Comic Browser:

#90
#91
#92
#93
#94
#95
#96
#97
#98
#99
#100
#101
Selector

Tales to Astonish #98

Dec 1967
Stan Lee, Marie Severin

Tales to Astonish #98 cover

Story Name:

The Puppet And The Power


Synopsis

Tales to Astonish #98 synopsis by Peter Silvestro
Rating: 3 stars
Duped by the Lord of the Living Lightning into thinking he's fighting for peace, the Hulk tears into General Thunderbolt Ross's missile base, destroying everything in sight.

Ross orders the use of gas, which manages to put the Hulk to sleep. But his problems aren't over. In the chaos, the forces of the Living Lightning, with their hostage Glenn Talbot in tow, have seized control of the base.

The enemy leader orders Ross to surrender the base on a national radio broadcast. To persuade him to cooperate, they show his daughter Betty Ross locked in a cell with the rampaging Hulk who is starting to revive...

“…To Destroy the Realm Eternal!” 4/5
Writer: Roy Thomas. Pencils: Werner Roth. Inks: Dan Adkins. Colors: ? Letters: Art Simek.

Synopsis: Taking his leave of the Swamp Men, Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner, dives into he sea to head back to Atlantis….

Meanwhile, the Plunderer has decided to destroy Atlantis as his first step toward terrorizing the world. But first he must find the new Atlantis, which he surmises is near Dr. Walter Newell’s now-destroyed underwater city….

And the people of Atlantis fortify their city to stave off an attack from their renegade (as they have been told) Prince Namor and his ally the Plunderer. Yet Lady Dorma shares her concerns with Lord Vashti that they may have been too hasty in reporting Namor a traitor….

In the ruins of the old Atlantis, Namor visits his mother’s grave and vows to destroy the Plunderer then the entire surface world. He is attacked by an Orca but he gives it a beating and forces it to carry him to new Atlantis….

As the Plunderer approaches Atlantis, their military issues a warning. The bad guy instead fires on the city with his giant Vibra-Ray, melting the buildings in the city square. The Atlanteans fire back at the Plunderer’s sub but accidentally hit a US Navy sub on secret maneuvers. The Americana assume they are under attack by Atlantis and return fire with some experimental depth charges. One such hits the Plunderer’s ship just as Namor arrives, leading him to think the US Navy is coming to the aid of Atlantis….

As it turns out, Plunderer’s ship has a force field that could only protect the top or the bottom due to energy demands. So the USN’s depth charge seriously damages the baddie’s sub while surprising him. The Plunderer jumps into his pocket escape sub and takes off for safety, abandoning his men. But he encounters Namor; the villain panics again when fired upon by Atlantis and flees, leaving Namor in the rubble of the city streets. Namor rescues a boy who is hiding and the boy explains the details of Namor’s being branded a traitor, confusing the monarch. He gets the boy to safety but the rain of Navy depth charges knocks him unconscious while the Atlantean navy is dispatched to destroy Namor, the submarines, and the surface world….




 

Review / Commentaries


Tales to Astonish #98 Review by (October 29, 2024)

Review:Hulk is here to fight for peace!” And he gets to beat the royal stuffings out of the Army that has been persecuting him for years. And he can rationalize it as helping his new friends! Everything is going well! And then he’s knocked out with gas and sleeps through the end of the story while the villains get to gloat over their victory. Come on, there’s only one issue left for Hulk to find out he’s been duped for the one zillionth time and Betty’s going to encourage him to do the right thing. Let us move on….

Whoa! Overlooking how stupid Dorma and Vashti were in accusing Namor of treason against the city, the result is truly epic. Atlantis versus the Plunderer versus an American sub versus Namor. And no one truly knows what is going on—pure chaos makes for some great entertainment.

Comments: Hulk story: Part two of three parts.

Subby story: Part four of five parts. The Plunderer infers that Atlantis is near Dr. Newell’s underwater city for Namor to have found it…but it can’t be too close or Namor would have seen it before construction and outfitting were finished. However, he turns out to be right. Typo: The Plunderer “poses a thread to all that live.”




> Tales to Astonish comic book info and issue index

Elektra

This comic is in the following collection:
ad
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)
sign in to view this special content

Marie Severin
Herb Trimpe
Marie Severin
Dan Adkins (Cover Penciler)
Dan Adkins (Cover Inker)
Stan Goldberg (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Art Simek.

Characters

Listed in alphabetical order. All stories.

Betty Ross
Betty Ross

(Elizabeth Ross)
Hulk
Hulk

(Robert Bruce Banner)
Sub-Mariner
Sub-Mariner

(Namor McKenzie)
Thunderbolt Ross
Thunderbolt Ross

(Thaddeus Ross)


The Marvel Heroes Library is a fan Marvel Comics site
Version 14.8.23 (Nov 19, 2024. VS22)

Copyright © 1997-2024 Julio Molina-Muscara (creator, webmaster)
Site content is a collective effort by the MHL team and Marvel aficionados

Characters are copyright © Marvel or their respective owners. All portions of this Marvel fansite that are subject to copyright are licensed under a creative commons attribution 3.0 unported license All rights reserved