Strange Tales Vol 1 103

When newly built houses in the area have been found to sink into their foundations, Reed Richards sends Johnny to go and investigate. What Johnny stumbles upon is somebody from the 5th Dimension, who has been involved in these incidents. When Johnny learns the truth, he finds himself suddenly transported to the Fifth Dimension.

In the 5th Dimension, Johnny is taken before Zemu a dictator who rules the dimension and plots to take over Earth, and he discovers that the area where the houses were being built is where they materialize when they travel to Earth's dimension. Put in a wet prison to prevent his flame powers, Johnny is freed by Valeria who is the daughter of Phineas, who used to be the ruler before Zemu overthrew his rule.

With the help of the Human Torch, the people of the 5th Dimension are able to overthrow Xemu and retake their realm. After Johnny returns home, he has trouble focusing on his study because his thoughts keep on turning to Valeria.

Appearing in "Lady Luck"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Marvel Tales #136
(originally printed as Mystery of the Blocks)

Synopsis for "Lady Luck"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Marvel Tales #136
(originally printed as Mystery of the Blocks)

Parents on Venus are asked to loan their son to an unknowing adoptive couple on Earth for twenty years so that the boy may teach them advanced engineering techniques. In this way, the Venusians hope to prevent cultural degeneration when the people of Earth eventually make contact with them.

Appearing in "The Little People"

Featured Characters:

Lemuel Gulliver

Antagonists:

Little People

Other Characters:

Emma Gulliver

Races and Species:

Humans

Locations:

Europe

Synopsis for "The Little People"

A man gets lost in Europe and stumbles across of group of tiny people of proclaim he was there two centuries ago. He disbelieves them and flees home to America and does not believe what happened is real. There it is revealed that he is in fact Lemuel Gulliver, the protagonist from Gulliver's Travels.

Appearing in "Jasper's Jalopy"

Featured Characters:

Jasper Jenks

Races and Species:

Humans

Locations:

United States of America

Items:

Jalopy

Synopsis for "Jasper's Jalopy"

Jasper owns an old car for 30 years that he thinks of as a friend. One day when approaching a bridge the car stalls with a line of drivers behind it. The annoyed motorists get out to see what is the matter with the car they mock as decrepit and Jasper is perplexed as his car has not stalled on him for 30 years. The motorists attempt to push it over the bridge with Jasper inside since the road is too narrow for them to go around, but they find themselves unable to move the car. When Jasper leaves the car, the car moves forward by itself and the bridge collapses. The motorists realize Jasper's old friend sacrificed itself to save all of their lives.

Notes

Continuity Notes

Prisoner of the 5th Dimension!

This story states that Johnny's public identity is secret. This was a pretense that the Torch put up for himself as revealed in Human Torch (Vol. 3) #1 Johnny did this to cover his bruised ego when nobody in Glenville initially believed he was the Human Torch. The Fantastic Four publicly revealed themselves just prior to Fantastic Four #3 as explained in Fantastic Four #543. Strange Tales #106 reveals that everyone knew about Johnny's "double identity" and were just humoring him.

Johnny doesn't follow up on his romantic interest in Valeria until years later in Fantastic Four #160–163, however, it never went anywhere.

Zemu doesn't appear again until Fantastic Four Vol 1 158.

The Little People

There is no indication that this story is part of the Earth-616 universe.

Jasper's Jalopy

There is no indication that this story is part of the Earth-616 universe.

Links and References

References

Like this? Let us know!