Strange Tales #115, Dec. 1963

Strange Tales #115, Dec. 1963

Written by: Stan Lee
Drawn by: Dick Ayers/Steve Ditko
Lettered by: Art Simek/S. Rosen

Now there’s a tough question, can the Human Torch defeat the Sandman without Spider-Man’s help? Well, I guess so long as he has a vacuum cleaner…

Mr. Fantastic asks Johnny Storm to do him a favor; Sandman broke out of prison (THEY PUT HIM IN A NORMAL PRISON CELL! OF COURSE HE ESCAPED! JESUS CHRIST, PEOPLE) and he wants the Torch to go find Spider-Man, so HE can take care of it. Of course, this hurt’s Johnny’s pride, so he decides to tackle Sandman by himself, who doesn’t think he’s worth fighting either. Johnny has to dress like Spider-Man to lure the Sandman to him, and the both of them get caught in a bunch of water, nullifying both of their powers. And… Johnny still won, somehow.

Meanwhile, we’re finally treated to the origin story of Dr. Strange. He used to be an amazing surgeon named Dr. Steven Strange (that’s his real name! Not even a magic stage name or anything!) who only cared about money, until he got into a car accident and lost the digital dexterity in his hands that he needed to be a surgeon. He became a bum who eventually went to the Ancient One in an effort to be cured. There he met Baron Mordo and selflessly tries to warn the Ancient One about Mordo’s treachery (which he already knew about). This cures him and then he learns magic and now he’s a magic guy.

I like just how much of a threat Mr. Fantastic obviously thinks Sandman is. He’s not worried at all, he’s just in his lab working on Some Gizmo, while Sue and Ben are writing “detailed reports” about their last adventure, and he doesn’t even send Johnny out to fight the guy, but to let Spider-Man know that the prison system put the Sandman in a normal jail cell. Seriously, what the fuck was that? He can turn into sand, you’d think that you’d take that into consideration when trying to keep him locked up.