Spider-Man Comics Weekly Vol 1 92

With the Lizard on the rampage, all the beast can remember is it's defeat at the hands of Spider-Man and vows to get revenge against the wall-crawler. Meanwhile, Spidey helps the Connors find a safe hotel room to hide in and vows to Martha and Billy that he will find Curt and change him back to human form. He then returns home and returns to his guise of Peter Parker. He checks on his Aunt May who is resting in Florida and briefly runs into Harry, who's looking to shoot the breeze with his roommate, but as usual, Pete is on his way out. Peter later visits the Stacy home and meets with Gwen, who asks Peter to share his secret with her because his disappearances have gone on far too long. Peter promises he'll tell her soon, but not yet. Before going out on a date, they are interrupted by George Stacy and Joe Robertson, who has been talking about Spider-Man. George asks Peter to come back sometime soon and discuss what he knows about Spider-Man, having taken so many pictures of the wall crawler. The next morning, when Peter hears reports of a giant lizard on the radio, he goes out on the prowl as Spider-Man in hopes of capturing the Lizard before anyone else does. Sure enough, Spider-Man finds the Lizard. However, he is so determined to not to hurt his friend, Curt Conners, that the Lizard manages to overpower the wall-crawler and beat him close to submission. As the Lizard dangles Spider-Man over the edge of a building, the Human Torch arrives just in time to "save" Spider-Man, and ruin his plan to lure the Lizard down the side of the building. After bringing Spider-Man back to the rooftop, the Torch decides to fight the Lizard on the wall-crawlers behalf. Spider-Man seems powerless to stop what he thinks will be the destruction of the Lizard, as well as its alter ego, Curt Conners.

Appearing in "The Origin of the Mandarin!"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Tales of Suspense #62

Featured Characters:

Iron Man (Tony Stark)

Antagonists:

Mandarin (Main story and flashback) (Origin revealed)

Other Characters:

Genghis Khan (Mentioned)
Mandarin's father (First appearance) (Death) (Only in flashback)
Mandarin's aunt (First appearance) (Death) (Only in flashback)
Chinese Army (Main story and flashback)
Makluans (Only in flashback)
- Axonn-Karr (First appearance) (Death) (Only in flashback)
Fu Manchu (Mentioned) (Topical Reference)
Mao Tse Tung (Mentioned)
US Air Force
- Bill (First appearance)
- Dave (First appearance)

Races and Species:

Humans
Makluans (Only in flashback)

Locations:

Earth (Main story and flashback)
- People's Republic of China (Main story and flashback)
  - Valley of Spirits (Main story and flashback)
    - Mandarin's Castle (Main story and flashback)
- Pacific Ocean
Maklu-4 (Only in flashback)

Items:

Iron Man Armor Model 2
Mandarin's Rings (Main story and flashback) (Origin revealed)

Vehicles:

Makluan Starship

Synopsis for "The Origin of the Mandarin!"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Tales of Suspense #62

With Iron Man, his nemesis, tied to a wheel with titanium bonds, the Mandarin decides to tell him a story nobody has ever heard, his origin story.

The Mandarin takes Iron Man back to the day he was born. According to himself, the Mandarin's father was a direct descendant of Genghis Khan, but he married a high born Englishwoman, supposedly making the gods feel displeased when the Mandarin was born. An idol fell upon the Mandarin's father and killed him, and his mother died of a broken heart upon hearing the news. The orphaned child was given to his aunt, however, she hated him because he would inherit the wealth instead of her. When the Mandarin's aunt set out to abandon the child in another village, a chandelier fell next to her. She interpreted the accident as an omen, and thought she was bound to never leave his side. Because of this, she decided to teach him to hate the world the way she did.

Every bit of gold of the Mandarin's inheritance was spent teaching him science and the art of war, but the Chinese army took his home and land for tax evasion. Mandarin's aunt died the following day, leaving him completely alone. While he was now poor, the Mandarin walked proud of being a descendant of Khan.

One day when he was walking a path leading to the dreaded and forbidden Valley of Spirits, the Mandarin was lured by a powerful light to the ruins of a mysterious alien structure, a spaceship. While he explored every bit of the vessel, he discovered a machine that fed into his mind the logs of the ship's captain, an alien called Axonn-Karr of the planet Maklu-4. Axonn-Karr had explored the universe and met his end when he arrived to the Earth, as he was fatally wounded by humans, who were scared of his appearance.

Before leaving the ship, the Mandarin retrieved its power source, ten rings that contained unlimited energy. The Mandarin then established in a deserted castle in the middle of the Valley, where he spent years studying the alien science of Axonn-Karr and managed to harness the power of the ten rings, with each one having a different power he could command at will. Using the power of the rings, the Mandarin subjugated entire villages to his will.

After finishing his story, the Mandarin activates the wheel Iron Man was strapped to, which would spin faster and faster until its victim died. With the machine running, the Mandarin left to continue his plan of world domination. He planned to demonstrate a missile to the Chinese Army, and have it set to reach Formosa, hoping to trigger World War III and step in once the democracies and the communists had exhausted themselves fighting.

Once the villain left, Iron Man used a concealed diamond blade in the tip of his gauntlet to snap one of the titanium cords. He then connected it to the power-pack of his wrist and turned the wheel into a generator that would recharge his suit the faster it moved. After recharging his suit, Iron Man applied his own strength and caused the wheel to snap from its axle, crash into the wall and break. Once freed from the remains of the wheel, Iron Man used a solar scanner-beam to track down the Mandarin to a military base.

In the military base, the Mandarin attended the launch of the missile and proceeded to leave. Iron Man intercepted the weapon and changed its course, causing it to plummet and crash into its launching site, making the Chinese army believe that the Mandarin had betrayed them.

As the Mandarin was leaving to his castle in his ship, Iron Man threw a boulder into the vehicle's path, causing it to crash. After questioning what could've caused the boulder to move, Iron Man showed himself and confronted the Mandarin. The two enemies managed to counter each other's attack. Iron Man dodged the beam from Mandarin's flame ring, the Mandarin used an energy beam of his own to block Iron Man's, and then the Golden Avenger saw himself unaffected by poison gas thanks to his armor's filtering system. Iron Man proceeded to pick up the boulder, but before throwing it to the Mandarin, he was blinded with a flashing light. He still managed to throw it at the Mandarin, but the villain destroyed it with his disintegrator ray. The Mandarin then used a gas solidifier to trap Iron Man in the air surrounding him, but the fight was interrupted by the Chinese Army, who wanted the Mandarin's head. The villain proceeded to trap Iron Man in a beam of black light to distract him and escape to the safety of his castle. After freeing himself from the dark matter, the Chinese and the Mandarin had left the scene.

A few hours later, Iron Man managed to catch a ride back home aboard a USAF jet. Meanwhile, the Mandarin ponders in his base, and set outs to never rest until he destroys Iron Man.

Appearing in "The Scourge of the Super Skrull!"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Thor #142

Featured Characters:

Thor (Dr. Don Blake)

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

Locations:

Items:

Mjolnir

Synopsis for "The Scourge of the Super Skrull!"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Thor #142

When Thor is blocking the path of a motorcyclist, the boastful biker challenges Thor to a race to see who is faster. He gets more than he bargained for when Thor hops on the back of the bike and uses his enhanced abilities to cause the bike to travel at super-speed and fly into the air, prompting the biker to concede. Having enjoyed this moment, Thor walks off into a dark alley where he resumes his mortal guise of Donald Blake.

Meanwhile, in the barren world for which he was banished to by Odin, Loki decides to once more attempt revenge against his half-brother Thor. Needing a pawn to carry out his plans, Loki sends an astral form out into the universe to find the ideal foe to attack Thor, and finds it in the Super-Skrull, who is flying through space in his star-ship, who has been punished by being put on menial patrols in space following his defeat at the hands of the Fantastic Four. Loki implants the idea of fighting and defeating Thor as a means of beginning a Skrull invasion of Earth, prompting the Super-Skrull to leave his post and return to the world where he was defeated and seek out his new target: The mighty Thor.

Arriving on Earth, the Super-Skrull begins his attack in full force, demanding that Thor show himself. Hearing of the chaos from his doctors office, Donald Blake changes into Thor and confronts the alien, beginning a battle between the two. As the battle rages on Earth, elsewhere in far-off Asgard, Odin calls Balder to his throne. He advises Balder that the deadly Enchanters have been discovered in Ringsfjord and orders the brave warrior to go and learn what their plans are. Before Balder can finish his counsel with Odin, Sif steps in and begs Odin to allow her to accompany Balder on this mission, a request which Odin grants in spite of Balder's reservations.

Back on Earth, Thor continues his struggle against the Super-Skrull, who uses his mimicked FF powers against Thor, leaving the two equally matched in combat. When the Things strength, Mr. Fantastic's stretching, Invisible Girl's invisibility, and the Human Torch's flame powers all fail to defeat Thor, the Super-Skrull is significantly weakened enough for Thor to use his enchanted hammer to banish the Super-Skrull from Earth, sending the Skrull flying into space. Watching this all from his place of exile, Loki is furious to once more be bested by the Thunder God.

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