Strange Tales 1951 #165 - 5.0 - $18.00

White Page, Fold on back

As The Claw is about to destroy NYC, the SHIELD Heli-Carrier arrives and a squad led by Dugan assault The Sky Dragon. Fury breaks loose and defeats Von Voltzmann while several agents corner The Claw, but he lays them out using Hyper-Psionic Brain Emanations. His nervous system drained, The Claws unleashes a squad of robot replicas of himself to cover his escape. Fury catches up with the real Claw using a Magnetic Pelfrag Shooter to weigh him down but the pellets disintegrate. The Claw now has body armor, including his face and with spiked gloves beats Fury and makes his escape.

Strange continues thru the underground tunnel until he comes to a large set of doors. Upon getting them open, he finds a "Disintegrator" ray is waiting for him. After he takes it out with the "Flames of Faltine", Yandroth realizes his magic is more "potent" than he "calculated", and uses an "Ultra-Spectrum Laser" to incinerate Strange's brain! But as Yandroth gloats to the imprisoned Victoria, he doesn't realize that Strange is not dead, but has mentally left his body. Things soon come down to a running fist-fight, until Yandroth summons "Voltorr"-- a large lightning-wielding robot!

On-sale date from 1968 Periodicals, Copyright Office, Library of Congress.

• Behold the Savage Sky! - Part 7 of 9. The use of a 2-page spread on pages 2-3 was later adapted by Mike Grell on a regular basis in his comics. The Sky Dragon would reappear in MARVEL TWO-IN ONE #51 (May 1979). It's been debated by some fans whether The Claw seen at the beginning of this episode was the same one who beat up Fury & escaped at the end! In the introduction to Marvel Masterworks: Nick Fury Agent of Shield Volume 2 Steranko says he took over the color chores with Strange Tales # 165.
• Face Front! Hang Loose! 'Nuff Said! - Items, Stan's Soapbox, The Mighty Marvel Checklist, Let's Meet 26 More M.M.M.S. Members!
• The Mystic and the Machine! - Part 19 of 22; part 2 of Yandroth sequence. Robot called "Voltorr" on last page of this episode, but "Voltorg" in next episode. Considering George Tuska (a "Golden Age" artist) penciled the next episode, it's questionable whether Voltorg was designed by Adkins or Tuska, as it's a rather clunky-looking robot, which not only seems out-of-place in this series, but at Marvel in the 60's in general! Voltorr/Voltorg was swiped from the cover of the science-fiction digest Amazing Stories v.39 #6 (June 1965) by Adkins; the robot's pose in the last page of this story is a direct swipe from this cover. [Note by Chris Boyko 11 Jan 2017]
• - Letters of comment from Jeff Meier; Ron Sidwell; F. Cancemi, R. Panken, E. Berg, P. Christiansen, and K. Hueur; and Ronnie Lightburn. Also includes two panel reproductions from a previous issue.