the Rick Jones mind controlled Hulk story line from last week but also introduces the Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime. In this incarnation only the Human Cannonball with possibly the Clown and Bruno the Strongman appear in this version of the Ringmasters trop, together with a large amount of nameless circus performers. The Ringmaster uses his hypnotic skill to over power town after town to aid in their grand scale theft. It interesting to note that Rick Jones is able to fight the hypnotic trance better than others, he manages to summon the Hulk before he falls under the sleep spell and (off page anyways) he wakes when other couldn't to inform the FBI agents of the Ringmasters plot. Could this be early examples of Rick Jones' special powers that Roy Thomas would use to great effect in the Avengers Kree/Skrull war story line? Even last weeks gained mind control of the Hulk could part of the latent powers he used to stop the Kree/Skrull war. Or may be it's just a Stan Lee plot device.

I don't think Stan or Jack Kirby had made a decision on the Hulks powers at this time, he can be seen escaping with Rick Jones in what looks like a circler flying away movement instead of a leaping movement! Thankfully this wasn't kept.

This weeks mail bag is filled with readers letters like John Bishop from Norfolk who wonders if gaining powers from gamma rays/cosmic ray/radioactive bites are based of scientific fact. Peter Green from Essex tells us about his comic reading Dad. Janie Woodward Wallis from London wonders if she's was too old to re-start reading superheroes comics again but is grateful she's bought the first couple of issues and is back in with it. Finally John M Burton from Bogner Regis tells how he was caught reading a MWOM at school in a lesson by his teacher. The old trick of holding a large book around a comic never works. No one is as interested in a school book as much as a Marvel comic, it's a big give away. I was caught doing just that in a chemistry lesson. My teacher confiscated my Spider-man pocket book till the end of the lesson. 

A bonus feature this week comes from originally from the Fantastic Four Annual #1 from 1963, where questions are answered about Mr. Fantastic and the Human Torch. It's drawn by Jack Kirby but I wonder did Jack pose the questions and page lay out or did Stan have any input? 

                                                     

In "The uncanny threat of the terrible Tinkerer!" Spider-man crosses paths with the Tinkerer for the first time. Strangely this tale makes out that the gismo wizard is an alien sent to spy on the world's major officials by the aid of his eavesdropping repaired radios. He even has a crew of alien fiends to aid in this plan. Peter's spider sense warns him that something is amiss with his professors newly repaired radio and he leaps into action to defeat the alien spies.

Later stories would redcon the Tinkerers origin and humanity which is a departure from what I fully believe was Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's original intension with this story and character. Spider-man even pulls off a rubber mask from the old man to give the impression of he too being an alien. An alien space craft is even seen lifting off as the alien escape. Later stories imply that Quentin Beck (before he created the super-villain alter-ego of Mysterio) was one of the disguised aliens and it was his idea to use the Tinkerers spying technology and disguise his henchmen as aliens. God knows why he thought that might be a great idea or why the Tinkerer wore a rubber mask over his own face? Beck was always very theatrical in his schemes so may be it was always his idea. 

The centre pages of this weeks issue reveal "at last" what the "mighty Marvel mystery gift" is. After weeks of the most silliest clues we discover it's not a flying rainbow coloured bread bin, oh no it's a toaster! No wait a minute, make that a poster! But of whom? We'll have to wait till next week to find out. Another plus this week is my copy of MWOM still has its coupon attached. 

The Fantastic Four brings up the rear of mighty mag with the conclusion to the "Menace of the Miracle Man" story. The Human Torch burns down the wooden monster that the Miracle Man had unleashed, while Mr. Fantastic and the Thing are tricked by the Miracle Man as he makes his escape with the military's own  atomic tank and a hypnotised Invisible Girl. It's a sad fact of life in the 60's that Sue would always need rescuing. You'd put up with it now and again but it became inevitable that young readers would become board with this plot devise and brand her the weakest member of the Fantastic Four. Reed Richard deduced in the final act that Miracle Man didn't have miracle powers but he employed a hypnotic technique and trickery to make everyone think he had.

  On the final page the Thing argues that Reed shouldn't give all the credit to the Human Torch for defeating Miracle Man's monster and stopping the villains hypnotic powers with the Torch's blinding flash. Johnny is fed up with always being put down and decides to leave the group. The final text box teases that the Torch will strike back and we'll meet "the most astonishing villain (or is he a hero) of all time!" Who will it be? You'll have to read next week to find out. But here's a clue, he'll have a connection to next week's latest Marvel movie, Wakanda Forever! And no it's not the Black Panther!

Make Mine Marvel.