Strange Tales #138
Strange Tales #138 marks the actual first appearance of Eternity — the living embodiment of the Marvel Universe itself — capping nine installments of the landmark 'Eternity Saga' that Steve Ditko and Stan Lee had been building across Strange Tales #130–146. Ditko's visual conception of the entity as a vast, humanoid silhouette whose body is filled with a starscape pushed superhero comics into genuinely philosophical, cosmological territory and helped establish the cosmic hierarchy that still underlies the Marvel Universe today. The issue simultaneously advances the early S.H.I.E.L.D./HYDRA spy thriller that Jack Kirby and Lee were co-plotting on the book's other half, making it a double-barreled time capsule of Marvel's mid-1960s creative ambition. Both strands — Ditko's psychedelic mysticism and Kirby's Cold War espionage — fed directly into the storytelling vocabulary Marvel would draw on for decades.
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By November 1965, Strange Tales was running two distinct creative operations under one cover: Steve Ditko, who functioned as artist and co-plotter under the Marvel Method, was steering Doctor Strange through an ambitious 17-part quest narrative, while Jack Kirby supplied layouts for the Nick Fury feature that John Severin then finished. Stan Lee served as editor and dialogue scripter on both strips. The Eternity character had been teased by name since Strange Tales #134, making issue #138 the payoff of a sustained multi-month build — an unusually long narrative arc for a 10-page backup feature of the era. Ditko and Lee's working relationship was reportedly growing more distant by this period, and Ditko would leave the title entirely with issue #146, making this run — and this issue in particular — among the final flourishes of their collaboration.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Eternity, the cosmic entity who embodies the entire Marvel Universe, created by Stan Lee (scripter/editor) and Steve Ditko (artist/plotter); the character had been first mentioned by name in Strange Tales #134 (July 1965) but is seen for the first time here.
- The Doctor Strange story is titled 'If Eternity Should Fail!' — part 9 of the 17-part 'Eternity Saga' that ran through Strange Tales #130–146 (March 1965–July 1966); script by Stan Lee (dialogue) and Steve Ditko (plot), art and inks by Steve Ditko, letters by Sam Rosen.
- The Nick Fury story is titled 'Sometimes the Good Guys Lose!' — part 4 of the ongoing S.H.I.E.L.D. vs. HYDRA arc; Jack Kirby supplied layouts, John Severin finished the pencils and inks, with Stan Lee scripting and Stan Goldberg on colors.
- Cover pencilled by Jack Kirby and inked by John Severin.
- Tony Stark appears in the Nick Fury story: HYDRA agents infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters and abduct Fury in front of a helpless Stark, who has left his Iron Man attaché case behind.
- Eternity's visual design — a human-shaped silhouette whose interior is filled with stars, planets, and galaxies — was conceived by Steve Ditko and became one of the most imitated cosmic-entity designs in comics history; the character later appeared in the MCU film Thor: Love and Thunder (2022).
- The Doctor Strange story from this issue was reprinted in Marvel's Greatest Comics #27 (June 1970) and Strange Tales (reprint series) #187 (September 1976); it has since been collected in Marvel Masterworks: Doctor Strange Vol. 1, the Doctor Strange Omnibus Vol. 1 (2016), Doctor Strange Epic Collection Vol. 1: Master of the Mystic Arts (2018), and Mighty Marvel Masterworks: Doctor Strange Vol. 2: The Eternity War (2022).
- The Nick Fury story was reprinted in Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #16 (November 1970) and has been collected in the S.H.I.E.L.D. by Lee & Kirby: The Complete Collection (2015) and the S.H.I.E.L.D.: The Complete Collection Omnibus (2015).
Cast · 15 characters
Full credits
Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
Aboard SHIELD's Intercontinental Ballistic Plane Fury uses the Televiewer Tube to locate the Betraton Bomb launch site. It is destroyed but the bomb was already launched. Agent G unsucsessfully implores her father, Imperial Hydra to come to his senses. He sends HYDRA's Fox Division to deliver his terms to every nation on Earth. Tony Stark prepares to show Fury the Braino-Saur,a new weapon when HYDRA agents capture him. At Imperial Industries board members vie for position, hoping to stage a corporate coup. Imperial Hydra gloats over Fury, while in Washington, HYDRA delivers their ultimatum.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).