Amazing Adventures #1

History

The issue was published on-sale in March 1961 with a June 1961 cover date, under the Atlas Magazines Inc. imprint — Marvel had not yet adopted its now-famous 'MC' branding, which would not appear on a cover until issue #3 of this same run. The lead story, 'I Am the Fantastic Dr. Droom!', was plotted by Stan Lee and penciled by Jack Kirby, with inking by Steve Ditko; writer credit on the script is disputed, with some index sources attributing it to Lee alone and others to Larry Lieber, Stan Lee's brother, who scripted many of the era's anthology tales. The book was a standard monster-and-sci-fi anthology of its moment, and the Droom feature occupied only five pages at the back — yet those five pages introduced the single superhero concept the creative team would return to, in evolved form, when they built the Marvel Universe proper.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First appearance and origin of Dr. Anthony Droom (later retroactively renamed Doctor Druid), recognized as Marvel's first published Silver Age superhero, debuting June 1961 — five months before Fantastic Four #1.
• Written by Stan Lee (plot) and penciled by Jack Kirby; the Dr. Droom strip was inked by Steve Ditko, who would later pitch the concept that became Doctor Strange.
• The cover of the issue was also penciled by Jack Kirby and inked by Dick Ayers, depicting a classic monster-invasion scene typical of the era's Atlas/Marvel anthology titles.
• The book carried the indicia of Atlas Magazines Inc. — not yet the Marvel Comics brand; the 'MC' box marking a publication as a Marvel Comic did not appear until Amazing Adventures #3.
• In Droom's five-page origin story, Anthony Droom — a psychiatrist, scholar, and physician — travels to Tibet, passes a series of tests set by a dying lama, and is chosen as Earth's protector against occult threats; the lama's touch also physically alters his appearance to that of East Asian heritage, a plot element later edited out of Bronze Age reprints.
• The issue contains three other stories: 'Torr' (a 13-page alien-body-possession thriller written by Stan Lee, penciled by Kirby, inked by Dick Ayers), 'Midnight in the Wax Museum' (a Steve Ditko horror short), and a prose text story.
• Dr. Droom appeared in Amazing Adventures #1–4 and #6 before the series was retitled Amazing Adult Fantasy with #7; the character then vanished until 1976, when Marvel editor Roger Stern revived him in Weird Wonder Tales #19 under the new name Doctor Druid — coined by Len Wein to avoid confusion with Doctor Doom.
• The Dr. Droom origin story has been reprinted multiple times, including in Weird Wonder Tales #19 (December 1976, with revised dialogue by Larry Lieber and new art for the name-change relaunch), Amazing Fantasy Omnibus (2007), Marvel Firsts: The 1960s (2011), Marvel Masterworks: Marvel Rarities Vol. 1 (2014), and Marvel Visionaries: Jack Kirby (2004 and 2019).

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