OMW: Hazel Morrel

One of the most Obscure Marvel Women (OMW) of the Original Marvel Universe (OMU) has never even been seen, though she played a pivotal role in the foundation of one of the premiere superhero teams. On the splash page of Uncanny X-Men #6, Professor X thanks Marvel Girl for “helping out on the cook’s day off.” Of course it makes perfect sense that Charles Xavier, being wheelchair-bound and busy with five super-powered teenagers, would need some help with the cooking, cleaning, and laundry. But who was this person? Upon investigation, one obvious candidate presented herself, and so I gave her the most fitting name for my own convenience.

The first fifty years of the life of Hazel Morrel remain shrouded in mystery. She was born sometime around 1910 and eventually married restaurateur Harry Morrel. The couple moved to Westchester County, New York in 1960 and settled in the small town of Salem Center. Harry purchased a run-down tavern at the intersection of Route 126 and Greymalkin Lane, renamed it Harry’s Hideout, and set about rehabilitating its reputation. After only a few months, it had become a popular eatery among the locals, especially with high school and college kids. Still, to make ends meet, Hazel sought employment as a domestic worker and was fortunate enough to find a position just down the road from the Hideout. The reclusive geneticist Charles Xavier hired her to serve as his cook and housekeeper while he pursued his research into human mutation.

On her first day, Hazel found both the sprawling mansion and the extensive grounds had been severely neglected, as the estate had been largely abandoned since 1941 until Professor Xavier again took up residence there three years previously. Furthermore, since Xavier was confined to a wheelchair, whole areas of the mansion, including the entirety of the upper floors, remained closed off. Enjoying the challenge, Hazel threw herself into restoring the 250-year-old estate to its former glory. Busy with his academic pursuits and often away at conferences or lecturing at Columbia University, Xavier gave Hazel a free hand to do as she liked. With Harry’s help, she modernized the kitchen and laundry facilities and made the ground floor a comfortable, livable space again.

Hazel soon met the young subject of one of Xavier’s research projects, a 13-year-old girl named Jean Grey, who paid periodic visits to the mansion. Hazel and Jean immediately hit it off, and Hazel began baking special treats for Jean to snack on following her sessions with the Professor. The following year, Hazel also met one of Xavier’s collaborators, Moira MacTaggert, who visited occasionally from her private research complex in Scotland. Dr. MacTaggert was very appreciative of Hazel’s efforts with the house, and it was clear to Hazel that she cared very deeply for Professor Xavier.

Then, in March 1962, Professor Xavier brought a 16-year-old orphan named Scott Summers to live at the mansion as his ward. Hazel was curious about the dark glasses that Scott wore at all times but strove to make him feel at home, as it was clear the shy, withdrawn lad had had a difficult life. Soon, however, Xavier invited both Hazel and Harry to lunch with him, where he offered a startling revelation: both he and Scott were mutants, born with superhuman powers and abilities. As more and more mutants were manifesting every year, and because their powers could be very dangerous without the proper training, Xavier had decided to open his home to them as a refuge and a place to learn to use their powers safely, for the benefit of society. Hazel and Harry were very understanding, and Xavier told them he had sensed a lack of prejudice in them and asked if they would support his new mission. They agreed to do what they could.

The next day, Hazel sewed a special yellow-and-black school uniform for Scott, based on Professor Xavier’s sketches. Xavier envisioned the creation of a mutant taskforce similar to “superhero” teams like the Fantastic Four and their World-War-II-era forebears, and so the outfit was designed in that vein. Along with gloves and boots, it included a mask so that his students would be able to operate in public anonymously. Scott’s mask was modified to accommodate the special visor he wore over his eyes to give him greater control over the powerful optic force-blasts he could unleash. Seeing Scott, given the code name “Cyclops,” practice using his powers was unnerving, even a little frightening, to Hazel, but she took it in stride and did her job.

Two months later, Xavier’s second student came to stay at the mansion, the 14-year-old Bobby Drake. Hazel made him a uniform as well, but claiming that he never felt cold, Bobby opted to wear only the trunks, belt, and boots. He insisted he did not need a mask, as he could obscure his features by covering himself with snow. Dubbed “Iceman,” he entertained Hazel with his antics, though she had to warn him sternly against leaving ice and snow to melt in the mansion’s rooms and hallways.

In June, her employer officially founded Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, with himself as the only faculty and Hazel as the sole member of the staff. Still, it meant a significant pay raise for Hazel, along with additional benefits. Anticipating more students, Hazel finally opened the upper floors of the mansion, which greatly increased her housekeeping duties. But with business at Harry’s Hideout doing very well, the Morrels now found themselves in more comfortable circumstances.

Over the course of the summer, two more boys joined the school and the fledgling team which Xavier decided to call “The X-Men” – the handsome and well-mannered 16-year-old Warren Worthington III, whose large white wings suggested the code name “Angel,” and the scholarly Henry McCoy, an 18-year-old college freshman whose superhuman agility and ape-like physique earned him the alias “Beast.” Hazel found all four boys to be delightful and they always treated her with respect.

Finally, as the new school year began in September, Hazel was happy to see Jean Grey, now 15, return to the mansion as a full-time student. Jean was especially appreciative of the uniform Hazel made for her, to wear as “Marvel Girl,” and complemented her skill as a seamstress. Jean also volunteered to help Hazel in the kitchen when her class schedule allowed, as she enjoyed spending time with the matronly housekeeper. Jean was also relieved to be able to use her telekinetic powers openly and not feel like she was keeping secrets from Hazel. They soon grew very close.

Beginning in October, Professor Xavier began sending his X-Men on missions to seek out new mutants as possible recruits for the school and to combat those who used their special powers to menace society. Hazel enjoyed listening to the teenagers talk about their early victories against Magneto in Florida and the Vanisher in Washington, D.C. The following month, as the team’s reputation spread, they added tales of meeting other superheroes such as Iron Man and the Human Torch. It was all very exciting. But when a mutant calling himself the Blob rejected the team’s offer of membership and led his carnival cronies in an attack on the mansion, Xavier became concerned about Hazel’s safety. Bravely, Hazel assured him she was just happy she wouldn’t have to worry about feeding the rotund rascal.

In December the tales around the dinner table became even more fantastic, as the students told Hazel of a succession of battles with Magneto and his own team, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants—in Central America, aboard his asteroid headquarters in high orbit, and on a remote island in the Atlantic. They also described meeting the Fantastic Four and the enigmatic Sub-Mariner. However, Hazel soon found she had trouble thinking of her charges as superheroes and worried about them getting into such dangerous situations.

Hazel was relieved when things quieted down a bit over the next several months, as Professor Xavier took an extended vacation to Central Europe, where his students joined him for a week. While he was away, Scott stepped in to keep the others on track with their training regimen. In March 1963, Hazel was thrilled to hear Jean’s firsthand account of Susan Storm’s engagement party, thrown at the Fantastic Four’s downtown Manhattan headquarters. Hazel was aware of the growing love triangle between Jean, Scott, and Warren, and fretted that it could lead to trouble.

At one point, the students took a long trip to Antarctica, where they discovered a lost world beneath the ice called the Savage Land. Then, in the spring, to Hazel’s great relief, the students reported that Magneto had been taken off into outer space by a powerful alien being, causing the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants to disband. But rather than allowing herself to be overwhelmed by such uncanny occurrences, Hazel focused on more practical matters, like arranging a festive “Sweet Sixteen” party for Jean’s birthday.

In May, Professor Xavier’s concerns for Hazel’s safety grew when the mansion was attacked by his own step-brother, who had spent some of his childhood there before being magically transformed into an unstoppable villain called the Juggernaut. Because she had not been present during the siege, having been at home with Harry, Hazel dismissed the danger and turned her attention to the X-Men’s minor injuries and cleaning up some of the damage. At this point, Harry, too, began to worry, but Hazel was determined to take care of her students and their school.

Neither Hazel nor Jean could contain their excitement come June as the X-Men were invited to the wedding of Susan Storm to Reed Richards. The event proved to be a chaotic one, as Hazel and Harry watched the television coverage from home. Later that night, they tuned in to see Professor Xavier debate the noted anthropologist Bolivar Trask, whose anti-mutant rhetoric had recently stirred up controversy in the media. The couple became worried when the program experienced technical difficulties just after Trask unveiled his mutant-hunting robots, the Sentinels. But when Hazel arrived at the school to make breakfast on Monday morning, she found all was well.

Over the course of that summer, the X-Men enjoyed a series of triumphs over a variety of non-mutant menaces, but they received a shock at the end of August when Jean’s parents decided to send her to a different school for the new academic year. Hazel was particularly upset to see her young friend leave. The X-Men carried on without her, though Jean occasionally visited on weekends, going out of her way to spend time with Hazel. Together, they designed and made new versions of the team uniforms which Jean presented to her friends in November.

Around the same time, a new student enrolled in the school, a brash and abrasive 17-year-old named Calvin Rankin, alias the Mimic, who seemed to cause nothing but trouble from the day he arrived. Put off by his bad attitude, Hazel could only wonder why Professor Xavier tolerated him. However, by the end of December, Rankin’s attitude improved greatly after he singlehandedly defeated a giant green android that had invaded the school’s grounds. The battle caused Rankin to lose his superpowers, however, and so he voluntarily resigned from the team and left the school. Hazel, for one, was not sorry to see him go.

As the new semester started in January 1964, Hazel happily went about her daily routine. The X-Men continued their training and had occasional adventures, frequently joined by Marvel Girl. Meanwhile, Professor Xavier devoted himself to his private research, often disappearing into the basement for long stretches. In February, following the Professor’s suggestion, Jean came to Hazel with a new project: creating a set of individualized costumes for the X-Men. She provided Hazel with numerous design sketches, but they had only gotten started when life at the school took a dark turn. After another battle with the Juggernaut, Professor Xavier was kidnapped by a shadowy organization called Factor Three. In his absence, Hazel managed as best she could. She continued to work on the new costumes as a means to cope with the stress and worry she felt as the weeks dragged on and the X-Men searched for their missing mentor without success.

Throughout March and into April, Hazel was extremely proud of how her young friends handled this crisis and the dedication and maturity they showed throughout. When the team finally located Factor Three’s stronghold in the Alps but had difficulty raising the cash for plane fare to Europe, Hazel and Harry both felt frustrated that they lacked the funds to help out. Their budget was just too tight. Nevertheless, the X-Men managed to find a wealthy benefactor in New York and were soon on their way to rescue Professor Xavier. While they were away, Hazel put the finishing touches on their new costumes.

After the Professor’s safe return, Hazel felt things were looking up around the school. The X-Men loved their colorful new outfits, and Xavier seemed pleased with the team’s progress. Jean confided in Hazel that she had finally brought Scott out of his shell and they had begun a serious romantic relationship. Not one to mope, Warren had started dating an old friend, Candy Southern, while Hank and Bobby continued to have fun with their Greenwich Village girlfriends Vera and Zelda. But then, in May, a sudden change came over Professor Xavier that Hazel was at a loss to understand. Virtually overnight, he became tense, demanding, and short-tempered. Furthermore, she noticed that he seemed to be experiencing memory lapses, often appearing unfamiliar with his own house or struggling to maneuver his wheelchair. Worse, Jean suddenly grew more distant at the same time. Hazel soon became concerned that something was very wrong.

Then, late one night, Hazel received a call at home from Scott, informing her that Professor Xavier was dead, killed in battle with a villain called Grotesk. He also told her that they had learned in the Professor’s last moments that he had been dying of an incurable disease, and this accounted for his recent change in behavior. Hazel was devastated. The next day, she and Harry set about making arrangements for Xavier’s funeral, following the detailed instructions he had left for just such an eventuality. Hazel saw that Jean’s natural grief seemed compounded by extreme stress and she worried that her young friend was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Uncharacteristically, Jean refused to confide in Hazel and instead withdrew further into herself.

After the rain-drenched funeral, the grieving X-Men went after Magneto, recently returned to Earth, for a final showdown while Hazel and Harry contacted Xavier’s attorney to wrap up his personal affairs. Shortly after the team’s return, they were met by Xavier’s contact in the FBI, Special Agent Fred Duncan, who had arranged for the attorney, Franklin Nelson of the New York law firm Nelson & Murdock, to read Xavier’s will. At the conclusion of this unhappy event, Duncan ordered the X-Men to disband and relocate, stating that Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters was to be closed down. Hazel was heartbroken as she was given a generous pension and told to go home.

Over the following summer, as some of the X-Men moved to New York City and some went out to San Francisco, Hazel felt an overwhelming sadness every time she passed Xavier’s abandoned mansion. She had come to love the five students as though they were her own children, and now they seemed to have been left to an uncertain future, beyond her power to take care of them. Harry tried his best to cheer her up, but to no avail. Then, in early September 1964, Hazel Morrel suffered a fatal heart attack. She was rushed to the nearby Mid-County Medical Center, where she died.

First and Final Mention: Uncanny X-Men #6

Notes:

We can only speculate as to how Harry Morrel reacted when he learned soon afterwards that Charles Xavier had not died after all. It had actually been the terminally-ill mutant metamorph called the Changeling who was killed by Grotesk, impersonating Xavier while the X-Men’s real mentor withdrew into seclusion to prepare himself to telepathically repel the approaching Z’Nox invasion fleet. Though his intentions were good and his actions justifiable and the Changeling’s death an unforeseen and unfortunate happenstance, Xavier still put the X-Men and the Morrels through unnecessary grief. Harry continued to run Harry’s Hideout for many years and was very welcoming to the second and third generations of students at Xavier’s, though there is no indication that he and Charles remained close.

Harry and Hazel Morrel are no relation to San Francisco Police Department Homicide Lieutenant Sabrina “Bree” Morrel or her brother Paul Morrel, captain of the nuclear submarine U.S.S. Alaska. Their father was French and their mother was Japanese, and both parents were long dead before Harry Morrel’s appearances in Classic X-Men #4 and New Mutants #23.

Next Portrait

OMW: Tamara of the Sisterhood

In another of our continuing series featuring the Obscure Marvel Women (OMW) of the Original Marvel Universe (OMU), we plumb the ocean’s depths for the tragic tale of a desperate survivor.

The woman called Tamara was born on an unidentified planet approximately 130 light-years from Earth. Though descended from primate-like creatures, her race evolved to exist in an aquatic environment, extracting oxygen from the water through gill slits located on the neck. The culture in which she lived was strictly gender-segregated, with males referred to as belonging to the Brethren and females counted among the Sisterhood. Though very passionate beings and inclined to violence when highly provoked, Tamara’s civilization had nevertheless renounced warfare and embraced a doctrine of peace. The Sisterhood, in particular, was noted for its Creed of Forgiveness, which none had ever dared violate. Scientific endeavors were highly favored, and as a race they had achieved rudimentary interstellar flight capability. Tamara herself had, in her youth, studied geology and had participated in scientific expeditions onto the unpopulated land masses of her world. In the pursuit of her studies, she trained herself to be able to use her vestigial lungs to function in the exo-marine environment for a few minutes at a time. Upon reaching adulthood, Tamara entered into a sexual relationship with a leading member of the Brethren.

Sadly, Tamara and her people were living on a dying world, and their population was dwindling. In the face of certain extinction, their rulers decided to send an expedition into space to find another planet which they could colonize. Tamara’s lover was selected to lead this mission into the unknown, but her pleas to accompany him were refused, for the Sisterhood was expected to wait at home until the men had located a suitable world. Unwilling to accept this decision, Tamara decided to stow away aboard the ship, planning to reveal herself once the new planet was found.

Along with the all-male crew, the spaceship was also supplied with a number of monstrous semi-intelligent creatures collectively known as the Haab, which Tamara’s people rendered compliant with sedative drugs, kept in chains, and used for slave labor. Their society had become completely dependent upon the servitude of the Haab, and even a mission into space such as this required the presence of these creatures. This proved a boon to Tamara, as it required areas of the ship outside the crew compartment to maintain a livable environment, thus allowing her to successfully hide herself aboard.

Unfortunately, as the ship approached Earth’s solar system, a mechanical failure in the propulsion unit necessitated an emergency crash-landing into the seas of this alien world. The hull was breached on impact, and after the ship settled on the ocean floor, the Haab escaped their pens and stalked off in search of food. Tamara, too, left the ship and stealthily observed the men as they disembarked to search for intelligent life. They soon came across a blue-skinned girl and a pink-skinned man who lived underwater as they did and directed them to the nearby kingdom called Atlantis. However, as Tamara watched in sheer horror, a cadre of barbarous blue-skinned warriors, returning from some bloody campaign, attacked the hapless crewmen outside the city gates and slaughtered them all.

Fearing for her life and sickened by the carnage, Tamara fled as fast as she could swim. As time passed, she realized that these bloodthirsty aliens had doomed her entire race with their senseless violence. With the expedition lost, all who remained behind on her home world would surely perish. She alone had the power to save them, if she had the will to do what had to be done. And so, several months went by as Tamara spied on the city of Atlantis, trying to assess their level of cultural and technological development. Curiously, she also discovered that prolonged exposure to the environment of this alien world somehow increased her physical strength to an astonishing degree, and she found herself able to perform feats that no one of her race had ever achieved. With this enhanced strength came an unquenchable desire for revenge.

Eventually, Tamara allowed herself to be captured by an Atlantean patrol craft in order to get past the city’s outer defenses. She was taken before the kingdom’s elderly regent, Lord Vashti, who was overcome with guilt and shame when Tamara explained that his warriors had committed not murder but genocide. Vashti agreed immediately to order her spaceship to be repaired so that she might evacuate her people to Earth. While making an outer show of gratitude, Tamara secretly vowed to see her people settle in Atlantis after she exterminated its native population.

Weeks passed as the Atlanteans made her ship spaceworthy again, while showing Tamara every kindness and consideration. Nothing could dull the ache in her heart for vengeance, however. As the work neared completion, Tamara finally met the Atlanteans’ true prince, Namor, who returned from his self-imposed exile to defeat the last of the escaped Haab. She recognized him as the pink-skinned man she had seen just after the crash and wondered at his unique coloring. Alone among the aliens, he impressed Tamara with his innate nobility and strength of will. In some ways, he reminded her of her slain lover. She was almost glad, then, when he left the city again, not yet ready to take up his crown, for it meant there was a chance he would escape the devastation she was about to unleash.

As Tamara made preparations for departure, the last surviving Haab was drugged according to her instructions and thereby rendered subservient again. She ordered the creature to steal whatever weapons it could find and hide them aboard the starship. Still, she could not escape the awareness that she was the first of the Sisterhood to break the Creed of Forgiveness. At last, she and the Haab boarded the ship and blasted off. Moments after launch, however, Tamara switched to manual control, turned around, and attacked the city, destroying several of its spires with her purloined energy weapons. She was soon intercepted by Namor, who smashed his way through the hull and slew the Haab. Realizing she would never make it back to her home planet, Tamara activated the ship’s auto-destruct sequence in a last-ditch attempt to annihilate Atlantis. But though he was caught off guard by Tamara’s super-strength, Namor nevertheless managed to drag her from the ship just before it exploded harmlessly in the sky above.

Her schemes undone, Tamara surrendered and was taken back to Atlantis to face the judgment of Lord Vashti. When she argued that she sought only to avenge the Atlanteans’ act of genocide against her race, Vashti countered that she tarnished her people’s memory by abandoning their cherished ideals of peace. Overwhelmed by shame, Tamara prostrated herself at Vashti’s feet, throwing herself upon his mercy. He then convinced his ruling council to give Tamara a second chance, if she would agree to become Namor’s ward to learn the ways of Atlantis. Realizing she was now the last of her kind, marooned on this strange planet, Tamara accepted and was immediately granted Atlantean citizenship.

While exploring her new home, Tamara met an uncouth and lustful scout named Lorvex, who offered to give her a tour of the realm. However, after leading her into a remote cave, which he claimed was the sacred Grotto of the Ancients, Lorvex attempted to rape her. Tamara easily bested him with her super-strength and vented her rage while punishing him with a savage beating. Leaving him bound with his own belts, Tamara tried to find the city again but soon lost her way. Before long, she became trapped in a net and found herself hauled out of the water onto a strange vessel, where she was astonished to encounter men who breathed air. Desperate to escape, Tamara tried to fight the air-breathers off, but after a few minutes out of the water, she passed out. When she regained consciousness, she found herself trapped within a water storage tank inside the boat.

Many long hours passed as she was transported to one of Earth’s land masses, where these air-breathers made their home. Eventually, she was taken off the boat and forced into a larger water storage tank on wheels, which then rumbled across the land until coming to a stop in the bowels of a large building. There it remained for several days while a succession of air-breathers peered in at her and gibbered to each other in their incomprehensible language. Occasionally, a variety of fish were dumped into the tank with her, which she guessed was an attempt to feed her. She realized this offered her only chance of escape, and she formed a desperate plan. She would force her way out when the hatch was opened and then try to somehow make it back to the ocean. However, her escape attempt failed after she tried to elude her pursuers by crawling through a network of ducts, which only led her into a grand council chamber. There she passed out for lack of water and awoke to find herself back in her prison. This time, however, she could see a muscular guard wearing a red cape and brandishing a fearsome warhammer. Soon after, Tamara was thrilled when Namor tried to rescue her, but her heart sank when the hammer-wielding guard drove him off.

Months went by while Tamara remained a prisoner of the air-breathers. She could only guess at the reasons they were keeping her there, and she grew to loathe them even more than she hated the Atlanteans. Finally, the Atlanteans mounted a full-scale rescue operation, but Tamara’s joy soon turned to fear when her liberator was not Namor but Lorvex, bent on getting revenge for the humiliation she had caused him. He marched her at gunpoint into a holding cell aboard his warship, then ordered his troops to destroy the air-breathers’ city. As the onslaught began, however, Namor stormed Lorvex’s ship to stop him. Lorvex threatened to kill Tamara by draining her cell dry unless Namor withdrew. Tamara tried to tell Namor that this would not harm her, but the cell proved to be soundproof. Nevertheless, Namor ignored Lorvex’s threats and defeated him. He immediately freed Tamara and called off the attack, then forced his way into the air-breathers’ grand council chamber to chastise them for the act of war they committed by kidnapping Tamara, a citizen of Atlantis. Upon returning to the undersea kingdom, Tamara brooded over the fact that, even though Namor had called her abduction an act of war, he had refused to go to war over it, and furthermore, he had attacked Lorvex even though he could not have known her life was not in danger. This just confirmed her belief that Namor regarded her as, at best, a second-class citizen of his realm.

Soon after, as Atlantis celebrated Namor’s decision to finally reclaim his throne, Tamara merely felt more alienated and homesick. He seemed sympathetic, however, and Tamara admitted to herself that her esteem for Namor was growing. She encouraged his inclination to fetch his amphibious cousin, Namorita, from her home among the air-breathers, though Namor refused to allow Tamara to accompany him. While he was absent on this errand, however, Atlantis came under siege by an army of green-skinned, amphibious men under the command of a maniac calling himself Dr. Hydro. Tamara could not help but gloat to Vashti that the destruction of Atlantis seemed imminent, revealing that she still blamed them for the death of her race. But after the city’s defenses were breached and a savage war ensued, Tamara became disgusted by the poor showing the Atlantean warriors made while bereft of Namor’s leadership and took it upon herself to rally the troops. She seized a ceremonial sword and led the Atlanteans in a renewed counterattack that turned the tide of the battle. When Namor and Namorita finally returned to join the fray, the forces of Dr. Hydro were quickly routed. Hydro himself appeared to be killed by a runaway warship, and the Atlanteans cheered their victory. Tamara could not escape the irony of being hailed as a great hero of the realm she detested.

As Namor considered what to do with their prisoners-of-war, Tamara was shocked by Namorita’s soft-hearted pleas for them to be allowed to take up residence in Atlantis. Though they deserved forgiveness, Tamara knew there was no place for them in a close-knit society like Atlantis. Unfortunately, the problem was only compounded days later after Namor finally defeated Dr. Hydro, who had escaped his seeming death by using his superhuman powers to enter a vaporous state. Namor trapped Hydro’s gaseous form within a hermetically-sealed canister and sentenced him to death by starvation. However, this meant that all the amphibians from the villain’s base of operations, the floating artificial island called Hydrobase, were now Namor’s responsibility. Among these unfortunates, who were mutated into amphibians against their will, was a middle-aged woman named Betty Dean Prentiss, whom Namor had loved in their youth decades before. Tamara found herself wondering if Mrs. Prentiss might know the secret to capturing Namor’s heart.

Before the amphibians’ status could be decided, Namor took Namorita on a months-long tour of the world. Soon after their departure, Tamara persuaded Vashti and the Council of Elders to build a prison camp outside the gates of the city to hold the amphibians until Namor’s return. The camp was a ramshackle affair where the amphibians were forced to live in squalor, and when Namor and Namorita finally returned at the end of the summer, the prince was furious. Tamara looked on silently as Namor ranted about the atrocities of a long-ago war and a tyrant who had used such camps in his genocidal schemes. The angry monarch then tore down the barricades and immediately granted the prisoners their freedom to enter the city. Later, while Namor argued with his counselors, Tamara and Namorita discussed their opposing views on the matter.

The debate was cut short when Atlantis was visited by four aliens from another dimension who begged for Namor’s aid in defeating a vicious conqueror who had overrun their peaceful realm. Namor agreed to lend his aid and departed with the aliens aboard their golden submarine. In his absence, the Council of Elders declared that, until the issue was resolved, the amphibians would have to return to the camp, although the doors would no longer be locked. Tamara and Namorita agreed that this was an acceptable compromise, though Namorita announced that she would live in the camp with the refugees for the duration.

The golden submarine soon returned to Atlantis, but instead of bearing a victorious Namor, it brought the monstrous Queen Virago, who was intent on adding Atlantis to her dominions. Namor soon arrived and led his fleet of warships in driving her off. Exhausted, Namor ordered that preparations had to be made before they could hunt Virago down. However, the Council of Elders demanded a meeting, and as Tamara looked on, they blamed Namor for the threat of Virago, since he had agreed to meddle in Zephyrland’s affairs. Afterwards, Tamara offered Namor her full support, condemning his people for their short-sightedness. Suddenly, they saw what appeared to be a fleet of black ships descending on the realm, but Namor quickly realized it was actually an attacking force of killer whales under the control of his old foe Orka, who had joined forces with Queen Virago.

Namor and Tamara attacked the invaders, but the maddened killer whales still managed to wreak havoc on the buildings of Atlantis. Virago overpowered Tamara with a stunning blow while some of the killer whales had Namor cornered against a reef. When Tamara recovered her senses, Namor was nowhere to be seen and she found herself a prisoner of Virago and Orka, who then entered Atlantis as its conquerors. Seeing Tamara defeated, the Atlanteans immediately lost heart and surrendered. Within minutes, however, a scarlet miasma settled over the city, causing everyone around Tamara to choke, convulse, and collapse. Watching in utter horror, Tamara could only wonder if thousands of people were dying before her eyes. A moment later, she was the only one left in a silent realm. As she searched frantically for any sign of life among the drifting bodies, she guessed that only her extraterrestrial physiognomy had saved her. Suddenly feeling more alone than ever, Tamara realized she had taken no joy in Atlantis’s sudden destruction, nor was revenge quite what she had imagined. She felt only an emptiness that sickened her.

Many hours later, Namor finally returned to Atlantis, wearing a strange black costume. Hearing his agonized cries, Tamara swam to his side and tried to calm him down. She told him of the poison cloud that enveloped the city and felt a righteous anger flare in her breast as he blamed the air-breathers for the catastrophe. Then, filled with heartache, she watched helplessly as Namor went berserk and took out his rage upon the damaged structures around them. They were both astonished, then, when Namorita and the amphibians appeared, revealing that the toxins had not reached their encampment. Hope was rekindled when one of the amphibians called Dr. Henry Croft, formerly a professor of biochemistry at a university on the surface world, explained that the Atlanteans were not dead but merely in some form of suspended animation.

After Namor had visited the Grotto of the Ancients to give thanks to his god, the survivors of the catastrophe met again in the refugee camp to discuss a course of action. Tamara concurred as they planned to take over Hydrobase in order to exploit its scientific resources in their search for a means to revive the Atlanteans. As the comatose population would be vulnerable in the meantime, Dr. Croft convinced Namor to seek out a colleague on the surface world whose research into force-field technology would provide a solution. While Namor went to contact the man, Tamara and the others set about securing the many victims in protective cylinders before the currents scattered them throughout the ocean. However, Tamara decided to let Virago drift away, knowing her body would soon be consumed by marine scavengers. It was a fate she no doubt richly deserved. Several days went by before all the citizens of Atlantis were accounted for.

In the wake of this disaster, Tamara found herself acting as Namor’s principal advisor and confidante. She was pleased when Namorita returned to the surface world to continue her education, as they would no longer be competing for Namor’s attention. Tamara helped Namor search for Orka when he unexpectedly revived, broke out of his cylinder, and escaped. Soon after, she urged Namor to act on his idea of proposing an alliance with the powerful air-breathing king known as Doctor Doom and tried to soothe his wounded pride when the offer was rejected.

Finally, after several weeks of intense effort, the force-field projectors were successfully activated and Atlantis was sealed off from the outside world. Tamara joined the others as Namor led them to their new home on Hydrobase. As Tamara was the only non-amphibian among them, special quarters were prepared for her on the underside of the structure that were flooded with seawater. In the days that followed, she found her relationship with Namor deepening, as he increasingly turned to her for comfort. As the weeks passed, Namor grew frustrated with the lack of progress towards a cure for his people, despite his risking life and limb to obtain whatever supplies Croft asked for. Tamara offered him her unconditional support and affection, and in time Namor consented to take her as his lover. In Namor’s bed Tamara sought solace for the overwhelming loneliness in her soul.

A year passed as Croft and his colleagues went about their research and Namor and Tamara pursued their sexual relationship. During that time, Croft succeeded in adapting a chemical the Atlanteans had used to breathe air for several hours at a time so that it would work with Tamara’s unique biochemistry. Subsequently, she could spend more time with the other residents of Hydrobase, and she came to know all the amphibians quite well. She also supported Namor in his decision to release the traitor Krang from his remote prison, hoping that Krang would put aside his ambitions in this time of crisis. However, the villain took the first opportunity to escape to pursue his mad schemes.

Then one day during the second spring following the catastrophe, while Namor was off renewing his alliance with Doctor Doom, the work on Hydrobase was interrupted when Tamara and the amphibians were captured and imprisoned by three of Namor’s foes: Attuma the barbarian and his air-breather accomplices Tiger Shark and Dr. Lemuel Dorcas. Attuma then forced the amphibians to design and build weaponry for him by holding their children hostage. However, knowing that one of their number, Dr. Joseph Jennings, had evaded capture and was still at large, Tamara helped Betty Dean Prentiss break out of the compound to find him. When the escape was discovered, Attuma ordered Tamara separated from the others to be interrogated under torture. Though she suffered greatly at the hands of Attuma’s sadistic inquisitors, Tamara refused to betray her friends. Finally, she was strung up and left to die when the chemical that allowed her to breathe air wore off. Namor arrived just in time to rescue her, and with the aid of Doctor Doom, he defeated the villains and freed Hydrobase. As Tamara recovered from her ordeal, Namor was very attentive to her, and she in turn helped ease his grief over the death of Mrs. Prentiss, who had been killed during the fighting. Dr. Dorcas had also perished during the battle, but Attuma and Tiger Shark were imprisoned on the island, though both managed to escape within a few months.

About six months later, Tamara met the air-breathing adventure team the Fantastic Four when they brought grim news to Hydrobase: Namor had become Doctor Doom’s slave in order to spare Atlantis from destruction. Thus, Tamara and Namorita agreed to put aside their differences and join forces to lead a rescue operation into Doom’s kingdom of Latveria. Taking a heavily armed submarine through a continent-spanning network of waterways, they infiltrated the small nation’s borders and discovered Doom lying at the bottom of a river, badly injured and his suit of armor compromised. Upon recovering, Doom attempted to convince his captors that Namor had come to Latveria to petition him to use his scientific genius to devise a cure for the amphibians, and that the Prince of Atlantis was his honored guest. Not sure whether to believe Doctor Doom or Mister Fantastic, Tamara suggested they continue on to Castle Doom to see for themselves. When no sign of Namor could be found, Tamara and Namorita took Doom back to Hydrobase to begin work on such a cure.

After meeting Henry Croft and inspecting the laboratory facilities on Hydrobase, Doctor Doom set to work as Tamara watched him, alert for any signs of treachery. However, after several hours with no apparent progress, Tamara and Namorita angrily confronted Doom, which led to an altercation that quickly descended into a stand-off. To their mutual surprise, the compound was suddenly invaded by another team of superhumans, the Avengers. Tamara was uncertain what to make of this unexpected development, but when the Avengers claimed to be out to get Namor and immediately attacked Doctor Doom, it lent credence in her mind to Doom’s assertion that he and Namor were allies. Thus Tamara leapt to Doom’s defense, flooring the Scarlet Witch with one blow. But when Tamara was momentarily startled by the Vision’s red skin, she left herself open to an attack by Yellowjacket and the Wasp. The amphibians soon joined the fray with their energy weapons and the Avengers were quickly defeated. Doom then had the team bound to a metal platform before interrogating Captain America, who revealed that they were the unwilling pawns of Attuma. Namorita convinced Doom that he must, out of self-interest, help them defeat Attuma before his barbarian hordes destroyed Hydrobase.

As preparations were made for the coming battle, Tamara lingered by the captive Vision, wondering whether his red skin might mark him as a fellow survivor of her own race. But she quickly realized she was merely tormenting herself with hope in the face of the crushing loneliness she felt. She retreated to her private quarters as Doctor Doom and the Avengers agreed to join forces against Attuma. Later, Doom proved his villainy when he returned from the battle alone, carrying some weapon he had wrested from Attuma. Tamara and Namorita tried to stop him but were no match for his armored might. Fortunately, the Avengers were hot on his heels, and after destroying the weapon, they forced Doom to retreat. Afterwards, the Avengers were able to convince Tamara and the disheartened amphibians that Doom never truly meant to cure them. Soon after, Namor finally returned to Hydrobase and he and Tamara resumed their affair.

Several weeks later, in the dead of winter, Doctor Doom returned to fulfill an oath he had made to Namor to revive the Atlanteans. Doom was now in Namor’s debt after the undersea monarch had saved him from a madman known as the Red Skull, and he was determined to honor the bargain. In a remarkably short time, Doom succeeded in counteracting the nerve gas and brought the entire population of Atlantis out of suspended animation. However, the Atlanteans soon discovered that, after the force field had been breached by Doctor Doom months before, Krang had assembled an army of villains to pillage the abandoned city. With Doom’s help, Namor and Tamara led their reawakened legions to drive out the invaders. Finally, to the cheers of his grateful subjects, Namor once more sat upon the throne of Atlantis.

But as Tamara returned from Hydrobase to take up residence in Atlantis again, her happiness soon turned to bitterness as Namor ended their relationship, believing his subjects would never stand for their prince dallying with a woman from another planet. Devastated, Tamara could only question whether he had ever truly loved her. Cut off from the royal court, Tamara retreated into a private life on the fringes of Atlantean society. She often considered returning to Hydrobase to live among her amphibian friends, but this option, too, was taken away one year later when the Fantastic Four and the Inhumans discovered a means to reverse Dr. Hydro’s mutation process. Though Atlantis faced many calamities in the years to follow, Tamara never again took up arms in its defense.

First Appearance: Sub-Mariner #58

Final Appearance: Avengers #156

Notes:

When brought back for the Second Marvel Universe in 1992, she was called Tamara Rahn and her people had been dubbed the Banari. Like the stories that brought them, though, these later additions are considered non-canonical for my purposes here.

Next Portrait

OMU: Doctor Strange -- Year Four

Following the cancellation of his original series, Marvel’s resident sorcerer Doctor Strange was eventually retrieved from character limbo to serve in a new team-book, The Defenders. It was a lucky escape, as he was not included in the initial conception of the series and was only drafted as a last-minute replacement. Plans fell through to feature the Hulk and the Sub-Mariner alongside the Silver Surfer when, so the story goes, Stan Lee decided he felt a little too proprietary towards the Surfer and didn’t want the character used on a regular basis by other writers. It was decided that Doctor Strange would make a suitable replacement, and so his “retirement” would have to be undone. Although the comics seem to suggest that Doctor Strange was back in business immediately, plugging the stories into my OMU timeline reveals that it actually took many months before he was truly ready for action again. His retirement and return make up an extended ordeal from which Stephen Strange emerged stronger than ever before, finally ready to take the next step in his mystic career.

Note: The following timeline depicts the Original Marvel Universe (anchored to November 1961 as the first appearance of the Fantastic Four and proceeding forward from there. See previous posts for a detailed explanation of my rationale.) Some information presented on the timeline is speculative and some is based on historical accounts. See the Notes section at the end for clarifications.

We now continue... The True History of Doctor Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts!

January 1965 – Dr. Stephen Strange continues his recently revived career as a surgical consultant for a Manhattan-based medical group, though his new life is rapidly unraveling. He has retreated into the persona of a hard-drinking, chain-smoking womanizer and has already alienated most of his colleagues. Haunted by horrific nightmares, Strange suffers from acute insomnia, which drives him to leave his high-rise apartment block each night to wander the city’s streets. Late one evening, his aimless rambles take him into Greenwich Village, a neighborhood he usually avoids. Before he realizes it, he finds himself once more on Bleecker Street, standing in the shadow of his former Sanctum Sanctorum. To his surprise, the house is not boarded up nor does it show any sign of being abandoned. He begins to fear that something happened to Wong that prevented his manservant from carrying out his last instructions. Trying the door, Strange finds it is not even locked, and with trepidation he enters the dimly illumined foyer. After taking a few steps down one of the corridors, he stumbles upon Wong, who immediately takes his former master to be an impostor. Strange is perplexed, and his confusion only grows when Wong calls out for “Doctor Strange” and an imposing figure emerges from the shadows, wearing the Amulet of Agamotto and the Cloak of Levitation and disguised in the blue humanoid shape that Strange himself had briefly worn the previous autumn.

Before he can even doubt himself, Strange is attacked by the blue Doctor Strange, and he quickly realizes his foe is trying to kill him without Wong realizing it. However, bereft of any mystical powers, the doctor is easily captured. Utterly helpless, he is unable to resist as a spell renders him insensate. Desperate and in sheer mortal terror, Strange’s subconscious mind reaches out into the void until he once more feels the calm, reassuring presence of his aged mentor, the Ancient One. The Sorcerer Supreme offers to lend Strange his own mystic might to save himself and defeat the impostor but warns him that to do so, he must accept his true destiny. Choosing life over a living death, Stephen Strange suddenly feels his body charged with magical energies, enabling him to shatter the spell that binds him. Sensing this, the impostor rushes back into the chamber and renews his assault but is quickly vanquished by Strange’s superior power. Dr. Strange then removes his fallen foe’s blue facemask and discovers he is none other than Baron Mordo. Wong is shocked to learn that he had been duped into serving his master’s greatest enemy for the past few months, but Strange reassures him. Unfortunately, Mordo then recovers enough to escape in a puff of red smoke.

Realizing that the path of the mystic arts is not so easily turned away from, Dr. Strange resigns his position as a medical consultant, settles his accounts, and takes up residence once again in the Sanctum Sanctorum. Under the direction of the Ancient One, he begins a lengthy period of meditation, fasting, and prayer to purge himself of the poisons in his soul. He undergoes a new consecration, followed by days of dedication, as he sets out to reclaim the magical powers he had renounced.

February 1965 – At midnight one night, Doctor Strange receives a psychic summons that draws his astral form to a nearby hospital, where he is astonished to find his former foe Yandroth, the so-called “Scientist Supreme,” whom he had defeated one year ago. However, Yandroth is now an elderly man lying on his deathbed. Yandroth tells Strange of the many decades that have passed for him since their last meeting in the Dream Dimension and gloats that he has constructed a doomsday machine dubbed the Omegatron, which will destroy the earth once he has died. He then lapses into a coma, and though Strange immediately alerts the attending physicians, Yandroth dies on the operating table.

Learning that Yandroth had been living at Point Promontory, Maine, Doctor Strange returns to his physical form and lets the Cloak of Levitation carry him to New England. En route, however, Strange begins to doubt his ability to deal with such a crisis so soon after returning to sorcery, and so he summons his one-time ally Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner, and convinces the headstrong monarch of the sea to help him destroy the Omegatron. Namor suggests they also enlist the aid of the Silver Surfer and the Hulk, with whom he recently teamed up to avert a major catastrophe. Though the Silver Surfer proves unavailable, Doctor Strange is able to find the Hulk and easily goads him into following along. The sorcerer is surprised by the Hulk’s ability to see his astral form, which should have been invisible, but has no time for idle curiosity. The unlikely trio soon finds Yandroth’s installation disguised as a lighthouse on Maine’s rocky coast. While Namor and Hulk batter away at the building’s defenses, Doctor Strange’s astral form is able to penetrate the chamber containing the Omegatron. The computer is possessed of artificial intelligence, and it brags to Strange that it will use the kinetic energy of his friends’ blows to power its doomsday weapon. Strange fails to warn the Hulk and Namor off, for they dismiss him as merely a ploy of the Omegatron’s defensive systems, and so the mage resorts to casting illusions about them to make the pair attack each other. The Omegatron then begins its final ten-second countdown to detonate all the world’s nuclear arsenals. Seeing no other option, Doctor Strange frantically casts a spell that slows down the flow of time in the Omegatron’s immediate vicinity. He knows this is only a stop-gap measure, but it will afford him the opportunity to study the situation further and devise a means of overcoming the peculiar mix of science and sorcery that Yandroth used to create the Omegatron. Outside, Doctor Strange explains to his associates what has happened, and they decide to go their separate ways. However, feeling safer amongst such powerful allies, Strange suddenly proposes they form a permanent team, suggesting they might call themselves “the Defenders.” But neither Hulk nor the Sub-Mariner is interested, and so they depart, leaving Doctor Strange on his own. Before returning to New York, the disappointed mage casts a spell of illusion to once again disguise Yandroth’s installation as an ordinary lighthouse.

March 1965 – Doctor Strange becomes so engrossed in regaining his mastery over the mystic forces of Agamotto, Hoggoth, and Oshtur that he neglects the problem of the Omegatron until it completely slips his mind. He is further distracted when he finally contacts Clea again only to be rebuffed. She is still furious over having been abandoned by him and shut out of his life when he needed her most. Though glad that he has come to his senses at last, Clea is not yet ready to forgive him. She reminds him that she has gotten by all these months on her own and has managed to assimilate somewhat into Earth culture since her long exile from her home dimension has caused all her own mystic powers to fade. Strange is sick at heart but acknowledges that his behavior toward her was inexcusable. He agrees to give her whatever time she needs to reassess their relationship and then returns to the Sanctum Sanctorum to bury himself in his studies.

April–September 1965 – For the next six months, Doctor Strange retrains himself in the mystic arts while also finally facing the psychological fallout from his ordeal as a prisoner of the demonic Undying Ones. With the help of the Ancient One, he is at last able to confront his fears and to remember the experience without reliving it. As his mastery of arcane forces returns, his thoughts dwell often on the fate of the mysterious girl who took his place within the poles of ethereal force. He knows that he should attempt to rescue her but simply cannot deal with the prospect of returning to the Nameless One’s realm. Since she materialized alongside the Hulk, Strange tracks down Bruce Banner to learn more about her, but all Banner can manage to remember is that she was called Barbara. During the summer, Strange realizes that he can no longer lead the life of the reclusive loner as he did previously, for he recognizes his need for the comforts of basic human relationships. As such, he strikes up a casual friendship with one of his neighbors, a Native American woman named Sara Wolfe. Furthermore, Clea agrees to meet occasionally for dinner, and they begin to slowly rebuild the intimacy they have lost.

October 1965 – Doctor Strange receives a mystic cry for help from the aged master of a hidden temple in Vietnam, who has been brought to New York by his followers after they came to believe he was killed in an American mortar attack. In truth, the venerable mystic had entered a death-like trance to escape the shelling and now needs help to awaken before his followers exact their revenge on the American soldier they believe is responsible for the tragedy. Determining that Spider-Man has already involved himself and is attempting to rescue the soldier, one Eugene “Flash” Thompson, Doctor Strange draws the web-slinger to his Sanctum Sanctorum to propose an alliance. Upon arriving at the building where Thompson is being held prisoner, Spider-Man brawls with the cult’s strongman, giving Doctor Strange the time he needs to weave the spell to awaken the aged master. The situation thus resolved, Strange bids farewell to Spider-Man and returns home.

A few days later, Doctor Strange receives a visit from a young man named Jim Wilson, a friend of the Hulk, who has come for help regarding his suspicions about a new hit children’s television show called The Astro-Nuts. The program features a large furry creature called Xemnu, who seems to have an eerie hypnotic power over young people. Jim’s concerns only serve to reinforce Strange’s own misgivings about Xemnu and his meteoric rise to fame. Therefore, Doctor Strange mystically disguises himself as the Hulk while he and Jim pay a visit to the show’s executive producers, ex-astronauts Calvin Beame and Richmond Wagner. A deal is struck for the Hulk to do a guest-spot on a special live broadcast in four weeks when Xemnu is supposed to return to his “magic planet.” Afterwards, Jim and Doctor Strange agree to meet again in one month’s time.

On the day before Halloween, Doctor Strange sees a vision in the Orb of Agamotto of the dread Dormammu crossing the dimensions to conquer the earth. Afraid that he is not yet ready to face such a powerful adversary, Strange immediately considers summoning the Hulk and the Sub-Mariner to his side once more. However, he then falls victim to a false image of the Ancient One’s astral form, which leads his own ectoplasmic self high into the sky above the Sanctum Sanctorum. As the illusion dissolves, Strange realizes his physical body is being kidnapped. A spell prevents his spirit from re-entering his flesh, and when Wong tries to stop the kidnappers, he is savagely beaten. Doctor Strange then follows as his body is loaded into a station wagon and driven north into Vermont. By dawn, they arrive at their destination, a cabin at the foot of Bald Mountain near the town of Rutland. Learning that the kidnappers plan to wait until dusk before using the body in an evil ritual of black magic, Doctor Strange flashes back to New York where his astral form takes refuge within Wong’s body in a bid to survive the prolonged separation. Acting on their own, Wong and Clea manage to recruit the Hulk and the Sub-Mariner for a rescue mission, and the quartet tracks the kidnappers to Rutland, which is holding its annual Halloween parade. Despite the best efforts of the Hulk and Namor, the cult begins its obscene rite, offering Stephen Strange’s body as a vessel for Dormammu’s essence, since the lord of the Dark Dimension is unable to physically enter Earth’s plane of existence. However, at the crucial moment, Doctor Strange’s astral form emerges from Wong’s body and enters his own, allowing the sorcerer to confront Dormammu in the dimensional gateway. Knowing the open portal to Earth’s dimension saps Dormammu of his strength, Doctor Strange unleashes a mystic attack. The force of their battle rocks the mountain, causing an avalanche in which many of the cult members die. Namor and Hulk shield Clea and Wong from harm until Dormammu decides to retreat, allowing Strange to emerge from the gateway and levitate his friends to safety. Thoroughly exhausted but triumphant, Doctor Strange leads Clea and Wong back to the Sanctum Sanctorum, while the Hulk and the Sub-Mariner go their own separate ways.

November 1965 – At the appointed time, Doctor Strange meets up with Jim Wilson to continue their investigation into the mysterious Xemnu. The sorcerer again disguises himself as the Hulk while he and Jim travel to Cape Kennedy for the live broadcast of the Astro-Nuts “Farewell Xemnu” special. During the broadcast, Xemnu issues an irresistible psychic summons to all children in the audience to come to him and board his spaceship, causing Doctor Strange to drop his disguise and attack. Mystically probing his foe’s mind, Strange learns that Xemnu is a real alien who had tried unsuccessfully to conquer the earth five years before and managed to return by possessing Richmond Wagner’s body during a spacewalk. He now intends to kidnap as many Earth children as possible to repopulate his devastated home planet. However, Xemnu’s plans are ruined when the Sub-Mariner appears, having been summoned by Doctor Strange, and destroys the rocket on the launch pad before any of the children can get aboard. Then, Hulk arrives unexpectedly and attacks Xemnu as well, smashing the alien until his body discorporates into a gaseous form. Believing the menace of Xemnu to be ended, Doctor Strange is about to renew his proposal for forming a permanent team when the military personnel on hand train their weapons on the Hulk, causing both the jade giant and the Sub-Mariner to exit in disgust. Disappointed again, Doctor Strange ensures the children have been released from the alien mind control, then bids Jim Wilson farewell and returns home.

However, only a few days later, Hulk seeks out Doctor Strange to help the Sub-Mariner, who has been injured. The sorcerer follows the green goliath to a wooded area in New Jersey, where they find Namor unconscious and trapped inside a mystical force field. Suddenly, a grotesque cloaked figure appears and identifies himself as Necrodamus, servant of the Undying Ones. The mere mention of the name causes Strange to break out in a cold sweat. Necrodamus reveals his plan to take revenge on the trio for having ruined the Nameless One’s plan to invade Earth’s dimension last year. In one hour, the ugly little wizard proclaims, he will offer Namor as a sacrifice to his demonic masters and receive a powerful new body in return. As Necrodamus teleports away, Doctor Strange struggles to resist the sense of panic welling up in his breast. Hoping to forestall Necrodamus’s return, he attempts to weave a spell to slow down the flow of time, but unable to properly focus his thoughts, he fails. Strange then realizes he must spend the remainder of the hour meditating, trying to master the fear that threatens to consume him. As Strange turns his thoughts inward, Hulk continues to vent his rage on the force field surrounding their fallen friend, but to no avail.

Doctor Strange awakens from his trance nearly an hour later, having managed to calm and focus himself. As a protective measure, he tries to encase the Hulk and the Sub-Mariner within the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak, but he acts too late. Namor is magically drawn through the ground into the network of caverns below. Strange’s anxiety builds as he leads the Hulk into a nearby cave and down into the bowels of the earth. When a monstrous demon leaps from the shadows, Strange is caught off guard, but Hulk smashes the creature with little trouble. Soon they find the subterranean chamber where Necrodamus has set up his sacrificial altar, and Strange feels his knees grow weak as the awful visage of the Nameless One forms amidst the smoke of the incense torches. The stench of evil permeates the cavern as Necrodamus grows and changes into a muscular powerhouse, ready to slay the Sub-Mariner with his eldritch blade. His heart pounding like a trip hammer, Strange finds himself unable to cast any effective spells, and so he sends the Hulk to battle Necrodamus directly. Quickly realizing even the Hulk may be overmatched, Strange manages to work a simple spell that fills Namor’s force-field prison with water, thereby granting him the strength to break free. As Namor joins the fray, Hulk collapses, having been injured by Necrodamus’s enchanted sword, and suddenly changes back into Bruce Banner. Then, seeing that Necrodamus has overwhelmed the Sub-Mariner and is bringing his blade down to complete the sacrificial rite, Doctor Strange pushes through the terror clouding his mind and seizes the wizard’s arm. Banner also lends a hand, and they succeed in delaying their foe just long enough for the mystic conjunction of stars to pass. Necrodamus suddenly and painfully reverts to his former wizened body, then hastily teleports away in defeat. Doctor Strange watches the Nameless One’s vaporous image disperse as well. Namor then mentions that he had been attacked earlier not by Necrodamus himself but by his servant—none other than the Silver Surfer. Concerned, Doctor Strange insists they must all work together to find the Surfer, wherever he may be—and unwilling to take no for an answer, declares the Defenders to be officially formed.

After two weeks of searching the globe, Doctor Strange’s astral form is with the Sub-Mariner when they encounter the Silver Surfer along the coast of Antarctica. Enraged, Namor fights with the Surfer, who disavows any knowledge of the recent sneak attack in New Jersey and then angrily departs for his “private valley” to be alone. Sensing a clue in the Surfer’s words, Strange bids Namor to rendezvous with him at his Sanctum Sanctorum. When Namor arrives, they consult the diary of the late Kenneth W. Ward. Doctor Strange suspects the valley the Surfer spoke of may be the same Himalayan valley where Ward had discovered the statue of the Nameless One. And so, they enlist the Hulk’s aid once again and journey to the Himalayas to investigate. Upon arriving in the remote snowbound valley, the trio discovers a group of “Abominable Snowmen.” Hulk fights with them until the Silver Surfer appears and calls him off, claiming the ape-men are harmless. However, the creatures suddenly transform themselves into a cadre of Warrior Wizards, led by a warlock called Calizuma. As they launch their attack on the startled quartet, Calizuma claims they have been manipulating the Silver Surfer for many months. But the Warrior Wizards prove to be no match for the combined might of the Defenders and are soundly defeated. Before leaving the valley, Doctor Strange offers to help the Silver Surfer escape his exile on Earth, explaining that it should be possible to circumvent Galactus’s barrier by traveling through another dimension. Excited at the prospect of freedom, the Silver Surfer agrees to give it a try. Hulk and the Sub-Mariner both volunteer to come along. Strange weaves his spell and the four of them disappear in a nimbus of light.

A moment later, Doctor Strange is horrified to discover that they have been diverted into the hellish realm of the Undying Ones. Rather than succumb to terror, however, Strange realizes the time has come to face his greatest fear and either conquer it or die. They soon come to the poles of ethereal force and find the girl, Barbara, still trapped within. The Silver Surfer lends his power cosmic to Doctor Strange’s mystic energies to destroy her prison. Plagued by guilt, Strange offers Barbara a lame excuse for not attempting a rescue earlier. But as the Defenders flee, they are suddenly caught within a whirling maelstrom. They escape from the vortex only to be confronted with a chilling sight: the women they love—Clea, Jarella, Shalla Bal, and Dorma—trapped within the poles of ethereal force. However, Namor, knowing Dorma is dead, sees through the illusion and realizes Barbara has betrayed them. Sure enough, the Nameless One then appears, revealing that Barbara had, after many months of imprisonment, agreed to merge with her demonic captor. Their “rescue” of her had been merely another illusion. Outraged, the Defenders press their attack. As Hulk and the Sub-Mariner batter at the Nameless One’s massive frame, Doctor Strange and the Silver Surfer work together to entrap its foot within the poles of ethereal force. These distractions give Strange the chance to forcibly separate Barbara from her demonic mate. Unfortunately, the process destroys Barbara’s mind. Taking her along, the Defenders make good their escape and shift back into Earth’s dimension.

Rather than being somewhere beyond Galactus’s barrier, as they expected, the Defenders find themselves instead standing outside Garrett Castle in England. Bitterly disappointed, the Silver Surfer flies off in sorrow. Hulk is furious that Barbara has gone mad and, cradling her in his arms, leaps over the wall into the castle grounds. Doctor Strange, his self-confidence crumbling, abdicates his role as team leader, leaving it up to Prince Namor to decide what they should do next. As a practical matter, Namor decides they need to follow the Hulk to make sure he does not harm Barbara accidentally. However, despite making a thorough search of the castle, the pair is unable to find any trace of them. Finally, in the cellar they discover a large smoldering brazier which suddenly flares up, its mystic flames transporting them to yet another dimension. Doctor Strange and the Sub-Mariner are confronted by the Asgardian warrior known as the Executioner, a legion of armored knights, and a wizard called Fragon, who reveals that they have entered the realm of Queen Casiolena. Quickly overcome, the heroes are thrown into a dungeon, where they join Bruce Banner and the mindless Barbara. Strange is then surprised to hear the familiar voice of the Black Knight coming from the cell across the corridor and finds his erstwhile ally imprisoned alongside the villainous Enchantress. The Britain-based Avenger explains how the Enchantress had recruited him—using an ensorcelling kiss—to free the Executioner from Casiolena’s clutches, an undertaking that utterly failed. However, Doctor Strange is unable to prevent the Enchantress from using her magic to transform Barbara into a superhuman warrior called the Valkyrie to free them. After the Valkyrie smashes down the cell doors, Strange assists the Enchantress in defeating Fragon while the Sub-Mariner, the Hulk, the Black Knight, and the Valkyrie rout Casiolena’s forces and take down the Executioner. Casiolena then appears, ready to smite them all with her sorcery, but before Doctor Strange can react, the Valkyrie and the Enchantress knock her out. When the Black Knight objects to the reconciliation between the Executioner and the Enchantress, the goddess turns her pawn into a stone statue with a magical kiss. After the two Asgardians depart, Doctor Strange finds he is unable to reverse the Black Knight’s transformation. Thus, the Defenders take the statue with them as they traverse the dimensional barrier back to Garrett Castle. Doctor Strange then casts a spell to seal the castle behind an invisible, impenetrable barrier and decides to take his friend’s petrified form back to the Sanctum Sanctorum to work on a cure. Valkyrie claims both the Ebony Blade and the Black Knight’s winged horse, Aragorn, and declares herself a member of the Defenders, over the others’ objections. She then accompanies Doctor Strange back to New York.

Though he feels a bit put out, Doctor Strange allows the Valkyrie to stay at the Sanctum Sanctorum until she can figure out what to do with herself. Bereft of any memories or clear sense of identity, the Valkyrie is hesitant to strike out on her own. Discreetly, Strange also investigates the possibility of undoing Barbara’s transformation but is unable to find the answer. However, he is gladdened when Clea begins spending more and more time with him at the Sanctum Sanctorum, oblivious to the fact that she is motivated primarily by jealousy. Though the Valkyrie is beautiful, Strange is not in the least attracted to her and devotes most of his time to the Black Knight’s grim fate. Towards the end of the month, the Sub-Mariner pays him a visit to check on his progress and watches as Strange fails again to break the Enchantress’s spell.

December 1965 – After several awkward weeks, Doctor Strange encourages the Valkyrie to move on and decide what to do with her life. He convinces her that she should begin by building friendships with the Hulk and the Sub-Mariner and gives her two mystic crystals that will lead her to them. Aware of Clea’s negative attitude toward her, Valkyrie takes the crystals and flies off on Aragorn. Once she has departed, Strange and Clea are finally able to openly discuss their feelings for each other and to address the issues in their relationship that have kept them apart. They come to a new understanding, and for the first time in over a year, Doctor Strange feels his life is back on track.

Later, Valkyrie returns with the Sub-Mariner to report to Doctor Strange on their encounter with the Omegatron, which nearly destroyed the world after Strange had inadvertently weakened the time-slowing spell he had cast back in February. Strange curses himself for a novice but is relieved that, along with the Hulk and the Sub-Mariner’s cousin Namorita, they had managed to destroy the doomsday device in the nick of time. However, while Valkyrie and Namor are telling their tale, the Sanctum Sanctorum is suddenly sealed within a mystic barrier. The house is then attacked by Cyrus Black, a minor sorcerer Strange had encountered several years ago, and his army of underlings. After the force field is shattered by the approach of the Silver Surfer, the Defenders easily rout Black and his thugs. Unfortunately, the villains manage to escape when some stray bolts of bedevilment threaten to crumble the Black Knight’s petrified form. After introductions are made, the Silver Surfer invites the Valkyrie to accompany him on a tour of the planet. Namor invites himself along and they depart, leaving Doctor Strange to his studies.

Doctor Strange is consulting the Orb of Agamotto when his friends return about a week later to tell him of their travels. Suddenly, they are beset by a succession of monstrous demons that appear out of nowhere and vanish into nothingness as soon as they are defeated. The instigator of these attacks is revealed when Cyrus Black materializes among them, now possessing an idealized form. As Black unleashes powerful magics, Doctor Strange is bewildered by his inability to fight back. However, when Namor realizes how unreal the situation is, the spell is suddenly broken. Cyrus Black fades into nothingness and the Sanctum Sanctorum returns to normal. Doctor Strange theorizes that reality had somehow been altered by Black’s unconscious mind, and when Namor convinced the wizard his dream was not real, the spell could no longer be maintained. After dinner, the Silver Surfer and the Sub-Mariner depart, but Strange reluctantly agrees to allow the Valkyrie to continue staying with him until she can sort out some of the mysteries of her existence. Now more secure in their relationship, Clea feels less threatened by the Valkyrie and the previous tension in the house does not return. Doctor Strange at last feels ready to face whatever challenges the new year may bring.

Notes:

January 1965 – Stephen Strange presents a classic case of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder resulting from his imprisonment and torture at the hands of the extradimensional demons known as the Undying Ones. The results would prove to be far-reaching and life-changing. He returns from self-imposed retirement in the back-up story included in Marvel Feature #1.

February 1965 – The Defenders face their first crisis as a team in the main story in Marvel Feature #1. Namor, Hulk, and the Silver Surfer had worked together the previous December to prevent a dangerous new weather-controlling machine from being activated, as seen in Sub-Mariner #34–35.

March–September 1965 – The Ancient One indicated it would not be easy or quick for Stephen Strange to regain complete command of his occult powers, and his lengthy retraining period represents another Untold Tale of the Original Marvel Universe. While Strange would soon overcome his PTSD, it would be a long time before he exhibited the cool confidence seen in his earliest stories. When Sara Wolfe is introduced in Doctor Strange v.2 #38, she is described as “an old, dear friend.” As that story falls several years later on my OMU timeline, this seems like the ideal placement for their first meeting.

October 1965 – Doctor Strange teams up with Spider-Man once again in Amazing Spider-Man #109. Chronological analysis reveals that the first part of the story in Marvel Feature #3 actually occurs before the Rutland, Vermont Halloween Parade story shown in the previous issue. Doctor Strange is likely unaware of all the other weirdness going on in Rutland on that particular night.

November 1965 – The Defenders’ battle with Xemnu, seen in Marvel Feature #3, is followed almost immediately by the events depicted in Defenders #1–4. Although Doctor Strange notes that they had been searching for the Silver Surfer for two months, this is merely a topical reference to the two months that had elapsed since the previous issue was published. During this period, Steve Englehart often wrote his stories as though they occurred in real-time. The Sub-Mariner watches Doctor Strange try to cure the Black Knight in a flashback seen in Avengers #117.

December 1965 – The Valkyrie moves in with Doctor Strange in Defenders #5 and would actually live there for quite a while. Cyrus Black’s attempts at getting revenge on Strange bring us up to Defenders #6.

Jump To: The New Sorcerer Supreme!

Jump Back: Doctor Strange -- Year Three

Next Issue: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes!

OMU: Secret Invasions -- 1962

During the first couple years of the superhero revival in the 1960s, Marvel Comics featured so many “alien invasion” stories that one is forced to wonder what the heck was going on in the Marvel Universe to make Earth such a tempting target. The second issue of nearly all Marvel’s new features was given over to an alien invasion storyline, with more to follow in subsequent months. Although the alien invasion had been a staple of adventure comics for many years, Lee & Kirby and Co. threatened to wear it out through overuse. Nevertheless, it is interesting to put these various stories into a coherent chronology and look at them from the aliens’ point of view, to give us a different perspective of Earth’s place in the cosmos at this critical juncture in the history of the Original Marvel Universe.

Note: The following timeline depicts the Original Marvel Universe (anchored to November 1961 as the first appearance of the Fantastic Four and proceeding forward from there. See previous posts for a detailed explanation of my rationale.) Some information presented on the timeline is speculative. See the Notes section at the end for clarifications.

January 1962 – After a skirmish in the ongoing Kree-Skrull War gives new strategic importance to the planet Earth, which is rich in exploitable resources and located conveniently close to a natural space-warp, Skrull Emperor Dorrek gives the order to launch an invasion. However, upon arriving at the planet, the Skrull fleet monitors reports of the recent emergence of a team of super-powered champions called the Fantastic Four. The decision is made to send four agents down to impersonate and discredit the heroes, using a combination of the Skrulls’ natural shape-changing ability and advanced technology. The Skrull spies are initially successful, and the Fantastic Four are arrested and detained by the United States military. However, before the agents can signal the invasion fleet, the Fantastic Four escape and trick the Skrulls into revealing themselves. The Skrull spies are taken prisoner and then, posing as the impostors, the Fantastic Four board the fleet’s flagship and use faked photos to convince its commander that Earth’s defenses are too formidable. Volunteering to remain behind, the Fantastic Four return to the planet as the Skrull fleet withdraws. Though one of the spies has managed to escape, the other three are made to change into cows and are hypnotized to forget their true natures. They are left grazing in a pasture while the fugitive Skrull goes into hiding.

February 1962 – Learning of the Skrulls’ embarrassing defeat through his contacts in the Kree Empire, Torkon, Emperor of the Tribbitites, decides to invade Earth and thereby score a strategic coup. To determine the true nature and extent of Earth’s defenses, Torkon orders the interrogation of the most brilliant scientist associated with Earth’s military forces, which leads his advance team to capture Dr. Robert Bruce Banner of the Air Force installation known as Desert Base in New Mexico. Banner is taken aboard their ship, which returns to high orbit. However, before Captain Torrak can begin the interrogation, Banner transforms into a rampaging green-skinned monster with incredible strength and easily commandeers the vessel. Just then, the ship is blasted out of the sky by a barrage of surface-to-air missiles with nuclear warheads. After it crash-lands, the crew escapes capture by tunneling under the wreckage. They then signal the rest of the armada to begin the invasion. Emperor Torkon cuts into all electromagnetic broadcasts to demand planet-wide surrender. To bring the earthlings to heel, the armada activates a device that disrupts the orbit of the moon, resulting in earthquakes and floods that cause a global panic. Within hours, however, the armada is attacked by a ground-based directed energy weapon that disrupts their systems with powerful gamma rays. The Tribbitite ships spin out of control and are forced to retreat. Torkon is humiliated and Captain Torrak is sentenced to the treadmills. Earth’s governments cover up the invasion by claiming it was an elaborate hoax.

April 1962 – Having witnessed the previous two failed invasions from their observation platform on one of the moons of Saturn, an expeditionary force of Kronans from the planet Ria initiate their own invasion plan that they believe will be successful. A single ship lands outside a fishing village on the coast of Norway, where the crew tests their weapons in Earth’s environment. Facing no significant opposition, the Kronans signal their fleet to enter the atmosphere. The ships are met by a squadron of NATO fighter jets, but the human pilots are easily fooled by a holographic illusion of a giant monster. The surface-to-air nuclear missiles that were so effective against the Tribbitites are shrugged off by the Kronans’ force fields. However, after the Kronans land and disembark, they are attacked by a lone human wielding a war hammer who routs their forces and smashes every weapon they employ against him. Terrified that Earth has armies of such invincible warriors, the invaders abort their mission and flee the planet. Outraged by the appalling lack of actionable intelligence, the Kronan high command orders the observation platform orbiting Saturn shut down.

June 1962 – Oblivious to these events, members of a race of unidentified green-skinned aliens arrive in a single flying saucer with a plan to conquer the earth using mass hypnosis. They construct a giant lifelike robot in the image of the Neanderthals whom they studied on their previous visit to Earth 80,000 years ago and set it down in the small town of Granville, New York. While the flying saucer hovers overhead, concealed within an artificial cloud, the robot enslaves the inhabitants with its hypnotic stare and directs them to construct a wall encircling the town. However, a champion soon appears wearing a suit of high-tech armor and destroys the robot with powerful magnetic devices. When he exposes the flying saucer and turns his magnets on it as well, the aliens quickly leave Earth in search of easier conquests.

July 1962 – A lone alien invader, exiled from the planet Astra a few thousand light-years away, attacks Desert Base in New Mexico, using his psychokinetic power over metallic molecules to easily destroy the weapons he finds there. Calling himself the Metal Master, he declares his intention to conquer the earth and issues his ultimatum. Though he is challenged by a green-skinned powerhouse called the Hulk, the Metal Master is able to defeat him in battle. Feeling unopposed, he then roams the earth wreaking havoc upon whatever metal structures catch his eye while awaiting the planet’s surrender. However, just before the deadline, Hulk challenges him again, this time brandishing some sort of weapon. The Metal Master’s powers unaccountably fail him, and while straining to exert his mental influence over the weapon’s molecular structure, he draws too close. Hulk grabs him and threatens to pulverize him unless he undoes all the damage he caused. Afraid for his life, the Metal Master complies. Uncertain of what has happened to him, the Metal Master flees to his ship and returns to outer space.

News of the “invincible” Earth reaches the planet Xarta in the Fornax Galaxy, which inspires the swaggering Warlord Ugarth to select it as the site of his final campaign of conquest before handing the reins of power over to his son Zano. Only days after the Metal Master’s defeat, Ugarth’s ship lands outside New York, which they have determined to be the planet’s prime city. Following their usual strategy, the Xartans use their natural shape-changing abilities to impersonate key government personnel, such as the mayor and members of the city council, in order to push through nonsensical laws and ordinances to sow confusion, unrest, and panic among the populace. However, their ship is discovered by the hammer-wielding champion called Thor, who bests both Ugarth and his son Zano in single combat. When the Xartan fleet detects Ugarth’s body hurtling through the upper atmosphere, they decide to retreat. Zano and his lieutenants are forced to change themselves into trees, which renders them essentially mindless.

August 1962 – A criminal from the planet Kosmos escapes to Earth when he manages to piggyback his teleportation signal on the gamma-ray beam originating from the astronomical observatory of Dr. Vernon Van Dyne. After murdering the puny human scientist, the gelatinous creature destroys the gamma-ray device so he cannot be followed, then oozes out into the city to conquer himself a world. Finding he can absorb matter from the environment to increase his size, the creature makes his way along the Hudson River. Though he encounters military resistance, the creature shrugs off their mightiest weapons. Having reached gigantic proportions, he moves back into the city, terrorizing the populace. Suddenly, however, he is fired upon by an unseen sniper, and as the shotgun shells penetrate his undulating form they release a chemical that neutralizes the acid in his biochemistry, causing his body mass to break down. The would-be conqueror dies in agony.

September 1962 – Ready at last to avenge the humiliation he suffered at the hands of the Fantastic Four, the Skrull Emperor Dorrek dispatches a genetically-modified warrior whom they call the Super-Skrull. Arriving on Earth, the Super-Skrull lands his ship in New York’s Times Square and publicly claims the planet for the Skrull Empire. When the Fantastic Four appear to challenge him, he reveals that he has been granted the ability to mimic all their superpowers to a highly-magnified degree. Overwhelmed, the human heroes retreat. Later, the Super-Skrull confidently accepts the team’s challenge to meet in final combat on a remote island in the Pacific Ocean. Once there, he easily overcomes his three male opponents using his “secret weapon,” irresistible hypnotic powers. Unfortunately, the Invisible Girl manages to place a small device on his back that jams the power-augmentation beam the Skrulls are sending, causing his superpowers to fade. Severely weakened, the Super-Skrull is then trapped within a dormant volcano by the rest of the Fantastic Four. Even after he manages to remove the jamming device, the Skrull energy beam proves unable to penetrate the volcanic rock, and the Super-Skrull remains hopelessly imprisoned.

Meanwhile, two ships from the relatively backwater planet of Alpha Chiltar III land on an island in the Aegean Sea. They construct a 50-foot robot in the shape of a Cyclops, the image drawn from the local mythology, and use it to capture numerous human specimens for examination to see if the earth will be easy pickings for conquest and colonization. After a couple of weeks, the decision is made to signal their invasion fleet, and they order the robot to kill all the prisoners. However, the robot suddenly goes haywire and crushes one of the spaceships. Unable to reestablish control, the aliens assume that humans must possess previously unsuspected mental powers. The Alpha-Chiltarians crowd into their remaining ship and blast off, canceling their invasion plans.

October 1962 – A race of extradimensional aliens accidentally discovers the existence of Earth and a means to cross the dimensional barrier. They decide to invade and conquer using their ability to project their astral forms into other beings and thereby “possess” them. Near their interdimensional nexus they find a small Bavarian village and target it as a test of their invasion plans. They are initially successful, until a stranger comes to town, the mystic master Dr. Stephen Strange. The human mage crosses into the alien dimension and defeats their leader in single combat, forcing him to withdraw his agents from the village. Doctor Strange then returns to Earth and casts a spell to seal the dimensional barrier once again.

November 1962 – After observing Earth for many months, an alien being known as the Space Phantom emerges from the Limbo dimension, where his home planet, Phantus, has become trapped as a result of their rampant abuse of time-travel technology. The Space Phantom has been empowered by the master of Limbo, Immortus, with the ability to assume the shape of any being, casting his victim into Limbo for the duration of his impostiture. He now plans to use this ability to destroy all superheroes so that his people can abandon Phantus and colonize Earth instead, and he targets the recently-formed team the Avengers as the most immediate threat. Assuming the identity of the Hulk, the Space Phantom sows the seeds of discord among the Avengers, but he makes the mistake of bragging about his plans to their junior associate Rick Jones. Alerted to the danger, the Avengers fight the Space Phantom as he switches from one identity to the next, but he battles them to a standstill. However, when Thor finally arrives, the Space Phantom finds that he is unable to overcome the enchantments of Odin. Instead of taking on Thor’s form, the Space Phantom finds himself transported to Limbo and is unable to return to Earth.

Notes:

January 1962 – The Skrulls take on the Fantastic Four for the first time in Fantastic Four #2. Prior to this, it seems the Skrulls visited Earth about once every fifteen or so years, mainly to collect “slaves” for their gladiatorial contests. On their previous visit, in 1947, the ship crashed near Roswell, New Mexico and the crew was autopsied by the United States Air Force. Tales of widespread Skrull activity during the late 1950s and their encounters with “3-D Man” are highly exaggerated if not entirely false. If the Skrulls had successfully infiltrated Earth society only three to four years before this story, it is unlikely Mister Fantastic’s pictures of giant monsters would have scared them off.

February 1962 – The Tribbitites, or the “Toad Men” as they were originally called, menace Earth in Incredible Hulk #2. In Hulk #191, Torkon explains that their current home planet is an artificial world built from stolen Kree plans, suggesting that they would be informed of major news from both the Kree Empire and its traditional enemies the Skrulls.

April 1962 – The Kronans, a.k.a. “the Stone Men from Saturn,” are driven from Earth by the mighty Thor in Journey Into Mystery #83. It is doubtless due to Odin’s machinations that their ship landed so near the cave where Mjolnir lay hidden and that Don Blake just happened to be vacationing there at the time.

June 1962 – The giant Neanderthal robot and his alien masters face Iron Man in Tales of Suspense #40. It has been speculated that these aliens may be or be related to the similar-looking Guna seen later in Tales of Suspense #55.

July 1962 – The Metal Master attempts to conquer the earth singlehandedly in Incredible Hulk #6. It just so happens the Fantastic Four are on a mission to the moon at this time, which is why they fail to respond to the crisis. The Xartans are defeated by Thor in Journey Into Mystery #90.

August 1962 – The Creature from Kosmos never knows that his unseen assailant is the Ant-Man, aided and abetted by his brand-new partner the Wasp, as depicted in Tales to Astonish #44. Although the Creature was resurrected for stories set in the Second Marvel Universe, the original story makes it pretty clear he died a gruesome death.

September 1962 – The Super-Skrull comes to Earth in Fantastic Four #18. The A-Chiltarians and their Cyclops robot are defeated by Ant-Man and the Wasp in Tales to Astonish #46, though like the Creature from Kosmos, they are unaware of who has defeated them. Incidentally, Amazing Spider-Man #2 also features an alien invasion storyline, although it was later revealed that the “aliens” were just human crooks in disguise.

October 1962 – Doctor Strange stops the aliens known as the Possessors in Strange Tales #118.

November 1962 – The Avengers battle the Space Phantom in Avengers #2. The plight of the planet Phantus is revealed in Thor #281.

There were several other extraterrestrial incursions during this period, but they did not really qualify as “alien invasion” stories. The Ovoids and the Elan, from Fantastic Four #10 and #24, respectively, were passing through our solar system peaceably when they had close encounters with people of Earth. The Xantha stirred up some trouble with their “hostility ray” in Fantastic Four #7, but their only objective was to coerce the FF into saving their own planet. There is no real evidence that either Warlord Kulla or the denizens of Dimension Z, seen in Tales to Astonish #41 and #49, respectively, had plans to invade the earth dimension after kidnapping some of our scientists to build them weapons of mass destruction. They may only have wanted to exploit human ingenuity to give them an advantage in their own geopolitical struggles.

Next Issue: The Return of Doctor Strange!