Marvel Tales #105
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeMarvel Tales #105 holds a firm, documented place in Marvel history as the comic-book debut of Jormungand — the Midgard Serpent — a character drawn directly from Norse mythology who would later become one of Thor's most consequential foes. The appearance, though presented as a cameo via a statue in the story 'The Drop of Water,' planted the seed for a villain whose prophesied mutual destruction with Thor became a recurring dramatic cornerstone across decades of Thor comics and beyond. That this first seed was sown in a pre-Code Atlas horror anthology — years before the Marvel Universe itself existed — makes the issue a notable example of how the publisher's 1950s anthology output quietly seeded characters and mythological concepts that the Silver Age would later develop into full Marvel continuity. The issue also represents an early collaboration between writer Hank Chapman and the young Gene Colan, an artist who would go on to become one of Marvel's most celebrated figures.
In "The Spider Waits!", a 1952 Marvel Tales classic, a factory worker named Sven battles his deep-seated fear of spiders—only to find his greatest test comes not from the creatures themselves, but from a mysterious woman who hires him to clear her parlor. With art by Fred Kida and a striking cover by Russ Heath, this eerie tale unfolds with a chilling twist that turns Sven’s bravado into a trap he never saw coming.
In "The Spider Waits!" from Marvel Tales #105 (1952), Sven—a factory worker once haunted by childhood terror—has built a life on conquering his fear of spiders, even taking pride in eradicating them. When a mysterious woman offers him ten dollars to clear her parlor of spiders, he arrives eager to prove his courage, only to find himself ensnared in a web far more dangerous than he ever imagined.
In "In Little Pieces," a man discovers a chilling power: tearing a photo of someone can kill them. When he impulsively rips a picture of his wife, Jo, in a fit of rage, her sudden fear—and her confession that she’d been trying to please him by replacing her photo with one of him—leaves him stunned. The story unfolds with quiet dread, as the weight of his actions begins to unravel in ways he never expected.
In "The Red Face," a man's scheme to eliminate a rival at Mardi Gras takes a terrifying turn when he arrives at the masked revelry expecting a hired killer in a Devil costume—only to find the real one waiting for him. Written by an unknown hand and illustrated by an unknown artist, this chilling 1952 tale from Marvel Tales #105 delivers a classic horror-suspense twist where the line between trick and terror blurs.
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Published with a February 1952 cover date and placed on sale in late October 1951, Marvel Tales #105 was part of the Atlas Comics horror-anthology line overseen by editor Stan Lee, whose prolific stable of freelancers produced multiple anthology issues per month during this pre-Code period. The issue featured contributions from several Atlas regulars: the cover was penciled by Russ Heath, interior stories were scripted by Carl Wessler and Hank Chapman, and art duties were split among Fred Kida, Harry Lazarus, Joe Sinnott, and Gene Colan — the latter providing pencils and inks on the Jormungand-featuring story under his own signature. Colan was at this point a busy freelancer cycling through Atlas's horror, war, and crime titles, and his work on Marvel Tales was a recurring assignment throughout the early 1950s, as confirmed by his indexed bibliography at the Grand Comics Database.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance (cameo) of Jormungand, the Midgard Serpent — a character based on the Norse mythological World Serpent — appearing as a statue in the story 'The Drop of Water,' written by Hank Chapman and drawn by Gene Colan.
- Published with a February 1952 cover date by Atlas Comics (Marvel's 1950s publishing identity); placed on sale October 19, 1951, per the Marvel Database.
- Cover art by Russ Heath, with coloring attributed to Stan Goldberg; Stan Lee served as editor-in-chief.
- The issue contains multiple horror-suspense short stories: 'The Spider Waits!' (pencils by Fred Kida), 'In Little Pieces,' 'The Red Face' (script by Carl Wessler, art by Harry Lazarus), 'The Drop of Water' (Hank Chapman / Gene Colan), a Joe Sinnott story, and a prose text feature, 'The Curse Of Makhe-Sof.'
- Jormungand was not integrated into Silver Age Marvel continuity until Thor #127 (April 1966), making this 1952 appearance a proto-universe precursor separated by fourteen years from the character's ongoing role in Thor mythology.
- The 'Red Face' story (a man hauled away by the real Devil at Mardi Gras instead of a costumed assassin) was later reprinted in Mystery Tales #13 (July 1953) and again in Where Monsters Dwell #18 (November 1972).
- Carl Wessler's script credit on the issue was established via a bibliography published in Robin Snyder's industry journal The Comics (Vol. 18, No. 7, July 2007), illustrating how long some Atlas-era credits went unconfirmed.
- Marvel Tales ran from issue #93 (August 1949, continuing from Marvel Mystery Comics) through #159 (August 1957), spanning the full Atlas era; issue #105 falls in the middle of the series' pre-Comics Code run.
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Reprinted in Mystery Tales #13 (1953), Where Monsters Dwell #18 (1972), Fear #11 (1972), Monsters on the Prowl #21 (1973), Doomsday #16 (1974), Los Vengadores #19 (1976), Cuentos de Brujas #95
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