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I can’t believe they’re up to Volume 3 for All-Winners already. I could believe 3 volumes of Marvel Comics, Captain America, and Human Torch, but not All-Winners. I am going to write this review a little bit differently than other Masterworks collections. Instead of writing about each issue I will write about the collection as a whole. So, what is in All-Winners Vol. 3? This third volume collects issues #’s 9-14 of All-Winners, with release dates spanning from Summer of 1943 to Winter of 44/45. Knowing what was going on in the world while these comics were written is important to the content of these stories. The US was now two-years into World War II, having entered on December 8th, 1941, after the attack on Pearl Harbor. As a result, almost all of these stories have the same theme.
The stories here have three main stars: The Human Torch, Sub-Mariner and Captain America. Cap and Namor appear in every issue while Torch is in all but the last one collected. There are two sub-stars; Destroyer (a blue-faced invulnerable being) and Whizzer (super-speed). Whizzer appears in every issue save #12 and Destroyer is in issues 9-12. It should be noted that since this was in the midst of the War, the regular artists on Namor and Torch (Bill Everett and Carl Burgos) were over in Europe and thus unable to draw their own characters. This leads to what could be considered back-up artists writing and drawing everything in here. The art and writing are not great, but they are good enough.
Like I mentioned, the stories all have similar plots and themes. A standard story will look like this:
-Nazi/Axis Power has diabolical plan
-Heroes must stop this
-the heroes either end up captured or having someone the know and/or love get captured
-the heroes prevail since good always triumphs over evil and we know how evil the axis powers are.
The time period this was written not only influences the story but also the way things are presented in the story. In the time we live in of political correctedness, the content in here will undoubtedly shock some people, especially in the way the Japanese are presented. If this were released today it would be just ripped apart in the press. However, we must remember what people in the time thought, that these people were just the absolute evil in the world and propaganda like this just enforced on young minds how evil and grotesque these people were.
The stories are a bit outdated if read in today’s mind-frame. Still, what is great about these collections is that they transport you back to a specific time in US history. They are a time capsule of a time back in 1943 to 1945 that may not be captured by something as banal as a textbook. There are some curiosities in here, too. The Sub-Mariner story in issue #13 features a gang that makes their base at the Green Lantern Inn, some 5 years after Green Lantern appeared over at DC. Another aspect of days gone by are the small prose stories featured every issue. These are always only 2 pages and the ones in this volume were pretty dull and uninteresting.
-The Bottom Line- So where does that leave us? As a new reader looking to read something fun and exciting, this isn’t the Masterworks for you. For those who really like history and history in comics should definitely pick this up, as no other volume of Masterworks has touched upon this specific time period yet. The other Golden Age collections are mostly in the early 40’s before USA entered the war. One of the big highlights of all these Golden Age collections is the awesome Roy Thomas introduction. They should just collect all his introductions as he offers great insight on these lost classics. This is an interesting collection, a time capsule if you will, and should be read as such. It’s not for the casual fan, but if you are interested in US history and how it is shown in comics, this is a high recommendation.
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Questions? Comments? Shoot me an email.
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