Strange Tales #102
Prisoner of the Wizard
By Stan Lee with Larry Leiber, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers
Villains: The Wizard
Guest Appearances: The Invisible Girl
So, What Happens?
The Torch’s exploits defeating the Destroyer have made the news and sparked the interest of chess champion, inventor and all round media figure ‘the Wizard’.
The Wizard feels that defeating the Human Torch would be the only way to prove his genius. He quickly publicises his next venture, drilling to the centre of the earth, however his tunnel caves in behind him and he has to be rescued by the watching Torch.
As way of thanks the Wizard shows the Torch around his futuristic house and offers him a 3D photo of them together.
It is in fact a way to douse the Torch with flame dousing chemicals so the Wizard can lock him up and start to destroy his heroic reputation with a new flaming flight suit that duplicates Johnny’s powers. The wizard goes on a crime spree, stopping traffic freeing criminals and writing flaming anti-authority statements in the sky.
By the time Johnny has escaped his reputation is so damaged that he has to contend with trigger happy policemen.
Johnny manages to escape and track the Wizard down (at his house) and is shown the evidence he needs to clear his name. Thankfully Johnny had brought his invisible sister along and Sue grabs the evidence from the crestfallen villain.
So is it any good?:
It’s all a bit silly, it says a lot about the later issues of this series that the Wizard was the strongest villain established in the title as he is incredibly lame.
I quite liked the idea of a multi-talented genius in it solely for the acclaim who is put out by the attention lavished on the Torch but everything he actually does is just silly.
Ok his crime spree involves the usual bank robbing and jail breaking but he also goes around writing messages bad mouthing law and order in the sky and demanding tolls from motorists.
It’s all very small scale. There is something bizarre about his pre-villainous fame as well, a chess champion and designer of floating chairs? It reads like a very corny late 50s Superboy story which presumably wasn’t what Stan was hoping for.
The drama hinges on whether the Wizard will burn the photos he took of himself wearing the fake torch outfit, only for Johnny’s big sister to save the day for him. It’s hardly heroic although it does at least give Sue a chance to save the day in a way she hasn’t done in the FF as yet.
The art is decent enough, although the Wizard looks truly odd, but it’s all very uninspiring.
Are there any goofy moments?
Most of the Wizard’s back story and announcements qualify. I particularly love the way he seeks to damage the torch’s reputation by skywriting ‘Down with Law and Order’. He is quite a geeky villain really.
The small-scale nature of the Wizard’s plans are also evident when he decides to block a bridge and demand a $100 toll for crossing it. One of the motorists exclaims ‘We’ll have to back our Cars up and take another bridge’ It’s hardly the crime of the century is it?
He turned villain because he felt he was no longer getting the limelight he deserved but he still had newspaper boys walking the streets announcing ‘Wizard to dig world’s biggest hole’, there was probably enough limelight for both of them.
The ending with the Invisible Girl is incredibly silly. So the wizard will give up the evidence that he committed the crimes if the Torch kills him, alternatively Johnny can flame off and fight him man to man at the cost of his secret identity.
A secret identity that was never mentioned in the Fantastic Four where they were all treated like celebrities and was so flimsy that a few issues later Stan decided it had never actually been a secret anyway and everyone was just pretending about it to save Johnny’s privacy.
If you accept that Johnny even had a secret identity how would the Wizard actually know who the teenager he faced was?
It’s actually quite a relief when Sue just invisibly grabs the incriminating photos and ends the whole story. But even then the total level of mystification the Wizard displays at some floating photos is bizarre. Quite the genius who couldn’t work out that maybe the Invisible Girl was present.
Trivia:
The Wizard, or Bentley Wittman as he was later revealed to be named, is probably the premier villain of the Human Torch’s run appearing in a further four stories before being upgraded to the Fantastic Four rogues gallery. Once he was there his intellect and leadership of the Frightful four have lead to him largely being a rival of Reed's but here it is the Torch’s public image that motivates him and he works quite well as a tremendously vain guy who becomes a villain simply because he can’t stand sharing the limelight.
Is It a Landmark?:
Yes, the Wizard is quite a prominent villain albeit one who has never been particularly memorable. I think this story actually displays more personality than most of his appearances.