Tales of Suspense #4
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeTales of Suspense #4 (cover date July 1959, on sale March 3, 1959) is a textbook example of Atlas Comics at full creative throttle in the months before the publisher rebranded as Marvel. It assembled four of the house's most consequential artistic voices — Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Joe Sinnott, and Carl Burgos — in a single 36-page package, demonstrating the concentrated talent pool that would, within four years, produce the entire Marvel superhero line. The issue's cover story, 'One of Us Is a Martian!', drawn by Kirby and inked by Christopher Rule, encapsulates the twist-ending science-fiction formula that Stan Lee and Larry Lieber honed throughout the series' pre-hero run — a formula whose moral irony and genre savvy gave the nascent Marvel house its storytelling voice. As part of a series that would eventually introduce Iron Man (#39), Captain America's Silver Age revival (#59), and Black Widow (#52), this early chapter documents the creative infrastructure being laid before the superhero explosion.
In "The Invisible Army," Jack Kirby crafts a chilling tale of isolation and unseen danger, where a reckless expedition into a tranquil alien world ends in mystery—only for a more cautious survivor to uncover the true threat: sentient trees that have quietly captured the entire party. With Kirby’s dynamic art and Christopher Rule’s sharp inks bringing the eerie landscape to life, this early Marvel story blends suspense and sci-fi wonder in a way that feels both timeless and uniquely of its era.
In "The Invisible Army," scientist Hendrik Muir is coerced by the tyrant Igor Zetaxas into developing a weapon of mass invisibility—only to subvert the order by crafting a teleportation ray that sends Zetaxas’s enforcers into exile, sparking a quiet uprising.
When a reckless space mission goes awry, Lester Wells leads his crew—Jim Stack, Ralph, Fred, and Bob—into a tranquil alien world that hides a terrifying secret. As the team vanishes one by one, it's the more cautious explorer who must face the forest's ancient, sentient trees to bring them back.
In "The Voice of Doom!", a young ham radio operator named Fred Sanders becomes convinced he's picking up signals from a cosmic war—only to discover the eerie transmissions are not from aliens, but from the collective mind of a vast colony of ants. The story blurs the line between imagination and reality, turning a quiet night of radio waves into a chilling encounter with the unknown.
In "Beware of the...Robots!", Joe Hughes, a factory worker replaced by a machine, channels his frustration into fiery anti-robot writings that catapult him to fame. As his career takes off, he begins to question whether the robot that displaced him might have been more than a mere replacement—it may have been the key to his true path.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Tales of Suspense launched with a January 1959 cover date as part of a deliberate Atlas Comics expansion of its science-fiction anthology line, which also included the simultaneously debuted Tales to Astonish. Issue #4 went on sale March 3, 1959, placing it squarely in the transitional period that collectors call 'pre-hero Marvel,' a designation tied to Jack Kirby's regular return to the Goodman line beginning with April 1959 cover-dated books. Stan Lee, who by that point had seen Atlas shrink to just a handful of surviving titles, served as editor-in-chief and co-writer (alongside his brother Larry Lieber), and assembled an unusually deep art roster for this single issue: Kirby on cover and interior, Ditko on the closing story, Sinnott on the lead interior strip, and Golden Age Human Torch creator Carl Burgos contributing as well. The series was originally published under the Atlas Comics imprint and only formally came under the Marvel Comics banner with issue #19 in July 1961.
Trivia · 7 facts
- Cover date: July 1959; on-sale date: March 3, 1959. Published by Atlas Comics (the pre-Marvel imprint of Goodman's company), not yet under the Marvel banner.
- Interior stories: 'The Invisible Army' (art by Joe Sinnott — scientist builds a teleportation ray instead of an invisibility ray to overthrow a dictator); 'One of Our Spacemen Is Missing!' (pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Christopher Rule — space explorers captured by intelligent trees); 'The Voice of Doom!' (art by Carl Burgos — a ham radio operator picks up the thought waves of ants, not aliens); 'Beware of the…Robots!' (art by Al Williamson — anti-robot factory worker discovers a robot freed him to become a writer); and 'One of Us Is a Martian!' (pencils and inks by Steve Ditko — a Martian spy sabotages what he believes is a rocket but destroys only a toy, because Martians are only an inch tall).
- Writers credited on the issue are Stan Lee and Larry Lieber; letterer is Art Simek — the same creative team that would script the vast majority of the early Atlas science-fiction anthology run.
- Al Williamson signed his own pencils and inks on 'Beware of the…Robots!'; Ditko similarly signed both pencils and inks on 'One of Us Is a Martian!' — unusual levels of individual artist accountability for the period.
- The 'Voice of Doom!' story was later retold (drawn by Jack Kirby) in Journey Into Mystery #60 (September 1960), indicating editors regarded the premise as strong enough to revisit with higher-profile treatment.
- The entire early run of Tales of Suspense (#1–10) — including this issue — was collected and reprinted in Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Tales of Suspense Vol. 1 (Marvel, 2006). An Al Williamson story from this issue was additionally reprinted in the Fantagraphics Atlas Artist Edition Vol. 2 (November 2024).
- Tales of Suspense was part of an Atlas SF anthology cluster — alongside Tales to Astonish and Strange Worlds — launched to expand Marvel's science-fiction output following Kirby's return to the company; the series would run 99 issues before becoming Captain America with #100 (April 1968).
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Reprints
↩ Reprints Uncanny Tales #47 (1956)
Reprinted in Creepy Worlds #28 (1964), Creepy Worlds #29 (1964), Secrets of the Unknown #172 (1977), Star Wars Weekly #94 (1979), Star Wars Weekly #95 (1979), Creepy Worlds #195 (1980), Hulk Pocket [Hulk Superseriepocket] #3 (1980), Star Wars Weekly #104 (1980), The Empire Strikes Back Weekly #122 (1980), Sinister Tales #204 (1984), Astounding Stories #186 (1987), Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Tales of Suspense #1 (2006), Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Tales of Suspense #1 (2014), Monsters: The Marvel Monsterbus by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber & Jack Kirby #1 (2017), Marvel Masters of Suspense: Stan Lee & Steve Ditko Omnibus #1 (2019), Atlas Artist Edition #2 (2024), Astounding Stories #50, Creepy Worlds #80, Creepy Worlds #83, Der unglaubliche Hulk #3, Die Fantastischen Vier #3, Hulk pocket #3, Secrets of the Unknown #28
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