Issue(s):

Mystery Tales #21 - Sep 54
"It Walks Erect!" - Bob Powell

World of Fantasy #11 - Apr 58
"Nightmare at Midnight" - Jim Mooney
"Prisoner of the Fantastic Fog" - Angelo Torres

World of Fantasy #13 - Aug 58
"When Marty Moves - Richard Doxsee

Tales Of Suspense #9 - May 60
"The Wrath of Chondu!" - Gene Colan

Review/plot:
In all cases above, the credit lists the person who drew & inked the book. The writers for all the stories in this issue are unknown.

This reprint issue is something of a theme issue... it features the origins of the Headmen, although it was never the intention of these original stories to turn them into super-villains.

It Walks Erect features Arthur Nagan, a scientist who want to get rich by putting gorilla organs in aging humans.

He says that aside from the brain, gorillas are superior to us in every way. When his gorilla subjects hear that, they figure out a better way to handle the transplants, and they put his head on a gorilla body.

In The Wrath of Chondu, we don't actually get to see Chondu lose his head. A thug tries to carjack him, and he uses his magical powers to transport the thug away "until the evil leaves him... until he is ready to take his place among decent society again". Doesn't sound like the villain from the Defenders.

Jerry Morgan, in Prisoner of the Fantastic Fog, has developed a shrinking fog, but his nasty and crooked step-brother won't lend him the money to properly develop it.

His brother is accidentally subjected to the fog...

...and after going crazy as a temporarily tiny person, he turns himself into the police.

The non-Headmen stories:
When Marty Moves is about a lonely old lady who finds a talking doll at the toy factory she works at, and she takes it home and makes it her child.

Nightmare at Midnight is a story where a nightmare gets lost and winds up presenting itself to a few dreamless sleepers instead of the person it was meant for.

As a result, the person who was meant to receive the dream is not properly warned that his prison break attempt will be a failure, and he dies.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 3 - origins of the Headmen

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Weird Wonder Tales #7