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Tales to Astonish #96

Oct 1967
Stan Lee, Marie Severin

Tales to Astonish #96 cover

Story Name:

What Have I Created?


Synopsis

Tales to Astonish #96 synopsis by Peter Silvestro
Rating: 4.5 stars
As the High Evolutionary is experimenting on Bruce Banner, the rebellious New Men break into the lab and attack their creator. Bruce transforms into the Hulk and battles the animal men.

Mortally wounded, the High Evolutionary turns his miraculous ray upon himself and evolves himself into an advanced energy being. Seeing the error of interfering with Nature's plan, he restores the New Men to their original animal forms and, at the Hulk's request, sends him back to Earth.

The High Evolutionary merges with the Universal Mind.

“Somewhere Stands…Skull Island!” 4/5
Writer: Raymond Marais. Pencils: Bill Everett. Inks: Vince Colletta. Colors: ? Letters: Art Simek.

Synopsis: Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner, sits on his throne in Atlantis and considers declaring war on the surface world. Lady Dorma pleads with him and he again rebukes her. Lord Vashti then suggests they attack and defeat the Plunderer and see how things go after that. Namor agrees to that….

Namor swims to Antarctica where he is attacked by polar serpents and defeats them. He checks out the ruins of the original Atlantis and visits his mother’s grave before entering the underwater cavern that leads to the Savage Land. He locates Skull Island, lair of the Plunderer, which the baddie had mentioned last issue. But Namor is attacked by a giant sea monster and the scuffle brings him to the attention of the Plunderer. Namor fights the monster and tricks it into plunging its head into the ocean bottom and becoming stuck. Meanwhile, Dorma has followed Namor so that when the villain fires his electron blaster at Namor, Dorma is also hit. Namor surprises Plunderer by leaping unharmed out of the water and the two adversaries grapple on the beach. When Plunderer reveals that Dorma is injured, Namor punches his lights out then sees to his lady love. Finding her (relatively) unharmed, he orders her to go home. Returning to the island, Plunderer blasts him with the new and improved Vibra-Ray, knocking him out….

Back in Atlantis, Dorma and Vashti watch Namor via the Tracio-Scope and are surprised to find him apparently free and talking to the Plunderer; Dorma wonders if that means the two are teaming up against the surface world? What she can’t see is Namor held prisoner by the villain’s energy bands….




 

Review / Commentaries


Tales to Astonish #96 Review by (October 9, 2024)

Review: The High E suddenly remembers why he wanted Hulk in the first place so he then has Hulk battle the New Men; mortally wounded, High E experiments on himself, becoming something called the Ultimate and he reverses his life’s work, turning all of the New Men back to animals. This neatly erases his contribution to comics—except that he strands Hulk on Wundagore, leaving us to Wundawhat’s going to happen to him next. Another cool High Ev issue.

And the Subby half of the book is also a hoot with our wet hero fighting weird looking polar serpents plus a giant monster shaped like a rubber chicken and the color of an eggplant. The two sea battles are a marvel of unintentional humor and the fight with the villainous Plunderer is also a hoot. So Subby’s trapped while Dorma is duped by a poorly cropped image on social media. Serves her right.

Comments: The Plunderer’s picture on the cover was used for his Marvel Value Stamp.

Hulk story: Part three of three parts. First meeting of Hulk and the High Evolutionary. A rare sight of High E’s real face beneath his helmet/mask. High E returns, back to normal, in MARVEL PREMIERE #1-2, with the origin of Adam Warlock.

Subby story: Part two of five parts. The fate of the original Atlantis will be revealed in SUB-MARINER #1. The Vibra-Gun is called the Vibra-Ray in this issue. According to GCD, Werner Roth contributed to the pencils, mostly doing touch-ups.

The letters page includes one by noted critic/letterhack Charles Meyerson.




> Tales to Astonish comic book info and issue index

Elektra

This comic is in the following collection:
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Collecting INCREDIBLE HULK (1962) #1-6, TALES TO ASTONISH (1959) #100, INCREDIBLE HULK (1968) #102, and material from TALES TO ASTONISH (1959) #59-99 and #101.

Excelsioring your collection:
Statue Hulk (Battle of New York) 1/10 - Infinity Saga - BDS Art Scale - Iron Studios
Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)
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Marie Severin
Herb Trimpe
Marie Severin
Dan Adkins (Cover Penciler)
Dan Adkins (Cover Inker)
Stan Goldberg (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Al Kurzrok.

Characters

Listed in alphabetical order. All stories.

Bruce Banner
Bruce Banner

(Robert Bruce Banner)
Hulk
Hulk

(Robert Bruce Banner)
Sub-Mariner
Sub-Mariner

(Namor McKenzie)
Plus: New Men.

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