Strange Tales #156
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeStrange Tales #156 is a double-barreled key from the heart of Marvel's Silver Age, delivering two landmark moments in a single 32-page package. The Doctor Strange half introduces Zom — a colossal extradimensional destroyer whose power surpasses even Umar's — while also marking the first time Umar herself physically sets foot on Earth, escalating the ongoing dark-dimension saga into direct-threat territory. The Nick Fury half, written and drawn by Jim Steranko, delivers the dramatic unmasking of the Supreme Hydra as Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, a payoff built across multiple issues of superspy storytelling that demonstrated Steranko's cinematic approach to sequential narrative was unlike anything else in mainstream comics at the time.
In "The Tribunal!", Stephen Strange is sent to the Amphora—a mysterious, demon-guarded vase—to free the imprisoned Zom, a being bound by chains of living bondage. With Umar on Earth destroying his home and summoning the Ancient One, Strange must navigate betrayal and ancient power as Zom’s vengeance threatens to turn against him and his mentor. A bold, visually striking tale from Stan Lee and Marie Severin, with full art and colors by Severin, and a cover by her as well.
In "The Tribunal!", Nick Fury finds himself trapped aboard the Heli-Carrier as a deadly plague threat looms, while a masked foe known as the Supreme Hydra stages a sinister trial for Laura. With Bronson’s true identity revealed as the long-dormant Baron Strucker—Fury’s World War II adversary—the stakes rise in a high-stakes game of espionage and deception.
In "Umar Walks the Earth!", Doctor Strange is sent to the Amphora to free the imprisoned Zom, only to find Umar has already arrived on Earth—burning his home and summoning the Ancient One. With Zom unleashed and the Ancient One luring Umar to the ancient stones of Stonehenge, Strange must navigate a shifting battlefield of magic and betrayal, as the power he freed turns its wrath toward him and his mentor.
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The issue was produced during the brief but electrifying period when Strange Tales ran two entirely separate creative teams: Stan Lee and Marie Severin handled the Doctor Strange strip, while Jim Steranko — who had taken sole writing credit on the Nick Fury feature just one issue prior, with #155 — wrote and drew the S.H.I.E.L.D. story himself. Steranko had begun on the feature finishing Jack Kirby layouts in #151, then taken over full penciling, and his progression toward complete creative autonomy was in full swing by #156. Marie Severin, who likely colored her own Doctor Strange pages per contemporary accounts gathered by researcher Nick Caputo, drew a cover that serves the mystic half of the book far more than the spy thriller within.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Zom — an extradimensional destroyer of vast mystical power, created by Stan Lee and Marie Severin — in the Doctor Strange story 'When Umar Walks the Earth!'
- This issue marks Umar's first visit to Earth itself (having previously acted from the Dark Dimension), a narrative escalation within the ongoing Umar story arc that began in Strange Tales #150.
- The Nick Fury story, 'The Tribunal!', written and drawn entirely by Jim Steranko, reveals that the mysterious Supreme Hydra is Baron Wolfgang von Strucker — a twist planted across several preceding issues.
- Steranko had assumed sole writing duties on the Nick Fury feature with the immediately preceding issue (#155), making #156 only his second solo-scripted installment and an early example of his growing creative control over the strip.
- The Doctor Strange segment was written by Stan Lee and illustrated by Marie Severin, who self-inked her work; the cover is also by Severin.
- Zom is imprisoned within a mystical Amphora by Eternity, his hands bound by 'Links of Living Bondage' placed there by Dormammu — a backstory established in this debut issue that would inform Zom's later appearances, including a prominent role in Marvel's 2007 World War Hulk event.
- The Doctor Strange story in this issue was reprinted in Essential Doctor Strange Vol. 1, Marvel Masterworks: Doctor Strange Vol. 2, the Doctor Strange Omnibus, and the Doctor Strange Epic Collection; the Nick Fury story was reprinted in S.H.I.E.L.D. by Steranko: The Complete Collection and the corresponding Marvel Masterworks volume.
- The issue's on-sale date, per Library of Congress periodical records cited in the Grand Comics Database, was February 7, 1967, despite carrying a May 1967 cover date.
Cast · 32 characters
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Reprints
Reprinted in Agente Internacional #22 (1968), Fantastic! #61 (1968), Fantastic! #62 (1968), Eclipso #47 (1974), Vengeur #14 (1975), Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #[nn] (2000), Essential Doctor Strange #1 (2001), Marvel Masterworks: Doctor Strange #2 (2005), Marvel Masterworks: Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #2 (2009), Marvel Masterworks: Doctor Strange #2 (2013), S.H.I.E.L.D. by Steranko: The Complete Collection #[nn] (2013), The Ultimate Graphic Novels Collection - Classic #8 (2014), S.H.I.E.L.D.: The Complete Collection Omnibus #[nn] (2015), Die offizielle Marvel-Comic-Sammlung #8 (2016), Marvel. Официальная коллекция комиксов #124 (2018), Steranko Is... Revolutionary #[nn] (2020), Doctor Strange Omnibus #2 (2021), Doctor Strange Epic Collection #2 (2024), Marvel Série I #15
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